The God of the Machine - Tranche 28
Chapter XIII, Excerpt 1 of 1
Slavery, the Fault in the Structure
Feeble governments are those which have no adequate and legitimately instrumented opposition from the regional bases and the mass veto. Utter incompetence in government is finally achieved by what is called absolute power, whether by the name of democracy or as candid despotism. The continuance of slavery made it impossible for the Bill of Rights to limit the state governments as well as the federal government. This moral defect caused an equivalent structural defect.
Unless this distinction between stipulated powers and intrinsic strength is understood, there can be no relevant discussion of the subject. Human affairs are in the realm of moral law, which is of a higher order than mechanical law. The outcome may confound measurable probabilities. The potential of a nation cannot be appraised quantitatively. It consists in abstract ideas, in axioms of human relations. If slavery had not been admitted to the Constitution on tolerance, its original design was marvelously sound.
The appearance was delusive. Suddenly the free economy began to take over a greater territory than the area which accrued to slavery. The wealth and power of free-standing states increased by geometrical progression. The truth is that the South was not a real agrarian economy; it had no economy of its own, lacking the generator for a local circuit. In resorting to war, the slave states committed the moral error of repudiating a contract after taking special advantage through it.
Slavery, the Fault in the Structure
Feeble governments are those which have no adequate and legitimately instrumented opposition from the regional bases and the mass veto. Utter incompetence in government is finally achieved by what is called absolute power, whether by the name of democracy or as candid despotism. The continuance of slavery made it impossible for the Bill of Rights to limit the state governments as well as the federal government. This moral defect caused an equivalent structural defect.
Unless this distinction between stipulated powers and intrinsic strength is understood, there can be no relevant discussion of the subject. Human affairs are in the realm of moral law, which is of a higher order than mechanical law. The outcome may confound measurable probabilities. The potential of a nation cannot be appraised quantitatively. It consists in abstract ideas, in axioms of human relations. If slavery had not been admitted to the Constitution on tolerance, its original design was marvelously sound.
The appearance was delusive. Suddenly the free economy began to take over a greater territory than the area which accrued to slavery. The wealth and power of free-standing states increased by geometrical progression. The truth is that the South was not a real agrarian economy; it had no economy of its own, lacking the generator for a local circuit. In resorting to war, the slave states committed the moral error of repudiating a contract after taking special advantage through it.
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I don't doubt her statements, and my grasp of history is certainly no match for hers, but some additional explanation would be helpful. I do sense a bit of regional bias in this chapter. Apparently she was from Canada. I grew up and went to school in Alabama.