MR. CUSIIING'S ADDRESS. 13 



in my estimation, its everlasting place in the great scheme of 

 human affairs, and in the welfare of nations. 



The higher comparative estimation, in which land has been 

 held by som.e of the great states of ancient and modern times, 

 such as Egypt, Lacedasmon, Rome, and feudal Europe, has not 

 been, as many have erroneously supposed, a mere prejudice of 

 class, but the expression of a sentiment or conviction in favor 

 of what they deemed the material element of their greatness 

 and the safeguard of their nationality. The old political com- 

 munities, whose industry was more exclusively manufacturing 

 or commercial, as Tyre, Carthage, Athens, Palmyra, each with 

 its narrow territory and its massed civic population, shone for 

 a brief season with unsurpassed and dazzling brilliancy in 

 wealth, learning, and art, and then passed away like the blaze of 

 a meteor, which leaves only the reflection of its transient lustre 

 upon the page of history, and peradventure some half-buried 

 monumental stones to mark its resting place on earth. Flor- 

 ence, Pisa, Genoa, Holland, are examples of more modern date. 

 Britain is no exception to this great political lav/ ; for, though 

 she be pre-eminent in manufacture and commerce, yet the rul- 

 ing class there is rooted in the land ; it repairs to the city in 

 the pursuit of power and of pleasure, but its rich abodes, its 

 household gods, the birth-place and nurture of its children, the 

 graves of its progenitors and itself, are in the country ; and 

 when the earth of England shall have ceased to produce for 

 her its corn, its coal, and its iron, and the landed interest be no 

 longer potential in her government, then for her also it will 

 need but the accident of a battle to decide her fate. 



Gentlemen, applying these propositions to the main ques- 

 tion, I say, these United States are, as a whole, and always 

 have been, chiefly dependent for their wealth and power on 

 the natural productions of the earth. It is the spontaneous 

 products of our forests, our mines, and our seas, and the culti- 

 vated products of our soil, which have made, and continue to 

 make, us what we are. Manufacture can but modify these, 

 commerce only distribute or accumulate them, and exchange 

 them for others, to gratify taste or promote convenience. Land 

 is the footstool of our power ; land is the throne of our empire. 



