it spring from the honest
indignation of the poorer classes, who deemed they were wronged by the
$300 exemption clause? Or, finally, was it a reaction against supposed
injustice on the part of men who believed that the forcing of
individuals to fight against their will was contrary to the very genius
of our institutions and our government, which recognizes the right of
each person, according to his understanding, to the pursuit of happiness
absolutely in his own way? Each one of these has been loudly urged as
the undoubted cause of the difficulty. Let us probe the matter with
care, and ascertain the source of the disturbance.

It is one of the vices of our political system, not yet remedied, that
it holds out great inducements to unscrupulous and ambitious men to
deceive the ignorant and credulous masses, in order to obtain their good
will and their votes. This deception has necessarily to be practised,
moreover, concerning the individuals and the things in regard to which
the highest interests of the people demand they should not be deceived.
For the wicked and designing politician knows that good men, who really
have the interest of the people at heart, will not elect him to office.
On the contrary, they will expose his true character and unmask his
deception to the poor dupes whom he is cajoling and deluding. Hence the
necessity, on the part of such men, of putting a complete barrier
between the really good portion of the community and the ignorant and
weak, who most need their assistance. The politician of this stamp
resorts, therefore, to every means in his power to destroy the
confidence of the lower classes in the higher. He succeeds in convincing
the thoughtless portion of the masses that the respectable and
comfortable citizen is his enemy and cares not for his condition, while
he himself is the poor man's friend, watchful over his interests, and
carefully guarding him from the designs of his foe. Thus the isolation
of the ignorant, the wretched, and the depraved, from the benevolent,
the sympathetic, and the wise is completed, and the wily politician has
his victim and voter secure within his grasp.

In no way is the cooeperation of the simple-minded and ignorant man more
easily secured and his faith more firmly riveted than, by flattering his
vanity and treating him as the peer of others infinitely his superiors.
The fundamental principle of our political fabric, the _political_
equality of all men, has affo