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original stock, so, here and now, in Essex County, and 

 in all of Massachusetts, this great and triumphant sys- 

 tem of mechanism and manufacturing, which takes ap- 

 parently the honors of the day, at all times acknow- 

 ledges to have received its blood and impulse from the 

 parentage of agriculture, which gave to it life and has 

 supplied its virtues. The fraternity of all these inter- 

 ests which makes Essex what she is, appears symbol- 

 ized in the varied life of the county, and speaks upon 

 this occasion from the hundred tongues of a diversified 

 but united republic of labor. And all these voices and 

 ascriptions mingle in one accord of common tribute to 

 the society over which the old revolutionary patriot of 

 the county originally presided. 



Two lessons of political economy and social happiness 

 we may learn from the existing condition of the public 

 industry in this powerful county. The first is, that a 

 purely agricultural community cannot, unaided, realize 

 the ideal of an organized and vigorous civilization. Po- 

 etry and romance might content themselves with annals 

 of Arcadian simplicity and purity ; but the progressive 

 advancement of Essex in the last thirty years has added 

 to the cultivation of the land other departments of skill 

 and labor which have changed the ancient scene. While 

 the farming interest has been constantly increasing in 

 importance, dignity and profit, other interests have 

 started up by its side and have imparted to it a new 

 impulse and stimulus. Rockport, from its depths of 

 granite, builds streets in distant cities ; Haverhill and 

 Lynn, in their work upon the skins of animals brought 

 from remote shores, have compacted a population of 

 thirty to forty thousand ; Lawrence and Newburyport 

 and Andover engage nearly as many more upon the 



