PRESIDENT HITCHCOCK'S ADDRESS. 153 



the bounty of Providence, which has caused the earth, in almost 

 every land, to bring forth spontaneously the fruits essential for 

 the food of a scattered population. But agriculture, properly 

 so called, cannot exist without commerce and manufactures. 

 The very first step in farming, I mean the breaking up of the 

 soil for the seed, requires the artizan's skill in the construction 

 of tools. Without that skill, indeed, the farmer's present com- 

 fortable, and it may be elegant, habitation, must be exchanged 

 for the skin lodge of the Pawnee, the bark hut of the New Hol- 

 lander, or, at the most, the wigwam of the aborigines of New 

 England. His dress, too, if dress he could obtain, must be the 

 undressed hide of some animal; and his wife and daughter must 

 exchange their silks, muslins, and calicoes, for the filthy skin of 

 the horse, the racoon, the bear, or the buffalo ; festooned it may 

 be, as the ne plus ultra of savage skill, with the quills of the por- 

 cupine, the feathers of the eagle, or bark painted with elderber- 

 ries. In his habitation, too, the nicely sanded or carpeted floor 

 must give place to the lap of mother earth, where vermin, liz- 

 ards and serpents, would dispute with him the right of posses- 

 sion. An unglazed hole in the wall must let in the storm and 

 the wind, as well as the light; the stagnant pool must be the 

 mirror before which he must make his toilet; and his glass, pot- 

 tery and porcelain, must give place to a wooden trencher or 

 bowl, wrought out by a flint. Let the farmer be thus stripped 

 for a few months, of all the necessaries, comforts and luxuries 

 which come to him through the arts, manufactures and com- 

 merce, — let him, like Nebuchadnezzar, be compelled " to eat 

 grass as oxen, and his body be wet with the dew of heaven, 

 and his hairs are grown like eagle's feathers, and his nails like 

 bird's claws," — and he would cease to say of his present state 

 of comfort and happiness, " is not this great Babylon, which I 

 have built, by the might of my power, and for the honor of my 

 majesty." He would be ready to acknowledge his dependence, 

 if not on God, yet on commerce and the arts. 



If it were necessary to illustrate this dependence still further 



I might mention the character and amount of the imports into 



this country, in the same year for which I have mentioned the 



exports ; viz. 1835. All the imports for that year amounted to 



20 



