28 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 



equal number of people in America, I still believe that there 

 are more tolerant hearts and more generous men in Connecti- 

 cut today than ever before in her history. (Applause.) Why 

 should there not be? Why should there not be, my fellow 

 citizens ? Why should there not be, with the lessons we must 

 constantly read, with the marvelous revelations of nature, 

 teaching us more and more of the love and omnipotence of 

 nature's God, and every experience, every example, every in- 

 stinct, and every page in the book of success and happiness 

 teaching us that honesty is the best policy to the individual? 

 And if there be any signs in these times to be noticed with 

 great care, do they not point to that day not very far distant 

 when the great combinations of capital will realize that in an 

 honest government, by and for an honest people, there will 

 be no room for dishonest corporate control or management? 

 (Applause.) 



Connecticut in the past has had some mighty good men 

 to help her at home and abroad. As the great historian Ban- 

 croft says, the history of Connecticut may be called a history 

 of the nation. Always at the forefront in the march of prog- 

 ress, how much of it is due, I ask you, to the education those 

 men got upon the farm? The president of Harvard College 

 said a short time ago: " I do not know which is worth most 

 to a man; his barefoot days on the farm, or his college educa- 

 tion afterwards. But one thing is certain, you combine them 

 both, and they make an irresistible combination." 



I have occupied your attention now much longer than I 

 ■expected to. That was a cold and cheerless home, that old 

 New England home, and the rain of trouble descended upon 

 it, and the winds of discord blew, and the floods of temptation 

 descended, but it fell not, because it was founded upon God's 

 eternal masonry, faith and courage. (Applause.) And in 

 that rain and wind and flood was tempered the sword of the 

 republic, that it might save the union in her time of need, and 

 thereafter stand against the world. And it is my prayer and 



