As for me, what do I care what shackles they are that keep me here?
let it be the law of public necessity or the tyranny of the old lords, it is all the same; we are condemned to dig the soil forever.
There, where we are born, there we dig it, that earth! and spade it, and manure it, and delve in it, for you who are born rich just as we are born poor.

The masses will always be what they are, and stay what they are.

The number of us who manage to rise is nothing like the number of you who topple down! We know that well enough, if we have no education! You mustn't be after us with your sheriff all the time,--not if you're wise.

We let you alone, and you must let us alone.

If not, and things get worse, you'll have to feed us in your prisons, where we'd be much better off than in our homes.