Page:The rise, progress, and phases of human slavery.djvu/116

 CHAPTER XVI.

REFORMS AS MUCH NEEDED IN AMERICA AND IN COLONIES AS IN EUROPE.

Answer to question, "How is Human Slavery to go out?"—Insufficiency of mere Political Freedom—Accessibility of Public Lands in new Countries their chief Advantage—Inadequacy of Universal Suffrage without a Knowledge of Social Rights—America falling into same Abyss as Europe.

Before resuming the subject of the foregoing propositions, we pray the reader to bear in mind, that we are now arrived at that all-important branch of our inquiry which proposes to answer the question, "How is human slavery to be made to go out of the world?" To have shown how it came in,—how it was propagated,—the varied phases it has assumed, and the hideous, wide-spread proletarianism to which the conversion of chattel-slavery into wages-slavery has given rise,—to have shown all this, without at the same time essaying to show how the fell monster is to be eradicated from the face of the earth, would be a mere idle literary dissertation—a contemptible parade of erudition, without object, without end. A higher purpose will, we trust, be found to have dictated this inquiry. An earnest, heartfelt desire to contribute our quota towards rescuing humanity from oppression and sorrow is the motive we lay claim to. This motive it is which impelled us, on the part of the National Reform League, to propose the resolutions embodied in the last chapter. In those resolutions we profess to answer the question, "How is human slavery to be made to go out of the world?" It is true, their immediate application is intended only for our own country; but they are equally applicable to France, Germany, and every other "civilized" country—America itself not excepted. America is comparatively free from most of the political anomalies and exclusive privileges which disgrace Europe, and degrade the vast numerical majority of its people. There are no crowned heads there; there is no State Church. Some of the States have public debts, but they are comparatively light, and, for the most part, in course of easy liquidation. Moreover, there is no titled aristocracy claiming, by hereditary right, to legislate for or govern any of the States. In this respect, men of all grades and conditions are equally eligible for office, and for places of trust, honour, and emolument. Universal suffrage may be said to be the general rule, and property qualifications the exception, for the election of members of the legislature and officers of government. Treason works no corruption of blood in America. There is no law of primogeniture or entail; there is no religion established and maintained by law, and consequently no legal bars to religious freedom. Taxation is, generally speaking, equal, uniform, and direct. It was, before the civil war, compara