Lu2^?-' 



California Agriculturist and Live Stock Journal. 



i^mm\mu\tna. 



THE FARM. 



The Xiirsfrj- uf Patriots, OratorH and 

 State:^ineii. 



BY JOHX D. SCOTT, M. D. 



prtHEEE is au old say iug that " aian 

 Mi 'H'll'fis the city, but God makes the 



country." Whether it be this di- 

 vine impress, or the pure, calm 

 quiet of country life that produces 

 the efl'ect, certain it is that the best and 

 brightest intellects that have adorned the 

 annals of history have been born and 

 bred on the smiling plains and amidst 

 the raountaiu homes of rural life. It 

 may be that peaceful pursuits have a 

 civilizing effect, that the unvarying order 

 of the seasons establishes a similar state 

 in the faculties of the mind, that the care 

 of domestic animals cultivates the best 

 affections and emotions of the heart, and 

 that the quiet undisturbed occupation of 

 the farmer naturally tends to«seful med- 

 itation. This meditation —this concen- 

 tration of the mental powers upon 

 various subjects until they have been 

 viewed in every possible light, is only 

 that disciplining of those powers whose 

 successful cultivation is rightly denom- 

 inated "genius." 

 *■ This 16 not solitude. *tifi but to hold 

 Couverse with Nature's charms aud view her 

 stores uuroUed." 



Books, though useful in their place, 

 are not absolutely necessary to the dis- 

 cipline of the mind. Its faculties existed 

 in all their God-like powers long before 

 a book was ever written. Indeed, books 

 are the evidence and the result of the 

 existence of those powers. What is 

 generally understood by self-made men 

 are those obscure individuals who, never 

 having had the advantages of a collegiate 

 education, often astonish their neighbors 

 and the world by the sudden display of 

 mental capacities not hitherto suspected 

 in them. They have had the same men- 

 tal discipline that the students of our 

 colleges enjoy from the study of the 

 dead languages, mathematics, philoso- 

 phy, history-, etc., but their minds have 

 been exercised and strengthened on other 

 subjects, and in Nature's schools. Can 

 any one believe that the mind of Patrick 

 Henry was idle while watching his fish- 

 ing line on the banks of some quiet 

 stream? Was that of Newton inactive 

 when he observed the fall of the tra- 

 ditional apple? Were the mental fires of 

 Demosthenes quenched by the spray as 

 he stood upon the sea shore, coping with 

 the breakers' roar? 



That scenery and climate both exer- 

 cise a modifying influence on the human 

 mind and character, can hardly be 

 doubted when we compare the mountain 

 Switzer with the Italian on the plains 

 below, the Scotch with the Hollander, 

 and the hardy and enterprising Yankee 

 with his American neighbors of the plains 

 of Mexico and the pampas of the La 

 Plata. 



But, however much, or however little 

 mankind, like the chameleon, may take 

 his hues from the colorings and circum- 

 stancee of his surroundings, it is never- 

 theless true, that a vast number of the 

 great and good men, particularly of our 

 own country, have been the best products 

 of agricultural districts. In saying this, 

 however, let it be understood that we do 

 not disparage the merits of those who 

 have been city-born and risen to distinc- 

 tion amidst, perhaps, greater tempta- 

 tions. Nor would we be understood as 

 ignoring, for a moment, the claims of the 

 thousands who have rushed from the 



work-shop, the counting-room, the bar, 

 the bench, and even from the sacred 

 desk, at the call of their country, either 

 to the tented field, to defend it, or to the 

 councils of the nation, to sustain it. 



This Centennial year our mind natur- 

 ally reverts to the patriots who founded 

 this nation. And'firsti n importance, if 

 not in time, looms up the venerable form 

 of Washington, who loved Mount Vernon 

 as no man ever loved a spot of earth be- 

 fore. It was always with a sigh of re- 

 gret that he left it; it was always with a 

 feeling of unutterabls joy that lie return- 

 ed to its peaceful shades. Not all the 

 crowns of Europe could have tempted 

 him away; but when the stronger and 

 sterner demands of duty required the 

 sacrifice, he willingly wended his way to 

 the North, to assume command of that 

 feeble and undisciplined body of militia 

 — it could not have been called an army 

 — which had raised its feeble arms in re- 

 bellion against the providest and most 

 powerful empire on earth. And even in 

 the midst of the conflict of arms, and 

 often in the grave covineils of peace not 

 less difficult and important, his gi'eat 

 spirit would wander away to his beloved 

 Mount Vernon, as seen in his hundreds 

 of letters to his agent. Havirg been an 

 accomplished surveyor, he drew a map 

 of the estate with mathematical accuracy. 

 On it he traced every road, avenue, walk 

 and cow-path, giving the positions, and 

 even the species, of the trees that lined 

 or overshadowed them. His lawns, 

 meadows, tobacco fields and timbered 

 lands, all had a place on it. With this 

 map before him, in the tented field, in 

 the midst of trying and perilous cam- 

 paigns, or after victory had perched upon 

 American banners and he had become the 

 honored first President of the Republic, 

 he would calmly sit down and write to 

 his manager the most minute directions 

 in regard to the management of the vast 

 estate. Nothing was forgotten — nothing 

 overlooked. In regard to the comfort 

 and well-being of his servants he was 

 most solicitous. Accompanying the 

 shipments and sales of his crops were 

 always full and explicit orders, down to 

 the minutest particulars for clothing, 

 medicines, dietetics and everything else 

 that could possible contribute to their 

 general welfare. A mind that could thus 

 grasp the destinies of a nation and yet 

 find ample time to care for the lesser, but 

 not less imperative, interests of his de- 

 pendents on the banks of the Potomac, 

 deserves, as it has received from the 

 world, the epithet great. It is the eagle 

 eye that sweeps the horizon — the eagle 

 wing that braves the storm, but forgets 

 not the helpless eaglets on the craggy 

 hights at home. No wonder that the 

 orators and poets of the world love to 

 dwell upon such a character, for its good- 

 ness is unfathomable, and its greatness 

 unmeasurable. The theme is as inex- 

 haustible, practically, as the light and 

 heat of the sun; and Washington's name 

 and wTitings and deeds will be spoken, 

 quoted and emulated " down to the last 

 recorded syllable of time." 



And next comes Thomas Jefferson, 

 who, if, perchance, he may once have 

 loved power and place more than his 

 great Mount Vernon compatriot and co- 

 worker in the cause of human freedom, 

 did not love his own Monticello any the 

 less. From the cares of state and the 

 vituperation of bitter party opponents, 

 he fled to that beautiful and quiet retreat, 

 i as the shipwrecked mariner seeks some 

 hospitable root from the horrors of the 

 storm. With clear and well digested 

 ideas upon government, an incisive style, 

 and a well-marked character, that could 

 not be turned from the right, he was cal- 

 culated, like many others among our 



great men, to make warm friends and 

 vindictive enemies. Mr. Jefferson, Gen- 

 eral Jackson and Henry Clay were, per- 

 haps, the best abused men in America. 

 At one time Jefferson's gi-eat heart nearly 

 jaelded to despair under the heavy weight 

 of slander and obliquy which the politi- 

 cal world rolled upon it. But his mas- 

 terly intellect neutralized the crushing 

 effect and culminated in that brilliant 

 gem of wisdom, "error can do no Itarmas 

 hiir/ as rmsoh is left free io cotnhal it." At 

 Monticello he spent the quiet evenings 

 of his days in tue society of his friends, 

 in the reception and entertainment of the 

 guests of the nation, and in giving his 

 wise counsels to its rulers. Through 

 that inscrutable providence "that shapes 

 our ends," on the fiftieth anniversary of 

 our independence, he and that fearless 

 and able champion of liberty, John 

 Adams, nearly at the same hour, joined 

 "that innumerable caravan" that crosses 

 but once the valley and shadow of death. 



Jackson was emphatically one of the 

 most perfect types of the .\nierican fron- 

 tiersman. He was from the country 

 people, and of the country people. En- 

 ergetic, partaking more or less of the 

 wildness of the primeval forest, his will 

 was like the native oak, unyielding in its 

 strength, and stubborn in its growth. 

 His whole life was one long battle. If 

 he was not fighting the laud-grabbers of 

 the West, he was engaged in a baud to 

 hand conflict with the merciless savages 

 of the forest ; and if not with these, with 

 the enemies of his country at New Or- 

 leans. When elevated for two terms to 

 the chief magistracy of the nation, it 

 would seem that his pugnacity ouLjht to 

 have ceased. But not so. Both of his 

 administrations were but continuous, and 

 on his part, well-fought battles. But 

 when his vital sun began to decline, and 

 its slanting rays indicated the coming 

 evening of life, shortly to be closed in 

 the shades of night, the war-worn veter- 

 an began to think of home. And as a 

 striking instance of human C(Uitradiction, 

 so common in every day life, he had 

 strangely named that home the Hermit- 

 age — a jjlace of peace, of quietness, and 

 of prayer — the very antipodes of his 

 whole life. However, in the bosom of 

 his family — amidst hosts of friends whose 

 minds yielded to his iron will as the 

 needle to the pole, in the fullness of 

 years and of honors, he died, a sincere 

 Christian, wept by his friends and for- 

 given by his enemies. 



"De mortuis, nil, nisi boniim," 



The great orator and statesman, Henry 

 Clay, " the mill-boy of the Slashes," 

 throughout a long, active and brilliant 

 life, never forgot his obligations to the 

 farm. Agriculture, no less than manu- 

 factures, owes a deep debt of gratitude 

 to his eloquent efforts in its behalf both 

 in and out of Congress. His was among 

 the first voices raised in favor of tine 

 stock, and that of Virginia and Kentucky 

 to-day attests the wisdom of his foresight 

 and the value of his example. He w as, 

 too, the father of the turnpike system, 

 which was itself but the fore-ninner of 

 the rail and the iron horse. And his 

 voice was ever heard in Congress in ef- 

 fective appeals for the improvement of 

 the western rivers, in order that the 

 country might be opened up to travel 

 and settlement, and th.-it the farmers 

 might be able to transport their produce 

 to market at the least possible cost of 

 money and time. After having bestowed 

 his best energies on the country, he, too, 

 sought the shades of farm-life, and retir- 

 ing to his beloved Ashland, lived like 

 a sage and died like Christian. 



Millard Filmore was but a poor, hard- 

 working farm-boy, but he lived to repre- 

 sent his country at the court of St. 



James, where Queen Victoria pronounced 

 him "the most perfect gentleman she had 

 ever met." From guiding the plow he 

 was at last called to guide the ship of 

 state, and his administration compares 

 favorably with any since the time of 

 Washington. No name, perhaps, in our : 

 history so well illustrates the benign and 

 fostering care of our noble institutions, 

 under which the poor and friendless 

 plow-boy may attain the highest station 

 on earth. 



'* Hon' r and fame from no condition rise." 



Harrison and Taylor were both tillers 

 of the soil — the one a farmer of (he West 

 and the other a planter of the South.. 

 These may both have had more or less 

 collegiate training, but their principal 

 education was obtained in the forests, 

 amidst the whizzing of arrows and the 

 whistling of bullets. But when they 

 were transplanted from their native soil 

 to the uncongenial region of Washington 

 City, like the old oaks of the forest un- 

 der similar treatment, they withered and 

 died, but left names for honesty and 

 prowess that will endure as long as the 

 fields of Buena Vista and Tipicauoe. 



But if there ever was a legitimate child 

 of the forest and the farm, it was Abra- 

 ham Lincoln. Born in the midst of In- 

 dian wars — the brain of his own father 

 having been pierced by the bullet of a 

 merciless savage,— reared in the forest, 

 where the sunlight never ])enetrated until 

 with his young but stalwart arms he 

 felled the timber and made it iulo rails to 

 enclose the hard-earned clearing — what 

 seer, what holy prfiphet, as he listened 

 the young picmeer's ax a« its echoes died 

 away in the interminable fastnesses of 

 the forest, would have dared to predict 

 that the hand that then wielded the ax 

 would some day guide the i)en that 

 would alter the industrial system of a 

 nation, and change the destinies of a 

 continent? Aye, who would have 

 dreamed, in his wildest imaginings, that 

 this untutored spectre of the wilderness 

 would rise up and confront the polished 

 Douglass, "the little giant of the West," 

 and in the fierce encounter of logic would 

 parry every thrust and neutralize every 

 blow of the wiley and practiced debater? 

 Mr. Douglass himself candidly admitted 

 that he had met a foe worthy of his steel. 

 This political campaign gave "the Kail- 

 splitter" a national reputation, .and soon 

 placed him in a position where his know- 

 ledge of "splitting" would be of incal- 

 culable value to the country in prevent- 

 ing others from ".splitting" the Union. 



Thus might we go on, adding line to 

 line, and page to page, in the discussion 

 of this interesting subject. We might 

 have gone back to the Pilgrim Fathers, 



! who were farmers in England and farm- 

 ers after their advent to America. We 

 might hav? culled other brilliant exam- 



I pies from "the times that tried men's 



I souls" — Ethen Allen. Putnam, Mircer, 

 Greene, Marion, Moultrie, and hiindreds 



I of others. Many of the signers of the 

 Declaration were farmers. A large num- 

 ber of our Senators and Rcyresentativcs 

 in Congress, both in the past and pres- 

 ent, have been, and are farmers, and 

 have been and are proud of the name. 

 The same may Vie said of our Judges, 

 Governors and Legislators. In fact, the 

 farm is the goal of all ambitions, the 

 utiima thule of human happiness. It is 

 the natmal state of man. It is a busi- 

 ness upon which all other business de- 

 pends. It is the conservator of political 

 virtue. It is the paladium of human 

 freedom, for as long as the farmers of a 

 country remain virtuous and intelligent 

 their liberties cannot be overthrown by 

 any power that can be brought against 

 them. 



