OUR COUNTRY OUR WHOLE COUNTRY. 225 



and extravagance. Here the case is widely differ- 

 ent. Our citizens enjoy equal rights, and the spirit 

 of our institutions demands that they should be so 

 rewarded for their labour as to be able to assert and 

 maintain their rights. Depress them by poverty 

 and want to the condition of the operatives in Euro- 

 pean workshops, and you degrade them as men, and 

 render them dangerous as freemen. 



The interests of the different classes of society in 

 our country are so intimately interwoven, that it 

 may be assumed as a truth, that each class and 

 each individual best subserve their own good, when 

 they endeavour to promote the welfare of all, of ev- 

 ery other class and individual. It conies, then, to 

 this, if our views of the matter are correct, that ag- 

 riculture, being the great conservative principle of 

 national prosperity, independence, and character, 

 should be primarily supported should be encour 

 aged, enlightened, and honoured ; that our manufac- 

 tures, being necessary, like the elaborating organs 

 of the plant, to convert to convenient and useful 

 purposes the products of agriculture, should hold the 

 second rank in our regards as a branch of national 

 industry which cannot be dispensed with without 

 manifest injury to the other classes of society, and 

 without perilling our independence as a nation ; and 

 that agriculture and manufactures being duly cher- 

 ished, commerce, as a necessary medium of inter- 

 change between the two great branches of national 

 industry, and between them and foreign nations, 

 will as certainly prosper and flourish as the tree in 

 a rich soil, which is braced and supported by a good 

 system of roots -below, and has a healthy top and 

 foliage above. Let us, then, improve our agricul- 

 ture, and foster and protect our manufactures, that 

 our commerce may enlarge its boundaries and mul- 

 tiply its gains. Then may we, in the spirit of oui 

 motto, exclaim, OUR COUNTRY OUR WHOLE ' OUNTRY. 



I. S 



