AGRICULTURE TO A NATION. 13 



its manufactures perish — yet, if its soil is tilled, and well 

 tilled, by an independent yeomanry, it can still be made 

 to yield all the absolute necessaries of life ; — it can sus- 

 tain its population and its independence ; — and when its 

 misfortunes abate, it can, like the trunkless roots of a 

 recently cut down tree, firmly braced in, and deriving 

 nourishment from, the soil, send forth a new trunk, new 

 branches, new foliage, and new fruits ; — it can rear again 

 the edifice of its manufacturer, and spread again the sails 

 of its commerce.* 



But agriculture is beneficial to a state, in proportion 

 as its labors are encouraged, enlightened, and honored — 

 for in that proportion does it add to national and individ- 

 ual wealth and happiness. 



^Agriculture feeds all. Were agriculture to be neg- 

 lected, population would diminish, because the necessa- 

 ries of life would be wanting. Did it not supply more 

 than is necessary for its own wants, every other art 

 would not only be at a stand, but every science, and 

 every kind of mental improvement, would be neglected. 

 Manufactures and commerce originally owed their exist- 

 ence to agriculture. Agriculture furnishes, in a great meas- 

 ure, raw materials and subsistence for the one, and com- 

 modities for barter and exchange for the other. In pro- 

 portion as these raw materials and comniodities are 

 multiplied, by the intelligence and industry of the farmer, 

 and the consequent improvement of the soil, in the same 

 proportion are manufactures and commerce benefited — 



* Those who labor in the earth, are the chosen people of God, if 

 ever He had a chosen people, whose breasts He has made a peculiar 

 deposit for substantial and genuine virtue. Corruption of morals in 

 the mass of cultivators, is a phenomenon in which no one, nor nation, 

 has found an example. It is a mark set on those, who, looking up to 

 heaven, and to their own soil and industry, depend not on the casual- 

 ties and caprice of customers. Dependance begets subserviency and 

 degeneracy, suffocates the germ of virtue, and prepares fit tools for the 

 designs of ambition. Thus the natural consequence and progress of 

 the arts, has sometimes, perhaps, been retarded by accidental circum- 

 stances ; but, generally speaking, the proportion which other citizens 

 bear in the state to that of husbandmen, is the proportion of its un- 

 sound to its healthy parts, and is a good enough barometer, whereby to 

 measure its degree of corruption. — Jefferson. 



2 XV. 



