But even then does Mr. Giddings
or Mr. Sumner really believe that slavery, existing in its full force in
the States, "will cease to vex our national politics?" Can they point to
any State where a powerful oligarchy, possessed of immense wealth, has
ever existed without attempting to meddle in the government? Even now,
does not manufacturing, banking, and commercial capital perpetually vex
our politics? Why should not slave capital exert the same influence?
Do they imagine that a hundred thousand men, possessed of two thousand
millions of dollars, which they feel the spirit of the age is seeking
to tear from their grasp, will not eagerly catch at all the support they
can obtain by getting the control of the government? In a land where the
dollar is almighty, "where the sin of not being rich is only atoned for
by the effort to become so," do they doubt that such an oligarchy will
generally succeed? Besides, banking and manufacturing stocks are not
urged by despair to seek a controlling influence in politics.
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