The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1875-12-10
PRESInENT,S MESSAGE.

wear of onr National existence free
and independent people, il affords NE
great pleasure to recur 10 the advance
n,ent that has been made from the time
of the Colonies. one hundred years sgo.
We were then people numbering only
three millions Now we number more
than forty millions. Then industries
were confined almost exclusively TO the
tillage of the soil. Now manufactures
abaorb mnch Of the labor of the country
Our liberties remain unimpaired; the
bondsmen have been freed from slavery;
we have become possesSe d of the respect
If not friendship of all civilized Ma
tions.
Our progress has been great in all the
arts, in science, commerce, navigation.
mining, mechanics, law, medicine, &c,
and in general education the progress is
likewise encouraging. Our thirteen
States have become thirty-eight, includ-
ing Colorado, which has taken the steps
to become a State. and eight Territor-
les, including the Indian Territory and
Alaska, and excluding Colorado, making
territory extending from the Atlantic
to the Pacific. On the south we have
extended to the Gulf of Mexico. and in
the West from the Mississippi to the
Pacific. One hundred years ago the
cotton gin, the steamship. the railroad.
the telegraph, the reaping, sewing and
modern printing machines, and numer-
ous other inventions of scarcely less
valne to onr business and happiness,
were entirely unknown.
In 1776 manufactures scarcely existed,
even in name, in all this vast territory.
In 1870 more than two millions of per-
sons we're employed in manufactures,
producing more than s., ,100, ,000.0 900 of
produce in amount. :.annually, nearly
equal to our National debt. From near
ly the whole of the population of 1875
being engaged in the one occupation of
agriculture, in 1870, so numerous and
diversified had become the occupations
of our people, that less than six millions
out of more than forty millions we're so
engaged The extraordinary effect pro-
dnced in our country by a resort to such
occupations has built a market for the
products of the fertile lands distant from
the board and the markets of the
world. The American system of work
ing the various and extensive mannfae
lures, next to the pillow and the pasture,
and adding connecting railroads and
steamboats,, has produced in our dis
tant country results not equaled by the
intelligent parts of other Nations. The
ingenuity and skill Of the American me-
chanics have been demonstrated at home
and abroad in a manner most hattering
to their pride. But for the extraordi-
nary genius and ability of our mechan
les, the achievements of our agricultnr-
ists and transporters throughout the
country, would have been impossible of
attainment. The progress of the miner
has also been great. OF coal of our pro-
duction was small. Now many millions
Of tons are mined annually. So with
iron, which formed scarcely an appre-
ciable part of our products half CEN
tury ago. We now produce more than
the world consumed at the beginning of
our National existence. Lead, zinc and
copper, from being articles of imports.
we may expect to be large exporters of
in the near future. The development
of gold and silver mines throughout
the States ard Territories has not only
been remarkable, but has had q large
influence upon the business of all COM
mercial Nations.
Our merchants in the last hundred
years have had a success and have es-
tablished a reputation for enterprise,
sagacity. progress and integrity, unsur-
passed by people Of older nationalities.
Thia good name is not confined to their
homes. but goes out on every sea and
into every port where commerce enters.
With equal pride we can point to our
progress in all of the learned profess
sions.
CONSTITUTION.
As we are now about to enter upon
the second centennial, commencing our
manhood as Nation. it ia well to look
back upon the past and study what will
be best to preserve and advance our fu-
ture greatness. From the fall of Adam
for his transgression to the present day
no Nation has ever been free from
threatened dangers to its prosperity and
happiness. We should look 10 the dan
gers that threaten us and remedy them
so far as in onr power. We are a
Republic whereof one man is as good as
another before the law. Under such a
form of government it is of the greatest
importance that all should be possessed
of education and intelligence enough
to cast vote with a right understand
ing of its meaning. A large association
of ignorant men can not for any con-
siderable period oppose successful re-
sistence to tyranny or oppression from
the educated few; but inevitably sink in
acquiescence to the will of intelligence,
whether directed by the demagogue or
by the priest-craft; hence the education
of the mass becomes of the first necessity
to the preservation of our institutions,
and they are worth preserving because
they have secured the greatest good to
the greatest proportion of any form of
government yet devised. All other forms
Of government approach it just in pro-
portion to the general diffusion of edu-
cation and independence of thought and
action. As a primary step, therefore. TO
our advancement in all that has marked
our progress in the past century, l sug-
gest for yonr earnest consideration, and
most earnestly recommend il, that Con-
stitntional amendmet be submitted to
| the Legislatures of the several States for
ratification. making il the duty of each
of the several States to establish and
forever maintain free public schools ad-
/ al. ~R Al. u