SOLON ROBINSON, 1841 209 



the first objects of the National Agricultural Society- 

 should be to connect with it a "National Agricultural 

 School." 1 



Not such a "National School" as is the only one we now 

 have, which has, with too much truth, been called "a 

 nursery of aristocracy" — where the humble son of a 

 farmer is rarely admitted, and if admitted, what is he 

 taught? Not how to cultivate his mother earth, and 

 make her sons glad ; not how to increase life, but the art 

 of destruction, the trade of blood!! Such is now your 

 only national school. 



Such will not be the only one, in a few short years, if 

 you will lend your energies to form a National Society, 

 whose motto will be, "to elevate the character and stand- 

 ing of the cultivators of the American soil." For when 

 once organized, you will soon show a united force of 

 many thousands, whose voice will be heard in the halls 

 of congress, demanding our birthright. Be assured we 

 shall be heard. "Let all our energies be concentrated, 

 and we can do any thing in the power of man; but di- 

 vided and scattered as we are, we spend our forces, as 

 it were, drop by drop; whereas, union would make us 

 mightier than a torrent" We can, shall we say we will 

 form such a torrent as will overwhelm our political 

 rulers, unless they will do justice to the agricultural class 

 of the community. 



As soon as the National Agricultural Society is formed, 

 let us ask Congress to appropriate the "Smythsonian 

 fund" of half a million of dollars to establish a National 

 School. If we unite as we should do, our "torrent" will 

 be too strong for time-serving politicians to resist. 



I look upon the National Agricultural School as the 

 greatest blessing to flow from the National Society. 



1 Francis H. Gordon, of Clinton College, Tennessee, in a letter of 

 January 2, 1841, to the editors of the Cultivator, suggested con- 

 necting a national agricultural school with the proposed national 

 agricultural society. Cultivator, 8:52 (March, 1841). James M. 

 Garnett seconded the proposal in a letter of March 16, 1841. Ibid., 

 8:79 (May, 1841). 



