The Alleghanian. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1859-1865, 1859-11-03


earliest periods Of It's colonial establish
ment; not more arising from the first
struggling condition Of its original set
tiers, than from the very principles with
which they emigrated, and upon which
they determined to erect the empire which
they founded. 1t is, undoubtedly, true
that labor was at first the necessity of
their being. Hands and arms that had
never toiled before were required to toll
increasingly upon the rugged shores which
were selected as their home And, in this
very fact, a dignity was given to human
industry which had never been before con-
nected with it in modern times. The
NlnthrOps, and Johnsons, and Endicotts
Of that day would have dignifed any sta
ton in life. And when they were seen
hewlng out their future independence from
the wilderness, and rearing their partial
but honorable subsistence from a sterile
and unwilling soil, never had the axe gilt
tered with such light, nor the plow moved
with such majesty before.
Within the recollection of our oldest
citizens, instances were not unfrequent
where our most eminent men considered
1t no degradation to discharge with their
own hands, if occasion required it, servi-
ces usually esteemed mental in the ex-
treme-the grooming of horses and black
ing boots, not only for themselves, but for
their guests. No station could exalt men
who would voluntarily and cheerfully do
this; and boot-blacking, in their hands,
rose to dignity which, in this country,
luxurious idleness, though charioted in
wealth, can never command. In the spir-
it which was thus cultivated, an honor was
affixed to labor, and in the general feel
ing of the people there was transmitted a
moral dignity as connected with industry
even in the lowest shapes in which the
needs Of men required it, which should be
cherished by the present generation and
made perpetual in the future.
The extreme difference between this
general feeling, and the whole moral con-
dition Of the Eastern continent, is a very
remarkable fact. Throughout monarchial
Europe, the permanent distinctions of
castes and classes make labor disreputa-
bic, and give no encouragement to the
general enlargement of the human mind,
nor to the innate ambition Of Individual
thought. Agriculture in the hands Of
peasantry who must live and die in the
rude hamlet in which they were born,
whose ignorance must never be enlight-
ened beyond the clumsy implements Of
culture which their forefathers have used,
who must feel themselves marked and
disting guished as the mere tolerated deni-
zens of soil which can never be their
own, whose fare is Of the coarsest and
meanest provision which can sustain the
life Of man, and the average wages of
whose labor is, in Austria, less than one
seventh, in France less than one-third, and
even in England less than one-half Of the
| average of agricultural wages among the
frecmen Of America. Attempts to rise
above this state, to attain position In
which man may have his honor as man.
and exercise better influence upon the
| destiny Of his own family, or his fellow
men, far from being considered virtue
! which is to be encouraged, or right
which is to be acknowledged, is crime
for which men are to be shot.
! One benefcent operation Of the French
! Revolution, in the midst of all the horrors
of It's spirit and its march, has been to
break up this system Of servile peasantry,
and to multiply indefinitely the owners of
the soil. But even in the agriculture of
France the mildew of the past is still
thickly coated upon the efforts and hopes
of the present; and the minds Of men
crampcd in infancy like the feet Of Chi
nese women, by an unnatural and detcsta-
bic pressure from without, are feeble and
| slow in all attempts TO run into new path,
however attractive and promising.
In mechanical labor and skill the alb
sence of all honor as an habitual attendant
is in Europe equally manifest. 1t is known
| that luxury purchases often at a great
price the beautiful results Of handlcratt
and skill. 1t is known that individuals
of boldness and energy-thosc irrepressi-
bic spirits whose elasticity no bounds can
! Iimit-have occasionally forced their way
through all this downward pressure, and
have compelled an acknowledgement OF
their greatness and respect for their
mighty developments of mental and moral
power from those titled tribes who habitu-
ally fancy their interest to be in widening
the gulf of their separation, and insula-
ting their own condition rs completely as
possible. But what are these among SC
many? Their class are tradesmen and
tradespeople still. And the habitual fact
in their history is not only no encourage,
ment to rise, but great encouragement
and jealousy of their possible ability tc
break the shell of caste, whose accnmula
ted scales ages have riveted upon them