44 READJUSTMENT AFTER WAR 



profit to be expected; and what he should raise 

 on his farm, what he should make in his work 

 shop, or to whom he should sell the products 

 of his labor, was a question to be settled by 

 no different criterion. Politically, the freedom 

 of the individual was only less complete. Prop 

 erty qualifications for the suffrage and for hold 

 ing office generally prevailed, but were of con 

 sequence only in the eastern States. In the 

 growing West, where differences of wealth were 

 as slight and rare as all other marks of social 

 inequality, distinctions in political rights were 

 from the outset unknown in fact and were early 

 banished from the law. 



Thus it was true that despite the enormous 

 differences between the two great societies of 

 English-speaking people, a subtle force was 

 operating to bring them together. Every step 

 in Great Britain toward breaking down the 

 ancient system of privilege and restriction was 

 an approach, however unintended, toward the 

 democratic ideal. Every step in the United 

 States toward national consolidation involved 

 such development and fostering of special in 

 terests, however reluctantly, as to limit per 

 ceptibly the laissez-faire individualism of the 

 democratic fact. The progress of the two na- 



