The Fall of the House of Labor AtD.93 Republicans?

[Michael Bailey]

 alice wellintown wrote:
> I've dismissed Robin's reading of the passage for a very obvious
> reason; Webb is pissed off at the Rupublicans, and specifically the
> Republican Radicals  because he believes, and he is right, he has been
> betrayed by them.

and, even more poignantly, the ex-slaves in the South were betrayed by
them also.
Pointers to readings on this I found in a novel called "Pushkin and
the Ace of Spades"
(but haven't actually read) but the author mentions the heartache reading
of earnest black officeseekers turned back
by various means, all foul...for instance in a nearby town here in Florida,
officials deannexed part of a city to divest a black councilman...in
the 20th century...

>
> But this August dignity I treat of, is not the dignity of kings and
> robes, but that abounding dignity which has no robed investiture. Thou
> shalt see it shining in the arm that wields a pick or drives a spike;
> that democratic dignity which, on all hands, radiates without end from
> God; Himself! The great God absolute! The centre and circumference of
> all democracy! His omnipresence, our divine equality!
> If, then, to meanest mariners, and renegades, and castaways, I shall
> hereafter ascribe high qualities, though dark...then against all
> mortal critics bear me out in it, thou just Spirit of Equality, which
> hast spread one royal mantle of humanity over all my kind! Bear me out
> in it, thou great democratic God!...Thou who didst pick up Andrew
> Jackson from the pebbles; who didst hurl him upon a war-horse; who
> didst thunder him higher than a throne! Thou who, in all Thy mighty,
> earthly marchings, ever cullest Thy selectest champions from the
> kingly commons; bear me out in it, O God!
>
> Herman Melville, Moby-Dick
>

nice quote!

-- 
"My God, I am fully in favor of a little leeway or the damnable jig is
up! " - Hapworth Glass