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American Aristocracy

American Aristocracy image
Parent Issue
Day
3
Month
July
Year
1863
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

Our American aristocracy is charac;erized by Rev. Dr. Chapin, in bis leotures on the orders of nobility, as com3osed of ratlier questionable raaterials or aristocracy. The speaking is plain, jut the conclusión just : Dr. Chapin opened by alluding to the men of noble birth in our own days who [ook back to more noble ancestry, as the source of their greatness - tho fountain of their honor - the more traditional or ders of nobility. But essential nobilitj' inanifests itself in three ways ; the nobility of work - the nobility of thought - the nobility of life. The nobility of work - a man does his part of the world's legitímate work, performs his task well and does it cheerfully, not like the mule or the donkey. This is higber nobility than nionarehs can make, and yet in our times how much is honest labor considered a degradatiou. This forms the corner-stone of slavery, and becomcs the essence of vulgar aristocracv. You write in sweat, and carve it out with a spade, but it is nevertheless better to be a negro than a gentleman loafer. But let it not be supposed that professional men, the brain-workers aro to be classed in this category. Wbat would sucli men give for the sweet sleep of the toiler with the hand ? and yet how these professions are flooded with men who would have done bettor if they had been casting iron or making shoes. These may go into an improved atmosphere of labor because they think it more respectable than planing boards or making cartwheelB. Idleness henee is always associated witli gentility. The aristocraey of America consists in one man having lelt off ehoeing hörses and selling snuff- -while the other despised neighbor hasn't. ïhe very constitution of Anicrican social life ignores a difference in blood, and henee the standard rcarod is wealth. Nobility rests in the individual, and what lio does is the only standard. All work is noble when animated by duty, and the most vulgar thing on earth is idleness. The Young wouian among us turns up her noso at marrying a mechanie, and viakes up for it by marrying a proflígate or a fooi. - Among tho mechanics of the world stand forth the Guttpmburgs' the Watts, the Fultons of the world, who have sent forth the artillery of tho printing press among the nstious of thp earth and the pennon of the steamship as she cloaves the ooean ■wave.

Article

Subjects
Old News
Michigan Argus