470 THE GROUNDSWELL. 



may preach and pray for us; but the integrity of a free 

 nation does not depend upon the so-called privileged classes 

 making our laws. 



SPECIAL PRIVILEGES DANGEROUS TO THE PEOPLE 

 AT LARGE. 



Among all nations, and in all times, opposition of the 

 masses has arisen from the granting of special privileges, 

 which, once secured, have thereafter been used to rivet the 

 chains and destroy the liberties of the subject. The rise 

 and downfall of nations may be traced largely to the opera 

 tion of causes thus set in motion, from the earliest historic 

 ages down to our own day. 



The old feudal barons exercised special privileges. One 

 of them was to build castles that commanded the roads 

 through which the traffic of a region or country must 

 pass. From this they collected tribute, which they spent 

 in living in affluence, and in feeding the hirelings whom 

 they had bought to do their murders upon unoffending 

 citizens. If a traveler tried to go around he was infringing 

 upon their vested, or, as they were pleased to consider it, 

 divine rights, and was incontinently &quot;put out&quot; with the 

 sword. 



The nobility of England also, by the same vested right, 

 have the benefit of entail, by which the eldest son inherits 

 the property from generation to generation, thus keeping up 

 caste and a class who, as a rule, simply eat and drink what 

 others produce. Fortunately for the United States, the 

 framers of the Constitution prohibited not only this, but the 

 unity of the Church and State. Were it not for this, we 

 should have been to-day the least free, as really we are the 

 worst- taxed, of any people on the face of the earth. 



