Rensselaer Union, Volume 6, Number 30, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 April 1874 — The Mission of the Granges. [ARTICLE]

The Mission of the Granges.

[Bxtraaia from an Addrere Recently Delivered Before the Weet Buffalo (low*) Orange.] Ever since the Puritan farmer* set up their standard on this continent, this has been the great battle-ground between Freedom and Slavery. Campaign after campaign has been prosecuted, ana many andgreat victories have been won for Freedom. The pulpit, the rostrum and the tented fields by turns have been the arenas of combat; the pen and the sword have been alternate weapons of warfare. But in the struggle now impending we hope to hear no roll of drum or cannon's roar, for no foreign tyrant has Invaded our soil; neither do we take up the sword in behalf of the down-trodden of other lands, for all this has been done in former years ; but while we have driven back the invader, and while we have loosed the chains from enslaved millions, silently our own fetters have been forged; stealthily, Insidiously has an chemy crept in upon us, and we are enslaved. When this Government was organized, it was a farmers’ Government. The signers of the Declaration of Independence were mostly farmers; our Senators and Representatives were farmers; our Generals, as well as our private soldiers, came from the farm; consequently, economy and honesty characterized the earlier administration of our Government. But, as the nation grew older, other influences became predominant. When the Puritans established themselves ou the bleak shores of New England, their great purpose was to be free to worship God according to the dictates of their own conscience; and we enjoy to day the fruit of their toils and sufferings. But, while we are free from priestcraft and kingcraft, we are bound hand and foot by lawyer-craft and merchantcraft; and, unless we can rid ourselves of these new usurpers, we shall find our latter state to be worse than the former. * * * As a nation, we have gradually given up to the lawyer every place of honor or trust within the gift of the nation: Presidents, Governors, Secretaries, Senators, Representative*, nineteen times iu twenty are lawyers. * * * The merchant has got the entire business of the country uuder his control; food, clothing, implements of labor, all the necessaries and luxuries of life, can no longer be had for their real value, but must pay a profit of from 20 to 100 per cent, and upward. A farmer takes his graiu to market. (Jan he add a percentage on the first cost? Rarely; he often sells at a discount. He goes to the manufactory to buy a wagon, or a plow, or a reaper. Does he get it for cost? Never; but he pays a large percentage for the privilege of buying. Thus the merchant has obtained the unlimited control of the whole traffic of the country, and every movement of property yields him a revenue. But, not content with operating in common merchandise, he has laid his hapd upon the very pulses of the nation, and has made its life-blood become his tributary. And so, in every department of the Government, ic every nook and corner of the land, from the building of an insignificant bridge to .the construction of a railway or canal, from the building of a country school-house to the erection of a Capitol edifice costing many millions, all is done at a profit. The whole Government has become an Immense warehouse of merchandise, where everything has a price, and every transaction yields a profit, and the farmer and the laborer foot the bill. The lawyer, secure in his control of all Government offices, fixes bis own salary;raises it; doubles it; adds to it perquisite and emolument; builds stately palaces and costly edifices to be paid for out of the hard earnings, the sweat and blood, of the farmer and the laborer. The merchant locks up the currency and times are hard, and the proceeds of the farmer’s year of toil pass out of his hands at a discount. The crop sold, money becomes plenty; prices advance; the merchant becomes rich. The farmer works harder and harder; economizes more and more; dresses plainer and plainer; himself and wife grow prematurely old; the intellects of his childrer become blunted by excessive toil; the mortgage on his farm becomes due; iu his extremity he flies to the merchant that has money to sell—to the usurer; aud then, at 20 per cent., seals hie doom; and so falls the farmer, and so falls the whole national fabric; for, when the primeval rock breaks up, who can fell where the ruin will cease? When the farmer, year after year, groans under the weight of unrequited toil; when those that reap the rewards of his toil revel in wealth aud luxury to an extent unequaled in any age of the world; when money, the lile-hlood of the nation, only moves at two or three times it* value for legitimate business; when lawyers’ salaries go up continually, and farmers’ salaries continually go down; when speculation and bribery pervade every branch of the Government; when to the youth of our country the only highway to honor and preferment lies through trickery and fraud, who shall not say that a revolution Is demanded, and that it is nigh, even to the doors? I —— When, iatiiejaourse of the development of Christianity among the nations and Government* of the earth, God has a great work to jdo, He always has His servants prepared and "fitted for the work; so, in the birth of our Republic, the work ■of preparation has been going on for hundreds of years; aud, when the great clock of the Universe struck the hour, all was ready. And who shall say now that the American farmer'is not ready to take this mighty Republic and drive out the hordes of extortioners, speculators and robbers that, like the flies of Egypt, darken our land and penetrate even our closets and bed-chambers, in their insatiable greed for plunder; and drive out the lawyers, the money-changers, and the thieves that have so long desecrated the fair temple of Liberty; aud place in their stead men of hODor and integrity—men who fear God, and have regard lor their fellow-men? Who shall say that God has not fitted them for this work? Through generations of toil and privation, through poverty and sufferings, the American farmer has kept In view those fundamental principles of Justice, Equality and Christianity which are the only sure foundations of human government For many years the American fanner has lamented the inpouring tide of evil that like a flood, threatens to sweep away our liberties; he has held up his puny arm against the torrent, but to no purpose;' he has become discouraged and ready to cxs, “ God, save or we perish!” As it ever happens, upon the snpremest darkness a light breaks forth; from the direst calamity a way opens for escape; the voice of the Almighty is heard in the land : “ Farmers, arise; shake off the lethargy that has crept over you like a spell! The day of your deliverance is dawning, and now is the auspicious moment! Let Truth, Honesty, Christianity, be yotir watchword aud battle-cry! Advance, and the minions of evil shall fly before you like the mists before the morning sun!” The questions upon w hich the country has been divided for the last fifty years—the tariff, the National Bank, Internal improvements by Government aid, and Slavery—are no longer national issues; they have either been definitely settled or, in the progress of events, have become of secondary importance. None of - these questions can ever again divide the American people. To-day the only question •" of interest to the politician and the selfstyled statesman is, Shall Ibe able to secure an office?” The only question of interest to the American farmer, or to the American people, is, “ Where is an honest man, that we may employ him in the administration of the affaire of this Government?” Advertise in all the papers, “Wanted—Honest tgen to hold office; people too lazy to work and too proud to respect the farmer need not apply.” We will now consider the responsibilities of the farmer and the mißsiqn of the Grange. Through organization by Grange or otherwise, the farmer finds an open way for the solution of all his difficulties. He is ready uow to take his proper position in the administration of the Government; he has become known as a power in the laud, and he has come to be feared and respected. At times the Irish vote, the German, the Catholic, or the negro vote, has decided a political contest, and the price of these rhqn votes has ever ruled high in the market. It has now been discovered that the American farmer hag a vote, and every politician bids. But it is no doubt a wise policy that has decided that the Grange shall not be a political organization. The Grange should be a bond to unite the farmers of all parts of the nation and, perhaps, of the world. The office of the Grange should be to educate the farmer, socially, morally and politically; to fit him for the position God designed him for, Mid to nrepare him for the great work of purifying till* nation. When God created man, He made him a farmer, and defined fait position and mission: “ And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, aad over every living thing that movetb upon the earth.” And to assist him in fulfilling his mission woman was created to be a help, meet, or fit, for Mm. Xhua the farmer and the farmer’s wife I

were constituted by the Almighty flat the motive and governing power of the world. What an exalted position was this! And to bow low an estimate has the farmer fallen! Now, it shall be the mission of the Granges to assist in restoring the farmer to the position to which God and Nature assigned him. And one guarantee of the success of the cause is that the Grange, going back to the point of departure, restores woman to her proper position as a help fit for man. Ever since woman lost her normal position she has been the suhjeet of many andi great vicissitudes; she has alternated from being the most despotic sovereign to being the most abject slave of man; consequently, society, thrown from its balance, has hobbled along, first on one leg and then on auother, and has made but very sorry progress. But now the Grange offers to woman her true position. She enters the same door, stands upon the same platform, and, side by side with her husband, assumes the same responsibilities; thus the Grange is almost the only existing human institution that stands on both its feet; so we expect to see it move, without halting or wavering, steadily on -to the accomplishment of its destiny. The Grange is for organization, education and preparation ; it cannot well attempt more without interfering with and violating the fundamental principles of the System of government under which we live. The contest, the work, whatever that work may be, must be done outside. This is as it should be; yet flatter not yourselves, ye trembling politicians, that, because the Grange is not a political organization, what has been shall continue to be. Already is the hand departed from the wall; the writing is plain, “ Thou art weighed in the balances and found wanting.” The Persian is at the gate. Ye farmers of America, to you is intrusted a great responsibility. The kingdom is taken from the political Belshazzars who have ruled and rioted so long, and given to you. Henceforth, you are the God-appointed custodians of the liberties of our country. How will you meet this responsibility? Awake! Arise! Act! Shake off the stupor that is benumbing all your faculties. Call to mind the heroic days of the past, when great questions were agitated aud settled by the earnest thought and action of the masses. Study the history of the farmers of 1776; pattern by their example, but dwell not with past Issues. “ Let the dead past bury its dead,” and hasten to the future. Let every farmer make the Science of Government his study. Let Political Economy and the principles of Christianity, applied to the theory and .practice of government, engage his most earnest attention. Let every voter in the Grange conscientiously attend every primary meeting, crowd aside the bad men and roughs who have so long monopolized and controlled such meetings, and see to it that none but good and honest men are nominated for office, Now, let us make polilies part of our religion. Let every member of the Grange feel that it is a duty which he owes to God, as well as to his couutry, to elect good men to office. Be alert, active and faithful, and the work can be accomplished. Bad men have continually ridden into office upon the tidal wave of some great national political question; good men have toiled and suffered and bled to establish a principle or maintain a right; and, finally, when successhas erowned their efforts, bad men have reaped the reward of their toils. How often in the history of the past have we seen the patriot and the statesman, who had fairly and nobly won exalted position, heartlessly set aside, and time-servers and knaves set to fill their place! bo long and so frequently has this been done that there remaius no healthy stimulus to noble effort or to a worthy ambition. The young, finding as a rule that success follows knavery rather than honest effort, have become demoralized, and national ruiu seems near at hand. And shall this be ? If the farmers of America awake to the grave responsibilities' which God and the needs of the flour have imposed upon them, such a catastrophe may be averted. But this involves a revolution so complete, so fundamental, so mighty that we are led to exclaim, Who is sufficient for these things? Thirteen years ago, in the hour of the nation’s peril, there was a call for 800,000 men to arm in her defeuse; again the nation calls, not for a paltry 300,000, but for many millions of American farmers, sons of toil, children of the soil, to break up the fallow ground of the national heart; to root out bribery, corruption, fraud, injustice, knavery, trickery, favoritism, and dishonesty, of every shade and grade, together with all that are engaged iu such practices, the monopolist, the usurer, the stock-broker, the speculator, the i place-hunting politician, and the whole swarm of vampires that live aud fatten on every branch of the body politic. Farmers of America, are you ready to accept this mission? Are you ready to join the hosts that are mustering on every hand ? Are you ready to lift your own right arm to Heaven, and swear individual fidelity to God, and to the everlasting principles of Truth, Honesty andWirtue ? Will you purge your practice, and so become fitted to join the great crusade against all wrong? Now, if there is any heroic blood in your veins, let it bubble up; if there is any divinity in you, let it stir. This work, if done at all, must be done by you; there is no one else to do it. Now is the supreme moment; in your hands, as in a balance, lies the destiny of a nation, the hope of a world. If you are recreant to your trust, the curses of all nations shall gather upon you, and tiie blood of all martyrs shall sink you down forever; your children shall become slaves, and your names shall rot aud pass into oblivion. But if, on the contrary, you are true to your trust; if, as your fathers did, you consecrate your time, your talents, your property, and your sacred honor to God and Liberty—then, as a reward for your fidelity, shall the Tree of Liberty grow fair beside all waters, and its leaves shall be the healing of all the nations; beneath its protecting branches your sons aud daughters shall abide in perfect peace; vice shall no more allure them, but tfie paths of virtue shall be pleasant to their feet. Then shall you leave to your children the heritage of -virtuous lives and heroic deeds and a nation redeemed; your names shall descend to remote generations in grateful remembrance, and the down-trodden of all lands shall rise up and call you blessed. Above your heads the heavens shall shine with radiance ever glorious aud ever new; while beneath your feet shall bloom a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousueis.