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sible, and desired to drive their children away into the world to seek 

 elsewhere that mental occupation and those enjoyments denied them 

 under the parental roof. 



What proper idea can thst farmer have of filial duty, who, instead 

 of endeavoring to make his home pleasant to his family and to give 

 everything around him a cheerful appearance, devotes all his time and 

 thought and energy to adding to his gains, and to make an ostentatious 

 display of them, wearing all the while, but especially at home, a coun- 

 tenance as sour as a Dutch dinner — building, perhaps, to show his 

 ability, a great overgrown house, with twice as many rooms in it as will 

 ever be finished oft" — snubbing his daughters for silliness because they 

 seek to make something around them look cheerful by planting a few 

 flowers in the yard — utterly refusing to permit a shade tree near lest 

 it might obstruct some one's view of his mansion, and finally contenting 

 himself only when he is either hard at work making money, or hard 

 at work spending it in just such a way as to detract from, rather than 

 add to the comforts of his family. There are many such men, so deaf 

 to all the demands of duty, and so quick to respond to all the prompt- 

 ings of avarice, and that pride which springs from it, that I may say of 

 them without the imputation of levity, that they jump at the jingle of 

 a sixpence when the voice of the Almighty cannot reach them. 



I know that in Monroe county there are many pleasant homes, to 

 which her sons, as they scatter abroad, look back with many a longing. 

 Men have been nurtured in the cheerful influences of those homes who 

 have done themselves and their country much honor in the halls of jus- 

 tice, in the State and National Legislatures, in the executive chair, by 

 their energy and application, their urbanity and faithful discharge of 

 duty. I see around me evidences that the farmers are not behind in 

 their eftbrta to give character and position to the county where they 

 have chosen their home, I see evidences among them of that same 

 indomitable energy and perseverance that has always characterized her 

 political representatives, and what other augury can I draw from it than 

 that a settled determination exists to place the farmers of Monroe in 

 the vanguard of the great agricultural army of the State? And if 

 such determination exists, shall it be thwarted ? I know it will not be. 

 Well has Monroe won for herself the reputation she bears, of always 

 accomplishing whatever she undertakes. Go on, then, for the prestige 

 of success is with you. 



