t, without a
natural variety of classes. The most marked of these must, in a country
like ours, be the rich and the poor, the educated and the ignorant. It
will scarcely be disputed that the very poor have less leisure to
prepare themselves for the proper discharge of public duties than the
rich; and that the ignorant are wholly unfit for them at all. In all
countries save ours, these two classes, or the poor rather, who are
presumed to be necessarily ignorant, are by law expressly excluded from
all participation in the management of public affairs. In a Republican
Government this can not be done. Universal suffrage, though not
essential in theory, seems to be in fact a necessary appendage to a
republican system. Where universal suffrage obtains, it is obvious that
the government is in the hands of a numerical majority; and it is hardly
necessary to say that in every part of the world more than half the
people are ignorant and poor. Though no one can look upon poverty as a
crime, and we do not here generally regard it as any objection to a man
in his individual capacity, still it must be admitted that it is a
wretched and insecure government which is administered by its most
ignorant citizens, and those who have the least at stake under it.
Though intelligence and wealth have great influence here, as everywhere,
in keeping in check reckless and unenlightened numbers, yet it is
evident to close observers, if not to all, that these are rapidly
usurping all power in the non-slaveholding States, and threaten a
fearful crisis in republican institutions there at no remote period. In
the slaveholding States, however, nearly one-half of the whole
population, and those the poorest and most ignorant, have no political
influence whatever, because they are slaves. Of the other half, a large
proportion are both educated and independent in their circumstances,
while those who unfortunately are not so, being still elevated far above
the mass, are higher toned and more deeply interested in preserving a
stable and well-ordered government, than the same class in any other
country. Hence, slavery is truly the "corner-stone" and foundation of
every well-designed and durable "republican edifice."

With us every citizen is concerned in the maintenance of order, and in
promoting honesty and industry among those of the lowest class who are
our slaves; and our habitual vigilance renders standing armies, whether
of soldiers or policemen, entirel