id,'** *1* 
 
 4 ■■ $v 
 
| LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. \ 
 
 f ' * 
 
 f UNITED STATES (IP AMERICA, t 
 
 ^y^agg.. 
 
ADDRESS 
 
 DELIVERED BEFORE THE 
 
 |fcfo § 0tli §$hk ^patltoral Jtotg 
 
 SIXTEENTH ANNUAL FAIR 
 
 WATERTOWN, OCTOBER 3d, 1856. 
 
 BY HON. WILLIAM JESSUP, 
 
 OF MONTROSE, TENN. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY ORDER OF THE SOCIETY. 
 
 
 
 
 ALBANY: 
 
 FISK & LITTLE, 82 STATE STREET. 
 
 1856. 
 
 
ADDRESS. 
 
 Mr. President, and Ladies and Gentlemen of the 
 New York State Agricultural Society : 
 
 In compliance with the invitation of your com- 
 mittee, I appear before you to pronounce your an- 
 nual address. 
 
 Looking at the distinguished character and 
 pre-eminent abilities of those who in several suc- 
 cessive years have preceded me in the discharge of 
 this duty, and the high character of their addresses, 
 the broad scope and full discussion they have given 
 to most topics seemingly proper for such occasions, 
 it might well become so humble an individual to 
 decline this honor. But my apology must be found 
 in my love and veneration for the great cause of 
 Agriculture, and a desire to add my poor mite to 
 its onward progress and steady advancement. 
 
 In this desire I bring a few suggestions which 
 may serve to fill that space, in your interesting 
 exercises usually allotted to this object. 
 
 For a little more than a century our national 
 progress has been so rapid, as to leave us and those 
 
who preceded us, no stopping place, no apparent 
 quiet and calm, in which there could be a gather- 
 ing up of the rich profusions which have sur- 
 rounded us ; and a consolidation, so to speak, of 
 the elements which constitute our greatness. — 
 They all lie strewn along our pathway — scattered 
 everywhere — and in the disarranged and disorder- 
 ed state in which we pass by them in our rapid 
 progress, most truly and fully bear their testimony 
 to our national greatness. 
 
 We are yet in a giant infancy — our institutions 
 are shaped and molded by influences which have 
 never seen a parallel in the History of Earth. Far 
 removed by the wide intervention of the Atlantic 
 from the corrupt and corrupting influences of the 
 Old World, we have been enabled to discard many 
 of their maxims, and to adopt a course of policy, 
 civil and political, tending essentially to equality. 
 We have discarded the laws of prjmo geniture, so 
 that few estates can largely accumulate, and as 
 matter of fact, most large estates are divided and 
 partitioned in the second or third generation. 
 
 We have abolished all aristocratic titles and 
 orders, and opened all the honors that can be con- 
 ferred by the government, to a fair competition of 
 all the people. We boast that one American 
 citizen stands upon the same platform with every 
 other. We invite all and of every land and of 
 every clime, to come and participate with us in the 
 blessings of liberty and equality. We welcome 
 them to our shores, and offer them protection and 
 a home. 
 
In this our nation's youth, we afford an asylum 
 for the oppressed, a refuge from tyranny, and more 
 than all, a sure reward for industry and frugality. 
 Our arms are open to receive honest labor come 
 from whatever place it may. 
 
 A retrospect of the brief years since our fathers 
 landed on this 
 
 " Rock bound coast," 
 
 fills the mind with wonder. That which has been 
 accomplished, seems, as we lookback upon it, "as 
 a dream when one awaketh." 
 
 Where are the mighty forests which so recently 
 covered the largest and fairest portions of your great 
 state ? 
 
 Where are those trees which in all their primi- 
 tive grandeur spread their branches in an unbroken 
 shade from the Hudson to Lake Erie ? 
 
 They are gone — the ceaseless hands of industry 
 have shorn them of their ever-green mantle, their 
 timbers, wrought into the ground-work of a world- 
 wide commerce, bear proudly to the breeze the 
 flags of every nation. The desolate moan of the 
 forest pine has given way to the lowing of cattle 
 and the busy hum of mechanical and agricultural 
 labor. Cities and villages and fertile fields occupy 
 their places, and industry in its varied forms of 
 interest and enjoyment diffuses happiness through 
 millions of hearts. 
 
 Were these forests in their majestic silence 
 grand ? Is this civilization which sheds its hal- 
 lowed influence over this, so late a wilderness, 
 
grand ? Is this magic touch which has in such 
 brief space, called into existence your cities and 
 towns, and canals, and railroads, and filled all 
 with plenty for their thronging millions- — is this 
 grand ? 
 
 How much grander then, is the contemplation 
 of that Free Labor which has produced them all ! 
 that well requited and paid industry, without 
 which none of these things had been, or being, had 
 been a blot and a stain upon them all. 
 
 The moral grand fur and dignity of agricultural labor 
 is in part my theme. 
 
 I refer not here to those labor-saving machines 
 which so well subserve the cause of agriculture, 
 and give character and honor to our age. They 
 claim a meed of praise on every suitable occasion. 
 Their influence is everywhere felt and acknowl- 
 edged. They are rapidly hastening us along in 
 the road to national wealth, and promise to 
 make us the granary of the world. 
 
 But they did not fell the forests — they did not 
 roll the logs ; the wilderness could only be assailed 
 single handed, and nothing but the axe and fire- 
 brand of the pioneer was adequate to its destruction. 
 
 Who has not seen him, as solitary, in his own 
 self-reliance, he walks into the heart of the forest, 
 builds his bark cabin, far removed from roads, from 
 neighbors, from all the comforts and refinements 
 of life, from social privileges and enjoyments, and 
 there, axe in hand, commencing his attacks upon 
 that forest in expectation of making it "to bud and 
 blossom as the rose." 
 
Who that has considered the labor and toil, the 
 self-denial and perseverance necessary to subdue 
 that forest, has not given "the honor to valor 
 due" — to that pioneer of civilization? 
 
 And who, when after a few years have passed, 
 has seen in place of that forest, the broad fields of 
 luxuriant harvests, the cities, the churches, the 
 luxuries of life, the dense and teeming population, 
 the canals, the railroads, and all the appliances of 
 the civilization of the nineteenth century, has not 
 bowed in homage to the dignity of human labor. 
 
 The individual man who wields the axe and 
 fire-brand, clearing the way for all of health and 
 happiness which follow in his train, is the pioneer 
 hero of agricultural labor, and whenever seen is 
 worthy of high regard for his work's sake. 
 
 So too all that great class of men, who, leaving 
 the comforts of home, go forth as explorers and 
 settlers in new fields, whether of forest or of prairie, 
 are worthy of regard and respect. They are men 
 who enlarge and extend the boundaries of human 
 effort, and make homes for themselves and others, 
 where but for their labor all would be unbroken 
 wilderness. 
 
 Thus we view agricultural labor in its individual 
 character and influence, as honorable and dignified ; 
 and without regard to the personal condition of the 
 laborer, claim for it the respect always due to 
 meritorious and successful enterprise. But there 
 are other considerations which still more tend to 
 enhance our estimate of the importance of agri- 
 cultural labor. 
 
And first, The numbers engaged therein, their 
 character, standing and influence. 
 
 By the census of 1850, of 8S0,000 males nearly- 
 one half are farmers by their profession, or engaged 
 in pursuits directly connected with Agriculture. 
 This state is a fair representative of all the Free 
 States, some having a larger and some a smaller 
 proportion of farmers. 
 
 This great disproportion of the engagements of 
 the male population in favor of Agriculture, gives 
 at once the true estimate which is, and of right 
 ought to be placed upon this species of labor. Its 
 interest is greatly enhanced by the consideration, 
 also, of its great value, surpassing all others in in- 
 calculable ratios, lying at the foundation of all other 
 enterprises, and being the basis of all the wealth 
 of the world. 
 
 To serve its interests we have drawn from the 
 millions of Europe, and filled our land with canals 
 and railroads — these monuments of the real great- 
 ness of the first half of the nineteenth century. 
 We have covered our rivers, seas and oceans with 
 ships, and in a word, every enterprise of man rests 
 upon Agriculture as its sure basis. 
 
 I only repeat what is universally conceded, and 
 in the concession of which no invidious comparison 
 is intended — that the farmers of the country, as a 
 body, greatly excel any other class, in the exercise 
 of all those virtues which adorn and elevate man. 
 No more pleasant picture can be presented to the 
 mind, than is every day to be seen in our rural 
 districts. 
 
9 
 
 I have in mind such a view upon one of the 
 slopes which bounds a beautiful lake in your 
 state — farms of about one hundred acres — an area 
 of about five miles square — near the center, the 
 church, the mechanic shops, the house kept for the 
 public hospitality, the neat school house, and a few 
 stores constitute the village. The roads are well 
 constructed. The farms are in a high state of 
 cultivation, and all the scene at once gives evidence 
 of honest and well rewarded industry, of high moral 
 worth, and of the dignity of agricultural labor. 
 
 These scenes are everywhere to be found. The 
 beautiful valleys of Pennsylvania present the same 
 delightful vision ; and both only compete with the 
 fertile plains of Ohio and the west, and the more 
 rough, but more highly cultivated fields of the 
 north and east. 
 
 Mr. President — We can not fix too high a value 
 upon personal labor, nor study too much to elevate 
 it. It is not aspersed except by inference, but 
 some inferences in our day have such a tendency to 
 degrade personal labor that they need to be resisted. 
 
 I never can consent that the non-producing class 
 shall claim in any respect a superiority over those 
 who rise in the morning of every day to daily toil, 
 " who work, laboring with their own hands " — and 
 these give to every other class support and suste- 
 nance. "The laborer is worthy of his hire," and 
 in this country whose civil, political and social in- 
 stitutions are based upon principles of equality, of 
 regard to the just rights of all, it becomes public 
 duty that he be not only rewarded for that labor, 
 
10 
 
 but that he receive all that consideration, to which 
 his- most meritorious avocation shall entitle him. 
 By what process shall labor be saved in the 
 estimation of the world from a degree of obloquy 
 which is sometimes attempted to be fastened 
 upon it ! 
 
 There is a supposed elevation of the man who 
 lives without labor, over him who toils; as a con- 
 sequence many of our young men flee from the 
 farm to the counter, and to the profession, and too 
 frequently fail of success. ^ 
 
 Had they been contented in their fathers' most 
 honorable vocation, certain success would have 
 attended their efforts, and they have lived an 
 honored and useful life. False notion supon the 
 subject of the true elevation of farm labor destroyed 
 them. Such cases are to be found everywhere, 
 and the evil in some sort needs a remedy. Such 
 remedy in part is to be found here, in this circle, at 
 this fair. The tendency of every thing here is to 
 bring out in prominence this grand feature of all 
 our arguments in favor of personal labor— to give 
 it a distinct prominence. 
 
 This great gathering of the farmers of this great 
 State in itself dignifies and elevates the labor of 
 which it is but the exponent. The county socie- 
 ties, in their fairs, their discussions, and their 
 addresses tend to the same point. It is most 
 gratifying to know that the influence of these 
 associations has uniformly had this tendency^and 
 that a great change in this particular is clearly 
 discernable, where these means have been success- 
 
11 
 
 fully applied. The notion, that agricultural pur- 
 suits were not suited to mental acquirements — that 
 an educated farmer, was likely to be an unsuccess- 
 ful one, and that if a man knew how to hold his 
 plough and reap his grain, he had all that know- 
 ledge which a farmer need to have, is already 
 exploded. The associations of farmers, multiplied 
 as they are in all parts of the land, have done 
 much, very much to correct this false view, and to 
 give in its place the conviction that farmers of right 
 ought to be and must be educated. When this princi- 
 ple shall be fully carried out, we shall have the 
 dignity of farm labor truly vindicated. 
 
 This question thus necessarily runs into the 
 subject not only of education in our common and 
 higher schools, but of introducing into these schools 
 many of the simple elements of agricultural 
 science, making them, for the sons and daughters 
 of our farmers, the preparatory schools for those 
 higher institutions now being established in many 
 of the states, and which must find, at no remote 
 period, a support in every Free State. Having 
 already adverted to the great preponderance of the 
 agricultural class in numbers, it necessarily follows 
 that in all rural districts, the schools are filled 
 with those who are to be engaged in the same 
 business for their lives. There is a large field for 
 agricultural science which may be cultivated to 
 advantage in the common schools. Many text 
 books are at hand, and the farmers of the country 
 Iruve but to make the demand in earnest, and 
 teachers qualified to impart instruction in the 
 
. 12 
 
 science of agriculture will be found to fill up that 
 demand. By this means interest will be given to 
 every department of education, and while the mind 
 is impressible and open to right convictions, it will 
 be filled with useful knowledge and with correct 
 views of the farmer's life and avocation, or, as it 
 may very properly be styled, " The Profession of 
 Jgn 'culture" 
 
 Nor can the education of the farmer be limited 
 by any such bounds as these. As a class they are 
 reaching far beyond this, and are already demand- 
 ing a more perfect and enlarged system of educa- 
 tion. They press upon the public attention their 
 claims to an elevated and expanded system. They 
 demand the erection and endowment of the farm- 
 er's high school — and will continue to demand it 
 until the object is attained, — and until all which 
 art and skill, inventive genius and science can 
 impart, shall be concentrated in such schools, and 
 thus made accessible to the young men of all parts 
 of the land. Nor are these schools to be the resort 
 of those alone who expect to be directors of the 
 labor of others, and managers of large estates. 
 The prevalence of such a sentiment would work 
 their ruin. They are to educate the men who are 
 to hold the plow in their own fields, and to give 
 to working farmers all the intelligence, knowledge 
 and science which are requisite, not only to the 
 proper direction of all farming operations, but if 
 need be, to direct and guide the affairs of state, 
 when, by the call of their country, that duty shaM 
 be laid upon them. 
 
13 
 
 Mr. President- — Political discussions can not be 
 introduced here, but I shall not trench upon for- 
 bidden ground when I affirm, that farmers have 
 not been sufficiently numerous in the councils of 
 the state or nation. 
 
 We need more of their sound minds and matured 
 judgments and calm conservatism in our public 
 councils. They are the hope and reliance of 
 the nation in all times of trial, and in all great 
 exigencies. 
 
 And are they to receive all the needed qualifi- 
 cations in their own sphere, for the discharge of 
 their high duties ? I am sure, Mr. President, that 
 this society has but an affirmative response to give 
 to this inquiry. 
 
 The higher grades of instruction must necessarily 
 be provided, not in stinted, and measured, and in 
 few and poorly endowed schools — they must bear 
 some proportion to the number, character and 
 wealth of those for whom they are designed. — 
 They must sustain and elevate the character of 
 the class for whose benefit they are provided. If 
 we take any pattern from the training in other 
 seminaries, we shall have an enlarged system of 
 education for the mind and for the body. We 
 shall cultivate both together, and having all the 
 appliances for that cultivation, we shall expect 
 them to produce their desired results. It will be 
 in vain to look for the accomplishment of this 
 object from ordinary operations in similar cases. 
 
 The aid of the state is to be invoked, and all that 
 is necessary to give permanence and efficiency to 
 
14 
 
 the institution should be provided from the public 
 treasury. 
 
 The laboring classes sustain all others. The 
 fruit of their toil is the wealth of the nation. 
 Our commerce — our manufactories, are equally 
 dependent upon them. 
 
 They may truly be termed the life blood of the 
 nation. Is the vital fluid in a healthy condition — 
 the whole body is full of life. Is it corrupted — 
 the whole body is covered with ulcers and ready 
 for decay. Can that which is thus vital be de- 
 graded, and yet the interests dependent thereon 
 not be affected ? It is impossible ! 
 
 The future of our nation, it is difficult to pre- 
 dict. There are from time to time complications 
 in the body politic, which for the moment seem 
 threatening, but they disappear with the occasion 
 which gave them birth. And so must it be while 
 the masses of our farmers are well instructed, 
 not only in their pure, elevating and noble profes- 
 sion, but in all their duties as American citizens. 
 
 May I be permitted to congratulate this society 
 upon their progress and success in the establish- 
 ment of their Agricultural College — upon its loca- 
 tion in one of those fairy spots of which there are 
 so many in this state, and upon the prospects 
 opening before them for its usefulness, and may I 
 be permitted to suggest that it will for a long time 
 require fostering support, and a generous and liberal 
 patronage. These, I doubt not, it will receive, and 
 that its blessings will be largely felt and fully ap- 
 preciated by the citizens of this great state. 
 
15 
 
 It is gratifying to me also to state, that Pennsyl- 
 vania intends to compete with New York for the 
 honor of the best endowed and most beneficial 
 farmer's school. 
 
 She too is advancing rapidly in her preparation 
 for giving dignity and honor to farm labor. With 
 these two great states going side by side in this 
 noble work, what may not be hoped for ? In vain 
 will the influences which tend to degrade labor 
 attempt to pass these boundaries. 
 
 This " Cordon Sanilaire" can not be passed by 
 any feeling, which, degrading labor, necessarily 
 degrades man. I have confined this view of the 
 subject to farm labor, but it is not necessarily thus 
 confined. 
 
 The system of education adapted to farmers, 
 will with little exception, be adapted to the wants 
 of mechanics and artisans. 
 
 The practical in education will form the basis. 
 That which instructs in arts and in science in its 
 most extended sense, will necessarily be furnished, 
 and the artisan equally with the farmer needs that 
 education. 
 
 I am no advocate for making the work-shop a 
 college, and of apprenticing in that college, those 
 who are to be the practical handicrafts-men of our 
 country, but it would be rank injustice to exclude 
 them from that education, which a liberal govern- 
 ment should provide equally for all 
 
 The avenue should be opened broad and wide, 
 and then all who choose may enter. 
 
16 
 
 I have already suggested that farmers ought to 
 be more frequently in our national and state coun- 
 cils, and yet their habitual diffidence, their love of 
 home, and their aversion to political life, are very 
 likely to keep them in retirement. But at home 
 they hold the control of the government, and they 
 have only to draw their check on the public 
 treasury and it would not be protested. 
 
 If your college needs a hundred thousand dol- 
 lars to begin with, your farmers have but to order 
 the money appropriated and it will be found. Let 
 your society and the county societies but once 
 earnestly take the matter in hand, and it will easily 
 be accomplished. 
 
 To whom do your state funds belong ? "Who 
 pay your taxes ? Who are the most numerous 
 class in your state ? And I may enquire, who 
 have been the last to be served in their great 
 interests from the public treasury ? 
 
 The response is at once at hand. And will this 
 state of things continue. Farmers must answer 
 NO! 
 
 Mr. President, the problem in self-government 
 which this nation is now working out, is not yet 
 entirely solved. We have, in comparison with 
 other nations of the earth, barely entered upon our 
 existence; and although we were strong at our 
 birth, and our early youth gives evidence of great 
 power and vigor; yet looking with a proper sense 
 of the instruction to be derived from the history of 
 other nations, we can write no future for ourselves, 
 our course is, to a great extent, untried ; we came 
 
17 
 
 into existence upon great principles, and we must 
 stand and be built up upon such principles, or we 
 must fall; we rely upon the patriotic intelligence 
 of the masses. The laboring classes do, and ever 
 must form these masses. To give them a clear and 
 intelligent view of their rights, of their privileges 
 and immunities is to give permanence and stability 
 to our institutions, and to prepare us for a perpe- 
 tuity of those rights, which shall be a blessing to 
 all "the dwellers on earth." 
 
 I shall in this connection be pardoned for saying, 
 that any systems of government which disparages 
 the producing classes, must in the end be bad 
 government. It will necessarily contain elements 
 of corruption' and dissolution. I need not go 
 farther on this point than thus to state the question, 
 for I am sure of a hearty response to the position 
 that for this nation, the true policy of patriotism is 
 to create and multiply intelligent, well educated 
 laborers. 
 
 I have adverted to the influence exerted by the 
 fairs of this and kindred societies, but I have not 
 referred to the greatest and most effectual instru- 
 ment for elevating labor which is now, or hereafter 
 can be called into operation. 
 
 Our agricultural newspapers and magazines reach 
 numbers and produce effects which are unequaled. 
 Their literary character is alike creditable to their 
 conductors and to the farmers by whom they 
 are read. The great benefits flowing from their 
 extended circulation, is not confined to the im- 
 provements in agriculture, which are a sure con- 
 3 
 
18 
 
 comitant of their perusal. They create and inspire 
 a taste for reading, enlarge the sphere of observa- 
 tion, and educate in literature and science a large 
 class who are inaccessible to other influences. 
 They have already taken a high place among the 
 scientific and literary periodicals of the day, and 
 may very favorably challenge a comparison with 
 them. They are worthy of most extended patron- 
 age. Their evident effect is to elevate the charac- 
 ter of labor. 
 
 Whoever passes through the agricultural portions 
 of the Eastern and Middle States will be struck 
 with the equal distribution of property. 
 
 Few large estates can be found — comparatively 
 few farms rented. Most farms are worked by their 
 owners, and the mass of those owners are the edu- 
 cated farmers of the country. Some agricultural 
 paper is to be found in almost every house. Its 
 appearance is welcomed as weekly, or monthly, 
 it is delivered. 
 
 A sense of degradation in labor finds none of its 
 humiliating accompaniments where the well-con- 
 ducted farm journal is regularly perused. The 
 demand for a Quarterly Agricultural Review of the 
 high order of the best scientific and literary reviews 
 of this country and Europe, may not be a pressing 
 necessity at this moment ; but may we not expect 
 such a periodical as soon as our colleges are found- 
 ed, our professorships filled and endowed. 
 
 There is certainly a field to be occupied by such 
 a periodical, not in place of any we now have, not 
 excluding one of our farm journals, nor in any way 
 
19 
 
 interfering with their circulation ; but occupying 
 a higher sphere, and increasing the influence and 
 beneficial effects of all. 
 
 Mr. President — I doubt not that our agricultural 
 journals have added millions to our national 
 wealth ; and at the same time they have been 
 productive of happiness and enjoyment in the farm- 
 er's family, giving contentment to his sons and 
 daughters, and a relish for labor which is beyond 
 all price. 
 
 Concluding this somewhat desultory address, I 
 may be permitted briefly to allude to the agricul- 
 tural interests of our nation, as connected with the 
 administrative portion of the government. Our 
 National Society is a noble institution, doing a vast 
 work, bringing into happy juxta position, the varied 
 interests of the nation. 
 
 And without in detail pointing out its prospects 
 for good to the whole nation, as your society is 
 blessing the state, I wish to commend its approach- 
 ing exhibition of next week, at Philadelphia, as 
 worthy the patronage of all. But what place has 
 the great agricultural interests of the nation in the 
 government ? Transcending all other interests, 
 furnishing a vast majority of all our exports, giving 
 character and influence to our commerce, we have 
 a trifling yearly appropriation for the purchase of 
 seeds, &c, and an insignificant place in a subordi- 
 nate division of one of our departments. 
 
 A department of agriculture, with a vigilant 
 head, whose whole duties are devoted to a con- 
 sideration of this subject, is demanded alike by 
 
20 
 
 the magnitude of the pecuniary interests involved, 
 and the number of those employed in the prosecu- 
 tions of those interests. 
 
 There are a variety of legislative enactments 
 which need constantly this supervision, and in the 
 details of which there should be constant reference 
 to facts which ought to be collated and prepared 
 for use in such department. 
 
 Scarce a treaty of commerce is made in which 
 agricultural interests are not involved, and for the 
 want of such accurate and careful knowledge as 
 can only be acquired by continual research and 
 study, those interests it is believed in some cases 
 have been sacrificed, and in others have not been 
 so advanced as they might have been. I would 
 not be understood as disparaging in the least, the 
 work which has been done through the Patent Of- 
 fice for the introduction of choice seeds and plants, 
 and the collecting and diffusing of varied and im- 
 portant experience and knowledge. I appreciate 
 it most fully and in common with my brother 
 farmers, am grateful for it. 
 
 But what is the influence of American Agricul- 
 ture upon the commerce of the world ? Where 
 can a better provision be made for its extension ? 
 What reciprocity treaties can be made with other 
 nations opening a market for our surplus ? What 
 present restrictions can be removed or compensated 
 for by removing similar restrictions from the pro- 
 ducts of the country imposing them ? 
 
 These are questions only to be answered by a 
 mind devoted to this one subject at home and 
 
21 
 
 abroad, and which will have the responsibility of 
 these great interests laid upon it. A voice in the 
 treaty making power is demanded by larger con- 
 siderations than I have suggested. It may be al- 
 leged that all departments of the government are 
 interested in this great subject, and that being 
 regarded as the most important of all the subjects 
 of legislation and protection, it is always cared for. 
 I only answer that the old maxim is applicable in 
 its full force, " that what is every body's business 
 is nobody's business," 
 
 It will be vain to object that it will increase the 
 expenses of the government, or, that it will com- 
 plicate the administration and add to the numbers 
 of the cabinet. The farmers furnish the money, 
 and instead of complicating and confusing, it will 
 relieve the department of the interior, still leaving 
 in that department enough to occupy the mind and 
 employ the energies of any ordinary man. No 
 valid objection can be urged against the establish- 
 ment of such a department, and it is only necessary 
 that the united voices of our farmers shall be heard 
 in Washington to produce this very important end. 
 Some time since, when this subject was discussed 
 at a meeting of the National Society, it was objected 
 that the department of Agriculture would neces- 
 sarily be filled by a politician, as were the other 
 branches of government, and that the interests of 
 agriculture would thereby greatly suffer. This ob- 
 jection was urged by an influential senator, but 
 although the source of the objection was high, the 
 
22 
 
 objection itself has no validity. In all the parties 
 into which the country has ever been divided, there 
 have been found well-qualified, patriotic men, who 
 would command the confidence of the community, 
 and who would devote to the objects of their office, 
 all the requisite talent, industry and skill, and it is 
 not true, that because they might belong to one or 
 another party, they would fail in fidelity to the 
 duties required of them. 
 
 With agricultural contributions to the wealth of 
 nations of more than fifteen hundred millions of 
 dollars per year, the interests of which blend with 
 every other interest of the world, it is not asking 
 too much, to demand a department of agriculture, 
 as an obligation of government, as a right the 
 granting of which is not longer to be deferred. 
 
 Mr. President and Gentlemen — The cause of ag- 
 ricultural labor is the cause of our common hu- 
 manity. The onward progress of civilization, of 
 arts, of science, and of all that elevates and adorns 
 society, essentially depends upon its character and 
 the estimate in which it is held. In all the Free 
 States, it sends its contributions of members and 
 influence to every avocation and profession. It 
 claims support. It demands honor. It is to be 
 protected and defended against all assaults, either 
 from an aristocratic pride and feeling at home, or 
 from degrading servile influences from abroad Its 
 fruits of industry require the protecting, fostering 
 and expanding care of the government. Its hardy 
 youth demand all those appliances of education 
 
23 
 
 which shall amply qualify them for fulfilling their 
 duties as farmers and carrying out their obligations 
 as American citizens — and our mission — the mis- 
 sion of this and affiliated societies, will not be 
 ended until these objects are accomplished. 
 
t Q^^ r M^ oJ^^cty*^!**^ 
 
 tsTw 
 
 
libjukvofcongre™ 
 
 •■1IIIIII