Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1881-07-13
Rich Men and Poor Men.


hich men anu foor heh'
Good old Horace Greeeys vigorous retort,
You lie, you villain, you lie p TO those who
misrepresented him to the public, CRATES
harshly on sensitive feelings, and, perhaps,
was not always true. There is a sort of mental
slack-twistedness in some people which
incapacitates them for exact statements,
and must have charitable allowance. Such
charity we are quite willing to accord to
the charge recently brought against us that
we believe "rich men, as class, to be
scoundrels." GLOW easily, now, we might
drop out the words "as a Glass;" in imita-
tion oil the ways OF our accuser y As it
happens, we not very long ago printed in
these columns brief article headed, " Rich
Men, In which our ideas on the subject
were concisely stated 80 that there was no
real excuse other than malice (or slack
twistedness ior such charge by anybody
Inc iact Is that we cannot draw any line
between rich men and poor men that will
leave the honesty and virtue all on one side.
some oil the worlds greatest benefactors
nave oeen men oil wealth. Neither "as
GLASS; nor as individuals, can such line
De drawn, because even IN individuals there
Is such mixture oil good and evil that good
deeds and bad deeds are done by the same
NEIL o'ephen uirard was mean to his
iamiiy and harsh and hard to his subordi-
mates and those VINO owed HIM, but he
founded one OF the noblest charities in
America John Jacob Astor was a sordid
money-getter, yet it was possible for Irving
to persuade him to establish the Astor IL
brary. Cornelius Vanderbilt was as coarse
and INSCRIPTIONS as he was able in bust.
ness, yet he gave to Tennessee, at his wife's
instance, the Vanderbilt University. Let
the names of these men, then, be SO far hon
ored. They were not scoundrels," yet in
many things they were men to be withstood.
But how many pure-minded and truly
generous rich men we have seen in Americal
Peter Cooper,-clarum et venerable nomen,-
stands perhaps at the head but closely fol-
lowing we must place the names of Law
renee and Sheffield, to which Harvard and
Yale owe the endowments of their scientific
schools. There is scarcely state that has
not produced more or less of such men.
Araunah Huntington has left fortune to
his native Vermont to educate her people.
The recent generous gift of Mr.. Howard to
Burlington University is another illustra-
tion which does honor to our good state.
The value of our institntions. and the power
OF the principles upon which they are
founded, is proved by the fact that in no
country In the world have men OF wealth so
strongly ieit their responsibility TO the peo-
pie from whence their wealth came, IN the
disposal OF it. The rich men OF America
are indeed, compared with those OF the old
world, "ittle gods, and deserve at least
some OF the honor and worship they receive
But rich men Gas class love to
strengthen themselves as class Look at
the Old shareholders, the rich men OF the
south. There were many klnd-hearted and
estimaoe men among them' lhey were Dy
no means all scoundreis. Ihey were not
even as GLASS; more wicked than other
men. But as class, banded together to
protect their class interests they upheld the
iouiest oil wrongs, ana were constant
threat 10 the hoerties oil America. seeing
the weakness oil their claim TO our biack
men simply because they were Diack, their
thihRefs Propouhded the ooctrihe that cap
itai shouia own LABOR ana openly advocated
the ensiaVement Oh the entire iaooring class,
the mudsills oil the north' as they called
them' as well as the negroes and poor whites
OF the SOUTH ms more than the pure
spirit oil philanthropy "hred the northern
heart Ihe instinct OF the northern work.
ingmen sensed the fatal outcome OF such
philosophy reduced TO practice
Ibe European aristocracy,--that Is, the
rich men,-under both the imperial and the
ieudai systems did actually reduce these
doctrines to practice until there were scarce
any other than masters and slaves from one
side OF the continent to the other. Personal
slavery is yet, as legalized institution,
scarcely abolished from Europe. Potential
slavery,-that state of society in which the
poor men are ettectually controlled, though
not personally owned, by the rich men,-is
still the characteristic constitution of all
the world except America. America is the
only true home Of liberty on the planet, and
here it is ned,-threatened by COM
binations of rich men, many of whom are
personally good men, as are many of the
ruling class in every country, no matter how
arbitrary the government.
No man of sense will say that poor mer
are necessarily either all good men, or much
more likely to be good men, than those who
are rich. The possession of wealth by 9
man who has gained 1t himself in fact Ger
titles to his possession of some good anG