among

green

this air bubble paper money nobility foolish wife, and extravagant family! It is a comwhich considers honest labor fit only for pound of ignorance, deception and envy and the world is full of it. So long as it operated upon inserfs and bondmen. They seem to for- dividuals, alone, it was a matter of trifling considget that the laborer is nature's nobleman, eration; but strange as it may appear, its influence that his patent is from Jehovah himself. strikes at the very root of a virtuous and flourishThey do not recollect that the proudest ing the shape of a national calamity, and merits the ing community. Like intemperance, it is assumthe ancients, of whom we hear so serious reflection of every reformer. Thousands much, were tillers of the ground. Cice- who have gone forth as armed knights upon a ro was not only an orator, but a farmer. crusade against manifest evils, Lave in themselves, been slaves to this insiduous enemy. Self love Cincinnatus left his plough to lead his may prompt a man to do a good action, but false countrymen from glory to glory in the pride has never; it is incompatible with its nature. red battle field. Almost all the Poets of In our own country, its mischief consists in makold Rome, eulogised in exulting strains ing labor a degradation; thus striking at the very the pleasures of agriculture. The good ple; there never was an age, perhaps, where so foundation of our prosperous condition as a peoand the great delighted to quit the tur- much scheming was resorted to, to avoid hard moil of a smoky city to send out their work-no period that could exhibit so many Jerry hearts rejoicing among the leaves. Diddlers, above stairs and below, or manifest such In modern Europe the possession of land rich man of to day is the Lazarus of to-morrow!-a wild spirit of speculation, as the present. The is the highest aim of the privileged or- Fortunes are staked upon the rise and fall of stocks, ders, and is considered a sort of test of as upon the cast of a die. Cities are created by fraudulence! In the morning all eyes are cast gentility. But in many parts of this counupon how sad is the reverse. try the master spirit of enterprise, and the evenThe son ing finds him a disgraced man within the walls o a must be made a gentleman-that is he prison. Ingenuity itself is thunder struck at the must be an idler, or become a third or countless method, adopted to retain soft hands.— fourth rate lawyer, doctor, or parson, be- Why does this great disposition so extensively precause labor is vulgar, and agriculture un- for it is fruitful with poignant anxiety-not for vail? Certainly not for the security of happiness, genteel. How false is this-and perni-health for it frequently enervates and destroys.— cious as false. Why is it that our men Sir Walter Scott, I think, says that no man ought of wealth prefer that their sons should to want in this country, who can buy a hatchet and fell a tree; consequently, the remark being true, grow up in idleness, or enter some one of itcannot be from necessity! False pride whispers the overcrowded professions, to their be- "it is not genteel to work" How banefully is this coming Farmers? Why is it that in illustrated. New England agriculture is beginning to be avoided as something pestilential the son sent to measure tape and bobbin behind a counter, and the daughter to the factory, or the crowded city? Whence hath all this madness and folly its origin? It is a melancholy infatuation that is lead. ing our land to ruin. It is a false pride, and the delusion, unless checked by a wholesome reform in public opinion, will ultimately cover our country with desolation, and destroy the hardy virtues of free people. A writer in a respectable periodical has some remarks upon this hollow mockery, this false pride, this cast off, second hand gentility, which we here subjoin.

a

"It has always been a matter of regret with me that false pride could not be made, like theft, a criminal offence. It is the parent of abont as many crimes as any other vice: for such I hold it to be at least some descriptions of it. Where it is a weakness it is much to be pitied, and generaly leads to impropriety.-How many honest men have been made scoundrels by the false pride of

a

"Does the successful merchant make his son a

mechanic? very seldom. Does the professional man make his son a mechanic? more seldom still. his son the guardian of cloths and calicoes? Why is this? ts the yard stick more honorable than the jack plane? the goose quill more dignified than the type? but unfortunately the absurdity runs further! Look back twenty or fifty years, and behold the barefooted adventurer, at the prosent time rolling in wealth or spending his annual income of some three thousand dollars per annum in manufacturing ladies of his daughters. Does he teach them the usual rudiments of house wifery? Very rarely. Is it because the healthful exercise of domestic duties is disgraceful? Oh no! False pride says "it would be ungenteel for ladies to work" as if it would tarnish the fair hands and delicate fingers that bring such sweet sounds from the piano, to dust the gorgeous instrument itself.

But does not the more fortunate mechanic make

"How supremely ridiculous is this illegitimate pride! Thousands of daughters whose mothers have been raised in a kitchen, and their fathers in a stable--wonld feel insulted, if asked if they had ever made a loaf of bread or washed out a pocket handkerchief? They would more likely prate about 'good society,' 'mixed company,' and the dignity of their ancestors! A few years more roll round, and the thrifty but imprudent parent dies;

aral, healthy means of gain..that, aside from this, all dependence is uncertain and untenable.. than would the preaindustry, of prosperity, must be the pursuit of agriculture. ching of an army of political economists. The basis of all That neglected, it is impious to charge upon the seasons that portion of misfortune which is clearly attributable to our own errors. All the productions of the earth are extra

and the producer is not bettered by the emergency, for he has but little to sell..he has neglected his fields, has left the most dignified and exalted of all human pursuits, to chase the bitter lesson of experiene; let us suppose, for such rethe retreating shadow of unnaturai gain! Let us profit by liance is at all times the dictate of wisdom, that the season now opening on us is to be one of plenty, that the earth will give good returns for all that is committed to its charge least have the consolation that we have neglected no duty ..and then, if we come short of abundance, we shall at necessary to the accomplishment of our designs."

and then comes the scramble for some ten or, twelve divisions of his well earned estate.-How small does a large fortune appear when apportioned to numerous heirs. The daughters must of course marry gentlemen, for pride dictates it; and the gentlemen of course, must squander their pat-vagantly high; the consumer is threatened with starvation; rimony. And what has the parent bequeathed to society and his country? Children raised in idleness; without the stimulant to add one iota to the general, substantial prosperity of the community. "Can there be a doubt but what honest labor is becoming every day more and more stigmatized? and what follows? A grovelling imitation from the cellar to the garret! A spirit of extravagance in all classes; to indulge in which the most unprincipled means are resorted to! Let it proceed with the same rapid march that it has commenced and it will be a stigma to earn your bread by the sweat of your brow. Infect the country--the farmerwith the same poison that flows through our larger cities, and you make the country of Franklin a parallel to that of Montezuma !

more pre

"With us labor is every thing! It is cious than the mines of Mexico-more valuable than countless wealth. It is not only the foundation, but the main arch of our confederacy; unite it with education, and they form a ower of strength upon which our liberties may remain forever. The precious metals of the earth may exalt a nation to the highest altitude of transient glory; but like the brilliant phenomena that illuminate the heavens they dazzle but for a moment; and as is the case with Spain, sink into darkness and gloom. Not so with the labor of man--its glory is centered in the earth, and we behold it in the strides of internal improvement-the success of invention--the perfection of mechanical skill, and the inculation of those exalted moral principles which give durability to our institutions, and raise mankind in their own nature and existence. Industry is the grand lever upon which this nation must depend for its continued growth, and indolence does not more retard its usefulness than false pride does to bring it into disrepute--just as the turning a simple valve makes powerless the mightiest engine."

Another writer, upon a similar subject, has the following just remarks:

"How forcibly should the present scarcity of all the productions of the earth tend to draw the attention of the

owners or cultivators of the soil to the necessity for exertion to introduce a system of more industrious and thor

ough husbandry! True, the season has been unpropitious ..but the present crisis in agricultural productions through out the country, is in a great degree to be attributed to another cause..a neglect of agriculture. Our whole system has been diseased by the all absorbing business of speculation. It has drawn the mechanic from his shop, the profes

sional man from his duties, and enticed the tillers of the

66

Every man for himself," is the convenient motto of the age-and of this age especially, above all its predecessors. There prevails, at this time, a spirit of cold calculation, which is carried into all the relations of society, making barter and merchandise of the best feelings of the heart. Do you wish to know the strength and duration of a man's friendship? guage the depth and dimensions of your purse. For it is an universal proposition, that money and friendship are co-eternal.

We live in an age of selfishness. It requires not the frost and storms of sixty winters to convice us of this fact. It meets us at every turn of our pilgrimage, as with an unresting tread we hurry on through the great thorough-fare of life.Boast as we will of societies and benevolent operations--blaour many charitable Zon as we may of our Samaritan deeds and munificent donations-it avails not: the leaven of a sordid spirit runs through whole lump. all the channels of society, and infects the

It is an era of universal barter. Every thing has its price. The smile of friendship and the words of love, consideration,character and public esteem, may all be bought and sold for cash. It is the ordinary trafic of these merchandising times, which with a Midas-like touch, would convert every thing into gold. are bent with an undivided aim upon

soil to look for wealth in the inflated bubbles of artificial
value, and build their hopes upon the sandy foundations of schemes of gain.'
imaginary sudden gain, rather than by the patient but sure
process the use of the plough. Among the types that the
diseases has put on, was one which created a species of

All

What is the procuring cause of the

have been wrapped in this cloud of airy nothing, have look contempt for ordinary pursuits of ind astry. Those who growing distaste to agricultural pursuits,

that so many resort to any and every othed down upon plodding labor, as if it was out of fashion, obsolete and unnecessary. But the disease is working out its own cure; the whole machinery of the social fabric, so the reproach of being engaged in what er kind of employment, in order to avoid jostled and thrown out of gear by the excitement of sudden and unnatural gain, is undergoing repair. A salutary retri- should be considered the most honorable bution has inflicted the penalty of transgression, and is enforcing the fiat of the Creator, founded, as are all his decrees, calling upon earth? What has covered the land with speculators and stock-jobbers, like swarms of locusts, what has

in immutable justice.

"The retrospection of the last three years, will in the end do more to convince us that patient industry is the only nat

"I am very suspicious of the moral honesty that guides the transactions of the MONEY MARKET; of men who grow wealthy not by producing wealth, but by shuffling the cards.

thinned the ranks of honest industry, over- tions to this as to almost every other genestocking the learned professions, decreas-ral assertion, and I rejoice at the idea of ing producers and increasing idlers, until saying so. But the most, I fear, is not consumption so greatly exceeds produc- productive of public benefit. tion that we have been compelled to import our bread stuffs from Europe? The answer is ready. The cause of all this, and almost countless other evils which might be named, is the improper facilities afforded to speculating gamesters by the "I consider merchantile enterprise paper money Banks, to live without labor carried to the extent of the last three and to grow rich without industry. Who years, as putting on too much the charamong us would perform any more labor acter of gambling,-putting honest prinif we could pay all our debts in promises ciples in jeopardy,-destructive of real, -and what else is a Bank note? If our wealth-producing industry, and wholepromises would enable us to live in luxu- some frugality. Excessive importations ry and idleness, would not labor be ban-are tempted by the facilities of bank ished from the earth? competition. The consumer is templed The vast expansion of paper money beyond his means of paying. Overtradwithin the last two years, induced a reck-ing and wasteful consumption, lead to the less fanatical spirit of speculation, unpar- direct and downward road to insolvency. alleled, perhaps, in the history of the These are common-place remarks: so world. The temple of Mammon has are all important truths. been crowded with worshippers, morning. "We are becoming a nation of law-' noon, and night. Splendid fortunes were yers, merchants and clerks. The labor floating in every breeze, dazzling the eye of the hands is considered disgraceful. of the beholder; hundreds and thousands Our young men are no longer agricultuleft their farms and workshops, plunged ralists and manufacturers. We import into the maddening vortex with the vain our bread and meat, and corn and hay. hope of growing rich in a day. The Gradual and moderate gains are for country is now reaping the bitter fruits grovelling spirits only." of this universal insanity and folly. The mournful lesson has been learned that we have too many merchants, clerks, lawyers, doctors, parsons, in short too many "It is to the farming and mechanic interests of almost every class but farmers and we must look, in these days of extraordinary demechanics. We have found that "all lusion among mercantitle men, for sound views as to the causes of the evils which distract the the means of enjoyment and all the accucountry, as to the proper means of bringing back mulation of wealth, are the products of the affairs to their former prosperity. If the human labor." To diminish labor then, farmers and mechanics of the Confederacy were is to diminish the amount of human hap- subject to the same periodical madness which afpiness-the enjoyments of human life-flicts the merchants, we hould think there was the greater the number of those who live without labor, the greater the diminution of production, and the wider and more universal is the consequent ruin.

Dr. Thomas Cooper, late President of the South-Carolina College, in his late essay on Banks and Banking, has the following introductory paragraphs.

"I am no friend to either, such as I see them under their present organiza tion and operation. A faithful portrait of them presents an ugly likeness for the public to dwell on. There are excep

The eloquent and talented Editor of the Plaindealer, has an essay upon this subject to which we invite attention

But while we may look to them for such a host but too much reason to despair of the republic. of sound minds in sound bodies, for such a multitude of men who, like the Roman Mutus are not only able and willing to act, but to suffer for their country, we shall not lose our confidence in cultivators of the soil, and to the bardy followers the stability of democratic ins'itutions. To the of the mechanic arts, we turn our eyes, in these days of passion and prejudice, for that calm good sense and intrepidity, which are necessary for the protection of the great blessing of equal political rights.

The traders, as a body, are a useful class, but not the most patriotic. The spirit of traffic is always adverse to the spirit of liberty. We care

not whom the remark pleases nor whom it offends; charged with the crime but of the frank utterance of but it is a truth, which all history corroborates, their sentiments on a subject of general discussion, that the mercantile community, in the aggregate, to abandon their homes, and seek elsewhere a is ever impelled by sordid motives of action. The immediated interests of trade, not the permanent interest of their country, supply their strongest impulse. They peruse their ledger with more devotion than the Constitution; they regard pecuniary independence more than political; and they would be content to wear ignominious chains, so that the links were forged of gold.

The American people have tested. by a reduplicated experiment, continued through a long series of years, the good and evil of a federal bank, and they have seen that the evil far outweighs the good. They have seen it fail in the cardinal objects for which it was created. They have seen that it could not prevent the alternate expansions and contractions of the currency, and ruinous fluctuations in commercial affairs. They have seen, also, that it could not resist the temptation to turn its pecuniary means into political channels, and, through the corrupting influence of money, attempt to rule the destinies of freemen. They have seen it purchase presses, bribe public men, and endeavor to pollute the streams of popular intelligence at the fountain head These are facts not merely conjectured by suspicion. They rest not on uncertain evidence of probability. They are corroborated by proofs which defy re futation, and stand indelibly recorded on the enduring archives of the federal legislature. It was for these reasons the people decided there should be no federal bank.

place of refuge, if they would escape immolation in the public streets? We are forced to repeat that this audacious conduct proceeds from the mercantile community. It springs from the selfish, grovelling, debasing spirit of trade-from that spirit which venerates its desk more than the altar, its list of balances more than the decalogue,, and its book of accounts more than the book of God.

To the farmers and mechanics, then, we look for safety in these days of mercantile frenzy.They gain their livelihood by wholesome industry not by maddening speculati n, and they know the value of equal laws. Blacker than the clouds which lower over our shattered commerce, would be the boding tempest of the political horizon, had we no surer trust, in the midst of our difficulties, than the patriotism of those who regard the prosperity of trade more than the prosperity of their country, and, like true sons of Esau, would sell their birthright for a mess of pottage."

1

In addition to the pride and indolence, created and nourished by our present banking system, may be mentioned the habits of luxury and extravagance it engenders and fosters. That we are fast loosing the republican simplicity of our forefathers will hardly be questioned by any. It has been said that the whole But the mercantile community acquiesced not history of the world can furnish no exin this decision. "We must have a national bank ample of such precipitate decay of insti. to regulate the exchanges!" is now their cry.tutions and manners, as the government This is the proposition with which they meet and morals of a large portion of the peoevery argument, the answer they deem sufficient for every objection. Tell them of a constitutional ple of this Union. Corruption, treachimpediment, and they reply that they can see only ery, double dealing, are threatening the the impediments to trade. Point to the political utter extinction of honesty, simplicity, evils of a federal bank, and they talk of its finan- intelligence and virtue. We are rapidly cial advantages. Tell them of the danger it falling into the weakness and imbecility would threaten to liberty, and they descant on the facilities it would render to credit. An equal of exhausted old age in the days of our currency is, with them, a phrase of better import youth. It becomes us to pause in our than equal rights; a uniform system of exchange career of overwhelming ruin. It belongs a grander object than a uniform system of free- to the reformers of the present generation to check the tide in its impetuous course, and to purge the land from the contagion that now threatens us with dissolution. We once more invite attention to what the eminent Ricardo said upon this subject many years ago.

dom.

Why is it that large cities are justly considered, according to the expressive metaphor of Mr. Jefferson, the sore places in the body politic? Because the sordid spirit of trade gives them their tone, and fixes the standard of their political morals. When we hear of attempts to overawe freedom of public opinion, who are the chief actors in the outrage? The sons of traffic.When the equal right of suffrage is invaded, and proscription dictates to the poor man how he shall vote under the penalty of starvation, who are they who thus tyrranize over their fellow men? the merchants. What class of society now threatens tumult and insurrection, if the federal executive dares insist on the fulfillment of the laws? What class is it that warns freemen,

Luxury has been considered a cause of wealth. Luxury is superfluous, exaggerated consumption-consumption is the destruction of utility. Conceive then if you can that exaggerated destruction can be the cause of riches-can be production! It is repugnant to sound reason and good sense. destroy be a good, we cannot destroy too much, and we ought to think with him who

If to

broke up his furniture to encourage industry. believe that they render great service to the But Luxury supports a numerous popula- state, by swallowing up a great portion of the tion it is said. Without doubt not only the means of existence, and that there is much luxury of the rich, but likewise the simple merit in knowing how to dissipate great richconsumption of all the idle who live on their es. And those who live upon this prodigalirevenues,supports a great number of hirelings.ty firmly believe that if it should diminish But what becomes of the labor of these hire-they would be without resources; they delings? Those who employ them consume sire it should continue, and that it should be its result and nothing of it remains; and with as great as possible. Thus are we led astray, what do they pay for this labor? With their revenues, that is to say with riches already acquired, of which in a short time nothing will remain. There then is destruction, not augmentation of riches, by means of luxu

ry.

and even those who suffer are ignorant of the cause of their evils. Nevertheless, it is certain that the vicious consumption called lux ury, and in general all the consumption of idle capitalists, so far from being useful, destroys the greater part of a nation's prosperity; But luxury it is said again animates circu- and this is so true that from the moment in lation. These words have no meaning. which a country which has industry and They forget what is circulation. It is funds knowledge, is by any means delivered from produced by industry. By ruining them- this scourge, we see there immediately an selves, the men who live upon their revenues increase of riches and of strength truly procannot increase the mass of wages and of cir-digious. What reason demonstrates, history culation. The revenues of the idle rich, are but rents levied upon industry; it is industry alone which gives them birth.

Luxury, exaggerated and superfluous consumption, is therefore never good for any thing, economically speaking. A taste for superfluous expenses has its foundation in vanity, and it cannot exist in the superior class without gradually extending itself into all the others; and there it is still more fatal, because the means are less, and because it absorbs funds of which they made a better use; and thus every where institutes useless for useful expenses, and dries up the source of riches.

These men dare not always positively say that the more a nation consumes, the more it enriches itself-they dare not say it is an evidence of a narrow mind to believe that it is good economy to be economical. It does not follow that because consumption is the cause of production, that to expend is to enrich, any more for a nation than for an individual. The more of our wealth we employ in useless things, the less will remain for those which are useful.

proves by facts. When was Holland capable of effects truly incredible? When her Admirals lived as her sailors did-when the arms of her citizens were employed in enriching or defending the state; and none in cultivating tulips or paying for pictures.Make of Amsterdam the residence of a magnificent court, transform its vessels into embroidered clothes, its magazines into ball rooms; and you see in a few years they will not have the means remaining of defending themselvei against the irruptions of the sea. Why have the citizens of the United States doubled every twenty-five years their culture, their commerce, their riches, their population? It is because there are so few idlers among them, and the rich go to little superfluous expense. Let this be changed, let there be idlers, banks, luxury, and how melancholy would be the result. Their neighbors, the Canadians, do they make the same progress? They are gentlemen living nobly and doing nothing.

Look at France for an instant in corroboration of the foregoing. Her revolution takes place; she suffers all imaginable evils; she We have seen that when a nation becomes has been torn by atrocious wars, civil and rich, a great inequality of fortune is estab- foreign; her provinces laid waste, her cities lished, and that the possessors of large for- reduced to ashes, pillaged by brigands, and tunes addict themselves to luxury. It has by the furnishers of troops; her exterior combeen believed by some, claiming to be intel-merce annihilated; her fleets totally desligent, that this causes a country to prosper; troyed, though often renewed; her colonies, and thus hastily conclude that inequality and believed so necessary to her prosperity, have luxury are two very good things. Strong been prostrated; the men and money lavishpersonal interests contribute to strengthen, ed to subjugate them all lost; her specie and to give credit to this error. Powerful men are unwilling to admit that their existence is an evil, a burden, a curse, and that their expense is as useless as their persons. On the contrary, they endeavor to impose by pomp, and it is not their fault if we do not

nearly all exported, by paper money and emigration; supporting fourteen armies during a season of famine; and yet augmenting her population and agriculture-supporting enormous taxes, and yet making immense expenditures in public works-and all this ef