The western Democrat. [volume] (Charlotte, N.C.) 1852-1870, 1857-11-10
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 1857. .~~~~
INDUSTRIOUS FARMERS.

nLUSTRIoUS FARMERS.
Edward Everett, in late oration at the
NY. Agricultural State Fair, thus referred
to great men who have chosen an agricul-
tlral life:
The greatest political philosopher and
consummate statesman of modern Europe.
Edmund Burke, who saw further than any
of his countrymen into tie cloudy future
which hung over the close f the eighteenth
century, at the meridian Of his life, and
when most engrossed in pnblic business
purchased a large farm. % have" said
| he, ia a letter written to a friend, in that
most critical year of English politics l769'"
just made push, with all could collect of
my own, and the aid of my friends, to cast
| little root ia the country. | have pur-
| chased about six hundred acres of land in
Buckinhamshire, about "a miles from Lon
| don. It is a place exceedingly pleasant
| and purpose, God willing, to become a
farmer in good earnest" This his purpose,
he carried into effect, and adhered to it to
| the end of his life. Those immortal ora
tions which revived in the British Senate
the glories of the ancient eiequence were
meditated in the retirement of BeacOnsfeld:
and there, also, were composed those all
but inspired appeals and e1postuations,
which went to the heart of England and
Europe in the hour of their dearest peril.
and did 80 much to expose deformity and
arrest the progress of that goddess philoso-
phy-specious, arrogant. hypocrtical and
sanguinary-which,w with liberty and equali
ty on its lips, and plunder and murder and
treason in its heart, waged deadly war on
France and mankind, and closed profess
ed crusade for republican freedom by the
establishment of the military despotism.
A greater than Burke in this country,
our own peerless Washington, with bur
den of public care on his mind such as has
seldom weighed upon any other person
conscious, through a considerable part of
his career, that the success, not only of the
American Revolution, but of the whole ex-
pertinent ofthe republican government, was
dependent in no small degree upon his
course and conduct,-yet gave throughout
his life, in time of peace, more of his time
and attention, as he himself in one of his
private letters informs us, to the superin- |
tendence of his agricultural operations,
than to any other object. alt will not be
doubted" says he, in his last annual mes
sage to Congress 9th of December. 1885, |
''that, with reference either to individual
or national welfare, agriculture is of prima-
ry Importance. In proportion as nations
advance in population and other circum-
stances of maturity, this truth becomes
more apparent, and renders the cultivation |!
of the soil more and more an object of
public patronage. Among
the means which have been employed to |
this end, none have been attended with |
greater success than the establishment of
boards, charged with collecting and dffus
ing information, and enabled, by premiums
and small pecuniary aids to encourage and |
assist spirit of discovery and improve
ment" On the 10th of December 1899, |
Washington addressed a long letter to the |
managers of his farms-the last elaborate |
production of his pen-transmitting a
plan, drawn upon thirty written folio pages,
containing directions for their cultivation |
for several years to come. In seven days |
from the date of this letter his own vener- |
ated form was ''sown a national body, to be
raised spiritual body"
Nearly all the successors of Washington
in the presidency of the United States, both
the deceased and the living, passed, or are
passing, their closing years in the dignifed
of rural pursuits.