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considered; I sincerely hope that much of novelty, or of great interest, 
is not expected from me. 
On similar occasions apologies are often made; sometimes they become 
necessary, and the trite one, that there is a want of the custom of public 
speaking, in the individual called on, may justly be resorted to; I do not 
say that such is the case with myself, but even if it were, surrounded as 
we now are by the products of the industry of our fellow-citizens in the 
variuus branches of domestic economy, agriculture, arts and mechanics, 
there are abundant themes to elicit observations which might be interest¬ 
ing when delivered by the most inexperienced person in addressing an 
audience, amply sufficient to call forth eloquence, to which I, by no 
means pretend. 
We have before us the productions of the plough, the loom, and the 
anvil: the three great sources of the wealth of nations; and we may in 
all truth say, that young as we are in Wisconsin, in comparison with our 
sister States, we have already given good testimony of our industry, en¬ 
terprise, and desire to improve all the advantages which our highly 
favored land presents to us. 
I say our favored land—well may it so be called ; throughout the wide 
extent of our country, there is no portion that more forcibly exhibits the 
beneficence of God to his creatures, in their dwelling places on earth, 
than Wisconsin. Our soil rich and productive ; our climate pleasant and 
healthy; the country teeming with mineral wealth; the means of com¬ 
mercial intercourse perhaps unequalled, certainly unsurpassed by those 
of any State in the Union; we have abundant reason to rejoice that we 
have chosen Wisconsin as our home, the scene of our labors, the fruitful 
source of our prosperity. 
The cultivation of the soil is the base of this prosperity; its produc¬ 
tions supply the materiel on which is expended all the labor and ingenuity 
of man for the demands of luxury as well as of necessity. We all feel the 
value of the social elevation of the human race; if it were possible for 
man to be content in a solitary life, his wants would be few, capable of 
being supplied by himself, and confined to the bare support of animal 
existence. The formation of the social system necessarily brought with 
it new wants in its members, and created new fields for labor; to the ac- 
tual were soon added the ideal wants, and luxury kept equal pace with 
