Vermont farmer. [volume] (Newport, Orleans County, Vt.) 1870-1877, 1873-04-04
A REVIVAL.

ton to participate in the general progress Of
the age to a degree not heretofore seen, or
perhaps expected
1t has been often noted that great popular
movements seem, in a mysterious way, to
break out and be rapidly propagated over
wide extent of territory, and even in countries
remote from each other, with no apparent
consentaneity, but by a sort Of general up
rising, as though moved by some vast, unseen,
spiritual force. And such would appear to
be the character of this which we feel dis
posed to call an agricultural revival
1t is not so much movement for improve
ment in the art or science of agriculture
though this is by no means left out of view
AS an attempt to assert aud enhance the
social position and political weight Of the
cultivators of the soil This is very evident.
ly the case, just now, in England, where the
farm llDorers, heretofore regarded as but
little better than the clods they tread upon,
have asserted their manhood and claimed
their rights iu manner so general and en-
phatic, and by acts SO significant, that those
who lew months since sneered at the idea
are now compelled to recognize in the move
ment nothing less than the beginning of a
revolution. 1t is indeed not too much to
say that the farm laborers of Great Britain
to-day, by means Of their Unions are practi-
cally setting the price, not only OF their own
labor, but Of land rents, for it is plain that
higher rate Of wages, in country where the
land is mainly farmed by tenant agricultur-
lists who under the old prices of labor made
no more than living profit, must mean no
less than lower rent for land, and couse,
quenty taking from the income Of the
aristocratic landlord of money to be distribut-
ed to the laborer in the form Of better wages.
In short, it means an approach toward that
equalization Of rights advantages, duties and
privileges which Christianity promised to
mankiud nearly two thousand years ago, but
which antagonistic forces have been able, so
far, almost entirely to Withhold.
This movement among the farm laborers
OF Britain, more imbruted, apparently, than
the negroes of our South, is indeed wonder.
full, and must lead thinking men to recognize
force in human affairs not to be accounted
for on any obvious or natural grounds, since
this class is totally illiterate, besides being
sedulously secluded, by all possible means
within the control of their employers, from
any communication with external influences
likely to arouse them to such movement as
they have 30 successfully made.
In our own country the manifest and grow
ing agitation among the farming people is
not seemingly so unaccountable, for our farm
ers generally own an interest, at least, in the
lands they farm, and to considerable ex.
tent are readers and thinkers. They have
also among them many men capable of being
efficient leaders in awaking their fellows to
the situation, and III demanding the attent ion
of the law-making power to whatever griev-
ances may exist. Still, we recognize in the
movement which has so rapidly spread over
the country,-and which shows itself especi-
ally at the West, in already efficient organ.
ilations of different kinds, all aiming at
the same substantial results,-we see in it
only another form OF that resistance Of labor
TO the expressions of capital which was the
moving cause of the American aud French
revolutions, and of our war for the destruc-
lion Of human slavery, that held the agricul-
tursl laborer as mere chattel These great
movements all had the same basis they
were founded on the inalienabe right of a
man to the full enjoyment of the products of
his own labor.
The power that is always and everywhere
stealing from the many to the few" is
now aggregating itself in this country in
the hands of the great capitalists, who we
see taking possession of all the main lines Of
travel and transportation, and seizing upon
the control Of almost every great manu-
featuring and commercial enterprise. Sue
crssfu in their endeaVors to do this, and roll
ing up by the means, in few years, colossal
fortunes such as the world has never before
seen equaled for extent and rapldity of
growth these rich men, not satisfied with
wealth beyond example, or more likely fear
ING curtailment and loss in their unde rtak-
ihgs are now endeayoring to seize upon our
Government. They do this both by bribing
the members of the state and national legis-
latures, and by buying seats for themselves
ia those bodies They have also corrupted
OF retained many of the leading members
ol the legal profession, and even the judges
Of our courts, in whose hands are entrusted
The liberties aud rights of the people as a
last stronghold Of security, have in many
cases become but the mere creatures and
puppets Of rich men who are engaged in
plundering the people with greater success,
aud fully as great immunity, so far as ever
attended the operations of the robber barons
Of Europe in the Middle Ages.
The farmers, as the most numerous and
most defenceess class, and at the same time
the class producing the most actual wealth
have been the chief victims Of this combina.
lion of capital to rob and rule the country
They feel it, and that is the reason why
sluggish as they are aud are always likely tc
be when not strongly provoked, there has
been such a stir among them during the past
year, They are awakening to the fact that
unless these combinations to despoil them cal
be broken up, they must bid long and last