No idea, but it sounds like it might be from Sir Edmund Burke's, perhaps his book, "Reflections on the Revolution in France?"

Jim Corsaro

James Corsaro
Associate Librarian
Manuscripts and Special Collections
New York State Library
Albany, NY 12230

It is well said that each new child who comes into the world proves that God  has not given up hope.
(G. Easterbrook)


>>> Hugh Mac Dougall <[log in to unmask]> 01/19 5:04 PM >>>
At the head of Chapter 26 of his novel "The Redskins" (1846 -- about the
New York Anti-Rent Wars), James Fenimore Cooper uses the following
paragraph as an epigraph:

        "If men desire the rights of property, they must take their consequences;
distinction in social classes. Without the rights of property civilization
can hardly exist; while the highest class of improvements is probably the
result of the very social distinctions that so many decry. The great
political problem to be solved, is to ascertain if the social distinctions
that are inseparable from civilization can really exist with perfect
equality in political rights. We are of opinion they can; and as much
condemn him who vainly contends for a visionary and impracticable social
equality, as we do him who would deny to men equal opportunities for
advancement.
                                        Political Essay"

Can anyone identify the quotation?


Hugh C. MacDougall
Secretary/Treasurer
James Fenimore Cooper Society
8 Lake Street, Cooperstown, NY 13326-1016
<[log in to unmask]>
<http://library.cmsu.edu/cooper/cooper.htm>