11 



vation were extended, and if, by the aid of greater science, 

 of new manures, new machines, and new modes of culture, 

 each one of them could double the yield of every acre of 

 his land ? Is it not obvious, that, unless new and adequate 

 markets were simultaneously opened, the only consequence 

 would be a still greater overplus of production, a still 

 greater diminution of agricultural produce, and a still '^ie^<zs2. 

 greater depression of the individual prosperity and wel- 

 fare of the farmers ? 



The result of both the considerations which I have thus 

 far suggested is the same. The great agricultural want of 

 our country is the want of consumers and not of producers, 

 of mouths and not of hands, of markets and not of crops. 

 And this is a want which no government protection, like 

 that which has been, or may be, afforded to manufactures 

 or to commerce, can possibly supply. On the contrary, 

 that sort of protection would only increase the difficulty, 

 and aggravate the disease. 



Indeed, the policy of our Government, in one particu- 

 lar at least, has already tended greatly to this result : I 

 mean its Public Land Policy. Who can say that Govern- 

 ment has done nothing for the protection of agriculture, 

 who contemplates, for an instant, the course and conse- 

 quences of this gigantic system? Consider the expendi- 

 ture of care and of money, at which our vast territorial 

 possessions have been acquired ! Consider the expensive 

 negociations, and the still more expensive wars, by which 

 they have been purchased or conquered from foreign na- 

 tions or from the Indian tribes ! Consider the compKcated 

 and costly machinery of their survey and sale, and the sys- 

 tematic provisions which have been made for securing to 

 every settler that first great want of an independent farmer, 

 — a perfect title to his land ! And then consider the almost 

 nominal price at which any number of acres may be pur- 

 chased ! 



