Agriculture is the foundation of all other industries. It is quite as
indispensable for the support of armies in the field as it is for that
of commerce and manufactures in the halcyon days of national repose. If
those who have gone forth with arms in their hands to do battle for the
preservation of our free government are performing services of the
highest importance to the nation, those also who remain at home to till
the earth are doing work indispensable to the success of our sacred
cause. If they do not strike the enemy with their hoes and scythes, they
at least sustain and invigorate those who carry the bayonet and meet the
shock of actual war.
Under all circumstances the great operations of agriculture must still
go on. The seasons do not cease their appointed rounds; the sun does not
fail to dispense his genial stores of light and heat; nor do the
fertilizing showers of heaven refuse to descend upon the soil, because
the fierce passions of man have aroused him to discord and battle.
Nature still maintains her serenity in the midst of all the fearful
agitations of mankind; and she still scatters her blessings with a
lavish hand, though they may be trampled under foot by the gathering
hosts of infuriated men. Even, therefore, while the human tempest rages
around us, we may well pause to contemplate the peaceful beneficence of
nature, and to rejoice in the thought that all the wickedness and
violence of man cannot provoke or derange into confusion and disorder
the great natural elements which minister to his comfort and
happiness--which cause the seed to germinate, the flower to bloom, and
the fruit to ripen, regardless of all his passions, and in spite of his
ingratitude. The unambitious pursuits of the husbandman may have in them
nothing of the pomp and circumstance of glorious war; but they are at
least in harmony with the beneficence of God and the permanent interests
of man; while they are also of the highest importance to the country,
even in the extremity of her peril.
The harvest, now approaching, everywhere gives promise of a bounteous
supply of the productions which annually bless our favored land. The
vast invading army of the enemy, soon to be driven with disaster out of
the loyal States, will have made no serious impression upon the
abundance of our overflowing stores. There may be some scarcity of
labor to secure the maturing crops, but we shall still supply all our
own wants abundantly, leaving a large surplus for shipment abroad, and
even for meeting the necessities of our suffering brethren in the South,
when they shall have utterly failed in their wicked purpose of
destroying the Government, and when their sharp cry of hunger and
suffering shall appeal to our relenting hearts for succor.