10 [Senate 



muuity to furnish the productions and fabrics indispensable even in 

 such forms of society. The necessary minerals, iron, lead, copper, 

 and others, are beneficial only because .they are employed in aid of 

 agriculture, or in preparing its productions for our use; and even 

 the metals which by consent of mankind are called precious, have 

 no value except as representatives of the fruits of industry. Other 

 interests may rise and fall, and other masses may combine, dissolve 

 and re-combine, and the agricultural mass be scarcely affected," but 

 the whole body politic sympathise when this interest is depressed and 

 this class suffers. 



" Princes and lords may flourish or may fade, 

 A breath can mal^e them, as a breath has made : 

 But a bold peasantry, their country's pride, — 

 When once destroyed, can never be supplied." 



It is an obvious responsibility of the American people to restore 

 the natural and proper order of social improvement, by renovating 

 agriculture — for this is the tendency of our institutions. It is a 

 maxim in other countries that society necessarily consists of two 

 classes — the ruling few and the governed many. The latter are de- 

 signated under the most liberal forms of government as " the labor- 

 ing poor; " in the polished countries of the South as " peasantry," 

 and in the ruder north as " serfs." Here we know not as a class, 

 serfs, peasantry or poor; and the laboring many constitute society. 

 Whether designedly or not, they who apply to our condition, analo- 

 gies derived from monarchical or aristocratic States, would mislead 

 us, and those deceive themselves who expect that our government 

 will operate otherwise than for the security and benefit of the masses. 

 The legislators of our country are its citizens; and since the pre- 

 dominating mass of citizens consist of tillers of the soil, the Ameri- 

 can farmer is the American statesman. The government, therefore, 

 necessarily tends to sustain and promote agriculture. 



In Europe, the cost of land fit for tillage is twice or three times 

 greater than here; the price of labor here is more than double that 

 in Europe. Our land is therefore cultivated imperfectly, and its 

 productions are seldom equal to one-half its capacity. Thus one of 

 our great advantages is counterbalanced by a deficiency of physical 

 force. Notwithstanding our population augments with unprecedented 

 rapidity, by domestic increase and immigration — yet such is the de- 

 mand for labor and service in commercial towns, and in the improve- 

 ment of roads and rivers, and so attractive are our new settlements 



