WHAT SHALL THE END BE?
Two men sat upon one of the benches in the shade of a spreading elm
in the shadow of the National Capitol, as the sun declined toward
his setting. They had been walking and talking as only earnest,
thoughtful men are wont to talk. They had forgotten each other and
themselves in the endeavor to forecast the future of the country
after a consideration of its past.
One was tall, broad, and of full habit, with a clear blue eye,
high, noble forehead, and brown beard and hair just beginning
to be flecked with gray, and of a light complexion inclining to
floridness. He was a magnificent type of the Northern man. He had
been the shaper of his own destiny, and had risen to high position,
with the aid only of that self-reliant manhood which constitutes
the life and glory of the great free North. He was the child of
the North-west, but his ancestral roots struck deep into the rugged
hills of New England. The West had made him broader and fuller and
freer than the stock from which he sprang, without impairing his
earnestness of purpose or intensity of conviction.
The other, more slender, dark, with something of sallowness in his
sedate features, with hair and beard of dark brown clinging close
to the finely-chiseled head and face, with an empty sleeve pinned
across his breast, showed more of litheness and subtlety, and
scarcely less of strength, than the one on whom he gazed, and was
an equally perfect type of the Southern-born American. The one was
the Honorable Washington Goodspeed, M.C., and the other was Hesden
Le Moyne.
"Well, Mr. Le Moyne," said the former, after a long and thoughtful
pause, "is there any remedy for these things? Can the South and the
North ever be made one people in thought, spirit, and purpose? It
is evident that they have not been in the past; can they become
so in the future? Wisdom and patriotism have thus far developed no
cure for this evil; they seem, indeed, to have proved inadequate
to the elucidation of the problem. Have you any solution to offer?"
"I think," replied Le Moyne, speaking slowly and thoughtfully, "that
there is a solution lying just at our hand, the very simplicity of
which, perhaps, has hitherto prevented us from fully appreciating
its effectiveness."
"Ah!" said Goodspeed, with some eagerness, "and what may that be?"
"Education!" was the reply.
"Oh, yes," said the other, with a smile. "You have adopted, then,
the Fourth of July remedy for all national ills?"
"If you mean by 'Fourth of July remedy,'" replied Hesdeu with some
tartness, "that it is an idea born of patriotic feeling alone, I
can most sincerely answer, Yes. You will please to recollect that
every bias of my mind and life has been toward the Southern view
of all things. I doubt if any man of the North can appreciate the
full force and effect of that bias upon the minds and hearts of
those exposed to its operation. When the war ended I had no reason
or motive for considering the question of rebuilding the national
prosperity and power upon a firmer and broader basis than before.
That was left entirely to you gentlemen of the North. It was not
until you, the representatives of the national power, had acted--ay,
it was not until your action had resulted in apparent failure--that
I began to consider this question at all. I did so without any
selfish bias or hope, beyond that which every man ought to have in
behalf of the Nation which he is a part, and in which he expects
his children to remain. So that I think I may safely say that my
idea of the remedy does spring from a patriotism as deep and earnest
as ever finds expression upon the national holiday."
"Oh, I did not mean that," was the half-apologetic rejoinder; "I
did not mean to question your sincerity at all; but the truth is,
there has been so much impracticable theorizing upon this subject
that one who looks for results can scarcely restrain an expression
of impatience when that answer is dogmatically given to such an
inquiry."
"Without entirely indorsing your view as to the impracticality
of what has been said and written upon this subject," answered Le
Moyne, "I must confess that I have never yet seen it formulated
in a manner entirely satisfactory to myself. For my part, I am
thoroughly satisfied that it is not only practicable, but is also
the sole practicable method of curing the ills of which we have
been speaking. It seems to me also perfectly apparent why the remedy
has not previously been applied--why the patriotism and wisdom of
the past has failed to hit upon this simple remedy."
"Well, why was it?"
"The difference between the North and the South before the war,"
said Le Moyne, "was twofold; both the political and the social
organizations of the South were utterly different from those of the
North, and could not be harmonized with them. The characteristics
of the _social_ organization you, in common with the intelligent
masses of the North, no doubt comprehend as fully and clearly as is
possible for one who has not personally investigated its phenomena.
Your Northern social system was builded upon the idea of inherent
equality--that is, of equality and opportunity; so that the only
inequality which could exist was that which resulted from the
accident of wealth or difference of capacity in the individual.
"The social system of the South was opposed to this in its very
elements. At the very outset it was based upon a wide distinction,
never overlooked or forgotten for a single moment. Under no
circumstances could a colored man, of whatever rank or grade of
intellectual power, in any respect, for a single instant overstep
the gulf which separated him from the Caucasian, however humble,
impoverished, or degraded the latter might be. This rendered easy
and natural the establishment of other social grades and ideas,
which tended to separate still farther the Northern from the Southern
social system. The very fact of the African being thus degraded
led, by natural association, to the degradation of those forms of
labor most frequently delegated to the slave. By this means free
labor became gradually to be considered more and more disreputable,
and self-support to be considered less and less honorable. The
necessities of slavery, as well as the constantly growing pride of
class, tended very rapidly toward the subversion of free thought
and free speech; so that, even with the white man of any and every
class, the right to hold and express opinions different from those
entertained by the bulk of the master-class with reference to all
those subjects related to the social system of the South soon came
to be questioned, and eventually utterly denied. All these facts the
North--that is, the Northern people, Northern statesmen, Northern
thinkers--have comprehended _as_ facts. Their influence and
bearings, I may be allowed to say, they have little understood,
because they have not sufficiently realized their influence upon
the minds of those subjected, generation after generation, to their
sway.
"On the other hand, the wide difference between the _political_
systems of the North and the South seems never to have affected the
Northern mind at all. The Northern statesmen and political writers
seem always to have proceeded upon the assumption that the removal
of slavery, the changing of the legal status of the African,
resulting in the withdrawal of one of the props which supported
the _social_ system of the South, would of itself overthrow
not only that system, but the political system which had grown up
along with it, and which was skillfully designed for its maintenance
and support. Of the absolute difference between the political
systems of the South and the North, and of the fact that the social
and political systems stood to each other in the mutual relation
of cause and effect, the North seems ever to have been profoundly
ignorant."
"Well," said Mr. Goodspeed, "I must confess that I cannot understand
what difference there is, except what arose out of slavery."
"The questien is not," said Le Moyne, "whether it _arose_
out of slavery, but whether it would of necessity fall with the
extinction of slavery _as a legal status_. It is, perhaps,
impossible for any one to say exactly how much of the political
system of the South grew out of slavery, and how much of slavery
and its consequences were due to the Southern political system."
"I do not catch your meaning," said Goodspeed. "Except for the
system of slavery and the exclusion of the blacks from the exercise
and enjoyment of poitical rights and privileges, I cannot see that
the political system of the South differed materially from that of
the North."
"Precisely so," said Le Moyne. "Your inability to perceive my meaning
very clearly illustrates to my mind the fact which I am endeavoring
to impress upon you. If you will consider for a moment the history
of the country, you will observe that a system prevailed in the
nou-slaveholding States which was unknown, either in name or essential
attributes, throughout the slaveholding part of the country."
"Yes?" said the other inquiringly. "What may that have been?"
"In one word," said Le Moyne--"the 'township' system."
"Oh, yes," laughed the Congressman lightly; "the Yankee town-meeting."
"Exactly," responded Le Moyne; "yet I venture to say that the
presence and absence of the town-meeting--the township system or its
equivalent--in the North and in the South, constituted a difference
not less vital and important than that of slavery itself. In fact,
sir, I sincerely believe that it is to the township system that the
North owes the fact that it is not to-day as much slave territory
as the South was before the war."
"What!" said the Northerner, with surprise, "you do not mean
to say that the North owes its freedom, its prosperity, and its
intelligence--the three things in which it differs from the South
most materially--entirely to the Yankee town-meeting?"
"Perhaps not entirely," said Le Moyne; "but in the main I think
it does. And there are certain facts connected with our history
which I think, when you consider them carefully, will incline you
to the same belief."
"Indeed; I should be glad to know them."
"The first of these," continued Le Moyne, "is the fact that in
every state in which the township system really prevailed, slavery
was abolished without recourse to arms, without civil discord or
perceptible evil results. The next is that in the states in which
the township system did not prevail in fact as well as name, the
public school system did not exist, or had only a nominal existence;
and the proportion of illiteracy in those states as a consequence
was, _among the whites alone_, something like four times as
great as in those states in which the township system flourished.
And this, too, notwithstanding almost the entire bulk of the ignorant
immigration from the old world entered into the composition of
the Northern populations. And, thirdly, there resulted a difference
which I admit to be composite in its causes--that is, the difference
in average wealth. Leaving out of consideration the capital invested
in slaves, the _per capita_ valuation of the states having the
township system was something more than three times the average in
those where it was unknown."
"But what reason can you give for this belief?" said Goodspeed.
"How do you connect with the consequences, which cannot be doubted,
the cause you assign? The differences between the South and the
North have hitherto been attributed entirely to slavery; why do
you say that they are in so great a measure due to differences of
political organization?"
"I can very well see," was the reply, "that one reared as you were
should fail to understand at once the potency of the system which
has always been to you as much a matter of course as the atmosphere
by which you are surrounded. It was not until Harvey's time--indeed,
it was not until a much later period--that we knew in what way and
manner animal life was maintained by the inhalation of atmospheric
air. The fact of its necessity was apparent to every child, but how
it operated was unknown. I do not now profess to be able to give
all of those particulars which have made the township system, or
its equivalent, an essential concomitant of political equality,
and, as I think, the vital element of American liberty. But I can
illustrate it so that you will get the drift of my thought."
"I should be glad if you would," said Goodspeed.
"The township system," continued Le Moyne, "may, for the present
purpose, be denned to be the division of the entire territory of
the state into small municipalises, the inhabitants of which control
and manage for themselves, directly and immediately, their own
local affairs. Each township is in itself a miniature republic,
every citizen of which exercises in its affairs equal power with
every other citizen. Each of these miniature republics becomes a
constituent element of the higher representative republic--namely,
a county, which is itself a component of the still larger representative
republic, the State. It is patterned upon and no doubt grew out of
the less perfect borough systems of Europe, and those inchoate communes
of our Saxon forefathers which were denominated '_Hundreds_.'
It is the slow growth of centuries of political experience; the
ripe fruit of ages of liberty-seeking thought.
"The township is the shield and nursery of individual freedom of
thought and action. The young citizen who has never dreamed of a
political career becomes interested in some local question affecting
his individual interests. A bridge is out of repair; a roadmaster
has failed to perform his duty; a constable has been remiss in his
office; a justice of the peace has failed to hold the scales with
even balance between rich and poor; a school has not been properly
cared for; the funds of the township have been squandered; or the
assumption of a liability is proposed by the township trustees, the
policy of which he doubts. He has the remedy in his own hands. He
goes to the township meeting, or he appears at the town-house upon
election day, and appeals to his own neighbors--those having like
interests with himself. He engages in the struggle, hand to hand
and foot to foot with his equals; he learns confidence in himself;
he begins to measure his own power, and fits himself for the higher
duties and responsibilities of statesmanship."
"Well, well," laughed Goodspeed, "there is something in that. I
remember that iny first political experience was in trying to defeat
a supervisor who did not properly work the roads of his district;
but I had never thought that in so doing I was illustrating such
a doctrine as you have put forth."
"No; the doctrine is not mine," said Le Moyne. "Others, and
especially that noted French political philosopher who so calmly
and faithfully investigated our political system--the author of
'Democracy in America'--clearly pointed out, many years ago, the
exceptional value of this institution, and attributed to it the
superior intelligence and prosperity of the North."
"Then," was the good-natured reply, "your prescription for the
political regeneration of the South is the same as that which we
all laughed at as coming from Horace Greeley immediately upon the
downfall of the Confederacy--that the Government should send an
army of surveyors to the South to lay off the land in sections and
quarter-sections, establish parallel roads, and enforce topographic
uniformity upon the nation?
"Not at all," said Le Moyne. "I think that the use of the
term 'township' in a _double_ sense has misled our political
thinkers in estimating its value. It is by no means necessary that
the township of the United States survey should be arbitrarily
established in every state. In fact, the township system really
finds its fullest development where such a land division does not
prevail, as in New England, Pennsylvania, and other states. It is
the _people_ that require to be laid off in townships, not
the land. Arkansas, Missouri, Alabama, all have their lands laid
off in the parallelograms prescribed by the laws regulating United
States surveys; but their _people_ are not organized into
self-governing communes."
"But was there no equivalent system of local self-government in
those states?"
"No; and there is not to-day. In some cases there are lame
approaches to it; but in none of the former slave States were the
counties made up of self-governing subdivisions. The South is to-day
and always has been a stranger to local self-government. In many of
those states every justice of the peace, every school committeeman,
every inspector of elections is appointed by some central power in
the county, which is in turn itself appointed either by the Chief
Executive of the State or by the dominant party in the Legislature.
There may be the form of townships, but the differential characteristic
is lacking--the self-governing element of the township."
"I don't know that I fully comprehend you," said Goodspeed. "Please
illustrate."
"Well, take one state for an example, where the constitution
adopted during the reconstruction period introduced the township
system, and authorized the electors of each township to choose
their justices of the peace, constables, school-cominitteemen, and
other local officials. It permitted the people of the county to
choose a board of commissioners, who should administer the financial
matters of the county, and, in some instances, exeicise a limited
judicial authority. But now they have, in effect, returned to the
old system. The dominant party in the Legislature appoints every
justice of the peace in the state. The justices of the peace of
each county elect from their number the county commissioners; the
county commissioners appoint the school-committeemen, the roadmasters,
the registrars of election and the judges of election; so that
every local interest throughout the entire state is placed under
the immediate power and control of the dominant party, although
not a tenth part of the voters of any particular township or county
may belong to that party. In another state all this power, and even
more, is exercised by the Chief Executive; and in all of them you
will find that the county--or its equivalent, the parish--is the
smallest political unit having a municipal character."