120 LINCOLN SOCIETY. 



rich iu lands and stocks, but ho must submit to poor health and 

 to the want of facilities for education. 



If a man is willing to work hard, live prudently, increase in- 

 wealth slowly but surely, and indulge to a reasonable exteyt in 

 %11 the great commercial, manufacturing and political moyemcnts 

 of the times, let him become '-a Xew England farmer," and run 

 through the different grades of that extensive, and really impor- 

 tant class of citizens. Here I should like to trace the pro- 

 gress of onfe of our successful farmers through his whole career 

 as worker of the land, proprietor, employer, trader, town officer,, 

 justice of the peace, legislator, member of congress, and minis- 

 ter, but for want of time must leave this matter for you to pic- 

 ture for yourselves, and return to the subject of emigration, as 

 I wish to call your attention to tlie present system of internal 

 improvements, this system of telegraphs and railroads, as a 

 direct means of checking the disastrous drain upon our commu- 

 nity. Look for a moment to the facilities for conveyance of 

 information and travel, as it existed but a quarter of a century 

 since, and at the present time ! "Who of us but remembers- 

 when it took about a month to transmit a letter from Maine to 

 Louisiana ? How well do our business men remember the 

 uncertaint}', and irregularity in regard to their business cor- 

 respondence. Equally tedious and uncertain was travel bj 

 public conveyance, while the expense and loss of time were 

 such as to prevent the mass of our population from profiting 

 by, or indulging in travel by private conveyance. Many of you 

 must well remember the preparation for the journey, and the 

 departure of those who emigrated to Ohio about the year 1817> 

 from this vicinity. When your neighbors closed their business 

 here, sold their farms, shops, furniture, aiid fixings, furnished 

 their red wagons with cotton coverings, attended church upon 

 the Sabbath for the last time, mingled their tears with those of 

 their friends, gathered their families, bade a last adieu, and 

 with their long train of wagons moved off on what seemed au 

 almost endless journey. At that time the distance seemed so 

 great, and the troubles so nearly insurmountable, that well 

 might friends shed tears at parting, and look upon those to 

 whom they had been long and dearly attached, as about being 

 separated never again to meet. ITow anxiously, after long 



