These words completely characterize the aristocracy of color; for this aristocracy is plainly in the enjoyment of privileges not communicable to other citizens by anything they can themselves do to obtain them. Are we not reminded that “the Ethiopian cannot change his skin,” neither can we “make one hair white or black,” and “which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature”? Aristotle, the great intelligence of Antiquity, whose illumination has reached everywhere, used congenial language, when, in reply to those who would have magistracy and power distributed unequally, according to some rule of personal superiority, he said, “If this is a correct rule, then complexion, or stature, or some similar advantage, might be made the excuse for superiority in civil rights”; and he illustrates the unreasonableness of such a rule by showing, that, in a company of musicians, the best flute is not given to the most noble, but to the artist who will use it best; thus making merit the only qualification, and discarding color, which is accidental and unchangeable.[182]
The famous French founder of the school of Doctrinaires, Royer-Collard, so remarkable for sententious thought, was in the habit of saying that “the sovereignty of Reason is superior to the sovereignty of the people.” But both declare the equal rights of all. The rule of inequality is plainly unreasonable; and what a mockery is that sovereignty of the people which sanctions any denial of equal rights! In different spirit, the consummate French writer, Louis Blanc, devoted to reform, has declared that “the republic is above universal suffrage,”—meaning that even universal suffrage cannot subvert it. But in each is Equality. Universal suffrage openly proclaims this right; and what is the republic without it?
To show that our Rebel States are aristocracies or oligarchies might suffice. But we must not forget, that, born of Slavery, they have the spirit of that iniquity, so that they are essentially of a low type. Founded on color of the skin, they are, beyond question, the most senseless and disgusting of all history. Would you learn to what they must incline? Listen to the frank words of the Venetian master, the famous Father Paul, while, in a state refined by art and elevated by glory, he counsels the privileged class how to use their powers. “If a noble,” says he, “injure a plebeian, justify him by all possible means; but should that be found quite impossible, punish more in appearance than in reality. If a plebeian insult a noble, punish him with the greatest severity, that the commonalty may know how perilous it is to insult a noble.”[183] Such is the terrible rule announced in a document which taught how to make the power of Venice perpetual. But this same spirit predominates still in the Rebel States. It rages there with more revolting cruelty than Venice ever witnessed. And such is the government now claiming recognition as “republican.”
The pretension is hateful on another ground. It is nothing less than a caste, which is irreligious as well as unrepublican. A caste exists only in defiance of the first principles of Christianity and the first principles of a republic. It is heathenism in religion and tyranny in government. The Brahmins and the Sudras in India, from generation to generation, have been separated, as the two races are still separated in these States. If a Sudra presumed to sit on a Brahmin’s carpet, he was punished with banishment. But our recent Rebels undertake to play the part of Brahmins, and exclude citizens, with better title than themselves, from essential rights, simply on the ground of caste, which, according to its Portuguese origin (casta), is only another term for race.
But the pretension is yet otherwise hostile to good government. Here is a monopoly on a gigantic scale and with an unprecedented field, in a country which sets its face against all monopolies as unequal and immoral. If any monopoly deserves unhesitating judgment, it must be that which absorbs the rights of others and engrosses political power. How vain to condemn the petty monopoly of commerce, while allowing this vast, all-embracing monopoly of Human Rights!
Clearly, most clearly, and beyond all question, such a government is not “republican in form.” Call it oligarchy, call it aristocracy, call it caste, call it monopoly; but never call it a republic.
IV.
Of course such a government can exist only in defiance of the National Constitution, and it is the duty of Congress to interfere against it.
The guaranty is by the United States; therefore Congress must perform it; and, in the discharge of this eminent duty, it must affix the true meaning to the requirement, declaring what is a republican government, and supplying the long-sought definition. Here Congress is sole and final arbiter, binding all other branches of Government. Let a State make office hereditary,—let it shut from the courts all who have not the “blue blood” of ancient ancestry,—let it accord to a favored class controlling power and influence,—let it apply any discrimination on account of race or color, whether against Anglo-Saxons, Celts, or Germans, whether against black or white,—let it do any of these things, all so plainly inconsistent with constitutional requirement, and the legislative power of the nation must recall the State from its aberration, and bring it home to the republican standard.
President Johnson, in his recent annual message, says:—