Litchfield enquirer., 1873-09-25

lty has a, sacred claim upon him. He
 should become teacher and helper to
 every boy now growing up in the place
 where he toiled when boy. For what i'd
 wealth, for what is art, for what culture.
 for what all the appliances of civilizationif
 not to. elevate the many and disseminate
 with liberal hand on all sides the possibili-
 ties of wealth and the comforts that wealth
 can alone supply. The finest sentiment of
 Christianity is twin sister to this practi-
 cal benevolence, and the two should 1v
 forth over the land like companion ar-
 gels, doubling the fertility of every field
 over which their white wings passed. It
 is only by this method. so far as can
 see. that here in New England at least
 the industry which is mother to all other
 industries can be kept dtive.
 We cannot afford, gentlemen, to allow
 agriculture to pass into decadence. When
 the farming class shall be considered as
 an inferior class we have revived the dis
 astrous distinctions of the middle agess
 It is because the New England farmer
 has not been serf or peasant that New
 England has become what she is. I
 doubt if Republic could endure in any
 country where agriculture is not the prime industry. When wealth and culture and
 civic honors have been divorced from the
 soil of the country the country itself will
 have sunk into lamentable debasement.
 For it cannot be denied that the forces
 that originated and secured for us our free
 institutions came as directly from the
 soil as the streams flow down from our
 native hills. The landholder in all civil
 izations has been noble. A part of the
 country was his; his to love, to improve,
 defend. Having rights himself he was easi-
 ly educatd to regard the rights of others.
 Being 0 lord himself he could not become
 slave. Calm of judgment, economic in
 expenditures, fervid in his patriotism,
 bringing to the discussion of every ques-
 tion the essence of all true scholarship.
 Strong common sense, regarding civic position as a duty not as sinecure, the early agriculturist of the country was, of
 all others, the very man to stake out the foundations of temple, in which, when
 builded, liberty might gather and pour out her treasures upon all mankind. It is not on the farm that little children are worked fourteen hours each day the year round, deprived of school and home in- fiuence. It is not on the farm that men learn to "corner" great interests and inn overish the many that unprofitable wealth may be added to the few It is not on the farm that men learn how to manipu- late caucuses. and then celebrate the suc- cess of their trickery with supper at the clty's expense Nor is it on the the farm that man acquires that hardened audacity to steal the money of the man whose guest he is, and then, when the neighbors are around go forth to the steps of the house and coolly defend his act as in perfect accordance with the Constitution and laws of the land. No gentlemen, such men could never have founded Q Massachusetts; nor can such men eyer perpetuate her honor, .
 But I will detain you no longer, and yet l finger ln closing as one whose pen has found congenial if not a.familiar theme. Beyond the walls of this tent, looking over your heads and far away, behold the hills and wales of New England. In those wales and under the shadow of those hills most of us were born. The roads along which We ran to school; the little stream where we learned to fish; the fences we helped to build; the fields where we were taught to toll; the dripping we'll where we eagerly quenched our thirst. all are there, We have changed. but they remain the same. Our faces fade, the rose withers from the cheek and the lustre deserts the!eye, but nature seems immortal in her youth and renews her beauty with the coming of every spring. There is something soothing and sustaining in this of nature. Life is as shad- ow and our eyes ache in watching it. so rapidly does it fly, but the soil beneath our feet and the sky above our heads, these pass not, but remain and abide as nour-
 shed and upheld by the hands of their Creator
 I cannot, before I close, resist the in- clination to put on record in this connec- tion my strong protest against the conduct of certain people, who by slurs and innuen- does and misrepresentations seek to bring into popular disgrace the most delightful and elevating branch of American agricult- breeding and training of fine horses. Such behavior is both disgrace full to themselves, and, so far as it has any influence upon the public, hurtful to the best interests of the country As a branch of buiness, it represents. an enor- nous amount of capital, as the national statistics show-of capital, too, contribu- ting actively, yearby year, to the conner ,ial prosperity of the land, and also largely md directly to the health and happiness of its inhabitants. From the settlement of the country, the horse has been intimate
 y and honorably associated with our social md religious life, as he has also most po- ;entially contributed to the development of it's trade and commerce. Without the assistance of that noble animal these people persist in associating with gamblers and jockeys, our religious could never have been as- ,embled Sabbath by Sabbath in the church ,s, nor our political gatherings held nor, as we all realize in view of the relation of ,he winter, during the epizootic season, ,oald our enterprise have been carried put. Why an animal so noble by nature, and uesful to all, should be singled out for reproduction, or to engage in h1s pro- pagation and training be stigmatized as 3 low and vulgar pursuit, passes nay com prehension.. For acknowledge debt of gratitude to those, who by importation of blooded animals, or careful attention to the principles of breeding. have con- tributed to the improvement of the American horse. The world Is happier and in better condition to-day because La fosse, Rarey, Hiram Woodruff, and men of their intelligence and character lived. [. And not alone to these great masters, who revealed to us the true method of shoeing training and driving horses, are we indebted. but to all of lesser note who
 in any sensible measure assisted in the of the animal himself, or of mans knowledge of his wants, and his capacity to serve the human race. If
 1t be a disgrace to teach men useful to add to the intelligence and humane impulse of the country in respect so the humblest of Gods creatures; to show those of small fortunes how to in- crease their limited means, and hence to
 improve their own condition, and swell she aggregate property of the country; to fire with worthy ambition the young agriculturist to produce better stock than his father bred before him-if. this I say, be a disgrace, then I rejoice to share it with those, who, in every State of the Union, are laboring to accomplish the same noble end-men whose public spirit admire, and the integrity of whose char acters | hope to equal, but may never expect to excel love, with an attach ment which increases with the passage of v,<x,.s ,,,,x x-o%:x-o -<,sf. ou1 hn11 that ;&c