No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 369 



Aud if as a nation wo wissli to pcriit'tiiatc our IIIm rlii's, tlie iiiciil 

 cation of moral priuciplo dare not be disrefj^aidod. 



Edward Everett says: ''For moral desolation t litre is no reviving 

 spring. Let the moral and republican principles of our country be 

 abandoned; let impudence and corruption and intrigue triumph over 

 honesty and intellect, and our liberties and strength will dej)art for- 

 ever. Of these there can be no resuscitation. The 'abomination of 

 desolation' will be fixed and jjerpetual; and, as the mighty fabric of 

 our glory totters into ruins the nations of the earth will mock u« in our 

 overthrow, like the i)owers of darkness, when the throned one of 

 Babylon became even as themselves, and the 'glory of the Chaldees' 

 excellency had gone down forever." Similar sentiments are voiced 

 by all our great orators and historians. 



And iiuj one conversant with history knows that national great- 

 ness always followed a period of great intellectual and moral vigor; 

 while a prolonged epoch of moral decadence always resulted in the 

 downfall of dynasties. If we were to-day to visit the counties once 

 occupied by the most powerful nations of antiquity, they would re- 

 mind us of some of our country graveyards, where a few monuments 

 rise above a wilderness of weeds and briers. We should behold the 

 pyramids and a few other structures towering above the general 

 desolation as monuments to the genius and civilization of the ances- 

 tors of the present craven inhabitants; and amid all the ruin and 

 depravity we should be taught, with mute but impressive eloquence, 

 the sad lesson that unless we as a nation would share a similar fate, 

 we must emulate their virtues, but avoid their vices. 



A spirit of justice and uprightness should characterize our course 

 at home and our relations abroad. Powerful armaments will be of 

 no permanent avail unless a righteous cause be behind our guns; 

 while impregnable fortifications, material greatness and all our in- 

 ternal improvements will not save us from ultimate dismemberment 

 01 ruin, if we indulge in a career of injustice or internal corruption. 

 Our safety will rest in the improvement of the minds and hearts of 

 our people. Bishop Whipple, one of our most accomplished rheto- 

 riticians, says: 



"The true glory of a nation is in an intelligent, honest, industrious, 

 Christian people. The civilization of a people depends on their in- 

 dividual character; and a constitution which is not the outgrowth of 

 this character is not worth the parchment on which it is written." 



You look in vain in the past for a single instance where the people 

 have preserved their liberties after their individual character was 

 lost. The ruler may gather around him the treasures of the world 

 amid a brutalized peojile; the senate chamber may retain its fault- 

 less proportions long after the voice of patriotism is hushed within 



24—6—1901 



