220 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Extracts from " An, Address of Theodore Sedo- 

 WICK, Esq. delivered before the Berkshire AssO' 

 ciation for the promotion of Agriculture and 

 Manufactures, at Pittsfield, Oct. 2, 1823. 



[Concluded from page 214.] 

 " There is one topic, fellow-citizens, that 

 has so important a bearing, upon your comfort 

 and prosperity, that I need no apology for sug- 

 gesting it ; I mean the expediency of building 

 in brick or stnne, instead of wood. A good far- 

 mf r has, or desires to have, a snug, tight, com- 

 forlalile house to live in. Mr. Jefterson as ear- 

 ly as the writing of his noles on Virginia, calls 

 the attention of the country to tlie siiliject, and 

 regrets, that we should so generally have a- 

 dopted the practice of building wooden houses. 

 In the first setllemont of the country, tills was 

 in a great measuie unavoidable. The case is 

 now reversed, and I am sati'^tied by repeated 

 enquiries of bnildc^rs and others, that where 

 there is clay for brick, and the soil is gravelly, 

 and does not require the driving of piles for a 

 foundation, that a house may be built ol brick, 

 as cheap as of wood. There is a common im- 

 pre.ssion in the coimtry, that a brick house is 

 damp and unw fiolesome, and that may possibly 

 be the case if the foundation is in clay, but oth- 

 erwise I am satisfied, that it is an error, j)ro- 

 vided the house is rightly built. If this objec- 

 tion be removed, can there be any comparison 

 in value, between a brick and a wooden house ? 

 The brick house in a climate alternately in- 

 tensely hot and cold, is both warmer and cooler. 

 Then if the brick be good, and rightly burnt, 

 it does not require painting at all. The brick 

 houses in Philailelphia are not painted, and 1 

 know that the old brick houses in Albany, were 

 never painted. But these brick in Albany 

 came over sea, and how much better they 

 may be for the voyage, I cannot say. If a man 

 has a brick house, he has property, it is a thing 

 that stays, he has something for his son, and bis 

 grandson, and he has something that a man will 

 buy and pay for, if he himself is seized with 

 the vscslern fever. Reall^', this is a country to 

 stay in, and not flee from. There is many a 

 wooden house in this county, of not more than 

 fifty years standing, that is abandoned, except by 

 the bats and owls. Who docs not desire to aban- 

 don a house, glazed with old hats, roof decayed, 

 clap boards worm eaten, sills rotten, or half rot- 

 ten, so that it stands up and down, like a snake in 

 motion, or sits on one end, like a horse upon 

 his haunches. It would not be easy to estimate 

 the increased value of the property of New Eng- 

 land, if the money now invested in wooden 

 lioiises, was in brick, and I am satisfied, that the 

 permanent prosperity of the country, is deeply 

 concerned in this subject. Thus far, fellow cit- 

 izens, and farmers, I have been pleading the 

 cause of your interests, and I am now to plead, 

 not for your interests merely, but for the cause 

 of humanity, of morals, of religion, which last, 

 the d'jarcst and most important to us all, should 

 sum up the whole, and include all other consid- 

 erations. I mean the character of your com- 

 mon laborers, day laborers, the men who live 

 from hand to mouth, who generally have nei- 

 ther house, nor land, or home. This class in 

 all countries, is the most helpless, dependent 

 and ignorant, and therefore as they can do least 

 lor themselves, they on that account become 

 more worthy objects of public and private be- 

 nevolence. In other countries, a man's birth 



generally decides his fate, as to the rank he is 

 to hold in society ; as he is born, so he lives 

 and dies. To attempt to raise him out of his 

 cast, to a higher, would be thought quixotic, 

 and a disorderly effort, to subvert the founda- 

 tions of society. Among us the case is revers- 

 ed, we desire to raise the condition of all men, 

 and to begin in the right way, by inspiring them 

 with a love of property and distinction, and the 

 fact is, that some of the most eminent in the 

 land, have carried axes on their backs, and now 

 in the prime of their honors and usefulness, are 

 not ashamed to tell the story of their early ca- 

 reer. I say the love of property and distinction, 

 frr we must take man as he is, and build upon 

 the foundation, which God has laid. For you 

 may observe in the general, that 'till you have 

 lU'^pired a man with this passion, you can make 

 nothing of him. No, nothing. 'Till then, he 

 is a miserable creature, as often without, as 

 with, shoes or stockings, he has neither cattle, 

 nor a house nor land ; he is a vagrant, wander- 

 ing over the fine face of this beautiful earth, 

 finding no rest any where ; the common ties of 

 kindred he discards, whether it be father, 

 lirother, or stranger, it is all one, to him. He 

 is greedy and seltish, for he has nothing laid up 

 in store, and nothing to give ; he is a nuisance 

 to society, lor he has no stake in it. All at- 

 tempts, therefore, to elevate individuals, or to 

 build up societies, without great rel'erence to 

 this passion, is nothing but fruitless struggle and 

 ellort, and a contradiction to nature. But can 

 you inspire a drunkard with this passion ? He 

 who wastes all, whose body and mind crnnilile 

 liefore this frightful disease of drunkenness. We 

 have been called a drunken nation, and the fact 

 being, tliat as in no country is this vice more 

 prevalent, we may well distrust the result of all 

 religious and benevolent efforts, 'till we are a 



ble to stem the torrent. Our duties here there- he will drink a great deal to day, and be th 



fore, as is commonly the case, lie before our 

 eyes, and at our doors. We need not go from 



drink a quart per man all round, and by tb 

 the poor wretches think to make themselv 

 strong. No, it is/oof/, andnot t/rmA, that mak 

 a man strong. And the proof lies, in the fai 

 that a laboring man, who is not diseased by i 

 temperance, will drink his pint a day, and si 

 eat ravenously three times in it. This, togel 

 er with the fact which every one knows in tl 

 general, tliat this drink does not diminish 1 

 appetite, is proof positive against all the chei 

 ical analysis in the world, that in a man's sic 

 ach, a quart of whi key made of rye, is 

 equal to a solid quart of good rye bread, or 

 ny assignable portion of it. No, "the human co 

 stitution is such, that drink in its common for 

 is one thing, -.mdfoodis another. I know that m 

 ny of our farmers justify themselves in tl 

 quantity of liquor allowed to their laborers, I 

 the opinion, that they cannot get the work wit 

 out it. This is a mistake, for there are insta 

 ces of great farms being managed, without tl 

 use of any spiritous liquors whatever, in t) 

 county of Westchester in New York, a prert 

 um is adjudged to the individual who cultivali 

 the largest number of acres, without the use ■ 

 ardent spirits. There is a right and a wrot 

 way in every thing, and it is the way, in whit 

 these indulgencies are denied, that defeats tl 

 object. Let it be done, not from niggardlines 

 but a tender fellow-feeling for the man ; giv 

 him in moderation, for in moderation, the thin 

 may often be good — let him see that ; what yn 

 save in liquor, let it be made up in desirab 

 food, a good dainty luncheon, at 10 o'clock, an 

 anollier at four, if he wishes it; these xmllmal 

 him strong. The condition of the laborers, 

 in one respect very different from your gentl 

 man drunkard. //« case is hopeless. The m< 

 ment that he drinks to excess, he is diseasei 

 he bloats and dies. Not so with a laboring mai 



worse for it, but by to-morrow at ten o'clock, 

 his strength is not yet impaired, the rum is fail 



home to find one of the most pressing objects ' ly worked off, and he is ready to begin agair 

 of charity. It is the condition of the day labor- j Within my own experience, the laboring ma 

 ers, generally, I do not speak of all — their edu-j who drinks to excess, is the only intemperate 

 cation, their religious instruction, and most es-jman, of whom there is any hope. For 'till hi 

 pecially, that of their children. We look to I has proceeded to a certain extremity, the ex 

 the law for a remedy, and hope that the nation- 1 citement of ardent spirits is not physically ne 

 al government will lay heavy duties upon ar-j cessary to him. When that takes place, it is al 

 (lent spirits, so that the people cannot buy 1 over with any man. 



the rum, or that the state governments will di- " There is no higher obligation under whici 

 minish the number of groceries and taverns, ! an independent farmer lies, than that, of a 

 (as though a man, who is in chase of what will j strict, moral, religious attention to his laborers 



get him drunk, will be deterred liy being com 

 polled to turn a corner, and go a few paces fur- 

 ther) or we call upon the selectmen, to put in 

 force tlie law against drunkards. All this is 

 childish. The law can do no more than par- 

 tially protect the property of intemperate men, 

 and secure it for their wives and children. E- 

 ven this has generally been found a fruitless 

 eflbrt. The law never did nor never will 

 counteract the vicious habits of society, that 

 consist ill indulgence. Who ever heard of a 

 temperate, chaste society produced by law ? — 

 No, it is the public sentiment, the moral feeling, 

 the religious coercion, that is to aflord us any 

 hope. It is not uncommon for a laboring man 

 to drink a pint of rum in a day, and this too of 

 cider brandy, one of the most loathsome pro- 

 ducts of the beautiful fruits of the earth, 



To understand the nature of this, he must hrsi 

 know, that he himself is not to be ignorant, for 

 an ignorant man can teach no one. Intellectual 

 pleasures best secure a man against the pleasures 

 of vice. The standard of knowledge among 

 our laboring people is low, compared with what 

 it should be. It would be quite contemiUihIe 

 to suppose that the farmers are to study latin 

 and Greek. But it is desirable that they should 

 l)e well versed in all the knowledge that be- 

 longs to their occupation. There is time 

 enough for it. A laboring husbandmin, who is 

 reading and studying what belongs to his art, is 

 pursuing the most interesting of all knowledge, 

 it is the mystery of nature, in the soil, the plant, 

 the fruit, the seed, the elements. Why should 

 not our children be taught it, and why sliould 

 not the laboring man have the books, v\liich 



and I have been credibly informed, that a set of j give him this knowledge ? But the time, the 

 laborers in the harvest, have been known to i time, ivho has it? No husbandman has it in the 



