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The two main charges levelled against the Bourbons by liberals is that they are racists and social reactionaries.

There is much truth in both these charges, and not many Bourbons deny them.

Whatever their faults, they are not hypocrites.

Most of them sincerely believe that the Anglo-Saxon is the best race in the world and that it should remain pure.

Many Northeners believe this, too, but few of them will say so publicly.

The Bourbon economic philosophy, moreover, is not very different from that of Northern conservatives.

But those among the Bourbons who remain unreconstructed go much further than this.

They believe that if the South had been let alone it would have produced a civilization superior to that of modern America.

As it is, they consider that the North is now reaping the fruits of excess egalitarianism, that in spite of its high standard of living the `` American way '' has been proved inferior to the English and Scandinavian ways, although they disapprove of the socialistic features of the latter.