The Cecil Whig

For The Cecil Whig.

Wealth,
As a Means of Political Influence.

Influence is measured by the extent of the power to control. This power may be the result of various facts which are either natural or adventitious. It may be the result of a combination of both. Genius and talent are natural, Wealth is adventitious. He who possesses the former is destined to sway the minds and the actions of his fellow men. No wealth, nor rank, nor station can withstand the mighty influence of genius. It comes like the sunbeam in the days of Spring. It falls like the vernal rays upon the cold and cheerless earth, and changes the aspect of the world. A few of Minerva's favored sons have governed the tribes of men from time immemorial; but when talent and wealth are united their sway is irresistible. They are the great means of power. They are the two great levers that move the world The nation which possesses wealth and talent in a superior degree, is always the most influential. For the present, I will consider wealth alone, as a means of political influence

No prominent power can exist without wealth. It is necessary to carry on the machinery of government; to pay embassadors; to support armies; to equip navies: to build fortifications and to provide munitions of war. Among modern nations, as well as ancient, we find that the wealthiest are invariably the most influential. At the head of the moderns, in this respect, may be ranked Great Britain To what is her colossal power owing, but to the immense wealth over which she has control? Wealth supports her nobility, and places them beyond the reach of the popular will. It is the most active agent in her elections. It is the means of elevating men to places of power and trust in her government. It is the magician's wand with which she would charm corrupt nations to acquiesce in her deformities. It is the link by which she rivets the chains of oppression upon starving millions. Great Britain and Russia are examples of misapplied wealth. Both are corrupt; but both are wealthy, and both possess what we may call a terrible influence.

How stand the United States in point of political influence? Among the civilized nations of the earth our great Republic is generally ranked second in this respect; but it may be a question whether she is not the very first. The mode in which her influence operates may be less apparent to the casual observer than that of some other powers. Beneath the blue skies of America the Spirit of Liberty has infused into the hearts of men her divine doctrines. Here she has given to the world that great leaven which will work on silently and unceasingly until the whole mass of the human family is renovated, and

"Men to men are brothers all
The wide world o'er."

No other nation ever possessed the elements of wealth to such an extent as our own country, nor will it be denied that this is the principal means of our national influence and power. Think for a moment of the land we live in.—Look at her almost boundless territory. It embraces a large proportion of the fairest regions of the habitable globe. Her rivers, her lakes, her prairies, stretching thousands of miles, and her exhaustless mines, are the sources of her present and her future wealth. To this wealth is owing the power and the physical greatness of America. By it she sustains a government that is the wonder of the world— By it she supports armies that conquer wherever they tread. By it she has equipped fleets that have humbled the "mistress of the sea" herself. Every puny and despicable tyrant of Europe is no longer heard to talk about maintaining the balance of power upon our continent. Their feeble clamors have died away in the thunder tones of American fame, and now their blood stained thrones are crumbling into the dust. Their sceptres are but broken reeds, and the ensigns of royalty are trodden under the feet of emancipated millions. The stripes and stars are honored wherever a freeman breathes. They are interwoven even with the revolutionary flags of the old world, and the Eagle of Columbia looks from her eyrie in triumph over the peopled earth.

S. McN.
Middletown, Del, May 22nd, 1848.