The mental similarity especially is wanting,
and as that shapes and refines the moral one, that too
is wanting.
To illustrate by myself, without any pretensions to
selfishness. I have this right to social equality,
for I and those to whom I claim to be equal are similarly
educated. We have much in common, and this fact alone
creates my right to social and equal recognition.
"But the young gentlemen who boast of holding only
official intercourse with their comrade, should
remember that no one of them stands before the
country in any different light from him. . . .
Amalgamated by the uniform course of studies and
the similarity of discipline, the separating fragments
at the end of the student life carry similar qualities
into the life before them, and step with almost
remarkable social equality into the world where they
must find their level."--Philadelphia North American,
July 7th, 1876.
If we apply this to the people as a unit, the similarity
no longer exists. The right, therefore, also ceases to
exist.
The step claimed to have been made by my success is one
due to education, and not to my position or education at
West Point, rather than at some other place; so that it
follows if there be education, if the mental and moral
condition of the claimants to that right be a proper one,
there will necessarily be social equality, and under other
circumstances there can be no such equality.
Pages:
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201