His wife, the lovely charmer ! 

 The sweetest rose on all his lands- 

 The Independent Farmer. 



To him the Spring comes dancingly, 



To him the Summer blushes, 

 The Autumn smiles with yellow ray, 



His sleep old Winter hushes. 

 He cares not how the world may move, 



Nor doubts nor fears confound him ; 

 His little flock are linked in love, 



And household angels round him ; 

 He trusts to God and loves his wife. 



Nor griefs nor ills may harm her ; 

 He's Nature's nobleman in life — 



The Independent Farmer." 



The isolated life of the farmer as well as his independence 

 of position, begets self government and cherishes a love there- 

 for. He first has from necessity to rule himself, look after his 

 own family and his little kingdom, where he is patriarch, 

 legislator, judge. Living on his own domains with his pas- 

 tures, woodlands, hills and streams about him, with his chil- 

 dren to be educated, he is supreme in his own little cii-cle. 

 He has none above him but God, and he receives his privileges 

 and his rights from no human hand and hence never learns to 

 look to another man as his superior. When others become his 

 neighbors, they form the township, the county, and the State, 

 continuing the same self-government when they have become 

 an integral part of the great nation. Here is the beauty and 

 perfection of our system of government — we have independent 

 and self-constituted and self-controling circles within the greater 

 circle. The parent has rights that the selectmen of the town 

 may not question ; the town has rights that the State may not 

 invade ; the State has rights that are beyond the reach of Con- 

 gress, and which the President cannot disregard without com- 

 mitting treason against the commonwealth, as much as would 

 the State if it should deny the powers that have been ceded to 

 the general government in the constitution. 



