■;•■.. .i;'-.y*r-7»|r3:< 



iWf' 



in comparison with Mi' Lord and his sons, 



that rode fast horses and hnnted foxes. 



They might dress clean of a i^^ holiday, but 



might not wear such as the gentlemen in 



their neighborhood wore, not even if they 



could afiFord it, which was not often the case. 



That would be quite unbecoming. They 



were as thoroughly trained to cringe, and 



fawn, and make low bows, as men of their 



sterling sense could be. Now the effect of 



odTUjation is tremendously strong. What 



is drilled into the bones of a race, cannot 

 be breu QUI 01 tne tlesn «in one century, nor 



two nor wholly in three. Our fathers came 

 bere fully prepared to look up, and if any 

 one , whether lawyer or doctor, merchant or 

 gentleman, assumed to fill the place above 

 them, it was perfectly natural to them to 

 see it filled. We have not the least doubt 

 that this cause operates to this day, and 

 will for another century. Under its influ- 

 ence, the American farmer feels very much 

 like taking off his hat to everybody that 

 wears a fine coat, and talks a little more 

 flippantly than he can. Heaven forbid that 

 we should destroy his respect for real intel- 

 ligence and worth. Our national bump of 

 reverence has nothing to spare. As a whole 

 we would sooner see it growing than de- 

 clining. But we cannot bear that the farm- 

 er should allow himself to feel an inferiority 

 in the presence of men who are not really 

 his superiors. 



This tendency of the farmer to think di- 

 minutively of himself as compared with men 

 no way his superiors, was helped oa by tho 

 entire policy of the English rule, so long as 

 we were colonies, but what drove the nail 

 and clenched it for centuries, was tie colon- 

 ial policy of compelling our fathers Jo depend 

 on England for our manufactures. For a 

 while this could be endured, became in the 

 infancy of a colony the settlers a'e neces- 

 sarily dependent. They cannot clear up 

 their lands, build houses, establish churches, 

 colleges, schools, factories, all at oilce. The 

 building of factories, the devel(pment of 

 mineral resources, the proper diviiion of la- 

 bor, must of course be postponed fir a while. 

 While they were postponed to thi necessity 



of the case, and by common consent, the 

 system became fixed uponns so strongly that 

 it seem^> Ukely to take tl^ years of (another 

 jubilee to slough it off England must make 

 our door locks, whether she could make one 

 that would keep out her villains Coming 

 among us or not. Her smithy must have 

 twenty-five cents for making it j her export- 

 ing merchant must have twenty-five more 

 for bringing it here; the jobber would get 

 twenty-five more, and the retailer another 

 twenty-five; and the farmer pay one dollar 

 lo. „ 1.^ ^^^^ would make a rogue laugh 

 and an honest man crj. It may be said 

 that this is not so very i.»a, uv w«,.ea than 

 we are doing now, when we buy English 

 razors for & dollar, which everybody knows, 

 or should know, are retailed in England for 

 one shilling. 



British manufacturers at home, and Brit- 

 ish merchants stopping in New York, love 

 to shave us, and if we love to be shaved, let 

 it go on. But the trouble with our fathers, 

 was, that they had no money to buy those 

 locks to let in rogues with and those razors 

 to be shaved with. They could grow pro- 

 duce, but there was no manufacturer among 

 them to consume their produce. It went a 

 begging. Nobody would buy it. Now, 

 when any one has a great deal to sell, but 

 can raise no money for it, he feels like rather 

 a small sort of a man. He can hardly hold 

 up his head among merchants and others 

 who have money enough. And yet this is 

 the very training which American farmers 

 have been through. Even since this cen- 

 tury came in, fatted calves have been killed, 

 the fore-quarters thrown to the pigs, and 

 the hind-quarters carried a long way and 

 sold for two and a half cents a pound. Pay 

 was often taken in India cotton at fifty 

 cents a yard. Nothing could tie more un- 

 favorable to agriculture. We have often 

 wondered why the farmer did not lie down 

 in the furrow. There is a sense in which he 

 did; — he became unenterprising, nor was he 

 to be blamed for it. He lacked incentives. 

 He, in a measure, lost his self-respect. 

 Anybody that could get some money was 

 better than he. He rejoiced if a young law- 



