1902.] THE FARMER AS A CITIZEN. IO9 



been fluctuating. The cities, as a rule, have voted against the 

 final determination of these questions as the country has 

 determined them. The country has determined them by a 

 majority of its votes, and that majority was because of the 

 agricultural vote. It was the agricultural vote that elected 

 Abraham Lincoln; it was the agricultural vote that elected 

 William McKinley; it was the agricultural vote of the State 

 of New York that elected Theodore Roosevelt Governor, and 

 made it possible for him to be President of the United States. 

 If Theodore Roosevelt had not been elected Governor of the 

 State of New York, all of you will admit that he would not 

 have been President today. So it has not only been so with 

 men, but it has been so with great interests; it has been the 

 farming interest that has determined what the final verdict 

 should be, and it has always been right. The wisdom and 

 the correctness of those verdicts is not questioned ; they are 

 certified to by history. Therefore, the farmer as a citizen 

 has performed services for this republic greater than any 

 other man has performed. And not only so, but when the at- 

 tempt to dissolve the Union was made, when it appeared as 

 though the old Union was to be rent in twain, and the people 

 of the North rose up in such multitudes to put down the re- 

 bellion, after all where did the regiments that bore the 

 brunt of that great contest come from? Look over the rec- 

 ords and you will find that from the agricultural districts of the 

 country came those steadfast regiments that could not be 

 moved, and who carried victory before them upon their ban- 

 ners. And so the farmer as a citizen is entitled to the highest 

 consideration from every point of view if he is a good man, 

 and he cannot be a good citizen unless he is a good man. To 

 be a good citizen he must be a good husband, a good father, 

 and a good member of the neighborhood in which he lives. 

 He must look at the issues of the State from a broad, high 

 point of view, deciding them in a broad and comprehensive 

 way as he has done in times past, and as I believe he will 

 continue to do in time to come. To be a good member of 

 society he must take an interest in the affairs of the township 

 where he lives, and of the State of which he is a citizen, and 

 in the manner I have stated. He has been the corner-stone 

 of the republic in times past, and may God grant that this 

 virtue of steadfastness mav endure so long as our countrv 



