INFLUENCE OF AGRICULTURE ON MANNERS. ■ 17 



manners of the people arrive to a certain degree of degeneracy, 

 the laws which have usually governed human actions and pas- 

 sions will decide its fate; and that such a state of degeneracy 

 can be prevented only by habits of industry in the pursuit ot 

 objects, best calculated to meliorate the human co.idition. 

 Should our republic exhibit the phenomenon which has never 

 yet been exhibited m the civilized world, that of a nation of 

 husbandmen making commerce and the mechanical arts whol- 

 Iv subservient to the interests of agriculture, and entorcing up- 

 on our citizens, as it were by a national discipline and the in- 

 fluence of public opinion, habits of rigid temperam^e andmdus- 

 trv, we mio-ht indulge more sanguine hopes ot its immortal du- 

 ration. History, that monumental record of national rise and 

 national ruin, has taught us that through every stage ot civil 

 society, the miseries attending the condition of man, hav^e been 

 accumulated, in proportion to their neglect of the peaceful and 

 happy emplovment of cultivating the earth. It has been justiy 

 remarked b/ one* who has heretofore directed the destinies ot 

 our country, "that God has made the breasts of those that labor 

 in the earth his peculiar deposit for substantial virtue ; the lo- 

 cus in which he keeps alive the sacred lire, which otherwise 

 mio-ht escape from the face of the earth : that corruption of mor- 

 als'in the mass of cidtivators is a phenomenon ot which no age 

 or nation has furnished an example ; it is the mark set on those, 

 who, not looking up to Heaven, to their own soil and maustry, as 

 does the husbandman, depend for it on the casualties and ca- 

 price of customers: and that the proportion which the aogre- 

 gate of the other classes of citizens bears, m any state, to that ot 

 its husbandmen, is the proportion of its unsound to its healthy 

 parts." The voice of reason and nature confirm the truth ot 

 these remarks. There is no occupation which, like agriculti ire, 

 contributes to the health and energy of the human constitution; 

 and when attended to as a science, it presents a vast iield tor 

 the display of intellectual improvement and philosophical mves- 

 tio-ation. The mechanical arts, such as of masons, carpenters 

 and smiths, particularlv, are necessary, not only to aid taot ar- 

 mor in the progress of his occupation, but contribute essentially 

 to liis convenience and comfort. But a small proportion oi this 

 class of citii^ens, are however sufficient for all the necessary 

 purposes of their respective arts. It is very obvious that with- 

 out the plouo-h, the hoe and the harrow, the productive powers ot 

 the soil would never have been developed m any degree ade- 

 quate to the great objects of civilization, and of impioving tli€ 



* Jefferson, late Tresident of the U. S. 

 b2 



