26 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



dried up. The kind feeling which existed between ourselves 

 and England, and which manifested itself in constant courtesy, 

 and repeated tokens of respect, is gone. Even the bonds which 

 united the countrymen of Lafayette and Washington into one 

 fraternity, are snapped asunder. The relations established by 

 an interchange of products are gone. And it behooves every 

 statesman, every true philanthropist, every citizen, to pause and 

 consider how these relations can be restored, and fixed on a 

 firm foundation. Not by anarchy, not by disruption, uot by 

 dissolution and division, and the downfall of that civil system 

 which has given us all our prosperity at home, and our power 

 and usefulness abroad ; not by subjecting the agricultural and 

 producing interests of this country, to the depressing influences 

 of jarring and discordant states, or petty republics, can the 

 distractions of business be healed. Not by encouraging attempts 

 to break up our government, can England expect to return 

 with us to our former commercial relations. Not by inviting 

 national bankruptcy for us, can she hope to increase her own 

 wealth. Not by a system of depopulation and ruin can we 

 raise ourselves out of the manifold difficulties into which we 

 have plunged ; but by devotion to our government, by a deter- 

 mined and resolute struggle for its existence, by the preservation, 

 of every industry through all this fiery trial, by a jealous regard 

 for the rights of all who have sought protection and found it 

 luider the flag of our Union. I cannot contemplate witliout 

 distress and shame, that desolation and exhaustion which 

 would make us the helpless prey of an unscruplous foreign 

 power, and would expose us to the effects of ignorance and 

 crime at home. May my eyes be spared the sad and sickening 

 spectacle of a people who, unmindful of the boundless blessings 

 and the })urifying influences of })caceful industry, under a free 

 government, bowed themselves in blind rage between the pillars 

 of their holy temple, and perished miserably in the ruins. 

 Have you churches here ? They demand the restoration of the 

 government for their protection. Have you schools? They 

 must languish under the baneful influences of a distracted 

 and impoverished republic. These farms — these New England 

 villages — these mills, now silent — those ships, with their white 

 wings glancing in every sun — all wait imploringly for the 

 recognized supremacy of the Constitution, and for the protection 



