.liliUiffiUltJMtJB lA^^k mimmmmmi 3 ^ o THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES ^.NORMAL SCir-H. iU^ GALOrOBHiA. '^MAL SCHOOL BS. CALLtxUwilA DUE on the last SELECTIONS AND DOCUMENTS IN ECONOMICS TRUSTS, POOLS AND CORPORATIONS By William Z. Ripley, Ph.D., Professor of Economics, Harvard University TRADE UNIONISM AND LABOR PROBLEMS By John R. Commons, Professor of Political Economy, University of Wisconsin SOCIOLOGY AND SOCIAL PROGRESS By Thomas N. Carver, Ph.D., Professor of Economics, Harvard University SELECTED READINGS IN PUBLIC FINANCE By Charles J. Bullock, Ph.D., Assistant Pro- fessor of Economics, Harvard University RAILWAY PROBLEMS By William Z. Ripley, Ph.D., Professor of Economics, Harvard University SELECTED READINGS IN ECONOMICS By Charles J. Bullock, Ph.D., Assistant Pro- fessor of Economics, Harvard University ECONOMIC HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. By Guy Stevens Callender, Professor of Political Economy, Yale University SELECTIONS FROM THE ECONOMIC HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 1765-1860 WITH INTRODUCTORY ESSAYS BY GUY STEVENS CALLENDER PROFESSOR OF POLITICAL ECONOMY IN THE SHEFFIELD SCIENTIFIC SCHOOL, YALE UNIVERSITY GINN AND COMPANY BOSTON • NEW YORK • CHICAGO • LONDON 28229 \ ' Copyright, igog, by GUY STEVENS CALLENDER ALL KIGHTS RESERVED / / (,:nn anh cijmi'anv- pro- prietors • liOSTON • U.S.A. 'I *' PREFACE This book is the result of an effort to provide a manageable body of reading for college and university classes in American economic history. It was prepared in connection with a course of lectures on that subject by the editor giving an outline of our eco- nomic development and discussing the more important economic questions which the American people have had to consider. It is intended to be used as reading to supplement such a course of lectures, or in connection with a brief text-book serving the same purpose. The short essays at the beginning of each chapter, together with the footnotes and the headings under which the selections are arranged, will make their significance and bearing tolerably clear. Some effort has been made to render it useful also in those general courses in American history which give considerable attention to the economic and social as well as to the political side of our national development. It is not designed to be a collection of documents and sources, although it is made up largely of such materials. It is rather an account of economic affairs by persons who, for various reasons, were in a position to understand them. Travelers and other contemporary observers, statesmen and publicists who took part in the discussion of economic questions, a few economists who have been interested in American history, and still fewer historians who have given attention to economics are the sources from which most of the extracts are taken. Some compilation of this sort is greatly needed by teachers in order to make available such treatment of our economic history as exists, scattered through a great num- ber of volumes and quite impossible of use by any considerable number of students. This is an attempt to bring together a por- tion of these scattered fragments and to indicate by their grouping iv PREFACE and arrangement with some comment the important topics to be considered. It may be well to add here a brief statement of the editor's con- ception of the scope of economic history in order to furnish a clue to his selection of topics and arrangement of materials. According to his view, the economic history of a country ought to embrace three fairly distinct matters : first, it should describe and explain the economic life of the people at all stages of their development ; second, it should investigate the relation of economic affairs to politics ; third, it should attempt to show the influence of eco- nomic life upon the social evolution of the country. The first of these is obviously the most important and constitutes the chief task of the economic historian. It should include much more than an account of the different industries of the country and the various branches of commerce carried on by it, which historians have long been accustomed to introduce into their narrative. The whole eco- nomic organization of the country ought to be examined and its chief features set forth. The so-called factors of production — the natural agents, labor and capital — must be considered in their rela- tions and all the circumstances affecting their efficiency pointed out. All those institutions and devices which exist primarily for the production of wealth must be shown in their development, such as the currency, the transportation system, the ownership and control of the land, and the means by which the combination of labor and of capital have been secured. Important changes in economic conditions, commercial crises, periods of prosperity and depression, should be noted and the influences which produced them investigated. The economic problems which have had to be met ought to be considered and their discussion reviewed. In a word, economic history ought to illustrate and render concrete the science of economics so far as the experience of one country will do it. The economic historian ought to apply the science of eco- nomics to past conditions and past problems in exactly the same way that it is ordinarily applied to current conditions and current problems. PREFACE V Such is the first and principal object of economic history. The otlier matters do not so obviously come within its scope. There are, however, good reasons for giving them a considerable amount of attention. The relation of politics to economics is a double one. It includes, on the one hand, the influence of the government on economic affairs, — its economic policy, — and, on the other, the influence of economic conditions on political action. The first of these has always been considered a proper subject for the con- sideration of economists, and more attention has been given to it than any other part of our economic histoiy. The influence of economic conditions upon our political affairs has been enormous, and no correct understanding of American politics is possible without taking it into consideration. The economic historian bet- ter than any one else should be able to investigate economic con- ditions and estimate their influence upon the people. As to the third matter, whatever one may think of the so-called economic interpretation of history in general, no one can doubt that the character of the American people, as well as the form and spirit of their institutions, has been profoundly influenced, to say the least, by their economic life. It is in economic affairs that we have shown the greatest originality and energy. These have ab- sorbed our interest more completely perhaps than that of any other people of modern times. No study of American economic life can be considered complete or satisfactory which does not attempt to show the way this fact has influenced American society. What marks has it left upon the national character and the structure of society ? Why, for example, has the Anglo-Saxon developed a different character in the United States than in other new coun- tries, like Canada and Australia ? WHiat was it that created the equality that so impressed De Tocqueville in the thirties ? What has so completely destroyed that equality since that time and brought almost as great inequality into American as is to be found in European society .-' It is difficult no doubt, perhaps im- possible, to find definite answers to such questions as these, but they should not for that reason be ignored. The economic historian VI PREFACE is bound to consider them and to show how far our economic Hfe has affected us in these ways. In selecting and arranging these extracts, all three of these matters have been kept in mind, and the aim has been to present such material bearing upon them as exists. GUY STEVENS CALLENDER Sheffield, Massachusetts CONTENTS CHAPTER I THE UNITED STATES IN THE ECONOMIC HISTORY OF THE WORLD Pac;e Chevalier, Society, Manners and Politics in the United States [1S36] i Dunbar, "Economic Science in America, 1776-1876," A^oiik A?nert- can AVzvVtc, January, 1876 i CHAPTER H COLONIAL ECONOMY Introihiction by the Edi'pok 6 L Population, Products and Trade. A. General Account. Macpherson, Annals of Commerce 9 B. New England. Burke, European Settlements in America [1761] 12 Burnaby, Travels through the Middle Settlements in North Amer- ica [i759-'76o] 12 C. Middle Colonies. Kalm, Travels into North America [1749] 16 D. Southern Colonies. Hurnaby, Travels through the Middle Settlements in North Amer- ica [i 759-1 760] 20 American Husbandry [1775J -~ n. Manufactures. Report of the Lords Commissioners of Trade and Plantations to the House of Commons [1731-1732] 29 Burnaby, Travels through the Middle Settlements in North America [1759-1760] 34 Franklin, Canadian Pamphlet [1760J 35 Eddis, Letters from America [1769-1777] 36 American Husbandry [1775] 3^ HI. Immigration and the vSuitly of Laborers. Burke, European Settlements in America [1761] 44 Eddis, Letters from America f I7(')9-I777] 45 American Husbandry [1775] • 5° vii viu CONTENTS Pagb IV. The Trade to the West Indies and the Mediterranean. An Essay on the Trade of the Northern Colonies of Great Britain in North America [1764] 51 Edwards, History, Civil and Commercial, of the British Colonies in the West Indies [1793] 54 Remonstrance of the Colony of Rhode Island to the Lords Commis- sioners of Trade and Plantations [1764] 56 V. Currency. Hildreth, History of the United States of America 63 Pownall, The Administration of the Colonies [1764] 65 Dickinson, The Late Regulations Respecting the British Colonies, Considered [1765] 67 VI. Miscellaneous Features of Economic Life. American Husbandry [1775] 69 Franklin, Observations concerning the Increase of Mankind and the Peopling of Countries [1755] 75 Kalm, Travels into North America [1749] 76 VII. Importance of West Indian Colonies to European Nations. Raynal, A Philosophical and Political History of the Settlements and Trade of the Europeans in the East and West Indies [1783] . . 78 Edwards, History, Civil and Commercial, of the British Colonies in the West Indies [1793] 79 Campbell, Considerations on the Nature of the Sugar Trade [1763] . 81 Long, The History of Jamaica [1774] 83 Franklin, Canadian Pamphlet [1760] 83 CHAPTER III COLONIAL POLICY Introduction ky the Editor 85 I. The Influence of the Trade Laws. Beer, British Colonial Policy, 1754-1765 88 II. Contemporary Views. A. The Mercantile View. American Husbandry [1775] 95 Postlethwayt, Britain's Commercial Interest [1757] 97 B. Colonial Governors. Bernard, Select Letters on the Trade and Government of America [1764] 100 Pownall, The Administration of the t'olonies [1764] 102 .X C. The Radical View. Smith, The Wcaltli of Nations [1776] 108 CONTENTS IX Pac;e III. Modern Views. Seeley, Expansion of England 113 Ashley, Commercial Legislation of J<2ngland and the American Colo- nies, 1660-1760 116 Channing, The United States of America, 1765-1865 120 CHAPTER IV ECONOMIC ASPECTS OF THK REVOLUTION Introduction by the Editor 122 I. Influences leading to the Revolution. A. Economic Depression. Anderson, An Historical and Chronological Deduction of the Ori- gin of Commerce 125 Dickinson, The Late Regulations Respecting the IJritish Colonies, Considered [1765] 130 Bernard, Select Letters on the Trade and Government of .\merica [1764] ■ ■ ^33 Petition of [Massachusetts] Council and House of Representatives to the Honorable House of Commons, November 3, 1764 . . 135 B. Social Conditions L^nfavorable to Taxation. Sumner, The Financier and the Finances of the American Revolution 1 37 C. Partial Spirit of Colonial Policy revealed by Controversy. Franklin, Causes of the American Discontent before 1768 ... 140 II. Resources for carrying on the Struggle. A. The Issue of Paper Money. Franklin, The Paper Money of the United States i; * B. Commerce as a Political Influence — the Non-Importation Associa- tions. Sumner, The Financierand the Finances of the American Revolution 143 Wealth of Nations [1776] 144 Petitions in Parliament against the American Stamp Act, 1766 . . 145 Non-Importation Agreements of lioston and New York, Annual Register, 1768 14S The Association of the Continental Congress, 1774 151 Petitions of the Merchants of London and Bristol for Reconcilia- tion with America, January 23, 1775 155 Petition of the West India Planters to the Commons respecting the American Non-Im_portation Agreement, February 2, 1775 . 157 C. Commerce as a Military Resource — The French Alliance. Autobiography of John Adams 159 Appointment of the Committee of Secret Correspondence . . . 163 Letter of Franklin to Dumas, December 19, 1775 163 Letter of Franklin et al., Committee of Secret Correspondence, to Silas Deane, March 3, 1776 164 Letter of Robert Morris to the Commissioners at Paris, December 21, 1776 i(>S X CONTENTS Page Letter from Franklin, Deane, and Arthur Lee to Vergennes, Paris, December 23, 1776 166 Letter from Franklin, Deane, and Lee to Vergennes, Paris, Janu- ary 5, 1777 167 in. Results of the War. A. Changes in American Society. Ramsay, The History of the American Revolution [1789] .... 168 Dwight, Travels in New England and New York [1796-1815] . . 172 B. Influence upon Europe. Letter from Franklin and Deane to Committee of Secret Corre- spondence, Paris, March 12, 1777 174 Price, Observations on the Importance of the American Revolution [1785] 175 Letter of Turgot to Dr. Price, March 22, 177S 176 Brissot de Warville, The Commerce of America with Europe [1788] 176 Seeley, The Expansion of England 177 CHAPTER V THE ECONOMIC SITUATION AND THE NEW GOVERNMENT Introduction by the Editor 180 I. General Conditions — Economic Depression of the Country. riildreth. History of the United States of America 183 Madison's Letters to Jefferson and R. H. Lee, 1785-1786 185 Letter of John Adams to the Marquis of Carmarthen, July 29, 1785 . 193 The Federalist [1788], No. XV 194 II. Struggle with the Mercantile System of Europe. A. The Policy of securing Commercial Treaties. Letters of John Adams to Livingston, Paris, July 14, 1783 .... 196 Instructions to the Ministers Plenipotentiary appointed to negotiate Treaties of Commerce with the European Nations, May 7, 1784 200 Letters of Thomas Jefferson to James Monroe, 1785 201 B. Relations with France. Conference of Jefferson with the Count de Vergennes on the Sub- ject of the Commerce of the United States with France, 1785 . 202 Pitkin, A Statistical View of the Commerce of the United States of America 207 C. Relations with England. Pitkin, A Statistical View of the Commerce of the United States of America 208 Sheffield, Observations on the Commerce of the American States [1783], The British View 210 Letters of John Adams to Jay, 1785, The American View .... 214 III. Commercial and Financial Reasons for a More Perfect Union. Tench Coxe, An Enquiry into the Pri^nciples on which a Commercial System for the United States of America should be founded [1787] 221 The Federalist [1788], Nos. IV, XI, XII 223 CONTENTS xi Pagf. IV. The Return of Prosim.kitv — Inkij-ExNck ok the New Gov- ernment. Letter of Washington to La Fayette, June iS, 178S 231 Letter of Washington to Jefferson, August 31, i7S' 337-341. 350-351- POPULATION, PRODUCTS AND 'l"RADE 23 One of the greatest advantages attending the culture of tobacco, is the quick, easy, and certain method of sale. This was effected by the inspection law, which took j^lace in Virginia in the year 1730, but not in Maryland till 174S. The planter, by virtue of this, may go to any place and sell his tobacco, without carrying a sample of it along with him, and the merchant may buy it, though lying a hundred miles, or at any distance from his store, and yet be morally sure both with respect to quantity and quality. r\)r thi:: purpose, upon all the rivers and bays of both provinces, at a dis- tance of about twelve or fourteen miles from each other, are erected warehouses, to which all the tobacco in the country must be brought, and there lodged, before the planters can offer it for sale ; and in- spectors are appointed to examine all the tobacco brought in, receive such as is good and merchantable, condemn and burn what appears damnified or insufficient. The greatest part of the tobacco is prized, or put up into hogsheads by the planters themselves, before it is carried to the warehouses. Each hogshead, by an act of assembly, must be 950 lb. neat, or upwards ; some of them weigh 14 cwt. and even 18 cwt. and the heavier they are the merchants like them the better ; because four hogsheads, whatsoever their weight be, are esteemed a tun, and pay the same freight. The inspectors give notes of receipt for the tobacco, and the merchants take them in payment for their goods, passing current indeed over the whole colonies ; a most admirable invention, which operates so greatly, that in Virginia they ha\e no paper currency. The merchants generally purchase the tobacco in the countr)^, by sending persons to open stores for them ; that is, warehouses in which they lay in a great assortment of British commodities and manufactures, to these, as to shops, the planters resort, and supply themselves with what they want, pa}ing, in inspection receipts, or taking on credit according to what will be given them ; and as they are in general a very luxurious set of people, they buy too much upon credit ; the consequence of which is, their getting in debt to the London merchants, who take mortgages on their plantations, ruinous enough, with the usury of eight per cent. But this is apparently the effect of their imprudence in living upon trust. . . . 24 COLONIAL ECONOMY There is no plant in the world that requires richer land, or more manure than tobacco ; it will grow on poorer soils, but not to yield crops that are sufficiently profitable to pay the expences of negroes, &c. The land they found to answer best is fresh woodlands, where many ages have formed a stratum of rich black mould. Such land will, after clearing, bear tobacco many years, without any change, prove more profitable to the planter than the power of dung can do on worse lands : this makes the tobacco planters more solicitous for new land than any other people in America, they wanting it much more. Many of them have very handsome houses, gardens, and improvements about them, which fixes them to one spot ; but others, when they have exhausted their grounds, will sell them to new settlers for corn-fields, and move backwards with their negroes, cattle, and tools, to take up fresh land for tobacco ; this is common, and will continue so as long as good land is to be had upon navi- gable rivers : this is the system of business which made some, so long ago as 1750, move over the Allegany mountains, and settle not far from the Ohio, where their tobacco was to be carried by land some distance, which is a heavy burthen on so bulky a commodity, but answered by the superior crops they gained : the French encroachments drove tfiese people all back again ; but upon the peace, many more went, and the number increasing, became the occasion of the new colony which has been settled in that country. A very considerable tract of land is necessary for a tobacco plan- tation ; first, that the planter may have a sure prospect of increasing his culture on fresh land ; secondly, that the lumber may be a winter employment for his slaves, and afford casks for his crops. Thirdly, that he may be able to keep vast flocks of cattle for raising provisions in plenty, by ranging in the woods ; and where the lands are not fresh, the necessity is yet greater, as they must yield much manure for replenishing the worn-out fields. This want of land is such, that they reckon a planter should have 50 acres of land for every working hand ; with less than this they will find themselves distressed for want of room. . , . The tobacco planters live more like country gentlemen of fortune than any other settlers in America ; all of them are spread about POPULATION, PRODUCTS ANT) TKADK 25 the country, their labour being mostly by slaves, who are left to overseers ; and the masters live in a state of emulation with one another in buildings, (many of their houses would make no slight figure in the English counties) furniture, wines, dress, diversions, &c. and this to such a degree, that it is rather amazing they should be able to go on with their plantations at all, than they should not make additions to them : such a country life as they lead, in the midst of a profusion of rural sports and diversions, with little to do themselves, and in a climate that seems to create rather than check pleasure, must almost naturally have a strong effect in bringing them to be just such planters, as foxhunters in England make farmers, ... The poverty of the planters here, many of them at least, is much talked of, and from thence there has arisen a notion that their hus- bandry is not profitable : this false idea I have endeavoured to ob- viate, and to shew that the cause of it has little or no reference to their culture, but to the general luxury, and extravagant way of living which obtains among the planters — a circumstance which ought rather to occasion a contrary conclusion ; — a supposition that their agriculture was very valuable ; for men without some rich article of product cannot afford, even with the assistimce of credit, to live in such a manner : it must be upon the face of it a profitable culture, that will support such luxury, and pay eight per cent, interest on their debts. What common culture in Europe will do this .? . . . The products of North Carolina are rice, tobacco, indigo, cotton, wheat, peas, beans, Indian corn, and all sorts of roots, especially potatoes. Rice is not so much cultivated here as in South Carolina : but in the latter they raise no tobacco, whereas in North Carolina it is one of their chief articles. It grows in the northerly parts of the province, on the frontiers of Virginia, from which colony it is exported. Indigo grows very well in the province, particularly in the southern parts, and proves a most profitable branch oi culture. Cotton does very well, and the sort is so excellent, that it is much to be wished they had made a greater progress in it. The greatest articles of their produce which is exported are tar, pitch, turpen- tine, and every species of lumber, in astonishing quantities. . . . 26 COLONIAL ECONOMY Notwithstanding these great advantages, there are very few people in North Carohna ; this has been owing to several causes : there were obstructions in settling it, which occasioned some to leave the country, and a general idea, was spread to its disadvan- tage ; but the principal evil was the want of ports, of which there was not one good one in all North Carolina : the river Pedee falls into the sea at Winyaw, which is in South Carolina, and that has prevented an exportation of products from thence of the growth of North Carolina. And this want of good ports, and a trading town, has checked the culture of rice a good deal ; but it has had another effect, which may probably prove a great advantage ; it has driven the new settlers back into the country, and thrown them very much into common husbandry. . . . It is this common husbandry which desen^es our attention par- ticularly, since in many respects it is different from that of any other part of America. The two great circumstances which give the farmers of North Carolina such a superiority over those of most other colonies, are, first, the plenty of land ; and, secondly, the vast herds of cattle kept by the planters. The want of ports, as I said, kept numbers from settling here, and this made the land of less value, conse- quently every settler got large grants ; and, falling to the business of breeding cattle, their herds became so great, that the profit from them alone is exceeding great. It is not an uncommon thing to see one man the master of from 300 to 1200, and even to 2000 cows, bulls, oxen, and young cattle ; hogs also in prodigious num- bers. Their management is to let them run loose in the woods all day, and to bring them up at night by the sound of a horn ; some- times, particularly in winter, they keep them during the night in inclosures, giving them a little food, and letting the cows and sows to the calves and pigs ; this makes them come home the more regu- larly. Such herds of cattle and swine arc to be found in no other colonies ; and when this is better settled, they will not be so com- mon here ; for at present the woods are all in common, and people's property has no other boundary or distinction than mai"ks cut in trees, so that the cattle have an unbounded range ; but when the country becomes more cultivated, estates will be surrounded by POPULATION, i'RODLiCi'S AND TRADE 27 enclosures, and consequently the numbers of cattle kept by the planters will be proportioned to llu'lr own lands only. It may easily be supposed that these vast Hocks of cattle niij^ht be of surprising consequence in tlie raising manure, were the planters as attentive as they ought to be to this essential object: they might by this means cultivate indigo and tobacco to greater advantage than their neighbours ; some few make a good use of the advantage, but more of them are drawn from it by the j^lenty of rich land, which they run over, as in the northern colonies, till it is exhausted, and then take fresh, relying on such a change, instead of making the most of their manure, which would add infinitely to their profit. Their system is to depend (where they have no navigation, and are at a considerable distance from it, which however is not the case in many parts) on the hides of their cattle, and on barrelled meat, with some corn, roots, and pitch and tar, &c. for the profit of their plantation ; but the most bulky of these commodities yield but little, unless near some river ; accordingly there are not many plantations at any distance from water, since it is not an inland navigation that is wanted in North Carolina, but ports at the mouths of the rivers that will admit of large ships. The mode of common husbandry here is to break up a piece of wood land, a work very easily done, from the trees standing at good distances from each other ; this they sow with Indian corn for several years successively, till it will yield large crops no longer : they get at first fourscore or an hundred bushel an acre, but sixty or seventy are common : when the land is pretty well exhausted they sow it with peas or beans one year, of which the)- will get thirty or forty bushels per acre ; and aftei-wards sow it with wheat for two or three years : it will yield good crops of this grain when it would bear Indian corn no longer, which shews how excellent the land must be. But let me remark that this culture of wheat to such advantage is only in the back part of the province, where the climate is far more temperate than on the coast ; upon the latter it does not succeed well, a circumstance much deserving attention ; for we may lay it down as a universal rule, that where wheat thrives well, there the climate is healthy, and agreeable to 28 COLONIAL ECONOMY the generality of constitutions : it does well neither in extreme cold, nor in great heat. In this system of crops they change the land as fast as it wears out, clearing fresh pieces of wood land, exhausting them in suc- cession ; after which they leave them to the spontaneous growth. It is not here as in the northern colonies, that weeds come first and then grass ; the climate is so hot, that, except on the rich moist lands, any sort of grass is scarce ; but the fallow in a few years becomes a forest, for no climate seems more congenial to the production of quick growing trees. If the planter does not re- turn to cultivate the land again, as may probably be the case, from the plenty of fresh, it presently becomes such a wood as the rest of the country is ; and woods are here the pasture of the cattle, which is excellent for hogs, because they get quantities of mast and fruit ; but for cattle is much inferior to pastures and meadows. . . . Another very great defect in their management, is the careless manner in which they conduct their cattle : immense herds are kept that yield a profit to the planters more inconsiderable than can at first be imagined ; this is not for want of a market, since no commodity more readily yields its price in North America, than beef and pork in barrels ; and hides are eveiy where a commodity easily to be turned into money ; but it is owing to a want of at- tention — to keeping a proper proportion of them to the winter food — to not fatting them well, and many not at all, which is ow- ing to a want of pasturage, and also to leaving them too much to themselves in the woods without a sufficiency of attendants to watch and take care of them. The mere multiplication of cattle is not the only object, though it sounds greatly ; bringing them up in health and vigour, of a due size and fatness, are as essential ; but the stunted diminutive size of all the cattle in North America, to the northward, as well as in the southern colonies, shews plainly the great want of pastures : cattle will live and multiply in their woods, but they will never be cattle of any value ; and yielding a profit as inconsiderable as their worth. MANUFACTURES 29 II. MANUFACTURES 1 2 Pursuant to an order of the British house of commons, directed to the lords commissioners of trade and plantations in the later end of the last, or the beginning of this [1732] year, relating to the dispute still subsisting between the sugar colonics, and the northern continental colonies of America, that board reported, with respect to laws made, manufactures set up, or trade carried on, there, detrimental to the trade, navigation, or manufactures, of Great Britain, as follows, viz. . . . In New-England, New- York, Connecticut, Rhode-Island, Penn- sylvania, and in the county of Somerset, in Maryland, they have fallen into the manufacture of woollen cloth and linen cloth, for the use of their own families only. For the product of those colonies being chiefly cattle and grain, the estates of the inhabitants depended wholely on farming, which could not be managed without a certain quantity of sheep ; and their wool would be entirely lost, were not their servants employed during the winter in manufacturing it for the use of their families. F"lax and hemp being likewise easily raised, the inhabitants manufactured them into a coarse sort of cloth, bags, traces, and halters, for their horses, which they found did more service than those they had from any part of Europe. However, the high price of labour in general in America rendered it impracticable for people there to manufacture their linen cloth at less than 20 per cent more than the rate in England, or woollen cloth at less than 50 per cent dearer than that which is exported from hence for sale. It were to be wished, that some expedient might be fallen upon to divert their thoughts from undertakings of this nature ; so much the rather, because those manufactures, in process of time, may be carried on in a greater degree, unless an early stop be put to their progress, by employing them in naval stores. Wherefor we take leave to renew our repeated proposals, that reasonable encourage- ^ See extracts from Burnaby, Kalm, Franklin, Townall, and Beer, pp. 12, 16, 75. 107. 434- 2 Macpherson, Annals of Commerce, III, 186, 1S7-191. 30 COLONIAL ECONOMY ment be given to the same. Moreover, we find that certain trades carried on, and manufactures set up there, are detrimental to the trade, navigation, and manufactures of Great Britain. For the state of those plantations vaiying almost every year, more or less, in their trade and manufactures, as well as in other particulars, we thought it necessary for his majesty's service, and for the discharge of our trust, from time to time, to send certain general queries to the several governors in. America, that we might be the more ex- actly informed of the condition of the plantations, among which there were several that related to their trade and manufactures, to which we received the following returns, viz. The governor of New-Hampshire, in his answer, said, that there were no settled manufactures in that province, and that their trade principally consisted in lumber and fish. The governor of Massachusets-bay informed us, that in some parts of this province the inhabitants worked up their wool and flax into an ordinary coarse cloth for their own use, but did not export any. That the greatest part of the woollen and linen cloth- ing, worn in this province, was imported from Great Britain, and sometimes from Ireland ; but, considering the excessive price of labour in New-England, the merchants could afford what was im- ported cheaper than what was made in that country. That there were also a few hat-makers in the maritime towns ; and that the greater part of the leather used in that country was manufactured among themselves ; that there had been for many years some iron works in that province, which had afforded the people iron for some of their necessary occasions ; but that the iron imported from Great Britain was esteemed much the best, and wholely used by the shipping. And that the iron works of that province were not able to supply the twentieth part of what was necessary for the use of the country. They had no manufactures in the province of New- York, that' deserved mentioning : their trade consisted chiefly in furs, whale- bone, oil, pitch, tar, and provisions. No manufactures in New-Jersey, that deserve mentioning : their trade being chiefly in provisions shipped from New- York and Pennsylvania. MANUFACTURES 31 The chief trade of Pennsylvania lay in the exportation of provi- sions and lumber ; no manufactures being established, and their clothing and utensils for their houses being all imported from Great Britain. By further advices from New-Hampshire, the woollen manu- facture appears to have decreased, the common lands on which the sheep used to feed, being now appropriated, and the people almost wholely clothed with woollen from Great Britain. The manufacture of flax into linen, some coarser, some finer, da)]y increased by the great resort of people from Ireland thither, who are well skilled in that business. And the chief trade of this province continued, as for many years past, in the exportation of naval stores, lumber, and fish. By later accounts from Massachusets-bay in New-England, the assembly have voted a bounty of 30s. for every piece of duck or canvas made in the province. Some other manufactures are car- ried on there, as brown Hollands for women's wear, which lessens the importation of calicoes, and some other sorts of East-India goods. They also make some small quantities of cloth, made of linen and cotton, for ordinary shirting and sheeting. By a paper- mill set up three years ago, they make to the value of JQ200 ster- ling yearly. There are also several forges for making bar iron, and some furnaces for cast iron, or hollow ware, and one slitting mill, and a manufacture of nails. The governor writes concerning the woollen manufacture, that the country people, who used formerly to make most of their cloth- ing out of their own wool, do not now make a third part of what they wear, but are mostly clothed with British manufactures. The same governor, (Belcher) by some of his letters of an older date, in answer to our annual queries, writes, that there are some few copper mines in this province, but so far distant from water-carriage, and the ore so poor, that it is not worth the digging. I'he surveyor- general of his majesty's woods writes, that they have in New-England six furnaces and nineteen forges for making iron ; and that in this province many ships are built for the h'rench and Spaniards, in return for rum, melasses, wines, and silks, which they truck there, by connivance. Great quantities of hats are made in New-England, 32 COLONIAL ECONOMY of which the company of hatters of London have hkewise lately complained to us. That great quantities of those hats are exported to Spain, Portugal, and our West-Lidia islands. They also make all sorts of iron work for shipping. There are several still-houses and sugar-bakers established in New-England. By later advices from New-York, there are no manufactures there that can affect those of Great-Britain. There is yearly im- ported into New-York a very large quantity of the woollen manu- factures of this kingdom, for their clothing, which they would be rendered incapable to pay for, and would be reduced to the neces- sity of making for themselves, if they were prohibited from receiv- ing from the foreign sugar colonies, the money, rum, sugar, melasses, cacao, indigo, cotton-wool, &c. which they at present take in return for provisions, horses, and lumber, the produce of that province, and of New-Jersey, of which, he affirms, the British sugar colonies do not take off above one half. But the company of hatters of London have since informed us, that hats are manufactured in great quantities in this province. By the last letters from the deputy-governor of Pennsylvania, he does not know of any trade carried on in that province, that can be injurious to this kingdom. They do not export any woollen or linen manufactures ; all that they make which are of a coarser sort, being for their own use. We are farther informed, that in this province are built many brigantines and small sloops, which they sell to the West-Lidies. The governor of Rhode-Island informs us in answer to our queries, that there are iron mines there ; but not a fourth part iron enough to serve their own use. But he takes no notice of any sort of manufacture set up there. No return from the governor of Connecticut. But we find by some accounts, that the produce of this colony is timber, boards, all sorts of English grain, hemp, flax, sheep, black cattle, swine, horses, goats and tobacco. That they export horses and lumber to the West-Indies, and receive in return, sugar, salt, melasses and rum. We likewise find that their manufactures are very incon- siderable ; the people there being generally employed in tillage ; some few in tanning, shoemaking, and other handicrafts ; others MANUFACTURES 33 in building, and joiner's, tailor's, and smith's, work, without which they could not subsist. No report is made concerning Carolina, the Bahama nor the Bermuda isles : and as for Newfoundland it is scarcely to be called a plantation, and Hudson's-bay not at all. By the last returns which we have had from the sugar islands, we do not find that they have any other manufactures established, besides those of sugar, melasses, rum and indigo, of their own produce. These, with cotton, aloes, pimento, and some other pro- ductions of less note, are their whole dependence, which are com- modities noway interfering with the manufactures of this kingdom. In the year 1 724, Mr. Worsley, then governor of Barbados informed us, that of cotton they made hammocks, a few stockings, and nets for horses. From the foregoing state, it is obser\'able, that there are more trades carried on, and manufactures set up, in the provinces on the continent of America to the northward of Virginia, prejudicial to the trade and manufactures of Great Britain, particularly in New-England, than in any other of the British colonies ; which is not to be wondered at : for their soil, climate, and produce, being pretty near the same with ours, they have no staple commodities of their own growth to exchange for our manufactures ; which puts them under greater necessit)', as well as under greater temptation, of providing for themselves at home ; to which may be added, in the charter governments, the little dependence they have upon the mother country, and consequently the small restraints, they are under in any matters detrimental to her interests. And therefor, we would humbly beg leave to report and sub- mit to the wisdom of this honourable house, the substance of w^hat we formerly proposed in our report on the silk, linen, and woollen, manufactures herein before recited ; namely, whether it might not be expedient to give those colonies proper encouragements for turning their industry to such manufactures and products as might be of service to Great Britain, and more particularly to the production of all kinds of naval stores. — (Signed) Paul Dockminique &c. Whitehall, Februar}^ 15, 173 1-2. 34 COLONIAL ECONOMY 1 The trade of Pensylvania is surprisingly extensive, carried on to Great Britain, the West Indies, every part of North-America, the Madeiras, Lisbon, Cadiz, Holland, Africa, the Spanish main, and several other places ; exclusive of what is illicitly carried on to Cape Franc^ois, and Monte-Christo. Their exports are Provisions of all kinds, lumber, hemp, flax, flax-seed, iron, furs, and deerskins. Their imports, English manufactures, with the superfluities and luxuries of life. By their flag-of-truce trade, they also get sugar, which they refine and send to Europe. Their manufactures are very considerable. The German-town thread-stockings are in high estimation ; and the year before last, I have been credibly informed, there were manufactured in that town alone, above 60,000 dozen pair. Their common retail price is a dollar per pair. The Irish settlers make very good linens : some woollens have also been fabricated, but not, I believe, to any amount. There are several other manufactures, viz. of beaver hats, which are superior in goodness to any in Europe, of cordage, linseed-oil, starch, myrtle-wax and spermaceti candles, soap, earthen ware, and other commodities. . . . The people [of New York] carry on an extensive trade, and there are said to be cleared out annually from New York, 48,275 tons of shipping. They export chiefly grain, flour, pork, skins, furs, pig-iron, lumber, and staves. Their manufactures, indeed, are not extensive, nor by any means to be compared with those of Pen- sylvania ; they make a small quantity of cloth, some linen, hats, and other articles for wearing apparel. They make glass also, and wampum ; refine sugars, which they import from the West Indies ; and distil considerable quantities of rum. They also, as well as the Pensylvanians, till both were restrained by act of parliament, had erected several slitting mills, to make nails, &c. But this is now prohibited, and they are exceedingly dissatisfied at it. They have several other branches of manufactures, but, in general, so incon- siderable, that I shall not take notice of them : one thing it may be necessary to mention, I mean the article of ship-building; about which, in different parts of the province, they employ many hands. 1 ]>urnaby, Travels through the Middle Settlements in North America [1759- 1760], pp 63-64, ,S4-cS5. MANUFACTURES 35 ^ , . . A people, spread through the whole tract of country, on this side the Mississippi, and secured by Canada in our hands, would probably for some centuiies lind employment in agriculture, and thereby free us at home effectually from oiu- fears of Ameri- can manufactures. Unprejudiced men well know, that all the penal and prohibitory laws that were ever thought on will not be suFM- cient to prevent manufactures in a country, whose inhabitants sur- pass the number that can subsist by the husbandry of it. That thi.v; will be the case in America soon, if our people remain confmcd within the mountains, and almost as soon should it be unsafe for them to live beyond, though the country be ceded to us, no man acquainted with political and commercial history can doubt. Manu- factures are founded in poverty. It is the multitude of poor with- out land in a countr)-, and who must work for others at low wages or starve, that enables undertakers to carry on a manufacture, and afford it cheap enough to prevent the importation of the same kind from abroad, and to bear the expense of its own exportation. But no man, who can have a piece of land of his own, sufficient by his labor to subsist his family in plenty, is poor enough to be a manufacturer, and work for a master. Hence, while there is land enough in America for our people, there can never be manufactures to any amount or value. It is a striking observation of a very able pen, that the natural livelihood of the thin inhabitants of a forest country is hunting ; that of a greater number, pasturage ; that of a middling population, agriculture ; and that of the greatest, manu- factures ; which last must subsist the bulk of the people in a full •countr\-, or they must be subsisted by charity, or perish. The ex- tended population, therefore, that is most advantageous to Great Britain, will be best effected, because only effectually secured, by the possession of Canada. . . . In fact, the occasion for iMiglish goods in North America, and the inclination to have and use them, is, and must be for ages to come, much greater than the ability of the people to pay for them ; the}' must therefore, as they now do, deny themseh'es many things they would otherwise choose to have, or increase their industiy to obtain them. And thus, if they should at any time manufacture 1 Franklin, Canadian ramphlct [i7('>o], in Works (Sparks Edition), IV, 19. 40-41. 36 COLONIAL pCONOMY some coarse article, which, on account of its bulk or some other circumstance, cannot so well be brought to them from Britain ; it only enables them the better to pay for finer goods, that otherwise they could not indulge themselves in ; so that the exports thither are not diminished by such manufacture, but rather increased. The single article of manufacture in these colonies, mentioned by the Remarker, is Jiats made in New England. It is true, there have been, ever since the first settlement of that countiy, a few hatters there ; drawn thither probably at first by the facility of get- ting beaver, while the woods were but little cleared, and there was plenty of those animals. The case is greatly altered now. The beaver skins are not now to be had in New England, but from veiy remote places and at great prices. The trade is accordingly declining there ; so that, far from being able to make hats in any quantity for exportation, they cannot supply their home demand ; and it is well known, that some thousand dozens are sent thither yearly from London, Bristol, and Liverpool, and sold cheaper than the inhabitants can make them of equal goodness. In fact, the colonies are so little suited for establishing of manufacture, that they are continually losing the few branches they accidentally gain. The working braziers, cutlers, and pew- terers, as well as hatters, who have happened to go over from time to time and settle in the colonies, gradually drop the working part of their business, and import their respective goods from England, whence they can have them cheaper and better than they can make them. They continue their shops indeed, in the same way of dealing ; but become sellers of braziery, cutlery, pewter, hats, &c. brought from England, instead of being makers of those goods. . . , ^ Annapolis, Feb. 20, 1773 Your observations on the resources of America are well founded. I grant they are infinite, and I am persuaded that, in process of time, she will be enabled to avail herself of innumerable advantages ; but those that assert she will effectually rival Great Britain in that invaluable staple of her commerce, the ivoollcn mamifactory, are, 1 Eddis, Letters from America [1769-1777], pp. 139-140, 141-145. MANUFACTURES Zl indeed, by far too sangiiine in tlicir expectations : coarse cloths for the wear of ser\ants and negroes, tlie colonists may probably be enabled to manufacture, but insurmountable objections arise to the production of those of a superior quality. . . . In Maryland, and in the adjacent provinces, the cold is more severe from January till the beginning of May, than in any part of the island of Great i^ritain ; in consequence of which the American farmer is reduced to the necessity of housing his sheep during that rigid season. Summer may, literally, be said to be seated on the lap of winter, and the immediate transition from cold to heat is, evidently, extremely prejudicial to the growth and improxement of wool ; so that in quality it is greatly inferior ; nor is the quantity produced proportionable to what is yielded in the milder regions of the parent state. Under these disadvantages it may reasonably be concluded, that the American settlements will ever be necessitated to look up to Britain for a very considerable supply of her invaluable staple. And even if these causes did not operate, many years must un- avoidably elapse before the colonists can establish or conduct manufactures in such a manner, as to enable them to supply, even their own wants, on terms of greater advantage than by relying on external assistance. This immense continent will require a considerable population before the inhabitants can, with any propriety, divert their atten- tion from agriculture. To settle, and to cultivate lands must be their first great object ; and the produce of those exertions they must barter in exchange for European manufactures. In vain is encouragement held forth, to induce ingenious artizans to emigrate from their original situations. On their arrival, either the allure- ments which tempted them deceive their expectations ; or the natural wish to obtain a perm.anent establishment, supercedes every other consideration, and induces a great majority of these adventurers to purchase lands which, comparatively, bear no price, and the purchasers are reduced to rely on. time and industiy to recompence their assiduity. Another circumstance, very imporUmt in its nature, likewise demands attention. The price of labour must be greatly lessened 38 COLONIAL ECONOMY before the Americans can possibly manufacture to any advantage ; and this inconvenience cannot be remedied, until, by an overplus of people, there are competitors in every art, and a sufficient number of opulent inhabitants to encourage and reward their ingenuity. At present, it is evident, that almost every article of use or ornament, is to be obtained on much more reasonable terms from the mother country, than from artizans settled on this side the Atlantic, It is also as certain, that goods of every kind produced, or manufactured in England, are greatly superior to the produce or manufactures of this continent. In process of time, but a time far distant, the colonies may, undoubtedly, from their great re- sources, be enabled to rival Britain in many valuable articles of commerce. But in your grand staple, the growth and manufacture of wool, you will, in a general point of view, stand single and prc- cniincnt. Nature, in this particular, has been exuberantly bounti- ful. Your fertile downs are a source of inexhaustible wealth. Support that superiority, which the benevolence of heaven has blessed you with, by a judicious and industrious exertion of local advantages, and the power and splendor of Great Britain will defy the utmost efforts of our position, and remain for ages with un- diminished lustre ! ^ Much has been written concerning the bad effects of the American colonists going into manufactures, but no satisfactory account has been given of the amount of such fabrics, which has been owing to Parliament's never having ordered a return of them to be laid before them. Some late writers have urged strongly the magnitude to which these manufactures have arisen, but it has been from calculations founded on dubious authority. In this case the general idea of the necessity of making that we cannot Iniy would be satisfactory, did we know the amount of their consump- tion, and that of their means of satisfying it. . . . By manufactures are not to be understood the fabrics of private families, who work only for their own use, but th(«e only that are wrought for sale, and which are the only or principal livelihood of 1 American Husbandry [1775], -^I' ~Sl~~^li 287-288. MANUFACTURES 39 the persons concerned and employed in them. This is a distinction which our writers have not attended to sufficiently ; for tho' the population of a settlement that entirely supports itself is of little or no value to Britain, yet as it is passive, and no more than supports itself, it is much to be preferred to another branch of population, which is employed in cloathing, &c. itself and others too — that is, manufacturing for sale. As to the first evil, no remedy in the world can be applied to it that will be effectual ; nor is it an object which can ever claim the attention of the mother-country. . . . Nothing is more difficult than to discover the amount of their manufactures for sale : we are to consider that there are other articles in their imports besides manufactures, wine, rum, sugar, India commodities, &c. all which amount to considerable sums. The means by which they can purchase those and manufactures are their exports, the produce of their lands — the produce of their fisheries, and the profits of their commerce ; the two first are pretty well known, but the latter, open and clandestine, is very great, and no guess can be given of its amount. That the manufactures for sale are not so great as some have imagined, may be conceived from the vast number of inhabit^mts, who in all probability work entirely for themselves ; in a country where the minute division of landed property is so great as in the most populous of the northern colonies, and in a climate that will yield little valualole, it is impossible that the people should be able to p2irchasc manufactures : poor countiymen in England do it be- cause all their income is paid them in money, whatever may be their work ; but in America day-labourers are rarely to be found, except in the neighbourhood of great towns ; on the contrary, the man who in England would be a labourer, would there be a little freeholder, who probably raising for many years but little for sale, is forced to work up his wool in his family, his leather, and his flax, after which, the rest of his consumption is scarce worth mentioning. The num- ber of people in the northern colonies who come under this de- nomination is very great, and consequently the deductions to be made from the total consumption veiy considerable : it is not a difficult matter to calculate how much a head would supply the total 40 COLONIAL ECONOMY of a people with manufactures ; this has been calculated ; but it is extremely difficult to guess the amount of purchased manufactures, which is the only important point. In this enquiry we should not confine ourselves to the northern colonies, but take into the account that part of the population of the tobacco ones which is not employed on tobacco ; a considerable proportion of the total : as any person may judge who recollects that soon after the peace the number of people in Virginia and Maryland was calculated at 800,000, the export of tobacco there- fore is not much above 20s. a head ; instead of which, those who are employed by that staple are able, in all probability, to consume 5, 6, or 81. a head in imported commodities, and the rest of the people scarcely any thing, as they must, like their brethren to the north, manufacture almost every thing they use. If the imported commodities in these colonies are assigned to 200,000 people, there will remain 600,000, whose purchased consumption is small ; and if the common calculation is taken, of their being at the peace 1,000,000 of people in the northern colonies, we then find 1,600,000 souls, among whom the imports are in some proportion or other to be divided. The exports from Great Britain are as follows : Canada ^f 105, 000 Nova Scotia 26,500 New England 407,000 New York 531,000 Pensylvania 611,000 ;,{^i,68o,5oo If the population of these was 1,000,000, they imported about 32 s. 6d. a head: if we allow 5 1. a head for all \h-AX. pnrcJiascd their consumption, the number this importation supplied is 336,000, at which rate (to speak nothing of West Indian and foreign im- ports) 664,000 persons manufactured for themselves, besides the proportion of the tobacco settlements. Hence if these data are just, we may suppose one third of the people to consume purchased commodities, and two thirds to manufacture for themselves ; but this supposes their own fabrics for sale to be inconsiderable, and that 5 1. a head is for only a partial consumption. MANUFACrURKS 4 1 There is yet another lii;]it in which this point is to be viewed, which is a diiferent classing of the people ; for the sake of explain- ing the clearer what I mean, I will suppose a division of the million of people in the northern colonies. 200,000 who consume of foreign manufactures, Sec. only 2s. 6cl. a head 500,000 who consume a liead 40 s. 300,000 who consume 5I. The first ;i^25,ooo The second 1,000,000 The third 1,500,000 ;^2, 525,000 Import from Britain 1,680,500 According to this account, they must buy of foreigners, or work among tliemselves for sale, to the amount of . . . ^'844,500 For in this idea the fabrics worked in private families have no place ; if they were taken in, the poorest would consume far more than 2s. 6d. There is nothing extravagant in this account; nor can it be supposed that the manufactures of the northern colonies amount to less than 844,5001. In case the consumption of the classes is greater, then this amount will of course be proportion- ably larger. Supposing this sum to be the fact, or near it — or if we call their manufactures for sale a million, I do not think it an amount that ought greatly to alarm the mother-countiy, provided she took proper measures to obviate their ill effects, which measures would be very easily planned and executed. It is to be remembered, that a very considerable portion of this sum must be expended in fab- rics, the whole of which Britain cannot expect to furnish — and which in fact she does not furnish to any colony, for the last hand, to a variety of articles, cannot be put at London, but must neces- sarily be executed in America, and the labours of those workmen and artizans is there blended with the price of the manufacture. All that this kingdom can expect from the northern colonies, is to keep down public manufactories, which take the wool from the sheeps back, and convert it into cloth ; the flax from the ground, and make it into linen and lace ; the skin off the beast, and turn it to finished fabrics of leather ; the iron from the ore, and con- vert it into the variety of utensils which Sheflfield and Birmingham 42 COLONIAL ECONOMY exhibit ; and the same in other instances : but this reasoning must not be carried too far in any of these articles ; there are objects which when completed from wool, leather, and iron, will still be of such small value, that the very freight from Britain and carriage to the consumer would be twice the worth, such we may be sure will be wrought in the colony. But when we see them making cloth of I2s. a yard, linen of 5 s., hats of i6s. each, locks, keys, and curi- ous articles of hard-ware, which is the case, we may then be certain that the policy of this kingdom is deficient ; and that without vio- lence, such manufactures might be put down. We are to remember, that the colonists are under great difficul- ties in their attempts to raise manufactories for sale. The mother- country has the power of introducing her own fabrics as cheap as she pleases, and under whatever advantages of bounties or premi- ums she likes to grant ; which she can do in her exportation of them to no other market. Every where else they meet with duties on importation, and perhaps prohibitions ; but in America the manufactories of Britain are openly in every market without duty or clog. In the next place the price of labour is very great, greater take the year through than in Britain, which is a material article ; this must necessarily be the case where land can be had for nothing ; workmen may be gained for high wages, but those high wages will presently enable them to set up for planters in a country where twenty pounds is a fortune sufficient to begin with ; thus the master manufacturers can never keep the men after they have got them, which must lay them under almost insuperable difficulties, or sub- ject them to expences which will make their manufactures much dearer than those of Britain. The long winters and severe season which stops most employ- ments, have been urged as reasons why they may manufacture largely for sale : but I am not of this opinion ; those who are con- versant in our fabrics well know, that in very sharp frosts many of our manufactures are at a stand ; what therefore would be at Boston or New York, where the frosts are in common 20 degrees sharper than the most severe we feel in England ; and where the whole winter is frost and snow : people can scarce keep their ex- tremities from freezing who attend to nothing else, how therefore MANUFACTURES 43 could the finer sorts of manufactures be carried on ? What sort of work would a weaver make, whose fingers were numbed with cold ; or a workman in steel, whose flesh froze to his manufacture ? In such a climate manufactures must be carried on in mild or warm weather, and then the workmen may have what they will ask in the field, and all the advantages here stated are at once given up. Under such circumstances no fabrics can be made cheap enough to under-sell Britain, but such as come extravagantly dear from her, and can be made reasonable in America ; or others so inferior in kind, that freight and carriage make a large proportion of the whole value. . . . Manufactures in these colonies have been owing to the increase of the people being beyond the proportion of fresh land to take off the surplus of population ; nothing can either put them down or prevent their increase, but drawing off many of the inhabitants, by tempting them with a better country and plenty of land, and find- ing more profitable employments than manufacturing for such as stay at home. These are the grand objects : well pursued they would prove effectual in putting down all their manufactories for sale, and preventing new ones being erected ; but if the work was not sufficiently executed thereby, the bounty on similar l^ritish fab- rics would give the finishing stroke. The northern colonies under such a system of policy would no more have manufactures abound- ing among them of their own make, than the West Indies or the southern colonies, excepting what was the private work of families ; an object not of much jealousy to Britain, and even those would be much lessened by the same conduct. At the same time that this great and desirable effect took place, the manufacturing interest of the mother-country would be amazingly advanced more than by any other measure that could be devised; for- the export to America would be increased proportionably to tlie quantity made by the American manufactories for sale, and the import of naval stores ; so that instead of paying a vast sum in bullion to the Baltic for those commodities, they would be bought of the colonies with manufactures, a difference infinitely great. The trade and naviga- tion of Britain would be greaUy encouraged — and her American affairs would be thrown on a footing that would, if well pursued, 44 COLONIAL ECONOMY be effectual in preventing those many evils which cannot but arise from the establishment of manufactures among the colonists. . . . in. IMMIGRATION AND THE SUPPLY OF LABORERS ^ In some years, more people have transported themselves into Pennsylvania, than into all the other settlements together. In 1729, six thousand two hundred and eight persons came to settle here as passengers or servants, four fifths of whom at least were from Ireland. In short, this province has increased so greatly from the time of its first establishment, that, whereas lands were given by Mr. Penn the founder of the colony at the rate of twenty pounds for a thousand acres, reserving only a shilling every hun- dred acres for quit-rent ; and this in some of the best situated parts of the province : yet now, at a great distance from navigation, land is granted at twelve' pounds the hundred acres, and a quit- rent of four shillings reserved ; and the land which is near Phila- delphia rents for twenty shillings the acre. In many places, and at the distance of several miles from that city, land sells for twenty years purchase. The Pennsylvanians are an industrious and hardy people ; they are most of them substantial, though but a few of the landed people can be considered as rich ; but they are all well lodged, well fed, and for their condition, well clad too ; and this at the more easy rate, as the inferior people manufacture most of their own wear, both linens and woollens. There are but few Blacks, not in all the fortieth part of the people of the province. . . . Pennsylvania is inhabited by upwards of two hundred and fifty thousand people, half of whom are Germans, Swedes, or Dutch. Here you see the Quakers, Churchmen, Calvinists, Lutherans, Catholics, Methodists, Menists, Moravians, Independents, the Ana- baptists, and the Dumplers, a sort of German sect, that live in something like a religious society, wear long beards, and a habit resembling that of friars. In short, the diversity of people, religions, nations, and languages here, is prodigious, and the harmony in which they live together no less edifying. . . . ^ Burke, European Settlements in America [1761], II, 205-206, 199, 200-201. IMMIGRATION AND SUPPLY OF LABORERS 45 It was certainly a very right policy to encourage the importation of foreigners into Pennsylvania, as well as into our other colonies. By this we are great gainers, without any diminution of the inhab- itants of Great Britain. But it has been frequently observed, and, as it should seem, very justly complained of, that they are left still foreigners, and likely to continue so for many generations ; as they have schools taught, books printed, and even the common news paper in their own language ; by which means, and as they possess large tracts of the country without any intermixture of ICnglisli, there is no appearance of their blending and becoming one people with us. This certainly is a great irregularity, and the greater, as these foreigners, by their industry, frugality, and a hard way of living, in which they greatly exceed our people, have in a manner thrust themselves out in several places ; so as to threaten the col- ony with the danger of being wholly foreign in language, manners, and perhaps even inclinations. In the year 1750, were imported into Pennsylvania and its dependencies four thousand three hun- dred and seventeen Germans, whereas of British and Irish but one thousand arrived ; a considerable number, if it was not so vastly overbalanced by that of the foreigners. . . . 1 In the course of my excursions, I have conversed with divers intelligent planters who emigrated to this countr)', on account of various discouraging circumstances which baffled their utmost in- dustiy at home. A principal cause which has been assigned by very many for becoming adventurers in this part of the world, is the custom, which is becoming too prevalent in England, of farm- ing extensive farms, for the accomodation of wealthy tenants, and for greater facilit)-' in collecting the rents. Whatever present advantages may arise from this practice, be assured a perseverance therein will be attended with consequences very prejudicial, for by this means a sensible depopulation will ensue ; a considerable tract of country will be occupied by few inhabitants, and a multitude of valuable members of the commu- nity, will be obliged to abandon their homes and connexions, and to court fortune in a distant region, where land may be procured 1 Eddis, Letters from America [1769-1777], pp. 109-110, 63-75. 46 COLONIAL ECONOMY for a trifling consideration, and where the greatest encouragement is held out to skill and application. . . . Your information relative to the situation of servants in this country, is far from being well-founded. I have now been upwards of twelve months resident in Maryland, and am thereby enabled to convey to you a tolerable idea on this subject. t Persons in a state of servitude are under four distinct denomi- nations : negroes, who are the entire property of their respective owners ; convicts, who are transported from the mother country for a limited term ; indented servants, who are engaged for five years previous to their leaving England ; and free-willers, who are supposed, from their situation, to possess superior advantages. y^he negroes in this province are, in general, natives of the country ; very few in proportion being imported from the coast of Africa. They are better cloathed, better fed, and better treated, •than their unfortunate brethren, whom a more rigid fate hath sub- jected to slavery in our West India islands ; neither are their em- ployments so laborious, nor the acts of the legislature so partially oppressive against them. The further we proceed to the northward, the less number of people are to be found of this complexion : In the New England government, negroes are almost as scarce as on your side of the Atlantic, and but few are under actual slavery ; but as we advance to the south, their multitudes astonishingly in- crease, and in the Carolinas they considerably exceed the number of white inhabitants. Maryland is the only province into which convicts may be freely imported. ' The Virginians have inflicted very severe penalties on the masters of vessels, or others, who may attempt to introduce persons under this description into their colony. They have been influ- enced in this measure by an apprehension, that, from the admis- sion of such inmates into their families, the prevalence of bad example might tend to universal depravity, in spite of every regu- lation, and restraining law. Persons convicted of felony, and in consequence transported to this continent, if they are able to pay the expence of passage, are free to pursue their fortune agreeably to their inclinations or abilities. Few, however, have means to avail themselves of this advantage. IMMI(}RATION AND SUPPLY OF LABOR K.RS 47 These unhappy beings are, generally, consigned to an agent, who classes them suitably to their real or supposed qualifications ; ad- vertises them for sale, and disjaoses of them, for seven years, to planters, to mechanics, and to such as choose to retain tliem for domestic service. Those who survive the term of servitude, seldom establish their residence in this country : the stamp of infamy is too strong upon them to be easily erased : they either return to Europe, and renew their former practices ; or, if they have fortu- nately imbibed habits of honesty and industry, they remove to a distant situation, where they may hope to remain unknown, and be enabled to pursue with credit eveiy possible method of becoming useful members of society. In your frequent excursions about the great metropolis, you cannot but observe numerous advertisements, offering the most seducing encouragement to adventurers under every possible de- scription ; to those who are disgusted with the frowns of fortune in their native land ; and to those of an enterprising disposition, who are tempted to court her smiles in a distant region. These persons are referred to agents, or crim]3s, who represent the advan- tages to be obtained in America, in colours so alluring, that it is almost impossible to resist their artifices. L^nwary persons are ac- cordingly induced to enter into articles, by which they engage to become servants, agreeable to their respective qualifications, for the term of five years ; every necessar\' acccjmodation being found them during the voyage ; and every method taken tliat they may be treated with tenderness and humanity during the period of servitude ; at the expiration of w^hich they arc taught to expect, that opportuni- ties will assuredly offer to secure to the honest and industrious, ti competent provision for the remainder of their days. The generality of the inhabitants in this province are ver\' little acquainted with those fallacious pretences, by whicli numbers are continually induced to embark for this continent. On the contrary, they too generally conceive an opinion that the difference is merely nominal between the indented servant and the convicted felon : nor will they readily believe that people, who had the least experience in life, and whose characters were unexceptionable, would abandon their friends and families, and their ancient connexions, for a servile 48 COLONIAL ECONOMY situation, in a remote appendage to the British Empire. From this persuasion they rather consider the convict as the more profit- able servant, his term being for seven, the latter only for five years ; and, I am sorry to observe, that there are but few instances wherein they experience different treatment. Negroes being a property for life, the death of slaves, in the prime of youth or strength, is a material loss to the proprietor ; they are, therefore almost in every instance, under more comfortable circumstances than the miserable European, over whom the rigid planter exercises an inflexible se- verity. They are strained to the utmost to perform their allotted labour ; and, from a prepossession in many cases too justly founded, they are supposed to be receiving only the just reward which is due to repeated offences. There are doubtless many exceptions to this observation, yet, generally speaking, they groan beneath a worse than Egyptian bondage. By attempting to lighten the intolerable burthen, they often render it more insupportable. For real, or im- aginary causes, these frequently attempt to escape, but very few are successful ; the countiy being intersected with rivers, and the utmost vigilance observed in detecting persons under suspicious circumstances, who, when apprehended, are committed to close confinement, advertised, and delivered to their respective masters ; the party who detects the vagrant being entitled to a reward. Other incidental charges arise. The unhappy culprit is doomed to a se- vere chastisement ; and a prolongation of servitude is decreed in full proportion to expences incurred, and supposed inconveniences resulting from a desertion of duty. The situation of the free-wilier is, in almost every instance, more to be lamented than either that of the convict or the indented serv- ant ; the deception which is practiced on those of this description being attended with circumstances of greater duplicity and cruelty. Persons under this denomination are received under express con- ditions that, on their arrival in America, they are to be allowed a stipulated number of days to dispose of themselves to the greatest advantage. They are told, that their services will be eagerly solic- ited, in proportion to their abilities ; that their reward will be ade- quate to the hazard they encounter by courting fortune in a distant region ; and that the parties with whom they engage will readily IMMIGRATION AND SUPPLY OF T-.\PORERS 49 advance the sum agreed on for their passage ; which, being aver- aged at about nine pounds sterling, they will speedily be enabled to repay, and to enjoy, in a sbite of liberty, a comparative situation of ease and affluence. With these pleasing ideas they support, with cheerfulness, the hardships to which they are subjected during the voyage ; and, with the most anxious sensations of delight, approach the land which they consider as the scene of future prosperity. But scarce have they contemplated the diversified objects which naturally attract atten- tion ; scarce have they yielded to the pleasing reflection, that every danger, every difficulty, is happily surmounted, before their fond hopes are cruelly blasted, and they find themselves involved in all the complicated miseries of a tedious, laborious, and unprofitable servitude. Persons resident in America, being accustomed to procure serv- ants for a very trifling consideration, under absolute terms, for a limited period, are not often disposed to hire adventurers, who ex- pect to be gratified in full proportion to their acknowledged quali- fications ; but, as they support authority with a rigid hand, they little regard the former situation of their unhappy dependants. This disposition, which is almost universally prevalent, is well known to the parties, who on your side of the Atlantic engage in this iniquitous and cruel commerce. It is, therefore, an article of agreement with these deluded victims, that if they are not success- ful in obtaining situations, on their own terms, within a certain number of days after their arrival in the country, they are then to be sold, in order to defray the charges of passage, at the discretion of the master of the vessel, or the agent to whom he is consigned in the province. You are also to observe, that servants imported, even under this favourable description, are rarely permitted to set their feet on shore, until they have absolutely formed their respective engage- ments. As soon as the ship is stationed in her berth, planters, mechanics, and others, repair on board ; the adventurers of both sexes are exposed to view, and very few are happy enough to make their own stipulations, some very extraordinaiy qualifications being absolutely requisite to obtain this distinction ; and even when this 50 COLONIAL ECONOMY is obtained, the advantages are by no means equivalent to their sanguine expectations. The residue, stung with disappointment and vexation, meet with horror the moment which dooms them, under an appearance of equity, to a hmited term of slavery. Char- acter is of little importance ; their abilities not being found of a superior nature, they are sold as soon as their term of election is expired, apparel and provision being their only compensation ; till, on the expiration of five tedious laborious years, they are restored to a dearly purchased freedom. From this detail, I am persuaded, you will no longer imagine, that the servants in this country are in a better situation than those in Britain. . 1 I have more than once mentioned the high price of labour : this article depends on the circumstance I have now named ; where families are so far from being burthensome, men marry very young, and where land is in such plenty, men very soon become farmers, however low they set out in life. Where this is the case, it must at once be evident that the price of labour must be verv' dear ; nothing but a high price will induce men to labour at all, and at the same time it presently puts a conclusion to it by so soon en- abling them to take a piece of waste land. By day labourers, which are not common in the colonies, one shilling will do as much in England as half a crown in New England. This makes it neces- sary to depend principally on servants, and on labourers who article themselves to serve three, five, or seven years, which is always the case with new comers who are in poverty. . . . Pensylvania is not without negro slaves for cultivation, though the number bears no proportion to the white servants ; it may also be proper to remark, that there are in this province, and it is the same in others, a difference in the white servants ; they have, throughout the province, the same sort of servants that perform work in England, that is hired by the year, in which case, they are washed, lodged, and boarded, but find their own cl oaths ; an able bodied man, in husbandry, will get from lol. to i6 1. a year ster- ling. Maids will get so high as 5 1. to 7 1. Another sort of white ^ American Husbandry ['7751' !> 73' 169-170. TRADE TO WEST INDIES AND MEDITERRANEAN 51 servants, which are unknown in Britain, arc the new settlers that are poor. Very many of these cannot even pay their jDassage from Europe, which amounts to 10 1. sterhnjj^, and agree therefore with the captain of the ship, that he shall sell them for a certain num- ber of years to be servants, in which case the farmers buy them, that is pay their freight, &c. and this usually puts something also in the captain's pocket, beyond what he would othenvise have. If the passenger has some money, but not enough, he is then sold for a shorter time to make up the sum. There are laws in the prov- ince to regulate tliis kind of ser\'itude, which seems very strange to us ; the master is bound to feed, clothe, and use the servant as well as others. Others that have money enough to pay for their passage, especially Germans, yet will not pay, but choose to be sold in order to have time to gain a knowledge of the language and the manner of living in the country. I^oth these sorts of servants are greatly preferred to the common hiring method ; for the wages do not amount to much more than half the other, and at the same time there is a security of keeping them, which with common servants is not the case ; nor are these near so industrious. These distinctions in ser\'itude are met with in our other colonies, but they do not occur so often, because for one new comer in them, there are twenty at Philadelphia. IV. THE TRADE TO THE WEST INDIES AND THE MEDITERRANEAN ^ The Commerce of the British Northern Colonies in America, is so peculiarly circumstanced, and from permanent causes, so per- plexed and embarrassed, that it is a business of great difficulty to investigate it, and put it in any tolerable point of light, so that it may be understood ; this perhaps may be the cause why so little hafK been attempted, and still less effected, in this intricate though very interesting inquir}^ That which most particularly and unhappily distinguishes most of these Northern British Colonies, from all others, either British, 1 An Essay on the Trade of the Northern Colonics of Great Hritain in North America [1764], pp. 2-3, 19-20. 52 COLONIAL ECONOMY or any other nation, is, that the soil and climate of them, is incapa- ble of producing almost any thing which will serve to send directly home to the Mother Country. Yet notwithstanding this fatal disadvantage, their situation and circumstances are such, as to be obliged to take off, and consume greater quantities of British Manufactures, than any other Colonies ; their long cold winters, call for much cloathing, but their deep and lasting snows, make it impossible to keep sheep, and thereby pro- cure wool to supply that demand. Again, the same long winters, prevent the labour of slaves being of any advantage in these Colonies ; this, together with the almost endless countries lying back, yet to be settled and filled with inhabitants, makes hands so scarce, and labour so dear, that no kind of manufactories can be set up and supported in these Colonies : And thus it appears on one hand, that the inhabitants are obliged by necessity to take great quantities of goods from the Mother Countr}^ ; so on the other, it is no less evident, that nature hath denied them the means of re- turning any thing directly thither to pay for those goods. When these singular circumstances are fully known, and duly considered, it will easily be found what the cause is, that a much greater number of ships and smaller vessels are employed by the people of these Colonies, than of any others in the world : Unable to make remittances in a direct way, they are obliged to do it by a circuity of commerce unpractised by and unnecessary in any other Colony. The commodities shipped off by them are generally of such a nature, that they must be consumed in the country where first sold, and will not bear to be reshipped from thence to any other ; from hence it happens that no one market will take off any great quantity ; this obliges these people to look out for markets in every part of the world within their reach, where they can sell their goods for any tolerable price, and procure such things in re- turn, as may serve immediately, or by several commercial exchanges, to make a remittance home. Perhaps it may not be disagreeable to examine some branches of this commerce a little more minutely. We will begin with those Colonies most to the Northward, whose neighbouring seas being stored with fish, the inhabitants turn their industry to catching and TRADE TO WEST INDIES AND MEDITERRANEAN 53 curing of them ; and when they are beeome fit to ship, all that are called merchantable are sent directly to Spain, ]\jrtugal, and Italy, and there sold for money or bills of exchange, which are sent di- rectly to England, except a very small part returned in the ships to America, in Salt, Raisins, Lemons, Pickles, &c. A considerable part of the fish yet remaining, which is unfit for the European mar- kets, serves for feeding the slaves in the West- Indies ; as much of this is sold in the English islands as they will purchase, and the residue sold in the French and Dutch Colonies, and in the end is turned into a remittance home. The Colonies next to the Southward of those we have been speaking of, export lumber, horses, pork, beef, and tobacco (of a poor and unmerchantable kind which is raised in them ;) of these commodities as much is sold in all the English West-Indies as they will purchase, the remainder is sold to the French and Dutch, for molasses ; this molasses is brought intcj these Colonies, and there distilled into rum, which is sent to the coast of Africa, and there sold for gold, i\-ory, and slaves ; the two first of these are sent directly home ; the slaves are carried to the luiglish West- Indies, and sold for money or bills of exchange, which are also remitted to England. As we still proceed further Southward into the next Colonies, w^e shall find their principal produce is wheat ; which being made in flour, is exported, and brought into all the English ports in America : Yet after all these markets are supplied, a large overplus remains, w^hich is scjld to the Spaniards, French and Dutch, as much as is possible for silver and gold, which is all remitted to (ireat Britain. The most Southern Colonies on the continent, whose produce is chiefly tobacco, naval stores, and rice, find a market for their goods in the Mother Countr}', and thereby make their remittances in a more direct w^ay, and consequently are less concerned in that tedious round of commerce to which the others are compelled to effect the same end. . . . The last point to be considered, is the conseciuences that must foflow upon the limitiition, restriction, or absolute prohibition of this Northern commerce. And here, if we consult experience, the surest guide to right reasoning on such subjects, we shall find, that 54 COLONIAL ECONOMY the act of the 6th of George the Second, commonly called the Sugar Act, laying so high a duty on all foreign Sugar, Molasses, and Rum, imported into the British plantations, amounts, in effect, to a pro- hibition, hath never in any degree increased the Ivoyal Revenue, or brought any other real advantage to the Mother Country : Neither hath it been at all more beneficial to the British Sugar Colonies, at whose instance it was procured. But although no salutary consequences have any where followed this act, yet, many and great mischiefs and disadvantages, as well as corrupt and scandalous practices have flowed from it in all the English Colo- nies : The merchants, unwilling to quit a trade, which was in a great measure the foundation of their whole circle of commerce, have gone into many illicit methods to cover them in still carrying it on ; while the Custom-House Officers have made a very lucrative jobb of shutting their eyes, or at least of opening them no farther than their own private interest required. . . . 1 It may, I think, be affirmed, without hazard of contradiction, that if ever there was any one particular branch of commerce in the world, that called less for restraint and limitation than any other, it was the trade which, previous to the year 1774, was car- ried on between the planters of the West Indies and the inhabitants of North America. It was not a traffic calculated to answer the fantastic calls of vanity, or to administer gratification to luxury or vice ; but to procure food for the hungry, and to furnish materials (scarce less important than food) for supplying the planters in two capital objects, their buildings, and packages for their chief staple productions, sugar and rum. ... For the supply of those essential articles, lumber, fish, flour, and grain, America seems to have been happily fitted, as well from internal circumstances, as her commodious situation ; and it is to a neighbourly intercourse with that continent, continued during one hundred and thirty years, that our sugar plantations in a great measure owe their prosperity ; insomuch that, according to the opinion of a very competent judge, (Mr. Long) if the continent 1 Edwards, History, Civil and Commercial, of the British Colonies in the West Indies [1793], II' 377-37^^ 3^°-3^^- TRADE TO WKST INDIES AND MEDITERRANEAN 55 had been wholly in the hands of a foreign power, and the i^nglish precluded from all commerce or intercourse with it, it is a very doubtful point, whether, in such case, we should at this hour have possessed a single acre of land in the West Indies. . . . From this account of the exports from the British West Indies to the continental colonies, it appears that America, besides afford- ing an inexhaustible source of supply, was also a sure market for the disposal of the planters surplus productions ; such, I mean, for which there was no sufficient vent in Europe, especially rum ; the whole importation of that article into Great Britain and Ireland, having been little more than half the quantity consumed in America. On whatever side therefore this trade is considered, it will be found that Great Britain ultimately received the chief bene- fits resulting from it ; for the sugar planters, by being cheapl}' and regularly supplied with horses, provisions, and lumber, were enabled to adopt the system of management not only most advantageous to themselves, but also to the mother country. Much of that land which otherwise must have been applied to the cultivation of pro- visions, for the maintenance of their negroes and the raising of cattle, was appropriated to the cultivation of sugar. By this means the. quantity of sugar and rum (the most profitable of their staples) had increased to a surprising degree, and the British re\'enues, navigation, and general commerce, were proportionably aug- mented, aggrandized, and extended. Having an advantageous market for their rum, the planters were enabled to deal so much the more largely with the mother country. On the other hand, the Americans, being annually indebted to Great Brifciin for manu- factures, in a larger sum than their returns of tobacco, indigo, rice, and naval stores were sufhcient to discharge, made up the deficiency, in a great degree, by means of their circuitous trade in the West Indies, foreign as well as British ; and were thus enabled to extend their dealings with Great Britain. Thus the effect was just as ad- vantageous to her, as if the sugar planter himself had been the purchaser to the same amount, instead of the American. . . . 56 COLONIAL ECONOMY ^ Renwnstrancc of the Colony of Rhode Island to the Lords Commissioners of Trade and Plantations To the Right Honorable the Lords Commissioners for Trade and Plantations ; humbly show : The Governor and Company of the English colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, in New England, in. America, convened at South Kingstown, the 24th day of January, a.d., 1 764, in behalf of themselves and their constituents, the merchants, planters and traders in said colony — That the act passed in the sixth year of the reign of His late Majesty George H., commonly called the sugar act, being to ex- pire at the end of the present session of Parliament ; and as the same, if continued, may be highly injurious and detrimental to all His Majesty's North American colonies in general, and to this colony in particular, the said Governor and Company presume to offer some considerations drawn from the particular state and cir- cumstances of said colony, against the renewal of said act. In doing this, it is hoped that the interest and advantage of the mother country, will be found to coincide with that of the colony, in the extinction of a law, conceived to be prejudicial to both. The colony of Rhode Island included not a much larger extent of territoiy than about thirty miles square ; and of this, a great part is a barren soil, not worth the expense of cultivation ; the number of souls in it, amount to forty-eight thousand, of which the two seaport towns of Newport and Providence, contain near one-third. The colony hath no staple commodity for exportation, and does not raise provisions sufficient for its own consumption ; yet, the goodness of its harbors, and its convenient situation for trade, agreeing with the spirit and industry of the people, hath in some measure supplied the deficiency of its natural produce, and pro- vided the means of subsistence to its inhabitants. By a moderate calculation, the quantity of British manufactures and other goods of eveiy kind imported from Great Britain, and 1 Records of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, in New England, VI, 378-383- TRADP: to west indies and MIT)ITERRANEAN 57 annually consumed in this colony, amount at least to ;^ 120,000, sterling, part of which is imported directly into the colony ; but as remittances are more easily made to the neighbouring pro\ince of the Massachusetts Bay, Pennsylvania and New York, than to Great Britain, a considerable part is purchased from them. This sum of ;^ 120,000, sterling, may be considered as a debt due from the colony, the payment of which is the great object of every branch of commerce, carried on by its inhabitants, and exer- cises the skill and invention of every trader. The only articles produced in the colony, suitable for a remittance to Europe, consist of some flax seed and oil, and some few ships built for sale ; the whole amounting to about .;^5,ooo, sterling, per annum. The other articles furnished by the colony for exportation, are some lumber, cheese and horses ; the whole amount of all which together bears but a very inconsiderable proportion to the debt con- tracted for British goods. It can therefore be nothing but commerce which enables us to pay it. As there is no commodity raised in the colony suitable for the European market, biit the few articles aforementioned ; and as the other goods raised for exportation, will answer at no market but in the West Indies, it necessarily follows that the trade thither must be the foundation of all our commerce ; and it is undoubtedly true, that solely from the prosecution of this trade with the other branches that are pursued in consequence of it, arises the ability to pay for such quantities of British goods. It appears from the custom house books, in Newport, that from January, 1 763, to January, 1 764, there were one hundred and eighty- four sail of vessels bound on foreign voyages ; that is, to Europe, Africa and the West Indies ; and three hundred and fifty-two sail of vessels employed in the coasting trade ; that is, between Georgia and Newfoundland, inclusive ; which, with the fishing vessels, are navigated by at least twenty-two hundred seamen. Of these foreign vessels, about one hundred and fifty are annually eYnployed in the West India trade, which import into this colony about fourteen thousand hogsheads of molasses ; whereof, a quantity, not exceeding twenty-five hundred hogsheads, come from all the English islands together. 58 COLONIAL ECONOMY It is this quantity of molasses which serves as an engine in the hands of the merchant to effect the great purpose of paying for l^ritish manufactures ; for part of it is exported to the Massachusetts Bay, to New York and Pennsylvania, to pay for l^ritish goods, for provisions and for many articles which compose our West India cargoes ; and part to the other colonies, southward of these last mentioned, for such commodities as serve for a remittance im- mediately to Europe ; such as rice, naval stores, &c., or such as are necessary to enable us to carry on our commerce ; the re- mainder (besides what is consumed by the inhabitants) is dis- tilled into rum, and exported to the coast of Africa ; nor will this trade to Africa appear to be of little consequence, if the following account of it be considered. Formerly, the negroes upon the coast were supplied with large quantities of French brandies; but in the year 1723, some mer- chants in this colony first introduced the use of rum there, which, from small beginnings soon increased to the consumption of several thousand hogsheads yearly ; by which the French are deprived of the sale of an equal quantity of brandy ; and as the demand for rum is annually increasing upon the coast, there is the greatest reason to think, that in a few years, if this trade be not discouraged, the sale of French brandies there will be entirely destroyed. This little colony, only, for more than thirty years past, has annually sent about eighteen sail of vessels to the coast, which have carried about eighteen hundred hogsheads of rum, together with a small quantity of provisions and some other articles, which have been sold for slaves, gold dust, elephants' teeth, camwood, &c. The slaves have been sold in the English islands, in Carolina and Vir- ginia, for bills of exchange, and the other articles have been sent to Europe ; and by this trade alone, remittances have been made from this colony to Great Britain, to the value of about ^^40,000, yearly; and this rum, carried to the coast, is so far from prejudic- ing the British trade thither, that it may be said rather to promote it ; for as soon as our rum vessels arrive, they exchange away some of the rum with the traders from Britain, for a qaantit}' of diy goods, with which each of them sort their cargoes to their mutual advantage. TRADE TO WEST INDIES AND M Enri'ERRANEAN 59 Besides this method of remittance by the African trade, we often get bills of exchange from the Dutch colonies of Surinam, Barbice, &c. ; and this happens when the sales of our cargoes amount to more than a sufficiency to load with molasses ; so that, in this par- ticular, a considerable benefit arises from the molasses trade, for these bills being paid in Holland, arc the means of drawing from that republic so much casli yearly, into Great Britain, as these bills amount to. From this deduction of the course of our trade, which is founded in exact truth, it appears that the whole trading stock of this col- ony, in its beginning, progress and end is uniformly directed to the payment of the debt contracted by the importation of British goods ; and it also clearly appears, that without this trade, it would have been and always will be, utterl}^ impossible for the inhabitants of this colony to subsist themselves, or to pay for any considerable quantity of British goods. It hath been observed before, that of fourteen thousand hogs- heads of molasses annually brought into this colony, not more than twenty-five hundred have been imported from the English islands ; and it may be further added, that all these islands together do not make for exportation, more than two-thirds of the quantity of mo- lasses annually imported into this colony for many years past. Of consequence, about eleven thousand five hundred hogsheads must have been brought from foreign plantations. The present price of molasses is about twelve pence, sterling, per gallon ; at which rate, only, it can be distilled into rum for ex- portation ; wherefore, if a duty should be laid on this article, the enhanced price may amount to a prohibition ; and it ma}' witli truth be said, that there is not so large a sum of silver and gold circulat- ing in the colony, as the duty imposed by the aforesaid act upon foreign molasses, would amount to in one year, which makes it absolutely impossible for the importers to pay it. It ought further to be considered, that the produce of His Maj- esty's northern colonies, especially those of New England, is near alike, and that the British West India islands are not, nor in the nature of things, ever can be, able to consume the produce of the said colonies ; and therefore, if they cannot export it, (which they 6o COLONIAL ECONOMY never can, unless they are allowed to bring molasses home) a very great part of the produce of the said colonies must be entirely lost. This colony, by the misfortunes it suffered in trade during the late war, but abo\'e all, by the great expenses they were at in rais- ing, paying and clothing a number of men who served against His Majesty's enemies, (in which they manifested a spirit and loyalty far exceeding their ability,) is greatly reduced in its circumstances, and now actually labors under a debt, contracted solely by carrying on the war, of near ^70,000, sterling, for which it annually pays a large interest ; and has the greatest need of all manner of countenance and support, to enable it to pay this vast debt, and to retrieve its circumstances. But, on the contrary, should the aforesaid act be revived and carried into execution, the colony will be reduced to the most de- plorable condition. There are upwards of thirty distil houses, (erected at a vast ex- pense ; the principal materials of which, are imported from Great Britain,) constantly employed in making rum from molasses. This distillery is the main hinge upon which the trade of the colony turns, and many hundreds of persons depend immediately upon it for a subsistence. These distil houses for want of molasses, must be shut up, to the ruin of many families, and of our trade in gen- eral ; particularly, of that to the coast of Africa, where the French will supply the natives with brandy, as they formerly did. Two- thirds of our vessels will become useless, and perish upon our hands ; our mechanics, and those who depend upon the merchant for employment, must seek for subsistence elsewhere ; and what must very sensibly affect the present and future naval power and commerce of Great Britain, a nursery of seamen, at this time con- sisting of twenty-two hundred, in this colony only, will be in a manner destroyed ; and as an end will be put to our commerce, the merchants cannot import any more British manufactures, nor will the people be able to pay for those they have already received. It having been shown that this trade is of the utmost importance to this colony ; that the great consumption of British goods, which is continually increasing at a great rate, compels us to prosecute TRADE TO WEST INDIES AND MEDITERRANEAN 6 1 this trade, as ha\-ing no other means wherewith to pay for those goods ; and the same arguments hcjlding pretty generally true with respect to most all the other l^ritish colonies upon the continent of North America, it remains only to show that this trade is in nowise disadvantageous to Great Britain, and that the English islands are not injured by it, and have no reason to complain of it. This intercourse between the northern colonies and the foreign plantations in the West Indies, as it is the great cause of the con- sumption of British manufactures, cannot be thought to prejudice the interest of Great Britain, unless it be made to appear that it encourages and promotes the growth of foreign plantations, esjje- cially those of the French, of whose improvements we should undoubtedly be very jealous. That this is not the case, will appear, if it be considered that the cargoes carried from hence to the French islands, consist of horses, lumber and fish ; nor will the French permit us to import any other articles to their colonies, save some trifles not worth mentioning ; that the horses we send them, serve rather for luxury than any real use in the plantation service, and that they may be, and are, supplied with mules and horses from the Spanish Main ; that the fish we send them, is of an inferior quality, and will not suit the European market ; and that if they are not suffered to purchase their fish from us, it will naturally tend to increase the shipping and seamen of France, as they will be obliged to prose- cute the fisheiy themselves ; that if we do not supply them with lumber, they can procure it from the Mississippi, or have it brought in their ships from France, which generally come out not half loaded ; and that the sole reason of the French purchasing any of the above articles from us, is, because they can pay for them in molasses, a commodity at present of but little value to them, although of the greatest consequence to us ; add to all this, if we are prevented from purchasing their molasses, they will natu- rally increase their distillery, and make it into rum, and export it elsewhere themselves, especially to Mississippi ; by means of which river, great quantities may, and will be vended among the various tribes of Indians, which will increase their shipping and seamen, and greatly interfere with the interests of Great Britain ; and more 62 COLONIAL ECONOMY especially, as by means of the trade with the Indians, they may gain such an influence over them, as may be attended with pernicious consequences in case of a future war. The English West Indies, so far from receiving any prejudice by the trade of the northern colonies, to foreign plantations, have improved greatly in their circumstances since this trade has been prosecuted. If the prices of commodities carried to the islands from hence, and of their produce brought back in exchange, be examined for thirty years past, it will evidently appear from authen- tic accounts, sales and invoices, that the price of northern commod- ities sent them, has decreased forty or fifty per cent. ; and the price of their produce bought by us, has increased in the same or a greater proportion ; so that, notwithstanding our trade with for- eign plantations, the profit of the West India planters hath been continually increasing ; while ours during the same period, hath been gradually sinking. This circumstance alone is sufficient to prove that the British sugar islands are not prejudiced by our trade to foreign plantations. Jamaica is the only English island that now supplies us with molasses {excepting the new acquisition of the Grenades, which affords a small quantity of an inferior quality) ; and it can be proved by undoubted testimony, that even from thence our vessels have been frequently obliged to bring back money, because mo- lasses was not to be had ; and this has happened in the course of a few years, while the trade from the northern colonies to foreign plantations was at the highest. The West India planters cannot with justice complain, if we purchase from others what they cannot supply us with ; and what ought still further to silence their complaints, is, that in the article of sugar, which is their first and most material staple, they can receive no prejudice by our trade to foreign plantations ; for it is well know^n that the policy both of the French and Dutch has con- fined the trade of sugar to themselves ; so that we never obtain any of that commodity from them, save now and then a small quantity of an ordinary kind, which is generally procured (not with- out hazard) by the assistance and address of those merchants there who help us in the transaction of our business. CURRENCY 63 From hence, it is evident, that tlie Hritisli islands will remain in possession of all the profit and ad\'antage arisin<^ from the article of sugar, should the law we complain of, be discontinued. From the facts and argimients contained in the aforegoing rei^rc- sentation, it is submitted to Your Lordships, whether the renewal of the said law may not, instead of answering any useful purposes, be highly injurious to the interest both of Great Britain and those northern colonies. ^ V. CURRENCY 1 From the first commencement of the North American settle- ments, as they were always in debt to the mother countr)-, there had been a constant tendency in such coin as might reach them to flow towards P^ngland. Hence, for the convenience of domestic trade, it had been found necessaiy to establish some additional local currency. In Virginia, Maryland, and North Carolina, tobacco, •the chief exportable product, long served for that purpose ; in New England, corn and cattle, at certain rates, fixed from time to time, were the established medium for the payment of taxes and the dis- charge of colonial contracts. The first innovation upon this primi- tive system was made in Massachusetts in 1690, by the issue of government bills or treasury notes, receivable in payment of taxes ; and afterward, to give them a greater currency and value, made a legal tender in payment of debts. This expedient had been resorted to at first, and w^as imitated in the other New England colonies, in the adjoining province of New York, and soon after in the Caro- linas, not with any design to furnish a currency, but as a con\-en- ient, and, indeed, necessary means of anticipating the taxes during the first two intercolonial wars, from 1689 to 17 14. Such, how- ever, was found, or thought to be, the convenience of these bills merely as a medium of trade, that a scheme had been hit upon for continuing their issue even during peace, and with the professed object of furnishing at once a currency for the people, a revenue to the government, and a source whence capital might be borrowed by the enterprising. This scheme, first introduced in South Caro- lina, but speedily imitated in Massachusetts, had consisted in the 1 Hildreth, History of the United States of America, IV, 256-259. 64 COLONIAL ECONOMY issue of colony bills, to be let out on interest to such as could give the required security, the interest to furnish a revenue to the state, and to serve, so far, as a relief from taxation. This loan-office sys- tem, as it was called, had been subsequently introduced into the other New England states, also into Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Maryland ; and in these three latter states had continued to be kept up down even to the Revolution. But both these methods of issue, whether by way of loan or to meet the exigencies of govern- ment, were found liable to great abuses, quite fatal to the paper as a measure of value. There was a constant tendency to over-issue, whence resulted a corresponding depreciation. Yet this very fault of the system was what chiefly served to recommend it to many — a profuse issue of paper operating, in fact, as a general insolvent law, all debtors being thereby enabled to discharge their debts at a half, a third, a quarter, sometimes a tenth or twelfth part of the amount actually due. After an ample experience of these bills of credit in every form of issue and in all their methods of operation, Massachusetts, on the termination of the third intercolonial war in 1748, had con- cluded to abandon the paper system altogether, the indemnity allowed her by the British Parliament for her expenses in the capture of Louisburg furnishing her the means to redeem her outstanding bills at the current rate of about twelve for one. To compel the other New Eingland colonies to imitate her example, or, at least, to restrict their issues within narrow limits, the pass- age of an act of Parliament was procured, by which they were prohibited to issue any bills, except from year to year, in antici- pation of taxes previously laid ; nor could even these be made a legal tender. The breaking out of the war, which resulted in the conquest of Canada, and the heavy expenses which all the colonies were obliged to incur, led in all of them, Massachusetts only excepted, to new and profuse issues of bills of credit. Virginia, then for the first time involved in serious expenses, resorted at last to paper money issues, by which the use of tobacco as a currency seems soon to have been in a great measure superseded, as it already had been in North Carolina and Maiyland. CURRENCY 65 The colonial paper money had long been a subject of complaint on the part of the British merchants ; and, soon after the Canadian war had been brought to a conclusion, they had obtained an act of Parliament, by which the provisions of the New England Restrain- ing Act were extended to all the colonies. 1 The British American colonies have not, within themselves, the means of making money or coin. They cannot ac(]uire it from Great Britain, the balance of trade being against them. The returns of those branches of commerce, in which they are jjcrmitted to trade to any other part of Europe, are but barely sufficient to pa\- this balance. By the present act of navigation, they are prohibited from trading with the colonies of any other nations, so that there remains nothing but a small branch of African trade, and the scrambling profits of an undescribed traffic, to supply them with silver. However, the fact is, and matters have been so managed, that the general currency of the colonies used to be in Spanish and Portuguese coin. This supplied the internal circulation of their home business, and always finally came to England in pay- ments for what the colonists exported from thence. If the act of navigation should be carried into such rigorous execution as to cut off this supply of a silver currency to the colonies, the thoughts of administration should be turned to the devising some means of supplying the colonies with money of some sort or other. . . . The safest and wisest measure which government can take, is not to discourage or obstruct that channel through which silver flows into the colonies, nor to interfere with that value which it acquires there; but only so to regulate the colon)- trade, that silver shall finally come to, and center in Great Britain, whither it will most certainly come in its true value ; but if through any fatality in things or measures, a medium of trade, a currency of money, should grow defective in the colonies, the wisdom of gov- ernment will then interpose, either to remedy the cause which occasions such defect, or to contrive the means of suppl\-ing the deficiency. The remedy lies in a certain address in carrying into execution the act of navigation ; but if that remedy is neglected, 1 Pownall, The Administration of the Colonies [1764]. PP- 102-103, 106-107, 109-113. 66 • COLONIAL ECONOMY the next recourse must lie in some means of maintaining a currency specially appropriated to the colonies, and must be partly such as will keep a certain quantity of silver coin in circulation there, — and partly such as shall establish a paper cnn-oicj, holding a value nearly equal to silver. . . . I will venture to say, that there never was a wiser or a better measure, never one better calculated to serve the uses of an en- creasing country, that there never was a measure more steadily pursued, or more faithfully executed, for forty years together, than the loan-office in Pensylvania, formed and administered by the Assembly of that province. ; An encreasing countiy of settlers and traders must always have the balance of trade against them, for this very reason, because they are encreasing and improving, because they must be con- tinually wanting further supplies which their present circumstances will neither furnish nor pay for : — And for this very reason also, they must alway labour under a decreasing silver currency, though their circumstances require an encreasing one. In the common cursory view of things, our politicians, both theorists and practi- tioners, are apt to think, that a countiy which has the balance of trade against it, and is continually drained of its silver currency, must be in a declining state ; but here we may see that the pro- gressive improvements of a commercial country of settlers, must necessarily have the balance of trade against them, and a decreasing silver currency ; that their continual want of money and other ma- terials to carry on their trade and business must engage them in debt — But that those very things applied to their improvements, will in return not only pay those debts, but create also a surplus to be still carried forward to further and further improvements. In a country under such circumstances, money lent upon interest to set- tlers, creates money. Paper money thus lent upon interest will create gold and silver in principal, zvhile the interest becomes a revenue that pays the charges of government . This currency is the true Pactolian stream which converts all into gold that is washed by it. It is on this principle that the wisdom and virtue of the assembly of Pensylvania established, under the sanction of government, an office for the emission of paper money by loan. . . . This paper CURRENCY 67 monc}- consists of promissory notes, issued by the authority of the legislature of each province, deriving" its value from being payable at a certain period, by monies arising from a tax proportioned to that payment at the time fixed. I'hese notes pass as lawful money, and have been hitherto a legal tender in eacli i-espective province where they are issued. As any limitation of the uses of these notes as a currency, must proportionably decrease its value ; as any insecurity, insufihciency, or uncertainty in the fund, which is to pay off these notes, must decrease their value ; as any quantity emitted more than the necessi- ties of such province calls for as a medium, must also decrease its value ; it is a direct and palpable injustice, that that medium or currency which has depreciated by any of these means from its real value, should continue a legal tender at its uoniinal value. The outrageous abuses practised by some Of those legislatures who have dealt in the manufacture of this depreciating currency, and the great injury which the merchant and fair dealer have suf- fered by this fraudulent medium, occasioned the interposition of parliament to become necessary : — Parliament veiy properly inter- posed, by applying the only adequate and efficient remedy, namely, by prohibiting these colony legislatures from being able to make the paper currency a legal tender. And government has lately for the same prudent reasons made this prohibition general to the whole of the colonies. For, zvhen this paper-money cannot be forced in payment as a legal tender, this very circumstance will oblige that legislature which creates it, to form it of such internal right consti- tution, as shall force its own \va\' b\' its own intrinsic w^orth on a level nearly equal to silver. The legislature must so frame and regulate it as to give it a real value. These regulations all turn upon tJie sufficiency and certainty of tJic fund, the extent of the uses, and the proportioning the quantity to the actual and real necessities which require such a medium. 1 Perhaps no mode could be devised more ad\antageous to the public, or to individuals, than our method of emitting bills in this 1 Dickinson, The Late Regulations Kespcctini; the British Colonies, C'onsidered [1765], in Political Writings, I, 56-58. 68 COLONIAL ECONOMY province for our own use. They are lent out upon good security, chiefly real, at the interest of five per eetit. The borrowers are al- lowed a long term for payment, and the sums borrowed being divided into equal portions, they are obliged to pay one of these with the interest of the whole, every year during the term. This renders the payments veiy easy ; and as no person is permitted to borrow a large sum, a great number are accommodated. The consequences of such regulations are obvious. These bills represent money in the same manner that money represents other things. As long therefore as the quantity is proportioned to the uses, these emis- sions have the same effects, that the gradual introduction of addi- tional sums of money would have. People of very small fortunes are enabled to purchase and cultivate land, which is of so much consequence in settling new countries, or to carr}' on some busi- ness, that without such assistance they would be incapable of managing : for no private person, would lend money on such favourable terms. L^rom the borrowers the currency passes into other hands, increases consumption, raises the prices of commodi- ties, quickens circulation, and after communicating a vigour to all kinds of industry, returns in its course into the possession of the borrowers, to repay them for that labour which it may properly be said to have produced. They deliver it, according to the original contracts, into the treasury, where the interest raises a fund with- out the imposition of taxes, for the public use. While emissions are thus conducted with prudence, they may be compared to springs whose water an industrious and knowing farmer spreads in many meandering rivulets through his gardens and mead- ows, and after it has refreshed all the vegetable tribes it meets with, and has set them a growing, leads it into a reservoir, where it answers some new purpose. If it could be possible to establish a currency throughout the colonies, on some foundation of this kind, perhaps greater benefits might be derived from it, than would be generally believed without the trial. MISCELLANEOUS FEATURES OF ECONOMIC LIFE 69 VI. MISCELLANEOUS FEATURES OF ECONOMIC LIFE 1 New F2nglancl being the oldest of our American colonies, ihe best parts of it may be supposed to be granted away or purchased, which is the case ; but it is not thence to be apprehended that the greatest part of this large province is cultivated : in the southern divisions the country is well settled, so as for many miles together to have some resemblance of old England, but even in these there are very large tracts of forest left, which are private property, and consequently cannot now be patented. The richest parts remaining to be granted, are on the northern branches of the Connecticut river, towards Crown Point, where are great districts of fertile soil still unsettled. The north part of New Hampshire, the province of Main, and the territory of Sagadahock ; have but few settle- ments in them compared with the tracts yet unsettled ; and they have the advantage of many excellent ports, long navigable rivers, with all the natural advantages that are found in other parts of this province. I should further observe, that these tracts have, since the peace, been settling pretty fast : farms on the river Connecticut are every day extending beyond the old fort Dummer, for near thirty miles ; and will in a few years reach to Kohasser, which is near two hundred miles ; not that such an extent will be one tenth settled, but the new comers do not fix near their neighbours, and go on regularly, but take spots that please them best, though twenty or thirty miles beyond any others. This to people of a sociable disposition in Europe would appear very strange, but the Americans do not regard the near neighbourhood of other farmers ; twenty, or thirty miles by water they esteem no distance in matters of this sort ; besides, in a country that promises well the inter- mediate space is not long in filling up. Between Connecticut river, and Lake Champlain, upon Otter Creek, and all along Lake Sacrament, and the rivers that fall into it, and the whole length of Wood Creek, are numerous settlements made since the peace, by the Acadians, Canadians, and others from different parts of New England. This whole neighbourhood is a beautiful country, and 1 American Husbandry [1775], L 47-50, 1.S9-191, 122-124, 166-167, 80-Si, 66, 103. 391. 393-395- 70 COLONIAL ECONOMY possesses as rich a soil as most in New England. Let me also remark here, that the new settlers in these parts have cultivated common wheat with good success, so that they have more fields of it than of maize, which is not the case in the southern parts of New Eng- land ; to what this difference is owing I have not been informed. In the province of Main, particularly on the rivers which fall into the sea near l^runswic, there are many settlements made by Germans who have come over since the war ; they are in general in a thriving condition, as most of the settlers are in North America that are well situated for an immediate commu- nication with the sea ; ships come very regularly to all the ports on this coast to take in loadings of corn, salted provisions, and lumber for the West Indies ; by which means the farmers (who also are engaged pretty deeply in the fishery on these coasts) have a ready opportunity of conveying all their surplus products to a regular market, the great thing wanted in Canada. But still these northern coasts of Main and Sagadahock, are under the fatal in- fluence of that freezing climate, which is bad enough in the south parts of New England, but here approaches to the severity of Nova Scotia, though not so much involved in fogs. . . . The new settlers upon the uncultivated parts of the province, are either such as go backward to the waste country, and take up what land they please, paying the fixed fees to the proprietors ; or such as buy uncultivated spots of other planters, who have more than they want, or chuse to sell : in this case, they make as good a bargain as they can ; but the land is dearer than that which is had of the proprietors. It is remarkable to see the small tracts that men will buy with a view to support a whole family. The progress of their work is this ; they fix upon the spot where they intend to build the house, and before they begin it, get ready a field for an orchard, planting it immediately with apples chiefly, and some pears, cherries and peaches. This they secure by an enclosure, then they plant a piece for a garden ; and as soon as these works are done, they begin their house : some are built by the countrymen without any assistance, but these are generally very bad hovels ; the common way is to agree MISCELLANEOUS FEATURES OF ECONOMIC LI IT-. 71 with a carpenter and mason for so many days work, and the countryman to serve them as a labourer, which, with a few irons and other articles he cannot make, is the whole expcnce : many a house is built for less than twenty pounds. As soon as this work is over, which may be in a month or six weeks, he falls to wcjrk on a field of corn, doing all the hand labour of it, and, from not yet being able to buy horses, pays a neighbour for ploughing it ; perhaps he may be worth only a calf or two and a couple of young colts, bought for cheapness ; and he struggles with difficulties till these are grown ; but when he has horses to work, and cows that give milk and calves, he is then made and in the road to plenty. It is surprising w'ith how small a sum of money they will venture upon this course of settling ; and it proves at the first mention how population must increase in a country where there are such means of a poor man's supporting his family : and in wliich, the larger the family, the easier is his underUiking. . . . In general, the settlers come with a small sum of mone\", ver}- many of them with none at all, depending on their labour for three, five, or seven years to gain them a sum sufficient for taking a plantation, which is the common case of the foreign emigrants of all sorts. It is common to see men demand, and ha\'e grants of land, who have no substance to fix themselves further than cash for the fees of taking up the land ; a gim, some powder and shot, 'a few tools, and a plough ; they maintain themseh'es the first year, like the Indians, with their guns, and nets ; and afterwards by the same means with the assistance of their lands ; the labour of their farms, they perform themselves, even to being their own carpenters and smiths : by this means, people who may be said to have no fortunes, are enabled to live, and in a few years to main- tain themselves and families comfortably. But such people are not to be supposed to make a profit in cash of (for) many )-ears, nor do thev want, or think of it. And as to the planters who begin their undertakings with small sums of money ; though they do better, and even make a considerable profit by their business, yet they are very far from equalling what I have now described ; this is from want of money, for I might add, that not one new settler in a thousand is possessed of a clear three thousand pounds. 72 COLONIAL ECONOMY The conclusion which I deduce from these particulars is, that new settlements in New York are undertaken to good advantage, profit in money considered, only by those who have a good sum of money ready to expend ; and by this term, I mean particularly men who have from two to five thousand pounds clear ; in Britain such people cannot from the amount of their fortune get into any valuable trade or manufacture, unless it is by mere interest, or being related to persons already in trade. But it is evident, that in New York, they may, with such a sum of money, take, clear, stock, and plant a tract of land that shall not only amply support them in all the necessaries of life, but at the same time yield a neat profit sufficient for the acquisition of a comfortable fortune. . . . Many of the planters, especially in the back parts of the prov- ince, where the wild tracts are adjoining, keep great flocks of cattle : some of them have from forty to sixty horses ; and four or five hundred head of horned cattle, oxen, cows, bulls, calves and young cattle ; they let them run through the woods not only in summer, but also in winter ; which is a circumstance that makes them very inattentive to the providing winter food : sheep also they have in great numbers, and tho' the wool does not equal the best in England or Spain, yet it is much better than is pro- duced in many of our counties, and makes cloth that answers exceedingly well for the general wear of the province, fine as welh as coarse cloths ; and accordingly, almost all the farmers, and their servants, with the lower classes of other sorts, are clad in it ; they have no lands in the whole province but what do excellently for feeding sheep, even the very worst tracts maintain great num- bers. Sheep are kept in such numbers, that wool might be a valuable article of exportation unwrought, and by a proper policy in the mother country, wool might become as good an import from the colonies as any other. . . . And this mention of cattle leads me to observe, that most of the farmers in this country are, in whatever concerns cattle, the most negligent ignorant set of men in the world. Nor do I know any country in which animals are worse treated. Horses are in general, even valuable ones, worked hard, and starved : they MISCELLANEOUS FEATURES OF ECONOMIC LIl'K 73 plough, cart, and ride them to death, at the same time that they give very httlc heed to their food ; after the hardest day's works, all the nourishment they are like to have is to be turned into a wood, where the shoots and weeds form the chief of the pasture ; unless it be after the hay is in, when they get a share of the after- grass. A New Englander (and it is the same quite to Pensylvania) will ride his horse full speed twenty or thirty miles, tye him to a tree, while he does his business, then re-mount, and gallop back again. This bad treatment extends to draft oxen ; to their cows, sheep, and swine ; only in a different manner, as may be supposed. There is scarce any branch of rural economy which more demands attention and judgement than the management of cattle ; or one which, under a judicious treatment, is attended with more profit to the farmer in all countries ; but the New England farmers ha\e in all this matter the worst notions imaginable. . . . Some modern writers, very well informed in the affairs of our American colonies, have been particularly attentive to the circum- stance of the mortgages which the merchants and others of London have on their estates. This wants an explanation : the country gentlemen of New England are as free from this as any men in the world : it concerns only those who have dealings with London, these are the tobacco and rice planters ; but as to the people of property in New England it is not the case with. I may say, any man in the province that is not engaged in trade. . . . Every planter and even the smallest farmers have all an orchard near their house of some acres, by means of which they command a great quantity of cyder, and export apples by ship loads to the West Indies. Nor is this an improper place to observe that the rivers in this province and the sea upon the coast are richly furnished with excellent fish ; oysters and lobsters are no where in greater plenty than in New York. I am of opin- ion they are more plentiful than at any other place on the globe ; for ver)' many poor families ha\"e no other subsistence than oysters and bread. Nor is this the only instance of the natural plenty that distinguishes this country : the woods are full of 74 COLONIAL ECONOMY game, and wild turkies are very plentiful ; in these particulars New York much exceeds New England. Rice is yet the grand staple production of South Carolina, and that for which the planters neglect the healthy, pleasant back country in order to live in the Dismals on the coast, for so the Americans justly call the swamps : rice can only be cultivated in land which lies so low as to admit of floating at pleasure, and all such lands in Carolina are necessarily swamps. . . . The reader must observe upon this account that the cultivation of it is dreadful : for if a work could be imagined peculiarly unwholesome, and even fatal to health, it must be that of stand- ing, like the negross, (negroes) ancle, and even mid-leg deep in water, which floats an ouzy mud ; and exposed all the while to a burning sun, which makes the ver)' air they breathe hotter than the human blood ; these poor wretches are then in a furnace of stinking putrid efiiuvia : a more horrible employment can hardly be imagined, not far short of digging in Potosi. We are told indeed that South Carolina breeds more negroes than she de- stroys, which is certainly a fact, as appears by the annual exporta- tion of a few ; but then let it not be imagined that it is in these properly denominated dismals : we are to remember that the pro- portion between the domestic and other negroes and planting ones, is as 30,000 to 40,000, when the total is 70,000 ; and we are further to remember, that many are employed on indigo where there are no rice swamps, and also in other branches of culture ; all these with the 30,000, may certainly increase greatly ; but it does not from hence follow that those employed on rice do not decrease considerably, which is a certain fact, and it would be miraculous were it otherwise. It will therefore be no impropriety to determine that there must be a considerable expence in recruit- ing those negroes that are employed on rice, and more consider- able far than what attends others employed on tobacco, indigo, or indeed any plant not cultivated in a swamp. . . . MISCELLANEOUS FEATURES OF ECONOMIC LIFE 75 1 Europe is generally full settled with husbandnien, manufac- turers, &c., and therefore cannot now much increase in pecjple. America is chiefly occupied by Indians, who subsist mostly by hunting. But as the hunter, of all men, requires the greatest quantity of land from whence to draw his subsistence, (the hus- bandman subsisting on much less, the gardener on still less, and the manufacturer requiring least of all,) the l'AU'()j:)eans found America as fully settled as it well could be by hunters ; yet these, having large tracts, were easily prevailed on to part with portions of territory to the new' comers, who did not much interfere with the natives in hunting, and furnished them with many things they wanted. Land being thus plenty in America, and so cheap as that a laboring man, that understands husbandry, can in a short time save money enough to purchase a piece of new^ land sufificient for a plantation, w'hereon he may subsist a family, such are not afraid to marry ; for, if they even look far enough forward to consider how their children, when grown up, are to be provided for, they see that more land is to be had at rates equally easy, all circum- stances considered. Hence marriages in America are more general, and more generally early than in Europe. And if it is reckoned there, that there is but one marriage per annum among one hundred persons, perhaps we may here reckon two ; and if in Europe they have but four births to a marriage (many of their marriages being late), we may here reckon eight, of which, if one half grow up. and our marriages are made, reckoning one with another, at twenty years of age, our people must at least be doubled every twenty years. But notwithstanding this increase, so vast is the territory of North America, that it will require many ages to settle it fully ; and, till it is fully settled, labor will never be cheap here, where no man continues long a laborer for others, but gets a plantation of his own, no man continues long a journeyman to a trade, but goes among those new setders, and sets up for himself, &c. Hence 1 Franklin, Observations concerning the Increase of Mankind and the Peopling of Countries [1755], in Works, II, 312-314. 76 COLONIAL ECONOMY labor is no cheaper now in Pennsylvania, than it was thirty years ago, though so many thousand laboring people have been imported. The danger therefore of these colonies interfering with their mother country in trades that depend on labor, manufactures, &c., is too remote to require the attention of Great Britain, But in proportion to the increase of the colonies, a vast demand is growing for British manufactures, a glorious market wholly in the power of Britain, in which foreigners cannot interfere, which will increase in a short time even beyond her power of supplying, though her whole trade should be to her colonies ; therefore Britain should not too much restrain manufactures in her colonies. A wise and good mother will not do it. To distress is to weaken, and weakening the children weakens the whole family. Besides, if the manufactures of Britain (by reason of the Ameri- can demands) should rise too high in price, foreigners who can sell cheaper will drive her merchants out of foreign markets ; foreign manufactures will therefore be encouraged and increased, and consequently foreign nations, perhaps her rivals in power, grow more populous and more powerful ; while her own colonies, kept too low, are unable to assist her, or add to her strength. 1 It does not seem difficult to find out the reasons, why the people multiply more here than in Europe. As soon as a person is old enough, he may marry in these provinces, without any fear of poverty ; for there is such a tract of good ground yet unculti- vated, that a new-married man can, without difficulty, get a spot of ground, where he may sufficiently subsist with his wife and chil- dren. The taxes are very low, and he need not be under any con- cern on their account. The liberties he enjoys are so great, that he considers himself as a prince in his possessions. I shall here demonstrate by some plain examples, what effect such a constitu- tion is capable of. Maons Keen, one of the Swedes in Raccoon, was now near seventy years old : he had many children, grandchildren, and great- grandchildren ; so that, of those who were yet alive, he could mus- ter up forty-five persons. Besides them, several of his children 1 Kalm, Travels into North America [1749I, II, 3-6. MISCFXLANEOUS FEATURES OF ECONOMIC LIFE 'j'^ and grandchildren died young, and some in a mature age. lie was, therefore, uncommonly blessed. Yet his happiness is not compa- rable to that which is to be seen in the following examples, and which I have extracted from the Philadelphia gazette. In the year 1732, January the 24th, died at Ipswich, in New England, Mrs. Sarah Tuthil, a widow, aged eighty-six years. She had brought sixteen children into the world ; and from seven of them only, she had seen one hundred and seventy-seven grand- children and great-grandchildren. In the year 1739, May the 30th, the children, grand and great- grandchildren, of Mr. Richard Buttington, in the parish of Chester, in Pensylvania, were assembled in his house ; and they made to- gether one hundred and fifteen persons. The parent of these children, Richard Buttington, who was born in England, was then entering into his eighty-fifth year : and was at that time quite fresh, active, and sensible. His eldest son, then sixty years old, was the first Englishman born in Pensylvania. In the year 1742, on the 8th of January, died at Trenton, in New Jersey, Mrs. Sarah Furman, a widow, aged ninety-seven years. She was born in New England ; and left five children, sixty-one grandchildren, one hundred and eighty-two great-grandchildren, and twelve great-great-grandchildren, who were all alive when she died. In the year 1739, on the 28th of January, died at South Kings- ton, in New England, Mrs. Maria Hazard, a widow, in the hun- dredth year of her age. She was born in Rhode Island, and was the grandmother of the then vice-governor of that island, Mr. George Hazard. She could count altogether five hundred children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and great-great-grandchildren. When she died, two hundred and five persons of them were alive ; a gi-and-daughter of hers had already been grand-mother near fifteen years. In this manner, the usual wish or blessing in our liturg}^ that the new-married couple may see their grandchildren, till the third and fourth generation, has been literally fulfilled in regard to some of these persons. yS COLONIAL ECONOMY VII. IMPORTANCE OF WEST INDIAN COLONIES TO EUROPEAN NATIONS 1 The history of the great American Archipelago cannot be better concluded, than by a recapitulation of the advantages it pro- cures to those powers which have successively invaded it. It is only by the impulse which the immense productions of this Archi- pelago have given to trade, that it must ever hold a distinguished place in the annals of nations ; since, in fact, riches are the spring of all the great revolutions that disturb the globe. . . . The islands of the other hemisphere yield annually fifteen mil- lions of livres to Spain ; eight millions to Denmark ; thirty millions to Holland ; eighty-two millions to England ; and one hundred and twenty-six millions to France. The productions therefore gathered in fields that were totally uncultivated within these three centuries, are sold in our continent for about two hundred and sixty-one mil- lions of livres. This is not a gift that the New World makes to the Old. The people who receive this important fruit of the labour of their subjects settled in America, give in exchange, though with evident advantage to themselves, the produce of their soil and of their manufactures. Some consume the whole of what they draw from these distant possessions ; others, make the overplus the basis of a prosperous trade with their neighbours. Thus every nation that is possessed of property in the New World, if it be truly industrious, gains still less by the number of men it maintains abroad without any expence, than by the population which those procure it zt home. To subsist a colony in America, it is necessary to cultivate a province in Europe ; and this additional labour increases the in- ward strength and real wealth of the nation. The whole globe is sensible of this purpose. The labours of the people settled in those islands, are the sole basis of the African trade : they extend the fisheries and the cul- tures of North America, afford a good market for the manufactures of Asia, and double, perhaps treble, the activity of all Europe. ^ Rayna], A Philosophical and Political History of the Settlements and Trade of the Europeans in the East and West Indies [17S3], VI, 412, 413-414. IMPORTANCE OF WEST INDIES 'lO EUROPE 79 They may be considered as the principal cause of the rapid motion which now agitates the universe. This ferment must increase, in proportion as cultures, that are so capable of being extended, shall approach nearer to their highest degree of perfection. 1 A full enumeration of the various articles which furnish the ships bound to the West Indies with an outward freight, would indeed comprise a considerable proportion of almost all the pro- ductions and manufactures of this kingdom, as well as of many of the commodities imported into Great Britain from the rest of Europe and the East Indies. The inhabitants of the sugar islands are wholly dependant on the mother countiy and Ireland, not only for the comforts and elegancies, but also for the common neces- saries of life. In most other states and kingdoms, the first object of agriculture is to raise food for the support of the inhabitants ; but many of the rich productions of the West Indies yield a profit so much beyond what can be obtained from grain, that in several of the sugar islands, it is true economy in the planter, rather to buy provisions from others, than to raise them by his own labour. The produce of a single acre of his cane fields, will purchase more Indian corn than can be raised in five times that extent of land, and pay besides the freight from other countries. Thus not only their household furniture, their implements of husbandr\-, their clothing, but even a great part of their daily sustenance, are regu- larly sent to them from America or Europe. On the first head therefore, it may generally be observed, that the manufacturers of Birmingham and Manchester, the clothiers of Yorkshire, Glouces- tershire, and Wilts, the potters of Staffordshire, the proprietors of all the lead, copper, and iron works, together with the farmers, victuallers, and brewers, throughout the kingdom, have a greater vent in the British West Indies, for their respective commodities, than perhaps they themselves conceive to be possible. W^iO' would believe that woollens constitute an article of great consumption in the torrid zone ? Such however, is the fact. Of the coarser kinds especially, for the use of the negroes, the export is prodigious. 1 Edwards, History, Civil and Commercial, of ihe British Colonies in the West Indies [1793], II. 361-362, 373-375- 8o COLONIAL ECONOMY Even sugar itself, the great staple of the West Indies, is frequently returned to them in a refined state ; so entirely do these colonies depend on the mother country ; centering in her bosom all their wealth, wishes, and affections. . . . On a retrospect of the whole, it may be truly affirmed, that the British sugar islands in the West Indies, (different in all respects from colonies in northern latitudes) answer in every point of view, and if I mistake not, to a much greater extent than is commonly imagined, all the purposes and expectations for which colonies have been at any time established. They furnish (as we have seen) a sure and exclusive market for the merchandize and manufactures of the mother country and her dependencies, to the yearly amount of very near four millions of pounds sterling. They produce to an immense value, and in quantities not only sufficient for her own consumption, but also for a great export to foreign markets, many valuable and most necessary commodities, none of which interfere in any respect with her own productions ; and most of which, as I shall demonstrate hereafter, she cannot obtain on equal terms else- where : — accompanied too with this peculiar benefit, that in the transfer of these articles from one part of her subjects to another part, not one shilling is taken from the general circulating wealth of the kingdom. Lastly, they give such employment to her ships and seamen, as while it supports and increases her navigation in time of peace, tends not in the smallest degree to obstruct, but, on the contrary, contributes veiy eminently to aid and invigorate, her operations in war. It is evident therefore, that in estimating the value and importance of such a system, no just conclusions can be drawn, but by surveying it comprcJicnsivcly, and in all its parts, considering its several branches as connected with, and dependant on each other, and even then, the sum of its advantages will ex- ceed calculation. We are told indeed, among other objections which I shall consider more at large in the concluding chapter of my work, that all the products of the British West Indies may be purchased cheaper in the colonies of foreign nations. If the fact were true, as it certainly is not, it would furnish no arginnent against the propriety and necessity of settling colonies of our own ; because it must be remembered, that foreign nations will allow IMPORTANCE OF WEST INDIES TO El ROlT: 8l few or none of our manufactures to be received in their colonies in payment : that their colonists contribute in no degree, by the investment and expenditure of their profits, to augment the na- tional wealth, nor, finally, do they give employment exclusively to Ikitish shipping. To what extent the naval power of Great Britain is dependant on her colonial commerce, it is difficult to ascertain. If this trade be considered in all its channels, collateral and direct, connected as it is with our fisheries, &c. perhaps it is not too much to affirm, that it maintains a merchant navy on which the maritime strength of the kingdom so greatly depends, that we should cease to be a nation without it. 1 l^ut it is recjuisite farther to observe, in order to set the impor- tance of these islands in a full light, that, exclusive of the benefits flowing from their direct trade with us, they will bring us likewise very considerable advantages, by the encouragement they will afford to other branches of our commerce. The African trade, more es- pecially at the beginning, will receive a new spring from their de- mands, since all that they can do either at present or in future, must arise from the labour of their Negroes. The supplying them with slaves therefore, will be both an instantaneous and a continual source of wealth, to such as are employed in that lucrative trade, more especially to those who have the largest share of it, the mer- chants of London, Bristol, and Liverpool. We have therefore shewn, how this trade comes to be of such importance to Great Britain, as it is carried on principally with our own manufactures, and more especially with woollen goods of different kinds, to a very large amount, and that all the incidental profits, exclusive of what is produced by slaves, which arise from our correspondence with Afriea, whether obtained by tiie purchase of elephants teeth and gold-dust, upon the coasts of that country, or from the sale of commodities to foreigners in the West Indies, finds its way hither. On the winding up of the account there- fore, as the sale of the Negroes centers in the West Itidies, the profit arising upon them, and every other accession of gain, from 1 Campbell, Considerations on the Nature of the Sugar Trade [1763], pp. 217-220. 82 COLONIAL ECONOMY whatever article produced, centers ultimately here, and becomes the property of the inhabitants of Britain. This will appear with the greater degree of evidence, when we reflect, that more than the moiety of that part of the cargo for the African trade, which is not made up of our own goods, consists of the manufactures of the East-Indies. It has been before ob- served, that besides the quantity of hidia goods employed on the coast of Africa ; there is likewise no small demand for the same commodities in our old sugar colonies ; and of course there will be the like demand in the new. We see from hence, how the comprehensive chain of commerce is united, and how the different products of the most distant parts of the world, are carried to and brought from these distant countries in British shipping ; and that all the emoluments arising from this extensive navigation, is in the end the reward of the consummate skill, the indefatigable industry, and the perpetual application, of the traders in this happy isle, and how it is to be augmented and supported by this new accession of territory. The prodigious compass of this commercial circulation, would be after all very defectively represented, if we should omit the mentioning the constant correspondence that subsists between the sngar islands and the nortJicrn colonies. A correspondence equally necessary, and reciprocally advantageous to those of our countiy- men who are settled in both ; and a correspondence therefore, which will be always maintained, and by which the numerous subjects of Britain who are seated on the continent of America, and those settled in the West India islands, in pursuing their own immediate interests contribute, and contribute effectually to each other's sup- port. This is a circumstance, that must fill the breast of every well-meaning man with the highest and most rational pleasure, and engage him to contemplate this subject, with a satisfaction, words would but faintly express, that kind of satisfaction, which warms the heart of a parent, when he sees his children assiduous in their application to those methods of providing for their welfare, which have a tendency to promoting their common interests, by which their harmony doubles the effects of their industry. . . . IMPORTANCE OF WEST INDIES TO EUROPE 83 1 If, upon the whole, we revolve in our minds, what an amazing variet}' of trades receive their daily support, as many of them did originally their being, from the calls of the African and West India markets ; if we reflect on the numerous families of those mechanics and artisans which are thus maintained, and contemplate that ease and plenty, which is the constant as well as just reward of their in- cessant labours ; if we combine with these the several tribes of active and busy people, who are continually employed in the building, re- pairing, rigging, victualling, and equipping, the multitudes of sea- men who earn their wages by navigating, and the prodigious crowds who likewise obtain their bread by loading, unloading, and other necessary attendances upon ships ; if we remember, that the sub- sistance of all these ranks and degrees of men, thus usefully em- ployed, constitutes a new fund of support to the landed and trading interests of this country ; that their various consumptions contrib- ute to raise the value of land, to cause a regular and constant demand for immense quantities of our native commodities, as well as to procure a vent for our numberless manufactures ; and that all this is equally regular, permanent, and certain ; we may from thence form a competent idea of the prodigious value of our sugar colonies, and a just conception of their immense importance to the grandeur and prosperity of their mother country, to whom, from the circumstance of this relation, they pay without repining such vast and multifarious tributes. '^ Great merit is assumed for the gentlemen of the West Indies, on the score of their residing and spending their money in Eng- land. I would not depreciate that merit ; it is considerable ; for they might, if they pleased, spend their money in h'rance ; but the difference between their spending it here and at home is not so great. What do they spend it in v^Iien they are here, but the produce and manufactures of this countr}- ? and would they not do the same if they were at home ? Is it of any great importance to the English farmer, whether the West India gentleman comes to London and eats his beef, pork, and tongues, fresh ; or has them 1 I.ong, The History of Jamaica [1774], I. 493-494. 2 Franklin, Canadian Pamphlet [1760], in Works, IV, 35-36. 84 COLONIAL ECONOMY brought to him in the West Indies, salted ? Whether he eats his Enghsh cheese and butter, or drinks his Enghsh ale, at London or in the Barbadoes ? Is the clothier's, or the mercer's, or the cutler's, or the toyman's, profit less, for their goods being worn and consumed by the same persons residing on the other side of the ocean ? Would not the profits of the merchant and mariner be rather greater, and some addition made to our navigation, ships, and seamen ? If the North American gentleman stays in his own country, and lives there in that degree of luxury and expense, with regard to the use of British manufactures, that his fortune enables him to do, may not his example, from the imitation of superiors so natural to mankind, spread the use of those manufactures among hundreds of families around him, and occasion a much greater demand for them, than it would do if he should remove and live in London ? However this may be, if, in our views of immediate advantage, it seems preferable, that the gentlemen of' large fortunes in North America should reside much in England, it is what may surely be expected, as fast as such fortunes are acquired there. Their hav- ing "colleges of their own for the education of their youth," will not prevent it. A little knowledge and learning acquired increases the appetite for more, and will make the conversation of the learned on this side the water more strongly desired. Ireland has its university likewise ; yet this does not prevent the immense pe- cuniary benefit we receive from that kingdom. And there will al- ways be, in the conveniences of life, the politeness, the pleasures, the magnificence of the reigning country, many other attractions besides those of learning, to draw men of substance there, where they can, apparently at least, have the best bargain of happiness for their money. CHAPTER III COLONIAL POLICY INTRODUCTION Like all European countries in the eighteenth century England regarded colonies as an important economic resource, and aimed to make them contribute as much as possible to national power and wealth. Her colonial policy was, therefore, chiefly economic. It was the regulation of trade and industry, rather than the exercise of political control, that received attention. These regulations may be divided into four groups. The first refers to navigation ; the second to the exports of the colonies ; the third to their imports ; and the last to certain industries carried on in the colonies. The Navigation Act of 1660 prohibited the carriage of any goods to or from the colonies in other than English built ships, owned by Englishmen and operated by a crew three fourths English. Furthermore no colonial produce from any part of the world could be imported into England except in such ships. This provided for a complete monopoly of both branches of the shipping industry, viz., the carrying-trade and ship-building. But the term "English" included the colonists, who were thus able to share in such benefits as this monopoly secured ; and both ship-building and commerce flourished in Pennsylvania, New York and New England. The second group provided for the " enumeration " of certain colonial products which were re- quired to be shipped only to England. By the Act of 1660 there were included in this list sugar, tobacco, cotton-wool, indigo, ginger, fustic and other dye- woods. In the reign of Anne molasses, rice and naval stores were added and in 1722 copper and furs. Rice and sugar, however, were soon after allowed to be shipped to any place south of Cape Finesterre, and this, so far as rice was concerned, amounted to a practical removal from the enumerated list, since its chief market was Spain and Portugal. The only important products of the continental colonies affected by these restrictions were tobacco and naval stores. The others were either insignificant in amount, or were produced in the West Indies. With the exception of tobacco, pitch, tar, turpentine, masts and yards the colonists could carry their important products to any part of the world in their own vessels. Regarding colonial imports there were two restrictions. First, all commodities "of the Growth, Production or Manufacture of Europe" were required to be laden and shipped in England. This was intended to afford a " Vent of Eng- lish Woolen and other Manufactures and Commodities . . . and making this Kingdom a Staple, not only of the Commodities of those plantations, but ■^5 86 COLONIAL POLICY also of the commodities of other Countries and Places for the Supplying of them. ..." There were a few exceptions to this law, such as salt for the fisheries and wines from Madeira and the Azores, as well as provisions, horses and servants from Ireland and Scotland, and linen from Ireland. This require- ment that all imports from other countries must come through England was evidently expected to put the export trade of the colonies to foreign countries into the hands of English merchants ;( since a return cargo could not legally be secured without going to an English port.] The second restriction on imports was the levying of a prohibitory duty on molasses from the West India colonies of other nations. This was an attempt to assist the British sugar colonies in their competition with the French, who were supposed to be greatly benefited in their industry by securing their supplies from the northern colonies in return for a by-product which could not be sold in France. On the other hand, the resort of the colonial traders to the French islands diminished the demand for the molasses of the English planters and made the supplies from the northern colonies scarce and expensive. The real effect of both these restrictions on colonial imports cannot be inferred from the laws ; for neither of them were strictly enforced, and where as in the second case the restriction was a serious burden, the law became practically a dead letter. The regulations regarding colonial industries were of two kinds. Certain manufactures were restricted or prohibited altogether. Other industries, thought to be especially beneficial to the mother-country, were encouraged and assisted. Thus as early as 1 699 it was enacted that no woolen manufacture could be ex- ported from the colonies, transported from one colony to another, or one place to another in the same colony. In 1732 it was enacted that no hats could be put on board ship for exportation to Europe or to England, or on a cart for transportation from one colony to another. These laws were undoubtedly in- tended to prevent the colonial woolen and hat manufactures from competing with those of the mother-country. The law regarding the manufacture of iron had a double purpose and was only partially repressive. It aimed, on the one hand, to stimulate the production of crude iron, pig and bar, so as to reduce the dependence of England upon the Baltic countries for that product, and on the other, to prevent the production in the colonies of iron wares of various kinds. Accordingly it removed all duties in England on the imports of crude iron from the colonies and prohibited the erection in the colonies of " all mills or other engines for rolling or slitting iron, plating forges to work with the tilt-hammer and furnaces for making steel." It was expected to benefit both the colonies and the mother-country. Efforts were made to stimulate various industries in the colonies either directly by the payment of bounties, or indirectly by preferential duties in England on imports from the colonies. Bounties were paid on tar, pitch, tur- pentine and rosin, hemp, masts and indigo. There were bounties also for the whale fisheries, but these were levied for the benefit of the industry of the mother-country, and the colonies were only allowed to participate in them. As INTRODUCTION 87 a general rule colonial products imported into ICngland paid the same duties as corresponding products frotn foreign countries, but preferential treatment was accorded to the colonies in the case of tobacco, pig and bar iron, hemp, lumber, molasses, indigo, whalefins and train oil, pot and pearl ashes and raw silk. In this connection it should be noted also thaAhe production of tobacco in England was absolutely prohibitedTi This whole policy of regulating colonial industries was designed to produce several results, among which the welfare of the colonies was included. It was to free the nation from dependence on foreign countries for naval supplies, to prevent the export of specie to pay for certain imports, and to increase the demand in the colonies for English manufactures. It was well recognized, how- ever, that the colonies could not buy English manufactures, unless they could export their own produce to pay for them, and the policy of encouragement to colonial industries was closely connected with that of discouragement to colonial manufactures. Nor was the colonial consumer entirely disregarded in the dis- tribution of favors. Export duties were lower to the colonies than to foreign countries on coal and tar. On foreign commodities exported to foreign coun- tries large drawbacks of import duties had to be given in order to preserve the carrying-trade. The colonies were allowed to enjoy these also, and were thus able to secure many different foreign goods more cheaply than the inhaJMtants of the mother-country. It is evident from this review that the task of determining just the influence of the old colonial system upon the economic development of the colonies is a very difficult one. No detailed discussion of the effect of the different regula- tions can be attempted here.^ A few observations concerning the effect of the policy as a whole may, however, be added. In the first place it is clear that in neither motive nor actual effect was the welfare of the colonies disregarded and their interests systematically sacrificed to those of the mother-country. Even as hostile a critic as Adam Smith was constrained to admit that " though the policy of Great Britain with regard to the trade of her colonies has been dictated by the same mercantile spirit as that of other nations, it has, however, upon the whole, been less illiberal and oppressive than any of them." Not only does the s_£iriJL_a£. recrprodty a^gear in the regulations themselves, but also in the lar^e freedom from restri ctions^which were allowed. The colonies were a part of the empire and, as such, enjoyed its most valuable privileges. They shared in the maritime supremacy which followed, if it did not result from, the Navi- gation Acts. They enjoyed almost complete freedom of inter-colonial trade, and a large measure of freedom in trade with the rest of the world. Such active commercial centers as Boston, Philadelphia and New York could hardly have developed under conditions of severe restraint. Nor were the privileges en- joyed by the colonies entirely economic. They were protected by Great Britain 1 For this the reader is referred to Ashley's Surveys Historic and Economic, pp. 309-356, and to Beer's Commercial Policy of England toward the American Colonies. 88 COLONIAL POLICY with small expense to themselves, both from territorial invasion, and in the prosecution of their commerce in all parts of the world. Moreover, they were given complete political freedom. As Adam Smith remarked, " In everything except their foreign trade, the liberty of the English colonies to manage their own affairs in their own way is complete. It is in every respect equal to that of their fellow-citizens at home, and is secured in the same manner, by an assembly of the representatives of the people who claim the sole right of imposing taxes for the support of the colonial government." To form a judgment of the influence of the policy as a whole, three facts must be constantly kept in view. First of all, the steady growth of the colo- nies in wealth and population, as compared with the colonies of other nations, under it. Second, the acquiescence without serious complaint of the colonists for more than a hundred years in such burdens as it imposed. Burdens there no doubt were and they were recognized, but there were also compensations equally well recognized. And finally, the fact that after separation from Great Britain took place with the exception of the tobacco trade, which was carried on directly with the continent, commerce returned, so far as it was permitted, to the position it occupied in colonial times. England continued to be the best place to buy manufactures as well as the products of other countries, because of the credit her merchants were willing to give us, and the chief complaint of the time was that we were not permitted by England to enjoy those privileges of trade to the West Indies and the sale of our ships and fishery products in England which would provide us with a remittance to pay for imports. I. THE INFLUENCE OF THE TRADE LAWS 1 The old English colonial system — by which is generally meant the various provisions regulating the trade of the Empire — was one of great complexity and intricacy. It was embodied in an unwieldy series of parliamentary statutes, about one hundred in all. Extensive governmental control over commerce and in- dustry was the current practice, and was based on the theory that the economic activity of the individual should be wholly subordi- nated to the welfare of the community. The primary object of the colonial system was to develop the w^ealth and power of the Empire. It was considered that this could best be accomplished by making it a self-sufficient economic unit, independent as far as was possible of competing national groups. As Pownall expressed it, the aim was to create " one great commercial dominion." In 1 Beer, British Colonial Policy, 1754-1765, pp. 193-205, 209-210. Reprinted by permission of the author and publishers, The Macmillan Company. THE INFLUENCE OF THE TRADE LAWS 89 this commercial L^mpire, mother country and dependency were to be mutually complementary, one sul^p]\■inf^^ as far as was possible, the manufactured products consumed in the colony, and the other the tropical products and the raw materials not produced by Great Britain, All trade within the ICmpire was to be carried on exclu- sively in British and colonial shipping, with the object of increas- ing the Empire's naval strength. Great stress was laid on this side of the system, for the statesmen of the day recognized to its fullest extent the importance of " sea power." In accordance with this system, a large number of colonial prod- ucts received especial advantages in the l^ritish market by a system of preferential duties, by direct bounties, or by a combina- tion of both, with the result that in a number of instances they acquired a monopoly thereof at the expense of foreign goods, with which under normal conditions they could not compete. On the other hand European and Asiatic products could be imported into the colonies only from Great Britain. There were important exceptions to this general rule, and in addition the British fiscal system was so arranged that on the payment of slight duties, foreign products could be, and in fact were, reexported in large quantities from Great Britain to the colonies. In the case of some foreign products, however, such as manufactured iron and steel, cordage, sail-cloth, and paper, no part of the British duties was paid back on their reexportation, and consequently in the case of these exceptional instances the system tended to give British manufactures a monopoly of the colonial market. In this con- nection, however, it should be noted that Great l^rifcun paid bounties on a number of manufactures when exported to the colonies, thus decreasing their cost to the colonial consumer. The system as a whole was thus based on the idea of the mutual reciprocity of the economic interests of mother country and colony. Its predominant characteristic is well emphasized in the Erench term describing it, — " Ic pactc colonial ^ The complex system erected on this basis naturally benefited some interests at the expense of others. This is inevitable when- ever the government seeks to control the course of economic development and restrains the free play of competition. Some 90 COLONIAL POLICY of the interests sacrificed for the good of the lunpire were British, some colonial. Thus the Navigation Act proper, which gave British and colonial shipping a monopoly of the carrying-trade of the Empire, while unquestionably protecting the ship-building and carrying trades of both old and New England, and also of some of the other colonies, was equally unquestionably at the outset burdensome to the plantation colonies, such as Barbados and Virginia. Then in so far as British legislation and policy dis- couraged manufacturing in the colonies, the manufacturer in the mother countiy benefited. On the other hand, the British consumer was prevented from obtaining foreign products and was forced to smoke colonial tobacco, to eat colonial sugar, and to use colonial tar, all of which enjoyed a monopoly of the home market. Furthermore, in the interest of the colonial planter, though also partly for the sake of revenue, the British and the Irish farmers were prohibited from growing tobacco. There is no doubt that this prohibition, which in England met with violent and protracted opposition throughout a period of over fifty years, entailed far greater sacri- fice than did the British restrictions on colonial manufacturing. These restrictions were to a great extent superfluous, as under existing conditions, with land cheap and plentiful, the colonies had no inducement to manufacture extensively on a commercial scale. From the economic standpoint, this phase of British policy in itself aroused little or no opposition in the colonies, not only because it did not in general run counter to their interests, but also because the laws were to a great extent necessarily ignored, as the imperial authorities had no adequate machinery to enforce them. As far as there was any opposition at all, it centred on the Iron Act of 1750. The main object and primary' purpose of this law was to encourage the production of bar and pig iron in the colonies, by removing the British customs duties thereon, thus enabling them to compete with Swedish iron on which these duties were retained. There was great opposition to this measure on the part of influential interests in England, and it was seem- ingly in order to overcome this opposition and at the same time to give the mother country some compensation for the loss in THE INFLUENCE OF THE TRADE LAWS 91 revenue involved in this i:Kilicy, llial the IuhIkt c-xtfnsion in the colonies of the iron and steel inanulaeture in certain of its more highly developed grades was forbidden. IMius this act had a tendency to beneiit some colonies and to restrict industry in others. In neither phase was it very effective ; but if the benefits and disadvantages did not balance one another, it was certainly not due to the greater weight of the latter. In addition, some colonial products could be shipped only to Great Britain or to some other British colony. Such commodi- ties were those not produced in tlie mother country, and which either v/ere needed for consumption there or which, when reex- ported from Great Britain to other TAU-opean countries, served to rectify a possible adverse balance of trade. This policy, technic- ally known as that of " enumeration," in the ease of some com- modities, probably resulted in a lowering of the price to the colonial producer. But tlie corollaiy to this policy \\'as pv^i- erential treatment to the enumerated product in the British markets. The system of indirect bounties by preferential duties in conjunction with the direct bounties paid on colonial products probably more than offset the restrictions of the enumeration policy. In the case of naval stores, these bounties alone enabled colonial pitch and tar to hold the British markets, and amounted to large sums, judged from the standpoint of the day. The imperial character of the system was strongly emphasized. It followed, however, from the very fact that Great Britain was the heart of the Empire, on whose well-being the prosperity of the whole primarily depended, — because upon the mother coun'tr)' fell virtually the entire heavy burden of imperial defence, — that any industrial development in the colonies which tended to weaken the mother country was discouraged. Hence the economic life of the colonies was subordinated to that of the mother country, and was directed into channels that did not run counter to the welfare of Great Britain. Any other policy would have been deemed suicidal. Such subordination did not, however, imply a sacrifice of the colonies, for their economic development was in general not deflected from its normal course. Nor, on the other hand, did it mean absolute predominance of British interests. As has been 92 COLONIAL POLICY pointed out, these had been obliged, in a number of instances, to yield to the welfare of the Empire. It is significant that Great Britain denied the insistent requests of English ship-builders for protection against the colonial industry, because such a measure would have interfered with the expansion of British sea-power as a whole. In fact, it would be difficult to estimate whether colony or metropolis was called upon to bear a greater proportion of the sacrifice denianded by the prevailing ideal of a self-sufficient com- mercial Empire. History, however, is to a great extent based on social psycholog}^, and in studying the dynamic effects of any policy on the relations of two social groups, it is frequently far more important to know what people at the time thought were the results, rather than what these actually were. Naturally, those interests, whether British or colonial, that were called upon to bear the sacrifices inevitably involved in so complex a system of commercial regulation felt aggrieved. A prominent British complaint was that nearly all the duties on foreign products shipped from Great Britain to the colonies were repaid, and that consequently the colonial consumer obtained these commodities at a lower price than did his fellow- subject in Great Britain, on whom fell the chief burden of imperial defence. Then, the British consumer opposed the monopoly ac- corded to many colonial products. Similarly, there was some objection to the colonial planter receiving bounties, while the British farmer was not entitled to them though he paid the taxes that they necessitated. Joseph Massie, one of the best informed of contemporary publicists, claimed that the British West Indies had robbed the nation of ten million pounds sterling through the exorbitant price of sugar. This price was a direct result of the preferential duties. On the other hand, the colonies recognized that, in consequence of the system, they paid more for some European manufactures and likewise that they received for some of their products less than would have been the case under unre- stricted conditions. Thus there were complaints from both interests affected ; in the main, however, it was considered that the system favored the mother country. In the first place, by virtue of it Great Britain THE INFLUENCE OF THE TRADE EAW'S 93 enjoyed a monopoly of the colonial trade, foreigners being entirely excluded therefrom. This was of course not an absolute monopoly, but one in which the colonial traders, especially those of New iMig- land, participated. Then, while the mother country levied import duties on colonial products, the colonies were forbidden to imjDose similar taxes on commodities brought from Great liritain. At the time there prevailed only vague and indefinite ideas as to the real incidence of such taxes, and many in the colonies thought that they, and not the ]5ritish consumer, paid the J^ritish customs du- ties. On the other hand, the inability to impose duties on imports from the mother country limited the colony's complete freedom of action. It was in this respect that the system was least satisfacton' to men of marked individualism, such as were the colonists. With their keen desire for complete self-government, they naturally to some extent objected to a system by which their foreign trade, and in a few instances even industry within the colonics themselves, was regulated by a legislative body over which they had no con- trol, and whose power was unlimited. Thus neither British nor colonial interests were fully satisfied with the system, and on the whole it was considered more favor- able to the metropolis than to the colony. This system, however, did not stand by itself, but was integrally connected with that of imperial defence. What Patrick Henry called the " original com- pact between King and people, stipulating protection on the one hand and obedience on the other," was not a mere empty formula. The right of the mother country to regulate imperial trade, and the general manner in which this right was exercised, were justi- fied in the eyes of nearly all, whether British or colonial, by the fact that through her naxy Great Britain protected the colonies in peace and in war. . . . ... As has been pointed out, British policy had never been consistently directed toward creating a closely knit political empire. The aim was rather to create a self-sufficient economic empire, and, in the main, this result had been attained. The West Indian colonies were absolutely dependent on the monopoly of the British markets that had been accorded to them. Similarly, the prosperity of the continental colonies depended, in varying degrees, on the 94 COLONIAL POLICY one hand on the British markets, or on the other hand on British colonial markets. The least dependent colonies were those produc- ing tobacco ; for through the long period during which it had en- joyed a monopoly, American tobacco had gained a firm hold on the British consumer. Hence it is not surprising to find that at this time there was some objection in Virginia to the " enumer- ation " of its staple crop. South Carolina, though absolutely inde- pendent in so far as rice was concerned, relied upon the British bounties on naval stores and indigo. North Carolina was similarly affected by the premiums on tar and pitch. The middle colonies and those of New England were especially dependent on those other British colonies that in the event of political independence would probably not throw in their lot with North America. The fisheries, the lumber industry, the provision trade, demanded free access to the British West Indies as well as to those of foreign nations. Then, only because they were British colonies, was the large trade to Newfoundland open to them. To some degree also these colonies relied on the naval-store bounties. In addition, the prosperity of their ship-building industry depended to a great ex- tent on the sale of vessels to Great Britain, and on the large carry- ing-trade between various parts of the Empire. Once politically separated, the Navigation Acts would automatically shut off the sale of these ships and also a considerable, portion of the carrying- trade. Thus, while on the one hand political separation meant some economic advantages, on the other it meant both the assump- tion of the burden of naval defence, hitherto borne by the mother country, as well as the entire cost of purely military defence, — and also important and concrete economic disadvantages. To those in the colonies contemplating such a contingency, the risks must have appeared sufficiently formidable " to give them pause." Hence, as far as this was realized, the system tended in the direction of greater imperial cohesion, and ran counter to the strongly marked tendency toward political disintegration. I J CONTKMI*()K.\l<\ \ IKWS 95 II. CONTEMPORARY X'lKWS A. Thk Mkkcantii.k Vikw ^ The great increase of the po])ulati()n of the norlliern colonies is not near of such advantage to (jrreat Britain as that of the south- ern ones, which in proportion to the increase of population has a corresponding increase in the production of true staple commod- ities, the circumstance on which the interest of Britain depends ; those colonies which have not staples, we have found from long experience, can afford to purchase but a small part of their manu- factures and other necessaries from the mother-country ; common agriculture will not effect it ; accordingly we see, that in the north- ern settlements, that is, tlie settlements to the north of Maryland, they are forced to make up their deficiency of staples by fisheries and commerce, in both of which articles they interfere considerably with Britain ; so that their import of manufactures is by no means of the value of that of the southern settlements, as they get the money to make their purchases, by rivalling the fisheries and com- merce of Britain. Hence therefore appears the constant expediency of watching anxiously the increase of population in the southern parts of America, and taking every measure to increase it. Nor can any conduct in the administration of our government be of such great importance, as inducing the people settled in the north- ern colonies to quit them in favour of the southern ones. . . . As to the northern colonies, all to the north of the tobacco ones may with propriety be classed together, since neither Pens)'l\-ania, New Jersey, New England, Nova Scotia, nor Canada, have any staple product of agriculture ; the consequence of which is their flying to all other employments ; the culture of the soil is common husbandry, like that of Britain herself ; the employment of their towns, which are numerous and large, is manufactures, commerce, and fisheries. It is impossible they should be so employed, and at the same time be the occasion of Britain's prosperity, like the col- onies to the south. . . . The more this subject is enquired into, the more evidently and clearly will it appear, that the production of staple commodities is 1 American Husbandry [1775], I, ^34-435 I II. -35' 240-242, 245, 246-247. 96 COLONIAL POLICY the only business proper for colonies : whatever else they go upon, it is absolutely impossible that they should by any employment whatever make up for the want of the one really necessary. For the want of this capital foundation of a colony, our northern settle- ments, we have found, are full of farmers, manufacturers, mer- chants, fishermen, seamen ; — but no planters. This is precisely the case with Britain herself ; consequently a rivalry between them must inevitiibly take place. This in the article of the fisheries we find fully taken place ; for the northern colonies have nearly beaten us out of the Newfoundland fisheries, that great nurseiy of sea- men ! insomuch that the share of New England alone exceeds that of Britain. Can any one think from hence, that the trade and navigation of our colonies are worth one groat to this nation } There is not one branch of commerce carried on by these trad- ing settlements but might just as well be in the hands of the in- habitants of this kingdom, the supplying the sugar islands with lumber alone excepted, and that we have already seen is a trifle. Thus the trading part of the colonies rob this nation of the invalu- able treasure of 30,000 seamen, and all the profits of their employ- ment ; or in other words, the northern colonies, who contribute nothing either to our riches or our power, deprive us of more than twice the amount of all the navigation we enjoy in consequence of the sugar islands, the southern, continental, and tobacco settle- ments ! The freight of the staples of those setts of colonies bring us in upwards of a million sterling ; that is, the navigation of 12,000 seamen: according to which proportion we lose by the rivalry of the northern colonies in this single article TWO MIL- LIONS AND AN HALF sterling! . . . That fisheries and navigation are improper employments for colonies, and detrimental to the interests of the mother-country, appears clearly enough from hence ; and I may add to these reasons, that the practice of the French, whose fishery employs 20,000 seamen, while ours maintains only 4000, proves strongly that planted settlements are by no means necessary for success in fishing. . . . The second article which I was to consider, is that of corn and provisions, which are exported from all these northern colonies to CONTEMPORARV VIEWS 97 the West Indies and to luirope. How far these arc to be consid- ered as staples, a short enquiry will shew. As to all that are sent to Europe, we may safely determine it to be as pernicious a trade as any the colonies can go into, since it is directly rivalling, and even destroying one of the most advantageous branches of the exports of Britain. American corn cannot come to an European market without doing mischief to the corn trade of England. This trade is not like that of most other commodities, which are usually exported in certain quantities, and to certain markets : on the con- trar\% it is extremely uncertain in its destination, the quantity in demand depends on the accidents of crops, sometimes it is to one countiy, sometimes to another, and the circulation of the trade greatly depending on the surplus quantity which certain countries possess. Poland, England and liarbary may be called the export- ing countries ; the latter from the uncertainty of its governments rarely makes the most of the fertility of its soil, proving but a weak rival to England : this leaves all the south of Europe open to the export of that country, and very advantageous the circum- stance has been, as we have more than once experienced, both to Portugal, Spain, the south of P>ance, and Naples. Let therefore any person judge of the propriety of introducing another rival into this trade, which is far more likely to drive us out of it, than all the others we can have in Europe. 1 Though this commerce [of the continental colonies] is so very considerable ; yet the whole advantage thereof does not center in England. But if the commerce of these colonies was directed in the right channel, it might prove of far higher concernment to the nation than it has ever yet been ; it would promote the consump- tion of much greater quantities of British and Irish manufactures, than our traffic to any other part of the world : and would not the landed interest be more advantaged by this than any other of our branches of trade, as there is a great distinction between a com- merce carried on by a barter of foreign commodities, and that aris- ing from the manufactures of this kingdom ; the one employing the poor in general, and improving the landed interest, while the 1 Postlethvvayt, Britain's Commercial Interest [1757]. I. 482-492. 98 COLONIAL POLICY other may only enrich the merchant, and not much encrease the national stock. Is not this manifest from the State of Spain ? Although the merchant and the public may be enriched by this trade in foreign merchandizes, yet the landed interest reaps little benefit by it. Is not the like apparent with relation to the united provinces of the Netherlands ? Whatever practices amongst the British traders have any tend- ency to promote and advance the prosperity of our foreign Amer- ican rivals in trade, ought to be put a stop to. The British northern colonies in America carrying on a commerce with the French and the Dutch islands there, have proved very detrimental to the king- dom. — This has been the charge of our West-India merchants against those of the northern colonies ; and this charge may be supported with no little weight of reason and argument. . . . But soon after the peace of Utrecht, a pernicious commerce be- gan to shew itself, between the British northern colonies and the French sugar colonies, which began with bartering the lumber of the former for P'rench sugar and melasses. The French, w^ho be- fore that time had no vent for their melasses, and could make no better use of it than to give it to their hogs and horses, soon found the way (after they became acquainted with our northern traders) of distilling it into rum, which their new correspondents were as ready to take off their hands, as they had been before to take their sugar and melasses ; and from hence our enemies the French have de- rived a new wvic of profit, unknown to them before, and trans- ferred to themselves the benefit of a trade, which it was the design of those laws to preserve to England. This being made appear to our parliament, a further provision was made for putting a stop to this manifest subversion of the fun- damental maxims of the British policy, for preserving her commer- cial interests, by an act in the sixth year of his present majesty's reign ; entitled, An act for the better securing and encouraging the trade of his majesty's sugar colonies in America, whereby such high duties were laid on all foreign sugars, rum, and melasses, to be imported into any of his majesty's colonies in America, as it was thought were equal to, and would answer all the ends of a prohibition. CON'l'EM l'( JRA R \' \' 1 1'AVS 99 l^ut experience has shewn, that all these laws arc too weak to answer the purposes for which they were designed, and that some more effectual remedies should be found to keep the liritish traders in North-America within bc^unds, if (ireat Britain resoh'cs to pre- serve her rights of controuling the trade of her own subjects in that part of the world, and turning the same into such channels only as her wisdom shall direct, and think most conducive to the interests of the whole community. . . . It may be taken for granted as an undoubted truth, that, as the enlarging the vent of any commodity is one of the best means that can be used to encourage its growth, so the lessening of it is the certain way to discourage it ; whence it necessarily follows, that, as w-e may have rivals in this commerce, nothing could be more detri- mental to the British sugar colonies, than to suffer foreign sugars to be consumed in any of its dominions ; it being obvious, that this must check the growth of sugar in our own islands, and increase it in those of France ; and, therefcjre, has manifestly tended to strengthen the colonies of our ancient enemies, and to weaken our own. This trade, as it has long been carried on has raised the price of lumber to the British planters ; and, as the northern traders often refuse to take anything from them but ready money, this has drained so much of their gold and silver, that they have been often in distress for want of specie. A great part of the money, which our northern colony traders have received from our British planters, has been carried to the foreign sugar-colonies, and there laid out either in the purchase of foreign sugars, rum, melasses, or of foreign luu-oj^ean and East- India commodities; which are carried to the British northern col- onies, and there have supplied the place of British manufactures, and British sugars, rum, and melasses ; and consequentl)' have robbed this nation, not only of the consumption of so much of its own commodities, but of so much gold and silver too : whereas, if the foreign colonies (who cannot be supplied with lumber but from the English) had been constrained to have purchased the same with ready money only, and had never been allowed to giye their sugars, rum, and melasses, -in exchange for it, this would have lOO COLONIAL POLICY turned the tables upon them, and have made the balance of the lumber-trade as much in our favour as it has been many years against us. It is well known to all concerned in the sugar trade, that the profits of the planter depend upon the vent which he finds for his rum and melasses ; for, if sugar only, and no rum and melasses, could be produced from the sugar cane, it would not pay the ex- pense of culture, and making ; consequently, in proportion as the vent of rum and melasses is prevented or encreased, the sugar- colonies (whether English or foreign) must respectively thrive, or decline. And, as rum is not allowed to be imported into Old France, or any of its colonies (because it interferes with brandy, which is the product of the mother-country) this evidently shews how much it has been in the power of Great Britain to have checked the progress of the French sugar-islands, and advanced that of her own : for, if the bringing French rum and melasses into any of the British dominions had been effectually hindered, all the profits made by rum and melasses, in the French sugar- colonies, would have been lost to them, and they would have found no vent for them in any other part of the world. This point, there- fore, had it been strictly attended, and invariably adhered to, would have inevitably damped the prosperity of the French sugar-colonies, and encreased that of our own ; and might, very probably, have long before now, proved the means of enabling the English to have beat the French out of all the foreign markets in Europe for sugar, and have confined them solely to their own consumption. But, have we not, to our eternal ignominy, acted a contrary part .'' Have we not studied to enrich the French in America, and strengthen their power at the expense of our own, and do we not now experience the fatal effects of such a system of policy .'' B. Colonial Governors 1 Trade is a science, which I have had little opportunity to study, and therefore it would be a presumption in me to dictate upon it. However, as I have caught a few flying notions of it, I 1 Uernard, Select LeUers on the Trade and Government of America [1764], pp. 20-22. CON^'EM PORA R \' W FAVS I o I will venture to state some principles which have occurred to me, with the consequences which follow them. The two ^reat objects of Great Britain, in regard to the American trade, must be. To oblige her American subjects to take from Great Britain only, all the manufactures and Enropean goods which she can supply them with : 2. To regulate the foreign trade of the Americans, so that the profits thereof may finally center in Great Britain, or be applied to the improvement of her Empire. Whenever these two purposes militate against each other, that which is most advan- tageous to Great Britain ought to be preferred. If the first of these purposes is well secured, the second will follow of course. The only means of employing extraordinary profits of trade in America, are either by luxury at home, or by settling and improv- ing lands. American luxury sends the money to Great Britain, either mediately from the hands of the first expender, or imme- diately through the hands of the tradesmen, husbandmen, &c. with whom he deals. Settling and improving lands, is the means of raising and enabling other persons to deal with G?rat Britain, and therefore it only postpones the remittances, hereafter to be made with interest. Therefore, if due care be taken to confine the sale of manufactures and European goods (except what shall be permitted) to Great Britain only, all the profits of the American Foreign trade will necessarily center in Great Britain. And there- fore, if the first purpose is well secured, the Foreign Aniei-ican trade is the trade of Great Britain: the augmentation and dimi- nution, the extension and restriction, the profit and loss of it, all finally come home to the mother country. It has been long ago admitted, that the American trade with the Spanish West Indies ought to be encouraged by all means : and why not also with the ErcncJi ? It is said, tliat the Erench will not admit any trade which is not advantageous to them. But how come they to have the power of picking and chusing their trade as they please .'' must not they submit to wants and necessi- ties as well as the Spajiiards ? will not present convenience and private profit get the better of national considerations among the one as well as the other.? It has done heretofore; and will do again, if F>ritish prohibitions do not prevent it. I have been t(jld. I02 COLONIAL POLICY that in the former Spanish war, the Admiral, stationed ixt Jamaica, had orders to encourage and protect the English trade witli tlie Spanish Main. And yet, in strict law, a private correspondence with enemies is treason. In the last war there was a considerable trade carried on from some of the British Colonies to French Hispaniola, by means of letters of truce. This trade (except such part of it as was carried on with provisions) was generally allowed to be veiy advantageous to Great Britain : and it has been sup- posed that it contributed not a little to the means of carrying on the war both in America and Europe. It is pleasant, at this time, to observe the complaints of the Jamaicans upon their being obstructed in carrying on their trade with the Spanish West Indies ; and yet they are for stopping and totally prohibiting the trade of the North Americans to the Erench West Indies. They can see plainly the loss to Great Britain, from their own trade being obstructed ; but they cannot discover the loss which accrues from the obstruction of that of Nojih America. In truth, it is the interest of Great Britain that both the one and the other should be encouraged as much as may well be. And the West Indians should be taught that equitable maxim of trade, "Live, and let live." ^The principles on which the act of navigation is founded are just, and of sound policy, but the application of them, by the modes prescribed, as the laws now stand, to the present • state of the colony trade, is neither founded in justice or prudence. Any spirit that would force this application, would injure the principles themselves, and prove injurious to that commercial interest, which those very acts of trade mean to secure to Great- Britain : whereas, upon a due revision of those laws, it would appear that there are means of producing this same end consistent with the particular interest of the colonies, and what would carry the general commercial interest of the mother country to the utmost extent that it is capable of. . . . The general principle of the laws of trade regulating the colony trade, is, that the colonies shall not, on one hand, be supplied with 1 Pownall, The Administration of the Colonies [1764]; pp. 181-1S2, 183-185, 188-190, 192-195, 198-202. CONTEMPORARY VIFAVS 1 03 anythin^^ but from a Ih-itish market, nor export tlu-ir j)roducc any where but to a British market. In tlie applieation of this princi- ple, the i:)resent laws direct, except in some special particulars, that the colonies shall inijjort all their supplies y'rc-'/// Ih'itain, and carry all their produce to Ih-itain. If now, instead of confining this market for the colonies to Britain only, which is a partial and defective application of the general principle whereon the act of Navigation is founded ; this colony trade was made, amidst other courses of trade, an occasion of establishing British markets even in other eountries, the true use would be derived to the general interest from these advan- tageous circumstances, while in particular the colonies and the mother country would be mutually accomodated. In the first case, the general interest, perverted to partial purposes, becomes so far forth obstructed ; in the second, it would be carried by the genuine spirit of it to its utmost extent. — If, under certain restrictions, securing also those duties which the produce of the colonies, carried to market, ought to pay to the mother country, the colonies were permitted to export their produce (such as are the basis or materials of any British manufacture excepted) directly to foreign countries, if so be they sold it to any British Jiouse established in such place, and were also permitted, if they bought their supplies from a British Jionsc established in those parts, to supply themselves with the natural fruits and produce of that country (all manufactures that any way interfere with the British manufactories excepted) paying there to some British officer, or upon their arrival in the colonies, the same duties as they would have paid by purchasing the same commodities in I^Lngland, ever)' end proposed by the principle of the act of Navigation would be answered ; the exports of the colonies would be encouraged ; and the British market greatly extended. . . . Under the administration of such measures, there does not appear any reason why all the produce of the l^ritish colonies, which are not the basis of, and do not interfere with the l^ritish manufactures, might not be carried directly to a British market at a foreign port, — and why the carr\-ing of rice to foreign ports might not be extended, under these laws, to all such f( )reign jjoits I04 COLONIAL POLICY whereat a British factory is established. — Nor under this mode of commerce can any sufficient reason upon earth subsist, why the colony traders should not be permitted to load at these ports, the fruits, wine, oil, pickles, the produce of that country, and also such raw unmanufactured produce, as would not interfere with the manufacture of Great Britain, instead of being obliged to come to Britain to buy or reload here, after the expence of an unnecessary voyage, those very commodities which they might have bought in a British via7'kct, at the port which they left. Why not any of these as well as salt, as well as wines from the Madeiras and western isles .-' In the same manner, by the same law, why may not our colony traders be permitted to carry sugar, ginger, tobacco, rice, &c. to such ports in the rivers Weser and Elbe, in the Sound and in Russia, whereat a British factory is, or may be established } It can never be right policy to suffer labour in vain in a com- munity : it is just so much lost to the community : and yet this coming round by England is labour in vain : If the subordinacy of the colony-trade, and the duties arising thereon, can be by any other means secured, it is so much labour lost. The two points of a British market, and the revenue of the duties being secured, why may not these traders be permitted to load at these ports directly for the colonies, hemp, yarn, and such coarse linens, as do no way interfere with the British manufactories } These measures taken, which would prove to be the true means of encouraging the colony-trade, the best method to put a stop to the contraband trade carried on in this branch of business, and the true grounds whereon to establish the general commercial interest of Great Britain, Government could not be too strict in enforc- ing the execution of the laws of trade, nor too severe in punish- ing the breach of them. — Wherever they found these traders endeavouring to carry from these ports to the colonies raw silk, silks, velvets, foreign cloths, laces, iron, steel, arms, ammunition, sails or rigging, or any manufactures whatever, that interfere with the manufacture of Great Britain : whenever they found these traders endeavouring to carry from the colonies to those ports, any dying-wood whatever, indigo, cotton, silk, bees or myrtle-wax, flax-seed, naval stores, furs, skins or peltry, hides, CONTEMPORARY V I FA\'S 105 provision, grain, flour, bread or biscuit ; whale-oil, blubber, bone, or any other fish-oil, or tallow, or candles, with an exception per- haps to myrtle and spermaceti candles, Government could not be too strict and watchful to restrain them. Under proper regula- tions, the rum of the northern colonies should be carried to Africa, and the sale of it to the French on the banks of Newfound- land encouraged, if such vent could be procured, as we should thereby reap at least some share even of the French Fishery. . . . In the same manner, some revision of the state of the trade of the colonies of the several maritime powers amongst each other will be necessary. — The laws and ordonnances of these do in general prohibit all trade of foreign colonies with their own ; — and yet, without some such trade as supplies the Spanish prov- inces with British goods and provisions, as supplies the British colonies with Spanish silver, as supplies the French islands with British lumber, fish, provisions, horses, and live stock, as supplies the British colonies with French mellosses, the trade and culture of these colonies would be greatly obstructed and impaired ; and yet notwithstanding this fact, our laws of trade, by an impracticable duty, extend to the prohibiting the importation of French mellosses into our colonies. If the government, under this law, could ]:)re- vent effectually this importation, not only into the northern colonies, but into the British isles also, the reward of that pains would be the destruction of a beneficial branch of trade, perhaps of driving the British American distillery into the French, Dutch, or Danish isles, or of forcing the French, contrary to their own false policy, into a profitable manufacture of that produce which they now sell as refuse materials. I need not point out here the very essential change that this would make in the colony trade. — On the con- trary, it is the duty of government to permit, nay even to encour- age, under proper regulations, these branches of trade ; in the first place, in order to extract out of the foreign colonies, to the benefit of the British commerce, as. much as possible the profits of these colonies, and which is more material, in order to create a necessary dependance in the trade and culture of those colonies for their supplies on the British commerce. — When it is remem- bered that the law, which lays a duty equal to a prohibition, on lo6 COLONIAL POLICY the importation of French mellosses in the British colonies, was obtained at the sohcitation of the British isles, it will be seen, that the obtaining this law is not so much meant to prohibit totally the introduction of French mellosses into the British trade, as to determine a struggle between the West India and North Ameri- can traders, who should have the profits of it. And thus, from the predominant interest of these partial views, has government been led to embarrass the general courses of its trade. — But as the West India traders see that this law has not, never had, and never will have the effect proposed, they will be better reconciled to its ceasing ; and as government must now, after the experi- ment, see the false policy of it, there is no doubt but that it will cease, -so far as to reduce the duty to a moderate and practicable charge, such as will be paid, and such as will raise to the crown a very considerable revenue thus paid. I speak not this by guess ; but, from a comparison of the quantity of sugars, and mellosses brought to account in the custom-house books of the King's revenue, with the quantity of the same article, in the same ports, brought to account in the impost-books of the colony revenue, for six years together, could, with some precision, mark the extent of it. I own I did always apprehend that two-pence per gallon on foreign mellosses imported into any British plantation, and so in proportion of sugars, was the best rate at which to fix this duty ; that being thus moderate, it might be easier and with less alarm and opposition collected, and might therefore the sooner introduce the practice of fair trade, and the sooner become an ejfective revenue: But when I see a groundless clamour raised, which represents the rate fixed by the late revenue-act^ as destructive of the American distillery, as ruinous to the American fishery, as a prohibition of the returns made from the foreign islands for the North American fish ; I must own that I have never seen any fact stated, or calculation fairly made on which such assertions found themselves. . . . Were some such arrangements taken for a revision and further establishment of the laws of trade, upon the principle of extending the British general .commerce, by encouraging the trade of the 1 The sugar act of 1764 which levied a duty of three pence per gallon. CONTKMPORAR\^ VIFAVS I07 colonies, in subordination to, and in coincidence therewith, tlie trade of the colonies would be administered by that true spirit from whence it rose, and by which it acts ; and the true applica- tion of the benefits which arise to a mother country from its colo- nies would be made. Under this spirit of administration, tlie government, as I said above, could not be too watcliful to carry its laws of trade into effectual execution, — But under the present state of those laws, and that trade, there is great danger that any severity of execution, which should prove effectual in the cases of the importation into the colonies of foreign European and East- India goods, might force the Americans to trade for their imports, upon terms, on which the trade could not support itself, and there- fore become in the event a means to bring on the necessity of these Americans manufacturing for themselves. Nothing does at present, with that active and acute people, prevent their going into manu- factures, except the proportionate dearness of labour, as referred to the terms on which they can import ; but encrease the price of their imports to a certain degree, let the extent of their settlements, either by policy from home or invasion of Indians abroad, be con- fined, and let their foreign trade and navigation be, in some meas- ure, suppressed ; — their paper-currency limitted within too narrow bounds and the exclusion of that trade which hath usually supplied them with silver-money too severely insisted upon ; — this propor- tion of the price of labour will much sooner cease to be an object of objection to manufacturing there, than is commonly apprehended. The winters in that climate are long and severe ; during wliich season no labour can be done without doors. That application tlierefore of their servants labour, to manufactures for home consum])ti()n, which under any other circumstances would be too dear for the jDroduct created by it, becomes, under these circumstances, all clear gains. And if the colonists cannot on one hand purchase foreign manu- factures at any reasonable price, or have not money to purchase with, and there are, on the other, many hands idle which used to be employed in navigation, and all these, as well as the husband- men, want employment ; these circumstances will soon overbalance the difference of the rate of labour in Europe and in America. And if the colonies, under any future state of administration, which Io8 COLONIAL POLICY they see unequal to the management of their affairs, once come to feel their own strength in this way, their independence on govern- ment, at least on the administration of government, will not be an event so remote as our leaders may think, which yet nothing but such false policy can bring on. For, on the contrary, put their governments and laws on a true and constitutional basis, regulate their money, their revenue, and their trade, and do not check their settlements, they must ever depend on the trade of the mother country for their supplies, they will never establish manufactures, their hands being elsewhere employed, and the merchants being always able to import such on terms that must ruin the manufacturer. Unable to subsist without, or to unite against the mother country they must always remain subordinate to it, in all the transactions of their commerce, in all the operation of their laws, in every act of their government : — The several colonies, no longer considered as demesnes of the crown, mere appendages to the realm, will thus become united therein, members and parts of the realm, as essential parts of one organized whole, tJic commercial dommio)i of Gj'cat Britain. The taking leading measures to the forming of WHICH, ought, at this JUNCTURE, TO BE THE GREAT OBJECT OF GOVERNMENT. C. The Radical View 1 To found a great empire for the sole purpose of raising up a people of customers, may at first sight appear a project fit only for a nation of shopkeepers. It is, however, a project altogether unfit for a nation of shopkeepers, but extremely fit for a nation whose government is influenced by shopkeepers. Such statesmen, and such statesmen only, are capable of fancying that they will find some advantage in employing the blood and treasure of their fellow- citizens, to found and maintain such an empire. Say to a shop- keeper, Buy me a good estate, and I shall always buy my clothes at your shop, even though I should pay somewhat dearer than what I can have them for at other shops ; and you will not find him very forward to embrace your proposal. But should any other person buy you such an estate, the shopkeeper will be much obliged to 1 Smith, The Wealth of Nations [1776], Bk. IV, ch. vii, part iii. CON^rKMPORARV VIEWS 109 your benefactor if he would enjoin you to ijuy all your clothes at his shop. England purchased from some of her subjects, who found themselves uneasy at home, a great estate in a distant country. The price, indeed, was very small, and instead of thirty years' purchase, the ordinary price of land in the present times, it amounted to little more than the expence of the different equipments which made the first discovery, reconnoitred the coast, and took a fictitious p(jsses- sion of the country. The land was good and of great extent, and the cultivators having plenty of good ground to work upon, and being for some time at liberty to sell their produce where thc\' pleased, became in the course of little more than thirty or forty years (between 1620 and 1660) so numerous and thriving a people, that the shopkeepers and other traders of England wished to se- cure to themselves the monopoly of their custom. Without j^re- tending, therefore, that they had paid any part, either of the original purchase-money, or of the subsequent expence of improvement, they petitioned the parliament that the cultivators of America might for the future be confined to their shop ; first, for buying all the goods which they wanted from Europe ; and, secondly, for selling all such parts of their own produce as those traders might find it convenient to buy. For they did not find it convenient to buy every part of it. Some parts of it imported into England might have interfered with some of the trades which they themselves carried on at home. Those particular parts of it, therefore, they were willing that the colonists should sell where they could ; the farther off the better ; and upon that account proposed that their market should be con- fined to the countries south of Cape Finisterre. A clause in the famous act of navigation established this truly shopkeeper proposal into a law. The maintenance of this monopoly has hitherto been the principal, or more properly perhaps the sole end and purpose of the dominion which Great Britain assumes over her colonies. In the exclusive trade, it is supposed, consists the great advantage of provinces, which have never yet afforded either revenue or military force for the support of the civil government, or the defence of the mother country. The monopoly is the principal badge of their depend- ency, and it is the sole fruit which has hitherto been gathered from no COLONIAL POLICY that dependency. Whatever expence Great Britain has hitherto laid out in maintaining this dependency, has really been laid out in order to support this monopoly. The expence of the ordinary peace establishment of the colonies amounted, before the com- mencement of the present disturbances, to the pay of twenty regiments of foot ; to the expence of the artillery stores, and ex- traordinary provisions with which it was necessary to supply them ; and to the expence of a very considerable naval force which was con- stantly kept up, in order to guard from the smuggling vessels of other nations, the immense coast of North America, and that of our West Indian islands. The whole expence of this peace establish- ment was a charge upon the revenue of Great Britain, and was, at the same time, the smallest part of what the dominion of the colonies has cost the mother country. If we would know the amount of the whole, we must add to the annual expence of this peace establish- ment the interest of the sums which, in consequence of her con- sidering her colonies as provinces subject to her dominion, Great Britain has upon different occasions laid out upon their defence. We must add to it, in particular, the whole expence of the late war, and a great part of that of the war which preceded it. The late war (the Seven Years' War) was altogether a colony quarrel, and the whole expence of it, in whatever part of the world it may have been laid out, whether in Germany or the East Indies, ought justly to be stated to the account of the colonies. It amounted to more than ninety millions sterling, including not only the new debt which was contracted, but the two shillings in the pound addi- tional land tax, and the sums which were every year borrowed from the sinking fund. The Spanish war which began in 1739, was principally a colony quarrel. Its principal object was to pre- vent the search of the colony ships which carried on a contraband trade with the Spanish main. This whole expence is, in reality, a bounty which has been given in order to support a monopoly. The pretended purpose of it was to encourage the manufactures, and to increase the commerce of Great Britain. But its real effect has been to raise the rate of mercantile profit, and to enable our mer- chants to turn into a branch of trade, of which the returns are more slow and distant than those of the greater parts of other trades, a CONTEMPORARY VIEWS III greater proportion of their eapital than they otherwise would have done ; two events whieh if a bount)- could ha\e prevented, it might perhaps have been very well worth while to give such a bounty. Under the present sx'stem of management, therefore. Great l^ritain derives nothing but loss from the dominion which she assumes over her colonies. To propose that Great I^ritain should voluntarily give up all authority over her colonies, and leave them to elect their own magistrates, to enact their own laws, and to make peace and war as they might think proper, would be to propose such a measure as never was, and never will be adopted by any nation in the world. No nation ever voluntarily gave up the dominion of any province, how troublesome soever it might be to govern it, and how small soever the revenue which it afforded might be in pro- ■ portion to the expence which it occasioned. Such sacrifices, though they might frequently be agreeable to the interest, are always mortifying to the pride of every nation, and, what is per- haps of still greater consequence, they are always contrary to the private interest of the governing part of it, who would thereby be deprived of the disposal of many places of trust and profit, of many opportunities of acquiring wealth and distinction, which the possession of the most turbulent, and, to the great body of the people the most unprofitable province seldom fails to afford. The most visionary enthusiasts would scarce be capable of propos- ing such a measure, with any serious hopes at least of its ever being adopted. If it was adopted, however, Great Britain would not only be immediately freed from the whole annual expence of the peace establishment of the colonies, but might settle with them such a treaty of commerce as would effectually secure to her a free trade, more advantageous to the great body of the people, though less so to the merchants, than the monopoly which she at present enjoys. By thus parting good friends, the natural affection of the colonies to the mother country which, perhaps, our late dissensions have well nigh extinguished, would cjuickly revive. It might dis- pose them not only to respect, fcjr whole centuries together, thai treaty of commerce which they had concluded with us at parting, but to favour us in war as well as in trade, and, instead of turbulent 112 ' COLONIAL POLICY and factious subjects, to become our most faithful, affectionate, and generous allies ; and the same sort of parental affection on the one side, and filial respect on the other, might revive between Great Britain and her colonies, which used to subsist between those of ancient Greece and the mother city from which they descended. In order to render any province advantageous to the empire to which it belongs, it ought to afford, in time of peace, a revenue to the public sufficient not only for defraying the whole expence of its own peace establishment, but for contributing its proportion to the support of the general government of the empire. Every province necessarily contributes, more or* less, to increase the ex- pence of that general government. If any particular province, therefore, does not contribute its share towards defraying this ex- pence, an unequal burden must be thrown upon some other part of the empire. The extraordinary revenue too which every province affords to the public in time of war, ought, from parity of reason, to bear the same proportion to the extraordinary revenue of the whole empire which its ordinary revenue does in time of peace. That neither the ordinary nor extraordinary revenue which Great Britain derives from her colonies, bears this proportion to the whole revenue of the British empire, will readily be allowed. The monop- oly, it has been supposed, indeed, by increasing the private revenue of the people of Great Britain, and thereby enabling them to pay greater taxes, compensates the deficiency of the public revenue of the colonies. But this monopoly, I have endeavoured to show, though a very grievous tax upon the colonies, and though it may increase the revenue of a particular order of men in Great Britain, diminishes instead of increasing that of the great body of the people ; and consequently diminishes instead of increasing the ability of the great body of the people to pay taxes. The men too whose revenue the monopoly increases, constitute a particular order, which it is both absolutely impossible to tax beyond the proportion of other orders, and extremely impolitic even to attempt to tax beyond that proportion, as I shall endeavour to shew in the following book. No particular resource, therefore, can be drawn from this particular order. ' MODERN YIKWS I i III. MODERN MEWS 1 It is the custom to describe the old colonies as sacriliced to the mother-country. We must be careful not to admit that state- ment without qualification. It is supposed for instance that the revolt of our own American colonies was provoked by the selfish treatment of our mother-country, which shackled their trade with- out rendering them any benefit in return for these restraints. This is far from being true. Between England and the American col- onies there was a real interchange of services. England gave defence in return for trade-privileges. In the middle of the last century, at the time when the American quarrel began, it was per- haps rather the colonies than the mother-country that had fallen into arrear. We had been involved in two great wars mainly by our colonies, and the final breach was provoked not so much by the pressure of England upon the colonies as by that of the col- onies upon England. If we imposed taxes upon them, it was to meet the debt which we had incurred in their behalf, and we saw with no unnatural bitterness that we had ourselves enabled our colonies to do without us, by destroying for their interest the French power in North America. Still it was true of the old colonial system in general that it placed the colony in the position, not so much of a state in feder- ation, as of a conquered state. Some theory of the kind is evi- dently implied in the language which* is commonly used. We speak of the colonial possrssiojis of England or of Spain. Now in what sense can one population be spoken of as the possession of another population > The expression almost seems to imply slav- ery, and at any rate it is utterly inappropriate, if it merely means that the one population is subject to the same Government as the other. At the bottom of it certainly was the idea that the colony was an estate which was to be worked for the benefit of the mother-country. The relation of Spain to its colonies had become a type which other states kept before their eyes. A native population reduced to serfdom, in some parts driven to compulsory labour by caciques 1 Seeley, Expansion of England, Course I, Lecture iv. 114 COLONIAL POLICY turned into state-officials, in other parts exterminated by overwork and then replaced by negroes ; an imperious mother-country draw- ing from the colony a steady revenue, and ruling it through an artful mechanism of division, by which the settlers were held in check by the priesthood and by a serf-population treated paternally that it might be available for that purpose ; such was the typical colonial system. It was wholly unfit to be a model to such a col- ony as New England, which paid no revenue, where there were neither subject Indians nor mines of gold and silver. Nevertheless governments could not afford to forget the precedent of profitable colonies, and I find Charles II. appealing to it in 1663. It became an established principle that a colony was a possession. Now it is essentially barbaric that one community should be treated as the property of another and the fruits of its industry' confiscated, not in return for benefits conferred, but by some ab- solute right whether of conquest or otherwise. Even where such a relation rests avowedly upon concjuest it is too immoral to last long except in a barbarous state of manners. Thus for example we may have acquired India by conquest, but we cannot and do not hold it for our own pecuniary advantage. We draw no tribute from it ; it is not to us a profitable investment ; we should be ashamed to acknowledge that in governing it we in any way sacri- ficed its interest to our own. A fortiori then it is barbaric to apply such a theory to colonies, for it is to treat one's own countrymen, those with whom we have no concern at all except on the ground of kindred, as if they were conquered enemies, or rather in a way in which a civilized nation cannot treat even conquered enemies. And probably even in the old colonial system such a theory was not consciously and deliberately adopted. But since in the sixteenth centuiy there was no scruple in appl3dng it to conquered dependen- cies, and since the colonies of Spain were in a certain sense conquered dependencies, we can understand that unconsciously, unintention- ally the barbaric principle crept into her colonial system, and that it lurked there and poisoned it in later times. We can understand too how the example of Spain and the precedents set by her influ- enced the other European States, Holland, France and England, which entered upon the career of colonisation a century later. MODERN VIEWS I 15 In the case of some of these States, for examj)le I '"ranee, the result of this theory was that the mother-country exercised an iron authority over her colonies. In Canada the French settlers were subject to a multitude of rigid regulations, from which they would have been free if they had remained in France. Nothing of the kind certainly can be said of the English colonies. They were subject to certain fixed restrictions in the matter of trade, but apart from these they were absolutely free. Carr)ang their nation- ality with them, they claimed everywhere the rights of English- men. It has been observed by Mr. Merivale that the old colonial system admitted no such thing as the modern Crown Colony, in which Englishmen are governed administratively without represent- ative assemblies. In the old system assemblies were not formally instituted, but grew up of themselves, because it was the nature of Englishmen to assemble. Thus the old historian of the colonies, Hutchinson, writes under the year 16 19, " This year a House of Burgesses broke out in Virginia." And assuredly the Home Gov- ernment in those times did not sin by too much interference. So completely were the colonies left to themselves, that some of them, especially those of New England, were from the very begin- ning for the most practical purposes independent States. As early as 1665, only forty years after the first settlement and a hundred years before the Declaration of Independence, I find that Massa- chusetts did not regard itself as practically subject to England, "They say," writes a Commissioner, "that so long as they pay the fifth of all gold and silver, according to the terms of the Charter, they are not obliged to the King but by civility." Thus our old colonial system was not practically at all tyran- nous, and when the breach came the grievances of whicli the Americans complained, though perfectly real, were smaller than ever before or since led to such mighty consequences. The mis- fortune of that system was not that it interfered too mucli, but that such interference as it admitted was of an invidious kind. It claimed very little, but what it did claim was unjust. It gave un- bounded liberty except in one department, namely trade, and in that department it interfered to fine the colonists for the benefit of. the home traders. Now this was to put the mother-country in Il6 COLONIAL POLICY a false position. It put her forward as claiming to treat the col- onies as a possession, as an estate to be worked for the benefit of those Englishmen who remained at home. No claim could be more invidious. If it was not quite the claim that a master makes upon a slave, it was at least similar to that which an absentee land- lord makes upon tenants in whom he takes no further interest, and yet even the absentee landlord, if he gives nothing else, does at least give the use of land which was really his own. But what — a Massachusetts colonist might say — has England given to us that she should have this perpetual mortgage on our industry .? The Charter of James I. allowed us the use of lands which James I. never saw and which did not belong to him, lands too which, without any Charter, we might perhaps have occupied for our- selves without opposition. . . . ^ With the impressive rhetoric of which he was a master, Adam Smith, in the very year of the Declaration of Independence, thus passed judgement upon the system of control which for more than a century England had exercised over the economic activity of her colonies : To prohibit a great people from making all that they can of every part of their own produce, or from employing their stock and their industry in the way that they judge most advantageous to themselves, is a manifest violation of the most sacred rights of mankind. Some such opinion has probably been expressed or implied by nearly every writer on the subject from that time to this. A period in which, to begin with, the old colonial system was apparently discredited by its failure, and in which, soon afterwards, all the dominant forces in political society began to tend towards eman- cipation, towards liberation from restraint, was not an age in which Adam Smith's summary appeal to " the most sacred rights of man- kind" was likely to be seriously called in question : nor shall I seek to controvert it to-day. But, starting from such a preconception, it has seemed to many a natural inference — though, as we shall see, 1 Ashley, Commercial Legislation of England and the American Colonies, 1660-1760; in Surveys Historic and Economic, pp- 309-31 1, 332-334, 354-356. Printed by permission of the author and publishers, Longmans, Green, and Company. MODERN VIKAVS I 17 Adam Smith took care not to draw it — that so seemingly mani- fest an iniquity must have been actually hurtful to those who were subjected to it ; thiit what was mistaken in principle must have been mischievous in operation. We cannot be surprised that the first generation of American historians sliould think so; writing, as they did, before the passions ]5rovoked by the great struggle had had time to subside. Tlius Bancroft did not hesitate to pro- nounce " the effects of this system " " baleful " ; and he proceeded to justify this statement by an argument which was designed to show that it robbed the colonists in two ways : it compelled them to pay more than their "fair value" for the commodities they imported, and to accept less than their "' fair value " for the commodities they sold. But a like opinion is not confined to American historians : it has come to be very generally accepted by English writers ; and upon its side it has the authority of the most painstaking and the most widely read of the historians of the eighteenth century — the judicious Mr. Lecky himself. In two well-known passages in his second and fourth volumes, Mr. Lecky leaves no doubt as t(j his conviction. Though "the country" — i.e. the American colonies — " was," he says, " growing rapidly richer," yet " its progress was seriously retarded," and " many of its natural capacities were para- lysed by law." " It is," he elsewhere remarks, "undoubtedly true that the commercial policy of England has established a real oppo- sition of interest between the mother country and her colonies ! " If so, it would have demanded an unwholesome degree of patience for the Americans to have submitted with cheerfulness. Commerce must, in the words of Bancroft, have been " converted into a source of rankling hostility" : in the more subdued .language of Mr. Lecky, " political alienation " could not have failed to be " the ine\ilable con- sequence." Mr. Lecky's philosophy of the American Revolution is, therefore, this — though the passage is almost too familiar for quotation : If the policy which was the proximate cause of the American Revolution was chiefly due to the king and to the landed gentry, the ultimate cause may be mainly traced to the great influence which the commercial classes possessed in British legislation. The expulsion of the French from Canada made it pos- sible for the Americans to dispense with English protection. The commercial restrictions alone made it to their interest to do so. Il8 COLONIAL ECONOMY I propose to set forth what seem to me adequate reasons for believing that this view of the case is altogether mistaken ; that, whatever may have been the objects it had in view — and these objects, I shall not attempt to deny, were largely selfish — the policy of England was not, as a matter of fact, economically dis- advantageous ; that, on the contrary, it was beneficial to the American colonies. . . . The English commercial legislation, I conclude, did the colonies no harm prior to 1 760 ; and the English connection did them much good. LInder these circumstances, it is no wonder the Americans were neither indignant nor restive. I know of no evidense, during the century under review, for l^ancroft's " rankling hostility " or for Mr. Lecky's " political alienation " as " the inevitable conseciuence." Individuals here and there felt themselves hampered in their oper- ations, and were naturally annoyed ; but there is absolutely no evi- dence of any widespread irritation. When one reads Mr. Lecky, one thinks of a movement of popular thought comparable to the opposition to Laud's ecclesiastical policy or to the agitation which led to the great Reform Bill. But, when one comes to look into the American sources, one has to search very minutely indeed to find any reference at all to the restrictions. The lawlessness pro- duced by the half-smuggling molasses business did, in a sense, con- tribute to the Revolution, but it was a very minor element among many others : to be put by the side of the irritation of the New Hampshire backwoodsmen at the attempts to enforce the claims of the Crown to masts for the navy ; to be put much below in im- portance the alarm which New England Puritanism felt before the anticipated inroads of .the English Church. So far as I can see, the trade grievance was first formulated by Franklin. But the pamphlet in which he did so, that of 1767, already cjuoted, was hardly expected to be taken seriously ; and even there the economic grievance was put on a level with grievances of another kind. It was not till some years after the conflict had begun, when imagi- nation was already playing tricks with memory, that the commercial restrictions were put in the foreground and represented as posi- tively oppressive. ... MODERN VIEWS I 19 What, then, is the conclusion of the whole matter (regarding smuggling and elicit trade)? It is tliat — with the exception, as always, of the molasses business — the great bulk of the American import trade was strictly legal, because the colonials had no interest that it should be otherwise. In one way or another there was a good deal of illicit trade, no doubt ; yet it formed but a small pro- portion of the whole. Shefifield, predicting that the American states would " in future, as they did before, give the preference to l^ritish manufactures over all others," makes this just comment : For the preference formerly given was not the effect of our restrictions ; nothing was easier for the Americans than to evade them, and it is well known that from the first they uniformly did evade them whenever they found it to their interest. The important thing is that they did not find it to their interest to any (comparatively) large extent. And the reasons are not far to seek. The staple requirements of New England, and, first of all, woollen clothing, could be sup- plied more cheaply in England than elsewhere. It was the quality and cheapness of English cloth which enabled it in the first half of the seventeenth centuiy to secure the North German market, and would have given it the French market but for Colbert's high tariff of 1667. As soon as the barrier was removed b)- the Com- mercial Treaty wdth France in 1786, English cloth again beat down the competition of the French domestic product. And as to such commodities of other European countries as could not be produced so cheaply in England, eveiTthing tends to confirm the a priori argu- ment of the previous paper. To quote Sheffield for the last time : It is certain many foreign articles will go to America through (ireat Britain as formerly, on account of the difficulty the American merchant would find in resorting to every quarter of the world to collect a cargo. The Americans send ships to be loaded with all sorts of European goods. A general cargo for the American market cannot be made up on such advantageous terms in any part of the world as in England. In our ports all articles may be got with despatch — a most winning circumstance in trade. It would be worth while for some American scholar to determine just when the Acts of Trade first came to be looked upon by Amer- icans as constituting or having constituted a grievance — after the I20 COLOiXIAL POLICY first irritation had subsided which the Navigation Laws had occa- sioned in the third quarter of the seventeenth centur}". Doubtless, when once the breach with the mother country had taken place, American writers and speakers described the system as a griev- ance, and imputed a like feeling to earlier generations. But cer- tainlv it is not easy to find any expression to that effect in the twenties, thirties, forties, or fifties of the eighteenth century. It is well known that American politicians, during the earlier years of the controversy with the British Government, constantly drew a sharp distinction between legislation for the control of trade and legislation for the securing of revenue, and declared again and again that with the former they had no quarrel. As late as 1768 we find the shrewd Franklin expressing his regret that such a position was still pretty generally taken, and arguing for a more sweeping denial of the legislative authority of the British Parlia- ment. Li not going at first beyond an objection to taxation with- out consent, the American leaders were doubtless influenced by weightN' political considerations ; }'et it is hard to believe that they would have been so restrained in their utterances if, during the preceding hundred years, the Acts of Trade had really been felt to be galling restraints. . , . ^ ^ The colonists had evinced a determined spirit of independence from the outset. In the seventeenth century several colonies had refused obedience to the representatives of the Crown, and one colony had paid no attention to the decisions of the courts at Westminster. The first part of the eighteenth century was a pe- riod of almost incessant bickering and petty strife bet\veen the representiitives of the British government on the one hand and the popular branches of the colonial legislatures on the other hand. These disputes were usually confined to local politics ; they never assumed the ^orm of a combination between two or more colonies to resist the authority of Great Britain. 1 This article contains an excellent discussion of the effects of the commercial policy of England upon the American colonies. - Channing. The United States of America, 1765-1865, pp. 39-40. Printed by permission of the author and publishers. The Macmillan Company. MODERN VIEWS 12 I During the French and Indian War these altercations threat- ened to assume a more serious aspect owing to the attem[ns of British officials to enforce obedience to acts of ParHament as to billeting of soldiers and, also, to the supersession of colonial niili- taiy officers b\- those holding commissions direct from the Crown. That these disputes led to no gTa\-er results must be attributed to the laisses-faire administrative policy of Sir Robert Walpole and his immediate successors. Had that polic)- been maintained after 1 760, there is little reason to believe that the conquest of Canada and the existence of the Navigation Laws and Acts of Trade w'ould have led to rebellion. Lord Mahon was undoubtedly right in say- ing that, had not some new cause of complaint arisen, the colonial agents, even in his day, might still have been debating at White- hall, It was not so to be. The wise counsels of the earlier time were thrown to the winds. The British government, by enforcing the Acts of Trade and by levying taxes on the colonies by acts of Parliament, compelled the colonists to combine in defence of what they considered to be their rights, and thus prepared the way to revolution and independence. CHAPTER IV ECONOMIC ASPECTS OF THE REVOLUTION INTRODUCTION There are three questions regarding the Revolution, which involve economic considerations of more or less importance. The first refers to the causes of the war, the second to the resources of the Americans for carrying it on, and the third to its effects both upon American society and upon Europe. It has always been recognized that taxation and commercial restrictions on the part of Eng- land were the principal causes of the war. But the fact that the controversy which preceded it, raged around the question of political rights, has tended to obscure the real economic factors in the situation. We hear much about taxation without representation and but little about taxation itself ; and we are led to infer that it was the manner of imposing taxes, rather than the taxes themselves, to which the colonists were opposed. We have lost sight of the fact that the amount of taxation imposed by England was insignificant in amount, and could not possibly be now considered as a serious burden. In the same way we hear much about the selfishness of England's commercial policy, of her readiness to sacrifice the interests of the colonists to those of the mer- chant and manufacturer at home ; but comparatively little is said about the ac- tual effect of the commercial restrictions. Here again we lose sight of the fact that these commercial restrictions were in existence for a century without serious opposition, were vastly more liberal than those enjoyed by any other colonies in the world, and had not prevented the colonies from making such progress in wealth and population as to attract the attention of all Europe. The more rigid enforcement after 1763 no doubt increased their injurious effects, but even then it is impossible to make them 'out a grievous burden. Why, then, did they, along with the insignificant taxes, stir up such fierce oppo- sition ? Why were the Americans willing to endure the horrors of a long and costly war for what seems now so small a cause ? A partial explanation may be found in the economic and social conditions existing at the time. In the first place, there was economic depression in nearly all the colonies during the ten years which preceded the war. This chiefly affected the commercial classes in New England and the middle colonies, and was no doubt connected more or less closely with the more rigid enforcement of the commercial restrictions. Commerce, it must be remembered, was the chief source of private fortune in these colonics, and almost every prominent man was connected with it. Commercial depression in Virginia had nothing to 122 INTRODrC'I'ION 123 do with commerce, but affected the phtnter class, and was c\cn more serious than in New England. It was natural enough that a people already suffering economic depression should feel strong opposition to any increase of taxation, however slight, and be irritated by any changes in commercial regulations likely to affect them. It was not alone an excessive devotion to abstract prin- ciples of constitutional and political rights which caused so much agitation and excitement in Massachusetts and Virginia. It was the fact that those abstract [principles were invoked to remedy an economic depression which was seri- ously felt. But there was another circumstance which had more influence than this of economic depression. It was the fact that social conditions in the colonies were such as to render all taxation except for purely local purposes extremely un- popular. In the unorganized, dispersed society of the colonies it was impossible for men to recognize any connection between most of the governmental expend- itures, which occasioned taxation, and their own interests and welfare. Taxes were a burden and did not seem to be justified by necessity, especially after the French had been expelled from the continent. That a great reluctance to pay taxes existed in all the colonies, there can be no doubt. It was one of the marked characteristics of the American people long after their separation from England. Down to the time of the Civil War it constituted one of the difficul- ties American statesmen always had to face. It was the principal rock upon which the confederation split, and Hamilton recognized it as the chief problem to be solved in the establishment of the new government. Until the Civil War it was strong enough to prevent the establishment of a respectable revenue system in either federal or state finance. It was this unwillingness to bear the burden of ta.\ation that caused nine of the states to default in the payment of interest on their public debts in the early forties, and at least one of them to repudiate the debt altogether. It was fear of this also that caused so long a delay in levying adequate taxes to support the government during the Civil War. Here we have an explanation of that extravagant and, to us now, somewhat incomprehensible opposition to the slight burden of taxation which England proposed to levy upon the colonies. The influence of the commercial restrictions was rather more political than economic. The long controversy which began with the Stamp Act brought out, not so much their influence upon colonial industry, as the selfish motives of English statesmen in making them. It was easy to show the readiness of the English government to sacrifice the interests of the colonists to the inter- ests of citizens of the mother country. This was all that was necessary for purposes of political agitation, and all that was brought out by the controversy. Whether colonial interests were in fact sacrificed by the policy remained for posterity to consider and decide. Regarding the other aspects of the Revolution involving economic consid- erations, only brief observations can be made. If we compare the separation of the colonies from the British Empire with the attempted secession of the 124 ECONOMIC ASPECTS OF THE REVOLUTION southern states from the Union, it is impossible not to be struck by the simi- larity in their position. Each of them possessed one resource upon which they chiefly relied for success in establishing their independence. It was the impor- tance of the cotton trade and its connection with the interests of various Euro- pean countries that the South expected would supply her with the sinews of war, and raise up friends to fight her battles for her. In the same way it was the importance of colonial trade to the leading nations of western Europe, and their own prominence in it, that the colonies expected would perform a similar service for them. The chief difference between them appears in the fact that the South was utterly disappointed in her expectations, while the American colonies were entirely successful in realizing theirs. In the eighteenth century the possession of colonies, and the trade to which they gave rise, was everywhere in Europe considered the most important source of national power. England's supremacy on the seas and great progress in wealth were attributed to colonial commerce, and in this her American colonies were the largest factor. To lose the commerce of these colonies, therefore, would, it was thought, bring ruin to her. For other nations to gain it would bring wealth and power to them. The prevailing mercantilist ideas of the time gave these views a strength which we cannot now realize. That they existed, however, there can be no doubt, and they were fully recognized and shared by American statesmen. This it was which constituted their chief resource in the struggle with the mother country, and the skill with which it was used, reflects great credit upon American statesmanship. By the temporary stoppage of their trade with the mother country, and the development of industries to satisfy their wants at home, they sought to bring political pressure to bear upon Parliament, and to cause obnoxious measures to be repealed. This policy came much nearer prov- ing a success than we are accustomed to think. Adam Smith said, " the ex- pectation of a rupture with the colonies struck the people of Great Britain with more terror than they ever felt for a Spanish armada or a French invasion," and " rendered the repeal of the Stamp Act, among the merchants at least, a popular measure." Had the commercial and manufacturing towns possessed as many representatives in parliament as belonged to them, this non-inter- course policy of the colonies would have stood a good chance of success. When the commercial interests were overruled and the policy of coercion adopted, the colonists turned to foreign countries with the one resource they had to offer. The Declaration of Independence was largely designed to render this resource more available in securing that assistance, without which their prospects of success in the struggle were desperate. In the French alliance their fondest expectations were more than realized. The immediate economic results of the Revolution are far less striking and important than the political, both as regards American society and the world at large. It did not mark the end of the colonial stage of our economic devel- opment, nor did it furnish European economists with an example and illus- tration of their theories, as it did to political philosophers. Nevertheless its INFLUENCES LKADINC 'IX) THE REVOLUTION 125 economic influence was considerable. The intcnuplion of our commercial relations with the rest of the world forced the beginning of that diversification of industries, which was to become later an important clement in the growth of our great internal commerce. By securing political independence we put ourselves in a position to reap the great harvest of neutrality, when the Euro- pean wars broke out, and this gave the American people the first considerable accumulation, of capital they had ever possessed. To Europe it marked the beginning of the end of that great series of commercial restrictions known as the Mercantile System. Colonies and colonial policy were the most important part of this system. The separation of the colonies from England by demon- strating that a country could still continue to enjoy the commerce of new com- munities, without political connection with them, w-ent far to discredit the old colonial system in the eyes of the world, and through it the whole system of_ — mercantile restrictions. . '^^^/'J'^^ I. INFLUENCES LEADING TO THE REVOLUTION ^- A. Economic Depres.sion ^ ^ . . . The methods which were now [1764] adopted to pre- vent smugghng, might not have been attended with any unpleasant consequences, if they had been confined to the coasts of Great Britain and Ireland ; but by extending them to the shores of America, they interrupted a commerce, which though not strictly legal, was ex- tremely advantageous to the colonics. They w-ere therefore in a state of no common discontent on account of the acts of the British Parliament which added to their restraints, when the stamp act 1 Hard times have always produced some kind of political activity in this coun- try. In later times it has consisted in nothing more serious than putting one polit- ical party out of power or an attempt to do so ; but in our earlier history it had more serious consequences. Nullification in South Carolina and the similar move- ment in New England, which resulted in the Hartford Convention, were very largely the result p f economic depressio n. In a similar way the two most important events in our political history, the separation frpm Great IJritain and the formation of the present constitution, were profoundly influenced by the same cause and cannot be explained without taking it into^ionsideration. In case of the Revolution, economic depression coupled with the social conditions which made taxpaying seem un- necessary and unjust, prepared the soil in which the political ideas of the time could flourish. It was not the abstract idea of taxation ivithoiit represeiiintioit which moved the colonists. It was the fact that they felt taxation to be a grievous burden, whether levied by their own representaUve or not, that stirred them to such strong opposition. 2 Anderson, An Historical and Chronological Deduction of the Origin of Com- merce, IV, 62-6-. 126 ECONOMIC. ASPECTS OF THE REVOLUTION appeared to heighten their resentment, and raise a kind of private displeasure into pubhc remonstranee and general opposition. A number of armed cutters were stationed around the coasts of Great Britain, and the most rigid orders were issued to the com- manders of them to act in the capacity of revenue officers. They were enjoined to take the usual custom-house oaths, and to ob- serve the regulations prescribed by them. Thus was the dis- tinguished character of a British naval officer degraded by the emploN'ments of a tide-waiter, and that active, zealous courage which had been accustomed to the conquest of an enemy was now to be exerted in opposing a contraband trade, and to find a reward in the seizure of prohibited commodities. The clamour against these measures was loud in England ; but in America the discontent on the occasion was little short of out- rage. As naval gentlemen, the commanders of these vessels were not conversant in the duties of revenue collection, they were there- fore oftentimes guilty of oppression : remedies were indeed at hand in England ; but as the Lords of the Admiralty or the Treasury could alone rectify any errors, check any violence, punish any in- justice, or restore any violated property, it was always extremely difficult, and in many cases almost impracticable, for the Ameri- cans to obtain redress. But bad as this evil was, there arose one, from the same source, which was still worse. — A trade had been carried on for more than a century between the British and Spanish colonies in the new world, to the great advantage of both, but especially the former, as well as of the mother country ; the chief materials of it being on the side of the British colonies, British manufactures, or such of their own produce as enabled them to purchase British manufactures for their own consumption ; and, on the part of the Spaniards, gold and silver in bullion and coin, cochineal, and medicinal drugs, be- side live stock and mules ; which, in the West India plantations, to which places alone these last articles were carried, from their great utility, justly deserved to be considered of equal importance with the most precious metals. This trade did not clash with the spirit of any act of Parliament ■ % made for the regulation of the British plantation trade ; or, at least INFLUENCES LEADING TO 11 II': KKVOLl'I'K )\ I 27 with that spirit of trade which universally j^revails in our commercial acts: but it was found to vary sufficiently from the letter of the former, to give the new revenue officers a plea for doing that from principles of duty, which there were no small temptations to d(j from the more powerful motives of interest. Accordingly, they seized, indiscriminately, all the ships upon that trade, both of sub- jects and foreigners ; which the custom-house officers stationed on shore, either through fear of the inhabitants, a more just way of thinking, or an happy ignorance, had always permitted to pass unnoticed. As the advantage of this commerce was veiy much in favour of Great Britain, the Spanish monarchy had alwa}-s o]:)posed it : guarda- costas were commissioned to scour the coasts of her American do- minions, and to seize every vessel which approached too near them ; a duty which they had exercised with such general licence, as to provoke the war which broke out in 1739. The l^ritish cruizers seemed to act at this time with the same spirit in destroying this commerce, so that in a short space of time it was almost wholly annihilated. This circumstance was to the northern colonies a deprivation of the most serious nature. — This traffic had long proved the mine from whence they drew those supplies of gold and silver that enabled them to make copious remittances to England, and to provide a sufficiency of current specie at home. A sudden stop being thus put to such a source of advantage, the Americans expressed the injury they sustained in the harshest terms that a sense of injury could inspire. But in spite of all complaints, the ministr}' continued to proceed in their unfortunate career, and measures equally offen- sive to the inhabitants of the North American colonies continued to be successively adopted. Besides this trade carried on between the British colonies in general, especially those in the West Indies, and the Spanish, there had for a long time subsisted one equally extensive, between the British North American colonies in particular, and those of the French West Indies, to the great advantage of both, as it con- sisted chiefly in such goods as must otherwise ha\e I'emained upon the hands of the possessors ; so that it united, in the strictest sense, 128 ECONOMIC ASPECTS OF THE REVOLUTION all those benefits which liberal minds include in the idea of a well regulated commerce, as tending, in the highest degree, to the mutual welfare of those who were concerned in it. In these benefits the respective mother countries had, without doubt, a very large share, though it may be impossible to determine which, upon the whole, had the most. We had enough to engage those in power to think it worth connivance, for it certainly was not strictly to law, in consideration of the vast quantity of manu- factures it enabled our American colonies to take from us ; and this also, in spite of all the clamours which those concerned in our West India trade and possessions could raise against it, as enabling the French to undersell them in West India produce at the foreign markets. This outcry might indeed be found to arise, in a great measure, from another consideration, which it was not so proper for these gentlemen to avow, that of their not getting so good a price as otherwise they might expect, for such part of their produce as they sold in the markets of their mother country ; and which, considering the vast demand for it, even by the poor, to whom, from long habit, it is become one of the chief necessaries of life, it would have savoured of oppression if it had been per- mitted to advance in price. But, be that as it may, this trade was suffered to be carried on in the late war between Great Britain and France ; directly, by means of flags of truce ; and indirectly, through the Dutch and Danish islands ; and afterwards through the Spanish port of Monte Christi, in the island of Hispaniola ; till, at last, the vast advantages the French received from it above what the Eng- lish could expect, in consequence of our having, in a manner, laid siege to all their West India islands, determined government to put a stop to it. In doing this, however, they did not think proper to consider it so much in the light of a contraband trade, as in that of a treasonable practice, by supplying the enemy with necessaries, without which it would have been impossible for these valuable islands to hold out so long against our attempts to reduce them. Accordingly, as soon as the conclusion of the war had taken the appellation of trea- son from this trade, it returned again to its pristine, flourishing condition ; and thus it remained, till it sunk beneath the same INFLUENCKS LEADING TO 11 11'. Kl'-VOLUTK )N 129 blow with the trade between us and the Spaniards, whose history we have already related. This trade not onl)- jjrevented our North American colonies from being drained of their current cash, by the calls of the mother country upon them, but added greatl}' to it, so as to make it, in some measure, keep pace with their domestic trade, which could not but greatly increase in proportion to the remarkable in- crease of mankind in a part of the world, where the cheapness of land determines so great a part of the inhabitants to the exercise of the rural arts, which are known to be so favourable to population. Though the suppression of that trade which we have just been relating, instead of barely interrupting these supplies of the neces- saries and conveniences of life, which the North American colonies were before accustomed to receive in return for their superfluities and incumbrances, tended visibly, by obstructing their internal commerce, to deprive them, in a great degree, even of those bless- ings, the sources of which lay within themselves ; yet a law was made in the beginning of the last year, which, whilst it rendered legal, in some respects, their intercourse with the other European colonies in the new world, loaded the best part of it with duties so far above its strength to bear, as to render it contraband to all in- tents and purposes. Besides, it ordered the money arising from these duties to be paid, and in specie, into the British Exchequer, to the entire draining of the little ready money which might be still remaining in the colonies ; and within a fortnight after, another law was passed to hinder the colonies from supplying the demand of money. for their internal wants, by preventing such paper bills of credit as might be afterwards in them, from being made legal tender in payment ; and the legal tender of such bills as were actually subsisting, from being prolonged beyond the periods already limited for calling in and smking the same. These new regulations following each other so rapidly, produced an equal degree of surprize and discontent among the people of North America. Warm and spirited remonstrances were sent to England on the occasion. Among other arguments they alleged, that such restraints upon their trade were absolutely ruinous, as they tended to put an end to the clearing of their lands, and 130 ECONOMIC ASPECTS OF THE REVOLUTION damped the prosecution of their fisheries. They also asserted, that unless those foreign ports where they deposited the surplus of their corn, and of the provisions of all kinds with which their coun- try abounded, were freely opened to them, they knew not whither to carry them. The British islands in the West Indies were not equal to their consumption, and Great Britain did not want them : it was absolutely necessary, therefore, that some places for the dis- posal of them should be permitted, where they might fetch a rea- sonable price, 1 Our chief productions are provisions, naval stores, furs, iron and lumber. A few colonies yield tobacco and indigo. Some of these commodities are necessary to Great-Britain ; but all that she requires are vastly insufficient to pay for her manufactures which we want. The productions of some of the southern colonies may perhaps be equal to their demands, but the case is widely different with the northern ; for in these, the importations from Great-Britain are computed to be generally more than double the value of their immediate exportations to that kingdom. The only expedient left us for making our remittances, is to carry on some other trade, whereby we can obtain silver and gold, which our own country does not afford. Hence it is evident, that if our taking off and paying for her manufactures, is beneficial' to Great-Britain, the channels by which we acquire money for that purpose, ought to be industriously kept open and uninterrupted. Our trade with Spain, Portugal and the foreign plantations in the West-Indies have chiefly answered this end, though with much difficulty, the mother country having long since drawn the "com- mercial cords with which the colonies are bound, extremely tight upon them. Everything produced here, that Great-Britain chooses to take to herself, must be carried to that kingdom only — every- thing we choose to import from Europe must be shipped in Great- Britai7i — heavy duties have been laid on our importations from the foreign plantations. 1 Dickinson, The Late Regulations Respecting the British Colonies, Considered [1765], Political Writings, I, 50-54, 64-65, 66-68. See also An Essay on the Trade of the Northern Colonies, etc., and Remonstrance of the Colony of Rhode Island, etc., pp. 51-54, 56-62 of this volume. INFLUENCES LEADING TO THE REVOLL'TION 131 However under all these restraints and some (jthers that have been imposed on us, we ha\e not till lately been unhappy. Our spirits were not depressed. — We apprehended no design formed against our liberty. We for a long time enjoyed peace, and were quite free from an\- heavy debt, either internal or external. We had a paper currency which served as a medium of domestic com- merce, and permitted us to emjjloy all the gold and siher we could acquire, in trade abroad. W'e had a multitude of markets for our provisions, lumber and iron. — These allowed liberties, with some others we assumed, enabled us to collect considerable sums of money for the joint benefit of ourselves and our mother countiy. But the modern regulations are in eveiy circumstance afflicting. The remittances we have been able to make to (ircat-Britain, with all the license hitherto granted or taken, and all the monc}- brought among us in the course of the late war, have not been sufiicient to pay her what we owe ; but there still remains due, according to a late calculation made by the English merchants, the sum of four millions sterling. Besides this, we are and have been for many years heavily taxed, for the payment of the debts contracted by our efforts against the common enemy. These seem to be diffi- culties severe enough for young colonies to contend with. The last sinks our paper currency ver)^ fast. — The former sweeps off our silver and gold in a torrent to Great-Britain, and leaves us continually toiling to supply from a number of distimt springs the continually wasting stream. Thus drained, we are prohibited b\' new and stricter restraints being laid on our trade, from procuring these coins as we used to do : and from instituting among ourselves bills of credit in the place of such portions of them as are required in our internal traffic ; and in this exhausted condition, our languishing country is to strive to take up and to totter under the additional biirthi-n of the STAMP ACT. . . . The restriction also with regard to our iron, is thought particularly severe. Whenever we can get a better price in Great-Britain, than elsewhere, it is unnecessary ; whenever we can get a better price in other places, it is prejudicial. Cargoes composed of this metal, provisions and lumber, have been found to answer veiy well at the 132 ECONOMIC ASPECTS OF THE REVOLUTION Portuguese and some other markets ; and as the last articles are frequently veiy low, and our foreign trade is reduced to so few commodities, the taking away any one of them must be hurtful to us. Indeed, to require us to send all our iron to Great-Britain, is, in the opinion of some of our most judicious merchants, to require an impossibility : for as this article is so heavy, and such small quantities can be sent in one vessel, they assert, that we cannot find freight directly home for one half of it. . . . But it is unnecessary to endeavour to prove by reasoning on these things, that we shall siijfer, for we already suffer. Trade is decay- ing ; and all credit is expiring. Money is become so extremely scarce, that reputable freeholders find it impossible to pay debts which are trifling in comparison to their estates. If creditors sue, and take out executions, the lands and personal estate, as the sale must be for ready money, are sold for a small part of what they were worth when the debts were contracted. The debtors are ruined. The creditors get but part of their debts, and that ruins them. Thus the consumers break the shop-keepers ; they break the merchants ; and the shock must be felt as far as London. Fortunate, indeed, is the man who can get satisfaction /// money for any part of his debt, in some counties ; for in many instances, after lands and goods have been repeatedly advertised in the pub- lic gazettes, and exposed to sale, not a buyer appears. By these means multitudes are already ruined, and the estates of others are melting away in the same manner. It must strike any one with great surprize and concern, to hear of the number of debtors discharged every court by our insolvent act. Though our courts are held every quarter, yet at the last term for the county of PltiladelpJiia alone, no less than thirty-five persons applied for the benefit of that act. If it be considered, that this law extends only to those who do not owe any single debt above ^150, that many are daily released by the lenity of their creditors, and that many more remove, without their knowledge, it will not be diffi- cult to form a judgment of the condition to which the people are reduced. If these effects are produced already, what can we expect, when the same causes shall have operated longer } What can we expect. INFLUENCES LEADING TO THE REVOLUTION 133 when the exhausted eolonies shall feel the STAMP ACT drawing off, as it were, the last drops of their blood ? j^'rom whence is the silver to come with which the taxes imposed b)- this act, and the duties imposed by other late acts, are to be paid ? Or how will our merchants and the lower nDiks of people, on whom the force of these regulations will fall first, and with the greatest violence, bear this additional load ? . . . ^ The publication of orders for the strict execution of the Molasses Act has caused a greater alarm in this country than the taking of Fort William Henry did in 1757. Petitions from the trading towns have been presented to the General Court ; and a large Committee of both Houses is sitting ever)^ day to prepare instructions for their Agent. In the mean time, the Merchants say, There is an end of the trade in this Province ; that it is sacri- ficed to the West Indian Planters ; that it is time for ever)' prudent man to get out of debt with Great Britain as fast as he can, and betake himself to husbandry, and be content with such coarse manufactures as this countiy will produce. This is now the com- mon talk wherever one goes ; and it is certain, that whatever detrinTeht the continuation and strict execution of the Molasses Act will bring to the trade of NortJi Anieriea (and surely more or less it will bring), it will soon come home to Great Britcun ; «"nd tber» the British Merchants will see their imprudence in sitting still as unconcerned spectators, wiiilst the West Indians are con- fining the trade of this extensive and improving countr)- within their own narrow and unextensible circle. For nothing is more plain, than that if the exports of North Anieriea are diminished (be it by one fourth, one third, or one lialf), her imports from Great Britaiti must be lessened in the same proportion. To ai)ply this to a fact: last year were imported into this Province 15,000 hogsheads of molasses, all of which, except less than 500, came from Ports, which are now Foreign. The value of this, at is. 4d. a gallon (which is a middling price as sold out of merchants store- houses) is 100,000 pounds sterling; to purchase which, fish and 1 Bernard, Select Letters on the Trade and Covernmcnt of America [January 7, 1764], pp. 9-1 1. 134 ECONOMIC ASPECTS OF THE REVOLUTION lumber of near the same value must be sent from hence. Now suppose this trade prohibited (for a duty of ^o per cent, amounts to a prohibition) the consequences must be, that this Province must import 100,000 pounds less of British goods ; and there is an entire loss of 100,000 pounds (the fish and lumber coming from an inexhaustible store) worth of goods to the general British Empire, besides the loss of trade and decrease of shipping ; and this annual, in one Province, and in one article of trade only. Is there not therefore just cause of alarm from the apprehensions of the probability or possibility of such consequences .■* If it should be proposed to try the experiment for two or three years only ; first let it be considered, that the experiment itself, if it turns out as is expected, will cost Great Britain many hundred thousand pounds. But this is not all : if, after the experiment has been made, it should be thought proper to restore the North Americans to the freedom of this trade, is it certain that, after an interruption of two or three years, it can be recovered again } Is it not probable, that in the interim the Forrign Plantations may get supplied from other parts (viz. low-priced fish from the French fisheries, lumber from the East side of the Mississippi ;) and when the North Anicj'icans have leave again to resort to the Foreign Ports, they may find them shut against them } When the sale of French Molasses to the North Americans is prohibited, may it not be the cause of procuring the French planters liberty to distil it them- selves .'' And if this valuable trade, which takes from us what no other markets will receive, and returns to us what ultimately centers in Great Britain, should, by making experiments, be destroyed ; would it not be the case of the man whose curiosity (or expectation of extraordinary present gain) killucl the goose who laid him the golden eggs } Surely it is not an idle or groundless fear which makes thinking people dread the consequences of continuing and enforcins: this Act. INFLUENCES LEADING TO THE REVoLrrioX 1-5 1 J^ctition of CoNiiri/ and House of Rcprcsoitativcs, to the Honorable House of Cojinnons, November ^, I76j. To the Honorable the Commons of Great Britain, in I'arliament assembled. The petition of the Council and House of Representatives of his Majesty's Province of Massachusetts Bay, Most humbly sheweth, That the act, passed in the last session of Parliament, entitled " an act for i;ranting certain duties in the British colonies and plantations in America," &c., must necessarily brin<;- many burdens upon the inhabitants of these colonies and plantations, which \-our petitioners conceive would not have been imjjosed, if a full repre- sentation of the state of the colonies had been made to your honorable House — That the duties laid upon foreign sugars and molasses by a former act of Parliament, entitled "an act for the better securing and encouraging the trade of his Majesty's sugar colonics in America," if the act had been executed with rigor, must ha\-e had the effect of an absolute prohibition — That the duties laid on those articles by the present act still remain so great, that, how'ever otherwise intended, the5' must undoubtedly have the same effect — That the importation of foreign molasses into this Province in particular, is of the greatest importance, and a prohibition will be prejudicial to many branches of its trade, and will lessen the con- sumption of the manufactures of Great Britain — That this importance does not arise merely, nor principally, from the necessity of foreign molasses in order to its being con- sumed or distilled wdthin the Province — That if the trade, for many years carried on, for foreign molasses, can be no longer continued, a vent cannot be found for 1 Speeches of the Governors of Massachusetts from 1765 to 1775, etc., pp. 21- 22. For evidence that the commercial depression continued after the repeal of the Stamp Act, see Preamble to the non-importation agreement entered into by the inhabitants of Boston in 1768 on p. 149 ; also Anderson, Origin of Commerce. IV, 1 18-1 19. If economic depression existed in the southern colonies, it could not have been produced by the trade restrictions, but its existence would make the 136 ECONOMIC ASPECTS OF THE REVOLUTION more than one half the fish of inferior quahty which are caught and cured b)- the inhabitants of the Province, the French not per- mittini; fish to be carried by foreigners to any of their islands, un- less it be bartered or exchanged for molasses — That if there be no sale of fish of inferior quality, it will be im- possible to continue the fishery ; the fish usually sent to Europe will then cost so dear, that the F'rench will be able to undersell the English at all the liuropean markets ; and by this means one of the most valuable returns to Great Britain will be utterly lost, and that great nursery of seamen destroyed — That the restraints laid upon the expoitation of timber, boards, staves and other lumber from the colonies to Ireland and other parts of Europe, except Great Britain, must greatly affect the trade of this Province, and discourage the clearing and improving of the lands which are yet uncultivated — That the powers given by the late act to the court of vice admiralty, instituted over all America, are so expressed as to leave it doubtful, whether goods seized for illicit importation in any one of the colonies may not be removed, in order to trial, to any other colony, w'here the judge may reside, although at many hundred miles distance from the place of seizure — That if this construction should be admitted, many persons, however legally their goods may have been imported, must lose their property, merely from an inability of following after it, and making that defence w^hich they might do, if the trial had been in the colony w^here the goods were seized — That this construction would be so much the more grievous, seeing that in America the officers, by this act, are indemnified in case of seizure, whenever the judge of admiralty shall certify that there was probable cause ; and the claimant can neither have costs nor maintain an action against the person seizing, how much so- ever he may have expended in defence of his property — That the extension of the powers of courts of vice admiralty has, so far as the jurisdiction of the said courts hath been people more inclined to political opposition to the mother country. There is abundance of evidence that economic depression did exist among the planters of Virginia at least. See Burnaby's Travels, and American Husbandry, on pp. 22-25. INFLUENCES LEADING TO THE REVOLUTION 137 extended, deprived the colonies of one of the most valuable of English liberties, trials by juries — . , . B. Social Conditions Unfavorable to Taxation ^The citizen of a modern well-organized state regards taxation as one of the normal experiences of life. He can scarcely imagine what life would be without it, and he hears with astonishment of people who were civilized, yet did not need to be taxed, were not taxed, and refused to be taxed as passionately as we refuse to be robbed. The situation, however, is not difficult to realize. In a country which had no civilized neighbours, and in which the population was scattered in isolated farms and plantations, each household lived upon its own piece of ground. In the northern colonies each farmstead almost sufficed for itself. In the southern colonies, where indigo, tobacco, and rice were pro- duced, there was more constant and direct intercourse with the rest of the world, and dependence upon it. For this reason the English writers spoke of the northern colonies as poor or as use- less to the empire. In either case, however, upon the farmstead or the plantation the owner lived in slight relations with any of his fellowmen but his immediate neighbours. If he and they needed defence, they had to defend themselves ; they could not without difficulty and with little result call upon any larger political body for protection. As a matter of fact, therefore, a man got nothing from the Commonwealth of which he was a member, except the regulation and enforcement of contracts and the settlement of disputes under general regulations of law and by established tribunals. Outside of the farm production and the household mechanical industries, the school, the church, and two, or three mechanical employments, like blacksmithing and wagon-making, were the only social ties of the industrial organization. It was when it became necessary to obtain supplies of iron and other metals, 1 Sumner, The Financier and the Finances of the American Revolution, I, 11- 12, 14-15, 24-25, 27. Printed by permission of the author and pubhshers, Dodd, Mead, and Company. 138 ECONOMIC ASPECTS OF THE REVOLUTION salt, spices, tea, coffee, and sugar, that the freeholders were forced into exchange opeilations for their supplies. Such being the general characteristics of the situation, the individual saw little reason why he should pay anything to the Commonwealth, which to him was only an abstraction, or, if he tried to make it concrete, was only a group of office-holders whom hie never had seen. They appeared to come to him, or to enter into his life, for no other purpose than to take a part of his prod- uct for which he received no return. Hence we find the Ameri^ can colonies resisting taxation in a way which to the modern man seems childish and ignorant. In the quarrel with Great Britain a great deal was made of the principle of tiixation ; but, as usual, the declaration about the principles only covered the real question of interest. What they objected to was parting with their products. . . . Modern systems of taxation under a high organization reach commodities in transfer. The colonists could not use those taxes except for tobacco, and spirits, or salt ; that is, commodities which could not be produced in households economically. All these taxes, however, were inquisitorial and direct ; and the collection of them, in a country with a sparse population, was very expensive and difficult. Morris wrote to Jefferson in 1784 that the expense of collecting taxes in this country was greater than in almost any other. These were very serious obstacles to the imposition of any taxes of the kind we have described, so that, in a sense, it might be said that taxation did not pay. A further difficulty was that a community of the kind we have described had very little occasion for the use of money. A tax, however, was a direct call for money ; that is, it called for what the farmer had not. Hence we find that paper money was constantly called for and excused on the ground that it was needed to pay taxes, and currency and taxes appear in a constant combination. There were therefore real reasons for the social friction which was always produced by taxation, and it required ingenuity to devise means of obtaining a revenue from a colonial community. The easiest and best means was by import duties on spices, sugar, tea, coffee, wine, and spirits. The next best plan was by some means which should reach those operations of the courts of INFLUENCES LEADINC; 'IT) THE REVOLUTION 139 justice in the enforcement of contracts and settlement of disputes, which, as we have seen above, were real services rendered by the Commonwealth. The colonists were always extremely litigious. The transfers of freeholds were very frequent, conveyancing being ' very simple. The Stamp Act Congress alleged this fact as an argument why the stiunp tax was oppressive, but it was also the reason why the tax was effective for revenue purposes. Import duties, however, had the great convenience and the great advan- tage, in a political point of view, that they could be levied in bulk at the seaports, and that the tax-collector and the tax-payer never came face to face. The English government laid import duties by a number of Acts from the 25 th of Charles Second on, so that in the controversies at the beginning of the Revolution some of the writers on the English side declared that the American assertions that they had never been taxed by themselves, were false. In the Congress of 1774, R. H. Lee reckoned the revenue actually raised from America at ;^8o,ooo sterling. When first a federal revenue was necessary, import duties presented themselves imme- diately as the most convenient way to get it. . . . When the war broke out, the payment of the import duties, tonnage taxes, and port dues to Great Britain, which amounted, as we have seen, to ^80,000 per annum, speedily ceased. In the States which underwent a revolutionary change the revolutionaiy legislatures did not venture on any taxation for two or three years. Therefore the outbreak of the war caused the cessation of that little taxation which had existed, and it was not until after the Federal Constitution was adopted that the people of the United States paid a tax for federal purposes equal to the import duties which they had paid under the British nile. A modern writer has said : "As to taxation, it was ridiculous to believe that the people would submit to the creature of their own making the powers which they had denied to Parliament ; and even an attempt at such a measure might at this stage have proved of so unpopular a nature as to be attended with the downfall of Congress." Although it may sound strange that a modern writer should sympathize with the revolutionary standpoint, the statement undoubtedly expresses the view of Congress in the early years of I40 ECONOMIC ASPECTS OF THE REVOLUTION the Revolution. The Americans would not pay any taxes which were levied upon them by a Parliament in which they were not represented, and they would not pay any which were levied by a " creature of their own making " ; that is, they would not pay any at all. This describes the situation faithfully. . . . In P'ranklin's instructions, which were prepared in October, 1778, excuses are made for the neglect of taxation. It is said that America had never been much taxed, nor for a continued length of time, ""and the contest being upon the very question of taxation^ the laying of imposts, unless from the last necessity, would have been madness." This extract from a serious docu- ment, intended to be read by the F"rench authorities, throws the strongest light on the state of mind in which the public men of the country were at that time with respect to taxation. The alliance had then been formed, and Frenchmen were liable to taxation in order to execute its purposes. Congress, instead of resolutely taking the necessary measures for success, presents an excuse, which could not have been valid unless it had been assumed that taxation was an arbitraiy and unnecessaiy exaction which might be escaped altogether. . . , C. Partial Spirit of Colonial Policy revealed by Controversy ^ The colonists being thus greatly alarmed, as I said before, by the news of the act for abolishing the legislature of New York, and the imposition of these new duties, professedly for such dis- agreeable purposes, (accompanied by a new set of revenue officers, with large appointments, which gave strong suspicions that more business of the same kind was soon to be provided for them, that tliey might earn their salaries,) began seriously to consider their situation ; and to revolve afresh in their minds grievances, which, from their respect and love for this country, they had long borne, and seemed almost willing to forget. 1 Franklin, Causes of the American Discontent before 1768, in Works, IV, 249-251. This extract describes accurately the process by which the people grad- ually came to regard the commercial policy of England as burdensome and tyrannical after having lived under it for a century without serious complaint. INFLUENCES LEADING 'J'O THE REVOLUTION 141 They reflected how Hghtly the interest of all America had been estimated here, when the interests of a few of the inhaliitants of Great Britain happened to have the smallest competition with it. That the whole American people was forbidden the advantage of a direct importation of wine, oil, and fruit, from Portugal, but must take them loaded with all the expense of a voyage one thousand leagues round about, being to be landed first in England, to be re-shipped for America ; expenses amounting, in war time at least, to thirty pounds per cent more than otherwise they would have been charged with ; and all this, merely that a few Portugal merchants in London may gain a commission on those goods passing through their hands (Portugal merchants, by the by, that can complain loudly of the smallest hardships laid on their trade by foreigners, and yet, even in the last year, could oppose with all their influence the giving ease to their fellow subjects laboring under so heavy an oppression !). That, on a slight complaint of a few Virginia merchants, nine colonies had been restrained from making paper money, become absolutely necessary to their in- ternal commerce, from the constant remittance of their gold and silver to Britain. But not only the interest of a particular body of merchants, but the interest of any small body of British tradesmen or arti- ficers, has been found, they say, to outweigh that of all the King's subjects in the colonies. There cannot be a stronger natural right than that of a man's making the best profit he can of the natural produce of his lands, provided he does not thereby hurt the state in general. Iron is to be found everywhere in America, and the beaver furs are the natural produce of that country. Hats, and nails, and steel are wanted there as well as here. It is of no importance to the common welfare of the empire, whether a subject of the King's obtains his living by making hats on this or on that side of the water. Yet the hatters of England have prevailed to obtain an act in their own favor, restraining that manufacture in' America ; in order to oblige the Americans to send their beaver to England to be manufactured, and purchase back the hats, loaded with the charges of double transportation. In the same manner have a few nail-makers, and a still smaller body of steel-makers 142 ECONOMIC ASPECTS OF THE REVOLUTION (perhaps there are not half a dozen of these in England), prevailed totally to forbid b\- an act of Parliament the erecting of slitting- mills, or steel-furnaces, in America ; that the Americans may be obliged to take all their nails for their buildings, and steel for their tools, from these artificers, under the same disadvantages. II. RESOURCES FOR CARRYING ON THE STRUGGLE A. The Issue of Paper Money ^ . . . When Great Britain commenced the present war upon the colonies, they had neither arms nor ammunition, nor money to purchase them or pay soldiers. The new government had not immediately the consistence necessaiy for collecting heavy taxes ; nor would taxes that could be raised within the year during peace, have been sufficient for a year's expense in time of war ; they there- fore printed a quantity of paper bills, each expressing to be of the value of a certain number of Spanish dollars, from one to thirty ; with these they paid, clothed, and fed their troops, fitted out ships, and supported the war during five years against one of the most powerful nations of Europe. The paper thus issued, passed current in all the internal com- merce of the United States at par with silver during the first year ; supplying the place of the gold and silver formerly current, but which was sent out of the country to purchase arms, &c., or to defray expenses of the army in Canada ; but the great number of troops necessary to be kept on foot to defend a coast of near five hundred leagues in length, from an enemy, who, being masters at sea, could land troops where they pleased, occasioned such a de- mand for money, and such frequent additional emissions of new bills, that the quantity became much greater than was wanted for the purposes of commerce ; and, the commerce being diminished by the war, the surplus quantity of cash was by that means also proportionally augmented. . . . Thus the excessive quantities which necessity obliged the Americans to issue for continuing the war, occasioned a depreci- ation of value, which, commencing toward the end of 1776, has 1 Franklin, The Paper Money of the United States, in Works, II, 421-422, 424. rksourcf:s for carrving on iiii-: s'irii(](;le 143 gone on augmcnling, till ;il the beginning of tlie ])resent year (1780?) fifty, sixty, and as far as seventy dollars in jxiper were reekoned not more than equal to one dollar in silver, and the prices of all things rose in proportion. . . . The general effect of the depreciation among tlie inhabitants of the States has been this, that it has operated as a gradual tax upon them, their business has been done and paid for by the paper money, and every man has paid his share of the tax according to the time he retained any of the money in his hands, and to the depreciation within that time. Thus it has proved a tax on money, a kind of 'property very difficult to be taxed in any other mode ; and it has fallen more equally than many other taxes, as those people paid most, who, being richest, had most money passing through their hands. B. Commerce as a Political Influence — the Non- Importation Associations ^ The first use which the colonies made of commerce in connec- tion with the disputes with the mother country was as an engine of coercion. According to the ideas of the time. Great Britain made great profits out of the colonies in the way of trade. The colonies had always, in words at least, recognized this and acqui- esced in it. In fact, they had always resisted and evaded it, so far as it was true ; that is, so far as their trade was confined to Eng- land against their interests. So far as their trade with England was consistent with their interests, the notion that England won any profit from them by holding them in a colonial relation fell to the ground. This was distinctly proved after the war, when the trade of America almost all returned to England, because that trade offered greater profits and advantages than any other. The notion of the times, however, was that trade was a thing ; that it could be appropriated and made a property ; that " the trade of the colonies " was a concrete entity which could be disposed of in one way or another, — for instance, taken from luighmd and 1 Sumner, The Financier and the Finances of the American Revolution, I, 103-105. Printed by permission of the author and pubHshers, Dodd, Mead, and Company. 144 ECONOMIC ASPECTS OF THE REVOLUTION given to France, or conquered by one nation from another. The colonists themselves had been brought up in this view, and always affirmed it in public discussions and literature ; but privately and individually they acted entirely upon the assumption that the trade of the colonies was only an aggregate name for a group of rela- tions, each one of which was a relation between a buyer and seller, who made an exchange with each other simply and solely for the mutual advantage of the individuals concerned. If, now, the trade of the colonies was a thing of value, which could be conquered, sold, transferred, or given away, the colonists most naturally thought that they could dispose of it themselves as a consideration, by means of which to obtain political and other good things which they wanted ; or that by withholding it from the mother country, they could coerce her. This was the philoso- phy of the association for non-importation, non-exportation and non-consumption ; in short, of commercial war. ^ The expectation of a rupture with the colonies, accordingly, has struck the people of Great Britain with more terror than they ever felt for a Spanish armada, or a French invasion. It was this terror, whether well or ill grounded, which rendered the repeal of the stamp act, among the merchants at least, a popular measure. In the total exclusion from the colony market, was it to last only for a few years, the greater part of our merchants used to fancy that they foresaw an entire stop to their trade ; the greater part of our master manufacturers, the entire ruin of their business ; and the greater part of our workmen an end of their employment. A rupture with any of our neighbours upon the continent, though likely too to occasion some stop or interruption in the employ- ments of some of all these different orders of people, is foreseen, however, without any such general emotion. 1 Wealth of Nations, l>k. IV, ch. vii. RESOURCES I'OR (ARRVINC; ON THE S'l'Rl'CKlLE 145 Petitions in Pa rli anient against the American Stamp Act, January I J, iy66 ^ A petition of the merchants of London, trading- to North America, was presented to the I louse, and read ; setting forth ; "That the petitioners have been long concerned in carpy'ing on the trade between this country and the British colonies on the con- tinent of North America ; and that they have annually exported vei-)' large quantities of British manufactures, consisting of woollen goods of all kinds, cottons, linens, hardware, shoes, household fur- niture, and almost without exception of every other species of goods manufactured in these kingdoms, besides other articles imported from abroad, chiefly purchased with our manufactures and with the produce of our colonies ; by all which, many thousand manufactur- ers, seamen and labourers, have been employed, to the very great and increasing benefit of this nation ; and that, in return for these exports, the petitioners have received from the colonies, rice, indigo, tobacco, naval stores, oil, whale fins, furs, and lately potash, with other commodities, besides remittances by bills of exchange and bullion, obtained by the colonists in payment for articles of their produce, not required for the British market, and therefore ex- ported to other places ; and that, from the nature of this trade, consisting of British manufactures exported, and of the import of raw materials from America, many of them used in our manufac- tures, and all of them tending to lessen our dependence on neigh- bouring states, it must be deemed of the highest importance in the .commercial system of this nation ; and that this commerce, so bene- ficial to the state, and so necessary for the support of multitudes, now lies under such difficulties and discouragement, that nothing less than its utter ruin is apprehended, without the immediate interposition of parliament ; and that, in consequence of the trade between the colonies and the mother country, as established and as permitted for many years, and of the experience which the peti- tioners have had of the readiness of the Americans to make their just remittances to the utmost of their real ability, they have been 1 Hansard, The Parliamentary History of England [1765-1771], XVI, 133-136. 146 ECONOMIC ASPECTS OF THE REVOLUTION induced to make and venture such large exportations of British manufactures, as to leave the colonies indebted to the merchants of Great Britain in the sum of several millions sterling ; and that at this time the colonists, when pressed for payment, appeal to past experience, in proof of their willingness ; but declare it is not in their power, at present, to make good their engagements, alleging, that the taxes and restrictions laid upon them, and the extension of the jurisdiction of vice admiralty courts established by some late acts of parliament, particularly by an act passed in the fourth year of his present Majesty, for granting certain duties in the British colonies and plantations in America, and by an act passed in the fifth year of his present Majesty, for granting and applying certain stamp duties, and other duties, in the British colonies and plantations in America, with several regulations and restraints, which, if founded in acts of parliament for defined pur- poses, are represented to have been extended in such a manner as to disturb legal commerce and harass the fair trader, have so far interrupted the usual and former most fruitful branches of their commerce, restrained the sale of their produce, thrown the state of the several provinces into confusion, and brought on so great a number of actual bankruptcies, that the former opportunities and means of remittances and payments are utterly lost and taken from them ; and that the petitioners are, by these unhappy events, re- duced to the necessity of applying to the House, in order to secure themselves and their families from impending ruin ; to prevent a multitude of manufacturers from becoming a burthen to the com- munity, or else seeking their bread in other countries, to the irre- trievable loss of this kingdom ; and to preserve the strength of this nation entire, its commerce flourishing, the revenues increasing, our navigation, the bulwark of the kingdom, in a state of growth and extension, and the colonies, from inclination, duty, and inter- est, firmly attached to the mother country ; and therefore praying the consideration of the premises, and entreating such relief, as to the House shall seem expedient." This Petition was referred to a Committee of the whole House, as were also the following petitions, viz. Of the master, wardens, and commonalty of the society of merchants venturers of the city RESOURCES FOR CARRYING ON Till-: STRUGGEE 147 of Bristol, under their eommon seal ; of the merchants, tradesmen, and manufacturers of the same city ; of the merchants of Liverpool, trading to and from America and the coast of Africa ; of the mer- chants and inhabitants of the borough of Leeds, trading to the sev- eral colonies of North America, and of the manufacturers of broad woollen cloth, and sundry other assortments of woollen goods, manu- factured for supplying the North American markets ; of the mer- chants of Lancaster trading to and from North America ; of the merchants, manufacturers, and traders of the town of Manchester, and neighbourhood thereof ; of the manufacturers of the town and county of Leicester ; and of the clothiers and manufacturers of superfine broad cloth, in the town of Bradford in .Wiltshire ; all complaining of a great decay in the trade to the North American colonies, owing to the late obstructions and embarrassments laid thereon, and praying relief. And afterwards there were presented to the House and read, and referred to the same Committee, the following Petitions, viz. of the principal inhabitants of the town of Frome ; of the mer- chants, factors, and manufacturers of Birmingham ; of the mayor, bailiffs, and commonalty, of the city of Coventry, and the principal tradesmen and manufacturers of silk ribbands and worsted goods, in and near the said city, whose common seal and names are there- unto respectively affixed, in behalf of themselves and others con- cerned in the same manufactures ; of the merchants and dealers in the silk, mohair, and button manufactures, residing in the town of Macclesfield ; of the merchants, traders, and manufacturers of Wolverhampton ; of the merchants, traders, and manufacturers of Stourbridge ; of the merchants and manufacturers of Dudley ; of the tradesmen, manufacturers, &c. of the borough of Mine- head ; of the mayor, aldermen, burgesses, jorincijDal inhabitants, and traders, in the woollen manufactoiy in Taunton ; of the mas- ters, wardens, and commonalty, of blanket weavers in Witney ; of the mayor, recorder, aldermen, sheriff, and commonalty, of the town and county of the town of Newcastle upon Tyne ; of the merchants of Glasgow trading to North America ; of the bailiff and burgesses of Chippenham ; and of the principal tradesmen, manufacturers, and inhabitants, of the town of Nottingham ; all 148 ECONOMIC ASPECTS OF THE REVOLUTION containing much the same complaint as in the former petitions, and concluding with the same pra)'er. 1 In America, the quiet which began to take place upon the re- peal of the stamp act was again disturbed, and the affairs of that country again fell into confusion. The laws which had been passed last year, for the purpose of raising a revenue in the colonies by the laying of duties on the importation of glass, paper and some other commodities from England, and the consequent establish- ment of Custom-houses in their ports, have been productive of very alarming disturbances in the colonies, and of consequences highly prejudicial to the commercial interests of this country. It may appear unfortunate, that, after the recent example of the mis- chiefs that attended the stamp act, and the consequent repeal of it from a conviction of those evils, a measure of a similar tendency should be so suddenly adopted, before the ill humours that had arisen from the former had yet subsided. Much has been said pro and con on this subject, and most of the arguments already used on the repeal of the stamp act have been repeated ; this discussion will properly appear in our next volume, when, from the conse- quences attending this measure, it becomes an object of national and parliamentary consideration. The first public instance of disgust shewn upon this occasion was at Boston, where, at a meeting of the inhabitants [1768], several resolutions were entered into for the encouragement of manufactures, the promoting of economy, and the lessening and restraining the use of foreign superfluities. These resolutions, all of which were highly prejudicial to the commerce of this countr)', contained a long list of enumerated articles, which it was either de- termined not to use at all, or in the smallest possible quantities. A subscription was opened at the same time, and a committee ap- pointed, for the encouragement of their own former manufactures, and the establishment of new ones. Among these, it was resolved to give particular encouragement to the making of paper, glass, and the other commodities that were liable to the payment of the new duties, upon importation. It was also resolved to restrain the 1 Annual Register, 1768, pp. 67-68, 235-237. RESOURCES FOR CARRYING ON THE STRUGGLE 149 expences of funerals, to reduce dress to a degree of primitive sim- plicity and plainness, and in general not to purchase any commod- ities from the mother countiy, that could be procured in any of the Colonies. These resolutions were adopted, or similar ones entered into, by all the old Colonies on the continent. In some time after (February 1 1, 176S) a circular letter was sent by the Assembly of Massachu- setts Bay, signed by the Speaker, to all the other Assemblies in North America. The design of this letter was to shew the evil tendency of the late Acts of Parliament, to represent them as un- constitutional, and to propose a common union between the Colonies, in the pursuit of all legal measures to prevent their effect, and a harmony in their applications to Government for a repeal of them. It also expatiated largely on their natural rights as men, and their constitutional ones as English subjects ; all of which, it was pre- tended, were infringed by these laws. . . . Agreements entered into by the Inliabitants of Boston and New York The merchants and traders in the town of Boston having taken into consideration the deplorable situation of the trade, and the many difificulties it at present labours under on account of the scar- city of money, which is daily increasing for want of the other re- mittances to discharge our debts in Great Britain, and the large sums collected by the officers of the- customs for duties on goods imported ; the heavy taxes levied to discharge the debts contracted by the government in the late war ; the embarrassments and re- strictions laid on trade by several late acts of parliament ; together with the bad success of our cod fishery, by which our principal sources of remittance are like to be greatly diminished, and we thereby rendered unable to pay the debts we owe the merchants in Great Britain, and to continue the importation of goods from thence ; We, the subscribers, in order to relieve the trade under those discouragements, to promote industry, frugality, and economy, and to discourage luxur\% and every kind of extravagance, do promise and engage to and with each other as follows : I50 ECONOMIC ASPECTS OF THE REVOLUTION First, That we will not send for or import from Great Britain, either upon our own account, or upon commission, this fall, any other goods than what are already ordered for the fall supply. Secondly, That we will not send for or import any kind of goods or merchandize from Great Britain, either on our own account, or on commissions, or any otherwise, from the i st of January 1 769, to the 1st of January 1770, except salt, coals, fish-hooks and lines, hemp, and duck bar lead and shot, wool-cards and card-wire. Thirdly, That we will not purchase of any factor, or others, any kind of goods imported from Great Britain, from January 1769, to January 1770. Fourthly, That we will not import, on our own account, or on commissions or purchase of any who shall import from any other colony in America, from January 1769, to January 1770, any tea, glass, paper, or other goods commonly imported from Great Britain. Fifthly, That we will not, from and after the ist of January 1769, import into this province any tea, paper, glass, or painters colours, until the act imposing duties on those articles shall be repealed. In witness whereof, we have hereunto set our hands, this first day of August, 1768. A^czv York, September 75. The following resolves are agreed to by the tradesmen of this city, reflecting on the salutary measures en- tered into by the people in Boston and this city to restrict the im- portation of goods from Great Britain, until the acts of parliament laying duties on paper, glass, &c. are repealed : and being animated with a spirit of liberty, and thinking it our duty to exert ourselves by all lawful means, to maintain and obtain our just rights and jM'ivileges, whicli we claim under our most excellent constitution as lOnglishmen, not to be taxed but by our own consent or that of our representatives : and in order to support and strengthen our neighbours, the merchants of this city, we the subscribers, uniting in the common cause, do agree to and with each other, as follows : I. That we will not ourselves purchase or take any goods or merchandize iin])()ik-d from luirope, by any merchant, directly or indirectly, contrary to the true intent and meaning of an agree- ment of the merchants of this city, on the 27th of August last. RKS()iTR(i;s FOR CARRYING ()\ Till", srKr(;(;r.K 151 II. That \vc will not ourselves, or by any other means, buy any kind of goods from an\' merchant, store-keeper, or retailer, (if any such there be) who shall refuse to join with their brethren in signing" the said agreement ; but that we will use every lawful means in our power to prevent our accjuaintance from dealing with them. III. That if any merchant, in or from Europe, should import any goods in order to sell them in this province, contrary to the above agreement, that we ourselves will by no means deal with such importers ; and as far as we can, by all lawful means, en- deavour to discourage the sale of such goods. IV. That we will endeavour to fall upon some expedient to make known such importers or retailers as shall refuse to unite in maintaining and obtaining the liberties of their country. \^ That we, his majesty's most dutiful and loyal subjects, inhabitants of the city of New York, being filled with love and gratitude to our present most gracious sovereign, and the highest veneration for the British constitution, which we unite to plead as our birthright, and are always willing to unite to support and maintain, give it as our opinion, and are determined to deem those persons who shall refuse to unite in the common cause, as acting the part of an enemy to the true interest of Great Britain and her colonies, and consequently not deserving the patronage of mer- chants or mechanics. New York, September 5, 1768.^ TJic Association of tJic Continental Congress, I'J'/4 2 We, his majesty's most loyal subjects, the delegates of the several colonies of New Hampshire, Massachusetts-Bay, Rhode- Island, Connecticut, New-York, New-Jersey, Pennsylvania, the three lower counties of New-Castle, Kent, and Sussex, on Dela- ware, Maryland, Virginia, North-Carolina, and South-Carolina, deputed to represent them in a continental Congress, held in the 1 For similar agreements made at Annapolis, Md., and at Williamsburg, Va., in 1769, see Niles, Principles and Acts of the Revolution, pp. 167-169; and Row- land, The Life of George Mason, I, 214-218. 2 Journals of the Continental Conp;ress [Library of Congress I->dition], L 75-80. 15: ECONOMIC ASPECTS OE THE REVOLUTION city of Philadelphia, on the 5th day of September, 1774, avowing our allegiance to his majesty, our affection and regard for our fellow-subjects in Great Britain and elsewhere, affected with the deepest anxiety, and most alarming apprehensions, at those grievances and distresses with which his Majesty's American sub- jects are oppressed ; and having taken under our most serious de- liberation, the state of the whole continent, find, that the present unhappy situation of our affairs is occasioned by a ruinous system of colony administration, adopted by the British ministry about the year 1763, evidently calculated for inslaving these colonies, and, with them, the l^ritish empire. In prosecution of which system, various acts of parliament have been passed, for raising a revenue in America, for depriving the American subjects, in many instances, of the constitutional trial by jury, exposing their lives to danger, by directing a new and illegal trial beyond the seas, for crimes alleged to have been committed in America : and in pros- ecution of the same system, several late, cruel, and oppressive acts have been passed, respecting the town of Boston and the Massa- chusetts Bay, and also an act for extending the province of Que- bec, so as to border on the western frontiers of these colonies, establishing an arbitrary government therein, and discouraging the settlement of British subjects in that wide extended country; thus, by the influence of civil principles and ancient prejudices, to dis- pose the inhabitants to act with hostility against the free Protestant colonies, whenever a wicked ministiy shall chuse so to direct then\. To obtain redress of these grievances, which threaten destruc- tion to the lives, liberty, and property of his majesty's subjects, in North America, we are of opinion, that a non-importation, non- consumption, and non-exportation agreement, faithfully adhered to, will prove the most speedy, effectual, and peaceable measure : and, therefore, we do, for ourselves, and the inhabitants of the several colonies, whom we represent, firmly agree and associate, under the sacred ties of virtue, honour and love of our country, as follows : I. That from and after the first day of December next, we will not import, into British America, from Great-Britain or Ireland, any goods, wares, or merchandise whatsoever, or from any other place, any such goods, wares, or merchandise, as shall have been RESOURCES FOR CARRYING ON THE STRUGGLE 153 exported from Great-Britain or Ireland ; nor will we, after that day, import any East-India tea from any part of the world ; nor any molasses, syrups, paneles, coffee, or pimento, from the British plantations or from Dominica ; nor wines from Madeira, or the Western Islands ; nor foreign indigo. 2. We will neither import nor purchase, any slave imported after the first day of December next ; after which time, we will wholly discontinue the slave trade, and will neither be concerned in it ourselves, nor will we hire our vessels, nor sell our commodi- ties or manufactures to those who are concerned in it. 3. As a non-consumption agreement, strictly adhered to, will be an effectual security for the observation of the non-importation, we, as above, solemnly agree and associate, that, from this day, we will not purchase or use any tea, imported on account of the East-India company, or any on which a duty hath been or shall be paid ; and from and after the first day of March next, we will not purchase or use any East- India tea whatever ; nor will we nor shall any per- son for or under us, purchase or use any of those goods, wares, or merchandise, we have agreed not to import, which we shall know, or have cause to suspect, were imported after the first day of Decem- ber, except such as come under the rules and directions of the tenth article hereafter mentioned. 4. The earnest desire we have, not to injure our fellow-subjects in Great-Britain, Ireland, or the West-Indies, induces us to sus- pend a non-exportation, until the tenth day of September, 1775 ; at which time, if the said acts and parts of acts of the British parliament herein after mentioned are not repealed, we will not, directly or indirectly, export any merchandise or commodity what- soever to Great-Britain, Ireland, or the West-Indies, except rice to Europe. . . . 1 1 . That a committee be chosen in every county, city and town, by those who are qualified to vote for representatives in the legis- lature, whose business it shall be attentively to observe the conduct of all persons touching this association ; and when it shall be made to appear, to the satisfaction of a majority of any such committee, that any person within the limits of their appointment has violated this association, that such majority do forthwith cause the truth of 154 ECONOMIC ASPECTS OF THE REVOLUTION the case to be published in the gazette ; to the end, that all such foes to the rights of British- America may be publicly known, and universally contemned as the enemies of American liberty ; and thenceforth we respectively will break off all dealings with him or her. 12, That the committee of correspondence, in the respective colonies, do frequently inspect the entries of their custom-houses, and inform each other, from time to time, of the true state thereof, and of every other material circumstance that may occur relative to this association. . . . 14. And we do further agree and resolve, that we will have no trade, commerce, dealings, or intercourse whatsoever, with any colony or province, in North-America, which shall not accede to, or which shall hereafter violate this association, but will hold them as unworthy of the rights of freemen, and as inimical to the liber- ties of their country. And we do solemnly bind ourselves and our constituents, under the ties aforesaid, to adhere to this association, until such parts of the several acts of parliament passed since the close of the last war, as impose or continue duties on tea, wine, molasses, syrups, paneles, coffee, sugar, pimento, indigo, foreign paper, glass, and painters' colours, imported into America, and extend the powers of the admiralty courts beyond their ancient limits, deprive the American subject of trial by jury, authoriz^e the judge's certificate to indemnify the prosecutor from damages, that he might otherwise be liable to from a trial by his peers, require oppressive security from a claim- ant of ships or goods seized, before he shall be allowed to defend his property, are repealed. — And until that part of the act of the 1 2 Geo. Ill, c. 24, entitled " An act for the better securing his majes- ty's dock-yards, magazines, ships, ammunition, and stores," by which any persons charged with committing any of the offences therein described, in America, may be tried in any shire or county within the realm, is repealed — and until the four acts, passed the last session of parliament, viz. that for stopping the port and blocking up the harbour of Boston — that for altering the charter and gov- ernment of the Massachusetts-Jkiy — and that which is entitled "An act for the better administration of justice, &c." — and that RESOURCES FOR CARRYING ON THE STRUGGLE 155 " for extending the limits of Ouebee, &c." are repealed. And we recommend it to the provincial conventions, and to the committees in the respective colonies, to establish such farther regulations as they may think proper, for carrying into execution this association. 1 Petitions of the Mct'chants of London and Bristol for Recon- ciliation with America, Jannary 2J, 1775 Mr. Alderman Hayley said he had a petition from the mer- chants of the city of London concerned in the commerce to North America, to that honourable House, and desired leave to pre- sent the same, which being given, it was brought up and read, setting forth ; "That the petitioners are all essentially interested in the trade to North America, either as exporters and importers, or as vend- ers of British and foreign goods for exportation to that country ; and that the petitioners have exported, or sold for exportation, to the British colonies in North America, veiy large quantities of the manufacture of Great I^ritain and Ireland, and in particular the staple articles of woollen, iron, and linen, also those of cotton, silk, leather, pewter, tin, copper, and brass, with almost every British manufacture ; also large quantities of foreign linens and other articles imported into these kingdoms, from Flanders, Holland, Germany, the East Countries, Portugal, Spain, and Italy, which are generally received from those countries in return for British manufactures ; and that the petitioners have likewise exported, or sold for exportation, great quantities of the various species of goods imported into this kingdom from the East-Indies, part of which receive additional manufacture in Great Britain ; and that the pe- titioners receive returns from North America to this kingdom di- rectly, viz. pig and bar iron, timber, staves, naval stores, tobacco, rice, indigo, deer, and other skins, beaver and furs, train oil, whale- bone, bees wax, pot and 'pearl ashes, drugs and dying woods, with some bullion, and also wheat flour, Indian corn and salted provi- sions, when, on account of scarcity in Great Britain, those articles 1 Hansard, The Parliamentary History of England [i774-i777]> XVIII, i68- 178, 219-221. 156 ECONOMIC ASPECTS OF THE REVOLUTION are permitted to be imported ; and that the petitioners receive re- turns circuitously from Ireland (for flax seed, &c. exported from North America) by bills of exchange on the merchants of this city trading to Ireland, for the proceeds of linens, &c. imported into these kingdoms from the West Indies ; in return for provisions, lumber and cattle, exported from North America, for the use and support of the West India islands, by bills of exchange on the West India merchants, for the proceeds of sugar, molasses, rum, cotton, coffee, or other produce, imported from those islands into these kingdoms ; from Italy, Spain, Portugal, P"rance, Flanders, Germany, Holland, and the East Countries, by bills of exchange or bullion in return for wheat flour, rice, Indian corn, fish, and lumber, exported from the British colonies in North America, for the use of those countries ; and that the petitioners have great rea- son to believe, from the best informations they can obtain, that on the balance of this extensive commerce, there is now due from the colonies in North America, to the said city only, 2,000,000 1. sterling, and upwards ; and that, by the direct commerce with the colonies, and the circuitous trade thereon depending, some thou- sands of ships and vessels are employed, and many thousands of seamen are bred and maintained, thereby increasing the naval strength and power of Great Britain ; and that, in the year 1765, there was a great stagnation of the commerce between Great Brit- ain and her colonies, in consequence of an Act for granting and applying certain stamp duties, and other duties, in the British col- onies and plantations in America, by which the merchants trading to North America, and the artificers employed in the various manu- factures consumed in those countries, were subjected to many hard- ships ; and that, in the following year, the said Act was repealed, under an express declaration of the legislature, that the continuance of the said Act would be attended with many inconveniences, and might be productive of consequences greatly detrimental to the commercial interests of these kingdoms ; upon which repeal, the trade to the British colonies immediately resumed its former flour- ishing state ; and that in the year 1767, an Act passed for granting certain duties in the British colonies and plantations in America, which imposed certain duties, to be paid in America, on tea, glass, RESOURCES FOR CARRYING ON THE STRUGGLE 157 red and white lead, painters' colours, paper, paste-board, mill-board, and scale-board, when the commerce with the colonies was again interrupted ; and that in the year 1770, such parts of the said Act as imposed duties on glass, red and white lead, painters' colours, paper, paste-board, mill-board, and scale-board, were repealed, when the trade to America soon revived, except in the article of tea, on which a duty was continued, to be demanded on its importation into America, whereby that branch of our commerce was nearly lost; and that, in the year 1773, an Act passed, to allow a draw- back of the duties of customs on the exportation of tea to his Majesty's colonies or plantations in America, and to empower the commissioners of the Treasury to grant licenses to the East India Company, to export tea, duty free ; and by the operation of those and other laws, the minds of his Majesty's subjects in the British colonies have been greatly disquieted, a total stop is now put to the export trade with the greatest and most important part of North America, the public revenue is threatened with a large and fatal diminution, the petitioners with grievous distress, and thousands of industrious artificers and manufacturers with utter ruin ; under these alarming circumstances, the petitioners receive no small comfort, from a persuasion that the representatives of the people, newly delegated to the most important of all trusts, will take the whole of these weighty matters into their most serious consider- ation ; and therefore praying the House, that they will enter into a full and immediate examination of that system of commercial policy, which was formerly adopted, and uniformly maintained, to the happiness and advantage of both countries, and will apply such healing remedies as can alone restore and establish the com- merce between Great Britain and her colonies on a permanent foundation ; and that the petitioners may be heard by themselves, or agents, in support of the said petition. ..." Petition of the West India Planteis to the Comvions respeetijig the Aineriean Non-Importation Agj-eement, Febrnary 2, I'/JS A Petition of the planters of his Majesty's. sugar colonies re- siding in Great Britain, and of the merchants of London trading T^S ECONOMIC ASPECTS OF THE REVOLUTION to the said colonies, was presented to the House, and read ; setting forth, "' That the petitioners are exceedingly alarmed at an Agreement and Association entered into, by the congress held at Philadelphia, in North America, on the 5th of Sept. 1774, whereby the members thereof agreed and associated, for themselves and the inhabitants of the several provinces lying between Nova Scotia and Georgia, that from and after the ist of Sept. 1774, they would not import into British America any melasscs, syrups, paneles, coffee, or pie- mento, from the British plantations ; and that after the loth of Sept. 1775, if the Acts and the parts of the Acts of the British parliament therein mentioned, are not repealed, they would not di- rectly or indirectly, export any merchandize or commodity whatso- ever to the West Indies ; and representing to the House that the British property in the West India islands amounts to upwards of 30 millions sterling ; and that a further property of many millions is employed in the commerce created by the said islands, a com- merce comprehending Africa, the East Indies and Europe ; and that the whole profits and produce of those capitals ultimately cen- ter in Great Britain, and add to the national wealth, while the nav- igation necessary to all its branches, establishes its strength which wealth can neither purchase nor balance ; and that the sugar plan- tations in the West Indies are subject to a greater variety of con- tingencies than many other species of property, from their necessary dependence on external support ; and that therefore, should any interruption happen in the general system of their commerce, the great national stock thus vested and employed must become un- profitable and precarious ; and that the profits arising from the pres- ent state of the said islands, and that are likely to arise from their future improvement, in a great measure depend on a free and reciprocal intercourse between them and the several provinces of North America, from whence they are furnished with provisions and other supplies absolutely necessary for their support and the maintenance of their plantations ; and that the scarcity and high price, in Great Britain and other parts of Europe, of those articles of indispcnsible necessity, which they now derive from the middle colonies of America, and the inadequate population in some parts RESOURCES FOR CARRYING ON 1'HE S'l'RUGGLE 159 of that continent, with the distance, danger and uncertainty, of the navigation from others, forbid the petitioners to hope for a supply in any degree proportionate to their wants ; and that, if the first part of the said Agreement and Association for a non-importation hath taken place, and shall be continued, the same will be highly detrimental to the sugar colonies ; and that, if the second part of the said Agreement and Association for a non-exportation shall be carried into execution, which the petitioners do firmly believe will happen, unless the harmony that subsisted a few )-ears ago between this kingdom and the provinces of America, to the definite advan- tage of both, be restored, the islands, which are supplied with most of their subsistence from thence, will be reduced to the utmost dis- tress, and the trade between all the islands and this kingdom will of course be obstructed, to the diminution of the public revenue, to the extreme injuiy of a great number of planters, and to the great prejudice of the merchants, not only by the said obstruction, but also by the delay of payment of the principal and interest of an immense debt due from the former to the latter ; and therefore praying the House, to take into their most serious consideration that great political system of the colonies heretofore so veiy bene- ficial to the mother country and her dependencies, and adopt such measures as to them shall seem meet, to prevent the evils with which the petitioners are threatened, and to preserve the inter- course between the West India islands and the northern colonies, to the general harmony and lasting benefit of the whole British empire ; and that they may be heard, by themselves, their agents, or counsel, in support of their Petition." C. Commerce as a Military Resource — The French Alliance A dams : A ntohiograpJi v ^ 1775- September. At the appointed time, we returned to Philadelphia, and Congress were reassembled. Mr. Richard Penn had sailed for England, and carried the petition, from which Mr. Dickinson and his party expected relief. I expected none, and 1 Works of John Adams, II, 503-506. l6o ECONOMIC ASPECTS OF THE REVOLUTION was wholly occupied in measures to support the army and the ex- pedition into Canada. Every impoitant step was opposed, and carried by bare majorities, which obliged me to be almost con- stantly engaged in debate ; but I was not content with all that was done, and almost every day I had something to say about advising the States to institute governments, to express my total despair of any good from the petition or any of those things which were called conciliatory measures. I constantly insisted that all such measures, instead of having any tendency to produce a reconcilia- tion, would only be considered as proofs of our timidity and want of confidence in the ground we stood on, and would only encourage our enemies to greater exertions against us ; that we should be driven to the necessity of declaring ourselves independent States, and that we ought now to be employed in preparing a plan of con- federation for the Colonies, and treaties to be proposed to foreign powers, particularly to France and Spain ; that all these measures ought to be maturely considered and carefully prepared, together with a declaration of independence ; that these three measures, independence, confederation, and negotiations with foreign powers, particularly France ought to go hand in hand, and be adopted all together ; that foreign powers could not be expected to acknowledge us till we had acknowledged ourselves, and taken our station among them as a sovereign power and independent nation ; that now we were distressed for want of artillery, arms, ammunition, clothing, and even for flints ; that the people had no markets for their pro- duce, wanted clothing and many other things, which foreign com- merce alone could fully supply, and we could not expect commerce till we were independent ; that the people were wonderfully well united, and extremely ardent. There was no danger of our want- ing support from them, if we did not discourage them by checking and quenching their zeal ; that there was no doubt of our ability to defend the country, to support the war, and maintain our inde- pendence. We had men enough, our people were brave, and every day improving in all the exercises and discipline of war ; that we ought immediately to give permission to our merchants to fit out privateers and make reprisals on the enemy ; that Congress ought to arm ships, and commission officers, and lay the foundation of a RESOURCES FOR CARRVINO ON 'I'lIE STRIKKU.E i6l navy ; that immense advantages might be derived from this re- source ; that not only West India articles, in great abundance, and l^ritish manufactures, of all kinds, might be obtained, but artillery ammunitions and all kinds of supplies for the army ; that a system of measures, taken with unanimity and pursued with resolution, would insure us the friendship and assistance of France. Some gentlemen doubted of the sentiments of France ; thought she would frown upon us as rebels, and be afraid to countenance the example. I replied to those gentlemen, that I apprehended they had not attended to the relative situation of F'rance and F2ng- land ; that it was the unquestionable interest of F'rance that the British Continental Colonies should be independent ; that Britain, by the conquest of Canada and her naval triumphs during the last war, and by her vast possessions in America and the FLast Indies, was exalted to a height of power and pre-eminence that FVance must envy and could not endure. But there was much more than pride and jealousy in the case. Her rank, her consideration in Europe, and even her safety and independence, were at stake. The navy of Great Britain was now mistress of the seas, all over the globe. The navy of France almost annihilated. Its inferiority was so great and obvious, that all the dominions of F'rance, in the West Indies and in the East Indies, lay at the mercy of Great Britain, and must remain so as long as North America belonged to Great Britain, and afforded them so many harbors abounding with naval stores and resources of all kinds, and so many men and seamen ready to assist them and man their ships ; that interest could not lie ; that the interest of France was so obvious, and her motive so cogent, that nothing but a judicial infatuation of her councils could restrain her from embracing us ; that our negotia- tions with F^rance ought, however, to be conducted with great caution, and with all the foresight we could possibly obtain ; that we ought not to enter into any alliance with her, which should en- tangle us in any future wars in Europe ; that we ought to lay it down, as a first principle and a maxim never to be forgotten, to maintain an entire neutrality in all future European wars ; that it never could be our interest to unite with France in the destruction of England, or in any measures to break her.spirit, or reduce her 1 62 ECONOMIC ASPF.CTS OF THE REVOLUTION to a situation in which she could not support her independence. (3n the other hand, it could never be our duty to unite with Britain in too great a humiliation of France ; that our real, if not our nominal, independence, would consist in our neutrality. If we united with either nation, in any future war, we must become too subordinate and dependent on that nation, and should be involved in all European wars, as we had been hitherto ; that foreign powers would find means to corrupt our people, to influence our councils, and, in fine, we should be little better than puppets, danced on the wires of the cabinets of Europe. We should be the sport of European intrigues and politics ; that, therefore, in preparing treaties to be proposed to foreign powers, and in the instructions to be given to our ministers, we ought to confine ourselves strictly to a treaty of commerce ; that such a treaty would be an ample compensation to France for all the aid we should want from her. The opening of American trade to her, would be a vast resource for her com- merce and naval power, and a great assistance to her in protecting her East and West India possessions, as well as her fisheries ; but that the bare dismemberment of the British empire would be to her an incalculable security and benefit, worth more than all the exertions we should require of her, even if it should draw her into another eight or ten years' war. When I first made these observations in Congress, I never saw a greater impression made upon that assembly or any other. At- tention and approbation were marked upon every countenance. Several gentlemen came to me aftei'wards, to thank me for that speech, particularly Mr. Caesar Rodney, of Delaware, and Mr. Duane, of New York. I remember these two gentlemen in par- ticular, because both of them said that I had considered the sub- ject of foreign connections more maturely than any man they had ever heard in America ; that I had perfectly digested the subject, and had removed, Mr. Rodney said, all, and Mr. Duane said, the greatest part of his objections to foreign negotiations. Even Mr, Dickinson said, to gentlemen out of doors, that I had thrown great light on the subject. These and such as these, were my constant and daily topics, sometimes of reasonisig and no doubt often of declamation, from RESOURCES FOR CARRYING ON THE STRUCKiLE 163 the mectinij^ of Conj^rcss in llic auUiniii of 1775, through the whole winter and spring of 1776. ^ The C 'o)iiiJiittcc of Secret Correspo>idence Resolved, That a committee of five be appointed for the sole purpose of corresponding with our friends in (jreat Britain, Ireland, and other parts of the world ; and that they lay their correspondence before Congress when directed. Resolved, That this Congress will make provision to defray all such expenses as may arise by canying on such correspondence, and for the payment of such agents as they may send on this service. The members chosen — Mr, Harrison, Dr. Franklin, Mr, John- son, Mr. Dickinson, and Mr. Jay. November 2C}, lyjS- ^ Letter of Franklin to Duvias, December IL), I/"/^ We are threatened from England with a veiy powerful force to come next year against us. We are making all the provision in our power here to prevent that force, and we hope we shall be able to defend ourselves. But as the events of w^ar are always uncertain, possibly, after another campaign we may find it necessaiy to ask aid of some foreign power. It gives us great pleasure to learn from you that "all Europe wishes us the best success in the maintenance of our liberty." Ikit we wish to know whether any one of them, from principles of humanity, is disposed magnanimously to step in for the relief of an oppressed people, or whether if, as it seems likely to happen, we should be obliged to break f)ff all con- nection with Britain, and declare ourselves an independent people, there is any state or power in luu'ope who would be willing to enter into an alliance with us for the benefit of our commerce, which amounted, before the war, to near seven millions sterling per annum, and must continually increase, as our people increase most rapidly. Confiding, my dear friend, in your good will to us and ^ Secret Journals of the Congress of the Confederation, II, 5. 2 Wharton, The Revolutionary Diplomatic Correspondence of the United States, II, 65. 1 64 ECONOMIC ASPECTS OF THE REVOLUTION our cause, and in your sagacity and abilities for business, the com- mittee of Congress, appointed for the purpose of estabHshing and conducting a correspondence with our friends in Europe, of which committee I have the honor to be a member, have directed me to request of you that, as you are situated at The Hague, where am- bassadors from all the courts reside, you would make use of the opportunity which that situation affords you of discovering, if possible, the disposition of the several courts with respect to such assistance or alliance, if we should apply for the one or propose for the other. . . . ^Letter of Franklin ct a I., Committee of Secret Correspondence, to Silas Deane, March J, lyyO . . . With the assistance of Monsieur Dubourg, who under- stands English, you will be able to make immediate application to Monsieur de Vergennes, ministre dcs affaires etrangeres, either personally or by letter, if M. Dubourg adopts that method, ac- quainting him that you are in France upon business of the American Congress, in the character of a merchant, having some- thing to communicate to him that may be mutually beneficial to I'Yance and the North American Colonies ; that you request an audience of him, and that he would be pleased to appoint the time and place. At this audience, if agreed to, it may be well to show him first your letter of credence, and then acquaint him that the Congress, finding that in the common course of commerce, it was not practicable to furnish the continent of America with the quantity of arms and ammunition necessary for its defense (the ministry of Great Britain having been extremely industrious to pre- vent it), you have been dispatched by their authority to apply to some European power for a supply. That France had been pitched on for the first application, from an opinion that if we should, as there is a great appearance we shall, come to a total separation from Great Britain, France would be looked upon as the power whose friendship it would be fittest for us to obtain and cultivate. 1 Wharton, The Revolutionary Diplomatic Correspondence of the United States, II, 7S-79. RESOURCES FOR CARRYING ON THE STRU(;CLi: 165 That the commercial advantages liritain liad enjoyed with the Colonies had contributed greatly to her late wealth and importance. That it is likely great part of our commerce will naturally fall to the share of France, especially if she favors us in this application, as that will be a means of gaining and securing the firiendship of the Colonies ; and that as our trade was rapidly increasing with our increase of people, and, in a greater proportion, her part of it will be extremely valuable. That the supply we at present want is clothing and arms for twenty-five thousand men, with a suitable quantity of ammunition, and one hundred field pieces. That we mean to pay for the same by remittances to France, or through Spain, Portugal, or the French Lslands, as soon as our navigation can be protected by ourselves or friends ; and that we, besides, want great quantities of linens and woollens, with other articles for the Indian trade, which you are now actually purchasing, and for which you ask no credit, and that the whole, if France should grant the other supplies, would make a cargo which it might be well to secure by a convoy of two or three ships of war. ^ Letter fn))n Robert Morris to the Covimissioners at Paris, December 21, IJ'/6 For my part I see but two chances for relief ; one is from you. If the court of France open their eyes to their own interest, and think the commerce of North America will compensate them for the expense and evil of a war with Britain, they may readily create a diversion, and afford us succors that will change the fate of affairs ; but they must do it soon ; our situation is critical, and does not ad- mit of delay. I do not mean by this that instant submission must ensue if they do not directly afford us relief ; but there is a great difference between the benefits they will derive from a commercial connection with this country, in full health and vigor, and what they can possibly expect after it is exhausted by repeated efforts during the precarious process of a tedious war, during which its cities will be destroyed, the country ravaged, the inhabitants 1 Wharton, The Revolutionary Diplomatic Correspondence of the United States, II, 235. 1 66 ECONOMIC ASPECTS OF THE REVOLUTION reduced in numbers, plundered of their property, and unable to reap the luxuriant produce of the finest soil in the world. Neither can they, after a tedious delay in negotiation, expect that vigorous assistance from us in prosecuting the war that they may be assured of if they join us in its infancy. If they join us generously in the day of our distress, without attempting undue advantages because we are so, they will find a grateful people to promote their future glory and interest with unabating zeal ; and from my knowledge of the commerce of this country with Europe, I dare assert that whatever European power possesses the pre-emption of it must of consequence become the richest and most potent in Europe. But should time be lost in tedious negotiations and succors be withheld, America must sue for peace from her oppressors. ^ Letter from Franklin, Den lie, and Arthur Lee to Vcrgennes, Paris, December 2J, 1^/6 Sir : We beg leave to acquaint your excellency that we are appointed and fully empowered by the Congress of the United States of America to propose and negotiate a treaty of amity and commerce between France and the United States. The just and generous treatment their trading ships have received by a free ad- mission into the ports of this kingdom, with other considerations of respect, has induced the Congress to make this offer first to France. We request an audience of your excellency, wherein we may have an opportunity of presenting our credentials, and we flatter ourselves that the propositions we are authorized to make are such as will not be found unacceptable. With the greatest regard, we have the honor to be, your excellency's most obedient and most humble servants, B. Franklin. Silas Deane, Arthur Lee. 1 Wharton, The Revolutionary Diplomatic Correspondence of the United States, II, 239. RESOURCES EOR CARRYING ON THE STRi:(;c;LE 167 ^ Letter frojii Franklin, Dcanc, and Lcc to Vcrgcnncs. Paris, Jannary 5, Z/// Sir : The Congress, the better to defend their eoasts, protect their trade, and drive off the enemy, have instructed us to apply to France for eight ships of the hne, completely manned, the ex- pense of which they will undertake to pay. As other princes of Europe are lending or hiring their troops to J^ritain against America, it is apprehended that France may, if she thinks fit, afford our independent States the same kind of aid, without giving England any first cause of complaint. But if TLngland should on that account declare war, we conceive that by the united force of France, Spain, and America, she will lose all her possessions in the West Indies, much the greatest part of that commerce which has rendered her so opulent, and be reduced to that state of weakness and humiliation which she has, by her perfidy, her insolence, and her cruelty, both in the east and the west, so justly merited. We are also instructed to solicit the court of France for an im- mediate supply of twenty or thirty thousand muskets and bayonets, and a large quantity of ammunition and brass field pieces, to be sent under convoy. The United States engage for the payment of the arms, artillery, and ammunition, and to defray the expense of the convoy. This application has now become the more necessary, as the private purchase made by Mr. Deane of those articles is rendered ineffectual by an order forbidding their exportation. We also beg it may be particularly considered, that while the English are masters of the American seas, and can, without fear of interruption, transport with such ease their army from one part of our extensive coast to another, and we can only meet them by land marches, we may possibly, unless some powerful aid is given us or some strong diversion be made in our favor, be so harassed and be put to such immense distress, as that finally our people will find themselves reduced to the necessity of ending the war by an accommodation . 1 Wharton, The Revolutionary Diplomatic Correspondence of the United States, II, 245-246. 1 68 F.CONOMIC ASPECTS OF THE REYOEUTION The courts of France and Spain may rely with the fullest confi- dence that whatever stipulations are made by us in case of grant- ing such aid, will be ratified and punctually fulfilled by the Congress, who are determined to found their future character, with regard to justice and fidelity, on a full and perfect performance of all their present engagements. North America now offers to France and Spain her amity and commerce. She is also ready to guaranty in the firmest manner to those nations all her present possessions in the West Indies, as well as those they shall acquire from the enemy in a war that may be consequential of such assistance as she requests. The interests of the three nations are the same. The opportunity of cementing them and of securing all the advantages of that commerce, which in time will be immense, now presents itself. If neglected, it may never again return ; and we can not help suggesting that a con- siderable delay may be attended with fatal consequences. B. Franklin. Silas Deane. Arthur Lee, III. RESULTS OF THE WAR A. Changes in American Society 1 The American revolution, on the one hand, brought forth great vices ; but on the other hand, it called forth many virtues, and gave occasion for the display of abilities which, but for that event, would have been lost to the world. When the war began, the Americans were a mass of husbandmen, merchants, mechanics, and fisher- men ; but the necessities of the country gave a spring to the active powers of the inhabitants, and set them on thinking, speaking and acting, in a line far beyond that to which they had been accus- tomed. The difference between nations is not so much owing to nature, as to education and circumstances. While the Americans were guided by the leading strings of the mother country, they had no scope nor encouragement for exertion. All the departments of government were established and executed for them, but not 1 Ramsay, The History of the American Revolution [1789], II, 600-602. RESULTS OF THE WAR 1 69 by thcni. In the year 1775 and 1776 the country, l)einfi; suddenly thrown into a situation that needed the abilities of all its sons, these generally took their places, each according to the bent of his inclination. As they severally pursued their objects with ardour, a vast expansion of the human mind speedily followed. This dis- played itself in a variety of ways. It was found that their talents for great stations did not differ in kind, but only in degree, from those which were necessary for the proper discharge of the ordi- nary business of civil society. In the bustle that was occasioned by the war, few instances could be produced of any persons who made a figure, or who rendered essential services, but from among those, who had given specimens of similar talents in their respec- tive professions. Those who from indolence or dissipation, had been of little service to the community in time of peace, were found equally unserviceable in war. A few young men were ex- ceptions to this general rule. Some of these, who had indulged in youthful follies, broke off from their vicious courses, and on the pressing call of their country became useful servants of the public : but the great bulk of those, who were the active instruments of carrying on the revolution, were self-made, industrious men. These who by their own exertions, had established or laid a foundation for establishing personal independence, were most generally trusted, and most successfully employed in establishing that of their coun- try. In these times of action, classical education was found of less service than good natural parts, guided by common sense and sound judgement. Several names could be mentioned of individuals who without the knowledge of any other language than their mother tongue, wrote not only accurately, but elegantly, on public business. It seemed as if the war not only required, but created talents. Men whose minds were warmed with the love of liberty, and whose abilities were improved by daily exercise, and sharpened with a laudable ambition to serve their distressed country, spoke, wrote, and acted, with an energy far surpassing all expectations which could be reasonably founded on their previous acquirements. The Americans knew but little of one another, previous to the revolution. Trade and business had brought the inhabitants of 170 ECONOMIC ASPECTS OF THE REVOLUTION their seaports acquainted with each other, but the bulk of the peo- ple in the interior country were unacc|uainted with their fellow citi- zens. A continental army, and a Congress composed of men from all the States, by freely mixing together, were assimilated into one mass. Individuals of both, mingling with the citizens, disseminated principles of union among them. Local prejudices abated. -By fre- quent collision asperities were worn off, and a foundation was laid for the establishment of a nation, out of discordant materials. In- termarriages between men and women of different States were much more common than before the war, and became an additional cement to the union. Unreasonable jealousies had existed between the inhabitants of the eastern and of the southern States ; but on becoming better acquainted with each other, these in a great meas- ure subsided. A wiser policy prevailed. Men of liberal minds led the way in discouraging local distinctions, and the great body of the people, as soon as reason got the better of prejudice, found that their best interests would be most effectually promoted by such practices and sentiments as were favourable to union. Religious bigotry had broken in upon the peace of various sects, before the American war. This was kept up by partial establishments, and by a dread that the church of England through the power of the mother country, would be made to triumph over all other denomi- nations. These apprehensions were done away by the revolution. The different sects, having nothing to fear from each other, dismissed all religious controversy. A proposal for introducing bishops into America before the w'ar, had kindled a flame among the dissenters ; but the revolution was no sooner accomplished, than a scheme for that purpose was perfected, with the consent and approbation of all those sects who had previously opposed it. Pulpits which had formerly been shut to worthy men, because their heads had not been consecrated by the imposition of the hands of a Bishop or of a Presbytery, have since the establish- ment of independence, been reciprocally opened to each other, whensoever the public convenience required it. The world will soon see the result of an experiment in politics, and be able to de- termine whether the happiness of society is increased by religious establishments, or diminished by the want of them. . . . RESULTS OF THE WAR I 7 r From the latter periods of the revolution till the j^reseiit time, schools, colleges, societies and institutions for promoting literature, arts, manufactures, agriculture, and for extending human happi- ness, have been increased far beyond any thing that ever took place before the declaration of independence. Every state in the union, has done more or less in this way, but 1 Pennsylvania has done the most. The following institutions have been ver\' lately founded in that state, and most of them in the time of the war or since the peace. An university in the city of Philadelphia ; a college of physicians in the same place ; Dickinson college at Carlisle ; Franklin college at Lancaster ; the Protestant Episcopal academy in Philadelphia ; academies at Yorktown, at Germantow^n, at Pittsburgh and Washington ; and an academy in Philadelphia for young ladies ; societies for promoting political enquiries ; for the medical relief of the poor, under the title of the Philadelphia Dispensary ; for promoting the abolition of slavery, and the relief of free negroes unlawfully held in bondage ; for propagating the gospel among the Indians, under the direction of the United Brethren ; for the encouragement of manufactures and the useful arts ; for alleviating the miseries of prisons. Such have been some of the beneficial effects, which have resulted from that expansion of the human mind, which has been produced by the revolution, but these have not been without alloy. To overset an established government unhinges many of those principles, which bind individuals to each other. A long time, and much prudence, will be necessary to reproduce a spirit of union and that reverence for government, without which society is a rope of sand. The right of the people to resist their rulers, when in- vading their liberties, forms the corner stone of the American re- publics. This principle, though just in itself, is not favourable to the tranquillity of present establishments. The maxims and meas- ures, which in the year 1774 and 1775 were successfully inculcated and adopted by American patriots, for oversetting the established government, \\n\\ answer a similar purpose when recurrence is had to them by factious demagogues, for disturbing the freest govern- ments that were ever devised. 172 ECONOMIC ASPECTS OF THE REVOLUTION War never fails to injure the morals of the people engaged in it. The American war, in particular, had an unhappy influence of this kind. Being begun without funds or regular establishments, it could not be carried on without violating private rights ; and in its progress, it involved a necessity for breaking solemn promises, and plighted public faith, l^he failure of national justice, which was in some degree unavoidable, increased the difficulties of per- forming private engagements, and weakened that sensibility to the obligation^ of public and private honor, which is a security for the punctual performance of contracts. . . . On the whole, the literary, political, and militaiy talents of the citizens of the United States have been improved by the revolu- lution, but their moral character is inferior to what it formerly was. So great is the change for the worse, that the friends of public order are loudly called upon to exert their utmost abilities, in extirpating the vicious principles and habits, which have taken deep root during the late convulsions. . . . ^ To aid the work of ruin, the paper currency of the country operated in the most powerful, and malignant manner. At the first effusion of this evil upon the community, every sordid passion of man was stimulated to the most vigorous exertion. Wealth, for such it seemed to the fancy, was acquired with an ease, and ra- pidity, which astonished the possessor. The price of labour, and of every vendible commodity, rose in a moment to a height un- exampled. Avarice, ambition, and luxury, saw their wishes antici- pated ; and began to grasp at objects of which they had not before even dreamed. Sudden wealth rarely fails of becoming sudden ruin : and most of those who acquire it, are soon beggared in morals, if not In property. At the end of two years, this currency, in consequence of enor- mous emissions, began sensibly to depreciate ; and the depreciation became a new source of degeneracy. The want of an established standard of estimation, by which the value of commodities may be ascertained, the price of labour regulated, and bargains equitably 1 Dwight, Travels in New England and New York [1796-1815], IV, 369-371. RESULTS Ol' THE WAR I 73 adjusted, is a greater evil than any man, who has not been a wit- ness of its consequences, can be induced to believe. A general perplexity at once clouded all human dealings ; and it soon became impossible for upright men to determine whether their bargains were honest, or oppressive. After a short period every case of this nature was determined, not by a general mle, but by what the par- ties thought its own merits ; and to these avarice lent its uniform bias. Within three years from the commencement of this evil, the currency sank so low, as to be refused in exchange for the neces- saries of life : and, notwithstanding the abundance of provisions in this country, those, who could afford nothing else, were frequently reduced to very serious difficulties. Barter became extensively, the established mode of dealing ; and barter is the natural parent of the low cunning, and the gross knavery of a jockey. A stable cur- rency, beside furnishing incalculable facility to commerce, is of in- estimable benefit to mankind, trs a kmnun standard of coninintative justice, and the great means of enforcing it in all the varieties of covimcrcial intercourse. For the want of such a standard, the gen- eral sense of right and obligation, in buying and selling, was gradu- ally lowered ; and the pride of making what are called good bargains, a soft name for cheating, gradually extended. Whatever was not punishable by law, multitudes considered as rectitude. That deli- cacy of mind, which shrinks at the approach of wrong ; that ten- derness of conscience, which turns with apprehension from every doubtful moral action ; was extensively succeeded by those gross views, which are satisfied, where magistrates do not meddle, and where shame does not terrify. In the mean time the existing gov- ernment was peculiarly unhappy. All regular public functionaries lost during this period, either the whole, or a great part of their proper efficacy. In their stead, conimittces of inspection and corre- spojidence, assumed an extensive control over both the public and private affairs of their country. The powers of these bodies were undefined ; and, therefore, soon became merely discretionary. Yet they were the tribunals, by which almost every cause was decided. In most instances* they were composed of men, unlearned in law, and unskilled in public business. They had no precedents, and no known rules of judging. Often they were the dupes of cunning ; 174 ECONOMIC ASPECTS OF THE REVOLUTION and often of fiattety. At one time they were awed by superiority of character in their suitors : at another, they were influenced solely by the base pleasure of humbling those, by whom it was possessed. Extensively they were victims of the addling pride, felt by little minds, when unexpectedly invested with authority, and the con- sequent love of domineering. It is hardly necessaiy to ask, what were the decisions, flowing from this combination of ignorance, perplexity, and prejudice. Veiy many, and very great evils, were actually produced by this government ; and that it did not produce many more is no small encomium on the character of my country- men, and a proof of the superintending care and good providence of God. TJic iiifluoicc of a i^ecture viii]. 178 ECONOMIC ASPECTS OF THE REVOLUTION dominates English politics through the whole middle period of that century, the elder Pitt. His greatness is throughout identified with the expansion of England ; he is a statesman of Greater Brit- ain. It is in the buccaneering war with Spain that he sows his political wild oats ; his glory is won in the great colonial duel with France ; his old age is spent in striving to avert schism in Greater Britain. Look now at the American Revolution. In pregnancy this event is evidently unique. So it has always struck impartial observers at a distance. But the newspaper politicians of the day had no time for such large views. To them it presented itself only in detail, as .a series of questions upon which Parliament would divide. These questions came before them mixed up inextricably with other ques- tions, often of the pettiest kind, yet at the moment not less impor- tant as practical questions of party politics. . . . Now I do not think I risk anything by saying in contradiction to all this that the American Revolution, instead of being a tire- some unfortunate .business which may be dispatched in a very brief narrative, is an event not only of greater importance but on an altogether higher level of importance than almost any other in modern English history, and that it is intrinsically much more memorable to us than our great war with Revolutionary PVance, which indeed only arrives to be at all comparable to it through the vast indirect consequences produced necessarily by a war on so large a scale and continued so long. No doubt it is much more stirring to read of the Nile, Trafalgar, the Peninsula and Waterloo than of Bunker's Hill, Brandywine, Saratoga and Yorktown, and this not only because we like better to think of victory than of de- feat, but also because in a military sense the struggle with France was greater and more interesting than that with America, and Napoleon, Nelson, and Wellington were greater commanders than those who appeared in the American Revolution. But events take rank in history not as they are stirring or exciting, much less as they are gratifying to ourselves, but as they are pregnant with consequences. The American Revolution called into existence a new state, a state inheriting the language and traditions of England, but taking RKSl^LTS OF THE WAR 179 in some respects a line of its own, in which it departed from the precedents not only of ICngland but of Juirope. lliis state was at the time not large in pojuilation, though it was very large in terri- tory, and there were many chances that it would dissolve again and never grow to be very powerful. Hut it has not dissohed ; it has advanced steadily, and is now, as 1 have said, superior not only in territory but in population also to every European state except Russia. Now it is by this result that 1 estimate the historic im- portance of the Revolution, since it is with the rise and dexelop- ment of states that history deals. ^ 1 Perhaps the most important purely economic result of the Revolution upon Europe was to demonstrate, to England at least, that the policy of commercial restrictions was not necessary to secure colonial trade. She lost political control of the American colonies, but she did not lose their trade. This fact undoubtedly had great influence in modifying the commercial part of her colonial policy. The American Revolution was therefore the first great blow at the Mercantile System in the realm of practical affairs as the Wealth of Nations was in the realm of thought. CHAPTER V THE ECONOMIC SITUATION AND THE NEW GOVERNMENT INTRODUCTION The seven or eight years which followed the close of the Revolution are now commonly referred to as the critical period of American history. It was critical from the political point of view, for it witnessed the most profound political change in our experience, the formation and establishment of a new kind of central government. To the student of economic history it is the rela- tion of this political change to economic conditions which furnish the prin- cipal subject of interest in the period. The relation of economic conditions to politics is at all times a double one. On the one hand, it includes the effect which governmental action has upon economic conditions, the results of its economic policy ; and, on the other, it includes the influence of economic con- ditions upon the government itself. It is not always easy to separate the two, and not infrequently one is mistaken for the other in historical literature. The true causal relation between the action of government and economic conditions is often reversed in the historical account. The latter are supposed to be the result of the action or non-action of government, when in reality they have been determined by other forces, and have had great influence in determining political action itself. This is an error that is the more likely to appear in American history, because the writers of it make large use of public documents and the utterances of public men, who are always interested in making the government receive the credit, or bear the blame, for whatever of prosperity or economic depression accompanies or follows political action. Moreover, few of them have had the training necessary to accurately trace cause and effect in economic affairs. For these reasons the current view of the relation of economics and politics during the critical period is hardly satisfactory. There has always been a dis- position to hold the old confederation responsible for the economic difficulties of the time, and to give to the new government, which followed it, credit for the prosperity which came with its establishment. There is very good reason, however, for thinking that the causal relation between economic and political conditions is really the reverse of this. Economic conditions, over which gov- ernment had little or no control, wrecked the old confederation ; while a pros- perity, slowly prepared by influences that were for the most part independent I So INTRODUCTION l8l of politics, smoothed the way for the cstabHshment of the new government and insured its extraordinary success. The reasons for this view may be briefly stated. From an economic point of view, the decade following the Revolution represents one of those cycles of commercial speculation, crisis, hard times and gradual return to conditions of prosperity, which has been repeated so often in our economic history. What appears to have taken place at the close of the Revolution was a short period of great commercial activity based upon the expectation that peace would be followed by prosperity. It was well recognized that prosperity depended upon foreign trade, and large imports were made in the expectation that even larger markets foi exports would be opened than had been enjoyed in colonial times. But these markets were not opened ; the expectations of the merchants were not fulfilled ; and a crisis followed. There were only two ways to remedy this situation and to win back some measure of prosperity. One was to secure the opening of some of the old markets or discover new ones ; the other was to stop consuming foreign commodities and to produce as many as possible of them at home. The people in their economic activity as individuals set about remedying the difficulties in both of these ways. They opened up a new trade to the west coast of America, to China, and to the East Indies; and the scar- city of crops in France soon created a demand for bread stuffs in that country and her West India colonies and opened their ports. Great numbers of small manufacturing enterprises were started and flourished, and, above all, the people gave up the extravagance which had been fostered by the war, and commercial speculation which followed it, and adopted a more frugal style of living. The effect of these changes acting over a period of years was gradually to change eco- nomic conditions from extreme depression to almost normal prosperity, before the new government came into existence in the spring of i 7S9, and before any of its measures had time to produce an effect. It is diflicult to see how the old confederation, if it had possessed all the efficiency which had been given to the new government, could have done any- thing to remedy the situation. The root of the difficulty was the dislocation of our commercial relations with the rest of the world following great commercial speculation. It was believed by many statesmen that a stronger government could relieve the situation by forcing other nations to make commercial con- cessions ; and commercial considerations were no doubt the chief influence leading to the constitutional convention. But that this was a vain hope is shown by the significant fact that the commercial powers granted to the new govern- ment were never used in this way. It soon became clear enough that com- mercial retaliation could never force from other nations the concessions we desired, and the policy was never adopted by the new government, although it had been given the power to do so. The only other way in which the govern- ment could aid in remedying the situation was by promoting the growth of domestic industries to take the place of foreign trade in supplying the wants of the people. A stronger government could have levied heavy duties to check 1 82 THE KCONOMIC SITUATION imports, but as those imports were already effectively checked by the impossibility of paying for them, and as great progress was being made in the growth of new industries, it is difficult to see how the exercise of this power could have pro- duced any important results. The defects of the old confederation were then in no way responsible for the hard times. It had not produced them, nor could the best government in the world have removed them. It could only have enabled the people to en- dure them with more equanimity. If it is impossible to connect the hard times of the early part of the period with the old confederation, so it is impossible to attribute the return of prosperity to the influence of the new government. Be- fore it came into existence, the signs of improvement were plainly evident, and long before any of its measures could have affected the situation, the full tide of prosperity had reached us. Our trade relations with the rest of the world steadily improved, as shown by the fact that we were able to import and pay for more English goods. By 1 790 the imports nearly equaled what had been purchased on credit in the boom times of 1784.^ Tench Coxe in 1787 and rhineas Bond the next year bore witness to the rapid progress that had been made in the growth of manufactures." Washington, who all through the year I 788 was anxiously watching every circumstance that could affect the fate of the new Constitution, noted the improvement and declared that the people " are emerging from the gulf of dissipation and debt into which they had precipi- tated themselves at the close of the war. Economy and industry are evidently gaining ground. Not only agriculture but even manufactures are much more attended to than formerly." As has happened so often in our later history, the foundation of returning prosperity was laid before political action was taken. The new government came into existence just in time to receive the credit for improved economic conditions, and to be floated into power and popularity by that prestige. The only influence in producing this result, which may fairly be attributed to it, is the effect of that increased confidence which its establishment brought about. Just as hard times had brought failure to the old confederation, so prosperity, if it did not actually cause the success of the new government, greatly simplified the problem of its establishment. One may well wonder what would have been the fate of Hamilton's brilliant projects, the refunding of the debt, and the establishment of a revenue system, if they had been tried on the country during the economic gloom of 17S5-1786. ^ The English customhouse statistics show the exports to the United States: 1784. ;^3'679-467; 1785, ;^2,3oS,023; 1786, ;^i,6o3,465; 17S7, ;^2,oo9,iii; 17SS, ;^i,SS6,i42; 1789, ;^2, 525,298; 1790, ;^3-43'-778. 2 See Coxe, A View of the United States of Amcricii, and Bond's Letters in Report of the American Historical Association, 1896, 1. GENERAL CXWDITIONS 1S3 I. GENERAL CONDITIONS — ECONOM It' Dl'.I'RESSlOiN OF THE COUNTKN ^ One lai">;r portion of iho woaltlu" men of colonial times had been expatriated, and another part had been impoverished b)- the Revolution. In their place a new moneyed class had sprung up, cspeeialK' in the eastern states, men who had grown rich in the course of the war as sutlers, by privateering, by speculations in the fluctuating paper money, and by other operations not always of the most honorable kind. Large t-laims against their less fortunate neighbors had accumulated in the hands of these men, man\' of whom were disposed to press their legal rights to the utmost. The sudden fortunes made by the war had introduced a spirit of luxury into the maritime towns, and even the taste and manners of the rural inhabitants had been tainted by the effects of military serxice, in which so large a part of the male population had been more or less engaged. 'Lhe hsheries. formerlv a chief resource ot New L3ngland, broken up by the war, had not \et been re-established. The farmers no longer found that market for their produce which the French, American, and Hritish armies had furnishetl. The large importation of foreign goods, subject to little or no duty, and sold at peace prices, was proving ruinous to all those tlomes- tic manufactures and mechanical emploxnients which the non- consumption agreements and the war had created and tostered. Immediatelv after the peace, the countrv had been flooded with imported goods, and debts had been unwarih' c^ontracted tor which there was no means to pay. The iniports from Cireat Britain in the vears 17S4 and 1785 had amounted in value to thirt\- milliims of dollars, while the exports thither had not exceedetl nine millions. The lawyers, whose fees were thought enormous, and who were fast growing rich from the multiplicitv of suits with which all the courts abounded, were regarded with no very favorable eyes by the mass of the citizens, impoverished by the same causes to which they owed their wealth. There was an abundance of discontented persons more or less connected with tlie late arm\'. deprixed b\' the peace of their accustomed means o\' support, and without ' llililrrth, Ilislorv of llu- I'nilt'd Stati-s of Aiiu-rica, 111. |(>5 .|(iS. 1 84 THE ECONOMIC SITUATION oiDportunity to engage in productive industry. The community, from these various causes, was fast becoming divided into two embittered factions of creditors and delators. The certificates of the pubhc debt, parted with at a great discount by the officers and others to whom they had been given, were fast accumulating in the hands of a few speculators able to wait for better times. With the example of the old tenor paper money before their eyes, an opinion gained ground among the people, oppressed by taxes to meet the interest on these debts, that the holders of certificates by purchase were only entitled to receive what they had paid — an opinion which tended to still further depreciation. Others of the debtor party had more extensive views. Stop and tender laws were called for, and in some states were passed. New issues of paper money were demanded, which, by their depreciation, might sweep off the whole mass of debt, public and private. Such issues were made in New York and Rhode Island, in which latter state John Collins had just been elected governor. The Rhode Island paper soon depreciated to eight for one. Laws were enacted to enforce its circulation ; but, though similar to those formerly recommended by Congress to support the credit of the Con- tinental money, they were now generally denounced as oppres- sive and unjust and obtained for Rhode Island an unenviable notoriet}^ Even those states which issued no paper were far from enjoying a sound currency. The excessive importation of foreign goods had drained the country of specie. The circulating medium consisted principally of treasury orders on the state tax collectors, and de- preciated certificates of state and federal debt. Even among those in favor of meeting the public liabilities by taxation, there was a lack of agreement as to the way in which taxes should be raised. The excessive importation of foreign goods, and the consequent pressure upon domestic manufacturers, had diminished a good deal the old prejudice against customs duties. A party had sprung up in favor of raising a large part of the public revenue in that way, thus reviving the old colonial schemes for the protec- tion of domestic industry by duties upon foreign goods. This, however, was opposed by the merchants as injurious to their GENERAL CONDITIONS 1 85 interests. They came forward as tlic champions of free trade, and insisted upon the old system of direct taxation. A large part of the people seemed quite disinclined to submit to either method. The weakness, for some years jxist so evident in Congress, had begun to extend to the states. Not only was the idea in circulation of separating into two or three confederacies, but some of the princi- pal states seemed themselves in danger of splitting into fragments. ^ Madisoif s Letters to Jefferson and R. //. Lee, I'/S^-I'/SO ... I had the additional pleasure here [Harpers Ferry] of seeing the progress of the works on the Potowmac. About 50 hands were employed at these falls or rather rapids, who seemed to have overcome the greatest difficulties. Their plan is to slope the fall by opening the bed of the river, in such a manner as to render a lock unnecessary, and, by means of ropes fastened to the rocks, to pull up & ease down the boats where the current is most rapid. At the principal falls 150 hands I was told were at work, and that the length of the canal will be reduced to less than a mile, and carried through a vale which does not require it to be deep. Locks will here be unavoidable. The undertakers are very sanguine. Some of them who are most so talk of having the en- tire work finished in three years. I can give no particular account of the progress on James River, but am told it is very flattering, I am still less informed of what is doing in North Carolina towards a Canal between her & our waters. The undertaking on the Sus- quehannah is said to be in such forwardness as to leave no doubt of its success. A negociation is set on foot betwx-en Pen^., Mary'^, & Delaware, for a canal from the head of Chesapeak to the Delaware. Mary"^ as I understand heretofore opposed the undertaking, and Pen^ means now to make her consent to it a condition on which the opening of the Susquehannah within the limits of Pen=* will depend. Unless this is permitted the opening undertaken within the limits of Maryland will be of little account. It is lucky that both parties are so dependent on each other as to be thus mutually forced into measures of general utility. I am 1 Writings, II, 25S-264, 227-229, 150-151, 161-162. 1 86 THE ECONOMIC SITUATION told that Pen-', has comphed with the joint request of Virg'"^ and Maryland for a Road between the head of Potowmac and the waters of the Ohio and the secure & free use of the latter through her jurisdiction. These fruits of the Revolution do great honour to it. I wish all our proceedings merited the same character. Un- happily there are but too many belonging to the opposite side of the acc\ At the head of these is to be put the general rage. for paper money. Pen-''. & N. Carolina took the lead in this folly. In the former the sum emitted was not considerable, the funds for sinking it were good, and it was not made a legal tender. It issued into circulation partly by way of loan to individuals on landed se- curity, partly by way of payment to the public creditors. Its present depreciation is about lo or 12 per c*. In N. Carolina the sums issued at different times has been of greater amount, and it has constantly been a tender. It issued partly in payments to military creditors and latterly, in purchases of Tob°. on public account. The Agent I am informed was .authorised to give nearly the double of the current price, and as the paper was a tender, debtors ran to him with their Tob°., and the creditors paid the expence of the farce. The depreciation is said to be 25 or 30 per c^ in that State. S. Carolina was the next in order. Her emission was in the way of loans to individuals, and is not a legal tender. But land is there made a tender in case of suits which shuts the Courts of Justice, and is perhaps as great an evil. The friends of the emission say that it has not yet depreciated, but they admit that the price of commodities has risen, which is evidently the form in which de- preciation will first shew itself. New Jersey has just issued ^^30,000 (dollars at 7s 6) in loans to her citizens. It is a legal tender. An addition of ;^ 100,000 is shortly to follow on the same principles. The terror of popular associations stifles as yet an overt discrimi- nation between it & specie ; but as this does not operate in Philad^ & N. York where all the trade of N.J. is carried on, its depreciation has already commenced in those places & must soon communicate itself to N.J. New York is striking ;^200,000 (dolK at Ss.) on the plan of loans to her citizens. It is made a legal tender in case of suits only. As it is but just issuing from the press, its depreciation exists only in the foresight of those CxENERAL C:()xM)ITI()NS 1 87 who reason without prejudice on the subject. In Rhode Island. ^100,000 (dol''at6s.) has lately been issued in loans to individuals. It is not only made a tender, but severe penalties annexed to the least attempt direct or indirect to give a preference to specie. Pre- cautions di(.'tated by distrust in the rulers soon produced it in the people. Sup])lics were withheld from the Market, and the Shops were shut, popular meetings ensued, and the .State remains in a sort of convulsion. The Legislature of Mass*^ at their last .Session rejected a paper emission by a large majority. Connecticut & N. Hampshire also have as yet forborne, but symptoms of danger it is said begin to appear in the latter. The Senate of Mai"y^ has hitherto been a bar to paper in that State. The clamor for it is now universal, and as the periodical election of the Senate happens at this crisis, and the whole body is unluckily by their Constitution to be chosen at once, it is probable that a paper emission will be the result. If, in spite of the zeal exerted ag''' the old .Senate a majority of them should be re-elected, it will require all their firmness to withstand the popular torrent. Of the affairs of George I know as little as of those of Kamskatska. Whether Virg=^ is to remain exempt from the epidemic malady will depend on the ensuing Assembly. • My hopes rest chiefly on the exertions of Col. Mason and the failure of the experiments elsewhere. That these must fail is morally certain ; for besides the proofs of it already visible in some States, and the intrinsic defect of the paper in all, this fictitious money will rather feed than cure the spirit of extravagance which sends away the coin to pay the unfavorable balance, and will therefore soon be carried to market to buy up coin for that purpose. From that moment depreciation is inevitable. The value of money con- sists in the uses it will serve. Specie will serve all the uses of paper, paper w'ill not serve one of the essential uses of specie. The paper therefore will be less valuable than specie. Among the numerous ills with which this practice is pregnant, one I find is that it is producing the same warfare & retaliation among the States as were produced by the State regulations of commerce. Mass*® & Connecticut have passed laws enabling their Citizens who are debtors to Citizens of States having their paper money, to 1 88 THE ECONOMIC SITUATION pay their debts in the same manner as their Citizens who are creditors to Citizens of the latter States are liable to be paid their debts. The States which have appointed deputies to Annapolis are N. Hampshire, Mass'% R. Island, N.Y., N.J., Pen^'., Delaware, & Virg^. Connecticut declined not from a dislike to the object, but to the idea of a Convention, which it seems has been rendered obnoxious by some internal Conventions, which embarrassed the Legislative Authority. Mary'^., or rather her Senate negatived an appointment because they supposed the measure might interfere with the plans or prerogatives of Cong^. N. Carolina has had no Legislative meeting since the proposition was communicated. S. Carolina supposed she had sufficiently signified her concurrence in a general regulation of trade by vesting the power in Con- gress for I 5 years. Georgia . Many Gentlemen both within & without Cong^, wish to make this Meeting subservient to a plenipotentiary Convention for amending the Confederation. Tho' my wishes are in favor of such an event, yet I despair so much of its accomplishment at the present crisis that I do not extend my views beyond a commercial Reform. To speak the truth I almost despair even of this. You will find the cause in a measure now before Congress of which you will receive the detail from Col. Monroe. I content myself with hinting that it is a proposed treaty with Spain one article of which shuts up the Mississippi twenty- five or thirty years. Passing by the other Southern States, figure to yourself the effect of such a stipulation on the Assembly of Virginia, already jealous of Northern politics and which will be composed of about thirty members from the Western waters, of a majority of others attached to the Western Country from interests of their own, of their friend or their constituent, and of man)- others who though indifferent to Mississippi, will zealously play off the disgust of its friends against federal measures. Figure to yourself its effect on the people at large on the western waters, who are impatiently waiting for a favorable result to the negocia- tion with Gardoqui, & who will consider themselves as sold by their Atlantic brethren. Will it be an unnatural consequence if they consider themselves absolved from every federal tie and court some protection for their betrayed rights. This protection GENERAL CONDITIONS 189 will appear more attainable from the maritime power of Britain than from any other ((uarter ; and Britain will be more ready than any other nation to seize an opportunity of embroiling our affairs. What may be the motive with Spain to satisfy herself with a temporary occlusion of the Mississippi at the same time that she holds forth our claim to it as absolutely inadmissible is matter for conjecture only. The patrons of the measure in Con- gress contend that the Minister, who at present governs the Spanish councils means only to disembarrass himself at the ex- pence of the successors. I should rather suppose he means to work a total separation of interest and affection between western & eastern settlements and to foment the jealousy between the Eastern & Southern States. By the former the population of the Western Country it may be expected, will be checked and the Mississippi so far secured ; and by both the general security of Spanish America be promoted. As far as I can learn the assent of nine States in Congress will not at this time be got to the pro- jected treaty but an unsuccessful attempt by six or seven will favor the views of Spain and be fatal I fear to an augmentation of the federal authority if not to the little now existing. My personal situation is rendered by this business particularly mortifying. Ever since I have been out of Congress I have been inculcating on our Assembly a confidence in the equal attention of Congress to the rights and interests of eveiy part of the republic and on the Western members in particular, the necessity of making the Union respectable by new powers to Congress if they wished Congress to negociate with effect for the Mississippi. I leave to Col. Monroe the giving you a particular account of the Impost. The Acts of Penn^, Delaware & N. York must be revised & amended in material points before it can be put in force, and even then the fetters put on the collection by some other States will make it a very awkward business. A Quorum of the deputies appointed by the Assembly for a commercial convention had a meeting at Richmond shortly after I left it, and the Attorney tells me, it has been agreed to propose Annapolis, for the place, and the first monday in Sep"" for the time IQO THE ECONOMIC SITUATION of holding the Convention. It was thought prudent to avoid the neighborhood of Congress, and the large Commercial towns, in order to disarm the adversaries to the object, of insinuations of influence from either of these quarters. I have not heard what opinion is entertained of this project at New York, nor what re- ception it has found in any of the States. If it should come to nothing, it will, I fear confirm G. B. and all the world in the belief that we are not to be respected, nor apprehended as a nation in matters of commerce. The States are every day giving proofs that separate regulations are more likely to set them by the ears, than to attain the common object. When Mass^^set on foot a retaliation of the policy of G. B. Connecticut declared her ports free. N. Jersey served N. York in the same way. And Delaware I am told has lately followed the example, in opposition to the commercial plans of Penn^. A miscarriage of this attempt to unite the States in some effectual plan, will have another effect of a serious nature. It will dissipate every prospect of drawing a steady revenue from our imposts either directly into the federal treasury, or indirectly thro' the treasuries of the Commercial States, and of consequence the former must depend for supplies solely on annual requisitions, and the latter on direct taxes drawn from the property of the Coun- try. That these dependencies are in an alarming degree fallacious is put by experience out of all question. The payments from the States under the calls of Congress have in no year borne any pro- portion to the public wants. During the last year, that is from Nov"", 1784, to Nov"", 1785, the aggregate payments, as stated to the late Assembly fell short of 400,000 doll'^^, a sum neither equal to the interest due on the foreign debts, nor even to the current expences of the federal Government. The greatest part of this sum too went from Virg-'', which will not supply a single shilling the present year. Another unhappy effect of a continuance of the present anarchy of our commerce will be a continuance of the un- favorable balance on it, which by draining us of our metals furnishes pretexts for the pernicious substitution of paper money, for indul- gences to debtors, for postponements of taxes. In fact most of our political evils may be traced up to our commercial ones, as most of our moral may to our political. The lessons which the mercantile GENERAL CONDITIONS 191 interests of Europe have reeeived from late experienee will probably cheek their propensity to credit us beyond our resources, and so far the evil of an unfavorable balance will correct itself. Ikit the merchants of G. B. if no others will continue to credit us at least as far as our remittances can be strained, and that is far enough to perpetuate our difficulties unless the luxurious propensity of our own people can be otherwise checked. This view of our situation presents the proposed Convention as a remedial experiment which ought to command every assent ; ' but if it be a just view it is one which assuredly will not be taken by all even of those whose in- tentions arc good. I consider the event therefore as extremely uncertain, or rather, considering that the States must first agree to the proposition for sending deputies, that these must agree in a plan to be sent back to the States, and that these again must agree unanimously in a ratification ofjt. I almost despair of suc- cess. It is necessary however that something should be tried & if this be not the best possible expedient, it is the best that could possibly be carried thro' the Legislature here. And if the present crisis cannot effect unanimity, from what future concurrence of circumstances is it to be expected ? The arrival of Mr. Gardoqui will turn out I hope an auspicious step towards conciliating explanations & overtures with regard to the Mississippi. Besides the general motives for expediting an adjustment of this matter the prodigious effect of it on the sale of the back lands, makes it of peculiar importance. The same con- sideration presses for such arrangements with G. B. as will give us speedy possession of the Western posts. As to the commercial arrangements which we wish from her, I own my expectations are far from being sanguine. In fact what could she get from us by concessions which she is unwilling to make, which she does not now enjoy ? I cannot speak with certainty as to all the States, but sure I am that the trade of this was never more compleatly mo- nopolized by her when it was under the direction of her own laws than it is at this moment. Our present situation therefore pre- cisely verifies the doctrine held out in Deanes' intercepted letters. The revolution has robbed us of our trade with the West Indies 192 THE ECONOMIC SITUATION the only one which yielded us a favorable balance, without opening any other channels to compensate for it. What makes the British monopoly the more mortifying is the abuse which they make of it. Not only the private planters who have resumed the practice of shipping their own Tob°, but many of the Merchants particularly the natives of the Countiy who have no connections with G. B. have rec'^ acc'^ of sales this season, which carry the most visible & shameful frauds in ever)' article. In every point of view indeed the trade of this Country is in a deplorable Condition. A comparison of current prices here with those in the Northern States, either at this timiC or at any time since the peace, will shew that the loss direct on our produce & indirect on our imports is not less than SO per ct. Till very lately the price of our Staple has been down at 32 & 33s. on James River & 28s. on Rappahannock. During the same period the former was selling in Philad^, & I suppose in other Northern ports, at 44s. of this Currency, and the latter in proportion ; tho' it cannot be denied that Tob° in the Northern ports is intrinsically worth less than it is here, being at the same distance from its ultimate market, & burdened with the freight from this to the other States. The price of merchandize here is at least as much above as that of Tob° is below the Northern standard. The machinations of G. B. with regard to Commerce have pro- duced much distress and noise in the Northern States, particularly in Boston, from whence the alarm has spread to New York & Phild^. Your correspondence with Cong^ will no doubt have furnished you with full information on this head. I only know the general fact, and that the sufferers are ever)'where calling for such augmentation of the power of Congress as may effect relief. How far the Southern States & Virginia in particular will join in this proposition cannot be foreseen. It is easy to foresee that the circumstances which in a confined view distinguish our situation from that of our brethren, will be laid hold of by the partizans of G. B., by those who are or affect to be jealous of Congress, and those who are interested in the present course of business, to give a wrong bias to our Councils. If an}1;hing should reconcile Virg^ GENERAL CONDITIONS 1 93 to the idea of giving Congress a power over her trade, it will be that this power is likely to annoy G. I^. against whom the animosities of our Citizens are still strong. They seem to have less sensibility to their commercial interests ; which they very' little understand, and which the mercantile class here have not the same motives if they had the same capacity to lay open to the public, as that class have in the States North of us. The price of our Staple since the peace is another cause of inattention in the planters to the dark side of our commercial affairs. Should these or any other causes prevail in frustrating the scheme of the Eastern & Middle States of a general retaliation on G. B., I tremble for the event. A majority of the States deprived of a regular remedy for their dis- tresses by the "want of a federal spirit in the minority must feel the strongest motives to some irregular experiments. The danger of such a crisis makes me surmise that the policy of G. B. results as much from the hope of effecting a breach in our Confederacy as of monopolizing our trade. Our internal trade is taking an arrangement from which I hope good consequences. Retail Stores are spread all over the country, many of them carried on by native adventurers, some of them branched out from the principal Stores at the heads of navigation. The distribution of the business, however into the importing & the retail departments has not yet taken place. Should the port bill be established it will I think quickly add this amendment which in- deed must in a little time follow of itself. It is the more to be wished for as it is the only radical cure for credit to the consumer which continues to be given to a degree which if not checked will turn the diffusive retail of merchandize into a nuisance. When the Shop keeper buys his goods of the wholesale merchant, he must buy at so short a credit, that he can venture to give none at all. '^Letter of Jo Jin Adams to the Marquis of CarmartJicn Grosvenor Square, 29 July, 1785 My Lord, — The course of commerce, since the peace, between Great Britain and the United States of America, has been such as 1 Works of John Adams, VIII, 286-287. 194 THE ECONOMIC SITUATION to have produced many inconveniences to the persons concerned in it on both sides, which become every day more and more sensible. The zeal of Americans to make remittances to British merchants, has been such as to raise the interest of money to double its usual standard, to increase the price of bills of exchange to eight or ten per centum above par, and to advance the price of the produce of the country to almost double the usual rate. Large sums of the circulating cash, and as much produce as could be purchased at almost any rate, have been remitted to England ; but much of this produce lies in store here, because it will not fetch, by reason of the duties and restrictions on it, the price given for it in America. No political arrangements having been made, both the British and American merchants expected that the trade would 'have returned to its old channels, and nearly under the same regulations, found by long experience to be beneficial ; but they have been disappointed. The former have made advances, and the latter contracted debts, both depending upon remittances in the usual articles, and upon the ancient terms, but both have found themselves mistaken, and it is much to be feared that the consequences will be numerous failures. Cash and bills have been chiefly remitted ; neither rice, tobacco, pitch, tar, turpentine, ships, oil, nor many other articles, the great sources of remittances formerly, can now be sent as here- tofore, because of restrictions and imposts, which are new in this commerce, and destructive of it ; and the trade with the British West India Islands, formerly a vast source of remittance, is at present obstructed. . The FcdcTcxlist, No. XV We may indeed with propriety be said to have reached almost the last stage of national humiliation. There is scarcely anything that can wound the pride or degrade the character of an independ- ent nation which we do not experience. Are there engagements to the performance of which we are held by every tie respectable among men } These are the subjects of constant and unblushing violation. Do we owe debts to foreigners and to our own citizens contracted in a time of imminent peril for the preservation of our political existence } These remain without any proper or satis- GENERAL CONDITIONS 1 95 factory jjiovision ("or ihcii" dischar^v. Have \vc valuable territories and important posts in the possession of a foreign power which, by express stii)iilations, ouj^ht lon^- since to have been surren- dered? These are still retained, to the ])rejudice of our interests, not less than of our rights. Are we in a condition to resent or to repel the aggression ? \Ve haw iK'ilher troops, nor treasmy, nor government. Are we even in a condition to remonstrate with dig- nity .'' The just imputations on oiu" own faith, in respect to the same treaty, ought first to be removed. Are we entitled by nature and compact to a free participation in the navigation of the Missis- sippi ? Spain excludes us from it. Is public credit an indispensable resource in time of public danger } We seem to have abandoned its cause as desperate and irretrievable. Is commerce of impor- tance to national wealth ? Ours is at the lowest point of declension. Is respectability in the eyes of foreign powers a safeguard against foreign encroachments } The imbecility of our government even forbids them to treat with us. Our ambassadors abroad are the mere pageants of mimic sovereignty. Is a violent and unnatural decrease in the value of land a symptom of national distress .-' The price of improved land in most parts of the country is much lower than can be accounted for by the quantity of waste land at mai"ket, and can only be fully explained by that want of private and public confidence, which are so alarmingly prevalent among all ranks, and which have a direct tendency to depreciate property of every kind. Is private credit the friend and patron of industry ? That most useful kind which relates to borrowing and lending is reduced within the narrowest limits, and this still more from an opinion of insecurity than from the scarcity of money. To shorten an enu- meration of particulars which can afford neither pleasiu'e nor in- struction, it may in general be demanded, what indication is there of national disorder, poverty, and insignificance that could befall a community so peculiarly blessed with natural advantages as we are, which does not form a part of the dark catalogxie of our public misfortunes .'' 196 THE ECONOMIC SITUATION II. STRUGGLE WITH THE MERCANTILE SYSTEM OF EUROPE A. The Policy of securing Commercial Treaties ^ Letters of Jo Jin Adavis to Livingston Paris, July 14, 1783 Sir : A jealousy of American ships, seamen, carrying trade, and naval power, appears every day more and more conspicuous. This jealousy, which has been all along discovered by the French min- ister, is at length communicated to the English. The following proclamation, which will not increase British ships and seamen in any proportion as it will diminish those of the United States, will contribute effectually to make America afraid of England, and attach herself more closely to France. The English are the dupes and must take the consequences. This proclamation is issued in full confidence that the United States have no confidence in one another ; that they can not agree to act in a body as one nation ; that they can not agree upon any navigation act which may be common to the thirteen States. Our proper remedy would be to confine our exports to American ships, to make a law that no article should be exported from any of the States in British ships, nor in the ships of any nation, which will not allow us reciprocally to import their productions in our ships. I am much afraid there is too good an understanding upon this subject between Versailles and St. James. Perhaps it may be proper for Congress to be silent upon this head until (New York, Penobscot, &c., are evacuated. But I should think that Congress would never bind themselves by any treaty built upon such principles. They should negociate, however, with- out loss of time, by a minister in London. A few weeks' delay may have unalterable effects. PROCLAMATIOX AT THE CoUKT OF St. JaMES, THE 21) OF JULV, 1 783 Present, the King's most excellent majesty in council. Whereas by an act of Parliament, passed this session, entitled " An act for preventing certain instruments from being required from ships belonging to 1 Wharton, The Kcvolutionary Diplomatic Correspondence of the United States, VI, 540-542, 552-553. STRUGGLE WITH MERCANTILE SYSTEM 197 the United States of America, and to give his majesty, for a limited time, cer- tain powers for the better carrying on trade and commerce between the sub- jects of his majesty's dominions and the inhabitants of the said United States,"' it is amongst other things enacted, that, during the continuance of the said act, " it shall and may be lawful for his majesty in council, by order or orders to be issued and published from time to time, to give such directions, and to make such regulations with respect to duties, drawbacks, or otherwise, for carrying on the trade and commerce between the people and territories belonging to the crown of Great Britain, and the people and territories of the said United States, as to his majesty in council shall appear most expedient and salutary, any law, usage, or custom to the contrary notwithstanding, " his majesty doth, therefore, by and with the advice of his privy council, hereby order and direct, that pitch, tar, turpentine, hemp and flax, masts, yards, and bowsprits, staves, heading, boards, timber, shingles, and all other species of lumber ; horses, neat cattle, sheep, hogs, poultry, and all other species of live stock and live provi- sions ; peas, beans, potatoes, wheat, flour, bread, biscuit, rice, oats, barley, and all other species of grain, being the growth or production of any one of the United States of America, may, until further order, be imported by British sub- jects in British-built ships, owned by his majesty's subjects, and navigated accord- ing to law, from any port of the United States of America to any of his majesty's West India Islands ; and that rum, sugar, molasses, coffee, cocoa-nuts, ginger, and pimento, may, until further order, be exported by British subjects, in Brit- ish-built ships, owned by his majesty's subjects, and navigated according to law, from any of his majesty's West India Islands, and to any port or place within the said United States, upon payment of the same duties on exportation, and subject to the like rules, regulations, securities, and restrictions, as the same articles by law are, or may be subject and liable to, if exported to any British colony or plantation in America. And the right honorable the lords commis- sioners of his majesty's treasury, and the lords commissioners of the admiralty, are to give the necessary directions herein, as to them may respectively appertain. Stephen Cottrell One of the most remarkable things in this proclamation is the omission of salt-fish, an article which the islands want as much as any that is enumerated. This is, no doubt, to encourage their own fishery, and that of Nova Scotia, as well as a blow aimed at ours. There was in a former proclamation concerning the trade between the United States and Great Britain, an omission of the articles of potash and pcarlasJi. These omissions discover a choice love for New England. France, I am afraid, will exclude fish too, and imitate this proclamation but too closely ; if, indeed, this procla- mation is not an imitation of their system, adopted, as I believe it is. upon their advice and desire. 198 THE ECONOMIC SITUATION These, ho\vc\-er, are impotent efforts. Without saying, writing, or resolving anything suddenly, let us see what remedies or equiva- lents we can obtain from Holland, Portugal, and Denmark. Let us bind ourselves to nothing — reserve a right of making navigation acts when we please, if we find them necessary or useful. If we had been defeated of our fisheries, we should ha\'e been wormed out of all our carPydng trade, too, and should have been a mere society of cultix'ators, without an\' but a passive trade. The policy of France has succeeded, and laid, in these proclamations, if per- sisted in, the sure source of another war between us and Great Britain. . . . July 16, 1783 We asked the Comte [Vergennes] if he had seen the British proclamation of the 2d of July. He answered that he had. I asked him if the King had determined anything on the subject of salt provisions and salt fish, whether we might import them into his islands. He said we might depend upon it they could not supply their islands with fish, that we had two free ports in their islands, St. Lucia and a port in Martinique. By the thirty-second article of the treaty of commerce these free ports are secured to us ; nothing, he said, was determined concerning salt beef and pork, but the greatest difficulty would be about flour. I told the Comte that I did not think it would be possible either for France or England to carry on the commerce between the islands and the continent ; it was profitable to us only as it was a part of a system ; that it could not be carried on without loss in large vessels navigated by many seamen, which could sail only at certain seasons of the year. &c. Upon the whole, I was much pleased with this conversation, and conclude from it that we shall do very well in the French West India Islands, perhaps the better in them the worse we are treated by the English. The Dutch and Danes will, I doubt not, avail themselves of every error that may be committed by France or England. It is good to have a variety of strings to our bow ; and, therefore, I wish we had a treaty of commerce with Denmark, by which a free admission of our ships into their ports in the West Indies might STRUGGLE WWII MERCANTILF: SYSTEM 199 be established, l^y means of the Dutch, Danes, and Portuj^uese, I think we shall be able to ()l)tain fnially proper terms of I'^'anee and bLngland. The l^ritish proclamation of the 2d of this month is the result of refugee politics ; it is intended to encourage Canada and Nova Scotia in their fisheries, to support still the ruins of their naviga- tion act, and to take from us the carriage even of our own produc- tions. A system which has in it so little respect for us, and is so obviously calculated to give a blow to our nurseries of ships and seamen, could never have been adopted but from the opinion that we had no common legislature for the government of commerce. All America, from the Chesapeake to St. Croix, I know love ships and sailors, and those parts to the southward of that bay have advantages for obtaining them when they will ; and, therefore, I hope the thirteen States will unite in some measures to counteract this policy of Britain, so evidently selfish, unsocial, and I had almost said, hostile. The question is, what is to be done ? I answer, per- haps it will be most prudent to say little about it at present, and until the definite treaty is signed and the States evacuated ; but after that, I think in the negotiation of a treaty of commerce with Great Britain, Congress should tell them that they have the means of doing justice to themselves. What are these means ? I answer, let every State in the Union lay on a duty of five per cent, on all West India articles imported in British ships, and upon all their own productions exported in British ships. Let this impost be limited in duration until Great Britain shall allow our vessels to trade to their West Lidies. This would effectually defeat their plan and encourage our own carr}dng trade more than they can discourage it. Another way of influencing England to a reasonable conduct is to take some measures for encouraging the growth in the United States of West India articles ; another is to encourage manufac- tures, especially of wool and iron among ourselves. As tilt ham- mers are now not unlawful, and wool may be water-borne, much more may be done now than could have been done before the war. But the most certain method is to lay duties on exports and imports by British ships. The sense of a common interest and 200 THE ECONOMIC SITUATION common danger, it is to be hoped, will induce a perfect unanimity among the States in this respect. There are other ways of serving ourselves and making impressions upon the English to bring them to reason. One is to send ships immediately to China. This trade is as open to us as to any nation, and if our natural advantages at home are envied us we should compensate ourselves in any honest way we can. Our natural share in the West India trade is all that is now wanting to complete the plan of happiness and prosperity of our country. Deprived of it we shall be straitened and shackled in some degree. We can not enjoy a free use of all our limbs with- out this ; with it I see nothing to desire, nothing to vex or cha- grin our people, nothing to interrupt our repose, or keep up a dread of war. I know not what permission may be expected from Spain to trade to the Havanna, but should think that this resource ought not to be neglected. Instnictions to the Ministers Plenipotentiary appointed to negotiate Treaties of Conunerce ivitJi the European Nations, Alay y, 1^8^ Whereas, instructions bearing date the 29th day of October, 1783, were sent to the Ministers Plenipotentiary of the United States of America at the Court of Versailles, empowered to ne- gotiate a peace, or to any one or more of them, for concerting drafts or propositions for treaties of amity and commerce with the commercial powers of Europe : . . . Resolved, That in the formation of these treaties the following points be carefully stipulated : 1. That each party shall have a right to carry their own prod- uce, manufactures, and merchandise, in their own bottoms to the ports of the other, and thence the produce and merchandise of the other, paying, in both cases, such duties only as are paid by the most favored nation, freely, where it is freely granted to such nation, or paying the compensation where such nation does the same. 2. That with the nations holding territorial possessions in America, a direct and similar intercourse be admitted between the STRUGGLE WITH MERCANTILE SYSTEM 20I United States and such possessions ; or if this cannot be obtained, then a direct and similar intercourse between the United States and certain free ports within such possessions ; that if this neither can be obtained, permission be stipulated to bring from such possessions, in their own bottoms, the produce and merchandise thereof to their States directly ; and for these States to carry in their own bottoms their produce and merchandise to such posses- sions directly. 3. That these United States be considered in all such treaties, and in every case arising under them, as one nation, upon the principles of the federal constitution. . . . 8. That such treaties be made for a term not exceeding ten years from the exchange of ratification. . . . Resolved, That treaties of amity, or of amity and commerce, be entered into with Morocco, and the Regencies of Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli, to continue for the same term of ten years, or for a term as much longer as can be procured. . . . Resolved, That a commission be issued to Mr. J. Adams, Mr. B. Franklin, and Mr. T. Jefferson, giving powers to them, or the greater part of them, to make and receive propositions for such treaties of amity and commerce, and to negotiate and sign the same, transmitting them to Congress for their final ratification ; and that such commission be in force for a term not exceeding two years. 1 Letters of TJiomas Jefferson to James Monroe, I J 8^ . . . The effecting treaties with the powers holding positions in the West Indies, I consider as the important part of our business. It is not of great consequence whether the others treat or not. Perhaps trade may go on with them well enough without. But Britain, Spain, Portugal, France are consequent, and Holland, Denmark, Sweden may be of service too. We have hitherto waited for favorable circumstances to press matters with France. We are now about to do it tho I cannot say the prospect is good. The merchants of this country (France) are \Qxy clamorous against 1 Writings of Thomas Jefferson [Ford Edition], IV, 31, 58. 202 THE ECONOMIC SITUATION our admission into the West Indies and ministers are afraid for their places. . . . . , , The difficulty which arises in our case is, with the nations having American territory. Access to the West Indies is indis- pensably necessary to us. Yet how to gain it, when it is the estab- lished system of these nations to exclude all foreigners from their colonies. The only chance seems to be this, our commerce to the mother countries is valuable to them. We must endeavor then to make this the price of an admission into their West Indies, and to those who refuse the admission we must refuse our commerce or load theirs by odious discriminations in our ports. We have this circumstance in our favour too, that what one grants us in their islands, the others will not find it worth their while to refuse. The misfortune is that with this countiy (France) we gave' this price for their aid in the war, and we have now nothing more to offer. She being withdrawn from the competition leaves Gr. Britain much more at liberty to hold out against us. This is the difficult part of the business of treaty, and I own it does not hold out the most flattering prospect. . . . B. Relations with France ^ Coiifct'cncc of Jefferson ivitJi the Count de Vergennes on the Sub- ject of the Coniniercc of the United States with France, I'jS^ . . . Our conversation began with the usual topic ; that the trade of the United States had not yet learned the way to France, but continued to centre in England, though no longer obliged by law to go there. I observed, that the real cause of this, was to be found in the difference of the commercial arrangements in the two countries ; that merchants would not, and could not trade but where there was to be some gain ; that the commerce between two coun- tries could not be kept up, but by an exchange of commodities ; that, if an American merchant was forced to carry his produce to London, it could not be expected he would make a voyage from thence to France, witli the money, to lay it out here ; and, in like 1 Writings of Thomas Jefferson [Ford Edition], IV, 117-121, 129-130. STRUGGLE WITH MERCANTILE SYSTEM 203 manner, ihat if he could bring his commodities, witli advantage, to this country, he would not make another voyage to l^ngland, with the money, to lay it out there, but would take in exchange the merchandise of this country. The Count de Vergennes agreed to this, and particularly that where there was no exchange of mer- chandise, there could be no durable commerce ; and that it was natural for merchants to take their returns in the port where they sold their cargo. I desired his permission then, to take a summary view of the productions of the United States, that we might see which of them could be brought here to advantage. I. Rice. France gets from the Mediterranean a rice not so good indeed, but cheaper than ours. He said that they bought of our rice, but that they got from Egypt also, rice of a very fine quality. I observed that such was the actual state of their com- merce, in that article, that they take little from us. 2. Indigo. They make a plenty in their own colonies. He obsei'ved that they did, and that they thought it better than ours. 3. Flour, fish, and provisions of all sorts, they produce for themselves. That these articles might, therefore, be considered as not existing, for com- merce, between the United States and the kingdom of France. I proceeded to those capable of becoming objects of exchange between the two nations, i . Peltry and furs. Our posts being in the hands of the English, we are cut off from that article. I am not sure even, whether we are not obliged to buy of them, for our own use. When these posts are given up, if ever they are, we shall be able to furnish France with skins and furs, to the amount of two millions of livres, in exchange for her merchandise ; but at present, these articles are to be counted as nothing. 2. Potash. An experiment is making whether this can be brought here. We hope it may, but at present it stands for nothing. He observed that it was much wanted in P>ance, and he thought it would suc- ceed. 3. Naval stores. Trials are also making on these, as sub- jects of commerce with France. They are heavy, and the voyage long. The result, therefore, is doubtful. At present, they are as nothing in our commerce with this country. 4. Whale oil. I told him I had great hopes that the late diminution of duty would en- able us to bring this article, with advantage, to France ; that a 204 I^HE ECONOMIC SITUATION merchant was just arrived (Mr. Barrett) who proposed to settle at L'Orient, for the purpose of selhng the cargoes of this article, and choosing the returns. That he had informed me, that in the first year, it would be necessary to take one-third in money, and the remainder only in merchandise ; because the fishermen require, indispensably, some money. But he thought that after the first year, the merchandise of the preceding year, would always produce money for the ensuing one, and that the whole amount would con- tinue to be taken annually afterwards, in merchandise. I added, that though the diminution of duty was expressed to be but for one year, yet I hoped they would find their advantage in renewing and continuing it ; for that if they intended really to admit it for one year only, the fishermen would not find it worth while to re- build their vessels, and to prepare themselves for the business. The Count expressed satisfaction on the view of commercial ex- change held up by this article. He made no answer as to the con- tinuance of it ; and I did not choose to tell him, at that time, that we should claim its continuance under their treaty with the Hanse- atic towns, which fixes this duty for them, and our own treaty, which gives us the rights of the most favored nation. 5. Tobacco. I recalled to the memory of the Count de Vergennes, the letter I had written to him on this article ; and the object of the present conversation being, how to facilitate the exchange of commerciable articles between the two countries, I pressed that of tobacco, in this point of view ; observed that France, at present, paid us two mil- lions of livres for this article ; that for such portions of it as were bought in London, they sent the money directly there, and for what they bought in the United States, the money was still re- mitted to London, by bills of exchange ; whereas, if they would permit our merchants to sell this article freely, they would bring it here, and take the returns on the spot, in merchandise, not money. The Count observed, that my proposition contained what was doubt- less useful, but that the King received on this article, at present, a revenue of twenty-eight millions, which was so considerable, as to render them fearful of tampering with it ; that the collection of this revenue by way of Farm, was of very ancient date, and that it was always hazardous to alter arrangements of long standing, and STRUGGLE WITH MERCANTILE SYSTEM 205 of such infinite combinations with the fiscal system. I answered, that the simphcity of the mode of collection proposed for this article, withdrew it from all fear of deranging other parts of their system ; that I supposed they would confine the importation to some of their principal ports, probably not more than five or six ; that a single collector in each of these, was the only new officer requisite ; that he could get rich himself on six livres a hogshead, and would receive the whole revenue, and pay it into the treasury, at short hand. M. de Reyneval entered particularly into this part of the conversation, and explained to the Count, more in detail, the advantages and simplicity of it, and concluded by observing to me, that it sometimes happened that useful propositions, though not practicable at one time, might become so at another. I told him that that consideration had induced me to press the matter when I did, because I had understood the renewal of the Farm was then on the carpet, and that it was the precise moment when I supposed that this portion might be detached from the mass of the Farms. I asked Count de Vergennes whether, if the renewal of the Farm was pressing, this article might not be separated, merely in suspense, till government should have time to satisfy themselves on the expediency of renewing it. He said no prom- ises could be made. In the course of this conversation he had mentioned the liberty we enjoyed of carrying our fish to the French islands. I repeated to him what I had hinted in my letter, of November the 20th, 1785, that I considered as a prohibition the laying such duties on our fish, and giving such premiums on theirs, as made a difference between their and our fishermen of fifteen livres the quintal, in an article which sold for but fifteen livres. He said it would not have that effect, for two reasons : i . That their fishermen could not furnish supplies sufficient for their islands, and, of course, the in- habitants must, of necessity, buy our fish. 2. That from the con- stancy of our fishery, and the short season during which theirs continued, and also from the economy and management of ours, compared with the expense of theirs, we had always been able to sell our fish, in their islands, at twenty-five livres the quintal, while they were obliged to ask thirty-six livres. (I suppose he meant the 2o6 THE ECONOMIC SITUATION livre of the French islands.) That thus, the duty and premium had been a necessary operation on their side, to place the sale of their fish on a level with ours, and that without this, theirs could not bear the competition. , . . It will be observed that these efforts to improve the commerce of the United States, have been confined to that branch only which respects France itself, and that nothing passed on the subject of our commerce with the West Indies, except an incidental conver- sation as to our fish. The reason of this, was no want of a due sense of its importance. Of that, I am thoroughly sensible. But efforts in favor of this branch would, at present, be desperate. To nations with which we have not yet treated, and who have posses- sions in America, we may offer a free vent of their manufactures in the United States, for a full or modified admittance into those possessions. But to France, we are obliged to give that freedom for a different compensation ; to wit, for her aid in effecting our independence. It is difficult, therefore, to say what we have now to offer to her, for an admission into her West Indies. Doubtless, it has its price. But the question is, what this would be, and whether worth our while to give it. Were we to propose to give each other's citizens all the rights of natives, they would, of course, count what they should gain by this enlargement of right, and ex- amine whether it would be worth to them as much as their mo- nopoly of their West India commerce. If not, that commercial freedom which we wish to preserve, and which, indeed, is so valu- able, leaves us little to offer. ... If we can obtain from Great Britain reasonable conditions of commerce, (which, in my idea, must forever include an admission into her islands,) the freest ground between these two nations would seem to be the best. But if we can obtain no equal terms from her, perhaps Congress might think it prudent, as Holland has done, to connect us unequivocally with France. Holland has purchased the protection of France. The price she pays, is aid in time of zvar. It is interesting for us to purchase a free commerce with the French islands. But whether it is best to pay for it, by ai(/s in war, or by privileges iti commcirc, or not to purcJiasc it at all, is the question. STRUG(]LE WITH MERCANTILE SYSTEM 207 ^ The intercourse between the United States, and these Islands [French West Indies] was regulated, by an arret of the French government, bearing date the 30th of August, 1784. American vessels of at least sixty tons, were admitted into cer- tain ports in these islands, laden with timber of all kinds, dye woods, live stock, salt beef, salt fish, rice, liquors, raw or untanned hides, peltry, resin, pitch and tar ; and for cargoes of this descrip- tion, were allowed to carry away, rum and molasses, and goods brought from France, on payment of the local duties, and one per cent, ad valorem, on all imports and exports. A further duty, of three livres, was imposed upon ever)' quintal (of one hundred weight) of salt beef, cod or other dried fish ; to form a fund, for premiums, to be given on cod and other fish, from the French fisheries ; but salt meat from France was not subject to this duty. The colonial legislatures, however, were authorized, in times of scarcity, to suspend the operation of this law. Prior to the French revolution, the national policy of France and Great Britain, was indicated, by their different regulations, respecting the trade between the United States, and their West India possessions. With respect to exports from the United States, both nations admitted lumber of all kinds, live provisions, vege- tables, rice, pitch and tar, because neither could easily supply its islands with these articles. Great Britain excluded American beef, pork and dried fish ; while France admitted beef and dried cod fish, subject to the additional duty above mentioned. Great Britain admitted flour, bread, biscuit, and all kinds of grain — France, on the other hand, by a general law, excluded flour, and all kinds of grain, except Indian corn. With respect to exports, from the islands, France allowed rum and molasses only, to be carried to the United States ; while Great Britain allowed not only these articles, but sugar, coffee, cocoa-nuts, ginger and pimento — the latter, however, as we have before stated, conflned the carriage both of the exports and imports to her own vessels ; and the former permitted the exports and imports, in American vessels. The policy of Britain was, to monopolize the carriage of the 1 Pitkin, A Statistical View of the Commerce of the United States of America, pp. 216-217. 2o8 THE ECONOMIC SITUATION articles ; that of France, to monopolize the articles themselves, par- ticularly the colonial productions of much value. Great Britain was willing the people of the United States, should have the articles of sugar and coffee, on condition, that British ships might carry them. France, on the other hand, was willing the Americans should sup- ply her sugar and coffee plantations, with certain articles, which she was unable to furnish herself ; but would not allow them to receive in return, the most valuable productions of these plan- tations ; these were reserved, for her own consumption at home, and to augment her own national wealth. Under these colonial regulations, the United States, furnished the French Islands, with the greatest part of their supplies, obtained from foreign countries. C. Relations with England 1 In March, 1783, the celebrated William Pitt, then Chancellor of the Exchequer, brought into Parliament, a bill, for the tempo- rary regulation of this intercourse, founded upon liberal principles. With respect to the trade now in question, it admitted vessels, belonging to citizens of the United States, into the ports of the West India islands, with goods, or merchandize, of American growth or produce ; and permitted them, to export to the United States, any merchandize or goods whatever ; subject only to the same duties and charges, as if they had been the property of Brit- ish natural born subjects, and had been imported and exported, in British vessels. Violent opposition was made to this bill, by the navigating inter- est, at the head of which was Lord Sheffield ; and the administra- tion, of which Pitt was a member, being soon after dissolved, the bill itself was laid aside ; and the power of regulating the commer- cial intercourse, between the two countries, was, by the succeeding administration, lodged with the King and Council, l^y orders, soon after issued, in pursuance of this authority, American ves- sels were entirely excluded, from the British West Indies ; and some of the staple productions of the United States, particularly, 1 Pitkin, A Statistical View of the Commerce of the United States of America, pp. 189-191. STRUGGLE WITH MERCANTILE SYSTEM 209 fish, beef, pork, butter, lard, &e. were not permitted to be carried there, even in British Bottoms. This order was the commencement of that system of policy, re- specting this trade, which the British government has ever since pursued ; and from which, it has never relaxed, except, from the pressure of the long wars in Europe, the necessities of the colonies themselves, or from the proceedings of the American government. The object of this policy has been, to secure to British shipping, a monopoly of the commerce, between the United States and the West India Islands. This policy, to which it has so uniformly and tenaciously adhered, was founded, not merely, on the advantages of this direct intercourse ; but, for the additional benefit of the cir- cuitous trade, from the British European dominions, to the West Indies, by the way of LJnited States. The reasons of this policy are obvious, — Great Britain has few articles to carry from Europe, to supply her West India posses- sions — her vessels, therefore, in the direct voyages to these Is- lands, must necessarily go nearly empty, and of course, can earn little freight. But, by bringing a cargo, or even a part of a cargo, to the United States, and from thence, carrying supplies of Amer- ican produce to the West Indies, and there loading with colonial products for Europe, her vessels can earn two or three freights, instead of one. The advantages of this circuitous trade, are particularly noticed, by the committee of the British council, acting, as a board of trade, in a report made, as early as 1784. " It has been observed to them," say the committee, "that the owners of British vessels, concerned in the West India trade, have long labored under great disadvantages, from the difficulty of pro- curing outward freights, for their vessels ; but that now, by first going to North America, and from thence, to the West Indies, and so home, they will be sure of two freights, and perhaps three, instead of little more than one : and it is alleged, that they will reap this benefit, with ver)- small additional charges, in the pay- ment of seamen's wages, and port charges." 2IO THE ECONOMIC SITUATION TJic British Viczv of the Situation 1 From the foregoing state of the imports and exports of Amer- ica, to and from Europe and the West Indies, a judgement may be formed of their natural course and tendency — of their impor- tance, — and of the measures that should be adopted by Great Brit- ain ; or rather, it appears, that little is to be done, and our great care should be, to avoid doing mischief. The American States are separated from us and independent, consequently foreign ; the de- claring and treating them as such, puts them in the only situation, in which they can now be ; friendly, indeed, we may yet be, and well disposed to them, but we should wait events rather than en- deavour to force them ; and, relying on those commercial princi- ples and regulations under which our trade and navy have become so great. Great Britain will lose few of the advantages she possessed before these States became independent, and with prudent manage- ment she will have as much of their trade as it will be her interest to wish for, without any expence for civil establishment or protec- tion. The States will suffer, — they have lost much by separation. — We shall regret the money that has been squandered, but it is not probable our Commerce will be much hurt, and it is certain the means of employing and adding to our seamen will be greatly increased, if we do not throw away the opportunity. The Navigation act prevented the Dutch from being the carriers of our trade. The violation of relaxation of that act in favour of the West-India Islands, or of the American States, will give that advantage to the New-Englanders, and encourage to the greatest degree the marine of America, to the ruin of our own. The bill, in its present state, allowing an open trade between the American States and our islands, relinquishes the only use and advantage of American Colonies, or West-India Islands, the monopoly of their consumption, and the carriage of their produce ; for that object alone we could be tempted to support the vast expence of their maintenance and protection. Our late wars have been for the ex- clusive trade of America, and our enormous debt has been incurred 1 Sheffield, Observations on the Commerce of the American States [1783], pp. 134-139. 150-15!' 198-207, 263-264. STRU(;(>LE WITH MERCANTILE SYSTEM 21 I for that object. Our remaining Colonics on the Continent and Islands, and the favourable state of I^nglish manufactures, may still give us, almost exclusively, the trade of America. But the bill grants the West-India trade to the American States on better terms than we can have it ourselves, and these advantages are be- stowed, while local circumstances insure many others, which it is our duty to guard against, rather than promote. It makes it the interest of our merchants to trade under the American flag. Ship- ping may be had in America at much less original expence than is required here, but the quality is greatly inferior. It also makes it the interest of our remaining Colonies in North America, (for whom no advantages are reserved by the bill in question,) to be as independant as the American' States, in order to have their trade as open. . . . The French depend on their West Indies for the support of their marine ; all their writers say so. Should we then neglect the same opportunity of supporting our own ? It is well known, that the French settlements at St. Domingo alone, employed before the late war, 450 large ships in their commerce with France, and 200 smaller vessels in the West Indies and the two Americas. The French Leeward islands, taken collectively, have hitherto kept pace with St. Domingo, or ver}^ nearly so ; and it is certain that the trade of all the French Colonies put together, is not at this time, carried on by less than 1000 ships, exclusive of coasters: the number of seamen raised and employed by this means, is little, if at all, short of 20,000 men : the total produce of St. Domingo, in all its branches, is said to exceed that of Jamaica about one third ; at the same period the trade of the latter island was carried on by 310 ships only, of about the same size, of which 233 were employed between Europe and Jamaica, and yy of this number touched upon some part of the coast of Africa. If the system is adhered to, of prohibiting small American ves- sels from trading with our islands, many hundreds of sloops and schooners will be built in Bermuda and our remaining Northern Colonies, and our discharged seamen, who are now passing over to the Americans, will be employed ; but if we permit small American vessels, limited to 100, or even 60 tons, to come to 212 THE ECONOMIC SITUATION our islands, under pretence of bringing lumber and provisions, and carrying away rum, the business of the islands will be done prin- cipally by them ; there will be no end of smuggling, and we shall raise a most numerous marine on the coasts of the Southern States, where there is none at present, at the expence of our own. . . . It will not be an easy matter to bring the American States to act as a nation ; they are not to be feared as such by us. It must be a long time before they can engage, or will concur, in any material expence. A Stamp act, a Tea act, or such act, that can never again occur, could alone unite them ; their climate, their staples, their manners, are different ; their interests opposite ; and that which is beneficial to one, is destructive to the other. We might as reasonably dread the effects of combinations among the German as among the American States, and depricate the resolves of the Diet, as those of Congress. In short, every circumstance proves, that it will be extreme folly to enter into any engagements, by which ive viav not luish to be bojDid hereafter. It is impossible to name any material advantiige the American States will, or can give us in return, more than what we of course shall have. No treaty can be made with the American States that can be binding on the whole of them. The act of Confederation does not enable Congress to form more than general treaties : at the moment of the highest authority of Congress, the power in question was with- held by the several States. No treaty that could be made, would suit the different interests. When treaties air necessary, they must be made with the States separately. Each State has reserved every power relative to imports, exports , prohibitions , duties, &c. to itself. But no treaty at present is necessary. We trade with several very considerable nations, without commercial treaties. The novelty of the case, and the necessity of enquiry and full consideration, make it improper for us to hurry into any engagements that may possibly injure our navigation. When men talk of liberality and reciprocity in commercial matters, it is clear, either that they have no argu- ment, or no knowledge of the subject, that they are supporting a favourite hypothesis, or that they are interested. It is not friend- ship or favour, but exactness and punctuality, that is looked for in commerce. Our great national object is to raise as many sailors STRUGGLE WITII MERCANTILE SYSTEM 213 and as much shipping as possible ; so far acts of parhament may have effect ; but neither acts of parhament nor treaties, in matters merely commercial, will have any force, farther than the interests of individuals coincide ; and wherever advantage is to be gotten, the indi\'idual will pursue it. At least four-fifths of the importations from Europe into the American States, were at all times made upon credit ; and un- doubtedly the States are in greater want of credit at this time than at former periods. It can be had only in Great l^ritain. The French, who gave them credit, are all bankrupts : French mer- chants cannot give much credit. The Dutch in general have not trusted them to any amount ; those who did have suffered ; and it is not the custom of the Dutch to give credit, but on the best security. It is therefore obvious, from this and the foregoing state of imports and exports, into what channels the commerce of the American States must inevitably flow, and that nearly four-fifths of their importations will be from Great Britain directly. Where articles are nearly equal, the superior credit afforded by England will always give the preference. The American will, doubtless, attempt to persuade the Britisli merchant to be his security with foreigners ; but it is certain many foreign articles will go to America through Great Britain, as formerly, on account of the difficulty the American merchant would find in resorting to every quarter of the world to collect a cargo. The Americans send ships to be loaded with all sorts of European goods. A general cargo for the American market cannot be made up on such advantageous terms in any part of the world as in England. In our ports, all articles may be got with dispatch — a most winning circumstance in trade ; but wherever they carry fish, and those articles for which England cannot be the entrepot, they will take back wine, silk, oil, &c. from Spain and Portugal, and the Mediterranean. But if we maintain the canying trade, half the commerce of the American States, or less than half, without the expence of their government and protection, and without the extravagance of bounties, would be infinitely better for us than the monopoly, such as it was. . . . What was foretold in the first edition of this work, has now actually happened. Every account from America says, that British H THE ECONOMIC SITUATION manufactures are selling at a considerable profit, while other European goods cannot obtain the first cost. Every day's ex- perience shews, that this country, from the nature and quality of its manufactures, and from the ascendancy it has acquired in com- merce, will command three-fourths of the American trade. The American merchants solicit a correspondence, and beg for credit, because, while they feel their own want of capital, they know that our traders are more liberal, and our goods cheaper and better, than any in Europe. And the only danger is, not that the American merchants will ask for too few manufactures, but that they will obtain too many. The American consumers have been impoverished by an expensive war, which has bequeathed them many taxes to pay ; and they will not be more punctual in their remittances at a time when they are associating against the pay- ment of old debts. It may be for our interest to run some hazard, however, at the renewal of our correspondence, by accepting a trade which is pressed upon us by willing customers. But how far it may be prudent for the British merchant to comply with orders, till the several States hold out some regulations, that will give them security, is a question. TJic Anicricmi Vt'eiu of tJic Situation 1 This nation [England] relies upon it, that our States can never accomplish such a concert, either by giving congress the power, or by complying with their recommendations. Proofs of this are in- numerable. Eord Sheffield's writings, the constant strain of all the writings in the newspapers, the language of conversation, the report of the committee of council, but above all, the system adopted by the Duke of Portland's administration, and uniformly pursued by him and his successor, Mr. Pitt, are a demonstration of it. Eor, although many express a contempt of the American commerce, (and I am sorry to say that even Lord Camden has lately said, that while they had a monopoly of the American trade, 1 Letters of John Adams to Jay, July 19-Octoher 21, T7S5, in Works of John Adams, VIII, 2S1-282, 282-2S3, 289-291, 322, 323, 324-325, 332. STRUGGLE WITH MKRCANTILK SVSTF.M 215 it was a valuable thing ; but now they had not, he thought very little of it) yet those of the ministry and nations who understand any thing of the subject, know better, and build all their hopes and schemes upon the supposition of such divisions in America as will for ever prevent a combination of the States, either in prohibi- tions or retaliating duties. It is true that the national pride is much inflated at present by the course of exchange, which is much in their favor with all parts of the world, and disposes them to think little of American commerce. They say that the progress of the fine arts in this kingdom has given to their manufacturers a taste and skill, and to their productions an elegance, cheapness, and utility, so superior to any others, that the demand for their merchandises from all parts of Europe is greater than ever ; that even Lord North's prohibitory bill has contributed to this ad- vantage, by occasioning a demand among foreign merchants din-ing the war, for goods to supply America. The knowledge and taste for British manufactures, they say, has been, by this means, spread all over Europe, and the demands for them multi- plied, which has turned the balance so much in their favor, and caused such an extraordinary influx both of cash and bills of ex- change, into these kingdoms. Those who reflect more maturely upon this, however, see that this advantage is but temporaiy (if it is one) ; they say that the long stagnation of business by the war, had filled the country with manufactures ; that, upon the peace, extraordinary efforts were made to dispose of them, by sending factors abroad, not only to America, but to all parts of Europe ; that these factors have not only sold their goods at a low price, but have sent home cash and bills at a high one, so that their own factors have turned their course of exchange in their favor, in appearance, and for the present moment only, at their expense, for the loss, both upon the sale of goods and the purchase of re- mittances, is theirs. If these conjectures are right, the present appearance of prosperity will be succeeded by numerous failures and great distress. Be this as it may, the present appearance has produced a self-sufficiency which will prevent for some time any reasonable arrangement with us. 2i6 THE ECONOMIC SITUATION Their attachment to their navigation act, as well as that of all other parties here, is grown so strong, and their determination to consider us as foreigners, and to undermine our navigation, and to draw away our seamen, is so fixed, in order to prevent us from privateering, in case of a war, that I despair of any equal treaty, and, therefore, of any treaty, until they shall be made to feel the necessity of it. It cannot, therefore, be too earnestly recommended to all the States to concur with the State of New York, in giving to congress full power to make treaties of commerce, and, in short, to govern all our external commerce ; for, I really believe, it must come to that. Whether prohibitions or high duties will be most politic, is a great question. Duties may be laid, which will give a clear advantage to our navigation and seamen, and these would be laid by the States, upon the recommendations of congress, no doubt, as soon as the principle is admitted, that it is necessary that our foreign commerce should be under one direction. • You will easily infer, from all this, that I have no hopes of a treaty before next spring, nor then, without the most unanimous concurrence of all our States in vigorous measures, which shall put out of all doubt their power and their will to retaliate. . . . I find the spirit of the times very different from that which you and I saw, when we were here together, in the months of November and December, 1783. Then, the commerce of the United States had not fully returned to these kingdoms ; then, the nation had not digested its system, nor determined to adhere so closely to its navigation acts, relatively to the United States ; then, it was common, in conversation, to hear a respect and regard for America professed and even boasted of. Now, the boast is, that our commerce has returned to its old channels, and that it can follow in no other ; now, the utmost con- tempt of our commerce is freely expressed in pamphlets, gazettes, coffee-houses, and in common street talk. I wish I could not add to this the discourses of cabinet counsellors and ministers of state, as well as members of both houses of parliament. The national judgment and popular voice is so decided in favor of the navigation acts, that neither administration nor opposition dare avow a thought of relaxing them farther than has been already STRUGGLE WITH MERCANTILE SVS'l'EM 217 done. This decided cast has been given to the jxibHc opinion and the national councils by two facts, or rather presumptions. The first is, that in all events this country is sure of the American commerce. Even in case of war, they think that British manu- factures will find their way to the United States through France, Holland, the Austrian low countries, Spain, Portugal, Sweden, the French and Dutch West Indies, and even through Canada and Nova Scotia. The second is, that the American States are not, and cannot be united. The landed interest will never join with the commercial nor the southern States with the northern, in any measures of retaliation or expressions of resentment. These things have been so often affirmed to this people by the refugees, and they have so often repeated them to one another, that they now fully believe them ; and, I am firmly persuaded, they will try the experiment as long as they can maintain the credit of their stocks. It is our part, then, to tr}' our strength. You know better than I do, whether the States will give congress the power, and whether congress, when they have the power, will judge it necessary or expedient to exert it, in its plenitude. You were present in congress, sir, in 1774, when many members discussed in detail the commercial relations between the United States, then United Colonies, and Great Britain, Ireland, the British West Indies, and all other parts of the British empire, and showed to what a vast amount the wealth, power, and revenue of Great Britain would be affected by a total cessation of exports and im- ports. The British revenue is now in so critical a situation, that it might be much sooner and more essentially affected than it could be then. You remember, however, sir, that although the theory was demonstrated, the practice was found very difficult. Britain has ventured to begin commercial hostilities. I call them hostilities, because their direct object is not so much the in- crease of their own wealth, ships, or sailors, as the diminution of ours. A jealousy of our naval power is the true motive, the real passion which actuates them ; they consider the United States as their rival, and the most dangerous rival they have in the world. I see clearly they are less afraid of an augmentation of French ships and sailors than American. 2i8 THE ECONOMIC SITUATION They think they foresee, that if the Llnited States had the same fisheries, the same carrying trade, and the same market for ready built ships, which they had ten years ago, they would be in so re- spectable a posture, and so happy in their circumstances, that their own seamen, manufacturers, and merchants, too, would hurry over to them. If congress should enter in earnest into this commercial war, it must necessarily be a long one, before it can fully obtain the vic- tory ; and it may excite passions on both sides which may break out into a military war. It is to be hoped, therefore, that the peo- ple and their councils will proceed with all the temperance and circumspection which such a state of things recjuires. I would not advise to this commercial struggle, if I could see a prospect of jus- tice without it ; but I do not ; every appearance is on the contrary. It has been the general sense of our country since the peace, that it was their duty and their interest to be impartial between the powers of Europe, and observe a neutrality in their wars. This principle is a wise one, upon the supposition that those powers will be impartial to us, and permit us to remain at peace. But it is natural for England and France to be jealous of our neutrality, and apprehensive that, notwithstanding our professions, we may be in- duced to connect ourselves with one against the other. While such uncertainties and suspicions continue, we may find that each of these rival kingdoms will be disposed to stint our growth and diminish our power, from a fear that it will be employed against itself, and in favor of its enemy. If France could be sure of our perpetual alliance, it is to be supposed she would favor our in- crease in every thing which could be reconciled to her own inter- est. If England could obtain such an alliance with us, she, for the same reason, would favor our interests in all cases compatible with her own. The British ministry, therefore, have now before them a ques- tion as important to the British empire as any that ever was agi- tated in it ; whether by evacuating the posts, and fulfilling the treaty of peace in other points, and by opening their ports in the West STRUGGLE WITH MERCANTILE SYSTEM 219 Indies and on the continent of America, as well as in luirope, to our ships and produce, upon ec|ual and fair terms, they shall insure the impartiality and neutrality of America ; or whether, by a contrary conduct, they shall force them into closer connections of alliance and commerce with France, Spain, and Holland, A treaty of defensive alliance with France would deserve a long and careful deliberation, and should comprehend the Fast and West Indies. I mean our right to trade in them, as well as many other consider- ations, too numerous to hint at here. A new treaty of commerce might be made greatly beneficial to both countries. If we once see a necessity of giving preferences in trade, great things may be done. The United States may draw many useful lessons from this ex- ample [treaty with Portugal, 1704]. If, from the blind passions and rash councils of the Britons, they should be compelled to devi- ate from their favorite principle of impartiality and neutrality, they might make a new commercial treaty with France, for a term or forever exempting all the manufactures of France from one third or one half, or all the duties which shall be stipulated to be laid upon the English manufactures. In this case, what becomes of the manufactures of Britain ? what of their commerce, revenue, and naval power ? They must decline, and those of her rival must rise, I hint only at these things. They open a wide field of inquiry, and require all the thoughts of the people. We should stipulate for the admission of all our produce, and should agree upon a tariff of duties on both sides. We should insist upon entire liberty of trade and navigation, both in the East and West Indies and in Africa, and upon the admission of our oil and fish, as well as to- bacco, flour, rice, indigo, potash, &c. &c. This country boasts of her friends and partisans in this and the other assemblies, particularly in New York and Virginia, and is confident we can do nothing, neither exclude their ships from our exports, nor lay on duties upon their imports into our States, neither raise a revenue, nor build a fleet. If their expectations are not disappointed, we shall be, and that in a few months, not only a despised, but a despicable people. With the power in our own 220 THE ECONOMIC SITUATION hands of doing as we please, we shall do nothing with the means of making ourselves respected by the wise, we shall become the scorn of fools. This being the state of things, you may depend upon it, the commerce of America will have no relief at present, nor, in my opinion, ever, until the United States shall have generally passed navigation acts. If this measure is not adopted, we shall be de- rided ; and the more we suffer, the more will our calamities be laughed at. My most earnest exhortations to the States, then, are, and ought to be, to lose no time in passing such acts ; they will raise our reputation all over the world, and will avail us in treating with France and Holland, as well as England ; for, when these na- tions once see us in the right way, and united in such measures, they will estimate more highly our commerce, our credit, and our alliances. The question has been asked in France as often as in England, What have you to give in exchange for this and that .-' particularly, it was a constant question of the Marechal de Castries, What have you to give as a reciprocity for the benefit of going to our islands .? When we have once made a navigation act, or shown that we can unite in making one, we may answer, we can repeal our act or our imposts in return for your repealing yours. With regard to this country, I confess to you, I never should have believed, nor could have imagined the real situation of it, if I had not been here and resided here some time. I never could have conceived such an union of all parliamentaiy factions against us, which is a demonstration of the unpopularity of our cause. If the States do not make haste to confine their exports to their own ships, and lay duties upon British merchandise which shall give a decided advantage to our own manufactures and those of Germany, France, and other nations, it will be to no purpose to continue a minister here ; and I am sure I shall wish myself anywhere else rather than here. These are remedies which congress and the States can apply. I should hope they will not proceed farther at present ; but, if these are found insufficient, I hope they will think of proceeding farther in commercial treaties with other na- tions, and reserve the resource, of further alliances as a last resort. REASONS FOR A MORE PERFECT UNION 22 1 III. COMMERCIAL AND FINANCIAL REASONS FOR A MORE PERFECT UNION ^ An Enq2iiry into the J Principles on ivhieh a Commercial System for the United States of America sJionld be Founded . Read before the Society for Political Engnij'ies, Con- vened at the House of Betijaniin Franklin, in Philadelphia, May II, IjS'J The foundations of national wealth and consequence are so firmly laid in the United States, that no foreign power can under- mine or destroy them. But the enjoyment of these substantial bless- ings is rendered precarious by domestic circumstances. Scarcely held together by a weak and half formed federal constitution, the powers of our national government, are unequal to the complete execution of any salutary purpose, foreign or domestic. The evils resulting from this unhappy state of things have again shocked our reviving credit, produced among our people alarming instances of disobedience to the laws, and if not remedied, must destroy our property, liberties and peace. Foreign powers, however disposed to favor us, can expect neither satisfaction nor benefit from treaties with Congress, while they are unable to enforce them. We can therefore hope to secure no privileges from them, if matters are thus conducted. We must immediately remedy this defect or suffer exceedingly. Desultory commercial acts of the legislatures, formed on the impression of the moment, proceeding from no uniform or permanent principles, clashing with the laws of other states and opposing those made in the preceding year by the enacting state, can no longer be supported, if we are to continue one people. A system ivhieh will promote the general interests ivitJi the smallest injury to particidar ones has become indispensibly necessary. Com- merce is more affected by the distractions and evils arising from the uncertainty, opposition and errors of our trade laws, than by the restrictions of any one power in Europe. A negative upon all commercial acts of the legislatures, if granted to Congress wold (would }) be perfectly safe, and must have an excellent effect. If thought expedient it should be given as well with regard to those 1 Tench Coxe, A View of the United States of America, pp. 28-33. 222 THE ECONOMIC SITUATION that exist, as to those that may be devised in future. Congress would thus be enabled to prevent every regulation, that might oppose the general* interests, and by restraining the states from impolitic laws, would gradually bring our national commerce to order and perfection. We have ventured to hint at prohibitory powers, but shall leave that point and the general power of regulating trade to those who may undertake to consider the political objects of the Convention, suggesting only the evident propriety of enabling Congress to pre- vent the importation of foreign commodities, such as can be made from our own raw materials. When any article of that kind can be supplied at home, upon as low terms as those on which it can be imported, a manufacture of our own produce, so well established, ought not by any means to be sacrificed to the interests of foreign trade, or subjected to injury by the wild speculations of ignorant adventurers. In all cases careful provision should be made for refunding the duties on exportation, which renders the impost a virtual excise without being liable to any of the objections which have been made against an actual one, and is a great encourage- ment to trade. The restoration of public credit at home and abroad should be the first wish of our hearts, and requires every economy, every ex- ertion we can make. The wise and virtuous axioms of our political constitutions, resulting from a lively and perfect sense of what is due from man to man, should prompt us to the discharge of debts of such peculiar obligation. We stand bound to no common cred- itors. The friendly foreigner, the widow and the orphan, the trus- tees of charity and religion, the patriotic citizen, the war-worn soldier and a magnanimous ally— these are the principal claimants upon the feelings and justice of America. Let her apply all her resources to this great duty, and wipe away the darkest stain, that has ever fallen upon her. The general impost — the sale of the lands and every other unnecessary article of public property — re- straining with a firm hand every needless expence of government and private life — steady and patient industry, with proper dispo- sitions in the people, would relieve us of part of the burden, and enable Congress to commence their payments, and with the aid of REASONS FOR A MORK PERFECT UNION --J taxation, would ])ut tlic sinkinL^ and funding- of our debts within the power of the United States. The violence committed on the rights of propert)- under the authority of tender laws in some of the states, the familiarity with which that pernicious measure has been recurred to, and the shameless perseverance with which it has been persisted in after the value of the paper was confessedly gone, call aloud for some remedy. This is not merely a matter of justice between man and man. It dishonors our national character abroad, and the engine has been employed to give the coup de grace to public credit. It would not be difficult perhaps to form a new article of confeder- ation to prevent it in future, and a question may arise whether fellowship with any state, that would refuse to admit it, can be satisfactoiy or safe. To remove difficulties it need not be retro- spective. The present state of things instead of inviting emigrants, deters all who have the means of information, and are capable of thinking. The settlement of our lands, and the introduction of manufactories and branches of trade yet unknown among us or requiring a force of capital', which are to make our country rich and powerful, are interrupted and suspended by our want of pub- lic credit and the numerous disorders of our government. ^ TJic Federalist With France and with Britain we are rivals in the fisheries, and can supply their markets cheaper than they can themselves, not- withstanding any efforts to prevent it by bounties on their own or duties on foreign fish. With them and with most other European nations we are rivals in navigation and the carrying trade ; and we shall deceive our- selves if we suppose that any of them will rejoice to see it flourish ; for, as our carrying trade cannot increase without in some degree diminishing theirs, it is more their interest, and will be more their policy, to restrain than to promote it. In the trade to China and India, we interfere with more than one nation, inasmuch as it enables us to partake in advantages ■I jS'os. IV, XI, y.\\ (Lodge Edition), pp. iS-19, 60-73. 2 24 I^HE ECONOMIC SITUATION which they had in a manner monopohzed, and as we thereby supply ourselves witii commodities which we used to purchase from them. The extension of our own commerce in our own vessels cannot give pleasure to any nations who possess territories on or near this continent, because the cheapness and excellence of our pro- ductions, added to the circumstance of vicinity, and the enterprise and address of our merchants and navigators, will give us a greater share in the advantages which those territories afford, than con- sists with the wishes or policy of their respective sovereigns. Spain thinks it convenient to shut the Mississippi against us on the one side, and Britain excludes us from the St. Lawrence on the other ; nor will either of them permit the other waters which are between them and us to become the means of mutual intercourse and traffic. From these and such like considerations, which might, if con- sistent with prudence, be more amplified and detailed, it is easy to see that jealousies and uneasinesses may gradually slide into the minds and cabinets of other nations, and that we are not to ex- pect that they should regard our advancement in union, in power and consequence by land and by sea, with an eye of indifference and composure. . . . The importance of the Union, in a commercial light, is one of those points about which there is least room to entertain a differ- ence of opinion, and which has, in fact, commanded the most general assent of men who have any acquaintance with the sub- ject. This applies as well to our intercourse with foreign countries as with each other. There are appearances to authorize a supposition that the ad- venturous spirit, which distinguishes the commercial character of America, has already excited uneasy sensations in several of the maritime powers of Europe. They seem to be apprehensive of our too great interference in that carrying trade, which is the sup- port of their navigation and the foundation of their naval strength. Those of them which have colonies in America look forward to what this country is capable of becoming, with painful solicitude. REASONS l-'OR A M()R1<: PKRI565'732 45,106,494 3,153,139 7,012,155 17,159,016 1802 61,061,820 36,501,998 5,422,144 3,878,526 14,906,081 1803 23,223.849 10,294,693 2,991,430 367,177 5,351,524 1804 74,964,366 48,312,713 5,703,646 695,135 9,377,805 1805 123,031,272 46,760,294 7,559,224 2,425,680 15,201,483 1806 145,832,320 47,001,662 4,111,983 6,846,758 19,016,909 1807 143,136,905 42,122,573 4,207,166 8,540,524 18,971,539 1808 28,974,927 7,325,448 1,709,978 1,896,990 4,765,737 1809 45,248,128 24,364,099 4,722,098 2,029,336 5,889,669 1810 47,038,125 31,423,477 5,946,336 1,286,010 8,438,349 1811 18,381,673 10,261,442 3,057,456 2,221,462 8,815,291 1812 13,927,277 10,073,722 2,521,003 752,148 3,591,755 1813 7,347,038 6,568,527 99,660 1 08, 1 88 368,603 1814 762 220,594 none 27,386 41,409 1815 3,193,908 7,501,384 746,349 1,065,582 3,486,178 1S16 . . . . 17,536,416 8,948,713 769,329 531,571 8,103,734 242 FOREIGN INFLUENCES This trade, brought the United States, into colhsion with some of the European powers, and particularly Great Britain and France ; and in consequence of the celebrated decrees and orders of those two nations, (some notice of which will be taken, in a subsequent chapter,) the embargo was laid and commercial restrictions com- menced with these nation'^ ; and which finally ended in a war be- tween the United States and Great l^ritain. During the war, this trade was annihilated. On the return of peace in Europe, as well as in America, this trade in foreign articles, was, of course, greatly diminished. . . . While the Americans were thus carrying to Europe the rich products of the East and West Indies, they brought back in re- turn, great quantities of manufactured goods, principally from Great Britain, which they again exported, to different parts of the world, especially, to the West Indies and South America. The amount of goods, free of duty, and paying duties ad valorem, embracing woollens and cottons, exported in 1806, was ^18,571,477; and in 1807, $18,564,507. The whole amount of goods, paying ad valorem duties, imported the same years, was, In 1806 $54,461,957 1807 58,655,917 Between one third and three quarters, therefore, of all the goods, paying those duties, imported in these two years, were again exported. These goods came from different quarters of the world, in 1807, in the following proportions, viz. From Europe I'SOjQiS'iSS Africa 108,607 Asia 6,392,592 West India Islands, and American Colonies . . . 1,239,583 $58,655,917 Of which $43,525,320 came from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and dependencies; $3,812,065 from France and dependencies; and the residue, being $11,318,532, from other countries and places. EUROPEAN WARS AND THE NPXITRAL I RADl-: 243 The other articles of foreign produce and manufacture, of con- siderable value, exported, prior to 1808, were wines, teas, spices of all kinds, paints, lead, and manufactures of lead, iron, fish, and many others of minor importance. On an average of the years 1805, 1806, and 1807, the annual quantities, spirits, teas, cocoa, and pepper, exported, were. Wines 3'423'485 gals. Spirits 1,600,301 " Teas 2,151,385 lbs. Cocoa 5'937'654 " Pepper 5,292,791 " That this extensive foreign commerce, usually called the carry- ing trade, was highly beneficial, and added much to the wealth of the United States, cannot be doubted. While it greatly increased their commercial tonnage, it enriched the public treasury, as well as individuals. Many of the goods, thus exported, had paid the duties, and were not entitled to a drawback, in consequence of the exporters not having complied with the law, on that subject. The amount of duties thus paid, on articles exported, without the benefit of draw- back, during the years 1805, 1806, and 1807, amounted to the following sums, viz. In 1805 $1,531,618 1806 i>297.535 1S07 i,393>877 Making $4,223,003 When we add to this, the amount of three and a half per cent, retained, on all the drawbacks, and which, during these three years, was $1,030,677, we find, that the whole amount received, into the public treasury, in these three years, for duties, in conse- quence of this trade, and which was not paid, by the people of the United States, was $5,253,697, being about one ninth of all the duties collected, during the same period. The amount this trade added, to the wealth of the nation, and to individuals, cannot be ascertained, with precision : it must have been many millions a year. 244 FOREIGN INFLUENCES ^Annual Exports of Domestic and Foreign Merchandise, and THE Tonnage employed in the Foreign and Coasting Trades Years (ending 30th Sept.) Articles, the Growth, Produce, or Manufacture Total Value of Exports from United States Years (ending 31st Dec.) Registered Tonnage employed in Foreign Trade (Tons) Enrolled Tonnage Of the United States Of Foreign Countries Re-exported employed in Coast-Trade (Tons) 1790 $20,205,156 1790 346,254 103,775 1791 19,012,041 1791 363,110 106,494 1792 20,753,098 1792 411,438 120,957 1793 26,109,572 1793 367.734 114.853 1794 33,026,233 1794 438,862 167,227 1795 47,989,472 1795 529.470 164,795 1796 $40,764,097 $26,300,000 67,064,097 1796 576.733 195,423 1797 29,850,206 27,000,000 56,850,206 1797 597.777 214,077 1798 28,527,097 33,000,000 61,527,097 1798 603,376 227,343 1799 33-142,522 45,523,000 78,665,522 1799 669,197 220,904 1800 31,840,903 39,130,877 70,971,780 1800 669,921 245.295 1801 47,473,204 46,642,721 94,115.925 iSor 718.549 246,255 1802 36,708,189 35.774,971 72,483,160 1802 560,380 260,543 1803 42,205,961 13,594,072 55.800,033 1803 597.157 268,676 1804 41,467,477 36,231,597 77,699,074 1804 672,530 286,840 1S05 42,387,002 53.179.019 95,566,021 1805 749.341 301,366 1806 41,253,727 60,283,236 101,536,963 1806 808,284 309.977 1807 48,699,592 59,643,558 108,343,150 1807 848,306 318,189 1808 9433.546 12,997,414 22,430,960 1808 769.053 387,684 1809 31,405,702 20,797.531 52,203,233 1809 910,059 371.500 1810 42,366,675 24,391,295 66,757,970 1810 984,269 371. "4 181 1 45,294,043 16,022,790 61,316,833 iSii 768,852 386,258 1812 30,032,109 8,495,127 38.527.236 1S12 760,624 443,180 18.3 25,008,152 2,847,845 27.855.997 1S13 674.853 433.404 1814 6,782,272 145,169 6,927,441 1814 674,632 425.713 .815 45.974,403 6,583.350 52,557.753 1815 854,294 435.066 1816 64,781,896 17.138.556 81,920,452 1816 800,759 479.979 1817 68,313,500 19,358,069 87,671,569 In 1790, the total value of the exports, was in the proportion of 4.84 dollars for each inhabitant. In .1800, the domestic produce exported amounted to 8.92 dollars, the foreign merchandise re-exported to 8.76 dollars, and the exports of every description to 17.68 dollars for each inhabitant. In 1 8 10, the domestic exports amounted to 6.25 dollars, the foreign merchandise re-exported to 2.21 dollars, and the exports 1 Seybert, Statistical Annals [1S19], pp. 93, 317, 87. EUROPEAN WARS AND THE NEUTRAL I RADI': 245 of every description to 8.46 dollars for each of the inhabitants of the United States. During the year, which commenced on the first of October, 1806, and terminated on the 30th of September, 1807, the export trade arrived at the maximum, viz. 108,343,1 50 dollars ; if we ad- mit that the population then amounted to 6,300,000 persons, the domestic exports were in the proportion of 7.73 dollars, the foreign merchandise re-exported 9.46 dollars, and the exports of every description 17.19 dollars for each inhabitant. B. Influence upon the Country ^ The great demand for American agricultural productions, and the consequent increase in their price, as well as the demand for shipping for transporting these, as well as colonial and other pro- ductions, to various places in Europe and elsewhere, naturally turned the attention of the Americans almost exclusively, to agri- culture, commerce and navigation. . . . The increase of American tonnage, during the period under re- view, has no parallel, in the commercial annals of the world. In 1700, the commercial tonnage of England was estimated, at two hundred and seventy-three thousand six hundred and ninety-three, and in 1750, at six hundred and nine thousand seven hundred and ninety-eight, an increase, in half a centuiy, of about three hundred and thirty-six thousand; and the increase, in the next half century, was onl\- about six hundred and sixty thousand tons. This tonnage included the repeated voyages, and is much greater than the actual tonnage. . . . The increased demand for the agricultural productions of this country, during the period under review, raised their price to a height before unknown. This, as well as the trade in foreign productions, necessarily created a demand for shipping ; and agri- culture, commerce and navigation, became the most lucrative em- ployments, and almost exclusive objects of pursuit in the United States. We have before us, a table giving the price of flour at Philadelphia, from 1785 to 1828, a period of forty-four years, the 1 Pitkin, A Statistical View of the Commerce of the United States of America, PP- 369- 370. 37--j71>- 246 FOREIGN INFLUENCES accuracy of which, we beheve, may be rehed on. The average price of flour, from 1785 to 1793, according" to this table, was $5.41 per barrel, while the price, from 1793 to 1807, (excluding the years 1802 and 1803, when Europe was at peace under the treaty of Amiens,) being twelve years of the war, was $9.12, mak- ing a difference of $4.71 per barrel. This difference, during these two periods, may be attributed by some, to the depressed state of commerce, and a want of an efficient government, during a part of the first period. By adverting, however, to the price, from 1820 to 1828, after Europe had settled down in peace, and again returned to her old systems of policy, it was reduced, to $5.46, being only five cents more than in the first mentioned period. The advanced price of agricultural productions, during the long wars in Europe, was accompanied by a great advance in the price of lands in the United States. The difference in the valuations of lands, made, under the authority of the general government, between 1799, and 1 8 14 and 181 5, was, as we have before stated, $950,293,806. Taking into view, all other causes, which contributed to produce this — such as the increase of population, clearing of new lands, improvement of the old, depreciation of money, &c., yet no small part of it must be attributed to the increase of the profits of the lands themselves ; as it is well known, that, except in the new states, the price of lands has diminished, since 181 5. ^ . . , A new era was established in our commercial history ; the individuals, who partook of these advantages, were numerous ; our catalogue of merchants was swelled much beyond what it was en- titled to be from the state of our population. Many persons, who had secured moderate capitals, from mechanical pursuits, soon be- came the most adventurous. The predominant spirit of that time has had a powerful effect in determining the character of the rising generation in the United States. The brilliant prospects held out by commerce, caused our citizens to neglect the mechanical and manufacturing branches of industry ; fallacious views, founded on temporaiy circumstances, carried us from these pursuits, which must ultimately constitute the resources, wealth and power of this 1 Scybert, Statistical Annals [1819], pp. 5<;-6o. EUROl'MVN WARS AND 'I'lIK NEUTRAL TR ADi: 247 nation. lA-mporary benefits were mistaken for permanent advan- tages ; so certain were the profits on the foreign voyages, that commerce was only pursued as an art ; all the knowledge, which former experience had considered as essentially necessary, was now. unattended to ; the philosophy of commerce, if I am allowed the expression, was totally neglected ; the nature of foreign pro- ductions was but little investigated by the shippers in the United States ; the demand in Europe for foreign merchandise, especially for ^hat of the West Indies and South America, secured to all these cargoes a ready sale, with a great profit. The most adven- turous became the most wealthy, and that without the knowledge of any of the principles which govern commerce under ordinary circumstances. No one was limited to any one branch of trade ; the same individual was concerned in voyages to Asia, South America, the West Indies and Europe. Our tonnage increased in a ratio, with the extended catalogue of the exports ; we seemed to have arrived at the maximum of human prosperity ; in proportion to our population we ranked as the most commercial nation ; in point of value, our trade was only second to that of Great Britain. By our extended intercourse with other nations we not only aug- mented our pecuniary resources, but we thereby became acquainted with their habits, manners, science, arts, resources, wealth and power. At home we imitated them in much that was useful and adapted to our condition ; fixed and permanent improvements were established throughout the United States ; the accumulated capital of our merchants, enabled them to explore new sources of wealth ; our cities were augmented and embellished, our agriculture was improved, our population was increased, and our debt was dimin- ished. The merchants who had been long engaged in trade, were confounded by the changes which were so suddenly effected ; the less experienced considered the newly acquired advantages as mat- ters of right, and that they would remain to us ; they did not con- template a period of general peace, when each nation will carry its own productions, when discriminations will be made in favour of domestic tonnage, when foreign commerce will be limited to enu- merated articles, and when much circumspection will be necessary in all our commercial transactions. 248 FOREIGN INFLUENCES C. Depredations of the Belligerents ^ The American commerce, during this period, was often inter- rupted, by depredations, committed under illegal orders, decrees and blockades of the two great belligerents, France and Great Britain. These depredations commenced, under the French de- cree of May 9th, 1793, and others which followed, and under the British order of the 8th of June, 1793, prohibiting flour and meal from being carried to France, or to any port occupied by French armies. This was followed, by other British orders, in relation to neutral trade with the French West Indies. The proceedings of the British government, under these illegal orders, as well as other acts strongly indicating hostile intentions, would, probably, have brought the United States, into open war with Great Britain, as early as 1794, had not President Washington interposed a peace- ful mission to that country, and which ended in a treaty, concluded by Mr. Jay, on the 19th of November of that year; and under which, the merchants of the United States, received more than ten millions of dollars, as a compensation for property illegally taken, under the British orders referred to. France considered this treaty as a violation of prior engage- ments made with her, on the part of the Americans ; and its final ratification in 1 796, was immediately followed, by a general seizure and condemnation of American vessels, under several illegal de- crees of the Executive Directory. This brought the United States into partial hostilities with France, and which ended by a treaty made with the first consul in 1800. The treaty of Amiens, in 1801, gave a short respite to Europe. The war, however, was renewed in 1803, with more de- termined animosity, than before ; and the law of nations was dis- regarded, not only between the belligerents themselves, but between them and neutrals. In this renewed cojitest, such was the maritime superiority of Great Britain, that the commercial vessels of France, Holland and Spain, were almost driven from the ocean ; and these nations were dependent upon a neutral flag, for their colonial, as 1 Pitkin, A Statistical View of the Commerce of the United States of America, PP- 373-376. KrROPKAN WARS AND 11 IE NEUTRAL I'RADE 249 well as other supplies ; and the United States heeame their sole carriers. This interference of neutrals, in the commerce of her enemies, Great Britain considered, as unjustly depriving her of the only means she had, of annoying them and as pre\-enting her from bringing them, to just terms of peace ; and was at last carried to such an extent, that in 1805, she considered it as a cover of ene- my's property ; and denominated it " war in disguise." A pam- phlet, under this imposing name, was published in Great Britain, in that year, well calculated to excite, not merely the jealousy, but the hostility of that country, against neutrals. In this celebrated pamphlet, the American people, were referred to, as "a new power that had arisen on the western shore of the Atlantic, whose posi- tion, and maritime spirit, were calculated to give new and vast im- portance, to every question of neutral rig/its, especially in the American seas." And the author, also, declares, " that not a single merchant ship, under a flag inimical to Great Britain, now crosses the equator, or traverses the Atlantic Ocean." Under impressions, which such language as this, would naturally produce, the British government and the admiralty courts, were confirmed and supported, in the revival of the rule of 1756, by which, it was claimed, that neutrals, in time of war, could carry on no trade, which they had not been accustomed to carry on, in time of peace. Great Britain had not before objected to t he America ns bringing colonial and other produce into the ports of the United States, there securing the duties, and then again reshipping it, with a drawback of most of the duties, to any foreign country. She now, claimed that the allowance of this, was only a relaxation of the rule of 1756; and, on the 22nd of May, 1805, an American vessel, called the Essex, Orme master, was condemned, together with her cargo, under the rule before mentioned, now, for the first time, ap- plied during this war. In consequence of this admiralty decision, many American vessels, in the same situation as the Essex, were seized and brought into British ports. This immediately became a subject of complaint, on the part of the American merchants. It will be remembered, that, at this time, the United States had no treaty with Great Britain, in relation to commerce ; the commercial 250 FOREIGN INFLUENCES part of that concluded by Mr. Jay, having expired in 1804. The British government, however, proposed in that year, a renewal of this treaty, to continue, until two years after the close of the new war — but this was declined, by the American Executive. In this peculiar state of things, a new negotiation was set on foot ; and Mr. William Pinckney, who had been one of the com- missioners under Mr. Jay's treaty, to adjust the claims of the Amer- ican merchants, was associated with Mr. Munroe, in conducting it. The important subject of impressment, as well as the colonial trade was, also, to claim the attention of the American negotiators. On the 3 1st of December, 1806, Messrs. Munroe and Pinckney, during the short period of the Fox administration, with much diffi- culty concluded a treaty with Great Britain. With respect to the colonial and otiier trade, the eleventh article provided, in substance, that, during the then existing war, European products, might be carried to any port of any colony, belonging to the enemy of Great Britain, provided they had been entered and landed in the United States, and paid the ordinary duties ; and on re-exportation, should, after the drawback, have been subject to a duty, equivalent to not less than one per cent, ad valorem, and were bona fide the property of American citizens. And the produce of the colonies of the ene- mies, might, also, be brought to the United States, there entered, landed, and having paid the duties, might be re-exported, to any part of Europe, subject to a duty, after the drawback, of not less than two per cent, ad valorem. This treaty, it is well known, was rejected by Mr. Jefferson, without even consulting his constitu- tional advisers ; principally, for the want of an express stipulation, against future impressments — a stipulation which, after immense sacrifices, from commercial restrictions, for four years, and a war of two and a half years more, the successor of Mr. Jefferson, was unable to obtain. And we beg leave here to remark, that, although the American commissioners could not procure a treaty stipula- tion, on this important subject, in strict accordance with their instructions ; }'ct the British commissioners, in a written communi- cation, gave such assurances of security, against the future abuse of the practise of impressment, as satisfied the American commis- sioners, on this point. EUROPEAN WARS AXD THE NEUTRAL IRADI'. 25 1 Mr. Munroe, in his letter to the I'rcsidcnt, of the 28th of Vch- ruary, 1808, giving his reasons, for assenting" to the treaty, on tliis point, says — "' We were, therefore, decidedly of opinion, that the paper of the British commissioners, placed the interest of impress- ment, on ground, which it was both safe and honorable for the United States, to admit ; tliat, in short, it gave their government the command of the subject, for every necessary and useful pur- pose. Attached to the treaty, it was the basis or condition, on which the treaty rested." The consequences of the failure of the negotiation, are, by Mr. Munroe, described in the following lan- guage — "War, therefore, seemed to be the inevitable consequence of such a state of things ; I was far from considering it an alterna- tive, which ought to be preferred, to the arrangement, which was offered to us. When I took into view the prosperous and happy condition of the United States, compared with that of other na- tions ; that, as a neutral power they were almost the exclusive car- riers of the whole world ; and that, in commerce, they flourished beyond example, notwithstanding the losses, which they, occasion- ally suffered, I was strong in the opinion, that these blessings ought not to be hazarded, in such a question." The hasty rejection of this treaty, (the best, no doubt, that could have been made, at that time, as Mr. Jay's was, in 1794,) ultimately led, as Mr. Munroe had predicted, to a war with Great l^ritain. In entering upon the consideration of the situation of the United States, during the second period, commencing at the close of 1807, when their whole external commerce was, at once, withdrawn from the ocean — a commerce, which in the three years immediatel)' preceding, in imports and exports, exceeded three hundred mil- lions of dollars for each ; we deem it not improper to advert to some of the immediate causes, which led to this proceeding on the part of the American government. D. Continental System, Orders in Council, and Embargo ^ The French emperor. Napoleon, was at this period in the full tide of success and conquest, having subdued and brought under 1 Williams, Statesman's Manual, I, 254-257, 25S-259, 262-263. 252 FOREIGN INFLUENCES his control a large part of continental Europe. But the English navy had nearly destroyed the French power at sea. The battle of Trafalgar annihilated the united fleets of France and Spain ; and all the principal ports of the French empire, with a long extent of seacoast, were held in vigorous blockade by the British squadrons. To retaliate on the British, the Emperor Napoleon devised a new plan of attack, which he called the Continental System. The object of this scheme was to cut off all intercourse between the continent of Europe and Great Britain, and thus weaken England by destroying this portion of her commerce. On the 2ist of November, 1806, Napoleon, having defeated the Prussians, and entered Berlin, the capital of that kingdom, issued from the royal palace of that city his celebrated Berlin de- cree ; by which he declared the British isles in a state of blockade ; and, consequently, that every American or other neutral vessel go- ing to, or coming from, these isles, was subject to capture. The same decree provided that all merchandise belonging to England, or coming from its manufactories, or colonies, although belonging to neutrals, should be lawful prize on land. This provision was carried into effect. General Armstrong, American minister at Paris, regarded the Berlin decree at first as inapplicable to American commerce, on account of the treaty then existing between the United States and France, but in October, 1807, in answer to his inquiry as to the effect of the decree the French minister of foreign relations in- formed him of his mistake. The condemnation of American ves- sels commenced in November following. The British government, in retaliation of Napoleon's Berlin de- cree, issued their famous orders in council, dated November 1 1 , 1807. By these orders, all direct trade from America to any part of Europe at war with Great Britain, or which excluded the British flag, was totally prohibited. Goods, however, were allowed to be landed in England, and, after paying duties, might be re-exported to Europe. On the 17th of December succeeding, the orders in council were followed by the Milan decree of Napoleon, which declared that every vessel that should submit to be searched by a British man-of-war, or which should touch at a British port, or EUROPEAN WARS AND THE NEUTRAL TRADE 253 should pay any impost whatc\-cr to tlic British government, should be dciiatioiialirscd, and subject to seiziu-c and condemnation. These edicts of the two belligerent powers were, of course, destructive to the principal part of the foreign commerce of the United States. American vessels trading directly with French ports were liable to capture by British cruisers ; and if they touched at a British port, the)' were confiscated on arriving in France. The British orders in council operated with the most severity on American commerce, as through their powerful navy the English possessed the means of enforcing them. The critical situation of our foreign relations induced the presi- dent to call the tenth Congress together on the 25 th of October, 1807. The democratic majority continued large in both branches. Joseph B. Varnum, a friend of the administration from Massachu- setts, was chosen speaker of the house of representatives. In consequence of the hostile edicts of France and England, the president, in a confidential special message, on the i8th of December, recommended to Congress the passage of an act lay- ing an embargo on all vessels of the United States. The message did not allude to the British order in council, although Mr. Tucker informs us in his life of Jefferson, on the authority of Mr. Madison, then secretary of state, that the government had received informa- tion, through an authentic private channel, that the British minis- try had issued an order against neutral commerce, in retaliation of the Berlin decree ; which information was confirmed by a minis- terial English newspaper received at the same time. The subject was immediately discussed in both houses of Con- gress, in secret session ; and a bill laying an embargo was passed on the 22nd of December, 1807, at eleven o'clock at night, by a vote of 82 to 44. A similar bill had passed the senate on the very day the subject was introduced, by a vote of 22 to 6. According to this bill, all American vessels were prohibited from sailing for foreign ports ; all foreign vessels from taking out cargoes ; and all coasting vessels were required to give bond to land their cargoes in the United States. The embargo was violently opposed by the federal party and their few democratic associates in Congress. It was also extremely 254 FOREIGN INFLUENCES unpopular among a large portion of the people, particularly in the states most interested in commerce and navigation. The federalists throughout the United States, denounced the restrictive measures of the administration, but the democratic party generally approved of and sustained them. There were, however, some exceptions even among that party ; and in the city of New York a public meeting was held, soon after the passage of the embargo act by Congress, at which De Witt Clinton, then a leading demo- crat in the state of New York, presided ; and at this meeting reso- lutions were adopted disapproving of the embargo. The American Citizen, a democratic paper published in the city by James Cheet- ham, came out decidedly against the measure, Mr, Clinton shortly afterward renounced his opposition, and sustained this and other measures of Mr. Jefferson's administration. Those who opposed the embargo policy believed it would prove unavailing in its influence to induce the British ministry to adjust existing disputes with the United States ; another objection to the embargo was, that the act contained no provision for limiting it to a definite period. An embargo had been laid by the continental Congress early in the war of the revolution, and again in 1794, during the administration of Washington ; but these were limited to thirty or sixty days. The act of 1807 was unlimited as to the term of its operation, and it could not be repealed by a majority vote of Congress, as the act of repeal would be subject to the presi- dent's veto, after which a two-third vote would be necessary in Congress. If it were intended as a measure of annoyance and in- jury to a foreign nation, it was putting it in the power of the presi- dent to make war ; and if it were designed chiefly as a means of safety, it was said, the merchants were the best judges as to the risks and the dangers. And there was reason to believe that the measure had been recommended and adopted at the secret instance of the French emperor, who sought to destroy the commerce of Great Britain ; and who insisted on the co-operation of the United States, directly or indirectly, in his plans to subjugate his enemy. The letters of the American envoys in Paris, afterward published, stated various conversations and facts which showed that the emperor expected an embargo would be laid by the American EUROPEAN WARS AND THE NEU'l-RAL I'KADK 255 government, and that it would meet his approbation. Napoleon had said that there should he no neutrals ; that the United States should be decided friends, or he must treat them as enemies. And he pre- dicted in October that an embargo would be laid in America, which was done in December following. Mr. Jefferson used the following language in a confidential letter to the American minister in Paris, in October, 1808 : " Bonaparte does not wish us to go to war with England ; knowing we have not ships sufficient to carry on such a war. And to submit to pay Itngland the tribute on our commerce, which she demands by her orders in council, would be to aid her in the war against France and would give the emperor just ground to declare war on us." Notwithstanding the difficulties in which American commerce was involved by the conduct of both luigland and h'rance, it was the opinion of men entitled to respect and confidence for their good judgment, that negotiations conducted in a proper spirit would have prevented the difficulties and evils which occurred to the United States ; and that more decision and firmness would have prevented war and preserved commercial prosperity. In PYance, the American envoys expressed surprise that some resentment was not manifested against the PYench government by that of the United States. And the American ministers in England expressly declared, that a treaty might have been made with that government which, if not in all respects such as was desired, might have been accepted without injury or dishonor to the United States. The embargo question, and subjects connected with it, occupied much of the time of this session of Congress, which closed on the 25th of April, 1808. The president, on the 2nd of P^bruary, communicated to Congress the British orders in council of the nth of November, and on the 17th of March he sent to that body the Milan decree of Napoleon. Spain issued similar decrees soon after the latter, ... The operation of the embargo law, although the measure was sustained by a majority of the American people, was the occasion of great distress, particularly among the commercial community, throughout the United States, and put the patriotism and firmness of all to a severe test. Dependent as we were on foreign markets 256 FORKKIN INFLUENCES for the sale of our redundant products, now that we were not per- mitted to export them, they fell to half their wonted price, and even less. To many of the producers they did not repay the cost of production. The supply of foreign merchandise, too, which habit had made necessary, and of which there was no domestic supply, or an insufficient one, being cut off, its price rose propor- tionally high, and thus the expenses of the agricultural classes in- creased in the same proportion that their means of defraying them diminished. It bore still harder on the sailors and ship-owners, who were thrown entirely out of employment — and here the pres- sure was most severely felt in the states that were most addicted to navigation. It is true it operated as a bounty on manufactures, by making them scarcer and dearer, but this at first benefited but a small proportion of the community. The embargo was also severely felt by the belligerents, and especially by England. The United States were the most exten- sive and profitable of all the customers of Great Britain, and the loss of our trade must be grievously felt by her manufacturers. Thus it was a trial between the two nations, England and the United States, who could suffer longest. In this contest, however, we lay under a disadvantage ; for, in the first place, we deprived Great Britain of the trade of only one nation, while we deprived ourselves of the trade of all ; and in the next, our adversaries could procure cotton from Brazil, Eg}'pt, and the East Indies, tobacco from South America, naval stores from Sweden, lumber from Nova Scotia, and grain from the Baltic, though at a greater cost ; but we, exporting nothing, were unable to import the woollens, linens, silks, hardware, and pottery, to which we were accustomed and which we had not yet learned to make. Another disadvantage (noticed by the same writer) attending this policy, was the change of trade from the United States, by being forced into new channels. Thus it was long after the peace before the West Indies furnished as extensive a market for Amer- ican products as before the embargo. Whatever were the hazards of capture, from the edicts of the belligerents, they could be fairly estimated by the merchants, and to prohibit them from employing their capital in this way was to withhold from them a profit within KUROPEAiN WARS AND THE NEUTRAE TRADE 257 their rcacli, and was an injury, not only to them, but to the whole class of their customers, whether producer:; oi' tonsumers. It was further injurious in increasing the profits of illicit trade, and, con- sequent!)', the temptations to engage in violations of the embargo law, and smuggling, to the injury of jxitriotic merchants and the benefit of those who disregarded the laws. The violent opposition to this measure of the administration, gradually weakened the democratic party and strengthened the federalists, particularly in the middle and eastern states. Still the administration were enabled to sustain themselves with a majority of the people. In reference to the operation of the embargo, Mr. Jefferson remarks, in a letter to Doctor Leib on the 23rd of June, 1808 : " The federalists are now playing a game of the most mis- chievous tendency, without, perhaps, being themselves aware of it. They are endeavoring to convince PLngland that we suffer more by the embargo than they do, and that, if they will but hold out awhile, we must abandon it. It is true, the time will come when we must abandon it. But if this is before the repeal of the orders in council, we must abandon it only for a state of war. The day is not distant when that will be preferable to a longer continuance of the embargo. But we can never remove that, and let our vessels go out and be taken under these orders, without making reprisal. I think that in two or three months we shall know what will be the issue. . . ." In the meanwhile the embargo was pressing with increasing- severity on every class of the connnunity, whether producers or consumers, and this pressure drove the people of New England, where the embargo was most felt, to a point of disaffection which had never before been witnessed in the United States. Many, therefore, entertained strong hopes that some course would be taken during the present session, by which the industry and enter- prise of the country might be again put into activity, its vessels be once more suffered to venture on the ocean, and perhaps be per- mitted to arm in their own defence, if not to make reprisals. Among the many objections to the embargo, there was one which operated strongly on its friends, and that was the frequency with which it was violated. There were also many cases in which the 258 FOREIGN INFLUENCES law was clandestinely ■ evaded. Theilfc^ority of Congress who were willing to try it longer, rather th^|BJj|sort to war, passed a law during this session, which armed ^j^fcjiecutive with new powers for enforcing it. ^H^k The administration and the majority who su]^orted,it were, be- fore Congress rose, turned from the purpose of trjiMMitie embargo a few months longer, from fear of the growing disau^tion of the New England states. It has appeared by subsequent disclosures, that in the month of February, Mr. John Ouincy Adams, who had supported the admin- istration in the embargo and other measures of policy, ever since the affair of the Chesapeake, and who, finding his course was not approved by the legislature of Massachusetts, had resigned his seat in the senate of the United States, made to the president a com- munication to the following effect, namely : that from information received by him, and which might be relied on, it was the deter- mination of the ruling party in Massachusetts, and even New Eng- land (federalists), if the embargo was persisted in, no longer to submit to it, but to separate themselves from the Union ; at least until the existing obstacles to commerce were removed ; that the plan was already digested, and that such was the pressure of the embargo on the community, that they would be supported by the people. The danger thus threatening the Union was deemed paramount to all other considerations, and the president, with his cabinet, concluded that it would be better, to modify their interdiction of commerce in such a way that, while employment was afforded to American vessels, Great Britain and France should still feel the loss of American commerce. Congress accordingly passed a law for repealing the embargo after the 1 5 th of March, as to all nations except France and Great Britain, and interdicting with them all commercial intercourse whatever, whether by exporting or import- ing, either directly or circuitously. This measure has always since gone under the name of the non-inteixoiirse law. It passed the house of representatives on the 27th of February, by 81 votes to 40, and became a law on the ist of March, 1809. The repeal of the embargo took effect on the 15th of the same month. EUROPEAN WARS AN^^'IIE NEUTRAL TRADI': 259 ^ Having" thus brictiy^^^tcd to the causes wliich led to the interruption of the eijM^Bn commerce of the country, durin<^ the period now iindc r I'^MBr^by embargo, non-intercourse and war, it is time to call the ^jj^ ii lion of tlie reader to the extent of that commerce, when iljHB sufi'ered to leave the American ports. During" the erriTOrgo, the coasting trade was subjected to very rigorous exactions, lest it should find its way to foreign nations. Notwithstanding this, mcmy vessels, either by real or pretended stress of weather, or from other causes, were driven into foreign ports ; and the courts of the United States were filled with suits for breaches of the original embargo act, and the various subse- quent acts, made to enforce it. On the removal of the embargo, trade in some degree revived, though still embarrassed by the non-intercourse acts before noticed. The value of the exports of domestic and foreign origin, from September 30th, 1807, to Sep- tember 30th, 1 8 1 2, was in each year as follows : — Years Domestic exports Foreign exports 1808 $9,433,546 $18,997,414 1809 31,405,702 20,797,531 1810 42,366,675 24,391,295 181 1 45,294,043 ....... 16,022,790 1812 30,032,075 8,495,127 $158,532,075 $82,704,157 From September 30th, 1812, to September 30th, 18 14, when the United States were at war with Great Britain, the value of the exports was greatly diminished — Years Domestic exports Foreign exports 1813 $25,008,153 $2,847,845 1814 6.782,272 1 4 5' 1 69 $31,790,424 ■ $2,993,014 Much the greatest part of the domestic exports in 18 13, con- sisted of flour, w^heat, corn, rye and rice shipped to Spain and Portugal, not only for the supply of the inhabitants of those coun- tries, then desolated by the invading armies of Bonaparte, but for the support of the British troops, then assisting in the defence of those countries against their invaders. This commerce was carried 1 Pitkin, A Statistical View of the Commerce of tlie United States of America, pp. 407-409. 26o FOREIGN INFLUENCES on, with the connivance of the I^ritish government ; and the most of it, no doubt, in a manner justifiable, by special licences from that government. The value of the above articles, carried to Spain and Portugal in 1813, exceeded nineteen millions. Taking this sum from the whole value of the exports for these two years, will leave only about sixteen millions with the rest of the world. The long embargo, the non-intercourse acts, and the war which followed, against a nation on which the United States had been so long dependent, for no small proportion of their principal articles of consumption, proved the great want of their own internal re- sources. Notwithstanding the short period of the war, the American armies suffered severely for the want of blankets, and other neces- sary clothing. And the great want of facilities for the transporta- tion of provisions and baggage necessary for their armies, as well as of their military stores, through such an extensive country, greatly enhanced the expenses of the war, and increased the national debt. This in addition to the new state of things in Europe, in consequence of the general peace, necessarily directed the attention of the Americans, at the close of their war with Great Britain, to the subject of their own internal resources — a subject for a long time, for reasons already stated, almost entirely neglected. II. THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION 1 ^ Kisr and Progress of the Ihitis/i C otton Maiuifactiirc The rapid growth and prodigious magnitude of the cotton manufacture of Great l^ritain are be\'ond all question the most extraordinary phenomena in the history of industry. Our com- mand of the finest wool naturally attracted our attention to the woollen manufacture, and paved the way for that superiority in it to which we have long since attained : but when we undertook the cotton manufacture, we had comparatively few facilities for its 1 For an account of the great inventions, see Walpole's History of England from 181 5, I, 52-76, reprinted in ISullock's Selected Readings in Economics and Rand's Economic History since 1763. '■^ McCulloch, Commercial Dictionary, I, 519-522. THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION 261 prosecution, and had to struggle with tlie greatest difficulties. The raw material was produced at an immense distance from our shores ; and in Hindostan and China the inhabitants had arrived at such perfection in the arts of spinning and weaving, that the lightness and delicacy of their finest cloths emulated the web of the gossamer, and seemed to set competition at defiance. Such, however, has been the influence of the stupendous discoveries and inventions of Hargraves, Arkwright, Crompton, Cartwright, and others, that we have overcome all these difficulties — that neither the extreme cheapness of labour in Hindostan, nor the excellence to which the natives had attained, has enabled them to withstand the competition of those who buy their cotton ; and who, after cam-ing it 5,000 miles to be manufactured, carry back the goods to them. This is the greatest triumph of mechanical genius : and what perhaps is most extraordinaiy, our superiority is not the late result of a long series of successive discoveries and inventions ; on the contrary, it has been accomplished in a very few years. Little more than half a centur)^ has elapsed since the British cotton manufactory was in its infancy ; and it noiv forms the principal business carried on in the country, — affording an advantageous field for the accumulation and employment of millions upon millions of capital, and of thousands upon thousands of work- men 1 The skill and genius by which these astonishing results have been achieved, have been one of the main sources of our power : they have contributed in no common degree to raise the British nation to the high and conspicuous place she now occupies. Nor is it too much to say that it was the wealth and energy de- rived from the cotton manufacture that bore us triumphantly through the late dreadful contest [the Napoleonic wars], at the same time that it gives us strength to sustain burdens that would have crushed our fathers, and could not be supported by any other people. . . . From the first introduction of the cotton manufacture into Great Britain down to the comparatively late period of 1773, the weft or transverse threads of the web, only, were of cotton ; the warp, or longitudinal threads, consisting wholly of linen yarn, principally imported from Germany and Ireland. In the first 262 FOREIGN INFLUENCES stiige of the manufacture, the weavers dispersed in cottages throughout the countr)-, furnished themselves, as well as they could with the warp and weft for their webs, and carried them to market when they were finished : but about 1 760, a new system was introduced. The Manchester merchants began about that time to send agents into the country, who employed weavers, whom they supplied with foreign or Irish linen yarn for warp, and with raw cotton, which being carded and spun, by means of a common spindle or distaff, in the weaver's own family, was then used for weft. A system of domestic manufacture was thus estab- lished ; the junior branches of the family being employed in the carding and spinning of the cotton, while its head was employed in weaving, or in converting the linen and cotton yarn into cloth. This system, by relieving the weaver from the necessity of pro- viding himself with linen yarn for warp and raw cotton for weft, and of seeking customers for his cloth when finished, and enabling him to prosecute his employment with greater regularity, was an obvious improvement on the system that had been previously followed ; but it is at the same time clear that the impossibility of making any considerable division among the different branches of a manufacture so conducted, or of prosecuting them on a large scale, added to the interruption given to the proper business of the weavers, by the necessity of attending to the cultivation of the patches of ground which they generally occupied, opposed invinci- ble obstacles to its progress, so long as it was conducted in this mode. It appears from the Custom-house returns, that the total quantity of cotton wool annually imported into Great Britain, at an average of thVOLTTTION 267 in gardens and other small pieces of land, as far nortJi as ihc latitude of thirty-ciglit (fco-rccs and forty-five wiiintes, and in some other places on the rivers of the Chesapeake bay. It was inferred, that, as the shrub or tree grew in that central degree, in our country, all the extensive region south of thirty-nine was capable of producing cotton, which is found not only in climates hotter than the warmest of those of North America, but in the torrid zone. It is therefore confidently presumed, that tJie cotton spinning mil! might be brought into very beneficial use in the United States. The production of cotton in the old settlements of Virginia, was carefully examined, as a test of this opinion, and opportunities offered to make it in a manner commanding entire confidence. After the more exact information of the existence and operations of the labor-saving cotton machinery, in Europe, had led to due reflection on the importance of the vast capacity of this country to produce the proper raw material, the most effectual measures were actively pursued to excite the attention of the whole community, and particularly of the planters of the five original Sontliern States. But, though our capacity to produce cotton was so great, as we at this time know it to have always been, though labor-saving machinery was effecting wonders in Great Britain, and though common cotton was then worth, in the United States, forty-four cents per pound, owing to foreign trade laws, and though it was at a high price in many parts of Europe, several years elapsed before sufficient attention to the culture could be excited, even by the numerous publications which were incessantly made. At length, however, the proper consideration of this great natural capacity of the Southern States, and of the peculiar value of labor-saving macJiinery to a nation of moderate numbers, dwelling in a country of redundant soil, with all the important discovery of the saiv gin, has occasioned our cultivators to pro- duce the requisite cotton. These two machines for cleaning cotton, in America, and for spinning it, abroad and at home, with the ordinary modes of household manufacture, have drawn the planters into an enrichins: revolution in the southern apiculture. 2 68 FOREIGN INFLUENCES ^ Cotton has been known to the world as an useful eommodity ever since the days of Herodotus, who upwards of two thousand years ago wrote that " Gossypium grew in India which instead of seed produced wool." As rice feeds more of the human race than any other grain, so cotton clothes more of mankind than either wool, flax, hemp, or silk. Both of these articles have grown for many centuries in the East Indies in a country similar to Carolina. Though the same reasoning and analog)', and the same information that led to the introduction of rice might have pointed out the pro- priety of attempting the culture of cotton in Carolina, yet the latter was not planted to any considerable extent for lOO years lifter the introduction of the former. It had been declared by Dr. Hewat in his valuable historical account of South-Carolina printed in 1 7 19, " that the climate and soil of the province were favorable to the culture of cotton." The first provincial congress in South- Carolina held in January 1775, recommended to the inhabitants "to raise cotton," yet very little practical attention was paid to their recommendation. A small quantity only was raised for do- mestic manufactures. This neglect cannot solely be referred to the confusion of the times, for agriculture had been successfully prosecuted for ten years after the termination of the revolutionary war before the Carolinians began to cultivate it to any considerable extent. In this culture the Georgians took the lead. They began to raise it as an article of export soon after the peace of 1783. Their success recommended it to their neighbors. The whole quantity exported from Carolina in any one year prior to 1795 was inconsiderable, but in that year it amounted to .?^ 1,109,653.^ The cultivation of it has been ever since increasing, and on the first year of the present century eight millions of pounds were ex- ported from South-Carolina. The uncertainty of this crop has dis- gusted a few planters, and brought them back to the less hazardous culture of rice. These two staples have so monopolized the agri- cultural force of the state, that for several years past other articles of export and even provisions have been greatly neglected. In the great eagerness to get money, the planters have brought themselves ^ Ramsay, History of South Carolina [1S09], II, 212-216. 2 Pounds weight is obviously meant. THE INDUSTRIAL RF.VOLITTION 269 into a state of dependence on their neighbors for many of the necessaries of Hfe which formerly were raised at home. So much cotton is now made in Carohna and (jeorgia that, if the whole was manufactured in the United States, it would go far in cloth- ing a great proportion of the inhabitants of the union ; for one laborer can raise as much of this commodity in one season as will afford tlie raw materials for 1500 yards of common cloth, or a suffi- ciency for covering 1 50 persons. That part of it which is now manufactured in Europe, and brought back in an improved state, sometimes pa}"s more, and on a general average nearly as much in duties to the United States, as the planter gets for the raw material. The dut)', being in proportion to the value, on a pound weight of fine cotton goods is much more than the cultivator of the com- modity gets for the same weight of cotton in its merchantable state. This staple is of immense value to the public, and still more so to individuals. It has trebled the price of land suitable to its growth, and when the crop succeeds and the market is favorable the annual income of those who plant it is double to what it was before the introduction of cotton. The cotton chiefly cultivated on the sea coast is denominated the black seed or staple cotton, which is of the best quality and admirably adapted to the finest manufactures. The wool is easily separated from the seed by roller-gins which do not injure the staple. A pair of rollers worked by one laborer give about 25 lbs. of clean cotton daily. The cotton universally cultivated in the middle and upper country is called the green seed kind. It is less silky and more wooly, and adheres so tenaciously to the seed that it requires the action of a saw-gin to separate the wool from the seed. This cuts the staple exceedingly ; but as the staple of this kind of cotton is not fit for the finer fabrics it is not considered injurious. The quality of these two kinds is very different. The wool of the green seed is considerably the cheapest ; but that species is much more productive than the other. An acre of good cotton land will usually produce i 50 lb. of clean wool of the long staple kind. An acre of land of equal quality will usually produce 200 lb. of the green seed or short staple kind. Besides these, yellow or nankeen cotton is also cultivated in the upper country 270 FOREIGN INFLUENCES for domestic use. Two ingenious artists, Miller and Whiteney of Connecticut, invented a saw-gin for the separation of the wool from the seed which has facilitated that operation in the highest degree. The legislature of South-Carolina purchased their patent right for 50,000 dollars, and then munificently threw open its use and benefits to all its citizens. Such have been the profits of the planters of cotton, and so great has been their partiality for raising it to the exclusion of other valuable commodities, that the history of the agriculture of Carolina in its present state comprehends little more than has been already given, . . . CHAPTER VII RISE OF INTERNAL COMMERCE INTRODUCTION The transition from colonial to national economy was marked by the rapid growth of internal commerce. This internal commerce was a factor of scarcely less importance in our economic development during the period from 1 8 1 5 to the Civil War than foreign commerce had been in earlier times. It did not, however, represent an entirely new influence in our economic affairs, for it was closely connected with foreign commerce and to a large extent dependent upon it. In fact it was the means by which the economic advantage arising from an increasing foreign demand for our extractive products was diffused over the entire country and made to stimulate nearly all of its industries. To make clear the part which internal commerce played in our economic history during this period it will be necessary to trace briefly its rise and point out the way it effected the different sections of the country. It is common to attribute the rapid growth of internal commerce to the settlement of the West. It was of course connected with that event, but this in itself is not a sufficient explanation. People had been moving west in great numbers for more than a generation before the volume of internal trade became large enough to produce any marked effect upon economic affairs. The small volume of this trade is most strikingly shown by the complete absence of any considerable growth of the towns and cities which depended upon it. The sea- board cities of the North grew rapidly before 181 5, but that growth was en- tirely due to their foreign commerce and the carrying-trade. In the interior little growth of towns took place. In 1795 the English traveler Weld found Lan- caster, Pennsylvania, the largest town in the country not on tide water. It was in fact nothing more than a large village. As late as 18 10, after Louisiana had been annexed and at least a million and a half of people had settled west of the mountains, there was only one city of any importance in the whole region. New Orleans which handled most of its exports and a large part of its imports, had a population of 24,562; Pittsburg had 4768; Lexington, Kentucky, 4326; and Cincinnati 2540. This was all the town life which the trade of the entire West was able to support. In 1900, the three agricultural states of Nebraska and the two Dakotas, with but litde larger population, had one city of 100,000, another of 40,000, a third of 26,000, and T:hirty-two towns ranging from 2500 to 10,000. This comparison illustrates better than anything else the early com- mercial backwardness of the West. 271 272 RISE OF INTERNAL COMMERCE The reason for this small development of internal commerce is not far to seek. During all this time the pioneers, whether in the back country of the colonies, in Kentucky, Tennessee, and the northwest, or in western New York and northern New England, were without any valuable products which could be exchanged for commodities to satisfy their wants. P"urs would stand the ex- pense of land carriage to the seaboard, a few cattle could be driven there, and a little grain and provisions floated down the rivers, but these were only suffi- cient to purchase a small amount of the most pressing necessities. Each little community was compelled to live to itself, producing by its own labor almost everything it consumed. Millions of settlers under such conditions could give rise to no swelling volume of commerce. The western people had to buy a few things in order to support civilized life, and these were supplied chiefly by the merchants of Philadelphia and Baltimore. But the interest which the seaboard cities felt in western trade before 181 5 was aroused more by the prospects of future development than by its actual importance. The influence which rapidly changed all this was the introduction of cotton culture into the South and its extension after 1 8 1 5 over the southwest. About the same time, also, there was a considerable extension of sugar culture in Louisiana, and tobacco culture in Kentucky and Tennessee. Here was a group of commodities almost as much in demand everywhere as the precious metals themselves, and having large value in small bulk so that they were able to bear the expense of land transportation for long distances over the poor roads of new settlements. The soil and climate of a vast region were peculiarly suited to the production of cotton, the demand for which was increasing at a prodigious rate. This region was covered by a network of navigable streams that could easily and cheaply float this valuable product to tide water. The timely appli- cation of steam power to navigation perfected a natural transportation system entirely adequate for a community devoted to producing a few such commodities and exchanging them with the outside world. In this combination of favoring circumstances the southern half of the country possessed an economic prize beside which the more dramatic discovery of gold in California a generation later sinks into comparative insignificance. It provided the inhabitants of a large part of this section with the means of satisfying their wants by trade similar to that which the later gold discoveries furnished to a comparatively small number of people. It furnished to the set- tlers in the southwest both the staples they could easily produce and a market for those staples. Thus for the first time did the pioneer of the West possess the necessary conditions for rapid progress in the accumulation of wealth. The effect of these economic advantages was not confined to the South. Very soon they were felt by every other section of the country. The great profit to be secured in the cultivation of cotton and sugar caused the people of South Carolina and the Gulf States to devote themselves chiefly to these in- dustries and to neglect the other branches of agriculture. The gradual absorp- tion of these industries by planters with slave labor increased this tendency, as INTRODUCTION 273 the one advantage of that labor, viz., its capacity for being organized, could only be utilized in them. Mixed farming could not be profitably carried on by slaves in the South ; hence the planters were glad to purchase their agricultural supplies, so far as possible, from other producers. The live stock could be driven overland to the plantations, and the great network of rivers with their flatboats and steamboats provided an easy means of transportation for other supplies. All kinds of produce from such important products as pork, bacon, lard, beef, butter, cheese, corn, flour, and whiskey, to such little ones as apples, cider, vinegar, soap, and candles went down the Ohio and Mississippi in great quantities. This was the first important market which the farmers of Tennessee, Kentucky, and the northwest secured, and it wrought an improvement in their economic situation almost as remarkable as the intro- duction of cotton culture produced in the southwest. The prosperity of the South and West now in turn influenced the East. The people of these sections were able for the first time to purchase freely from other communities. The commodities to satisfy their wants were partly imported from abroad, and partly produced in New England and the Middle States. Accordingly, both the commercial and manufacturing interests of this section were greatly stimulated. New York reached out with her Erie Canal to secure a larger share of the growing internal trade, and a keen rivalry sprang up among the commercial cities of the seaboard which has lasted to the present day. Manufactures also began now to feel the influence of that expanding home market which has played so great a part in their development ever since. The growth of commercial cities and manufacturing towns in turn provided a home market for the northern farmers. This did not at first affect the north- west as Henry Clay and the protectionists of the time expected, for little west- ern produce was sent east over the canals until after 1840. The farmers of the Middle States w-ere, how-ever, greatly benefited by the development of a home market in the manufacturing and commercial centers ; and the numerous canals of this region brought them into close contact with it. In the early forties the northwest began to share in this advantage and sent increasing supplies of produce through the Erie Canal to New England. With the Irish famine and the repeal of the English Corn Laws, a foreign market for their grain and pro- visions also arose. From both these sources their means of purchasing eastern manufactures was greatly increased. Finally, those sections of the older slave states which were not able to pro- duce cotton, especially Maryland, \'irginia, and North Carolina, were not left entirely unaffected by this great movement. In the first place they were able through the coasting trade to share in supplying the commercial and manufac- turing communities of the northeast with agricultural produce. Then the rapid extension of cotton culture into the southwest opened a profitable field for the employment of their surplus slave labor, which since the Revolution had been felt to be a burden upon them. The rise of an active internal slave trade trans- formed this burden into an economic resource. There is litde ground for believing 2 74 RISE OF INTERNAL COMMERCE that these states actually engaged in the business of slave-breeding for the sake of the profits to be derived from it, but without any motive of this kind there can be no doubt that incidentally they profited greatly as a result of the change. This account is sufficient to make clear the general character of internal commerce. Its basis was a territorial division of labor among the three great sections of the country resting upon foreign commerce. The South was able to devote itself chiefly to the production of a few staples, turning out a great surplus of them for export and depending upon the other two sections for much of its agricultural produce, nearly all of its manufactures, and to a large extent for the conduct of its commerce. Both its exports and imports were carried largely by northern shipping, went through northern ports, and was either actually in the hands of northern merchants or financed by northern capital. The north- west devoted itself chiefly to agriculture, depending at first entirely upon the South for its markets, but gradually acquiring after 1840 a home market in the northeast and a foreign one in Europe. New England and the Middle States were devoted principally to commerce and manufactures by which they were enabled to supply the needs of the other two sections, depending at first upon their own farmers for their agricultural supplies and later drawing them partly from the southern seaboard slave states and partly from the northwest, especially from the region about the Great Lakes. The great streams of commerce which resulted from this territorial division of labor were, first, the trade on the western rivers consisting principally of agricultural produce sent down the river to the planters — little southern produce was brought back except sugar and molasses from Louisiana ; second, there was a large coasting trade, consisting of manufactures sent from northern to southern ports with return cargoes of southern staples for the supply of the northeastern states or for export, supplemented by some food supplies for New England ; third, there was the trade of the seaboard cities with the West, made up for the most part of manufactures, imported and domestic, sent westward over the canals to the Ohio or the Lakes, and intended to supply the western farmers or to be forwarded down the rivers to the planters of the southwest. Like the trade of the western rivers this trade between East and West was in the early times principally a movement of goods in one direction ; for as already remarked, little western produce found its way to the East until toward the end of the period. The Erie and Pennsylvania canals carried manufactures to the West but their east bound tonnage nearly all originated east of Buffalo and Pittsburg. The West paid for its manufactures from the proceeds of its sales of produce to the South in exactly the same way that New England and the Middle Colonies in the eighteenth century had paid for theirs by sales of produce to the West Indies. After 1850 the western produce sent east to tide water from the lake region became larger in amount than that which went down the rivers. Two minor branches of internal commerce were of growing importance : one was the trade in coal ; the other was the trade in lumber. The former FEATURES OF INTERNAL COMMERCE 275 flourished both in the East and on the western rivers and lakes. A network of canals connected the anthracite mines with tide water and thus with the im- portant cities and towns of the northeast. Soft coal farther south was made available in the same way by the Chesapeake & Ohio and the James River canals. In the West the coal of Pennsylvania was carried in increasing quantities on the rivers as far south as New Orleans, and sent to the lake region over the Erie extension of the Pennsylvania Canal. The lumber trade became important with the growth of towns and cities after 181 5. Supply came at first from northern New England and the southern seaboard, and was floated to tide water on the rivers. Later, with the opening of the New York canals it came from that state and the lake region. This trade received another great impulse when the process of western settlement reached the prairie region. Great quantities of lumber had then to be conveyed to the settlers of that region, and Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota became the source of supply. Lumber towns in great numbers sprang up in these states and along the Mississippi, where supplies of timber could be procured by floating the logs down the river. L FEATURES OF INTERNAL COMMERCE 1 . . . There is one remarkable difference between this country and the maritime powers of Europe. They possess colonies, the commerce of which they claim a right to monopolize, to the exclu- sion of American navigation, except as a matter of favour or con- cession, while the United States, without colonies, have the superior advantage of an extensive yet compact territory, embracing all the varieties of soil and climate, with most of the productions of the temperate and torrid zones. . . . . . . With a territory equal in extent to four-fifths of all Europe, comprising most of its productions, and those of its extensive colo- nies, with a common language, government and laws, encircled and intersected by the ocean, lakes and rivers affording a connected chain of inland navigation, this country is literally, as to all the benefits of agriculture, commerce and manufactures, a world within itself. . , . ... It may be here remarked, that the magnitude and extent of the American bays, rivers, and lakes, call into existence two descriptions of boats, unknown in Europe, which navigate the Mississippi, Alabama, Tombigbee, and other large rivers of the 1 Report of the Committee of the New York Convention of the Friends of Do- mestic Industry [October 26, 1831] on Coasting Trade and Internal Commerce. 276 RISE OF INTERNAL COMMERCE West and South, with their tributary waters. These boats, carry- ing 30 to 50 tons, are to be seen in countless numbers, on the Mississippi and Ohio especially, and are not licensed, or noticed in the custom house reports. By a conjectural estimate they amount to 150 to 200,000 tons, on the various waters of the United States. To these may be added, the coal-boats of the Susquehannah, Delaware, Lehigh, Schuylkill, and Lackawaxen, which this year delivered 200,000 tons of coal at Philadelphia, Baltimore and New York. This single item employed last year 1 172 coasting vessels, measuring 100,966 tons, and will, when coal becomes more generally used for steam engines and domestic purposes, require probably more tonnage than the entire present amount of our coasting trade, and ere long will far outstrip the fisheries, which in 1828 employed 100,796 tons. The steam boat tonnage is now about 75,000 tons, having greatly increased within the last two years. By means of steam the transfers and exchanges of merchandize are now effected with a celerity that can only be compared to the remittances of bank notes and drafts by mail, or to the circulation of the blood through the arteries and veins of the human body. It is a truly National vehicle, the practical and political benefits of which, by bringing distant points of the Union into closer contact, will soon receive a more thorough development by the completion of the system of Rail-Roads and Canals, now in a course of execution. A. The West and its Commerce 1 In locating canals in this country, two principal objects have been kept in view — one to make a safe water inland communica- tion, along the Atlantic border, in case of a war with any nation, whose maritime force, might exceed that of the United States — another and very important object has been, to connect the waters of the west with those of the east, and thereby facilitate the inter- course between these two distant sections of this country. The vast expansion of population at the west, and the great and grow- ing resources of that portion of the union, has rendered this kind 1 Pitkin, A Statistical View of the Commerce of the United States of America [1S35I. PP- 533-534- FEATURES OF INTERNAL COMMERCE 277 of improvement of vast impoilanee ; and has created ri\al interests, at the east, in order to secure the advantages of this intercourse. Before noticing, however, the various canals, and other improve- ments, ah-eady completed or in progress for this and other objects, we shall present some brief sketches of the population and resources of the ivcstcf'ii country. We include, under this name, the states of Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Missouri, tlic territory of Michigan, and those portions of Pennsylvania and Virginia, which lie beyond the Alleghany mountains. In 1790, the whole population of this country, was only two hun- dred and thirty seven thousand and eighty four, and in 1830, the number of its inhabitants had increased to three millions two hun- dred and sixty four thousand four hundred and thirty eight ; and the number, at the present time, (January 1835,) must be between four and five millions, exceeding the whole population of the United States in 1790. The reader need not be informed, that this population extends over a countiy, unrivalled in the extent and magnitude of its nav- igable waters, as well as in the fertility of its soil. The valley of the Mississippi, as it is usually called, is watered by rivers, some of which, only of the third rate, extend a thousand miles ; and is, also, indented by lakes, whose magnitude justly entitles them to the appellation of inland seas. This great increase of inhabitants within so short a period, affords conclusive evidence, that this part of the United States, is destined to sustain a vast population, and of furnishing resources, far beyond all ordinary calculations. We cannot but regret our in- ability to present the reader, with as accurate an account of the exports and surplus produce of this fertile country, as of its popu- lation. These exports pass through many channels to their various places of destination along the Atlantic sea board. They reach New York, by the Erie canal and the Hudson — Philadelphia, by Pittsburgh, and the canals and rail roads of Pennsylvania — Balti- more, through Wheeling, by the Cumberland road, and the Balti- more and Ohio rail road — Washington, partly by the same route, and by the Chesapeake and Ohio canal — Richmond and Charles- ton, in various ways across the mountains, and New Orleans by 278 RISE OF INTERNAL COMMERCE the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. The amount carried through these various channels, must necessarily, in a great degree, be con- jectural. From our own observations, however, and from other sources of information, we are satisfied that the value of the ex- ports from this country, destined either for the consumption of other parts of the union, or for shipments abroad, far exceeds the whole exports of the United States in the year 1790. The exports of the western country consist, principally, of cotton, tobacco, flour, wheat, pork, beef, hams and bacon, lard, butter, flax seed, linseed oil, corn and corn meal, wool, bees wax, tallow, gin- seng, cheese, live cattle, horses, hogs ; and various kinds of manu- factures, such as sugar mills, steam engines, iron and. iron castings, cotton bagging, hats, cabinet ware, flint and window glass, candles, types, beer, whiskey, porter, cooper's ware, cordage, &c. &c. . . . 1 The net money value of the lake contnicrcc for the year 1846, was ^61,914,910; having nearly doubled in five years. For the same year the total amount of American lake tonnage was 106,836 tons, and of merchandise 3,861,088 tons. British, 30,000 tons. Estimates from highly intelligent authority make the cost of con- structing this tonnage $6,000,000. The passenger trade is also an important item in the lake commerce. The number of passen- gers, in all directions, is stated at 250,000; which, at $5 each as average charges, gives for its value, $1,250,000. llie number of mariners employed was 6,972. The aggregate population depending on the lakes for means of communicating with a market, in 1846, was 2,928,925. Of the Western rivers, i.e. the Mississippi, and its direct and indirect tributaries, it appears from the official returns of the treas- ury department, that the steamboat tonnage for the year 1842, was 126,278; and for 1846, 249,055. It is supposed that there are 300,000 tons of other boats (not steamboats) employed on these rivers, which, added to the steamboat tonnage, gives for the year 1842, an aggregate of 426,278 tons. The flat-boat naviga- tion is supposed to carry to market, in one year, 600,000 tons of 1 De Bow, The Industrial Resources of the Southern and Western States [1852], I, 445-446- FEATURES OF IN'ri<:RNAL COMMERCE 279 produce, while tlic slcaniboat frei<;ht amounted to 1,262,780 tons, or a total merchandise transported to and from New-Orleans on the Western rivers, (exclusive of the way-trade,) for 1842, of 4,862,780 tons. The probable money value of this commerce, for the same year, can be stated at $50,506,903 ; and for 1846, according to a statement from the treasury department, $62,206,719. This in- cludes, of course, only the direct ri\'cr commerce, and not that immense amount of commodities interchanged between place and place on the Western rivers, and which forms no part of the New- Orleans commerce. Of this latter, the total ttct value can be stated for 1846, at $148,306,710 — \h952 3d. That the number of hands employed in this commerce as mariners, exclusive of shore hands, for the year 1846 — For the lakes 6,972 For the Western rivers 25,114 Aggregate 32,086 And it may be added that the total amounts which have been appropriated and expended for lake harbors, and for the improve- ment of Western rivers, from the year 1806, when these appropri- ations by the general government commenced, up to and including the last appropriations of 1845, are — For the lake harbors $2,790,500 For the Western rivers 2,758,800 Aggregate $5,549,300 B. The South and its Commerce ^ It follows, from these facts, that the South has a far larger surplus to export than any other section, and that the \'alue of that surplus per hand annually increases. It supplies the wants of the North in naval stores, rice, tobacco, sugar, hides, wool, cotton, and annually swells the aggregate exports of the Union to foreign coun- tries. The surplus which has thus poured out of the country mani- fests itself in the following table, which is compiled from the annual reports of the Secretary of the Treasury : Southern Exports from the United States, Number of Slaves, AND Value per Hand Year Naval Stores Rice Tobacco Sugar Cotton Total No. of Slaves Prod, per Hand 1800 ^460,000 $2,455,000 $6,220,000 $5,250,000 $14,385,000 893,041 $16.10 1810 473,000 2,626,000 5,048,000 15,108,000 23,255,000 1,191,364 19.50 1820 202,000 1,714,923 8,118,188 $1,500,000 26,309,000. 37,934,111 1,543,688 24.63 1830 321,019 1,986,824 8,833,112 3 ,000,000 44,058,025 48,225,838 2,009,053 29.11 1840 602,520 1,942,076 9,883,957 5,200,000 74,640,307 92,292,260 2,487,355 37" 1850 1,142,713 2,631,557 9,95 ',023 14,796,150 101,834,616 130,556,050 3,179,509 43-51 1851 1,063,842 2,170,927 9,219,351 15,385,185 '37,3 15,317 165,034,517 3,200,000 51.90 1859 3,695-474 2,207,148 21,074,038 31.455,241 204,128,493 262,560,394 4,000,000 65.64 1 Kettell, Southern Wealth and Northern Profits [i860], pp. 47-50, 98-99. FEATURKS OF INTERNAL COMMERCE 28 1 These figures for na\'al stores, tobacco, and rice, are the official export values. The figures for cotton are the cn^p valued at the export rate in official returns. Those for sugar and molasses are those of the New Orleans prices current. As all these products are the results of slave-labor, in addition to what supplies food for consumption, they are ver)' nearly the exchangeable values pro- duced per hand, and the increase has been in regular progression. The exportable value per hand that was $16.10 in 1800, has risen to $65.64 in 1859, and was $43.51 per hand in 1850, the date of the census, when, as seen in the above table, the food produc- tion in that section equalled that of the West, which had no other production. This large value, amounting to $262,560,394, is remitted to the North, either in the shape of sterling bills drawn against that portion sent directly in Northern ships to Europe, or in produce sent to the North. The value of the raw cotton taken by Northern spinners in 1859, was 760,000 bales, worth $40,000,000. There are, unfortunately, no statistics for all the produce sent north from the South, but much may be gathered from the statistics of the several cities. Thus, Louisiana sent north in 1859, 280,000 hhds. sugar, valued at $19,000,000. The city of Richmond sent north $4,000,000 worth of tobacco. Savannah, a large value in lumber, &c. The Boston Post remarks in relation to the South- ern trade of that city — " What does New England buy of the South to keep her cotton and woollen mills in operation — to supply her lack of corn and flour, to furnish her with sugar, rice, tobacco, lumber etc. 1 Boston alone received from the Slave States in 1859, cotton valued at $22,000,- 000; wool worth $1,000,000; hides valued at $1,000,000; lumber $1,000,000; flour $2,500,000 ; corn $1,200,000 ; rice $500,000 ; tobacco estimated at $2,000,000. We thus have $31,200,000 in value, only considering eight articles of consumption. Nor have we reckoned the large amounts of portions or all of these articles which arrived at Providence, New Haven, Hartford, Portland, and other places. Nor have we reckoned the value of other articles that arrive at Boston, very considerable though it be, such as mo- lasses, naval stores, beef, pork, lard, and other animal produce, hemp, early vegetables, oysters and other shell-fish, game, peaches, etc. May we not estimate then, with good reason, that New lingland 282 RISE OF INTERNAL COMMERCE buys of the South her raw materials and other products to the amount of $50,000,000 annually? In 1858, about one-third of all the flour sold in Boston was received from the commercial ports of the Southern States, and in the same year seven-fifths [five- sevenths] of all the corn sold in this city was received direct from the States of Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia. The value of the product of sugar and molasses, principally produced in Louisiana, in 1858 was about $33,000,000; and though but a small portion of it came to New England, nearly one-half the crop is consumed in the Northern States, reaching the points of consumption by the Mississippi river." The cities of Philadelphia, New York, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, and of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, receive quantities that swell the figures to $200,000,000, independently of the articles mentioned in the above table, which, being added, makes an aggregate as follows : Sent North in bills and raw materials $262,560,394 Sent North in other produce 200,000,000 Total, to the credit of the South, per annum . #462,560,394 This is probably an under-valuation of the amount of means sent North by Southern owners and producers. The produce and the bills drawn against foreign shipments form the credits against which the Southern banks draw, and these credits form an impor- tant item of deposits in all the Northern banks, but particularly in those of New York city, where the "balance due banks" swells from 17 millions to frequently 35 millions in the summer, when the crops are mostly realized. The vast movement of produce also gives premiums to the Northern Insurance Companies, whose swelling dividends and premium-shares have been so tempting of late. If the South produces this vast wealth, she does little of her own transportation, banking, insuring, brokering, but pays liberally on those accounts to the Northern capital employed in those occu- pations. Those who visit the North in the summer months, crowd the hotels and watering-places, and scatter the proceeds of South- ern labor broadcast among shopkeepers and trades-people in return for manufactured articles. . . . FEATURES OF INTERNAL COMMERCE 283 It is not a matter of surprise, under all these circumstances, that notwithstanding the large production of wealth at the South, capital accumulates there so slowly. All the profitable branches of freight- ing, brokering, selling, banking, insurance, &c., that grow out of the Southern products, are enjoyed in New York ; and crowds of Southerners come north in the summer to enjoy and spend their share of the profits. The profits that importers, manufacturers, bankers, factors, jobbers, warehousemen, carmen, and eveiy branch of industry connected with merchandising, realize from the mass of goods that pass through the Northern cities, are paid by Southern consumers. There can then be no matter of wonder that the North accumulates, or that the South does so slowly. When, how- ever, people at the North reproach the South with these advantages, derived from them as some of the "blessings of free labor," the depth of ignorance and the sublimity of impudence seem to have combined. Nevertheless capital does accumulate at the South, As we have seen, her net-work of railroads has been built well, and more economically than in any other section, and with less foreign aid. The bonds and stocks are not only better paid, but held at home ; and there is no more eilficient means of building up local capital than by the operation of 9^00 miles of railroad, with its employees, and $200,000,000 of certificates of cost, all paid from their traffic. The growth of manufactures is another efficient aid to accumulation. If the South has a smaller leak than in the West in the matter of interest and dividends, it has a larger one in the shape of "absenteeism," since a considerable portion of the annual profits are spent North and in Europe. The sums so expended would, in ten years, give her more manufacturing capital than exists at the North, and multiply itself thereafter with great rapidity. 1 In travelling through a fertile district in any of the Southern States, the appearance of things forms a great contrast to that in similar districts in the Free States. During two days' sail on the Alabama river from Mobile to Montgomery, I did not see so many houses standing together in any one spot as could be dignified with the appellation of village, but I may possibly have passed some ^ Russell, North America: Its Agriculture and Climate [1856], pp. 289-292, 293. 284 RISE OF INTERNAL COMMERCE during the niglit. There were many places where cotton was shipped and provisions were landed ; still there were no signs of enterprise to indicate that we were in the heart of a rich cotton region. Nor is this to be wondered at, for American slavery, in its most productive state, has all the worst features of absenteeism, more particularly where the plantations are managed by overseers. In fact, the more fertile the land the more destitute is the country of villages and towns. And how can it be otherwise ? The system of management which is recommended as the most economical and profitable, is to raise and to manufacture on the plantations every thing which the slaves require. Though this is seldom accomplished, yet a great part of the clothing is home-made ; and the chief articles imported are bacon and mules from the North- ern States. The only article sold is cotton, which is conveyed to the nearest point on a navigable river, and consigned to a com- mission agent in the exporting town ; while the bacon all comes in through the same channel. Of such articles as are in daily use among the rural inhabitants in the poorest districts of the Free States, the slaves are a non-consuming class. An element so es- sential to rural prosperity is in a great measure wanting in the Slave States, and thus few villages are seen.* The planters supply themselves with their own necessaries and luxuries of life directly through agents in the large towns, and comparatively little of the money drawn for the cotton crop is spent in the Southern States. Many of the planters spend their incomes by travelling with their families in the Northern States or in Europe during the summer, and a large sum is required to pay the hog-raiser in Ohio, the mule breeder in Kentucky, and, above all, the northern capitalists, who have vast sums of money on mortgage over the estates. Dr. Cloud, the editor of the " Cotton Plant," assured me, that after these items are paid out of the money received for the whole cot- ton and sugar crops of the south, there did not remain one-fourth part of it to be spent in the Southern States. Hence the Slave States soon attain a comparatively stationary condition, and fur- ther, the progress they make is in proportion to the increase of freemen, whose labour is rendered comparatively unproductive, see- ing that the most fertile land is pre-occupied by slave-owners. FEATURES OF INFERNAL COMMERCE 285 When the valued exports and imports of any of the Southern States are compared, it is found that the former invariably exceed the latter, in consequence of the want of a consuming class. The commerce of a few of tlic ])rincipal towns that export the cotton crop may be taken as illustrating the condition of Southern society. It is a common theme for the Southern politicians to lament the want of enterprise among the merchants in conducting a foreign import trade. " One of the chief drawbacks to New Orleans," says Mr. Robb, an influential gentleman in that city, " is the absence of an import trade ; and why are we without imports ? Why is it that a city exporting 80 or 90 millions of dollars annually, is so insig- nificant in that important branch of commerce ? Because of the ranoteiicss and iiiiccrtaitity of our markets, or being zvit/iout a speedy, rapid, and cheap coniviunication zvitJi the intej'ior countrv that seeks N'ezu Orleans as a market for its agricultiiral produc- tions T But the truth is, there are few imports required, for eveiy Southern town tells the same tale. In 185 i, the valued exports at Mobile were 14,555,366 dollars, and the imports only 620,892 dollars. This town, with the exception of . New Orleans, exports more cotton than any other in the union. In 1852 the valued ex- ports at Charleston weve 12,899,620 dollars, while the imports were only 1,767,343 dollars. ... The commerce of the Northern States furnishes a great con- trast in regard to the amount of exports and imports. They show that there are stronger bands holding the Northern and Southern States together than any which politics are likely soon to break. Not a little of the great prosperity of the Northern States is owing to the labour of the slaves, which is as productive as any in the United States. As Adam Smith has pointed out, labour applied to the culture of the soil is always doubly valuable in new coun- tries ; and were we to deduct the produce of the labour of the slaves from the industry of the United States, it would be a comparatively poor countiy. This forms no excuse or palliation for the existence of slavery. . , . The value of the exports of agricultural produce raised by free labour is little more than a third of that raised by slave. The leading articles of export for the fiscal year 1852, were : — 286 RISE OF INTERNAL COMMERCE Products of the Fisheries — free labour 2,282,342 dollars " " " Forest — free and slave 7,864,220 " Products of the Agriculture (animal) — free 6,323,439 " " " " " (vegetable) — free and slave. 26,210,027 " Cotton — slave 87,965,732 " Tobacco — slave 10,031,283 " Manufactures of Cotton — free 7,672,151 " Miscellaneous — free 18,862,931 " Notwithstanding the immense breadth of land under wheat, the valued exports of tobacco were as great as those of flour during the three years 1850— 1-2. The valued exports of rice were within one-fourth of those of flour, though the rice grounds occupy mere patches on the map, and those of cotton were nearly ten times greater, . . . Though slavery impoverishes the Southern States, it enriches the Northern. Almost every traveller from the old country is struck with the numbers of Southern planters and their families frequenting the hotels in the Northern States. It is in the South that the Ohio farmers find a ready market for their bacon and mules, which products require comparatively little labour ; and the northern capitalists, who hold such vast sums in mortgage over slave plantations, are in reality absentees of the Southern States. These circumstances serve to explain how the imports so greatly exceed the exports in the Northern towns. Thus in 1852 the val- ued imports and exports at Philadelphia" and New York were — Imports Exports Philadelphia .... 14,785,917 dollars . . . 5,828,571 dollars New York 127,441,394 " ... 71,523,609 ^ The commercial relations between the North and South are based on natural laws, and are entirely distinct from, and independ- ent of political ones. The South produces certain articles neces- saiy to commerce that cannot be raised North, while climate and other conditions enable the North to manufacture more cheaply and skilfully than at the South, and beget a spirit of maritime ad- venture which renders them the carriers for the whole country. In certain products, from difference of climate, each excels, and must 1 The Effect of Secession upon the Commeroial Relations between the North and South [1S61], pp. 12-16. FEATURES OF IN^I'ERNAL COMMERCI-: 287 continue to excel the other. The North cannot compete with the South in the culture of sui^ar or cotton. But the fervid sun which these require, relaxes the muscles and indisposes to physical exer- tion. The South, therefore, cannot compete with the North in manufactures and commerce, which require great physical and nerv- ous energy, which is the product of temperate zones, which the sun, for a portion of the year, leaves to snow and ice. The rela- tions between the two sections are based on differences which can never be changed by human agency. One of the great advantages which the Cotton vStates picture to themselves as springing from Secession is direct trade with Europe. The want of this has been for a long time most galling to their pride. They produce one half of our exports to foreign countries. These are all taken away in ATortJicrn vessels, which bring back the proceeds, not to SoittJiern but to Northern ports. They see that Northern cities rapidly expand in population, commerce, and wealth, while theirs remain stationaiy, or fall into decay. The diversion as they term it, of this trade, they ascribe to the action of the National Government, which fosters enterprise at the North, and discourages it at the South. The destruction of this Government, consequently, is to free them from their thraldom, and return to them in gold, silver and merchandize, the $150,000,000 sent abroad in cotton. They will thus change places with the North, make their ports the emporiums for the whole country, and compel the Northern people to come to them for their supplies of foreign merchandize. In reasoning in this manner, the Southern people entirely over- look the evidence, drawn from experience, of their aptitudes and capabilities. The pursuits and development of both North and South are simply the unfolding of natural laws or tendencies. If the two sections differ in results, they must differ equally in cause. The Southern people do not become sailors, because they have no aptitudes for maritime pursuits. If they do not build ships it proves either a lack of industry, or mechanical skill, or suitable materials, or good harbors, or a healthy climate. The South is wanting in all these particulars but materials. These consequently have to be sent North, where the people possess eveiything biit material. No peo- ple with the climate, or seacoast of the South, ever did, or ever can 2S8 RISE OF INTERNAL COMMERCE become maritime. Another obstacle is their social system. The forecastle is not to be trusted to a crew of slaves. The poor whites have no taste for the toil and subordination necessary to constitute good sailors. Were this fact otherwise, Southern ports are too liable to fatal epidemics to allow any development in industry, wealth or population, beyond that necessary to perform the export trade of the districts dependent upon them. Manufactures cannot flourish in them, because an interruption for a month in a year would prove fatal to their success, Charleston has no more population than it had ten years ago, for the reason that its export trade is but little greater. Another fatal obstacle to Southern cities becoming great depots of trade is that of climate, which is destructive to many kinds of merchandize if they remain long in store or warehouse. All Southern cities, consequently, are only points in transitu of merchandize on its way from the manufacturer or merchant, who must reside in a climate which favors the prosecution of their in- dustries the year round, and the accumulation of their products till they can be sent, with profit, to the consumers. . . , If the North are to carry the cotton to Europe, for the same reason they must britig back the proceeds. Such a result is inevi- table. The bulk of freights going to Europe vastly exceeds that coming to the United States. As the returning ships average only half a cargo, we do not think Southern people are going to send ships out in ballast, for the sake of bringing them back half loaded, even to their own ports. But if they should attempt such an un- heard of absurdity, their ships would have to bring their cargoes to Northern cities. Why t Because these, representing the North, own such cargoes, having paid for them in advances to the South- ern people of what they consume. A mere fraction of our foreign imports finds its way to the Southern States. These States do not consume foreign but domestic merchandize. They import from the North ten dollars in domestics for every one imported, directly or indirectly, from Europe If they opened a direct trade, they would not have returned to their ports more than a tenth, in value, of their exports. The balance would never enter their harbors in any contingency. It would go by the shortest route to the parties to whom it belonged. The construction and maintenance of a foreign FEATURES OF IN^FERNAL COMMERCE 289 commercial system, under wiiicli the return freij^ht would not equal a tithe of the outgoing, would be a pretty expensive luxuiy. A ship or two a year would be ample for such a trade. The expense of importing under it would exceed five times that through New York, where the amount of consumption, and the abundance and perfection of the means employed reduces the cost to the low- est point. Numerous illustrations of this principle will occur to every mer- chant. Suppose a ship laden with silks and the more expensive textile fabrics, were to go to Charleston for a market. Her cargo would be sufficient to supply the State for years. In six months changes of style and fashion would render what might be unsold unmerchantable. How long would such a direct trade continue ? It would never commence. Northern cities monopolize the impor- tation of high priced goods, because their consumers are numerous enough to take whole cargoes w'hile they are bright and fresh. Their customers exceed a hundred-fold the number that would ever find their way to any Southern city. Their merchants would always undersell the Southern importer on his own ground — would clean him out of the market in a month's time. The proceeds of the Southern crops comes North simply /o pay Southern debts. Take an illustration of this on a grand scale. Every year the value of merchandize going West over the Erie Canal, New York Central and Erie Railroads, exceeds that coming East over the same routes, by ^100,000,000. This is a puzzle to many persons who do not reflect upon the course of trade in this country. They look upon the enormous excess of Western-bound freight as a proof of the extravagance or unsoundness of the West. It is simply the process by which that section gets pay for the prod- ucts which it sells to the South. These debts cotton pays. The Northern shipper takes it to Europe, brings back the proceeds, which are distributed by Northern merchants and factors to the creditors of the South, throughout the length and breadth of the land. It is not convenient for the West to receive its pay through Norfolk, or Charleston, or Savannah, or New Orleans, but through Northern Cities, and over interior routes of communication. 290 RISE OF INTERNAL COMMERCE C. Southern Dependence for Agricultural Supplies 1 Tobacco and indigo could be as extensively cultivated as cotton, but neither of the former offers as alluring prospects to the planter as the latter. Tobacco and indigo have each been staples of Carolina, but have long been abandoned, and their places supplied by rice and cotton. In all parts of the state cotton is the general staple, . . . For domestic use, maize, wheat, rye, barley, tobacco, potatoes, (the sweet and Irish,) indigo, hemp, flax, madder, and a variety of smaller articles are raised. Indian corn, wheat, barley, tobacco, hemp, flax, and indigo, were formerly exported from this state, but they have all given place to cotton and rice. The upper parts of this state yield the finest of wheat, large heavy grains, produc- ing the whitest and sweetest flour. Indian corn flourishes in great luxuriance ; the lowlands on the rivers yielding in good seasons from 50 to 75 bushels to the acre. This fact tends to show the superior value of the cotton plant when it supersedes an article which can be raised to such advantage as corn. The planter only cultivates enough of this grain to answer his domestic purposes ; in some years he has actually to purchase it in Charleston, where it is imported from the northern states in large quantities. . . . There is not a finer grazing country in the world than South Carolina ; and were attention paid to the raising of cattle, sheep, goats, hogs, horses, mules, &c., this state might supply itself as well as all the West India islands, &c. with these useful animals ; but every other object gives place to cotton. Immense numbers of cattle, hogs, horses and mules are driven from the western country annually into this state, and sold to advantage. 2 The principal other freight of the train was one hundred and twenty bales of northern hay. It belonged, as the conductor told me to a planter who lived some twenty miles beyond here, and who had bought it in Wilmington at a dollar and a half a hundred weight, to feed to his mules. Including the steam-boat and rail- road freight, and all the labor of getting it to his stables, its entire 1 Mills, Statistics of South Carolina [1S26], pp. 153-155. 2 Olmsted, Seaboard Slave States [1S56], pp. 378-379. FEATURES OE INTERNAL COMMERCE 29 1 cost to him would not be much less than two dollars a hundred. This would be at least four times as much as it would have cost to raise and make it in the interior of New York or New England. Now, there are not only several forage crops which can be raised in South Carolina, that cannot be grown on account of the severity of the winter in the free-States, but, on a farm near Fayetteville, a few days before, I had seen a crop of natural grass growing in half- cultivated land, dead upon the ground ; which, I think, would have made, if it had been cut and well treated in the summer, three tons of hay t(j the acre, llie owner of the land said that there was no better hay than it would have made, but he had n't had time to at- tend to it. He had as much as his hands could do of other work at the period of the year when it should have been made. Probably the case was similar with the planter who had bought this northern hay at a price four times that which it would have cost a northern farmer to make it. He had preferred to employ his slaves at other business. The inference must be either that there was most improbably- foolish, bad management, or that the slaves were more profitably employed in cultivating cotton, than they could have been in cultivating maize, or other forage crops. I put the case, some days afterwards, to an English merchant, who had had good opportunities, and made it a part of his busi- ness, to study such matters. " I have no doubt," said he, " that, if hay cannot be obtained here, other valuable forage can, with less labor than anywhere at the North ; and all the Southern agricultural journals sustain this opinion, and declare it to be purely bad management that neglects these crops, and devotes labor to cotton, so exclusively. Probably, it is so — at the present cost of forage. Nevertheless, the fact is also true, as the planters assert, that they cannot afford to apply their labor to anything else but cotton. And yet, they complain that the price of cotton is so low, that there is no profit in growing it ; which is evidently false. You see that they prefer buying hay, to raising it, at, to say the least, three times what it costs your Northern farmers to raise it. . . . " 292 RISE OF INTERNAL COMMERCE ^ On our way we met a small caravan, as it might be termed, of fine horses, and beautiful mules, conducted by two drovers, one of whom rode in advance, the other in the rear ; and the cattle were driven like sheep, without halter, bridle, or other fastening, between the two. These were all proceeding, to the number of about a hundred, from Kentucky and Ohio to South Carolina and Georgia for sale ; and some idea may be formed of the extent of this traffic, when it is mentioned that not less than 10,000 horses and mules, from these middle and Western States come down every year for sale to the purchasers in the Atlantic States, and the cities of the coast, as many as 500 at a time frequently passing through Green- ville [South Carolina] in a single day. The horses were quite as fine as ordinary horses seen at fairs and markets in England ; but the mules were by far the most beautiful I had ever seen, surpass- ing even the finest of those in Spain and Portugal. ^ Strange to say, it is more difficult to raise the requisite quantity of provisions for a Southern plantation, than to manufacture wag- gons, ploughs, harness, and articles of clothing. The bacon is al- most entirely imported from the Northern States, as well as a considerable quantity of Indian corn. This is reckoned bad man- agement by intelligent planters ; and in one case I found it form- ing the subject of lamentation by a slave-dealer, who maintained that planters could not possibly thrive while they bought their bacon and corn at such high prices, and sold their cotton so low. When provisions are cheap, a great impulse is given to the exten- sion of the culture of cotton, more especially on the inferior class of soils, which are not equally well adapted for Indian corn. It is said that planters who cultivate little else than cotton, which has hitherto fluctuated much in value, and who make it a practice to buy the greater part of their provisions, seldom do well. On this plantation [in Louisiana] as much Indian corn was raised as was needed ; but little bacon, which is imported from Ohio. The average sum annually expended on this article was upwards of ^800, Large plantations are not Suited to the rearing of hogs ; ^ Buckingham, Slave States of America [1841], II, 203-204. 2 Russell, North America: Its Agriculture and Climate [1S56], pp. 265-266, 29. FEATURES Ol" IN'J'1-:RNAL COMMERCE 29; for it is found to be almost impossible to prevent the negroes stealing and roasting young pigs. This is one of the disad- vantages in raising eertain kinds of produce incidental to a system of slavery. The number of cattle which can be raised on the large cotton plantations, do little more than replace the draught oxen that are required. The sheep only supply the wool needed for clothing; and the mules used for ploughing are bred in the Northern States. The bad qualities of the soil and climate for producing the finer grasses, and the great expense of cattle food cultix-ated by slave labour, render the raising of stock for exportation, under present circumstances, in a great measure undesirable. Rearing mules for the southern markets is carried on to a great extent in Kentucky and Tennessee. The gentleman who occupied the farm above described usuall}' grazed forty of these animals during the summer. In winter it costs i6s. 8d, (four dollars) a month for keeping a mule, which is allowed as much Indian corn or oats as it can consume. An ox on grass is kept for one dollar a month. Though often the cold is so intense that the Ohio is frozen over in winter, the cattle are not stabled ; the wood pastures affording good shelter from the high winds. They are fed upon hay and Indian corn : the latter being given to them as it is cut from the fields. One would be very apt to suppose that great loss would arise from the imperfect manner in which cattle would masticate the unground grain of Indian corn ; but a lot of pigs are usually wintered with the cattle, and act in the character -of a save-all. Some of the pasture-fields, too, are often allowed to grow after the middle of July, and thus afford good winter grazing. . . . Clover and Timothy succeed well in Kentucky, and the latter is in great repute for hay. When the land is allowed to remain in pasture, the blue-stem grass occupies the ground and puts all the others out. Large quantities of hay are made in the western parts of the State, pressed into bales, and sent down the Mississippi to New Orleans ; for this is a scarce and high-priced article in all the States south of Tennessee. 294 RISE OF INTERNAL COMMERCE ^ The business of the merchants here is very extensive. They buy up the produce of the land, consisting of wheat, maize, and other grain, of cattle, salted pork, butter, cheese, and other articles, which they carry to New-Orleans, and there they purchase sugar, coffee, tea, foreign wine, woollen cloths, and all those articles which the Illinois planters require for their own use. The mer- chant, of whose store Mr, Stephens was taking charge, had some time ago sent down to New-Orleans 200,000 weight of salted pork. One of our stopping-places for wood, not far above the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio, was at Mr. Brox's farm, on the west side of the river. He has 700 acres of fine land, about 100 head of cattle, and an innumerable quantity of pigs. He says he has no difficulty in selling all the produce of his farm ; he disposes of his stock to the New-Orleans' butchers, who go all over this country to make their purchases ; — and there are merchants who have great depots of grain, salted pork, and other agricultural produce, which they scour the country to collect, and afterward carry to New-Orleans. The prices are variable — and Mr. Brox thinks, as every farmer or planter does, are too low ; but there is no want of a ready market in any part of the western states hitherto settled. Navigable rivers, generally fit for steamboats, are within reach, 2 The institution of slavery, at this moment, gives indications of a vitality that was never anticipated by its friends or foes. Its enemies often supposed it about ready to expire, from the wounds they, had inflicted, when in truth it had taken two steps in advance, while they had taken twice the number in an opposite direction. In each successive conflict, its assailants have been weakened, while its dominion has been extended. This has arisen from causes too generally overlooked. Slavery is not an isolated system, but is so mingled with the business of the world, that it derives facilities from the most innocent transac- tions. Capital and labor, in Europe and America, are largely employed in the manufacture of cotton. These goods, to a great 1 Stuart, Three Years in North America [1828], II, 239, 191. 2 Christy, Cotton is King [1S56], pp. 62-64, 'SZ-'o^- 142-146, 159, 163. FEATURES OF INTERNAL COMMERCE 295 extent, may be seen freighting every vessel, from Christian nations, that traverses the seas of the globe ; and filling the warehouses and shelves of the merehants over two-thirds of the wcjrld. By the industry, skill, and enterprise employed in the manulaeture of cotton, mankind are better clothed ; their comfort better pro- moted ; general industry more highly stimulated ; commerce more widely extended ; and civilization more rapidly advanced than in any preceding age. To the superficial observer, all the agencies, based upon the sale and manufacture of cotton, seem to be legitimately engaged in promoting human happiness ; and he, doubtless, feels like invoking Heaven's choicest blessings upon them. When he sees the stockholders in the cotton corporations receiving their divi- dends, the operatives their wages, the merchants their profits, and civilized people everywhere clothed comfortably in cottons, he can not refrain from exclaiming: "The lines have fallen unto them in pleasant places ; yea, they have a goodly heritage ! " But turn a moment to the source, whence the raw cotton, the basis of these operations, is obtained, and observe the aspect of things in that direction. When the statistics on the subject are examined, it appears that nearly all the cotton consumed in the Christian world is the product of the slave labor of the United States. It is this monopoly that has given slavery its commercial value ; and, while this monopoly is retained, the institution will continue to extend itself wherever it can find room to spread. . . . The cotton planting States, toward the close of the contest, found themselves rapidly accumulating strength, and approximat- ing the accomplishment of the grand object at which they aimed • — the monopoly of the cotton markets of the world. This success was due, not so much to any triumph over the North — to any prostration of our manufacturing interests — as to the general policy of other nations. All rivahy to the American planters from those of the West Indies, was removed by emancipation ; as, under freedom, the cultivation of cotton was nearly abandoned. Mehemet Ali had become imbecile, and the indolent Egyptians neglected its culture. The South Americans, after achieving their independence, were more readily enlisted in military forays, than 296 RISE OF INTERNAL COMMERCE in the art of agriculture, and they produced httle cotton for export. The emancipation of their slaves, instead of increasing the agricul- tural products of the Republics, only supplied, in ample abundance, the elements of promoting political revolutions, and keeping their soil drenched with human blood. Such are the uses to which degraded men may be applied by the ambitious demagogue. Brazil and India both supplied to Europe considerably less in 1838 than they had done in 1820; and the latter country made no material increase afterward, except when her chief customer, China, was at war, or prices were above the average rates in Europe. While the cultivation of cotton was thus stationary or retrograding, everywhere outside of the United States, England and the Continent were rapidly increasing their consumption of the article, which they nearly doubled from 1835 to 1845 ; so that the demand for the raw material called loudly for its increased production. Our planters gathered a rich harvest of profits by these events. . . . The West, which had long looked to the East for a market, had its attention now turned to the South, as the most certain and con- venient mart for the sale of its products — the planters affording to the farmers the markets they had in vain sought from the manufacturers. In the meantime, steamboat navigation was acquir- ing perfection on the Western rivers — the great natural outlets for Western products — and became a means of communication between the Northwest and the Southwest, as well as with the trade and commerce of the Atlantic cities. This gave an impulse to industry and enterprise, west of the Alleghanies, unparalleled in the history of the country. While, then, the bounds of slave labor were extending from Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia, Westward, over Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, and Arkansas, the area of free labor was enlarging, with equal rapidity, in the Northwest, throughout Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Michigan, Thus, within these provision and cotton regions, were the forests cleared away, or the prairies broken up, simultaneously by those old antagonistic forces, opponents no longer, but harmonized by the fusion of their interests — the connecting link between them being the steamboat. Thus, also, was a tripartite alliance formed, FEATURES OF INTERNAL COMMERCE 297 by which the Western l^'armer, the Soutliern I'lanter, and the Enghsh Manufacturer, became united in a common ix)nd of inter- est : the whole giving their support to the doctrine of FVee Trade. This active commerce between the West and South, however, soon caused a rivalry in the East, that pushed forward improve- ments, by States or Corporations, to gain a share in the Western trade. These improvements, as completed, gave to the West a choice of markets, so that its Farmers could elect whether to feed the slave who grows the cotton, or the operatives who are engaged in its manufacture. But this rivalry did more. The competition for Western Products enhanced their price, and stimulated their more extended cultivation. This required an enlargement of the markets ; and the extension of slavery became essential to Western prosperity. . . . We have not reached the end of the alliance between the Western Farmer and Southern Planter. The emigration which has been filling Iowa and Minnesota, and is now rolling like a flood into Kansas and Nebraska, is but a repetition of what has occurred in the other Western States and Territories. Agricultural pursuits are highly remunerative, and tens of thousands of men of moderate means, or of no means, are cheered along to where none forbids them land to till. For the last few years, public improve- ments have called for vastly more than the usual share of labor, and augmented the consumption of provisions. The foreign demand added to this, has increased their price beyond what the planter can afford to pay. For many years free labor and slave labor maintained an even race in their Western progress. Of late the freemen have begun to lag behind, while slavery has advanced by several degrees of longitude. F'ree labor must be made to keep pace with it. There is an urgent necessity for this. The demand for cotton is increasing in a ratio greater than can be supplied by the American planters, unless by a corresponding inc-reased pro- duction. This increasing demand must be met, or its cultivation will be facilitated elsewhere, and the monopoly of the planter in the European markets be interrupted. This can onl)' be effected by concentrating the greatest possible number of slaves upon the cotton plantations. Hence they must be supplied with provisions. . . . 298 RISE OF INTERNAL COMMERCE Commerce supplied us, in 1853, with foreign articles, for con- sumption, to the value of $250,420,187, and accepted, in exchange, of our provisions, to the value of but $33,809, 1 26 ; while the prod- ucts of our slave labor, manufactured and unmanufactured, paid to the amount of $133,648,603, on the balance of this foreign debt. This, then, is the measure of the ability of the Farmers and Planters, respectively, to meet the payment of the necessaries and comforts of life, supplied to the country by its foreign commerce. The farmer pays, or seems only to pay, $33,800,000, while the planter has a broad credit, on the account, of $133,600,000. . . . But is this seeming productiveness of slavery real, or is it only imaginary .-' Has the system such capacities, over the other indus- trial interests of the nation, in the creation of wealth, as these figures indicate .-' Or, are these results due to its intermediate position between the agriculture of the country and its foreign commerce } These are questions worthy of consideration. Were the planters left to grow their own provisions, they would, as already intimated, be unable to produce any cotton for export. That their present ability to export so extensively, is in consequence of the aid they receive from the North, is proved by facts such as these : In 1820, the cotton-gin had been- a quarter of a century in operation, and the culture of cotton was then nearly as well under- stood as at present. The North, though furnishing the South with some live stock, had scarcely begun to supply it with provi- sions, and the planters had to grow the food, and manufacture much of the clothing for their slaves. In that year the cotton crop equaled 109 lbs. to each slave in the Union, of which 83 lbs. per slave were exported. In 1830 the exports of the article had risen to 143 lbs., in 1840 to 295 lbs., and in 1853 to t,2>7 lbs. per slave. The total cotton crop of 1853 equaled 485 lbs. per slave — making both the production and export of that staple, in 1853, more than four times as large, in proportion to the slave popula- tion, as they were in 1820.^ Had the planters, in 1853, been able 1 The progressive increase is indicated by the following figures : 1S20 1S30 1840 1853 Total slaves in United States .... 1,538,098 2,009,043 2,487,356 3,296,408 Cotton exported (lbs.) 127,800,000 298,459,102 743,941,061 1,111,570,370 Average e-xport to each slave (lbs.) . . 83 143 295 337 FEATURES OF INTERNAL COMMERCE 299 to produce no more cotton, per slave, than in 1820, they would have grown but 359,308,472 lbs., instead of the actual crop of 1,600,000,000 lbs. ; and would not only have failed to supply any for export, but have fallen short of the home demand, by nearly 130,000,000 lbs., and been uninis the total crop of that year, by 1,240,690,000 lbs. In this estimate, some allowance, perhaps, should be made, for the greater fertility of the new lands, more recently bnjught under cultivation ; but the difference, on this account, can not be equal t(j the difference in the crops of the several periods, as the lands, in the older States, in 1820, were yet comparatively fresh and productive. Again, the dependence of the South upon the North, for its provisions, may be inferred from such additional facts as these : The "Abstract of the Census," for 1850, shows, that the pro- duction of wheat, in Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Texas, averaged, the year preceding, very little more than a peck, (it was ^^-^ of a bushel,) to each person within their limits. These States must purchase flour largely, but to what amount we can not determine. The shipments of provisions from Cincinnati to New Orleans and other down river ports, show that large supplies leave that city for the South ; but what proportion of them is taken for consumption by the planters, must be left, at present, to conjecture. These shipments, as to a few of the promi- nent articles, for the four years ending August 31, 1854, averaged annually the following amounts : Wheat flour 385,204 bbls. Pork and bacon 43,689,000 lbs. Whisky 8,1 15,360 gals. Cincinnati also exports eastward, by canal, river and railroad, large amounts of these productions. The towns and cities west- ward send more of their products to the South, as their distance increases the cost of transportation to the East. But, in the absence of full statistics, it is not necessary to make additional statements. . . . From this view of the subject, it appears that slavery is not a self-sustaining system, independently remunerative ; but that it ?oo RISE OF INTERNAL COMMERCE attains its importance to the nation and to the world, by standing as an agency, intermediate, between the grain-growing States and our foreign commerce. As the distillers of the West transformed the surplus grain into whisky, that it might bear transport, so slavery takes the products of the North, and metamorphoses them into cotton, that they may bear export. 1 ■^ Destination of Specified Articles exported from the Port of Cincinnati, 1850-51 Commodities To New Orleans To Other Down River Ports To Up River Ports By Canals and Railways By Flatboats Beef, barrels .... 19.319 68 314 236 1,611 Beef, tierces 8,677 8 657 14 96 Butter, barrels . 1,850 867 2 539 Butter, firkins and kegs 35,200 959 15 8 315 Corn, sacks . . 15,672 3,519 156 790 Cheese . . . 69,258 48,432 2,165 1,900 920 Candles, boxes 76,245 20,272 10,695 6,195 522 Cotton, bales . 10 3,182 1,940 Coffee, sacks . 10 12,439 7,853 17,856 Flour, barrels . 281,609 95,943 7,719 4,859 95,877 Iron, pieces . . 6,608 54,894 6,634 40,119 Iron, bundles . 1.503 25,281 2,182 15-144 Iron, tons . . 64 1,341 219 8,152 117 Lard, barrels 22,854 117 3,277 4, '43 1,821 Lard, kegs . . 56,380 5,358 5-739 2,823 1,587 Lard oil, barrels 13,617 1,547 3,726 7,220 Linseed oil . . 4,443 1,362 1,042 974 Molasses . . . 33 2,665 12,711 9,589 Pork, hogsheads 19,044 1,313 8,809 1,054 1,312 Pork, tierces 11,341 18 8,759 644 42 Pork, barrels . 112,622 1,055 3,801 4,608 3,781 Pork, pounds . 1,345,860 755,860 1,559,280 1,092,953 525,820 Soap, boxes . . 9,425 6,440 3,600 2,068 375 Sugar, hogsheads 1,426 4,378 7,196 Whiskey, barrels . . 140,661 56,164 31,231 3,268 17,980 1 This commerce between different agricultural communities in America has played a more important role in our economic history than seems to have been appreciated. It began in colonial times and shows itself in the trade between the Northern Colonies and the West Indies which was reckoned by the colonists themselves to be of vital importance to their prosperity. It appears again in the first part of the nineteenth century when a trade grew up on our western rivers between the lower South and the new states of the West of exactly the same FEATURES OF INTERNAL COMMERCE ^ Hogs killed in the West ^Ol 1850-51 1849-50 Ohio, exclusive of Cincinnati Indiana ; . . Kentucky Cumberland Valley .... Cincinnati Total 64,027 152,900 329-549 380,174 205,414 201,000 30,000 40,000 310,000 401,735 938,990 1,175,809 "^ Comparison of the Number of Hogs driven South from Kentucky and Tennessee 1S49-50 1850-51 Through Cumberland Gap Through Asheville, N.C., embracing Tennessee hogs 43,000 81,000 2 1 ,000 40,000 Total 1 24,000 61,000 2 Receipts at New Orleans by river, in 1848, 1849, Receipts at the Hudson River by canals, in 1848, and 1850, to September 31, — 3 years 1849, and 1850, to close of navigation, — 3 years Flour 2,312,121 bbls 8,636,207 Pork 1,536,817 bbls 211,018 Beef 200,901 bbls 264,072 Wheat 852,497 bush 8,798,759 Corn 9,758,750 bush 11,178,228 Other grains 5,350,151 bush 11,210,239 Bacon 135,622,515 lbs 26,364,156 Butter 6,215,970 lbs 61,695,064 Cheese 8,955,880 lbs 97,596,632 Lard 292,110,060 lbs 27,137,175 character as that which went up and down the Atlantic coast between the West Indies and the Northern Colonies during the eighteenth century. It was in both cases a trade between a community of planters using slave labor to produce a few valuable staples which found a ready sale in the markets of the world on one hand, and a community of small farmers (who in many cases were partly fisher- men) producing food and crude supplies on the other. The basis of the trade in both cases was the fact that the planter found it more profitable to devote his slave labor to the production of valuable staples to be sold in the markets of the world than to use it in producing the food and other agricultural supplies which he needed. .So long as there were other agricultural communities ready and willing to furnish these supplies it was cheaper to procure them by trade than by direct production. 2 De Bow, Resources of Southern and Western States, I, 253-254, 375; II, 145. 302 RISE OF INTERNAL COMMERCE D. Thk Manufactures of the East 1 The inhabitants of this village [Berlin] make great quantities of tin warr ; or utensils, formed of tinned plates. As this species of manufacture, on the Western side of the Atlantic, probably com- menced here ; I will give you an account of the manner, in which it was introduced. About the year 1 740, William Pattison, a native of Ireland, came to this country, and settled in this town. His trade was that of a tinner : and soon after his arrival, he commenced manufacturing tin ware, and continued in that business until the Revolutionary war. He was then under the necessity of suspending it, as the raw material could not be obtained. After the war, this manu- facture was carried on at Berlin, by those young men who had learned the art from Mr, Pattison ; and these persons have since extended the business over a number of the neighbouring towns. For many years, after tinned plates were manufactured in this place into culinary vessels, the only method used by the pedlars for conveying them to distant towns, for sale, was by means of a horse and two baskets, balanced on his back. After the war, carts and waggons were used for this purpose, and have, from that time to the present, been the only means of conveyance which have been adopted. The manner, in which this ware is disposed of, puts to flight all calculation, A young man is furnished by the proprietor with a horse, and a cart covered with a box, containing as many tin ves- sels, as the horse can conveniently draw. This vehicle within a few years has, indeed, been frequently exchanged for a waggon ; and then the load is doubled. Thus prepared, he sets out on an ex- pedition for the winter, A multitude of these young men direct themselves to the Southern States ; and in their excursions travel wherever they can find settlements. Each of them walks, and rides, alternately, through this vast distance, till he reaches Richmond, Newbern, Charleston, or Savannah ; and usually carries with him to the place of his destination no small part of the gain, which he 1 Dwight, Travels in New England and New York [1797], II, 53-55- FEATURES OF INTERNAL COMMERCE 303 has acquired upon the road. Here he finds one or more workmen, who have been sent forward to co-operate with him, furnished with a sufficient quantity of tinned plates to supply him with all the ware, which he can sell during the season. W'ith this he wanders into the interior countiy ; calls at every door on his way ; and with an address, and pertinacity, not easily resisted, compels no small number of the inhabitants to buy. At the commencement of the summer they return to New-York ; and thence to New-Haven, by water ; after selling their vehicles, and their horses. The origi- nal load of a single horse, as I am told, is rarely worth more than three hundred dollars ; or of a waggon, more than six hundred. Yet this business is said to yield both the owner and his agent valuable returns ; and the profit to be greater than that, which is made by the sale of any other merchandize of equal value. Even those, who carry out a single load, and dispose of it in the neigh- bouring country find their employment profitable. In this manner considerable wealth has been accumulated in Worthington, and in several towns in its vicinity. Every inhabited part of the United States is visited by these men. I have seen them on the peninsula of Cape Cod^ and in the neighbourhood of Lake Erie ; distant from each other more than six hundred miles. They make their way to Detroit, four hundred miles farther ; to Canada ; to Kentucky ; and, if I mistake not, to New-Orleans and St. Louis. All the evils, which are attendant upon the bartering of small wares, are incident to this, and eveiy other mode of traffic of the same general nature. Many of the young men, employed in this business, part, at an early period with both modesty, and principle. Their sobriety is exchanged for cunning ; their honesty for impo- sition ; and their decent behaviour for coarse impudence. Mere wanderers, accustomed to no order, control, or worship ; and directed solely to the acquisition of petty gains ; they soon fasten upon this object ; and forget every other, of a superiour nature. The only source of their pleasure, or their reputation, is gain ; and that, how- ever small, or however acquired, secures both. No course of life tends more rapidly, or more effectually to eradicate eveiy moral feeling. 304 RISE OF INTERNAL COMMERCE Berlin has, I suspect, suffered not a little from this source. Were their manufactures sold, like other merchandize ; the profits would undoubtedly be lessened : but the corruption of a considera- ble number of human beings would be prevented. . . . The business of selling tin ware, has within a few years under- gone a considerable change. Formerly the pedlar's load was com- posed exclusively of this manufacture : now he has an assortment of merchandize to offer to his customers. He carries pins, needles, scissars, combs, coat and vest buttons, with many other trifling articles of hardware ; and children's books, and cotton stuffs made in New-England. A number set out with large waggons loaded with dry goods, hats and shoes ; together with tin ware, and the smaller articles already mentioned. These loads will frequently cost the proprietor from one to two thousand dollars ; and are intended exclusively for the Southern and Western States. It is frequently the fact, that from twenty to thirty persons are employed by a single house, in the manufacturing and selling of tin ware and other articles. The workmen, furnished with a suffi- cient quantity of the raw materials to employ them for six months, are sent on by water, in the autumn, to Virginia, North and South Carolina, or Georgia. They station themselves at some town in the interiour, where the employer, or his agent, has a store, well furnished with such articles as the pedlars require. As the stock of each pedlar is exhausted, he repairs to the store for a supply. In this way, a large amount of goods are vended during the six or eight months they are absent. Some idea may be formed of the extent to which this business is sometimes carried, from the fact, that immediately after the late war with Great Britain, which terminated in 1815, ten thousand boxes of tinned plates were manufactured into culinary vessels in the town of Berlin, in one year. Since that time, however, the cjuantity demanded for this market, has greatly diminished. ^ 1 The above is an example of the kind of trade in manufactures which gradu- ally developed between the northeastern states and the rest of the country from the close of the Revolution to the Civil War. A similar development of trade may be traced in boots and shoes, clocks, fire arms, nails, buttons, pins and furni- ture. All these articles began to be manufactured in the northeastern states, espe- cially southern New England, soon after the close of the Revolution, and were FEATURES OF INTERNAL COMMERCE 305 1 The Northern or New England States are endowed by nature with a mountainous and sterile soil, which but poorly rewards the labor of the husbandman. However, its wooded slopes, and tum- bling streams, which fall into commodious harbors, early pointed out to the restless energy of the first settlers the direction in which their industiy was to be employed. Ship-building and navigation at once became the leading industiy, bringing with it more or less wealth. The harsh rule of the mother country forbade a manufac- turing development, and that branch of industiy had never got a footing in the colonies. The act of independence which opened up that field of employment, also provided, by freedom of inter- course, a large market for the sale of manufactures to the agricul- tural laborers of the more fertile fields of the Middle and Southern States. The genius of Northern industiy was not slow in apply- ing the capital earned in commerce to the prosecution of this branch of labor, and with eveiy increase in numbers, and every extension of national territoiy, the New England States have had only a larger market for their wares, while the foreign competing supply has been restricted by high duties on imports. The moun- tain torrents of New England have become motors, by which annu- ally improving machinery has been driven. These machines require only the attendance of females, but a few years since a non-produc- ing class, to turn out immense quantities of textile fabrics. In the hands of the male population, other branches of industry have multiplied, in a manner which shows the stimulant of an ever- increasing effective demand. . . . The Boston Post contains a long and able article, showing the extent of the trade between New England alone and the South, from which we make the following extract : '" The aggregate value of the merchandise sold to the South an- nually we estimate at some $60,000,000. The basis of the esti- mate is, first, the estimated amount of boots and shoes sold, which intelligent merchants place at from $20,000,000 to $30,000,000, sent for sale to the rest of the country. It is in such industries as these, which produced articles of general domestic use among the inhabitants of the country, quite as much as in the textile and iron industries, that the early history of Amer- ican manufactures is to be traced. See Chapter IX, on Manufactures. 1 Kettell, Southern Wealth and Northern Profits [i860], pp. 52, 60. 3o6 RISE OF INTERNAL COMMERCE including a limited amount that are manufactured with us and sold in New York. In the next place, we know from merchants in the trade, that the amount of dry-goods sold South yearly is many mil- lions of dollars, and that the amount is second only to that of the sales of boots and shoes. In the third place, we learn from careful inquiry, and from the best sources, that the fish of various kinds sold realize $3,000,000, or in that neighborhood. Upwards of $1,000,000 is received for furniture sold in the South each year. The Southern States are a much better market than the Western for this article. It is true, since the establishment of branch houses in New York, Philadelphia, and other cities, many of the goods manufactured in New England have reached the South through those houses ; but still the commerce of New England with the South, and this particular section of the country receives the main advantage of that commerce. And what shall we say of New Eng- land ship-building, that is so greatly sustained by Southern wants ? What shall we say of that large ocean fleet that, by being the common carriers of the South, has brought so large an amount of money into the pockets of our merchants } We will not undertake to estimate the value of these interests, supported directly by the South. If many persons have not become very rich by them, a very large number have either found themselves well to do, or else have gained a living." This estimate of the Post for New England alone, is about half the aggregate that the census indicates as the sales of Northern manufactures to the South. E. The Domestic Slave Trade ^Froni xvJiat states are slaves exported for sale, and zvJiat is the number from each state ? Slaves are exported from Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri, and the district of Co- lumbia. The states from which the largest proportion are taken 1 Slavery and the Internal Slave Trade in the United States, being Replies to Questions transmitted by the Committee of the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society [i84i],pp. 12-14, 17-18. FEATURES OF INTERNAL COMMERCE 307 are Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina, and Kentucky, and of these Virginia exports most. Of the number exported annually from each state we cannot speak with accuracy. F'rom the following data, however, an esti- mate may be formed of the whole number, which will not be very far from the truth. The "Virginia Times " (a weekly newspaper published at Wheel- ing, Virginia) estimates, in 1S36, the number of slaves exported for sale from that state alone, during '•' the twelve months preceding," at forty tJionsand, the aggregate value of whom is computed at tii'ciity-fonr millions of dollars. Allowing for Virginia one half of the whole exportation during the period in question, and we have the appalling sum total of eighty tlionsand slaves exported in a single year from the breeding states. \Vc cannot decide with certainty what proportion of the above number was furnished by each of the breeding states, but Maryland ranks next to Virginia in point of numbers. North Caro- lina follows Mar)'land, Kentucky, North Carolina, then Tennessee, Missouri, and Delaware. To ivJiieh of the states are slaves exported, and zvhat is their number in each of those states ? The states into which slaves are imported are South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Arkansas, also the territory of Florida. North Carolina is to some extent an import- ing as well as an exporting state ; some sections exporting and others importing. The same is true in a limited degree of Tennessee and Missouri. . . . What proportion of them are supplied by the internal slave trade ? By far the greater proportion, perhaps four-fifths or more. The extent, regularity, and activity of the internal slave trade are matter of astonishment, no less than of grief and shame. We have esti- mated the exportation of a single year at eighty thousand, on the lowest calculation ; we should, perhaps, have been nearer the 3o8 RISE OF INTERNAL COMMERCE truth, had we put it at a Jiundrcd and tivcnty tJionsand ; as will appear from the following extracts. "The Natchez (Mississippi) Courier " says " that the states of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Arkansas, imported two Iniiidred mid fifty thou- sand slaves from the more northern states in the year 1836." This seems absolutely incredible, but it probably includes all the slaves introduced by the immigration of their masters. The following, from the "Virginia Ximes," confirms this supposition. In the same paragraph which is referred to under the second query, it is said : We have heard intelligent men estimate the number of slaves exported from Virginia, within the last twelve months, at a hundred and twenty thousand, each slave averaging at least 600 dollars, making an aggregate of 72,000,000 dollars. Of the number of slaves exported, not more than oiic-third have been sold, the others having been carried by their masters, who have removed. Assuming one-third to be the proportion of the sold, there are more than eighty thousand imported for sale into the four states of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Arkansas. Supposing one-half of eighty thousand to be sold into the other buying states, South Carolina, Georgia, and the territory of Florida, and we are brought to the conclusion that more than a hundred and twenty thousand slaves were, for some years previous to the great pecun- iary pressure in 1837, exported from the breeding to the consum- ing states. The " Baltimore American " gives the following from a Missis- sippi paper of 1837. The Report made by the Committee of the Citizens of Mobile, appointed at their meeting held on the i st instant, on the subject of the existing pecuniary pressure, states, that so large has been the return of slave labour, that purchases by Alabama of that species of property from other states, since 1833, have amounted to about tot utillion dollars annually. The activity and system with which this traffic is carried on, as well as its extent, may be learned from the following statements and public advertisements, derived from southern papers. " Dealing in slaves," says the Baltimore (Maryland) Register of 1829, " has become a large business; establishments are made in several places in FEATURES OF INTERNAL COMMERCE 309 Maryland and Virginia, at which they arc sold like cattle ; these places of de- posit are strongly built, and well supplied with iron thumb-screws and gags, and ornamented with cowskins and other whips, oftentimes bloody." We might present a variety of advertisements of Virginia Slave- Mongers, but our space will allow us to record but one. Notice. — This is to inform my former acquaintances, and the public gen- erally, that I yet continue in the Slave Trade at RicJunond, Virginia., and will at all times buy, and give a fair market price for yotuig negroes. Persons in this state, Maryland, or North Carolina, wishing to sell lots of negroes, are particularly requested to forward their wishes to me at this place. Persons wishing to purchase lots of negroes, are requested to give me a call, as I keep constantly on hand at this place a great many for sale ; and have at this time the use of one hundred young negroes, consisting of boys, young men and girls. I will sell at all times at a small advance on cost, to suit purchasers. I have comfortable rooms, with ^jail attached, for the reception of negroes; and persons coming to this place to sell slaves can be accommodated, and every atten- tion necessary will be given to have them well attended to ; and, when it may be desired, the reception of the company of gentlemen dealing in sla^'es will conveniently and attentively be received. My situation is very healthy and suitable for the business. Lewis A. Collier From the nature of the foregoing evidence, all of it being necessarily in some measure indefinite, the actual extent of the internal slave trade can be arrived at only by approximation. The precise number annually exported from each of the slave-breeding states, and also the number imported into each slave-consuming state can be found on no statistical records ; and as we have no data for an estimate more specific than the preceding facts, we present them as the best reply to the foregoing query which we are able to furnish. ^ . . . We have made some efforts to obtain some thing like an accurate account of the number of negroes every year carried out of Virginia to the South and Southwest. We have not been en- abled to succeed completely ; but from all the information we can obtain, we have no hesitation in saying, that upwards of 6,000 are yearly exported to other States. Virginia is, in fact, a negro raising 1 Dew, On Slavery [1S32], Pro-Slavery Argument, pp. 359-360. 3IO RISE OF INTERNAL COMMERCE State for other States ; she produces enough for her own supply, and six thousand for sale. Now, suppose the government of Vir- ginia enters the slave market resolved to purchase six thousand for emancipation and deportation, is it not evident that it must overbid the Southern seeker, and thus take the very slaves who would have gone to the South ? The very first operation, then, of this scheme, provided slaves be treated as property, is to arrest the current which has been hitherto flowing to the South, and to ac- cumulate the evil in the State. As sure as the moon in her transit over the meridian arrests the current which is gliding to the ocean, so sure will the action of the Virginia governitient, in an attempt to emancipate and send off 6,000 slaves, stop those who are annu- ally going out of the State ; and when 6,000 are sent off in one year, (which we never expect to see,) it will be found, on investi- gation, that they are those who would have been sent out of the State by the operation of our slave trade, and to the utter astonish- ment and confusion of our abolitionists, the black population will be found advancing with its usual rapidity — the only operation of the scheme being to substitute our government, alias, ourselves, as purchasers, instead of the planters of the South. This is a view which every legislator in the State should take. He should beware, lest in his zeal for action, this efflux, which is now so salutary to the State, and such an abundant source of wealth, be suddenly dried up, and all the evils of slavery be increased instead of diminished. 1 There were, in the train, two first-class passenger cars, and two freight cars. The latter were occupied by about forty negroes, most of them belonging to traders, who were sending them to the cotton States to be sold. Such kind of evidence of activity in the slave trade of Virginia is to be seen every day ; but particulars and statistics of it are not to be obtained by a stranger here. Most gentlemen of character seem to have a special disinclination to converse on the subject ; and it is denied, with feeling, that slaves are often reared, as is supposed by the Abolitionist, with the inten- tion of selling them to the traders. It appears to me evident, 1 Olmsted, The Cotton Kingdom [1S56], I, 57-58. FEATURES OF IN'l'ERNAL COMMERCE 311 liowcvcr, from the manner in whieh I hear the traffic spoken of incidentally, that the cash value of a slave for sale, above the cost of raising it from infancy to the age at which it commands the highest price, is generally considered among the surest elements of a planter's wealth. Such a nigger is worth such a price, and such another is too old to learn to pick cotton, and such another will bring so much, when it has grown a little' more, I have fre- quently heard people say, in the street, or the public-houses. That a slave woman is commonly esteemed least for her working quali- ties, most for those qualities which give value to a brood-mare is, also, constantly made apparent. By comparing the average decennial ratio of slave increase in all the States with the difference in the number of the actual slave- population of the slave-breeding States, as ascertained by the cen- sus, it is apparent that the number of slaves exported to the cotton States is considerably more than twenty thousand a year. F. The Lumber Trade 1 The increase of houses being proportioned to the increase in the numbers of the people, their value has risen in the ratio of their growing wealth. It is remarkable that the country, in all its sections, abounds with the best materials for all descriptions of dwellings. . . . The early houses of the settlers were log huts, but subsequently frame houses were raised by the more ambitious, and, as wealth increased, those " shingle palaces " that became famous in the stories of New England manners, began to dot the countiy. In the cities frame houses were the rule down to a com- paratively late date, when the fire laws forbade the erection of wooden tenements within certain districts. The abundance of tim- ber not only for building purposes, but for fuel, was a great advan- tage to the country. But as the population increased, the inroads upon it became very heavy, and the forests were rapidly thinned out. The annual consumption exceeded the growth, according to the estimates of the most experienced lumbermen, by about 30 per cent., and this notwithstanding that coal came to supply the drafts 1 Kettell, in Eighty Years' Progress [i860], pp. 356, 188. 312 RISE. OF INTERNAL COMMERCE made for fuel, and the substitution of bricks for city houses. The sources of lumber for building purposes have become more diversi- fied as the demand has increased. The State of Maine was for a long time the head-quarters of the trade for pine, spruce, and hem- lock lumber ; but hard pine comes from North Carolina, Georgia, Florida, and Alabama ; Ohio and Michigan supply black walnut, cherry, ash, white -oak. The exports from the country are about $2,500,000 per annum, and ship-building makes large drafts upon it. The lumber trade at various leading points, where the lumber resources of the back country are most readily concentrated for market, may be given as follows : — Detroit . . Savannah . Charleston Albany . . Bangor . . Cincinnati . Chicago Milwaukee Oswego Cleveland . Baltimore . Boston . . Buffalo . . Philadelphia Total . Value . Feet 76, -3' 15^ 291, 176, 32. 300. 65. 144^ 28. 100, 131^ 68. 162. 537,000 365,656 312,128 771,762 187,016 000,000 982,207 000,000 654,572 950,000 000,000 000,000 558,151 879,722 1,661,568,214 fe 1, 93 1, 364 Laths (M.) 13,491,000 49,102,000 1,634,500 20,000,000 2,026,000 86,262,500 #138,797 Shingles (M.) 36,647,000 48,756,000 165,927,000 7,653,250 28,000,000 10,000,000 1,768,300 21,220,937 320,072,487 $1,280,289 The Bangor lumber is derived from the forests of that region, and it composes a part of that sent to Boston, Philadelphia, etc. The Savannah and Charleston trade is that shipped from those ports, mostly north. The Albany lumber is derived from the canal de- liveries and the northern section. The Philadelphia lumber comes mostly from the canals and rivers ; about one-third comes through the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal, as much more down the Delaware river from southern New York : about one n:iillion feet only comes from Maine. The Baltimore supplies are mostly from DEVFXOPMKNT OF RIVER COMMERCE 313 the Susquehanna river, being rafted down from Peimsylvania and New York. From 150 to 200 milhons of feet go down the Alle- ghany river every year. Chicago is by far the largest lumber mar- ket, and the supplies are derived from the Michigan Lake shore, the largest quantity from the Green Bay district. The supplies are sent through the state by canal and the various railroads that radi- ate through the prairie country, where wood of natural growth is scarce, and which scarcity was one of the objections to settling until railroads became the means of furnishing the supplies. The largest quantity goes by the canal, and the next largest by the Illi- nois Central railroad. . . . The lumber from western New York and the lake borders being now [after the opening of the Erie Canal] marketable where before it was valueless, a motive- for clearing land was imparted, and the new canal received on its bosom from all sections of the lake shore the lumber brought by multiplying vessels. The lumber that found tide water before had been that which in southern New York and in Pennsylvania skirted the natural water-courses, and being cut and hauled, was rafted down to Philadelphia and Baltimore. The New England streams delivered the lumber in the same manner. The opening of the canal brought into competition the vast and hitherto untouched resources of the west, and the same remark applies to all farm produce. II. DEVELOPMENT OF COMMERCE ON THE WESTERN RIVERS ^ The receipts of New Orleans during the first year of successful steam navigation, 18 16, amounted in value to $8,062,540. . . . This is independent of the produce raised in Louisiana, such as cotton, corn, indigo, molasses, rice, sugar, tafia or rum, and lumber. These were brought to the market in the planters' crafts, and often taken from the plantation direct in foreign-bound vessels, a ship loading directly w^ith sugar and molasses, which thus never went through New Orleans. But little account was taken of this system ^ Report on the Internal Commerce of the United States, 1887 [Part II of the Report on Commerce and Navigation for 18S7], pp. 191, 199, 205, 214-215. 314 RISE OF INTERNAL COMMERCE in the commercial reports of the time, although sea-going vessels ascended the river as far as Natchez for cargoes. They were, of course, of small size, of but little more tonnage and draught than the steam-boats themselves. The value of receipts shows to what extent the produce of the West passed through New Orleans. Cotton, which in later days rose to be 60 and even 75 per cent, in value of all the receipts, was then barely 12 per cent. At least 80 per cent, of the articles came from the West, that is, from the Ohio and the Upper Missis- sippi, above the Ohio. They represented the surplus products of the Mississippi Valley, for but little found any other exit to mar- ket. Much of the produce shipped from the West to New Orleans was lost en route. A rough estimate places the loss from disas- ters, snags, etc., at 20 per cent. Many boats, moreover, stopped along the river on their way down to sell supplies to the planters. Thus, at Natchez, flour, grain, and pork were purchased from the Kentucky boats. From these losses and sales the shipments down the river in 1 8 16, including the products of Louisiana, may be estimated at ^13,875,000. The river traffic required 6 steam-boats, 594 barges, and 1287 flat-boats, of an actual tonnage of 87,670. During all this period [i8i6-'40], and despite all these difficul- ties, the number of arrivals at New Orleans and the amount of river business on the Lower Mississippi continued to steadily increase. The growth of the river traffic is well shown in this table. In regard to the steam-boats, it should be remembered that the steady increase in arrivals each, year does not fully express the in- crease in tonnage, because the boats were not only growing more numerous, but were increasing in size each year, and thus while they doubled in number between 1825, and 1833 they more than trebled in their carr)dng capacity. In regard to the flat-boats and other craft, there is no suffi- ciently definite information for most of this period. It should be said, however, that while the steam-boats supplanted the flat-boats in many lines of trade, they did not entirely drive them off the DEVELOPMENT OF RIVER COMMEROE River Trade of New Orleans, i 8 13 -i860 15 Arrivals of Freight Re- Value of Steam-boats ceived (Tons) I Produce - i8i3-'i4 21 67,560 i8i4-'i5 40 77,220 i8i5-'i6 94.560 ^9.749,253 iSi6-'i7 80,820 8.773-379 1817-18 100,880 13,501,036 I Si 8 -'19 .91 136,300 16.771.7" i8i9-'2o 198 106,706 12,637,079 l820-'2I 202 99,320 1 1,967,067 1821 -'22 2S7 136,400 15,126.420 l822-'23 392 129,500 14.473.725 i823-'24 436 136,240 15,063,820 i824-'25 502 176,420 19,044,640 i825-'26 608 193,300 20,446,320 i826-'27 715 235,200 21,730,887 1827 -'28 698 257,300 22,886,420 1828-29 756 245,700 20.757,265 i829-'3o 989 260,900 22,065,518 i83o-'3i 778 307,300 26,044.820 1831-32 813 244,600 21,806,763 iS33-'33 1,280 291,700 28,238,432 1833-34 1,081 327,800 29,820,817 1834-35 1,005 399,900 37.566,842 1835 -'36 1,272 437,100 39,237,762 1 836 -'37 1.372 401,500 43.515.402 1837 -'38 I '549 449,600 45.627,720 1 838 -'39 i'55i 399,500 42,263,880 1839-40 1.573 537.400 49,763,825 i840-'4i 1,958 542,500 49.822,115 i84i-'42 2,132 566,500 45.716,045 1842 -'43 2.324 782,600 53.782.054 1843-44 2,570 652,000 60.094,716 1844-45 2.530 868,000 57,199,122 1845 -'46 2,770 971,700 77.193,464 i846-'47 4.024 937,600 90,033,256 1847 -'48 2.9 '7 1,025,900 79.779.151 1848 -'49 2.873 1 ,009.900 81,989,692 i849-'5o . 2,784 886,000 96,897,873 i85o-'5i . 2,918 1,058,200 196,924.083 i85i-'52 . 2,778 1,160,500 108,051,708 i852-'53 ■ 3.252 1,328,800 134.233.735 1853 -'54 • 3.076 1,286.300 115.336.798 i854-'55 • 2,763 1,247,200 117,106,823 1855 7'56 . 2.956 1,500.200 144,256,081 1856-57 . 2,745 1,431,800 158,161,369 1857 -'58 . 3,264 1,572,700 167,155.546 i858-'59 . 3.259 1,803,400 172,952,664 1859 -'60 3,566 2,187,560 185.211,254 1 This does not include articles rafted down of which no record was -kept. 2 This includes the small amount of produce received by Lake Pontchartrain, from I to 6 per cent of total. It is impossible to separate it from the receipts by river, since no separate account was kept, except for cotton and a few other articles. 3i6 RISE OF INTERNAL COMMERCE river for fifteen or twenty years afteru^ards. During all this period when the Western cities were building steam-boats the flat-boats also were increasing in numbers. They were found serviceable in carrying hay, coal, etc., and in reaching the interior streams. The Mississippi counted some hundreds of tributaries. On some of these the settlements were sparse, and the surplus products afforded at best one or two cargoes a year, and these were sent much more conveniently and cheaply in flat-boats than in steamers. The steamers had passed the flats between 1820 and 1S30 in the busi- ness transacted and the freight hauled, and from this time they increased the lead steadily. The number of flats, however, arriving at New Orleans kept but little if any behind the steamers, and as late as 1840 nearly a fifth of the freight handled in the Lower Mississippi went by flat-boat, keel, or barge. The early flat-boats had depended altogether on the current of the river to carry them down. The system of towing was tried in 1829, and a small steamer, which would be called a tug to-day, was successfully used in towing keel-boats up and down stream. The idea did not seem, however, to meet with much favor, the flat-boat men having a su- perstition that their conjunction with a steamer was not favorable to them, and it was reserved for a later generation to definitely tiy in the barge the system of towing freight up and down stream. . . . As the first »two decades of the century showed the settlement of the Ohio basin, and a rapid increase in population and production, so the next two resulted in the settlement of the Lower Mississippi region from Louisiana to the mouth of the Ohio. The removal of the Indian tribes to the Indian Territory, the building of levees, and the immense increase in the demand for cotton, hastened the development of West Tennessee, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Northern Louisiana. The Western products received at New Orleans, although they did not fall off, constituted a smaller per- centage of the city's total trade, while cotton and sugar became each year more important items commercially. In other words, the Western trade, while not growing less, did not increase as fast as that section advanced in population and production, nor as fast as the cotton trade. DEVELOPMENT OF RIVER COMMERCE 317 It was during this period that the South first began to insist on the sovereignty of King Cotton, and New Orleans claimed, like Mahomet, to be its prophet. The rapid development of the cotton manufacturing industries in luirope incited the planters to devote more and more acres to it, and it became highly profitable to culti- vate cotton even on credit. New Orleans was overflowing with money in those flush times, and lent it readily, and the credit system of the South was firmly established, to last even to this day. The system became universal among the planters, particularly those en- gaged in raising cotton and sugar, and New Orleans became not only the lender of money at a high rate of interest, but the depot of western supplies, which it advanced in large quantities to the planters throughout the vast region then tributary to it. The whole agricultural countiy along the Lower Mississippi and its bayous and streams became, in a manner, the commercial slaves of the New Orleans factors, and were not allowed to sell to any one else or buy from them. The western produce shipped down the river never stopped at the plantation, but was sent direct to New Orleans, and thence transshipped up the river over the same route it had just gone. When the big collapse of 1837 came the banks of New Orleans, with a circulation of $7,000,000, purported to have a capi- tal of $34,000,000, a great majority of them being wrecked in the storm. Within a few years, however, New Orleans recovered from the shock and strengthened its hold on the planters. While the Mississippi Valley was listening at the Memphis con- vention to the story of its glories to come, and river men were cal- culating on the immense traffic that was assured the future, New Orleans was confident of the future. Few of its people anticipated any danger of its future, and it was predicted not only in American papers but in the British Quarterly Review that it must ultimately become, on account of the Mississippi, the most important commer- cial city in America, if not in the world. That eminent statistical and economical authority, De Bow's Review, declared that " no city of the world has ever advanced as a mart of commerce with such gigantic and rapid strides as New Orleans." 3i8 RISE OF INTERNAL COMMERCE It was no idle boast. Between 1830 and 1840 no city of the United States kept pace with it. When the census was taken it was fourth in population, exceeded only by New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, and third in point of commerce of the ports of the world, exceeded only by London, Liverpool, and New York, being, indeed, but a short distance behind the latter city, and ahead of it in the export of domestic products. Unfortunately, its imports were out of all proportion with its exports. It shipped coffee, hardware, and other heavy articles like this up the river, but it left the West dependent on New York and the other Atlantic cities for nearly all the finer class of manufactured goods they needed. Later on, when the West began to go into manufacturing itself, and Cincinnati and Pittsburgh became important manufacturing cen- ters, New Orleans imported their goods and reshipped them to the plantations. Of these shipments up-stream over 75 per cent., strange to say, were articles which had previously been sent down- stream. Cincinnati sent its lard, candles, pork, etc., to New Orleans to be carried up by the coast packets to Bayou Sara and Baton Rouge. From these latter towns were shipped so many hogsheads of sugar and barrels of molasses to New Orleans to be thence sent by the Cincinnati boats to the Ohio metropolis. There was no trade between the Western cities and the Southern plantations, very little even with the towns ; it all paid tribute to New Orleans. The upper Mississippi had from 1850 become the center of im- migration and production, and New Orleans, which had formerly depended on the Ohio River country almost wholly for its supplies, now largely got them from Saint Louis. About 1850 the traffic with Saint Louis exceeded that with Cincinnati. In 1859, 32 steamboats of 48,726 tons were required for the Saint Louis and 36 of 26,932 tons for the Cincinnati trade. . . . The extent of the commercial area covered by the river traffic of New Orleans in i860 will show what was lost in the four years of war that followed, and never fully regained. New Orleans then absolutely controlled the entire river trade, commerce, and crops of the State of Louisiana. In Texas, through the Red River, it secured the crops of the northern half of the State ; through the Arkan- sas and the Red it secured the products of the greater portion of DEVELOPMENT OK RIVER COMMERCE 319 the Indian Territory. It controlled tlie trade of the southern two- thirds of Arkansas, all the Ouachita and Arkansas valleys, all the river front, and a portion of the White River trade runnini^ up into Missouri. It controlled Mississippi with the exception of the east- ern portion of the State, through which ran the Mobile and Ohio railroad and the tributaries of the Alabama. All the produce of western Tennessee and half that of middle Tennessee went to New Orleans ; and in Kentucky a large proportion of the business went to the Crescent City. The bulk of the produce of the Ohio valley had been diverted to the lakes and Atlantic seaboard, but probably one-fifth of it found its way to New Orleans direct or by way of the Cincinnati and Louisville packets. In the upper Mississippi probably a third of the surplus, or ex- ported crops, similarly reached market by way of New Orleans, either direct or via Saint Louis. The territory immediately tributary to New Orleans included all Louisiana, half of the setded portion of Texas, half of the Indian Territory, three-fourths of Arkansas, three-fourths of Mississippi, a third of Tennessee, and considerable portions of Kentucky and Alabama, probably 300,000 square miles, while indirectly tributary to it, through Saint Louis, Cincinnati, and Louisville, was a region twice as great. Yet it was admitted at the time that New Orleans and the river route were losing some trade, and it was felt that the railroads were diverting traffic away from it. They had tapped the river at various points. The tributaries running into the Upper Tennessee, had formerly sent down their produce by flat-boats to New Orleans, the boats reaching the city in fleets of thirty and forty. Railroads had diverted much of this traffic to Charleston, Savannah, and the At- lantic cities. The trade of northern Alabama had formerly come via the Tennessee to New Orleans. It was almost gone and the receipts from North Alabama were actually less in i860 than in 1845, although the crops had grown manifold larger. The lead trade of the upper Mississippi had been diverted from the river by the railroads. At Cincinnati a large portion of the flour and grain that had been formerly sent down the river traveled either up it to Pittsburgh or went direct by rail to New York, or by canal to 320 RISE OF INTERNAL COMMERCE Cleveland, Buffalo, and thence by the Hudson. In the twenty years between 1 840 and 1 860, during which the competition of river and rail had been inaugurated, the production of the Mississippi Valley had increased far more rapidly than the receipts at New Orleans. The river traffic had increased in the aggregate, but lost relatively. The Mississippi carried a much larger tonnage, but a far smaller percentage of the total traffic of the valley. The loss was most marked in Western products. Forty years before, these had con- stituted 58 percent, of the total receipts at New Orleans. In 1859- '60 they had fallen to 23 per cent, although in that period the West had made the greatest increase in population and production. What was lost here, however, was more than made good in the cotton and sugar crops, and the river trade of New Orleans therefore showed no decline but a steady, active, and positive advance. During all this period " the levee " of New Orleans, as the river landing of that city was called, was the wonder of every visitor. It was beyond doubt the most active commercial center of the world. Here, side by side, lay the steam-boats and fiat-boats of the river, the steamers, ships, and numerous ocean vessels. Here the entire business of New Orleans and of the greater portion of the valley was transacted. The levee was the landing, warehouse, commercial exchange of half a continent, and the freight handled there ex- ceeded that to be seen on any single dock-yard of London or Liverpool. . . . The flat-boat trade slowly went out during this period [ 1 840 -'60]. It had been a cheap but very unsafe way of getting produce to mar- ket. It is estimated that not more than three-fourths to four-fifths of the flat-boats when started down river to New Orleans ever reached that port, the others being snagged or lost. A squall on the river would sink a dozen at a time. At the same time the flat-boat offered great advantages to the farmers living along the smaller streams penetrating into the center of Indiana and Ohio. Indeed, there was no other way of their getting their produce to market, as the low water, snags, etc., rendered it impossible for the steam-boats to penetrate there. A flat-boat was accordingly built after the crop was gathered, loaded down with produce, and the spring tide waited for to float it out. . . . DEVELOPMENT OF LAKE COMMERCE 321 The steady decline of this trade can be here studied.' The only State which shows an increase is Pennsylvania, due to the coal trade. Indiana, particular!)- the Wabash country, sent a considerable amount of i)roduce, lar<;el)' hay, to New Orleans by flat-boats ; and so did the upper tributaries of the Tennessee River, whence the tobacco was shipped on flat-boats. On the other hand, the flat-boat traffic of the upper Mississippi had given way to the steam-boats, and neither Missouri nor Iowa sent a single flat to New Orleans. Some remarkable fluctuations will be noticed in the arrivals from year to year, attributable to the condition of the river. When the water was high, as in i85i-'52, the ffat-boats got out without any difficulty. On the other hand, in the previous season, which was a low one, the flat-boat tonnage was reduced much below the average. After 1856 the fiat-boat played so unimportant a part in the river trafific that it ceased to be enumerated among the arrivals. III. DEVELOPMENT OF LAKE COMMERCE 2 The total length of the fiye great lakes is 1,555 miles, and the area 90,000 square miles, and they are estimated to drain an area of 335,515 square miles. That vast tract of waters was a waste as far as transportation went until the year 1797, when the first Amer- ican schooner was launched. The craft increased to some extent for the small commerce that engaged the settlers when there was no outlet either to the Atlantic or to the south. In 18 16, however, a steamer was built on Lake Ontario, and in 18 19 the Walk-in-the- W^ater, 340 tons, was launched at Buffalo. The most of the trade, however, consisted in the operations of the Indian traders, carrying westward supplies and trinkets for the trade, and returning with furs and peltries. On the opening of the Erie canal, in 1825, a new state of things presented itself. W^estern New York threw off its frontier aspect, and put on an air of civilization, since it became a receiver of western produce and exporter of goods. The steam tonnage multiplied to transport the growing produce of the west. 1 See table on p. 222 of Report on Internal Commerce of the United States, 1887. 2 Kettell, in Eighty Years' Progress [i860], pp. 186-188. 322 RISE OF INTERNAL COMMERCE In 1822 the Superior was launched, another steamer in 1824, two in 1825, and three in 1826. One of these made the first voyage upon Lake Michigan, in 1826, upon a pleasure excursion. It was not until 1832 that business called them thither, and then one reached Chicago, in the employ of the government, to carry supplies for the Black Hawk war. From that time, tonnage has increased as follows : — 1841 1850 i860 Buffalo Creek Presque Isle . Cuyahoga . Sandusky . Miami . . . Detroit . . . Mackinaw . . Chicago . . Milwaukee . 6,773 2,8.3 887 ^'053 14,381 25,990 5,691 6,418 i'745 16,469 1,746 652 58,711 42,640 1,471 22,597 360 30,381 617 8,151 2,026 108,243 The II boats running in 1833, carried to and from Buffalo 61,485 passengers, and the fares with the freight amounted to $229,212. Those were the years of the great land speculations, and crowds of passengers went west on that errand. Three trips were made a year to the upper lakes. The trips to Chicago from Buffalo occupied 25 days to go and return. In 1841 the time required for a first-class steamer was 10 days from Buffalo to Detroit and back. This was reduced in 185 1 to 3 days, and 5 for propel- lers. In 1834 the lake commerce was controlled by an association, owning 18 boats. This association was kept up to 1841, when the number of boats had increased to 48. The opening of the Ohio canals had poured upon the lakes a large amount of produce. The 500 miles of canal then completed, opened up the grain country to the lakes. In 1835, Ohio exported by the lakes 543,815 bushels of wheat; in 1840, 3,800,000 bushels; and in 185 i, 12,193,202 bushels which paid $500,000 freight and charges. The railroads have since interfered to some extent, but the wheat received across the lakes has this last year been as follows : — DKVELOPMENT OF LAKE COMMERCE 323 I<"rom Ohio 2,856,216 bushels Indiana 3,219,225 " Michigan 2,117,970 " Illinois 12,195,195 " Wisconsin 5,447,766 " New \'ork 130,667 " Total 25,967,039 The successive opening of the Ohio canals in 1H33, the llHnois canal in 1848, and the Indiana canal in 1 851, all added constantl)' to the amount of produce to be transported, and since the last-men- tioned date the railroads have opened new regions of country, and increased the lake trade. It is to be borne in mind that the size of the vessels, their great speed when under way, and the greater dis- patch in loading and unloading by steam, not only for motion, but for labor at the dock, enable the same quantity of tonnage to do ten times the business that it formerly could do. In 1859 the lake steamers averaged 437 tons. In the present year the average is 680 for steamers and 470 for propellers. A change is now going on in the power, by reason of the improvements in propellers. In 1843 the first lake propeller, the Hercules, was launched at Cleve- land, 275 tons, the screw of Ericsson's patent. She was said to have made great economy in wood for fuel. In 185 1 the propel- lers had increased to 52, with a tonnage amounting to 15,729. In i860 there were 118, tonnage 55,657. These boats had far less speed than the paddles, but they have not ceased to gain in public opinion, not only upon the lakes, but in the Atlantic bays and rivers, until recent improvements have brought them to ri\'al the paddle wheels in speed. These vessels will in all probability monopolize the European, as well as the internal trade. Previous to the opening of the Erie canal, in 1825, the com- merce of the lakes was necessarily local, since there were no mar- kets east or west. The produce raised in the country bordering the lakes descended the streams that ran into them, and found inter- change with other lake ports. The opening of the canal immediately gave an eastern current to produce of all descriptions, and much had accumulated in anticipation of the event, and goods returned in great quantities. In the month of May, 1825, 837 boats, carrying 4,122 tons of goods, left Albany for Buffalo, paying $22,000 tolls. 324 RISE OF INTERNAL COMMERCE The lumber from western New York and the lake borders being now marketable where before it was valueless, a motive for clearing land was imparted, and the new canal received on its bosom from all sections of the lake shore the lumber brought by multiplying vessels. The lumber that found tide water before had been that which in southern New York and in Pennsylvania skirted the natu- ral water-courses, and being cut and hauled, was rafted down to Philadelphia and Baltimore. The New England streams delivered the lumber in the same manner. The opening of the canal brought into competition the vast and hitherto untouched resources of the west, and the same remark applies to all farm produce. The farm- ers of New England were undersold at their own doors, by prod- uce from western New York. The potatoes that had been quick of sale at 75 cents, were supplanted by the best "chenangos" at 37^ cents, and the competition was felt in corn, flour, and most articles. The effect of this was to turn the attention of that hard-working and thrifty race of men, the farmers of New England, to the western countiy, where the soil was so much more profitable. At that date commenced the interchange of inhabitants, which has drawn off so many New England farmers, replacing them with manufacturers from abroad. In order to show the extent of this operation, we take from the census of 1850 the figures showing the nativities of the whole people of the United States. Thus there were in the whole Union 8,370,089 persons who were born in the New England and middle states. Of these, 6,941,510 lived in the states where they were born, llie remainder, 1,428,579, were living mostly west, but in their place there were living in the New England and mid- dle states 1,292,241 persons who were born in foreign countries. These latter worked in the mills and manufactories, while 1,428,- 579 northern persons who had migrated west were agriculturists attracted thither by the fertile lands made available by the means of transportation. ^ As being the oldest port on Lake Erie, and having taken, and thus far held, the lead in the amount and value of her lake com- merce, the commercial returns of Buffalo are fuller than those of 1 Andrews, Report on Colonial and Lake Trade [1853], pp. S3-S4, 84-85, 236. DEVELOPMENT OF LAKE COMMERCE 325 most other ports ; and as the histoiy of her commercial progress is little less than the history of the rise and advancement of all the commerce west of it, no apology will be necessar)^ for entering somewhat fully into the history of the lake commerce of Buffalo, and its details, at this time. This commerce dates its actual commencement from the year 1825, the year in which the canal was finished and opened, so as to connect the waters of Lake Erie with the Atlantic. . . . Up to the year 1835 the trade consisted principally of exports of merchandise to the West. During that year, however, Ohio com- menced exporting breadstuffs, ashes, and wool, to some extent. The following table exhibits the quantities of several leading articles of western produce, during the various periods from 1835 to 185 i : Articles shipped Eastward from Buffalo by Canal Articles 1835 1840 184: 1850 1S51 Flour (bbls.) . . Wheat (bush.) . Corn " Provisions (bbls. Ashes " Staves (no.) . . Wool (lbs.) . . . Butter ^ Cheese !> (lbs.) . Lard j 86,233 14,579 6,502 4.419 2,565,272 140,911 1,030,632 633,700 881,192 47,885 25,070 7,008 22,410,660 107,794 3.422,687 717,406 1,354,990 33'069 68,000 34,602 88,296,431 2,957,007 6,597,007 984,430 3,304,647 2,608,967 146,836 17-504 159,479.504 8,805,817 17.534,981 1,106,352 3,668,005 5,789,842 "7,734 25,585 75,927,659 7,857,907 1 1,102,282 The figures above are taken from the canal returns for the sev- eral years, and of course do not embrace the whole imports of the lakes, but are given as the best attainable standards of the increase of lake commerce, up to the date when the statistics of that com- merce began to be kept in a manner on which reliance might be reposed. . . . ^ 1 It is important to note in this and the following table the small amount of western produce sent east over the canal. It was insignificant in 1835, very small in 1840, and not an important factor in the prosperity of the West until the Irish famine of 1846-7. Eastern manufactures furnished little home market for western agriculture until the decade 1S50-60. Western farmers got their home market chiefly on the plantations of the South. Such markets as the eastern manufactures ;26 RISE OF INTERNAL COMMERCE Comparative Statement of Trade and Tonnage of the New York State Canals Total received at Tide- Water (Tons) Total going from Tide- Proportion destined to Proportion received from Value from Other States, Total Value Years Water (Tons) Other States (Tons) Other States (Tons) via Buffalo and Oswego received at Tide-Water 1835 763.193 128,910 55.772 $20,525,446 1836 696,347 133.796 61,167 104,701 $5,493,816 26,932,470 1S37 611,741 122,130 54,766 I 10,108 4,813,626 21,822,354 1838 640,481 142,802 77,090 125.779 6,369,645 23,038,510 1S39 602,128 142,035 85.193 I 58,000 7,258,968 20,163,199 1840 669,012 129,580 63,871 214,456 7.877.358 23.213.573 1 84 1 774,334 162,715 81,742 275,076 11,889,273 27.225,322 1842 666,626 122,394 54,011 272,386 9,215,808 22,761,013 1843 836,861 143.595 72,500 286,891 '1.937.943 28,453.408 1844 1,019,094 176,737 , 99.552 340,151 15.875.558 34,183,167 1845 1,204,943 195,000 104,018 338.525 14,162,239 45.452.321 1846 1,362,319 213.795 138.235 540,219 20,471.939 51,105,256 1847 1,744,283 288,267 147,654 854.693 32,666.324 73,092,414 1848 1,447,905 329-557 187,453 701,531 23.245.353 50.883,907 1849 1,579,946 315.550 183,036 834,140 26,713,796 52.375.521 1850 2,033,668 418,370 158,501 897,891 25,471,962 55.474.637 1851 1,977,151 467,961 246,812 1,047,649 26,928,315 53,927,508 IV. COMMERCIAL RIVALRY OF SEABOARD CITIES 1 Previous to the construction of the canal the cost of transpor- tation from I.ake Eric to tide-water was such as nearly to prevent all movement of merchandise. A report of the committee of the legislature, to whom was referred the whole subject of the proposed work, consisting of the most intelligent memlx'i's of that body, dated March 17, 18 17, states that at that time the co.st of transpor- tation//?;/// Buffalo to Montreal was $50 pei- ton, and the rctiiniing transportation from $60 to $75. The expense of transportation created for agricultural produce were supplied by the local farmers and by those of New York and Pennsylvania, who were brought into easy connection with these markets by the extensive canal systems of those two states. 1 Poor, Railroads and Canals of the United States, in Andrews' Report on Colo- nial and Lake Trade, pp. 234, 240, 242, 243, 248-249, 250, 261, 262, 269-270, 271, 273. 274. 275. 284, 285-286. COMMERCIAL RIVALRY OF SEABOARD CrriES 327 from Buffalo to New York was stated at $100 per ton, and the or- dinary length of passage /tiyv//;' days ; so that, upon the ver}' route through which the heaviest and cheapest products of the West are now sent to market, the cost of transportation equalled nearly tJure times the market value of wheat in New York ; six times the vajue of corn ; Hvclvc times the value of oats ; and far exceeded the value of most kinds of cured provisions. These facts afford a striking illustration of the value of internal improvements to a country like the Lhiited States. It may be here stated, as an inter- esting fact, that prior to the construction of the Erie Canal the wheat of western New York was sent down the Susquehanna to Balti- more, as the cheapest and best route to market. Although the rates of transportation over the Erie Canal, at its opening, were nearly double the present charges — which range from $3 to $7 per ton, according to the character of the freight — it immediately became the convenient and favorite route for a large portion of the produce of the Northwestern States, and secured to the city of New York the position which she now holds as the em- porium of the confederacy. Previous to the opening of the canal the trade of the West was chiefly carried on through the cities of Baltimore and Philadelphia, particularly the latter, which was at that time the first city in the United States in population and wealth, and in the amount of its internal commerce. . . . The Erie Canal secured to the city of New York the trade of the interior, because it occupied the only route practicable for such a work. So long, therefore, as canals continued the most approved of known modes of transportation, the superior position of that city in reference to the internal trade of the country remained unques- tioned. Such is now [1852] no longer the case. Eor travel, and for the transportation of certain kinds of merchandise, the superiority of railroads is admitted. It is also claimed that they can successfully compete with the canal in heavy freights. However this may be, the correctness of the assumption is admitted by the construction of railroads parallel to all the canals, for the purpose of competing for the business of the latter. The conviction is now almost universal, that commercial supremacy is to be secured and main- tained by this new agency, which neutralizes, to a great extent, the 328 RISE OF INTERNAL COMMERCE advantages arising from the accidents of position ; and that the com- merce of the country is still a prize for the competition of all cities which may choose to enter the lists. Influenced by these views, all the great commercial towns have either completed or are con- structing, stupendous lines of railroad, with the confident expectation of securing to each a portion of the trade which, up to the present time, has been almost entirely monopolized by one. It is proper to state, that the people of New York, in view of the competition and rivalry with which they are threatened, have determined to complete the enlargement of the Erie Canal within the shortest practicable period. It is calculated that this enlargement can be completed within three years after it shall be undertaken. The enlarged canal will allow the use of boats of 224 tons burden, or three times the capacity of those now employed ; and will, it is estimated, reduce the cost of transporting a barrel of flour from Buffalo to Albany to twenty-five cents, and other merchandise in like proportion. . . . Erie Railroad and its BraneJies. — The Erie railroad, unlike the Central line, was planned and has been executed with special refer- ence to the accommodation of the trade between New York and the West. It is the greatest work ever attempted in this country, and its construction is the greatest achievement of the kind yet realized. The road and all its structures are on the most comprehensive scale, and its facilities for business are fully equal to the magnitude and object of the work. ... This road was opened for business only on the first of June, 185 1. It has not, therefore, been in operation a sufficient length of time to supply any satisfactory statistics as to its probable influence upon western commerce. So far as its business and revenues are con- cerned, it has exceeded the most sanguine expectations. Western Railroad. — No sooner had the people of this country become acquainted with the part that railroads are capable of per- forming in commercial affairs, than the city of Boston conceived the bold idea of securing to itself the trade of the interior, from which it had previously been cut off by the impossibility of opening any suitable communication by water. It was this idea that gave birth COMMERC'lAI, RIVALRY OF SKA]K)AR1) CTl'IKS 329 to the \]\'stfn/ railroad project, the most important which has yet been consummated in New England, and one of the most so in the United States. . . . . . . Through it the city of Boston proposed to draw to herself the trade and produce of the West, from the very harbor of New York, (for the Albany basin can only be regarded as a portion of her harbor ;) and to open in the same direction an outlet for the product of her manufactures, and of her foreign commerce. It is well known that these efforts have been so far successful as to se- cure to Boston a large amount of western trade, which otherwise would have gone to New York, and to render the Western road her channel of communication between the former city and the West. It was only when menaced by this work, that New York successfully resumed the construction of the Erie railroad ; and it is not too much to say, that but for the former, the Erie road would probably have been abandoned, even after the expenditure of many millions of dollars, and the Hudson River railroad project remained un- touched up to the present time. The W^estern railroad, though constructed at immense cost, has proved to be one of the most productive works in the United States, paying an annual dividend of eight per cent., besides accu- mulating a large sinking fund. It has been the chief instrument of the extraordinary progress of Massachusetts in population, wealth, and commercial greatness, from 1840 to 1850. It supplies the State with a large portion of many of the most important articles of food. It opened an outlet to the products of her manufacturing es- tablishments and her foreign commerce, and stimulated every in- dustrial pursuit to an extraordinaiy degree, and, from the results that have followed its opening, forced all our leading cities to the construction of similar works, with similar objects. Railroads from Boston to Lake Charnplain and the St. Lazu- rence. — The Western railroad, though accomplishing greater results, and exerting a wider influence upon the varied interests of the State, than either were or could, with reason, have been antici- pated, secured to the city of Boston only a small portion of the western produce reaching Albany. As the canal, which has been the avenue for this produce, is in operation only during the period of 330 RISE OF INTERNAL COMMERCE navigation on the Hudson river, it is found that this produce can be forwarded to New York by water much cheaper than to Boston by raih^oad. Cost of transportation always determines the route. At the dullest season of the year for freights, flour is often sent from Albany to Liverpool at a cost not exceeding twenty-five cents per barrel, which is only equal to the lowest rate charged from Albany to Boston, The Western railroad, therefore, though a convenient channel through which the people of Boston and of Massachusetts draw their domestic supplies of food, is found unable to compete with the Hudson river as a route for produce designed for exporta- tion to foreign countries or to the neighboring States. It failed to secure one of the leading objects of its construction. Its fault, however, was not so much ascribed to the idea upon which the road was built, as to the route selected to accomplish its object. It was felt that a route farther removed from the influence of the New York system of public works must be selected, and this conviction led to the project of a direct line of railroad from Boston to the navigable waters of Lake Ontario, passing to the north of Lake Champlain. This line, freed from all immediate competition, and from the attractive influence of other great cities, would,, it was be- lieved, secure to Boston the proud pre-eminence of becoming the exporting port of western produce, and, as a necessary consequence, the emporium of the country. This great line has been completed ; but it has too recently come into operation to predict, with any certainty, the result. From Boston to Lake Champlain it is composed of two parallel lines : one made up of the Boston and Lowell, Nashua and Lowell, Concord, Northern (New Hampshire,) and Vermont Central ; the other of the Fitchburg, a part of the Vermont and Massachusetts, Cheshire, and Rutland roads. From Burlington, on Lake Champlain, these roads are carried forward upon a common trunk, composed of the Ver- mont and Canada, and Ogdensburg (Northern New York) roads, to Ogdensburg, on the St. Lawrence, above the rapids in that river, thus forming an uninterrupted line from the navigable waters of the great basin to the city of Boston. . . . Were those immediately interested in the above roads to derive no other advantage than that of receiving their supplies of western COMMERCIAL RIVALRY OF SEABOARD CITIES 331 products, and forwarding o\er tlu'in in return those of their own factories, they would be fully compensated for all their outlay. The unexampled progress of New ICngland in population and wealth, in spite of all her disadvantages of soil and climate, j)roves, most con- clusively, the wisdom and foresight of her people in constructing their numerous lines of railroad, which ally them to the more fer- tile and productive portions of the country. . . . The attention of the people of Pennsylvania was, at an early period in our history, turned to the subject of internal improve- ments, with a view to the local wants of the State, and for the pur- pose of opening a water communication between the Delaware river and the navigable waters of the Ohio. It was not, however, till stimulated by the example of New York, and the results which her great work, the Erie Canal, was achieving in developing and secur- ing to the former the trade of the West, that the State of Penn- sylvania commenced the construction of various works which make up the elaborate system of that State. The great Pennsylvania line of improvement, extending from Philadelphia to Pittsburg, was commenced on the 4th of July, 1826, and was finally completed in March, 1834. It is made up partly of railroad and partly of canal, the works that compose it being the Columbia railroad, extending from Philadelphia to Colum- bia, a distance of 82 miles ; the eastern and Juniata divisions of the Pennsylvania Canal, extending from Columbia, on the Susque- hanna river, to Hollidaysburg, at the base of the Alleghany moun- tains, a distance of 172 miles; the Portage railroad, extending from Hollidaysburg to Johnston, a distance of 36 miles, and by which the mountains are surmounted ; and the western division of the Pennsylvania Canal, extending from Johnston to Pittsburg, a distance of 104 miles ; making the entire distance from Philadel- phia to Pittsburg by this line 394 miles. . . . The line of improvement we have described was constructed with similar objects, and bears the same relation to the city of Philadelphia as does the Erie Canal to the city of New York. It has not, however, achieved equal results, partly from the want of convenient western connexions, from the unfavorable character of 332 RISE OF INTERNAL COMMERCE the route, and partly from the fact that the hne is made up of rail- road and canal, involving greater cost of transportation than upon the New York work. It has, however, proved of vast utility to the city of Philadelphia and to the State, and has enabled the former to maintain a very large trade which she would have lost but for the above line. The comparatively heavy cost of transportation over this route has not enabled it to compete with the New York improvements, as an outlet for the cheap and bulky products of the West ; but so far as the return movement is concerned, it enjoys some advantages over the former, the most important of which is the longer period during which it is in operation. At the commencement of the season it opens for business about a month earlier than the Erie canal — a fact which secures to it and to the city of Philadelphia a very large trade long before its rival comes into operation ; so that, although it may not have realized the expectations formed from it as an outlet for western trade, it has been the great support of Philadelphia, without which her trade must have succumbed to the superior advantages of New York. It would be a matter of much interest could the movement of property, upon the two lines of improvement from tide-water to the navigable waters of the West, be compared, both in tonnage and value. The returns of the Pennsylvania works, however, do not furnish the necessary data for such a comparison. There are no methods of distinguishing accurately the local from the through- tonnage, nor the quantity or value of property received from other States, as is shown upon the New York works. The returns of the business on the former, however, show only a small move- ment east over the Portage road, which must indicate pretty cor- rectly the tJuvngh movement. In the opposite direction the amount, both in value and tonnage, is much larger. A better idea, proba- bly, can be formed of the value and amount of this traffic from the extent of the jobbing trade of Philadelphia, a ver)^ considerable portion of which must pass over the above route. Philadelphia, though it does not possess a large foreign commerce, is one of the great distributing points of merchandise in the Union ; and the large population and the very rapid growth of that city, in the COMMERCIAL RIVALRY OF SEABOARD CITIES t^^^ absence of i\\c foreign trade enjoyed by New York, proves conclu- sively the immense c/ojncstic commerce of the former. Influenced by similar objects to those which actuated the people of Philadelphia, New York, Boston, and the eastern States, in their immense expenditures for works that facilitate transportiition, the people of Mar)land, at an early ])eriod, commenced two very im- portant works, the Chesapeake and Ohio canal and the Baltimore and Ohio railroad, for the purpose of attracting the trade of the interior, and of placing themselves on the routes of commerce be- tween the two grand divisions of the country. By the deep inden- tation made by the Chesapeake bay, the navigable tide-waters are brought into nearest proximity to the Mississippi Valley in the States of Maryland and Virginia. To this is to be ascribed the fact, that before the use of railroads, the principal routes of travel between the East and the West were from the waters of that bay to the Ohio river. The great National road, established and con- structed by the general government, commenced at the Potomac river, in Maryland, and its direction was made to conform to the convenient route of travel at tJiat time. No sooner had experience demonstrated the superiority of rail- roads to ordinary roads, than the people of Baltimore assumed the adaptation of them to their routes of communication, and immedi- ately commenced the construction of that great work, the Balti- more and Ohio railroad, which, after a struggle of tzvoity-five years, is now on the eve of completion. This road was commenced in 1828, and was one of the first roads brought into use in the United States. . . . The road is now [1852] open to a point about 300 miles from Baltimore, and will be completed on or before the first of Januaiy next. . . . As before stated, the first route of travel between the East and the West was between the waters of the Chesapeake and the Ohio. The opening of the Erie canal, and, subsequently, of the railroads between the Hudson river and Lake Erie, diverted this travel to this more northern and circuitous, but more convenient route. This diversion seriously affected the business of Baltimore, and 334 RISE OF INTERNAL COMMERCE materially lessened the revenues of the Baltimore and Ohio rail- road, since its opening to Cumberland. All this lost ground the people of Baltimore expect to regain ; and with it, to draw them- selves a large trade now accustomed to pass to the more northern cities. Assuming the cost of transportation on a railroad to be measured by lineal distance, Baltimore certainly occupies a very favorable position in reference to western trade. To Cincinnati, the great city of the West, and the commercial depot of southern (3hio, the shortest route from all the great northern cities will probably be by way of Baltimore, and over the Baltimore and Ohio railroad. To strengthen her position still farther, the people of this city have already commenced the construction of the NortJiwcstcrn railroad, extending from the southwestern angle of the Baltimore and Ohio railroad to Parkersburg, on the Ohio river, in a direct line towards Cincinnati. The distance from Baltimore to Parkersburg, by this route, will be about 395 miles, and about 580 to Cincinnati, by the railroads in progress through southern Ohio. . . . Chesapeake and Ohio Canal. — This great work was projected with a view to its extension to the Ohio river at Pittsburg. The original route extended from Alexandria, up the Potomac river, to the mouth of Wills Creek, thence by the Youghiogheny and Mo- nongahela rivers to Pittsburg. Its proposed length was 341 miles. It was commenced in 1828, but it was only in the past year that it was opened for business to Cumberland, 191 miles. Towards the original stock $1,000,000 was subscribed by the United States, $1,000,000 by the city of Washington, $250,000 by Georgetown, $250,000 by Alexandria, and $5,000,000 by the State of Maryland. From the difficulties in the way of construction, the idea of ex- tending the canal beyond Cumberland has long since been aban- doned ; and though when originally projected, it was regarded as a work of national importance, it must now be ranked as a local work, save so far as it may be used in connexion with the Balti- more and Ohio railroad, as a portion of a tJirough route to the Ohio. In this manner it bids fair to become a route of much gen- eral importance. As a very large coal trade must always pass through this canal, the boats will take return freights at very low rates, in preference to returning light. It is proposed to form COMMERCIAL RIVALRY OF SEABOARD CITIES 335 a line of steam propellers from New York to I^altinKMV, for the transportation of coal ; and it is claimed that the very low rates at which freights between New York and Cumberland can be placed by such a combination, will cause the canal, in connexion with the Baltimore and Ohio railroad, to become a leading route between New York and the West. The State of Virginia is the birth-place of the idea of construct- ing an artificial line for the accommodation of commerce and travel between the navigable rivers of the interior and tide-water. It is now nearly one hundred years since a definite plan for a canal from the tide-waters of Virginia to the Ohio was presented by Washington to the House of Burgesses of Virginia, and ever since that time the realization of this project has been the cher- ished idea of the State. . . . James River and Kanawha Canal. — The great work by which this connexion has been sought to be accomplished is the James river and Kanazvha canal, to extend from Richmond to the navigable waters of the Great Kanawha, at the mouth of the Greenbrier river, a distance of about 310 miles. This work is now completed to Buchanan, in the valley of Virginia, a distance of 196 miles, and is in progress to Covington, a town situated at the base of the great Alleghany ridge, about thirty miles farther. It was commenced in 1834, and has cost, up to the present time, the sum of $10,714,306. The extension of this water line to the Ohio is still considered a problem by many, though its friends cherish the original plan with unfaltering zeal. The work thus far has scarcely realized public expectation, from the difficulties encountered, which have proved far greater than were anticipated in the outset, and have materially delayed the progress of the work. . . . Central Railroad. — The object which led to the conception of the James river and Kanawha canal is now the ruling motive in the construction of the two leading railroad projects of this State, viz : the Virginia Central and the Mrginia and Tennessee railroads. While the canal is still the favorite project with an influential por- tion of her citizens, it cannot be denied that, sympathizing with the popular feeling in favor of railroads, which have in many cases 336 RISE OF INTERNAL COMMERCE superseded canals as means of transportation, and which are adapted to more varied uses and better reflect the character and spirit of the times, a large majority of the people of the State deem it more advisable to open the proposed western connexions by means of railroads than by a farther extension of the canal. . . . The whole length of the road, from Richmond to the navigable waters of the Kanawha, will be about two hundred and eighty-six miles. The means for its construction have thus far been furnished by stock subscriptions on the part of the State and individuals, in the proportion of three-fifths by the former, to two-fifths by the latter. No doubt is entertained of its extension over the mountains, at a comparatively early period. The State is committed to the work, and has too much involved, both in the amount already ex- pended and in the results at stake, to allow it to pause at this late hour. The opinion is now confidently expressed by well-informed persons that some definite plan will be adopted for the immediate construction of the remaining link of this great line. The leading roads in operation in Georgia constitute two great lines, representing, apparently, two different interests. The first extends from Savannah, the commercial capital of the State, to the Tennessee river, a distance of 434 miles, and is made up of the Georgia Central, ^faeon and IVester-n, and Western and Atlantic roads. The latter, by which the railroad system of the State is carried into the Tennessee valley, is a State work. The second line traverses the State from east to west, crossing the other nearly at right-angles, and is made up of the Georgia and the Atlantic and La Grange railroads. This line may be considered as an exten- sion, in a similar direction, of the South Cajvlina railroad, and rests on Charleston as its commercial depot, as does the former on Savannah. To a certain extent the Western and Atlantic link may be said to be common to both lines. . . . . . . To the State of Georgia must be awarded the honor of first surmounting the Great Alleghany or Appalachian range, and of carrying a continuous line of railroad from the seacoast into the Mississippi valley. From the difficulties in the way of such an achievement, it must always be regarded as a crowning work. CANALS AND RAILROADS vs. THE MISSISSIPPI jji Wherever accomplished, the most important results are certain to follow. The construction of the Western and Atlantie road was the signal for a new movement throughout all the southern and southwestern States. By opening an outlet to the seaboard for a vast section of countr}^ it at once gave birth to numerous important projects, which are now making rapid progress, and which, when completed, will open to the whole southern country the advantages of railroad transportation. Among the more important of these may be named the MenipJiis and CJiarleston, the East Tentiessee and (Georgia, and the Nashville and Chattanooga roads, already referred to. The former will open a direct line of railroad from Memphis, an important town on the Tennessee [Mississippi] river, to the southern Atlantic ports of Charleston and Savannah, and will become the trunk for a great number of important radial branches. The Nashville and Chattanooga, traversing the State of Tennessee in a northwesterly direction, has given a new impulse to the numerous railroads which are springing into life, both in Tennessee and Kentucky. These railroads will soon form connex- ions with those of Ohio, Indiana, and Ilhnois, and thus all the northern and western States will be brought into intimate business relations with the southern cities of Charleston and Savannah. . . . V. COMPETITION OF CANALS AND RAILROADS WITH THE MISSISSIPPI 1 In 1845 it was estimated that of the produce of the Mississippi Valley shipped to seaboard one half found its way to market via the canals, railroads, and other means of transportation to the At- lantic coast, and the other half went by way of New Orleans. Of the imports, however. New Orleans handled a much smaller pro- portion, and of those the heavier products were shipped to the West by the canals and the lighter by the railroads. In 1846 the receipts of flour and wheat at Buffalo exceeded those at New Or- leans, and those who favored the river route began for the first time to express some alarm. The newspapers and magazines of the time are filled with a discussion of this question, and those of 1 Report on the Internal Commerce of the United States, 1SS7, pp. 210-212. 33,^ RISE OF INTERNAL COMMERCE New Orleans insisted that the natural water way to the ocean was the cheapest, and no artificial route, whether rail or canal, could long successfully compete with it. In the meanwhile, however, the receipts by the New York State canals at tide-water had increased as follows : Years Tons Value Years Tons Value 1826 ... 302,170 1838 . . . 640,481 $23,038,510 1834 . . . 583>596 $13,405,022 1839 . . . 602,128 20,163,199 1835 • • • 753'i9i 20,525,446 1840 . . . 669,012 23>2i3.573 1836 . . . 699'347 26,932,470 1 84 1 . . . 774035 27,225,322 1837 . . . 611,781 21,822,354 1842 . . . 666,626 22,751,013 The change was most marked in the wheat and flour trade. In 1835 there arrived at tide- water by the Erie Canal 128,552 tons of wheat and flour, of a value of $5,719,795 [$7,395,939], and it increased as follows : Years Tons Value Years Tons Value 1835 . . . 128,552 ^7095.939 1S41 . . . 201,360 $10,165,355 1836 . . . 124,982 9,796,540 1842 . . . 198,231 9,284,778 1837 . . . 116,491 9,649,156 1843 . . . 248,780 10,283,454 1838 . . . 133,080 9,883,586 1844 . . . 277,865 11,211,677 1839 . . . 124,683 7,217,841 1845 • ■ ■ 320,463 15,962,950 1840 . . . 244,862 10,362,862 1846 . . . 419,366 18,836,412 This was by a single canal. The Pennsylvania Canal transported a much larger variety of articles, while the Erie diverted the corn and wheat. The Pennsylvania route took annually some 20,000 hogsheads of tobacco that had formerly gone down the river, all the pig-iron manufactured around Pittsburg, and large quantities of lard, bacon, and other Western products. Its imports included all kinds of manufactured goods, chinaware, cotton, diy goods, earthenware, glassware, hardware, hats, shoes, and muslin, and as early as 1846 it supplied the Ohio basin with more manufactured goods than the Mississippi did. A comparison made by De Bow's Review at this time of the relative cost of transportation by rail and river declared the latter CANALS AND RAILROADS vs. THE MLSSISSIPPI 339 to be the cheapest, and estimated the cost of transportation per ton per mile : Cents Canal, exclusive of tolls i j4 Railroads 2^ Steam-boats on lakes 3 Steam-boats on Ohio and Mississippi /4 io i )4 Average 3, This is scarcely a fair statement of the case, but even with these figures it will be seen that as the steam-boats had to go from 60 to 120 per cent, farther in miles, had to pay a heavy insurance, and when they reached destination (New Orleans), the freight had a heavier ocean rate to pay than at the Atlantic seaboard, there was less advantage in the river route than these figures would seem to indicate. In 1846 it was noted that for the first time the receipts of flour and wheat at Buffalo exceeded those at New Orleans. In 1847 the canals and railroads had still further invaded the river territory, flour being shipped from Cincinnati direct to New York. Over the Erie Canal the cost per barrel was $1.53 ; via Pittsburg, $ i .40 ; via New Orleans, $1.30; but the extra risk via latter route made the cost by the river $1.50. Attention was soon after called to the fact that between 1835 and 1849 the increase of shipments of Western produce by the Erie Canal had increased : flour, 800 per cent. ; wheat, 1,300 per cent.; staves, 4,000 per cent,; provisions 1,000 per cent.; wool, 2,000 per cent. Big as these figures are there was little to alarm the river inter- ests. The canals had undoubtedly captured a portion of the valley trade, but the lines of competition between the canal route and the river route became more definitely marked, and the Mississippi route was able to show that in the decade 1 841 -'51 it had kept ahead of the Hudson as the recipient of Western produce, as follows : Received at seaboard from 1841 to 185 1 : By Mississippi $857,658,164 Hudson 484,924,474 J 40 RISE OF INTERNAL COMMERCE Of the former receipts, however, only $282,642,620 were of Western produce. The Hudson was receiving over three-fifths of the surplus products of the Western country. Although no years in the history of New Orleans were appar- ently more prosperous than the ten years preceding the war, although the city's receipts of produce constantly increased, the trade papers were continually sounding notes of alarm, calling at- tention to lines of trade lost, and singing Cassandra warnings. De Bow notices, for instance, that in 1S50 large quantities of flo,ur were being shipped East from Cincinnati. In 1859 De Bow's Review congratulated New Orleans that some of this trade was coming back to it, and pointed out that the New Orleans route was the cheaper for flour. liy rail and sea : Cincinnati to New York ^i-7S New York to Liverpool .50 Total to Liverpool $2.25 By river and sea : Cincinnati to New Orleans $0.50 New York to Liverpool 96 Total to Liverpool $146 These statistics, flattering as they were, could not turn the course of trade, and New Orleans never regained any considerable pro- portion of this flour or grain trade. In later years there was a marked movement in the shipment of grain from the upper-river States, but the Ohio River wheat and flour trades were measurably lost, and about the same time the tobacco trade, which in the ear- lier days of the city had been larger than the cotton trade, grew relatively less, a large portion of the crop finding an outlet else- where. The receipts of tobacco for the decade immediately pre- ceding the war showed no advance over the receipts during the period i840-'50, although there had been a large increase in the crop. In 1852 the lead trade from Galena and Missouri, which had formerly passed through New Orleans, was lost to it, the railroads having made through connections with Galena. The receipts of lead at New Orleans had reached a maximum of 785,495 pigs in CANALS AND RAILROADS vs. 'I'lIK M ISSISSI IM'I 341 1846, and had axcrai^cd nearly 600,000 pi<2;s for the previous half- dozen years. It sank suddenly, and in 1856 was but 18,291 pigs, and soon after it disappeared altogether from the commercial rec- ords of New Orleans, ])eing an item too small for consideration. This trade, howexer, was merely a transit one, the shipments being through New (Orleans as the cheapest route to New York and Europe. In 1852 that route was no longer the cheapest, the rail- roads underbidding it. Thus, with each year, did New Orleans become more and more a cotton city. In 1852, the very year that it was losing the lead trade of Missouri and Illinois, and the flour trade of Ohio, cotton passed in value all the other products received; and in i859-'6o it was in value 60 per cent, of the total receipts, and the bulk of the other articles were imported simply to supply the cotton-plant- ers and enable them to carry on their places. ^ In order to give a clear idea of the amount of Western prod- uce sent East over artificial lines of improvement, we annex a table of the t]iro7tgJi Eastern bound freight of the five great routes — the Erie Canal, New York Central, New York and Erie, Pennsyl- vania, and Baltimore and Ohio Railroads, since 1836, in which year the Western trade over the Erie Canal may be said to have commenced. The tolls on the New York Central Railroad were removed in 185 i, the Erie Railroad was opened in the same year. The Pennsylvania Railroad was opened in 1852, so as to com- mence a through business in connection with the Public Works of Pennsylvania. The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was opened in 1852. The tons given are those received at the Western terminus of each work, and delivered at tide-water [see table on page 342]. The number of tons of Western Produce delivered annually at tide-water over these routes, exceed twice the number of tons of all kinds of produce delivered at New Orleans and considerably exceed the same in value. . . . ^ The Effect of Secession upon the Commercial Relations between the North and South [1861], pp. 34-35, 37-38, 39-40. RISE OF INTERNAL COMMERCE Tons Western Tons Western Tons Western Tons Western Tons Western Produce com- Produce com- Produce com- Produce com- Total Tons to Years Produce com- ing to Tide by ing to Tide ing to Tide ing to Tide Tide-Water ing to Tide by New Yorlc by New York by Pennsyl- by Baltimore from West- Erie Canal Central and Erie vania Rail- and Ohio em States Railroad Railroad road Railroad 1836 54>2i9 54,219 1837 56,255 55,255 1838 83,233 83,233 1839 121,671 121,671 1840 158,148 158,148 1 84 1 224,176 224,176 1 84 2 221,477 ' 221,477 1843 256,376 256,376 1S44 308,025 308,025 1845 304,551 304,551 1846 506,830 506,830 1847 812,840 812,840 1848 650,154 650,154 1849 768,659 768,659 1850 773,858 773,858 1851 966,993 966,993 1852 1,151,978 48,000 48,000 1,247,978 1853 1,213,690 70,000 70,000 38 S37 21,014 1,413,641 1854 1,100,526 117,000 77, '61 53,825 90,368 1,438,880 1855 1,092,876 147,500 113,331 106,407 72,779 1,532,993 1856 1,212,550 172,781 202,682 88,707 145,598 1,822,323 1857 919,998 179,647 157,820 94,905 126,323 1,478,693 1858 1,273,099 229,275 224,886 141,268 171,084 2,039,611 1859 1,036,634 234,241 171,206 129,767 135,127 1,706,775 i860 1,500,000 293,520 300,000 1 50,000 149,651 2,393,171 Total 16,768,816 1,495,923 1,367,086 803,716 912,544 21,348,085 No statement can convey an adequate idea of the extent of the trade in breadstuffs of the City of New York. The dehveries from the Canal at tide-water, the past year, equaled 1,367,563 tons, valued at $48,183,044. The Erie and Central Railroads trans- ported (nearly all to tide-water) 540,000 tons of vegetable food. Estimating 500,000 tons of this amount to be breadstuffs, mostly Flour, and worth $50 per ton, its value was equal to $25,000,000. The aggregate tonnage brought to tide-water by the three routes was worth at least $73,184,044. Reducing the barrels of Flour to bushels, the whole number of bushels that came to the New CANALS AND RATT^ROADS vs. THE MISSISSIPPI 343 York market the past \car, through her three cliannels, equaled 71,384,143 bushels ! Of animal food the two railroads brought to tide-water the past year, 425,185 tons, worth on the average ^200 per ton, and in the aggregate $85,037,000. The Canal brought 12,574 tons, valued at $2,766,694. The aggregate value brought by the three routes was $87,803,694. The aggregate tonnage of breadstuffs and ani- mal food brought to tide-water, the past year, was 2,305,321 tons, and their aggregate value $160,906,778, a sum nearly, if not quite, equal to the value of the Cotton crop of the United States the past year. If we add the value of the vegetable and animal food brought to tide-water, the past year, from the Western States over the Pennsylvania and Baltimore and Ohio Railroads, the aggregate will be over $200,000,000 ! Against this movement on the Eastern routes, there were re- ceived at New Orleans, the past year, by way of the Mississippi River, 965,860 barrels of Flour, 13,1 16 sacks of Wheat, 1,722,037 sacks of Corn, 659,550 bushels of Oats, 216,523 barrels and 1,874 hogsheads of Pork, 83,922 barrels of Lard, 44,934 barrels and tierces of Beef, and 82,819 casks and hogsheads of Bacon. Re- ducing the Flour to bushels, the total number of bushels of grain received at New Orleans was 5,687,399, against 71,384,143 re- ceived at tide- water over the New York lines, or at least 85,000,000 bushels over all the five Eastern outlets. The tons of animal food received at New Orleans the past year, was 95,700, against 437,759 by the New York routes, or adding the tonnage of animal food brought by the Pennsylvania and Baltimore and Ohio Railroads, against, probably, 525,000 tons on the five Eastern outlets of the great valley. . . . These facts show how small a proportion of the products of the North-Western States goes to market by w-ay of the Missis- sippi River. The produce received at New Orleans came almost entirely from the Southern States — the Plour from St. Louis, and the Corn and Bacon from Kentucky and Tennessee. It is not probable that one-fiftieth of the total exports of grain from the North-West went down the Mississippi. Of other articles of export. Wool, Lumber, Butter, Cheese, Hides, etc., etc., no portion 344 RISE OF INTERNAL COMMERCE whatever is sent down the Mississippi — the whole going direct to the Eastern States. These facts are stated, not by way of invidious comparison, but to show the power that resides in the North and East by virtue of their numbers, wealth, industries and means of inter-communication, and how completely these sections have changed the direction of the great routes of commerce of the interior. The free navigation of the Mississippi, which only a few years ago was considered so indispensable, is for the North-Western States an imaginary rather than a real necessity. They would not, of course, consent that any of their outlets should be closed, as it might increase the exactions of others, and, as extraordinaiy emergencies might occur, creating interruptions in those now used. It is not probable that the people of New Orleans will ever allow the free navigation of its great feeder to be interfered with, as this would threaten the destruction of their wealth and trade. The peaceable effect of Secession may be to close its mouth in which event the entire trade of the Valley could be easily, and in the end to the convenience and benefit of all, sent over the Northern and Eastern routes. It may be assumed that the cotton grown in Tennessee, a por- tion of Alabama, all Mississippi and Arkansas, and a part of Lou- isiana, can be delivered at Cairo as cheaply as at New Orleans. From Cairo to New York, $4 a bale, or $16 a ton, would afford a fair business to the carrier. From New Orleans to New York, by the outside route, including charges at the former place, and insur- ance, -the rate cannot be estimated at less than a cent to'a cent and a quarter per pound. In favor of the interior route is time, climate and uniform health. There is now annually consumed in the Northern and F2astern States, nearly one million of bales. Our manufacturing establishments are already receiving large amounts through the interior routes, which will be steadily increased till the greater part consumed reaches them in this manner. All the railroads connecting the interior with the Eastern States, are mak- ing extensive provision for this new traffic, which is certain to be secured by our method of low charges, and by the great advan- tages which New York, Boston and Philadelphia present as the parts of shipment. ciiAPri':R viii Tl>LANSl'ORTATIC)N INTRODUCTION There is no single influence which has played so large a part in American industry as transportation. So long as we remained in the economic condition of colonies, depending chiefly upon foreign commerce for our prosperity, it was marine transportation with which wc were chiefly concerned. Shipping and the carrying trade were our greatest economic interest. After 1^15 this interest did not decline absolutely, but it became relatively less important. It was still the source of many private fortunes and of much accumulation of capital, and ranked in importance with the growing manufactures of the coun- try. With the growth of a great internal commerce, however, the creation of a national system of transportation gradually came to the front as the most im- portant concern in our economic affairs. Transportation projects — internal improvements as they were called — everywhere became the largest and most numerous economic undertakings. This was the field which soon came to ab- sorb the greater part of our accumulations of capital and to furnish opportunity for our greatest business ability.' Here first appeared those charactcrisdc fig- ures of American society, the millionaire and the captain of industry. Here was developed more rapidly than anywhere else that striking institution of American industry, the great corporation. Owing to the fact that the policy of internal improvement never greatly affected national politics and after Jackson's time disappeared as an issue alto- gether, historians have generally failed to appreciate the importance of this factor in American development. Much more attention has been given to the growth of manufactures, to currency and the banking system ; but none of these matters has exerted a tithe of the influence upon our economic growth that has come from improvements in transportation. In fact since 181 5 our most conspicuous economic achievements have depended directly upon this factor. The almost complete monopoly of the world's cotton market was the first of our triumphs. But the possession of a soil and climate peculiarly suited to the production of this staple would not alone have secured it. It required the network of navigable streams covering the whole southwest, which the inven- tion of the steamboat suddenly converted into a first-class transportadon sys- tem, to insure our success. In the international trade in breadstuffs we have gained only a little less prominent place than in the cotton trade. Here again 345 346 TRANSPORTATION it was hot alone the possession of the prairies and plains of the West — natural grain fields — that gave us the first place. It was the ease with which railroads could be constructed in those regions, coupled with the internal waterways of the country that made those natural advantages available. Every one knows how our great iron industry depends absolutely upon the transportation facili- ties which are able to assemble at small cost the raw materials separated by a thousand miles. No feature of American industry is more remarkable than that territorial division of labor which forms the basis of our internal commerce. Nowhere else in the world has anything like it been secured over so great an area of territory. It has made possible that great development of our rich natu- ral resources along all lines, which more than anything else is the basis of our prosperity. This also is largely the result of cheap transportation, without which our internal freedom of trade would have been little more than a name. Down to the Civil War the transportation system of the country was based upon the natural waterways. The numerous rivers upon which steamboats could be used, connected in the East by more or less protected tide-water bays and inlets, and in the West by the great common trunk of the Mississippi, formed the main part of the system. The upper courses of these streams and their tributaries above the point of steamboat navigation were of great service in floating produce *down to the navigable waters. In many cases they were navigated by small steamboats and by keel boats to great distances into the in- terior. The part which these small streams played in the economic life of the country in early times has never been adequately recognized. Supplementing this natural system were the canals, the most important of which were designed to connect the natural waterways. Such were the Erie and Pennsylvania canals in the East, the Ohio, Western Pennsylvania, Miami, Wabash & Erie and Illinois & Michigan in the West. The Chesapeake & Ohio and James River canals would also have served the same purpose, if they had ever been carried to completion. Most of the other canals were either branches of the main lines or intended to connect the back country with the natural waterways. New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio had an extensive network of branches. Elsewhere the canals were purely local, connecting interior regions with navigable waters. Such were the Middlesex, Blackstone, and Farmington canals in New England, and the Delaware & Hudson, Lehigh, and Schuylkill canals in the anthracite coal region. Like the canals the early railway lines were designed chiefly to supplement the waterways. Nowhere in the country was there an important commercial or manufacturing city that depended upon railroads. They were all situated upon navigable waters or easily connected therewith. All the great trunk line railways had their termini on the water- ways ; and the local lines were either branches of the trunk lines or tributary to the waterways. It was only at the very end of this period that railways began to supersede the waterways. The development of the transportation system before i860 may be divided into three stages. The first was marked by the invention of the steamboat INTRODUC'riON 347 and its introduction on the rivers, lakes, and i)rotected tide waters of the coun- try. It covers roughly the first quarter of the century. The second stage is characterized by the building of canals to improve and connect the natural waterways. This stage lasted until about ICS50. The third stage is character- ized by the building of numerous railroads in all parts of the country, and covers the decade from 1850 to i860. Before this time only about eight thou- sand miles of railroads had been constructed. The principal efforts had been devoted to canals. But after 1850 almost no new canal enterprises were under- taken ; several old ones were left uncompleted ; and nearly twenty-two thou- sand miles of railroad were constructed in ten years. The policy of governmental aid to transportation enterprises was given up by the federal government early in the second period. It had been adopted by the states as early as by the federal government and was eagerly pursued by them for a time. In them, also, it was checked by the financial difficulties of the early forties. After 1850 this policy was gradually resumed again by both state and federal governments, though in a somewhat different form. The fed- eral government began a policy of munificent land grants to aid in the construc- tion of railroads. Several of the southern states, notably Virginia, Tennessee, and Missouri, adopted the plan of aiding railroad companies by subscribing largely to their stock. Other southern states were considering such a policy when the war broke out. The most important source of public aid to railroads, however, were the local governments, cities, towns, and counties. In all parts of the country they subscribed liberally to the stock of railroad companies, or granted subsidies to them to secure their construction. Thus internal improve- ments did not as in former times play an important part in political discussions, but the subject continued to be a matter of the keenest interest to the people everywhere. Almost every community felt that its economic future was vitally concerned with the success of one or more railroad enterprises, and not a few of them were eager to incur debt and endure taxation to insure the success of their favorite project. Far less important to economic life than the means of transporting commod- ities is the means of travel and communication. At the present time these are the same. But until the era of railways the means of travel were to a con- siderable extent different from the means by which commodities were trans- ported. The traveler was carried over the roads of the country in stage coaches, except where it was possible for him to secure passage on steamboats. Little use was made of the canals for this purpose, because better tim^ could be made on the roads, though the canals were not entirely avoided by passengers. The roads were necessarily of the rudest construction in all but a very few localities, and a journey over the magnificent distances of our sparsely setded territory involved great hardship and some danger. Nevertheless the amount of travel seems to have been very large. The main routes were from the seaboard cities of Baltimore and Philadelphia westward to the Ohio River, and from the Hudson through central New York 348 TRANSPORTATION to Lake Erie. Fairiy good roads were constructed along these routes. Another much traveled stage route was from Boston to New York through central Mass- achusetts via Springfield, Hartford, and New Haven. Still another was from New York through Philadelphia and Baltimore to Washington. Less impor- tant ones were from Detroit across Michigan to Chicago, and from the Ohio River at Cincinnati to Lake Erie at Cleveland or Sandusky, connecting at all these places with steamboats on the lakes and river. Two routes of travel connected the commercial centers of the nation, New York and New Orleans. The one was by means of stage coach or canal to the Ohio River and thence by steamboat to New Orleans. The other was south- ward by stage to Baltimore; thence by steamboat to Norfolk in Virginia, and again by stage to Wilmington ; or the traveler could proceed by stage all the way to Wilmington through Washington and Richmond. Here steamers could be taken for Charleston, and thence to Savannah through the islands and up the river to Augusta. To avoid the ocean voyage from Wilmington to Charles- ton the traveler sometimes turned westward through Raleigh and Columbia to Augusta. From Augusta another long journey by stage must be made to Mont- gomery, where steamers could be taken for Mobile and along the Gulf Coast through Lake Pontchartrain to New Orleans. The roads on this route were always very poor and nearly impassable during some portions of the year. The volume of travel over it, however, was large. Almost every foreigner who vis- ited the country journeyed between New York and New Orleans one way or the other along this route. By 1850 railroads had been constructed along a considerable portion of this southern route. That between New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Wash- ington was the first to be constructed. There was also a railroad from the Potomac a little below Washington through Richmond to Wilmington. An- other was early constructed from Charleston to Augusta and thence to Atlanta. The gap between Charleston and the north was closed soon after 1850 by a line through Raleigh and Columbia, and a little later by a still more direct line further east. At about the same time the Georgia railroads were extended from Atlanta to Montgomery, thus eliminating entirely the stage coach as a means of travel on this long route. It had been superseded on the other important routes of travel some years earlier. L SHIPPING ^We have no means of ascertaining the amount" of American tonnage, from the peace of 1783, to the commencement of the new government. During this period, some states, in order to encourage American shipping, laid discriminating duties, in favor of vessels 1 Pitkin, A Statistical View of the Commerce of the United States of America [1835], PP- 346-348. SHIPPING 349 belonging to citizens of the United States ; and, in some instances, made a difference, also, in favor of vessels belonging to nations having treaties with this country. In Pennsylvania, the tonnage duty on American vessels, was about four pence sterling, — on for- eign ships, belonging to nations having treaties, eight pence, — and on the ships of nations having no treaties, about two shillings. In Maryland, the duty on domestic vessels, was eight pence, — on foreign ships in treaty, one shilling, — and on foreign ships not in treaty, one shilling and seven pence, — and on British ships, three shillings and sixpence. In Virginia, while the duty on American, was one shilling and three pence, it was four shillings and six pence on British ships. In New York, however, the great import- ing state, the duty on foreign vessels was only four or five pence sterling. This want of uniformity and universality in this counter- vailing and protective system, rendered the whole unavailing. For- eign ships would naturally seek the port where the duties were lowest, especially under equal advantages for a market, for their import cargoes ; and the low duty in New York, offered a pre- mium on foreign trade. Under these partial and inefficient regula- tions, American shipping received little benefit ; and foreign vessels filled the American ports. This important subject was not forgotten by the first Congress, that met under the new form of government ; and discriminating tonnage, and other duties, were first laid, in the summer of 1 789, and have ever since been continued. This encour- agement to American shipping, was not confined to these discrimi- nating duties ; but foreign ships were entirely excluded from the coasting trade, and from all participation in the American trade with China. The latter was done, by imposing an additional duty on all teas, imported in foreign vessels, varying from four to ten cents per pound ; thereby, in fact, giving a complete monopoly of the China trade to the American merchant. Under this protective system, and in consequence of the new and extraordinaiy situation in which this countiy was placed by the long wars in Europe, the increase of American tonnage, has been without a parallel, in the commercial world. Under the new government, American ships assumed a national character, and a national flag — all vessels, employed in foreign OD^ TRANSPORTATION trade, were to be registered by the collector of tlie district to which they belonged ; and no vessel was entitled to be registered, unless built in the United States, or had been taken and condemned as lawful prize and owned by an American citizen. The vessels en- gaged in the coasting trade or fisheries, were to be enrolled or licensed by the same collector. The register enrollment or license specifies the tonnage of the vessel ; and an account of every vessel, thus registered, enrolled or licensed, is annually transmitted from each district, to the Treasury Department. We would here observe, that, in the course of the wars in Europe, Americans became owners of vessels, which were employed in for- eign trade, but which, because foreign built, or for some other cause, were not entitled to a register, or to be considered as having a national character ; these, however were furnished with certain papers called sea letters, and were denominated Sea Letter vessels, and paid foreign duties. . , . ^ The tonnage engaged in the foreign trade increased up to 1810 very rapidly under the influence of the carrying enjoyed under the treaties with Europe, and the effect of the wars between the great powers. The coasting trade did not increase in the same ratio, for the reason that the trade enjoyed by the registered tonnage was not the carrying of American goods, but of foreign products from col- onies to Europe. The comparative increase of the tonnage is seen as follows : — Registered (Tons) Coasting (Tons) Whalers (Tons) Cod Fishery (Tons) Mackerel Fishery (Tons) Steam Total (Tons) Ocean (Tons) Coasting (Tons) 1789 I8I0 123,893 984,269 619,896 650,143 899,764 1,585,711 2,223,121 68,607 405,347 559,435 508,858 1,176,694 1,755,796 1,710,332 1,227 27,994 57,278 136,926 146,016 198,593 9,062 35,168 51,351 101,797 76,035 85,646 110,896 201,562 1,424,789 1,298,958 1,260,797 2,180,764 3,535,454 5,049,808 1821 1829 1840 1850 1858 35,973 28,269 58,111 29,593 44,942 78,027 54,036 281,339 481,004 651,363 This table gives a sort of chart of the whole progress of the ton- nage. It is observable that up to the close of the first period, viz. : 1 Kettell, in Eighty Years' Progress, pp. 163-164, 163, 165. SHIPPIN(; 351 to the embargo and noii-inlereourse of 1S09, the registered tonnage or that engaged in the I'oreign trade, inereased most rapidly ; there were then no large home produetions to require mueh inland trans- portation, and the canying trade of Eurojx' was very active. With the growth of cotton, however, an immense freight was given as well to coasting as to registered tonnage, and that was far more valuable to the latter than the carrying trade which had been lost. When the war and non-intercourse stopped the growth of external tonnage, a great impulse was given to that of the interior. The lakes and rivers began to be covered with craft, which swelled the enrolled tonnage. In the south a good portion of this tonnage was employed in the transportation of cotton to the seaboard, where it was freighted to Europe in registered vessels. The operation of the laws in relation to the measuring of vessels adds an injurious influence upon the form. The making the beam of the vessel an element in the calculation of the tonnage she would cany, led to the construction of "kettle bottoms," which swelled out in the form of a kettle, allowing her to cany much more than her register showed. These vessels carried cotton mostly to European ports, whence there was little return cargo ; but when, after the war, migration set in freely from Havre, affording a return freight, the form was altered to give accommodation to the passengers, and an impulse was given to ship-building. The latter branch of industry languished up to 1829, since there was little carrying trade, and the cotton crop was only one-fourth its present quantity. The Brit- ish government had refused to allow the West India colonies to be open to American vessels. The West Indies, however, were de- pendent upon the United States for supplies of produce, while they were required to send their own sugar, coffee, and rum to the mother country in British vessels. By refusing to let American ves- sels go thither, she sought to secure three freights for British ships. Thus, a vessel left England with goods for the United States, then loaded provisions for the West Indies, and took home thence sugar, etc., to England, making a round voyage. This the United States refused to permit, unless American vessels participated ; and the trade was closed. The English colonists, deprived of Ameri- can supplies, set up a clamor which compelled the government to 352 TRANSPORTATION open certain ports to American ships on the same terms as British ships ; and Congress, in return, authorized the President, by proc- lamation, to open United States ports to colonial vessels, whenever he should have proof of a reciprocal movement. This took place in 1830, and the trade has rapidly increased since. The increase of registered tonnage, as of all others, had been large up to 1 840, under the general animation that trade encountered from the speculative action of those years. Two circumstances now, how- ever, occurred to enhance the demand for shipping. These were the English-China war, and the American-Mexican war. The attempts of the English to force the opium trade upon the Chinese, contrary to their laws, had induced the Chinese, in 1841, to destroy a large quantity of opium. This brought on the war, which resulted in. the opening of five Chinese ports to the commerce of the world, and by so doing had increased the demand for American ships — always fa- vorites with the merchants in the trade between India and China. , , . . . , That event [the Mexican war] caused a large demand for shipping on the part of the government, for transports. The expe dition fitted out under General Scott for Vera Cruz, was the largest naval enterprise ever undertaken by any nation up to that time — that is, a like number of troops had never before been transported so great a distance by sea to open a campaign in an enemy's coun- try. The British and French expedition from Varna to the Crimea, ten years afterward, was no greater in magnitude, although greatly trumpeted by English writers. The American expedition was promptly successful, when even the French had failed in their pre- vious attack upon Vera Cruz. Following these two events, that absorbed so much shipping, came the Irish famine. The same famine, which created the extended demand for American produce, also stimulated a large migration to the United States, furnishing ample freights to the homeward-bound shipping. , . . The growth of steam service in the interior of the country was more rapid than its external development. The amount of steam tonnage in ocean navigation, in 1850, was 44,942, against none in 1 840. The inland tonnage engaged on lakes, rivers, and coasting, was 481,004 — an increase of 283,000 in ten years, at a cost of $28,000,000. . . . SHIPPING '> r -» o5 J ^ The rapid advance in the sliip-buildin*]^ interest durinLj the last forty-seven years, in which the northern States have largely partici- pated, is shown in the following tabular statement of the tonnage built in each decade since 1821, and in the seven years previous : Tonnage built in United States (Tons) Annual Average Crons) Seven years, 1815-1821 . . , Ten years, 1822-1831 . . . , Ten years, 1832-1841 . . . , Ten years, 1842-1851 . . . , Ten years, 1852-1861 ... Total, forty-seven years , 638,563 901,598 1,178,693 1,999,263 3.589.300 8,307.417 91,223 90,159 117,867 199,926 358,930 176,753 Maine takes the lead as a ship-building State ; New York is the second. The other prominent ones are as follows for the past three years, showing a more rapid advance in New York than in other States : States I 860- I 86 I (Tons) 1859-1860 (Tons) 1858-1859 (Tons) Total Three Years (Tons) Maine 57.343 46,359 37,206 -4,754 67.532 57.867 31.936 33.461 21,615 68,013 40,905 16,313 31,290 14,476 53.638 156,115 94,608 101.937 60,845 189,183 New York . . Massachusetts Pennsylvania All other States Tons built, years 1859-1861 . . . 233.194 212,892 I 56,602 602,688 ^ In attempting to give you some account of the commerce of this section, I can hardly expect to offer any thing new ; yet as you have been, perhaps, in the habit of considering rather the results of the entire trade of the United States, than of any other particu- lar part ; a cursory view of the commercial resources of the East- ern states in particular, may, by comparison, give more distinct ideas 1 Preliminary Report of the Eighth Census [i860], pp. 106, 109. 2 Tudor, Letters on the Eastern States [1819], pp. 116-121. 354 TRANSPORTATION of the whole. I do not mean to offer you minute statements, or amounts in figures, which would only be giving extracts from some of our statistical works ; but to make a few general observations on the principal resources which we possess. The first of these, undoubtedly, is to be found in our population, its numbers and character. Between the southern frontiers of Con- necticut and the eastern one of Maine, there are eight hundred miles of sea-coast, containing numerous harbours ; several rivers, navigable for sea vessels, from twenty to an hundred miles, empty themselves within these limits. Almost the whole of this coast, and the banks of these rivers, are lined with inhabitants, accustomed to commercial and maritime affairs. This region is so healthful, that besides supplying these increasing branches of employment, it an- nually sends off a surplus, to meet the demands of less healthy and less populous shores. The whole of this population receives the rudiments of education in a sufficient degree, to qualify even its poorest members for advancing their fortunes, if they have the skill and disposition to better them. The excitement produced by the great wealth, which has accrued from the pursuit of commerce during the last thirty years, keeps this population in a state of rest- less activity, calculating observation, and adventurous enterprise, which, without any exaggeration, may be said to be unequalled by any other country. A considerable part of this population, thus conveniently situated, is early accustomed to look for a living from the ocean, which breaks at their feet ; a soil comparatively sterile forces them in some sort to share, by freighting the products of richer climes ; they take to the water as easily, and almost as early as the broods of water fowls ; they pass as much of their time on shore, as those sea-birds which only resort to it to make their nests ; their path is on " the mountain wave," and like the same birds, they float on it gaily and fearlessly, if the daily reckoning only shows the desired difference in latitude and longitude. As a nursery of seamen, this district af- fords one of the most valuable in the world. The whale fishery, which is carried on in both oceans, the fisheiy of the banks of Newfoundland, and the various fisheries nearer home, form the hardiest and best of sailors. The manner in which these fisheries SHIPPING 355 are prosecuted, being not on wages, but on shares, gives habits of economy, watchfuhiess and industry, that are invaluable. The coasting trade, which is daily increasing, adds a vast additional supply of hardy and excellent seamen ; all these have their homes and families on these shores, to which they are strongly attached, though they are absent from them for weeks, months, or even years together. In alluding to this attachment, I cannot help re- calling the mistake of a very acute and profound observer, which furnishes a veiy striking instance of the errors, into which theory is apt to lead even the ablest minds. Talleyrand, in his Essay on Colonies, speaking of our fishermen, considers them, " a timid, indolent race ; that they are cosmopolites, and a few codfish more or less determine their country." As to the timidity and indolence, the expression of Burke, — " Every sea is vexed by their fisher- ies," maybe a sufficient answer; as to their being cosmopolites, and migrating with the codfish ; the latter have not been more steady to the submarine mountains of Newfoundland, than the former have been to the rocky and sandy shores, whence they an- nually go in pursuit of them ; and where their progenitors have successively resided for nearly two centuries, from the first settle- ment of the country. This section furnishes supplies of the various kinds of timber used in ship-building, and abounds with mechanics in all the vari- ous branches connected with naval construction ; with these advan- tages, ships are built here with great economy, and a very large portion of the tonnage employed both in the foreign and coasting trade, is owned in these states. Having therefore the advantage of possessing an ample supply of seamen, and being the chief resi- dence of the ship-owners, they have great advantages for engaging profitably in the carrying trade, foreign and domestic, llie produce of the fisheries, of the forest, live stock, salted provisions, potash, and some articles of manufactures, are the principal domestic ex- ports. To these is to be added, the merchandize brought from other parts of the Union, and from foreign countries. The trade of the United States with Asia, which now employs 30,000 tons of shipping, is principally, perhaps three quarters of it, carried on by merchants of this section. The vessels engaged in this commerce, 356 TRANSPORTATION sail almost wholly in ballast, taking specie to purchase their return cargoes. This rich trade, which has prodigiously increased of late years, is prosecuted here with great activity and advantage. The vessels employed in it are generally of a moderate or small size, between two and five hundred tons ; they are fitted out with every requi- site for a speedy passage, and safe transport of their cargoes, but with nothing for ostentation. It is therefore carried on so much more economically, that the foreign carrier cannot enter into com- petition with it in any free market, and even the merchants in other parts of the United- States, have found it less profitable than it is here. So many young men have commenced their career, by going out as supercargoes ; so many able navigators, frequently also employed in making the investments of the cargo, have prosecuted this trade, that it is now better understood in the eastern states, than in any part of the world. Not only the direct trade with Hindostan and China, but the trade between all the islands and countries of the Indian ocean, they thoroughly understand ; and besides our own countiy, a considerable portion of Europe is supplied by these enterprising merchants with the coffee and spices of the islands, the sugar and cotton, raw and manufactured of the Indian peninsula, and the silks, teas, and nankins of China. . . . ^ The Anglo-Americans have always displayed a decided taste for the sea. The Declaration of Independence, by breaking the commercial bonds which united them to England, gave a fresh and powerful stimulus to their maritime genius. P^ver since that time, the shipping of the Union has increased almost as rapidly as the number of its inhabitants. The Americans themselves now trans- port to their own shores nine tenths of the European produce which they consume and they also bring three quarters of the ex- ports of the New World to the European consumer. The ships of the United States fill the docks of Havre and of Liverpool, whilst the number of English and Erench vessels at New York is com- paratively small. 1 De Tocqueville, Democracy in America [1S35], I, 544-546. siiU'J'iNG 357 Thus, not only does the American merchant iDravc competition on his own ground, but even successfully supports that of foreign nations in their own ports. This is readily explained by the fact, that the vessels of the Ignited States cross the seas at a cheaper rate. As long as the mercantile shipping of the United States pre- serves this superiority, it will not only retain what it has acquired, but will constantly increase in prosperity. It is difficult to say for what reason the Americans can navigate at a lower rate than other nations ; one is at first led to attribute this superiority to the physical advantages which nature gives them ; but it is not so. The American vessels cost almost as much to build as our own ; they are not better built, and they generally last a shorter time. The pay of the American sailor is more consider- able than the pay on board European ships, which is j^roved by the great number of Europeans who are to be found in the merchant- vessels of the United States. How happens it, then, that the Americans sail their vessels at a cheaper rate than we can ours ? I am of the opinion, that the true cause of their superiority must not be sought for in physical advantages but that it is wholly attribut- able to moral and intellectual qualities. The following comparison will illustrate my meaning. During the campaigns of the Revolution, the Erench introduced a new sys- tem of tactics into the art of war, which perplexed the oldest gen- erals, and very nearly destroyed the most ancient monarchies of Europe. They first undertook to make shift without a number of things which had always been held to be indispensable in warfare ; they required novel exertions of their troops, which no civilized nations had ever thought of ; they achieved great actions in an incredibly short time, and risked human life without hesitation to obtain the object in view. The Erench had less money and fewer men than their enemies ; their resoiu'ces were infinitely inferior ; nevertheless, they were constantly victorious, until their adversaries chose to imitate their example. The Americans have introduced a similar system into commerce, — they do for cheapness what the Erench did for conquest. The European sailor navigates with prudence ; he sets sail only when the weather is favorable ; if an unforeseen accident befalls him, he 358 TRANSPORTATION puts into port ; at night, he furls a portion of his canvas ; and when the whitening billows intimate the vicinity of land, he checks his course, and takes an observation of the sun. The American neg- lects these precautions, and braves these dangers. He weighs an- chor before the tempest is over ; by night and by day he spreads his sheets to the wind ; he repairs as he goes along such dam- age as his vessel may have sustained from the storm ; and when he at last approaches the term of his voyage, he darts onward to the shore as if he already descried a port. The Americans are often shipwrecked, but no trader crosses the seas so rapidly. And, as they perform the same distance in a shorter time, they can per- form it at a cheaper rate. The European navigator touches at different ports in the course of a long voyage ; he loses precious time in making the harbor, or in waiting for a favorable wind to leave it ; and he pays daily dues to be allowed to remain there. The American starts from Boston to purchase tea in China : he arrives at Canton, stays there a few days, and then returns. In less than two years, he has sailed as far as the entire circumference of the globe, and has seen land but once. It is true that, during the voyage of eight or ten months, he has drunk brackish water, and lived upon salt meat ; that he has been in a continual contest with the sea, with disease, and with weari- ness ; but, upon his return, he can sell a pound of his tea for a half-penny less than the English merchant, and his purpose is accomplished. I cannot better explain my meaning, than by saying that the Americans show a sort of heroism in their manner of trading. The European merchant will always find it difficult to imitate his American competitor, who, in adopting the system which I have just described, does not follow calculation, but an impulse of his nature. THE TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM 359 II. THE TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM 1 2 No quarter of tlic globe presents a natural apparatus of internal communication so stupendous as that which the European settlers found at their disposal on the North American continent. The immense tract, included between the Atlantic and the Rocky Mountains on the east and west, the great chain of lakes extending from Lake Superior to Lake Ontario on the north, and the Gulf of Mexico on the south, is divided into two districts by the ridge of the Alleghanies, which traverses it in a direction north and south. The western division consists of the vast valley drained by the Mississippi and its tributaries, a territory greater in superficial extent than Western Europe. The eastern district consists of that portion between the Alleghany ridge and the At- lantic, falling toward the ocean and drained by innumerable rivers, navigable for vessels of greater or less burden, and running gen- erally eastward. . . . Besides the internal communication supplied by rivers, properly so called, a vast apparatus of water transport is derived from the geographical character of the extensive coast, stretching for about four thousand miles, from the Gulf of St. Lawrence to the delta of the Mississippi, indented and serrated in every part with natural harbors and sheltered bays, fringed with islands, forming sounds, throwing out capes and promontories, which inclose arms of the sea, in which the waters are free from the roll of the ocean, and which, for all the purposes of internal navigation, have the character of rivers and lakes. The lines of communication, formed by the vast and numerous rivers, are completed in the interior by chains of lakes, presenting the most extensive bodies of fresh water in the known world. . . . The spectacle of a machinery of commerce so imposing in mag- nitude and power, and so remarkably co-extensive with the vastness, 1 See also extracts from Andrews' Report on Colonial and Lake Trade, from Report on the Internal Commerce of the United States for 1887, and from The Effects of Secession on the Commercial Relations between the North and South, on pp. 326-344 of this volume. 2 Lardner, Railway Economy ; A Treatise on the New Art of Transport [1850], pp. 308-312. 36o TRANSPORTAllON the fertility, and the mineral wealth of the territor)' of which this emigrant people found themselves possessors, only provoked their ambition to rival the enterprise of the parent country, and to im- port and naturalize its improvements and its arts. Their independ-' ence was scarcely established before the same resources of arts and sciences which ages had not been more than sufficient to develop in Britain were invoked ; and a system of artificial communication was undertaken, and finally executed, on the new continent, for which, all things considered, there is no parallel in the history of civilization. . . . According to M. Michel Chevalier, whose work on this subject supplies most voluminous and valuable details, the extent of canals which were in operation in the United States on January i, 1843, was 4333 miles. There was a further extent projected, but not executed, amounting to 2359 miles. The total cost of executing the canals which were completed was, according to M. Chevalier, ^^27, 870,964, being at the average rate of ^6,432 per mile. . . . It appears, from what has been stated, that in the United States, the population of which, according to the census of 1840, was 17,069,493, there was one mile of canal navigation for 3939 inhabitants. Now, in the United Kingdom, there are only 3000 miles of canal navigation. The population, according to the cen- sus of 1840, was twenty-seven millions. There is, therefore, only one mile of canal to every 9000 inhabitants. . . . In France, the entire length of canal navigation is 2700 miles, with a population of thirty-five millions. There is, therefore, one mile of canal for every 12,962 inhabitants. . . . ^ There is a region where, by simply perfecting the mean^ of water-transportation, a revolution has been produced, the conse- quences of which on the balance of power in the New World are incalculable. It is the great Valley of the Mississippi, which had, indeed, been conquered from the wild beasts and Red Skins pre- vious to the invention of I'ulton, but which, without the labours of 1 Chevalier, Society, Manners and Politics in the United States [1836], pp. 212, 213-216, 218-219, 229-230. THE TRANSPORIATION SVSTP:M 36 1 his genius, would never have been covered vvilh lich and popu- lous States. . . . In 181 1, although the formidable Tecumseh and his brother the Prophet, had not yet been conc|uered by General Harrison, the American had extended his undisputed empire over the most fer- tile districts of the West. Here and there villages had been built ; and the forest every where showed clearings, in the midst of which stood the log-house of some squatter or some more legal proprietor. On the left bank of the Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee had been erected into States, and Western Virginia had been settled. A cur- rent of emigration had transported the industrious sons of New England upon the right bank of the river, and by their energy the State of Ohio had been founded, and already contained nearly 250,000 inhabitants. Indiana and Illinois, then mere Territories, gave fair promise of the future. The treaty of 1803 had added to the Union our Louisiana, in which one State and several Terri- tories, with a total population of 160,000 souls had already been organised. The whole West, at that time, had a population of nearly a million and a half : Pittsburg and Cincinnati were consid- erable towns. The West had, then, made a rapid progress, but separated as it was from the Gulf of Mexico by the circuitous windings and the gloomy swamps of the Mississippi, from the eastern cities by the seven or eight ridges that form the Alleghany Mountains, destitute of outlets and markets, its further progress seemed to be arrested. The embryo could grow but slowly and painfully, for want of the proper channels through which the sources of life might circulate. At present, routes of communication have been made or are making from all sides, connecting the rivers of the W^est with the Eastern coast, on which stand the great marts, Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Richmond, and Charleston. At that time, there was not one which was practicable through the whole year, and there was not capital enough to undertake one. All the com- merce of the West was carried on by the Ohio and the Mississippi, which is, indeed, still, and, probably, always will be, the most eco- nomical route for bulky objects. The western boatmen descended the rivers with their corn and salt-meat in fiat-boats, like the Seine 362 TRANSPORTATION coal-boats ; the goods of Europe and the produce of the Antilles, were slowly transported up the rivers by the aid of the oar and the sail, the voyage consuming at least one hundred days, and some- times two hundred. One hundred days is nearly the length of a voyage from New York by the Cape of Good Hope to Canton ; in the same space of time France was twice conquered, once by the allies and once by Napoleon. The commerce of the West, was, therefore, necessarily veiy limited, and the inhabitants, separated from the rest of the world, had all the rudeness of the forest. It was in this period and this state of manners, that the popular say- ing, which describes the Kentuckian as half horse, half alligator, had its origin. The number of boats, which made the voyage up and down once a year, did not exceed ten, measuring on an aver- age about 100 tons; other small boats, averaging about 30 tons measurement, carried on the trade between different points on the rivers, beside which there were numerous flat-boats, which did not make a return voyage. Freight from New Orleans to Louisville or Cincinnati was six, seven, and even nine cents a pound. At present [1836] the passage from Louisville to New Orleans is made in about 8 or 9 days, and the return voyage in 10 or 12, and freight is often less than half a cent a pound from the latter to the former. In 181 1, the first steamboat in the West, built by Fulton, started from Pittsburg for New Orleans ; it bore the name of the latter city. But such are the difficulties in the navigation of the Ohio and Mississippi, and such was the imperfection of the first boats, that it was nearly six years before a steamboat ascended from New Orleans, and then not to Pittsburg, but to Louisville, 600 miles below it. The first voyage was made in twenty-five days, and it caused a great stir in the West ; a public dinner was given to Cap- tain Shreve, who had solved the problem. Then and not before, was the revolution completed in the condition of the West, and the hundred-day boats were supplanted. In 18 18, the number of steamboats was 20, making an aggregate of 3,642 tons; in 18 19 the whole number that had been built was 40, of which 33 were still running; in 1821, there were 72 in actual service. In that year the Car of Commerce, Captain Pierce, made the passage from New Orleans to Shawneetown, a little below Louisville, in 10 days. THE TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM 363 In 1825, after fourteen years of trials and experiments, the proper proportion between the machinery and the boats was finally settled. In 1827, the Tecumseh ascended from New Orleans to Louisville in eight da)s and two hours. In 1829, the number of boats was 200, with a total tonnage of 35,000 tons ; in 1832, there were 220 boats making an aggregate of 40,000 tons, and at jsresent there are 240, measuring 64,000 tons. According to statements made to me by experienced and well-informed persons, the whole amount of merchandise annually transported by them between New Orleans and the upper country, is at least 140,000 tons. The trade between the basins of the Ohio, the Tennessee, and the Upper Mississippi, not included in this amount, forms another considerable mass. To have an idea of the whole extent of the commerce on the western waters, we must also add from 1 60,000 to 1 80,000 tons of provi- sions and various objects, which go down in flat-boats. This amount is, indeed, enormous, and yet it is probably but a trifle compared with what will be transported on the rivers of the West in 20 years from this time ; for on the Erie canal, which, compared with the Mississippi is a line of but secondary importance, and at a single point, Utica, 420,000 tons passed in a period of seven months and a half. . . . The number of passengers which these boats carry, is very con- siderable ; they are almost always crowded, although there are some w'hich have two hundred beds. I have myself been in one of these boats which could accommodate only 30 cabin passengers, with 72. A river voyage w-as formerly equivalent to an Argonautic expedi- tion, at present it is one of the easiest things in the world. The rate of fare is low ; you go from Pittsburg to New Orleans for 50 dollars, all found, and from Louisville to New Orleans for 25 dol- lars. It is still lower for the boatmen, who run down the river in flat-boats and return by the steamers ; there are sometimes 500 or 600 of them in a separate part of the boat, where they have a shel- ter, a berth, and fire, and pay from 4 to 6 dollars for the passage from New Orleans to Louisville ; they are, however, obliged to help take in wood. The rapidity with which these men return, has con- tributed not a little to the extension of the commerce of the West ; they can now make three or four trips a year instead of one, an 364 TRANSPORTATION important consideration in a country where there is a deficiency of hands. On the downward voyage, their place is occupied by horses and cattle, which are sent to the South for sale, and by slaves, hu- man cattle destined to enrich the soil of the South with their sweat, to supply the loss of hands on the sugar plantations of Louisiana, or to make the fortune of some cotton planters. Virginia is the principal seat of this traffic, "the native land of Washington, Jef- ferson and Madison, having become," as one of her sons sorrow- fully observed to me, "the Guinea of the United States." The United States may be divided hydrographically into two distinct regions, the one to the east, the other to the west, of the Alleghanies ; or into three, as under : i . the Mississippi valley : 2. the valley of the St. Lawrence with the great lakes : 3.. the Atlantic coast. This vast country may also be divided into the North and the South, and it has two commercial capitals, New York and New Orleans, which are, as it were, the two lungs of this great body, the two galvanic poles of the system. Between these two divisions, the North and the South, there are radical differences, both in a political and an industrial point of view. The social frame in the South is founded on slavery ; in the North, on universal suffrage. The South is a great cotton-plantation, yielding also some subsidiary articles, such as tobacco, sugar, and rice. The North acts as factor or agent for the South, selling the productions of the latter, and furnishing her in return with those of Europe ; as a sailor, carrying her cotton beyond sea ; as an artisan, making all her household utensils and farming tools, her cotton-gins, her sugar-mills, her furniture, wearing apparel, and all other articles of daily use, and finding her also in corn and salted provisions. From these views it appears that the great public works in the United ^States must have the following objects : i. To connect the Atlantic coast-region with the region beyond the Alleghanies ; that is, to unite the rivers of the former, such as the Hudson, the Sus- quehanna, the Potomac, the James, or its bays, such as the Dela- ware and the Chesapeake, either with the Mississippi or its tributary the Ohio, or with the St. Lawrence, or the great lakes Erie and Ontario, whose waters are carried by the St. Lawrence to the Ocean : THE TRAx\SPORTAl'ION SYSTEM 365 2. To form communications between the Mississippi Valley and that of the St. Lawrence, that is, between one of the great tributa- ries of the Mississippi, such as the Ohio, the Illinois, or the Wa- bash, and Lake Erie, or Lake Michigan, which, of all the great lakes of the St. Lawrence basin, reach the furthest southwards. 3. To connect together the northern and southern poles of the Union, New York and New Orleans. Independently of these three new systems of public works, which are in fact, in progress, and even in part completed, there are numerous secondary lines, intended to make the access to the centres of consumption more easy, or to open outlets from certain centres of production, whence arise two new classes of works ; the one including the various canals and railroads, which, starting from the great cities as centres, radiate from them in all directions, and the other, comprising the similar works executed for the transpor- tation of coal from the coal-regions. Section I. Lines extending across the AllcgJianies The works which have hitherto almost wholly occupied, and still chiefly occupy, the attention of statesmen and business men in the United States, are those designed to form communications between the East and the West. There are on the Atlantic coast four prin- cipal towns, which long strove with each other for the supremacy ; namely, Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore.^ All four aimed to secure the command of the commerce of the new States which are springing up in the fertile regions of the West. . . . First Link. Erie Canal [This canal was begun by the State of New York on the 4th of July, 18 17, and completed in 1825 at an expense of 8,400,000 dollars.] Since that time it has continued to add numerous branches, covering almost every part of the State, as with network. In 1836, the state had completed 656 miles of canal including slack- water navigation, at the expense of 11,962,712 dollars, or 18,235 dollars per mile. ^ For an account of this rivalry, see pp. 326-337. 366 TRANSPORTATION Second Line. Pennsylvania Canal What is called the Pennsylvania canal is a long line of 400 miles, starting from Philadelphia, and ending at Pittsburg on the Ohio. It was begun simultaneously with several other works, at the expense of the State of Pennsylvania, in 1826. It is not en- tirely a canal ; from Philadelphia a railroad 8 1 miles in length, extends to the Susquehanna at Columbia. To the Columbia rail- road, succeeds a canal, 172 miles in length, which ascends the Susquehanna and Juniata to the foot of the mountains at Holidays- burg, Thence the Portage railroad passes over the mountain to Johnstown a distance of 37 miles, by means of several inclined plains. . . . P"rom Johnstown a second canal goes to Pittsburg 104 miles. This route is subject to the inconvenience of three transhipments, . . . one of these may be avoided by means of two canals constructed by incorporated companies, namely, the Schuylkill canal, which extends up the river of that name, and the Union canal, which forms a junction between the upper Schuylkill and the Susquehanna. . . . The Pennsylvania canal begun in 1826, was finished in 1834. The State has connected with this work a general system of canali- zation, which embraces all the principal rivers, and especially the Susquehanna, with its two great branches (the North Branch and the West Branch), and also works preparatory to a canal connect- ing Pittsburg with Lake Erie at Erie. . . . Third Line. Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Still less than Philadelphia, could Baltimore think of a continu- ous canal to the Ohio. Wishing to avoid the transhipments which are necessary on the Pennsylvania line the Baltimoreans decided on the construction of a railroad extending from their city to Pittsburg or Wheeling. . . , [Opened to Wheeling in 1853.] Fourth Line. The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal . . . The old idea, which Washington had cherished, of making the political capital of the Union a great city, was not less to the taste of Mr. Adams and his friends. It was, therefore, resolved to undertake the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, and a company was thp: transportation systi<:m 367 incorporated for this i:)urposc. Congress voted a subscription of 1,000,000 dollars; the city of Washington, without commerce, without manufactures, with its population of 16,000 souls sub- scribed the same sum ; the other little cities of the I^'ederal Dis- trict, Georgetown and Alexandria, having both together a population of about 10,000, furnished a half a million ; Virginia contributed 250,000, and Maryland 500,000 dollars ; and 600,000 was raised by individual subscriptions. This work was begun July 4th, 1828. Next year [1836] by aid of a loan of 3,000,000 from Maryland, this great work will be carried to the coal bed of Cumberland at the foot of the mountains. . . . Fifth Line. Jamp:s Rivkr and Kanawha Communication ... A company, whose means consist of little more than the subscriptions of the State and of the Capital, Richmond, is about to open a canal from the' East to the West. . . . On the East of the mountains the canal, starting from Richmond, will follow the course of James River, and on the West it will descend the Kanawha, one of the tributaries of the Ohio, to Charleston, at the head of steam- boat navigation. The Alleghany crest will be passed by a railroad. . . . [This canal was built as far as Buchanan before 1 860, from which point a railroad was built southwest to Knoxville. After 1850 Virginia sought to secure a Western connection by the Chesapeake and Ohio railroad. The people of South Carolina attempted to secure the construction of a railroad to connect Charleston and Cincinnati, but the project was ruined by the crisis of 1837 -'39. They built one from Charleston to Augusta on the Savannah river which was extended by the people of Georgia to Atlanta, and the State of Georgia then constructed the Western and Atlantic road from that point to Chattanooga, between 1839 and 185 i.] Section II. lines of Connnnnieation bctiveen the Mississippi Valley- and that of the St. lazurence First Line. Ohio Canal Only one work connecting the two valleys is as yet completed, this is the Ohio Canal, which traverses that State from North to 368 TRANSPORrATION South, extending from Portsmouth, on the Ohio, to the little city of Cleveland, which has sprung up on the shore of the lake since the canal was made. It is 334 miles in length, and cost nearly 4,500,000 dollars, or about 13,500 dollars per mile. . . . Second Line. Miami Canal Ohio has constructed another canal, which, starting from Cin- cinnati on the Ohio, runs north to Dayton, and is called the Miami Canal. It is 65 miles in length, and cost nearly 1,000,000 dollars, or 15,400 dollars a mile. By the aid of a grant of land from Con- gress, and the State's resources, its prolongation is now in progress to Defiance, on the Maumee, . . . [It united at this point with the Wabash and Erie Canal, thus forming a second line of connection between Lake Erie and the Ohio River within the State of Ohio.] Third Line. Wabash and Erie Canal Ohio and Indiana, with the aid of a grant of land from Congress, have undertaken in concert a canal, which will connect the Wabash, one of the tributaries of the Ohio, with the Maumee. The greater part of the canal will be parallel to the two rivers, or in their beds ; the length of the whole work will be 382 miles, of which 195 are in Indiana, and 87 in Ohio. The greater portion of the Indiana section lateral to the Wabash has been completed. . . . [The canal was opened from Lake Erie to La Fayette at the head of naviga- tion on the Wabash in 1848. It was subsequently extended down the Wabash to Terre Haute and thence by way of White River to Evansville on the Ohio River.] Fourth Line. Illinois and Michigan Canal The project of a canal from the Chicago, at the southern end of Lake Michigan to the head of steam navigation ... in the River Illinois, has long been discussed. It is said to be of very easy con- struction ; and that by means of a cut of the maximum depth of 26 feet, the summit level can be reduced to the level of Lake Michi- gan, so that the lake can be used as a feeder. It will be 96 miles in length. . . . [This canal was begun July 4, 1836 by the State of Illinois and was completed in 1851.] THE TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM 369 Fifth Lixi:. Wkstkkx Pennsylvania Canal The canal whicli has been eonimenced by Pennsyh'ania between the Ohio and the town of Erie, 1 12 miles in length . . . will make another and shorter line of water communication between the basins of the Mississippi and St. Lawrence.^ Different Lines Lastly, two canals are about to be undertaken, which will con- nect the Pennsylvania works with those of Ohio, and of conse- quence, form new connections between the Mississippi and the St. Lawrence. One of these is the Sandy and Beaver canal, which, beginning with the confluence of the Big Beaver with the Ohio, follows the latter to the mouth of the Little Beaver, ascends the valley of this stream and passes down that of the Sandy River to the Ohio canal at Bolivar ; the length will be 90 miles. . . . The Mahoning canal leaves the Ohio canal at Akron, following the val- leys of the Little Cuyahoga, the Mahoning, a tributar)^ of the Big Beaver, and the Big Beaver, to the Ohio ; it is about 90 miles in length ; the distance from Akron to the River Ohio is 1 1 5 miles. [Both these canals were built before 1850]: Works for improving the Navigation of the Ohio, Mississippi, and the St. Lawrence To this head belong the works executed in the beds of the riv- ers themselves. [The United States Government did something to clear the channels of the Mississippi and Ohio of snags and other dangerous obstructions to navigation ; a canal was built around the falls of the Ohio at Louisville, and another around the Muscle 1 " In the western portion of the state [of Pennsylvania] several important works were projected as part of the great system originally proposed. ... Of these are, first, the Beaver division of the Pennsylvania canal, commencing at Beaver, on the Ohio, at the mouth of Beaver river, and extending to Newcastle, about twenty-five miles. This canal forms the trunk of the Mahoning canal, ex- tending from the state line of Pennsylvania to the Ohio canal, at Akron, a dis- tance of about seventy-six miles; and also of the Erie extension of the Pennsyl- vania canal, commencing near Newcastle and extending to Erie, a distance of about one hundred and six miles. " This last named work has passed into private hands. It is at the present time chiefly employed in the transportation of coal, and is the principal avenue for 370 TRANSPORTATION shoals on the Tennessee River in northern Alabama ; slack water navigation was created on all the principal rivers of Kentucky by the construction of dams and locks ; and the Canadian Government built the Welland Canal to connect Lakes Erie and Ontario as well as numerous canals and locks around the rapids of the St. Lawrence.] Section III. Lines of Connnnnieation along the Atlantic FuiST Line. Inland Channels by the Sounds AND Bays along the Atlantic Upon examining the coast of the United States from Boston to Florida, it will be seen that there is almost a continuous line of in- land navigation, extending from northeast to southwest in a direc- tion parallel to that of the coast, formed, in the north by a series of bays and rivers, and in the south, by a number of long sounds, or by the narrow passes between the mainland and the chain of low islands that lie in front of the former. The necks of land that separate these bays, rivers, and lagoons, are all flat and of incon- siderable breadth. [That between the waters of the Hudson and the Delaware rivers was cut by the Delaware and Raritan canal. The waters of the Delaware and Chesapeake bays were connected by the Delaware and Chesapeake canal. The Dismal Swamp canal connected Chesapeake bay with Albemarle sound. Thus was an inland water route opened from Providence to North Carolina. The inland route was interrupted here but was resumed again at Charleston from which city steamboats could run between the low islands and the main land to Savannah, and thence up the Savan- nah river to Augusta.] Second Line. Communication between the North and the South by the Maritime Capitals Parallel to the preceding line which is designed for the trans- portation of bulky articles, is another further inland for the use the supply of this article to Lake Erie. Connected with the Erie extension is a state work called the P^ench Creek feeder and Franklin branch, extending from Franklin, on the Alleghany river, to Conneaut lake, by way of Meadville, a dis- tance of about fifty miles. . . ." — Poor, in Andrews' Report on Colonial and Lake Trade [1852], Part IV, p. 263. THE TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM 171 of travellers, and the lighter and more valuable merchandise, on which steam is becoming the only motive power, both by land and by water ; by land on railways, and by water in steamboats. You go from Boston to Providence b)- a railroad. . . . P'rom Providence to New York, passengers are carried by the steamboats in from 1 4 to 18 hours ; some boats have made the passage in 12 hours. . . . Between New York and Philadelphia, you go by steamboat to South Amboy on Raritan Bay, 28 miles, whence a railroad extends across the peninsula to Bordentown, and down along the Delaware to Camden, opposite Philadelphia. . . . From Philadelphia to Baltimore, the route is continued by a steamboat to Newcastle, and a railroad from thence to French- town, across the peninsula, i6| miles long, whence another steamboat takes the traveller to Baltimore, in 8 or 9 hours after starting from Philadelphia. . . . From Baltimore southwardly two routes offer themselves ; you may take the steamboat to Norfolk, a distance of 200 miles, which is accomplished in 18 or 20 hours, whence another boat ascends the James River to Richmond still more rapidly, the dis- tance of about 135 miles being passed over in 10 hours; or you may go from Norfolk to Weldon on the Roanoke by a railroad J J miles in length, of which two thirds are completed. From Baltimore you may also go to Washington, by a branch of the Baltimore and Ohio railroad, and thence by steamboat down the Potomac to a little village, i 5 miles from Fredericksburg, from which a railroad is now in progress to Richmond. . . . P'rom Peters- burg, 20 miles from Richmond, a railroad extends to Blakely on the Roanoke, 60 miles, ... There is a great void of 325 miles, between the Roanoke and Charleston, the chief city of South Carolina, or rather 275 miles between the Roanoke and Columbia, the capital of that State. P'rom Charleston, a railroad 1 36 miles in length, extends through the uncultivated and feverish zone of sand and pine-barrens to the cotton-region ; it terminates at Hamburg, on the River Savannah, opposite Augusta, which is the principal interior cotton-market. . . . From Augusta, the Georgia railroad has lately been begun, and will traverse some of the most fertile cotton districts in the State ; 372 TRANSPORTATION it will extend to Athens, a distance of 1 1 5 miles. To continue the line from North to South, or from Boston to New Orleans, it would be necessary that this railroad should be prolonged in the direction of Montgomery, Alabama, whence a steamer takes the traveller to Mobile, on the River Alabama. Between Mobile and New Orleans, there are regular lines of steamboats running through Mobile Bay, Pascagoula Sound, and Lakes Borgne and Pontchartrain. . . . Section IV. Lines radiating around the Large Tozvns First Centre, Boston, Second Centre, New York. Third Centre, Philadelphia. P^ourth Centre, Baltimore. P^ifth Centre, Charleston. Sixth Centre, New Orleans. Seventh Centre, Saratoga. Section V. Works connected zvith Coal- Mines The anthracite beds of Pennsylvania have caused the construc- tion of a much more extensive series of works. At present hardly any other fuel is consumed on the coast for domestic and manu- facturing purposes than the anthracite, which is found only in a small section of Pennsylvania, lying between the Susquehanna and the Delaware. . . . The principal of these lines are the following : i . The Schuyl- kill canal, which extends from Philadelphia to the vicinity of the mines about the head of the Schuylkill. ... 2. The Lehigh canal runs from the Delaware to the mines near the heads of the Lehigh. ... 3. The lateral canal along the Delaware starts from P^aston, at the mouth of the Lehigh, and ends at Bristol, the head of navi- gation for sea-vessels. It transports to Philadelphia, the coal that is brought down the Lehigh canal. ... 4. The Morris canal starts from Easton, and ends at Jersey City, opposite New York. It serves to supply the New York market with coal. ... 5. The Dela- ware and Hudson canal extends from the Roundout creek on the Hudson, near Kingston, 90 miles above New York, to the anthra- cite mines near the upper Delaware. ... 6. The Pottsville and Sunbury railroad is designed to bring down to the Schuylkill the products of the mines lying in the heart of the mountains between THE TRANSI'OR'IW'I'ION SYSTEM t^'j T) the Susquehanna and the heads of tlie Schuylkill. ... 7. The Philadelphia and Reading railroad, now in progress, will enter into competition with the Schu)lkill canal. . . . Rauavay I )KVKI,01'MKNT ^The decade which terminated in i 338-340. o So TRANSPORTATION widely separated from the great producing regions than any other settled portion of the country. The great peculiarity that distin- guishes our own from older countries is, that we have no Ulterior markets. The greater part of our territory has not been long enough settled for the development of a variety of industrial pur- suits, which constitute them. So entirely are our people devoted to agriculture, and so uniformly distributed are they over the whole country, that some of our largest States, Tennessee and Indiana for instance, had no towns in 1850 containing a population of over 10,000. This homogeneousness in the pursuits of the great mass of our people, and the wide space that separates the producing and con- suming classes, as they are popularly termed, necessarily implies the exportation of the sitrphts products of eaeJi. The western farmer has no home demand for the wheat he raises, as the surplus of all his neighbors is the same in kind. The aggregate surplus of the district in which he resides has to be exported to find a con- sumer ; and the producer for a similar reason is obliged to import all the various articles that enter into consumption which his own industry does not immediately supply ; and farther, as the markets for our agricultural products lie either upon the extreme verge of the country, or in Europe, the greater part of our domestic com- merce involves a through movement of nearly all the articles of which it is composed. In older countries this necessity of distant movement, as will be the case in this, in time, is obviated by the existence of a great variety of occupations in the same district, which supply directly to each class nearly all the leading articles that enter into consumption. . . . Railroads in the United States exert a much greater influence upon the value of property, than in other countries. Take Eng- land for example. There a railroad may be built without necessa- rily increasing the value of property or the profits of a particular interest. Every farmer in England lives in sight of a market. Large cities are to be found in every part of the island, which con- sume the products of the different portions of it almost on the spot where they are raised. Railroads are not needed to transport these products hundreds and thousands of miles to market ; consequently ECONOMICS OF RAILROADS AND CANALS 38 1 they may be of no advantage to the farmer hving upon their lines. So with many branehes of manufaetiires. These estal:)Hshments may be situated immediately upon tide-water, and as the fabriesare mostly exported, they would not be thrown uj)on railroads in any event. Sueh works may exist in that country without exerting any perceptible infiuence in adding to the vakie of the property of a community. The cases of the two countries would be parallel, were the farmer in the neighborhood of Liverpool compelled to send everything he could raise to London for a market, or were their manufacturing establishments so far from the consumers of their goods, that their value would be sunk before these could be reached. We have in this country what is equivalent to manufacturing estab- lishments in Great Britain, in good order and well stocked for business, a fertile soil, that will produce bountifully for years with- out rotation or dressing. All that the farmer has to do is to cast his seed on the soil and to reap an abundant crop. The only thing wanting to our highest prosperity is markets, or their equivalents, railroads, which give access to them. The actual increase in the value of lands, due to the construction of railroads, is controlled by so many circumstances, that an accu- rate estimate can only be approximated, and must in most cases fall far short of the fact. Not only are cultivated lands, and city and village lots, lying immediately upon the route affected, but the real estate in cities, hundreds and thousands of miles distant. The railroads of Ohio exert as much infiuence in advancing the prices of real property in the city of New York, as do the roads lying within that State. This fact will show how very imperfect every estimate must be. But taking only the farming lands of the particu- lar district traversed by a railroad, where the influence of such a work can be more directly seen, there is no doubt that in such case the increased value is many times greater than the cost of the road. It is estimated by the intelligent president of the Nashville and Chattanooga railroad, that the increased value of a belt of land ten miles wide, lying upon each side of its line, is equal to at least $7.50 per acre, or $96,000 for every mile of road, which will cost only about $20,000 per mile. That work has already created a value in its influence upon real property alone, equal to about five times 382 TRANSPORTATION its cost. What is true of the Nashville and Chattanooga road, is equally so, probably, of the average of roads throughout the country. It is believed that the construction of the three thousand miles of railroad of Ohio will add to the value of the landed property in the State at least five times the cost of the roads, assuming this to be ^60,000,000. In addition to the very rapid advance in the price of farming lands, the roads of Ohio are stimulating the growth of her cities with extraordinary rapidity, so that there is much greater prob- ability that the above estimate will be exceeded, than not reached, by the actual fact. We are not left to estimate in this matter. In the case of the State of Massachusetts, what is conjecture in re- gard to the new States has with her become a matter of history. The valuation of that State went up, from 1840 to 1850, from ^290,000,000 to ^580,000,000 — an immense increase, and by far the greater part of it due to the numerous railroads she has con- structed. This increase is in a much greater ratio to the cost of her roads than has been estimated of those of Ohio. We have considered the effect of railroads in increasing the value of property in reference only to lands devoted to agriculture ; but such results do not by any means give the most forcible illustra- tion of their use. An acre of farming land can at most be made to yield only a small annual income. An acre of coal or iron lands, on the other hand, may produce a thousand-fold more in value than the former. These deposits may be entirely valueless with- out a railroad. With one, every ton of ore they contain is worth one, two, three, or four dollars, as the case may be. Take for ex- ample the coal-fields of Pennsylvania. The value of the coal sent yearly from them, in all the agencies it is called upon to perform, is beyond all calculation. Upon this article are based our manufac- turing establishments, and our government and merchant steam- ships, representing values in their various relations and ramifications, equal to thousands of millions of dollars. Without coal it is impos- sible to conceive the spectacle that we should have presented as a people, so entirely different would it have been from our present condition. Neither our commercial nor our manufacturing, nor, consequently, our agricultural interests, could have borne any rela- tion whatever to their present enormous magnitude. Yet all this ECONOMICS OF RAILROADS AXl) CANALS 383 result has l)ccn achieved b\- a few raih'oads and canals in Penn- sylvania, which have not cost over $50,000,000. With these works, coal can be brought into the New York market for about $3.50 per ton ; without them, it could not have beep made available either for ordinar)' fuel or as a motive power. So small, comparativel)-, are the agencies by which such immense results have been effected, that the former are completely lost sight of in the magnitude of the latter. . . . There is no other country in the world where an equal amount of labor produces an equal bulk of freight for railroad transportation. One reason is, that the great mass of our products is of a coarse, bulky character, of very low comparative value, and consisting chiefly of the products of the soil and forest. We manufacture very few high-priced goods, labor being more profitably employed upon what are at present more appropriate objects of industry. The great bulk of the articles carried upon railroads is grains, cot- ton, sugar, coal, iron, live stock, and articles of a similar character. The difference between the value of a pound of raw and manufac- tured cotton is measured frequently by dollars, yet both may pay the same amount of freight. Wheat, corn, cattle, and lumber, all pay a very large sum for transportation in proportion to their values. Again, for the want of domestic markets, the transportation of many of our important products involves a tliroiigh transportation. Take, for instance, a cotton-producing State like Mississippi. Nearly the whole industry of this State is engaged in the culti\a- tion of this article. Of the immense amount produced no part is consumed or used within the State. The entire staple goes abroad ; but as the aggregate industry of the people is confined to the pro- duction of one staple, it follows that all articles entering into con- sumption must be imported ; so that, over the channels through which the cotton of this State is sent to market, an equal value or tonnage must be imported, as the case may be. This necessity, both of an inward and outward movement, equal to the whole bulk of the surplus agricultural product, is peculiar to the United States, and is one of the reasons of the large receipts of our roads. While this is the case, it is equally true that newly settled sections of coun- try will often supply a larger amount of traffic than an older one. 384 TRANSPORTATION There can be no doubt that an equal amount of labor would pro- duce four times as much corn and wheat in Illinois as in Massa- chusetts ; consequently, a man living in the former would contribute four times as much business to a railroad as one in the latter. In clearing the soil, it often happens that the transportation of lumber supplies a larger traffic for two or three years than agricultural products for an equal length of time. It is, therefore, a great mistake to suppose that, because a country is new, it cannot yield a large traffic to a railroad. In the southern and western States only one year is frequently required to prepare the soil for crops, which may be renewed, the same in kind, for a long series of years. The amount raised, and consequently the sur- plus, is much larger in the more recent than in the longer settled portions of the country. In the more recent, too — the number of inhabitants being the same in both cases — the amount sent to dis- tant markets is greater from the fact that there is no diversity of pursuits, which in older communities supply from a limited circle nearly all the prime necessaries of life that enter into consumption. In newly settled districts, all these are often imported from distant markets at a very heavy cost of transportation. The general views above stated, in reference to the earnings of the railroads in the United States, are fully borne out by the result. Investments in these works have probably yielded a better return, independently of the incidental advantages connected with them, than the ordinary rates of interest prevailing throughout the coun- try. Such is the case with the roads of Massachusetts, the State in which these works have been carried to the greatest extent, and have cost the most per mile, and amongst which are embraced a number of expensive and unproductive lines. . . . The most productive railroads in Massachusetts are those con- necting the manufacturing and commercial towns, while the most unproductive arc those depending upon the ai^ricnltnral interests for support. The agriculture of this State supplies nothing for cx- pOTt ; on the contrary, there is hardly a town that does not depend upon other and distant portions of the country for many of the more important articles of food. The small surplus raised is wanted for consumption in the immediate neighborhood of production. ECONOMICS OF RAILROADS AND CANALS 385 VV'herc there are no manufacturing" establishments upon a route, the movement of property upon New England roads is limited, and hence the comparative unproductiveness of what may be termed agricultural lines. In the eastern States other sources of business make up for the lack of agricultural products for transportation, and the aggregate investment is productive. In the southern and western States the soil supplies a very large surplus for exportation, affording often, per mile, a greater /;////• for transportation than is supplied to eastern roads, either from agriculture, manufacture, or commerce. The cost of the former, however, will not on the aver- age, equal one-half that of the latter ; and as the rates of charges are pretty uniform upon all, and if anything higher upon the soiitJi- crn and ivcstcrn than upon the eastern roads, the revenues of the former must of course be very much greater than the latter. Such is the fact. The greater income of the one results, both from a larger traffic, which the western country in particular is adapted to suppl)', and from the higher rates of charges in proportion to the cost of the respective lines of the two different sections of the coun- try. Numerous illustrations of this fact might be readily given. The earnings of the Cleveland and Colunibus road have been greater than those of the Hudson river since the opening of their respective lines, though the former is only 135 miles long and cost $3,000,000, while the latter is 144 miles and cost $10,000,000. Railroads in the newly settled portions of the countiy, as a general rule, command a much larger traffic, and of course yield a better return upon their cost, than those of the older States. . . . By far the greater number of our roads in progress are in the interior of the country — in our agricultural districts, that do not possess an amount of accuviulatcd capital equal to their cost. A business adequate to the support of a railroad may exist without the means to construct one. The construction of a railroad, too, creates opportunities for investment which promise a much greater return than the stock in such a work. While, therefore, our people are disposed to make every reasonable sacrifice to secure a railroad, they prefer, and in fact they find it more for their interest, to bor- row a portion of the amount required, than to invest the whole means directly in the project. They can better afford to secure the 386 TRANSPORTATION co-operation of foreign capital, by offering high premiums for its use, than to embarrass themselves by making a permanent invest- ment of too large a proportion of their own immediate means. These facts sufficiently explain the reasons why the borrowing of a considerable portion of the cost of our roads has become so universal a rule. It is only by the co-operation of capitalists residing at a dis- tance, and having no interest in the collateral advantages due to railroads, that the great majority of our works could have been constructed. In the outset, money was furnished slowly and cau- tiously, and then only upon the most unquestioned security. As the result began to demonstrate the safety and productiveness of these investments, capital was more freely afforded, and became less exacting in its conditions. The result has been, that a confi- dence in the safety of our railroads, as investments of capital, has become general, not only in this country, but in Europe ; and com- panies whose means and prospective advantages entitle them to credit, find no difficulty in borrowing a reasonable sum upon the security of their roads, with which to complete them. The amount usually borrowed for our roads in progress averages from $5,000 to $10,000 per mile. The general custom requires that a sum equal to the one sought to be borrowed shall be first paid in, or secured for construction. A road that will cost $20,000 per mile is considered a sufficient security for a loan of $10,000 per mile ; and as the cost of new works will not much exceed the former sum, the latter is not, as a general rule, considered so large as to create distrust as to the safety of the investment, on account of the mag- nitude of the loan. This rule, which establishes the proportions to be supplied by those engaged in the construction, and capitalists, is well calculated to promote the best advantage of both parties. The fact that the people on the line of the contemplated road are willing to furnish one-half of the means requisite for construction, and to pledge this for an equal sum to complete the road, is sufficient evidence that in the opinion of such people, the construction of such work is justified by a prospective business. The interest they have in it also is a sufficient guarantee that its affairs will be carefully and TIIK POLICY OF INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS 387 prudcnU}' managed. The large amounl paid in and at stake divests the projeet of all speculative features. Where the advantages and success are merely contingent, prudent persons do not usually haz- ard large sums. The lender has, therefore, all the guarantees of safety, both from the character of the project and its prospective income and proper management. It is on this account that the credits furnished l)y municipal bodies for the construction of railroads should be resorted to only in extreme cases. Individuals making up the aggregate community may be induced to vote the credits of the latter in aid of a project, when they by no means could be' induced to venture their own cap- ital in its success. In this manner projects may be set afoot the consummation of which are not justified by these commercial and pecuniary considerations, which are the only safe guides of action in such cases. Railroads are purely couwicrcial enterprises, and their construction should be made to depend upon the same rules of conduct that control the building of ships, or the erection of manufacturing establishments. . . . IV. THE POLICY OF INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS ^ Gallatiii s Report on Roads and Canals, 1808 The Secretary of the Treasury, in obedience to the resolution of the Senate of the 2d March, 1807, respectfully submits the follow- ing report on roads and canals. The general utility of artificial roads and canals, is at this time so universally admitted, as hardly to require any additional proofs. It is sufificiently evident that, whenever the annual expense of trans- portation on a certain route in its natural state, exceeds the interest on the capital employed in improving the communication, and the annual expense of transportation (exclusively of the tolls,) by the improved route ; the difference is an annual additional income to the nation. Nor does in that case the general result vary, although the tolls may not have been fixed at a rate sufficient to pay to the undertakers the interest on the capital laid out. They indeed, when 1 American State Papers, XX, 724. 388 TRANSPORTATION that happens, lose ; but the eommunity is nevertheless benefited by the undertaking. The general gain is not confined to the differ- ence between the expenses of the transportation of those articles which had been formerly conveyed by that route, but many which were brought to market by other channels, will then find a new and more advantageous direction ; and those which on account of their distance or weight could not be transported in any manner what- ever, will acquire a value, and become a clear addition to the na- tional wealth. Those and many other advantages have become so obvious, that in countries possessed of a large capital, where prop- erty is sufficiently secure to induce individuals to lay out that capi- tal on permanent undertakings, and where a compact population creates an extensive commercial intercourse, within short distances, those improvements may often, in ordinary cases, be left to indi- vidual exertion, without any direct aid from government. There are however some circumstances, which, whilst they render the facility of communications throughout the United States an object of primary importance, naturally check the ap- plication of private capital and enterprise, to improvements on a large scale. The price of labor is not considered as a formidable obstacle, because whatever it may be, it equally affects the expense of trans- portation, which is saved by the improvement, and that of effecting the improvement itself. The want of practical knowledge is no longer felt : and the occasional influence of mistaken local inter- ests, in sometimes thwarting or giving an improper direction to public improvements, arises from the nature of man, and is com- mon to all countries. The great demand for capital in the United States, and the extent of territory compared with the population, are, it is believed, the true causes which prevent new undertakings, and render those already accomplished, less profitable than had been expected. I . Notwithstanding the great increase of capital during the last fifteen years, the objects for which it is required continue to be more numerous, and its application is generally more profitable than in Europe. A small portion therefore is applied to objects which offer only the prospect of remote and moderate profit. And THE POLICY OF INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS 389 it also happens that a less sum beiiii; subscribed at first, than is actually requisite for completing;" the work, this proceeds slowly ; the capital applied remains unpnxluctive for a much longer time than was necessary, and the interest accruing during that period, becomes in fact an injurious addition to the real expense of the undertaking. 2. The present population of the United States, compared witli the extent of territory over which it is spread, does not, except in- the vicinity of the seaports, admit that extensive commercial inter- course within short distances, which, in England and some other countries, forms the principal support of artificial roads and canals. With a few exceptions, canals particularly, cannot in America bc' undertaken with a view solely to the intercourse between the two extremes of, and along the intermediate ground which they occupy. It is necessary, in order to be productive, that the canal should open a communication with a natural extensive navigation which will flow through that new channel. It follows that whenever that navigation requires to be improved, or when it might at some distance be con- nected by another canal to another navigation, the first canal will remain comparatively unproductive, until the other improvements are effected, until the other canal is also completed. Thus the in- tended canal between the Chesapeake and Delaware, will be de- prived of the additional benefit arising from the intercourse between New York and the Chesapeake, until an inland navigation, shall have been opened between the Delaware and New York. Thus the expensive canals completed around the Falls of Potomac, will become more and more productive in proportion to the improve- ment, first of the navigation of the upper branches of the river, and then of its communication with the western waters. Some works already executed are unprofitable, many more remain unat- tempted, because their ultimate productiveness depends on other improvements, too extensive or too distant to be embraced by the same individuals. The general government can alone remove these obstacles. With resources amply sufficient for the completion of every prac- ticable improvement, it will always supply the capital wanted for any work which it may undertake, as fast as the work itself can 390 TRANSPORTATION progress, avoiding thereby the ruinous loss of interest on a dor- mant capital, and reducing the real expense to its %west rate. . With these resources, and embracing the whole ^tinion, it will complete on any given line all the improvements, however distant, which may be necessary to render the whole productive, and emi- nently beneficial. The early and efficient aid of the federal government is recom- mended by still more important considerations. The inconveniences, complaints, and perhaps dangers, which may result from a vast extent of territory, can no otherwise be radically removed, or pre- vented, than by opening speedy and easy communications through all its parts. Good roads and canals, will shorten distances, facili- tate commercial and personal intercourse, and unite by a still more intimate community of interests, the most remote quarters of the United States. No other, single operation, within the power of government, can more effectually tend to strengthen and perpetu- ate that union, which secures external independence, domestic peace, and internal liberty. . . . It must not be omitted that the facility of communications, con- stitutes, particularly in the United States, an important branch of national defence. Their extensive territory opposes a powerful ob- stacle to the progress of an enemy. But on the other hand, the number of regular forces, which may be raised, necessarily lim- ited by the population, will for many years be inconsiderable when compared with that extent of territory. That defect cannot other- wise be supplied than b)- those great national improvements, which will afford the means of a rapid concentration of that regular force, and of a formidable body of militia, on any given point. Amongst the resources of the union, there is one which fn^ii its nature seems more particularly applicable to internal improve- ments. Exclusively of Louisiana, the general government possesses, in trust for the people of the United States, about one hundred millions of acres fit for cultivation, north of the river Ohio, and near fifty millions south of the state of Tennessee. For the dispo- sition of those lands a plan has been adopted, calculated to enable eveiy industrious citizen to become a freeholder, to secure indis- putable titles to the purchasers, to obtain a national revenue, and THE POLICY C)l' INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS 391 above all to suppress monojDoly. Its success has surijasscd that of every former attempt, and exceeded the expectations of its authors. But a higher price than had usually been paid for waste lands by the first inhabitants of the frontier became an unavoidable ingredient of a system intended for general benefit, and was neces- sary in order to prevent the public lands being engrossed by indi- viduals possessing greater wealth, activity or local advantages. It is believed that nothing could be more gratifying to the purchas- ers, and to the inhabitants of the western states generally, or better calculated to remove popular objections, and to defeat insidious efforts, than the application of the proceeds of the sales to improve- ments conferring general ad\-antages on the nation, and an imme- diate benefit on the purchasers and inhabitants themselves. It may be added, that the United States, considered merely as owners of the soil, are also deeply interested in the opening of those com- munications, which must necessarily enhance the value of their property. Thus the opening of an inland navigation from tide water to the great lakes, would immediately give to the great body of lands bordering on those lakes, as great value as if they were situated at the distance of one hundred miles by land from the sea coast. And if the proceeds of the first ten millions of acres which may be sold, were applied to such improvements, the Ignited States would be amply repaid in the sale of the other ninet}- millions. . . . The manner in which the public monies may be applied to such objects, remains to be considered. It is evident that the United States cannot under the constitu- tion open any road or canal, without the consent of the state through which such road or canal must pass. In order therefore to remove every impediment to a national plan of internal improve- ments, an amendment to the constitution was suggested by the executive when the subject was recommended to the consideration of Congress. Until this be obtained, the assent of the states being necessary for each improvement, the modifications under which that assent may be given, will necessarily control the manner of applying the money. It may be however observed that in relation to the specific improvements which have been suggested, there is hardly any which is not either already authorized by the states 392 TRANSPORTATION respectively, or so immediately beneficial to them, as to render it highly probable that no material difiiculty will be experienced in that respect. The monies may be applied in two different manners : the United States may with the assent of the states, undertake some of the works at their sole expense ; or they may subscribe a certain number of shares of the stock of companies incorporated for the purpose. Loans might also in some instances be made to such com- panies. The first mode would perhaps, by effectually controlling local interests, give the most proper general direction to the work. Its details would probably be executed on a more economical plan by private companies. Both modes may perhaps be blended to- gether so as to obtain the advantages pertaining to each. But the modifications of which the plan is susceptible must vary according to the nature of the work, and of the charters, and seem to belong to that class of details, which are not the immediate subject of consideration. . . . ^ Madisoii s J 'do Message, Alareh J, iSl'J Having considered the bill this day presented to me entitled "An act to set apart and pledge certain funds for internal improve- ments," and which sets apart and pledges funds '" for constructing roads and canals, and improving the navigation of water courses, in order to facilitate, promote, and give security to internal commerce among the several States, and to render more easy and less expen- sive the means and provisions for the common defense, " I am constrained by the insuperable difficulty I feel in reconciling the bill with the Constitution of the United States to return it with that objection to the House of Representatives, in which it originated. The legislative powers vested in Congress are specified and enu- merated in the eighth section of the first article of the Constitu- tion, and it does not appear that the power proposed to be exercised by the bill is among the enumerated powers, or that it falls by any just interpretation within the power to make laws necessary and 1 Kirliardson, Messages and Papers of the Presidents, I, 584, 5S5. THE POLICV OF INTERNAL 1MJ'K( )\'I':MEX'1'S 393 proper for carrying- into execution liiose or other powers vested by the Constitution in the (jovernment of the United States. . . . I am not unaware of the great importance of roads and canals and the improved navigation of water courses, and that a power in the National Legislature to provide for them might be exercised with signal advantage to the general prosperity'. But seeing that such a .power is not expressly given by the Constitution, and believing that it can not be deduced from any part of it without an inadmis- sible latitude of construction and a reliance on insufficient prece- dents ; believing also that the permanent success of the Constitution depends on a definite partition of powers between the General and the State Governments, and that no adequate landmarks would be left by the constructive extension of the powers of Congress as proposed in the bill, I have no option but to withhold my signature from it, and to cherish the hope that its beneficial objects may be attained by a resort for the necessary powers to the same wisdom and virtue in the nation which established the Constitution in its actual form and providently marked out in the instrument itself a safe and practicable mode of improving it as experience might suggest. ^ Clay s Speech on Internal luipnreenients, 1S18 Some principles drawn from political economists ha\'e been alluded to, and we are advised to leave things to themselves, upon the ground that, when the condition of society is ripe for internal improvements — that is, when capital can be so invested with a fair prospect of adequate remuneration, they will be executed by associations of individuals, unaided by government. With my friend from South Carolina (Mr. Lowndes) I concur in this as a general maxim ; and I also concur with him that there are exceptions to it. The foreign policy which I think this countiy ought to adopt, pre- sents one of those exceptions. It would, perhaps, be better for mankind if, in the intercourse between nations, ■ all would leave skill and industry to their unstimulated exertions. But this is not done ; and if other powers will incite the industiy of their subjects, 1 Works, V, 133-135. 394 TRANSPORTATION and depress that of our citizens, in instances where they may come into competition, we must imitate their selfish example. Hence the necessity to protect our manufactures. In regard to internal improvements, it does not follow that they will always be con- structed whenever they will afford a competent dividend upon the capital invested. It may be true, generally, that in old countries where there is a great accumulation of surplus capital, and a con- sequent low rate of interest, they will be niade. But, in a new coun- try, the condition of society may be ripe for public works long before there is, in the hands of individuals, the necessary accumu- lation of capital to effect them ; and besides, there is, generally, in such a country, not only a scarcity of capital, but such a multi- plicity of profitable objects presenting themselves as to distract the judgment. Further ; the aggregate benefit resulting to the whole society, from a public improvement, may be such as to amply jus- tify the investment of capital in its execution, and yet that benefit may be so distributed among different and distant persons that they can never be got to act in concert. The turnpike roads wanted to pass the Alleghany mountains, and the Delaware and Chesapeake Canal are objects of this description. Those who will be most benefited by these improvements reside at a considerable distance from the sites of them ; many of those persons never have seen and never will see them. How is it possible to regulate the contributions, or to present to individuals so situated a sufficiently lively picture of their real interests, to get them to make exertions in effectuating the object commensurate with their respective abili- ties .'' I think it very possible that the capitalist who should invest his money in one of these objects, might not be reimbursed three per centum annually upon it ; and yet society, in various forms, might actually reap fifteen or twenty per centum. The benefit re- sulting from a turnpike road, made by private association, is divided between the capitalist who receives his tolls, the lands through which it passes, and which are augmented in their value, and the com- modities whose value is enhanced by the diminished expense of transportation. A combination, upon any terms, much less a just combination of all thosfe interests, to effect the improvement, is im- practicable. And if you await the arrival of the period when the THE POLICY OF INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS 395 tolls alone can produce a competent dividend, it is evident that }-ou will have to suspend its execution lony; after the general interests of society would have authorized it. Again, improvements, made by jirix-ate associations, are gener- ally made by local capital. But ages must elapse before there will be concentrated in certain places, where the interests of the whole community may call for improvements, sufficient capital to make them. The place of the improvement, too, is not always the most interested in its accomplishment. Other parts of the Union — the whole line of the seaboard — are quite as much, if not more inter- ested, in the Delaware and Chesapeake Canal, as the small tract of countr)^ through which it is proposed to pass. The same observa- tion will apply to turnpike roads passing through the Alleghany mountain. Sometimes the interest of the place of the improvement is adverse to the improvement and to the general interest. I would cite Louisville, at the rapids of the Ohio, as an example, whose interest will probably be more promoted by the continuance, than the removal of the obstruction. Of all the modes in which a gov- ernment can employ its surplus revenue, none is more permanently beneficial than that of internal improvement. Fixed to the soil, it becomes a durable part of the land itself, diffusing comfort, and activity, and animation, on all sides. The first direct effect is on the agricultural community, into whose pockets comes the differ- ence in the expense of transportation between good and bad ways. Thus, if the price of transporting a barrel of flour by the erection of the Curiiberland turnpike should be lessened two dollars, the producer of the article would receive that two dollars more now than formerly. But, putting aside all pecuniary considerations, there may be political motives sufficiently powerful alone to justify certain inter- nal improvements. Does not our country present such .? How are they to be effected, if things are left to themselves ? I will not press the subject further. I am but too sensible how much I have abused the patience of the committee by trespassing so long upon its attention. The magnitude of the question, and the deep inter- est I feel in its rightful decision, must be my apolog}'. We are now making the last effort to establish our power, and I call on 396 TRANSPORTATION the friends of Congress, of this House, or the true friends of the State rights (not charging others with intending to oppose them), to rally round the Constitution, and to support by their votes, on this occasion, the legitimate powers of the Legislature. If we do nothing this session but pass an abstract resolution on the subject, I shall, under all circumstances, consider it a triumph for the best interests of the country, of which posterity will, if we do not, reap the benefit. I trust, that by the decision which shall be given, we shall assert, uphold, and maintain, the authority of Congress not- withstanding all that has been or may be said against it. 1 Cal]ionii s Report on Roads and Canals, l8ig A judicious system of roads and canals, constructed for the convenience of commerce, and the transportation of the mail only, without any reference to military operations, is itself among the most efficient means for " the more complete defence of the United States." Without adverting to the fact, that the roads and canals which such a system would require, are, with few exceptions, precisely those which would be required for the operation of war, such a system, by consolidating our Union, and increasing our wealth and fiscal capacity, would add greatly to our resources in war. It is in a state of war, when a nation is compelled to put all of its resources in men, money, skill, and devotion to country', into requisition, that its Government realizes, in its security, the beneficial effects from a people made prosperous and happy by a wise direction of its resources in peace. But I forbear to pursue this subject, though so interesting, and which, the further it is pur- sued, will the more clearly establish the intimate connection be- tween the defence and safety of the country and its improvement and prosperity, as I do not conceive that it constitutes the imme- diate object of this report. There is no country to which a good system of military roads and canals is more indispensable than to the United States. As great as our military capacity is, when compared with the number 1 Works, V, 41-4:2. The report was made as Secretary of War, and was tlfere- fore primarily concerned with roads and canals as means of defense. THE POLICY OF INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS 397 of our people, yet, when eonsidered in relation to the vast extent of our eountry, it is very small ; and if so great an extent of territory renders it very difficult to conquer us, as has frequently been ob- served, it ought not to be forgotten that it renders it no less diffi- cult for the Government to afford protection to every portion of the community. In the very nature of things the difficulty of protect- ing every part, so long as our pojiulation bears so small a propor- tion to the extent of the country, cannot be entirely overcome, but it may be very greatly diminished, by a good system of military roads and canals. The necessity of such a system is still more ap- parent, if we take into consideration the character of our political maxims and institutions. Opposed in principle to a large standing army, our main reliance for defence must be on the militia, to be called out frequently from a great distance, and under the pressure of an actual invasion. The experience of the late war amply proves, in the present state of our internal improvements, the delay, the uncertainty, the anxiety, and exhausting effects of such calls. The facts are too recent to require details, and the impression too deep to be soon forgotten. As it is the part of wisdom to profit by experi- ence, so it is of the utmost importance to prevent a recurrence of a similar state of things, by the application of a portion of our means to the construction of such roads and canals as are required, " with a view to militaiy operations in time of war, the transportation of the munitions of war, and more complete defence of the United States." 1 Monroe s Veto Message, May 4th, 1 822 Having now examined all the powers of Congress under which the right to adopt and execute a system of internal improvement is 1 Richardson, Messages and Papers of the Presidents, II, 175, 176, 176-177, 178-179, 179-180. This message accompanied the veto of a bill entitled, "An act for the preservation and repair of the Cumberland road " and was the result of "a conviction that Congress do not possess the power under the Constitution to pass such a law." Like Madison, Monroe favored internal improvements, but thought an amendment of the Constitution necessary to enable the federal gov- ernment to undertake them. Two years after this veto he signed an act (April 30, 1824) which authorized the President to cause a survey to be made, with the necessary plans and estimates of such roads and canals as he might deem of 398 TRANSPORTATION claimed and the reasons in support of it in each instance, I think that it may fairly be concluded that such a right has not been granted. It appears and is admitted that much may be done in aid of such a system by the right which is derived from several of the existing grants, and more especially from that to appropriate the public money, l^ut still it is manifest that as a system for the United States it can never be carried into effect under that grant nor under all of them united, the great and essential power being deficient, consisting of a right to take up the subj ect on principle ; to cause our Union to be examined by men of science, with a view to such improvements ; to authorize commissioners to lay off the roads and canals in all proper directions ; to take the land at a valuation if necessary, and to construct the works ; to pass laws with suitable penalties for their protection ; and to raise a revenue from them, to keep them in repair, and make further improvement by the establishment of turnpikes and tolls, with gates to be placed at the proper distances. . . . In the preceding incjuiry little has been said of the advantages which would attend the exercise of such a power by the General Government. I have made the inquiiy under a deep conviction that they are almost incalculable, and that there was a general con- currence of opinion among our fellow-citizens to that effect. Still, it may not be improper for me to state the grounds upon which my own impression is founded. . . . I think that I may venture to affirm that there is no part of our globe comprehending so many degrees of latitude on the main ocean and so many degrees of longitude into the interior that ad- mits of such great improvement and at so little expense. The Atlantic on the one side, and the Lakes, forming almost inland seas, on the other, separated, by high mountains, which rise in the valley of the St. Lawrence and determine in that of the Mississippi, national importance in a commercial or military point of view or for the trans- portation of the mail, and began a vigorous exercise of these powers during the closing year of his administration. The friends of internal improvements expected this act to lay the foundation for a national system. It did, in fact, go far toward accomplishing this result, as surveys were carried out in all parts of the country, and would probably have resulted in an extensive system, had it not encountered the executive veto under Jackson. THE POLICY OF INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS 399 traversini;; from nortli to soulh almost the whole interior, with innumerable rivers on every side of those mountains, some of vast extent, many of which tiike their sources near to each other, give the great outline. The details are to be seen on the valuable maps of'our country. It appears by the light already before the public that it is prac- ticable and easy to connect by canals the whole coast from its southern to its northern extremity in one continued inland naviga- tion, and to connect in like manner in many parts the Western lakes and rivers with each other. It is equally practicable and easy to facilitate the intercourse between the Atlantic and the Western countr}' by improving the navigation of many of the rivers which have their sources near to each other in the mountains on each side, and by good roads across the mountains between the highest navigable points of those rivers. In addition to the example of the Cumberland road, already noticed, another of this kind is now in train from the head waters of the river James to those of the Kanawha ; and in like manner may the Savannah be connected with the Tennessee. In some instances it is understood that the P2astern and Western waters may be connected together directly by canals. One great work of this kind is now in its progress and far advanced in the State of New York, and there is good reason to believe that two others may be formed, one at each extremity of the high mountains above mentioned, connecting in the one instance the waters of the St. Lawrence with Lake Champlain, and in the other some of the most important of the Western rivers with those emptying into the Gulf of Mexico, the advantage of which will be seen at the first glance by an enlightened observer. . . . The advantages which would be derived from such improve- ments are incalculable. The facility .which would thereby be af- forded to the transportation of the whole of the rich productions of our country to market would alone more than amply compensate for all the labor and expense attending them. Great, how'ever, as is that advantage, it is one only of many and by no means the most important. Every power of the General Government and of the State governments connected with the strength and resources of the country would be made more efficient for the purposes 400 TRANSPORTATION intended by them. In war they would faciUtate the transportation of men, ordnance, and provisions, and munitions of war of every kind to every part of our extensive coast and interior on which an attack might be made or threatened. Those who have any knowl- edge of the occurrences of the late war must know the good effect which would result in the event of another war from the command of an interior navigation alone along the coast for all the purposes of war as well as of commerce between the different parts of our Union. The impediments to all military operations which pro- ceeded from the want of such a navigation and the reliance which was placed, notwithstanding those impediments, on such a com- merce can not be forgotten. In every other line their good effect would be most sensibly felt. Intelligence by means of the Post- Office Department would be more easily, extensively, and rapidly diffused. Parts the most remote from each other would be brought more closely together. Distant lands would be made more valuable, and the industry of our fellow-citizens on every portion of our soil be better rewarded. . . . It can not be doubted that improvements for great national pur- poses would be better made by the National Government than by the governments of the several States. Our experience prior to the adoption of the Constitution demonstrated that in the exercise by the individual States of most of the powers granted to the United States a contracted rivalry of interest and misapplied jealousy of each other had an important influence on all their measures to the great injury of the whole. This was particularly exemplified by the regulations which they severally made of their commerce with for- eign nations and with each other. It was this utter incapacity in the State governments, proceeding from these and other causes, to act as a nation and to perform all the duties which the nation owed to itself under any system which left the General Government de- pendent on the States, which produced the transfer of these powers to the United States by the establishment of the present Constitu- tion. The reasoning which was applicable to the grant of any of the powers now vested in Congress is likewise so, at least to a cer- tain extent, to that in question. It is natural that the States indi- vidually in making improvements should look to their particular TlIK I'OTJCV OF INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS 40I and local interests. The members composing" tlieir respectixe le<^is- latLires represent the people of each State only, and mi<;ht not feel themselves at liberty to look to objects in these respects beyond that limit. If the resources of the Union were to be brought into operation under the direction of the State assemblies, or in concert with them, it may be apprehended that every measure would become the object of negotiation, of bargain and barter, much to the dis- advantage of the system, as well as discredit to both governments. But Congress would look to the whole and make improvements to promote the welfare of the whole. It is the peculiar felicity of the proposed amendment that while it will enable the United States to accomplish every national object, the improvements made with that view will eminently promote the welfare of the individual States, who may also add such others as their own particular interests may require. . . . I have now essentially executed that part of the task which I imposed on myself of examining the right of Congress to adopt and execute a system of internal improvements, and, I think, have shown that it does not exist. It is, I think, equally manifest that such a power vested in Congress and wisely executed would have the happiest effect on all the great interests of our Union. '^Jackson's Veto Message, May 2'/tJi, iSjO Gentlemen : I have maturely considered the bill proposing to authorize "a subscription of stock in the Maysville, Washington, Paris, and Lexington Turnpike Road Company," and now return the same to the House of Representatives, in which it originated, with my objections to its passage. , . , The bill before me does not call for a more definite opinion upon the particular circumstances which will warrant appropriations of money by Congress to aid works of internal improvement. . . . Such grants have always been professedly under the control of the general principle' that the works which might thus be aided should be "of a general, not local, national, not State," character. 1 Richardson, Messages and Papers of the Presidents, II, 4S3, 4S7, 488, 489- 490. 402 TRANSPORTATION A disregard of this distinction would of necessity lead to the sub- version of the federal system. ... I have given to its provisions all the reflection demanded by a just regard for the interests of those of our fellow-citizens who have desired its passage, and by the respect which is due to a coordinate branch of the Government, but I am not able to view it in any other light than as a measure of purely local character. ... But although I might not feel it to be my official duty to inter- pose the Executive veto to the passage of a bill appropriating money for the construction of such works as are authorized by the States and are national in their character, I do not wish to be understood as expressing an opinion that it is expedient at this time for the General Government to embark in a system of this kind ; and anxious that my constituents should be possessed of my views on this as well as on all other subjects which they have com- mitted to my discretion, I shall state them frankly and briefly. Although many of the States, with a laudable zeal and under the influence of an enlightened policy, are successfully applying their separate efforts to works of this character, the desire to enlist the aid of the General Government in the construction of such as from their nature ought to devolve upon it, and to which the means of the individual States are inadequate, is both rational and patriotic, and if that desire is not gratified now it does not follow that it never will be. The general intelligence and public spirit of the American people furnish a sure guaranty that at the proper time this policy will be made to prevail under circumstances more auspicious to its successful prosecution than those which now exist. But great as this object undoubtedly is, it is not the only one which demands the fostering care of the Government. The preservation and success of the republican principle rest with us. To elevate its character and extend its influence rank among our most important duties, and the best means to accomplish this desirable end are those which will rivet the attachment of our citizens to the Govern- ment of their choice by the comparative lightness of their public burthens and by the attraction which the superior success of its operations will present to the admiration and respect of the world. Through the favor of an overruling and indulgent Providence our THE POLICY OF INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS 403 country is blessed with i^eneral prosperity and our citizens exempted from the pressure of taxation, which other less favored portions of the human family are obliged to bear ; yet it is true that many of the taxes collected from our citizens through the medium of im- posts have for a considerable period been onerous. In many partic- ulars these taxes have borne severely upon the laboring and less prosperous classes of the community, being imposed on the neces- saries of life, and this, too, in cases where the burthen was not relieved by the consciousness that it would ultimately contribute to make us independent of foreign nations for articles of prime neces- sity by the encouragement of their growth and manufacture at home. They have been cheerfully borne because they are thought to be necessaiy to the support of Government and the payment of the debts unavoidably incurred in the acquisition and maintenance of our national rights and liberties. But have we a right to calculate on the same cheerful acquiescence when it is known that the neces- sity for their continuance w^ould cease were it not for irregular, improvident, and unequal appropriations of the public funds ? Will not the people demand, as they have a right to do, such a prudent system of expenditure as will pay the debts of the Union and authorize the reduction of ever}^ tax to as low a point as the wise observance of the necessity to protect that portion of our manufac- tures and labor whose prosperity is essential to our national safety and independence will allow .'' When the national debt is paid, the duties upon those articles which we do not raise may be repealed with safety, and still leave, I trust, without oppression to any sec- tion of the countiy, an accumulating surplus fund, which may be beneficially applied to some well-digested system of improvement. Lender this view the question as to the manner in which the Federal Government can or ought to embark in the construction of roads and canals, and the extent to which it may impose bur- thens on the people for these purposes, may be presented on its own merits, free of all disguise and of eveiy embarrassment, except such as may arise from the Constitution itself. Assuming these suggestions to be correct, will not our constituents require the obsen-ance of a course by which they can be effected ? Ought they not to require it .'' With the best disposition to aid, as far as I can 404 TRANSPORTATION conscientiously, in furtherance of works of internal improvement, my opinion is that the soundest views of national policy at this time point to such a course. Besides the avoidance of an evil influence upon the local concerns of the country, how solid is the advantage which the Government will reap from it in the elevation of its character ! How gratifying the effect of presenting to the world the sublime spectacle of a Republic of more than 12,000,- 000 happy people, in the fifty-fourth year of her existence, after having passed through two protracted wars — the one for the acqui- sition and the other for the maintenance of liberty — free from debt and with all her immense resources unfettered ! What a sal- utary influence would not such an exhibition exercise upon the cause of liberal principles and free government throughout the world ! Would we not ourselves find in its eftect an additional guaranty that our political institutions will be transmitted to the most remote posterity without decay ? A course of policy destined to witness events like these can not be benefited by a legislation which tolerates a scramble for appropriations that have no relation to any general system of improvement, and whose good effects must of necessity be very limited. In the best view of these appro- priations, the abuses to which they lead far exceed the good which they are capable of promoting. They may be resorted to as artful expedients to shift upon the Government the losses of unsuccess- ful private speculation, and thus, by ministering to personal ambi- tion and self-aggrandizement, tend to sap the foundations of public virtue and taint the administration of the Government with a demoralizing influence. . . . V. METHODS OF TRAVEL A. General Description of Conditions, 1830-1840 1 There is much comprehended in tlie simple word travelling which heads this chapter, and it is by no means an unimportant subject, as the degree of civilization of a country, and many im- portant peculiarities, bearing strongly upon the state of society, are 1 Marryat, Diary in America, with Remarks on its Institutions [1S40], pp. 2, 3-5' 7-8. 9-10. I'. 3°' 3--33' 34- METHODS OF TRAVI<:L 405 to be gathered from the high road, and tlie variety of entertainment for man and horse ; and 1 think that my remarks on this subjeet will throw as mueh light upon American society as will be found in any chapter which 1 ha\e written. In a country abounding as America does with rivers and rail- roads, and where locomotion by steam, wherever it can be applied, supersedes every other means of conveyance, it is not to be ex- jsected that the roads will be remarkably good ; they are, however, in consequence of the excellent arrangements of the townships and counties, in the Eastern States, as good, and much better, than could be expected. The great objection to them is that they are not levelled, but follow the undulations of the country, so that you have a variety of short, steep ascents and descents which are very trying to the carriage-springs and very fatiguing to the trav- eller. Of course in a new country you must expect to fall in with the delightful varieties of Corduroy, &c., but wherever the country is settled and the population sufficient to pay the expense, the roads in America may be said to be as good as under circumstances could possibly be expected. There are one or two roads, I believe, not more, which are government roads ; but, in general, the expense of the roads is defrayed by the States. . . . The American stage-coaches are such as experience has found out to be most suitable to the American roads, and you have not ridden in them five miles before you long for the delightful spring- ing of four horses upon the level roads of England. They are some- thing between an English stage and a French diligence, built with all the panels open, on account of the excessive heat of the sum- mer months. In wet weather these panels are covered with leather aprons, which are fixed on with buttons, a very insufficient protec- tion in the winter, as the wind blows through the intermediate spaces, whistling into your ears, and rendering it more piercing than if all was open. Moreover, they are no protection against the rain or snow, both of which find their way in t(j you. The coach has three seats, to receive nine passengers ; those on the middle seat leaning back upon a strong and broad leather brace, which nms across. This is very disagreeable, as the centre passengers, when the panels are closed, deprive the others of the light and air 4o6 TRANSPORTATION from the windows. But the most disagreeable feehng arises from the body of the coach not being upon springs, but hung upon leather braces running under it and supporting it on each side ; and when the roads are bad, or )'ou ascend or rapidly descend the pitches (as they term short hills) the motion is very similar to that of being tossed in a blanket, often throwing you up to the top of the coach, so as to flatten your hat — if not your head. The drivers are very skilful, although they are generally young men — indeed often mere boys — for they soon better themselves as they advance in life. Very often they drive six in hand ; and if you are upset, it is generally more the fault of the road than of the driver. I was upset twice in one half hour when I was travelling in the winter time ; and no one thinks anything of an upset in America. More serious accidents do, however, sometimes happen. When I was in New Hampshire, a neglected bridge broke down, and precipitated coach, horses, and passengers into a torrent which flowed into the Connecticut river. Some of the passengers were drowned. Those who were saved, sued the township and recovered damages ; but these mischances must be expected in a new coun- try. The great annoyance of these public conveyances is, that nei- ther the proprietor or driver consider themselves the servants of the public ; a stage-coach is a speculation by which as much money is to be made as possible by the proprietors ; and as the driver never expects or demands a fee from the passengers, they or their comforts are no concern of his. The proprietors do not consider that they are bound to keep faith with the public, nor do they care about any complaints. The stages which run from Cincinnati to the eastward are very much interfered with when the (3hio river is full of water, as the travellers prefer the steam-boats ; but the very moment that the water is so low on the Ohio that the steam-boats cannot ascend the river up to Wheeling, double the price is demanded by the pro- prietors of the coaches. They are quite regardless as to the opinion or good-will of the public ; they do not care for either, all they w'ant is their money, and they are perfectly indifferent whether you break your neck or not. The great evil arising from this state of hostility, as you may almost call it, is the disregard of life which MKTIIODS OF TRAYia. 407 renders travelling so dangerous in America. You are com]5letely at the mercy of the drivers, who are, generally speaking, very good- tempered, but sometinies quite the contraiy; and I have often been amused with the scenes which have taken place between them and the passengers. As for myself, when the weather permitted it, I invariably went outside, which the Americans seldom do, and was always very good friends with the drivers. The)- are full of local information, and often veiy amusing. There is, however, a great difference in the behaviour of the drivers of the mails, and coaches which are timed by the post-ofifice, and others which are not. If beyond his time, the driver is mulcted by the proprietors ; and when dollars are in the cpestion, there is an end to all urbanity and civility. . . . In making my observations upon the rail-road and steam-boat trav- elling in the United States, I shall point out some facts with which the reader must be made acquainted. The Americans are a rest- less, locomotive people : whether for business or pleasure, they are ever on the move in their own country, and they move in masses. There is but one conveyance, it may be said, for every class of people, the coach, rail-road, or steam-boat, as well as most of the hotels, being open to all ; the consequence is that the society is very much mixed — the millionaire, the well-educated woman of the highest rank, the senator, the member of Congress, the farmer, the emigrant, the swindler, and the pick-pocket, are all liable to meet together -in the same vehicle of conveyance. Some conven- tional rules were therefore necessary, and those rules have been made by public opinion — a power to which all must submit in America. The one most important, and without which it would be impossible to travel in such a gregarious way, is an universal def- erence and civility shewn to the women, who may in consequence travel without protection all over the United States without the least chance of annoyance or insult. This deference paid to the sex is highly creditable to the Americans ; it exists from one end of the Union to the other ; indeed, in the Southern and more law- less States, it is even more chivalric than in the more settled. . . . Of all travelling, I think that by railroad the most fatiguing, es- pecially in America. After a certain time the constant coughing of 4o8 TRANSPORTATION the locomotive, the dazzhng of the vision from the rapidity with which objects are passed, the sparks and ashes which fly in your face and on your clothes become very annoying ; your only conso- lation is the speed with which you are passing over the ground. The railroads in America are not so well made as in England, and are therefore more dangerous ; but it must be remembered that at present nothing is made in America but to last a certain time ; they go to the exact expense considered necessary and no further ; they know that in twenty years they will be better able to spend twenty dollars than one now. The great object is to obtain quick returns for the outlay, and, except in few instances, durability or permanency is not thought of. One great cause of disasters is, that the railroads are not fenced on the sides, so as to keep the cattle off them, and it appears as if the cattle who range the woods are veiy partial to take their naps on the roads, probably from their be- ing drier than the other portions of the soil. It is impossible to say how many cows have been cut into atoms by the trains in America, but the frequent accidents arising from these causes have occasioned the Americans to invent a sort of shovel, attached to the front of the locomotive, which takes up a cow, tossing her off right or left. At every fifteen miles of the railroads there are refreshment rooms ; the cars stop, all the doors are thrown open, and out rush the pas- sengers like boys out of school, and crowd round the tables to sol- ace themselves with pies, patties, cakes, hard-boiled eggs, ham, custards, and a variety of railroad luxuries, too numerous to men- tion. The bell rings for departure, in they all hurry with their hands and mouths full, and off they go again, until the next stop- ping place induces them to relieve the monotony of the journey by masticating without being hungry. . . . The most general, the most rapid, the most agreeable, and, at the same time, the most dangerous, of American travelling is by steam-boats. . . . The American steam-boats are very different from ours in ap- pearance, in consequence of the engines being invariably on deck. The decks also are carried out many feet wider on each side than the hull of the vessel, to give space ; these additions to the deck are called guards. The engine being on the first deck, there is a METHODS OI" TRAVFX 409 second deck for tlic passengers, state-rooms, and saloons ; and above this deck there is another, covered with a white awning. They have something tlie ajjpearance of two-deckers, and when filled with company, the variety of colours worn by the ladies have a very novel and pleasing effect. The boats which run from New York to Boston, and up the Hudson river to Albany, are very splendid vessels ; they have low-pressure engines, are well commanded, and I never heard of any accident of any importance taking place ; their engines are also very superior — one on board of the Narragansett, with a horizontal stroke, was one of the finest I e\-er saw. On the Mississippi, Ohio, and tln'ir tributary rivers, the high-pressure en- gine is invariably used ; the)- have tried the low-pressure, but have found that it will ncjt answer, in consequence of the great quantity of mud contained in solution on the waters of the Mississippi, which destroys all the valves and leathers ; and this is the principal cause of the many accidents which take place. At the same time it must be remembered, that there is a recklessness — an indiffer- ence to life — shown throughout all America ; which is rather a singular feature, inasmuch as it extends East as well as West. It can only be accounted for by the insatiate pursuit of gain among a people who consider that time is money, and who are blinded by their eagerness in the race for it, added to that venturous spirit so naturally imbibed in a new country at the commencement of its occupation. . . . The American innkeeper is still looked upon in the light of your host; he and his wife sit at the head of the table d'hote at meal times ; when you arrive he greets you with a welcome, shaking your hand ; if you arrive in company with those who know him, you are introduced to him ; he is considered on a level with you ; you meet him in the most respectable companies, and it is but justice to say that, in most instances, they are a veiy respectable portion of society. Of course, his authority, like that of the captains of the steam-boats, is undisputed ; indeed the captains of these boats may be partly considered as classed under the same head. This is one of the most pleasing features in American society, and I think it is likely to last longer than most others in this land of change, because it is upheld by public opinion, which is so 4IO TRANSPORTATION despotic. The mania for travelling, among the people of the United States, renders it most important that everything connected with locomotion should be well arranged ; society demands it, pub- lic opinion enforces it, and therefore, with few exceptions, it is so. The respect shown to the master of a hotel induces people of the highest character to embark in the profession ; the continual stream of travellers which pours through the countiy, gives sufficient sup- port by moderate profits, to enable the innkeeper to abstain from excessive charges ; the price of eveiything is known by all, and no more is charged to the President of the United States than to other people. Every one knows his expenses ; there is no surcharge, and fees to waiters are voluntary, and never asked for. At first I used to examine the bill when presented, but latterly I looked only at the sum total at the bottom and paid it at once, reserving the ex- amination of it for my leisure, and I never in one instance found that I had been imposed upon. This is veiy remarkable, and shows the force of public opinion in America ; for it can produce, when required, a very scarce article all over the world, and still more scarce in the profession referred to, — Honesty. Of course there will be exceptions, but they are veiy few, and chiefiy confined to the cities. . . . Of course, where the population and traf^c are great, and the travellers who pass through numerous, the hotels are large and good ; where, on the contraiy, the road is less and less frequented, so do they decrease in importance, size, and respectability, until you arrive at the farm-house entertainment of Virginia and Ken- tucky ; the grocery, or mere grog-shop, or the log-house of the Far West. The way-side inns are remarkable for their uniformity; the furniture of the bar-room is invariably the same : a wooden clock, a map of the United States, map of the State, the Declaration of Independence, a looking-glass, with a hair-brush and comb hang- ing to it b)- strings, pro bono publico, sometimes with the extra embellishment of one or two miserable pictures, such as General Jackson scrambling upon a horse, with fire or steam coming out of his nostrils, going to the battle of New Orleans, &c. &c. He who is of the silver-fork school, will not find much comfort out of the American cities and large towns. There are no neat, METHODS Ol- TRAVEL 41I quiet little inns, as in England. It is all the " rough and tumble " system, and when you stop at humble inns you must expect to eat peas with a two-pronged fork, and to sit down to meals with people whose exterior is any thing but agreeable, to attend upon yourself, and to sleep in a room in which there are three or four other beds (I have slept in one with nearly twenty,) most of them carrying double, even if you do not have a companion in your own. . . . ^ Nature has done so much for the United States in this article [Transport and Markets] of their economy, and has indicated so clearly what remained for human hands to do, that it is very com- )rehensible to the traveller why this new country so far transcends Others of the same age in markets and means of transport. The ports of the United States are, singularly enough, scattered round the whole of their boundaries. Besides those on the seaboard, there are man)- in the interior ; on the northern lakes, and on thou- sands of miles of deep rivers. No nook in the country is at a de- spairing distance from a market ; and where the usual incentives to enterprise exist, the means of transport are sure to be provided, in the proportion in which they are wanted. Even in the south, where, the element of wages being lost, and the will of the labourer being lost with them, there are no adequate means of executing even the best-conceived enterprises, more has been done than could have been expected under the circumstances. The mail roads are still extremely bad. I found, in travelling through the Carolinas and Georgia, that the drivers consider them- selves entitled to get on by any means they can devise : that no- body helps and nobody hinders them. It was constantly happening that the stage came to a stop on the brink of a wide and a deep puddle, extending all across the road. The driver helped himself, without scruple, to as many rails of the nearest fence as might serve to fill up the bottom of the hole, or break our descent into it. On inquiry, I found it was not probable that either road or fence would be mended till both had gone to absolute destruction. The traffic on these roads is so small, that the stranger feels himself almost lost in the wilderness. In the course of several 1 Martineau, Society in America [1834], II, 1-5, 6-7, 15, 17-18, 19-20, 21-23. 412 TRANSPORTATION days' journey, we saw, (with the exception of the wagons of a few encampments,) only one vehicle besides our own. It was a stage returning from Charleston. Our meeting in the forest was like the meeting of ships at sea. We asked the passengers from the south for news from Charleston and Europe ; and they questioned us about the state of politics at Washington. The eager vociferation of drivers and passengers was such as is very unusual, out of exile. We were desired to give up all thoughts of going by the eastern road to Charleston. The road might be impassable ; and there was nothing to eat by the way. So we described a circuit, by Camden and Columbia. An account of an actual day's journey will give the best idea of what travelling is in such places. We had travelled from Rich- mond, Virginia, the day before, (March 2nd, 1835,) and had not had any rest, when, at midnight, we came to a river which had no bridge. The "scow" had gone over with another stage, and we stood under the stars for a long time ; hardly less than an hour. The scow was only just large enough to hold the coach and our- selves ; so that it was thought safest for the passengers to alight, and go on board on foot. In this process, I found myself over the ankles in mud. A few minutes after we had driven on again, on the opposite side of the river, we had to get out to change coaches ; after which we proceeded, without accident, though very slowly, till daylight. Then the stage sank down into a deep rut, and the horses struggled in vain. We were informed that we were "' mired," and must all get out. I stood for some time to witness what is very pretty for once ; but wearisome when it occurs ten times a day. The driver carries an axe, as a part of the stage apparatus. He cuts down a young tree, for a lever, which is introduced under the nave of the sunken wheel ; a log serving for a block. The gentleman passengers all help ; shouting to the horses, which tug and scram- ble as vigorously as the gentlemen. We ladies sometimes gave our humble assistance by blowing the driver's horn. Sometimes a cluster of negroes would assemble from a neighbouring plantation ; and in extreme cases, they would bring a horse, to add to our team. The rescue from the rut was effected in any time from a quarter of an hour to two hours. This particular 3rd of March, two hours METHODS Ol- TRAVFX 413 were lost by this first mishap. It was very cold, and I walked on alone, sure of not missing my road in a region where there was no other. When I had proceeded two miles, I stopped and looked around me. I was on a rising ground, with no object whatever visi- ble but the wild, black forest, extending on all sides as far as I could see, and the red road cut through it, as straight as an arrow, till it was lost behind a rising ground at either extremity. 1 know nothing like it, except a Salvator Rosa I once saw. The stage so(jn after took me up, and we proceeded fourteen miles to breakfast. We were faint with hunger ; but there was no refreshment for us. The family breakfast had been long over, and there was not a scrap of food in the house. We proceeded, till at one o'clock we reached a private dwelling, where the good woman was kind enough to pro- vide dinner for us, though the family had dined. She gave us a comfortable meal, and charged only a quarter dollar each. She stands in all the party's books as a hospitable dame. We had no sooner left her house than we had to get out to pass on foot a bridge too crazy for us to venture over it in a carriage. Half a mile before reaching the place where we were to have tea, the thorough-brace broke, and we had to walk through a snow showier to the inn. We had not proceeded above a quarter of a mile from this place when the traces broke. After this we were allowed to sit still in the carriage till near seven in the morning, when we were approaching Raleigh, North Carolina. We then saw a carriage " mired " and deserted by driver and horses, but tenanted by some travellers who had been waiting there since eight the evening before. While we were pitying their fate, our vehicle once more sank into a rut. It was, however, extricated in a short time, and we reached Raleigh in safety. . . . The best testimony that I can bear to the skill with which trav- elling is conducted on such roads as these, and also in steam-boats, is the fact that I travelled upwards of ten thousand miles in the United States, by land and water, without accident. I was twice nearly overturned ; but never quite. . . . When I first crossed the Alleghanies, in November, 1834, I caught a glimpse of the stupendous Portage rail-road, running between the two canals which reach the opposite bases of the 414 TRANSPORTATION mountains. The stage in which I travelled was on one side of a deep ravine, bristling with pines ; while on the other side was the lofty embankment, such a wall as I had never imagined could be built, on the summit of which ran the rail-road, its line traceable for some miles, with frequent stations and trains of baggage-cars. One track of this road had not long been opened ; and the work was a splendid novelty. I had afterwards the pleasure of travelling on it from end to end. This road is upwards of thirty-six miles in length, and at one point reaches an elevation of 2,491 feet above the sea. It consists of eleven levels, and ten inclined planes. About three hundred feet of the road, at the head and foot of each plane, is made exactly level. ... Our party (of four, one a child) traversed the entire State from Pittsburg to Philadelphia by canal and rail-road, in four days, at an expense of only forty-two dollars, not including provisions. There was then great competition between the lines of canal-boats. We went by the new line, whose boats were extraordinarily clean, and the table really luxurious. An omnibus, sent from the canal, con- veyed us from our hotel at Pittsburg to the boat, at nine in the evening ; and we immediately set off. Berths were put up. for the ladies of the party in the ladies' dressing-room, and removed dur- ing the day. We were called early, and breakfast dispatched before the heat grew oppressive ; but, though it was now the middle of July, I could not remain in the shade of the cabin : the scener)^, during our whole course, was so beautiful. Umbrella and fan made the heat endurable on deck, except for the two hours nearest to noon. The only great inconvenience was the having to remember perpetually to avoid the low bridges, which we passed, on an aver- age, every quarter of an hour. When we were all together, this was little of an annoyance ; for one or another was sure to remember to give warning ; but a solitary person, reading or in reverie, is really in danger. We heard of two cases of young ladies, reading, who had been crushed to death : and we prohibited books upon deck. . . . We were called up before four on the second morning, and had barely time to dress, step ashore, and take our places in the car, METHODS OF TRAVKL 415 before the train set off. We understood that the utmost possible advantage is taken of the dayhght, as the trains do not travel after dark ; it being made a point of, that the ropes should be examined before each trip. After having breakfasted by the wa}-, we reached the summit of the Portage rail-road between nine and ten. There were fine views all the way ; the mountains opening and receding, and disclosing the distant clearings and nestling villages. All around us were plots of wild flowers, of many hues. We were carried on chiefly by steam power, partly by horse, partly by descending weight, and, at the last, down a long reach, of the slightest possible inclination, by our own weight. The motion was then tremendously rapid, and it subsided only on our reaching the canal at the foot of the mountains. There was again so much huny — there being danger of either of two rival boats getting first possession of the next locks, that we of the last car had scarcely time to step on board before the team of three horses began cantering and raising a dust on the towing path, and tugging us through the water at such a rate as to make the waves lash the canal bank. Our boat won the race, and we bolted with a victorious force into the chamber of the first lock. We had occasionally to cross broad rivers. To-day we crossed the Juniatta by a rope feny, moved by water-power ; and after^vards we crossed the Susquehanna (at the junction of two branches of the Juniatta, the Susquehanna, and two canals) by means of the tow- ing-path being carried along the outside of the great covered bridge which spans the river at Duncan's Island. The next morning we had to leave the broad, clear, but shallow Susquehanna, — the " river of rocks," as its name imports. I had before travelled almost its whole length along its banks ; and, like every one who has done so, loved its tranquil beauty. The last stage of this remarkable journey was from Columbia to Philadelphia, by rail-road, eighty-one miles, which we were seven hours in performing, as the stoppages were frequent and long. This work, which was opened in 1834, includes thirty-one viaducts, seventy-three stone culverts, five hundred stone drains, and eight- een bridges. Its cost was about 1,600,000 dollars. — The length of this passage from Philadelphia to Pittsburg is 394 miles. . . . 4i6 TRANSPORTATION The steam-boats of the United States are renowned, as they deserve to be. There is no occasion to describe their size and beauty here ; but their number is astonishing. I understand that three hundred were navigating the great western rivers some time ago : and the number is probably much increased. Among so many, and where the navigation is so dangerous as on the Mississippi, it is no wonder that the accidents are numerous. I was rather surprised at the cautions I recei\"ed throughout the south about choosing wisely among the Mississippi steam-boats ; and at the question gravely asked, as I was going on board, whether I had a life-preserver with me. I found that all my acquaintances on board had furnished themselves with life-preservers ; and my surprise ceased when we passed boat after boat on the river, delayed or deserted on account of some accident. We were on board the " Henry Clay," a noble boat, of high reputation ; the present being the ninety-seventh trip accomplished without accident. Our yawl was snagged one day ; and we encountered a squall and hail storm one night, which blew both the pilots away from the helm, and made them look " to see the hurricane deck blown clear off " ; but no mischief ensued. Notwithstanding the increase of steam-boats in the Mississippi, flat boats are still much in use. These are large boats, of rude con- struction, made just strong enough to hold together, and keep their cargo of flour, or other articles, dry, from some high point on the great rivers, to New Orleans. They are furnished with two enor- mous oars, fixed on what is, I suppose, called their deck ; to be used where the current is sluggish, or w'hen it is desirable to change the direction of the boat. The cumbrous machine is propelled by the stream ; her proprietors only occasionally helping her progress, now by pulling at the branches of overhanging trees, now by turn- ing her into the more rapid of two currents. She is seen sometimes floating down the very middle of the river ; sometimes gliding under the banks. At noon, a bower of green leaves is waving on her deck, for shade to her masters ; at night, a pine brand is waved, flaming, to give warning to the steam-boats not to run her down. The voyage from the upper parts of the Ohio to New Orleans, is thus performed in from three to five weeks. The cargo being METHODS C)]'' ^rRAVEL 417 disposed of at New Orleans, the boat is broken u]5, and the mate- rials sold ; and her masters work their way home a<4ain, as deck passengers on board a steam-boat, b)' bringing in wood at all the wooding places. The " Henry Clay " had a larger company of this kind of passengers than the captain liked. He declared that the deck was giving way under their number. It was a pretty sight to see them twice a day, — very early in the morning, and about sun- set, — pour from the boat, when she drew under the shore, form two lines between the boat and the wood pile, and bring in their loads. Most of them were tall Kcntuckians, who really do look unlike all other people. I felt a strong inclination for a fiat-boat vo)'age down the vast and beautiful Mississippi ; beautiful with islands and bluffs, and the eternal forest ; but I have lost the opportunity. If I should ever visit that beloved countiy again, this picturesque kind of craft will have disappeared, as the yet more barbarous raft is now disap- pearing ; and one more characteristic feature of western scenery will be effaced. It seems probable that there will be a more rapid increase of ships and schooners than of steam-boats on the northern lakes. These lakes are so subject to gusts and storms that steam-boats cannot be considered safe, and ought to make no promises of punc- tuality. The captains declare their office to be too anxious a one. A squall comes from any quarter, without notice ; and the boat no sooner seems to be proceeding prosperously on her way, than she has to run in somewhere for safety from a sudden stomi. Of all the water-craft I ever saw, I know none so graceful as the sloops on the Hudson ; unless it be the New York pilot-boats. The North-River sloops are an altogether peculiar race of boats. They are low, and can carry a great press of sail, from the smooth- ness of the water on which they perform their voyages. A sloop of a hundred and fifty tons will carry a mast of ninety feet high. I could watch these boats on the Hudson, a whole summer through ; moored beside a pebbly strand, in a recess of the shore ; or lying dark in a trail of glittering sunshine ; or turning the whitest of sails to the sun, startling the fish-hawk with the sudden gleam, so that he quits his prey, and makes for the hanging woods 4i8 TRANSPORTATION B. Personal Experiences, 17 88- 1860 1 I was detained at Newport by the south-west winds, till the 1 3th, when we set sail at midnight ; the Captain not wishing to sail sooner, for fear of touching before day on Block-Island. The wind and tide carried us at the rate of nine or ten miles an hour ; and we should have arrived at New-York the next evening, but we were detained at Hell-Gate, a kind of gulph, eight miles from New- York. This is a narrow passage, formed by the approach of Long- Island to York-Island, and rendered horrible by rocks, concealed at high water. The whirlpool of this gulph is little perceived at low water ; but it is not surprising that vessels which know it not, should be dashed in pieces. They speak of an English frigate lost there the last war. This Hell-Gate is an obstacle to the navigation of this strait ; but it is not rare in summer to run from Newport to New- York, two hundred miles, in twenty hours. As you approach this city, the coasts of these two islands, present the most agreeable spectacle. They are adorned with elegant country houses. Long- Island is celebrated for its high state of cultivation. The price of passage and your table from Providence to New- York, is six dollars. I ought to say one word of the packet-boats of this part of America, and of the facilities which they offer. Though, in my opinion, it is more advantageous, and often less expensive, to go by land ; yet I owe some praises to the cleanliness and good order observable in these boats. The one which I was in contained four- teen beds, ranged in two rows, one above the other ; every one had its little window. The chamber was well aired ; so that you do not breathe the nauseous air which infects the packets of the English channel. It was well varnished ; and two close corners were made in the poop, which serve as private places. The provisions were good. There is not a little towti on all this coast, but what has these kinds of packets going to New- York ; such as New-Haven, New-London, &c. They have all the same neatness, the same embellishment, the same convenience for travellers. You may be assured, there is nothing like it on the old continent. 1 Brissot de Warville, New Travels in the United States of America [1788], pp. 83-84. METHODS OF l^RAVKL 419 1 Being anxious to proceed on our journey before the season was too far advanced, and also particularly desirous of quitting New York on account of the fevers, which, it was rumoured, were in- creasing very fast, we took our passage for Albany, in one of the sloops trading constantly on the North River, between New York and that place, and embarked on the second day of July, about two o'clock in the afternoon. Scarcely a breath of air was stirring at the time ; but the tide carried us up at the rate of about two miles and a half an hour. The sky remained all day as serene as possi- ble, and as the water was perfectly smooth, it reflected in a most beautiful manner the images of the various objects on the shore, and of the numerous vessels dispersed along the river at different distances, and which seemed to glide along, as it were, by the power of magic, for the sails all hung down loose and motionless. . . . After sunset, a brisk wind sprang up which carried us on at the rate of six or seven miles an hour for a considerable part of the night ; but for some hours we had to lie at anchor at a place where the navigation of the river was too difficult to proceed in the dark. Our sloop was no more than seventy tons burthen by register ; but the accommodations she afforded were most excellent, and far supe- rior to what might be expected on board so small a vessel ; the cabin was equally large with that in a common merchant vessel of three hundred tons, built for crossing the ocean. This was owing to the great breadth of her beam, which was no less than twenty- two feet and a half, although her length was only fifty-five feet. All the sloops engaged in this trade are built nearly on the same construction ; short, broad, and very shallow, few of them draw more than five or six feet of water, so that they are only calculated for sailing upon smooth water. . . . The accommodations at the taverns, by which name they call all inns, &c. are very indifferent in Philadelphia, as indeed they are, with a very few exceptions, throughout the country. The mode of conducting them is nearly the same everywhere. The traveller is shewn, on arrival, into a room which is common to every person in the house, and which is generally the one set apart for breakfast, 1 Weld, Travels through the States of North America [1795-1797]. I, 267-268, 269, 27-29. 420 TRANSPORTATION dinner, and supper. All the strangers that happen to be in the house sit down to these meals promiscuously, and, excepting in the large towns, the family of the house also forms a part of the com- pany. It is seldom that a private parlour or drawing room can be procured at any of the taverns, even in the towns ; and it is always with reluctance that breakfast or dinner is served up separately to any individual. If a single bed-room can be procured, more ought not to be looked for ; but it is not always that even this is to be had, and those who travel through the country must often sub- mit to be crammed into rooms where there is scarcely sufficient space to walk between the beds. Strangers who remain for any length of time in the large towns most usually go to private board- ing houses, of which great numbers are to be met with. It is always a difficult matter to procure furnished lodgings without paying for board. At all the taverns, both in town and countiy, but particularly in the latter, the attendance is very bad ; indeed, excepting in the south- ern states, where there are such great numbers of negroes, it is a matter of the utmost difficulty to procure domestic servants of any description. The generality of servants that are met with in Phila- delphia are emigrant Europeans ; they, however, for the most part, only remain in service until they can save a little money, when they constantly quit their masters, being led to do so by that desire for independence which is so natural to the mind of man, and which every person in America may enjoy that will be industrious. The few that remain steady to those who have hired them are re- tained at most exorbitant v\ages. As for the Americans, none but those of the most indifferent characters ever enter into service, which they consider as suitable only to negroes. . . . 1 The Ohio still continuing low, and there being no prospect of proceeding to New Orleans by a steam boat, I resolved to embark on board a keel boat [at Louisville, Kentucky], in company with sev- eral ladies and gentlemen, who were returning to their plantations and their homes. The preparations in such a case, are to dispose of horse and gig, where one does not choose going by land through 1 Postel, The Americans as They Are [1828], pp. 53-56. METHODS OF TRAVEL 42 I Nashville, and Natchez. There is not mucli pleasure to be derived from a passage on board a keel boat — a machine, fifty feet long and ten feet broad, shut up on every side ; with two doors, two and a half feet high. It forms a species of wooden prison, con- taining commonly four rooms ; the first for the steward, the second a dining room, the third a cabin for gentlemen, and the fourth a ladies' cabin. Each of these cabins was provided with an iron stove, one of which some days afterwards was very near sending us all to heaven, in the manner which the most Catholic king has been pleased to adopt in regard to us heretics. On the sides were our berths, in double rows, six feet in length and two broad. In former times this manner of travelling was generally resorted to on the Ohio and Mississippi ; the application of steam, however, has superseded these primitive conveyances, and I hope to the re- gret of no one. Our passage to Trinity [Cairo], 515 miles by water, including provisions, &c., was twenty-five dollars. We were sure of meeting there with steam boats. The company consisted of two ladies with their families, returning to Louisiana ; two others were going to Yellow-banks, with several governesses, nieces, &c. ; in all ten ladies, with eleven gentlemen, considered a happy omen. Amongst the men were three planters from Louisiana and Missis- sippi ; three merchants, one a Yankee, the other a Kentuckian, the third a Frenchman ; a lawyer, from Tennessee ; two physicians, one from the same state, the other from Kentucky, with a Ken- tuckian six and a half feet high. Of these persons the Kentuck- ian doctor was the most to be pitied. He was in the last stage of a pulmonary affection, and expected relief from the mild climate of Louisiana ; but much as we did to alleviate the fate of this man, whose perpetual cough was as insufferable to us, as the constant fire he kept up in the stove, and which at last communicated to our boat, the poor fellow died three da3S after his arrival at New Orleans. Four individuals of less note joined the company, con- sisting of three slave-drivers, and a Yankee who travelled to make his fortune. We resigned ourselves to our lot, with as good a grace as we could, the Frenchman excepted, who found fault with every thing but the dinner, when he handled his knife and fork with uncommon activity, A captain, a mate, and a steward, composed 422 TRANSPORTATION the ofificers, twelve oarsmen formed the crew, and forty slaves, who were to be transported to the states of Mississippi and Louisiana, were a sort of deck passengers, so that the whole cargo, inside and out, amounted to ninety persons. As long as the weather con- tinued fine, the poor negroes had a tolerable lot, but when after- wards it began to rain, and they continued on a deck seven and a half feet broad, and forty-two long, without any covering over their heads, or being able to move, our kitchen being likewise upon deck, their situation became truly distressing, and one of the infants died shortly afterwards ; another, as I was informed, fell into the Mississippi above Palmyra settlements, . , . 1 On Monday the 4th of March we left Augusta for Macon, on our way to Mobile and New Orleans, wishing to see the interior of Georgia and Alabama, and finish our examination of the Southern States before the approach of the hot weather. We had to set out at six o'clock, and go by a railroad from hence to Warrenton, a distance of about fifty miles. The cars were much inferior in their accommodation and fittings to those on the northern railroads, and our speed did not exceed fifteen miles in the hour. On reaching the end of the railroad at Warrenton, we had to take the stage- coach, and were fortunately able to engage the whole of it for our party, or to " charter " it, as the expression is here, keeping up the maritime phraseology, by which the conductor is called the "' pilot," and the sound of " all aboard " announces that the engine may move on, as all the passengers are in the cars. Our fare by the railroad, fifty miles, was 2| dollars each, or about ten shillings sterling ; and for the whole stage, large enough for nine passen- gers, we paid 48 dollars, or about ^10 sterling, for 75 miles ; 45 from Warrenton to Milledgeville, and 30 from thence to Macon. The weather was intensely cold ; the branches of the trees on each side of our way being covered with frost, long icicles of three or four feet hanging from the rails and fences, at least an inch in diameter at the root ; and before noon, the snow began to descend copiously. We were not sufficiently prepared for this extreme cold, and therefore suffered greatly, the coaches being open at the sides 1 liuckingham, The Slave States of America [1839], I, 187-192, 260-261. METHODS OF TRAVEL 423 for summer use, and merely closed in with painted canvass, or oil- cloth, for winter, but so loosely as to let in the cold air in every part. We rode for the greater part of the way with the windows closed and curtains drawn, and even then longed for a supply of warmer clothing. Our road lay almost wholly through dense pine-forests ; and the constant succession of these trees, with scarcely any other variety, made the way gloomy and monotonous. The road itself was the worst we had ever yet travelled over, it being formed apparently by the mere removal of the requisite number of trees to open a path through the forest, and then left without any kind of labour being employed, either to make the road solid in the first instance, or to keep it in repair. We were, accordingly, sometimes half up to the axletree in loose sand, sometimes still deeper immersed in a run- ning brook, or soft swamp, and occasionally so shaken and tossed from seat to roof, and side to side, from the pitching and rolling of the coach, that it seemed to me the motion was more violent and ex- cessive than that of the smallest vessel in the heaviest sea. We were all, in short, bruised and beaten by the blows we received from these sudden jolts and pitchings, so as to suffer severely ; and this, added to the pinching cold, made our journey extremely disagreeable. About two o'clock we reached the village of Spaita, there being also a Rome and an Athens in the same State ; the former on the Etawah river in Floyd County, and the latter on the Big Sandy Creek, near Hermon, in Clark County, not far from the land of Goshen, which is close to Edinburgh, Lincoln, Lisbon, Peters- burgh, and Vienna, so strange are the juxtapositions of names on an American map. We halted at Sparta to dine ; but the sight of the public table prepared for the passengers was so revolting, that, hungry as we were after our long and cold ride, early rising, and violent motion, we turned away in disgust from the table, and made our dinner in the coach on hard biscuits. There were three lines of coaches on this road, all leaving at the same hour, and arriving at the same time — the Mail line, the Telegraph line, and the People's line. The passengers from each of these took their seats at the table, and many of them appeared to dine as heartily as if they saw nothing unusual in the fare. But the dirty state of the room in 424 TRANSPORTATION which the table was laid, the filthy condition of the table-cloth, the coarse and broken plates, rusty knives and forks, and large junks of boiled pork, and various messes of corn and rancid butter, added to the coarse and vulgar appearance and manners of most of the guests, made the whole scene the most revolting we had yet wit- nessed in the countiy. The ancient Spartans themselves, with their black broth and coarse fare, could not have been farther removed from luxury than these Spartans of modern days ; and one might almost be tempted, from what we saw, to suppose that the modern Spartans affected the manners of the ancient Lacede- monians, in diet at least, to justify the appropriateness of the name they had chosen for their village. We left Sparta at three o'clock ; and after a cold, dreary, and tedious drive through thick woods and over broken roads, we reached Milledgeville about eight, having been assured before set- ting out that we should reach there at three. As this is the legis- lative capital of the State of Georgia, we had hoped to find a good hotel here at least, as the legislatorial body consists of nearly 400 members, and these all reside here during the few months that the two houses are assembled in annual session. But our hopes were not realized. The inn at which the coach stopped was a wretched one ; and though all we desired to have was a cup of tea and some cold meat for our party, we had the greatest difficulty in getting either. It was our wish to remain here all night, and go on to Macon in the morning ; but on inquiry we found that no private or extra conveyance could be had from hence to Macon in the daytime, for love or money, though this is the seat of the State legislature, and Macon is only thirty miles off. Three stage- coaches pass through this place, between Augusta and Mont- gomery, at night, and these are the only conveyances to be had ; so that if we did not go on to-night, we could only proceed on the following, there being no conveyance whatever for day-travel- ling. This was a great disappointment — but we were without a remedy ; and so we prepared to go forward, cold and weary as we were. The tea was tardily and reluctantly prepared for us in a bed-room ; and it may give some idea of the rudeness with which this was done, to sav, that the dirtv negress who made the tea, METHODS OF TRAVKL 425 brought the stinted quantity required in the hollow of her hand, without an\' other reeeptacle for it — that the milk was plaeed on the table in a broken tea-eup, milk-eups not being in use — and that when a slop-basin was asked for, the thing was unknown, and a large salad-bowl was brought for that purpose. We left Milledgevillc at nine, and, after a more comfortless ride than we should like to endure again, we did not reach Macon till four in the morning, having been seven hours in jjerforming thirty miles, over roads that would be thought impassable in any part of Europe, and which would break to pieces any description of carriages except the ponderous stage-coaches of this country, which are made as heavy and as strong as the union of wood and iron can make them. One reason assigned for this entire neglect of the public roads, is, that the scantiness of the population along their borders would make any assessment on the lands or the inhabitants, sufficient for this purpose, so burdensome, as to be ruinous to those who had to pay it, and, would, consequently, drive all the population away from the ver)' track to which it was the most desirable to attract them. Another reason is, that railroads are so increasing over every part of the country, that stage-roads will soon be useless, and therefore it would be a waste of money to make or repair them. The wretched state of the ordinary roads thus operates as an additional stimulus to the construction of rail- roads wherever it is practicable ; so that perhaps in a few years from this, there will be a connected series of railroad and steam-boat communication from Maine to Louisiana, and the journey from Portland to New Orleans may then be performed in a few days. . . . About three o'clock in the afternoon we reached Montgomeiy, having been seven hours performing a distance of thirty miles, with two break-downs on the way ; and glad enough we were to terminate this long and tedious land-journey, in which, for a dis- tance of more than 400 miles, w^e had scarcely seen anything but interminable forests on either side of our path, except in the small spaces occupied by the few towns and villages in the way, and the inconsiderable portions in which a few patches of corn or cotton cultivation bordered the mere skirts of the road. 426 TRANSPORTATION At Montgomery we found excellent quarters in the best hotel we had seen since leaving New York, superior even, as it seemed to us at least, to the hotels of Charleston and Savannah ; and, being desirous of proceeding onward without delay, we embarked in the steam-boat, '" Commerce," to go down the Alabama river to Mobile, a distance of nearly 500 miles, which these fine vessels perform in about forty-eight hours, their rate of speed exceeding ten miles an hour all the way. The time fixed for the departure of the steam-boat was nine in the evening, as by this hour all the eastern stages were usually in ; but, as often happens, one of these stages was six hours beyond its usual time, while another had broken down on the road, and was left there by the passengers, who had to walk for the remainder of the way, so that they did not reach Montgomery till near day- light ; and the boat, thus delayed for their arrival, did not start till morning. The general regularity of English stage-coaches, so ac- customs an Englishman to expect punctuality in the public con- veyances of other countries, that he feels these irregularities the more annoying. But American travellers, accustomed to them from their youth, bear them with enviable equanimity. . . . ^ The Messenger was one among a crowd of high-pressure steamboats, clustered together by a wharf-side [at Pittsburgh] which, looked down upon from the rising ground that forms the landing-place, and backed by the lofty bank on the opposite side of the river, appeared no larger than so many floating models. She had some forty passengers on board, exclusive of the poorer persons on the lower deck ; and in half an hour, or less, pro- ceeded on her way. . . . If the native packets I have already described be unlike anything we are in the habit of seeing on water, these western vessels are still more foreign to all the ideas we are accustomed to entertain of boats. I hardly know what to liken them to, or how to describe them. In the first place, they have no mast, cordage, tackle, rigging, or other such boat-like gear ; nor have they anything in their shape at all calculated to remind one of a boat's head, stern, side, or keel. 1 Dickens, American Notes [1842], pp. 153, 154-156. METHODS OF TRAVEL 427 Except tliat they are in the water, and display a couple of paddle- boxes, they might be intended, for anything that appears to the contrary, to perform some unknown service, high and dry, upon a mountain top. There is no visible deck, even : nothing but a long, black, ugly roof, covered with burnt-out feathery sparks ; above which tower two iron chimneys, and a hoarse escape-valve, and a glass steerage-house. Then, in order as the eye descends towards the water, are the sides, and doors, and windows of the state-rooms, jumbled as oddly together as though they formed a small street, built by the varying tastes of a dozen men : the whole is supported on beams and pillars resting on a dirty barge, but a few inches above the water's edge : and in the narrow space between this up- per structure and this barge's deck, are the furnace fires and ma- chinery, open at the sides to every wind that blows, and every storm of rain it drives along its path. Passing one of these boats at night, and seeing the great body of fire, exposed as I have just described, that rages and roars be- neath the frail pile of painted wood : the machinery, not warded off or guarded in any way, but doing its work in the midst of the crowd of idlers and emigrants and children, who throng the lower deck : under the management, too, of reckless men whose acquaint- ance with its mysteries may have been of six months' standing : one feels directly that the wonder is, not that there should be so many fatal accidents, but that any journey should be safely made. Within, there is one long narrow cabin, the whole length of the boat ; from which the state-rooms open, on both sides. A small por- tion of it at the stern is partitioned off for the ladies ; and the bar is at the opposite extreme. There is a long table down the centre, and at either end a stove. The washing apparatus is forward on the deck. It is a little better than on board the canal boat, but not much. In all modes of travelling, the American customs, with ref- erence to the means of personal cleanliness and wholesome ablu- tion, are extremely negligent and filthy ; and I strongly incline to the belief that a considerable amount of illness is referable to this cause. We are to be on board the Messenger three days : arriving at Cincinnati (barring accidents) on Monday morning. There are three 428 TRANSPORTATION meals a day. Breakfast at seven, dinner at half past twelve, sup- per about six. At each, there are a great many small dishes and plates upon the table, with very little in them ; so that although there is every appearance of a mighty "spread," there is seldom really more than a joint : except for those who fancy slices of beet- root, shreds of dried beef, complicated entanglements of yellow pickle ; maize, Indian corn, apple-sauce, and pumpkin. Some people fancy all these little dainties together (and sweet preserves beside), by way of relish to their roast pig. They are generally those dyspeptic ladies and gentlemen who eat unheard-of quantities of hot corn bread (almost as good for the digestion as a kneaded pin-cushion), for breakfast, and for supper. Those who do not observe this custom, and who help themselves several times instead, usually suck their knives and forks meditatively, until they have decided what to take next : then pull them out of their mouths : put them in the dish ; help themselves ; and fall to work again. At dinner, there is nothing to drink upon the table, but great jugs full of cold water. Nobody says anything, at any meal, to anybody. All the passengers are very dismal, and seem to have tremendous se- crets weighing on their minds. There is no conversation, no laugh- ter, no cheerfulness, no sociality, except in spitting ; and that is done in silent fellowship round the stove when the meal is over. Every man sits down, dull and languid ; swallows his fare as if breakfasts, dinners, and suppers, were necessities of nature never to be coupled with recreation or enjoyment ; and having bolted his food in a gloomy silence, bolts himself in the same state. But for these animal observances, you might suppose the whole male por- tion of the company to be the melancholy ghosts of departed book- keepers, who had fallen dead at the desk : such is their wear\' air of business and calculation. Undertakers on duty would be sprightly beside them ; and a collation of funeral-baked meats, in comparison with these meals, would be a sparkling festivity. . . . 1 In making this journey [Buffalo to Detroit] at night we intro- duced ourselves to the thoroughly American institution of sleeping- cars — that is, of cars in which beds are made up for travelers. 1 Trollope, North America [i86i], I, 127-129. METHODS OF TRAVEL 429 The traveler may have a whole hed, or half a bed, or no bed at all, as he pleases, i)ayini:; a dollar or half a dollar extra should he ehoose the partial or full fruition of a couch. I confess I ha\'e always taken a delight in seeing these beds made up, and consider that the oper- ations of the change arc generally as well executed as the manoeu- vres of any pantomime at Drury Lane. The work is usually done by negroes or colored men, and the domestic negroes of America are always light-handed and adroit. The nature of an American car is no doubt known to all men. It looks as far removed from all bed-room accommodation as the baker's barrow does from the steam engine into which it is to be converted by Harlequin's wand. But the negro goes to work much more quietly than the Harlequin ; and for every four seats in the railway car he builds up four beds almost as quickly as the hero of the pantomime goes through his performance. The great glory of the Americans is in their wondrous contrivances — in their patent remedies for the usually troublous operations of life. In their huge hotels all the bell ropes of each house ring on one bell only ; but a patent indicator discloses a number, and the whereabouts of the ringer is shown. One fire heats every room, passage, hall, and cupboard, and does it so effec- tually that the inhabitants are all but stifled. Soda-water bottles open themselves without any trouble of wire or strings. Men and women go up and down stairs without motive power of their own. Hot and cold water are laid on to all the chambers ; though it some- times happens that the water from both taps is boiling, and that, when once turned on, it cannot be turned off again by any human energy. Everything is done by a new and wonderful patent con- trivance ; and of all their wonderful contrivances, that of their rail- road beds is by no means the least. For every four seats the negro builds up four beds — that is, four half beds, or accommodation for four persons. Two are supposed to be below, on the level of the ordinary four seats, and two up above on shelves which are let down from the roof. Mattresses slip out from one nook and pil- lows from another. Blankets are added, and the bed is ready. Any over-particular individual — an islander, for instance, who hugs his chains — will generally prefer to pay the dollar for the double accom- modation. Looking at the bed in the light of a bed — taking, as it 430 TRANSPORTATION were, an abstract view of it — or comparing it with some other bed or beds with which the occupant may have acquaintance, I cannot say that it is in all respects perfect. But distances are long in America ; and he who declines to travel by night will lose very much time. He who does so travel will find the railway bed a great relief. I must confess that the feeling of dirt, on the fol- lowing morning is rather oppressive. From Windsor, on the Canada side, we passed over to Detroit, in the State of Michigan, by a steam ferry. But ferries in Eng- land and ferries in America are very different. Here, on this De- troit ferry, some hundred of passengers, who were going fonvard from the other side without delay, at once sat down to breakfast. I may as well explain the way in which disposition is made of one's luggage as one takes these long journeys. The traveler, when he starts, has his baggage checked. He abandons his trunk — gener- ally a box, studded with nails, as long as a coffin and as high as a linen chest — and, in return for this, he receives an iron ticket with a number on it. As he approaches the end of his first in- stallment of travel, and while the engine is still working its hard- est, a man comes up to him, bearing with him, suspended on a circular bar, an infinite variety of other checks. The traveler con- fides to this man his wishes, and if he be going farther without delay, surrenders his check and receives a counter-check in return. Then, while the train is still in motion the new destiny of the trunk is imparted to it. But another man, with another set of checks, also comes the way, walking leisurely through the train as he performs his work. This is the minister of the hotel-omnibus institution. His business is with those who do not travel beyond the next terminus. To him, if such be your intention, you make your confidence, giving up your tallies, and taking other tallies by way of receipt ; and your luggage is afterward found by you in the hall of your hotel. There is undoubtedly very much of comfort in this ; and the mind of the traveler is lost in amazement as he thinks of the futile efforts with which he would struggle to regain his luggage were there no such arrangement. Enormous piles of boxes are disclosed on the platform at all the larger stations, the numbers of which are roared forth with quick voice by some two or three mf; 11 ions ok travel 431 railwav denizens at once. A modest English voyager, with six or seven small packages, would stand no chance of getting anything if he were left to his own devices. As it is, I am hound to say that the thing is well done. I have had my desk with all my money in it lost for a day, and my black leather bag was on one occasion sent back over the line. They, however, were recovered ; and, on the whole, I feel grateful to the check system of the American rail- ways. And then, too, one never hears of extra luggage. Of weight they are quite regardless. On two or three occasions an over- wrought official has muttered between his teeth that ten packages were a great many, and that some of these " light fixings " might have been made up into one. And when I came to understand that the number of every check was entered in a book, and re- entered at every change, I did whisper to my wife that she ought to do without a bonnet box. The ten, however, went on, and were always duly protected. I must add, however, that articles requiring tender treatment will sometimes reappear a little the worse from the hardships of their journey. . . . CHAPTER IX THE RISE OF MANUFACTURES INTRODUCTION In tracing the rise of manufactures in a new country attention must be con- stantly directed to its commercial relations with the rest of the world. It is always possible for a country to secure its supply of manufactures in either of two ways : first, it may export the products of other industries to be exchanged for manufactures ; or second, it may devote a portion of its labor and capital to their production at home. The method that will be adopted by any country will depend upon which appears to yield the largest return of the commodities desired for the labor and capital expended in production. It is clear, then, that anything which affects favorably or unfavorably a country's foreign trade will influence its choice of the method of securing its supply of manufactures. Whatever increases the demand of other countries for its extractive products will increase its ability to secure its manufactures cheaply by trade. Whatever diminishes this demand will decrease that ability and may render it more eco- nomical to produce them at home. Likewise a great increase of population, and consequent increase in the amount of manufactures required, if unaccom- panied by a corresponding expansion of foreign trade, may compel the country to produce some of its manufactures at home, if it is to secure them at all. A second influence affecting this choice of method of securing manufactures arises from inventions and changes in the arts, which affect the productiveness of a country's labor in particular industries. The introduction of machinery may revolutionize the labor cost of producing some manufactures, or a new source of raw material may be discovered and made accessible by the opening of a canal or railway. Such events may at any time render it more economical for a country to produce a given commodity at home than to secure it by trade. On the other hand the rise of a foreign demand for some agricultural staple easily produced in the new country or the introduction of some new branch of agriculture which proves exceptionally profitable may check the growth of manufactures and cause them to decline. Both these influences may be clearly traced in the history of American manufactures, though the first appears more prominent, especially in early times. The difference between the northern and southern colonies in their disposition to engage in manufactures, the development of numerous small in- dustries in the country during and after the Revolution, the check in that devel- opment during the years of the neutral trade, as well as its resumption on a 432 INTRODUCTION 433 larger scale than ever during the commercial restrictions of the embargo and war, are all examples of its working. The inability of the northern states after 181 5 to supply their rapidly increasing population with manufactures, either by direct trade with a manufacturing country, or indirectly, as in colonial times, by trade with other agricultural communities, was the fundamental cause of that rapid growth of manufactures in them, which went on steadily from 181 5 until the Civil War with little apparent influence from the tariff policy of the federal government. Influences of the second kind began to play an important part during the later years. Among these may be mentioned the use of anthracite coal in smelting iron, the introduction of interchangeable parts in the manufacture of firearms, clocks, watches, and many other commodities, the invention of ma- chines for cutting nails and making wood screws and pins, the invention of power looms for the weaving of carpets, and the introduction of the sewing machine into the manufacture of all kinds of clothes. Great numbers of small industries were entirely revolutionized by labor-saving inventions developed during these years. The number and importance of these inventions in this country after 1850 became so great that they began to attract attention in Europe. They were undoubtedly a large factor in the growth of manufac- tures at this time. Two other events exerted a far-reaching influence upon the productiveness of American labor in manufacturing during this period. One was the growth of an enormous home market among the prosperous agriculturalists of the south and west, and the connection of these markets with the manufacturing states by improvements in transportation. Production on a large scale with all the economies of division of labor, the use of machinery, and the utilization of bi-products, is dependent, as Adam Smith pointed out long ago, upon the size of the market. With the settlement of the west and the development of our internal trade American manufactures were greatly favored in this respect. Here was a great number of people with the same wants, representing an enormous demand for the same kind of commodities. Moreover, this market was a continually growing one. Each decade saw half a dozen new states set- tled by farmers able and eager to purchase manufactures. No more favorable conditions for the introduction of the factory system ever existed than these. Newly invented machinery rarely threw laborers out of employment here. It only enabled the employers to get on with such labor as they could secure and to partially satisfy the growing demand. The reward of a successful introduc- tion of machinery into an industry was very large profits. The other event which favored the growth of manufactures was the coming of the immigrants. A serious obstacle to this growth had long been the scarcity of labor for hire, which made the organization of industry on anything but a small scale difficult or impossible. Where the labor of women could be utilized, or the work of men in dull seasons when they were not fully employed in other industries, manufactures flourished. Such was the case in the textile industries, 434 THE RISE OF MANUFACTURES in the boot and shoe industry, and many others. The former was our first manufacturing industry of the modern type, and it was built up principally by the labor of women. The influx of the immigrants made possible for the first time the organization of labor in any considerable number of industries in this country and favored the growth of the factory system in many other indus- tries besides the textiles. 1. RELATION OF MANUFACTURES TO COMMERCE IN THE COLONIES! '^Absence of J\Ianitfactnirs in tJic SontJicrii Colonies All attempts to make the Virginians abandon the cultivation of tobacco for manufacturing proved futile. The raising of tobacco always remained their principal occupation. It was for the economic advantage of Virginia to produce tobacco, to sell it in England, and out of its proceeds to buy English manufactures. Thus it is by no means strange that the Virginians imported all their manufac- tures from England. Beverley in a celebrated passage writes, " they have their clothing of all sorts from England, as linen, woolen and silk, hats and leather. The very furs that their hats are made of perhaps go first from thence. Nay they are such abominable ill husbands, that tho' their country be over-run with wood, yet they have all their wooden ware from England ; their cabinets, chairs, tables, stools, chests, boxes, cart-wheels and all other things, even so much as their bowls and birchen brooms, to the eternal reproach of their laziness." Virginia seems not to have had an artisan class. There were few or none who could make such common articles as shoes or chairs. All was imported from England. Even the wood used for building houses, was s^t to England, and when dressed fend cut there, was sent back to Virginia for use. During the entire colonial period Virginia retained this characteristic. Shortly before the Revolution Jefferson wrote as follows about Virginia : '" And such is our attachment to agriculture, and such our preference for foreign manufactures, that be it wise or unwise, our people will 1 Consult extract from Taussig on p. 446. 2 Beer, The Commercial Policy of England toward the American Colonies, pp. 70-77, 80-81. Printed by permission of the author. For colonial manufac- tures, see also extracts on pp. 29-44, 76, 107. RELATION OF MANUFACTLIRKS TO COMMERCP: 435 certainly return, as soon as they can, to the raising raw materials, and exchanging them for finer manufactures than they are able to execute themselves." " Carpenters, masons, smiths, are wanting in husbandly ; but for the general oj^erations of manufactures, let our workshop remain in Europe." Like Virginia, Maryland paid for the manufactures she con- sumed by exporting tobacco to England. In regard to manufac- tures her situation was identical with that of Virginia. In 1721 it was said of Maryland, "the Inhabitimts wear the like Cloathing, & have the same furniture within their houses with those in this Kingdom (England). The Slaves are cloathcd with Cottons, Ker- seys, flannel, & coarse linens, all imported." What tobacco was to Maryland and Virginia, rice was to South Carolina. With this commodity all the manufactured goods used in the colony were bought in England. Since artisans were so scarce, most of the shoes came from England. There was no pot- ter, it was said at one time, in the whole colony, and all the glass and earthenware which was used had to be imported. As in the case of Maryland and Virginia, all manufactured articles were imported. North Carolina was likewise characterized by this total absence of manufactures. In the Southern colonies thus there was a marked absence of manufacturing even in its most rudimentary forms. The reason was that a unit of labor spent in agi'iculture proved far more remu- nerative than the same unit devoted to manufactures. Many cir- cumstances conduced to bring about this result. Their staple products, rice and tobacco, not being extensively produced in Europe, found a ready market there ; while in the colonies them- selves the network of rivers made the transportation of these products most easy. Thus economically the most profitable em- ployment of the Southern colonies was agriculture. TJie Early Rise of Manufactures in the Northern Colonies Another problem now confronts us, namely, to account for the early rise of manufactures in the Northern colonies. The chief pursuit of a young settlement is agriculture. There land is cheap. 436 THE RISE OF MANUFACTURES while labor is dear. Nor is it in accord with psychological princi- ples that a man should be willing to work for wages when for the asking he can have land and become his own master. Thus a contemporary, Johnson, writes, " and for cloth, here is and would be materials enough to make it ; but the Farmers deem it better for their profit to put away their cattel and corn for cloathing, than to set upon making of cloth." We should expect to find wheat and grain produced in the Northern colonies, and that these colo- nies would become the granary of old England. About 1640, in Massachusetts, signs of such a course of development appear. At that time the staple commodities of the colony were wheat, oats, peas, barley, beef, pork, fish, butter, cheese, timber, tar, and boards. With these the people of Massachusetts, says Johnson, " not only fed their Elder Sisters, Virginia, Barbados, and many of the Summer Islands that were prefer'd before her fruitfulness, /;/// also the Grmidinothcr of us all, even tJie firtil Isle of Great Britain^ Before, however, the exports to England became large, the trade was checked by the policy of the mother country. The change came in 1660. With the Restoration begins the supremacy of the landed classes in England. In that year the remnants of the feudal dues were commuted into an excise falling chiefly on the landless and the urban population. By a statute of this year, and by others enacted later in the reign of Charles II., prohibitory customs duties were levied on agricultural products, such as rye, barley, peas, beans, oats, and wheat. These were the earliest Corn Laws. Likewise during this reign the importation of salt provisions, including beef, pork, bacon, and butter from the colonies was absolutely prohibited. In addition, the whale-fisheries of New England were discouraged by the levy of discriminating duties on oil and blubber caught, and imported into England in colonial shipping. Ikit it was with the commodities affected by these acts, that New England would most naturally buy her manufactured goods from England. This feature of England's policy during the Restoration had thus two effects. On the one hand, it rendered a middle market necessary for the Northern colonies ; on the other, it made these colonies much more independent of the mother countr}'' as regards RELATION OF MANUFACTURES TO COMMERCE 437 manufactures. Both of these results were not in accord with the normal economic development of the colonies, as re^^ulated by the laws of trade. For if the colonists c\])ortcd these staple commod- ities to other countries, they found their profits diminished from the fact that no manufactures could be taken directly back on the return voyage. The vessel had either to return empty, or to make a roundabout trip and load in England. The effect of lingland's policy was, through a restriction of the market, to render the pro- duction of these staple commodities less profitable. Thus New England, and later the Middle colonies, not being allowed to ex- change their normal products for England's manufactures, were forced to begin manufacturing for themselves. And that this was the ultimate cause for the early rise of manufactures can be shown by a few extracts from letters and reports of those days. In 1705, Lord Cornbury ascribed the rise of manufactures in New York to " the want wherewithall to make returns for Eng- land." A little later, in 1721, clearer expression was given to the problem in Massachusetts. " It is, therefore, to be presumed," the report says, " that necessity, and not choice, has put them upon erecting manufactures ; not having sufficient commodities of their own to gi\'e in exchange for those they do receive already from Great Britain." Paul Dockminicjue's report of 1732 says, "they have no staple commodities of their own growth to exchange for our manufactures ; which puts them under greater necessity, as well as under greater temptation of providing for themselves at home." In 1764 Golden spoke of New York as a colony consuming a vast quantity of manufactures of Great Britain, though it produced no staple that could be exported directly thither. That this is the true explanation can be seen from what took place in Virginia during the War of the Spanish Succession, During this war the price of tobacco fell, and tobacco was at the same time over-produced. The Virginians, having nothing with which to make returns to England, were forced to manufacture coarse cloth for themselves. Thus this interference with the normal market for the staple products of the colonies was the cause of the early development of manufacturing in New England and New York. But if this was 438 THE RISE OF MANUFACTURES the fundamental cause, it was by no means the sole one. Other elements conduced, though in a less degree, to the same result. Even without the Corn Laws, it is probable that there would have been more artisans and much more rudimentary manufacturing in New England than in Virginia. For the New Englander was by nature drawn to such pursuits, both from his origin and his inti- mate contact with Dutch civilization. Many of the later immigrants also were artisans. The Scotch-Irish, fugitives from the harsh laws of England, were skilled in the textile industries, and we hear of them setting up linen manufactures in New England. We like- wise find Huguenots engaged in manufacturing. When the fugi- tives from the Palatinate came to America, fears were expressed that they would enter upon these pursuits. In New York it was ordered that a clause be introduced into every grant of land to them, declaring it void if the grantee entered upon the manufac- ture of woolens or other goods. There were other and more special causes which contributed to the rise of certain industries in the North, The cheapness of beaver and its plentiful supply led to the rapid development of the hat industry. The vast stores of lumber made ship-building in New England profitable. Manufactures were also encouraged by law ; but it is significant that the legal encouragements offered by Virginia were not strong enough to overcome the natural obstacles. It thus appears that the fundamental cause of the early rise of manufacturing in the Northern colonies was that the importation of their staple products into England was prohibited either absolutely or by heavy duties. They were consequently left without adequate means of payment ; a balance of trade naturally unfavorable to them was made increasingly so by the policy of England. . . . In the latter half of the seventeenth century the Northern col- onies, as a result of England's policy, were forced to begin the manufacture of woolens. So serious did these attempts seem, that England restricted the growth of this industry. As a result of re- striction, and of the increase in demand for their staple commod- ities by the West Indies, the woolen industry in the colonies never passed out of the embryonic stage. The Northern colonies were INTKRRian'ION OF COMMERCP; 1765-1793 439 essentially agrieultural and fishing communities. On each farm there was a certain number of sheep, from which the farmer ob- tained his wool. During the severe winter months, when out-of- door labor was at a stand-still, the servants were employed in weaving this wool into home-spun, for the use of the household. Itinerant weavers traveled about the country putting the finishing touches on these fabrics. The woolens, which were made, were used chiefly by the great body of people, while the merchants, the inhabitants of the cities, all whose occupations were not agricul- tural, used woolens imported from England. In general the act of parliament was well obeyed, since it carried no hardship with it in the eighteenth century. The amount of woolens exported from England to the colonies was very great. On an average, about 1717, England exported to the colonies woolens to the value of ;^ 1 47,438, while at the same time the exports of iron manufac- tures amounted to only .^^3 5 ,6^ i . The amount of woolens exported was equal in value to one half of the total exports of British manu- factures from England to the colonies. II. INTERRUPTION OF COMMERCE AND GROWTH OF MANUFACTURES, 1765-1793 ^ Providence has bestowed upon the United States of America means of happiness, as great and numerous, as are enjoyed by any country in the world. A soil fruitful and diversified — a healthful climate — mighty rivers and adjacent seas abounding with fish are the great advantages for which we are indebted to a beneficent cre- ator. Agriculture, manufactures, and commerce, naturally arising from these sources, afford to our industrious citizens certain sub- sistence and innumerable opportunities of acquiring wealth. V'o an-aiige om' ajfairs in sahitary and zvell digested systems by which the fruits of industry, in every line, may be most easily attained, and the possession of property and the blessings of liberty may be completely secured — these are the important objects, that should engross our present attention. The interests of commerce and the 1 Coxe, A View of the United States of America [Papers written in years 1787 -1792], pp. 36-37, 45-46, 49-50, 63-64, 334-335- 440 THE RISE OF MANUFACTURES establishment of a just and effective government are already com- mitted to the care of THE AUGUST BODY now sitting in our capital [The Constitutional Convention]. — The importance of agri- culture has long since recommended it to the patronage of numer- ous associations, and the attention of all the legislatures — but manufactures, at least in Pennsylvania, have had but few uncon- nected friends, till sound policy and public spirit gave a late, but auspicious birth, to this Society. The situation of America before the revolution was veiy unfav- ourable to the objects of this institution. The prohibition of most foreign raw material — considerable bounties in England for carry- ing away the unwrought productions of this country to that, as well as on exporting British goods from their markets — the preference for those goods, which habit carried much beyond what their ex- cellence would justify, and many other circumstances, created arti- ficial impediments which appeared almost insuperable. Several branches however were carried on with great advantage. But as long as we remained in our colonial situation, our progress was veiy slow ; and indeed the necessity of attention to manufactures was not so urgent, as it has become since our assuming an inde- pendent station. The employment of those, whom the decline of navigation has deprived of their usual occupations — tJie consump- tion of the cncrcasiiig produce of our lands and fisheries, and the certainty of supplies in the time of war are very weighty reasons for establishing new manufactories now, which existed but in a small degree, or not at all, before the revolution. . . . Under all the disadvantages which have attended manufactures and the useful arts, it must afford the most comfortable reflection to every patriotic mind, to observe their progress in the United States and particularly in Pennsylvania. For a long time after our forefathers sought an establishment in this place, then a dreary wilderness, every thing necessary for their simple wants was the work of European hands. How great — how happy is the change. The list of articles we now make ourselves, if particularly enumer- ated would fatigiie the ear, and waste your valuable time. Permit me however to mention them under their general heads : meal of all kinds, ships and boats, malt liquors, distilled spirits, pot-ash, INTERRUPTION OF COMMERCE, 1765-1793 441 gun-powder, cordage, loaf-sugar, pasteboard, cards and paper of every kind, books in various kinguages, snuff, tobacco, starch, can- non, muskets, anchors, nails and very many other articles of iron, bricks, tiles, potters ware, millstones and other stone work, cabinet work, trunks and Windsor chairs, carriages and harness of all kinds, corn-fans, ploughs and many other implements of husbandry, Sadler}' and whips, shoes and boots, leather of various kinds, hosiery, hats and gloves, wearing apparel, coarse linens and woolens, and some cotton goods, linseed and fish-oil, wares of gold, silver, tin, pewter, lead, brass and copper, clocks and watches, wool and cotton cards, printing types, glass and stone ware, candles, soap, and several other valuable articles with which the memory cannot furnish us at once. . . , An extravagant and wasteful use of foreign manufactures, has been too just a charge against the people of America, since the close of the war. They have been so cheap, so plenty and so easily obtained on credit, that the consumption of them has been abso- lutely wanton. To such an excess has it been carried, that the im- portation of the finer kinds of coat, vest and sleeve buttons, buckles, broaches, breast-pins, and other trinkets into this port only, is sup- posed to have amounted' in a single year to ten thousand pounds sterling, which cost wearers above 60,000 dollars. This lamentable evil has suggested to many enlightened minds a wish for sumptuary regulations, and even for an unchanging national dress suitable to the climate, and the other circumstances of the country. A more general use of such manufactures as we can make ourselves, would wean us from the folly we have just now spoken of, and would produce, in a less exceptionable way, some of the best effects of sumptuary laws. Our dresses, furniture and carriages would be fash- ionable, because they were American and proper in our situation, not because they were foreign, shewy or expensive. Our farmers, to their great honour and advantage, have been long in the excel- lent economical practice of domestic manufactures for their own use, at least in many parts of the union. It is chiefly in the towns that this madness for foreign finery rages and destroys. — There unfortunately the disorder is epidemical. It behoves us consider our untimely passion for European luxuries as a malignant and 442 THE RISE OF MANUFACTURES alarming symptom, threatening convulsions and dissolution to the political body. Let us hasten then to apply the most effectual rem- edies, ere the disease becomes inveterate, lest unhappily we should find it incurable. . . .^ The manufactures of Pennsylvania have increased exceedingly within a few years, as well by master- workmen and journeymen from abroad, as by the increased skill and industry of our own citizens. Household or family manufactures have greatly advanced ; and valuable acquisitions have been made of implements and ma- chinery to save labour, either imported or invented in the United States. The hand-machines, for carding and spinning cotton, have been introduced by foreigners, and improved, but we have obtained the water mill for spinning cotton, and a water mill for flax, which is applicable also to spinning hemp and wool. These machines promise us an early increase of the cotton, linen, and hempen branches, and must be of very great service in the woolen branch. Additional employment for weavers, dyers, bleachers, and other manufacturers must be the consequence. Paper-mills, gun-powder- mills, steel works, rolling and slitting mills, printing figuered goods of paper, linen, and even of cotton, coach making, book printing, and several other branches, are wonderfully advanced : and every month seems to extend our old manufactures, or to introduce new ones. . . .^ That the exports and other means of paying for our imports are much more adequate to the occasion, than they were during sev- eral years subsequent to the peace, is manifest from the state of our private credit in Europe. A distinction, and it is conceived, a very important one, has been already intimated in favour of such of our imports as are of a nature adapted to enhance the value of our lands, or to employ or assist our citizens : and in regard to those which are for immediate con- sumption, the quantity cannot be in proportion to our former imports, considering the increase of population. We have actually almost 1 This part of the extract was written in 17S7. 2 Written in 1790. INTERRUPTION OF COMMERCE, 1765-1793 443 ceased to import shoes, boots, sadlery, coarse hats, plate, snuff, manufactured tobacco, cabinet wares, carriages, wool and cotton cards, hanging paper, gunpowder, and other articles ; and we have exceedingly diminished our importation of coarse linen and woolen goods, cordage, copper utensils, tin utensils, malt liquors, loaf sugar, steel, paper, playing cards, glue, wafers, fine hats, braziery, watches and clocks, cheese, &c : and we either make these articles from na- tive productions, by which the whole value is struck off from our imports, or we manufacture them of foreign raw materials, which cost less than the goods used to do, especially as they often yield a great freight to our own vessels. Thus the freight of the molasses to make rum, imported in one year, at two dollars per hhd. was not less than 140,000 dollars. The same observation occurs as to hemp, cotton, iron, copper, brass, tin, saltpetre, sulphur, mahogany, hides, dye woods, and other raw materials.^ '^ Hamilton' s Report on JMannfactnrcs, l'/ 49 12 53 Middle States .... 44 ID 60 15 24 47 iS 47 24 28 Western States . . . 10 I 29 22 8 17 21 35 New England States . . 17 10 15 23 ID 28 9 19 18 9 I. THE NATIONAL VIEW: PROTECTION AS A MEANS OF DEFENSE ^ Jeffefsoi s Letter to Benjamin Austin, 1816 You tell me I am quoted by those who wish to continue our de- pendence on England for manufactures. There was a time when I might have been so quoted with more candor, but within the thirty years which have since elapsed, how are circumstances changed ! We were then in peace. Our independent place among nations was acknowledged, A commerce which offered the raw material in exchange for the same material after receiving the last touch of in- dustry, was worthy of welcome to all nations. It was expected that those especially to whom manufacturing industry was important, would cherish the friendship of such customers by every favor, by every inducement, and particularly cultivate their peace by every act of justice and friendship. Under this prospect the question seemed legitimate, whether, with such an immensity of unimproved land, courting the hand of husbandry, the industry of agriculture, or that of manufactures, would add most to the national wealth ? And the doubt was entertained on this consideration chiefly, that to the labor of the husbandman a vast addition is made by the spon- taneous energies of the earth on which it is employed : for one grain of wheat committed to the earth, she renders twenty, thirty, and even fifty fold, whereas to the labor of the manufacturer 1 Writings, XIV, 389-393. PROTECTION AS A MEANS OF DEFENSE 491 nothing is added. Pounds of flax, in his hands, yield, on the con- trary, but pennyweights of lace. This exchange, too, laborious as it might seem, what a field did it promise for the occupations of the ocean ; what a nursery for that class of citizens who were to exercise and maintain our equal rights on that element ? This was the state of things in 1785, when the " Notes on Virginia " were first printed ; when, the ocean being open to all nations, and their common right in it acknowledged and exercised under regulations sanctioned by the assent and usage of all, it was thought that the doubt might claim some consideration. Ikit who in 1785 could foresee the rapid depravity which was to render the close of that century the disgrace of the history of man ? Who could have im- agined that the two most distinguished in the rank of nations, for science and civilization, would have suddenly descended from that honorable eminence, and setting at defiance all those moral laws established by the Author of nature between nation and nation, as between man and man, would cover earth and sea with robberies and piracies, merely because strong enough to do it with temporal impunity ; and that under this disbandment of nations from social order, we should have been despoiled of a thousand ships, and have thousands of our citizens reduced to Algerine slavery. Yet all this has taken place. One of these nations interdicted to our vessels all harbors of the globe without having first proceeded to some one of hers, there paid a tribute proportioned to the cargo, and obtained her license to proceed to the port of destination. The other declared them to be the lawful prize if they had touched at the port, or been visited by a ship of the enemy nation. Thus were we completely excluded from the ocean. Compare this state of things with that of '85, and say whether an opinion founded in the circumstances of that day can be fairly applied to those of the present. We have experienced what we did not then believe, that there exist both profligacy and power enough to exclude us from the field of interchange with other nations : that to be independent for the comforts of life we must fabricate them ourselves. We must now place the manufacturer by the side of the agriculturist. The former question is suppressed, or rather assumes a new form. Shall we make our own comforts, or go without them, at the will 492 VIEWS OF THE PROTECTIVE TARIFF of a foreign nation ? He, therefore, who is now against domestic manufacture, must be for reducing us either to dependence on that foreign nation, or to be clothed in skins, and to hve hke wild beasts in dens and caverns. I am not one of these ; experience has taught me that manufactures are now as necessary to our inde- pendence as to our comfort ; and if those who quote me as of a different opinion, will keep pace with me in purchasing nothing foreign where an equivalent of domestic fabric can be obtained, without regard to difference of price, it will not be our fault if we do not soon have a supply at home equal to our demand, and wrest that weapon of distress from the hand which has wielded it. If it shall be proposed to go beyond our own supply, the question of '85 will then recur, will our surplus labor be then most beneficially employed in the culture of the earth, or in the fabrications of art ? We have time yet for consideration, before that question will press upori us ; and the maxim to be applied will depend on the circum- stances which shall then exist ; for in so complicated a science as political economy, no one axiom can be laid down as wise and ex- pedient for all times and circumstances, and for their contraries. Inattention to this is what has called for this explanation, which reflection would have rendered unnecessary with the candid, while nothing will do it with those who use the former opinion only as a stalking horse, to cover their disloyal propensities to keep us in eternal vassalage to a foreign and unfriendly people. ^ Madisou' s Message to Congirss, February, iSl^ . . . The reviving interests of commerce will claim the legisla- tive attention at the earliest opportunity, and such regulations will, I trust, be seasonably devised as shall secure to the United States their just proportion of the navigation of the world. The most liberal policy toward other nations, if met by corresponding dis- positions, will in this respect be found the most beneficial pol- icy towards ourselves. But there is no subject that can enter with greater force and merit into the deliberations of Congress, than a consideration of the means to preserve and promote the 1 Statesman's Manual, I, 326. PROTECTION AS A MEANS OF DEFENSE 493 manufactures whicli have swung into existence, and attained an unparalleled maturity throughout the United States during the period of the luiropean wars. I'his source of national independ- ence and wealth I anxiously recommend, therefore, to the prompt and constant guardianship of Congress. '^ Madison' s Message to Cojigrcss, December, iSl^ In adjusting the duties on imports to the object of re\-enue, the influence of the tariff on manufactures will necessarily present itself for consideration. However wise the theory may be which leaves to the sagacity and interest of individuals the application of their industry and resources, there are in this, as in other cases, excep- tions to the general rule. Besides the condition which the theory itself implies of a reciprocal adoption by other nations, experience teaches that so many circumstances must occur, in introducing and maturing manufacturing establishments, especially of the more com- plicated kinds, that a country may remain long without them, al- though sufficiently advanced, and in some respects even peculiarly fitted for carrying them on with success. Under circumstances giv- ing a powerful impulse to manufacturing industry, it has made among us a progress, and exhibited an efficiency, which justify the belief that with a protection not more than is due to the enterpris- ing citizens whose interests are now at stake, it will become at an early day not only safe against occasional competitions from abroad, but a source of domestic wealth and even of external commerce. In selecting the branches more especially entitled to the public patronage, a preference is obviously claimed by such as will relieve the United States from a dependence on foreign supplies, ever subject to casual failures, for articles necessary for the public de- fence, or connected with the primary wants of individuals. It will be an additional recommendation of particular manufactures, where the materials for them are extensively drawn from our agriculture, and consequently impart and insure to that great fund of national prosperity and independence an encouragement which can not fail to be rewarded. 1 Statesman's Manual, I, 331 -33-- 494 VIEWS OF THE PROTECTIVE TARIFF ^ Jfadisoii's Lcttcj- to D. Lynch, iSiy Although I approve the pohcy of leaving to the sagacity of in- dividuals, and to the impulse of private interest, the application of industry and capital, I am equally pfersuaded that in this, as in other cases, there are exceptions to the general rule, which do not impair the principle of it. Among these exceptions is the policy of en- couraging domestic manufactures within certain limits, and in ref- erence to certain articles. Without entering into a detailed view of the subject, it may be remarked, that every prudent nation will wish to be independent of other nations for the necessary articles of food, of raiment, and of defence ; and particular considerations applicable to the United States seem to strengthen the motives to this independence. Besides the articles falling under the above description, there may be others, for manufacturing which natural advantages exist, which require temporary interpositions for bringing them into reg- ular and successful activity. When the fund of industry is acquired by emigrations from abroad, and not withdrawn or withheld from other domestic em- ployments, the case speaks for itself. I will only add, that among the articles of consumption and use, the preference in many cases is decided merely by fashion or by habits. As far as an equality, and still more where a real superi- ority, is found in the articles manufactured at home, all must be sensible that it is politic and patriotic to encourage a preference of them, as affording a more certain source of supply for every class, and a more certain market for the surplus products of the agricultural class. 2 Ca I /levin's Speech on the Taj iff Bill of l8l6 The security of a country mainly depends on its spirit and its means ; and the latter principally on its moneyed resources. Modi- fied as the industiy of this country now is, combined with our peculiar situation and want of a naval ascendency, whenever we 1 Writings, III, 42-43. 2 Works, II, 164-168. ruo'i'KxjTiON AS A MEANS oi' I ) I-. I' i:\si-: 495 have the misfortune to be involved in a war with a nation domi- nant on the oeean — and it is almost only with sueh wc can at present be — the moneyed resources of the countr)' to a great extent must fail. He took it for granted that it was the duty of this body to adopt those measures of jM'udent foresight which the event of war made necessary. We cannot, he presumed, be indif- ferent to dangers from abroad, unless, indeed, the House is pre- pared to indulge in the phantom of eternal peace, which seems to possess the dream of some of its members. Could such a state exist, no foresight or fortitude would be necessary to conduct the affairs of the republic ; but as it is the mere illusion of the imagi- nation, as every people that ever has or ever will exist is subjected to the vicissitudes of peace and war, it must ever be considered as the plain dictate of wisdom in peace to prepare for war. What, then, let us consider, constitute the resources of this country, and what are the effects of war on them ? Commerce and agriculture, till lately almost the only, still constitute the principal, sources of our wealth. So long as these remain uninterrupted, the country prospers ; but war, as we are now circumstanced, is equally de- structive to both. They both depend on foreign markets ; and our country is placed, as it regards them, in a situation strictly insular ; a wide ocean rolls between. Our commerce neither is nor can be protected by the present means of the countiy. What, then, are the effects of a war with a maritime power — with England .? Our commerce annihilated, spraiding individual misery and producing national poverty ; our agriculture cut off from its accustomed markets, the surplus product of the farmer perishes on his hands, and he ceases to produce because he cannot sell. His resources are dried up, while his expenses are greatly increased ; as all manu- factured articles, the necessaries as well as the conveniences of life, rise to an extravagant price. The recent war fell with peculiar pressure on the growers of cotton and tobacco, and other great staples of the country ; and the same st?ite of things will recur in the event of another, unless prevented by the foresight ol" this body. If the mere statement of facts did not carry conviction to every mind, as he conceives it is calculated to do, additional argu- ments might be drawn from the general nature of wealth. Neither 496 VIEWS OF THE PROTECTIVE TARIFF agriculture, manufactures, nor commerce, taken separately, is the cause of wealth ; it flows from the three combined, and cannot exist without each. The wealth of any single nation or an indi- vidual, it is true, may not immediately depend on the three, but such wealth always presupposes their existence. He viewed the words in the most enlarged sense. Without commerce, industry would have no stimulus ; without manufactures, it would be with- out the means of production ; and without agriculture neither of the others can subsist. When separated entirely and permanently, they perish. War in this country produces, to a great extent, that effect ; and hence the great embarrassment which follows in its train. The failure of the wealth and resources of the nation necessarily involved the ruin of its finances and its currency. It is admitted by the most strenuous advocates, on the other side, that no country ought to be dependent on another for its means of defence ; that, at least, our musket and bayonet, our cannon and ball ought to be of domestic manufacture. But what, he asked, is more necessary to the defence of a country than its currency and finance ? Circumstanced as our country is, can these stand the shock of war ? Behold the effect of the late war on them. When our manufactures are grown to a certain perfection, as they soon will under the fostering care of Government, we will no longer experience these evils. The farmer will find a ready market for his surplus produce ; and, what is almost of equal consequence, a certain and cheap supply of all his wants. His prosperity will diffuse itself to every class in the community ; and, instead of that languor of industry and individual distress now incident to a state of war and suspended commerce, the wealth and vigor of the community will not be materially impaired. The arm of Government will be nerved ; and taxes in the hour of danger, when essential to the independence of the nation, may be greatly increased ; loans, so uncertain and hazardous, may be less relied on ; thus situated, the storm may beat without, but within all will be quiet and safe. To give perfection to this state of things, it will be necessary to add, as soon as possible, a system of internal improvements, and at least such an extension of our navy as will prevent the cutting off our coasting trade. The advantage of each I'RO'rFX'TloX AS A MEANS OF DEFENSE 497 is so striking as not to require illustration, especially after the experience of the recent war. It is thus the resources of this Government and people would be placed beyond the power of a foreign war materially to impair. Hut it may be said that the derangement then experienced, resulted, not from the cause assigned, but from the errors of the weakness of the Government, lie admitted that man\- fmancial blunders were committed, for the subject was new to us ; that the taxes were not laid sufficiently early, or to as great an extent as they ought to have been ; and that the loans were in some instances injudiciously made ; but he ventured to affirm that, had the greatest foresight and fortitude been exerted, the embarrassment would have been still very great ; and that even under the best management, the total derangement which was actually felt would not have been postponed eighteen months, had the war so long continued. How could it be other- wise .'' A war such as this countiy was then involved in, in a great measure dries up the resources of individuals, as he had already proved ; and the resources of the Government are no more than the aggregate of the surplus incomes of individuals called into action by a system of taxation. It is certainly a great political evil, incident to the character of the industry of this country, that, how- ever prosperous our situation when at peace, with an uninterrupted commerce — and nothing Ihen could exceed it — the moment that we were involved in war the whole is reversed. When resources are most needed, when indispensable to maintain the honor, yes, the very existence of the nation, then they desert us. Our currency is also sure to experience the shock, and become so deranged as to prevent us from calling out fairly whatever of means is left to the country. The result of a war in the present state of our naval power, is the blockade of our coast, and consequent destruction of our trade. The wants and habits of the country, founded on the use of foreign articles, must be gratified ; importation ' to a certain extent continues, through the policy of the enemy or unlaw- ful traffic ; the exportation of our bulky articles is prevented, too ; the specie of the country is drawn to pay the balance perpetually accumulating against us ; and the final result is, a total derange- ment of our currency. To this distressing state of things there 49S VIEWS OF THE PROTECTIVE TARIFF were two remedies — and only two ; one in our power immediately, the other requiring much time and exertion ; but both constituting, in his opinion, the essential policy of this country : he meant the navy and domestic manufactures. By the former, we could open the way to our markets ; by the latter, we bring them from beyond the ocean, and naturalize them. Had we the means of attaining an immediate naval ascendency, he acknowledged that the policy recommended by this bill would be very questionable ; but as that is not the fact — as it is a period remote, with any exertion, and will be probably more so from that relaxation of exertion so natural in peace, when necessity is not felt, it becomes the duty of this House to resort, to a considerable extent, at least as far as is pro- posed, to the only remaining remedy. II. THE MIDDLE STATES AND WEST — MANUFACTURES AND A HOME MARKET ^ Clays Speech of 182^ In casting our eyes around us, the most prominent circumstance which fixes our attention and challenges our deepest regret is the general distress which pervades the whole countiy. It is forced upon us by numerous facts of the most incontestable character. It is indicated by the diminished exports of native produce ; by the depressed and reduced state of our foreign navigation ; by our di- minished commerce ; by successive unthrashed crops of grain, per- ishing in our barns and barn-yards for the want of a market ; by the alarming diminution of the circulating medium ; by the numer- ous bankruptcies, not limited to the trading classes, but extending to all orders of society ; by a universal complaint of the want of employment, and a consequent reduction of the wages of labor ; by the ravenous pursuit after public situations, not for the sake of their honors and the performance of their public duties, but as a means of private subsistence ; by the reluctant resort to the perilous use of paper money ; by the intervention of legislation in the delicate relation between debtor and creditor ; and, above all, by the low 1 Taussig, State Papers and Speeches on the Tariff, pp. 254, 255, 256-257, 258-260, 265, 266-268. MANUFACTURES AND A HOME MARKET 499 and depressed state of the value of almost every description of the whole mass of the property of the nation, which has, on an average, sunk not less than about fifty per centum within a few years. . . . What is the cause of this wide-spreading distress, of this deep de- pression, which we behold stamped on the public countenance? . . . ... It is to be found in the fact that, during almost the whole existence of this government, we have shaped our industr)^, our navigation, and our commerce, in reference to an extraordinary war in Europe, and to foreign markets which no longer exist ; in the fact that we ha\e depended too much upon foreign sources of supply, and excited too litdc the native ; in the fact that, whilst we have culti\'ated, with assiduous care, our foreign resources, we have suffered those at home to wither in a state of neglect and abandonment. The consequence of the termination of the war of Europe has' been the resumption of European commerce, luiropean navigation, and the extension of European agriculture and liuro- pean industr)- in all its branches. Europe, therefore, has no longer occasion, to anything like the same extent as that she had during her wars, for American commerce, American navigation, the prod- uce of American industr)'. Europe, in commotion, and con\ailsed throughout all her members, is to America no longer the same Europe as she is now, tranquil, and watching with the most vigi- lant attention all her own peculiar interests without regard to the operation of her policy upon us. The effect of this altered state of Europe upon us has been, to circumscribe the employment of our marine, and greatly to reduce the value of the produce of our ter- ritorial labor. The further effect of this twofold reduction has been to decrease the value of all property, whether on the land or on the ocean, and which I suppose to be about fifty per cent. And the still further effect has been to diminish the amount of our circu- lating medium, in a proportion not less, by its transmission abroad, or its withdrawal by the banking institutions, from a necessity which they could not control. . . . . . . The greatest want of civilized society is a market for the sale and exchange of the surplus of the produce of the labor of its members. This market may exist at home or abroad, or both ; but it must exist somewhere, if society prospers ; and wherever it does 500 VIEWS OF THE PROTECTIVE TARIFF exist, it should be competent to the absorption of the entire surplus of production. It is most desirable that there should be both a home and a foreign market. But with respect to their relative su- periority, I cannot entertain a doubt. The home market is first in order, and paramount in importance. The object of the bill under consideration is, to create this home market, and to lay the founda- tions of a genuine American policy. It is opposed ; and it is in- cumbent upon the partisans of the foreign policy (terms which I shall use without any invidious intent) to demonstrate that the foreign market is an adequate vent for the surplus produce of our labor. But is it so ? First, foreign nations cannot, if they would, take our surplus produce. If the source of supply, no matter of what, increases in a greater ratio than the demand for that supply, a glut of the market is inevitable, even if we suppose both to re- main perfectly unobstructed. The duplication of our population takes place in terms of about twenty-five years. The term will be more and more extended as our numbers multiply. But it will be a sufficient approximation to assume this ratio for the present. We increase, therefore, in population, at the rate of about 4% per an- num. Supposing the increase of our production to be in the same ratio, we should, every succeeding year, have of surplus produce 4% more than that of the preceding year, without taking into the account the differences of seasons which neutralize each other. If, therefore, we are to rely upon the foreign market exclusively, foreign consumption ought to be shown to be increasing in the same ratio of 4*}^ per annum, if it be an adequate vent for our sur- plus produce. But, as I have supposed the measure of our increas- -ing production to be furnished by that of our increasing population, so the measure of their power of consumption must be determined by that of the increase of their population. Now, the total foreign popu- lation, who consume our surplus produce, upon an average, do not double their aggregate number in a shorter term than that of about one hundred years. Our powers of production increase, then, in a ratio four times greater than their powers of consumption. And hence their utter inability to receive from us our surplus produce. But, secondly, if they could, they will not. The policy of all Europe is adverse to the reception of our agricultural produce, so MANUFAC'rURP:S AND A HOME MARKET 501 far as it comes into collision with its own ; and under that limita- tion we are absolutely forbid to enter their ports, except under cir- cumstances which deprive them of all value as a steady market. The policy of all luirope rejects those great staples of our countr)^ which consist of objects of human subsistence. The policy of all Europe refuses to receive from us anything but those raw materials of smaller value, essential to their manufactures, to which they can give a higher value, with the exception of tobacco and rice, which they cannot produce. Even Great Britain, to which we are its best customer, and from which we receive nearly one half in value of our whole imports, will not take from us articles of subsistence produced in our country cheaper than can be produced in (ireat Britain, In adopting this exclusive policy, the states of Eurojx' do not inquire what is best for us, but what suits themselves respec- tively ; they do not take jurisdiction of the cjuestion of our interests, but limit the object of their legislation to that of the conservation of their own peculiar interests, leaving us free to prosecute ours as we please. . . . Our agricultural is our greatest interest. It ought ever to be predominant. All others should bend to it. And, in considering what is for its advantage, we should contemplate it in all its varie- ties, of planting, farming, and grazing. Can we do nothing to in- vigorate it ; nothing to correct the errors of the past, and to brighten the still more umpromising prospects which lie before us ? We have seen, I think, the causes of the distresses of the country. We have seen that an exclusive dependence upon the foreign market must lead to still severer distress, to impoverishment, to ruin. We must then change somewhat our course. We must give a new direction to some portion of our industry. We must speed- ily adopt a genuine American policy. Still cherishing the foreign market, let us create also a home market, to give further scope to the consumption of the produce of American industry. . . . The creation of a home market is not only necessary to procure for our agriculture a just reward of its labors, but it is indispen- sable to obtain a supply of our necessary wants. If we cannot sell, we cannot buy. That portion of our population (and we have seen that it is not less than four fifths) which makes comparatively 502 VIEWS OF THE PROTECTIVE TARIFF nothing that foreigners will buy, has nothing to make purchases with from foreigners. It is in vain that we are told of the amount of our exports supplied by the planting interest. They may enable the planting interest to supply all its wants ; but they bring no ability to the interest not planting ; unless, which cannot be pre- tended, the planting interest was an adequate vent for the surplus produce of the labor of all other interests. It is in vain to tantalize us with the greater cheapness of foreign fabrics. There must be an ability to purchase, if an article be obtained, whatever may be the price, high or low, at which it is sold. And a cheap article is as much beyond the grasp of him who has no means to buy, as a high one. Even if it were true that the American manufacturer would supply consumption at dearer rates, it is better to have his fabrics than the unattainable foreign fabrics ; because it is better to be ill supplied than not supplied at all. A coarse coat, which will communicate warmth and cover nakedness, is better than no coat. The superiority of the home market results, first, from its steadiness and comparative certainty at all times ; secondly, from the creation of reciprocal interest ; thirdly, from its greater secur- ity ; and, lastly, from an ultimate and not distant augmentation of consumption (and consequently of comfort) from increased quantity and reduced prices. But this home market, highly desirable as it is, can only be created and cherished by the protection of our own legislation against the inevitable prostration of our industry which must ensue from the action of foreign policy and legislation. The effect and the value of this domestic care of our own interests will be obvious from a few facts and considerations. Let us suppose that half a million of persons are now employed abroad in fabri- cating for our consumption those articles of which, by the operation of this bill, a supply is intended to be provided within ourselves. That lialf a million of persons are, in effect, subsisted by us ; but their actual means of subsistence are drawn from foreign agricul- ture. If we could transport them to this country, and incorporate them in the mass of our own population, there would instantly arise a demand for an amount of provisions equal to that which would be requisite for their subsistence throughout the whole year. That demand, in the article of flour alone, would not be less than the COMMERCE VKKSUS MANUFACTURES 503 quantity of about 900,000 barrels, besides a proportionate quantity of beef and pork and other artieles of subsistence. But 900,000 barrels of flour exceeded the entire quantit\' exported last year by nearly 150,000 barrels. What activity would not this give, what ch(ierfulness would it not communicate to our now dispirited farm- ing interest ! But if, instead of these five hundred thousand arti- sans emigrating from abroad, we give by this bill employment to an equal number of our own citizens now engaged in unprofitable agriculture, or idle from the want of business, the beneficial effect upon the productions of our farming labor would be nearly doubled. The cjuantity would be diminished by a subtraction of the produce from the labor of all those who should be diverted from its pursuits to manufacturing industry, and the value of the residue would be enhanced, both by that diminution and the creation of the home market, to the extent supposed. . . . III. NEW ENGLAND — COMMERCE AND NAVIGATION VERSUS MANUFACTURES 1 Webster s Spi-cih of 1S24 ... I deeply regret the necessit}^ which is likely to be im- posed upon me, of giving a general affirmative or negative vote on the whole of the bill. I cannot but think this mode of proceeding liable to great objections. It exposes both those who support and those who oppose the measure to veiy unjust and injurious misap- prehensions. There may be good reasons for favoring some of the provisions of the bill, and equally strong reasons for opposing others ; and these provisions do not stand to each other in the relation of principal and incident .... Being intrusted with the interests of a district highly commer- cial, and deeply interested in manufactures also, I wish to state my opinions on the present measure ; not as on a whole, for it has no entire and homogeneous character ; but as on a collection of different enactments, some of which meet my approbation and some of which do not. . . . 1 Works, III, 94-95, 97, 100, 102, 103-106, 133-134, 129. 504 VIEWS OF thp: protective tariff ... I dissent entirely from the justice of that picture of dis- tress which he [Clay] has drawn. I have not seen the realit)', and know not where it exists. W'ithin my observation there is no cause for so gloomy and terrifying" a representation. In respect to the New England States, with the condition of which I am, of course, most acquainted, the present appears to me a period of very gen- eral prosperity. Not, indeed, a time for great profits and sudden acquisition ; not a day of extraordinary activity and successful specu- lation. There is, no doubt, a considerable depression of prices, and in some degree a stagnation of business. But the case pre- sented by Mr. Speaker was not one of depression, but of distress ; of universal, pervading, intense distress, limited to no class, and to no place. We are represented as on the very verge and brink of national ruin. So far from acquiescing in these opinions, I believe there has been no period in which the general prosperity was bet- ter secured, or rested on a more solid foundation. As applicable to the eastern States, I put this remark to their Representatives, and ask them if it is not true. When has there been a time in which the means of living have been more accessible and more abundant .'* when has labor been rewarded, I do not say with a larger, but with a more certain success .? Profits, indeed, are low ; in some pursuits of life, which it is not proposed to benefit, but to burden by this bill, very low. But still I am unacquainted with any proofs of extraordinary distress. What, indeed, are the gen- eral indications of the state of the country ? There is no famine nor pestilence in the land, nor war, nor desolation. There is no writhing under the burden of taxation. The means of subsistence are abundant ; and at the veiy moment when the miserable condi- tion of the country is asserted, it is admitted that the wages of labor are high in comparison with those of any other country. A country, then, enjoying a profound peace, a perfect civil liberty, with the means of subsistence cheap and abundant, with the reward of labor sure, and its wages higher than anywhere else, cannot be represented in gloom, melancholy, and distress, but by the effort of extraordinary powers of tragedy. . . . The general result, therefore, of a fair examination of the present condition of things, seems to me to be that there is a COMMERCE I7':h'srs MANUFACTURES 505 considerable depression of prices and curtailment of profit ; and, in some parts of the country, it must be admitted, there is a great degree of pecuniar)' embarrassment arising- from the difficulty of paying debts wiiicli were contracted when prices were high. With these qualifications, the general state of the country may be said to be pros]3erous ; and these are not sufficient to give to the whole face of affairs any appearance of general distress. . , . . . . The year icr of causes have con- tributed to give the manufacturing interest this ascendency. . . . . . . Men confederated together upon sehish and interested prin- ciples, whether in puisuit of the offices or tlie bounties of Govern- ment, are ever more actixe and \'igilant than the great majority, who act from disinterested and patriotic impulses. I lave we not witnessed it on this floor, sir .? Who c\er knew the tariff men to divide on any question affecting their confederated interests ? If you propose to reduce any one of the duties, no matter how obvious the expediency of the reduction, they will tell you, if not in plain words, at least by their conduct, that the duty you propose to reduce is veiy oppres- sive and unjust, as in the case of salt ; or veiy absurd and suicidal, as in the case of raw wool ; but that, if you reduce either of these duties, a proposition will be made to reduce some other, and then some other, until the whole system of confederated interests will be shaken to its centre. The watchword is, stick together, right or wrong, upon every question affecting the common cause. Such, sir, is the concert and vigilance, and such the combinations by which the manufacturing party, acting upon the interests of some, and the prejudices of others, have obtained a decided and perma- nent control over public opinion in all the tariff States. All the representatives of those States, however decidedly opposed in {prin- ciple to the prohibitory policy, are constrained to regard the inter- est of the manufacturers as that of their constituents at large. No man, sir, from a manufacturing district, would dare to vote against any measure, however unjust and oppressive, if it be only deemed beneficial to the manufacturers, and denominated a tariff. . . . What, then, becomes of the great principle of liberty, to which I have adverted, which secures the people against any burdens of taxation not imposed by their own representatives ? Is it not abso- lutely annulled — nay, is it not completely reversed, as to the people of the southern States, in all cases involving the interest of the manufacturers, and the policy of the protecting system .'' Is not the majority of Congress composed of the representatives of those who have a direct and positive pecuniary interest in imposing taxes upon the people of the southern States, in the form of high and prohibitory duties upon their lawful commerce — the product of DJ^ VIEWS OF THE PROTECTIVE TARIFF their honest industr}^ ? Does not that majority declare it to be its interest, and avow it to be its object, to pursue this system of pro- hibitory duties until the whole of that commerce which gives value to the agricultural productions of the southern States, and with- out which our fields would be left desolate, shall be utterly and absolutely abolished ? . . . It is in vain, then, that the people of the South attempt to palter with this question, or to disguise any longer the sad reality of their condition. They have no security against taxation, but the will of those who have a settled interest and fixed determination to increase their burdens ; they have no rights of property, no title to that commerce which gives the principal value to the productions of their industry, which they do not hold by the same miserable and degrading tenure. They are, to all intents and piu'poses, the slaves of northern monopolists. If I w^ere called upon to give a definition of slavery, I could not use language more appropriate than that which should accurately describe the condition of the people of the southern States. There is no form of despotism that has ever existed upon the face of the earth, more monstrous and horrible than that of a rep- resentative Government acting beyond the sphere of its respon- sibility. Liberty is an empty sound, and representation worse than a vain delusion, unless the action of the Government be so reg- ulated that responsibility and power shall be co-extensive. Now, I would be glad to know, under what responsibility the majority of this House act, in imposing burdens upon the industry of the southern people, and in waging this merciless warfare against their commerce. Are they, in the slightest degree, responsible to those upon whom they impose these heav}^ burdens ? Have they any feelings of common interest or common sympathy to restrain them from oppression and tyranny ? Does the system of prohibi- tory duties, which falls with such a destructive power upon the dearest interests of the southern people, impose any burden, or in- flict any injury at all, upon the constituents of that majority by which it has been adopted ? The very reverse of all this is the truth. The majority which imposes these oppressive taxes upon the people of the South, so PROTECTION A IJIRDEX TO THE Sorill 531 far from being responsible to them, or to those who have any common interest or common sympathy with them, in relation to the matter, are responsible to the ver)' men who have been, for the last ten years, making the welkin ring with their clamors for the imposition of these very burdens. Yes, sir, those who lay the iron hand of unconstitutional and lawless taxation upon the people of the southern States, are not the representatives of those who pay the taxes, or have any participation in it, but the representatives of those who receive the bounty, and put it in their pockets. . . . I am aware that the answer given to all this will be, that it is the right of the majorit)- to govern, and the duty of the minority to submit. There is no political principle more undeniably true, in all the cases to which it properly applies. But it is subject to two ver\- important limitations in our federative system of Government, growing out of the constitutional compact, and founded upon the principles of natural justice. In the first place, the majority cannot rightfully do any thing not authorized by the constitutional charter. The great object of a wTitten constitution is to restrain the/najority. It is founded upon the idea that an unchecked majority' is as dan- gerous as an unchecked minorit}-. I believe, when cut loose from the moorings of an effective and real responsibilit)', it is more so. But of that hereafter. In the second place, the right of the majorit)' to govern, in a po- litical system composed of confederated sovereignties, and extending over geographical subdixisions ha\"ing diversified and conflicting interests, must be limited to those cases where there is a common interest per\ading the whole confederacy. This is a limitation growing out of the ver\- nature and object of the compact, even upon the exercise of powers expressly granted. The submission of interests which are essentially adverse to the control of a common. Go\ernment, necessarily invohes the destruction of one or the other of them. This is the foundation of the checks and balances, even of consolidated Governments, and of the partition of power among distinct sovereignties in this confederacy.^ 1 This is a clear statement of the situation which gave rise to the theorj- of nulli- fication developed by Calhoun. See Disquisition on Government, Works, I 532 VIEWS OF THE PROTECTIVE TARIFF It is contrary to the clearest principles of natural justice, that the majority, merely because they have the power, should violate the rights and destroy the separate and peculiar interests of the minor- ity. This would make power and right synonymous terms. The majority have no natural right, in any case, to govern the minority. It is a mere conventional right, growing out of necessity and conven- ience. On the contrary, the right of the minorit)' to the enjoyment of life, liberty, and property, without any unjust interference on the part of the majority, is the most sacred of the natural rights of man. When the great antagonist interests of society become arrayed against each other, particularly when they are separated by distance, and distinguished by a difference of climate, character, and civil institutions, the great object of the Government should undoubtedly be, not to become the partisan of either of those interests, but to in- terpose its power for the purpose of preventing the stronger from destroying the weaker. Instead, however, of assuming this attitude, instead of restraining the major interest from doing this act of injustice and oppression, this Government degrades itself into the character of a partisan of the stronger interest, and an instrument of its oppression. It cannot be otherwise, sir, as long as the majority in Congress, being nothing more than the agent of the major inter- est in the confederacy, assumes the power of arbitrarily and unjustly appropriating to its own use the rightful and exclusive property of the minority. The majority can have no such rightful power. . . . I ha\'e said that there cannot be imagined a more odious and intolerable form of despotism, than that of a majority, stimulated b)- motixes of self-interest, and acting without any restraining power upon the interests of the minority. A just analysis and exposition of the true character and principles of that combination, or, more properly, conspiracy of interests, which constitutes the tariff majority in the United States, will exhibit this idea in a more striking point of view than anything I have yet advanced on the subject. . . . I beg leave now to suggest, for the consideration of the com- mittee, some historical analogies which are calculated to exhibit, in a strong, practical point of view, the tyranny and injustice of this proscriptive system of legislation which the majority of Con- gress have carried on for the last ten years against the lawful PROTECTION A BURDEN TO 'I'llK SOI'III 533 commerce of the southern States. What, then, is the sum and substance of that system ? It is precisely this, sir : that the southern States shall be prohibited from carryinj^ on commerce in certain articles with the nations of the world, and sliall 1)e restricted to an intercourse with the tariff States of this Union. This reduces the southern States to a state of colonial Yassala,<^e to the tariff States, decidedly worse than that of our ancestors U) (ireat J^ritain. What was the amount of the colonial vassalage of our ancestors ? it was nothing more than that they should be "' prohibited from carr\ing on commerce, in certain articles, witli the nations of tlie world, and should be restricted to an intercourse with (ireat liritiiin." The southern States, then, are reduced to the very same relation to the tariff States, in point of principle, as that in which all the colonies formerly stood to (ireat liritain. They ha\'e changed their masters, to be sure ; and I will now proceed to inquire what they have gained by the change. I confidently assert that the restrictions imposed by the tariff States upon the commerce of the planting States, are one hundred times more injurious and oppressive than all the colonial restrictions and taxes which Great Britain ever imposed, or attempted to im- pose, upon the commerce of our forefathers. Yes, sir, a revolution which severed a mighty empire into fragments, and which history has already recorded as the first in the annals of human liberty, originated in restrictions and impositions, not a whit more tyran- nical in principle, and, as I will proceed to demonstrate, not a hundredth part so oppressive in point of fact, as the restrictions and impositions now unconstitutionally imposed upon the south- ern States. The prohibition which excluded our ancestors from the com- merce of all other countries but (ireat Britain, was almost jHu-cly nominal. Without that prohibition, the trade of the colonics would have been confined almost exclusively to the mother country. She furnished them with the best market in the world for all the j^ro- ductions of their industry. She supplied the articles they wanted cheaper than they could be obtained from any other nation, and gave them a better price for their productions. But the very oppo- site of this is true as to the restrictions of which we now complain. 534 VIEWS OF THE PROTECTIVE TARIFF Instead of coinciding with the natural course of trade, they come directly in contact with it. The southern States are excluded from their natural markets — the very best in the world, for the purpose of confining them to a market which is, in all respects, the very worst. Europe now consumes five-sixths of our agricultural staples, and the consumption would be indefinitely extended, if the trade was unrestricted ; the tariff States could not consume, under any circumstances, more than one-fifth of these staples. Great Britain, France, and Holland could furnish us with such manufactures as we want, at a price one-third less than that for which they ever can be furnished by the manufacturing States of this Union ; and, under these circumstances, w'e are compelled to purchase from these States, and denied our natural right of purchasing from foreign nations. In one word, we are excluded from the very best markets in the world, and confined to that in which we can get least for what we have to sell, and are compelled to gi\'e most for what we desire to purchase. The duties and restrictions imposed upon the commerce of the southern States for the exclusive benefit of the tariff States, amount to a larger sum of taxation and oppression in a single year, than all the restrictions and taxes imposed upon all the colonies by the British Parliament, from the date of the stamp act to the breaking out of the revolutionary war. The southern States are to all intents and purposes recolonized, as much so as if the British Parliament had the supreme legislative power of regulating their commerce. . . . I must now invite the attention of the committee for a few mo- ments to a brief exposition of the actual condition of suffering to which the southern States have been reduced by this system. I will draw no picture of the imagination, but present a few decisive facts that will speak a language too unecjuivocal to admit of but one in- terpretation. For the last twelve years, the condition of the country has been growing worse and worse, in a steady progression. Dur- ing this time, the price of cotton has fallen from thirty to ten cents a pound, and every thing else in a corresponding degree. This state of things is peculiarly distressing. Almost any condition is tolerable which is permanent. We become reconciled to it by habit, and make PROTECTION A BURDEN TO '11 IE SOU'III 535 all our calculations and pecuniary arrangements to accord with it. liut when tariff is passed after tariff, extending further and further the oppressive influence of the system, constant pecuniary embarrass- ment is the almost unavoidable result.^ No prudence can avoid it. An unexpected decline in the price of produce baffles the calcula- tions even of the most cautious ; and, in this downward tendency of things, the planter almost invariably finds, each successive year, his means of meeting his pecuniary engagements less than he reasonably calculated when he made them. The profits of the cotton planter, with all the natural advantages with which Providence has favored him, are now actually less than those of any other description of capitalists in the Union. I speak of what I personally know, when I assert that the labor of a slave in the field does not yield the owner more than twelve and a half cents per day, on an average. Now, sir, I leave it to any gentleman from the middle or eastern States, to say whether the price of com- mon field labor is not three or four times as high. Taking the aver- age of the various kinds of labor in those States, I feel authorized to say, it ma}' be set down at fifty cents a day. I am aware of the prevalence of an idea that slave labor is not as efficient as free labor ; but, as regards agricultural pursuits, it is entirely erroneous. No white man from New England, or any where else, can do more field labor than a South Carolina slave. Taking the average of the year, the southern planter has greatly more labor performed by each hand, than the northern farmer. With us, there is no season of rest from one end of the day, or from one end of the year, to the other. The winter season, which is a period of festivity and rest with the northern farmers, is, with our planters, "a period of active and laborious preparation for the ensuing spring. If, not- withstanding, he cultivates the most valuable staple in the world, and works thus incessantly through the whole year, the labor of the southern planter is not one-fourth part as productive as the average of northern labor, docs it not furnish a striking commen- tary upon the ruinous and exhausting effects of your oppressive system of taxation ? If the soil and climate of Pennsylvania or ^ (^f. Haynes' speech in the Senate at the same time. These statements apply- to South CaroHna, but not to the whole South. 536 VIEWS OF THE PROTECTIVE TARIFF New York were as well adapted to the culture of cotton as those of South Carolina or Georgia, I am well satisfied, a Pennsylvania or New York farmer could not afford to cultivate cotton for less than twenty cents a pound, with all the industry and economy he could use. Let any man acquainted with the business of cotton planting make an estimate of the price for which he could afford to raise cotton, using hired labor at fifty cents a day, and he will find the statement I have made amply confirmed by the result. V. WAGES AND THE TARIFF A. High Wages an Obstacle to Manufactures^ Hamiltoif s Report on Manufactures, ly^I The objections to the pursuit of manufactures in the United States, which next present themselves to discussion, represent an impracticability of success arising from three causes : scarcity of hands, dearness of labor, want of capital. The two first circumstances are to a certain extent real, and within due limits ought to be admitted as obstacles to the success of manufacturing enterprise in the United SUites. But there are various considerations which lessen their force, and tend to afford an assurance that they are not sufficient to prevent the advantageous prosecution of many vciy useful and extensive manufactories. With regard to scarcity of hands, the fact itself must be applied with no small cjualification to certain parts of the United States, There are large districts which may be considered as pretty fully peopled, and which, notwithstanding a continual drain for distant settlement, are thickly interspersed with flourishing and increasing towns. If these districts have not already reached the point at which the complaint of scarcity of hands ceases, they are not re- mote from it, and are approaching fast towards it. And having perhaps fewer attractions to agriculture than some other parts of the Union, they exhibit a proportionably stronger tendency towards 1 For evidence of high wages in America in colonial times, see P'ranklin and Pownall, pp. 75, 107. WAGES AND 'I'lIK TARII-F 537 other kinds of industry. In these districts may be discerned no inconsiderable maturity for manufacturing estabUshments. But there are circumstances whicli have been ah-eady noticed with another view, that materially diminish eveiywhere the effect of a scarcity of hands. These circumstances are : the great use which can be made of women and children, on which point a very pregnant and instructive fact has been mentioned ; the vast exten- sion given by late improvements to the employment of machines, which, substituting the agency of fire and water, has prodigiously lessened the necessity for manual labor ; the employment of per- sons ordinarily engaged in other occupations during the seasons or hours of leisure, which, besides giving occasion to the exertion of a greater quantity of labor by the same nimiber of persons, and thereby increasing the general stock of labor, as has elsewhere been remarked, may also be taken into the calculation as a resource for obviating the scarcity of hands ; lastly, the attraction of foreign emi- grants. Whoever inspects with a careful eye the composition of our towns, will be made sensible to what an extent this resource may be relied upon. This exhibits a large proportion of ingenious and valuable workmen in different arts and trades, who, by expatri- ating from Europe, have improved their own condition and added to the industry and wealth of the United States. It is a natural in- ference from the experience we have already had, that as soon as the United States shall present the countenance of a serious prose- cution of manufactures, as soon as foreign artists shall be made sensible that the state of things here affords a moral certainty of employment and encouragement, competent numbers of European workmen will transplant themselves effectually to insure the suc- cess of the design. How indeed can it otherwise happen, consider- ing the various and powerful inducements which the situation of this country offers ; addressing themselves to so many strong pas- sions and feelings, to so many general and particular interests ? It may be affirmed, therefore, in respect to hands for canying on manufactures, that we shall in a great measure trade upon a for- eign stock, reserving our own for the cultivation of our lands and the manning of our ships, as far as character and circumstances shall incline. It is not unworthy of remark, that the objection to 538 VIEWS OF THE PROTECTIVE TARIFF the success of manufactures deduced from the scarcity of hands, is ahke apphcable to trade and navigation, and yet these are per- ceived to flourish, without any sensible impediment from that cause. As to the dearness of labor (another of the obstacles alleged), this has relation principally to two circumstances : one, that which has been just discussed, or the scarcity of hands ; the other, the greatness of profits. As far as it is a consequence of the scarcity of hands, it is miti- gated by all the considerations which have been adduced as les- sening that deficiency. It is certain, too, that the disparity in this respect between some of the most manufacturing parts of Europe and a large proportion of the United States is not nearly so great as is commonly imagined. It is also much less in regard to artifi- cers and manufacturers than in regard to country laborers ; and while a careful comparison shows that there is in this particular much exaggeration, it is also evident that the effect of the degree of disparity which does truly exist is diminished in proportion to the use which can be made of machinery. . . . There are grounds to conclude that undertakers of manufactures in this country can at this time afford to pay higher wages to the workmen they may employ than are paid to similar workmen in luu'ope. The prices of foreign fabrics in the markets of the United States, which will for a long time regulate the prices of the domes- tic ones, may be considered as compounded of the following in- gredients : The first cost of materials, including the taxes, if any, v/hich are paid upon them where they are made, the expense of grounds, buildings, machinery and tools ; the wages of the persons employed in the manufactory ; the profits on the capital or stock employed ; the commissions of agents to purchase them where they are made ; the expense of transportation to the United States, including insurance and other incidental charges ; the taxes or duties, if any, and fees of office which are paid on their expor- tation ; the taxes or duties, and fees of office which are paid on their importation. As to the first of these items, the cost of materials, the advan- tage upon the whole is at present on the side of the United States ; and the difference in their favor must increase in proportion as a WAGES AND THE 'JARII'l' 539 certain and extensive domestic demand sliall induce tlie proprietors of land to devote more of their attention to the production (^f those materials. It ought not to escape observation, in a comparison on this point, that some of the principal manufacturing countries of Europe arc much more dependent on foreign supply for the mate- rials of their manufactures than would be the United States, who are cajxible of supplying themselves with the greater abundance, as well as a greater variety, of the requisite materials. As to the second item, the expense of grounds, buildings, ma- chinery and tools, an equality at least may be assumed ; since advantages in some particulars will counterbalance temporary dis- advantages in others. As to the third item, or the article of wages, the comparison certainly turns against the United States, though, as before ob- served, not in so great a degree as is commonly supposed. The fourth item is alike applicable to the foreign and to the domestic manufacture. It is indeed more properly a result than a particular to be compared. But with respect to all the remaining items, they are alone appli- cable to the foreign manufacture, and in the strictest sense extraor- dinaries ; constituting a sum of extra charge on the foreign fabric, which cannot be estimated at less than from fifteen to thirty per cent, on the cost of it at the manufactory. This sum of extra charge may confidently be regarded as more than a counterpoise for the real difference in the price of labor ; and is a satisfactory proof that manufactures may prosper in defi- ance of it in the United States. . . . Clay s Speech of lS2^ But, according to the opponents of the domestic policy, the pro- posed system will force capital and labor into new and reluctant em- ployments ; we are not prepared, in consequence of the high price of wages, for the successful establishment of manufactures, and we must fail in the experiment. We have seen that the existing occupa- tions of our society, those of agriculture, commerce, navigation, and the learned professions, are overflowing with competitors, and that 540 VIEWS OF THE PROTECTIVE TARIFF the want of employment is severely felt. Now what does this bill propose ? To open a new and extensive field of business, in which all that choose may enter. There is no compulsion upon any one to engage in it. An option only is given to industry, to continue in the present unprofitable pursuits, or to embark in a new and prom- ising one. The effect will be to lessen the competition in the old branches of business, and to multiply our resources for increasing our comforts and augmenting the national wealth. The alleged fact of the high price of wages is not admitted. The truth is that no class of society suffers more, in the present stagnation of busi- ness, than the laboring class. That is a necessary effect of the de- pression of agriculture, the principal business of the community. The wages of able-bodied men vary from $5 to ^8 per month, and such has been the want of employment, in some parts of the Union, that instances have not been unfrequent of men working for the means of present subsistence. If the wages for labor here and in England are compared, they will be found not to be essen- tially different. . . . Webster s SpcccJi of 1S24 . . . The present price of iron at Stockholm, I am assured by importers, is ^53 per ton on board, $48 in the yard before loading, and probably not far from $40 at the mines. Freight, insurance, etc., may be fairly estimated at $1 5, to which add our present duty of $ 1 5 more, and these two last sums, together with the cost on board at Stockholm, give $83 as the cost of Swedes iron in our market. In fact, it is said to have been sold last year at $81.50 to $82 per ton. We perceive by this statement that the cost of the iron is doubled in reaching us from' the mine in which it is produced. In other words, our present duty, with the expense of transportation, gives an advantage to the American, over the foreign manufacturer, of 1 00^0. Why then cannot the iron be manufactured at home.'' Our ore is said to be as good, and some of it better. It is under our feet, and the Chairman of the Committee [Clay] tells us that it might be wrought by persons who otherwise will not be employed. Why then is it not wrought .'' Nothing could be more sure of constant sale. It is not an article of changeable fashion, but of absolute, WAGES AND TllK TARIM' 541 permanent necessity, and such, thcrctorc, as would always meet a steady demand. . . . Sir, the true explanation of this appears to me to lie in the different prices of labor ; and here I apprehend is the grand mis- take in the argiunent of the Chairman of the Committee. He says it would cost the nation, as a nation, nothing to make our ore into iron. Now, I think it would cost us ])recisely. that which we can worst afford ; that is, great labor. Although bar iron is very prop- erly considered a raw material in respect to its various future uses, yet, as bar iron, the principal ingredient in its cost is labor. Of manual labor, no nation has more than a certain cjuantity, nor can it be increased at will. As to some operations, indeed, its place may be supplied by machinery ; but there are other services which machinery cannot perform for it, and which it must perform for itself. A most important question for every nation, as well as for every individual, to propose to itself, is, how it can best apply that quantity of labor which it is able to perform ? Labor is the great producer of wealth ; it moves all other causes. If it call ma- chineiy to its aid, it is still employed not only in using the machin- ery, but in making it. Now, with respect to the quantity of labor, as we all know, different nations are differently circumstanced. Some need, more than anything, work for hands, others require hands for work ; and if we ourselves are not absolutely in the latter class, we are still, most fortunately, very near it. I cannot find that we have those idle hands of which the Chairman of the Committee speaks. The price of labor is a conclusive and unanswerable refu- tation of that idea ; it is known to be higher with us than in any other civilized state, and this is the greatest of all proofs of gen- eral happiness. Labor in this countr}^ is independent and proud. It has not to ask the patronage of capital, but capital solicits the aid of labor. This is the general truth in regard to the condition of our whole population, although in the large cities there are, doubtless, many exceptions. The m.ere capacity to labor in common agricultural employments gives to our young men the assurance of independence. We have been asked, sir, by the Chairman of the Committee, in a tone of some pathos, whether w^e will allow to the serfs of Russia and Sweden the benefit of making iron for us.? 542 VIEWS OF THE PROTECTIVE TARIFF Let me inform the gentleman, sir, that those same serfs do not earn more than seven cents a day, and that they work in these mines for that compensation because they are serfs. And let me ask the gentleman further, whether we have any labor in this coun- try that cannot be better employed than in a business which does not yield the laborer more than seven cents a day ? This, it appears to me, is the true cjuestion for our consideration. There is no rea- son for saying that we will work iron because we have mountains that contain the ore. We might for the same reason dig among our rocks for the scattered grains of gold and silver which might be found there. The true inquiiy is, can we produce the article in a useful state at the same cost, or nearly at the same cost, or at any reasonable approximation towards the same cost, at which we can import it. . . . B. High Wages the Result of Manufactures 1 Wclistcrs Speech of lS^6 Now, sir, taking the mass of men as they exist among us, what is it that constitutes their prosperity .'' Throughout the country, perhaps more especially at the North, from early laws and habits, there is a distribution of all the property accumulated in one gen- eration among the whole succession of sons and daughters in the next. Property is everywhere distributed as fast as it is accumu- lated, and not in more than one case out of a hundred is there an accumulation beyond the earnings of one or two generations. The first consecjuence of this is a great division of property into small parcels, and a considerable equality in the condition of a great portion of the people. The next consequence is, that, out of the whole mass, there is a very small proportion, hardly worthy of being named, that docs not pursue some active business for a living. Who is there that lives on his income .? How many, out of millions of prosperous people between this place and the British Provinces, and throughout the North and West, are there who live without being engaged in active business .'' The number is not worth nam- ing. This is therefore a country of labor. I do not mean manual 1 Works, Y, 226-227, 230-231. WAGES AND THE TAR I IT 543 labor entirely. There is a great deal of that ; but I mean some sort of employment that requires personal attention, either of over- sight or manual performance ; some form of active business. That is the character of our people, and that is the condition of our people. Our destiny is labor. Now, what is the first great cause of prosperity with such a people ? Simply, employment. Why, we have cheap food and cheap clothing, and there is no sort of doubt that these things are very desirable to all persons of moderate cir- cumstances, and laborers. But they are not the first requisites. The first requisite is that which enables men to buy food and cloth- ing, cheap or dear. And if I were to illustrate my opinions on this subject by example, I should take, of all the instances in the world, the present condition of Ireland. . . . Now, sir, no man can deny that the course of things in this country, for the last twent)^ or thirty years, has had a wonderful effect in producing a variety of employments. How much employ- ment has been furnished by the canals and railroads, in addition to the great amount of labor, not only in the factories, rendered so odious in some quarters by calling them monopolies and close cor- porations, but in the workshops, in the warehouses, on the sea and on the land, and in every department of business ! There is a great and general activity, and a great variety in the employments of men amongst us ; and that is just exactly what our condition ought to be. The interest of every laboring community requires diversity of occupations, pursuits, and objects of industry. The more that diver- sity is multiplied or extended, the better. To diversify emplo)-ment is to increase employment, and to enhance wages. And, sir, take this great truth ; place it on the title-page of every book of political economy intended for the use of the United States ; put it in every Farmer's Almanac ; let it be the heading of the column in every Mechanic's Magazine ; proclaim it eveiywhere, and make it a proverb, \\\2X where there is work for the hands of men, their ivill be work for their teeth. Where the^-e is employment, there will be bread. It is a great blessing to the poor to have cheap food ; but greater than that, prior to that, and of still higher value, is the blessing of being able to buy food by honest and respectable 544 VIEWS OF THE PROTECTIVE TARIFF employment. PZmployment feeds, and clothes, and instructs. Em- ployment gives health, sobriety, and morals. Constant employment and well-paid labor produce, in a country like ours, general pros- perity, content, and cheerfulness. Thus happy have we seen the country. Thus happy may we long continue to see it, . . . 1 Speech of IV. Hunt of Neiv York, hi House of Representatives, JuJie 26, 18^6 Disguise it as you may, the tariff question is the great question of American labor. Shall it be fostered, encouraged, and sustained by our legislation .? This question "comes home to the business and bosoms " of all the laboring men in the United States. It is of vital interest to them, whether regarded in reference to their outward comfort, their moral condition, or the education of their children. If the Government withdraws its protecting care, and adopts the free-trade policy, we are at once exposed to a ruinous competition with the cheap labor and capital of the old and popu- lous nations. It is a protective tariff which gives to American indus- tiy the only effectual guaranty that it will not be brought down to a level with the degraded labor of Europe. It furnishes the only security that our standard of wages is not to be measured by the cost of production in those countries where the life of the laborer is but an incessant struggle for bread. In shaping the policy of a country like ours, there is something more to be considered by a statesman than the mere question where we can buy cheapest. Until manufactures are so firmly and exten- sively established as to reduce prices by domestic competition, it is no doubt true that most fabrics can be purchased cheaper abroad than at home, if we regard only the nominal money price. But the prosperity of the country depends upon the full and profitable em- ployment of its industry ; and the great question to determine is, by what system can we make our labor most efficient and produc- tive } What will secure to the country the largest augmentation of national wealth, and to the industrious man the largest return for his efforts .? It must be a system which provides for labor such 1 Congressional Globe, ist session, 2gth Congress, Appendix, p. 967. WAGES AXI) Till'. TARIFF 545 various pursuits and channels as shall ensure a more stead)- and universal employment of its powers. ... It is of o;reat moment to the industrious classes that capital shall he in\ested in those enterprises which gixe the largest employ- ment to labor. It is undoubtedly true, that many of our manufac- turing establishments, in those branches which have gained a firm footing, will be enabled to continue their operations even under low duties ; but it is equally certain that foreignxompetition will com- pel them, in self-preservation, to reduce the rale of wages. When you have opened your ports to the productions of c hr;ip labor from abroad, our industr)- must either be measured by the same standard or driven from employment. This effect is inevitable. Capifcd will suffer to some extent, especially in those smaller establishments whose means are limited ; but the proposed change will fall with the greatest severity on the industrious millions. Labor must bear the heaviest ills and penalties of mis-government ; the reduction of wages in manufacturing business, and the transfer of industry from accustomed employments, must depress the wages of agricultural labor in a similar decree. 'fc>^ ^ Speech of R. C. IVinthrop of MassacJuisetts, in House of Representatives, June 2^, 1 8^6 This, Mr. Chairman, I repeat, is what the policy of protection aims at. It looks at the working-man, not in his mere brute ca- pacity of a consumer, but in his higher nature of a producer. It looks not to reducing the price of what he eats or what he wears, but to keeping up the price of his own labor. It looks, in short, to wages first, wages last, wages altogether. Shall the wages of the zuhole civili::ed commercial world be equalized and levelled off? This is the briefest, tmest, most concise, and most comprehensive statement of the question between free trade and protection. The wages of labor — by which is to be understood not merely the wages which are paid by the capitalist to the hired hand, but the wages also which are earned by labor of any kind working on its own ac- count — are now higher in this country than in any other beneath 1 Congressional Globe, ist session, 29th Congress, Appendix, p. 973. 546 VIEWS OF THE PROTECTIVE TARIFF the sun. If anybody doubts this, let him stop the first emigrant whom he meets in the street, and ask him why he came over here, what conditions he left behind him, and in what circumstances he finds himself within six months after his arrival ? If anybody doubts this, let him turn to the Parliamentary debaters, the economical es- sayists, or even the corn-law rhymers of England, and see what they say as to the condition of the great mass of British operatives. VI. SOME INDIVIDUAL VIEWS A. Development of the Productive Powers — List and Hamilton 1 . . . The causes of wealth are quite a different thing from wealth itself. An individual may possess wealth, that is, exchange- able values ; but if he is not able to produce more values than he consumes, he will be impoverished. An individual may be poor, but if he can produce more than he consumes, he may grow rich. The power of creating wealth is then vastly more important than wealth itself ; it secures not only the possession and the increase of property already acquired, but even the replacing of that which is lost. If this be so with mere individuals, how much more is it true with nations, which cannot live upon their own income ! Germany has been in every age wasted by pestilence, famine, or civil and for- eign war, but has always preserved the greater part of her productive power, and thus has always quickly recovered her prosperity ; whilst Spain, rich and powerful, but trampled upon by despots and priests, Spain, in full possession of internal peace, has sunk into constantly increasing poverty and misery. The same sun still shines upon the Spaniards, they possess still the same soil, their wines are as rich as ever, they are still the same people as before the discovery of America, and before the establishment of the Inquisition ; but Spain has lost by degrees her productive power, and has thus become a poor and miserable country. The war of emancipation cost the Colonies of North America hundreds of millions, but their inde- pendence increased so immensely their productive power, that a 1 List, National System of r(jlitical Economy, pp. 208-209, 222, 306, 2S4, 285, 286, 287, 294, 295-296. SOME I\l)I\'lI)rAL \' I i:\vs 547 few years of peace added to their wealtli t;reater possessions tlian they before enjoyed. Compare the state of h'rance in 1H09, with that of 1H39 : what a thfference ! And ^ct !•" ranee, since 1S09, has lost a considerable part of the European continent, has undergone two devastating invasions, and paid millions upon millions for the expenditures of war. . . . The property of a nation does not depend on the quantity of riches and of exchangeable values it possesses, but u])on the de- gree in whicli the productive power is developed. . . . A nation finds its productix'e energy in the moral and phvsical power of individuals, in its civil and political institutions, in the nat- ural resources placed at its disposal ; finally, in the instruments of which it has tlie use, and which are themsehes tlie material products of previous efforts of body and mind, that is, products of previous agricultural, manufacturing, and commercial material capital. . . . It is plain indeed that the occupation of manufacturers develops and brings into exercise faculties and talents of a far higher and more varied order than do^-s agriculture. . . . It is obvious that agriculture requires only the same kind of qualification, bodily strength, and perseverance in the execution of rude tasks, united to a certain disposition to order ; whilst manu- facture exacts an immense variety of intellectual qualifications and of talents natural and acquired. The demand for this great diver- sity of faculties in a manufacturing state gives to each individual an opportunity of obtaining employment or a vocation conformable to his aptitude, whilst in an agricultural state such a choice is very limited. In the former, mental accjuiivments are in inuth higher esteem than in the second, in which the merit of a man is gener- ally measured by his bodily strength. It is not rare in the former to find feeble or ph\sically disabled men receiving higher remuner- ation than able bodied and strong men. The least strong, as women and children, the impotent and the aged, find in the manufactory employment and remuneration. . . . The union of the sciences with the industrial arts has created that great physical power which in modern times is a ten-fold sub- stitute for the labor of slaxes in anliciuity, and which is destined to 548 VIEWS OF THE PROTECTIVE TARIFF exert so important an influence upon the condition of the masses, upon the civilization of barbarous people, upon the salubrity of in- habited countries, and upon the power of nations long civilized. That vast physical agent is the power of machinery, . . . New inventions and improvements are but little appreciated by a purely agricultural population. Those who thus employ their minds among such people, generally lose their time and their labor. In a manufacturing State, on the contrary, there is no way which conducts a man of scienc-e or of skill to wealth and consideration sooner than that of invention and discovery. In the latter, genius is better appreciated and more highly remunerated than talent ; and talent, more than physical power. In an agricultural State, if we except public services, the rule is very nearly the opposite. The influence of manufactures upon the development of the power of physical labor, is not less than upon the moral power of the nation ; they afford to workmen enjoyments and stimulants, which excite them to the display of their faculties, and occasions for their full employment. It is an indisputable fact, that in a prosperous manufacturing community, laborers, independently of the assistance afforded by machinery and better implements, ac- complish daily much greater tasks than laborers are ever known to achieve in agriculture. . . . In proportion as man advances in civilization, he knows better how to take advantage of the natural forces placed within his reach. . . . In an imperfect agriculture, a great part of the forces of nature remain unemployed ; the man always confines his intercourse to his immediate neighborhood. Water and wind are hardly used as motive powers ; minerals and lands of various kinds, to which manufacturers know how to give so great a value, are neglected ; fuel is wasted, or, as turf for instance, is regarded as an obstacle to culture ; stones, .sand, and lime, are rarely employed in building ; in place of bearing burdens confided to them by the inhabitants, or of enriching the neighboring fields, rivers and streams of water waste their power and carry off the soil. The inhabitants of such a country enjoy but seldom the products of the sea or of the torrid zone. SOM]', INI)I\'II)IFAT. VIEWS 549 Even the princii)al natural power, the produetive force of the earth, is made available to a very small extent, so long as agricul- ture is not sustained l^y manufacturing industry. . . . When manufacturing industry takes root in an agricultural coun- try, roads are made, railroads are constructed, canals are dug, rivers made navigable, lines of steamboats estiiblished. Not only do the surjjlus jjroducts of the cultixator find ready access to market, but become a sure source of income; not only is the labor already employed made more active and available, but the rural population is enabled to draw from their previously neglected resources a large income, and to bring into immediate and profitable use all the minerals and all the metals buried in the earth. Materials for- merly transi)ortab!e only a few miles, such as salt, coal, marble, slates, lime, plaster, wood, bark, -etc., can then be distributed over the whole surface of a large country. Articles hitherto of no value take far higher rank in the statistics of the produc- tion of the country, than the whole pre\ious income of its agri- culture. The time comes when not a cubic inch of water-power is permitted to go unemployed ; and e\'en in the most remote parts of the country, timber and various fuels, hitherto inaccess- ible and without value, are brought into use and made vendible commodities. Manufactures create a demand for a multitude of articles besides raw materials, to which a portion of the soil may be devoted with greater profit than in the production of grain, usually the chief crop of purely agricultural countries. The demand for milk, butter, and meal, to which such a change gives rise, increases the value of the land previously used for pasture, improves the methods of culture, and promotes the practice of drainage ; and the demand for vegetables and fruits transforms fields into gardens or orchards. The loss sustained by a purely agricultural country from not using its natural resources is greater, in proportion as nature has more largely endowed it for manufactures, and as its territory is richer in raw materials and natural power, specially useful to manufactur- ing industry ; it is so, especiall)' for hilly or mountainous regions, less suited to culture on a large scale, but which offer to other branches of industiy, water-power, minerals, wood, and stone in 550 VIEWS OF THE PROTECTIVE TARIFF abundance, and to farmers and others, facilities for importing or producing articles which manufacturers require. . . . ^ It is now proper to proceed a step further, and to enumerate the principal circumstances from . which it may be inferred that manufacturing establishments not only occasion a positive aug- mentation of the produce and revenue of the society, but that they contribute essentially to rendering them greater than they could possibly be without such establishments. These circumstances are : — 1. The division of labor. 2. An extension of the use of machinery. 3. Additional employment to classes of the community not ordi- narily engaged in the business. 4. The promoting of emigration from foreign countries. 5. The furnishing greater scope for the diversity of talents and dispositions which discriminate men from each other. 6. The affording a more ample and various field for enterprise. 7. The creating in some instances a new, and securing in all a more certain and steady demand for the surplus produce of the soil. Each of these circumstances has a considerable influence upon the total mass of industrious effort in a community ; together they add to it a degree of energy and effect which are not easily conceived. Some comments upon each of them, in the order in which they have been stated, may serve to explain their impor- tance. . . . 3. As to the additional employment of classes of the community not ordinarily engaged in the particular business. This is not among the least valuable of the means by which manufacturing institutions contribute to augment the general stock of industry and production. In places where those institutions prevail, besides the persons regularly engaged in them, they afford occasional and extra employment to industrious individuals and families who are willing to devote the leisure resulting from the intermissions of their ordinary pursuits to collateral labors, as a re- source for multiplying their acquisitions or their enjoyments. The 1 Hamilton, Report on Manufactures. SOME INDIVIDrAI. \IFAV.S 55 I husbandman himself experiences a new source of profit and sup- port from the increased industry of his wife and daughters, invited and stimulated by the demands of the neighboring manufactories. Besides this advantage of occasional emjDloyment to classes hav- ing different occupations, there is anotlier of a nature allied to it, and of a similar tendency. This is the employment of persons who would otherwise be idle (and in many cases a burden on the com- munity), either from the bias of temper, habil, infirmity of body, or some other cause, indisposing or disqualifying them for the toils of the countiy. It is worthy of jjarticular remark that, in general, women and children are rendered more useful, and the latter more early useful, by manufacturing establishments than they would other- wise be. Of the number of persons employed in the cotton manu- factories of Great Britain, it is computed that four sevenths nearly arc women and children, — of whom the greatest proportion are children, and many of them of a tender age. And thus it appears to be one of the attributes of manufactures, and one of no small consequence, to give occasion to the exertion of a greater quantity of industiy, even by the same number of [per- sons, where they happen to prevail, than would exist if tliere were no such establishments. . . . 5. As to the furnishing greater scope for the diversity of talents and dispositions which discriminate men from each other. This is a much more powerful mean of augmenting the fund of national industry than may at first sight appear. It is a just obser- vation that minds of the strongest and most active powers for tlieir proper objects fall below mediocrity, and labor without effect if con- fined to uncongenial pursuits. And it is thence to be inferred that the results of human exertion may be immensely increased by di- versifying its objects. When all the different kinds of industry obtain in a community, each individual can find his proper element, and can call into activity the whole vigor of his nature. And the community is benefited by the services of its respective members in the manner in which each can serve it with most effect. If there be anything in a remark often to be met with, namely, that there is in the genius of the people of this countr)^ a peculiar aptitude for mechanic improvements, it would operate as a forcible 552 VIEWS OF THE PROTECTIVE TARIFF reason for giving opportunities to the exercise of that species of talent by the propagation of manufactures. . . } B. Concentration of Population and Increase of Economic Efficiency — Carey ^ . , . Without difference there can be no association, no com- merce ; and without diversity of employments there can be no other differences than those we see to have existed in the early and bar- barous ages of society. Let there be differences, and let commerce grow, and the value of commodities will be found steadily to de- cline, with correspondent growth in the utility of the materials of which they are composed, and in the value and freedom of man. , . . With exevy stage of progress in this direction, the various utili- ties of the raw materials of the neighborhood become more and more developed ; and with each he finds an increase of wealth. The new mill requires granite, and the houses for the workmen require bricks and lumber ; and now the rock of the mountain side, the clay of the river bottom, and the timber with which they have so long been covered, acquire value in the eyes of all around him. The granite dust of the quarry is found useful in his garden — en- abling him to furnish the cabbages, the beans, the peas, and the smaller fruits for the supply of the neighboring workmen. The glass-works need sand, and the glass-makers require peaches and apples ; and the more numerous the men who make the glass, the greater is the facility for returning the manure to the land, and increasing the crops of corn. On one hand he has a demand for potash, and on the other for madder. The woollen manufac- turer asks for teazles, and the maker of brooms urges him to extend the cultivation of the corn of which the brooms are made. The basket-makers, and the gunpowder manufacturers, are claimants for the produce of his willows ; and thus does he find, that diversity of employment among those around him produces diversity in the de- mands for his physical and intellectual powers, and for the use of the soil at the various seasons of the year — with constant increase 1 It is clear from this extract from the report on manufactures that Hamilton understood List's famous doctrine fifty years before List developed it. 2 Carey, Principles of Social Science, II, 28, 29-31, 209-211. SOME INDIVIDUAL VIEWS 553 in the present reward of labor, and constant augmentation in the powers, and in the value, of his land. Nothing, we may be well assured, grows in vain ; but in order tiiat the utility of the various products of the earth may be develojDed tliere must be association ; and that there cannot be when employments are not diversified. When they are, every thing is from day to day more and more utilized. The straw that would otherwise be wasted becomes paper, and the shavings of the tree counteract the deficiency in the supply of rags — with constant increase in the value of land, and in the rewards of those empkned in tlie development of its ]wwers. Directly the reverse of all this becomes obvious as the consumer is more and more removed from the producer, and as the power of association declines. The madder, the teazle, the broom corn, and the osier cease to be required ; and the granite, the clay, and the sand, continue to remain where nature had placed them. The motion of society — commerce — declines, and witli that decline we witness a stoppage in the motion of the matter, with constantly increasing waste of the powers of man and of the great machine given by the Creator for his use. His time is wasted, because he has no choice in the employment of his land. He must raise wheat, or cotton, or sugar, or some other commodit}' of which the yield is small, and which will, therefore, bear carriage to the distant market. He neglects his fruit-trees, and his potatoes are given to the hogs. He wastes his rags and his straw, because there is no paper-mill at hand. His forest-trees he destroys, that he may obtain a trifle in exchange for the ashes they thus are made to yield. His cotton- seed wastes upon the ground ; or he destroys the fibre of the flax that he may sell the seed. Not only does he sell his wheat in a distant market, and thus impoverish his land, but so does he also, with the very bones of the animals that have been fattened with his corn. The yield, therefore, regularly decreases in quantity, with constant increase in the risk of danger from changes of the weather, because of the necessity for dependence on a single crop ; and with equally constant diminution in the powers of the man who culti- vates it — until at length he finds himself a slave not only to na- ture, but to those of his fellow-men whose physical powers are greater than his own. That it is population which makes the food 554 VIEWS OF THE PROTECTIVE TARIFF come from the rich soils, and enables men to obtain wealth — or power to command the various forces of nature — is a truth the evidence of which may be found in every page of history ; and equally true is it, that in order to the cultivation of those soils, there must be that development of the latent powers of man which can be found in those communities only, in which employ- ments are diversified. . . . The treasures of nature are boundless in extent, the earth being a great reservoir of wealth and power — requiring for their full development only the canying into full effect the idea expressed by the magic word, ASSOCIATION. That such is the fact, is seen in every case in which, because of local circumstances, the American people find themselves enabled to combine their efforts for the accomplishment of some common object. Copibination of action furnishes to every resident of New York, PhnaSElpTTia, or Boston, a slave employed in supplying him with water, or with light, at a cost so trivial as to be utterly insignificant when com- pared with what it would be were he obliged to live and labor alone, as did the emigrants of the days of William Penn. Comhined, ef- fort enables us to pass from the shores of the Atlantic to the banks of the Mississippi in fewer hours, and at less expense, than, but a few years since, were required for going from New York to Washington. To such effort it is due that every child is supplied with instruction such as would be wholly unattainable by the soli- tary settler to whom we have so frequently referred. . . . Look where we may, we see evidence of the advantage to be derived from association ; and yet men are everywhere seen [in the United States] flying from their homes, and leaving behind them wives and children, parents and relatives — each one seem- ing desirous, as far as possible, to be compelled to roll his own log, build his own house, and cultivate his lonely field ; and thus deprive himself of all the benefit necessarily resulting from combi nation with his fellow-men. In the passage to his solitude, he traverses immense plains abounding in the fuel by whose consumption he would so much increase his wealth and power — preferring, appar- ently, to continue to confine himself to the use of his arm, when, by calling nature to his aid, he might be enabled to substitute the SOME I\I)I\I1)UAL VIEWS 555 qualities of his head for ihosc of his body, and pass from the laljors of the ox to those of the MAN. In no country of the world is there so great a voluntary waste of power as in these United States. . . . Mere it is that men are most disposed to separate themselves, each and every one from each and every other, and thus to forfeit all the advantages that are elsewhere seen to result from the substitution of the natural forces for those of the human arm. The waters of Niagara, capable of doing the work of millions of men, are allowed to run to waste ; and the coal-fields of Illinois, that, with the slightest effort, might be made to perform a hundred times more labor than is now per- formed by all the people of the Union, are held in almost as light esteem as would be a similar quantity of gravel, or of sand. Commerce tends to the development of the treasures of the earth — to the utilization of every particle of the matter of which our planet is composed — to the development of human power — to diminution in the value of the commodities required for the support of man — and to augmentation in his own value, and in that of tlie land upon which he is placed. At every stage of its progress, local centres acquire a larger attractive power — the mill, the mine, the furnace, the rolling mill, and the grist and cotton mills becoming the places of exchange, and thus diminishing the necessity for re- sorting to the trading cities of the world. The man whose labors have been given to the production of wheat, is thus enabled to exchange directly with one neighbor who converts wheat into flour, and another who has changed coal and ore into iron ; with one who has converted wool into cloth, and another who has made rags into paper — at once economizing the cost of transportation, and obtain- ing that intellectual commerce which is needed for enabling him to pass from the cultivation of the poor to that of the richer soils. Trade tends in an opposite direction — seeking everywhere to prevent the creation of local centres, and thus to increase the ne- cessity for resorting to the great central cities of the world. Every stage of its progress towards power is, therefore, attended by an increase in the tax of transportation,^ and a diminution of the 1 " No truth in science is more readily susceptible of demonstration than that of the liability of the man who must go to market, for the payment of the cost of 556 VIEWS OF THE PROTECTIVE TARIFF power of man, with constantly increasing exhaustion of the soil, requiring resort to new lands, to be in their turn exhausted. , . . Man is placed on this earth to subject the forces of nature to his service — compelling her to yield the commodities required for his use, and in exchange for the smallest possible amount of human effort. That that object may be accomplished, he is required to combine his efforts with those of his fellow-men — the farmer, the miller, and the baker uniting for the production of bread ; the shep- herd, the spinner, and the weaver uniting for the production of cloth. The more perfect that union, the less is the waste of labor in transportation and in effecting exchanges, and the greater the power to improve the land already occupied, while extending the work of cultivation over the richer soils — as is now being done in France, Denmark, Germany, and other of the advancing countries of Europe. The less the power of combination, the greater is the tendency to exhaustion of the soil, as is seen to be the case in Poland and Ireland, Turkey and Portugal, Jamaica and India, and every other country that is, like the United States, almost entirely devoted to the work of scratching the earth. Of all the raw mate- rial required for the purposes of man, manure is the most impor- tant, and the least susceptible of transportation to a distance ; and therefore it is that poverty, depopulation, and slavery, are the nec- essary consequences of the reduction of a community to depend- ence on the single species of effort required for compelling the earth to yield the raw material of clothing, or of food. Through- out the larger portion of the United States, the market is distant hundreds and thousands of miles. . . . Such being -the facts, we need no longer be surprised that every intelligent foreigner finds himself forced to remark on the low condition of American agriculture generally, and upon the gradual diminution in the powers of the land. In New York, where, eighty years since, 25 to 30 bushels of wheat were an ordinary crop, the getting there. It is one which sad experience teaches every farmer; and one, too, that the student may find demonstrated by Adam Smith. The corn that is twenty or thirty miles distant from market, sells for as many cents less per bushel than that which is at market; and the potatoes that are a hundred miles from market are almost worthless, while those raised close to it sell for thirty or forty cents a bushel — the difference between the two being the tax of transportation." — Carey. SOME IXDIXIDl'AL VIFAVS 557 average is now onl\- 14; while that of Indian corn is only 25. In Ohio, a State that but half a century since was a wilderness, the average of wheat is less than 1 2 ; and it diminishes, when it should increase. Throughout the West, the process of exhaustion is everywhere going on — the large crops of the early period of a settlement being followed, invariably, by small ones in later years. In Virginia, throughout a large district of country once considered the richest in the State, the average of wheat is less than 7 bush- els ;' while in North Carolina, men cultivate land yielding little more than that quantity of Indian corn. Tobacco has been raised in Vir- ginia and Kentucky until the land has been utterly exhausted and abandoned ; while throughout the whole cotton-growing country we meet with a sense of exhaustion unparalleled in the world, to have been accomplished in so brief a period. The people who raise cot- ton and tobacco are living upon capital — selling their soil at prices so low that they do not obtain one dollar for every five destroyed ; and as man is always a progressive animal, whether his course be upward or downward, we may now readily understand the cause of the steady and regular growth of that feeling which leads to regard- ing bondage as being the natural condition of those who need to sell their labor. Trade leads necessarily to such results, and as the whole energies of the country are given to the enlargement of the trader's power, it is no matter of surprise that its people are everywhere seen employed in " robbing the earth of its capital stock." , . . With the growth of commerce, and the increase in the power of association, the farmer is enabled to vary the objects of cultivation — substituting potatoes, turnips, and other products, of which the earth yields by tons, for wheat, of which it yields by bushels, and for cotton, the yield of which is pounds. With the decline of com- merce and growth of the power of trade, the market becomes more distant, and he is compelled to limit himself to the few commodi- ties of which the earth yields but little, and that will, therefore, bear transportation. Each and every plant requires for its nour- ishment ceitain elements, by the continual extraction of which the earth is impoverished ; and thus do the exhaustion of the land, and the dispersion of men, in one year, prepare for further 558 VIEWS OF THE PROTECTIVE TARIFF exhaustion and dispersion in another one. Such having been the case with cotton and sugar cultivation in the Southern States, and that of wheat and tobacco in the more Northern ones, the conse- quences are seen in the fact, that the impoverishment of the soil and the dispersion of population proceed from year to year at a constantly accelerated pace. . . . The more perfect the power of association and combination, the more rapid is the progress of agricultural knowledge, the larger is the quantity of commodities obtained from the earth, and the smaller is the proportion required for paying the tax of transporta- tion and exchange — and the larger is the power of the planter and farmer to determine for themselves the application of their labor and their land. The less that power, the more does agriculture cease to be a science, the smaller is the quantity of things obtained, the larger is the proportion required by the trader and transporter, and the more rapidly does the cultivator sink to the condition of a mere slave, to be controlled in all his operations by those who stand between himself and the consumer of his products. . . . C. Cheap Land a Bounty to Agriculture — Rush ^ There is an inducement to increase legislative protection to manufactures, in the actual internal condition of the United States, which is viewed with an anxiousness belonging to its peculiar char- acter and intrinsic weight. It is that which arises from the great extent of their unsold lands. The magnitude of the interests at stake in this part of our public affairs, ought not to appall us from approaching it. It should rather impel us to look at it with the more earnest desire to arrive at correct opinions on any course of legislation that may affect, primarily or remotely, an interest so full of importance. The maxim is held to be a sound one, that the ratio of capital to population should, if possible, be kept on the increase. When this takes place, the demand and compensation for labor will be proportionably increased, and the condition of the most nu- merous classes of the community become improved. If the ratio of capital to population be diminished, a contrary state of things 1 Rush, Report of the Secretary of the Treasury, 1827. SOME TXDIVTDUAT. VIFAVS 559 will be the result. The manner in which the remote lands of the United States are selling and settling, whilst it may possibly tend to increase more quickly the aggregate population of the country and the mere means of subsistence, does not increase capital in the same proportion. It is a proposition too plain to require elucidation, that the creation of capital is retarded, rather than accelerated, by the diffusion of a thin j^ojuilation over a great surface of soil. Any thing that may serve to hold back this tendency to diffusion from running too far, and too long, into an extreme, can scarcely prove otherwise than salufciry. Moreover, the further encouragement of manufactures by legislative means, would be but a counterbalance, and at most a partial one, to the encouragement to agriculture by legislative means, standing out in the very terms upon which the public lands are sold. It is not here intended to make the system of selling off the territorial domain of the Union, a subject of any commentary, and still less of any complaint. The system is inter- woven beneficially with the highest interests and destiny of the na- tion. It rests upon foundations, both of principles and practice, deep and immovable ; foundations not to be up-rooted or shaken. But our gravest attention may, on this account, be but the more wisely summoned to the consideration of correlative duties, w-hich the existence of such a system in the heart of the state imposes. It cannot be overlooked, that the jjriccs at which fertile bodies of land may be bought of the government under this s)-stem, operate as a perpetual allurement to their purcliasc. It must, therefore, be taken in the light of a bounty, indelibly written in the text of the laws themselves, in favor of agricultural pursuits. Such it is, in effect, though not in form. Perhaps no enactment of legislative bounties, has ever before operated upon a scale so vast, throughout a series of years, and over the face of an entire nation, to turn population and labor into one particular channel, preferably to all others. The utmost extent of protection granted to manufactures or commerce, by our statutes, collectively, since the first foundation of the government, has been, in its mere effect of drawing the people of the United States into those pursuits, as nothing to it. No scale of imposts, no prohibi- tions or penalties, no bounties, no premiums, enforced or dispensed 560 VIEWS OF THE PROTECTIVE TARIFF at the custom-house, has equalled it. It has served, and still serves, to draw, in an annual stream, the inhabitants of a majority of the States, including amongst them at this day a portion, not small, of the western States, into the settlement of fresh lands, lying still farther and farther off. If the population of these States, not yet redundant in fact, though appearing to be so, under this legislative incitement to emigrate, remained fixed in more instances, as it probably would by extending the motives to manufacturing labor, it is believed that the nation at large would gain, in two ways : — first, by the more rapid accumulation of capital ; and, next, by the grad- ual reduction of the excess of its agricultural population over that engaged in other vocations. It is not imagined that it would ever be practicable, even if it were desirable, to turn this stream of emi- gration aside ; but resources opened, through the influence of the laws, in new fields of industry, to the inhabitants of the States already sufficiently peopled to enter upon them, might operate to lessen, in some degree, and usefully lessen, its absorbing force. The eye of legislation, intent upon the whole good of the nation, will look to each part, not separately as a part, but in conjunction with the whole. The rapidity with which, after all, a civilized pop- ulation, founding new and sovereign communities, will grow up in those exuberant portions of territory, presents considerations favor- able to the main policy inculcated. This population, carrying with it the wants and habits of society, will create a demand for manu- factures, which must, at least for some time, be supplied from other sources. It will hence form the natural market of purchase and consumption for those produced in other parts of the Union, rather than in foreign countries. By this intercourse we may hope to see multiplied the commercial and pecuniary ties, which it is fit should grow up and be cherished throughout the whole federal family, superadding themselves to all other ties, and harmonizing and compacting the elements of a great empire. Should it still be apprehended by any, that evils will be generated in a state of society where large manufacturing classes co-exist with a full popu- lation ; to such minds, the reflection must prove consolatory and re-assuring, that in the public lands a check to these evils will be at hand for ages to come. This immense domain, besides embodying SOMK INDIVIDUAL VIEWS 56 1 all the ingredients, material and moral, of riches and power, throughout a long vista of the future, ma)-, therefore, also be clung to, under the various springs and conjoint movements of our happy political s3-stem, as a safeguard against contingent dangers. Its very possession is conceived to furnish paramount inducements, under all views, for quickening by fresh legislative countenance, manufacturing labor throughout other parts of the Union. It is a power to be turned to the account of manifold and transcendent blessings, rather than reposed upon for aggrandizing too exclusively the interest of agriculture, fundamental as that must ever be in the state. Agriculture itself would be essentially benefited ; the price of lands in all the existing States would soon become enhanced, as well as the produce from them, by a policy that would in any wise tend to render portions of their present ])opulation more stationary, by supplying new and adequate motives to their becoming so. And, as it is, the laws that have largely, in effect, throughout a long course of time, superinduced disinclinations to manufacturing labor, by tJicir overpowering calls to rural labor, in the mode of selling off the public domain, the claim of further legal protection to the former kind of labor, at this day, seems to wear an aspect of justice no less than of expediency. . . . ^ The last advantage which your memorialists propose to mention, as resulting from the establishment of domestic manufactures, is their effect in restraining emigration from the settled to the unset- tled parts of the countr)\ It is true, as a general prinpiple, that manufactures add to the wealth and population of a country, the whole amount of the capital and labor to which tlu-y give employ- ment ; but, in the particular case of the United States, where large tracts of good unoccupied land are continually for sale at low prices, it is probable, as your memorialists have already remarked, that some of the persons who, under the influence of the protecting policy, invest their capital and labor in manufactures, would, if this field of employment had not been opened to them at home, have emigrated to some of the unsettled parts of the countr\-, and been ^ Memorial of the New York Convention of the Friends of Domestic Industry to the Congress of the United States, presented March 26, 1832. 562 VIEWS OF THE PROTECTIVE TARIFF occupied in clearing land. But when an individual can obtain a profitable market for his labor at his own door, in the midst of his friends and kindred, and of objects that are connected with the agreeable associations of his early years, he will hardly be tempted to go in search of it to a distant unexplored wilderness. The in- crease of population which thus takes place in the manufacturing states, by creating an increased demand for provisions and materi- als, renders it in turn more advantageous for the agricultural states to extend their industry at home, than to send off continually new colonies. In this way, the tide of emigration, without being wholly dammed up, is considerably checked throughout all the settled parts of the union, and the population of all begins to put on a more consolidated shape. This result, although it amounts in fact, as has been intimated, to a change in the direction of a part of the agri- cultural labor of the country, and a transfer of some of it to manu- factures, not only furnishes no objection to the encouragement of this branch of industry, but is itself a strong argument in favor of such a policy. These remarks are not made under impressions in any way unfavorable to the character and interests of the younger members of the union. Your memorialists, in common with all their fellow-citizens, feel a just pride in the flourishing condition of the new states. They consider the rapid progress of these states in wealth, population, and general prosperity, as a spectacle unpar- alleled in moral magnificence by any thing to be met with in the annals of the world. Your memorialists are fully of opinion, that the sudden expansion of our population over the unsettled terri- tories of the union, has been thus far productive of good. It has thrown open a broad and ample field for the national industry, and has brought into action a new political element, which serves as a sort of mediator between sectional interests, which might other- wise have proved to be irreconcilably hostile. But, admitting the reality of these great benefits, it is also certain that if, in a region like the interior of the United States, which cannot be supplied with manufactures from abroad, the whole population devote themselves exclusively to agriculture, and as fast as they increase, continue to spread themselves more and more widely over the unlimited regions that are accessible to them, they must live, in a considerable degree, SOMI': INDIVIDUAI. VIKWS 563 without the knowlcd^i;c or enjoyment of the arts of life, and be in continual danger of sinking to a lower degree of civilization. The singularly excellent character of the settlers, their industrious habits, and the high tone of patriotic sentiment which has always pervaded the whole population of the new states, have hitherto maintained them at a point of cixilization which, considering their circum- stances, is hardly less wonderful than the raj^idity of their progress in wealth and greatness. lUit the only way in which the advances they have made can be secured, and a solid foundation laid for the fabric of social improvement, is by naturalizing, on the spot, the cultivation of the useful arts. As far as the protecting policy may have the effect of diverting, into this channel, a portion of the labor and capital of the country, which would otherwise be employed in clearing land on the borders of the union, it will work, undoubtedly, a material change for the better. It is almost superfluous to add, that no one section of the more anciently settled parts of the union is more particularly interested in this result than the others. It is well known that the emigration from the southern Atlantic states has been of late even more considerable than from any other quar- ter. In this respect, there is a complete identity of interest among all the different sections of the union. . . . CHAPTER XI THE CURRENCY INTRODUCTION The currency provisions of the federal constitution were intended to " shut and bar the door " against the evils of a legal-tender paper money issued by state or national governments. For more than two generations it succeeded in accomplishing that end. But it did not thereby free the nation during that time from a serious and difficult currency problem. Contemporaneous with the establishment of the new government, banks were introduced into the United States and spread everywhere with astonishing rapidity. As a result the Amer- ican people continued as in former times to use for the most part a paper cur- rency, consisting of the notes of these banks. They were not legal tender, as the old bills of credit had been, and could not be made so ; and no one sup- posed that they could give rise to the evils of a depreciated paper currency. Nevertheless, this was exactly what happened. When these notes had become the circulating medium of the country, and all, or nearly all, the specie had been driven out of circulation, and indeed out of the country, it was found that they would continue to circulate as money, even when greatly depreciated in value, though they were not legal tender. The reason for this was soon apparent. When there was a general suspension of specie payment by the banks over the whole country, or in any large section of it, there was no other medium of exchange which the people could use to transact their business. They had to use bank notes or suspend business operations altogether. The result was a circulation of depreciated bank notes quite as great as ever took place with the legal-tender bills of credit of colonial and revolutionary times. A minor evil of the bank-note currency was the fact that it was not of uniform value in different parts of the country, even where the notes were promptly redeemed by the banks that issued them. At a distance from the banks of issue the notes circulated at a discount. Now the currency problem of this period was, how to remedy these evils : how to make the bank-note currency uniform in value at all times and in all places in the country. It was a problem that both the state and federal gov- ernments endeavored to solve. But for obvious reasons it was only the latter that could deal with it effectively, though the states could, and many of them did, do much to improve the situation ; as witness the Suffolk System in New England, the Safety-Fund System in New York, and such state banks as were established by Indiana and Ohio. It was the federal government, however, that had to be chiefly relied upon for relief. 564 BANKING SYSTEM AND 'II IK XA'ilONAL 1!A\K 565 Its currency policy during the period naturally falls into two parts. In the earlier years it established and maintained a national bank — a large central institution with branches in all parts of the country — which was expected, first, to provide through its notes a paper currency that should be uniform in value in all parts of the country, and second, to bring pressure to bear upon the state banks to prevent that overissue of notes which led inevitably to suspen- sion of specie payment. Apart from these functions the bank was to serve as an agent of the government for the collection and disbursement of its revenues. None of these objects, except perhaps the first, were the reasons for establish- ing the first national bank, liut once established it did, as a matter of fact, perform these functions, and it was to secure their continued performance that the second bank was established in 1816. This policy came to an end in 1836, and in its place a very different one was substituted. The government was to be separated completely from the banks, and was to have absolutely nothing of any kind to do with them. It was not to establish and maintain a national bank, and was to have no dealings with state banks. It would not use them as agents or depositories for its funds; nor would it receive their notes in jwyment of revenue. It proposed to collect all of its revenue in specie, and to hold and disburse it through its own officials. This was known as the independent treasury and hard money policy. In form it seems to be an abandonment of the whole currency problem of the time. It was not, however, in reality so intended, but was rather to he a partial solution of it. The removal of government deposits from the banks was expected to take away one great influence leading to undue expansion of bank credit, which in those days always took the form of note issue. The exclusive use of specie by the government was also expected to have some influence in checking that evil, and by keeping a considerable amount of specie in circulation at all times, prevent those conditions which made the circulation of depreciated bank notes necessary in times of suspension of specie payments. In the following extracts an attempt has been made to present the chief arguments for each of these policies, and to bring out some of the conditions affecting banks in this country which were in part responsible for the currency difiiculties of the time. I. THE BANKING SYSTEM AND THE NATIONAL BANK ^ The framers of the Constitution of the United States were deeply impressed with the still fresh recollection of the baneful effects of a paper money currency on the property and on the moral feeling of the community. It was according!}- ^jroxided b\' our National Charter that no State should coin monc\-, emit bills 1 Gallatin, Considerations on the Currency and Banking System of the United States [1S31], Writings, III, 235-236, 282, 285, 287-291, 319, 327-334. 345- 566 THE CURRENCY of credit, make anything but gold and silver coin a tender, in pay- ment of debts, or pass any law impairing the obligation of con- tracts ; and the power to coin money and to regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin, was, by the same instrument, vested exclusively in Congress. As this body has no authority to make anything whatever a tender in payment of private debts, it neces- sarily follows that nothing but gold and silver coin can be made a legal tender for that purpose, and that Congress cannot authorize the payment in any species of paper currency of any other debts but those due to the United States, or such debts of the United States as may, by special contract, be made payable in such paper. . . . The provisions of the Constitution were universally considered as affording a complete security against the danger of paper money. The introduction of the banking system met with a strenuous op- position on various grounds ; but it was not apprehended that bank- notes, convertible at will into specie, and which no person could be legally compelled to take in payment, would degenerate into pure paper money, no longer paid at sight in specie. At a later date, although occasional bankruptcies had taken place, and might again be anticipated, there was no apprehension of a general failure of the banks in three-fourths of the States. Still less was it expected ; and it was the catastrophe of the year 1814 which first disclosed not only the insecurity of the American banking system, as then existing, but also that when a paper currency, driving away and superseding the use of gold and silver, has insinuated itself through every channel of circulation and become the only medium of ex- change, every individual finds himself, in fact, compelled to receive such currency, even when depreciated more than twenty per cent., in the same manner as if it had been made a legal tender. The es- tablishment of the Bank of the United States was recommended by the Treasury, and that institution was incorporated by Congress, for the express and avowed purpose of removing an evil which the difference in the rate of depreciation between the paper currencies of the several States, and even those of different places in the same State, had rendered altogether intolerable. The object in view has been obtained. The resumption of specie payments, which the State BANKIXC; SVS'l'RM AND THE NATIONAL liAXK 567 banks had been unwilling or unable to effect, took jilace immedi- ately after that of the United Stiites had commenced its operations. And it has for a number of years supplied the country with a cur- rency safer and, it must at least be allowed, more uniform than that which the State banks could furnish. . . . The capital of the State banks existing in the year 1 790 amounted to about 2,000,000 of dollars. The former l^ank of the United States was chartered, in 1791, with a capital of 10,000,000. The charter was not renewed ; but in January, i()tb tliosc advantages were anticipated in the establishment of the l^ank of the United States, and it appears to us that the bank fulfils both those conditions. As respects the past, it is a matter of fact that specie payments were restored and have been maintiiined through the instrumentality of that institution. It gives a complete guarantee that under any circumstances its notes will preserve the same uniformity which they now possess. Placed under the control of the general government, relying for its existence on the correct- ness, prudence, and skill with which it shall be administered, per- petually watched and occasionally checked by both the Treasury Department and rival institutions, and without a monopoly, yet with a capital and resources adequate to the object for which it was estabhshed, the bank also affords the strongest security which can be given with respect to paper not only for its ultimate solvency, but also for the uninterrupted soundness of its currency. The statements we have given of its progressive and present situation show how far those expectations have heretofore been realized. Those statements also show that the Bank of the United States, wherever its operations have been extended, has effectually checked excessive issues on the part of the Sfcite banks, if not in e\'ery instance, certainly in the aggregate. They had been reduced, before the year 1820, from sixty-six to less than forty millions. At that time those of the Bank of the United .States fell short of four mil- lions. The increased amount required by the increase of population and wealth during the ten ensuing years has been supplied in a much greater proportion by that bank than b\- those of the States. With a treble capital, they have added little more than eight mil- lions to their issues. Those of the l^ank of the United States were nominall\- twelve, in reality about ele\en, millions greater in November, 1829, than in November, 1819. The whole amount of the paper currency has during those ten years increased about forty-five, and that portion which is issued by the .State banks only twenty-two and a half per cent. We have, indeed, a proof, not very acceptable, perhaps, to the bank, but conclusive of the fact, that it has performed the office required of it in that respect. The general complaints on the part of many of the Stiite banks, that they are checked and controlled in their operations by the Bank of 578 THE CURRENCY the United States, that, to use a common expression, it operates as a screw, is the best evidence that its general operation is such as had been intended. It was for that very purpose that the bank was estabhshed. . We are not, however, aware that a single solvent bank has been injured by that of the United States, though many have undoubtedly been restrained in the extent of their operations much more than was desirable to them. This is certainly incon- venient to some of the banks, but in its general effects is a public benefit to the community. . . . The principal advantages derived from the Bank of the United States, which no State bank and, as it appears to us, no bank established on different principles could afford, are, therefore, first and principally, securing with certainty a uniform and, as far as paper can, a sound currency ; secondly, the complete security and great facility it affords to government in its fiscal operations ; thirdly, the great convenience and benefit accruing to the commu- nity from its extensive transactions in domestic bills of exchange and inland drafts. . . , II. THE INDEPENDENT TREASURY AND THE HARD MONEY POLICY Van Bni'cii s Special Session Message, Septe^nber /f., iSj"/ The present and visible effects of these circumstances [the crisis of May, 1837 and the suspension of specie payments by the banks] on the operations of the Government and on the industry of the people point out the objects which call for your immediate attention. They are, to regulate by law the safe-keeping, transfer, and disbursement of the public moneys ; to designate the funds to be received and paid by the Government ; to enable the Treasury to meet promptly every demand upon it ; to prescribe the terms of indulgence and the mode of settlement to be adopted, as well in collecting from individuals the revenue that has accrued as in withdrawing it from former depositories ; and to devise and adopt such further measures, within the constitutional competency of Congress, as will be best calculated to revive the enterprise and to promote the prosperity of the country. INDKPENDENT TRKASIRV AND HARD MoNFA' 579 For tlu' deposit, transfer, and disbursement of the reventic national and Stiitc banks ha\e always, with tenii)orary and limited exceptions, been heretofore employed ; but althoui^di advocates of each system are slill to be found, it is apparent lliat the events of the last few months have greatly augmented the desire, long ex- isting among the people of the I'nited Stiites, to separate the fiscal operations of the (jovernment from those of individuals or corporations. . . . It can not be concealed that tliere exists in our conmiunity opin- ions and feelings on this subject in direct opposition to each other. A large portion of them, combining great intelligence, activity, and influence, are no doubt sincere in their belief that the operations of trade ought to be assisted b)- such a connection ; they regard a national bank as necessary for this purpose, and they are disinclined to every measure that does not tend sooner or later to the estab- lishment of such an institution. On the other hand, a majority of the people are believed to be irreconcilably opposed to that meas- ure ; they consider such a concentratif)n of power dangerous to their liberties, and many of them regard it as a violation of the Consti- tution. This collision of opinion has doubtless caused much of the embarrassment to which the commercial transactions of the country have lately been exposed. Banking has become a political topic of the highest interest, and trade has suffered in the conflict of parties. A speedy termination of this state of things, however desirable, is scarcely to be expected. We have seen for nearly half a century that those who advocate a national bank, by whatever motive they have been influenced, constitute a portion of our communitv too numerous to allow us to hope for an earl)' abandonment of their favorite plan. On the other hand, they must indeed form an erro- neous estimate of the intelligence and temper of the American peo- ple who suppose that they have continued on slight or insuflicient grounds their persevering opposition to such an institution, or that they can be induced by pecuniary pressure or b\- an)- other combina- tion of circumstances to surrender principles they have so long and so inflexibly maintained. My own views of the subject are unchanged. They have been repeatedly and unreservedly announced to my fellow-citizens, who 580 THE CURRENCY with full knowledge of them conferred upon me the two highest offices of the Government. On the last of these occasions I felt it due to the people to apprise them distinctly that in the event of my election I would not be able to cociperate in the reestablishment of a national bank. To these sentiments I have now only to add the expression of an increased conviction that the reestablishment of such a bank in any form, whilst it would not accomplish the bene- ficial purpose promised by its advocates, would impair the rightful supremacy of the popular will, injure the character and diminish the influence of our political system, and bring once more into ex- istence a concentrated moneyed power, hostile to the spirit and threatening the permanency of our republican institutions. Local banks have been employed for the deposit and distribution of the revenue at all times partially and on three dift'erent occasions exclusively : First, anterior to the establishment of the first Bank (jf the United States; secondly, in the interval between the termina- tion of that institution and the charter of its successor; and thirdly, during the limited period which has now so abruptly closed. The connection thus repeatedly attempted proved unsatisfactory on each successive occasion, notwithstanding the various measures which were adopted to facilitate or insure its success. . . . Under these circumstances it becomes our solemn duty to in- quire whether there are not in any connection between the Gov- ernment and banks of issue evils of great magnitude, inherent in its very nature and against which no precautions can effectually guard. . . . A danger difficult, if not impossible, to be avoided in such an ar- rangement is made strikingly evident in the very event by which it has now been defeated. A sudden act of the banks intmsted with the funds of the people deprives the Treasury, without fault or agency of the Government, of the ability to pay its creditors in the currency they have by law a right to demand. This circumstance no fluctuation of commerce could have produced if the public rev- enue had been collected in the legal currency and kept in that form by the officers of the Treasury. The citizen whose money was in bank receives it back since the suspension at a sacrifice in its amount, whilst he who kept it in the legal currency of the country INDKPENDENT TRKASIRN' WD llAKh M()\KV 5X1 and in his own possession pursues without loss the cunvnt of his business. The (Tovcrnment, placed in the situation of the former, is involved in embarrassments it could not have suffered had it pursued the course of the latter. . . . . . . To such embarrassments and to such dangers will this Government be always exposed whilst it takes the moneys raised for and necessaiy to the public service out of the hands of its own officers and converts them into a mere rif;ht of action against corporations intrusted with the possession of them. Nor can such results be effectually guarded against in such a s)'stem without investing the Executive with a control over the banks themselves, whether State or national, that might with reason be objected to. Ours is probably the only (iovernment in llie world that is liable in the management of its fiscal concerns to occurrences like these. But this imminent risk is not the only danger attendant on the surrender of the public money to the custody and control of local corporations. Though the object is aid to the Treasury, its effect may be to introduce into the operations of the Government in- fluences the most subtle, founded on interests the most selfish. The use by the banks, for their own benefit, of the money de- posited with them has received the sanction of the Government from the commencement of this connection. The money received from the people, instead of being kept till it is needed for their use, is, in consequence of this authority, a fund on which discounts arc made for the profit of those who happen to be owners of stock in the banks selected as depositories. The sujjposed and often exaggerated advantages of such a boon will always cause it to be sought for with avidity. I will not stop to consider on whom the patronage incident to it is to be conferred. Whether the selection and control be trusted to Congress or to the Executive, either will be subjected to appeals made in e\-ery form wliich the sagacity of interest can suggest. The banks under such a system are stimulated to make the most of their fortunate acquisition ; the deposits are treated as an increase of capital ; loans and circulation are rashly augmented, and when the public exigencies require a return it is attended with embarrassments not provided for nor foreseen. Tluis 582 THE CURRENCY banks that thought themselves most fortunate when the pubHc funds were received find themselves most embarrassed when the season of payment suddenly arrives. Unfortunately, too, the evils of the system are not limited to the banks. It stimulates a general rashness of enterprise and aggra- vates the fluctuations of commerce and the currency. This result was strikingly exhibited during the operations of the late deposit system, and especially in the purchases of public lands. The order which ultimately directed the payment of gold and silver in such purchases greatly checked, but could not altogether prevent, the evil. Specie was indeed more difficult to be procured than the notes which the banks could themselves create at pleasure ; but still, being obtained from them as a loan and returned as a deposit, which they were again at liberty to use, it only passed round the circle with diminished speed. This operation could not have been performed had the funds of the Government gone into the Treasury to be regularly disbursed, and not into banks to be loaned out for their own profit while they were permitted to substitute for it a credit in account. . . . Since, therefore, experience has shown that to lend the public money to the local banks is hazardous to the operations of the Government, at least of doubtful benefit to the institutions them- selves, and productive of disastrous derangement in the business and currency of the country, is it the part of wisdom again to re- new the connection ? . . . . The character of the funds to be received and disbursed in the transactions of the Government likewise demand your most care- ful consideration. . . . Of my own duties under the existing laws, when the banks sus- pended specie payments, I could not doubt. Directions were imme- diately given to prevent the reception into the Treasury of anything but gold and silver, or its equivalent, and every practicable arrange- ment was made to preserve the public faith by similar or equivalent payments to the public creditors. . . . Congress is now to decide whether the revenue shall continue to be so collected or not. The receipt into the Treasury of bank notes not redeemed in specie on demand will not, I presume, be sanctioned. It would INDEPENDENT TREASURY AND HARD MoNFA' 583 destroy without the excuse of war or public distress that equahty of imposts and identity of commercial regulation which lie at the foundation of our Confederacy, and would offer to each State a direct temptation to increase its foreign trade by depreciating the currency received for duties in its ports. Such a proceeding would also in a great degree fmstrate the policy so highly cherished of infusing into our circulation a larger proportion of ihc ])rccious metals — a policy the wisdom of which none can doubt, though there may be different opinions as to the extent to which it should be carried. ... . . . Amidst all conflicting theories, one position is undeniable — the precious metals will invariably disappear when there ceases to be a necessity for their use as a circulating medium. It was in strict accordance with this truth that whilst in the month of May last they were everywhere seen and w'ere current for all ordinary purposes they disappeared from circulation the moment the payment of specie was refused by the banks and the community tacitly agreed to dispense with its employment. Their place was supplied by a currency exclusively of paper, and in many cases of the worst description. Already are the bank notes now in circulation greatly depreciated, and they fluctuate in value between one place and another, thus diminishing and making uncertain the w'orth of prop- erty and the price of labor, and failing to subserv'e, except at a heavy loss, the purposes of business. With each succeeding day the metallic currency decreases ; by some it is hoarded in the natural fear that once parted with it can not be replaced, while by others it is diverted from its more legitimate uses for the sake of gain. . . . It may indeed be questioned whether it is not for the interest of the banks themselves that the Government should not recei\-e their paper. They would be conducted with more caution and on sounder principles. By using specie only in its transactions the (iovernment would create a demand for it, which would toagi'cat extent prevent its exportation, and by keeping it in circulation maintain a broader and safer basis for the paper currency. That the banks would thus be rendered more sound and the community more safe can not admit of a doubt. . . . 584 THE CURRENCY Vafi Bnrcn s Annual Message, December 2, iSjg I have heretofore assigned to Congress my reasons for beheving that the estabhshment of an independent National Treasury, as con- templated by the Constitution, is necessary to the safe action of the Federal Government. The suspension of specie payments in 1837 by the banks having the custody of the public money showed in so alarming a degree our dependence on those institutions for the per- formance of duties required by law that I then recommended the entire dissolution of that connection. This recommendation has been subjected, as I desired it should be, to severe scrutiny and animated discussion, and I allow myself to believe that notwith- standing the natural diversities of opinion which may be anticipated on all subjects involving such important considerations, it has secured in its favor as general a concurrence of public sentiment as could be expected on one of such magnitude. . . . New dangers to the banks are also daily disclosed from the extension of that system of extravagant credit of which they are the pillars. L^ormerly our foreign commerce was principally founded on an exchange of commodities, including the precious metals, and leaving in its transactions but little foreign debt. Such is not now the case. Aided by the facilities afforded by the banks, mere credit has become too commonly the basis of trade. Many of the banks themselves, not content with largely stimulating this system among others, have usurped the business, while they impair the stability, of the mercantile community ; they have become borrowers instead of lenders ; they establish their agencies abroad ; they deal largely in stocks and merchandise ; they encourage the issue of State securities until the foreign market is glutted with them ; and, un- satisfied with the legitimate use of their own capital and the exercise of their lawful privileges, they raise by large loans additional means for every variety of speculation. The disasters attendant on this deviation from the former course of business in this country are now shared alike by banks and individuals to an extent of which there is perhaps no previous example in the annals of our country. So long as a willingness of the foreign lender and a sufficient ex- port of our productions to meet any necessary partial payments INDKI'ENDENT TREASURY AND IIAKD MoMA' 5S5 leave the flow of credit undisturbed all a|)pcars to be prosperous, but as soon as it is checked by any hesitation abroad or by any inabihty to make payment there in our productions the evils of the system are disclosed. The paper currency, which might serve for domestic purposes, is useless to pay the debt due in Europe. Gold and silver are therefore drawn in exchange for their notes from the banks. To keep up their supply of coin these institutions are obliged to call upon their own debtors, who pay them principally in their own notes, which are as unavailable to them as they are to the merchants to meet the foreign demand. The calls of the banks, therefore, in such emergencies of necessity exceed that demand, and produce a corresponding curtailment of their accommodations and of the currency at the very moment when the state of trade renders it most inconvenient to be borne. The intensity of this pressure on the community is in proj^ortion to the previous liberal- ity of credit and consequent expansion of the currency. Forced sales of property are made at the time when the means of purclias- ing are most reduced, and the worst calamities to indixiduals are only at last arrested by an open violation of their obligations by the banks — a refusal to pay specie for tlieir notes and an imposition upon the community of a fluctuating and depreciated currency. These consequences are inherent in the present system. They are not influenced by the banks being large or small, created by National or States Governments. They are the results of the irre- sistible laws of trade or credit. In the recent events, which have so strikingly illustrated the certain effects of these laws, we have seen the bank of the largest capital in the Union [the United States Bank], established under a national charter, and lately strengthened, as we were authoritatively informed, by exchanging that for a State charter with new and unusual privileges — in a condition, too, as it was said, of entire soundness and great prosperity • — not merely unable to resist these effects, but the first to yield to them. Nor is it to be overlooked that th.ere exists a chain of necessary dependence among these institutions which obliges them to a great extent to folknv the course of olheis, notwithstanding its injustice to their own immediate creditors or injury to the particuku" com- munity in which they are placed. This dependence of a bank, 586 THE CURRENCY whicli is in proportion to the extent of its debts for circulation and deposits, is not merely on others in its own vicinity, but on all those which connect it with the center of trade. Distant banks may fail without seriously affecting those in our principal commer- cial cities, but the failure of the latter is felt at the extremities of the Union. The suspension at New York in 1837 was everywhere, with very few exceptions, followed as soon as it was known. That recently at Philadelphia immediately affected the banks of the South and West in a similar manner. This dependence of our whole bank- ing system on the institutions in a few large cities is not found in the laws of their organization, but in those of trade and exchange. The banks at that center, to which currency flows and where it is required in payments for merchandise, hold the power of controlling those in regions whence it comes, while the latter possess no means of restraining them ; so that the value of individual property and the prosperity of trade through the whole interior of the country are made to depend on the good or bad management of the bank- ing institutions of the great seats of trade on the seaboard. But this chain of dependence does not stop here. It does not terminate at Philadelphia or New York. It reaches across the ocean and ends in London, the center of the credit system. The same laws of trade which give to the banks in our principal cities power over the whole banking system of the United States subject the former, in their turn, to the money power in Great Britain. It is not denied that the suspension of the New York banks in 1837, which was followed in quick succession throughout the Union, was produced by an application of that power, and it is now alleged, in extenuation of the present condition of so large a portion of our banks, that their embarrassments have arisen from the same cause. From this influence they can not now entirely escape, for it has its origin in the credit currencies of the two countries ; it is strengthened by the current of trade and exchange which centers in London, and is rendered almost irresistible by the large debts contracted there by our merchants, our banks, and our States. It is thus that an introduction of a new bank into the most distant of our villages places the business of that village within the in- fluence of the money power in England ; it is thus that every new INDEPENDENT TREASURY AND HARD MoNIA' 5.S7 debt which wc contract in that country seriously affects our own currency and extends over the pursuits of our citizens its powerful influence. We can not escape from this i^y making new banks, great or small, State or national. The same chains which bind those now existing to the center of this system of paper credit must equally fetter every similar institution we create. It is only to the extent to which this system has been pushed of late that we have been made fully aware of its irresistible tendency to subject our own banks and currency to a vast controlling power in a foreign land, and it adds a new argiunent to those which illustrate their precari- ous situation. Endangered in the first place by their own misman- agement and again by the conduct of every institution which connects them with the center of trade in our own country, they are yet subjected be\'ond all this to the effect of whatever measures policy, necessity, or caprice may induce those who control the credits of England to resort to. I mean not to comment upon these measures, present or past, and much less to discourage the prosecution of fair commercial dealing between the two countries, based on reciprocal benefits ; but it having now been made mani- fest that the power of inflicting these and similar injuries is by the resistless law of a credit currency and credit trade equally capable of extending their consequences through all the ramifications of our banking system, and by that means indirectly obtaining, particularly when our banks are used as depositories of the public moneys, a dangerous political influence in the United States, I have deemed it my duty to bring the subject to )'our notice and ask for it )-our serious consideration. Is an argument required beyond the exposition of these facts to show the impropriety of using our banking institutions as deposi- tories of the public money } Can we venture not only to encounter the risk of their individual and mutual mismanagement, but at the same time to place our foreign and domestic policy entirely under the control of a foreign moneyed interest ? To do so is to impair the independence of our Government, as the present credit s)stem has already impaired the independence of our banks ; it is to sub- mit all its important operations, whether of peace or war, to be con- trolled or thwarted, at first by our own banks and then by a power 588 THE CURRENCY abroad greater than themselves. I can not bring myself to depict the humiliation to which this Government and people might be sooner or later reduced if the means for defending their rights are to be made dependent upon those who may have the most powerful of motives to impair them. Nor is it only in reference to the effect of this state of things on the independence of our Government or of our banks that the sub- ject presents itself for consideration ; it is to be viewed also in its relations to the general trade of our country. The time is not long passed when a deficiency of foreign crops was thought to afford a profitable market for the surplus of our industry, but now we await with feverish anxiety the news of the English harvest, not so much from motives of commendable sympathy, but fearful lest its antici- pated failure should narrow the field of credit there. Does not this speak volumes to the patriot ? Can a system be beneficent, wise, or just which creates greater anxiety for interests dependent on foreign credit than for the general prosperity of our own country and the profitable exportation of the surplus produce of our labor .? . . . In a country so commercial as ours banks in some form will probably always exist, but this serves only to render it the more in- cumbent on us, notwithstanding the discouragements of the past, to strive in our respective stations to mitigate the evils they pro- duce ; to take from them as rapidly as the obligations of public faith and a careful consideration of the immediate interests of the community will permit the unjust character of monopolies ; to check, so far as may be practicable, by prudent legislation those temptations of interest and those opportunities for their dangerous indulgence which beset them on every side, and to confine them strictly to the performance of their paramount duty — that of aid- ing the operations of commerce rather than consulting their own exclusive advantage. These and other salutary reforms may, it is believed, be accomplished without the violation of any of the great principles of the social compact, the observance of which is indis- pensable to its existence, or interfering in any way with the useful and profitable employment of real capital. Institutions so framed have existed and still exist elsewhere, giving to commercial intercourse all necessary facilities without inflating CONDITIONS AFFF.rTINCx AMERICAN BA\KIX(; 589 or depreciating the currency or stimulating speculation. Thus accomplishing their legitimate ends, they have gained the surest guaranty for their protection and encouragement in the good will of the communit)-. Among a people so just as ours the same re- sults could not fail to attend a similar course. The direct super- vision of the banks belongs, from the nature of our Government, to the States wlio authorize them. It is to their legislatures that the people must mainly look for action on that subject. But as the conduct of the P'ederal Government in the management of its rev- enue has also a powerful, though less immediate, influence upon them, it becomes our duty to sec that a proper direction is given to it. While the keeping of the public revenue in a separate and in- dependent treasury and of collecting it in gold and silver will have a salutary influence on the system of paper credit with which all banks are connected, and thus aid those that are sound and well managed, it will at the same time sensibly check such as are other- wise by at once withholding the means of extravagance afforded by the public funds and restraining them from excessive issues of notes which they would be constantl}- called upon to redeem. . . . III. ECONOMIC CONDITIONS AFFECTINC AMERICAN BANKING ^. . . There is a general spirit of enterprise in the United States, to which they are greatly indebted for their rapid growth, and it is difficult to ascertain in all cases to what extent it should be encour- aged and when it ought to be checked. The remarks apply particu- larly to the newly-settled parts of the country, which present a state of things different from that found in any other part of the ci\ili/.ed world, and to which, therefore, even the most generally admitted principles of political economy will not alwa)-s apply. Amongst the first emigrants there are but few possessed of much capital, and these, generally employing it in the purchase of land, are soon left without any active resources. The great mass bring nothing with them but their industr\- and a small stock of cattle and 1 Gallatin, Considerations on the Currency and Hanking System of the United States [1831], Writings, III, 314-317- 590 THE CURRENCY horses. A considerable portion of the annual labor is employed in clearing, enclosing, and preparing the land for cultivation. Those difficulties and all the privations incident to their new situation are encountered with unparalleled spirit and perseverance. Within a veiy short time our numerous new settlements, which in a few years have extended from the Mohawk to the great Western lakes, and from the Alleghany to the Mississippi and beyond it, afford the spectacle of a large population with the knowledge, the intelligence, and the habits which belong to civilized life, amply supplied with the means of subsistence, but without any other active capital but agricultural products, for which, in many instances, they have no market. It is in this last respect that their situation essentially differs from that of any other country as far advanced in civilization. We might even add that there is, in several ancient settlements of the United States, a less amount of active capital than in the in- terior parts of many European countries. The national industry, out of the seaports, has, at least till very lately, been exclusively ap- plied to agriculture, and circulating capital will rarely be created out of commercial cities without the assistance of *manufactures. With the greatest abundance of provisions, it is impossible for a new country to purchase what it does not produce unless it has a market for its own products. Specie is a foreign product, and, though one of the most necessary, is not yet always that which is most imperatively required. We may aver from our own knowledge that the western counties of Pennsylvania had not, during more than twenty years after their first settlement, the specie necessary for their own internal trade and usual transactions. The want of communications and the great bulk of their usual products reduced their exports to a most inconsiderable amount. The two indispensa- ble articles of iron and salt, and a few others almost equally neces- sary, consumed all their resources. The principle, almost universally true, that each country will be naturally supplied with the precious metals according to its wants, did not apply to their situation. Household manufactures supplied the inhabitants with their ordi- nary clothing, and the internal trade and exchanges were almost ex- clusively carried on by barter. This effectually checked any advance even in the most necessary manufactures. Every species of business CONDITIONS AFFECTING AMERICAN BANKING 591 required the utmost eaution, as any failure in the performanee of engagements in the way of biirter became, under the general law of the land, an obligation to pay money, and might involve the party in complete ruin. Under those circumstances even a paper currency, kept within proper bounds, might have proved useful. We know the great difficulties which were encountered by those who first attempted to establish the most necessary manufactures, and that they would have been essentially relieved and some of them saved from ruin by moderate bank loans. Yet there were instances where those difficulties were overcome, and the most successful manufactures of iron and glass were established and prospered prior to the establishment of any bank ; but the general progress of the country was extremely slow, and might have been hastened by such institutions soberly administered. It is obvious that in this and other similar cases where there is an actual want of capital, this should, in order to insure success, be obtained from the more wealthy parts of the country, either by subscriptions to local banks or by the establishment of branches of the city banks. Some of the first settlements in other parts of the country were, for a length of time, in a similar situation. The progress of others, under more favorable circumstances, has been much more rapid. The western parts of the State of New York have always enjoyed a nearer and more accessible market. The acquisition of Louisiana, the invention of steamboats, and the improved communications by land and water, have entirely changed the state of things west of the Alleghany Mountains. Still, and notwithstanding the unparal- leled increase of population and the rapid progress in every respect of the new States or settlements, their wealth does not, in any de- gree, correspond either with that population or with their advances in agriculture. All new colonies, either from Europe to America or from the ancient settlements, to the more interior part of Amer- ica, have, under different modifications, been ever placed in a simi- lar situation. To this must be ascribed the issues of paper money by the several States whilst under the colonial government. This currency, in many instances useful, was, as usual, often carried to excess, and depreciated accordingly. The same causes continue to produce similar effects. The eagerness for country banks is 592 THE CURRENCY natural, but often mistakes its object. They may be safely estab- lished in flourishing towns or villages, either commercial or manu- facturing, provided their issues are restrained within proper bounds. It is to the abuse, and not to the use, that we object. The profits of agriculture are so moderate, at least in the Middle States, and the returns so slow, that even loans on mortgages are rarely useful. But when made by banks on notes at sixty days, without any other substantial security than real estate, they never can be relied on as an immediate resource, and, when payment is urged, they almost always prove ruinous to the borrowers, and are often attended with heavy losses to the banks. The example of Pennsylvania has clearly shown that the calamities inflicted by the failures of country banks, established in unfit places, or for want of experience improp- erly administered, have been still more fatal to the inhabitants of the districts in which they were situated than to the State at large. It is well known that the same observation applies with equal, if not greater, force to other States than Pennsylvania. . . . ^ All active, enterprising, commercial countries are necessarily subject to commercial crises. A series of prosperous years almost necessarily produces overtrading. Those revolutions will be more frecjuent and greater in proportion to the spirit of enterprise and to the extension or abuse of credit. But however prices may be effected, and whatever may be the evils growing out of the crisis, there will be no violation of contracts, and the standard of value will not be affected, in countries where there is no paper currency. The danger of a suspension of specie payments, which immediately deranges that standard, is necessarily increased in proportion to the amount of issues of paper of that description, and that amount depends, in a great degree, on the denomination of the bank-notes permitted to be issued as currency, on the number of the banks of issue, and, in the United States, on the capital invested in bank stock. All these dangerous elements are found united in a greater de- gree in the United States than in any other c6mmercial country. 1 Gallatin, Suggestions on the IJanks and Currency of the Several United States in Reference Principally to the Suspension of Specie Payments [1S41], Writings, lil. 385-389. 369. 370- CONDITIONS AFFECTING AMERICAN I5ANKI\(; 593 The large field opened for enterprise, the free institutions of the country, and the indomitable energy of the people have produced results astonishing and without parallel in the history of other na- tions. A wilderness has within forty years been converted into the abode of six millions of civilized and industrious people. Expensive communications have been opened, superior in extent and impor- tance to those of continental Europe. The American commerce and navigation extend to every quarter of the globe, and are infe- rior to those of no other country but England. But there are evils which, to a certain extent, appear to be the necessary consequence of a state of high commercial prosperity, and which in America are much increased by the want of a capital proportionate to the extent of commercial and other undertakings. Overtrading has been the primary cause of the present crisis in America. Abundant proofs of the fact are found in the immoderate use of foreign credit, as well as in the excessive importations, and sales of public lands, in the years 1834-37. Of Imports : During the nine years 1822-1S30 the average annual amount was . . $59,000,000 During the three years 1831-1833 the average annual amount was . . 83,000,000 During the four years 1834-1837 the average annual amount was . . 130,000,000 In the year 1S36 alone the amount was 168,000,000 The average annual excess of imports over the exports amounted to four millions during the first nine years ; to eighteen millions during the three next ensuing ; to thirty-four millions during the four last, and to sixty-one millions in the year 1836 alone. The average annual sales of public lands, which during the first nine years did not exceed 1,300,000 dollars, and w'hich during the years 1831—35 had reached 4,500,000 amounted in 1835 to seven- teen and in 1836 to twenty-five millions. Speculations in unim- proved town lots, mines, and eveiy description of rash undertakings increased at the same rate. The fault, or error, originated with the people themselves. The traders and speculators ha\"e attempted to ascribe their disasters altogether to legislative acts ; to those of the administration, or to other collateral causes, which have indeed aggravated the evils, but the effects of some of which have been exaggerated. Still, 594 THE CURRENCY although it would be improper to abridge the freedom of action which all individuals should be permitted to enjoy, it is certain that the spirit of enterprise did not require any artificial stimulus. The prodigious increase of State banks was the result of State legislation. From the ist of January, 1830, to the istof January, 1837, three hundred new banks were created, with a capital of one hundred and forty-five millions of dollars. This increase was un- doubtedly due to the eagerness for capital applicable to commercial accommodations or other purposes. It may be ascribed in part to the expiration of thfe charter of the Bank of the United States, and to the anticipation of that event. It was thought necessary in some places to fill the chasm in capital and commercial accommodations that must follow the dissolution of that institution. The same effect had been produced in the years 18 10-16 on the occurrence of the expiration of the charter of the former national bank ; and in both cases the increase far exceeded the apprehended' loss and the wants of the country. The great increase of banks took place, accordingly, in the Western States, where capital was most wanted. During the years above mentioned the increase in the banking capital of the North- western States amounted to near twenty, and that of the South- western to almost fifty-five, millions of dollars. But that increase was far beyond what might have been wanted for useful purposes. Near three-fifths of the foreign merchandise imported into the United , States are imported into New York. That city is also the principal place of deposit for the sale of the domestic manufactures of the country ; and it is also the centre of all the moneyed transactions of the United States. In the year 1837 the capital of all the banks of that city hardly exceeded twenty millions of dollars ; and it was sufficient for all the legiti- mate operations of commerce. When an unexpected increase of the public deposits enabled and induced those banks to expand their discounts beyond their ordinary rate, that excess excited overtrad- ing, and was applied to extraordinary and dangerous speculations. In order to obtain or to assist in obtaining the capital wanted for the new banks, for internal improvements, and for some other miscel- laneous purposes, debts were incurred by several States amounting, CONDITIONS AFFECTING AMERICAN I!.\NKIN(} 595 from 1S30 to 1838, to near one hundred and fill\- millions of dollars. The debt contraeted h)- the Atlantie States was almost en- tirely for internal improvements ; no jxirt of it for banking pur- poses ; and it fell little short of sixty millions. That eontracted by the Noith-Western States amounted to about thirty-eight millions, of whieh thirty-one millions five hundred thousand dollars were for internal imprcn'ements, and the residue for banking eapital. That incurred by the South- Western States was about fifty-two millions, of which more than forty-four millions were for banking capital, and the residue for internal improvements. The population of the United States by the census of 1840 ex- ceeds seventeen millions, of whom ten millions seven hundred and sixty thousand are in the Atlantic, four millions one hundred and thirt}' thousand in the North-Western, and two millions two hundred and thirty thousand in the South- Western States. It may be observed that the reason why so much more capital was applied in the South- Western than in the North-Western States to banking purposes is to be found in the difference of cap- ital wanted for the employment of slave and free labor respectively. The Northern farmer advances no more than twelve months' wages to the laborer he employs. The Southern planter who wishes to increase the product of his land must advance the price of the slave himself, which amounts perhaps to five or six times the net product of his annual labor. The application of banking accommodation to purely agricultural purposes has accordingly been much greater and has been attended with far more fatal effects in the South-Western States than in any other section of the Union. But even the State debts created for internal improvements have co-operated in aggravating the evils under which we now labor. Not only were their proceeds applied to purposes of which the re- turns were slow and uncertain, but they also supplied the means of paying balances or of obtaining credits abroad. Thus, extrava- gant importations were encouraged, whilst at the same time some of those stocks became objects of speculation at home, in whieh individuals and banks were involved, and which ])ro\ed injurious to all the parties concerned, — to the States as well as to the pur- chasers. Several of the States neglected to provide a revenue 596 THE CURRENCY sufficient to pay the annual interest accruing on their debts. Ad- ditional loans were resorted to for that purpose, and occasionally forced loans were required by the States from the banks, which lessened their resources and had a tendency to produce or to pro- tract the suspension of specie payments. All the banks of the United States are joint stock companies, generally incorporated by the special laws of the several States ; in a few late instances established in conformity with the provisions of a general law. In neither case are the shareholders responsible beyond the amount of the capital subscribed. All these joint stock companies are banks of deposit, discount, and issue ; they all dis- count negotiable paper, purchase and sell domestic and occasion- ally foreign bills of exchange, receive deposits or open cash credits to individuals, and issue bank-notes, always, nominally at least, payable on demand in specie. These notes have become the local and sole currency of the several places or sections of country where they are respectively made payable. Banking in America always implies the riglit and practice of issuing paper money as a substi- tute for a specie currency. . . . Punctuality in fulfilling engagements should be practiced by all ; but it is essentially a commercial virtue. Credit, at least to a cer- tain extent, is absolutely necessary to commerce. Every merchant must, for the fulfillment of his own engagements, depend princi- pally on the punctual payment of the debts due to him. This punctuality is so necessary, and the advantages derived from it have become so habitual, that the memory of its origin may be lost. It was indubitably due to the establishment of banks. At the close of the war of Independence, Philadelphia was the only place in the United States where commercial punctuality was general, and that city was indebted for it to the Bank of North America. I'he same effect was successively produced, as banks were established, in New York, Boston, Baltimore, and the other commercial cities ; and finally almost universally, or wherever country banking pene- trated, . . , chapt]':r XII SETTLEMENT OI'^ THE WEST INTRODUCTION The settlement of the West ought to be regarded as a great example of col- onization. From what may be called the sociological point of view, colonization consists of the founding and developing of new communities, of the occupa- tion and settlement of new lands. It is the expansion of a community into new territory. The political relation between the new communities and the old ones from which they sprang may be important ; this is, in fact, the only phase of modern colonization which has received much attention ; but it is by no means the essential feature of colonization. It may vary from the absolute independ- ence of the new community to its complete subjection to the mother-coun- try without changing the colonial relation between them. The expansion of Greece in ancient times with but little political subordination of the new settle- ments was as truly a colonial movement as the expansion of Europe in modern times. It is immaterial, also, whether the new communities be widely separated from the old ones. Contiguous territory may be more easily settled by a people and the colonial movement under those conditions may affect a larger propor- tion of the population, but its social effects are not essentially different from over-sea colonization at a great distance. From this point of view it is clear that the American people should be re- garded as the great colonizers of modern times. No other people have founded and built up so many new settlements, or subdued for civilized life such vast stretches of wilderness. Nowhere else in the world has the art of pioneering been learned and practiced by so many people and played so large a part in the life of any nation. Contact with unsettled territory and continual expansion into it is the fundamental peculiarity of American society. There are three aspects of this great movement of internal colonization which should claim the attention of students of American history. The first is the method of forming new settlements together with the conditions which de- termine their progress — a study of the social evolution of new communities. The second is the influence of this movement upon the life and institutions of the country as a whole. The third is the governmental activity of various kinds to which it has given rise — what in other countries would be called colonial policy. Perhaps the most striking peculiarity of American expansion when com- pared with the similar experience of other countries is the insignificance of the 597 598 SETTLEMENT OF THE WEST third feature of the movement. In no other country in modern times has ex- tensive colonization called for so little intervention of government. Our people have always been colonizing, but our government has never been much occu- pied with colonial questions or been much troubled by them. This explains why our colonial experience has been so completely ignored by writers on the subject, whose interest has in almost every case been political rather than eco- nomic and social.^ Two measures are chiefly responsible for this peculiarity of our experience. One is our happy device for governing new settlements known as the territorial form of government. The other is the adoption of complete freedom of trade be- tween the new settlements and the rest of the country. These two policies re- moved completely from our politics the principal colonial problems with which other governments have had to deal. Of colonial questions there were left for our government only the settlement of boundary disputes, the treatment of the natives, and the disposition of the public lands. The first two of these have never given rise to any serious difficulties and have been easily dealt with when occasion demanded. Neither of them has had any considerable influence in economic and social affairs and do not, therefore, require any further consider- ation here. Our public land policy is a matter of much greater importance, and it has seemed best to deal with it in a separate chapter. Regarding the influence of western settlement upon the nation as a whole, no attempt has been made to treat that topic separately. This is not due to any lack of appreciation of its importance. The fact that American society has al- ways had a frontier, has always been in contact with unsettled land, and has always possessed a multitude of rich, undeveloped natural resources is probably the most important influence in our economic and social history. But contem- porary observers have shown no great insight in pointing out the way these conditions were influencing American society. In very recent times the frontier as a factor in American history has come into great prominence, but thus far it is its influence on politics and the character of the people, rather than on eco- nomic life and institutions, which has received the principal attention. In mak- ing the selections for this chapter, therefore, it has seemed best to attempt no separate treatment of this feature of the subject, but to confine our efforts mainly to an explanation of the methods of forming new settlements in differ- ent regions and at different times, thus making clear the process of pioneering as it has actually been carried on by the American people. In considering the way in which new settlements have been made and the conditions determining their economic and social progress, two circumstances appear to be of prime importance. The first is whether or no they possess mar- kets for thcjse commodities which their natural resources enable the settlers to easily produce. The importance of this circumstance to the progress of a colony 1 The only important exception is the little group of English economists who gave attention to colonisation during the first half of the nineteenth century. Of these Wakefield, Torrens, and Merivale were the leaders. INTRODUCTION 599 has already been sufficiently explained in the introduction to the second chapter. It is sufficient to repeat here that without markets in other communities newly settled countries can possess no material advantage over old ones in the produc- tion of wealth. They may be easy places in which to make a poor living, i.e. to secure the bare necessities of life ; but very difficult ones in which to do more than that. The second circumstance affecting the settlement of new territory is the ex- tent to which the settlers arc able to secure the cooperation of capital from older communities to assist them. This has played nearly as important a part in the settlement of new countries in recent times as the possession of markets. The nature of this influence and the extent to which it has changed the process of pioneering ought to be pointed out. Capital may cooperate in the settlement of new territory in several ways. First, it may supply stocks of commodities of all kinds to meet the immediate wants of settlers before they have had time to produce such forms of wealth as they require. These stocks arc accumulated in the new country to some extent by merchants using their own capital, but much more through the agency of commercial credit extended to the local mer- chants by commercial houses in older communities. These stocks arc sold to the settlers largely upon credit. Secondly, capital may provide transportation facilities to connect the settlers with the outside world and especially with those markets which are so necessary to their prosperity. This usually takes the form of organizing steamboat companies, improving the navigation of the streams, building important roads, and, above all, the construction of railroads. Finally, capital from older communities may provide loans of cash directly to the settlers which will enable them to procure by purchase either the various concrete forms of capital needed by them in their industries or that surplus of means of subsistence for the population which is the first step which every community must take in the accumulation of capital. The community must have something to live upon while it devotes its labor to the opening of roads, the clearing and improvement of lands, the building of saw and grist mills, and the creation of other forms of capital needed to carry on industry. This means of subsistence may be secured through the agency of loans negotiated by individuals, corporations, or governments in older communities. The popula- tion may live upon the proceeds of such loans while it creates capital of various kinds. This is the way the Australian colonists secured their railway system. The difference in the social and economic condition of a community of pio- neers who have all their more pressing, immediate wants for either subsistence or implements of industry supplied to them in this way, and of one in which the settlers must secure these by the slow process of saving and accumulation, is very great. In the latter the settlers must make their own way into the wil- derness, providing their own means of transportation, and carrying with them such supplies of subsistence as are needed until they have had time to produce others, and also such tools and utensils as are required to begin industries. They must then create by their own labor, while they provide subsistence for 6oO SETTLEMENT OF THE WEST themselves and families, all the forms of concrete capital which a civilized community requires. Even when they possess markets for one or two staple commodities, easily produced and exchangeable for whatever forms of wealth they need, their progress must be slow. The rude life of the frontier must con- tinue for a generation or more at least. Without this advantage of markets it may continue indefinitely, as it has done among the mountain population of our southern states. The experience of a body of emigrants to a new country who have the co- operation of capital in the various ways explained above is very different from all this. They are transported quickly and easily to their new homes with little effort on their part beyond what is necessary to provide money to pay a small railway and steamer fare. There they find stocks of goods of all kinds accumu- lated and ready to be advanced to them on credit, while they produce some valuable crop for the market. Enterprising men with capital advanced from older communities stand ready to buy these products for cash and send them to the market. After a few years, when they have made improvements upon their land, they are able to secure loans on mortgage and thus to supply them- selves with the means of developing their industries and rendering them as ef- ficient as those of older communities. The typical frontier conditions, both economic and social, disappear within a few years and are never so rude as in the other community. It is clear that the application of capital to the settlement of new lands transforms completely the social process of pioneering. The different types of frontier society which have appeared in the course of our long history of colonizing new territory are largely the result of the pres- ence or absence of the two circumstances just explained. The first type is that which appeared in the back country in colonial times and spread rapidly over the Middle West during the generation after the close of the Revolution. It was characterized by the absence of both a market for its staple products and the assistance of capital from older communities. Industry was crude on the frontier in this stage and life was primitive. The pioneer took with him into the wilderness his ax and gun, a few household goods, farm utensils, and domestic animals. With these he was able to provide for the subsistence of himself and family and slowly to produce for himself a few simple implements to assist him in his industrial life. It was long before anything but the crud- est and most necessary of these could be produced. Economic progress beyond mere beginnings was small indeed, and except in a few localities social condi- tions remained comparatively primitive to the end of the period. The next stage was characterized by the rise of markets for western produce. These came first to the settlers of the southwest after the second war with England as a result of the demand for cotton, which they could easily produce upon their new lands and float to tide water on their numerous navigable streams. Markets came later to the settlers of the Middle West with the demand for vari- ous agricultural supplies from the cotton plantations of South Carolina, Georgia, and the southwest. Still later they came to the settlers of the northwest about THE PIONEER AND HIS WAYS 6oi the Lakes with the demand for food, lumlier, and some other materials from the manufactures of the northeastern states and of Europe. The Eric Canal opened the way to tide water and to market for the products of this region. The effect of all these changes was to enable the people of the West to produce wealth easily, and rapid economic and social progress was the result. Gradually the second circumstance began to affect certain regions and to usher in the third stage of frontier society, where the settlers enjoyed both a market for their produce and the assistance of the capital of older communities in their work of setdement. Like the advantage of markets this came first to the southwest and was in the form of loans or advances to the planters to en- able them to use their slaves more effectively in the clearing of new lands and the opening of cotton plantations. The planter could not pioneer successfully without the assistance of capital, since slaves were not self-supporting in a new country to the same extent as free white men. The pioneer planter must have the means of purchasing more or less subsistence for his slaves as well as imple- ments of husbandry. The possession of so valuable a product as cotton enabled him to secure capital on credit. The cotton factors early began the practice of advancing supplies to the planters to enable them " to make a crop." Numer- ous state banks were organized in the southwestern states to make such loans. Their capital was supplied from the North and from Europe and was secured largely by the sale of state bonds. In the northwest, capital came principally in the shape of investments in transportation enterprises, canals, and railroads. Here also commercial credit played a considerable part in making advances to the settlers of all kinds of supplies, but there was no product so valuable as cot- ton which could serve as security for such loans. The investment of eastern and foreign capital in canals and railways was not important until after 1830. When the tide of settlement reached the prairie region and railroads began to be built into it ahead of settlement, capital began to play a large part in the set- tlement of the northwest. It became important in the decade which preceded the Civil War. From that time onward its influence upon the process of pio- neering in this country has steadily increased until the old conditions of the frontier can now no longer be found even in the remote regions of Alaska. I. THE PIONEER AND HIS W^AYS ^ In a country where man may place himself in what grade of society he pleases, those will always be found who prefer the wild freedom of nature, with all its inconveniences, to the necessary re- straints and comforts of populous society. Possessed of perfect inde- pendence, the hunters lead a life of alternate idleness and violent ^ Observations on the North American Land Company Lately instituted in Phil adelphia, pp. xv-xvii. London, 1796. 6o2 SETTLEMENT OF THE WEST exertion, and are scarcely distinguishable from the aboriginal inhab- itants. As the game becomes shy or scarce, they push farther into the wilderness, and their places are supplied by others, who quit society for the pastoral life. They build log-houses on their tracts, clear a few acres, and cultivate some corn and flax for their fami- lies ; but their principal object is the rearing of stock, consisting of cattle and hogs, which, ranging at large, may be taken as they are wanted : but finding, at length, that the population increases around them, and limits the range for their cattle, they push another step after the hunters. Their ensient improvements are purchased by men of more sedate dispositions ; who, establishing themselves permanently, bend their unremitting efforts to constant cultivation and entire clearance. Mills begin to be erected : roads, or rather the best paths, are traced to other settlements, or to places where the necessaries of civilized life are to be had ; and their comforts increase with their progress in cultivation, and the neighborhood of other settlers. It is difficult for Europeans to form a proper idea of this state of life : The settlers have food in variety and plenty ; but, on the other hand, their disadvantages are many and great. They are obliged to understand, in a certain degree, many of the mechanical and useful arts ; manufacture their own clothing ; and be their own smiths and carpenters, &c. for it commonly happens that pro- fessors of those arts could not profitably establish themselves among them on account of the distance (perhaps 3 or 4 miles asunder) of their inhabitants. Salt and other indispensable articles are frequently to be brought on horseback (for no carriage roads can be made by the exertions of individuals) from stores at great distances. This manner of living, however it may appear to others, cannot, it should seem, be considered as disagreeable by those who lead it ; they are most generally native-born ; the children of parents who have trained them up to it. Every year brings into a state of manhood a new race, who go forth from the old settlements, spread them- selves over the wilderness, erect habitations, and in time change the face of nature from sombrous woods to smiling enclosures of valuable grain : plenty follows their endeavors, and commerce receives the surplus not consumed by themselves. Swarms of them THE PIONEER AND HIS WAYS 603 continually arrive in all llic states which have vacant lands ; and, as if these limits were not sufliciently extensive, vast numbers of them push beyond, and retire to the western waters, northwest and south of the Ohio. Their number and succession are so great, as to astonish any one who from time to time visits the frontiers, and observes the amazing" progress of settlements. As for instance : Imlay accounts the annual number of emigrants to Kentucky at 10,000; in the year 1794 that state received an accession of 20,000 and upwards : The inhabitants in the territory south of Ohio were 35,691 in 1791 ; but now, in 1795, it is supposed they are upwards of 50,000 ! . . . '^ Letter from Robert G. Harper, Esq., Member of Congress for South Carolina, dated Septendicr 16, IJi^S The bold enterprising spirit of the Americans, particularly those who inhabit the remote frontiers, and their fondness for emigration, have often been remarked. Nor are these characteristics anywhere more strikingly obvious than in the southern states. Most of the people who now reside there have already emigrated from more northern places ; they are, therefore, accustomed to the inconven- iences which attend new settlements, and are wholly free from that local attachment which arises from habit and long residence. Their mode of agriculture too favors this spirit. Wholly unskilled in regular husbandr)-, they clear the land, and plant it, as long as it pro- duces plentiful crops with little labour. As soon as its first youthful energy is somewhat exhausted, they abandon it and clear more ; and when new land, by this process, has become scarce, they will- ingly relincjuish their possessions, and seek new countries where the same system may again be pursued. Their place is then occupied by better cultivators, who prefer the labour of restoring exhausted land, with the safety and comforts of an advanced population, to the danger and inconvenience on new and remote settlements. The upper parts of Georgia and Soi/th Carolina, especially the former, are, in a great measure, inhabited by people of this descrip- tion ; who already find the country too thickly settled for them, and 1 Observations on the North American Land Company, etc., pp. 11 2-1 13. 6o4 SETTLEMENT OF THE WEST are eager for emigration to new places more favorable to their habits and ideas : hence that anxiety to obtain new cessions of land from the Indians, and the facility with which they are induced to remove so many hundred miles, to Kentucky and Cnvibcrland, to the Tennessee, the 0]iio, and the Mississippi. . . . 1 In the formation of Colonies, those, who are first inclined to emigrate, are usually such, as have met with difficulties at home. These are commonly joined by persons, who, having large families, and small farms, are induced, for the sake of settling their children comfortably, to seek for new and cheaper lands. To both are always added the discontented, the enterprizing, the ambitious, and the covetous. Many, of the first, and some, of all these classes, are found in every new American country, within ten years after its settlement has commenced. From this period, kindred, friendship, and former neighbourhood, prompt others to follow them. Others, still, are allured by the prospect of gain, presented in every new country to the sagacious, from the purchase and sale of lands : while not a small number are influenced by the brilliant stories, which eveiy where are told concerning most tracts during the early progress of their settlement. A considerable part of all those, who de^in the cultivation of the wilderness, may be denominated y<^?/- estcrs, or PioneeTs. The business of these persons is no other than to cut down trees, build log-houses, lay open forested grounds to cultivation, and prepare the way for those who come after them. These men cannot live in regular society. They are too idle ; too talk- ative ; too passionate ; too prodigal ; and too shiftless ; to acquire either property or character. They are impatient of the restraints of law, religion, and morality ; grumble about the taxes, by which Rulers, Ministers, and School-masters, are supported ; and com- plain incessantly, as well as bitterly, of the extortions of mechanics, farmers, merchants, and physicians ; to whom they are always in- debted. At the same time, they are usually possessed, in their own view, of uncommon wisdom ; understand medical science, politics, and religion, better than those, who have studied them through life ; and, although they manage their own concerns worse than any ^ Dvvight, Travels in New England and New York [1796-1815], II, 45S-463. THE PIONEER AND 1 1 IS WAYS 605 other men, feel perfectly satisfied, that they coulci manage those of the nation far better than the agents, to whom they are committed by the public. After displa\ing their own talents, and worth ; after censuring the weakness, and wickedness, of their superiours ; after exposing the injustice of the community in neglecting to invest persons of such merit with public offices ; in many an eloquent harangue, uttered by many a kitchen fire, in every blacksmith's shop, and in every corner of the streets; and finding all their efforts \ain ; they become at length discouraged : and under the pressure of poverty, the fear of a gaol, and the consciousness of public contempt, leave their native places, and betake themselves to the wilderness. Here they are obliged either to work, or starve. They accord- ingly cut down some trees, and girdle others ; they furnish them- selves with an ill-built log-house, and a worse barn ; and reduce a part of the forest into fields, half-enclosed, and half-cultivated. The forests furnish browse ; and their fields yield a stinted herbage. On this scanty provision they feed a few cattle : and with these, and the penurious products of their labour, eked out by hunting and fishing, they keep their families alive. A farm, thus far cleared, promises immediate subsistence to a better husbandman. A log-house, thus built, presents, wdien re- paired with moderate exertions, a shelter for his family. Such a husbandman is therefore induced by these little advantages, where the soil and situation please him, to purchase such a farm ; when he would not plant himself in an absolute wilderness. The proprietor is always ready to sell : for he loves this irregular, adventurous, half- working, and half-lounging life ; and hates the sober industry, and prudent economv, by which his bush pasture might be changed into a farm, and himself raised to thrift and independence. The bargain is soon made. The forester, receiving more money for his impro\-e- ments than he ever before possessed, and a price for the soil, somewhat enhanced by surrounding settlements, willingly quits his house, to build another like it, and his farm, to girdle trees, hunt, and saunter, in another place. His wife accompanies him only from a sense of duty, or necessity ; and secretly pines for the cjuiet, orderly, friendly society, to which she originally bade a reluctant 6o6 SETTLEMENT OF THE WEST farewell. Her husband, in the mean time, becomes less and less a civilized man : and almost every thing in the family, which is amiable and meritorious, is usually the result of her principles, care, and influence. The second proprietor is commonly Tifannei-; and with an in- dustry and spirit, deserving no small commendation, changes the desert into a fruitful field. This change is accomplished much more rapidly in some places than in others ; as various causes, often accidental, operate. In some instances a settlement is begun by farmers ; and assumes the aspect of regular society from its commencement. This, to some extent, is always the fact : and the greater number of the first planters are, probably, of this description : but some of them, also, are foresters ; and sometimes a majority. You must have remarked a veiy sensible difterence in the char- acter of different towns, through which I have passed. This diver- sity is in no small degree derived from the original character of the planters, in the different cases. The class of men, who have been the principal subject of these remarks, have already straggled onward from New- England, as well as from other parts of the Union to Louisiana. In a political view, their emigration is of very serious utility to the ancient settlements. All countries contain restless inhabitants ; men im- patient of labour ; men, who will contract debts without intending to pay them ; who had rather talk than work ; whose vanity per- suades them, that they are wise, and prevents them from knowing, that they are fools ; who are delighted with innovation ; who think places of power and profit due to their peculiar merits ; who feel, that every change from good order and established society will be beneficial to themselves ; who have nothing to lose, and therefore expect to be gainers by every scramble ; and who, of course, spend life in disturbing others, with the hope of gaining something for themselves. Under despotic governments they are awed into quiet ; but in every free community they create, to a greater or less extent, continual turmoil ; and have often overturned the peace, liberty, and happiness, of their fellow-citizens. In the Roman Commonwealth, as before in the Republics of Greece, they were emptied out, as THE PIONEER AND HIS WAYS 607 soldiers, upon the surround int;" countries ; and left the sober inhab- itants in comparative quiet at home. It is true, they often threw these States into confusion ; and sometimes overturned the govern- ment. But if they had not been thus thrown off, from the Ixxly politic, its life would have been of a momentary duration. As things actually were, they finally ruined all these States. For some of them had, as some of them alwa}S will have, sufficient talents to do mischief ; at times, very extensive. The Gracchi, Clodius, Marius, and Mark Antony, were men of this character. Of this character is every demagogue ; whatever may be his circumstimces. Power and profit are the only ultimate objects, which every such man, with a direction as stead)-, as that of the needle to the pole, pursues with a greediness unlimited and inextinguishable. Formerly the energetic government, established in NewT'2ngland, together with the prevailing high sense of religion and morals, and the continually pressing danger from the French, and the savages, compelled the inhabitants into habits of regularity and good order, not surpassed perhaps, in the world. But since the American Revo- lution, our situation has become less favourable to the existence, as well as to the efficacy, of these great means, of internal peace. The former exact, and decisive, energy of the government has been ob- viously weakened. From our ancient dangers we have been deliv- ered ; and the deliverance was a distinguished blessing : but the sense of danger regularly brings with it a strong conviction, that safety cannot be preserved without exact order, and a ready submission to lawful authority. The institutions, and the habits, of New-England, more I sus- pect than those of any other country, have prevented, or kept down, this noxious disposition ; but they cannot entirely prevent either its existence, or its effects. In mercy, therefore, to the sober, indus- trious, and well-disposed, inhabitants. Providence has opened in the vast Western wilderness a retreat, sufficiently alluring to draw them away from the land of their nativity. We have many troubles even now : but we should have many more, if this body of foresters had remained at home. It is however to be observ-ed, that a considerable number even of these people become sober, industrious citizens, merely by the 6o8 SETTLEMENT OF THE WEST acquisition of property. The love of property to a certain degree seems indispensable to the existence of sound morals. I have never had a servant, in whom I could confide, except such as were desirous to earn, and preserve, money. The conveniences, and the charac- ter, attendant on the possession of property, fix even these restless men at times, when they find themselves really able to accumulate it ; and persuade them to a course of regular industry. I have mentioned, that they sell the soil of their first farms at an enhanced price ; and that they gain for their improvements on them what, to themselves at least, is a considerable sum. The possession of this money removes, perhaps for the first time, the despair of acquiring property ; and awakens the hope, and the wish, to acquire more. The secure possession of property demands, every moment, the hedge of law ; and reconciles a man, originally lawless, to the re- straints of government. Thus situated, he sees that reputation, also, is within his reach. Ambition forces him to aim at it ; and com- pels him to a life of sobriety, and decency. That his children may obtain this benefit, he is obliged to send them to school, and to unite with those around him in supporting a school-master. His neighbours are disposed to build a church, and settle a Minister. A regard to his own character, to the character and feelings of his family, and very often to the solicitations of his wife, prompts him to contribute to both these objects ; to attend, when they are com- passed, upon the worship of God ; and perhaps to become in the end a religious man. 1 The people in the Atlantic states have not yet recovered from the horror, inspired by the term " backwoodsman." This prejudice is particularly strong in New England, and is more or less felt from Maine to Georgia. When I first visited this countr}', I had my full share, and my family by far too much for their comfort. In ap- proaching the country, I heard a thousand stories of gougings, and robberies, and shooting down with the rifle. I have travelled in these regions thousands of miles under all circumstances of expo- sure and danger. I have travelled alone, or in company only with such as needed protection, instead of being able to impart it ; and ^ Flint, Recollections of the Last Ten Years [1826], etc., pp. 174-177. Tin-: J'lOXKKR AM) Ills WAYS 609 this too, in many instances, where I was not known as a minister, or where such knowledge would have had no iniiuence in protect- ing me. I never have carried the slightest weapon of defence. I scarcely remember to have experienced any thing that resembled in- sult, or to have felt myself in danger from the people. I have often seen men that had lost an eye. Instances of murder, numerous and horrible in their circumstances, have occurred in my vicinity. But they were such lawless rencounters, as terminate in murder every where, and in which the drunkenness, brutality, and violence were mutual. They were catastrophes, in which cjuiet and sober men would be in no danger of being in\'olvcd. When w'e look round these immense regions, and consider that I have been in settle- ments three hundred miles from any court of justice, when we look at the position of the men, and the state of things, the wonder is, that so few outrages and murders occur. The gentlemen of the towns, even here, speak often w'ith a certain contempt and horror of the backwoodsmen. I hnvQ read, and not without feelings of pain, the bitter representations of the learned and virtuous Dr. Dwight, in speaking of them. He represents these vast regions, as a grand reservoir for the scum of the Atlantic states. He characterizes in the mass the emigrants from New England, as discontented coblers, too proud, too much in debt, too unprincipled, too much puffed up with self-conceit, too strongly impressed that their fancied talents could not find scope in their own country, to stay there. It is true there are worthless people here, and the most so, it must be con- fessed, are from New England. It is true there are gamblers, and gougers, and outlaws ; but there are fewer of them, than from the nature of things, and the character of the age and the world, we ought to expect. But it is unworthy of the excellent man in cjues- tion so to designate this people in the mass. The backwoodsman of the west, as I have seen him, is generally an amiable and virtu- ous man. His general motive for coming here is to be a free- holder, to have plenty of rich land, and to be able to settle his children about him. It is a most virtuous motive. And notwithstand- ing all that Dr. Dwight and Talleyrand have said to the contrary, I fully believe, that nine in ten of the emigrants have come here with no other motive. You find, in truth, that he has vices and 6io SETTLEMENT OF THE WEST barbarisms, peculiar to his situation. His manners are rough. He wears, it may be, a long beard. He has a great quantity of bear or deer skins wrought into his household establishment, his furniture, and dress. He carries a knife, or a dirk in his bosom, and when in the woods has a rifle on his back, and a pack of dogs at his heels. An Atlantic stranger, transferred directly from one of our cities to his door, would recoil from a rencounter with him. But remember, that his rifle and his dogs are among his chief means of support and profit. Remember, that all his first days here were passed in dread of the savages. Remember, that he still encounters them, still meets bears and panthers. Enter his door, and tell him you are benighted, and wish the shelter of his cabin for the night. The welcome is indeed seemingly ungracious : " I reckon you can stay," or " I suppose we must let you stay." But this apparent ungracious- ness is the harbinger of every kindness that he can bestow, and every comfort that his cabin can afford. Good coffee, corn bread and butter, venison, pork, wild and tame fowls are set before you. His wife, timid, silent, reserved, but constantly attentive to your comfort, does not sit at the table with you, but like the wives of the patriarchs, stands and attends on you. You are shown to the best bed which the house can offer. When this kind of hospitality has been afforded you as long as you choose to stay, and when you depart, and speak about your bill, you are most commonly told with some slight mark of resentment, that they do not keep a tavern. Even the flaxen-headed urchins will turn away from your money. . . . II. THE PROCESS OF PIONEERING IN NEW ENCxLAND ^ The settlement of a new countiy is an object which has not been hitherto described, I believe by any writer. At the same time, it exhibits the character of man, his enterprise, patience, perseverance, and power over this world, every where naturally a wilderness, in a light which cannot be uninteresting to a philo- sophical mind. As I have been not a little conversant with this subject, I will here give a summary account of the efforts, by 1 Dwight, Travels in New England and New York [i 796-1 Si 5], II, 464-469, 297-298, 308-309. PROCESS OF 1'10NEERIN(} IN NEW EN(]LANJ) 6ll which every part of this c()untr\- has been ehani^'ed fioni a forest into its present appearance. In forming new settlements, it will be easil)- beliexed, the plant- ers are necessitated to struggle with man)' difTiculties. To clear a farm covered with a thick growth of large trees, such as generally abound in this counli'w is a work of no small magnitude. I'lspecially is this true, when, as is usuall}' the fact, it is to be done by a single man ; and still more especially, when that man is poor, and obliged to struggle with many other discouragements. Yet this is the real situation of multitudes, who undertake enterprises of this nature. When a planter ccjmmences this undertaking, he sets out for his farm with his axe, gun, blanket, proxision, and ammunition. With these he enters the forest ; and builds himself a shed, by setting up poles at four angles, crossing them with other poles, and co\'er- ing the whole with the bark, leaves, and twigs of trees, except the south side, purposely left opvn to the sun and a fire. Under this shelter he dresses his food ; and makes his bed of straw, on which he sleeps soundly beneath his blanket. Here he usually continues through the season : and sometimes without the sight of any other human being. After he has completed this shelter, he begins to clear a spot of ground : i.e. to remove the forest, by which it is covered. This is done in two ways : gh-dling, ?iXiAfclli7io-, the t/rrs. The former of these I have already described. The latter has now become almost the universal practice : and wherever it can be adopted, is undoubtedly to be preferred. The trees are cut down, either in the autumn, or as early as it can be done in the spring; that they may become so dry as to be easily burnt up in the ensu- ing summer. After they have lain a sufiicient length of time, he sets fire to them, lying as they fell. If he is successful, the greater part of them are consumed in the confiagration. l"he remainder he cuts with his axe into pieces of a convenient length ; rolls them into ])iles ; and sets fire to them again. In this maimer tiie\' are all consumed ; and the soil is left light, dry, and covered with ashes. These, so far as he can, he collects, and conveys to a manufactory of potashes if there be any in the neighbourhood ; if not, he leaves them to enrich the soil. In many instances the ashes, thus gathered, will defray the expense of clearing the land. 6l2 SETTLEMENT OF THE WEST After the field is burned over, his next business is to break it up. The instrument, employed for this purpose, is a large and strong harrow ; here called a drag, with very stout iron teeth ; resembling in its form the capital letter A. It is drawn over the surface, a sufficient number of times to make it mellow, and after- wards to cover the seed, A plough would here be of no use; as it would soon be broken to pieces by the roots of the trees. In the same manner the planter proceeds to another field, and to another ; until his farm is sufficiently cleared to satisfy his wishes. The first house which he builds, is formed of logs and commonly contains two rooms, with a stone chimney in the middle. His next labour is to procure a barn ; generally large, well framed, covered, and roofed. Compared with his house, it is a palace. But for this a saw-mill is necessary, and is therefore built as early as possible. It will be easily believed, that the labours, already mentioned, must be attended by fatigue, and hardships, sufficient to discourage any man, who can live tolerably on his native soil. But the prin- cipal sufferings of these planters, in the early periods of their busi- ness, spring from quite other sources. The want of neighbours to assist them ; the want of convenient implements ; and universally the want of those means, without which the necessaiy business of life cannot be carried on, even comfortably ; is among their great- est difficulties. The first planters at Haverhill and Newbury, on the Connecticut river, were obliged to go to Charlestown, more than seventy miles, to get their corn ground ; (there being no mill nearer to them,) and to obtain assistance to raise the frame of every build- ing. At that time there was no road between these towns. The travelling was of course all done on the river. Mr. Page, the first settler of Lancaster, on the same river, seated himself in that town- ship in 1766. For several years there was no family, beside his own, within many miles. He also was necessitated to get his corn ground at Charlestown ; distimt more than one hundred and twenty miles ; but at length he relieved himself from this inconvenience by building a horse-mill. In sickness, and other cases of suffering and danger, these planters are often without the aid either of a physician, or a sur- geon. To accidents they are peculiarly exposed by the nature of PROCESS ()1<' I'lONEKRINO IN NEW ENGLAND 613 their employments : while to remedies, besides such as are sup- plied by their own skill and patience, they can scarcely have any access. Even to procure the assistance, necessar)- in the criti- cal season of female suffering, must be attended with no small difficulty. As most of the first ])lantcrs were poor ; and as many of them had numerous families of small children ; the burden of providing food for them was heavy, and discouraging. Some relief they found, at times, in the game, with which the forests were formerly replenished. But supplies from that source were always precarious ; and could never be relied on with safety. Fish, in the wild season, might often be caught in the streams, and in the lakes. In des- perate cases the old settlements, though frequently distant, were always in possession of abundance ; and, in the mode, either of commerce, or of charitv, would certainly prevent them, and theirs, from perishing with hunger. To balance these evils, principally suffered by the earliest class of planters, they had some important advantages. Their land, usu- ally covered with a thick stratum of vegetable mould, was eminently productive. Seldom were their crops injured by the blast, or the mildew ; and seldom were they devoured by insects. \Vhen the W'heat was taken from the ground, a rich covering of grass was regularly spread over the surface ; and furnished them with an ample supply of pasture, and hay, for their cattle. Beside the abundance of their crops, they had the continual sat- isfaction of seeing their embarrassments daily decreasing, and their w^ealth, and their comforts, daily increasing. The value of this kind of property is enhanced by two causes : the labour, which is done upon it ; and the multiplication of settlers in its neighbourhood. Every- good planter, who seats himself in a new township, increases the value of every acre, which it contains ; because he induces other men to settle around him. Accordingly, the owners of large, un- settled tracts give several farms to indi\'iduals, who are willing first to settle on them, that they may induce others to purchase the re- mainder. At the same time, every stroke of the axe leaves behind it more than the value of the labour : while the proprietor gathers another rich compensation in certain, and abundant crops. A farmer 6 14 SETTLEMENT OF THE WP:ST of my acquaintance advanced his property four hundred per cent, in twelve years, by placing himself on a new farm. During this period also, the planter is cheered by the continual sight of improvement in every thing about him. His fields increase in number, and beauty. His means of living are enlarged. The wearisome part of his labour is gradually lessened. His neighbours multiply ; and his troubles annually recede. Hope, the sweetener of life, holds out to him at the same time, brighter and brighter pros- pects of approaching ease and abundance. Among the enjoyments of these people, health, and hardihood, ought never to be forgotten. The toils, which they undergo ; the difficulties, which they surmount ; and the hazards which they escape ; all increase their spirits, and their firmness. A New-England forest, formed of hills and vallies, down which the waters, always pure and sweet, flow with unceasing rapidity ; or of plains, dry, and destitute of marshes, is healthy almost of course. The minds of these settlers, therefore possess the energy, which results from health, as well as that, which results from activity : and few persons taste the pleas- ures, which fall to their lot, with a keener relish. The common troubles of life, often deeply felt by persons in easy circumstances, scarcely awaken in them the slightest emotion. Cold and heat, snow and rain, labour and fatigue, are regarded by them as trifles, deserv- ing no attention. The coarsest food is pleasant to them ; and the hardest bed refreshing. Over roads, encumbered with rocks, mire, and the stumps and roots of trees, they ride upon a full trot ; and are apprehensive of no danger. Even their horses gain, by habit, the same resolution ; and pass rapidly, and safely, over the worst roads, where both horses and men, accustomed to smoother ways, merely tremble, and creep, h^ven the women of these settlements, and those of every age share largely in this spirit. The longest journies, in very difficult roads, they undertake with cheerfulness, and perform without anxiety. I have often met them on horseback ; and been surprised to see them pass fearlessly over those dangers of the way, which my companions and myself watched with caution and solici- tude. Frequently I have seen them performing these journies alone. Another prime enjoyment of these settlers is found in the kind- ness, which r-eigns among them universally. A general spirit of PROCESS OF PIONEERING IN NEW ENGLAND 615 good neighbourhood is prevalent throughout New-P2ngland ; but here it prevails in a peculiar degree. Among these people, a man rarely tells the story of his distresses to deaf ears ; or asks any reasonable assistance in vain. The relief given is a matter, not of kindness merely, but of course. To do kind offices is the custom ; a part of the established manners. This is seen e\'cry\vhere ; and is regularly experienced by the traveller ; whom they receive as a friend, rather than as a stranger ; as an object of good will, and not as a source of gain. These things grow naturally out of their circumstances. In addi- tion to the humane impressions, acquired by their early education, such offices become peculiarly valuable, and necessary, by their situation. Every case of distress is easily realized by all ; because all have been sufferers. " Miseris succurrere disco," may every new settler say with emphasis, as well as truth. Like sailors, these people learn from the evils of life mutually to feel, and relieve. This vivid sympathy mightily contributes to lighten the evils, and soothe the sufferings, incident to a new settlement ; and spreads cheerfulness, and resolution, where a traveller would look for little else, beside discouragement, and gloom. Among the pleasures, furnished by the amelioration of their cir- cumstances, the exchange of their log-huts for decent houses must not be forgotten. Building, particularly with wood, must be cheap, where timber abounds. Within a few years, the industrious planter finds his circumstances so much improved, that he is persuaded to erect a permanent habitation. This is a change, always bringing with it a train of advantages. The comfort, the spirit, the manners, nay even the morals, of his family, if not of himself, are almost of course improved. The transition from a good house is, by the as- sociation of ideas natural to the human mind, a very easy one to good furniture ; a handsome dress ; a handsome mode of living ; better manners ; and every thing else, connected with a higher reputation. That, which may be called tJie second set of planters, may be considered as regularly superiour to the first : and tJie third, when there is a third, is superiour to the second. By this time the countr)' has chiefly assumed the aspect of good farming, and regular society. 6i6 SETTLEMENT OF THE WEST You will not understand, that I here intend all which is sometimes meant by those terms. A great difference is made, with respect to the state of society, by the governments, under which the different settlers live. In Massachusetts, where the system was comparatively stable, the character of the rulers well known, the laws wise, and good, and the administration such as compelled respect ; where, in a word, the recent planters were under exactly the same govern- ment, as the inhabitants of the older towns ; a regular state of so- ciety was introduced at a very early period. Here it was a thing of course ; and every planter went upon his farm with a full conviction, that no change was to be expected in his civil concerns. Every thing here grew up, as a child in a well-educated family grows up, to habits of order, and happy intercourse : and no real chasm ex- isted, unless accidentally, between the first excursion into the forest, and the complete population. . . . A reflecting traveller, passing over these roads, [of Northern New Hampshire] is naturally induced to recollect the situation of the first Colonists in New-England ; and to realize some of the hardships, which those intrepid people endured in settling this country. Among the difficulties, which they had to encounter, bad roads were no con- temptible one. Almost all the roads in which they travelled, passed through deep forests, and over rough hills and mountains, often over troublesome and dangerous streams, and not unfrequently through swamps, miry, and hazardous ; where wolves, bears, and catamounts, haunted and alarmed their passage. The forests they could not cut down : the rocks they could not remove : the swamps they could not causey ; and over the streams they could not erect bridges. Men, women, and children, ventured daily through this combination of evils ; penetrated the recesses of the wilderness ; climbed the hills ; wound their way among the rocks ; struggled through the mire ; and swam on horseback through deep and rapid rivers, by which they were sometimes carried away. To all these evils was added one, more distressing than all. In the silence, and solitude of the forest, the Indian often lurked in am- bush near their path ; and from behind a neighbouring tree took the fatal aim ; while his victim, perhaps, was perfectly unconscious of danger. . . . EARLY LIFE IN THE MIDDI-E W'llST 617 A person who has extensively seen the efforts of the New-Eng- land people in colonizing new countries, cannot fail of being forci- bly struck by their enterprise, industry, and perseverance. In Maine, in New-Hampshire, in Vermont, in Massachusetts, and in New- York, I have passed the dwellings of several hundred thousands of these people, erected on grounds, which in 1760 were an absolute wilderness. A large part of these tracts they have already converted into fruitful fields ; covered it with productive farms ; surrounded it with enclosures ; planted on it orchards ; and beauti- fied it with comfortable, and in many places with handsome, houses. Considerable tracts I have traced through their whole progress from a desert to a garden ; and have literally beheld the wilderness blossom as the rose. . . . in. EARLY LIFE IN THE MIDDLE \VEST 1 It is natural, I think, that you should expect by this time some account of the inhabitants, their manner of living, the mode of settling the country, the routes, distance, and mode of travelling to it, with some information respecting religion and political senti- ments, and the social pleasures of the people ; all of which, 1 am afraid, will require too much time for a letter, and therefore I beg that you will be content to receive the information in the desultory manner in which I shall be enabled to send it. In some of my first letters I gave you an account of tlie first settlement of this country. The perturbed state of that period, and the savage state of the country, which was one entire wilderness, made the object of the first emigrants that of security and suste- nance, which produced the scheme of several families li\-ing to- gether in what were called Stations. . . . As the country gained strength, the stations began to break up in that part of the countiy, and their inhabitants to spread them- selves, and settle upon their respective estates. But the embarrass- ment they were in for most of the conveniences of life, did not ad- mit of their building any other houses but of logs, and of o])ening 1 Imlay, A Topographical Description of the Western Territory of North America [1792], pp. 132-133, 133-137. I4i-i49- 6i8 SETTLEMENT OF THE WEST fields in the most expeditious way for planting the Indian corn ; the only grain which was cultivated at that time. A log-house is very soon erected, and in consequence of the friendly disposition which exists among those hospitable people, every neighbour flew to the assistance of each other upon occasions of emergency. Sometimes they were built of round logs entirely, covered with rived ash shingles, and the interstices stopped with clay, or lime and sand, to keep out the weather. The next object was to open land for cultivation. There is very little under- wood in any part of this countiy, so that by cutting up the cane, and girdling the trees, you are sure of a crop of corn. The fertility of the soil amply repays the laborer for his toil ; for if the large trees are not very numerous, and a large proportion of them the sugar maple, it is ver)^ likely from this imperfect cultivation, that the ground will yield from 50 to 60 bushels of corn to the acre. The second crop will be more ample ; and as the shade is removed by cutting the timber away, great part of our land will produce from 70 to 100 bushels of corn from an acre. This extraordinary fer- tility enables the farmer who has but a small capital to increase his wealth in a most rapid manner (I mean by wealth the comforts of life). His cattle and hogs will find sufficient food in the woods, not only for them to subsist upon, but to fatten them. His horses want no provender the greatest part of the year except cane and wild clover ; but he may afford to feed them with corn the second year. His garden, with little attention, produces him all the culi- nary roots and vegetables necessary for his table ; and the prolific increase of his hogs and poultry, will furnish him the second year, without fearing to injure his stock, with a plenty of animal food ; and in three or four years his stock of cattle and sheep will prove sufficient to supply him with both beef and mutton ; and he may continue his plan at the same time of increasing his stock of those useful animals. By the fourth year, provided he is industrious, he may have his plantation in sufficient good order to build a better house, which he can do either of stone, brick, or a framed wooden building, the principal articles of which will cost him little more than the labour of himself and domestics ; and he may readily bar- ter or sell some part of the superfluous productions of his farm, EARLY LIFE IN TIIK MIDDLK WEST 619 which it will b\- this time afford, and procure such thin<;s as he may stand in need of for the completion of his building. Apples, peaches, pears, &c. &c. he ought to plant when he finds a soil or eligible situation to place them in, as that will not hinder, (^r in any degree divert, him from the object of his aggrandizement. I have taken no notice of the game he might kill, as it is more a sacrifice of time to an industrious man than any real advantiige. Such has been the progress of the settlement of this country, from dirty stations or forts, and smoaky huts, that it has expanded into fertile fields, blushing orchards, pleasant gardens, luxuriant sugar groves, neat and commodious houses, rising villages, and trading towns. Ten years have produced a difference in the popu- lation and comforts of this country, which to be pourtrayed in just colours would appear marvellous. To have implicit faith or belief that such things have happened, it is first necessaiy to be (as I have been) a spectator of such events. Emigrations to this country were mostly from the back parts of Virginia, Mar)'land, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina, until 1784 : in which year many ofificers who had served in the American army during the late war came out with their families ; several families came also from England, Philadelphia, New Jersey, York, and the New England States. The country soon began to be chequered after that asra with genteel men, which operated both upon the minds and actions of the backwoods people, who constituted the first emigrants. . . . The routes of the different Atlantic States to this countiy are various, as may be supposed. P'rom the northern States it is through the upper parts of Pennsylvania to Pittsburg, and then down the river Ohio. The distance from Philadelphia to Pittsburg is nearly three hundred miles. P'rom Lancaster about two hundred and thirty. The route through Redstone and by Pittsburg, both from Maryland and Virginia, is the most eligible, provided you have much baggage ; except you go from the southern and back coun- ties of Virginia ; then your best and most expeditious way is through the Wilderness. From Baltimore passing Old Town upon the Po- towmac, and by Cumberland Fort, Braddock's road to Redstone Old Fort on the Monorigahala, is about two hundred and forty miles ; 620 SETTLEMENT OF THE WEST and from Alexandria to the same plaee by W'inehester Old Town, and then the same route across the mountain is about two hun- dred and twenty miles. This last must be the most eligible for all Europeans who may wish to travel to this country, as the distance by land is shorter, the roads better, and the accommodations good ; i.e. they are very good to Old Town which is one hundred and forty miles from Alexandria, and from thence to Redstone comfortable, and plentifully supplied with provisions of all sorts : the road over the mountain is rather rough, but no where in the least dangerous. Travellers or emigrants take different methods of transporting their baggage, goods, or furniture, from the places they may be at to the Ohio, according to circumstances, or their object in com- ing to the country. For instance, if a man is travelling only for curiosity, or has no family or goods to remove, his best way would be to purchase horses, and take his route through the Wilderness ; but provided he has a family or goods of any sort to remove, his best way, then, would be to purchase a waggon and team of horses to carry his property to Redstone Old Fort, or to Pittsburg, accord- ing as he may come from the northern or southern States. A good waggon will cost at Philadelphia about .;^io (I shall reckon every thing in sterling money for your greater convenience) and the horses about J[, 1 2 each ; they would cost something more both at Baltimore and Alexandria. The waggon may be covered with can- vass, and, if it is the choice of the people, they may sleep in it at nights with the greatest safety. But if they should dislike that, there are inns of accommodation the whole distance on the differ- ent roads. To allow the horses a plenty of hay and corn would cost about I s. per diem, each horse ; supposing you purchase your forage in the most economical manner, i.e. of the farmers, as you pass along, from time to time as you may want it, and carry it in your waggon ; and not of inn-keepers, who must have their profits. The provisions for the family I would purchase in the same man- ner ; and by having two or three camp kettles, and stopping every evening when the weather is fine upon the brink of some rivulet, and by kindling a fire they may soon dress their food. There is no impediment to these kind of things, it is common and may be done with the greatest security ; and I would recommend all persons EARLY LIFE IN THE MIDDT.l", WEST 621 who wish to avoid expense as much as possible to adopt this plan. True, the charges at inns on those roads are remarkably reasonable, but 1 have mentioned those particulars as there are many unf(M-- tunate people in the world, to whom the savinen if the increase of people had been equal to the acquisition of land, still the dis- persion would have been greater, because the interior settle- ments are, by reason of their great distance from the sea, more deficient in natural means of communication. Washington often foretold some of the evils that would result from spreading towards the west, unless the eastern and western states were connected by canals and good roads. His warning was neglected until lately, when the eastern states became alarmed at the amount of emigra- tion to the west. In those eastern states, the dependent colonies that were, they talk now of Washington's inspiration, and are most anxious to establish means of intercourse with the western settle- ments : they will find it difficult to remedy their own error. The western wilderness was theirs, and liable to be treated in the way most for their advantage. They thought only of gratifying their national vanity, by extending as much as possible the surface of the Union. Not content with promoting emigration to the wilder- ness, when their own population was so scanty that they ought rather to have encouraged immigration from Europe, they sent to Europe for the purpose of acquiring more wilderness, and in one case [purchase of Louisiana] actually paid hard money for an acces- sion of mischief. The result is, that population has spread, not merely as fast as it has increased, but faster ; that there are fewer people to the square mile than when population was about a quarter of its present amount ; and that this smaller number of people in proportion to land, besides being separated from each other by greater distance, are not so well provided with the means of social intercourse. Where there are markets, there the people live together ; but these are few and far between, . . . It would be a great mistake to suppose that obstacles to social intercourse are confined to the newest settlements. When the states were colonies, waste land was usually given away by their governments, often in vast tracts to persons who had no means 654 SETTLEMENT OF THE WEST of cultivating them, and who, therefore, either left the land in a desert state, or disposed of it to others at so very cheap a rate that individuals readily obtained more land than they could possibly cultivate. In either case, the dispersion of the people was very great ; for either the desert, wanting roads, was a bar to inter- course among the people who surrounded it, or each settler fixed on it was, still by want of roads, separated from all the other settlers. But since the government of the United States has, generally, instead of giving away new land, sold it by auction to the highest bidder above a fixed minimum price, some new states, which offered peculiar attractions, have been more densely or rather less thinly peopled than some of the old colonies, and far better provided with roads, which are more easily made in proportion as they are less wanted, that is, in proportion as the people are less dispersed. Still, above two-thirds of the inhabitants of America pass the greater part of their lives in comparative loneliness ; in a state which, if it could be imagined by hill squires in Wales, even they would call unbearable solitude. It is a state of existence not readily imagined by any Englishman, quite incomprehensible by those who have always lived in towns ; but the Englishman, who shall conceive what it is, will be at no loss to account for many American habits and customs, besides that peculiar kind of super- stition which displeases English travellers. . . . The American of the backwoods has often been described to the English as grossly ignorant, dirty, unsocial, delighting in rum and tobacco, attached to nothing but his rifle, adventurous, restless, more than half-savage. Deprived of social enjoyments or excite- ments, he has recourse to those of savage life, and becomes (for in this respect the Americans degenerate) unfit for society. As the evils of society, misery, and vice produced by miseiy, are unknown in America, as they would have been quite as well avoided with a greater concentration of the people ; as, indeed, the produce of American industry might have been greater if the people had been less dispersed, the semi-barbarism of American backwoodsmen is an unnecessary evil ; and an evil, too, without the least counter- vailing advantage ; but, though caused without a motive, still it has been caused by all the governments which have disposed of new THE EVIL OF DISPERSION 655 land in America, from that of Queen r^lizabeth, wliich bestowed twenty-five millions of acres upon an individual, to that of President Jackson, which sells new land at the very low price of five shil- lings per acre. , . . ^ Among the most interesting personages in the PJnited States, are the Solitaries, — solitary families, not individuals, luiropeans, who think it much to lodge in a country cottage for six weeks in the summer, can form little idea of the life of a solitary family in the wilds. I did not see the most sequestered, as I never happened to lose my way in the forests or on the prairies : but I witnessed some modes of life which realized all I had conceived of the romantic, or of the dismal. One rainy October day, I saw a settler at work in the forest, on which he appeared to have just entered. His clearing looked, in comparison with the forest behind him, of about the size of a pin- cushion. He was standing, up to the knees in water, among the stubborn stumps, and charred stems of dead trees. He was notch- ing logs with his axe, beside his small log-hut and stye. There was swamp behind, and swamp on each side; — a pool of mud around each dead tree, which had been wont to drink the moisture. There was a semblance of a tumble-down fence : no orchard yet ; no grave-yard ; no poultry ; none of the graces of fixed habitation had grown up. On looking back to catch a last view of the scene, I saw two little boys, about three and four years old, leading a horse home from the forest ; one driving the animal behind with an armful of bush, and the other reaching up on tiptoe to keep his hold of the halter ; and both looking as if they would be drowned in the swamp. If the mother was watching from the hut, she ^ust have thought this strange dismal play for her little ones. The hardworking father must be toiling for his children ; for the success of his after life can hardly atone to him for such a desti- tution of comfort as I saw him in the midst of. Many such scenes arc passed on every road in the western parts of the St^ites. They become cheering when the plough is seen, or a few slieep are straggling on the hill side, seeming lost in space. . . . 1 Martineau, Society in America [1834-1836J, I, 162-163, 291-292, 319. 656 SETTLEMENT OF THE WEST The pride and delight of Americans is in their quantity of land. I do not remember meeting with one to whom it had occurred that they had too much. Among the many complaints of the minority, this was never one, I saw a gentleman strike his fist on the table in an agony at the country being so " confoundedly prosperous : " I heard lamentations over the spirit of speculation ; the migration of young men to the back country ; the fluctuating state of society from the incessant movement westwards ; the immigration of labourers from Europe ; and the ignorance of the sparse popula- tion. All these grievances I heard perpetually complained of ; but in the same breath I was told in triumph of the rapid sales of land ; of the glorious additions which had been made by the acqui- sition of Louisiana and Florida, and of the probable gain of Texas. Land was spoken of as the unfailing resource against over manu- facture ; the great wealth of the nation ; the grand security of every man in it. . . . The possession of land is the aim of all actions, generally speak- ing, and the cure for all social evils, among men in the United States. If a man is disappointed in politics or love, he goes and buys land. If he disgraces himself, he betakes himself to a lot in the west. If the demand for any article of manufacture slackens, the operatives drop into the unsettled lands. If a citizen's neigh- bours rise above him in the towns, he betakes himself where he can be monarch of all he surveys. An artisan works, that he may die on land of his own. He is frugal, that he may enable his son to be a landowner. Farmer's daughters go into factories that they may clear off the mortgage from their father's farms ; that they may be independent landowners again. . . . The methods according to which the disposal of land is carried on are as good as the methods of government almost invariably are in America. The deficiency is in the knowledge of the relation which land bears to other capital and to labour. A few clear-headed men have foreseen the evil of so great a dispersion of the people as has taken place, ^ and have consistently advocated a higher price being set upon land than that at which it is at present sold. Such men are now convinced that evils which seem to bear no more ^ Compare Rush, in Chapter X, pp. 558-559. THE EVIL OF DISPERSION 657 relation to the price of land than the fall of an apple to the motions of the planets, are attributable to the reduction in the price of j^overn- ment lots : that much political blundering, and reli<;ious animosity ; much of the illegal violence, and much of the popular apatliy (jn the slave question, which have disgraced the country, are owing to the public lands being sold at a minimum price of a dollar and a-quarter per acre. Many excellent leaders of tlie democratic party think the people at large less fit to govern themselves wisely than they were fivc-and-twenty years ago. This seems to me improbable ; but I believe there is no doubt that the dispersion has hitherto been too great ; and that the intellectual and moral, and, of course, the political condition of the people has thereby suffered. . , , ^ . . The territoiy which they [the settlers] acquire is out of all proportion to their wants, their physical strength, or their capi- tal ; they cultivate only here and there a very fertile spot, where the powers of the soil are soon spent by a succession of exhausting crops ; and in the careless style of agriculture to which they become accustomed, through their dependence on the extent and natural richness of their land, is soon lost all remembrance of the agricul- tural art and science which they brought with them from their old home. Widely separated from, each other, amply supplied with food by the bounty of nature, but destitute of the manufactured articles on which depend the comforts and even the decencies of life, out of the reach of the law, and beyond the sphere of education, they rapidly approximate the condition of the savages whom they have just dispossessed. They become "squatters," "bushmen," " back- woodsmen," whose only enjoyments are hunting and intoxication, whose only schoolroom is the forest, and whose sense of justice is manifested only by the processes of Lynch law. They are doomed to the solitary, violent, brutal existence, which destroys all true civi- lization, all sympathy with other men, though it increases strength of body, adroitness, courage, and the spirit of adventure. The want of local attachments, and an insatiable thirst for wandering and ad- venture, are, I fear, the most striking traits in the character of the whole population of our Mississippi valley. Their homes even in 1 Bowen, Principles of Political Economy [1856], pp. 94-95- 658 SETTLEMENT OF THE WEST that fair region are but homes of yesterday ; they had only pitched their camps on the banks of the Ohio and the Wabash, wliile on their way to the Sacramento and the C'olumbia. The truant dispo- sition which carried them over the Alleglianies, hurries them on- ward to the Rocky Mountains. I do not go so far as an eminent thinker of our own day, who has expressed in eloquent language his fears lest these constant migrations should lead our countrymen back to barbarism ; but it is certain that the ' ' pioneers of civiliza- tion," as they have been fondly called, leave laws, education, and the arts, all the essential elements of civilization, behind them. They may be the means of partially civilizing others, but they are in great danger of brutalizing themselves. ^ VII. ECONOMIC CONDITIONS AFFECTING NEW SETTLEMENTS 2 The colony of a civilized nation which takes possession, either of a waste country or of one so thinly inhabited, that the natives easily give place to the new settlers, advances more rapidly to wealth and greatness than any other human society. The colonists carry out with them a knowledge of agriculture and of other useful arts, superior to what can grow up of its own accord in the course of many centuries among savage and barbar- ous nations. They carry out with them too the habit of subordi- nation, some notion of the regular government which takes place in their own country, of the system of laws which supports it, and of a regular administration of justice ; and they naturally establish something of the same kind in the new settlement. But among savage and barbarous nations, the natural progress of law and gov- ernment is still slower than the natural progress of arts, after law and government have been so far established, as is necessary for their protection. Every colonist gets more land than he can possi- bly cultivate. He has no rent, and scarce any taxes to pay. No 1 Consult on this subject Carey, Rush, and The Report of the Convention of the Friends of Domestic Industry, in Chapter X, pp. 552-563. For a description of the effect of too great dispersion of the population on the older states from which the western settlers came, see De Bow, in Chapter XV, pp. 7S7-790. ~ Smith, The Wealth of Nations, Bk. IV, ch. vii, part ii. CONDITIONS AFFECTING NEW SETTLEMENTS 659 landlord shares with him in its produce, and the share of the sover- eign is commonly but a trilie. He has every motive to render as great as possible a produce, which is thus to be almost entirely his own. liut liis land is commonly so extensive, that with all his own industr)-, and with all the industry of other people whom he can get to employ, he can seldom make it produce the tenth part of what it is capable of producing. He is eager, therefore, to collect labourers from all quarters, and to reward them with the most lib- eral wages. Ikit those liberal wages, joined to the plenty and cheap- ness of land, soon make those labourers leave him, in order to become landlords themselves, and to reward, with equal liberality, other labourers, who soon leave them for the same reason that they left their first master. The liberal reward of labour encourages marriage. The children, during the tender years of infancy, are well fed and properly taken care of, and when they are grown up, the value of their labour greatly overpays their maintenance. When arrived at maturity, the high price of labour, and the low price of land, enable them to establish themselves in the same manner as their fathers did before them. In other countries rent and profit eat up wages, and the two superior orders of people oppress the inferior one. But in new colonies, the interest of the two superior orders obliges them to treat the inferior one with more generosity and humanity ; at least, where that inferior one is not in a state of slavery. Waste lands of the greatest natural fertility, are to be had for a trifle. The in- crease of revenue which the proprietor, who is always the under- taker, expects from their improvement, constitutes his profit ; which in these circumstances is commonly very great. But this great profit cannot be made without employing the labour of other people in clearing and cultivating the land ; and the disproportion between the great extent of the land and the small number of the people, which commonly takes place in new colonies, makes it diffi- cult for him to get this labour. He does ncjt, therefore, dispute about wages, but is willing to employ labour at any price. The high wages of labour encourage population. The cheapness and plenty of good land encourage improvement, and enable the pro- prietor to pay those high wages. In those wages consists almost 66o SETTLEMENT OF THE WEST the whole price of the land ; and though they are high, considered as the wages of labour, they are low considered as the price of what is so very valuable. What encourages the progress of population and improvement, encourages that of real wealth and greatness. ... 1 The influence exercised on production by the separation of em- ployments, is more fundamental than, from the mode in which the subject is usually treated, a reader might be induced to suppose. It is not merely that when the production of different things becomes the sole or principal occupation of different persons, a much greater quantity of each kind of article is produced. The truth is much beyond this. Without some separation of employments, very few things would be produced at all. Suppose a set of persons, or a number of families, all employed precisely in the same manner ; each family settled on a piece of its own land, on which it grows by its labour the food required for its own sustenance, and as there are no persons to buy any surplus produce where all are producers, each family has to produce within itself whatever other articles it consumes. In such circumstances, if the soil was tolerably, fertile, and population did not tread too closely on the heels of subsistence, there would be, no doubt, some kind of domestic manufactures ; clothing for the family might per- haps be spun and woven within it, by the labour probably of the women (a first step in the separation of employments) ; and a dwelling of some sort would be erected and kept in repair by their united labour. But beyond simple food (precarious, too, from the variations of the seasons), coarse clothing, and very imperfect lodg- ing, it would be scarcely possible that the family should produce any- thing more. They would, in general, require their utmost exertions to accomi^lish so much. Their power even of extracting food from the soil would be kept within narrow limits by the quality of their tools, which would necessarily be of the most wretched description. To do almost anything in the way of producing for themselves ar- ticles of convenience or luxury, would require too much time, and, in many cases, their presence in a different place. Very few kinds of industry, therefore, would exist ; and that which did exist, namely 1 Mill, I'rinciples of Political Economy, Bk. I, ch. viii ; V>k. Ill, ch. xvii. CONDITIONS AFFECTING NKW SETTLEMENTS 66 1 the production of necessaries, would be extremely inefficient, not solely from imperfect implements, but because, when the f^round and the domestic industry fed by it had ix'en made to supply the necessaries of a single family in tolerable abundance, there would belittle motive, while the numbers of the family remained the same, to make either the land or the labour produce more. But suppose an event to occur, which would amount to a revolu- tion in the circumst;mces of this little settlement. Sup]X)se that a company of artificers, provided with tools, and with food sufficient to maintain them for a year, arri\-e in the country and establish themselves in the midst of the population. These new settlers oc- cupy themselves in producing articles of use or ornament adapted to the taste of a simple people ; and before their food is exhausted they have produced these in considerable quantity, and are ready to exchange them for more food. The economical position of the landed population is now most materially altered. They have an opportunity given them of acquiring comforts and luxuries. Things which, while they depended solely on their own labour, they never could have obtained, because they could not have produced, are now accessible to them if they can succeed in producing an additional quantity of food and necessaries. They are thus incited to increase the productiveness of their industry. Among the conveniences for the first time made accessible to them, better tools are probably one : and apart from this, they have a motive to labour more assiduously, and to adopt contrivances for making their labour more effectual. By these means they will generally succeed in compelling their land to produce, not only food for themselves, but a surplus for the new comers, wherewith to buy from them the products of their industry. The new settlers constitute what is called a market for surplus agricultural produce : and their arrival has enriched the settlement not only by the manufactured articles which they produce, but by the food which would not have been produced unless they had been there to consume it. There is no inconsistency between this doctrine, and the propo- sition we before maintained, that a market for commodities does not constitute employment for labour. The labour of the agri- culturists was already provided with employment; they are not 662 SETTLEMENT OE THE WEST indebted to the demand of the new corners for being able to main- tain themselves. What that demand does for them is, to call their labour into increased vigour and efficiency ; to stimulate them, by new motives, to new exertions. Neither do the new comers owe their maintenance and employment to the demand of the agricul- turists : with a year's subsistence in store, they could have settled side by side with the former inhabitants, and produced a similar scanty stock of food and necessaries. Nevertheless, we see of what supreme importance to the productiveness of the labour of produc- ers, is the existence of other producers within reach, employed in a different kind of industry. The power of exchanging the, products of one kind of labour for those of another, is a condition, but for which, there would almost always be a smaller quantity of labour altogether. When a new market is opened for any product of industry, and a greater quantity of the article is consequently produced, the increased production is not always obtained at the expense of some other product ; it is often a new creation, the result of labour which would otherwise have remained unexerted ; or of assistance rendered to labor by improvements or by modes of cooperation to which recourse would not have been had if an in- ducement had not been offered for raising a larger produce. From these considerations it appears that a country will seldom have a productive agriculture, unless it has a large town population, or the only available substitute, a large export trade in agricultural produce to supply a population elsewhere. I use the phrase town population for shortness, to imply a population non-agricultural ; which will generally be collected in towns or large villages, for the sake of combination of labour. The application of this truth by Mr. Wakefield to the theory of colonization, has excited much at- tention, and is doubtless destined to excite much more. It is one of those great practical discoveries, which, once made, appear so obvious that the merit of making them seems less than it is. Mr. Wakefield was the first to point out that the mode of planting new settlements, then commonly practised — setting down a number of families side by side, each on its piece of land, all employing them- selves in exactly the same manner, — though in favourable circum- stances it may assure to those families a rude abundance of mere ClONDl'i'lONS Al'FECriNO NI-:W SF/r'I'LKMl'.NTS 663 necessaries, can never be other than unfavourable to great produc- tion or rapid growth : and liis system consists of arrangements for securing that every colony shall have from the first a town popula- tion bearing due proportion to its agricultural, and that the cultiva- tors of the soil shall not be so widely scattered as to be deprived by distance, of the benefit of that town population as a market for their produce. The principle on which the scheme is founded, does not depend on any theory respecting the superior productiveness of land held in large portions, and cultivated by hired labour. Sup- posing it true that land yields the greatest produce when divided into small properties and cultivated by peasant proprietors, a town population would be just as necessary to induce those proprietors to raise that larger produce : and if they were too far from the nearest seat of non-agricultural industry to use it as a market for dis- posing of their surplus, and thereby suppying their other wants, neither that surplus nor any equi\'alent for it would, generally speaking, be produced. It is, above all, the deficiency of town population which limits the productiveness of the industry of a country like India. 'J'lie agriculture of India is conducted entirely on the system of small holdings. There is, however, a considerable amount of combina- tion of labour. The village institutions and customs, which are the real framework of Indian society, make provision for joint action in the cases in which it is seen to be necessary ; or where they fail to do so, the government (when tolerably well administered) steps in, and by an outlay from the revenue, executes by combined labour the tanks, embankments, and works of irrigation, which are indispensable. The implements and processes of agriculture are however so wretched, that the produce of the soil, in spite of great natural fertility and a climate highly favourable to vegetation, is miserably small : and the land might be made to yield food in abundance for many more than the present number of inhabitants, without departing from the system of small holdings. But to this the stimulus is wanting, which a large town population, connected with the rural districts* by easy and unexpensive means of communi- cation, would afford. That town population, again, does not grow up, because the few wants and unaspiring spirit of the cultivators 664 SETTLEMENT OF THE WEST (joined until lately with great insecurity of property, from military and fiscal rapacity) prevent them from attempting to become con- sumers of town produce. In these circumstances the best chance of an early development of the productive resources of India, consists in the rapid growth of its export of agricultural produce (cotton, indigo, sugar, coffee, &c.) to the markets of Europe. The producers of these articles are consumers of food supplied by their fellow-agriculturists in India ; and the market thus opened for sur- plus food will, if accompanied by good government, raise up by degrees more extended wants and desires, directed either towards European commodities, or towards things which will require for their production in India a larger manufacturing population. . . . Such, then, is the direct economical advantage of foreign trade. But there are, besides, indirect effects, which must be counted as benefits of a high order. One is, the tendency of every extension of the market to improve the processes of production. A country which produces for a larger market than its own, can introduce a more extended division of labour, can make greater use of machin- ery, and is more likely to make inventions and improvements in the processes of production. Whatever causes a greater quantity of any- thing to be produced in the same place, tends to the general in- crease of the productive powers of the world. There is another consideration, principally applicable to an early stage of industrial advancement, A people may be in a quiescent, indolent, unculti- vated state, with all their tastes either fully satisfied or entirely undeveloped, and they may fail to put forth the whole of their productive energies for want of any sufficient object of desire. The opening of a foreign trade, by making them acquainted with new objects, or tempting them by the easier acquisition of things which they had not previously thought attainable, sometimes works a sort of industrial revolution in a country whose resources were previously undeveloped for want of energy and ambition in the people : in- ducing those who were satisfied with scanty comforts and little work, to work harder for the gratification of their new tastes, and even to save, and accumulate capital, for the still more complete satisfaction of those tastes at a future time. . . . CONDITIONS AFFECTING NEW SETTLEMENTS 665 ^ The great evil, and it is a serious one indeed, under whieh the inhabitants of the western eountry lai^or, arises from the want of a market. There is no jilace where the great sbiple articles for the use of civilized life can be produced in greater abundance or with greater ease, and yet as respects most of the luxuries and many of the conveniences of life the people arc poor. They have no vent for their produce at home, and, being all agriculturists, they pro- duce alike the same article with the same facility ; and such is the present difficulty and expense of transporting their produce to an Atlantic port that little benefit is realized from that quarter. The single circumstance of want of a market is already beginning to produce the most disastrous effect, not only on the industry, but on the morals of the inhabitants. Such is the fertility of their land that one-half their time spent in labor is sufficient to produce every article which their farms are capable of yielding, in sufficient quan- tities for their own consumption, and there is nothing to incite them to produce more. They are, therefore, naturally led to spend the other part of their time in idleness and dissipation. Their increase in numbers far from encourages them to become manufacturers for themselves, but puts to a greater distance the time when, quitting the freedom and independence of masters of the soil, they submit to the labor and confinement of manufacturers. . . . '•^ 1 Porter, Speech on Internal Improvements, Annals of Congress, 1810, p. 1388. 2 Cf. Bowen, in Chapters XII and XIII, pp. 657-658, 6S7-689. CHAPTER XIII THE PUBLIC LAND POLICY INTRODUCTION Great as the influence of the settlement of the West has been upon our national life, the demands which it has made upon the government, as already noted, have been curiously small. When a nation undertakes to colonize on any considerable scale, its government is commonly called upon to deal with at least four important matters. It has first to devise some form of government for the newly settled communities ; second, it has to regulate the commerce of these communities with itself and with the rest of the world ; third, it has to regulate the relation of the settlers with the native inhabitants of the country ; and, fourth, it has to dispose of the public lands. In the case of the United States, only the last of these has ever played any considerable part in our national politics. By devising, at the very start, a form of government for the territories which handed over to the settlers practically complete self-govern- ment, and adding to this the policy of admitting new settlements into the Union as states very early in their development, the national government escaped entirely the difficult problem of governing dependencies. The admission of territories into the Union as states has often disturbed our politics, but the government of territories has never done so. In the same way, the establish- ment of interstate free trade by the Constitution of 1789 and its extension to the territories excluded completely that other difficult problem of colonization, commercial regulation. Indian affairs have occasionally become important and called for energetic action on the part of the government, but the small num- ber of natives and the vast territory into which they could retire before the advancing pioneers have prevented these difficulties from becoming perma- nently serious. It is only the disposition of the public lands which has called for the continuous attention of the legislature and administrative officials. The public land policy of our government has been determined by two ideas : first, that of using the land as a financial resource of the federal gov- ernment ; and second, that of putting the lands as speedily as possible into the hands of actual settlers. The first was strong enough to prevent the lands from being actually given away until the passage of the Homestead Act in 1862. From 1820 on, however, the second idea came steadily to the front, as shown by the reduction of the price of land, its sale in smaller areas, the preemption policy gradually adopted, and the grant of large areas to aid in the construction of canals and railroads. The chief effect of these last, from the point of view 666 INTRODUCTION 667 of the country as a whole, was to hasten settlement. With the adoption of the Homestead Act the idea of using the public lands as a financial resource was abandoned entirely, though our financial needs were never greater than at that time. Henceforth the public domain was to be devoted almost entirely to the interests of actual settlers. The only exception to this was the grant of lands to all the states for educational purposes. The history of this policy reveals but little appreciation on the part of our statesmen of its far-reaching influence upon our social evolution. Perhaps the most important circumstance affecting American society is the fact that the people have always been in contact with unoccupied lands. The settlement of these lands has always constituted a large part of their activity. About the only way in which the government could regulate this great influence upon our na- tional life was through the land policy ; but our statesmen never seem to have realized that this influence could be anything but beneficial. The only evil that the policy sought to prevent was the engrossing of large areas by speculators who would thereby prevent or postpone their occupation by actual settlers. That there was an evil to be feared in the too great dispersion of the people over the land never made any impression on the masses of the people, though it did not escape the attention of a few thoughtful observers. Getting the public lands into the hands of actual settlers seemed obviously wise and beneficent. Little attention was given to the fact that this involved the scattering of the inhabitants of the older states over a vast area. This is the more remarkable since the injury to the older communities which the movement involved was obvious enough, and there is not lacking evidence that many individuals in those communities saw and appreciated it. Never in the halls of legislation, however, did it receive any discussion. There are two possible explanations of this. In the first place, no public man wished to alienate western people by opposing a policy which they so strongly favored, even though it involved some sacrifice of the interests of his constituents, and some injury to the nation as a whole. In the second place, the eastern states did not fail to recognize that the growth of the West reflected prosperity upon themselves. After 181 5 internal trade became the great prize for which the commercial cities of the seaboard were contending, and it was to the South and West that the eastern manufacturers looked for that great home market which was their chief support. Moreover, foreign immigration set in to sup])ly the place of the pioneers from this section. Even Virginia and the Carolinas, which felt most severely the drain of their population to the West, received some compensation in the resulting rise in the value of their slaves. For these reasons no effective protest was made against a land policy that stimulated the too great dispersion of the population. The social evils involved in this move- ment were too complex and difficult to be comprehended by the ordinary citizen. Only thoughtful persons were likely to recognize it, and only disinter- ested ones were likely to urge its remedy upon the legislature. Such persons were never numerous enough to influence the land legislation of the country. 668 THE PUBLIC LAND POLICY ■ L PRINCIPAL FEATURES ^May 1 8, 1796, Congress passed the act for the sale of the lands of the United States in the territory northwest of the river of Ohio and above the mouth of the Kentucky River (in the pres- ent State of Ohio). This act provided for a surveyor-general of the district and for the parceling of the lands therein for sale. It gave the substance of the present rectangular system of surveys for the public domain. It provided for the sale of the surveyed lands in sections of 640 acres (a mile square) at public sale, under the direc- tion of the governor or secretary of the Territory and the surveyor- general, and they were to be sold at Cincinnati and Pittsburgh, and the price to be not less than $2 per acre. Two months' notice of sale was to be given by advertisement, and sale to take place one month thereafter. The remainder of the seven ranges of townships surveyed under the act of May 20, 1785, were to be sold at public sale at Philadelphia, under the direction of the Secretary of the Treasury, in quarter townships, eight sections of 640 acres each, taking out the four sections in the center, which were reserved. . . , The act of May 10, 1800, introduced the present system of dis- position of lands through officers called registers, whose offices were situated within defined districts. It established four land offices within the Northwest Territory, with an officer for each called a register, bonded for $10,000 ; one office at Cincinnati, one at Chillicothe, one at Marietta, and the other at Steubenville. These were the first district land offices established in the United States. The surveyor-general was to transmit to the register (as now) a copy of plate of tracts to be sold, and another copy to the Sec- retary of the Treasury (now to the Commissioner of the General Land Office). Lands west of the Muskingum were to be subdivided into half- sections of 3 20 acres each, and held as such ; west of that river to be subdivided and sold as usual, in sections of 640 acres. These lands were to be offered for sale at public vendue, after notice at the offices, respectively, under the direction of the register and the 1 Donaldson, The Public Domain, pp. 200, 201, 202-203, 205, 178, 188, 214, 215-216, 332, 350, 223, 257-258, 261-262, 284, 265, 267. PRINCIPAL FEATURKS 669 governor or secretary of the Territory. All such sales U) close in three weeks, and the lands remaining' unsold to be disposed of at private sale ; none to be sold at less than $2 per acre ; payment to be made in specie or evidences of the public debt at the time of purchase, the person or persons to pay, exclusive of fees, $6 for every section and $3 for eveiy half-section, for surveying expenses, and deposit one-twentieth jxxrt of the amount of the purchase money, forfeited in forty days if an addition of one-fourth part of the amount of purchase-money was not paid ; another fourth part to be paid within two years ; another fourth part within three years, and the remaining fourth part within four years after the date of sale. Interest at 6 per cent, per annum from the day of sale to be charged on the last three payments as they become due. A dis- count of 3 per cent, per year to be allowed for prepayment of any of the last three payments. If the first payment was not made, the lands became forfeited and might again be sold, but not for less at private sale than the sum offered at public sale. Lands not paid for at end of one year after last payment be- came due were to be advertised for thirty days and sold during court ; the surplus, if any, after payment of United States and ex- penses of sale, was to be returned to original owners. Lands not sold were to revert to the United States and be disposed of as other lands. . . . The price was fixed at not less than $2 per acre. (Under con- tract the first sales of lands by the Government were 66| and 75 cents.) The United States at this time was, and had been for ten years, in competition with several States who were disposing of western lands — Connecticut selling her " Western Reserve " lands at 40 cents an acre in Northeastern Ohio ; Virginia with her rich lands in Kentucky in the market ; North Carolina selling in Ten- nessee ; Pennsylvania with her charter lands offered through her State office ; and Georgia with her lands in the territory now part of Alabama and Mississippi. Massachusetts, before this, had re- duced the price of her Maine lands to 50 cents an acre to check western emigration. There began to be a serious exodus to the western country. The roads were filled with moving families and 670 THE PUBLIC LAND POLICY almost entire neighborhoods moved west. Fertile lands, at low prices, were abundant, and speculators were numerous. Under this credit system men became loaded with large land purchases, ex- pecting to make sale of a portion at an early date to incoming im- migrants at an advance, and to hold the remainder for themselves. The sales under this system, from the opening of the land offices in the territory northwest of the river Ohio by the above act to June 30, 1820, were as follows : Gross Quantity sold under the Credit System Location In Ohio In Indiana In Illinois In Missouri In Alabama In Mississippi In Louisiana In Michigan Total 8,848,152.31 2,490,736.17 i'593.247-53 1,249,113.91 3,957,281.00 1,147,988.10 45,277.00 67,362.02 i9'399.i58-04 517,226,186.95 5,137,350.20 3,227,805.20 3'349'4657o 16,182,147.67 2,297,652.91 90,554.00 178,400.46 $47,689,563.09 This was afterward scaled down by acts of Congress, by re- versions and relinquishment, so that the Government parted title, under the credit system, to 1 3,642,536 acres, and received therefor $27,900,379.29. . . . Petitions, resolutions, legislative enactments, and personal applica- tions for relief from the pressure of land purchases from the Govern- ment under the credit system resulted in various acts of relief. . . . . . . These acts were all operative for the benefit of persons holding not over 640 acres. The Congress of the United States, April 24, 1820, provided for the sale of half quarter-sections, or 80-acre lots of land, and that credit should not be allowed for the purchase-money of any lands after July i, 1820, but that complete ]3ayment must be made by the purchaser or applicant at the time of purchase ; and by section 3 of this act, it was provided that the public lands offered should be sold at the " minimum " price of $1.25 per acre at either public or private sale, and provided for the PRINCIPAL FEATURES 671 entry or purchase by persons at the several district land oflfices of all lands which, prior to July i, had been offered at public sale and remained unsold. It further provided for the sale of reverted lands, which were forfeited for non-fulfilment of purchase terms under the credit system. Previous to this time Congress had, by special acts, directed land sales to be made, but by this act it became the duty of the President, and has so continued to this day, to issue procla- mations of sale of public lands through the Commissioner of the General Land Office. This act was a great innovation. It reduced the price of all public lands whicli should be offered to tlie mini- mum of $1.25 per acre, and after they were offered (i.e. offered at public sale after due advertising and notice) such as remained un- sold were to be held for sale at the district land office at $1.25 per acre, in unlimited quantities of not less than 80 acres (half quarter- sections) at private sale. Thus, in the period from 1786 to 1820, the price had fallen from $2 to $1.25 per acre cash, and the quantity which might be sold was reduced from whole townships and eight sections to sections (640 acres), half-sections (320 acres), quarter-sections (160 acres), and half quarter-sections (80 acres), thus fostering small holdings at a low price, with deed in fee from the Government. . . . The land surveys under the United States are uniform and done under what is known as the "rectangular system." This system of surveys was reported from a committee of Congress May 7, 1784. ... This ordinance required the public lands to be divided into " Jnindrcds " of ten geographical miles square, and those again to be subdivided into lots of one mile square each, to be numbered from i to 100, commencing in the northwestern corner and counting from west to east and from east to west continuously ; and also that the lands thus subdivided should be first offered at public sale. . . . The system as adopted provided for sale in sections of 640 acres, one mile square. In 1820 a quarter-section, or 160 acres, could be purchased [also half quarter-sections or 80 acres]. In 1832 sub- divisions were ordered by law into 40-acre tracts or quarter-quarter- sections to settlers, and in 1846 to all purchasers. . . . 672 THE PUBLIC LAND POLICY The rectangular system came in at the birth of the public do- main. It started prior to the opening of the lands for sale in the territory northwest of the river Ohio, in the survey of the first seven ranges of townships therein adjoining Pennsylvania. It afterward covered the territory south of the river Ohio, and thence was applied to the old Natchez settlement, in the present State of Mississippi, It now extends over portions, if not all, of every public land State and Territory in the Union. It has been in operation for about ninety years, and has been a faithful friend to the set- tlers on the public domain. In the extensive sphere over which the surveys have progressed from Plorida, on the Atlantic, and westward to the Pacific, includ- ing all the public land States and Territories of the Union, with the exception of Alaska, formerly Russian America, the system has worked satisfactorily, furnishing facilities for the acquisition of public lands in any region of the country, and methods for the restoration of landmarks which may be lost or destroyed by time or accident. Adequate means exist in the surrounding landmarks of the adjacent public surveys, whereby missing metes and bounds can be restored in accordance with the original field-notes thereof, and the designations placed on township plats. Its recommen- dations to the public lie in its economy, simplicity, and brevity of description in deeding the premises by patent and for future conveyancing, and in the convenience of reference from the most minute legal subdivision to the corners and lines of sec- tions, and of townships of given principal base and meridians. Its greatest convenience is its extreme simplicity of description. Any person, by the monuments and markings, can readily find the tract sought for. It was originated for land-parceling for sale, and it has answered the purpose. The system now extends over the whole surface of the States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Missouri, Wisconsin, Iowa, Kansas, and portions of the States of P^lorida, Louisiana, Nevada, Minnesota, Nebraska, California, Oregon, and Colorado ; also in the Territories of Washington, Utah, Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Arizona, New Mexico, and Dakota, and the Indian Territory, . , . PRINCIPAL FEATURES 673 The first enactment relating to pre-emption was the act of March 3, 1801, giving a right of " ]:)re-emption " to certain per- sons who had contracted with John Cleves Symmes, or his asso- ciates, for lands lying between the Miami rivers, in the Territory of the United States, northwest of the Ohio River. These persons were living upon the lands once within the Symmes tract, but were not included in the patent for the reduced area, which he finally obtained. This pre-emption or preference right thus first established was a step toward abolishing the sale of unoffered land, and giving a settler the first right or preference as against a person desiring to purchase and hold ior investment or speculation. The essential conditions of a pre-emption are actual entry u]3on, residence in a dwelling, and improvement and cultivation of a tract of land. The several pre-emption acts give a preference to the settlers. Pre-emption is a premium in favor of and condition for making permanent settlement and a home. It is a preference for actual tilling and residing upon a piece of land. The original act was followed through the period from 1801 to 1841 — forty years — by sixteen acts ; the most important being the act of 1830. Under the act of April 5, 1832, the Secretary of the Treasury, in 1834, ordered the subdivision of 80-acre tracts into 40-acre lots — quarter- quarter sections — and the minimum subdivision for sale or entry was a 40-acre parcel at $1.25 per acre. . . . The pre-emption system arose from the necessities of settlers, and through a series of more than 57 years of experience in attempts to sell or otherwise dispose of the public lands. The early idea of sales for revenue was abandoned, and a plan of dis- position for homes was substituted. The pre-emption system was the result of law, experience, executive orders, departmental rulings, and judicial construction. It has been many-phased, and was ap- plied by special acts to special localities, with peculiar or additional features, but it has always and to this day contains the germ of actual settlement, under which thousands of homes have been made and lands made productive, yielding a profit in crops to the farmer and increasing the resources of the Nation. The necessity 674 THE PUBLIC LAND POLICY of protecting actual settlers on the public domain and giving a preference right to persons desiring to make homes thereon be- came more apparent in the years from 1830 to 1840. The receipts of the Government from cash land sales, during that period, was ^81,913,017.83 ; in the years 1835 and 1836 being, respectively ^15,999,804.14 and $25,167,833.06, The largest yearly receipts before or since, and representing about 32,800,000 of acres (ap- proximating the area of the present State of Alabama, and more than the area of Ohio or Indiana), were as follows : In 1837 $6,770,036.52 In 1838 3,081,939.47 In 1839 7,076,447.35 In 1840 3,242,285.58 In 1841 1,363,090.04 . . . The homestead bill, or the granting of free homes from and on the public domain, became a national question in 1852. The Free Soil Democracy, at Pittsburgh, Pa., August 11, 1852, in National Convention, nominated John P. Hale, of New Hampshire, and George W. Julian, of Indiana, for President and Vice-President, and adopted the following as the 12th plank or resolution in their platform : That the public lands of the United States belong to the people, and should not be sold to individuals, nor granted to corporations, but should be held as a sacred trust for the benefit of the people, and should be granted in limited quantities, free of cost, to landless settlers. Thereafter it became a national question until its passage in 1862, and was in the platforms of political parties. It was peti- tioned for and against. Public sentiment was aroused. It was a serious innovation and would cause an almost entire change in the settlement laws. Instead of the public lands being sold for cash, for profit, or being taken, first, under the pre-emption system, which eventuated in cash purchases, they were to be given to actual set- tlers who would occupy, improve, and cultivate them for a term of years, and then receive a patent free of acreage charges, with fees paid by the homesteader sufficient to cover cost of survey and transfer of title. PRINCIPAL FKATIRKS 675 It was the third and most important step in the history of the public land system. Once adopted, no person could estimate its moral, social, and political effects. . . . The essence of the homestead law and the amendments is em- bodied in the conditions of actual settlement, dwelling on, and cultivation of the soil embraced in an entry. It gives for a nominal fee, equal to 334 on the Pacific coast and $26 in the (jther States, .to a settler — a man or woman over the age of twenty-one )'ears, head of a family, or a single person above the age of twenty-one )'ears, a citizen of the Lhiited States or having declared an intention of becoming such — the right to locate upon 160 acres of unoccupied public land in any of the public land States and Territories subject to entry at a United States land office, to live upon the same for a period of five years, and, upon proof of a compliance with the law, to receive a patent therefor free of cost or charge for the land. P\ill citizenship is requisite to obtain final title. The present homestead law contains all of the beneficial features of the pre-emption act with the additions suggested by experience and the changed condition of national life. The eighth section of the act contains the substance of the pre-emption act in the matter of purchase. If the locator desires to buy his homestead outright at the end of six months, he can, upon due proof, pay for his land at $1.25 or $2.50 per acre, as the case may be, which is called commutation of a homestead. It contains one feature as broad in its terms and as beneficial in its principle as the domain it covers. It is as follows : No lands acquired under the provisions of this act shall, in any event, become liable to the satisfaction of any debt or debts contracted prior to the issuing of the patent therefor. The homestead act is now the approved and preferred method of acquiring title to the public lands. It has stood the test of eighteen years, and was the outgrowth of a system extending through nearly eighty years, and now, within the circle of a hun- dred years since the United States acquired the first of her public lands, the homestead act stands as the concentrated wisdom of legislation for settlement of the i)ublic lands. It protects the 676 THE PUBLIC LAND POLICY Government, it fills the States with homes, it builds up com- munities, and lessens the chances of social and civil disorder by giving ownership of the soil, in small tracts, to the occupants thereof. It was copied from no other nation's system. It was originally and distinctively American, and remains a monument to its originators. . . . The lands granted in the States and reserved in the Territo- ries for educational purposes by acts of Congress from 1785 to June 30, 1880, were — For Public or Common Schools Every sixteenth section of public land in the States admitted prior to 1848, and every sixteenth and thirty-sixth section of such land in States and Territories since organized — estimated at 67,893,919 acres. For Seminaries or Universities The quantity of two townships, or 46,080 acres, in each State or Territory containing public land, and, in some instances, a greater quantity, for the support of seminaries or schools of a higher grade — estimated at 1,165,520 acres. For Agricultural and Mechanical Colleges The grant to all the States for agricultural and mechanical col- leges, by act of July 2, 1862, and its supplements, of 30,000 acres, for each Representative and Senator in Congress to which the State was entitled, of land " in place " where the State contained a sufficient quantity of public land subject to sale at ordinary private entiy at the rate of $1.25 per acre, and of scrip representing an equal number of acres where the State did not contain such descrip- tion of land, the scrip to be sold by the State and located by its assignees on any such land in other States and Territories, subject to certain restrictions. Land in place, 1,770,000 acres ; land scrip, 7,830,000 acres ; total, 9,600,000 acres. In all, 78,659,439 acres for educational purposes under the heads above set out to June 30, 1880. PRINCIPAL FKATURES (-y^'] The lands thus ceded to the several Stiites were disposed of or are held for disposition, and the proceeds used as permanent en- dowments for common school funds. ... As an illustration, the State of Ohio has a permanent endowment for education called the " Irreducible State Debt," the result of sale of all granted lands for education, of ^4,289,718.52. . . . April 30, 1802, Congress made the first appropriation of public lands in favor of public improvements, in the enabling act for the State of Ohio it was provided that one-twentieth part of the net proceeds from the sales of public lands lying in said State and sold by Congress should be given to the State for the purpose of laying out and making public roads from the navigable waters emptying into the Atlantic to the Ohio River — roads to be laid out under authority of Congress with the consent of the several States through which they passed. The act giving ( )hio 3 per cent, of the net proceeds of land sales for laying out, opening, and making roads within said State was passed March 3, 1803. Canal Grants, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois Legislation of like character was passed until after the year 1823. A canal act, with riglit of way, for Indiana, was passed March 26, 1824. This was not utilized. The act for Indiana, passed March 2, 1827, abrogated the act of 1824, and an act of like date gave to Illinois — as did the act to Indiana — grants of land in aid of the construction of two canals. The Indiana Canal, the Wabash and Erie, was to connect the Wabash River wjth Lake Erie, and the Illinois Canal was to con- nect the waters of the Illinois River with those of Lake Michigan. The act of May 24, 1828, gave to the State of Ohio a grant to aid in the construction of the Miami Canal from Dayton to Lake Erie. Land equal to two and one-half sections in width on each side of the canal was granted, the United States reserving each alternate section, which reservation then inaugurated has become the rule in land-grants for improvements. 678 THE PUBLIC LAND POLICY When the hnes of the canals were estabhshed selections of land were to be allowed, and the title in fee at once passed to the States, who were to dispose of the same. The act provided that the construction of the cajials should be commenced within five years and completed within twenty years, and upon failure to comply with these conditions the States were to pay the United States the amount received for any lands previously sold. Purchases from the States were protected by the title in fee having passed to the State upon location of the canals. This was equal to a cash advance by the Nation for construction purposes, as the lands were sold by the States and the money thus obtained built the improvements. These acts of March 2, 1827, and May 24, 1828, (with the sub- secjuent legislation thereunder), granting lands to Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois in aid of the construction of the canals named, resulted in the vesting to those States for such purpose of 2,014,816 acres of land ; the grant to the Wabash and Erie Canal being, in Indi- ana 1,457,366.06 acres, in Ohio 266,535 acres, a total of 1,723,- 901.06 acres ; and the Illinois Canal, connecting the Illinois River with Lake Michigan, 290,915 acres. . . . The act of September 20, 1850, was the first railroad act of real importance, and initiated the system of grants of land for railroads by Congress which prevailed until after July i, 1862. This grant gave the State of Illinois alternate sections of land (even-numbered) for six sections in width on either side of the [Illinois Central] road and branches, being a grant of specific sections. The second section initiated the "indemnity" practice, or the granting of lands to the company in lieu of lands within the origi- nal grant occupied by legal settlers at the time of. the definite loca- tion of the route, to be taken within fifteen miles of the road, and designated the method of disposition. The third section provided that lands of the United States within the grant limits should not be sold at less than double minimum price ($2.50) being an increase of the price of lands from $1.25 to $2.50 per acre or from single to double minimum. It provided for a forfeiture of the grant, with payment by the State to the LInited States for lands sold, in case of failure to construct within a certain fixed time. Unsold lands PRINCIPAL FEATURES 679 were to revert to the i)ul)lie domain, and purehasers from the St;ite to have good title. This was provithng tor default and re\ision thereafter. The road was to be a pubhe higliway, to Ix' used b\- the (loxern- ment free of toll or other charges, and tlie mails were to be earried at prices to be fixed by Congress. [A subsequent] act extended like terms and conditions to the States of Alabama and Mississippi in aid of the Mobile and Ohio road which was to connect with the Illinois Central and branches — all of which roads are now established. . . . By an act of the Illinois legislature, of date February 10, 185 i, the Illinois Central Railroad Company was incorporated as a body politic and corporate. . . . The fifteenth section of the act gave the lands ceded to the State for railroad purposes to this company, the governor of the State to make deed in fee therefor to the corporation. . . . The Hannibal and .Saint Joseph and Mis.souri Pacific Railroads were the roads built under the act of June 10, 1852, donating to the State of Missouri certain lands. This act contained two features in addition to the main provisions of the Illinois grant, viz. a plan of disposition of the lands granted, and a clause directing the Sec- retary of the Interior to offer at public sale, at periods, at the double minimum price ($2.50 per acre) the reserved Government sections. The provisions of the Illinois bill requiring the States to reimburse the Government for lands sold, in case of default, were not in the Missouri act; and in the Arkansas act of I^'ebruary 9, 1S53, the section to "offer" the reserved lands was omitted. . . . The series of grants to Iowa and other States in 1856, and the Minnesota act of 1857, were in the form and substxmce of the Missouri grants of June 10, 1852, with the change of " odd " for "even" in the description of the sections granted to the States. . . . The public having by petition evidenced their opinion to Con- gress, the Union Pacific Railroad Company was incorporated by a direct act of the Congress of the United States. Julv i, 1862. They were to build a railroad and telegraph line from the Missouri River to the Pacific Ocean. This was a complete change in the 68o THE PUBLIC LAND POLICY system of land bounties to aid in the building of railroads. The grant was direct to the corporation, thus avoiding the established rule of using a State as a trustee and agent of transfer. It had been fiercely contended prior to this that Congress could not create a corporation to do business in a State without the consent of the State. The company was given right of way, allowances for shops, stations, &c., and in aid of construction " every alternate section of public land," by odd numbers, unless previously disposed of, reserved, or mineral (coal and iron afterward construed not to be reserved l3y this term), to the extent of five alternate sections per mile on each side of the road. . . . II. ATTACK AND DEFENCE OF THE POLICY 1 Clays Report ou Public Lands, lSj2. The committee are instructed by the Senate to inquire into the expediency of reducing the price of the public lands, and also of ceding them to the several States in which they are situated on reasonable terms. The committee will proceed to examine these two subjects of inquiry distinctly, beginning first with that which relates to a reduction of price. . . . Against any considerable reduction of the price of the public lands, unless it be necessary to a more rapid population of the new States, which will be hereafter examined, there are weighty, if not decisive considerations : I. The Government is the proprietor of much the largest quantity of the unseated lands of the United States. What it has in market, bears a large proportion to the whole of the occupied lands within their limits. If a considerable quantity of any article, land, or any commodity whatever, is in market, the price at which it is sold, will affect, in some degree, the value of the whole of that article, whether exposed to sale or not. The influence of a reduc- tion of the price of the public lands would probably be felt through- out the Union ; certainly in all the western States, and most in those which contain, or are nearest to, the public lands. There ought to be the most cogent and conclusive reasons for adopting 1 Senate Documents, No. 128, ist Session, 22d Congress. ATTACK AND DEFENCE OF THE POLICY 6S I a measure which might seriously impair llie vakie of the property of the yeomanr)' of the country. Whilst it is decidedly the most important class in the community, most patient, patriotic, and acquiescent in whatever public policy is pursued, it is unable or unwilling to resort to those means of union and concert which other interests employ to make themselves heard and respected. Government should, therefore, feel itself constantly bound to guard, with sedulous care, the rights and welfare of the great body of our yeomanry. Would it be just towards those who have heretofore purchased public lands at higher prices, to say nothing as to the residue of the agricultural interest of the United States, to make such a reduction, and thereby impair the value of their property .'' Ought not an)' such plan of reduction, if adopted, to be accom- panied with compensation for the injury which they would in- evitably sustain .-• 2. A material reduction of price would excite and stimulate the spirit of speculation, now dormant, and probably lead to a transfer of vast quantities of the public domain from the control of Govern- ment to the hands of the speculator. At the existing price, and with such extensive districts as the public constantly offers in the market, there is no great temptation to speculation. The demand is regular, keeping pace with the progress of emigration, and is supplied on known and moderate terms. If the price were much reduced, the strongest incentives to engrossment of the better lands would be presented to large capitalists ; and the emigrant, instead of being able to purchase from his own Government upon uniform and established conditions, might be compelled to give much higher and more fluctuating prices to the speculator. An illustration of this effect is afforded by the military bounty lands granted during the late war. Thrown into the market at prices below the Govern- ment rate, they notoriously became an object of speculation, and have principally fallen into the hands of speculators, retiuxling the settlement of the districts which include them. 3. The greatest emigration that is believed now to take place from any of the States, is from Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee. The effects of a material reduction in the price of the public lands, would be, 1st. To lessen the value of real estate in those three 682 THE PUBLIC LAND POLICY States. 2d. To diminish their interest in the pubUc domain, as a common fund for the benefit of all the States. And, 3d, To offer what would operate as a bounty to further emigration from those States, occasioning more and more lands, situated within them, to be thrown into the market, thereby not only lessening the value of their lands, but draining them both of their population and currency. And, lastly, Congress has, within a few years, made large and liberal grants of the public lands to several States. To Ohio, 922,937 acres ; to Indiana, 384,728 acres ; to Illinois, 480,000 acres ; and to Alabama, 400,000 acres ; amounting, together, to 2,187,665 acres. Considerable portions of these lands yet remain unsold. The reduction of the price of the public lands, generally, would impair the value of those grants, as well as injuriously affect that of the lands which have been sold in virtue of them. On the other hand, it is inferred and contended, from the large amount of public land remaining unsold, after having been so long exposed to sale, that the price at which it is held is too high. But this apparent tardiness is satisfactorily explained by the immense quantity of public lands which have been put into the market by Government. It is well known that the new States have constantly and urgently pressed the extinction of the Indian title upon lands within their respective limits ; and, after its extinction, that they should be brought into market as rapidly as practicable. The liberal policy of the General Government, coinciding with the wishes of the new States, has prompted it to satisfy the wants of emigrants from every part of the Union, by exhibiting vast districts of land for sale, in all the States and Territories, thus offering every variety of climate and situation to the free choice of settlers. From these causes, it has resulted that the power of emigration has been totally incompetent to absorb the immense bodies of waste lands offered in the market. For the capacity to purchase is, after all, limited by the emigration, and the progressive increase of population. If the quantity thrown into the market had been quadrupled, the probability is that there would not have been much more annually sold than actually has been. With such extensive fields for selec- tion before them, purchasers, embarrassed as to the choice which ATTACK AND DEFENCE OF THE J'OLICV 6.S3 they should mcike, arc sometimes probably influenced by caprice or accidental causes. Whilst the better lands remain, those of secondary value will not be purchased. A judicious farmer or planter would sooner gi\'e one dollar and a quarter per acre for first-rate land, than receive as a donation land of inferior quality, if he were compelled to settle upon it. . . . Complaints exist in the new States, that large bodies of lands in their respective territories, being owned by the General Ciovern- ment, are exempt from taxation to meet the ordinary expenses of the State Governments, and other local charges ; that this exemp- tion continues for five years after the sale of any partic-ular tract ; and that land, being the principal source of the revenue of those States, an undue share of the burthen of sustaining the exjjcnses of the State Governments falls upon the resident poi)ulation. To all these complaints, it may be answered that, by voluntiuy com- pacts between the new States respectively, and the General Govern- ment, five per cent, of the nett proceeds of all the sales of the public lands, included within their limits, are appropriated for internal improvements, leading to or within those States ; that a section of land in each township, or one thirty-sixth part of the whole of the public lands embraced within their respective bounda- ries, has been reserved for purposes of education ; and that the policy of the General Government has been uniformly marked by great liberality towards the new States, in making various and some very extensive grants of the public lands, for local purposes. But, in accordance with the same spirit of liberality, the committee would recommend an appropriation to each of the seven States referred to, of a further sum of ten per cent, on the nett proceeds of the sales of that part of the public land which lies within it, for objects of internal improvement in their respective limits. The tendency of such an appropriation will be not only to benefit those States, but to enhance the value of the public lands remaining to be sold. The committee have now to proceed to the other branch of the inquiry which they were required to make, that of the expediency of ceding the public lands to the several States in which they are situated, on reasonable terms. . . . 684 THE PUBLIC LAND POLICY If the proposed cession to the new States were to be made at a fair price, such as the General Government could obtain from in- dividual purchasers under the present system, there would be no motive for it, unless the new States are more competent to dispose of the public lands than the common Government. They are now sold under one uniform plan, regulated and controlled by a single legislative authority, and the practical operation is perfectly under- stood. If they were transferred to the new States, the subsequent disposition would be according to laws emanating from various legislative sources. Competition would probably arise between the new States in the terms which they would offer to purchasers. Each State would be desirous of inviting the greatest number of emigrants, not only for the laudable purpose of populating rapidly its own territories, but with the view to the acquisition of funds to enable it to fulfil its engagements to the General Government. Collisions between the States would probably arise, and their injuri- ous consequences may be imagined. A spirit of hazardous specula- tion would be engendered. Various schemes in the new States would be put afloat to sell or divide the public lands. Companies and combinations would be formed in this countiy, if not in for- eign countries, presenting gigantic and tempting, but delusive proj- ects ; and the history of legislation, in some of the States of the Union, admonishes us that a too ready ear is sometimes given by a majority, in a legislative assembly, to such projects. A decisive objection to such a transfer for a fair equivalent, is, that it would establish a new and dangerous relation between the General Government and the new States. In abolishing the credit which had been allowed to purchasers of the public lands, prior to the year 1820, Congress was principally governed by the consider- ation of the inexpediency and hazard of accumulating a large amount of debt in the new States, all bordering on each other. Such an accumulation was deemed unwise and unsafe. It pre- sented a new bond of interest, of sympathy, and of union, partially operating to the possible prejudice of the common bond of the old Union. But that debt was a debt due from individuals, and it was attended with this encouraging security, that purchasers, as they suc- cessively completed the payments for their lands, would naturally ATTACK AND DEFENCIi: OF THE POLICY 6S5 be disposed to aid tlie GovernnienL in enforein<; payment from delinquents. The projeet, whieh the committee are now consider- ing, is, to sell to the States, in their sovereign character, and, con- sequently, to render them public debtors to the General Government to an immense amount. This would inevitably create between the debtor States a common feeling, and a common interest, distinct from the rest of the Union. These States are all in tlie western and southwestern quarter of the Union, remotest from the centre of Federal power. The debt would be felt as a load from which they would constantly be desirous to relieve themselves ; and it would operate as a strong temptation, weakening, if not danger- ous, to the existing confederacy. . . . If the proposed cession be made for a price merely nominal, it would be contrary to the express conditions of the original cessions from primitive States to Congress, and contrary to the obligations which the General Government stands under to the whole people of the United States, arising out of the fact that the acquisitions of Louisiana and Florida, and from Georgia, were obtained at a great expense, borne from the common treasure, and incurred for the common benefit. Such a gratuitous cession could not be made without a positive violation of a solemn trust, and without manifest injustice to the old States. And its inequality among the new States would be as marked as its injustice to the old would be in- defensible. Thus, Missouri, with a population of 140,455, would acquire 38,291,1 52 acres ; and the State of Ohio, with a population of 935,884, would obtain only 5,586,834 acres. Supposing a divi- sion of the land among the citizens of those two States respectively, the citizen of Ohio would obtain less than six acres for his share, and the citizen of Missouri upwards of two hundred and seventy- two acres as his proportion. Upon full and thorough consideration, the committee have come to the conclusion, that it is inexpedient either to reduce the price of the public lands, or to cede them to the new States. They be- lieve, on the contrary, that sound policy coincides with the duty which has devolved on the General Government to the whole of the Slates, and the whole of the people of the Union, and enjoins the preservation of the existing system as having been tried and 686 THE PUBLIC LAND POLICY approved after long and triumphant experience. But, in conse- quence of the extraordinary financial prosperity which the United vStates enjoy, the question merits examination, whether, whilst the General Government steadily retains the control of this great na- tional resource in its own hands, after the payment of the public debt, the proceeds of the sales of the public lands, no longer needed to meet the ordinary expenses of Government, may not be beneficially appropriated to some other objects for a limited time ? . . . The inquiry remains, what ought to be the specific application of the fund under the restriction stated ? After deducting the ten per cent, proposed to be set apart for the new States, a portion of the committee would have preferred that the residue should be ap- plied to the objects of internal improvement, and colonization of the free blacks, under the direction of the General Government. But a majority of the committee believes it better, as an alternative for the scheme of cession to the new States, and as being most likely to give general satisfaction, that the residue be divided among the twenty-four States, according to their federal representative population, to be applied to education, internal improvement, or colonization, or to the redemption of any existing debt contracted for internal improvements, as each State, judging for itself, shall deem most conformable with its own interests and policy. . . , III. ESTIMATES OF THE POLICY ^ It is curious that the United States system of disposing of the public lands, adopted in all its essential features as far back as 1 800, has worked better than any other plan which has yet been devised. The land is carefully divided by the government surveys into town- ships six miles square, each of these be'ing subdivided into thirty- six sections, of one square mile, or 640 acres, each. All is held at a minimum price of $1.25 an acre ; and the sales are made at pub- lic auction, as rapidly as the progress of the population seems to require. Lands which will not bring $1.25 an acre at the public sale, are still held by the government subject to entry at any future 1 Bowen, Principles of Political Economy, pp. 9S-100. ESTIMATES OF THE POLICY 6S7 time, at private sale, and at the miniimini price. Any person can select a quarter, or even an eighth section, — 160 or 80 acres, — wherever he can find one surveyed and not yet sold, and, by mak- ing a record of his intention to occupy and settle it himself, he can secure what is called the "preemption right"; — a right which, partly by the force of law and partly by custom, amounts to a privi- lege of purchasing that land at the minimum price of $1.25 an acre, whenever the government shall think proper to sell it, which it will do when the settlement is so far advanced as to render it probable that most of the land in the vicinity will bring that price. Thus the actual settler in truth obtains his land on credit, though all actual sales are for cash. He has credit till the actual sale is ordered ; and some years may interv^ene, during which he may pro- ceed to clear and cultivate his land, and actually obtain enough from it to make up its price, secure that no one will overbid him, and that he cannot be obliged to pay more than $1.25 an acre for it, however great may be his improvements. Five per cent is re- served from the proceeds of the sales, to be expended, three fifths for making roads to the newly settled territory, and two fifths for the support of seminaries of learning therein. I say this system has worked well, the only evil experienced under it being, that speculators will sometimes buy up large tracts not subject to preemption right, at the minimum government price, and hold them for an indefinite period, hoping that, as the popu- lation gradually close up and concentrate around them, they may again be brought into market at a much advanced price. While thus held, they remain unoccupied, — broad patches of wilderness among the settlements, — obstructing communication between the surrounding lands, and barring out occupation and improvement. But there is a check to this evil in the fact, that such lands are subject to State taxation, though they are tax-free before they are sold by the United States ; and the taxes being proportioned to the rise in value of the property^ it is not for the interest of the speculators to retain the land a long time. But the inhabitants of the Western States make a great mistake when they clamor for a reduction of the inijiiimiin price at which the public lands are now held, and even demand that they shall be 688 THE PUBLIC LAND POLICY offered, in limited quantities, as a free gift to actual settlers. Their object, of course, in making these demands, is to stimulate the spirit of emigration to the West, so that the population there may more speedily become dense, and the value of the lands already settled thus be enhanced. The object is a good one ; but if there is any force in the considerations now adduced, the means adopted will tend rather to check than promote its attainment. It is surely not for the interest of sparsely settled States, like Indiana, Illinois, and Michigan, that the great wave of emigration, though broadened and deepened, should only roll over them, to be arrested at last by the farthest limits of Iowa and Minnesota, or perhaps to pass much farther, and, dashing against the side of the Rocky Mountains, to throw its spray over their summits into Oregon and California. But we may see that any great reduction in the price of the public lands will surely have this effect. The most eligible land in the three States first mentioned has already been taken up by individ- uals, that portion which yet remains in the hands of the government being either less fertile, or more distant from navigable streams and other means of communication, or situated in a less salubrious or convenient region, than the tracts first selected for purchase. They have long been in the market, and have not yet found a buyer. Even now, most of the emigrants pass by them, seeking public lands which are more remote from their former homes, but which, in every other respect, are superior to these long-neglected spots, which a former generation of immigrants have avoided. Any gen- eral reduction of the government price could not affect this relative eligibility of the nearer and more distant lands. Reduce the price to nothing, — give away the lands altogether, — and the emigrant will still pass on, pushed for\vard by the emigrant's fond illusion, that the farther from home, the nearer to El Dorado. Again, what is most needed for an increase of the prosperity of the West — of that portion of it, at least, which lies on this side of the Mississippi — is, not that the lands yet in the possession of government should become private property, but that the population should be concentrated on the tracts already owned by individuals, though in great part still covered by the primeval forest. To en- hance the value of these broad regions, the people must be massed ESTIMATES OF THE POLICY 6.S9 together, towns and cities must be established, manufacturing and commercial industry must be added to agricultural, and the hut of the backwoodsman must give place to the well-furnished abode of civilized and enlightened man. It would be an ill mode of enhanc- ing the value of the farms of individuals, to offer lands in their im- mediate vicinity at a nominal price, or at no price at all. The passion for owning land, which converts nearly all the new settlers in our Western Stiites into farmers, however ill fitted for such occu- pation by their previous pursuits, is as injurious to agriculture as to the other great branches of industry. The land is held by those who, from defect of experience or want of capital, are unable to develop its resources, or even to remove the forest from a tithe of their do- mains. Corn, fuel, and meat are abundant, because prodigal nature affords so many facilities for the production of them, that the skill, enterprise, and knowledge of the cultivator are little needed, and are therefore imperfectly called forth, l^ut man does not live by bread alone ; and when this alone is supplied, almost without labor and without stint, he learns to do without many of the requisites even of a low stage of civilization, and allows the wants of his higher nature to remain unsatisfied. The want of a market, and the con- sequent surplus of agricultural produce, reduce its price so low, that many families find it needless to raise more than is wanted for their own consumption. . . . 1 The methods according to which the sales of the public lands in the United States are conducted are excellent. The lots are so divided as to preclude all doubt and litigation about boundaries. There is a general land-office at Washington, and a subordinate one in each district, where all business can be transacted with readiness and exactitude. Periodical sales are made of lands which it is de- sirable to bring into the market. These are disposed of to the highest bidder. The advance of the population into the wilderness is thus made more regular than it would be if there were not a rendezvous in each district, where it could be ascertained how the settlement of the neighbouring country was going on ; titles are made more secure ; and less impunity is allowed to fraud. 1 Martineau, Society in America [1834-1836], I, 336-337- 690 THE PUBLIC LAND POLICY The pre-emption laws, originally designed for the benefit of poor settlers, have been the greatest provocatives to fraud. It seemed hard that a squatter, who had settled himself on unoccupied land, and done it nothing but good, should be turned off without remunera- tion, or compelled to purchase his own improvements ; and in 1830, a bill was therefore passed, granting a pre-emption right to squatters who had taken such possession of unsold lands. It pro- vided that when two individuals had cultivated a quarter section of land, (one hundred and sixty acres,) each should have a pre-emp- tion right with regard to half the cultivated portion : and each also to a pre-emption of eighty acres anywhere else in the same land district. Of course, abundance of persons took advantage of this law to get the best land very cheap. Two men, by merely cutting down, or blazing a few trees, or " camping out " for a night or two, on a good quarter-section, have secured it at the minimum price. A Report to Congress states that there is reason to believe that " large companies have been founded, who procure affidavits of improvements to be made, get the warrants issued upon them, and whenever a good tract of land is ready for sale, cover it over with their ^oafs, (warrants of the required habitation,) and thus put down competition. The frauds upon the public, within the past year, [1835,] from this single source, have arisen to many millions of dollars." Such errors in matters of detail are sure to be corrected soon after being discovered. The means will speedily be found of showing a due regard to the claims of squatters, without precipitat- ing the settlement of land by unfairly reducing its price in the market. Whatever methods may tend to lessen rather than to in- crease the facilities for occupying new land, must, on the whole, be an advantage, while the disproportion between land and labour is so great as it now is in the western regions of the United States. ^ BucJianan s Veto Alcssage of June 22, 1S60 I return with my objections to the Senate, in which it originated, the bill entitled "An act to secure homesteads to actual settlers on the public domain, and for other purposes," presented to me on the 20th instant. 1 Richardson, Messages and Papers of the Presidents, Vol. V. ESTIMATES OF 'I'lir: I'OLICY 69 1 This bill gives to every citizen of the L'nited States " who is the head of a family," and to every person of foreign birth residing in the country- who has declared his intention to become a citizen, though he may not be the head of a family, the privilege of appro- priating to himself 160 acres of Ciovernment land, of settling and residing upon it for five years ; and should his residence continue until the end of this period, he shall then receive a i)atent on the payment of 25 cents per acre, or one-fifth of the present Govern- ment price. During this period the land is protected from all the debts of the settler. . . . It will prove unequal and unjust in its operation among the actual settlers themselves. The first settlers of a new country are a most meritorious class. They brave the dangers of savage warfare, suffer the privations of a frontier life, and with the hand of toil bring the wilderness into cultivation. The "old settlers," as they are everywhere called, arc public benefactors. This class have all paid for their lands the Government price, or $ i .25 per acre. They have constructed roads, established schools, and laid the foundation of prosperous common- wealths. Is it just, is it equal, that after they have accomplished all this by their labor new settlers should come in among them and receive their farms at the price of 25 or 18 cents per acre.-* Surelv the old settlers, as a class, are entitled to at least equal bene- fits with the new. If you give the new settlers their land for a comparatively nominal price, upon every principle of equality and justice you will be obliged to refund out of the common Treasury the difference which the old have paid above the new settlers for their land. . . , This bill is unjust to the old States of the Union in many re- spects ; and amongst these States, so far as the public lands are concerned, we may enumerate every State east of the Mississippi with the exception of Wisconsin and a portion of Minnesota. It is a common belief within their limits that the older Stiites of the Confederacy do not derive their proportionate benefit from the public lands. This is not a just opinion. It is doubtful whether they could be rendered more beneficial to these States under any Other system than that w hich at present exists. Their proceeds go 692 THE PUBLIC LAND POLICY into the common Treasury to accomplish the objects of the Gov- ernment, and in this manner all the States are benefited in just . proportion. But to give this common inheritance away would de- prive the old States of their just proportion of this revenue without holding out any the least corresponding advantage. Whilst it is our common glory that the new States have become so prosperous and populous, there is no good reason why the old States should offer premiums to their own citizens to emigrate from them to the West. That land of promise presents in itself sufficient allurements to our young and enterprising citizens without any adventitious aid. The offer of free farms would probably have a powerful effect in encouraging emigration, especially from States like Illinois, Ten- nessee, and Kentucky, to the west of the Mississippi, and could not fail to reduce the price of property within their limits. An individual in States thus situated would not pay its fair value for land when by crossing the Mississippi he could go upon the public lands and obtain a farm almost without money and with- out price. . . . This bill lays the ax at the root of our present admirable land system. The public land is an inheritance of vast value to us and to our descendants. It is a resource to which we can resort in the hour of difficulty and danger. It has been managed heretofore with the greatest wisdom under existing laws. In this management the rights of actual settlers have been conciliated with the interests of the Government. The price to all has been reduced from $2 per acre to $1.25 for fresh lands, and the claims of actual settlers have been secured by our preemption laws. Any man can now acquire a title in fee simple to a homestead of 80 acres, at the minimum price of $1.25 per acre, for $100. Should the present system remain, we shall derive a revenue from the public lands of $10,000,000 per annum, when the bounty-land warrants are satisfied, without oppression to any human being. In time of war, when all other sources of revenue are seriously impaired, this will remain intact. It may become the best security for public loans hereafter, in times of difficulty and danger, as it has been hereto- fore. Why should we impair or destroy the system at the present moment ? What necessity exists for it .'' . . . CHAPTER XIV THE ORGANIZATION OF LABOR AND CAPITAL INTRODUCTION The modern labor problem can hardly be said to have existed in America until after the middle of the nineteenth century, llefore that time the Amer- ican peopIe~^had indeecTtheir labor problem, as most new countries have, but it was something quite different from what now passes under that name. How to secure a sufficient number of wage workers, how to create a laboring class, was the real problem ; not how to protect laborers from the injuries of excessive competition. With the single exception of commercial enterprises, capital can- not be invested in any considerable amount in an industry without the hiring of labor. No matter how profitable an industry may be, no capitalist as such can engage in it until he is able to secure the services of laborers. As capital accumulates in a country, therefore, or is brought in from outside for invest- ment, the creation of a wage-earning class becomes a matter of paramount im- portance to economic progress. Down to about the time of the Civil War, the difficulty of securing an adequate supply of such labor and keeping it was felt in every industry that required production on a large scale. In the South and the West Indies, where men wished to invest capital in the production of sugar, tobacco, and cotton, a solution of the difficulty was found in the estab- lishment of negro slavery. In Spanish America, where the capitalist wished to exploit the mines, it was found in a system of compulsory labor for the natives. In the northern part of the United States for many generations the capitalist devoted himself to commerce and shipping, where not much wage labor was required. When, however, attention was turned to manufactures and to various enterprises for improving transportation, the same difficulty had to be met there that had long been felt in other parts of America. It was chiefly the labor of women and children, and later of an increasing body of immigrants, which made possible the investment of capital in the in- dustries of this region. They furnished almost the only wage labor which was to be had. They could not, however, be called a laboring class in the ordi- nary sense of that term ; and few or none of the modern problems of such a class appeared among them. It is true that trade-unions of the modern type were organized in considerable numbers in the country before 1S50, but it is misleading to infer from them that the labor situation in this country resem- bled even remotely the conditions which caused the growth of labor organi- zations in Europe during the same time. Communistic societies, based on the 693 694 ORGANIZATION OF LABOR AND CAPITAL ideas of Owen and* Fourier, also sprang up here in great numbers at tliis time ; but no one would infer from this that social conditions in America were any- thing like those in Europe which Owen and Fourier were striving to remedy. Trade-unions, like communistic societies, were in America foreign ideas, taken up by our people at a time of great social and moral ferment and applied here to a society almost completely free from the ills those devices were designed to cure in Europe. They did not spring out of industrial conditions here and had no roots in the country itself at this time. As the labor problem in our early history was how to secure combination, so a similar problem arose in relation to capital. So long as the chief enter- prises requiring large capital were commercial and maritime, or were in the production of agricultural staples, there seems to have been no great difficulty in bringing together under one management a sufficient amount of capital to carry on the industries. Single individuals or two or three persons in partner- ship could supply all that was necessary. But when attention was turned to banking and insurance, to manufactures requiring expensive machinery, and to various transportation enterprises like the establishment of steamboat lines and the building of turnpikes, canals, gnd railroads, sufficient capital could not be secured in this way. A great deal of saving and accumulation of capital took place during the prosperous years of the European wars. There was capital enough in the country in the aggregate to carry on these new enter- prises, but it existed for the most part in small amounts and the owners were loath to risk them in speculative ventures which did not promise very large returns. Some means had to be devised for bringing these together • so as to provide the large capitals that were needed, This problem was met by the development of corporations. Practically none had existed in colonial times, but beginning a few years after the close of the Revolution we find the state governments creating them in great numbers to carry on the various new enterprises that were attracting attention. They began with banks and in- surance companies during the last ten years of the eighteenth century. Turn- pike and manufacturing companies were most numerous before the War of 1812, while banking, canal, and railroad companies were created in great num- bers from this time to the Civil War. Gradually corporations secured the con- fidence of the people, and to an increasing extent the savings of the country went to the purchase of their stocks and bonds. There seems to have been some little fear of possible dangers from them at first, and this was increased toward banking corporations by the political struggle over the United States Bank. But the opposition to corporations as such never became strong or gen- eral. On the contrary they were regarded as an application of the democratic principle to business ; the small stockholder in a corporation like the humble citizen of the republic had a voice in the management of affairs. The attitude of the public toward corporations soon became extremely indulgent. Few pre- cautions were taken against any possible evils from them, and almost every concession asked for was eagerly granted by the state governments to them. Till- LA DOR PROBLEM OF NEW COUNTRIES 695 I. THE LABOR PROBLEM OF NEW COUNTRIES ^, . . I have now to request your special attention to an absolute condition of a high rate of profit anywhere, and, indeed, of any re- turn whatever from capital, which is often wanting or deficient in colonies, though not in old countries. In this country [England], for example, it never comes into any- body's head to doubt that capital can be employed in a productive business. There is capital, and there is the business : put the one into the other, and all will go well. The business, let us suppose, is the farming of 500 acres of fertile land in a high state of culti- vation, well found in drainage, fences, and buildings, and rent free : the capital is ^^5000 worth of the things requisite for carrying on the business of the farm, such as crops in the ground, live stock, fodder, implements, and money at the bank wherewith to pay out- goings till incomings restore the invested capital. Nothing more seems requisite. . . . But, ... let us suppose, the number of labourers on this farm being thiit}^, that two-thirds of them quitted their employer, and that he was totally unable to get others in their place : . . . We can hardly bring ourselves to imagine the occur- rence of such a case here. It is substantially an every-day case in the colonies. Farmers, or other men of business there, can get and keep horses as many as they please, but they cannot do so with labourers. Labour, which is here a drug, is scarce there. . . . It has long been an axiom with political economists, that the most important improvement in the application of human industiy is what they call "the division of labour: " the produce, they show, is great in proportion as the labour is divided. Adam Smith's famous chapter on the subject satisfies the mind on this point. But he fell into an error of words, which has kept out of view until lately, that what he calls the division of labour, is wholly dependent upon something else. It is dependent upon combination amongst the labourers. In his illustrative case of the pin-factory, for example, the separate parts of the whole work of making a pin could not be assigned to different persons — one drawing the wire, another pol- ishing it, a third cutting it in bits, a fourth pointing one end of the 1 Wakefield, A View of the Art of Colonization [1S51], pp. 165-166, 167, 168-170. 696 ORGANIZATION OF LABOR AND CAPITAL bits, a fifth making the heads, a sixth putting them on, and so forth — unless all these persons were brought together under one roof, and induced to co-operate. The bringing together of workmen, and inducing them to co-operate, is a combination of labour : it cannot be properly called by any other name. . . . The principle of the combination of labour, which seems more important the more one reflects on it, was not perceived until a colonial inquiry led to its discovery : it was unnoticed by econo- mists, because they have resided in countries where combination of labour takes place, as a matter of course, whenever it is re- quired : it seems in old countries like a natural property of labour. But in colonies the case is totally different. There, the difficulty of inducing a number of people to combine their labour for any pur- pose, meets the capitalist in every step of his endeavours, and in every line of industry. I shall speak of the consequences presently. There is another principle of labour which nothing points out to the economical inquirer in old countries, but of which every colo- nial capitalist has been made conscious in his own person. By far the greater part of the operations of industry, and especially those of which the produce is great in proportion to the capital and labour employed, require a considerable time for their completion. As to most of them, it is not worth while to make a commencement with- out the certainty of being able to carry them on for several years. A large portion of the capital employed in them is fixed, incontro- vertible, durable. If anything happens to stop the operation, all this capital is lost. If the harvest cannot be gathered, the whole outlay in making it grow has been thrown away. Like examples, without end, might be cited. They show that constancy is a no less important principle than combination of labour. The importance of the principle of constancy is not seen here, because rarely in- deed does it happen, that the labour which carries on a business, is stopped against the will of the capitalist ; and it perhaps never happens, that a capitalist is deterred from entering on an under- taking by the fear that in the middle of it he may be left without labourers. But in the colonies, on the contrary, I will not say that this occurs every day, because capitalists are so much afraid of it, that they avoid its occurrence as much as they can, by avoiding, as THE LABOR rkOI'.LEM OF NEW COUNTRIES 697 much as possible, operations which require much time for their completion ; but it occurs, more or less, to all who heedlessly en- gage in such operations, especially to new comers ; and the general fear of it — the known difficulty of providing with certainty that operations shall not be stopped or interrupted by the inconstancy of labour — is as serious a colonial impediment to the productive- ness of industry as the difficulty of combining labour in masses for only a short time. Combination and constancy of labour are provided for in old countries, without an effort or a thought on the part of the ca])ital- ist, merely by the abundance of labourers for hire. In colonies, labourers for hire are scarce. The scarcity of labourers for hire is the universal complaint of colonies. It is the one cause, both of the high wages which put the colonial labourer at his ease, and of the exorbitant wages which sometimes harass the capitalist. . . . 1. . . There is no one subject on which so many complaints are to be heard from every class of American society as the immigra- tion of foreigners. The incapacity of men to recognise blessings in disguise has been the theme of moralists in all ages : but it might be expected that the Americans, in this case, would be an exception. It is wonderful, to a stranger, to see how they fret and toil, and scheme and invent, to supply the deficiency of help, and all the time quarrel with the one means by which labour is brought to their door. The immigration of foreigners was the one complaint by which I was met in eveiy corner of the free States ; and I really believe I did not converse with a dozen persons who saw the ultimate good through the present apparent evil. It is not much to be wondered at that gentlemen and ladies, living in Boston and New York, and seeing, for the first time in their lives, half-naked and squalid persons in the street, should ask where they come from, and fear lest they should infect others with their squalor, and wish they would keep away. It is not much to be wondered at that the managers of charitable institutions in the maritime cities should be weary of the claims advanced by indigent foreigners : but it is surprising that these gentlemen and ladies 1 Martineau, Society in America [1834-1836], I, 339-34°. 341-342, 343-344- 698 ORGANIZATION OF LABOR AND CAPITAL should not learn by experience that all this ends well, and that mat- ters are taking their natural course. It would certainly be better that the emigrants should be well clothed, educated, respectable people : (except that, in that case, they would probably never ar- rive ;) but the blame of their bad condition rests elsewhere, while their arrival is, generally speaking, almost a pure benefit. Some are intemperate and profligate ; and such are, no doubt, a great in- jury to the cities where they harbour ; but the greater number show themselves decent and hardworking enough, when put into employ- ment. Every American acknowledges that few or no canals or railroads would be in existence now, in the United States, but for the Irish labour by which they have been completed : and the best cultivation that is to be seen in the land is owing to the Dutch and Germans it contains. What would housekeepers do for domestic service without foreigners .'' If the American ports had been barred against immigration, and the sixty thousand foreigners per annum, with all their progeny, had been excluded, where would now have been the public works of the United States, the agriculture, the shipping ? The most emphatic complainers of the immigration of foreigners are those who imagine that the morals of society suffer thereby. My own conviction is that the morals of society are, on the whole, thereby much improved. It is candidly allowed, on all hands, that the passion of the Irish for the education of their children is a great set-off against the, bad qualities some of them exhibit in their own persons ; and that the second and third generations of Irish are among the most valuable citizens of the republic. The immi- grant Germans are more sober and respectable than the Irish ; but there is more difficulty in improving them and their children. The Scotch are in high esteem. . . . The bad moral consequences of a dispersion of agricultural labour, and the good moral effects of an adequate combination, are so serious as to render it the duty of good citizens to inform themselves fully of the bearings of this question [immigration] before they attempt to influence other minds upon it. Those who have seen what are the morals and manners of families who live alone in the wilds, with no human opinion around them, no neighbours with whom to exchange good offices, no stimulus to mental activity, no social THE LA?>(^R PROP.TJ'.M OV M:W (OIXTRIES 699 amusements, no church, f/o life, nothing; but the pursuit of tlie outward means of living, — any one who has witnessed this will be ready to agree what a blessing it would be to such a family to shake down a shower of even poor Irish labourers around them. To such a family no tidings ought to be more welcome than of the arrival of ship-load after ship-load of immigrants at the ports, some few of whom may wander hithenvards, and by entering into a com- bination of labour to obtiiin means of living, open a way to the at- tainment of the ends. Sixty thousand immigrants a-year ! What are these spread over so many thousand square miles .-* If the country could be looked down upon from a balloon, some large clusters of these would be seen detained in the cities, because they could not be spared into the country ; other clusters would be seen about the canals and railroads ; and a very slight sprinkling in the back country, where their stations would be marked by the prosperity growing up around them. The expedients used in the country settlements to secure a com- bination of labour when it is absolutely necessary, show how emi- nently deficient it is. Every one has heard of the "frolic" or "bee," by means of which the clearing of lots, the raising of houses, the harvesting of crops is achieved. Roads are made, and kept by contributions of labour and teams, by settlers. For the rest, what can be done by family labour alone is so done, with great waste of time, material, and toil. The wonderful effects of a "frolic," in ever)^ way, should serve, in contrast with the toil and difficulty usually expended in producing small results, to incline the hearts of settlers towards immigrants, and to plan how an in- crease of them, may be obtained. . . . Instead of complaining of the sixty thousand immigrants per annum, and lowering the price of land, so as to induce dispersion, it would be wise, if it were possible, in the people of the United States to bring in sixty thousand more labourers per annum, and raise the price of land. This last cannot, perhaps, be done : but why should not the other ? With a surplus revenue that they do not know what to do with, and a scarcity of the labour which they do not know how to do without, why not use the surplus funds accruing from the lands in carr)dng labour to the soil ? yoo ORGANIZATION OF LABOR AND CAPITAL It is true, Europeans have the same passion for land as the Americans ; and such immigrants would leave their employers, and buy for themselves, as soon as they had earned the requisite funds : but these, again, would supply the means of bringing over more labour ; and the intermediate services of the labourers would be so much gained. If the arrangements were so made as to bring over sober, respectable labourers, without their being in any way bound to servitude, (as a host of poor Germans once were made white slaves of), if, the land and labour being once brought to- gether, and repayment from the benefited parties being secured, (if desired,) things were then left to take their natural course, a greater blessing could hardly befall the United States than such an importation of labourers. . . . There are troubles between employers and their workmen in the United States, as elsewhere : but the case of the men is so much more in their own hands there than where labour superabounds, that strikes are of a very short duration. The only remedy the employers have, the only safeguard against encroachments from their men, is their power of obtaining the services of foreigners, for a short time. The difficulty of stopping business there is very great ; the injury of delay very heavy : but the wages of labour are so good that there is less cause for discontent on the part of the workmen than elsewhere. All the strikes I heard of were on the question of hours, not of wages. The employers are, of course, casting about to see how they can help themselves ; and, as all are not wise and experienced, it is natural that some should talk of laws to prohibit Trades Unions. There is no harm in their talking of such ; for the matter will never get beyond talk ; — unless, indeed, the combinations of opera- tives should assume any forms, or comprehend any principles in- consistent with the republican spirit. The majority will not vote for any law which shall restrain any number of artisans from agree- ing for what price they will sell their labour ; though I heard several learned gentlemen agreeing, at dinner one day, that there ought to be such laws. On my objecting that the interest of the parties concerned would, especially in a free and rising country, settle all questions between labour and capital with more precision, LABOR CONDITIONS IN AMERICA 701 fairness, and peace, than any law, it was ])leaclecl that intimidation and outrage were practised l)y those who combined against those who would not join them. 1 found, on inquiry, that there is an ample provision of laws against intimidation and outrage ; but that it is difficult to get them executed. If so, it would be also difficult to execute laws against combinations of workmen, supposing them obtained : and the grievance does not lie in the combination com- plained of, but somewhere else. The remedy is, (if there be indeed intimidation and outrage,) not in passing more laws, to be in like manner defied, while sufficient already exist ; but in enlightening the parties on the subjects of \i\w and social obligation. . . . II. LABOR CONDITIONS IN AMERICA ^ 2 So much is said in Europe of the scarcity of agricultural labour in the United States, that it is a matter of surprise that manufac- tures should have succeeded as they have done. It is even sup- posed by some that the tariff was rendered necessary by a deficiency of labour : that by offering a premium on manufacturing industry, the requisite amount was sought to be drawn away from other employments, and concentrated upon this. This is a mistake. There is every reason to suppose that the requisite amount of labour would have been forthcoming, if affairs had been left to take their natural course. It has been shown that domestic manufactures were carried on to a great extent, so far back as 1790. From that time to this, they have never altogether ceased in the farm-houses, as the home- spun, still so frequently to be seen all over the country, and the agricultural meetings of New England, (where there is usually a display of domestic manufactures,) will testify. The hands by which these products are wrought come to the factories, when the demand for labour renders it worth while ; and drop back into the farm-houses when the demand slackens. 1 For information on this subject consult also extracts in Chapter II, pp. 35-36, 42-51, 75-76, in Chapter IX, pp. 464, 466, 482-486, and in Chapter X, PP- 536-546. 2 Martineau, Society in America [1834-1836], II, 53-55, 57-5S. 59-6o- 702 ORGANIZATION OF LABOR AND CAPITAL It is not the custom in America for women (except slaves) to work out of doors. It has been mentioned that the young men of New England migrate in large numbers to the west, leaving an over-proportion of female population, the amount of which I could never learn. Statements were made to me ; but so incredible that I withhold them. Suffice it that there are many more women than men in from six to nine States of the Union. There is reason to believe that there was much silent suffering from poverty before the institution of factories ; that they afford a most welcome re- source to some thousands of young women, unwilling to give them- selves to domestic service, and precluded, by the customs of the country, from rural labour. We have seen how large a proportion of the labour in the Lowell factories is supplied by women. Much of the rest is furnished by immigrants. I saw English, Irish, and Scotch operatives. I heard but a poor character of the English operatives; and the Scotch were pronounced "ten times better." The English are jealous of their " bargain," and on the watch lest they should be asked to do more than they stipulated for : their habits are not so sober as those of the Scotch, and they are incapable of going beyond the single operation they profess. Such is the testimony of their employers. . . . I visited the corporate factory-establishment at Waltham, within a few miles of Boston. The Waltham mills were at work before those of Lowell were set up. The establishment is for the spinning and weaving of cotton alone, and the construction of the requisite machinery. Five hundred persons were employed at the time of my visit. The girls earn two, and some three, dollars a-week, be- sides their board. The little children earn one dollar a-week. Most of the girls live in the houses provided by the corporation, which accommodate from six to eight each. When sisters come to the mill, it is a common practice for them to bring their mother to keep house for them and some of their companions, in a dwelling built by their own earnings. In this case, they save enough out of their board to clothe themselves, and have their two or three dol- lars a-week to spare. Some have thus cleared off mortgages from their fathers' farms ; others have educated the hope of the family at college ; and many are rapidly accumulating an independence. LABOR CONDI'I'IONS IN AMERICA 702, I saw a whole street of houses built with the earninj^s of the j:(irls ; some with piazzas, and green Venetian blinds ; and all neat and sufficiently spacious. . . . The shoe-making at Lynn is carried on almost entirely in pri- vate dwellings, from the circumstance that the people who do it are almost all farmers or fishermen likewise. A stranger who has not been enlightened upon the ways of the place would be aston- ished at the number of small square erections, like miniature school- houses, standing each as an appendage to a dwelling-house. These are the " shoe-shops," where the father of the family and his boys work, while the women within are employed in binding and trim- ming. Thirty or more of these shoe-shops may be counted in a walk of half-a-mile. When a Lynn shoe manufacturer receives an order, he issues the tidings. The leather is cut out by men on his premises ; and then the work is given to those who apply for it ; if possible, in small quantities, for the sake of dispatch. The shoes are brought home on Friday night, packed off on Saturday, and in a fortnight or three weeks are on the feet of dwellers in all parts of the Union. The whole family works upon shoes during the winter ; and in the summer, the father and sons turn out into the fields, or go fishing. I knew of an instance where a little boy and girl maintained the whole family, while the earnings of the rest went to build a house. I saw very few shabby houses. Quakers are numerous in Lynn. The place is unboundedly prosperous, through the temperance and industry of the people. The deposits in the Lynn Savings' Bank in 1834 were about 34,000 dollars, the population of the town being then 4,000. Since that time, both the population and the prosperity have much increased. It must be remembered, too, that the mechanics of America have more uses for their money than are open to the operatives of England. They build houses, buy land, and educate their sons and daughters. . . . 1 In our modern societies the improvements of machiner)- have given us manufactures, which promise to be a source of inexhaustible prosperity and well-being to mankind. The English manufactories 1 Chevalier, Society, Manners and Politics in the United States [1S36J, pp. 135-138. i40-i42> i43-'44, 341-344. 107-108. 704 ORGANIZATION OF LABOR AND CAPITAL alone yield about eight hundred million yards of cotton stuffs annually, or about one yard for each inhabitant of the globe. If it were required to produce this amount of cloth without machinery, by the fingers alone, it is probable that each of us would hardly be able to card, spin, and weave his yard a year, so that the whole time of the whole human race would be occupied by a task, which, by the aid of machinery, is accomplished by five hundred thousand arms in Great Britain. From this fact we may conclude, that when the manufacturing system shall be well regulated and completely organised, a moderate amount of labour by a small part of the human race, will be sufificient to produce all the physical comforts for the whole. There can be no doubt, that it will be so, some day or another ; but this beautiful order of things is yet remote. The manufacturing system is a novelty, it is expanding and maturing itself, and as it ripens, it certainly will improve ; the staunchest pessimists cannot deny this, yet we should expose ourselves to the most cruel disappointments, if we imagined that the progress of improvement can be otherwise than slow, step by step. There are seven-leagued boots in faiiy-tales, but none in history. Meanwhile the manufacturing system temporarily involves the most disastrous consequences, which it would be useless to enumerate here. Who has not sounded its depths with terror ? Who has not wept over it ? It is the canker of England, a canker so inveterate, that one is sometimes tempted to think, that all the ability displayed of late years by the British statesmen in attempts at domestic reform, will prove a dead loss. The introduction of the manufacturing system into a new coun- try, under the empire of very different circumstances, is an event worthy of the closest attention. No sooner was I recovered from the sort of giddiness with which I was seized at the sight of this extemporaneous town, hardly had I taken time to touch it, to make sure that it was not- a pasteboard town, like those which Potemkin erected for Catherine along the 7va(^/ to Byzantmni, when I set myself to inquire, how far the creation of manufactures in this country, had given rise to the same dangers in regard to the welfare and morals of the working class, and in regard to the security of the rich and of public order, as in Europe ; and through T.AP.OR CONDITIONS IN AMI'.klCA 705 the polite attention of the agents of the t\v(j ]:)rineipal companies (the Merrimack and the Lawrence), I was able to satisfy my curi- osity. The cotton manufacture alone employs six thousand persons in Lowell ; of this number nearly five thousand are young women from 17 to 24 years of age, the daughters of farmers from the dif- ferent New England States, and particularly from Massachusetts, New IlamjDshire, and Vermont ; they are here remote from their families, and under their own control. On seeing them pass through the streets in the morning and evening and at their meal- hours, neatly dressed ; on finding their scarfs, and shawls, and green silk hoods which they wear as a shelter from the sun and dust (for Lowell is not yet paved), hanging up in the factories amidst the flowers and shrubs, which they cultivate, I said to my- self, this, then, is not like Manchester ; and when I was informed of the rate of their wages, I understood that it was not at all like Manchester. l"he following are the average weekly wages paid by the Merrimack corporation last May. {3.00 Dolls. 3.10 " 2.78 « For spinning 3.00 " T7 • fj-io " I" or weavmg -l For warpintr and sizing J o- j In the cloth-room (measuring and folding) .• 3.12 " These numbers are averages ; the wages of the more skilful hands amounting to five, and sometimes nearly six dollars. . . . The manufacturing companies exercise the most careful super- vision over these girls. I ha\'e already said, that, twelve years ago, Lowell did not exist ; when, therefore, the manufactories were set up, it also became necessary to provide lodgings for the operatives, and each company has built for this purpose a number of houses within its own limits, to be used exclusively as boarding-houses for them. Here they are under the care of the mistress of the house, who is paid by the company at the rate of one dollar and a quarter a week for each boarder, that sum being stopped out of the weekly wages of the girls. These housekeepers, who are generally widows, 7o6 ORGANIZATION OF LABOR AND CAPITAL are each responsible for the conduct of her boarders, and they are themselves subject to the control and supervision of the company, in the management of their little communities. Each company has its rules and regulations, which are not merely paper-laws, but which are carried into execution with all the spirit of vigilant per- severance that characterises the Yankee. I will give you a short summary of one of these codes, for they seem to me to throw great light on some of the most striking peculiarities of this coun- try, I will take those of the Lawrence company, which is the most recently formed ; they are a revised and corrected edition of the rules and regulations, of the other companies. They bear date May 21, 1833. Article first of the general rules is as follows: "" All persons employed by the Company must devote themselves assiduously to their duty during working-hours. They must be capable of doing the work which they undertake, or use all their efforts to this effect. They must on all occasions, both in their words and in their actions, show that they are penetrated by a laudable love of temperance and virtue, and animated by a sense of their moral and social obligations. The Agent of the Company shall endeavour to set to all a good example in this respect. Every individual who shall be notoriously dissolute, idle, dishonest, or in- temperate, who shall be in the practice of absenting himself from divine service, or shall violate the Sabbath, or shall be addicted to gaming, shall be dismissed from the service of the Company." Article 2 : "All ardent spirits are banished from the Company's grounds, except when prescribed by a physician. All games of hazard and cards are prohibited within their limits and in the boarding-houses." The articles following from 3 to 13, determine the duties of the agent, assistant agent, foremen, watch and fire- men. Article thirteenth directs, that every female employed by the Company shall live in one of the Company's boarding-houses, attend regularly at divine service, and rigidly observe the rules of the Sabbath. Article fourteenth and last, contains an appeal to the operatives, on the necessity of subordination, and on the compati- bility of obedience with civil and religious liberty. There is, be- sides, a special rule relative to boarding-houses ; it recounts, that the Company has built those houses and lets them at a low price, LABOR CONDITIONS IN AMERICA 707 wholly for the good of the hands, and tliat tlie Company, there- fore, imposes certaui duties on the persons who hire them. It makes them resi)onsible for the neatness and comfortable con- dition of the houses, the punctuality and good (luality of tlic meals, good order and harmony among the boarders ; it requires that the keepers of the houses shall receive no persons as boarders, who are not employed in the Company's works, and it obliges them to give an account of the behaviour of the girls. It also prescribes that the doors shall be shut at ten, and repeats the injunction of attendance at divine worship. . . . Up to this time, then, the rules of the companies have been observed. Lowell, with its steeple-crowned factories, resembles a Spanish town with its convents ; but with this difference, that in Lowell, you meet no rags nor Madonnas, and that the nuns of Lowell, instead of working sacred Jicarts, spin and weave cotton. Lowell is not amusing, but it is neat, decent, peaceable, and sage. Will it always be so .'' Will it be so long .'' It would be rash to affirm it; hitherto the life of manufacturing operatives has proved little favourable to the preservation of severe morals. So it has been in France, as well as in England ; in Germany and Switzerland, as well as in France. But as there is a close connexion between morality and competence, it may be considered very probable, that while the wages shall continue to be high at Lowell, the influences of a good education, a sense of duty, and the fear of public opinion, will be sufficient to maintain good morals. Will wages, then, con- tinue to be what they are .-' There are some causes which must tend to reduce them ; the rates of the duties which protect American industry are progressively decreasing; on the first of July, 1842, they will be reduced to a maximum of 20 per cent. But, on the other hand, the processes become more perfect, the labourers grow more skilful, the capitalists are realising their outlays, and conse- quently will no longer expect to divide 10 or 12 per cent. A certain diminution of wages is very possible, even after that of last March, because labour is paid in the Lowell factories, better than it is in the surrounding country ; but there must be limits to this diminution. In Europe, work is often wanting for the hands ; here, on the other side, hands are wanting for the work. While the Americans 7o8 ORGANIZATION OF LABOR AND CAPITAL have the vast domain in the West, a common fund, from which, by industry, each may draw for himself and by himself, an ample heritage, an extreme fall of wages is not to be apprehended. In America as in Europe, competition among the head-workmen tends to reduce their wages ; but the tendency is not increased in America, as in Europe, by the competition among the labourers, that is, bv an excess of hands wanting employ, for the West stands open as a refuge to all who are unemplo}ed. In Europe, a coalition of workmen can only signify one of these two things : raise our wages or we shall die of hunger with our wives and children, which is an absurdity ; or raise our wages, if you do not, we shall take up arms, which is a civil war ; in Europe, there is no other possible construction to be put upon it. But in America, on the contrary, such a coalition means, raise our wages, or we go to the West. Every coalition which does not amount to this in the minds of the associates, is merely the whim of the moment, an affair of little importance. This is the reason why coalitions which in Europe are often able to shake the firmest fabric, present no real danger to the public peace in this countiy, where authority is disarmed. This is the reason why European countries, burdened with an excess of population, need for their safety and welfare a West, into which each may overflow after its own manner. This also is the reason why France is right in keeping Algiers. . . . The United States are certainly the land of promise for the labouring class. What a contrast between our Europe and America ! After landing in New York, I thought every day was Sunday, for the whole population that throngs Broadway seems to be arrayed in their Sunday's best. None of those countenances ghastly with the privations or the foul air of Paris ; nothing like our wretched scavengers, our ragmen, and corresponding classes of the other sex. Every man was warmly clad in an outer garment ; every woman had her cloak and bonnet of the latest Paris fashion. Rags, filth, and suffering degrade the woman even more than the man ; and one of the most striking features in the physiognomy of the United States, is, undeniably, the change which has been introduced in the train of the general prosperity, into the physical condition of women. The earnings of the man being sufficient for the support LABOR CONDITIONS IN AMKRICA 709 of the family, the woman has no other duties than the eare of the household, a circumstance still more advantageous for her children than for herself. It is now a universal rule among the Anglo- Americans, tliat the woman is exempt from all heavy work, and she is never seen, for instance, taking part in the labours of the field, nor in carrying burdens. Thus freed from employments un- suited to her delicate constitution, the sex has also escaped that hideous ugliness and repulsive coarseness of complexion which toil and privation everywhere else bring upon them. Every woman here has the featin-es as well as the dress of a lady ; every woman here is called a lady, and strives to appear so. You would search in vain among the Anglo-Americans, from the mouth of the St. Lawrence to that of tlie Mississippi, for one of those wretched objects, who are feminine only with the physiologist, in whom our cities abound, or for one of those haggisli beldams that fill our markets and three-fourths of our fields. You will find specimens of the former class only among the Indians and negroes, and of the latter, only among the Canadian French and Pennsylvania Germans ; for their women labour at least as much as the men. It is the glory of the English race, that they have ever and every- where, as much as possible, interpreted the superiority of the man to the woman, as reser\'ing to the former the charge of the ruder and harder forms of toil. A country in which woman is treated according to this principle presents the aspect of a new and better world. Figure to yourself an Irish peasant, who at home could scarcely earn enough to live on potatoes, who would look upon himself as a rich man if he owned an acre of ground, but who, on stepping ashore at New York, finds himself able to earn a dollar a day by the mere strength of his arm. He feeds and lodges himself for two dollars a week, and at the end of a fortnight he ma\' have saved enough to buy ten acres of the most fertile land in the world. The distance from New York to the West is great, it is true ; but the fare on the great canal is trifling, and he can easily pay his way by the work of his hands. It is also true, that the poorest Irishman would not think of buying so little as ten acres ; the least that one buys in the West is eight}-. What of that ? The savings of a few yio ORGANIZATION OF LABOR AND CAPITAL months will enable him to compass them ; besides, Uncle Sam favours emigrants, and if, in theory, he does not sell his land on credit, he is, in fact, very indulgent to the pioneer who comes to subdue the savage wilderness, and he allows him to occupy the soil temporarily without charge. Thus the Irish, who would go to fisticuffs with any body for denying in their presence that the isle of Erin was a terrestrial paradise, and who, under the inspiration of whiskey, sing the glories of \h2X first pem-l of the sea, quit it by fifty thousands for the United States, On their arrival, they cannot believe their own eyes ; they feel of themselves to find out whether they are not under some spell. They do not dare to describe to their friends in Europe the streams of milk and honey that flow through this promised land. , . . There is one thing in the United States that strikes a stranger on stepping ashore, and is of a character to silence his sentiments of national pride, particularly if he is an Englishman ; it is the ap- pearance of general ease in the condition of the people of this country. While European communities are more or less cankered with the sore of pauperism, for which their ablest statesmen have as yet been able to find no healing balm, there are here no paupers, at least not in the Northern and Western States, which have protected themselves from the leprosy of slavery. If a few individuals are seen, they are only an imperceptible minority of dissolute or improv- ident persons, commonly people of colour, or some newly landed emigrants, who have not been able to adopt industrious habits. Nothing is more easy than to live and to live well by labour. Ob- jects of the first necessity, bread, meat, sugar, tea, coffee, fuel, are in general cheaper here than in France, and wages are double or triple. I happened, a few days ago, to be on the line of a railroad in proc- ess of construction, where they were throwing up some embank- ments. This sort of labour, which merely requires force, without skill, is commonly done in the United States by Irish new-comers, who have no resource but their arm, no quality but muscular strength. These Irish labourers are fed and lodged, and hear their bill of fare ; three meals a day, and at each meal plenty of meat and wheat bread ; coffee and sugar at two meals, and butter once a day ; in the course of the day, from six to eight glasses of whiskey LAliOk CONDITIONS IN AMERICA 711 are given them according to the state of the weather. Besides which they receive in money 40 cents a day under the most unfav- ourable circumstances, often from 60 to 75 cents. In France the same labour is worth about 24 cents a day the labourers finding themselves. ... ^ The white laborer of the Northern and Eastern vStates is ever stimulated by the hope of amassing sufficient means to purchase land from the government, in the vast territory' of the west, which he is always sure of obtaining at a very low price. The influence which this hope of one day becoming a proprietor exercises on the working-classes of New England — its effect on their conduct, their labor, and their personal dignity — can scarcely be conceived on this side of the Atlantic. Self-esteem is a natural feeling of the human heart ; and if it is less strikingly exhibited in Europe than America, it is because its manifestation is not attended with an equal degree of success. In Europe, population is condensed within a narrow space ; but in the vast territory of the United States there will be an abundance of land for centuries to come. Only a small portion of this territory is now occupied by civilized man. This feeling of personal dignity and independence is character- istic of the white laborer of every class ; of the mechanic and the artisan ; of the hired laborer on the farm ; and of the most numer- ous class of operatives engaged in manufactures ; for, as I have already stated, the United States ranks among the manufacturing nations of the world ; and for industry, economy, and the quality of its fabrics, it will soon attain a level with the most renowned among them. But by virtue of the very conditions we have indi- cated, th^e does not exist, properly so called, a specific working class ; that is to say, a class in which the habit of labor is trans- mitted from father to son, from generation to generation, with the virtues and the vices peculiar to the operative. In New England, four-fifths of the population employed in manufactories are young girls, who leave their village homes with the object of economizing from their earnings a sum sufficient for 1 Poussin, The United States; its Power and Progress [1S51], pp. 472-474, 474-475' 476, 480, 481- 712 ORGANIZATION OF LABOR AND CAPITAL their settlement as married women ; for in the United States mar- riage is the object every young girl seeks to attain. After this consummation, she is rarely seen in a factory. She returns to the village she left, resumes her domestic duties, and becomes the mother of a respectable family. . The majority of those who belong to the working class settle in life quite early. A great number of young men marry at the age of from twenty to twenty-five ; young women at the age of from eighteen to twenty. A union unsanctioned by marriage is for- bidden by law, and therefore very rarely seen. The fact is that concubinage or celibacy can never become a nor- mal condition among the working classes in the United States as it is in Europe, since marriage in the former country is not attended with additional charges, but is rather a source of wealth and com- fort. The married working-man, doubling his economy and income, soon finds himself in possession of sufficient means to allow him the choice of continuing to improve his condition in his native place ; or, if the country in which he resides does not present in- ducements corresponding to his ambition, of expatriating himself towards those regions where his industry finds inexhaustible re- sources, and where his energy is rewarded by ever-increasing prosperity. The remaining fifth is composed, in great part, of young men who are ambitious to learn the manufacturing business, and by this means to become overseers, clerks, or agents. This class remain somewhat permanently in one position. The other class are enter- ing and leaving the manufactory incessantly — in one respect a great disadvantage to the proprietor. But what he loses in skill through the operatives who leave, he gains in the application and integrity of those who supply their place. This state of things is highly favorable to public morals, for it precludes the existence of a class, without character and morals, wholly dependent on the factory for its support. Another element peculiar to the manufacturing system of New England is this : The operatives are lodged and boarded in houses belonging to the proprietor of the factory, which are rented to cer- tain individuals for that specific purpose. The internal management i,.\r.()R coN'DrriONs in amkrk a 713 as well as clcanliiu'ss ot these houses, as well as the diet of their inmates, are, in some measure, under the surxeillance of the projM'ietor himself. Another advantage of the system pursued in these factories is that ver}' few children are admitted into them, and none whcj are under twelve years of age. By a law of the State of Massachusetts, the proprietor is forbidden to keep children under fifteen years of age employed in the factory for more than nine months in the year. The same law compels him to send them to school for three months during the year. In the factories at Lowell, where nine thousand operatives are employed, there are only one hundred and fifty children under fifteen, years of age. . . . The mechanic is paid at the rate of from one dollar and forty to two dollars and eighty cents a-day. Average wages one dollar and fifty cents. He pays his own board. The wages of the common laborer employed on farms, or at other work, are from eight to fourteen dollars per month, boarding and lodging included. These wages fluctuate according to the season, or to the demand for labor. But, in general, we may state the mean wages per month of the laborer throughout the year to be eleven dollars and fifty cents. Mean wages per day sixty cents ; but, during harvest, or at seed time, ninety cents per day. Mean price of board per week one dollar and fifty cents. These statements must not be applied to that condition of thing:: which exists on the seaboard, where the laboring class, principally composed of emigrants from all parts of the world, is characterized by manners and habits imported from Europe. In these cities, the aspect of general society, as well as that of the working-classes, gives no idea of the fundamental character of American society, as it is exhibited in the interior of the country. What I have just said of the working-classes in the States in which slavery no longer exists must be considered a picture of the manners and habits of those who live in towns, villages, and coun- try-places, far from daily contact with emigrants from Europe, and such as I have seen it in the countries watered by the Penobscot, 7H ORGANIZATION OF LABOR AND CAPITAL the Merrimack, the Connecticut, the Hudson, the Susquehannah, the Muskingum, the Scioto, and the Ohio. Everywhere on the shores of these streams the presence of the laboring man was indicated by abundant harvests, and elegant mansions, exhibiting the taste, the care, and the prosperity of their industrious inmates. Everywhere comfort appeared side by side with industry ; every- where did man appear wealthy through his labor ; everywhere, in fine, was the working-man the proprietor of a well-cultivated field, and a comfortable habitation, at which it was often my fortune to ask and receive hospitality. . . . ... A collision between the working class and the rest of so- ciety is therefore excessively rare. However, I have once or twice witnessed the refusal of certain members of this class to work for their employers unless their grievances were redressed. On the first of the occasions to which I allude, the tailors of Philadelphia insisted that women should not be allowed to make pantaloons, in- asmuch as they considered this a specific branch of their business, and as other departments of labor were open to females. On the other, certain unpaid laborers employed in the construction of a railway acted so riotously as even to attempt the destruction of the road. In the first instance, an amicable arrangement was effected be- tween the employers and the journeymen. In the second, justice was rendered to the laborers as far as their claims were concerned against the contractor of the road, who was a defaulter, and had fled ; but justice was also rendered to them in another sense, for they were compelled to pay all the damages they had occasioned to the property of the company. In general, when any disagreement or collision occurs between the laborer and the employer, it is compromised and amicably settled, without recourse to law, unless in cases of violation of the public peace. . . . The poorer or working classes cannot find, perhaps, in any quar- ter of the globe, resources equal to those assured to them by the vast and fertile territory of the LInion, and its admirable institu- tions. In fact, no individual in the United States can be so poor as to be unable to hope that at some future day he may become a LABOR CONDITIONS IN AMERICA 715 proprietor in the vast solitudes of the west. The price of govern- ment lands is one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre. Hence, for one or two hundred dollars he can purchase an excellent farm of one hundred and sixty acres. A laboring man may easily acquire in one year the means of obtaining this property. He takes a wife, who contributes, directly or indirectly, to bring about this result. I""ull of confidence and hope, he directs his steps towards the west, where his labor, alwa\s in demand, is amply remunerated. In the first year of his arrixal at his new domains, he can easily buy a cow and hogs, and pro\ide support for his family. In a few years, everything multiplies around him. Fowls, hogs, horses, and cattle, in great number, give an ap- pearance of life to his fields, abundant in grain and other products of his industr}\ . . . Such is, in general, the moral and physical condition of the working class in the United States. The exceptions to this rule are found only in the great cities on the Atlantic seaboard. There the principles, the habits, and the manners characteristic of the genuine American democrat have yet only inadequately impressed the emigrants that are constantly arriving in the United Stiites. Moreover, it is unfortunately too true that emigrants, in seeking employment on American soil, are often so destitute of resources that they find it impossible to reach the interior of the United States, where their labor could be so usefully employed ; while in the great cities in which they are obliged to remain they can aban- don themselves for a time, even with more facility than in Europe, to debauchery and idleness. Soon, however, comes the sad alterna- tive of perishing from want in this land of abundance, or of re- turning to Europe. . . . ^ Milwaukee is a pleasant town, a very pleasant town, containing 45,000 inhabitants. ... It must be always borne in mind that 10,000 or 40,000 inhabitants in an American town, and especially in any new Western town, is a number which means much more than would be implied by any similar number as to an old town in Europe. Such a population in America consumes double the 1 Trollope, North America [1S61], I, 133-134, 136-13S, 13S-139. 7l6 ORGANIZATION OF LABOR AND CAPITAL amount of beef which it would in England, wears double the amount of clothes, and demands double as much of the comforts of life. If a census could be taken of the watches, it would be found, I take it, that the American population possessed among them nearly double as many as would the English ; and I fear also that it would be found that many more of the Americans were readers and writers by habit. In any large town in England it is probable that a higher excellence of education would be found than in Milwaukee, and also a style of life into which more of refine- ment and more of luxury had found its way. But the general level of these things, of material and intellectual well-being — of beef, that is, and book learning — is no doubt infinitely higher in a new American than in an old European town. Such an animal as a beggar is as much unknown as a mastodon. Men out of work and in want are almost unknown. I do not say that there are none of the hardships of life — and to them I will come by-and-by — but want is not known as a hardship in these towns, nor is that dense ignorance in which so large a proportion of our town populations is still steeped. . . . I have said that there was but little poverty — little to be seen of real want in these thriving towns — but that they who labored in them had nevertheless their own hardships. This is so. I would not have any man believe that he can take himself to the Western States of America — to those States of which I am now speaking — Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, or Illinois, and there by industry escape the ills to which flesh is heir. The laboring Irish in these towns eat meat seven days a week, but I have met many a laboring Irishman among them who has wished himself back in his old cabin. Industry is a good thing, and there is no bread so sweet as that which is eaten in the sweat of a man's brow ; but labor carried to excess wearies the mind as well as the body, and the sweat that is ever nmning makes the bread bitter. There is, I think, no task-master over free labor so exacting as an American. He knows nothing of hours, and seems to have that idea of a man which a lady always has of a horse. He thinks that he will go for- ever. I wish those masons in London who strike for nine hours' work with ten hours' pay could be driven to the labor market of LABOR CONDITIONS IN AMERICA 717 Western America for a spell. And moreover, which astonished me, I have seen men driven and hurried, as it were forced forward at their work, in a manner which, to an Ivnglish workman, would be intolerable. This surprised nie much, as it was at variance with our — or perhaps I should say with my — preconceived ideas as to American freedom. I had fancied that an American citizen would not submit to be driven ; that the spirit of the country, if not the spirit of the individual, would have made it impossible. I thought that the shoe would have pinched quite on the other foot. But 1 found that such drivinij; did exist, and American masters in the West with whom I had an opportunity of discussing the sub- ject all admitted it. " Those men '11 never half move unless they 're driven," a foreman said to me once as we stood together over some twenty men who were at their work. " They kinder look for it, and don't well know how to get along when they miss it." It was not his business at this moment to drive — nor w'as he driving. He was standing at some little distance from the scene with me, and speculating on the sight before him. I thought the men were working at their best ; but their movements did not satisfy his practiced eye, and he saw at a glance that there was no one immediately over them. But there is worse even than this. Wages in these regions are what we should call high. An agricultural laborer will earn per- haps fifteen dollars a month and his board, and a town laborer w'ill earn a dollar a day. A dollar may be taken as representing four shillings, though it is in fact more. Food in these parts is much cheaper than in England, and therefore the wages must be consid- ered as very good. In making, however, a just calculation it must be borne in mind that clothing is dearer than in England, and that much more of it is necessary. The wages nevertheless are high, and will enable the laborer to save money, if only he can get them paid. The complaint that wages are held back, and not even ultimately paid, is very common. There is no fixed rule for satis- fying all such claims once a week, and thus debts to laborers are contracted, and when contracted are ignored. With us there is a feeling that it is pitiful, mean almost beyond expression, to wrong a laborer of his hire. We have men who go in debt to tradesmen 7i8 ORGANIZATION OF LABOR AND CAPITAL perhaps without a thought of paying them ; but when we speak of such a one who has descended into the lowest mire of insolvency, we say that he has not paid his washerwoman. Out there in the West the washerwoman is as fair game as the tailor, the domestic servant as the wine merchant. . . . As to the driving, why should men submit to it, seeing that labor is abundant, and that in all newly-settled countries the laborer is the true hero of the age ? In answer to this is to be alleged the fact that hired labor is chiefly done by fresh comers, by Irish and Germans, who have not as yet among them any combination suffi- cient to protect them from such usage. The men over them are new as masters, masters who are rough themselves, who themselves have been roughly driven, and who have not learned to be gracious to those below them. It is a part of their contract that very hard work shall be exacted, and the driving resolves itself into this : that the master, looking after his own interest, is constantly accusing his laborer of a breach of his part of the contract. The men no doubt do become used to it, and slacken probably in their endeavors when the tongue of the master or foreman is not heard. But as to that mat- ter of non-payment of wages, the men must live ; and here, as else- where, the master who omits to pay once will hardly find laborers in future. The matter would remedy itself elsewhere, and does it not do so here .-' This of course is so, and it is not to be under- stood that labor as a rule is defrauded of its hire. But the relation of the master and the man admit of such fraud here much more frequently than in England. In England the laborer who did not get his wages on the Saturday, could not go on for the next week. To him, under such circumstances, the world would be coming to an end. But in the Western States the laborer does not live so completely from hand to mouth. He is rarely paid by the week, is accustomed to give some credit, and, till hard pressed by bad circumstances, generally has something by him. They do save money, and are thus fattened up to a state which admits of victimization. . . . THE COMING OF Till': IMMIGRANTS 719 III. THE COMING OF THE IMMIGRANTS ^ One of the commissioners sent by the Continentiil Congress to Europe, Silas Deane, expressed the expecUition that if the colonies established their independence, the immigration from the Old World would be prodigiously increased ; and as a consequence, the cultivated lands would rise in value, and new lands would be brought into market. This anticipation has been strikingly and abundantly realized. And in connexion with the census of nativi- ties, the records of immigration have a special importimce as indi- cating the progressive augmentation of the immigrants who have sought to improve their fortunes in the New World. From a survey of the irregular data previous to 18 19, by Dr. Seybert, Prof. Tucker, and other statists, it appears that from 1790 to 1800, about 50,000 Europeans, or "aliens," arrived in this country ; in the next ten years the foreign arrivals were about 70,000, and in the ten years following, 1 14,000, ending with 1820. To determine the actual settlers, a deduction of 14.5 per cent, from these numbers should probably be made for transient passengers, as hereafter described. Louisiana was purchased from I'Yance in 1803. The portion of this territory south of the thirty-third parallel, according to the historian Hildreth, comprised a population of about 50,000, more than half of whom were slaves. With these should be counted about 10,000 in the settlement north of that parallel, augmented by a recent immigration, with a predominance of whites. The foreign population acquired with the whole Louisiana territor)' ma)' thus be reckoned at 60,000 ; about one half or 30,000 being whites of French, Spanish, and British < extraction ; and the other 30,000 being slaves and free colored. This number of whites should evi- dently be added to the current/ immigration by sea already men- tioned, in order to obtain the foreign accession to the white popu- lation of the United States during that period. Instead of scattered notices from shipping lists, the arrival of passengers has been officially recorded at the custom-houses, since 1 8 19, by act of Congress. There are some deficiencies perhaps 1 Preliminary Report of the Eighth Census [1S60J, pp. 12-14, '6, 17-19. 720 ORGANIZATION OF LABOR AND CAPITAL in the returns of the first ten or twelve years, but the subse- quent reports are considered reliable. While the classified lists exhibit the whole number of foreign passengers, the great major- ity of whom are emigrants, they also furnish valuable informa- tion not otherwise obtainable respecting the statistical history of immigration. The following numbers, registered under the act of 1819, are copied from the authentic summary of Bromwell, to which the numbers for the last five years have been added from the annual reports of the State Department, thus bringing the continuation down to the year of the present census. Statement of the Number of Alien Passengers arriving in THE United States by Sea from Foreign Countries from September 30, 18 19, to December 31, i860 Year ending September 30, Quarter ending December 31 Year ending December 31, First three quarters of Year ending September 30, 820 821 822 823 824 825 826 827 828 829 830 83' 832 832 833 834 83s 836 837 838 839 840 843 844 845 846 8,385 9,127 6,911 6.354 7,912 10,199 10,837 18,875 27-382 22,520 23,322 22,633 53,179 7,303 58,640 65,365 45,374 76,242 79,340 38,914 68,069 84,066 80,289 104,565 52,496 78,615 [14,371 [54,416 THE COMINC; ()!■ Till', IMMKik.WTS 72 I 1847 234,96s 1S4S 226,527 1849 297,024 Year ending September 30, 1850 310,004 Quarter ending December 31, 1S50 59'557 Clergymen 4?326 Clerks 3)882 Lawyers 2,676 Physicians 7)i09 Engineers 2,016 Artists 2,490 Teachers i)528 Musicians 729 Printers 705 Painters 647 Masons 2,310 Hatters 256 Manufacturers 3) '20 Millers 631 Butchers 945 Bakers i)272 Servants 49)494 Other occupations 26,206 Not stated 2,978.599 Total 5'459'42i Country where born Countries 1820 to i860 England 302,665 Ireland 967,366 Scotland 47,890 Wales 7,935 Great Britain and Ireland 1.425.018 Total United Kingdom 2,750,874 724 ORGANIZATION OF LABOR AND CAPITAL Country wheric t.orn [Continual) France 208,063 Spain 16,248 Portugal 2,614 Belgium 9,862 Prussia 60,432 Germany 1,486,044 Holland -''579 Denmark 5-54° Norway and Sweden 36,129 Poland 1 7659 Russia I '374 Switzerland . . . . ' 37-733 Italy • 1 1,202 Sardinia -'O30 liritish America 117,142 South America 6,201 Mexico 17,766 West Indies ^ . 40,487 China 4 ''443 Azores 3i-4- Not stated 180,854 All others 3.896 Total Aliens . 5,062,414 United States 397,007 'fotal 5'45942i ^ Complaints have been made against the morals and character of many of the immigrants ; and a fear has arisen that they will convert North America into a sort of Botany Bay. It is true that many criminals, idlers, malcontents, and the like, seek here a place of refuge ; but their number is proportionably very small, and bitter experience or punishment forces them to begin a new life in the new world. The United States proffer to immigrants the noblest moral and political education ; and he who rejects it, who proudly considers himself above it, who trusts more to luck than to prudence and sagacity, who thinks to become rich without exertion, or perhaps to renovate and revolutionize mature America with superficial theories — will soon and rightly find himself deceived in his ffjolish anticipations-. 1 Von Raumer, America and the American People [1S45], PP- I4'^~i47> M^i i49- THE COMING OK 11 IK IMMIGRANTS 725 On the whole the German settlers are highly commended as industrious, moral, persevering, and averse to novelty and change. Hence they are useful as a restraining, tranquillizing counterpoise to the unquietness of other inhabitants. But unhappily there are exceptions to this rule also. One German traveller relates how he was deserted and cheated by some of his countr)-men to whom he had shown kindness ; and another mentions that a (k'lnian clergAinan in America said to him : " The (jcrman teachers here, like man)- of their countr\-men, have acted like complete rogues. One ran away with a foster-daughter of mine ; and another, a music teacher whom 1 had recommended, made off, after cheating a number of people and leaving many debts behind him ; so that one is almost ashamed to speak German or to bear a German name." While for my own part I heard no complaints against the Germans and nothing but praises of them, the reproaches cast upon the Irish were loud and frequent. The blending of this foreign stock with the (iermanic, in America as in England,- is certainly very difficult ; still even those who dislike them cannot deny that on the whole they are industrious and contented, and in the second generation are scarcely to be distinguished from those of a different origin. Where, too, one considers what an immense leap it is from Irisli bondage to American citizenship, one ought to hold them excusable, if in excess of joy at their newly acquired freedom they fall into a few errors and extravagances. It is com- plained that they suffer themselves to be led and dictated to by their priests ; but it may be questioned whether this influence is more hurtful than that of many other demagogues. . . . In recent times a party has been formed, chiefly in some oi the sea-port towns, which takes to itself the name of Native Americans. Their object is to throw difficulties in the way of immigration, and they wish to prevent naturalization until after a residence of twenty- five years ; because, as they say, no immigrant can acciuire the necessary knowledge in a shorter time, and a too earl)- qualification of foreigners abridges and undermines the rights of native citizens. Even granting the truth of the loudl)' proclaimed and probably too well founded censure, that these views and doctrines proceed mostly from business jealousy, and religious intolerance (towards 726 ORGANIZATION OF LABOR AND CAPITAL the Irish cathohcs), they still require a satisfactory investigation, and the movement might more properly be termed a European than a truly American one. When even in the dangerous times of the French revolution, the Alien Law was rejected as imprudent, un- just, and un-American, how can it now be sought, in quieter times and on weaker grounds, not merely to revive it, but to render it more severe ? In comparison with the immense number of native votes, those of the foreigners annually admitted to the rank of cit- izens are wholly insignificant and indecisive ; besides which most of them are divided amongst the different political parties. ... If all the immigrants entertained quite other views on important topics (e.g. nobility, ecclesiastical matters, freedom of the press, and the like), if they rudely opposed themselves as a body to the Amer- icans, there would then be some reason for complaints and counter measures ; but since they every where join the Americans, and vote in the same manner as millions of native citizens, how can these latter lay claim to a sort of hereditary wisdom, and denounce for- eigners of the same opinions with themselves as fools and knaves .'' An enthusiastic desire is felt for the acquisition of the Oregon ter- ritory, and complaints are made that such vast tracts of land should still lie uncultivated ; and yet this Native American party is recom- mending measures that secure to the bears and wolves a longer possession of them. Now what inducements would there be to im- migration, what advantages would it present, if political rights were refused, the feelings of honor wounded, and every new-comer told that he must content himself for a quarter of a century with the worship of mammon } . . . 1 It must be admitted that the Irish have to encounter consider- able prejudices, — no matter from what causes arising, — in almost every section of the Union, though in different degrees. In some places they are openly and even violently expressed ; in others, the feeling is slightly visible on the surface of common intercourse : but there is no observing Irishman, perhaps, who has not had, on some occasion or other, cause to notice the annoying fact. It must be remarked, that some of the different portions of the Union are ^ Grattan, Civilized America [1859], II, 28-29. THK RISK OF CORPORATIONS 727 much more congenial than others to the hahits and feehngs of Irishmen ; and all seem to agree, that New England, taken on the whole, is the hardest soil for an Irishman to take root and flourish in. The settled habits of the people, the untainted English descent of the great majority, discrepancies of religious faith and forms, and a jealousy of foreign intermixture of any kind, all operate against those who would seek to engraft themselves on the Yankee stem, in the hope of a joint stock of interest or happiness. The bulk of Irish emigration to the Western States is comprised chiefly of ag- ricultural labourers. Rigidly excluded in former times from improv- ing by education his acknowledged quickness of intellect, the emigrant of this class has been hitherto fitted only for the perform- ance of offices requiring mere muscular exertion. Without any of those incentives to improvement possessed by the educated man, the beings we now speak of were doomed to a hopeless state of social inferiority. Their incapacity to perform any work requiring the application of intellectual power marked them out as hewers of wood and drawers of water. The high wages and good living, in comparison to what they had been accustomed to in Europe, ought to have given them more comforts, and raised them in the moral scale. But the pernicious addiction to whiskey-drinking, com- mon to those poor people, and the highly reprehensible habit of allowing it to them in large quantities, by the contractors for some of the public works, have, until lately, kept them in a state of mere brute enjoyment, so to call their degraded condition. . . . IV. THE RISE OF CORPORATIONS ^ Production on a large scale is greatly promoted by the practice of forming a large capital by the combination of many small con- tributions ; or, in other words, by the formation of joint stock com- panies. The advantages of the joint stock principle arc numerous and important. In the first place, many undertikings require an amount of cap- ital beyond the means of the richest individual or private partner- ship. No individual could have made a railway from London to 1 Mill, Principles of Political Economy, I, 182-183. 728 ORGANIZATION OF LABOR AND CAPITAL Liverpool ; it is doubtful if any individual could even work the traffic on it, now when it is made. The government indeed could have done both ; and in countries where the practice of cooperation is only in the earlier stages of its growth, the government can alone be looked to for any of those works for which a great combination of means is requisite ; because it can obtain those means by com- pulsory taxation, and is already accustomed to the conduct of large operations. For reasons, however, which are tolerably well known, and of which we shall treat fully hereafter, government agency for the conduct of industrial operations is generally one of the least eligible of resources, when any other is available. Next, there are undertakings, which individuals are not abso- lutely incapable of performing, but which they cannot perform on the scale and with the continuity which are ever more and more required by the exigencies of a society in an advancing state. In- dividuals are quite capable of despatching ships from England to any or every part of the world, to carry passengers and letters ; the thing was done before joint stock companies for the purpose were heard of. But when, from the increase of population and transac- tions, as well as of means of payment, the public will no longer content themselves with occasional opportunities, but require the certainty that packets shall start regularly, for some places once or even twice a day, for others once a week, for others that of a steam ship of great size and expensive construction shall depart on fixed days twice in each month, it is evident that to afford an assur- ance of keeping up with punctuality such a circle of costly operations, requires a much larger capital and a much larger staff of qualified subordinates than can be commanded by an individual capitalist. There are other cases, again, in which though the business might be perfecdy well transacted with small or moderate capitals, the guarantee of a great subscribed stock is necessary or desirable as a security to the public for the fulfilment of pecuniary engagements. This is especially the case when the nature of the business requires that numbers of persons should be willing to trust the concern with their money : as in the business of banking, and that of insurance : to both of which the joint stock' principle is eminently adapted. . . . rUK RISK OF CORI'ORA riONS 729 ^Action in concert by great numbers of persons, with a large amount of capital, can beattiiined only by governments, or by means of associations properly organized, with numerous officers and agents, whose powers and duties, and the rights of the memlx-rs are defined, either by law, or by articles of association, which may be enforced by efficient remedies. Corporations, joint stock com- panies, and organized associations (except of a political character), were wholly unknown in ancient times. The ancients seem to have had no conceptions of the modern mode of uniting together a great number of individuals to act in concert, and collecting large amounts of capital, by means of corporations and organized asso- ciations, to effect great enterprises and objects ; and hence all their roads, great improvements and enterprises, were made by govern- ments. The avenues and modes of investing a surplus income in those days, in order to make it productive as capital, were few-, compared with what exist at this time in the United States, and in many countries of Europe. Hence in those days, great incomes were generally expended in keeping a large retinue of servants ; and there were less inducements to industry and economy, to save and to accumulate, than there are at present. An incorporated trading company has extended the dominion of Great Britain over a large proportion of the richest part of Asia ; and a similar company has been the source of the extensive do- minion of the Dutch in the East Indies. Nearly all the railroads and turnpike roads, and many of the canals in the United States — all the canals, turnpike roads, and railroads in Great Britain and Ireland, and many of those in other countries of Europe, have been made by incorporated companies, with capitals collected in most instances in small sums, from great numbers of stockholders, the result of little savings from their monthly and annual incomes. Numerous colleges, universities, lyceums, library associations, and other institutions to diffuse knowledge among men, and to spread Christianity and civilization, are established and managed, and the means of sustaining them are collected in like manner. Nearly all the great manufacturing establishments in the United States were established, and are carried on by means of corporations. 1 Seaman, Essays on Uie Progress of Nations [1852], pp. 517-518. 730 ORGANIZATION OF LABOR AND CAPITAL The union and organization of Christian societies and the Roman laws regulating their government and the management of their property, probably suggested the idea of municipal corporations, of charters for colleges, for trading and mining corporations, and other great objects of private enterprise. Corporations have fur- nished the means of uniting individuals, and of combining and managing capital to carry on great enterprises and undertakings, which are beyond the power of individuals. They have thus opened new fields of employment for both- labor and capital, contributed to increase the productiveness of capital, to increase the demand for it, and to raise the rate of interest. They have increased the demand for labor, encouraged industry, economy, frugality, saving, and enterprise, and contributed greatly to promote the progress and welfare of many modern nations. They are among the great characteristics which mark the distinction between ancient and modern times. There are very few, however, except ecclesiastical corporations, in Catholic countries, and none among Mahometan and Pagan nations. . . . ^ . . . Americans of all ages, all conditions, and all disposi- tions, constantly form associations. They have not only commer- cial and manufacturing companies, in which all take part, but associations of a thousand other kinds, — religious, moral, serious, futile, general or restricted, enormous or diminutive. The Ameri- cans make associations to give entertainments, to found seminaries, to build inns, to construct churches, to diffuse books, to send mis- sionaries to the antipodes ; they found in this manner hospitals, prisons, and schools. If it be proposed to inculcate some truth, or to foster some feeling, by the encouragement of a great example, they form a society. Wherever, at the head of some new under- taking, you see the government in France, or a man of rank in England, in the United States you will be sure to find an association. I met with several kinds of associations in America of which I confess I had no previous notion ; and I have often admired the 1 De Tocqueville, Democracy in America [1841], Vol. II, Bk. II, pp. 129- 131,3-- THE RISE OF CORPORATIONS 731 extreme skill with which the iiiliahilanis of the United States suc- ceed in proposing a common object to the exertit^ns of a great many men, and in inducing them voluntarily to pursue it. I have since travelled over England, whence the Americans have taken some of their laws and many of their customs ; and it seemed to me that the i:)rinciple of association was by no means so constantly or adroitly used in that country. The English often perform great things singly, whereas the Americans form associa- tions for the smallest undertakings. It is evident that the former people consider association as a powerful means of action, but the latter seem to regard it as the only means they have of acting. Thus, the most democratic country on the face of the earth is that in which men have, in our time, carried to the highest per- fection the art of pursuing in common the object of their common desires, and have applied this new science to the greatest number of purposes. Is this the result of accident ? or is there in reality any necessary connection between the right principle of association and that of equality ? Aristocratic communities always contain, amongst a multitude of persons who by themselves are powerless, a small number of powerful and wealthy citizens, each of whom can achieve great undertakings single-handed. In aristocratic societies, men do not need to combine in order to act, because they are strongly held together. Ever)' wealthy and powerful citizen constitutes the head of a permanent and compulsory association, composed of all those who are dependent upon him, or whom he makes subservient to the execution of his designs. Amongst democratic nations, on the contrary, all the citizens are independent and feeble ; they can do hardly anything b\- them- selves, and none of them can oblige his fellow-men to lend him their assistance. They all, therefore, become powerless, if they do not learn voluntarily to help each other. If men living in demo- cratic countries had no right and no inclination to associate for political purposes, their independence would be in great jeopardy ; but they might long preserve their wealth and their cultivation : whereas, if they never acquired the habit of forming associations in ordinary life, civilization itself would be endangered. A people 732 ORGANIZATION OF LABOR AND CAPITAL amongst whom individuals should lose the power of achieving great things single-handed, without acquiring the means of producing them by united exertions, would soon relapse into barbarism. Unhappily, the same social condition which renders associations so necessary to democratic nations, renders their formation more difficult amongst those nations than amongst all other. When sev- eral members of an aristocracy agree to combine, they easily succeed in doing so : as each of them brings great strength to the partner- ship, the number of its members may be very limited ; and when the members of an association are limited in number, they may easily become mutually acquainted, understand each other, and establish fixed regulations. The same opportunities do not occur amongst democratic nations, where the associated members must always be very numerous for their association to have any power. . . . A government might perform the part of some of the largest American companies ; and several States, members of the Union, have already attempted it ; but what political power could ever carry on the vast multitude of lesser undertakings which the American citizens perform every day, with the assistance of the principle of association ? It is easy to foresee that the time is drawing near when man will be less and less able to produce, of himself alone, the commonest necessaries of life. The task of the governing power will therefore perpetually increase, and its very efforts will extend it every day. The more it stands in the place of associations, the more will individuals, losing the notion of combining together, require its assistance : these are causes and effects which unceas- ingly create each other. Will the administration of the country ul- timately assume the management of all the manufactures which no single citizen is able to carry on ? And if a time at length arrives when, in consequence of the extreme subdivision of landed prop- erty, the soil is split into an indefinite number of parcels, so that it can only be cultivated by companies of husbandmen, will it be nec- essary that the head of the government should leave the helm of state to follow the plough .-' The morals and the intelligence of a democratic people would be as much endangered as its business and manufactures, if the government ever wholly usurped the place of private companies. . . . Till", \<\SK oi" CORPORATIONS 733 ^. . . In most cixilizcd countries, the bulk of the pojjulation are poor, their daily wages hardly sufficing to buy their daily bread. Their savings, if it is possible for them to make any, must be in very small sums ; and the inducement for them to be frugal must depend on the possibility of immediately investing such small sums to advantage, (^ne of the great improvements of modern civiliza- tion consists in the means afforded, the machinery contrived, for collecting these driblets of wealth, and bringing them together into large reservoirs, whence they issue in abundant streams, giving efficiency and fertility to labor throughout the land. The water which falls in drops upon the desert, sinks through the sand, and leaves the ground arid and barren as before ; but when collected in great tanks and cistens, it turns a given portion of that desert into a garden. A centurv' or two ago, if the laboring part of the popu- lation made any savings, they were in the form of little, hoards of silver or gold, hid in an old stocking, or buried in the garden. But because the money thus stored was unproductive, and yielded no interest, and because it was always at hand when the owner was for a moment tempted to some indulgence and consequent expense, the number and ainount of such hoards were always small. Now, through the multiplication of the branches of retail trade, and the lesser mechanic arts, and through joint-stock corpora- tions and savings' banks, the first half-eagle which the laboring man or woman saves from the month's wages is profitably invested, and, by the end of the year, is increased by the twentieth part of itself. When this saving has reached a very moderate amount, it can be made to accumulate at compound interest, and thus to double itself in twelve years. In many cases, it soon comes to be used by the owner himself as capital ; that is, it is invested in the purchase of tools or machinery, or a small stock in trade ; and it may then ac- cumulate at the rate of ten or twelve per cent a year, — that is, it may double itself every six or seven years. The result is, that he who began life as a common laborer, often drives about in his own carriage before its close. . . . Many kinds of production can be successfully kept up onl\' upon a large scale ; for the larger the enterprise, the further the division 1 Bowen, Principles of Political Economy [1S56], pp. 109-110, 129-130. 734 ORGANIZATION OF LABOR AND CAPITAL of labor may be carried. In order to keep such enterprises in motion, capital must be aggregated in large masses. In England, the great inequality of the distribution of wealth allows such enter- prises to be managed by individuals ; in most cases, a large man- ufacturing establishment is owned either by one person, or by a firm which embraces but a few partners. In the United States, from the comparative paucity of large private fortunes, such an establishment is generally formed and conducted by a joint-stock company, — which is comparatively a modern invention, but one that, from its democratic character, is peculiarly suited to this countr)^, and to the wants of the age. Many small capitalists, by clubbing their means, can successfully compete with men of vast fortune, — an undertaking which would othenvise be a hopeless one, as the great capitidist can live through reverses of trade, com- mercial crises, and casualties, which would ruin one who had little or nothing in reserve-. So consonant are these joint-stock compa- nies to the genius of our institutions and to the circumstances of the country, that they have multiplied with astonishing rapidity. They have survived even the necessity which called them forth ; for as large private fortunes have sprung up with the growth of national opulence, the owners of them have preferred to distribute their capital by taking stock in many of these associations, rather than to concentrate it upon one undertaking. The risk of a sweep- ing calamity is thus materially diminished. I know of nothing more irrational than the common prejudice against such corporations. They are true savings' banks, in which the common laborer not infrequently invests his modest savings, and shares the gains of his wealthy employer, instead of being crushed by competition with him. It is not unusual, I believe, for operatives to hold stock in the very manufactories in which they work for wages. At any rate, the savings' bank, to which they first confide the fruits of their economy, often invests them in such stock. These corporations allow persons of very moderate means to participate in enterprises which, in other countries, are conducted exclusively by the rich. The occasional failure of one of them does not bankrupt many of the stockholders, whose property, invested in other ways, is left untouched ; and as this seems a hardship to the creditor who has THE RISE OF CORPORATIONS 735 lost a portion of his debt, he is apt to (k-flaiin aL;ainst those who are rich, and still do not pay what thoy owe. Hut his accusation is unjust ; he who allows such an institution to become indebted to him, trusts it on account of the largeness of its capital, and its sup- posed solvency. It is the same thing for him, whether he trusts an individual or a corporation, the ground of his confidence, in either case, being his knowledge of the fact that the person or the corporation began business, perhaps, with half a million of capital, and he knows not that this capital has been wasted or lost. If he prefers, he may trust an individual who is supposed to be worth only $50,000, instead of a corporation reckoned at ten times that sum. If he chooses the latter course, he trusts the corporation, not the stockholders ; he deliberately prefers the joint-stock security to the security offered by individuals : and, consequently, has no reason to complain if the latter do not pay him. . . . 1 In political economy, corporations may be divided into two classes. First, political corporations created in furtherance of civil government, for the more perfect administration of the laws, and for the protection of social and civil rights. This class embraces nations, as contra-distinguished from the individuals of whom they are composed. It also includes all the subdivisions of a nation into states, counties, cities, and towns, and the more perfect and complete this subdivision is, the more perfect is the form of ci\-il government. The very great advantage of dividing a nation into small corporations of this description, is most strikingly manifested in New England. . . . The second class of corporations may be denominated money corporations, and their influence on national wealth, is more direct and immediate than the first class. This class embraces banking companies, insurance companies, road companies, trading companies, and every description of asso- ciations, incorporated for the purpose of promoting the fortunes of the members of the corporation. . . . The object of a money co?poration, is to give to the members an artificial power, which they would not otherwise possess, or to * Raymond, Elements of Political Economy [1819J, Vol. II, part ii, ch. vi. 736 ORGANIZATION OF LABOR AND CAPITAL exempt them from some liability, to which they would be subject, but for the act of incorporation. The very object then of the act of incorporation is to produce inequalit\% either in rights, or in the division of property. Prima facie, therefore, all money corporations, are detrimentil to the na- tional wealth. They are always created for the benefit of the rich, and never for the poor. As the poor have no money to vest, they can derive no direct advantage from them. The rich not being satisfied with the power which money itself confers upon them, in their private individual capacities, seek for an artificial com- bination, or amalgamation of their power, that its force may be augmented. . . . Why do a parcel of rich men wish to combine their capital and form a bank, or an insurance company } For no other purpose but to augment the artificial power, which money gives them, in ac- cumulating more. Can the poor derive any direct advantage from such an institution .'' Can they hope to own any part of its stock } Can those who have no money, hope to enter into competition with those who have, in buying the stock ? Such a hope must be remote indeed. Every money corporation, therefore, \% prima facie, injurious to national wealth, and ought to be looked upon by those who have no money, with jealousy and suspicion. They are, and ought to be considered, as artificial engines of power, contrived by the rich, for the purpose of increasing their already too great ascendency, and calculated to destroy that natural equality among men, which no government ought to lend its power in destroying. The tendency of such institutions is to cause a more unequal division of prop- erty, and a greater inequality among men, than would otherwise take place ; which necessarily bring in their train, as has already been shown, poverty, pauperism, and misery on some portion of the community. I do not say, that corporations of this description, ought never to be created, but only that they should be created with caution. Too great an equality in the division of property is as prejudicial to national industry and wealth, as too unequal a division. There must be some high prizes in the lottery, in order to encourage TIIK RISK OF CORI'ORA'I'ION'S ^ 2>1 people to venture their fortunes in them. There must be rewards for industry, enterprise, and talents, in order to stimulate their exertion. A money corporation should be clothed with as few privileges as possible. It should be encumbered with as many restrictions, as shall be necessary to keep the stock always as low as par. When- ever it rises above par, it is a sure sign that the company has gained an advantage of the public, equal to the excess above the par value. The private property of the stockholders should never be exempted from the payment of the debts of the bank, nor from taxation. Corporations also for the purpose of building roads, canals, and making other permanent improvements, may be very beneficial to a country. But in incorporating all such companies, it should be a universal principle, never to incorporate them for the purpose of giving the individuals an artificial power to increase their own for- tunes. Wealth, of itself, gives the possessor artificial and unnatural power enough, when exerted singly and individually, and quite too much, when combined and clothed with artificial advantage. People are not usually aware of the immense advantage, a com- pany of monied men acquire in consequence of an act of incorpo- ration. It gives them a much greater influence and power, than the same amount of property would do, divided among the indi- vidual members of the corporation. It enables them to control in a great degree, the operations and industry of a whole community. By possessing such an immense engine of power, a bank can often so far control the operations of private indi\iduals in every branch of business, as to be able to put almost any man down, who shall attempt to do business without their agency, or who refuses to submit to their domination. The young, the ardent, and enter- prising, are encouraged to engage in business, by the facility of obtaining the means through the agency of banks. They have, perhaps, a few thousand dollars of their own, and some friend is persuaded to become their endorser at bank, for the purpose of getting more, and after a few years of laborious industry the\' find that all their own money, and the proceeds of their labour, have been swallowed up by the banks, and they may think themselves well off, if a part of their friend's property has not gone the same way. . . . CHAPTER XV THE ECONOMICS OF SLAVERY INTRODUCTION There are three inquiries regarding slavery which concern students of American history. First, what caused it to be so widely established in the New World, and why did it continue to spread in the United States in the nine- teenth century when it was declining almost everywhere else ? Second, what was the basis of its strength in the South, and how far was that basis perma- nent or only temporary ? And finally, what effect did it have upon the social evolution of the South ? To answer these questions satisfactorily would re- quire a volume, and as yet no one has attempted to write that volume. It is the purpose of the following selections to bring together such materials bearing on these questions as are to be found in the leading writers upon the subject. It may perhaps help to make clearer their significance if we state briefly a few of the conclusions which seem to be substantiated by facts. In the first place, negro slavery appears to have played a necessary part in the settlement of the New World in the seventeenth and eighteenth centu- ries. There were dui'ing that time no other means of securing the labor required to produce the great staples which Europe wanted from America, and the pro- duction of which furnished the chief motive for colonization. Not only was slavery necessary to the colonies that produced these staples, but it was scarcely less important to those that did not ; for it supplied the principal markets which insured their prosperity. New England and the middle colonies would have been founded, no doubt, without the markets which slavery provided in the West Indies, but they could not have grown rich and prosperous without those markets. Under the circumstances, then, slavery seems to have been neces- sary to the settlement of the New World. Without it colonial history would have been completely changed. On the other hand, slavery in the United States in the nineteenth century played a very different part. There was no such necessity for its use in the settlement of the southwest and the exploitation of the natural resources of that region as existed in the West Indies in colonial times. Cotton could be culti- vated by white men almost everywhere in the South, and a great population in the back country of the southern states was ready and anxious to undertake its production. But they would labor in the cotton fields only as independent farmers. So long as they were in contact with vast areas of unoccupied land they could not be induced to work for wages. Under these conditions the 738 INTRODL'C'riOX 739 only way that cotton could be produced on a large scale, and the only way that a capitalist could engage in its cultivation, was by the use of slave labor. It was inevitable, then, that there should be a struggle between the white farmers and the slave planters who represented the capitalist class for the possession of the best lands upon which cotton could be grown. This struggle began at once on the introduction of cotton culture into the back country of South Carolina and spread from there to every part of the southwest. Every- where the planter was successful in securing possession of the best lands. He was able to pay more for it than it was worth to the farmer and was able to induce the latter to sell out his holdings and mo\'e away to the cheaper lands in the West. When the farmer did not do this, he bought slaves and became a planter himself. In cither case it represented a supplanting of free labor by slavery in the cotton fields. The growth of slavery in the United States, then, was due to the difiiculty of organizing free labor in the cotton industry. The economies of large scale production in this industry were more than sufficient to counterbalance the inefficiency of slave as compared with free labor, and enabled the former to win in competition with the latter. As to the strength of slavery as an institution in southern society after it had been thoroughly established, its basis was partly economic and partly social. On the economic side it was the profitableness of slaves to their owners, and on the social side the evils sure to result from having a great body of free negroes in their midst, that recommended slavery to the southern people. The first affected only a small part of the population, probably less than one fourth of it. As time went on this element of strength must have become still less important ; for the value of slaves in all but the Gulf States depended upon the demand for them to open up new plantations in the south- west. The labor of slaves in Virginia and the border states was not profitable enough to maintain their value. It was only the fact that they could be sold to the southwest or be taken there by their owners to establish cotton plantations that made them valuable property. When the extension of the cotton belt ceased, as it must have done soon after i860, this use of slaves would have come to an end, and slavery over a large part of the South would have re- turned to its condition in Virginia at the close of the Revolution. Its economic basis in this region would have altogether disappeared. The social basis of slavery, on the other hand, was much stronger and more permanent. It affected a far larger portion of the population. I'ractically every one in the South was impressed by the dangers that would arise from liberating the slaves and leav- ing them as a part of southern society. Even such thoughtful observers from the outside as De Toqueville, Lyeill, and Olmsted fully shared these apprehen- sions. This fact was not sufficient to make all southerners pro-slai'cry in the sense that they regarded slavery as a good in itself. It never did cause many of them to take this extreme view of it ; but it was quite sufficient to make them anti-aboIHio7t and to keep them so for an indefinite period. With the disappearance of the economic basis of slavery the South would have become 740 THE ECONOMICS OF SLAVERY less pro-slavery in its sentiment, but the real evils of abolition would have con- tinued as impressive as ever. Its position would ultimately have come to be that of the man holding the wolf by the ears : dangerous to hang on, but still more dangerous to let go. The influence which slavery exerted upon southern society is much more difficult to trace than the forces which established and maintained it. There is little of value in the standard writers on the subject, who do little more than offer the usual superficial explanation for the poverty and social backwardness of the South as compared with the North. Slavery was supposed to have caused this by rendering manual labor dishonorable and degrading in the eyes of the masses of southern white people.. As a result, they were shiftless, un- enterprising, and inefficient in their industry. There are very good reasons for regarding this explanation as quite inadequate for the economic differences be- tween the two sections. Slavery as the principal system of labor never really occupied more than a fraction of southern territory ; there were vast regions where it either did not exist at all, or where the slaves constituted only from a fourth to a tenth of the population, and were more like the hired men of the northern farmers than the slaves of southern planters. Indeed, in such regions the planter class could not be said to exist at all. The slaveholder was a farmer and with his sons worked in the fields beside his slaves. It is absurd to suppose that under such conditions all manual labor was regarded as servile, and hence degrading. Some other explanation of the economic influence of slavery on the South must be found than this psychological effect. That no doubt was a fac- tor, especially where the slaves were numerous, but it was not the most impor- tant influence even there, and was altogether insignificant over a large part of the South where the mass of the population was white and the slaves were less than a quarter or a third of it. The most important injury which the South sustained from slavery is to be found in the fact that it prevented the accumulation of capital, and thereby deprived southern society to a large extent of what has always been the chief means of economic and social progress. Capital is the great instrument of prog- ress in all communities, and southern industry was always starved for capital. There was never enough of it to supply ordinary needs. The foreign and internal trade of the South was carried on by northern capital. The shipping to which this commerce gave employment was supplied from the same source. Private individuals could not supply the banks that were needed, and state bonds had to be issued to attract capital from the North and Europe for this purpose. The same was true of its transportation system, and when its navi- gable streams became inadequate for this purpose after 1850, it resorted to the policy of state aid to railroads on a large scale, although that policy had been discredited and abandoned in the rest of the country. With the supply of capi- tal deficient in the old industries no new ones could be started or developed. With all kinds of advantages for manufactures none arose, notwithstanding the fact that domestic manufactures had always been common among the people INTRODl criON 741 and an excellent market for them existed among the planter class. It was not lack of labor or enterprise that prevented their rise, but a lack of capital with which to start them. Nor was this scarcity of capital wholly economic in its effect; it was social as well. It perpetuated that rude backwoods, frontier state of society with which all new countries begin. The people lived for genera- tions under those conditions, and it was this experience chiefly which rendered them shiftless, unenterprising, and inefficient, and degraded them in so far as they were degraded. How can slavery be connected with this scarcity of capital.'' How did it pre- vent the accumulation of capital in the South.? Mill says, "The accumulation of capital in a community depends upon the fund from which savings can be made," — in other words, upon its ability to produce wealth, — "and second, upon the disposition of the people to save." The South certainly had the ability to produce wealth. In cotton it possessed the most profitable industry in the country, and this was supplemented by rice, sugar, and tobacco. Why, then, did it not save and accumulate capital t The reason is to be found in its lack of dis- position to save — in the weakness of its "effective desire of accumulation," and this was the result of slavery. The chief sources of southern wealth had been placed by slavery in the hands of the planter class, and the social conditions which slavery fostered caused this class to expend that wealth in maintaining a luxurious and expensive style of living, instead of saving and accumulating capital. The small slaveholding farmer saved in order that he might buy more slaves and become a great planter. The planters, however, as a class con- sumed nearly all the wealth their slaves produced except what had to be sent to the older states to pay for slaves purchased there. They furnished little capital for commercial enterprises either foreign or domestic, for starting manufactur- ing industries, for establishing banks and insurance companies, or for con- structing canals and railroads. Their prosperity had little effect, therefore, upon the masses of the white people in the same communities. Here we have by far the most important effect of slavery in producing that lack of economic progress and social development which was so prominent a characteristic of the old South. The enormous demand for cotton in the mar- kets of the world, coupled with the natural advantages for its production in the South, was from an economic point of view precisely like the discovery of gold in California or Australia. It conferred upon that section a great economic prize. What slavery did was to prevent that great economic advantage from being diffused and extended to the whole white population. It was absorbed by the planters and their slaves. The wealth which it brought went to main- tain the luxury and idleness of the one, and to rear an increasing number of the other. The mass of the people hardly felt its influence at all except as it furnished opportunity for the most able individuals among them to advance to the planter class. It did not improve the condition of the masses of the people. Over a large part of the South they remained in that rude, backward social condition which characterizes the frontier, which has neither a good market for 742 THE ECONOMICS OF SLAVERY its produce, nor the assistance of capital for the development of new industries. Had such an economic advantage come to the North it would have affected the whole population, just as the discovery of rich gold mines brings prosperity to every one in the community where it occurs and not alone to those engaged in mining. The increasing demand for food from the South, the northeastern states, and Europe had, in fact, a similar effect upon the northwest. The pros- perity of the farmers of this region soon resulted in saving of capital for the development of all other branches of industry. Commerce expanded, manu- factures were established, canals and railroads were constructed. The same thing would have occurred in the South, had the economic advantage which the cotton industry brought to it reached the masses of the white people. In our own time the process is, in fact, working itself out there as it did a genera- tion earlier in the North. The " New South " is in its economic development only the old northwest over again. I. THE ORIGIN OF SLAVERY IN THE NEW WORLD ^ It is strange that it should never have come into the head of philosopher or philanthropist to ascertain the causes of the revival of slavery by all the nations of modern Europe which have engaged in colonization. Political economists were bound to make this in- quiry ; for without it their science is incomplete at the very foun- dation : for slavery is a question of labour, " ' the original purchase of all things," Philanthropists, however, have treated it as a moral and religious question, attributing slavery at all times and places, but especially in modern times and in America, to the wickedness of the human heart. So universal, indeed, is the doctrine, that we find it in the most improbable of places ; in the latest and wisest of treatises on political economy, whose author speaks of " the infernal spirit of the slave-master." The infernal spirit of Abraham and Joshua ; of Socrates and Plato ; of Cicero and Seneca ; of Alfred the Great ; of Las Casas, who laid the foundation of negro slavery in Amer- ica ; of Baltimore, Penn, and Washington ! These names alone show that the spirit of the slave-master is not that love of oppression and cruelty, which the exercise of unlimited power over his fellow- creatures is apt to beget in man : that infernal spirit is, and not universally, a mere effect of keeping slaves. The universal spirit of the slave-master is his motive ; the state of mind that induces him 1 Wakefield, A View of the Art of Colonization [1851], pp. 322-330. ORIGIN OF SLAVERY IN THE NEW WOklJ) 743 to keep slaves ; the spirit which, operating on individuals and com- munities, has ever been the immediate cause of slavery. It is not a wicked or infernal spirit. Neither communities nor individuals keep slaves in order to indulge in oppression and cruelty. Those British colonies — and they are many — which would get slaves to- morrow if we would let them, are not more wicked than we are : they are only placed in circumstances which induce us to long for the possession of slaves notwithstanding the objections to it. These circumstances, by producing the state of mind in which slavery becomes desirable for masters, have ever been the origi- nating cause of slavery. They are not moral, but economical circumstances : they relate not to vice and virtue, but to production. They are the circum- stances, in which one man finds it difficult or impossible to get other men to work under his direction for wages. They are the circumstances, referring to a former letter, w^hich stand in the way of combination and constancy of labour, and which all civilized na- tions, in a certain stage of their advance from barbarism, have en- deavoured to counteract, and have in some measure counteracted, by means of some kind of slavery. Hitherto in this world, labour has never been employed on any considerable scale, with constancy and in combination, except by one or other of two means ; either by hiring, or by slavery of some kind. What the principle of as- sociation may do in the production of wealth, and for the labouring classes, without either slaver}^ or hiring, remains to be seen ; but at present w^e cannot rely upon it. Recurring, therefore, to hiring and slavery as the only known means of rendering industry very productive, let us now consider what relation these two social arrangements bear to each other. Slavery is evidently a make-shift for hiring ; a proceeding to which recourse is had, only when hiring is impossible or difficult. Slave labour is on the whole much more costly than the labour of hired freemen ; and slavery is also full of moral and political evils, from which the method of hired labour is exempt. Slaver)-, there- fore, is not preferred to the method of hiring : the method of hiring would be preferred if there were a choice : but when slavery is adopted, there is no choice : it is adopted because at the time 744 'i^HE ECONOMICS OF SLAVERY and under the circumstances there is no other way of getting labourers to work with constancy and in combination. What, then, are the circumstances under which this happens ? It happens wherever population is scanty in proportion to land, Slaveiy, except in some mild form, as the fading continuation of a habit, and with some advantage to the nominal slaves but real de- pendents, whom at least it sheltered from the evils of competition, has been confined to countries of a scanty population, has never existed in veiy populous countries, and has gradually ceased in the countries whose population gradually increased to the point of density. And the reason is plain enough. Property in land is the object of one of the strongest and most general of human desires. Excluding the owners of land, in whom the desire is gratified, few indeed are those who do not long to call a piece of the earth their own. Landowners and persons who would be glad to be landowners, comprise the bulk of mankind. In populous countries, the desire to own land is not easily gratified, because the land is scarce and dear : the plentifulness and cheapness of land in thinly-peopled countries enables almost everybody who wishes it to become a land- owner. In thinly-peopled countries, accordingly, the great majority of free people are landowners who cultivate their own land ; and labour for hire is necessarily scarce : in densely-peopled countries, on the contrary, the great majority of the people cannot obtain land, and there is plenty of labour for hire. Of plentifulness of labour for hire, the cause is dearness of land : cheapness of land is the cause of scarcity of labour for hire. Test these conclusions by reference to universal history. Abra- ham, the slave-master, said unto Lot, who was another, " is not the whole land before thee .'* " The ancient Greeks were themselves colonists, the occupiers of a new territory, in which for a time every freeman could obtain as much land as he desired : for a time they needed slaves ; and the custom of slavery was established. They sent forth colonies, which consisted in part of slaves, removed to a waste territory for the express purpose of cultivating it with con- stancy and combination of labour. The Romans, in the earlier stages of their history, were robbers of land, and had more than they could cultivate without slaves : it was partly by means of slavery, that (miGIN OF SLAVERY IN THE NEW WOKIJ) 745 they at last grew to be so populous at Rome as no longer to need slavery, but to ask for an agrarian law. The Roman world was in- deed so devastated by wars, that exeept at the scat of cmjjire, popu- lation never perhaps attained the jM'oportion to land in which real slavery naturally disajDpears. The serfdom of the middle-ages was for all Europe, what it is for Poland and Russia still, a kind of slavery required by the small proportion of people to land ; a substi- tute for hired labour, which gradually expired with the increase of population, as it will expire in Poland and I'lussia when land shall, in those countries, become as scarce and dear as it became in Plngland some time after the Conquest. Next comes the institution of slavery in America by the colonies of nations which liad abolished serfdom at home ; colonies in whose history, whether we read it in Raynal, or Edwards, or Grahame, we find the effect and the cause invariably close together ; the slavery in various forms of bondage, growing out of superabundance of land. • The operation of superabundance of land in causing a scarcity of free labour and a desire for slaves, is very distinctly seen in a process by which modern colonists always have endeavoured to ob- tain free labour. P>ee labour, when it can be got and kept in a colony, is so much more productive than forced, that the colonial capitalist is always ready to pay for it, in the form of wages, more than slave labour would cost, and far more than the usual rate of wages in an old country. It is perfectly worth his while to pay, be- sides these high wages, the cost of the passage of free labour from the old country to the colony. Innumerable are the cases in which a colonial capitalist has done this, confident of the prudence of the outlay. It was commonly done by the founders of our early colo- nies in America, and has been done by many capitalists in Canada, South Africa, the Australias, and New Zealand. To do this appears such a natural, suitable, easy way of obtaining labour for hire, that every emigrant capitalist thinks of doing it ; and thousands (I speak within compass) have tried the experiment. It is an experiment which always fails : if it always or generally succeeded, scarcit}' of labour for hire would not be a colonial evil. I have never missed the opportunity of tracing one of these experiments to its results ; and I assure you that I have never been able to discover a single 746 THE ECONOMICS OF SLAVERY case of success. The invariable failure is produced by the impos- sibility of keeping the labour, for the passage of which to the colony the capitalist has paid : and it happens as follows. Under this voluntary method of importing labour, all capitalists do not pay alike : some pay ; some do not. Those who do not pay for the importation of labour, can afford to pay for the use of it more than those who pay for the importation. These non-import- ing capitalists, therefore, offer to the newly-arrived labourers higher wages than the employer who imported them has engaged or can afford to pay. The offer of higher wages is a temptation which poor emigrants are incapable of resisting. When the non-import- ing capitalist is not rogue enough to make the offer to the labour- ers whom his neighbour has imported, still the labourers know that such higher wages can be obtained from persons who have not imported labourers : they quit the service of their importer, and, being now out of employment, are engaged by somebody who can afford to pay the higher wages. The importer, I repeat, never keeps the labour which he has imported. Nor does the non-importing capitalist keep it long. With these high wages, the imported labourers soon save the means of acquir- ing and cultivating land. In every colony, land is so cheap that emigrant labourers who save at all, are soon able to establish them- selves as landowners, working on their own account ; and this, most of them do as soon as possible. If the land of the colony were of limited extent, a great importation of people would raise its price, and compel some people to work for wages ; but the land of colonies is practically of unlimited extent. The immigration of labour, therefore, has no effect on the supply in the market : yes, it has an effect ; it increases the demand without increasing the supply, and therefore renders the demand more intense : for the great bulk of imported labourers become landowners anxious to obtain labour for hire. The more labourers are imported, the greater becomes, after a while, the scarcity of labour in proportion to the demand : and at the bottom of the whole mischief is the cheapness of land. It was cheapness of land that caused Las Casas (the Clarkson or Wilberforce of his time as respects the Red Indians of America) ORIGIN OF SLAVERY IN THE NEW WORLD 747 to invent the African slave trade. It was the cheapness of land that brought African slaves to Antigua and Barbadoes ; and it is a comparative dearness of land, arising from the increase of popu- lation in those small islands, which has made them an exception from the general rule of West-Indian impoverishment in conse- quence of the abolition of slavery before land was made dear. It was cheapness of land that caused the introduction of negro slaves into Virginia, and produced the various forms of bondage practised by all the old English colonies in America. It was cheapness of land in Brazil, Porto Rico, and Cuba, which causes our African squadron, and not only prevents it from serving its purpose, but causes it to be a means of aggravating the horrors of the African slave trade. The cause is always the same, in form as well as in substance : the effect takes various forms. Amongst the effects, there is the prodigious importance of Irish labour to the United States — the extreme " convenience of the nuisance " of an immigration of people whose position as aliens, and whose want of ambition and thrift, commonly prevent them from acquiring land, however cheap it may be ; there is the oft-repeated prayer of our West-India planters (not residing in Barbadoes or Antigua) to the imperial government, for some plan for establishing a great emigration of free labour from Africa to the West Indies ; there is the regret of New South Wales at the stoppage of convict emigration to that colony ; there are the petitions which several colonies have addressed to the home government, praying for convict emigration : and, lastly, there is the whole batch of economical colonial evils, which I have before described under the head of scarcity of labour for hire, and which operate as one of the most formidable impediments to the emigration of the most valuable class of settlers. If all the political impediments to colonization were removed, this economical one would still be sufificient to prevent the emigra- tion of capitalists or capital on any great scale. Indeed, so long as it shall last, no considerable capitalists will emigrate, hoping to prosper, except under a delusion which will be dissipated by six months' experience in the colony : and this delusion, in conse- quence of the increasing spread of true information about colonial 748 THE ECONOMICS OF SLAVERY life, is likely to have fewer victims than heretofore. I am looking forward to almost a stoppage of emigration as respects all but the very needy or desperate classes ; provided always, however, that the cause of scarcity of labour in the colonies cannot by any means be removed, and prevented from returning. My own notion of the means by which the scarcity of labour might be effectually removed and prevented from returning, must now be explained. . . .1 2 At the epoch of the discovery of America, the population of Europe was small, and it could only make scanty contributions of people to the New World ; and as it was itself just emerging from a state of barbarism, it could not extend to new regions any elevated or enlightened civilization. Slavery was one of the established systems of that period, and the holding of heathen slaves enjoyed the full sanction of the church. And it had so happened, that the value of the negro in the condition of servitude had been long tried, especially in Spain and Portugal, and was well understood. What has occurred in America, was, under all the circumstances, inevitable. Incalculable resources existed in the mine and in the soil, but by whose hands could they be developed ? Where it was practicable to enslave the native people of the country, their physical organization was unequal to the forced labors imposed upon them, and they perished speedily from the face of the earth. Europe was itself sparsely populated. A few, under the stimulus of religious zeal, or adventurous spirit, tried the voyage (then one of months instead of weeks) across the Atlantic ; while others, but still few, submitted to the expatriation as the commuted punishment of their crimes. The people who could subdue and cultivate the New World, existed only in Africa. Their number was indefinitely large ; and not only did no existing moral and religious scruples forbid their coerced appropriation to that work, but it was con- sidered rather to be in the safe line of religious duty, to subject the negro heathen to Christian baptism and Christian masters. 1 Consult also the extracts under The Labor Problem of New Countries, in Chapter XIV, pp. 695-701. 2 Weston, The Progress of Slavery [1857], pp. 153-155, 155-156. ORIGIN OF SLAVERY IN THE NEW WORLD 749 It is oftentimes loosely said, that America has been settled by the European races, and different i^ortions arc distinguished, as settled by the I^Inglish, I^'rench, Sjxmish, and PortU[(uese. The truth really is. that America, including- its islands, has been settled chiefly from Africa, and by negroes ; and it is only in our own immediate times, that its colonization by Europeans has been com- menced upon a scale of any magnitude. Prior to the commence- ment of the present century, the number of negroes brought hither had probably exceeded the whole number of Europeans of all nationalities, who had emigrated hither, twenty-fold, or even more ; and down to within less than twenty years ago, the African slave trade still brought in more people than did voluntary white immigration. Writing in 1751, Dr. Benjamin Eranklin says that the then computed number of English in North America was one million, and that the immigration from England was thought to have amounted to eighty thousands. If Dr. Franklin had exclusive reference to the " English," as his language implies, there should be added to the estimate a proportionate amount for the immigra- tion of other nationalities, which would not greatly augment it. The immigration down to the period of the Revolutionar)' War may possibly have been larger, but still could not have been great. . . . In 1792, according to the report made to the King of Spain by the Conde de Revillagigudo, Mexico, exclusive of the Intendan- cies of Vera Cruz and Guadalaxara, contiiined a total population of 4,483,529, of whom 7,904 were Europeans, and 677,458 were Creoles of European blood. The excluded Intendancies contained, in 1803, a total population of 786,500, and probably a greater proportion of European stock. These results correspond substan- tially with those arrived at in 1803 by Humboldt. They imply a very small European immigration into Mexico. At the commencement of the present century, the general state- ment commonly made by geographers was, that the number of whites in Mexico equalled the number of whites in the whole of South America. As late as 1 8 19, Bonnycastle computed the whites in Brazil at only 500,000, and the negroes at four times as many. 750 THE ECONOMICS OF SLAVERY In 1 76 1, more than two centuries after the settlement of Brazil by the Portuguese, Edmund Burke, in his "Settlements in America," says that the negroes there outnumbered the whites ten to one. Upon the whole, it would not appear that the total European emigration to America, during the first three centuries after its discoveiy, exceeded half a million. In reference to the number of negroes taken in Africa for trans- portation to America, the Encyclopedia Auicricaiia (185 i) says it has been " calculated to amount during the last three centuries to above forty millions, of whom fifteen or twenty per cent, die on the passage." In 1840, the estimates of the number taken for transportation ranged from 150,000 to 250,000. ... In short, considering the time of the discovery of America, the inviting fields for labor presented in it, and the difficulty, if not impossibility, of supplying this labor, except from Africa, the slave trade to this continent was an inevitable fact. It was sustained by interests wide and strong, and has yielded only slowly and reluc- tantly to the changed opinions of mankind. In an order and prog- ress of things, dictated by irresistible causes, it was the mission of the negro to furnish the chief labor of the New World, until, in the fullness of time, its different portions have been and shall be enabled to pass successively to the higher and nobler civilization of freedom. We are now [1857], at length, in the midst of a new and better epoch. The population in America of European extraction has grown so large, and the accessions to it by immigration are so vast, that we can begin to see that the mission of the negro here is nearly completed, and that the limits of his possible expansion' may be computed. In fifty years, the white races now in the United States, and their descendants, will number more than one hundred millions. While it is impossible to predict exactly the march of this great multitude, or to define precisely the regions it will occupy, it is easy to see that the negro in North America must be pressed into narrow bounds. And it is in North America only that he is formidable, because it is here only that his numbers are increas- ing ; the African race in South America and in the West Indies ORIGIN OF SLAVERY 1\ 'I'lII-, M:\\' WoRLD 751 being either stationary or declining, except so far as it is kept up by the slave trade, which is reduced now to a single island, re- strained even there within close limits, and menaced constantly by that complete extinction wliich it cannot long escape, , . .^ ^In an economical point of view — which I will not omit — Slavery presents some difificulties. As a general rule, I agree it must be admitted, that free labor is cheaper than slave labor, ' It is a fallacy to suppose that ours is unpaid labor. The slave him- self must be paid for, and thus his labor is all purchased at once, and for no trifling sum. . . . But besides the first cost of the slave, he must be fed and clothed, well fed and well clothed, if not for humanity's sake, that he may do good work, retain health and life, and rear a family to supply his place. When old or sick, he is a clear expense, and so is the helpless portion of his family. No poor law provides for him when unable to work, or brings up his children for our service when we need them. These are all heavy charges on slave labor. Hence, in all countries where the dense- ness of the population has reduced it to a matter of perfect cer- tainty, that labor can be obtained, whenever wanted, and the laborer be forced, by sheer necessity, to hire for the smallest pit- tance that will keep soul and body together, and rags upon his back while in actual employment — dependent at all other times on alms or poor rates — in all such countries it is found cheaper to pay this pittance, than to clothe, feed, nurse, support through child- hood, and pension in old age, a race of slaves. Indeed, the ad- vantage is so great as speedily to compensate for the loss of the value of the slave. And I have no hesitation in saying, that if I could cultivate my lands on these terms, I would, without a word, resign my slaves, provided they could be properly disposed of. But the question is, whether free or slave labor is cheapest to us in this country, at this time, situated as we are. And it is decided at once by the fact that we cannot avail ourselves of an\' other 1 For an excellent discussion of the causes and results of the African slave trade, consult Lucas's Historical Geography of the British Colonies, III, 70-95. 2 Hammond, Letters [to Clarkson] on Slavery, 1S45, in I'ro-Slavery Argument, pp. 121-122. 752 THE ECONOMICS OF SLAVERY than slave labor. We neither have, nor can we procure, other labor to any extent, or on anything like the terms mentioned. We must, therefore, content ourselves with our dear labor, under the consoling reflection that what is lost to us, is gained to human- ity ; and that, inasmuch as our slave costs us more than your free man costs you, by so much is he better off. You will promptly say, emancipate your slaves, and then you will have free labor on suitable terms. That might be if there were five hundred where there now is one, and the continent, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, was as densely populated as your Island. But until that comes to pass, no labor can be procured in America on the terms you have it. . . . II. ECONOMIC ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF SLAVERY 1 The economic advantages of slavery are easily stated : they are all comprised in the fact that the employer of slaves has absolute power over his workmen, and enjoys the disposal of the whole fruit of their labours. Slave labour, therefore, admits of the most complete organization, that is to say, it may be combined on an extensive scale, and directed by a controlling mind to a single end, and its cost can never rise above that which is necessary to main- tain the slave in health and strength. On the other hand, the economical defects of slave labour are very serious. They may be summed up under the three following heads : — it is given reluctantly ; it is unskillful ; it is wanting in versatility. It is given reluctantly, and consequently the industry of the slave can only be depended on so long as he is watched. The moment the master's eye is withdrawn, the slave relaxes his efforts. The cost of slave labour will therefore, in great measure, depend on the degree in which the work to be performed admits of the workmen being employed in close proximity to each other. If the work be such that a large gang can be employed with efficiency within a small space, and be thus brought under the eye of a single 1 Cairnes, The Slave Power [i86i], pp. 3S-39, 40-45. ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF SLA\'KRV 753 overseer, the expense of superintendence will be slight ; if, on the other hand, the nature of the work requires. that the workmen should be dispersed over an extended area, the number of over- seers, and therefore, the cost of the labour which requires this supervision, will be proportionately increased. The cost of slave- labour thus varies directly with the degree in which the work to be done requires dispersion of the labourers, and inversely as it admits of their concentration. . . . But further, slave labour is eminently defective in point of ver- satility. The difficulty of teaching the slave anything is so great, that the only chance of turning his labour to profit is, when he has once learned a lesson, to keep him to that lesson for life. Where slaves, therefore, are employed there can be no variety of produc- tion. If tobacco be cultivated, tobacco becomes the sole staple, and tobacco is produced whatever be the state of the market, and whatever be the condition of the soil. This peculiarity of slave labour, as we shall see, involves some very important consequences. Such being the character of slave labour, as an industrial instru- ment, let us now consider the qualities of the agency with which, in the colonization of North America, it was brought into compe- tition. This was the labour of peasant proprietors, a productive instrument, in its merits and defects, the exact reverse of that with which it was called upon to compete. Thus, the great and almost the sole excellence of slave labour is, as we have seen, its capacity for organization ; and this is precisely the circumstance with respect to which the labour of peasant proprietors is especially defective. In a community of peasant proprietors, each workman labours on his own account, without much reference to what his fellow-workmen are doing. There is no commanding mind to whose guidance the whole labour force will yield obedience, and under whose control it may be directed by skillful combinations to the result which is desired. Nor does this system afford room for classification and economical distribu.tion of a labour force in the same degree as the system of slavery. Under the latter, for example, occupation may be found for a whole family of slaves, according to the capacity of each member, in performing the dif- ferent operations connected with certain branches of industr)- — 754 THE ECONOMICS OF SLAVERY say, the culture of tobacco, in which the women and children may be employed in picking the worms off the plants, or gathering the leaves as they become ripe, while the men are engaged in the more laborious tasks ; but a small proprietor, whose children are at school, and whose wife finds enough to occupy her in her domestic duties, can command for all operations, however important or how- ever insignificant, no other labour than his own, or that of his grown-up sons — labour which would be greatly misapplied in per- forming such manual operations as I have described. His team of horses might be standing idle in the stable, while he was gather- ing tobacco leaves or picking worms, an arrangement which would render his work exceedingly costly. The system of peasant pro- prietorship, therefore, does not admit of combination and classifi- cation of labour in the same degree as that of slavery. But if in this respect it lies under a disadvantage as compared with its rival, in every other respect it enjoys an immense superiority. The peas- ant proprietor, appropriating the whole produce of his toil, needs no other stimulus to exertion. Superintendence is here completely dispensed with. The labourer is under the strongest conceivable inducement to put forth, in the furtherance of his task, the full powers of his mind and body ; and his mind, instead of being purposely stinted and stupefied, is enlightened by education, and aroused by the prospect of reward. Such are the two productive agencies which came into compe- tition on the soil of North America. If we now turn to the exter- nal conditions under which the competition took place, we shall, I think, have no difficulty in understanding the success of each respectively in that portion of the Continent in which it did in fact succeed. The line dividing the Slave from the Free States marks also an important division in the agricultural capabilities of North Amer- ica. North of this line, the products for which the soil and climate are best adapted are cereal crops, while south of it the prevailing crops are tobacco, rice, cotton, and sugar ; and these two classes of crops are broadly distinguished in the methods of culture suit- able to each. The cultivation of the one class, of which cotton may be taken as the type, requires for its efficient conduct that ADVANTAGES AND DISADVAN lAGl'lS Ol-" SLAVKRY 755 labour should be combined and organized on an extensive scale. ( )n the other hand, for the raising of cereal crops this condition is not so essential. Even where labour is abundant and that labour free, the large capitalist does not in this mode of farming appear on the whole to have any preponderating advantage over the small proprietor, who, with his family, cultivates his own farm, as the example of the best cultivated states in I'^urope pro\es. Whatever superiority he may have in the j)o\ver of combining and directing labour seems to be compensated by the greater energy and spirit which the sense of property gives to the exertions of the small proprietor. But there is another essential circumstance in which these two classes of crops differ. A single labourer, Mr. Russell tells us, can cultivate twent)' acres of wheat or Indian corn, while he cannot manage more than two of tobacco, or three of cotton. It appears from this that tobacco and cotton fulfil that condition which we saw was essential to the economical emplo)'ment of slaves — the possibility of working large numbers within a limited space ; while wheat and Indian corn, in the cultivation of which the labourers are dispersed over a wide surface, fail in this respect. We thus find that cotton, and the class of crops of which cotton may be taken as the type, favour the employment of slaves in the competition with peasant proprietors in two leading ways : first, they need extensive combination and organization of labour — re- quirements which slavery is eminently calculated to supply, but in respect to which the labour of peasant proprietors is defective ; and secondly, they allow of labour being concentrated, and thus minimize the cardinal evil of skue labour — the reluctance with which it is yielded. On the other hand, the culti\ation of cereal crops, in which extensive combination of labour is not important, and in which the operations of industr)' are widely diffused, offers none of these advantages for the employment of slaves, while it is remarkably fitted to bring out in the highest degree the espe- cial excellencies of the industry' of free {proprietors. Owing to these causes it has happened that slavery has been maintained in the Southern States, which favour the growth of tobacco, cotton, and analogous products, while, in the Northern States, of which cereal crops are the great staple, it from an early period declined and has 756 THE ECONOMICS OF SLAVERY ultimately died out. And in confirmation of this view it may be added that wherever in the Southern States the external conditions are especially favourable to cereal crops, as in parts of Virginia, Kentucky, and Missouri, and along the slopes of the Alleghanies, there slavery has always failed to maintain itself. It is owing to this cause that there now exists in some parts of the South a con- siderable element of free labouring population. These considerations appear to explain the permanence of slavery in one division of North America, and its disappearance from the other ; but there are other conditions essential to the economic success of the institution besides those which have been brought into view in the above comparison, to which it is necessary to advert in order to a right understanding of its true basis. These are high fertility in the soil, and a practically unlimited extent of it. The necessity of these conditions to slaveiy will be apparent by reflecting on the unskillfulness and want of versatility in slave labour to which we have already referred. When the soils are not of good quality cultivation needs to be elaborate ; a larger capital is expended ; and with the increase of capital the processes become more varied, and the agricultural implements of a finer and more delicate construction. With such implements slaves cannot be trusted, and for such processes they are unfit. It is only, therefore, where the natural fertility of the soil is so great as to compensate for the inferiority of the cultiva- tion, where nature does so much as to leave little for art, and to supersede the necessity of the more difficult contrivances of in- dustry, that slave labour can be turned to profitable account. Further, slavery, as a permanent system, has need not merely of a fertile soil, but of a practically unlimited extent of it. This arises from the defect of slave labour in point of versatility. As has been already remarked, the difficulty of teaching the slave anything is so great — the result of the compulsory ignorance in which he is kept, combined with want of intelligent interest in his work — that the only chance of rendering his labour profitable is, when he has once learned a lesson, to keep him to that lesson for life. Accordingly where agricultural operations are carried on by slaves the business of each gang is always restricted to the raising ADVANTAGES AND DISADVAX'l'AGKS OF SLAVERY 757 of a single product. \Vhatc\cr crop be best suited to the character of the soil and the nature of slave industry, whether cotton, tobacco, sugar, or rice, that crop is cultivated, and that crop only. Rotation of crops is thus precluded by the conditions ol die case. The soil is tasked again and again to yield the same product, and the inevi- table result follows. After a short series of years its fertility is completely exhausted, the planter abandons the ground which he has rendered worthless, and passes on to seek in new soils for that fertility under which alone the agencies at his disposal can be profitably employed. . . . ^ All enterprises of industry, whether agricultural, mechanical or mercantile, require a certain amount of capital for their success- ful prosecution. Every thing which enables these enterprises to be carried on with a less amount of capital, contributes to the increase of national wealth ; and on the other hand, every thing which causes a greater amount of capital to be rec|uired, is an obstacle in the way of all new undertakings. In free communities, wliere the laborers have their own labor at their own disposal, and where in consequence, they are ready to sell it, either by the day, the year, or the hour, in any quantities, that is, in which it may be needed, besides the fixed capital invested in lands, workshops, tools, ships, steamboats, &c., there are required two separate portions of floating capital, one to be invested in the stock to be operated upon, and the other to be employed in paying the w'ages of labor. But no more labor need be paid for than is actually employed. Whenever a smaller quantity will answer, a portion of the laborers may be dismissed; whenever more is needed, more laborers may be employed. But in a slave-holding conmiunity, in addition to these three portions of capital, another and a very large portion is rec|uired, in order to commence any industrious enterprise whatever ; for though in such a community there is no payment of wages, yet a corresponding quantity of capital is necessary to furnish food, clothing, and medicines for the slaves. A fourth and additional portion of capital is also required, to be invested in tJic purchase 1 Ilildreth, Despotism in America [1854J, p]). i 19-122. 758 THE ECONOMICS OF SLAVERY of the laborers tJiemselvcs, — a necessity which constitutes a great obstacle in the way of all industrious enterprises. Take the business of agriculture for example. In the new cotton- growing states, a very small sum of money will suffice to purchase a plantation of several hundred acres ; but a very large sum of money is needed to purchase the laborers necessary to carry on the cultivation of it. Could laborers be hired by the month or the day, as in free communities, a moderate capital would enable the planter to command the labor he would need, whereas, under existing circumstances, no person can start a new plantation in Alabama or Mississippi, who is not already possessed of a large capitiil, or able to command it in the shape of loans. We shall fall, probably, much under the mark, if we assume that a capital of five thousand dollars invested in hired labor, would enable as many acres to be cultivated, as a capital of fifty thousand dollars invested in slave labor. The consequence of this state of things is obvious. It gives a monopoly of the command of labor to those who are already possessed of large means, either in the shape of property or of credit. Persons of small capital have no chance to compete with persons of large capital, because by this system, a large capital is rendered absolutely necessary to obtain that command of labor without which no industrious enterprise can be carried on. This single fact is sufficient to explain that tendency of the wealth of a slave community to concentrate in a few hands, which has been stated in a preceding chapter. This system not only gives a monopoly of the command of labor to those who arc already rich, but it is also a very wasteful and extravagant system. It compels the operator to purchase and to support a much larger number of laborers than he ordinarily has occasion for. He is obliged constantly to own and to feed the largest number ever necessary in his business, or else to submit, occasion- ally, to severe loss, for want of a sufficiency of labor. In the cotton planting business, for instance, a given number of slaves can cultivate a considerably larger quantity of cotton than they can gather in ; so that the planter is either obliged to submit to an annual loss of a portion of the crop which he has brought to maturity, or else to culti- vate less than he otherwise might, for the sake of gathering all. ADV.w r.\(;i«:s and disadvan rA(;i':s oi' si.wf.rv 759 The cotton crop, however, as it extends the labor (jf cultivation and gathering in, through almost the entire year, is less surely attended with this sort of loss, than arc the grain crops and farm cultivation of the more northern slave-holding stiites. In those states, during the winter, there is comparatively little occasion for labor on the farms. During all that time, the capital invested in the ownership of slaves, is unproductive, and the slave-master is saddled in addition with the expense of supporting laborers, for whose services he has no occasion. What a great discouragement to the poor, that is, to the great mass of the free population, this system presents, will be evident from a few considerations. In those parts of the slave states in which slaver)' predominates, it is impossible to hire free laborers. To work at all, even on one's own little tract of land, is considered a sufficient degradation ; but to work for another person, to put one's self under his direction, seems to approach too near to the condition of slavery, to be at all endurable. If a person, therefore, wishes to employ any other labor than his own, he must have recourse to slave labor. Hut the employment of the labor of other peojjle is in general absolutely essential to the accumulation of wealth. Where a man merely hoards up the profits of his own labor, his wealth increases only as money does when placed at simple interest, and the industry and economy of a long life will accumulate but a moderate sum. 1-5 ut if those profits are invested in the employment of the labor of other people, his wealth then increases like money at compound interest. But when to employ other labor than one's own, it is necessary to buy the laborers, a considerable sum must be first accumulated, before it can be employed at all ; and as has been shown in anotlier place, so long as the number of slaves which a person possesses, is small, the investment is exceedingly precarious. The necessity of a great capital, and the wastefulness with which that capital is employed, sufficient!) explain the fact, why in all those occupations in which the industry of the free states has come into competition with the labor of slaves, the free states have been able to undersell their rivals. Slave labor is only profitably em- ployed in those kinds of business, such as the cultivation of cotton, 76o THE ECONOMICS OF SLAVERY rice, and sugar, in which the chmate and soil of the northern states prevent the people of those states from engaging. In the cultiva- tion of grain, the raising of stock, and all the operations of farm- ing agriculture, the profits of the slave-holding cultivators are notoriously small, and many a large slave-holder grows poor in that same pursuit, which enriches the farmer of Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York, who begins life with no other resource than his own capacity to labor. Hence that heavy drain of emigration, hence that fatal domestic slave trade, which aggravates the poverty of the older of the slave states, by carrying off that labor, which constitutes the principal means of economical prosperity. . . . III. COMPETITION OF THE PLANTERS AND FARMERS FOR THE COTTON FIELDS ^ It has been proved to be true in the history of this country, that where those who own and cultivate the soil by slave labor are confronted by those who, bred in the habits and with the education of free communities, own and cultivate the soil with their own hands, the planter retires before the farmer, slowly, perhaps, but invariably. The fact is noticeable along the whole line which separates Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia, from the free States. Without intending at present to comment upon all the causes which lie at the bottom of this fact, it is sufficient to observe, that the system of small freeholds and of free labor gives a value to land, which puts it out of the reach of the slave-owner, or induces him to dispose of what he possesses.^ The disproportion in the price of land in the free and slave States is enormous. Undoubt- edly, it is an objection (though greatly overrated) to the holding of 1 Weston, The Progress of Slavery [1857], pp. 15-1S, 42-44. 2 This is not the case if the crops raised on the land happen to be those whose production requires combination of labor or production on a large scale. In the production of such crops the organized slave labor will be able to make a more profitable use of the land than the small farmer or peasant proprietor, and hence the planter will be able to pay more for the land than the small farmer. The latter will sell out to the former, especially if he finds it easy to procure other land by moving a little way into the interior. This was the sort of thing that went on all over the South. The ease with which the white farmers could secure public lands by moving west rendered it easy for the planter to buy out the farmers in the older settled regions, and everywhere this was done. COMPKTITION OF TIIK. PLAX'I'KRS AND l-'ARMKRS 761 slaves in the border counties of Maryland and Virginia, that they have opportunities to escape. But if slaves were ever so seciu'e, the high and advancing price of land must be a constant inducement to the slaveholder occupying it, to dispose of his interest in the soil to those who are enabled, by a different economical system, to pay more for it than it is worth to him. The slaveholder yields to this inducement, and withdraws to localities where the valuation of lands and slaves enables them to be worked in combination with profit. If slavery was again legalized in Pennsylvania, it could not possess itself of the agriculture of that State. The high prices of farming land could effectually repel it. . . . It is an essential condition, however, of the triumph of free labor over slave labor, in a contest for the possession of the soil, that the free labor should have had the training of free communi- ties. In such a contest, the non-slaveholders of the South, who as a class (of course, with many exceptions) are shiftless, thriftless, ignorant, and degraded, are no match for the slaveholders. In the old slave States, they do not enter upon such a contest at all, and aspire as little to the ownership of acres as they do to the owner- ship of slaves. If, escaping into the new slave States, they enjoy a temporary freedom, and even attain the dignity of freeholders, they are soon followed by their old masters, and reduced to their ancient condition. These observations are, of course, to be applied only to the non-slaveholders of those portions of the South in which slav- ery is dominant. There are other portions of the South in which slavery scarcely exists, and which are substantially free communi- ties, with a sturdy and vigorous yeomanry. . . . A form of society, under which the physical vigor of the negro is directed and controlled by the intelligence of the white man, considered simply as an economical system for the production of wealth, and without reference to the morality of enslaving one set of men for the benefit of another, has some obvious advantages. But the theoretical perfection of such, a system requires that the proportion of whites should be no greater than is necessary for directing and coercing the blacks ; and any excess of whites above that proportion is worse than superfluous, making a class of idlers, or worse than idlers, who, in various ways, destroy or diminish the 762 THE ECONOMICS OF SLAVERY profits of the industry of others. The system, in this state of per- fection, (everything good and bad has a possible perfection of its own,) has existed in many of the European colonies in South America and the West Indies, but never in the United States. •Here, the incongruous element of poor whites, having no connection with slavery, and entirely out of place in the machinery of slave labor, has always been large, and would inevitably explode the whole system but for the vent for them afforded by our ample Territories. It is not intended to be said, of course, that all the non-slave- holding whites of the slave States are of the class and condition here described. The truth is, that although slaveiy may legally exist in eveiy part of the slave States, it does not in fact exist, or only to an extent scarcely appreciable, in considerable portions of them.i In such portions, we find a class corresponding, in habits and personal independence, with the yeomanry of the free States, although with less advantages of education. It is not in such quarters, however, where slavery does not exist, that we should expect to find its effects. A plantation requires no white people, except the proprietor, the overseer, possibly a physician, and their families. Its economy does not require the hiring of labor, white, or black ; and the inter- course of poor white neighbors with the planter is limited to stealing from him, and carrying on illicit trade in rum and other prohibited indulgences with his negroes. If a State could be sup- posed to be made up of continuous plantations, the white race would be not merely starved out, but literally squeezed out ; and just so far as the system falls short of this, it falls short of attain- ing its perfect development. To this point it continually tends, although it may never reach it. Some soils will not support slav- ery, by reason of sterility, or because they require methods of culti- vation and modes of occupation to which slave labor is not adapted. Of some spots, free labor gets the first possession, and is able to hold it, either by its own strength, or because slavery is drawn in other directions by more powerful inducements. Commercial and manufacturing interests, necessitating free labor, arise also in the slave States, although slowly ; and, so far and so fast as this 1 Consult the map at the end of this volume. COMPETITION OF THE PLANTERS AM) I ARMERS 763 happens, a white i)(ii)ulati()n finds cmploNiiicnt and a Icj^dtimatc position. But such a population is extrinsic to sla\er\-, and forms no part of the economy of slave labor. The destruction and expulsion of the white race are the lej^iti- mate effects of the plantation system, and are in fact produced by it, just in proportion as that system is developed. In South Caro- lina, in 1850, there were 384,984 slaves to 274,563 whites, whereas in 1790 there were 107,094 slaves to 140,178 whites. This advance of the black race upon the white has occurred in spite of the fact, that the western part of the State is mountainous, and not adapted to slavery. 1 Between the evacuation of Charlestown by the British in 1783 and the year 1808, the difference in the condition of South-Carolina is immense. When the revolutionary contest ended the country was full of widows and orphans made so by the war, and a deadly hatred growing out of it continued to rage between the tories and whigs. The possessions of the planters were laid waste, their laborers were carried off or greatly reduced by deaths and desertion. The morality of the inhabitants had been prostrated by laws violating private rights on the plea of political necessity — by the suspension of the courts of justice — by that disregard for the institutions of religion which is a never-failing attendant on military operations — by the destruction or dilapidation of churches and the consequent omis- sion of public worship addressed to the deity. . . . . . . By degrees the wounds inflicted by war on the morality and religion of the inhabitants began to heal. Their losses of prop- erty were made up from the returns of a fruitful soil, amply re- warding the labors of its cultivators. These promising appearances were strengthened by improvements on their civil institutions, . . . To these sources of moral improvement a powerful auxiliar}^ was added by the introduction of cotton. The cultivation of the former great staples, particularly rice and indigo, required large capitals. They could not be raised to any considerable purpose but by ne- groes. In this state of things poor white men were of little account otherwise than as overseers, I'here were comparatively few of that ^ Ramsay, History of South Carolina [1808], II, 445-446, 446-447, 44S-449. 764 THE ECONOMICS OF SLAVERY intermediate and generally most virtuous class which is neither poor nor rich. By the introduction of the new staple the poor became of value, for they generally were or at least might be elevated to this middle grade of society. Land suitable for cotton was easily attained, and in tracts of every size either to purchase or rent. The culture of it entailed no diseases ; might be carried on profitably by individuals or white families without slaves, and afforded employ- ment for children, whose labor was of little or no account on rice or indigo plantations. The poor having the means of acquiring property without the degradation of working with slaves, had new and strong incitements to industry. From the acquisition of prop- erty the transition was easy to that decent pride of character which secures from low vice, and stimulates to seek distinction by deserv- ing it. As they became more easy in their circumstances, they be- came more orderly in their conduct. The vices which grew out of poverty and idleness were diminished. In estimating the value of cotton, its capacity to excite industry among the lower classes of people, and to fill the country with an independent industrious yeomaniy, is of high importance. It has had a large share in mor- alizing the poor white people of the country. From the combined influence of these causes, the moral improvement of Carolina ever since the year 1783, has been in a constant state of progression ; and particularly so since 1792, when cotton became a considerable article for exportation. . . . ^ ^The culture of cotton, infinitely more lucrative than that of wheat or tobacco, is, as I have already said, the most practised in 1 This extract is important as showing that at the beginning cotton was ex- pected to be produced by free labor on small farms, and was, in fact, so produced. All over the South a struggle took place between the small white farmer and the planter with his slaves for the possession of the best lands upon which to raise cotton. The result of it was that the farmer sold out to the planter and moved to the West to take up new land. The new cotton lands of the West were usually taken up by small farmers with few or no slaves, and as time went on the planter with his numerous gang of slaves moved in and bought the small farmer. This movement may be shown statistically by comparing the relative numbers of whites and negroes in the important cotton counties in the various States from their early settlement to i860. Thomas Dabney was a typical case (see p. 642). 2 Michaux, Travels to the Westward of the Alleghany Mountains [1802], pp. 294-295. coMPicrnioN OF the PLAN'n':RS and farmers 7(35 West Tennessee. There is scarcel)" an emi