But in America what good can be said of those who, living upon the fortunes of fathers or grandfathers, amassed in honest trade, — residents of a particular street which is thereby rendered pluperfectly genteel, — with no recommendation but that derived from fashion and idleness, — draw the lines of social demarcation more closely than they are drawn in Europe, intellect and accomplishments being systematically snubbed where the possessors cannot show their family passes?
Source: wiktionary