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State ; and her sons, and her daughters too, are fast proving 

 that they know how to fulfil this destiny also. A great 

 agricultural State she was never made for. If she ever 

 feeds herself, it will be by the decrease of her population, 

 and not by the adequacy of her products. Her farmers will 

 always find enough to occupy them. The perishable arti- 

 cles of daily consumption, which must be found at one's 

 door, or not at all, must come always from them. Their 

 milk, their garden-fruits and vegetables, their hay too, and 

 their eggs and poultry, can hardly be interfered with injuri- 

 ously, if at all, by any supplies from abroad, and can hardly 

 be furnished in too large quantities at home. But the 

 cereal grains, the beef and pork and mutton, and the butter 

 and cheese of other States, are, I trust, to find a still 

 increasing market in Massachusetts, in exchange for the 

 products of her looms and anvils and lap-stones, and for 

 the earnings of her commerce and fisheries. I would gladly 

 see the United States independent of all foreign nations 

 for all the necessaries of life, — clothing as well as food ; 

 but I do not desire to see the separate States independent 

 of each other : first, because climate, soil, geographical po- 

 sition, and physical condition, designate them for different 

 departments of industry, and their own highest prosperity 

 will be subserved by following nature ; and, second, because 

 these mutual wants and mutual dependencies are among 

 the strongest bonds of our blessed Union, and give the 

 best guaranty that it shall endure for ever. 



Let Massachusetts do all the farming she can ; and all 

 that she does, let her be sure to do well. Let her transmit no 

 exhausted or impoverished soil to posterity. Let her exhibit 

 to all the world what industry and energy and thrift and 

 temperance and education and science can do, in overcom- 

 ing the disadvantages and obstacles of a hard soil and a stern 

 sky. Let her be a model State in agriculture, and in what- 

 ever else she undertakes. But let her not dream of feeding 



