[From the same]
"The hardest strain upon the republic is yet to come," said Mr.
Pierrepont. "God only knows how the slavery question is to be settled;
but no change in policy will be adopted without a severe struggle. If
the South is worsted, it will have the terrible problem of the status
of the negroes to solve, and it will be a tumultuous time for a
generation. The danger to the North in the event of success, or of
defeat either, will arise from its wealth. The accumulations at the
commercial centres are to make them enormously rich. Money is a power,
and never a quiescent one. Your rich men will put themselves into
office, or they will send their paid attorneys to legislate for them.
They will so touch the subtle springs of finance as to make every
affair of state serve their personal advantage. They will make
corruption honorable, and bribery a fine art. It is now a mark of
decency and a badge of distinction for a public man to be poor.
Everyone knows that a public man can't be rich honestly; but you will
live to see congressmen going to the capital carrying travelling-bags,
and returning home with wagon loads of trunks, and with stocks and
bonds that will enable them to snap their fingers at constituents."
"It is the old story of republics," said Mr. Howard. "They are founded
by valor, reared by industry, with frugality and equal laws. Wealth
follows, then corruption, then the public conscience is debauched,
faith is lost, and justice thrust out. Then the general rottenness is
shaken by the coming of a new Cæsar, and an empire is welcomed because
liberty had already been lost, and anything is better than anarchy.
However, let us hope this is far away."