Page:The World's Famous Orations Volume 10.djvu/98

 THE WORLD'S FAMOUS ORATIONS

and protect the independence of each little com- munity, the true foundation of our free republi- can system. In New England the characteristic village and local life of the last century perishes in the age of steam. Meanwhile the enormous accumulation of capital engaged in great enter- prises, with unscrupulous greed of power, constantly tends to make itself felt in corrup- tion of the Press which molds public opinion, and of the Legislature which makes the laws.

But the most formidable problem for popular government which the opening of our second century presents, springs from a source which was unsuspected a hundred years ago, and which the orators of fifty years since forbore to name. This was the system of slave labor which van- ished in civil war. But slavery had not been the fatal evil that it was, if with its abolition its consequences had disappeared. It holds us still in mortmain. Its dead hand is strong, as its living power was terrible. Emancipation has left the Republic exposed to a new and extraor- dinary trial of the principles and practises of free government. A civilization resting upon slaver3% as formerly in part of the country, how- ever polished and ornate, is necessarily aristo- cratic and hostile to republican equality, while the exigencies of such a society forbid that universal education which is indispensable to wise popular government. "When war emancipates the slaves and makes them equal citizens, the ig- norance and venality which are the fatal legacies 72

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