Let government protect and encourage industry, secure
property, repress violence, and discountenance fraud, it is all that
they have to do. In other respects, the less they meddle in these
affairs, the better; the rest is in the hands of our Master and theirs.
We are in a constitution of things wherein "_modo sol nimius, modo
corripit imber_."--But I will push this matter no further. As I have
said a good deal upon it at various times during my public service, and
have lately written something on it, which may yet see the light, I
shall content myself now with observing that the vigorous and laborious
class of life has lately got, from the _bon-ton_ of the humanity of this
day, the name of the "_laboring poor_." We have heard many plans for the
relief of the "_laboring poor_." This puling jargon is not as innocent
as it is foolish. In meddling with great affairs, weakness is never
innoxious. Hitherto the name of poor (in the sense in which it is used
to excite compassion) has not been used for those who can, but for those
who cannot labor,--for the sick and infirm, for orphan infancy, for
languishing and decrepit age; but when we affect to pity, as poor, those
who must labor or the world cannot exist, we are trifling with the
condition of mankind. It is the common doom of man, that he must eat his
bread by the sweat of his brow,--that is, by the sweat of his body or
the sweat of his mind. If this toil was inflicted as a curse, it is, as
might be expected, from the curses of the Father of all blessings; it is
tempered with many alleviations, many comforts.
Pages:
473
474
475
476
477
478
479
480
481
482
483
484
485
486
487
488
489
490
491
492
493
494
495
496
497