Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1879-09-03


drive and harness the horses, cut alders on
a soil SO poor and stony that it would
take half an hour almost to find a hoeful
of dirt to cover hill of corn. 1t taught
u man to depend on himself, to have re-
sources, to depend on himself and not on
others. No man in the world is more TO
be pitied than sons of rich men, who sup
port them in idleness while young, giving
them no practical educatiOn-then fail and
leave them with no resources, no knowl.
edge of how to do things. They mny have
ideas, ideas are good things, but the abili-
ty to turn an idea into potato is what is
needed. To make ideas bear fruits of
reality tests the ability. lie remembers
the plow of his youth, but he don't re-
member such tools of lightness and
strength as he sees to-day lie remembers
the scythe, but he does not remember the
moving machine; he remembers the
sickle, but not the reaping machine. They
had no pitch forks which would take half
IL ton of hay from the cart and carry it
away from the cart to the flrthest part of
the barn.
Are farmers tie drudges they used to
bep They used TO raise crops. sold what
they could, fed what they could to their
beasts and pigs, and lived on the rest,
Now where can you find more generous
livers than our farmers; Many see an
indication of great danger in our immi-
grants, but they make good citizens. The
cry is, ''they are buying up all the land"
Let them buy; man owning land makes
him better citizen, he has more at stake.
Every man ought to own a piece of land
if not otherwise. government should give
them piece about by s.
In one vicinity he knew the Irish con-
trolled the schools, and did they have
poorer schoolsp No. Our people were
apt to be penurious, to count the cost too
much, but here they wanted their
children to have good education at
whatever the cost might be. He is not
one of those who stand on the shore and
halls to the emigrants, Come over
10 us, we have room for all, and when he
gets Eere, damn him. New England
from her stock in trade, ice and granite
her hardships, had more than many other
states from their uperabundance. New
England was never as prosperous as now.
Never before have we had as good schools,
colleges, normal schools as now-never
more social virtue. Never was there a
more profound, deep-rooted, vital religious
feeling among our people than now, not
even in Pilgrim days.
Theology must change its forms, while
its heart remains ever the same. In love
and in charity, in good works, and in
doing to your neighbor us you would
have him do to you, New England never
was richer than now. Never before was
New England so good Il place to live in
or emigrate from. Never before has she
been as prosperous as now. She is the
head, the brain of the country. They
talked before the war of voting New Eng
land out of the Union; why, man might
rs well vote his head off. The Middle
States were prosperous and progressive.
They had n great man there, Il man who
was greater even than he showed in con-
grcss. In Pennsylvania, where they were
voting for jackson twenty years after he
was dead; where they would not have a
school, Thad. Stevens inaugurated the
New England system of common schools
and carried it. The great aCeSt is the mir
acle of modern times; the growth of the
mushroom, with the solidity of the oak.
Never in the worlds history was seen so
many cities grown up so rapidly and with
such healthy growth. California is COM
ing up, for her mines are getting emptied.
Mining is gambling, and they are leaving
that and turning TO agriculture. The best
gold mine lies under Il potato hill and
among the roots of corn. California has
! been cursed by her mines. If he could
underlie every acre of old Connecticut
I,,,itb ,ah win bn NJ.
it would curse her soil. Look at California
now, Mt her scale of farming. One ranch,
on which his son was learning the ranch
business, had two hundred thousand acres
of land, and another man received three
hundred and fifty thousand dollars for his
crop of wheat But large farms were
running their owners, thank God, and we
must have small farms with large farmers
on them. But some one may say, "What
of the Chinese?' Take the Irish out of
California and we should hear no grum.
bling about the Chinese. They are the
cleanest people under the sun (present
company eXcepted), and the most indus
trious, nobody excepted. They made Il
living and gained moderate competence
from what others wasted. They worked
cleaned wealth from the once washed
sand. If II malign angel was ever allowed
TO strike II nation, it was in California in
the feeling engendered against the Chinese.
Some say they bring their religion with
them. If we have II religion which can
not hold its own against that of the Chinese
| in Gods name let it 90 down.
What of the south? The south are be-
having themselves better than at any time
before the war; there was never SO much
| hope of the south rs now. With those
who for generations had been slaves sit =
ting in congress, it was not to be expected
that all would accept the situation with
cheerfuness. But time would work the
entire cure. Looking at Virginia, the
Carolinas, Georgia, Alabama, Florida
taken at the present condition the crops of
this year would be productive of more
wealth than any two years before in her
history, and soon we should be one great
land from north to south, from east to
west, with no intestine strife.
What of finance? Credit works Il reac-
ton once in about fifteen years. Since
1873 we have been settling up and getting
ready for another season of prosperity
greater than we have had before, which
will come when everybody is out of debt.
Never was there time more favorable
for man out of business to 90 than now,
if you are all out of debt; and in about
fifteen years you will all be in again.
Laugh now, you won't laugh then.
lie closed by saying that he counted
this day as one of the pleasantest he ever
spent in Vermont. He knew he had many
friends, but did not expect to meet SO
large an audience here to-day, and he
should return from this brief trip to his
mountain Businesses with pleasant memo
ries of the day and the state.
--H-..z.-.
For the Freeman.