There can be no such thing in the highest sense as a home unless you own
it. There must be an incentive to plant trees, to beautify the grounds,
to preserve and improve. It elevates a man to own a home. It gives a
certain independence, a force of character that is obtained in no other
way. A man without a home feels like a passenger. There is in such a man
a little of the vagrant. Homes make patriots. He who has sat by his
own fireside with wife and children, will defend it. Few men have been
patriotic enough to shoulder a musket in defense of a boarding-house.
The prosperity and glory of our country depend upon the number of people
who are the owners of homes.