Marshall County Democrat. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1855-1859, 1857-10-15
Caleb Cushing at an Agricul-
tural Fair---An Eloquent
Speech.


tural Fair, held at Newburyport, the resi-.
dence of Hon. CALEB CUSHING, last week
that gentleman was called upon for speech
He responded as follows. His remarks are
peculiarly appropriate at the present time
Mr.. PREsrDENr-You do me much hon.
or. have been but spectator here to-
day; pleased, a satisfied, an admiring Que,
but still spectator. having no privilege OF
presence as practical member of this So
ciety. AS lcoker-on, it has gratifed me
exceedingly to witness the exhibition OF
cattle and especially that of fruits, flowers
and esculant vegetables. and of objects of
domestic art, SKILL and taste, which can
not be surpassed, as it seems to me, by pro-
auctions of the same class in any part of
the commonwealth | confess, however,
that my eye has passed with still more graf
liication from this part of the exhibition to
the yet more interesting one of the men,
yes, and the women, whom this annual fes-
tival, the true farmers holiday, has brought
in concourse to-day to the city of Mulberry
port. have seen before me the living rep
resentation of the strength and snews Of
the country, its proprietary and its indus
trial population, Immediately connected
with the cultivation Of its land, and the
representation also of the mothers, wives
and daughters of Essex; second in virtue.
intelligence and beauty to none in the wide
world, and of whom it may be said, that if,
according to the old tradition. we lost our
primeval paradise by the fault Of Eve, it
were paradise well lost for the paradise
regained in the society of the daug hters Of
Eve, these household divinities of the homes
of Massachusetts. And in you, the choice
men of the rural population of the county,
| see the worthy descendants of those who,
two hundred years ago, planted in this
land the British race. language, thought,
love Of independence, and force of charac-
ter, which have made us what we are
which reclaimed the country from its ano-
riginal savage inhabitants and defended it
against foreign foes the descendants Of
those who, wherever duty called them,
whether to the ramparts Of Louisburg, the
ensanguined banks of Bloody Brook. or the
cannon-pl oughed brows of Bunker's Hill,
were over foremost in the path Of honor
and of danger. Yes: when look around
on these earnest and thoughtful faces before
me, hardened by vol intary labor, and yet
by intelligence and education,
l see how it is that Massachusetts creates,
invites and propagates the ideas of the
country, and | feel that in you and such as
you, is the never-failing support of the
welfare and glory Of the Union.
And, gentlemen, the spectacle Of this day,
It's objects and Its persons, have led me to
another reflection of less general nature.
but associated with current events, and
which, therefore, most naturally arises in
the mind
The United States, at this moment, are
passing through what is called financial
crisis, a stringcncy in the money market,
panic terror in the ranks Of business men,
which shocks and disturbs all the relations
OF commerce and exchange Happy at such
a time are you, the cultivators of the land,
OF that boon, mother earth--olma qcnetrir
(which, SO long as the sun shines, and
the refreshing rains Of heaven fall, and
occ Il tiihc anu harvest succeed one another.
Is the only certain and exhaustIess source
OF the prosperity and greatness of men and
of nations.
One OF the wisest Of the present econo.
mists of France, when rejecting on tho
losses which that country has incurred by
river inundations; by the waste
OF life and treasure in the war with Russia.
by successive years deficiency in the grape
and other crops; by the disProportionately
high price of the necessalies of life bv
the tendency of the population to accumu-
late in mischievous mullitudes in the great
cities like Paris and Lyons; by the admit
ted physical deterioration of tho nhabit-
ants. and by the immense disasters of rev.
dictionary commissions and sanguinary civ
il conflicts occasioned by the chronic s.rug-
gle between traditional public institutions
and utopian schemes of socalistic change
in the condition Of the human raco-re-
f1ecting upon all this, l say, he consoled
himself by the further reflection that he
might look with undoubting confidence for
remedy to all this in the recuperative pow
er of the soil and the agricultural popula.
lion of France.