14 INDIAN CORN. 



which it is proper to recognize, legitimate to account 

 for, and maybe useful to contemplate, and which there 

 can be no reason to ignore. 



If the mere statement of these facts affords them 

 any ground of complacency and self-gratulation, so 

 does it also bring with it momentous responsibilities. 

 To remind them of these is no idle compliment, but 

 may serve a useful purpose. If they have done so 

 much for their country in the past, what may they not 

 do in the future ? 



The present is an eventful and auspicious epoch in 

 our history, holding out to our people, and especially 

 to our farming population, great and glorious oppor- 

 tunities. We stand between a dreary past and a 

 hopeful future. Having extinguished, with a rapidity 

 and completeness unexampled, the most stupendous 

 rebellion on record; having continued through the 

 whole of that struggle to exhibit and unfold with 

 scarcely any interruption our immense material re- 

 sources ; having made that fiery tribulation the occa- 

 sion and opportunity for developing an amazing na- 

 tional vitality, a physical energy, a force of character, 

 and a moral power surpassing our own previous con- 

 ceptions, and scarcely yet credited by the rest of the 

 world ; having confirmed and established in the reluc- 

 tant confidence of foreign nations, the vigor, efficiency, 

 and permanency of our government ; having thrown 

 open our vast domain of fertile acres to the people of 

 all climes, thus offering a bid for population beyond 

 the competition of other powers ; having invited, facil- 

 itated, and secured a steadily increasing tide of immi- 



