Page:The Collected Works of Theodore Parker volume 6.djvu/304

Rh failure of our experiment of Democracy. The bondage of a class may continue in a despotism; there it is no contradiction to the national idea. It is different in a Democracy which rests on the equality of all men in natural rights. So here the question of Slavery is this: "Shall we have an industrial Democracy, or a military despotism?" If you choose Slavery, then you take the issue of Slavery, which can no more be separated from it than cold from ice. No nation can escape the consequences of its own first principle of politics. The logic of the idea is the "manifest destiny" of the people. If Slavery continues, Democracy goes down; every form of republicanism, or of constitutional monarchy, will perish; and absolute military despotism take their place at last. From despotism, as seed reared in the national garden, comes despotism, as national crop, growing in the continental field.

This question of Slavery does not concern America alone; all Christendom likewise is party to the contest. To all men it is a question of industry, commerce, education, morals, religion; to the civilized world, it is the great question of civilization itself. Shall this great continent be delivered over to ideas which help the progress of mankind, or to those which only hinder it? Every year brings America into closer relations with the rest of mankind. Our Slavery becomes, therefore, an element in the world's politics. See, then, for a moment, how the various Christian nations stand affected towards it.

Just now, there are but five great national powers in the civilized or Christian world. Spain, Italy, and Greece pass for nothing—they have no influence in the progressive movements of mind, are no longer a force in the world's civilization. They are not wholly dead; but so far as they affect other peoples, it is only by the thought of past generations, not the present. I pass those three decaying nations by, and look at the live peoples. There is (1) the Russian power—a great Slavic people holding Mongolians in subjection; (2) the French power—a great Celtic people variously crossed with Basque, Roman, and Teutonic tribes; (3) the German power—a great Teutonic people, in many nations or States, with Slavic and Celtic elements mixed in; (4) the English power—a great Saxon-Teutonic people, with Celtic annexations; and (6) the American power—