The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1877-08-16
THE CHANGERS, WELCOME.

THE CHANGERS WELCOME.
Address Of Col. e. Nj. Rucker, Deliv-
cred before the State Grange and Fair
association, In Anderson, August 9Th,
| lss7.
At the request of the Pomona Grange
of Anderson County, the duty devolves
on me to extend their cordial welcome to
the distinguished visitors here present.
I trust, sir, we are all intelligently appre-
ciative of those principles and interests
in whose name and for the promotion of
which we are to-day assembled. We
meet to confer together in the highest
interests of agriculture and the agricul-
tural class. That class is the most nu-
merous in the community, and its success
and prosperity are essential to the welfare
and growth of all other classes. We may,
therefore, legitimately claim that we meet
in the best interests of the entire people
of South Carolina. The necessities of
civilization require that country should
become institutional, by means of which
human progress may be efectually assis.
ted, and a beneicent influence difused
throughout the length and breadth of the
land. Otherwise, prosperity-wealth it
self-bears sort of charmed life, be-
comes petri6ed, so to speak, and is inca
pable of being utilized properly for its
possessor or for others.
The society of which you are members
has already effected much good for the
country; much remains to be done.
There is no reason why you should be
discouraged by partial successes and
even by temporary disappointments.
Such is the law of all life. All growth
to be steadfast and sure must be slow.
It is true in the business and social rela-
tions as in the natural order. Natura
non .fecit salta.n1-nature makes no leap.
She loves the soft approach of dawn, the
slow sprouting of the seed, and moves by
delicate gradation through her round
of calm and storm, of growth and life.
The human mind, like the human body,
takes but one step at q time, and that
step indicates the feebleness and decrepi-
tude of age rather than the energy and
elasticity of youth. A boundless area
lies before you of noble possibilities to
be achieved for yourselves, your country
and for civilization. 1t is for you to i'm
press upon the class of which you are
representative members the dignity Of
agriculture as a pursuit, aud its proper
social status. And as legitimate conse-
quence of that dignity that its members
should be educated me1-educated as
farmers and as citizens. They should
vividly realize the truth uttered by the
most eloquent of the Romans, that of all
the pursuits followed by man, there is
none more beneficial, so necessary or
more honorable than that of agriculture.
They are to be impressed further of the
importance of skilled and ingenious la
Dor, for unskilful labor does not prove
remunerative. A necessary requisite of
success is the union of intelligence and
labor-a clear understanding of the OBJ
iects for which men should strive, and
forcible and intelligent adaptation of
ones work for their accomplishment.
As no thought is healthful without labor,
so no labor makes the laborer prosperous
and happy unless attended by thought.
All that man has achieved in any field
of action, the splendor of civilization, all
the beauty of art and science are founded
on a necessary basis of hard physical
labor. Labor is the true philosophers
stone which transnutes all things into
gold. You have naught to do with poll
tics as partisans, naught to do with rival
ries and competitions of parties, But as
citizens you are profoundly interested in
whatever concerns government and the
purity of its administration. You should
lend an effectual assistance to the eleva-
tion of the whole tone of politics, to the
e1altation of the standards by which
men are 10 be measured who aspire to
Office, in competence, integrity and pub
lie spirit, and in the removal of the par
tisan aims and ambitions that are so rife.
The noble science of politics are not un-
frequently lowered into a temporary
scafolding of shifting expedients to per-
ish with the occasion. Exert your
healthful influence to restore it to origi.
nal purity and true meaning-a solid
framework of principles on which society
may securely repose, applicable to all
emergencies and proper for all times.
There is no department of our American
life in which improvement is more needed
and in which more can be done to pro-
mote the public welfare.
congratulate you, gentlemen, on the
place selected for your annual meeting.
We are in the midst of a territory which
has made great advancement in its agri-
culture in the last decade. There are
farms in this vicinity and in other por-
tions of the County whose high culture
would not be thought slow or unattrac-
tive in the prosperous North. l indulge
the hope that the whole State may soon
present the same fair face and growing
prosperity. It is your duty, gentlemen,
in your individual and organized capaci-
ty, to assist such results at the earliest
day. When you look back upon the
history of South Carolina its record must
encourage you. In ante-bellum times the
State had attained tc a degree of pros
perity and wealth which had never been
paralleled in the annals of human affairs.
The noble possibilities of the future ami
mate you. All things inspire you. We
have a climate in which it is glory to
live. We have fertile and versatile
soil. We are members of race on whom
kingship has been conferred wherever
they tread. feel sure all the advanta-
ges of the present, the forms of progress
of which we are most proud, are only the
unpublished rudiments of the coming time.
The obligation rests upon us to transmit
the country improved to posterity.
We extend to you, gentlemen, hearty
welcome to the town and county of An
derson. May your visit prove q pleasure
to yourselves, and of lasting benefit to
the State.
Small Manufactures.