State Convention—The Farmer in Politics. 
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Thy bulwarks, where—but in their breasts? Thy might 
But in their arms? 
Shall not their numbers therefore be thy wealth? 
Thy strength, thy power, thy safety, and thy pride? 
O grief, then—grief and shame. 
If in this flourishing land there should be dwellings, 
Where the new-born babe doth bring into its parent’s soul 
No joy ! where squalid poverty receives it at its birth 
And on her withered knees 
Gives it the scanty bread of discontent.” 
My friends, does not this appeal thrill every fibre of your hearts, 
and move into living action every good impulse of your nature? 
Is it not a cause for u grief and shame,” that here in this land of 
plenty, this land that God has endowed us with, and which he 
makes so fruitful—should be of all lands at this time, the one that 
feeds its labor on “ the scanty bread of discontent?” And which is, 
most surely is, more the effect of our conduct, than of all others; 
more the outcome of our political inactivity and inertness, than of 
all other causes, potent as many of them might have been for evil. 
Ponder, here again, my friends, and remember, you cannot escape 
the deep damnation that comes of bad government; lmee-deep in 
the soil, you cannot escape the effects of your own neglected duty; 
you cannot escape the scourge that civil strife brings with it—and 
which must come if vou do not rise to the demands of this occa- 
sion—or can you hide your property from the plunderers that fol¬ 
low in its train; when it ends, you cannot avoid the grasp of the 
tax-gatherer, or cover your possessions from the argus-eyed asses¬ 
sor, or in any way help bearing the giant share of the increased 
i burden. 
Your mistakes are your own, but for your error your children 
will pay a heavy penalty. 
On you, more than any other, devolves the duty of driving the 
money-changers from our temple; the duty of cleaning out the 
augean stables of political corruption; the duty of putting a check 
upon the power of concentrated wealth, the sole producer of that 
corruption. You hold the balance of power, and should dare to 
use it. You hold in your hands weapons that fall upon political 
transgressors as lightly as snow-flakes, but with the power and de¬ 
structive force of forked lightning from the hands of an offended 
God. 
