 | CHAPTER XXXVI. Forest life |  |
36. CHAPTER XXXVI.
By the known laws of modern liberty.
Milton.
“Gentlemen,” said the orator, taking off his hat
and waving it in a courteous and inviting manner,
while he wiped his brow with a faded cotton handkerchief,—“Gentlemen!
may I beg your attention
for a few moments! You are aware that I do not
often draw very largely on your patience, and also
that I am not a man who is fond of talking about
himself. It is indeed a most unpleasant thing to
me to be in a manner forced to advocate my own
cause, and nothing short of the desire I feel to have
an opportunity of advancing the interest of my
friends and neighbors in the legislature would induce
me to submit to it.”
Somebody groaned, “Oh, Tim, that's tough!”
“Yes, gentlemen! as you observe, it is tough; it
is a thing that always hurts a man's feelings. But
as I was observing, we must go through with whatever
is for the good of our country. The greatest
good of the greatest number, I say!”
By this time the auditory had greatly increased,
and comprised indeed nearly all the voters. Mr.
Rice went on with increasing animation.
“This is the principle to go upon, and if this
was only carried out, we should all have been better
off long ago. This is where the legislature wants
mending. They always stop short of the right
mark. They get frightened, gentlemen! yes, frightened,
scar't! they always have a lot of these small
souls among them—souls cut after a scant pattern
—souls that are afraid of their own shadows—
that object to all measures that would really relieve
the people, so they just give the people a taste to
keep them quiet, and no more, for fear of what folks
a thousand miles off would say! You've heard of
the jackass that was scar't at a penny trumpet—
well, these jackasses are scar't at what isn't louder
than a penny trumpet, nor half so loud.”
Here was a laugh, which gave the orator time to
moisten his throat from a tumbler handed up by a
friend.
“Now you see, gentlemen, nobody would have
said a word against that exemption bill, if every
body was as much in favor of the people as I am.
I don't care who knows it, gentlemen, I am in
favor of the people. Don't the people want relief?
And what greater relief can they have than not to
be obliged to pay their debts, when they have
nothing to pay them with? that is, nothing that
they can spare conveniently. I call that measure
a half-way measure, gentlemen,—it is a measure
that leaves a way open to take a man's property if
he happens to have a little laid by—a little of his
hard earnings are.
“What is the use of having the privilege of making
laws if we can't make them to suit ourselves?
We might as well be a territory again, instead of
a sovereign state, if we are a-going to legislate to
favor the people of other states at the expense of
our own people. I don't approve of the plan of
creditors from other states coming here to take
away our property. Folks are very fond of talking
about honesty, and good faith, and all that. As to
faith they may talk, but I'm more for works; and
the man that works hard and can't pay his debts is
the one that ought to be helped, in my judgment.
“They'll tell you that the man that sues for a
debt is owing somebody else, and wants his money
to pay with. Now, I say, he's just the man that
ought to feel for the other, and not want to crowd
him hard up. Besides, if we pass exemption laws,
don't we help him too? Isn't it as broad as it's
long?”
A murmur of applause.
“Then as to honesty; where'll you find an honest
man if not among the people? and such measures
are on purpose to relieve the people. The
aristocracy don't like 'em perhaps, but who cares
what they like? They like nothing but grinding
the face of the poor.”
Here a shout of applause, and a long application
to the tumbler.
“Gentlemen,” continued Mr. Rice, “some people
talk as if what debts were not paid were lost, but
it is no such thing. What one man don't get,
t'other keeps; so it's all the same in the long run.
Folks ought to be accommodating, and if they are
accommodating they won't object to any measures
for the relief of the people, and if they don't
want to be accommodating, we'll just make 'em,
that's all!
“Some say it's bad to keep altering and altering
the laws, till nobody knows what the law is.
That's a pretty principle, to be sure! what do we
have a legislature for, I should be glad to know, if
not to make laws? Do we pay them two dollars
and fifty cents a day to sit still and do nothing?
Look at the last legislature. They did not hold
on above two months, and passed rising of two
hundred laws, and didn't work o' Sundays neither!
Such men are the men you want, if they'll only
carry the laws far enough to do some good.
“Now, gentlemen, I see the poll's open, and I
s'pose you want to be off, so I will not detain you
much longer. All I have to observe is, that although
I am far from commending myself, I must
give you my candid opinion that a certain person
who has thrust himself before the public on this
occasion is unworthy of the suffrages of a free and
that's always talking about doing justice to all, and
keeping up the reputation of the state, and a great
deal more stuff of the same sort; but it's all humbug!
nothing else; and he has an axe of his own
to grind, just like the rest of us. And worse than
all, gentlemen, as you very well know, he's one of
these tee-totallers, that are trying to coax free-born
Americans to sign away their liberty, and make
hypocrites of 'em. I'm a man that will never refuse
to take a glass of grog with a fellow-citizen
because he wears a ragged coat. Liberty and
equality, I say—Hurrah for liberty and equality!
three cheers for liberty and equality, and down
with the tee-totallers!”
The orator had been so attentive to the tumbler,
that the sincerity of the latter part of his speech at
least could not be doubted; and indeed his vehemence
was such as to alarm Seymour, who felt
already somewhat ashamed of the cause he was
bound to advocate, and who feared that a few more
tumblers would bring Tim to a point which would
render his advocacy unavailing. He therefore
sought an opportunity of a few moments' private
talk with the candidate, and ventured to hint that
if he became so enthusiastic that he could not
stand, he would have very little chance of sitting
in the legislature.
Now, Mr. Rice liked not such quiet youths as
our friend Seymour, and especially in his present
contempt upon any thing in the shape of advice on
so delicate a subject, so that Seymour got an answer
which by no means increased his zeal in Mr.
Rice's service, though he still resolved to do his
best to fulfil the wishes of Mr: Hay.
Rice's conduct throughout the day was in keeping
with the beginning which we have described,
and such was the disgust with which it inspired
Seymour, that he at length concluded to quit the
field, and tell Mr. Hay frankly that it was impossible
for him to further the interests of so unprincipled
a candidate.
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