1838] 



FARMERS' REGISTKR. 



661 



Iroiii .-JO iDiiiT porsistiiiij; to ch;)ose her law-iiivers 

 for \\mr powero: m prilitirai pariy balllos — I'or their 

 zeal, ai'tivitv and skill in aidmt; to make and un- 

 m\Ue Presivienis and Vice Presidents of the Uni- 

 ted Slates, rather than their s(at,esman-like quali- 

 ficaiions, and devotion to all the true, the vital in- 

 terests of their conniry. 



((' any thinijf can possibly rouse us agriculturists 

 to obtain leijislative aid I'or ajiriculture, it will, it 

 must, be the enormous and annually increasiiiii; 

 importations of foreiirn strain. Can any man in 

 his senses, for a moment believe, that such impor- 

 tations could ever have been made, had our ijov- 

 ernment o'iven similar en<-.oura(rement to our hus- 

 bandry, to that which has been ijiven to theirs by 

 the foreign countries from which all this ij;rain has 

 been imported? Could it be thoujjht even a pos- 

 sible event — if only a moiety of the millions of 

 dollars which this srain has cost, Cmiilions alrea- 

 dy consumed and utterly lost in the ibnn of food 

 lor man and beast,) had been permanently invest- 

 ed in some or all the various means of improving 

 our husbandry. No — it is altogether incredible; 

 even should we make every reasonable deduction 

 from the general amount of our agricultural pro- 

 ducts, on account of bad seasons, and every other 

 injury put togeiher — always saving and excepting 

 the legislators of the land, who heretofore have 

 proved the fjreatest of all. 



But a ditTiculty, il seems, exists in their becom- 

 ing friends, whenever they legislate for the United 

 Slates. So say some of the hair-splitting con- 

 structionists of our federal constitution: gentlemen, 

 who, in construing this instrument, appearto labor 

 under the same obliquity of mental vision, that 

 the religious fanatic would in construing his bible, 

 who should refuse, if his liouse was burning, to 

 extinguish the frames, because it was — Sunday! 

 even althoiiiih his wifi?, his children and himself 

 were to perish in the conflaffration. These con- 

 structionists have found out tiiat the constitution 

 gives no power to legislate directly for agriculturel 

 But they have also discovered, by the same lynx- 

 eyed sagacity, that laws may constitutionally be 

 passed for the benefit of her sister, commerce, 

 who can't live without her! Witness their charts 

 of our coasts and harbors — their break-waters, 

 light-boals, hght-houses — dry-docks, and navy- 

 yards — all made under acts of Congress. Now 

 would it not occur to any man, whose common 

 sense had not been entirely sophisticated by polit- 

 ical abstractions, utterly inapplicable to existing 

 circumstances — that if waier could be constitution 

 ally surveyed for the benefit of commerce — land 

 might be constitutionally surveyed for the benefit 

 of agriculture? And that if the constitution did not 

 forbid the construction of any of the above enu- 

 merated aids to the former, a fortiori, it could not 

 fairly be so construed as to prohibit the establish- 

 ment of boards of agriculture, or agricultural soci- 

 eties, schools and experimental farms, as aids to 

 our husbandry; especially, since in every mention 

 any where made, of the three great sources of na- 

 tional prosperity, agriculture always ranks first — 

 always stands pre-eminent before commerce and 

 manufactures, as her prosperity is primarily and 

 indespensabl}^ necessary to theirs. What makes 

 the matter still more surprising to plain under- 

 standings, is, that our general government, (so 

 says the secretary at war,) is speedily to com- 

 mence teaching agriculture to the Sioux, the Sacs, 



the Foxes, and \\ inebago Indians, although they 

 can not conscientiously spend a solitary cent in 

 teaching it to our ii^'llovv citizens, many of whom, 

 alas! are nearly as ignorant of it as the poor In- 

 dians themselves. 



Surely this federal conslitution of ours deserves 

 all the praise thai has ever been bestowed ujjon it, 

 and more; lor among its numerous claims to our 

 admiration, it has one v\'hich is truly marvellous, 

 although as yet, i believe, uriiioticecl. No india- 

 rubber, not even air itself, has been found more 

 susceptible of expansion. But lo! and behold! 

 should contraction or compression seem needful, 

 there is scarcely a solitary essential power of gov- 

 ernment for the exercise of which a permissory 

 clause can any where be found by our conscien- 

 tious interpreters of this most extraordinary inslru- 

 ment. Ask of our legislators any tiling whatever, 

 (especially if you are agriculturists,^ which they 

 happen not to be in the humor lo grant, and the 

 immediate cry is — '-the conslitution — the constitu- 

 tion! we have sworn to preserve, and therefore 

 can never violate the constitution!'" — This is at 

 once, the shortest and saliest possible answer to all 

 unpalatafile petitions; lor it risks the loss of little 

 or no popularity — a tender conscience in a repre- 

 sentative being the jewel which we hold above all 

 praise — and it stops, at the threshhold, all remon- 

 strance — all reproof. And some such answer, my 

 li-iends, you may feel perfectly assured, we shall 

 always receive, whenever we ask for legislative 

 aid, until we take some much more effectual 

 means, than we ever yet have done, to secure for 

 our claims, both respect and compliance. These 

 means may all be comprehended in a very few 

 words — the viva voce vote and the ballot box; which 

 (thank God,) can yet remedy, under our institu- 

 tions, all ignorance — all neglect — all wilful mis- 

 government. 



To some of my auditors, perhaps, such of my 

 remarks as are of a political character, may ap- 

 pear to be both irrelevant and extra-official, 

 Should any think so, permit me, before I con- 

 clude, to say a few words in self-justification, al- 

 though 1 acknowledge, that to plead before we 

 are accused, is strong presumptive evidence of 

 guilt. In defending myself against the first anti- 

 cipated objection, I beg leave to state, that noth- 

 ing which operates injuriously upon our interests 

 should ever be suffered to pass unnoticed, on such 

 occasions as the present. To the second objec- 

 tion, I would reply, that the prosperity of agricul- 

 ture, as well as of commerce and manufactures, 

 does, and must, necessarily, depend greatly on the 

 ijeneral policy and legislation of government; in 

 fact, unless all three prosper, so far as the laws of 

 our own country can promote and secure their 

 prosperity, government may justly be censured for 

 the failure. If this be true, which none, I think, 

 can deny, it manifestly follows that agriculturists, 

 like every other class of citizens, have the right, 

 and owe it to themselves, to complain, whenever 

 they believe themselves to be aggrieved, either 

 by the neglect or active hostility of their rulers. 

 The latter ought not to be supposed posHible, 

 were it not for innumerable cases which miglit be 

 cited in the history of all governments, not ex- 

 cepting our own, to prove the fact beyond denial. 

 And it matters not much whether the hostility or 

 neglect proceed from ignorance or design, since in 

 either case, the exercise of the right by the ag- 



