"In a government whose distinguishing characteristic should be a diffusion and equalization of its benefits and burdens the advantage of individuals will be augmented at the expense of the community at large"
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Van Buren is warning that the American experiment can be quietly reversed without a coup, just a ledger. The ideal he invokes is almost technocratic in its moral ambition: government earns legitimacy by spreading both “benefits and burdens” broadly, so no class gets a permanent discount on duty or a monopoly on reward. That phrase does double work. “Diffusion and equalization” sounds like calm administrative fairness, but it’s also a shot across the bow at the perennial American temptation to build policy around carve-outs: subsidies, land grants, patronage, special banking privileges, tariff favors. The threat isn’t simply corruption as personal vice; it’s corruption as structure, where the state becomes a machine for converting public resources into private advantage.
The sentence’s real bite is its inevitability. Van Buren doesn’t argue that individuals might profit at the public’s expense; he suggests a ratchet effect: once government stops balancing burdens, the “advantage of individuals will be augmented.” The passive construction matters. It implies that favoritism accumulates through routine decisions and institutional inertia, not only through villains twirling mustaches.
Context sharpens the point. Van Buren comes out of the Jacksonian era’s suspicion of concentrated financial power and “special privileges,” amid battles over the Bank of the United States and a politics obsessed with who gets access to credit, contracts, and influence. It’s a president’s way of saying: democracy doesn’t just die in darkness; it dies in exemptions.
The sentence’s real bite is its inevitability. Van Buren doesn’t argue that individuals might profit at the public’s expense; he suggests a ratchet effect: once government stops balancing burdens, the “advantage of individuals will be augmented.” The passive construction matters. It implies that favoritism accumulates through routine decisions and institutional inertia, not only through villains twirling mustaches.
Context sharpens the point. Van Buren comes out of the Jacksonian era’s suspicion of concentrated financial power and “special privileges,” amid battles over the Bank of the United States and a politics obsessed with who gets access to credit, contracts, and influence. It’s a president’s way of saying: democracy doesn’t just die in darkness; it dies in exemptions.
Quote Details
| Topic | Equality |
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