ELEMENTS OF SUCCESS. 35 



encourage manufacturing in their own midst than in Massachu- 

 setts, but also that it is better to encourage it in Massachusetts 

 than to pay the half-fed, half-clad labor of Europe for manufac- 

 turing articles that must be paid for in corn or other bulky pro- 

 ductions, to be produced and forwarded at a price to again 

 compete with said depressed labor. 



The West is envious of our prosperity, but they need not be, 

 for nothing less than our prosperity will furnish them with an 

 adequate market for their surplus produce. Their thrift is 

 wholly dependent upon the prosperity of the East. 



Imagine, for a moment, that our surplus produce had to be 

 conveyed inland one thousand *niles to find market. Do you 

 think we should live as well as we do now ? Should we dress 

 as well as now ? Should we spend money as freely as we now 

 do ? I think not. But rather let us comfort one another with 

 the assurance that we are the best clad, the best fed, and the 

 most enlightened yeomanry on earth, and have the most home 

 comforts. And let not the thought that we are mingling with 

 a prosperous manufacturing community (whose alimentary 

 wants are feeding our pockets,) in any way discourage us ; for 

 we who are farmers to-day can be manufacturers to-morrow if 

 we will only venture the experiment : but statistics show that 

 they as a mass, fare but little better than we do. 



For the benefit of those farmers and their families who see 

 more attractions in village life and more densely populated 

 places, and for the comfort of all who like ready markets and 

 good society, I will say : We are living in the most densely 

 populated State in the Union ; a State increasing in population 

 to the square mile more rapidly than any other State in the 

 Union ; a State in which the earnings are greater per individual 

 than in any other portion of the known world ; a State where 

 the social and literary advantages are greater, and where 

 knowledge is more universally diffused ; a State where the 

 poor, the unfortunate, and the friendless are more thoroughly 

 cared for ; a State where agriculture receives greater pecuniary 

 and direct public aid than in any other State in the Union ; a 

 State whose public treasury is ready with open hands to lend 

 aid to the society which is here this day represented. 



" A contented mind is a continual feast," and fearing that 

 with the uneasy inclinations which we have inherited from our 



