THE WORKING MAN'S 
 
 POLITICAL ECONOMY, 
 
 
 TOUNDKD UPON THB PRIKCIPLB OF 
 
 IMMUTABLE JUSTICE, 
 
 AND 
 
 THE INALIENABLE EIGHTS OF MAN; 
 
 DESIGNED FOR THE PROMOTION OP 
 
 IATIOIAL REFOEM; 
 
 BY JOHN PICKERING 
 
 "Wfan theVorfcirg people gain their just rights, to controvert the doctrine of extor- 
 
 . be deemed illogical, dangerous, unscientific and absurd. That time 
 
 jgtfsr arrive ; Aid, if I can-do aught that will accelerate it, I shall esteem it the most 
 
 Crappy, honorable and fortunate effort of my existence." STEPHBM SIMPSON, Cashier late 
 
 U. S. Bcmk, Working Man's Manual, page 41. 
 
 CINCINNATI: 
 
 STEREOTYPED IN WARREN'S NEW PATENT METHOD, 
 BY THOMAS VAENEY. 
 
 1847. 
 
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1847, 
 
 BY JOHN PICKERING, 
 In the Clerk's Office of the 17. S. District Court, Ohio District. 
 
 
^ 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. Page. 
 
 The injustice of the present organization of Society, 3 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 The means by which the many have been enslaved by the few, 15 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 Inconsistency of American authors on Political Economy, 33 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 Legal and illegal robbery compared, .... 40 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 Slavery to capital more degrading than chattel slavery, - 43 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 On the nature of property in general, - 46 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 On the nature of capital, money, &c., - - 56 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 Active and unproductive capital, considered, - 65 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 Debasing the circulating medium its evil consequences, - 70 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Production and consumption of wealth, 80 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 "\Vyges of labor no equivalent for the labor performed, - 88 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 Fundamental errors of Governments, - - - 95 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 Human Rights clearly defined, ..... 101 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 Permanent Funding System a violation of humetn rights, and 
 
 therefore inimical to the happiness of "society, 110 
 
 CHAPTER xv. 
 
 The Banking System-its injustice and demoralizing tendency; 
 
 also its unconstitutionality, - - - - 117 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 A Protective Tariff inconsistent with a free government, 144 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 Rebellion its nature, causes, and cure, - - 155 
 
 M508373 
 

 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 House rent its oppressive action upon the producing classes, 162 
 The Temperance cause and National Reform, compared, 164 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 Warren's Equitable Commerce reviewed, and the incompe- 
 tency of the Labor note as a medium of commercial ex- 
 change, demonstrated, - -165 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 Conclusion, remedy for the moral, social and political evils, / 178 
 
 Demon's Analytical Review of the Statistics of the United 
 States, in which he shows that of all the wealth produ- 
 ced in the country, the sole producers of it, are only 
 enabled to realize two-elevenths for their own use, the 
 remaining nine-elevenths is absorbed by the non-pro- 
 ducers, - - - - 187 
 
 National Reform Songs, 194 to 206 
 
TO THE READER. 
 
 You will find, on perusing the WORKING MAN'S POLITICAL ECONO- 
 MY, that the main object of the Author is to show by what means the 
 productive classes of society may realize the just and equitable 
 reward for their labor and toil. Its competency to effect so desira- 
 ble an end, you will find, depends upon the truth or falsity of a 
 single proposition, which is as follows : 
 
 If the legal money (or labor) value of the elements of nature- 
 were abolished, unconfounded and disconnected with the products 
 of human labor, and all men left perfectly free to compete with 
 each other in supplying their own and the wants of the public, (com- 
 mercial demand,) the prices of all exchangeable things, including 
 personal services and the precious metals, whether in the form of 
 coin x or not, would naturally, gradually i and without any artificial 
 or arbitrary combination or organization whatever, gravitate to the 
 COST OF PRODUCTION, which is the natural, therefore the just and equi- 
 table LIMIT OF PRICE. And such an equalizing result has ONLY been 
 prevented by the restrictive and coercive acts of government deri- 
 ving the power to enforce them, by FIRST MONOPOLIZING THE SOIL, 
 subjecting IT and HUMAN FLESH to money value, contrary to the law 
 of immutable justice and the common rights of humanity. 
 
 The above proposition is true, or it is not. If it be true, it is very 
 evident that, under the circumstances just mentioned, all persons 
 engaged in useful pursuits would in the aggregate realize an equal 
 amount of the labor or service of others in exchange for their own ; 
 therefore no one could become possessed of property but in propor- 
 tion to his own industry or usefulness. And, surely, more than this, 
 no honest man either could or would ask for : it being but even- 
 handed justice practical Christianity " reciprocal social inter- 
 course" equality of rights " individual sovereignty" " equita- 
 ble commerce" unity of interest " doing unto others as we would 
 that others should do unto us." 
 
 Under such a state of things, industry would become "attractive," 
 and might be made "associative" and " organized " upon princi- 
 ples of justice and equity, but which never can be accomplished 
 while human nature is what it is, if society continues to give a pre- 
 mium of four hundred and fifty per cent, for useless idleness over 
 useful industry. 
 
 Place every man upon the same footing in regard to the elements, 
 and competition, instead of being inimical to his happiness, will be- 
 come his best friend. Competition only becomes antagonistical to 
 
the happiness of man when the NONOPOLISTS OF THE SOIL and CAPITAL 
 are combined with the strength of government on the one hand, 
 and the landless and houseless producers isolated on the other, and 
 thereby made to contend for the scanty crust that the LORDS OF THE 
 LAND AND THE CAPITAL have determined they shall only enjoy. 
 
 Such are the settled convictions of the author of "The Working 
 Man's Political Economy ;" and if his views are not correct, it is 
 the duty of others to show WHY. 
 
 Respectfully, JOHN PICKERING. 
 
 RECOMMENDATIONS. 
 
 
 * 
 
 9* 
 
 Extracts from "Young America," November 27, 1847. 
 
 " THE WORKING- MAN'S POLITICAL ECONOMY," by JOHN PICKERING. 
 
 Cincinnati. 1847. 
 
 ** This work seems to be the first product of the National Reform 
 movement in b&>k form, and presents as well as extends its princi- 
 ples with the most pungent arguments. It is most admirably calcu- 
 lated to instruct the working man in the true nature of the wrongs 
 by which he is oppressed, and in the rights to which he has never 
 yet attained. It should circulate in the garb of every language 
 throughout the world. Would to God it could be shot by the uni- 
 versal electric medium into the minds of every tenant and landlord, 
 slave and master, hireling and employer, consumer and profitmon- 
 ger, voter and legislator, upon earth. All parties would then see, 
 that while luxurious monopoly, on the one hand, decimates millions 
 of producers by destitution, it destroys, on the other, the race of 
 nonproducers by superabundance. They would see that superfluity 
 destroys the monopolizers themselves, as well as the destitute, by 
 the tribute which they extort, and that it is the interest of all man- 
 kind to mutually protect each other in their rights. Never has a 
 writer made so effective a use of the evidence of parties against 
 themselves." LEWIS MASQJJERIER. 
 
 " The new work of Mr. Pickering on Political Economy is worth 
 more than all the books on the same subject before written, and 
 shall receive further notice hereafter." ED. YOUNG AMERICA. 
 
 ERRATA. Page 43, 9th line from top, for 30,000 read 300,000 ; 
 page 118, 25th line from top, for "dirth" read death. 
 Page 33, top line, read American Authors. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 To " National Reformers," and the producing, or work- 
 Ing classes, in general, this work is respectfully dedicated. 
 
 All systems of Political Economy, heretofore written and 
 published to the world, have had, 'for the^ main object, 
 
 First. The support and prosperity of a Monarchy, with 
 its necessary appendages of titles of nobility, with various 
 ranks of birth, grades of power and dignity, special priv- 
 ileges, &c. 
 
 Second. The support and prosperity qftt moneyed Aris- 
 tocracy ; or, in other words, to sustain, justify and vindi- 
 cate the interests and claims of capital; or a mixture of 
 both. But, in both of these systems, the just claims of in- 
 dustry, or labor, has been entirely overlooked or forgotten. 
 Furthermore, man's natural and inalienable rights have 
 not been kept in view, or in any degree respected by the 
 advocates of either. 
 
 The object of this work is, therefore, to expose and 
 make manifest the false principles upon which they are 
 founded ; the evil tendency of their operation upon society 
 in general; and what are the just claims of the producing 
 or working classes. Also, to promote* National Reform. 
 
 We have but one favor to ask of the reader, and that is, 
 to read the work carefully through, previous to passing judg- 
 ment upon it. And, if he discovers any errors in the prin- 
 ciples laid down, false deductions, or discrepancies, it is his 
 duty, as a good citizen, to expose them. But let him do 
 so with a proper spirit, and in such a manner as becomes 
 the dignity of a man : let his sole object be the develop- 
 ment of truth, which is the sole object of the Author, not 
 forgetting the good adage, that " the right is always expe- 
 dient." 
 
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 THE INJUSTICE OF THE PRESENT ORGANIZATION OF SOCIETY. 
 
 Whoever will but open his eyes, and take an unpreju- 
 diced view of society as it is now organised, cannot fail 
 to observe that men do not accumulate property in pro- 
 portion to their industry ; but the reverse is the fact. In 
 all so called civilized countries, we see that "men are re- 
 spected in proportion as they are enabled by the posses- 
 sion of wealth to command the labor or service of others, 
 and so essentially necessary are indolence- and uselessness to 
 respectability, that men are despised in proportion as they apply 
 their own hands to purposes of utility" (J. Gray.) 
 
 Every where we see toiling millions the slaves of the 
 capitalist; consequently we find unconsumable wealth in 
 the possession of a few, while poverty, discomfort and 
 wretchedness is the lot of the great mass of the people. 
 These truths stare us in the face ; they cannot be denied. 
 The rich few overburthened with wealth ; the poor suf- 
 fering with want. The history of the world shows us this 
 fact, that in all civilized countries, as the rich b.ecojne 
 richer, the poor become poorer; the greater' the amount 
 of wealth in a country, the less is the poor man's share, 
 and the harder has he to work for a bare subsistence, and 
 as the capitalist rises in riches, power and splendor, so in 
 proportion the working man sinks into poverty, want and 
 wretchedness. And when a country becomes completely 
 glutted or overstocked with wealth, as is the case in Eng- 
 land at this time, then has the working man reached the 
 climax of his misery, degradation and wretchedness. He 
 would be glad to labor, but is denied the privilege. The 
 capitalist will not employ him, being unable to realize 
 
4 WORKING MAN'S 
 
 profit on his labor ; therefore is he turned into the street 
 to starve, to beg, or to steal; he must do one or the other, 
 there is no alternative; or die. (These arc the privileges of 
 the Free Laborer.) The negro slave-holder cannot do this ; 
 his interest will at least prompt him to keep his slaves in 
 a healthy working condition, so that he may take the best 
 advantage of their ability to labor when again the market 
 opens, or in other words, when the surplus wealth is dis- 
 posed of. 
 
 Besides all this, in all countries where negro slavery 
 exists, the master is bound by law to provide for and 
 maintain in sickness or old age those upon whose labor 
 he has grown rich ; but no such responsibility is imposed 
 upon the capitalist, neither is there any such provision for 
 the well being of the white laborer when he becomes old 
 and infirm unable to endure his former amount of toil ; 
 although his labor and toil has overburthened with wealth 
 his master, the capitalist, himself becomes a vile cumber- 
 er of the ground, an incubus on society, and like the Son 
 of man, " hath no place whereon to lay his head," hath 
 none to sympathise with him, or care for him, but those 
 who are in the same situation as himself, therefore unable 
 to assist him ; in fact he is a thing fit and worthy only to 
 suffer and die, and the sooner he is out of the way, the bet- 
 ter. True he may take refuge in a poor house, to do 
 which is held to be degrading by all classes, and is revolt- 
 ing to all men of dignified feelings, and to propose it, is 
 an insult to any honest, industrious man, who is possessed 
 in the smallest degree of conscious integrity and self re- 
 spect; the very idea is too loathsome to be endured by 
 those who are conscious in justice deserve a better fate. 
 
 (For a proper understanding of the nature and opera- 
 tion of the poor house system, when carried out to perfec- 
 tion, the reader is referred to an admirable work called 
 " The Condition and Fate of England, by C. E. Lester,' 
 which is a book every American ought to read.) 
 
 If, therefore, what has just been stated be true, (and who 
 can doubt it? surely no one,) then is the condition of the 
 negro slave (who has a good master) preferable to that of 
 the poor white man ; the former having a master interested 
 at least in his being in a healthy condition; and whether 
 he work or play, be young or old, sick or well, the master 
 is bound to feed, clothe and shelter him to the latest period 
 
-POLITICAL ECONOMY. 
 
 of his existence ; while the latter cannot obtain one, (that 
 is a master that cares for him,) though he offers to sell 
 himself from day to day for the veriest pittance sufficient 
 to keep body and soul together. 
 
 We do not make these remarks as an apology for chat- 
 tel slavery. 
 
 We will, perhaps, be told that such a state of things 
 cannot occur in this country, in consequence of having 
 better institutions, cheap land, no kings, no titled nobility, 
 no law of primogeniture, &c. 
 
 True, we have no political kings, but we have our land 
 kings and our money kings, whose mandates are quite as 
 imperative, quite as tyrannical are as destitute of the 
 feelings of humanity, and fleece the people just as well 
 and just as certainly as any bona fide king of the old 
 world. We have no titled nobility it is true; but we have 
 institutions composed exclusively of capitalists, whose in- 
 fluence has often controlled even our legislators, from 
 whom they have obtained special privileges which in their 
 operation produce the same evils in society that titles of 
 nobility do in other countries: the object of both being to 
 concentrate the wealth of a country into the hands of the 
 wealthy few, from the hands of the working classes as fast 
 as it is produced by them ; giving in exchange for solid 
 wealth, such as houses, lands, provisions, &c., little bits of 
 paper which cost nothing to make, decorated with pictures, 
 and promises to pay when it suits the convenience of their 
 lordships; besides many other cunningly devised pauper 
 making contrivances, which we intend to examine in de- 
 tail, and expose the injustice of their operation. We have 
 only abolished the shadow, the power and substance we 
 still retain with all its baneful consequences. 
 
 Titles of nobility would be of no value to the possessors, 
 but for the power derived from them of securing titles to 
 land, and the products of other mens' labor. 
 
 All this is accomplished just as well, and quite as' certain, 
 without the aid of titles as with them, as we shall endeav- 
 or to demonstrate in its proper place. 
 
 The evils brought on a community, by the means of spe- 
 cial privileges, are not in the least abated or diminished; 
 because they may be transferred from one to another. 
 Let us suppose A, B, and C the community. If A has the 
 privilege, it is at the expense of B and C; if B has it, it is 
 
6 WORKING MAN 8 
 
 at the expense of A and C ; if C has it, it is at the expense 
 of A and B, Now, as it is impossible to play this game 
 equally in a large community, there must always be a suf- 
 fering party, which is always the poor, they never having 
 a hand in the game. Besides, if it could be played equally, 
 they would end just where they begun precisely: just like 
 the three robbers, who, when business was dull and victims 
 were scarce, agreed to rob one another for the purpose of 
 keeping their hands in; and business moving ; in other 
 words, make prosperous times. 
 
 If a title of nobility, or special privilege, works evil in 
 society, whatever that evil may be, it can never be altered, 
 annuled, or obviated, by the mere circumstance that the 
 power which works that evil may be transferred from one 
 to another. This truth must be obvious to all. Therefore, 
 the argument so often brought forward to sustain the posi- 
 tion of those who advocate the justice and propriety of 
 granting special privileges, under a government based upon 
 the principle of equal rights to &\\, falls to the ground. The 
 word is a solecism, a perfect absurdity, and is no consis- 
 tent part of our American government. 
 
 The real evil conferred upon a community, by means of 
 titles of nobility and special privileges, is that they con- 
 centrate the wealth of a country into the hands of a few. 
 This makes the mass poor. 
 
 The reader must remember, that it is not with men, or 
 with mere words, that we make battle, but with false 
 principles. If our observations may sometimes appear 
 harsh, refer them to the principles, not to the men who act 
 under their influence ; because they have been impressed 
 upon our minds by the force of surrounding circumstances, 
 over which we have had no control. And so long as men 
 act under the influence of false impressions and do wrong, 
 they can in no way be proper subjects of blame. There- 
 fore, if we wish to find truth, we must search for it dili- 
 gently ; lay aside prejudice, open our eyes, our ears, and 
 our understanding, never forgetting that all truths are con- 
 sistent with each other. When we have discovered one 
 truth to a certainty, discard all inconsistencies with it; and 
 so on from truth to truth, fear nothing. " Prove all things, 
 (by comparison,) hold fast that which is good;" and when 
 we have found a truth, let us not be afraid to speak it ; aye, 
 and with a bold and manly front, maintain it against all 
 opposition. 
 
POLITICAL ECONOMY. ? 
 
 The working classes are more deeply affected by the 
 evils which afflict society, than any others ; they alone must 
 remove them, no others either can or will. It may be done, 
 too, without doing injustice to a single individual ; it must 
 and will be done, the good and virtuous have nothing to 
 fear. The history of the world teaches us the folly of tel- 
 ling the wealthy and powerful, they ought not to oppress 
 their fellow men ; when they have been taught from in- 
 fancy up to manhood, by precept, by example, and in the 
 books, that this is their legitimate and proper vocation * 
 not only so, but is incumbent on them as a duty, under the 
 plea that the prosperity of the public is promoted by it, 
 therefore a virtue. 
 
 This will te fully shown in its proper place. 
 
 It is by no means a pleasant task, to be thus exposing 
 the evils brought on us either by the ignorance or dishon- 
 esty of those who have hitherto controlled our destiny. 
 But it must be done: justice and humanity imperiously 
 demand it, and no honest man (who understands the sub- 
 ject) can object to it. 
 
 Much as we respect and would like to promote the good 
 feelings of our fellow men, still our respect for truth, jus- 
 tice and humanity is much greater ; let this be our apology, 
 remembering that we battle not with men, but false prin- 
 ciples. 
 
 Our would-be lords and masters may tell us we ought to 
 stick to the plough, to the hammer, the anvil, the last, and 
 the jack plane. Though they may reprove us in the fol- 
 lowing language of the poet, still we must speak : 
 
 ' Why shall ev'ry low bred wretch of letters, 
 Dare to speak the truth against his lordly betters ! ! 
 Let ragged virtue stand aloof, 
 Nor mutter accents of reproof ; 
 Let ragged wit a mute become, 
 "When wealth and power would have her dumb." 
 
 CHURCHILL. 
 
 Still we cannot be dumb. 
 
 There was a time, no doubt, when it would have been 
 little short of madness, to have attempted to publish to the 
 world such truths as are put forth in this book ; but, thanks 
 to God, by His providence in the course of human pro- 
 gression, that time is happily and swiftly passing away. 
 
g WORKING MAN'S 
 
 The mass of mankind are beginning to percerw that they 
 have been imposed upon by their rulers, who have disre- 
 garded the poor man's just rights; they have clothed error 
 in the garb of truth, and truth with that of error, so that 
 the one has been taken for the other. Consequently error 
 has been heaped upon error, vice upon vice, and crime 
 upon crime, till the world is literally overwhelmed with 
 confusion; and man is nowhere found virtuous and appy. 
 To prove that this is no idle chimera, or the phantom of 
 a diseased brain, but a frightful reality, read the following: 
 from one of I 1 . 3 most aristocratic publications, perhaps, in 
 the world : 
 
 "BRITISH PAUPERISM. According to a writer in Blackwood's 
 Magazine, the number of paupers in Great Britain is 4,000,000, or 
 one-seventh part of the entire population of the empire. The pro- 
 portion is as follows: In England 1,500,000; in Ireland 2,300,000; 
 in Scotland 200,000. Since 1815, a period of only thirty years, 
 there has been raised for the relief of the poor in England alone, 
 upwards of 200,000,000, or about one thousand million of dollars. 
 On the other hand, it has been demonstrated, by the returns of the 
 income tax, that there are seventy thousand persons in the empire 
 whose annual revenue is $200,000,000, or about 2,300 each. 
 This monstrous inequality of human condition, remarks the Con- 
 cord Freeman, in a country the richest and most industrious the 
 world has ever seen, is alarming to the last degree, and almost 
 shakes ones faith in divine justice; for its greatest, effect is seen in 
 the prodigious increase of immorality and crime. During the last 
 forty years, crime has increased at a tenfold greater rate than pop- 
 ulation. It is obvious that a state of things so radically wrong can- 
 not long continue. A general overturn must come, and the world 
 will experience even a greater shock than was felt at the outbreak 
 jn France, a little more than fifty years since. What is terrible in 
 the picture, is the contrast which it presents to the contemplative 
 spectator. The foreground is filled with all that can please the eye 
 and captivate the mind; but behind that is a destiny of evil, an ac- 
 cumulation of hideous objects, which absolutely appal the stoutest 
 hearts that beat in human breasts. The wealth of England is no 
 dream, but a real, tangible matter; it is no exaggerated thing, like 
 the accounts which we have in eastern story of accumulations of 
 coin and precious stones in the treasury of this or that ruler but 
 it is soliu, substantial, and an instrument of real power. On the 
 other hand is the poverty of the masses, a poverty of so squallid a 
 character, that even the mendicity of Southern Europe appears 
 happiness by comparison with it. For, to appreciate the entire evils 
 of the case, it must be clearly remembered, that while the Li ?a- 
 
POLITICALECONOMY. 
 
 roni arc practical philosophers, and almost literally produce nothing, 
 the English poor are many of them the hardest workers on earth, 
 and those who are idle would work, could they find employment. 
 England owes her wealth to them. They have dug it from her 
 mines, they have created it in her factories and work-shops, they 
 have drawn it from the waters of every ocean, 'from Zembla to the 
 Line,' and in its accumulation have periled every thing that is dear 
 to life. Their reward for all this is starvation to themselves and 
 their children, or the bitter bread of forced charity, grudgingly 
 provided by the hearts as cold as polar ice, and dealt out by the 
 hands that would fain strangle the recipients of the churlish morsel 
 What a commentary is this on the popular dogma, that honest in- 
 dustry ever meets with its fitting reward ! Of old it was said that 
 ho who would not work, neither should he eat; now, he who works, 
 or who is willing to work, cannot get foocl, except as a pauper. 
 
 It is sad to think upon. And it adds to the gloom which the con- 
 templation of so black a picture excites, when we observe that we 
 are treading in the same road which has led the people of England 
 into a vast quagmire that we are following the identical ^ignes 
 falui which have led that great race to the miry gulf, whose insa- 
 tiable wants arc stayed not by swallowing empires the terrible 
 Serbonian bog, in which it would seem a?e to be engulphed ' the 
 hopes of all men in every nation.'" 
 
 If God has implanted in man a desire to associate with his own 
 species, which is evidently the case, socfay is the natural condition 
 of man. 
 
 If, then, society, as now organised, produces the most overwhelm- 
 ing evils, and gives to man the power of exercising over his fellow 
 man every description of oppression, tyranny, cruelty and injustice, 
 it is certain, yes positively certain, either that God has created man 
 for wretchedness in this ivorld, or that man has yet to learn the 
 'principles on which society must be founded to make him happy." 
 
 GRAY. 
 
 This conclusion is irresistible and self evident. In view 
 of these facts before us, shall we still slumber on in delu- 
 sive, security? shall we sing peace, while there is no justice? 
 shall we be told that things are well enough, while mil- 
 lions are starving in the midst of abundance ? Shall we 
 perceive these evils coming swiftly upon us, without an 
 effort to avert the calamity ? 
 
 To hold our peace we cannot, dare not. God forbids it. 
 Humanity forbids it. The very stones would cry out 
 against us, were we to hold our peace. 
 
 Working men, wake up, wake up ' To us belongs the 
 
10 WORKING MANS 
 
 task of commencing the work of moral reform; we no,*^ 
 trusted our self-made masters to6 long. We must work 
 out our own salvation ourselves; but not with fear or 
 trembling ; none but those who oppress their fellow men 
 need do this. Let us not be rash or hasty; first be sure we 
 are right, then press forward. 
 
 Being conscious of our integrity, the purity of our mo- 
 tives, and the justness of our cause, let onward, be our 
 course ; looking neither to the right nor left, never cease 
 our exertions till man is restored to his natural and in- 
 alienable rights., 
 
 If \ve are successful, millions yet unborn will rejoice in 
 the fruits of our victory. We shall no doubt be stigma- 
 tized as disorganizes, levellers, rebels, thieves, robbers, 
 and other choice epithets from the vocabulary of law and 
 order. Our principles will be misconstrued, misrepresen- 
 ted, and our motives arraigned. For this we must be pre- 
 pared, as this has been the common lot of all who have 
 attempted to improve the condition of mankind, from the 
 earliest ages down to the present moment : of this we ought 
 to be proud. Is it not virtuous to destroy evil? Surely it is^ 
 Did not ^Christ come to destroy the works of the Devil, 
 and to .disorganize the Jewish Church ; to level and break 
 down the corruptions of its priesthood? Certainly he did. 
 And for so doing, was he not crucified ,by the then advo^" 
 cates of law and order. Galileo was incarcerated in a 
 dungeon for promulgating the truth, by the advocates of 
 law and order. Socrates suffered death for preaching nefa 
 doctrines, and that too at the hands of the friends of law 
 and order. 
 
 How 'often have we been told, that to resist tyranny is 
 obedience to God,*and our hearts have always joyfully re- 
 sponded to the truth of the sentiment. It can make not 
 the least difference as to who the tyrant is, whether he be 
 a kingly despot, a capitalist, or a landlord, so he does but 
 oppress his fellow men and violate their just rights. 
 
 Martin Luther, John Huss, George Fox, William Penn, 
 arid a host of others that might be named, were all disor- 
 ganizers. That now famous band of dauntless heroes, 
 who signed that memorable instrument called the Decla- 
 ration of Independence, were disorganizers because they 
 abolished all the laws of the land at a blow. They were 
 * levellers also, because they declared that all men's rights 
 were equal; that is ? the same, or alike for all men. 
 
POLITICAL ECONOMY. II. 
 
 These 'honest, unflinching, unterrifled patriots, have set 
 us a noble example ; let us profit bj it. Although we hold 
 these men in such high esteem among us, yet the men of 
 law and order of that day, branded them as rebels and 
 traitors; and adjudged all and each of them worthy only 
 of a halter, and would have suffered accordingly, if the 
 men of law and order could have succeeded in getting 
 them into their power ; this Providence otherwise ordered 
 
 Shall we be told in~the middle of the nineteenth century, 
 that it is wicked to insist on having our rights ? Away 
 with such absurdities. We, the people of this mighty re- 
 public, are its sovereigns ; ourrulers for the time being, our 
 servants, and they are bound to do our bidding. So, then, 
 if our opponents revile us, let us not revile again, nor in 
 any way excite their combativeness^ but ever present a 
 bold, undaunted and fearless attitude ; endeavor to con-*l 
 vince our adversaries of the truth and justice of our cause, ' 
 that our object is to injure no one, but to procure justice 
 for all, to carry out practically the great principle of the 
 Christian religion that of doing to all men what we 
 should wish all men to do unto us. ^Therefore, we ask 
 nothing of our fellow men, nor of government either, that 
 we are not willing to grant freely to all. If this be wrong, 
 Ifct our opponents show us the why and wherefor. We 
 shall now dismiss this part of the subject, by a quotation 
 from Paley's Moral Philosophy, who is an orthodox author; 
 i which he gives us a beautiful and correct illustration of 
 * 'the present unjust and unnatural state of society : 
 
 *'If you should see (says Mr. Paley) a flock of pigeons in a 
 field of corn ; and if (instead of each picking where and what it 
 liked best, taking just as much as it wanted and no more,) you 
 should see ninety-nine of them gathering all they got into a heap ; 
 reserving for themselves nothing but the chaff and the refuse ; keep^ 
 ing this heap for one, and that the worst perhaps of the whole 
 flock; sitting round and looking on all the winter, whilst this one 
 was devcftiring, wasting, and scattering it about ; and if a pigeon 
 more hardy or hungry than the rest, touched a grain of the hoard, 
 all the others flying instantly upon it and tearing it to pieces ; if 
 you should see this, you would see nothing more than what is daily 
 practised and established among men." 
 
 " Among men you see the ninety and nine toiling and scraping 
 together a heap of superfluities for one ; (and this one, too, often- 
 times, the very worst of the whole set, a woman, a child, a mad* 
 
man, or a fool ;) getting nothing for themselves all the while, but a 
 little of the coarsest of the provision which their own industry pro- 
 duces; looking quietly on, while they see the fruits of their labor 
 and toil spent, spoiled, or wasted by the idle; and if one of tho 
 number dare but touch a particle of the hoard, the others joining 
 against him, and imprisoning or hanging him for" (what law and 
 order men call) "the theft." 
 
 This is called justice ! Mr. Paley himself thinks that the 
 foregoing view of civilization is very paradoxical and un- 
 natural, but still such institutions are of immense benefit 
 tc mankind, inasmuch as they tend to increase the produce 
 of the earth, and prevent contests among men. The last 
 conclusion seems to us quite ridiculous ; as experience 
 teaches us, that the more law, the more contention. 
 
 There has lately c*ome to light a small scrap of history, 
 relating to King George III. and Dr. Paley, which is of 
 much importance to mention in this place. It is found in 
 a late number of Littell's Living Age. and is as follows : 
 
 " At a meeting of the King's Council, at which a bishop 
 was to have been appointed, a member proposed Dr. Paley; 
 at the mention f whose name, his majesty cried out, 
 what! what! what! Pigeon Paley! make Pigeon Pa- 
 ley a bishop? No, no, no; never." 
 
 The king very consistently considered it would never do 
 to reward a man for telling the truth. Notwithstanding* 
 but a very few words were written by the Doctor, and that 
 few he had white-washed over in a very ingenious man- 
 ner, still the king could never forgive him. It is precisely 
 so in the present day ; those who rule the destinies of man- 
 kind, would never forgive an individual who should at- 
 tempt to expose the injustice of that "paradoxical and un- 
 natural" code of law by which the world is now governed. 
 
 Fellow working men, having taken notice of some of 
 the most prominent and glaring evils consequent upon 
 society, especially to the working classes, by the present 
 unnatural organization of our institutions; we now sol- 
 emnly call upon you, as you value your own happiness, 
 your security from future want and misery, and the future 
 well being of your children, to take this subject into your 
 most serious consideration ; open your eyes, your ears, and 
 your understanding; examine every argument; that may 
 be brought forward in this work carefully and critically ; 
 then judge for yourselves as to the truth or falsehood of 
 
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 13 
 
 what we have laid before you. Commit the principle ar- 
 guments to memory, especially those which involve first 
 principles ; when you understand them ?.right, you cannot 
 fail to perceive the truth. Never conclude that any thing- 
 is necessarily true, merely because found stated in this 
 book, or any other book; nor merely because some great 
 personage says so this would be taking truth upon trust; 
 but judge for yourselves, bearing in mind that all truths 
 are consistent with one another; and also, that all truths 
 which are necessary for the promotion of our happiness, 
 are capable of being demonstrated; and when we are 
 fully armed with the truth, one can chase a thousand of 
 such as are in error, and two can put ten thousand to flight. 
 The following sentiments are extracted from the "Work- 
 ing Man's Manual," by Stephen Simpson, formerly Cashier 
 of the United States Bank, published 1831 : 
 
 " If ever a party set out upon scientific principles, grounded on ' 
 mathematical precision, it is surely that of the working men. They 
 are a philosophical, political, economical party. They have gone 
 to the fountain head of first principles, and dragged forth justice 
 from the turbid waters of time. They have analyzed the elements 
 of national wealth and individual happiness. They have detected 
 the errors of established systems, and exposed the injustice of 
 privileged orders, vested with exclusive rights to accumulate wealth 
 at the sacrifice of those who produce it ! Constituting in fact a 
 large majority of society, they have at length discovered, that they 
 have heretofore been voting for representatives who make laws 
 on principles directly inimical to their industry, prosperity and in- 
 terest instead of supporting, for those high trusts, men who will be 
 true to the grand fundamental doctrines of constitutional equity. 
 * Forming the bulwark' (and being the very bone and sinew) 'of 
 the nation in time of war, as well as the' (only) 'source of its opu- 
 lence at all times, they have found themselves oppressed in a period 
 of profound peace, by a militia system, as onerous, as degrading, 
 and as futile as it is immoral a system which never reaches to the 
 idle drove of society' (who are continually preying upon its vitals.) 
 ' Finding their want of education an impediment to the correction 
 of the abuses practised on them, they have claimed Public Instruc- 
 tion for their children, and have been answered by the sneer of 
 derision on the one hand, and the cry of revolution on the other. 
 It is even prono jnced dangerous to let them know, what no art can 
 conceal from thtm, and no sophistry induce them to disbelieve, that 
 they produce all the wealth of society without sharing a thousandth 
 part of it ! that they do all the work, elect all the public functiona- 
 
K WORKING MAN'S 
 
 ries, fight all our battles, gain all our victories, cause all our enjoy- 
 ments to flow upon us, generation after generation and age after age, 
 and still remain destitute of the frugal store of competence, which 
 ought always injustice to be the reward of industry.' " 
 
 If there is danger in the announcement of this mon- 
 strous system of injustice, let wrong be removed, and the 
 danger will cease; but the danger ought to exist, whilst such 
 an oppressive result Jlows with mathematical precision from the 
 present perverted organization of government. 
 
 " Most of our capital is of the fictitious kind. If we had none 
 but what is really capital gold and silver, or real property "(pro- 
 ducts of labor) "perhaps capital would no longer prove the enemy 
 of labor, nor the cormorant of industry. Such, however, is not 
 the fact. What is monopoly? Capital combined, to acquire the 
 products of labor without giving value, and to dispose of them for 
 more than value. In this brief definition, we have a full display of 
 the extortionate character of capital, as it generally appears in the 
 present age. 
 
 " The only true and just mode of distributing" (the products of) 
 "labor, is by giving value for value." (Or, in other words, exchang- 
 ing equal quantities of labor.) 
 
 So says Stephen Simpson, the banker. In order that 
 the producers of wealth may be able to throw off the 
 shackles that bind them in absolute slavery to the arrogant 
 claims of the unfeeling capitalist, Mr. Simpson says : "As 
 capital is vested in the few, and labor resides in the many, 
 it only requires that the latter combine to bring govern- 
 ment into their own hands, to secure all they desire." 
 To promote the attainment of this end, is the object of 
 publishing this work. Mr. Simpson says: "At first the 
 struggle will be great and arduous; but perseverence and 
 concord, on expansive grounds, must finally lead to a sig- 
 nal triumph." So say we. 
 
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 15 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE MEANS BY WHICH THE MANY HAVE BEEN ENSLAVED BY THE FEW. 
 
 IT must be evident to all who have reflected on the sub- 
 ject, and indeed history confirms the conclusion, that, in 
 the first stages of an approach towards civilization, much 
 strife and contention must have existed with regard to 
 man's rights to the ownership of property. Such being 
 the case, the natural instinct of self-preservation has been 
 a sufficient impulse to convince a community of the neces- 
 sity of making laws of some kind or other. In all coun- 
 tries, and in all ages, the law-making power has resided 
 only in the hands of the few. Whether this power has 
 been usurped or delegated, is of little consequence in this 
 place : at all events, they have been conspicuous men in 
 community ; men of talents, (that is, men who understand 
 the use and power of words,) men of wealth, and, above 
 all things, great lovers of law and order. Whether these 
 men were men of honest integrity, remains yet to be seen ; 
 but that they should make some great efforts to provide 
 well for themselves, is not in the least to be wondered at; 
 though we think they had but a short-sighted view of their 
 own permanent interest. 
 
 AXIOM 1. We lay down as an axiom, that we secure our 
 own happiness best by promoting that of all men; or, in 
 other words, the happiness of mankind is promoted and 
 secured best where men's rights are least violated. 
 
 Ax. 2. That government is only just, which secures to 
 all men their just rights. 
 
 The absolute, natural, unalienable rights of all men are: 
 
 1. " The right to personal security in an uninterrupted 
 enjoyment of life, his limbs, his health and his reputation." 
 Blackstone. 
 
 We add, 
 
 2. The right to own and possess as property whatever 
 may be made or produced by the energies and capabilities 
 of the body and limbs, of which he only is the rightful 
 owner ; and this property he has a right to keep, to de 
 stroy, to consume, to give or bequeath, and to sell or ex 
 
16 
 
 change ; and when he parts with any portion of it for the 
 use of others, he has a right to an equivalent, 
 
 3. The right to the equal use of all the elements as they 
 exist in a state of nature, to wit: air, sunshine, land, wa- 
 ter, fruits, vegetables, wild animals, fish, &c. 
 
 Now these, we contend, are the natural and unalienable 
 rights of all men ; the truth of which are self-evident ; for 
 the proof of which, let every one who may feel disposed 
 to object to any of them, say which of them he himself is 
 willing to relinquish, or that w r ould be wTong for him to 
 claim. We say, let him ask himself the question; and if 
 he be an honest seeker after truth, he will find there is but 
 one way to answer. Not one, every man would say, with- 
 out an exception. 
 
 Furthermore, we contend that all the evils depicted in 
 the first chapter have been entailed upon us by the learned, 
 cunning, knowing, crafty few, by totally disregarding our 
 rights ; by giving us error for truth, wrongs for rights, and 
 the mere jingle of words for knowledge. Their first great 
 and masterly stroke of policy being to hoodwink and blind- 
 fold Justice, to prevent her from taking cognizance of the 
 enormities they were about to commit in her name. 
 
 For the truth of these statements, we will open their 
 own books, and let them condemn themselves. 
 
 Mr. Paley tells us, (page 59, vol. 3,) that the real foun- 
 dation of our rights is the laws of the land. This being 
 the case, it follows, as a matter of course, that, as the rights 
 to property depend upon the law of the land, a man has 
 a right to take away any amount of property whatever 
 from others, without being obliged to give an equivalent, 
 so he can but screen himself behind the law: he may 
 commit any enormity whatever, so he can have influence 
 to get law to protect him ; without any regard to man's 
 natural rights whatever, or what is justly due from man 
 to man. Is it any wonder, then, that the world is filled 
 with crime and misery ? Not any. This, being a funda- 
 mental principle in law, is still adhered to in the present 
 day, and will so remain until the mass discover in what 
 way they have been enslaved ; then will they rise up in 
 the majesty of their strength, and decide that this state of 
 injustice shall exist no longer. 
 
 Let every one ask himself the question: Can this decla- 
 ration of Mr. Paley have any tendency in securing men in 
 
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 17 
 
 the enjoyment of their natural and tin alienable rights? 
 There is but one answer can be given. This is one of the 
 falsities, by the use of which the many have become en- 
 slaved by the few. Mr. Paley admits, (page 60,) that a 
 bad use is apt frequently to be made by the establishment 
 of this principle, as in many cases it will authorize the 
 most flagitious chicanery. This is just what all honest 
 men think. Mr. Paley further says, at the end of the same 
 chapter: "Property is the principle subject of justice"; but 
 as to persons being the subjects of justice, he says nothing. 
 This was very prudent, his book being made for the rich 
 to read; not the poor. Mr. Blackstone tells us, (vol. 1, 
 page 124,) " That the first and primary object and end of 
 human laws, is to maintain and regulate the absolute rights 
 of individuals, which are, in themselves, few and simple, 
 and are as follow: the right of personal security in an un- 
 interrupted enjoyment of life, his limbs, his body, his health, 
 and his reputation." (As to man's rights to his just pro- 
 portion of land, and to the products of his own labor, he 
 says nothing in particular, though it may, with much pro- 
 priety, be included in, and rightly inferred from the decla- 
 ration he gives us.) In the face of this declaration, Mr. 
 Blackstone sets to work and w r rites four large volumes, each 
 containing about 500 quarto pages; the object and end of 
 which is to show, in a systematical manner, how a few, by 
 laws and rules, made exclusively by themselves, with noth- 
 ing to check or restrain them but their own self-love and 
 natural love of ease, dominion and self-aggrandizement, 
 and by what means and by what rules man's absolute, nat- 
 ural and unalienable rights might and should be violated, 
 (except in their own cases,) set at naught, totally disre- 
 garded, and trampled under foot by kings, nobles, lords, 
 dukes, barons, counts, earls, generals, and many other dig- 
 nitaries, magistrates, landlords, capitalists, bankers, &c., 
 &c.: also, by what rules they might take away that life 
 which all men had an absolute right to enjoy; what kind 
 of ceremony they should make use of previous to chop- 
 ping off a brother's head, his hands, or his ears, stringing 
 him on a gallows, branding his flesh with a red hot iron ; 
 how they might condemn him to the gallies for life, ban- 
 ish him from the land of his birth, incarcerate him in a 
 dungeon, rob him of his unalienable right in the soil, and 
 plunder him of the products of the labor of his own hands; 
 
18 WORKING MAN'S 
 
 in short, commit every species of crime with perfect impu- 
 nity, without the slightest fear of punishment (having ihe 
 implements of torture in their own hands, witii the power 
 and will to use them.) but, on the contrary, are rewarded 
 with crowns of glittering gold, set with diamonds and oth- 
 er precious stones, coronets, orders of kighthood rf the star 
 .and garter, mitres, robes 01 honor, commissions to kill, 
 and many other dignities and pompous marks of dis- 
 tinction. 
 
 They, are clothed in purple and line linen, and fare 
 sumptuously every day; they live in splendid halls and 
 marble palaces, ride with much pomp in expensive coaches 
 drawn with many horses, and occupy the highest seats in 
 the synagogue ; they require the service of many of their 
 fellow men, to wait upon them, to wash them, dress and 
 undress them, and put them to bed, as though they were 
 helpless infants. They require us to salute them with 
 pompous titles, as, " your most gracious Majesty," "your 
 Grace," "my Lord," and a the Right Honorable," "your Rev- 
 erence," &c. They wish to be looked up to as a superior 
 order of beings; they are to be considered as patterns of 
 piety, charity and benevolence ; they profess to be the fol- 
 lowers of the meek and lowly Jesus, who had not where 
 to lay his head; pretend to believe in his gospel, which re- 
 quires them to love their fellow men as they do themselves ; 
 to do unto all men as they would that all men should do 
 unto them. But these requirements they totally disregard ; 
 when we ask for bread, which the labor of our own hands 
 has alone produced an abundance for all, they give us a 
 stone, a kick, perhaps a knock on the head. 
 
 When we ask for our just rights only, we are caged in 
 a dungeon, doomed to drag out a miserable existence in 
 solitude and wretchedness. This has actually taken place 
 in this enlightened age, in this boasted land of liberty, un- 
 der a government professed to be based upon the principle 
 that the only just rights to govern a people are derived 
 from the consent of those to be governed. 
 
 All that those persecuted victims of power and cruelty 
 asked for, was permission to deposite their votes in the 
 ballot box, which, in justice, they had as good right to do, 
 as they had to breathe the atmosphere. This is the way 
 these self-styled Christians and friends of law and order 
 carry out into practice the benevolent and equalizing pre- 
 
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 19 
 
 cepts of the gospel. These are the men who prate about 
 justice, honesty and integrity, and strictly require it of us, 
 while, at the same time, they set us such fearful examples ! 
 
 Mr. Paley tells us, (vol. 3, page 54,) that "there must be 
 some very important advantages to account for the exist- 
 ence of institutions, which, in the view just given of them, 
 [by himself,] are so paradoxical and unnatural!" Listen! 
 paradoxical and unnatural!! Truly said. This candid ad- 
 mission is more than we ought to have expected ; but, in- 
 asmuch as he has made it, we are in no way disposed to 
 deprive him of the credit of it. But those very important 
 advantages which are to be derived from the existence of 
 such "paradoxical and unnatural institutions" what are they? 
 Yes, what are they? Let these learned gentlemen of le- 
 gal lore answer for themselves. 
 
 Mr. Blackstone tells us, that the primary and principal 
 objects of the law are to determine rights and wrongs. 
 (Page 122.) 
 
 By the rights, as we understand him, he means the powers 
 and privileges of the rich, whether they be usurped, vested 
 or delegated, which, in plain English, means the defences 
 and legal protection they have surrounded themselves 
 with, by the means of which they can sit in security, while 
 they violate the rights of their fellow men with impunity, 
 and in perfect security. There is some advantage in this, 
 to be sure ; but the advantage is all on one side for the 
 rich and powerful only. 
 
 The wrongs, we understand to mean the suffering, the 
 poverty, degradation, misery and wretchedness of the poor, 
 by being plundered of their rights. 
 
 Those very " important advantages " which the poor de- 
 rive from the existence of those " paradoxical and unnat- 
 ural institutions," would be very difficult to discover. 
 
 However, Mr. Colquhoun, a celebrated English writer 
 on Political Economy, throws some light on the subject, by 
 saying, that "Poverty is the source of wealth; for without 
 it (poverty) there could be no richcs } no refiysment, no com- 
 fort, no enjoyment" 
 
 Tillers of the soil, working men of every grade and con- 
 dition, do you hear ? or are you still sleeping and slumber- 
 ing? If you are, it is high time to awake. Say, do you 
 hear? Do you hear what these self-styled friends of law 
 and order say to you ? You that create all the wealth of 
 
20 WORKING MAN ? S 
 
 the world, by the labor of your hands alone, at the expense 
 of much blood and toil, do you hear? Listen ! They tell 
 you this : that they, the precious, cunning, crafty, knowing 
 few, (who, in nature and reality, are no better than your- 
 selves,) may obtain riches, refinement, comfort and enjoy- 
 ment, and it is absolutely necessary that you, and your 
 children (though naturally entitled to the same rights as 
 themselves,) must be reduced to poverty, to want, 
 to misery and ragged wretchedness ; you and your little 
 ones we condemn to everlasting toil; though you supply 
 us with abundance, and much more than we can possibly 
 consume, yet you shall retain for yourselves only what is 
 sufficient to keep life in your bodies, just so long as we 
 may choose to make use of you: we have the power to 
 force you to it, and will be obeyed. 
 
 Well, the decree was sent forth to the w~orid; the man- 
 date of the self-styled friends of law and order have been 
 obeyed; the object is obtained; those "very important ad- 
 vantages" are realized, for which those paradoxical and 
 unnatural institutions it was so desirable to foster and per- 
 petuate, are completely accomplished ; and the present un- 
 enviable and unhappy condition of the civilized world, 
 (England, more especially,) is the blessed and unenviable 
 fruits of this obedience. 
 
 Well, what are the fruits?" A select few in possession 
 of all the land, all the wealth of the country; rioting in 
 gorgeous, splendor, pefectly overburdened with the good 
 things of life ; uttering the everlasting cry of income, income, 
 income ; the more they get, the less are they satisfied; the 
 more they are fed, the more ravenous they become ; still 
 the cry is more income, more income, more income ; and when 
 they have grasped the whole, their avarice is still unsatis- 
 fied; still they cry give us more, no matter at what sacri- 
 fice of the blood and toil of their fellow men, whom 
 they are required to love as they do themselves. 
 
 On the other hand, we see the poor toiling and starving 
 in the midst of plenty, and that abundance created by 
 their own labor and toil : whilst they have made others 
 rich, themselves have become poor ; willing to labor still, 
 their masters not being able to make profit on it, because 
 the wealth already made cannot be consumed : we behold 
 a nation, in want, that is sufficiently able to- furnish the 
 world with clothing, containing four millions of paupers. 
 
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 21 
 
 The great mass of the working class are found living in 
 cellars and garrets, huddled together like swine ; tenants 
 of jails, or inmates of poor houses; crime on the fearful 
 increase: in short, a nation full of riches and misery ', 
 crimes and splendor. Such, then, are the "very important 
 advantages" to be obtained by perpetuating those "very 
 paradoxical and unnatural institutions " put forth to the world 
 by Blackstone, Paley & Co., for the good government of 
 mankind. 
 
 For a more graphic and statistical account of the work- 
 ings of this most beautiful theory of government, read 
 Lester's " Condition and Fate of England," in which the 
 results of its operations are portrayed by a masterly 
 hand, and with such feelings of humanity and benevolence, 
 as can only be experienced by those who have studied the 
 nature of human rights, and whose breasts are full of the 
 milk of human kindness. 
 
 Now, fellow citizens, you have had the advantages of 
 miscalled civilization laid before you, and a loathsome pic- 
 ture it is. Working men, are you willing to give the price 
 asked for it ? 
 
 What is the price ? 
 
 The price is the surrender of your dearest rights, your 
 inalienable birthright in the soil, your right to possess and 
 enjoy the fruits of your own industry ; in short, give up 
 every prerogative which constitutes Tke Man! aye, give 
 up your very manhood, and become the pliant, abject? 
 crouching, cringing slaves to all absorbing, monopolizing? 
 gormandizing, all-consuming Capital, whose everlasting 
 cry is income, income, more income. 
 
 Are you willing to pay the price ? Working men, this 
 is for you to decide. Income to capital, is the fruits of the 
 
 Eoor man's toil and labor, and capital is the poor man's 
 ibor unconsumed, past labor concentrated, nothing more. 
 In view of all these considerations, we would ask this 
 solemn question : 
 
 Had Satan himself been summoned from the infernal 
 regions, (imbued with all the deadly hatred and fiendish 
 malignity which we are told he cherishes for the human 
 race,) and commissioned to devise a scheme to fill the 
 world with crime and misery, and set mankind to pulling 
 and tearing each other to pieces, could he have hit on a 
 plan better calculated to do it, than those "paradoxical and 
 
22 WORKING MAN'S 
 
 unnatural institutions" which Blackstone, Paley & Co., have 
 given to the world for its government ? 
 
 Mr, Paley further tells us, without a blush, that all these 
 "paradoxical and unnatural institutions " are in perfect accord- 
 ance with the will of God ! O, shame, where is thy blush ? 
 Tell it not in Gath; publish it not in the streets of Askelon. 
 
 Where did Mr. Paley get this knowledge from ? Surely, 
 not from the Bible, as that is decidedly against him. The 
 king must have told him; he (the king) being the only le- 
 gitimate head of the Church ; consequently, none but him- 
 self could be the true expounder of God's will. But had 
 Mr. Paley never read the Bible? did he not remember 
 reading about that first great law given to all mankind 
 through Adam " In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat 
 thy bread, till thou return unto the ground ?" Whether Mr. 
 Paley was unconscious that he was writing down a false- 
 hood, or was obliged to succumb to the king, or forfeit a 
 good fat living, would, perhaps, be difficult to tell. One 
 thing, however, is certain. Mr. Paley has spent much 
 time and talent in showing how this universal law may 
 be set aside, or reversed, in favor of a cunning, knowing 
 few, who not only eat bread, but ? luxuriate to depletion on 
 all the extravagant delicacies that human ingenuity ever 
 invented, and, besides, monopolize, waste and squander, 
 in idle pomp and splendor, the wealth of the world : not' 
 in the sweat of their own faces, but in that of other men ;, 
 and this they do with as much sang froid as the infant 
 takes its mother's milk ! 
 
 We shall summon one more witness against Mr. Paley, 
 from the Bible ; one whose authority is irresistible, being 
 reputed the wisest man the world ever knew. After ta- 
 king his testimony, we shall suffer Mr. Paley to rest in 
 peace. " There is nothing better for a man, than that he 
 should cat and drink, and to enjoy the good of all his labor, all 
 the days of his life, which God giveth him, for it is his por- 
 tion : this is the gift of God." 
 
 What a pity it is, that those blighting, "paradoxical and 
 unnatural institutions" by which the world has been hith- 
 erto governed, should be forever turning into curses all 
 the best and most valuable gifts of God to man. 
 
 Now we would ask, will any man in the present day, 
 who is a teacher in goodness and truth, a lover of God and 
 
POLITICALECONOMY. 23 
 
 the human race, have the hardihood to so insult the common 
 sense of mankind, dishonor the God of humanity, and 
 prostitute the sacred name of Justice, as to vindicate, just- 
 ify or support such "paradoxical and unnatural institutions" 
 which produce such sin and wickedness, vice and crime, 
 misery and wretchedness, among mankind? We most fer- 
 vently hope not. But should any one have the temerity 
 to do so, let him take counsel of Isaiah, the prophet, and 
 carefully count the cost : 
 
 " Hear ye the words of the Lord, ye rulers. Wo unto them that 
 join house to house; that lay field to field, till there is no place [for 
 the poor.] Your rulers are rebellious, and companions of thieves ; 
 every one loveth gifts, and followeth after rewards; they judge not 
 the fatherless rightly, neither doth the cause of the widow come up 
 before them. Wo unto them that call evil good, and good evil; 
 that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; and put sweet 
 for bitter, and bitter for sweet. 
 
 " The Lord will enter into judgment with the teachers of his 
 people, and the rulers thereof; for ye have eaten up the vineyard, 
 and the spoil of the poor is in your houses. 
 
 " What mean ye, that ye beat my people to pieces, and grind the 
 faces of the poor ? saith the Lord God of hosts. 
 
 " Wo unto them that deci'ee unrighteous decrees, and write that 
 grievousness which they have prescribed : To turn aside the needy 
 from judgment, and to take away the right from the poor of my 
 people, that widows may be their prey, that they may rob the 
 fatherless. 
 
 "Wo unto them which justify the wicked, for a reward, [in- 
 come, or salary,] and take away the righteousness of the righteous 
 from him." 
 
 With this lesson from Holy Writ, we shall leave such an 
 one to the operation of his own conscience, and in the 
 hands of his God. Let him choose his own course ; we 
 clear our own skirts of responsibility ; we have done our 
 duty. 
 
 There is another favorite fundamental principle laid 
 down by the friends of law and order ; that is;, those be- 
 nevolent gentlemen who take such pleasure in making 
 laws for the government of such of their fellow men as are 
 too ignorant to govern themselves. It is as follows : 
 
 In order that men, in a state of society, may enjoy the 
 benefits resulting from institutions of civil government, it 
 
24 W O R K I N G M A N ' S 
 
 is necessary that individuals give up a portion of their nat- 
 ural and unalienable rights ; in return for which, it be- 
 comes the duty of government to aftbrd its protection. 
 
 Now, it seems to us, that, if justice had any hand in the 
 business, the amount of protection would be proportionate 
 to the amount of the rights given up ; and said protection 
 would be awarded to those individuals who had thus sur- 
 rendered up their rights. Would this be anything more 
 than fair and just? Certainly not. Tt is not possible to 
 come to any other conclusion, the thing is so self-evident. 
 But is this the case? Let us inquire, 
 
 First. What u,re the rights given up for protection? and 
 by wliom are the}^ given up ? 
 
 Second. What is the proporton secured in exchange 
 for the rights so given up? and wno gets this protection? 
 
 What natural rights do kirg's nobles, landlords, capital- 
 ists, officers of government, tec., give up? Do they give 
 up their right to land? No ! They monopolize the whole 
 of it. Do they give up their right to the products of their 
 own labor? No ! They never make any ; how can they 
 give them up ? What right, then, do they give up ? None 
 whatever, except that of eating their bread in the sweat 
 of their own faces. We might, at least, give them credit 
 fo r that : let them have it. In fact, the rich give up none ; 
 no, not one. 
 
 But, what natural rights do the poor give up, or, rather, 
 are taken from them without their consent? or, if we call 
 things by their proper names, are robbed of everything 
 calculated to make life desirable? They are robbed of 
 their birthright in the soil; plundered of the fruits of their 
 industry, as fast as created by them, leaving only a suffi- 
 ciency to make life a curse, instead of a blessing. Take 
 away man's right to the free use of the land, and the fruits 
 of his toil, and he has no further business in this world : 
 better had he never been born. 
 
 Having shown what rights are given up, and by whom, 
 our next inquiry is, Is the protection proportionate to the 
 rights given up ? As the rich and noble of the land have 
 given up none of their rights, what amount of protection 
 are they entitled to? Justice and common sense say, 
 none ; not a bit. But the fact is, they get all. Give up 
 nothing monopolize cveryth ing . 
 
 As we have shown that the poor give up everything, 
 
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 25 
 
 they are justly entitled to a large portion of protection. 
 But do they get it? By no means. They get none of it, 
 save and except from absolute brute force and cruelty ; and 
 this is but nominal, because the privilege of committing 
 any crime whatever, even to murder, (as the proceedings 
 of our courts have often proved,) can be purchased with 
 money, by those who possess a sufficient amount. The 
 poor man> not being suffered to have any to spare for this 
 purpose, is obliged to go minus the privilege. 
 
 The sum of the whole matter is this : The rich give up 
 none of their rights, and get all of the protection ; while 
 the poor give up all their rights, and get none of the pro- 
 tection. That was a very sensible conclusion of Mr. Pa- 
 ley's, that these institutions were very paradoxical and un- 
 natural. Very. Truly has the law been made like a spi- 
 der's web : the little flies (the poor and defenceless,) are 
 caught in the toils, and sulfer death; while the big bugs 
 (the rich and powerful,) break through and escape ; then 
 laugh and chuckle at the ingenuity of the contrivance. 
 
 God made man upright, at the first ; but he hath sought 
 out many surprising, cunning, cruel, and artful inventions, 
 by which he might deprive his fellow man of his dearest 
 and most sacred rights. 
 
 But the most surprising thing of all, is, to find, at this 
 late day, in this boasted land of liberty, men of talent and 
 discernment advocating, supporting and justifying this un- 
 just system of law and order, which is so paradoxical and 
 unnatural. Give us laws, but let them be just. Working 
 men, your task is to remove these paradoxical and unnat- 
 ural institutions. You have the power; you have the 
 ballot-box, and can put them down without doing injustice 
 to any. 
 
 But be calm and prudent, yet firm and unyielding; stand up 
 manfully for the truth; convince our adversaries of the 
 justice of our cause, and the purity of our motives. If 
 they revile us, let us not revile again ; treat them with 
 courtesy and politeness; appeal to their best feelings of 
 humanity, not the evil passions; nor in any way or man- 
 ner excite their combativeness. This we must do, if we 
 wish to succeed, as everything like violence, or force, is 
 only calculated to impede the progress of our operations. 
 A very profitable lesson may be learned from that inimita- 
 ble fable of Jilsop's, in which he tells us of the dispute be- 
 
26 WORKING MAN'S 
 
 tween the Sun and the Wind, as to winch was the strong- 
 er. They agreed to try their efforts upon a traveler who 
 was passing along, wrapped up in a cloak. The wind 
 blew, and bespattered the traveler with rain, snow and 
 hail; and the more the wind blew and stormed, the closer 
 the traveler drew the cloak around him. At length the 
 wind became weary, and ceased his efforts. The sun now 
 broke out in silent splendor, and, by the genial warmth of 
 his rays, soon compelled the traveler to throw r off his cloak 
 and seek shelter; under the cooling shade of some trees. 
 The application -is as follows : The traveler is the embodi- 
 ment of those; -paradoxical and unnatural institutions of 
 law and order, promulgated by Blackstone, Paley & Co. 
 The cloak is the sophistry and mysticism they have thrown 
 around their idol, for the purpose of hiding its hideous de- 
 formity. The sun and wind are the different modes of at- 
 tack. We shall vanquish our enemies soonest, by follow- 
 ing the example of the sun. 
 
 The only object and end of government ought to be, to 
 promote the happiness of all its subjects, or members, by afford- 
 ing its protection equally to alt. For any other purpose, 
 government is worse than useless. This proposition no 
 one will deny, can deny ; it is so self-evident ; and may be 
 laid down as an axiom. And this we shall do, without 
 fear of refutation. 
 
 If a government fail to secure to each and all its sub- 
 jects, or members, the enjoyment of their natural iid un- 
 alienable rights, so far, then, government fails to do its 
 duty; and, to the same extent, is a vicious, unjust, un- 
 righteous government; but more especially so, if it violates 
 them ; and, in a strictly moral sense, the people are under 
 no obligation to obey its mandates, as resistance to tyran- 
 ny is obedience to God ; legalizing tyranny never can 
 make it just or right. 
 
 We may be told, that these sentiments are very danger- 
 ous. We answer, if they are, then that code of law laid 
 down by Blackstone, Paley & Co., is much more so. 
 
 That a knowledge of truth can be dangerous, we un- 
 hesitatingly deny ; save and except to such as are engaged 
 in false, wicked and unrighteous pursuits, or practices. 
 
 It may be asked, who is to be the judge, when men dis- 
 agree ? When our rights are clearly defined, (as they ar* 
 in this work,) a jury would find but little difficulty in mak- 
 
POLITIC A I ECONOMY. 27 
 
 ing proper decisions, and take them for their guide; es- 
 pecially when they lay aside those paradoxical and unnat- 
 ural institutions which have been imposed upon us by 
 Elackstone, Paley, and their legal abettors and upholders, 
 connected as they are with the common law of England. 
 
 Mr. Paley, notwithstanding his paradoxical and unnat- 
 ural institutions, says some good things. With regard to 
 right of property in land, he says : " There is a difficulty 
 in explaining the origin of this property consistently with 
 the law of nature ; for th& land was once, no doubt, com- 
 mon ; and the question is, how any part of it could be 
 justly taken out of the common, and so appropriated to 
 the first owner, [or occupier,] as to give him a better right 
 to it than others, and, what is more, a right to exclude all 
 others," and, also, to transmit the ownership through a 
 particular line of succession, to distant and unknown ages; 
 as if our predecessors knew better how to take care of us, 
 than we do ourselves. What an absurdity ! " Moralists," 
 says he, " have given many different accounts of this mat- 
 ter, which diversity alone, perhaps, is a proof that none of 
 them are satisfactory. Our obligations to servants and do- 
 mestics is much greater than theirs to us. It is a mistake 
 to suppose that the rich man maintains his servants, trades- 
 men, tenants and laborers : the truth is, they maintain him. 
 It is their industry -which supplies his table, furnishes his 
 wardrobe, builds his houses, adorns his equipage, and pro- 
 vides his amusements. It is not the estate, but the labor 
 employed upon it, that pays his rent. All that he does, is 
 to distribute what others produce, which is the least part 
 of the business." Even the physical part of this opera- 
 tion is performed by the labor of other hands, not his own. 
 
 The above correct sentiments we quote in justice to Mr. 
 Paley, and contain, perhaps, as much truth as he dare im- 
 part, surrounded as he was by kings and nobles, whose, 
 powers and privileges he was obliged to defend. 
 
 We now render the same justice to Mr. Blackstone, (vol. 
 2, page 53.) He says: " The grand fundamental maxim 
 of all feudal tenure is this : that all lands were originally 
 granted out by the sovereign, and are, therefore, holden, 
 either mediately or immediately, of the crown," (as prop- 
 erty.) This is a plain statement. The king was consid- 
 ered as rightful owner of all the land in his kingdom, as 
 private property; as though it was the work of his hands * 
 
28 W O R K I N G M A N ' S " 
 
 having the right to sell for money, or service, or to give to 
 whomsoever he chose. On page 51, he says: "This view 
 of the matter, though a fundamental maxim, is, in reality, 
 a mere fiction" Yet the fictious idea was carried out in 
 practice, as though based upon truth; the king gave or 
 sold all the land, except what he reserved for himself, to a 
 select few; and ordained the penalty of death for any 
 landless person to dispute the justice of the title. 
 
 No wonder these gentlemen took such good care of 
 themselves, when no one had power to prevent them No 
 wonder the many have become enslaved by the few, when 
 such principles are taken as the guide of our American 
 legislators. It is upon the above named fiction, that a 
 majority of the land titles in this country still rests; espe- 
 cially in the eastern states; the strongest, clearest, and 
 most indisputable titles are those in which the claimant 
 can produce a parchment, proving a grant or sale, under 
 the hand and seal of his royal majesty, the king of Great 
 Britain ! 
 
 But is "it not strange and unaccountable, that at this 
 late day, after having the Declaration of Independence 
 before us for three score and ten years, which declares to 
 the world that all men's rights are equal, that men shall be 
 found among us Americans, (who profess to believe in the 
 doctrine of equal rights, and the principles of the Christian 
 religion, which commands them to do unto all men as they 
 would that all men should do unto them, taking so short- 
 sighted a view of their own permanent interest, sacrificing 
 the rights, good feelings, and respect of their fellow citi- 
 zens,) promoting, abetting, advocating and sustaining, 
 with the greatest tenacity, by the exercise of the most 
 splendid talent and learning, the most flowery and capti- 
 vating eloquence, cunning and sophistical arguments, 
 such paradoxical and unnatural institutions, founded, as 
 Mr. Blackstone tells us they are, on the " baseless fabric" 
 of a " mere fiction?" 
 
 The following are Mr. Blackstone's reflections on the 
 nature of property in general : 
 
 " There is nothing which so generally strikes the imagination, 
 and engages the affections of mankind, as the right of property, 
 or that sole and despotic dominion which one man claims and 
 exercises over the external things of the world, in total exclusion 
 
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 29 
 
 of the right of any other individual in the universe. And yet 
 there are very few, that will give themselves the -trouble to con- 
 sider the origin and foundation of this right. Pleased as we [the 
 rich] are with the possession, we seem afraid to look back to the 
 means by which, it was acquired, as if fearful of some defect in 
 the title. Such fearful and troublesome reflections can never haunt 
 the poor, which ought, in some measure, to console them. 
 
 Or at best, we, rest satisfied with the decision of the laws 
 in our favor [as they always are,] without examining the 
 reason or authority upon which those laws have been built. We 
 think it enough that our title is derived by the grant of the former 
 proprietor, by descent from our ancestors, or by the last will and 
 testament of the dying owner, not caring to reflect, that, accurately 
 and strictly speaking, there is no foundation in nature or in natu- 
 ral law, why a set of words upon parchment should convey the 
 dominion of land, or why the son should have a right to exclude 
 his fellow creatures from a determinate spot of ground, because 
 his father had done sO before him ; or why the occupier of a par- 
 ticular field, or of a jewel, when lying on his death-bed, and no 
 longer able to maintain possession, should be entitled to tell the 
 rest of the world, which of them should enjoy it after him. These 
 enquiries, it must be owned, would be useless, and even trouble- 
 some, in common life. It is well if the mass of mankind [that is, 
 the poor,] will obey the laws when made, without scrutinizing too 
 nicely into the reasons of making them- But when law is to be 
 considered not only as matter of practice [no matter how paradox- 
 ical or unnatural,] but also as a rational science, [heaven save the 
 mark,] it cannot be improper or useless to examine more deeply 
 the rudiments and grounds of these positive constitutions of so- 
 ciety." 
 
 Well done, Mr. Blackstone ! A- rational science founded 
 and built on mere fiction!! Truly, well done ! Who could 
 have done it more satisfactorily ? 
 
 Mr. Blackstone- now takesuanatherturjx iiuhis-reflestiojns, 
 and says : 
 
 "In the beginning of the world, we- are informed by Holy "Writ, 
 the all-bountiful Creator gave to man dominion over all the earth, 
 and over the fish of the sea, and over the fowls of the air, and over 
 every living thing that moveth upon the earth. This is the only 
 true and solid foundation of man's dominion over external things, 
 whatever airy metaphysical notions may have been started by some 
 fanciful writers on the subject. The earth, therefore, and all things 
 therein, are the general property of all mankind, from the imme- 
 diate gift of the Creator. And while the earth continued not 
 
30 W O R 1C 1 N G M A N S 
 
 densely populated, it is reasonable to suppose, that all was in com- 
 mon among them, and that every one took from the public stock, 
 to his own use, such things as his immediate necessities required 
 Thus, the land was in common, and no part of it was the perma- 
 nent property of any man in particular; yet, whoever was in pos- 
 session or occupation of any determinate spot of it, acquired, for 
 the time, a sort of ownership, from which it would have been un- 
 just, and contrary to the law of nature, to have driven him away 
 by force ; but, when he quitted the use or occupation of it, another 
 might take possession of it, without injustice to any one." 
 
 Here, then, we pause to inquire, why did not our orig- 
 inal law-makers follow out this simple, natural principle, 
 so easily to have been accomplished, so just and natural 
 in itself, by making a law something like this : That the 
 fact of a man having property on any part of the land 
 that he had not taken forcible possession of, or had im- 
 proved it, in any manner, by the labor of his hands, should 
 give him an indisputable title to its possession, just so long 
 as he chose to occupy it, and no longer, always preserving 
 a distinction between the land itself, and the property upon 
 it; it also being made the duty of government to protect 
 and secure every man in this most sacred, just, natural 
 and unalienable right ? Had they done this, what rivers of 
 blood, what oceans of tears, and ages, of misery, had been 
 saved the human race ! Why did they abandon this just 
 and sacred equitable code of laws, and give us, in its 
 stead, those "paradoxical and unnatural institutions" which, 
 Mr. Blackstone says, are based upon mere fiction ? Yes, 
 why did they do this?, Mr. Colquhoun is ready to answer: 
 Because, had they done so, a select few could not have 
 been enabled to riot in idleness and riches, to waste and 
 squander, in useless pomp and splendor, the fru'ts of the 
 poor man's toil and labor. Neither could the mass of 
 mankind, the great majority, have been reduced to bond- 
 age, slavery, vassallage, ignorance, want, poverty, crime, 
 misery and wretchedness ! Poverty being the source of 
 riches, we could not enjoy those enviable blessings. 
 
 We have now done with these very benevolent and dis- 
 interested gentlemen, and turn our attention to the means 
 of extricating ourselves from the difficulties brought upon 
 us by those "paradoxical and unnatural institutions" which 
 unjustly, unfeelingly and unrighteously have been imposed 
 upon us. The probability is, those gentlemen never would 
 
POLITICAL TTCtTNtTMY. 31 
 
 have given this evil-working code of laws to the world, 
 had they have clearly seen what was to be the ultimate 
 result of its operation. There is much excuse for them, 
 also, on the ground that they were ignorant of the power 
 of steam, and the improvements to be made in labor-saving 
 machinery. They did not know that a nation would be 
 enabled, by these means, to produce from five to ten times 
 as much wealth as it would consume; or, perhaps, if they 
 did see the truth, they were surrounded by such circum- 
 stances, that they dare not tell it. As those gentlemen 
 have long since gone to the silent tomb, let us hope they 
 rest in peace, though their errors we can in no wise tol 
 erate. 
 
 Instead of founding our scheme on the basis of a mere 
 "fiction," as Mr. Blackstone says our present system of 
 land tenure is, we propose to base it upon a real, solid nat- 
 ural foundation, a positive tangible fact the public lands of 
 the United States, according to the plan adopted by the Na- 
 tional Reformers ; which plan is to prevent all future traf- 
 fic in the public lands ; instead of which, to give to every 
 citizen a homestead (that is, all who choose to take it,) 
 from the public domain, and, so long as he continues to be 
 an actual settler upon it, government to secure him in its 
 possession, and make it unalienable, giving him the liberty 
 to sell or exchange his improvements upon it ; but this in 
 no case, except to a landless person ; the land itself never 
 to be confounded with property upon it land itself, not 
 being a product of human labor, cannot r in justice, be val- 
 ued by money, which is. 
 
 It is not necessary to enter into all the details of the sub- 
 ject, in this place, for if the reader clearly understands the 
 fundamental principles already discussed, he must at once 
 perceive the obvious necessity of the measure : of its prac- 
 ticability, there can be no doubt. The benefits to be de- 
 rived from it, to the working classes, will be incalculable* 
 In the first place, it will lessen competition among the 
 working classes, by drawing many from the cities into the 
 country, which will have the effect to enable those that re- 
 main to get better wages. In the next place, it will have 
 a tendency to lessen the price of land held by speculators, 
 and, in proportion as the free land cause progresses for- 
 ward, land speculation, which is a blighting curse on our 
 country, will go backward. This cause is, emphatically, 
 
32 W O R K I If G M A N ' J 
 
 the working man's; it is his only means of defence against 
 the all-absorbing, gormandizing influence of capital. 
 
 Let us, then, one and all, unite in this great moral work 
 of reform, and insist upon the justice of our cause. All 
 -we ask is our just rights. We ask nothing for ourselves, 
 that we are not perfectly willing to grant to all. If we 
 are wrong in this, we hope and trust kind Heaven will 
 forgive us ; if it be wicked to vindicate the cause of the 
 oppressed and defenceless, then do we glory in our wick - 
 edness, 
 
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 AAMERIAN AUTHORS ON POLITICAL ECONOMY EXAMINED. 
 
 IT is a lamentable fact, and no less true than astonish- 
 ing, that, among all American writers on Political Econo- 
 my, not one is to be found that has not sacrificed every 
 consideration of justice and equity ; every ennobling, 
 heart-warm feeling of humanity; every idea of equal 
 rights; every virtue ; in short, everything that ought to dig- 
 nify, elevate and adorn the human character ; to the inter- 
 ests of sordid, selfish, all-absorbing, gormandizing Capital. 
 
 The working man whose necessities compel him to la- 
 bor, or sell himself for wages, (having been deprived of 
 his birthright in the soil,) has been considered, by said wri- 
 ters, in the same light, and no other, that they look upon 
 a lot of timber in the forest, a bank of clay, or a bed of 
 ore in the bowels of the earth, to be taken up and made 
 use of so long, and no longer, than profit (which means 
 products of other men's labor,) can be made by the use of 
 them. As to a laboring man, having a soul or intellect, 
 being entitled to equal rights with the capitalist, or to the 
 same amount of protection ; or that he possessed human 
 capabilities of suffering pain, or enjoying happiness; or 
 that it was the duty of any one to see that he was prop- 
 erly provided and cared for ; was as far from their thoughts 
 as would be the idea of providing comfortable quarters for 
 the Alleghaney mountains during the winter season. No ; 
 the interests of capital were considered paramount to every 
 other consideration. 
 
 In proof of our assertion, that the worrking man, if 
 poor, has never been considered in any other light than as 
 a beast of burden, or a useful chattel, placed, by Provi- 
 dence, upon the earth, for the especial use and benefit of 
 the capitalist, we shall quote the great Adam Smith, vol. 
 1, page 56. He says : " The wear and tear of a slave, it 
 has been said, is at the expense of his master; but that of 
 a free servant is at his own expense. The wear and tear 
 of the latter , however, is, in reality, as much at the ex- 
 
34 WORKING MAN'S 
 
 pense of his master, as that of the former." Just as much ! 
 True ; and that is, none at all ; but, on the contrary, the 
 master is maintained at the expense of his slaves, or ser- 
 vants. This is self-evident. For authority, we refer the 
 reader to Dr. Paley, page 52: " The wages paid to journey- 
 men and servants of every kind, must be such as to enable them 
 to continue the race of journeymen and servants, as the demand 
 of society may happen, from time to time, to require ! But, 
 though the wear and tear of a free servant be equally at 
 the expense of his master, it generally costs him much 
 less than that of a ' chattel slave ! '" In plain, unsophisti- 
 cated language, it amounts to this : when such animals as 
 journeymen, servants, and laborers, become too numerous; 
 that is, when capitalists have become overstocked and 
 glutted with wealth, and can no longer make a profitable 
 use of the poor wretches, then they must be suffered to 
 perish, they and their little ones, by want, disease, starva- 
 tion and death, while the surplus of their labor and toil is 
 being wasted by their idle masters, in wanton and useless 
 extravagance. But, when a demand arises for the use of 
 such animals, then the breeding of them ought to be en- 
 couraged, and particular care ought to be taken that the 
 breed does not become entirely extinct. Now, here we 
 would ask, in all candor, would it not be much better, on 
 the ground of humanity, in order to rid society of the sur- 
 plus working classes, to adopt Mr. Ware's plan, and kill 
 them off at once, rather than condemn them to the pro- 
 tracted, painful, lingering death by starvation, which is 
 advocated by some professing Christian moral philosophers ! 
 Adam Smith has made one declaration, and, if true, is of 
 much importance to the capitalist, which is, that a nomi- 
 nal free servant, journeyman, or laborer, will answer his 
 purpose much better than a positive slave. That is, he 
 can realize more wealth from the use of him, in a given 
 time, than he can from- a chattel slave, and with less risk 
 of capital. 
 
 A capitalist finds a thing called a poor man without a 
 home, deprived of his birthright in the soil, reduced to 
 want and destitution, perhaps lying in the street; no mat- 
 ter by what means he got there, this is no business ol the 
 capitalist; his schoolmastes have taught him that neither 
 justice, law, religion, or morality, requires him to relieve 
 the miserable creature from his miserable condition, ex- 
 
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 35 
 
 cept he can make money out of him : he acts accordingly. 
 If he can't think of a plan by which to make money out 
 of him, he lets him lie; but if, on the contrary, he has suffi- 
 cient talent and discernment to hit on a plan, he picks the 
 poor thing up, and immediately turns him, or it, into a 
 money-making machine, supplies it with a little fuel, (pro- 
 vision) to set it in motion, as he would a steam engine, or 
 any other machine ; then the man machine begins to 
 work, and produces two, three, four, perhaps five dollars 
 per day; the whole of which is claimed by the capitalist, 
 on the ground cf tha expense of the fuel, which is all he 
 is willing to allow, and is all he does allow, for the exclu- 
 sive use of this man machine. The law and customs of 
 society justify and protect him. This process of dollar- 
 making goes on from day to day, till the machine is worn 
 out, or nearly so ; and when the capitalist perceives that 
 it does not turn out quite so many dollars as formerly, he 
 concludes he can afford to supply the fuel no longer ; he 
 therefore turns him again into the street, where he found 
 him, with as little sympathy or fellow-feeling as he would 
 feel towards a vorn out steam engine, and as unceremo- 
 niously, too, never reflecting that he is his brother, and en- 
 titled to the same rights and enjoyments as himself; and, 
 in return for this inhuman conduct, he requires the grati- 
 tude of the poor man, for al'owinghim to live as long as 
 he has, and the praises and benedictions of society, for 
 thus exercising his generosity ! 
 
 With what degree of consistency, we would ask, can 
 such a man pretend to believe in the Gospel, which re- 
 quires him to " do unto others as he \vould that others 
 should do unto him"? We should like to see the experi- 
 ment tried, should the tables happen to get turned. 
 
 Well, what is to become of the poor man, who is now, 
 in his old age, turned into the street, without money or 
 friends, deprived of his birthright in the soil, and has be- 
 come an outcast? Again we ask, what is to become of 
 him ? We shall bring up Mr. Ware, a southern planter, 
 who wrote " Notes on Political Economy," for the edifica- 
 tion of the American people, who pretends to believe in 
 the doctrine of equal rights. At page 195, you will find 
 the following humane passage : 
 
36 
 
 . " The moment an individual is 'base and mean enough to beg, or 
 avail himself of public charity, he is totally worthless, and sunk 
 beyond all remedy. There is no foundation left, in his case, upon 
 which to build him up; no pride, no self-esteem, no ambition; in 
 short, the person is not a man, but sunk to the level of the brute ; 
 not a biting, or venomous brute, but a mere eating brute. It would 
 be to the interest of society, to kill off all such drones, get rid of 
 such excrescences, and cast off such burdens. No religion, no 
 Howard, no helping hand, can raise him one single step in the 
 scale of value and availability." 
 
 Observe the words value and availability. The natural 
 inference to be drawn from the above, appears to be this: 
 that when a man becomes reduced to poverty and destitu- 
 tion, no matter by what means, if he wishes to live, he 
 must, of necessity, do one of three things -beg, steal, or 
 starve and the worst offence he can commit, is to beg : 
 for this, he ought to be killed. 
 
 Now, suppose the poor man should improve upon the 
 hint Mr. Ware gives, in regard to killing that it w r ould 
 answer a much better purpose for him to kill the capital- 
 ist, than let the capitalist kill him and if it would not 
 " be to the interest of society to kill off all such drones, get rid 
 of such excrescences, cast off such burdens" We should be 
 very sorry, indeed, should working men undertake to carry 
 into practice Mr. Ware's inhuman suggestion, though it 
 would be but .a natural consequence ; but there is no ne- 
 cessity for it. Restore to man his right to the soil, allow 
 him but the fruits of his toil, and he w r ill no longer be a 
 burden upon the capitalist. He asks for no favors ; he on- 
 ly contends for justice, simple justice : give him but this, 
 and he will want no poor-house provision, neither the 
 mercy, generosity, charity, or benevolence, from the capi- 
 talist. 
 
 From the foregoing remarks^ let all writers on this sub- 
 ject learn a salutary lesson, and be cautious as to the sen- 
 timents they disseminate in books; as, from the moment of 
 publication, they become public property. Perhaps, if the 
 gentleman had perceived the full bearing of his declara- 
 tion, he would not have said what he did. 
 
 Mr. Wayland, in considering the cost of producing a la- 
 borer, speaks of him precisely in the same manner as he 
 would were he speaking of raising cattle, and considers 
 him in the same light. After summing up the items of his 
 
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 3 - 
 
 observations, he concludes thus, page 293: * "The lowest? 
 price at which the labor of any animal can be procured, is! 
 the cost of rearing him, and of maintaining him in health 
 and vigor" Mr. Wayland at page 31, in arranging Cap- 
 ital under proper heads, seems much puzzled to find the 1 
 proper place for land, but finally concludes to place it along, 
 with ploughs, harrows, spades, carts, and working animals,, 
 and, as he makes no distinction, in a political point of 
 view, between bipeds and quadrupeds, in this case he 
 meant both. In assigning a proper place ibr land, he qual- 
 ifies his declaration with a " perhaps " he did not know 
 certain. One would naturally be led to suppose he had 
 received his education in Russia. The title of Mr. Way- 
 land's book is as follows : 
 
 " Elements of Political Economy, by Francis Wayland, D. D., 
 President of Brown University, and Professor of Moral Philoso- 
 phy. 1845." 
 
 One more quotation from Mr. Wayland. At page 130, 
 he says : " As a stimulus to intellectual improvement, 
 probably the right of suffrage should be restricted to those 
 who are able to read and write." So, then, if society has 
 been unjust to a portion of its members, by failing to give 
 them that education to which they are justly entitled, this 
 reverend gentleman advises, that insult, indignity and deg- 
 radation be added to previous injustice, by depriving them 
 of their very manhood ! This, too, under a government 
 professing to derive its authority alone from the consent of 
 the governed. Does an individual forfeit his relationship 
 to the great family of Man, merely because others have 
 not taught him how to read and write ? For this misfor- 
 tune, ought he to be ostracised? Mr. Wayland says he 
 ought ! 
 
 From all that has been quoted from American authors 
 on Political Economy, it must be perfectly evident to all, 
 that they, one and all, have never considered the man who 
 is obliged, by his destitution, to sell himself for wages, in 
 any other view, than as convenient and useful materials 
 and instruments, sent, by Providence, for the express pur- 
 pose of building up and promoting the short-sighted inter- 
 est of the unfeeling, world-grasping capitalist. As to their 
 having the common rights of humanity, and the feelings 
 
38 WORKING MAN'S 
 
 of human beings, has never entered into their calculations, 
 notwithstanding we have had the " Declaration of Inde- 
 pendence " before us these seventy years, which emphati- 
 cally declares, that all men's rights are equal ; all of them 
 well understanding, that the poorer a man is, the easier it 
 is to deprive him of the fruits of his labor. 
 
 If we analyze all the orthodox systems of Political 
 Economy, and reduce them to their simple elements, we 
 are inevitably forced to the conclusion, that, if the writers 
 had given titles to their works, in accordance with the 
 principles and doctrines laid down in them, they would 
 have been, something like the following : 
 
 POLITICAL ECONOMY: 
 
 EEVOTED TO THE INTERESTS OF THE 
 
 KING AND THE CAPITALIST: 
 
 OR, 
 
 How we, the Rich may bind, in perpetual slavery, the great ma- 
 jority of mankind, and cause them to supply us with all the com- 
 forts, luxuries and vanities of life, with the greatest success, and 
 with perfect security to ourselves. And, also, when they have 
 produced more wealth than we know how to dispose of, or what to 
 do with, how to starve them to death, out of our way, how to "cast 
 off such burdens, get rid of such excrescences," and yet be good 
 and virtuous ; 
 
 BY MALTHUSyCoLQUHOUN, SMITH, SAY, BLAKE, WARE, 
 AND MANY OTHERS. 
 
 Furthermore, the elements of criminal law may, with 
 the same propriety, all be condensed into the following 
 brief appellation : 
 
 CRIMINAL JURISPRUDENCE: 
 
 OR, 
 
 How the Rich can keep the Poor and defenceless in proper subjec- 
 tion, while suffering under the cruel treatment of their illustrious 
 and dignified. Lords and Masters ; 
 
 BY LAW AND ORDER. 
 
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 39 
 
 Producers of wealth ! this is the true statement of the 
 case, in a hut-shell: we give you author and page, and, 
 therefore, challenge a refutation. 
 
 Well may such institutions be termed "paradoxical and 
 unnatural" Working men ! producers of wealth ! it is your 
 task to abolish them, and introduce a state of justice, by 
 promoting National Reform ! 
 
 We would naturally suppose, from the principles incul- 
 cated by Political Economists, that they had profited much 
 by the study of Dame Lobkins' instruction to Paul Clifford, 
 which runs something like this : 
 
 "Mind thy kittychism, child, and reverence- old age. Never 
 steal, 'specially when anybody be in the way. Never go snacks 
 with them as be older than you, 'cause why? The older a cove 
 be, the more he cares for his self, and the less for his partner. 
 Read your Bible, and talk like a pious 'un. People goes more by 
 your words, than your actons. If you wants what is not your 
 own, try and do without it; and, if you can't do without it, take 
 it by insinivation, not bluster. 'Cause they as only swindles, does 
 more and risks less than they as robs outright ; and, if you cheats 
 toppingly, you may laugh at the topping cheat (gallows.) Now,, 
 go play; but here, take some money in your pocket, and don't 
 play for nothing; it's loss of time; but mind, always play with them 
 as be less than yourself* and then, if they says you go for to cheat, 1 
 you can go for to beat 'em."* 
 
 * Bulwer. 
 
40 WORKING 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 LEGAL AND ILLEGAL ROBBERY COMPARED. 
 
 PREVIOUS to proceeding further, it is necessary to clear 
 up a difficulty in respect to compulsory human action, 
 which, in reality, cannot possibly exist, because no man 
 can make another do an act which he will not do: he must 
 will before he can act. This is so plain, that none need 
 err, as every one may convince himself, by appealing to 
 his own experience : he will find that the will is the cause 
 of the act. Therefore, if he performs the least voluntary 
 act, it must be in accordance with the will, or willingly. 
 Suppose a robber meets a- defenceless man on the highway, 
 and demands his purse ; at the same time, presents a pistol : 
 the man, perhaps, hesitates, but presently deliberately 
 hands it over to the robber, thinking it better to lose his 
 purse, than his life ; the mental conclusion he comes to, 
 being the motive which causes the will to produce the mus- 
 cular act of handing over the purse. In this case, there is 
 no positive compulsion; the robber has only given him the 
 choice of two evils the man choosing the least, as a mat- 
 ter of course, or what he thinks the least evil at the time. 
 This is all the kind of compulsory action that can exist, or 
 approximate towards it. 
 
 Let us suppose, in the case above, that the man should 
 complain of the injustice of the act; the robber might an- 
 swer thus : I have the power, therefore the right ; you hap- 
 pen to be weak and defenceless ; I happen to be armed, 
 and can protect myself, and, as you cannot defend your- 
 self, you must submit to the terms which I dictate : you 
 ought not complain; because, if you have ingenuity 
 enough to make, or money to buy a pistol, you can do as 
 I do rob others, and get your money back again; you 
 have the same right that I have. Now, what would an 
 honest man think of such reasoning ? Would he not be 
 shocked? Would he not pronounce it perfect sophistry? 
 Besides this, what kind of consolation could an honest man 
 derive from the consideration, that, if he could only get a 
 
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 41 
 
 pistol, he might rob others, on the grcrand that himself had 
 been robbed ! Ought such consideration reconcile him to 
 the injustice of the outrage ? Surely not. Let men of hon- 
 est feeling answer. 
 
 The reasoning of the robber is similar to that of the 
 capitalist : the difference, which is slight, will be shown 
 presently. 
 
 Suppose A should meet B in a solitary place ; A has a 
 pistol, but destitute of money or bread; B has three dol- 
 lars in his pocket ; -A says, deliver your money, presenting 
 the pistol, and thereby putting B in fear of a sudden death, 
 but who, rather than suffer, is willing to part with his purse. 
 In common language, we would call this compulsion ; yet, 
 in reality, it is only choosing between two evils. Let us 
 suppose, further, that B remonstrates, and says, do not rob 
 me entirely, or I shall be ruined; 1 shall want for bread. 
 A then sympathizes w r ith B, and finally takes but two dol- 
 lars, leaving him one to sustain him on his journey. This 
 kind of transaction A performs each day in succession, but 
 every day finds a new victim. Again suppose : C, having 
 all the comforts of life in abundance, much more than he 
 can consume, finds D in a ditch, unable to get out, in fear 
 of starvation, and begs C to help him out. What will 
 you pay me?. says C. I have nothing to pay with, which 
 is the reason that I am lying here, answers D. Can you 
 spin out dollars ? and how many can you spin out in a day ? 
 D answers, I can spin out three dollars a clay; but I have 
 nothing to buy fuel wiih, to set me in motion.' Well, my 
 good fellow, says C, if you will set yourself to work, and 
 spin out three dollars a day, (but mind, all the dollars are 
 mine, except the cost of the fuel which is necessary to 
 keep you in motion,) I will have the generosity to help 
 you out. Well, the poor fellow, after considering the mat- 
 ter over, and being in fear of a painful, lingering death by 
 starvation, rather than suffer which, is willing to accept 
 C's terms. In this case, there is as much compulsory ac- 
 tion as there is in the case of A and B, with but this differ- 
 ence : A runs some risk in challenging B, because he does 
 not know whether he is armed or not, until he tries the ex- 
 periment. Again he runs a great risk in regard to the 
 law : he also well knows that B has a remedy, in law, 
 against him. To meet these dangers, it is necessary to 
 evince a spirit of enterprize and courage : in fact, it re- 
 
42 W O R K I N G M A N ' S 
 
 quires some bravery. In both cases, the victims suffer the 
 loss of the same amount of property ; but A's victim goes 
 on his way rejoicing, while, on the other hand, C's victim 
 is consigned to everlasting slavery, without hope of re- 
 demption. In both cases, they are conquered by the fear 
 of death: in B's case, the fear of death is produced, at the 
 time, by the courage and bravery of his conquerer; but in 
 D's case, the fear of death has been produced as certainly 
 by his conquerer, as in the case of B, but in a different 
 manner, to wit : by C's influence in contriving those para- 
 doxical and unnatural institutions, which were intended to 
 consign him to the ditch. Our paradoxical and unnatural 
 institutions of society consign A to a dungeon, and to C 
 they award riches, honor, dignity and respect. Why these 
 decisions? we ask. Is A condemned for his courage and 
 bravery, and for risking his life to get bread ; and C re- 
 warded for his cowardly treason, in laying secret and un- 
 seen contrivances to bring his victim to the fear of death, 
 though he is himself in want of nothing? for this appears 
 to be all the real difference in the two cases. If these be 
 the true grounds of the decisions, Mr. Paley may well call 
 such institutions "paradoxical and unnatural" 
 
 We contend that this is no overdrawn picture : it is true 
 to experience, and such characters abound in all civil com- 
 munities. We now ask every honest man that has any re- 
 gard for the attributes which adorn and dignify human na- 
 ture, which of these two characters is the most of a Man, 
 &nd is most worthy of our trust and respect ? A,, the rob- 
 ber, or C, the capitalist? We let others decide. 
 
POLITIC AL ECONOMY 43 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 SLAVERY TO CAPITAL. 
 
 A VERY interesting piece of intelligence lately appeared 
 in the public papers, entitled "First Men of Boston," set- 
 ting forth, that 142 persons were in possession of $12,604,- 
 000, to which we add John Jacob Astor, of New York. 
 Then we have 143 persons owning forty-two millions five 
 hundred and three thousand and five hundred dollars. 
 This sum, divided equally among the whole, will give $29,- 
 723 apiece ; but, for the convenience of round numbers, 
 we will assume $30,000 each. 
 
 Now, what is the object of this announcement? Is it 
 to show the great prosperity of the country, and the grow- 
 ing happiness of the people? Perhaps it is. If so, then 
 we should like if some of those gentlemen who understand 
 the subject, would show us in what way the happiness of 
 the mass of the people is promoted by concentrating so 
 much wealth in the hands of so few persons. We are de- 
 cidedly at a loss : it is a mystery to us. However, we will 
 endeavor to solve this seeming mystery. 
 
 No capitalist in this country is satisfied with less than 6 
 per cent, interest on his capital; and if he could not, at 
 least, get this, he would imagine that beggary was staring 
 him in the face, no matter what might be his possessions. 
 He would consider it a certain indication of the speedy 
 dissolution of all earthly things ; much more so than Mil- 
 ler's prophecy of the end of the world. 
 
 The interest on five thousand dollars is three hundred. 
 With this sum, a capitalist will be enabled to supply with 
 fuel one man-money-making-machine, (taking women into 
 the account,) for one year. Now, this human machine is 
 virtually and positively as much a slave to the capitalist, 
 as any chattel slave is to his master; in either case, they 
 are controlled by the will of their masters, in all their ac- 
 tions, with this difference : the hired slave can leave his 
 master; but, if he does, he runs the risk of finding another, 
 which is often very difficult to accomplish ; still he wants 
 
44 WORKING MAN'S 
 
 fuel, or bread ; he must have a master : the chattel slave 
 can run away ; so that the servitude, as far as effects are 
 involved, are alike compulsory in both cases, and the dif- 
 ference is scarcely worth a straw. In neither case would 
 the victims consent to part with the produce of their own 
 labor, if they could help it, except for an equivalent ; but 
 the masters, having virtually made the laws, have taken 
 good care to protect themselves from violence, while they 
 commit the injustice. 
 
 From what has just been said, it must be evident to all, 
 that the capitalist, for every five thousand dollars he has 
 invested, virtually owns or controls a slave, whom he pur- 
 chases daily with the interest, which costs him nothing, 
 being solely produced by other men's labor; so that, in 
 reality, the capitalist never virtually pays for anything, not 
 even his personal taxes, strictly speaking. Consequently, 
 any capitalist possessing one million dollars, virtually owns 
 and controls two hundred slaves. All the wealth which is 
 produced by them, he claims as his own, though it costs 
 him nothing; for even the fuel which is necessary to keep 
 these man machines in action, is furnished at the expense 
 of others, which has been fully proved. This being all 
 true and self-evident, the capitalist of thirty millions owns 
 and controls at least six thousand of his fellow beings in 
 perpetual slavery ; and this power to enslave does not die 
 with the capitalist, but is transmitted to posterity by the 
 law of inheritance ; so that one portion of mankind are 
 born with saddles on their backs, and another portion, 
 ready booted and spurred, to ride them. All this is done, 
 too, in a land of liberty and equal rights, while our Fourth 
 of July orators complain, that the Declaration of Inde- 
 pendence has been commented upon so much, that the 
 subject has been completely exhausted. We think it high 
 time they had their eyes open. 
 
 Now we should like to know in what manner the hap- 
 piness of the community is promoted by the existence 
 of these things. Those who know, ought to tell and ex- 
 plain it: the public goodrequi res it: they are culpable, if 
 they do not do it. But, until they do, we shall stick firmly 
 to our text. " We will not bate a single word, nor take 
 one letter back." 
 
 Capital, in its true sense and nature, is no evil, but a 
 good in itself, being nothing more than, a concentrated or 
 
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 45 
 
 compact form of the products of labor still unconsumed, 
 and has an intrinsic and commercial value, like all other 
 products of industry; and, with much propriety, might be 
 called past labor, or the surplus products of labor, saved 
 over and above consumption. We fear no refutation of 
 this declaration: its truth we shall prove clearly, in its 
 proper place. Now, this surplus past labor might, and, in 
 justice, ought to be employed in promoting the prosperity 
 of all the people ; but it is not ; on the contrary, it is made 
 use of as a terrible engine of oppression. 
 
 Therefore, capital, as now employed in the civilized 
 world, in the enslavement of men, is not a blessing, but a 
 blighting curse in the land ; it is a grievous canker, that 
 eats out the poor man's substance; it is a vile and loath- 
 some incubus, that corrupts and corrodes the human heart, 
 by making it callous to the sufferings of our fellow men ; 
 it is an all-consuming Moloch, to whom has been sacrificed 
 our dearest and most sacred rights; to whom justice, re- 
 ligion and morality have been prostituted; it is the great 
 Juggernaut of civilization, annually immolating its thou- 
 sands of miserable, helpless victims, by first striking them 
 with poverty, and then starving them to death. In short, 
 all classes of people have beta made to bow down, to 
 worship and adore this all-consuming, gormandizing idol. 
 
 Working men, will you lay yourselves down under its 
 wheels, and be crushed to death by its ponderous weight, 
 and have your little ones doomed to everlasting poverty ? 
 Will you lick the hand that smites you, and hug the chains 
 that fetter you? or will you rise up in the majesty of your 
 strength, and, in the dignity of your manhood, put down 
 this hideous, frightiul monster, assert your rights as men, 
 be free y be happy ? This is for you to decide. If you decide 
 on putting down the monster, promote the National Reform 
 cause, and vote the freedom of the public lands. 
 
 
46 WORKING MAN'S 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 ON THE NATURE OE PROPERTY IN GENERAL. 
 
 Nd error prevalent among men, has produced so much 
 mischief, as that of confounding the products of human 
 industry with the elements and spontaneous productions 
 of nature. Property, wealth, and riches, we consider as- 
 synonymous, or mean the same thing. Therefore, prop- 
 erty consists of the products of human industry, or those 
 things only which man creates, makes, or produces, by the 
 energies of his physical capabilities. The idea of buying 
 and selling the elements of nature with money, is a per- 
 fect absurdity. Whatever argument may be brought for- 
 ward, in support of the practice, will sustain that of chat- 
 tel slavery, with the same propriety. In fact, it is the foun- 
 dation of all kinds of slavery. We should like to know 
 upon what just right any man can found his claim to tax 
 his iellow man for the use of that which is not the produce 
 of human exertion, but is the free gift of God to all men 
 in common, and to no man in particular. 
 
 The negro slaveholder justifies himself on the ground, 
 that, because the laws of his country are in his favor, and 
 allow him to traffic in human flesh, if he purchase and pay 
 for a negro, he is, therefore, his bona fide property; but 
 these circumstances can never make the transaction just 
 or right, as no man ever did purchase a slave that did not, 
 at the same time, know, that he (the slave) had been stolen. 
 Now we contend that there is as much justice in buying 
 and selling human flesh, as there is in buying and selling 
 land for money. The cases are precisely similar : the one 
 can no more be justified than the other. Mr. Blake says, 
 page 26: "Under bad governments, particular classes 
 [such as landlords and capitalists,] are favored, others dis- 
 couraged and oppressed : property is thus unequally shared, 
 and wealth unfairly and unjustly distributed." In despotic 
 governments, this is effected by the royai dictum, and the 
 influence of the nobility; in repre sentative governments, 
 by the influence of landlords, slaveholders and capitalists; 
 
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 47 
 
 and in both, the practice of making land private property, 
 and is the circumstance which enables them chiefly to do 
 so ; because, they who own and control the land, can, and 
 always have, controlled all other interests. Therefore, we 
 need not be surprised, that kings, nobles, landlords and 
 capitalists, have taken special care of themselves, without 
 regard to the rights of their fellow men. 
 
 Mr. Paley says, " nothing ought to be made exclusive 
 property, which can be conveniently engaged in common." 
 It may be convenient, and no doubt is so, for the rich to 
 make land exclusive property ; but +he convenience to the 
 poor, or a majority of the people, remains yet to be dis- 
 covered. Mr. Paley further says, " there is a difficulty in 
 explaining the origin of property in land, consistently with 
 the law of nature ; for the land was once, no doubt, com- 
 mon, and the question now is, how any particular part of 
 it could be justly taken out of the common, and so appro- 
 priated to the first owner, as to give him a better right to 
 it than others, and, what is more, a right to exclude all 
 others from it?" and, we add, by means of a few words 
 on a bit of parchment, convey, through a particular line of 
 succession, that right and title to distant and unknown 
 
 These questions, so simple in themselves, and of such 
 vital importance to mankind, unfortunately remain unan- 
 swered to the present moment. Where are our Fourth of 
 July orators, that prate about equal rights? of " the land 
 of the free, and ithe home of the brave " ? And where are 
 the minstrels that sing of the glories of the stars and 
 stripes, and of the star spangled banner that floats in the 
 breeze ? Let them cease their soul-stirring oratory, and 
 their heart-soothing melodies; aye, we say, let them close 
 their lips and be dumb; let the joyful sounds no more be 
 heard, while the blighting curse of land monopoly contin- 
 ues to paralyze the arm of industry, and blast the happy 
 prospects of an ought to be free and independent people. 
 
 We hope that sufficient has been said to prove positively 
 that land, in no case, can be justly considered as property ; 
 and, to conclude this part of the subject, we will quote 
 Mr. Paley, who says : " Moralists have given many differ- 
 ent paradoxical and unnatural accounts of this matter, 
 which diversity, alone, is, perhaps, proof that none of 
 them are satisfactory." 
 
48 WORKING MANS 
 
 It may now be asked, what is property ? We answer, 
 the products of labor; nothing else can be. 
 
 There are but three ways in which it is possible to be- 
 come rightly or justly possessed of property. The first is, 
 by making it ; the second is, by purchasing, and giving an 
 equivalent for it, (that is, an equal amount of labor ;) the 
 third is, by donation or free gift from another, whose prop- 
 erty it was. And, as none of these conditions are appli- 
 cable to ownership of land as property, we shall at once 
 proceed to consider the products of labor. In order that 
 we may not be misunderstood, it is necessary that we ex- 
 plicitly explain our terms. 
 
 All the products of labor are susceptible of two kinds of 
 value : first, intrinsic ; and second, commercial or exchang- 
 able. 
 
 Intrinsic value arises from the nature of things them- 
 selves, and can be considered only in reference to the kind 
 and amount of human desires they are, in their natures, capa- 
 ble of gratifying. This kind of value can have no refer- 
 ence to money whatever, or any other product of labor. 
 Nor can it, in any manner, be estimated or measured by 
 them. Nothing can be more valuable than air to breathe, 
 but this value can never be estimated by any amount of 
 money whatever ; therefore, in justice, can never be bought 
 or sold. The same may be said of water, of sunshine, of 
 land, of wild fruits, vegetables, uncaught fish, and what- 
 ever lies in a state of nature, in the bowels of the earth, 
 such as minerals, metals, &c., not even excluding gold and 
 silver. This value, therefore, can never be effected or in- 
 terfered with by anything that man can do, either collect- 
 ively or individually. Neither can it be valued by money. 
 
 Commercial or exchanguble value is a different thing al- 
 together, and is dependent principally upon the amount of 
 labor or time required, or actually expended in the pro- 
 duction of such things as are the subjects of bargain and 
 sale : in other words, the cost of production. 
 
 Neglect to preserve a distinction between these two 
 values, has confounded and bewildered all popular writers 
 on the subject of Political Economy. Whether this has 
 been omitted through ignorance or design, is not for us to 
 say ; at all events, the world has been filled with mischief, 
 in consequence of the neglect. It is on this value alonef 
 that all commerce ought to be based : to take advantage o, 
 
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 49 
 
 any other circumstance to demand a greater price, is but to 
 commit an outrage, and is a gross violation of human 
 rights: in fact, the robber does nothing more than this: he 
 takes another's property, merely because he has the power 
 and the ability to protect himself. 
 
 On this point, Mr. W ayland is correct, as tar as he goes ; 
 but he stops before he gets through, and at the most impor- 
 tant point; that is, when he come to money. We shall 
 take up his train of reasoning, and carry it out to the end. 
 He savs : 
 
 " The degree of exchangablc or commercia 1 value of any com- 
 modity, depends chiefly upon the amount of labor necessary to cre- 
 ate that value. No one would exchange [if he could help it,] 
 what has cost him uvo days' labor, for that which has cost another 
 man but one day's labor; because, rather than submit to the injus- 
 tice of making such an exchange, he would create this-exchangable 
 value himself. Thus, if a hundred pounds of fish could be pro- 
 cured by one day's labor, and only twenty-five pounds of venison, 
 men would exchange, not pound for pound, but labor for labor; [or 
 time for time; say day for day, or hour for hour,] that is, four 
 pounds of fish for one pound of venison," 
 
 Now, this is all right and just, and we think no one can 
 object to it. A discontinuance of this simple practice, has 
 produced all the evils of which we complain. 
 
 Again Mr. Wayland says : " Cost forms the standard by 
 which the degree of exchangable value, for long periods 
 of time, [that is to say, the average,] is to be estimated.-' 
 We contend that this is the only just view that can be taken 
 of the products of labor ; that is, wealth in all its various 
 forms, whether in provisions, dwellings, clothing, money, 
 instruction, &c.; in short, everything that is produced or 
 performed by human energy. Again Mr. Wayland says : 
 
 "Temporary circumstances may create a variation from this 
 standard, and may, for a short time, elevate this value above, or 
 depress it below the cost. These, however, can continue to ope- 
 rate but for a short time: the natural tendency of exchangable 
 [commercial] value is always to gravitate towards cost. 
 
 " Suppose that, by some cause, the supply of fish became more 
 abundant, so that a man could, by one day's labor, procure two 
 hundred pounds, instead of one hundred. The hunter would not 
 be willing to exchange, as before, but would rather catch fish for 
 
50 >.-, WORKING MAN'S 
 
 himself. He would now demand eight pounds of fish for oen 
 pound of venison : [which would be the equivalents of labor,] in 
 other words, the value or price of fish would fall; that is, the same 
 amount of fish could not procure as much venison as it could be- 
 fore. But as, in consequence of this reduction in price, there 
 would be an increased demand for fish ; that is, more persons would 
 want it, and they would also want a larger quantity than before, 
 [being enabled to get it, in exchange, for a less amount of their 
 own labor,] the fish erman Would not be obliged to exchange at half 
 the former rate, but would be able to exchange at a rate somewhat 
 above it; say perhaps six or seven pounds for a pound of venison. 
 Thus, both parties would be gainers. The fisherman would pro- 
 cure more venison, and the hunter more fish, by a day's labor. 
 Thus, a benefit to one is a benefit to all. And thus we see, that, 
 [other things being equal,] the greater the supply of any article, 
 the less its commercial value: that is, the less amount of other 
 things can it procure in exchange." 
 
 So reasons Mr. Wayland, and his reasoning is correct; 
 out he should not have stopped here. We may introduce, 
 in place of the fisherman and the hunter, the farmer and 
 shoe-maker, the hatter and watch-maker, the iron-maker 
 and the money-maker; by doing this, we shall perceive, 
 that when any product of labor is what we call cheap, it 
 is an evidence that it is supplied in plenty. We shall per- 
 ceive, also, if we take into consideration the aggregate of 
 all the products of labor, that the greater the quantity pro- 
 duced in a community in the least space of time, (if this 
 equitable system of commerce is pursued,) the better it is 
 for all ; because such consumer gets the greater amount of 
 wealth for his own use, by giving, in exchange, a smaller 
 amount of his own labor. And this is even-handed just- 
 ice : it is as it ought to be ; because every producer, by it, 
 would accumulate property in proportion to his industry. 
 And not, as under the prevailing system, do so in propor- 
 tion as he has power to violate the just rights of others. 
 Also, it must be obvious to all, that, just in proportion as 
 improvements are made in agriculture, the mechanic arts, 
 or in commerce, the greater will be the reward of all who 
 may be engaged in either pursuit. Let this foolish, but 
 fatal error of property in the elements, be abolished ; let labor 
 alone give value to property, whether in its production or 
 distribution, then perfectly free competition, governed alone 
 by the immutable principle of supply and demand^ we con- 
 
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 51 
 
 tend, is all mat is necessary to bring about that state of 
 things, so ardently desired and looked for, by all good and 
 honest men. 
 
 Natural talent being the free gift of God, can have no< 
 relative value with the products of labor; it should, there- 
 fore, be classed with the elements. Acquired talent being 
 the result of expense in instruction, and devotion to study, 
 should be classed with the products of labor, and estimated 
 accordingly. 
 
 All that human energy can accomplish in regard to 
 property is, first, produce or create it; second, distribute it; 
 third, consume it. And there are but three ways by which 
 a man can justly become the owner of property. The 
 first is, when he makes, produces, or creates it; the 
 second is, when he purchases it from another, whose it 
 was, by giving an equivalent for it; and the third is, when 
 it is a donation or free gift from another, whose it was. If 
 there be any other just mode of acquiring property, some 
 of our men of talent and learning ought to show what it 
 is. In fact, it is their duty to do so the public good 
 requires it. 
 
 There is a very prevalent disposition in society to aw& i 
 more dignity, importance and consideration to that class who 
 arrogantly style themselves " the business community," that 
 is, those engaged in commerce, than to any other class. In 
 fact, it is imperiously demanded by them, as may be prove 4 
 from many of their published works. In proof of this asser- 
 tion, we shall select from but one; and that is, an Address 
 to the " Young Men's Mercantile Association of Cincin- 
 nati," delivered by Judge Hall, April, 1846. He says : 
 
 " It will require but little reflection to satisfy us, that the re- 
 sources of this country are controlled chiefly by that class, which, in 
 our peculiar phraseology, we term "the business community" 
 embracing all those who are engaged in the great occupation of 
 buying and selling, exchanging, importing and exporting merchan- 
 dize, and including the banker, the broker, and the underwriter. I 
 have no hesitation in asserting that they employ more of the 
 wealth, the industry, and the intellect, of the American people, 
 than all other employments and prof essions united. 
 
 Commerce is limited only by the boundaries of civilized inter- 
 course. It employs the highest energies of the human intellect, 
 and is seen in the most magnificent displays of wealth and power. 
 The vast navies that circumnavigate, the globe are hers; great 
 
52 WORKING MAN S 
 
 cities acknowledge her sway; her merchants are Princes, the 
 revenues of great and mighty nations are under her control. She 
 is the arbitress of war and peace." 
 
 Such are the arrogant claims and pretensions of the 
 commercial or " business community," the money princes 
 of the world, the claims of capital. If these claims are 
 just and right, they ought to be allowed; if not, they 
 ought to be resisted. Those who produce all the wealth 
 of the country, set up no such arrogant claims for them- 
 selves, and are, therefore, unwilling to allow them to those 
 who only distribute what themselves make or produce. 
 We know of no reason why they should. 
 
 Tudge Hall thus continues * 
 
 " Under the influence of that fell spirit of demagogueism which 
 has swept over the land, it has become fashionable to flatter the 
 agricultural and laboring classes, because they are the most numer- 
 ous, and wield the greatest power at the ballot boxes ; while a sys- 
 tematic effort has been made to decry the merchant and the banker, 
 and to stigmatise their business as inimical to the liberty and pros- 
 perity of the country. We might pass over these incendiary doc- 
 trines with the contempt they deserve, if it were not for the wide- 
 spread mischief which they work, by deluding, to their own injury, 
 the numerous classes whom they are intended to cajole and flatter. 
 The laborer and mechanic are taught to dislike the banker, whose 
 means furnish them with daily employment; the farmer's mind is 
 diligently imbued with a deadly hatred for the merchant and the 
 banker, without whose assistance his CROPS WOULD HOT UPON THE 
 FIELD. 
 
 It appears by the census of 1840, that the number of persons in 
 Ohio, engaged in commerce, in agriculture, and in mechanical 
 labors and trades, was as follows : 
 
 In Agriculture, - ... 272,579 
 
 Manufactures, Mechanics and Trades, 66,265 
 
 In Commerce, ----- 9,201 
 
 By this shewing, it appears, that the disparity between these 
 classes is very great, that the oppression attempted to be practised 
 by the many over the few, is at least safe to the agents employed 
 in the experiment, and that however abject and unjust, however re- 
 pugnant to the constitutional principles of equality and democracy 
 such appeals to the prejudices of the mass may be, the demagogues 
 who use them, do so in the confidence of an impunity guarantied 
 by an odds of more than thirty to one in their favor. 
 
 The prosperity of the country, its peace, its character, and its 
 credit, are deeply affected by the too successful influence of these 
 
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 5S 
 
 wretched intrigues. n.ven the bench has not been free from these 
 pernicious opinions, and demagogues have been found so hardened 
 and so daring, as to carry into that sacred tribunal the profligate 
 pledge of party obedience, and to consummate there the atrocious 
 proscription of individuals and classes. 
 
 Commerce, which is the- agent that distributes blessings so uni- 
 versal and indispensable, is by no means obvious to the casual 
 observer; though its advantages are pre-eminent, and widely dif- 
 fused,, the number -engaged in this profession is so small in com- 
 parison with the aggregate of society, and their transactions* espe- 
 cially those of the greatest magnitude, attract so little attention, 
 that the observation of the public is not awakened to a just appre- 
 ciation of the mercantile character." 
 
 What a pity it is, and how unjust that this " princely," 
 p?e-eminent, dignified, useful and indispensable class, 
 without who-se assistance no one could live ; who control 
 all the wealth of the world, who " employ more industry, 
 more capital, and more intellect, than all other employ- 
 ments and professions put together"!! who style them- 
 selves princes, owners of the mighty navies that circum- 
 navigate the globe ; are the arbiters of war and peace 
 every where ; in short, the cnly " business men " in the 
 \vorlcl; should have remained so long in obscurity; its 
 J>re- eminence, dignity and usefulness, not properly ac- 
 knowledged by the public ! What a shame ! ! 
 
 The best thing these sole " business men" can do, to 
 bring themselves into notice, " attract more attention," so 
 that the observation of the public may be awakened to a 
 just appreciation of the pre-eminence, dignity, usefulness, 
 and importance of their profession, will be to publish and 
 widely disseminate such sentiments as are contained in 
 the address just quoted from ; especially among those igno- 
 rant wretches, the farmers, mechanics and laborers, who 
 are cajoled, flattered and deluded to ineir own injury ; and 
 blindly and foolishly outnumber their betters at the ballot 
 boxes. 
 
 That nine thousand merchants, bankers and brokers, 
 should claim for themselves (notwithstanding they control 
 the wealth of the country) more dignity, importance and 
 consideration among their fellow-citizens, and more influ- 
 ence at the ballot-box, than three hundred and thirty thou- 
 sand farmers and mechanics (who produce an 1 bring into 
 existence all the -wealth, of the State, by their own physi- 
 
54 WORKING MAN S 
 
 cal energies at the expense of much labor and toil) merely 
 because they, the "business men," nominally distribute 
 that wealth which the others have positively produced ; 
 seems to us most profoundly ridiculous. There is a pas- 
 sage in the Judge's address, which is completely shrouded 
 in mystery, where he complains of the oppression attempt- 
 ed to be practised by the many over the few, of the viola- 
 tion of the constitutional principles of equality and democ- 
 racy ; the safety and impunity of the agents employed in 
 making the attempt, because they are guarantied by an 
 odds of thirty to one in their favor. What can he mean ? 
 Has any attempt ever been made to deprive " the business 
 men of community" of their equal right to the ballot-box, 
 with the rest of their fellow-citizens? We know of none. 
 Now, as the Judge has failed to tell us what he means, 
 precisely, as he ought to have done, \ve shall endeavor to 
 supply the deficiency by venturing to guess. 
 
 It was shown, at chapter fourth of this work, that the 
 capitalist, by the investment of five thousand dollars at 
 six per cent., has the power virtually to own and control 
 another man, "ichich, in our peculiar phraseology, we term" 
 virtually a slave. 
 
 The capitalist of twenty thousand, four slaves ; and so 
 on in proportion. 
 
 Perhaps the Judge thinks, and may possibly think hon- 
 estly, (but he must not forget that others have a right to 
 think as well as he) that in accordance \vith the " demo- 
 cratic principles of equal rights," these slaves, like the 
 negroes of the South, should be kept fron the ballot-box, 
 and the masters vote in their stead, as the Southern slave- 
 holders do : say one vote for each five thousand dollars, or 
 for each slave, no matter which. If this be not his mean- 
 ing, we are utterly at fault we can imagine no other. If 
 it is the proper meaning, why do not these gentlemen 
 come up and make the avowal, honestly like men ; un- 
 clouded by dark and incomprehensible insinuations ? 
 
 If we are right in this conjecture, and such in reality be 
 their claims, they may rest assured that the farmers and 
 mechanics who create all that wealth, (upon the mere 
 buying and selling of which, " the business men of com- 
 munity " arrogate to themselves such " transcendent dig- 
 nity and usefulness ") will never accede to them, so long 
 as the declaration, "God has made all the nations of the 
 
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 55 
 
 earth of one blood," stands in holy writ ; so long as that 
 self-evident truth, " all men are born free and equal," re- 
 mains inscribed on the tablets of our hearts. Never nor 
 
 " While the earth bears a plant, 
 Or the sea rolls its waves;" 
 
 Nor while there is an arm to bear arms, will American 
 freemen grant such claims, nor be disfranchised for the 
 lack of property never ! 
 
 The Judge tells us, the merchants are princes ; and if he 
 considered there was any probability of carrying out his 
 scheme at the ballot-box, he might have consoled himself 
 with the reflection, that it would not be long before 
 these princes would be full grown kings, when that oppres- 
 sion of the many over the few, of which he so bitterly com- 
 plains, and of the injustice of being outnumbered at the 
 ballot-box, might soon be made short work of, and a speedy 
 end put to that safety, which he says is now enjoyed with 
 impunity by those that outnumber them. These self-styled 
 " princes " ought to be well watched, and their growth 
 particularly attended to, lest they rise up in majesty and 
 power, and reduce us and our little ones to everlasting 
 bondage. We may, perhaps, be charged with "daring" 
 insolence, impertinence and presumption, &c. To this 
 charge we will not demur; but humbly beg to be excused, 
 on the ground that we have but followed in the footsteps 
 of our illustrious princely predecessors, "which, in our 
 peculiar phraseology, we term the pre-eminent, intellec- 
 tual, indispensable business men of community." 
 
 F or g 2d, his sword the hireling ruffian draws, 
 For gold the hireling judge distorts the laws; 
 Wealth, heap'd on wealth, nor truth, nor safety buys, 
 The dangers gather as the treasures rise. 
 But scarce observed, the knowing and the bold, 
 Fall in the gen'ral massacre of gold; 
 Wide wasting pest ! that rages unconfin'd, 
 And crowds with crimes the records of mankind. 
 Unnumber'd suppliants crowd preferment's gate, 
 Athirst for wealth, and burning to be great ; 
 Delusive fortune hears the incessant call, 
 They mount, they shine, evaporate and fall." 
 
 DR. JOHNSON. 
 
56 WORKING MAN'S 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 NATURE OF CAPITAL, MONEY, &C. 
 
 CAPITAL, in a general sense, is that amount of the pro- 
 ducts of labor, of any and every kind, which remains over 
 and above consumption during the time of production ; in 
 other words, surplus labor ; and for reasons already given 
 in the last chapter, the elements of nature can make no 
 part of the commercial or exchangeable value of them. 
 
 In the farmer's case, it is that portion of the produce of 
 his farm, which remains in his possession, say at the end 
 of the year, after maintaining himself and family, paying 
 his expenses, &c. This portion of his wealth may with 
 propriety be called capital, surplus labor in its most simple 
 forms. Suppose he should find himself possessed of a 
 larger quantity of apples than he could possibly dispose 
 of at the time; he well knows that if he keeps them a 
 great length of time, a great portio n of them will spoil on 
 his hands; perhaps the whole, and become a dead loss 
 upon his hands. To prevent which, he cuts and dries 
 them, and by this operation his capital becomes more val- 
 uable than it was before. First, because a greater quan- 
 tity of labor is condensed into about one-sixth of its 
 former bulk, and about one-tenth of its former weight. 
 Second, in its new form it has acquired another valuable 
 property by the additional labor put upon it, and that is, 
 it will keep much longer than before without danger of 
 spoiling, by which the farmer will be enabled to dispose 
 of it at the most favorable opportunity. By this conden- 
 sation the following advantages are obtained. The cost, 
 or labor of carriage or distribution to consumers at a dis- 
 tance from the farmer, will be diminished in proportion to 
 the condensation ; they will get the commodity so much 
 cheaper. The farmer is also enabled to dispose of a 
 greater quantity of his own labor in exchange for other 
 commodities for his own use ; which, but for the conden- 
 sation, he could not have enjoyed. Hence we perceive, 
 that the operation is beneficial to all parties concerned. 
 
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 57 
 
 We will now suppose the farmer wishes to condense or 
 concentrate this dried capital to a still greater degree, 
 how will he effect it ? Merely by exchanging it for an 
 equivalent amount of gold or silver, in the form of coin or 
 money, which is the most condensible, concentrative and 
 convenient form yet discovered, into which capital or 
 wealth can be converted. These metals having properties 
 or qualities which no other substances possess, the princi- 
 pal of which are first, being indestructible by fire; se- 
 cond, capability of keeping any length of time without 
 suffering diminution in quantity ; third, capability of being 
 divided and sub-divided into the smallest portions without 
 loss ; fourth, being found in but a few places, and in limited 
 quantities, make a natural limit to the quantity that can 
 be produced, which is not the case with any other product 
 of labor : demand being the limit of all other productions. 
 These four qualities constitute the inherent, intrinsic, or 
 natural value of these metals. Nothing can be more ab- 
 surd or ridiculous than the common prevalent idea, that 
 the value of gold and silver is in any degree whatever, 
 conventional; because, no despot or government, no mat- 
 ter how potent, by any act whatever, can impart or dimin- 
 ish one iota of those qualities ; and yet those properties, 
 inherent in gold and silver, are what make them so uni- 
 versally sought after. This is so true and so simple, that 
 nothing more need be said on this part of the subject. 
 Another self-evident truth in regard to this matter is, that 
 the natural or intrinsic value of any thing, can in no way 
 be estimated by any amount of labor whatever ; for the 
 simple reason, that no amount of human labor or ingenuity 
 whatever, can impart to any substance those inherent pro- 
 perties or qualities in the smallest degree; much less 
 create them. God's works, or the elements of nature, can 
 never be correlative, or in any way measurable, or can be 
 estimated by man's works or labors, for the simple reason 
 that he cannot do them. Therefore, they should never be 
 confounded together; by doing so, the world has been filled 
 with sin, fraud, violence, injustice, ignorance, crime and 
 misery ; and has given rise to those " paradoxical and un- 
 natural institutions " by which the civilized world is now 
 governed. The existence of the inherent properties in 
 gold and silver, is the reason why they have been made 
 use of as a universal medium of exchange, and by which 
 
58 WORKING MAN'S 
 
 all other products of labor have been valued or compared 
 with. 
 
 Now the exchangeable or commercial value of gold and 
 silver is a different thing altogether from the intrinsic or 
 natural, as much so as difference can be between any two 
 things in existence. This value depends upon the quan- 
 tity of labor and expense required to disembowel the 
 metals from the earth, refine and put them into a useable 
 or exchangeable form. This quantity of labor and ex- 
 pense, therefore, constitutes its cost or commercial value 
 as will be shown by Mr. Weyland's train of reasoning. 
 No man would be so foolish as to spend his time and labor 
 in digging gold and silver from the earth for the purpose 
 of making either food or clothing out of them, but it is 
 necessary that he should have a supply of both ; he, how- 
 ever, knows that the food and clothing makers will 
 give him the products of their labor in exchange for his 
 gold and silver. We shall use Mr. Weyland's argument, 
 substituting in place of the hunter and fisherman, the 
 miner and farmer : 
 
 " No one would be willing to exchange whai has cost him two 
 days labor, for that which has cost another man but one day's 
 labor ; because, rather than submit to the injustice of making such 
 an exchange, he would create the exchangeable value himself." 
 
 (Man can create no other kind of value.) 
 
 " Thus, if two bushels of wheat could be produced by one day's 
 or twelve hours labor, and if two ounces of silver could be pro- 
 cured and made in a proper form for use, the persons engaged in 
 these pursuits, would exchange labor for labor, day for day, or hour 
 for hour ; that is, one ounce of silver for one bushel of wheat " 
 
 The cost of each being equal. 
 
 Will any man presume to say, this transaction is not 
 just and equitable? This simple principle might and 
 ought to be applied to all transactions common between 
 man and man tLere can be no justice among men with- 
 out it. 
 
 " Cost," (Mr. Weyland tells us, and that truly,) "forms the 
 standard ~by which the degree of commercial or exchangeable value 
 for long periods of time (we sumose he means the average) is to 
 be estimated." 
 
POLITICALECONOMY. 59 
 
 " Temporary circumstances may create a variation from this 
 standard, and may for a short time elevate this value above, or de- 
 press it below the cost. These, however, can continue to operate 
 but for a short time, as the natural tendency of exchangeable 
 value is always to gravitate towards the cost" 
 
 And this it will do by the immutable law of supply and 
 demand; which law is as immutable as the laws which 
 govern and regulate the universe, and would work justice 
 TOO, if not interfered with by royal usurpations, and unjust 
 legislative enactments. It has been proven that gold and 
 silver cannot derive any portion of its intrinsic or natural 
 value by or from governmental enactments. So is it like- 
 wise impossible for government to impart any portion of 
 the commercial or exchangable value, (which we shall 
 hereafter call PASSABLE VALUE,) for the plain and simple 
 reason, that no government ever did, or ever will, perform 
 the labor necessary to impart that value. They have 
 often attempted to establish the passable value of the 
 precious metals, but have always failed : the immutable 
 law of supply and demand frustrating all their visionary 
 calculations and fine spun theories. And the reason is 
 plain and simple Mr. Weyland gives it: because, says 
 he, 
 
 " The natural tendency of exchangable or passable value is, 
 to gravitate toward the cost of production." 
 
 The reason of this is also plain and easily understood. 
 It is, because, when any article of commerce will not ex- 
 change for the cost of production, the maker refrains from 
 or quits producing it; on the other hand, when the price is 
 above the cost of production, an unusual number of per- 
 sons rush into that peculiar business, when competition 
 soon restores the article to the cost of production. Thus 
 every individual who endeavors to get before his fellows, 
 is met by competition, which gives him a salutary check, 
 and sends him back to wait for those he was outrunning, 
 and himself accumulating his undue portion of wealth. 
 The foregoing remarks are applicable to all the products 
 of labor, not excluding the precious metals, whether in 
 the form of coin or not ; because, the operation of coining 
 accomplishes nothing more than to manufacture them 
 into definite portions or pieces of KNOWN WEIGHT AND FINE- 
 
60 WORKINGMAN'S 
 
 NESS ; and this is all that government can do : it can no 
 more put passable value on money, nor any other value, 
 than it can disarrange the universe. Mr. Weyland must 
 have known this truth ; it is not possible he could have 
 been ignorant of the fact. But why did he not tell us? 
 The reason is plain ; had he done so, he would not have 
 served the interest of the grasping capitalist. He there- 
 fore shrouded the subject in mystery; he must be true to 
 his class, the mass must be kept in ignorance, and doomed 
 to everlasting poverty, for the purpose (as Mr. Colquhoun 
 says) of affording to a favored few, all the " riches, refine- 
 ment, comfort and enjoyment." The Rev. Mr. Blake, author 
 of Political Economy for the use of American Schools, 
 thinks it would be very improper to teach the poor the 
 nature of political economy. But Mr. Blake has not the 
 candor to tell us why. This he leaves for his friend Mr 
 Colquhoun to do, who is more candid. 
 
 The value of the precious metals is not in the least de- 
 gree increased by the process of coining, because the 
 whole expense is paid out of the public revenue of the 
 general government ; so that, whether they be in the form 
 of coin, or in bullion, or any form whatever, any certain 
 weight of the same fineness, will always bear the same 
 passable value.* All experience and observation prove 
 this : it cannot be denied. 
 
 We will again take up Mr. Weyland's argument, and 
 pursue the subject. Suppose that, by some cause, the sup- 
 ply of silver became moie abundant than formerly, so that 
 a man could procure by one day's labor four ounces of 
 silver instead of two, the farmer would be unwilling to 
 exchange as before ; he would rather dig it from the earth 
 himself. He (the farmer) would now demand two ounces 
 of silver for one bushel of wheat, which would be the 
 equivalents of labor; or, in other words, the passable 
 value, or price of silver, would fall, so that the same 
 amount of silver could not procure as much wheat as it 
 could before. But, as in consequence of this reduction in 
 price, there would be an increased demand for silver, that 
 is, more persons would want it, because cheaper; and 
 they would also want a larger quantity than before being 
 enabled to procure it by giving in exchange a less amount 
 
 * That is, if produced by the same amount of labor. 
 
POLITICAL ECONOMY. . 61 
 
 of their own labor. The silver miner would not be obliged 
 at first to exchange at half the former rate, but would be 
 able to exchange at a rate somewhat above it ; say, per- 
 haps, one and a half, or one and three-fourths ounces for 
 the bushel of wheat. Thus we see, both parties would be 
 gainers : the miner would procure more wheat, and the 
 farmer more silver, by the same amount of labor. Thus a 
 benefit to one is a benefit to all. 
 
 And thus we see that (other things being equal) the 
 greater the supply of any article of commerce, not exclud- 
 ing money, the less is the passable value : and the less the 
 supply, the greater is the exchangable or passable value. 
 By this, it will be seen, also, that the greater abundance 
 of the products of labor, produced in a given time, the 
 cheaper they become ; and the cheaper they are, the less 
 labor will it require for every individual to supply his 
 wants. High prices indicate scarcity ; low prices, abun- 
 dance. If a community desire, nominally, to raise the 
 price of the products of labor, or to make an artificial 
 scarcity, the best plan is to put in circulation money that 
 represents more labor than it costs to make it. The advan- 
 tage to be gained by this operation will be, those that 
 make the fictitious money, (who will be a select few, of 
 course,) will get in exchange from the many, THE FRUITS OF 
 THEIR HARD LABOR. Working men ought to examine this 
 subject critically, so as to understand it perfectly ; and if 
 they find it will be to their advantage, they ought to pro- 
 mote the operation ; but, if not, it is their duty to put it 
 down. 
 
 It maybe laid down as an axiom, that the aggregate of 
 money in circulation, measures the value of all other 
 property ; if a portion of that circulation consists of ficti- 
 tious money, all the products of labor will obtain a pro- 
 portionate fictitious value. It follows, therefore, that to 
 increase or decrease the aggregate of the circulating me- 
 dium, by any other means than by the introduction of that 
 money, which is the work of labor, in proportion to the 
 amount of the money, is but to make men dishonest by 
 law; because the effect of it is the same as if all the 
 weights and measures in the country had been altered. 
 By the increase, all creditors are injured, and by the de- 
 crease or contraction, all debtors are plundered : and no 
 advantages accrue to any individual whatever, save and 
 
62 WORKING MAN'S 
 
 except to those who make the fictitious money the select 
 few. 
 
 It may also be laid down as an axiom, that gold and 
 silver is as much bought and sold by other things, as other 
 things are bought and sold by gold and silver. 
 
 We think it must be evident now, to all who have care- 
 fully read the foregoing remarks, that gold and silver, 
 whether in the form of coin or not, are articles of com- 
 merce, or products of labor, and subject to all the laws of 
 trade, to the immutable law of supply and demand, like- 
 all other commodities : differing only in one particular 
 from them, which shall now be mentioned. The limit of 
 production, as respects all commodities, other than gold 
 and silver, is the full supply of the demand. When de- 
 mand ceases, so also will production; therefore, production 
 will always be in proportion to the demand. Now, let 
 the demand be ever so great, there is always abundant 
 means to supply it. But this is not the case with gold and 
 silver. Inasmuch as there is no limit to the demand, it is 
 necessary that the production should be limited by some- 
 thing else than demand. We have it, then, in nature. Gold 
 and silver only being found in a few places and in limited 
 quantities, but few persons can be employed in the produc- 
 tion of them; therefore, it is impossible to produce them 
 in unlimited quantities, as other commodities can be. And 
 this is the grand reason why they have been used for a 
 universal medium of exchange, and not because govern- 
 ments may have passed laws enacting that nothing else 
 shall be made a legal tender in payment of debts. They 
 (gold and silver) for the reasons above stated, cannot be 
 suddenly expanded in the aggregate ; neither can they be 
 suddenly diminished or contracted; because, when once 
 produced, they will last forever in comparison with other 
 products of labor. 
 
 We often hear it asserted, that there is no real value in 
 gold and silver, because we can neither eat them or drink 
 them. 
 
 This seems a little plausible at first, but it is nothing 
 but an argumentative clap-trap, intended only to bewilder 
 the mind. We might with equal propriety say, there is no 
 real value in bricks and stones, or in iron, because we can 
 no more eat them, than we can gold and silver. 
 
POLITICAL ECONOMY 63 
 
 Wool is valuable for clothing, nothing answers the pur- 
 pose better ; mankind have pursued the same course in 
 regard to all substances ; they have adapted them to such 
 purposes, as by experience they were found to be most suit- 
 able for. They have discovered by experience that gold and 
 silver are better ad ipted to the purposes of a universal 
 medium of exchange than any other substances; there- 
 fore, have been so used. The value of a determinate 
 quantity is no more conventional than is a bushel of 
 wheat, or a yard of cloth. All that is conventional is, 
 the weight and fineness of the various coins, the solid 
 contents of the bushel, and the determinate length of the 
 yard stick. The exchangable value of all the products 
 of labor, not excluding gold and silver, whether in the 
 form of coin or not, depend, in the aggregate, upon the 
 quantity of labor required to produce them, not upon law. 
 The greater the distance between the place of production, 
 and that of the consumption of any commodity, the higher 
 will be its price ; because the cost of transportation be- 
 comes a part of the cost of production. There is really 
 no mystery about the nature of money ; every man can 
 understand it, if he will ; those who are ignorant of it are 
 liable to hourly imposition. 
 
 We think we have proved conclusively, that capital is 
 nothing more than that portion of the products of labor 
 which remains on hand, after the expiration of a given 
 time employed in production. 
 
 That, in order to preserve some kinds of capital till 
 wanted for consumption, it is necessary to condense and 
 give it new properties, by employing an additional amount 
 of labor upon it. 
 
 That the precious metals, in any form, is the most con- 
 centrative and most lasting form that human labor can be 
 converted into. 
 
 And that, if all the products of labor of every kind were 
 left free to competition, without confounding the natura 
 value of the elements of nature with human labor, all ex- 
 changable commodities, will always gravitate towards 
 the cost of production by the influence of the immutable 
 law of supply and demand; consequently, the cheaper all 
 commodities are, the greater is the quantity the producer is 
 enabled to secure in return for his own labor. The working 
 man ought to understand this subject above all others; his 
 
64 WORKING MAN'S 
 
 hopes and happiness, and the welfare of his offspring, de- 
 pends upon his havng a knowledge of it. It is his igno- 
 rance of it that enables the capitalist to cheat and gull 
 him out of the fruits of his hard labor and toil. 
 
 There's a good time coming, boys ; wait a little longer ; 
 justice will not sleep forever. 
 
 " The wise will always govern their own fate, 
 
 And fortune with officious zeal attends 
 
 To crown their enterprizes with success." PRINCE. 
 
 To shew that we are not alcme in our views in regard 
 to the precious metals, we subjoin the following: 
 
 Condy Ragtiet, in his work on Money and Banking, pub- 
 lished at Philadelphia, in 1840, after taking notice of the 
 fact, that, at several different periods, the relative value 
 between gold and silver has varied considerably, notwith- 
 standing their establishment by law. At page 10, he 
 writes thus : 
 
 ' The author believes he was one of the first, if not the first 
 writer in this country, to call the attention of the public to this 
 new change, and apprehensive at the time that the legislative folly 
 of attempting to establish by law, what nature herself could not 
 establish, would be repeated by a new enactment, he urged in 
 December, 1821, the expediency" (he should have said justice) 
 " of abolishing the coinage of eagles, and their fractional parts, 
 and of substituting in their place new pieces, to weigh respectively 
 an ounce, a half, and a quarter of an ounce of standard gold, under 
 the full conviction that they would soon be introduced into circula- 
 tion at their proper equivalent, without involving us in the absurdity 
 of having two legal tenders." (Or two standards of value.) 
 
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 65 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 UNPRODUCTIVE AND ACTIVE CAPITAL. 
 
 UNPRODUCTIVE capital, Mr. Wayland thus enumerates : 
 f< Money lying in coffers, materials unsaleable, manufac- 
 tures unoccupied, and land lying waste" Now, we deny 
 that land, either under cultivation, or lying waste, can be 
 capital at all; for the simple reason, that/<2?id is not a pro- 
 duct of human labor ; therefore, not capital. The first three 
 items, we admit, are unproductive capital ; and we shall 
 take occasion to add a few more, to wit : worn out cloth- 
 ing, ships laid up in dry dock, tenantless houses, negro- 
 chattel slaves, dead or without employment, worn out 
 machinery, &c. 
 
 Chattel slaves are a peculiar form of the slaveholder's 
 capital, no one will deny. There are several objections 
 to this form of capital ; first, the positive expenditure of 
 capital in some other form, perhaps in gold or silver, or 
 perhap;; a number of bales of cotton ; second, the risks 
 which attend this form of capital, by the slaves being 
 subject to sickness and death ; third, the responsibility of 
 the master, in being obliged to furnish food and clothing 
 to his slaves, whether they work or play ; in fact, his own 
 self-interest will prompt him to do it, in order to keep 
 them in a healthy working condition ; fourth, the obliga- 
 tion of the slaveholder, when his slaves are diseased or 
 worn out by age and toil, to maintain and furnish them at 
 least with some kind of a homestead. In view of the last 
 two objections, it will be seen that capital in the form of 
 slavery is not only unproductive, but is likewise consum- 
 ing capital. Now, all that the slaveholder can accom- 
 plish is, to secure to his own use and proprietorship that 
 portion of his slaves' labor, which remains after their 
 maintenance nothing more. 
 
 After all, it is but one of the various schemes invented, 
 by which the many might be kept in poverty, so that a 
 few (in the benevolent language of Mr. Colquhoun) might 
 obtain all the riches, all the refinements, all the comforts, 
 
66 WORKING MAN'S 
 
 all the enjoyments 1 And it is as just to obtain this end 
 by one means as another. Who will say to the contrary ? 
 
 PRODUCTIVE OR ACTIVE CAPITAL. 
 
 Political economists have much more to say on this part of 
 the subject than any other ; perhaps more than all the other 
 parts united. But we utterly deny the possibility of the 
 existence of any F'ich thing ! ! because the activity and 
 productiveness of which they palaver and prattle so much 
 about, does not exist in the capital, per sc, at all, but in 
 the bone, sinew and life blood of human beings, the obe- 
 dient living tools of the capitalist those poverty-stricken 
 beings, who have been stolen from their own land, or have 
 had their land stolen from them, who are necessary to 
 exist in society, for the purpose (as Mr. Colquhoun beau- 
 tifully expresses, in the fulness of his benevolent heart,) to 
 jurnish riches, refinements, comforts and enjoyments for their 
 idle lordly masters the favored few. 
 
 All that capital can do in the premises is, after purchas- 
 ing, or having found a human being iii a state of poverty 
 and dependence, made so by the injustice of society in 
 depriving him of his birth-right in the soil, a r .id other 
 wrong doings, to supply a little fuel to set him to spinning 
 out property for the sole use of his master, the capitalist, 
 he (the capitalist allowing only a sufficiency to keep up 
 the requisite supply of fuel to keep him in action, as de- 
 scribed in the 5th chapter of this work which see. 
 
 By this improved system of free slavery, or free labor, as 
 generally called, and is practised to perfection in our 
 large factories, all those four objections above mentioned, 
 are entirely obviated. 
 
 First. There is no expenditure made by the capitalist, 
 to entitle him to the use of this property-making-man- 
 machine ; he finds his victim at once in his power, without 
 the necessity of expending any capital in order to get 
 possession of him. 
 
 Second. In the free slave system, the capitalist runs no 
 risk in the sickness or death of his slave ; he has no medi- 
 cine to furnish, no doctor's bill to pay, no funeral expenses ; 
 in short, he has no interest at stake whatever; he can at 
 any moment abandon his victim, and consign him to ever- 
 lasting poverty and wretchedness, though he devoted the 
 or J 
 
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 67 
 
 best days of his life to the service of his master ; he is cast 
 aside with as much sang froid, and with about as much 
 feeling, too, as if he were a worn out steam engine, or an 
 old and useless grindstone. Such is the fate of the free 
 laborer, and such the advantage of the free slave capitalist, 
 over the chattel slave capitalist. 
 
 Third. The free labor capitalist is under no obligation 
 to furnish food and raiment, when unable to furnish his 
 slave with employment, nor a homestead either ; neither 
 will his interest prompt him to do it, but may turn him 
 into the street without a home, or a place to lay his head, 
 to beg, to starve, or to steal ; neither does he suffer loss by 
 the death of his victim, as the chattel slave capitalist does : 
 he can find plenty more on the same cheap and easy 
 terms. 
 
 Fourth. Under the free slave system, the capitalist is 
 under no obligation to make provision for his old and 
 worn out slave, upon whose labor and toil he has grown 
 rich, and perhaps proud, save and except in the form of a 
 poor-house ; and if he presume to take advantage of this 
 provision, Mr. Ware (a gentleman who has been mention- 
 ed in this work) says, he ought to be " killed off, that so- 
 ciety might get rid of such excresences, and cast off such 
 burdens." To take refuge in a poor-house, is held de- 
 grading by all classes of community, and is revolting to 
 the feelings of one in whose heart yet lingers one spark 
 of the fire of manhood; and to propose which, is an insult 
 to any man of conscious integrity, and proper self-respect; 
 the mere idea is too loathsome to be endured. 
 
 In England, where the pool house system has been car- 
 ried out to the highest degree of perfection, history in- 
 forms us, that the inmates discovered chat che fare in the 
 common jails was much superior to that of the poor- 
 houses. The consequence was, the paupers preferred 
 stealing, in order to become entitled to the privilege of en- 
 tering a common jail, in preference to a poor house; be- 
 cause they were better used and better fed. When this 
 was discovered by the patrons of charity and benevolence, 
 it was decided that the usage in the jails should be more 
 rigorous, and the common fare reduced, so that paupers 
 might have a less motive to steal than to go to the poor 
 houses. Such are the fruits of charity and benevolence. 
 These facts will be found in " Lester's Condition and Fate 
 of England." 
 
68 WORKING MAN'S 
 
 We now propose a few questions for the serious con- 
 sideration of those persons whose sympathies are so sensi- 
 tive in regard to the injustice of negro slavery. First, 
 would the condition of the negro be improved by giving 
 him nominal freedom, yet withholding from him his right 
 to the soil ? Second, would any capitalist purchase slaves, 
 if he possessed no more land than his own just portion; 
 and every other man had his ? Third, suppose the negroes 
 emancipated, would they not emigrate to the free States, 
 and come in direct competition with free laborers, and 
 thereby reduce the wages of all, especially while the right 
 to the soil was denied to all? Nothing could prevent such 
 a result. Fourth, therefore, so long as the working man 
 of the North is denied the freedom of the soil, just so long 
 is it not his most vital interest to resist the progress of the 
 emancipation of the slaves of the South ? Working men, 
 think seriously of this : do not be gulled. 
 
 Although the question of slavery has almost dissolved 
 the Union, it has excited the bitterest sectional animosities ; 
 has thrown the whole country into commotion, all classes 
 have entered the arena of contention ; Christian churches 
 have been set in hostile array, broken up and dissolved. 
 And yet, after all, if we but carefully and dispassionately 
 analyze the subject, we shall find that all the real elements 
 that enter into the question, the very prima mobile, are 
 nothing more than the jealousies and contentions of North- 
 ern and Southern capitalists the Northern white slave 
 driver and the Southern black slave driver. The Northern 
 capitalist is jealous that his Southern fellow-citizen should 
 be permitted to vote at the ballot-box, in lieu of his posi- 
 tive black slaves; while the latter is jealous that the 
 former should be permitted " to cajole and flatter" or by 
 compulsion, cause his nominal free laborers to vote in 
 conjunction with him. The whole subject may be con- 
 densed in the following simple question. 
 
 Which is the best and most certain scheme, by which 
 the wealth producers of all colors, may be plundered of 
 the greatest amount of the products of labor in a given 
 time ? also, which plan will afford the most safety and 
 security to the capitalist? This is the whole cream of the 
 matter. 
 
 The American slavery and anti-slavery question, is about 
 as important to the working classes of this country, as the 
 
POLITICAL ECONOMY. QQ 
 
 great division of British politics, " the landed interest and 
 the moneyed interest," is to the operatives of Great Bri- 
 tain ; which, in plain English, means this : which shall 
 have the power best secured by law, to plunder the pro- 
 ducers of wealth to the greatest extent : the LANDLORD OR 
 
 THE MONEY LORD ? 
 
 A very important matter, indeed, for the poor, plundered 
 victims to contend about ! ! Equally so is the slavery 
 question to the working classes of the United States. In 
 this chapter we have shown that there is no such thing as 
 active or productive capital, but in the form of chattel 
 slavery. The pseudo free labor and chattel slavery systems 
 have been compared the advantages and disadvantages 
 of both been considered. It now remains for the working 
 man to decide which system is the best to suffer under, or 
 to be free, 
 
 <But, working men, would it not be better for us to let 
 'those gentlemen capitalists fight out their own battles ? It 
 is but a small business for us to meddle with. We have a 
 'higher and a juster, and a more righteous duty to perform; 
 and that is, to cause man to have restored to him those 
 natural and inalienable rights, of which unjust govern- 
 ments have cruelly deprived him. 
 
 Therefore, let us strike for the freedom of the public 
 lands, and the inalienability of every man's homestead. 
 Do this, and you pave the way for the attainment of such 
 a state of freedom, happiness and security, as man has 
 never yet enjoyed : neither rich nor poor. 
 
70 . WORKING MAN'S 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 DEBASING THE CIRCULATING MEDIUM. 
 
 IT has been shewn, in chapter 6th, that money and all 
 other commodities, which are the only just subjects of 
 commerce, derive their passable or commercial value 
 from the quantity of labor required to produce them; or, in 
 other words, from the cost of production. The cost of pro- 
 duction would be the limit of price, if the operations of 
 mankind had not been interfered with by the usurpations 
 of -governments, but left to the perfect freedom of compe- 
 tition, and the, immutable law of supply and demand: be- 
 cause, in this case, all the products of labor would always 
 gravitate to the -cost of production. But to prevent such a 
 result, tyrannical Princes and sovereign States have 
 brought to their aid, all the power that avarice, cupidity, 
 fraud and injustice could suggest, or ingenuity contrive. 
 
 They have not hesitated to commit the most glaring 
 outrages with perfect impunity ; and had such acts as they 
 have been guilty of been committed by a private indi- 
 vivual, those vsame Princes would have cast him into a 
 dungeon, or perhaps, have strangled him on a gallows, 
 chopped off his head, or burned him at the stake. 
 
 The first instance we shall mention of the kind, is that 
 of Charles XII., King of Sweden. 
 
 At a period of great difficulty, when much in want of 
 funds, he borrowed a large amount of money from various 
 persons, which he took to the royal mint, and had it re- 
 duced one half; that is, putting but half the former quan- 
 tity of silver in each denomination of coin ; at the same 
 time making a law that the adulterated or diminished coin 
 should be of the same exchangable value as before; 
 therefore, a legal tender in payment of debts. He also 
 made it criminal to pass or circulate the old coin, under 
 severe pains and penalties ; in other words, made it a 
 crime to be honest. Now, the King not only acted the 
 part of a robber himself, but made every debtor in his 
 kingdom a robber also, and every creditor a victim to his 
 
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 71 
 
 cruel injustice. The consequence was, that when the 
 new coin got into circulation, this honest King was obliged 
 to give his soldiers double the former pay, or they could 
 not live, because all other commodities had risen to 
 double the former price ; because the value put upon the 
 coin was but nominal, and was an attempt, by royal edict, 
 to make it represent more labor than the cost of produc- 
 tion ; in other words, a check to competition : but the im- 
 mutable law of supply and demand frustrated all his in- 
 genious calculations. We admit that he succeeded in 
 robbing the people of half the amount borrowed, but he 
 had better have taken it by positive force, as the illegal 
 robber does; then he would not have involved his inno- 
 cent subjects in his own guilty practices: he would have 
 stood alone in his guilt. 
 
 King Charles has not been alone in this worse than high- 
 way robbery; for Adam Smith tells us, that, originally, the 
 English pound sterling was really one pound troy of silver 
 of a determinate fineness, and that a shilling was one- 
 twentieth of a ponnd, and a penny the one-twentieth of 
 an ounce of silver, or one two hundred and fortieth part 
 of a pound hence the word penny weight. A crown, 
 which is five shillings, or one-fourth of a pound, must have 
 weighed three ounces. Further, Mr. Smith tells us, that 
 the coins were used as standard weights, for the practical 
 purpose of weighing such articles of commerce as was 
 usual to sell by weight. But this system was too simple ; 
 too easily understood by the mass of the people. And 
 here we take occasion to assert, that in order to establish 
 an equitable system of commerce, all that is necessary to 
 do, would be to make but one kind of metal (silver would 
 be most convenient) the standard .of value. Then make 
 the denominations of coin correspond with the standard 
 weights, by which all other commodities might be weighed, 
 so that the money might be used for practical weights. 
 But to perfect this system, it will be necessary to restore 
 man to his natural right in the soil, and abolish all govern- 
 mental checks to competition : also, all laws which recog- 
 nize money, or rather labor value, in the elements of 
 nature. If all this were done, we should like to be shown 
 in what way or manner any man could become entitled 
 to the products of labor, without himself performing the 
 proper amount of labor, in order to obtain them, except 
 by stealing, or robbing his fellows. 
 
72 WORKING MAN'S 
 
 A system of commerce, not deviating very far from what 
 has just been proposed, once, no doubt, existed ; but it was 
 too honest, too just, too simple, and too easily understood by 
 the people, to accord with the rapacity and short-sighted 
 selfishness of those cunning few who have heretofore con- 
 trolled the destinies of mankind. Therefore it was aban- 
 doned for one better suited to their purposes, one full of 
 mystery, delusion and contradiction, and, as Mr. Paley calls 
 it, "unnatural and paradoxical" For what? Why, that a 
 lordly few might monopolize all " the riches, all the refine- 
 ment, all the comforts, and all the enjoyments, a code of 
 laws, which, Mr. Blackstone says, " it would be well if the 
 mass of mankind would obey, without scrutinizing too nicely 
 into the reasons of making them" Mr, Smith pursues the 
 subject further, and says : 
 
 "In every country of the world, I believe, the avarice and in- 
 justice of princes and sovereign States abusing the confidence of 
 their subjects, have, by degrees, diminished the real quantity of 
 metal which had been originally contained in their coins. The 
 Roman As, in the latter ages of the republic, was reduced to the 
 twenty-fourth part of its original value, [he should have said 
 weight,] and, instead of weighing a pound, came to weigh only 
 half an ounce!" 
 
 By the same swindling operation, the pound sterling of 
 Great Britain (which once contained one pound troy,) 
 has been reduced to about one-third of its original weight, 
 a pound sterling weighing, at this time, but little over four 
 ounces. 
 
 It must be evident to all who understand the foregoing 
 remarks, that, at this hour, an ounce of silver will not pur- 
 chase one iota more of the products of labor, than if those 
 royal and lordly crimes had not been perpetrated ; but the 
 people were plundered, which was all they intended. 
 Those royal swindlers, in order to reconcile the people to 
 such acts of injustice, said they did so for the purpose of 
 raising the value of money, and to prevent its being ex- 
 ported from the country. Now, this pretext was nothing 
 more than an ingenious clap-trap, to gull the ignorant, as 
 they well knew that the acts of which they were guilty 
 could never accomplish either of those ends. 
 
 We suppose that it was at the time when one of those plun- 
 dering operations was being perpetrated that Justice was 
 
POLITICALECONOMY. 73 
 
 blindfolded, to prevent her from perceiving on which side 
 her scales would preponderate. It may, perhaps, be well 
 to explain the nature of, and the reason for, the alteration 
 of the gold coin of the United States, in the year 1833, 
 which we shall attempt to do in a very brief manner. 
 Previous to the revolution in South America, the exchang- 
 able value between gold and silver was as one to fifteen, 
 or one ounce of gold was equal to fifteen of silver. Af- 
 ter,, or during the Revolution, a much greater amount 
 of silver than formerly was produced in the same amount 
 of time, and circulated over the commercial world, while 
 the production of gold remained about the same as usual. 
 The consequence \vas, that the relative value between the 
 two metals was disturbed, in the commercial world. Sil- 
 ver had become more abundant ; people could obtain the 
 same quantity by a less quantity of their own productions ; 
 in other words, at less cost of labor : therefore, would be wil- 
 ling to give proportionately more silver for an ounce of 
 gold than formerly. Competition under the immutable 
 law of supply and demand, had settled the exchangable 
 value thus: one ounce of gold equal (in cost of produc- 
 tion,) to sixteen ounces of silver. 
 
 Now, all that government did in the ease, was, to adjust 
 the gold coin so that one ounce of gold coin should count as 
 many dollars as sixteen ounces of silver. It would not have 
 been necessary to have done this, if the coins had been the 
 standard weights of the country, as we shall show. 
 
 Suppose the dollar had contained one ounce of silver, 
 and what is called the eagle had contained one ounce of 
 gold, everybody would, at all times, be enabled to under- 
 stand and detect most of the trickery and artifice of com- 
 merce. In the case just supposed, when the influx of sil- 
 ver had taken place, the weight of the coin would not 
 have been altered, but people would merely have given 
 sixteen dollars for one eagle, instead of fifteen, as they did 
 before the influx. This thing is very simple, and easily 
 understood, if we will but examine for ourselves. Simple 
 as the act was, (just alluded to,) and necessary as it was 
 for public convenience, yet the demagogues of the day took 
 occasion to make it a rich source of political capital, by 
 endeavoring to make the people believe, that, in its nature 
 and consequences, it was similar to those acts of robbery 
 so often committed by unjust monarchical despots and 
 
74 
 
 venal legislators, though they well knew it to be other- 
 wise, and as different as difference can be between any 
 two things. But those demagogues had an object in view ; 
 the interests of capital must be served ; a bone of conten- 
 tion must be thrown among the honest intentioned people, 
 to engage their attention; while, at the same time, a com- 
 bination of the capitalists of the country was effected, by 
 means of which, the circulating medium of the country was 
 debased to a much greater extent than any despotic monarc/i 
 ever yet dared to do; but by a more cunningly devised ope- 
 ration. 
 
 The producers of wealth were "cajoled and flattered"; 
 the prices of the farmer's productions were to be raised ; 
 likewise, the wages of the mechanic and laborer were to 
 be doubled ; and so they were ; but it never occurred to 
 those honest-hearted producers, that those high prices 
 which they received, and for which they gave in exchange 
 the fruits of their hard labor and toil, cost the payers (com- 
 paratively) nothing. Truly, the capitalist may well afford 
 to give high prices and high wages, when the money with 
 which he pays them costs nothing to make! I 
 
 The vocation of the king and the capitalist has always 
 been the same, namely, that of cheating or robbing the 
 producers of wealth of the just reward for their labor and 
 toil. This has been accomplished principally by two modes. 
 
 First. By monopolizing the land which was the free 
 gift of God to all men, thereby making it a subject of bar- 
 gain and sale ; although Mr. Blackstone tells us, " there is 
 no foundation in nature or natural law, why a set of words upon 
 parchment should convey the dominion of land" 
 
 Second. By making things represent more labor than 
 it costs to produce them; by the means of arbitrary gov- 
 ernmental checks to the operation of free competition. 
 
 We now ask, First. What is the grand object of all 
 those checks to competition? Answer. That the mass of 
 the people may be kept in want, poverty and wretched- 
 ness, and a cunning, crafty few, secure to themselves "all 
 the riches, all the refinement, all the comfort, all the enjoyment"* 
 Second. What kind of laws are necessary to produce 
 such desirable ends? Answer. Those which are "very 
 paradoxical and unnatural" f Such a code, that it would be 
 unwise to let t/ie poor understand or comprehend. J A code 
 * Colquhoun. t Paley. % Blake. 
 
POLITICAL ECONOMY 75 
 
 " which the mass of mankind ought to obey, without inquiring 
 teo nicely into the reasons of making them" " 
 
 Now, fellow producers, such authority and testimony as 
 We here give you, is of so respectable a character as to be 
 irre sistible, and is a collection of gems you should never 
 forget. 
 
 We now lay down as an axiom, that any political meas- 
 ure which has for its object the building up of the capital- 
 ist, or is to enable him to give greater wages than he 
 could or would do without it is proof sufficient that it is 
 one of those par adoxical and unnatur al checks to free 
 competition, by wnich the producers are "cajoled and flat- 
 tered" out of the just rewards for their labor. Because it 
 is not so much the great quantity of wealth produced in a 
 community that produces the most happiness and pros- 
 perity among the mass of people, as it is when there is the 
 most'equality in its distribution. Now, a special privilege 
 of any kind granted to the rich, has a contrary effect: it 
 creates a still greater disparity between the rich and the 
 poor, than there was before. It is in perfect accordance 
 with that old aristocratic maxim, " Government ought to 
 take care of the rich, that they may be better able to take 
 care of the poor." Yes, they will take care of the poor; 
 and Mr. Colquhoun tells us how, the mass, or the major- 
 ity, must be made poor, so that a few may secure the fruits 
 of the poor man's industry. Therefore, whenever the 
 working mjr votes at the ballot box, his interest requires 
 him to examine well the nature of all the measures he 
 votes for, and take care he does not forge chains for him- 
 self to wear, or dig a pit for himself to fall in. Such things 
 have been done, am 1 may be done again. Never vote for 
 special privileges for any parties whatever, as they are all 
 violations of right, and arbitrary checks to free competi- 
 tion, which prevent the pioducts of labor from gravitating 
 to the cost of production, as they ought to do. Because, in 
 proportion as the products of labor are left free to the ope- 
 ration of supply and demand, they become cheaper; con- 
 sequently, every consumer obtains them in exchange for a 
 less amount of his own time or labor. 
 
 Sometimes despotic princes, in order to gratify their 
 avarice, cupidity and rapacity, have imposed a heavy tax 
 or tariff on the mines producing the precious metals, in- 
 stead of debasing the coin. 
 
 * Blackstone 
 
76 
 
 After Mexico had been conquered by the Spaniards, his- 
 tory inform us, no less than one-half of the whole produce 
 was exacted by the king, though it was much reduced sub- 
 sequently. The " modus operandi" is somewhat different 
 from that of debasing the coin ; is more " secundum artem " , 
 a little more ingenious; not so easily understood by the 
 mass; but not a whit more probono publico. The result 
 is precisely the same, the mass of the people are imposed 
 upon, and the honest producer is cheated out of the fruits 
 of his industry, so that one man, or a few, may live in idle- 
 ness, pomp and splendor, while the mass are doomed to 
 never-ceasing toil. In short, it is a scheme by which the 
 products of labor are made to cost the public more labor tlian 
 is required to produce them, and, in the case just mentioned, 
 to double the amount. Now, this operation is nothing 
 more nor less than a development of that far-famed, false- 
 ly-called principle of protection, by the mystification of 
 vhich, "political demagogues (as Judge Hall says,) are 
 enabled to cajole and flatter the agricultural and laboring 
 classes, to *heir own injury, because they are the most nu- 
 merous, and wield the greatest power at the ballot box. 
 
 The party which is protected, in the above case of the 
 mines, is the king. In the case of the British corn laws, it 
 is the land lord. In the case of manufactures in any coun- 
 try, it is the capitalist or money lord only. But, in what 
 manner the mass of the people are beneh'tted by a scheme 
 which compels them to give more labor in exchange for 
 things than is necessary to produce them, remains yet to 
 be explained. 
 
 Humble and obscure as our position is in society, we do 
 not hesitate to challenge and defy all the political econo- 
 mists in the world to disprove or refute the correctness 01 
 this explanation. Working men, it is your interest to 
 look into this matter. Open your eyes, your ears, and your 
 understandings. 
 
 If, in the place of Judge Hall, an honest feeling man ; a 
 good practical Christian ; one in whose heart there was no 
 guile ; who was willing to do unto others as he would that 
 others should do unto him; that is, give an equal amount 
 of ftis own labor in exchange for that of another man's ; 
 might be allowed to make a public speech, he might, with 
 much appearance of truth, say something like what fol- 
 lows. After quoting some passages from "Judge Hall's 
 
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 77 
 
 address," which may be found in the latter part of the sixth 
 chapter of this work, then say : 
 
 Farmers, mechanics and laborers! you that create all 
 the wealth of the world, not even excepting its capital, 
 (for this, also, is but the work of your hands,) do you per- 
 ceive with what contempt ard indifference these self- 
 styled princes, these devotees to the interests of capital, 
 look upon you, and how they estimate your services ? Do 
 you see with what pomp, arrogance, and self-complacency, 
 those " business men of community " put forth their own 
 pre-eminence, dignity, usefulness, power and importance ? 
 Do you perceive how cunningly the honest merchant is , \ 
 coupled with the banker and broker? If you do, reflect. 
 
 When these disinterested gentlemen wish to obtain spe- 
 cial privileges from government, for the benefit of the 
 working classes especially, and for the public generally, 
 (not themselves, by any means,) by which they can make 
 all things (that are to be bought or sold,) represent more 
 labor or money than it costs to produce them ; when they 
 want the power of drawing from the public, revenue from 
 their own debts ; when they propose to debase the circula- 
 ting medium of the country, by mixing with it money 
 which costs nothing to make ; or, when they want the 
 power of making things cost the public more money or 
 labor than is required to produce them, when these gen- 
 tlemen are seeking the above named powers, what is their 
 practice, the modus operandi ? 
 
 The answer is best given, partly in the Judge's own 
 words : " Under the influence of that fell spirit of dema- 
 gogueism, which has swept over the land" like a blighting 
 curse on the interests of industry, " it has become fashion- 
 able to flatter the " agricultural and laboring classes" with 
 high prices for pork, for wheat, and hard labor, in prom- 
 ises to pay which cost nothing to make, "because they are 
 the movt numerous, and wield the greatest power at the ballot 
 boxes, while a systematic effort is made to trumpet forth 
 the pre-eminent dignity and indispensable usefulness of 
 banking, and of shaving the mass of the people of the 
 fruits of their industry. 
 
 We are told that our very liberty, and the prosperity of 
 the country depends alone upon the disinterested opera- 
 tions of the banker and broker. Millions of false money 
 is scattered among the people. Gre at raree shows are got 
 
78 , ...WORKING MAN'S 
 
 'up, and processions in pompous array, with flags, with 
 banners, inscribed with all manner of cunning devices, 
 bands of music, displays of eloquence; in short, everything 
 that is calculated to captivate the ignorant and unthink- 
 ing, is summoned to aid in this general commotion, and, 
 in the midst of this wild delirium, are marshalled forth to 
 the ballot boxes, for the purpose of building up the banker 
 and broker. But, in the sequel of this mighty effort, the 
 great monied monster is broken up, and its funds scattered 
 to the winds; and the people find in their hands many mil- 
 lions, not of dollars, but of worthless, lying, broken prom- 
 ises "to pay." To command a proper degree of respect 
 and veneration from the working classes, or, as the cele- 
 brated Hamilton would call them, " the swinish multitude/' 
 they are told of the mighty doings of those self-styled 
 princes; "how they own all the mighty navies of the 
 world; how they control all its wealth; that they are the 
 arbiters of war and peace ; that they employ more of the 
 wealth, the industry, and intellect of the American people, than 
 all other employments united"; in short, that they are almost 
 the only useful class of people in the world. 
 
 When this course fails, they endeavor to excite our sym- 
 pathy, by whining and complaining, that, notwithstanding 
 " they employ the highest energies of the human intellect, 
 and are seen in the most magnificent displays of wealth 
 and power," yet " the observation of the public is not awa- 
 kened to a just appreciation of their dignity and useful- 
 ness." 
 
 Moreover, they complain of the outrageous " oppression 
 that is attempted to be practised by the Many over the 
 Few"; "how abject and unjust, how repugnant to the 
 constitutional principle of equality and democracy," it is, 
 that three hundred and thirty thousand men, who create 
 all the wealth of the State, should be permitted to out- 
 number nine thousand self -styled princes of such pre-eminence, 
 dignity and usefulness, at the ballot boxes ! What a shame ! 
 
 "We might pass over these incendiary doctrines, with 
 the contempt they deserve, if it were not for the wide- 
 spread mischief which they work, by deluding, to their 
 own injury, the numerous classes they are intended to 
 cajole and /latter. " " The laborer and mechanic are taught 
 to" consider the banker and broker as their best friends, 
 "whose means," they tell us, "furnish them with daily 
 
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 79 
 
 employment, and that without their help the poor man 
 could not even wag his jaw. " A diligent effort is made 
 to " inspire the farmer's mind with sentiments of gratitude, 
 and to secure his lasting friendship, by telling him, " that,- 
 but for the assistance of the banker and broker, his crops 
 would rot upon the field." If the farmer does not believe 
 or understand this logic, why, he is a stupid blockhead, and 
 is blindly working contrary to his own interest. "The 
 prosperity of the country, its peace, its character, and its 
 credit, are deeply affected by the too successful influence 
 of these wretched intrigues." " The masses are imbued 
 with the opinion that wealth and poverty, speculation and 
 industry, education and want of education, do not consti- 
 tute hostile interests ; and our legislative halls are disgraced 
 by an abject subserviency" to the incessant clamor of the 
 banker and broker for power and privilege, to such a de- 
 gree, "that justice, patriotism, and manly freedom of 
 thought, has been banished from that high sanctuary of 
 sovereign power," where no other principle or practice but 
 that of equal rights to all, special privileges to none, 
 should ever have been recognized, nor a traitorous advo- 
 cate been found to breathe or utter. " Even the bench 
 has not been free from these pernicious opinions, and dem- 
 agogues have been found so hardened and so daring, as to 
 carry into that sacred tribunal the profligate pledge of obe- 
 dience" to the interests of the banker and broker, "and 
 there consummate the atrocious proscription " of those in 
 dividuals who dare call in question the arrogant claims 
 and silly pretensions of the banker and broker. 
 
 For the foregoing classical language and liberal ideas, 
 we are entirely indebted to the Judge, to whom we ac- 
 knowledge our unfeigned thanks. 
 
 A demagogue is one who endeavors to convince people 
 they will be benefited by having their pockets well picked, 
 or that the best method of promoting equal rights among 
 a people, is to grant special privileges to a few. 
 
80 WORKING 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION OF WEALTH. 
 
 MANKIND in general appear to have become insane on 
 the subject of production; they have never considered 
 that it is as necessary to provide ways and means of con- 
 sumption, as it is to multiply and accelerate the means of 
 production, otherwise a state of over-production, as it is 
 called, is produced, which is horrible in its consequences. 
 As a remedy for such a state of things, the orthodox polit- 
 ical economists have offered us but one alternative, and 
 that is, the death of the laboring classes by starvation, 
 misery and disease, till their numbers are reduced, while 
 the surplus productions are being consumed, or, in other 
 words, till a demand arises for labor. In proof of this, we 
 shall quote from some of the orthodox economists. Blake 
 says, page 89 : 
 
 " If, besides furnishing subsistence for himself, the wages of the 
 laborer would not enable him to maintain a wife, and bring up a 
 family, the laboring classes would gradually diminish, [he does not, 
 in this place, tell us by what means, but in another place he does ; 
 it is by want, emigration, disease, starvation and death,] and the 
 scarcity of hands would then raise their wages, which would ena- 
 ble them to live with more comfort, and rear a family ; but, as the 
 capitalist will always keep wages as low as he can, [which is as 
 near the starving point as possible ; and to this point he can easily 
 be brought, after being deprived of his natural right to the soil,] 
 the laborer and his family can seldom command more than the 
 necessaries of life," (that is, the smallest pittance requisite to keep 
 soul and body together.) 
 
 We are told that the grand object of the capitalist should 
 be, to cause the greatest amount of the products of labor 
 to be produced in the least time possible, and at the least 
 possible expense ; also, the greater quantity he can secure 
 for himself, the more he promotes the prosperity of his 
 country. They seem to have forgotten the necessity of 
 consumption. 
 
POLITICAL ECONOMY 81 
 
 Mr. Blake discourses thus 
 
 "Under'free and secure governments, no man will suffer any 
 part of his capital to lie idle ; the demand for labor, therefore, is 
 proportioned to the extent of capital. A growing capital is an in- 
 crease of subsistence for the maintenance of the poor. Every in- 
 crease of capital is the result of a past, and the cause of a future 
 augmentation of the products of labor; therefore, whatever a man's 
 property may be, he should be encouraged, by all means in his 
 power, to improve it. It is of but little consequence to whom it 
 belongs; because, wherever there is capital, the poor will never 
 want employment." 
 
 This last assertion is not true, as all history and experi- 
 ence prove ; for, nowhere in the world is capital more abun- 
 dant, than in England, where it goes begging at two and a 
 half per cent.; yet, nowhere in the world are the working 
 classes in so destitute, wretched and starving condition; 
 The conclusion that the reverend gentleman comes to, that 
 it is of but little consequence to whom the wealth of a 
 country belongs, is somewhat curious. Suppose it all be- 
 longed to, say, ten men, (or perhaps one would be better,) 
 what think you would be the condition of the mass of the 
 people? Would they be free, independent and happy? 
 What a consoling reflection, to think that they had worn 
 themselves out in toiling to heap up wealth for their mas- 
 ters, while they were not allowed to touch a bit of it, 
 though perishing with starvation, and their masters wan- 
 tonly wasting it, perhaps, in debauchery. 
 
 Let us suppose that the above mentioned author were 
 obliged to change places with one of those down-trodden 
 sons of labor and toil, after having made his master rich, 
 by devoting to his service all the best energies of his life, 
 should, in his old age, be turned out of doors, without a 
 shilling in his pocket, perhaps with a wife and children 
 who are as dear to him as his master's can be to him, with- 
 out a home, or place to lay his head, with want and beg- 
 gary staring him in the face. Think you not, this gentle- 
 men would begin to consider that it was of some conse- 
 quence to whom belonged the wealth that his own labor 
 and toil had produced ; whether to him who had done 
 nothing towards its production, or to him that had created 
 the whole of it ? Would he not be very apt to come to a 
 very different conclusion ? We think he would 
 
82 WORKING MAN'S 
 
 No wonder this same gentleman thought, when writing 
 his book, that it would be very improper to let the poor 
 understand the nature of Political Economy. There is 
 nothing strange in that. 
 
 Malthus tells us, that "population always has a tend- 
 ency to exceed the means of subsistence." Now, this is 
 an absolute falsehood, where governments are anything 
 like just, where the producers were allowed to possess the 
 fruits of their own industry > where the land was not mo- 
 nopolized by a few, and competition left free to tht opera- 
 tion of supply and demand. It is a well known fact, that 
 any nation enjoying the advantages now known by the 
 perfection of labor-saving machinery, and other aids to 
 production, can produce from five to ten times as much 
 wealth as would abundantly supply the wants of all, if it 
 were but justly distributed, which should not be in propor- 
 tion to a man's idleness, but in proportion to his industry. 
 If this were done, such a thing as over production, to the 
 injury of any one, could never take place ; neither would 
 it ever be necessary to kill off the surplus producers, nor 
 condemn them to death by starvation. Neither would it 
 be necessary to make poor-house provision for them, under 
 which to consummate the measure of their degradation; 
 because, in opposition to what Malthus says, the fact stares 
 us in the face, that the power to produce wealth increases 
 in a much greater ratio than the ability to consume it, and 
 the greatest difficulty in the civilized world will be, how 
 to dispose of the great surplus, so as to avert the usual al- 
 ternative of killing off the producers, or suffering them to 
 die of starvation. It is very evident that one of two things 
 must be done. The producers must be reinstated in their 
 right in the soil, and become owners of labor-saving machinery, 
 or wealth-consuming machinery must be put in operation. 
 Working men, it is for you to examine into this subject, 
 and act accordingly. 
 
 We may, at least, console ourselves with the reflection 
 that the time has gone by, when it was thought necessary 
 that capitalists should learn such lessons, and quiet their 
 consciences by such arguments, as political economics 
 have written out for their benefit, specimens of which we 
 shall now quote : 
 
 "A man born in an already occupied world, if his family have- 
 not the means to suooort him. or if society have no need of his i 
 
POLITICALECONOMY. 83 
 
 labor, has no right to claim food ; he is, in fact, superfluous on the 
 earth ^nd at the grand banquet of Nature there is no room for him." 
 " Nature commands this man to be gone, and she will not be slow 
 to put this order into execution herself."* 
 
 "When Malthus pronounced this extermination against the hu- 
 man race, Godwin thus replied: 'No; it is not the law of Nature; 
 it is merely the law of a fictitious state of society, which heaps 
 upon a few individuals enormous superabundance, and blindly lav- 
 ishes upon them the means of indulging in all sorts of foolish ex- 
 penses, in all the enjoyments of luxury and perversity, while the 
 body of the human race is condemned to languish in want, or die 
 of starvation.'" 4 " 
 
 " Let every one in this world be answerable to himself, and for 
 himself. So much the worse for those who are superfluous on this 
 earth : we should have too much to do, if we were to give bread 
 to those who were dying of hunger : who knows, even, that there 
 would remain enough for the rich? population always having a 
 tendency to exceed the means of subsistence. Charity is a folly, 
 and an encouragement to idleness and want.":f 
 
 " When the demands for labor are numerous, the laborer's wages 
 decline beneath the necessary rate at which they are able to main- 
 tain themselves in the same number, and the families most bur- 
 dened by children and infirmities perish ; then the offers of labor 
 diminish, (by starvation,) then labor, being seldom offered, as a 
 matter of course its remuneration rises, and the equilibrium is es- 
 tablished."' 
 
 " If, besides furnishing subsistence for himself, the wages of the 
 laborer would not enable him to maintain a wife, and bring up a 
 family, the class [or breed] of laborers would gradually diminish, 
 [by slow disease and starvation,] and the scarcity of hands would 
 raise their wages, which would enable them to live with more com- 
 fort, and rear a family; but, as the capitalist will always keep wages 
 as low as he can, the laborer and his family can seldom command 
 more than the necessaries of life." || 
 
 Sufficient specimens have been quoted from the works 
 of various devotees to the interests of capital, to show 
 that, be they English, French, or American, they all under- 
 stand the game alike : their views are precisely the same. 
 Justice, Religion and Morality must be sacrificed, and the 
 rights of humanity violated, for the purpose of enabling a 
 few capitalists to monopolize not only the land, but, also, 
 
 * Malthus. f Eugene Sue. * Malthus. Say. || Blake. 
 
., 
 
 84 WORKING MAN S 
 
 all the wealth of the world; and when the producers riavo 
 supplied their lordly masters with an overflowing abun- 
 dance of all the comforts and luxuries of life, they must, 
 in the midst of that plenty, created by their own labor 
 alone, be condemned to want, lingering disease, starvation 
 and death, by their cruel, unfeeling, and unjust lordly op- 
 pressors. 
 
 Such are their declarations to the world. It would be 
 well if these gentlemen would tell the world upon what 
 they found their right to do all this ; let us understand the 
 why and the wherefore. Let them tell us, why should 
 those who make nothing, get everything ; while those who 
 make everything, get nothing. Tell us why, men of learn- 
 ing. They may tell them, perhaps, it has always been the 
 custom, and the law protects them in the practice ; there- 
 fore, it is right; and, as the poor have not the power to re- 
 sist the demands of the capitalist, law, therefore, makes it 
 just. Will not this parity of reasoning justify the slave- 
 holder? Most certainly it will, and the robber, also. 
 
 Let us now substitute a strong arm, or pistol, in the 
 place of law, or heavy purse and robber, instead of capi 
 talist, and try whether the argument would not suit the 
 g bber's case just as well. Let us suppo.se a scene. 
 
 A robber having deprived a traveler of his purse, the 
 victim undertakes to expostulate with the robber on the 
 justice of the practice, but is answered by the robber thus : 
 You see, my friend, you ought not to complain : this has 
 always been a custom, ever since the world began. Those 
 who do not choose to work themselves, and to whom God 
 has given sufficient talent and power, have always exacted 
 their living from those He has left in a defenceless condi- 
 tion, and who are unable to resist the demands of their su- 
 periors. Now, you see, I have the talent and ingenuity 
 to make a pistol, with the power, disposition and oppor- 
 tunity to use it. You He has left without talent and in- 
 genuity, and in a defenceless condition ; therefore, it is 
 God's wiH that I should take care of myself. You have no 
 reason to complain ; because, when you get rich enough 
 to buy a pistol, or cunning enough to make one, you can 
 then do as I do now, take care of yourself. True, the 
 poor fellow might, by this string of sophistry, be dumb- 
 founded and bewildered ; but would he be satisfied that a 
 great injustice had not been done him? 
 
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 86 
 
 Now, here we ask, can the capitalist who strips the poor 
 man of all the produce of his labor, except what is suffi- 
 cient to keep life in him, justify himself by stronger and 
 better arguments than may be brought forward in defence 
 of the robber? If he can, they ought, in justice, be given 
 to the world, so that all might know and understand upon 
 what grounds a few who make nothing should enjoy all the 
 wealth of the world, while those who create it should be 
 doomed to poverty and starvation. Another question 
 ought to be answered by the capitalist, before h gives 
 judgment against us, which is, Who has a better right to a 
 thing than he that makes it ? If A, who happens to be much 
 stronger than B, withhold from him that wealth, or means 
 of subsistence, to which B himself is entitled to, on the 
 ground of his being the sole producer of it, till by degrees 
 he is starved to death, is not A as positively the murderer 
 of B, as if he had killed him in some other way ? Can it 
 make any difference, in a moral point of view, from what 
 source A derives his power, whether from his own in- 
 herent organization, or from the laws himself and asso- 
 ciates have made, for the purpose of protecting themselves 
 from a cowhide, a pistol, or a heavy well-filled purse? 
 
 Mr. Blake tells us, that " the rich and the poor are ne- 
 cessary to each other; because, without the rich, the poor 
 would starve, and without the poor, the rich would be 
 obliged to work." 
 
 Thus it appears, that, let the poor man look whicn way 
 he will, starvation stares him in the face. For, if the cap- 
 italist do not employ him, he must starve ; and if the cap- 
 italist does employ him, till he overburdens his master with 
 wealth, then he must starve. So that his lot is an unen- 
 viable one, let him do the best he can. But is it not a 
 strange conclusion the gentleman comes to, that if those 
 that produce all the wealth of the world, were allowed to 
 consume the fruits of their own industry, they would have 
 to starve ? This is incomprehensible to us, and requires 
 an explanation. Now, as a remedy by which to avert the 
 horrible consequences of over production, all that is neces- 
 sary is, to let the producers consume what they ^reduce : 
 this they have a right to do, or they have no right to live. 
 Restore to the landless his right to the soil : let the services 
 of all men be left perfectly free to competition, governed 
 alone by the immutable law of supply and demand. If this is 
 
86 W O R K I N G M A N ' S 
 
 done, the poor will never starve to death for the want of 
 employment, neither will it be necessary to invent ma- 
 chinery to consume the surplus wealth of the country. 
 
 We have one more observation to make n Mr. Blake's 
 declaration. He says, " without the poor, the rich would 
 be obliged to work." Oh, shocking! What a horrible 
 calamity this would be, in comparison with the death of a 
 much greater number of the poor, by want, misery and 
 starvation ! If every individual who is able, did but per- 
 form his share of the labor, necessary to supply all with 
 an abundance of the comforts and luxuries of life, but a 
 very small portion of time would be required to accom- 
 plish it. 
 
 Lord Brougham has, in a late work on the nature of 
 labor-saving machinery, declared, that, after the most 
 careful investigation of the subject, in England, with its 
 present advantages in labor-saving machinery, &c., but 
 twenty minutes' daily labor, by each individual, would be 
 required, to furnish all with an abundance. Suppose it 
 would require one, or even two hours' honest labor for 
 each person, would that be too much for human nature to 
 bear? We think it would do him good, keep him in 
 health : he would be apt not to forget that he was but a 
 man. 
 
 Is it not a strange and most astonishing conclusion that 
 those humane, philosophical regulators of human affairs 
 have arrived at, that the greatest good the rich can render 
 the poor, is to strip them of the fruits of their industry, till 
 they reduce them to a state of starvation ? For such is 
 the true state of the case, when stripped of its sophistry. 
 Producers of wealth, this is for you to look into : examine 
 the subject, and decide for yourselves. It is but common 
 justice, that a man should be allowed to enjoy the fruits of 
 his own industry, and it is downright robbery to deprive 
 him of them. But it will be done, so long as the capital- 
 ist is permitted to monopolize the soil. This is the grand 
 source from which he derives his power to dictate the 
 terms upon which the poor man may draw his breath. 
 Therefore, the first object of "National Reform" should 
 be, to prevent the public lands being sold, for the purpose 
 of speculation; but be given only in limited qantities to 
 actual settlers. Producers of wealth, come up to the work 
 of Reform, and contend manfully for your inalienable 
 
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 87 
 
 rights ; but quietly, peaceably and legally. You have but 
 to decide, and the victory is gained. 
 
 The ballot box is in your hands. Never give up, but 
 with your last dying breath, this sacred right : (not privi- 
 lege.) It is your only hope, 
 
88 
 
 WORKING MAN 
 
 CHAPTER XT. 
 
 WAGES OF -LABOR. 
 V 
 
 Seize upon Truth, wherever found. 
 On Christian or on heaihp.n ground. 
 Among your friends, among your foes. 
 The plant 's divine, wh- r 'er it grows. 
 
 Cowpcr 
 
 SOMETIMES men tell more truth than is consistent with 
 the grand object they have in view, in their attempts to 
 enlighten the minds of their more ignorant fellow men 
 Such appears to have been the case in regard to the par- 
 ticulars we are now going to mention. 
 
 Mr. Blake says, that "capital expended in the form of 
 wages for labor, is a small amount of wealth [or laborj 
 given in exchange for a greater." That is. they are of 
 unequal value. 
 
 This is very candid in Mr. Blake, and is a truth so self- 
 evident, that no one will attempt to deny it. The differ- 
 ence of value between the wages, or quantity of wealth 
 given by the wages payer, and the quantity he gets in 
 exchange for it, is sometimes very great; it is frequently 
 two, three, four and five hundred per cent., and in many 
 cases much greater. Suppose A, who is a mechanic, or 
 wealth producer of any kind, can only earn one dollar per 
 day, is necessitated or desires to have advice or instruction 
 from B, who happens to know a little more than himself: 
 say in law, physic, or anything else ; in other words, has 
 more talent, natural or acquired. 
 
 Now suppose B gives A the required advice or instruc- 
 tion, (which he does perhaps in the space of half an hour,) 
 and for which service demands five dollars. Every body 
 knows that such occurrences often take place. In this case, 
 tne disproportion is as one to one hundred and twenty : 
 that is, B gets proportionately one hundred and twenty days- 
 labor in exchange for one of his own. Now here, we ask. 
 can there be any justice or equity in such an exchange ? 
 Can the man who exacts it be an honest man ? Can he 
 

 POLITICAL ECONOM5. 89 
 
 be a Christian ? Would he be willing to give one hundred 
 and twenty dollars in exchange for one dollar ? It is a 
 bad rule that will not work both ways. The capitalist 
 always takes profit, but never gives it. He will give one 
 dollar for two or more, but will never give two for one, 
 though he exacts it from others, deriving his power to en- 
 force his demand from the fact that he holds in his hands 
 the means by which the poor man can only live, his only 
 alternative being either to take the capitalist's offer, or 
 starve ; in the words of the capitalist, give me three dol- 
 lars in exchange for one, or die. Though, under the cir- 
 cumstances, the poor man consents to the proposition, yet 
 it would be very difficult to convince him that a great in- 
 justice had not been done him. 
 
 After the king and the capitalist had monopolized the 
 land and made it private property, it was found an easy 
 operation to force from the landless man the fruits of his 
 labor and toil, so as to prevent him from being able ever 
 to accumulate capital for his own use. Consequently, the 
 capitalist has always dictated the terms upon which he 
 might \ist upon the earth, giving his consent to the injus- 
 tice only through the fear of death by starvation. This 
 practice of injustice has existed from nobody knows when, 
 and perpetuated from age to age down to the present mo- 
 ment ; and the reason why, is merely because the king and 
 capitalist have always made the laws, either directly or 
 indirectly, by their influence ; but they never could have 
 consummated the atrocity, had they not, in the first place, 
 seized upon the land, which is the natural inheritance of 
 all men, and made it private property. 
 
 Mr. Weyland tells us, and that truly, " that no man would 
 be. willing to give two days of his own labor or service for 
 that which cost another man but one day's labor," except 
 when under the influence of some kind of constraint, or 
 restraint, or, as Black has it, " duress per 'ininas." On this 
 subject the judgment of Blackstone is as follows, vol. 1, 
 page 130: 
 
 " Duress per minas, is either for fear of loss of life, or else for 
 fear of mayhem, or loss of limb. And this fear must be upon 
 sufficient reason. 
 
 " Therefore, if <* man, through fear of death or mayhem, is pre- 
 vailed upon to execute a deed, or do any other legal act; these, 
 though accompanied with all other the requisite solemnities, may 
 
90 WORKING MA N'S 
 
 oe afterwards avoided, if forced upon him by a well-grounded ap 
 prehension of losing his life, or even his limbs, in case ol his non 
 compliance. For whatever is done by a man, to save either life 
 or member, is looked upon as done upon the highest necessity and 
 compulsion." 
 
 In the case we have supposed, it is admitted that A ac- 
 cedes to B's proposition, but it is on the ground of choos- 
 ing between two evils he must consent, or fare worse ; 
 comply with B's demand, or die by starvation. To comply, 
 under such circumstances, is, therefore, done "upon the 
 highest necessity and compulsion" There is no other kind 
 of compulsion than this, for no human power can make a 
 man do an act which he wills not to do, because the will is 
 the cause of action the motive gives impulse to the will, and 
 the prospect of good gives rise to the motive. The chattel 
 slave obeys his master, and acts, though perhaps reluct- 
 antly, still in accordance with his own will, and in respect 
 to animal action, whether human or not. There is no other 
 kind of compulsion this every anatomist well knows. 
 
 La view of the foregoing considerations, we ask, in all 
 candor and honesty, in the name of justice and humanity, 
 this question : 
 
 When one man exacts of another three dollars in ex- 
 change (or days' work, no matter which) for one of his 
 own, on the ground that he had the opportunity and power 
 to force a compliance, whether, in all its consequences to 
 the suffering party and in its justice and morality, it is not 
 precisely the same as if he should, when possessing power 
 and opportunity, take forcibly from another two dollars 
 and give nothing in exchange ? 
 
 It is absolutely necessary that this question be satisfac- 
 torily answered : the good of society requires it. Working 
 men ought to see to it. But, no matter how much a man 
 might be disposed to act unjustly towards his fellow men, 
 by demanding much wealth in exchange for but little, he 
 never could have enforced this demand, if all men had 
 stood on their natural and equal ground the elements of 
 nature had not been monopolized, nor the individual ope- 
 rations of mankind been interfered with, by unjust govern- 
 mental enactments : free competition would have pre- 
 vented it. The celebrated Mr. Blake, author of " Political 
 Economy for the use of American Schools," says " That the 
 wages of labor is a small amount of wealth given in ex- 
 
POLITICAL ECONOMY. < 91 
 
 change for a greater." " Now this is true; nobody will 
 deny it. Further, he tells us that the capitalist will always 
 keep wages as low as he can, and make as much profit as 
 he can ; that is, take as much as he can get. This, also, 
 we admit to be true : we have no wish to deny it. This 
 same gentleman also tells us, that it is the duty of the capi- 
 talist to pursue this course to the utmost of his ability. 
 For, says he, in proportion as he does this, he adds to the 
 wealth of his country ; thereby promoting its prosperity. 
 But whether such a course of procedure is calculated to 
 promote the happiness and well being of the toiling mil- 
 lions, or not, is a question yet to be decided by those who 
 alone produce all the wealth of the world: to decide 
 which, they will be fully qualified to do when they see the 
 above doctrines stripped of their sophistry and false color- 
 ing, and shown up in all their naked deformity. This we 
 shall now endeavor to do. 
 
 In the first place, we are told that it is the duty of the 
 capitalist to take from the poor all the property that power, 
 custom and opportunity will enable him to take. And the 
 more he takes, and the less he gives, the better man he is ; 
 and the more he benefits his country.* In the next place, 
 we are told, not only by Mr. Blake, but also by almost all 
 other popular writers on the subject, that when this course 
 is pursued and continued till the capitalist has accumula- 
 ted more wealth than he knows what to do with, then those 
 that have alone produced it, as a matter of course, must 
 suffer in want, poverty, disease and misery ; and, finally, 
 perish by starvation : and to bring about this horrible result 
 as soon as possible, is a duty the capitalist owes to his 
 country ! Such, then, are the lessons that have been taught 
 the capitalist ; and well has he profited by them. Those 
 gentlemen have not been misrepresented they have spo- 
 ken themselves the above doctrines are the sum and sub- 
 stance, the very cream of almost all the systems of Political 
 Economy that have ever been written. Producers of wealth, 
 how do you like the picture? 
 
 Shall we be told, in this land of equal rights, that the 
 more property the rich take from the poor, by virtue of the 
 strongest kind of compulsion, that of the fear of starva- 
 tion, the more is the happiness of the people promoted ? 
 
 * When the subservients of the interests of capital make use of the word 
 "country," they mean the capitalists in it nothing more. 
 
92 WORKING MAN'S 
 
 Can the working classes be made to believe it ? Is the 
 happiness of the people promoted by starving them to 
 death in the midst of plenty ? O, shame ! Shame, where 
 is thy blush ? 
 
 Is it any wonder that Mr. Blake was averse to having 
 the poor taught the nature of such doctrines as he had 
 written only for the edification of the capitalist? Truly, 
 had he good reason to be ashamed of them. But his book 
 was published for the use of American schools, where no 
 other doctrines than equal rights should be taught. Now, 
 did he calculate that, in American schools, poor men's 
 children would never be allowed to enter, or, if they did, 
 that they could be prevented from reading his book ? Or 
 did he think that the capitalist would learn his lesson so 
 perfectly, that no poor man would ever be able to purchase 
 one? Did it never occur to the gentleman, that a poor 
 man, sometimes, not only knows how to read, but to reason 
 also? Did it not occur to him, that the poor man would 
 be very apt to reason thus ? If it be a virtue, in those who 
 have an abundance of good things, to take from others 
 what they make, and leave them nothing, merely on the 
 ground of having the will and the power, how much more 
 virtuous would it be in those who have nothing, to take 
 some of those good things (that were only being wasted by 
 the rich) for their own use ? especially, when they knew 
 that those very good things were produced by their own 
 labor, and for the want of which they were suffering, and 
 for which they had received no equivalent ? This would 
 be but a fair and logical deduction, naturally drawn from 
 Mr. Blake's own premises. 
 
 Is it any wonder that the world is full of crime and wick- 
 edness, strife and contention ; and that men's rights have 
 been violated, when such morality has been impressed upon 
 the human mind, as Mr. Blake has put forth to the world? 
 Are we to be told, that an act, which is done by the rich, 
 is a virtue ; but, if done by the poor, is a crime ? And that 
 property does not rightfully belong to him who makes it, but to 
 him who has the power and chooses to take it from him who does 
 make it? Now, with what degree of propriety can it be 
 expected, that virtue could flourish under the teachings of 
 such fearful lessons? As well might we expect to see the 
 pine apple flourish in a bed of snow. But where did this 
 erentlernan learn these pernicious doctrines? Surely, not 
 
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 93 
 
 from the Bible for there we read, "In the sweat of thy 
 (own) face shall thou eat thy bread until thou return unto 
 the ground." There is no permission here given any man 
 to eat his bread in the sweat of another man's face. Solo- 
 mon says, " there is nothing better for a man than that he 
 should eat and drink and enjoy the good of all his labor : 
 it is the gift of God." Now we should like to know from 
 where the capitalist derives his right to take away from 
 any man this sacred gift of God? If they can show a rea- 
 sonable title to it, why, then, they ought to have it. But 
 if they cannot do this, their claims ought to be resisted to 
 the utmost : it is injustice, oppression, tyranny, and cruelty; 
 and to resist and destroy which, is "obedience to God" 
 
 Is it not an insult to common sense, to tell us, that when 
 the rich take property from the poor, it is a virtue, and a 
 duty they owe their country ; but if a poor man take pro- 
 perty from the rich, then it is a crime it is robbery ? Are 
 such men worthy of our respect,? Are they the proper 
 agents to teach the young American idea how to shoot? 
 Surely, they are not; they are blind leaders of the blind, 
 and such as are thus reproved by the prophet Isaiah : 
 
 " Wo, unto them that call evil good, and good evil ; that put dark- 
 ness for light, and light for darkness; and put bitter for sweet, and 
 sweet for bitter. Wo unto them which justify the wicked for a re- 
 ward, and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him. 
 The Lord will enter into judgment with the teachers of his people, 
 and the rulers thereof ; for ye have eaten up the vineyards, and the 
 spoil of the poor is in your houses." 
 
 Mr. Blake could not have learned his doctrines from the 
 Gospel; for there, all are required to do unto others as we 
 would that others should do unto us. Now, would this gentle- 
 man be willing that another, who happened to be stronger, 
 or richer than himself, should take from him three dollars, 
 and allow him but one in exchange ? Would he be willing 
 to suffer this wrong, and that, too, daily, during his life, 
 and finally be starved to death ? Would he submit to this ? 
 Certainly not, nor any other man, except under the influ- 
 ence of the strongest kind of compulsion. Yet, with all 
 the coolness imaginable, he tells the rich it is a duty they 
 owe their country to commit this very wrong to the utmost 
 of their ability. Now, this gentleman being a preacher of 
 the gospel, ought, instead of instructing the rich how to 
 
94 WORKING MAN S 
 
 wrong the poor how to strip them of their industry, &c., 
 to have given them the gospel doctrines. 
 
 "It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, 
 than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of Heaven." " As ye 
 sow, so shall ye reap : they have sown the wind, and they shall 
 reap the whirlwind." " Go to, now, ye rich men, and weep and 
 howl, for your miseries which shall come upon you. Your riches 
 are corrupted, and your garments are moth eaten. Your gold and 
 silver are cankered ; and the rust of them shall be a witness against 
 you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped trea- 
 sure together for the last days. Behold, the hire of the laborers 
 who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by 
 fraud, crieth : and the cries of them which have reaped, are entered 
 into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. Ye have lived in pleasure 
 on the earth, and been wanton ; ye have nourished your hearts, as 
 in a day of slaughter. Ye have condemned and killed the just ; 
 and he doth not resist you. Behold, the judge standeth before the 
 door." 
 
 And now the time has arrived when the arrogant claims 
 of the capitalist must and will be resisted ; but legally, 
 quietly and peaceably. All the power the capitalist pos- 
 sesses of oppressing the poor, is derived from popular igno- 
 rance. Let but the public mind be enlightened on all sub- 
 jects, and tyranny and oppression will cease in proportion. 
 Therefore, look well to your common schools, as know- 
 ledge is power. Teach your children their rights, and, 
 knowing them, how to maintain them : teach them, also, 
 not to violate the rights of others ; for if we do not respect 
 the rights and feelings of others, how can we expect others 
 to respect ours ? 
 
 " Perform fearlessly what you believe to be right. Never 
 mind the opposition made by your enemies. They cannot harm 
 you. The thrusts of those who hate or envy you will never hurt 
 you, if you are faithful to your duty. Let truth, justice, and in- 
 tegrity, be on your side, and you may resist a host. With these, 
 one may chase a thousand, and two can put ten thousand to flight." 
 
 Mansfield. 
 
 This is an exceeding good lesson, from which all may 
 profit, 
 
POLITICAL'ECONOMY 95 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 FUNDAMENTAL ERRORS OF GOVERNMENTS. 
 
 THE fundamental errors of governments may be all 
 classed under three heads. 
 
 The first grand error has been the establishment of the 
 principle, that property rightly belongs not to him that 
 makes it, but to him that has power to take it from him 
 that does make it. From this error, springs almost all the 
 ' wars and contentions between tribes, nations, kings and 
 individuals. The robber justifies himself on the ground 
 of the admission of this error, somewhat consistently too. 
 
 The second is in confirming the usurpations of kingly 
 despots in seizing the elements of Nature ; making them 
 their own private property, and dictating the terms upon 
 which the rest of mankind might enjoy them. This error 
 is the grand lever by which the king and the capitalist are 
 enabled to deprive the producers of wealth of the fruits of 
 their industry ; reduce them to beggary, starvation and 
 death, just as it may suit their pleasure. 
 
 The third, is the right claimed by kings and governments 
 of interfering with the products of labor, by causing them 
 to represent more labor than it has cost to produce them ; 
 and by making them cost more labor than is required to 
 produce them. From the prevalence of this error, arises 
 the right of kings and governments to debase the currency 
 of a country, either by the means of base metal, or paper 
 money ; thereby swindling the producers of wealth out of 
 the fruits of their industry: also, all the cheating, swind- 
 ling tricks of commerce, banking, shaving, &c. 
 
 In lieu of the above errors, we propose some fundamen- 
 tal curative truths; by the universal understanding of 
 which, most of the moral and social evils, which at present 
 afflict and destroy the peace of mankind, will be destroyed. 
 
 First. Let the producers of property be the rightful own- 
 ers of what they produce ; and, when given in exchange 
 for other property, let it be for an equivalent ; that is, of 
 equal cost. This, we contend, every man has an unequi- 
 7 
 
96 WORKING MAN'S 
 
 vocal right to, or a weak or poor man has no right to live. 
 Has a man a right to his own limbs ? Surely, no man wilJ 
 deny this. But we deny that he has any better right to his 
 own limbs, than he has to whatever is produced by them. 
 If any man has a right to take from another any portion 
 of what he makes, what portion is it? If it is in propor- 
 tion to his power, then it follows, as a matter of course, 
 that if A be strong enough, or rich enough, he may take 
 from B every thing he makes ; and, finally, starve him to 
 death. But this right we deny. The only just and right- 
 ful first owner to a piece of property, is he who makes it. 
 
 Second. Let all laws and customs be abolished which 
 confound the natural or intrinsic value of the elements of 
 nature with the products of man's labor. The custom of 
 man in assuming exclusive ownership of the elements of 
 nature, with the right to make another pay him for the use 
 of them, is too glaring an absurdity to require a serious 
 argument. What would you think of a man who should 
 undertake to require other men to pay him daily a certain 
 sum of money ; say half as much as he could earn, or half 
 a day's labor, because he enjoyed the sunshine, or because 
 he breathed the atmosphere ? Would you not think this a 
 very strange requirement? Surely, you would. But, 
 strange as it may appear, this very thing is effected, virtu- 
 ally, to an immense extent, in the form of rent for the use 
 of land. There is just as much propriety and honesty in 
 exacting pay for the use of either, because no man ever 
 did or can make either; therefore, has no right to sell or 
 exact pay for the use of either. All this, and much more 
 tyranny and injustice arises from the error of confounding 
 the value of the elements of nature with that of human 
 labor, and has perplexed and bewildered almost all writers 
 on Political Economy, and has rendered their works so 
 unintelligible, so " unnatural and paradoxical." 
 
 For a more perfect understanding of this part of the 
 subject, the reader is referred to Gray's lecture, who has 
 done the subject ample justice. 
 
 Third. For a remedy for the third grand error, we pro- 
 pose that the gold and silver coins correspond with the 
 standard weights of the country, by which all other com- 
 modities are weighed. The avoirdupois would, perhaps, 
 be most convenient. Let the standard silver be about as 
 at present, ten per cent, alloy, and the gold twenty-two 
 
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 97 
 
 carets which should never be allowed to be altered ; be- 
 cause, if they were, the effect would be the same as if the 
 measures of length and capacity had been altered. Now 
 suppose the dollar equal in weight to one ounce avoirdu- 
 pois; sixteen dollars would weigh one pound, and frac- 
 tional parts would be twenty pennyweights to the dollar, 
 or twenty five-cent pieces halves and quarters in propor- 
 tion. Gold pieces should be of corresponding weight; 
 then, as the relative exchangeable value is at this time as 
 one to sixteen, it will follow, that one gold piece of an 
 ounce weight, would be equal to sixteen dollars, or ounces 
 of silver. No matter what the pieces be called, so they 
 do but correctly indicate the weight and fineness, which 
 was the original object in stamping coins nothing more. 
 Sufficient having been said on this point in the seventh 
 chapter, we pass on. 
 
 If,, such a system were once established over the com- 
 mercial world, it would break up all the money juggling 
 of the world, because every body would understand the 
 subject, and the producers of wealth would never submit 
 to the impositions they now suffer in consequence of their 
 present ignorance of the nature of it. There is, perhaps, 
 no greater absurdity than the announcements we often see 
 in the public papers in regard to the state of the " money 
 market" in which "specie" is quoted at a "premium" 
 
 Now this is what really neter can exist, for the plain 
 and simple reason, that a thing can never be worth more 
 than itself. Can a bushel of wheat ever be worth more 
 than a bushel of wheat ? No , never. But a bushel of wheat 
 is, sometimes, worth more money than at others, but is 
 never worth more wheat in the same place and at the 
 same time. Neither can an ounce of silver be worth more 
 than an ounce of silver, nor a dollar worth more than a 
 dollar, must be self-evident to all. Such an announce- 
 ment is nothing more than one of the gull-traps made use of 
 by the banker and broker, in order to cover up the iniquity 
 of their own unjust operations ; for the real meaning is 
 this : that the paper-money makers have debased or de- 
 preciated the whole amount of the circulating medium of 
 the country to the ratio of the pretended premium. Such 
 are some of the means made use of "to cajole and flatter 
 the farmers, mechanics and laborers, because they are the 
 most numerous, aud wield the greatest power at the ballot 
 
98 . 
 
 boxes ;" as Judge Hall says. It is one of the tricks of trade, 
 by which things are made to represent more labor than it 
 costs to make them. 
 
 If such a plan as here proposed, and as once existed, 
 when men were honest, there never could exist a necessity 
 for an alteration of it, neither would it ever be allowed by 
 the people. 
 
 If an unusual influx of gold should happen to take place, 
 by the discovery of it in larger quantities, or by the discovery 
 of some process by which a given quantity could be produced 
 at less cost, or in less time than formerly, it would, natur- 
 ally, become cheaper; or, in other words, an ounce would 
 sell for a less number of dollars, or ounces of silver. On 
 the contrary, if gold should become more scarce, or cost 
 more labor to produce the same quantity, than formerly, 
 then it would, naturally, become dearer ; or, in other words, 
 an ounce would exchange for more dollars or ounces of 
 silver. But in no case would it ever be necessary to alter 
 the weight or fineness of the coins. One of the metals 
 only should be made a legal tender in payment of debts ; 
 the other should only be considered an article of commerce. 
 If this were the case, no difficulty would occur in case the 
 relative commercial values of the two metals should hap- 
 pen to be disturbed. This is wherein our own laws are 
 defective, because they make gold and silver both legal 
 tenders in payment of debts ; the consequence was, that 
 the gold was rapidly leaving the country to find a better 
 price in Europe, where they gave sixteen dollars an ounce ; 
 whereas, in this country, the law required only fifteen to 
 be paid for it. No one, therefore, would be willing to take 
 fifteen dollars for an article, that he could get sixteen for. 
 If the law, therefore, had made but one of the metals a 
 legal tender, there would have been no necessity to have 
 altered our gold coin as it was in 1834, especially, if the 
 coins had been of equal weight. This subject has been 
 explained in the ninth chapter ; and if the reader's mind 
 wants refreshing, he had better turn to it. 
 
 The copper coins do not enter into the aggregate value 
 of the circulating medium, being only an article of conve- 
 nience to represent the small fractions ; their value being 
 altogether nominal. The commercial value of copper is 
 not over twenty-four cents per pound ; but, in cents coined, 
 there is forty to the pound, but are not a legal tender : if 
 
POLITICAL ECONOMY 
 
 99 
 
 they were made so, it would be necessary, to prevent im- 
 positions, to restrict the number in any single payment, as 
 it is in England at present say not over ninety-nine. 
 That such a provision would be of much utility, must be 
 evident to all ; and would, in time, break up the money 
 juggling of the world. 
 
 TABLE OF VALUES AND EQUIVALENTS. 
 
 Commodities. 
 
 Prices. 
 
 
 In Mills. 1 
 
 Equivalents in oun 
 
 Gold, 
 
 $16 00 per 
 
 oz. 
 
 16,000 
 
 1 
 
 Silver, 
 
 1 00 
 
 do. 
 
 1,000 
 
 16 
 
 Tea, 
 
 75 
 
 Ib. 
 
 750 
 
 340 
 
 Leather, 
 
 62^ 
 
 Ib. 
 
 625 
 
 409.6 
 
 Beeswax, 
 
 50 
 
 do. 
 
 500 
 
 512 
 
 Coffee, 
 
 37^ 
 
 do. 
 
 375 
 
 682.6 
 
 Copper, 
 
 25 
 
 do. 
 
 250 
 
 1,024 
 
 Tin, 
 
 20 
 
 do. 
 
 200 
 
 1,280 
 
 Sugar, 
 
 12 
 
 do. 
 
 125 
 
 2,040 
 
 Butter y 
 
 10 
 
 do. 
 
 100 
 
 2,560 
 
 Ham, 
 
 7 
 
 do. 
 
 70 
 
 3,666.6 
 
 Lard, 
 
 5 
 
 do. 
 
 50 
 
 5,120 
 
 Iron, 
 
 4 
 
 do. 
 
 40 
 
 6,400 
 
 Pork, 
 
 3 
 
 do. 
 
 30 
 
 8,533| 
 
 Flour, 
 
 2 
 
 do. 
 
 20 
 
 12,800 
 
 Hay, 
 
 J cent 
 
 do. 
 
 5 
 
 51,200 
 
 It must be evident, from an inspection of the above table, that as the products 
 of labor become more and more concentrated, they become more and more valua- 
 ble: this arises principally from two causes. First, from the additional quantity 
 of labor, for which the producer must be paid, or quit the business. Second, 
 from the fact that they become more durable, less bulky, and can, therefore, be 
 transported to a greater distance than before; for all which the distant consumer 
 is willing to pay in all cases where the article wanted cannot be produced at 
 home. And, with this kind of intercourse, governments ought never be allowed 
 to interfere, as all interference of the kind are violations of individual rights. As 
 the exchangable value of all commodities arises from the quantity of labor re- 
 quired to produce them, the last column shows that one ounce of gold is equal 
 in value to 512 ounces of beeswax, or thirty-two pounds. The reason is, that it 
 requires the same amount of labor to produce and bring to market 512 ounces of 
 beeswax, as it will one ounce of gold : and so of all other commodities. When 
 the mass of the people understand the truth of these principles, but one kind of 
 weights will be used for weighing all things that are bought and sold by weight ; 
 the mysteries of commerce will be developed, and mankind, from the necessity of 
 the case, will be obliged to return to the practice of justice and honesty. But 
 legal property, or money value in the elements, must first be abolished. 
 
100 WORKING MAN'S 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 HUMAN RIGHTS. 
 
 THE following Declarat.inn of Hnmnn RiVTits 3 was adopt- 
 ed by the Nation f aTReform Association of Cincinnati, Ohio, 
 - : 3-8467~~Snd it is inTaccordance with the principles con- 
 tained therein, that this work is written, .with a view jto 
 
 promote TrUtk md -/".**?>* * nn pr rn i nkiprl . 
 
 Therefore, we most ardently hope that all honest seekers 
 after truth, who are disposed to render justice to their fel- 
 low men, will give the document a careful, candid and 
 unprejudiced consideration. To those who require ot 
 others what they are unwilling to grant themselves, we 
 have nothing to say. 
 
 "DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS. 
 
 " We, the undersigned, citizens of the United States, hereby 
 declare and make known to the world 
 
 That, whereas, all heretofore systems of governments, that 
 have been established for the purpose of regulating the civil affairs 
 of mankind, have been, and still are, most glaringly unjust, oppres- 
 sive, cruel and tyrannical to a large portion of the human family, 
 especially the working classes ; by violating and depriving them of 
 many of their dearest and most sacred rights. These statements 
 we are ready to prove, by the most unequivocal evidence, to the 
 satisfaction of all honest and candid minds disposed to render their 
 fellow men justice. 
 
 " time immemorial, a self-constituted, select and powerful 
 
 few havjjjusurped the law -making poWer", ariST have imposed the 
 fruits of their iniquity~and unrighteous enactments uporjLJLlari-L 6 
 majority ofjKeir~moYe' ignorant, weak and defenceless fellow men, 
 without their will or consentT" 
 
 They have deceived us HyVunning sophisms, learned mysticisms, 
 .and the rucm jingle of unmeaning words, totally disregarding the 
 jrights and feelings- of their fellow men. Tji^y hnvp prjypp ns error 
 for truth, n.nd tpithjhr p.rror. They navegiv^jl-tte^WTOTlglbr right, 
 and right fpr wrongT~evil for good,' a\lTa*"~good for evil. They have 
 given us a code of laws which themselves admit to be contrary 
 and in opposition to all natural right, and pronounce them "para- 
 
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 101 
 
 doxicdl and unnatural institutions" made them legal and binding 
 on their fellow men; and, for the slightest breach thereof, have in- 
 flicted the most grievous pains and penalties. 
 
 They have invented false maxims in regard to the appropriation 
 of the land ; acted upon them as though they were based upon 
 truth ; at the same time Mr. Blackstone admits the whole to be a 
 mere fiction. ' This fraud, being committed, was legalized, made 
 binding on society, was continued and perpetuated over the civilized 
 world down to the present time ; by which means, a large majority 
 of mankind-have been deprived oi" their" natural find unalienablo 
 right to the free use of God's earth.j[ which He gave to no man in 
 p&rtrcai&F, but the free use to all mankind, in ages past, present, 
 and to come,) except on the terms dictated by our self-made lords 
 and masters. Rf^si rl e. % \yji i ch . we have been deprived of our right 
 to enjoy the fruits of ourjown toil and industry TtKereby reducing 
 us to a state of ffopftndence t poverty, slavery a^nd'destTtuti^n" 
 
 All these unjust, false principles, -legal, frauds and enactments, 
 we unhesitatingly dissent from, abjure, repudiate and reject, from 
 this time, henceforth and forever. 
 
 In lieu thereof, we propose, for the government of civil society, 
 a simple code of laws, based upon natural and immutable justice, 
 God's holy law of righteousness and equity it being in perfect 
 accordance with man's natural and unalienable rights ; and by a full 
 knowledge of which only, can society be regenerated and redeemed 
 from its poverty, wretchedness, hypocrisy, infidelity, crime and 
 misery ; and, by its genial influence, render mankind virtuous and 
 happy, and will be the certain means of accomplishing, practically, 
 the benign precepts of the gospel. 
 
 The natural and unalienable rights of all men, without excep- 
 tion, are: 
 
 First. The right TO personal security in an uninterrupted enjoy- 
 ment of life and liberty his limbs, his health and his reputation 
 
 Second. The right to own and possess, as bona-fide property, 
 whatever may be made or produced by the energies or capabilities 
 of the body and limbs of which he only is the rightful owner. ^And 
 such property he has an indisputable right to keep, consume n^fe- 
 gtroy, at pleasure, to give or bequeath, to sell or exchange ;_and 
 when he gives up any portion oi it, lor the use of others, 'els 1 Jn 
 justice, entitled to an equivalent, but no more. 
 
 Third. The right to the equal use oi all. the elements as they 
 exist in a state of nature, to wit: air, sunshine, his due portion of 
 jand, and no more; water, fruits, vegetables, wild animals, fish, 
 &c. : also, whatever exists in the bowels of the earth. 
 
 Fourth. The right to the full enjoyment of his religious opin- 
 ions, and to worship God according to the dictates of his own con- 
 science ; being accountable to Him alone for the same. 
 
102 WORKING MAN ''s 
 
 These truths, one and all ,we hold to be self-evident ; and to yio- 
 
 lafe any_part_of them, eithe^bj^_governments or individuals, is 
 
 ^vvrong, unlusran^Tnrrts^ouKjherefore our right to resist. And, 
 
 Tor metruttTbTThese principles^ we appeal to the feelings of all 
 
 men, and subrmTtTTe following test.- fceTany individual, who may 
 
 feel disposed td~bbjeci tu any of iliem, designate which right it is 
 
 that he does not claim for himself, or is willing to renounce. 
 
 COROLLARIES. 
 
 1st. Any act which is, in its nature, wrong, never can be made 
 right by the dictation of a despot, nor by the act of a legislative 
 body. 
 
 2 nd. All piadnr.ts nf >hnr, nr personn.1 ap.rvices, oughLjn |ustice T 
 to be exchanged on the basis of cost or equal amounts ; taking ad 
 * vantage ol me necessities oi others, to obtain more, being robbery. 
 "3rd. Slavery consists in being constrained to serve others^to a 
 greater extent than we are served in return. 
 
 4th. Governments do wrong when they confer upon, or grant a 
 privilege or advantage~to an IndiviHuaT wfeicK cannot in safety be 
 granted to all. 
 
 6th. The only remuneration any individual has a right to de- 
 mand of another, for the use of property, is wear and tear, or 
 depreciation. 
 
 These five corollaries being naturally deduced from the Decla- 
 ration of Rights, may be, therefore, laid down as axioms." 
 
 We shall, perhaps, be told that such principles, as here 
 advocated, can never be reduced to practice. This we 
 freely admit, so long as society is governed and controlled 
 by our present " unnatural and paradoxical institutions," 
 whicn prevent us from doing right, and impel us to do 
 wrong. To remove them, is our object and aim not to 
 blame or censure individuals ; for, whether we be right 
 doers or wrong doers, we are equally the victims of their 
 baneful and corrupting influence a man daring not be 
 honest if he would. All we ask for, is common justice, 
 nothing more : if this cannot be had, is it not all nonsense 
 to speak of religion and morality? Surely, it is. 
 
 But justice can and will be had. Let but these principles 
 be disseminated and understood by the mass of mankind, 
 and all the combined efforts of error, darkness and tyranny, 
 cannot prevent the triumphant reign of Truth and Justice. 
 
 In conclusion of tnis chapter we shall quote some pas- 
 sages from the celebrated Blacks tone, which are directly 
 
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 103 
 
 to the point we wish to elucidate ; and, than which, we 
 think, nothing better can be written or said. He says 
 vol. 1, page 124: 
 
 jjThe principal aim of society is to protect individuals in the en- 
 joyment of/ those absolute rights which were vested in them by the^ 
 i mmutable laws of nature, but which could not be preserved in 
 peace without thalznutual assistance and intercourse which is gained 
 
 by the institution of friendly and social' communities. Hence it 
 and pri Q y p.nrl nf- human Inw^ iTTTrn?m?- 
 
 regulate these absolute rights vf -individuals. 
 
 SuclTTights as are~social and relative, result from7 and are poste- 
 rior to the formation of states and societies ; so that to maintain 
 and regulate these, is clearly but a subsequent (or after) considera- 
 tion. And, therefore, the principal view of human laws is, or 
 ought always to be, to explain, protect and enforce such rights as 
 are absolute, which are, in themselves, few and simple.' 91 [And, we 
 say, easily understood.] 
 
 " The absolute rights of man, considered as a free* agent," en- 
 dowed with discernment to know good from evil, (or pleasure from 
 pain,) and with power of choosing those measures which appear to 
 him to be most desirable, (or will afford the greatest amount of hap- 
 piness or pleasurable sensations,) are usually summed up in one 
 
 General appellation, and denominated ' the natural liberty of man- 
 ind.' This natural liberty consists, properly, in a power of acting 
 as one thinks fit, without any restraint or control, unless by the law 
 of nature being a right inherent in us by birth, and one of the 
 gifts of God to man at his creation," [or whenever He brings him 
 into existence.] 
 
 " Political or civil liberty, which is that of a member of society, 
 is no other than natural liberty, so far restrained by human laws, 
 and no farther, than is necessary and expedient for the general 
 advantage of the public." [That is, than will promote the greatest 
 amount of happiness.] Hence, we may collect, that the law which 
 
 * There is much misunderstanding in regard to the term, free agency. Man 
 is only free to do good; he is never free to do himself an injury, or inflict on 
 himself pain, as every one may know by appealing to his own feelings and expe- 
 rience. True, men do often injure themselves ; but self-injury is never the object 
 of a deliberate, or voluntary act, must be evident to all. When men do injure 
 themselves, it is clearly attributable, either to habitual ignorance or a want of 
 reflection in not looking to ultimate consequences. Besides, "free agent" is a 
 solecism, or paradox; each member of the term annulling the other, like two 
 negatives in the same sentence. Agent, being one who is. required and bound 
 to execute the will of another ; therefore, can, in no sense, be free. If man be 
 but an agent, he cannot be free ; if he be free to act as he wills, chooses, or 
 pleases, he cannot be an agent. This is clear. Therefore, the terra " *ree agent" 
 is an absurdity. 
 
104 WORKINGMAN'S 
 
 restrains a man from doing mischief to his fellow citizens, thougn 
 il diminishes the natural, increases the civil liberty of mankind; 
 but every wanton and causeless restraint of the will of the subject, 
 whether practised by a monarch, a nobility, or a populai assembly, 
 is a degree of tyranny." [And, to resist it, is obedience to God.] 
 
 Now, we should like to know, if anything can be writ- 
 ten more radical than the foregoing sentiments of Mr. 
 Blackstone ? Again he says, page 40, vol. 1 : 
 
 " As, therefore, the Creator is a being not only of infinite power 
 and wisdom, but also of infinite goodness, He has been pleased so 
 to contrive the constitution and frame of humanity, that we should 
 want no other prompter to enquire after and pursue the rule of 
 right, but our own self-love, that universal principle of action. 
 For he has so intimately connected, so inseparably interwoven the 
 laws of Eternal Justice with the happiness of each individual, that 
 the latter cannot be obtained but by observing the former ; and if 
 the former be punctually obeyed, it cannot but induce the latter. 
 [That is, the happiness of mankind cannot be attained but by act- 
 ing in accordance with the laws of Eternal Justice, as put forth in 
 the ' declaration of human rights.' And if they are punctually 
 obeyed, and human rights are not violated, it cannot fail to induce 
 universal happiness amo.ig mankind.] In consequence of which 
 mutual connection of justice and human felicity, He has not per- 
 plexed the law of nature with a multitude of abstracted rules and 
 precepts, referring merely to the fitness or unfitness of [artificial] 
 things, as some have vainly surmised ; but has graciously reduced 
 the r.iie of obedience to this one paternal precept, 'THAT MAN 
 SHOULD PURSUE HIS OWN HAPPINESS.' This is the 
 foundation of what we call ethics, or natural law. For the several 
 articles into which it is branched in our systems, amount to no 
 more than demonstrating that this or that action tends to man's leal 
 happiness, and, therefore, very justly concluding that the perform- 
 ance of it is a part of the law of nature; or, on the other hand, 
 that this or that action is destructive .to man's real happiness, and, 
 therefore, that the law of nature forbids it. [Therefore a virtue in 
 us to resist its operations.] 
 
 " This law of nature being coeval with mankind, anjL dictated 
 by tjrod himself, is, of course, superior in obligation to any other. 
 It is binding over all the globe, in all countries, and at all times: 
 ho human laws arc of any validity if contrary to thi&+ and~such of 
 them as are valid, dcr'n-c all their force, and all the it authority, 
 jnediutely or immediately,' from thin Original. 
 
 " Butj-tn order to apply this to the particular exigencies of each 
 individual, it is still necessary to have recourse to reason, whose 
 
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 105 
 
 office it is to discover, by considering what method [or moral ac- 
 tion] will tend the most effectually to [promote] our own substantial 
 happiness. And if our reason were always clear and perfect, un- 
 ruffled by passion, unclouded by prejudice, unimpaired by disease 
 or intemperance, the task would be pleasant and easy we should 
 need no other guide 'but- this. But every man now finds the con- 
 trary in his own experience ; that his reason is corrupt, and his 
 understanding full of ignorance and error." 
 
 So says Blackstone. Now the great question upon which 
 our happiness and the peace of mankind depends, is, are 
 these doctrines true ? Surely, no one can doubt their truth, 
 if he but lay aside his prejudices long enough to examine 
 the subject, and appeal to his own unbiased judgment, his 
 own natural feelings, his own observation and experience, 
 especially when he takes into view his own relative con- 
 nection with the rest of his species. Let him but do this, 
 and he will find his task pleasant and easy, and cannot 
 fail to come to right conclusions, if he is a sincere seeker 
 after truth, and is disposed to be just to his fellow men. 
 "Prove all things hold fast that which is good." 
 
 If, then, these doctrines be true, why is it that so much 
 crime and misery exist in the world, while the universal 
 and ever continuous and most ardent desire of all men is 
 to enjoy happiness? We ask, why is it? It is because a 
 "paradoxical and unnatural" system of artificial law has 
 been imposed upon us, by which our reason has been 
 blinded and corrupted, and our understanding perverted 
 by the ignorance and errors of those who have heretofore 
 controlled our destiny. They have mistaken the right road 
 to happiness themselves, by violating the divine law which 
 governs our being ; we have followed our blind guides, 
 and, consequently, have all fallen into the ditch of misery 
 together. 
 
 The fundamental error of our lordly ancestors has been 
 this : that we promote our own happiness best by violating 
 the rights of others, in monopolizing and making private 
 property of the elements of nature, \vhich were the free 
 gift of God in common to all mankind, and by plundering 
 others of the fruits of their industry. This, then, is the 
 false notion that has corrupted our hearts and our reason, 
 blinded our eyes, and prevented us from having a clear 
 view of our own true interest, or the right road to hap- 
 piness. 
 
IOC WORKING MAN'S 
 
 Let mankind but see clearly the way to promote and 
 secure their own happiness, and it will be accomplished 
 nothing can prevent it; 
 
 " For [as Blackstone says] God has so intimately connected, so 
 inseparably interwoven the laws of eternal justice with the happi- 
 ness of each individual, that the latter cannot be attained but by 
 observing the former; and if the former be punctually obeyed, it 
 cannot fail to induce the latter. He has also graciously reduced 
 the law of obedience to this one paternal precept, that man should 
 pursue his own happiness. 11 
 
 And this is the whole social and moral duty of man. 
 This divine and immutable law, Mr. Blackstone says, 
 
 " Being coeval with mankind, and dictated by God himself, is, 
 of course, superior in obligation to any other. It is binding over 
 all the globe, in all countries, and at all times ; no human laws are 
 of any validity if contrary to this; and such of them as are valid, 
 derive all their force and all their authority from this [divine] 
 original." 
 
 It is in the violation of this great fundamental and im- 
 mutable law of eternal justice, that we find a solution to 
 that strange and monstrous anomaly which stares us in the 
 face in all so called civilized countries where the popula- 
 tion is dense : 
 
 "That the great evil which, in these modern times, most per 
 plexes society and bewilders political economists, is OVER PRO- 
 DUCTION! that, in consequence of the people producing too 
 much, they therefore have too little ! that the scarcity of consumers 
 is owing to an excess of population ! and that the power of the 
 country to create unbounded wealth, is the cause of the unbounded 
 destitution and wretchedness of its inhabitants." 
 
 Charles Rowcroft's Ned Lacy. 
 
 What a paradoxical and unnatural state of affairs it is ! 
 but it is truly described. The few have made shipwreck of 
 their own happiness, and prevented the many from pursu- 
 ing theirs, by violating the immutable law of eternal jus- 
 tice. But the evident truth is, we secure our own happi- 
 ness best by promoting that of others. For if we do not 
 respect the rights and feelings of others, with what degree 
 of consistency can we expect others to respect ours? We 
 
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 107 
 
 should be insane if we did. Therefore it is plain that our 
 interest and duty is but one and the same thing. We shall 
 lose nothing by making all men our friends; neither shall 
 we gain anything by making one single man an enemy 
 And, 
 
 "For modes of faith, let graceless bigots fight; 
 His can't be wrong, whose life is in the right." 
 
 Pope. 
 
 Seize upon truth, wherever found, 
 On Christian or on heathen ground ; 
 Among your friends, among your foes, 
 The plant 's divine, where'er it grows. 
 
 Cowper. 
 
 The strongest evidence we can have of the truth of any- 
 thing, is the evidence of our own senses. The next 
 strongest is analogy ; and the weakest, and least to be de- 
 pended upon, is that of testimony, written or oral : but, 
 remember, we are never convinced of the truth or falsehood 
 of anything because we will or choose: it is the force of 
 evidence, which convinces us of the truth of what is pro- 
 posed, and if we disbelieve, it is because there is a lack of 
 evidence. Therefore, we should not blame or censure 
 others, because they do not believe as we do. We violate 
 the great law if we do. We shall now quote another gem 
 from Pope, to show that he and Blackstone perfectly coin- 
 cided in regard to the doctrines just advanced. 
 
 " Self-love, the spring of motion, acts the soul, 
 Reason's comparing balance regulates the whole; 
 Man, but for this, (self-love,) no action could attend, 
 And, but for that, (reason,) were action to no end." 
 
 The above four lines constitute a volume on human na- 
 ture, and is worthy of much serious consideration. 
 
 Now, if the foregoing doctrines be true, we are irresisti- 
 bly drawn to the conclusion, that every person that does 
 a wrong act, is, to that degree, insane ; and it would seem 
 that the idea is becoming prevalent, from the complexion 
 of many of the decisions latterly given in our courts of 
 justice in various parts of the country. If it be so, it is 
 clear that, instead of pursuing the delinquent with ven- 
 geance, pains and penalties, it is the imperative duty of 
 
108 
 
 WORKING MAN'S 
 
 those who wish to reform mankind, to endeavor to remove 
 the temptations which cause them to err, and convince 
 them of their errors. 
 
 Convince a man of his error, and he will do right with- 
 out compulsion ; if you cannot do this, vain and fruitless 
 will be your endeavors to reform him. An ounce of pre- 
 vention is worth ten thousand pounds of cure. But we 
 should always be extremely careful, while we require 
 others to do right, that we ourselves are not doing wrong ; 
 thereby teaching wrong much faster and stronger by ex- 
 ample, than we teach right by mere precept. 
 
 This has been the great error of our original law- 
 makers : they have been the first and greatest aggressors 
 and violators of right themselves ; at the same time not 
 only requiring others to be just, but also to submit quietly 
 to their tyrannous impositions. And if an oppressed indi- 
 vidual dared but attempt to do himself justice, or murmur 
 a complaint, he must be strangled to death have his head 
 chopped off, or doomed to drag out a miserable existence 
 within the walls of a flesh-consuming, solitary dungeon. 
 And this, they have had the unblushing audacity to call 
 justice. What "paradoxical and unnatural institutions /" 
 
 What a sad reflection it is to think of, that such a 
 talented man, such a profound thinker as Blackstone was 
 who could demonstrate and explain so perfectly, in sucl 
 simple yet dignified language, the divine law of immutabk 
 justice, should forget himself, or disregard and entirely la} 
 aside those fundamental principles he had set out with ; 
 that he should devote, perhaps, the best portion of his life 
 to the task of surrounding with mystery and sophistry, in 
 defence of a set of laws pretended to have for their object 
 the good government of society, which, as a whole, he 
 must have well known to be an outrageous violation of the 
 great law of immutable justice, which, he tells us, is supe- 
 rior to all other laws ; and, if contrary to it, are of no va- 
 lidity whatever. But so it is ; the short-sighted selfishness 
 of the king and the capitalist must be served, if he wrote 
 at all, or else have lost his head. 
 
 We are now through with fundamental principles, and 
 shall call the attention of the reader to the consideration 
 of some special measures, which have been adopted in 
 various countries, for the alleged purpose of inducing the 
 
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 109 
 
 prosperity of the people, but which, we propose to show, 
 have quite a contrary effect. They are as follows : 
 
 First. Permanent Funded Debts, whether of a national 
 character, or otherwise. 
 
 Second. The Banking system. 
 
 Third. Tariffs, under the plea of Protection. 
 
110 WORKING MAN'S 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 PERMANENT FUNDED DEBTS. 
 
 WE have been so long under the dominion of error 
 have become so familiar with it, and look upon it with 
 such complacency, that the simple announcement of the 
 truth startles us almost with affright. But the time has 
 now arrived when it must be told ; suffering humanity im- 
 periously demands it. Let this be our apology. 
 
 Some political wiseacres have told us, that public debts 
 are public blessings ; but they have never explained the 
 subject, nor told us why, nor who were the receivers of 
 the blessings, and at whose cost and suffering these bless- 
 ings were paid ; or, rather, who they are forcibly filched 
 from. There is, perhaps, among all the schemes invented 
 for the "purpose of enabling the fcvv^U>4ivg^gtt^;exp 
 of the manyTnone betterculculateTM^rWork this~end than 
 the establishment of permarreTit!y-funde3~ debts ; because, 
 "every Bo dv ImoWS" that interest, al six per cent., in less 
 than seventeen years, will equal the capital invested. 
 jyve should like to knpwby wh at j*ule qf_right, justic e 
 or^equity, when the original sum 15orrowed has once been 
 honestly paid, why it should be palcTggaiii, and llrat, too, 
 many times over, and by those whojie^^ boirgwed it, nor 
 ftvftr ha.f^ tfrp HSR nf it?Jjtow can a man owe anything to 
 another previous to his own birth ? or, to another, from 
 received anything? .Producers of 
 
 wealth, it is for us to look into this matter. 
 
 Th~e fact, that if only one dollar being invested perma- 
 nently, and so continued long enough, would require all 
 the money in the world to pay the interest, is proof that 
 there is something fundamentally wrong in the principle. 
 When we purchase a coat, a hat, or a pair of shoes, we 
 pay for them but once ; and if the seller should demand 
 pay a second time, he would only be laughed at every 
 body at once perceiving the absurdity of the demand. 
 !Yet, if we_jiurchase a large sum of money, or even only 
 
 rnnnp.y (nn timp. 3 a.s t.hp. mrmpy jngrpTp 
 
POLITICAL ECONOMY ]]J 
 
 jpurchase _a_can al , a rail road, gas works, water works, or 
 ^nthpr pnh1ic_imgrovement7or purchase an expensive war, 
 they are required to be paid for many times over, and the 
 obligati^nsjtr^ismitted to future generations; Jjy which 
 "nreans7 the~members of society are born into the" world in 
 two distinct classes, possessing unequal rights at birth, 
 namely, debtors and creditors, though no transactions have 
 yet occurred between the parties, fn other words, the 
 greatest portion of mankind are born with saddles on their 
 backs, and a lordly few, ready booted and spurred, to 
 ride them. 
 
 We ask, now, is there any justice in such operations ? 
 Surely, there is not. But, producers of wealth, this is a 
 question for you to decide ; for it is you who are born with 
 saddles on your backs, and you alone foot up and pay all 
 these bills of expense. We do contend, that when a debt 
 has been once paid back by the interest, that it is, and 
 ought in justice to be, cancelled; for, whatever the debtor 
 pays beyond this, he receives no equivalent for; neither is 
 there any justice in forcing the payment of it. 
 
 There has been no scheme yet invented, by the money 
 lords of the world, that consummates and brings to perfec- 
 tion, with more certainty, that perplexing paradox, ob- 
 servable in all civilized countries, (where the people suffer 
 from over-production where the scarcity of consumers is 
 owing to an excess of population, and the power of a 
 country to create unbounded wealth is the cause of the 
 poverty and destitution of its inhabitants,) than the estab- 
 lishment of funded permanent debts. Nothing has a more 
 certain tendency to make the rich richer, and the poor 
 poorer; and if the practice is persisted in, a time must 
 come when there will not be money enough in the world 
 to pay the interest on the investments. 
 
 The public debt of Great Britain has been paid and re- 
 paid to the original creditors, or their successors, several 
 times over: why, then, in the name of justice, should it 
 be paid again? Let the producers of wealth answer, as 
 they alone are the sufferers. In our view of the matter, 
 the wisest, the most just and virtuous act the British gov- 
 ernment could do would be to wipe out at a stroke, as it 
 were with a sponge, the whole stupendous pauper-making 
 contrivance "get rid of such excrescences cast off such 
 burdens" abolish such blighting, withering curses. How 
 
112 WORKING MAN'S 
 
 many hearts it would make glad, no tongue can tell. It 
 would be worthy of a universal jubilee. 
 
 We shall, no doubt.be told that, to abolish suchjjebts, 
 would be gross injustice, inasmuch as it would reduce fo 
 want and beggary many widows and orphans. There is 
 some weight, to be sure, in this argument ; but it is trans- 
 cendently outweighed by the consideration that a much 
 greater number, not only of widows and orphans, but the 
 great mass of the industrious classes are continually being 
 reduced, not only to want and beggary, but also to pau- 
 perism, starvation and untimely death, by their continu- 
 ance. Surely, such an objector must be one of those 
 characters described in the gospel, with a beam in his own 
 eye, looking for a mote in that of his brother's can strain 
 at a gnat, and yet swallow a camel, when the case re- 
 quires it. 
 
 We shall now quote Thomas Jefferson (that firm, un- 
 flinching advocate of the people's rights) on the subject of 
 funded debts. Vol. 4, page 196, in his letter to John W. 
 Eppes, he says : 
 
 "It is wise, and should be fundamental, in a government dis 
 posed to cherish its credit and at the same time to restrain the use 
 of it within the limits of its faculties, ' never to borrow a dollar 
 without laying a tax in the same instant for paying the interest an- 
 nually, and the principal within a given term; and to consider that 
 tax as pledged to the creditors on the public faith. On such a 
 pledge as this, sacredly observed, a government may always com- 
 mand, on a reasonable interest, all the lendable money of their 
 citizens, while the necessity of an equivalent tax is a salutary warn- 
 ing to them and their constituents against oppressions, bankruptcy 
 and, its inevitable consequence, revolution. But the term of re- 
 demption must be moderate, and, at any rate, within their rightful 
 powers. But what limits, it will be asked, does this prescribe to 
 their rightful powers 7 What is to hinder them from creating a 
 perpetual debt? The laws of nature answer. The earth belongs 
 to the living, not to tJie dead. The will and power of man expire 
 with his life by natur'/f* law. Some societies give it an artificial 
 continuance, for the encouragement of industry;] or, rather, for 
 the encouragement of speculation and injustice;] some refuse it, 
 as our aboriginal neighbors, whom we call barbarians. The gene- 
 rations of men may be considered as bodies, or corporations. Each 
 generation has the usufruct of the earth during the period of its 
 continuance. When it ceases to exist, the usufruct passes on to 
 the succeeding generation free and unincumbered, and so on sue- 
 
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 113 
 
 cessively from one generation to another forever. We may con- 
 sider each generation as a distinct nation, with a right, by the will 
 of its majority, to bind themselves, but none to bind the succeed- 
 ing generation, more than the inhabitants of another country. 
 
 " The period of a generation, or the term of its life, is deter- 
 mined by the laws of mortality, which, varying a little only in dif- 
 ferent climates, offer a general average, to be found by observation. 
 I turn, for instance, to Buffon's tables, of 23,994 deaths, and the 
 ages at which they happened, and 1 find, of the numbers of all 
 ages living at one moment, half will be dead in twenty-four years 
 and eight months. But (leaving out minors, who have not the 
 power of self-government,) of the adults (of twenty-one years of 
 age) living at one moment, a majority of whom act for society, one- 
 half will be dead in eighteen years and eight months. At nineteen 
 years, then, from the date of a contract, the majority of the con- 
 tractors are dead, and their contract with them. Let this general 
 theory be applied to a particular case. Suppose the annual births 
 of the State of New York to be 23,994 : the whole number of its 
 inhabitants, according to Buffon, will be 617,703, of all ages. Of 
 these, there would constantly be 269,286 minors and 348,417 adults; 
 of which last, 174,290 will be a majority. Suppose that majority, 
 on the first day of the year 1794, had borrowed a sum of money 
 equal to the fee simple value of the State, and to have consumed 
 it in eating, drinking, and making merry in their day; or, if you 
 please, in quarreling and fighting with their unoffending neighbors. 
 Within eighteen years and eight months, one-half of the adult citi- 
 zens are dead. Till then, being the majority, they might rightfully 
 levy the interest of their debts on themselves and their fellow 
 revelers, or fellow champions. But, at that period, a new majority 
 have come into place, in their own right, and not under the rights, 
 the conditions, or laws of their predecessors. Are they bound to 
 acknowledge the debt to consider the preceding generation as 
 having had a right to eat up the whole soil of their country in the 
 course of a life to alienate it from them ; (for it would be an 
 alienation to the creditors;) and would they think themselves either 
 legally or morally bound to give up their country and emigrate to 
 another for subsistence ? Every one would say, no : that the soil 
 is the gift of God to the living, as much as it had been to the de- 
 ceased generation; and that the laws of nature impose no obligation 
 on them to PAY THIS DEBT. Arid although, like some other 
 natural rights, this has not yet entered into any declaration of rights, 
 it is no less a law, and ought to be acted on by honest governments. 
 It is, at the same time, a salutary curb on the spirit of war and in- 
 debtment, which, since the modern theory of the perpetuation of 
 debt, has drenched the earth with blood, and crushed its inhabitants 
 under burdens e^er accumulating. 
 
114 WORKING MAN'S 
 
 "Had this principle been declared in the British Bill of Rights, 
 England would have been placed under tha happy disability of 
 waging eternal war, and of contracting her thousand millions of 
 public debt. In seeking then for an ultimate term for the redemp- 
 tion of our debts, let us rally to this principle, and provide for their 
 payment within the term of nineteen years at the farthest. Our 
 government has not, as yet, begun to act on the rule of loans and 
 taxation going hand in hand. Had any loan taken place in my 
 time, I should have strongly urged a redeeming tax. For the loan 
 which has been made since the last session of Congress, we should 
 now set the example of appropriating some particular tax sufficient 
 to pay the interest annually, and the principal within the fixed term, 
 less than nineteen years. And I hope yourself and your committee 
 will render the immoral service of introducing this practice." 
 
 So hoped Thomas Jefferson. But those honorable gen- 
 tlemen never rendered their fellow-citizens that immortal 
 service : it remains yet to be consummated, and is one of 
 the great duties incumbent on the National Reformers. 
 It cannot be expected that our legislators will abolish the 
 present pernicious practice of funding debts, until driven 
 into the measure by the people: then they must do it. 
 Let us " cast oft' such burdens, get rid of such excrescen- 
 ces." According to Mr. -Jefferson's principle, a debt ought 
 to be extinguished in less than nineteen years, by the pay- 
 ment of principal and interest, on the ground that one 
 generation has no right to tax a future. Now this would 
 be a great improvement on the present practices of gov- 
 ernments, and, we believe, is a principle that has not yet 
 been recognised by any. But, by this principle, it appears 
 that the original sum would be more than twice paid : 
 why should it? If the original sum borrowed ought, in 
 justice, to be paid twice over, why not three times, four 
 times, or ad infinitum ? Why not ? 
 
 Cannot some of our men of talent and learning, some 
 of the "business community," answer these questions? 
 They must be answered, and that, too, satisfactorily, be- 
 cause the producers of the wealth of the world want to 
 know why, or wherefore, that those who produce nothing, 
 should claim the ownership of everything? Producers of 
 wealth, ask yourselves why ? Not only why should one 
 generation be allowed to saddle another with their own 
 debts, but why the same generation should be compelled 
 to pay the same debt twice over? Producers of wealth, 
 
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 115 
 
 'the duty of abolishing these "paradoxical and unnatural 
 institutions" devolves on you. 
 
 The following article appeared lately in one of the public 
 papers, and is admirably calculated to illustrate the per- 
 nicious, degrading and enslaving nature of permanent 
 funded debts : 
 
 " THE TWO PRESENTS. A gentleman, fifty years ago, gave his 
 daughter, at her birth, a diamond ring which cost fifteen hundred 
 dollars, which she still has in her possession, and will no doubt con- 
 tinue to remain in the family. Another gentleman, [of more saga- 
 city of course,] at the same time, gave his daughter fifteen hundred 
 dollars in money, which was invested for her use at seven per cent., 
 compound interest; and as no part of the amount was used, the 
 sum, at this day, has accumulated to forty-four thousand one hun- 
 dred and eighty-two dollars and fifty cents ! while the other lady's 
 diamond ring remains at its original value." 
 
 And so also would the money have remained at its ori- 
 ginal value, but for the existence of our unjust, " unnatural 
 and paradoxical institutions" By what operation of en- 
 chantment is it that any thing can, in fifty years, or in any 
 length of time whatever, become two thousand nine hundred 
 and forty-Jive times more valuable than itself, merely be- 
 cause the owner of it did not use it ? For this is the true 
 state of the case, and is a question that cannot be answer- 
 ed, except by attributing it to the existence of our unjusr 
 "unnatural and paradoxical institutions" For it is a self- 
 evident proposition, that no thing whatever can possibly ever 
 become more valuable than itself. This mysterious result 
 cannot be accomplished by means of a house, a coat, nor 
 a hat, nor by anything short of the almighty dollar; nei- 
 ther could it be done by that, if the human intellect had 
 not been bewildered and confounded by the money jug- 
 glers of the world. 
 
 Here we perceive an individual in the ownership of fif- 
 teen hundred dollars, which she did not choose to use her- 
 self, but lent it to another. At the end of fifty years, it is 
 found that, after returning the original sum, (fifteen hun- 
 dred dollars,) there is still due the lender the enormous 
 sum of forty-two thousand six hundred and eighty-two 
 dollars or the same number of ounces of solid silver, 
 which is about 2,761 pounds avoirdupois, or one ton, 761 
 pounds, for which the receiver is exonerated, by law, from 
 
116 WORKING MAN'S 
 
 giving the least shadow of an equivalent, yet it requires 
 273 years of hard labor and toil to accumulate or earn it; 
 which is two thousand nine hundred and forty five times 
 greater than the original sum. Now if we divide this sum 
 by 156, which is as many dollars as any working man can 
 make in a year over and above his own keeping, being 
 fifty cents per day, and is a very liberal allowance, we 
 shall find it will require a man, so employed in unremit- 
 ting toil, 273 years to accumulate this sum ! It is impos- 
 sible for it to be accumulated, except at the expense of so 
 much labor. The question then is, who gets the money and 
 who performs the labor? The analysis shows us that, if we 
 allow thirty years for the period which a man is able only 
 to apply himself to daily hard labor, ninety-one human beings 
 must devote the most valuable portion of their lives to per- 
 petual toil, slavery and degradation, in order that one may 
 devote but a single life to useless idleness ! 
 
 Thus is produced in society, " satiety on the one hand 
 starvation on the other." Is this right? Is it just? Will 
 any honest man advocate the existence of such " unnatural 
 and paradoxical institutions" for one moment? Surely not. 
 Is it any wonder that the working classes are doomed to 
 poverty and pauperism? Is it any wonder that so many 
 of the poor are vicious and corrupt, when laws and cus- 
 toms, which produce such results, are called by the rich 
 good? Can we expect the people to become virtuous and 
 happy while controlled by their influence ? We might as 
 reasonably expect to see " the pine apple flourish in a bed 
 of snow." 
 
 The working classes alone can remove these evils : it is 
 a holy duty they owe to humanity, their own immediate 
 happiness, and the well-being of their offspring. -They can 
 do this perhaps most successfully, by unitingjmder the Na- 
 tional Reform organization, the freedomoT the"^publie 
 airds from the all^grasping hand of the element-speculator 
 being the first step necessary to be taken, for no man can 
 ever be a free man so long as he is denied a right to the 
 soil. But_so_long as laws are so, they mu&Lhe^respected: 
 and it isjmlyjjy an inviolable adherence to th^m, t.hn.t we 
 Qan ever hope to 'succeed. JJierefoTeT whatever we do, 
 let it be done legally, peaceably, decently, and in order; 
 the hflllnthnv hp.ing thfTnnly mrft. Cnmp. nnp., c<nrre alL 
 
 join heart and hand to put this -monstrous evJHhrwm BE 
 MEN ! 
 
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 117 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 THE BANKING SYSTEM. 
 
 " SIRE, [said Helvetius to Frederic the great, in alluding to some 
 petitions for monopolies, you need not trouble yourself to read 
 them through; they all speak the same language. We beseech 
 your Majesty to grant us leave to rob your people of such a sum ; 
 in consideration of which, we engage to pay you a certain share 
 of the pillage." Lord Brougham. 
 
 The proper name for a Bank charter would be, a license 
 to plunder the people ; and a bonus is a share of the 
 plunder. 
 
 Professor Vethake, of the University of Pennsylvania, 
 in his work on Political Economy after detailing the many 
 pernicious and ruinous consequences resulting to a commu- 
 nity by the means of bank expansions and contractions, 
 and noticing the immense profits realised by the paper 
 money making gentry from the suffering public thus ex- 
 presses himself, at page 178: 
 
 " Profits, too, made in this manner, cannot be classed with those 
 which result from ordinary gaming : they are precisely of the same 
 nature with the winnings of the gambler, who uses false dice, or 
 marked cards, unknown to his victim ; and the act of obtaining 
 them is deserving of no milder epithet than that of swindling, or 
 rolibery" 
 
 Our object is not to attach blame to the individuals who 
 make use of these objectionable powers, because there is 
 no use in having power except we use it : the wrong is in 
 our legislatures granting them, which they have no right 
 to do ; or if they have, then is our Declaration of Indepen- 
 dence nothing but a humbug, " as sounding brass, and a 
 tinkling cymbal." 
 
 About the year 1831, Mr. Stephen Simpson, who was for 
 many years Cashier of the United States Bank, published 
 a book called " The Working Man's Manual," in which the 
 evils of the banking system are portrayed with a masterly 
 
118 WORK ING MAN'S 
 
 hand, evincing a perfect understanding of the subject ; and 
 certainly, no man could be better qualified to write such 
 a book than said Mr. Simpson, he having had many years 
 experience in the business. He writes thus, on page 48 : 
 
 "It is a singular infatuation, prevailing among all modern wri- 
 ters on Political Economy, that scarcity of food among the labor- 
 ing people is attributable to excess of population, whilst the palpable 
 fact was staring them in the face, that the excess of bloated accu- 
 mulation in the rich, demonstrated the falsity of the hypothesis. 
 
 At page 86, he says : 
 
 " The stinted measure of the wages of labor may justly be term- 
 ed the Evil Principle of the age. If we substitute Capital, Banks, 
 and Monopolies, for the Barons, Lords and Bishops of the feudal 
 times, we shall realize a juncture so precisely similar, as to carry 
 out in full an illustration of the abuses under which the sons of 
 laber now suffer oppression and injustice. What, but a principle of 
 slavery, could have made it a felony for a working man to demand 
 the true and Mist wago for his labor? If mechanics combine to 
 raise their wages, the laws ouuish them as conspirators against the 
 good of society, and the dungeon awaits them as it does the robber 
 But the laws have madt it a iust and meritorious act, that capital- 
 ists shall combine to Strip the man of labor cf his earnings, and 
 reduce mm to a dry crust und a gourd of water. [And, we add, 
 when he has produced for his master more wealth than he knows 
 how to make use of, must himself be condemned to dirth by star- 
 vation.] Thus does power invert iustice, and derange the order 
 of nature. He who sows, shall reap he who builds, shall in- 
 habit he who produces, shall possess ! This is the dictate of na- 
 ture, justice, reason, instinct, and common sense. But this instinct 
 is crushed by the power of Capital and Law. 
 
 " Why should the working classes be stripped of the fruits of 
 their labor? Simply because they are defenceless, and because 
 rustom has, from time immemorial, classed them with slaves and 
 servants." 
 
 Law and Capital have abolished the law of immutable 
 justice, and, in lieu thereof, have decided that, he that 
 sows, shall not reap he that builds, shall not inhabit he 
 that produces, shall not possess; and chose that neither 
 sow, reap, build or produce anything, shall possess all things. 
 Again, Mr. Simpson says, page 87 : 
 
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 119 
 
 "And must wealth be still pampered, because it is capital? Must 
 capital still be allowed to absorb ninety per cent, of the wages of 
 labor, because the rich must be flattered, the idle conciliated, the 
 great humored and adulated at the sacrifice of justice, science, 
 liberty, good government, and general happiness? because the 
 laws of despotic antiquity adjust the wages of labor, instead of the 
 instinct of reason and justice ? Capitalists live and grow rich by 
 the labor of others. The laboring man lives by his own industry, 
 enriches others by it, but seldom ever grows rich himself. Is this 
 just ? [Surely not.] By no other means than fraud, monopoly, 
 and unjust distribution of labor, could the idle few grow rich, and 
 the industrious majority remain poor. But not only is capital a 
 monopoly, but it causes credit to become a monopoly, confined to 
 the idle few and denied to the laboring majority, who are thus 
 pressed down, by a double act of injustice and oppression, to pov- 
 erty and want. 
 
 "It has, certainly, been too much the disposition of those who 
 riot in palaces, to hold the working people in contempt; looking 
 down upon them with a glance of scorn, and arrogating a right not 
 only to undervalue their importance in the scale of being, but ex- 
 tort their hard earnings in virtue of the monopoly of Capital ; for 
 capital is naturally an [unfeeling] tyrant, always standing on the 
 alert to grind down the operative, who can only live from hand to 
 mouth, and who must sell because he must eat, [or die by starva- 
 tion.] Capital commands all the passions and faculties of a peo- 
 ple it buys all they produce at half price it keeps them in a 
 state of perpetual labor without enjoyment, and smiles at its own 
 power and superiority; while {lie wretch it fattens on, shrinks, 
 withers and dies, from the very famine it imposes on him. 
 
 "Capital being, then, naturally, a tyrant, it ought never [as a 
 matter of policy or prudence, we suppose he means,] to receive 
 vigor and nourishment from public opinion from unequal institu- 
 tions from legal monopolies from imaginary horrors of public 
 journals ; lest the working people should awaken to a due sense of 
 their real importance in the scale of society, and shaking off their 
 lethargy, and treading their ignorance and ideas of servitude under 
 foot, rouse themselves to a proper vindication of their violated 
 rights, and demand a restitution of their extorted labor, through 
 legal edactments and constitutional ordinances. We propose no 
 wrong to capital, nor capitalists, but that they shall do no wrong in 
 law and equity* leaving them even all the wrong which they 
 naturally and inevitably commit from the sweeping immensity of 
 their power. And, to obtain this, [legal aid, in support of their 
 jnjust and tyrannical operations,] terror is affected, and revolution 
 
 * This expression appears to us a solecism, for how can wrong exist in equity 1 
 In law it may, but not in equity. 
 
120 WORKING MAN'S 
 
 forebodingly deprecated ! If this is not adding insult to oppression, 
 it is certainly seeking to conceal error amidst the fogs of absurdity, 
 and the philosophy of romance. 
 
 " The faculties of man were bestowed upon him to ensure his 
 comfort; for that he labors, and that he would always accomplish, 
 if industrious, but for the intervention of injustice, the power of 
 fraud, and oppression of capital in its various forms and attitudes. 
 
 "The cant of capital has ascribed pauperism to prodigality; but 
 the voice of science refers it to avarice [in the rich]. The class 
 of paupers seldom have a chance of wasting a patrimony their 
 only inheritance being misery and rags. A thousand are born pau- 
 pers, for one who becomes so by waste and extravagance. Pau- 
 perism has been considered, by some, as a constituent of national 
 wealth. It is so on the existing system, but is not a constituent of 
 national justice. To provide for the poor, ought not to engage the 
 attention of the people, or excite the ingenuity of philosophers ; 
 when it is so easy to prevent pauperism by giving to industry its 
 legitimate function of distributing its own labor, and thus affording 
 competence to every member of society of industrious habits, phy- 
 sical health, and robust manhood. 
 
 At page 89, Simpson says : 
 
 " It is a fallacy to imagine that we are aiming to controvert the 
 established legitimate doctrines of political economy ; as it respects 
 the principles of supply and demand, and other contingencies that 
 regulate the market, or subject labor and property [we consider 
 them synonymous] to the vicissitudes of times, seasons and acci- 
 dents. Our object reaches higher is more rational, and more 
 laudable. It strikes at a fundamental principle in the distribution 
 of wealth', that labor shall share with capital in an equitable ratio. 
 And as capital is vested in ihefew, and labor resides in the many, 
 it only requires that the latter combine to bring government into 
 their own hands to secure all they desire. At first, the struggle 
 would be great and arduous ; but perseverance and concord, on ex- 
 pansive grounds, must finally lead to a signal triumph.'* 
 
 Such are the observations of Stephen Simpson, cashier 
 of the late United States Bank, on the injustice and rapa- 
 city the blighting, withering, pauper-making tendency of 
 the monopoly of capital. No doubt the reader will be 
 surprised at the apparent anomaly of an individual enjoy- 
 ing a snug birth in the bosom of the very mother nurse of 
 all those iniquitous, man-degrading, tyrannical institutions, 
 of which he so bitterly but justly complains. This appa- 
 
POLITICAL ECONOMY. l2i 
 
 rent mystery shall be cleared up in the proper place. Pre- 
 vious to which, we shall take some notice of his views in 
 respect of a particular branch of the monopoly of capital, 
 namely : that of banking and paper money. 
 
 "All moneyed corporations are taxes upon industry: and every 
 bank bill that issues, carries a burden upon labor. The taxation is 
 indirect, to be sure, but it is not the less effectual [and positive] ; 
 it is not the less onerous than imposts on consumption ; it is not so 
 light and innoxious as a direct tax of the same amount." 
 
 Now, surely, the wisdom and experience, nor the sin- 
 cerity of Mr. Simpson, can be doubted on this subject he 
 being an old experienced banker. The passage will be 
 found at page 157, "Working Man's Manual." 
 
 " The currency of a country, to be sound and wholesome, ought 
 to be equivalent to the precious metals, or the metals themselves, 
 and not the suppositions representative of property ; which property 
 may diminish one-half in the process of realization before the gold 
 and silver are obtained for it. Thus, suppose a bank to stop pay- 
 ment in fact, they are becoming bankrupt every day ! the hold- 
 ers of their notes must wait one, two, or three years for their divi- 
 dends; and, when made, they never exceed fifty per cent, of the 
 capital. So that we see the fact demonstrated before us, that bank 
 bills do not even represent labor or commodities, and very often 
 represent nothing but the mere monopoly of public credit. It must 
 be obvious, that a paper .currency of this kind is calculated to throw 
 the measure of value into utter confusion, and subject property to 
 the winds and waves of every shock which its collision with the 
 metals is sure to produce. The crisis of 1819 in our currency ex- 
 hibited the disastrous effects of paper credits, [bank debts or expan- 
 sions,] when, in many instances, estates that had cost $40,000, 
 were reduced in value (by a collapse of the currency) to $18,000; 
 and hundreds of men of fortune, who 'deemed themselves exalted 
 into opulence and luxury, became suddenly reduced to poverty, or 
 compelled, a second time, to begin at the task of labor. Such hor- 
 rible conjunctures ought to be avoided by a sagacious and provident 
 people, for they up-tear the very foundation of the national wealth 
 and prosperity, eat into private happiness, and corrode away the 
 resources of the country, and produce embarrassment in all its 
 fiscal concerns. 
 
 "The first effect produced by paper issues, is a rise of prices; 
 and this, by many, is mistaken for a symptom of prosperity and 
 riches; and such a condition of prosperity it does, in fact, indicate, 
 
122 WORKING MAN'S 
 
 when the increase is owing to the increase of industry, instead of 
 the augmentation of bank paper. A reference to our bank reports 
 will show an average augmentation of paper over specie capital ol 
 300 per cent; say for every one hundred thousand dollars in specie, 
 four hundred thousand dollars in paper are afloat. This artificial 
 enhancement of capital is not, however, an increase of riches, for 
 it gives us no new stock of possessions; it merely converts into 
 activity the old stock of our industry ; and we only pass from one 
 to another, in the shape of lank notes, our houses, lots, farms, &c 
 The consequence is, the prices of all other kinds of property rise 
 to nearly the ratio of the expansion of the currency; 'and it re- 
 quires four times as much of the paper to buy a house, &c., as it 
 would if no paper existed; and this leads to the delusion, that be- 
 cause you receive more money for your commodities, [or labor, or 
 wages,] you are so much the richer; overlooking the fact, that this 
 rise of prices is general, and that whatever you purchase, you have 
 to pay four prices for; so that, in fact, you are no richer than if 
 you received but one-fourth of the amount in coin." 
 
 Now this fact the working man should never lose sight 
 of, neither should he forget that wages are t\\e first thing to 
 fall, and the last to rise. And if the working classes should 
 happen to combine to raise their wages, they are frequently 
 thrown into prison ! But the paper-money maker gets a 
 special act of government to enable him to raise his wages 
 three or four hundred per cent, at a stroke ! and, instead 
 of being thrown into a prison, is awarded a palac?, and a 
 coach, and also the honor and respect of his fellow citi- 
 zens ! Is this right ? Is it just ? or is it in accordance with 
 the principles cf our boasted " Declaration of Indepen- 
 dence?" 
 
 Mr. Simpson has given the truth in regard to the nature 
 of bank paper : it accords with our experience, and his 
 authority is indisputable. 
 
 And, surely, no honest man, who understands the subject, 
 can advocate cr sustain this unjust, man-degrading, pau- 
 per-making contrivance for one moment. To expand and 
 contract the currency of a country by means of bank pa- 
 per, produces the same consequences in a community pre- 
 cisely as if all the weights and measures in the country 
 had been increased and diminished by the silly dictum of a 
 despot, or as if the coin had been debased to the same 
 extent. Almost all writers on Political Economy agree 
 on this point. 
 
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 123 
 
 We shall now let Mr. Simpson give us a description of 
 " A Bank Bill" which he does in the following language, 
 page 141 : 
 
 "What is a Bank Bill? It is an order for so much money, or 
 labor, drawn upon the producer of laboi . Its acceptance, receipt 
 and circulation, is tantamount to the payment of an order upon the 
 person receiving it. 
 
 " Suppose a farmer sells twenty barrels of his flour for a bank note 
 of 8100. The note is an order to take from him this amount of 
 real property, and leave him a 8100 bank bill. This bill, in itself, 
 is worth [comparatively] nothing it has no [exchangable] value 
 it is but the mere presumption, appealing to his faith, that it will 
 bring him one hundred dollars in gold, silver, or [a proportionate 
 amount of other products of] labor. Acting on this presumption, 
 ho travels to town to purchase goods, which, having .done, he offers 
 in payment the 8100 note. The store-keeper tells him the bank 
 has stopped, or broke ! In this manner the luckless farmer has 
 parted with his hundred dollars [or as many days' 1 labor, or ounces 
 of silver] for a SHADOW ; and his property has passed into tho hands 
 of the adroit speculator. In many ways his &1CO note may prove 
 equally worthless; but, taken at the best advantage, it has this de- 
 trimental property, that it can never purchase an equal amount of 
 any commodity that his hundred dollars worth of labor would com- 
 mand, supposing the paper money had no existence. 
 
 " Such i :; the character and operation of every bank bill, and every 
 treasury note, or public stock certificate. It is a draft from capital, 
 drawn upon labor at sight, and paid by public credulity, faith, or, 
 what is sometimes termed, credit. The party that profits, and the 
 only one in this transaction of fiction and fraud, is the banker, tho 
 stockholder and speculator; who are generally a trinity, or the 
 three combined in one. By this operation, the banks make use of 
 the entire property of the community for their own exclusive profit, 
 interest and usury. They draw bills upon our lands, our houses, 
 stores, ships, and every species of real [property or] labor, upon 
 which they make, [illegal per centago to an enormous amount,] 
 besides causing an increase of prices, that prove highly pernicious 
 to the industry of the country in its competition with foreigners. 
 
 " The only specious argument in favor of bank credits, has beer 
 founded on tin fact, that they throw into circulation all the labor of 
 the community, and thus stimulate trade by the increase officti-- 
 tious money; [or, in other words, by a circulation of lank debts']. 
 And for whose profit and benefit is this factitious circulation! Ex- 
 clusively for that of the stockholder, and nsver, in any degree, for 
 that of the producer, upon whose labor he thus freely draws at plea~ 
 fiure. It is labor that pays tho bank bill it is labor that pays the 
 
124 WORKING MAN S 
 
 ] merest; and after thus paying capital and interest for the exclusive 
 benefit of the idle class of stockholders, how can it be possible that 
 the producers should not suffer under the double burden of sustain- 
 ing the idle pampering the rapacious, and gratifying the gambler, 
 who, as professor Vethake says, plays with loaded dice, or marked 
 cards, unknown to his plundered victim. 
 
 "A Bank Bill, then, it will be seen from the foregoing remarks, 
 is, in itself, worth nothing that its whole worth is derived from 
 labor, which pays it at the moment it comes into circulation that 
 the bank gives it no value whatever; [no, but the borrower does, by 
 surrendering his real property in exchange for it;] for when it re- 
 turns to the bank, it is no longer a credit that it is no money, nor 
 gold, nor silver, nor equivalent to gold and silver, possessing in 
 itself no single property of preciousness, stability or usefulness ; 
 [but is a debt owed by the banker to the holder, on which he draws 
 interest as though it contained as many ounces of silver as there 
 were dollars printed upon the face of it. Hence it is evident that 
 the more a bank is in debt, the greater is its income ! which is a 
 palpable absurdity, and a gross violation of right and justice.] 
 
 " The complaint, then, justly exists, that government, being bound 
 to secure to every citizen equal rights, should have ventured to 
 delegate to corporations an absolute power over the labor of the 
 producer, by placing it at the disposal of these bills of credit : [or, 
 rather, these false money makers.] Where is the security of pro- 
 perty, under this artificial mode of causing it to change hands with- 
 out the intervention of equivalents ? In fine, where is the happi- 
 ness of society, when thus placed at the mercy and discretion of a 
 privileged order of speculators, whose attribute of sovereignty is an 
 entire control over the property, fortune and happiness of man ; 
 who can at pleasure deprive him of the fruits of his industry re- 
 duce him to poverty, or compel him to become the tenant of a 
 poor-house, a dungeon, [or an untimely grave?] 
 
 "This power, however, of corporations over the mass of society, 
 would be less culpable and less intolerable, if it were exercised 
 with a spirit of equal oppression over all. But the hardship is ex- 
 clusively to those who labor; and the benefit entirely restricted to 
 the pampered sons of idleness and capital. Industry is the victim 
 idleness the victor. Under these circumstances, why should public 
 credulity continue a slave to this oppressive fraud 1 [this legal sys- 
 tem of robbery?] The reason is, because the public understand- 
 ing is not enlightened. Let every man come to have a proper 
 conception of [the true nature of] a bank bill, and society will 
 unanimously unite to put down the fraud, and return to the use of 
 realities and the measure of value and justice in the exchanges of 
 trade. " It has been well observed by a profound writer,* that govern- 
 
 Taylor. 
 
POLITICAL ECONOMY. l25 
 
 .:ients have no more right to grant charters for the purpose of utter- 
 ing fictitious money, than they have to incorporate a company for 
 the object of granting patents for lands already sattled by the pro- 
 prietors. [And, we add, or grant licenses to individuals to rob the 
 public on the highway.] For, to circulate a bank bill, is as essen- 
 tially an invasion of property and social right, as to sell land over 
 again. In fine, bank notes do, in effect, transfer land anew, as we 
 have already pointed out by the constant fluctuation of the measure 
 ol value ; and the power to manufacture bank notes is, in substance, 
 a power to absorb labor, and acquire property without the interven- 
 tion of an equivalent." 
 
 And, we add, is one of those ingenious, pauper-making 
 contrivances, invented by the avarice and cupidity of the 
 short-sighted, cold-hearted, selfish capitalist, for the pur- 
 pose of keeping a majority of mankind in perpetual and 
 slavish toil and misery ; and, finally, cause them to die of 
 starvation, in order that a few may secure to themselves 
 all the "riches, all the refinement, all the comfort, and all 
 the enjoyment, as Mr. Colquhoun says. 
 
 Such, then, were the views of Mr. Simpson, of the na- 
 ture of paper money, and of the injustice of its operation 
 and blighting influence on the happiness of the working 
 classes. He says all that we have quoted, and much more 
 of the same character ; but we think the foregoing suffi- 
 cient to convince any honest seeker after truth, that paper 
 money, in any form, is nothing more than a blighting curse 
 on the happiness of any nation that makes use of it. We 
 occasionally added a few words (in brackets) in some of 
 his sentences, to make them more emphatic ; but in no case 
 has he been misrepresented. We should be sorry to do it, 
 
 A bank note never did, nor never can, pay or cancel a 
 debt, is very evident. Suppose Tom owes Dick ten dol- 
 lars, and gives him a ten dollar bank note as payment; 
 Dick is no more paid than he was before the difference is 
 only this : that the bank has become debtor to Dick instead 
 of Tom, and is then a creditor of the bank, and remains 
 such until he realizes ten dollars worth of real property ; 
 that is, an equivalent of the products of labor. Therefore 
 a circulation of bank notes is nothing but a circulation of 
 bank debts, and the deluded creditors pay an enormous tax 
 for the privilege of trusting the banks thus reversing the 
 common order of justice : the real debtor claims and receives 
 'nterest, and the creditor is obliged to pay it. The obliga- 
 
126 
 
 tion of the banks to redeem their promises, is all a delu- 
 sion, because they can no more pay three dollars with one, 
 than a poverty-stricken beggar can pay two dollars with 
 nothing. The main circumstance which inspires the public 
 with confidence in the circulation of bank debts, is a know- 
 ledge that a charter secures to the banks, when the credi- 
 tors become clamorous for payment, the power to seize upon 
 and sacrifice the property of others, for the purpose of paying 
 their own debts ! 
 
 Besides all the foregoing evils, a bank charter annuls 
 and sets aside good and wholesome laws for the sole benefit 
 of the banker, and to the manifest injury of the public. 
 If an individual, who had no charter, should take a dollar 
 and add sufficient base metal to make three of it, and put 
 them into circulation, he would be justly consigned to the 
 penitentiary. But the already rich banker who gets a 
 charter may put into circulation millions of dollars that do 
 not cost him three cents a piece, is not sent to the peniten- 
 tiary : oh, no ; his charter absolves him from all iniquity, 
 and entitles him to honor and respect. Yet the counter- 
 feiter's dollars cost him at least thirty-three cents a piece 
 besides his own labor. And the law makes the counter- 
 feiter a villain, but the banker an honest gentleman ! Is this 
 even-handed justice? Surely not. 
 
 From the remarks just made, it will be seen that the law 
 establishing the value, or, in better words, the weight and 
 fineness of the coin, is made null and void in favor of the 
 banker by means of a bank charter. 
 
 Another general law made null and void by this beautiful 
 contrivance, is the law regulating the interest on money. 
 The law limits interest at six per cent., but when banks 
 have in circulation three times as many dollars of promises 
 as they have real dollars invested, they are realizing 
 eighteen per cent., instead of six. Therefore this law is 
 made null and void by a bank charter, and reverses the 
 order of justice. This is a very ingenious method by which 
 the rich man can multiply his property without cost, but 
 the poor man is denied the privilege ; yet if any one can 
 have a just claim for it, surely it is the poor man, not the 
 rich. 
 
 A specious argument in favor of a paper currency used 
 by its advocates, is, its remarkable cheapness, and the con- 
 venience it affords a community of supplying it in suffi- 
 
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 127 
 
 cient quantities to meet the wants of the public. Here, 
 then, lies the mischief; a paper currency is just as worth- 
 less as it is cheap. It is cheap only to the makers it repre- 
 sents more than fifty times the amount of labor that it costs 
 to make it every dollar represents nearly an ounce of 
 silver, though it never cost the maker a ninetieth part of 
 it. Now this cheap currency is worth what it costs the 
 maker, but no more; yet the public are obliged to pay for 
 the use of it what it represents, namely, nearly one ounce 
 of silver for every dollar, or an equal amount of other pro- 
 ducts of the working man's labor. Here, then, lies the 
 fraud and injustice the most successful juggling trick ever 
 practised upon poor credulous man. So, in fact, this cheap 
 currency costs the public much more than one composed 
 exclusively of gold and silver its wear, tear and destruc- 
 tion being immense. 
 
 The demand for money is unlimited ; and in this lies the 
 difference between it and other products of labor, or arti- 
 cles of commerce. Their production is limited by demand, 
 and demand is limited by the people's wants, or their 
 ability to consume : not so with money ; there is no limit 
 to the want of it. Therefore the production of gold and 
 silver is, by a wise provision of Providence, limited in the 
 nature of things by existing in but few places, and being 
 unattainable except by bestowing the requisite quantity of 
 labor upon it. In consequence of this wise provision, it is 
 impossible to either increase or diminish the quantity sud- 
 denly ; and which, above all things, ought to be avoided, 
 because expansions injure all creditors, and contractions 
 injure all debtors. Another pretext for the use of bank 
 paper is, that there is not sufficient money in the country 
 to transact its business. If bank paper will supply the 
 deficiency, the argument is a good one ; but, alas ! all our 
 experience proves most positively that it produces no such 
 effect, but just the reverse ; the more banking the less mo- 
 ney we have. All writers on the subject agree on this 
 point. If there is not money enough in a country to 
 transact its business, where, in the name of common sense, 
 will the banker get the money to pay the holders of his 
 promises when required to fulfill them? A bank note 
 being an order drawn upon the producer of wealth, paya- 
 ble at sight, is but an evidence of debt. When these debts 
 circulate to a large amount, th,e people become deluded 
 
128 WORKING MANS 
 
 by observing with what rapidity the products of labor 
 change owners, and the unusual high prices, mistake this 
 state of things for prosperity, when the fact is, we are but 
 plunging into a quagmire of debt, disaster and ruin, from 
 which nothing can relieve us but one of those most "para- 
 doxical and unnatural" of all laws, a General Bankrupt Law! 
 
 Gold and silver being the products of labor, are, there- 
 fore, real wealth or property; the aggregate of which, at 
 any time in circulation, constitutes the standard or mea- 
 sure of the value of all other commodities subject to pur- 
 chase and sale ; and to alter or interfere with this just 
 and natural standard by any fictitious means, by govern- 
 ments or privileged corporations, is a gross violation of the 
 rights of humanity, and ought not to be submitted to, or 
 tolerated by the producers of wealth. No person can justly 
 become possessed of gold and silver but by producing it, 
 or by giving in exchange as much of his own labor, time, 
 or services, as was required to produce it. And if he ob- 
 tains them in any other way, it is either by force or fraud 
 kings and capitalists obtain them by no other means. 
 
 Now, surely, no working man, or producer of wealth, 
 who understands the mischief-working, enslaving, pauper- 
 making tendency of banking institutions, will be so biased 
 by prejudice as deliberately to cast his vote in favor of 
 their continuance ; however, every man must be his own 
 judge. 
 
 To show that we are not alone in these views, we shall 
 let some of our most eminent statesmen speak for them- 
 selves. In Sparks' Life of Washington, vol. 9, page 231, 
 will be found a letter from the General to Thomas Stone, 
 of Maryland, in which will be found the following lan- 
 guage : 
 
 " I do not scruple to declare that, if I had a voice in your legis- 
 lature, it would have been given decidedly against a paper emis- 
 sion, upon the general principles of its utility as a representative, 
 and the necessity of it as a medium. I contend that it is by the 
 substance, not with the shadow of a thing, that we are to be bene- 
 fitted. The wisdom of man, in my humble opinion, cannot devise 
 a plan by which the credit of paper money would be long supported ; 
 consequently depreciation keeps pace with the quantity of the 
 emission, and articles for which it is exchanged rise in a greater 
 ratio than the sinking value of the money. Wherein, then, is the 
 farme. , the planter, the artizan benefitted 7 The debtor may be, 
 
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 129 
 
 because, as I have observed, he gives the shadow in lieu of the 
 substance; and, in proportion to his gain, the creditor or the body 
 politic suffers. An evil equally great is the door it immediately 
 opens for speculation, by which the least designing, and, perhaps, 
 most valuable part of the community, are preyed upon by the more 
 knowing and crafty speculators." Washington. 
 
 John Q. Adams, being written to by a political friend, 
 soliciting his opinions upon Banks, Bankers and Paper 
 Money, relative to their influence upon society at large, 
 says: 
 
 " As to bankers, there is little difference between them and the 
 counterfeiters; if I should give any preference, the counterfeiter 
 is the best, for neither of them ever expected nor intended to pay 
 their notes. The banker, more bold and daring, robs the people 
 under cover and pretence of Law ; [he should have said, protec- 
 tion of law;] the counterfeiter, more diffident and unassuming, 
 robs the people without law." /. Q. Adams. 
 
 "Whoever shall attempt to restore the fallen credit of the coun- 
 try by creating new banks, merely that they may create new paper, 
 and that government may have a chance of borrowing where it 
 has not borrowed before, will find himself miserably deceived. 
 The bank which will be erected by this bill, is of a most extraor- 
 dinary, and, as I think, alarming nature." 
 
 DanL Webster, H. Rep., June 2nd, 1815. 
 
 "Of all the contrivances for cheating the laboring classes of 
 mankind, none is so effectual as that which deludes with paper 
 money! It is the most perfect expedient ever invented for fertil- 
 izing the rich man's soil by the sweat of the poor man's brow." 
 
 DanL Webster, U. S. Senate, 1812. 
 
 "It will be vain to talk of public credit, until we return to the 
 pure, unmixed circulation of standard gold and silver." 
 
 John Adams to Col. Joseph Crawford, Oct. 28, 1809. 
 
 " The system of banking we have both equally and ever repro- 
 bated. I contemplate it as a blot left in our institutions, which, if 
 not corrected, will end in their destruction, which is already hit by 
 gamblers in corruption, and is sweeping away in its progress the 
 fortunes and morals of our citizens. And I sincerely believe, with 
 you, that banking establishments are more dangerous than Standing 
 Armies." Thos. Jefferson to J. Taylor. Je/'s. Cor., v. 4, p.274. 
 
 " I am, and ever have been, opposed to all kinds of government 
 paper currency, let it be derived from exchequer or otherwise. If 
 
130 WORKING MAN'S 
 
 the paper is the real representative of specie, why not pay the 
 debts in specie, and let the specie circulate in thc4iands of the pro- 
 ducing classes? Then the dealings between the merchant and the 
 laborer will be in specie, and the merchant, by making a deposit, 
 can get a bill of exchange on any part of the Union, [which will 
 answer a much better purpose than a bank bill.] Where, then, is 
 the use of a paper currency ? Neither the merchant nor laborer 
 wants it. The merchant wants a bill not a bank or e chequer 
 bill but upon a banker where he lays in his goods. [ JL He mer- 
 chant wants a bill of exchange a bill that does not bear a false- 
 hood upon its face one that will not come back for payment. 
 And the producer wants no bill at all, but an equivalent for his 
 labor not a banker's debt.] It is one of the greatest humbugs 
 ever attempted to be imposed upon a people, that there is not specie 
 enough in the world to answer all the necessary wants of the com- 
 munity. Shut out from circulation all paper, and specie will flow 
 upon us as the tide ; but it will never flow to any country that has 
 a paper currency which will always depreciate. A national paper 
 currency is a great curse to any people, and a particular curse to 
 the laborer of any country, for its depreciation always falls on the 
 producing classes." Andrew Jackson to M. Daivson, 1840. 
 
 " I am not a bank man ; I once was, and then they cheated me 
 out of every dollar I had placed in their hands." 
 
 Wm. H. Harrison's Dayton Speech. 
 
 Such is the testimony of our most eminent statesmen. 
 They denounced the Banking system in the most energetic 
 language not when being candidates for public office, but 
 in the calm retirement of private life, in correspondence 
 with their particular friends. We, therefore, rationally 
 conclude them sincere. Surely, the united wisdom of 
 these gentlemen, under such circumstances, is not to be 
 overlooked or disregarded ; and, further, let us not forget 
 that they were the champions of Republican Institutions. 
 
 We shall now add the testimony of another eminent 
 statesmen, but an enemy to Republicanism, and who, no 
 doubt, enjoyed much pleasure in the anticipation of his 
 own prediction. " Let the Americans," said Wm. Pitt, 
 " adopt their Funding system, and go on with their Bank- 
 ing institutions, and their boasted independence will be a 
 mere phantom." Reader, reflect deeply on this predic- 
 tion decide accordingly. 
 
 Now, according to Judge Hall's doctrine, those eminent 
 tatesmen, namely : Gen. Washington, John Adams, J. Q. 
 
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 131 
 
 Adams, Daniel Webster, Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jack- 
 son, and William H. Harrison, inasmuch as they have 
 unanimously denounced the banking system, and have 
 " stigmatized their business as inimical to the liberty and 
 prosperity of the country," ought to be branded as political 
 demagogues, because " they teach the laborer and mechanic 
 to dislike the banker, and imbue the farmer's mind with a 
 deadly hatred of his vocation ; yet his (the banker's) means 
 furnish all with daily employment, and without whose ex- 
 istence the farmer's crops would rot upon the field." So 
 says the Judge. 
 
 We must beg leave to dissent from the Judge in this 
 case, because, when those individuals uttered the senti- 
 ments attributed to them, they were not on the floor of 
 Congress, advocating the exclusive interests of the particu- 
 lar clique, class or party, that had sent them, but had re- 
 tired from the stormy sea of party politics to the shades 
 of private life. We shall, therefore, set them down, not 
 as demagogues and incendiaries, but as honest patriots. 
 
 We shall now condense the subject of Banking into a 
 few words, by showing the difference between a common 
 promissory note and a bank note which is this: The 
 drawer and issuer of a promissory note, draws upon his 
 own labor, property or services, tmdpays interest in proportion 
 to his indebtedness ; but the banker draws upon the labor, 
 property, or services of others claims and receives interest in 
 proportion to his indebtedness; which is a manifest viola- 
 tion of the order of justice. And those individuals who 
 claim this privilege, ought, at least, show upon what prin- 
 ciple of right they found their claims. 
 
 The foregoing remarks are only applicable to banks of 
 circulation such as have power to expand and contract 
 the currency. No reasonable objection can exist to banks 
 of loan and deposit; they are, no doubt, both necessary 
 and useful in all commercial communities. They might 
 issue certificates of actual deposits, without injury to the 
 public, as a large portion of the abrasion, or wear and 
 tear of the coin, would thereby be prevented. Such cer- 
 tificates could not depreciate below par, but, on the con- 
 trary, would generally bear a small premium, which, in 
 Jie aggregate, would nearly equal the abrasion and cost 
 of transportation of the coin. Under such a course, we 
 should have all the advantages that can be derived from 
 
132 
 
 the use of a paper currency, with none of its evils ; and 
 from this point commences the injustice and dishonesty of 
 banking. Let capitalists compete with each other as the 
 working classes do free the public lands from the iron 
 grasp of the speculator, as contended for by " National 
 Keformers ;" and all will be well. The working classes 
 ask for no special privilege ; all they ask is, equal rights 
 FOR ALL; which is but reasonable. 
 
 It is now necessary the reader should be apprised of the 
 why and wherefore Mr. Simpson should write such a work 
 as he did. He has, in the clearest and most masterly man- 
 ner, exposed to public view the iniquity and injustice of 
 the banking system, and its tendency to strip industry of 
 its just reward, and to reduce the working classes to a 
 state of poverty, degradation, and hopeless dependence. 
 Himself being a banker, it appears rather strange that he 
 should publish such a work; but the thing is easily ex- 
 plained. 
 
 In the absence of all other evidence, " Simpson's Work- 
 ing Man's Manual" is sufficient to prove, most conclu- 
 sively, the truth of what we have asserted in a previous 
 part of this work that justice, religion and morality, have 
 been prostituted and sacrificed, in order to build up and 
 promote the arrogant, grasping claims of the capitalist. 
 Mr. Simpson's object, in publishing his work, was to 
 wheedle, or, as Judge Hallwould say, to "cajole and flatter 
 the working classes, because they are the most numerous, 
 and wield the greatest power at the ballot-boxes," into 
 the notion of voting in favor of having the United States 
 Bank rechartered. His book winds up with an appendix, 
 which, at page 242, opens thus : 
 
 "THE BANK OF THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 " All general principles are liable to exceptions. In a country 
 where the monopoly of banking is carried to a great extent, it may 
 often become necessary to check one monopoly by another, [honest 
 reader, here is the cloven foot standing out in bold relief here is 
 the key to the mystery,] and oppose the interest of those who have 
 nothi ng to restrain their cupidity, by the interest of another party 
 who have controlling motives of integrity to regulate their conduct. 
 [What modesty and disinterestedness ! the interest and conduct of a 
 monsver bank to be regulated by 'motives oj integrity! 1 capital 
 idea.] Upon a just theory, framed for the equitable distribution of 
 
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 133 
 
 property, no paper money should prevail ; but where institutions do 
 exist for its manufacture to an unlimited extent, another question 
 presents itself whether the over-issues of the local banks may not 
 be beneficially controlled by the higher obligations imposed on the 
 Bank of the United States, to preserve a metallic currency, [as it 
 did in the year 1837,] and, by the combined influence of the funds 
 of government with those of its stockholders, [and of the State 
 banks,] hold a salutary restraint over the temptation which always 
 exists to bankruptcy when the currency of a country is placed at 
 the discretion of private cupidity and chartered companies? [as re- 
 alized in the year 1840.] 
 
 " In this view the question arises, whether the Bank of the Uni- 
 ted States is not to be preferred to any unknown or odious system 
 which might take its place, were the people to suffer it to be de- 
 stroyed." 
 
 So says Mr. Simpson. Now this is amply sufficient to 
 show, most clearly, that his work is a mere gull-trap, in- 
 tended to "cajole and flatter the working classes, because 
 they are the most numerous and wield the greatest power 
 at the ballot-boxes to their own injury," by persuading 
 them to fasten upon themselves an institution which would 
 have both the power and will to strip them of the fruits of 
 their industry, and reduce them to a state of servitude, de- 
 pendence, poverty and pauperism, under the plea of doing 
 them good! Yet, this gentleman, at page 12 of his work, 
 thus describes the influence of such an institution : 
 
 " In itself, or its consequences, the funding system, of all the 
 perversions of this otherwise equitable government, is especially 
 oppressive to the children of labor. If it did not create a fiscal 
 necessity, it at least afforded a plausible pretext for the BANKING 
 SYSTEM, that fruitful mother of unutterable affliction to the sons 
 of industry, which brought us, at one fatal step, into the vortex 
 of English aristocracy overgrown fortunes and hopeless poverty 
 taxation through all the elements of existence ; and speculation, 
 to the utter grinding down of the producer, to pamper the fortunes 
 of the rich and swell the hoard of the avaricious speculator. The 
 banking system and the public funds are, in the fiscal world, pre- 
 cisely what the royal grants were in the landed interest of England. 
 They created even a greater inequality of fortune, by means more 
 nefarious as well as more pernicious ; for they levied a tax directly 
 upon every commodity produced by labor; which tax became im- 
 mediately absorbed into the pocket of the capitalist. So that what 
 England did through her royal charters and grants, antecedent to 
 
134 
 
 WORKING 
 
 the Revolution, our own aristocracy deliberately committed through 
 the funding and banking systems ; whose results, upon the happi- 
 ness and comfort of an industrious and free people, must be esti- 
 mated fully as calamitous, in respect to the working classes, as the 
 consequences that would attend the subjugation of the country by 
 a foreign king, who should partition the property of the conquered 
 people among his chiefs and followers, in large and princely do- 
 mains thus creating a monopoly of land and capital, which would 
 extort labor [from the producer] upon their own terms; a bare sub- 
 sistence. 11 
 
 Such a pernicious working system as this, Mr. Simpson 
 would induce the working classes to engraft, like an in- 
 cubus, upon society, by deliberately casting their votes, at 
 the ballot-boxes, in its favor. What for? For the pur- 
 pose of enabling the capitalist to monopolize the land, the 
 credit, the money, with all the products of the poor man's 
 labor, in order that they may gormandize all the riches, all 
 the comforts, and all the enjoyments. Mr. Simpson thus con- 
 tinues : 
 
 " Thus far, then, we perceive our constitution of equal rights to 
 be the merest untenanted skeleton of liberty that the imagination of 
 man can conceive; which, by its operation, creates aristocracy, privi- 
 leges, extortion, monopoly, and overgrown fortunes; and which, by 
 its letter, declares that equality of rights shall be guaranteed to all, 
 and the pursuit of happiness be a common boon, secured to in- 
 dustry by the equity of her principles and simplicity of her laws. 
 Such are the defects of our organic laws." 
 
 Mr. Simpson's proposed plan for the cure of these de- 
 fects that of creating a monstrous monster to check and 
 keep in order the little ones is rather strange, and is apt 
 to remind one of the man that introduced a ferocious tiger 
 into his house for the purpose of keeping the rats and mice 
 in proper subjection. Now, if this gentleman had not in- 
 tended to " cajole, flatter, and delude the working classes 
 to their own injury," (as Judge Hall says demagogues al- 
 ways do,) instead of recommending the establishment of 
 such an institution^ as he did, would have told us that it 
 would be perfectly preposterous to expect the monster 
 bank would interpose her power and influence for the pur- 
 pose of checking, and keeping in proper subjection, the 
 small fry; but, on the contrary, would be most apt, as a 
 
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 135 
 
 thousand is to one, to court their favor and good feelings, 
 (being all birds of one feather;) so that, in case any diffi- 
 culty should happen between her and the government, 
 (such as wishing or attempting to examine into her affairs, 
 books, &c.,) she could call in their assistance combine 
 their power and influence together assume an attitude of 
 defiance attack the government flood the country with 
 worthless promises corrupt our legislators stop specie 
 payments lock up or export the real money ; in short, fill 
 the whole country with corruption, bankruptcy and confu- 
 sion, and then point to government as the cause, while 
 the whole mischief was justly chargeable to herself alone. 
 But Mr. Simpson's object was to " cajole and flatter the work- 
 ing classes, because they are the most numerous, and wield the 
 greatest power at the ballot-boxes" He has written a whole 
 chapter to prove the impossibility of having a mixed cur- 
 rency. To talk of it, he says 
 
 " Is to talk of a fiction ; [and that] the theory of it has been in- 
 vented by stipendiaries of banks, in order to reconcile the producers 
 of wealth to the frauds and taxes imposed upon them by paper 
 money and banking corporations. It has been defended by saying, 
 that specie being the foundation of a paper currency, renders the 
 latter as sound as if it was composed of specie altogether; a so- 
 phism so palpably absurd, as to surprise us at its announcement. 
 For how can that be a foundation, which entirely disappears 1 ? 
 How can paper be sustained by specie, when the amount of the 
 latter can never be made to cover the former ? How can one be 
 equal to one hundred 1 Gross as this paradox is, it has its believers; 
 for what is too monstrous for ignorance to swallow, or credulity to 
 assent to ? A public that would believe in a mixed currency, would 
 believe anything ! " 
 
 After saying all this, and declaring the utter worthless- 
 ness of paper money under all circumstances, at pages 
 2445, we find the following remarks : 
 
 " A pure metallic currency being impracticable, it remains to be 
 considered what species of currency is most convenient, most safe, 
 least variable, and most favorable to private and public credit." 
 
 He then earnestly recommends a continuance of the 
 { United States Bank" and thus continues his remarks: 
 
136 WORKING MAN'S 
 
 " Gold and silver being too unwieldly for a currency in large 
 amounts, but necessary as a standard of value, and paper being most 
 convenient, but having no value, [in another place he declares it 
 utterly worthless,] it becomes self-evident that, by a PROPER 
 MIXTURE of the two, a medium of exchange is compounded, 
 which, while it secures property from danger, [what a joke !] at the 
 same time extends the utmost facility to the circulation of wealth, 
 and the operations of commerce." 
 
 Now let the reader turn back and read what the same 
 gentleman has said on the subject of a mixed currency. He 
 continues thus, ^age 245 : 
 
 " In the bills of this corporation, [United States Bank,] we pos- 
 sess the double property of gold and silver in respect to value, and 
 all the facility of paper credits, without any of their disadvantages. 
 They are gold and silver embodied in a form so portable, so aerial, 
 as to almost realize the idea of magic, and present, in a new aspect, 
 those wonderful inventions of science and philosophy which dis- 
 tinguish the era of steam power, and the application of mathema- 
 tical science to the annihilation of distance." 
 
 There, working men, the story is now told ; and the 
 cream of the joke lies in this: that all those pernicious, 
 oppressive, and blighting effects, consequent of all bank 
 issues 4 when brought about by a United States Bank " in 
 the twinkling of an eye," become blessings, and ought, 
 therefore, ito be cherished and promoted. And the power 
 ofvall other banks to rob labor of its just reward to fill the 
 pockets of idle capitalists, and to throw the value of all 
 roperty into utter confusion, that of the United States 
 ank magically becomes the safeguard of property, the 
 most equitable distributor of the poor /man's labor, " and 
 extends the utmost facilities to the circulation of wealth, 
 and the operations of commerce." O, producers of wealth, 
 how ye have been " cajoled and flattered !" 
 
 We shall now place a few of Mr. Simpson's sentiments 
 in juxtaposition, so that the reader may have a clear and 
 condensed view of the subject: 
 
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 
 
 137 
 
 ALL BANKING INSTIUTIONS : 
 
 UNITED STATES BANK : 
 
 Nature of their Issues, or Bills. Nature of its Issues, or Bills. 
 
 " All moneyed corporations are 
 taxes upon industry, and every 
 bank bill that issues carries a 
 burden upon labor. A bank bill 
 is an order for so much money 
 [or other property, or work of 
 labor] drawn upon the producer 
 by the banker. Its acceptance, 
 receipt and circulation, is tanta- 
 mount to the payment of an or- 
 der upon the person receiving it. 
 It is a draft from capital drawn 
 upon labor at sight, and paid by 
 public credulity, faith, or what is 
 sometimes called credit. 
 
 " The party that profits, and 
 the only one, in these transactions 
 of fiction and fraud, is the bank- 
 er, the stockholder and specula- 
 tor. By these operations the 
 banks make use of the entire 
 property of the community for 
 their own exclusive profit, inter- 
 est and usury!" Page 142. 
 
 " The idea that paper credits 
 represent gold and silver, being 
 an illusion in the very nature of 
 things, it is obvious that society 
 is duped, as well as plundered, 
 by the fiction ! ' ' Page 143. 
 
 " The continental money will 
 never cease to be quoted as an 
 awful admonition to avoid the 
 mischiefs of a national paper 
 currency; the illusion of public 
 faith was dissipated by the reali- 
 ty of a bankrupt nation." Page 
 170. 
 
 A Mixed Currency. 
 
 [But] "the bills of this corpo- 
 ration possess the double proper- 
 ty of gold and silver in respect 
 to value, and all the facility of 
 paper credit, without any of their 
 disadvantages ! 
 
 " They are gold and silver em- 
 bodied in a form so portable, so 
 aerial, as to almost realize the 
 idea of magic!" Page 245. 
 
 "The bills of this bank are 
 convertible into specie at plea- 
 sure, [witness, years 1837-'8-'9 
 -'40, &c. ;] they constitute a uni- 
 versal currency, of equal value 
 in all parts of the Union. And 
 while they possess this precious 
 property of an equal and sound 
 currency, they also operate as a 
 check upon all other paper cred- 
 its, imparting the same qualities 
 to them, and exacting a specie 
 responsibility from all institu- 
 tions that emit this useful [to the 
 banker] but dangerous kind of 
 fictitious money ; which, without 
 the Bank of the United States, 
 would be wholly a fiction, and 
 essentially a curse!" Page 246. 
 
 " This institution operates to se- 
 cure the solvency of the whole na- 
 tion, and interposes its benignant 
 power to arrest ruin and bankrupt- 
 cy throughout the States, [wit- 
 ness, year 1842.] How serious 
 a duty, therefore, devolves upon 
 the people to preserve this insti- 
 ution. Let them ponder on it 
 with solemnity." Page 246. 
 
 A Mixed Currency. 
 
 " To talk of a mixed currency [But] "specie being too un- 
 is to talk of a fiction. It cannot wieldly for a currency in large 
 
138 
 
 WORKING MAN S 
 
 amounts, but necessary as a stan- 
 dard of value, it becomes self- 
 evident, that, by a proper mix- 
 ture of the issues of this institu- 
 tion and specie, a medium of ex- 
 change is compounded, which, 
 contrasted with any other exten- 
 sive method of a profitable me- 
 dium of exchange, combining 
 the standard and invariable pro- 
 perty of gold and silver, while 
 it secures property from danger,* 
 at the same time extends the ut- 
 most facility to the circulation 
 of wealth* and the operations of 
 commerce, no institution can vie 
 with that under consideration, 
 [viz: that of the United States 
 Bank."] Pages 244-5. 
 
 exist in fact. The theory has 
 been invented by the stipendia- 
 ries of banks, [proof in the next 
 column, Q^r] in order to recon- 
 cile the producers of wealth to 
 the frauds and taxes imposed 
 upon them by the paper money 
 of banking corporations. The 
 most celebrated financiers have 
 attempted to persuade the com- 
 munity that currency is wealth, 
 [proof in the next column, Q^r] 
 .ecause they are predicated on 
 the existence of gold and silver. 
 Gross as this paradox is, it has 
 its believers; forwhat is toomon- 
 strous for ignorance to swallow, 
 or credulity to assent to ? A 
 public that would believe in a 
 mixed currency, would believe in 
 anything," [no matter how ab- 
 surd and contrary to our expe- 
 rience ] Pages 104-5. 
 
 Such, then, are the conflicting, sentiments of Stephen 
 Simpson, contained in his "Working Man's Manual." O 
 consistency, but thou art indeed a jewel! 
 
 This is in perfect keeping with our institutions: every- 
 thing that is good, and consistently calculated to promote 
 the happiness of the mass of the people, has been sacri- 
 ficed to gratify the inordinate, insolent claims of capital ; 
 and for the proof of which, we need nothing stronger than 
 " Simpson's Working Man's Manual." 
 
 We shall now bring up his brother banker, Judge Hall, 
 to scold him a little, and then let them both rest in peace ; 
 sincerely hoping that all bankers will soon learn the errors 
 of their ways, become wise, humane, and evince a proper 
 regard for the just rights of their fellow men. 
 
 "Under the influence of that fell spirit of demagoguism which 
 has swept over our land, it has become fashionable to flatter the 
 
 * The circulation of wealth the gentleman speaks of, is the rapidity with which 
 all wealth passes from the hands of the producer into the pocket at" the banker; 
 and the property secured from danger, is that of the banker and speculator not 
 iho property of the honest producer. 
 
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 139 
 
 agricultural and laboring classes, because they are the most nu- 
 merous, and wield the greatest power at the ballot-boxes; while a 
 systematic effort is made to decry the- merchant and the banker, 
 and to stigmatize their business as inimical to the liberty and pros- 
 perity of the country. We might pass over these incendiary doc- 
 trines, if it were not for the wide-spread mischief which they work, 
 by deluding to their own injury the numerous classes whom they 
 are intended to cajole and flatter. The laborer and mechanic are 
 taught to dislike the banker, whose means furnish them with daily 
 employment, [from motives of pure benevolence!] and the farmer's 
 mind is diligently imbued with a settled hatred for the merchant, 
 without whose assistance his crops would rot upon the field." 
 
 Yes, the merchant and banker contrive to relieve the 
 farmer of the incumbrance of his toil-earned wealth, and, 
 in lieu thereof, leave him in possession of their worthless 
 promises, which cost nothing to make but the mere scratch 
 of a pen. Surely, the farmer ought to be very thankful for 
 such generous favors ! So, the Judge whines and scolds ; 
 the cashier "cajoles and flatters:" all for the good of the 
 dear people the bone and sinew of the nation ! 
 
 The following quotation, from Simpson's work, we think 
 very appropriate, in finishing this part of the subject: 
 
 " Here, then, we behold capital degrading and enslaving man- 
 kind ; making society vicious, wretched and ferocious, on the one 
 hand proud, cruel and oppressive, on the other, owing to that 
 tendency in capital to attract, extort and accumulate, from the 
 wages of labor; besides, legalized monopolies grinding down in- 
 dustry to the scanty pittance necessary but to sustain life. And so 
 truly as the sun drinks up the morning dew, so does the idle capi- 
 talist absorb the just substance of the man of labor, stripping from 
 his children's limbs what should clothe them taking from their 
 mouths what should feed them and keeping from their understand- 
 ings what should instruct, enlighten, and save them. ' Who's born 
 for sloth 1 ?' I answer, the idle capitalist. How many thousands 
 upon thousands live upon the sweat of the poor man's labor, in idle 
 pleasure and suicidal vice. Nature decrees it otherwise ; justice 
 decrees it otherwise ; reason proclaims it ought not to be so ; but 
 the proud, oppressive, overhearing, cruel capitalist, while he admits 
 the fact with feigned regret, yet insists that wisdom and virtue are 
 only compatible with satiety on the one hand, and starvation on the 
 other'" Pages 66-7. 
 
 What a pity what cause of regret, that one who could 
 write such a glowing, living picture of the miseries en- 
 
140 WORKING MAN'S 
 
 tailed upon mankind, by the oppressive and unfeeling hand 
 of capital, should so fall from the dignity of manhood, as 
 to~prostitute such fine talents as he possessed, for the pur- 
 pose of inducing the working classes to lend their delibe- 
 rate aid in establishing and perpetuating one of the great- 
 est and most dangerous " monopolies of capital " perhaps 
 in the world, and which, he well knew, must eventually 
 bring about those very consequences he, apparently, so 
 feelingly deprecates. But, such is the overwhelming in- 
 fluence of capital, that its arrogant claims must be vindi- 
 cated at all hazards. Justice, religion, and morality, must 
 be sacrificed, that a few may possess all the riches all the 
 ease all the comfort all the enjoyment; and the toiling 
 millions must be kept in hopeless dependence, and, finally, 
 starved to death. 
 
 If we have a " National Bank," no one would deny the 
 danger of its existence, if its political views should be an- 
 tagonistical to those of government ; and, on the other 
 hand, if they should happen to be both united against the 
 views of the people, the danger would be still greater; 
 so that, whether it be the friend or enemy of government, 
 it is alike to be dreaded ; nor could real patriotism, under 
 any consideration, tolerate its existence. But if the people 
 will have one, in order to preserve consistency, they ought 
 to abolish all other departments of government. This is 
 one of the great questions incumbent on " National Re- 
 formers " to settle. They should continually bear in mind, 
 that, when orthodox political economists, stump speak- 
 ers, or legislators, generally, speak of the prosperity of 
 a, country, mean the ease, certainty, and rapidity with 
 which property passes from the hands of those who produce 
 it into the coffers of those who produce nothing, but claim the 
 right to own all things. And the facilities to trade and busi- 
 ness, mean all those cunning contrivances, invented by the 
 cupidity and avarice of the " business community" for the 
 express purpose of producing such results : " satiety on the 
 one hand starvation on the other." 
 
 The working classes may well rejoice that the " mon- 
 ster" pauper-making machine is no more is "obsolete;" 
 and the small fry may be taken in detail much easier now, 
 than when protected by the gigantic power of the mater- 
 nal " monster." 
 
 IP addition to all that has been said on this subject, we 
 
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 141 
 
 would refer the reader to Madison's Journal of the Federa 
 Convention. He will find that it was intended by that 
 body, that the federal government should not have the 
 power of making paper money, or of circulating bills of 
 credit. At page 1343, vol. 3, will be found the following 
 record : 
 
 " Mr. Gouverneur Morris moved to strike out and emit bills on 
 the credit of the United States.' If the United States had credit, 
 such bills would be unnecessary ; if they had not, unjust and use- 
 less. Mr. Butler seconds the motion. 
 
 " Mr. Madison. Will it not be sufficient to prohibit the making 
 of them a tender ? This will remove the temptation to emit them 
 with unjust views. And promissory notes, in that shape, may, in 
 some emergencies, be best. 
 
 " Mr. G. Morris. Striking out the words will leave room still 
 for notes of a responsible minister, which will do all the good with- 
 out the mischief. The moneyed interest will oppose the plan of 
 government, if paper emissions be not prohibited. 
 
 " Mr. Gorharn was for striking out without inserting any pro- 
 hibition. If the words stand, they may suggest and lead to the 
 measure. 
 
 " Mr. Mason had doubts on the subject. Congress, he thought, 
 would not have the power, unless it were expressed. Though he 
 had a mortal hatred to paper money, yet, as he could not foresee 
 all emergencies, he was unwilling to tie the hands of the Legis- 
 lature. He observed that the late war could not have been carried 
 on, had such a prohibition existed. 
 
 " Mr. Gorham. The power, as far as it \dll be necessary, or 
 safe, is involved in that of borrowing. 
 
 " Mr. Mercer was a friend of paper money, though, in the present 
 state and temper of America, he should neither propose nor approve 
 of such a measure. He was, consequently, opposed to a prohibi- 
 tion of it altogether. It will stamp suspicion on the government, 
 to deny it a discretion on this point. It was impolitic, also, to excite 
 the opposition of all those who were friends to paper money. The 
 people of property would be sure to be on the side of the plan, and 
 it was impolitic to purchase their further attachment with the loss 
 of the opposite class of citizens. 
 
 " Mr. Ellsworth thought this a fa\orable moment to shut and bar 
 the door against paper money. The mischiefs of the various ex- 
 periments which had been made, were now fresh in the public mind, 
 and had excited the disgust of all the respectable part of America. 
 By withholding the power from the new government, more friends 
 of influence would be gained to it than by almost anything else. 
 Paper money can in no case be necessary. Give the government 
 
142 WORKING MAN'S 
 
 credit, and other resources will offer. The power may do harm, 
 never good. 
 
 " Mr. Randolph, notwithstanding his antipathy to paper money ,' 
 could not agree to strike cut the words, as he could not foresee all 
 the occasions that might arise. 
 
 " Mr. Wilson. It will have a most salutary influence on the 
 credit of the United States, to remove the possibility of paper mo- 
 ney. This expedient can never succeed while its mischiefs are 
 remembered. / A nd GO long as it can he resorted to, it will be a bar 
 to other resources. 
 
 " Mr. Butler remarked, that paper was a legal tender in no coun- 
 try ; : F' "ope. He was urgent for disarming the government of 
 such a power. 
 
 " Mr. Mason was still averse to tying the hands of the Legisla- 
 ture altogether. If there was no example in Europe, as just re- 
 marked, it might be observed, on the other side, that there was none 
 in which the government was restrained on this head. 
 
 " Mr. Read thought the words, if not struck out, would be as 
 alarming as the mark of the Beast in the Revelation. 
 
 " Mr. Langdon had rather reject the whole plan than retain the 
 three words, ' and emit bills.' 
 
 " On motion for striking out New Hampshire, Massachusetts, 
 Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Virginia, North Carolina, 
 South Carolina, Georgia, voted aye 9. New Jersey and Mary- 
 land, no 2. [So the words were stricken out.] 
 
 " The clause for borrowing money was agreed to, nem. con" 
 
 The index which refers to the above passage, reads thus : 
 " Currency. The pretext for one of paper cut off 1346." 
 
 The above vote, if taken individually instead of by States, 
 would have stood thus: Ayes 30, Noes 7 a majority of 
 over five-sevenths. 
 
 From the foregoing evidence, it is perfectly clear that 
 the framers of the Constitution fully intended that no such 
 "vagrant" power, as that of circulating bills of credit, or 
 paper money, should exist iri the country ; consequently, 
 the States are positively prohibited from using it. To pro- 
 hibit the United States government was not necessary, it 
 having no right to assume powers not expressly granted by 
 the States or people : being essentially a government of 
 delegated powers only. The assumption that the General 
 Government can endow others either individuals or cor- 
 porations with powers it does not possess itself, is per- 
 
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 143 
 
 fectly ridiculous. Such a power has never yet been dele- 
 gated to the General Government. The 10th Article of 
 Amendments to the Constitution reads thus : " The powers 
 not delegated to the States by the Constitution, nor prohi- 
 bited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respec- 
 tively, or to the people." Will any man, in the face of 
 this evidence, have the hardihood to contend for either the 
 justness or constitutionality of a bank charter? Surely 
 not. 
 
144 WORKING 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 A PROTECTIVE TARIFF PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. 
 
 THERE is a very pernicious error prevalent among the 
 American people, the consequences of which ought not to 
 be overlooked by the National Reformer ; and that is, in 
 placing too much confidence in the truth of the doctrines, 
 declarations and opinions, advocated by our representa- 
 tives in our legislative halls, merely because they have the 
 reputation of being great statesmen, or because they be- 
 long to this or that political party. Now, this is evidently 
 wrong, and often leads to delusion. For it is notorious to 
 all, that many of our most distinguished and talented states- 
 men have been on diametrically opposite sides of the va- 
 rious prominent political questions that come before them 
 for discussion at different times. Now, it is not possible 
 that either the nature of truth or justice can change ; but the 
 pursuits and interests of men may, and do : and are all that 
 can or do change. This view, then, of the subject, dissi- 
 pates the apparent mystery. We should look upon a re- 
 presentative precisely as we do upon a lawyer going into 
 court for the sole object of defending the cause of his cli- 
 ent, be he right or wrong ; such being Ms sworn duty. 
 
 It is precisely so with a legislator : he goes to fight the 
 battle advocate and maintain the interests of those that 
 send him : for this is he sent. Neither is it wrong ; for 
 when the mass of the people become sufficiently intelligent 
 themselves to know the right, with sufficient firmness to de- 
 mand it, the right will be accomplished must be ; but, till 
 then, cannot be. 
 
 At one period of his life, w r e see an eminent statesman, 
 when representing the pure mercantile interests of the 
 New England States, eloquently discoursing upon the 
 beauty and advantages of free trade and foreign inter- 
 course of the injustice of giving power to a small portion 
 ,>f community to tax the greater, by legislative means ; 
 ind, therefore, a high tariff, on the ground or pretext of 
 protection, or for any other purpose than the support of 
 
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 145 
 
 government, is unjust, and contrary to the genius and spirit 
 of our free institutions ; and is, in reality, not protection, 
 but oppression to the great mass of the people. 
 
 But, in after years, when the services of this same ta- 
 lented statesman were required, (and finally obtained by a 
 stipend of six thousand dollars per annum, in addition to 
 his eight dollars a day,) for the purpose of pleading the 
 claims of New England capitalists engaged in manufac- 
 tures, the thing was entirely reversed; all he had said 
 before was now wrong ; in short, what was white before, 
 was now black, and vice versa. 
 
 Now, this is all very simple very natural ; for this he 
 deserves no censure : he did nothing more than any labor- 
 ing man would do, work hardest for him that could pay 
 the highest wages. He could now descant upon the duty 
 of government to encourage manufactures to protect the 
 American mechanic from the fatal effects of the competi- 
 tion of the pauper labor of Europe ; that a home market 
 was much better for the farmer than a foreign one ; the 
 extra price the farmer would be obliged to pay for his 
 goods, it could be proved, was to his advantage. In short, 
 the whole carrying trade ought to be dispensed with, being 
 injurious to the prosperity of the country ; that is, the in- 
 terest of capitalists engaged in manufactures. 
 
 Again, we have seen others, at one time strenuously and 
 with the utmost zeal, opposing the establishment of banks, 
 and other chartered monopolies ; being destructive to lib- 
 erty a grievous burden imposed upon labor is the parent 
 of pauperism ; tending to reduce the producers of wealth 
 to a state of hopeless misery, dependence and wretched- 
 ness. At other times, we find the very same men, with 
 equal zeal, advocating the establishment of the very mea- 
 sures which they had previously declared so pernicious and 
 destructive to the happiness and prosperity of the people. 
 Now, the nature of good and evil a right and wrong 
 never can change, though men's pursuits and interests may, 
 and do; and these are all that can change principles 
 never can. At this very hour there is scarcely to be found 
 a politician, of any considerable note, that has not been 
 on both sides of some of the various questions that, from 
 time to time, agitate, distract, and bewilder the public 
 mind. These facts are too notorious to need particular 
 mention here ; they stare us in the face they cannot be 
 denied. 
 
146 .Y WORKING MAN'S 
 
 This state of things proves, clearly, that a fundamental 
 error exists somewhere ; and, also, the absolute necessity 
 of every man (if he wishes to avoid the degradation of be- 
 ing the everlasting football of the political demagogue) in- 
 vestigating and understanding the subject of his social and 
 political relation with his fellow men, for himself. And let 
 him never forget, that he himself is one of the sovereign 
 people, and is equally entitled to any political privilege that 
 any other man is ; yet, in a government of equal rights, 
 privileges do not, cannot exist, and are, therefore, an ab- 
 surdity : officers of government being but the agents or 
 servants of the people, empowered to carry out their will. 
 The great difference between this and other governments, 
 is, that other governments impose themselves and their 
 laws upon the people without their will or consent, and is 
 a power separate and distinct from the people. But this 
 is not the case with ours the government and the people 
 being, essentially, one and the same ; in other words, the 
 people govern themselves. We should be extremely care- 
 ful that we are not deceived by the mere sound and jingle 
 of words, as many are deluded thereby. Men can always 
 find good names to cover up and hide the ugliness of bad 
 actions. Sometimes they call indirect and oppressive tax- 
 ation Protection; sometimes they call the most outrageous 
 injustice and cruelty by the name of law and order : and a 
 manly resistance thereto they call rebellion, treason, dis- 
 organization, &c. Yet, these misnomers are not always 
 evidence of dishonesty ; because a man may be, uncon- 
 sciously, in error. 
 
 The truth of the above remarks are exceedingly well 
 illustrated by Bulwer, in " Paul Clifford ;" and, though a 
 fictitious work, " the picture 's true to nature." It will be 
 found in the tenth chapter, as follows : 
 
 " * Listen to me, Paul,' answered Augustus ; and his reply is not 
 unworthy of notice. * All crime and all excellence depend upon 
 a good choice of words. I see you look puzzled ; I will explain. 
 If you take money from the public and say you have robbed, you 
 have undoubtedly committed a great crime; but if you do the same 
 and say you have been relieving the necessities of the poor, you 
 have done an excellent action : if, in afterward dividing this money 
 with your companions, you say you have been sharing booty, you 
 have committed an offence against the laws of your country. But 
 if you observe, that you have been sharing with your friends the 
 
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 147 
 
 gains of your industry, you have performed one of the noblest 
 actions of humanity. To knock a man on the head is neither vir- 
 tuous nor guilty, but it depends upon the language applied to the 
 action to make it murder or glory. Why not say, then, that you 
 have testified * the courage of a hero,' rather than * the atrocity of 
 the ruffian?' This is perfectly clear, is it not?' 
 
 " ' It seems so,' answered Paul. 
 
 " < It is so self-evident, it is the way all governments are carried 
 on. If you want to rectify an abuse, those in power call you dis- 
 affected. Oppression is ' law and order.' 9 Extortion is i religious 
 establishment; 9 and taxes are the * Messed constitution. 1 Therefore, 
 my good Paul, we only do what all other legislators do. We are 
 never rogues so long as we call ourselves honest fellows, and we 
 never commit a crime so long as we can term it a virtue ! What 
 say you now?' 
 
 " ' There is very little doubt but that you are wrong ; yet if you 
 are, so are all the rest of the world. It is of no use to be the only 
 white sheep of the flock. Wherefore, my dear Tomlinson, I will 
 in future be an excellent citizen, relieve the necessities of the poor, 
 and share the gains of my industry ivith my friends.' ' : 
 
 We think the phrase would be much improved, and 
 easier understood, by making it read thus : Relieve the poor 
 of their incumbranccs, and share the gains of my talents among 
 my friends. 
 
 No doubt many would censure Paul for coming to the 
 conclusion he did; but it is precisely the same that the 
 king and all capitalists come to ; and the language they 
 make use of, in order to quiet their consciences and stop 
 the mouth of the gainsayer, is : " we promote and accele- 
 rate the business and prosperity of the country [that is, 
 themselves,] by the operation !" And it is the same con- 
 clusion the Factory Lord comes to, when he claims from 
 government the benefit of a protective tariff. But with 
 whom will he share his gains? with the hard working 
 producer? No, never; but, on the contrary, will rivet on 
 his chains so much the tighter. Keeping these observa- 
 tions in view, we proceed to examine the nature of a 
 
 PROTECTIVE TARIFF. 
 
 People, in general, when speaking of a tariff, advance 
 the idea, that when a foreign government imposes a duty 
 upon our products, that the payment of that duty is im- 
 posed upon us ; and that we, the exporters, are obliged to 
 
148 .WORKING MAN'S 
 
 pay it out of our own pockets; or, in other words, are 
 obliged to deduct so much from the selling price of the 
 article, for the exclusive benefit of the foreign government. 
 Now, this absurdity is too glaring to need a refutation ; 
 and we may truly say of it, what Mr. Simpson says of a 
 mixed currency, " it is a sophism so palpably absurd, as to sur- 
 prise us at its announcement" For, if it were so, nothing 
 could be easier for us to accomplish than to make other 
 nations pay the expenses of our own government : if the 
 thing could be done, there would be some propriety in pro- 
 posing retaliation ; but, as the case really stands, we should 
 only be imposing grievous burdens upon ourselves, of our 
 own free will and accord, merely because other govern- 
 ments usurp, in opposition to the will of their subjects, the 
 power to tyrannize over and oppress them. 
 
 Think you, if the people of Great Britain were allowed 
 to speak, they would submit to the injustice of being obli- 
 ged to pay, continually, at least one hundred per centum 
 more for every mouthful of bread they eat, but for the in 
 tervention of government ? '* They would not submit to 
 the imposition for a moment. Would any body but a fool 
 or madman deliberately hire some one to give him a sound 
 drubbing, rob him, or pick his pocket, merely because 
 others were absolutely compelled to suffer such injustice ? 
 Strange kind of retaliation, this ! 
 
 But, perhaps the worst feature of the protective (or, ra- 
 ther, oppressive) policy, is, that the extra price the con- 
 sumers pay on protected commodities, does not go to the 
 support of government, but into the pocket of the capital- 
 ist almost exclusively engaged in the particular business 
 protected ; and the real producer or operator is in no way 
 scarcely even benefitted by the policy ; and the amount of 
 public revenue is inversely as the extent of protection ; 
 that is, the higher the tariff, the less will be the income to 
 government. C. E. Lester informs us, that, in the year 
 1840, the consumers of Great Britain paid, on breadstuffs 
 alone, one hundred and fifty million dollars over and above 
 what the same quantity could have been obtained for from 
 other countries, including cost of transportation. And, 
 during the same year, but five million dollars from duties 
 on breadstuffs reached the public treasury, for the use of 
 government ! ! 
 
 * For proof of the fact, see " Condition and Fate of England." 
 
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 149 
 
 When the advocates of "protection" are driven from 
 the ground first taken, and it is clearly proved that the con- 
 sumer alone is the duty payer, and that the impost becomes 
 part of the cost as much so as the wages paid to the ope- 
 rative, or the cost of material they take shelter behind a 
 still greater absurdity, by admitting that, although we do 
 not pay the foreign imposts upon the goods exported by us, 
 yet we do finally pay them on the goods imported in return ; 
 forgetting that the grand pretext for "protection " is, that 
 the importation of foreign goods works our ruin by their 
 very cheapness! If this is not blowing hot and cold in the 
 same breath, what is? 
 
 Now, the policy of "protection " is, in its nature and ope- 
 ration, precisely the same -ill over the world, and at all 
 times ; no matter to whom applied, whether to the Eng- 
 lish land lord or the American factory lord, the same results 
 are produced by it. No where in the world has the system 
 of "protection" been carried out to such perfection as in 
 Great Britain, and no where in the world shall we find the 
 land and the wealth of the country monopolized by so few 
 a number of individuals, with a bloated, satiated aristo- 
 cracy on the one hand ; its millions of paupers and famish- 
 ing operatives on the other. Therefore, the policy ought 
 to be called, not " protection," but unjust oppression. 
 
 That the capitalist is benefitted by an oppressive tariff, 
 none will deny; or, rather, is enabled to monopolize more 
 than his equitable share of the wealth of his country, by 
 its means. But at whose expense are his gains ? We an- 
 swer : the great majority of the people who are not pro- 
 tected, a great portion of whom are women and children. 
 
 The United States statistics show us, in round numbers, 
 that the whole population of the Union is about seventeen 
 million ; and the whole number of persons engaged in 
 manufactures and trades is not quite eight hundred thou- 
 sand, which includes both capitalists and operatives. 
 Now, if we allow one out of every five to be a capitalist, 
 it leaves one hundred and sixty thousand persons only that 
 can, or ever were intended to be benefitted or protected 
 by the measure we are now examining. Subtract these 
 capitalists from the whole, and there remains sixteen mill- 
 ion eight hundred and forty thousand consumers, being 
 those who are obliged to pay the tax thus imposed upon 
 the people, w r hich in a year amounts to many million dol- 
 
150 WORKING MAN'S 
 
 lars, not one cent of which goes to the support of govern- 
 ment, but into the pocket of the capitalist. 
 
 Those who contend for a protective tariff, ought to show 
 in what manner the people are benefitted by such a mea- 
 sure ; but it cannot be done : in strict propriety, it might 
 be called a profitable loss to the country. 
 
 Now, we contend that our government has no right to 
 legislate power into the hands of a few to tax the many : 
 it is a gross violation of right. Our opponents have pro- 
 nounced this conclusive argument a "humbug" to be sure ; 
 but they have failed to show wherein the humbuggery lies. 
 
 As an argument in favor of profitable taxation, we are 
 told that, in consequence of the capitalist being enabled to 
 get higher prices for goods, he will pay corresponding 
 wages to the operatives. Now, every body knows that 
 this is not true : he will always get labor as cheap as pos- 
 sible. And when he has succeeded in preventing the im- 
 portation of foreign manufactures, will he divide his extra 
 gains with his operatives the very individuals that were 
 to be benefitted and protected ? If he is protected to the 
 amount of fifty per cent., will he give the American ope- 
 rative even twenty-five per cent., in wages, more than he 
 would a " foreign pauper operative ?" Every one knows 
 he would do no such thing ; but, on the contrary, would 
 be more apt to import the foreign pauper operatives him- 
 self, so as to bring them in direct competition with the Ameri- 
 can operatives; while, to prevent such a result, it is pre- 
 tended an oppressive tariff is needed ! And, farther : will 
 not those same factory lords be very apt to use their power- 
 ful influence in getting a law passed, in order to keep these 
 pauper operatives of Europe twenty-one years from the 
 ballot-boxes? They would be much more fools than 
 knaves, if they did not. 
 
 If we are to foster the " protective'''' policy, let us be con- 
 sistent. If the American capitalist is to be protected by 
 pre\ enting the importation of foreign manufactures , let the 
 American operative be protected to the same extent, by 
 preventing the importation of foreign pauper labor. Gentle- 
 men, give us a fair shake : all we ask for is the same kind 
 of sauce for the goose as for the gander. 
 
 Therefore, if the working classes will promote the "pro- 
 tective " system, their first object should be to prevent the 
 importation of foreign " pauper operatives ;" it will then be 
 
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 151 
 
 time enough to think about preventing the importation of 
 the goods they make : not till then it would be perfectly 
 use. ess. 
 
 It has been urged, that experience has j-ioved that goods 
 do not rise in price in consequence of a protective tariff; 
 but, on the contrary, have been known to fall even lower 
 than they had been previously. There is, no doubt, some 
 truth in this, especially if the "pauper laborers" of other 
 countries have had time to reach this, and have filled the 
 places that ought to be occupied by our own countrymen. 
 Therefore, if a tariff does not raise the price of goods, in 
 what way are our own mechanics benefited or protected 
 by it, either capitalists or operatives ? Why, the very pre- 
 text for its existence at once vanishes ; the very strongest 
 argument in its favor goes by the board. 
 
 It is true, that goods frequently do become cheaper, after 
 the imposition of a tariff', than they were before ; but this 
 fact only proves that goods will get cheaper, even in spite 
 of a tariff. A contraction of bank issues will cheapen 
 property so will improvements in labor-saving machinery 
 so will new facilities to intercourse, as cheaper means 
 of transportation, and so will competition among the working 
 classes. It would be surprising, indeed, if, by a combination 
 of the above causes, or only a part of them, they . should 
 not have the effect, sometimes, to make things so much 
 cheaper, that it would overbalance the effect of the tariff 
 altogether. And, as we have said before, if a tariff doe v 
 not enhance or raise the price of goods, then the principal 
 argument in its favor utterly fails. 
 
 Competition, improvements in the art., and sciences, aP. 
 kinds of machinery, railroads, steam navigation, &c., in 
 their operation, have a direct tendency to make the pro- 
 ducts of labor cheap, by lessening not only the cost of pro- 
 duction, but also that of transportation ; and it is for this 
 very reason we contend that the prosperity of a commu- 
 nity is promoted, to wit : by making commodities cheap ; 
 cheapness always indicating abundance, and, on the con- 
 trary, dearness alw r ays indicating scarcity. Therefore, if 
 it be good and right to make things cheap, it must be evil and 
 wrong to make them dear: that is certain. 
 
 Now, is it not a gross absurdity, that while nineteen- 
 twentieths of the people are devoting all their energies 
 and faculties to the process of making things cheap, the 
 
152 WORKING MAN'S 
 
 other twentieth should be endowed, by a special act o ." 
 government, with the power to counteract their beneficial 
 operation, make things cheap with twenty hands, and 
 dear with one? It would puzzle even Solomon, with all 
 his wisdom, to show how the people, en masse, are benefit- 
 ted, when the privileged capitalist is the only individual 
 who reaps a princel T * harvest by the operation, and all the 
 rest are losers. 
 
 Some twenty or tmrty years since, wooden clocks were 
 invented in a sister State, and were offered for sale, in all 
 parts of the Union, at much cheaper rates than other 
 clocks could possibly be made for. The brass clock ma- 
 kers took the alarm ; they perceived, at once, that if this 
 business continued, their own would shortly be broken up, 
 and themselves completely thrown out of employment. 
 They perceived, also, the impossibility of procuring aid or 
 "protection" from government. O, no, it is only our own 
 countrymen that can be permitted to "break down our manu- 
 factures" and ruin us by making the products of labor too 
 cheap. Foreigners must not do this. So the only thing 
 these poor clock-makers could do, to prevent the destruc- 
 tion of their business, was to endeavor to destroy the repu- 
 tation of wooden clocks, and refuse to repair them there- 
 by discouraging the public from purchasing. But all this 
 did not cure " the evil" Clocks were supplied in still greater 
 abundance, and at less and less prices, till the country be- 
 came flooded by them ; and now the consequence is, that 
 thousands of families can have several clocks now, where 
 one could not own one before. And now, candid reader, 
 was this result beneficial or injurious to the community? 
 And if this result was beneficial to the people, which is, 
 evidently, the case, would it have been any less so had it 
 been brought about by foreigners, instead of our own coun- 
 trymen ? Surely not. 
 
 In addition, then, to all the other absurdities involved in 
 a protective tariff, we have this, namely : our own coun- 
 trymen may injure us with impunity, but foreigners sJiaL 
 not be allowed to do us good. 
 
 These observations and arguments will apply with equal 
 force to all other products of labor. 
 
 Let legal money value in the elements of nature be 
 abolished, and the public lands made free to actual set- 
 tlers ; give us good money gold and silver, nothing else 
 
POLITICAL, ECONOMY. 153 
 
 is money ; give us no special privileges, and the American 
 people need no other protection. 
 
 The American capitalist has many advantages over the 
 European, with which he ought to be satisfied : he might 
 pay much higher wages, and make greater profits than the 
 foreign capitalist ; because, 
 
 First. The interest of the British Funded Debt amounts 
 to three hundred million dollars, which must be paid an- 
 nually : the capitalist must pay his portion. 
 
 Second. Cheaper land. 
 
 Third. Cheaper provisions. 
 
 Fourth. The absence of a king and a hereditary nobility 
 
 With all these advantages he is not satisfied, not ever 
 when government has given him, by act of special legis 
 lation, in addition, thirty per cent. And yet these cormo- 
 rants are not satisfied; the everlasting cry is, "give us 
 more give us more !" 
 
 Of all the contrivances invented by the cupidity of the 
 gormandizing capitalist, for the purpose of relieving the 
 poor man of the fruits of his toil, none appears so plau- 
 sible, upon its mere surface, as a "protective tariff;" yet it 
 works the same results as all the others : it concentrates 
 the wealth of the country into the hands of a few, produ- 
 cing over-abundance and satiety, on the one hand po- 
 verty, wretchedness and degradation, on the other ; and, in 
 the language of the cold-hearted, short-sighted capitalist, 
 "promotes the prosperity of the country" 
 
 Now, fellow working men, you that make all the wealth 
 of the world, remember these things when you go to the 
 ballot-boxes give your vote for " a free soil and an inalien- 
 able homestead" 
 
 After recapitulating the subject, we find that the follow- 
 ing absurdities are involved in a "protective tariff:" 
 
 First. It gives power to the few, who are the rich, to 
 tax the many, who are poor. 
 
 Second. It causes things to cost more labor or money 
 than is necessary to produce them. 
 
 Third. It is injuring ourselves willingly, because others 
 are injured forcibly, on the ground of retaliation. 
 
 Fourth. It decreases the revenue of a country. 
 
 Fifth. It produces a profitable loss to the country. 
 
 Sixth. It prevents foreigners from doing us good, while 
 our own countrymen are allowed to injure us. 
 
154 WORKING MAN'S 
 
 Seventh. It makes the products of labor dear, while 
 the combined energies of the people are engaged in ma- 
 king them cheap. 
 
 In lieu of the above bundle of absurdities, the following 
 is proposed as the only just principle of 
 
 AMEEICAN PROTECTION I 
 
 A free soil for a free people, and an inalienable home- 
 stead/or all. Producers of wealth, let these be your watch- 
 words; and thus head your tickets at the ballot-boxes. 
 
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 155 
 
 ** 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 REBELLION. 
 
 "Rebellion! thou demon of darkness! 
 
 Avaunt ! stand back ! hie to thy fitting abode 
 
 Beneath the blood-stained throne, where thou belongest. 
 
 In a land where rights are equal, thou hast 
 
 No calling. 
 
 Thou wouldst quickly starve to death. 
 
 There is no blood for thee to feed upon ; 
 
 ***** Therefore, begone!" 
 
 WILL men rebel against a government that protects them 
 in their rights, promotes their happiness, and does them 
 justice? Never. Neither can the people rebel against 
 themselves. 
 
 The following beautiful morccau not long since appeared 
 in many of our public prints, without a comment, and 
 written by an American for the edification of a people 
 professing to recognize the principles of equal rights. .. We 
 shall review it as we pass along. Here it is : 
 
 "THE PLAGUE OF HOUSEKEEPERS. 
 
 " ' Help,' as English Trollopes say we call all domestic servants, 
 is a sore source of trouble to housekeepers throughout the free 
 States. 
 
 " Major Noah, in his last ' Messenger,' has one of his character- 
 istic editorials on this subject. Says he : 
 
 " We have found out the secret why servants plague the mistress 
 of the house almost to death, and why a first rate waiting girl in 
 England makes a most indifferent servant in America, viz : the free- 
 dom of our institutions, which not only applies to all callings and 
 occupations, but are assumed by all ; and all become infected with 
 liberty and equality the moment they touch our soil. The 'largest 
 liberty ' was not understood by our revolutionary fathers to extend 
 beyond political rights, and was not remotely intended to break 
 down the barriers of society. In England, a man will hire a groom 
 at a smaller salary, if you give him a handsome livery; in this 
 
J56 WORKING MAN S 
 
 country, you must increase your wages, if you wish your groom to 
 wear livery at all. This doctrine was exemplified recently in a 
 family advertising for a woman who could make herself generally 
 yseful; and among a number of applicants was an exceedingly pre- 
 possessing looking girl, neatly dressed, with a handsome, open coun- 
 tenance and ruddy complexion a taking face, as we may call it. 
 The lady said 
 
 " ' You are an English girl, I believe?' 
 
 " 'Yes, ma'am just arrived. Only been in the city two days; 
 have no acquaintance at all, and only wish to go to church Sunday 
 afternoons.' 
 
 " 'You have a recommendation, I suppose?' 
 
 " ' Yes, ma'am a seven years' character, and a recommendation 
 from our minister.' 
 
 " The documents being read, and all found genuine and satisfac- 
 tory, the lady asked what wages she would expect. 
 
 " ' Why, ma'am, the stewardess on board ship told me to ask 
 seven dollars a month. I had in London nine pounds a year.' 
 
 " ' Why, that is scarcely four dollars a month. Now I am wil- 
 ling to give six dollars, provided you would suit me. Having lived 
 so long in one place, you can remember what kind of work was 
 required of you?' 
 
 ** 'Oh, yes, ma'am, I was maid of all work.' 
 
 " 'Indeed! Let me hear what was required of you.' " 
 
 Then follows a long string of duties enumerated by the 
 girl, not necessary to insert here; after which the lady 
 asks 
 
 " * And did you get through with all this work?' 
 
 "'All, ma'am.' 
 
 " ' Well, if you do but half as much for me, I shall be satisfied. 
 You can come to-morrow.' 
 
 " At the end of a month, we asked the lady after her 'maid of 
 all work.' 
 
 " ' Oh, she went away in a fortnight said this was a free coun- 
 try, and she could not work herself to death.' " 
 
 Then follows the remarks of the editor of the Cincinnati 
 Chronicle, in the following words : 
 
 " This is the history of all servants. They arrive here with 
 every required qualification courteous, willing and valuable ; but 
 they soon become corrupted by example, and are taught rebellion 
 by their associates, and liberty and equality by their colleagues of 
 the kitchen and pantry. There are but few families in this country 
 
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 157 
 
 who keep a girl two or three years; whereas, in England, ten 5 ears 
 is no uncommon period for a servant to remain in one place. We 
 know of no remedy to correct the evil." 
 
 We have shown, in this work, that the aristocracy of the 
 civilized world have concocted and put into operation a 
 plan or system, by means of which the rich can keep their 
 poor brethren in perpetual bondage, poverty and misery, 
 and finally starve them to death ; and all this in accordance 
 with religion, morality and virtue. But if the poor do but 
 speak of liberty, or of equal rights, it is rebellion and trea- 
 son ! Producers of wealth, do you understand this? If 
 you do not, it is high time for you to look into the matter. 
 
 Is it so, that those who starve their fellow men to death, 
 are good and virtuous, and those that contend for equal 
 rights, are rebels and traitors ? Does religion and morality 
 teach this ? Surely not. Is it a virtue for the rich to rob 
 the poor, and a crime for the poor to rob the rich? 
 
 Now for the Major the great Major Noah. He says 
 that all foreigners become "infected with liberty and equal- 
 ity, the moment they touch our soil." Oh, horrible ! what 
 a loathsome disease to catch ; and people of all callings 
 and occupations catch it ! How sinful, how criminal, to 
 be infected with the ideas of liberty and equality ! Did 
 not the Major imbibe the infection himself? It is in ex- 
 treme bad taste for the Major to be so selfish. Again, the 
 gentleman says : " In England, a man will hire a groom at 
 a smaller salary, if you give him a handsome livery ; in 
 this country, you must increase his wages, if you wish your 
 groom to wear livery at all." Well, is it in any way sur- 
 prising that a man should want to be pretty well paid for 
 deliberately putting on a badge of servitude and degrada- 
 tion ? Not at all. He ought to insist on at least a thou- 
 sand dollars a year, for submitting to the indignity. The 
 Major himself, we think, would not do it for that sum, nor 
 for all Grand Island to boot. 
 
 " We know of no remedy to correct these evils," says the 
 editor of the Chronicle. Let the gentleman learn to re- 
 spect the rights and feelings of his fellow human beings ; 
 let him consider, that, although some may be servants, 
 they are still human beings, capable of suffering pain and 
 of enjoying pleasure like himself; that we are all children 
 if one common parent, having, naturally, the same rights 
 
158 .WORKING MAN'S 
 
 and responsibilities. It therefore behooveth him, as a good 
 Christian, to treat his servants kindly, and unto the father- 
 less be a father ; never forgetting that servants, as well as 
 others, will remain longest with those who use them best. 
 That celebrated Christian moral philosopher, the Rev 
 Dr. Paley, in his " Moral Philosophy," says : 
 
 " Our obligations to our servants are much greater than theirs are 
 to us. It is a mistake to suppose that the rich man maintains his 
 tradesmen, servants, tenants and laborers; the truth is, they main- 
 tain him. It is their industry which supplies his table, furnishes 
 his wardrobe, builds his houses, adorns his equipage, and provides 
 his amusements. It is not the estate, but the labor employed upon 
 it. that pays his rent. All that he does is to distribute [and con- 
 sume] what others produce." 
 
 Here, then, is authority which ought not to be despised 
 nor rejected ; and may the gentleman learn wisdom from 
 the lesson : do unto others as he would that others should 
 do unto him. 
 
 In the Cincinnati Chronicle of October 14th, 1845, will 
 be found an account of the World's Convention, held in 
 New York in the same year, from which we will make a 
 few extracts for the edification of National Reformers and 
 the working classes generally. The modest editor thus 
 remarks : 
 
 " The World's Convention ! what a sonorous name ! One would 
 think the mountains would bow their heads to listen, and the little 
 streams run mad to meet them. Well, what do you think the 
 World's Convention is? About one hundred and fifty persons, 
 with Robert Owen at their head, every man of whom might fairly 
 be mistaken for escaped madmen. [How amiable, how charitable, 
 how profound!] Now we notice them in order to give our readers 
 an [erroneous] idea of what sort of people they are, and what sort, 
 of reformation they propose to mankind. Take the following from 
 the proceedings : 
 
 " 'Mr. Evans, of the National Reformers and Anti-Renters, after 
 stating divers principles, the gist of his statement was in the follow- 
 ing items: 
 
 ' i 18. Constitutions and laws are binding only when in accord- 
 ance with natural rights. [Just so thought the heroes of 1776.] 
 
 " 19. The master-evil, in all nations called civilized the main 
 cause of poverty and its consequences, ignorance, misery and crime, 
 the sole cause of slavery of every grade, is the monopoly of the 
 
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 159 
 
 soil; and the leading measure of practical reform, in ail these 
 countries, is a restoration of the land to the people by political ac- 
 tion, or, in failure of that, by revolution. 
 
 ' * 20. The United States of North America are most favorably 
 circumstanced for a restoration of the soil ; and the most practical 
 measures for this purpose are, first, to limit the quantity of land to 
 be hereafter acquired by individuals or associations ; and second, 
 to prevent all further traffic in land by the government, and to make 
 the public lands free, on the principle proposed by the National Re- 
 form Association and its Auxiliaries throughout the United States.' " 
 
 The editor then says : 
 
 " These principles might be stated in a briefer form, thus : 
 
 " 1 . Laws are never binding when a savage chooses to break 
 
 them. [Instance, the savage heroes of 1776.] 
 
 "2. The leading measure of reform is to commence by a 
 
 WHOLESALE ROBBERY of every man who owns lands." 
 
 Now, candid reader, is there a sentiment anything like 
 this, even by the utmost stretch of implication, in the ar- 
 ticle quoted by himself, and of which the above is his tra- 
 vesty? But the strangest part of the business is, that this 
 editor wishes to be considered a man of truth and veracity. 
 Rather a curious way he has of making such an impres- 
 sion upon the minds of his readers. The language he him- 
 self makes use of in regard to the persons composing the 
 World's Convention, is extremely applicable to himself. 
 This very editor "might fairly be taken for an escaped 
 madman." " We thus notice " him, " in order to give our 
 readers " a correct " idea of what sort of" a gentleman he 
 is. The ' gentleman ' goes on with his travesty, thus : 
 
 " The United States of North America are very favorably cir- 
 cumstanced for the commencement of this wholesale robbery. 
 
 " These are certainly plain and frank propositions. [But the tra- 
 vesty a shameful misrepresentation.] This society of thieves could 
 not have stated them plainer, and, it is probable, would not have 
 been more honest." 
 
 Such, then, is a sample of the honest integrity of an 
 
 editor of a public paper, and such his lessons of moral 
 
 teaching. " The utmost charity that can be extended to " 
 
 such teachers, " is, that v are greater blGcJiiieaojs than 
 
 1J 
 
160 WORKING MAN'S 
 
 they are knaves. The utmost sympathy which they can 
 demand, is, that they should be placed under the curative 
 treatment of disordered minds." 
 
 And so it is : those self-styled friends of law and order 
 may rob the poor, the ignorant, the weak and defenceless, 
 of the elements of nature, and of the fruits of their labor 
 and toil reduce them to beggary, and, finally, starve them 
 to death, and yet be patterns of piety, lovers of justice, 
 and entitled to honor and respect ; while, if the poor 
 their oppressed and plundered victims do but endeavor 
 to devise a plan for the purpose of effecting a restoration 
 of their long-lost rights to a free use of the elements, and 
 the ownership of the fruits of their own labor, they are 
 stigmatized as villains, traitors, rebels, thieves and robbers. 
 Those self-styled friends of law and order may rest assured 
 that their days are numbered ; the end 01 their power and 
 influence is at hand ; they must shortly mend their ways, 
 or give place to other and better men ; themselves pass to 
 the shades of oblivion, and be numbered with the things 
 that were. 
 
 Producers of wealth, it is for you to decide who are the 
 greatest thieves and robbers : those who have deprived 
 you of God's elements, and stripped you of the fruits of } r our 
 industry, thereby making you beggars and paupers, or you 
 who suffer the injustice. How long will you suffer your- 
 selves to be cajoled and flattered by the cant and hypo- 
 crisy of your money-serving, false moral teachers ? Do you 
 not know that if a man is stolen from his land, he becomes 
 a slave ? and if the land is stolen from the man, he becomes 
 equally one ? Do you not know, that you have the same 
 right to the free use of the soil as you have to breathe the 
 atmosphere, or enjoy the light and heat from the sun? 
 Whoever has the right to make merchandise of the earth, 
 has an equal right to buy and sell your body ; and, without 
 the free use of the soil, no man can possibly exist a free- 
 man. Come, then, producers of wealth wake up, organ- 
 ize your forces, march boldly up to the ballot-boxes, and 
 strike the mighty blow : make the public lands free, and 
 every man's homestead inalienable, and half your work 
 of reform is done. 
 
 We conclude this chapter with a quotation from the Cin- 
 cinnati Chronicle, as before mentioned ; first premising that 
 many good men think that the editor stands about as pro- 
 
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 161 
 
 minent in the world as he considers " The World's Conven- 
 tion" did. At the commencement of his article, he says : 
 
 " Small [men or] things in this globe sometimes make as much 
 noise as great ones, as every one knows who has had a gnat about 
 his head in a summer night. It is not what these little ones do, so 
 much as what they say, that is annoying or troublesome. Pat, an 
 Irishman, was one night abusing the musquitoes. Some one said 
 he was surprised that he should care so much about a musquito bite. 
 4 Faith,' says Pat, * an' it isn't I that cares about the bite, if they 
 didn't brag so much.' So it is with the modern as well as the an- 
 cient pretenders to superior wisdom [and moral excellence.] They 
 never do anything [good,] but they brag so loud that we are obliged 
 to hear them." 
 
 Producers of wealth, let those little fellows bite and brag 
 on. Heed them not. Let them brand you as "rebels, 
 traitors, thieves and robbers ;" it is nothing but what you 
 may expect. It is consoling to reflect, however, that their 
 little venomous bills are being extracted by the dexterous 
 hand of Truth, and, ere long, will become as harmless as 
 young lambs or sucking doves. Let them have their way, 
 they can do us no harm nor themselves any good, by the 
 methods they have adopted to prevent the progress of " Na- 
 tional Reform." 
 
 To be sure, those little fellows the guardians of public 
 morals do not always write nonsense. As an instance, 
 the very best advice, and the proper course for " National 
 Reformers" to pursue, is correctly laid down in a number 
 of the very paper which stigmatizes them as " thieves and 
 robbers." It is as follows : 
 
 " Perform fearlessly what you believe to be right. Never mind 
 the opposition made by your enemies : they cannot har you. The 
 thrusts of those who hate or envy you, will never hurt you if you 
 are faithful to your duty. Let truth, justice and integrity, be on 
 your side, and you may resist a host : with these, one may chase a 
 thousand, and two can put ten thousand to flight." 
 
 In this chapter it has been clearly shown, that for the 
 poor to endeavor to devise a plan by which they may ob- 
 tain justice, is treason and rebellion ! but when the rich 
 devise a plan to starve the poor to death, it accords with 
 religion and morality ! 
 
162 WORKING MAN S 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 HOUSE RENT. 
 
 VERY few persons indeed are aware of the unjust and 
 oppressive nature of house rest. If you buy a coat, a hat 
 or a pair of shoes, you pay for them but once ; you have 
 the pleasure of wearing them out or of disposing of them, 
 at all times, as you please. Not so with a house. Sup- 
 pose you engage a hatter to make you a hat to cost six 
 dollars, and which would last you one year. Suppose, fur- 
 ther, if, on going for your hat, you could not pay the whole 
 amount down, and the hatter should offer to " accommo- 
 date" you with the use of the hat, on the following condi- 
 tions, viz : to pay him twenty-five cents per week, or one 
 dollar per month, for the use of the hat, and at the end of 1 
 the year return it to him, be it good or bad. You would, 
 no doubt, think it a very strange kind of proposition. But 
 't is not half so extravagant as the conditions imposed by 
 a landlord upon his tenants. At twenty-five cents per 
 week, the hat would amount to thirteen dollars ; at fifty 
 cents per month, only twelve dollars : double the cost price 
 of the hat. But, in the case of a house, the discrepancy 
 Between the cost price of the thing, and the amount ac- 
 tually paid for the use of it, is much greater. 
 
 Many houses rent for five hundred dollars a year, that 
 have not cost more than two thousand five hundred dol- 
 lars. All are aware of this. Now, about two per cent, 
 on the original cost will keep a well-built house in good 
 repair at least sixty years, and, at the end of that time, 
 will still be a house having some value ; and, in a good 
 business place, if sold, would bring twice, perhaps three 
 times the amount of money it cost, originally, to build it. 
 Five hundred dollars a year, in sixty years, will amount to 
 thirty thousand. And this sum will build twelve houses 
 equally as good as the one that thirty thousand dollars has 
 been paid for the use of! You see this is six times more 
 extravagant than the case of the hat the hatter getting 
 but two hats for the use of one, while the landlord gets 
 
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 
 
 twelve houses for the use of one. There must be some 
 great error somewhere, or such results could not be ef- 
 fected. The thing is too glaringly absurd ; because no- 
 thing neither a hat, nor a house, nor a dollar can ever 
 be worth more than itself. The just rent for the use of 
 anything, is an equivalent for whatever portion is used or 
 consumed by him that uses it no more. Anything de- 
 manded beyond this, is tyranny, oppression, cannibalism. 
 And if the laws making legal value in the elements were 
 abolished, and all men were alike free to compete with 
 each other on perfectly equal grounds, such instances of 
 injustice and tyranny (keeping the aggregate in view,) 
 could never be effected; because, the elements being 
 equally free to the use of all, no man would submit to the 
 imposition. At least one-half of the money paid in the 
 form of house rent, is predicated on the money value of 
 the land; which might as well be predicated upon the at- 
 mosphere, or the rays of the sun. Abolish, therefore, the 
 legal money value of the elements, and one-half the 
 tyranny and oppression of the world will at once cease. 
 
 We do affirm, and that, too, without fear of refutation, 
 that the grand source of all the evils of which the pro- 
 ducers of wealth have any just cause of complaint, arises 
 chiefly from the practice of governments in confounding 
 the elements of Nature with the products of human labor, 
 and by legalizing traffic in the elements alone, especially 
 in land and human flesh. It is the immediate cause of 
 Slavery in all its forms, and has filled the world with 
 crime and confusion. Furthermore, we affirm that the 
 capital of the world never could have been accumulated 
 into the few hands it is, but by the mighty power and in- 
 fluence of LAND MONOPOLY. This is the grand lever by 
 which it has been accomplished. Let the removal of this 
 bane of human happiness, be the first object to engage 
 the attention of "National Reformers," in their march of 
 progress, and millions yet unborn will have abundant cause 
 to rejoice in their victory 
 
)54 
 
 THE TEMPERANCE CAUSE. 
 
 It appears by the " Temperance Papers," that a move- 
 ment is being made among the friends of Temperance, to 
 combine their influence to procure the passage of a law 
 making the sale of ardent spirits criminal, on the ground 
 of its being destructive to human life and happiness. We are 
 not in the least disposed to controvert the position assumed 
 by those gentlemen, and not doubting but that the desire 
 to do it arises from the purest feelings of humanity, phi- 
 lanthropy and benevolence. But have they duly consid- 
 ered to what the introduction of such a principle would 
 lead? They surely would not stop at that point, but 
 would be consistent, and go on. Ail those who have ex- 
 amined the subject, are convinced that where the use of 
 ardent spirits destroys the happiness and life of one human 
 being, Land Monopoly destroys thousands. And at this mo- 
 ment the "Land Gods''' of Europe are starving the people 
 to death by millions. And, therefore, if it be criminal to 
 buy and sell ardent spirits, to buy and sell land must be a 
 thousand times more so. Now, if the gentlemen above 
 alluded to intend to carry out the proposed measure, let 
 them be consistent make it criminal to sell land, as well 
 as ardent spirits, and not " strain at a gnat and swallow a 
 camel." 
 
 There is another point which is worthy of consideration 
 about this matter, and is a fact that cannot be denied, that 
 a great portion of those who ruin themselves and families by 
 the use of ardent spirits perhaps nine out of every ten are 
 directly or indirectly driven or tempted into the practice by 
 the influence of "Land Monopoly," by allowing some to spend 
 their time in idle uselessness, and are thereby tempted to 
 dissipation, Satan always finding mischief for idle hands 
 to do; while many others are driven to the bottle by a 
 keen sensibility of their hard and toilsome lot, and desti- 
 tute condition, brought upon them by the stony heart and 
 iron hand of pauper-making " Land Monopoly" 
 
 Let us all, therefore, reflect deeply upon these things, 
 and if we come to the conclusion that there is wisdom in 
 making it criminal to sell ardent spirits, there will be much 
 more wisdom in making it criminal to sell land ; which all 
 men have the same right to use, that they have the atmos- 
 phere, without money and without price 
 
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 165 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 A WORK bearing the above title, published by Josiah 
 Warren, New Harmony, Indiana, has lately appeared be- 
 fore the public. The work professes to be, " A new de- 
 velopment of principles for the harmonious adjustment 
 and regulation of the pecuniary, intellectual and moral 
 intercourse of mankind, proposed as elements of new so- 
 ciety." The author of this work, and myself, appear to 
 have the same object in view, namely, to show the means 
 by which the producers of wealth may secure to them- 
 selves the free use of the elements, and the products of 
 their own labor, or their equivalents. I feel it, therefore, 
 a duty I owe to my fellow men, to take some notice of his 
 work. 
 
 If Mr. Warren has solved the whole problem of man's 
 * moral, social, and political relations, then my remarks will 
 be supererogatory. But if he has not, and I should be so 
 fortunate as to throw some light upon the subject, I shall 
 consider myself as amply rewarded by the reflection, that 
 my humble efforts have not been exercised in vain. I dis- 
 claim all desire or intention of injuring Mr. Warren, my 
 only object being a development of truth ; and of this, 
 surely, the gentleman will not complain, especially when 
 he considers that we are both engaged in the same righteous 
 cause. He must, therefore, consider me not as an enemy, 
 but as a friendly co-worker. Let all persons read both 
 sides ; then judge for themselves, as I am perfectly willing 
 these observations may go for what they are worth : truth, 
 being stronger than error, will, therefore, prevail. 
 
 I cheerfully indorse all that Mr. Warren has said in re-. 
 gard to governments having utterly failed to accomplish 
 the end they have pretended to have had in view, namely, 
 the security of person and property the history of go- 
 vernments in general being but the history of the legal 
 methods of committing the most glaring outrages and vio- 
 lations of right and justice. Money, also, in consequence 
 
1 66 W O R K I N G M A N ' 3 
 
 of being accumulated in the hands of the few, has been 
 converted into a terrible engine of tyranny and oppression. 
 This, no one will deny. In order to cast off the shackles 
 imposed upon us by tlie means of government and money, 
 Mr. Warren proposes to reject and disregard both, which 
 is as impossible to do, as it is to refuse to breathe the at- 
 mosphere which surrounds us. Nothing would please dis- 
 honest law-makers and public rulers better, than for the 
 honest producers to become disgusted with the use of the 
 ballot-box, and permit their lordships to do all the voting. 
 This is the very thing they want ; and, to prove this, let 
 the reader turn to Judge Hall's address, page 51 of this 
 work.* But for the producers to do this, would be as in- 
 judicious as would a shepherd who should draw oif his 
 sturdy watch dogs from guarding his flock of sheep, when 
 he knew, at the same time, that a gang of hungry wolves 
 were watching for a favorable moment to iall upon and 
 destroy them. No, no, producers of wealth ; in the ballot- 
 box lies your only hope. To attempt to step aside from 
 the influence of government, would be as inconsistent as 
 an individual who, having in Eis house a set of .lawless 
 rowdies, tearing and breaking his property to pieces, should 
 say to them, Gentlemen, I insist on individual sovereignty, 
 and therefore have the sole right to control my own per- 
 son and property, and will not submit to your injustice ; 
 then creep under the ced, leaving the rowdies a clear board. 
 
 Shall we reject the use of money, because governments 
 and a crafty few have used it for evil purposes ? This is 
 a strange conclusion to come to, surely. With the same 
 propriety we might reject almost everything that is calcu- 
 lated to promote the happiness of man. For what infa- 
 mous purposes have governments and the crafty few made 
 use of iron, in the form of warlike implements; by the use 
 of which, men have been set to butcher each other by 
 thousands upon thousands, and the earth made to flow in 
 rivers of blood? yet this is no reason why we should re- 
 ject the use of it. 
 
 Gold and silver, like all other substances, are capable of 
 being used for good or for evil ; and, so soon as the mass 
 of the people understand the real nature of them, they 
 will be used for good, and the happiness and well-being of 
 mankind will be promoted by the use of them ; but so long 
 
 * Working Man's Political Economy. 
 
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 167 
 
 as the mass are ignorant of the subject, gold and silver 
 will be made use of by the crafty few, as an engine of ex- 
 tortion, tyranny and oppression. Mr. Warren says, page 37 : 
 
 "As we cannot carry flour, shoes, carpentering, brick-work, 
 store-keeping, &c., about with us, to exchange for what we want, 
 we require somsthing which represents these, which representative 
 we can always carry with us. This representative of property 
 should be our circulating medium. Theorists have said that money 
 was this representative, but it is not." 
 
 Demagogues have told us that it is; but not those who 
 understand the subject. Further, he says : 
 
 "A dollar represents nothing whatever but itself, nor can it be 
 made to. At no time is it any demand on any one for any quan- 
 tity of any kind of property or labor whatever." 
 
 Suppose that, instead of using the word dollar, we say 
 one ounce of silver, we shall understand the subject better; 
 then, if one ounce of silver is at no time a demand on any 
 one for property or labor, neither is a bushel of wheat. 
 But if a bushel of wheat is a demand for as much labor 
 as it costs to produce it, then is an ounce of silver a de- 
 mand for as much labor as it costs to produce it, both, on 
 an average, being of about the same commercial value. 
 An ounce of silver is the embodiment of the quantity of 
 labor necessary to produce it, like the wheat in that re- 
 spect ; but the silver, being much less weighty, much less 
 bulky, and will last much longer, is, therefore, much more 
 convenient to carry with us, instead of " flour, shoes, car- 
 pentering, brick-work, store-keeping, &c.," to exchange 
 for other products of labor. An ounce of silver is posi- 
 tive payment ; it is not necessary to inquire who is the is 
 suer of it, where does he live, what is his character, state 
 of his health, &c., which would be the case when we re- 
 ceive a " labor note" Neither is it necessary to stamp upon 
 it " Not transferable" Again Mr. Warren says : 
 
 " At one time a dollar [or an ounce of silver] will procure two 
 bushels of potatoes; at another time* three bushels; at another 
 time, four. It has no definite value at any time." 
 
 The same can be said of a bushel of wheat; it will 
 
168 WORKING MAN'S 
 
 generally purchase from three to four bushels of potatoes, 
 without the intervention of money ; yet I have seen the 
 time when a bushel of wheat, or three of Indian corn, 
 would not purchase one bushel of potatoes ; yet the farmer 
 who raised and sold the potatoes at this high price, was 
 not so well paid for his labor as when he got but one-fourth 
 of the price, or, in other words, one-fourth the quantity of 
 other products of labor. Therefore, (according to Mr. 
 Warren's philosophy,) a bushel of wheat " represents no- 
 thing whatever but itself; nor can it be made to. At no time 
 is it any demand on any one for any quantity of any kind of 
 property or labor whatever" But the true philosophy in re- 
 gard to this matter is this : A bushel of wheat is the em- 
 bodiment of the quantity of la,bor necessary to produce it, 
 and it is precisely the same thing in respect to an ounce 
 of silver, or a dollar. Either of them, therefore, is posi- 
 tive payment for something that has cost the same amount 
 of labor; not a promise, obligation, nor representative; but 
 bona fide property, each in its peculiar form, and are justly 
 equivalent in exchange for the same amount of property 
 in any other form. The idea that money is only a repre- 
 sentative of property, is, therefore, a delusion, and works 
 more mischief and confusion in the affairs of mankind, 
 perhaps, than any other error. The fluctuations in the 
 commercial value of the various products of labor, arise 
 from various causes, and which mostly exist in the nature 
 of things, and although may be considerably counteracted 
 by intelligence, prudence and foresight, cannot, perhaps, 
 by human wisdom, be entirely removed. 
 
 Those products of labor which are most liable to rot, or 
 destruction, are, in direct proportion, subject to fluctuation, 
 in all cases where the demand has been either over or 
 under supplied ; and this consequence cannot be prevented, 
 whether we estimate those products immediately by the 
 quantity of labor embodied in them, or remotely by money, 
 which retains, without loss, to a much greater length of 
 time, the original quantity of labor bestowed upon its pro- 
 duction, than any other thing. 
 
 Gold and silver having the natural property of retaining 
 the quantity of labor originally invested in them much 
 longer than property in any other form, is one of the prin- 
 cipal reasons why they are a more appropriate circulating 
 medium, than any other thing, notwithstanding what Mr. 
 
POLITICAL ECONOMY. J6D 
 
 Warren says to the contrary. Neither does money "re- 
 present robbery, banking, gambling, swindling, counter- 
 feiting, &c.," as he says, than does " a labor note," which 
 is a thing that bears ; he suspicion of fraud upon the very 
 face of it, and is, in itself, a perfect absurdity. A circula- 
 ting medium not transferable!! This is just like the wagon 
 a man made "for to go," and it would have went "for to 
 go" if the maker of it had not nailed all the wheels fast 
 to the axle trees. Mr. Warren seems not to be aware 
 that all the products of labor derive their exchangable 
 value from the quantity of labor required lo produce them 
 gold and silver included and that the natural tendency 
 of exchangable value (or price) is to gravitate toward the 
 cost of production; and men never would have conducted 
 their exchanges on any other principle ban equal amounts 
 of cost. If governments had not mac^ private property 
 in the elements legal, nor had interfered with the personal 
 operations of individuals, the mere instincts of Nature 
 would have prevented it. All this I have fully demon- 
 strated, as I am confident, in the seventh chapter of this 
 work, to which I refe): Mr. Warren, hoping he will read it 
 carefully and critically ; and if the principles there laid 
 down are not agreeable to truth, it is a duty he owes to 
 the public, and a compliment due to myself, for him to ex- 
 pose and make manifest the errors and fallacies thereof. 
 
 At page 76 of his work, he gives "a picture" of a " La- 
 bor Note " the first line of which reads thus: "Not trans- 
 ferable"; next, the following mottoes: "Cost, the limit of 
 Price," " Labor for Labor" Now, this is only saying the 
 same thing twice over ; but is, nevertheless, the announce- 
 ment of a great and important truth ; and, as I have said 
 before, if governments had not usurped the ownership of 
 the elements, thereby checking the natural operation of 
 free competition, mankind never could have cond acted 
 their exchanges on any other principle, it is the natural, 
 therefore the just, no matter whether they had used money 
 or not. History informs us, that the original intent of 
 stamping money was merely to indicate the quantity (by 
 weight) and the fineness of the metal composing the pieces, 
 the object being merely to save the time and labor ne^es- 
 sary to weigh and assay it every time it changed hauas. 
 
 Next on the note, these words appear, namely : 
 
170 WORKING MAN'S 
 
 "Due the bearer, , one hour's, labor in house rent, ot 
 
 twenty pounds of corn." 
 
 In regard to this note, Mr. Warren remarks 
 
 " This addition to the note enables us not only to compare one 
 laboi with another, but it gives the signer of it an alternative, in 
 case it is not convenient for him to give his labor on demand 
 There can be as many of these alternatives (all being equal in 
 value,) as the responsible person chooses to attach to his note." 
 
 Now, the whole announcement amounts to nothing more 
 than this, that if one man owes another a debt, and it is 
 not convenient to pay in his own services, he can pay in 
 something else of equal value ; that is, if the creditor is 
 willing to receive it. All these things were well known 
 long before the invention of " labor notes " ; but is it not 
 strange that the gentleman would exclude from the " alter- 
 natives" gold and silver? Surely it is; especially when 
 we consider that gold or silver is the almost everlasting 
 embodiment of the labor necessary to produce it, and is 
 positive payment, while a " Labor Note" is payment for 
 nothing; it is but a promise to pay, at some future time, 
 if the drawer happened to live long enough, never got 
 sick, and was perfectly honest. Truly, the ingenuity and 
 refinement of this credit system beats the banking system 
 all hollow ; a bank note at least being transferable, though, 
 like the " labor note," it is payment for nothing; and the 
 making of it a substitute for gold and silver, as a circula- 
 ting medium, is one of the most outrageous violations of 
 right and justice that has ever "been imposed upon poor 
 credulous man. Mr. Warren says, " we want a circulating 
 medium that is a definite representative of a definite 
 quantity of property." Further, he tells us that the draw- 
 er of a " labor note " may insert in it any alternative he 
 chooses (provided they are equivalents.) Now, suppose 
 he should insert in it, " at one time, a man ; at another, a 
 monkey; then a gourd"; then say of it, "a picture that 
 would represent " such things, " would be just as legiti- 
 mate and fit for a portrait, as a "labor note" is fit for a 
 u circulating medium." This is what Mr. Warren says of 
 "common money" ; but the logic of the argument is much 
 more applicable to a labor promissory note, than that 
 
F O L r T I C A L ECONOMY. 171 
 
 money which contains within itself, everlastingly embo- 
 died, the quantity of labor originally invested in it and is 
 bona fide payment. A circulating medium having the last 
 mentioned property, is much preferable to any representa- 
 tive whatever. Mr. Warren proposes that labor notes be 
 put in competivion with money, and thinks that they will 
 finally supersede the use of it. 
 
 This will take place when people discover that the pro- 
 mise of a thing which is dependent upon various contin- 
 gencies, is preferable to the positive possession of it, and 
 I am confident the skulls of the people are too thick to be 
 susceptible of imbibing such a transcendental idea it is 
 so far above the comprehension of common minds. So 
 the possessors of " filthy lucre " need not be alarmed at 
 fehe sight of a " labor note," the mass being too stupid to 
 take advantage of its own wonderful power and influence. 
 
 Mr. Warren says, page 73, that when the system of 
 Equitable Commerce, which he advocates, is put into ope- 
 ration, such a power will be started into existence, which 
 will be perfectly irresistible, and that all the deep-laid 
 plans, the wordy warfare, and the bitterest hostility of the 
 strongest opposers of reformation, "must become as chaff be- 
 fore the wind" &c. Again, same page, 
 
 "No one can sell house 'ois for five thousand dollars, while any 
 one will sell them of equal value for five dollars." 
 
 "No one can sell coffee for sixteen cents a pound, where any 
 one will sell it equally good for ten cents." 
 
 "No one can get five dollars per hour for \\Mting the sick, when 
 another, whose services are equally valuable, can be obtained for 
 an equivalent." 
 
 " No lawyer can get a hundred dollars per hour, when another 
 will do the business as well for an equal amount of labor." 
 
 Here are four declarations, the truth of which no rational 
 person would attempt to dispute, they are all in accord- 
 ance with the laws which govern our nature. But there 
 is another side to this subject; and here follows four other 
 declarations, which are equally true, and are equally in 
 accordance with the laws which govern human nature. 
 
 First. No one will sell house-lots for five dollars apiece, 
 when he can just as easily get five thousand for the same. 
 
172 
 
 Second. No one will sell coffee for ten cents a pound, 
 when he can just as easily get sixteen for the same. 
 
 Third. No one will take one equivalent for an hour's 
 service, when he can just as easily get from a hundred to 
 a thousand for the same amount of service. 
 
 Fourth. No lawyer will take an equal amount of labor 
 in exchange for his own cervices, when he could just as 
 easily obtain five hundred times that amount! He would 
 be an idiot if he did, and so would all the rest. 
 
 Now, is it possible that a sane individual would seriously 
 make such a strange proposition to mankind? The pro- 
 position lies before me, in the book. But stranger still are 
 the inducements held out to draw people into the adoption 
 of these arrangements. 
 
 We are gravely told that " any number, of any profes- 
 sion, (which is likely to be wanted,) can be qualified in 
 from two to three years." And what is the reward offered 
 for this two or three years' expensive devotion to intense 
 study, loss of time, &c.? He shall have the privilege of re- 
 ceiving one five-hundredth part of the reward he could get out- 
 side tkis enchanted circle. -Will men thus make martyrs of 
 themselves? Experience says no, most emphatically. 
 
 Where, then, is that great army of martyrs to come from, 
 that can accomplish the result contemplated by Mr. War- 
 ren? The rich can never have a motive to embrace these 
 arrangements; the poor may; but where is the necessary 
 capital to come from? "Labor notes" are not capital. 
 Capital is labor already performed, and condensed into 
 some permanent form. But a labor note is but a promise 
 to perform some labor at some future time, dependent on 
 various contingencies, and, therefore, can neither do the 
 offices, nor enter into competition with capital, no more 
 than can common promissory notes payable in money. 
 
 Let the reader now turn back and examine those four 
 pair of declarations, which are all true; look at the cans 
 and the wills in deadly array against each other; examine 
 them carefully and critically, and tell us, if he can, by what 
 means those discordant elements can be amalgamated and 
 formed into a system that will carry on the commercial 
 concerns of mankind successfully and harmoniously, and, 
 at the same time, shield and protect the down-trodden 
 producer from the overwhelming and oppressive influence 
 gf money and governments, even supposing it to be only 
 
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 173 
 
 among a select few, determined to step aside from general 
 society, and agree to put in practice the labor for labor 
 principle. 
 
 We shall, perhaps, be told that such a result can be ac- 
 complished by the intervention of "labor notes." Let us 
 suppose a select few gather themselves within a certain 
 circle, but surrounded outside by vhe worshippers of " filthy 
 lucre." Let them issue their ..abor notes ; what will be the 
 consequence, premising, however, that no one is pledged 
 or obligated to act, in any particular manner, different 
 from what their interests would prompt them, all being 
 "independent sovereigns" ? Now, will not these sovereigns 
 act like other men ? Surely they will. Now, suppose one 
 of them has a wife or child taken sick, and must have a 
 nurse, and one is not to be had within the pale, he will, 
 therefore, be obliged to get one from among the Philistines. 
 All within the pale having a sovereign contempt for the 
 use of money, it is not likely any money could be had to 
 pay the nurse with, when through with her job. Now, 
 how does he pay her? with a labor note, promising to 
 give as many hours of his own labor as she served him? 
 Surely it could not be less; having laid it down as a rule, 
 that anything less would be injustice, he would not do 
 that, surely. Would it not be very natural, that if this 
 " independent sovereign" should happen to have labor 
 notes drawn by others, would he not, rather than give his 
 own, give them? This would certainly be all very natural ; 
 there could be nothing criminal in it. If we pay in money, 
 it makes no difference from whom we receive it a dollar 
 being but a dollar ; an hour's labor being but an hour's 
 labor. The nurse would, no doubt, be glad to take it, es- 
 pecially if she knew the value of it; because, among the 
 Philistines, she could get an advance of two or three hun- 
 dred per cent, above what it cost her ; consequently, some 
 day the independent sovereign who drew the note, would 
 be called upon by a man of the outer world, and be com- 
 pelled to devote his physical energies to the purpose of 
 promoting some cannibal scheme of speculation. So in 
 drawing his "labor note," he had only set a gull-trap to 
 catch himself 1 
 
 Now, suppose a great many such transactions take place 
 none looking to the final result what will be the con- 
 sequence ? In the course of time, they will discover that 
 
174 VORKING MAN 8 
 
 they have only been betraying one another into the hands 
 of Satan, the common enemy; caught in their own toils; 
 brought back to that very state of bondage from which 
 they had fled, having fondly anticipated that the circula- 
 tion of "labor notes''' would not only enable them to abun- 
 dantly supply their wants, but likewise shield them from 
 all harm. Whoever, therefore, attempts the practice, is 
 fated to be disappointed. It must be evident, that labor 
 notes circulated beyond the limits of the co-operators, can 
 work nothing but injury to those within; and within the 
 pale they are perfectly useless, because all the internal in- 
 tercourse can be carried on just as well without as with 
 them, by keeping accounts against each other; and when 
 the parties settle, those who may be in debt pay up the 
 balance, either in money, or labor, as the parties could 
 agree. For the truth of this statement, I appeal to Mr. 
 Warren himself. 
 
 Here I must put a query to him, and he may either an- 
 swer or not, just as he thinks fit. I have no desire to in- 
 terfere with his "individual sovereignty." In the year 
 1833, a small experimental community of some half dozen 
 families, (Mr. Warren and myself included,) was esta- 
 blished, for the purpose of carrying out the labor for labor 
 principle, and from the start the use of "labor notes" was 
 proscribed by the associates; and during the whole time I 
 staid there, which was about three years, I believe, I never 
 saw a labor note pass between any of the parties. 
 We had ceased the practice of "equitable commerce" long 
 before I left. Now the query is this, Why were the " la- 
 bor notes" suppressed? To speak figuratively was it to 
 prevent the saints from having the power of delivering 
 their associates into the hands of the cruel Philistines? or 
 was it not ? 
 
 I am not anxious to have this query solved on my own 
 account, but for the benefit of those who read his book. 
 I have been asked the question by some of them ; they 
 want to know; and no man is better qualified to solve 
 this little mystery, than Mr. Warren himself. 
 
 Another thing the readers of Mr. Warren's book want 
 to know, is, why, in that " picture " of a " labor note," that 
 is capable of representing, with the greatest truthfulness, 
 almost everything under the sun, he has placed in the most 
 conspicuous part of it, the words " not transferable" ? Is it 
 
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 175 
 
 to prevent the evil just now spoken of? or is it not? If 
 it is, then why not put on the appropriate words, Net to 
 circulate; then nobody would be deceived or deluded by it. 
 But if it is not, why fasten a dead weight to it, sufficient 
 to sink it in public estimation, so as to render it perfectly 
 useless? Furthermore, is it right to attempt to palm upon 
 our credulous, good feeling, and honest-intentioned fellow 
 men, a circulating medium bearing upon the face of it a 
 declaration forbidding people to use it for that purpose? 
 It is plain to be seen, that if people did so use it, it would 
 be at their own risk ; for the drawer of it, by this dexterous 
 mano3uvre, would absolve himself from all legal responsi- 
 bility. " Prove all things ; hold fast that which is good," 
 is an excellent maxim, and a good rule of action. Re- 
 formers ^enerally, on discovering that most of the evils 
 which mankind suffer, are attributable to the power and 
 influence of money and governments, have been desirous 
 of casting off, at once, the slavish chains that fettered and 
 bound them. It is no wonder, then, that they have eagerly 
 grasped at anything that had the appearance of ennabling 
 them to pass at once from a state of injustice, oppression 
 and misery, into one of justice, freedom and happiness. 
 They have been sensible to the misery around them; they 
 have beheld the promised land at a distance, and have 
 sought to reach it by the shortest possible cut, thereby 
 overlooking the only available and practicable means by 
 which the passage can be effected ; and the very simplicity 
 of the only practicable means is, perhaps, the principal 
 reason why it has been so difficult to discover. It has 
 been in accordance with the above view, that Mr. Warren 
 proposes to make this short and pleasant passage by means 
 of his "labor notes"; but this vessel will never carry us 
 across the mighty gulf. He has been obliged, by th e na- 
 ture of things, to load her so heavily, that if we do but 
 analyze the cargo, and observe well the build of the craft, 
 all thinking persons will be convinced she would sink at 
 the moment of leaving the shore. 
 
 Mr. Warren says, page 69 : " By dispensing with go- 
 vernments, we shake off the greatest invaders of human 
 rights the very nightmare of society." This is true ; no- 
 thing could be more so. But government is not like a gar- 
 ment, that can be thrown off at pleasure, without injury 
 to the body which it covers; but is more like the skin, 
 12 
 
176 
 
 which, to strip from the body, would produce instant death, 
 and to do this ourselves, would be nothing less than sui- 
 cide. Therefore, to throw off the shackles of government 
 at a blow, is impossible ; it can only be done by degrees, 
 by the prudent use and management of the very instru- 
 ments by which we are tortured, and which enthusiastic, 
 though well-meaning reformers, contemptuously reject and 
 despise altogether, namely : money and governments. By 
 these means, our progress will be certain and sure ; when 
 a step is once gained in this way, from it we cannot retro- 
 grade, but must move forward to the next in order. This 
 course being in conformity to the immutable laws of Na- 
 ture, is the only course we can pursue with any reasonable 
 prospect of success. And whoever attempts to reform so- 
 ciety by any other method, is fated to suffer chagrin, mor- 
 tification and disappointment. 
 
 The individual operations and interests of mankind are 
 so intimately and inseparably connected and interwoven, 
 and our dependence so mutual, that continual close per- 
 sonal contact is absolutely unavoidable; it therefore be- 
 hooveth us to make this contact as pleasant and as agreea- 
 ble as possible, by scrupulously respecting the rights and 
 feelings of each other, and exercising charity to the ut- 
 most. Let us endeavor to smoothe the thorny path of life, 
 make the best use we can of the world while we are in it, 
 and, for our final deliverance from the bondage of tyranny 
 and oppression, let us cheerfully, patiently wait. 
 
 How is it possible for us to strike off at once those gall- 
 ing chains that so intimately connect us with money and 
 governments? When it must be evident to all, that those 
 who have heretofore controlled those irresistible engines, 
 have fastened their grappling irons upon our property, and 
 their tenter hooks into the flesh of our bodies, into the 
 marrow of our bones aye, even into our very iieart strings, 
 and to sever these at a blow could but cause certain, in- 
 stantaneous death. Therefore, the only course left for us 
 to pursue, is to cut off one at a time, by means of the bal- 
 lot-box ; give the patient (the body politic) time to recover 
 from the operation ; then strike off another ; and so con- 
 tinue on, until the individual man stands forth unshackled 
 and free; then he can afford to be just, be virtuous and 
 good ; therefore, happy. Cheerfully, patiently wait. We may 
 
POLITICAL ECONOMY 177 
 
 then begin to think about the individual sovereignty of 
 man; not till then. 
 
 One of the greatest natural curiosities of the world is, 
 that the truth in regard to our moral, social and political 
 relations, has been so near to us, that our mental vision 
 has been completely blinded and confounded by its very 
 nearness, like the Irishman who declared he could not see 
 the town for the houses. Let us, therefore, one and all, 
 open our eyes, our ears, and our understandings. 
 
 Mr. Warren, in conclusion, says, page 74 : 
 
 " It is hoped that some who are capable of correct reasoning, 
 will undertake to investigate, and (if they can find a motive,) to 
 oppose Equitable Commerce, and ti.ereby discover and expose the 
 utter imbecility, the surprising weakness of any opposition that can 
 le brought against it" 
 
 In compliance, therefore, with said invitation, the fore- 
 going observations arc offered as a specimen of the exposure 
 of " the utter imbecility, the surprising weakness of the opposi- 
 tion that can be brought against" the contents of his book; 
 not against "Equitable Commerce," but against the intro- 
 duction of "labor notes" as a circulating medium. And 
 the motive that prompted them, was a desire to prevent 
 the spread of error and delusion, and promote the cause 
 of truth. And of this, Mr. Warren would be the last man 
 in the world to complain. " They are presented for calm 
 study and honest inquiry ; and, having placed them fairly 
 before" him and "the public, I shall leave them to be esti- 
 mated by each individual, according to the particular 
 measure of his understanding, and shall offer no violence 
 to his individuality, by any attempt to restrain or to urge 
 him beyond it." As to controversy, I am ready for that in 
 any shape or form. 
 
 JOHN PICKERING 
 
 Cincinnati, Ohio, " U. S. A.," August 4th, 1847. 
 
 ADDINDA. As some objections have been made to some parts of this chapter, a little 
 explanation is necessary. At page 172, after the query, "Will men thus make martyrs ef 
 themselves? " add, in the aggregate; the reader will then have a correct understanding of 
 the- author's meaning. We all well know that individuals, sometimes, under the influ- 
 ence of a new imbibed idea, become 'nfatuated. and, under that influence, are very apt to 
 do things which their " sober second thoughts" would by no means approve of. Under 
 such circumstances, then, it cannot be truly said that they act in accordance with the laws 
 of human nature, but are mere aberrations thereof. Add the same to each of the four pre- 
 ceding declarations. 
 
178 WORKING 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 IT has been clearly shown, in the foregoing pages, that 
 the present organization of society is one of injustice, and 
 is based upon fundamentally false notions (not principles.) 
 Because men do not accumulate property in proportion to 
 their industry; but, on the contrary, those who are the 
 makers or producers of all things, save the elements, are 
 the owners of nothing, (virtually) not even of their own 
 bodies. While, on the other hand, those who make or pro- 
 duce nothing, become the owners of all things, including 
 the elements, and also the bodies of the producers. And 
 when this false system of civilization has reached the ze- 
 nith of perfection, the grand result is, the idle few become 
 inordinately rich; the industrious arc starved to death. Aye, 
 those very individuals who created, by their labor and toil, 
 those very inordinate riches ! 
 
 Now, this is a startling announcement; but it is, never- 
 theless, true ; the history of civilization proves it ; the fact 
 stares us in the face; in fact, no one would have the har- 
 dihood to deny it. Therefore, any system of laws which 
 brings about these results, must be FALSE. Because the 
 statistics of various countries show most conclusively that 
 the physical ability of any number cf inhabitants, in any 
 country, is sufficient to create an abundance of the pro- 
 ducts of labor, for the supply of many times their own 
 number. Thus, England is able to clothe the whole world, 
 and America could be made to furnish all its bread stuffs. 
 Therefore, it never can be necessary, in order to promote 
 the prosperity of a country, to starve the poor producers 
 to death. The statistics of the world gives the lie direct 
 to any such assertion. There is also another reason why 
 such a state of things need not exist, and that is, the ele- 
 ments of Nature are amply sufficient to sustain more than 
 twenty times the number of inhabitants now occupying 
 the earth. For a solution of the existence of the myste- 
 rious fact, that in proportion as the ability of a nation to 
 
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 179 
 
 create such things as are necessary for man's existence, is 
 increased, the more destitute and poverty-stricken becomes 
 the majority of its inhabitants, is to be sought for in the 
 violation of some law or laws of Nature, which experi- 
 ence proves cannot be done with impunity. 
 
 We have endeavored to show what that violation is, and 
 contend that the primary cause of all the moral and social 
 evils of society arise from that false principle incorporated 
 into all so-called "civilized governments," of legalizing pri- 
 vate and exclusive property in the elements ef Nature. In other 
 words, in preventing by law the free and equal use of all the 
 elements to all mankind, and in preventing the operation of com- 
 petition by arbitrary law. This great violation of the law of 
 immutable justice, being once established by law, becomes 
 the grand source of war, of slavery of every kind, of in- 
 justice, tyranny and oppression, and every grade of crime 
 and misery. In short, it has converted this beautiful earth 
 which God has placed us upon, with abundant means to 
 make it a paradise, into a tower of Babel, a den of thieves 
 and robbers, a world full of continual strife and contention. ; 
 
 Now, this proposition is true, or it is not. If it be not 
 true, then i> our labor in vain ; this book goes for naught; 
 it is not worth a single straw the whole resting upon this 
 single proposition. But it must be true; and that is irre- 
 sistibly self-evident, from the following considerations : Is 
 it the duty of government to prevent one man from killing 
 another? O, certainly, certainly, would be the instanta- 
 neous response of every human being: nothing could be 
 more self-evident. If, then, government has this right, and 
 is its duty to prevent murder, where does it get the right * 
 to make the distinction between killing instantly, by shoot- 1 
 ing, or cutting his throat, and by killing him slowly by star- 
 vation ? From where did government derive the power 
 of making one of these modes of killing a crime, and the 
 other a virtue? You that know, tell us; it is your duty; 
 the people want to understand these things. 
 
 Is it not a glaring fact, staring us in the face, that, in 
 consequence of this fatal error, the element monopolizers 
 of Europe are starving the people to death by thousands;' 
 and those very "gentlemen," who thus starve the people, 
 to death, and those who justify and uphold the system,! 
 have the unblushing hardihood to declare that this calamity 1 
 is a visitation from God, an unavoidable dispensation of 
 Providence, when they well know it is but the work of 
 
180 <r OR KING MAN'S 
 
 their own murderous hands. What impiety, what out- 
 rageous blasphemy. This result has been the work of de 
 liberate calculation, as we have proved by quotations from 
 several of their books. They have declared to the world 
 that they had a right to bring about this very calamity. 
 
 But the most surprising part of this business is, that al- 
 though this famine, with its consequent misery, is a direct 
 visitation from God, we should be called upon to resist his 
 decrees and counteract his operations; to exercise OUR piety, 
 charity and benevolence, and attempt to rescue and deliver 
 from the horrors of famine those miserable wretches whom 
 God, in his wisdom and goodness, had purposely placed in 
 that condition. Is not this calling upon us to fight against 
 God, and to resist his will? Surely it is. But the climax 
 of the absurdity is this, that we are to counteract the pur- 
 poses of God by our own superior charity and benevolence. 
 What modesty ! These " paradoxical and unnatural " doc- 
 trines have been forced upon mankind, for the purpose ot 
 confounding their intellects, to prevent them from having 
 a clear view of the fatal consequences of land monopoly' 
 and by those who have been well paid for that service. 
 But if they can give us no better, nor a more rational 
 view of the Infinite Divine, the Great Jehovah, they had 
 better close their lips in everlasting silence. Thus have 
 the blind led the blind, and all have fallen into the ditch 
 of misery together. 
 
 If those millions of miserable wretches must be killed 
 off in the name of justice and mercy; in the name of 
 every ennobling and philanthropic feeling of the human 
 heart, why not shoot them at once, rather than kill them 
 by the lingering, painful, horrible, heart-rending process 
 of starvation ? Would it not be better a thousand times? 
 Let the voice of humanity answer the question. 
 
 The advocates of these "paradoxical and unnatural in- 
 stitutions" generally take shelter behind this argument 
 that inasmuch as God did not prevent the occurrence of 
 this famine, it is, therefore, in accordance with his will. 
 This argument might satisfy some minds; but, honest 
 reader, does it satisfy yours? One man shoots another, 
 stabs another, kills him instantly. God does not prevent 
 it. Is it, therefore, his will? Would you dare say it? 
 Think you, if those famishing millions in Europe were al- 
 lowed to cultivate the land they now stand upon, and per- 
 
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 181 
 
 mitted to consume the fruits of their toil, they would perish ' 
 by starvation ? Could a famine have happened ? It must 
 be obvious to all, that no such catastrophe could possibly 
 have taken place. 
 
 Could Slavery, in any form, exist, if all men had the 
 equal use of the elements? It could ^not. Neither could 
 wars exist between one nation and another, property in 
 land being either directly or indirectly the only pretext for 
 them. It is the cause of our present war with Mexico, 
 and all other wars. Remove the cause, then the effect 
 will cease, as a matter of course; but not till then. We 
 may abuse, villify and anathematize the individuals who 
 bring them about, and those engaged in their prosecution, 
 till our tongues be blistered, and our pens worn to the 
 stump: we shall not abate the evil in the least; but, on 
 the contrary, will be only increasing the difficulty. Be- 
 cause the iirst mentioned act from a feeling of zealous 
 pride, under the idea of making their country great by ex- 
 tending her borders ; of commanding respect from foreign 
 nations; and of making their country richer by the posses- 
 sion of more land. And the latter act from the love of 
 command, the prospect of "winning glory," pocketing 
 good pay; of getting a living in that peculiar way, in pre- 
 ference to any other : lastly, to obtain one hundred and sixty 
 acres of land. 
 
 Therefore, if governments had not legalized property in 
 land, but the elements had been free to the use of all, no 
 such motives could have existed ; or, if they had, they 
 could not have been acted out, for want of opportunity. 
 Therefore, to abolish what produces such motives, is the 
 only rational course we can pursue, while human nature 
 is what it is. By abolishing legal money value in land, 
 almost all the motives just mentioned would cease. Be- 
 cause, if all men had the free use of land, there could be 
 none to take by conquest; consequently, a country could 
 not become richer by extending her borders by it. All 
 men standing upon equal footing in regard to land the 
 means of subsistence none would submit to be com- 
 manded by others. Then there could be no glory to win ; 
 no high pay to pocket; no getting a living in that pecu- 
 liar way; nor one hundred and sixty acres of land to be 
 obtained, as part of tbe reward for taking part in a system 
 of wholesale murder and butchery. Therefore, abolish 
 
182 WORKING MAN'S 
 
 the cause of war, for it is the madness of folly to curse 
 the individuals engaged in it, while those "paradoxical 
 and unnatural institutions" exist, which as naturally pro- 
 duce it, as bodies gravitate towards the centre of gravity. 
 
 The contemplation of war is shocking and loathsome to 
 all philanthropic minds. Let them, therefore, combine 
 their efforts to remove the cause. There is one considera- 
 tion which is, in some degree, coiisolitary to the American 
 citizen, not enjoyed in some other countries and that is, 
 no citizen of the United States can be compelled, by law, 
 to participate in any foreign war. 
 
 It will be well for us all to keep in perpetual view, that 
 no wrong doer can be convinced of his error, nor made to 
 do right, by calling him harsh names, or by exciting his 
 anger in any manner whatever. This, all may know by 
 appealing to their own feelings. But if we dispassion- 
 ately convince him of his error, he will naturally rigkt 
 himself. To use violence in word or deed, is but to betray 
 our own ignorance and a want of better incentives, name- 
 ly, good arguments. But this is no reason why we should 
 not resist aggression, when once commenced. The great 
 wrong is in making the commencement. And if all would 
 but observe this rule, there would be no aggression, nor 
 retaliation either. Governments have not observed this 
 simple rule ; but, on the contrary, have in the first place 
 aggressively violated the great law of immutable justice, 
 by withholding the free use of the land from a great por- 
 tion of the people making it a legal subject of common 
 merchandise. And so long as this violation exists, so long 
 must mankind suffer the consequent penalty, agreeably to 
 the immutable laws of God, namely, famine and pesti- 
 lence, war and contention, nationally and individually. If 
 governments set a bad example, is it any wonder if the 
 people should follow? Certainly not. It is the most nat- 
 ural thing in the world. 
 
 If, then, the foregoing principles be true, what is the 
 duty of the legislator? Merely obey the will of his con- 
 stituents; nothing more like the lawyer. And when the 
 people know what right is, they will, and must, therefore, 
 have it. First. Make the public lands free to actual set- 
 tlers, in limited quantities, and the homestead inalienable 
 Second. Abolish all special privileges. When this is ac- 
 complished, at least one-half the work of National Reform 
 is done. 
 
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 183 
 
 Having placed all men upon the same footing in regard 
 to the elements, no man can charge another for the use of 
 them. Free competition will naturally introduce, practi- 
 cally, "Equitable Commerce" or " labor for labor ," and " in- 
 dividual sovereignty." Next in order, " Associative Attrac- 
 tive Industry." This will be easily accomplished, because 
 the elements will cost nothing ; the use of capital will be 
 had at the cost of production, and, consequently, the use 
 of labor-saving machinery for the wear and tear. And 
 more than this, no man either would or could ask for. 
 
 To sum up, then, the whole proposed remedy, as a cure 
 for the moral, social and political evils which afflict man- 
 kind, may be accomplished in the foilowing words : 
 
 First. The free use of the elements to all, without 
 charge. 
 
 Second. Perfect free competition. 
 
 The principal reason why competition has heretofore 
 been so productive of evil, is because all governments 
 have been nothing more than a grand, overwhelming com- 
 bination of the interests of idle capitalists, invented, con- 
 cocted, and put into operation, for the express purpose of 
 counteracting the natural equalizing tendency of free com- 
 petition. Competition only becomes antagonistical to the 
 happiness of man, when the LAND LORDS and the MONEY 
 LORDS are closely combined on the one hand, and the pro- 
 ducing classes isolated on the other. 
 
 Thus, then, is the grand problem of man's misery, and 
 his moral, social, and political relations, solved, and our 
 task is nearly done. Let but the down-trodden millions 
 understand these principles, and, in proportion as they do, 
 so does the day of their redemption draw nigh. And, ere 
 long, Justice, who has been banished from the earth ever 
 since governments began, will iind an abiding place among 
 men, and we shall see her as she really is a being most 
 lovely to behold. Not with a terrible, dark and frightful 
 withering frown, and eyes bandaged; but with a counte- 
 nance brightly beaming with a benevolent and cheerful 
 smile, and eyes wide open. Not clad in a red and bloody 
 garment ; but in one of pure and unsullied whiteness, un- 
 stained by legal crime and blood. Not armed with a 
 bloody two-edged sword, prepared to annihilate the ma- 
 jority of mankind from the face of the earth; but richly 
 laden with an abundance of all the blessings and comforts 
 
184 
 
 of life ; distributing, with a liberal and unsparing hand, to 
 all mankind; loudly proclaiming, Ye sons and daughters 
 of Humanity, weep no more; dry up your tears; the day 
 of your redemption draweth nigh ; the reign of injustice, 
 tyranny, and oppression, is no more. Then may men af- 
 ford to do unto others as they would that others should do 
 unto them. Then will all warlike instruments be turned 
 into ploughshares and pruning-hooks, and nations will 
 learn war no more. The lion shall lie down with the 
 lamb, and a young child shall lead them. Then will the 
 reign of peace on earth, and good will to man, begin. 
 Then may every man sit peaceably under his own vine 
 and fig tree, and there shall be none in the land to make 
 him afraid. 
 
 Producers of wealth, wake up; organize yourselves into 
 societies, associations, and reading clubs; discuss the sub- 
 ject of your wrongs; circulate and encourage "National 
 Reform" newspapers, especially " Young America," the great 
 pioneer of Reform. Institute courts of Humanity, for the 
 purpose of testing the validity of governmental acts, 
 whether they be in accordance with the law of immutable 
 justice, and the common rights of Humanity, or not. Make 
 known the results of your decisions to your suffering fel- 
 low men, in order that they may learn how to cast off 
 those chains which so grievously bind, degrade and en- 
 slave them. 
 
 We are now through with the subject, and sincerely 
 hope the reader has been, in some degree, benefited by a 
 perusal of the work. If he has, we shall be abundantly 
 rewarded in the reflection that our labor has not been al- 
 together in vain ; but, like the " bread cast upon the wa- 
 ters, may be seen after many days." And let us all hear- 
 tily rejoice and be thankful that the wisdom of Providence 
 has pointed out a way so clear that he who runs may read, 
 and, as he reads, may understand, by which the suffering 
 millions may cast off the shackles which land monopoly 
 and the combination of capital have so tightly fastened 
 upon them, and they stand forth as FREE MEN, virtuous and 
 happy. Remember the "BALLOT Box"; pledge your can- 
 didates to the right measures. 
 
 Every man being an inseparable, integral part of the 
 government under which he lives, is, therefore, not blameable 
 or responsible for his actions, providing he violates none 
 
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 185 
 
 of its laws. If the government is based upon false or 
 vicious principles, his conduct, in the aggregate, will be 
 vicious modified, however, in some degree, by each indi- 
 vidual's peculiar organization. And, on the contrary, if 
 the laws of a government are based upon Truth, and in 
 accordance with the rights of Humanity, then the conduct 
 of the people, in the aggregate, will be good and virtuous 
 in proportion. Whoever learns this truth clearly, will, on 
 making the discovery, find himself delivered cf much of 
 the gall and bitterness he had previously harbored towards 
 his fellow men. 
 
 It is stated in the June number of " The People's Jour- 
 nal," published in London, by John Saunders, and of the 
 progressive reform character, that the mechanical power 
 of the labor-saving machinery of Great Britain is estima- 
 ted at eight hundred millions of adults! nearly equal to the 
 whole population of the globe. It is also stated in the 
 same paper, that " the labor of one man is equal to the 
 maintainance- of three persons." Now, if these statements 
 be true, Great Britain is competent to create a sufficiency 
 of wealth for the maintainance of nearly three times the 
 present population of the world! and yet, with the posses- 
 sion of this astonishing power to produce wealth, the great 
 majority of the working classes are in a state of utter des- 
 titution, and many in a state of starvation. Verily, these 
 things bring forcibly to mind " Ned Laey's paradox," and 
 is a problem for "National Reformers" to solve practi- 
 cally, which they certainly will do. 
 
 The following is also from an English paper, and will 
 be of some importance to the cause of "National Re- 
 form": 
 
 " EXTRAORDINARY STATEMENT. A comparison of the registers Oi 
 mortality, says an English paper, will convince us that a hero 
 placed in the trenches of a beleagured fortress, where he is ex- 
 posed for weeks to a continual shower of cannon shot, or placed 
 on a field of battle, before the bravest and most resolute of his ene- 
 mies, has a much better chance of life, runs less risk of a prema- 
 ture death, than if he worked in an undrained street, and slept in 
 a crowded room in Bristol or Liverpool. The chance of life was, 
 at the 
 
 Siege of Flushing, - - 450 to 1 
 
 Siege of Antwerp, - - - G3 to 1 
 
 Siege at Badajos - 64 to 1 
 
186 WORKING MANS 
 
 Battle of Waterloo. . - 30 to 1 
 
 Shopkeeping, Liverpool, - - 19 to 1 
 
 Weaving, Manchester, - - 17 to 1 
 
 Saw-making, Sheffield, 14tol" 
 
 The following letter from Dr. Denton is of too important 
 a character to be lost. It is worthy of a much more con- 
 spicuous place than the pages of this work. It deserves 
 to be kept before the people continually, and ought to be 
 promulgated by every possible means. It is under these 
 considerations that 1 take the liberty of inserting it here, 
 as being one of the means of keeping the subject before 
 the people. 1 here express my obligations to the gentle- 
 man who sent me the copy, just in time for insertion. 
 The announcement contained in the letter is startling. Is 
 it possible that those who create, by their physical ener- 
 gies, all the wealth of the country, should only be enabled 
 to preserve, for their own use, two-elevenths of the whole? 
 But the most astonishing part of the announcement is, 
 that the remaining nine-elevenths should fall into the hands 
 of those that produce nothing! 
 
 Now, if this announcement be true, surely no one woulc 
 vindicate, or attempt to justify and continue in existence, 
 a system of laws and usages as produce such unequal re 
 suits. Surely, no man in the least disposed to be just to- 
 wards his fellow men, could countenance the thing one 
 moment: the injustice is too glaring. 
 
 Let every producer reflect, that every time he receives 
 from the hands of the capitalist two dollars, as a reward 
 for his labor, so every time do our laws and customs keep 
 out of his hands, and put beyond his control, nine more 
 dollars (which, in justice, is equally his,) into the hands of 
 the idle capitalist, and for which he (the capitalist,) gives 
 no consideration or equivalent whatever. By this we see 
 that idleness is four and a half times better rewarded than lion 
 cst industry! Thus do our u paradoxical and unnatural in- 
 stitutions" discourage and condemn honest industry, while 
 a high premium is given for the encouragement of useless 
 idleness. This is a subject worthy of deep reflection, and 
 the understanding of which is of the utmost consequence 
 to the honest producer. However, every one must per- 
 ceive the folly of blaming or stigmatizing the individuals 
 engaged in those practices. The fault is not in them, but 
 HI our " paradoxical and unnatural institutions. "_ There- 
 
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 187 
 
 fore, let all who wish to see a better state of thing's, ex- 
 amine and critically scrutinize the remedy proposed in this 
 work, and if found competent to produce the desired re- 
 sult, lose no time nor opportunity in promulgating the 
 principles herein developed. But if, on the contrary, they 
 do not appear competent, and something better can or has 
 been discovered, let that have the preference, and let no 
 time be lost in giving the information to suffering Hu- 
 manity; and in either case I shall be equally happy. No 
 matter from where comes truth, so we do but have it. 
 
 From the Michigan Expositor. 
 
 "LETTER FROM DR. DENTON TO THE FARMERS' 
 MEETING. 
 
 "ANN ARBOR, December, 1843. 
 
 MESSRS. JOHN ROWLAND, JOHN CAVENDER, LEWIS KEMP, AND 
 OTHERS : 
 
 " Observing your names to a call for a meeting of the Farmers 
 of Lenawee, to further the farming interests of the county, &c., I, 
 with a slight hope of being some service to you and the commu- 
 nity in general, have felt impelled to address you a letter, stating 
 some facts and observations at which I have arrived after much re- 
 flection, believing them somewhat applicable to the object you seem 
 to have in view. 
 
 " That wealth is but the accumulated creations of labor, is a car- 
 dinal and obvious truth, which none will pretend to deny. But 
 how is it, that those who create it all, are enabled to retain so little 
 for their own share, is a phenomenon which requires explanation. 
 
 ''What sum in dollars will represent the value of the annual 
 products of the United States in all branches of production? 
 
 " Different answers have been given to this interesting question, 
 by various statisticians, some estimating them as high as 1,300, and 
 others as high as 15 or 1,600 millions of dollars. 
 
 " But in these estimates, I have found that several large items 
 have been twice, and others thrice reckoned. For instance, our 
 wool is first estimated, and then it is again reckoned in our manu- 
 factured woolens, and just so of our cotton and cotton goods. 
 
 " Our grain is first estimated, and then reckoned over again in 
 the products of our flouring mills. The annual value of our lum- 
 ber, bricks, and lime, is first put down, and then it is all re-estima- 
 ted in the value of the buildings annually erected. The lumber, 
 metals, cordage, &c., are first estimated, and then reckoned over 
 again, in the annual value of ships built; and the cordage, sails, 
 &c.. had been estimated once previously, in the value of the flax 
 
188 WORKING MAN'S 
 
 and hemp crops; and thus we might go on through a very large 
 catalogue. It will readily be perceived, that this mode of analysis 
 will reduce the estimates of some economists very much. 
 
 " We have deducted one item more from our estimates, viz : the 
 necessary subsistence of the laborers. Food, clothing, and lodging, 
 are indispensable, even for slaves ; and all that is absolutely neces- 
 sary for that object, we have excluded in our calculations, arid thus 
 make the aggregate annual products of industry, of all the laboring 
 classes of the United States, over and above so much food and 
 clothing, as a master, in the pursuit of his own interest, would al- 
 low his slaves, amount to $1,046,186,000. 
 
 " Now, it is obvious that all the wealth which any man, or any 
 class of men in the United States, obtains in any way, is derived 
 directly or indirectly from this original sum. 
 
 "Now, if we can arrive at the sum which each class of non- 
 producers annually receives, the remainder will be the amount left 
 for distribution among those who create it all. 
 
 " For this purpose, we have gone into a very thorough and mi- 
 nute examination, to ascertain the amount annually distributed to 
 each of the non-producing classes in the United States, viz: 
 
 " THE AMOUNT DISTRIBUTED TO THE LAWYERS, AND ALL OTHERS 
 ENGAGED IN THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE LAW; 
 
 "THE AMOUNT DISTRIBUTED TO THE BANKERS AND BROKERS, &C ; 
 
 "THE AMOUNT DISTRIBUTED FOR TOWNSHIP, COUNTY, STATE, VIL- 
 LAGE, TOWN, CITY, AND NATIONAL GOVERNMENT PURPOSES J 
 
 ' THE AMOUNT DISTRIBUTED TO OUR MERCHANTS ; 
 
 "THE AMOUNT ADDED TO THE PUBLIC BURDENS, CONSEQUENT UPON 
 THE PRESENT MODE OF COLLECTING THE UNITED STATES REVENUE, &C. 
 
 "These aggregate sums amount to $889,087,409, leaving for 
 distribution among the laborers, 8157,097,591. This is the labor- 
 ers' portion, over and above such necessaries as a prudent master 
 would provide for a slave, when acting in conformity to his own 
 interests. 
 
 "But for the sake of being on the safe side in these calculations, 
 and for the purpose of reducing the figures to round numbers, I 
 will call the latter sum 200 millici.s, and the former sum 900 mil- 
 lions of dollars, making 1100 millions of dollars in all. 
 
 "This, you will perceive, distributes about nine-elevenths of the 
 aggregate products of the industry of the country to the non-pro- 
 ducing clhsses, leaving but two-elevenths for those whose labor 
 produces it all. 
 
 " Of course, you cannot feel any great confidence in these bare 
 statements, unaccompanied by the statistics and other data by which 
 I have arrived at thcso results; but the limits which must be pre- 
 scribed for this epistle, will not admit of my giving them in this 
 place; yet I would here observe, that I found much greater fa- 
 
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 189 
 
 cility in proceeding with these intricate estimates and calculations, 
 than I had anticipated; as, in most instances, I have been able to 
 arrive at the same general result, by two or more different modes of 
 calculations, each based upon a different set of facts, thus proving 
 one another. You will not, therefore, think strange, if I place 
 great confidence in them. 
 
 "The laborers, then, of this country, already yield up to the 
 non-producing classes nine-elevenths of all the wealth which their 
 toil creates, and the tendency is still onward; the non-producing 
 classes are constantly increasing in numbers, and growing more 
 exorbitant in their demands, till soon another eleventh will be 
 taken from you, and ere long another, when a bare subsistence will 
 be all that is left to the laboring man. 
 
 " England arrived at this stage several years ago, to which we 
 are now looking forward; and one would suppose, when a nation 
 had arrived at this crisis, it could go no farther; but not so with 
 England; for the ponderous machinery still moved on, until labor 
 would barely procure two meals of victuals per day, and raiment 
 and lodging in proportion; and, at this very moment, a struggle is 
 going on, if the period has not already arrived, when the demands 
 of the non-producing classes sponge up all but one meal per day 
 for the laborer, and a few rags for raiment; and the same causes 
 are in operation here, working out the same appalling results. In- 
 crease but slightly the expenses of our complicated forms of gov- 
 ernment, and our cumbersome system of jurisprudence afford 
 more facilities for the increase of bankers and brokers, and let a 
 few more enter into mercantile pursuits, &c. and these non-pro- 
 ducers will be so numerous, as to consume the products of your 
 industry, leaving but a beggarly subsistence for the laboring classes. 
 
 "And who cannot perceive a steady growth in the numbers and 
 demands of non-producers in this country] They arc gradually 
 becoming more corpulent and more numerous, and thus steadily 
 trenching upon the earnings of the laborers. 
 
 *' The great interest of the laboring classes, then, is to dispense 
 with as many non-producers as possible, and reduce the emolu- 
 ments of such as are indispensable, as low as the case admits; for 
 the more these get in the way, the less wealth there is for thoso 
 who create it all. The labor of the country produces but a given 
 amount, and the question is, who shall have it ? The more there is 
 bestowed upon the non-producers, the less there can be left for the 
 laborers. 
 
 " For the purpose of illustrating the mode in which your sub- 
 stance passes into the hands of non-producers, and making some 
 estimates of the enormity of its amount, let us select, for the sake 
 of illustration, one class, viz : 
 
190 WORKING MAN'S 
 
 MERCANTILE NON-PRODUCERS. 
 
 In 1840, the number of inhabitants in Michigan, was 212,267, 
 uid the number of retail establishments was 612; being one for 
 every 58 families of six persons each. The proportion is less in 
 the Somii Western States, and more for the Eastern, being one to 
 about 33 families in New York and Massachusetts, and one to every 
 49 families of six persons each for the United States at large 
 
 44 Michigan then supported 612 retail establishments, with all their 
 families and servants, and expensive rents of dwelling houses and 
 store houses, clerks' wages, the expenses of 612 mercantile agents 
 going to New York City and back again twice a year. These country 
 merchants buy of Jobbers who have already realized a profit on 
 these goods, and the Jobbers buy of Wholesalers or Commission 
 Houses, who had previously realized a considerable profit. 
 
 "Any one must perceive that the extreme complication of this 
 mercantile system will render it enormously expensive, especially 
 when we take into the account, that all these different varieties of 
 mercantile agents are supported in a style superior to that of the 
 producing classes. 
 
 "By diligent inquiry among men who have been engaged in bus- 
 iness, as importing and commission merchants, and others who are 
 experienced in jobbing, and then again among those who are expe- 
 rienced as retailers, I am led to estimate these mercantile profits thus * 
 
 'The commission or importing merchant sells $100 worth of 
 goods to the jobber, and adds 15 per cent., making $115 (this sale 
 is always quoted as the wholesale price, in price-current tables.) 
 The jobber adds 20 per cent., and sells to the retailer or country 
 merchant, who must pay, of course, 8135. The retailer now adds 
 33^ per cent., and sells to the customer, the latter having to pay, 
 at this rate, $181 for what originally cost the importing or commis- 
 sion merchant but $100. The cost of freight, on an average, for 
 merchandise, from New York to Ann Arbor, is estimated at 5 per 
 cent., which, being deducted, leaves 79 per cent, for mercantile 
 profits. These estimates, of course, are intended as an average, 
 many articles paying more, and others less profits. 
 
 " But again, every country must sell as much as it buys; and here 
 is another mercantile profit, realized by some one, on what is sold. 
 
 " For instance : In May last, a barrel of flour in Ann Arbor, was 
 worth $3,122-, an( l in New York City it was worth at the same time 
 $4,88; and it cost $1,10 to transport it: so the New York City mer- 
 chant would purchase the flour when it arrived, pay the transporta- 
 tion charge, and give to the Michigan merchant, or flour dealer, 21 
 per cent, profit on his investment. 
 
 " In transporting a barrel of flour, we in effect transport 5 bushels 
 of wheat, which, at $1,10 per bbl. would be equivalent to 25 cts. 
 per busnel; but when Western wheat is worth $1,00 per bushel in 
 
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 191 
 
 New York City, the market price here does not exceed 56 cts. This 
 will pay the transportation, and net the Michigan wheat dealer 3 
 per cent, on his purchase money ; or if we allow 25 cents per bush- 
 el for transportation, the New York price pays 34 per cent, profit on 
 the purchase money. We suppose other articles of export pay the 
 dealers as high a profit, if not higher : but for the purpose of being on 
 the safe side, we will call the average mercantile profits on our ex- 
 ports 21 per cent. , which being added to the 79 per cent, profits on 
 the merchandise, make 100 per cent, in mercantile profits, besides 
 paying cost* of transportation both ways; that is. the farmers of 
 Washtenaw pay 100 per cent, besides the expense of transportation 
 both ways, for the purpose of changing the products of their indus- 
 try into merchandise. They give one barrel of flour to get another 
 exchanged for merchandise, besides paying for bringing the goods 
 here and carrying the flour to New York City. 
 
 " To test the correctness of the above estimates, let me advise you 
 to examine very frequently, and compare the prices current of New 
 York City with those of your own country. For this purpose, I took 
 up the New York Express of the 15th of September, by which 
 [ learned that Illinois and Michigan wheat was selling for $1,00 per 
 bushel in New York City. In Ann Arbor it was soiling for 56 cents. 
 
 'An article of Brown Sheeting was quoted in New York at 5 
 cents. (It must bo recollected that the wholesale prices, as quoted, 
 are the prices at which the jobbers purchase of the importers or 
 commission houses, after the first profit of 15 per cent, is added.) 
 fn Ann Arbor, a similar article of Brown Sheeting to that named in 
 ihe Express, was selling for 9 cents; so in New York City a bush- 
 el of Michigan wheat would pay for 20 yards of this Brown Sheet- 
 ing at wholesale, and at the same time in Ann Arbor one bushel ot 
 wheat would pay for but 6 yards and 32-100ths at retail 
 
 " Bleached Sheeting, one yard wide, was quoted at 7 cents In 
 Ann Arbor a similar article was selling for 1 1 cents. So in New York 
 City one bushel of wheat would buy 14 yards 3-10ths of this sheet 
 ing, and in Ann Arbor it would pay for but 5 yards and 1-1 1th. In 
 the same paper was quoted "plaids, stripes, fast colors, checks, yard 
 wide, at 7 cents." On enquiring of one of our merchants, he said 
 goods of the same description were selling here at 13 cents per yard 
 So in New York City, a bushel of Michigan wheat would pay for 
 14 yards 3-10ths, when in Ann Arbor a bushel would pay for but 4 
 yards 3-10ths. Or in other words, it would require 3 bushels 3-10 
 of wheat, to purchase as much of these articles in Ann Arbor, as 
 one barrel would buy in New York City. 
 
 " Through the summer, and now, rice is quoted in New York at 
 from 2 to 3 cents, and but seldom so high as 3. We will call it 2 
 per pound on an average. In Washtenaw County the majonty of 
 retailers have sold rice steadily, as high as 7 cents during tho last 
 
 13 
 
192 WORKING MAN'S 
 
 summer. So in New York, one bushel of wheat would pay for 
 40 Ibs. of rice, and in Washtenaw but 8 Ibs. Or 40 Ibs. of rice in 
 New York City, would purchase but one bushel of wheat, and here 
 401bs. of rice would pay for 5 bushels of wheat. And thus we 
 might go on through the whole catalogue of merchandise ; but enough 
 has been shown to demonstrate to any one, that the estimated mer- 
 cantile profits as above stated are not too high. 
 
 "The problem to be solved is, how much of this 100 per cent, of 
 mercantile profits can be got rid of, if any; and in what way is 
 the reform to be brought about? We should not be in haste to act 
 on any of thess important subjects, until we have elicited all the 
 facts ; for any action based on meagre or defective information, must 
 result disastrously to the undertaking. Our principal object, then, 
 at present, should be facts, and their general promulgation ; and if 
 thy above estimates approximate to the truth, and the public become 
 well informed on the subject, we must all confess our mistake in the 
 American character, if some practical scheme of relief is not dis- 
 covered and put in execution. 
 
 " Positive knowledge being the great desideratum, we ought not at 
 pres3iit to distract our attention, by any very anxious inquiry about 
 the remedy, leaving that to develope itself, as it most assuredly will, 
 after a thorough understanding of the evils and their extent. But 
 as no one can contemplate these evils long, without reflecting more 
 or less upon different plans of relief, so several have been suggested 
 to my own mind, one of which I shall here mention, deeming it 
 of no other importance however, than a mere suggestion. 
 
 " Let the State appoint two or more mercantile agents, to reside in 
 New York City, and New England, for the purpose of making pur- 
 chases, &c., for the State, and selling all the produce from the State 
 consigned to them. 
 
 ' Each county on the start, will furnish them, with a conplete list 
 of the spring and fall purchases of merchandise for the previous 
 year. These, with the constant correspondence which would be kept 
 up, would enable them to purchase for the whole State, with as 
 much ease and accuracy, as a merchant now can for a single firm; 
 and by purchasing in such large quantities, they would be enabled to 
 procure all kinds of American goods, of the factories at first cost, 
 and foreign goods at cargo prices, thus avoiding the profits of the 
 jobbing and commission Merchants too, in a great measure ; by 
 which means all our purchases would be made at first cost, except 
 a fow of the foreign articles, and these at a great abatement of the 
 usual profits of 15 per cent. Thus they would be enabled to buy 
 9-10ths of our goods at first cost, and the remainder at so low a rate 
 that one per cent., on the whole purchases, would cover the addition 
 to the first cost. 
 
 " The appropriate number of unbroken packages, would be marked 
 and forwarded to each county in the State. 
 
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 193 
 
 " For instance, those consigned to Washtenaw, would be received 
 at a suitable depot, in a building possessing suitable conveniences 
 for distributing them, where nothing would be received in exchange 
 for goods but a certificate of produce or money, deposited with some 
 proper officer. Frequent or daily advices from our State agents 
 would enable our county distributors to know what prices it would 
 answer to allow for produce from day to day. 
 
 "This would .enable us to avoid all the mercantile profits on our 
 produce and all but about ono per cent, on our merchandise. But 
 our state agents and clerks, and the expenses of each county for dis- 
 tributing the goods is unprovided for; all of which, added to the 
 one per cent, above, would make it all amount to but 10 per cent, in- 
 stead of 100, as it now does. 
 
 ** The present costs of transportation are too high, and too many 
 persons are making livings and fortunes out of them. The number 
 of carriers is small, however, compared with those who do business 
 with them ; consequently the former can combine against the latter, 
 and extort almost any rates they please ; but if one man were act- 
 ing for the whole State, he would have it in his power to make al- 
 most any terms he chooses, by offering the business of the whole 
 State to the transportation company that would do it cheapest. You 
 find charged in the present bills of freight, wharfage, truckage, store- 
 age, cooperage, at Detroit, and again at Buffalo, and again at New 
 York City, with the additional items there of inspection and co7)imis- 
 sion; and perhaps nine-tenths of these charges are purely fictitious 
 and could 03 avoided by a comprehensive system. And besides all 
 these, such an agent could treat with the State of New York for 
 a reduction of tolls, inspection, dec., which would in all likeli- 
 hood be abated, to prevent us passing through the Welland Canal. 
 
 "A barrel of flour can be carried from Albany to Boston, over 
 the railroad, all the way by land, 160 miles, at a cost to the com- 
 pany of but 16 cents. The present price of freight on agricultural 
 produce, from Michigan to New York City, all the way by water, 
 amounts to 33 or 33 per cent, on its cost. These, with many other 
 considerations, teach us that at present, freight both ways is quite 
 too high; and, under a comprehensive system, might be greatly re- 
 duced, so much, perhaps, as to get our merchandise carried for 2 
 per cent, instead of 5, and our exports for 20, instead of 33 per con'. 
 We should not deem it impossible to reduce the price of freight ul- 
 timately, so that a barrel of flour could be transported all the way 
 for 50 cents, which would make wheat worth 90 cents in Michigan, 
 when it is worth $1 in New York City. 
 
 More moderate reductions in freight, than those we have intma- 
 ted, would save enough to pay our mercantile agents for the State, 
 and defray the expenses of distributing the goods. 
 
 Some might be apprehensive of defalcations in our agents ; bui 
 
104 .-WORKING MAN'S 
 
 the revenues of our counties, states and nation, and the revenues of 
 all nations, are all entrusted to the hands of men; and the ratio of 
 defalcations is next to nothing. 
 
 " Our state and county organizations now of so little use, except to 
 mere politicians, would then be converted to purposes of real utility 
 to the masses, if we would but invoke them to furnish our laboring 
 men with as many of the necessaries of life, for one day's work, 
 one bushel of wheat or one barrel of flour, as they now obtain for 
 two 
 
 " You will perceive that goods throughout the United States, when 
 bought at retail, are charged with nearly the same amount of mer- 
 cantile profits, and differ slightly in price according to the differ- 
 ence in cost of transportation ; but the last, when compared with 
 the first, is always small at most. And yet our age has displayed a 
 most laudable zeal, in lessening the cost of transportation, by the con- 
 struction of canals, railroads, &c., rightly deeming itself well paid for 
 any amount of time spent in legislation, and the outlay of enormous 
 sums of money, if 5 or 10 per cent, could thus be saved on the cost 
 of goods; but is it not probable, that much less time spent in legis- 
 lation, and a much smaller sum of money in establishing a compre- 
 hensive mercantile system, could save 50 or 100 per cent. 1 
 
 " I hope you will not suppose, that 1 attach any importance to this 
 suggestion of a remedy. More information is what is desirable at 
 present, not only in reference to our mercantile, but all other classes 
 of non-producers. The grand inquiry should be, how to restore to the 
 producers ten-elevenths of their earnings, instead of extorting nine- 
 elevenths, and making constant encroachments on the remainder. 
 
 '* Cannot the farmers and other laboring classes of Michigan, estab- 
 lish a weekly or semi-monthly paper, which shall be devoted to an 
 investigation of their interests, in all their bearings; and through 
 the columns of which, the producing class can hold intercourse for 
 the interchange of opinions'? Yours, &c., 
 
 "S. DENTON." 
 
 A few songs will be now subjoined, suitable for singing 
 in clubs and "National Reform" meetings, imparting 
 amusement, instruction, and good fellow feeling. 
 
 FREEMAN'S SONG. 
 TUNE Old Rosin the Beau. 
 
 Come, all yc true friends of the nation, 
 
 Attend to humanity's call: 
 Conae, aid the domain's liberation, 
 
 Ar.-d roll on the Agrarian ball. 
 
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 195 
 
 The Agrarian hosts are advancing ; 
 
 The freedom of land they declare; 
 The down-trodden millions are crying, 
 
 Come, break up our gloom of despair. 
 
 Ye Democrats, come to the rescue, 
 
 And aid on the Agrarian cause, 
 And millions will rise up and bless you 
 
 With heart-cheering songs of applause. 
 
 Let Whiggery forsake its minions, 
 
 And boldly step into our ranks; 
 We care not for party opinions; 
 
 But invite all the friends of the Banks. 
 
 And when we have formed the blest union. 
 
 We '11 firmly march on, one and all ; 
 W T e'll sing when we meet in communion. 
 
 And roll on the Agrarian ball. 
 
 The question of test is now turning, 
 
 And free soil or monopoly must fall ; 
 While hope in tho bosom is burning, 
 
 We'll roll on the Agrarian ball. 
 
 Ye freemen, attend to your voting; 
 
 Your ballots will answer the call ; 
 While others attend to log-rolling, 
 
 We'll roll on the Agrarian Oal. 
 
 LINES. 
 
 BY J. R LOWELL. ,, 
 
 We will speak out. We will be heard, 
 Though all earth's systems crack; 
 
 We will not bate a single word, 
 Nor take a letter back. 
 
 We speak the truth, and what care we 
 
 For hissing and for scorn, 
 While some faint gloamings we can see 
 
 Of freedom's coming morn 1 
 
 Let liars fear; let cowards shrink; 
 
 Let traitors turn away ; 
 Whatever we have dared to think, 
 
 That dare we also say ! 
 
196 ; WORKING BI 
 
 THE BALLOT BOX. 
 
 Freedom's consecrated dower, 
 
 Casket of a priceless gem ! 
 Nobler heritage of power, 
 
 Than imperial diadem ! 
 Corner-stone, on which was reared 
 
 Liberty's triumphal dome, 
 When her glorious form appeared 
 
 "Midst our ~wn green mountain home 
 
 Purchas'd by as noble blood 
 
 As in mortal veins e'er run, 
 By the toil of those who stood 
 
 By the side of Washington 
 By the hearts that met the foe 
 
 On their native battle plain, 
 Where the arm that strikes the blow, 
 
 Never needs to strike again ! 
 
 Where's the craven that would dare 
 
 Mar it with polluted breath ? 
 Scorned and curs'd, be his to share 
 
 The traitor's shame, the traitor's death 
 Let his faithless heart be torn, 
 
 From his reckless bosom riven, 
 And upon the whirlwind borne, 
 
 To the carrion kite be given ! 
 
 Guard it, freeman ! guard it well i 
 
 Spotless as your maidens' fame I 
 Never let your children tell 
 
 Of your weakness, of your shame ! 
 That their fathers basely sold 
 
 What was bought with blood and toi 
 That you bartered right for gold, 
 
 Here on Freedom's sacred soil! 
 
 Let your eagle's quenchless eye, 
 
 Fixed, unstrung, sleepless, bright, 
 Watch, when danger hovers nigh, 
 
 From his lofty mountain height : 
 While the stripes and stars shall wave 
 
 O'er this treasure, pure and free, 
 The land's Palladium, it shall save 
 
 The home and shrine of Liberty 
 
 
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 197 
 
 SEVEN SHORT ANTHEMS. 
 
 Am Woodman, Spare that Tree. 
 
 In this which gnaws my heart, 
 
 I 'd spare ancestry's name : 
 But their neglected part 
 
 Will live to cry their shame : 
 Half-living millions groan 
 
 And bleed, in tyrant's chains! 
 And every gash and moan 
 
 Are everlasting stains ! 
 
 AIR My Highland Home. 
 
 Our fathers' homes, where Freedom dwelt, 
 
 And plenty smiled around, 
 Dream 'd not that want would soon be felt. 
 
 And land lords' slaves abound. 
 Our grandames, gleeful round the fire, 
 
 Maids, in their fathers' homes, 
 Did live to see our rights expire, 
 
 And Freedom's foe exhumed. 
 I '11 grieve no more for freedom lost, 
 
 Nor rate our fathers' tombs; 
 Those days of liberty are past 
 
 Our fathers' happy homes! 
 
 AIR Exile of Erin. 
 
 The yoke is upon us too firmly to break it , 
 Forever lords' things we hereafter must be. 
 
 A century since might it have been prevented : 
 Our fathers secured, as they sung, liberty. 
 
 The hopes of the down-trodden millions are blighted, 
 
 O'er Earth, as they see our Republic benighted ; 
 
 As viewing her glory, in which they delighted, 
 O'ercast, to proclaim that they cannot be free 
 
 AIR Marselloise Hymn. 
 
 Unless we rouse, in might, for freedom, 
 
 Impelled, by all we love, to rise, 
 By all we hate in tyrants' thraldom, 
 
 By all we hope beyond the skies. 
 Shall we remain supinely lying* 
 
 When we have strength and right to dc ? 
 
198 WORKING MAN'S 
 
 I think the air is rent with NO . 
 And ere the world has ceased their sighing. 
 
 We might to arms again, 
 Th' avenging sword unsheath, 
 Redeem the name of Freedom's sons, 
 
 In liberty or death ! 
 
 AIR Star Spangled Banner. 
 
 That thus it might be, is the prayer of my heart ; 
 But the hirelings' fell swords at our throats would be pointed 
 Our wives and their infants would bs cut apart, 
 And their limbs, by these butchers, before us, disjointed. 
 O God ! could I hope, that, our cause being just, 
 We still might succeed ; and, with one spirit, trust 
 That our Star Spangled Banner, in triumph, may wave 
 O'er this land again free, and the home of the brave ! 
 
 Am Battle and the Breeze. 
 
 Could we unfurl that flag again. 
 
 Our freedom we'd secure ; 
 The LORD should not the LAND retain, 
 
 But give it to the poor. 
 Each mairs would be his neighbor's right 
 
 One universal peace ; 
 Our spangled flag of Freedom's light 
 
 Would wave till Time shall cease ! 
 
 AIR Away to the Mountain's Brow. 
 
 I will away, to impart the fire 
 
 That is in my bosom burning, 
 And rouse the Land's avenging ire, 
 
 The oppressor's wrong o'erturning. 
 And helpless, my wife, I leave with thy brood ; 
 
 Innocence be their guardian and friend : 
 For again, in their midst, will I never taste food 
 Till Oppression to Freedom shall bend ! 
 Then I'll away to impart the fire, 
 Away, away, away, away ! 
 
 SONS OF TOIL. 
 
 Arise ! degraded sons of toil ! 
 
 Too long you've foully bent the knee 
 To impious drones, who claim the soil, 
 
 Which God for all created free: 
 If brave, and to ourselves but true, 
 I ask you what we cannot do ? 
 
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 199 
 
 A bitter destiny, alas ! 
 
 Has ours been through the course of time ; 
 A poor, despised, deluded class, 
 
 In every age, in every clime! 
 Of demagogues and wealthy knaves, 
 We're still the willing dupes and slaves! 
 
 The wealth which ingrate tyrants wield, 
 
 To crush and starve us, we create; 
 The blood we shed on flood and field 
 
 Gives greatness to the misnamed great : 
 But short would reign this favored few, 
 
 Were we but to each other true. 
 
 "WAIT A LITTLE LONGER/ 
 
 There 's a good time coming, boys, 
 
 A good time coming : 
 We may not live to see the day, 
 But earth shall glisten in the ray 
 
 Of the good time coming. 
 Cannon balls may aid the truth, 
 
 But thought's a weapon stronger; 
 We'll win our battles by its aid; 
 
 Wait a Little longer. 
 
 There 's a good time coming, boys, 
 
 A good time coming: 
 The pen shall supercede the sword, 
 And -light, not might, shall be the lord ; 
 
 In the good time coming. 
 Worth, not birth, shall rule mankind, 
 
 And be acknowledged stronger, 
 The proper impulse has been given; 
 
 Wait a little longer. 
 
 There's a good time coming, boys, 
 
 A good time coming : 
 War in all men's eyes shall be 
 A monster of iniquity, 
 
 In the good time coming. 
 Nations shall not quarrel then, 
 
 To prove which is the stronger; 
 Nor slaughter men for glory's sake ; 
 
 Wait a little longer. 
 
200 WORKING MAN'S 
 
 There 's a good time coming, boys, 
 
 A good time coming: 
 Hateful rivalries of creed 
 Shall not make their martyrs bleed. 
 
 In the good time coming. 
 - \ Religion shall be shorn of pride. 
 
 And flourish all the stronger* 
 And Charity shall trim her lamp; 
 
 Wait a little longer. 
 
 There 's a good time coming, boys, 
 
 A good time coming: 
 And a poor man's family 
 Shall not be his misery, 
 
 In the good time coming. 
 Every child shall be a help, 
 
 To make his right arm stronger; 
 The happier he, the more he has; 
 
 Wait a litt/e longer. 
 
 There's a good time coming, boys, 
 
 A good time coming: 
 Little children shall not toil, 
 Under, or above, the soil, 
 
 In the good time coining: 
 But shall play in healthful fields. 
 
 Till limbs and minds grow stronger; 
 And every one shall read and write ? 
 
 Wail a little longer. 
 
 There's a good time coming, boys, 
 
 A good time coming: 
 The people shall be temperate, 
 And shall love, instead of hate, 
 
 In the good time coming. 
 They shall use, and not abuse, 
 
 And make all virtue stronger. 
 The reformation has begun; 
 
 Wait a little longer. 
 
 There 's a good time coming, boys, 
 
 A good time coming : 
 Let us aid it all we can, 
 Every woman, every man, 
 
 The good time coming. 
 Smallest helps, if rightly given, 
 
 Make the impulse stronger; 
 'Twill be strong enough one day; 
 
 Wait a little longer. 
 
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 201 
 
 TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 Arouse, ye patient, laboring thvcng; 
 Your sacred rights may rest too long; 
 A sordid knave,* becoming strong, 
 Will wrest from you your liberty. 
 
 See how he grasps your wide domain! 
 See him resist the poor man's claim ! 
 Upon his front there sits no shame ; 
 He's callous to all misery. 
 
 Behold Rhode Island's noble Son 
 Immured for what our sires had done! 
 He would a bloodless victory won. 
 Alas for Tyler's sympathy. 
 
 Awake ! step forth ! for rights contend ' 
 Be firm, united, to this end! 
 To you opposing force must bend. 
 Despite its royal tyranny. 
 
 At home, abroad, from East to West. 
 The God of Mammon rears his crest. 
 While toiling millions, all unblest. 
 Neglected, die in poverty 
 
 W T here cities stand in proud array ! 
 Where armies meet in dreadful fray; 
 There poor 'gainst poor must pave the way 
 To royal wealth or victory ! 
 
 The poor are slaves in every clime; 
 Their very poverty is crime ! 
 While wealth is honored and may shine 
 Devoid of all humanity! 
 
 Th' unrighteous toil of youth and age, 
 Whose rights are mocked at every stage, 
 Will be condemned on history's page 
 
 As wanton acts of cruelty. J. D. F 
 
 THE PEOPLE'S RIGHTS. 
 
 Awake, MAN ! awake from the slumbers that bind you 
 The darkness is fleeing that long hath confin'd you ; 
 * Money Power. 
 
202 WORKING I.< A N ' 8 
 
 The sun is arising in splendor on high; 
 "My Rights I demand!" be your watchword and cry. 
 The weapons of Truth you shall wield not in vain; 
 By its power your rights you shall quickly regain. 
 Press on in your course, till dark Error gives way, 
 Then light will burst forth in meridian day. 
 No weapon unshcath but the EIGHTS of your cause; 
 They will vanquish your foe, and repeal unjust laws; 
 They will cut through their ranks, their menace rnake 'Void; 
 Your strength is in Truth; "your hope is in God." 
 Then lift up your voice in a tone of command, 
 And your right is restored your Eight to the Land! 
 
 D R. 
 
 THE LABORER'S LAMENT. 
 
 AIR "Marble Halls." 
 
 O cruel, most cruel, the laborer sigh'd, 
 
 The fate of the African slave, 
 Who crouches in silence, his master beside, 
 
 From infancy down to his grave. 
 But though he is foitsr'd, and forced to resign 
 
 His right to the pleasures of earth, 
 The state of that captive is nobler than mine, 
 
 For Want never visits his hearth. 
 
 'Tis not his to suffer the torture of mind, 
 
 That pains me at thought of my wife 
 To see her, though fainting, still patient and kind 
 
 Still facing the hardships of life. 
 For oft, when her little ones ask her for bread, 
 
 She turns from their presence to weep 
 Compell'd to refuse it, and send them to bed, 
 
 With hunger to haunt them in sleep. 
 
 Bnt should my poor children misfortune outlive, 
 
 And enter, unlettered, the world, 
 The sire of their being they ne'er can forgive, 
 
 But curses on him will be hurl'd; 
 And when, in my sorrow and anguish of soul, 
 
 I brood o'er the evils I 've sown, 
 The conflict of feeling is past my control. 
 
 And reason abandons her throne. 
 
 DREAMEB . 
 
POLITICAL E C O N O M Y . 
 
 THE WORKING MEN'S LEAGUE. 
 TUNE" Old Dan Tucker:'' 
 
 Come, all you who are fond of singing, 
 Let us set a song a ringing; 
 Sound the chorus strong and hearty, 
 And we '11 make a jovial party. 
 
 Get out of the way, you speculators ; 
 
 You shall no longer be dictators. 
 
 Some love Rents and speculation ; 
 Some with Banks would fill the nation; 
 In a lump we'll class these critturs, 
 And we '11 call them speculators. 
 Get out of the way, &c. 
 
 He who lives by labor only, 
 Ne'er shall find his fireside lonely; 
 But his home a happy place is. 
 Blest with cheerful, smiling faces. 
 Get out of the way, &c. 
 
 Interest steals a man's good feelings; 
 He 's a rogue in all his dealings ; 
 Smirks 'and smiles, until he's found you; 
 Then, O, crackey ! how he's bound you. 
 Get out of the way, &c. 
 
 All who wish for homes to bless them ; 
 All who wish the girls to kiss them; 
 Hark ! while soberness is o'er us. 
 Here 's a song, and this the chorus : 
 Get out of the way, &c. 
 
 Once we used to beg to labor; 
 Then to toil was thought a favor: 
 We'll have a home all smiling, sunny, 
 Without price and without money. 
 Get out of the way, &c. 
 
 Time was, once, when honest worker. 
 Were put upon a par with porkers;* 
 But now a new reform's beginning; 
 Selling land is now a sinning. 
 Get out of the way, &c. 
 
 * "Swinish multitude.'' 
 
 203 
 
WORKING MAN'S 
 
 Sec the Agrarian Ball a rolling; 
 Hark ! the knell of Avarice tolling ! 
 Roll the ball to every station, 
 In our own great Yankee nation. 
 
 Push along, and keep it moving; 
 
 The People's Cause is still improving. 
 
 Satan saw his trade was failing; 
 
 Heard no more the orphans' wailing; 
 
 Sent his imps about us yelling, 
 
 "Don't stop! don't stop! but keep on selling! 
 
 Get out of the way, you old Land Seller; 
 
 You're a loafing, crafty feller. 
 
 True, you once did price demand. 
 
 For what was Nature's gift, the Land; 
 
 Boast you may that you have done it : 
 
 Reform's on foot,' and you can't come it. 
 
 Get out of the way, though you have done it 
 Reform 's the word, and you can't come it. 
 
 Monopolists, now just be a thinking; 
 No more at such great wrong be winking ; 
 Come on. and own that you're mistaken; 
 Sign the pledge, and save your bacon. 
 
 Push it along, and keep it moving; 
 
 The People's Cause is still improving. 
 
 LAYS OF FREEDOM. 
 
 Cheer up ! ye strugglers for the right, 
 
 Ye lovers of the true; 
 A brighter day shall open yet, 
 
 Through what ye dare and do ! 
 
 It may not be your lot to live, 
 
 That day of joy to share ; 
 But still most thankful ye should feel, 
 
 The good way to prepare. 
 
 The way for Truth's triumphal march 
 
 O'er a succeeding race, 
 Mercy with whom shall hold the sway, 
 
 [n dork oppression's place. 
 
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 205 
 
 Yes, sure as ye, with faithful hearts. 
 
 Toil on in duty's sphere, 
 Justice shall take the place of might. 
 
 With mercy for compeer. 
 
 Cheer, then, ye strugglers for the right. 
 
 Ye lovers of the true ; 
 A brighter day shall open yet, 
 
 Through what ye dare and do ! 
 
 THE AGRARIAN GATHERING. 
 TUNE " Hunters of Kentucky." 
 
 Hark ! with a firm and manly tread 
 
 The Agrarians are coining ! 
 No cap and balls upon the head; 
 
 No fiddling and no drumming : 
 To clownish antics to excite 
 
 The jest of each derider, 
 As if they'd sunk their manhood quite 
 
 In puncheons of hard cider. 
 
 No banners deck'd with thievish coons. 
 
 Nor mottoes foul and scurvy, 
 With decency, and common sense, 
 
 And truth turned topsy-turvy; 
 But, marching with unbroken front, 
 
 All resolute and steady, 
 They come, as they are ever wont, 
 
 For TRUTH'S stern battle ready. 
 
 A bit of tinsel on a rag, 
 
 With fringe around the border, 
 Round which to gather, shout and brag, 
 
 Is not the kind of order 
 For Agrarians to take, when they, 
 
 Like reasoning men, assemble 
 But at their calm, resolved array 
 
 Their direst foes must tremble 
 
 They come! They come! in phalanx deep, 
 
 Oppression's cohorts braving 
 Unbought, unterrified, they keep 
 
 Their fsee bold banner waving : 
 They (as on Bunker's heights were stirred 
 
 The stern sires that begat them.) 
 Impatient wait the onset word 
 
 Agrarians! up, and at them! 
 
206 WOK KING MAN'S POLITICAL ECONOMY, 
 
 FREEDOM'S LYRE. 
 
 Attune the chords of freedom's lyre, 
 
 To bounding notes of glee: 
 And swell upon each burning wire, 
 
 The anthems of the free ! 
 Strike ! strike again the notes of old, 
 
 That swept these hills along ! 
 Where freedom's c ons her flag unrolled 
 
 And shoute*. frc^uom's song! 
 
 Wake ! wake the tones of victory now, 
 
 For freedom's hearts beat high ! 
 And triumph sits on manhood's brow, 
 
 And speaks from woman's eye. 
 The sun that rose in cloud and gloom. 
 
 Now beams ir radiance bright; 
 And in meridian splendor soon 
 
 Shall blaze with freedom's light. 
 
 When slavery's night shall pass away, 
 
 And wide o'er land and sea 
 Again on every breeze shall play 
 
 The banner of the free ! 
 Then tune the lyre let music sweep 
 
 Our hills and vales along! 
 While ocean's waves in gladness leap, 
 
 And dance-to freedom's song! 
 
 THE CONSTITUTION. 
 
 Great were the hearts, and strong the minds. 
 
 Of those who framed.; in high, debate, 
 The immortal league of love that binds 
 
 Our fair broad Empire, State with State 
 
 And deep the gladness of the hour, 
 
 When, as the auspicious task was done. 
 
 In solemn trust, the sword of power 
 Was given to glory's unspoiled son. 
 
 That noble race is gone the suns 
 
 Of fifty years have ric<en and set; 
 
 But the bright links, those-chosen ones 
 
 So strongly forged, are brighter yet. 
 
 Wide as our own free jace increase 
 Wide shall extend the elastic chain, 
 
 And bind in everlasting peace, 
 State after State, a mighty train. 
 
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 
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 Return to desk from which borrowed. 
 This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. 
 
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 MAY 31987 
 
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