.355 
 
October 3d, 18J8. 
 
 We have had Bvery Bvenino's full report of 
 
 Senator Bayard's recent address at Baltimore, 
 
 fcetore the Maryland Agricultural Association 
 
 made np in pamphlet form for jjratuitous difi 
 
 tnbution in thia part of the conntir, but ehaU 
 
 be glad to send copies anywhere, on receipt of 
 
 an addreaa and a one cent stamp for postage. 
 
 W. T. CROASDALB, ' 
 
 Editor of Every Evkkino. 
 
" jlie Jrlie fielatlop of ^gricliltlire to I'olitic?," 
 
 ADDRESS 
 
 Hon. THOMAS FRANCIS BAYARD, 
 
 OF DELAWARE, 
 
 At Pimlico Fair Grounds, near Baltimore, 
 
 BEFORE THE 
 
 Maryland Agricultural Associa'n, 
 
 Thursday, Sept. 26th, 1878. 
 
 
 ' The primal diilios sliine alofi like stars." 
 
 WILMINGTON, PEI,: 
 
 THE EVERY EVENING PUBLISHING COMPANY, 
 
 PHMiskfrs of "Every Evening" and "The DeUtivnrt Tribune." 
 
 1878. 
 
The Tine Relatiois of Agrkultwre to Politics. 
 
 At the Pimlico Fair Grounds, near Baltimore, on Thursday September 26th, 
 1878, Senator Bayard, of Delaware, by invitation, delivered the following address 
 before the Maryland Agricultural Association. Mr. Bayard spoke as follows: — 
 
 Ladies and Oentlemen: There is an old 
 French saying that "He -who excuses 
 himself accuses himself," and the same 
 idea finds expression in o:.r English 
 adage, "A man who is good at excuses is 
 good at nothing else" — and yet I cannot 
 forbear to lay before you, in the way of 
 apology for the shortcooiings of this ad- 
 dress, the wearying heats of our American 
 summer and the professional aud other 
 engagements which have turned what 
 should have been a vacation and period of 
 rest into a really busy season of occupa- 
 tion. But my desire to meet and mingle 
 with the people of Maryland has caused 
 me to put aside other engagements which 
 have, nevertheless, stood in the way of 
 that preparation to which the themes 
 proper for discussion before such an asso- 
 ciation as yours, composed of thoughtful 
 and inteUigent citizens, are entitled and 
 deserve. 
 
 Not having been bred a farmer, 
 what I do not know about this important 
 pursuit would be far more interesting and 
 valuable than what I do; but the pursuit 
 and results of agriculture are so important 
 to society at large, and so essential to 
 civilized government itself, that, although 
 reared in a different profession, my 
 thoughts have been frequently occupied 
 in the consideration of the great and 
 growing importance to us all of this chief 
 source of production and wealth, and the 
 duty which consequently attaches to those 
 who devote their time and energies to 
 farming to obtain and apply all the aid 
 that scientific knowledge can supply, 
 
 MOEE's UTOPIA. 
 
 Sir" Thomas More, the wise, witty and 
 upright chancellor who braved the fury of 
 a tyrant and obeyed his conscience even 
 unto death, met at Antwerp, in 1514, a 
 companion of Americus Vespucius, who 
 feigned to have discovered an island in the 
 Western Atlantic, and the idea was thus 
 suggested by the recent discoveries of 
 Columbus, of the imaginary commonwealth 
 called by More. Utopia, under cover of 
 which title he launched the arrows of his 
 satire at the rulers of his day, and in 
 playful earnest gave many wise hints upon 
 government- 
 
 oy, following J 
 
 ted in some J 
 
 I have been I 
 
 was a good 1 
 
 vn Prince a 4, 
 
 Of agriculture he said something that 
 may be useful for us to consider : 
 
 In Utopia farm houses are built over tlie whole 
 country, to which inhabitants are sent in rotiition 
 from the cities. Every family liacl forty men and 
 women and two slaves. A master aud a mistress 
 presided over each family, and over thirty families 
 a magistrate. 
 
 Every year twenty of the family return to town, 
 being two years in the country, so that all acquire 
 some knowledge of agriculture, and the land i.s 
 never left in the hands of persons quite un- 
 acquainted with country labors. 
 
 He adds : 
 
 The chief business of the magistrates is to talce 
 care that no man may live idle, and that everyone 
 should labor in his trade for six hours out of the 24. 
 
 His prophetic eye wouia seem to have 
 had in view the "tramps" of our period, 
 and to have prescribed a very simple but 
 excellent formula for their regulation. 
 
 A EOYAL KOAD TO USEFULNESS. 
 
 The royal family of Germany, following 
 a very wise rule, is instructed 
 branch of mechanical skill. I 
 told the present Emperor was 
 chair-maker, and the Crowr 
 button-maker, and it would be a good 
 thing for us to imitate this very sensible 
 system, and improve it by having, in 
 every large family, at least one educated 
 farmer. 
 
 I know of no branch of study which 
 does not with greater or less directness 
 lead the mind back to the marvels, the 
 mysteries and bounties of our common 
 mother earth, from whose bosom we draw 
 all that sustains our bodies ; from the 
 close and humble observance of whose 
 laws we derive our best lessons in science 
 and philosophy, and it is looking through 
 nature, as displayed in the earth, up to 
 nature's God, that we feel most forcibly 
 the ties of religion itself. 
 
 THE PKOMINENCE OF LAWYERS IN PUBLIC 
 STATIONS. 
 
 Here in America, the theory and system 
 of our government being popular, and 
 framed upon the distribution of limited 
 powers to numerous and independent 
 agents, every representative body — the 
 houses of Congress, the State Legislatures, 
 the county commissioners, the city coun- 
 cils — beoprnes a parliament, the very mean- 
 
3 
 
 ing of which word, "a speaking body," 
 will throw some light upon au important 
 question often asked, Why are our legis- 
 latures, State and Federal, composed so 
 largely of members of the legal profes- 
 sion ? Why does that profession con- 
 tribute so largely in filling the chief offices 
 of the Government? 
 
 Independent of the fact that ours was 
 intended to be a government of laws, and 
 not of the mere will of rulers, and that 
 the class of citizens who make laws their 
 especial study will naturally bo called 
 upon to frame and execute them, and that 
 men "learned in the law" must of neces- 
 sity, alone, compose the judicial 
 branch of the Government, to whom is 
 confided the interpretation of laws, 
 there can be no doubt that lawyers are 
 often chosen as legislators, chiefly because 
 they can discuss questions, and thus par- 
 liament is held, and the rewards of dis- 
 tinction and power are most easily access- 
 ible to members of the talking profes- 
 sion. 
 
 ONE BAD RESULT. 
 
 A bad result of this is the overcrowding 
 of the legal profession and official places by 
 the sons of ambitious parents, or by the 
 ambitious sons of modest parents, to the 
 exclusion of other classes and professions, 
 and frequently, as it seems to me, to the 
 detriment of the community. 
 
 It has frtqueutly been observed that the 
 miuds of lawyers are too much disposed to 
 technicality and lack that breadth of view 
 which is one of the best qualities in legis- 
 lation, which is intended to be the stable 
 rule of society, equal in all its applications 
 to all men, of every occupation or pursuit, 
 of every grade in fortune, and of every 
 grade of intellectual faculty. 
 
 In England, from which country our 
 institutions of government are chitfly 
 copied, it has been often noted that men 
 distinguished at the bar had failed to main- 
 tain their reputation in the halls of legis- 
 lation, and those whose impress as leaders 
 has been most indelibly and favorably 
 made upon their country's government 
 have been men whose minds were freed 
 from the mere technical education in a 
 single professional pursuit. 
 
 FARMERS AND MECHANICS NEEDED IN THE 
 PUBLIC COONCILS. 
 
 Therefore it is that I would rejoice to 
 seii a stronger infusion of the intellect of 
 leading men in the agricultural and 
 mechanical pursuits in those representative 
 bodies by whom our laws are moulded, 
 and who should therefore be prepared 
 and equipped for such duties by a greater 
 amount ot general culture and acquirement 
 than is usual, and, let me add, should 
 enlarge their studies of government and 
 laws, and bestow a larger proportion of • 
 their time and thoughts to the details and 
 practical conduct of political affairs. 
 
 Your association is one of the agencies 
 to which we must look for reformation in 
 the particulars I have mentioned. There 
 are especial opportunities for high useful- 
 ness given by the comparative seclusion 
 of your lives, which you cannot too highly 
 appreciate or value. Undo\ibtedly the 
 driving, hurry and bustle of a city hfe 
 sharpens men's faculties, and burnishes 
 them by constant attrition into a bright- 
 ness b' side which the wits of '"Country 
 Cousins" may seem dull — but at the same 
 time it deprives them\>f those seasons for 
 calm self-communion, of introspection 
 and judgment, which are so essential for 
 public as well as private safety and 
 welfare. 
 
 True wisdom is born of serenity and 
 repose; judgments formed in times ot 
 commotion are not trustworthy. The 
 calm bosom of the secluded lake reflects 
 most truly the face of the heaven it 
 mirrors, and which can never bo pictured 
 in the vexed surface of the stormy sea or 
 turbulent river. 
 
 In the quiet mind of the secluded 
 thinker is usually found that wisdom 
 which descends "to guide us in this dark 
 estate." 
 
 Country life gives not merely the leisure 
 for study, but especially is fitted for medi- 
 tation and reflection, needed to coun- 
 teract the heated sensationalism and 
 feverish thirst for novelty so painfully 
 characteristic of the time and country in 
 which we live. 
 
 From homes in the country, oftentimes 
 obscure and sometimes impoverished, h..ve 
 emerged those men who most potently and 
 beneficently have influenced the history 
 of our country. 
 
 HAMPDEN AND HAMPTON. 
 
 Few figures stand forth upon the can- 
 vass of history so eminent and admirable 
 as that of John Hampden, the English 
 country gentleman, whose monument 
 records that, "with great courage and con- 
 summate abilities,ho began a noble opposi- 
 sition to an arbitrary court in defense of 
 the liberties of his country ; supported 
 them in Parliament, and died for them in 
 the field." 
 
 And his compeer in virtue and ability, 
 separated in date by more than two cen- 
 turies, but who will ever rank with him in 
 history, whoso constancy and sound judg- 
 ment, whose intrepidity and self-control 
 have proved such a shield and buckler to 
 his people, when beset by difficulties and 
 dangers greater than even Hampden con- 
 fronted, is to-day supplied m our own 
 land in Wade Hampton, the planter of 
 South Carolina I 
 
 Hampden and Hampton ! The names 
 blend in sound, and in future time, 
 
 " Far ou in tiiiiiuiRTS that wu BhuU not si-e," 
 
 they will be coupled in the lessons taught 
 
to inspire the youth of all lands with 
 patriotic endeavour. 
 
 GREAT WOEK WROUGHT IN SECLUSION. 
 
 In a pleasant nook in an English garden 
 the mind of the great Newton first 
 detected and comprehended the laws of 
 the gravitation of matter. 
 
 Away from cities, in an obscure village, 
 James Watt, the inaugurator of our present 
 wonderful condition of mechanical pro- 
 gress, sat watching the lid of the t«a kettle 
 as it rose and fell, «ntil he comprehended 
 the imprisoned power which proclaimed 
 its birth in struggles and demanded and 
 irresistibly compelled its release from 
 confinement. 
 
 Far away from the busy haunts of men, 
 distant from cities and their tumults, wilhin 
 the quiet walls of the monasteries, during 
 all the violence and wars of the middle 
 ages the lamp of learning and science was 
 faithfully trimmed and kept burning. 
 And art and science and history in that 
 long and dark period of unrest lay hid and 
 safely preserved and cherished by the 
 patient, modest and conscientious labor 
 and chrouicle of the poor recluse and 
 humble monk. 
 
 Unconsciously, perhaps, a striking and 
 most practical illustration of the truth I 
 have suggested is given by the means 
 adopted in many states of the Union — 
 some by constitutional amendment, as in 
 Illinois and Pennsylvania, in others by 
 statutory amendment of municipal 
 charters, to arrest the appalling increase 
 of the debts of cities and large towns, 
 which have grown with such rapidity as to 
 threaten absolute confiscation of the 
 property within their jurisdiction. And 
 many city governments, so far from being 
 a protection to the accumulations of 
 industry and an encouragement to enter- 
 prise have come to be regarded as 
 their greatest danger. 
 
 DEPENDENCE ON BUBAL LEGISLATORS TO RE- 
 STRAIN THE ILL GOVERNMENT OF CITIES. 
 
 Under our system of suffrage as con- 
 ducted in the cities public expenditures 
 Jiave become so excessive, so wild and 
 profligate, and so large a class of the pop- 
 ulation have come to look upon the public 
 treasury as their rightful means of support, 
 and the corrupt improvement of private 
 property at public cost has become so com- 
 mon that the power to incur further 
 indebtedness has been withdrawn from the 
 local control of city officials and com- 
 mitted to the restraining influences of 
 state legislatures, which are composed 
 chiefly of representatives from the country 
 districts. 
 
 Does not this fact constitute a public 
 admission that a more reliable sentiment, a 
 more "saving oommon-eense" in the care 
 and administration of property exists 
 among the citizens of tiie rural districts 
 
 than would seem to control their sharper- 
 witted brethern massed at the centres of 
 population ? 
 
 I barely glance at this serious problem 
 of the government of men in large and 
 dense masses, not proposing on this occa- 
 sion to treat of the obvious evils of our 
 municipal systems, or their proper reme- 
 dies, but merely to draw your attention to 
 the confession, contained in the fact 
 referred to, of the manifest reliance exhib- 
 ited upon the calmer and slower and, as it 
 would appear, more wise and conservative 
 judgment of the inhabitants of the rural 
 districts. 
 
 THE BROAD PRAIRIE LAND OF PUBLIC 
 
 SENTIMENT. 
 
 Never was there a time in the history 
 of our country when calm, independent 
 and resolute resistance to wild and dan- 
 gerous popular fallacies was so needed as 
 now. 
 
 Every thinking man must have felt 
 that the absence of legal ranks and classes 
 in the United States has created what may 
 be likened to a broad prairie land of pub- 
 lic sentiment, over which every gale that 
 becomes popular sweeps with unob- 
 structed force and levels all individual 
 opposition. 
 
 This is one of the defects and dangers 
 of our democratic form of government, 
 against which its friends must guard it, 
 and which especially needs the opposition 
 of outspoken individuality of opinion, 
 and is yet so indisposed to tolerate it. 
 
 A falsehood is not less false because a 
 thousand voices shout it; it is only the 
 more dangerous and should encounter 
 more active and strenuous resistance. 
 
 INDEPENDENT OPINION NEEDED. 
 
 We do need, and need badly, vigorous 
 utterances of independent opinions. It is 
 from the conflict of honest, out- spoken 
 minds that truth is obtained, just as the 
 steel and the flint are both required to 
 strike the light. 
 
 And to the tyranny of unchecked 
 popular opinion is added the terrorism of 
 political partisanship, by which American 
 intellect and personal conscience are so 
 rudely assailed, overcome and dragged in 
 the dust of wild and clamorous error. 
 
 Upon the thoughtful minds of men who 
 love their country, and whose lives are 
 passed remote from busy crowds, I 
 earnestly press the consideration of their 
 duty and responsibility, to remedy these 
 defects. 
 
 FINANCIAL BEWILDERMENT. 
 
 If, in the midst of such financial dis- 
 tress and bewilderment as now surround 
 us, remedies, illusory and yet plausible, 
 should be urged ; schemes which promise 
 immediate relief, unbounded, easy and 
 seductive, and which have oaught the 
 
popular mind sufficiently to promise the 
 posseRsion of temporary political power to 
 their most conspicuous advocates, how 
 plain is the duty and responsibility 
 of every man who sees the lurking error 
 and the concealed danger of such measures 
 to bear his testimony in loud warning 
 against them ? 
 
 What answer should the farming 
 classes, the land owners and the hardy 
 yeomen of the United States, give to these 
 strange, wild cries we hear going up from 
 the political conventions of parties with 
 new names, that no more rent should be 
 paid for land, no more interest for the 
 use of money, that the precious metals 
 should be discarded, and "absolute 
 money" ordained by law should replace 
 and measure all values and be received 
 for all dues 'i 
 
 THE DUTY AND INTEREST OF FAEMEK3. 
 
 Who should 80 strenuously resist all 
 schemes which tend to lessen public rever- 
 ence for pledged faith, to weaken couli- 
 dence and to cripple and destroy public 
 (and of course private) credit by agreeing 
 to plans for the indefinite post- 
 ponement of the payment of pub- 
 lic engagements according to their 
 terms ? What portion of the American 
 people need credit so much and so regu- 
 larly as the farmer, who has to wait tix 
 months between seed-time and harvest for 
 his means of payment ? If a man would 
 enjoy credit let him denounce all schemes 
 to weaken credit and insist upon all that 
 will give it strength. To the poor and 
 honest man who needs credit and is com- 
 pelled to borrow money, I earnestly com- 
 mend these words. 
 
 ALL VALUES ABISB OUT OF LABOK. 
 
 What portion of the American people 
 know so well as the agricultural classes the 
 great fact that all values arise out of labor, 
 and that nothing of value can be had with- 
 out its share of labor ? 
 
 To whom, therefore, can the fallacy that 
 wealth can be created by empty promises 
 to create it, be more apparent, and by 
 whom should It more scornfully and 
 promptly be rejected ? 
 
 Who knows the reality and necessity of 
 steady, continuous manual industry better 
 than the American farmer ? and who can 
 beter attest the falsehood of a system of 
 currency which instructs men that pieces 
 of paper, upon which is printed a promise 
 of payment never to be redeemed, and 
 which can be multiplied indefinitely at the 
 will of any accidental majority of Con- 
 gress, can ever be a stable and reliable 
 measure of the value of those crops 
 upon the production of which so much 
 human toil, anxiety and core have been 
 bestowed ? 
 
 The pretended mysteries of the alche- 
 mists have long since become the subject 
 
 of human pity and derision, and surely 
 the attempt now to revive the greater 
 delusion that a printed Government certifi- 
 cate of value, not convertible into any 
 thing of value, can take absolutely and 
 permanently the place of, and perform all 
 the functions of actual value, will speedily 
 be discarded by the "sober, second- 
 thought" of the American people. 
 
 THE LABOB PBOBLEM. 
 
 But little more than twelve months ago 
 we witnessed, here in Mai-ylaud and in 
 other states, occurrences' growing out of 
 conflicting claims of labor and capital, 
 in which lawlessness raised its horrid 
 front and shocking scenes of insane and 
 savage destruction of property and life 
 weie enacted well calculated to fill every 
 citizen with apprehension and deep 
 anxiety. 
 
 So long as public peace and safety are 
 in jeopardy there can be for all good citi- 
 zens but one immediate, ever-present and 
 paramount duty : the maintenance of the 
 law; and when law is obeyed, and sits 
 firmly and unquestioned in its rightful seat 
 of power; then, and only then, 
 and not until then, shall the 
 bearing and relief of alleged injuries and 
 ki justice be patiently, calmly, and kiudiy 
 heard, investigated and remedied so far as 
 legal justice can suffice. 
 
 But I do not propose to touch upon this, 
 the gravest and most important problem 
 of modern civilization, which is shaping 
 itself and constantly demanding recogni- 
 tion in every quarter of the civihzed world, 
 not less in empires than republics, and in 
 the soluiion of which the remedies and 
 course of action which are most deeply 
 touched with a sense of common human 
 brotherhood and are the most influenced 
 by the essential and indelible, but unwrit- 
 ten laws of justice and good will between 
 man and man, will alone prove productive 
 of permanent prosperity to all classes. 
 
 PLACES FOB THE UNEMPLOYED. 
 
 But there are facts which all must recog- 
 nize and which are full of present 
 instruction. 
 
 Owing to a variety of causes, which I 
 will not attempt to recapitulate, there is 
 to-day a large body of our fellow country- 
 men unemployed and in want, who are 
 entitled to the most intelligent considera- 
 tion and most active friendship and assist- 
 ance. Go into the streets of Baltimore, 
 and indeed of every lesser town, and you 
 will find them idle but most anxious to be 
 honestly employed. 
 
 I read a few mouths since the statement 
 of a leading coal land owner and miner in 
 one of the Pennsylvania valleys, in which 
 he a.ssurtd the unemployed people of his 
 district that all the coal miniug now needed 
 could be done with one-half the hands 
 gathered in that region, and that for the 
 
other half there was no prospect of 
 employment. These meu were to be 
 counted by thousands and with their 
 families are to be counted by ton thousands. 
 
 When I think of the fair and fertile 
 peninsula on which I live and of which 
 our dear old ' 'Eastern Shore" forms part, 
 I wish from my heart that all of these 
 strong and willing hands of labor could be 
 transported and permanently established 
 on Maryland and Delaware farms. 
 
 When we cast our eyes across 
 the ocean, either to the east or 
 the west, and see the fearful 
 ravages of death in the starvation of mil- 
 lions in British India and the Chinese 
 Empire, or witness an imbruted condition 
 of living humanity with more than the 
 pangs and none of the deliverance of 
 death itself, we can better form an idea of 
 the difficulties of human government 
 under conditions of dense population and 
 insufficient production and realize the 
 blessings of communities, such as our own 
 Maryland and Delaware where, under just 
 and equal laws, the results of industry are 
 protected and personal liberty guaranteed, 
 and where a roof to shelter from the 
 elements, warm clothing and abundant 
 and substantial food are obtainable by any 
 man who, with moderate health and 
 strength, is content to walk with industry, 
 sobriety and simple honesty as his com- 
 panions. 
 
 THE RUSH FROM COUNTKY TO CITY. 
 
 Has there not been for more than twelve 
 years past a steady exodus of our young 
 yeomanry from the country districts to the 
 towns and cities ? Is it not a fact that the 
 steady labors of the farm and the duller 
 occupations and amusements of the home- 
 stead have proven irksome and distasteful 
 to many of the present generation who 
 have sought in the hot bed growth of 
 trade and speculation, fostered by paper 
 money in our centres of population, a 
 more profitable an easier or more exciting 
 kind of life ? What has been the result ? 
 The cities are filled with the idle victims 
 of over trade and exploded speculations. 
 Agricultural labor has been abandoned by 
 those most fit for it, and ovir farmers have 
 been compelled to get along with less com- 
 petent hands and pay them higher wages. 
 As a result, production has been lessened 
 and at the same time the cost of pro- 
 duction has been increased. 
 
 One obvious cure for much of the dis- 
 tress we now witness in cities and manu- 
 facturing centres will be found in the 
 return of the population to the cultivation 
 of American farms which to-day are at 
 prices far below their intrinsic value 
 because the compensations and advantages 
 of country life and agricultural occupa- 
 tions have not been duly weighed and 
 appreciated. 
 
 NO^PEAR 01' OVER-PRODUCTICN. 
 
 There need be no fears of over-produc- 
 tion of the fruits of the earth by American 
 farmers so long, at least, as the mad ambi- 
 tions of European rulers turn that conti- 
 nent into a vast camp or battle field, and 
 peri^ert the energies of their peoples to 
 their mutual destruction, and by vast 
 military establishments suck the very life- 
 blood out of the industries they profess to 
 protect. 
 
 "Kuowledge comes, 
 But wisdomliugers." 
 
 The progress of invention and the appli- 
 cation of natural forces to mechanical uses 
 within the last quarter of a century is 
 indeed marvellous. Undoubtedly every 
 invention whereby labor is released from 
 any task leaves it free to seek new fields 
 of employment and thereby production is 
 proportionately increased, and production 
 is wealth, and personal comfort and luxury 
 are the followers of wealth. 
 
 Whether the laborer is made more intel- 
 ligent, and his condition on the whole 
 advanced, is a deeply interesting and 
 important question which I will not pause 
 now to discuss. 
 
 In considering the benefits of the inven- 
 tion of labor-saving machinery to the 
 laborer the increased time for cultivation 
 of his faculties is obvious, and this shows 
 the importance of providing healthful 
 mental occupation. 
 
 In proportion as mechanical improve- 
 ment makes personal thought and skill in 
 the operative less necessary, and so tends 
 to deaden his intelligence, the need of food 
 for his mind is increased and should be 
 supplied. The love and habit of reading 
 should be encouraged so that when men 
 and women have leisure it will not be for 
 mischief, but improvement. It seems to 
 me that every agricultural society ought 
 to own a library of sensible and entertaining 
 books to refresh the weary and attract 
 inquiring minds among the laboring class. 
 
 Of the application of steam and elec- 
 tricity to agriculture and mechanical 
 pursuits each day gives some new illustra- 
 tion and amid the wonders developed we 
 feel, as La Rochefoucauld said, "only sur- 
 prised that we can be surprised." But, 
 knowing what we do, these inventions 
 open to us a vista of material progress 
 into which we may well gaze until imagi- 
 nation fails to trammel up the results. 
 
 AGRICULTURAL POSSIBILITIES OF CUB 
 COUNTRY. 
 
 By good authority we are told that in 
 1859-60 the largest cotton crop in the 
 United States, upwards of 5,000,000 bales, 
 was produced, and that but 2 per cent, of 
 the territory especially adapted to its culti- 
 vation was occupied. Knowing the 
 peculiar requirements of this plant, in soil 
 
and climate, and the comparatively 
 restricted area, imagination fails to picture 
 the capacities of this country under the 
 wonderful improvements in mechanics as 
 applied to agriculture, of chemistry as 
 applied to agriculture, and of the means 
 of transporting the products of agriculture, 
 not cotton only, but all the other number- 
 less crops BO much the legs circumscribed 
 as to fitting soil and climate. Surely this 
 laud could be the granary and store-house 
 of the whole world. 
 
 The skillful cultivation practiced 
 for two centuries in Holland, 
 if applied to the marshes and neglected 
 lands surrounding some of our chief cities, 
 would result iu marvellous production. 
 Such, for instance, as at Beemster, where 
 IS, 000 acres of the most fertile and valua- 
 ble land lies IG feet below the level of the 
 adjacent sea, and yet was drained in 1612, 
 and so ever since maintained; and some of 
 the finest meadows are more than 30 feet 
 below the water level. 
 
 And yet Holland, like all the rest of 
 Europe, is glad to use the labor-saving 
 agricultural machinery of the United States. 
 
 Here is the beneficence of free trade in 
 thought — each gathering good from the 
 other — all benefited by the discovery of 
 each. 
 
 THE TTTILIZATION OF WASTE. 
 
 In the utilization of what is now re- 
 garded as wastes, the American farmers, 
 especially of our own and the more South- 
 ern states, have much to learn. 
 
 The " duug hill" of which so many 
 speak with such contempt, and of which 
 BO few appreciate the value, has proven 
 the foundation of solid wealth, well worthy 
 of intelligent care. From the Chinese we 
 may learn much as to this, and every day 
 the ignorant wastes and sanitary dangers 
 of the sewerage of our towns and cities are 
 forcing themselves upon the consideration 
 of thoughtful minds. 
 
 I am not competent — even if this hasty 
 address would permit me — to speak of the 
 science of agriculture. 
 
 It is only of comparatively late years 
 that it has been so treated. In 1802 Sir 
 Humphrey Davy first lectured upon agri- 
 culture as a science, and since that date the 
 applications of chemistry, as applied analy- 
 tically to soils, has thrown new light upon 
 the pursuit. 
 
 No farmer but should constantly experi- 
 ment upon the capacity of his land. It is 
 only by such means that its possible value 
 can be known. 
 
 OUB COXTNTBV'S GREAT CROPS. 
 
 To-day the "balance of trade," as it is 
 called, is effected in favcr of the United 
 States chiefly by the cotton crop, yet a 
 wheelbarrow could have carried that crop 
 less than one hundred years ago. In 1782 
 eight bags (not bales) of cotton were seized 
 
 in England on a ship from the United 
 States because it was supposed to be im- 
 possible that so much of the fibre could 
 be produced in this country. The very 
 names of calico from Calcutta, and muslin 
 from Moussoul, tell us the Oriental origin 
 of our household fabrics. 
 
 lUce, of which the production in Caro- 
 lina and the other Southern states is so 
 extensive and important, is not indigenous 
 to our soil, but is alleged to have started 
 from a single peck of paddy or rice in the 
 husk, given by the captain of a Dutch brig 
 to Governor Smith, at Charleston, in 16!)4, 
 into which port the vessel had put in dip- 
 tress. Its culture was afterwards, in 1718, 
 introduced into Louisiana by John Law's 
 famous "Company of the West." Today 
 ours is the finest rice culture in the world. 
 
 There are now known three hundred 
 species of grasses, and may I not ask why 
 are not many of these found suitable for 
 this region, for profitable cultivation, for 
 grazing and live stock improvement ? 
 
 It is so easy to make these experiments, 
 so interesting to watch their disclosures, 
 and the possibilities of profit are so hope- 
 ful, that I cannot but be surprised at the 
 neglect I witness almost everywhere. 
 
 By the census of 1870 there were 
 11, IT)."). 240 persons, over 20 years of age, 
 employed in the United States. Of these 
 in agriculture were employed r),ir)l,7<>7, 
 and iu manufactures 2, fjOO. 189, giving to 
 these combined employments 7,r).')l,().S6. 
 Trade and transportation had 1,117,1)28; 
 leaving for the professions, and others not 
 classed, 2,;58.">.3r»6. The agricultural and 
 mechanical employments thus embracing 
 nearly two-thirds of our working men — 
 and being so Chseutial and controlling a 
 portion of our body politic^ — how luanifest 
 the importance of education and training 
 among them. 
 
 THE SAVING VIRTUES FOB A PEOPLE MOBALLT 
 SICK. 
 
 But I wil'i not weary your patience 
 longer with the speculations of a mind 
 whose practical experience in your call- 
 ing is so slight. 
 
 What may be the results of the wonder- 
 ful discoveries in physical science we 
 may not fully comprehend, but 'I doubt 
 not through the ages an increasing pur- 
 pose runs." Under all conditions of 
 life; under every change and vicissitude of 
 human affairs, human nature remains the 
 same, and within ourselves rests the 
 responsibility of human will left free. 
 
 A saying of Pericles has been preserved: 
 "that possesgions (houses and land.s) can 
 never produce 7neu, but men can gain of 
 such things as many as they will." 
 
 New inventions may render the old 
 useless, and the machinery of to-day may 
 bo cast into the rubbish pit to-morrow ; 
 our institutions of government may fail 
 and be replaced by others — history is filled 
 
with such illustrations. But there are other 
 things that will never fail, and can never 
 safely be discarded ; are needed now, 
 tflways were, and ever will be needed : 
 
 Self-reliance and self-restraint. 
 
 Industry and frugality. 
 
 Courage and patience. 
 
 Truthfulness and honor. 
 
 Morality and religion. 
 
 These are the essential bases which keep 
 the world sweet and correct those fermen- 
 tations which human passions generate. 
 
 Upon these qualities we must depend 
 for all the hope of permanent and pro- 
 preseive prosperity and happiness. And 
 how shall they be secured ? All are home- 
 spun virtues^ — virtues spun at home ; and 
 to the guardians of homes we must look 
 to see that they are implanted and nour- 
 ished there. 
 
 THE DUTY OF WOMEN IN PKESEKVING THE 
 riKESIDE VIRTUES. 
 
 Mothers of America, how great a 
 power is in your hands I — to mould the 
 characters of those who are soon to be 
 charged with the government of their 
 country ! 
 
 How shallow and petty seem all other 
 rights compared with these : the true 
 woman's rights, that spring not from 
 
 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 002 744 108 7 
 
 human statutes, but have their warrant 
 from a Higher Hand. 
 
 In reflecting upon the evils which to- 
 day afflict our country; which have pros- 
 trated its prosperity and paralyzed its 
 industries and commerce, I trace the want 
 of influence of the fireside virtues I hare 
 named. Ours is a government of laws, but 
 laws moulded by public opinion. In a 
 reformed, regenerated public opinion 
 must we look for the cure of the evils 
 which unclean dishonesty, disregard of 
 truth and honor, unscrupulous private 
 greed and unpatriotic animosities have 
 brought upon us. The family and home 
 circle are the natural birth place and nur- 
 sery of the principles which, being educa- 
 ted and established there, expand into 
 the community and pervade the whole 
 body of laws and government with their 
 sober and sweet influences. 
 
 The care of his family is the just, hap- 
 piest and proudest duty of the American 
 citizen, and to the American mother is 
 assigned the power and duty of moulding 
 the character of the American man. No 
 written law, no established constitution 
 hdA created or assigned these duties but in 
 their just performance rest our chief hopes 
 for individual and national welfare and 
 happiness. 
 
 THE LExVDOG DELAWARE NEWSPAPER. 
 
 The only Wilmington Newspaper receiving Associated Press Dispatches and other Telegraphic News. 
 Subscripiion price, $5 per year, $3 for six months, 50 cents a month in advance. ' 
 
 THE DELAWARE TRIBUNE. 
 
 THE WEEKL\ EDITION OF EVERY EVENING, 
 
 The best and cheapest weekly, published on the Peninsula. Price, $1 per annum, in advance. 
 
 These papers represent no party, but are independent organs of conservative opinion, advocating the 
 maintenance of our Government as the Fathers made it, without paternal powers or banking privileges. As 
 the one supreme issue of the present time they advocate a constitutional and honest currency of coin, bearing 
 an unchanging relation to the standai^ of vslvie among civilized nations. 
 
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