160 Wisconsin state agricultural society. 
another, have men been driven whenever the nation has been un¬ 
true to the fundamental principles of its constitution. It is not 
wonderful, therefore, that men grow cynical and skeptical as the 
horrible details of the Tammany ring, the Kansas senatorial elec¬ 
tion and the credit mobilier become public, and that many lose 
faith in the capacity of the more depraved and ignorant portions 
of our country to govern themselves. 
For one, however, I do not share in this lack of faith. I admit 
very grave existing abuses in our body politic, arising from failing 
in practice to carry out the theory of our government. “ Go and 
put your creed into your deed,” said anti-slavery Emerson to the 
' slaveholdipg republic. The admonition must be repeated to a 
republic that, based upon the rights of men, gives unequal priv¬ 
ileges to capital and labor; to corporations and private persons; to 
manufactures and agriculture; to trade and productions. Evils 
in some shape will be a constant attendant on democratic govern¬ 
ment, just as they are on all other human affairs. Bryant, in his 
glorious poem, apostrophizes freedom, not as 
“A fair young girl with light and delicate limbs, 
And wavy tresses,” 
but as 
“ A bearded man armed to the teeth.” 
And adds— 
“ Thine enemy never sleeps, 
And thou must watch and combat till the day 
Of the new earth and heaven.” 
We must expect the old foe under new faces. It was African 
slavery ten years ago—it is corporate wealth and monopoly 
to-day—it will be something else when this war with our Shy- 
lock aristocracy has placed them where our former slave aristoc¬ 
racy is now—in the position to earn what they consume by hon¬ 
est work. But, recurring to the self-evident truths of the decla¬ 
ration, and to the manifest drift of civilization, no man can be 
doubtful of ultimate good results: provided that you and I do 
our duty as citizens, and that when the cry of the “Philistines be 
upon thee,” arouses this young giant of nations, it shall not be 
found shorn of its strength in the harlot lap of luxury and cor¬ 
ruption. Let us never despair of the republic; never give up, 
