534 [Assembly 



Agriculture, Commerce, Manufactures and the Arts." These being 

 the grand objects and interests of the Society, it is upon some, or 

 one of these, of course, that I shall be expected to address you. 

 Gentlemen of most eminent ability, whom, with unequal step, I fol- 

 low, have preceded me, and have thrown the light of knowledge and 

 the grace of eloquence upon each of these themes, and were they 

 not in their nature inexhaustible, it would be useless and fatiguing 

 to attempt to add a w^ord. But these are subjects never trite — 

 themes never dull. The earth and nature present daily new spring- 

 ing objects of admiration; art and science offer hourly new inven- 

 tions to our wondering eyes. 



In the order in which the various great pursuits of the Society are 

 stated in the announcement of its purposes, agriculture stands firsts 

 and deservedly so. I shall, therefore, with your permission, avail 

 myself of this precedence, and seize upon the largest and widest field 

 of thought, where there is room and range enough for all, and where 

 the small may safely wander with the great. 



Especially, perhaps, may it be appropriate to turn our minds par- 

 ticularly to this subject at this time, since we have so recently heard 

 and seen evidences of the effect of a want of that which agriculture 

 supplies. 



We have seen a great part of the civilized world convulsed, so- 

 ciety shaken, commerce and exchanges deranged, credit destroyed, 

 great commercial houses, whose dealings were with nations and 

 sovereigns, whose engagements affected the rise and fall of dynas- 

 ties, and whose business extended over three quarters of the globe^ 

 plunged suddenly into ruin; we have heard the cries of thousands 

 and thousands perishing of famine, and we see multitudes of those 

 who have fled from destruction, filling our streets, and almost con- 

 tent, even in their misery, to have so well escaped from overhanging 

 death; and our people and government have been called on to forget 

 all distinctions of nationality and political organization, and to re- 

 member only a common humanity and a common origin, and give 

 charities, such in amount and such in the manner of their bestowal, 

 as the world never saw before; and all this, because a little plant, 

 which some two hundred years since our continent lent to the old 

 world, had ceased there for awhile to flourish. 



Fortunate indeed*we are in our land and our position! Doubly 

 fortunate that no calamity, such as pressed on Europe, weighed upon 



