STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 333 



pestilence, held fast to the soil. And so these men, sprung from different 

 races, were welded together by one common experience of hardship and 

 toil, into a nation of earnest men, and were made ready for the conflict 

 which was to try their souls — the American devolution. 



Turn now from the history of the Atlantic States to our Pacific shore, 

 and it has for us a solemn interest, for according as we revise and correct 

 the past, shall be our increase or diminution in the future. If we would 

 not retrograde from this hour, then in all that may be called our life, 

 our social and political institutions, our municipal regulations, and in 

 the very mode and fashion of our upbuilding, we must adopt the perma- 

 nent and discard the temporary. 



CITY AND COUNTRY. 



The foolish train of flatterers are prone to tell the people of the 

 country that the} 7 are independent of the city. But the dependence is 

 mutual. The country must become cosmopolitan like the city. The 

 country cannot live in suburban retreat. Before railroads came, the 

 Illinois farmer was almost inundated by his crops. He could not eat 

 them, nor sell them, nor burn them. He was like a mole in a boundless 

 field of grain Now the railroads enable him to sell, and from a pleth- 

 oric grainholder he has become a rich exporter. He is a citizen of the 

 world, rich at home because he has the power to send his superabund- 

 ance abroad. His farm in many instances becomes a village. He has a 

 market at his door, or at Chicago, and be makes his election. What 

 would the farmers of New Hampshire be without communication with 

 Boston ? Or the coal mines of Pennsylvania without iron paths to Phil- 

 adelphia? It is not enough to have one or two great arteries of inter- 

 communication in California. We must have a complete system of 

 veins and arteries through the whole State. I have seen the change 

 come over man} 7 a land. 1 have seen in the absence of the railroad, 

 how everything was limited, provincial, local, stagnant. Then came the 

 locomotive, and all was changed. Not the least important change was 

 the cash value established at the farmer's door for everything which he 

 had to sell. 



RICH MEN. 



I would have our rich men symbolize their wealth, not by splendor of 

 equipage, but by inaugurating grand schemes of internal improvement, 

 like the Erie Canal and the Pacific Railroads. When the name of Van- 

 derbilt comes to the lips, does it call up any thought as to the style in 

 which he lives? Do we think of him in the way of outward grandeur, 

 as possessing some large diamond, costly tea sets, or golden goblets? 

 No ; we think of him as the embodiment of motive power in the United 

 States; and if he were fitly jewelled, he would be hung all over with 

 steamer models, car springs and safety valves, and, mounted on a loco- 

 motive, would be rushing down the Erie Railroad to the music of the 

 steam whistle. But this was not all, to his honor be it said, and we will 

 not forget it • when war came, he resolved to make a present to his Gov- 

 ernment of a steamship, with her apparel and tackle. It was his favorite 

 model, and was named the ' : Vanderbilt." A hundred feudal lords, 

 whose wealth and power were symbolized in cumbrous castles, their 

 names fading and expiring in the lapse of ages, did not equal the real 

 force personified in one Cornelius Vanderbilt. 



