-88- 



ophy to take them home in cheerful spirits; others will be disappoint- 

 ed, and will be in a less happy mood. To such, let it be said, "Lay 

 it not too much to heart." Let them adopt the maxim, "Better luck 

 next time;" and then, by renewed exertion, make that better luck for 

 themselves. 



And by the successful, and unsuccessful, let it be remembered, that 

 while occasions like the present, bring their sober and durable bene- 

 fits, the exultations and mortifications of them are but temporary; 

 that the victor will soon be vanquished, if he relax in his exertion; 

 and that the vanquished this year, may be victor the next, in spite 

 of all competition. 



It is said an Eastern monarch once charged his wise men to invent 

 him a sentence, to be ever in view, and which should be true and ap- 

 propriate in all times and situations. They presented him the words, 

 " And this , too, shall pass away . " How much it expresses! How chast- 

 ening in the hour of pride! How consoling in the depths of affliction! 

 "And this, too, shall pass away." And yet, let us hope, it is not 

 quite true. Let us hope, rather, that by the best cultivation of the 

 physical world, beneath and around us, and the intellectual and moral 

 world within us, we shall secure an individual, social, and political 

 prosperity and happiness, whose course shall be onv/ard and upward, 

 and which, while the earth endures, shall not pass away. ~ Wisconsin 

 State Agricultural Society, Transactions (1858-59), 5:287-299 (Madison, 1860). 



FIRST ANNUAL MESSAGE TO CONGRESS, DECEMBER 3, 1861 



Lincoln, in his first annual message to Congress on December 3, 

 1361, added his Presidential influence to the movement 

 for the creation of the Department of Agriculture 

 in the following words: 



Agriculture, confessedly the largest interest of the nation, 

 has not a department nor a bureau, but a clerkship only, assigned to 

 it in the Government. While it is fortunate that this great interest 

 is so independent in its nature as to not have demanded and extorted 

 more from the Government, I respectfully ask Congress to consider 

 v/hether something more can not be given voluntarily with general 

 advantage . 



