The Nation urged on an antidemocratic reaction. The magazine called for the formation of a vigilance committee since “the revolution of force must sooner or later follow.” It demanded the disenfranchisement of the poor and regarded municipal democracy as a “ridiculous anachronism.” Liberals abandoned the old Jacksonian/Lincolnian embrace of equality and the dream of a homogeneous citizenry that sprang from it. They promoted the writing of social and political inequality into law.
