The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1865-09-01
Ara we Democrats :

America ana Americans OF all parties, but
it is becoming questionable whether there
is not some hypocrisy in the boast. We
profess as a people to despise all distinc-
tons of birth and family, to regard the
worth of a man as u matter dependent
wholly on himself, aud measurable only by
the character and actions of the individual,
without reference to his parentage or an
cestry. But is the profession which we
thus hold out as people carried out in
our daily practice and lives? We do not
allude to the ridiculous custom of purchas-
ing coats of arms, or the more ridiculous
fashion of painting on carriage PANELS
the insignia of nobility and sometimes
even of royalty. These follies which are
visible in our own streets and park on
any pleasant day, are but the blunders
of ignorance, and might be laughed at as
of no account whatever in estimating tho
public tastes and opinions, if they were
the only evidences of American banker
ings after aristocracy. Neither should
much account be made of snowy liveries
distinguishing servants from masters, and
specially designed to show that the mas
tiers have high appreciation of tho differ
ence in station and social rank which
different men occupy
This too, taken alone, fails to provo
that as people we recogeize gradations in
rank and position. But what is tho
meaning of the evident pride of birth
which distinguishes such large and influ-
entail classes of our citizens /? What is
the origin of the devotion to genealogy
and genealogical investigations which es.
pecially characterizes New England ?
What is the reason for the old boast of
the first families of Virginia and the
parallel boast of puritan ancestry at the
North ? This is not matter of excep.
tional examples, but of very general Gus
tom in particular sections of the country.
In New York, where people come togeth-
er from all parts of the country and of
the world, it is to be expected that the
distinctions of wealth will be those which
are most generally recognized, and hence
the anti-democratic feeling manifests itself
and becomes visible here in equipages,
livcries, sc. And in other parts of the
country, where the opportunities for ex.
hibiting riches are not so frequent, it is
not strange that tho pride of birth and
family should be everywhere shown. The
press recognizes it. Newspapers do not
fail to encourage it. S, cieties are organ
lied with reference to it. And it has
even become boast of section against
section and States against States that the
blood in one is better than the blood in
another.
While the South has been noted for
such boasts in former years, New Eng
land is now more notorious than the South
ever was for family pride. Old England
is full of men from New England hunting
after the ancestry of American families,
and book after book is published on the
subject There is magazine in Boston
devoted to the subject, land called the
Genealogical Magazine, an excellent and
ably conducted periodical, and there are
no limits to the desire which our New
England neighbors have for the discovery
OF their ancestors, or the establishment of
a claim to sure puritan or noble blood.
We believe they don't much care what it
was.
We do not write to condemn this histo-
rical pursuit but is it not worth taking
into consideration when we estimate the
sincerity of American devotion to dem
ocracy and equality? Is there not, after
all, a. certain amount of humbug in our
claim to be democratic people.-Journal
of Commerce.