Sjjpi'V^ 



The Illinois Faemer 



VOL. YI. 



SPRINGFIELD, AUGUST 1861. 



NO. 8. 



August. 



The months continue to wheel into line. 

 On the great prairie slopes men are march- 

 ing to the music of the reaper, or listening 

 to the buzz of the thresher as it shells out 

 the golden grain. Over all the trumpet's 

 voice is heard in the far distance, and at our 

 very door calling out the hardy yeomanry to 

 do battle for their country — anarchy rules 

 on the plains and river sweeps of fair Mis- 

 souri and its hydra form must be crushed 

 out. Virginia is one great camp of hostile 

 squadrons, numbering nearly a quarter of a 

 million of armed men. In Kentucky, bro- 

 ther is warring with brother, and the ele- 

 ments of a civil war are fast gathering. The 

 sons of freemen, of free homes, of free 

 schools and of a free press, are gathering for 

 he battle of freedom — the sons of Union 

 against the sons of indolence and disunion — 

 none can doubt the result, and when the sound 

 of the cannon shall cease, when the freemen of 

 the North shall have marched back to their 

 own loved homes, everywhere in the sunny 

 South will go up the shouts of the loyal, 

 who have clung with love to their coun- 

 try's flag, while those who would drag it 

 down shall ask for the mountains to fall on 

 them. Then will labor again become en- 

 nobled and the mechanic arts flourish, 

 the ring of the hammer shall be heard 

 instead of the din of war, school houses 

 shall be erected everywhere, and the poor 

 sandhiller and " white trash " shall stand 

 forth disenthralled and take their place in 

 the ranks of men, while their sons and 

 daughters shall see through the mist of bat- 

 tle the angel of liberty that is to give them 



a place and a name among their fellow men. 

 The genius of liberty and of equal institu- 

 tions shall spread its protecting wings alike 

 over the genial climate of the South and the 

 more exacting though hardy North. The 

 war is none of our choosing ; the industri- 

 ous North have been content to mind their 

 own business, until their firesides have been 

 threatened with the torch of the invader 

 and all they hold dear of free institutions 

 swept from them ; if they delight in the arts 

 of peace ; if they prefer their morning slum- 

 ber to be broken by the music of the birds 

 rather than the " reveille," the sound of 

 fast revolving wheels to that of martial mu- 

 sic, it is not that when the stern necessity is 

 forced upon them that they may not rouse 

 at their country's call. With sunbrowned 

 brows and muscles inured to toil, when arm- 

 ed with the deadly implements of war, woe 

 be to the foe that dare stand in their path- 

 way or threaten to invade their homes. Let 

 the contest be short and decided, that the 

 arts of peace and the building up and the 

 beautifying of our homes may have all our 

 care. 



Summer has now culminated, and we will 

 soon be marching down the slopes of au- 

 tumn. The hopes and fears of spring have 

 given place to the realities of ample harvest 

 now and in prospect. The winter wheat has 

 made good returns, while the whole family 

 of small grains give fair promise of ample 

 returns. Of corn and the later crops we 

 must wait the full effieets of the August sun 

 to simmer down their juices. The fruit crpp 

 is promising, and never before have so a^nj 

 families been gladdened with the d^cious 



