an afterthought. There are other reasons which induced to this conclusion. As late as September last, after his Excellency had had abundant time to digest all the developments of the Whig Assembly of 1839, he addressed a letter to the citizens of the northern counties, assuring them that all the exertions which it was in his power to make should as theretofore be cheerfully contributed to the construction of the Ogdensburgh and Champlain Railroad, but no suggestion accompanied it that the developments made by the Assembly of 1839 had induced or rendered a change of policy necessary. Further, in July last, a convention of the southern counties upon the subject of their railroad was held at Ithaca, in which his Excellency, as usual, appeared by letter in favor of the work. In September thereafter, while travelling through the southern counties, in reply to a letter addressed to his Excellency upon the subject of the southern railroad, by William W. McKay, Ziba A. Leland, and others, his Excellency held the following language, which was well suited to that meridian: "There can be no impropriety in my saying what has been doubtless well understood through the State, that the bill which was passed by the Assembly, providing for the construction of the New York and Erie railroad, had my decided approbation, and that I should have signed it with the greatest satisfaction had it passed the Senate, not only as a measure justly due to the People of the southern counties and wisely calculated to advance the prosperity of the State, but also as one which would honorably distinguish the period of my connection with the administration of public affairs. These views are confirmed by a more intimate acquaintance with the region more particularly interested in the improvement, and I am satisfied that the expense of the work has been greatly and unnecessarily exaggerated, while its usefulness has been but imperfectly conceived. Entertaining these opinions, I shall be at all times ready and willing to cooperate in the same manner, and yield, as I have heretofore done, my best exertions for the accomplishment of this great improvement." Here again is no pretence that a change of policy had become necessary, although he had for six months the benefits of all the developments of the Assembly which he has now, and the pecuniary embarrassments which now affect the country were then plainly visible. Why, then, does not his Excellency say now upon the subject of the southern road at least what he said then? Then he promised his best exertions in favor of the work; now his political friends cannot find enough upon the subject in this long and verbose message worth even referring to a committee. It is a subject in which my constituents feel a deep interest. It has long been agitated, and is due to the question, to the People, and to the Governor, who by himself and friends has made so many professions upon the subject, to treat it with frankness and have it settled. The People have been told by Whig partisans and Whig presses that the ascendency of the federalists in the State would insure its speedy completion as a State work; and they have now a right to ask for a redemption of the pledge. I do not believe the People of the southern tier, desirous as they are that the road should be constructed, would wish to have the State rush inconsiderately into debt. I know they would not. They are for a safe and cautious policy; but inasmuch as the credit of the State is already pledged to the company to the amount of three millions-a small portion of which only has been drawn, they believe that the policy of the State touching the improvement can as well be settled now as ever, by giving a different direction to the fund already provided, without increasing the liability of the State one dollar. It has been the football for demagogues long enough, and under the professions which have been voluntarily made in a certain quarter it is due to the People that the policy of the State administration should be made known fully and frankly. If the Governor is in favor of the State work project, let him say so; or if he is opposed to it, let him say that. He need not inform us that there is such a work, for we all know it; nor that the company are working wonders upon it, for we have been edified with that story on the sitting of the Legislature for the last four years. We know what the company have done, are doing, and have our opinion as to what they will hereafter do. But it has received no executive notice except such as is biographical, and conveyed in words which can be read either way. Its fate must depend on legislative volition, liberality and wisdom, unaided and undirected by him who has been cried up as its champion. Notwithstanding the special pleading of the Governor, and his half and half position, that enterprising People are as far from market as before. Their majestic hills, pleasant valleys, and limpid streams remain the same, and they will not be veered about by every wind of doctrine put forth by the executive. Nor can his Excellency satisfy the people of the southern tier by high-sounding pretensions upon the subject of internal improvement generally, nor by protecting the lateral canals so valorously, with which no one, so far as I know, proposes to interfere. He has taken great care to promise, and they will take equal care that he performs. I concur fully with the gentleman from the Seventh,* who has had charge of referring his Excellency's message, that there was no action recommended on the subject of railroads, which it was worth while to refer, but there was considerable said on the subject, and said too in such questionable shape, that I think it ought to have been referred as a curiosity if nothing more. I, at one time, had it not been discourteous to the majority, would have moved to refer it, but whether I should have moved to have it sent to the committee on literature, to have its meaning defined, or to the committee on claims--as it evidently asserted a claim to superior economy and prudence for the present administration, or to the committee on privileges and elections-it being evidently an electioneering document, I have not yet determined. I do not question the right of his Excellency to take his side of the subject, as his judgment dictates, but he has no right to both. Nor will the People of the southern counties accept from his Excellency as a fulfilment of his own promises the changes he has rung upon expressions of the Senator from the Fourth. They will combat him through their representatives, and will regard executive interference, I have no doubt, as I regard it, a virtual infringement upon the constitutional liberty of debate, and neither dignified nor justifiable; which, if upheld against one, may be, by the same rule, against another. A great majority of my constituents differ with the extreme views of the Senator from the Fourth upon the subject of internal improvement, and their representatives, myself among the number, have been often called to enter the conflict against him. I am well known to entertain views opposite to those of the Senator from the Fourth *MR. MAYNAKD. + MR. YOUNG. upon this subject; I have had occasion to express them; I have done so fearlessly, and will do so again when the occasion presents; but I protest against the propriety of the Executive in reviewing the positions and carping upon the language of members of the Legislature spoken in the discharge of their duty, in an executive message. Much as the inhabitants of the southern counties and their representatives have differed from the Senator from the Fourth, they have found in him one merit, which in these times ought to be regarded above all price he has been above hypocrisy and double dealing. He has chosen his position and maintained it; has been easily found, and has misled no one. He has not raised confidence to betray it, nor lavished professions at one time to be belied at another. He has been an open as well as a determined opponent, and has contented himself with being upon one side. He has not had one set of principles for one section, and another for another, nor has he left them in a shape to be construed agreeably to the sentiment in the meridian where they are promulgated, or as necessity may require. He has raised himself like a solitary rock above the ocean's storm, and "grand, gloomy and peculiar " has withstood alike the sunshine and the tempest, and now stands forth a memorable illustration of the truth that "Pigmies are pigmies still, though perched on Alps, ADDRESS DELIVERED AT THE FAIR OF THE QUEENS COUNTY AGRICUL TURAL SOCIETY, October 17, 1843. THE earth was by Divine appointment to furnish man's subsistence. When, as sacred history informs us, the heavens and the earth were finished and all the host of them, and there was not a man to till the ground, man was created and placed in the garden; not to vegetate in passive luxuriance, like the herbs and plants which adorned his paradise, but to dress and to keep it and though by reason of his defection he was driven from its enjoyments-his state of calm and happy innocence changed to one of solicitude, toil and endurance-the ground cursed for his sake with thorns also and thistles, and it was ordained that in the sweat of his face he should eat his bread-it is evident, that in the economy of his creation, as well as in the appointment of his lot after the fall, he was destined for active employment. Practical agriculture is coeval with the history of man. One of the sons of our common progenitor was a tiller of the ground, another was a keeper of sheep. Noah and his descendants after the flood planted and cultivated vineyards, as well as reared cities and established kingdoms. Many of the laws of Moses have for their object the regulation of flocks and herds, and the cultivation and enjoyment of fields. The chil dren of Israel, on coming to the possession of the fair land of Canaan, after wandering in the wilderness a period of forty years, addressed themselves to its cultivation. When the prophet Elijah passed by and cast his mantle upon Elisha, he found him ploughing in the field with twelve yoke of oxen before him, himself with the twelfth; and the servants and oxen of the affluent Idumean were engaged in the same pursuit when they fell a prey to the rapacity of the Sabeans. Many of the most interesting and poetic incidents of Scripture are touching |