SOCIAL CHANGES IN NEW HAMPSHIRE.
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��ions now where we used to speak cau- tiously of thousands. In 1850, New Hampshire held a Constitutional Conven- tion which cost the State about $35,000. No Legislature for years dared increase the State tax so as to pay that debt. I doubt if it was paid when the rebellion came upon us, though I have no knowl- edge upon that point. Now we raise from four to five hundred thousand dol- lars annually to defray State expenses, and twice that sum to pay local expenses and interest on town debts. To salaried men, who have little increase of means
with large increase of expenses, the tax- es are burdensome. They are growing poorer, whoever else is enriched.
To argue the decline of public morali- ty during the last fifty years would be a work of supererogation. As I cannot demonstrate this from my own experi- ence, I must refer you to the dockets of oui\courts and the over-populous condi- tion of our State prison. Crime, like the king's prerogative, in Revolutionary times, " has increased, is increasing, and ought to be diminished." But New Hampshire has " no bad eminence " in this particular. Her records are even less blotted than those of sister States. Some years ago the Hon. Mr. Mills, a distinguished lawyer and United States Senator from Massachusetts, remarked to Judge Parker that some fifty years ago crime was so rare in that State that a violator of the law was looked upon as a prodigy. He recollected a man being arrested for assault, not an aggravated case, and as the constable conveyed him to the court for that the people turned out en masse by the wayside to seeapris- oner led to the office of a county justice. It was a sight so strange that their curi- osity was aroused to the highest pitch to gaze upon a man who had the hardihood to violate a law of the commonwealth. A murder in those days was as rare as a comet, and both were regarded with horror. A bold blasphemer was looked upon with apprehension, lest the judg- ments of Heaven should fall upon the community that tolerated such a wretch. The sentiment with reference to crimin- als was aptly represented by a pompous little official in my native town. It was,
��in early times, customary to warn such persons to leave the town, that they might not gain a residence in it. This was a legal provision. In the case of a notorious thief, the little constable sought the culprit, and, before witnesses, said : "I warn you off" the town's terri- ritory ; and, moreover, I warn you off the face of God's earth ! "
u Action is the end of thought; but to act justly and effectively, you must think wisely. No man can pass through his allotted term of years — least of all can the wealthier classes do so — without profiting by the fruit of other men's toil. All capital is accumulated labor. A scru- pulous and high-minded man will always feel that to pass out of the world in the world's debt, to have consumed much and produced nothing, is to sit down, as it were, at the world's feast, and not to have paid his reckoning ; and hence even he who lives at ease will be anxious to replace to the public the expenditure of labor that has been made upon him." Every man is a debtor to his calling. Every citizen is a debtor to the State. Every student is a debtor to the institu- tion that gave him culture. The Master says : " Work while the day lasts ; occu- py till I come." All men are striving to better their condition. Most young per- sons are aspiring to enter that " paradise of fools " where the men have nothing to do and the women nothing to wear, but he only will achieve true success in the estimation of the Searcher of Hearts, who labors with his hands and head, not for himself but for others.
"Life is before ye; A sacred burden to that life ye bear. Look on't, lift it, bear it solemnly, Stand up, walk under it steadfastly. Fail not for sorrow, falter not for sin ; Onward and upward till the goal ye win."
Our country, with all its faults, is the best of earth. Every State has its at- tractions. Those of New Hampshire I have endeavord to portray. It is a good State to live in. Cherish it, commend it, love it, as your own dear foster mother. Recall the great men and good institutions it has produced. I can re- member the day and year when I could enter our Supreme Court and find such
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