tinchallenged and unhindered, as the independent vote of freemen.- 

 Oh, the might}^ freedom of your homes, your estates, your hus- 

 bandry. "Ye are Gods building." And Jesus Christ gave the 

 highest conception of the kingdom of heaven when He said, " He 

 let it out to husbandmen.'' I never think of your glorious heri- 

 tage without wishing that your combined force might be exerted 

 against that vile crop of the wasteful leaf which is so poisonous 

 to our youth, so costly to our families, and so painful to the purer 

 part of mankind. One combined effort on your part would blot 

 the ruinous product from the field, and sweep the filthy nicotine 

 habit from the civilized world. Oh, what mighty possibilities lie 

 within your control. What distinction and honor rest upon you. 

 Free as the birds of your woodlands, which have neither store- 

 house nor barn ; 3^ou have neither shortage nor surfiet, but an 

 abundant compensation for all your labors. You sow at your 

 pleasure, and reap at your will, and seed time and harvest never 

 fail. To the preservation of this glorious inheritence, gentlemen 

 of the Housatonic Agricultural Society, the w^hole unbroken line 

 of your honored ancestr}^ bids you stand guard, and by ever\r im- 

 pulse and endeavor in your power, lead your goodly host from subju- 

 gation to conquest over every form of evil which threatens your 

 homes, your estates, or your sacred institutions. And thus carrying 

 for^vard the moral reforms of the day for the advancement of civil 

 and religious liberty, you shall make that golden age possible for 

 a future generation so devoutly longed for by the divinest of 

 Judean shepherds ' ' That our sons may be as plants grown up in 

 their youth ; that our daughters may be as corner stones, polished 

 after the similitude of a palace : that our garners may be full, af- 

 fording all manner of store ; that our sheep may bring forth thous- 

 ands and ten thousands in our streets : that our oxen may be 

 strong to labor; that there be no breaking in, nor going out; 

 that there be no complaining in our streets." Happy is the 

 people that is in such a cavSe. Yea, happy is that people whose 

 God is the Lord. 



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