286 [Assembly 



steam hammer, lathes, planing machines, Judson & Pardee's dressing 

 machine, iron drilling, brad making, wagon spoke machine, tooth 

 cutting machines, mortising and boreing machines, \aluable improve- 

 ment in ship pumps, railroad wheels, double acting bellows, new mode 

 of setting steam boilers, lifting pump for mining purposes, self- 

 weighing scales, Brooklyn cut glass, cabinet furniture, two improve- 

 ments in the steering of vessels, some in telegraphic communications, 

 and in others too numerous to detail. All are before you, and await 

 your examination. The belief in the advance of mechanic skill and 

 intelligence is found to fall short each year of the reality, as exem- 

 plified in the articles on exhibition. The genius of the mechanic's 

 skill is developed by competition; and the humble education of his 

 early life, at our common schools, enables him to produce fruits of 

 great individual value and public utility. America is already in ad- 

 vance in her proportion of the new inventions and improvements of 

 laborsaving machinery. The plough, the anvil and the loom — those 

 unerring witnesses of the state and condition of a country — she has, 

 with her improvements, ready to exhibit in competition with the civi- 

 lized world. Many evidences will be found throughout this Fair 

 of the high state and advanced condition of the arts and sciences, 

 of their adaptation in the useful pursuits of life. Telescopes, chro- 

 nometers, and other instruments of science are among the articles on 

 exhibition. 



It is curious, and worthy of remark, that the first railroad built in 

 Germany was made for the Government, and by /em a/e labor, at the 

 wages of eight cents a day. The average wages of the Continent 

 of Europe is from twelve to sixteen cents a day, the laborer provi- 

 tling his own subsistence. In England the wages are a trifle higher. 

 Can it be possible, that it is expedient, wise, or just, to permit the 

 productions of such labor to be imported for consumption in this 

 country, while the countries from which they come are shut against 

 the productions of the United Slates? It strikes a blow at the car- 

 rying trade and navigation of our country, in thus stopping our 

 exports while receiving theirs, and thereby cherishing the navigation 

 of such other countries at the expense of our own. It depresses the 

 laborers of this country; it reduces them to a degraded competition 

 with the mendicant subjects of the Monarchies of Europe. They 

 can never hold rank or station in society — acquire the rational com- 

 forts of life — receive education or the intelligence necessary to be- 

 come members of our free country — or safely to exercise the right 

 of suffrage in our institutions. Gen. T. said, "Will you look around 

 on the articles on exhibition, and pronounce which of you are wil- 



