2i3b [Assembly 



our citizen producer shall not be at the mercy of the subject manu- 

 facturer ; that we may not be for ever compelled to exchange raw- 

 material, which is cheap, being mainly the product of labor, for the 

 same material, after foreign mind and skill have quadrupled its 

 worth ; that so we may not by compulsion pay a bounty upon foreign 

 intelligent skill. Have we not mind lying fallow, and skill which 

 only craves opportunity ? Have not our waters head enough to turn 

 machinery ? Must we too go to the river Jordan ? Are not Abana and 

 Pharpar as good as the waters of Israel ? 



We have sincerest respect for the surpassing energy with which 

 England, in one sense foreign, yel in the highest and truest no stran- 

 ger to us, has pressed onward in her career. She has marched with 

 giant stride toward the fulfilling of her destiny. In looking upon her, 

 we may remember that it is " excellent to have a giant strength ;" 

 but must not forget " how tyrannous 'twould be to use it like a giant." 

 Our manufactures were born of our necessities. It was because food 

 could not cover the nakedness of >he land that the citizen farmer made 

 cloth. Timely encouragement and endeavor, undismayed by reverse, 

 have already won success ; and now the manufacturer seeks for his 

 material from the soil which is tilled ; from the buried ore exposed to 

 View ; from the foresis that are levelled ; from the seas that are ex- 

 plored ; from inanimate and inorganic matter, and from all grades of 

 life below our own. 



Facts yearly pressed upon our notice demonstrate the great and 

 growing demand that, by reason of these nurseries of creative force, 

 exists lor all products which directly sustain life, and which, by the 

 agency of steam and the application of skill, are turned to man's ac- 

 count. The surest guaranty of peace that any people can have, un- 

 til peace shall be loved for its own sake more honestly than among 

 the nations it has been hitherto, is the possession, within itself, of 

 ihose means of defence, and of support, which may enable it to stand 

 self-poised and self-reliant. With an agricultural strength compe- 

 tent to meet promptly all demands upon it, and manufacturing in- 

 dustry and power equal to any emergency, while we cherish, upon 

 principle, good-will toward men, we may rest assured that occasions 

 of olTence will less frequently arise and more quickly be removed. 



The energy which has recently advanced so rapidly these industri- 

 "^al pursuits, has given an impulse to the mind of our people, which has 



