No. 200.] 221 



The strong arm must defend what the strong heart achieved. Again, 

 the ties of family were severed, and under auspices which promised 

 success to those alone who knew that "difficulties show what men 

 are," the responsibilities of freedom were assumed. Less than sev- 

 enty years have elapsed, and what a work has been accomplished. In 

 every department of industry the great results of labor are enjoyed. 

 Agriculture, the oldest and the purest of human callings, has drawn 

 to itself the awakened mind of those who till the soil. Throughout 

 large portions of our land no stream can pour itself idly into the sea : 

 upon its banks the busy man has planted himself, and makes available 

 its waters. The quick noise of machinery is heard, where but few 

 years ago no sound disturbed the silence which nature keeps where 

 man has not approached. The accumulated labor of the farmer and 

 the manufacturer, the merchant receives, and the freighted ship bears 

 the large surplus to foreign lands, whence other products may be re- 

 turned for their consumption. Where manufactures flourish, and the 

 field is ploughed, and the sails of commerce are spread, the mechanic 

 arts thrive. The inventive skill of a people, is in proportion to the 

 .call which is made upon it. When, a few years ago, our countryman 

 whose stern will has compelled the lightning into subjection, sought to 

 exhibit before you the proofs of his strange power, his insulated wires 

 were laid beneath the waters conecting Castle Garden with Govern- 

 or's Island. It was a moment of keen interest for him and for you. 

 But as he was yet beginning, a vessel by accident destroyed a portion 

 of his conductors, and the experiment failed. " In the moments of 

 mortification," writes Professor Morse, in a sleepless night I devised 

 a plan for avoiding such accidents in future, by so arranging my 

 wires along the banks of the river, as to cause the water itself to con- 

 duct the electricity across." Curiosity induced Franklin to fly his 

 kite. He wished to know whether the flash and the peal from the 

 cloud were caused by the same forces which were confined in the 

 Leyden jar. Accident at an earlier time disclosed the truth, that fric- 

 tion imparted to certain bodies the power of attraction. But neither 

 curiosity nor accident has given to American genius its strongest im- 

 pulse. When the want has been felt, thought has removed it. And 

 now the fact is ascertained, that when man would make the lightning 

 his messenger, he may compel the river to give it free passage. 



By the light which falls from the past upon the present, we must 

 read our duty as a government and as a people. Agriculture, manu- 



