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ernment for the people. It loans no money, incurs no risks. Its business is simply to receive, to keep safely, and to pay out according to the requisitions of law.

The effects of the constitutional treasury upon the banks have proved in the highest degree beneficial. Its reserve of specie is a check upon their discounts. It is not counted as a part of their means, and therefore cannot make a part of their loans. (See Appendix G G. and H H.)

A community is not made richer by having unlimited access to money under the conditions of discount. Far from it. It is made poorer. The spirit of industry which seeks the use of money is generally a safe one. But the motive which offers money to industry is generally a selfish or a speculative one. Money being the ultimate object of trade, as controlling all classes of property, each person aims at increasing his share, without sufficiently thinking that the success of the few is at the expense of the many.

FREE TRADE. TARIFF OF 1846.

TRADE is the exchange of commodity. The basis of trade is industry. Industry produces, and it is the function of trade to exchange." How far trade should be controlled and industry protected by law, have been the great and exciting tariff questions of the country.

To understand this subject, we reduce it to its elements. To do it justice would require a treatise, and our brief allusion to it is for the purpose of asking attention to the results of the tariff of 1846.

As all nations must have sources of revenue, means to pay the expenses of government, it becomes an important question how far home industry may be protected by an assessment of duties on articles of foreign production or manufacture, which are imported to displace similar articles of our own?

All taxes for government purposes are apt to be regarded as evils, and it becomes the study of the political economist, how these supposed evils may be balanced by a system of compensation. No direct taxes, for example, are assessed upon the people by the general government. But duties are imposed upon foreign articles; merchants pay the duties, and the peo

* "Man," says Archbishop Whately, "might be defined as an animal that makes exchanges; no other, even of those animals which make the nearest approach to rationality, having to all appearance the least notion of bartering, or in any way exchanging one thing for another." ·Political Economy, Lecture I.

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ple pay the merchants. After all, the tax is upon the people, but so indirectly, that they hardly perceive it in their ordinary purchases at the shops.

It may be remarked that the operative is chiefly confined in his purchases to home products, — his means not being sufficient to indulge in foreign luxuries, or the more costly fabrics.* By this exemption of necessity, he gains a partial protection on his labor, and the tax falls more upon his employer, or upon those whose means do not limit them to articles of home production.

How far this system may be carried with undoubted advantage, is a question in the process of solution. Various experiments in this country, however, show conclusively, in our humble opinion, that it is a system of taxation that should be confined to the mere wants of government. To this extent, even, it is an evil. Perhaps this form of taxation is as little obnoxious to objection as any other, but its inequality is obvious, while its ultimate results are doubtful. Besides, it must be considered that this inequality is not confined to classes of citizens. It is to be found in the local or sectional interests

of the country. The South may be called upon to pay the taxes of the North, and vice versa. Whoever prefers foreign products to his own, is called upon to pay for his preference.

If we consider the subject of trade, we are led to inquire into the conditions of industry. Whatever favors the latter cannot injure the former, but tends to promote it.

Industry is the employment of the human faculties in the great objects of life. It is moral, or physical: the moral, embracing whatever relates to man as a being of accountability and improvement; and the physical, embracing whatever relates to man as a being of labor or skill for the means of subsistence.

The great problem for solution, is, how man as a being of

*It should be stated, however, that the operatives purchase many foreign imports, which are the necessaries of life, such as sugar, different kinds of iron, &c. &c.

labor and skill may best succeed. As the objects of industry are essentially controlled by nations, this becomes a national question, to be decided by each nation for itself.

Man is both the being of production and consumption, the subject of want and the agent of supply. This mutual arrangement of dependence is in harmony with the great laws of progress, and leads to those changing modes of activity which develop man and nature.

With a proper idea of the great ends of industry, we may better understand the conditions most conducive to suc

cess.

It is the business of one man to sow and harvest the wheat; of another to bolt it; of another to find a market for the flour. This division of labor is applied to every thing, and leads to trade, commerce, and navigation. Man becomes the competitor of man throughout the world. All the products of the earth are placed within the reach of every people, and the industry of one nation is made to stimulate and to promote the industry of all nations.

Inventive genius is in requisition to reach new objects, to increase power, and to lessen labor. Skill is demanded to compete with skill, and men are transferred by interest from country to country, to extend their knowledge, and to exert their peculiar powers. Railroads have made the citizens of a country neighbors at home, and steamships have made them neighbors abroad. Diversity of character leads to diversity of wants, and wants lead to interests. New products are. discovered, new combinations and applications are developed, new wants are created, and new sources of comforts realized. Without these new resources, constantly springing up on the great highway of time, industry would be checked by the increase of population, or by the increased power of production, and man would become indolent and corrupt, and nations would suffer and decay. But with these resources, what but freedom of thought, of action, of labor, of trade, of enterprise, will subserve the great interests of man? How else can

we be true to the laws which are written by the hand of Providence upon the broad face of nature?*

There is no condition exempt from labor, it is the common lot of humanity. The idle suffer, and their suffering is more than labor. The life of an idle man is short. The same is true of nations. Labor is the condition of success, industry of comfort, integrity of happiness. Whatever promotes these promotes the good of a country. Whatever competition is to the individual, industry is to the nation.

It is a wise law of Providence, that the business of man shall subserve his moral being, and that his business success is made to depend, in a great measure, on his moral integrity. Men and nations are brought together by their wants and interests. Examples of failure serve to illustrate causes of success. Competition invites to improvement and progress. Men learn the conditions of prosperity, and the penalties of error and sin.

"The introduction of the principles of free trade removes many of the causes of sectional jealousies, and diminishes the subjects of necessary legislation. If the extension of our people increases the difficulties of free government, the march of mind develops new resources for overcoming them. That there are limits to this capa

city is not to be denied ; but it is equal, I believe, to the accomplishment of the mission upon which we were sent. Can a more magnificent destiny be conceived than the realization of such hopes ?- to fill a continent of space with all the elements of light, life, and civilization, in their purest forms and highest combination; to wring from the reluctant grasp of earth the fruits which she yields only to human skill and industry, and to discover resources in the boundless stores of nature for every new or increasing want which a progressive civilization may develop; to acquire a moral influence more extensive and enduring than any power of the sword, and which enforces homage, not from the lips, but the heart of every human being who can feel the force of beneficent example. Happy ourselves, and the cause of happiness in others, what higher tribute could we offer to Him who has endowed us with unparalleled advantages, than the spectacle of such a power guided by the spirit of justice and moderation, and directed to virtuous ends?"- Speech of the Hon. Mr. Hunter, U. S. Senate, Feb. 1848.

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