ty of Nature, but to their own
short-sighted, rough-handed endeavor, and who will simply take heart and
try again,--men who are fully persuaded in their own minds that there
must be, and are fully determined in their own hearts that there shall
be, profit to him that glorieth in the goad.

It is left for our country to show that manual and mental skill,
strength, exercise, and labor are not incompatible,--that hard hands may
comport with gracious manners,--that one may be a gentleman digging in a
ditch, as well as dancing in a drawing-room. The Old World groans under
her peasant system,--even free England has her Hodge; but we will have
no peasantry here, no Hodges in hobnailed shoes, no stolid perpetual
serfdom to nurse our vanity and pride. The very genius of our nation
makes every man's manhood his most valuable possession. America
professes to believe that no one can with impunity evade the decree, "In
the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread." She professes to hold labor
in honor; but she should show her faith by her work. She should display
her children of labor, fairer and fatter than the children of kings and
princes. If they are seen to be decrepit in mind and body before their
time,--if they have less happiness than the Austrian peasant, and less
content than the English clown, and no breadth of vision or liberality
of thought or clear foresight to atone for such deficiency, we shall
have to compass sea and land before we make many intelligent men or
nations proselytes to our faith.

The time especially has need of men. This hour, and every hour of the
last three years, ought to prove to us beyond cavil that no class can
safely be left in ignorance, least of all the class that holds in its
hands a people's staff of life. Our country needs all the brain, all the
conscience, all the nerve and patience and moral strength, that can be
commanded. Her salvation lies in a yeomanry capable of comprehending the
momentous issues at stake. "More light!" is the dying gasp of a dying
people. Our republican institutions are but half completed. To give
every man the right to vote, without giving him at the same time the
power to vote intelligently, is but questionable service. If such an
arrangement were perpetual, it would be unquestionable disservice. Only
as fast and as far as we keep enlightenment abreast of power are we
seeing that the Republic receives no detriment. Ignorance is the
never-failing foe of freedom, the