The anti-monopolist. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1874-1878, 1876-02-03
7ou as party Ignoring as your adverse

for noticeable examples to convince you
Of the selfishness Of the emoneyed inter-
ests. and of their complete abnegAtion of
party, will cite you only to our neigh
boring city Of St. Paul, where live the
Railroad Kings OF our State. A State
Senator is wanted to counteract the in
duence of the ''Grangers." The very
chief of the railroad interests is selected
and triumphantly elected by the vote of
all parties. Two years pass blythe
term OF Senator and another is select
ed and elected without even show Of
opposition, and in city, too, where par
ty spirit is as rampant as in any part of
the State. What does it mean? It
means that the interests of commerce,
traffic, speculation, monopoly, are para
mount to party considerations. Brother
farmers, l ask you again, are you as par
ty-ignoring as Chamber of Commerce?
Arcyou as wise as your opponents?
| American farmers! You, and your
ancestry have hewn your way from the
rocky shores of the Atlantic to the fertile
prairies OF the Great Valley nay, our
brothers have climbed the Rocky Noun
tains, and are spreading for hundreds of
miles along the Pacific coast. Are we
less potent, are we of less consequence
than our ancestors of q hundred years
ago? 1t was then country Of farmers.
governed by farmers, with farmer for
its President. Do not, l beseech you,
resign without struggle, your hitherto
undisputed birth-right, your unim-
peached prerogative as American farm
ers. Your numbers make you the gov
ernors of the country. Do not admit
that the staff OF empire has been taken
from your hands. Do not acknowledge
yourselves a prescribed and inferior
class. Do not be driven to the status Of
serfs. Do not lie down, like the camel,
to receive your burden, but stand for
your rights as class. Stand for the dig
nifty of your calling. Stand tor the dig
nifty of labor. Stand invulnerably to-
gether, as q phalanx that cannot be
broken, and labor will maintain its indie
pendence. [Applause.
1t was the advice of the English NOR.
alist to the peasantry of his country, to
be content with the condition in which
Heaven had placed him. a condition al
most as insurmountable as that OF Hin
doc caste. AS though the robbery of his
ancestors estates BY the rapacious and
naughty Norman had the sanction of
Heaven!
l. as an American, acknowledge no
snch acquisition. Let no melancholy,
but, perhaps, tender-hearted moralist
muse over my tomb in strains like the
following:
Beneath those rugged elms, that yew-tree's
shade,
Where heaves the turf in many Wondering
Each in his narrow cell forever laid,
The rude forefathers OF the hamlet sleep.
Oft did the harvest to their sickle yield,
Their turrow oft tn stubborn gleb has
broke,
How jccund did they drive their team aield,
How bowed the woods beneath their sturdy
stroke
Perhaps in this neglected spot is laid
Some heart once pregnant with celestial fire;
Hands that the rod of empire might have
swayed,
Or walked to ecstacy the living Tyre.
But know ledge to their eyes her ample page
Rich with the spoils Of time, did meier I'M
fold
Chill penury repressed their noble rage,
| huu .IOZc Tie kcutai CuCicuI vi Tic sOOl.
| But rather let them write,
Some village Hampden, that with dauntlese
breast.
The little tyrant of his fields withstood! (Ap-
plause.
Bv all means, stand by the Order ia
your own State. Your hands are on the
pillow, do not look back Let nil des-
perandum," never despair. be written
upon your banners. Adhere to it for the
good We may acquire from it, our indi-
vidual selves. Adhere to it in a broad
missionary spirit. tor the good to others.
Adhere to it for orr ancient and pri-
mary honor. for l behold On this plat
form the first Worthy Grand Master Of
represented. glorious North Star
Grange. named from the Etoil du Nord,
the motto Of our noble State, the great
central star that never sets. and around
which so many glorious consultations
continually revolve. From our exam
pie. and the feeble beginnings here. the
Order took form, and shape. courage,
efficiency and hope, and sOutherly and
eastwardly spread. onward and widen
ing. like the rushing. lurid fires Of your
prairies. Yes, from northern affairs.
bound half the year in icy fettters, the
torches were kindled, that have fred the
hearts Of our agricultural brothers OF the
sunny south, TO the summer waters OF
the southern Gulf. and reversed the or
der OF things. for costsC0rd the star Of
light and empire takes its way.
Perhaps it is no disparagement for me
10 say that we builded wiser than we
knew.-When the starving women Of
France went madly and wildly through
the streets of Paris, crying, "give Us
bread or blood, for we are starving !"
they did not see the tracks of future rev
olutions; they did not see the headless
bodies OF the king and queen. at the
guilotine-a feudal aristocracy that had
been established for . thousand years,
broken up, and its members fed as
refugees 70 all countries of Europe; the
great landed estates OF both Church and
MOBILES cut up into small tracts and sold
IL