American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1878-08-10
A Popular Error.

interesting DISCOURSE, iast SUNNY
to run a parallel between politica
liberty rs he described il i'll Thu
country with what it is, as he under
stands it, i'm England. All that tn
reverend gentleman said as to thu
corruption which attaches to cleo
tiOns here is alas, too true. Note
: are no doubt purchased from thu
price of drink of whisky M t.
thousands of dollars even honora'
BILE Senators and Representative
r have been bribed by the score tt
vote for substituting schemes, OF
measures for advancing the causes
of great moreycd rings and corpora
tiOns and it is charged upon al
most conclusive evidence that tn,
big hest office within the gift of the
American people was secured tt
/ it's present occupant by fraud
Demogogueism, trickery, bribery
falsehood and debauchery blackei
our political record, and now, per
haps, to a greater extent than evel
before las the moral sense of this
people became blunted.
While all this is admitted, does
it JSt warrant an unfavOrable COM
parison of our country with England
in considering the question of polit
ical liberty with regard to each
Is the reverend divine justified by
facts in holding up the Engllsh
government as the only one in
which the subjects ae free, in the
true and enlightened understanding
of tue term The pages of Eng
lands history are stained with
crime from the earliest period of
which we have knowledge. While
i'll The course of a hundred years we
have now for the first time Presi>
dent who holds his position by
usurpation and fraud, there is
scarcely page in English history
that does not reek with blood and
woe and crime or chapter that
does not furnish its instance of a
tyrannical usurper who has waded
to the thrtne through seas of human
blood. or in which some mighty
civil conflict has laid waste ard
depopulaied Britain-commOtIon
that were always headed by ambi-
tious PERSONS who plunged their
countrymen into these ruinous and
destructive wars for their own sell
fish ends; and martyrs to the cause
of religious faith are furnished,
without number, while political
prosecutions and prescriptions,
blended with religious fanaticism,
have characterized the annals of
that nation from the first. To ar
rive at what she now is, England
has passed through a dreadful
crucible; and now, having attained
to the highest condition of liberty
possible for the people of a kingdom,
is there less of misery, more OF free
dom, as the divine referred to ex
presses it, for the subjects of this
model monarchy than in our re-
publicf And is there less OF intri>
que, corruption, and dishonOr at
taching to their political affairs,
and does their SYSTEM, as it now
exists, afford an instance of the
broadcast liberty to the subject,
consonant With law and reason,-
is the greatest degree of happiness
more universally dlffused among
the massesf
The visitors to foreign shores tell
us that England affords no excep-
ton to the rule of squalid misery
and hopeless sorrow everywhere
visible In Europe. The condition
of the wealtliier classes is enviable
but the lioor who compose the vast
masses are almost hOpelessly poor
and wretched. There is not that
opportunity which is offered in our
country to rise from an inferior
condition; talent and merit do not
assert themselves so readily the
rewards of thrift ard industry are
not so readily retirned In the way
of competence, as IS nearly always
the case in our country, but the
poor must be content to remain
poor and members of a class upon
which those of the more fortunate
grade may look down through all
generations. The higher classes
are blessed with privileges which
are not extended to the masses OF
the cOmmon people. And while in
our republic all men are on that
political level from which the poor
est and the lowliest may and do
fill the highest stations of honor
and wealth. (and. as general rule,
these really dO,) such instances are
isolated and of tie rarest occur
renee in England. Are these in>
creased opportunities for all, the
removal of the bans of prescription
against any class, SO that Positions
pf huuor. trust. influence and wealth