No. 200. j 225 



of greatest value — that 396,790 pounds of silk have been produced 

 for their consumption. These constituted the crop of the last year. 

 But these do not fill up the measure of our farming industry ; for 

 there are cattle upon more than a thousand hills, and the various arti- 

 cles which they lavishly supply, in life and in death, largely increase 

 the aggregate of the annual tribute which the farmer exacts from the 

 soil he cultivates. Nor can this aggregate be diminished, if the pri- 

 vileges of our condition are not abused. Of our institutions we are 

 naturally and justly proud ; for they are the work of our own hands. 

 There is this difference between us and most of our trans-Atlantic 

 brethren : that with them, their insiilutions make the men, but here, 

 our men have made their institutions. It is possible that we are too 

 prone to magnify them. Those who " kneel before the king" charge 

 this offence upon us. It may be a just charge. They partake of our 

 own imperfections. Until man ceases to be human, no form of gov- 

 ernment or institution of society can be perfected by him. We be- 

 lieve that something has been done, when man may stand upright and 

 worship God as he shall choose — when he may work and " shall re- 

 ceive his own reward according to his own labor ;" when he may 

 speak, and fear no man, so long as he shall wrong no man ; when, 

 being wronged, the laws afford him suitable and quick redress ; when 

 the man of one dollar, who is true to himself, is more estemed than 

 the man of a million dollars who is false ; when laws are equal, when, 

 not wealth, nor social elevation, nor accident of birth, nor tenure of 

 office — but Truth, holds the scale ; where Justice dwells, If these 

 things are so among us, something has'been done ; — not all, however ; 

 for where free institutions have been planted, man has a right to look 

 for better fruit than " bonds !" The tree of liberty should not be gir- 

 dled by a chain ! But we bide God's time, knowing that out of evil 

 He educelh good. But whether we may or may not be chargeable 

 with extravagant self-love when we speak of our form of government, 

 of our institutions, of our laws, of anything that we ourselves have 

 designed or ordained, we subject ourselves to no such charge in de- 

 scribing the varied beauties of our land, the versatile productiveness 

 of its soil, its rich mountain regions and broad valleys, where, away 

 from the rude clashing of rival interests, our farmers pursue their 

 pure and healtliful calling. Where has God bestowed upon his child- 

 ren such a heritage as we enjoy ? Of this we may surely boast. But 

 as w^e survey this broad extent and these boundless resources of our 

 and, wlicre climates rival soils in rich variety ; her mountains clasp- 

 [Assembly, No. 200. j 15 



