10 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Jan. 



THANKSGIVING. 



The passing months have brought us to another 

 period of time, when it has been customary for the 

 authorities to fix a day upon which a universal 

 Thanksgiving may ascend to Heaven, for the un- 

 numbered blessings which distinguish us as a 

 people. 



This period comes immediately after the au- 

 tumnal harvest, when the earth has yielded her 

 increase, and the husbandman has gathered that 

 increase in joy, and his barns and granaries are 

 full and overflowing. When his flocks gather 

 around him from hill and vale, and wait with pa- 

 tient confidence for that food and shelter without 

 which they would perish long before green fields 

 and running brooks would again invite them 

 forth. When the labors of collecting and secur- 

 ing the food for man and beast are ended for 

 the year, man sees before him the rich fruits of 

 that industry and skill granted unto him by the 

 same Being who gave him the early and the lat- 

 ter rain, and who has promised that seedtime and 

 harvest shall never fail. 



Such was the season selected by our grateful 

 forefathers, for a general outpouring of the full 

 heart for blessings few indeed compared with" ours. 

 In gratitude to them for their pious example, and 

 with profound homage to the Lord of the harvest, 

 may our hearts be filled with all that sincerity, and 

 all that deep and ardent devotion which inspired 

 them in the midst of their forest home and severe 

 privations. 



Never had people greater cause for thanksgiv- 

 ing than we. Our harvests have been abundant. 

 Our pastures have fed innumerable cattle and 

 sheep to fatness, and our valleys and plains have 

 teemed with herbage for their winter supplies. 

 Bending corn and grain have smiled in numerous 

 fields all over the land, side by side with ripening 

 fruits of various kinds. No sickness has decimat- 

 ed our people, or convulsions of nature laid waste 

 our cities and plunged thousands into sudden and 

 untimely graves. Commerce has spread her wings, 

 with humanizing tendencies, over the remotest 

 seas ; the arts have progressed as they never ad- 

 vanced before ; and education was never more 

 highly appreciated, or had more devotees in its 

 walks. No man has looked for labor in vain, or 

 failed to find its ample rewards. The most active 

 trade pervades our cities, while a fully compensat- 

 ed and cheerful industry may be seen in all the 

 rural portions of New England. In s^ome of the 

 manufacturing towns, labor may have been divert- 

 ed from the mill, but has at once found ample 

 scope in the field or in the family: None have 

 "begged leave to toil," but have been sought for, 

 and fully rewarded for every hour's application. 

 Indeed, public and private charities have been 

 greatly relieved from their usual calls, during the 



year that has just passed, in consequence of the 

 activity of business and the constant demand for 

 all kinds of labor. 



On the Thanksgiving Day that has just occurred, 

 every industrious and economical family in New 

 England, with few exceptions, might have had its 

 roasted turkey or pair of chickens upon the table, 

 with such superaddition as to make the meal a 

 bountiful and agreeable one. This would have 

 required the attention of kind citizens and friends, 

 in some cases, but in New England that attention 

 is never dormant among our people. 



The causes for open public thanksgiving as well 

 as private, are innumerable, and not the least 

 among them is the enjoyment of free and equal 

 laws, bearing upon all, and protecting all alike. 

 So lightly do they touch him who does not offend, 

 that their very existence is scarcely recognized, and 

 the most humble find no oppression under their 

 operation. Our best powers, when all exerted, 

 are too feeble to express the thanksgivings due for 

 the blessings vouchsafed to us in this fair, fertile 

 and free land ! 



We may be told that our picture is over- 

 wrought, — that a state of war demands much from 

 us, — that the labor of our hands is diverted from 

 our personal use, and that our sons are dead upon 

 numerous battle-fields, or dying in the power of 

 relentless and cruel foes, — and that "mourners go 

 about the streets," in every neighborhood in the 

 land. 



While we are obliged to admit these sad facts, 

 it should be one of our chief sources of thanks- 

 giving and joy, that we are permitted to live and 

 take a part in a reformation upon which Heaven 

 smiles and will look upon with approbation, — the 

 redemption of millions of our fellow-beings from 

 an oppression which no terms in our power are 

 adequate to describe. 



Twp years ago, the strongest mind was 'stag- 

 gered with the question, "How shall this stupen- 

 dous crime be stayed ?" No power on earth 

 seemed sufficient to cope with it. All the wisdom 

 of legislation fell like futile shafts before its ada- 

 mantine walls. Vice and cruelty stalked forth 

 into the open light of heaven, demanding to es- 

 tablish a nation upon slavery as its corner-stone ! 

 It was not satisfied with this, but strove to destroy 

 the glorious fabric reared by our fathers, and ex- 

 tend its sway over the entire land. 



Thanksgivings ! constant, sincere and profound, 

 are due from all-, that this terribly wicked power 

 did not prevail, — that God raised up deliverers in 

 our patriotic people, who have sacrificed, and are 

 still ready to sacrifice property, health and life it- 

 self, to sustain our glorious "Republic and its free 

 institutions. 



"Lives there a man with soul so dead, 

 AVho never to himself hath said, 

 This is my own, my native land?" 



