With the high price of labor that exists in the United States-with our scanty supply of moneyed capitalwith our unlimited range of uncultivated or half-improved soil-it is almost a crime against society to divert human industry from the fields and the forests to iron forges and cotton factories. Nature has pointed out the course which we ought to pursue for perhaps half a century to come, till the plough and the spade have followed the axe of the wood-cutter into their "primeval wilderness of shade," and till happy plantations shall have been formed on the deserted domains of the Indian huntsman from the Atlantic to the Ohio, and from the Mississippi to the Pacific. She has directed us to cling to the bosom of mother Earth, as to the most fertile source of wealth, and the most abundant reward of labor. She has told us to remain planters, farmers, and wood-cutters-to extend society and cultivation to new regions-to practise and improve the arts of the builder, the carpenter, and the naval architect-to facilitate every means of internal communication-to promote every branch of internal trade-to encourage every variety of landed produce, but not to waste the energies of our labor; or to interrupt the course of our prosperity, by forcing at home the manufacture of articles which foreigners could supply at half the price for which they could be made in Ame

rica.

During a recent visit we made to Lowell, Nashua, and other manufacturing districts of New England, we had an opportunity of ascertaining the true condition of the laboring classes both as to the severity of their toil, and their frequent liability to destitution from irregularity of work. Superficial or interested observers, the advocates of a protective tariff and the favorers of commercial restrictions, would fain persuade you, that the indwellers of these gloomy piles of brick and mortar are contented, cheerful, and well-provided that they have no wish beyond the immediate means of gratification -that because the wail of lamentation is not heard, there is consequently no cause of distress-that because thousands of destitute females passively submit to all the horrors and privations of the factory system, under the present existing restrictions upon trade, rather

than encounter the moral degradations of a life of vice and infamy, there is no necessity for legislative attentionno scope for the exercise of philanthropy-no occasion for enlightened reform. Such is the argument of a certain class of economists, who have never troubled their heads about a scientific investigation of the matter, but who, for political objects, or through interested motives, have preferred to remain in the dark, rather than be enlightened, for fear that the truth would militate against their advancement as politicians, or take money out of their pockets as editors of newspapers, or as parties protected by the restrictive duties.

To say that these hapless victims of man's cupidity, confined within the dungeon-walls of factories, are to be excluded from legislative protection on account of that beautiful spirit of resig nation which carries them through the fiery ordeal without one audible murmur of discontent, is the same as saying that a man who had been accustomed to eat but one meal in twenty-four hours without repining, was not entitled to two; or that the very negro whose emancipation is so loudly cried for, was altogether unworthy of the boon of freedom, because he had been guilty of forbearance in not turning upon and murdering his master. This would be a refinement upon cruelty worthy of the darkest ages of error and feudalism.

We have no desire to exaggerate the existence of these evils:-we are well aware that in point of humane treatment, rate of wages, and moral restrictions, our factory system is far superior to that which is the shame and degradation of England:-we are also willing to acknowledge that there are occasionally startling instances of prosperity and happiness growing out of early initiation into these dens of toil and trouble: but it does not require a great deal of penetration to perceive that, notwithstanding these negative advantages, the principles of WHITE SLAVERY are gradually taking root in the very midst of us. The multitude of defective beings, with sallow complexions, emaciated forms, and stooping shoulders-with premature wrinkles and furtive glances, that are to be met at all our manufacturing places, tell of misery and degradation in language not to be mistaken.

The doctrine, that there are in the

United States a vast number of persons who cannot procure employment, has long been a favorite one with the restrictive party. If there be, however, any truth in the position, they may thank their own policy for it. Restrict ive laws, as we have already observed, retard the accumulation of capital; and as capital is the only source of affording employment to laborers, it is manifest that any measure which diminishes the ratio of accumulation, must have the effect of throwing people out of employment. To attempt to cure such an evil, therefore, by further restrictions, would only be making the matter worse; and would be as silly, as if the quack, who had brought his patient to death's door by debility from bleeding, should insist upon it that the way to cure him would be to apply the lancet again.

There is a class of writers, who, of late years, have undertaken a crusade against Adam Smith and his followers, averring that the modern school of political economy is based on erroneous principles, that the system of protective duties established by our ancestors was the consummation of human wisdom, and that it is not merely the right, but the duty, of a state to determine in what channels capital should flow, and toward what objects industry should be directed. The principal arguments adduced in favor of this antiquated theory are these: First, that a nation imports from a distance a manufactured commodity which it could make as cheap, or cheaper, at home, were the manufacture introduced there. Secondly, that as the introduction of such manufacture would be too expensive a project to be carried into effect by any private individual, the whole society might do so, through the expenditure for a few years of a portion of its revenue, much less than what an equal number of years succeeding them will return to it in the diminished cost of the article. Thirdly, that he, or they, who legislate for the society, embrace the apparent benefit, and by means of a small expenditure, effect an increase of the productive powers of the community. Fourthly, that in this the legislator acts in a manner that would be accounted prudence in a private person, who conducted any system of industry for his own emolument.

Now, the whole fallacy of those who support the restrictive system, is con

tained in these few sentences; for the existence of such a nation, importing commodities from a distance which it could make as cheap, or cheaper, at home, may fairly be questioned. Nor is the introduction of any manufacture to a position which nature has rendered peculiarly favorable to it, beyond the power of a private individual, or, at least, a body of individuals:-witness, for instance, the establishment of manufactures in New South Wales, in consequence of the discovery of coal in that colony; and that by individuals, who never thought of calling on the nation to defray the cost.

But it would not be very easy to count the expense to which the forced establishment of any manufacture would put a nation. Let us suppose, that in order to encourage the manufacture of stockings, cur government should place a high duty on their importation. Now, every purchaser loses the difference between the American and the English prices; but the manufacturer does not gain that amount, because the cost of production is greater to him than to the Englishman. The purchaser also loses in the inferiority of the article supplied; for forced manufactures, protected by monopoly, are not only dear, but bad, as was proved within our own memory by the English silk trade. The govern ment must lose, by the necessity of employing means to prevent smuggling. And finally, the improvement that is to remunerate all these losses is at best problematical; for no manufactory protected by a monopoly has ever yet improved. Protection and monopolies are not only evils, but they are evils that love to perpetuate themselves. To establish them is easy enough; but to remove them has been the most difficult task that modern statesmen have had to encounter.

Again-the supposition that those who legislate for the society embrace the apparent benefit, &c., is a rash and daring assumption, contradicted by daily experience. The legislator, in the first place, does not increase the productive powers of the community; he only gives them a new direction. If the manufactory be one less suited to his own country than that in which the manufacture was previously established, he gives them a wasteful direction. The article must, in the first instance, confessedly be produced at a greater

expense; and that expense operates as a tax on the productive powers of the nation, by checking the production of articles to exchange with the foreign manufacturing country. There is but

one request that manufacturers of any country should make to their government: it is that which was addressed to Colbert-"LAISSEZ NOUS FAIRE."

PUBLIC men often suffer great wrong in reference as well to their private as their public character and conduct, from the misrepresentations of their political adversaries, frequently aggravated by personal animosities. Individuals of a party who mean to be honest, and would not in word or thought intentionally do injustice to a human being, often believe, with a too ready credulity, the assertions of party presses, political leaders and personal enemies, thereby becoming accomplices in the infliction of injuries at which their own consciences, if properly instructed, would revolt with hor

ror.

The opinions imbibed by a large portion of mankind in reference to the temper and conduct of General Jack son in his personal relations, furnish a striking illustration of these truths. Multitudes there are, both in the Uni. ted States and other countries, who, having received their impressions with out due consideration, from presses and persons opposed to him, believe that distinguished man to be reckless of religious faith, if not of moral obligation, ferocious in temper, and in all the relations of life a tyrant. Such individuals will learn with astonishment, that this picture is all the reverse of truth; that the tone of Gen. Jackson's mind

during his Presidency was decidedly devout; that no man could be more kind and indulgent in all his private relations; and that if he be censurable on this score, it is for too much forbearance. With what pain he found himself compelled to give up his favorable opinion of old friends, and with what tenacity he clung to them, in many cases, after everybody else pronounced them venal and treacherous, was witnessed by those who were intimate with him during his administration. But without touching at present upon anything connected with his political course, I propose to give in the present and in some succeeding papers a few authentic anecdotes which will tend to correct the erroneous opinions entertained by many as to his religious impressions and imputed violence of temper.

Those who sat down with General Jackson at his private table to break bread, know with what fervor he uniformly invoked the blessings of Heaven upon the repast provided by its bounty. A stranger could not witness the scene without according to the venerable man before him, who thus bowed his grey head in humble supplication to the Giver of all good, a heart sincerely religious.

All will remember, that toward the close of his administration the General

was attacked by a bleeding at the lungs which threatened to be fatal. Nor will it be forgotten, that some of the party presses attributed this attack to a violent fit of passion, in the paroxysms of which they said he had ruptured a blood-vessel. What a contrast the real scene presented, I had an opportunity to learn from the mouth of an eye-witness. The cruel fabrication had reached the members of the President's family, and from the lips of Mrs. Jackson, the lady of the General's adopted son, rendered unusually eloquent by the indignation which lighted up her beautiful face, I heard the following narrative:

"Father," said she, " is in the habit, every night before he goes to bed, of calling me in to read to him a chapter in the Bible. On that night, having finished his business, he called me in to perform that service. I read to him as usual, and having finished the chapter, received from him an affectionate good-night and retired to my bedchamber, which was in an adjoining room. He then called the servant who usually attended on him in his chamber, and was undressing. Suddenly he called me, and entering the room I found him bleeding at the mouth. What produced the attack I know not; but certain it is, that so far from indulging in any outbreaks of temper, his mind was calm and devotional, seeking to close the business of the day by communion with heaven.

The practice of reading or listening to a chapter of Holy Writ and sending up fervent aspirations to Heaven every night before he retired to rest, Gen. Jackson brought with him into the Presidency. No man had a deeper sense of dependence on the Giver of all good, or a more sincere and earnest desire to avail himself of the wisdom which comes from on high, in the discharge of his arduous duties. But it cannot be doubted, that in his devotional fervor there was mingled a holy and never dying affection for his departed wife, whose presence was, in his susceptible imagination, as necessary an incident of Heaven as that of the angels.

A portrait of this dearest object of his earthly affections hung in his chamber. "Is that a good likeness?" said a lady to him in my presence. "Pretty good," said he, "but not so good as

this," taking a miniature from his bosom.

On another occasion, calling upon him on some urgent business, I was invited into his bed-chamber. I found him too ill to sit up. The curtains in front of his bed were open, and he lay with his head somewhat elevated on a full pillow. Opposite the foot of his bed, nearly touching the post, stood a little table, and on it was the miniature of Mrs. Jackson leaning against a small Bible and a Prayer Book which had been hers. It was evidently so placed that he might, as he lay, gaze upon the shadow of those loved features which had enraptured his youthful heart, and contemplate those virtues which, in old age, and even death, rendered them dear to the bosom of the hero and statesman beyond any other earthly object.

I was not then so thoroughly acquainted with Gen. Jackson as I afterward became; but on witnessing this scene, I said to myself, this must be a good man. None other could entertain so deep, so abiding an affection for a departed companion, however cherished while living. Love like this is all good, all heavenly, all divine, as nearly as anything on earth possibly can be; it cannot dwell in a bad heart; it cannot assimilate with a perverted mind.

I had never seen Mrs. Jackson; but from that moment I pronounced her a superior woman. None but a woman of surpassing virtues could so fix the affections of such a man. None other could maintain such a hold on such a mind, amidst the enjoyment of glory, the gratification of ambition, the cares of state, and never-ceasing excitements sufficient to overpower and swallow up the kindly affections of ordinary men. None other could occupy, in life and in death, so broad a space in the remembrance and affections of one who in devotion to his country never had a superior. And I could not but regret, that she had not lived, not so much to enjoy a signal triumph over her own and her husband's traducers, as to comfort, advise, and sustain her devoted companion in the midst of never-ceasing toils and vexations, the heartlessness of false friends, and the assaults of unrelenting enemies.

Who that visited the President's House during General Jackson's ad

ministration does not remember Jemmy O'Neal, the Irish doorkeeper? Jemmy was kind-hearted, but blunt in his manner; so much so on some occasions as to appear rude if not insulting. Often one might ring the bell time after time, and no Jemmy make his appearance. There was a particular cause for Jemmy's apparent rudeness and occasional absence.

Calling one day, upon business, I rang the bell repeatedly, but no doorkeeper appeared. As I had done before under like circumstances, I opened the door and walked up stairs to the President's office. There I found the General and Major Donelson. Presently the bell rang again, again, and again. Where can Jemmy be!" said the General. “Drunk, most likely,” replied Major Donelson. I then stated that I had not been able to raise him, though I had rung until I was tired, and that this was not the first occasion. Major Donelson then observed, that this difficulty was now of almost daily recurrence; that he had, on several occasions, found Jemmy in his room wholly unable to get to the door; that when not so disabled, his conduct towards visiters was often, from his peculiar situation, anything but polite or respectful; and he expressed the opinion in very decided terms, that a more

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suitable person should be entrusted with that duty. Well, well," said the General, "we cannot bear it any longer; tell Jemmy he must find a home elsewhere."

Again and again I called, and Jemmy still presented his rubicund face at the door, often in a plight not befitting his station. "How is this," said I one day to Major Donelson, "I heard the General tell you that Jemmy must be discharged." Yes," said the Major, "and that was the third time I had received such an order; but on each occasion Jemmy waited on the General in person, was exceedingly sorry for his fault, shed tears of repentance in abundance, promised to behave better in future if he could be forgiven this once, and never desisted until he obtained a promise that he should be tried a while longer."

And whoever was familiar at the White House, will remember Jemmy's red face and bluff voice at the door down to the end of General Jackson's administration, ever and anon repeating his fault, and as often by unfeigned repentance and distress extorting forgiveness from his kind-hearted master.

Can such traits of character belong to a tyrant or a bad man? All that is good in human nature answers, no.