of a better century, it never could effect a reversal of its doom. When these United States began their existence as a nation, the traces of the false mercantile system were branded deeply into the code of every European maritime power. The principle involved in our very existence as a nation, was perpetually coming in conflict with the many European abuses which protruded themselves into our path, and attempted to block up our progress. For the nations of Europe to recognize a colony as an equal; for the monarchs and aristocracies of Europe to admit a democratic republic to equal influence in the interpretation of international law, implied changes in the European world as vast as those which were effected by our independence itself. England has not yet learned to respect our republic as her equal. The same spirit which, in the days of Washington, dictated its refusal to surrender the north-western posts, inspires her councils now in her arrogant usurpations. Aristocratic England has not yet learned a due respect for the plebeian republic, which is spreading her language from one end of the continent to the other. On questions of international law, democracy, asserting equality, and submitting, self-restrained, to the limitations of justice, tends towards establishing freedom of goods for free ships, and guarding a vessel on the high seas as a floating colony. Our opponents extol the benefits of a mixed currency, and yet they resist all efforts to make even the least advance towards a mixed currency. Specie has been banished almost entirely, except for purposes of making change. In consequence, while a high tariff, by its very nature, excluded the American manufactures from the foreign market, each protective tariff was in succession, rendered nugatory at home; for as the tariff was advanced, the currency expanded, till in the fever of speculation and extravagant prices, the cost of production rose to such a degree, that the foreigner could pay the high duties, and yet compete with the American manufacturer in the American market. Wide suspensions of specie payments have occurred twice already; and these again operate ruinously on the manufacturer. If, in the time of suspension, he borrows, he must give his notes at par, and receive a depreciated currency. : But this is not all this same unnatural mercantile system has been followed by immense public debts, and for these state scrip was negotiated abroad. But in fact the money was raised here at home; England sent nothing in exchange for our hundreds of millions of stocks but more bales of broadcloths, larger importations from the workshops of Birmingham and Manchester. So true is this, that one of the agents for the sale of state stocks appealed to British capitalists in behalf of British manufacturers to participate in the loans. "The capital borrowed by the United States”—I quote the words of the agent-" is transferred by bills from the banker to the merchant, and is taken to America, not in bullion, BUT IN BRITISH GOODS; every investment made, while it adds to the income of the capitalists, swells the profits of the British manufacturer." Here is the cause of most of the distress. But for these disastrous loans, and the consequent flood of foreign manufacturers inundating the country, the workshop of many a manufactory, which is now inactive from the impoverishment of its owner, would have still been the happy scene of contented, prosperous industry. But when I hear men assert that the interests of labor are bound up inseparably with the unstable character of our currency, my heart bleeds within me at the thought of the monstrous deception which is attempted. Their arguments need only to be stated, in order to expose their fallacy; let the harmlessness of such false appeals teach our opponents respect for the intelligence of the people. Our currency is alternately contracting as well as expanding. By drawing nearer to the true specie standard, depression is guarded against, even more than its opposite; and steady prices, a sure market for manufactures, and a uniform demand for labor, would be the consequence. The pendulum swings too far each way; the tendency of democracy is to repress the extravagances from which speculators alone reap benefits, and to guard against the depressions which at last spread through the land, dismissing the laborer from his employment, diminishing the prices of produce, and carrying grief into the families of the independent manufacturers, whose hearths, but for our unstable currency, would have been gladdened by an honest competence. And now I turn on the men who make a pretence of contending for the laboring classes, when, in fact, they are pleading the cause of large corporations; and I say, the tendency of democracy is toward the elevation of the industrious classes, the increase of their comfort, the assertion of their dignity, the establishment of their power. This cannot be done by any system of artificial legislation; for of that the great corporations will always appropriate the benefits. The large corporations, it is true, are forever calling in the laboring classes to advocate their demands for monopoly; Tom Thumb fights the battle, but the giant takes the spoils. The laboring classes can be elevated only by a system of equal laws. But I go farther nothing so much retards their progress as the vices of our currency, which expands when rising prices require a check to enterprise, and contracts when falling prices make credit most desirable; which, at one time, excites fallacious hopes, by creating a sudden and unnatural demand for laborers, and, at another, sacrifices their happiness and abruptly turns them off by double scores. My bosom swells with indignation, when I find men commending to the affections of the laboring class the very evils in our currency which inflict on them the most vital injury. Against their sophistry there is a living and an eloquent witness in the breast of each one of the myriads of the producing classes. I call on the laborer himself to pause and reflect; and his own mind will whisper to him full replies to the artful appeals of aspiring statesmen, who, pretending to advance his interests, are, in reality, the advocates of the maxims of aristocracy. Again, democracy tends to order and security of property; for, by reconciling legislation with justice, it invokes always the energy of conscience, and gives to public law not the force only of an arm of flesh, but that infinitely higher power, the force of moral opinion. It tends to equality; for, by founding government on reason, it is pledged to recognize the equal claims of all who are endowed with reason. It tends to promote education; seeking to make a common stock of the stores of intelligence, the fruits of mind, which, far from being diminished by being shared, are increased the more rapidly, the more widely they are diffused. Once more the tendency of democratic truth is, to inspire not only a confidence in itself, but a confidence in its success. We believe in democratic truth, and we believe also in the overruling providence of God. The ultimate prevalence of the right is therefore certain; for while every error is essentially mortal, and every wrong, of necessity, in the end avenges itself, justice partakes of the Divine immortality, and is destined always to outlive and to rise above its adversaries. THE VIRGINIA AND KENTUCKY RESOLUTIONS OF 1798. THE measures of the party now in power has thus far been, and, from the known character and avowed designs of their leaders, will probably continue to be, only a revival, in their worst and most obnoxious forms, of the wild, visionary and aristocratic schemes of the old federal party—measures calculated to build up and sustain certain classes of the community at the expense of all others, and give to the moneyed aristocracy a commanding influence over the legislation of this country. Believing the celebrated Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions of 1798 to be the best standard by which the people can try the merit or demerit of those measures, the Editor has deemed it proper to insert them in the present volume of the True American, and he exhorts every citizen of this yet free republic to "read them again and again, to study them carefully, and inwardly digest them." He can add nothing more excellent by way of further in |