245 



to all. Aided by the indispensable qualities of virtue, industry and know- 

 ledge, the farmer boy or the apprentice boy of to-day, may in a few years be 

 the President of a republic stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and 

 holding the first rank among the nations of the earth. 



National prosperity is the aggregate of individual happiness, caused by the 

 distribution of the blessings of government under equal laws, by which each 

 man receives the due reward of his own labor. 



The true basis of all national prosperity will be found in an universal sys- 

 tem of practical learning, by which the youth of the land shall be taught to 

 understand and perform their political, civil and religious duties, as members 

 of this confederacy. Among the youth of a nation he is not only the orjjhan 

 who is left without father or mother; that youth, whose government neglects 

 to provide means for his advancement in knowledge, is surely in the most 

 desolate state of orphanage. 



There is no one thing, after religion, virtue and knowledge, that contributes 

 ao much to the permanent prosperity of a nation as that which I call the tn- 

 ventive talent. It is this tliat has contributed much to the wealth, commercial 

 importance and prosperity of England; and it is the same principle, operating 

 in a field more free, that is now doing so much in our own republic. 



We are behind no people on the face of the globe in mechanical genius and 

 skill, and this is mainly to be attributed to our free institutions. With us, if 

 a mechanic has a hundred hands at work in one shop, each man does not re- 

 gard himself as a mere copying machine, compelled to follow without ques- 

 tion the precise directions given to him by the master mechanic; but he thinks 

 while at work, and he takes the liberty of making suggestions as to the pro- 

 priety or expediency of changing this wheel or that cog. He does not feel 

 himself to be a mere servant to do the bidding of his master; but he thinks, 

 plans, reasons and suggests. Thus the powers of many minds are brought 

 to bear on the investigation of every proposed improvement in mechanics or 

 agriculture. 



In this consists the secret of our success. You may go among the hundreds 

 of mechanics who work in your machine shops, plough factories, <fec., of 

 Richmond, and you cannot distinguish the foreman or boss from the other 

 laborers. 



The success that attended the exhibition of American skill and labor at 

 the great World's Fair j.t London, is well calculated to make an American 

 proud of his conntry. 



A friend of mine, in reading of those exhibitions and trials, made the fol- 

 lowing suggestion; He remarked that he was in favor of changing our favor- 

 ite national song, " Yankee doodle doo." The inquiry was made for the reason. 

 His reply was, that we had beat John Bull in steaming and sailing — so much 

 so, that the Collins line were now engaged in towing over the Cunard line; 

 that we had defeated John Bull from Colt's Revolver to that great labor-saving 

 machine of the day, McCormick's Reaper; that therefore we should no longer 

 sing — " Yankee doodle doo," but " Yankee doodle did .' Yankee doodle did 1 " 



It is very remarkable, that up to the present time, to a great extent, the 



