23 



their lives. The positive element of strength to a repub- 

 lic from a great middle class is supplemented by a negative- 

 influence hardly less weighty and beneficial. For, however 

 large in numl)ers or powerful in wealth and culture such a 

 class ma}^ l)e, it does not furnish those object lessons of in- 

 ordinate wealth and power which serve for illustrations in 

 the picture of injustice and oppression drawn by the radi- 

 cal reformer and professional agitator. They will never 

 be designated by the demagogue as robber kings, orbarons- 

 or lords. The men of many millions, which have been, 

 acquired in but a small portion of a lifetime, are dangerous^ 

 examples to hold up before unreasoning multitudes. Wise 

 and loyal men may discern and acknowledge that such 

 examples are but excrescences upon our social and politi- 

 cal polity ; that they arise not from our laws and institu- 

 tions, but exist in spite of them ; the entirely exceptional 

 events which have created them may be clearly demon- 

 strated ; the rank dishonor and plunder and violation of 

 law upon which many of them rest, may be clear to the 

 thoughtful and observing ; but notwithstanding all that,, 

 they furnish a dangerous weapon for designing men and a 

 very torch for misguided enthusiasts and dreamers. But 

 neither in the sum of wealth and luxury enjoyed, the 

 methods of their acquirement, nor the manners and habits 

 of their possessors, will this great class ever be pointed at 

 by the fair-minded, hardly, indeed, by the unreasoning and 

 vicious, as a reproach to our liberties. 



There are degrees of position in this middle class of 

 ours, from the possessor of entire independence and leisure • 

 to the owner of the humble home and moderate depositor 

 in the savings bank. And this wide range in the social 

 positions of its representatives makes it influential in num- 

 bers, as well as in character. The most exalted patriotism 

 and enlightened public spirit, possessed by but few, can 

 produce little in the way of practical results in a republic,, 

 but with numbers it is quite the reverse. To the four mil- 

 lions of depositors in savings banks in the northern and'. 



