Rap and Politics: A Case Study of

Panther, Gangster, and Hyphy

Discourses in Oakland, CA (1965-2010)
1st Edition Lavar Pope
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Rap and Politics
A Case Study of Panther,
Gangster, and Hyphy
Discourses in Oakland,
CA (1965–2010)
Lavar Pope
Rap and Politics
 Lavar Pope

Rap and Politics

A Case Study of Panther, Gangster, and Hyphy
Discourses in Oakland, CA (1965–2010)
Lavar Pope
Arrupe College
Loyola University Chicago
Chicago, IL, USA

ISBN 978-1-349-96036-1 ISBN 978-1-137-60011-0 (eBook)

https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-60011-0

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To Anna
 Acknowledgments

First and foremost, this book is dedicated to my daughter and my family

with hope that our family’s generational future will continue to be better
and better than our family’s generational past. During the life journey
entailed in writing this book, I would like to thank God for giving me
the strength to live through tragedy and other events, for giving me the
wisdom to recognize the things that I could not change, and for giving
me the power to attempt to change the things that I could change. I
would like to thank my wife, daughter, mom, dad, stepdad, stepmom,
and extended family of cousins, aunts, uncles for their love and support
over the years. I am also extremely grateful for my mother-in-law, father-
in-law, and my extended family of in-laws for their love and support as
well. In addition, thanks to my closest friends and colleagues.
The following text is written about American youth caught within
urban strife and who sometimes are limited by things outside of their
control. In the personal struggle detailed in this book’s introduction,
I describe losing two extremely close friends and business partners.
This book is also dedicated to them. Lord Kwame Sidney Addo a.k.a.
“Shotime” (11/23/1985-12/21/2006) was a great friend and a great
rapper. Tragically, at the age of 20, he was also Oakland’s last documented
victim of homicide in 2006. My continued prayers go out to his mom,
fiancé at the time, and his family and friends. The book is also dedicated
to Mario Aquas a.k.a. “Skillz” (7/9/1985-8/22/2009), who was also a
partner in our recording and music production. He worked hard to help

vii
viii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

connect local youth through rap music in the Bay Area. He died way too
young, and my prayers go out to out to his family and friends as well.
There is a close circle of fellow artists and friends that I write about in the
introduction who helped me through both tragedies, and I really appre-
ciate and would like to thank—“Young B,” “Lights Out,” “Relly Rell,”
and “Mac tha Kat”—in particular. Also, many thanks to the artists of the
Bay Area underground.
This journey has also been an academic struggle, and I express my
appreciation for a supportive, creative, and most importantly, honest circle
of dissertation advisors and instructors at University of California Santa
Cruz. In particular, I express gratitude to Michael Brown, my disserta-
tion chair, for never giving up on this project. I also greatly benefited
from the academic support and training of the Politics Department and
History of Consciousness Department. Also, I am grateful for a circle of
mentors formed from the National Conference of Black Political Scien-
tists (NCOBPS), the Western Political Science Association (WPSA), the
Midwest Political Science Association (MPSA), and the American Political
Science Association (APSA). In particular, I am thankful for Todd Shaw’s
mentorship through APSA’s Mentorship Program. These networks also
introduced me to Cedric Johnson, whose friendship, support, and sound
voice of reason helped throughout the process of editing this book. I
am also extremely thankful for the existing academic scholarship on the
topic that precedes this project. In particular, I want to thank Lakeyta
Bonnette-Bailey, James Scott, Robin D. G. Kelley, Michael Hanchard,
Mark Mattern, Matt Miller, and Mickey Hess for their research, as it is
essential to the framework of this book.
Many thanks to Arrupe College and Loyola University Chicago for
research support and funding, and for creating a social justice-centered
career opportunity. In particular, I would like to thank Jennie Boyle for
her overall support. In addition, I would like to thank Ted Morgan for
his thoughtful feedback and suggestions on portions of this manuscript
at a very critical time. I would also like to thank Rick Matthews for his
continued support of my work and his sound advice and encouragement
throughout the project. Meanwhile, a dear and longtime friend, Cleveland
McCray, also continued to challenge me to press my research program and
writing of this book because he found importance in it and thought others
should hear about it. He also reminded me that not every impactful 2Pac
lyric contained anger and vulgarity and that there is tremendous power in
short impactful phrases and subtle expressions. Thank you, Cleveland. I
 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ix

would also like to thank Maggie Hagerman for friendship, inspiration, and
encouragement. The publication of her work was a true inspiration for me
to continue my writing at time when the outcome of this project was in
great question. I am also really grateful for Alice Underwood’s editorial
work on the manuscript. The level of detail, care, and attention needed
in a manuscript of this size is tremendous, and her work was essential
to turning this from a manuscript into a book. In addition, I would like
to thank two family members, one who introduced me to rap music and
another who taught me that it was possible to make it from scratch. Jason
Rodgers, my cousin, helped introduce me to some very significant and
authentic rap albums released at the height of rap music’s Golden Age.
Jason was also involved with elements of this project’s creative design in
a number of ways. In addition, Jay Bates, my uncle, also played a signifi-
cant role in my continued interest in the album and mixtape formats and
processes. He was the first person to show me how to make rap songs,
albums, and mixtapes. As a child, I saw him and his local Chicago-area-
independent label do everything from studio recording and mixing to
editing and mastering to physical production of dubbing, burning, and
pressing releases for street-level distribution. In addition to the family
members, friends, and colleagues mentioned above, both Jason and Jay
have been essential to my development as a scholar, artist, and person
interested in better understanding the world around me. Thank you.
Finally, thank you to all the instructors that have taught me so much as
a student, and thank you to all the students that have taught me so much
as an instructor.
 Contents

Introduction to Rap and Politics 1

Introduction 1
Rap as Political Communication 4
The Musical Roots of Rap 5
The Power and Limits of Gangster Rap 12
Rap and Imagined Communities, Nations, and Factions 18
The RAP Framework 20
Settings 21
Representatives 24
Movements 26
Discourse Banks 30
Impact 32
The RAP Method (Methodology) 34
Experience Through Lived Chaos 35
Community-Informed Discourse Banks 47
Political Content Analysis 53
Basic Findings 55
Factors in the Oakland Scene 57
Proximity and Legacy of the BPPSD Movement 58
Hustling as a Response to Worsening Conditions 60
Geographical Distance from NY/LA Rap Centers 65
Funk Music, P-Funk, and G-Funk 66

xi
xii CONTENTS

Technology, DIY Culture, and Counterculture Ethos 68

RAP’s Organization and Argument 69

The Panther Discourse (1965–1982) 87

The Setting: West Oakland, California, 1965–1982 90
General Changes 90
Electoral Politics 90
Demographic Shifts 92
Crime 93
Huey P. Newton and the Founding of the Panthers 94
Origin and Rise on the Local Scene 95
Education and Meeting of Bobby Seale 96
Militarization and Weapons from Richard Akoi 98
The Black Panther Party for Self Defense (BPPSD) 99
Factors and Influences 100
Rise and Strategy as an Alternative Black Power
Organization 101
Internal Colonization and Protection of Oppressed Peoples 109
Expansion and Retrenchment 111
Discourse Bank 1: BPPSD Newsletters, Statements, and Speeches 117
Images of Militancy 119
Use of Internal Colonization Rhetoric 124
Use of Warfare Rhetoric 141
The Panther Legacy and Rise of the Next Era 151
The Demise of Huey Newton 151
Local Aftermath of the BPPSD and Rise of Rap as a Political
Discourse 152

The Gangster Discourse (1981–2000) 171

The Setting: East Bay Area, California, 1980–1999 174
General Changes 174
Electoral Politics 175
Demographic Shifts 176
Crime 176
2Pac 177
Origin and Arrival to the East Bay 177
Emergence as a Local Backup Dancer 178
Solo Music Career and Rap War 179
 CONTENTS xiii

Political and Mainstream Legacy 181

The Politics of East Bay Gangster Rap Music 181
Factors and Influences 183
Early Local Archetypes 185
Local Paradigms in 2Pac’s Music 187
The Rising Power of the Local Sound 190
Discourse Bank 2: Oakland/East Bay Gangster Rap Albums 191
Images of Militancy 194
Use of Internal Colonization Lyrics 198
Use of Warfare Lyrics 207
The Legacy of Local Gangster Rap and the Rise of the Next Era 212
The Power and Limits of the Local Discourse 212
The Rise of a New Sound 216

The Hyphy Discourse (2000–2010) 229

The Setting: Oakland, California, 2000–2010 233
General Changes 233
Electoral Politics 233
Demographic Changes 234
Crime 234
Mac Dre 236
Origin and Rise as a Local Gangster Rapper 236
Setting the Local Archetype 238
Mac Dre’s Legacy in the Hyphy Movement 239
The Politics of Hyphy Rap Music 240
Factors and Influences 241
Early Local Forms 241
Public Space and New Political Content 242
Responses to Hyphy Music 243
Discourse Bank 3: Hyphy Rap Music 246
Image Themes 248
Use of Internal Colonization Lyrics 249
Use of Warfare Lyrics 253
The Hyphy Rap Legacy and Post-hyphy Oakland 257

Conclusion: The Future of Rap Discourses in America’s

Colonies 267
Summary of Findings in Local Rap Music 269
xiv CONTENTS

Extending the Study Beyond the Oakland Rap Colony 271

Directions for the Comparative-Micro-Scenes Approach 272
Three Solutions for Future Studies 276
Political Content in Mainstream Rap Music 277
Imagery in Billboard Rap Albums (1985–2000) 278
Internal Colonization Themes and Billboard Rap Albums
(1985–2000) 280
Warfare Themes and Billboard Rap Albums (1985–2000) 281
Imagery in Billboard Rap Singles (2000–2010) 282
Internal Colonization Themes and Billboard Rap Singles
(2000–2010) 282
Warfare Themes and Billboard Rap Singles (2000–2010) 284
The Future(s) of Rap Music in Local Scenes 285

Appendix: Primary Source Bank 295

Index 321
 List of Figures

Introduction to Rap and Politics

Fig. 1 A soundwave representation Zion I’s “Hit ‘Em (featuring
The Grouch and Mistah F.A.B.)” with the quote
above highlighted (Zion I, “Hit ‘Em [Featuring the Grouch
and Mistah F.A.B.],” Heroes in the City of Dope [Sound
recording] [Om Records, 2006]) 2
Fig. 2 Shotime Shine (2005) Album Cover (Shotime, Shine [Sound
recording] [Soulmatic Studios, 2005]) 37
Fig. 3 Performance photo during Bay Area Show. This photo,
taken of me, was a typical setup for our Bay Area shows 38
Fig. 4 Performance photo during Unsigned Artist Tour. In this
photo of our Long Beach, California (LA) performance
of an Unsigned Artist Tour, Shotime is front and center.
His two hypemen are to his left and right. I am to his far
left—in the background mixing in the next song (Shotime
+ DJ Sam Soul, Unsigned Artist Contest at the Rhythm
Lounge [Live performance] [249 South Pine, Long Beach,
CA: On the Edge Entertainment, March 4, 2006]) 39

xv
xvi LIST OF FIGURES

Fig. 5 Professionals (aka Prafeshanals), 4 tha Streetz Album

Cover. In this cover photo, rappers Young B and L.O. are
in the center. Young B is in a white T-shirt with both middle
fingers raised to the camera. L.O. is in a Bay Bridge hat
pointing to the viewer. To the left of them, Young Prophet
is in the vocal booth, and to the right of them, Relly Rell
wears a Malcolm X shirt and military tags (Professionals [aka
Prafeshanals], 4 tha Streetz [Sound recording] (ShoTime
Entertainment, 2008]) 40
Fig. 6 Comprehensive findings (1966–2010) 57
Fig. 7 Militant or anti-state images (1966–2010) 57
Fig. 8 Murders in Oakland, CA (1969–2010) 63
Fig. 9 Yearly percentage change in overall offenses compared
to yearly percentage changes in murders (1969–2010) 63

The Panther Discourse (1965–1982)

Fig. 1 A soundwave representation of a Bobby Seale reading
of the BPPSD 10-Point Program with the quote
above highlighted (California Newsreel, Black Panther/ San
Francisco State: On Strike [Television series], 1969) 88

The Gangster Discourse (1981–2000)

Fig. 1 A soundwave representation of 2Pac’s “Trapped”
with the quote above highlighted (2Pac, “Trapped,”
2Pacalypse Now [Sound recording] [Jive/Interscope/Priority,
1991]) 172
Fig. 2 Overall comparison of Oakland/East Bay and Billboard
sources during the album era 193

The Hyphy Discourse (2000–2010)

Fig. 1 A soundwave representation of J-Digg’s “Ghost Ride It”
with the quote above highlighted (J-Diggs, “Ghost Ride It
[Featuring Mistah F.A.B. and Dem Hoodstarz],” Ghostride
the Whip [Sound recording] [Thizz Ent., 2008]) 230
Fig. 2 Percentage changes in Black, Latinx, and White populations
in Oakland, CA from 1960 to 2010 235
Fig. 3 Murders in Oakland, CA from 2000 to 2010 236
Fig. 4 Comparison of Oakland, CA rap singles, Billboard rap
albums, and Billboard rap singles 247
 LIST OF FIGURES xvii

Conclusion: The Future of Rap Discourses in America’s

Colonies
Fig. 1 A soundwave representation of 2Pac’s “I Don’t Give a F*ck”
with the quote above highlighted (2Pac, “I Don’t Give
a Fuck,” 2pacalypse Now [Sound recording] [Interscope
Records, 1991]) 268
 List of Tables

Introduction to Rap and Politics

Table 1 25 rap micro-scenes in (and near) the United States 22
Table 2 Select releases in general order of release date 41
Table 3 Industry standard DJ equipment and supplies used for live
events 46
Table 4 Charting rap albums and singles from the Oakland, CA
primary sound bank 50
Table 5 Bay Area rap music compared to Billboard rap albums
with early BPPSD themes (militancy and anti-statism,
internal colonization, and warfare) as a baseline 56
Table 6 Early BPPSD themes (militancy and anti-statism, internal
colonization, and warfare) in Bay Area and Billboard rap
music (1966–2010) 56

The Panther Discourse (1965–1982)

Table 1 Black mayors in major US cities (1967–1978) 91
Table 2 10 key components of Black Nationalism 102
Table 3 Partial listing of US BPPSD chapters and affiliates
in addition to the West Oakland headquarters (listed
alphabetically by state and city) 113
Table 4 BPPSD internal colonization periods 126
Table 5 Stages and topics established through BPPSD warfare
language 142

xix
xx LIST OF TABLES

The Gangster Discourse (1981–2000)

Table 1 Key periods of internal colonization lyrics in local rap
albums (1986–1998) 199
 Introduction to Rap and Politics

Introduction
In Oakland, California, rap music has been used as a vehicle for Black,
Latinx, and poor youth to document their struggle against oppression
and to relate their struggle to other struggles against oppression in other
locations and at other times. Zion I, a group from Oakland, is able to use
part of a rap verse to transcend time and space to connect their current,
local experience to the evolution of Black life in America since at least
1619 (Fig. 1):

Hey, I got this blues train runnin’ all through to my veins / Slave ships,
Middle Passage, crack cocaine / ‘Ten[s] slap in the ‘Lac, corner boys
ground packs / In the belly of the beast where the life go flat / But
the music is the remedy, inhale my rhythm steadily / Perched on the curb,
watch church converge / It’s the meeting of the minds, at time, light
occurs / How we cultivated words like they sacred herbs / Put it in your
pipe and puff it, squares can’t touch it / Rough and rugged, how you
love it, with no budget / Independent game, man, with my Sleng Teng
/ You can do the same thang, utilize your damn brain / Metaphors are
mountains, countless bouncin’ / A multitude in viewed, clubs and houses
/ We rain like fountains to wash it clean / I’m in the back with my mug
on mean, my whole team.1

The lyrics above trace the complexities of Black life in Oakland to forge
a connection to Black people domestically and worldwide. The “blues

© The Author(s) 2020 1

L. Pope, Rap and Politics,
https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-60011-0_1
2 L. POPE

Fig. 1 A soundwave representation Zion I’s “Hit ‘Em (featuring The Grouch
and Mistah F.A.B.)” with the quote above highlighted (Zion I, “Hit ‘Em
[Featuring the Grouch and Mistah F.A.B.],” Heroes in the City of Dope [Sound
recording] [Om Records, 2006])

train” is a reference to the long legacy of Black arts in Oakland and the
use of popular blues images in the creation of rap and certain rap forms;
this imagery is connected to the slave ships, which is connected to the
slavery of hustling drugs within one’s community, which is connected
to death in a Babylon-like place (“belly of the beast where the life go
flat”). By looking at music as the remedy to these issues, elements of a
secularized religious experience are articulated (“watch church converge”
while “perched on the curb”). As local community building occurs and
the power of “metaphors” is unleashed, the speaker gains a new level of
power. This is one verse of a similar voluminous discourse originating
from Oakland. This book is an examination of the political content of
the local music and the rise of underground leaders, movements, and
discourses.
Rap and Politics (RAP ) maps out a 50-year political-historical narra-
tive of three eras of local discourse starting in West Oakland, the
Oakland/East Bay Area, and the San Francisco Bay Area. The book makes
the case that Oakland became a training ground for radical and militant
Black youth starting as early as the mid-1960s, and that these elements
continued—both in society and in rap music—as a response to govern-
ment failures to adequately address the political, economic, and social
problems facing local youth. In the mid-1960s, the socioeconomic and
 INTRODUCTION TO RAP AND POLITICS 3

political setting of West and North Oakland, compounded by geograph-

ical, cultural, and educational factors, produced the dynamic that gave
rise to the Black Panther Party for Self Defense (hereafter, Panthers or
BPPSD), one of the most radical and militant forms of Black Nation-
alism.2 While the BPPSD was experiencing the last signs of collapse in
the early 1980s, local Black youth were already beginning to use rap
music as a primary mode of political expression for grievances against
“the state,” and increasingly drew on radical and militant elements of
Panther discourse during the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s. Around 1991,
that same locale contributed to the emergence of 2Pac’s mixture of polit-
ical/gangster rap and in the early 2000s, it was the birthplace of the hyphy
rap subgenre and subculture, both of which are examined in this book.
Through these cases, RAP makes the argument that local rap
discourses remained connected in their use of day-to-day accounts to
express three forms of politics: a politics of visibility, expressed through
the use of violence and centered on protection of self; a politics of
last resort, expressed through the rhetoric of hustling and centered on
escaping poverty; and a politics of contempt, expressed as disregard and
disdain for political officials, state authorities, and state institutions and
leveraged as a basis for social justice campaigns toward de facto equality.
By examining this evolutionary discourse in rap music through the frame-
works of setting, representation, movements, discourse banks, and impact,
RAP advances our understanding of the underground rap music and
Black politics.
Methodologically, RAP approaches these research questions through
an “underground research method.” This process began with the author’s
experience as an “involved participant” in the local Bay Area rap scene as a
performative Bay Area disc-jockey (DJ) for over five years. This firsthand
experience led to a closer understanding of the political history of the
scene and a comprehensive collection of music actually requested at live
events in the local community by members of the local community. The
findings in this book are directly based on a content analysis-based exam-
ination of an extensive source bank of 100 Panther statements, 100 local
rap albums, 100 mainstream rap albums, 100 local rap singles, and 100
mainstream rap singles. RAP ’s key finding is that the local rap sources
contained nearly twice as much political content as the mainstream rap
sources. The latter, in turn, included significant political content from rap
artists and groups from eight to ten US locales where significant racial
justice activity occurred in the late 1960s.
4 L. POPE

More broadly, this book examines the relationship between political

content and local rap music by comparing a case study of rap music’s
development in Oakland and the Bay Area to mainstream rap in 10
other US cities during the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s. RAP seeks to
answer previously unaddressed questions. First, how was the local devel-
opment of rap music in Oakland, CA influenced by the politics of
the BPPSD? Second, how does this local political development relate
to mainstream rap music and rap music from other locales? Through
this examination, RAP offers a new scope, framework, and method for
future analyses of urban locales. This approach seeks to better understand
the political development of local underground power, protest media,
and representation; the tools and technologies used in the production
of local messages; and comparative relationships between domestic and
international regional scenes.

Rap as Political Communication

Rap music is an element of hip-hop culture that can effectively use
quotidian (or “everyday”) narratives to transform individual, subaltern
positions into community sources of power. The newly created power
bases often create discourses with messages about being seen, heard, and
felt, and banks of such common, everyday accounts can be understood
as a foundation of a parallel political community.3 Rap music can thus
serve as political communication, and when these quotidian narratives are
explored as community-based source banks (collections of artwork and
sounds from local scenes), the local source banks can be connected to the
local settings, representatives, and movements. By looking at rap music
from particular locales during moments of local, regional, national, or
international crisis, we can get a more complete understanding of race,
social movements, and urban politics.
By “rap” music I am referring to one of five generally acknowledged
elements of “hip-hop” culture, constructed in the 1970s in South Bronx,
New York out of Black Nationalist messages and the Jamaican dub style
of music.4 Rap was a response to oppression and started as local, grass-
roots, underground youth began to use day-to-day quotidian discourses
to express discontent. This led to the evolution of two major forms: party
rap and reality rap. The latter more effectively used day-to-day quotidian
narratives as expressions of power in moments of perceived powerlessness,
leading to the development of the subgenres of gangster rap, socially
 INTRODUCTION TO RAP AND POLITICS 5

conscious rap, politically conscious rap, and alternative rap.5 The rap
genre was popularized in the 1980s and increasingly commercialized in
the 1990s and 2000s. In 1998, rap music began to challenge country
music as a leading music genre in the United States.6 Distinct from main-
stream rap, however, its subgenres continued to evolve based on political
roots in Civil Rights and Racial Justice messages, media, and discourse.
At times, rap has drawn very heavily on Black Nationalism and, at other
times, rap has challenged these same discourses. Rap also descends from
cultural movements such as the Black Arts Movement (BAM) and draws
on musical stylings such as Blues, Soul, Jazz, and Funk. As one author
puts it, “rap is not an aberration of black culture but rather a part of
the continuum of Black expressive culture and an art form that has made
an indelible entry into American history.”7 Currently, the genre of rap
music can be split into stylistic subgenres, which can be further divided
into “micro-subgenres” particular to specific locales.

The Musical Roots of Rap

In a sense, the development of Black music and the rise of the Black
folk hero can be mapped onto moments of crisis, opportunity, and tech-
nological change as experienced by Black Americans over the course of
American political development. As Klatskin notes: “From the hymn of
the slaves working on plantations to the protest ballads of the Civil
Rights movement, African Americans have historically used song to uplift,
defend, and mobilize their community.”8 In general, Black music over
American political development has had three major lines of descent
beginning with pre-1600 West African music roots. The first line, African-
American sacred traditions, appears as folk spirituals (1700s), folk gospel
(1890s), gospel-hymn (1900s), traditional gospel (1930s), gospel choirs
(1950s), and contemporary gospel (1970s). The second line, African-
American secular tradition (non-jazz), appears as a lineage from work
songs, field calls, and protest songs (1600s) to rural blues (1880s), urban
blues and rhythm and blues (1940s), and soul (1960s), which had a
link with Civil Rights songs (1960s), with soul splitting into funk, disco,
and rap styles (1970s) and the three key genres of techno funk, house
music, and go-go styles (1980s). The third line, African-American secular
tradition (jazz), goes from syncopated dance music (1600s) to ragtime
(1880s), and after developments in swing bands (1920s), transforms into
three different styles: jazz bebop (1940s), hard bop, and cool styles
6 L. POPE

(1950s).9 While many of the styles above continued to development,

each line of music linage made substantial contributions to the birth and
development of hip-hop culture and rap music.
Rap music descends from Black popular music, which has been used as
a tool of resistance for the Black community in the face of both de jure
and de facto injustices over the course of American political development.
Cheryl Keyes notes that rap’s “development as a discernible musical genre
began in the 1970s during the wake of the Civil Rights and Black Nation-
alist movements of the 1960s.”10 The type of rap music discussed in this
book evolves from urban blues and rhythm and blues of the 1940s, which
featured songs dealing “with problems in the everyday secular world” and
could even include themes such as “unemployment, ill health, crime and
prison, and other kinds of tragedy that formed part of the everyday expe-
rience of black audiences.”11 The type of rap music discussed in this book
is also rooted in the changing content of R&B and jazz music into the
respective styles of soul and funk music. When 1950s R&B transformed
into 1960s soul, it “captured the spirit of black America, and with a heavy
influence from gospel and jazz, [became] the basis for soul music and
later funk.”12 This shift occurred alongside a growing political conscious-
ness: “Rhythm and blues music as ‘statement’ music would grow into soul
music and eventually take on more explicit themes of protest, particularly
after the changes in the civil rights movement failed to materialize.”13
This was particularly true of artists who felt as through the outcomes
of the Civil Rights Movement failed to transform economic inequality
and institutional racism. The evolution of jazz into funk was shaped by
“hard bop, driven by its technical fury as well as its affirmation of black
roots”; this would be significant in the 1960s, as “Funk was an integral
part of the jazz musicians’ progression toward ‘black consciousness’—the
consciousness that came to define the Black Revolution.”14 Hard bop was
sometimes called “soul” or “funk,” and carried a reputation for reflecting
“homespun black experience,” including “vocal diatribes about down-
home elements of black life and culture.”15 The development of funk
was a key moment:

The 1960s began to bring together black people from across political,
regional, and economic barriers to contribute to the rapidly changing black
struggle, and the symbolic forms of black unity and race pride can be
illustrated through the music of the times. The Funk, in particular, reflects
the spirit of great comings together—the growing unity amid diversity and
change.16
 INTRODUCTION TO RAP AND POLITICS 7

Since the mid-to-late 1970s, certain rap music has drawn heavily upon
these earlier traditions.17 Rap adds a “spirit of rebellion, identification
with street culture, materialism, and aggression” to the evolution of Black
music and becomes “an incredibly flexible tool of communication, quite
adaptable to any number of messages” for the future.18 Yet, “unlike its
predecessors, rap music relies on the significant manipulation of tech-
nology as it explores poverty, urban blight, and violence” and employs
“rhyme, rhythmic speech, chanting, and street speech” in message trans-
mission.19 These characteristics have allowed rap music to be used as
a “new weapon” to “fight legal and social injustices.”20 Essentially, it
“has been a vehicle for the young and disenfranchised” and served as
a response to “America’s crumbling inner cities ravaged by crack cocaine,
violence, and apathy from elected officials.”21

The Political Roots of Rap

As a form of folk music, rap is among the latest in the evolution of
Black narratives attempting to create worlds in which the oppressed are
in power positions.22 In a sense, folk narratives and key musical devel-
opments can be mapped onto crisis moments for Blacks over the course
of American political development. In particular, hip-hop culture can be
viewed as a response to “neo-plantation neo-liberal efforts to dismantle
the welfare state.”23 Folk and blues music provide records of evolutionary
responses to the sweeping political changes faced by Black folk over the
course of American political development. In particular, the blues “was
launched by the two generations of Black Mississippians who witnessed
in quick succession secession, slavery, the Civil War, Reconstruction,
the violent overthrow of Reconstruction, a ‘second slavery,’ and disen-
franchisement.”24 However, “[t]he generation that launched the blues
cultural movement witnessed the transformation of a centuries-old dream
of freedom, partially realized during the First Reconstruction, into a
nightmare.” In similar fashion, hip-hop culture and rap music form as a
response to the “nightmare that followed the Second Reconstruction.”25
Thus, the connection between rap and politics is rooted in the
“founding generation” of hip-hop, involving individuals who “witnessed
the formal dismantling of a system of disenfranchisement, peonage, segre-
gation, and terror after a four-decade-long national mobilization.”26 Also,
rap benefits from the “intellectual fruits” of the Civil Rights Move-
ment, Black Power Movement, Black Arts Movement, the anti-Vietnam
War movement, and various anti-colonial movements. In addition, 1970s
8 L. POPE

crises over “war, poverty, recession, urban divestment, ghettoization,

deindustrialization, and political repression” invited political responses.27
An understanding of rap’s origins in Black folklore is essential, because
folklore occurs alongside and interacts with emerging styles of music.
According to one author: “From the first African captives, through the
years of slavery, and into the present century black Americans kept alive
important strands of African consciousness and verbal arts in their humor,
songs, dance, speech, tales, games, folk beliefs, and aphorisms.”28 Rooted
in West African tradition, folk culture allowed Black Americans facing
injustices to create “rich and expressive culture in which they articu-
lated their feelings and hopes and dreams”29 ; in essence, these processes
allowed “for slaves to hold on to their humanity.”30 The Black folk tradi-
tion continued to evolve after emancipation, the major change being “the
development of a group of heroes who confronted power and authority
directly, without guile and tricks, and who functioned on a secular
level.”31 There was also a rise in “narrative tales of blacks fighting for
their rights.”32 From emancipation through the present, political change
affected folk culture, and throughout this development: “Music remained
a central, living element in their daily expression and activities.”33
The creation of Black folk heroes transformed familiar character types
into heroes “who offered models of behavior both recognizable to them
as African people and adaptable to their situation in America.”34 This
process of “culture-building” was especially important in preserving iden-
tity and values during times of upheaval and under difficult conditions.35
Specifically, the Black folk hero in the blues tradition underwent an evolu-
tion from “trickster” to “badman” to “pimp”; this evolution appears
crucial to understanding rap as a genre, gangster rap as a subgenre, and
micro-subgenres in the Bay Area’s rap music development. According to
one author, the particular pimp folk hero “not only influenced the thug
image that has dominated gangsta rap but also helped to create MCing or
rapping as an art form.”36 There are also links between the badman (or
baaadman) folk hero discourses, “rap” as a label, and leaders of the Black
Power Movement. We are told that leader H. Rap Brown’s nickname was
derived from a tale which included the line “Rap is my name and love is
my game.”37
Rap music’s development derives from the folk archetype of the “trick-
ster” and the development of outlaw characters thereafter. First used in
1885, “the trickster can be found in Native American, European, North
American, African-American, Haitian, and West African cultures in the
 INTRODUCTION TO RAP AND POLITICS 9

form of a man, a woman, or an animal such as the hare, hyena, coyote, or

spider.”38 Later, the “badman” character emerged in blues music. There
were two central types—one “transgressed…all of the moral and legal
bounds of society,” and the other was a “strong, self-contained hero”
who violated the “stereotyped roles set aside for black people in a white
society” instead of moral and legal codes.39 In addition to depicting
control over violence, certain badman narratives contained elements of
hustling and pimping as forms of underground power acquisition. The
key character and “legendary prototype” for many badman figures was
called Stagolee, also known as Stackolee, Stackerlee, Stakalee, Stacker
Lee, and Staggerlee; every version of the legend included a gun fight
between Stagolee and Billy Lyons “arising from Stagolee’s anger at losing
his Stetson hat while gambling.”40 His attraction as a hero, and the later
development of the pimp archetype, “stems from the fact that he is a
trickster”; the “power of the pimp” is that “he gets his women to give
him the money they earn by tricking their tricks.”41
These trickster, badman, and pimp narratives re-emerged in images
of Black men as hustlers, gangsters, and pimps in 1970s Blaxploitation
cinema, and were revived in gangster rap music starting in the 1980s.42 As
in the case of the most evolutionary Black folk discourses, these narratives
“were not merely mechanisms of escape or fantasies that brought relief”;
they were also “mirrors of reality,” reflecting changing social and political
circumstances for blacks 100 years after emancipation.”43 It is significant
that these bad men archetypes, as responses to “historical disenfranchise-
ment and lack of power,” became “attractive symbols of power in some
black communities.”44
Rap music can transform identities of powerlessness into power. Rap
is a response to an evolution of American ascriptivism as applied through
institutional racism, class inequality, and housing segregation. By Amer-
ican “ascriptivism,” I am referring to Roger Smith’s work on civic ideals
in which he found a doctrine or hierarchy was “ascribed” on the basis of
group characteristics such as race and gender.45 The concept of Amer-
ican ascriptivism can be used to describe the use of race, gender, class,
sexual orientation, nationality, religion, or any attribute of one’s person-
hood to deny them full status and “standing,” as citizens. As Judith
Shklar tells us, standing includes the ability to engage politically though
voting, economically through working, and socially through civic duties
and engagement. In Shklar’s framework, standing is crucial to citizen-
ship and a sense of belonging, dignity, and honor for individuals in a
10 L. POPE

republic. To be denied standing actually creates a second-class citizen-

ship, as she tells us that: “The excluded were not merely deprived of
casual political privileges, they were being betrayed and humiliated by
their fellow-citizens.”46 Thus, American ascriptivism is a comprehensive
“umbrella” term which helps us better understand the process of subju-
gation and empowerment for different marginalized groups in the United
States. It also tells us a lot about the process of underground collective
action. This is especially true when the powerlessness felt by the applied
forms of discrimination (e.g., racism, misogyny, xenophobia) are trans-
formed into a sense of shared identity (over the common experience of
discrimination), a sense of power, and a group response to that discrim-
ination. It is my basic contention that these moments can be analyzed
and compared to changes in other areas of institutional American politics
in areas such as congress, the presidency, the courts, or federalism or to
topics such as the media, political participation, or political parties over
the course of American political development.

The Religious Roots of Rap

Another element of the longevity and influence of rap music is its religious
ethos. Religious themes and imagery are prevalent, and there are frequent
references to “God’s role as liberator of the African American commu-
nity.”47 According to the author, the widespread practice of Christianity
in Black and Latinx communities is a major reason for these themes. In
addition, the “rhyming poetry” which we associate with rap music can be
seen as a preaching style.48 There are at least three central characteristics
in storytelling that are relevant in rap music, as Robert Tinajero writes:

One characteristic is a strong solidarity with Jesus Christ and an embracing

of Him as a symbol of suffering and marginalization….Jesus and His life
story are embraced because they point to suffering caused by a seem-
ingly unjust society and because they represent meaning in suffering and
hope beyond suffering. A second dominant characteristic of gangsta rap’s
religious ethos is that while it glorifies the life and suffering of Jesus, it
simultaneously expresses a deep mistrust of organized religion. For the
gangsta rapper and his/her followers, religion gets in the way of God
and the message of Jesus and can be part of the social order that has
marginalized many poor, often minority, individuals and communities.
Finally, gangsta rap seems to fully embrace the notion that good and evil
exist simultaneously within individuals and society.49
 INTRODUCTION TO RAP AND POLITICS 11

Others have found Old Testament connections: “In rap theology, God
takes sides and identifies with rappers in their attempt to confront violence
with counterviolence. Their God is the God of the Old Testament who
uses violence as midwife to give birth to new possibilities and realities.”50
The result is a “powerful and distinctive African-American religious world
view that runs directly counter to the religious world view of the main-
stream culture it has come to permeate.”51 In this sense, religious imagery
and themes in rap music offer the possibility of transformation in response
to historical oppression and marginalization: “this religious world view
refuses to take refuge in the hope of otherworldly salvation but, rather,
tells the truth about the harsh reality of this oppression and trans-
forms the impulse toward anger and violence into empowerment, creative
expression, spirituality, and positive change.”52 It also can be used as “a
theology of self-affirmation,” adding to the “collective structures of many
of the black freedom movements, past and present.”53
Finally, there is also recent evidence of interplay between sacred and
secular music.54 As one author argues in a deep examination of the rela-
tionship between gangster rap and religion: “The church and hip hop
share a great potential for creating spaces where oppressed people can
express themselves as well as receive comfort and hope in the face of harsh
realities.”55 This mixture can also involve representation and models of
leadership: another author writes, “Was Tupac a preacher? Yes! Not only
was Tupac a preacher, but he has motivated a plethora of rappers to follow
in his footsteps. They are the new thinkers and theologians who give hope
and earth-based answers to those facing the absurdity of postindustrial
America.”56 Others have argued that “the speech, rhythms, and represen-
tatives of hip hop battled mighty opposition to forge artistic triumph and
commercial dominance,” a path that parallels sacred texts and depictions
of spiritual figures.57
Music can also be seen as a vehicle for the spirituality of a common
people. As one author notes, the cultural expressions of enslaved Africans
allowed them to “express a sense of self in a hostile world,” maintain
memories of home, and “make sense of their new existential and ontolog-
ical space.”58 Rap can also be compared to forms of reggae music driven
by Rastafarianism59 and to funk music, which has also been equated to
spirituality: “for a generation unimpressed with Christianity as it is prac-
ticed in the Black American community, The Funk offered new formulas
for the expression of that faith.”60 Black music (whether sacred or secular)
12 L. POPE

has appeared as an expression of faith throughout history, and rap is no

exception.

The Power and Limits of Gangster Rap

This book examines day-to-day, quotidian narratives about “trapped
oppression” during particular moments of crisis and development as expe-
rienced locally. For Black Americans, such local crises are often related
to regional or national trends, and rap music can offer a play-by-play,
firsthand description of what it feels like to be oppressed during such
moments. Thus, a comprehensive examination of these discourses will
help explain the symptoms, nature, and source of the problems faced
by Black youth. These discourses from different historical eras can be
connected through common, everyday texts, with an understanding of
rap as a form of “folk” music (even having religious-level meaning for
some of the artists). Rap, as folklore, mixes legend with the evolution of
musical style, technological advancements in media arts, and continued
conflicts in politics, culture, religion, and other elements of Black life.
Rap music represents the latest in the tradition of Black claims made with
two functional purposes—internal local community building and external
representation to the outside.
Rap’s quotidian narratives are hidden transcripts centered on “power,
powerlessness, and modes of subaltern resistance.” The basic notion is
that the impact of political domination will eventually spill over into other
areas of life as a “bubbling cauldron in which anger over injustice pours
through a seemingly fastened lid of status quo norms, rules, regulations,
and social graces.”61 In most cases, as one groundbreaking study finds,
most struggles against oppression “stop well short of outright collective
defiance.”62 Excluded or oppressed individuals turn to other “spheres of
society” for recourse. Here, the term parallel politics becomes vital in
outlining how oppressed populations could seek redress:

In response to general conditions of subordination or specific acts of racist

violence and oppression, subordinate actors respond in spheres of society
and in cultural forms that are not the medium or spheres in which the
acts of deliberation or violence first occur. Certain forms of rap music,
graffiti, and other visual areas are perfect embodiments of displacement
and parallel macropolitics. These expressions of parallel politics enter civic
discourse and its symbolic systems as objects of consumption first, and only
later—if at all—enter into formal political discourse.63
Another random document with
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The Project Gutenberg eBook of An old
master, and other political essays
 This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United
States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with
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eBook.

Title: An old master, and other political essays

Author: Woodrow Wilson

Release date: October 2, 2023 [eBook #71776]

Language: English

Original publication: New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1893

Credits: Charlene Taylor and the Online Distributed

Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AN OLD

MASTER, AND OTHER POLITICAL ESSAYS ***
 Transcriber’s Note
New original cover art included with this eBook is granted
to the public domain. It includes the title page of the original
book.
Additional notes will be found near the end of this ebook.
AN OLD MASTER
AND

OTHER POLITICAL ESSAYS

 AN OLD MASTER
AND

OTHER POLITICAL ESSAYS

BY
WOODROW WILSON
PROFESSOR OF JURISPRUDENCE IN PRINCETON UNIVERSITY
AUTHOR OF “CONGRESSIONAL GOVERNMENT,” “DIVISION AND
REUNION,” ETC., ETC.

NEW YORK
CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS
1893
 Copyright, 1893, by
CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS
TROW DIRECTORY
PRINTING AND BOOKBINDING COMPANY
NEW YORK
 TO
ROBERT BRIDGES

WITH HEARTY ACKNOWLEDGMENT

OF LONG AND TRIED
FRIENDSHIP
 CONTENTS

PAGE

I. An Old Master, 3

II. The Study of Politics, 31

III. Political Sovereignty, 61

IV. Character of Democracy in the United States, 99

V. Government under the Constitution, 141

** I. and II. republished from the New Princeton Review, IV. and V. from
*
the Atlantic Monthly, with the kind permission of the publishers.
 I
AN OLD MASTER

Why has no one ever written on the art of academic lecturing

and its many notable triumphs? In some quarters new educational
canons have spoken an emphatic condemnation of the college
lecture, and it would seem to be high time to consider its value, as
illustrative of an art about to be lost, if not as exemplary of forces to
be retained, even if modified. Are not our college class-rooms, in
being robbed of the old-time lecture, and getting instead a science-
brief of data and bibliography, being deprived also of that literary
atmosphere which once pervaded them? We are unquestionably
gaining in thoroughness; but are we gaining in thoughtfulness? We
are giving to many youths an insight, it may be profound, into
specialties; but are we giving any of them a broad outlook?
There was too often a paralysis of dulness in the old lecture, or,
rather, in the old lecturer; and written lectures, like history and
fashion in dress, have an inveterate tendency to repeat themselves;
but, on the contrary, there was often a wealth of power also in the
studied discourse of strong men. Masters bent upon instructing and
inspiring—and there were many such—had to penetrate that central
secret of literature and spoken utterance—the secret of style. Their
only instrument of conquest was the sword of penetrating speech.
Some of the subtlest and most lasting effects of genuine oratory
have gone forth from secluded lecture desks into the hearts of quiet
groups of students; and it would seem to be good policy to endure
much indifferent lecturing—watchful trustees might reduce it to a
minimum—for the sake of leaving places open for the men who have
in them the inestimable force of chastened eloquence. For one man
who can impart an undying impulse there are several score,
presupposing the requisite training, who can impart a method; and
here is the well understood ground for the cumulating disfavor of
college lecturing and the rapid substitution of ‘laboratory drill.’ But will
not higher education be cut off from communion with the highest of
all forces, the force of personal inspiration in the field of great
themes of thought, if you interdict the literary method in the class-
room?
I am not inclined to consume very many words in insisting on this
point, for I believe that educators are now dealing more frankly with
themselves than ever before, and that so obvious a point will by no
means escape full recognition before reformed methods of college
and university instruction take their final shape. But it is very well to
be thinking explicitly about the matter meanwhile, in order that the
lecture may be got ready to come fully militant into the final battle for
territory. The best way to compass this end would seem to be, to
study the art of the old masters of learned discourse. With Lanfranc
one could get the infinite charm of the old monastic school life; with
Abelard, the undying excitement of philosophical and religious
controversy; with Colet, the fire of reforming zeal; with Blackstone,
the satisfactions of clarified learning. But Bee and Paris and Oxford
have by no means monopolized the masters of this art, and I should
prefer, for the nonce at least, to choose an exemplar from Scotland,
and speak of Adam Smith. It will, no doubt, be possible to speak of
him without going over again the well worn ground of the topics
usually associated with his great fame.
There is much, besides the contents of his published works, to
draw to Adam Smith the attention of those who are attracted by
individual power. Scotchmen have long been reputed strong in
philosophic doctrine, and he was a Scot of the Scots. But, though
Scotland is now renowned for her philosophy, that renown is not of
immemorial origin; it was not till the last century was well advanced
that she began to add great speculative thinkers to her great
preachers. Adam Smith, consequently, stands nearly at the opening
of the greatest of the intellectual eras of Scotland. Yet by none of the
great Scotch names which men have learned since his day has his
name been eclipsed. The charm about the man consists, for those
who do not regard him with the special interest of the political
economist, in his literary method, which exhibits his personality so
attractively and makes his works so thoroughly his own, rather than
in any facts about his eminency among Scotchmen. You bring away
from your reading of Adam Smith a distinct and attractive impression
of the man himself, such as you can get from the writings of no other
author in the same field, and such as makes you wish to know still
more of him. What was he like? What was his daily life?
Unhappily, we know very little that is detailed of Adam Smith as a
man; and it may be deplored, without injustice to a respected name,
that we owe that little to Dugald Stewart, who was too self-conscious
and too stately to serve another efficiently as biographer. There was
no suitable place amid the formal spaces of his palatial style for
small illuminating details. Even from Dugald Stewart, however, we
get a picture of Adam Smith which must please every one who loves
simplicity and genuineness. He was not, perhaps, a companionable
man; he was much too absent-minded to be companionable; but he
was, in the highest sense, interesting. His absent-mindedness was
of that sort which indicates fulness of mind, which marks a mind
content, much of the time, to live within itself, indulging in those
delights of quiet contemplation which the riches of a full store of
thought can always command. Often he would open to his
companions his mind’s fullest confidences, and, with a rare
versatility, lavish a wealth of information and illustration upon topics
the most varied and diverse, always to the wondering delight of
those who heard him.
All who met Adam Smith in intimate intercourse are said to have
been struck chiefly by the gentleness and benignity of his manner—
traits which would naturally strike one in a Scotchman; for men of
that unbending race are not often distinguished by easiness of
temper or suavity of manner, but are generally both fortiter in re et
fortiter in modo. His gentleness was, possibly, only one phase of that
timidity which is natural to absent-minded men, and which was
always conspicuous in him. That timidity made it rare with him to talk
much. When he did talk, as I have said, his hearers marvelled at the
ingenuity of his reasoning, at the constructive power of his
imagination, at the comprehensiveness of his memory, at the fertility
of all his resources; but his inclination was always to remain silent.
He was not, however, disinclined to public discourse, and it is chiefly
to his unusual gifts as a lecturer that he seems to have owed his
advancement in the literary, or, rather, in the university, world.
Acting upon the advice of Lord Kames, an eminent barrister and
a man of some standing in the history of philosophy, he volunteered
a course of lectures in Edinburgh almost immediately upon his return
from Oxford; and the success of this course was hardly assured
before he was elected to the chair of Logic in the University of
Glasgow. In the following year he had the honor of succeeding to the
chair of Moral Philosophy, once occupied by the learned and
ingenious Hutcheson. He seems to have been at once successful in
raising his new chair to a position of the very highest consideration.
His immediate predecessor had been one Thomas Craigie, who has
left behind him so shadowy a reputation that it is doubtless safe to
conclude that his department was, at his death, much in need of a
fresh infusion of life. This it received from Adam Smith. The breadth
and variety of the topics upon which he chose to lecture, and the
felicity, strength, and vitality of the exposition he gave them (we are
told by one who had sat under him), soon drew to Glasgow “a
multitude of students from a great distance” to hear him. His mastery
of the art of academic lecturing was presently an established fact. It
appears clear that his success was due to two things: the broad
outlook of his treatment and the fine art of his style. His chair was
Moral Philosophy; and ‘moral philosophy’ seems to have been the
most inclusive of general terms in the university usage of Scotland at
that day, and, indeed, for many years afterward. Apparently it
embraced all philosophy that did not directly concern the phenomena
of the physical world, and, accordingly, allowed its doctors to give
very free play to their tastes in the choice of subjects. Adam Smith,
in Glasgow, could draw within the big family of this large-hearted
philosophy not only the science of mental phenomena, but also the
whole of the history and organization of society; just as, years
afterwards, John Wilson, in Edinburgh, could insist upon the
adoption of something very like belles-lettres into the same generous
and unconventional family circle.
 Adam Smith sought to cover the field he had chosen with a
fourfold course of lectures. First, he unfolded the principles of natural
theology; second, he illustrated the principles of ethics, in a series of
lectures which were afterwards embodied in his published work on
the “Theory of Moral Sentiments;” third, he discoursed on that
branch of morality which relates to the administration of justice; and,
last, coming out upon the field with which his name is now identified,
he examined those political regulations which are founded, not upon
principles of justice, but upon considerations of expediency, and
which are calculated to increase the riches, the power, and the
prosperity of the State. His notes of his lectures he himself destroyed
when he felt death approaching, and we are left to conjecture what
the main features of his treatment were, from the recorded
recollections of his pupils and from those published works which
remain as fragments of the great plan. These fragments consist of
the “Theory of Moral Sentiments,” the “Wealth of Nations,” and
“Considerations Concerning the First Formation of Languages;”
besides which there are, to quote another’s enumeration, “a very
curious history of astronomy, left imperfect, and another fragment on
the history of ancient physics, which is a kind of sequel to that part of
the history of astronomy which relates to ancient astronomy; then a
similar essay on the ancient logic and metaphysics; then another on
the nature and development of the fine, or, as he calls them, the
imitative, arts, painting, poetry, and music, in which was meant to
have been included a history of the theatre—all forming part, his
executors tell us, ‘of a plan he had once formed for giving a
connected history of the liberal and elegant arts;’” part, that is (to
continue the quotation from Mr. Bagehot), of the “immense design of
showing the origin and development of cultivation and law, or ... of
saying how, from being a savage, man rose to be a Scotchman.”
The wideness of view and amazing variety of illustration that
characterized his treatment, in developing the several parts of this
vast plan, can easily be inferred from an examination of the “Wealth
of Nations.”
“The ‘Wealth of Nations,’” declares Mr. Buckle, from whom, for
obvious reasons, I prefer to quote, “displays a breadth of treatment
which those who cannot sympathize with, are very likely to ridicule.
The phenomena, not only of wealth, but also of society in general,
classified and arranged under their various forms; the origin of the
division of labor, and the consequences which that division has
produced; the circumstances which gave rise to the invention of
money, and to the subsequent changes in its value; the history of
those changes traced in different ages, and the history of the
relations which the precious metals bear to each other; an
examination of the connection between wages and profits, and of the
laws which govern the rise and fall of both; another examination of
the way in which these are concerned, on the one hand with the rent
of land, and, on the other hand, with the price of commodities; an
inquiry into the reason why profits vary in different trades, and at
different times; a succinct but comprehensive view of the progress of
towns in Europe since the fall of the Roman Empire; the fluctuations,
during several centuries, in the prices of the food of the people, and
a statement of how it is, that, in different stages of society, the
relative cost of meat and of land varies; the history of corporation
laws and of municipal enactments, and their bearing on the four
great classes of apprentices, manufacturers, merchants, and
landlords; an account of the immense power and riches formerly
enjoyed by the clergy, and of the manner in which, as society
advances, they gradually lose their exclusive privileges; the nature of
religious dissent, and the reason why the clergy of the Established
Church can never contend with it on terms of equality, and,
therefore, call on the State to help them, and wish to persecute when
they cannot persuade; why some sects profess more ascetic
principles, and others more luxurious ones; how it was, that, during
the feudal times, the nobles acquired their power, and how that
power has, ever since, been gradually diminishing; how the rights of
territorial jurisdiction originated, and how they died away; how the
sovereigns of Europe obtained their revenue, what the sources of it
are, and what classes are most heavily taxed in order to supply it;
the cause of certain virtues, such as hospitality, flourishing in
barbarous ages, and decaying in civilized ones; the influence of
inventions and discoveries in altering the distribution of power
among the various classes of society; a bold and masterly sketch of
the peculiar sort of advantages which Europe derived from the
discovery of America and of the passage round the Cape; the origin
of universities, their degeneracy from the original plan, the corruption
which has gradually crept over them, and the reason why they are so
unwilling to adopt improvements, and to keep pace with the wants of
the age; a comparison between public and private education, and an
estimate of their relative advantages; these, and a vast number of
other subjects, respecting the structure and development of society,
such as the feudal system, slavery, emancipation of serfs, origin of
standing armies and of mercenary troops, effects produced by tithes,
laws of primogeniture, sumptuary laws, international treaties
concerning trade, rise of European banks, national debts, influence
of dramatic representations over opinions, colonies, poor-laws—all
topics of a miscellaneous character, and many of them diverging
from each other—all are fused into one great system, and irradiated
by the splendor of one great genius. Into that dense and disorderly
mass, did Adam Smith introduce symmetry, method, and law.”
In fact, it is a book of digressions—digressions characterized by
more order and method, but by little more compunction, than the
wondrous digressions of Tristram Shandy.
It is interesting to note that even this vast miscellany of thought,
the “Wealth of Nations,” systematized though it be, was not meant to
stand alone as the exposition of a complete system; it was only a
supplement to the “Theory of Moral Sentiments;” and the two
together constituted only chapters in that vast book of thought which
their author would have written. Adam Smith would have grouped all
things that concern either the individual or the social life of man
under the several greater principles of motive and action observable
in human conduct. His method throughout is, therefore, necessarily
abstract and deductive. In the “Wealth of Nations,” he ignores the
operation of love, of benevolence, of sympathy, and of charity in
filling life with kindly influences, and concentrates his attention
exclusively upon the operation of self-interest and expediency;
because he had reckoned with the altruistic motives in the “Theory of
Moral Sentiments,” and he would not confuse his view of the
economic life of man by again forcing these in where selfishness
was unquestionably the predominant force. “The philosopher,” he
held, “is the man of speculation, whose trade is not to do anything,
but to observe everything;” and certainly he satisfied his own
definition. He does observe everything; and he stores his volumes
full with the sagest practical maxims, fit to have fallen from the lips of
the shrewdest of those Glasgow merchants in whose society he
learned so much that might test the uses of his theories. But it is
noticeable that none of the carefully noted facts of experience which
play so prominent a part on the stage of his argument speaks of any
other principle than the simple and single one which is the pivot of
that part of his philosophy with which he is at the moment dealing. In
the “Wealth of Nations” every apparent induction leads to self-
interest, and to self-interest alone. In Mr. Buckle’s phrase, his facts
are subsequent to his argument; they are not used for
demonstration, but for illustration. His historical cases, his fine
generalizations, everywhere broadening and strengthening his
matter, are only instances of the operation of the single abstract
principle meant to be set forth.
When he was considering that topic in his course which has not
come down to us in any of the remaining fragments of his lectures—
the principles of justice, namely—although still always mindful of its
relative position in the general scheme of his abstract philosophy of
society, his subject led him, we are told, to speak very much in the
modern historical spirit. He followed upon this subject, says the pupil
already quoted, “the plan which seems to have been suggested by
Montesquieu; endeavoring to trace the gradual progress of
jurisprudence, both public and private, from the rudest to the most
refined ages, and to point out the effects of those arts which
contribute to subsistence, and to the accumulation of property, in
producing corresponding improvements or alterations in law and
government.” In following Montesquieu, he was, of course, following
one of the forerunners of that great school of philosophical students
of history which has done so much in our own time to clear away the
fogs that surround the earliest ages of mankind, and to establish
something like the rudiments of a true philosophy of history. And this
same spirit was hardly less discernible in those later lectures on the
“political institutions relating to commerce, to finances, and to the
ecclesiastical and military establishments,” which formed the basis of
the “Wealth of Nations.” Everywhere throughout his writings there is
a pervasive sense of the realities of fact and circumstance; a
luminous, bracing, work-a-day atmosphere. But the conclusions are,
first of all, philosophical; only secondarily practical.
It has been necessary to go over this somewhat familiar ground
with reference to the philosophical method of Adam Smith, in order
to come at the proper point of view from which to consider his place
among the old masters of academic lecturing. It has revealed the
extent of his outlook. There yet remains something to be said of his
literary method, so that we may discern the qualities of that style
which, after proving so effectual in imparting power to his spoken
discourses, has since, transferred to the printed page, preserved his
fame so far beyond the lifetime of those who heard him.
Adam Smith took strong hold upon his hearers, as he still takes
strong hold upon his readers, by force, partly, of his native sagacity,
but by virtue, principally, of his consummate style. The success of his
lectures was not altogether a triumph of natural gifts; it was, in great
part, a triumph of sedulously cultivated art. With the true instinct of
the orator and teacher, Adam Smith saw—what every one must see
who speaks not for the patient ear of the closeted student only, but
also to the often shallow ear of the pupil in the class-room, and to the
always callous ear of the great world outside, which must be tickled
in order to be made attentive—that clearness, force, and beauty of
style are absolutely necessary to one who would draw men to his
way of thinking; nay, to any one who would induce the great mass of
mankind to give so much as passing heed to what he has to say. He
knew that wit was of no avail, without wit’s proper words; sagacity
mean, without sagacity’s mellow measures of phrase. He bestowed
the most painstaking care, therefore, not only upon what he was to
say, but also upon the way in which he was to say it. Dugald Stewart
speaks of “that flowing and apparently artless style, which he had
studiously cultivated, but which, after all his experience in
composition, he adjusted, with extreme difficulty, to his own taste.”
The results were such as to offset entirely his rugged utterance and
his awkward, angular action, and to enable the timid talker to
exercise the spells of an orator. The charm of his discourses
consisted in the power of statement which gave them life, in the clear
and facile processes of proof which gave them speed, and in the
vigorous, but chastened, imagination which lent them illumination.
He constantly refreshed and rewarded his hearers, as he still
constantly refreshes and rewards his readers, by bringing them to
those clear streams of practical wisdom and happy illustration which
everywhere irrigate his expositions. His counsel, even on the highest
themes, was always undarkened. There were no clouds about his
thoughts; the least of these could be seen without glasses through
the transparent atmosphere of expression which surrounded them.
He was a great thinker,—and that was much; but he also made men
recognize him as a great thinker, because he was a great master of
style—which was more. He did not put his candle under a bushel,
but on a candlestick.
In Doctor Barnard’s verses, addressed to Sir Joshua Reynolds
and his literary friends, Adam Smith is introduced as a peer amidst
that brilliant company:

“If I have thoughts and can’t express ’em,

Gibbon shall teach me how to dress ’em
In words select and terse;
Jones teach me modesty and Greek,
Smith how to think, Burke how to speak,
And Beauclerc to converse.”

It is this power of teaching other men how to think that has given to
the works of Adam Smith an immortality of influence. In his first
university chair, the chair of Logic, he had given scant time to the
investigation of the formal laws of reasoning, and had insisted, by
preference, upon the practical uses of discourse, as the living
application of logic, treating of style and of the arts of persuasion and
exposition; and here in his other chair, of Moral Philosophy, he was
practically illustrating the vivifying power of the art he had formerly
sought to expound to his pupils. “When the subject of his work,” says