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and repeal laws ; establish and dispense with courts of justice ; elevate 

 and displace rulers — shall they refuse to qualify themselves for the pro- 

 per exercise of those high functions ? Above all, shall that portion of 

 the people Avho numerically control the ballot boxes ; Avhose habits and 

 tastes and avocations best fit them to cherish, and exemplify those purer 

 and sterner virtues out of which our Republican Institutions sprung — 

 shall they, who have emphatically in their hands the hopes and des- 

 tinies of Freedom, and upon whom Heaven has devolved the high prero- 

 gative of rescuing the face of the earth from its primal curse — shall they 

 prove recreant to their position — to their privileges — to the just expecta- 

 tions of the civilized world ? The thought is not to be tolerated. 



Once more. The American Farmer should be a man of Taste. His 

 walks are among the beautiful things of Earth. The gew-gaws of 

 fashion, and the gilded trappings of wealth and power, are but dumb 

 shows, compared Avith the sights Avhich present themselves to his eye. 

 For him, the limpid brook gurgles over its stony bed, and steals its wind- 

 ing way along the green and flowery mead ; for him the tender plant 

 bursts from the nurturing earth — first the blade, and then the stalk, and 

 then the full-grown corn in the ear. P'or him, the forest waves in the 

 summer breeze, turning up the silver sheen of its leaves, in unconscious 

 display of beauty : for him the morning sheds its golden light, sprinkles 

 its pearly dews, and breathes its balmy air. 



The very workshop of the Farmer is the temple and palace of Nature ; 

 and if his heart is not insensate, if his soul is not blinded or dark, refine- 

 ment must grow upon him like a habit, and become a part of his nature. 

 It matters not that his employment is laborious and rough ; that his attire 

 is plain ; that his home is humble. "We do not train the soldier in a 

 drawing-room, nor rear the oak in a hot-bed. We do not complain of 

 the pine-apple because its exterior is rough, nor do we relish the crab- 

 apple because its surface is polished. The mind, the heart, and the soul, 

 are the standard and measure of the man; and if the Farmer is not refined 

 and tasteful and elevated, he is impervious to the quickening influences 

 with which a wise and benignant Providence has bountifully surrounded 

 him. And how palpably do these evidences of taste, or the want of it, 

 display themselves throughout every agricultural community. Pass 

 through the State, and mark the farm where the fences are neglected ; 

 where briars and weeds grow in the corners and around the stumps ; 

 where the cattle stand shelterless in the wind, or feed upon the unfenced 



