But the fact itself is
nothing of the kind. The profits of "protection" go altogether to
a few score select persons--who, by favors of Congress, State
legislatures, the banks, and other special advantages, are forming a
vulgar aristocracy, full as bad as anything in the British or European
castes, of blood, or the dynasties there of the past. As Sismondi
pointed out, the true prosperity of a nation is not in the great
wealth of a special class, but is only to be really attain'd in having
the bulk of the people provided with homes or land in fee simple. This
may not be the best show, but it is the best reality.
FRIENDSHIP, (THE REAL ARTICLE)
Though Nature maintains, and must prevail, there will always be plenty
of people, and good people, who cannot, or think they cannot, see
anything in that last, wisest, most envelop'd of proverbs, "Friendship
rules the World." Modern society, in its largest vein, is essentially
intellectual, infidelistic--secretly admires, and depends most on,
pure compulsion or science, its rule and sovereignty--is, in short, in
"cultivated" quarters, deeply Napoleonic.
"Friendship," said Bonaparte, in one of his lightning-flashes of
candid garrulity, "Friendship is but a name. I love no one--not even
my brothers; Joseph perhaps a little. Still, if I do love him, it is
from habit, because he is the eldest of us. Duroc? Ay, him, if
any one, I love in a sort--but why? He suits me; he is cool,
undemonstrative, unfeeling--has no weak affections--never embraces any
one--never weeps.
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