Ottumwa weekly courier. (Ottumwa, Wapello County, Iowa) 1872-1899, 1878-06-19
The Contrast.

The Hon. James A. Garfield, of
Ohio, in his speech on the army,
brought out some strong contrasts be-
tween English aristocraoy and Amer
lean equality. He quoted the follow
ing statement of a prominent English
periodical as the result in England of
their land system and class govern
ment:
81 have studied the agricultural la
borers of my country carefully for
twenty-years, and have never known
one who was born and reared in the
ranks of mere farm laborers that ever
rose above his class and became we'll
to-do citizen"
Such is not the history nor the re-
suit of our institutions. A large ma
jority of the illustrious men who have
adorned our pages of history in gov
eminent, in legislation, in arts, and in
learning were born and reared in the
ranks of laborers. 1t needs no speci-
fications. The honored laborers of
this country stand prominent in all
departments Of government-they
adorn our most fashionable and re.
fined society-and they are the pos
SCISSORS of the real wealth Of the coun-
try. There is every inducement for
the laborer to love, honor and cherish
our Institutions in contrast with the
institutions Of the Old World which
render labor system of servitude
and degradation. These great truths
should be frequently and constantly
set before our laborers, that they do
not dash to earth the rich and inesti.
mable blessings they enjoy.
But in reading the predictions as to
the future of this country by that
great English historian, (Macaulay,
who does not tremble, when he sees
of late days such unmistakable symp.
toms of our approaching decay and
downfall? On the Odd day of May
1857, on receiving copy of the life
of Thomas Jefferson, Macaulay wrote
q note of thanks, in which occurs the
following remarkable prophesy rela
tive to the result of the war of labor
on capital, and of the consequence Of
dishonest politicians and hateful Com
munists, in inflaming the minds of tn,
idle, the ignorant and the malicious
Mr.. Macaulay said:
!. "Now your country can prosper 81
long as you have great spaces of un
occupied land, great West, for you
surplus population but the time will
come in your history, when New Eng
land will be as thickly populated a
Old England; when there will be n,
more fertile, unoccupied lands 70
your expanding population.
Then will come the real strain AM
test of your institutions. There viii
: be periods of scarcity and distress
, Thousands of laborers will be out o
work, and men will begin to say ther
is no justice in allowing one man t
have a million while another has no
q meal no justice in letting one ma
ride in his carriage and dine sumptu
ously, while another hears his chill
dren cry for bread. And when tina
. hour comes your Government will b
: brought to its final aud fatal tes
Then a discontinued, hopeless, stary
ing majority will elect the Governor
of your States, the members of you
Legislatures, and your President an
then fear, if not in this century, Gel
tainly in the next your country wi
f be as fearfully ravaged as was tn
q Roman Empire by the Huns and tn
Vandals of the fifth century; onl
! with this difference, your Huns an
!, Vandals will have been engendere
f by your own institutions. Your Coz
r stitution Che says) is all sail and n
anchor. There is nothing to stay yo1
q / wish you might have a better fat
r but my wishes and my reason are
v war. And therefore, believing yol
: fate is certain, l cannot congratula,
q you upon Thomas Jefferson and ii
v doctrines he taught
g 1t is passing strange that the labo
+ or, who is being used by dishone
Il and artful politicians, cannot see tn
!. the inevitable consequences of ana
chy are either monarchy or despo
"a ism, under which the laborer new
d did, and probably never will, ha,
r. any rights except those of toll and d
, privation.-Farmer Clarkson IN Sta
:, Register.