men could have acquired such a knowledge and such im- 

 plements of husbjundry as now seem necessary to a bare 

 subsistence. Their food and raiment must have been scanty 

 and of the coarsest kind ; their implements few and of the 

 rudest form. What little science there was in the world, 

 was applied to other purposes than the cultivation of the 

 earth. The attention of princes was directed to objects of 

 pleasure and aggrandizement, to their courtiers and their 

 concubines — their wars and their conquests, while the poor 

 unlettered peasant was left to grope his way in the dark, 

 unaided, unpitied. Artisans, if such there were, applied 

 their skill to the manufacture of swords instead of plough- 

 shares — of spears instead of pruning-hooks. The cultiva- 

 tion of the earth was left to the lowest and most debased of 

 the people, who were alike destitute of skill, energy, and a 

 laudable ambition. It was an employment in which none 

 could expect to rise to distinction, and in which the ambi- 

 tious and enterprising never engaged. It was accounted a 

 mean and degraded occupation, and treated with neglect 

 and contempt. Up to the present hour, Europe is divided 

 into two gieat classes, denominated the gentlemen and the 

 peasantry, or the laboring class, and those who are above 

 labor. And so deeply rooted was this distinction, that our 

 ancestors brought it with them to this country. Perhaps it 

 may be within the recollection of some who now hear me, 

 that a distinction was once made in our universities between 

 the sons of our yeomanry, and the sons of our American 

 gentlemen ! O, " tell it not in Gath, publish it not in the 

 streets of Askelon." 



I might mention other causes with which agriculture has 

 had to contend ; such as the unequal distribution of land, 

 the consequent custom of renting it to tenants, and the tithes, 

 tribute, and taxes which have oppressed and disheartened 

 the cultivator in every age. In most of the governments of 

 Europe, the title to the soil is founded on conquest. The 



