There was a simultaneous movement for political liberty, and the diffusion of knowledge. In the days of the Revolution, they left the work-shop for the camp. In the infancy of the Constitution, they quitted for a time the calls of labor, to rock the sleeping infant in the cradle of liberty. The mechanic interest, by a necessary movement, lent its strength to the cause of order, justice, and regular government, "With Atlantæan shoulders fit to bear The weight of mightiest monarchies." Popular government rests mainly on the laboring classes. A reciprocal energy elevates both. It is only in the degradation of these classes that they become slaves of power or ministers of anarchy, countenance revolutionary notions about property, or subvert the wholesome authority of law. As a class, they can never be poor. As a class, they can never be rich. The prayer of the pious man has been accorded to them, to be kept from poverty or riches; to possess that rational and happy competency, which is the best condition for the public welfare, as it is supposed to be for personal happiness. Unquestionably, there are exceptions of splendid character in our community, and in our society; but as a general result it may be stated, that so long as a mechanic works, he cannot be poor, SO long as he does nothing but work, he will not be very rich, — that is, rich in comparison with the favorites of commerce, or other dealers in the great chances of life. This is that position in which men feel the necessity of government, and become attached to it. It is the hard-earned property of industry, which needs protection; the reserved fund for a rainy day; the future widow's dowry; the anticipated orphan's heritage. To these, men look with a solicitude beyond the amount of the money, and feel their security in wholesome laws, faithfully executed. He who has two houses, may possibly preserve one, in any sysetm of agrarianism; but he who has but one, is sure to lose it, when he is to take common share with the profligate or the lazy, who have nothing. It is not on the possessors of great wealth, that dependence can be placed for upholding law or government, when either is in jeopardy. They have too much at hazard, are too timid, too fearful of consequences; they temporize and play off, till the opportunity has gone by. Nor in such emergency, can any dependence be placed on a class of men, who, having no stake in the community, affect to feel that "The world is not their friend, nor the world's law." The true conservative spirit lives in the hearts of the middling interest men, whose fortune, though moderate, is fortune to themselves and their children, earned by hard toil and patient industry, gathered by slow accumulation, and too dear to be torn from them in riot and anarchy. Such men feel that for the common security, a republican government must be a strong government, because the standard of moral and political right is higher there, than under a monarchical or aristocratic administration. They feel that men must conform to the standard, voluntarily if they will, but at any rate, that they must conform to it. They feel the necessity of sustaining free institutions by the respect of the people, which is the only substitute for the compulsive operation of power. The agency of the mechanic interest, in the improvement of the age, is exerted, in its immense contribution to personal domestic comfort and national glory, and to the refinement of the public taste, by the beauty, durability, and high finish of the articles which it produces. It is difficult to ascertain, with exactness, the amount of this contribution, because it enters into every department of life, and the minutest of its daily concerns. A calculation derived from the statistics prepared under the order of the Legislature of Massachusetts, would give, in our population of seven hundred and one thousand, three hundred and thirty-one souls, for a part only of this contribution, eighty-four millions of dollars per annum, in mechanic labor, upon forty-two millions dollars of capital; and by reasonable addition, for the great departments omitted, at least a sum total of more than one hundred and fifty millions of dollars of labor, on eighty-four millions dollars of capital, for the year 1837.* But the magnificent exhibition at Quincy Hall confounds all these calculations. We feel the total inadequacy of mere money to measure its operation upon society. We see that it has annihilated the ancient distinction between the fine arts and the mechanic arts, and that civilization is itself carried on and perfected by those ingenious contributions of exquisite finish, of new design or more perfect adaptation, which refine and beautify every condition of human life. It would be impossible, and is not expected, that any detail should be given of this splendid exhibition. It has been seen and admired by upwards of fifty thousand of our fellow-citizens. Although everything is now apparently conducted by machinery, it is to be remembered that the machine is the result of mechanic art. The philosopher, who measures the movements of the planets; the engineer, who plans new avenues upon the earth, are under equal obligations to it for the wonderful precision of their instruments; the theologian and jurist, for their typed and stereotyped books, and lithographic illustrations, and the paper, unknown to the ancients, which is ground from pulp, to a sheet fit for writing, while they are making a pen; the physician, for all that is in the chemical laboratory; Statistical Tables exhibiting the condition and products of certain branches of Industry in Massachusetts for the year ending April 1, 1837, prepared from the returns of the Assessors, by John P. Bigelow, Secretary of the Commonwealth. -- and the surgeon, it makes one's blood run cold to think of it, cuts upon the living and quivering flesh of his patient within a hair line of the seat of life, by a confident reliance on the perfection of his knife. It comes feelingly to the bosom of every man, who now, more fortunate than the luxurious Roman, enjoys the comfort of a linen shirt; and to every woman, whose wardrobe, richer than that of the voluptuous Queen of Egypt, supplies her with a pair of stockings. But although it is not possible to speak in detail of this magnificent exhibition, there is one quarter of the spacious hall, which it would be unpardonable not to notice; that is, the room allotted to the contributions of the mechanic apprentices. It serves to shew, that the ingenuity and the industry of the fathers, are to be preserved and extended by their sons. When it is considered that knowledge is not transmissible like property; that there is neither entail, nor legacy, nor statute of distribution that will convey genius, or learning, or skill, to the coming generation, and that the fabricators of all these wonderful specimens of ingenuity must soon die, we might feel some apprehensions for the future, did we not find our young men panting to take their start in the business of life, rivalling their fathers in skill and industry, and giving promise, that in their day, they will carry to yet greater perfection, the grand machinery of civilization and improvement. In reference, however, to this interesting class, it may be permitted to me respectfully to suggest, whether, while so much is done for their instruction, something should not be added for their amusement. Do we forget the homely adage of the nursery, which in humble phraseology conveys a deep practical truth, that "all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy." Are we getting to be too stern, rigid, and cold in our feelings; too formal, precise, and severe, in the harder requisitions of duty, without reflecting that to promote cheerfulness, good humor, and rational hilarity is a necessary part of every wise system of human government? One half the intemperance, and more than half the riots of the day, are the ebullitions of youth forcibly restrained from lawful indulgence. Young men without regular means of gratifying the inclinations of their age, which it is absurd to think can be extinguished, in sports, games, exhibitions, or exercises suited to their age and time of life, finding it necessary to skulk from the public eye, whenever the mill-horse path of life is to be quitted for an hour, are almost driven into illicit indulgences. A more liberal system and a better tone of public sentiment, would advance the morals, improve the minds, and nerve the bodies of the rising generations. I do not recollect, that in your splendid exhibition, two articles make any considerable figure, which a southern senator, on a recent visit among us, considered to be the chief product of New England, Granite and Ice. But the real staple of our hard soil is everywhere visible; viz; free labor and mechanic skill. These powers convert our granite into palaces, and make the isicles, which nature elaborates in our cold country, melt into streams of gold in the coffers of our enterprising citizens. Let him rejoice in his orange groves, and his sunny sky. There is a dark spot there which chills the heart. England. "Land of the forest and the rock Of dark blue lake and mighty river— Of mountains reared aloft to mock The storm's career- the lightning's shock, Land of the beautiful and brave We love New |