Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1853-11-07

representation.
Understand that the venerable gentleman,
(Hon. Samuel Hoar,) who addressed those who
were gathered in this hall last evening, and for
whom have the highest respect, appealed to the
mechanics of Worcester and inquired, are
you mechanic, and are you willing thatyour vote
should count only one-fourth part as much as that
of a man in New Ashford, or some other town.
Gentlemen it was not consistent with the ordinary
candOr of that distinguished gentleman, to adj
dress you in that manner. think better appeal
to the mechanics of Worcester might be made in
this way. While you have several representa-
tives from year TO year, and every year, to adyo-
cate your right in the Legislature of the State,
respecting any question affecting yOu-such as
the division of the town or county, or any other
matter deeply interesting to you, you rnwil-
ling hat the people ofany one of the rural towns
should be allowed their right to a single Repre-
sentative, when questions, vital to the interests
of that town, reaching even ~ the dlNisiou,or the
integrity of the town itst L. come UciOre the
legislature? | ask the mech MES OF W orcester,
while they have four cr five representatives, and
are soon to have an increased number, TO advo-
cate and maintain their rights before the legisa-
ture of the Commonwealth if they are willing
that the people of the rural towns, although
sparaely settled, and few in numbers, should yet
be deprived of their rights? (Cheers.)
Gentlemen, the class of rural population occu.
pies at least five sixths of the territory OF Massa~
chusetts. They cannot readily change their hab-
itations, and for the most part where they live
they expect to die They engaged in rural
occupations, yet they have leisure, during the
long winter and at other Of rest to read,
to reflect, to look into the principles of free gov
eminent, and become familiar with those great
truths upon whichit rests securely upon its firm
foundation. They sentas occasionally to the
legislature end they carry back and dttuse in the
neghbOrhOOdS from which they came, the wisdom
and the intelligence which they derive from COM
muning with other minds, and from the discus
siOnS which they hear at the capital of the State
They are men, upon whom reliance can always
be placed in the ur of danger, and they are
men, to whose prudence and wisdom, in the past
the Commonwealth has been much indebted for
prudent measures which have been adopted, and
for the wise management of all the concerns of
government. If there is a class of persons in
this Republic, who can be relied on, under all
circumstances, and in all times, to defend the
soil they tTeadt is the yeOmanry of the country
From that class of our people, from these rural
districts, have sprung, perhaps, four htthS of all
the eminent men We have had i'll this nation.
Look at your great statesmen, your Presidents
from Washington down to he present Incumbent
look at your distinguished men i'll all departments
of life; your Judges, your eminent mechanics
whose inventions have blessed, while they have
astonshed the world; and, let me ask, have not
four ffths of them gained the rudiments of
knowledge, the manhness of character, and the
sound morals, which have adorned their lives,
among the hills and in the rural districts of the
State. Shall this class of citizens be deprived of
their right of repres entation Is it Just to them
Is 1t safe for the State? l think no such selfish
answer as my friend expected, will come from the
hearts of the mechanics of Worcester. cloud APP
plause) But, on the other hand there will be the
generous reply to the men of New Ashford, of
Hampshire, or Berkshire, or of Franklin, 'While
rights are taken of at the capital of the
State send your SlngSe representative there too"
applause
l will not trust to my own thoughts only to do
justice to that portion of the people of the State;
but | will show to you, in few words, in what
estimation they were held by The patriots of the
Revolution At that day. there were but few me-
chancs throughout the country the yeomanry
were i'll proportion. more numerous and in that
time of danger the hearts of the patriots of the
Revolution TUNED to them for support Much of
the talent and wealth at the Capital forsOok the
cause of the country, but there were some lead
ing men there, full of the true spirit of patriot
ism, who felt the detection around them, and who
power, talent, and influence in opposition to
their movements And where did they turn for
support and relief? 1t was to the ye0n,a,uy of
that day. Samuel Adams, the great leader in the
early opposition to the encroachments of Great
Britain, in July, IVA, when writing to another
distinguished patriot of his time said cit is the
virtue of the Yeomanry we chiefly to depend
upon"
Josiah Quincy, Jr.-the JOSIAH Quincy of revo-
lutionary time, one of the best patriots Massachu-
sets has had well one of the wiseSt aud
most eloquent of her young men-in the days
that preceded the revolutionary struggle one
whose writings are now preserved as not only in
valuable to the generation TO which they were
addressed but full of instruction to their p0steritv
in all future time-had occasion to address the
people in reference to the entertainments made bv
the parliament of Great Britain The particular
subject of his thoughts was the Boston Port Bill,
by which the ports of the State shut up
against the admission or egress Of vessels, in or
der to punish it for its INSTRUMENTATION, at that
day The language ofitis this
"Io the Heonld''y of my Country:
The virtue, strength, and fortitude of the State
generally reside in the freeholders of the nation.
! In you gentlemen, the landed interest of the
country, do place my confidence, under God,
this day JOSIAH QUINCY, JR
May IA, 1774."
Now gentlemen, there was no distrust of the
mechanics ofthat day. but they were few in num-
Der. There was, however, distrust of the cities
and the eye of the patriot then turned to the
country. Let me read, in this connection, as
bearing upon the general subject, the language
of James Of Otis, aHothor of the ablest writer's in
defenceof the then colonies, who before the Revolu
ton, said, "The wisest and most vrtuous States
have always provided that the representation
should be numerous, making the word numer-
Gus very emphatic.
Gentlemen who is deprived Of rights by the
proposed amendments? Why, the great com
plant is, that the city Of Boston, which will still
retain thirty five representatives, will yet be de-
prived of her due share of power, because, for
every thousand inhabitants, she has not a repre-
sentative; because she has not, in proportion to
her numbers, the same representation as the
smallest towns in the Commonwealth; and the
distinguished gentleman, he who lately returned
| from the Court of st. James, says he is abso-
lutely TO be "disfranchised" if this Constitution
is adopted. Great laughter.) Let us see
how he is dislranchsed Numerical equality is
not made the governing principle in Connecticut,
Rhode Island, Vermont, Maine; and in MANY
other States of this Union, PENNSYLVANIA
adopted provision in her Constitution, that
no one city or town shall be entitled to more
than a certain amount of representation in
one branch of the Legislature whatever might
be its population. l think it is limited to four
North and South, you will find States which have
felt it to be wise under the circumstances in
which they were placed, to depart greatly from
the principle Of merely numerical equality. But,
If there is State in this Union or if there ever
was on the face of the earth, a State where this
principle should be departed from, it is the State
in which we live. Her circumstances are unlike
those of any other State, and they point strongly
TO the adoption of different principle than mere
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