Q16 



of the agricultural classes. In other departments there is far less of 

 stability and trust. With them wealth is more emphatically power, 

 and that power is liable to be abused. In our populous towns and 

 cities a wide departure from Republican simplicity is clearly observable. 

 Foreign customs, manners and extravagant habits of living, are making 

 serious inroads. A frightful chasm is beginning to yawn between the 

 rich and the poor. Supercilious arrogance upon the one hand,' and 

 cringing servility upon the other, are gaining a foothold as elements in 

 the American character. Wealth and extravagant display not only 

 furnish admission tickets to aristocratic circles, but are foisting men into 

 official station. 



I hold the opinion to be correct, that the American citizen who is 

 willing to wear the court livery, and bend the supple knee to despots 

 abroad, can never be a safe depository of our equal rights and God- 

 given freedom, at home. Who, then, shall maintain the doctrines of 

 Republican simplicity, or practice the stern virtues of our forefathers, 

 if not the agricultural classes? Where shall we look for mature judg- 

 ment, for enlarged views, and integrity of heart and life, if not to them ? 

 The cloud of war is now sweeping across the horizon of Europe, and 

 we have some discordant elements at home. The ark of our covenant 

 may yet be jostled by external violence or interal commotion. In the 

 liour of freedom's peril, where shall we look for the man with head to 

 plan, with heart to brave, and hand to execute, if not to the agricultural 

 classes ? How immensely important, then, that the youth in all our 

 rural districts should be physically, mentally and morally trained and 

 schooled into the full development of manhood ! 



But grant that the star-spangled banner shall continue to wave over 

 the length and breadth of our country, and that our free institutions 

 shall continue to aflbrd ample protection to all beneath the shelter of 

 that flag, until the valley of the Mississippi, the steeps of the mountains 

 and shores of the far-off Pacific, shall teem alike with a dense population . 

 The vast preponderance of commercial wealth and power will unques- 

 tionably remain in our cities along the seaboard east, south and west. 

 Manufacturing enterprize is wont to seek out particular localities, and 

 its wealth and power might remain concentrated in one extremity of 

 the Union. Where, then, shall be found an all pervading interest, 

 permeating the grand masses of society, and imparting freshness and 



