254 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



the devotion and liberality of the people — by a popular determi- 

 nation to use all means of education, at whatever trouble and 

 cost. It is enough to say that the system has succeeded. Eight 

 years ago, unprepared and unaccustomed, the State was plunged 

 into a long and exhausting war, in the prosecution of which all 

 her resources of men, money and moral force were required, 

 and on the result of which depended her existence as part of 

 a free and prosperous republic. All this work of peace and 

 war has not been done without a heavy burden of debt. In 

 1850 we had a mere nominal, unsecured indebtedness ; in 1860 

 a million and a half of dollars would have paid all claims against 

 us ; in 1863 the obligations of the State had increased to a little 

 more than eleven millions ; in 1864 to nearly fourteen millions ; 

 and in 1867 it amounted to $25,520,995.92, of which $14,427,- 

 585.24 are provided for by sinking funds, &c., applicable by 

 law to the redemption of the public debt, and leaving more 

 than nine millions unprovided for, except so far as depends 

 upon the energy, industry, honesty and success of the people. 

 And when I allude to that policy which naturally belongs to 

 our State, I mean that policy which will enable her to bear 

 this debt, and pay it without discouragement to her sons and 

 without checking that industry which has made her great and 

 prosperous. 



Now, I know no way to do this except by a constant appeal 

 to that energy and business capacity which have marked her 

 course thus far, and to that incessant struggle for moral and 

 intellectual elevation for which she has become distinguished, 

 believing as I do that prosperity and virtue go hand in hand, 

 and that neither can desert without injury to the other. 



While, then, we should exercise economy, prudence and 

 sound judgment in the prosecution of public works, and in 

 all appropriations for the public benefit, we cannot pause now 

 in our career, in that policy laid down for our development 

 more than thirty years ago, with safety and impunity. That 

 policy which has made us great can make us greater. But for 

 those railroads which the State aid has brought into being the 

 valuation of the Commonwealth would fall far short of what it 

 now does, and the honor of the Commonwealth would have been 

 shorn, of its proportions by its inability to bear the burden of 

 war, in accordance with its desires and ambition. The policy 



