With a population of 85,000,000 people, which this country now has, it is easy to find associates in life without selecting men possessed of any of these characteristics, and life is the better worth living without them.
You will both save and make money by strict observance of this short catalogue of men to avoid. You are not called upon to do anything or to risk any money in the exercise of this discretion. It simply consists in letting such people severely alone, and if you have been in the habit of being imposed upon by such characters, you will find your happiness, as well as your cash, greatly increased by prudently avoiding them.
There is another subject of signal importance, to which I invite your earnest attention.
You must ever bear in mind that while, when you become citizens, you will possess certain rights and privileges—such as the elective franchise and equality before the law—there are, as well, sacred obligations and duties imposed upon you, as citizens, that should be faithfully regarded and performed.
To properly understand and appreciate these duties, you should, I reiterate, make a careful study of our system of government, and acquaint yourselves with the manner in which municipalities, states, and the nation are governed.
As you mature, attend political meetings and read and discuss economic questions of the day; for public discussion is one of the best quickeners of individual thought and expression. Be prepared, when the time comes, to actively participate in the affairs of your city and state as well as the nation, and stand always ready and willing to lend your aid to the uplifting of the government to the highest ideals of Democracy, or Republicanism, as you see them.
If I should add a further word of advice it would be an appeal to you to ever cherish, deep in your hearts, undying love of country.
Not only be ready to defend it with your lives; but constantly cultivate and encourage the inspiring qualities of civic pride and virtue, so that your whole future career will reflect a sincere and patriotic affection for and just appreciation of the noble institutions of our great republic. As, however, you are doubtless all true patriots this advice may be uncalled for.
Leaving, these few precepts with you, I wish to assure you that in whatever you may undertake, in banking, trade, or the professions, you will have my good wishes for your success, and if I have planted in your minds seed that will bear good fruit, it will add to the pleasure I have enjoyed in addressing you and giving you incidentally, as students of American social conditions, my experience of human nature, for, in your case particularly, the proper study of mankind is Man.