The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1900-12-04
AN ABLE ENGL1sHNAS,s VIEW.

IL ltALo L4AE
men and decidedly the foremost in
genius for historical writing. Not long
ago he published a pamphlet entitled.
Commonwealth or Empire" He
pointed TO a very significant
fact-the alliance now on between En-
lish Tories and the American multi
milhonaires. This alliance supported In
certain a way McKinley's election. Mr..
E. L. Godkin, the scholarly, able late
editor Of the New York Evening Post
Ian Englishman also) wrote to his old
paper about Professor Smiths state
ment saying. II must remind Pro-
fessor Smith that the growth of the
its effect on society and politics, were
foreshadowed more thar sixty wears
g by De T~ocqueville. in his Demo
cratic en- Amerique.'" It seems to us
that at the very laying OF the founda-
ton of our republic this class fellow
BILE. Mr.. Godkin contributes this bit
Of information which is too interesting
to be passed over. He says:
"Tocqueville points out the extreme
improbability thai the rich men in any
democracy, based on equality, will be
long content to share the common lot.
In a money-making community, the
rich n the energetic would be sure
to accumulate large fortunes, and would
consequently very soon begin to look
upon themselves as a class apart, en-
titled to be exclusive This prediction
began to be fulfilled very soon after the
civil war. The north, in spite of it's
victory, found the negroes a black ele-
plant OF it's hands. 1t gave them the
suffrage, which. in the eyes Of the en-
thusiastic Abolitionists, was to work
like a charm in improving the negro
character. but all it did for them was
to further unfit them for civilized life.
while it trained the whites in habits
of lawlessneSs. The northern people.
in fact, gave much additional proof Of
their unfitness for the control of in
ferior races"
The truths of history often come to
light with leaden steps. There is a
vast amount of informing history still
unwritten. The thousands of rich men
i'm the north, like Astor and Others, are
ready to seek alliances of one sort and
another-marriage, commercial, mon
eyed. monarchical and what not-with
the nobility of Europe.
MI. Godkin writes of the accumula-
tons of wealth since the great war be-
tween the states and the trouble that
followed among the new made rich. We
copy at some length, for it is edifying
and is written by one of the best in
formed of Britishers who ever made the
north their home. Mr.. Godkin says:
For instance such as Europe had
never seen in AM ank began to abound
among the American business men. At
first there was a ludicrous difficulty in
spending these fortunes, but it soon
passes away. inst at the same time.
n new engines made the passage of
h Atlantic so quick that a trip to
Europe, which used to taxi place only
once in a lifetime, became a summer
excursion, and the making of it became
a sign, in every American village, that
a man had succeeded in life.
The result of his was a great in
crease OF social intercourse between the
wealthy classes of both countries, and
a complete change in English feeling
Onward America. Americans in Eng
land, from being looked on with dis
IKE and contempt. became great IA
vorites in English society, and welcome
at all the great English houses. for
Engl1shman k the smell of mon
ey. All their faults We're eagerly over
looked, in view of their wealth, admira-
ton OF which was greatly increased by
the astounding size of American for
tunes, and there was a uSh of Ameru-
can heireSSes to marry English titles.
There was one bitter drop in the Ameri-
can cup, however, and that was that
we had no coaling stations, no colonies.
No SI1h1nof ToonS IN -H@-& AI@@
not a world power"
That is indeed Choice reading for
this year of grace with Mckinley
again in the saddle for another four
years ride. the prospect of which ex-
cites the gilded rich, the plastic multi
tude, and even evokes something of a
faint halleluia in supposed democratic
circles i'm the south. The democrats
as yet have kept their first estate and
have not yet bowed abjectly before the
north. Mr.. Godkin with something no
doubt of wisdom and precision writes
as follows:
Every republic runs it's greatest
risk not so much from disconnected
soldiers as from d~iScontented multi
mlliiOnaires. They are very rarely. If
ever, content with a position of equali-
ty, and the larger the population which
is said to be equal with them, the less
content they are. Their natural desire
is to be a class apart. and if they can
not have titles ait home, they wish 20
be received as equals by titled people
abroaa. Thst is exactly our present
position, and would be the end OF the
American dream. All past republics
have been overthrown by rich men, On
nobles. and we nav plenty of Sons; of
he Revolution ready for the job, and
plenty of successful soldiers deriding
he constitution, unrebuked by the ex-
ecutive or by public opinion"
That is severe and biting, but it is
the severity of truth and the bite OF
judgment. We all know how the re-
publican party has steadily deserted the
cause and interests OF the plain people
and taken up with the rich and edu-
Gated n ambitious. 1t has been SO
in other lands and in other countries.
History repeats itself here as in other
ways. When the people are betrayed