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SPEECH OK GOV. JOSEPH A. WRIGHT, 



Delivered before the Wayne County Agricultural Fair, held at Richmond on Tues- 

 day, Wednesday and Thursday, October 1th, 8th, and 9th, 1851. 



Mu. Pkesidext, and Gentlemen of the 



Wayne County Agricultueal Society : 



The pursuits of my life have been as much varied as most men, yet in ac- 

 cepting your kind invitation to address you, I did not suppose that it wag 

 possible for me to enlighten the practical farmers and mechanics of the county 

 Of Wayne. Yet when I consider the efforts now making to excite our fellow 

 citizens on the subject of labor, to arouse the laboring men of the State, the 

 spirit of emulation that is being kindled everywhere, I could not do other- 

 wise than by my presence contribute my mite to urge forward this movement. 

 My only regret is, that my time has been so occupied that I feel almost en- 

 tirely unprepared to address so large and intelligent a portion of our fellow 

 citizens. What is wanting in me, you have well remedied in the exhibition 

 that surrounds us, of the labor, skill and production of the country. 



What is national prosperity? A nation may have within its borders an 

 abundance of the precious metals ; it may have a world-wide commerce ; it 

 may have at its command a powerful army, and a navy second to none on the 

 seas; within its territories arts, science, mechanics, agriculture and manufac- 

 tures may be all carried to high degrees in the scale of perfection; its lakes 

 rivers, canals, railroads and all its public highways may be thronged with 

 busy men of enterprise, and the various productions of genius, skill and 

 labor. But these evidences of national prosperity are not enough. Great 

 Britain presents them all in a strong light before the world; and yet millions 

 who compose the main body of the nation are laboring in her mines, her fac- 

 tories, her workshops and her fields; and the greater part of these millions 

 ^re suffering under the evils of ignorance, servility, petty tyranny and unre- 

 quited toil; and in that condition, generation after generations of men strug- 

 gle through a cheerless life of homeless and hopeless poverty. Hundreds of 

 men thus live, labor and die in order that one unproducing Dives may be 

 "clothed in purple and fine linen, and fare sumptuously every day." There 

 may be prosperity among classes in monarchies and even despotisms; but true 

 national prosperity, in its most enlarged sense, cannot exist under such forms 

 of government. 



The people of the United States have within their reach all the means 

 necessary to enable them to establish for themselves the highest state of na- 

 tional prosperity. A spirit of freedom, equality, independence and self-reli- 

 ance, is the inheritance of every citizen. The laws make no privileged class- 

 ea. The roads to usefulness, to wealth and to honorable distinction are open 



