102                     ANCESTRY, LIFE, AND TIMES OF
of a, few, who are charged -with responsibility for the fortunes
of the nation and its successful deliverance from danger,
seemed to be a wise one, notwithstanding it gave the right to
levy forces without restraint, and tax the people without
stint. There, lay the strength of nations. The oppression
such an aristocratic system might visit upon the poorer classes
of the people, and the lordly undemocratic pride and caste it
might engender, were forgotten in the impulse to devise a
defense against the contingency of future surprise. It was not
once considered that the democratic institutions and early
policy of the nation could not be reconstructed upon the prin-
ciples of European dynastic interests. Hence it came to be
thought that a great public debt, a restrictive burden on
trade, a trammeled industry, a system enriching great capi-
talists still more, as also bond and property holders of every
kind, by enormous taxation levied upon the labor of the coun-
try, might, indeed, after all, be a divine blessing, even greater
this side than across the water. A national bank was the cen-
tre and the soul of such an economy, and its history need not
here be recited. A high protective tariff also found favor, under
the euphonious name of good will to " Home Industry" and
"American Labor," the laborer induced to believe that a tax
upon his toil was a boon to himself; in short, that a govern-
ment partnership between the government and the protected,
whereby the interests of large capitalists were enchanced at
the expense of the masses of the people, was the highroad of
the poor man to affluence and power. Then came the system
of internal improvements, devouring indefinite millions exacted
from the commerce of the country, a benevolent safety-valve
for any surplus of government funds, so preventing an explo-
sion of the national exchequer. Auxiliary to this was the
sale of public lands, the national proceeds to be distributed
among the several states, and the heavy endowment of privi-
leged corporations, all for the benefit of the protected classes,
the whole "American System" swallowed by a deluded people,
—the result being that the rich grew richer, while the poor
grew poorer, until, in self-defense, combinations and trades-
unions and organizations of every description, hostile to capi-
tal, monopoly, protection of the rich, and pouring malediction
on an aristocracy of wealth, have honeycombed the land and
led to nihilistic and agrarian outbreaks, endangering the peace,
welfare, and security of individual, state, and the national
life.