Concord Register

Agriculture.

THE AMERICAN FARMER.

"The Farmer is the exclusive, absolute, uncontrolled proprietor of the soil. His tenure is not from the government; the government derives its power from him. There is above him nothing but God and the laws—no hereditary authority usurping the distinctions of personal genius; no established church spreading its dark shadow between him and heaven. His pursuits, which no perversion can render injurious to any, are directed to the common benefit of all. In multiplying the bounties of Providence, in the improvement and establishment of the soil; in the care of the inferior animals committed to his charge, he will find an ever varying and interesting employment, dignified by the union of liberal studies, and enlivened by the exercises of a simple and generous hospitality. His character assumes a loftier interest by its influence over the public liberty. It may not be foretold to what dangers this country is destined, when its swelling population, its expanded territory, its daily complicating interests, shall awake the latent passions of men, and reveal the vulnerable points of our institutions. But whenever these perils come, its most steadfast security, its unfailing reliance, will be on that column of landed proprietors, the men of the soil and of the country; standing aloof from the passions which agitate denser communities; well educated, brave and independent; the friends of the government, without soliciting its favours; the advocates of the people, without descending to flatter their passions; these men, rooted like their own forests, may yet interpose between the factions of the country, to heal, to defend, and to save."

There are many such men in this nation;—and there was one, whom the old among us loved, and the youngest venerated; whom we may proudly place by the side of the master spirits of the best ages, the man whom his country's danger always sought at his farm, and his country's blessing always followed there—the model of American farmers. His memory is in all our hearts, and his example may well inspire a fondness for those pursuits which WASHINGTON most loved, and teach us there is no condition in which our lives may be more useful; in which we may more honor ourselves, and serve the country.