22 DR. SPOFFORD S ADDRESS. 



to make a self-moved and independent resolve to be free ? Were 

 1 the subject of any government, or the servant of any master on 

 earth, who exacted as heavy a tribute as I have seen paid, or as 

 hard service as I have seen performed, or imposed as heavy suf- 

 ferings as 1 have seen endured, by ardent spirits, I would resist 

 at the hazard of my life. I would organize a rebellion to the 

 extent of my influence. I would die in the last entrenchment, 

 and ensure the extermination of my posterity, before I would 

 submit to it. 



But some farmers yet say they cannot hire laborers, unless 

 they give them ardent spirits. This does for an excuse, when 

 both the owner and the laborer are desirous to use it ; but no 

 man who is firm and unwavering, leaves his crops ungathered 

 for want of help ; but hundreds of farmers are now ready to tes- 

 tify that they never had their work done when spirits were us- 

 ed, so easy and so well. Seventy Physicians of Boston have 

 fixed their names to the opinion that ardent spirits are never 

 necessary to persons in health : and my own experience in la- 

 bor and exposure in cold and heat, by night and by day, confirms 

 me in the opinion that a dose of spirit is no more necessary in 

 health than a dose of calomel or tartar emetic. 



The expense of a gallon of rum a week, to a farmer, is no 

 small consideration ; in twenty years if saved it would make him 

 a handsome estate, or the want of it may make him a beggar. 

 Whether we therefore consider it on the score of health, mo- 

 rality, or expense, it becomes among the most im.portant consid- 

 erations in the prosperity of a farmer. 



Finally, my friends, I congratulate you on the prosperous 

 condition in which this anniversary finds your society. How 

 the exhibition of this day may compare with preceding ones, in 

 its details, I am unprepared to state ; but that the society has 

 exalted the standard of agriculture, called into exercise a great 

 amount of female ingenuity, promoted harmony and useful inter- 

 course, diffused the knowledge of useful facts, and exerted a 

 beneficent influence, 1 have no reason to doubt. 



The formation and support of societies is among the most 

 efficient means of improvement, in all the useful arts of the 



