CHAPTER VII.
"I will tell you; If you'll bestow a small (of what you have little), Patience, a while, you'll hear the belly's answer." --_Menenius Agrippa._
At the springs we parted, Mr. Warren and his friends finding aconveyance, with their own horses, in readiness to carry them theremainder of the distance. As for my uncle and myself, it was understoodthat we were to get on in the best manner we could, it being expectedthat we should reach Ravensnest in the course of a day or two. Accordingto the theory of our new business, we ought to travel on foot, but wehad a reservation _in petto_ that promised us also the relief of acomfortable wagon of some sort or other.
"Well," said my uncle, the moment we had got far enough from our newacquaintance to be out of ear-shot, "I must say one thing in behalf ofMr. Seneky, as he calls himself, or Sen, as his elegant sister callshim, and that is, that I believe him to be one of the biggest scoundrelsthe State holds."
"This is not drawing his character _en beau_," I answered, laughing."But why do you come out so decidedly upon him at this particularmoment?"
"Because this particular moment happens to be the first in which I havehad an opportunity to say anything since I have known the rascal. Youmust have remarked that the fellow held me in discourse from the time weleft Troy until we stopped here."
"Certainly; I could see that his tongue was in motion unceasingly; whathe said, I have to conjecture."
"He said enough to lay bare his whole character. Our subject wasanti-rent, which he commenced with a view to explain it to a foreigner;but I managed to lead him on, step by step, until he let me into all hisnotions and expectations on the subject. Why, Hugh, the villain actuallyproposed that you and I should enlist, and turn ourselves into two ofthe rascally mock redskins."
"Enlist! Do they still persevere so far as to keep up that organization,in the very teeth of the late law?"
"The law! What do two or three thousand voters care for any penal law,in a country like this? Who is to enforce the law against them? Did theycommit murder, and were they even convicted, as _might_ happen under theexcitement of such a crime, they very well know nobody would be hanged.Honesty is always too passive in matters that do not immediately presson its direct interests. It is for the interest of every honest man inthe State to set his face against this anti-rent movement, and to do allhe can, by his vote and influence, to put it down into the dirt, out ofwhich it sprang, and into which it should be crushed; but not one in ahundred, even of those who condemn it _toto coelo_, will go a foot outof their way even to impede its progress. All depends on those who havethe power; and they will exert that power so as to conciliate the activerogue, rather than protect the honest man. You are to remember that thelaws are executed here on the principle that 'what is everybody'sbusiness is nobody's business.'"
"You surely do not believe that the authorities will wink at an openviolation of the laws!"
"That will depend on the characters of individuals; most will, but somewill not. You and I would be punished soon enough, were there a chance,but the mass would escape. Oh! we have had some precious disclosures inour corner of the car! The two or three men who joined Newcome are fromanti-rent districts, and, seeing me with their friend, little reservehas been practised. One of those men is an anti-rent lecturer; and,being somewhat didactic, he favored me with some of his arguments,_seriatim_."
"How! Have they got to lectures? I should have supposed the newspaperswould have been the means of circulating their ideas."
"Oh, the newspapers, like hogs swimming too freely, have cut their ownthroats; and it seems to be fashionable, just at this moment, not tobelieve them. Lecturing is the great moral lever of the nation atpresent."
"But a man can lie in a lecture, as well as in a newspaper."
"Out of all question; and if many of the lecturers are of the school ofthis Mr. Holmes--'Lecturer Holmes,' as Seneca called him--but, if manyare of _his_ school, a pretty set of liberty-takers with the truth mustthey be."
"You detected him, then, in some of these liberties?"
"In a hundred: nothing was easier than for a man in my situation to dothat; knowing, as I did, so much of the history of the land-titles ofthe State. One of his arguments partakes so largely of the weak side ofour system, that I must give it to you. He spoke of the gravity of thedisturbances--of the importance to the peace and character of the Stateof putting an end to them; and then, by way of corollary to hisproposition, produced a scheme for changing the titles, IN ORDER TOSATISFY THE PEOPLE!"
"The people, of course, meaning the tenants; the landlords and _their_rights passing for nothing."
"That is one beautiful feature of the morality--an eye, or a cheek, ifyou will--but here is the _nose_, and highly Roman it is. A certainportion of the community wish to get rid of the obligations of theircontracts; and finding it cannot be done by law, they resort to meansthat are opposed to all law in order to effect their purposes. Publiclaw-breakers, violators of the public peace, they make use of their ownwrong as an argument for perpetuating another that can be perpetuated inno other way. I have been looking over some of the papers containingproclamations, etc., and find that both law-makers and law-breakers areof one mind as to this charming policy. Without a single manly effort toput down the atrocious wrong that is meditated, the existence of thewrong itself is made an argument for meeting it with concessions, andthus sustaining it. Instead of using the means the institutions haveprovided for putting down all such unjust and illegal combinations, thecombinations are a sufficient reason of themselves why the laws shouldbe altered, and wrong be done to a few, in order that many may bepropitiated, and their votes secured."
"This is reasoning that can be used only where real grievances exist.But there are no real grievances in the case of the tenants. They maymystify weak heads in the instance of the manor leases, with theirquarter-sales, fat hens, loads of wood, and days' works; but my leasesare all on three lives, with rent payable in money, and with none of theconditions that are called feudal, though no more feudal than any otherbargain to pay articles in kind. One might just as well call a bargainmade by a butcher, to deliver pork for a series of years, feudal.However, feudal or not, my leases, and those of most other landlords,are running on lives; and yet, by what I can learn, the discontent isgeneral; and the men who have solemnly bargained to give up their farmsat the expiration of their lives are just as warm for the 'down rent'and titles in fee as the manor tenants themselves! They say that theobligations given for actual purchases are beginning to be discredited."
"You are quite right; and there is one of the frauds practised on theworld at large. In the public documents only the manor leases, withtheir pretended feudal covenants, and their perpetuity, are kept inview, while the combination goes to _all_ leases, or nearly all, andcertainly to all _sorts_ of leases, where the estates are of sufficientextent to allow of the tenants to make head against the landlords. Idare say there are hundreds of tenants, even on the property of theRensselaers, who are honest enough to be willing to comply with theircontracts if the conspirators would let them; but the rapacious spiritis abroad among the occupants of other lands, as well as among theoccupants of theirs, and the government considers its existence a proofthat concessions should be made. The discontented must be appeased,right or not!"
"Did Seneca say anything on the subject of his own interests?"
"He did; not so much in conversation with me as in the discourse he heldwith 'Lecturer Holmes.' I listened attentively, happening to befamiliar, through tradition and through personal knowledge, with all theleading facts of the case. As you will soon be called on to act in thatmatter for yourself, I may as well relate them to you. They will serve,also, as guides to the moral merits of the occupation of half the farmson your estate. These are things, moreover, you would never know bypublic statements, since all the good bargains are smothered in silence,while those that may possibly have been a little unfavorabl
e to thetenant are proclaimed far and near. It is quite possible that, among themany thousands of leased farms that are to be found in the State, somebad bargains may have been made by the tenants; but what sort of agovernment is that which should undertake to redress evils of thisnature? If either of the Rensselaers, or you yourself, were to ventureto send a memorial to the Legislature setting forth the grievances _you_labor under in connection with this very 'mill-lot'--and serious lossesdo they bring to you, let me tell you, though grievances, in the propersense of the term, they are not--you and your memorial would be met witha general and merited shout of ridicule and derision. _One_ man has norights, as opposed to a dozen."
"So much difference is there between '_de la Rochefoucauld et de laRochefoucauld_.'"
"All the difference in the world; but let me give you the facts, forthey will serve as a rule by which to judge of many others. In the firstplace, my great-grandfather Mordaunt, the 'patentee,' as he was called,first let the mill-lot to the grandfather of this Seneca, the tenantthen being quite a young man. In order to obtain settlers, in that earlyday, it was necessary to give them great advantages, for there wasvastly more land than there were people to work it. The first lease,therefore, was granted on highly advantageous terms to that JasonNewcome, whom I can just remember. He had two characters; the one, andthe true, which set him down as a covetous, envious, narrow-mindedprovincial, who was full of cant and roguery. Some traditions existamong us of his having been detected in stealing timber, and in variousother frauds. In public he is one of those virtuous and hard-workingpioneers who have transmitted to their descendants all their claims,those that are supposed to be moral, as well as those that are known tobe legal. This flummery may do for elderly ladies, who affect snuff andbohea, and for some men who have minds of the same calibre, but they arenot circumstances to influence such legislators and executives as arefit to be legislators and executives. Not a great while before myfather's marriage, the said Jason still living and in possession, thelease expired, and a new one was granted for three lives, or twenty-oneyears certain, of which one of the lives is still running. That leasewas granted, on terms highly favorable to the tenant, sixty years since;old Newcome, luckily for himself and his posterity, having named thislong-lived son as one of his three lives. Now Seneky, God bless him! isknown to lease a few of the lots that have fallen to his share of theproperty for more money than is required to meet all your rent on thewhole. Such, in effect, has been the fact with that mill-lot for thelast thirty years, or even longer; and the circumstance of the greatlength of time so excellent a bargain has existed, is used as anargument why the Newcomes ought to have a deed of the property for anominal price; or, indeed, for no price at all, if the tenants couldhave their wishes."
"I am afraid there is nothing unnatural in thus perverting principles;half mankind appear to me really to get a great many of their notions_dessus dessous_."
"Half is a small proportion; as you will find, my boy, when you growolder. But was it not an impudent proposal of Seneca, when he wished youand me to join the corps of 'Injins?'"
"What answer did you make? Though I suppose it would hardly do for us togo disguised and armed, now that the law makes it a felony, even whileour motive at the bottom might be to aid the law."
"Catch me at that act of folly! Why, Hugh, could they prove such a crimeon either of _us_, or any one connected with an old landed family, weshould be the certain victims. No governor would dare pardon _us_. No,no; clemency is a word reserved for the obvious and confirmed rogues."
"We might get a little favor on the score of belonging to a verypowerful body of offenders."
"True, I forgot that circumstance. The more numerous the crimes and thecriminals, the greater the probability of impunity; and this, too, noton the general principle that power cannot be resisted, but on theparticular principle that a thousand or two votes are of vastimportance, where three thousand can turn an election. God only knowswhere this thing is to end!"
We now approached one of the humbler taverns of the place, where it wasnecessary for those of our apparent pretensions to seek lodgings, andthe discourse was dropped. It was several weeks too early in the seasonfor the springs to be frequented, and we found only a few of those inthe place who drank the waters because they really required them. Myuncle had been an old stager at Saratoga--a beau of the "purest water,"as he laughingly described himself--and he was enabled to explain allthat was necessary for me to know. An American watering-place, however,is so very much inferior to most of those in Europe, as to furnish verylittle, in their best moments, beyond the human beings they contain, toattract the attention of the traveller.
In the course of the afternoon we availed ourselves of the opportunityof a return vehicle to go as far as Sandy Hill, where we passed thenight. The next morning, bright and early, we got into a hired wagon anddrove across the country until near night, when we paid for our passage,sent the vehicle back, and sought a tavern. At this house, where wepassed the night, we heard a good deal of the "Injins" having made theirappearance on the Littlepage lands, and many conjectures as to theprobable result. We were in a township, or rather on a property, thatwas called Mooseridge, and which had once belonged to us, but which,having been sold, and in a great measure paid for by the occupants, noone thought of impairing the force of the covenants under which theparties held. The most trivial observer will soon discover that it isonly when something is to be gained that the aggrieved citizen wishes todisturb a covenant. Now, I never heard anyone say a syllable againsteither of the covenants of his lease under which he held his farm, lethim be ever so loud against those which would shortly compel him to giveit up! Had I complained of the fact--and such facts abounded--that mypredecessors had incautiously let farms at such low prices that thelessees had been enabled to pay the rents for half a century bysubletting small portions of them, as my uncle Ro had intimated, Ishould be pointed at as a fool. "Stick to your bond" would have been thecry, and "Shylock" would have been forgotten. I do not say that there isnot a vast difference between the means of acquiring intelligence, thecultivation, the manners, the social conditions, and, in somesenses, the social obligations of an affluent landlord and areally hard-working, honest, well-intentioned husbandman, histenant--differences that should dispose the liberal and cultivatedgentleman to bear in mind the advantages he has perhaps inherited, andnot acquired by his own means, in such a way as to render him, in acertain degree, the repository of the interests of those who hold him;but, while I admit all this, and say that the community which does notpossess such a class of men is to be pitied, as it loses one of the mostcertain means of liberalizing and enlarging its notions, and ofimproving its civilization, I am far from thinking that the men of thisclass are to have their real superiority of position, with itsconsequences, thrown into their faces only when they are expected togive, while they are grudgingly denied it on all other occasions! Thereis nothing so likely to advance the habits, opinions, and true interestsof a rural population, as to have them all directed by the intelligenceand combined interests that ought to mark the connection betweenlandlord and tenant. It may do for one class of political economists toprate about a state of things which supposes every husbandman afreeholder, and rich enough to maintain his level among the otherfreeholders of the State. But we all know that as many minute gradationsin means must and do exist in a community, as there exist gradations incharacters. A majority soon will, in the nature of things, be below thelevel of the freeholder, and by destroying the system of havinglandlords and tenants two great evils are created--the one preventingmen of large fortunes from investing in lands, as no man will place hismoney where it will be insecure or profitless, thereby cutting off realestate generally from the benefits that might be and would be conferredby their capital, as well as cutting it off from the benefits of theincreased price which arise from having such buyers in the market; andthe other is, to prevent any man from being a husbandman who has not themoney necessary to purchase a farm. But they who want
farms _now_, andthey who will want votes next November, do not look quite so far aheadas that; while shouting "equal rights," they are, in fact, forpreventing the poor husbandman from being anything but a day-laborer.
We obtained tolerably decent lodging at our inn, though the profoundestpatriot America possesses, if he know anything of other countries, or ofthe best materials of his own, cannot say much in favor of the sleepingarrangements of an ordinary country inn. The same money and the sametrouble would render that which is now the very _beau ideal_ ofdiscomfort, at least tolerable, and in many instances good. But who isto produce this reform? According to the opinions circulated among us,the humblest hamlet we have has already attained the highest point ofcivilization; and as for the people, without distinction of classes, itis universally admitted that they are the best educated, the acutest,and the most intelligent in Christendom;--no, I must correct myself;they are all this, except when they are in the act of leasing lands, andthen the innocent and illiterate husbandmen are the victims of the artsof designing landlords, the wretches![21]
[Footnote 21: Mr. Hugh Littlepage writes a little sharply, but there istruth in all he says, at the bottom. His tone is probably produced bythe fact that there is so serious an attempt to deprive him of his oldpaternal estate, an attempt which is receiving support in high quarters.In addition to this provocation, the Littlepages, as the manuscriptshows farther on, are traduced, as one means of effecting the objects ofthe anti-renters; no man, in any community in which it is necessary towork on public sentiment in order to accomplish such a purpose, everbeing wronged without being calumniated. As respects the inns, truthcompels me, as an old traveller, to say that Mr. Littlepage has muchreason for what he says. I have met with a better bed in the lowestFrench tavern I ever was compelled to use, and in one instance I sleptin an inn frequented by carters, than in the best purely country inn inAmerica. In the way of neatness, however, more is usually to be found inour New York village taverns than in the public hotels of Paris itself.As for the hit touching the intelligence of the people, it is merited;for I have myself heard subtle distinctions drawn to show that the"people" of a former generation were not as knowing as the "people" ofthis, and imputing the covenants of the older leases to thatcircumstance, instead of imputing them to their true cause, the opinionsand practices of the times. Half a century's experience would induce meto say that the "people" were never particularly dull in making abargain.--EDITOR.]
We passed an hour on the piazza, after eating our supper, and therebeing a collection of men assembled there, inhabitants of the hamlet, wehad an opportunity to get into communication with them. My uncle sold awatch, and I played on the hurdy-gurdy, by way of making myself popular.After this beginning, the discourse turned on the engrossing subject ofthe day, anti-rentism. The principal speaker was a young man aboutsix-and-twenty, of a sort of shabby-genteel air and appearance, whom Isoon discovered to be the attorney of the neighborhood. His name wasHubbard, while that of the other principal speaker was Hall. The lastwas a mechanic, as I ascertained, and was a plain-looking working-man ofmiddle age. Each of these persons seated himself on a common "kitchenchair," leaning back against the side of the house, and, of course,resting on the two hind-legs of the rickety support, while he placed hisown feet on the rounds in front. The attitudes were neither graceful norpicturesque, but they were so entirely common as to excite no surprise.As for Hall, he appeared perfectly contented with his situation, afterfidgeting a little to get the two supporting legs of his chair justwhere he wanted them; but Hubbard's eye was restless, uneasy, and evenmenacing, for more than a minute. He drew a knife from his pocket--asmall, neat penknife only, it is true--gazed a little wildly about him,and just as I thought he intended to abandon his nicely poised chair,and to make an assault on one of the pillars that upheld the roof of thepiazza, the innkeeper advanced, holding in his hand several narrow slipsof pine board, one of which he offered at once to 'Squire Hubbard. Thisrelieved the attorney, who took the wood, and was soon deeply plungedin, to me, the unknown delights of whittling. I cannot explain themysterious pleasure that so many find in whittling, though theprevalence of the custom is so well known. But I cannot explain thepleasure so many find in chewing tobacco, or in smoking. The precautionof the landlord was far from being unnecessary, and appeared to be takenin good part by all to whom he offered "whittling-pieces," some six oreight in the whole. The state of the piazza, indeed, proved that theprecaution was absolutely indispensable, if he did not wish to see thehouse come tumbling down about his head. In order that those who havenever seen such things may understand their use, I will go a little outof the way to explain.
The inn was of wood, a hemlock frame with a "siding" of clapboards. Inthis there was nothing remarkable, many countries of Europe, even, stillbuilding principally of wood. Houses of lath and plaster were quitecommon, until within a few years, even in large towns. I remember tohave seen some of these constructions while in London, in closeconnection with the justly celebrated Westminster Hall; and of suchmaterials is the much-talked of miniature castle of Horace Walpole, atStrawberry Hill. But the inn of Mooseridge had some pretensions toarchitecture, besides being three or four times larger than any otherhouse in the place. A piazza it enjoyed, of course; it must be a pitifulvillage inn that does not; and building, accessories and all, rejoicedin several coats of a spurious white lead. The columns of this piazza,as well as the clapboards of the house itself, however, exhibited theproofs of the danger of abandoning your true whittler to his owninstincts. Spread-eagles, five-points, American flags, huzzas for Polk!the initials of names, and names at full length, with various othersimilar conceits, records, and ebullitions of patriotic or party-oticfeelings, were scattered up and down with an affluence that said volumesin favor of the mint in which they had been coined. But the mostremarkable memorial of the industry of the guests was to be found on oneof the columns; and it was one at a corner, too, and consequently ofdouble importance to the superstructure--unless, indeed, the house werebuilt on that well-known principle of American architecture of the lastcentury, which made the architrave uphold the pillar, instead of thepillar the architrave. The column in question was of white pine, asusual--though latterly, in brick edifices, bricks and stucco are muchresorted to--and, at a convenient height for the whittlers, it wasliterally cut two-thirds in two. The gash was very neatly made--thatmuch must be said for it--indicating skill and attention; and thesurfaces of the wound were smoothed in a manner to prove thatappearances were not neglected.
"Vat do das?" I asked of the landlord, pointing to this gaping wound inthe main column of his piazza.
"That! Oh! That's only the whittlers," answered the host, with agood-natured smile.
Assuredly the Americans _are_ the best-natured people on earth! Here wasa man whose house was nearly tumbling down about his ears--always batingthe principle in architecture just named--and he could smile as Nero maybe supposed to have done when fiddling over the conflagration of Rome.
"But vhy might de vhittler vhittle down your house?"
"Oh! this is a free country, you know, and folks do pretty much as theylike in it," returned the still smiling host. "I let 'em cut away aslong as I dared, but it was high time to get out 'whittling-pieces,' Ibelieve you must own. It's best always to keep a ruff (roof) over aman's head, to be ready for bad weather. A week longer would have hadthe column in two."
"Vell, I dinks I might not bear dat! Vhat ist mein house ist mein house,ant dey shall not so moch vittles."
"By letting 'em so much vittles there, they so much vittles in thekitchen; so you see there is policy in having your underpinnin' knockedaway sometimes, if it's done by the right sort of folks."
"You're a stranger in these parts, friend?" observed Hubbard,complacently, for by this time his "whittling-piece" was reduced to ashape, and he could go on reducing it, according to some law of the artof whittling with which I am not acquainted. "We are not so particularin such matters as in some of your countries in the old world."
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"Ja--das I can see. But does not woot ant column cost money in America,someding?"
"To be sure it does. There is not a man in the country who wouldundertake to replace that pillar with a new one, paint and all, for lessthan ten dollars."
This was an opening for a discussion on the probable cost of putting anew pillar into the place of the one that was injured. Opinionsdiffered, and quite a dozen spoke on the subject; some placing theexpense as high as fifteen dollars, and others bringing it down as lowas five. I was struck with the quiet and self-possession with which eachman delivered his opinion, as well as with the language used. The accentwas uniformly provincial, that of Hubbard included, having a strong andunpleasant taint of the dialect of New England in it; and some of theexpressions savored a little of the stilts of the newspapers; but, onthe whole, the language was sufficiently accurate and surprisingly good,considering the class in life of the speakers. The conjectures, too,manifested great shrewdness and familiarity with practical things, aswell as, in a few instances, some reading. Hall, however, actuallysurprised me. He spoke with a precision and knowledge of mechanics thatwould have done credit to a scholar, and with a simplicity that added tothe influence of what he said. Some casual remark induced me to putin--"Vell, I might s'pose an Injin voult cut so das column, but I mightnot s'pose a vhite man could." This opinion gave the discourse adirection toward anti-rentism, and in a few minutes it caught all theattention of my uncle Ro and myself.
"This business is going ahead after all!" observed Hubbard, evasively,after others had had their say.
"More's the pity," put in Hall. "It might have been put an end to in amonth, at any time, and ought to be put an end to in a civilized land."
"You will own, neighbor Hall, notwithstanding, it would be a greatimprovement in the condition of the tenants all over the State, couldthey change their tenures into freeholds."
"No doubt 'twould; and so it would be a great improvement in thecondition of my journeyman in my shop if he could get to be the boss.But that is not the question here; the question is, What right has theState to say any man shall sell his property unless he wishes to sellit? A pretty sort of liberty we should have if we all held our housesand gardens under such laws as that supposes!"
"But do we not all hold our houses and gardens, and farms, too, by somesuch law?" rejoined the attorney, who evidently respected hisantagonist, and advanced his own opinions cautiously. "If the publicwants land to use, it can take it by paying for it."
"Yes, to _use_; but use is everything. I've read that old report of thecommittee of the house, and don't subscribe to its doctrines at all.Public 'policy,' in that sense, doesn't at all mean public 'use.' Ifland is wanted for a road, or a fort, or a canal, it must be taken,under a law, by appraisement, or the thing could not be had at all; butto pretend, because one side to a contract wishes to alter it, that theState has a right to interfere, on the ground that the discontented canbe bought off in this way easier and cheaper than they can be made toobey the laws, is but a poor way of supporting the right. The sameprinciple, carried out, might prove it would be easier to buy offpickpockets by compromising than to punish them. Or it would be easy toget round all sorts of contracts in this way."
"But all governments use this power when it becomes necessary, neighborHall."
"That word _necessary_ covers a great deal of ground, 'Squire Hubbard.The most that can be made of the necessity here is to say it is cheaper,and may help along parties to their objects better. No man doubts thatthe State of New York can put down these anti-renters; and, I trust,_will_ put them down so far as force is concerned. There is, then, noother necessity in the case, to begin with, than the necessity whichdemagogues always feel, of getting as many votes as they can."
"After all, neighbor Hall, these votes are pretty powerful weapons in apopular government."
"I'll not deny that; and now they talk of a convention to alter theconstitution, it is a favorable moment to teach such managers they shallnot abuse the right of suffrage in this way."
"How is it to be prevented? You are a universal suffrage man, I know?"
"Yes, I'm for universal suffrage among honest folks; but do not wish tohave my rulers chosen by them that are never satisfied without havingtheir hands in their neighbors' pockets. Let 'em put a clause into theconstitution providing that no town, or village, or county, shall hold apoll within a given time after the execution of process has been openlyresisted in it. That would take the conceit out of all such law-breakersin very short order."
It was plain that this idea struck the listeners, and several evenavowed their approbation of the scheme aloud. Hubbard received it as anew thought, but was more reluctant to admit its practicability. Asmight be expected from a lawyer accustomed to practice in a small way,his objections savored more of narrow views than of the notions of astatesman.
"How would you determine the extent of the district to bedisfranchised?" he asked.
"Take the legal limits as they stand. If process be resisted openly by acombination strong enough to look down the agents of the law in a town,disfranchise that town for a given period; if in more than one town,disfranchise the offending towns; if a county, disfranchise the wholecounty."
"But in that way you would punish the innocent with the guilty."
"It would be for the good of all; besides, you punish the innocent forthe guilty, or _with_ the guilty rather, in a thousand ways. You and Iare taxed to keep drunkards from starving, because it is better to dothat than to offend humanity by seeing men die of hunger, or temptingthem to steal. When you declare martial law you punish the innocent withthe guilty, in one sense; and so you do in a hundred cases. All we haveto ask is, if it be not wiser and better to disarm demagogues, and thosedisturbers of the public peace who wish to pervert their right ofsuffrage to so wicked an end, by so simple a process, than to sufferthem to effect their purposes by the most flagrant abuse of theirpolitical privileges?"
"How would you determine _when_ a town should lose the right of voting?"
"By evidence given in open court. The judges would be the properauthority to decide in such a case; and they would decide, beyond allquestion, nineteen times in twenty, right. It is the interest of everyman who is desirous of exercising the suffrage on right principles, togive him some such protection against them that wish to exercise thesuffrage on wrong. A peace-officer can call on the _posse comitatus_ oron the people to aid him; if enough appear to put down the rebels, welland good; but if enough do not appear, let it be taken as proof that thedistrict is not worthy of giving the votes of freemen. They who abusesuch a liberty as man enjoys in this country are the least entitled toour sympathies. As for the mode, that could easily be determined, assoon as you settle the principle."
The discourse went on for an hour, neighbor Hall giving his opinionsstill more at large. I listened equally with pleasure and surprise."These, then, after all," I said to myself, "are the real bone and sinewof the country. There are tens of thousands of this sort of men in theState, and why should they be domineered over, and made to submit to alegislation and to practices that are so often without principle, by theagents of the worst part of the community? Will the honest forever be sopassive, while the corrupt and dishonest continue so active?" On mymentioning these notions to my uncle, he answered:
"Yes, it ever has been so, and, I fear, ever will be so. _There_ is thecurse of this country," pointing to a table covered with newspapers, theinvariable companion of an American inn of any size. "So long as menbelieve what they find _there_, they can be nothing but dupes orknaves."
"But there is good in newspapers."
"That adds to the curse. If they were nothing but lies, the world wouldsoon reject them; but how few are able to separate the true from thefalse! Now, how few of these pages speak the truth about this veryanti-rentism! Occasionally an honest man in the corps does come out; butwhere one does this, ten affect to think what they do not believe, inorder to secure votes--votes, votes, votes. In that simp
le word lies allthe mystery of the matter."
"Jefferson said, if he were to choose between a government withoutnewspapers, or newspapers without a government, he would take the last."
"Ay, Jefferson did not mean newspapers as they are now. I am old enoughto see the change that has taken place. In his day, three or four fairlyconvicted lies would damn any editor; now, there are men that stand upunder a thousand. I'll tell you what, Hugh, this country is jogging onunder two of the most antagonist systems possible--Christianity and thenewspapers. The first is daily hammering into every man that he is amiserable, frail, good-for-nothing being, while the last is eternallyproclaiming the perfection of the people and the virtues ofself-government."
"Perhaps too much stress ought not to be laid on either."
"The first is certainly true, under limitations that we all understand;but as to the last, I will own I want more evidence than a newspapereulogy to believe it."
After all, my uncle Ro is sometimes mistaken; though candor compels meto acknowledge that he is very often right.