First Principles: What America's Founders Learned from the Greeks and Romans and How That Shaped Our Country

by Thomas E. Ricks

In opposing the spirit of the times, the South clung to the ancient world to defend the institution of slavery. The origins of this lay early in Aristotle’s Politics, where there is a short passage, almost an aside, that, as one historian put it, had “a far greater influence on nineteenth century America than it ever did on ancient thought.”54 Discussing the basic elements of the structure of society, such as family and village, Aristotle stated that “barbarians . . . have never yet risen to the rank of men, that is, of men fit to govern; wherefore the poets say, ‘Tis right the Greeks should govern the barbarians.’” A bit later, he added that the master holds his place not because he is more skilled at the tasks at hand. Rather, he explained, “This authority is founded on the general superiority of his character.”55 These passages, comments one historian, made Aristotle “virtually a sectional American hero. . . . Whenever a writer wished to stress the natural hierarchy of races and the ineradicable differences between types of men, he rushed straightaway to Aristotle’s Politics.”56