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MILWAUKEE ADDRESS ON AGRICULTURE 



Lincoln's address before the Wisconsin State Agricultural Society at its 

 annual fair in Milv;aukee on September 30, 1859, is the only extended 

 discussion of agriculture he ever made. His emphasis on agri- 

 cultural fairs as educational and recreational media and his 

 respect for "book learning" are of interest. It is also 

 significant that he singled out the decline in grain 

 yields as the chief of the practical farm problems. 

 Most important of all, he was cognizant of the 

 potentialities of the revolution which 

 was even then taking place as a result 

 of the introduction of power ma- 

 chinery. Not least in import- 

 ance are his generaliza- 

 tions concerning 

 agriculture. 



Agricultural Fairs are becoming an institution of the country; 

 they are useful in more ways than one; they bring us together, and 

 thereby make us better acquainted, and better friends than v/e other- 

 wise would be. From the first appearance of man upon the earth, down 

 to very recent times, the words " stranger " and "e nemy " were quite 

 or almost synonymous. Long after civilized nations had defined rob- 

 bery and murder as high crimes, and had affixed severe punishments to 

 them, when practiced among and upon their own people respectively, it 

 was deemed no offence, but even meritorious, to rob, and murder, and 

 enslave stranger s, whether as nations or as individuals. Even yet, 

 this has not totally disappeared. The man of the highest moral cul- 

 tivation, in spite of all which abstract principle can do, likes him 

 whom he does know, much better than him whom he does not know. To 

 correct the evils, great and small, which spring from want of sympathy, 

 and from positive enmity, among strangers , as nations, or as individ- 

 uals, is one of the highest functions of civilization. To this end 

 our Agricultural Fairs contribute in no small degree. They render more 

 pleasant, and more strong, and more durable, the bond of social and 

 political union among us. Again, if, as Pope declares, "happiness is 

 our being's end and aim," our Fairs contribute much to that end and 

 aim, as occasions of recreation — as holidays. Constituted as man is, 

 he has positive need of occasional recreation; and whatever can give 

 him this, associated with virtue and advantage, and free from vice 

 and disadvantage, is a positive good. Such recreation our Fairs af- 

 ford. They are a present pleasure, to be followed by no pain, as a 

 consequence; they are a present pleasure, making the future more 

 pleasant. 



