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nourished Rome and her armies are occupied by oppressed and needy races, whom all the smiles of heaven and the bounties of the earth cannot tempt to strike a spade into the soil, farther than is requisite for a scanty supply of necessary food. On the contrary, establish the principle that property is safe, that a man is secure in the possession of his accumulated earnings, and he creates a paradise on a barren heath; alpine solitudes echo to the lowing of his herds; he builds up his dykes against the ocean, and cultivates a field beneath the level of its waves, and exposes his life fearlessly in sickly jungles and among ferocious savages. Establish the principle that his property is his own, and he seems almost willing to sport with its safety. He will trust it all in a single vessel, and stand calmly by while she unmoors for a voyage of circumnavigation around the globe. He knows that the sovereignty of his country accompanies it with a sort of earthly omnipresence, and guards it as vigilantly, in the loneliest island of the Antarctic sea, as though it were locked in his coffers at home. He is not afraid to send it out upon the common pathway of the ocean, for he knows that the sheltering wings of the law of nations will overshadow it there. He sleeps quietly, though all that he has is borne upon six inches of plank on the bosom of the unfathomed waters; for even if the tempest should bury it in the deep, he has assured himself against ruin, by the agency of those institutions which modern civilization has devised for the purpose of averaging the losses of individuals upon the mass.

III. It is usual to give the name of capital to those accumulations of property which are employed in carrying on the commercial, as well as the other business operations of the community. The remarks already made will enable us to judge, in some degree, of the reasonableness of those prejudices, which are occasionally awakened at the sound of this word. Capital, is property which a man has acquired by his industry, or has, under the law of the land, become possessed of in some other way; and which is invested by him in that form, and employed in that manner, which best suit his education, ability, and taste. No particular amount of property constitutes capital. In a highly prosperous community, the capital of one man, like the late Baron Rothschild, at London, or of Stephen Girard, at Philadelphia, may amount to eight or ten millions; the capital of his neighbor may not exceed as many dollars. In fact, one of these two extraordinary men, and the father of the other, passed from one extreme to the other in this scale of prosperity; and the same law which protected their little pittance at the outset, protected the millions amassed by their perseverance, industry, and talent.

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Considering capital as the mainspring of the business operations of civilized society as that which, diffused in proportionate masses, is the material on which enterprise works, and with which industry performs its wonders, equally necessary and in the same way necessary for the construction of a row-boat and an Indiaman, a pair of shoes and a rail-road- I have been at some loss to account for the odium which at times has been attempted to be cast on capitalists, as a class; and particularly for the contrast in which capital has been placed with labor, to the advantageous employment of which it is absolutely essential.

I have supposed that some part of this prejudice may arise from the traditions of other times, and the institutions of other countries. The roots of opinion run deep into the past. The great mass of property in Europe, at the present day, even in England, is landed property. This property was much of it wrested from its original owners, by the ancestors of its present possessors, who overran the countries with military violence, and despoiled the inhabitants of their possessions; or still worse, compelled them to labor as slaves, on the land they had once owned and tilled as free men. It is impossible, that an hereditary bitterness should not have sprung out of this relation, never to be mitigated, particularly where the political institutions of society remain upon a feudal basis. We know from history, that after the Norman invasion, the Saxon peasantry, reduced to slavery, were compelled to wear iron collars about their necks, like dogs, with the names of their masters inscribed upon them. At what subsequent period, from that time to this, has any thing occurred to alleviate the feelings growing out of these events? Such an origin of the great mass of the property, must place its proprietors in some such relation to the rest of the community, as that which exists between the Turks and Rayas, in the Ottoman empire, and may have contribu ted to produce an hereditary hostility on the part of the poor, toward the rich, among thousands who know not, historically, the origin of the feeling.

It is obvious, that the origin of our political communities, and the organization of society among us, furnish no basis for a prejudice of this kind against capital. Wealth, in this country, may be traced back to industry and frugality; the paths which lead to it, are open to all; the laws which protect it, are equal to all; and such is the joint operation of the law, and the customs of society, that the wheel of fortune is in constant revolution, and the poor in one generation, furnish the rich of the next. The rich man, who treats poverty with arrogance and contempt, tramples upon the ashes of his

father or his grandfather; the poor man, who nourishes feelings of unkindness and bitterness against wealth, makes war with the prospects of his children, and the order of things in which he lives.

A moment's consideration, will show the unreasonableness of a prejudice against capital, for it will show that it is the great instrument of the business movements of society. Without it, there can be no exercise on a large scale of the mechanic arts, no manufactures, no private improvements, no public enterprises of utility, no domestic exchanges, no foreign commerce. For all these purposes, a twofold use of capital is needed. It is necessary, that a great many persons should have a portion of capital ; as for instance, that the fisherman should have his boat; the husbandman, his farm, his buildings, his implements of husbandry, and his cattle; the mechanic, his shop, and his tools; the merchant, his stock in trade. But these small masses of capital, are not alone sufficient for the highest degree of prosperity. Larger accumulations are wanted to keep the smaller capitals in steady movement, and to circulate their products. If manufactures are to flourish, a very great outlay in buildings, fixtures, machinery, and power, is necessary. If internal intercourse is to diffuse its inestimable moral, social, and economical blessings through the land, canals, rail-roads, and steam-boats, are to be constructed at vast expense. To effect these objects, capital must go forth like a mighty genius, bidding the mountains to bow their heads, and the valleys to rise, the crooked places to be straight, and the rough places plain. If agriculture is to be perfected, costly experiments in husbandry must be instituted by those who are able to advance, and can afford to lose the funds which are required for the purpose. Commerce, on a large scale, cannot flourish without resources adequate to the construction of large vessels, and their outfit for long voyages, and the exchange of valuable cargoes. The eyes of the civilized world are intently fixed upon the experiments now making to navigate the Atlantic by steam. It is said that the Great Western was built and fitted out at an expense of near half a million of dollars. The success of the experiment will be not more a triumph of genius and of art, than of capital. The first attempts at the whale-fishery, in Massachusetts, were made from the South Shore and the island of Nantucket, by persons who went out in small boats, killed their whale, and returned the same day. This limited plan of operations, was suitable for the small demands of the infant population of New England. But the whales were soon driven from the coast; the population increased, and the demand for the product of the fisheries proportionably augmented. It became necessary to apply larger capitals to the business. Whale ships were now fitted out at considerable expense, which pursued this adventurous occupation from Greenland to Brazil. The enterprise thus manifested awoke the admiration of Europe, and is immortalized in the well known description, by Burke. But the business has grown, until the ancient fishing grounds have become the first stations on a modern whaling voyage; and capitals are now required sufficient to fit out a vessel for an absence of forty months, and a voyage of circumnavigation. Fifty thousand dollars are invested in a single vessel; she doubles Cape Horn, ranges from New South Shetland to the coasts of Japan, cruises in unexplored latitudes, stops for refreshment at islands before undiscovered, and on the basis, perhaps, of the capital of an individual house, in New Bedford or Nantucket, performs an exploit which, sixty or seventy years ago, was thought a great object to be effected by the resources of the British government. In this branch of business, a capital of twelve or fifteen million of dollars is invested. Its object is to furnish us a cheap and commodious light, for our winter evenings. The capitalist, it is true, desires an adequate interest on his investment; but he can only get this by selling his oil at a price at which the public are able and willing to buy it. The "overgrown capitalist," employed in this business, is an overgrown lamplighter. Before he can pocket his six per cent., he has trimmed the lamp of the cottager, who borrows an hour from evening to complete her day's labor, and has lighted the taper of the pale and thought-worn student, who is "out watching the bear," over some ancient volume.

In like manner the other great investments of capital-whatever selfish objects their proprietors may have-must, before that object can be attained, have been the means of supplying the demand of the people for some great article of necessity, convenience, or indulgence. This remark applies peculiarly to manufactures carried on by machinery. A great capital is invested in this form, though mostly in small amounts. Its owners, no doubt, seek a profitable return; but this they can attain in no other way than by furnishing the community with a manufactured article of great and extensive use. Strike out of being the capital invested in manufactures, and you lay upon society the burden of doing by hand all the work which was done by steam and water, by fire and steel; or it must forego the use of the articles manufactured. Each result would in some measure be produced. A much smaller quantity of manufactured articles would be consumed, that is, the community would be deprived of comforts they

now enjoy; and those used would be produced at greater cost by manual labor. In other words, fewer people would be sustained, and those less comfortably and at greater expense. When we hear persons condemning accumulations of capital employed in manufactures, we cannot help saying to ourselves, is it possible that any rational man can desire to stop those busy wheels, to paralyze those iron arms, to arrest that falling stream, which works while it babbles? What is your object? Do you wish wholly to deprive society of the fruit of the industry of these inanimate but untiring laborers? Or do you wish to lay on aching human shoulders the burdens which are so lightly borne by these patient metallic giants? Look at Lowell. Behold the palaces of her industry side by side with her churches and her school-houses, the long lines of her shops and warehouses, her streets filled with the comfortable abodes of an enterprising, industrious, and intelligent population. See her fiery Sampsons roaring along her railroad with thirty laden cars in their train. Look at her watery Goliahs, not wielding a weaver's beam like him of old, but giving motion to hundreds and thousands of spindles and looms. Twenty years ago, and two or three poor farms occupied the entire space within the boundaries of Lowell. Not more visibly, I had almost said not more rapidly, was the palace of Alladin, in the Arabian tales, constructed by the genius of the lamp, than this noble city of the arts has been built by the genius of capital. This capital, it is true, seeks a moderate interest on the investment; but it is by furnishing to all who desire it the cheapest garment ever worn by civilized man. To denounce the capital which has been the agent of this wonderful and beneficent creation, to wage war with a system which has spread and is spreading plenty throughout the country, what is it but to play in real life the part of the malignant sorcerer in the same eastern tale, who, potent only for mischief, utters the baleful spell which breaks the charm, heaves the mighty pillars of the palace from their foundation, converts the fruitful gardens back to their native sterility, and heaps the abodes of life and happiness with silent and desolate ruins?

It is hardly possible to realize the effects on human comfort of the application of capital to the arts of life. We can fully do this, only by making some inquiry into the mode of living in civilized countries in the middle ages. The following brief notices, from Mr. Hallam's learned and judicious work, may give us some distinct ideas on the subject. Up to the time of Queen Elizabeth in England, the houses of the farmers in that country consisted of but one story and one room. They had no chimnies. The fire was kindled on a hearth of clay in the centre, and the smoke found its way out through an aperture in the roof, at the door, and the openings at the side for air and light. The domestic animals -even oxen-were received under the same roof with their owners. Glass windows were unknown, except in a few lordly mansions, and in them they were regarded as moveable furniture. When the dukes of Northumberland left Alnwick castle to come to London for the winter, the few glass windows, which formed one of the luxuries of the castle, were carefully taken out and laid away, perhaps carried to London, to adorn the city residence. The walls of good houses were neither wainscoted nor plastered. In the houses of the nobility the nakedness of the walls was covered by hangings of coarse cloth. Beds were a rare luxury. A very wealthy individual would have one or two in his house: rugs and skins laid upon the floor were the substitute. Neither books nor pictures formed any part of the furniture of a dwelling in the middle ages; as printing and engraving were wholly unknown, and painting but little practised. A few inventories of furniture, dating from the fifteenth century, are preserved. They afford a striking evidence of the want of comfort and accommodation in articles accounted by us among the necessaries of life. In the schedule of the furniture of a Signor Contarini, a rich Venetian merchant living in London in 1481, no chairs nor looking-glasses are named. Carpets were unknown at the same period: their place was supplied by straw and rushes, even in the presence chamber of the sovereign. Skipton castle, the principal residence of the Earls of Cumberland, was deemed amply provided in having eight beds, but had neither chairs, glasses, nor carpets. The silver plate of Mr. Fermor, a wealthy country gentleman at Easton, in the sixteenth century, consisted of sixteen spoons, and a few goblets and ale-pots. Some valuations of stock-in-trade in England, from the beginning of the fourteenth century, have been preserved. A carpenter's consisted of five tools, the whole valued at a shilling; a tanner's, on the other hand, amounted to near ten pounds, ten times greater than any other, -tanners being at that period the principal tradesmen, as almost all articles of dress for men were made of leather.

We need but contrast the state of things in our own time with that which is indicated in these facts, to perceive the all-important influence on human comfort of the accumulation of capital, and its employment in the useful arts of life. As it is out of the question for the government to invest the public funds in the branches of industry necessary to supply the customary wants of men, it follows that this must be done by

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private resources and enterprise. The necessary consequence is, that the large capital required for these operations must be furnished by the contributions of individuals, each possessing a portion of the stock, or by a single proprietor.

It is rather remarkable that the odium, of which all capital in large masses has sometimes been the subject, should be directed more against the former, namely, jointstock companies,-than against large individual capitals. This, however, appears to be the fact. Some attempts have been made to organize public sentiment against associated wealth, as it has been called, without reflecting, as it would seem, that these associations are the only means by which persons of moderate property are enabled to share the profits of large investments. Were it not for these associations in this country, no pursuit could be carried on, except those within the reach of individual resources; and none but very rich persons would be able to follow those branches of industry, which now diffuse their benefits among persons of moderate fortune. In which part of this alternative a conformity with the genius of our political institutions exists, need not be labored.

But whether the masses of capital necessary to carry on the great operations of trade, are derived from the association of several, or from the exclusive resources of one, it is plain that the interest of the capital, however formed, is identical with that of the community. Nobody hoards, every thing is invested or employed, and directly or indirectly, is the basis of business operations.

It is true that when one man uses the capital of another, he is expected to pay something for this privilege. But there is nothing unjust or unreasonable in this. It is inherent in the idea of property. It would not be property, if I could take it from you and use it as my own without compensation. That simple word, it is mine, carries with it the whole theory of property and its rights. If my neighbor has saved his earnings, and built him a house with it, and I ask his leave to go and live in it, I ought in justice to pay him for the use of his house. If, instead of using his money to build a house in which he permits me to live, he loans me his money, with which I build a house for myself, it is equally just that I should pay him for the use of his money. It is his, not mine. If he allows me to use the fruit of his labor or skill, I ought to pay him for that use, as I should pay him if he came and wrought for me with his hands. This is the whole doctrine of interest. In a prosperous community, capital can be made to produce a greater return than the rate of interest fixed by law. The merchant who employs the whole of his capital in his own enterprises, and takes all the profit to himself, is commonly regarded as a useful citizen; it would seem unreasonable to look with a prejudiced eye upon the capitalist, who allows all the profits of the business to accrue to others, asking only legal interest for his money, which they have employed.

Without, however, pursuing this comparison among different classes of capitalists, let us farther endeavor, by an example, to illustrate the question, whether they ought in any view to be regarded as exerting an unfriendly influence on the labors of the community. Take, for instance, such a case as Mr. Stephen Girard, a great capitalist, who united in his person the merchant and the banker, and who may be spoken of plainly, as he has passed away. the solitary man- - and left no one to be grieved with the freedoms which are taken with his memory. This remarkable person began life without a farthing, and left behind him a property, whose actual value amounted to seven or eight millions of dollars, and this acquired in the latter half of his life. He told me himself, that at the age of forty, his circumstances were so narrow that he was employed as the commander of his own sloop, engaged in the coasting trade between New York or Philadelphia and New Orleans; adding, that on a certain occasion, he was forty-five days in working his way up from the Balize to the city. Few persons, I believe, enjoyed less personal popularity in the community in which he lived, and to which he bequeathed his princely fortune. If this proceeded from defects of personal character, it is a topic which we have no occasion to discuss here. We are authorized only to speak of the effect upon the public welfare of the accumulation of such a fortune in one man's hands. While I am far from saying that it might not have been abused by being made the instrument of a corrupt and dangerous influence in the community, I have never heard that it was so abused by Mr. Girard; and, on general principles, it may perhaps be safely said, that the class of men qualified to amass large fortunes by perseverance and exclusive devotion to business, by frugality and thrift, are not at all likely to apply their wealth to ambitious or corrupt designs. As to the effect in all other points of view, I confess I see nothing but public benefit in such a capital, managed with unrelaxing economy; one half judiciously employed by the proprietor himself in commerce; the other half loaned to the business community. What better use could have been made of it? Will it be said, divide it equally among the community; give each individual in the United States a share? It would have amounted to half a dollar each for man, woman, and child; and, of course, might as well have been sunk in the

middle of the sea. Such a distribution would have been another name for annihilation. How many ships would have furled their sails, how many warehouses would have closed their shutters, how many wheels, heavily laden with the products of industry, would have stood still, how many families would have been reduced to want, and without any advantage resulting from the distribution!

Let me not be misunderstood. I regard equality of condition and fortune as the happiest state of society, and those political institutions as immeasurably the wisest and best, which tend to produce it. All laws which have for their object to perpetuate large estates, and transmit them from generation to generation, are at war with the constitution of man. Providence has written a statute of distributions on the face of nature and the heart of man; and whenever its provisions are contravened by political enactments, a righteous conjuration to subvert them springs up in the very elements of our being. My proposition is only, that, in a country like this, where the laws forbid hereditary transmission, and encourage equality of fortune, accumulations of capital, made by industry, enterprise, and prudence, employed in active investments, without ministering to extravagance and luxury, are beneficial to the public. Their possessor becomes, whether he wills it or not, the steward of others; not merely, as in Mr. Girard's case, because he may destine a colossal fortune after his decease for public objects, but because, while he lives, every dollar of it must be employed in giving life to industry, and employment to labor. Had Mr. Girard lived in a fashionable part of the city, in a magnificent house; had he surrounded himself with a troop of livered domestics; had he dazzled the passers by with his splendid equipages, and spread a sumptuous table for his "dear five hundred friends," he would no doubt have been a more popular man. But in my apprehension he appears to far greater advantage, as a citizen and a patriot, in his modest dwelling and plain garb, appropriating to his personal wants the smallest pittance from his princely income; living to the last in the dark and narrow street in which he made his fortune, and when he died, bequeathing it for the education of orphan children. For the public, I do not know that he could have done better; of all the men in the world, he probably derived the least enjoyment from his property himself.

IV. I have left myself scarce any room to speak on the subject of credit. The legitimate province of credit is to facilitate and to diffuse the use of capital, and not to create it. I make this remark with care, because views prevail on this subject exaggerated and even false; which, carried into the banking system, have done infinite mischief. I have no wish whatever to depreciate the importance of credit. It has done wonders for this country. It has promoted public and private prosperity; built cities, cleared wildernesses, and bound the remotest parts of the continent together with chains of iron and gold. These are wonders, but not miracles; these effects Trust and confidence are not gold and silver; have been produced not without causes. they command capital, but they do not create it. A merchant in active business has a capital of twenty thousand dollars; his credit is good; he borrows as much more; but let him not think he has doubled his capital. He has done so only in a very limited He doubles the sum on which for a time he trades; but he has to pay back the borrowed capital with interest; and that, whether his business has been prosperous or adverse. Still, I am not disposed to deny that, with extreme prudence and good management, the benefit to the individual of such an application of credit is great; and the when individuals are benefitted, the public is benefitted. But no capital has been created. Nothing has been added to the pre-existing stock. It was in being fruit of former accumulation. If he had not borrowed it, it might have been used by its owner in some other way. What the public gains, is the superior activity that is given to business by bringing more persons, with a greater amount and variety of talent, into action.

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These benefits, public and private, are not without some counterbalancing risks; and with the enterprising habits and ardent temperament of our countrymen, I should deem the formation of sound and sober views on the subject of credit, one of the most desirable portions of the young merchant's education. The eagerness to accumulate wealth by trading on credit, is the disease of the age and country in which we live. Something of the solidity of our character and purity of our name has been sacrificed to it. Let us hope that the recent embarrassments of the commercial world will have a salutary influence in repressing this eagerness. The merchants of the country have covered themselves with lasting honor abroad, by the heroic fidelity with which they have, at vast sacrifices, fulfilled their obligations. Let us hope that hereafter they will keep themselves more beyond the reach of the fluctuations in business and the vicissitudes of affairs.

But it is time to close these general reflections. We live at a period when the commerce of the world seems touching a new era; a development of energies before un

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