Morning Star

IMPORTANCE
OF
HAVING INDEPENDENCE
TO LIVE UP TO
WELL FIXED PRINCIPLES.

Our address is now made chiefly to young men. Gentlemen: The prospects before you are of the most interesting kind. Our country's present advantages to the generality of young men excelled or equalled by no other. Her extent of territory, from the lakes to the gulf and from the Atlantic to the mountains of the far west, capable of sustaining more than sextuple its present number of inhabitants, with a richness of soil sufficient to encourage the most desponding husbandman; her numerous cities and villages rising up rapidly in every section and state, teeming, as they should, with every kind of trade, and affording every reasonable advantage, furnishing a ready market for the products of all kinds of trade, and giving life and energy to the nation; her literary privileges open to the general people, diffusing intelligence and wisdom both among the wealthy and the poor of the community; the equality and justness of her laws, based on the broad principles of pure republicanism, and bestowing equal immunities and blessing upon the industrious and deserving; her temples and churches rising up in all the length and breadth of her borders, showing to the passer-by an entire religious freedom, and pointing out to him the ten thousand sacred places from which arise to God the prayers and praises of the sons and daughters of Zion --all these present to the young men of this country, as they go forth into active life to enterprise for themselves, the most cheering prospects of success to the labors of industry.

In most other nations the rich and the sons of the rich are the privileged few; the great mass of the population are enslaved and poor, and the rule is that generally they must remain so. The poverty of the father is transmitted to the children even unto the third and fourth generation. Nor does an occasional exception destroy the general rule. The poor Turk must remain the poor Turk, while the grandees revel in luxury heedless of the pinchings of poverty; the third grade of Chinese are never to aspire to the second, nor these to the first. The plebeians and the nobility of ancient Rome were not more distanced from each other than the inhabitants of many countries of this day, whether civilized or barbarous. In France, or in England which loudest boasts, you are not at liberty to choose out your own calling. Even there were your father a shoe maker, you are not to aspire beyond the bench; or a tailor, set your own hand to the same. Were he poor, pity on your stars, but expect his inheritance.

How unlike the freedom of our own land! Here wealth ordinarily passes from the rich to the poor as often as every other generation; and the poor, if he will, by good calculation and habits of industry, may obtain a competency and even wealth; and at the same time all offices and employments are open to industry and merit, each individual standing upon the basis of his own respectability.

Every young man can choose his own occupation, and be happy in it; ten thousand paths are open to wealth, influence, and honor, and from the many it is his undisputed prerogative to elect for himself.

About to enter for yourselves upon the great theatre of active life under auspices such as these, permit us, young gentlemen, to adventure this one advice: Have independence to live up to well-fixed principles. This will not come to you of its own accord sufficiently powerful to withstand the shocks of incessant temptation; you must labor for it. Before you venture your frail barque against the adverse tempests of life, have the principles for your future conduct definitely and intelligibly formed, and settle it within you that you will abide by them. We would urge this subject upon your attention, principally from two considerations.

1. A no longer observer than we have been of men and manners, and particularly of the enterprises and successes of young men, we have observed this fact, that young men who have commenced for themselves without just principles of conduct and an inflexibility and independence to carry them out in practice, have failed to secure success in their business. A few of such instances as have fallen within observation, will suggest others yourselves have noticed. Mr. S. was an enterprising youth of our own acquaintance; he opened a small shop of English goods in one of our farming towns, and was doing well; but soon the desire (fatal to so many) to dash out a little more, and to appear as good as the best, led him to commence business in one of our largest villages on a larger scale; he married, lived expensively, paid great rents, employed one or more clerks, traded little, and (the only alternative in such cases) in a few months had expended his former accumulations & failed, able to pay only a small per cent to his creditors. Mr. M. was a school-mate of ours; at the proper season he was apprenticed in a profitable mechanical trade; possessing naturally good parts, he soon became a skilful master of it, labored a time as journeyman, then commenced business for himself in a N. England city; is married, lives in the best of style, attends balls, parties, and perhaps occasionally the theatre and is a respectable man, a gentleman; but though some half a dozen years have passed since he commenced for himself. with a lucrative trade and good luck, has yet made no provision for sickness or the infirmities of old age, and should the least adverse wind blow upon him, he must necessarily drift a-shore. You may ask what all these things prove? Why just this, You may bow down to the goddess Fashion and be carried away by the caprices of the vain, to your own destruction. Or-

2. You may, by establishing just principles of conduct & possessing independence to carry them out, attain to a competency of wealth, probity, influence and usefulness in society. I need not particularize; this has been fully exemplified in the experience of hundreds who have preceded you. Many of our own countrymen, who have been in the grave for series of years, are brought up in vivid and grateful remembrance for the good done to society. who entered upon active life with little advantages other than good principles and independence to live up to them. Many now in offices of the most sacred trust and employments of the broadest influence, have arisen to them from the common ranks of youth, in this way; the same lies open to you.

Why was it that Mr. S. failed in his enterprises? Plainly because he wished to dash out a little too much. And why does Mr. M. not arrive at affluence & extended usefulness? Evidently because he thinks he must follow every fashion and every amusement that his more affluent associates pursue. And why does not that industrious young man, who labors hard from month to month and from year to year, lay up money that he may purchase a farm or set himself up in his business? Because such is the fashion that he must spend all his earnings in the best of broadcloths and other finery: some of his associates whose parents have purse, do so, and he must, or be out of all kind of liking. How does poverty curse individuals and sometimes whole families, because of this very folly! Let young men beware of the pit and snare into which others have fallen. In all expenditures let them inquire what actual circumstances demand. Let them have a principle of right, and go by it; and though in some instances it for once make them the subject of remark by the fashionable, considerate men will approve of their course. A haughty and rash independence, especially in the young, is intolerable; but a spirit to do what is right and just in our own case, is always commendable, and will in the end secure happiness to ourselves.

Let then every young man, before he sets sail into busy life, determine upon well directed principles of conduct, and let him resolve to carry them out into action. Setting out for yourselves in this way, gentlemen, our country spreads out before you the most cheering prospects. Make your selection of occupation for a livelihood; consider what is right in your own case, what course is best for you to adopt; and go a-head in it,- always remembering that it is your high duty to glorify your Creator, be happy in yourselves, and benefit community, resolving that the world shall be made better for your having lived in it.