AGRICULTURE, A NATIONAL INDUSTRY. 29 



it is our own ; for she lias rpached her eminence by the exercise 

 of this preroti'ativc which the Constitution confers upon her — 

 or rather, which she reserved to herself when she joined the 

 confederation. If there is a State which should recognize the 

 full force of that immortal principle of free government, that 

 " government derives its authority from the consent of the 

 governed," it is our own ; for she has reaped a large reward 

 from association with her sister States, which clustered round 

 the flag for the secure enjoyment of this blessed ])rivilege. 

 And if there is a State which should rally for the support of 

 the government and the defence of the Union, it is our own, 

 loaded as she is with the blessings which the Union bestows, 

 interwoven as her industry is with every section of our country, 

 and responsible as she is to the thousands of her sons who are 

 pouring out their blood like water for our existence as a nation, 

 and whose success in this great design can alone avert the 

 distress and disruption and bankruptcy and poverty which must 

 attend their defeat and failure. 



My friends, we are here to-day as citizens of Massachusetts, 

 to consider the interests of one great branch of industry in our 

 Commonwealth. What I say for her, I say for all the States 

 with which she is associated. The war in which we are engaged 

 involves the success, the very existence, of all. The burden 

 which we carry, presses on all alike. The result, if we conduct 

 ourselves as men and patriots, must bring equal relief to all. 

 If the victory which we are to achieve is to be a source of 

 blessing to us, if it is to be any thing more than a barren sceptre 

 in our hands, it must bring with it the re-establishment of 

 whatever has elevated and sustained the laboring classes of the 

 North. It must come before our population is decimated, and 

 before the vigor and strength of our young men is lost to our 

 farms and our mills. Already, more than eighty thousand men 

 have been withdrawn from the industry of this State alone. 

 They are tbe bone and muscle of our great producing commu- 

 nity. Can we continue this, and our business not languish ? 

 It must come before we are involved in a monstrous national 

 debt, which will render labor wholly subservient to the in- 

 terests and necessities of capitalists, who are compelled by 

 the burdens of taxation to extort from labor all they can get at 

 the cheapest rate ; and which will combhie capital against 



