The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1873-10-16
THE QUESTION OF THE DAY.
The Importance Of the Farm
ers' Movement.
Speech Of the Hon. Charles G. Williams
Before the WaukCSha Agricultural So
ci6ty Delivered Oct. 10, 1878.

trumpet norm Wnlch mas starred the nations !!
Ii has swept the land and the sea; it is SOU nd
ing on the plains and in the valleys; it is
echOing in the distant mountain glens Its
purport is: "FdrmerS to the frOnt!H And
rank on rank, and tier on tier, forth they
stand, five millions nine hundred thousand
strong Armed with scythes and rakes, and
pitchfoTks, but they are no mob; neither shall
the 'gates of help nor any railway company
prevail against them. Thus comfortably as
sured, believing that you have the right,
knowing that you have the power, realizing
that your cause is grounded in the Constitu-
ticn, butressed by the common law, fortified
by legislative enactment, and sustained and
sanctioned by Judicial decision, you are in
condition calmly and impartially to consider
your wants, your necessities, your duty to
yourselves, and your relation to other classes
Of your fellow.men.
The invitation which you extend TO me TO-
day fairly implies that am expected to speak
upon some Of these things, of which may
possibly know something, however slight,
rather than upon the details of sole atific
or practical farming, of which / know COM
paratively nothing
Though Injured in boyhood to the ordinary
routine of farm life under the old methods,
yet, in this age Of invention and applied
science, my chances for instructing a prac-
tical farmer on the duties of his daily avoc 4
ton would be exceedingly problematical
There is one thing, however, which do re-
member, and which / never wish to forget,
and that is that nowhere on this earth, that
know of, are the acts and dolngs of public men,
and men prominent In society. so keenly scru-
tinized, so thoroughly discussed, SO completely
digssted and assim1s ted, as around the hearth
stone Of the American farmer There is
reason for this. The editor skins his ex-
changes, and writes for the day. The profess
sional or business man reads the current ne VS.
of the morning, and is strai ghtway lost in the
thous md details of his profession or business.
The farmer peruses and reperuses the printed
speech or public journal, and reflects upon its
contents in the silence of the fields, or the
solitude of the forests What there is in it
that he approves, becomes bone of his bone
and flesh of his flesh What he disapproves,
he rejecvs as drOss and verbiage. He remem-
bers your record; you cannot teach him one
thing to-day and another thing tomorrow
He is patient and long suffering; he will give
you fair trial; he will not ject you by reason
of one mistake. or a series OF mistakes, if in
nOcently com mitted II it only when he,
and others like him, make up their minds that
you are adic Ally and viciously wrong. that the
wind rises and the leaves whirI in the blast.
Then it is that public men and public meas
ures must stand upon true manhood and real
merit, or be swept by the board, as by the be-
som of destruction.
What Ihave just said of the American far
mer, that would l say of the American masses
How long and yet how long shall we be III
learning that one lesson in this country
have heard the Farmers Movement SO
called, lightly spoken of. | have heard the
Oranges" and patrons Of Husbandry'j ser-
ed at, as things unworthy of a serious thought.
l have heard the whole matter character
lied as a mere midsummer madness, which
would expend itself in its own fury. / cannot
so regard it. While we may doubt as to some
of its methods and iustrumentalities, and
tremble at its liabilities to betrayal, and the
terrible OPPOSITE N which 1t must encou otter
and overcome, nevertheless can but see in
it the porteuts of coming Storm, which shall
move with the majesty of justice and
the potency OF truth AS it is the only
thing which has touched the people
in their vital interest, and aroused them to a
sense Of danger, So under God, l trust it
may be the mo Vement which shall right this
nation and save it from the Stygian waters Of
corruption everywhere rising to engulf it,
l see no reason TO bemoan the struggle. 1t
is one of the essential conditions OF life If
you take the waves out OF the sea it becomes
putrid and dead. II you rob the air of its cur
rents, iC no longer sustains vegetable or ami
NAL life. There is no peace bat the peace
grave Suffering and pain are NATURES
rsadiest incentives to noble action, and her
best preservatives of healthful life. The
twinge of the nerve is but q Telegram to the
brain, and co nmotions and explosions in the
body polite are but signal guns that the cita-
del has been assaulted II might have been
sapped and mined. and no sign given, but
when the ASSAULT is openly made, the opportu-
mites for defense are fairly rendered, and
should be promptly accepted
Buckle says: "Msn are sure 10 GbWSe poVer If
much IS conferred on hem,n and that ''Ghere is
but one protection against the tyranny of any
class; and that is to give that class gerry little
PoWer." think it equally true, that no man
or class Of men are so lily prepared to Judge of
the strength or perpetuity Of the power which
they actually do possess, as those who fancy
themselves in the possession OF uno uestioned
power. The very reoklessness which such a
feeling begets, constitutes the surest and most
imminent source of danger. There is no
sublimer sight than that of one man CON.
tending in the cause of right, or what he be-
lieves to be righs, against the multitude: but
reverse the latter conditions, and that which
was sublime becomes pitiable We should
carefully examine the seats Of power and tn
sources of right, before girding on our armor
for the contest. Many are awe-struck by the
appearance of things The train that sweeps
tn g prairies and rattles on through the noun
tain gorges, is thing of magnificent and posi-
tive power How insignificant the farmer ap-
pears out in the lonely field standing at his
plough-tail as the train rushes past him |!
Yet that farmer represents a power which,
gui led by intelligence and controlled by rea-
son, can apply tho breaks to those car-wheels
and, if need be, cause them to stand still at
his very door. Not because he is.a farmer not
because he is a lAborer; nor yet because be be-
longs to this class or that; but because,
standing there on his own acres, within sight
of schools and churches, he represents the
traditional and best type of American man
hood. He is clothed with all the rights which
a free republic can confer upon it's citizen.
Deprived of right he becomes the exponent
Of the whole power of the Government to re-
dress wrong; and the man, the corporation,
or the party which shall fling itself in the