10 



happiness upon the individual. There is no place where the 

 laborer receives greater reward for his toil, where he can enjoy 

 so many blessing's, free as the air he breathes, as here in our own 

 New England. Our schools are free to all ; ignorance has no ex- 

 cuse, and the poor shall not want. 



The character of a people may always be correctly judged by 

 their surroundings, and it is these influences that have made us 

 what we are — the most moral and the best educated, as a whole, in 

 the world. 



The spirit of our institutions being against large landed pro- 

 prietors, brings the different classes more closely into communion 

 of tastes and habits ; and a correct taste once formed in a com- 

 munity, becomes diffused through the whole, thus elevating the 

 whole mass. 



Let the political hucksters who are prowling up and down the 

 land, striving to create an antagonism between the laborer and 

 his employer, turn their attention to the bettering the condition 

 of the honest poor in their home surroundings, and they would 

 confer a real blessing to the whole community. Let them associ- 

 ate with others having capital ; let them secure lands in healthy 

 locations, lay out streets and ornament them with trees and shrubs 

 and build neat and comfortable dwellings ; then let them take 

 these men by the hand and say to them, one of these homes can 

 be yours if you will ; industry, economy and sobriety will make 

 them yours, and they will open a fountain in that man's heart that 

 has been closed to its own interests by the ice of envy and jeal- 

 ousy. The cry of these agitators is, " we must elevate labor." 

 Yes, but you must elevate the laborer first. You cannot raise the 

 stream above the fountain. 



The Thermometer of Manhood will indicate every degree of 

 excellence, and when the mercury has risen above the freezing 

 point of the lower passions into the genial warmth of a higher 

 manhood, then and not till then will his virtues bud and blossom. 



To elevate the laborer you must first create a desire in him to 

 better his condition, then show him a plausible way to do it. 



Desire is the mainspring to all endeavor, both good and evil, 

 and when the desire of a man goes no farther than to work that he 

 may eat and drink, there is not much chance to dignify labor. In- 

 spire the laborer with new incentives, awaken a laudable self- 

 esteem, and he will work with a will. Assure him he may have 



