Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 24, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 March 1877 — Rights. [ARTICLE]

Rights.

There appertain* to man certain prerogatives, privileges and immunities as high and as sacred as his very origin, nature and constitution. They are the basis of all just social compacts, called governments. In'all the doings and operations of men they must be observed and respected, otherwise trouble and wrong surely come. Animals are possessed of rights, which spring from their relationship to man and the earth at the beginning. The fact was announced to man by tbe Creator himself, at a ver? early dale in our recorded history. The statutes of all Nations recog-’ nize these rights. But it is not of the rights of man or of those of the creatures which were given him for his use that we want to speak—-it is of another class of rights entirely—the rights of the soil. If it is news to some that the soil has rights which men ought to respect and must respect, we trust they will believe and be saved from the evils which follow a disregard of these rights, and the sad fate which fell upon the famers of Judea and of the country between the Jordan and the sea. They looked to Jerusalem too much, and loved Jerusalem too much, and forgot the rights of the soil they drew their support from, until now thev have almost lost their manhood and their responsibility as human beings. ( The old Virginia tobacco-growers forgot that the soil had rights which it were good for them to care for and cherish, and the bottom fell out of their prosperity as farmers. We are wont to dilate with a good deal of earnestness and sometimes with fierceness about the enormity of disregarding human rights, and history is full of the bad effects of disregarding them; but we donotstopto consider that not only the well-doing of individuals but of nations also depend upon the just and careful respect paid to the rights of the soil. Should this Nation of farmers neglect this right for one hundred years we should see as badly a demoralized, ignorant and imbecile a race here as are the Mexicans and Haytiens. This is not a flourish of words, but truth; and we incidentally see by this how important to National prosperity and greatness is the prosperity of the cultivators of the soil. Commerce and the mercantile trade, the lumber and building interests, education and morals all depend for their growth and health upon a proper observance of the rights of the soil. What are these rights? Heaven has formed the earth with certain inalienable properties, attributes and elements, among which are gravity, cohesion, heat; potash, soda, lime, magnesia, iron, silica, chlorine, the phosphates, carhan and certain acids; and has said unto the earth, these are yours; the hand of him, be he man, or angel, or God, which deprives you of them, shall be paralyzed, and I will put the mark of poverty upon him—he shall be a “ tramp” upon the earth, and all shall know whereof he is afflicted. This eternal, Heaven-proclaimed law of right respectingthe soil It behooves us all then to obey. We all love wealth and hate poverty—we all would like to be rich; we all dislike the idea of being or becoming poor. So a man now, if he is really and truly a man, loves knowledge and hates ignorance. Well, what does he do? Does he go to school or college and come out and say, ”1 have now stored my nrind full, and, as knowledge is indestructible, I need spend no more time in laying it by and

adding to the old stock else he declines In strength and power and usefulness. It is so with the soil. It is full naturally. God has made it full, but if it is used there must be added and added continually to its elements of these treasures which are as constantly being taken from it in the different crops. In these various ways and forms do we try to illustrate the great truth that more than toe natural fertility of the soil must be sustained in order to realize the highest profit from farming relations. The rights of the soil in this respect must be continually observed and heeded if we are over to become a Nation of rich agriculturists.— Detroit Tribune.