.(5:1) c Jarmcv's iiVont!)lij iltsitor. 



131 



Deeply impressed with the conviction of tliis 

 truth, henevolent tnirul.s have cherished tlie idea 

 that a domestic market, to he influenced only hy 

 our own national pohry, would he so far prcl'er- 

 hlc in stahility and cerlaiiity to the open market 

 of the commercial world, as to have persuaded 

 themselvrs that a siifliuicnt market for our agri- 

 cultural products is thus attaiuahle. Jt is not de- 

 ed to discuss the somiduess of tins theory, 

 where it can ho reduced to practice ; hut only to 

 iiKpjirc whether tlie state of this country, the 

 coudilion of its society, and the tendency and in- 

 clination of its [lopidation as to their industrial 

 pursuits, are such, at the present time, or can 

 be expected to bo such for generations to come, 

 as to render it possible to consume within tlie 

 country the surplus of thn productions of our 

 riculiure. The theory of an exclusively do- 

 mestic market for this {ireat domestic interest is 

 certaiidy a very heautifid one as a theory, and 

 scarcely fails to strike the mind (avorahly upon a 

 first impression. t?lill examination has produced 

 riifl'erenccs of opinion hetween statesmen of equal 

 intelligence and patriotism, as to its influences 

 U|;ou the happiness ami prosperity of a ccnmtry 

 and its popidation. Any examination of this 

 question would loail to a tiisciission properly 

 considered political, if not partizan, and all such 

 iJiscnssions it is my settled purpose to avoid, as 

 inappropriate to the place ami occasion. 



I simply propose to inquire as to a fact, which 

 niiist control the .-ipijlication of theories and prin- 

 ciples of political economy, touching this |.oint, 

 10 our country and its ag"ricultm-al population, 

 without raising any question as to the wisdom ol 

 the one, or the soundness of the other. Is the 

 cotisumption of this counuy (qual to its agricul- 

 tural production, or can it become so w ilhin any 

 calculable period of years? How is the fact.' — 

 May I not incpiire without giving offence' or 

 tran.-cejidiiig the lindts I liave prescribed for 

 mjself In the discussion .' Can a fair examination, 

 scriipidously confined to this point, take a polit- 

 ical bearing, or disturb a political feeling? It is 

 ;ertainly not my design to wound the feelings of 

 iny member of the society, or of any citizen of 

 ;he comiiry ; and I have convinced myself that I 

 may tnake the inquiry, and express the conclu- 

 iions of my own mind as to tlie result, without 

 lining either. If I shall prove to be in erior, it 

 (vill be an error as to the fai-t inquired after, and 

 :iOt as to the soundness of the principle in polit- 

 ical economy dependent on the fact lor its appli- 

 cation, liecause ns to the fcundness of tlie prin- 

 ciple I attempt no discussion and offer no opin- 

 ion. It u ill he an error as to the applicability of 

 la theory to our country, and not as to the wisdom 

 I lor policy of the theory itseli; because ofthc sound- 

 lliess or nnsoniidiicfs of the theory, when it can 

 I'be practically applied, I stinliously refiain from 

 my expiession, as inappropriate here. With the 

 inihilgeuce of the society, I will inquire as to the 

 liict. 



Our country is very w ide and very new. It 



embraces every variety of climate and soil, most 



Tavorahle to agricultural pursuits. It [iroduces 



slready almost every agricultural sta|de, and the 



most important are the ordinary productions of 



extensive portions of the couuuy, and are now 



sent to the market in great ahundanco. Yet our 



asricullure is in its infancy almost every where, 



und at its nuiluriiy no where. It is believed to be 



entirely safe to assume that there is not one sin- 



le agricultural county in the w hole Union, filled 



p in an agricnilmal sense; not one county 



hich has not yet land to he brouglit into culli- 



tion, and much more land, the cultivation of 



hich is to he materially inqnoved, before it can 



e considered as having reached the measure of 



:s cajiacity for production. If this be true of the 



est cultivated agricultural comity in the Union, 



ow vast is the proportion of those counties 



ivhich have entire townships, and of the Slates 



jiich have not merely counties but entire dis- 



ricts, yet wholly unpeopled and unreclaimed 



i-om the wilderness state ? 



VVhen to this broail area of the agricultural 



eld of our country, we add our immense territo- 



ies, organized and unorganized, wdio can coin- 



llte the agricultural capacities of the United 



itates, or fix a limit to the (leriod when om- sur- 



jdus agricultural productions will increase with 



increasing years and popidation ? Compare the 



iceusus of 1830 and 18-10 with the map of the 



Union, and witness the inerease of population 



in the new Slate.R, which are almost exclusively 

 agricultural, ;ind who can doubt the strong and 

 resistless inclination of our people to this pur- 

 suit ? 



Connect with these considerations of extent of 

 country, diversity of soils, varieties of climate, 

 and partial and imperfect cultivation, the present 

 agricultural prospects of this country. Witness 

 the rapid advances of the last dozen years in the 

 character of our cultivation. tlie(iuality and quan- 

 tity of our productions fiom a given breadth of 

 land, and the linprovements in all the imphmienls 

 by which the labor of the lininer is assisted and 

 applied. Mark the vast change in the current 

 oi'educated mind of the country in respect to this 

 pursuit ; the awakened attentloti to its high re- 

 spectability as a profession, to its safety fiom haz- 

 ards, to its healthfidness to mind and body, and 

 to its productiveness, Liste'i to the calls ior in- 

 formation, for education, upon agricultural sub- 

 jects, and to the demands that this education shall 

 constitute a department in the great and all-per- 

 vading system of our common school education — 

 a subject at this moment rcceij lug the es|)ecial 

 attention, and being pressed forward hy the re- 

 newed energies of this society. Behold the 

 nimdiers of proli'ssors, lionored with the highest 

 tesimonials of learning conferred in onr country, 

 devoting their lives to geological ami chemical 

 researches, calculated to evolve the laws of na- 

 tme connected with agricultural production. Go 

 into our colleges and institutions of learning and 

 count the yoting men toiling induslriously for 

 their diplomas, to qualify themselves to become 

 practical and successfid farmers, already convin- 

 ced that, equally with the clerical, the legal, and 

 the medical proti=ssions, that of agriculture re- 

 quires a thorough and systematic education, and 

 its successful practice the exercise of an active 

 mind, devoted to diligent study. 



Apply these bright and brightening prospects 

 to the almost boundless agricultural field of our 

 country, with its varied and salubrious climate, 

 its fresh and unbroken soil.», its cheap lands and 

 fee simple titles, and who can hope, if he would, 

 to turn the inclinations of our people from this 

 fair field of labor and of pleasure ? Here the 

 toil which secures a certain independence, is 

 sweetened by the constant, and constantly vary- 

 ing, exibitions of nature in her most lovely forms; 

 and cheered by the most benignant manifesta- 

 tions of the wonderful power and goodness of 

 nature's God. Cultivated by the resolute hands 

 and eidightened minds of freemen, owners of the 

 soil, properly educated, as farmers under a wise 

 and just administration of a system of liberal 

 public instruction should and will he, and aided 

 by the researches of geology and chemistry, who 

 can calculate the extent of the harvests to be 

 gathered from this vast field of wisely directed 

 human industry ? 



The present sm-pliis of breadstnflTs of this coun- 

 try could not have been presented in a more dis- 

 tinct and interesiiug aspect than dining the pre- 

 sent year. A famine in Europe, as widespread 

 as it has been devastating and terrible, has made 

 its demands upon American siipiilies, not simply 

 to the extent of the abilily of the suflering to 

 purchase food, but in superadded appeals to 

 American sympalliy in favor of the destitute and 

 starving. Every call upon our markets has been 

 fiilly met, and the heart of Euro|ie has been 

 filled with warm and grateful responses to the 

 benevolence of our country, and of our coun- 

 trymen ; and yet the avenues of commerce are 

 filled with the productions of American agricul- 

 ture. Surely the consumption of this country is 

 not now equal to ils agricultural production. 



If such is our surplus in the present limited 

 extent and imperfect condition of our agriculture, 

 can we hope that an exclusive domestic market 

 is possible to liirnish a demand for its mature 

 abundance ? In this view of this great and grow- 

 ing interest, can we see a limit to the period 

 when the United Slates will present, in the coni- 

 mercial markets of the world, large surphisses 

 of all the varieties of breadstufls, of heef, pork, 

 butter, cheese, cotton, tobacco, and rice, beyond 

 the consumption ol'our own country ? And who, 

 with the experience of the last few years before 

 him, can doubt that the time is now at hand, 

 when the two great staples of wool and hemp 

 will he added to the list of our exportations'? 



These consideralions, .and others of a kindred 

 character which lime will not [icrmit me to de- 1 



tail, seetn to ine, with unfeigned deference, to 

 prove that the agriculture of the United States, 

 for an indefinite period yet to come, must con- 

 timic to yield annual supplies of our principal 

 staples, fiir beyond any possible demand of the 

 domestic market ; and must therefore remain, as 

 it now Is, and has ever been, an exporting Inter- 

 est. As such, It must have a direct concern in 

 the foreign trade and commerce of the country, 

 and in all the regulallons of our own and of for- 

 eign governments, which aftect either, equal to 

 its interest in a stable and aile(|uaie market. 



If this conclusion be sound, then onr farmers 

 must surrender the Idea of a domestic market, 

 to liirnish the demand and measure the value of 

 their productions, & must prepare themselves to 

 meet the competition of the commercial world in 

 the sale of the fruits of their labor. The marts of 

 commerce must he their market, and thedeinnnd 

 and supply which meet in those marts must 

 govern their prices. The demand for home con- 

 sumption as an element in that market, must di- 

 rectly and deeply Interest them, and should ho 

 carefully cultivated and encouraged while all 

 the other elements acting with it, and constitu- 

 ting together the demaiul of the market, should 

 be studied with equid care, and, so fiir as may be 

 in their power and consistent with other and 

 paramount duties, should be cherished with e- 

 qual care. Does any one believe, that, for gene- 

 rations yet to come, the agricultural operations of 

 the United States are to be circumscribed with- 

 in narrowercomparative limits than the present: 

 or that the agricultural productions of the coun- 

 try are to bear a less ratio to our population and 

 consumption than they now do ? I cannot sup- 

 pose that any citizen, who has given his atten- 

 tion to the considerations which have been sug- 

 gested, finds himself able to adopt either of these 

 O|iinions. On the contrary, I think a fair ex- 

 amination must satisfy every mind that our agri- 

 cultural surplus, for an Indefinite future period, 

 must increase much more rapidly than onr pop- 

 uhition, and the demand for dotncstic consump- 

 tion. This, I believe, would be true without the 

 efforts of associations such as this to improve 

 our agriculture.' The condition of our country, 

 and the Inclination and preference of our popula- 

 tion for agricultural pursuits, would render this 

 result nuavoidable ; and if this be so, when the 

 impetus given lo agricultural productions by the 

 Imiirovemenls of the day ; the individual and as- 

 sociated efforts constantly making to push for- 

 ward these movements with an accelerated move- 

 ment : the mass of educated mind turned to sci- 

 entific researches in aid of agricultural labor; 

 the dawning of a systematic and universal agri- 

 cultural education, and the immense bodies of 

 clieap and fresh and fertile lands, which invite 

 the application of an improved agriculture, are 

 added to the account, who can measure the ex- 

 tent, or duration of our agricultural surplus, or 

 doubt the soundness of the conclusion that the 

 e.xport trade must exercise a great Influence 

 upon the market for the agricultural productions 

 of'ihe ciiuntry, fijr a long series of years to come ? 

 Such is the conclusion to which my mind is 

 forcedj from an examination of this subject, in its 

 doineStic aspect sinqdy; but there is another 

 now presented of vast magnitude and engrossing 

 interest, and demanding alike frotri the citizen 

 iind' the statesman of this republic, the most 

 careful consideration. All will at once nnder- 

 stiind me as referring to the changes and prom- 

 ises of change, in the policy of the principal 

 commercial nations of the world touching their 

 trade in the productions of agriculture. By a 

 single step, which was nothing less than com- 

 mercial revolution, Great Britain |)ractically 

 made the change as to her trade; and subsequent 

 events have clothed, willi the appearance of al- 

 most superhuman sagacity, the wisdom, which 

 thus prepared that country to meet the visitation 

 of famine which has so soon followed, without 

 the additional evil of trampling down the sys- 

 tems of law to minister to the all coiiirolliug ne- 

 cessities of hunger. Changes similar to charac 

 Icr and measurably e(]ual In extent, though in 

 many cases temporary in duration, have been 

 adopted by several other European Governments, 

 under circumstances which render it very doubt- 

 fiil, how soon, if ever, a return will be made to 

 the former jiolicy of a idose trade in the necessa- 

 ries of human life. New markets, of vast extent 



