30 MR. braman's address. 



crisis, and though no more sunboams might have been obtained 

 to warm the earth, than the sun is pleased to dispense, they 

 might have been put to more economical and efficient use in 

 perfecting the process of vegetation. 



But to those having the migratory propensities so strongly 

 infixed in the minds of the American people, the possession of 

 new and rich soils, presents irresistible attractions. It is to no 

 purpose to attempt to dissuade them from their enterprise, by 

 an exhibition of its difficulties and privations. They find it 

 more easy to surmount them, than to call into existence the skil! 

 and resources necessary to obtain such a livelihood and position 

 as they are ambitious to obtain here. When a person is told 

 that with the same effort he can arrive at as good a condition 

 in Connecticut and Massachusetts, as on the western frontier, it 

 does not satisfy him. He acts on the maxim of Caesar, that is 

 is better to be the first man in a village, than the second in 

 Rome, He is willing to live in a log house where his neigh- 

 bor lives in a log house too. But to occupy such a dwelling, 

 where others dwelt in framed and ceiled houses, offends his no- 

 tion of republican equality. We must be reconciled to such a 

 state of things. The feeling, though it may be extravagant 

 and misdirected, is the legitimate offspring af our institutions. 

 It is a feeling which tends to elevation and respectability of 

 character, it prompts to self-denying efforts, it is a preservative 

 from degrading vice, and one of the great safeguards of that 

 sense of dignity and the virtuous self-control, which belong to* 

 the foundations of American liberty. 



I have thus mentioned some of the obstacles which have 

 impeded the agricultural progress, and the list, if time per- 

 mitted, might be enlarged. But there are signs of encourage- 

 ment and advance. 



I. The attention of the most enlightened nations is strong- 

 ly directed to an improved cultivation of the earth. The gov- 

 ernments, which were once so bent on enlarging their territories- 

 by new acquisitions are wielding their power more for the 

 fertilization of that which they possess. The energies which 

 were once employed in conquering rivals are now employed in 

 subduing the soil. Science is diffusing its light and unfolding; 



