312 HILLS AND LAKES. 



" Labor, Squire, is a great regulator of public 

 morals. I mean free labor, labor that's paid for, 

 independent labor, that brings a harvest of reward, 

 and that makes a man and his little ones comfortable, 

 and gives 'em a decent education, and a home. There's 

 nothin' in this country that should make a man 

 ashamed to work. Look out over all the free States, 

 and think that two hundred years ago, all that you 

 look upon, all the broad farms, the towns, and the 

 sites of the great cities, were all a wilderness, covered 

 with huge trees. Them great trees had to be chopped 

 down, one at a time. The men who did that work 

 were entitled to some credit, more, by a long shot, 

 than if they'd mown down armies of men, and plun- 

 dered their country. Their battle was "with the for- 

 ests, and the victory they won, was over the wilder- 

 ness. It didn't cost -anybody's blood, nor anybody's 

 treasure. The men who did that work had a right to 

 take a dignified and a high place among the people of 

 the airth, and their children needn't be ashamed of 

 their fathers, nor of followin' their example. The 

 world gave them the credit they were entitled to, and 

 it gave dignity to labor, and a good name to the man 

 that worked. It's so still. It's nothing agin' a man, 



