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East it is a high point of religion — that this idea, I say, should 

 have waited through all the ages of Occidental civilization till 

 a very recent period for distinct recognition, either in the 

 public sentiment or the laws of the land ? One would have 

 supposed that the generous instincts of the human heart, or, if 

 not these, the more powerful persuasions of self-interest would 

 have availed for their protection from brutal treatment. But 

 since these were to so- great an extent ineffectual, I congratulate 

 you, farmers of Norfolk ! — as the event of the year — on the 

 incorporation by our Legislature of the " Society for the Pre- 

 vention OF Cruelty to Animals," and in the name of those 

 dumb creatures who cannot remonstrate for themselves against 

 the injustice and inhumanity they so often suffer, at the hands 

 of unreasonable and barbarous men, I bespeak for that society 

 your active and vigilant co-operation, being well convinced that 

 the object for which it labors is demanded both by the religion 

 of the Son of God and by the civilization of this age. 



There is still another point to which I cannot forbear to 

 advert. I mean the foul stigma which has been removed from 

 farm-labor by emancipation. If nine-tenths of the manual labor 

 of Massachusetts were done in the penitentiaries, no men who 

 had any regard for their reputation would do the other tenth. 

 It would be deemed disgraceful. Emancipation has removed 

 the badge of infamy from the labor of the Southern States and 

 thereby given it the chance to spring at once into a position of 

 respectability and honor, its rightful estate everywhere beneath 

 the sun. The agriculture of the country cannot fail to derive 

 immense advantage from this act. There has never been any 

 farming at the South ; extensive planting, but no farming. 

 Agriculture has never been practised as an improvable art, 

 much less as one of the noblest of sciences. A general aspect 

 of unthrift, looseness, slovenliness, is everywhere the inevitable 

 consequence. Now all this is to be changed. Vast tracts of 

 exhausted lands are to be restored to fertility by scientific pro- 

 cesses learned in our Northern schools of agriculture, while 

 extensive regions, highly productive, easy of access, and very 

 cheap, will be opened to the skilled labor and exuberant enter- 

 prise and capital of the Northern section of the country. Here 

 are, at the lowest calculation, a million of farm-laborers released 

 from bondage, turned into freemen, with the fresh inspirations 



