The Lamoille news. (Hyde Park, Vt.) 1877-1881, 1877-10-31
ADDRESS.

Oh ttc hidilAttHs EtfNh -
their picnic, on the Camp-Ground, last
fall, a portion of the address delivered
on that occasion by l.. b. Sherwin' OF
Hyde Park. Subject :-''The causes
that produced the Grange, and the
necessity for it's continuance;
Grangers and Friends II need not
take much time, nor many words, to
prove that the order of Patrons OF
Husbandry, was born of necessity.
1t was needed to protect the farmer
from the oppression of those who were
ever ready to take advantage OF
his ignorance, and, by their position
in life, were able to know sooner and
better than he. the prospective state
of the market. 1t is a lamentable
fact that large share of the profits OF
agricultural labor, in former years, has
passed not into the hands of the tiller
of the soil, but into the pockets of the
speculative middlemen. The merchant
and business man had advantages
which the farmer did not possess.
While the one was cultivating his
mind the other was tilling his
soil; and, as a natural result,
the one became shrewd, sharp,
and cunning, ready at all times
to take advantage of the ignorance OF
the necessity of the other. And here
let me remark that | wage no war with
the merchant or Spectator. They
have both been a necessity in their day
Our distance from market, our limited
and expensive means of transportation,
our ignorance of mercantile transac-
tons and the necessity of our adopt
ing the credit system, for want OF
means, have all conspired to place
the merchant and farmer in just that
relationship to each other that prevail
ed when our order came into exist
ance. 1t was the natural outgrowth
of our relative positions in community,
and due in a large degree to lack OF
intellectual culture on the part of the
laboring man. The intellectual i'm
provement of the laboring class, has
never kept pace with the onward march
of civilization. History teaches us
that no man or class of men, no party
or creed, political or religious, how
ever pure it's principles, however just
it's motives, however high and noble
it's purposes, can long maintain it's
primitive purity, without some antag-
onistic principle, some opposing force
to hold it in check. Mans love of
gain, his love of power, his love of
notoriety, his ambitious desires, all
tend to force him beyond his proper
sphere of action, all tend to make him
a tyrant and despot unless held in
check by some eqally powerful oppo-
sing force. There has been a class in
American society which have held an
undue power. The honest but less
shrewd farmers have been beneath
them, and in great measure subject
to them. 1t is, however, an old and
true proverb, "give the devil rope
enough and he will hang himself"
Give the tyrant or despot opportunity
and they will destroy themselves. 1t
was the tyrant of King George the
3rd, that produced liberty in America.
1t was the intolerance of the church
that caused the reformation. 1t was
the arrogance and oppression of the
Shareholder that liberated the slave
And like causes are arousing the farm.
ing community to take the position
which rightfully belongs to them. Ii
the early ages the oppressed relied al
most wholly upon physical force tc
hold in check his oppressor. Hence
war and bloodshed fill a large portion
of the historic page. But happily fo1
man the dawn of brighter days appear
The intellect begins to assert its right
Education is being appreciated by thu
laboring man and he begins to realiz,
that man though a farmer need no
be destitute of the pleasures and powe
of cultured mind. We live in a diff
ferent day and generation from tina
in which our fathers lived. They wer
the men who felled and cleared tn
primitive forests, who swung the heav,
axe, or piled the ponderous tree-trunk
in high and massive heaps, dexterous
ly guided the jumping harrow over tn
rooty soil, or with patience inexhaust
able, held the old wooden pillow anon,
stumps, roots and stones, who coul,
handle the scythe, rake or fork sixteel
hours in q day, and not complain O
fatigue, or bend to the reaper's tasl
from early dawn till evenings shade
and then join their fair companions a
an apple-bee, or, in winter, make tn
barn ring with the music of the fla
through the day, and in the evening
yoke the oxen to the sled and tax
their families to visit some neighbo
(perhaps miles away without even
buffalo robe or furs of any kind to pre-
tect them against the frosts of Vel
mont winter, men | say who coul
perform such labors and endure sue
hardships as did those of the earl
days of our country, although we
adapted to the times in which the
lived, and the condition of the countr
then, were, nevertheless, a very differ
ent class of men from that which tn
times demand to day. Then, the gres
need of the times was muscular strengt
and physical endurance, and the me
who, from their early boyhood, wei
taught and trained in the severest hare