reverence established ecclesiastical slaveries, it does not reverence

laws which rob a younger son to fatten an elder one, it does not

reverence any fraud or sham or infamy, howsoever old or rotten or holy,

which sets one citizen above his neighbor by accident of birth: it does

not reverence any law or custom, howsoever old or decayed or sacred,

which shuts against the best man in the land the best place in the land

and the divine right to prove property and go up and occupy it. In the

sense of the poet Goethe--that meek idolater of provincial three carat

royalty and nobility--our press is certainly bankrupt in the "thrill of

awe"--otherwise reverence; reverence for nickel plate and brummagem.

Let us sincerely hope that this fact will remain a fact forever: for to

my mind a discriminating irreverence is the creator and protector of

human liberty--even as the other thing is the creator, nurse, and

steadfast protector of all forms of human slavery, bodily and mental.

Tracy said to himself, almost shouted to himself, "I'm glad I came to

this country. I was right. I was right to seek out a land where such

healthy principles and theories are in men's hearty and minds. Think of

the innumerable slaveries imposed by misplaced reverence! How well he

brought that out, and how true it is. There's manifestly prodigious

force in reverence. If you can get a man to reverence your ideals, he's

your slave. Oh, yes, in all the ages the peoples of Europe have been

diligently taught to avoid reasoning about the shams of monarchy and

nobility, been taught to avoid examining them, been taught to reverence

them; and now, as a natural result, to reverence them is second nature.

In order to shock them it is sufficient to inject a thought of the

The American Claimant