/ ' 28 , [Assembly 



would not pay a note of hand, would shrink from refusing to go 

 to a bee or a raising. This principle found its way into all the re- 

 lations and duties of life. The parson was, and is now, to some 

 extent, paid by donation parties; the school master "boarded 

 round ;" and even the social amusements which cheered and re- 

 lieved toil, took the form of a " paring bee" or a quilting party. 

 Marriage was not only an union of honest hearts and strong hands 

 but also of the spinning wheel and the axe ; the plough and the 

 loom ; and when death entered their doors, his victim was carried 

 to his last resting place, not in a hired hearse, but upon the 

 shoulders of neighbors and friends. I am aware that the friendly 

 and useful customs to which I allude, are still in existence in 

 many sections, but they will be found to have had their origin 

 not only in the limited productions of a country while it is being 

 reduced to cultivation, but also in the absence of a full monied 

 demand for those things they were able to produce. 



The "era of the axe" has passed away. It is true we have 

 many hardy settlers toiling to subdue the new lands of the West, 

 but the great extension of our system of railroads and canals or 

 the natural facilities for commerce afforded by our lakes and 

 rivers, place them all within the reach of market, while the de- 

 mand for provisions enables them to sell the fruits of their toil 

 for money. 



The past period is to be remembered with respect and gratitude. 

 Modern wealth, improvement and science may be disposed to 

 criticise its rude and imperfect processes ; but we should bear in 

 mind that it hewed down the forest and wrung a hard but honest 

 livelihood amidst its stumps and blackened remains. Its scatter- 

 ed population built roads through swamps and forests, rough and 

 uncomfortable indeed, but preparing the way for the improve- 

 ments of the present. It was the heroic period of farming in this 

 country ; for the early settlers of our State bear the same relation 

 to the present condition of our land, that the warriors of the mid- 

 dle ages bear to modern civilization, They laid the foundation 

 of our present social condition, and their sturdy and brave war- 

 fare with the difficulties of their situation was as honorable as the 

 strife of arras, and the blows they struck upon the receding forests 



