St. Charles City Republican intelligencer. [volume] (St. Charles City [Charles City], Iowa) 1857-1861, 1861-01-03

Bf d. u fEIsBlE, NJ ID.
lubl he'd by request Of the Society.
Mr.. President, Lodies and Gentlemen,
and Members Of The F2oyd County 1g-
rieultural Society:
In response to the invitation of your
Secretary. have brought hither my
humble talents and limited obscrva-
ton. Your Society, youthful in age,
and important in the results which il
is designed and destined to accom-
plish, deserves better tribute than
| am capable Of rendering. ask
therefore that yon listen with patience
and criticise without severity.
The dignity of labor,-the natural
advantages Of your new and rapidly
settling country-thc disadvantages
incident to a new country-thc i'm
provemcnts, important to success, in
industrial pursuits, and necessary to
give happiness and comfort-and
word Of encouragement deduccd from
a contrast of the past and present
state of agricultural science, will form
the topics Of the present address.
THE DIGNITY OF LABOR.
"Mun is formed for action" The
first necessity Of his being is self
preservation. The highest object OF
his life, the perfection of all his faeul-
eise,-->...-i A..t-i- ..-l - ~. X -n.J ILL.,.
his moral faculties IHay reach the
highest state of refined scnsitivcncss.
that his mental powers may become
clear. strong and vigorously brilliant,
it is absolutely and essentially ncccs.
sary that his physics organization be
fully and harmoniously developed.
That such development may be per-
feet, action, that brings into full and
free exercise the complex machinery
of his entire organism. is requisite.
Such exercise must be INDUCED day
after day, and year after year, while
life shall last. This Lar Of Action is
coGval with the race. Ever since tho
fiat went forth, by the sweat of th,
brow shalt thou eat bread" it has beer
the universal law, adapted alike t
the condition of the srocco-breathins
African, the Alpine Peasant, the rec
man of our Western prairies, tn
blubbcr-loving Esqumcaux, and tn
hardy and cnterprising Anglo Saxo'
nations, that have yielded obedicnc
to thiselaw. have become famous i
F the history of our race have bee
exalted to the highest point of exec
lcncc and greatness while other n;
! tions, living in disregard or in viol'
, ton of this law, have remained
, barbarism or fallen into the dcepc;
degradation. As with nations, s
with individuals. The individual Yl
gives up to indoIencGbSt0mes drot
: in society his moral faculties b
come vitiated his physical organic
/. tion diseased. The question natura
: ly arises, if action be so necessary,
q what ought that action to consist
As "sclf-prescrvation is the first n
a. ccssity of mans existence" it becom
1 obvious that the law Of action is
. tended to administer to that pescs
. lty Hence, that action which cloth
II and feeds, and warns and cools,
Of turns, the animal being, thuskeep
10 the Individual and the race fr9Ir I
Ut tinction, is the action req d a
lc demanded by this law. ION th
~ applied is Labor.
h, Labor, then, conduces to man's &C
nd fort, happiness, usefulness, to the
IS, largcaent of his mind, to hcpurity
re- his morals, and to the health and v
up or of his body. Labor frees man fr
les poverty, keeps him from crime
let leads him to competence and b
cs or. Labor gives freshness and bu
he ancy to youth. strength and nanlin
Inc ITO middle age, chccrfnlness and
rill tcntmcnt in old age. 1t is fashio
ful bic in some localities to speak di
spectfully of labor and of the la'
fol- cr, to- maintain the doctrne that Il
for. must be a laboring class tosdo
cst drudgery of society, aud a class all
labor to do&,he thinking, speak
hat writing ands governing, contain
|, is within itself chiyalric class
With alone are to do the fighting. II
ture view of labor is correct, this idea