369 



mercial marts dot the Atlantic coast througli nearly twenty degrees of 

 latitude, and the Pacific, through at least fifteen. She possesses every 

 variety of soil, climate and productions ; her mighty rivers and inland - 

 seas, her immense railways and canals, forming a net-work which covers 

 the whole Union, all, teeming with the products of her soil and the 

 handiwork of her mechanics, attest the magic change which has come 

 over her. 



Numberless cities and villages dot her surface ; schools, academies 

 colleges and churches, are strewed with a generous hand, over her 

 whole length and breadth ; all these are monuments of her present 

 greatness, and point significantly to her future. 



The question might well be asked, to whom are we indebted for this 

 unexampled prosperity of the nation. My response would be : to the 

 working men of America; to her farmers and mechanics. 



Driven from their father land by the iron hand of despotism, their 

 sires sought a resting place in the wildwoods of America; they leveled 

 forests, and cultivated fields, constructed railways, built up cities and vil- 

 lages, reared churches and seminaries of learning; it was they who 

 built up your Republic, and first gave the stars and stripes to the breeze ; 

 and it is to their sons, who toil with hard hands and honest hearts, you 

 must look for its permanency through the futm-e. 



As much as the American farmer has done to elevate himself in the 

 scale of intellect and usefulness; as much as he has done to build up a 

 name for his country, and give character to his occupation ; still there 

 remains much more to do, if he would maintain his high position. 



He cannot with safety, in this age of progress, fold up his arms and 

 declare there is nothing more for him to do — that his country is pros- 

 pered ; that he has only to plow, and sow and reap, as did his fathers 

 before him, and abundant harvests will be his reward. That philoso- 

 phy which teaches that there is a point where mind and matter remain 

 fixed and immovable, or rather, that there is a point in the lifetime of 

 man, when the mind remains passive, when it neither improves nor 

 looses any of its strength and vigor by inaction, is false and delusive. 

 Man is continually advancing toward perfection, or he is continually 

 retrograding. Natural things are constantly moving toward perfection, 

 or they are falUng into decay — there is no stand-still point. 



47 



