The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1878-09-04

dency of all your industry is toward he accun-
ulatlon of independent competency, and does
not favor the npbuildiug of colossal fortunes.
You are dealing daily with the essential things
of life, and are not warped in your Judgment
nor detected from your course by speculative
and illusory schemes of advancement aud gain.
You are land owners, free holders, proud title
that comes to US with centuries of civilization
and strength title that every m an in thi
country should make it his object to acquire
and to honor. Self-sovernment among the
owners of the soil in America is an instinct,
and where that ownership is widely distributed,
good government is the rule. Whatever dis
turbances therefore may threaten the peace
transplanted from other chimes, may seek foot
hold here, the Republic of the U nited States
rests securely on that basis of agriculture where
the farmers of the Revolution and the trainers
of the Constitution placed it. The man who
possesses broad acres which he has earned by
the sweat OF his own brow, is not apt to fall in
with the doctrine of the communist, that no
one has right to ownership in the soil; the
man who has the product of his labor in wheat
and in corn, in pork and in beef, in hides and
always have and always will in the markets OF
the worlds not to be led astray with the
theories of fiat paper and absolute money, but
instinctively consigns such wild vagares to the
appropriate domain of fat folly and absolute
nonsense.
destiny. Agriculture, commerce and manafac-
lures, are the three pursuits that enrich a ma
tion-but the greatest of these is agriculture;
for without its products the spindle cannot turn
and the ship will not sail. Agriculture furn-
ishes the conservative element in society, and
In the end is the guiding, restraining, cont roll
ing force in government. Against storms OF
popular fury; against frenzied madness that
seeks collision with established order; against
theories of administration that have drenched
tt,ar Ia de- In 81 I'm MI ;t nf
arohy that would sweep away the landmarks
and safeguards of Christian society and Repnb-
lican government, the farmers of the United
States will stand as the shield and the bull wark
themselves the willing subjects of law, and
therefore its safest and strongest administra-
tors.
Gradually the government of the Republic
is passing under the control of the farmers of
the Mississippi Valley. Indeed, it is practi-
cally there today. The swelling and on crush
ing tide of population is towards the broad
plains and the rich acres that lie bstween the
two mountain ranges of the continent. The
soil is SO fertile, the land 80 inviting, the area
is so broad, that DO man may dare calculate
the possiblltie. of this great region either as
respects production or population. Your own
state, peopled no more densely than New York,
would have q population of nine millions; pso-
pied as densely as Massachusetts, you w0uid
have population of sixteen millions. With
the transfer of political control from the old
states to the new, there is also transferred a
vast weight of responsibility. 1t is yours to-
day; it will be yours still more tomorrow.
Take it; use it wisely and we'll for the advance
ment OF the whole-for the honor of all The
patriotic traditions of the cold thirteen" that
fought the battles of the Revelation, formed
the Union of the States, and planted liberty in
the organic law, will be your safest guide-your
highest inspiration Many Of you today min-
gle with your love for Minnesota your earlier
affection for the old home and the old state far
to the East, where an honored ancestry lie
buried, and where the tenderest memories clus-
past. 1t is this kinship Of blood. these ties OF
relationship, that make US indeed one people
uniting the East and the West, the, North and
the South, in the indissuluble bon ds Of COM
mon, and 1 trust always bene ficent govern
ment.