CHAPTER III. 



BETWEEN THE UPPER AND NETHER MILLSTONES. 



Whatever be the cause of the troubles to agriculture, 

 the query, as to why contemporaneous industries are not 

 also in the same case, must now be met. 



It is not the result of an unavoidable evolution in the 

 conditions of society which must close in upon the agri- 

 culturists sooner or later everywhere, and in all ages, 

 to overthrow them. 



No, the condition is not natural, it is most decidedly 

 abnormal. The world is governed in its customs, in its 

 sentiments, in its politics, and in its laws, by a false 

 political economy. We magnify the importance of 

 nearly every thing but agriculture, and it is made to 

 bear all kinds of loads that other industries may develop 

 and be made prosperous, until agriculture is crushed 

 beneath the weight ; and government by unjust laws is 

 the chief medium through which this evil is brought 

 about. 



The weight of a ponderous governmental machinery 

 as an outcome of endless law-making, and the granting 

 of privileges to all others at the expense of agriculture, 

 have put the farmers of America between the upper and 

 nether millstones. On the upper stone is the crushing 

 weight of a vicious system of taxation — the usurer, the 

 monopolist, and combines of all kinds pressing upon it, 



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