The Virginia Gazette

HOW NATIONS ARE ENSLAVED.

WHEN we examine the histories of those nations, which were once free, and whose governments are since become despotic and arbitrary, we shall find that all those changes have been brought about by the ambition, corruption, or avarice of a few of its natives, and that when the work has been done, the people likewise have been kept in awe by natives. If the estates of France have lost their power, it was not done by Spaniards; and if the Cortez of Spain are become insignificant, it was not the French that made them so; but the French destroyed the liberties of France, and the Spaniards those of Spain.

In the West Indies, negroes sometimes are set to watch negroes; not but they are as much slaves as the rest, as much subject to the humour, caprice and will of their master, but the master picks out one or more, who being of a baser mind than the rest, is tempted, for the sake of being better clothed, or better fed, to become an instrument of the master's tyranny, and to add to the servitude of his companions.

It is true, that no one among these miserable creatures is trusted to act for the rest, every slave is his own representative; but in nations where one is trusted to act for a great many, it has been seen that the vile trustee would part with the share of liberty he was entrusted to guard, for a yard of riband, or for the sake of wearing any bit of finery at his tail; for any little distinction in title or name, or for a little bribe, without having necessity to plead for the taking it.

But what is strange is, that millions of people should submit to an hundredth part of that number; for it is certain, where arbitrary power prevails, those who keep the rest in subjection, will not make one in the hundred of the whole people, and yet the hundredth man will keep the ninety nine in awe, though it shall happen that those who are set apart for the purpose shall be the basest and most inconsiderable of the people. But I shall quote a passage from a treatise, entitled voluntary slavery, which explains the nature of arbitrary government, and shews the subordination, that the tools and instruments of tyranny are under one to another.

"Whoever thinks that the halberds of the guards, and the arms of the sentinels, are the security of tyrants, in my opinion, is much deceived; they make use of them, I believe, more for shew and ostentation, than for any confidence they place in them. It would appear upon inquiry, that there have not been so many Roman Emperors who have been preserved by their guards, as have perished by them. Troops of horse, and companies of foot, are not the arms by which tyrants are defended, at first one can scarcely believe it, nevertheless it is true. There are always four or five who support the tyrant, four or five who keep the whole country in bondage; it has always happened that five or six have had the tyrant's ear, have made their way to him of themselves, or have been called by him to be the accomplices of his cruelty, the companions of his pleasure, panders to his lusts, and sharers of his plunders: These six manage their chief so well, that by the bonds of society he must be wicked, not only to gratify his own propensity, but likewise theirs. These six have six hundred who plunder under them, and these six hundred are to them what the six are to the tyrant. These six hundred have under them six thousand, whom they have raised to posts, to whom they have given either the government of provinces, or the management of public monies, that they may be instruments of the avarice and cruelty, and execute their orders at a proper time. These subordinate officers do so much to their fellow citizens, that they cannot live but under the shadow of their superiors, nor escape the punishments due to their crimes but by their contrivance and protection. The consequence of this is fatal indeed. Whoever will amuse himself in tracing this chain, will see, that not only the six thousand, but perhaps an hundred thousand are fastened to the tyrant by it, of which he makes the same use as Jupiter does in Homer, "who boasts that if he but touch the end of it, he can draw all the Gods towards Him."