No. 63.] 49 



It would be foreign to our present purpose to inquire into the origin, 

 the history, and the remedy for these evils, and I fear that we could 

 not enter upon the task without trespassing upon those political ques- 

 tions from which I hope this Society will ever keep aloof. 



The pain which these wide spread disasters must inflict upon every 

 philanthropic mind, will be greatly relieved by the fact that they 

 are so universally met in the right spirit. Renewed industry and 

 greater economy, are every where the order of the day. But the 

 fact to which I wish especially to invite your attention, as the advo- 

 cates of agricultural improvement, is that it has not escaped the re- 

 flection of the great body of farmers, that the best way to encounter 

 low prices is by improved cultivation. New agricultural imple- 

 ments, new modes of cultivation, improved breeds of farm stock, 

 were never more readily adopted than at this moment of extreme de- 

 pression of the agricultural interests. There is, in fact, every where 

 depression, but no where apathy. We meet in every direction the 

 most serious diflSculties, the most extensive embarrassments, but we 

 find too — thanks to the influence of our free institutions, and the ac- 

 knowledged energy of our race, every where at work, the persever- 

 ance, the patience, and the versatility of expedient, before which 

 all obstacles oi human creation must give way. Such, emphatically, 

 are the difficulties with which we have to contend. They are the 

 work of men's hands. They come not from the great Dispenser of 

 good and evil, for never were the bounties of Providence more 

 marked in our country than at this moment. Our harvests have been 

 almost universally abundant. Pestilence and famine are no where to 

 be found. 



We may thus rely with a well grounded confidence upon the ener- 

 gy of a people at once educated and laborious, to overcome embar- 

 rassments which now so severely oppress the whole community. If 

 we turn to the condition of other civilized nations, we shall find that, 

 in the comparison, we have rather cause for self-congratulation than 

 despondency. Widely different is the situation of that people, 

 where the wages of labor are so high that the capitalist finds it dif- 

 ficult to procure an adequate return for his investments, and the situa- 

 tion of a nation in which the wages of labor are so low that the la- 

 borer finds it difficult to supply the daily requirements of his half 

 clothed, half fed family. 



[Senate No. 63.J G 



