60T 



cultural success. The profession of agriculture is not simply wearying 

 toil. It is a noble calling, where the mind may have a wide range, 

 and in the study and practice of which the whole man can and should 

 be fully developed. 



I am proud to know that the agricultural class of this Union, and 

 more especially of this western country, furnishes the noblest specimens 

 of their vocation. Here, under the genial influence of our institutions, 

 e^ery one is or can be the owner of land sufficient for his wants ; and 

 the freebom freeholder in this country is surrounded by too many in- 

 ducements to be intelhgent, to remain long ignorant. How many are 

 there among us who have secured a competency, and fitted themselves 

 for the best positions in society, in spite of the bitter disadvantages of 

 early youth ? These social prizes have won more men to activity and 

 goodly standing among men, than ambition, though "by that sin fell 

 the angels." Who tills the land he owns, and reaps for his own house- 

 hold, enjoys the highest liberty man is capable of. Such realize the 

 full value of our independence, and in all future time the strength and 

 enduring power of this country will be in their hands. The best fruit 

 of our institutions is that they elevate the purpose of the laborer, and 

 dignify the labor. Has it ever occurred to any of you, that in no 

 country on the globe besides this, is agricultural toil made honorable by 

 the usages, the forms, and the opinions of society ? 



Compare the condition of our agriculturists with those of other coun- 

 tries, and how flattering the contrast ! It Ls the general belief that the 

 farmers of England (next to this the most prosperous nation of our 

 day) are superior specimens of their class. Let us hear the testimony 

 of a competent Englishman. The correspondent of the London Morn- 

 ing Chronicle, in speaking of the English agricultuial laborer, says: 

 " Education has advanced him but little beyond what he was in the 

 days of William the Conqueror." "They (the laborers, he says) are 

 mere human machines, working only with their hands and not at all 

 with their minds" — that " few of them can read, and fewer write," — 

 that ** there is neither speculation in the eye, nor any other than the ex- 

 pression of the mere animal in their coimtenances," — that "they are 

 entirely wanting in the independent bearing of the man ; are awkward 

 in their gait, and dress in a garb which belongs to another century than 

 this ;" and " that recreation and sensuality are identified in their minds 

 aa one and the same thing." 



