The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1877-04-19
THE HAND.WORKERS
OF THE
Mississippi Valley
Their Power and Responsibility.

IAN ADDRESS OELlNE DEfOhc ILL AhI1NOAo
FARMERS ASSOCIATION, IN THE SENATE
CHAMBER, AT SPRINGFIELD, ILL, JAN. 25,
1877, BY SYDNEY MYERS.
In order to be practical we must both study
and think. We must study the past, and
think about the future, that we may make the
best of our circumstances, and guide our steps
in our daily walk.
We must know and use what comes to us
from the past, and know and avoid the mis-
takes of those who have lived and labored be-
fore us.
The period between the sixth and sixteenth
centrry-between ancient Rome and the time
of the Reformation-is called the Dark Ages /;
yet, as Emerson says: "These dark Ages
have given us the feet on which we walk, the
eyes with which we see the mariners COM
pass. and the lens for our microscope and tele-
scope" To this period we are also indebted
for printing, glass, paper and many other
things now deemed indispensable. From the
Dark Ages we received the "Magna Charta,"
all the principles of which are by no means
practically applied. Friar Roger Bacon, who
was feared and hated by the populace, as one
leagued with Internal associates produced
from his laboratory gun-powder, which enabled
the Thrall to cope with the iron-clad Knight !;
and finally glulpo2oder abolished the teuddl
system.
SIX HUNDRED YEARS AGO,
Friar Bacon, penetrating the future even of
Liverpool, New York and Chicago, predicted
that the time would come when ships would be
propelled by machinery faster than by many
rowers, needing only pilot to steer and that
carriages would also be driven upon the land,
by the power of machinery, faster than any
animal could run. He thus recognized the
possibilities Of the steamship and the railway.
He was not popular man in his day he was
feared and hated, as q magician and one
leagued with Satan, by the ignorant masses,
and was imprisoned and prosecuted, as sub
yersionist and a dangerous character, by his
Superiors in office.
We are proud Of
THE NINETEENTH CENTURY,
of its achievements, its progress. 1t is true
that we have realized Bacons prediction in the
steamship and the railroad. We have i'm
proved the printing press, so that it can print
and perfect newspapers at the rate of fourteen
miles of papers in an hour. We have the
electric telegraph, the sewing machine, and
improved farming Implements We no longer
thresh out wheat by beating it with two sticks
tied together with thong. We have the
steam engine as our slave to do our painful Ia
bor-om toll
We have machinery which, if placed under
society, would raise it to higher grade, as
5000 jackscrews placed under great hotel in
Chicago raised it to higher grade without pro-
ducing any shock or disturbance of it's guests,
on interrupting its business. Much has been
done in the nineteenth century; but for these
mechanical inventions which are most conspicu-
Gus, and regarding which we feel the most
pride, we are indebted to the poor and obscure
hand-wOrkers.
Great progress has been made in the inven-
ton of appliances for changing the raw ma
terial which Nature has supplied us with in
ineXhaustible abundance, into things useful to
man; into
FOOD, SHELTER, CLOTHING,
furniture and means of instruction. and in the
means for transporting these products through
space; but corresponding progress has not been
made in improving the means Of interchange
and proprietary distribution
We have made little progress in the improve
ment of civil government, either as to efficiency
or economy. We have yet to realize govern
ment " of the people, for the people, and by
the people" We have now a government of
the people by class and for class. We do
not all realize that we are governed by an Oil
garchy composed Of professional office-holders
and ofice-seekers that our elections are usually
merely contests between two sections Of this
class, and the result merely decision as to
which section of the oligarchy shall govern and
enjoy the emoluments arising from the control
of government.
Neither do we sufficiently realize that gov
eminent of the people by the real representa-
tives of all classes is practicable and that it has
been proved to be practicable by many years
experience in another country.
PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION
by the preferential vote is system under which
the majority rules, but under which the various
interests, opinions and desires of all are pro-
portionately represented; system under which
law-making bodies become society in miniature,
and laws the accurate and orderly expression
of public opinion.
L addressed the Illinois Farmers Association
one year ago on the subject of government and
the possibilities OF its improvement. I shall
not, therefore, dwell upon that subject at this
time, further than is, necessary to illustrate the
Importance, in that connection. of improving
the physical, Intellectual and moral condition
of the units which compose the State, in order
to improve the State.
LORD MACAULAY.
in letter to a gentleman who was writing the
life OF Thomas Jefferson, declared that he had
no sympathy for Mr.. Jefferson's views, and
had never expressed any, even on the hust-
ings; on the contrary, he declared that he be-
leved a government, by the votes of nImer-
ical majority, composed of the poorest ana
most ignorant, was utterly impracticable. John
ADAMS, OOuVern6uu MOTIFS, James OtlS. Ste
phen Hopkins. Alexander Hamilton. and other
noble and patriotic Americans of the Revolution.
airy times. doubted the ability of the people tc
govern themselves under a system as popular
even as our existing national government. Mr.
Hamilton thought the British Government
just as it was in his time, the best form thai
had ever been devised Hamilton, up to the
time of his death, had little faith in the per
manency of our constitution he considered il
too weak, too popular. He urged, in the con
vention, plan which required the President t.
serve for life; United States Senators to serve
for life; Congress to have power to legislate OF
all subjects without any restraint but its owl
pleasure and judgment; Governors of States
o be appointed by the Federal Government
0 serve during good behavior, with power Of
absolute veto of all laws passed by State Legis
latures.
Mr.. Hamilton believed that the great MAORI
ty of the people were poor and ignorant, anc
incapable of exercising the elective franchise
with intelligence and freedom.
The argument
AGAINST POPULAR GOVERNMENT
o11uavq baaD that tho oyaa+ ,,,oe, &c AZ,