21 



will open new and perfect old channels of trade, so 

 that no product of our industry shall want a compensat- 

 ing market. We have a civilization as solid and pro- 

 gressive, a religion as free, a system of education as 

 popular and perfect, a body of laborers in the mills and 

 shops, on the land and sea, as intelligent as can be 

 found in any State of America or Europe. 



And to all the farmers of Massachusetts, it is a mat- 

 ter of special interest that agriculture has been enno- 

 bled. Not, indeed, by any condescension or care of in- 

 dividual men or the State, but by the general intelli- 

 gence and spirit of progress among the farmers them- 

 selves. While farmers failed to respect their own pro- 

 fession, the profession itself, whatever its intrinsic 

 merits, must have been menial ; now, however, it is 

 pursued with more of the spirit which animates the 

 student, the painter, the poet, and the astronomer. 



But let us all, whether we be of New England or the 

 West, respect labor, not as our master, whose law 

 makes us slaves, but as an instrument of civilization, 

 an educator and benefactor of the whole family of man. 



