BEMARKS OF GOV. EVERETT. 27 



After some remarks on the nature and objects of cattle shows, 

 and their beneficial influence on the state of the husbandry of 

 this part of the country, Governor Everett proceeded substan- 

 tially as follows : 



The benefit, which has accrued to our farmers from these exhi- 

 bitions, cannot be estimated in dollars or cents, or measured by 

 the figures employed to state an increase of agricultural products. 

 A few more tons of hay from your meadows ; a few more bush- 

 els of corn or potatoes from your tilled lands ; a better stock of 

 animals for the dairy, the fold, or the pen, would add something, 

 it is true, to the public and private wealth of the community ; 

 but if nothing farther came of it, it would be a matter in which 

 neither the patriot nor the christian could take a deep interest. 



But when we consider, that the class of husbandmen is nu- 

 merically the largest in the community ; and that on their con- 

 dition it has been found, in the experience of the whole world, 

 that the social, political, and moral character of countries mainly 

 depends, it follows as self-evident, that whatever improves the 

 situation of the farmer feeds the life-springs of the national char- 

 acter. In proportion as our husbandmen prosper, they not only 

 enjoy themselves a larger portion of the blessings of life ; but 

 society is kept in a healthy state, and they are enabled to make 

 ampler provision for the education and establishment of their 

 children, and thus leave behind them a posterity competent not 

 only to preserve and assert, but to augment their heritage. 



It will accordingly be found, that the great differences in the 

 political condition of different countries coincide directly with the 

 different tenure on which the land is held and cultivated. It is 

 not that in one country the Government is administered by an 

 elective President ; in another by a limited monarchy ; in another 

 by an absolute despot. These things are not unimportant ; be- 

 cause forms have a tendency to draw the substance after them. 

 But a far more important question, in deciding the political con- 

 dition of different countries is, hoio is the land held 1 The ora- 

 tor has told us what is the case in many parts of Europe ; but 

 there are countries where the case is still worse. Tliere are 

 countries where the land, the whole of it, is claimed to be the 



