tion in value of all their fixed investments, and to hang in the rear of the march of the nation. Although the theory of our Constitution is based upon equal representation, and hence that of numbers is considered just; yet it is evident that the establishment of the Senatorial representation of the States, (although "at once a constitutional recognition of the portion of sovereignty remaining in the individual States, and an instrument for preserving that residuary sovereignty," is not in practice, the sole guarantee against undue influence of particular States, and consequent danger to other States of the Union. 2d. vation, have a comparative advantage which But this latter is a matter within control, and here is presented to the States of the Atlantic coast the means of equalizing the balance. To use these distant markets, "a well adjusted system of internal improvements, "* is essential; in order to diminish the cost of transportation.— But, more important still, there is an additional means, - to reduce to a minimum, in the cost of transportation, this There would be manifest impropriety and drain upon the profits of the Atlantic injustice in the attempt to crush the growth States. "The remedy is, to create a marof any State. But the magnifying of the poli-ket at home for your surplus agricultural tical importance of a State is as surely products."† the consequence of its excessive growth, as it is sure, that such increase of its political weight, though not contrary to the terms, is contrary to the spirit of our institutions There remains, then, no alternative for the protection of State Rights in this regard, but the action of such means as will increase the population and wealth of the State which adopts them. No obstacles other than temporary ones can resist the progress of manufacturing ' industry and the realization of its benefits in this country. Nor from sectional causes should any one desire it. There is, we well know, a sentiment in each of these States, and in all the South, which reciprocates that broad national feeling, which prompted the presentation by the author of a plan to remedy these evils. We will now rapidly trace the remedy. Reducing the property of a country to its ultimate components, we find two great items, land and labor, and the result of the employment of these two. "Agriculture, the foundation of wealth, depends on production and a market for these products."† The chief elements of cost in the markets where the agricultural products of the South and West are sold, are,-1st, The cost of production to the cultivator: this amount depending mostly on the comparative fertility of the land. Here the Western States, so far as they are under culti • Madison. + Mr. L.'s letters, p. 20. The extent of this evil is stated in these letters in brief, for it needs no amplifying. We have extracted from them the statement of the causes therein conclusively exhibited, and from the same source we learn the remedy. The remedy, in each state, is," the encouragement of agriculture, in the establishment of manufactures." If we will but note with attention their respective peculiarities, there is a deeper relation than that of fanciful analogy, between the conditions of the existence of individual, and of aggerated humanity. The life of a State is, in many respects, as the life of a man. The knowledge of, and the love for, the radical principles of its polity answers, as it were, in a State, to the living mind; whose development in an individual State or man, may be greater or less. The harmonious arrangement and due proportioning of its industrial interests, of its material machinery of production and consumption, bears to the entire national entity, the relation of the material body to a man. The array of names, famous in Arts, on the roll of the Carolinas, the whole book of their public history, proclaims those States as possessing the soul of Democratic Republicanism; but their friends must say of them as it was said of Paul, by his enemies of Corinth, their "bodily presence is weak." "The aggregate product of the two Carolinas in 1840 was $59,595,734, † p. 5. + p. 20. * P. 6. with a population of 1,347,817. The products of Massachusetts with a population of less than 800,000 people, amounted at the same time to $100,000,000, and now the products of labor and capital are more than $120,000,000."* This last is the amount, not of the accumulation of large percentages of profit, but of the steady and gradual addition of moderate profits, or diversified labor, constantly employed.† It is the repeated addition of the minute products of labor, the labor of the man, of the waterfall, and of the coal mine, that builds their cities, and dots their granite hills with smiling towns and villages. It is said in these letters, I have introduced these statements for the purpose of exhibiting fairly the true condition of some of the old States, and to awaken the public mind in those States to the importance of bringing out their productive labor, by introducing new branches; in order that the industrial classes may be profitably employed, and to show that the States named have as great a stake in protecting the labor of the country as any other in the Union. They have now but little else than soil and physical power remaining." The practical means of working the required change are thus considered. "There are two classes of labor, intelligent, and unintelligent. The former is that kind of labor which requires a considerable amount of mental culture, with active physical power. This combination is capable of applying Science to Art, and of producing results that are difficult, and oftentimes complicated. The latter description of labor, is of that character which depends principally on physical strength; this quality of labor you (referring to Virginia) have in abundance, and I hope you are not without a tolerable supply of the higher class. You may, without doubt, commence the manufacture of almost every description of articles requiring but little skill, and prosecute the work with success. Manufactures of such articles as iron, hemp, wool, *P. 31. + We learn by an article in the Merchant's Magazine for Dec. 1849, (Condition and Prospects of the American Cotton Manufactures in 1849,) that the average of dividends of twenty of the first class mills in New England, for the year 1849, was 5 6-10 per cent. + P. 31. cotton, leather, &c., wrought into the coarser and more common articles would succeed with you. We pause a moment to note this classification of labor. M. Guizot, whose bolts and bars have recently snapped in his hands when he attempted to close the gates to the moral progress of a people, thus writes of labor: "Labor is subject to natural and general laws-in every situation, in every variety of labor, in every class of laborers, diversity and inequality arise and subsist; inequality of intellectual power, of moral merit, of social importance, of material wealth." The feeling, so little creditable, which we may observe in the work "Democracy" in France," would change the onward course of humanity to retrogression in regarding each of the laboring classes as immutably a toiler at day wages; but this distinction of labor as intelligent or unintelligent, is the only distinction as to labor, of which a state can correctly be cognizant. This application only is the result of the nature of things, and is the true distinction, which, in the correct theory of Republic anism, attaches to the labor alone, and does not, as in monarchical Europe, induce as with the shirt of Nessus, the individual of the working classes, the separate humanity, perhaps capable of all advancement, apt for all contingencies, able, it may be, to leave behindfootsteps on the track of time," with the character of the circumstances which in infancy may have surrounded him. We place side by side in contrast these two views so widely differing, of labor. The one from France, from a statesman, who would keep France under "the cold shade of aristocracy," "the other from a statesman of America, who, like all of us, seeks to walk by the light of the sun of democracy alone. And we do it for this, because that there is no plainer definition of the respective differences, no fairer exposition of the comparative values of the two systems of polity, than in these two contrasted views of labor. "Human progress," says an American writer,† (now no longer living,) is the result of an ever active law, manifesting it #P. 5. + Chief Justice Durfee. Works, p. 330. self chiefly in scientific discovery and invention, and thereby controlling legislation, and giving enduring improvement to all social and political institutions." It is well and thoughtfully said: From discoveries in science, and improvements in art, result free political institutions and the object of both is identical. We will now observe the reproduction by this effect of a new cause. One main argument, for democracy arises from the difference in the mental structure of individuals, were the mental peculiarities of an individual transmitted unchanged to his posterity there would be comparitively little advantage in Republicanism over Despotism. But each individual possesses an idiosyncracy, which, though resembling in some respects that of his immediate ancestor, in the main, differs widely. The function of Democracy is to assist in, by removing obstacles to, the manifestation of this. Democracy is the practical recognition of the individuality of man. This manifestation is mainly effected, with the bulk of the population, the majority, only by their labor, from the diversification of which arise new improvements and discoveries. It is thus, the peculiar interest of the laboring classes, that their labor should be diversified, and this diversification brings with it the direct advantage of enhanced compensation. "To place the people in a condition of permanent and solid prosperity, we must encourage home industry, by obtaining the greatest amount of production; this can only be obtained by diversifying labor, which will bring with it high wages; and unless the labor is well paid, our country cannot prosper."* serve the mode in which the causes are to be kept in action. The use of the powers exercised by a free government, is, obviously, as to each individual, but the execution of his own will. The chief modes in which the will of an individual can legitimately, in society in its normal state, act directly to control the execution of the will of another, in matters appertaining only to the latter, are two. The one acts upon the child, and is the power of the parent. The other acts upon the adult, and is the power of public opinion. The main objects for which these powers act for the good of society, are these: Education facilitates the development of the powers of the human mind, and by labor the physical powers of man, and the resources of the earth, are developed. These causes act and re-act upon each other. By the former of the above-mentioned modes of action, viz.-the will of the parent, delegated for convenience and certainty of operation to the State, education is effected. By the latter powerful mode of action, viz.-that of public opinion, the application of labor may be effected. "Let it be considered respectable for every man to have a vocation, and to follow it. Let your common school system go hand in hand with the employment of your people. A general system of popular education is the lever to all permanent improvement. To this we add, “All intellectual culture should be founded on the principles of our Holy Religion." This, then, is the system for the advancement of a State to the full fruition of the principles of Republican Democracy, It is founded on the true principles of political philosophy, and we leave it to the reflection and judgment of the reader. Diversification of labor is the industrial means to secure to the laboring classes the benefits of Democracy. Democracy clears. While advocating the general policy of away all obstacles to the development of the the introduction of manufacturing industry full powers of man. This the Fathers of in the South, as a matter of the first imthe Republic have given to us. Diversifi-portance to all of us, it is not to be forgotcation of labor facilitates the application of those capacities to science and art. This, also, must be secured in an united capacity as a people. Division of labor ensures the full effect of such application, and here private action begins. We are now to ob * P. 20. VOL. VI. NO. III. NEW SERIES. ten, that the temporary state of the business and finances of the country, and the immediate demands of trade, must, with the exercise of judgment, decide the manner and time of this introduction. We have now the pleasure to turn the readers attention to the progress already made in the South and West in the course of industrial development which we have sketched from these letters. Under date of December 1849, it is stated,* that there are in South Carolina sixteen factories containing 36,500 spindles, with a capital invested of about one million of dollars. In Georgia, (November 1849,) they have 36 cotton mills with 51,140 spindles.† In Alabama, 10 factories are in operation, with a capital of half a million invested, and it is stated that there will shortly be 20,000 spindles in operation. In Tennessee there are 30 factories with 36,000 spindles. Who We hold that these States have not been before, but are now, upon the path of prosperity to the rest of the Union, as well as to themselves. Discoveries in science, inventions in art, do not come by revelation. They are the fruit of opportunity. can tell what immense wealth of inventive genius, what vast opulence of constructive power may be unnoticed and unknown with some of the laboring classes in the States, whose sole industrial pursuit being agriculture, offers no facility for its development. Hands, that the rod of empire might have swayed," as the poet Gray expresses it that might have recorded for empires, secrets of mechanical or chemical science which would change the face and the destinies of nations. It is a theme for other thought than the sentimental reveries of poets. By what has already been done, we know what may be done, now that new squadrons of the vast army of American labor, are wheeling into rank. "The increase (in the consumption of raw cotton) in the United States from 1816 to 1845, has extended from 11 million pounds to 176,300,000 pounds in 29 years, being an augmentation of sixteen-fold. The increase in Great Britain in the same period of time has been from 88,700,000 pounds to 560, 000,000 pounds, being an augmentation of less than seven-fold, against an increase in the United States of sixteen-fold " * Documents accompanying Report of Sec. of Treasury. 1850. "The actual amount really invested in the Georgia manufactories is not far from $2,000,000." -Savannah Georgian, July 11, 1850. + P. 26. The subsequent portions of the letters are occupied with a view of the manufactures of the country, and their relative progress, and an exposition of the effects to be expected on the same from the passage of the Tariff Act then under consideration, since passed, and known as the Tariff Act of 1846. Adherence to a political opinion is fre quently not the result of reasoning, and when to casually imbibed prejudices in favor of one conclusion, is added the bias of partizanship against its opposite, the opinions of individuals under these influences are apt to vary widely from a just view. There are also sources of differences of opinion which we may recognise without impu tation upon the intellects or hearts of those with whom they exist. They come from idiosyncracies and are unexplainable. One result however, has occurred from one or other of these causes, within a few years in the Political History of the United States, that, while the irregularities and evil consequences resulting from the passage of the Tariff Act of 1846, have, in some particulars, been existing in their full vigor, the country at large, has not in the annual account of the state of its affairs from the Executive, been apprised of them. We much regret that the limited space of a monthly Review will not allow us to give an abstract of these letters. Lord Bolingbroke remarks that, that book which requires abridgement, is not worth reading; and these letters being tersely epitomized, to give an abstract of them, would be but to present them with important omissions. The intention is, at the present time, to take advantage of the incoming of a Whig Administration, and a presentation of an account of the actual state of the industrial and fiscal affairs of the country, in the Report of the Secretary of the Treasury, to compare events become a part of history with the clear delineation of them present ed in anticipation, four years ago in these letters, and to urge a repeal of the Tariff Act.* The effect to be anticipated from the sa * The unfortunate arrangements connected with the public printing at this session of Congress have delayed the exposition (by retaining from general circulation the accompanying documents to the Report of the Secretary of the Treasury to which we wish our readers to refer,) till the present time. The crifice of the industry of the country to the | cies Free-traders at home wish us to conunrestrained competition of a nation already fide our industry. far beyond us in the course of manufacturing industry, was fully shown. If, it was said, a deficiency of the revenue is escaped, it will be only by excessive importations, followed by a drain of specie, and its consequences, the prostration of the business of the whole country and ultimate suppression of the banks. Now, although the speech of the Prime Minister of England, (Sir R. Peel,) proposing a remission of certain duties, arrived at the very date of these letters, was it an anticipation on which legislative action could, with just regard to the interests of the country, be had, that a reduction of duties in Great Britain would be made to such an extent as to justify our giving up our domestic markets for our agricultural products, to seek across the ocean for a foreign one. It was said "in case of the repeal of the duty on wheat, little will be exported from the United States to England" in ordinary years of harvest," and calculation as to the probability of repeal was made or observation of the fact that the statesmen of England are imbued with a nationality of feeling that acknowledges no force in theoretical appeals in favor of preferring the industry of a foreign country to that of their own. The tariff act of 1846 was passed and the parties in all parts of the country, against whose earnest remonstrances this course of legislation was adopted, prepared themselves as well as they might, to sustain, besides the evils of fluctuation and casual reverses inseparably attendant on business, the effect of the hostile action of their own government. But now came in an interfering cause. One of those strange events which cannot be foretold by man, which science has failed to explain, and which art is powerless to prevent; when no human quality avails but patience, and in whose presence we can only sit silently and wait, observing reverently the manifestation of a power before which we are powerless. The natural result has followed. industry of Ireland was prostrated; so abjectly prostrate that millions of its population depended for their entire subsistence on a single root. And here we are reminded of a singular circumstance. The constitution of Ireland" (said Mirabeau in 1782, while proposing a destruction for certain political refugees from Geneva,) "has been much modified, and seems likely to be modified still more. It would be absurd to deny that Ireland is becoming the most free of any country in the world, and the most desirable for men who feel the value of freedom."* Since then, the Irish Union has taken place, and other great events affecting Ireland's destiny. It would be absurd to have expected of Mirabeau that he should have prophesied, but as the causes which have placed Ireland in her present condition, were then in operation, in different forms, we think it not time lost to note, while observing their effect, how great and disastrous has been the action of these causes, then so little calculated upon by statesmen of that time. Causes, which may be traced to one great root, viz.: the prejudicial effect upon the industry of one nation, of the legislative action of another, in other words, the want of National Industrial Independence. To return,-when the time came to harvest this crop, miserable at the best, the spade that should have dug an edible from the earth, glanced through a mass of rottenness and premature putrefaction; a fit emblem of the industrial policy of a country whose labor knew no diversification. The food of the country was gone. How and where to find other food. Anywhere, anywhere, for a nation was starving! The grain growers of the Baltic and Black Sea had been as little capable of prognosticating an Irish famine as those who passed the American tariff act of 1846, and not having expected the contingency, were unable to supply the demand. The "ordinary years of harvest," on A long course of legislation had placed which the author of the letters had calculathe industry of Ireland, in subjection to the ted, had been succeeded by an extraordiaction of England, to whose tender mer-nary year of no harvest. The exportation. * Page 10. * Memoirs. Vol. iv. p. 100. |