101 
and thus to make them in some degree, however small, of benefit to you, 
the industrial citizens of our county. 
Taking actual observation of other instances of promiscuous gatherings 
of equal size with this in our State, as the criterion by which to judge, 
and we shall find that all of the New England States, New York, Ohio, 
and Pennsylvania—yes probably all of the Middle States, most of the 
Western and some of the Southern States, as well as England, Scotland, 
Ireland, Germany, Wales, France, Norway, and perchance, a dozen other 
foreign countries are represented here to-day by their sturdy sons and 
fair daughters—men and women who have experimentally tested the old 
adage—“where there is a will there is away,” by leaving home, friends, 
and all the charms of their native lands, to seek their fortunes in this, 
theffar off West—this, may we not without boasting say, Garden of the 
World. Here, we meet on common ground—live under the same free 
government, enjoy alike the immunities and privileges of American citi¬ 
zenship ; here “sit under our own vine and fig tree, with none to molest 
or make us afraid.”—Freed, as far as may be, from oppressive taxation, 
and the direct bearing of the burdens of the government—permitted by 
liberal laws to choose our own rulers in our own way—every man, how¬ 
ever humble by birth, an heir to the highest official position in the land—- 
religious liberty and the freedom of speech and the right to petition the 
government for a redress of grievances guaranteed to us by the Consti¬ 
tution, what more could the most exacting man ask to make him con¬ 
tented with his temporal lot, or lead him to believe that of all the various 
occupations of life the pursuit of agriculture, amid all these privileges, 
when properly followed, is at once the happiest, the highest, and the most 
ennobling calling man can adopt. 
The intermingling of Nations, as we find it in this western country, 
and the ultimate and consequent intermarriage of their various descend¬ 
ants, is doubtless calculated by the fixed laws of nature, to benefit our 
race and to make it not only physically, but intellectually, greater and 
still more powerful. Then for our own good as a nation as well as from 
a principle of hospitality, which we have ever been wont to cherish and 
exercise towards all exiles from countries swayed by despotism, let us wel¬ 
come to these western shores, the oppressed of all lands who come to seek 
an honest livelihood and enjoy the benefits of religious and civil liberty. 
