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MONTHLY 



THE VISITOR. 



A self-made Man. 



The late Judge Bcel. 

 [/Vo7it the Eulogy on his life and charactir, pro- 

 nounced before the A'cio York State .Igriiultvrnl 

 Hocictij, Feb. 5, 1840, iy .4. Dean, Esq. of Albc:- 



";/■] 



The subject of these remarlis was born in Cov- 

 entry, in the State of Connecticut, on the fourth 

 day of Januar_y, 1778. He was the last born, and 

 the last that has died, «f a family of fourteen chil- 

 dren. His father, EliasBuel, held the commission 

 of Major in tlie war of our revolution, and was a 

 fair sample of the plain, unassuming, straig-ht-for- 

 ward character of the New England farmer. 



As an instance in proof that the end of the good 

 man is peace, it deserves to be mentioned, that the 

 advanced years and declining strength of this ex- 

 cellent sample of iSew-Eugland's earlier popula- 

 tion, together with his aged consort, received for 

 the last five years of their lives their stay and sup- 

 port from the filial affections of their youngest 

 child ; until, fully matured, and at the advanced 

 age of8G j-ears, they both left this world, and as if 

 their union had become indissuluble by bonds that 

 had been tightened by nearly three fourths of a 

 century, they left it within the brief period of six 

 weeks of each other. 



AVhen he had arrived at the age of twelve years, 

 the family, including himself, moved from Coven- 

 try to Rutland, Vermont, and two years afterwards, 

 when he had completed the age of fourteen, he be- 

 came an apprentice to the printing business, in the^ 

 olHce of Mr. Lyons in Rutland. 



The young apprentice distinguished the first four 

 years of liis term by a close, assiduous, and unre- 

 mitted attention to the attainment of the printing 

 art. 



In June 1797, he formed a connection in busi- 

 ness with Mr. Molfit, of Troy, and commenced the 

 publication of the Troy Budget. This was contin- 

 ued until September, 1801, when, at the age of 

 twenty-three, he married Miss Susan Pierce, of 

 Troy, and immediately moved to Po\ighkeepsie, 

 where, in connexion with Mr. Joiner, he com- 

 menced the publication of a weekly pape/, called 

 the Guardian. This was continued about a year ; 

 after which, he entered into another co-partner- 

 ship, and commenced the publication of the Politi- 

 cal Barometer. This last proved to be an unfortunate 

 business connection ; and after about a year's con- 

 tinuance, either through the mismanagement or 

 dishonesty of his partner, he found himself reduc- 

 ed to utter bankruptcy. 



This is, I am sorry to say, rather a common his- 

 tory ; and many, thus situated, abandon hope, and 

 yield themselves up tn fatal despondency. Not so 

 Judge BuEi.. With the unshaken assurance of 

 success which naturally results from the firm de- 

 termination to deserve it, lie saw, with apparent 

 indifference, the slow, labored, and rather scanty 

 accumulations of some si.x or seven years sudden- 

 ly swept from him ; and read, in this lesson of mu- 

 tability, at least llie chance of elevation, as well as 

 depression, in individual condition. He never, for 

 one moment, lost confidence in the general integrity 

 of men, nor ni the ultimate success of industry and 

 application. He h'ft Pongbkeepsie and removed to 

 Knigston, where he established a weekly paper 

 called Ihe Plebeian. Here he continued during the 

 peric<l of ten years, from 180;> to 181 o, applying 

 himself with diligence and activity to his business. 

 Durinff a part of this time, he sustained with rep- 

 utation the office of Judge, in the Ulster county 

 court; and by his persevering industry, and well 

 directed application, he not only retrieved his loss- 

 es, but also acquired some considerable real and 

 personal estate. 



In 1813, his reputation as an editor and a man 

 having made him favorably known to the public, 

 he was induced, through the exertions of Judge 

 Spencer and some others, to remove to the city o! 

 Albany, and to commence the Albany Argus. The 

 next succeeding yeir 1S14, he was appointed prin- 

 ter to the State, the duties of which, together with 



the editorsliip of the Argus, he continued to dis- 

 charge until the year l&liO; at which time he sold 

 out with the determination to abanden the printing 

 business. 



It is worthy of remark, that while engaged In 

 this business he ahvayn performed himself the la- 

 bor essential to its successful prosecution. He was 

 always the setter of his own types, and, until he 

 came to Albany, the worker of his own press. Is 

 tliere not something in the very nature of the print- 

 ing art, that tends to originate and perpetuate hab- 

 its of severer industry than any other occupation 

 or calling .•' 



After disposing of his printing establishment 

 and business, he purchased a farm of eighty-five 

 acres of laud near the city of Albany, which then 

 helped to compose that tract of land lying west of 

 the city, and appropriately denominated the *'San- 

 (ly Barrens." Th.at which, for some years past, 

 has been so extensively and favorably known as 

 the "Albany Nursery," then lay an open common, 

 unimproved, covered with bushes, and apparently 

 doomed to everlasting sterility. These un|)romis- 

 ing ajipearances, which, to a common mind, would 

 have presented insuperable obstacles, served to in- 

 crease the efforts, rather than damp the ardor, of 

 Judge Bkel. Difliculties, hindrances, obstruc- 

 tions, were with him every day familiars. Hismind 

 iiad been, in some measure, formed under their in- 

 fluence. He recognized and acted on tiie doctrine, 

 that where God has done little. It Is incumbent on 

 man to do much ; and that nothing in this world is 

 ever lost by courting situations that require the ex- 

 penditure of unremitted effort. Man was made to 

 labor, both corporeally and mi ntally, and his haii- 

 piness in life depends much more than he is gener- 

 ally aware of, on the strict obedience which he 

 yields to this primal law of his being. 



On this farm he continued to reside until the 

 time of his death. Under his untiring and well di- 

 rected industry, the most unpromising indications 

 soon disappeared, and as a i^ractical commentary 

 upon the truth of hi.> agricultural doctrine, and in 

 proof that he in reality practised what he preached, 

 it may be mentioned that the same acre of land, 

 which in 1821 he purchased for $30, is now worth, 

 at a moderate estimate, $;200. 



While residing on his farm, since 1821, he has 

 several times represented the city and county of 

 Albany in the jiopular branch of the Legislature of 

 this State ; has been for several }-<}ars, and was at 

 the time of his death, a Regent of the University; 

 and in the fall of 1836 received the whig support as 

 their candidate for the office of Governor of the 

 State of New York. 



He retired to his farm at the age of forty-three ; 

 a period of lile when the mind has attained the full 

 maturity of its varied powers. He carried with 

 him a sound body, the result of a good original 

 constitution, of strictly temperate habits, and much 

 active exercise in the prosecution of his business; 

 and a mind well stored with valuable information, 

 of a charaiiter the most available for the common 

 uses and purposes of life. So far as his pecuniary 

 circumstances were concerned, he might, at this 

 period of time, have been justified in dispensing 

 with further labor either of body or mind. He was 

 no longer conijielled to act under the spur of ne- 

 cessity. But his ready perceptions, and accurate 

 feelings, convinced him of a truth, which others 

 are often dnuined to acquire from a sad experience 

 — that a life of labor is, of all other kinds of lite, 

 the last that should be terminated by an age of in- 

 activity. Men violate the laws impressed by God 

 upon the condition of things, when they assign to 

 their declining years an inglorious ease in the ex- 

 penditure of that fortune, which the successful in- 

 dustry of their manhood had accumulated. Tlieie 

 is alsj in all highly gifted minds, that are endow- 

 ed with clear, strong intellect, combined with con- 

 scienciousness, a deep feeling of responsibility for 

 the due exercise of their powers, in a manner the 

 most advantageous to their fellow-men. God has^ 

 placed a double safeguard over the advancement of 

 man, by leaving the means that conduce to It in 

 charge both of the impulses that originate from 

 s»lf, and of the promptings derived from his high 

 moral nature. 



The mind of Judge Bo»l fortunately had the sa- 



gacity to perceive both where his industry was the 

 most required, and could be rendered the most a- 

 vailable. Of the three great interests that divide 

 between them the labors of men, viz: — the agri- 

 cultural, the mechanical and manufacturing, and 

 the commercial; it is not difficult to perceive that 

 the first has long been the nwDst important, and the 

 most neglected. The last, or commerce, Is much 

 depondent on the other two, and may always be 

 expected to flourish where either agriculture or 

 mechanical and manufacturing arts yield their mul- 

 titude of products. Between the other two, there 

 is a mutual dependence ; agricuUuro furnishes the 

 support of life, and the mechanic arts, in their turn, 

 supplying the instruments of agriculture. Of these 

 two, the mechanic arts had received iclatively much 

 the most attention. To advance them, man's in- 

 genuity and inventive powers had been severely 

 tasked ; and science was required to furnish its 

 contributions; and the devising and employment 

 of labor-saving machinery attested, and ma varie- 

 ty of instances, the triumphs of mind over the in- 

 ert materials every where abounding in nature. — 

 But while the mechanic and manufacturing arts 

 were thus prospering, agriculture was allowed to 

 labor on unaided, and unenlightend in the knowl- 

 edge of itself The new and virgin earth on this 

 continent, that had been for ages rearing and re- 

 ceiving back into Its bosom the lall tree of the for- 

 est, and the waving grass of tlie prairie, required, 

 at first, in many places, but a small quantity of la- 

 bor to ensure ample returns. When the soil began 

 to give evidence of exhaustion, instead of attempt- 

 ing its restoration, new fields were brought under 

 the dominion of th" plough. The great mass of 

 agricultural population, so fHr as their business was 

 concerned, were little more than creatures of hab- 

 it. Men lived, and .labored, and trod the same 

 paths, and" performed the same circles of action, 

 v.'ith scarcely a single well settled principle for their 

 guide, except that the same field ought not to be 

 taxed to grow two successive crops of flax. The 

 principal, and almost the sole object in view, was 

 to realize as great immediate returns as possible 

 from the smallest amount of labor, without any re- 

 gard whatever to the exhausted condition in which 

 they might leave the soil ; much like the traveller, 

 who seeks the rapid accomplishment of along jour- 

 ney, by driving so far the first day as to destroy his 

 horse. 



The new system of agriculture, with which the 

 name and reputation of Judge Buel Is essentially 

 identified, consists in sustaining and strengthening 

 the soil, while Its productive qualities are put in- 

 to requisition ; in rendering the farm every year 

 more valuable, by annually increasing both its pro- 

 ducts and its power of producing ; like the travel- 

 ler, who instead of destroying his horse the first 

 day, should so regulate his motion-, and administer 

 his supplies of food, as to enable him to make addi- 

 tional progress every successive day, until the com- 

 pletion of his journey. This new system — new I 

 mean in this country — has been principally carried 

 into eft'ect by manuring, by draining, by good til- 

 lage, by alternating crops, by root culture, and by 

 the substitution of fallow crops for naked fallows. 



The efforts of Judge Buel have greatly tended 

 to make honorable, as well as profitable and im- 

 proving, the pursuits of agriculture. He clearly 

 perceived that to render the farming interest pros- 

 perous, it must stand high in the public estima- 

 tion. So long as it was conceded to be an occupa- 

 tion that required little more than mere habit to fol- 

 low, and that it was indifferent to success, 'wheth- 

 er the man possessed great intellectual power, or A 

 mind on a level with the ox he drov»', it could not 

 be expected that_ any would embark in It unless 

 necessity compelled them, or the very moderate 

 extent of their mental bestowment, precluded any 

 reasonable chance of success in any other. He 

 taught men that agricultural prosperity resulted 

 neither from habit nor chance ; that success was 

 subject to the same law In this, as in other depart- 

 ments of industry, and before it could be secured, 

 must be deserved ; that mind, intellectual power, 

 and moral purpose, constituted as essential parts In 

 the elements of agricultural prosperity, as in those 

 of any other; and all these truths he enforced by 

 pretept, and illustrated by practice. By these 



