Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1870-10-19
ADDRESS OF GEN. GARFIELD, AT
THE n. o. STATE FAIR,

THE n. o. STATE FAIR.
On Thursday, Oct. 9Th, Gen. Gar
field addressed an immense Assem-
blage Of people on the fair grounds
/ The Leader report the address as be
ing substantially, as follows:
We are here among the element,
and forces, out Of which are develop
ell the prosperity, strength aud glory
of a nation. 1t is not in mighty ar
mics, great navies, magnificent cities
nor indeed in any great aggregation
of wealth or splendOr that We see the
real strength Of nations. 1t is rather
in the mines and shops and farms
where all these displays of power find
their origin that we see the elements
of national strength.
When the great steamship Is strug-
CLING with the tempest far out at sea-
the wise man does not look at her trim
decks nor her gilded cabins Il deter
mine whether she can Out-r!de the
storm. He goes down into The hold,
examines her pOnderOus engines, her
stock of fuel, the strength of her great
ribs, the sOundness Of her timber, the
thought, courage and discipline of her
crew, and if all these be in good order,
he treads the deck with confidence
and laughs at the storm, for he knows
that a skilful pilot can take her preci-
Gus cargo of human life safe into port.
Jupiter, seated among the gods OF
/ Olympus, could not have hurled his
red lightnings and shaken the world
/ had Lot Vulcan, in his black fOrges
/ of the Cyclops, fashioned the thunder
J bolts out of the rough elements Of the
| earth. I look around through these
| beautiful grounds crowded with so
many thousands of people, and say
Z again, these are elements, these the
forces which alone can be moulded
into national wealth, national power
/ and glory. know Of no more fitting
] theme than TO discuss agriculture and
/ its relation TO national prosperity
And first inquire what is national
I prosperity, and what are the cOndi-
tions on which it rests ?
1t took two hundred years to explode
one most fatal error on this point. A
theory known as the mercantile sys-
tenn, and founded on the doctrine that
gold and silver are wealth, and that
all industry must be so managed as to
bring more into a country than is ia
ken out. This made England a ma
ton Of shOpkeepers, created her colo
NAL system, lost her American Colo
nies, ruined and reduced her country
population by an Unequal distribution
of wealth. 7 founded great CONNER
cial eorpOrJ ions and piled up vast
wealth in the hands Of the few, while
the great body Of people were impOv-
erished and imbruted. 1t led to that
condition which poet has described
in this line:
"A nation lies starving on heaps Of gold"
It led Goldsmith to write that MASTER
piece Of beautiful poetry "The Deser-
ted Village" the substance of which
is expressed in a single couplet,-
"Ills fares the land. to Fastening Ills q prey.
Where wealth haccumulatesa ana r1uuJi decay
About the period of the Revolution,
the mercantile system was exploded,
and the nobler idea was reached, that
national wealth embraces every pro-
duct of labor which ministers to the
wants or comforts of man and has ex-
changeable value. National pros
perity is a condition wherein the brain
and muscle Of every citizen may have
the freest play, and lay hold of the
elements Of nature and fit them for
the use of man.
Wherever a blade of grass, a sheaf
of wheat, a shock of corn is produced
wherever an ore is dug from the earth,
or useful machine or implement is
fashioned; wherever any products, by
change OF form or by Transformation
is made, fitted or rendered more ac-
cessible for the use of man, there is
national wealth there a step has been
taken in the direction Of national pros
perity.
To achieve this requires the harmo-
niOus cooperation Of agriculture,
manufactures, mining, commerce, and
all forms of industry, which are not
enemies, but friends.
To realize this idea Of national pros
perity, two great forces must be brOt'
into harmonious actiOn-the people
and the territory, the body and the
soul of the nation. This relation is
not fanciful, but real. Who shall
trace the manifold influences on the
national character of the soil, the eli
mate, the mountains, rivers, lakes, and
the various aspects of nature. Hum
bOldt and Ritter call these the great
organic forces of civilization. The
law Of greatness here, as in man, is a
sound mind in a sound body.
And now of what kind is the body I
of this Republic-this land of ours
Let us study its character. Our ma
tiOnal domain is vast, irregular tri-
angle, washed by two historic oceans, |
and fringed by the grandest chain Of
lakes on the globe. l said it is wash |
ed by two historic oceans. A sea or
ocean and its shores has always been |
the theatre of civilization. The Medi- |
teranean Sea was the first great thea /
tire of human progress. Around il /
were grouped Greece, Rome, Carthage |
and Spain, and the great nations of 1
antiquity. When these decayed, the I
modern world made the Atlantic and /
its shores the scene of their triumphs, |
and il is still the historic ocean of to- |
day. But the course of empire is still |
taking its way westward, and we are |
now reaching from this new Repub- /
lie to the ancient cradle of the race
When the circle is completed, the |
Pacific will be the theatre in the grand /
final drama of civilization. Our do I
main is therefore washed by the his /
tOric ocean of the present and the !
greater historic ocean of the future
and this last we shall command.
But let us look within this great |
domain. By what a wonderful and |
perfect Arrangement is it watered and /
redeemed from desert. The surround |
ing seas and lakes, the currents of |
ocean and air, the great chains Of
mountains placed as great refrigera-
tors, to cOndense and equaliZe the 4
rainfall, and the vast river systems /
which drain and adorn it, ell indicate /
the grandeur, conception and perfec-
ton of design which could rule and |
originate with Him who holds the 1
ocean in the hollow of His hands, land |
weighs the hills in a balance.
Exclusive of Alaska, this national .
domain covers three and a quarter
million square miles, One-twelfth Of
which is river and lake, and eleven
twelfths is land fit for human habita
ton. And where on the earth will
you find such a vast range and variety
Of elimatesand soil q? Trace the course
of the Mississippi river. AT its sour
ces in Minnesota the yearly mean
temperature is forty degrees, while at
its mouth the average is seventy-two
degrees. Along its bank grow the
oak, the beach, the sycamore, the will
low, the bay, the cypress, the magnO-
lia, the palmetto-and it reaches the /
sea among the orange groves that line
the shores of the gulf.