30 FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 



lution which the nations of Europe have passed through, were caused by per- 

 mitting the avarice, luxury, and vices of the few to flourish at the expense, 

 and by the labor of the multitude. 



Such was tlie condition of Eonie. Such has been the condition of England, 

 and continental Europe for centuries. The fury of the masses, in many 

 instances, when they had been driven to desperation by the o])pression of those 

 in power, exceeded all power of restraint, and left desolation in its track. 



There was some excuse for those ignorant, misguided people; they had 

 never known the blessings of liberty and self-government, and knew no other 

 way when the rights of individual man began to dawn upon their minds. No' 

 other means but violence would have had any efl^ect on those that governed, to 

 make them to a limited extent, respect the rights of their subjects. 



The lirst grand success achieved by the masses against despotic power, was 

 when the commons of England extorted the great charter from that tyrant. 

 King John. A charter which acknowledged to a certain extenfthe individual 

 rights of mankind, to which for ages afterwards, patriots have looked back as 

 the basis of human liberty. Even then their hopes of justice and liberty only 

 partially realized, and after combating for centuries the tyranny of kings and 

 priests, a few resolute spirits turned their backs on the homes and scenes of 

 their childhood and sought freedom in America, that coveted boon which had 

 been denied them in the land of their fathers. 



They were so imbued with the belief that they still belonged to somebody 

 that they must needs allow the hand that oppressed them at home to follow 

 them across the broad ocean and enthrone itself their master here, and they 

 found in a very short time that they had simply transferred the evils from the 

 soils of England to the wilderness of America, where monarchy was destined to 

 meet its overthrow. How heroically the descendants of those patriots in after 

 years labored by all p aceful means in their power to gain from their oppressor 

 those principles of equity and right until forbearance ceased to be a virtue, is 

 familiar to you all, and how the principal actors in that great drama met in 

 that historical building, Faneuil Hall, and there promulgated principles that 

 revolutionized the social condition of man. Principles which dethroned a king, 

 and enthroned the people. 



The noblest of all the great principles proclaimed in that grand instrument,, 

 the Declaration of Independence, is expressed in these words, " that all men 

 were created equal, and should be protected in life, liberty, and the pursuit of 

 happi?iess.'' The thought probably never entered the minds of those public 

 benefactors, as they sealed those principles with the blood of thousands of 

 patriots, that before a century of national life had passed, a people having once 

 enjoyed the blessing liberty, would, through their representatives in state and 

 national legislatures, enact laws, making it possible for a few individuals acting 

 in a corporate capacity, under chartered rights, to so direct their own business 

 and the public policy of the country in their own interest, as to invade indi- 

 vidual rights, divert civil liberty and overshadow the very government that 

 created them. 



This, fellow-citizens, in my opinion, is to a great extent the condition of 

 things to-day in this, our boasted land of freedom. You can scarcely point to 

 an industry except agriculture, but what is conducted in some form or other, 

 under corporate management with rights and privileges granted them by the 

 State and fostered and protected by it. A business, which a few years ago was 

 considered within the province of private enterprise or common partnership,. 

 now becomes incorporated; and the result has been that there has been more dis- 



