It is one of the crowning glories of our democratic institutions, and one which shows their superiority over all monarchical systems, that here "the race is open to all." The humblest individual may rise to the loftiest dignity, by the force of his own genius and virtue; nor is any man, however humble in origin, or obscure in life, shut out from the field of ambitious toil and competition. Circumstances of birth or fortune are rarely found to be stepping stones to public honors; and where there are no hereditary or transmissible titles or dignities acknowledged, there can be no bar to an honest toil for a superior condition-no insurmountable obstacle to any man's success, who looks steadily onward and upward in his career of life. It may be said that the tendency of our political system is to develope talent, to encourage virtue, and to give to both their reward. Where no artificial levels exist, and men are left to find their proper level upon the exertion of the talents with which they are endowed, there is freer scope to the powers of the mind, and the skilful devices of the hand-a wider and far nobler field of action, than in countries where the head, the heart and hand, are oppressed by conventional regulations; where the disfranchised masses are controlled by the privileged and haughty few.

Our country presents numerous examples in proof of the positions here assumed. Short as has been our existence as a nation-scarcely one fourth of the age ascribed to some of the patriarchs of our race-we can point to a roll of great men-of warriors, statesmen, and sages-unequalled, for a similar period, in the history of any nation. The great men of our Revolutionary period-many of the wisest of the generation which succeeded, and who laid the foundations of our republican institutions were men who rose from humble stations. They were men who struggled against adverse circum

stances, and by energy, fidelity and virtue, won renown for themselves in securing the liberties of their country. The example of such men is worth much to the country, in its influence upon the generations which are to succeed. We have seen, also, in commercial life, the same traits of character, developed in a different theatre of action, lead to wealth and distinction. Most of our countrymen are familiar with the history of WILLIAM GRAY, and STEPHEN GIRARD, and JOHN JACOB ASTOR-all of whom present examples of what superior genius and judgment, directed to a single pursuit, can accomplish in the course of a short life.

Not one of these men had a shilling to begin with; neither were they educated men; but each possessed a genius allied in power to that of a Cæsar or a Napoleon.

One of the most remarkable instances of successful enterprise in mechanical pursuits, which has come to our knowledge, is that of the founder of the beautiful and flourishing village of Prattsville, in the county of Greene, famed for its great tannery-the largest establishment of the kind in the world. The village of Prattsville, which lies in a small valley on the Schoharie Kill, some 36 miles west of Catskill, on the Hudson, was founded in the year 1824, by the Hon. ZADOCK PRATT, late a representative in Congress, from the 11th district in this state. The career of this gentleman has been marked with so much practical usefulness, though with little ostentation, and has so clear a bearing upon the position which we have heretofore assumed, that we are sure of gratifying the readers of the Review, by spreading before them a brief sketch of his life and character.

ZADOCK PRATT was born on the 30th October, 1790, at Stephentown, Rensselaer county, N. Y. His family is descended from the noble band of pilgrims, who first broke ground on the shores of New-England-the first

persons of the name in this country being Joshua and Phinehas Pratt, who came over in the autumn of 1623. Ephraim, a grandson of Joshua Pratt, lived to the great age of 116 years, and died at East Sudbury, Mass., in May, 1804. Phinehas Pratt removed from Plymouth to Charlestown. John, another of the family, came over in 1633, in company with the celebrated Puritan divines, John Cotton and Thomas Hooker; and when the church, which had been formed at Newtown, Mass., by the latter, concluded to remove to Connecticut, Mr. Pratt was one of their number. They commenced their exodus in the month of June, 1636. It was to be through a dreary and trackless wilderness of more than a hundred miles. They had no guide but their compass; no covering but the heavens. There were about one hundred persons, men, women, and children. They drove along with them 160 head of cattle, subsisting on their march through the wilderness, upon the wild fruits which they found, and the milk of their cows. The females, who were ill, or too feeble to endure the journey on foot, were borne in litters upon the shoulders of the young athletic men. The whole journey occupied nearly a fortnight, during which they had no shelter but such as they formed of the branches of the trees. From the worthy Puritan here mentioned, the families of Pratt, in Connecticut, are mostly descended.

The father of the principal subject of this notice, (Zadock Pratt, senior,) was a native of Saybrook, Conn.; was a tanner and shoemaker; and when the revolutionary war broke out, he shouldered his musket, and repaired to his country's standard. He was engaged in several hard fought battles was twice taken prisoner, and suffered much on board the prison ships at NewYork. After the close of the war, he removed to the state of New-York, and died at Lexington, Greene county, in 1829, at the age of 74.

Zadock Pratt, the younger, had no other education than that of a common school, working out of school hours, to pay for his board. He had very early to contend with the difficulties of his position. He told the writer, with satisfaction, that the first money which he ever earned, was by gathering

huckleberries!

He worked in his father's tannery, and employed his leisure hours in braiding whip-lashes, &c., for which he readily found a market, and in a short time, by saving his little earnings, he found himself possessed of some thirty dollars-quite a treasure for a working boy. He was now apprenticed to a saddler, served out his apprenticeship, worked a year at his trade, at the wages of ten dollars a month, and then commenced business for himself. He now labored fifteen or sixteen hours a day; and this system of industry, coupled with prudence and judicious enterprise, soon placed him on the road to fortune.

Among the rules which it may be said formed the business creed of his life, were the trite and homely, but expressive maxims, which he used to post up in his work-shop and store, and mark upon his account books; "Do one thing at a time." "Be just and fear not." "Mind your own business." Blessed with an excellent constitution, and an iron frame; with an indomitable resolution and perseverance, which no difficulties could daunt, no exertions weary-labor was to him the salt of his existence, seasoning his daily bread, and stimulating him to further and higher exertions. From this time his course has been uniformly onward and upward. His life affords no great, no striking events, like those of the statesman, the successful soldier, or the man of letters; but it offers a most instructive and useful lesson to the youth of our country, and an example of perseverance and energy for them to imitate.

Mr. Pratt carried on his business successfully at Lexington, in connexion with his brothers, until 1824, when determining upon seeking a larger field of operations in manufacturing, he closed his business at Lexington, purchased the tract and water-power now included in the village, which bears his name, and commenced his operations. The forest on either hand, to the very tops of mountains, was a dense growth of hemlock, adapted to his purposes; communication was easy with New-York; and he at once saw that here was the spot for him to establish a mammoth tannery. He lost no time in commencing operations : and his labors were crowned with

the most complete success. His esta blishment soon gave employment in various ways to more than two hundred men, to all of whom he gave encouragement to settle around him.His tannery was 500 feet long, containing over 300 vats, or about 46,000 cubic feet of room for tanning operations; requiring a consumption annually of 1500 cords of wood, and 6,000 cords of hemlock bark, in the manufacture of 60,000 sides of sole leather, which he annually sent to market-or say, more than a million of sides in the last twenty years, employing a capital of over $250,000 a year, without a single liti gated law-suit.

Had we space to do so, it would be interesting to trace the progress, step by step, of this remarkable business man; but we must hasten to the more immediate purpose of this notice, which is to allude to his public career. It may be said, however, that as the tide of prosperous business poured in upon him, his friends and neighbors also flourished; the town was rapidly settled and improved; streets were laid out, and ornamental trees planted by his own hands; schools were established, churches built, and houses and stores multiplied, until the village has become one of the most pleasant and flourishing settlements in the region of the Catskills. It is stated, that Mr. Pratt has himself erected more than a hundred houses, and his munificence is seen in all the churches and public buildings of the place, of which more than one-third the cost was defrayed from his own pocket.

In 1840, retiring in part from the more active business of his manufactory, Mr. Pratt employed a portion of his capital in the establishment of a bank at Prattsville, under the free banking law of the State of New-York. A capital of $100.000, secured in 6 per ct. stocks of the United States, and of the State of New-York, is thus employed, and has been found extremely useful in that mountainous region, its business averaging nearly a million of dollars annually. It is one of the few institutions, the bills of which are kept actually at par by redemption in NewYork city.

Inheriting the patriotic spirit of his father, Mr. Pratt, in 1814, served a tour of military duty on Brooklyn

Heights, when it was deemed necessary to provide for the defence of NewYork from any possible descent of the enemy. Returning to the country, he was chosen to a captaincy in the 5th Regt. of Artillery, and in 1823, was unanimously elected colonel of the 116th Regt. of Infantry of the State of New-York. In this position, he was prompt, energetic, and liberal--a good disciplinarian, and contributed much to the improvement of the corps to which he was attached. When in command of his company, he furnished a uniform for the whole, and being in want of a suitable field-piece, he applied to the Governor, and succeeded in obtaining one of the twelve remaining to be disposed of, though there were thirty applicants before him. He proposed to Governor Clinton, that he would mount the cannon at his own expense. "No, no, young man," said the Governor, “you have already done enough without that." He provided the regiment under his command with all their music, at an expense of some $250.

The excellent quality of the manufactures of Col. Pratt,-a result which he attained by the adoption of every useful improvement in the art of tanning leather, secured him a neverfailing market. In 1837, he and his partner, (Col. Watson,) received the Silver Medal of the New-York Institute, for the best specimen of hemlocktanned sole leather-the first medal ever awarded for that manufacture. In 1839, he was elected a Member of the American Institute; and in 1845, at the New-York State Fair, he was awarded the first premium in a Diploma. He glories in the name of a mechanic, and is proud to acknowledge the quiet and laborious occupation, in the diligent pursuit of which he has been eminently successful, and has earned a name and station among his countrymen.

Colonel Pratt has been, through life, a firm and consistent Democrat, entertaining the opinion that the safety and happiness of our country depend, mainly, under the Divine blessing, upon a strict adherence to the principles of the Democratic party, as expounded by THOMAS JEFFERSON and ANDREW JACKSON; and holds that the government should be so administered as to

extend the greatest good to the greatest number. But he is as little of a bigot in politics as he is in religion. The open and manly advocacy of his own opinions is accompanied with the most scrupulous regard to those which are held sacred by other persons; and he gives the best pledge of the purity of his own motives, by allowing to all who differ from him, the same right of private judgment and liberty of action as he claims and exercises for himself. He holds to the theory that the democratical form of government, which we live under, affords much greater opportunities for the success of virtuous exertion, and the due reward of humble industry and unostentatious merit, than the aristocratical and monarchical usages which other countries have adopted. It is equally true, that, in a democratical form of government every citizen is under an obligation to do all he can for the general good; to discharge the duties of every office, which the favorable opinion of his fellow-citizens may think him capable of fulfilling, and to shrink from no responsibility to which the public voice, or the dictates of his own conscience, suggests that he ought to devote himself. No citizen, under a republican form of government, is at liberty to live for himself alone.

Colonel Pratt's first step in public life may be said to have been his election on the democratic ticket, for the state of New-York, as an elector of President and Vice-President of the United States, in November, 1836. Mr. Pratt recorded his vote with those of his brother State Electors, for his neighbor and friend, Mr. Van Buren.

It not unfrequently happens, that the rich and successful man is an object of envy and dislike among his neighbors. His disposition, if naturally proud and imperious, will show itself in acts of arrogance and injustice towards those who, though his equals in everything else, are in humbler circumstances of life. If called upon to take a prominent part in public affairs, his faults are made conspicuous, and it is often the case that even the best intentions and most honest endeavors, are rewarded with public odium. Col. Pratt, how ever, seems to have been fortunate, not only in the accumulation of this world's goods, but equally so in securing the good opinion and constant respect of his

neighbors and fellow-citizens at large. Plain and unostentatious in his way of life, and practicing the democratic principles which he professed, he was looked upon by the working community around him as one whom they could safely trust.

In November, 1836, he was elected one of the representatives in Congress for the eighth congressional district, in the state of New-York. He succeeded in this election, by a majority of upwards of twenty-seven hundred votes, the largest majority, we believe, that was ever given in that district. He received very nearly the unanimous vote of the town of Prattsville. Of his services while in Congress, some account will be given hereafter. It is sufficient in this place to say, that he earned the character of a WORKING MAN in that body; that he gained the respect of all parties in Washington; and in his example demonstrated the advantages which arise from sending men of practical knowledge and business habits to Congress; and how much that is really important to the people, may be performed by one such man, who is more desirous to aet than to speak, and who cares less for the reputation of perfecting a useful measure, than for the solid satisfaction of feeling that he has been instrumental in its accomplishment.

In July, 1838, Col. Pratt published an address to his constituents, declining a re-election to Congress. In 1842, he yielded to their request, and was chosen to represent the eleventh Congressional district, composed of the counties of Greene and Columbia. On resuming his seat in Congress, his inquiry was not, "How can I make the most noise, or gain the greatest eclat ?" -but, "How can I do the most work?” He never undertook to " define his position," or to make a speech for Buncombe. He made, indeed, few speeches, and they were commonly brief and plain statements of facts, which he had thoroughly investigated. and which he knew could be relied upon. The value in any public body of men, who are patient and laborious in their search after truth, is beyond all estimate. In the words of one of our ablest political journals, it may be truly said, that "Col. Pratt devoted himself to the utility of legislation. He