“Ours, too, is peculiarly an Agricultural as well as Republican country, & alike in the primitive and manly occupation, or simple institutions of our people, nothing can be more consistent, honorable, impressive and dignified than substantial plainness, independence, frugality and economy. Nothing more strongly and certainly marks the real happiness and independence of a people than a general and simple equality of manner, habits and style of living, as well as of political rights and privileges — where if there be no striking manifestations of wealth & luxury, neither are there any of poverty and misery.”

📜 Mirabeau Lamar, Campaign Address, 1838
🎨 Arthur Starr Niendorff, North Texas, 1936

"When I came up to them, I found that they were only a band of Indians from Mono on their way to Yosemite for a load of acorns. They were wrapped in blankets made of the skins of sage-rabbits. The dirt on some of the faces seemed almost old enough and thick enough to have a geological significance; some were strangely blurred and divided into sections by seams and wrinkles that looked like cleavage joints, and had a worn abraded look as if they had lain exposed to the weather for ages. I tried to pass them without stopping, but they wouldn't let me; forming a dismal circle about me, I was closely besieged while they begged whiskey or tobacco, and it was hard to convince them I hadn't any."

📜 John Muir, My First Summer In The Sierra, 1869
🎨 John Edward Borein, Ute Camp, 1915