Page:Reminiscences of Randolph County - Blair - 1890.djvu/63

 No community can afford to ignore any class of its subjects. That nation alone is great whose people are great, in contentment and happiness. High prices for produce, with corresponding high wages, with money bring prosperity. A system of low prices, with low wages, without money, is a mockery more splendid in theory than useful in practice. Theorizers are failures.

The strength of a nation is in its arts and industries. Rome conquered more by her arts than her arms. The lustre of a useful life, devoted to the peaceful pursuit of honest industry, outshines the grandest pageants of power. The proudest monuments of our nation's glory must be erected in the elevation and intelligence of the people. The vain adulations of praise bestowed upon the military chieftain only illustrate the folly of ambition and the servility of the masses. Agriculture is basis of National strength and greatness, the foundation upon which is reared the superstructure of free government, and the laborer is the key stone in the arch of the proud fabric of freedom. For him we cherish the profoundest veneration and respect, but for the political tramp, who is seeking office by deluding the farmer with empty promises and false representation, the world has the supremest contempt.

May the day hasten on apace when the idolatry of gunpowder greatness shall cease to be the folly of the world, and when man shall no longer pay his highest homage to the sword as the chief amulet of a nation's praise; but when the future glory of our country shall be that of peace and love, and our true heroes be those of toil and industry, whose skill and art shall celebrate in songs of praise, amid the music of busy commerce and happy homes, the grander, nobler victories of Peace.