FARMERS' REGISTER 



713 



the principle of distributing wealth by law, can 

 only subsist by frauds and deceptions to dupe ig- 

 norance into an opinion, that such disiribulions 

 are intended for its benefit ; but in genuine repub- 

 lics, founded on the principle of leaving wealth to 

 be distributed by merit and induslry, these trea- 

 cheries of government are treasons against nations. 



'J'hey substitute the principle which constitutes 

 an aristocracy, for the principle which cotislitutcs 

 a true republic ; strike with a fatal ignorance, or a 

 Eordid malignity, at the heart of the political sys- 

 tem ; and elieci a fraudulent and treasonable re- 

 volution. 



My fellow laborers, mechanical or agricultural, 

 let lis never be deluded into an opinion, that a 

 distribution of wealth by the government or by 

 law, will advance our interest. We are the least 

 successful courtiers of any rank in society, and of 

 course have the worst prospect of sharing in any 

 species of wealth, bestowed by governments. It 

 is both contrary to the experience of all mankind, 

 and even impossible. We constitute the majority 

 of nations. A minority administers governments 

 and legislates. Compare the probability of its 

 taking wealth li-om itself to give it to the majority, 

 with that of its defrauding the majority to enrich 

 itself and its partisans, and you will account for 

 the regular current of experience. Consider, how- 

 ever splendidly a minority may live upon the la- 

 bors of a majority, that a majority cannot subsist 

 upon those of a minority, and you will see that it 

 is impossible for experience in future to leach a 

 different lesson. 



Let us not flatter ourselves, that laws can be 

 made to enable majorities to plunder these mino- 

 rities, or to plunder themselves : or to fatten a man 

 by feeding him with slices cut from his own body, 

 if a scheme could be contrived in favor of agri- 

 culture, similar to the protecting duty scheme in 

 lavor of' manufacturers, it would enslave the farm- 

 ers as it does manufacturers. The utmost favor 

 which it is possible for a government to do for us 

 farmers and mechanics, is neither to help nor hurt 

 us. The first it cannot do ; for whom can laws 

 strip orlijmish, to clothe or feed the vast majority 

 we compose? Aware that fraud or oppression 

 cannot permanently subsist, except by feeding on 

 majorities, those who compose these maj cities, if 

 they are wise, never fail to see that their interest 

 points to a republican Ibrm of government, for the 

 very purpose of preventing the passage of laws 

 for quartering or pasturing on them minor inter- 

 ests. These majorities are the pasture upon which 

 all minor factitious interests, however denominat- 

 ed, fatten ; and it would be as unnatural for ma- 

 jorities to fatten upon such legal minor interests, 

 as for pastures to eat the herds grazing on them. 



The interest of labor covers every naiional ma- 

 jority, and every legal bounty is paid by labor. 

 This interest cannot receive legal bounties, be- 

 cause there cannot exist a treasury for their pay- 

 ment. The utmost boon with which government 

 can endow it, is the enjoyment of that pcriion of 

 its own earning, which the public good can spare. 

 Whenever bounties are pretended to be bestowed 

 on labor, by privileges to feudal barons to defend 

 it, to bishops to save it, or to capitalists or bankers 

 to enrich it, an aristocratical order is unavoidably 

 erected to pilfer and enslave it ; because though 

 majorities cannot be enriched or ennobled by 

 bounties or privileges, minorities can; and those 



bounties or privileges must of course settle, not 

 against, but conformably with the laws of nature, 

 both moral and physical. 



The larte of legal ftivor or encouragement, has 

 been so dexterously acted in England, to delude 

 both the agricultural and mechanical interest, the 

 interest of labor, or the majority of the nation, as 

 to have delivered this majority, shackled by pro- 

 tecting duties, bounties and prohibitions, into the 

 hands of an inconsiderable moneyed aristocracy, or 

 combination of capitalists. Into this net, woven 

 of intricate frauds and ideal credit, the majority of 

 the nation, the interest of labor, the agriculturists 

 and mechanics have run, alter the baits held out 

 by protecting duties, bounties and prohibitions. 

 From its dreams of wealth it is awakened under 

 the letters of a moneyed aristocracy, and unfortu- 

 nate as Prometheus, it is destined to eternal and 

 bitter toil to feed this political harpy, and to suffer 

 excruciating anguish fi-om its insatiable voracious- 

 ness. Sometimes this net has been baited to catch 

 mechanics, at others to catch agriculturists, and 

 perhaps it is but just, that these real brethren in- 

 terests should fatten the alien tribe of stock-job- 

 bers, as a punishment for manifesting a disposi- 

 tion to devour each other. 



We fiirmers and mechanics have been political 

 slaves in all countries, because we are political 

 fools. We know how to convert a wildernesss into 

 a paradise, and a forest into palaces and elegant 

 furniture ; but we have been taught by those 

 whose object it is to monopolize the sweets of life, 

 which we sweat for, that politics are without our 

 province, and in us a ridiculous affectation ; for the 

 purpose of converting our ignorance into the 

 screen of regular advances, which artificial inler- 

 esis or legal factions, are for ever making in siraight 

 or zigzag lines, against the citadel of our rights 

 and liberties. Sometimes, after one of these ma- 

 rauding families has pillaged for a thousand 

 years, we detect the cheat, rise in the majesty of" 

 our strength, drive away the thiefj and sink 

 again into a lethargy of intellect so gross, as to 

 receive him next day in a new coat, as an accom- 

 plished and patriotic stranger, come to cover us 

 with benefits. Thus we got rid of tithes, and 

 now we clasp banks, patronage and protecting 

 duties, to our bosoms. Ten per centum upon la- 

 bor was paid to a priesthood, forming a body of 

 men which extended knowledge, and cultivated 

 good morals, as some compensations I" r formiig 

 also a legal faction, guided by the spirit of en- 

 cioachment upon the rights and property of the 

 majority. Forty per centum is now paid on our 

 labor, to a legal fiiction guided by the same spirit, 

 and pretending to no religion, to no morality, to no 

 patriotism, except to the religion, morality and pa- 

 triotism of making itself daily richer, which it says 

 will enrich the nation, just as the self-same faction 

 has enriched Eiuland. This legal faction of ca- 

 pitalists, created by jjrotecting duties, bankers and 

 contractors, far from beins satisfied wiih the tithe 

 claimed l)y the old hierarchy, will, in the case of 

 the mechanics, soon appropriate the whole of 

 their labor to its use, beyond a bare subsistence ; 

 I though in the case of farmers, it has yet only got- 

 ten about four times as much of theirs, as was ex- 

 i torled by the odious, oppressive, and fraudulent 

 1 tithe system. We know death very well, when 

 j killing with one scythe, but mistake him for a dei- 

 i ly, bei-aiise he is killing with four. 



