_6th_. A.E. Wing, Esq., declines to deliver the annual address before
the Michigan Historical Society, owing to other engagements. Few men who
have capacity are found willing to devote the time necessary for the
preparation of a literary address, even where the materials for it would
appear to lie ready. The pressing practical calls of life, in a new
country, where there is no hereditary wealth, appear to furnish a valid
reason for this. But another reason is, that the materials and frame-work
of an address are sought for at too great a distance, and are thought to
lie too deeply buried, to be disinterred by any but extraordinary hands.
This is a mistake. The subjects are at home, and exist not only in
exploring old literary mines, but in the very circumstances around us.
What more extraordinary than the current which throws such masses of
people daily among us, tearing up, as it were, the old plan of life, and
laying the foundations of new social ties in the wilderness. Not a
county is settled in the West, the initial steps of which does not
furnish legitimate materials for an address which would edify the living
generation, and instruct those which are to follow us.
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