INDIANA FARMER.
Devoted  to   Agriculture,   Horticulture,   mechanics,   and   the   Useful  Arts'
^^innTs?7'! Eo'"-    RICHMOND, IND., NOV. 1, 1851.    j        KbeU
W.
Speech of Gov. Joseph A. Wright,
DELIVERED BEFORE THE WAYNE:COUNTY AGRICULTURAL FAIR, HELD AT RICHMOND, ON TUES- ;
DAY,  WEDNESDAY,  AND THURSDAY, OCTOBER
7th, 8th, and Oth. 1831.
Mr. President, and Gentlemen of the Wayne
County Agricultural Society :
The pursuits of my life have been as much
varied as most men, yet in accepting your kind'
invitation to address you, I did not suppose;
that it was possible for me to enlighten the
practical farmers and mechanics of the county
of Wayne. Yet when I consider the efforts
now making to excite our fellow citizens on the
subject of labor, to arouse the laboring men of
tho State, the spirit of emulation that is being
kindled every where, I could not do otherwise
than by my presence contribute my mite to
urge forward this movement.
My only regret is, that my time has been so
occupied that I feel almost entirely unprepared to address so large and intelligent a portion
of our fellow citizens. What is wanting in
me, you have well remedied in the Exhibition
that surrounds us, of the labor, skill and production of the country.
What is national prosperity ? A nation may
have within its borders an abundance of the
precious metals ; it may "have a world-wide
commerce? it may have at its command a powerful Army, and a Navy second to none on the
seas; within its Territories Arts, Science, Mechanics, Agriculture and Manufactures may be
all carried to high degrees in the scale of perfection ; its Lakes, Rivers, Canals, Railroads
and all its public highways maybe thronged
with busy men of enterprise, and the various
productions of genius, skill and labor. But
these evidences of national prosperity are not
enough. Great Britain presents them all in a
strong light before the world ; and yet millions
who compose the main body of the nation are
laboring in her mines, her factories, her workshops and her fields ; and the greater part of
these millions are suffering under the evils of
ignorance, servility, petty tyranny and unre-
tjuitted toil; and in that condition, generation
after generations of men struggle through a
cheerless life of homeless and hopeless poverty. Hundreds of men thus live, labor and die
in order that one unproducing Dives may be
''clothed in purple and and fine linen, and fare
sumptuously every day." There may be prosperity among classes in Monarchies and even
Despotisms ; but true national prosperity, in
its most enlarged sense, cannot exist under
such forms of government.
The people of the United States have within
their reach all the means necessary to enable
them to establish for themselves tho highest
state of national prosperity. A spirit of freedom, equality, independence and self-reliance,
is the inheritance of every citizen. Tho laws
make no privileged classes. The roads to usefulness, to wealth and to honorable distinction
are open to all. Aided by the indispensable
qualities of virtue, industry and knowledge, the
farmer boy, or the apprentice boy of to-day may
in a fewyears be the President of a Republic
stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and
holding the first rank among tho nations of the
earth.
National prosperity is the aggregate of individual happiness, caused by the distribution
of the blessings of government under equal
laws, by which each man receives the due reward of his own labor.
The true basis of all national prosperity will
bo found in an universal system of practical
learning, by which the youth of the land shall
be taught to understand and perform their political, civil and religious duties, as members
of this Confederacy. Among the youth of a
nation he is not only the orphan who is left
without father or mother; that youth, whose
government neglects to provide means for his
advancement in knowledge, is surely in the
most desolate state of orphanage.
There is no one thing, after religion, virtue
and knowledge, that contributes so much to the
permanent prosperity of a nation as that which
I call the inventive talent. It is this that has
contributed much to the wealth, commercial im;
portance and prosperity of England; and it is
the same principle, operating in a field more
free, that is now doing so much in our own Republic.
We are behind no people on the face of thc
globe in mechanical genius and skill, and this
is mainly to be attributed to our free institutions. With us, if a mechanic has a hundred
hands at work in one shop, each man does not
regard himself as a mere copying machine, compelled to follow, without question the precise
directions given to him by the master mechanic ; but he thinks while at work, and he takes
the liberty of making suggestions as to thc propriety or expediency of changing this wheel or
that cog. He does not feel himself to be a
mere servant to do the bidding of his master ;
but he thinks, plans, reasons and suggests.—
Thus the powers of many minds are brought to
bear on the investigation of every propos<-4 improvement in Aluchanics or Agriculture.
In this consists the secret   of our  success.