Politicians, Naturalists, and Artists in the New Nation, 1776–1839 25
from which the rights of property originate, is
not less an insuperable obstacle to a uniform-
ity of interests. The protection of these facul-
ties is the first object of government. From the
protection of different and unequal faculties
of acquiring property, the possession of differ-
ent degrees and kinds of property immediately
results; and from the influence of these on the
sentiments and view of the respective propri-
etors, ensues a division of the society into dif-
ferent interests and parties.... [T]he most common and durable source
of factions has been the various and unequal dis-
tribution of property. Those who hold and those
who are without property have ever formed dis-
tinct interests in society.
Source: A. Saul K. Padover, ed., The Complete Madison:
His Basic Writings (New York: Harper, 1953), pp. 317-18.
B. Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay, The
Federalist, ed. Benjamin Fletcher Wright (Cambridge, MA:
Harvard University/Belknap Press, 1966), pp. 130-31.
less numerous classes. All these classes notwith-
standing have been found insufficient to absorb
the redundant members of a populous society;
and yet a reduction of most of those classes
enters into the very reform which appears so
necessary & desirable. From a more equal parti-
tion of property, must result a greater simplicity
of manners, consequently a less consumption of
manufactured superfluities, and a less propor-
tion of idle proprietors & domestics.
B. The Federalist, Number 10, 1787/1788
As long as the reason of man continues fal-
lible, and he is at liberty to exercise it, different
opinions will be formed. As long as the connec-
tion subsists between his reason and self-love, his
opinions and his passions will have a reciprocal
influence on each other; and the former will
be objects to which the latter will attach them-
selves. The diversity in the faculties of men,
DOCUMENT 22: Philip Freneau’s Noble Savage (1788)
The Swiss-born American poet and essayist Philip Freneau used the romantic myth of the noble savage as the
basis for his tale of “The Indian Student.” By juxtaposing the life of a Harvard student with a life lived closer
to nature, Freneau was subtly raising a question about the superiority of Western values, a question that would
be posed more vociferously by environmentalists in the latter part of the twentieth century. The student, who
yearns for a return to wild nature and lays aside his Virgil, embodies the romantic rejection of the pastoral ideal
of the cultivated landscape [see Document 2].From Susquehanna’s utmost springs
Where savage tribes pursue their game,
His blanket tied with yellow strings,
A shepherd of the forest came.Not long before, a wandering priest
Express’d his wish, with visage sad—
“Ah, why (he cry’d) in Satan’s Waste,
“Ah, why detain so fine a lad?“In Yanky land there stands a town
“Where learning may be purchas’d low—
“Exchange his blanket for a gown,
“And let the lad to college go.”—From long debate the Council rose,
And viewing Shalum’s tricks with joy,
To Harvard hall, o’er wastes of snows,
They sent the copper-colour’d boy.
***
Awhile he writ, awhile he read,
Awhile he learn’d the grammar rules—
An Indian savage so well bred
Great credit promis’d to their schools.
Some thought he would in law excel,
Some said in physic he would shine;
And one that knew him, passing well,
Beheld, in him, a sound divine.