/<* !<-. '' l * 1 
 
 I 
 
 ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS 
 
 BEFORE THE 
 
 AMERICAN INSTITUTE 
 
 OF THE CITY OF NEW-YORK, 
 
 BROADWAY TABERNACLE, OCTOBER 20, 1842, 
 
 DC R INC. TUP, 
 
 JTiftecntl) 
 
 jfair, 
 
 HON. H. G. O. COLBY, 
 
 OF NEW-BEDFORD, MASS. 
 
 NEW-YORK : 
 
 JAMES VAN NORDEN & CO., PRINTERS, 
 
 No. GO WILLIAM-STREET. 
 
 1843.
 
 UCSB LtBRARY 
 
 ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS 
 
 BEFORE THE 
 
 AMERICAN INSTITUTE 
 
 OF THE CITY OF NEW-YORK, 
 
 BROADWAY TABERNACLE, OCTOBER 20, 1342, 
 
 DURING TUB 
 
 fiftttntt) Annual JTair, 
 
 Ho*. H. G. O. COLBY, 
 
 OP NEW-BEDFORD, MASS. 
 
 NEW-YORK : 
 
 JAMES VAN NORDEN & CO., PRINTERS, 
 No. 60 WILLIAM-STREET. 
 
 1843.
 
 The following letter "Was received in reply to a request made to Mr. Colby for a copy 
 of his Address, delivered at the Fifteenth Annual Fair, for publication : 
 
 New-Bedford, October 28tk, 1842. 
 DEAR SIR, 
 
 In compliance with your request^ I place at your disposal the Address delivered by 
 me at your recent Anniversary. If its circulation shall tend to promote the great and 
 patriotic object in which the American Institute is engaged, it will afford me even more 
 gratification, than the- flattering manner in which the audience received, and the kind 
 terms in which you speak of so imperfect a performance. 
 
 With the highest respect, 
 
 I am your very obedient servant, 
 
 > H. G. O. COLBY. 
 T. B. WAKEMAN, Esq., 
 
 Cor. Secretary American Institute.
 
 ADDRESS. 
 
 MR. PRESIDENT, AND GENTLEMEN op THE AMERICAN INSTITUTED 
 
 IN that renowned peninsula, which Lord Byron so justly and beau- 
 tifully apostrophised as the "land oflost gods and god-like men," on the 
 b;mks of the Alpheus, and in view of the sea, at the return of every 
 fifty-second month a festival was celebrated, to the influence of which 
 all philosophers and historians have agreed in ascribing the commence- 
 ment and rapid progress of Greece in civilization and refinement. 
 It is certain that the Olympic games reach far back into the dubious 
 light of her early history, where fact and fancy hold a disputed empire; 
 that they continued for more than a thousand years, and at last threw 
 a sad and broken splendour over the twilight of her waning glories. 
 They were adapted to the character and pursuits of an early and 
 imperfectly civilized age, in all their forms of observance; aruf the 
 undying attachment which the people entertained for them, tells us 
 how deeply the love of such festivals is implanted in the nature of 
 man. The institution, whose anniversary you have assembled here to 
 commemorate, is founded indeed upon the same unchanged human 
 nature, but it tells, in its mode of observance, the whole story of the 
 wondrous changes and improvements that time has effected in the 
 condition, the tastes, arid the pursuits of mankind. And if the cele- 
 bration of games at Olympia, at long intervals, exerted such an in- 
 fluential control upon the character and fortunes of a single ancient 
 state, what results may we not expect from an institution, assembling 
 yearly, in the commercial capitol of many mighty states, which draws 
 together its citizens from its utmost boniers, not to display their fleet- 
 ness of foot or strength of limb, or to behold their display by others, 
 but to witness the varied results of industry, from the workshop and 
 the field, the improvements which the year has effected in the me- 
 chanic arts, to awake an energetic spirit of emulation, to speed the 
 progress of their country in prosperity, and win an honourable fame 
 by effecting some substantial and lasting good for their race. Nothing 
 can ever adequately supply the advantages of free personal intercourse 
 in promoting fraternal sentiments, nor the exhibition of models and 
 products, and oral explanation, in the mechanic arts and in agricul- 
 ture in diffusing useful information or in stimulating industry. The 
 benefits of such "festive assemblies have not perished with the statues
 
 and nltars of Olympia ; and to you, therefore, O! people of E!is, who 
 founded ihis institution, and to whose guardianship the preparations 
 for its annual observance are committed, may the people of this coun- 
 try be ever ready to pay the debt of gratitude they owe you ! May 
 your territory be sacred to the arts of peace, and your people long 
 enjoy the rewards of their public spirit and generous hospitality ! 
 
 On an occasion of such general interest and expectation, an older 
 and abler man than myself might well distrust his ability to do it 
 justice. And when I remember that my predecessors in this office 
 have been the most distinguished men of our country, and that the 
 speaker is regarded as of more importance than the speech, 1 feel that 
 I must ask your utmost indulgence. They have not only set up a stand- 
 ard of eloquence which few can reach, and none can hope to pass, but 
 they have selected and exhausted the most pertinent and interesting 
 topics of discourse, and left to those who follow them the alternative 
 of treading, hand passibus cequis, in their footsieps, or entering upon 
 some less inviting field of inquiry. To what subject, then, shall 1 invite 
 your attention for the hour that we are to pass together? I stand in 
 the midst of a city, distinguished for its accumulated wealth, which 
 meets the eye in every direction and in every form ; in its streets, and 
 the palaces that adorn them in the princely mansions that look down 
 from every height, or lift their turrets in every grove in warehouses, 
 bursting with merchandise, and in a forest of masts that throng your 
 shores. And I have seen, too, the products of human labour, in end- 
 less variety, from every section of the Union from the machine that 
 unwinds the delicate thread of the silk-worm, to the gigantic enginery 
 that tosses the planked and iron-spiked ship like a play thing into the air ; 
 and before me now the representatives of each class coming up, with 
 religious solemnities, and with music and song, to celebrate the Fif- 
 teenth Anniversary of their union. I invite you to consider, then, 
 wealth and labour, and the relations between them. 
 
 And this subject, atall times one of grave and commanding import- 
 ance, is especially so at this time, and in this country, where errors 
 the most pernicious in relation to it very extensively prevail. Many 
 of our people have derived their ideas of the wealthy and the labouring 
 classes, not from a fair and enlarged view of their condition in this 
 country, but from what they have read and heard of them in the old 
 world, and in other times. The study of history, to which we are 
 much addicted, is calculated to engender false ideas and strong preju- 
 dices upon this subject; and they are not a little strengthened by all 
 ihe novels, which have so far taken a historical turn, that they profess 
 to give a faithful delineation of men and manners. There is a pas- 
 sionate fondness, also, for books of travels, and probably they have 
 done much to deepen and refresh these false opinions; and, in short, 
 many good men amongst us have framed their principles of conduct 
 in reference to the facts which they have thus learned. 
 
 And yet the difference between the condition and relation of the 
 two plasses here and in the old world is as wide as the ocean that 
 separates us; but marked and palpable as it is, it is very generally
 
 disregarded. Public attention has, indeed, been strongly directed of 
 late to the wages of labour in this and in other countries ; and the 
 vastly superior condition of the American labourer has been clearly 
 demonstrated ; but the causes and the consequences of this difference, 
 nnd the duties resulting from it, were secondary objects, and were, 
 therefore, but slightly considered. In order that we may understand 
 their true condition here, and thus correct our prejudices, if need be, 
 and adopt correct principles of thought and action, let us briefly inquire 
 into the condition of the two classes in some of the European com- 
 munities. Let us examine things abroad, that we may obtain a 
 clearer view of things at home. 
 
 It is obvious to remark, in the outset, that in almost every country, 
 and in every age, though there were diversities of operations, there 
 was the same spirit. The story of the rich and the poor has always 
 been, like the dreams of Pharaoh, different in form, but in result the 
 same. It is a story written on every page of human history in fire 
 and blood, with unvarying distinctness and mournfulness. On the one 
 side, there has been oppression, profligacy and crime ; on the other, 
 submission, vassalage and want. On the one side, privileges ; on the 
 other, exclusion from all privileges. On the one side, a long cata- 
 logue of rights ; on the oilier, a longer catalogue of wrongs. And 
 this is a short history of half the ancient and modern states of the old 
 world. 
 
 In Republican Rome, the people "were divided from the first into 
 two classes, the patricians and plebeians; and it was not till Marius 
 rose, with his matchless daring and intrepid courage, to vindicate the 
 rights of the people, that a consul could be chosen without the ranks 
 of the aristocracy. But as long as their government endured, through- 
 out its vast extent it was one of iron rigour towards the labouring 
 classes. Nor was it peculiar to the Roman Empire. In Hindostan, for 
 ages past, and down to the present hour, the system has existed, and 
 still exists, in iis worst conceivable form ; and it is one of the darkest 
 mysteries of our nature, that a system so fraught with injustice and 
 mischief could ever have been established amongst mankind that 
 a mere institution of man's device should be able to counteract the 
 impulses of nature, and bring the ardent longings, the vehement aspi- 
 rations of man into such circumscription and confinement, " that it 
 would be intolerable even to a mill horse." 
 
 The downfall and dismemberment of the Roman Empire were fol- 
 lowed by the establishment of other forms of government, under other 
 names, but marked by the continuance of the same unnatural distinc- 
 tion between the rich and the poor. The feudal system, a complex 
 and iron system of exaction and vassalage, was established every 
 where by fire and sword, and became so strongly fastened upon every 
 people, where it prevailed, that it has continued up to this time to 
 shape and govern their customs, their laws, and their institutions. 
 The sole aim and end of the system was to establish a privileged 
 order, amongst whom rich and magnificent domains were partitioned, 
 and the inferior classes became their hewers of wood and drawers of 
 water.
 
 In no country in Europe were the effects of this system more mani- 
 fest and disastrous than in France. The distinction between patrician 
 and plebeian, between noble and base-born, was early established, and, 
 unhappily, this privilege descended to all the children, instead of being 
 confined, as in England, to the eldest son. The consequence was, a 
 numerous nobility, a complete separation of the higher and lower 
 orders, and the establishment of a wall of partition, which neither 
 talent, energy or success was able to pass. The greater portion of 
 the land of the kingdom was in their hands ; and instead of wondering, 
 as we do, at the breaking out of the French Revolution, and the atro- 
 cities which marked its progress, it is rather to be marvelled at that 
 it was so long delayed. It was nothing more than human nature 
 asserting its long lost rights, tortured humanity taking its revenge the 
 upheaving, from its lowest depths, of that mighty, uncounted mass of 
 men, whose hearts had been ulcerated by ages of oppression. Amidst 
 blazing chateaux, France rung with the terrible gathering cry," War 
 to the palace, and peace to the cottage," a cry which will sooner or 
 later be sounded in every nation and kingdom where such an aristo- 
 cracy can be found. The nobles of France received a solemn warn- 
 ing and fearful foretaste of the calamities that awaited them, in the 
 war of the Jacquerie. Far be it from me to excuse or palliate the 
 excesses of the French Revolution ; but that terrible tragedy was 
 acted in vain in the sight of heaven, if men will not learn the lessons 
 which it teaches : that it was nothing but man, broke loose from op- 
 pression, coming forth from den, cavern and hovel, the memory of a 
 thousand wrongs gathering around the terror of his heart, and, as the 
 oppressor fell beneath his stride, lifting up the exulting shout of long 
 baffled, long delayed, but never dying revenge. 
 
 In Russia there are but two classes, the noble and the serf, who is 
 bought and sold with the land. And in Poland the condition of the 
 peasantry is still worse. A traveller remarks, that he never saw a 
 wheaten loaf in any part of North Germany. In Austria the nobles 
 are proprietors of the soil, and the peasants are compellable to work 
 every clay for their masters, except Sunday. In Hungary the nobles 
 own the land, and do no work, and pay no taxes ; the labouring classes 
 are compelled to repair all the bridges and highways, and to pay one 
 tenth of the products of their labour to the church and one ninth to 
 the landlord. There are still reckoned, at the present day, one hun- 
 dred and h'fty thousand nobles in the ancient provinces of Podolia 
 and Volhynia; and almost the entire territory of these countries is 
 concentrated in the hands of not more than fifty families. This single 
 fact is quite sufficient to tell us all we desire to know respecting the 
 condition of the inferior orders. 
 
 Prussia has been long regarded as the model state in Europe, and 
 her powerful and prosperous condition is owing chiefly to the wise 
 and judicious changes which have taken place in her laws respecting 
 the working classes. Previous to the year 1806, the condition of the 
 peasantry was that of villeinage, with few exceptions. They were 
 attached to the property of their lords, obliged to give him their ser-
 
 rices, without compensation, and incapable of holding property. They 
 could not change their place of residence ; their children could not enter 
 into other pursuits, nor their daughters marry, without the consent of 
 their superior, and none but a noble could purchase the estate of a 
 noble. In addition to all this, the land of the nobles was exempt from 
 taxation. 
 
 If this policy had been continued to this day, Prussia could not 
 have attained her present prosperity, power and eminence. It was 
 prostrated, not as in most other states, by the revolt of the people and 
 a bloody revolution, but by the wise and judicious reform of one of 
 the boldest, ablest and most sagacious statesmen that ever sat in a 
 European cabinet.* By the laws of 180G and 1807. which he pro- 
 posed, the sale and purchase of land was thrown open to all alike, the 
 relation of villeinage was abolished for ever, and the nobles were com- 
 pelled to contribute, like all other citizens, to the public burthens, in 
 proportion to their means. Not content with the mere removal of 
 restrictions, the government endeavoured to stimulate industry and 
 arouse ambition, by prizes, and public exhibitions of manufactures of 
 all kinds, which have produced the most striking and beneficial effects. 
 Would to God that the Metternich's of Europe had the courage and 
 the foresight of Stein and Hardenburg ! or that any thing could induce 
 them to follow their illustrious example. Opposed to every species of 
 reform, progress and improvement, by their resistless influence " all 
 things continued as they were." They are the potent magicians of a 
 darker age, whose spells arrested every living thing, and fixed it in 
 marble stillness. The latter have come into the world, and pronoun- 
 cing one magic word, and a million of gigantic statues have sprung 
 into life and activity, and thus a nation has been born in a day. 
 
 Allow me to close this series of illustrations by a reference to- that 
 country, with which our acquaintance is most intimate, and whose in- 
 stitutions we best understand our Father-land. Of all lands, it pre- 
 sents the most striking spectacle of the unequal distribution of property. 
 This inequality owes its origin to the feudal system, but its perpetua- 
 tion and continuance, to her present legislation and policy. The ex- 
 tremes of wealth and of poverty are to be found in England in the 
 most appalling contrast. We see, on the one hand, an hereditary 
 nobility the law of primogeniture, by which the eldest son succeeds 
 to the titles and estates of his ancestors the law of entail, by means of 
 which vast estates are locked up and perpetuated in the hands of a 
 single individual from generation to generation, and from age to age. 
 Only one sixth of the population of England are proprietors of the soil, 
 and to the rights and interests of these proprietors every thing bends 
 and gives way, as we may see in their corn laws ; or to slate the fact 
 more accurately, and in the words of Alison, the whole proprietors, 
 who live on the fruits of the soil in Great Britain and Ireland, at this 
 moment, probably do not amount to 300,000, while above three million 
 
 * Suin.
 
 heads of families, and fifteen millions of persons, dependent on their 
 labour, subsist on the wages they receive. Another writer remarks 
 that, "in the road which the English labourer must travel, the poor- 
 house is the last stage on his way to the grave." To this I add the 
 startling fact that the annual income of some noblemen amounts to at 
 least $300,000. This terrible system is sustained by the potent au- 
 thority of law, by a close confederacy of those who are alone benefited 
 by its preservation, and by the whole influence of a strong government. 
 Should we feel a single emotion of surprise, therefore, when we hear 
 of riots, mobs, burnings, tumults, disturbances in this rich and fertile 
 island ? The few cannot be thus exalted, and privileged, and protected, 
 but at the expense of the many, and it is not to be wondered at, that 
 they should, in mere desperation, display their disquietude in acts of 
 violence. As an illustration ofthe rigid tenacity with which they cling 
 to the most odious laws, if they have the charm of antiquity, it may be 
 mentioned, that it was long the law of England, that the land of a per- 
 son dying could not be taken from his heir to pay his simple contract 
 debts, and that the persevering efforts of Sir Samuel Romilly to alter 
 the law in this respect, were defeated again and again in the House 
 of Lords. And the measure was carried at last only by an adroit legis- 
 lative ruse de guerre ; by a bill subjecting the lands of tradesmen to be 
 thus taken, which passed without objection, and it was afterwards 
 extended to other persons. 
 
 Such is a brief sketch ofthe condition ofthe two great classes into 
 which society is divided, in some of the principal countries of the old 
 world. It requires but a slight knowledge of human nature to assure 
 us, that there neither is nor can be any general sympathy between 
 them. And when I assert that " the former history of the world is 
 chiefly occupied with the struggles of freedom against bondage, the 
 efforts of laborious industry to emancipate itself from the yoke of 
 aristocratic power," I employ only the language ofthe most enlighten- 
 ed and philosophic historian of the present day, Alison. What are 
 the glittering pages of Livy, for the most part, but vivid records of the 
 bitter feuds between the patricians and plebeians of tumults, insur- 
 rections, secessions, so violent that they were only appeased, at times, 
 by the fact that the enemy were assaulting their gates? 
 
 Every country in Europe has been witness to frequent popular 
 outbreaks, because of intolerable oppressions. France saw what 
 desperate men would do in the war ofthe Jacquerie, and she felt, at 
 a later day, that mighty wrongs were revenged by mighty crimes. 
 In England, the much ridiculed insurrection of Wat Tyler ; in Ger- 
 many, the war of the peasantry under the gallant Philip Van Arta- 
 velte ; in Spain, that of the Communeros, were only the legitimate 
 results of an unnatural policy. Wherever such monstrous inequali- 
 ties are created and fostered by law, there must in the nature of things 
 be a deep-seated, irreconcilable hostility between the privileged and 
 the unprivileged classes. It may be smothered, for a time, like vol- 
 canic fires it may be kept down by the tremendous machinery of 
 courts and jails, by armies of police officers and regiments of horse-
 
 guards but the feeling exists, and will speak out with startling dis- 
 tinctness, whenever and wherever it finds opportunity. Imagine to 
 yourselves an obscure artisan, who casts a stolen glance upon his 
 starving wife and children, as he goes abroad to seek work "the 
 most pitiable spectacle under the sun" meeting, on his way, the coro- 
 netted chariot of some hereditary noble, and his train attendant, 
 distinguished for nothing but his wealth, his extravagance, and his vice. 
 He is gaunt with famine, his sinews are hardened by toil and expo- 
 sure, his heart is seared by suffering, he feels that he is doomed to a 
 whole eternity of bondage, and he mutters to himself, " His wealth 
 and my poverty are the results of unjust laws." He is a rife and 
 ready instrument for revolution and mischief. And ten thousand such 
 men are in the heart of every European kingdom, and their cease- 
 less agitations are the unquiet heavings of the ocean the cry of theif 
 children, the wail of the sea-bird that foretell the coming storm. 
 
 It has given me no pleasure thus to speak of the condition and 
 institutions of the old world. Nor has it been done in a spirit of 
 ostentatious pride, to which, it is said, we Americans are prone; but 
 for the purpose of better understanding our own, by making a just 
 comparison between them. But, as a philanthropist, it gives me no 
 pain to foresee or foretell the mighty changes that await these ancient 
 states, in the upward progress of these enthralled millions. The 
 overthrow of all these cruel and unnatural systems is among the things 
 that are predestinated, and every year is bringing nearer the hour of 
 its accomplishment. Barrier alter barrier is giving way, and those 
 massive castles, within which ancient privilege has entrenched itself, 
 will yield at last to never-ceasing assault, like the doors of Reginald 
 Front de BOB u I" to the ponderous battle-axe of the unknown knight. 
 
 We turn with joy from this sad and dreary picture of human de- 
 gradation and suffering, to a country in which there is nothing anti- 
 quated, except the trees of the primeval forest} and, in the first place* 
 to the actual situation of the wealthy classes of society in this country* 
 In most cases, colonists have carried with them the laws, the in- 
 stitutions, the usages, and the religion as well as the language of the 
 parent state ; but our ancestors appear t> have acted from first to 
 last by the rule of contraries. It is scarcely possible to conceive a 
 stronger contrast than we present in our form of government, and in 
 all our laws and feelings, in regard to wealth, to our father-land. It 
 is a " counterfeit presentment of two brothers." The earliest efforts 
 of Mr. Jefferson, in Virginia, were directed to the abolition of entails, 
 and the law of primogeniture, and there is not now, I believe, a solitary 
 state in the Union in which they are permitted to exist. A writer 
 on real property, who has collated the laws of all the states, remarks, 
 " that it is the general, if not the universal policy of the law, to make 
 the whole of a man's property liable for the payment of all his debts, 
 both during his life and after his death." They are as uniform, too, 
 in prohibiting the perpetuation of property in families by any form of 
 instrument. The general rule is, that all restraints upon the aliena- 
 tion of property, that exceed the life of a person living, and twenty- 
 
 2
 
 10 
 
 one years after, are utterly void. After death, the property which ar 
 man leaves is first appropriated to the payment of his debts, and then 
 distributed equally among all his heirs.* The unrighteous preference 
 of males over females, in the distribution of any estate, which prevails- 
 elsewhere, has shared with us the fate of other relics of barbarism,. 
 The privilege of making wills and disposing of one's estate as he 
 pleases, with some restrictions, still remains, and may it ever remain ;;< 
 but such is the influence of public opinion, and so universal the diffu- 
 sion of correct principles and feelings on this subject, that the instances 
 are rare in which it has been attempted to make a grossly unequal 
 distribution. Here there is no hereditary nobility, no transmissible 
 titles, no acknowledged distinction of classes. The result is, that 
 nearly the whole population is doomed to industry. The destiny of 
 the American population is to labour; and accordingly I believe that, 
 with the exception of that portion of our country where involuntary 
 servitude prevails, we are, as a whole, the most industrious people to 
 be found upon the face of the earth. 
 
 These laws and customs have been in existence among us for more 
 than a hundred years, and have exerted their legitimate influence upon 
 the people. And what have been their effects? The result is, that 
 though there have been estates in the hands of a single family that 
 would make a dozen German kingdoms, they have nearly all dis- 
 appeared. Under such laws as ours, it is almost impossible that a 
 fortune can remain in the same family for three generations: it is 
 impossible that it should remain of the same magnitude. So notorious 
 is the fact, that it has passed into a current proverb. So deep, per- 
 vading and certain is the effect of this system, that the most enthusi- 
 astic champion of perfect equality has been able to devise nothing 
 beyond it, except the wild project of distributing all property, on the 
 death of the owner, amongst the whole community. Our experience 
 assures us, however, that the most princely fortunes revert to the com 
 mon stock quite fast enough, without any other contrivances than.such 
 laws as I have stated, and that great leveller, who comes sooner or 
 later to all men, and places all on a perfect equality. 
 
 * The effect produced by the laws of succession which now prevail in France, lias been 
 much controverted among European writers. There is an able article on that subject, by 
 Hippolite Passy, in the Revue de Legislation et de' Jurisprudence, for April and May, 
 1841, which has been translated and published in the American Jurist for October, 1841, 
 by its learned and accomplished editor, L. S. Gushing, Esq. The view of this interesting 
 question taken by this profound writer may be seen fom the following extract from the 
 article : "Nothing is better proved than the principle, that all ameliorations of the social 
 state are due to the inequalities in the distribution of wealth. * * In France, 
 within thirty years, the population has increased eight per cent.; but wealth has increased 
 more than sixteen per cent. ; and if the classes in possession of the advantages of pro- 
 perty have seen their fortunes augmented, those which subsist upon daily wages have 
 seen the stock which rewards their labours accumulate with more rapidity than the nnm- 
 ber of hands destined to share in it. * * When the laws of succession in any 
 
 country do not sanction any privilege of property; when they leave to each one the 
 liberty to go as far as his faculties will permit him ; when they give to the rights of suc- 
 cession no other limits than the degrees of relationship; it is to be presumed that they are 
 irreproachable, and that the results which they produce are, for the time, at least, the most 
 conformable to-the true interestsof all."
 
 11 
 
 There are instances, it is true, in this country, of enormous indivi- 
 dual wealth frequent instances of independent individual fortunes. 
 But who are they that possess them, and whence did they derive them ? 
 From some old ancestors, who won broad lands and proud titles in 
 the field of battle or in the Senate at the bar or the counting- 
 house ? If you look for 'such inherited fortunes as these, you will 
 discover that they were long since dismembered that with every 
 revolution of the seasons they are diminishing and in very few 
 instances can one of their descendants call the roof-tree of his father's 
 house his own. No ! these are the fruits ol individual industry, skill 
 or enterprise. And you can seldom trace their history farther back 
 than to find them commanding a trading sloop to the West Indies, 
 purchasing fur in small quantities on the frontier, or selling excellent 
 groceries at a first-rate stand for business. They are self-made 
 men the architects of their own fortunes : and I yield a thousand- 
 fold more respect to such as they, than I ever can feel for one who 
 owes his wealth and his standing in the world to the mere accident 
 of birth ; and I feel, too, when their names are uttered in the marts of 
 commerce, and the country rings from side to side with the story of 
 their success, that though we have no titles higher than that oi I' Captain, 
 (which is given to the President) no stars save those that glitter upon 
 the azure folds of our national flag, that this is the country not for 
 the poor man not for the rich man but for a MAN. 
 
 A very important and striking feature in our political and social 
 system, which is indeed the inevitable result of our institutions and 
 Jaws, is, that there is no aristocracy amongst us not even an aristoc- 
 racy of wealth. An aristocracy cannot exist without peculiar and 
 exclusive privileges and rights, recognised, sanctioned and upheld by 
 law. There cannot be, in this country, even a confederacy or com- 
 bination among the rich men to acquire peculiar privileges. They 
 have none to defend. There is no clanship, no esprit du corps 
 amongst them. They are not like the hereditary nobles of Europe, 
 whose names are enrolled in a herald's college, set apart from the rest 
 of mankind, designated by titles, marked by badges of honour, bound 
 together by intermarriages, by a community of interests and of feel- 
 ings, a distinct order in the state. Nothing of all this ; and they are as 
 mutable, besides, as the moats that float in the summer air. Death 
 is ever busily at work in dismembering all overgrown fortunes. Mis- 
 fortunes, too and, alas ! they have rained thick and fast during the 
 last twelve years do their share in the ceaseless work of diffusion. 
 The rich man of to-day is the poor man of to-morrow. And while from 
 these causes, multitudes arc passing out, thousands are, on the other 
 hand, passing into this charmed circle, from those who commenced 
 life with no inheritance but poverty. If a line could be drawn between 
 the two classes, at any given moment, and then five years pass away, 
 I doubt whether the smaller portion could be recognised as the same. 
 Hundreds on hundreds would be found to have changed places. And 
 to speak of a class of men thus constituted as an aristocracy, is as 
 sound and sensible philosophy as to point to the insects of summer as 
 emblems of eternity.
 
 12 
 
 The condition of the labouring classes in the United States, which 
 we are next to consider, is universally admitted to be better than in 
 any other country in the world. They are already in that position 
 which the labours of other countries are struggling to attain. The 
 rate of wages is incomparably higher than in any other country the 
 means of comfort, not to say wealth, more easily accessible, owing 
 to their vast numbers, and to the possession of all political rights ; 
 their influence in the government is controlling and resistless, and all 
 legislation is shaped in reference to the promotion of their interests, 
 rather than those of any other class. Without having examined the 
 laws of all the states, which would be an Herculean task, 1 dare to 
 affirm, that not a statute can be found in force, in any one of the states, 
 which establishes or recognises any inequality of right or privilege 
 between them and other persons ; or, if such statute can be found, it is 
 their fault that it remains upon the statute book a single year. They 
 have but to speak the word, and it is done to command, and it is 
 repealed. Nay, the universal sentiment among American states- 
 men is, that the legislation and policy of the government should 
 be such as to lend aid and encouragement to the poorer classes, and 
 leave the rich to take care of themselves. They have accordingly 
 been extremely liberal in granting acts of incorporation, by which 
 men of small means may combine and compete with the richest capi- 
 talists in any branch of industry. By the late bankrupt law of the 
 United States, in case of insolvency, the wages of the labourer, up to 
 a certain amount, are preferred, and are to be paid a wise and hu- 
 mane provision, which was borrowed from Massachusetts. With the 
 laws of that state I profess to have some acquaintance, and, in iheir 
 general bearing and character, I suppose them to be similar to those 
 of other states; and I challenge any man to put his finger upon a 
 statute there, that gives to the man of a million one jot or tittle more 
 .of right or privilege than to the labourer that ploughs his field, or the 
 needy knife-grinder that spins his wheel at his door. What magic 
 words were those which have been for years upon the lips of states- 
 men, to which the people have responded, as deep calleth unto deep? 
 Not the protection of American wealth, but the "protection of 
 American industry," And what are all the societies and institutes 
 that are established in almost every state, and sustained at iireat 
 expense, but the voluntary efforts of the people who can afford it, to 
 stimulate American industry ? This great and splendid Institution, 
 which I have the honour to address, is itself a noble practical illustra- 
 tion of American policy. Here are the " merchant princes," the 
 capitalists, nay, the very "aristocrats" of New- York, giving freely of 
 their time, of their influence, of their wealth, not to obtain special 
 privileges for themselves, but to stimulate and encourage art and indus- 
 try, and to spread through the length and breadth of the Union, broad 
 cast, those improvements in agriculture and the arts, which skill, thus 
 stimulated, has made. There is not a labouring man in the most distant 
 and sequestered nook of this far spreading country, who is not or may 
 pot be benefited by its. patriotic efforts.
 
 13 
 
 Yes, ye labourers, there is no land like yours. It is yours to pos- 
 sess, to enjoy. Here is a fair field for all to labour, in whatsoever 
 vocation they please, and the rewards of diligence are ample and 
 secure. Here is not an avenue to wealth ordistinction that is closed 
 not a port unattainable. Here are boundless acres to be tilled, richer 
 than the valley of the Nile. Here are countless ships to be manned, 
 to be repaired, to be built. Here are a thousand mechanic arts solicit- 
 ing the busy hand of industry. Here are all the learned professions, as 
 open as the highway, to all who choose to enter them. And here, too, 
 is the law, which places the means of education within reach of the 
 poorest and humblest, seeming to exclaim, with an empress voice, 
 " here is a new world it is yours ; replenish the earth and subdue 
 it." And when I see an American youth, of whatever condition, not 
 repining at the accident of an humble origin, not wasting his bright 
 hours in idle regrets or envious murmurs, but fully awake to the 
 felicities of his situation, girding up his loins to run the race set before 
 him, I behold in him an image of that bold and manly spirit, whom 
 one of our own poets has painted, bearing a banner in his hand, upon 
 which was blazoned the prouJ and aspiring motto of this Empire 
 State, so truly descriptive of her past history, so prophetic of her 
 future destiny. 
 
 " The shades of night were falling fast, 
 As through an Alpine village passed 
 A youth, who bore, mid snow and ice, 
 A banner with the strange device 
 ' EXCELSIOR.' 
 
 " ' Beware the pine tree's withered branch! 
 Beware the awful avalanche!' 
 This was the peasant's last good night. 
 A voice replied, far up the height 
 
 ' EXCELSIOR.' " 
 
 If I have succeeded in presenting a correct view of the condition 
 of wealth and labour amongst us, it will not be a difficult task to 
 point out their relations and duties. They follow inevitably, as con- 
 clusions from the admitted premises. 
 
 In the first place, there is not only no ground for any hostility or 
 unkindness of feeling between the rich and the labouring classes, but 
 the strongest reason, on the contrary, for mutual friendship and the 
 most cordial union. It may well be questioned, whether they should 
 ever be spoken of as classes, since the term presupposes a line of 
 demarcation, which cannot here be drawn. Both are striving with 
 the same eagerness for the same object some portion of wealth and 
 both are interested in the protection of property. Does any man 
 believe, that by destroying the rich, or diminishing the securities of 
 property, he can better his own condition or that of his children ? 
 Instead of this discordant outcry, which sometimes salutes our cars, 
 " down with the aristocracy," " the rich are leagued against the 
 poor," let us expend our sympathies upon the millions of other lands, 
 who are groaning beneath the weight of an iron bondage our indig-r 
 nation upon those who maintain it in its iron rigour ; but let us re?
 
 14 
 
 joice that here we may all unite, and that the cause of industry is the 
 cause of the whole people. This cry may do well enough in the 
 kraals of Ireland and in the depths of Hungary, but it should have no 
 place in the American vocabulary. 
 
 The fact cannot be disguised, however, that a feeling of prejudice 
 and hostility does exist between the wealthy and the labouring classes, 
 even in this country. It arises in part from the indulgence of envy 
 against the successful, from that sourness of spirit which is engen- 
 dered by misfortune, from not making the distinction between this 
 and other countries; but it has been extended and aggravated chiefly 
 by that worst pest of human society, the demagogue. Fully per- 
 suaded in his own mind of the truth of Hooker's celebrated remark, 
 that "he who goes about persuading men that they are not so well 
 governed as they ought to be, will never want adherents," he ap- 
 peals, with practised skill, to these inflammable passions, and becomes 
 for a time the champion of popular rights the favourite of the multi- 
 tude. He recounts the oppressions which aristocrats have practised 
 upon the poor in every age, and easily persuades them, that the rich 
 men of this country, who rose to wealth but yesterday, and whose 
 children will return to labour at his death, are heir legitimate success- 
 ors, and have their principles and feelings. Inequality offortune is pro- 
 duced by ten thousand causes, over which man has no control ; it has 
 always existed, and will always exist, until the laws of nature are changed, 
 "The poor we have always with us," and all that human institutions 
 can do for man, is to give free play and ample encouragement to 
 human industry, by protecting its acquisitions. 
 
 If the people of this country, who have been deluded and often 
 betrayed by the charming catch-word, would look to the quarter 
 whence it issues, with their native keenness, they would estimate it at 
 its true worth. Does it come from the hardworking, the industrious, 
 the thrifty sons of toil, who have had bitter experience of some prac- 
 tical evils who have been borne down by cruel Jaws ? Never ! It 
 issues from those patriotic spirits, whose real grievance consists in 
 this, that they cannot live without work quite so splendidly as men 
 who do work ; who declaim, in bar-rooms and grog shops, with sur- 
 passing eloquence, upon equal rights, when the oniy species of equality 
 they desire is, that the loafer shall share the wages of the labourer. 
 Let them put their hands and heads to the same exacting labours let 
 them pursue the same career of tireless industry and rigid self-denial, day 
 after day and year after year, which they have, whom they traduce and 
 vilify and if they then fail of success, and can point to any thing but 
 inevitable misfortune as the cause of their failure, let them sound the 
 trumpet, and armed men will spring up from the earth to aid them. 
 I know that misfortune and disappointment are the common lot of 
 man : that the language of Burns may be addressed to every child of 
 mortality : 
 
 " For care and trouble set your thought, 
 Even when your end's attained ; 
 
 And a' your plans may come to nought, 
 y. T hcre every nerve is 
 
 is strained."
 
 15 
 
 But T know, too, that our holy religion teaches us not to vilify and envy 
 those who have escaped them, but to bear them with manly fortitude. 
 If the condition of American labour be such as I have represented, 
 and they are acting, nevertheless, upon the belief that there must be 
 perpetual hostilities between the rich and themselves, they clearly 
 Jail within the category of what Sheridan declared to be the extreme 
 of folly. One may run his head against a wall by accident, but this 
 is the building a wall for the express purpose of running one's head 
 against it. 
 
 As this delusion does, however, unfortunately exist amongst us, as 
 it must, to some extent, mar the happiness and impair the prosperity 
 of the Republic, it becomes a high and imperative duty, worthy of 
 any statesman's study, to discover how it may be corrected and dis- 
 pelled. More can be done, however, by the wealthy themselves, 
 than by all others, in this patriotic work ; for they are not a little in 
 fault. The people of this country will tolerate any honest use of 
 riches. There is a deep feeling with the mass, that a man may do 
 as he pleases with his own, and they rarely speak of extravagance 
 and ostentation in any other terms than those of commiseration \ 
 but they will not tolerate, in foreigner or native, the lordly patronising 
 and condescending airs of asserted superiority. They are fond of 
 giving and receiving titles, but they will not endure haughty deport- 
 ment. And this is the glaring fault in the manners of wealthy fami- 
 lies. We have no aristocracy, indeed ; but we have a class amongst us 
 who ape the airs, and set up the pretensions of all the Howards, and 
 who may be, in fact, as offensive and injurious as the haughtiest 
 nobility that ever existed. It is said by keen observers, more of this 
 assumed superiority and exclusiveness is to be found here than in any 
 society in Europe. A parvenue can be easily distinguished even there, 
 by the extreme carefulness of his new dignity; and here our would- 
 be nobles are all parvenues. One who has suddenly acquired con- 
 siderable wealth is uneasy and jealous of offence, very careful not to- 
 soil his robes by too much familiarity with the multitude, and he may 
 go to the extent of cutting his old acquaintance, who have been less 
 fortunate than himself, and heeds not that a cut of this description* 
 leaves a deeper and keener wound than the sabre of Saladin, or the 
 poisoned arrow of the Parthian. I can conceive how an hereditary 
 noble, who bears a name of historic renown, whose halls are hoary 
 with ancestral glories, who is " native and to the manor born," should 
 inspire a feeling of loyalty and love among the tenantry of his estate,- 
 w even the inhabitants of a kingdom; and I can conceive as easily, 
 how one, who has mingled with his fellows in the dusty conflicts and 
 remorseless rival ries of business, and risen to affluence, should inspire/ 
 not disgust merely, but deep, relentless hate, when he assumes rank 
 and state, and tells his old associates, by his deportment, that he be- 
 longs to a higher order of beings. It is a common remark, that 
 there is scarcely a family that can trace their lineage back for three 
 generations, without running against a lapstone or an anvil, or a work
 
 10 
 
 bench ; and to see them affecting aristocracy, is a pitiable exhibition 
 of the weakness of poor human nature. The doctrine, which hag 
 been preached by some, of social equality, is a day dream, that can 
 never be realized ; but that the wealthier classes can learn and prac- 
 tice those amenities of social intercourse, those liberal hospitalities 
 that naturally spring from true nobleness of mind, and thereby re- 
 move this source of domestic dissension, this rock of offence, is 
 certain. 
 
 Nor let it be imagined that this subject of manners is one of little 
 i-nportance, or the discussion of it unsuited to the most important 
 occasion. A great political philosopher has remarked, that manners 
 are more important in a republic than laws, for they exert an hourly 
 and all-pervading influence upon universal society. Insult is in re 
 keenly resented than injury. The pride of nobility is more difficult 
 to tolerate than all the exclusive advantages which they possess. 
 "Numerous and serious as the grievances of the French nation were,'* 
 says the ablest of the royalist writers, "it was not they alone that 
 occasioned the Revolution. Neither the taxes, nor the letters de cachet, 
 nor the other abuses of authority, nor the vexations of the prefects, nor 
 the ruinous delays of justice, have irritated the nation ; it is the prestige 
 of nobility which has excited all the ferment." It converted a nation 
 of gentlemen and cavaliers into a nation of assassins, and her sunny 
 fields into a vast aceldama. The insolence of the privileged orders 
 gave a character of ferocity to the prolonged and fearful conflict 
 which ensued, that has never been paralleled in the history of the 
 world. And a far-sighted philosopher, seeing the spirit which existed 
 among the people, might years before have uttered the startling pre* 
 diction, which sprang from the lips of Antony; 
 
 -" This spirit, raging for revenge, 
 
 With Ate, by its side, came hot from hell, 
 Shall, in these confines, with a monarch's voice, 
 Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war." 
 
 Much, very much, can be done to remedy this unhappy state of 
 things by the labouring classes also ; and had I the action and utter* 
 ance, words and worth, I would exhort them, for their own sakes, by 
 the consideration of the immense benefits they will reap bv uniting 
 their energies and their numbers to those of capitalists, which more 
 than doubles their powers, to let nothing be wanting on their 
 part to harmony of thought and action. What might not be accom- 
 plished by a cordial union between them in enterprises of great pith 
 and moment? Those who prefer to be their champions and friends 
 are the assailants, and the rich are compelled to stand upon the defen- 
 sive; and they cannot fail to look with an evil eye upon those wha 
 make them the objects of vindictive and incessant attack. Let them 
 disdain the counsels of these false friends, until they can show some 
 real grievance. Let them scout this misplaced clamour about the 
 poor and the rich ; it belongs not to our country. They are too ready 
 to take offence : prone to construe mere inadvertence " the malady,
 
 17 
 
 ; t* not marking," into premeditated insult. It is not wise to employ a 
 microscope at our tables, to examine even the purest of elements ; it 
 ;s more foolish still to employ a mental microscope in our social inter- 
 course. If they exact courtesy from others, they must be ready to 
 repay it in kind. The law of true civility is a law of reciprocity. 
 If, instead of expending so much time and energy in mutual quarrels, 
 they would join heart and hand in all great and good undertakings, the 
 one contributing means, the other the skill and labour, they would 
 accomplish more for themselves and their country in one year than by 
 fifty years of dissention. And this result can be effected by the ob- 
 servance of that simple precept, which, as a regulator of social inter- 
 course, may well be denominated the golden rule : 
 
 " Be to their faults a little blind, 
 Be to their virtues very kind." 
 
 We should not forget that there are those who grace and gladden 
 our festivities by their presence who do not mingle with us, indeed, 
 in the walks of business, but who exert a more potent influence upon 
 the affairs of men than we are always willing to acknowledge whose 
 empire is absolute over the world of fashion whose appearance in 
 the midst of dissentions is like the radiant bow that spans the storm. 
 If their smiles do sometimes kindle dissention, they oftener allay it; 
 and I would invoke their gentle influence in the work of reforming the 
 national manners. If they would bestow more of their kind regards 
 upon those athletic and manly forms, that make our hill-sides and 
 valleys laugh and ring with the wealth of golden harvesls, and less 
 upon those whiskered and bedizened apes that infest the drawing- 
 room, we should love them better, and our country would indeed 
 regard them as her jewels. 
 
 There is one duty more, of the highest importance, to which, in 
 conclusion, I invite your attention the duty of holding in just esteem 
 all the occupations in which men are engaged. It is to be feared that 
 there is no subject upon which stronger prejudices or more erroneous 
 opinions prevail. Every man is inclined to overrate the labour, the 
 usefulness, and the importance of his own vocation, and think either 
 contemptuously or enviously of others. The toil-worn artisan, who 
 wins his bread by the sweat of his brow, is apt to regard the mer- 
 chant, who never soils his hands with mechanical labour, and yet fares 
 sumptuously every day, as one who fraudulently diminishes the 
 amount of his own compensation as a privileged drone a cumberer 
 of the ground ; and, on the other hand, some look down upon the sons 
 of toil with contempt. 
 
 The almost infinite variety of human employments is a result and an 
 evidence of high civilization, and contributes more than anything to 
 the amount of human enjoyment. Nothing can be more unjust, 
 illiberal, and narrow, than such prejudices. If we had time to insti- 
 tute a comparison between the different occupations to which men 
 devote themselves, it would bo easy to show how little there is in any 
 
 3
 
 18 
 
 man's condition to envy to show how the progress of mankind in' 
 virtue, intelligence, art and happiness is accelerated what vast 
 treasures, of countless diversity, are added to the stock of man's com- 
 forts, by this voluntary, natural, self-adjusting division of labour. 
 What honest vocation can be named, that does not contribute, in a 
 greater or less degree, to the enjoyment of man ? It may be humble, 
 indeed, but it goes to swell the mighty aggregate ; it may be the rill 
 that trickles from the mountain side, but it diffuses fertility through 
 the valley, and mingles its drops at last with the ocean. The true 
 American motto is and must be marked upon our foreheads, written 
 upon our door-posts channelled in the earth, and wafted upon the 
 waves INDUSTRY LABOUR is HONOURABLE, and idleness is dishon- 
 ourable and I care not, if it be labour, whether it be of the head or 
 the hands. 
 
 Away with the miserable jargon of the political economists, who 
 write so complacently about the producing and non-producing classes. 
 It has no foundation in nature or in experience. Whitney, whose 
 cotton-gin doubled the value of every acre of land in the south, raised 
 more cotton with his head than any other man ever raised with his 
 hands. The intellectual and manual operatives are alike useful and 
 indispensable to each other, and they should entertain for each other 
 the kindliest sentiments. If the one conceives, the other executes. 
 The one invents and discovers, the olher uses the invention or dis- 
 covery. It is a law of our condition upon earth, that there ever shall 
 be differences of tastes, of skill and strength ; and no fabric that ever 
 came from the loom was more beautifully interlaced and compacted, 
 than the numerous fibres that make up the mighty fabric of human 
 society. Our condition is one of eternal mutual dependence from the 
 cradle to the grave; and the man of millions can do nothing for 
 his own exclusive pleasure without the aid of others. He cannot 
 purchase an article for his household ; he cannot adorn his grounds 
 or his mansion ; he cannot ride, walk, eat, or even sleep, without ex- 
 pending a portion of his wealth amongst artisans and labourers. He 
 is, alone, a despicable character, who hoards his treasures in secret, 
 and whose study is to see how much he can possess, and how little 
 he can expend. 
 
 Let me exhort those of you who are devoted to intellectual pursuits, 
 to cherish, on your part, an exalted and a just idea of the dignity and 
 value of manual labour, and to make that opinion known in your 
 works, and seen in the earnestness of your actions. The labouring 
 men of this country are vast in number and respectable in character. 
 We owe to them, under Providence, the most gladsome spectacle the 
 sun beholds in its course a land of cultivated and fertile fields an 
 ocean white with canvass. We owe to them the annual spectacle of 
 golden harvests, which carries plenty and happiness alike to the palace 
 and the cottage. We owe to them the fortresses that guard our 
 coasts the ships that have borne our flag to every clime, and carried 
 the thunder of our cannon triumphant over the waters of the deep.
 
 19 
 
 They have turned a river from its course, and poured its welcome" 
 waters into this great metropolis ; and your entire population came 
 forth, but a day or two since, in long procession, with every demon- 
 stration of joy, to celebrate this memorable triumph. 
 
 That demon steed, which leaps the valley and dashes through the 
 mountain, pursues his fleet career over roads which they have con- 
 structed. The vast city which surrounds us, with its sparkling 
 jets and gushing fountains, the august temple in which we stand, are 
 the works of their hands; and when I look upon these gigantic 
 achievements, I say, honour to the labourer! We laud and magnify 
 the hero who has stormed a city and driven the ploughshare of ruin 
 over its habitations: let us here laud and magnify the heroes of our 
 country, who have made the wilderness blossom like the rose, and 
 the solitary place glad with the fires of a thousand happy homes. 
 
 And let them, on their part, not forget, that they owe one thing to 
 the heads which conceived and planned, and to the capitalists who 
 furnished the means to execute these great undertakings. 1 beseech 
 them to banish for ever from their thoughts prejudice and jealousy of 
 men engaged in any honest vocation, and hold vice and idleness alone 
 in deserved scorn. Let them treat the evil spirits who would array 
 them against what they call the non-producers, as all evil counsellors 
 deserve to be treated. The village school-master, who devotes the 
 years of his youth or his manhood to the exhausting drudgery of in- 
 struction who moulds the character and fixes the principles of an 
 advancing generation, is as eminently useful, though he sink at last 
 into the grave unhonoured and unsung, as the demagogue whose 
 presence is greeted in caucuses, or whose voice is heard in the halls 
 of legislation, discussing the constitutional power of Congress to buy 
 a penknife. 
 
 The physician, who in some far and sequestered retreat, treading 
 ambition beneath his feet, devotes his life to relieve the pains of the 
 rich and sooth the anguish of the dying, is entitled to the regard of all 
 good men. The lawyer, who stands forth, often alone, but never 
 dismayed, the champion of the weak against the strong, who knows, 
 in combatting for the right, no distinction between rich and poor who 
 is above the miserable trickery of the tricksters of the profession who 
 feels, when he enters the temple of justice, that the robe of a solemn 
 ministry is upon him, is an eminently useful labourer, and may rank 
 with any man in good service to his country. The ministers of our 
 holy religion, whose first act is a voluntary renouncement of much 
 that the world holds dear ; who, for a scanty support, labour on to 
 their lives' end, amid discouragement and reproach, in training im- 
 mortals for the skies, on bidding farewell to the delights of home and 
 the securities of law, journey, by land and sea, to the savage island, 
 the inhospitable climate, the idolatrous city, and lift up their fearless 
 voices amidst unsheathed daggers and glaring eye-balls, verily they 
 have their reward hereafter. But why should I multiply illustra- 
 tions, that crowd upon me as I advance, as numerous and endless as
 
 20 
 
 the objects of human pursuits? The welfare of society, the laws of 
 our being, demand an infinite diversity of occupation ; they require, in 
 the vast drama of life, anassignment of his proper part to every human 
 being; and mankind, ever acknowledging this supreme law, have, 
 with one accord, responded to the familiar but lofty sentiment of the 
 great poet : 
 
 " Honour and shame from no condition rise : 
 Act well your part, there all the honour lies."