Mexico weekly ledger., 1880-11-25
EUROPE AND AMERICA.
By HoRAT1o SEYMOUR

siOu0sishSSs NiAS1iuk IL A0n6 A"6SS AAU
and customs To make clear what
its people suffer from this cause and
what we gain from free intercourse
between all parts of our continent,
draw upon our map divisions which
show the size of Great Britain, Ger
many, Austria, France, Spain and
Italy. Their united areas will a
little more than cover the territory
east of the Mississippi-not one third
our of country. The smaller national
ties can be represented at such places
as yeu may find convenient. Ar
range upon your map these countries
in ways which will not only chow
their areas, as compared with those
Of each other and ours, but also so
that their pot,itions shall be preserved
as far as possible. How long could
we endure such division of territory;
the barriers to Intercourse aggray ated
by differences of language and laws
the burdens of great armies; the
evils Of national hates and the curse
of bloody wars. The boundaries of
each of these divisions would limit
the spread of knowledge, the pro-
gress of civilization and the growth
of sympathies among mankind. Ev-
cry industry would he disturbed and
taxed. Their rulers would stand
as they now do in Europe, armed
against each other, as if they deemed
their fellow monarchs robbers who
watch their chances for plunder
The governments of Europe thus
delineated upon the map of our
country will teach us not only the
drawbacks and evils from which they
suffer, but will also give us clear
views of our own blessings, and make
US value, as we should, this union,
not only of States, but of the hearts
and hands OF those who dwell in our
broad country. We could not go
into the West, nor travel South with
out getting beyond the bounds of our
language, customs and laws. We
could not take those journeys we are
accustomed to make to the Misslssip-
pi nor to the Southern States, with
out mastering many languages, and
then being treated as strangers and
aliens, and in many cases, as hostiles.
Shut up within narrow limits, we
should lmbibe the preJudices which
mark the people OF European coun-
tries. This delineation on our ter
ritory of Europe will explain the rea-
SONS of It's having been cursed with
wars, revolutions and bloody changes,
and why universal peace is almost
unknown there; where even armed
neutrality is counted as peace.
Let us now brush off this picture
of Europe from our map; let us rub
out the hateful lines of division, and
when We look at it again, we will see.
as we have never seen before, Y by
peaceful agriculture and all indus
tries have advantages here, unknown
elsewhere.
In smaller countries farmers labor
to meet the wants of those about
thep. They are confi"ed to hone
markets, and seek to raise crops
which will meet their limited needs
Their pursuits do not stir their minds,
nor teach the wants and conditions
of other regions and populations
The reverse of this is true with us
Our agriculture is shaping itself into
grand departments, each covering
extents greater than those of most
countries. These lead to improve
ments in their various pursuits, which
cannot he developed when carried
on smaller scale. The Southern
States raise cotton and tobacco. The
vast region from Texas to Canada,
lying on the foothills and plains east
of the Rocky Mountains, is becoming
the range for cattle, which are sent
to the markets of the Eastern States
and Europe. In many of the great
Western States, Indian corn is the
leading prod let, and one that enables
farmers to send to the markets of the
world an enormous quantity of beef
and pork and lard. At the Northwest
they raise wheat and other grains /;
while NV York, New England and
Pennsylvania lead in dairying. IL
is true that in these great divisions
the farmers do not confine themselves
exclusively to the products named,
yet in each, one of them takes the
lead and is raised on scale unknown
heretofore. Each shapes the busi-
ness, commerce and transportation of
its region in ways which cheaper
production and the cost of reaching
markets.
This system improves not only
farming, but farmers as we'll. he
influences OF these great departments
of agriculture are not more strik-
| ing In their results upon production
than they are upon the intelligence of
the producers. 1t cannot be said of
them that they are open to the re-
proacl sometimes made to those that
who labor on land, that they become
torpid, gross and heavy in thought
and action. Ditfused intelligence
gives them control over mechanical
powers. For the culture of great
areas we have thus labor upon labor,
machinery under control OF those who
till the soil; thus enlarging their
ability to subdue nature and make it
/ yie'd fruits to human wants.
The active and vide spread intelli-
gence thus generated, gives assur-
ance of our ability to hold the ground
we have gained upon the markets of
the worl,.. The intercourse and in
J telligence which grow up out of these
departments do not merely elevate
farmers and give US commercial sue
cess, but they make the bonds which
hold our union in firm compact.
Party passions may threaten it; am
bilious purposes may for a time stir
up sectional prejudices; but since
the late sad war, the grewth of agri-
culture, commerce and intercourse
has made a conservative intelligent
influence which will rebuke passion
and purposes which threaten peace
and harmony. 1t is pleasant ami
assuring to know that Lature in its