198 STATE BOAED OF AGRICULTUEE. 



purifying our national politics ; also to wield a powerful iuflueuce, too, in the 

 nation's councils. To that end the farmer sliould invigorate his mind and con- 

 science by studying his own wants, his country's history, and the world about 

 him. 



As the scope of his occupation isolates him in part from tlie advantages 

 afforded by the large circulating libraries of the cities, or from acquiring a knowl- 

 edge of the present issues, from being in contact with thinking and energetic men, 

 he must, as the progress of the republic demands it of him, educate himself by 

 careful, energetic effort. Is it of minor importance for the farmer to be quali- 

 fied to exercise the right and duty of a good citizen, otherwise to shirk the work 

 necessary to maintain the Grod-given rigiit of independence? 



Ignorance is the only slave God ever made ; intelligence the only king. Labor 

 of the brain, heart, and hand are all alike. They are God's triple alliance 

 throughout all his universe, — the old trinity of eternal truth. 



As a citizen enjoying the rights and fostered institutions, it becomes apparent 

 to every thoughtful man and sincere lover of his country why the farmer should 

 be thoroughly educated in this general knowledge to qualify him to be an hon- 

 orable politician and to wield a helping hand in the politics of the nation. 



It has long been a common freak among farmers themselves to choose a law- 

 yer to represent them in national or State Legislature on account of his supposed 

 superior knowledge as a legislator, or greater ability to shape the policy of the 

 nation. 



Why should those men of other occupations leave to them a field of study no 

 more connected with their calling than any other? It would be an easy matter 

 to name a hundred lawyers that wield more power in the affairs of the nation 

 than does the entire agricultural population. Indeed, only two members were 

 registered in the Directory of the 44th Congress as farmers. Shame that the lead- 

 ing industry of the nation, employing more than half of the legal voters of the 

 land sliould not be represented, while the commercial, manufacturing, indeed 

 all the other industries, have lavished upon them everything they ask. Many a 

 law has been passed ; many an act has been enacted to the detriment of the 

 best interests of the agriculturist. 



The result of this indifference among farmers and educated men engaged in 

 other pursuits is that our governmental machinery is wrought by office-seek- 

 ers, — men inside politics. Men of education and intelligence have seldom the 

 time to spend for such a precarious means of promoting the general welfare 

 and happiness of their country. They are too busy about personal gains to aid 

 in hewing the planks of party platforms and to examine the men who are to 

 stand upon them, while farmers themselves have not felt qualified to take the 

 responsibility of shaping the policy of the nation. 



Though the blackening influence of partisan calumny, or the vices of corrupt 

 men marks the entrance upon a political career to be looked upon as abandon- 

 ment of the paths of highest rectitude, though men of integrity and morality 

 have not been able to escape the vile and infamous influence of the unprmcipled 

 politician, paint the picture as black as you will, yet all the more it becomes the 

 duty of every earnest citizen to enter into the field with zeal and determination 

 to make them better. 



Farmers, we have a great work of reformation to perform, a revolution to 

 wage, a sublime duty to fulfill, a polluted civil service to purge, and a noble rela- 

 tioii to sustain. " Then let us be up and doing," put our shoulders to the wheel, 

 ever doing our duty and fully maintaining our relation as worthy citizens to the 



