The Kanzas news., 1857-11-28
influence of Agricultural Pursuits.


Edward Everett thus speaks of the moral
influences and benefits to nation of an in
teIligent agricultural population:
81 do not claim for agricultural life in
modern times the Arcadian simplicity of the
heroic ages but it is capable, with the aid
of popular education and the facilities of
intercommunication, of being made pur-
suit more favorable than city life to that
average degree of virtue and happiness to
which we may reasonably aspire in Che pre-
sent imperfect stage of being. For the same
reason that our intellectual and moral facul-
ties are urged to the highest point of culture
by the intense competition of the large
towns, the contagion of vice and crime pro-
duces in a crowded population deprayity
of character from which the more thinly
inhabited country, though far enough from
being immaculate, is comparatively free
Accordingly, we find that the tenure on
which the land is owned and tilled-that is,
the average condition of the agricultural
masses-decides the character of a people,
Il is true that the compact organization, the
control of capital, the concentrated popular
talent, the vigorous press, the agitable tenn
permanent of the large towns, give them an
this is far less the case in the United States
than in most foreign countries, where the
land is held in large masses by few pow
erful landholders. Divided as it is in this
country into small or moderately-sized farms,
owned, for the most part, and titled by
class of fairly educated, independent and
intelligent proprietors, the direct influence
of large towns on the entire population is
4, L.. H. l. IL D.
can at all times make revolution In France;
but not even your imperial metropolis could
make revolution in the United States.-
What the public character loses in concen-
tration and energy by this want of metro
politan Capitalization is more than gained by
the country in the virtuous mediocrity, the
decent frugality, the healthfulness, the So
cial tranquility of private life. trust do
full justice to the elegant refnements, the
liberal institutions, the noble charities, the
creative industries, the world-encompassing
energy of the cities but the profuse ex
penditure of the prosperous, the unfathomed
wretchedness of the destitute, the heaven
defying profigacy of the corrupt, the insane
spirit of speculation, the frantic haste to be-
come rich, the heartless dissipation of fash |
ionable life, the growing ferocity and reck-
lessness of portion OF the public press,
the prevailing worldliness of the large
towns, make me tremble for the future 1t
appears to me that our great dependence,
under Providence, must be more and more /
on the healthy tone of the population scat |
tered over the country-strangers to the ex
the temptations, the revulsions of
trade, and placed in that happy middle con-
dition of human fortune which is equidis |
tant from the giddy heights of afiuence,
power and fame, and the pinching straits of
poverty, and as such most favorable to hu-
man virtue and happiness.
While the city is refreshed and renovated
by the pure tides poured from the country
into its steamy and turbid channels, the cul-
tivation of the soil affords at home that mod
crate excitement, healthful occupation, and
return, which most conduee to
the prosperity and enjoyment of hfe."