settlement in the Territories. These needs gave
their character to the public debates in every vil-
lage and State. I have been often impressed at
our country town-meetings with the accumulated
virility, in each village, of five or six or eight or ten
men, who speak so well, and so easily handle the
affairs of the town. I often hear the business of a
little town (vdth which I am most familiar) dis-
cussed with a clearness and thoroughness, and with
a generosity too, that would have satisfied me had
it been in one of the larger capitals. I am sure each
one of my readers has a parallel experience. And
every one knows that in every town or city is
always to be found a certain number of public-
spirited men who perform, unpaid, a great amount
of hard work in the interest of the churches, of
schools, of public grounds, works of taste and refine-
ment. And as in civil duties, so in social power
and duties. Our gentlemen of the old school, that
is, of the school of Washington, Adams, and Ham-
ilton, were bred after English types, and that style
of breeding furnished fine examples in the last gen-
eration ; but, though some of us have seen such, I
doubt they are all gone. But nature is not poorer
to-day. With all our haste, and slipshod ways, and
flippant self-assertion, I have seen examples of new
grace and power in address that honor the country.
