AN ENQUIRY INTO THE PRINCIPLES OF PUBLIC CREDIT, CURRENCY, THE WAGES And The Elements of Social Government in General, AS THEY APPEAR OPEN TO THE SCRUTINY OF COMMON SENSE AND THE PHILOSOPHY Governments were instituted for the happiness of the many, not the benefit of the few. BY STEPHEN SIMPSON, OF PHILADELPHIA. PHILADELPHIA: THOMAS L. BONSAL-NO. 31 MARKET STREET. Adam Waldie, Printer. 1831. ADVERTISEMENT. The following volume is designed as a plain elucidation of some of the leading principles of the wORKING MEN. It cannot strictly be termed a treatise on political economy, but must rather be considered as an easy introduction to a proper conception of what ought to constitute an AMERICAN THEORY, on that interesting subject. It is given to the public as an essay, not as a treatise. Metaphysical refinement has been studiously avoided; and the profound dissertations of Say, and other writers bewildered in the fogs of Gothic institutions, have been made to give place to the elucidation of obvious principles, of practical utility or equitable application. Should this volume meet with the favourable judgment of that portion of the people for whom it is designed, a second one may appear, to establish the correctness of the theory, here rudely sketched out in its general outlines; and which is necessary to the full illustration of the hypothesis assumed. Philadelphia, Sept. 19, 1831. · STEPHEN SIMPSON. PRELIMINARY DISSERTATION. A NEW theory of political economy, at the present day, and from the pen of an American, may by some be considered as a bold and hazardous undertaking. Adventure and peril, however, are the characteristics of our country. Its physical features are stamped with an energy and grandeur, that invite to imitation.-Its moral history, and its political career, are equally distinguished for peril of achievement and novelty of execution. We are confessed to have achieved, as a nation, what no other people would ever have attempted.The career of intellect, of science, and of arts, lies in broad characters before us; and it may surely be permitted to the most humble aspirant to add to the common stock of knowledge and of happiness. It has been left to the people of the United States, to present to the world, for the first time, a self-formed government, whose basis was established in the equal rights of man, civil equality, and common privileges: and whose end was the general prosperity, virtue, and happiness of the people. The Declaration of American Independence was the first formal annunciation to the world, that all men were born equally free—with equal claims to the pursuit of happiness-and with unalienable rights to self-government. This truth once proclaimed, flashed conviction on every mind. It became an obvious and self-evident axiom the moment it was B |