Such regeneration implies the existence of a real, though perhaps latent, moral unity in the group whose standards are thus revived and applied. It is, for instance, of untold advantage to all righteous movements in the United States, that the nation traditionally exists to the ends of justice, freedom and humanity. This tradition means that there is already a noble and cherished ideal, no sincere appeal to which is vain; and we could as well dispense with the wisdom of the Constitution as with the sentiment of the Declaration of Independence.
On the same principle, it is a chief factor in the misgovernment of our cities that they are mostly too new and heterogeneous to have an established consciousness. As soon as the people feel their unity, we may hopefully look for civic virtue and devotion, because these things require a social medium in which to work. A man will not devote himself, ordinarily, where there is no distinct and human whole to devote himself to, no mind in which his devotion will be recognized and valued. But to a vital and enduring group devotion is natural, and we may expect that a self-conscious city, state, university or profession will prove to be a theatre of the magnanimous virtues.
FOOTNOTES:
[55] On the Outskirts of Public Life, The Atlantic Monthly, Feb., 1898.
[56] Democracy in America, vol. i, chap. 4.
CHAPTER XIII
WHAT THE MASSES CONTRIBUTE
The Masses the Initiators of Sentiment—They Live in the Central Current of Experience—Distinction or Privilege Apt to Cause Isolation—Institutional Character of Upper Classes—The Masses Shrewd Judges of Persons—This the Main Ground for Expecting that the People Will Be Right in the Long Run—Democracy Always Representative—Conclusion.
The function of leaders in defining and organizing the confused tendencies of the public mind is evident enough, but just what the masses themselves contribute is perhaps not so apparent.[57] The thought of the undistinguished many is, however, not less important, not necessarily less original, than that of the conspicuous few; the originality of the latter, just because it is more conspicuous, being easy to overestimate. Leadership is only salient initiative; and among the many there may well be increments of initiative which though not salient are yet momentous as a whole.
The originality of the masses is to be found not so much in formulated idea as in sentiment. In capacity to feel and to trust those sentiments which it is the proper aim of social development to express, they are, perhaps, commonly superior to the more distinguished or privileged classes. The reason is that their experience usually keeps them closer to the springs of human nature, and so more under the control of its primary impulses.
Radical movements aiming to extend the application of higher sentiment have generally been pushed on by the common people, rather than by privileged orders, or by conspicuous leadership of any sort.[58] This seems to be true of Christianity in all ages, and of the many phases of modern democracy and enfranchisement. In American history, particularly, both the revolution which gave us independence and the civil war which abolished slavery and reunited the country, were more generally and steadfastly supported by the masses than by people of education or wealth. Mr. Higginson, writing on the Cowardice of Culture,[59] asserts that at the opening of the Revolution the men of wealth and standing who took the side of liberty were so few that they could be counted, and that “there was never a period in our history, since the American Nation was independent, when it would not have been a calamity to have it controlled by its highly educated men alone.” And in England also it was the masses who upheld abolition in the colonies and sympathized with the North in the American struggle.