300 



FARMERS' REGISTER— REVIEW OF THE ESSEX ADDRESS. 



of property, were derived from their possessions. To 

 me houses and farms and cattle wore wealth, and their 

 owners nature's nobility. While money and notes and 

 stocks and merchandise, appeared fleeting and tran- 

 sient — there seemed something in the possession of 

 solid acres, especially when these were compact farms, 

 with their venerable mansions, descending firom gene- 

 ration to generation, that elevated the possessor, and 

 gave a dignity and ch;u-actcr to his pursuits truly ho- 

 norable and desirable. Nor have these been merely 

 the illusions cf youth: they have followed me, and I 

 have cherished ihem in my riper years. And I view 

 with gratitude that kind Providence, which cast my 

 youth among that class of society. The labors of the 

 field gave a value to my scanty library, and my few 

 hours of study, of which, under almost any other cir- 

 cumstances, i could have had no conception." — p. 5. 

 "Agriculture at the present day, instead of being 'a 

 mean, servile employment, is now justly ranked as an 

 important science; and the studies of the learned are 

 now often directed to tlie most laudable employment 

 of multiplying the fruits of the earth, and improving 

 the quality of the fruits produced." — p. 8. 



We are not so clear in deciding on the charac- 

 ter of all our author's representations, as on the 

 foregoing. He states some things, concerning 

 which we confess ourselves ske])tics. We not 

 only doubt the truth but also the morality, if true, 

 of such a sentence as the following: — 

 "I would by no means encourage ambition, but still a 

 desire for property, and accommodation (call it by 

 what name you please) is the life-spring of all that is 

 valuable in society." — p. 18. 



Nor do we feel altogether so clear as to the 

 utility of agricultural festivals, popularly called 

 "cattle shows." We have been on the nortliern 

 side of Mason's and Dixon's line more than once, 

 and we have been by our friends carried to the 

 cattle show, and we confess that a good "address" 

 notwithstanding, we did doubt whether more was 

 not lost than gained to the community. Nor 

 are we sure that the perpetuation in any county, 

 of the observance of the "farmer's holiday," would 

 not be a great evil. Not that the design is not 

 good: but invariably, so far as wc have seen, the 

 original design is well-nigh lost sight of Could 

 the original design be kept fairly in view, our judge- 

 ment might be different. The following sentiment 

 is at least a curious one, containing as it does, 

 what we have never before seen asserted: — 



"Larger crops than are here obtained, wherever the 

 the hand of the diligent applies tl;e plough and manure 

 with liberality, if attainable, are hardly desirable." — 

 p. 9. 



It seems rather strange too for any one fo plead 

 against a "rich alluvial soil" in these words:— 

 "The immense vegetation which annually decays in a 

 rich alluvial soil, saturated with water, is sure in a 

 warm or new country, to render the air unhealthy, and 

 produce bilious and other diseases."- — p. 12. 



If such reasoning be good, it proves the desert 

 and the "barren sands" better than fertile valleys. 

 Nor will the history of the new countries in (he 

 United States justify such remarks as the follow- 

 ing:— 



"Nor have many of these emigrants considered what 

 they will find painfully true, that they and their gene- 

 ration will have passed off the stage, before their new 

 homes possess the advantages of a New England set- 

 tlement, — comfortable dwellings, fruitful orchards, good 

 roads, social villages, schools of science and temples of 

 the living God. — p. 13. 



We were in the great city of Cinciimati about 

 a generation ago, and it was tlien about as re- 

 markable for its want of comforts and houses and 

 churches and schools, as it is now, and for years 

 has been, for its ])ossession of them. A larger 

 |n-oporiion of the youth of Ohio are acquiring 

 liberal educations, than of those in Massachusetts, 

 Let the doctor re-examine his statistics. Nor 

 could we deem it so terrible a calamity, for the new 

 countries never to be modeled in morals and re- 

 ligion after New England, provided they do bettei-j 

 as easily they might. We see very much to de- 

 plore in both these respects in New England. 

 The Macedonian cry of which our author speaks, 

 shows a readiness to be assisted, even in morals 

 and religion, and by New England too. Has it 

 never entered the doctor's mind, that it might be 

 charity to go and abide in the wilderness tor the 

 pur])ose of making the "solitary place glad?" We 

 do fiiriher and seriously doubt whether the title of 

 "cradle of liberty" can be properly applied to NeAV 

 England, in the manner of our author. There is 

 no hisfor}? to justify such a remark. We had sup- 

 posed, and we still suppose, that liberty was rock- 

 ed not a little, far south of the land of constant 

 industry and steady habits — the land of "bibles 

 and of Sabbaths" — the land of "red school houses 

 and white churches." Edmund Burke was of the 

 same opinion. 



We have mentioned some things in this addres.-?, 

 concerning which we had doubts; but we are pain- 

 ed to say, that we find in this publication some sen- 

 tences, yea paragraphs, which we can but con- 

 demn in terms positive and unequivocal. Some 

 of the things relate to the West and South West^ 

 and some to the South. As to the West and South 

 West we shall not say much, except merely to 

 give a specimen of the writer's views about that 

 countrj\ We do not remember to have read any 

 thing more fanciful and inconsistent with geologi- 

 cal flicts, than the following paragraph in reference 

 to the original conformation of the Great West: — 



"Casting our eyes to the South West, the country along 

 the lower Mississippi must have been once an immense 

 bay, or arm of the Gulf of Mexico, but the alluvial 

 deposite, floated annually down this immense river, 

 from the boundless west, has filled up this bay: and 

 made most of it into swamp, and part of it into some- 

 thing like dry land. The immensity of waters from 

 three thousand miles and ten thousand hills, still keep 

 a main channel through this wilderness of wafer and 

 mire and driftwood, and depositing more soil, when the 

 thickened waters first spread from the main clianneJ, 

 than was can-ied farther back, the banks of the river 

 became much higher than the back country. — p. 11. 



The paragraph respecting Mr. Flint is dishon- 

 orable both to the writer and Mr. Flint. — 



"A clergyman of this state, who was seized with this 

 spirit of emigration, some years ago, and has indulged 

 it to his heart's content, informs us that the villages 

 on the Arkansas and Red Rivers are uninhabitable 

 during summer, and the people leave them and build 

 camps in the woods, and on higher grounds, to escape 

 certain death. He spent one summer in one of tliese 

 encampments, battling with the musquitoes, and re- 

 solving to improve the first moment of escape to a 

 more northern climate," 



Mr. Flint did something else in the West be- 

 sides "battling with the musquitoes." How ut- 

 terly destitute of truth is all that is said about the 

 eirocco. — 



