The patron of husbandry. (Columbus, Miss.) 1875-1883, 1881-09-17

Address OF Hon. Il. %. wicker.
OF Washington County Grange.
GSQAPWiA.

Georgia.
Worthy Master, Brothers and
Sisters. Our Manual make it in
cumbent on the Lecturer to bring
such matters before the Grange and
to address you from time to time on
such subjects as he thinks will sus-
tain and build up the Order. AS it
was your request at our last regular
meeting that | should have some
thing to say to you to-day, Will IN
obedience to that request submit
the following remarks. Though
thrown together under the pressure
of heavy business engagements and
severe bodily affections, trust they
will not prove entirely Intellectual
and that they may be the means of
furnishing food for thought and re-
Election to our members, and pro-
ductive of some good in furthering
the aims, objects and prosperity of
our Order.
must confess, brethren and Sis
tiers, l appear before you on this
occasion with some degree of diff
dence. l have addressed you so
often since our reorganization that
at times l have thought may have
said too much; that your patience
was exhausted, and that YOU per-
haps were ready to exclaim in the
language of Horace the great poet:
Concise your diction let, your words
be few,
Lest with too many you, fatigue the ear"
If at any time, brothers and Sis
ters. | have tfespassed too much on
the time of the Grange and wearied
your patience, | hope you have been
| disposed to throw tine vail of charity
over me, and pardon me for attrib
uting my indiseretion to the great
zeal feel in pl on1oting the Grange
cause and All earliest wish and de-
sire that what | said might be the
means of relieving to some extent
our agricultural interest of the great
wrongs and opperssions to which it
is now and has been subjected for
years.
Patrons, Agriculture is the oldest
employment Of man. 1t is from the
hand of God. Before literature ex-
sted, before governments were
known, agriculture was the first
vocation of man. The immortal
Washington said it was the chief
source of a nations wealth, pros
perity and power. The great
est and wisest of all the Grecian
philosophers, the most remarkable
genius psrhaps of ancient or modern
times, said: at is an employment
the most worthy the application OF
man, the most ancient and the most
suitable to his nature, it is the com
mon nurse of all persons in every
age and condition of life, it is the
source of health, strength, plenty
and riches, and of thousand sober
delights, and honest pleasures; it is
the mistress and school of sobriety.
temperance, justice, religion, and IN
short, of all virtues-Civil and mill
itary." Such was the opinion of
our calling by the renowned Socra-
ties, over two thousand years ago.
Agriculture being of divine orr
gin and held i'll sucll high estimation
by the most learned, wise and best
men that ever lived, how important
then, how essential it is for us to
use every means in our power to
promote, foster and build up this
inf IN, 0rlor 49,
take that prominence, and meet
with that success commensurate
with its dignity and its importance.
Patrons, the nobleness and the
Importance of our calling, and on
the other hand, the many wrongs
and unjust Determinations that have
been heaped upon it by soulless cor
porations and the great money mo-
nopolies of the country, and from
the fact that it mas not received that
Legislation either from our State or
National legislatures to protect it
against the swrongs, injustice and
usurpations of these moneyed rings
and corporations, as we'll as from
the unjust and burthensome taxation
to which the productsof the soil are,
and have been subjected, called into
existence our noble Order.
The originators and founders of
the Grange saw that something must
be done to bind the farmers togeth
er, to enable them to protect and
defend their interests against the
entertainments of these privileged
classes from hostile and unfrendly
legislation. That the Order has
done something towards awakening
the minds of farmers throughout the
country to realization of their true
condition, and that radical changes
have already been made towards re-
lieving the farmer of some of the
wrongs and expressions under
which he has been laboring, no one,
| presume, will question. But Pa
irons, we have much to do yet, to
throw off the CALLING yoke of bond
age under which we have been la
boring. If we will only stand firm
and be true to the teachings and
principles of our grand Order, feel
confident that the dark clouds of
gloom and dependency which have
enveioped and circumvented the
planting interest, will soon be dis
Dalled and fbo dav star of Daoca