172 Wisconsin State Agricultural Society. 
ing, because the hand is encased in a glove of velvet. :i A power”— 
that Mr. Thurber of New York says—has u forged a perpetual char- 
ter, granted without consideration, into a spindle to twist the gos¬ 
samer thread across the chasm of death; and that it needs only 
unscrupulous managers to become a worse tyrant than Nero—a 
more dangerous master than Robespierre.” 
And this power you have but imperfectly weighed or measured, 
nor have you counted the sacrifice you must make to successfully 
combat it, or the courage and daring necessary to subdue it. And, 
u interest”—the thing it uses to increase its own strength, and 
weaken yours—you are told by partizan leaders and a partizan press, 
you must not touch, to curb or control. And although we have 
independent farmers, thousands of them, as the world measures in¬ 
dependence, we have but few that dare, or are able or willing to 
bring in opposition to it the strong arm of prudent regulation, or 
do we place ourselves in an attitude that shall bring it to a realiz¬ 
ing sense of the danger of arousing us to anger; neither have we 
manifested a desire to secure to our interests the minds that would 
command the respect of its possessors, or taken proper steps to¬ 
wards shaping the policy of the government in the direction of our 
own interests. Our efforts, as yet, do not do much credit to our 
ability or our judgment. 
We continue to fill the seats of Congress with men who are 
pledged to other interests, or are held by the stronger power of 
self interest to work against us. And if we fill the seats of our 
legislatures with men of our own class, they are so accustomed to 
being led, that a mere sprinkling of professional men is sufficient 
to control all legislation. And so our rights are permitted to slip 
away, our privileges yielded up a willing sacrifice to capital, vice en¬ 
gendered, and fraud and deceit encouraged, until corruption, nude 
and beastly, stalks abroad in the light of day, and hovers even at 
the door of the highest official in the republic. 
There is, it is true, a seeming awakening of the people to a sense 
of the danger that surrounds them, but I fear it will end in seeming; 
the ghoul will hide its head awhile, a partially aroused people will 
become satisfied, and then relapse into slumber. When capital, 
always alert and crafty, will again play upon our weakness, and 
delude us into throwing power into its hands, or, if necessar}^, will, 
boldly and unblushinglv, place its purchased tools in the seats 
