Before Dawn

Lessons for political and economic prosperity without the attitude of capitalism.
 

Julian Hawthorne (Son of Nathaniel Hawthorne), United States: From the Landing of Columbus to the Signing of the Peace Protocol with Spain, vol. 1, pp. 9-12. (New York: Peter Fenelon Collier, 1898)

The most dangerous enemy of America has been—not Spain, France, England, or any other nation in arms, but—our own material prosperity.  The lessons of adversity we took to heart, and they brought forth wholesome fruit, purifying our blood and toughening our muscles.  So long as the Spirit of Liberty was threatened from without, she was safe and triumphant.  But when her foes abroad had ceased to harry her, a foe far more insidious began to plot against her in her own house. 

The tireless energy and ingenuity which are our most salient characteristics, and which had rendered us formidable and successful on sea and land, were turned by peace into productive channels.  The enormous natural resources of the continent began to receive development; men who under former conditions would have been admirals and generals, now became leaders in commerce, manufactures and finance; they made great fortunes, and set up standards of emulation other than patriotism and public spirit.  Like the old Spanish and English adventurers, they sought for gold, and held all other things secondary to that. 

An anomalous oligarchy sprang into existence, holding no ostensible political or social sway, yet influential in both directions by virtue of the power of money.  Money can be possessed by the evil as well as by the good, and it can be used to tempt the good to condone evil. 

The exalted maxim of human equality was interpreted to mean that all Americans could be rich; and the spectacle was presented of a mighty and generous nation fighting one another for mere material wealth.  Inevitably, the lower and baser elements of the population came to the surface and seemed to rule; the ordinary citizen, on whom the welfare of the State depends, allowed his private business interest to wean him from the conduct of public affairs, which thereby fell into the hands of professional politicians, who handled them for their personal gain instead of for the common weal.  We forgot that pregnant saying, “Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty,” and suffered ourselves to be persuaded that because our written Constitution was a wise and patriotic document, we were forever safe even from the effects of our own selfishness and infidelity. 

As some men are more skillful and persistent manipulators of money than others, it happened that the capital of the country became massed in one place and was lacking in another; the numbers of the poor, and of paupers, increased; and the rich were able to control their political action and sap their self-respect by dominating the employment market.  “Do my bidding, or starve,” is a cogent argument; it should never be in the power of any man to offer it; but it was heard over the length and breadth of free America. 

The efforts of laboring men, by organization, to check the power of capitalists, was met by the latter with organizations of their own, which, in the form of vast “trusts” and otherwise, deprived small manufacturers and traders of the power of self-support.  Strikes and lockouts were the natural outcome of such a situation; and the sinister prospect loomed upon us of labor and capital arrayed against each other in avowed hostility.

Danger from this cause, however, is more apparent than actual.  The remedy, in the last resort, is always in ourselves.  Laws as to land and contracts may be modified, but the true cure for all such injuries and inequalities is to cease to regard the amassing of “fortunes” as the most desirable end in life.  The land is capable of supporting in comfort far more than its present population; ignorance or selfish disregard of the true principles of economy have made it seem otherwise. 

The proper state of every man is that of a producer; the craving of individuals to own what they have not fairly earned and cannot usefully administer, is vain and disorderly.  Men will always be born who have the genius of management; and others who require to have their energies directed; some can profitably control resources which to others would be a mischievous burden. 

But this truth does not involve any extravagant discrepancy in the private means and establishments of one or the other; each should have as much as his needs, intelligence and taste legitimately warrant, and no more.  Such matters will gradually adjust themselves, once the underlying principle has been accepted. 

Meanwhile we may remember that national health is not always synonymous with peace.  It was the warning of our Lord—“I am not come to bring peace, but a sword.”  The war which is waged with powder and ball is often less contrary to true peace than the war which exists while all the outward semblances of peace are maintained.  We must not be misled by names. 

America is perhaps too prone to regard herself in a passive light, as the refuge merely of the oppressed and needy; but she has an active mission too.  She stands for so much that is contrary to the ideas that have hitherto ruled the world that she can hardly hope to avoid the hostility, and possibly the attacks, of the representatives of the old order.  These, she must be able and ready to repel.  We have freely shed our blood for our own freedom; and we should not forget that, though charity begins at home, it need not end there. 

We should not interpret too strictly the maxims which admonish us to mind our own housekeeping, and to avoid entanglements with the quarrels or troubles of our neighbors.  We should not say to the tide of our liberties, Thus far shalt thou go, and no further.  America is not a geographical expression, and arbitrary geographical boundaries should not be permitted to limit the area which her principles control.  We, who seek to bind the other nations to ourselves by ties of commerce, should recognize the obligations of other ties, whose value cannot be expressed in money.

America wears her faults upon her forehead, not in her heart; her history is just beginning; she herself dreams not yet what her ultimate destiny will be.  But so far as her brief past may serve as a key wherewith to open the future, a study of it will not be idle.