the smoke and cloud of warfare, and set
firm in the tumultuous present the foundations of future
greatness,--that, calm and confident, it lays in the midst of the
thunder-storm of battle the corner-stone of the temple of Peace. It is
equally encouraging to see the States from east to west responding to
this movement, consulting with each other, enlisting in the enterprise
their best men, and sending them up and down in the land, and in other
lands, to observe and collate and infer, that the beneficent designs of
Congress may be carried out and carried on in the best possible manner
for the highest good of all. So a free people governs itself. So a free
people discerns its weakness and unfolds its strength. So a true
aristocracy will yet develop a worthy democracy. From such living,
far-seeing patriotism we augur the best results. Mistakes will doubtless
be made; wisdom will not die with this generation; but a beginning is
the sure presage of the end. Hesitation and precipitancy, unseemly delay
and ill-advised action, may retard, but will not prevent, a glorious
consummation. In these colleges we look to see agricultural centres from
which shall radiate new light across our hills and valleys. They will
not at once turn every plough-boy into a philosopher, nor send us
Liebigs to milk the cows; but to every plough-boy and dairyman in the
country they will give a new and a wider horizon. They will bring fresh
and manly incentives into the domain of toil. They will establish in
society a new order of men,--an order whose mere existence will give
heart and hope to the farmer-lad disgusted with his narrow life, yet
unable to relinquish it. They will send out to us men who have learned
and will teach that the plough, the hoe, the rake are implements of
profit and honor, as well as of industry. They will show that the hand
and the head may march abreast, and that only so can their full capacity
be tested. Science will be corrected by practice, and practice will be
guided by science. These men will go over the land and quietly set up
their household gods among our old-time farmers. They will gradually
acquire influence, not by loud-voiced rhetoric, but by the silent
eloquence of rich cornfields, heavy-laden orchards, full-uddered kine,
and merry-hearted boys and girls,--by the gentle, but irresistible force
of kindly words, pleasant ways, ready sympathy, a helping hand in
trouble, "sage counsel in cumber,"--by the thousand little