No. G. 



P/iiladelphia Agricultural Society. 



197 



body, on your own soil and in sight of your 

 own hou£(! and family, and the assa&sin who 

 threatens your life in the streets of a town. 

 Barns, orchards, cattle, poultry, are the 

 farmer's property — his plate and his furni- 

 ture ; rob him of these, and you beggar him 

 as certainly, as thett or fraud, one of any 

 other occupation. He began life probably, 

 with no capital but a strong arm, a brave 

 heart, and a determination to follow the 

 path of honest industry: — strip him of the 

 result of these — take from him these repre- 

 sentatives of a life of toil, and you bring 

 him at once to despair and ruin. All will 

 then admit the necessity of protecting such 

 a class in every right and privilege, and they 

 themselves can but acknowledge that they 

 are protected, amply and fully, so far as the 

 law can do it. Still they complain of seri- 

 ous outrages committed on their property, 

 by those whom they say they cannot control 

 or reach. And they are anxious to know 

 what they can do, to prevent and put an end 

 to them. They are the majority, and there- 

 fore rule ; and the feelings of the rest of 

 Ecciety are with them — what can they ask 

 more ! We are afraid that if not their tim- 

 idity, it is their want of combination, that 

 e.xposes them to the nuisance, and will con 

 tinue to do so, until they rise as one man, 

 and put it down by a vigorous exercise of 

 the authority they so amply possess, and 

 only want the inclination or the resolution 

 to wield. Let them once make the effort, 

 and the evil will disappear at once. No 

 man or set of men, can bear the concen 

 trated indignation of society, or endure its 

 frown and rebuke, more especially when 

 backed, as it is here, with the whole force 

 of the law. We would therefore say to 

 farmers, and to all who value and honour 

 them, stir yourselves — point the whole vigor 

 of opinion and the whole vengeance of the 

 law on those who invade your privileges and 

 your property, and you will soon find that 

 the foot of the vagrant and the desperate 

 offender will leave your soil, and dare to 

 tread it no more. To this it may be leplied, 

 that farmers in the neighbourhood of large 

 towns, are particularly exposed to trespass 

 and depredation, that men issue from and 

 retreat to them, without any possibility of 

 tracing them. This is no doubt true. But 

 we see no other immediate remedy than the 

 one we have recommended — combination 

 among the farmers, for the purpose of prose- 

 cution and punishment, with perhaps, the ad- 

 ditional assistance of a person whose business 

 and duty it shall be, during the season when 

 farmers are most exposed to trespass, to 

 be always at hand for the arrest of such per- 

 sons. Frequent arrests will soon force them 

 away, and they will at length not intrude 



upon another man's premises without first 

 knowing his disposition, and whether they 

 expose themselves to being doggcil and 

 brought to punishment by the law. Those 

 who are so Ibrtunate as to own valuable pro- 

 perties in the neighbourhood of large towns, 

 are frequently obliged to endure the serious 

 drawback of trespass and plunder. There 

 is in all large towns, a class of lawless, idle, 

 and desperate men, the very Ishmaels of 

 society, who live by crime, and lauah at all 

 the restraint the more orderly and better 

 disposed impose in self-defence, ana at all 

 the law enacts. Whether there are more 

 of this class in this country than in any 

 other, or whether Philadelphia contains a 

 more dangerous and vicious body of men 

 than any other city, we are not prepared to 

 say; but the fact is, that the people of our 

 vicinity, farmers as well as others, complain 

 loudly of robbery by day and night, and this 

 committed by men from the city. There 

 may be a defective moral sense and an inert 

 public opinion, but legislatures and laws 

 cannot meet these. In a country like ours, 

 how can our legislative bodies be purer or 

 better than those they represent 1 how^ can 

 laws then be enacted, or if enacted, be en- 

 forced, when opinion does not uphold them, 

 and our law-makers are themselves the law- 

 breakers? If it be true that there is a large 

 body of profligate and lawless villains exist- 

 ing among us, and at large, it is the fault of 

 societj^, and society must take upon itself 

 their punishment, or the consequences of 

 its indulgence. The cause of this evil we 

 believe to lie at our firesides and our homes. 

 It comes from the want of good domestic 

 training, from the want of proper parental 

 control. The two chief elements of all good 

 instruction, and the chief foundations of all 

 moral education, the rod and the Bible, have 

 been neglected or abused. They have failed 

 in implanting good principles, in creating 

 virtuous tendencies; and if in this condition 

 of things, mild punishments are awarded to 

 ferocious crimes, and the penitentiary and the 

 halter are spared to open and undisguised 

 villainy, society must expect outrage, vio- 

 lence, and in all probability, frequent com- 

 missions of crimes of a deeper and darker 

 character. Tlie committee would then re- 

 spectfully sny to farmers, and to all interested 

 in the support of the rights of individuals — 

 combine and act; and having as you no doubt 

 have, the whole force of public opinion to 

 back you, men would as soon enter on your 

 premises with any evil intent, as they would 

 make a voluntary incarceration within the 

 walls of a jail or the cell of a penitentiary. 

 Alfred L. Elwyn, Chairman. 

 Isaac W. Roberts, 



Dec. 4lh, 1844. IsAAC EeWTON. 



