5 LETTERS ΤΟ THE PRESIDENT, ON THE FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC POLICY OF THE UNION, AND ITS EFFECTS, AS EXHIBITED IN THE CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE AND THE STATE. BY H. C. CAREY. PHILADELPHIA: M. POLOCK, No. 406 COMMERCE ST. LONDON:-TRÜBNER & CO. PARIS:-GUILLAUMIN & CO. Econ 413,4, 35 HARVARD COLLEGE LIBRARY GRAD JATE SCHOOL OF Jan 22, 1926 CONTENTS. PAGE II. III. - - Historical sketch of the Union, from the peace of 1783, to Of banking, in the Union, for the half century which fọl- Of banking, in the last five-and-twenty years IV. Phenomena offered for consideration, by the Union, at the V. Evidences of material, moral, and political deterioration.. 24 VI. - Phenomena of advancing and declining civilization......... 81 VIII. IX. - Growing dependence of the planter................................................................................ XI.- Decline in the power to maintain commerce .................. 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 Those metals go from the countries that have little com- 79 XXI.—Why it is, that protection is required....... XXII. Of the British system, and its effects upon the planters XXIII. Of the policy of France, and its effects, at home and XXIV.-Commerce grows by aid of the French system, and de- XXV.-Power to maintain commerce with foreign nations grows with the growth of domestic commerce...................................................... 144 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 |