EXHIBITION OF 1868. 
479 
The only place where man enjoys himself in the highest sense of which he is 
capable, is at his own fireside, at his own home ; where all is peace and all is 
quiet and tranquility. Where his wife and children look up to him, if he 
proves himself, as he should, a father and a protector. 
Now, my fellow citizens, go through this farming country as I have done, 
for I have traveled through it to some extent. I find many, very many farm¬ 
ers, living, cooking and sleeping in the same room. Before fall passes away, 
and before winter comes with its chill breath, many of you, I may say most, 
if not all of you, can, if you will, add another little room to your houses, 
even if it is but an humble house made out of logs. You can avail your¬ 
selves of another small room and be happier and much more decent and com¬ 
fortable. Live in comfortable frame houses if you can afford it, and enjoy 
yourselves while you can. Don’t confine yourselves entirely to the demo¬ 
cratic papers, but take a republican paper once in a while just to find out 
what is going on in the republican world. Buy good books and read them, 
and let your children read them too ! Talk over these things among your¬ 
selves, and profit by what you observe and hear. Fill your minds with useful 
knowledge. Read a good story once in a while that will stir you clear up 
from the lowest depths of your soul, and make you feel good. I don’t object 
to that; that is all right. Oh, but say some of these honest farmers, we are 
too tired for reading after being employed on the farm, doing a full day’s 
work. That is because you work too much. It is all idle to tell about peo¬ 
ple not working enough. They work too much. I have never known a farm¬ 
er who has read and kept up with the times, and who was honest, frugal and 
industrious, who did not turn out to be beforehanded enough at the end to 
own a comfortable farm with a good homestead upon it. 
Perhaps you think you have the severest time of it, and that the labor of 
professional men is less irksome or exhausting than yours. You may suppose, 
perhaps, that lawyers, and doctors, and State Fair presidents, and secretaries 
play and kick up their heels half of their time ; but I tell you they do not 
have half as much time for play and recreation as farmers and mechanics, if 
they w’ork upon the same system that physicians, and lawyers, and men of 
business work upon. And there is the difficulty with you. It is want of sys¬ 
tem; that is the matter; it is a want of organization. The reason why you 
farmers can not control the price of wheat is because you cannot control 
yourselves. In Milwaukee, perhaps, wheat will command a price from 2S to 
60 cents in advance of what can be obtained for it here. There is organiza¬ 
tion which you have not got. If you did not work so much and sat still a lit¬ 
tle more, and directed all your efforts systematically and understandingly, 
you would soon find that there would come up from the agricultural and me¬ 
chanical populace a powerful influence that would control the whole indus¬ 
trial interests of this country. The whole industrial interests, I say, my fellow- 
citizens, because you must remember that it is from the labor of the hands 
alone that wealth is produced. 
Go into the bity of New York and visit its magnificent stores. There you 
