554 SELECTIONS FROM ADDRESSES. 



moral power the world knows ; a power that existed in its 

 full development in the great struggle of our country, when 

 every farmer's family had within itself all the means of sup- 

 port, independent of commerce and manufactures, and every 

 farmer's hearth-stone sent forth its contributions of men and of 

 supplies to the invincible cohorts of armed yeomanry that won 

 for us the title of the empire of freedom. 



It is not for me. and there is no occasion, to speak dispar- 

 agingly of other classes of citizens — of mechanics and manu- 

 facturers — of traders and professional men. They have their 

 parts to sustain in the great drama of civilization. But when 

 we look abroad over our country, and see more than seventy 

 of every one hundred of its population, quietly devoting them- 

 selves to the peaceful art of agriculture, scarcely aspiring to 

 any honors beyond what their avocations afford, and patiently 

 submitting to every variety of fortune that befalls them, the 

 conviction forces itself upon us, that, as a class, the yeomanry 

 of our country is a giant unconscious of his strength. It is 

 time for this giant to awake to a consciousness of his capabil- 

 ities. It is time for him to break the lilliputian cords with 

 which he has suffered circumstances to bind him ; and cause 

 his power to be felt in forming and directing public opinion 

 upon all measures that involve the improvement, the progress, 

 and the welfare of that great branch of the human race that, 

 under one government, is rapidly spreading itself over most of 

 what there is of this western continent within the limits of the 

 northern temperate zone ; whose great leading interest is, and 

 will be, agriculture ; and whose capabilities will be adequate 

 to feed and to clothe a world. 



The physical, the civil and social, the intellectual and moral 

 power of the country, is in the hands of the yeomanry ; and as 

 a class they should be prepared to bear that power onward with 

 a steady nerve and a lofty purpose. The realization of this 

 beatitude of rural life involves several forms of improvemeni 

 and of progress. 



First : Physical Cultivation. 



The organization of animal life in man is too delicate to ad- 

 mit of great strength. Consequently ingenuity has been sue- 



