FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 241 



ever may bo the ability or mental endowment of an individual, he must submti 

 in a measure to the condition of the class to which he belongs. Those accus- 

 tomed to rule will not yield power until compelled to do so. Human nature is 

 ever selllsh, and those accustomed to wield the power incident to superior 

 culture and knowledge will be unjust in acknowledging the ability of an indi- 

 vidual, however deserving, belonging to a class over wliicli they are accustomed 

 to wield intellectual ascendancy. 



But it is no longer necessary that any class of persons in this country need 

 submit to a condition in which they necessarily feel the degradation of ignor- 

 ance, if they but make a right use of the means at their command. L'rce schools 

 are within the reach of every person in the State, and the acciuisition of knowl- 

 edge depends wholly upon the capacity of the individual, and the will to obtain 

 it. Although the educational advantages of the farmers of to-day are far in 

 advance of those enjoyed by their class at former periods in the world's history, 

 yet they do not seem to awake to tiie necessity of improving their opportunities 

 to the utmost, as they should, contenting themselves with the idea that they 

 know enough for farmers, and allowing themselves to be ruled, led and taxed 

 at the will of others, in exchange for the fulsome flattery that theirs is the 

 most independent and enviable condition of any in the community. Still they 

 are not satisfied, and to be dissatisfied with the present is the first requisite for 

 a change. Farmers complain that, while they outnumber all other classes in 

 the country, they have little or no representation or voice in tlie government, 

 and that a large majority of our public men are from classes numerically very 

 small among the people, and ask why is this? They can ponder over this ques- 

 tion long and with profit, and good sense will suggest an answer like this : The 

 statesmen and legislators who manage the affairs of the nation should always 

 be men of superior knowledge, who well understand the wants of the public ser- 

 vice, and such are not readily found in a class which, although it now numbers 

 in its ranks many able and intelligent men, yet a large majority of which 

 scarce ever in their lives gave a thought to such subjects. Hence they are 

 so commonly chosen from the classes of professedly educated men. The answer 

 is not satisfying, but galling to the pride of the farmer, and awakens a desire 

 that it may not always be so, and " where there is a will there is a way." But 

 they must know that to aspire to high public position means, that in mental 

 culture and learning they must not shrink from comparison with any in the 

 land, and, with these qualifications, the farmer need not fear to ask for what 

 he will, but demand them. Some of the disadvantages under which the farmer 

 labors in acquiring and maintaining that degree of mental culture necessary 

 for a creditable comparison with otlier classes we have endeavored to show, but 

 with a proper understanding of the situation they can be overcome, if he but 

 "will. He must know that, instead of giving np his whole time to toil and labor, 

 a portion must be devoted to thought and study. If he hopes that his family 

 will stand equal, making equal progress in learning witli the inhabitants of the 

 towns, they must have the advantages of books, teachers and schools of as 

 high an order as any. Money is as necessary to the farmer as to any class, to 

 accomplish desirable ends, and he should recollect that mankind are naturally 

 selfish, and, if he does not look well to his own interest, others will rob him, 

 and that in the interchange of the commodities of life, when he saves as much 

 of the profits of his own labor to himself as possible, he wrongs no man. 

 "Others may be stimulated to mental culture as a means of procuring daily 

 bread, but the farming class, earning tiieir bread by the sweat of the brow, 



