No. 105.] . ' 41 



you not lend your aid, and secure to your constituents blessings, that 

 will redound to the honor of our State and to the glory of the age in 

 which we live ? 



The Father of his Country, the immortal Washington has said: — - 

 " I know of no pursuit in which more real or important service can 

 be rendered to any country than by improving its agriculture. It 

 will not be doubted, that with reference either to individual or na- 

 tional welfare, agriculture is of primary importance. In proportion 

 as nations advance in population and other circumstances of maturity, 

 this truth becomes more apparent, and renders the cultivation of the 

 soil more and more an object of public patronage. Institutions for 

 promoting it grow up supported hy the public purse; and to what ob- 

 ject can it he dedicated with greater "propriety V* 



And is not this the language of wisdom and worthy of the Father 

 of his Country? And surely any thing I might say could not add 

 to the weight of the advice of him whose memory will be cherished 

 by every lover of free institutions to the latest period of time. 



We are, and if we would preserve our free institutions, we must 

 continue to be an agricultural nation. Upon this rests not only our 

 happiness and prosperity, but the perpetuity of our free institutions. 

 And if we would exert upon the old world that influence which is 

 desirable, we must educate and elevate our population, and convince 

 them of the superiority of our free institutions by the intelligence of our 

 people, and show them that where the cultivator of the soil is the 

 most intelligent, there free institutions are the most successful. It 

 is an ancient but sage authority, Xenophoiij who has said, " agricul- 

 ture is the nursing mother of the arts ; that where the former succeeds 

 prosperously, there the arts will thrive, but where the earth is uncul- 

 tivated there the arts are destroyed." 



The attention of the civilized world is directed to this continent, 

 and every advance that is made in the elevation of the character of 

 our citizens, is having an influence that tells with effect upon the 

 languishing and almost worn out systems of the old world. 



We are apt to imagine that we are a very great people, and in 

 many respects we truly are so. Yet many an American has felt 

 mortified while travelling in Europe, to find his country often men= 

 tioned in terms anything but flattering to his pride. But in one res= 

 pect we are attracting the notice of the leading minds in Europe, 



