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east of the Mississippi River, was covered with dense forests, and every acre of it which has been cultivated has cost more in labor and other needful expenditures than it would sell for. I speak of course of lands which have not been made valuable by their minerals, or by being the sites of cities or towns, or their proximity to them. I question very much that there are any farms outside of the prairies and away from large towns, which, if they were charged with the labor bestowed upon them at the rate of one dollar a day for men and fifty cents a day for women, and with other necessary outlays (their original cost not included), and credited with the market value of their productions, and their estimated present value, would exhibit a balance on the right side of the account.

No one who has known anything about the hardships endured by the first settlers in the timbered lands of the United States their unceasing toil, their actual want-not of the comforts, but of the necessaries of life when in health, to say nothing of what they needed, and could not be supplied with, in sickness, during the long and wearisome years which came and went before they had cleared enough of their lands to enable them to begin to enjoy the fruits of their sacrifices and labors ;-no one who has known anything about all this will be found among those who speak of land as being God's gift, and therefore property of which there should not be absolute ownership. In travelling from Fort Wayne to Indianapolis, in the early days of the West, over or rather through roads that for a good part of the year could only be travelled by men on foot or wellmounted horsemen, and in noticing the slow progress which was being made in the opening up of the country, the question naturally presented itself, Would men who could support themselves in any other way, or in any other place, make their homes in this wilderness and undergo the privations they are subject to, and labor as they must for a good part of their lives, before they can make a comfortable living? These settlers were invariably poor men; two or three hundred dollars would cover the entire outfit of a majority of them;--their

lands, their teams, their cows, their farming implements, their axes and rifles. It was chiefly by such men that the timbered lands of Ohio and Indiana were settled. I have seen hundreds of such beginnings, and have admired the endurance, the patience, the persevering industry, by which forest lands have been converted into productive farms; I do not say profitable farms, because few farms are profitable. Men who, like the late Dr. Gwinn, of California, have bought at low prices extensive tracts of land which were ready for the plow, and which for a time needed no fertilization, and cultivated them by machinery for wheat, have undoubtedly made money out of them; but as the wheat-producing qualities of the soil become exhausted, and restoratives become necessary, profits will decline, and may soon disappear altogether. Lands naturally adapted to grazing may yield indefinitely good returns, because they do not become exhausted by being grazed, but they are exceptions. The alluvial lands on the lower Mississippi, and on some of its tributaries, might also be excepted, for so deep is the soil that they may be regarded as being practically inexhaustible; but they are subject to overflows and droughts, and good crops on even these lands are by no means certain.

On the whole, farming is not a profitable business in the United States. It is a healthful employment, productive of strong and vigorous men, but it is not attractive, and it is not attractive because it is not profitable. Seldom do the sons of well-to-do farmers become farmers. As soon as they are old enough to strike out for themselves, they will be found in the towns, not upon the farms. Nor are lands in the old States which are not near enough to populous cities to be profitably used for market gardens, increasing in value. So far is this from being the case, that very few farms in those States could be sold today for prices which they readily commanded twenty years ago. Investments in lands which are valuable for agricul ture only, are not now regarded with favor by capitalists. Better use for their money is found elsewhere.

If thanks are due to God for the land, greater thanks are due to him for the

muscle and the patient industry by which it has been brought under cultivation, and by which its producing properties are preserved; and yet these cultivators of the soil are among those whose property should be confiscated because they did not create what they have made valuable! Land is less able to bear heavy taxes than almost any other kind of property. The taxes to which cultivated land is now subjected in most of the States, instead of being advanced, should be reduced, for the purpose of increasing the number of farmers. In most of the European states, especially in Great Britain, lands are heavily taxed-so heavily, that they can be held only by the rich. In that country the landholders are monopolists, and they will continue to be so until free trade in land

is established, and the taxes upon it are so reduced that men of moderate means can afford to be the owners.

No greater mistake was ever made by intelligent men than is made by those who suppose that monopolies can be broken up or weakened, and property can be more evenly distributed in the United States by increase of taxes upon land, which is the cheapest thing upon the market. It is true that in cities, lots to be built upon for homes are beyond the reach of all except those whose incomes are considerably greater than their outlays, but this is unavoidable. Cities are limited in extent, and the value of lots depends upon the demand for them for building purposes. In a few cities, especially in Philadelphia, some who belong to what are called the laboring classes are the owners of their homes, but this is not often the case. With comparatively few exceptions those whose living depends upon their manual labor are renters or boarders.

There is, however, compensation for these deprivations. Wages are higher in the city than in the country, and greater inducements to save as well as to spend are found there, than exist elsewhere. Men are naturally gregarious, and when thrown together they have enjoyments of life, although subject to great discomforts. In cities, however, as well as in the country, it is labor and the fruits of labor that have made the ground valuable, and it is dif

ficult to see how the public would be benefited if city lots were to be confiscated, subject to the outlay that has been made upon them. None but Anarchists have gone so far as to contend that the property of man's creation should be subject to division among the people or become the property of the state. But in this free land of ours, for whose benefit should property of any kind be confiscated? Not for the bene

fit of those who are able and willing to work; for them there is rarely lack of employment at remunerative wages, and the way to rise in the world is open before them. Not for the benefit of those who are disabled; their wants when made known are relieved by private or public charities.

Nine-tenths of the rich and prominent people of the United States have made their upward way in the world without help from others. Of the wealthy men, or the men of large social or political influence, whom I have known personally, or with whose history I am familiar, I call to mind very few who have not made themselves what they are by their own exertions. With rare exceptions they are the offspring of poor men, or of men with very limited means. The opportunities for those who are self-dependent to make headway in life are not now, it is admitted, as great in the United States as they were some years ago, but one has only to look about him to see large numbers of such people rising above the level from which they started, soon to be conspicuous in business, in society, in politics. Poverty always has prevailed and always will prevail to a greater or less degree in all countries-in the freest as well as the most despotic, until, under some new dispensation, mankind become equal in natural gifts, in capacity and disposition to acquire and retain, in mental and physical power. Until then the industrious and the indolent, the thrifty and the unthrifty, the strong and the weak, the rich and the poor, will be found in all communities. If all the property in the world should be equally divided, in a few brief years inequalities like those which are now complained of would prevail. The differences in the circumstances of the race are to some

extent produced by unequal and unjust government and laws, but they are largely in most countries, and altogether in the United States, the result of constitutional dissimilarities, which always have existed and always will exist. There can be no equalizing power short of divine power, and that power will, as heretofore, continue to be manifested through unchanging law.

Of all governments which have existed in civilized nations, none has been so bad as a paternal government would be. The permanency of our free institutions depends more than anything else upon our homes, our independent homes. Of all property the homestead should be subject to the lightest taxation. In some States humble homes are protected against the claims of creditors; they ought everywhere to be protected against the tax collector. Great differences in the condition of men have existed and will exist under all forms of government, and these differences will be most marked under the freest, where natural gifts have full play. All that can be done by the best government is to provide for the protection of life and property-the enforcement of just and equal laws-anything more than this would be tyranny. Without perfect liberty to acquire, and without protection to whatever may be lawfully acquired, no matter what might be the character of the property, enterprise would cease, and government would be a mockery.

In looking back upon a long life, nothing of course seems so wonderful to me as the growth of the country in the physical elements of national greatness-territory, population, wealth. This growth, so unprecedented in the world's history, has been effected without any change in the form of the government-without any departure from the principles upon which it was established, or material change of the Constitution which was adopted for its preservation. Nevertheless, changes have taken place, the effect of which upon our republican institutions cannot be contemplated without apprehension.

Immigration, considered merely with regard to its pecuniary and economical

results, has been of immense gain to the United States. It is estimated that since the formation of the Government more than thirteen millions of immigrants have come to the United States, and that if each brought with him sixty dollars in money, the pecuniary gain has been about eight hundred millions; but the gain in this respect has been small in comparison with what the immigrants were worth as laborers in the varied branches of industry. Estimating them to have been equal in value to the slaves in the Southern States, they have added to the national wealth three times as much as our national debt amounted to at the close of the civil war. What the offsets may be to this enormous gain is yet to be determined. The true wealth of the country is not to be measured by acreage or money, but by the quality of its people. the effect of foreign immigration should prove to be deleterious to the character of the population, the gain referred to would have been dearly acquired.

If

That the worst and most dangerous part of the population of the United States are foreigners, is proved by the criminal records and by the utterances of socialists. Not only have the industrious and honest been invited to come to our country to secure homes for themselves, but the door has been thrown wide open to the lazy and the disreputable-the very classes that foreign governments have been glad to get rid of. Nor is this all. Money has been furnished to enable foreigners to come and be workmen in our factories and shops because they would work cheaper than native born citizens. A very large part, if not a majority, of the population in some of our great manufacturing towns are foreigners, many of whom have soon learned enough of American freedom to be disorderly and dangerous.

The greatest mistake which has been made by the Government of the United States has been in conferring upon foreigners the elective franchise. So short is the period required for their naturalization that hundreds of thousands have become voters before they knew anything about the nature of republican institutions-before even they could

speak the language of the country. The majority of them are doubtless well-meaning people, but they naturally fall under the influence of those who are not. With the working-men have come men who are revolutionists by nature or have been made such by real or fancied injustice in their native lands. To denounce the Government, and to make their followers believe that all governments are tyrannical and ought to be overthrown, seems to be considered by these men their especial duty. Others do not go quite so far as this; they are more moderate in their demands they contend that property should be held and owned in common, that exclusive ownership by the few is oppression to the many, that the laws have been made by the rich and for their benefit, to the great injustice of the poor, and that they should be so changed that all would fare alike. If these men, with their blind and ignorant followers, were not voters, they would be comparatively harmless; but they are not only voters, but some of them active politicians, and when the two great parties are nearly evenly divided, their votes are courted by both. They are already a dangerous class, and are likely to become more dangerous, as they are rapidly increasing in numbers, and are becoming cohesive by organizations. It is very clear to my mind that none but native born citizens ought to have been permitted to be voters; that immense risk has been incurred-not by making the United States an asylum for the oppressed, not by opening the doors for foreigners to become inhabitants, under the protection of just and equal laws, but by inviting them to come and participate in the law-making and governing power. The elective franchise, which ought to have been considered the most precious of all rights, has been freely bestowed upon those who have no knowledge of its value, and upon those who use it for other than patriotic

purposes.

Though it may now be too late, in the present condition of political parties, to change effectively our naturalization laws, there might be a limitation upon the franchise in municipal elections, and it is very certain that this

must be done if our large cities are to be properly governed, and sufficient safeguards are to be thrown around persons and property. Municipal government should be created and conducted on business principles. No one should be a voter who is not the owner of property. The amount required need not be large, but it should be large enough to indicate that the voter has something at stake. Manhood suffrage in municipal elections is, to say the least, a dangerous experiment; a law that places upon an equality in voting the lazy vagabond and the enterprising wealth-producing citizen is certainly neither just nor reasonable.

The Government is stronger than it was a half century ago, but has not this increase of strength been at the expense of republicanism? We claim that the United States is the freest country in the world-the only country except Switzerland in which the people have equal rights. Equal rights before the law are indeed possessed by everybody here, but are there not combinations of interests which prevent the full play of natural rights, which hold in check, if they do not destroy, individual enterprise? In what other country can be found such companies as have been organized in the United States for the purpose of controlling the manufacture, the transportation, and the price of goods? Where can be found an organization like the Standard Oil Company, which absolutely controls the market of an article for which there is an immense and constant demand, and stamps out competition; or even such companies as have been formed to regulate the production of iron and steel and coal? In what other country do manufacturers who are protected by tariffs against foreign competition, combine by trusts and other agencies to advance or sustain prices and prevent domestic competition? There is no country of which I have any knowledge in which business of all descriptions is so steadily falling into fewer and fewer hands, in which combinations are so powerful and individuals so powerless, as the United States-no country in which the solution of the labor question may be more difficult. We have yet to learn that

there may be as little personal freedom under republican institutions as under monarchies, and that the best efforts of all good citizens should be to prevent the great republic from being a free country in name only. That these efforts will not be wanting, I have an abiding faith. Congress has the power, by opening the way for freer trade with other nations, to destroy most of the existing monopolies, and this power will ere long be exerted.

There is, however, one danger ahead which cannot be easily surmounted. By our naturalization laws, by extending the highest privilege to men utterly destitute of proper qualifications for its exercise, by inviting to our shores to assist in administering the State and National Governments men who consider it their duty to fight all governments, we have done much to make our grand experiment a failure. It is now impossible to undo what was unwisely

done, to deprive of the franchise those to whom it has been granted, but not too late to prevent an increase of the threatening danger. If our naturalization laws should be so changed that none should vote but those who, when the change is made, have the right to vote, and that thereafter none but the native born should be voters, the danger would not be entirely removed, but it would be greatly lessened. If this should not be done-if revolutionists who are rapidly increasing in numbers in Europe should continue to be invited to come and participate in the government of the Republic-how long will not capitalists only, but industrious, frugal, liberty-loving men be able to contemplate the future without misgivings? If the republic is to be short-lived like those which have heretofore existed, unrestricted manhood suffrage will be the cause. It is the only really grave danger that threatens the life of the Republic.

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Nor now, not now, the unfruitful sea be mine,
With ever restless tides that ebb and flow
Like hopes in a sick heart; nay, I would know
How soonest to forget this kindred brine.
Show me some ripened land in mellow glow
Where heavy hang the clusters of the vine,

Where apples drop, where browse full-uddered kine,
Where, tilting-topped, the harvest wagons go
A-creak across the fields. O let me fill
My longing eyes with pictures of a land
Sloping to sunset, full of twilight peace
That seems from plenty's horn to overspill;
Let me thus gaze, and gazing, understand
Toil's fairest harvest is desire's surcease.

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