a strong government have in such a people sure supporters. 

 But a people possessing a single source of wealth, which is 

 founded upon some natural condition of soil or climate, or 

 the possession of some privilege not shared by others, 

 places the possession of that source of wealth as first: law, 

 a strong government, and freedom itself are but secondary. 

 The possession of a soil adapted to the raising of cotton 

 and the legal right to own laborers were the bases of 

 southern prosperity. For them th^ southern people were 

 ready to overthrow the organic law of the land as em- 

 bodied in the constitution, as well as the national govern- 

 ment itself. 



As the conditions of prosperity in Essex depended not 

 upon natural advantages, but upon the mental and moral 

 attributes of the people, and as success was won at the 

 price of constant struggle and the practice of small econ- 

 omies, there grew up here a race of shrewd, practical and 

 far-seeing men, jealous of every right they possessed, and 

 holding with a strong hand every foot of vantage ground 

 acquired. Depending neither upon the wind or the 

 clouds, or the richness of the soil, expecting to reap no- 

 where except as they had sown, they were self-reliant to 

 the last degree. 



Without capital at the beginning, acquiring it slowly 

 and painfully, when acquired, they fully appreciated its 

 power and value. Such a people were rich, strong soil in 

 which to plant the seeds of liberty and sound government. 

 Political heresies and financial vagaries could gain no foot- 

 hold with them. No shadow could take the place of sub- 

 stance. They could not be made to believe that wealth 

 could be created by law ; they would reject with scorn the 

 symbol of value, though stamped with the seal of a nation, 

 which did not have behind it the intrinsic value into which 

 it could be converted. Engaged in a constant effort to 

 create value, to make profit in commercial transactions, 

 and to put aside some savings from the product of the 

 farm, they clearly saw that if that value and profit and 



