90 MASSACHUSETT8 AGRICULTURE. 



to time ill our history, our people have gone forth to occupy it, 

 the power and vitality of a great agricultural nation above all 

 others that dwell on the face of the earth, have been exemplified. 



I cannot sufficiently admire the relation which exists between 

 our own frontier States, and those original members of our 

 confederation, from which they derived their birth. Those 

 broad and fertile lands receive the restless and uneasy surplus 

 which accumulates in a crowded community ; and clothing it 

 with all the obligations and all the attachments of property, 

 return it to our common nation, in all the dignity of a sovereign 

 State. Nothing has served to bind us together in one grand and 

 imposing confederation, so much as the spirit which animates 

 our new States. The jealousies of conflicting interests are 

 unknown to them. The demands of commerce and manufac- 

 tures for the fostering care of government and the strife for 

 ascendency in the receipt of favors, cannot reach them. It is 

 agriculture which develops their resources, gives them a com- 

 mon bond with the sisterhood of States, and which step by step 

 raises them above the deprivations of frontier life, into the 

 accomplishments and comforts of an older social organization. 

 They are constantly imparting their new vigor to the States from 

 which they sprung. To them the manufacturer looks for his 

 surest market. They stand with open hands to receive what 

 commerce brings to our doors. They impart that power to our 

 nation, which has roused a spirit of invention before unknown 

 and unheard of, and has whitened every sea with our sails, 

 until our flag tells every where the story of our freedom. The 

 floating palaces which navigate our rivers have come into 

 existence at tlieir bidding, and on to the very verge of a savage 

 country they have borne our arts and attainments, and the 

 unclouded glories of our national success. 



The world has seen nothing like this before or elsewhere. 

 Rome colonized in early days. England colonizes in our own 

 time. But neither Rome nor England ever discovered the 

 power which agriculture possesses to enlarge a nation, when 

 submitted to the equality of free citizenship. The Romans 

 possessed an expansibilty and an energy equal to our own. 

 England knows no obstacles- in the way of her advancing 

 jurisdiction. But to us alone it remained to enjoy the happy 

 opportunity contained in the possession of a continuous territory, 



