XXVI AN ADDRESS, &C. 



a gradual progress in improvements. An excellent opportu- 

 nity is now afforded of assisting the cause of agriculture and 

 internal improvement, in the projected establishment of a 

 new department in the national government, and it is to be 

 hoped that it will not be lost. Indeed it is impossible to 

 calculate the effects on the prosperity, or on the domestic 

 comfort: or the amount of the wealth which the nation may 

 derive from a Secretary of the home department, resolutely 

 and actively directing his attention to every concern from 

 Maine to Georgia, which naturally comes within the scope 

 of the duties arising from such an office, such as canals, 

 and roads, obtaining a knowledge of the improvements in 

 making and repairing them, and its publication for general 

 benefit; ascertaining practicable routs for new roads, or ca- 

 nals, stimulating those more immediately concerned in their 

 formation to undertake them, under the promise of pecu- 

 niary aid, if necessary to complete them: introducing use- 

 ful implements of agriculture; seeds, plants or trees, useful 

 in diet, medicine, or the arts; labour saving machinery,* and 

 improved breeds of cattle, from. Europe, by offering pre- 

 miums for the same, or directing the attention of foreign 

 public agents, or of the numerous American citizens whG 

 visit Europe, either for profit, pleasure, or mental im- 

 provement to the subject; and who would delight in comply 

 ing with the request, from a sense of duty, and the satisfac- 

 tion derived from the consciousness of having promoted 

 thereby the interests of their country. He might also 

 do good by countenancing and aiding with advice, or pecu- 



* The increase of taxes and price of labour in England, bave acted as sti- 

 mulants to the invention of numerous labour saving implements in agricul- 

 ture, as well as in manufactures; of the former we have none in the United 

 States, except the threshing machine, 



