84 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



inflame with lies and sophistries, and collect into mobs and 

 madden to plunder and conflagration, and put in riotous and 

 deadly array against the government and laws of their country, 

 or any open or covert co-operation with the banded destroyers 

 of our magnificent civil fabric. That fabric finds its founda- 

 tion and stability in the practical wisdom, and firm, intelligent 

 patriotism of the agricultural masses. This does not look as if 

 they were grown stupid and brutal, or were sinking to the 

 status of the serfs, and hinds, and boors, or if you will, the peas- 

 antry, bond or free, of other communities. 



But our adversaries are not silenced yet. They will say 

 that the history of New England has been exceptional among 

 human histories, and that the peculiar circumstances of the 

 founding of our agricultural class, are such as to account for 

 the present and temporary high character and position of that 

 class. There is truth in this. The first farmers of New Eng- 

 land were remarkable men. They were not the scum of 

 European serfage. They were men of learning and thought. 

 They came hither inspired and sustained by great principles 

 and lofty aims. Tliey came to found a free empire and a 

 Christian State. They betook themselves to farming here from 

 the necessities of their position. But they were more than 

 mere farmers. They were statesmen. They were theologians. 

 They had borne persecution. They were ready for the greatest 

 sacrifices, for conscience and liberty, and met them all heroically. 

 They were versed in all the great controversies of the time, 

 civil and ecclesiastical. They fathomed the vasty deeps of the 

 theological problems of that day, and men who do that could 

 do anything intellectually. They studied the Scriptures learn- 

 edly, profoundly, devoutly, and that alone is an education. 



Such men, being the first possessors and tillers of the soil 

 here, would of course transmit their mental strength and cul- 

 ture, and high tone of character to their posterity and success- 

 ors. And when the Revolution came, the struggles, Sacrifices 

 and responsibilities of that time, would help to keep up, renew 

 and reinvigorate that high tone, for a generation or two more. 



But then, our adversaries will say, that extraordinary 

 influence derived from our noble founders cannot last always. 

 It must fade out as those men and times recede farther and 

 farther into the past, and finally disappear, and our farmers, 



