Graham guardian., 1911-01-13
Ihr snalr&sau
pIal,sHED EvES't FRIDAY
BY THE
GUARDIAN PUBL SHsNG CD.
THE PLUTCCRATlC
THEORY

Last week we said that the author
tiles are agreed that all free govern
ments are based on the three funda-
mental rights of personal security,
personal liberty and private prop
erty: that such government cannot
long endure on any other or mar
rover foundation, and that this is
the democratic theory OF govern
ment. We also said that this theory
has always been opposed in this
country by the following plutocratic
theory: Government is founded
on property"
II will be seen at once that the
latter theory takes for the whole
foundation of government simply
the third of the above named funda-
mental rights, always suhordinatlng
the two personal rights. and wholly
ignoring them when not united with
the third--the old futile attempt to
make a three-legged stool stand with
only one leg, or to make a cone
stand on its apex. Such theory
and government can be sustained
only by the bayonets of an over
whelming and all-pervading regular
army, as all history proves.
1t is generally said that Alexander
Hamilton brought this theory into
our government. In No. K OF the
Federalist, he says: Those who
hold and those who are without
property have ever formed distinct
interests in society. : A land
ed interest, a manufacturing inter-
est, a mercantile interest, moneyed
interest, grow up of necessity in
civilized nations, and divide them
into different classes. The
regulation of these various inter-
fering interests forms the principal
task of modern legislation"
This was published in November,
1887, and is the merest germ OF the
hard plutocracy he personifed for
the last ten years of mis- life. He
died in 1904.
In these years he had come to
believe profoundly in King, Lords
and Commons, and had frequently
announced his preference. but he
we'll knew that an army fresh from
the field was necessary to effect the
change in this country. The King
and Queen of France, with about
two thousand other persons, more
or less of quality, had recently been
beheaded there, which alarmed our
best society" In 1898 the United
States declared war against France
and Hamilton was given the COM
mand of our armies, second only to
Washington, who was then too old
for active service and died within a
year. 1t seems hard to doubt that
Hamilton then aimed at overturning
the Republic, setting himself up as
military dictator and finally as mon
arch, just as Napoleon was then do
ing in France. His party had re-
Gently passed the Sedition Act, vir-
tually abolishing free speech and
press. However, the skillful and
persistent opposition of Jefferson
and his French and American
friends to the war, and Napoleon's
desire to withdraw some of his many
irons from the fire, frustrated the
federalist scheme for strong and
safe" government and killed the
federalist party.
In his great Plymouth Grafton in
1920, Daniel Webster said: "Gov.
ernment is founded on property"
and went on in an effort to justify
it and to render it acceptable to the
people, in which effort he signalIy
failed. His friends still say that
this attack on democracy cost him
the presidency of the United States
Introduction to Speeches of Daniel
Webster, by E, P. Whipplc, xii.
Webster's was probably the might.
lest intellect to be traced in the an.
mails of this continent. Still he was
very extravagant, somewhat careless
in business, loose in ethics and spoke
for those who paid him best.
That he (Webster), was main.
tanned and supported in large de.
gree by New England manufacture
and capitalists cannot be question.
1t was their privilege GNa
duty to support him, and he repaid