The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1853-06-03
Few Words About Poor but Honest
People,"

minor town in an adjoining State, very pa
thetic obituary notice of gentleman lately de-
ceased. of whom it is said that, "born of poor
bit honest parents" he ever regarded with
kindness, seven in the midst Of unusual pros
perity," the "humblest of the people in the
community around him." Sc. We doubt not,
from the description given, that he was a very
kind and worthy old gentleman, and we trust
he is now happy in the society of his eccentric
parents, who so strangely blended, as the pane
gyrist assures us, the attribute of honesty with
the circumstance of poverty.
But we hear somewhat too much of this
| thing, and it is exceedingly ill-timed in this
nineteenth century, and out of place in this re-
publican country. 1t is time we had learned
better thngs-that poor men should very rea-
| Oily be deemed honest, and working men re-
spectacle.
Poverty is an accident or incident that we
| would advise all to get the better of as soon as
| proper sense working man is burden upon
| the community and disgrace to society.
| All good men are either working men, in
| valids, or superannuated. Some labor harder
| than others; the task of some is of .ougher
character than that Of others; and some get
better paid than others. But just and ra-
| tonal men hold all alike in their esteem,
| except as the individual honors or dishonors
the calling he pursues Distinctions based upon
the artificial rules of European countries, but
more especially the Celestial Empire, (where
work is fortunately becoming very pressing
just now,) are contemplate absurdties in this
country. greater degree of prosperity may
here attend one pursuit than is realized in ano-
Their, or greater amount of information may
be essential to the practice of one occupation
than another; but as these things are not hered-
itary and perpetual, the idea of the recogni-
ton of castles can only linger in the crania of
fools.
1t is great thing to be an eminent lawyer,
physician, divine, or merchant, but it would be
very little thing to depise in consequence
ones own kindred in the pursuit of less pro-
fitable duties. The relatives now among US
of WAsHINGToN, FRANKLIN, SHERMAN, and
GREENE are no doubt justly proud of the fame
of these men but unless some of them, of
whom we have never. heard, are tenants of
mad houses or candidates for admission, we
presume there would be no affront in telling
them that WASHINGTON was county sur
veyor, FRANKLIN printer, SHERMAN shoe
maker, and GREENE blacksmith. If it were
otherwise, it would but prove the tendency of
families to degeneracy in moral and intellectual
stature under the influence Of worldly pros
perity.
Who is he, no matter how exalted his posi-
ton, who has not relatives in the humblest 4?
The writer has himself seen members of the
immediate families of two Presidents Of this
Republic toiliag for their support in the Sc
yerest OF empoyments; and it is probable that
no man has occupied the White House who
has not been aware that many of his kindred,
unless relieved by himself, were reckoned
among the poor, if not the honest of the land
The only brother of the great CLAY was a
cablnetmaker; WEBSTER, the giant of states
men and the ornament of his country, had
brother in-law who never learned to read until
after completing the period of three score and
ten; and majority of the first statesmen of
the present time are the energetic and ambi
tious sons of poor but honest parents" EVE
RETr (who will never blush to hear IT'D was
discovered in his younger days in the pursuit
of knowledge under difficulties-the Difficult
ties of poverty, though they presented to him
but slight impediments on the road to renown.
The web of social life in this country so in
fallby binds together in sympathy and interest
the whole people, that he who fancies the pos
sibility of other distinctions than those arising
from the possession of wealth, intelligence, and
moral worth, but betrays the folly and igno-
rance that darken h s own perceptions and ex-
pose him to the contempt and dersiou of "a
tional beings.
Whether In the rough scramble of those W ho
are over-zealous for the accumulation of wealth
or the far more happy and tranquil pathway of
such as are content with prompt and liberal
response to the petition for ''our daily bread"
the upright, the Independent, and the noble.
spirited, rich and poor alike, dsdain to think
of the existence of puerile partitions in society,
manifested either by the exhibition of pride
and hauteur on the one side, or of envy, jeal-
ousy, and conscious inferiorty on the other.
But it is not the wealthy who most fire.
quently betray consciousness of any difference
between themselves and those who are less
fortunate; nor is it those who, in the pursuit
Of the right means, are likely to become
wealthy Both of these descriptions of persons
are too busily engaged, the enjoying and
the other garnering up the means of independ-
ence. 1t is the poor in spirit, as we'll as in
purse. whose weak resolutions and feeble exer-
tons sufficiently evidence their inability to
climb, and who would fain reviIe the possess
sor Of that which they are unworthy to obtain.
How well would it prove for them and for
society could they but arouse from the lethargy
OF soul that overpowers them, and by industry
and economy gloriously win the prize of sue
cess, the possession of which by others casts 4
jaundiced hue upon every thing they contem-
plate, and obliterates every just and noble
feeling Of their nature. In the midst of the
prosperity around US, even the shadow of an
snvous thought should be repealed as a dis