Columbus Democrat

WHAT ARE THE MECHANICS?--The very builders of the citizen world are mechanics. Strike out from the face of the globe every trace and impression which the artisan has made upon it, and the whole earth would resume its original wildness of character, and the primeval wildness for the beautiful villages. There is a dignity belonging to the mechanic arts which is too much overlooked by those who enjoy the fruits of the labors of this most useful class of the community. There is no external mark by which the civilized state is distinguished from that of the barbarian, but bears the indisputable impress of mechanic ingenuity. Not a stone is hewn or a stick shapen, in all the edifices which have supplanted the aboriginal bivouacks of our country, but owes all its finish, fitness and proportioned symmetry to mechanic hands. Not an article of clothing nor convenience, nor pleasure but have the stamp of the mechanic upon them. And even agriculture itself, the great source from which springs almost all the necessities of life, is began and carried on to final termination with the implements of mechanism.

Who, then, that is a mechanic, has not abundant occasion to rejoice that he belongs to that class of society whose labors are indispensable to every existence of civilization itself? To be sure there are other professions in life that are equally useful; though perhaps not in all respects so important as that of the mechanic. The officers of Government, to such as discharge the duties of their stations with becoming fidelity, from the lowest to the highest among them, are all places of perplexing, and many of severe and fatiguing labor. Merchants and physicians and lawyers, and even the clergy, are all laboring men if they perform at all the duties we have mentioned. But can any of these 'honorable men make a ship or build a castle, or raise a spire to heaven?--These the mechanics can do, and if he duly reflect upon the importance of his labors, he can scarcely repine at his lot.