FARMERS' REGISTER— REVIEW OF THE ESSEX ADDRESS. 



299 



For the Farmers' Register. 

 REVIEW. 



jin address to the Essex (Mass.) y^gri cultural 

 Society delivered nt their annual cattle show, 

 September 26th, 1833.- By Jeremiah Spnfford. 

 Published by order of the society. Salem, print- 

 ed by Foote 8f Chisholm, 1834. 

 With the mechanical costume of this publica- 

 tion, as also with many things in it we have been 

 much pleased. The address itself was delivered 

 by a gentleman of one of the learned professions 

 before the farmers of his county. This is as it 

 ought to be. No professional gentleman descends 

 to encourage agriculture b}- s|5eech or example. 

 It is also pleasant to see any gentleman speaking 

 well of h\§ native land, and expressing, even in 

 strong terms, as our author does, his love of coun- 

 try. Nor are we less pleased at any well directed 

 intelligent cHorts to improve tlie solid wealth of 

 unj^ community, even if it AVere in China, inucli 

 more when in our own beloved country. Let all 

 men by all fair means endeavor to generate gen- 

 eral contentment in the minds of their industrious 

 neighbors. We are much pleased with some 

 other things in Dr. Spofford's address. We think 

 he has paid a just and becoming tribute to Christi- 

 anity and its institutions, and has also done honor 

 to Ills own head and heart, when he sa\ s, that his 



"memoiy still loves to 'hover o'er' those inestimable 

 Sabbaths, when, after six days labor done, we found a 

 day of rest, and assembled within these very walls, to 

 enjoy it in social, solemn worsliip; nor can any one 

 know the value of those Sabbaths, unless it be those 

 who spend the week in patient labor, and assemble on 

 the seventh as a sacred holiday, to greet the counte- 

 nances of their friends, and pay their devotions to the 

 most high God. Here then we met few except culti- 

 vators of the soil, prepared by their labors in the field 

 to render their tribute of gratitude to Him who gives 

 rain from heaven, and iruitful seasons, filling their 

 hearts with food and gladness. Venerable fathers ! who 

 then bowed in this sacred temple ! may your sons as 

 patiently cultivate the soil you then possessed, and as 

 devoutly worship here. You will forgive this digres- 

 sion, when you look around the world, and see how 

 closely connected are christian morality and agricul- 

 tural prosperity, — and you will as soon expect to gath- 

 er grapes from thorns, or figs from thistles, as to find 

 a well cultivated farm under the superintendence of him 

 who neither fears God, nor regards man." — pp. 5, 6. 



Nor are we less gratified with the sensible re- 

 marks on the importance of a total disuse of ardent 

 spirits among all persons engaged in agriculture. 

 On this subject there ought to be, and we are per- 

 suaded when the lacts are well examined and 

 weighed, that there Avill be but one judgement. 

 The following sentences are very appropriate: — 



"No portion of the community have paid a heavier 

 tribute to the distillery than the farmers. Their labori- 

 ous occupations and exposure to heat and cold, fostered 

 the belief that ardent spirits were necessary to them. 

 But this error is now nearly exploded, and I rejoice 

 that the hour of their emancipation has arrived. Too 

 long have you submitted to a tax ten times more bur- 

 densome than Great Britain ever attempted to impose, 

 when it was resisted by a seven years' war. But what 

 is worst of all is, that this tax is not like the tax on 

 tea, merely collected and carried out of the country, 

 but it returns in another form to curse the payer and 

 make him an idiot and a slave. Here some will ob- 

 ject, and say they still use spirits, and have neither 

 spent their property, nor destroyed their intellects. I 

 allow the truth of the assertion, some can bear the ex* 



pense without serious embarrassment, and regulate 

 their appetites so they are never drunken. But to such 

 I Avould say, you incur a useless expense, and encour- 

 age by your example j'our neighbor, who can neither 

 bear the expense, nor regulate his appetite. Let me 

 entreat such to change their example to the other side 

 of the question, and lend their aid in drying those tears 

 of heart-rending anguish which flow without niixture, 

 where a husband and a father is spending his estate, 

 wasting his time, and converting himself into an idiot, 

 or a savage. We have all seen those that thought the 

 same — that they knew what did them good, and could 

 govern themselves; that they were in no danger of 

 being drunkards, and resented even the suspicion of 

 danger. But still they are lost, their business neglect- 

 ed, their property spent, their farms mortgaged, their 

 families ruined ! " I would that this were only imagina- 

 tion; but I know, and you all know, that it is the truth, 

 and that in numerous instances. But some say this is 

 aland of liberty, and they scorn to be persuaded not 

 to exercise it, in every particular. What a glorious 

 liberty it is for a man to exercise, to leave his business, 

 travel four mdes and back, under a burning sun, to 

 vindicate his right to spend twenty cents for rum ! to 

 tickle his palate, intoxicate his brain, and burn up his 

 liver — hiding his bottle, and hanging his head like a 

 thief, when he meets those whom he owes and cannot 

 pay. My friends, I paint from real life, but I hope 

 such farmers are scarce. But some farmers yet say 

 they cannot hire laborers, unless they give them ardent 

 spirits. This does for an excuse, when both the owner 

 and the laborer are desirous to use it; but no man who 

 is firm and unwaverine,-, leaves his crops ungathered 

 for want of help; but hundreds of farmers are now 

 r^ady to testify that they never had their work done 

 when spirits were used, so easy and so well. Seventy 

 physicians of Boston have fixed their names to the 

 opinion, that ardent spirits are iiever necessary to per- 

 sons in health: and my own experience in labor and 

 exposure in cold and heat, by night and by day, con- 

 firms me in the opinion, that a dose of spirit is no more 

 necessary in health, than a dose of calomel or taitar 

 emetic— pp. 20,22. 



Nor are we less pleased with our author's re- 

 marks on personal industiy. We have ahvays 

 concurred in such doctrine as is taught in the fol- 

 lowing paragraphs. In the South and West, as 

 well as in the North, it is true that — 



"the person who should in this age and nation, wear 

 appendages or ornaments, to show that he did nothing, 

 would at the same time, in the estimation of an im- 

 mense majorit>% be making himself ridiculous, and 

 showing himself worth notliing." — p. 7. 



; So also our author properly says — 



; "It is often literally true that the hand of 'the dihgent 



I maketh rich;' but where from any cause it fails to en- 

 able a person to gather heaps of sitiiiwg dust, it always 



I in this land enables the diligent to possess constantly 

 and plentifully the necessaries and comforts of life, 



I which to ever}' reasonable mind is true riches." — p. 16. 



! We are also much gratified to see proper enco- 

 miums j)assed on agricultural pursuits. It must 

 be the case, that for at least a century to come, if 

 not always, notwithstanding many and powerful 

 inducements to the contrary, the great body of the 

 solid weahh and influence in this land, nnist be in 

 the hands of the agriculturist. This is the safest 

 place for it, and we rejoice to see just commenda- 

 tions bestowed upon this class of our fellow-citi- 

 zens. We too can sympathise with our author, 

 when speaking of farmers he says — 



"It was among them, and in their employment, that 1 

 spent those years of happy childhood, when every 

 thing makes its deepest impressions. I\Iy earliest ideaa 



