Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1880-05-12
Intelligence and Virtue Among Farmers.

Ia broadened out from what hath merely life,
Yea, to the path on which at eventual
The weary feet tread ont their homeward way.
Intelligence and Virtue Among Farmers.
Brother Tinkham is the funny man, par
excellence, among agricultural editors. Here
he has been quoting (and misquoting) us for
two or three years to prove that we abuse
farmers in saying that better education
would be of advantage to most of them.
We never included Brother Tinkham in the
number of these, but he has been Just as dis
tressed over it as If we had. He sympa-
thized with the farmers so much. Who
would think that now he is almost equally
distressed because the Journal Of A agriculture,
as he says, overrates the honesty of farmers
as a class. Mr.. Tinkham vehemently denies
that farmers are any honester than other
people, and says if anybody believes that
they are, he has only to serve as lister once,
and then he'll know all about it.
We are not going to take up a cudgel in
defense of the honesty of farmers. We
never could see that any mans business,
however honest or useful that business might
be, ensured his own honesty. To be sure,
some kinds Of business, such as liquor-selling
(and, some say, law, may lead toward dis
honesty; but we think we have reason to
know that man can even deal in spirituous
liquors and yet be personally honest. Also
we know number of lawyers whom we re-
e Al ,nt
men we respect, as strong under peculiar
temptations and if farmers are honester
than other men (Which Brother Tinkham
strongly denies), we may attribute the fact
to the quietude of their lives, and their con-
sequent exemption from some strong beguile-
ments. What the Journal of Agriculture
really said was that farmers ought, in part
at least, to be represented by farmers. In
its own words, I'VE want more farmers in
our national congress and fewer and simpler
laws. This we can only obtain by nomina-
ting and electing honest farmers in the place
of lawyer politicians. In the earlier days of
the republic many farmers were sent to con-
gress, but now we find few farmers among
our representatives. A lot of scheming
lawyers are sent instead, who tinker with
the currency, and make the laws so obscure
and technical that common man cannot
understand them. 1t is time that the pro-
ducing class made its influence felt
Now it will be seen that the Journal does
not favor the choice Of farmers to congress
r,orolv n, far,oare nor doaa II opnosa latyvers
for that office merely as lawyers; but it is
in favor of honest farmers (and certainly
Brother Tinkham will admit there are some
such) in place of lawyer politicians " and
"scheming lawyers, who tinker with the cur
rency and make our laws so obscure and
technical that common man cannot under
stand Them As for ourself, we would pre-
fer to be represented in congress or the
legislature by an able lawyer who under
stood and was faithful to the agricultural
interests of the country, or the state, rather
than by a farmer, however honest, who could
be bamboozled and managed by party leaders
in those bodies. We admit that it is, or has
seemed to be, difficult to find lawyers at once
honest and familiar with the legislative
needs of farmers, to be our representatives.
Yet we know that they exist, and that here
in Vermont we might fiud such, if we would
seek for them and take the necessary pains
10 nominate aud elect them. There is where
the trouble lies, and it really comes back to
that old point, the lack of intelligent inter
oct in thar oun husinass not less in its no.
litical than in its other relations, which we
think too many farmers display. While we
do not doubt that farmers can be well and
ably represented by lawyers, we also believe
there are men in this state, and in every state,
who, though they are and always have been
farmers, would strongly and wisely represent
an agricultural constituency in congress.
But Brother Tinkham appears to be dis
tressed in another place. He seems to de-
tect, in the writers who express the opinion
that the agricultural interests are not prop
erly represented in congress, selfish pur-
pose to get into that august body themselves.
Like Boyle Roche, the Irish parliament
man, he smells rat" He "sees him float
ing in the air." and he means to nip him
in the bud" He does not mention anybody
in particular as the object of his suspicious
but he characterizes each in general as men
who often have schemes Of their own, re
lating to currency, fixing low rates of inter
est, making no debts collectible by law
increasing the amount of circulation, o
the legality of the national bank notes
When we recolect that these are subject
Except increasing the legality of the ma
tional bank notes. upon which we hav
sometimes INDUCED our pen, the dreadful
thought arises, can he mean Us? And whe
he says that very much of such trash come
from men conspicuous from their failure
as farmers, who have no end of talent TO
talk which they mistake for ability, and ar
hungering for Office, which their acquain
ances know they are incapable and unfitte
for filling, and hence their howls," is b
pointing the slow, unmoving finger" {
his scorn at the humble individual who edit
this department How almost too sad
think that any biliousness, however sever
should SO jaundice the mind of our geni
brother But there was one point whic
would, perhaps, have converted this horn
BILE suspicion into certainty if he had on
known it. 1t is that for the twenty yea
during which we have lived in the stror
Republican states of Massachusetts, and We
mont we have always professed to be Del
ocrat Does not that convict us at ono