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American politics is of the past. Liberty in the abstract, 

 free government as an ideal, are of the earlier times in this 

 land, when religious and political freedom were what was 

 sought. And now that these have been established, never 

 more to be disturbed or questioned, liberty and free gov- 

 ernment as related to affairs and the material conditions and 

 welfare of men absorb the attention of the thoughtful and 

 patriotic. Liberty as equality of opportunity for all, free 

 government as bestowing an absolute guaranty that the 

 fruit of human endeavor shall be securely held and en- 

 joyed, are to be the ultimate beneficence. For the solution 

 of these questions what force so powerful and wise in the 

 republic as a body of men of tried patriotism, accustomed 

 to look at questions in their practical bearing, giving ex- 

 perience the larger place in all decisions, and theory the 

 smaller, trained in business, who have learned in counting 

 room and workshop those fine and delicate elements of 

 detail that enter into the adjustment of the complicated 

 relations of capital and labor, who are not to be hurried 

 along in any drift of popular excitement, but stand ever 

 poised in intelligence and discipline. To this force Essex 

 furnishes with pride her quota. She is sure of them in 

 all times of trial to freedom and sound government. Their 

 character and qualifications are not the flower of a day, 

 but the choice growth of generations of culture. They 

 are both the root and offspring of liberty, the ripe harvest 

 product of a long past of honest work in the ordinary and 

 peaceful avocations of men. 



