SECRETARY'S REPORT. 153 



backward in accepting the offer which Congress, with far-reaching 

 sagacity, has tendered to us, and will establish a school where the 

 sons of fai'mers may freely obtain all the necessary facilities to fit 

 them to become ornaments to their profession, and, when them- 

 selves established on their farms, to become so many centres of 

 light, radiating knowledge to all within the scope of their influence, 

 both by precept and example. 



By so doing permanent and effectual aid will be given to that 

 interest which is the substratum of all wealth, the foundation upon 

 which all other interests build, and which in times of peril may be 

 relied on to furnish a body of men intelligent, strong, courageous 

 and hardy, the true conservators of the public weal. 



Comment upon the offer of Congress in other aspects than as a 

 measure in aid of agricultural education, will not be expected from 

 me. Yet I may be pardoned an allusion to one other feature of 

 the act. The proposed school is not to be exclusively an a.^ricultural 

 one. The act prescribes that the course of instruction shall include 

 military tactics. Does any one ask whether there be need of such 

 instruction ? Let him look back a few months and note the extent 

 of the igcorance which prevailed among us regarding the art and 

 science of war. Let him count up the priceless lives and the 

 millions of treasure, which this ignorance has cost ; and then say, 

 what might not have been cheaply expended in the acquisition of 

 such knowledge. I will not enlarge upon this point. It- is not my 

 province here to discuss it at all ; but as a citizen of the United 

 States, and of Maine, I could not wholly pass it by in silence. 



