THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



363 



has been much retarded by a want of free in- 

 tercqurse among her farmers, and the collec- 

 tion of their united experience. Isolated as 

 they have been, their experience and informa- 

 tion depart with them. An Agricultural So- 

 ciety consolidates this experience and trans- 

 mits it to future generations with constantly 

 increasing knowledge. Such are the vast ad- 

 vantages arising from the collected informa- 

 tion of scientific and professional men, that 

 they have expanded from counties to States, 

 from States to nations, and from nations to 

 continents. Europe and America consult to- 

 gether over the winds and currents of the 

 ocean, that commerce may more cheaply and 

 expeditiously interchange the products of agri- 

 culture and manufactures. And as a result 

 of the exhibition of the industry of nations, 

 American ingenuity in the construction of the 

 reaper, bids fair to prove victorious over the 

 cheap labor of Europe on their own harvest 

 fields. 



Another cause for the slow progress of our 

 Agriculture will be found in the fact, that Vir- 

 ginia has contributed to the service of the Re- 

 public, from the first struggles for indepen- 

 dence, many of her most distinguished sons. 

 They devoted their intellect, energy and pa- 

 triotism to the service of our common country. 

 Nor can we repine at this when we behold the 

 result of their labors; when we look over the 

 vast extent of country contained within the 

 limits of the confederacy— stretching from 

 ocean to ocean— embracing an area unsur- 

 passed in fertility, unrivalled in the value and 

 variety of its productions — when we look to 

 its agriculture, commerce and manufactures — 

 its universities, colleges and common schools 

 — its rail roads and canals, binding together 

 distant portions of the confederacy, uniting 

 them in interest, consolidating them in power 

 — when we see its rapid strides to the highest 

 position among the nations of the earth— with- 

 in the lifetime of a single man — for the Repub- 

 lic is not yet so old as many of its citizens — 

 commanding respect, not by standing armies, 

 nor by its navy; but by the successful devel- 

 opment of its mighty resources, the inherent 

 patriotism of its people, the great principle of 

 popular freedom which it represents, and by 

 the historic lustre which surrounds the names 

 of its early heroes and statesmen. In its early 

 struggles, in its onward progress, on every 

 page of its history, the names of Virginia's 

 sons will be found — beginning with his, whom 

 veneration and affection have united in call- 

 ing the father of his country ! They devoted 

 to the service of our common country that 

 ardent patriotism, those mighty intellects and 

 that enduring fortitude, which in the service 

 of their own State might have raised her to 

 the height of material and physical power. 

 But who is there so sordid, that he would ex- 

 change the glories of the past, for the material 

 ower of the present— who would barter the 

 istoric glory of her sons, for any amount of 

 taxable property or any simple enumeration 



of inhabitants'? They achieved for themselves 

 undying fame, that immortality which history 

 can give — their works live after them— and 

 the world gazes in amazement upon the fruits 

 of their toil— in the onward march, the un- 

 checked progress of the great Republic. Vir- 

 ginia gave, not only her sons, but an empire 

 to the common country— and out of that has 

 been carved a State, that has already surpass- 

 ed her in population and wealth. We may 

 look back upon her noble deeds and her mu- 

 nificence with a glow of pride and a holy 

 desire to emulate; but let not her glory rest 

 in the history of the past, nor her sons igno- 

 bly repose upon the monuments of her former 

 greatness. 



There is abundant reason to stimulate our 

 utmost energies, to rouse our noblest feelings. 

 Our own colleges are now flourishing, and our 

 University is fulfilling the anticipations of its 

 great projector in his last and noblest gift to 

 the State. Extensive and thorough education 

 will soon meet the demands for its exercise, 

 and be brought to bear upon the great interests 

 of the State. Providence has furnished a fer- 

 tile soil, a genial climate, countless wealth in 

 the undeveloped mineral resources of the grow- 

 ing west, a noble bay, harbors and roads, na- 

 vigable rivers and unsurpassed water powers. 

 Look upon her varied agricultural resources, 

 upon her lime, plaster, iron, coal— look upon 

 the market gardens of the tide-water region, 

 and stretch your eyes to the great water shed 

 of the trans-alleghany, until you reach the 

 banks of the beautiful Ohio, the tributaries of 

 the mighty Mississippi, and tell me in what 

 department of industry, in what field of enter- 

 prise you cannot engage? What fields lor 

 agriculture, what outlets for commerce, what 

 materials and power for manufactures present 

 themselves to our vision, invite our selection. 

 Others have laid the foundations of her fame 

 in heroic deeds and in devoted patriotism. 

 Upon the present generation devolves theduiy 

 of advancing her prosperity and her power. 

 Thatin the developmentof her material power, 

 fanaticism shall find an impassable barrier, and 

 our peculiar institutions shall find not only 

 security, but a cessation from disturbance. 

 That proprietory rights shall repose on physi- 

 cal power, when the shield of the constitution 

 fails to protect. That the State which held so 

 conspicuous a station in the birth of constitu- 

 tional, civil and religious liberty, shall possess 

 the vital energy and physical power to give 

 protection and perpetuity to those great prin- 

 ciples—that her future position shall not be a 

 reproach to her former achievements, and so, 

 within the broad limits of her borders, the fact 

 shall be illustrated that there is nothing incom. 

 patible with her eminent success and durable 

 prosperity. By all the memories of the past, 

 and all the hopes of a glorious future, let us 

 develop those resources that the physical and 

 material greatness of the Old Dominion shall 

 be commensurate with her ancient renown 

 and her historic glory. 



