Richmond Indiana palladium. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1837-1839, 1837-11-25
THE WORKING CLASSES.

Extract Of Mr. Legare's Speech in the House
of Representatives.
Sir. as Southern man | represent equal rent,
capital wages. which all COMPOUNDED in
tates-and protest against attempts TO array.with-
out cause, without color of pretext or plau-
sibiIitv, the different classes Of society against
one another, If, in such country as this there
could be any natural hostility any real dstinc-
ton between them-a country in which all the
rich, with hardly an exception, have been poor.
and all poor may one day be rich-a country IN
which banking institutions have been Of immense
service, precisely because they have been the most
needed by the people, who all had their fortunes to
make by good character and industrious habits
Look at that remarkable Professionalism
not a work of art but monument of histo-
(which you see in passing through the Ko-
tunda. Two out Of five of that immortal commit
tee were mechanics. and such men!* In the
name of God. sir, why should any study to
prevent the good sense, and kindly feelings of
this moral and noble people to infuse into their
minds a sulien envy towards one another, instead
of that generous emulation which every thing in
their situation is fitted to inspire, TO breath into
them the spirit of Cain, muttcring deep curses
and meditating desperate revenge against his
brother, because the smoke of his sacrifice has
ascended to heaven before his own! And do
not they who treat our industrious classes as II
thew were in the same debased and wretched
condition rs the poor of Europe, insult them by
such an odious comparison!
WHY, SIR do YOU not know what poverty is
we have poor in this country, in the same sense
which that word is used abroad. Every laborer,
the most humble. in the United States, soon
becomes capitalist; and even. If he chooses, a
proprietor of land-tor the West, with all its
boundIess fertility, Is open to him. How can any
one dare to compare the mechanics Of this land.
(wnose inferority in any substantial particularly.
in intelligence. in virtue In wealth TO the other
classes Of our country. have yet to learn.) with
that race Of outcasts. of which terrible pic
ture is presented BY recent writers-the poor OF
Europes race, among the inconsiderable
portion Of whom famine and pestilence may
be said to dwell. constantiy-many Of whom are
without morals, without education, without q
country. without a God! and may be said 20 know
society only by the Of its penal code, and
to live in perpetual war with il. Poor bondmen
Knocked with the name Of liberty, that they may
be sometimes tempted to break their chains, in
order that after FEY days Of starv alton ia idle
ness or dissipation, they may be driven back &c
their prisonhouse to take them up again, heavi lei
and more CALLING than before; severed, as IT ha.
been touchingly expressed, from nature, from the
common air and light of the sun; knowing only BY
hear-say, that the fields green. that the bird.
sing. and that tire is perfume IN iowersf And
il it viii, race, whom the Perverse institutions
Of Europe have thus degraded beneath the condi
ton Of humanity that the advocates, the patrons
/ the protectors Of working men, presume to CON
pare them!
Sir. II is TO treat them with q scofn At which