82 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



Amidst the complicated trials of civil war, our commerce may 

 fail, our mills may crumble, our banks may be crushed ; but 

 our lands must remain, the imperishable property of a frugal 

 and induj^trious people. As our fathers left their plough in the 

 furrow, to fight two long and distressing wars for independence 

 and national honor, and returned to them when the angel of 

 peace again liovered over the land, finding in the cultivation of 

 these hills and valleys an ample reward for their toil, and exer- 

 cising, through the merit of their calling, those manly virtues 

 which they transmitted to us, so may we, the farmers of Massa- 

 chusetts, having done all that in us lies to save our country, 

 preserve and enlarge, and develop for her that industry which 

 may be her support in war and lier reliance in peace. 



My fellow-citizens, I have discussed our national affairs before 

 you, not because I believe it necessary to give you new light, or 

 new wisdom for the hour, but because I believe that, like the 

 Christians of old, we are of " one mind and one heart; " and 

 that for our country we have all things in common. 



I have spoken, not as a member of any sect or party, but as 

 an American citizen, believing in American institutions, jealous 

 of American honor. I might have chosen other topics, but with 

 your hearts and my own " in the Highlands," all things else 

 seem idle, frivolous, unimportant. For, what is our art, what 

 our science, what our literature, what our various pursuits, if 

 we are to fall before those trials which now beset us on every 

 hand ? All occupations, all interests, all men bow before that 

 one question : how shall we save our country ? And wlien the 

 history of these times shall be written, it will be found that its 

 brightest pages are reserved for those who, vuimindful of all 

 dififerences, superior to all temptations, pledged their lives, their 

 fortunes, and their sacred honor, for the preservation of the 

 constitutional freedom, and that empire of equality, whicli our 

 fathers founded in their wisdom and sanctified by their blood. 



