Full text of The Merchants' Magazine and Commercial Review : May 1840, Vol. II, No. V

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M E R C H A N T S ’ MAGAZINE
M A Y ,

A

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1 8 4 0.

I .— D O M E S T IC IN D U S T R Y .

T he progress o f civilized nations lias been impressed with three dis­
tinct and strongly marked epochs. The first may be considered the era
o f the fine arts, commencing with the period when Greece was in its
full glory, and ending with the downfall o f the Roman Empire. The
minds o f men, at that time, appear to have been turned less to produc­
tive industry, the establishment o f general comfort, and the diffusion o f
useful knowledge, than to the arts o f luxury, which tended rather to be­
nefit the few than the many. Painting, sculpture, architecture, litera­
ture, poetry, and eloquence, flourished in their full meridian under the
patronage o f the state. Poets were encouraged to recite their produc­
tions before the people, and were invested with the laurel crown, as a
meed o f popular applause. Orators were upborne by the tide o f jiublic favor, and received the reward o f their exertions in the thunders o f
an acclaiming populace. The chisel o f the sculptor was endowed with
new life, and awoke from their marble beds the almost breathing forms
o f the most perfect statuary. Fabius, the admiration o f all times, arose
under the fostering hand o f taste. Y et, amid this luxury and refinement,
the utmost ignorance prevailed. The minds o f men were pressed down
by childish superstition. Barbarous forms o f amusement stamped the
character o f the people with what appears to us to be a sort o f savage
cast, and the most perfect models o f physical man were slaughtered to
make a Roman holiday. Y et the monuments o f that period which have
come down to us, furnish conclusive evidence that, notwithstanding the
amount o f popular ignorance, superstition, and barbarity, which then pre­
vailed, there existed a taste in literature and the fine arts which has
marked that epoch as the classic age. W hat architectural forms o f mo­
dern invention equal the exquisite proportions and finish o f the Coliseum
or the Parthenon 1— edifices which cannot fail to convince us, that just to
the extent in which we depart from them as models o f form, we leave
the true principles o f architectural taste. W hat refinement o f m odem
taste has ever exceeded the elaborate beauty o f the vases and other doV O L . II. — n o . v.
45




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mestic utensils which we now dig from the ruins o f Herculaneum and
P om peii 1 W hat modern art does not shrink hack discouraged, even in
its attempt to vie with the statues o f the Venus and the A pollo which
now stand in the temple o f the Vatican 1 Or, if we turn to literature and
eloquence, what more perfect models o f poetry, oratory, history, philo­
sophy, and rhetoric, do we find, than in the works o f H om er and D e ­
mosthenes, o f Livy and Tacitus, and the orations as well as the philo­
sophical treatises o f Tully, concerning government, oratory, friendship,
duty, and old a g e'!— works which are taught as textbooks in our schools,
and without a knowledge o f which the education o f our youth is not
considered to be complete.
The next epoch appears to us to be the age o f political servitude,
commencing with the introduction o f chivalry into Great Britain, and
extending through that night o f a thousand years— the dark ages. D u ­
ring the greater part o f that period, the energies o f the great bulk o f
mankind appear to have been paralyzed, for the mass were chained as
serfs to the soil, and the feudal system kept down their productive power.
Books were confined to written parchments, and knowledge was de­
posited in the cloisters o f monks. The tenants o f the land were a sort
o f realty, transferable with its property, and burdened with services,
and fines, and amercements, and bound in allegiance to their lords.
T he political pow er was vested to some extent in the monarch, but to
a far greater degree in the haughty, stalwart, and armor-cased knights,
whose pow er frowned upon the peasantry from the Gothic battlements
o f their castles, — the men who, with noble and chivalrous, though some­
what barbarous traits, and great physical power, descended from time
to time through their massive gates to avenge the insults given to the
fair, or to punish any aggression upon their chartered rights. In such a
state o f things, the pow er o f the rulers without much enlightenment was
every thing, and the people were nothing. The land was divided and
granted out to titled holders for actual or professed services. W ith all
the elements o f knowledge in comparative chaos, in that age, without
unity o f action or motive for improvement, the vessel o f state rolled
heavily along upon the black waves, like a ship at midnight under a star­
less sky without a compass or a helm. Little was at that time done for
the great cause o f human improvement. W hat motive existed in the
minds o f those who wielded all the power o f the government to alter
that condition o f things 1 W h at means o f amelioration were proposed by
the great bulk o f the people, chained as slaves to the soil, and groping
in ignorance under the combined action o f the church and the state.
The consequences o f the political condition o f society were such as
might have been expected. Comparatively little was done for the ad­
vancement o f civilization and the arts. Immense wastes were reserved
as hunting grounds, and the soil was cultivated only so far as was re­
quired for the support o f the inhabitants. The morals o f the people,
and the arts, were neglected. E ven the laws bore the badges o f vice,
for they encouraged it; and although we are now shown the Gothic cas­
tles in which these knights o f feudal times lived, with the jackdaws
hovering around their towers, and though we still view the gigantic coats
o f mail which they wore, yet these have come down to us only as the re­
lics o f arbitrary power, vice, ignorance, and superstition.
Bacon, by his system o f right reasoning, led the way to the establish­




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355

ment o f the present age, which may be considered the age o f mechanical
philosophy, o f general physical comfort, and productive industry. The
minds o f men, from that time, aided by inventions in the arts, have been
urged forward step by step, to vigorous and practical action for the
general good. B y the agency o f successive political revolutions, the ele­
ments o f society are gradually working themselves clear. The energies
o f men which were before devoted to the mere arts o f luxury, to the
painting o f pictures and the sculpturing o f statues, the creation o f ediiices for the support o f power and pride, or to the upholding o f baronial
pomp, are beginning to be devoted to the good o f the mass. The mari­
ner’s compass has sent the ships, which before clung trembling to the
coast, fearless across the ocean with their rich freights, and made every
sea a beaten highway. The art o f printing has diffused abroad, in vari­
ous forms, from the penny newspaper to the luxurious quarto, the means
o f knowledge. P ow er has been gradually stealing from the few to the
many. Benevolence, with its snow white banner, has traversed all climes.
Chemistry has gone down from the desk o f the schools to labor with the
husbandman, enabling him to quadruple his production— moulded from
the sand on which we tread a transparent medium, through which we
can discover myriads o f insects in a drop o f water which are impercepti­
ble to the naked eye, or explore the globes o f heaven. Philosophy
has measured the tracks o f the planets, and leaving the cloister, teaches
the mechanic the qualities o f matter, and the economy o f physical power.
Geometry constructs the fortification, and builds iron roads across the
land. The water is manacled like a slave, and made to w ork its own
way to the sea. The air is forced to propel us across space, to lift the
water for our use, and to assist us in war. Gunpowder enables us to
destroy massive fabrics in a single day, which were impregnable to the
battle axes and javelins o f the past. Machinery, in its various and com ­
plex forms, has almost superseded the use o f human hands, and performs
the labor o f almost all the arts, giving us the pow er to confine within the
narrow compass o f the signet o f a finger ring the mechanism o f a watch
which measures time with the utmost accuracy, to imitate the most ex­
quisite music and motions o f singing birds and the minutest insects, or
to command a momentum o f a thousand horse power. A nd last o f all,
comes coughing or splashing on, the powerful agency o f steam, binding
together states with iron bars, ascending rivers, and crossing oceans, re­
gardless o f winds and waves.
W e propose in this paper to enter into a somewhat enlarged discussion
o f the character o f this productive labor, or domestic industry, in the Uni­
ted States. W e use the term, domestic industry,in abroad sense; namely,
that physical pow er which should be exerted in this country, producing the
materiel o f value, or which moulds it into a different form, either for
consumption or exportation. Fertility o f soil, navigable advantages, hy­
draulic power, climate, and proximity to valuable markets, all go to
make up the natural resources o f a nation, although the character o f the
population has a much stronger bearing upon the condition o f a country;
and it is equally clear that the same amount o f physical force applied
upon a fertile soil, will yield a greater measure o f productive value than
the same labor exerted upon a barren one.
W e take the ground that our republic is not equalled in its capacity
for production, by any tract o f territory o f equal extent on the face o f




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\

the globe, whether we consider its magnitude, its resources, or its geo­
graphical position.
Our national domain, it is well known, extends
from east to west a distance o f three thousand miles, and from north to
south seventeen hundred, embracing an area o f about two millions o f
square miles, a larger tract than is included within the jurisdiction o f
any government, occupying one twenty-fifth part o f the soil on the face
o f the earth. This soil, although various in its quality, is in the greater
part productive, spreading out no sandy deserts or barren ridges o f any
great extent. Running through various degrees o f latitude, and washed
on both sides by oceans, it possesses a climate which is favorable to the
growth o f all necessary articles o f food; yielding the grains, plants, and
fruits o f the colder regions, as well as o f the tropics. W heat, com , oats,
potatoes, rye, tar, pitch, turpentine, hemp, flax, cotton, sugar, tobacco,
and all the vegetables yielded in the same latitude, and which are neces­
sary to the support o f animal life, or which are required in manufactures,
may be gathered in the greatest abundance, and constitute its staple pro­
ducts. Its mountains and valleys abound in marble and granite, iron,
copper, gold, lead, coal, and salt, besides many other minerals o f scarcely
less value. The eastern portion o f the country bordering the Atlantic,
although less productive, and more broken than the west by barren
wastes and rocks, affords sufficient motive to industry to an enterprising
and hardy population, and a large amount o f water pow er, which, by the
aid o f machinery, has been used with great success, and it possesses the
advantage o f lying on the great highway o f nations, having at its door a
broad pathway o f navigation to any foreign port. A t the south, we have
a land which waves with the golden harvests o f the sugar-cane and the
rice field, or is whitened b y the snowy blossoms o f the cotton. A t the
west, millions o f acres o f the richest mould are stretched out toward the
Pacific to an unmeasured extent, inviting the labors o f the plough and
the sickle. The territory so rich in natural resources, so fortunate in
geographical position, is endowed with bold and gigantic features o f na­
tural scenery, and when in full bloom, is enrobed with magnificent vege­
tation. Chains o f lofty mountains lift themselves into the clouds, and
picturesque and flowery landscapes sweep along its streams. Noble
forests wave upon its hills, and echo in its valleys. Prairies, seemingly
exhaustless, spread out their broad expanses amid the solitude, and stu­
pendous cataracts thunder down its precipices.
Rivers, taking their
rise in the distant interior, pour their treasures into the ocean, fertilizing
the soil, and furnishing channels o f navigation from the remote inland
village to the borders o f the sea. The Hudson and the Connecticut,
the Delaware and the Potomac, enable us to penetrate the interior, and
to discharge the pi'oducts o f our industry to their respective markets.
A t the west, a chain o f lakes, the largest on the earth, furnishing thousands
o f miles o f inland commerce, extend from the shores o f Vermont and
N ew Y ork to the most distant banks o f Upper Canada; and the Missis­
sippi, the longest river on the globe, taking its rise amid the rice lakes
o f the north, winding through three thousand miles o f territory most
favorable for agriculture, and receiving in its course the Ohio and the
Missouri, furnishes a channel o f exportation through the whole territory
o f the west to the G u lf o f M exico.
W e have stretched this outline o f our physical resources for the pur­
pose o f showing the extent o f the field in which American industry may




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357

act; and we now proceed to a more particular examination o f the dif­
ferent sections, so far as they are characterized by different soils, cli­
mates, character o f industry, and capacity o f production.
W e take first, the six states o f N ew England, and let us examine their
natural advantages and the character o f the industry which acts upon their
soil. In the first place, the climate is comparatively cold, and the stony
land, o f primitive formation, is much broken by rocky ridges and barren
hills, yet it yields to the hard labors o f the husbandman, corn, rye, p o ­
tatoes, oats, and various other grains and vegetables, in sufficient abund­
ance for his support. The very barrenness o f the soil may, perhaps, in
the main, be considered a blessing, for it tends in a high degree to the
development o f that frugality, industry, and perseverance, which are the
prominent traits o f its population. The rugged configuration o f the
land, abounding in hills and precipices, furnishes water power, which is
used in the propulsion o f a great number o f manufacturing establish­
ments, which have been already a source o f considerable wealth. Lying,
as the frontier o f N ew England does, directly upon the sea, the enter­
prise o f the people, it is well known, has, in a great degree, been devoted
to commerce, and a large portion o f its wealth has been obtained by the
hardy enterprise o f its mariners. But, under all the natural disadvan­
tages which she has seemed to labor, containing, as she does, a more in­
hospitable soil than any other part o f the country, her population have
accumulated an amount o f wealth, the offspring o f long continued exer­
tion, which is exceeded by that o f no other part. Indeed, the traveller
in passing through the country can scarcely fail to be impressed with the
air o f thrift and general comfort which pervades the community. In
journeying through the territory, he finds it divided into lots which, if
they appear somewhat rugged, and do not exhibit the utmost fertility,
are cultivated with a spirit which evinces a prudent and thrifty husband­
ry.
Cottages, sometimes o f plain, but more frequently o f painted
boards, and surrounded by enclosed fields, dot the landscape at nume­
rous points; and a haystack at the side o f the house, opened for the cattle,
show that all proper care has been taken o f the stock. The public
works, rail-roads, bridges, roads, and charitable institutions, all indicate
the utmost thrift and the benevolent forecast o f the people. The poultry,
geese, and swine, which wander around the farm house, procure their
own subsistence, and the moss covered bucket, which hangs in the well
from a moveable beam, draws the purest water from the rock. School
houses scattered through the settlements show that the means o f popular
education are provided. I f we pass the waterfall, we find the machinery
o f a mill in motion; or if we go into the larger villages or cities, we find
the houses well built, presenting, an appearance o f the most perfect com ­
fort and contentment; the streets well paved, the ports swarming with
ships, and the whole territory populated by an active, healthful, and
bustling class o f business men.
T he states o f the south present a different aspect. W ith a soil more
bountiful, and a climate more genial, than those o f the north, producing
the fig, the pomegranate, the aloe, and the orange, besides other tropical
fruits, the territory is no less strongly marked than the character o f the
people. The white inhabitants o f a great part o f that region are unac­
customed to labor with their hands, deeming labor itself an ignoble em­
ployment. The low and level country bears the aspect o f repose, which




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is strongly contrasted with the more active appearance o f the north. The
soil is cultivated by slaves, and the neglected roads, bridges, and other
public works, evince the listlessness which is the natural consequence o f
the social organization o f society. Even the houses o f the planters,
constructed with less cost than those o f their northern brethren, show
little regard to domestic splendor, although the seat o f elegant hospitali­
ty. The polished and open manners o f the slovenly clad planters, toge­
ther with an indifference and negligence which are their peculiar traits,
impress one with the idea that he has arrived among a class o f impove­
rished noblemen. But few charitable institutions or manufacturing es­
tablishments meet the eye, and the golden robes o f the rice field, and
the rich harvests o f the tobacco and cotton plant, are all the evidences
which the country furnishes o f agricultural labor. Y et there is in the
soil, although negligently cultivated, a productive power, which, i f right­
ly husbanded, would yield vast profit. Thousands o f bales o f cotton
are annually shipped to feed the factories o f Manchester and Birming­
ham, and thousands o f kegs o f tobacco are exported to foreign markets,
returning in showers o f gold, which is as recklessly spent as it is easily
accumulated. D id the climate admit the same kind and amount o f la­
bor as at the north, and did the character o f the population favor the
same degree o f physical energy as with us, we doubt not that it might
be made the most wealthy section o f the country, possessing, as it does,
a valuable staple, o f which the northern states are deficient.
But the west must, after all, be considered the great agricultural sec­
tion o f the country ; by which tract we mean that portion o f territory
which is included between the R ocky and the Allegany mountains, and
termed the valley o f the Mississippi. This tract contains the largest
body o f fertile soil on the face o f the g lo b e ; and when w e consider the
advantages o f its inland navigation in the great lakes and the numerous
streams by which it is watered, the cheapness and fertility o f the land,
by which the husbandman can, b y the labor o f a day, procure a sufficient
amount o f soil to support him for the year ; — all these advantages being
held out as motives o f immigration, we doubt not that it is destined to be
one o f the most opulent and powerful sections o f the republic. Its cli­
mate, although not as healthful as the older states, being productive o f
bilious disorders, which are incident to every new country, is as genial
as that o f any region within the same parallels o f latitude. In its north­
ern part, wheat and com , its staple products, are yielded in the greatest
abundance; and it is well known, that although recently settled, the
east receives the greater portion o f its flour from the older sections o f
that valley, as well as large quantities o f pork. The middle portion pro­
duces the fruits and grasses in the greatest luxuriance, and large quan­
tities o f hemp, cotton, and tobacco. The main source o f wealth in its
southern part, adjoining the G u lf o f M exico, is the production o f rice,
sugar, and cotton. That portion o f our territory is no less rich in its
mineral resources than in its agricultural products. Missouri has its
iron mountain ; rocks o f pure copper are found upon the southern bank
o f Lake Superior; ridges o f coal are scattered through a great portion
o f its dom ain; gold is discovered in the soil o f Alabama ; and unknown
quantities o f lead are imbedded in the hills o f Missouri, W isconsin, and
Illinois. Thousands o f tons o f the produce o f the bordering region are
transported in flat boats or steamers to N ew Orleans, through the Mis­




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359

sissippi, and millions o f barrels o f flour are shipped to the east through
the lakes, besides sugar and cotton to an immense value, which are ex­
ported abroad. Even farther westward, in the region o f the elk, the
Indian, and the buffalo, there are doubtless thousands o f acres o f land
yet unexplored, equally productive, which, at some future time, will be
the seat o f opulence and refinement.
Such, then, are the resources o f the country; and we now come to
a consideration o f the character o f the people, as conducing to the pro­
gress o f domestic industry. Although our republic was originally co­
lonized by emigrants from different parts o f E urope — English, Dutch,
French, Spanish, Swedes, Finns, and Danes — all these colonial elements
are merged in the preponderance o f the Anglo-Saxon stock. This is a
people who, in every age in which they have lived, have marked a deep
impression upon their soil, and left contemporary nations far behind
them in the monuments o f human labor which they have erected. Such
is the origin o f the Anglo-Americans, and they have vindicated that ori­
gin on this side o f the Atlantic, in building up an empire, more powerful
in its present strength, and more rapid in its advancement, than any na­
tion o f which we have record, within the same period o f time. W ithin
the limits o f two hundred years, they have pushed their commerce into
every sea; with the weapons o f husbandry they have ploughed a thou­
sand hills and valleys ; they have established cities on her sea coasts and
the borders o f her forests; they have planted manufacturing establish­
ments upon her water falls, and sent fifteen millions o f freemen, in the
different departments o f the trades and the professions, to advance the
strength o f the country, upon a field which two centuries ago was an
echoing wilderness.
This native vigor o f the Anglo-Saxon, which has been thus evinced
abroad, has been augmented in the Anglo-Am erican by the policy o f our
government. The Anglo-Am erican colonists were, for the most part,
poor men, without high rank or title, who were obliged to hew out their
own way. Some, it is well known, were induced to immigrate from
religious motives, and others from motives o f gain, but in all we see
traits which are not to be mistaken— the iron firmness and downright
vigor o f the Anglo-Saxon. T hey came to a country in which a throne
had never stood, without any invincible prejudices in favor o f prescriptive
principles and forms. They planted themselves in forests fresh in the
magnificence o f nature, and burdened with the resources o f national
wealth ; and it was this very Anglo-Saxon spirit which enabled them to
contend successfully, first with France and then with England, in two
long and bloody contests, and to come out victors, securing to them­
selves the possession o f the soil. It was the spirit o f the Anglo-Saxon
which afterwards embodied itself in the Constitution o f the United
States, through which they have quadrupled their effective power. It
is this which has given increased momentum to the productive industry
o f the country, which places the great bulk o f the people on a broad
platform o f equal rights, and has made them the source o f law, in war
soldiers, in peace submissive citizens, pressing motives upon their minds,
the strongest which can actuate ambitious men — a fair and open field —
to secure the greatest good. It burdens the people with no taxes for the
support o f an ecclesiastical establishment from whose faith they dissent.
It gives no money o f the treasury to the maintenance o f a gigantic civil




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Domestic Industry.

list, to the purchase o f gems which are to blaze before titled rank only,
and no part o f the soil is granted out to pets as a reward for imaginary
services. Throwing aside all those encumbrances which might obstruct
free industry, it says, in effect, to the people, “ Come, draw your nutri­
ment from the ample bosom o f your mother earth, and develop the
resources o f your country, for your country is your commonwealth!”
It is not our design to enter into an enlarged history o f domestic in­
dustry in the United States, but only to sketch distinct epochs in its
progress. Our readers need not to be informed that the original colonists
found our country a wilderness, and the commerce which was carried
on for nearly a century, both by the French and English, was confined
to the exportation o f furs, which abounded in the forests, and to the
fisheries on our coast. E ven up to the period o f the Revolution, com­
merce had not advanced to any great extent. Our people were feeble
dependencies o f the English crown, cramped in their means, and doomed
to struggle with the disheartening labors o f new colonies planted in the
forest. The policy o f Great Britain was at that time exercised against
the manufacturing industry o f the people. A s early as 1731, the jealousy
which existed on this subject induced the House o f Commons to pro­
pose a report with respect to “ any laws made, manufactures set up, or
trade carried on, in the colonies, detrimental to the trade, navigation,
and manufactures o f Great Britain;” and, in consequence o f an alarm­
ing discovery in respect to our manufacturing o f hats, it was ordained,
that no hats or felts should be exported from the colonies, or “ loaded
on a horse, cart, or other carriage, for transportation from one plantation
to another.” In 1750, another law was passed, equally disgraceful to a
generous people, prohibiting the “ erection or continuance o f any mill or
other engine for slitting or rolling iron, or any plating forge to work with
a tilt hammer, or any furnace for making steel, in the colonies, under
penalty o f two hundred pounds.” It was such causes, rather than taxa­
tion, that were the probable ground o f the Revolution.
A t this period the tastes o f the people had not advanced to any degree
o f extravagance. Articles o f luxury, i f they were ever introduced at all,
were imported from E urope ; and the colonists, simple in their habits
o f life, were contented to ride from farm to farm upon pillions, dressed
in cloths woven from their own looms, and to acquire their subsistence
between the handles o f the plough. This was the era o f the spinning
wheel and the distaff, and their music was more often heard than is that
o f theharp, the guitar, and the piano, atthe present time. Cotton, the valu­
able staple o f the south, was scarcely known to exist in this portion o f
the w orld; and the first specimen o f that article, which was imported into
Liverpool in 1784, was deemed an unlawful importation, not being con­
sidered the growth o f this country. Then came the Revolution, which
furnished a motive for domestic production, cast off as we were from fo­
reign markets. But the energies o f the people were at that time turned
rather toward the arts o f war than those o f peace ; and, even after the
war was terminated, little could be done excepting to rebuild the shat­
tered fragments o f the social edifice. In 1789 the present manufacturing
system o f the United States, which was the offspring o f the revenue laws,
— and remaining until the embargo o f 1807— was commenced. Meantime
Alexander Hamilton, in 1791, made his first celebrated report on manu­
factures. Cotton mills were erected in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and




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361

other places, which worked up the raw material imported from the W est
Indies. Under these laws, as well as the war which followed, excluding
as it did all foreign importations, domestic manufactures and the me­
chanic arts received vast impulse, and the inventions o f Arkwright, H ar­
graves, Watts, W hitney, and Fulton, tended to impress its importance
upon the public mind, so that at the peace o f 1815 a large amount o f capi­
tal was found invested in manufactures.
A t this period the full action o f domestic industry was permitted to
he exerted upon the soil. A t first the consumption o f the people was
pretty much confined to necessary articles, luxury being limited to the
few who were rich. The energies o f the nation had, moreover, been
nearly exhausted by protracted wars. The soil was but partially culti­
vated, and machinery, then comparatively in its infancy, had not achieved
those glorious triumphs which we have since witnessed. But a nation
like ours, with all the freshness and elastic vigor o f youth, could not
long continue in a state o f depression, and it soon cast about for the best
channels o f exertion. Pacific relations for the protection o f commerce
were soon established with the powerful commercial nations o f Europe.
The treaty o f peace with England had opened to us the solid title and
peaceful possession o f that immense agricultural region stretching around
the great lakes, and colonies comprised o f vigorous and determined men,
began to spread their settlements along the rivers and forests o f the
west. Agriculture, commerce, and the mechanic arts, fostered by the
facilities o f credit afforded by our expanding resources, began to thrive
on an independent basis. Immigration from abroad began to pour in
upon us, increasing the demand for food, and the physical labor o f the
country; and the mass o f the people finding a wide and rich field o f en­
terprise around them, began to crowd into every department o f business.
It was from these general causes that the republic has reached its pre­
sent condition.
W hat is this condition 1 W ith a country prosperous in the produc­
tiveness o f its crops, without war, pestilence, or famine, our granaries
overflowing with the produce o f the soil, our manufacturing estab­
lishments filled with the products o f machinery, and our work shops with
the trophies o f the mechanic arts, with a commerce which is ploughing
every sea, and a population possessing the same field o f action and the
same vigor with their forefathers, the people are pressed down by ex­
treme embarrassment. This condition o f things cannot be traced to any
want o f enterprise or capacity on the part o f the people. In all the depart­
ments o f human labor, commerce, agriculture, manufactures, and the me­
chanic arts, we have shown ourselves as a nation, to say the least, as apt as
any other which has existed. In the mechanic arts, especially, we have
attained a perfection which, considering the time in which we have had
an opportunity to act, is remarkable. Our mariners are as hardy and
adventurous as those o f other nations, and our husbandmen are as stout
o f heart and vigorous as the laborers o f England. W e manufacture
glass and the most ponderous kinds o f machinery at Pittsburgh, on the
very edge o f the forest. Carriages and edifices, all the articles required
for the furnishing o f our houses, or the ornamenting o f our persons,
gold work, silver work, and iron work, the manufacture o f all the imple­
ments o f husbandry and all the tools o f trade, machinery, and ship build­
ing, may be performed here in as great perfection as in England. But
V OL. II. — n o . v .
46




362

Dom estic Industry.

i f the husbandman cannot sell his produce, the manufacturer his goods,
and the tradesman the products o f his labor; if the merchandise o f the
merchant lies undisturbed upon his shelves, and our ships float idle at
our wharves, there must be certain causes for this state o f things, and
some o f these causes we propose to consider.
In the first place, then, it cannot be denied, that the present pressure
has been, in a great measure, induced by the spirit o f extravagance which
o f late years has spread itself throughout the country; the excess o f
consumption over the amount o f production. Instead o f confining our­
selves within our means and the reasonable wants springing from our
condition, we have expanded our expenses and the scale o f our operations
in all departments o f pleasure and business, so far as our facilities o f
credit admitted their expansion. The high degree o f prosperity found­
ed on the growing power o f the country, which was supposed to exist
among us, has increased our adventitious wants, and induced a luxury
which has pervaded all classes, and run like a contagious disease through
the entire circle o f our population. W e perceive its evidences all
around us; in the arrangements o f our houses, our equipages, our dress,
and our amusements. The rich, who have had certainly more motive,
because they have had the means to indulge in these luxurious habits,
have set an example to the poorer classes, who could not afford to pay
the cost. I f we enter upon the wharves o f our large cities, we find
them crowded with imported goods, for which money must be paid to the
foreign manufacturer, and which we might as well have produced ourselves.
Turning to the shops o f our merchants, we perceive that their shelves
are piled with goods o f foreign importation. The saloons o f our citizens
are carpeted with fabrics from foreign looms, and their walls are adorned
with imported paintings and statues. W e eat from imported plates, and
with silver forks, wrought, perhaps, by the workmen o f Birmingham and
Manchester. W e drink our imported wine from imported glass, and
sip our imported coffee from imported china. W e support our theatres
by imported actors, and drive our horses in imported trappings. W e
contract foreign loans for the construction o f our canals and rail-roads,
and build these rail-roads o f imported iron. W e dress our wives and
children, as well as ourselves, in imported cloths and silks; and when we
die, we are placed in our coffins in imported shrouds. The amount o f
these importations can be accurately ascertained, by the state documents
which are annually issued from the office o f the secretary o f the treasury.
Although varying each year, according to the contraction or expansion o f
the market, they are enormous. It is admitted by all, that within the last
ten years we have imported silks to the value o f .
. $118,000,000
W ines and s p i r i t s , .................................................
41,000,000
I r o n , ..............................................................................
84,000,000
the whole making an aggregate o f two hundred and forty-three millions,
a small fraction o f the whole o f our importations within that period, but
all constituting articles which w e might have dispensed with or supplied
ourselves.
W e are here able to give, from the report o f the secretary o f the trea­
sury for 1839, the amount in dollars o f the importations to our coun­
try for the last six years, and also the amount o f the exports o f our do­
mestic produce within the same period o f time :




Domestic Industry.

363

Value o f Imports.

Value o f E xports o f Domestic
Produce.

.
.
.
.
.
.

.
.
.
.
.
.

.
.
.
.
.
.

.
.
.
.
.
.

126,521,332
149,895,742
189,980,035
140,9S9,217
113,717,404
157,609,560

1834
1835
1S36
1837
1838
1839

T otal

.

.

.

878,713,290

1834
1835
1836
1837
1838
1839

.
.
.
.
.
.

.
.
.
.
.
.

.
.
.
.
.
.

.
.
.
.
.
.

81,024,162
101,1S9,082
106,916,680
95,564,414
96,033,821
100,951,004

Total

.

.

.

581,679,163

In alluding to the measure o f extravagance which has borne so hea­
vily upon the country, we would not be understood to advocate an
abstinence from all luxuries, or a recurrence o f the time, when men
lived in their primeval state in huts, clothing themselves in skins, and
feeding upon the spontaneous fruits o f the earth. N or do we profess to
belong to that utilitarian class, which would confine all human enter­
prise to mere animal wants ; for these are objects which are no more
exalted than those which actuate the beast. W e consider human socie­
ty not a collection o f fractions, but a unit. The different classes which
compose it have, by the division o f labor, one common interest; and the
luxury and refinement to which they administer by their own labor, is
the necessary consequence o f civilization. A ll the means o f physical
comforts should doubtless be secured ; but human exertion should not
stop here. It should strive to improve the moral and intellectual man.
Hence, we say, that every painting and every statue which has a ten­
dency to refine the taste, every book, every monument, every school,
whicli is designed to add one noble sentiment to the human heart, is
equally valuable with the means o f mere physical comfort. N or would
we object to luxury indulged in moderate degree. It is to the encou­
ragement o f these interests, that individuals in the different branches o f
the fine and useful arts look for a support. W hat would be the condi­
tion o f workers in silver, if no silver work was used 1 or o f the carriagemaker, if we were all doomed to walk 2 N or have we much respect
for the miser, who with a niggardly selfishness denies himself the proper
indulgences o f life, and locks up his gold in a strong-box. H e is not
only o f no benefit to the world, but an absolute curse, for he keeps that
back from circulation which, like the air we breathe when it flows freely
through the community, gives vitality to the working classes, and vigor
to the whole frame o f the mercantile body. The evil o f which we com­
plain, is the excess o f luxury over the means o f the people, while we ad­
vocate a moderate indulgence, believing that all classes are mutually de­
pendent upon each other for support, and that an injury to one is felt by
all.
Another reason o f the depression under which the country is now la­
boring, exists in the spirit o f over-trading which has pervaded the com- \
munity, the natural result o f the spirit o f extravagance. Individuals, in




364

Domestic Industry.

commencing business, appear to have modelled their operations on too
large a scale. They ha ve moulded their plans on the proportion o f the
market which appeared to be spread out before them, or indulged in
speculations which were found to burst like bubbles in their grasp —
speculations in stocks and lands, which produced nothing but only a
transfer o f title, and adding not an item to the solid wealth o f the
country.
W e do not doubt that the best, and in fact the only, mode in which
we can save to ourselves the vast sums which are annually paid out for
foreign importations, and found the fabric o f our wealth upon an inde­
pendent and solid basis, is to increase the domestic production o f the cmintry.
W e have attempted to show that the physical resources o f the soil are
eminently favorable for agricultural enterprise, and there are spread
around us ample motives for its exertion. The land is cheaper than in
any other country, and there is an independence and substantial comfort
in the cultivation o f the soil by its own proprietor, which eminently fits
it for the citizens o f a republican government. The various character
o f this soil, as well as its fertility, and its navigable rivers, and public
works, furnishing convenient channels o f navigation to foreign markets,
renders this as safe and certain a track o f enterprise as we could adopt.
But while we would have agriculture the grand foundation o f our na­
tional wealth, we would foster manufactures, commerce, and all the m e­
chanic arts. The manufacturing establishments which have already been
erected in a portion o f our country, have gone on under the pledged faith
o f the nation, and we wish to see them succeed, and turn out fabrics
which will bear a comparison with the products o f foreign looms. N or
would we, while we cherish these two important branches o f industry,
neglect commerce, which is always the handmaid o f refinement and civi­
lization. W e wish to see our inland rivers and lakes whitened by its
sails, and the sky o f every navigable stream darkened by the smoke o f
the steamer. W e wish to see every fabric which floats the waves, be it the
flat boat o f the Mississippi, the shallop o f the village stream, or the oak
leviathan, driven by wind or steam, which ploughs the mid ocean,
“ W here the argosies with portly sail,
L ike signiors and rich burghers on the flood,
Or as it were the pageants o f the sea,
D o overpeer the petty traffickers
That curtesy to them, do them reverence
A s they fly by them with their woven wings,”
freighted with the produce o f our soil.
W e could wish to see every department o f the mechanic arts prosper­
ous under the fostering hand o f the governm ent; and we believe that a
crisis is now approaching in which such will be found our only true po­
licy. The principle which the present crisis is inscribing upon the mind
o f the nation, is that o f retrenchment and reform ; and we believe that
the conviction is beginning to be strongly impressed upon us all, that we
have too long depended upon foreign nations, and that we have within
us all the resources o f mercantile independence.
In order to show what our country may become, by the domestic in­
dustry which we have advocated, we need only glance at the present
commercial condition o f England. H er people and ours are o f the same




M oral and P olitical Freedom.

365

stock, and we see the little island, which appears like a speck in
the ocean, achieving a reputation as the first commercial power on the
globe. It is not the magnitude o f her domain, for our territory is more
than fifteen times larger than the whole island o f Great Britain. It is
not the fertility o f her soil alone, for we have thousands o f square miles
o f equal value ; and it is not her geographical position, hut it is the pro­
ductive industry o f her people, which has made the island like a garden,
and her manufacturing establishments the workshops and the mart o f the
world.
It is only by directing the enterprise o f our people to the right chan­
nels o f productive industry, and by cherishing this enterprise by politic
and enlightened legislation, that we can become in fact, as we are now
in name, an independent nation, and compete with England in the mar­
ket o f the world. There is no formidable obstacle in our way to prevent
this result. W e have the soil, the climate, the resources o f navigation,
the machinery, the mechanical skill, the freedom, and the physical vigor.
In our own country, the four great branches o f national enterprise, com­
merce, agriculture, manufactures, and the mechanic arts, may each be
directed to the aid o f the other, and to one great end. They are twin
sisters, with golden tresses falling upon fair countenances, and with bo­
soms swelling with the exultations o f hope, bearing the olive branch o f
peace and the horn o f plenty, linked hand in hand by the bonds o f affec­
tion. Like another Ariel, they will watch over the destinies o f the re­
public. They will enrobe the fields o f our wide spread country in rich
harvests. They will hurry the operations o f the spindle and the water­
wheel, and bring the blessings o f independence to every man’s door.
They will fill our warehouses with the products o f our own skill. They
will induce an interchange o f the productions o f our different states, and
thus strengthen the bonds o f our union. They will whiten our inland
seas and rivers with commerce, send forward our ships and steam ves­
sels upon the ocean freighted with the products o f our own industry,
and make us the first, as we are now, after the lapse o f only two centuries,
the second commercial power upon the earth.

A

rt.

I I .— M O R A L A N D P O L IT IC A L F R E E D O M .

"W h a t is civil freedom, and for what is it valuable! H ow far do w e
enjoy it! H ow far are our institutions fitted to preserve it ] These are
questions which we are apt to leave without reply in our common ac­
clamations for liberty.
God has created society for the benefit o f the individual man. H e
looks down upon the world not as a congregation o f nations, or states,
or cities, or villages, but as an aggregation o f individuals. The good
order and happiness o f the mass, or of the majority, is not his ultimate
object— it is the culture and happiness o f the individual man. It is not
the world, but man; not society, but the soul, which directly interests
him. Society was constructed for man, and not man for society. His
discipline, growth, and excellence, were to be advanced only by means




366

M oral and P olitical Freedom.

o f society, which the wisdom and benevolence o f God therefore frames.
N ow , to imperfect beings, perfect and peaceful freedom is only compati­
ble with perfect isolation and solitude. Perfect freedom is complete
lawlessness— a state in which each man consults only his own inclina­
tions and impulses. I f his feelings were all right, if his judgment were
infallible, he might live in society without any other law than the law o f
his own mind and conscience; but, being an imperfect and erring crea­
ture, a passionate and selfish being, and placed here as such, and for the
very purpose o f disciplining his passions and eradicating his selfishness,
living in the midst o f those equally disposed with himself to gratify their
inclinations, it soon discovers itself to his reason, that the comfort and
happiness o f all require that society should be under some regulation,
and this regulation, whatever form it may take, is government. Govern­
ment, defined properly, is the laws by which society is regulated to the
best good o f individual men. I observed in the first place, you will
remember, that society is nothing in itself; has no interests o f its own —
being in fact merely a name; that the individual is every thing in the
sight o f God. Much more, then, is government, growing out o f society,
unimportant in itself, having no independent rights, no divine authority,
but entirely valueless and unauthoritative, except as far as it sustains
society in its proposed influences upon the welfare o f individual man.
The best government is that which renders society most favorable to the
development o f individual man. Now , what is the true development o f
individual man 1 Man’s whole dignity resides in self-control — self-go­
vernment. H e is designed to be ultimately a law to himself. H e has
rebellious passions and appetites— he has a wandering and wavering
will. H e is a kingdom made up o f discordant elements, o f contrasting
and contending factions. H e is sent into the world as a tribe o f savages
might be set in the midst o f a forest, to work out by experience, by
conflict, by sorrow, by discord, their civilization and final establishment
as a free nation. Indeed, the history o f the world is only the history o f
the individual written in larger type. Man is born a savage, and passes
through barbarism, and semi-civiiization, to his destined condition. Like
the world, though in an inverted order, he has his iron, and his brazen,
and his golden age. His development and destiny is the reduction o f his
various faculties and propensities to their internal la w ; in other words,
it is to self-government; and precisely in proportion as he governs him­
self, is he absolved from other government. H e is a freeman just to the
degree in which he enslaves himself to his own conscience; for the
only law which man is under obligation to obey, is the law o f right.
That law is enforced by God, in penalties, as far as it is not voluntarily
submitted to. Man’s excellence resides in a complete obedience to that
law. H e is a free agent — he therefore obeys it voluntarily or not at all.
A s far as he infringes it he suffers. But suffering by no means compels,
though it may incline, and induce him to submit. The only freedom o f
which he is capable, is the voluntary accordance o f his will with G od’s
will. Then obedience is no longer slavery. H e is perfectly free; for
the definition o f freedom is the undisputed exercise o f the inclinations;
and when the heart loves the right, the will practises it as the very law
o f its being, and is as free as though it made the law itself, having no
disposition to change it.
Y ou observe, then, that freedom, free agency, is the very essence o f




M oral and P olitical Freedom.

367

man’s life and soul. A s far as he is compelled, he loses his worth. The
whole purpose o f his creation is self-government, in other words, freedom;
for this is the only freedom, as we have demonstrated, o f which man is capa­
ble. A ll laws, then, except the laws o f God, written in the constitution o f
our nature, are in themselves offensive and opposed to man’s native li­
berty. Government is a necessary evil. I f society could exist without
government, it were much better, and as far as it can exist without it, it
should. That government is best, therefore, which allows the most free­
dom — that is, which allows man to act most as he pleases. The only
apology for any government, as we have said, is this, that in the imperfect
and undeveloped state in which we here exist, some restraints upon in­
dividual liberty are necessary to secure the largest freedom to the great­
est num ber; for all men have equal rights to freedom, and the weak
must combine against the strong and institute laws in order to preserve
their own liberties. Still, all along, you observe, that government is an evil
because it substitutes force for voluntary obedience, might for right, and
takes man out o f the control o f himself to place him under a foreign
compulsion orrestraint. W e begto be understood here: we are notarguing against governments or laws, but we represent them as a necessary evil.
In one sense, nothing is evil which the condition o f man renders neces­
sary, that condition being as much ordered by Providence as his existence
itself. But whatever grows out o f the weakness, sin, or imperfection o f
man, whatever is to be done away with in his progress in wisdom and
goodness, is in itself to be called evil, being the attendant upon it, just
as the physician is the growth or representative o f disease, and has his
calling and existence done away by the prevalence o f health. Now , go­
vernment in itself being a necessary evil, on account o f its interference
with the freedom o f man, upon which freedom his growth and excellence
depend, it ought to be allowed only to the smallest possible extent. T o
determine what this extent is, has been and continues to be the great
problem. This had been much easier o f solution if the object o f society
had universally been allowed to be the culture and happiness o f the in­
dividual ; but, on the contrary, false and mischievous notions have pre­
vailed in politics, which have quite overlooked man and the sou l; and
governments have been constituted with reference to the preservation o f
the rights o f particular classes, or for the security o f governors, or for the
promotion o f objects subsidiary to the good o f the individual. There
has always been an interested party, whose lust o f power has resulted
in governments o f altogether unnecessary rigor. Absolute governments
are the worst o f all governments, because they make no acknowledgment
o f the right o f individuals. Tyrannies deserve reprobation, not so much
because they infringe the actual liberty o f individuals, although this is
bad enough, as because they strike at the very root o f human dignity,
and are directly and flatly at war with the object o f life. It is for this
reason that slavery is so much to be condemned and lamented — and all
the more for the difficulties which perplex its removal— not that the im­
mediate happiness o f the slave is so greatly impaired, as that the great
right o f his life, the great peculiarity o f humanity, the noblest privi­
lege o f his being, the inalienable claim o f manhood, is denied him.
Take away free-agency and moral responsibility, and you reduce a man
to a chattel, a tiling— you steal his soul away. This is the great objec­
tion to tyranny,that it shows no respectforman,no regard to conscience —




368

M oral and P olitical Freedom.

that it destroys self-government— that it thus interferes with G od’s pri­
mary law in the creation and condition o f humanity. And governments
are inimical to the best interests o f man, just as they infringe upon or
disregard this principle. They approach perfection precisely as they
allow to each man the largest possible self-control, or voluntary conduct,
Consistent with the similar rights o f the other members o f society. A
society o f thorough Christians would need no government. Each would
be a law to himself; and love, which is the fulfilling o f the law, would
secure justice to all. Christianity contemplates the final destruction o f
governments, except as far as certain regulations, which will give no
pow er to rulers, and will execute themselves, may come under this name.
The excellence o f a government is to be determined by the effect it
has upon the culture and happiness o f individual men. The largest
freedom is essential to this, and our own government is to be prized
above all others on this very ground. It seems to us that the oversight
o f this plain principle is at the bottom o f that distrust which certainly
possesses very many lovers o f law and order relative to our institutions.
W e are not able to say, neither are we much concerned to know, how
the practical action o f our government compares with that o f others upon
the order, and peace, and submissiveness o f society. It seems to me to
be quite a secondary question, how far it may facilitate commerce, or
agriculture, ornourish the arts, or give dignity and importance to the coun­
try as one among the nations o f the earth. These interests take care o f
themselves, and are by no means the highest interests o f man. W e ad­
vocate the views o f no party, nay know not distinctly what the views o f
any party are; but government is not to be measured by such standards.
W e strongly suspect, indeed, that free-trade will at some day be found
most conducive to the interests o f society, although the practices o f other
nations may require us, in self-defence, to adopt for the present other
principles. But this is by the way. W hat we would say here is this :
that the merits o f our government are not to be measured with certainty
by the difficulties which may perplex its operation. F or instance, be­
cause freedom is sometimes abused with license— because the power o f
the people is sometimes injudiciously exercised— because the liberty o f
the press is sometimes perverted — because varieties o f opinion in reli­
gion, politics, and other like subjects, divide and agitate the community —
it by no means follows that liberty is to be restrained, or that other forms
o f government which prevent these evils are therefore better. They
may be, nay, they certainly will be, attended with worse evils. Order,
peace, submission, are merely negative. They are far from being the
best things. Confusion with freedom is better than order with slavery.
The peace o f an absolute government is the peace o f the grave. Its
order is the harmony o f machinery. A llow men to be men in the ex­
ercise o f their individual wills, minds, and consciences, and they must
needs dispute, contend, differ. Make them slaves, chattels, and they
will be as docile and united as a herd o f sheep, or the spindles o f a
factory. Those who abuse or distrust our institutions commonly take
narrow views o f the objects o f society, and low views o f man. The
ease, dignity, and elegance o f the upper classes o f England is certainly
superior to our own. The subserviency, obedience, and handiness o f
their domestics, infinitely surpasses any thing o f the kind we enjoy. The
fine arts certainly flourish under a wealthy and leisurely nobility— they




M oral and Political Freedom.

369

certainly straggle under republican influences. W hat then! Is society
designed for the benefit o f a single class, or to promote the elegant ac­
complishments o f life I N ot so. The activity, and enterprise, and free­
dom, o f our whole people, is not to be depressed and restrained, that the
few who are unwilling to help themselves, may enjoy more ease or ele­
gance in their domestic establishments. I f government be designed for
the benefit o f society as society, without reference to the individual,
other forms may possibly be shown to be more desirable than our own ;
but on no other ground ; and even on this it would not be difficult to
show that in the end, what is most favorable to individual growth must
finally redound to the perfection o f society, so that Am erica may hope
yet, to produce, in good time, a race o f artists and scholars that will sur' pass any the world has seen. A nd this is not an ebullition o f national
vanity, but is based upon great principles.
B e it remembered, that our government is the only one on the face o f
the earth that in its very outset starts with an acknowledgment o f the
great foundation o f all true governments, namely, the welfare o f indi­
vidual men — their equality, their right to freedom. It should occasion
us no pride, but only excite our deep gratitude that our’s was the first
Country where the noble experiment o f a government based upon the
great law o f humanity was tried. It was by no accident and no human
foresight that this trial was made. The progress o f human events com­
pelled it. The experience o f many centuries had been working out the
ideas which are at the bottom o f it. A nd no sooner was a place found
on the earth favorable to their foothold, than, by a necessary providence,
they planted themselves there. It would seem as if G od had kept this con­
tinent from the discovery o f the world for ages, that it might not suffer by
the experiments o f government then trying elsewhere ; that no tradi­
tional prejudices, or hereditary predilections, or time-hallowed political
errors, might interfere with the establishment o f a government based
upon truth and righteousness. N o where else could freedom then have
found a safe asylum, much less a wide and generous home, when even
now no nation o f the old world is prepared to give her a public welcome,
received as she is by stealth by many faithful spirits in all lands.
The greatest blessing o f all others in our political institutions, is that
they are based upon true principles, by which I mean, principles in ac­
cordance with the nature and adapted to the progress o f individual man.
They are free institutions, because man is by right a freeman, and the
more free, the nobler and better. W hen we examine our government,
w e are not to look at the evils that attend its operation, as though they
belonged necessarily to it. The t e n d e n c v o f the institutions is to be
regarded— their principle. A n error in principle is vital— an error
in practice is venial. A government based upon false principles must
act wrong, and worse and worse continually. A government based on
right principles may occasionally err, but it must err less and less, and
its very errors touch near a vital part. Thus the acknowledgment o f
human equality is a fundamental truth. N o government can possibly
answer the true ends o f government without it. But its publication is
attended with misconception, vulgar pride, assumption and the idle exer­
cise o f authority on the part o f the people. But after all, what are these
exhibitions o f bad taste, compared with the stupid inferiority and cringVOL. II. — n o . v.
47




370

M oral and P olitical Freedom.

ing and broken spirited disposition o f the man in countries where this
principle is denied.
The freedom o f the press, too, is attended with considerable evils —
with abuse o f public men, with political rancor, with constant excite­
ment ; but what is this, compared with the excellent benefits resulting
from the free expression o f opinion, the widest exercise and publica­
tion o f thought, the dissemination o f truth on political subjects, the se­
curity which this general espionage over government gives us for its
faithful discharge ! W here this freedom is not allowed, government
may be less frequently disturbed, public men less abused, and public
measures less questioned; but an ignorant and slavish submission to
public authority will take the place o f a free and enlightened obedience.
B e it observed, too, that while in other governments the necessary pro­
gress o f man in knowledge and pow er tends to overthrow their order,
and introduce constantly more and more difficulty into their councils, so
that nothing but more rigor, or else constant concessions to the demand
for liberty, will preserve peace. In our own, increased knowledge is
just what we ask to perpetuate our institutions. Every day must re­
move the practical difficulties in their operation. Thus, with our increa­
sed intelligence, which this very freedom o f the press facilitates, its own
action will be regulated, its tone elevated, and its licentiousness fall
under the ban o f public opinion, which is the only restraint compatible
with freedom. Thus, too, the vaunted power o f the sovereign people—
a true principle, however abused — will be exercised with more and
more prudence, as the public mind becomes, through the activity and
free inquiry which this very principle cherishes, more and more en­
lightened.
It is very frequent for Americans to claim a more general diffusion o f
knowledge among them than among any people. This seems to me
not to be true. In the common sense o f education, the Scotch, the Ger­
mans, the Prussians, are far better educated. But what is true, and far
more important, because it is to be traced to a principle — education
must finally be more general and better here than any where else ; and
even without the benefit o f as good schools here as abroad, which, how­
ever, we need nothing but time and experience to supply, even without
school education, it cannot be denied, that there is infinitely more acti­
vity o f mind, more common sense, more practical ability, among us, than
among any people. The public mind is stimulated in these United
States to the most extraordinary and unexampled degree. The educa­
tion received from circumstances, from enterprise, from interest in pub­
lic affairs, from newspapers, from public responsibility, from the un­
shackled use o f the faculties, in fine, from the general intercourse o f man
with man as an equal— the education which is received here from free­
dom, the good sense inculcated by our institutions, which lay broad and
true ideas at the very bottom o f every citizen’s mind in his early infancy,
and open his soul to truth, come from what quarter it may— this is the
education, after all, which is most valuable, and which is here universal,
taught in the great public school o f national feeling and habit. The ar­
tificial or school education o f these states is very imperfect, but every
day is improving it, and the necessity and demand for it proceeds from
the right quarter— from the people themselves. The value o f know­
ledge is here k n ow n ; those who ask for instruction are always ready




M oral and Political Freedom.

371

pupils. The mind o f this people is vastly before their schools. There
is thought enough in America to make a great national literature;
but as yet we have no true book-makers— no retired students to collect
and express it. There is genius enough here to produce great works
o f art— but it is properly diverted into works o f great public utility.
Our national roads, our rail-ways, our viaducts, our ships, our institu­
tions are our fine arts— our government is one great architectural struc­
ture. Men who, born elsewhere, would have been poets, artists, or
scholars, are here workers— politicians, statesmen, public orators. The
thought o f America expresses itself in action. There is too much to be
done, for much to be well said. It is no subject o f regret that we have
not a national literature or fine arts. Nothing but a diseased action in
the public health could possibly have produced them at this time. A nd
i f the public mind receive instruction from other sources, the great ends
o f literature and arts are answered; neither having any value except
for what they effect in developing and elevating the mind o f the people.
The effect o f our institutions and condition is to exercise the faculties
o f our people to an immense extent, and this is all that we should ask.
T o set people thinking, is the greatest possible service you can render
them. T o bring mind into activity is education ; books being a mere
accident, and no essential part o f education, and doing for none any
thing more than the incompletest portion o f their development.
But we must draw these remarks to a rapid and forced termination.
The substance o f the view we have taken, may be thus briefly compre­
hended. W e need to have an intelligent idea o f the real worth o f our
institutions and o f freedom. Freedom is desirable in all things; because
freedom o f will, o f conduct, o f thought, o f conscience, is the necessary
condition o f human progress and the great principle o f human dignity.
A free government is invaluable, because it leaves man as much as pos­
sible in his natural state— leaves him as much as possible to himself—
to his self-government, self-control, and self-culture. Our institutions
are principally valuable because they let us alone— more to be prized
for what-they do not do, than for what they do. Our country flourishes
and man improves, because, for the first time, humanity has a fair chance
to act itself out. Man walks here without shackles, in no prescribed path,
with no sentinels to stop his progress in any direction, or at any pace he
may choose to go. Thus, faith in humanity is at the bottom o f our
freedom; and it has been proved that the more free you make man, the
nobler and the better he is. The more you cast him upon his own re­
sources— leave him to his conscience— neither support nor cumber his
trade, his religion, his literature— but leave them all to struggle for life,
the better they thrive. The great distinction and privilege o f an Ameri­
can is this, that he is permitted to be a man— a self-sustained, self­
regulating, a free man— the only man— not a subject, a slave, a machine
— not in this caste, or that— belonging neither to the second or third
estate— neither noble nor gentle, o f lords or commons.— But a man—
with a human head and a human heart— a G od above and a conscience
within— amid his fellows and equals — to work out his own happiness
here and salvation hereafter, as he best can. This is freedom and
humanity. G od’s government and man’s government reconciled. D e ­
mocracy is thus theocracy, and conscience, the vicegerent o f God, is
placed at the head o f our national institutions.




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W hat constitutes Currency ?

W e should end lamely, did we not point directly again to what we have
constantly insinuated; that as the restraints o f civil government are loosened,
the bands o f private government are to be lightened— that civil freedom
is only safe to those who are in subjection to their own consciences.
That nation is freest, after all, which is most in bondage to God. That
man is the true freeman, whose will is reconciled to the right— who is
not only absolved from the fear o f the law, but from the fear o f the future
and its judgments. A few noble spirits have been free under the great­
est outward tyranny, because their minds could not be fettered; and
men may be slaves in Am erica— slaves to public opinion, slaves to vice,
slaves to fear, to the devil. Those who sin are the servants o f sin. A
law against murder is no restriction upon a man who has no inclination
to kill. But all laws, however light, are slavery to those who are lawless
and vicious, and the requisition o f G od and conscience are the worst
slavery o f all to those who do not become freemen in Christ Jesus, by
learning to love the law, and so render their duty, their inclination, their
necessity, their preference. The love o f the right and o f G od is thus
the secret o f all freedom. It alike frees the slave o f the most absolute
tyranny, and binds to the rule o f safety, the citizen o f the laxest freedom.
The disciple o f Jesus is free every where— in Turkey or America, on
earth and in heaven.

A

rt.

I I I .-C A U S E S OF U N S T E A D IN E S S OF T H E C U R R E N C Y ,
AND THE R EM E D Y THEREFOR.
NUMBER I.
W H A T C O N S T IT U T E S C U R R E N C Y t

A r e c e n t writer, in treating o f the currency, remarks, that there is no
subject in relation to which more erroneous notions prevail. “ The ex­
pansion o f the currency, the contraction o f the currency, the deprecia­
tion o f the currency, are,” he continues, “ every-day expressions, and yet
very few persons can precisely point out the elements o f which the cur­
rency is composed.” * Nothing can he more true. T he trade in money
has been so universally the subject o f restriction and regulation, and has
been so much mystified, that it is generally deemed incomprehensible; the
consequence o f which is, that few persons attempt to understand it, al­
though the most important o f all trades, and the one which it is most
desirable should be perfectly understood. W ith the single exception
o f the maintenance o f peace, there is no matter o f equal importance
with the establishment, and maintenance, o f steadiness in the value
o f that commodity which is the measure o f the value o f labor and o f pro­
perty o f all descriptions. It tends to promote physical, moral, and in­
tellectual improvement, while unsteadiness and irregularity tend to pro­
duce physical, moral, and intellectual deterioration* Our readers will,
therefore, w e trust, not be indisposed to give a little time to an inquiry
into the causes o f unsteadiness that is so uniformly observed to exist,
and into the mode o f preventing future changes.




Ragueton Currency and Banking.—p. 181.

W hat constitutes Currency ?

373

In the early period o f society, trade is carried on almost entirely by
barter. The tenant pays his rent in labor, or in produce, and his land­
lord exchanges that produce for such commodities as are required for
his consumption. W ith the increase o f capital, o f population, and o f
trade, a medium o f exchange is adopted, and by slow degrees the sys­
tem o f labor and o f produce rents passes away. The tenant contracts
to deliver money to the owner o f the land which he cultivates, and the
purchaser o f a commodity delivers money to the owner in exchange
for it.
From an early period, gold and silver appears to have been used for
the purpose o f facilitating exchanges— or as currency; but it is only
within a comparatively short period that they have com e into general
use in the internal commerce o f any nation. Even now, throughout a
large portion o f the continent o f Europe, labor and produce rents are
almost universal, barter exists to a vast extent, and money is little used.
Nevertheless, among all civilized nations, silver and gold are the stand­
ards by which all values are compared. That they should have been
thus universally adopted, results from the fact that, although dissemina­
ted throughout a large portion o f the earth, their production requires a
larger amount o f labor than is required for an equal quantity o f any
other commodity equally susceptible o f being rendered useful to man, and
hence they will at all times exchange for more labor, or more o f the pro­
ducts thereof, than an equal quantity o f any other commodity, with a few
unimportant exceptions. G-old is, therefore, said to be more portable than
silver, and the latter more so than iron. The same pow er which would be
required to move a ton o f silver could equally well move a ton o f iron,
and therefore it is not in that sense more portable, but it is so in the fact
that the first represents the labor o f forty or fifty thousand days, while
the latter represents only that o f fifty or one hundred. Diamonds are
still more portable than gold, but they are little used in the arts, and
are incapable o f the subdivision required to fit them for use as a
general instrument o f exchange. The labor required for their collec­
tion is great, and they owe to their rarity the estimation in which they
are held. The annual consumption o f gold and silver is nearly equal
to the annual product, and it tends constantly to increase, whereas o f
diamonds there is almost none The owner o f any quantity o f the pre­
cious metals may feel assured that they will not be less useful fifty or a
hundred years hence than they now are, and consequently that the desire
to possess them will then be at least as great as it now is, whereas the own­
er o f diamonds can have no security for the continuance o f that taste which
alone induces persons to pay extravagant prices for them.
T he great consumption o f gold and silver takes place in those parts
o f the world in which population and capital most abound, and where
commodities o f the most expensive description are manufactured.
There is the best market for them ; and hence there is a constant current
from the countries which produce those metals, to those which consume
them— from M exico, Peru, Russia, and others — to London and Paris.
London is the centre o f capital for the world at large, and to that point
is the tendency o f the current greatest; and that tendency, in a natural
state o f things, is as constant as is that o f water to the ocean. Fall
where it m ay— upon the highest hills or in the lowest valleys— we see
water collecting in streams, constantly augmenting in volume, until they




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W hat constitutes Currency ?

finally discharge themselves into the great reservoir. In like manner
we observe the small quantities o f silver produced in the various parts o f
M exico gradually collecting together and directing themselves towards
Vera Cruz, Tampico, or St. Louis, to be there exchanged for commodities
required by the producers. Thence they pass off to N ew Orleans, N ew
York, and other places, where they serve for a time the purpose o f
facilitating exchanges, but at length are transmitted to Europe, to be
there used in the manufacture o f the various commodities into the com­
position o f which they enter. W ith every approach to the great market,
there is an increase in their exchangeable value, and thus a pound o f
silver will command a larger quantity o f the conveniences and coqiforts
o f life in N ew Y ork than at Potosi, and a still larger quantity in Lon­
don than in N ew York. This difference o f value constitutes the dif­
ference o f exchange, which, in a natural state o f things, is always in
favor o f the gold-consuming countries— those which most abound in
capital. Its extent is generally limited to the cost o f the transportation
and insurance o f gold or silver.
This centripetal tendency o f the precious metals observed throughout
the world, prevails in nearly an equal degree between all the smaller
centres o f capital, and the districts dependent upon them for supplies.
Thus, every part o f the states o f N ew Y ork and Pennsylvania desires
to place money in N ew Y ork and Philadelphia, and exchange is conse­
quently always in favor o f those cities, as in Massachusetts it is in favor
o f Boston. They are the large streams through which the water o f the
springs and creeks must pass to reach the ocean.
W h ile remaining in the form o f coin, or bullion, the precious metals
are useful only as instruments for facilitating exchanges, precisely re­
sembling carts and wagons, which add nothing to the quantity o f com ­
modities produced, yet are highly useful in aiding exchanges between
the producers and consumers. The more perfect the means o f trans­
portation, the smaller will be the amount o f capital employed in vehicles
for transporting the products o f labor, and the larger will be the amount
o f capital in the form o f ploughs, harrows, and other machinery, by aid
o f which the quantity o f commodities is increased In like manner, we
should find with every improvement in the facilities o f trade, a constant
decrease in the amount o f gold and silver required for the performance
o f exchanges, and an equally constant increase in the capital applied to
agriculture and manufactures, causing a constant decrease in the propor­
tion between the medium o f exchange and the amount o f commodities
to be exchanged.
In the early ages o f society, there is little security for person or pro­
perty ; men have little confidence in each other, and credit is unknown.
W hen exchanges are made, the commodities exchanged are delivered
on the instant. The facilities o f transportation are small, and men seek
money, because readily hoarded or transported. W ith the increase o f
population and capital, men becom e daily more secure in the enjoyment
o f the rights o f person and property; there is a constant improvement
o f physical and moral condition, and confidence arises. It is no longer
deemed necessary that all commodities should be paid for on the instant.
Money is no longer hoarded. Its owners desire, on the contrary, to use
it in trade, or to lend it to others who will so use it, and will grant them a
compensation, in the form o f interest, for the advantage derived from its




W hat constitutes Currency 1

375

aid. Shops are opened for the purpose o f trading in money, and those
who possess gold or silver coin, or bullion, deposit it with the masters o f
those shops for safe keeping. W ith the farther increase o f confidence,
men are enabled to adopt labor-saving machines, termed checks or drafts,
by which the money deposited to their credit is transferred. Another
step in the progress o f confidence, gives us circulating notes, by means
o f which money deposited in a bank is transferred from hand to hand with
no farther trouble than that attendant upon the delivery o f the note. W e
now have a mixed currency, composed o f the precious metals and o f pa­
per, convertible on demand into coin, a consequence o f the increased con­
fidence o f man in his follow man, resulting from the steady improvement
o f physical and moral condition that acccompanies increase o f wealth
and population. W ith every step in this progress, we should find a di­
minution in the proportion o f currency to production, and thus, that, the
total amount o f a mixed currency would bear a smaller proportion to the
trade o f the nation by which it was used, than would that o f another na­
tion whose currency consisted exclusively o f coin. A s every diminution
in the proportion which capital employed in transportation bears to the
merchandise transported, is an evidence o f improvement in the facilities
o f exchange between places, so every diminution in the proportion
which currency bears to exchanges, is an evidence o f an improvement
in the facilities o f exchange among persons, the best system being that
which affords the most perfect facility at the smallest cost.
In the advanced state o f society now existing in Great Britain, and in
the older states o f the American union, all exchanges are performed by
aid o f money; that is, the party desirous to obtain any commodity, stock,
house, or land, contracts to deliver in exchange therefor a certain number
o f dollars, or pounds.
The laborer contracts to exchange a certain
quantity o f labor for a certain amount o f money. The landlord demands
a certain quantity for the use o f his house, or his land. The shoemaker
and the tailor demand dollars in exchange for their shoes or their coats.
Every man who desires to change the form in which his capital exists,
seeks some one who will contract to deliver money in exchange, and
having done so, his next business is to find another who will, in exchange
for money, contract to deliver him that commodity, or property, which
he desires to possess.
In this manner, all capital, as it becomes disengaged, or uninvested,
assumes the form o f money, or o f claims for the receipt o f money. The
laborer has accumulated a capital equal to the labor o f a week, and he
has it in the form o f silver, or in that o f a claim upon his employer, or
in that o f a bank n o te ; both o f the latter being convertible upon de­
mand into coin. B has sold to his neighbor a house, for the price o f
which he holds his due bill, payable on demand in coin. C possesses a
thousand dollars in silver, the produce o f one hundred barrels o f flour.
D has twenty thousand dollars to his credit in bank, the produce o f
land that he has so ld ; and E has a similar sum in circulating notes, re­
ceived in exchange for a bond and mortgage, or for a promissory note
discounted for him at a neighboring bank. All these persons have capi­
tal uninvested, yielding them no return. A ll o f them can convert it into
coin if deemed necessary, but so long as the power o f making a draft
upon the employer, or a check upon the banker, or as the possession o f
bank notes, places them upon the same footing, and gives them the same




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W hat constitutes Currency 1

power o f purchasing commodities as i f they had the coin in their pockets
— so long as capital in any o f those forms passes current as money, none
o f them will deem it necessary so to convert it. On the contrary, C will,
most probably, place his thousand dollars in a hank, in order to avail
himself o f its services to transfer it to his order in such sums, and to such
persons as he may desire, thus facilitating his exchanges.
In order that capital in any form shall constitute currency, it is indis­
pensable that it be applicable to the fulfilment o f contracts for the deli­
very o f money; that is, if not in the form o f coin, it must be convertible
thereinto on demand. A bond or note, payable in one, two, or three months,
or years, cannot be so applied. Its owner may barter it, as he would a
house, or a horse, but it is invested capital, and cannot he used for the
purchase o f commodities, or for the payment o f notes, or other debts
payable in money. I f he desire so to use it, he must find some one who
has uninvested capital, and who is willing to invest it by purchasing his
bond, and giving him money in exchange. A bank note, or the check
o f an individual, that can be converted on demand, will pass current
among fifty or five hundred persons, cancelling as many engagements for
the delivery o f money ; but a hank post-note, or a check, that cannot be
so converted, will only be received by those who are content to wait,
upon being allowed a consideration for the delay and the risk attendant
thereupon. It cannot obtain currency. The manufacturer who sells his
goods on credit, must either have sufficient uninvested capital to enable
him to pay the wages o f his workmen, or he must find some one who
has, and who will exchange it with him for the notes he receives from
the purchasers o f his goods.
Contracts for the delivery o f money, to pass current as money, must be
convertible not only at the time, but at the place at which they are held.
The attention o f the reader has been drawn to the fact, that the precious
metals tend always to the centres o f capital o f the various portions o f the
world, and through them to the place o f chief consumption, which is
L on d on ; and that there is a tendency to a constant increase in this ex­
changeable value as they approach that centre. A bill o f exchange drawn
on London is therefore more valuable in N ew Y ork than a sum o f money
equal in amount thereto ; and so is a bill on N ew Y ork in St. Louis, or a
bill on St. Louis in M exico, their possessors having the pow er to claim
a certain quantity o f gold or silver, which has paid the expense o f trans­
portation and insurance, on its way to the great market o f the world.
The appearance o f such a bill in N ew York, has the effect o f arresting
the efflux o f money to a similar amount, while the influx is not diminish­
ed, and thus the currency o f N ew Y ork is increased by every transfer o f
uninvested capital from London, while every such transfer tends to dimin­
ish that o f the latter. A bill on N ew Y ork produces no such effect in
London, until its owner, having transmitted it to the former, has recei­
ved money in payment, after the lapse o f one, two, or three months.
It sometimes happens that contracts for the delivery o f money pass
current in places where, from the natural course o f trade, they would
not do so, without special arrangements for that purpose. A ll the bank
notes o f Massachusetts pass current in Boston, because the banks through­
out the state have agreed to redeem them there. W ithout such agree­
ment, there would be always a discount upon those payable out o f the




377

W hat constitutes Currency ?

city, equivalent to the delay and expense attendant upon sending them
home for redemption.
Claims for the receipt o f money, whether in the form o f bank credits
or deposits— the notes o f banks or o f individuals— or o f bills o f ex­
change— can be current, and can act as currency, only when their owners
have the poiver to apply them at the time and place to the discharge o f all
engagements for the delivery o f money.
T o constitute currency it is, however, essential, that in addition to the
power, there should be t h e w il l to use, or to make currrent, capital e x ­
isting in the several forms above described.
G old buried in the earth, or deposited in strongboxes, is not currency.
Its owner wants the will to use it. W henever there is an increase in
the tendency thus to hoard the precious metals, the currency is dimin­
ished and prices fall. W henever there is a diminution o f that tendency,
the currency increases and prices rise.
G old or silverretained in the vaults o f banks to meettlieir engagements,
is not currency. I f the holders exchange it with those who possess
their notes, or have other claims upon them, it is merely a change o f the
form in which the currency exists; but i f they lend it out without can­
celling their existing liabilities, it then constitutes an addition to the
amount o f currency.
Circulating notes, or certificates o f deposit, the owner o f which wants
the will to use them, cease to be currency. Thus, let us suppose the
amount on one day as follow s:
Circulation, specie and notes
.
.
.
$5,000,000
Deposits,
.
.
.
.
.
.
10,000,000
$15,000,000
and that the owners thereof are all desirous o f investing it in the pur­
chase o f commodities, stocks, houses, &c., but that the m orrow brings
with it news that war is likely to take place. This intelligence pro­
duces doubt as to the stability o f the existing state o f things, and the
owners o f capital lose the desire o f making investments. The currency
is reduced by this change o f will, and now stands thus:
Circulation,
.
.
.
.
.
.
$5,000,000
Deposites, the owners o f which require to use
them for the performance o f existing engage­
ments,
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
5,000,000
Total currency,

.

.

.

.

$10,000,000

The remaining five millions are not current— they have ceased to have
any influence upon the prices o f commodities or stocks, all o f which
fall, because money has suddenly become scarce, although the apparent
amount o f the currency is unaltered.
I f doubt and uncertainty continue to increase, every person who has
a claim for money desires to have it paid, and there is a constant diminu­
tion in the will to re-invest it. The consequence is a continued fall o f
prices. The necessity for circulation diminishes with the diminished
prices o f commodities and the diminished pow er to purchase them, and
it gradually assumes the form o f deposits in bank, or in the coffers o f
v o l . ii.— n o . v.
48




378

W hat constitutes Currency ?

individuals. In this state o f things, the parties with whom these depo­
sits are made are not unfrequently, in order to prevent universal bank­
ruptcy, obliged to assume the responsibility o f loaning out the capital
placed with them, and thus is produced the phenomenon o f an increase
o f the apparent amount o f currency, with a vast reduction o f prices.
W e now find —
Circulation,
$4,000,000
Deposits,
13,000,000
$17,000,000
But the owners o f eight or ten millions o f these deposits have not the
will to use them. The institutions with which they are lodged now owe
two millions more than at the first period, and their loans have increased
two millions. They are more expanded, yet money is said to be scarce,
and prices are reduced one third, or perhaps one half. W hat is now
wanting is, that the owners o f capital should acquire the feeling o f con­
fidence that is necessary to produce a desire to convert their claims for
m oney into commodities or securities, and thus to invest their capital.
The moment that feeling arises, the debtors to the hanks are enabled to
part with the property they hold, and the same operation cancels at once
the liabilities o f the banks and their claims upon the community. The
apparent amount o f currency is reduced, and prices rise. The real amount
is increased, because the owners o f capital have acquired the desire to
invest it.
E very one familiar with the operations o f trade, must have been struck
with the fact, that prices are frequently much lower when the liabilities
o f banks, in the form o f circulation and deposits, are large, than when
they are moderate in amount. A fter months o f severe pressure, during
which it is supposed that those institutions have been steadily reducing
their loans, it is found upon inquiiy that they are more expanded than
ever, the simple reason o f which is, that individuals, alarmed at the pros­
pect o f a reduction o f prices, or the approach o f war, withdraw their
capital from employment, placing it in the banks on deposit, thus increa­
sing the apparent currency, and the banks are compelled to lend out a
part o f the capital thus deposited, to prevent the ruin o f those who have
engagements to meet.
A deposit in the bank o f England, to the credit o f a person residing
in N ew Y ork, is not currency in the latter; but i f he grants his order
for the delivery o f it, it becomes so, as those to whom it is granted can
use it in discharge o f debts payable in London. H e receives the money
that would have been transmitted, had he not made the draft. I f he wills
to apply it to the purchase o f stocks or commodities, its character o f
currency continues, but i f he deposits it in a strong box it ceases to
be so.
The proprietors o f uninvested capital retain it in the form o f coin, or
bullion, or deposit it with individuals, or associations, to be transferred
by means o f circulating notes, checks, or drafts. The total amount thus
held may be applied to the purchase o f real estate, stocks, or commodi­
ties— may become current— if the owners will it, or they may hoard their
gold, and let their deposits lie idle and unproductive to them, i f they
want the will to invest it. In the one case, it constitutes currency; in
the other, it does not. Currency is capital seeking investment.




R ate o f Interest— Usury.

379

This definition is more comprehensive than that usually given, which
embraces only bank notes and specie, and some o f our readers may be
inclined to doubt its correctness, but a little reflection will, we think, sa­
tisfy them o f it. The man who transfers $1,000 by a draft on a neigh­
boring merchant, or broker, or by a check upon a bank, does so as com ­
pletely as if he had delivered that amount in gold, or in bank notes. I f
the person drawn upon does not possess that quantity o f uninvested capi­
tal, he must dispose o f a portion o f his invested capital to those who can
give him money to meet the draft. H e must deliver that amount in such
form as will enable the receiver to fulfil any contracts for the delivery
o f money.
,
E very increase in the amount o f capital thus seeking investment, tends
to produce a depreciation o f the currency, by raising the prices o f com ­
modities. The term depreciated currency is, however, more commonly
applied to those promises to deliver money which are in current use, and
yet are not redeemed on presentation. M oney may thus be depreciated
in reference to stocks, houses, and commodities, and bank notes and
credits may be depreciated as regards money.
In our next we will endeavor to show what are the causes which tend
to produce variations in the amount o f currency.

A

rt.

I V .— R A T E OF I N T E R E S T — U S U R Y .

T h e House o f Representatives o f the Commonwealth o f Massachu­
setts, during its present session, passed an order that a select committee
o f five be appointed to consider the expediency o f modifying or re­
pealing all laws regulating the rate o f interest, except so far as may be
necessary to establish a legal rate in cases where there is no rate speci­
fied. A nd that said committee also inquire into the expediency o f pro­
viding by law, that a rate o f interest greater than six per cent, shall in no
case be taken, and that a violation o f such law shall be considered a penal
offence, and be punished by fine and imprisonment. The reports o f the
majority and minority o f that committee have been transmitted to us, b y
thejpoliteness o f the Hon. John P . Bigelow , Secretary o f State. It is
not possible to insert them at length in this number o f our magazine; we
have endeavored to present, by liberal extracts from their pages, a fair
view o f both arguments. The report o f the majority quotes the broad
principle laid down by a distinguished writer, “ that no man o f ripe years
and sound mind, acting freely, with his eyes open, ought to be hindered,
with a view to his own interest, from making such bargain in the way o f
obtaining money as he sees fit. N or should any body be hindered from
supplying him upon any terms he thinks proper to accede to.” This
principle the majority report affirms to be manifestly correct; an opinion
which we consider to be sound and true.
“ The principal reasons,” says the majority report, “ in favor o f a legal
regulation o f the rate o f interest, are two. First, that money possesses
an attribute which is possessed by no other commodity, and which is
given to it by law, namely,— it is the measure o f value. Second, some
regulation is necessary to protect the needy borrower from the rapacity




380

R ate o f Interest— Usury.

o f greedy usurers, who would take advantage o f his necessities i f the
law did not protect him. A slight examination o f these reasons may he
useful in this inquiry.
“ D oes money, then, possess any attribute not possessed by other com­
modities'?
“ M oney is found in the early stages o f civilized society. The precious
metals appear to have been adopted as a measure o f value, by all na­
tions, on account o f their being better adapted to the desired purpose
than any thing else. In the exchanges o f property, to which a civilized
state o f society gives rise, it early becomes necessary to find some com­
modity which would answer as a measure o f value in effecting these ex­
changes. For, as the seller o f one article might not be able to obtain,
from the person to whom he was selling, other articles necessary for his
use, but be obliged to procure them from a third person, it would be
necessary for him to take some article in payment which would be re­
ceived by such third person, or i f he must deal with several persons, an
article which would be received by any or all o f them. The precious
metals are well adapted to this purpose. T hey are so valuable for many
purposes, as to be desired by every body. T hey are not destructible.
T hey are easily transported from place to place. They are divisible in­
to minute parts, so as to be equally useful in the smallest and largest ex­
changes. F or these and other reasons, they appear to have been adopt­
ed by general consent. A nd inasmuch as they were easily adulterated,
and it was not always convenient to ascertain their weight, it was found
necessary for governments to cut them to pieces o f a given weight, and
affix a stamp certifying that these pieces were o f such weight and o f a
given fineness, which stamps were originally a mere mark upon the in­
got, but changed by degrees to a stamp upon the sides and edges o f the
coin.”
“ N ow the gold and silver in its uncoined state, is an article o f mer­
chandise in the eye o f the law, and is bought or sold in the market at a
price higher or lower, according to the relative proportion o f the supply
to the demand. Does, then, the stamp o f the government change its
character? That stamp is merely a certificate that the piece is o f a cer­
tain weight and fineness.”
*
*
*
*
“ It is not perceived that the coining imparts any value to the metal,
or clothes it with any special attribute.”
.
“ Gold and silver, therefore, would seem, not only as bullion, but as
coin, to take their value in the market according to the proportion that
the supply o f them bears to the supply o f other things.”
*
*
“ I f we suppose a state o f things when money is worth six per cent,
interest, and the profits o f business will enable a borrower to pay that
rate, and leave him also a fair remuneration for his time and skill; and
then suppose another state o f things, when, owing to an unfavorable
balance o f trade, or a famine, which makes it necessary to export the
specie in the country to pay for bread, or to any other cause, the supply
o f money is reduced one half. Prices have fallen. The same amount
o f money will command twice the value o f other articles which it would
before, or twice the quantity o f real estate. The value o f money has
doubled, — and doubled in obedience to laws that no legislature can
control. But the law forbids the taking o f greater rate than it allowed
before, and thus inflicts an injury, it may be, on all parties. There is a




R ate o f Interest— Usury.

381

demand for money from debtors to pay existing debts. The obstacle
thrown in the way o f borrowing it at such rate as it is worth, compels
them to throw property into market, and sacrifice it at a half or a third
o f its value, when the scarcity o f money may be owing to temporary
causes, and a loan for a short time, at a small sacrifice in the way o f in­
terest, might have saved a much greater loss. There is also a demand
from persons who wish to purchase property at the current low rates.
These are prevented from giving what they think it for their interest to
give, and from thus creating a competition for property that would prevent^that ruinous sacrifice which must be made in many cases. And if
any person loans money at the legal rate, in this state o f things, and re­
ceives payment when the currency has been restored to its former rela­
tive value, he can only receive half as much as he lent. H e receives the
same nominally, but it will command but half as much o f any descrip­
tion o f property as it would command when the loan was made.”
“ Regulation o f the rate o f interest has been thought to be necessary
by many, because, were not a rate fixed by law, borrowers would be sub­
je c t to the extortions o f usurers, and needy men, in particular, would be
at the mercy o f avaricious capitalists. It is,however, the opinion o f many,
and that opinion is becoming more and more prevalent, that these re­
strictions not only do not benefit borrowers, but are an actual injury to
them. F or in loaning money at a rate o f interest above that which is
allowed by law, the first step is to break the law and becom e liable to its
penalty. The lender takes this risk into the account, and charges a pre­
mium for assuming it, which the borrower must pay. Parties also dis­
like to be known in evading the law, and are thus led to act through
brokers ; and it is frequently remarked among men o f business, that
usurers will ask and obtain through brokers prices for money which
they would not think o f asking if they acted openly for themselves.
These expenses are all to be borne by the borrower, in addition to the bro­
kerage, and are all to be traced to the operation o f the law.”
#

#

*

#

#

“ It is a matter too notorious to be denied, that notwithstanding the
restraints o f law, money takes its market value. It is quoted in the
newspapers d aily; and it must be apparent, that such is the state o f pub­
lic opinion, that an enforcement o f these restrictions is an impossiblity
which the law cannot achieve. Now , where any law is openly and uni­
versally disregarded, it is a serious question whether it should be per­
mitted to remain on the statute book. Public opinion is o f superior au­
thority to legislative enactment. Legislation in opposition to it is worse
than useless. N ot only does the law at variance with public sentiment
becom e a dead letter, but the non-observance o f it tends to engender a
disposition on the part o f individuals to disregard law whenever it may
be for their interest or convenience to do so.
“ There is another consideration which deserves attention.
The ten­
dency o f the laws regulating the interest o f money, and fixing a maxi­
mum rate which may be taken, is to favor monopoly, and in a remote
degree, if not directly, promote those convulsions in the business com­
munity, with which in this country we seem destined to be periodically
afflicted. The law fixes the maximum rate at six per cent. Immense
sums are to be loaned by institutions which are under the eye o f the au­
thorities, and cannot take any greater rate. Large amounts are also




H ate o f Interest— Usury.

382

loaned by individuals, who from conscientious scruples, or perhaps some
fear o f the law, feel confined to that rate. Circumstances occur which
raise the market value o f money above six per cent. A s money is in de­
mand, those who have it to loan receive many applications for it. The
law has fixed the rate o f six per cent, as the highest that may be taken.
The lender having this fixed in his mind, only considers which applicant
offers the best security. A s men are apt to be captivated by great
names, the probability is, that the money will be loaned to overgrown
houses o f high credit, or corporations o f large nominal capital, and turn­
ed away from the hands o f the industrious and enterprising part o f the
community, who are driven to usurers to borrow at a greater rate, with­
out the benefit o f that competition which would exist among lenders
were there not a law which prevents these lenders from coming into
open market. It is remarkable that, in the crisis o f 1837, those houses
that were most extensively engaged in business, and supposed to be the
most substantial, were among the first to yield to the pressure. And it
is not improbable, that the tendency o f the laws to turn the current o f
floating capital into the hands o f parties o f high reputation for wealth,
was the primary cause o f their too great extension and final failure.”
The majority o f the committee entertaining these views, were o f
opinion, that it was desirable to expunge from the statutes o f the state
the laws relating to usury, as among those unproductive o f good, and
which were practically disregarded. But they suggest reasons why an
entire repeal o f those laws would not now be expedient; they think,
however, “ that the way might be seen clear, to take one step towards
the repeal o f laws, which can be looked upon only as relics o f ancient
ignorance and prejudice, leaving it to succeeding legislatures to act far­
ther in the matter, as the public good may require.” They therefore
reported a bill, that no person should thereafter be liable to certain
portions o f existing laws, for taking, upon any loan o f money made after
the enactment o f the bill, a greater rate o f interest than six per cent.,
when such greater interest shall not have been taken for a time longer
than six months. Provided, however, that corporations or banks are
not to demand or receive, in any way, any greater rate o f interest or
discount than such corporations are now allowed to take by law.
The report o f the minority, the author o f which stood “ solitary and
alone,” is written with ability, and its style and argument are creditable
to the dissentient member. W e have already devoted so much space to
this subject, that we feel obliged to condense the argument o f the mi­
nority report into as brief space as possible. The author commences
with the remark, that the “ experience o f all nations and ages has found
it necessary to protect the great mass o f the community from the avarice
and extortions o f money dealers and usurers. And this common expe­
rience and practice o f mankind is certainly one argument in favor o f
such law s;” referring to the laws regulating the rate o f interest.
*

*

*

#

“ There is no more money in the world to be let at one rate o f in­
terest than another. The usurer does not make the money that he lets,
it is created by government, and ought not to be increased or diminish­
ed, and the alternations o f scarcity and plenty produced by usurers, is a
crime deserving o f the severest punishment. The reason for leaving
the price o f every thing else to take care o f itself, instead o f being an




R ate o f Interest— Usury.

3S3

argument in favor o f leaving the interest o f money to take care o f itself,
is the strongest reason against it. W hen the price o f any thing rises,
it stimulates a greater production, and the supply is made to meet the
demand. But when, on the other hand, the price o f money rises, as it
cannot stimulate the government to make more money, every person
uses it more sparingly, and consequently prices fall, when, i f the mea­
sure o f value had not been tampered with by usurers, prices should have
risen or remained stationary. M oney is designed to point out to the
community the scarcity and plenty o f every thing else. But how can it
do this, i f money itself is liable to the alternations o f scarcity and plenty 1”
*
*
*
*
“ M oney is not like any thing else in the world. It can hardly be said to
he a consumable article. It is so durable, that a large part o f the gold
and silver in use before the Christian era, is still supposed to be in ex­
istence ; and the productiveness o f the mines but barely serves to keep
up in the world the wear and tear o f these very indestructible materials;
the amountinuse, therefore, must always remain about the same, and none
o f the reasons for the rise and fall o f the prices o f any thing else, can
he applicable to money.”
“ It is often contended, however, that the price paid for the use o f
money is no more susceptible o f legal regulations than the rent o f
houses, the price o f goods, or the wages o f labor. But the interest o f
money is not analogous to any o f these things, unless there is a kind o f
analogy between interest and rents. But, then, rents o f all kinds de­
pend, in a great degree, upon the interest allowed on money. I f the in­
terest on money were twelve per cent, instead o f six, the rents o f houses
and lands would o f course be doubled. N o man could afford to make
improvements, or undertake any kind o f business, that would not pay
the interest on the capital invested. So if interest were reduced, every
one must see that rents, dividends, and profits, would also he reduced.
H ow absurd then, it is, to compare the laws against usury with a law
fixing the rents o f houses and lands, when it is evident, that this very
law against usury does, in fact, fix the rate o f rents in the most effectual
way it can be done.”
*

*

*

*

“ W e are often told that both the borrower and the lender desire the
repeal Qf the usury laws, that it is for the interest o f the borrower to
hire money as cheap as possible, and o f the loaner to get as much as he
can for the use o f his money, and the whole matter can be safely left
with them. There is more plausibility than truth in these assertions.
F or it is obvious, upon a little reflection, that the interest o f the borrower
and that o f the lender is not, upon the whole, adverse to each other. It
is for the benefit o f the borrowers as a class, to have the rate o f interest
h ig h ; because a high rate o f interest enables more men to give up
business and live upon the interest o f their capital, and consequently
leave more business to be done by the borrowers o f money. The lower
the rate o f interest, the more business requiring the investment o f large
capital would have to be done by the real owners o f wealth. It is there­
fore for the benefit o f the borrowers, as a class, to have the rate o f interest
high enough to bribe the capitalist to lie still, and suffer the borrowers
to he the conductors o f most o f the speculating, mercantile, and manu­
facturing business o f the community, although in this way the people are




384

R ate o f Interest— Usury.

obliged to support two sets o f men, instead o f one, in these employments.
There is no reason why the borrowers, as a class, should desire to have
the rate o f interest low. The borrower does not pay the interest on the
money he borrows, any more than the auctioneer pays the auction tax,
or the merchant the duties. The borrower, the auctioneer, and the mer­
chant, know that these are each a method o f indirect taxation; that the
interest, the auction tax, and the duties, are all to be repaid to them with
jirofits by the consumer. It is the consumer, then, and not the borrower,
the auctioneer, and the merchant, that has an interest to have all these
different contrivances o f indirect taxation reduced down to the lowest
rate consistent with the general good.
“ The experiment o f repealing the laws against usury has been tried
in almost every country, and found to be pernicious. The rate o f inte­
rest was formerly fixed in England at ten per cent. This law was re­
pealed in the sixteenth century, and for nineteen years the interest on
money had no legal limit. Lord Burleigh, in the reign o f Elizabeth, re­
stored the law, giving the following reasons: ‘ that the repeal o f the sta­
tute against usury, had not been attended with the hoped for effects, but
that the high price for money, on usury, had more and more abounded, to
the undoing o f many persons, and to the hurt o f the realm.’ In 1685, the
rate o f interest was reduced to eight per cent. A nd Sir Thomas Culpep­
per, a writer o f great knowledge, in speaking o f the good effects o f this
reduction o f the rate o f interest, writes thus a few years afterwards :
‘ This good success doth call upon us not to rest here, but that we bring
the use o f money to a lower rate, which now I suppose will find no op­
position— for all opposition, which before the statute was made against
it, is now answered by the success.’ Oliver Cromwell reduced the rate
o f interest from eight to six per cent., and the reduction was confirmed
after the restoration, on the following grounds: ‘ F or as much as the
abatement o f interest from ten in the hundred in former times, hath been
found by notable exjserience, beneficial to the advancement o f trade, and
improvement o f land by good husbandry, with many other considerable
advantages to the nation, and whereas in fresh and recent memory, the
like fall from eight to six per cent., hath found the like success to the
general contentment o f the nation, as is visible by several improvements,
& c.’ A il the writers o f those times seem to agree in the descriptions o f
the benefits conferred upon the nation, b y the several laws reducing the
rate o f interest. Finally, in 1714, the rate o f interest was reduced to
five per cent., upon the ground, ‘ that the reducing the rate o f interest
to ten, and from thence to eight, and from thence to six in the hundred,
hath from time to time been found beneficial to the advancement o f trade
and the improvement o f lands, &c.’ It should, besides, be remembered,
that the repeal o f the usury laws in the state o f Alabama, was attended
with such a rise in the price o f money, and other ruinous consequences,
that they were re-enacted in less than one year after they were re­
pealed.
“ But it is often said, that the laws against usury are not enforced, that
the price o f money is promulgated every day in the public papers, and
that it is sometimes two or three per cent, a month, and that laws which
are not enforced had better be repealed. But the evil consists in this,
that the penalty against usury has been repealed, while the law against
usury exists on the statute books. There was no complaint o f the non-

 4


Rate o f Interest— Usury.

385

enforcement o f the law, while the penalty for taking excessive usury was
a forfeiture o f principal and interest. W h o would dare to let money to
another, at unlawful interest, when he knew that the law made the bor­
rower a competent witness to convict him o f usury 1 But the chance o f
losing the interest, or treble the interest, is not enough to restrain any
body that has a mind to do so, from taking excessive usury. But let the
former penalties be restored, and we shall never again hear o f money
shaving, at two or three per cent, a month.”
Such being the opinions o f the author o f the minority report, he ap­
pended to it a bill to restrain excessive usury; which provides, that every
contract for the payment o f a greater rate o f interest than six per cent,
should be void, and that, i f an action be brought on such a contract, the
defendant should recover full costs, and the plaintiff’ forfeit both princi­
pal and interest. That whenever a greater rate o f interest than six per
cent, shall have been paid, with or without the principal or any part o f
it, the parties paying may recover back all he had paid, both o f princi­
pal and interest, i f process be commenced within two years from the
time when the last payment was made. That any person who directly
or indirectly shall receive any greater interest than six per cent., shall be
deemed guilty o f a misdemeanor, and liable to a fine not exceeding one
thousand dollars, or imprisonment not exceeding six months, or both.
The reports have not been acted upon by the house, so far as our
knowledge extends. W hen they come up for consideration, they will
unquestionably elicit a most interesting discussion, which may prove o f
great importance and value to those in other states, whose attention has
been directed to a matter o f such universal concern, as the laws relating
to the rate o f interest upon loans, and punishment o f usury.
Public opinion appears to be in favor o f a repeal or modification o f
the usury laws throughout the country. The citizens o f Philadelphia
have recently petitioned the legislature o f Pennsylvania, for a repeal o f
the law in relation to promissory notes and acceptances having not more
than six months to run. The memorialists refer to the beneficial effects
which have been experienced in England, during the late severe money
crisis, from the adoption o f a similar measure, as regards paper having
twelve months to run. A pamphlet published in London, in January
last, entitled, “ Remarks on the management o f the circulation, and on
the condition and conduct o f the Bank o f England, and o f the country
issuers during the year 1839, by Samuel Jones Lloyd,” fully corroborates
this assertion. Mr. Lloyd is an eminent banker, and is favorably known
as the author o f several publications on currency and banking, and his
testimony is therefore valuable, as founded both upon practice and
theory.
W e give an extract or two from Mr. L loyd’s pamphlet. A t page 54,
he says:
“ W ith a view o f strengthening the hands o f the bank, (o f England,)
and enabling it to check the otherwise irresistible demands for increased
issues upon discount, the usury laws, so far as they affected the rate o f
interest charged upon discount o f bills, have been repealed, and great
benefit has arisen from this measure. It is difficult to say to what ex­
tremity the hank would have been reduced at the present moment without
this protecting power.
“ The partial repeal o f these laws, has been o f incalculable advantage
VOL. II. — n o . v.
49




The Opium Trade— England and China.

386

to the commercial community, b y securing the free circulation o f capital,
and the power, hy the inducement o f higher interest, o f determining the
application o f it to those quarters in which the demand for it may he
most intense. This is the true source from which public and private
credit in periods o f emergency ought to be sought, and from which it
will he obtained, more legitimate in its character and more effectual in
its purpose, than that which is derived from an improper tampering with
the circulation. O f this, recent circumstances have afforded a striking
illustration.”
The author then refers to the case o f the agency o f the hank o f the
United States, which was enabled to negotiate a large loan, in conse­
quence o f this modification o f the usury laws, and proceeds thus :
“ The inducement offered in the case to which we have alluded, was
great; because it required a strong temptation to induce capitalists to di­
rect their resources to that quarter, whilst the object to he gained was
worth a high price. Had the same rate o f interest been charged to a
small dealer in a transaction o f limited extent, we should have heard
much o f the harshness, extortion, and injustice perpetrated under a re­
peal o f the usury laws. This example, however, as well as general
reasoning, may teach us to recognise the policy, as well as the justice, o f
leaving every man free to judge o f his own interests, and to decide for
himself the price which it may he worth his while to pay for obtaining
a certain advantage, or for protection against an apprehended danger.
The unexampled firmness, with which the pressure under which the
trading world is still suffering, has hitherto been supported, is probably
attributable to a combination o f causes; hut there can be no doubt that the
fr e e circulation o f capital, resulting fro m the modified repeal o f the laws
by which it was restrained, has materially contributed to this result.
Happily in this case, as in m'ost others in commercial affairs, where
there is free competition, the interests o f the community and that o f the
individual are never at variance.”

A

rt.

V . — T H E O P IU M T R A D E — E N G L A N D A N D C H IN A .

T he belligerent attitude recently assumed by England towards China,
has produced, and is still creating, consequences which must ere long
end in the entire suspension, i f not utter annihilation, o f our valuable
Chinese trade. In either case, the most ruinous results will fall heavily
upon the interests o f our wealthy and enterprising merchants, many o f
whom are largely engaged in it, and who are free from the slightest sus­
picion o f having trafficked in the interdicted drug— a practice held in
such abomination by the Chinese emperor.
A s the opium traffic to China, from the time o f its commencement
until the enactment o f the bloody drama lately produced by it in that
country, has throughout combined to call into existence the measures by
which our commerce is likely to suffer permanent and irreparable injury,
its history, and the effect it has produced upon the inhabitants, and inci­
dentally upon the government o f China, must be known and apprecia­

I



The Opium Trade— England and China.

387

ted, before the great causes which have influenced the emperor to adopt
a strict, perhaps severe course o f policy, for its suppression, can he fully
understood.
It is now more than seventy years since, that Colonel Watson, then
an officer in the service o f the East India Company, first proposed to
take advantage o f the taste manifested by the Chinese for opium, by
shipping it from British India to support the revenue o f the company.
N o considerations o f morality or religion were urged against this novel,
and, to Christian men, somewhat startling expedient, which was at once
adopted by the council, and measures taken for carrying it into imme­
diate effect.
Before this period, the amount consumed by the Chinese did not ex­
ceed two hundred chests annually. This was admitted by their emperor'upon the payment o f a slight duty, entirely on account o f its medi­
cinal qualities, and wholly ignorant o f the baleful influences produced
by it, when habitually used as a stimulant.
In 1767, the number o f chests had increased to one thousand, at which
annual rate it continued for several years affer.
The East India Company were, during this period, in the full and
profitable enjoyment o f the trading monopoly o f half the eastern w o rld ;
and the cultivation o f opium within their territory, and its importation,
was insignificant, when compared with other vast interests, from which
their revenue was derived. And this affords an explanation o f the in­
difference manifested by them towards increasing this traffic, when the
income derivable from it was so little necessary to their prosperity, and
at the same time fully accounts for its immense increase, after their com­
mercial and trading franchises were thrown open to all British subjects,
and freely shared by individual competition..
In 1781, larger adventures were made in opium for the Chinese mar­
ket, and immense profits were realized from its sale. As a natural con­
sequence, the trade was continued upon a scale o f increased magnitude,
and during the same year, the Bengal government freighted an armed
vessel with it, the proceeds o f which were paid into the treasury o f the
company at Canton. Three years afterwards, another ship, containing
a still greater quantity than any that had preceded it, was sent to China
from British India, throughout the territories o f which it was annually
cultivated.
This extensive introduction o f the drug among the Chinese, and the
intemperate use which they made o f it, gradually injured a great portion
o f them ; and instances o f its destroying the physical and intellectual
energies, and finally the lives o f its votaries, were alarmingly frequent.
T o those unacquainted with the destructive consequences resulting
from the continued use o f opium, the recital would be sufficient to fill
their imaginations with the most frightful images o f human suffering.
The habit, slowly yet surely, coils itself around the miserable victim,
until he is chained in the half-clutched grasp o f death; and when once
he becomes enslaved by it, his doom is sealed, and no hope on earth is
left for him. T o resist the destroyer is beyond his strength ; and we
have the testimony o f eminent medical men, men o f experience too, that
direful consequences, and even death, would often result from sudden
and total abstinence.
Like alcohol, opium, in the mind o f its new votary, creates bright and




388

The Opium Trade— England and China.

pleasing visions, although its effect is much more powerful. "When ta­
ken by those whose constitutions and intellects are unimpaired, all ob­
jects appear clothed in a gorgeous and heavenly light. The most bright
and glorious imaginings are conjured up by its influence, and their fan­
cies are bound in the glittering spell o f a mighty enchantress. But
when it has brought upon the wretched victim disease o f mind and con­
stitution, the effect produced by the drug is fearfully changed. Instead
o f creating pleasurable sensations, the imagination clothes surrounding
objects in all the frightful horrors o f hell. Every gloomy thing which
a distempered vision can create haunts the mind, peopling it with dreary
and revolting imagery. Sleep no longer furnishes repose, for it brings
with it the most unearthly and frightful dreams; and a state o f mental
misery, too dreadful to be borne, inflicts its daily and nightly curse.
But the effects o f the poison do not stop with intellectual destruction.
W hile under its influence, the gestures o f the victim are frightful; the
eyes have an unnatural brilliancy, and the expression o f his countenance
is fearfully wild. The physical debility which results from the excitement
is awful. The appetite is sobn destroyed, every fibre in the body trembles,
the nerves o f the neck become affected, the muscles get rigid, the diges­
tive organs are rapidly impaired, the frame becomes emaciated, the me­
mory speedily fails, and he becomes prematurely old, until at length his
very existence is a deep, a dreadful punishment; and after offering up
to the revengeful god which his appetite has created, the powers o f his
intellect, the health and energies o f his body, and the last gleam o f his
moral perceptions, death casts around him her dark shroud, and he is re­
moved from the scene o f his mortal sufferings.
The destructive effects we have described, in a short time after the
increased introduction o f opium into the Chinese empire, developed
themselves among the inhabitants with alarming rapidity.
From a few isolated cases o f disease, suffering, and death, the number
swelled to thousands, until 1796, its baleful influences had become a na­
tional curse. W hole communities were infected by the poison, and
health, happiness, fortune, and life, were cut off by the destroyer.
The Emperor o f China saw the rapid strides o f the deadly agent, which
he had suffered to enter his dominions while clothed in its original garb
o f a simple and useful medicine, and wondered that it could so soon
have become transformed into the fell murderer o f his subjects, and
trembled as he looked upon the vast amount o f human suffering and
death which its votaries had already heaped around this altar o f their
mad idolatry. H e saw them sacrifice to its worship, their families, their
friends, their future hopes and jo y s ; and traced to its demoralizing
source, the powerful elements that would, unless annihilated, number
the days o f a dynasty whose years were told by tens o f centuries.
Detesting the considerations that could urge an increase o f revenue by
permitting the longer introduction o f a drug so deleterious in its conse­
quences, the emperor created, and caused the promulgation o f a law, by
which, in 1796, its importation was wholly interdicted, and those found
guilty o f smoking it were pilloried and bambooed, and the venders
and smugglers made liable to the severer penalties o f banishment and
death.
A s no treaty existed with any foreign power by which its introduction
into his dominions was guarantied or sanctioned, his right to interdict it




The Opium Trade— England and China.

389

was deal', absolute, and unlimited ; and in prohibiting its traffic under
the penalties we have mentioned, he committed no infringement o f the
commercial rights o f other nations ; and the subjects o f Great Britain,
although deeply interested in its continuance, were entirely destitute o f
the slightest foundation for complaint.
This law, although universally known by all foreign merchants,'was
openly disregarded, and opium, in defiance o f its mandates, was still
sold to the infatuated Chinese in increased quantities, and at higher
prices than before. The supineness and utter inefficiency o f the Canton
authorities to enforce it, permitted its violation with impunity by the
.English, through whom nine tenths o f the drug was introduced, while
all attempts to punish the native vender were rendered abortive, by the
refusal o f the wretched consumer, even under torture, to divulge his
name.
In a short time, bribery and corruption were resorted to for
the purpose o f silencing the subordinate officers employed by the empe­
ror, that the introduction o f the drug might be continued with greater
safety; and the destructive appetite engendered by its use, and the pro­
hibitions existing against it having greatly advanced its price, the impor­
tation from British India continued to increase, and its dreadful influ­
ence upon the Chinese progressed with startling rapidity. Again and
again, did the emperor o f that nation send forth his stern and strict de­
crees against the deadly traffic; but they were unheeded by those upon
whom it was showering the wealth o f princes, and unheard by the wretched
beings to whom the knell o f its discontinuance would have sounded with
more solemn dread than the warning voice o f their own immediate de­
struction.
The East India Company, by whose merchants most o f it had been
imported, and throughout whose dominions its cultivation was rapidly
increasing, at length became fearful that if they continued openly to
deal in it, their other trade to China, which was o f much greater impor­
tance, would be injured, and their servants were commanded not to im­
port it in the ships o f the company, under pain o f being dismissed from
their service.
I f this prohibition had proceeded from the desire to cause a discon­
tinuance o f the iniquitous traffic in which they had been engaged, their
motives would have been worthy o f an enlightened, a humane, and
Christian age ; but as the end will show, their object was widely differ­
ent. Notwithstanding their refusal to employ their own vessels for its
continuation, a monopoly was created, by which more than half the
opium raised in British India was cultivated under their direction, and
for their benefit, expressly for the Chinese market; which, after being
sold in Calcutta to private individuals at an immense profit, was shipped
to Canton, its original place o f destination.
As the situation o f England with reference to the opium traffic cannot
be thoroughly understood, and the principles upon which she has acted,
and will continue to act, in her relations with China, appreciated, without
an acquaintance with the nature and extent o f interest which her govern­
ment and East Indian subjects possess in its continuance, it becomes
necessary to bestow upon these a brief examination. Previous to the
10th o f April, 1814, the East India Company enjoyed the rich mono­
poly o f the entire eastern trade; and the extent and variety o f their
commercial transactions and interests, prevented them from paying much




390

The Opium Trade— England and China.

regard to the cultivation o f opium within their territories, and as we have
before remarked, furnished the entire cause o f forbidding its transpor­
tation. Since that period the trade has been opened to all English sub­
jects, and private competition soon triumphed over its unwieldy rivals.
A s the revenue derived from their commerce decreased, it became ne­
cessary to resort to some means by which the deficiency could be sup­
plied, and as the officers o f that company have never been remarkable
for morality or conscientious scruples wdien their interests chanced to
weigh in the opposite balance, the extended cultivation and sale o f
opium within their dominions, intended for the Chinese market, was de­
termined upon. The regulations by which this has been accomplished,
and the tyrannical means through which they have been enforced, are
characteristic o f the colonial policy which Great Britain has ever pur­
sued, and which is productive o f more horrors to the miserable men
over whom it is exercised, than has ever fallen to the lot o f those whom
modern slavery openly and avowedly chains.
The extent o f territory occupied by the poppy in India, and the
amount o f capital, and number o f inhabitants, engaged in the preparation
o f opium, are much greater than in any other part o f the world.
The provinces o f Malwa, Benares, and Patna, furnish the principal
quantity, and almost every chest o f the drug exported from India bears
one o f their names.
Although the chiefs o f the former province are subject to British con­
trol, yet its soil is not under the management o f the company, but they
derive no inconsiderable sum from the transit duties levied upon the
opium raised within it, as it passes through their territory, on its way to
Bombay or Calcutta, where it is sold, principally to British merchants.
But in the latter provinces, the company have for many years exercised
over the inhabitants an authority quite as despotic as that by which the
serfs o f Poland and Russia were ever ruled. The owners o f the soil,
who are called Ryots, are compelled annually to cultivate, for the com­
pany, a certain portion o f their land for the production o f opium. N o
one is suffered to cultivate it for his own benefit; and should he under
take it without first entering into an agreement with the company at
their fixed and arbitrary rate, his property is immediately seized by
their officers, and he is compelled either to destroy his poppies, or to give
ample security for the faithful delivery o f the product.
Advances o f money are made to him through their subordinate offi­
cers and servants, and if the R yot refuses to accept the advance, it is
thrown into his house; and should he attempt to abscond for the purpose
o f avoiding this unjust imposition, he is forcibly seized, the advance is
tied up in his clothes, and he is thrust into his’ house and there confined,
until, perceiving resistance useless, he submissively wears the chains
which oppression in its worst form has thus thrown around him.
Immense tracts o f land, the richest and most valuable o f any in Bri­
tish India, which were formerly used for the cultivation o f more useful
and less deleterious plants, have, for several years past, been covered
with poppies, produced by the system o f tyranny w e have described.
E very successive year has marked their increased spread, and has
brought with it and heaped upon the weak and unoffending natives ad­
ditional wrongs and multiplied cruelties; and even the miserable pit­
tance which the company advance to compensate them for their labor




The Opium Trade— England and China.

391

and the use o f their soil, is more than three fourths absorbed in passing
through the hands o f corrupt,and oppressive officers before reaching its
legitimate owners. But the poor natives must not resist, or their fate is
rendered still more wretched, and the few rights they are permitted to
enjoy entirely wrested from them. The officers o f the company, their
legalized plunderers, are suffered to exercise unlicensed arbitrary powers.
A s the cultivation o f the drug is forced upon them, they are suspected
o f concealing it for private sale and personal advantage; and the surveil­
lance exercised over them, for the purpose o f detection and punishment,
is attended with hardships and the vilest oppression.
In order to extort bribes, all which they hold most dear is violated, and
the privacy o f their miserable abodes, and the sanctity o f their females,
must be purchased from the police and custom house searchers, at what­
ever sums their grasping avarice may induce them to demand. A nd
all these manifold outrages upon the liberties o f men— these barbarous
impositions and cruelties— these palpable, repeated, and continued vio­
lations o f morality, religion, and common justice, are perpetrated and
sanctioned by the laws o f enlightened England— that Christian, slaveryhating nation, whose statesmen profess to look upon the institution o f
slavery in this country with indignation and holy horror, and who de­
nounce its authors as the enemies o f liberty, Christianity, and freedom.
L et them turn from us, and look upon the dark face o f their vast Indian
empire, and there mark the gloomy bondage o f millions and tens o f mil­
lions, chained to the cultivation o f a drug, the consequences o f which
are misery, disease, and death; let them there examine the cruel mockery
o f a system o f laws which, although nominally conferring freedom and
the rights o f acquiring and enjoying property, in reality fastens upon
the victim a severe and lasting bondage— making him a miserable slave
upon the soil which he is told to call his own; and then let them, i f they
dare, publish to the whole enlightened world the true features o f Ameri­
can and British slavery, side by side, and let heaven judge between the
horrors o f each, and hurl retribution upon that nation which is most guilty,
and for our own we should have no fear.
Great Britain cannot charge the responsibility o f the enormities we
have mentioned, upon her colonial government; nor has she ever been
ignorant o f their extent and cruelty. The whole subject o f Indian re­
venue and commerce, was before the imperial parliament in 1832, and
the cultivation o f opium constituted its most prominent feature. A mass
o f evidence was spread before a committee o f investigation appointed
by the house o f commons, in the course o f which the iniquitous and
wicked measures by which the company compelled the cultivation o f
opium, were fully and forcibly delineated; and the manner in which its
traffic with the Chinese was carried on, developed and explained. But
the revenue o f India derived from it, and the immense amount o f capi­
tal which was invested in it by British merchants engaged in the Chinese
trade, triumphed over the considerations o f morality, justice, and na­
tional honor; and in the report o f the committee, received and sanctioned
by both houses .of parliament, it was declared inexpedient and improper
to reduce the revenue o f British India by annihilating the opium interest;
and upon these grounds did England openly countenance, and in effect
legalize, a traffic, which was annually destroying millions, and which
was carried on in open violation o f Chinese laws and international right;




392

The Opium Trade— England and China.

and in doing this, she made herself responsible for all the direful con­
sequences that have since resulted from it; and a part, perhaps but a small
part o f them, has been the execution by the Chinese authorities o f thou­
sands o f their miserable people for smuggling the interdicted drug
from the British ships; the destruction o f property, health, and life,
which it has caused throughout the Chinese E m pire; the vast injury it
has created to the trade o f all nations whose vessels visit Canton; and
finally, the recent insane and bloody career o f Captain Elliot in the
waters o f that port.
Since this openly expressed determination by the parliament o f
Great Britain to continue its cultivation, the quantity o f opium pro­
duced in India has rapidly increased, as will be seen by the following
statement o f the amount sold by the East India Company at Calcutta,
from 1800 to 1837.
In the season ending—
Chests.

Sicca Rupees.

4 ,0 54 . . fo r . 3 ,142,591
. . they sold .
((
.
4,561 . . “
. 8 ,0 70 ,9 5 5
((
.
4,006 . . “
. 8 ,255,603
K
.
8,778 . . “
. 1 1 ,255,767
((
.
12,977 . . “
. 1 3 ,215,464
M
.
16,916 . . “
. 2 5 ,3 9 5 ,3 0 0
The value o f the Sicca Rupee varies, its lowest rate being about fortysix cents. Taking it at this valuation, the opium sold by the company
in 1837 would amount to eleven millions six hundred and eighty one
thousand eight hundred and thirty-eight dollars.
The actual costs to the company, o f producing and selling it in Cal­
cutta, is three millions eight hundred and ninety-three thousand nine hun­
dred and forty-six dollars, leaving them a profit o f seven millions seven
hundred and eighty-seven thousand eight hundred and ninety-two dol­
lars.
The table o f sales which we have given, is taken from Mr. Mont­
gomery Martin’s useful and elaborate work, entitled “ Statistics o f the Co­
lonies o f the British E m pire'' and m aybe relied upon as perfectly accu­
rate, while our information in respect to the profit derived from the drug
is obtained from the official accounts o f the company.
This vast sum forms a part o f the revenue o f Great Britain. The
East India Company are the trustees o f the crown, and as such, are ac­
countable for its just and proper management. B y an act o f the British
Parliament, all the real and personal property belonging to them, was,
on the twenty-second day o f April, 1834, vested in the crown, subject to
all claims, debts, contracts, etc., then in existence, or which might be
created by competent authority.
B y this act, the functions o f the company were made wholly political,
and they were to continue the government o f India, with the concurrence
and under the supervision o f the board o f control, till the thirtieth o f
April, 1854, and all participation in commercial interests was taken away.
From this it will be seen, that since the twenty-second day o f April,
1834, the government o f Great Britain has been deeply interested in
continuing the opium traffic. Its annihilation since that period, would
have cut off a material source from whence her revenue is derived, and
would have produced great embarrassment in the management o f her
Indian possessions. The measures taken for the purpose o f increasing
1 800
1810
1820
1830
1835
1S37




The Opium Trade — England and China.

393

the cultivation o f the drug, since its imperial proprietor succeeded to the
enjoyment o f its profitable returns, are conclusively evident o f a deter­
mination to make this branch o f the royal revenue as large as possible.
In 1835, as our statement shows, the number o f boxes sold in Calcutta
was twelve thousand nine hundred and seventy-seven, and the sum re­
ceived for them amounted to six millions seventy-nine thousand one hun­
dred and twelve dollars forty-four cents ; while in 1837 the number o f
boxes had increased to sixteen thousand nine hundred and sixteen, and
the amount for which they sold had advanced to the enormous sum o f
eleven millions six hundred and eighty one thousand eight hundred and
thirty-eight dollars, almost one hundred per cent, in the short space o f two
years.
This immense increase in the cultivation and sale o f the drug, under
the express sanction and authority o f the English government, has been
produced solely and openly for the Chinese market— the ultimate desti­
nation o f all the opium raised in British India; and in an article written
by D . Butler, M. D., late opium examiner o f the Benares agency, “ On
the preparation o f Opium for the Chinese market,” communicated to the
Benares and Behar agencies, in 1835, and published in the Journal o f
the Asiatic society o f Bengal, in March, 1836, the purpose for which the
poppy is cultivated, and the drug prepared to such a vast extent, is plainly
and unequivocally declared.
From this article, it appears that the Chinese value any sample o f opium
in direct proportion to the quantity o f hot-drawn watery extract obtaina­
ble from it, and to the purity and strength o f the flavor o f that extract
when smoked through a p ip e ; and the whole aim o f the agencies is to
prepare it so that it may retain as much as possible o f its native sensible
qualities, and its solubility in hot water. And it is on account o f its su­
perior qualities upon these points, that Benares opium brings a higher
< price in the Chinese market than that o f Behar, Malwa, or Turkey, the
last o f which, however, is mostly consumed at home, although during some
years two thousand boxes o f it have been imported into China.
Our statement o f the quantity o f opium sold in Calcutta, does not em­
brace that produced in the Malwa district, the cultivation o f which is not
monopolized by the company, although, as we have before stated, they levy
heavy transit duties upon it as it passes through their dominions to Bombay
and Calcutta, where it is sold. And as this adds materially to the revenue
o f Great Britain, and yields rich profits to the English merchants, by whom
the whole o f it is purchased, the greatest exertions have been made to
extend its cultivation within this district; with what success will be seen,
from the fact, that in 1821, but two thousand two hundred and seventyeight chests were produced, while in 1835, the number had swelled to
twelve thousand nine hundred and thirty-three; but forty-four less than
were raised in the provinces o f both Benares and Patna, and in 1837 the
amount had increased to nearly fifteen thousand.
In 1838, the East India Company, and through them the English go­
vernment, derived a revenue o f at least three millions o f pounds from the
cultivation o f opium within the districts o f Benares and Patna, and the
duties levied upon that produced in Malwa, besides the vast sums which
were made upon its sale in the Chinese market by British merchants,
which has tended greatly towards enriching the commerce o f the English
nation, has served to create and keep the balance o f trade with the east
V O L . I I .— N O . I V .
50




394

The Opium Trade— England and China.

in her favor, and, what is o f still greater importance, the glittering current
o f English gold and silver which formerly flowed into the Chinese em­
pire is long since stayed; opium has taken its place, and for several
years past has caused a torrent o f the precious metals to rush in the op­
posite direction.
Indeed, viewing this subject apart from the great questions o f religion
and morals, happiness, and human life, and both England and China have
important pecuniary interests staked upon the event, and one o f them
must suffer deep and lasting injury in the important national results likely
to follow. Both o f them cannot escape: the former must surrender that
portion o f her revenue derived from a system o f smuggling approved
and sanctioned by her government, or the latter, after being robbed o f her
money, — when the “ sycee silver” shall have entirely “ oozed” out, and
her national wealth, the foundation o f her strength, shall have departed,
— will fall an easy unresisting prey to a rapacious and powerful adver­
sary.
Having, as we believe, explained and defined the true foundation and
source o f nearly the entire opium traffic, and the golden considerations
that have induced the English government to create its ten fold increase
within the last few years, we will return to an examination o f the policy
pursued by the Em peror o f China for its destruction, whose measures and
decrees, owing to the incapacity or bribery o f his officials, do not appear
ever to have been rigorously enforced against foreigners until the appoint­
ment o f the imperial commissioner Lin, in March, 1839. That they were
not sternly and strictly executed was not the fault o f the emperor. It
is entirely chargeable to the lenity, corruption, and forbearance o f his
officers, and the lawless daring, rendered formidable by armed force, with
which the drug has been smuggled into his dominions.
In 1816, the H on g merchants, who have always been compelled b y the
emperor to assume many heavy, and often unreasonable responsibilities, •
in the conduct and management o f the Chinese trade, were, by an im­
perial decree, bound to ascertain and report any vessel engaged in its
importation, that the reception o f her cargo might be refused, and mea­
sures taken to drive her from the waters o f China; and whenever a ship
arrived in port, they were obliged to execute a bond that she had no
opium on board. It is needless to say that these regulations were en­
tirely ineffectual for the accomplishment o f the object intended. I he
H ong merchants participated largely in the profits derived from the ille­
gal traffic, and the reports made by them to the imperial court were falsely
colored to advance their interests, and British merchants, who, i f we were
to credit the assertions o f M. Jardine, made at a public dinner given him
by the resident foreign merchants on the eve o f bis departure from Can­
ton, “ occupy a high place among the merchants o f the East,” and who
are “ not smugglers,” did not hesitate to bribe the subordinate Chinese offi­
cials silently to permit the introduction o f opium by paying from sixty to
eighty dollars upon each chest. The consumers were increasing upon a
scale o f fearful rapidity, and those whose duty it was to execute the laws,
were daily surrendering themselves victims to the alluring poison. The
native venders o f the drug were not slow to imitate the criminal base­
ness o f the more enlightened and Christian Englishman, by purchasing
silence from the subordinate authorities at the expense o f thirty, forty,
and at times eighty dollars per chest.




The Opium IV ade— England and China.

395

Smuggling was openly carried on in Chinese boats built expressly for
that purpose, and formidably manned and armed, and the mandarin boats,
or those commissioned for the capture o f smugglers, were seldom bold
enough to attack their more powerful adversaries, who, even if greatly
overmatched in numbers and strength, would never yield, preferring death
by the sword, to strangling, which was their doom if taken.
Against such a powerful combination o f circumstances, all tending to
add to and perpetuate the traffic, the imperial decrees, with all the trem­
bling fear and respect entertained for them by many o f the Chinese,
interposed but a feeble barrier, and every few months saw new ones pro­
mulgated, to be violated like those b y which they had been preceded.
In 1833, the amended law upon the subject was as follows :
“ Let the buyers and smokers o f opium be punished with one hundred
blows, and condemned to wear the wooden collar for two months. Then
let them declare the seller’s name, that he may be seized and punished
with death, and in default o f his discovering the vender, let the smoker
be again punished with-one hundred blows, and three years banishment,
as being an accomplice. Let mandarins and their dependents, who buy
and smoke opium, be punished one degree more severely than others; and
let governors o f provinces be required to give security that there are no
opium smokers under their jurisdiction, and let a joint memorial be sent
in, representing the conduct o f those officers who have connived at the
practice.”
That this law was sufficiently rigid and severe to prevent the intro­
duction and use o f opium, cannot be doubted; and that it failed to ac­
complish these ends, shows the laxity with which it was enforced, and
the 'treachery, bribery, and cunning, by which it was evaded.
I f rumors o f this grand scheme o f smuggling chanced to reach the
ears o f the emperor at Peking, new and severer edicts were thundered
forth against it, which, upon reaching Canton, were calculated to effect
nothing, except, perhaps, to cause the vessels engaged in it to move far­
ther from the city until the excitement caused by their first appearance
had subsided; or to produce a few hostile encounters between the man­
darin boats and smugglers.
In this manner were the laws transgressed by the natives, while fo­
reigners looked upon them with contempt, or treated them with open
ridicule. Some instances occurred, in which the execution o f their pro­
visions were en forced; but the punishment had ever fallen upon the ig­
norant, degraded Chinese, instead o f reaching the foreign merchants,
who were enriched by the nefarious traffic at the expense o f fortune,
friends, happiness, and life.
The following statement, taken from a work entitled, “ China: its
state and prospects with especial reference to the spread o f the Gospel,”
exhibits the consumption o f opium in that country from 1825 to 1837 ;
although from the extreme difficulty attendant upon ascertaining all that
has been smuggled in at various avenues, we imagine that it does not
embrace the entire amount introduced during that period.
Value in Dollars.

Chests.

1825
1830
1832
1836
1837




9,621
18,760
23,670
27,111
34,000

.
.
.
.
.

.
.
.
.

. .
. .
. .
. .
about

.
.
.
.
.

7,608,205
12,900,031
15,338,160
17,904,248
23,000,000

396

The Opium Trade— England and China.

The unexampled increase, o f this abominable traffic, in violation o f
Chinese laws and maritime regulations, and the seeming impossibility o f
effecting its destruction, combined with the financial policy o f enlarging
the national revenue by its continuance, in 1836, induced H ew Naetse,
vice president o f the sacrificial court, an officer o f considerable dignity,
to present a memorial to the emperor at Pekin, praying for the un­
limited introduction o f the drug into the empire on payment o f a duty.
The reasons by which he enforces this recommendation, although
termed “ sage expositions” by a writer in a la te number o f Blackwood’s
Magazine, have impressed us with a very different estimate o f their m o­
ral or political value. Take, for example, the following, in which the
waste o f human life is considered, by this high officer, o f slight impor­
tance, when compared with the loss o f revenue and Chinese silver,
which he contends the free importation o f opium would obviate.
“ It will be found on examination, that the smokers o f opium are idle
lazy vagrants, having no useful purpose before them, and are unworthy
o f regard or even o f contempt. A nd though there are smokers to be
found who have overstepped the threshold o f age, yet they do not attain
to the long life o f other m en ; but new births are daily increasing the
population o f the empire, and there is no cause to apprehend a diminu­
tion therein.”
Again ; after advancing the strange proposition, that the more severe
the penalties are that exist against the traffic, the more bribery and cor­
ruption would be resorted to for the purpose o f evading them, and the
more frequent and palpable violations o f the law would be perpetrated;
and that, for these reasons, all prohibitory enactments should at once be
removed, he proceeds to state, that, “ W ith regard to officers civil and
military, and to the scholars and common soldiers, none o f these must be
permitted to contract a practice so bad, or to walk in a path which will
lead only to the utter waste o f their time, and destruction o f their pro­
perty ;” and he recommends, “ that it be enacted, that any officer, scho­
lar, or soldier, found guilty o f secretly smoking opium, shall be immedi­
ately dismissed from public employ, without being made liable to any
other penalty.”
And farther:—
“ Besides, the removal o f the prohibitions refers only to the vulgar and
common people, those who have no official duties to perform. So long
as the officers o f government, the scholars, and the military, are not in­
cluded, I see no detriment to the dignity o f governm ent; and by allow­
ing the importation and change o f the drug for other commodities, more
than ten millions o f money will annually be prevented from flowing out
o f the central land.”
These “ sage expositions” furnish their own comment, which renders
it unnecessary for us to say one word as to their irreligious and demorali­
zing tendency. The important document in which they are contained,
was ordered by the emperor to be submitted to the H ong merchants,
and Tang, the governor o f Canton. The principles embodied in tbe re­
port made by them, and transmitted to the imperial court at Pekin, did
not materially vary from those contained in the memorial o f H e w Naetse,
and in accordance with his views, they advised the legalization o f the
traffic, upon payment o f fixed duties.
In the autumn o f 1836, Choo Tsun, member o f the council and the




The Opium Trade— England and China.

397

board o f rites, and H ew Ken, sub-censor over the military department,
fellow-ministers o f H ew Naetse, presented counter-memorials, in which
the deleterious effects o f opium are forcibly presented, and the destruc­
tive consequences that its habitual use was inflicting upon the Chinese
eloquently described. They reasoned strongly against revoking the ex­
isting prohibitions, and maintained that it would be wholly insufficient
to prevent the export o f silver, while the enervation and corruption o f
the Chinese would be fearfully increased, i f all restraints imposed upon
the use o f the drug were removed ; and concluded by advising the
prompt adoption o f vigorous and energetic measures, for the annihilation
o f the entire opium trade.
Refusing to increase his revenue at the expense o f the happiness and
lives o f his subjects, the emperor determined upon the extermination o f
the traffic at any sacrifice ; and the immediate result o f the memorials
w e have mentioned, was a special edict, by which he commanded certain
foreign merchants engaged in it to leave Canton. This was partially
evaded, and the traffic continued throughout the year 1837, and until the
summer o f 1838, the dealers paying to the subordinate local authorities
seventy-five dollars per chest for conniving and assisting in these whole­
sale smuggling operations.
But the miserable and deluded Chinese did not so easily escape the
penalty o f outraged laws. Many o f them were taken, condemned, and
execu ted ; and those engaged in smuggling the drug, were hunted down
and killed by the mandarins and their soldiers. Fierce encounters were
continually occurring, and the blood o f the poor natives was poured out
to the last drop, in carrying on a traffic that was conferring upon guilty
foreign merchants, who were the sole instigators, the wealth o f princes.
The emperor at length saw that its abolishment was impossible while
foreigners were suffered openly to bring the drug into the port o f Can­
ton, and the neighboring waters, and he formed the determination o f co­
ercing them, if necessary, into obedience o f his laws. For this purpose,
Lin was appointed high commissioner from the court o f Pekin, to pro­
ceed to Canton, where he arrived on the tenth o f March, 1839.
H e was invested with plenipotentiary powers, and was authorized to
create and execute such measures as he should deem necessary and right.
B om and educated in one o f the maritime provinces, and having had an
early acquaintance (as he says) with all the arts o f foreigners, he was
well qualified to discharge the arduous duties o f his trust. H e is des­
cribed as about fifty-five years o f age, o f middling height, rather stout,
and o f stem demeanor It is said that he received from the emperor in
person the seal o f his high commission, and that the monarch recounted
to him the evils that had long afflicted his children, and, adverting to the
future, paused and wept, and turning to the commissioner, said, “ how, alas,
can I die until these direful evils are removed 1”
Having made his entrance into Canton, eight days were occupied by
Lin in malting inquiries ; and on the nineteenth o f March, two special
edicts were issued, one to the foreigners o f all nations, and the other to the
H ong merchants, both o f which caused great consternation and excitement.
The foreign merchants were required to deliver up to the Chinese govern­
ment all the opium which they possessed on board their store ships, and
strict commands were issued that “ not the smallest atom must be conceal­
ed or witheld.” They were also required to give a bond, written jointly




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The Opium Trade— England and China.

in the foreign and Chinese languages, that their vessels which should re­
sort to Canton would never again dare to bring opium ; and that i f any
was brought it should be forfeited to the government, and all the parties
should suffer the extreme penalties o f the law, and that such punishment
should be willingly submitted to. Promises o f rewards, and the continu­
ance o f prosperous trade, were made to such foreigners as would at once
comply with these requisitions, and threats o f punishment, according to
the severe terms o f the law, were thundered against those who refused
to deliver the hated drug, and three days were allowed them to determine
upon the course they should think fit to pursue.
These were the terms upon which past transgressions were to be forgi­
ven and forgotten, and by which men who had in a thousand instances vio­
lated laws, the penalty o f which was death, were to be pardoned and their
numerous offences blotted out. W hat would have been the punishment
which the laws o f Great Britain would have inflicted upon the offenders
under such circumstances l Suppose a gang o f American smugglers,
or merchants, to preserve the analogy, had been for years engaged in
smuggling goods into the Liverpool market, in open defiance o f English
laws. W ould the delivery o f the interdicted articles', and a bond to “ go
and sin no more,” save the offenders from the punishment they had so
criminally provoked l L ook at the statistics o f crime in England, and its
punishment, and the records o f centuries contain the answer.
The edict issued by the high commissioner to the H ong merchants,
enumerated the many instances in which they had been guilty o f conni­
ving at the introduction o f opium, and threatened one or two o f their num­
ber with instant death, unless they earnestly and faithfully endeavored
to procure its delivery, and prevent its importation.
A third edict immediately followed, by which all foreign residents
were forbidden to leave Canton ; and the factories were surrounded by
armed men, to enforce its obedience. The running o f passage boats
between Canton and Whampoa was suspended, and all communication
between the two places was closed. On the twenty-first o f March, the
general chamber o f commerce was convened, for the purpose o f consi­
dering upon the expediency o f complying with the demand o f the high
commissioner; and after a protracted and animated discussion, a com­
mittee was appointed to report upon the subject, and a communication
was transmitted to the H ong merchants, stating that the delivery o f the
opium was o f such vital importance, and involved such complicated in­
terests, that no answer could be given until time should elapse for reflec­
tion and deliberation.
This was immediately laid before the imperial commissioner, who
was dissatisfied with its im port; and the H ong merchants returned from
Canton to the foreign factories, and, at their request, a special meeting
o f the chamber was called, at which they expressed their apprehensions,
that unless some opium should at once be delivered, one or two o f their
number would be beheaded in the morning; and it was finally agreed
that one thousand and thirty-seven chests should be surrended to the go­
vernment to be destroyed. The reception o f this contemptible amount
was promptly rejected by the commissioner, and demands for an addi­
tional quantity were made.
The report o f these energetic and unexpected proceedings having
reached Macao, Captain Charles Elliott, ch ief superintendent o f the trade




The Opium Trade— England and China.

399

o f British subjects in China, immediately published a notice, requiring
all English vessels to proceed forthwith to Hongkong, hoist their national
colors, and place themselves in a posture o f defence.
A s no demonstrations o f violence had been exhibited towards foreign­
ers at Canton, except such forcible measures as were absolutely neces­
sary to compel the delivery o f the interdicted drug, and which the im­
perial commissioner was bound by every principle o f national justice, and
by the solemn official oath he had taken, to en force; and as not the
slightest indications existed, by which Captain Elliott could have ap­
prehended an attack at sea, his notice was entirely unnecessary and un­
warranted, and was calculated to excite the greatest confusion and alarm,
without the least foundation.
But in issuing this, he had not consummated hi's egregious folly and
blustering cowardice ; for on the following day, the twenty-third o f
March, a second nqtice was published, in which he declared his entire
want o f confidence in the justice and moderation o f the Chinese govern­
ment ; expressed his opinion that it had committed what, according to
the genius o f enlightened nations and the principles o f reason, was, i f
not an act o f declared war, at least its immediate and inevitable prelimi­
nary ; declared it impossible to maintain continued peaceful intercourse
with safety, honor, or advantage, till definite and satisfactory explana­
tions had passed; avowed his intention to demand from the Chinese
government passports for all British subjects within ten days; stated
that the Portuguese authorities at Macao had pledged themselves to af­
ford English subjects, resident there, every protection in their p o w e r;
and wound up his genuine John Bull tirade, by declaring that should
the passports be refused for more than three days from the time his ap­
plication for them should reach the Chinese'government, he should he
driven to the conclusion that it was its intention to detain all British sub­
jects as hostages, and to endeavor to intimidate them into unsuitable
concessions and terms by the restraints o f their persons, or by violence
upon their lives or property, or by the death o f native merchants in im­
mediate connexion with them both by ties o f friendship and interest.
T o this mad proclamation he attached a sort o f codicil, kindly offer­
ing the benefit o f his bombastic observations to all the foreigners in
China.
Immediately after its publication, this sapient and most dignified com­
mercial representative o f her majesty jum ped into his cutter, and started
for Canton, where he arrived the next day about sunset, when the same
measures were adopted by the Chinese authorities for his detention, as
were enforced in respect to other foreigners.
On the twenty-sixth o f March, a proclamation was issued by the impe­
rial commissioner, “ desiring foreigners to deliver up their opium under
four heads, or for four reasons
all o f which partook more o f Christian
forbearance and official lenity, than the warlike preparations o f Captain
Elliott would have led us to hope.
The first was, that “ they ought to make haste and deliver it, by vir­
tue o f that reason which heaven hath implanted in all o f us.”
The second, that “ they ought to deliver it, in compliance with the
laws o f the land.”
Thirdly, that “ they ought to make immediate delivery o f the opium,
by reason o f their feelings as men.”




400

The Opium Trade— England and China.

And, fourthly, that “ they should give it up, by reason o f the neces­
sity o f the case.”
These were each supported by elaborate and sound arguments, which
would do honor to the statesmen o f more enlightened nations; and in
conclusion, the high commissioner remarked, that “ he, and the governor
and lieutenant governor cannot bear the idea o f being unnecessarily harsh
and severe; and therefore it is that his mouth is wearied as it were en­
treating and exhorting.” And he promised the foreign merchants, that
having once made the delivery o f it, their trade should go on more flour­
ishing and abundantly than ever, and that tokens o f regal'd should be
heaped upon them to overflowing.
When this document reached Captain Elliot, his war excitement had
nearly subsided, and a determination to retr eat from his disagreable po­
sition had assumed its place.
Accordingly, on the morning o f the twenty-seventh o f March, he is­
sued a public notice to British subjects, in which he says:
“ Now I, the said chief superintendent, thus constrained by paramount
motives affecting the safety o f the lives and liberty o f all the foreigners
here present in Canton, and by other very weighty causes, do hereby, in
the name and on the behalf o f her majesty’s government, enjoin and re­
quire all her majesty’s subjects now present in Canton, forthwith to make
a surrender to me, for the service o f her said majesty’s government, to
be delivered over to the government o f China, o f all the opium under
their respective control, and to hold the British ships and vessels engaged
in the trade o f opium, subject to my immediate direction, and to for­
ward me without delay a sealed list o f all the British owned opium in
their respective possession. A nd I, the said chief superintendent, do now,
in the most full and unreserved manner, hold m yself responsible for and
on behalf o f her Britannic majesty’s government, to all and each o f her
majesty’s subjects surrendering the British owned opium into my hands
to be delivered over to the Chinese government.”
This requisition was promptly answered by the delivery o f twenty
thousand two hundred and eighty-three chests, worth, at cost prices, ten
or eleven millions o f dollars.
On the fourth o f May, most o f the opium having been delivered, an
edict was issued, by which all foreigners, with the exception o f sixteen
who had been the most deeply engaged in the interdicted traffic, were set
at liberty, and the trade re-opened under certain restrictions.
This surrender o f the drug was made by Captain Elliott for and in
the name o f the British government, as he himself expressly asserts. It
was entirely voluntary, and even supposing that the Chinese had no right
to demand it, we are at a loss to conceive upon what principle o f inter­
national law the English crown could recover it back. It is true that her
merchants were detained until it was given up, and had it been wrong­
fully wrested ffom them, Great Britain would be bound to require resti­
tution. But it was sold and delivered to their own government, and then
quietly and unresistingly surrendered to the Chinese authorities, without
so much as the entry o f a protest against the measure.
B y this act, and the guarantee by which England, through her authori­
zed agent, has agreed to pay for the drug, her unqualified acknowledg­
ment to the whole world is recorded, that she as a nation has been guilty
o f a participation in the opium traffic, and has taken the settlement o f the




The Opium Trade— England and China.

401

entire question into her own hands. That the Chinese were perfectly
right in demanding it, cannot he doubted, for by their own laws, suppor­
ted by every known principle o f international right, and common justice,
it was forfeited the moment it entered their waters, and they would have
been justified in seizing it, and in punishing those who imported it with
the severest penalties attached to the offence.
A nd there can be no doubt but the detention o f Captain Elliott was
in strict accordance with the laws o f nations, and that the circumstances
more than justified it. H e was the superintendent o f British trade in
China, and one o f his highest and most sacred duties as an officer was to
cause those under his control to respect and obey the laws o f that nation.
And how was this obligation on his part performed 1 H e well knew that
the introduction o f opium was illegal, and that he was bound to prevent
its importation by British merchants; and yet he suffered— nay, encoura­
ged and openly sanctioned it, and by so doing made his own government
responsible for its continuance, and compelled Great Britain, as an hono­
rable and enlightened power, either to recall him, and disavow his acts,
onto bear the consequences o f the continued outrages committed against
the acknowledged rights o f an independent state.
His official character did not exempt him from amenability to Chi­
nese laws. H e was a commercial agent, with a commission to watch
over the commercial rights and privileges o f his nation, and was not such
a public minister, as to be entitled to the privileges appertaining to that
character, nor was he entitled to the special protection o f the law o f nations
in any greater degree than a consul, whose powers, duties, and liabilities,
his much resembled.
In all civil and criminal cases, he was subject to the laws o f China,
while within its jurisdiction, and could not, like an ambassador or other
public diplomatic minister, claim an exemption from them on account o f
the commission with which he was invested.
The right, then, o f the Chinese to detain him, even on suspicion o f his
encouraging or countenancing the opium trade, was perfectly cle a r; and
when the ground upon which he was imprisoned amounted to a certainty
that he was, by his official influence, aiding and promoting it through Bri­
tish merchants, by whom more than nine tenths o f it was carried on, will
it for one moment be contended that the high commissioner was not per­
fectly justified in the measures he adopted.
F or the purpose o f engaging in the trade as opened on the fourth o f
May, it became necessary to execute a bond, that any ships trading to
Canton, after the autumn o f 1839, which, upon examination, should be
found to have opium on board, should, together with the cargo, be confis­
cated, and the parties left to suffer death by the laws o f China. A rea­
diness to comply with this requirement was immediately expressed by
Mr. Snow, the consul for the United States, and Van Basel, the Dutch
consul, and they advised the merchants o f their respective countries to
sign the bond, and renew the suspended trade.
But the solemn mockery o f justice, and the gross violation o f the na­
tional rights o f China, o f which Captain Elliott had been so long and
criminally guilty, had not ended. H e had regained his liberty by disgra­
cing his nation throughout the enlightened world; and all apprehensions
o f personal violence, which had so recently tamed him into submission,
were removed, and no sooner did he perceive a disposition on the part o f
51
VO L. I I . -----N O . V.




402

The Opium Trade— England and China.

British merchants to give the required bond, than he promulgated a pub­
lic notice, declaring that it was dangerous to confide to the Chinese go­
vernment the administration o f any judicial process concerning foreigners,
and that the proposed investigation by the authorities o f China, as to
whether foreign vessels were engaged in the opium traffic or not, would
lead to excessive risk o f their committing acts o f juridical spoliation and
murder.
•
W e believe this to be the boldest act o f unwarranted insolence ever
perpetrated by any public officer o f a foreign state, against the dignity
o f a sovereign and independent pow er ; andnot only did it show a deter­
mination to insult the Chinese emperor and nation, but it betrayed the
most abject ignorance o f the foundation and principles o f national juris­
prudence, and the universal law o f nations.
B y what mode, we would ask Captain Elliot, was it to be ascertained
that a ship had opium on board, unless the authorized officers o f the
Chinese government were permitted to conduct the investigation, and by
what laws were the offenders to be punished unless by those o f China1?
W ere they to be sent to England, and there tried ? W ith just the same
show o f propriety and justice could the government o f this country de­
mand, that any o f our citizens taken in the act o f smuggling goods into
Great Britain, should be transported here for that purpose.
The offence is only against the laws o f the nation in which it is com­
mitted ; and a merchant o f the United States or England, who has been
engaged in Canton as a smuggler o f opium for half his life, has been
guilty o f no infraction o f the laws o f his native land, or o f international
right.
N or could the execution o f the bond vary in the least degree the lia­
bility o f the offenders to be punished if found guilty, or strengthen the
right o f the Chinese authorities to search the vessels o f all foreigners
within their waters for a discovery o f the interdicted drug, and to visit
upon transgressors the full penalty o f the laws they had outraged. The
maritime regulations o f the emperor, were as broad and severe as the
terms and import o f the required bond; and the only object in demand­
ing it must have been to prevent a recurrence o f the old excuse, that “ the
foreign merchants were ignorant o f the existence o f any prohibitions
against the opium traffic, and o f the penalties to which those engaged in
it were liable.”
Subsequent notices by Captain Elliott soon followed, in which he ex­
pressed himself to be entirely without confidence in the justice or modera­
tion o f the Chinese government, declared that it had refused to fulfil the
most solemn obligations, and used language so entirely devoid o f courtesy,
respect, or even decency, that should its like character be employed against
our government by the British minister at Washington, his sovereign
would be bound to recall him; and upon a continued neglect to do this,
it would then become the imperative and sacred duty o f our executive,
for the preservation o f national dignity, to order him to leave the country,
for- a breach o f his privileges in insulting the power to which he had been
sent as an ambassador.
On the 4th o f J une, a special proclamation was issued, by order o f the high
commissioner, stating that all the opium had been surrendered, and that
foreign ships were at liberty to engage in honorable traffic; and strongly
invited all o f them to embrace the opportunity, and not be deterred




The Opium Trade— England and China.

403

from it by the representations and advice o f the British superintendent.
But the latter had expressly enjoined the subjects o f Great Britain against
executing the preliminary bond, and had required all British shipping
to anchor off Macao, and not to enter the port o f Canton. The British
merchants resident at the latter place, were recommended to leave under
his direction; and on the 23d o f June, with two or three exceptions, none
but Americans resided in Canton; and since the opening o f the trade,none
but American ships had entered the port, and these, consisting o f ten or
eleven In number, had, according to the Chinese Repository, found no dif­
ficulty in carrying on their trade as formerly. A ll o f the English mer­
chants had gone to Macao, which is occupied and defended by the Portu­
guese ; and after remaining there a short time, had embarked on board
their vessels, with their property and valuables.
On the 31st o f August, the imperial commissioner issued a proclama­
tion, setting forth that' Lin W eihe, one o f the people o f the empire, had been
murdered by British sailors, and the refusal o f Captain Elliott to deliver
up the murderer; and commanded the Chinese local officers, civil and mi­
litary, to cut off from the English all supplies o f water and provisions from
the coast.
In consequence o f these measures, which the right o f the Chinese go­
vernment to create cannot be questioned, Captain H. Smith, commander
o f her majesty’s armed ship Yolage, on the 11th o f September, issued an
official public notice, that it was his intention, at the requisition o f Cap­
tain Elliott, to establish a blockade o f the river and port o f Canton, and
that notice o f the blockade would be subsequently promulgated.
This, although its establishment would have been clearly illegal, so
much so that the vessels o f any nation would have been fully justified
in disregarding it, was never actually declared. The responsibility was
too great even for the ch ief superintendent to assume, who, we presume,
searched in vain, as we have since done, to find any precedent to sus­
tain a blockade, on the ground o f a refusal by the blockaded party to
furnish provisions to the subjects o f a foreign power.
The American merchants having monopolized the entire trade to
Canton, from which’ they were deriving enormous profits ; it excited the
jealousy o f the English, who earnestly requested Captain Elliott to enter
into some arrangement with the Chinese government, by which they
could resume their commercial operations. T o this he assented, and upon
representing to the high commissioner that the strictest search should be
made for the murderer o f Lin W eihe, and that when found he should
be immediately delivered up to the Chinese authorities for punishment,
and declaring that until he could receive instructions from his sovereign,
previous to which the space o f four months must intervene, the required
bond could not be given, an agreement for the resumption o f trade was
entered into, which was to the following effect:
“ M acao, October 20th, 1839.
“ It has been agreed between their excellencies the high commissioner
and governor on the one side, and the chief superintendent o f the trade
o f British subjects on the othei', that, under existing circumstances:
“ 1. The British trade may be carried on outside the Bucca Tigris,
without any necessity o f signing the bond o f consent to Chinese legisla­
tion, (to be handed to Chinese officers,) upon the condition that the ships
be subjected to examination.




404

The Opium Trade— England and China.

“ 2. That the place o f resort shall he the anchorage between Armughoy and Chumpee.
“ 3. It is fully understood, that the vessels, while discharging their
cargoes outside the Bogue, shall pay the measurement charge in the same
manner as i f they went up to Whampoa. The pilots’ charges shall also
he paid as usual. The linguist shall be paid in like manner.
“ 4. The vessels proceeding to Armugkoy will transport their cargoes
by means o f chop boats, and will undergo search by the officers.”
This agreement was hardly signed, before it was impliedly cancelled
by the entry o f the Thomas Coutts, a British merchant ship, into the
river, and her subsequent arrival at Whampoa, after having voluntarily
signed the required bond, which Captain Elliott had informed the high
commissioner could not be done until after the instructions o f his sove­
reign had been received, and which statement had formed the basis o f the
agreement between them. Under these circumstances, the high com­
missioner believing, as he had every reason to, that he had been grossly
deceived by the ch ief superintendent, and having ascertained that the
latter had under his protection at Macao a large quantity o f opium re­
cently arrived, the delivery o f which had been demanded and refused,
and it being notorious that the interdicted traffic was carried on along
the whole coast by British vessels, numbering at least twenty, and that
the drug was selling from 1,000 to 1,600 dollars per chest, a special edict
was issued on the twenty-sixth o f October, demanding the murderer o f
Lin W eihe, and commanding all British vessels to give the required bond,
as had been done by the Thomas Coutts, or to depart from the coast
within three days, under pain o f being punished in conformity with the
laws o f China.
Captain Elliott immediately issued a notice, requiring all English
merchant ships at Macao to weigh anchor and proceed to Tungkoo B a y ;
and determining upon wreaking revenge upon the Chinese for his fan­
cied injuries, he went on board the ship o f war Yolage, and with the
armed ship Hyacinth in company, proceeded to Chumpee, under pre­
tence o f delivering a chop to the commissioner. Upon arriving there,
the officer commanding the Chinese war junks was surprised and alarm­
ed ; and as the most strict prohibitions existed against suffering British
vessels, and particularly armed ones, to enter or remain there, he order­
ed his fleet to approach, for the purpose o f ascertaining their object. Cap­
tain Elliott commanded them to keep o ff; and on their nearer approach,
although without manifesting the slightest demonstration o f an attack
upon him, he ordered his ships to open their fire, which was done with
such deadly effect, that in less than half an hour five out o f twenty-seven
junks were sunk, one was blown up, and about five hundred, and, as
is stated in some reports, nearly nine hundred, o f the Chinese were kill­
ed, or rather murdered.
The only injury sustained b y the English, in consequence o f the
fire from the junks, by which the Chinese endeavored to defend them­
selves and effect a retreat, was, according to the Bombay Courier o f D e­
cember 24, only a twelve pound shot in the mizzen-mast o f the Hya­
cinth, although some accounts state that a few were killed and wounded.
H ere, then, we have the bloody consummation o f Captain Elliott’s
official career. One act in this great national drama is concluded, but
we fear it is not the last.
A wholesale murder o f weak and almost unresisting Chinese, has been




The Ojriuvi Trade— England and China.

405

perpetrated in their own waters, and within the exclusive jurisdiction
o f their maritime laws, by the armed ships o f a foreign power, with
whom peaceful relations had been maintained for a period o f two hun­
dred years. It was committed, too, under the most unjustifiable and ag­
gravating circumstances, and at a place where British ships o f war had
no right to enter, and from whence the whole commerce o f England had
been lawfully shut out. A nd that Captain Elliott should have been the
first to commence the fire, does not more strongly show his utter want
o f provocation to this deed o f bloodshed, than that he was determined
upon its perpetration. Before embarking upon his murderous project,
the decree expelling him and the vessels o f his nation from the waters
o f China, had been received, and he had taken the precaution to have
all British merchantmen remove beyond the power o f the Chinese war
junks, and then, with an avenue for safe retreat widely thrown open, and
with nothing to embarrass his flight, he proceeded to the deliberate per­
petration o f an act, which did not more deeply violate and outrage the
dearest rights o f China and her subjects, than the universal law o f na­
tions, and o f heaven itself.
And yet, in the broad face o f the facts we have enumerated, England
dares to think o f restitution, and threatens to compel it at the cannon’s
mouth. But what is the restitution she requires 1 and upon what ground
is it demanded 1 The answer is plain. H er merchants are clamorous
for payment o f the opium delivered to Captain Elliott, and her govern­
ment cannot honorably refuse to accept his official drafts in their favor,
particularly after openly sanctioning the traffic ; and determined not to
lose what she is powerful enough to wrest from weak and oft-wronged
China, the thunders o f war are to be opened.
But this is not all. She is resolved not to relinquish the opium trade,
and probably will not hesitate to enforce its continuance at the point o f
the sword. Its destruction would cut off three millions o f pounds ster­
ling from her revenue, which even now has been deficient more than
three millions o f pounds in meeting the expenditures for the last two
years.
Already has a powerful armed fleet been despatched for the coast o f
China, consisting o f three ships o f the line, a number o f frigates, besides
several smaller vessels, with nearly fifteen thousand men on hoard ; and
should they openly commence hostilities against the Chinese, the rapid
strides with which the power o f Great Britain has advanced in India,
furnishes the history o f its termination in that empire ; and the exclusive
commercial privileges enjoyed by her subjects in Bombay and Calcutta,
show how soon the ships o f other nations would he shut out from the
port o f Canton.
The merchants o f this country are seriously affected by the great ques­
tion here presented, and the protecting mantle o f national strength should
he thrown around their interests in the eastern world. The government
o f the United States is bound by the most sacred obligations to the per­
formance o f this high duty, and cannot shrink from it, without the sacri­
fice o f individual wealth, and the forfeiture o f national honor; and should
Great Britain invade the Chinese empire, blockade its ports, and expel
from its waters the commerce o f other lands, the whole enlightened and
Christian world ought solemnly to protest against it, as an unwarranted
act o f arbitrary power, committed in violation o f the broad principles
o f eternal justice.




406

Mercantile Biography.

A

rt.

V I .— M E R C A N T IL E B IO G R A P H Y .

I n presenting to our readers the present paper, embracing biographi­
cal notices o f merchants who have been eminently distinguished for the
energy manifested in the pursuit o f their various vocations — from the
most humble beginnings to the proudest results o f human industry— for
their public and private virtues, and the influence which they have ex­
erted on the domestic, moral, political, and intellectual condition o f man­
kind, we would offer a few prefatory remarks.
It has been said, and with truth, that neither the past or present age
has presented a single life from which, if a faithful narrative were writ­
ten, some valuable information might not be drawn. I f such an asser­
tion be tenable, when applied to the recorded actions in the great mass
o f society, charged with its follies and crimes, how much more forcibly
must it apply to the biography, which selects and holds up as mirrors to
the world those only whose wisdom and virtue are calculated to make a
lasting and beneficial impression; which, while it consecrates the ashes
o f the dead, rescues from the destructive influence o f time all that is
worthy o f remembrance— presents us with the living characteristics o f
the man as he stood before a scrutinizing earthly tribunal— enables us
to follow him from the dawn o f intellect to the termination o f an active,
well-spent life— to see him triumphing over every obstacle which poverty
or misfortune presented to his indomitable mental and physical energies —
and finally, to appropriate to ourselves the results o f an experience thus
presented. In reference to American merchants, we intend that the
“ biographical notices” shall furnish a supplement to the future history o f
our country, in which those finer shades o f character, most interesting
to the community, which are lost in the wide survey and generalizing
spirit o f the historian, shall be faithfully and accurately delineated.
A s the second commercial country on the globe — with ships naviga­
ting every sea and bartering with every nation— our merchants necessa­
rily fill an important station in the world’s eye; on their honor, integrity,
and energy, depend our national character abroad, and our internal con­
dition at home. A fertile and extensive territory may form the basis o f
our wealth; but commerce is to its productions what machinery is to the
raw material— it fashions, shapes, and sends forth.
It is an historical fact, that Napoleon, when his imperial flag waved
over thirty millions o f people, derisively designated England as the
“ nation o f shopkeepers.”
Time, however, with its train o f events,
taught him to see, in his sad reverses o f fortune, when stript o f his
glories— exiled to a solitary rock in the Atlantic — deserted by his fol­
low ers— a monument o f fallen grandeur and defeated ambition— that to
the pecuniary sacrifices and the devoted patriotism o f the “ shopkeepei’s”
he was indebted for that unyielding opposition to his sway by which
Britain was distinguished, when, by his celebrated decrees and embargoes,
he had closed the ports o f E urope against her shipping; when monarchs were his puppets, thrones his footballs, and subjugated nations
the outposts o f his military camp. I f such were the national consequen­
ces attendant on the mercantile character and resources o f England,
what importance must ultimately attach to them in a country like our
own, the shores o f which embrace two oceans— the commerce o f




Mercantile Biography.

407

which already competes with its great rival, in every quarter o f the
globe— whose extensive lakes are whitened with the sails o f inland
navigation, and whose rail-roads form a chain o f internal communica­
tion which unites the most distant sections o f an active population—
levelling mountains, extending over rivers, and setting distance and
time at defiance?
Taking leave o f the influence which the mercantile character exerts
upon our external relations, we will now briefly advert to its effect on
our physical, moral, and intellectual conditions.
T o our merchants we are chiefly indebted for the temples o f religion,
the halls o f benevolence, the marts o f commerce, and the noble literary
institutions which adorn and distinguish our cities. A m ong the latter
institutions, we might place the “ Athenaeum at Boston,” the “ Institution
for the Blind,” the “ United States Bank and Girard College in Phila­
delphia,” the “ Exchange at Baltimore,” the “ Astor House,” and last,
though not least, the “ Mercantile Library,” the proud boast o f our city.
Never has a nobler monument been erected to departed worth, than this
twenty-thousand volumed association, with her lectures and her great
moral influences, offers to the memory o f her mercantile founders, whose
names are engraven in indelible characters on her portals, and are conse­
crated in her prosperity.
N ew Y ork may safely challenge the world to produce an institution
o f a similar character, so important in its consequences to a rising and
energetic community.
In the midst o f the fluctuations o f commerce, and the energies neces­
sarily devoted to its steady advancement, it will be seen, that the mer­
chant has not been undistinguished among the moral and religious bene­
factors o f mankind, or unmindful o f the injunction left by the mild
Founder o f Christianity to his followers— “ G o ye forth unto all nations,
and preach unto them the gospel o f truth.” W e ow e to the benevo­
lence o f our mercantile community a great portion o f the means raised
to support missionaries among the aborigines, while some o f its mem­
bers, unaided, have sent forth the bearers o f the gospel mission to the
most distant nations o f the earth.
The mental and physical endurance which has distinguished the mer­
cantile character, particularly in our own country, is not one o f its least
extraordinary features; many o f its possessors, who now rest from their
labors, rose from extreme obscurity— saw their hopes and expectations
blasted again and again— yet rising with renewed vigor from every
stroke o f fortune, eventually succeeded in acquiring an affluent inde­
p en den ce; — the just reward o f their unabated perseverance.
N or should the untarnished honor and integrity o f the merchant, un­
happily exemplified in the ruinous commercial change to which he has
been subjected for several past years, pass unnoticed; many, it is too
painfully true, have been compelled to sink in the struggle, but, like
the wife o f Ca;sar, have preserved a purity o f character untainted even
by suspicion.
In devoting a portion o f the Magazine to Mercantile Biography,
we are influenced by a desire to exhibit the strong points o f character
which have distinguished the patriarchs o f commerce, as furnishing ex­
amples to the young merchant o f the present and future times, and as a
stimulus to the attainment o f the enviable distinction which they have
acquired.




40S

Mercantile Biography.

The sources from which the following notices have been selected are
various, and, generally, more contracted than we could have desired. In
the future numbers we shall enter more into detail, as examples are
furnished, which we respectfully solicit from those who may have it in
their power to aid us in this department. The first name which we
present to our readers, at this time, is that o f
GEORGE CABOT,

a distinguished merchant and statesman, bom in Salem, Massachusetts,
in 1752. H e was educated as a merchant, and for several years visited
foreign countries as a factor for his father, who was an enterprising and
opulent ship owner. H e was considered a young man o f talent, and
soon after commencing business, he was elected a member o f the Massa­
chusetts Provincial Congress— o f which General Warren was president.
The good people o f Massachusetts, wishing to alleviate the distresses o f
the times, proceeded to consider the propriety o f fixing a maximum price
upon foreign goods. This he opposed with such strength o f reasoning,
as to prevent any restriction upon commerce.
During the war, he was an active merchant— he, with his brother, ha­
ving at one period o f the contest, twenty privateers o f a large class,
carrying from sixteen to twenty guns each. These vessels were very
successful for four or five years ; but the British, towards the close o f
the war, having lost more than one thousand seven hundred merchantmen,
grew wiser, and fitted out a large number o f frigates and gun brigs, that
were superior in force to most o f our privateers, and a great portion o f
them were taken. The Cabots were severe sufferers, losing nearly all
their armed ships before the war closed.
W hen peace was restored to the couutry, Mr. Cabot was active in
bringing the people to see the necessity o f forming a sound and perma­
nent general government. W ith others, he used the public press to
enlighten the country upon the great doctrines o f civil and political li­
berty.
H e was active in establishing a state constitution for Massachusetts,
and afterwards, in 1788, was a member o f the convention for adopting a
constitution for the United States. Soon after the constitution, went into
operation, he was chosen by the legislature o f Massachusetts as a senator
in congress. In 1798 he was appointed, by John Adams, Secretary o f
the Navy, but he declined the appointment; yet he took an active part
in assisting the government to build and equip a navy. Liberal loans
were subscribed by the merchants in every part o f the country, and Mr.
Cabot was among the foremost. The government, fired at the insults and
indignities offered our commerce by France, were so active in building
ships o f war, that a few months were sufficient to take the timber from
the forests to construct a sloop o f war, and in a few more days to get her
ready for sea.
A respectable force was soon on the ocean, and earned laurels whereever they met the enemy.
During these dark hours o f our history, when Hamilton and Ames were
full o f apprehension for our destinies, Mr. Cabot was laboring with them
in opening the eyes o f the people, blinded by party feuds. It is said that
Ames, always flowing, and sometimes too redundant, consulted Mr. Ca­
bot in regard to his publications, and frequently submitted to his judg­
ment when they differed in opinion.




William Gray.

409

F or many years o f the latter part o f his life, Mr. Cabot resided in Bos­
ton, where he was held in the highest estimation. I f there was a matter
o f mercantile usage to be settled, he was consulted ; — if there was a
misunderstanding between merchants, he was made arbitrator; aye, even
i f there were an affair o f honor to be settled, his opinion was law. In
1815, he was elected from Suffolk county as a member o f the Hartford
Convention, and was made president o f that body. W here he was, every
one was satisfied that all would be done with decency and correctness,
both in manner and principle. H e was brave, and discreet as brave.
His ambitious days, if ever he had any, were over, and prudence and
judgment were, at the time o f the Hartford Convention, his great charac­
teristics. The person o f Mr. Cabot was o f the finest cast. H e was tall
and well proportioned. His head was a model for the sculptor. There
was a classical expression o f the countenance, that made him the object
o f observation to every stranger. His movements were dignified, and
his voice sonorous and commanding. Looking at him, you would say,
there is a gentleman; and no one would question the assertion. H e was
as amiable as excellent; there was no asperity in his nature. H e took a
broad and noble view o f every subject, and uttered his opinions with
fearlessness, but with modesty— and his decisions were as oracles. Mr.
Cabot died in April, 1823, in the seventy-second year o f his age ; and
enjoyed through that long period, all that philosophy, philanthropy, and
religion, could give to life. The civic wreath o f such a man should be
green forever.
WILLIAM GRAY,

one o f the most successful o f American merchants, was bom in Lynn,
in the county o f Essex, and commonwealth o f Massachusetts, in the year
1751. H e came, when quite a boy, to Salem, and was an apprentice,
first to Samuel Gardner, Esquire, an active merchant, but left him and
finished his apprenticeship with Mr. B.. Derby, also a business man o f
that place. Young Gray was an enterprising and indefatigable appren­
tice, and had acquired the confidence o f the principal merchants in Salem
when he commenced business for himself, which in that careful and in­
dustrious town, was a fine capital to begin upon. Mr. Gray was early
prosperous in his affairs, and in less than twenty-five years after he had
commenced business, was considered and taxed as the wealthiest man in
the place, where there were several o f the largest fortunes that could be
found in the United States. H e was all activity, and at times had more
than sixty sail o f square rigged vessels. It was a fact that no moderate
breeze could blow amiss for him, for every wind o f heaven carried for
him some vessel to port. F or more than fifty years o f his life he rose
at the dawn o f day, and was shaved and dressed before the common hour
for others to rise. Being dressed, his letters and papers were spread
before him, and every part o f his correspondence brought up. H e was,
at the same moment that he put millions on the adventurous tracks for
gain, with the boldest character, careful o f all the small concerns o f expen-,
ditures. This he considered as belonging to the duty o f business. H e
had married, in early life, Miss Chapman, o f Marblehead, the daughter o f
a distinguished lawyer. They had five sons and one daughter. Mrs.
Gray was a woman o f great powers o f mind, well cultivated, and for
many years was among the first in the social circle.
V O L . II.— n o . v .
52




410

Mercantile Biography.

During the embargo, Mr. Gray took side with Mr. Jefferson, notwith­
standing his interest suffered greatly. His ships were rotting at the wharf.
This course brought against him his old friends, and raised up a nume­
rous host o f new ones. H e now removed to Boston, and was elected
Lieutenant Governor o f the state. H e had several times been elected
to the state senate, but politics were not his strong hold, and he sunk the
great merchant in the common-place politician. His immense wealth was
used for the wants o f the government, with the liberality and confidence
o f one who believed that a government should not be poor when indi­
viduals were rich. It is doubtful whether any capitalist in the United
States did so much for the exigencies o f government as Mr. Gray. And
while others were speculating on the depreciation o f securities, no one
will hpsitate to saythat his exertions were dictated by patriotism, with only
the hopes o f an honest remuneration. A fter the close o f the war, he
launched again into commerce, but not with his former success. Times
had changed, but he had not changed with them, and what was a safe cal­
culation once, was not so n o w ; but still there can be no doubt but that he
died a rich man, although no public inventory was ever taken o f his estate,
as his heirs gave bonds to pay debts and legacies— all the law o f that state
requires. Mrs. Gray died about tw o years before her husband, and his
eldest son since his death. Mr. Gray was happy in his family, and was
always a domestic man. H e was worn out with the fatigues o f business
at the age o f seventy-four, and departed this life November fourth, 1825.
PHILIP LIVINGSTON,

descended from a respectable Scotch family, and was b om at Albany,
January fifteenth, 1716. H e was educated at Yale College, and gradua­
ted with the class o f 1737. H e became a merchant in N ew Y ork after
leaving his Alma M ater; and as there were but few well-educated mer­
chants in Wall-street at that time, he was soon quite at their head, and
o f course had offices at his command. In 1754 he was an alderman o f
the city o f N ew Y ork, and after serving in this capacity for four years,
was sent to Albany, as a representative o f the city. In this body he soon
became a leader, and directed its attention to the great interests o f com ­
merce ; N ew Y ork being then behind Boston and Philadelphia in her ex ­
ports and imports. H e was one o f the committee o f correspondence
with the agent for the colony in England,'the celebrated Edmund Burke;
and his letters abound in information and critical remarks. Mr. Livingston
was in congress in 1776, and affixed his name to the declaration o f inde­
pendence, for which he was a strenuous advocate. H e was a member o f
the senate o f N ew Y ork, on the adoption o f the state constitution; after
which, under the provisions o f that constitution, he was elected a member
o f congress; but he was not long permitted to devote himself to the ser­
vice o f his country, for on the twelfth o f June, 1778, he died, with angina
pectoris, or the dropsy o f the chest, often twin messengers o f death. H e
was a warm and fearless patriot in severe times, when thick clouds en­
veloped our political horizon.
FRANCIS LEWIS,

one o f the N ew Y ork delegation in congress when the declaration o f
independence was made, was bom in W ales, in 1723. H e was partly
educated in Scotland, and then sent to Westminster, where he became a




Robert Morris.— Benjamin Rickman.

411

good classical scholar. In London he became an apprentice to a merchant,
with whom he continued until he was o f age. H e then left England for
Am erica with handsome prospects, and set up business in N ew York. H e
was agent for die British colonies in 1756, and was taken prisoner and
carried to France, from which country, on his exchange, he returned to New
York. H e was a lover o f liberty, and stood foremost amongst the sons o f
freedom. In 1775, he was sent a delegate from the provincial congress o f
N ew Y ork to the continental congress, and was there when the declara­
tion o f independence was made. H e continued in that body for several
years afterwards, and rendered great service as a commercial man. H e
suffered much for his patriotism, the British having destroyed his property
on Long Island. H e had, however, the satisfaction o f seeing the country
prosperous, though he was not. H e died on the thirtieth o f December,
1813, in the ninetieth year o f his age.
ROBERT MORRIS

was a native o f England, but came to this country when quite young,
and was educated in Philadelphia. After finishing his education, he en­
tered a counting-house, and in a fewyears became conspicuous as a thorough
merchant. W hen the revolution broke out, Mr. Morris sided with the
colonists, and was distinguished as a patriot. H e was elected a delegate
to the second continental congress, and was in that body in 1776, when
the declaration o f independence was signed. During the whole war, he
was considered the ablest financier in the country, and Washington had
recourse to him, when he could not procure any thing from congress. In
1781, Mr. Morris was appointed superintendent o f finances, and was, per­
haps, the only man in the country fit for the office. H e had a most arduous
task to perform; it was indeed gigantic, for it involved all the duties o f
every department o f the government, so far as money was concerned.
Washington had the highest confidence in him, and Franklin thought him
a most wonderful man. H e surprised all by his power o f raising money
for public exigencies, when our credit was under the worst circumstances.
H e provided Washington with money to carry on his southern campaign
against Cornwallis, the defeat o f whose army ended the war. H e died
on the eighth o f May, 1806, in the seventy-third year o f his age. It may
be said o f him that he was a great public benefactor.
BENJAMIN PICKMAN

was bom in Salem in 1740. H e was the son o f a distinguished mer­
chant in that town, and was graduated at Harvard College, in 1759.
H e entered his father’s counting-room after leaving college, and soon
took a high stand in society.
W hen the revolutionary war broke out, he was lieutenant colonel o f the
Salem regiment, but he had not made up his mind that the time had arrived
a separation o f the two countries. H e was a friend to his own, but could for
not come to the doctrine o f a sudden dismemberment. H e went to E ng­
land under a furlough from the legislature, and there did much good in
assisting the unfortunate who were taken prisoners in the first years o f
the struggle. H is wife and family remained in this country until the war
closed, and o f course his estates were not confiscated. In 1784 he re­
turned to his native land, and was greeted with kindness by his old
friends. H e now commenced business again as a merchant, but in the




412

Laws relative to Debtor and Creditor.

British spoliations lost no small part o f his property. The treaty made
by Jay returned him his property, and the fair interest on the same. H e
now relinquisher] all business, took his money and invested it in Ameri­
can stocks, and lived on its incom e,— most ample means for his pur­
pose. His table was one o f the best in the country. H e was classical,
delicate in his feelings, and unshaken in his opinions, and every one
was satisfied with his hospitable board. His conversation was generally
directed to ancient history, or to that o f our country. H e was at home in
either, but made no parade o f his learning. H e was a man o f no ordi­
nary talents, and o f more than ordinary taste in classical literature. A s
an antiquary he was second to n o n e ; he garnered up all that was curi­
ous or strange in his neighborhood, and was ready to give it to the pub­
lic provided his name could be kept out o f sight.
H e now placed the enjoyments o f life in ease, and never swerved
from his principles. H e was blessed with an excellent wife and a de­
lightful family. They were around him and administered to his com­
forts. H e had three sons and two daughters, and all were devoted to
his happiness. H e rejoiced in the success o f all he k n e w : his heart
was full o f philanthropy.
His person was noble, his height over six feet, his countenance quiet,
calm, but manly, and hardly bore the ordinary marks o f age. In the
81st year o f his age he sunk to sleep, without having suffered many o f
those pains and aches which mortal man is liable to, in this scene o f
struggle and anguish.
There were but few men in this world o f so good a disposition,
fewer still o f so much intelligence or refinement, and none o f greater
purity o f character.

A r t . V I I .— L A W S R E L A T I V E TO D E B T O R A N D C R E D IT O R .
f

NUMBER TWO.
MISSOURI.

The following b rief abstract o f the laws o f Missouri, relative to the
means o f enforcing debts against the citizens o f that state, prepared
by Messrs. Primm & Drake, attorneys at law, at St. Louis, Missouri, has
been politely furnished for publication in our magazine, by Joseph C.
Hart, Esq. o f N ew York. W e also subjoin a complete and accurate
statement o f the times o f holding courts in Missouri.
The points to which we shall advert, relate :
F i r s t — T o suits on bonds, bills, and notes.
S econd — T o suits b y capias.
T h ir d — T o suits by attachment.
F o u r t h — T o proving indorsements and partnerships.
I. Suits on bonds, bills, and notes.
These, by a recent law, are made triable at the term o f court to which
suit is brought, if the defendant shall have been personally served with pro­




Laws relative to Debtor and Creditor.

413

cess, twenty days before the commencement o f the term. This change will
enable a creditor to obtain his m oney; before, under the former law, he
could have had a judgment.
II. Suits by capias.
A capias may he obtained against a debtor: upon the plaintiff, or some
person for him, making an affidavit,* stating that the plaintiff has a sub­
sisting and unsatisfied cause o f action against the defendant, on what ac­
count the same accrued, and that the defendant is about to remove out o f
this state— or that the defendant is not a resident o f this state— or that the
p lain tiff is or will be in danger o f losing his demand unless a capias be al­
lowed, and the dfendant held to bail.
I f the plaintiff’s demand be liquidated, the amount due must be spe­
cified in the affidavit; and when the affidavit shall state that the plaintiff
is or will be in danger, &c., thefa cts and circumstances, from which such
danger is inferred, must be stated in the affidavit.
III. Suits by attachment.
An attachment may be obtained, upon filing a bond, as subsequently
Stated, and an affidavit, setting forth that the defendant is justly indebted
to the plaintiff, after allowing all just credits and set-offs, in a specified
sum, and on what account, and that the affiant has good reason to believe,
and does believe, either
1st, That the debtor is not a resident of, nor residing in the state o f
Missouri; or,
2d, That he conceals himself, or absents himself, or has absconded from
his usual place o f abode, in the state o f Missouri, so that the or­
dinary process o f law cannot be served upon him ; or,
3d, That he is about to remove his property or effects out o f this state,
so as to defraud, hinder, or delay his creditors; or,
4th, That he has fraudulently conveyed, assigned, removed, conceal­
ed, or disposed o f ; or is about to convey, assign, or dispose of,
any o f his property or effects, so as to defraud, hinder, or delay his
creditors; or,
5th, W here the debt was contracted out o f this state, and he has ab­
sconded, or secretly removed his property or effects to this state,
with intent to defraud, defeat, hinder, or delay his creditors.
In addition to the affidavit, a bond, in the following form, must be filed
at the commencement o f the suit:
“ Know all men by these presents, that w e ,---------- as principal, and
---------- as security, are bound to the state o f Missouri, in the sum o f---------dollars, for the payment o f which w e bind ourselves and our legal rep­
resentatives by these presents. Sealed with our seals, and dated this
---------- day o f ---------- ,18— .
“ The condition o f this obligation is such, that whereas----------as plain­
tiff is about to institute a suit by attachment, in the---------- Circuit Court,
against---------- as defendant, returnable to the----------Term, 18-------,o f said
court, for the sum o f ---------- dollars; now i f the said plaintiff shall pro­
secute his action without delay and with effect, and shall pay all damages
which may accrue to the defendant or any garnishee by reason o f said
* A n y affidavit, taken to be used in this state, should be sworn to before a judge o f a court
o f record, and the clerk o f such court should certify, under the seal thereof, the official
character o f the judge.




414

Laws relative to Debtor and Creditor.

attachment, or any process or proceeding in said suit, then this obligation
to be void, otherwise to remain in force.”
This bond must be signed by one or- more securities, resident bouse
holders in the county in which the suit is to be brought, and must be for a
sum at least double the amount o f the demand sworn to.
IV . O f proving endorsements and partnerships.
In a suit by endorsee o f a note, bond, or bill o f exchange, the handwriting o f the endorser must be proven. This may be done by an affi­
davit o f some person acquainted with it, attached to the instrument sued
upon, and filed in the suit twenty days before the day o f trial. It would,
therefore, be advisable, in all cases where such p roof may be necesssary,
to send the affidavit with the claim.
A partnership may be proven, also, by an affidavit filed in the case
twenty days before the day o f trial, setting forth the names and respec­
tive places o f residence o f all the partners, the name or firm of the part­
nership, the general nature o f the business, and where transacted, the
time o f the commencement o f the partnership, that it still exists, if such
be the fact, and i f not, when the firm was dissolved. An affidavit o f this
kind should, therefore, always accompany a claim upon which suit is to
be brought by a firm.
THE CIRCUIT COURTS

Throughout the state are hdd in the different counties, asfollow s:
Audrain,
1st Mondays in March, July, and November.
Barry,
1st Thursdays after 3d Mondays in March, July, and
November.
Benton,
3d Mondays after 4th Monday in March, July, and
November.
Boone,
1st Mondays in April, August, and November.
Buchanan,
3d Mondays in March, July, and November.
Caldwell,
2d Mondays in March, July, and November.
Callaway,
4th Mondays in March, July, and November.
Cape Girardeau, 3d Mondays in February, June, and October.
Carroll,
1st Mondays in April, August, and December.
Chariton,
1st Mondays in January, May, and September.
Clarke,
2d Thursdays after fourth Mondays in March July, and
November.
Clay,
3d Mondays in April, and August, and 1st Monday in
December.
Clinton,
1st Thursdays after 2d Mondays in March, July, and
November.
Cole,
1st Mondays in March, July, and November.
Cooper,
2d Mondays in March, July, and November.
Crawford,
1st Mondays in March, July, and November.
Davies,
2d Mondays in April, August, and December.
Franklin,
3d Mondays in February, June, and October.
Gasconade,
2d Mondays after 4th Mondays in March, July, and
November.
Greene,
1st Mondays after 4th Mondays in March, July, and
November.
Howard,
4th Mondays in April, August, and December.




Laws relative to Debtor and Creditor.
Jackson,
Jefferson,
Johnson,
L a F ayette,
Lewis,
Lincoln,
Linn,
Livingston,
Macon,
Madison,
Marion,
Miller,
Monroe,
Montgomery,
Morgan,
Newton,
N ew Madrid,
Perry,
Pettis,
Pike,
Platte,
Polk,
Pulaski,
Ralls,
Randolph,
Ray,
Ripley,
Rives,
St. Francois,
Ste. Genevieve,
St. Charles,
St. Louis,
Saline,
Scott,
Shelby,
Stoddard,
Taney,
Van Buren,
W arren,
Washington,
W ayne,

415

2d Mondays in April, August, and October.
2d Mondays after 4th Mondays in March, July, and
November.
1st Thursdays after 3d Mondays in March, July, and
November.
1st Mondays in April, August, and October.
1st Thursdays after 4th Mondays in March, July, and
November.
1st Mondays after 4th Mondays in April, August, and
November.
4th Mondays in April, August, and December.
3d Mondays in April, August, and December.
1st Thursdays after 4th Mondays in April, August, and
December.
4th Mondays in January, May, and September.
1st Mondays in January, May, and September.
1st Mondays after 4th Mondays in March, July, and
November.
2d Mondays in March, July, and November.
3d Mondays in April, August, and November.
4th Mondays in March, July, and November.
4th Mondays in March, July, and November.
2d Mondays in March, July, and November.
4th Mondays in March, July, and November.
1st Thursdays after 4th Mondays in March, July, and
November.
2d Mondays in March, July, and October.
4th Mondays in March, July, and November.
2d Mondays after 4th Mondays in March, July, and
November.
2d Mondays in March, July, and November.
1st Mondays in March, July, and October.
3d Mondays in January, May, and September.
4th Mondays in April and August, and 2d Monday in
December.
1st Mondays in February, June, and October.
4th Mondays in March, July, and November.
3d Mondays in March, July, and November.
1st Mondays after 4th Mondays in March, July, and
November.
2d Mondays after 4th Mondays in April, August, and
November.
3d Mondays in March, July, and November.
3d Mondays in March, July, and November.
1st Mondays in March, July, and November.
4th Mondays in March, July, and November.
2d Mondays in February, June, and October.
3d Mondays in March, July, and November.
3d Mondays in March, July, and November.
4th Mondays in April, August, and November.
2d Mondays in March, July, and November.
1st Thursdays after 1st Mondays in February, June,
and October.




Mercantile L aw Reports.

416

A

rt.

V I I I .— M E R C A N T IL E L A W R E P O R T S .

FIRE INSURANCE----EXTENT OF THE POWERS OF INSURANCE AGENTS TO BIND
THEIR PRINCIPALS.----IMPORTANT DECISION ON A FIRE POLICY.---- INSU­
RANCE----GENERAL .AVERAGE---- TECHNICAL TOTAL LOSS---- PARTIAL LOSS
----ABANDONMENT---- SALE OF VESSEL BY THE MASTER---- VALUATION---MARINE INTEREST.
FIRE INSURANCE----EXTENT OF THE POWERS OF INSURANCE AGENTS TO BIND
THEIR PRINCIPALS.
T he following interesting case in the Supreme Court o f New York, o f
lire insurance, involves the question o f the extent o f the powers o f
agents to bind their principals, and as a large proportion o f the insurances
in the country are effected through agents, we publish a full report o f
Judge Bronson’s opinion.
Samuel Lightbody v. North American F ire Insurance Company.
This was an action brought to recover two thousand dollars on a po­
licy o f insurance, issued by the agent o f the North American Insurance
Company, residing in the city o f Troy. The facts, as offered in evi­
dence, were these : The plaintiff resides in the city o f Utica, and was
the owner o f a block o f wooden buildings, which he wished to get in­
sured, and sent a survey o f the property to a friend, residing in the city
o f Troy, requesting him to get it insured in some responsible company
in Troy or Albany, authorizing him to pay one half per cent, premium.
The person to whom the survey was sent called on H . Z. Hayner, Esq.,
agent o f the North American Fire Insurance Company, and inquired if
he was authorized to take risks in the city o f U tica ; being answered in
the affirmative, he presented him the survey, and asked at what rate he
would insure that property. Mr. Hayner requested that he would leave
the survey with him for a few days, that he might examine it before
agreeing upon the premium. In about a w eek’s time he called again,
and they agreed upon the premium, at one half per cent., which was paid
at the time, and a receipt taken for the same.
That same night, March 30th, 1837, those buildings, with many others,
were destroyed by fire. Subsequently to this, the agent gave the insured
a»policy o f insurance, according to agreement, signed by the president
and secretary o f the company, and containing the incorporate seal.
There were two points o f defence set up b y the defendant’s counsel;
one was, that the policy was o f no validity, having been delivered after
the buildings had been destroyed; therefore it could not obligate the
company to pay for what did not exist when it came into the possession
o f the plaintiff.
The other point o f defence set up, was, that their agent was restricted
by the company to insure only in T roy and its vicinity; and, therefore,
by insuring in Utica he had transcended his authority, and consequently
could not bind the company by his acts. In answer to which, it was
urged by the plaintiff’s counsel, that the delivery o f the policy after the
fire was no new contract, but that it was in accordance with the general
custom to take a receipt on effecting an insurance, and afterwards re­
ceive the policy o f the company.




F ire Insurance.

417

In answer to the other objection, it was contended, that the plaintiff
was not bound to inquire what instructions the agent might have received
from the company to regulate his conduct; that it was enough for his pur­
pose to know that he was their authorized and accredited agent, for the
general purposes o f insurance, and that i f he transcended his instructions
he was amenable to the company; and that an individual, who had not
the means o f knowing what those instructions were, ought not to suffer
on this account.
The Court ruled, that the objections could not be sustained, and direct­
ed the jury to find for the plaintiff the full amount claimed.
Exceptions were taken by the defendant’s counsel, and the case having
been carried to the Supreme Court, the following is the opinion o f the
Bench, decided at the late term in Albany.
B y the Court, Bronson, Judge. W ithout intending to intimate any
opinion on a question which may be made between the principals and
their agent, I shall presume, for all the purposes o f this case, that the
agent departed from his instructions in taking a risk at Utica. This
hypothesis will not aid the defendants. Haynev was a general agent
for effecting insurance on behalf o f the company, and acted within the
general scope o f his authority in taking this risk. Although he must
answer to his principals for departing from their private instructions, he
clearly bound them, so far as third persons, dealing with him in good
faith, are concerned. The question is not so much what authority the
agent had in point o f fact, as it is what powers third persons had a right
to suppose he possessed, judging from his acts and the acts o f his princi­
pals. Perkins v. Washington Insurance Company, (4 Cowen, 645.) This
rule is necessary to prevent fraud, and encourage confidence in deal­
ing, (2 Kent, 620.) It is difficult to conceive how the defendants could
have conferred a more unlimited authority upon the agent, so far as third
persons are concerned, than they did by furnishing him with policies al­
ready executed by the officers o f the company, and ready to be delivered
to any one who might wish to contract, after his name, the subject insured,
extent o f the risk, and date o f the transaction, had been inserted in the
contract. The plaintiff had a right to believe that the defendants re­
posed unlimited confidence in Hayner in relation to the subject o f his
agen cy; and it would be a monstrous doctrine, to hold that they may
now discharge themselves by setting up their private instructions, which
were wholly unknown to the plaintiff when he entered into the contract.
The rule is different in relation to a special agent: he cannot bind his
principals beyond the precise limit o f his authority. But Hayner was a
general agent, acting within the scope o f his p ow ers; and if he was
wrong in taking this risk, that is a question to be settled between him and
his principals.
The objection that this was a special risk, and that Hayner had no
authority to take special risks without consulting the company, depends
on the same principle as the objection already noticed, and requires no
separate consideration. There is no ground for imputing bad faith to
the plaintiff, or to his agent, Knowlson, who negotiated the contract with
Hayner. So far as appears, the plaintiff did not know that the defend­
ants had an agent in U tica; and if he had known that fact, he did not
instruct his agent at Troy to insure with the defendants; Knowlson call­
ed on Hayner, because he saw from the sign on his door, that he was an
VOL. II. — no. v.
53




418

M ercantile L aic Reports.

agent for making insurance. H e asked Hayner if he had authority to
take risks in Utica, and the agent answered, he thought he had. There
was nothing in this calculated to excite a doubt concerning the extent
o f the agent’s p o w e rs; and besides, the counsel did not suggest on the
trial, as they did on the argument, that there was enough to put Knowlson on inquiry; it is too late now to raise that question, if there was ever
any ground for making it.
The offer to prove that risks in plaintiff’s block were very hazardous,
was o f no manner o f consequence, so long as there was no pretence that
plaintiff had either misrepresented the true character o f the risks, or
omitted any thing which should have been stated in the survey on which
the defendants acted, nor was it a matter o f any moment that the defend­
ants’ agent at Utica had refused to take risks in that block, and would
have refused this risk had it been offered to them ; that fact could prove
nothing against the plaintiff; and had the plaintiff known that R. & S.,
the agents at Utica, had refused to insure other buildings in the same
block, which is more than the defendants offered to prove, that would
not alter the case. Because other persons could not obtain insurance, it
did not follow that the plaintiff could not; and if the plaintiff himself
had been refused by one agent or company, it did not preclude him from
applying to another. I f he was chargeable with no concealment or
misrepresentation affecting the contract which was made, it cannot be
avoided on the ground that one, or even a dozen, other persons have re­
fused to make a similar contract with him.
The defendants did not avow on the trial that they intended to impute
fraud to the plaintiff, but if they had done so, the several offers o f evi­
dence did not go far enough to raise such a question.
I f the policy was well delivered, it took effect by relation from the
day o f its date, which was the day on which the premium was paid and the
contract concluded. (Jackson v. Ramsay, 3 Cowen, 75, and cases cited.)
It was the manifest intent o f the parties, that the contract should sepa­
rate from the day o f its date, so as to give the plaintiff the same legal
remedy which he would have had if the policy had in fact been deliver­
ed on that day, and the law will give effect to that intention.
This doctrine was not directly denied on the argument, but it was
said that the policy was not duly delivered on the twenty-first o f April,
for the double reason that the power o f the agent was then at an end, and
the plaintiff had notice that the defendants refused to ratify or be bound
by his act in making the contract. Although the defendants told the
plaintiff on the twenty-first o f April that the authority o f Hayner had
been revoked, the letter o f revocation was not even written until the
next day, and it was not received by Hayner until the twenty-third
o f A p ril; so far as the agent was concerned, he not only pursued his
authority in delivering the policy, but he acted in perfect good faith to­
wards his principals, for he had no notice that they intended to put an
end to his agency. The delivery was well made, and bound the defend­
ants, unless there was something in the circumstances o f the case which
should have precluded the plaintiff from receiving the policy when it
was offered to him.
H ow does the question stand in relation to the plaintiff? H e had, as
we have already seen, made a valid contract with the defendants, and
was entitled to the usual evidence o f that contract, a policy o f insurance.




F ire Insurance.

419

H e could, I thlnlc, have maintained an action on the case against the de­
fendants for a refusal to deliver the policy, in which he would have re­
covered damages to the full amount o f his loss. But if his remedy at law
be questionable, he had a perfect equitable right to the delivery o f the
usual policy, which he might have enforced in the proper forum. (P er­
kins v. Washington Insurance Company, 4 Cowen, 645.) Having this
equitable right to the policy, he was clearly at liberty to receive it, when
voluntarily tendered to him by one who had authority to tender it. It
would be a refinement in law, if not in ethics, to hold a man precluded
from accepting that which was rightfully his due, because he happened
to know that the debtor did not intend to discharge his obligations.
The plaintiff'was not told that the authority o f Hayner had been, or
would be, revoked, until his second call at the defendants’ office on the
twenty-first o f April, and for aught that appears, the policy had then
been delivered. But suppose the delivery was after the second c a ll; the
plaintiff was not chargeable with notice that the powers o f the agent had
been revoked, for such was not the fact. The defendants can claim no­
thing on the ground o f having given information that was untrue.
The only notice, then, which could properly be imputed to the plain­
tiff, was notice that the defendants intended to revoke the powers o f the
agent. Immediately afterwards, i f it did not happen before, Hayner
met the plaintiff, in pursuance o f the appointment previously made at
Troy, and delivered the policy. There was no false suggestions or de­
ceit on the part o f the plaintiff; he neither said nor did any thing to in­
duce the delivery. The matter then comes to this : the plaintiff accept­
ed that which was voluntarily tendered, and was his rightful due, with
the knowledge that his debtor did not intend he should have it. That
cannot be a good impeachment o f his title.
Although the plaintiff’ could not sue on the receipt for premium, that
paper was properly received in evidence as a part o f the transaction.
The objection to reading the policy in evidence, is disposed o f in what
has already been said ; and so also with the objection that the prelimi­
nary proofs showed a loss accruing previous to the execution and deli­
very o f the policy.
There are, I believe, no other exceptions which were not abandoned
on the argument.
N ew trial denied.
IMPORTANT DECISION ON A FIRE POLICY.
T h e new V ice Chancellor, Murray Hoffman, Esq., has lately made a
decision in the case o f Charles Me,E vers and others v. the Receivers o f the
Merchants' F ire Insurance Company, which shows how careful parties
sustaining loss by fire should be in performing the conditions o f their
policy.
The premises, in the present case, were destroyed by the great fire
in 1835. They were then worth the full amount o f a policy which had
been effected with a certain insurance company.
Receivers stood ready to pay a dividend o f 6S per cent, on the
policy, if so decreed. There were, also, other funds for a final dividend,
which had not yet been declared.
The pleadings contained certain averments as to the omission to g iv e




420

M ercantile L aic Reports.

notice o f the loss; and some p ro o f was taken upon that subject, all o f
which are particularly stated in the following opinion o f the Court.
The Assistant Vice Chancellor. — “ Various objections have been made,
on the part o f the receivers, to the relief prayed by the b ill; I have
formed so decided an opinion upon the question o f the omission to give
proper notice o f the claim, that I shall not enter into the examination o f
topics, no conclusion upon which could vary the decree” I must make.
The policy contains the following: “ persons sustaining loss or damage
by fire shall forthwith give notice thereof in writing to the company, and,
as soon as possible, they shall deliver as particular an account o f their
loss and damage as the case will admit, signed with their own hands, and
they shall accompany the same with their oath or affirmation, declaring
the said account to be true and ju s t; the whole cash value o f the sub­
je ct insured; and various other particulars prescribed. A certificate
under the hand and seal o f a magistrate, is also to be produced, stating
his examination o f the circumstances attending the fire, etc., and until
such proof, declarations, and certificates are produced, the loss shall not
be payable.”
The pleadings in these cases have distinctly raised the point, whether
notice was given or n ot! The issue was raised by the allegation o f the
original bill, that it was duly given shortly after the fire; and by the de­
nial, on the information and b elief in the answer and the averment, that
no such notice was given until after the appointment o f receivers, in May,
1S36, more than four months subsequent to the fire. The secretary o f
the company has been examined, and disproves the allegation so far as his
information extends. The president, or other officers, who might have
received it, as suggested at the bar, have not been examined. It is out
o f the question to presume notice under such circumstances.
It is, however, said, that the receivers have, by their conduct, impliedly
admitted that proper notice was given. This depends mainly upon their
letter, addressed to the complainants on the 20th o f July, 1836. In that
they urge various equities, chiefly that the other securities, held by the
N ew Y ork Insurance Company, should be resorted to, and it is said they
do not urge the want o f notice as a ground o f resisting the claim. They
do, however, suggest, whether they are at all answerable, out o f the
funds o f the Merchants’ Insurance Company, to pay the claim on the
policy, or any part thereof. A nd they apprize them that they shall re­
sort to all legal and equitable means to contest the claim under the p o­
licy. There is no admission o f notice in this. N or is there such in any
act or statement o f the receivers which has been pointed out. Neither
can they be bound by any implied waiver o f notice. An express waiver
o f any legal technical defence to a claim, would be as great a breach
o f duty as an abandonment o f the most equitable one. In the case o f
the receivers o f the Life and Fire Insurance Company, the chancellor
treated them as bound to resist the claim o f holders o f certain securities,
called bonds, upon grounds o f a legal nature, which, as between the
stockholders and the claimants, at least, had but little equity in them —
(sect. 3, page 224.) Under these circumstances, the Court must proceed
to the question, whether the neglect to give the notice, until more than
four months after the loss, is fatal to the claim.
It is urged, that the omission may be waived, as well as the omission
to give full preliminary proofs o f loss; and that such waiver may be im­




F ire Insurance.

421

plied, from no objection being made on that account, and the refusal
placed upon other grounds. The case o f V os v. Robinson, (9 John. Rep.
195,) as to a marine policy, and o f Dawes v. the N. R . Insurance Com­
pany, (7 Cowen, 462,) upon a fire policy, have been cited to this point.
The former, as well as other cases, establish, that a defect in pre­
liminary proofs may be waived. But the waiver must be made by a
competent authority. In the latter case it was held, that the president
o f the Fire Insurance Company was not authorized by the charter to
waive the full preliminary p roofs; although it was admitted that, had
they been dispensed with by a board o f directors, or a committee autho­
rized to settle the claim, the company would have been bound. But the
president had no more power to dispense with the terms o f the contract
than any other stockholders.
It would be difficult to sustain the proposition, that the receivers could
dispense with what the contract requires. It is, however, certain, that
in this case they have not dispensed with it. The important case o f
Inman v. the Washington Insurance Company, (12 W endell, 455,) has
been cited and commented upon to sustain this defence. It appears to
me to establish, beyond controversy, that no action could be sustained at
law. What right bas a court o f equity to declare a different rule 1 I
cannot find any equity arising from accident or any other cause on the
part o f the complainants, much less from the fraud o f the defendants,
which affords such equity. The original bill cannot be sustained.
Then the question is, whether the relief asked by the cross bill can be
given 1
I f the case rested between the Merchants’ Insurance Company and
the N ew Y ork Insurance Company alone, I should have no difficulty.
The law o f the court, whatever doubt may have before existed, is now
certain. N o instrument, deemed to be void by a court o f equity, and
which it will not enforce or make the ground o f a decree asserting a
right, ought to remain in existence, provided the pleading enable the
courts to annul it.
The doctrine is fully stated by Justice Story.
(2 Story’s Equity, 10. 700 ; see also, Goddard v. Garret, 2 E q. Ab.
371, pi. 2 ; French v. Conelly, 2 Anst. 454; Hamilton v. Cummings,
1 Johns. C. R. 320.)
M y doubt arises, first, from the injury that may result to other and in­
nocent parties from the neglect o f the company. But I am bound to
consider that the company was the agent to assert their rights as well as
its own, and that all the other parties had a right to supervise their con­
duct, and to see that their duty was performed. A t least they must, al­
though unfortunately, abide by the company’s n eglect; and the omis­
sion o f proper notice is a defence against all, wheresoever the fault
may lie.
But, n e x t: I consider that, before the court can decree the cancelment o f an instrument, it must see clearly that no person but those before
it can sustain the claim under it ; otherwise, the remedy should be a per­
petual injunction against, the parties to the suit.
I do not see that any person, except Elliott, Lamb, the company,
or Raymond and his assignee, can possibly have any interest in the
question.
The original bill must be dismissed, and a decree be made under the




422

M ercantile L aw Reports.

cross bill for delivery up o f the policy o f insurance. Under the pecu­
liar circumstances o f the case, I think each party should bear his own
costs.
INSURANCE----GENERAL AVERAGE---- TECHNICAL TOTAL LOSS---- PARTIAL LOSS
----ABANDONMENT---- SALE OP VESSEL BY THE MASTER---- VALUATION---MARINE INTEREST.
T he case o f James L . P . Orrok and, others v. Commonwealth Insurance
Company, recently decided by the Supreme Judicial Court o f Massa­
chusetts, was an action on a policy o f insurance on the brig Rolla. The
plaintiffs claimed for a total loss. The defendants admitted themselves
to be liable for a partial loss, but not for a total loss.
It appeared that the insurance was on tim e; that the Rolla, on the
9th o f February, 1835, during the time covered by the policy, struck
upon a rock in the Mediterranean Sea, while pursuing a voyage from
Barcelona to Vera Cruz, intending to touch at Gibraltar for provisions;
that on the next day after getting off the rock, she was compelled, by the
injury she had received, to put into Roquetas, where the captain pro­
cured eight men to go on board and assist in pumping; that on the fol­
low ing morning she was driven to sea by the violence o f the wind, but
succeeded in reaching Malaga on the 15th o f February; that, at Malaga,
by the advice o f the American consul, a survey was called, and the sur­
veyors reported, that it was necessary that the vessel should be unloaded,
in order to examine her; that this having been done, another survey was
called, and a report made by the surveyors in writing, which concluded
by recommending that the vessel should be so ld ; and that the captain
afterwards, by the advice o f the consul, and in pursuance o f such report,
sold her by auction.
It farther appeared, that the cargo consisted o f wines, and other arti­
cles which were not o f a perishable nature ; and that the vessel was re­
paired in about ten days so as to be enabled to make a voyage across
the Atlantic.
The plaintiffs abandoned the vessel on the 5th o f August, 1835; and
there was evidence that the captain arrived in Boston on the 10th o f the
preceding July.
The defendants introduced, as a witness, John S. Tyler, an insurance
broker in Boston, who testified, that, according to the usual manner o f
adjusting losses in Boston, the expense o f the eight men from Roquetas,
and that o f the first survey while the cargo was on board, would be
charged as general average; that the expense o f the second survey, if
on the vessel after the cargo was out, would be a partial loss; that the
cost o f the carpenters’ work and labor, and all the expenses necessary
in order to make the surveys, would follow the surveys respectively, and
be general average or partial loss, as the principle to which they were
incident was the one or the other; that the expenses o f lighterage,
boat hire, hire o f the vessel in which the cargo was put, and all the ex­
penses respecting the cargo, would be general average; that wages, and
the cost o f provisions, from the time o f bearing away for a port o f neces­
sity, etc., if the vessel had been repaired, during such repairs, and until
she was again upon her voyage, would also be general average; and
that if, in order to make the repairs, money was raised on bottomry, one




Marine Insurance.

423

third was deducted from the marine interest paid, and two thirds only
charged to the underwriters.
A t the trial, the counsel for the plaintiffs, upon the cross-examination o f
Samuel F . Holbrook, a shipwright, who was introduced as a witness by
the defendants, proposed the following question: “ A s this vessel and the
injury to her have been described, would she, after being repaired, be o f
less value than before the injury happened V’
This question was objected to by the defendants; and the judge ruled
that it could not be proposed.
The plaintiffs contended, that i f the master could not have made com­
plete repairs at Malaga, for less than one half o f the value o f the vessel,
but could have made partial repairs at Malaga and then carried his ves­
sel to Gibraltar, and there made complete repairs, at an expense in the
whole not exceeding one half o f such value, he was not bound to have
made partial repairs at Malaga, and then have gone to Gibraltar for
complete repairs ; but the judge was o f a different opinion, and instruct­
ed the ju ry accordingly.
The plaintiffs contended, that the valuation in the policy was not con­
clusive, and that they had a right to show, that the vessel was o f less
value, and especially that she was o f less value at Malaga, the port o f
necessity; but the judge instructed the ju ry otherwise, and ruled, that
the valuation in the policy was conclusive.
The plaintiffs farther contended, that i f the valuation in the policy was
conclusive, still the premium should be excluded, in determining whether
the insured were authorized to abandon; and that as the valuation in the
present case was eight thousand dollars, including the premium o f seven
per cent., an excess o f one half o f seven thousand four hundred and
forty dollars, would authorize an abandonment; hut the judge ruled
otherwise, and instructed the jury, that the insured were not authorized
to abandon, unless the expense exceeded one half o f eight thousand
dollars.
The plaintiffs contended, that in determining whether the expense o f
repairs authorized an abandonment, the whole o f the marine interest
necessary to be paid was to be included; hut the judge ruled otherwise,
and instructed the jury, that only two thirds o f the marine interest were
to be included, that is, that the deduction o f one third new for old was
to be made from the whole cost (including the marine interest) o f the
items subject to such deduction.
Several other points were made by the plaintiffs, at the trial, which
were overruled by the judge, and a verdict was rendered for a partial loss
only.
The case was argued before the full court on a motion by the plaintiffs
for a new trial, and the court decided that the verdict o f the ju ry was
right. They made the following, among other, points:
1. That on the question whether the cost o f repairs would exceed
half the value o f the vessel, evidence tending to show that she would
have been o f less value after being repaired than she was before the in­
jury, was inadmissible.
2. I f the injury sustained by a vessel insured is not o f such a nature and
extent as to warrant an abandonment, it is not such a case o f necessity
as will warrant a sale by the master.
3. In determining whether the expenses in repairing an injury sus­




Commercial Regulations.

424

tained by a vessel insured under a valued policy, will exceed half o f her
value, and thus constitute a technical total loss, the valuation o f the ves­
sel in the policy is conclusive as to her value.
4. W here, in such case, the policy provides that the insured shall
not have a right to abandon unless the loss exceeds half the amount in­
sured, and the valuation includes the premium, the loss must exceed one
half o f the whole valuation, including the premium, to authorize an
abandonment.
5. I f it is necessary to raise money at marine interest for the purpose
o f repairing a vessel insured, the rule o f deducting one third new for
old is to be applied to such interest, in determining the amount for
which the insurers are liable.
6. The vessel’s proportion o f items o f general average is not to be add­
ed to the partial loss, in order to make up the loss o f fifty per cent.,
which authorizes an abandonment.

COMMERCIAL

REGULATIONS.

AN ORDINANCE CONCERNING THE LEVEE DUTIES IN AND FOR THE PORT OF
NEW ORLEANS.
The General Council o f the Municipalities o f New Orleans, in conformity with the
20th section o f the A ct o f Incorporation, approved 8th March, 1830, ordain as follows:
A rticle 1. The levee or wharfage duties, on ships and other decked vessels, and on
steam vessels, arriving from sea, shall be fixed as follows :
On each sea vessel under 75 tons.....................................................$12 00
“
“
of75 and under 100 tons.......................... 15 00
“
“
100
“
125
20 00
“
“
125
“
150
25 00
“
“
150
“
200
30 00
“
“
200
“
250
40 00
“
“
250
11
300
50 00
“
“
300
“
350
55 CO
“
“
350
“
400
00 00
“
“
400
“
450
65 00
“
“
450
“
500
75 00
“
“
550
“
600
85 00
“
“
600
“
650
95 00
“
11
650
“
700
110 00
.......... '..............120 00
“
“
700
“
750
over 750............................................................. 130 00
A r t . 2. The payment o f these duties shall be exacted and collected by the munici­
pality within whose limits such vessels may have moored, after their arrival from sea in
port; and an extra duty, of one third o f these rates, shall be paid by all vessels which
may remain in port over two months, the same to be recovered at the commencement
o f the third month; and if they remain in port four months, then they shall pay a farther
additional wharfage, of one third o f said rates, atthe commencement o f the fifth month,
and be privileged to remain until the expiration o f six months from date o f original ar­
rival and mooring, without a farther charge being imposed on them.
A rt. 3. When any vessel shall be removed from that division o f the port in which
it shall have originally paid duty, to another division o f said port, under the jurisdic­
tion o f anolher municipality, said latter municipality shall be entitled to receive from
the municipality to which said duty had been first paid, in the following ratio, v iz .:
One halt o f the duty actually paid or due, if said vessel have not remained longer than
fifteen days in that part o f the port in which it was first moored ; one third, if said ves­
sel have remained longer than fifteen days, but not more than twenty-five days ; but if
beyond twenty-five days, not any part o f said duty shall be recovered. Nevertheless,




Commercial Regulations.

425

the municipality in whose limits said vessels shall afterwards be moored, shall have the
right to levy and collect the extra duty o f one third o f the rates mentioned in Article 1,
on the conditions mentioned in Article 2; provided, that no farther charge or extra
duty shall be exacted from any vessel which may have removed from one part o f the
port to another, for the mere purpose o f forthwith proceeding to sea.
A rt . 4. A ll vessels or steamboats coming from sea, which, after their arrival in port,
shall proceed to, and return from, any plantation or other place, with a cargo, or part
o f a cargo, o f any kind of produce whatever, and shall again enter the port for the pur­
pose o f discharging the same, shall pay, on returning from any such trip, a levee duty
o f eight dollars over and above the duties fixed by the 1st Article o f this ordinance, the
same to be collected by the municipality within whose limits said vessels may discharge
said produce.
A rt. 5. The levee duties on steam vessels navigating on the river, and which shall
moor and land in any part o f the incorporated limits o f the port, shall be fixed as follows:
On each steamer under 75 tons..........................................................$ 8 00
“
11 o f 75 and under 100 tons................................. 12 00
“
“
100
“
150
16 00
“
“
150
“
200
20 00
“
“
200
“
250
25 00
11
“
250
“
390
30 00
“
“
300
“
350
35 00
“
“
350
“
400
40 00
“
“
400
“
450
45 00
“
“
450
“
600
50 00
“
“
500
“
550
55 00
over 550 .................................................................... 60 00
A rt. 6. A ll steam vessels employed as packets, and plying regularly between this
port and the ports in the Gulf o f Mexico, including Havana,’shall pay no other or higher
rate o f wharfage than is-imposed by this ordinance on steamboats navigating the Mis­
sissippi.
A rt. 7. The duties specified in the preceding Article, shall be paid on the mooring
and landing o f said steamers in port, by their captains or other agents, to the officer en­
trusted with their collection by the municipality within whose limits said vessels shall
have moored and landed.
A rt. 8. After the payment o f these duties, said steamers shall be entitled to remain
thirty days in that part o f the port which may have been designated by the munici­
pality to Which it belongs; and any steamer remaining over thirty consecutive days,
shall pay an additional duty o f two dollars per day, until its final departure from port,
the same to be collected daily; and if any steamer leaves its first landing place, to take
a berth and be moored in another municipality, it shall pay said additional duty of
two dollars per day, to the collector o f the municipality into whose, limits it shall have
been removed, whether said term o f thirty days shall have expired or not at the time o f
such removal.
A rt . 9. Steamers employed as tow boats, and which shall have received on board
any produce, the whole or any part o f the cargo o f a vessel, and shall discharge the same
on the levee, shall pay the same duty as is specified in Article 5, according to their ton­
nage; said duty to be collected by the proper officer o f the municipality within whose
limits such discharge shall be effected.
A rt. 10. T ow boats shall pay, for each time they may moor to take in wood or other
fuel, eight dollars to the municipality within whose limits they may moor and take in
said fuel.
A rt. 11. The following levee dues shall be exacted on all flat boats, barges, keel
boats, pirogues, and all other raft, crafts, & c.:
On each flat boat, either fully or in part laden with produce, materials, or mer­
chandise o f any kind....................................................................................... $10 00
On each barge, measuring 70 feet or more in length........................................ 10 00
On all barges, keel boats, or boats measuring less than 70 feet, and not ex­
ceeding 15 tons burthen................................................................................... G 00
4 Oil
On all other boats not described in the present ordinance..............................
1 00
On each coasting pirogue................................................................. .................
The owners or keepprs o f boats used as places o f depot for any article what­
1 00
ever, shall pay a duty, per day, o f ..................................................... ...........
The following duties shall also be levied:
On being broken up, if in the incorporated limits o f the port, each flat boat,. 4 00
vol ,

ii.— no . v.




54

426

Commercial Regulations.

On each steamer, or other vessel than flat boats, being broken up within
said limits.......................................................................................................... 10 00
On rafts o f timber not containing more than 25 logs each raft......................
5 03
On each raft o f timber containing more than twenty-five logs, then in the
ratio of that increase.
On each craft measuring 40 tons or under, employed to carry sugar, molas­
ses, wood, or any other description o f merchandise, there shall be levied,
4 CO
on each trip, a duty o f ............................................................................. ......
On all craft exceeding forty tons each, employed as above, shall also be le­
vied, on each trip, a duty o f ............................................................................
G 00
A rt. 12. A ll boats or other vessels arriving within the limits o f the port, with fish,
meat, vegetables, eggs, or any and every other kind o f provisions, expressly for the
purpose o f supplying the several markets, shall be entirely exempt from paying any
levee dues; but the same, and all other description o f craft otherwise employed, whether
particularly mentioned in this ordinance or not, shall pay duty according to the tariff
above ordained.
A rt. 13. The time allowed for all pirogues, flat boats, boats, barges, and keel boats, to
land their cargoes in port, shall be fixed at twelve days from their original arrival, after
which said craft shall pay daily an additional duty, on each barge, boat, or keel boat
over 70 feet in length, o f ........................................................................ ...................SI 00
75
And less than 70 feet lon g................................................................. ...................
And in the event o f any said vessels removing from one municipality to another,
from their first place o f landing, they shall pay daily said additional duty to the latter
municipality, whether said term o f twelve days shall have expired or not.
The time allowed for discharging o f boats or other craft not otherwise described in
this ordinance, is fixed at twelve days from their arrival in port, after which said boats
and craft, and all rafts and floats, shall be taken out o f the incorporated limits o f the
port, under penalty o f being fined $25 for each day they may be found in violation of
the law, said fine to be paid by all owners, masters, keepers, or consignees o f said flat
boats, rafts, or floats, for each and every day they may refuse to comply with the dispo­
sitions o f the present ordinance ; said fine to be recovered before any competent tribunal,
on the evidence o f the proper officer whose duty it is to see the levee or port ordinances
carried into effect. Provided, however, that this clause in the present ordinance shall
not deprive any o f the municipalities o f the right o f granting a specific privilege for
said flat boats, rafts, or floats, to be broken up and used within any one o f their respect­
ive limits.
A rt. 14. It is hereby expressly forbidden to all owners, masters, consignees, or other
persons, to sell, or cause to be sold, on board o f any o f the aforesaid craft, under any
pretence whatever, wine, beer, cider, and spirituous liquors, in quantities less than a
barrel, under a penalty o f fifty dollars for each contravention; said fine to be paid by
them in the like manner, and on the like evidence, as are described in Article 13. It is
also expressly forbidden to smoke, or allow to be smoked, meat o f any kind on board
o f said craft, under the penalty, in the manner levied, and on the evidence above men­
tioned.
A rt. 15. All barges, flat boats, keel boats, or other craft, in which shall be exposed
for sale in the part o f the port assigned for their accommodation during the said term
o f twelve days, any produce, goods, or merchandise, brought on board from a distance
less than 100 miles above the city o f ‘New Orleans, excepting sugar, molasses, and
cotton, the staples o f Louisiana, shall be fined in a sum o f not less than $ 50, nor exceed­
ing $100, the same to be recovered in the manner set forth in Article 13.
A rt. 16. In case any person should furnish any false reports relative to the cargoes,
owners, or consignees, or the date o f such crafts entering the port, or in any manner in­
terfere with or imp'ede the officers o f the several municipalities in the free exercise o f the
duties devolving on them, said person or persons so contravening shall, on conviction,
pay a fine o f not less than $20, nor exceeding $100, for each contravention.
A rt. 17. It shall be obligatory on the part o f captains o f vessels and steamers, and
also on masters, owners, and keepers of all crafts, flat boats, rafts, and floats, to pay the
aforesaid duties onboard of their respective vessels, a receipt for which shall be deliver­
ed to them by the proper officer o f each municipality, in order to prove payment thereof,
in case any o f said vessels, craft, &c., be removed from one division o f the port to
another.
A rt. 18. A ll the fines imposed by this ordinance shall be for the benefit o f the muni­
cipality within which any contravention thereof may have been committed; the same
to be levied on the evidence o f the wharfinger, and if voluntarily paid, the receipt for the
same shall be given by the treasurer; but if they be resisted, then their recovery shall
be effected by and before an authority or court of competent jurisdiction.




Commercial Regulations.

427

A rt. 19. It shall be a special duty o f the wharfinger for each municipality to make
a weekly report to the comptroller thereof, o f all and every description o f vessels, their
tonnage, &c., which may each day enter and moor within the limits of the port under
his superintendence; which weekly report shall be carefully filed in the office o f said
comptroller, for farther reference and examination, and in regular rotation o f dates.
A r t . 20. Be it farther ordained, that, from and after ten days’ promulgation o f this
ordinance, the wharfage collectors o f the three municipalities shall cause to be kept, by
the enrolling clerk at the custom house, a record book, in which daily entries shall be
made o f every vessel which may arrive from sea, specifying their names, their masters,
consignees, where from, and their tonnage, having three marginal spaces on the right
hand, headed, municipality Nos. 1,2, 3, respectively, which space shall be from time to
time filled up with the signatures o f the three several wharfage collectors, indicating
that they have received the wharfage due to their respective municipalities, by each of
whom the expense o f procuring and maintaining said book o f record, if any, shall be
borne and paid in three equal proportions.
A r t . 21. Be it also ordained, that, in the event o f the resignation or suspension o f
any officer or officers employed as collectors o f any o f the branches o f the revenues
belonging to either o f the municipalities, he or they shall be forthwith required to de­
liver up to the treasurer o f the municipality whence his or their appointment was de­
rived, all his or their books, accounts, and vouchers appertaining thereto.
A rt. 22. The present ordinance shall be put in force in ten days after its promulga­
tion by the mayor; and the execution o f such dispositions thereof as relate to the po­
lice o f the port, shall specially belong to the officers appointed by each o f the munici­
palities for this purpose.
A rt. 23. A ll previous ordinances, or parts o f ordinances, relative to levee dues,
and to the police o f the port, and which may be at variance with, or opposed to, the
provisions o f the present ordinance, shall be, and the same are hereby repealed.
HOSPITAL MONEY.
Extract from Chapter X IV . Title IV . o f the Revised Statutes o f the State o f New- York,
entitled, “ Ofthe public health”
S ec . 7. The health commissioner shall demand, and be entitled to receive, and in case
o f neglect or refusal to pay, shall sue for and recover, in his name o f office, the following
sums, from the master o f every vessel that shall arrive in the port o f New York, namely:
1. From the master o f every vessel from a foreign port, for each cabin passenger, one
dollar and fifty cents; for each steerage passenger, one dollar.
2. From the master o f each coasting vessel, for each passenger on board, twenty-five
cents; but no coasting vessel from the states o f New Jersey, Connecticut, and Rhode
Island, shall pay for more than one voyage in each month, computing from the first
voyage in each year.
S ec . 9. Each master paying hospital monies, shall be entitled to demand and recover,
from each person for whom they shall be paid, the sum paid on his account.
S ec. 10. Every master ofa coasting vessel shall pay to the health commissioner, at his
office, in the city o f New York, within twenty-four hours after the arrival o f his ves­
sel in the port, such hospital monies as shall then be demandable from him, under the
provisions o f this title; and every master, foreach omission o f such duty, shall forfeit
the sum of one hundred dollars.
IMPORTANT TO BOOKSELLERS.
It is stated in the London Morning Post, that Messrs. Black and Armstrong, foreign
booksellers, of Wellington-street, Strand, have addressed circulars to the trade, to inform
them o f the successful resultofa memorial to the Treasury, on the subject o f the exports
on which drawback is claimed. The Board o f Excise has issued a warrant, stating,
that in future no objection will be made to the introduction o f pens, pencils, inkstands,
rulers, sealing-wax, wafers, and other articles o f stationery, or o f books not entitled to
drawback, into packages containing paper or books intended to be exported on draw­
back, provided that, in the case o f stationery, the quantity packed shall not exceed in
weight one fifth o f the weight o f the paper, and in the case o f books not entitled to draw­
back, one tenth o f the weight o f the drawback books contained in the package in which
they are placed, and provided the exporter .shall cause to be marked in a legible man­
ner on the outside o f each package, in the presence of the packing-officer, the nett weight
o f each; and the nett weight o f the articles or books not entitled to drawback, pack­
ed with them; and the tare o f the package.




428

Commercial Statistics.

COMMERCIAL

STATISTICS.

COMMERCE OF CONNECTICUT, FROM 1791 TO 1838.

1701
1792
1793
1794
1795
1796
1797
179h
1799
1800
1801
1802
1803
1804
1805
1606
I f 07
1808
isoy
1810
1811
1812
1813
1814
1815
1816
1817
1818
1819
1820
1821
1822
1823
1824
1825
1826
1827
1828
1829
1830
1831
1832
1833
1834
1835
1836
1837
1838

Imports.
Domestic.

Foreign.

.. ..

...
1,238,388
1,486,882
1,353,537
1,522,750
1,519,083
397,781
655.228
762,785
991,216
7*20,805
938,729
1,042,776
383,135
587,007
574,290
574,500
437,851
415,830
36 >,189
479,353
480,941
570,634
684,686
695,454
567,100
493,925
450,985
335,610
482,073
430,468
427,603
421,419
487,510
431,176
523,103
513,610

10.183
£9,223
90,190
193,078
105,644
15,910
11,255
5.858
38,138
5,574
360
6,799
£9,819
3,064
683
6,101
10,007
5,959
1,120
5,218
4,584
13.439
23,175
27,620
6,985
3,901
810
997
£5,460
7,023
9,487

Total.
710,353
879,753
770,255
812,765
819,465
1,452,793
814,506
763,128
1,143,818
1,114,743
1,446,216
1,606,809
1,248,571
1,516,110
1,443,727
1,715,828
1,624,727
413,691
666,513
768,643
1.032,354
780,805
974,303
1,043,136
363,135
593,806
604,139
577,564
438,534
421,931
376,187
485,312
452.061
575,852
689,270
708.893
590,275
521,545
457,970
389,511
482,883
430,466
427,603
422,416
512,970
438199
532,590
513,610

312,090
507,094
456,463
581,510
707,478
736,194
630,004
485,174
309,538
269,583
405.056
437,715
352,014
385,720
439,502
468,163
318,849
343.331

214,267
149,162
169,770
186,535
168,798
191,309
160,488
181,960
334,870
£01,839
367,861
339,870
350,110
429,531
464,592
478,664
464,467
254,769
163,684
187,521
253,361
873,829
448,595
100,707
230,229
347,436
176,837
205,470
238,190
208,756
196.193
262,375
242,496
306,936
275,933
274,703
189,823
238,562
166,544
125,386
113,185
114,528
87,122
83,443
82,742
106,521

* Ending 30th o f September.

*




Dr'backs paid
on foreign
merchandise
exported.

EXPORTS.

Duties on f o ­
reign m er­
chandise im­
ported.

Years.

Compiled from Official Documents, by S. Hazard, Esq., o f live U. S. Statistical Register.

33
1,198
376
1,796
33 685
30,398
37,819
21,0-21
15,748
15,721
53,522
21,402
47,150
80,488
114,715
114,896
24,314
16,729
8,312
3,709
14,220
24,557
35,261
5,595
5,855
5,701
3,038
1.298
2,910
1,437
6,098
5,157
10.856
6.369
12.196
1.620
29,304
20,503
12,433
6,069
3,887
374
1,441
2,164

Registered
tonnage.

18,140
16 523
18,015
20,511
23,549
26,045
19,634
23,549
31,632
31,260
34,465
24,940
26,770
23,683
29,563
26,026
27,071
22,297
21,306
22,671
26,502
29,953
24,241
£5,016
33,472
24,624
21,127
13,499
14,378
14,341
14,084
16,419
16,258
14.558
13,084
13.351
14,704
16,814
16.916
14,989
17,064
21,068
21,805
•24,939
26,112
27,398
23,716
28,451

00
00
85
59
91
39
25
44
63
39
58
05
54
67
31
37
11
87
46
35
65
54
00
54
12
62
64
31
30
67
85
84
81
75
78
36
76
44
42
05
43
85
33
79
74
35*
03*
19*

429

Commercial Statistics.
COMMERCE OP THE UNITED STATES.

Years. |

Value o f Exports from each State fo r ten years, ending 30th September, 1838.
piled from tables appended to a Report o f the Secretary of the Treasury.

Maine.

105,740
96,184
111,222
115,582
155,258
80,870
81,681
15,520
34,641
74,670

808,079
658,256
925,127
349,820
377,399
334,372
3-28,151
188.165
138,693
132,650

Massachu­
setts.
8,254,937
7,213,194
7,732,763
11,993,768
9,683,122
10,148,820
10,043,790
10,384,346
9,728,190
9,104,862

Rhode
Island.
390,381
278,950
367,465
534,459
485,481
501,626
296,003
228,420
488,258
291.257

Connecti­
New York.
cut.
457,970
389.511
482,883
430,466
427,603
422,416
519,270
438,199
532.590
543,610

Years.

Vermont.

New Jersey

1829
1830
1831
1832
1833
1834
1835
1836
1837
1838

8,022
8,324
11,430
61,794
32,753
8,131
74,041
62,809
44,217
28,010

4,089,935
4,291.793
5,513,713
3,516.066
4.078;951
3,989,746
3,739,275
3,971,555
3,841,599
3,477,151

7,195
52,253
34,514
16,242
45,911
51.945
88,826
74,981
40,333
36.844

4,804,465
3,791,462
4,308,647
4,499,918
4,062,467
4,163,245
3,925,234
3,675,475
3,789,917
4,524,575

928,097
753,973
1,220,975
1,154,474
1,002,816
820,394
517,639
[326,871
469,209
373,113

Years.

1829
737,832
1830
670,522
805,573
1831
1832
981,443
1833 1,019,831
1831
834,167
1835 1,059,367
1836
850,986
955,952
1837
935,532
1838

N. Hamp­
shire.

South
Carolina.

Georgia.

Ohio.

Michigan.

Alabama. Louisiana.

1829
1830
1831
1832
1833
1834
1835
1836
1837
1838

Pennsylva­
District of
Delaware. Maryland.
Virginia.
nia.
Columbia.

2,004
8,175,586 4,981,376
7,627,031 5,336,626
14,728
6,575,201 3,959,813
58,394
7,752,731 5,515,883
8,434,325 6.270.040 225,544
11,207,778 7,567,327 241,451
97,204
11,338-016 8,890,674
3,718
13,684,376 10,722,200
11,220,161 8.935.041 132,844
11,042,070 8,803,839 139,827

1,588
12,392
9,234
9,054
36,021
64,830
61,231
69,790
125,660

1,693,958
2.294,594
2,413.894
2,736,387
4,527,961
5,670,797
7,574,692
11,184,166
9,671,401
9,688,244

Com­

3,787,431
4,791,644
4,150,475
4.510,650
4,467,587
5,483,098
6,064,063
6,192,040
3,702,714
3,986,228

20,119,011
19,697,983
25,535,114
26,000,945
25,395,117
25,512,014
30.345,264
28.920,438
27.338,419
23,008,471

North
Carolina.
564,506
399,333
341,140
342,041
433,035
471,406
319,327
429,851
551,795
545.223

Florida.

12,386,060 56,086
15,488,692
7,570
16,761,989 30,495
16,530,930 65,716
18,941,373 64,805
26,557,524 228,825
36,270,823 61,710
37,179,828 71,662
35,338,697 90,084
31,502,248 122,532*

* For Kentucky, Tennessee, and Indiana, none put dow n; and for Mississippi, the
value for 1837 only, stated at $304,831.

BANKRUPTCIES IN FRANCE.
From the 1st o f January, 1839, to the 1st January, 1840, 1,013 bankruptcies were de­
clared for the department o f the Seine; v iz .: 58 in January, 08 in February, 79 in March,
84 in April, 86 in May, 100 in June, 91 in July, 107 in August, 84 in September, 103
in October, 79 in November, and 76 in December. The total amount o f these failures
was 60 millions o f francs.




Commercial Statistics.

430

VALUE OF EXPORTS FROM THE UNITED STATES,

Great B ri­ France and. Spain and Netherland Sweden 4*
Denmark 4**
dependen­
dependen­ and depen­
tain
de­
dependen­
dependencies
cies.
dencies.
pendencies
cies.
cies.
12,832.301
11,806,238
9.882,679
13,214,698
14,424.533
16,111,442
20,335,066
21,441,200
20.255,346
16,252,413

6,388,094
6,049,051
5,661,420
6,399,193
6,506,041
6,296,556
7,069,279
8,081,668
7,604,002
7,684,006

4,622,120
4,562,437
3,096,609
6,035,466
3,566,361
4,578,739
4,411,053
4,799,157
4,285,767
3,772,206

957,948
961,72.0
540,078
515,140
420,069
494.741
602,593
700,386
507,523
355,852

2,311,174
2,014.085
2,000,793
2,207,551
1,839,834
1,857,114
1,780,496
2,122,469
1,640,173
1,299.927

•SAVdA

Portugal dr
dependencies

China.

Hanse
Towns.

Russia.

West Indies
generally.

Texas.

1829
1830
18311832
1833
1834
1835
1836
1837
1833

322,911
279,799
294,383
296,218
422,561
322,496
521,413
191,007
423,705
232.131

1,354,862
742,193
1,290,835
1,260,532
1,433,759
1,010,483
1,868,589
1,194.264
630,591
1,516.692

386.226
416,575
462,766
582,682
703,805
330,694
585,447
911,013
1,306,732
1,048.289

369,619
247,121
635,627
562,954
367,773
408,643
450,516
513,996
467,557
339,052

Mexico.

Columbia.

Central
America.

Brazil.

Argentine
Republic.

Chili.

1829
1830
1831
1832
1833
1831
1835
1836
1837
1838

2,331,151
4,837,458
6,178,218
3,467,541
5,408,091
5,265,053
9,023,221
6,041,635
3,880,323
2.164,097

767,348
496,990
658,149
1.117,024
957,543
795,567
1,064,016
829,255
1,080,119
724,739

239,854
250,118
306,497
335,307
575,616
184.149
183,793
189,518
157,663
243,040

1,929,927
1,843,238
2,076.095
2,054,794
3,272,101
2,059,351
2,608,656
3,094,936
1,743.209
2.267,194

623,052
629,887
659,779
923,040
699,728
971,837
703,918
384,933
266,008
236,665

1,421,134
1,536,114
1,368,155
1,221,119
1,463,940
1.476,355
941,884
937,917
1,487,799
1,370,264

jww

ilSlSlllil

28,071,084
31,647,831
39,901,379
37.268,556
39,782,210
50,797,650
60,167,699
61,487,550
61,217,485
58,843,392

jtojw

1829
1830
1831
1832
1833
1831
1835
1836
1837
1838

Years.

Years.

To each o f the following Foreign Countries, for ten years, ending 30/A September, 1838.
From a Report o f the Secretary o f the Treasury.

1,007,928
1,247,880

COMMERCIAL PROGRESS OF FRANCE.
The following statistical notes o f the industry o f France are given in the Journal
G in tra l: “ In 1819 the quantity o f merchandise conveyed in French vessels was only
726,000,000 kilogrammes. In the year 1833 it was 1,206,956,000. In 1819 the duties
upon public carriages amounted to only 3,101,358 francs; in 1838 they were 6,200,000
francs. The amount o f machinery exported in 1820 was only 216,500 francs; in 1838 it
was 3,980,607 francs. In 1818 there was only sufficient cotton machinery in France
to spin 16,914,217 kilogrammes o f cotton in a year, but in 1838 it had so increassed
that 5l millions were spun.”.




Commercial Statistics.

431

COTTON TRADE.
Table showing the equality o f prices in Charleston, Savannah, and Havre,
down at
the latter place, with charges as at foot. The charges noticed at the bottom o f each
table are included in the prices.

EXCHANGE.

CTS.
5 10
6
6i
7

n

8
8i
9
9*
10
10i
11
Hi

ia

61
64
68
71
75
78
82
85
89
92
96
99
103

5 15

10
60
10
60
10
60
10
60
10
60
10
60
05

61
65
68
72
75
79
82
86
89
93
96
100
103

5 20

64
16
68
20
72
24
76
28
80
32
85
37
85

62
65
69
72
76
79
83
86
90
94
97
101
104

5 30

5 25

20
75
30
85
40
85
40
95
50
05
60
15
70

62
66
69
73
76
80
84
87
91
94
98
101
105

59
16
73
30
87
44
01
58
15
72
35
92
50

63
66
70
73
77
81
84
88
91
95
99
102
106

15
65
25
85
45
05
65
25
85
45
10
70
30

5 35
63
67
70
74
77
81
85
88
92
96
99
103
107

5
00
65
30
95
60
25
90
55
20
85
50
15

5 40
63
67
71
74
78
82
85
89
93
96
100
104
107

84
50
18
85
52
19
86
53
20
87
60
27
95

CHARGES.

At Savannah.— Commission for purchasing, per cent.; commission for drawing,
1£ per cent.; insurance against fire, 1-6 per cent.; rope, mending, and drayage, 25
cents per bale; insurance over sea, I f per cent.
At Havre.— Freight, lc. per lb., and 5 per cent, primage; duty, 22 francs for 50 kilo­
grammes ; landing charges, storage one month, and delivery, 2 francs per bale; and all
other charges at Havre, including loss o f interest, commission, and brokerage, 5£ pfer
cent.; tare bonification, 3 kilogrammes per bale, and ropes at 3.
Remarks.— £c. difference in the freight, is I f centimes; fc. in the price o f cotton, is
from 1,75 to 1,80 centimes. 100 lbs. at Savannah yield 41,20 kilogrammes at Havre.
N. B. The above table also applies to Marseilles.
Table showing the cost o f Cotton bought at Savannah, laid down in Liverpool, with
charges, as annexed.
EXCHANGE.

CENTS.
5
8
8i
9

9i

10
101
11
Hi
12
121
13
131

5
6
6
6
7
7
7
8
8
8
8
9

97
27
56
86
16
46
75
05
34
63
92
22

6
5
6
6
6
7
7
7
7
8
8
8
9

93
22
51
80
10
39
68
98
27
56
85
15

8

7
5
6
6
6
7
7
7
7
8
8
8
9

88
17
46
76
05
34
63
91
20
49
78
08

5
6
6
6
6
7
7
7
8
8
8
9

84
12
41
70
99
27
56
85
14
42
71
01

9
5
6
6
6
6
7
7
7
8
8
8
8

79
08
36
65
94
22
51
78
04
34
65
95

10
5
6
6
6
6
7
7
7
7
8
8
8

75
03
31
59
88
16
46
72
97
28
56
86

ch arges.

Commission for purchasing, 2| per cent.; commission for drawing, lh per cent.;
insurance against fire, 1-5 per cent.; rope, mending, and drayage, 25 cents per bale ;
insurance to Liverpool, 1& per cent.; loss o f weight. 5 per cent., from weight paid for
to landing weight; freight, fd. per lb., and 5 per cent, primage; duty, 5-16 per lb., or
2s. lid . per 100; landing charges, 3s. per bale; brokerage in Liverpool, £ per cent.;
two months interest and commission, 4d.




%

/

Bank Statistics.

432

Table showing the equality o f prices in Liverpool and Havre, f o r American Cottons.
Havre.
L ’pool.
5 d. equal to francs 70 10 duty paid.
73 30 ..........
5i
76 40 ..........
5h
79 55 ..........
5}
82 65 ..........
6
85
85 ..........
6*
88 95 ..........
6j
95 20 ..........
7
98 40 ..........
7*
101 50 ..........
7§
104 70 ..........
7i
107 80 ..........
8

8J
8i
8}

Ill 10 ........
114 10
117 30

..........
..........

BANK

L ’pool.
9 d.

94
9i
91
10

10i
104
lOf
11

114

Hi
m
12
124

Havre.
equaltofrancs 120 35 duty paid.
123 60 ..........
126 70 ..........
129 75 ..........
132 95 ..........
136 05 ..........
139 25 ..........
142 30 ..........
145 50 ..........
148 60 ..........
151 80 ..........
154 80 ..........
158 05 ..........
161 20 ..........

STATISTICS.

BANKS OP BALTIMORE.
The following statements, (says the Baltimore Patriot,) as exemplifying the practi­
cal operation o f the banking system in Maryland, will, o f course, command attention.
A s regards the relative amount o f specie and circulation possessed by the banks, the
statement, in its aggregate, shows the Maryland banks to be in a condition which
would have been deemed one o f undoubted soundness and safety. Their aggregate
specie, to their aggregate circulation, as shown by the annexed tabular statement, made
up from these returns, is about as one to two. Ten years ago, one to three was gene­
rally held to be a safe proportion. The reflection that naturally arises is, that banks
which, in a period o f suspension, are able and willing to contract their issues and to
maintain their circulation at so low a point as two to one, compared with their specie,
must be, in the main, conducted with prudence and caution, and are, therefore, likely
to deserve the public confidence.
Condensed View o f the condition o f the several Banks o f the City o f Baltimore, on the
6th January, 1840.
BANKS.

Capital.

Farmers’ & Planters’. .
600.425
Franklin......................
628,070
Comm’cial & Farmers’
512.426
‘yV’estern.....................
589,050
Marine........................
309,220
Union.......................... 1,845,562
Merchants’ ................. 2,000,000
Baltimore................... 1,199,350
Mechanics’ ..................
580,634
Chesapeake.................
428,397
491.950
Farmers & Merchants’
333.950
Citizens’ ......................

Investment
Discounts
in stocks.
13,050
803,264
215,888
905,202
106,761
606,931
67,661
740,089
24,229
383,763
880,588 2,053,068
161,874 2,200,753
90,140 1,891,900
114,817
652,235
41,315
640,634
90,671
500.809
405,690

Specie.
75,852
72,056
124,042
100,295
58,201
104,689
205,597
120,020
78,976
31,327
34,357
31,350

Circula.
223,870
278,049
117,485
165,315
107,310
306,420
178,750
280,053
228,280
122,530
107,380
83,435

Deposits.
179,981
443,161*
207,540
93,540
109,788
769,866t
311,324
466,192
309,796
198,115
35,967
39,238

T otal................ 9,499,004 1,807,004 11,784,338 1,036,765 2,198,867 3,224,498
* O f which sum, ©194,844 is a deposit o f the state.
+ O f which sum, $366,543 is a deposit o f the state.




433

Insurance.
BANK OF ENGLAND.

Quarterly average o f the weekly liabilities and assets o f the Bank o f England, from
the 10th o f December, 1839, to the 3d o f March, 1840, both inclusive, published pursuant
to Acts 3 and 4 W illiam IV., chap. 98:
ASSETS.

LIABILITIES.

Circulation...................£16,678,000
Deposits.......................
7,896,009

Securities.....................£23.223,000
Bullion.........................
4,271,009

£•24,574,000

£27,494,000

This return shows an augmentation in the currency to some extent. Compared with
the last account, there is an increase upon each item— on circulation, £167,000; on de­
posits, £326.000; on securities, £242,000; and on bullion, £307,000. The actual stock
o f bullion in the Bank at this moment, is estimated to be about £4,500,000.

INSURANCE.
ANNALS OP INSURANCE IN THE WEST.
The first Insurance Company established in the west, was at Lexington, Kentucky,
which went into operation about 181G, but ceased to exist in one or two years. The
second was theold Cincinnati Insurance Company, established in 1818, which issued
some fifty or sixty policies, and in one or two years closed up its concerns. The third
was the old Louisville Marine Insurance Company, which was established in or about
the year 1818, and issued two hundred policies or upwards, and some years afterwards
wound up its affairs. The fourth is the Cincinnati Equitable Fire Insurance Company,
established in 1823, and is now in operation, and conducted en the principles o f Mutual
insurance. The fifth was the Ohio Insurance Company, established in 1827, at which
period there was no local insurance company in the west, with the exception o f the Equi­
table Fire Insurance Company referred to, the Fire and Marine Insurance being at
this period confined to the eastern offices, and their agencies in the west. T o those fa­
miliar with the history o f that period, it will be recollected that for several months pend­
ing the establishment o f the. Ohio Insurance Company, it was exceedingly doubtful
whether it could be put in operation, from the difficulty of disposingof a sufficient amount
o f the stock; but having commenced its operations, its success was decided, and two
years afterwards arose, in 1829, the Cincinnati Insurance Company.
These two companies had, by their charters, a capital o f $250,000 each. The same
year, the Louisville Marine and Fire Insurance was organized, and went into opera­
tion, capital, $200,000. In 1830, three new offices were established in the west, viz.:
the Louisville Mutual Fire Insurance Company, the Louisville Merchant’s Insurance
Company, and the Wabash Insurance Company, with an aggregate capital of $100,000.
In 1831, two more were added, viz.: the Madison Insurance Company in Indiana, and
the Missouri Insurance Company at St. Louis— aggregate capital, $200,000. In 1832,
three more were added, viz.: the Firemen’s Insurance Company at Cincinnati, the Lansingburgh Insurance Company, and the New Albany Insurance Company in Indiana
— aggregate capital $100,000. In 1833, but one was added to the number, viz.: the Frank­
lin Fire Insurance Company, at Frankfort, Kentucky—capital, $100,000. But in 1834,
seven new offices were chartered at Warren, Dayton, and Cleveland, in Ohio; at Maysviile and at Louisville, in Kentucky; and at Jeffersonville and Rising Sun, in Indiana—•
aggregate capital, $300,000. In 1635, nineteen additional offices were established, viz.:
seventeen in Ohio, and two in Kentucky— aggregate capital, $1,600,000. In 1836,
VOL. II.----NO. V.
55




434

N avigation .

fourteen more were chartered, v iz .: eight in Ohio, three in Kentucky, two in Indiana,
and one in Missouri—aggregate capital, $1,800,000. In 1837, twenty-two more were
chartered, viz.: two in Ohio, seven in Indiana, and thirteen in Missouri— aggregatecapital, $4,000,000.
The foregoing enumeration, however, embraces only the offices chartered in the
four western states o f Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, and Missouri. No office was estab­
lished in Tennessee, Illinois, western Pennsylvania, or western Virginia, until 1832,
since which, fifteen or twenty companies have been established in these states, with an
aggregate estimated capital, $1,500,000. Mississippi and Louisiana have been omit­
ted in the foregoing calculation, as our statistics do not furnish adequate data for the oc­
casion, but we estimate the amount o f capital in these two states at, perhaps, $300,000.
Thus, we perceive, that in 1826, twelve years since, there was no local insurance office
in the western states, north o f Natchez, except the Equitable Fire Insurance Com­
pany at Cincinnati; that in 1833,, seven years after, there were only twelve, with an ag­
gregate capital of $ l ,800,000; but that in the four succeeding years, to the spring o f 1838,
the number was increased to considerably more than one hundred, the whole wield­
ing, in the aggregate, the immense capital o f $15,000,000.

STATISTICS

OF N A V I G A T I O N .

STEAM NAVIGATION.
Mr. "William C. Redfield, o f New York, has furnished for publication the following
statements relative to steamboat accidents :
The number o f miles navigated by steam vessels connected with the port o f New
York, in five years ending 31st December, 1824, was about2,827,750, with an aggregate of
4,796,000 passengers; o f whom 38, or one in 126,211, lost their lives. Twelve accidents
occurred.
•
During the five years ending at the close o f 1833. the estimated number o f miles run
was 4,216,200, with an aggregate o f 9,419,700 passengers. Number o f accidents, 5.
Lives lost, 62: or one in 151,931,
During the five years ending 31st December, 1838, the estimated number o f miles run
was 5,467,450; aggregate number o f passengers, 15,886,300; number o f accidents, 2; lives
lost, 8 ; or one in 1,985,787.
The average number o f miles to each explosion the first o f the above periods was
235,646; in the second, 843,240; in the third, 2,733,725.
The estimated average pressure of steam used during the first period, was 7 inches;
second period, 14 inches; third period, 18 inches.
It appears from the average results o f this table, says Mr. Redfield, that during even
the first period o f five years after the navigation was thrown open to public com­
petition, the ratio o f steam accidents was only equal to one, for more than 20,000 trips or
passages; and that the average loss of life was only equal to one, for more than 126,000
passengers exposed. Thus, at the fair outset o f this noble enterprise, a degree o f
safety was attained for the passengers, such as may well challenge comparison with any
artificial means o f transit or locomotion that have-ever been resorted to by the human
race.

FRENCH STEAM NAVIGATION.
The Courier Fran^ais states, that the example o f the merchants o f Marseilles in sub­
scribing for shares towards the raising o f Trans-Atlantic Steam Navigation Compa­
nies, has been followed at Nantes, Bordeaux, and Havre. At Bordeaux, it adds, the
subscriptions amount to 3,000,000 francs, and at Havre, to 4,175,000 francs. T o this we
may add, that the chamber o f commerce o f Bordeaux has summoned a meeting o f the mer­
chants o f that city, to deliberate on the best means o f establishing the line ofcommunica-




435

Miscellaneous Statistics.

tion in question, and a committee o f five gentlemen has been named in consequence.
The commissioners o f the subscribers to the Marseilles company are instructed, says
the “ Temps,” to request Admiral Baudin to lend his experience and influence towards
the prompt accomplishment o f their object.
The Minister o f the Marine has ordered to be built, at L ’Orient, a steam ship to carry
engines o f 450 horse-power. It is to be called the Cuvier, after the celebrated naturalist,
and will be the largest in the French service. Its length will be greater than a threedecker, and it will be sufficiently capacious to carry 1,200 troops.

LIGHT-HOUSE AT THE PENINSULA OF JUTLAND.
T he Department o f State at Washington has received notice from the Danish go­
vernment o f the erection o f a new light-house cn the easternmost point o f the peninsula
o f Jutland, called Fom as, or Foreness, o f which the following particulars are communi­
cated, for the benefit o f our navigators:
A new light-house has been erected on the easternmost point o f Jutland, called Fomas,
or Foreness, projecting into the Kattegat passage, situated five eighths o f a Danish mile
northeast half east from the entrance o f the harbor o f Grenade, H miles west southwest
half west from the light-house o f Arholt, and 71 miles northwest and a quarter north
from the Island o f Hesselder. The light is placed on a quadrangular tower, at the height
o f 67 Danish feet above the sea, and may be seen at the distance o f three and a quarter
miles by a person standing ten feet above the sea. The light is given by six lamps,
which revolve every three minutes, in such a manner, that the spectator sees every half
minute a bright light, which lasts about six seconds, and is invisible for twenty-six se­
conds following.

MISCELLANEOUS

STATISTICS.

TABLE OF REVENUE, EXPENDITURE, AND PUBLIC DEBT OF FRANCE.
RECEIPTS.

Direct Taxes.
Francs.
Land T a x ............... 244 873,409
Poll T a x .................. 29,400,000
Personal Estate. . . . 35,665,000
Doors & W indow s. 32,340,000
Patents.................... 29,818,500
Miscellaneous......... 1,827,000

EXPENDITURE.

Civil L ist..................................
Funded D ebt...........................
Sinking Fund.........................
Guaranties due by Treasury.
Unfunded Debt........................
Life Annuities........................
C hamber o f Peers..................
Total ..........
373,923,909 C hamber o f Deputies..............
Registration, Stamps, Domains 193,225,000 Legion o f H on or....................
Felling o f Tim ber................................. 24,000,000 Pensions........................
Customs......................................154,300,000: Ministry o f Justice.................
Excise on liquors, tobacco, &c,.171,000,0001Foreign Affairs......................
Post Office................................. 34,290,000jReligion....................................
Lotteries......................................... 8,000,000 Public Instruction...............
Gaming Houses................... 5,500,000, Ministry o f the Interior. . . . . .
Fines............................................ 3,300,000 Commerce and Public W orks
~
~
'
------------- 'w a r ...........................................
Sundry
Proceeds.......................
11,047,482
N avy........................................
Extraordinary Resources.
Finances .................................
Administration and Collection
Balance o f 1 8 3 1 .... 131,467,267
o f Revenue..........................
Sale o f W o o d .......... 50,000,000
-181,467,267 Repayments, & c......................
Total Receipts............1,160,053,658




Francs.
18,000,000
215,763,242
43,093,621
9,000,000
16,000,000

6 ,200,000
700.000
600.000
3,302,417
58,389,654
19,469,700
7.502.000
34,804,600
2,575,030
3.380.000
123.500,000
307,434.030
65.000,000
22,787,500
118,211,833
42,989,445

T ota l........................... 1,097,708,102

436

Miscellaneous Statistics.
CANALS OP NEW YORK.

Year.

Statement o f the amount o f Tolls received on the several Canals o f this
State, in each year, fro m the 1st day o f January, 1820, to the 1st day o f
January, 1840. Compiled from the Annual R eport o f the Canal Com­
missioners.
Erie Cham­
plain Canals.

1820
1821
1822
1823
1824
1825
1836
1827
1828
1829
183)
1831
1832
1833
1834
1833
1836
1837
1838
1839

5.437 34
14 3.88 47
64,072 50
152.958 33
349,761 07
566,112 97
762,003 60
839.058 48
835.407 28
795,054 52
1.032,599 13
1.194.610 49
1,195,804 23
1,422,695 22
1.294.649 66
1.492,811 59
1,553,269 37
1.239,052 49
1.516.373 98
1.510,785 22

Oswego
Canal.

2,757
2.439
12,335
16.271
19,786
22.950
22,168
29.180
30,436
21,033
27,260
34,162

67
44
18
10
20
47
02
62
20
56
41
42

Cayuga,
Crooked
Seneca Ca­ Chemung Lake Chenangt
nal.
Canal.
Canal.
Canal.

279
8,643
11,987
12.920
13,893
17,174
18,130
20,430
23,522
15,968
18,397
18,747

70
49
81
39
04
69
43
11
92
86
57
47

„..t
694
3,378
4.720
5.086
4.333
4,394
5,187

00
05
44
38
80
67
27

200
1.473
1,829
2,365
1,526
2,013
1,721

Total.

5,437
14,388
61,072
152,958
340,761
566,112
762,003
|859,058
838,444
813,137
1,056,922
1,223.801
1,229,483
84
1,463,715
40
1,339,799
63
1,548,672
51
1,614.680
58 11,164 51 1.293,129
31 20,407 98 1,588,847
31 15,778 33 1,616.382

34
47
40
33
07
97
60
48
65
45
12
98
47
£2
56
39
38
£0
87
G2

17,830,905 84l 247,831 32l 177,093 48 27,794 61 11,130 58 47,350 74 18,392,109 57

EXTENT OP THE FISHING INTEREST IN MASSACHUSETTS.
The statement which follows is compiled from the statistical tables published by or­
der o f the Legislature o f Massachusetts, and indicates the extent o f the fishing interest
o f the commonwealth, for the year ending 1st day o f April, 1837. The whale fishery
is not included in this account.
Vessels employed in the cod and mackerel fishery............................
1,290
Tonnage of same................................................................................
76,089
Number o f quintals o f codfish caught............................ .....................
510,554
Value o f same...................
$1,569,517
Number o f barrels o f mackerel caught.................................................
234,059
Value o f same.......................................................................................$1,639,042
Number o f bushels o f salt used in cod and mackerel fishery...............................837,141
Hands employed..................................................................................
11,146
Capital invested.......................................................................
$2,683,176
SILK MANUFACTURE IN FRANCE.
According to a recent statistical statement, there are in France 84,648 looms, produ­
cing annually a value in silks of/211,540,C00, (or $40 000,000.) These looms give oc­
cupation to 169,280 workmen, and em p loy/139,623,330 o f silk, ($26,118,0110.) The
price o f work is f 70,926,670, ($13,300,000)— or about J 3C0, ($56 25) for each work­
man. The profit and interest o f the capital employed is/2 1 ,000,000.
The manufactures o f Lyons alone occupy 40,000 looms, and employ 80.000 work­
men. They produce 100 millions o f francs, (near $20,000,000.) The home consump­
tion of France in silks is 73 millions o f francs, (14,000,000,) and the exportation is
/138,550,000, ($26,000,000.)




Mercantile Miscellanies.

MERCANTILE

437

MISCELLANIES.

Foreign Importations.—In evidence o f the points assumed in the paper on Domestic
Industry, (in the present number,) we give, in a separate form, a more minute specifi­
cation o f the articles o f foreign importation. That this specification is accurate, may
be ascertained from the annual documents which are issued from the office of the secre­
tary o f the treasury. Prom these it may be learned how small a portion o f our importa­
tions are actually necessary, from the more improved state o f the arts abroad, and the
cheapness o f labor, and how large a portion we might with advantage have produced
ourselves, thus avoiding the drain upon our capital, and the influence o f that power
which is holding down the gigantic energies o f our country, like Prometheus chained
to the rock.
W e import burr stones and sulphur; antimony and clay; rags and bark o f the cork
tree; undressed furs, raw hides, and skins; plaster o f Paris and barilla; dye-wood,
mahogany, and animals for breeding; pewter and tin; brass and copper; gold and
silver bullion; coffee and teas from India and China; cocoa, almonds, currants, and
prunes; figs, raisins; mace, and other spices; nutmegs, cloves, cinnamon, and pepper;
pimento, cassia, ginger, and camphor; silks and worsted; lace veils, shawls, and
shades, and other manufactures o f silks and worsted ; camlets o f goats’ hair and ca­
mels’ hair; cashmere o f Thibet and worsted stuff goods; linens, bleached and unbleach­
ed; ticklenburgs, osnaburgs, and burlaps; brown and white sheetings, bolting cloths,
and w ool; quicksilver and opium; crude saltpetre ; cloths, and cashmere, merino
shawls o f wool, and blankets; woollen hosiery, gloves, mitts, and bindings ; woollen
and worsted yarn ; cotton, white, dyed, printed, and colored; cotton hosiery, gloves,
mitts, and bindings, twist,yarn and thread; nankeen, silk piece goods, and sewing
silk, from India and from other places; thread and cotton lace; linens, dyed, colored,
and checked, and other manufactures o f flax; sail duck, and other manufactures o f hemp;
leghorn straw and chip hats; grass flats and braids; hats o f wool, leather, and fur;
side-arms, fire-arms, drawing knives, cutting knives, hatchets, axes and adzes ; socket
chisels, steelyards, and scales; beams and vices; sickles, scythes, spades, and shovels;
squares o f iron, and wood screws; manufactures o f copper and brass, tin, pewter, and
lead; cabinet ware, leather, marble, gold, and silver; precious stones, set or otherwise;
watches, glass ware, china, and porcelain; earthen and stone w are; saddlery; plated,
gilt, japanned, and trimmed coach and harness furniture; carriages; slates, quills, black
lead pencils; paper hangings, hair cloth, and hair seating; brushes, copper bottoms cut
round, silver and plated w are; raw silk, indigo, and unmanufactured w ool; flannels,
booking, and baizes; Brussels, Wilton, and ingrain carpets; floor cloths, furniture,
oil cloths, and cotton bagging; Madeira wine, red and other wines o f France and Sicily,
red sherry o f Spain, Austria, Germany, and the Mediterranean; wines from other
countries, and foreign distilled spirits ; molasses, vinegar, beer, ale, porter; spermaceti
and other oil from foreign fisheries; olive oil, castor, linseed, hemp seed, and rape seed;
teas from other places than India or China; chocolate; white, brown, and clayed su­
gar; loaf sugar, sugar candy, other refined sugar, syrup o f sugarcane; cayenne pepper;
tallow, wax, and spermaceti candles; cheese and soap; tallow, lard, beef, pork, and
bacon; butter; saltpetre, and salts; oil o f vitriol; snuff, cigars, and other manufac­
tures o f tobacco; cotton, gunpowder, bristles, glue, dry ochre, ochre in oil, white and
red lead ; whiting and Paris white; litharge, sugar o f lead, lead in pigs, bars, and




M ercantile Miscellanies.

438

sheet; shot; leaden pipes and old lead ; cordage, (tarred,) and cables, (untarred,) and
yarn, twine, (pack and thread ;) corks ; copper rods, and bolts; nails and spikes; mus­
kets and rifles; iron and steel ware; tacks, brads, and sprigs ; nails, spikes, iron cables,
and chains; mill cranks, mill saws, anchors, and anvils; blacksmiths’ hammers and
sledges; iron castings, round iron or braziers’ rods; nail or spike rods ; sheet iron,
hoop iron, casement rods, slit or hammered iron, iron in pigs, bar iron, old iron, steel,
hemp, alum, copperas, wheat flour, salt, coal, wheat, and oats; potatoes ; paper, (folio
and quarto post, cap, drawing, writing, printing, copperplate, stationers’, and sheathing,
binders’ wrapping, or box boards ;) books; apothecaries’ vials and bottles; perfumery,
and fancy vials and bottles ; demijohns, glass bottles, and window glass ; fish, playing
cards, boots and bootees, silk shoes, prunella, nankeen, leather, morocco, and kid shoes;
felt hat bodies, wholly or partly o f wool.

COMMERCIAL RELATIONS WITH FOREIGN COUNTRIES.
A report has been published from the Department o f State o f the United States, in obe­
dience to a resolution adopted by the senate at the last session o f congress, showing the
nature and extent o f the privileges and restrictions o f the commercial intercourse o f the
United States with foreign nations. The Baltimore American furnishes a brief but cor­
rect analysis o f the secretary’s report, from which it appears, that in 1815, congress enact­
ed a law repealing all discriminating duties upon foreign vessels and cargoes, to take
effect in favor o f any foreign nations, “ whenever the president shall be satisfied that
the discriminating or countervailing duties o f such foreign nation, so far as they operate
to the disadvantage o f the United States, have been abolished.” Twelve nations, v iz .:
Austria, Brazil, Central America, Denmark, Ecuador, Greece, the Hanseatic cities,
Prussia, Russia, Sardinia, Sweden, and Venezuela, have met the proposition in a spirit
o f liberality. In the ports o f all these countries, American vessels, with their cargoes,
whether the produce o f the United States or not, are admitted on the same terms as the
vessels o f those countries respectively. If outward bound, they are entitled to the same
drawback or bounties on goods exported, as domestic vessels are.
W ith Great Britain, Prance, the Netherlands, Mexico, and Texas, our commercial re­
lations are o f a more restricted character. These nations severally confine the principle
o f equality to the direct trade. That is to say, Great Britain admits the vessels o f the
United States into her ports on payment o f the same tonnage duties and charges as British
vessels, with these conditions: First, that the vessel be built and owned in the United
States, and navigated by a master and a crew three fourths o f which are citizens o f the
United States; and second, that the goods composing the cargo be the produce o f the Uni­
ted States, which in practice limits the import trade to the direct intercourse between one
country and the other. Thetradeof the United States with the British Colonial posses­
sions is regulated by treaty stipulations or by diplomatic arrangement. In all cases,
however, some restrictions are observed, giving an advantage, in general trade, to Bri­
tish bottoms. The importation from the United States o f all goods but those o f their
own produce is mostly prohibited.
Prance admits the vessels of the United States into her ports on payment o f a discrimi­
nating duty o f five francs,or ninety-four cents, per ton over and above that paid by French
vessels. In the importation of articles, the produce o f theUnited States,nodifference is
made between French and American vessels; but in reference to other articles, the discri­
minating duty prevails in favor o f French bottoms.
In the Java trade, under the government o f the Netherlands, the productions ofthe Uni­
ted States, and o f other countries, are admitted at a duty o f seven and four fifths per cent.




M ercantile Miscellanies.

439

ad valorem, if imported in Dutch vessels, and fifteen and three fifths per cent, ad valorem,
if imported in vessels belonging to the United States.
Chili and the Ottoman Dominions admit our vessels and productions upon the foot­
ing o f the most favored nations— reserving the privilege o f giving a preference to their
own. Five Powers, viz.: the Argentine Confederation, Belgium, China, Hayti, New
Grenada, Portugal, Spain, the T w o Sicilies, and Uraguay, are left free to deal with the
commerce and the navigation o f the United States as they may think proper, without
any other check than our countervailing legislative provisions. W ith three of them,
however, Belgium, Portugal and the T w o Sicilies, negotiations are on foot for the con­
clusion o f commercial treaties.

IMPORTANCE OF AFRICAN COMMERCE.
Elliot Cresson, Esq. in a letter addressed to a member o f congress, observes, thatthe im­
portant fact stated in Gen. Buchanan’s last despatch, that there were then thirty-seven
sail o f British ships, many o f them 800 to 900 tons burden, in the Bonny river, receiving
cargoes o f palm oil, an article only recently entering into the list o f African exports, gives
but a faint idea o f the native commercial resources o f that vast continent. No less than
35,000 tons o f this article have been imported into England in a single year— worth, at
9c. per pound, its present value in our market, $7,056,000. Stop the slave trade, says
Mr. C., and the export may be increased tenfold. Again, the sugar estates o f W es­
tern Africa, destroyed by Portugal on thediscovery o f America, were deemed the finest
in the world. Africa may yet afford us an immense supply, as sugar cane is one o f her
indigenous products. Her native coffee, too, o f which twelve or fourteen varieties grow
wild in the forests o f Liberia, is unsurpassed in quality, and may be raised to any extent.
Ship-timber, furniture and dye-woods, o f almost endless variety, also abound, and even
now are shipped to a large amount. One o f my London friends, says Mr. Cresson, told me
that in M ay, 1832, he received eighteen cargoes of African oak from Sierra Leone. Cam­
wood, now worth $90 per ton, maybe obtained from our colonies to almost any extent, as
soon as roads shall be extended into the interior, and they w ill be very important to our cot­
ton and woollen manufacturers. Ivory, gold dust, gums, ostrich feathers, drugs,
hides, goat skins, cotton, manilla hemp, indigo, rice, corn, pepper, beeswax, (and all the
products o f the tropics may be added,) would form the basis o f a commerce, which, if
duly promoted, would probably, within the next twenty-five years, rival in importance
the whole o f that between us and Great Britain, twenty-five years ago. A t the present
time, under all the desolating influences o f the slave trade, Britain enjoys an immense
trade with Africa. One o f her commercial houses alone, received returns in three
years, amounting to about $1,500,000, principally in gold, ivory, and gums. Another, in
Liverpool, realized a profit o f £30,000, by a single voyage, from ivory and palm oil.
This commerce absorbs a large amount o f British manufactures, and though still com­
paratively in its infancy, is estimated by her writers to afford a clear annual profit o f
several millions. Mr. Cresson sees no reason why England should enjoy this mono­
poly; and the trade might certainly be made as important to the Americans as to them.
The subject deserves attention.

DUTY ON SALTPETRE.
The importations o f several cargoes o f saltpetre, recently, into the United States, from
Calcutta, have given rise to the question, as the article appeared o f a doubtful character,
whether it was crude, ox refined; the importers claiming it as crude, and the collec­
tors contending that it was refined, or partaking o f a character other than crude. The




'Mercantile Miscellanies.

440

Comptroller o f the Treasury, under date o f March 21st, 1840, in a circular to the col­
lectors o f the customs, thus settles the difficulty.
“ From information derived from intelligent officers o f the customs, experienced mer­
chants, scientific and practical chemists and manufacturers, and the books treating on
the subject, confirmed by personal inspection and analysis, I am o f opinion that the
saltpetre o f commerce, such as is usually brought in bags from India, is not in fact crude,
a portion o f the earthy substance in which it is found being removed by artificial pro­
cess; and that, on the other hand, it cannot be considered refined, within the meaning
and intent o f the law, it still retaining a portion, greater or less, o f the impurities neces­
sary to be removed before it be fit for the use o f refined saltpetre, or be recognised as
such in the language o f trade.
“ By the act o f 27th April, 1816, there was levied upon all kinds of saltpetre, an ad va­
lorem duty o f 7J per centum: the act o f 22d May, 1824, levies a duty o f 12| per cen­
tum ad valorem, upon all articles not therein specified, and these paying a duty o f 7J per
cent, under the act cited. The same act specifies refined saltpetre as liable to a speci­
fic duty o f 3 cents per pound. The act o f 14th July, 1832, specifies crude saltpetre as
exempt from duty: it necessarily follows, that the article now in view, being of an in­
termediate character, and neither crude nor refined in the true senseofthe terms, is with­
held in its general classification with either of the specified articles, and consequently
remains by law liable to the duty o f 124 per centum, ad valorem.
A BUSHEL OF GRAIN.
The last Legislature o f Indiana passed a law prescribing a uniform mode o f ascer­
taining by weight the quality o f the different kinds o f grain that shall pass for a stand­
ard bushel in that state, as follows: wheat 60 lbs., avoirdupois; rye 46; corn 56; bar­
ley 4 8 ; oats 33.

DONATIONS TO THE MERCANTILE LIBRARY ASSOCIATION.
The Board of Directors take pleasure in acknowledging the receipt
O f Donations in Books— from Messrs. W m , W o o d ; H. W . Stevens, twenty-one
volumes; Geo. Zabriskie, Esq.; Mercantile Library Association o f Boston; Henry F.
Fish; Geo. C. Baker; John H all; Gulian C. Verplanck, Esq.; H. N. Otis; Isaac
Barton ; Manuscript Tales in the Persian Language, designed as exercises for the stu­
dent, from Henry P. Marshall; Common Council, through I. Paulding, fifteen volumes;
Edward Henriques; W . H. L. Bogart; W . Richards N oyes; Charles F o x ; fortyeight volumes from Hon. John C. Spencer, Gulian C. Verplanck, and A . C. Flagg.
O f a Case o f Birds—from S. R. Trowbridge, and another from “ A Friend,” through
A . G. Zabriskie.
O f Oil P aintings;—“ Classic Ruins,” from Peter R. Brinckerhoff, E sq.; “ View o f
Washington and the Potomac,” from Russell H. Nevins, Esq.; “ View o f Jones’s
Falls,” from W . Brenton Boggs, E sq .; “ The Student,” from H . H. Elliott, Esq.; an
ancient painting, from F. A . Conkling, Esq.
O f “ Boydell’s Folio Shakspeare Gallery,” a valuable collection o f plates, from pic­
tures painted for the purpose o f illustrating the dramatic works o f Shakspeare, by the
artists o f Great Britain, from Augustus E. Silliman, Esq.
The Board o f Directors are desirous o f forming a permanent gallery o f paintings
and sculpture,— the basis o f a collection o f choice works o f art. The above donations
o f paintings may be considered as an incipient step to this object, o f cultivating a taste
for the fine arts among our members. This effort to collect the works o f art, more par­
ticularly the productions o f our native artists, will be hailed with pleasure by all the
friends o f the association. Several o f our artists have already given promise o f works
from their pencils.