SPEECH AT THE DINNER OF THE HAMPSHIRE COUNTY AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY, AT
NORTHAMPTON, MASS., OCTOBER 14, 1862.
At the dinner which followed the cattle-show, Mr. Sumner was
introduced by Hon. Erastus Hopkins, who commenced by alluding
to their early days at the Boston Latin School.
“GENTLEMEN,--It is now full forty years, when at school
I had a schoolmate and a classmate who in point of
physical altitude and breadth, but more especially (I am
no flatterer, I only speak historic truth) in point of
diligence and scholarship, was _primus inter pares_,--first
among equals. That boy was father of the man. He now holds
the position of Senator in the Senate of the United States,
with a relative eminence no less than that of his earlier
days. He is the valued servant and the honored Senator of
Massachusetts, whom she has hitherto delighted to honor,
and whom, so long as she remains true to her cherished
sentiments, to her gushing instincts, and to her memorable
history, SHE WILL EVER HONOR. [_Loud applause._]
“We were told yesterday by the Rev. Dr. Huntington, in
his admirable address delivered in this hall, that the
farmer owed his first duty to his land,--to care for it, to
fertilize it, and to beautify it. Recurring to this point,
at the close of his address, he reminded the farmer that
‘duty to his land’ was susceptible of a double meaning: the
one referring to the few acres of his own individual and
exclusive proprietorship; the other, to that great land,
that vast country, which he owned, and to which he owed
duty, in common with all his fellow-citizens.
“I do not know that the honorable Senator owns, or ever did
own, in separate proprietorship, any acres of land,--that
he ever held the plough, or ‘drove the team a-field’; I do
not know whether he intends to enlighten us with regard to
the care and culture of our homesteads and our farms; but
I do know that he understands the farmer’s ‘duty to his
land,’ in the secondary and higher sense to which allusion
has been made,--that, looking over our wide country, our
rich heritage, and heritage of our fathers, he has been
ever diligent and untiring in his endeavors to remove its
deformities, to augment its fertility, and to crown it with
beauty.
“To which department of farming the Senator will direct his
remarks I know not; but, whatever his topic, I submit without
fear his words of instruction and of eloquence to the ordeal
of your verdict.
“I have the honor to introduce to you the Hon. CHARLES SUMNER.”
* * * * *
Mr. Sumner spoke as follows.