356 WISCONSIN STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
could obtain schooling. What I have is self-acquired. With you, 
it is different. You have a school house within reach of every 
farm. It is your own fault if your children are not educated for 
all the common duties of life. Cultivate the minds of the rising 
generation; let your schools be schools of thought; institutions 
not to cultivate the memory alone, but to fit the student practically 
to take his equal chance of influence in the government of your 
state and nation. Encourage monthly meetings in every town 
in the county, in every county of the state, and in every state in 
the Union , for reading essays and holding discussions upon sub¬ 
jects of interest both to the farmer and mechanic, teaching and 
explaining in the simplest manner possible, everything that would 
be useful in the shop or in the field. Meetings of this description 
could not fail to be useful. A free people should not only have 
free thought, but should have good opportunities to give them 
utterance. The object of these meetings and discussions should 
be to call into action individual talent and individual experience 
for the benefit of all. You have plenty of talent among you, and 
I hold that the talent and experience of your neighbour as far as 
improvement of the moral and intellectual standing of his own 
neighborhood is concerned is public property, and should be 
worked up and brought forward, fostered and sustained by every 
means in your power for the good of the whole community. 
Gentlemen, the love of your country should awaken you to be 
ready by intelligence to take position in the councils of the state 
and nation. It is said these are times of vice and corruption, 
times when Credit Mobilier and other corrupt schemes are favored 
by our officials. I firmly believe that the safety of this great and 
glorious Republic must rely upon the honesty and intelligence of 
the rural districts. 
The road leading into the future is an ascending one, and pro¬ 
gress over it is to be secured much more by the aid of mind than 
by the aid of matter. One class of men will take the lead, and 
it most likely will be that class distinguished for good common 
sense, refined by education and cultivation. Now, if farmers will 
see to it and give their children a good common school education, 
instead of allowing them to grow up in ignorance and vice, it will 
give them a chance in the struggle for the lead in the future. Then, 
