The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1870-07-01

energy who can rise out OF the order IN
which he is placed by the accident of his
birth and although, by few men of trans
cendent genius, this more than Herculean
task has been accomplished, the smallness
of the number of those who are thus fortu
nate shows the utter hopelessness of the
state to which more than twenty millions
of those who wear out their lives in the
creation of that, no part of which they are
permitted to enjoy, are condemned.
Nor is this ALL between the British la
borer and the British pauper, the line of
division is scarcely perceptible. A slight
accident, transitory illness, the loss OF a
place, transforms the one into the other.
business revulsion performs the same
service for multitudes. In sight of the tenn
ing factory stands the almost equally TEEN
ing poor-house, where pauperism reproduces
itself, where wretchedness begets wretched
ness, and men and women are born to an
inheritance of unspeakable- degradation.
million of paupers, supported at an an
nual cost of five millions and half of
pounds-more than the yearly expenses of
the government of the United States prior
to the year 182T--is one of the incidental
items Of the account which Great Britain
pays for the privilege Of preserving a bond
ed aristocracy, and, under a shallow pre-
tense OF national honor, crushing into the
earth those to whom that nation owes its
existence. 1t is not to be denied that Great
Britain, like the United States, has an
abundance of philanthropists and reform
ers, who bear high testimony to each 9th
ers virtues, and who take a very lively in
terest in the elevation and improvement of
the perishing classes. Some of these labor
In the educational some in the moral, some
III the ecclesiastical, and some in the polit-
cal held; and great expectations are enter
tanned, that either by enlightening the
minds of the operatives, or by reforming
their morals, or by touching their hearts,
or by endowing them with political fran
chises the change, which all admit to be
a thing of vital Importance, will be initia-
ted. 1t is the most pitiful farce that ever
was played since the foundation of the
world. There is no imaginable machinery
potent enough to elevate people ground
down by the milestone of taxation. The
cause of the degradation of the white
slaves of England is the public debt and
the incidental OUTLAWS and extrayagances
whichit encourages This the reformers can
not, because they will not learn. The knowl-
are not morally prepared; nor is it probable
that they will learn it until the informa-
ton is forced upon them amid the throes
of a revolution. But a large public debt
supplies more direct means than this even
for a fixed division Of the people. A bond
ed debt is, in itself, such a division Ad-
hitting that debt may be created, it fol-
lows that one of the terms of its existence
must be that the value represented by its
| evidences is exempt from taxation. The
wealthy, simply by investing their means
in these evidences, become distinct class
in the state. 1t is an arstocracy in fact,
released from the obligation to contribute
to the support of the government, with a
distinct interest in the perpetuation of the
debt, and with every inducement to grasp
political power in order that such interest
may acquire additional protection Such
force, once established, its elements i'm
PEELED by common sentiment, acting to-
gether and taking advantage of circum-
stances, gaining whenever it is possible, and
never releasing their hold upon what
they have gained, combining now with
one party and now with another, and al
ways securing consideration for their
services, will, in no long time, grow to an
ollgarchy, under whose encroachments the
liberties OF the people will wither, their
| rights become practically extinct, and them
selves be delivered over to an enduring
| and hopeless servitude. There is one force
IN human society which never expires or
lntermits That force is interest An ia
terest once established in state-such as
large public debt does establish-adverse
to an existing form of government, will, in
the end, warp or reyolutionize that form of
government, and bring it into conformity
| with its eXigencies.
III there were no other reasons why pub
lie debts should not be contracted, this
would be more than sufficient. No free
government can endure the influence they
establish. They are in themselves, the
seedsof revolutions, all the more dangerous
that they act insidiously. They constitute
an element OF peril so active and so persis-
tent, that when, through the folly or the
wickedness of rulers, they have been thrust
upon the country, the people should lose
no time in signifying their determination
to cast them off and to be released from
the dangerous direct, and the still more
dangerous indirect thraldom which they
impose No time, for purpose so
vital, can be too early. No exertion
can be too strenuous. No self-emanci-
patton from the bondage of false ideas can
be too complete. 1t is matter in which
the character of the government and the
well-being ofthe people are alike involved.
The ends for which governments are estab-
lished are not to make splendid show, to
provoke admiration abroad, or to play
glittering drama for the entertainment of
the rest of mankind, but to protect the
people in their pursuits, and permit them
to be happy in their avocations ; to see that
no unnecessary burdens are imposed upon
their industry; to take care that they who
create the wealth of the country shall share
in its enjoyment, and that they who consti-
tute its strength shall not be so pressed
down as to shame the land and humanity
alike by their degradation.
Suppose that the United States could
pay her public debt upon the same terms
and in the same manner in which England
is paying hers: who would do it2 Who
wants to see the creators of the wealth of
the United States making that wealth
badge of intamy By the contrast they pre-.
sent with those by whom it is possessed
and enjoyed England is country from
which laboring men emigrate. She is cast
ing her working population in tides upon
every unoccupied shore Every operative
who can scrape together the means to leave