20 [Senate 



the land. By the bramble he meant Abimelech, who was elected 

 king of Shechem, because his mother was a native of the city. His 

 course w^as as Jotham had foretold ; a fire did go out of the bramble. 

 He slew three score and ten men of his brethren on one stone. And 

 as for Shechem, he took occasion of their revolt, and put every man, 

 woman and child to the sword, burned the city with fire, sowed it 

 with salt, and left a warning to future ages, of the danger of putting, 

 through folly or affection, improper men into office. 



If now, as formerly, the prosperity of the State is so intimately 

 connected with the character of the rulers, how great is the power, 

 and how evident the duty of a class of men, who, removed from the 

 immediate struggle, hold, by their numbers, the gift of office. If they 

 are faithful, our republic will have a stability that no one before it has 

 possessed. If, doubting their importance, they neglect the trust 

 committed to them, they may learn, too late, that they have sold 

 their country's birthright ; and w^hen they would recall the blessing 

 of their fathers, they may find there is no place for repentance, 

 though they seek it diligently and with tears. 



But perhaps it will be said that the agricultural class, though col- 

 lectively powerful, are individually of small comparative importance. 

 Together they may be likened to the ocean, that supports a nation's 

 navy and tosses it from its bosom, with as much ease as it wafts a 

 feather. Still the individual is but a drop, resembling others so nearly 

 as to attract neither notice nor admiration. But this is not peculiar 

 to this class. It applies equally to all. Few, from the very defini- 

 tion, can be distinguished. 



But of all the professions, it appears to me that the farmers are 

 the last who ought to complain that, as a class, they do not receive 

 a full proportion of the honors of the republic. Our chief magis- 

 trates have differed in many points, but they have generally agreed 

 in this ; that before, and in many cases after the election, they have 

 been farmers. There was the farmer of Mount-Vernon, and the 

 farmer of Monticello ; the farmer of the North-Bend, and the farmer 

 of the Hermitage; the farmer of Tennessee and the farmer of Ashland ; 

 the farmer of Lindenwold and the farmer of Marshfield. So that it 

 well may be urged, that though all the farmers can't be presidents, 

 all the presidents must be farmers. 



But besides this there are in agricultural life, great opportunities of 

 individnal usefulness. The effects of exa uple and precept extend 



