Page:The Battle for Bread (1875).pdf/34

26

N a private letter which I recieved from one of the few of "nature's millionaire noblemen, and benefactors of his race—the truly Honorable Gerrit Smith, during the early stages of the war, he says:

"What you write of our guilty and unhappy country, is well said. The slave will go free. But the distresses of our country are far from ended. The penalties of her enormous crimes against the poor, are by no means exhausted."

What is the state of things as they now exist in this boasted land of freedom and equality, where all men are declared to be "endowed by their creator, with certain inalienable rights, among which are "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness?" How much of "life, liberty and happiness" is there for the two hundred thousand men now out of employment in the City of New York? How much for the two million men and women, who, in the aggregate, are alike situated, throughout the country? How much for the thirty millions of men, women and children, who have no homes, or an inch of ground in all this broad land?