put in a pile, and then printed on their backs a saying we took from
Daniel Webster (though I believe it was not quite authentic): 'Of all
the contrivances to impoverish the laboring classes of mankind, paper
money is the most effective. It fertilizes the rich man's field with
the poor man's sweat.' They tried to punish us for defacing money,
but we beat them. We didn't deface it; we only printed something on
the back of it. Isaac and I often worked all night putting up
handbills for our meetings, for in those days there were no
professional bill-posters."

Father' Hecker's acquaintance with Dr. Brownson, which had so
powerful an effect upon his future career, began in 1834, when
Brownson was invited to lecture in New York in favor of the
principles and aims of this party. Isaac was then in his fifteenth
year. Among the conversations recorded in the memoranda we find this
reference to their earliest interview:

"I first met Dr. Brownson in New York, in our house. I was then
reading the Washington _Globe,_ Benton's speeches, Calhoun's, etc.
The elder Blair was its editor; its motto was, 'The world is governed
too much'--a motto in whose spirit there could be no great movement
except in the way of revolution. After the establishment of the
American Government the principle expressed in that motto could only
be abandoned or pushed into revolution and anarchy.

"I put this question to Brownson: 'How can I become certain of the
objective reality of the operations of my soul?' He answered: 'If you
have not yet reached that period of mental life, you will do so
before many years.'