STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 201 



ANNUAL ADDRESS 



DELIVERED BEFORE THE STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY AT SACRA- 

 MENTO, CALIFORNIA, ON THURSDAY' EVENING, SEPTEMBER 13, 1888. 



By Hon. John P. Irish, of Oakland. 



Mr. President, Members of the Directory, and Fellow Citizens: We 

 are here to indulge in the regular annual congratulations that California 

 has had abundant crops, that she has been blessed in basket and store, that 

 the proceeds of our industry and fruits of our farms and our orchards have 

 been widely distributed throughout the States of our own country and the 

 nations of the earth, to other people to whom we send these as their sup- 

 plies of the necessaries and luxuries of life. 



I have been invited by the Directory of this Agricultural Society to say 

 something of a formal nature, to be placed in their annual publication and 

 sent forth to the world, that shall, perhaps, worthily present this great State 

 and the fruits of the industry of our people to others at a distance. I have 

 found myself, by the formality of tlje occasion, compelled to do that which 

 I have not been in the habit of doing, and this afternoon have written and 

 will read from that portion of the address required for preservation in 

 printed form : ■ 



Gibbons says that until men bestow their regard upon their benefactors 

 and not upon their destroyers, the history of the world will be largely a 

 narrative of campaigns and a biography of commanders. 



Voltaire declares that there are but few princes who deserve to have 

 their history written, for but few of them deserve to have their memory 

 preserved. In this country instead of the prince we have the politician. 

 Like the poor, he is always with us. Stand on the main street of the com- 

 mercial metropolis of California and watch the people as they pass, and 

 while you watch keep tally of the battered wrecks of politics, who have 

 sought and held office and are still seeking it. The people turn and look 

 at them with a certain awe. To have aspired to high office or to have held 

 it is not a discredit in a free country; but a life of office seeking, primary 

 manipulation, running conventions, undermining others and making hot 

 contests to get even with rivals, is not a life that testifies to any greatness 

 of character, nor are those who lead it the great men of the State. Look 

 upon the men in the fleeting show I have mentioned! What industry do 

 they promote, what labor do they hire? Has one of them ever made two 

 blades of grass grow where one grew before ? Are they our great men and 

 deserving of the tribute of even curiosity? It is true they somewhat rival 

 Solomon in the glory of their raiment, and resemble that philosopher in 

 other things, though not in his wisdom. Their heels spurn the earth as if 

 it were too mean to take the tracks they make, but if they should all dis- 

 appear to-night what crops would go unharvested, what wheels would stop, 

 what solid interest of this newer France and greater Italy and better Asia 

 would suffer for their taking off? They are men who make politics a pro- 

 fession while others toil and create the commonwealth. They parasite 



