n, what
can he hoard? Preying on nobody, he becomes the prey of all. His
property is in his hands. His reliance, his fund, his productive
freehold, his all, is his labor. Whether he work on his own small
capital, or another's, his living is still earned by his industry; and
when the money of the country becomes depreciated and debased, whether
it be adulterated coin or paper without credit, that industry is robbed
of its reward. He then labors for a country whose laws cheat him out of
his bread. I would say to every owner of every quarter-section of land
in the West, I would say to every man in the East who follows his own
plough, and to every mechanic, artisan, and laborer in every city in the
country,--I would say to every man, everywhere, who wishes by honest
means to gain an honest living, "Beware of wolves in sheep's clothing.
Whoever attempts, under whatever popular cry, to shake the stability of
the public currency, bring on distress in money matters, and drive the
country into the use of paper money, stabs your interest and your
happiness to the heart."

The herd of hungry wolves who live on other men's earnings will rejoice
in such a state of things. A system which absorbs into their pockets the
fruits of other men's industry is the very system for them. A government
that produces or countenances uncertainty, fluctuations, violent
risings and fallings in prices, and, finally, paper money, is a
government exactly after their own heart. Hence these men are always for
change. They will never let well enough alone. A condition of public
affairs in which property is safe, industry certain of its reward, and
every man secure in his own hard-earned gains, is no paradise for them.
Give them just the reverse of this state of things; bring on change, and
change after change; let it not be known to-day what will be the value
of property to-morrow; let no man be able to say whether the money in
his pockets at night will be money or worthless rags in the morning; and
depress labor till double work shall earn but half a living,--give them
this state of things, and you give them the consummation of their
earthly bliss.

Sir, the great interest of this great country, the producing cause of
all its prosperity, is labor! labor! labor! We are a laboring community.
A vast majority of us all live by industry and actual employment in some
of their forms. The Constitution was made to protect this industry, to
give it both encourage