450 



dolence, in doing so, has proved traitor to Lis duty, aud denied liia 

 parentage. 



When communities become old, riches accumulate in a few hands, 

 and the rich become idle ; they live on the labor of the poor ; and the 

 evil grows apace. Tyranny and oppression, and sinful luxur}-, throw 

 ofi" the mfisk and forget to blush ; the truth is forgotten, and error is 

 triumphant ; then labor becomes shame ; the laborer is held in contempt ; 

 and the majority of mankind — ^slaves in soul if not in name — bow down 

 in servile submission to the minority ; money becomes power, and the 

 world worships it ; then it is that he who labors not at all is the greatest 

 man, and the ti'ue and noble laborer — the creator of earth's wealth — 

 sneaks into holes aud corners to hide his shame, or by vain and delu- 

 sive efforts tries to escape from his condition. The son, revelling in 

 the fruits of his father's industry, blushes to hear his name, and spends 

 in sin that which was gotten by virtuous toil. But with the very men 

 before me, who in twenty years, by honest persevering labor, have made 

 Michigan what it is, and raised it to its present enviable eminence, with 

 this noble show of the results of direct, intelligent labor, it were in vain, 

 even if we were reprobate enough to wish it, to try and conceal the 

 truth, that honest labor is the noblest characteristic of man. 



While then we pay homage to labor ; while we cannot forget that 

 our forefathers, who fought the battles of the Revolution, were men of 

 labor hke ourselves ; while it is a matter of history that these men's 

 mothers, wives, and sisters also labored in their own proper spheres, and 

 with their own hands made the clothing which was worn thi-oughout 

 the country; while the Northern States are everj'where witnesses of 

 hard, self-denying toil, and every farm, every road, speaks its own tale ; 

 while we are every day reminded that if Americans had not been in- 

 dustrious workers, this country could never have been settled, we must 

 not forget that the true and perfect results of the labor of the body de- 

 pend on the previous labor of the mind. The great success of Amer- 

 ican laborers, compared with those in some other countries, is not that 

 they labor more, but they labor more intelligently. The mind has a 

 greater share in the labor. We work not like the ox, by mere physical 

 force, in one undeviating way, but we work like men with educated 

 minds, ever ready to change our mode of work, and direct it to the best 

 end, in the most intelligent manner. 



