Iowa news. [volume] (Dubuque, Upper Mississippi Lead Mines, Wisconsin Territory) 1837-1841, 1838-06-16

Il
nols, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, and part
Iof Ohio. tits a bill which will carry benefits.
and give satisfaction, to a greater number #
INDIVIDUALS, than any bill which ever came be-
, lore congress. The eyes of one-third Of the
Union 4, are upon MS, watching the issue Of this
oii'' 70 tnem the mossimportant measure which
e7er came before Congress!
This, then, is a bill for the benefit OF the a.
|gncultural part Of the community, and is il
not rlghttha something should be done for the
dement, OF thatnumerous and meritorious class?
rev know the value of their labor to the coun.
Try! Few calculate the amount, small in the
detail, but enormous in the aggregate, of their
me glorious iabors. see in a report of the Sc.
cfrnry of the Treasury, made to Congress at
the commencement of the present session, that
the bread alone consumed in the United States.
estimated at the low rate of three cents a day
OF each individual, is worth one hundred and
twenty-four millions of dollars. This comes
from the agricultural class, and is only one
Item In the long list Of its productions. The
meats may be deemed Of equal value with the
bread. Then comes the food for all the do
mestlc animals, and, after that, the animals
themselves, Of almost inestimable value. The
cotton, the wool, the hemp, thehax, the lea,h-
er, which furnish the material for the raiment
OF the greater part Of fifteen millions of souls,
come from their hands: After all this, there
is an annual surplus of a hundred millions of
dollars 'of. expoftabc productions, to be sent
abroad to foreign climes, TO bring back the
comforts, the luxuries, the necessares Of life
from all foreign nations, with gold and silver,
and healing medicines: The same exportabIe
productions, in the return form of foreign mer-
Ichandise, pay the taxes which support the Co
yernment. Upwards of eight hundred millions
Of taxes have been derived from that source,
lall bottomed upon the productive industry Of
lthe farmer. Nor is this all. The manufactu-
per, the navigator, and the merchant, find their
Occupation in the productive industry Of the
|cultvator Of the earth. The factory is Furnish
ed with its material, and the ship with its
freight, from the labor of his hands. The opu-
lent merchant, who counts his wealth by mil
lions, has derived his estate from the mere FL
ration Of the farmer productions through his
hands; and the banker, with his bales OF pa
lper money, what would he be were it not for
the annual millions Of gold and silver which
be brought into our country! Combining our
estimate to the direct annual product from a.
griculture, its annual product in food and raj
ment to man, and food for beasts, and in ex-
ports, and one thousand millions ofdoIars may
not exceed its value! All other interests put
together are insignificant, compared to this
lgreat one. Compare the farmer with the bank
er, now the object of SO muck legislative care
and encomium in our country. lie produces
nothing. lie takes an old handkerchief, worn
out in service, has it made into silk paper, cuts
it up into little slips, and sprinkes it over with
figures for dollars. In this way these cherish
ed and exalted characters have made what is
called about hundred millions Of dollars.
Grant that it is really hundred millions
that every paper dollar is good for real dol
ar---what then! why, the whole is only the
tenth part of the annual product Of the culrva-
lion Of the earth! The whole is only worth
thirty-slx days. labor Of the agricultural inter-
fest! But their hundred millions Of paper is
not worth dollar for dollar; vast delalcaiions
will be encountered when the day Of reaiza.
ton arrives; and if lhree.fourihs are made good
will be lIappy deliverance for the country.
Pcradyenturc the whole Of the bank notes now
aHoat in this Union are not worth twenty five
days. labor of the agricultural class; yet this
class can scarcely conciliate a majority for a
lpre-emption law, or a graduation law, while
the support and applause Of the banks COM
mand tho first cares and labors Of the legisla-
| tive bodies.
Besides their productive industry, the agri-
cultural class is the great fountain and nursery
Of the Republican spirit. Other laboring class
es divide that noble prerogatiye with them;
still, from the vast superiority of their NUM-
bers and the peculiar adaptation Of their occu.
patton to the cultivation Of the Independent spi-
rit of man, the cultivation Of the earth must be
looked upon as the great and perennial fonn-
tain of that Republican spirit which is to main
tain and perpetaate our free institutions. Cen
tlemen OF the Opposition affect great alarm
for the overthrow of the Republic by military
chieltains. Let them moderate their terrors.
Let them remember that no coDqueTing gencr-
al ever overturned the civil institutions Of his
country until the faction, corruption, and We.
nality Of politicians had first rendered them
odious and contemplate; and let them see in
the productive classes Of the United States,---
the laborers of all kinds as well as the agrlcnl-
lufalist,-.-the incompatible mass which will
long save our country from that fate.---'rhe Ro-
man Senate had been twice bribed by Jugur-
tha,---an African and almost a negro,---Cato
had been defeated for the consplship by Clo-
dius, ---before Cesar marched his Iegions to
the capital. Let us cherish our productive
classes; let US promote their independence; let
US multiply our GeehoIders and all the produ.
cers. Let us enhance the consideration ofhim
whose labor draws wealth from the earth, and