SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
265 
GEN. WASHINGTON AND GOVERNHENTAE 
Aid to Apiculture. 
It is, by many persons, questioned if our General 
Government has the constitutional power to make appro- 
priations for the benefit of Agriculture.'^ Not raising the 
question of power, it is doubted by others if it be sound 
policy in our State Governments to appropriate a portion 
of the State Funds for the same purpose. We do not sup- 
pose that any of the readers of this journal are of the lat- 
ter class. The man who has sufficient intelligence to in- 
duce him to take an agricultural paper, needs not to be 
told that the interest which- underlies all other industrial 
interests should receive the fostering care of the Govern- 
ment of the State. Those whose minds are satisfied on 
this point should endeavors to j convince other, ^ur 
L^islatures should be reached through the expressed and 
concurrent sentiment of the people. In order to furnish 
our readers with a means of removing the scruples of 
others, we extract an article from the Quarterly Jjurnal 
of Agriculture, prepared by B. P. Poore, Esq , and giv- 
ing the position taken by the “Father of his country” 
upon this important subject : 
“ In the 'President’s Speech,’ delivered on the 7th of 
December, 1796, when Washington met the two Houses of 
Congress for the last time, he said: 
“ It will not be doubted that, with reference either to 
individual or national welfare, agriculture is of primary 
importance. In proportion as nations advance in popu- 
lation, and other circumstances of maturity, this truth be- 
comes more apparent, and renders the cultivation of the 
soil more and more an object of public patronage. Insti- 
tutions for promoting it grow up, supported by the pub- 
lic purse; and to what object can it be dedicated with 
greater propriety I Among the means which have been 
employed to this end, none have been attended with 
greater success than the establishments of Boards, com- 
posed of proper characters, charged with collecting and 
diffusing information, and enabled by premiums, and 
small pecuniary aids, to encourage and assist a spirit of 
discovery and improvement. This species of establish- 
ment contributes doubly to the increase of improvement, 
by stimulating to enterprise and experiment, and by 
drawing to a common centre the result everywhere of 
individual skill and observation, and spreading them 
thence over the whole nation. Experience accordingly 
has shown that they are very cheap instruments of im- 
mense national benefit.”* 
A few days afterwards, on the 10th of December, Gen. 
Washington acknowledged the receipt of the letter from 
Sir John Sinclair containing the suggestion quoted above, 
and stating that the rapidly closing scenes of his political 
life leu him but little time to devote to Agricultural mat- 
ters. “I did not however,” he wrote, “omit the occasion, 
at the opening of the session, to call the attention of that 
body to the importance of agriculture. What will be the 
result, I know not at present; but if it should be favor- 
able, the hints which you will have it in your power to 
give, cannot fail of being gratefully received by the mem- 
bers who may constitute that Board.” 
That General Washington took a deep interest in the 
adoption of his recommendation, and that he was anxious 
to enlist prominent agriculturists, as well as Congress in 
carrying out his plan, is shown by the following letter, 
addressed by him to Judge Peters, who had a fac simile 
of it appended to the second volume of the Transactions 
*Me3sag‘=s of the Presidents of the United States. 
of the Philadelphia Society for the Promotion of Agricul- 
ture : 
“Dear Sir — Herewith you will not only receive the 
Outlines, &c., (asked for yesterday,) but the appendix 
thereto; and other productions from the same quarter; 
which, when you have done with, be so good as to re- 
turn. 
“These, or some of the Papers, may be of use to a com- 
mittee, if Congress should incline to take up the subject 
of Agriculture. 
“Your observations, with the return of the papers, will 
be very acceptable to Dr Sir, Yr. obdt. & Affec, 
“G. Washington. 
“ 10th Deer., 1796. — [Superscribed] Richard Peters, 
Esq,” 
The Senate, in an address in answer to the speech, 
drawn up by Senator Read, of South Carolina, and adopt- 
ed after having been discussed and amended, said : “The 
necessity of accelerating the establishment of certain use- 
ful manufactures, by the intervention of the Legislative 
aid and protection, and the encouragement due to agri- 
culture by the creation of Boards, (composed of intelli- 
gent individuals,) to patronize this primary pursuit of so- 
ciety, are subjects which will readily engage our most 
serious attention.” No action was, however, taken on the 
recommendation of the President by the Senate. 
The House of Representatives, on going into a Com- 
mittee of the Whole House on the President’s speech — 
^'Resolved, That so much of the President’s speech as 
relates to the promotion of Agriculture, be referred to a 
select committee, and Mr. Swift, Mr. Gregg, and . Mr. 
Brent, were accordingly appointed.” Mr. Swift was an 
able lawyer from the rural town of Windham, Connecti- 
cut ; Mr. Gregg, an educated farmer from the interior of 
Pennsylvania, and Mr. Brent represented an agricultural 
district in Virginia, They doubtless had before them the 
papers referred to in General Washington’s letter to Judge 
Peters. 
On V/ednesday, January 11th, (as we learn from the 
“ Annals of Congress,”) “Mr. Swift, from the committee 
to whom was referred that part of the President’s speech 
relative to the promotion of Agriculture, made a report 
recommending the institution of a Society for that purp.ose 
under the patronage of government, which might act as a 
common centre to all other societies of a smiilar kind 
throughout the United States. No public provision is 
contemplated except for the salary for a Secretary, and for 
stationery; but if the state of the Treasury should make 
even this unavoidable, it is stated, it might be carried in- 
to effect without pecuniary aid. The report is accompan- 
ied by a plan, the principal articles of which are, that a 
Society shall be established at the Seat of Government ; 
that it shall comprehend the Legislature of the United 
States, the Judges, the Secretary of State, the Secretary of 
the Treasury, the Secretary of War, the Attorney General 
and such other persons as should choose to become mem- 
bers according to the rules prescribed; that an annual 
meeting should be held at the seat of Government, at 
which is to be chosen the President, Secretary, &c., and 
a Board, to consist of not more than thirty persons, which 
shall be called the ‘Board of Agriculture;’ that the Society 
shall be a body corporate; that a report shall be made an- 
nually, &c. The report concluded with a resolution in 
these words : 
Resolved, That a society for the promotion of agricul- 
ture ought to be established at the seat of Government of 
the United States. 
“The report was twice read, and ordered to be com- 
mitted to a Committee of the Whole on Monday next.” 
On Monday, the House went into a Committee of the 
Whole, on the report of the Committee of Ways and 
Means on the subject of further revenue, and during a 
prolonged debate as to the necessity for direct taxation, 
