38 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



frugal and self-denying labor of half a century; to witness the 

 sudden check of a trade that spanned both hemispheres, and to 

 find settled ruin in circles where prosperity seemed to have chosen 

 its home. But it is a far more touching sorrow when labor finds 

 the temples of its toil closed, and is compelled to wander away 

 upon unfrequented courses, purposeless, homeless, and breadless — 

 the avenues of destitution and crime only opening their broad 

 ways before it. Such events demand that consolation and courage 

 from secular and sacred ministrations should be breathed upon 

 the overstrained and desolate heart. Such revulsions as that now 

 upon us, cannot occur without breaking up routine courses of life, 

 and driving new agents to novel and unexplored fields of effort. 

 It is in this way that communities and States sometimes discover 

 new sources of wealth, in events which may have crushed indi- 

 viduals and families. They develop unexpected energies, and 

 attain prosperity in novel forms and new quarters of the world. 

 The greatest advances in civilization have often sprung, and will 

 yet again rise,, from trains of individual and family misfortune. 

 We cannot measure by standards of human wisdom the ends of a 

 more than human destiny. 



It is an idle fear that the paralysis which has fallen upon or- 

 ganized industry will leave the resistless energies of the American 

 people prostrate and powerless. We must look for such develop- 

 ments as energy Will suggest to those who suffer from the sudden- 

 ly-broken purposes of a settled life. In every circle new ideas 

 will mark out new courses of conduct, and necessity compel ad- 

 herence to newly-formed resolutions. How important is it that 

 the active agents in such great changes should receive counsel and 

 encouragement from those who have faith in men and in the right, 

 rather than that the heart should be chilled by suggestors of 

 despair ! 



It is in this view of recent events that I venture, upon this in- 

 teresting anniversary, to present a few considerations bearing upon 

 the choice of individual vocations and the elements of national 

 wealth. 



