California Farmer and Journal of Useful Sciences, Volume 3, Number 15, 12 April 1855 — Address of the Hon. Edward Everett, [ARTICLE]

Address of the Hon. Edward Everett,

. AT THE DEDHAM CATTLE SHOW. Remarks at the dinner of the Norfolk County Agricultural Society, at Vedham, on the 261 Aof September, 1849, Hon. Marshall P. Wilder, president of tht society, in the chair. After making his personal acknowledgments to the Chair and to Mr. Webster, Mr. Everett went on as follows: —

You have been pleased, Mr. President, to inform the company that lam a Norfolk man. I am, sir. 1 was born in Dorchester, and my ancestors, from the first settlement of the country, were born and bred in this prosperous town ol Dedham. lam not ashamed of my descent. My forefathers were humble men, farmers and mechanics, and pursued a most unambitious career. They left nothing to their descendants of either fame or fortune, but a good name. But as times go, he is not the worst citizen who gives himself with unpretending industry to a private career; content to embark in the ship of state as a private passenger, and if need be, to work his passage before the mast. My course of life has carried me away from the paths trod by my ancestors. But as I advance in years, I am inclined to think with his excellency, that the pursuit of the farmer is most conducive to virtue and happiness. I will not compare it invidiously with other occupations ; they are all honorable and all respectable, when pursued by honest men and for honest ends; but I do think, sir, upon the whole, and for the mass of mankind, that agriculture, as it is of necessity the only occupation which could be pursued by the majority, is in its nature entitled to the preference. I believe it to be the occupation most favorable to health, to tranquility of mind, to simple manners, to frugal habits, and to what is of utmost consequence in a republican government—equality of condition. What more is wanted to make up an occupation in life most favorable to happiness? Certainly there is no other pursuit, which, to the same degree lies, at the basis of the entire social system. lam not speaking without warrant, Mr. President, for you have told us the same thing to-day in better language. It is in fact the consenting judgment of the world. In the infancy of our race, men could express their feelings of gratitude and wonder in reference to agriculture and its fruits only by saying that the products of the soil were the gifts of Heaven. Corn, wine, and oil, the implements of husbandry, and the skill to use them, were, to their simple apprehension, all given by the gods. The wisdom of man was not sufficient to account for the intioduction of these beneficent gifts. The descriptions of China tell us that even to this day, the sovereign of that empire, the despotic master of one third part of the human race, in order to show his high esteem for agriculture, once in the year, holds the plow and turns a furrow, in the presence of his court and of all the highest dignitaries of the land. When we consider the almost idolatrous homage paid by the Chinese to their emperors, we shall better appreciate the significance of a ceremony like this. One cannot but recall the beautiful allusion of Thomson, — " In ancient times, the sacred plow employed The kings ami awful fathers of mankind ; And some, with whom compared, your insect tribes Are but the beings of a summer's day, Have held the scale of empire, ruled the storm Of mighty war; then, with unwearied hand, Disdaining little delicacies; seized The plow, and greatly independent lived." But we need not, sir, go back to the past, to find the times when agriculture has been held in the highest estimation. The gentleman who has just taken his seat (Mr. Webster) will bear me out when I say, that in England, at the present day, it is the great interest. Land is the favorite investment, though it rarely yields an income of more than three per centum. As soon as a man becomes possessed of a fortune in England, he buys land. If the estate be large, the greater part will be leased to tenants ; but a considerable proprietor generally retains a portion of land in his own hands. Every thing pertaining to its cultivation —the improvement of the soil, the contrivance of agricultural implements, the choice and succession of crops, the warfare against noxious insects —receives a degree of attention, in that country, hardly known here. The best talent, unwearied research, and capital in abundance, are enlisted in the service of husbandly. Mr. Webster, from his own observation, will tell you that the annual meetings of the Royal Agricultural Society are deemed of greatest interest by the most intelligent portion of the community. The prizes that are given at those meetings are objects of competition to all, from the consort of the queen down to the tenant farmer and the farm laborer. At these festivals, persons belonging to the highest nobility and to the wealthiest gentry in the kingdom are seen examining the condition of the animals at the pens, or carefully

inspecting the implements of husbandry in the machine yard. The character of the agriculture of any region must depend on the soil and climate. Mr. Webster has given us an account of the root culture of England. We cannot have it, as he has told us, to the same extent in New England, although it will be carried, unquestionably, much farther than it has been. Nor will our climate and soil permit us to cultivate, on a large scale, what may be called, in the temperate region, the great staple of agriculture —that is, wheat. Much less can we produce the staples of southern and tropical climates. Still, however, I do not know that agriculture is not as important an interest in this as in any other part of the world. I believe that by the aid of our golden grain, the Indian corn, (which I imagine will prove in the end the most valuable gold dug out of the earth on either side of this continent, eastern or western,)— I believe that wich the aid of Indian com, the invaluable potato, and the other vegetable products adapted to our soil and climate, we may have farms that will compare advantageously with those of any part of the world. 1 mean farms on which a moderate outlay of capital, judiciously invested and well worked, will yield a reasonable profit; and that is the most that can be done any where ; for great speculative profits can never exist in the pursuit of any great permanent business, and are of course not to be taken into account in a comparison of this kind. It is true that no skill, that no thrift can make our soil yield the cotton plant, the sugar-cane, the tobacco —what shall I call it —plant, or rather weed. But we have no reason to regret them. On the contrary, it is these comparatively barren plains, these sterile hill sides, to which we owe, in the last result, the prosperity of New England. It is precisely to these that we are indebted for that patient industry which is more than a counterbalance for a rich alluvial soil, and for that aptitude for the arts and energy of purpose which are vastly more productive of wealth than a genial climate. Who does not know that it is precisely such a region as that in which we live, that has been at all times the cradle of those inventions which seem to endow metal, and wood, and stone, with muscular activity and living sense; which enable a man to say to this piece of machinery, framed of wood and metal, "do and remove the chatffrorn the wheat," and to that structure of stone and wood, w Throw out your revolving arms to the winds, and grind my corn into bread ?" Where were these primitive machines, and the thousand still more ingenious and complicated contrivances of modern art, invented ? On a soil and beneath a climate like our own. May I not go further, and say, that it is a soil of moderate fertility, beneath the climate of the temperate regions, that has always been the cradle of constitutional freedom, and of that passion for liberty, which are the great hereditary glories of the Anglo-Saxon race ? Poor as our soil, ungenial as our climate may be, it is precisely to these that it is owing, under Providence, that our farms are tilled by the arms of freemen.

There were some things, Mr, President, that I thought to say to you ; but Governor Briggs and Mr. Webster have dealt with my intended speech somewhat as the farmer deals with a barberrybush on the side of his field. They have passed their great breaking-up plough through it, and grubbed it all up. 1 will only speak of one circumstance which is going, as I think, to prove more favorable to our agriculture than has been generally supposed, and that is, the multiplication of railroads. We have hitherto, perhaps, thought more of the benefit resulting from these new facilities of communication, in connection with commerce and manufactures. But 1 believe they are to do quite as much for our agriculture. I think that this network of railroads thrown over the land, is to be of more benefit to the husbandry interest of New England, than all the gold of California, It will put it in the power of the farmer to get his supplies from the seaboard, and to carry his produce to market, much more advantageously than formerly. In short, sir, it will enable him to live three days in one ; and that, if one lives wisely, is no small matter. There is another thing worthy of consideration. You stated, sir. that our young men of enterprise had hitherto committed a great error, in leaving all other pursuits and thronging to the city. 1 agree with you entirely. But a counter-current is now taking place. It is getting to be much more common now than formerly, when a man has acquired the means of doing it, to go back to his native village, and to seek a quiet retreat under the trees, beneath whose shade he was born. This practice will be greatly facilitated by the railroads. Within a distance of twenty-five or thirty miles around the metropolis, we see constantly springing up a crop of these neat little cottages. Men find that they can do business in town, and yet enjoy the pure air and free elbowroom of the country, for the residence of their families, far away from the smoke, and dust, and noisy streets of the city. This practice, sir, you will find, will prevail more and more, lthasnot only healthfulness to recommend it, but it is in consonance with the deepest sentiments of our nature, which bind us by the strongest associations to the homes of our childhood and to the graves of our fathers. There is a charm even in a single visit to one's native spot. Ido assure you, sir, that I have not been able, even for this single day, to breathe the air of these fields where my fathers lived and acted their humble part for two hundred years, without experiencing emotions that words fail to describe. " I feci the gales, that from ye blow, A momentary bliss bestow, As, waving fresh your gladsome wing,

My weary soul you seem to soothe, And, redolent of joy and youth, To breathe a second spring." I look to this growing custom of returning to the native village, after the meridian of life is passed, as a circumstance tending greatly to the improvement of our agriculture. The effects are already seen in the multiplication of fine farms, neat and even elegant dwellings, capacious barns, substantial and permanent enclosures, fields under the highest cultivation, and avenues of trees, planted for ornament and shade. This last point is worth the particular attention of our.fellowcitizens in the country. Till lately, perhaps, this generation, following the bad example of the last, has not done quite so much in this way as might have been wished. It is a kind of instinct in the settlement of a new country, to destroy trees; and it takes a good while to restore to the community a disposition to spare, protect, and propagate them. Some public-spirited individuals, however, in our country towns, began to think of this matter, in the middle of the last century. There are in the interior of new England a great many noble trees, planted eighty or one hundred years ago ; and most certainly nothing grows out of the earth, and man can put nothing upon it, so beautiful. I hope, my friends, we shall let our children and grandchildren enjoy the great comfort to be derived from this source. Sir Walter Scott represents one of his characters as saying that his father used to tell him to be always putting down a tree. It will be growing, Jock, when you are sleeping." It will be growing, sir, when we are sleeping to wake no more. The acorn which you cover with a couple of inches of earth, the seedling elm which you rescue in your garden from the spade, will outlive half a dozen of our generations. Cicero speaks of it as a kind of natural foresight of the continued existence of man, that men "planted trees which were to benefit a coming generation." Yes, sir, and if every man, before he goes hence, would but take care to leave one good oak or elm behind him, he would not have lived in vain. His children and grandchildren would bless his memory. I am afraid I have spoken too long, sir, in this rambling way; but if you will allow me one other word, I will say that there is a species of culture more important than any within the range of material husbandry,—l mean the culture of the mind. But I need not say much on this topic. You have yourself, sir, in your instructive discourse, placed its importance before the company in a clear light. Still more, sir, am I led to spare my remarks on this subject, when I reflect that I am speaking in the presence of one (Mr. H. Mann) whom I may without impropriety call the very apostle of this uninspired gospel. He has told you over and over again that education is the great interest of every class in the community. I will only say, sir, that if the yoemen of New England wish their principles to prevail, or their influence to be perpetuated over the country, the only way in which they can for any length of time effect this object, is to educate their children to understand those principles, and firmly and effectually to maintain them. Allow me, sir, in taking my seat, to thank you and this company for your very kind attention, and to express my best wishes for the prosperity of the Norfolk Agricultural Society.