82 OSTRACISM OF WEALTH. [CHAP. VI. 



often eloquent, and have much political tact, and have formed a 

 league with the unscrupulous demagogues here, and, by uniting 

 with them, rule the country. For example, the mass of our 

 population were strongly opposed to the extension of slavery, and 

 voted at first against the annexation of Texas, yet they have 

 been cajoled into the adoption of that measure.&quot; 



&quot; Do the slave-owners,&quot; I asked, &quot; give bribes to the chiefs of 

 your democratic party ?&quot; &quot; No, our electors have too much 

 self-respect and independence to accept of money bribes ; but, by 

 ioining with their southern allies, they get what one of their party 

 had recently the effrontery to call the spoils of the victor. 

 They are promoted to places in the custom-house or post-office, 

 or sent on a foreign mission, or made district attorneys, or a 

 lawyer may now and then be raised even to the bench of the 

 Supreme Court ; not one who is positively incompetent, but a 

 man who, but for political services, would never have been se 

 lected for the highest honors in his profession.&quot; 



I next told my friend that, when traveling in Maine, I had 

 asked a gentleman why his neighbor, Mr. A., a rich and well- 

 informed man, was not a member of their Legislature, and he 

 had replied, &quot; Because he is known to have so much wealth, 

 both in land and money, that, if he were to stand, the people 

 would not elect him.&quot; &quot; Is it then,&quot; I inquired, &quot;an avowed 

 principle of the democracy, that the rich are to be ostracised ?&quot; 

 and I went on to say that, in a club to which I belonged in 

 London, we had a servant who, though very poor, had a vote 

 as proprietor of a house, all the apartments of which he let out 

 to different lodgers. When he was questioned why, at two suc 

 cessive elections, he had voted for candidates of exactly opposite 

 opinions in politics, he explained by saying, &quot; I make it a rule 

 always to vote with my first floor.&quot; &quot; I presume that if he 

 migrated to New Hampshire or Maine, he would vote with his 

 garret, instead of his first floor ?&quot; 



&quot; I have no doubt,&quot; said my companion, &quot; that such an elector 

 would side with the powers that be ; and as the democracy has 

 the upper hand here, as in Maine, he would have paid as servile 

 a homage to the dominant party on this side of the Atlantic as 



