436 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 7 



of our fleeces betler ihan we ourselves do ; and 

 the comparison wi!l be perlectiy jnst, until we 

 learn to claim, as our right, tliat rank in the scale 

 oi' national value, importance, and respectahility. 

 to which we are justly enlitled. Never, no never 

 until then, can we expect to be used or treated by 

 our <Tovernnienfy, either state or federal, as any 

 thing betler than insensate tools or instruments to 

 work with, in promoiing their respective poliiical 

 parly purposes. IFill you, my friends and breth- 

 ren, lend yourselves to any such base, selJ-degra- 

 diner, unpatriotic course? Will you not ratlier 

 assert your rights, and take tlie only steps neces- 

 sary to secure, not only their recoo-nition, but ac- 

 tive and perseverino; elTorls to cherish and promote 

 them. Those steps are to elect atjriculturisls, 

 both in prolt^ssion and leofislative practice, to repre- 

 sent you. In other words, to elect men who will, 

 at all times and imder all circumstances, deem it 

 their primary duty to promote Virginia ai'ricul- 

 lureas the chiel'element — the cardinal principle — 

 the only true basis of Virginia welfiire and rela- 

 tive importance in the union oi' the states, ^'eg^- 

 lect this duty to ourselves, (I may add to the Vv'hole 

 American people,) and we may be hugged and 

 kissed to our hearts' content, so long as we will con- 

 sent to be used as passive tools for party purposes ; 

 but we may certainly count on being utterly for- 

 gotten, and trampled upon afterwards, until wanted 

 again. Neglect this, and we may whistle or sing, 

 (as the fit prompts us.) an eternal requiem to our 

 prolessional claims, our rights, and our just stand- 

 ing in the community. If is strange, most pnssing 

 strange, that the ao-riculturists of Viririnia. who 

 indisputably constitute, at present, by far the most 

 numerous class inour community, should siili be 

 so blind, or so wilfully regardless, both of their 

 own importance, and of the extent of their power 

 if they would only exercise it as they so easily 

 and justly might do, (or their own andthe general 

 good. It is yet more strange, that all the other 

 classes, althoucrh far less numerous, should con- 

 stantly act with so much stronger, more efficient, 

 and more sagacious regard to their own particular 

 interests: thus palpably contradictinir the common 

 adage, that the majority always rules. I must 

 believe, until our national statistics convince me to 

 the contrary, that the landed interest of Virginia 

 constitute an inmiense majority of our whole po- 

 pulation ; and upon the principle just stated, that 

 interest ought to rule our national councils. But 

 woful experience testifies to the contrary ; and fur- 

 nishes ample evidence to prove, that "every other 

 interest has the advantage in the great and conti- 

 nual contest for legislative preference. Why it is, 

 or should be so I must leave to more competent 

 jndges than myself to decide. But the fact is no 

 longer doubtful ; lor as far back as I can recollect 

 any thing of Virginia legislation, it has been utter- 

 ly negligent of the crreat agricultural interests of 

 the state, if not hostile to them, at the same lime 

 that a very large majority of our legislators have 

 always been ownersj or cultivators, or both, of the 

 landed property of the state. It has been vul- 

 garly said, that "it is an ill bird which thnis its 

 own nest ;" but I may add, that it is a fir worse 

 bird which causes its own offspring to perish, ei- 

 ther froiTfi neglect or- wilful mismanagement ; yet 

 such a bird most aptly represents our class. Shall 

 this, my brethren, always be true, in retrard to us 

 agTiculturiets '? .Shall we bo forever justly liable 



to the charge of greater ignorance or greater neg- 

 ligence of our own interests, than any other class 

 in the community? Or shall we not rather mani- 

 fest our real strenirth and exert our lull legitimate 

 power in directing and conlrollinc our state legis- 

 lation, for the general good ? This question we 

 must speedily decide, and act upon such decision 

 with all our numerical and moral force, or patient- 

 ly suliinit to be '■^hewers of xoocd and drawers of 

 water'" lor the remainder of" our self degrading and 

 most humiliating existence. Our only escape 

 from such debasement seems to me, most indis- 

 putably to depend upon our unanimous, constant, 

 untiring co-operation as a class; m other words, 

 upon our making it a rule for ourselves — never to 

 be departed from, that in electing men to represent 

 us in a legislative capacity, we should make devo- 

 tion to the agricultural interest the next most im- 

 portant prerequisite to moral honesty. Another 

 rule should be, to encourage more frequent meet- 

 ings in bodies as numerous as could conveniently 

 be collected ; call them what you please — agricul- 

 tural societies, conventions, or any thinff else, pro- 

 vided always, that mutual concert for inutval go<d, 

 which must necessarily include public good, be in- 

 variably the object of all their consultations and 

 measures. If such a course were steadily pursu- 

 ed, only for one year, I verily believe that death 

 itself is not more certain, than would be some le- 

 gislation in our favor, as well as a very general 

 improva^ment in the whole husbandry. Let us 

 meet then, in convention, on the second Monday 

 in December,, (if you will only divide with me the 

 responsibility of naming that day,) and make 

 at least one more efliirt — not to petition the legisla- 

 ture, for thej' have no ears lor us or our affairs, if 

 we may judge of the future by the past ; but to as- 

 certain how far it is possible to exert ourselves in 

 our own behalf. Should we make nothingbut "a 

 water-haul," (as the fishermen say,) we shall at 

 least be better satisfied than we can be at present: 

 and that alone is a boon well worth purchasing at 

 such an expense as the meeting would cost us. 

 Now, and at all times your friend, 



COMMKKTATOR. 



We unite heartily with our corresponcicnt in de- 

 siring to call attention to the Agricultural Convention, 

 and to induce the fullest possible attendance, in the 

 manner pointed out in one of the resolutions of the 

 former convention, which we shall republish below. 

 As to the views of our correspondent in regard to the 

 procedure, or the best means of effecting the great ob- 

 ject that every member and every individual will 

 seek — the improvement of agricultural practice and 

 promotion of agricijjtural interests — we shall now ex- 

 press no opinion : but invite all to the discussion, in the 

 hope that the stirring of the question in this manner 

 ma}'^ cause many to think maturely on the subject, and 

 lead to a well digested, combined and successful ef- 

 fort. 



In one minor matter, we differ from our correspon- 

 dent, and must therefore withhold the concurrent ac- 

 tion which he requests. The former Convention fixed 

 what was then thought the most suitable time for the 

 next meeting — and whether it was so or not, its being 

 so fixed, would make an attempt at alteration inexpedi- 

 ent, and probably injurious. Independent of this con- 



