No. 5. 



Skinner's Address. 



149 



Extracts from J. S. Skiuuer's Address, 



Delivered before the Agriculliiral Society 

 of JSeiD Castle Co., Del., at the annual 

 meeting, held Sept. llth, 1844. 



The journals especially dedicated to the 

 subject, have so thoroughly arou.-ed the pub- 

 lic mind, that it were worse than idle to 

 dwell on the dignity or usefulness of a pur- 

 suit, which yields to civilized nations their 

 chief means of subsistence. The estima- 

 tion of its importance everywhere rises with 

 the progress of intellectual and social im- 

 provement. So may it rise higher and yet 

 higher! For, talk as we may of advances in 

 other departments of art and industry — of 

 rail-roads over mountain and valley — of 

 steam to traverse the "deep waters of the 

 dark blue sea" — of telegraphic correspond- 

 ence as quick as thought itself — what would 

 be the practical value of all tiies*:', were it 

 not for the strong arm and skill of the hus- 

 bandman, to bring forth the resources which 

 lie dormant in the bosom of the earth, or 

 appear upon its surface, inviting the melio- 

 rating influence of his ingenuitj' and dili- 

 gence ] In lieu then of asserting the self- 

 evident claim of agriculturists to precedence 

 in the scale of social and political influence, 

 rather let the inquiry be, why they have been 

 content, as well in the States as in the Gen- 

 eral Government, to leave the great business 

 of legislation, on the wisdom of which the 

 morals and the happiness of Stales so much 

 depend, almost exclusively in the hands of 

 different, if not antagonist classes? 



If "the husbandman that laboureth shall 

 be the first partaker of the fruit," should not 

 hisclass, which constitutes the main strength 

 of the nation, assert its right to a proportion- 

 ate share in the direction of the Govern- 

 ment ■? On this subject we may aptly re- 

 member the account of the great historian 

 of antiquity, who relates how tlie lonians 

 were once visited with new calamities fi-om 

 Miletus and from Naxos. Of all the islands 

 Naxos was the happiest, but Miletus was at 

 that time in the height of its prosperity. In 

 the two preceding ages it had been consi- 

 derably weakened by internal factions, but 

 its tranquillity was finally restored by the 

 interposition of Parians, whom the Milesians 

 had preferred on this occasion to all others, 

 and who, being called on for their good 

 offices, applied the following remed}': They 

 sent as ambassadors men of the highest dis- 

 tinction, who, perceiving on their arrival at 

 Miletus, that the whole State was involved 

 in extreme confusion, desired permission to 

 examine the internal condition of their ter- 

 ritories; and whenever, in their progress 



through this desolate country, tiiey observed 

 a farm laell cultivated, they wrote down the 

 name of the owner. In the whole district, 

 however, they found but few estates so man- 

 aged. Returning to Miletus, they called 

 an assembly of the people, and placed the 

 direction of affairs in the hands of those 

 who had best cultivated their lands, for they 

 concluded that they would be most watchful 

 of the public interest who had taken the 

 best care of their own. They enjoined all 

 the Milesians who had before been turbulent 

 and factious to obey these successful farmers, 

 and the general tranquillitj' was speedily re- 

 stored. 



These, my friends, were in all probability 

 educated men, who, disgusted with the cor- 

 ruption of trading politicians and the sway 

 of impious men, had withdrawn from public 

 afTairs to find quiet, if not consolation on 

 their oun well managed farms. But look 

 at our legislative assemblies, and all our 

 public trusts, and mark- in what small pro- 

 portion those who fill them are usually taken 

 from tlie ranks of practical husbandmen, and 

 this is more eppecially the case where edu- 

 cation is the least diffused. Is it not time 

 then to look at the effects on the landed in- 

 terest, of neglecting the mental culture of 

 those who are designed for the cultivation 

 of the soil ! Understand me not as meaning 

 to derogate from the character of other 

 classes. On the contrary, there seems to 

 be something in the moral training of learn- 

 ed professions, which at once enlightens and 

 liberalizes the mind and the heart. It is 

 indeed the natural influence of knowledge 

 to extinguish all the meaner passions of the 

 soul, and to animate it with noble purposes, 

 just as thorough draining and good tillage 

 sweeten wet and sour land ; and thus it is, 

 that among the most enliglitened citizens of 

 all classes, liberty has, in all her struggles, 

 found her most ardent, though too oflen ill- 

 fated defenders. I would even invite you, 

 farmers of Delaware, to unite with me in 

 denouncing that overweening jealousy, the 

 growth of narrow and vulgar minds, which 

 too often leads the tiller of the soil to look 

 on the manufacturing and mercantile classes 

 as on hostile sects, ever on the watch to 

 overreach and betray the farmer. Far dif- 

 ferent are the ends and offices of domestic 

 manufactures and commerce, in respect of 

 the landed interest, when all tlieir relations 

 are fairly appreciated. It is the interest of 

 the farmer that these other communities 

 should bcccme in his vicinity as numerous 

 as the sands on the sea-shore. Dense popu- 

 lations naturally lead to the division of la- 

 bour, and thereby, under the protection of 

 wise and stable legislation, to the multipli- 



