Year: 1859

causes MIN TO leet q responsibility, even an oO-
legation of duty.to others, not cherished by the
homeless, houseess wanderer, sc1wled upon by
the well-to-do in the world, and often degraded
by his vices, just because he has no ties, and is
not encouraged to form them, which bind him
to his fellows, or give him sense of common
interest with them Even in pecuniary point
OF view, the State is concerned that her people
should have some of the comforts of property
and to encourage it's Improvement and increase,
because from that source she derives her reye-
nues, and prosperous people make flush
treasury, alike for the benefit of oftice-hoders
and the noble enterprises of fiscal improvement
and intellectual .culture, which are among the
leading objects of government


The home and the family are the most Valu-
able institutions of the Commonwealth there
are matured the domestic virtues. which are the
germ from which flow the social charities, and
the sense of public duty. Destroy these nurse
rieS, and extinguish the hcarth-fres break
down the roof-tree scatter husband and wife,
parent and child, brother and sister, through
the unsheltered pathways, under the cold sky
of an unsympathizing world. and all the firm
pillars of the State will be shaken. Trade may
increase, wealth accumulate, luxury and spen-
cor dazzle, but the glitterng building, stand
ing on the shifting sands of mere external pros
perity, must fall, because it is not founded on
the immovable rock of home-bred virtue


Princes and kings may flourish and nay fade


A breath make them as a breath has made


But bold peasantry, its comtry's pride,


When once destroyed can never be supplied"


Here we have no class of persons, and We are
fortunate in the fact, which correspond with the
peasantry of Europe. But we have the indus
trous mechanic and the hard.handed laborer,
who ply their task in obscure streets, or far
away among the hills and valleys of the coun-
try; whose daily toll earns their daily bread,
and they produce more of the real wealth of the
nation than its most skiIful fnanciers, and all
the bulls and bears of the stock market, who
dwell in marble halls" and whose oyergrown
and unstable riches are the Spoils of the less or
namental but vastly more useful classes of the
community These small people deserve the con-
sideratiOn of their representatives, who are Sc
dulouS to seek their favor and support on the
election day. They should not be surrendered
a prey to unavoidable misfortune They should
not be handed over to the tender merces, which
are cruel, Of the grasping money dealer, who
estimates man at just what he can make out
OF him. A home and the necessary comforts of
home, should be secured to them and the
pitance of three hundred dollars, in whatever
form Of property they may desire, inalenable
either by recklesSuess, reconsideration or sim
plcity, is surely little enough to constitute
them stable members of society, with a stake in
the Commonwealth safe under the protection
of her laws free to discharge all the duties of
citizenship, without challenge from any quar-
ter, and able to look around on wives and chill
dren, with the satisfaction that, so long as life
shall last, they cannot be discovered from them
Supported thus in his personal dignity, secure
in his civil rights safe in his domestic relations,
he possesses the strongest inducement to i'm
prove his condition. He


Aspires to taste the proud and manly joy,


That springs from holding in his dear right


The land he plows, the home he seeks at night


1t is to encourage such efforts, to contribute
in its measure to the accomplishment of such
results, that the bill now under consideration
has been drawn and its passage urged. | do
not believe it to be possible that PennsylYa-
MIA Senate can reject proposition, sustained
by so many motives of humanity, of private ad-
vantage and sound public policy but conf
IDENTITY expect its passage by a vote worthy of
the highest branch of the Legislature Of
free, intelligent and mighty Commonwealth