§ 12. Peace and harmony are the attendants of growing commerce. Increase of the trading power brings with it discord, war, and waste; and that such is the tendency of the policy of the American Union, is shown in the fact, that its Northern and Southern portions become from year to year more alienated from each other. Half a century since, the men of Virginia and those of Massachusetts united for the exclusion of slavery from the territories of the Union; now, the plains of Kansas are wet with the blood of men engaged in civil war, for the determination of the question whether the vast regions of the West shall, or shall not, be polluted by the maintenance of human bondage. That war is a necessary consequence of the constant exhaustion of the soil, and consequent dispersion of men. So long as artificial restraints* compelled the observance of certain lines of march, peace continued to be maintained, because the migrating hosts of the North and the South were always moving in parallel lines, and therefore did not touch each other. Those restraints are now, and probably for ever, removed; and the result is seen in a contest for the possession of land that has of itself no value whatsoever, and that would, for half a century to come, have remained unoccupied, had not the policy of the country tended towards the impoverishment of the soil of the older States, and of the men by whom it was owned and cultivated.

§ 13. That the process of demoralization and decomposition is in rapid progress, none can doubt. Political corruption is becoming almost universal, and judicial corruption has become so great that decisions of the bench are ceasing to command respect. Civil war on the plains of Kansas is accompanied by a total suspension of the powers of the State government in California, and of the Federal one in the territory west of Kansas; while throughout the whole Indian country, wars are gotten up for the sole and exclusive purpose of finding profitable employment for wandering whites, at the expense of the poor savage on the one

dares as much as it is told, and no more. Many nations have lived happily under it, and more will, for comparatively few are fit for self-government; indeed, when administered in an intelligent and benevolent spirit, an absolute rule is free from many inconveniences that are inherent in constitutional government."- Morning Post.

The great Ordinance of 1787, and the Missouri Compromise.

hand, and of the Federal treasury on the other. Anarchy approaches, and from year to year her steps are hastened. Things which ten years since would have been deemed impossible, have now become mere incidents in the chapter which records the current history; and, without a change of policy the year 1866 will show a decline as great, when compared with 1856, as does the latter when placed by the side of 1846. Like the pear, the society that once boasted of its Washington, its Franklin, and its Jefferson, has decayed before it has ripened.

Local action tends in a contrary direction, but central action, more powerful, neutralizes all the advantages that should thence result. The one builds school-houses and pays teachers; but the other prohibits that diversification of the pursuits of men, which is required for the development of the various faculties of which the society is composed. *- The one builds churches, but the other expels the population and diminishes the fund required for payment of the teachers.-The one would develop the powers of the earth, and thus augment the wealth of man. The other closes mines and furnaces, and reduces men to dependence on the unas

*The records of the Patent Office bear witness to the effects of general education in the development of mechanical ingenuity in the American people. Nowhere in the world does it so much exist; and yet, in some of the most important departments of manufacture, they are now nearly stationary, while in others they make but little progress. But a few years since, Germany sent to Massachusetts for machinery for the manufacture of woollen cloth; and yet there is now scarcely a yard of broadcloth made within the limits of the Union. Many of the most important improvements in the cotton manufacture are American in their origin; and yet the quantity of cotton-wool now consumed little, if at all, exceeds that which was required eight years since. So, too, is it with silk, flax, and iron. In the last ten years the population has grown to the extent of eight millions; and yet the number of persons engaged in all these principal departments of manufac ture is not now greater than it was then, The whole increase is, therefore, forced into agriculture or trade. The same process, however, keeps down agriculture preventing its development into a science, and keeping it at a level below the mind that has been developed in the schools. The whole mental capacity of the country is, therefore, forced into the operations of buying and selling words, or things; and hence it is that the supply of shopkeepers, elerks, lawyers, doctors, and speculators of every kind, is so greatly in excess of the demand. The number of producers grows slowly, but there is a most rapid increase in the number of middlemen, who are to be supported out of the labor of those who do produce. The effect of this is seen in the great increase of crime, and in the reckless spirit which prompts to constant interference with the rights of other people both abroad and at home. The power to benefit the world increases with the development of intellect, but the power to injure it grows with the same rapidity. It is in this latter direction that American mind now tends, and for the reason that it is forbidden to move in the opposite one.

sisted force of the human hand. The one seeks to bring the natural forces to the aid of man, and thus, by help of mind, to equalize those who differ in physical power. The other looks to the perpetuation of inequality by compelling dependence on muscular force. The one tends to give the labor of the present an increased control over the accumulations of the past; the other, to make the laborer an instrument in the hands of the capitalist.. The one would maintain the rights of the people and of the States. The other regards the Executive veto as being the palladium of freedom, and denies the right of the States to determine whether they will sanction the existence of slavery upon their soil.—The good and evil principles, decentralization and centralization, are thus engaged in a perpetual conflict with each other, and hence the extraordinary "contrasts" presented to view on an examination of the movement of American society. At brief and distant intervals the former obtains control, but, as a rule, the latter increases in strength and power; and with every stage of its progress, the corruption becomes more complete extending itself

to every relation of life, and threatening, if not speedily arrested, to furnish conclusive evidence of the incapacity of man for the exercise of the rights, and the performance of the duties, of selfgovernment.

"The ruin or prosperity of a state depends," says Junius, “so much upon the administration of its government, that to be acquainted with the merit of a ministry we need only observe the condition of the people. If," as he continues, "we see them obedient to the laws, prosperous in their industry, united at home and respected abroad, we may reasonably presume that their affairs are conducted by men of experience, abilities, and virtue. If, on the contrary, we see a universal spirit of distrust and dissatisfaction, a rapid decay of trade, dissensions in all parts of the empire, and a total loss of respect in the eyes of foreign powers, we may pronounce, without hesitation, that the government of that country is weak, distracted, and corrupt."

The first of the pictures here presented exhibits the state of the American Union at the close of the war in 1815; again in 1834, at the date of the repeal of the protective tariff of 1828; and again in 1846, when the act of 1842 ceased to be the law of the land. The second is found on an examination of the condi

tion of the country in the period from 1818 to 1824, when proter tion had ceased, and when the legislatures of numerous States had found themselves compelled to stay the action of the laws for the collection of debts; again in 1841-2, when "stay laws" were again resorted to, and when the Federal government was nearly bankrupt; and, lastly, at the present period, when there reigns "a universal spirit of distrust and dissatisfaction;" when there are "dissensions in every part of the empire ;" and when the 'respect of other powers" has so nearly ceased to exist.

course

§ 14. The more perfect the form of the ship, the more rapid will be her passage through the water, and the more certainly and speedily will she, under proper guidance, reach her destined port. The more rapid and complete, however, will be her destruction should her pilot run her upon the rocks that lie in her the reaction then produced being in the direct ratio of her previous action. So is it with nations. The higher their organization the more rapid is the movement of society, and the more instant is the shock that attends a stoppage in the circulation. The passage of an invading army through Peru, or Mexico, produces little effect beyond a small destruction of life and property; but a similar event in England would cause the closing of factories, the stoppage of mills and furnaces, the abandonment of mines, the dispersion of the people, and the suspension of all the machinery of local government. The power of recuperation exists, however, in the same degree the recovery from the effects of war in countries like France or England being much more rapid than it can be where the circulation of society is languid, and where the waste of property or of population can slowly, if even at all, be repaired.

In no country of the world do the effects of change become so promptly obvious as in the United States; and for the reason, that the political organization being there more natural than in any other the tendency to rapidity of circulation is so very great. Universal instruction throughout the northern portion of the Union tends to the production of great mental activity; and, whatever may be the direction in which the Ship of State is guided, the movement towards the rocks on the one hand, or the haven on the other, is there most rapid. Such being the case, it is easy to

account for the sudden and extraordinary changes that are there exhibited, and that so much surprise the people of other lands. In the decade that followed the passage of the tariff of 1824, there was effected a greater change than had ever before been witnessed in any country-the people having passed from a state of poverty to one of wealth-the country having become so attractive as to cause in the following years a vast increase of immigration and the government having passed from a condition in which it required, for its support, to borrow money, to one in which the public debt having been extinguished it became necessary to emancipate from duty, all the commodities that did not enter into competition with those produced at home. Nevertheless, but seven years later, the people and the government, both, were bankrupt; the circulation of society had almost stopped; and pauperism, to an extent that was alarming, prevailed throughout the country. The cause of this was to be found in the fact that protection had been abandoned. Again, in 1842, the system was changed; and, before the close of the first five years, the whole appearance of the country was changed -the circulation of society having become rapid, the credit of the people and the government having been restored, and the country having once more been rendered so attractive as to cause a large increase of immigration. Again, at the close of 1846, was the system changed-protection being then abandoned, and free trade being then again inaugurated into power; and now, at the close of the first decade, we witness a decline more rapid, and more pervading, than is recorded in the history of any country of the world.

§ 15. He would have been regarded as a false prophet who, ten years since, should have predicted

That, at the close of a single decade, the regular expenditure of the Federal government, in a time of peace, would reach sixty millions of dollars, or five times as much as it had been thirty years before:

That the recipients of this large amount, whether contractors, clerks, or postmasters, would be held liable for the payment of a formal and regular assessment, to be applied to the maintenance VOL. II.-17