Southern Statesmen of the Old Regime
From: bernhard1848@att.net
With
the exception of Washington, early American statesmen of the South
were primarily drawn from the middle class and rose to prominence at the
bar. De Tocqueville noted in his "Democracy in America": "In America
there are no nobles or literary men, and the people is apt to
mistrust the wealthy, lawyers consequently form the highest political
class and the most cultivated circle of society."
Bernhard Thuersam, Chairman
North Carolina War Between the States Sesquicentennial Commission
www.ncwbts150.com
"The Official Website of the North Carolina WBTS Sesquicentennial"
North Carolina War Between the States Sesquicentennial Commission
www.ncwbts150.com
"The Official Website of the North Carolina WBTS Sesquicentennial"
Southern Statesmen of the Old Regime:
"A
fact of greatest importance is that the profession [of law] corrected
certain inevitable tendencies toward aristocracy in the South. The bar
was attainable by every aspiring young man, and success waited upon
intelligence, probity and industry. The young man of the humblest
origin came to the bar and succeeded if he had the capacity...There
are no better illustrations of this than Andrew Jackson and Henry
Clay.
It was thus very largely
to the influence of the bar, that while the South indisputably
presented certain features of aristocracy, it was essentially
democratic. It is not true, as soon often asserted, that there were two
classes of whites in the South---the aristocracy and the "trash." The
aristocrats, so named, the old families of large, landed estates, were
comparatively few in number, and the "poor white trash" less numerous
than is generally believed. The great body of Southern whites did not
belong to either class, but were plain average, middle-class people,
intelligent, of sound morals, independent and patriotic. There was,
probably, no part of the South where this good element of the
population was not in the majority. It furnished many of the more
prominent lawyers, and by its numerical strength, enforced a regard for
itself which sometimes degenerated into demagogy.
Nothing
could be more absurd than the conception of the South as the home of a
domineering, haughty, slave-holding aristocracy, without any other
white population than the "crackers" and the mountaineers, to whom
recent fiction has assigned so many and such varieties of uncouth
speech. That the rich slaveholders had an influence disproportionate
to their numbers, such as wealth always gives, is true, of course, but
the middle class of respectable and intelligent whites, often
slaveholders to a limited extent but in no degree aristocratic, in
fact or in pretense, was everywhere in the majority, and it was from
this class that the bar was most largely recruited.
Let
us examine the antecedents of a few of the great Southern lawyers and
political leaders. If we leave out Washington, the most conspicuous
names in the Old South are Jefferson, Clay, Jackson and Calhoun. Not
one of these was of Cavalier blood or, strictly speaking, of the
aristocratic class. Another fact worthy of mention is the record of
Southern statesmen of the old regime. It is enough to say that without
exception...the great statesmen of the South before the war were men
of unquestioned integrity and of sincere patriotism. By force of
intellect and of character they long exerted a controlling influence in
affairs and almost, without exception, deserved and received public
respect and confidence...they were strong, fearless, capable,
honorable men, strenuously and genuinely patriotic, and their long
ascendancy in affairs of state was marked by efficiency, honesty,
economy, and fidelity to duty."
