trail, electric telegraphs to convey intelligence where the mail-coach was a thing of yesterday, great steamers on rivers and lakes traversed within a generation by the bark canoe,these proclaim, in language more expressive than inscriptions on monumental granite, in forms more significant than the sculptured marble,- the worth and the memory of the great and good men who sowed in weakness the harvest which we raise in power, who in the doubtful elements of national greatness which opened upon them in a visionary future, beheld the germs of this palmy growth, of this imperial abundance, as the sculptor beholds in advance the muscular limbs, the glowing features, the triumphant expression, of his marble hero, in the heart of the shapeless block.

Finally, my friends, let the recollections of a common danger and a common glory, which the day and the spot awaken, bring with them the strengthened love of a common country. The patriotism of our fathers, and especially of the illustrious man whom we commemorate, was of the most comprehensive cast. In a letter of the 21st of November, 1774, addressed to Josiah Quincy, another early-lost, devoted champion of American liberty, General Warren declares that "it is the united voice of America to preserve their freedom, or lose their lives in defence of it. I am convinced that the true spirit of liberty was never so universally diffused through all ranks and orders of the people in any country on the face of the earth, as it now is through all North America."

On the day on which Warren fell, Washington was commissioned as "commander-in-chief of all the continental forces raised or to be raised in defence of American liberty." Massachusetts and Connecticut had their armies in the field, commanded by their favorite generals; but John Adams took the lead in promoting the nomination of a general from that part of the Union where there was as yet no force embodied, eager to give a striking proof that no local feeling swayed New England, by intrusting the command of her army, for such it was, to a leader from the banks of the distant Potomac, whom he already designated as the "Beloved Washington." The melancholy tidings of the death of

Warren were received with poignant grief throughout the country, and it may be doubted whether the most brilliant success on Bunker Hill could have done as much to bind the colonies together as the noble, though in its immediate results unavailing, resistance; the profuse, though at the time unprofitable, outpouring of human blood. A great revolution must be inaugurated with a great sacrifice, and all the loftier passions are ennobled by the purification of sorrow; nor is it Icertain that Warren, had he assumed the command, and driven the enemy back to his boats, would have done as much to kindle a chastised and resolute enthusiasm throughout the country, and unite the colonies in the impending struggle, as when he shouldered his musket and fell in the ranks.

And, oh! my friends, let the lesson of fraternal affection which he taught us in his death be repeated in the persuasive silence of those stony lips. In his own heart-stirring language, let "the voice of our fathers' blood cry to us from the ground;" and upon this sacred day, and on this immortal hill, let it proclaim a truce to sectional alienation and party strife, as the medieval church proclaimed the "truce of God." Wherever else the elements of discord may rage, let the billows sink down and the storm be hushed, like yonder placid waves, at the foot of Bunker Hill. Here let the kindly feelings that animated our fathers revive in the bosoms of their sons, assured that- should "malice domestic or foreign levy" invade us if living champions should fail, that monumental cheek would burn with the glow of patriotism, that marble sword would leap from its scabbard, and the heaving sods of Bunker Hill give up their sheeted regiments, to the defence of the Union!

THE IMPORTANCE OF AGRICULTURE.*

MR. PRESIDENT, GOVERNOR KING, PRESIDENT FILLMORE,

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, FRIENDS AND FELLOW-CITIZENS: THE surpassingly beautiful spot where we are assembled this day is one of no ordinary interest. We are met in full view of the outlet of one of the most considerable of those inland seas which form so marked a feature in the geography of our continent. We can almost hear the roar of its waters as they plunge, at yonder, world-renowned cataract, to the lower level of the sister lake. The prosperous city, under whose immediate auspices we are assembled, has, within the experience of living men, grown up from a small village on the skirts of an Indian reservation, to be the busy mart of a vast inland trade. Behind us, uniting, in what may truly be called the bonds of holy matrimony, the waters of the mighty lakes with the waters of the mighty ocean, enduring monument of one of the most honored sons of New York, stretches far to the east that noble canal, which alone, perhaps, among the works of its class, has sustained itself in the competition with the railroad and the locomotive. In front of us spread out the fertile domains of a friendly neighboring power, the home of a kindred race, separated from us but by a narrow stream; a region to which we have closely grappled with hooks of steel, or at least with hooks of railroad iron, and the still stronger bonds of a mutually beneficial commercial reciprocity. We have come together on this interesting spot, at

* An Address delivered before the New York State Agricultural Society, on occasion of their Annual Fair, at Buffalo, Friday, 9th of October, 1857. VOL. III. 68 (537)

the invitation of the New York State Agricultural Society, to hold the farmer's autumnal holiday. From the remotest quarters of the Empire State and her sister republics, the railroads which have thrown their vast network over the country have afforded a ready conveyance to multitudes. Other multudes have descended your magnificent lake, in those unparalleled steamers, which, with scarce an interval of time, have taken the place of the bark canoe that skimmed its surface at the beginning of the century. Others, from the adjacent province, have crossed that noble suspension bridge, a wonder of engineering skill. In behalf of the respectable association in whose name I have the honor to speak, on this spot from which the simple children of the forest have not yet wholly disappeared, from whatever quarter, by whatever conveyance you have assembled, I bid you welcome. Friends, fellow-citizens, welcome! The woods have put on their gorgeous robes of many colors to receive you; the vaporous atmosphere has for this day hung up its misty veil, to shield you from the too fervid sun; the sparkling waters of Niagara River bid you "HAIL AND FAREWELL," as they hurry downward to their great agony; and Autumn spreads before you the rustic hospitality of her harvest-home.

There is a temptation, when men assemble on occasions of this kind, to exaggerate the importance of the pursuit in which they are engaged, in comparison with the other callings of life. When farmers or merchants or manufacturers or teachers or professional men, come together to celebrate an anniversary or an important event, or to do honor to some distinguished individual, it is almost a matter of course that their particular occupation or profession should be represented by those on whom the duty of speaking for their associates devolves, as the most important profession or calling. No great harm is done by these rhetorical exaggerations, which in the long run must correct each other; and which, if they have the effect of making men more content with their own pursuits, are not very pernicious, even if they remain uncorrected.

Although these claims which men set up, each for the paramount importance of his own occupation, cannot of course be all well founded, it may be maintained that each of the great pursuits of life is indispensable to the prosperity of all the rest. Without agriculture and manufactures, the merchant would have nothing to transport or exchange. Without commerce, the farmer and the manufacturer would be confined to a barter trade, in a limited home circle of demand and supply. In this respect, all the great pursuits of life in a civilized community may be deemed of equal importance, because they have each and all for their object to supply some one of the great wants of our nature; because each is necessary, to some extent at least, to the prosperity of every other; and because they are all brought, by the natural sympathies of our being, into an harmonious system, and form that noble and beautiful whole which we call civilized society.

But, without derogating from the importance of any of the other pursuits and occupations, we may safely, I think, claim for agriculture in some respects a certain precedence before them all. It has been said to be the great and final object of government to get twelve impartial and intelligent men into the jury-box; by which, of course, is meant that the administration of equal justice between man and man is the primary object of civilized and social life. But the teacher, secular or spiritual, might plausibly urge that it is of prior importance that the community should have the elements, at least, of mental and moral culture, and be taught the obligations of an oath, before any twelve of its members should take part in the administration of justice. The physician might contend that health is of greater importance than the trial by jury; and with greater reason it might be claimed for agriculture that it supplies the first want of our nature; the daily call of the great family of man for his daily bread-the call that must be answered before the work of life, high or low, can begin. Plaintiff and defendant, judge and jury, must break their fast before they meet in court; and, if the word of