The emigrant aid journal of Minnesota. [volume] (Nininger City, Minn. Terr. [i.e. Minn.]) 1856-1858, 1857-08-15
J~efserson,s opinion of Farming.

Whatever may be your choice OF future occupation
whatever calling or profession you may select, there Is
certainly none more honorable than that of a farmer
The patriarch of the fields, as he sits beside the cottage
door, when his daily toll is over, feels an inward calm
never known in the halls of pride. His labor yields
him unpurchasable health and repose. [ have observed
with more grief and pain than | can express, the visible
tokens which appear in all directions of a growing dis
position to avoid agricultural pursuits, and to rush into
some ver-crowded profession, because a corrupt and de-
basing fashion has thrown around it the tjnsel of mag
mary responsibility. Hence, the farmer, instead of
preparing his child to follow in the path of usefulness
himself has trod, educates him for a sloth labor is con-
sidered vulgar, to work is ungenteel, a ~jack-plane is less
respectable than the lawyers green bag; the handles
of the pillow less digni6ed than the ~yard-stick. Unfor-
tunatc infatuation !. How melancholy is this delusion,
which unless it be checked by a wholesome reform in
public opinion will cover over our country with wreck and
ruin This state of things is striking at the very foun-
dation of our national greatness it is upon agriculture
that we mainly depend for our continued prosperity, and
dark and evil will be the day when it falls into %direpute.
What other pursuit offers so sure a guarantee OF an
honest independence, a comfortable support TOR a growing
family Where else can we look but to the productions
of the soil for the safety of investment, and for ample
returns ? In commercial speculations all is chance and
uncertainty, change and Auctuation, rise and fall. In
the learned professions, scarce one In ten makes enough
to meet his incidental expenses how, then, are we to
account for this fatal instruction of public opinion ?
CH1yALRY OF OlD.-It was the courtesy of chivalry
that inspired Crillon to send vegetables to the scurvy-
infected Elliot, whom he was ~beseging in Gibraltar !;
and, to come down to the last example, it was per-
haps an unnecessary courtesy which inspired Sir Edward
Lyons, when our own men were lying h~alffamished in
the trenches before Sebastopol to send a fat buck to
the hostile admiral within the city. Still, courtesy be-
tween knights engaged in hostilities has ever received an
universal and approving acknowledgment When
George II. sent the Garter to Prince Ferdinand of Bruins.
place in front of the whole army. The French General
De Broglie, learning the nature of the ceremony, gener-
ously fastened to do honour to valor by the exercise
of which the French had grievously suffered. He, too,
drew up his men within sight of the spectacle, and then
been rewarded by George II. De Broglie dined in the
evening in Ferdinand's tent, the guest of his adversary.
On the following day they were as fierce enemies as ever.
EHE DIFFERENcE.-The difference between a repub-
lie and a monarchy is thus t~ruthfully pointed out by
somebody: pile all the people into a pyramid, with
the President for the apex, and you have the symbol of
a republic. You can shake the President, but you can
not move the united force of the people. 1nvert the
pyramid, with a King for its base, and you have a
symbol Of a monarchy. Trip up that King, and the
whole structure falls into confusion.