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The harvest of blessings, sown in fields fattened with the blood of heroes, hath mocked our expectations. But under the present Constitution, being uncommonly protected in our persons and our acquisitions, we shall have uncommonly favourable opportunities for increasing and enjoying our natural resources. We have purchased wisdom by experience. Though mankind are believed to be averse to the coercions of government, yet no sooner had our countrymen felt the inconveniencies arising from the feebleness of our former confederation, than they seemed willing to invest a new Congress with a farther portion of their original guts, for the purpose of being more fully protected in the enjoyment of the remainder. Thus the dispositions of our countrymen have been gradually matured to receive an energetic government. Heaven be thanked that we have lived to see its wonders in our native land, not less in darkness and tempest than in sunshine and serenity!, Now the clouds that obscured our political horizon are bursting away. The dawn of happiness begins to appear. We cannot refrain from experiencing the consolatory joys of futurity, in contemplating the immense deserts, yet untrodden by the foot of man, soon to become fair as the garden of God, soon to be animated by the activity of multitudes, and soon to be made vocal with the praises of the MOST HIGH. Can it be imagined that so many peculiar advantages of soil and of climate, for agriculture, for navigation, and eventually for manufactures, were lavished in vain-or that this vast continent was not created and reserved so long undiscovered, as a theatre for those glorious displays of Divine power and goodness, the salutary consequences of which will flow to another hemisphere, and extend through the interminable series of ages! Should not our souls exult in the prospect?Though we shall not survive to perceive, with these bodily senses, but a small portion of the blessed effects which our revolution will occasion in the rest of the world; yet we may enjoy the progress of human society, and human happiness, in anticipation. We may rejoice in a belief, that intellectual light will yet illuminate the dark corners of the earth; that freedom of inquiry will produce liberality of conduct; that mankind will reverse the absurd position, that the many were made for the few; and that they will not continue slaves in one quarter of the globe, when they can become freemen in another.

With such animating prospects before us; with a spirit of industry becoming every day more prevalent; with habits of economy, first prompted by necessity, now acquiring force from fashion; with dispositions that a reverence for public and private justice should form the basis of our national character; we only

wanted a good government, well administered, to establish our happiness at home, and our respectability abroad. This is the time for fixing our national character and national manners. For this purpose, the integrity, the talents, and the examples of such an assemblage of illustrious personages as those who are now em. ployed in the general government, were highly requisite. Notwithstanding the unanimous suffrage of our countrymen in favour of the Supreme Magistrate supersedes the propriety of my mentioning the circumstances of his coming again into public life, the senti. ments entertained of his character, and the benefits expected from his administration; yet I may be allowed to say, that no selection of sages, in this or any other country, ever merited the confidence of their fellow-citizens more than the members of the present Congress. If then the body of worthy citizens will cooperate with the general and state governments, in endeavours to promote the public felicity; if the ministers of religion will exert themselves in their holy functions to disseminate peace and goodwill among men; if the executive officers of government will not bear the sword of justice in vain, but be a terror to evil doers and a praise to such as shall do well; we may congratulate ourselves upon having lived at so important a period, and seen the establishment of a government calculated to promote the perma nent prosperity and glory of our nation.

DISSERTATION

ON THE

BREED OF SPANISH SHEEP

CALLED

MERINO.

DISSERTATION, &c.

Boston, August 25, 1802.

I

SIR,

RECEIVE, with great satisfaction, the several publications of the Massachusetts Society for promoting Agriculture which have been presented to me; and notice, with due respect, the intimation that communications from me on the important subject of their institution would be highly acceptable to the Trustees. In consequence of this general invitation in writing, corroborated by your particular verbal request, I shall proceed to give you such an account of the breed of sheep which I brought with me from Europe to America as my recollection can furnish.

Many circumstances concurred to favour the importation, some of which may not be expected soon to unite again: the season was the best that could have been chosen for a safe and easy passage: the conclusion of a general peace rendered the transportation less exposed to embarrassments than it had been for several years; and the diminution of the freighting, business made it less difficult than it otherwise would have been to engage a convenient vessel for transporting a greater number of sheep than probably ever before passed the Atlantic together. My acquaintance in the capitals of Spain and Portugal, as well as with the of ficers commanding on the frontiers, afforded me greater facilities for the extraction than any stranger could be supposed to possess.

The importance of meliorating the breed of sheep in our country, particularly in the article of wool, had been early and deeply impressed on my mind. In addition to the gradual process of improvement, by bestowing more care and attention on our native flocks, in feeding them well, and crossing the blood, obviously suggested by reason and experience, two modes occurred for hastening and insuring the attainment of that interesting object. The first, to introduce and propagate an entirely new race, if a more perfect one could be obtained: the second, to meliorate our stock, by producing a mixed progeny from our ordinary ewes, by rams of a better breed. Both might be tried at the same time; and various experiments in different countries encouraged me to hope that both would succeed. But before there could be sufficiently good

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