94 THE MASSACHUSETTS SOCIETY 



those who own the soil they till, which, he said, was the 

 prevalent condition of the cultivators of the soil in the non- 

 slaveholding states of this country, especially those of New 

 England. He then said 



I cannot but express my conviction that this condition is 

 the most favorable to the prosperity of the state and the 

 happiness of the individual. It will immediately be per- 

 ceived that it is not inconsistent with the possession of some 

 very ample landed estates by individuals. In a country 

 like ours, where every man's capacity, industry and good 

 fortune are left free to work their way without prejudice, as 

 far as possible, there will be among the agricultural as well 

 as among the commercial population, fortunes of all sizes, 

 from that of the man who owns his thousand acres, his 

 droves of cattle, his flocks of sheep, his range of pastures, 

 his broad fields of mowing, and tillage, down to the poor 

 cottager who can scarce keep his cow over winter. There 

 will always be, in a population like ours, opportunities 

 enough for those who cannot own a farm, to hire one, and 

 for those who cannot hire one, to labor in the employment 

 of their neighbors who need their services. And when we 

 maintain that it is for the welfare of society that the land 

 should be cultivated by an independent yeomanry, who own 

 the soil they till, we mean only that this should be the gen- 

 eral state or condition of things ; not that there should be 

 no such thing as a wealthy proprietor, whose lands in whole 

 or in part are cultivated by a tenant, no such thing as a pru- 

 dent husbandman taking a farm on a lease, or an industri- 

 ous young man, without any capital but his hands, laboring 

 in the employment of his neighbor. These are parts of the 

 system as it exists among us ; and we maintain that it is a 

 better system than the division of the country into a few 

 vast domains, cultivated by a dependent tenantry, to the al- 

 most total exclusion of the class of small, independent 

 farmers. 



Am I asked, why it is better? This is a question not 

 easy to bring down to a dry argument. It involves political 

 and moral considerations ; it trenches upon the province of 

 the feelings ; it concerns the whole character of a people. 

 In a pecuniary point of view it is, of course, not maintained, 

 that, because it is desirable that the cultivator of the soil 

 should own a farm, it is therefore expedient in all cases that 

 he should attempt to purchase one. It cannot be assumed, 



