216 
Annual Report of the 
ers of the soil which they cultivate. But, whether a man owns the 
land or not, he is equally as free as the owner. He calls no man 
master. He bows in reverence to none except his God. We claim 
to be citizens of the most free and independent nation upon the 
earth. If the members of our legislature displease us, we leave them at 
home aud send others in their places. If the governor does not sat¬ 
isfy the majority of the people of the state, he is quietly left at 
his home, and another man elevated to his place. If a member of 
either house of Congress votes or otherwise conducts himself in any 
manner unsatisfactory to his constituents, they have no hesitation 
about restoring him to private life and sending another man whom 
they suppose will be more obedient to their will. All this is done 
quietly and without disorder or disturbance of any kind. The peo¬ 
ple are literally their own masters, and the law-makers are their 
servants. 
Again, in all that goes to make the ordinary comforts of every¬ 
day life, we are the most wealthy people upon the earth. This may 
seem a strange statement to some present, and I do not mean to say 
that we have more gold and silver than any other people; but, gen¬ 
tlemen, did it ever occur to you that the West and Northwest is the 
only territory of any size in the world where the masses of the peo¬ 
ple can afford to have wheat bread, butter and meat as the main 
articles of their daily food,-; And yet, such is the fact, that no na¬ 
tion, either ancient or modern, has ever before been able to provide the 
above named articles in sufficient quantity and at prices to place 
them within the reach of the laboring classes .as articles of daily 
food. Our stock of all kinds is almost incomparably in advance of 
that of any previous to this century. In short, the last quarter of 
a century has almost completely revolutionized the science of agri¬ 
culture. It is doubtless evident to all that the next twenty-five 
years are to be marked with still greater changes, and that they are 
to be in favor of the cultivator of the soil, provided he is wide¬ 
awake and takes his place in the steady march of improvements as 
they come along. The dull, ignorant plodder who refuses to do 
otherwise than as his fathers did, and believes that they knew it all, 
will be utterly forsaken and forgotten. No, perhaps not quite for¬ 
gotten, he will serve us to look back to, and see the advances 
we have made. I run no risk of hurting the feelings of any of this 
class, as they never attend conventions, neither do they ever take 
