The spirit of democracy. [volume] (Woodsfield, Ohio) 1844-1994, 1867-05-07
speech of Hon. Geo. HI. Pendleton.

IAenuietou, | ueiiVereu aI OrDana,O., April
l25, we find the following beautiful pas
sage on the Farmer Republic:
In the spring of 1862, almost before
the active operations Of the war had COM
menced, gentleman addressing New
England audience on its causes, purposes
and progress, said:
81 warn you that none of you will
lever again see the Farmer Re public under
(which you were born"
He is an accomplished speaker, an elo-
quent advocate, learned scholar, a type
of a class, the pioneer Of school. Wealth
and leisure had enabled him for many
years to consult his taste in the mode
and purposes of his life; and as he him
self boasted, in lecture in the city of
Washington, in the presence of Mr.. Lin
coin and members of his Cabinet, he had
devoted it for nineteen years to the dis
ruption of the American Union and the
overthrow of the Constitution which
formed it.
81 warn you that none of you will ever
again see the Farmer Republic under
which you were born"
Why not2 The war then being waged
was avowedly to maintain this Farmer
Republic. The seeded States claimed to
dismember its territory, but otherwise to
leave it untouched. The Administration
asserted its purpose to maintain terrific
rial limits, and declared that its form and
spirit were in no event endangered. The
leading member of the Cabinet, speaking
to the world through the ministers, said:
1.-THE rights of the States and the condi-
tion of every human being in them, will
remain subject to exactly the same laws
and forms of administration, whether the
revolution shall succeed or fail. In the
one case the States would be federally
connected with the new Confederacy; in
the other they would, as now, be members
of the United States, but their Constitu
tions and laws, customs, habits and insti-
tutions in either case will remain the
same" And this was necessarily the
theory of the war on the part of the Fed
eral Government. Otherwise it would
have accepted the issue of revolution;
otherwise it would have taken up arms to
effect change in its own form and ma
ture; and thus, transcending all its power,
would, in the forum of conscience and
morals, have released its citizens from all
the obligations of allegiance.
While Mr.. Seward thus, on behalf Of
the Government, portrayed the issues OF
the war, this prophet
"Prophet, said it, thing of evil;
| Prophet still, if bird or DEVIL"
proclaimed that the revolution was pro-
gressing-that its result was certain---and
warned his hearers to be ready to see tina:
cold things had passed away. and that all
things had become new"
I do not question his motives, nor i'm.
peach his purposes, nor inquire into the
sources of his information. Did he speak
truly? This is the question tonight.
Farmer Republic--not free republic,
not powerful republic, not warfike repub-
lie, not growing republic, not magnificent
republic, not liberty loving republic-bui
Farmer Republic. 1t is an expressive
name. Farmer, the synonym of honesty,
simplicity, frugality, abundance, indie.
pendence; the ideal of labor without ex.
haustion, of luxury without effeminacv, of
providence without corroding care, of ac-
tivity without hurry, of leisure without
lidleness, of freedom without license, Of
purity without bigotry, of independence
without intolerance, Of spirit at once
hopeful and humble, which grows out Of
the eyer-recurring realization, at all times
and in all yicissitudes, of the fulfllment
of the promise that "while earth remain
eth, seed-time and harvest, and summer
and winter, and cold and heat, and day
and night, shall not cease
i Farmer lifel Freedom from the noise
and turmoil and dust and smoke of the
crowded city; freedom from the daily
struggle and daily anxiety for bread
freedom from competition with the crowds
(which throng every avenue and CONNER
cial and mechanical industry; freedom
/ from the close and daily contact with vice
and crime, which the temptations, and op-
portunities, and suFerings of a city life
develop; freedom from the small rooms
the crowded tenement houses, the tainted
atmosphere, the contagious diseases, the
unnatural hours, the undue excitement
the exhausting pleasures, the glittering
j, splendor, the abject squalor, the arti6cia
life Of the city--and in their stead the
lpure air, the abundant food, the deer
sleep, the refreshing dews, the cool breez
les, the peaceful order, the ample homes
the healthful habits, the cleanliness, ths
J contentment of the country, and the quie
exaltation of spirit which springs from
: the contemplation Of the beauties of ma
ture, and the processes of its active be-
nefcence-the absence of the shrewe
cunning, and the acute sense which thu
competition Of trade engenders, and tht
fpresence Of that large.hearted greatness
with which our mother Earth reward
those who call on her munifcenee for tn,
returns of their labor.
"In ancient times the sacred plough employees
The Kings and awful fathers of mankind.
And some, compared with whom your inseo
tribes
, Are but the beings of summer day.
1 Have held the scale of empire, ruled the storm
OF mighty war, then, with unwearied hand,
Disdaining little delicacies, seized
The plough and greatly independent lived"
And all these qualities of individua
life find their representative and counter
part in national character.
Tn scan with curious eve the structuri