190 Gov. Wright's Address. [Oct., 



intendence of an instructor selected for the purpose, and qualified 

 to prepare his classes for teaching the studies in the common 

 schools of the state. 



Thus a generation of farmers would soon come forward, well 

 educated in the great and essential principles of agricultural pro- 

 duction; in the true relations existing between agriculture, com- 

 merce and manufactures, and in the adaptation and preparation of 

 their products for the agricultural markets. Such farmers, with 

 the continued aid of the schools in which they were taught, would 

 become the best manual labor instructors for their successors. 



The passage of time reminds me that I am extending these re- 

 marks beyond the proprieties of the occasion and the patience of 

 my audience. A single reflection shall close them. 



However confidently the opinion may be entertained that other 

 circumstances and relations might present a prospect for the agri- 

 culture of our state and country, more stable, independent and 

 flattering, certain it is, that the future here opened, is full of cheer- 

 ing promise. We see in it the strongest possible security for our 

 beloved country, through an indefinite period, against the scourge 

 of famine. Our varied soil and climate and agriculture double 

 this security, as the disease and failure of any one crop will not, 

 as a necessary consequence, reduce any class of our population to 

 an exposure to death from hunger. We see also, in addition to 

 feeding ourselves, that our surplus is almost, if not altogether, 

 sufficient, if faithfully and prudently applied, even now to drive 

 famine from the length and breadth of Europe. And that it is in 

 our power, by faithful mental and physical application, soon to 

 make it equal to the expulsion of hunger, from the commercial 

 world. We see that, dependent upon the commercial markets, 

 our agriculture may bring upon our country a high degree of 

 prosperity, and enable us, when extraordinary occasions shall call 

 for its exercise, to practice a national benevolence as grateful to 

 the hearts of the humane as to the wants of the destitute. And 

 we see that by the wider diffusion and more secure establishment 

 of a successful agriculture among our citizens, as a permanent 

 employment, we are laying broader and deeper the foundations of 

 our free institutions, the pride and glory of our country, and prized 

 by its freemen as their richest earthly blessing; the history of all 

 civil government, confirmed by the experience of this republic, 

 furnishing demonstrative proof that a well educated, industrious, 

 and independent yeomanry, are the safest repository of freedom 

 and free institutions. 



