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Box 19, Folder 12, Document 39
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POE, on the "AMERICAN REPUBLIC".
They started with the queerest idears conceivable; viz:
that all men are born free and equal - this in the very
teeth of GRADATION'S laws, so visably impressed upon all
things, beth in the moral and physical univerae. Every
man voted, as they called it, until at length 1t was dis-
covered that what is everybody's business ie nobody's,
and that the ‘Repubie’ ( so the absurd thing was called )
was without a government at all.
It 4s relate@, however, that the first circumstance
which disturbed the self-complagcency of the philosophers
who constructed this "Republic"was the startling discovery
that universay 'sufferage’ gave oppertunity for fraudulent
schemes, by which any desired number of votes might at any
time be poled, without the slightest chance of prevention
or even detection, by any party which should be merely vil-
lfanous enough not to be afraid of the fraud.
A little reflection on this discovery suffered to
render evident the consequences, which were, that rascality
must predominate - in a word - that Republican Government
could never become anything cther than a Rasca ONE ¢
While the philosophers, however, were sed in blushe
ing at their own stupidity in not having foreseen these in-
evitabie evils and intent upon new theories, the matter was put
to an abrupt issue by a fellow be the name of MOB, who took
every thing in his own hands and set up a despotiam in come
varison with which those of the fabulous ZEROS and HELILOFAGABA@-
LUSES waw both resvectable and delectable. This MOB, by the by,
@ foreigner, is said the be the most odius of all men who ever
encumbered the earth. He was a giant in 8, Ansolent, rapatious, “
vhilthys had the gall of a bullock. the, bs@tws of an hyena and (“¢°)7)
the brains of a peacock, He died at last dint of this own
eVergies, which exhausted him.
~ "More remarkable still is that Poe
was practically the only American
writer of his age who foresaw some
of the inevitable weaknesses inherent
in the democratic theory and boldly commented
Upeot) vapemttban. "In MELLONTA TAUTA’ - a con-
versation supposed to take place in A. D.
2848, Poe makes the above observation on
democracy in the United States".
Harvey Allen, arthur.
PS. Are you willing to hasgard a dime that, with conditions
as is in thie Nation of ours.today where Mob is a fester-
ing sore at ever by pass and voting ‘en mags’ is an
innovation, glaring, ana the ‘tail’ just about begins
to wag the dog, 1000 years will elapse ere Poe's prog-
nostication 1s a reality ?
They started with the queerest idears conceivable; viz:
that all men are born free and equal - this in the very
teeth of GRADATION'S laws, so visably impressed upon all
things, beth in the moral and physical univerae. Every
man voted, as they called it, until at length 1t was dis-
covered that what is everybody's business ie nobody's,
and that the ‘Repubie’ ( so the absurd thing was called )
was without a government at all.
It 4s relate@, however, that the first circumstance
which disturbed the self-complagcency of the philosophers
who constructed this "Republic"was the startling discovery
that universay 'sufferage’ gave oppertunity for fraudulent
schemes, by which any desired number of votes might at any
time be poled, without the slightest chance of prevention
or even detection, by any party which should be merely vil-
lfanous enough not to be afraid of the fraud.
A little reflection on this discovery suffered to
render evident the consequences, which were, that rascality
must predominate - in a word - that Republican Government
could never become anything cther than a Rasca ONE ¢
While the philosophers, however, were sed in blushe
ing at their own stupidity in not having foreseen these in-
evitabie evils and intent upon new theories, the matter was put
to an abrupt issue by a fellow be the name of MOB, who took
every thing in his own hands and set up a despotiam in come
varison with which those of the fabulous ZEROS and HELILOFAGABA@-
LUSES waw both resvectable and delectable. This MOB, by the by,
@ foreigner, is said the be the most odius of all men who ever
encumbered the earth. He was a giant in 8, Ansolent, rapatious, “
vhilthys had the gall of a bullock. the, bs@tws of an hyena and (“¢°)7)
the brains of a peacock, He died at last dint of this own
eVergies, which exhausted him.
~ "More remarkable still is that Poe
was practically the only American
writer of his age who foresaw some
of the inevitable weaknesses inherent
in the democratic theory and boldly commented
Upeot) vapemttban. "In MELLONTA TAUTA’ - a con-
versation supposed to take place in A. D.
2848, Poe makes the above observation on
democracy in the United States".
Harvey Allen, arthur.
PS. Are you willing to hasgard a dime that, with conditions
as is in thie Nation of ours.today where Mob is a fester-
ing sore at ever by pass and voting ‘en mags’ is an
innovation, glaring, ana the ‘tail’ just about begins
to wag the dog, 1000 years will elapse ere Poe's prog-
nostication 1s a reality ?
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