MR, PAYSON'S ADDRESS. 



Mr. President, 



We somewhere read of a Roman citizen, whose income from a 

 small farm and garden, greatly exceeded that of his neighbors from 

 their ample possessions. Envious of his prosperity, they brought 

 this accusation against him — that by Sorcery and Witchcraft, he 

 had transported the fertility and increase of his neighbor's fields into 

 his own. A peremptory summons called him before the assembled 

 tribes, and his defence is a noble commentary upon the character of 

 an honest, manly, independent farmer. Placing in full view of the 

 people, his plough and other implements of agriculture — his plump, 

 well-fed oxen and his daughter — not an improved woman — the lady 

 tiiii. ia,;:.:'")n manufactures — but a woman in shape and feature such 

 83 she was made by her God — neatly clad in garments which her 

 cv,. 'S had wrought, he turned to the assembled tribes, and 



thus ressed them. "Behold ! my Masters, the sorceries, the 

 cbaru' nd the only enchantments which I use. My own daily 

 toil, my early rising and late sitting up, the painful sweat which I 

 endure, these I am not able to present to your view. I cannot 

 l^vmg them with me into this assembly." When the people had 

 ueard this, they unanimously pronounced him "Not Guilty." 



We meet to-day, to celebrate the twenty-ninth Anniversary of our 

 .'r the purpose of whose existence, is to encourage and pro- 



mote the same sorcery, for the practice of which, that old Roman 

 came near answering with his life. He who has practiced these en- 

 chantments with the most success, is the man whom to-day we most 

 delight to honor. Proud as die County of Essex may be of her 

 prosperous industry in the work-shop, the manufactory, or upon the 

 ocean — which under the guidance of intelligence and sound morali- 



