Jeffersonian Republican. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1840-1853, 1845-01-30
From "The Friend"
CoEnaEa's Reports.
(CoNTINUED.)

autumn, are held, in some principal market towns,
statute fairs, vulgarly called statties, where
young men and women wanting service assemble,
and persons wanting abourers or servants 90 there
to supply ther wants. Such arrangements have
certainly many advantages; but they have also
their evils. and the assembling of large numbers of
men and women, in such cases with, not unfre-
quently, the usual accompaniments of fair, are
said TO lead to much dissoluteness and dissipation
This is to be expected. This arrangement serves
to average the rate of wages, and must be to all
parties great saving oftime. In the present con-
dition of female labour in the United States, there
could be none but the worthless 10 offer themselves
in this way; but with respect to young men seek
ing employment, there would be great advantages
in having day and place fixed in some principal
town, when and where persons wishing for en-
ployment might be found by persons wishing to
employ them; and such an Exchange might be
annually held to advantage. In arrangement of
this kind has often recommended itself 10 my
mind for its convenience, and have, before this,
urged its adoption.
at is painful, though not an unheard of an
omay that, in the midst of the greatest abundance
of human food immense numbers of those by
whose labour this food is produced are actually
suffering and pershing from hunger; that where
ten millions of acres Of improbable lands, capable
of being made productive lands, lie uncultvated,
millions of hands, which might subdue, enrich and
beautfy this waste, from necessity remain unem-
ployed; and that in country, where the accumu-
lations of wealth surpass the visions of oriental
splendour and magnifcence, there exist on the
other hand. such contrasts of want, destitution,
privation and misery, as would surpass belief and
defy the power of the imagination, but for the sup
port of incontrovertible and overwhelming eyi-
dence. Under the present Institutions ofthe coun-
try, perfect remedy is hopeless, and alievia-
ton of these evils is all which can be looked for.
An entire revolution in the institutions of the
try, in the forms Of society, and in the condition
of property, could only be effected by violence;
and the consequences of such revolution it would
be frightful to contemplate. But should revolu-
ton occur, and the framework Of society be bro
ken up, and ats elements be thrown into state of
chaotic confusion, what sagacity could predict
the results, and what security is there that in any
Encouragement these evils would be rectfe6, and
The rights of labour, any better protected | say
the rights of abour, for who, under any circum-
stances, will presume to deny that they, by whose
labour the earth is made to yield her fruits and all
accumulations Of wealth are obtained, have not,
indeed, in common justice, perfect claim to a
full share OF the products Of their own toll.
81 am not disposed to quarrel with any of the
institutions of this great and enlightened country
great and enlightened, a whole, beyond al
most any precedent. / am rot disposed, in any
offensive form, to profess my own preferences for
institutions, to which birth and education may
have strongly attached me- but, TO my mind, it is
obvious that no great Improvement can take place
in the character and condition of the labourng
population, while they remain distinct and SER
vile class without any power of rising ABOVE their
condition. At present the most imaginative and
sangulne no probability of their rising above
their condition, of being anything but abourers, OF
of belonging TO any other than a servile and de.
pendent class. The low state of their wages alb
soutely forbids the accumulation OF any property
j. They cannot own any Of the soil which they cul
) tivate The houses which they occupy belong no
to themselves and they may at any time be turnec
out OF them.
81 believe il is impossible for a man who live;
in state of entire dependence upon others tc
; have the spirit of man; and who, in looking on
upon the beautiful and productive earth, where
God has placed him, is compelled to feel tha
there is not foot of SOIL which, under any cir
f cumstances, be can claim for himself; that there
is not tree nor shelving rock by the road side
where he can shelter himself and gather under his
wing the little ones whom God may have cas-
2 upon his care, but he is liable to be driven away
at the will of another; that the use Of his owl
hands and limbs are not his own; that he cannot
& but at tie will of another find spot OF grounC
, where he can apply them and that even the gush
= ipqs from the rock in the Wilderness and the man
e ma which descends from heaven are intercepted
in their progress 10 him, and doled out too often
reluctant and scantv measure.
d This will not be pronounced an exaggerate
or coloured picture Of Tie conlnlon Of the agfi