AGRICULTURE, A NATIONAL INDUSTRY. 19 



clmsetts, requires such a distribution of wealth, as will secure 

 equal elevation, equal taxation, social equality, mutual depend- 

 ence, universal prosperity. It is this political economy which 

 has made Massachusetts what she is ; and which, if developed 

 still further, would have cultivated her lands with the same 

 assiduity and success with which she has built her mills and 

 her ships. It is on this account that she is so especially de- 

 pendent upon other states, and illustrates, with great force, that 

 relation which is established by agriculture between the various 

 nations of the earth. It is on this account, that her interests 

 appeal to the most enlightened and liberal wisdom of her states- 

 men, demanding of her to sustain that policy which shall en- 

 large our national power, develop all our resources, and secure 

 to ourselves a high and commanding position. Rousseau, in 

 obedience to the maddest and most destructive philosophy, 

 unmindful of the true origin and purpose of all social organi- 

 zation, and with atheistic defiance of the laws written by the 

 Great Author of all things, upon the work of His hands, 

 declared that " he who laid the first foundation of property, 

 was guilty of treason against humanity, and deserved the curses 

 of mankind." May we not, by pursuing our avocations with 

 wisdom and justice, and increasing our liberality as our inti- 

 macy with other states and nations increases, prove to the world 

 that humanity, enlightenment ai.d wealth may go hand in hand, 

 even though moralists and publicists have taught that wealth 

 caused the fall of the great empires of antiquity, unmindful, 

 as they have been, of the destructive etTects of the social dis- 

 tinctions and military despotism, which lay at the foundation 

 of these empires. 



While manufactures and commerce make rivals of nations 

 and states, it is agriculture which may establish the most inti- 

 mate relations between them, and create the firmest alliances. 

 How much internal commotion has arisen from the adoption of 

 systems of tariff, based, not on revenue, but on protection for 

 manufactures ! What strifes have preceded the possession of a 

 market for the products of an industrious people ! What wars 

 have been waged for the benefit of commerce! And, in the 

 midst of all these convulsions, how has the earth brought forth 

 her fruit, without competition, without conflict, and furnished 

 opportunities for agricultural enterprise — not for rivalry, but 



