A third class are the poor-those who are poor from ignorance, vice, feebleness of mind, and a few from unavoidable misfortune. These, from necessity, if not from choice, unite also as a distinct class. Between these two classes-the unproductive poor and the unprofitable rich-which have few or no qualities. or characteristics in common, there naturally exist a jealousy and distrust, which might, under supposable circumstances, break out into open hostility, were there no intervening class to stand between the extremes and prevent a collision. This is composed of those who labor in the various employments and professions before enumerated-whose enterprise, activity, and success, have not given them entire independence of labor, but have raised them above dependence on the kindness, caprice, or patronage of others. Such men can never consider the appropriate name of middling class a reproach, but one of honorable distinction. They form the most numerous class, and consequently the most powerful. From their distinguished position and their predominating influence in society, they may be compared to the central streak in the rainbow, which is the broadest and most distinctly developed, while its hues intermingle and coalesce with those of the outer edges so delicately, that the sharpest eye cannot discern the line of separation, nor trace out its undefinable boundary. This middling class is the security of the rich against the depredations of the poor, and the protection of the poor against the oppression of the rich. Its influence softens the vindictiveness of avarice,

and chastens the wantonness of pride; it encourages desponding humility, soothes the sorrows of suffering, assuages the repinings of despair, and checks or subdues the temptations of the oppressed to undertake desperate or unlawful remedies.

This middling class of society is, at least, half made up of mechanics-hard-laboring, industrious, practical mechanics. The obligations, which society owes to this class of citizens, are universally acknowledged. If the occupation of a mechanic can, in any part of the world, be cause of reproach, or if the name could ever be made to imply any thing dishonorable, this is not the region, nor is this the day, for either the one or the other. You, who hear me, need no prompter to remind you of men, who, though bred in workshops, have honored, embellished, and defended your country. That grateful country knows and remembers that the mechanics have ever been foremost in her cause, when she has had battles to be fought or wrongs to be avenged. They have given statesmen to her councils, generals to her armies, and plenipotentiaries to establish her rights at foreign courts, who met the cunning policy of foreign diplomatists with sagacity and prudence equal to their own. In the war of the revolution, they boldly faced the mercenary troops of her unnatural parent, and forced that haughty parent to relinquish its claim to dominion over her soil and her sons. The soil of this country is theirs; they fought for it; they bled for it; their fathers died for it; and perish the tongue that shall ever consent to relinquish one particle of

its dust to foreign domination or domestic despotism.

The impossibility of enjoying the elegances, or even the conveniences of life, without the services of the practical mechanic, is too apparent to require more than a moment's notice. The most powerful monarch cannot maintain his state without him. The most splendid palace, like his own humble habitation, is indebted to his skill and labor. The walls and all that they enclose, whether made for use or for show, for comfort or for embellishment, are all the work of his hands; and while the fortunate possessor reclines on the costly couch, or feeds from dishes of gold and silver, the mechanic, who made the palace and its furniture, shares with him his independence, and enjoys the fruit of his or his ancestor's most profitable speculations.

Again-Look at the mechanics as members of the great political community. To them, in common with all other classes of men, is entrusted the most important power that can be exercised in the nation -that of electing rulers and magistrates;—and, from their numbers, they can always exercise a preponderating influence in all elections. If they do not constitute an actual majority over all other classes, they form such an emphatic plurality, that they may be said to hold in their hands the issue of all elections, and can say which candidate shall be safely seated in the descending scale, and which shall kick the beam.

In another point of view the influence and the power of mechanics is important. To them is confided the duty of educating a large portion of the young-and this duty is not confined to their own offspring, as numerous, probably, as the children of any other classes. But on them devolves the obligation to instruct and to train to industrious habits and virtuous principles, an immense body of apprentices -a generation of young men, to whom, in their turn, are to be committed the same duties and privileges. On the mechanics, then, rests a most solemn responsibility, and their country demands and expects a most righteous and rigid discharge of it. No set of men can do more towards forming and sustaining a national character; for the character of a nation is nothing more than the aggregate of individual and personal character. While, from motives connected with private interest, mechanics demand of their apprentices a punctual observance of the stated hours of labor, and diligent attention to lessons of skill and dexterity in their employments, let them not forget the claims of society and their country. Let their apprentices be inspired with a devotion to justice, honor, and truth. Let them be taught, both by example and precept, their social and civil rights, their moral and political obligations. Let them be taught the virtues of punctuality, sobriety, frankness, and generosity; let them be taught to respect themselves, and you will seldom find one so obstinate or untractable as to withhold the respect he owes to you and to society. Let them be taught that art, which is

superior to all others-the science of self-government and self-control

Art, that may be pursued without a crime,

And leave no stain upon the wing of time.

It is to the middling class that the commonwealth looks for her main support; it is to them she is chiefly indebted for the vigorous and enterprising recruits which supply the waste of population by emigration and death. Celibacy prevails among other classes; (whether from necessity, or choice, or fashion, need not now be considered;) but among active mechanics, a bachelor of thirty is as rare as a phenix among birds, though much less an object of admiration or desire-and among practical farmers, he is as useless, as unseemly, and as much dreaded, as snow in summer or rain in harvest.

If the middling class of the people be well educated, it is not possible that they can suffer individual oppression. If they be united in purpose, it is not in the power of a moneyed aristocracy (if such a body of men exist among us), nor of any political projector, under whatever cloak, or name, or watchword, he may attempt to play the demagogue and gull the common ear, to deprive them of their influence in all the measures of the government, or of their share in all its offices, emoluments, and honors. Their voice must be heard; their strength must be felt; and, let any bold and unprincipled man, or body of men, attempt to stifle the one, or break down the other, a million of tongues would be loosened to pour forth the sentence of condemnation, and a million of hands