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HY should it be incompatible with the functions of a republican government, to keep men from starving, by furnishing them with work, while it is entirely within its province to protect their lives in other ways?

That it is so considered, may be predicated on the assumption of an ancient writer that, "It is not the business of governments to promote the interests of mankind but to promote their own interests." It would look as if our government, in these latter days, had been acting largely on this principle.

But, is it only important that men and women should be protected from burglars and assassins, while they are left unprotected from the grim hand of want, that like a giant monster, throttles them by the thousand, and slowly sucks out their life-blood? Viewed, however, entirely in the light of bringing in a revenue to the government—without any reference to its humanity would it not be a profitable operation to send