The Ohio Democrat. (Logan, O. [Ohio]) 1886-1906, 1890-03-22
NATURAL INEQUALITY.
So Long rs Men Arc Mon Human Equality
VIII he Dream.

phrase that "all men are born FREQ and
equal" which gallicized Americans,
who were as much "philosophs" rs their
inherited common sense and their prac-
tical acquaintance with men and with
affairs would let them be, put forth as
the foundation of the "Declaration OF
Independence" 1 have seen con.
siderable number of new born infants.
Without wishing to speak of them with
the least disrespect-a thing no man can
do, without, as the proverb says, foul
ing his own nest"-I fail to understand
how they can be affirmed to have any
political qualities at all. How can it be
said these poor little mortals who have
not even the capacity to kick to any
definite end, nor indeed to do any thing
but vaguely squirm and squall, are
equal politically, except as all zeros
may be said to be equal? How can little
creatures be said to be free" of whom
not one would live for four and twenty
hours If it were not imprisoned by
kindly hands and coerced into applying
it's foolish wandering mouth to the
breast it could never find for itself?
How is the being whose brain is still too
pulpy to hold an idea of any description
to be moral agent either good or bad?
Surely it must be joke, and rather a
cynical one, too, to talk of the political
status of newborn child! But we
may carry our questions q step further.
If it is mere abracadabra to speak Of
men being born in a state of political
freedom and equality, thus fallaciously
confusing positive equality-that is to
1,n IF n
equality of impotences; in what con-
ceivable state of society is it possible
that men should not merely be born,
but pass through childhood and still re-
main, free? Has child at fourteen
been free to choose its language and all
! the connotations with which words be-
came burdened in their use by genera
tion after generation? Has 1t been free
to choose the habits enforced by precept
and more surely driven homo by ex-
ample? Has it been free to invent its
own standard of right and wrong? Or,
rather, has it not been as much held in
bondage by its surroundings and driven
hither and thither by the scourge of
opinion, as veritable slave, although
| the fetters and the whip may be invisi-
BILE and intangible? Surely, Aristotle
was much nearer the truth in this mat
ter than Hobbies or Rousseau. And If the
predicate "born slave"would more nearly
agree with fact than ''born free" what
is to be said about "born equal?" Rous-
seau, like the sentimental rhetorican
that he was, and half, or more than
half, sham, as all sentimental rhetor-
leans are, sagaciously fought shy, as we
have seen, of the question of the in
fiuence of natural upon political equal
itv. But those of us who do not care
for sentiment and do care for truth, may
not evade the consideration of that
which is really the key of the position.
If Rousseau. instead'of letting his chill
dren go to the cRfopts trouces, had taken
the trouble to discharge a fathers duty
toward them, he would hardly have
talked so fast about men being born
equal, even in political sense. For, il
that merely means that all newborn
children are political zeros, it is, as we
have seen, though true enough, nothing
to the purpose; while, If it means that,
in their potentiality of becoming fac
tors in any social organization-citi
zens in Rousseau's sense-all men are
born equal, it is probably the most
astounding falsity that ever was put
forth by political speculator; and that
as all students of political speculation
will agree, is saying a good deal for
it. In fact, nothing is more remarkable
than the wide inequality which children,
even of the same family, exhibit, as soon
as the mental and moral qualities begin
to manifest themselves, which is earlier
than most people fancy. Every family
spontaneously becomes polity. Among
the children, there are some who con-
tinue to be 'more honored and more
powerful than the rest, and to make
themselves obeyed" sometimes, indeed,
by their elders) in virtue of nothing but
their moral and mental qualities. Here,
political inequality" visibly dogs the
heels of natural" inequality. The
group of children becomes political
body, cioitas, with its rights of prop
erty, and it's practical distinctions of
rank and power. And all this comes
about neither by force nor by fraud, but
as the necessary consequence of the in
nate inequalities of capability. Thus
men are certainly not born free and
equal in natural qualities; when they
are born, the predicates "free" and
equal" in the political sense are not
applicable to them, and as they develop.
year by year, the differences in the po-
litical potentialities with which they
really are born, become more and more
obviously converted into actual differ
ences-the inequality Of political faculty
shows itself to be necessary conse-
quence of the inequality of natural
faculty. It is probably true that the
earliest men were nomads But among
body of naked, wandering savages,
though there may be no verbally recog-
nized distinctions of rank or office, SUI
perior strength and cunning confer
authority of a more valid kind than that
secured by acts of Parliament; there
may be no property in things, but the
witless man will be poverty stricken in
ideas, the clever man will be capitalist
in that same commodity, which in the
long run buys all other commodities;
one will miss opportunities, tho other
will make them; and, proclaim human
equality as loudly as you like, Witless
will serve his brother. So long as men
are men and society is society, human
equality will be dream; and the as
sumption that it does exist is as untrue
in fact as it sets the mark of impractica-
bility on every theory of what ought to