298 MR HAMILTON ON THE PROSPECTS OF THE UNION. 



plying that there exists no privileged order in America, the 

 assertion, though not strictly true,* may pass. In any wider 

 acceptation, it is mere nonsense. There is quite as much prac 

 tical equality in Liverpool as New York. The magnates of 

 the Exchange do not stand less proudly in the latter city than 

 in the former ; nor are their wives and daughters less forward 

 in supporting their pretensions. In such matters legislative 

 enactments can do nothing. Man s vanity, and the desire of 

 distinction, inherent in his nature, cannot be repressed. If 

 obstructed in one outlet, it will only gush forth with greater 

 vehemence at another. The most contemptible of mankind 

 has some talent of mind or body some attraction virtue 

 accomplishment dexterity or gift of fortune in short, 

 something real or imaginary, on which he arrogates superiority 

 to those around him. The rich man looks down upon the 

 poor, the learned on the ignorant, the orator on him unblessed 

 with the gift of tongues, and he that is a true-born gentle 

 man, and stands upon the honour of his birth, despises the 

 roturier whose talents have raised him to an estimation in 

 society, perhaps superior to his own. 



&quot; Thus it is with the men, and with the fairer sex assured 

 ly it is not different. No woman, conscious of attraction, was 

 ever a republican in her heart. Beauty is essentially despotic 

 it uniformly asserts its power, and never yet consented to a 

 surrender of privilege. I have certainly heard it maintained 

 in the United States, that all men are equal, but never did I 

 hear that assertion from the lips of a lady. On the contrary, 

 the latter is always conscious of the full extent of her claims 

 of preference to admiration, and is never satisfied till she feels 

 them to be acknowledged. And what zephyr is too light to 

 fill the gossamer sails of woman s vanity ! The form of a 

 feature, the whiteness of a hand, the shade of a ringlet, a cap, 

 a feather, a trinket, a smile, a motion all, or any of them, or 

 distinctions yet finer and more shadowy, if such there be 

 are enough, here as elsewhere, to constitute the sign and shib- 



* &quot; Not strictly true, because in many of the states the right of suffrage 

 is made dependent on a certain qualification in property. In Virginia, in, 

 particular, this qualification is very high.&quot; 



