No. 112,] 39 



abode of monsters more vast than the most morbid imagination had 

 conceived? Would you store his mind with all these wonders, ele- 

 vate his conceptions,endo w him with wealth not subject to fickle for- 

 tune's changes, and give to learning its appropriate honor. Let the 

 value of education and intelligence be properly estimated and we 

 shall not regard them merely as means by which we shall be ren- 

 dered successful as farmers, mechanics or professional men -, but 

 while they will render these pursuit? successful, they will lead us 

 to regard them as means, not ends; as paths which we tread in com- 

 pliance with the divine fiat which makes the journey of life one of 

 labor, but which we also may make a road to self-improvement 

 and public usefulness. 



If we reflect upon the prospects of our our own great State, we 

 shall see that the present is an era in the history of its progress; 

 a point of time from wJiich we shall have to contend with intelli- 

 gent zeal f .r the preservation of present advantages and for the 

 promotion of its great interests. ^ 



Placed at a point where an opening through the lofty range of 

 mountains which divides our country from the Gulf of Mexico to 

 the northern lakes, into two great sections, gives us the key of com- 

 merce of a vast and fertile region watered by the Mississippi and 

 its confluents, we are in the possession of the most important ave- 

 nue of trade to be found upon the face of the globe. The route of 

 the Red Sea and the Valley of the Nile which the eagle eye of A lex- 

 ander the Great selected as controlling the seat of empire ; which 

 the grasping ambition of Napoleon coveted, and which constitutes 

 a feverish subject for European diplomacy, is less important than 

 the passage which the Hudson has worn through the Alleganian 

 ridge. To secure the full benetits of our position we must pursue 

 a wise, judicious and enlightened policy which will bring our sys- 

 tem of internal improvements to successful completion, and make 

 our canals the cheap st and most convenient avenues to the mar- 

 kets of the Atlantic coast of the maritime world. By the exercise 

 of a spirit of enterprise, tempered by judicious economy, we can 

 defeat all efl'orts to divert from our State the important and enrich- 

 ing streams of domestic commerce. The farmers of New- York have 

 to contend with domestic as well as foreign competition. The set- 

 tlement of our State and the construction of our canals, which give 

 ' us avenues to market, so much aflected the agriculture of the tast- 



