Let us define Labor, that we may have a clear conception of the import
of the word, which is so often used and so little understood. It means
1. Muscular effort directed to some useful end, as agriculture,
manufactures, mining, &c., &c.
2. Intellectual exertion, mental effort, aimed to develop and elevate
the human race in mind, morals and religion.
You will observe that there are two general classes of laborers, viz:
Manual laborers, or those who eat bread in the sweat of their faces,
from hand toil, as the merchant, clerk, carpenter, farmer, cook,
washerwoman, chambermaid, etc.; and the professional laborers, or those
who eat bread in the sweat of their faces mostly by the exertion of the
brain, as the school teacher, minister, physician, lawyer.
These two classes will serve for our present purpose. Of the good
citizens in this country, all must belong to one or both of these
classes of laborers, or be put down among the idlers who are condemned
by God and man as worthless beings. I will remark here that it is a
part of the duty of every good citizen to persuade his neighbor to
engage in some useful employment, or see that he is punished as our
vagrant laws provide.