102 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan.. 



it, and work for it. And why do I want this? Why? I will 

 tell you why: I have known a lot of people who said that one 

 church was just as good as another, and they went bobbing 

 around from one to another, but do you know I have never 

 known one of those men who ever did anything for Chris- 

 tianity, or for anything pertaining to it that amounted to any- 

 thing. And people will not do it where they take such a posi- 

 tion. It is against the law of our nature. We do things for 

 the things we believe in and have faith in, and are willing 

 to stand up and fight for. 



Now, to go a step further, the good citizen not only takes 

 an interest in these things, but he takes an interest in the town- 

 ship in which he lives, and also an interest in what is going 

 on beyond the township in which he lives. The boundary line 

 of the township often encloses more to him than any other 

 boundary line, or that around any other township in his State, 

 because his interests are there, and because it is his home, 

 but more particularly and chiefly because it contains the people 

 that he is associated with,. .and has a common interest with. 

 I tell you this community of interest is one of the greatest 

 things he can have; necessarily then the township must be 

 more to him. The township where he lives must be more to 

 him than any adjacent township, or any other division of 

 territory, and if he is a good citizen he will take an interest in 

 everything pertaining to that township. You in the State of 

 Connecticut have an interest in the township different from 

 what we have in the State of New York, because under your 

 present constitution your townships have representation in 

 your legislature, whereas with us an assembly district, com- 

 prising a large number of townships, sends a single repre- 

 sentative to our general assembly. So the good citizen as he 

 is reaching out from his family to his school district, and his 

 neighbors and the community about him, must take an inter- 

 est in the township, and then he has reached out so that he 

 comes in contact with a still greater community of interest, 

 the State to which he belongs, and here is where we come to 

 the general acceptation of what the term " citizen " means. 

 It means our position in relation to the State of w^iich we are 

 citizens, and in which we reside. Now, right here comes in 

 an interesting question: Our system of government is 

 based on political parties ; political parties are a part of our 



