700 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



were reared, not among pillows of ease and surrounded by every 

 luxury, but amid the stern environment of the farm, toiling from 

 early childhood in the struggle for daily bread. 



Our uation's destinies have ever been guided by those who have 

 had their early training on the pulse-beat of nature. It has been 

 but a part of God's great plan that men who should hold the reins 

 of government should come up from the ranks where they have first 

 held the reins that guided the plow. In our native land has this 

 been most extensively' realized. Nations of old dreamed of it; a 

 few reformers attempted it, but never has it been enjoyed in such a 

 measure nor with such success as in this "land of the Pilgrim's 

 pride." 



It was left to a tiller of the soil to pen that mighty document 

 which declared all men to be free and equal, with equal rights and 

 equal privileges, and which gave birth to a land of freedom. "Free 

 government, free faith, free thought; these were the treasures 

 Avhich Thomas Jefferson bequeathed to his country and his State; 

 and who, it ma}' well be asked, has ever left a nobler legacy to man- 

 kind?" 



From whence came the brave, courageous leaders of the Sons of 

 Liberty, and who were they who left their plows at a minute's warn- 

 ing to take up arms in defence of their country's rights and privi- 

 leges? None else than the true and noble Washington who left his 

 plantation home on the banks of the beautiful Potomac, and the 

 patriotic farmers of New England, who made a willing sacrifice of 

 all they possessed for this "land of the free and the home of the 

 brave." 



In a little farmhouse among the hills of New Hampshire was 

 born a child of humble but respectable parentage. Too poor, almost 

 to buy books, under the directions of a mother, he learned at home 

 to read the Bible. By the toil and self-denial of himself and parents 

 his great desire for learning was fed. One by one he scaled the 

 crags of achievement until he stood without a peer, until his states- 

 manship was the marvel of all nations, and he became the great 

 educator of his people. The feeble child of poverty developed into 

 the mighty Webster. His followers met in deadly combat with a 

 contending foe and the victory at Gettysburg Avas due to the prin- 

 ciples instilled in the minds and hearts of our brave hearted farm 

 lads by that gallant statesman. But through all his career, that 

 which influenced him most, and did so much for his country, were 

 the lessons he learned at his mother's knee. And the beautiful 

 glimpse we catch of Mrs. Webster reveals the patriotic spirit of 

 millions of our American women, among whom were wives and 

 mothers whose love for God and home and this land of freedom, 

 caused them to lay their best gifts — fathers, husbands, sons — on 

 the altar of their country. Without a niurmer or complaint they 

 took hold of the plow, went into the harvest fields and endured the 

 hardships of farm life in their loneliness, till the dark, dreadful 

 clouds of war were lifted over Ajipomattox. From such country 

 homes came the mighty warrior Grant, and the sainted martyr 

 Lincoln. Homes in which they were taught that it is always best 

 to be honorable, both for their own sake and for tlu^'r fellow-men 

 and to strive to be pure, noble defenders of the nation's liberties. 



