must withdraw just so much of the gross value produced, from the hands of the producer.

If the commercial processes be clumsily and expensively performed, the producer suffers; he retains less of his value produced, and is so far forth less prosperous.

If the commercial processes be skilfully, expeditiously and cheaply performed, the producer has the benefit of it; he retains more of his value produced, and is so far forth more prosperous.

The manifest inference is, that the Farmer is interested in every improvement of the commercial processes, which will diminish the expenses of transportation and exchange-as truly so as he is in those improvements in manufacture which diminish the cost of production.

The improvements in ocean navigation, costly as the steamship is, by cheapening freights, are enriching producers on both sides of the Atlantic."

The immense array of steamboats which float upon our inland waters, as a part of the machinery of our internal trade, with their frequent loss, and destruction of property, would seem to constitute an enormous charge upon the industrial interests of the country.

But to banish steam from our lakes and rivers, and to return to the raft and flat boat, and other forms of the time consuming, and labor consuming navigation of the last half century, would be to impoverish and desolate the interiorfor the simple reason that the enormous amount of our present lake and river trade, far transcending our foreign commerce, could not be carried by a craft like that of the past generation, without a tenfold expenditure of time, labor and money-and at whose charge? At the charge of the producer.

If the produce of the Farmer should go forward to market, the compensation of the commercial agency would absorb the whole value, leaving no balance for the producer. If the manufactured commodities necessary to meet the wants of civilized men, were brought into the interior from the commercial mart, they would come to the cultivator of the ground at a price which would place them essentially beyond his reach.

It is obvious enough, that under such conditions, production and trade would fall together, and a greatly reduced standard of enjoyment and civilization would prevail throughout a sparsely populated interior.

Without the steamboat, what would have been the condition of the great basin of the St. Lawrence, and of the great valley of the Mississippi, on this very day? Well assured am I, that the last track of the moccasin would not have disappeared from the ground where we are now standing, surrounded by the emblems and the garniture of civilization.

Again; canals and railroads, constitute now, a great part of the commercial machinery of modern civilization, transporting a large and annually increasing portion of the travel and the merchandize of the whole country.

When we contemplate the vast extent of this net-work of internal improvement, the stupendous expense of the construction, and the corresponding outlay for the motive power, for the boat and car; and the more especially, when we sum up into one great aggregate, the annual receipts of the system, of which aggregate the Erie canal alone furnishes a yearly item of more than $3,000,000, well may we wonder at the miracle, that the shoulders of Agriculture and Manufacture are broad enough to sustain, uncrushed and unbent, the whole burden of the charge.

And yet they do sustain it. Not a dollar of freight goes into the treasury of these improvements, which is not taken from the produced values of those who are ultimately the mutual parties interested in the exchange, and in the consumption of the commodities transported. The gross values of the producer are diminished, aye, taxed, if you please, to this amount-and the farmer pays his portion of the TAX. But is he oppressed by it?

If the farmer of Western New York thinks so, let him by all means eschew the canal and the railroad-he is under no compulsion to use them-let him call up from an unbroken slumber of a quarter of a century, the teaming gear of his older brother; let him haul his agricultural surplus to the good old Albany of his brother's recollection, and his domestic stores back again to his home; and let him, on the next rainy day, sit down and reckon up his savings. How will his tax account stand then? Why, gentlemen, the penny wisdom and pound folly of such a farmer, would be the scoff and the jeer of his neighborhood.

And what shall we say of the economy and thrift of a State, which, by constitutional provisions incapacitates itself from fostering, encouraging, and aiding works of the most manifest utility, and of the very greatest importance to the prosperity of the farmer-and by its jurisprudence and general course of policy, so relaxes the obligation of contracts, as to render foreign capital too distrustful of individual and company securities to answer the loud call of the suffering producers, "come over and help us.

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The permanent economical benefit of the canal and railroad to the farmer, is three fold:-1. In consequence of the reduction of freight, his produce is worth more on his farm.-2. The merchandize which he needs costs less at his own door, for the same reason. And 3. Because the commercial agency thus takes away a smaller portion of his produced values, leaving a larger balance in his hands, he is affected precisely as if his land had become more productive; therefore his real estate rises in value.

The importance of this last item of advantage may be illustrated by a single case. The Erie canal cost originally $10,000,000. A rise of two dollars per acre, throughout a border of both banks of the canal, thirteen miles wide, would cover the whole cost of construction !-and where is the acre of feasible land within those limits, which is not worth, to-day, five, ten, fifteen, perhaps twenty dollars more, than if the work were undone?

Perhaps you will say, if this be so, the farmers of New York could have afforded to construct the canal themselves. And so they might. But had they the needful information? Had they the unanimity, the confidence, the courage, the capital, or the credit to command the capital? Could any voluntary company have been formed, with the adequate courage, and capital and credit, to crapple successfully with the gigantic difficulties of the work ?

No, Gentlemen,-had not the energies-the capital-and the credit of the STATE, been enlisted and consecrated, in trembling hope, to the accomplishment of the then unparalleled enterprise, it would have remained probably unattempted, certainly unaccomplished, down to the present day.

And it was the genius of CLINTON, that inspired this trembling hope-that nursed it into firm resolve-that bore aloft that firm resolve, high above the opposition of the trading politician, the scoff of the blasphemer, and the ridicule of the sceptic, to a magnificent and triumphant completion. While thus engraving his own memorial, in a long line of glory, on the soil of his native State, he was making his mark on the age. The power of his great example was felt throughout the length and breadth of the land. The din of improvement, in its progress, has been extending from State to State, awakening Agriculture to a new life and a new thrift, till there is scarce a hill top in our country, whose horizon does not bear some testimony to the beneficence of the far-reaching policy of Clinton, and whose weary industry has not been cheered and refreshed by the shadow of his great name.

But who will say that the Erie and Champlain canals were more important to the trade of New York and the great basin of the St. Lawrence, in 1816, than the Milwaukee and Mississippi, and the Rock River railroads are, at this moment, to the trade of Wisconsin and of the vallies of the Upper Mississippi, the Upper Missouri, and the Red River of the North.

And who will say that what was wisdom in New York then, would be folly in Wisconsin now? Where, then, is the Clinton of Wisconsin? And do the barriers of your constitution send back a cheerless echo to the voice of your inquiry?

Farmers of Wisconsin! you CANNOT AFFORD to let these great enterprises languish and die. If private credit cannot SEASONABLY build the roads, public credit can. Your potential voice makes the laws; it makes constitutions-aye, and unmakes them too. I do not say that you can find a Clinton-such a man is God's benison on an age-but you have the roads. Where there is an IRON WILL, there is an IRON WAY!

But again; Agriculture is not only interested in the reduction of the cost of the transportation of commodities, but is equally so in cheapening that other operation of commerce denoted by the term of exchange.

The most obvious mode of effecting exchanges is, of course, by the direct barter of the one commodity for the other. But one difficulty in the way of barter as a system of exchanges is, that commodities or products, are not mutually and universally receivable.

For example, the shoemaker wants a coat, but the tailor does not want shoes Perhaps the shoes may be bartered for hats, but the tailor does not want hats.Perhaps the shoes may be bartered for corn, but the tailor does not want corn. And there is no predicting the number of exchanges, and the waste of time necessary to enable the shoemaker to find some commodity which he can barter for the cost.

The difficulty lies in bringing together parties who will be mutually benefitted by the barter. And this difficulty becomes aggravated by every step of advancement in the division of labor and of employments.

Barter, then, is obviously compatible, only with a low state of civilization, and the necessity is early suggested, of providing some commodity which shall be universally receivable, which the producer may obtain, directly, for his surplus, and with which he may obtain directly, the commodity which he needs; and thus enable him to remedy the difficulty in question and diminish the expense of barter. Such a commodity is MONEY-it is universally receivable.

There is another difficulty with respect to barter, which requires to be stated, in this connexion; that, namely, of adjusting to each other the values to be exchanged. The farmer, for example, takes his horse to market, desirous of receiving in return various articles of smaller value, in the hands of different individuals. As the horse cannot, from the nature of the case, be bartered, a part here, and a part there, the series of transactions is altogether impracticable.

The commodity money, then, in order to do away with the inconveniences and the impossibilities of barter, must, in addition to the fact of being universally receivable, be capable of division and subdivision, so as to adjust it to all possible values.

Gold and Silver coin embodying these two qualities of universal receivability, and divisibility at will, has been adopted, by common consent, and the action of civil governments, as the money of the commercial world; and is as distinctly a part of the machinery of commerce, as is the railroad or the steamboat.

It is the office of the railroad, to facilitate and cheapen transportation, and this constitutes its whole value as a railroad; so it is the office of coined money to facilitate and cheapen exchanges, and this constitutes its whole value as money. Were barter entirely convenient and economical, money would have no office to perform-no necessity would have suggested its creation-its presence in the business of the world be without meaning-it would never have been thought of.

But when we consider that the exchanges of this country require a currency of some $300,000,000, and that the annual charge for this expensive commercial agent is the yearly interest of this sum, with the addition of the annual cost of the coinage, the loss by wear, by shipwreck and otherwise, well may it be asked again, are the shoulders of Agriculture and Manufacture broad enough to sustain the burden of this charge.

The answer is at hand: they certainly do sustain it-and that, with incalculable advantage and profit to the producer. For the simple reason that money, although itself an expensive agent, so facilitates and cheapens exchanges, as to relieve agriculture and manufacture from the far greater cost of making those same exchanges through the time consuming and labor consuming processes of barter.

The cost of the medium is, if you please, a tax on the producers of value, and the farmer pays his portion of the tax-but he finds a manifold compensation, in the relief from the incalculably greater tax, which the system of barter would entail upon him.

Enough has now been said on the part that money plays in the phenomena of commercial exchanges, to prepare the way for the proper understanding the assertion, that the farmers of Wisconsin, as well as the farmers every where, are deeply interested in setting up and maintaining that form of the circulating medlum which will work the greatest reduction of the cost of the whole commercial machinery, and all the operations of trade.

Metallic money facilitates exchanges, obviates the inconveniences of barter, and cheapens the commercial processes; it is sound economy, therefore, for producers to introduce and maintain a large and costly volume of metallic money.

If a currency of representative values will facilitate exchanges in a still higher degree, will obviate the inconveniencs of metallic money, and cheapen still further the commercial processes, it will be equally good economy for producers

to set up, for the use of commerce, a currency of representative values, with all the safeguards suggested by the experience of the past.

And this brings us to the precise question to be submitted, at the coming election, to the people of Wisconsin-a question, of no trifling interest to the farmers of the State.

If it be true, that the merchant can serve you more economically with a currency of representative values, than with the agency of metallic money, then, if you compel the merchant to use the latter, he must idemnify himself by paying less for your produce, and charging more for the merchandize he sells you. If you allow him the use of the former, he will be able to pay you more for your produce, and will charge less for merchandize.

If this be so, the policy that would send you back from a currency of convertible paper, to a pure metallic circulation, would send you back from the railroad to the turnpike, and from the steamboat to the sloop, or the flat boat. Do you say that the paper currency has its risks and its losses ?-so has the steamboat.

The inquiry which lies at the bottom of all these cases is, whether the alleged improvement does, or does not, in point of fact, after allowing for all its unavoidable imperfections, work a diminution of the cost of the commercial machinery. If it does, the saving enures to the benefit of the producer, just as surely as a stone in mid air falls to the ground-and the farmer has his full share of the benefit.

As the time and occasion do not permit me to state my views, fully, on the currency question here presented, I shall not enter upon its discussion at all. I only present the naked point on which the whole question turns, and leave the decision where the Constitution leaves it with the people.

Farmers of Wisconsin! On the question of authorizing the issue, within the State, of a currency of representative values, if you believe that the introduction of the proposed system with the proper safeguards will facilitate and cheapen the processes of trade, and thus enable you to do your whole commercial business at less cost to yourselves, you will, at the approaching election say AYE--if you do not believe this, you will say NAY. It is a question of great import to WisconGod grant that you may decide the question wisely.

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But again, Agriculture is interested in the growth and prosperity of large

towns.

A town or city may be regarded, philosophically, as a part of the business machinery of the country. It is, in part, a manufacturing agent, and in part a commercial agent. In both these capacities, it enjoys such a concentration of capital, enterprize, and intelligence, as to ensure the economical advantages of a minute division of labor, the perfection of the executive processes, and all the helps attendant on the invention and skillful use of machinery.

All these larger operations of manufacture and trade are carried on at immense advantage overthe smaller;but if the laws favor the association of the smaller capitalists by general acts of incorporation, there is no danger of monopoly. The principle of competition is more active in the large town, and the consumer will have the benefit of the diminution of the cost of the manufactured article, and of merchandize generally.

For this consumption, however, withont which the large town cannot exist, it looks to the country, that is, in the main, to the agricultural producer. The town and the country are mutually markets to each other, and the citizen is as much interested to penetrate the interior with canals and railroads, as the farmer is to find these avenues for the transportation of his produce to the mart. present interests here that are not antagonistical, but are mutual and harmonious. The town thrives by the growth and prosperity of the country, and the country by the growth and prosperity of the town.

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All this is manifest-and yet it is no more strange than true that in some agricultural communities, there has sprung up a narrow jealousy of the town, grudg ing its prosperity, ripening into settled hostility-tainting, perhaps, the legislation of the State, by unequal taxation, and by denial of those facilities of production and trade, which are essential to the healthy development of the town.

Farmers of Wisconsin! the towns which line your borders, and dot the interior, live not for themselves alone, but for you—they grow with your growth-they are your credit abroad, and your profit at home. An enlightened self interest, on your part, demands that your policy towards them shall be conceived in a liberal and comprehensive spirit.

The railroad is a swift witness of the identity of the reciprocal interests of town and country. It brings the rural districts under the very gates of the city; and it lodges the merchant and artizan at home, scores of miles, perhaps, from the scene of his daily toil. This indefinite expansion of towns, with their capital, intelligence and enterprise--this amalgamation, as it were, of the city and the country, is destined to play, henceforth, a distinguished part in the advancement of civilization.

III. But once more. Agriculture in common with Manufactures and Commerce, is interested in the prosperity of the Professions.

It is conceded that the sustaining of the professions is a charge on the producers of value.-But it is also to be conceded, that without the agency of the professions without the sound social conditions of HEALTH, ORDER and MORALITY, production would be at an end. So much for the mere economical argument.

But when we consider the intrinsic importance of these social conditions themselves, we can hardly over-estimate the obligations of productive agency to professional service. Here, as in the arts and in commerce, "Live and let live," is a maxim addressed not so much to the magnanimity and generosity, as to the economical and social interest of the cultivators of the ground.

But without extending our argument farther, the general proposition, that agriculture is benefitted by the advancement of every other interest essential to civilization, has, I would hope, been satisfactorily demonstrated.

That every other element in the economy of society, is reciprocally interested in the prosperity of agriculture, has been made, at least, equally apparent in the course of the argument.

To lay down the additional proposition, that agriculture is interested in the improvement and perfection of its own processes, might seem to be the superfluous statement of a mere truism.

Every farmer with a given amount of land, capital and labor, looks to his gross produce, as the proper return for his outlay-and on the volume and quality of this produce, depends his ability to command and to enjoy for himself and those dependent on him, the productions of the Arts, and the services of the professions. Every agricultural improvement looks to the larger quantity, or the better quality of the product. To promote these two ends is, of course, the more obvious and direct object of your association.

Having thus unfolded to you some of the outside relations of the great calling of the farmer, I gladly leave this important interior field to those who shall succeed me in addressing you on occasion of your future anniversaries, and who will bring to the task a knowledge of the theory and practice of Agriculture which I cannot pretend to.

I will, however, before closing, venture to call your attention to a few topics connected with this part of the subject.

In the first place, it is a truth that will become evident on a little reflection, that the division of labor cannot be profitably carried to the same extent in Agriculture, as in Manufacture. In the larger establishments we are told, there are ten distinct processes in the manufacture of the pin, each of which may employ the labor of its man, from one year's end to another. But not so with the processes of Agriculture.-One cannot plough throughout the year, and another sow, and another make hay.

But, on the other hand, there are certain classifications of the greater operations of husbandry. We hear, for example, of stock farms, dairy farms, grain culture, and the planting interest, comprising the subdivisions of the growing of tobacco, of cotton, of rice, and of the cane.

I take it to be sound dostrine in this connexion, that large tracts of country should not confine themselves to any one of these forms of husbandry-for a failure of the staple produce for a single season, would occasion unmitigated distress to the agricultural class, and affect disastrously all collateral interests of the dis

trict.

The partial failure of the wheat crop of two or three seasons past, furnishes an illustration of this truth, the force of which is felt by the farmers of Wisconsin, sufficiently to admonish them of the expediency of extending the cultivation of corn, of oats, of barley, of flax, and other annual products of introducing extensively stock raising, dairy, and wool growing, to all which uses the soil and climate of our State is admirably adapted.

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Out of this extensive range of culture, it will doubtless be good policy for the individual farmer to select for his leading object, such form of husbandry as may