260 [Assembly 



thorns and briars, and causing our vallies to exhibit their golden 

 harvests, and our gardens to blossom with roses." 



For what object, then, may I ask, are we assembled in these fields 

 to-day? Ts it to meet the foe on old Chalterton, yonder, where 

 Washington intrenched himself with his gallant band of patriots'? 

 No! my fellow-citizens, we have good reason lo be thankful to that 

 God, who is "the author of peace and the lover of concord," that 

 no bugle sounds this day to summon us, as it did our fathers, to that 

 hill-top, in this very month, 1776.* 



But rather, that we meet here as the Iriei^ls of peace, willing to 

 have our swords beaten into ploughshares. Surely we can say, with 

 the sweet Psalmist of Israel, that "the lines are fallen to us in 

 pleasant places — yea, we have a goodly heritage." 



Mr. President: although other avocations may offer greater prizes 

 in the lottery of life, yet if we compare the advantages of rural in- 

 dustry with those of any of the common occupations to which men 

 devote themselves, we may venture to affirm, that he who is engaged 

 in agriculture has no reason to be dissatisfied with the lot which 

 Providence has assigned him. Its superiority, in point of salubrity, 

 over every sedentary employment, is too apparent to need illustration; 

 and it affords more of those common enjoyments which constitute 

 much of the elements of happiness, than any other state of equal 

 mediocrity. The farm-yard, the orchard and the dairy, supply, al- 

 most without expense abundant means for those gratifications usual- 

 ly termed the comforts of life; besides many luxuries that are beyond 

 the reach of people of humble means. It is true that, it has its toils 

 and its cares, and those neither few nor slight— and perhaps the far- 

 mer's life is more laborious than any other; but then, his home is 

 far removed from the crowded alleys of a city, and the morals of his 

 children are not exposed to the contaminating influence of a dens- 

 ly populated manufacturing town. The farmer passes his days in the 

 healthful labors of the field, while the mechanic or shopkeeper we::rs 

 away his life at the loom or the counter. Perhaps there is no man 

 "who earns his bread by the favor of the public who enjoys indepen- 

 dence in an equal degree with the farmer. His business, though 

 subject to more casualties than almost any other, is yet so divided 

 among many risks, that he is rarely exposed to the hazard of total 

 failure; the same weather which injures one crop often improves an- 



Z • This addr«8S was delivered in view of Chatterton Hill, the scene of the battle 

 Of White Plains, 28th Oct., 1776. 



