RELATIONS OF AGRICULTURE TO MAN. 7 



bj superior strength, courage or wisdom, l)ccomcs the absolute 

 chief of his tribe. So at the other extreme, we find the ten- 

 dency in manufacturing and mercantile States is to aristocracy 

 and monarchy. Great wealth accumulates in the hands of the 

 few ; they enjoy learning and luxuries and grow proud, wish- 

 ing to domineer over the masses whom they employ, and whose 

 labors they direct. The minority seeks to nde, and often does 

 tyrannize over the majority. But in an agricultural community, 

 the doctrine of equality is better exemplified than in any other 

 social condition. The gains of the farmer are slow and sure ; 

 he has not enormous M^ealth to puff" him up, and he never can 

 be the victim of abject poverty, which often depresses other 

 classes ; his position gives him opportunities for a healthy edu- 

 cation, and his al)sence from the excitements of life allow 

 reflection and mature thought, fitting for self-government. The 

 farmer is independent of all sects in religion, and all parties in 

 politics ; he relies on none of them for bread in this life or for 

 hope in another. His own right hand sustains him under the 

 blessing of God, and to God he owes every thing ; but to gam- 

 bling politicians, and bigoted and proud-souled sectarians, he 

 owes nothing. If there is any man who, in such a country as 

 this, is sovereign, independent, lord of himself and his own, it 

 is the farmer who cultivates his own unmortgaged fields, drives 

 his own oxen, owing no man any thing. 



The isolated life of the farmer as well as his independence 

 of position, begets self-government and cherishes a love there- 

 for. He first has from necessity to rule himself, look after his 

 own family and his little kingdom, where he is patriarch, 

 legislator, judge. Living on his own domains with his pas- 

 tures, woodlands, hills and streams about him, with his children 

 to be educated, he is supreme in his own little circle. He has 

 none above him but God, and he receives his privileges and his 

 rights from no human hand, and hence never learns to look to 

 another man as his superior. When others become his neigh- 

 bors, they form the township, the county, and the State, con- 

 tinuing the same self-government when they have become an 

 integral part of the great nation. Here is the beauty and per- 

 fection of our system of government — we have independent 

 and self-constituted and self-controling circles within the greater 

 circle. The parent has rights that the selectmen of the town 



