256 [Assembly 



their affluent fellow-citizens, anJ regarding appearance es the pass- 

 port to respectability, they are ready to sacrifice their all to acquire 

 a comparative position in society. The fast growing luxury of our 

 land is the deadliest evil we have to encounter ; it threatens to de- 

 stroy " all that is precious in the boon which cost our fathers years 

 of blood," and unless we fall bade upon the example of those wor- 

 thies, it will bring on us early national decay, and bury us with 

 those nations whose columns and temples are now mouldering in 

 ruins. Very few governments have sunk because they imbibed 

 wrong ideas of civil codes necessary to their welfare. Industry, 

 frugality and virtue, when combined, always do more to strengthen 

 and cement a republic than the deepest speculations of her states- 

 men. It has been beautifully observed, " that the necessary im- 

 pulsive forces lie not within the range or right of legislation ; they 

 are correct dispositions and moral sentiments and habits of men." 

 The perpetuity of any government depends upon the virtues and at- 

 tractions of the firesides of the people. A thoughtful and well in- 

 formed foreigner would rather come to this exhibition, or visit the 

 Mechanics' Fair, at Boston and Philadelphia, to form his estimate 

 of v?hat our. country is, and is to be, than go to the Capitol and lis- 

 ten to the men who manage to get there, and do what the great 

 working masses ot the people cannot afford to do, — look after other 

 people's business. Here he would see the representatives of the 

 arts, science, industry and genius of every part of the Union where 

 labor and effort are thought honorable. He would see the teeming 

 proof, the abounding evidence, that all over our land there are homes 

 of comfort, and that we are a people dwelling amid the sweet 

 charities and joys of life. I am glad to know that I am speaking to 

 a people who have long shown their warm attachment and high ap- 

 preciation of the American Institute. You know that it has fos- 

 tered national genius, quickened the inventive powers of our fellow- 

 citizens, introduced improvements into every department of life, 

 thrown a protection over the poor and youthful mechanic, when he 

 had to encounter ridicule from those who could not understand his 

 discovery, or see excellence in any thing which other men had 

 devised. 



You know that it has brought the East and West together, and 

 while it has " cared for " the hard-laboring mechanic in his city 

 workshop, and the daily toiling manufacturer by the side of the 

 country stream, it has also extended a healthy patronage to the hardy 

 tiller of the soil, more favored than his brethren, living in heaven's 

 own sanctuary — he green woodside, and worshiping God in calm 



