CONTENTS.

PAGE

LETTER I. — Historical sketch of the Union, from the peace of 1783, to

II.

-

-

the present time

Of banking, in the Union, for the half century which fol-
lowed the peace of 1783

III.— Of banking, in the last five-and-twenty years

8

................ 13

IV. -Phenomena offered for consideration, by the Union, at the

present time

18

V. - Evidences of material, moral, and political deterioration.. 24

VI.-Phenomena of advancing and declining civilization......... 81

Growing dependence of the American farmer on the dis-

tant market-its effects.......

35

VIII.

-

Growing dependence of the planter.......................................... ..................................

40

IX. - Decline in the power of the products of the earth, to com-

mand finished commodities in exchange..........

X.-Waste of power, throughout the Union, and consequent

exhaustion of the soil............................................................................................................

45

50

XI. Decline in the power to maintain commerce ...................................................... 57

-

58

XII. - The sort of free trade that is really required.................. 63

XIII.Policy of the Federal government in reference to the cur-

– The precious metals the great instruments of association, 74

-

XIV.

XV. -Those metals go from the countries that have little com-

merce, to those, in which employments are diversi-

-

fied, and in which commerce is great...

79

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LETTER XVI. —Influence of banks, and bank notes, on the supply of

XVII. - How the policy of the Union affects the shipping in-

87

terest

94

XVIII. -Increasing difficulty of obtaining efficient means of

transportation.........

99

XIX. - Increasing charge for the use of money..................... 105

XX. - Causes of the growing difficulty of accumulation......... 113

XXI.—Why it is, that protection is required.............

120

-Of the British system, and its effects upon the planters

and farmers of the world...................

126

-Of the policy of France, and its effects, at home and

abroad

131

XXIV.-Commerce grows by aid of the French system, and de-

clines under the British one................................................................................................... 139

XXV.-Power to maintain commerce with foreign nations grows

with the growth of domestic commerce................... 144

XXVI. - Harmony of all real and permanent international in-

terests.......

148

XXVII. - Decline, throughout the Union, in the power to main-

tain the local institutions

153

LETTERS

TO THE

PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.

LETTER FIRST.

SIR-In common with a large portion of our fellow-citizens, I have looked with much anxiety for the appearance of your Message hoping for some suggestions tending towards the relief of the community, from the accumulated evils under which it now so severely suffers. In this, however, I have been disappointed, having found therein, only the assurance, that, while the government "cannot fail deeply to sympathize" with the people in their distresses, it is wholly "without the power to extend relief" the cause of difficulty being to be found in the vicious action of the local institutions, which are beyond the reach of any action of the central government. For more than forty years, as we are here assured, the history of the country has been one of "extravagant expansions in the business of the country, followed by ruinous contractions. At successive intervals," as you continue to say, "the best and most enterprising men have been tempted to their ruin by excessive bank loans of mere paper credit, exciting them to extravagant importations of foreign goods, wild speculations, and ruinous and demoralizing stock-gambling. When the crisis arrives, as arrive it must, the banks can extend no relief to the people. In a vain struggle to redeem their liabilities in specie, they are compelled to contract their loans and their issues ; and, at last, in the hour of distress, when their assistance is most needed, they and their debtors together sink into insolvency."

For all these difficulties, we are, as you have here informed your constituents, indebted to the excess of power in the States. "The framers of the Constitution," in your opinion, having given

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