. - .-.. :. . .- . POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. .POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. BY CHARLES NORDHOFF '"O AUTHOR OF 'THE COMMUNISTIC SOCIETIES OF THE UNITED STATES," "NORTHERN CALIFORNIA, OREGON, AND THE SANDWICH ISLANDS," "CALI- FORNIA FOR HEALTH, PLEASURE, AND RESIDENCE," ETC. NEW YORK: HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS, FRANKLIN SQUARE. 1875. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1874, by HARPER & BROTHERS, In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. PARENTS AND TEACHERS. IN the following pages I have attempted to explain in simple language, and by familiar illustrations fitted for the comprehension of boys and girls, the meaning and limits of liberty, law, government, and human rights ; and thus to make intelligible to them the polit- ical principles on which our system of government in the United States is founded. The book grew out of an attempt, in a few letters, to instruct my oldest son in the political knowledge which every American boy ought to possess to fit him for the duties of citizenship. I found my subject much larger than I at first imagined ; but interest in the attempt led me on, and what was begun originally for one boy is here printed for the use of others. I have retained the familiar and direct style which one naturally uses in addressing a boy, because thus I hope more easily to in- terest young people in the subject. I believe that free government is a political applica- tion of the Christian theory of life ; that at the base of the republican system lies the Golden Rule; and that v i TO PARENTS AND TEACHERS, to be a good citizen of the United States one ought to be imbued with the spirit of Christianity, and to believe in and act upon the teachings of Jesus. He condemned self-seeking, covetousness, hypocrisy, class distinctions, envy, malice, undue and ignoble ambition ; and he in- culcated self-restraint, repression of the lower and meaner passions, love to the neighbor, contentment, gentleness, regard for the rights and happiness of oth- ers, and respect for the law. It seems to me that the vices he condemned are those also which are dangerous to the perpetuity of repub- lican government ; and that the principles he inculcated may be properly used as tests of the merits of a political system or a public policy. In this spirit I have written, believing that thus "government of the people, by the people, and for the people," can be most clearly justi- fied and explained. ALPINE, NEW JERSEY, Nov., 1874. CONTENTS. PAGE To PARENTS AND TEACHERS v INTRODUCTION 11 I. OP SOCIETY 13 II. OF LIBERTY, AND THE PROVINCE OP LAW 18 III. OP GOVERNMENTS 20 IV. OP THE PRIMARY AND NECESSARY FUNCTIONS OF GOVERNMENT 22 V. OP OTHER FUNCTIONS OP GOVERNMENT 28 VI. OF THE USEFULNESS AND INCONVENIENCE OF FREE GOVERNMENT 82 VTI. OF THE DIFFERENT PARTS OP A GOVERNMENT 38 VIII. OF DECENTRALIZATION 40 IX. OF THE RESPONSIBILITY OP THE EXECUTIVE 43 X. OP POLITICAL PARTIES 47 XI. WHO VOTE, AND WHY 50 XII. WHAT OFFICERS SHOULD NOT BE ELECTED 54 XIII. OF POLITICAL CONSTITUTIONS 58 XIV. OF THE LEGISLATIVE OR LAW-MAKING BRANCH 61 XV. OF TOWN MEETINGS 64 XVI. OP EDUCATION 66 XVII. OF TAXES 70 XVIII. OF PROPERTY, SURPLUS, OR WEALTH 74 XIX. OP MONEY 79 XX. OP LABOR AND CAPITAL 84 XXI. OF USURY LAWS .90 yiji CONTENTS. PAGE XXII. OP BANKS, BANKING, AND CREDIT 96 XXIII. OF BANK-NOTES 101 XXIV. OP " MOBE GREENBACKS " 108 XXV. OP COMMERCE 112 XXVI. OF DIVERSITY OP INDUSTRIES 123 XXVH. OP STRIKES 139 XXVIII. OF TRADES-UNIONS 144 XXIX. OF THE MALTHUSIAN THEORY 148 XXX. OF PROHIBITORY LAWS 151 XXXI. OF " LOCAL OPTION " 156 XXXH. OF CORPORATIONS 158 XXXIII. OF CONFEDERATION AND UNION 161 XXXIV. THE AMERICAN POLITICAL SYSTEM 166 XXXV. OF THE INALIENABLE RIGHTS OF AN AMERICAN CITIZEN 173 XXXVI. OF THE DUTIES OP AN AMERICAN CITIZEN 175 XXXVH. OF TRIAL BY JURY 177 XXXVIII. THE PRIMARY MEETING AND THE CAUCUS 180 XXXIX. OF THE IMPORTANCE AND DUTY OF THE MINOR- ITY 185 XL. OF CITY GOVERNMENTS 188 XLI. OF SOME FAULTS IN OUR STATE CONSTITUTIONS. 193 XLII. OF TERRITORIES, PUBLIC LANDS, COLONIES, AND MANIFEST DESTINY 195 XLHL WHEN WE NUMBER ONE HUNDRED MILI IONS . . . 200 APPENDIX. ARTICLES OP CONFEDERATION 207 CONSTITUTION OP THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 216 DECLARATION OP INDEPENDENCE 233 WASHINGTON'S FAREWELL ADDRESS 238 INDEX . 355 TO WALTER NORDHOFF A2 MY DEAR BOY, You are now sixteen ; in five years you will have the right and duty to vote not only for (or against) persons, but also upon measures of public pol- icy. I should like you to vote and perform the other duties of citizenship intelligently, and not ignorantly; and to do this it is necessary that you shall understand something of the principles upon which our government was established, and upon which, of course, it ought to be conducted. This is the more necessary, because, if you are right, you will sometimes be in the minority, and when the right cause is in the minority, it is of great importance that its adherents shall be able to give pertinent and convincing reasons for their course: for thus only can a minority hope to become a majority. In a free state every great political struggle is a contest of principles ; and you have only to read such a book as the Debates between Lincoln and Douglas to see of what extreme importance to freedom and constitutional government is the ability to comprehend for yourself, and to expose clearly to others, the fundamental princi- ples of free government. Moreover, you must understand that to the citizen of a free state, politics concern themselves in the largest 12 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. sense with the liberty and the prosperity of the people, which are sure to be affected by bad laws and bad laws are often adopted with the best motives, and urged and supported by men who are as truly patriotic and benevolent as they are ignorant. It is one of the great merits of our political system in the United States that, though it appears at first view complicated, it is in fact sufficiently simple to be under- stood by all the citizens. In what follows I mean to ex- plain to you the general principles on which free gov- ernment rests, and the manner in which those principles are applied in our own country; and I shall try to do this in such a way that, with a little attention and study, you will, I hope, be able to understand all that is need- ful. At the foundation of all government is SOCIETY, and of this I must first tell you something. OF SOCIETY. 13 I. OF SOCIETY. 1. God does not appear to have created men by chance, for we find all mankind to possess certain qual- ities, faculties, and desires, which move and rule them, whether they are savages or call themselves civilized, and whether they are black, brown, yellow, or white. 2. One of the principal and most important qualities of mankind is gregariousness. This means that men have a propensity to gather in flocks or herds; a pro- pensity also of many animals, as sheep, cattle, horses, blackbirds, elephants, and some monkeys. This desire for the society of their kind leads animals to go in droves as the buffaloes upon the plains; and it col- lects savage men into tribes, and civilized men into na- tions, which are only larger and more highly organized tribes. 3. But as man has received from God qualities, fac- ulties, and desires which the beasts have not, men are able to do something more than herd together; and the rudest tribe of savages has laws or rules for the conduct of its members which the most highly developed society of apes or blackbirds or elephants of which we know is without. 4. Animals have, 1, desire to live ; 2, desire for suffi- cient food ; 3, desire to propagate their kind and to pro- tect their young; and, 4, desire to avoid pain, and to 14 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. live, therefore, in the circumstances for which their nat- ure best fits them : in other words, to be comfortable. When you see more of men, you will discover that some men are very much like animals, and have no aspira- tions or desires which can not properly be ranged un- der the above heads. Such a man I do not want you to be. 5. Besides the desires which we have in common with beasts, and which are necessary to us in order to pre- serve our species from extinction, God has given men other desires, and faculties which, if they wish, they may use for their fulfillment. These higher qualities of our lives are not needed for the mere preservation of life. Some of those which by general consent are re- garded as the highest, lead inevitably to the lessening of many of our pleasures, and not unfrequently to the surrender of an individual's comfort, happiness, and even life, to increase, as he may believe, the welfare of his fellow-men. Looking at these higher motives, desires, and aspirations, and at the degree in which they interfere with the happiness or comfort of the body alone, it is reasonable to believe, what Jesus taught, that men have something immortal, destined to live on after the body perishes, and capable, after its release from the body, of still greater development and higher enjoyments. This something we call the Soul. 6. Take notice that the soul of man should not obey the law of living, but the law of duty. For instance, of all the friends of your father and mother who served in the late great war, there was not one who, if he had obeyed the mere law of living the animal instinct of self-pres- ervation would not have remained at home, and pursued OF SOCIETY. 15 hjg usual calling, in comfort, with his family about him, and his wealth increasing. Instead of that they aban- doned their professions, broke up the careers they had planned for themselves, left their families and their comfortable homes, and undertook to face hardships to which they were unaccustomed, and not a few died on the field of battle. They did and suffered thus, not to benefit themselves, or to gratify any of the desires or passions which men have in common with the beasts, but in the hope of helping to maintain a form of gov- ernment which they believed to be pre-eminently calcu- lated to elevate mankind, and increase the happiness of their fellows. A buffalo would be incapable of such motives : if he fought, it would be from greed for food, from a desire for a more comfortable lodgment, out of jealousy, or in self-defense, supplemented eventually by rage. 7. A creature believing himself to possess an immor- tal part, or soul, destined to survive the body, would rea- sonably seek to prepare this immortal part for the con- ditions under which it is to exist. And as the future life is, as we are taught, to be lived without the help of the body, it is evident that training the soul or spirit consists in increasing by cultivation our capacity for those enjoyments which do not depend upon the body. To curb the body, therefore, and keep it under control, to restrain the lower passions those which we have in common with beasts and to weed out of ourselves also envy, greed, spite, covetousness, jealousy, hypocrisy, ill- temper all tending to disregard for the rights of others would appear, aside from the commands and instruc- tions of religion, to be the reasonable and prudent course 16 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. of every man who believes himself to have an immortal part, or soul. 8. But God has so made the world, and so formed mankind that they naturally and inevitably respect and esteem most highly those who most consistently act upon this theory of life. The whole world is combined to honor Washington ; and it is equally unanimous in exe- crating a merely vulgar and cheating politician, like Tweed or Sweeney. 9. Now I wish you to remember, as a FUNDAMENTAL TRUTH IN AMERICAN POLITICS, that the course of life which is thus calculated to fit your immortal part for the future and spiritual life is also that course which will make you a good citizen of the United States. 10. To be a good citizen means not merely that you shall give such prudent obedience to the laws as would keep you out of jail. It means that you shall in all parts of your life live moderately and virtuously; that you shall "love your neighbor as yourself," and there- fore do him no wrong ; that you shall pursue your aims in life with such moderation as to avoid interfering with the happiness of others; that you shall endeavor by your actions, whenever occasion serves, to benefit your fellow-men : for selfishness breeds selfishness, cov- etousness corrupts those who behold it, and liberty can only be maintained among a people who practice self- sacrifice, and to whom a virtuous life seems more im- portant than mere selfish success. 11. To be a good man is your first duty as an Ameri- can; but you ought also, if possible, to be a wise citi- zen, and to that end you should understand what are the proper powers and the proper limitations of gov- OF SOCIETY. If ernment ; what can not as well as what can be done by law. For some of the most foolish and injurious laws on our statute-books have been enacted by good men with a sincere desire to increase the happiness of their fellow-beings. We come then, next, to the consid- eration of Liberty and the Province of Law. 18 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. II OF LIBERTY, AND THE PROVINCE OF LAW. 12. You enjoy liberty when you may say and do whatever pleases you and does not injure other persons. If every human being were endowed with infallible judgment as to the effect of his acts on others, and strength of purpose to avoid every thing that could injure his fellow-men, laws would be needless. 13. But as the judgment of men is fallible, and their strength varies; as all men do not think alike, and some do not think at all, it has been found necessary in almost all societies, however rudely organized, to de- clare what shall be held injurious; and not only this, but to denounce penalties for such injurious acts. Bear in mind, however, that political laws can cover only a part and not the whole duty of man ; and that there is no lower or meaner rogue than he who studies the law merely to keep out of its clutches. 14. The Congress which sat from December, 1873, to June 23, 1374, enacted five hundred and fifty new laws, of which two hundred and thirty-six were general laws, and three hundred and fourteen private laws. Many of our state legislatures are quite as industrious as Con- gress ; and the multiplication of laws has become a curse to the country, and has a tendency to bring into contempt, not only the laws, but those who make them. 15. Considering the propensity of men to multiply OF LIBERTY, AND THE PROVINCE OF LA W. 19 laws, and, often with good intentions, to legislate upon subjects which do not come properly within the limits of law, it is proper to tell you that: Laws should be few in number and simple in structure; they should rigidly avoid granting special privileges or immunities to individuals, but should be general in their applica- tion ; and they ought never to interfere with the liberty of men to move about peaceably from place to place ; to discuss freely public affairs and questions ; to engage in whatever honest occupation pleases them ; to produce whatever seems to them most suitable ; and to exchange what they have produced where they please, and for what they most desire. These limitations of the law- making power no doubt seem to you so simple and so evidently just that you will wonder they need to be spec- ified ; but in fact there is in every legislative body a constant propensity to overstep these limits a tendency which the united efforts of all the wisest men in any state or in the whole country can not entirely resist. It was noticed by an eminent English writer that almost all modern reforms in Europe have been made, not by enacting new laws, but by repealing a great mass of old ones. 20 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. III. OF GOVERNMENTS. 16. Governments are necessary evils. Their necessity arises out of the selfishness and stupidity of mankind. 17. They are of different kinds: Despotisms, where the will of one man is the law ; oligarchies, where a few make the laws for those subordinate to them ; and free or popular governments, where the laws are made by the people, or rather by persons they select for that purpose. 18. In reading history, you will discover that the less intelligent and more selfish a nation was, the more des- potic was its government, and the more arbitrary and vexatious its laws ; and that as the general average of virtue and intelligence in a nation increased, in the same degree its government and laws became milder and more just. It is equally true that a nation which has enjoyed an excellent government may, by the cor- ruption of its morals, and the consequent increase of selfishness and ignorance, lose this, and have imposed on it a worse, and even the worst form of government. Thus I wish you to believe that it is only by maintain- ing, and even elevating, the standard of virtue and in- telligence among our people that we can preserve our free institutions. 19. Hence the importance that you should be a good citizen, in the largest sense; for the example of each OF GOVERNMENTS. 21 tells npon all who surround him. If, when you become a man, you should be dishonest, unscrupulous, regardless of others' rights, covetous of wealth or distinction to the injury of others, envious, in any way base, your course would help to demoralize and debauch the unthinking and weak, which means the larger part of those who surround you. This is the reason why the course of life of the notorious James Fisk was peculiarly hateful to good citizens ; his own life they would have troubled themselves little about, but the influence of his career was pernicious and degrading upon the whole country. This is the reason, too, why Napoleon III. drew on him- self in an especial manner the bitter dislike of thought- ful men and women ; why we abhor a political dema- gogue, a swindler in office, or a merely ostentatious rich man : because their bad example is contagious, infects the weaker part of those who see the spectacle, de- grades public opinion, and makes vice less odious, and virtue and self-restraint less important in the general mind. On the other hand, the example of probity, of faithfulness to duty and to principle, in the lowest citi- zen, is valuable and important because it w r ins general respect, not merely for the man, but for those virtues of which his life is an example. 22 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. IV. OF THE PRIMARY AND NECESSARY FUNCTIONS OF GOVERNMENT. 20. The primary and necessary functions of any gov- ernment are to maintain the peace and to administer justice, which means to protect the orderly and law- abiding part of the people in the enjoyment of life and property and against the attacks of the disorderly and law-breaking. Necessarily it has also to collect from the people, in the manner most equal and least oppressive, the money needed to pay the officers charged with these duties. 21. Where the average of virtue, intelligence, and self-restraint is high among a people, their government needs to interfere but little in their affairs. Where this average is low, government always interferes more, by means of police, armies, and vexatious regulations. This arises from the fact that peace, order, and the se- curity of life and property are regarded as the most precious and necessary possessions by every people, and to secure these, men and nations are generally ready to give up a large measure of political liberty, and to suf- fer many other and minor evils, such as high taxation. On this plea the French people were induced to accept Napoleon as the " savior of society," and the common excuse for a despotism is that it is necessary to main- tain order ; which nevertheless it does not maintain, ex- PRIMARY FUNCTIONS OF GOVERNMENT. 23 cept temporarily, and at the monstrous cost of increas- ing the ignorance and helplessness and diminishing the virtue and public spirit of the nation, and thus in the end increasing tremendously the causes of disorder. Napoleon III. held France by the throat for eighteen years, and all the meaner sort of mankind glorified him as the wisest of rulers; but eighteen years of liberty, even with the greatest presumable amount of disorder, would not have left France as poor, debt-ridden, humil- iated, and demoralized as it is to-day. 22. In our own country, since the late war, the Federal Government has been allowed to interfere in the local af- fairs of some of the states, whose citizens had not suffi- cient public virtue and self-restraint to maintain order among themselves. I wish you to believe that such forcible interference of the Federal Government, except for special, temporary, and extraordinary occasions, as to quell a sudden riot, is unwise and dangerous : because it debases public spirit, and enervates the orderly part of society, whose highest duty it is to rule and to punish wrong-doers. It would be far wiser to let a state, or even half-a-dozen states, suffer from misgovernment until the orderly part of their communities learned the necessity of forming and maintaining a good adminis- tration. California would to-day be in a chaotic condi- tion had its early settlers been taught to depend upon the Federal Government for protection in their local concerns. But these, having borne violence and lawless- ness as long as they could, and finding no outside power at hand to help them, at last took affairs into their own hands where such affaire properly belonged hanged the worst criminals, banished others, and formed a stable 24: POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. and very highly public-spirited community, which, while largely composed of the rudest elements, yet developed, as the direct result of this experience, in a singularly great degree the spirit of obedience to and respect for law, which is the essence of what we call public spirit. 23. In like manner the city of New York was for many. years ruled at Albany, on the plea that it was un- safe to allow the citizens to take charge of their local affairs. But under the Albany rule corruption and dis- order constantly increased; and it was left in the end for the people of the city to release themselves by their own effort from the control of the Tweed - Sweeny Ring ; and they were actually able to do this, even after the corruptionists had for years debauched public senti- ment, and when the Ring were at the height of their power. 24. It is only where the people have public spirit enough to resent wrong, and to give vigorous and instant support to the officers of justice, that governments can be efficient ; and it is true that no government will be just, economical, or efficient unless the general opinion of the people requires that it shall be so. Rulers are only men ; the possession of power easily demoralizes the best and wisest of men ; and no ruler will long be just, efficient, honest, or respectable, who does not feel and fear the force of public indignation ; nor will rogues fear the laws, unless they are assured that the mass of citizens will vigorously demand the prompt enforcement of the laws. 25. Thus the city of New York has long suffered from the depredations of the criminal part of its popu- lation, because the courts have too often been corrupt, PRIMARY FUNCTIONS OF GOVERNMENT. 25 and the administration of the law was lax. A mur- derer or highway robber, caught red-handed, who was al- lowed to lie in jail for a year before trial, and to carry his case through all the courts on appeal, knew that his offense would be forgotten before his punishment came ; and his fellow-criminals, seeing punishment long delayed and frequently evaded, were encouraged in their vicious careers. Thus crime was fostered. But across the Hudson, in New Jersey, the courts are more rigorous ; and the effect of prompt justice was shown, some years ago, in a case of burglary. The burglars, New-Yorkers by residence, were caught ; the grand jury, which hap- pened to be in session, found a true bill against them ; they were at once brought to trial ; and in eleven days after their burglary were sentenced to thirty years in state prison and safely lodged in the Trenton Prison, with no hope of pardon. There was not a burglary for several years in the neighborhood. 26. Back of all laws and all authority must lie a be- lief that in the last resort every citizen will defend his own rights. You can not put a corporal's guard at ev- ery man's door. The thief or robber at bottom never fears the law and the government nearly as much as he does the right arm and courage of the man he seeks to injure. This is shown wherever, in our own country, any even inconsiderable body of citizens have suffered themselves to be robbed, whether on the highway or by rings of swindling politicians. "When, last year, three masked robbers were able to plunder a railroad train full of unresisting passengers in Missouri, other high- way robberies were presently reported from the same region. The desperadoes were encouraged in their ca- B 26 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. reers by the quiet submission of their victims. They did not greatly fear the law ; and a single shot from a brave citizen would have checked them more immedi- ately than the whole power of the government unsup- ported by the citizens. In Montana, in the early days of its settlement, the territory for a time lay subject to a powerful robber band, whose members had the audacity even to ride into shops in Helena, in open day, on horseback, and demand tribute from the shopkeep- ers. They had no dread of police or troops, because the people suffered their exactions 'without resistance. But one day a courageous shopkeeper shot dead the robber who rode into his store and that single act, arousing the citizens, caused the speedy extirpation of the robbers. 27. Immediately after the late war the newly eman- cipated negroes were threatened with various aggres- sions from the intolerant and ignorant part of the South- ern whites ; and having been long slaves, they did not at first assert their rights. Attempts were made by the United States Government to defend them ; but this was soon seen to be impossible ; and had they not pres- ently learned to defend themselves, society must have perished in those states, in spite of the efforts of one of the most powerful governments in the world, and of a whole bookful of laws and penalties enacted by Con- gress. Fortunately for the country, the negroes soon learned their duty in this respect. Indeed, they present- ly became aggressive; and wherever it is understood that they have the courage to strike back, their persecu- tions have ceased. 28. It is only where the mass of the people resent the violation of law and order, and are prompt in coming PRIMARY FUNCTIONS OF GOVERNMENT. 27 to the help of the officers to enforce the laws and put down wrong -doers, that free government is secure. Where the people are careless, and submit readily to wrong, the law soon falls into disrepute, rights are in- vaded, and disorders are encouraged. Hence in a free community the citizens can not delegate to police or other law officers the whole duty of maintaining peace and order ; they must hold themselves ready at all times to assist by their countenance, and if need be by their personal efforts, the officers whom they haye charged with the execution of the laws. 28 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. V. OF SOME OTHER FUNCTIONS OF GOVERNMENT. 29. The primary and necessary functions of govern- ment are, as I told you in the last section, to maintain the peace and execute justice between the different mem- bers of society. 30. Under this head come the army, navy, police, and the conduct of official intercourse with foreign nations, and in our country with Indian tribes whom we have always treated as foreign nations, by which course we have retarded their advance into civilization, and caused endless Indian wars and constant corruption. 31. But all civilized governments are charged with yet other duties, which, it has been found, they can perform, if not in a better yet in a more uniform and convenient manner than private citizens, and which are also inci- dentally o'f political importance. These duties are: to conduct the post-officeby which intercourse by letters, and the dissemination of printed information, is made uniformly easy and cheap all over the country; the pub- lic or free education of youth; the maintenance of a light-house system ; the protection and improvement of harbors ; a large body of scientific observations which require to be conducted systematically during a great number of years in order to be valuable ; the survey of lands, and the recording of deeds, which are the tokens of ownership in land ; the care of the public health, and OTHER FUNCTIONS OF GOVERNMENT. 29 the prevention or abolition of nuisances, and quarantine or the means to keep out infectious diseases; the care of roads and bridges ; and some others. 32. Some of these matters we leave to the Federal Government ; others are assigned to the states ; and oth- ers yet are deputed by these to the city and county governments. 33. I wish you to remember that private enterprise would probably perform all these offices as well, and many better than the government. For example, in Cal- ifornia and Nevada, Wells-Fargo's express has for many years carried letters, because the public there believed that it would convey them more rapidly and securely than the post-office, and was willing to pay an extra rate for the security. But over the whole country it is doubtful if the mails would be delivered with the same general uniformity of speed and regularity and cheap- ness by private persons as by the government ; and this is the legitimate excuse for the existence of the post- office. 34. Because we assign to the government some duties, therefore, which ^private citizens could perform, and would probably perform in a better manner than the government, this does not prove that the government ought to extend such operations and intrude into the great field 'of private enterprise. And yet, you must know, there is a constant tendency toward such exten- sion. Thus it is maintained by some persons that the government ought to become a carrier of parcels, and thus assume the functions of an express company. Oth- ers wish it to take possession of the telegraph lines ; yet others imagine that it ought to own and manage the SO POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. railroads. Yarious reasons lead men to these notions su'ch as impatience under delays or inconveniences ; dis- appointed business rivalries ; hopes of gain by selling out at a large price to the government ; a liking for grand operations, such as the government alone can carry on ; and a vague and ignorant belief that the government can really transact business better than private persons. 35. I give you below the main reasons why a govern- ment should be strictly confined to its proper functions, and why we should oppose all attempts to impose upon it other duties which lie outside of these : 1st. It would have to increase very greatly its staff of servants, which increases the patronage, which means the power of brib- ery, possessed by the rulers ; and their means of cor- rupting the people, and thus encroaching upon our lib- erties. 2dly. It would greatly increase the amount of money to be handled by the government, and thus make the possession of power tempting to bad men, which is another means toward the corruption of the people. 3dly. It would make the people dependent, and deprive them of incentives to ingenuity and enterprise, and lead them to look to some power outside .of themselves for the management of their daily lives. All these are se- rious evils ; and if we had to choose, it would be far wiser to turn the post-office, roads, light-houses, the public education, and all other matters of that kind over to private enterprise, than to allow the government to as- sume still other functions, such as telegraphing and car- rying express parcels, or managing the railroads. 36. It is of the utmost importance to the perpetuity of free government that the people should be left to do for themselves whatever they can, without the inter- OTHER FUNCTIONS OF GOVERNMENT. 31 ference of the government. Free government is not, at any given time, the most convenient^as I shall show you further on ; but it has this transcendent merit, that under it alone can abuses be cured without revolution or the disorganization of society. For instance, the people are just now agitated about the abuse of power by railroads. We shall remedy this class of evils, slowly no doubt, but surely, and without revolution ; but in a despotic government the railroad question would perhaps upset the government ; and it would at any rate become mixed up with the question of the existence of the government itself. We in the United States may not, at any time, have all the physical conveniences which we might have for a while if the government did every thing for us ; but we have the means of peaceful progress; the cer- tainty that we shall slowly but surely solve all the diffi- culties which press upon all civilized nations alike ; and solve them without revolution which means, without permanent injury to society. 32 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. VI. OF THE USEFULNESS AND THE INCONVENIENCE OF FREE GOVERNMENT. 37. What we call a free government, one in which the people rule, and in which much is left to the people, has therefore this extremely important advantage, that it forces them to be self -helpful ; and obtains peaceful progress, not by the costly and after all ineffective in- terference of the government, but by the only permanent means, the determination of the people themselves. Thus government " of the people, for the people, and by the people," educates a nation in courage, enterprise, a strong sense of duty, self-restraint, the habit of obeying law, and the capacity and readiness to act together for public ends. Free government is a school of all the manly virtues. 38. It works also another and equally important re- sult : It maintains peace amid change, and allows the reform of evils without resort to revolution ; because where the whole people take part in electing their rulers and law-makers, all feel equally bound by the laws at any time enacted, and if any feel these laws oppressive, they get patience from the knowledge that open discus- sion will in time bring its remedies. Under a despotic government wrongs can be righted only by violence and revolution. Under a free government like ours, all wrongs can be rignted by argument. Hence the freest USEFULNESS OF FREE GOVERNMENT. 33 government is likely to be the most peaceable, orderly, and permanent. 39. Our own history, compared with the history of other nations, proves this to be true. We enjoyed un- broken peace at home for more than seventy-five years, from the acknowledgment of our independence to the year 1861, and in that time were engaged in but two in- significant foreign wars. 40. Moreover, the war of the rebellion could never have happened had the whole people of the Southern States been allowed to vote for or against secession and rebellion had free government existed, that is to say, in those states. For that part of the people who were then slaves would have voted unanimously against seces- sion ; and witli free and fair discussion such as would have been had the negroes strengthened the Union vote no state would have cast a majority for secession, least of all South Carolina, a majority of whose people were blacks. 41. Free government is troublesome to its citizens, be- cause it imposes upon every man duties of a public nat- ure, to which he must give time and intelligent thought. In the measure that all the people thus give up time and thought to their political duties, in the same de- gree will their government be justly and honestly admin- istered. Gross selfishness, such as leads men to aban- don their political and public duties, in order to devote their whole time and energies to their own affairs and pleasures, is therefore, as I have already several times pointed out to you, a disgraceful and dangerous vice in the citizen of a republic. 42. A despotism, like that from which France so long P, 2 34 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. suffered, is easily endurable to the meaner kind of men, because it saves them from, thought upon matters con- cerning the general welfare. A despotic ruler, more- over, is apt to attend carefully to the minor conven- iences of the people : he provides public baths for them ; regulates arbitrarily the price of provisions ; prohibits monopolies except those he himself enjoys; and in many ways does for them, wastef ully, and with their mon- ey for of course he has none of his own what they ought to do and could do more cheaply for themselves. Meantime he thus makes them incapable of acting in- telligently and effectively in great perils, disables them from remedying abuses, demoralizes them by encour- aging their selfishness and love of pleasure, and thus pre- pares the way, logically, for some such great and dis- graceful catastrophe as has left France humiliated, bur- dened with debt, with the loss of a large part of her territory, and, worse than all, with a population unfit for self-government, after eighteen years of what a multitude of short-sighted people pronounced a " splendid reign." 43. A wise and beneficent despot may for a time greatly and rapidly increase the material welfare of a people ; by his power to command obedience, he may, if he lives long enough, impose upon them new habits of thought and action, or even a different civilization ; but it is always at the expense of qualities which are abso- lutely necessary to the life of a nation, and with the result of leaving his subjects unable to maintain the ex- istence of society if the despotic head should be sudden- ly removed, or if the state should suffer serious attack from without. Doubtless the Incas greatly benefited the Peruvians, among whom they introduced some im- INCONVENIENCE OF FREE GOVERNMENT. 35 portant arts of civilization. But under the despotic rule they established, a handful of Spaniards not only over- threw the government, but when they had conquered the rulers, the people, too long the subjects of despotism, lay prostrate at their feet, and, being subjugated, per- ished from the earth. 44. Thus it is with nations as with individuals. A boy who is coddled by his parents ; who sits behind the stove in winter when others are playing in the snow ; who lies late abed, and has his pockets full of candy ; who must not go into the water until he can swim ; and whose precious life and health are the objects of his own and his parents' incessant solicitude, may look with pity upon his neighbor, who runs about barefooted, gets up early to feed the cows, has few clothes and no candy* and must work for his food ; but all human experience and history show that the hardier boy has by far the best chance of becoming a useful man, and making an honorable figure in the world. His early life has been full of inconveniences, and perhaps disagreeables ; but the overcoming of these has hardened his frame, train- ed his will, strengthened the moral side of his nature, and prepared him thus to withstand trials and tempta- tions under which his tenderly nurtured neighbor would sink. 45. I wish you to take notice that there are in every free country a great many persons to whom the duties and responsibilities of citizenship are irksome ; and who, too ignorant or thoughtless to see the evil results of dependence on a government, seek to avoid temporary evils and inconveniences by delegating to the government greater powers, and seeking to establish it as a kind of 36 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. earthly Providence, to guard their private affairs, and make their lives easier. 46. Thus we in this country do not yet know how best to manage our railroads ; and these powerful corpora- tions in some cases have oppressed parts of our popula- tion. There are people who seek to cure this evil by making the Federal Government take possession of the railroads, or by making it build new lines. They would, to avoid a temporary inconvenience, put the transporta- tion of products into the hands of the government ; for- getting that government does not transact even its le- gitimate work economically and efficiently, and that to put the vast business of transportation into its hands would be to corrupt it, to give it the means of corrupting and abusing the people; to give to a bad ruler mon- strous power, sure to be wickedly used ; and, after all, to secure no advantage which can not be got by other and safer means. 47. In like manner a persistent effort has been made to piut the business of telegraphing into the hands of the Federal Government. But not only would the purchase of the present lines be very costly, and their manage- ment by the government most certainly less satisfactory than now, but this scheme would greatly increase the number of office-holders, and consequently the means of corrupting the people. What is of yet greater mo- ment, it would give to the party in power entire con- trol over the public news, and enable a weak or an un- scrupulous ruler and most rulers are either weak or unscrupulous to poison the very sources of public opin- ion by giving false or partial reports of passing events, thus making the people incapable, in an important USEFULNESS OF FREE GOVERNMENT. 37 emergency, to form a just opinion of the conduct or misconduct of their rulers. 48. In France, Napoleon went but one step further when he regulated the price of bread, and forced bakers to sell at a rate fixed by himself. No doubt it was a con- venience to a poor man to get his bread for less than it was worth, but it demoralized him, and helped to make him and the whole population incapable of independ- ent and judicious political action. 49. In some of our cities the city governments own the market spaces where provisions are sold, as though there was any more reason for thus controlling the mar- ket for meat than for dry -goods. But these market- places, where they are owned by a city, are always filthy, shamefully mismanaged, and a source of political cor- ruption ; and the only clean and well-managed markets we have are those in private hands. 38 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. VII. OF THE DIFFERENT PARTS OF A GOVERNMENT. 50. Government falls naturally into three different departments : That part which makes the laws ; that which executes them, or carries them into effect ; and that which administers justice, or applies the laws be- tween man and man. 51. In a rudely organized society or tribe, the chief or head man assumes all these functions : he gives orders, which are the laws; he enforces these orders; and he sits as judge in disputes between members of the tribe. Under any despotism, the ruler exercises the same powers as the chief of a tribe of savages; but necessarily he acts through agents, his favorites, who make life still less tolerable to the subjects. 52. In order to maintain a free or popular govern- ment, it is necessary that these powers shall be lodged in different hands ; that the body which makes the laws shall have nothing to do with their enforcement; and that the judges shall be a body independent of both the legislative and the executive branches of the govern- ment. Where this division of powers is well established and carefully guarded, if at the same time the nation has sufficient intelligence and public spirit to hold the rulers it chooses to a strict account, a people's liberties are reasonably secure, and they are able to make their government as honest and efficient as they please to have OF THE DIFFERENT PARTS OF A GOVERNMENT. 39 it. For at the elections they are able to remove those legislators who enacted bad laws, or that executive officer who carelessly or wickedly failed in the proper enforce- ment of the laws. Thus the people not only rule, but are easily able to distinguish where the fault of misgov- ernment lies, and to apply the remedy. In our own government, this great division of powers is very clearly made : in the Federal Government, Congress enacts the laws, but can not execute or enforce them ; the President enforces the laws, but he does not make them ; and the courts of the United States construe the Federal laws, and apply them in disputed cases. There is a still further subdivision, which is of equal importance to good government, and which is called DECENTRALIZATION. 4:0 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. vni. OF DECENTRALIZATION. 53. It has been found advisable, by experience, to still further subdivide the powers necessarily intrusted to government; to limit the general, or, as it is usually called, the central government, to the performance of certain offices or duties which apply equally to all parts of the nation ; and to confide other powers and duties, having only a local application, to subordinate, but in their sphere independent governments. 54. Thus, in our own system, the Federal Government at Washington exercises powers very strictly limited, leaving others to the state governments ; and yet others to the county and even to the township governments. 55. This subdivision of power and authority is called DECENTRALIZATION ; and experience has shown that this political device is of extreme importance, for two rea- sons : First, it is a powerful and the best means of train- ing a people to efficient political action and the art of self-government ; and, second, it presents constant and important barriers to the encroachment of rulers upon the rights and liberties of the nation ; every subdivision forming a stronghold of resistance by. the people against unjust or wicked rulers. 56. Take notice that any system of government is ex- cellent in the precise degree in which it naturally trains the people in political independence, and habituates OF DECENTRALIZATION. 41 them to take an active part in governing themselves. Whatever plan of government does this in a high de- gree is good no matter what it may be called; that which avoids this is necessarily bad. 57. France has for many years been a glaring example of a most vicious system of government, and this under the so-called republic as well as under the empire, be- cause her Republican rulers, as much as her emperors, rejected decentralization and local self-government, and adhered to a system of centralization, which made and makes liberty impossible. For in France the central government appoints all the local officers, and the con- dition there is as though the President of the United States should appoint not only the postmasters, revenue and law officers, who are properly a part of the Federal executive, but also the governors of the states, the mayors of cities, the supervisors of counties, and even the jus- tices of the peace and local police. You do not need to think profoundly to see that independence and free government would be impossible under a system which thus removed the pettiest local officers from the censure and condemnation of their neighbors, and made them responsible only to the chief authority at Washington. The first time we had a bad man in the presidential chair he would be tempted by the favorable circum- stances to play the part of Napoleon, and make himself master of the state. Nor could the people, without great difficulty, and probably revolution, resist him. 58. To make liberty secure, the powers and responsi- bilities of the executive ought to be plainly limited and defined ; and ought to be such, and no greater, that even a bad man in the executive chair could not, during the o 42 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. term for which he is chosen, do serious detriment to the republic. For constitutions are made to guard against bad officers, just as laws are made, not to interfere with the good, but to restrain the vicious. OF THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE EXECUTIVE. 43 IX. OF TEE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE EXECUTIVE. 59. The executive is the head and ruler of the political community. He is so called because he executes or en- forces the laws which the legislative body enacts. With us the President is the chief executive of the United States ; the governor is the executive head of a state ; and the mayor is, or ought to be, the executive head of a city. 60. Large powers are usually, and ought always to be, given to an executive or ruler ; these powers should be, and in constitutional governments are, strictly limited ; but within the limits fixed in the constitution the ruler should have the utmost discretion ; for thus only can he be held responsible for faithfully executing the duties of his office. Responsibility can never be greater than the authority given. Thus you can see that to tell a general to win a battle, and leave him to make his own plans, is to fix upon him a large responsibility, because his authority is practically unlimited. But to order him to win a battle according to certain plans imposed on him by a council of war, would be to cramp and limit his powers, and in the same measure to lessen his re- sponsibility for, if he were beaten, he might justly say that the plan of action in accordance with which he was compelled to fight was not the best, and that defeat was not his fault, but the fault of the council, which impaired his liberty of action ; hence he would not probably exert himself to the utmost. 44 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. 61. One of the most vicious and dangerous defects in a scheme of government, therefore, is a mixed and ill- defined responsibility. Thus if the executive is intrust- ed to two or more persons, confusion and corruption are sure to result, because it is then impossible to fix the blame for misconduct upon any one officer. A board or commission, as an executive composed of a number of persons is called, is certain to be both inefficient and corrupt. This is because it is more difficult to bring several persons to a prompt decision than one ; and be- cause the blame for inefficiency or misconduct is shifted from one to the other, to the confusion of the public, which can not tell whom to punish. 62. It is another vicious defect to take away from the executive head the appointment of his subordinates, for he can not justly be held responsible for the conduct of persons selected by others than himself ; and being de- prived of what is of the essence of just authority, he is pretty certain to lose that strong interest in the conduct of affairs which he is compelled to feel when the eyes of the people are fixed upon him alone, and he in his single person is held responsible for the administration of the public business. 63. In a well-ordered free government, therefore, the executive head, being chosen for a specified time, and having duties and powers clearly defined and limited, ought to possess the power to appoint and remove his subordinates at will. In that case he can be justly held responsible by the people for the management of affairs. 64. In our own Federal Government, the Senate has an advisory power in regard to appointments made by the President (but none as to removals) ; and to that ex- OF THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE EXECUTIVE. 45 tent the Senate is a part of the executive. This power was given in the Constitution, because those who framed that instrument were more fearful of the tyranny of a despotic executive than of the worse, because less re- sponsible, tyranny of a numerous body like the Senate ; and believed it necessary to guard with especial care against usurpation of power by the President. If they lived at this day, they would probably wish to remove even this slight check upon the appointing power, be- cause they would see that there is but little reason to fear an attack upon our liberties by the President, who has a limited time to serve, and may be impeached for misgovernment ; while it becomes constantly more desir- able to fix responsibility for misgovernment upon a sin- gle pei-son, in order that the people may more easily un- derstand upon whom and how to visit the punishment. 65. During the administration of President Johnson, the Congress adopted a " tenure of office " law, which prohibited removals from office by the President with- out the consent of the Senate. The result was, how- ever, not permanence in office, but the removal of many good officers who had fallen under the President's dis- like, and the appointment in their places of incompetent men who were favorites of senators or representatives, and to get whom into place they persuaded the Senate to agree to removals. Tims the public service was de- bauched, and yet the President was able to say that he had the countenance of the Senate in this work ; and blame could not be fastened upon him alone. A more wily and unscrupulous president than Mr. Johnson might have very gravely injured the public service under this law, and still managed to escape blame. 4:6 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. 66. It is proper to repeat to you that the powers and authority of the Executive under the Federal Consti- tution are so limited that even the worst man in that office can not, without exposing himself to impeachment and removal^ cause serious harm to the republic during his term of office ; and that the unjust exercise of the powers which of right belong to him would make him so odious to the people that they would at the end of his term refuse to re-elect him. The easiest way to de- feat this proper result would be to place checks upon him, which would make him irresponsible for misgov- ernment in the eyes of the people. 67. Most of our state constitutions and many city charters are faulty in this, that they deprive the chief executive of the power to appoint even his most impor- tant subordinates. This is done on the plea that the people, who are made to elect these subordinates, have thus greater power; but, as I shall show you farther on, this is a great mistake, and the cause of constant corruption in our local politics. OF POLITICAL PARTIES. X. OF POLITICAL PARTIES. 68. In a free state there are usually two political par- ties. 69. These have different names, but their motives are independent of names ; and it may be said that one of the two great parties in a free state is composed of men who desire change, and the other of men who cling to that which is. As temperaments differ, so men are either Whigs or Democrats, Democrats or Republicans, according as their characters lead them to be conserv- ative, dreading change even when it is for the better, or progressive, welcoming change even if it is for the worse. 70. There is, however, in every free state a third par- ty, little heard of, without organization, which does not seek office, holds no meetings, and owns no banners. It holds the balance of power, and it silently decides the elections, and on the whole in the right way. This party is composed of the citizens who think for them- selves, who look on at the strife little moved by partisan appeals, and on election day deposit their votes for the man or the policy which on the whole appears to them likely to best further the good of the state. Tin's party is the terror of professional politicians, and often their confusion. The larger it is in any community, the bet- ter will public affairs be managed, for it is this party 4:8 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. which punishes inefficiency, corruption, or maladminis- tration of any kiud, defeats the caucuses and scratches tickets when corrupt men are nominated. It is to this party I wish you to belong, whether you are a Demo- crat or a Republican. 71. Party government is necessary in a free state. The organization of political parties is the only means by which the sense of the people can be got at elections npon questions of public policy ; and by party govern- ment only can responsibility be fixed upon political lead- ers, so that these may receive approval or condemnation. A non-partisan government is the dream of weak and amiable men ; it belongs to an ideal condition, in which all men shall be unselfish, and sincerely desirous of the public good. In the present condition of mankind, a non-partisan government one in which both or all po- litical party leaders should share would be, and has been wherever it was tried, only an admirable and effective device to conceal corruption, because it becomes then the interest of the leaders of both parties to cover up wrong, both having their share of public plunder. Non- partisan boards were a favorite device of Tweed and the New York City Ring. Y2. A political party appeals to the citizens with what we call a platform, which means a statement of the pol- icy it desires to see carried out. Necessarily it also nominates men to enforce this policy in case they are elected by the people. 73. If party leaders always declared their opinions and intentions openly and honestly, and if they nomi- nated only their most capable men, the duty of the cit- izen would be very simple. But a political platform OF POLITICAL PARTIES. 49 is often an ingenious jumble of words, intended to at- tract men of opposite sentiments, and naturally candi- dates nominated on such platforms are not likely to be men famous for positive principles. In such cases the citizen has to choose the least of two evils, and take comfort in the thought that a country is not badly off in which the people do not find it necessary to decide upon vital principles. It is quite certain that in a free gov- ernment like oui-s inefficiency or corruption will be punished by the people just as soon as they become real- ly dangerous to the nation. Reform of evils is a slow work in a free state; because the mass of the people are engrossed in their own affairs, and conservative in their habits of thought, which means that they dislike great and sudden changes, even if they appear to be im- provements. This spirit is an admirable one : though often inconvenient and sometimes costly, it gives stabil- ity to political and social institutions ; and stability is a main condition of progress. Thus the people of the United States came very slowly to the opinion that slav- ery ought to be extirpated. A beneficent despot might have set the slaves free by a single mandate ; but as lie would have acted regardless of the opinions of the mass of the people, his edict would probably have caused a revolution, or at least grave and long-continued disor- ders ; whereas, in our slow republican way, we discussed the question for thirty years; but when slavery struck at the national life, the nation presently consented to abolish the evil. C 50 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. XL WHO VOTE, AND WET. 74. Women, minors, paupers, and insane persons have no vote in the United States. 75. In some countries the electoral franchise, as the right to vote is called, is still further limited to persons who can read and write, or to persons possessing a spec- ified amount of property, or paying a certain annual rent for the premises they occupy. 76. Property qualifications originally obtained in a number of our states, but they have gradually been abol- ished. 77. An educational qualification is proposed in some states, and will probably be adopted in many within the next few years. Where public or free schools are made accessible to the whole population, there would be no injustice in requiring that only those shall vote who can both read and write. 78. Minors, or persons under age, and paupers are not allowed to vote because they are dependent ; and it is presumable that they would vote under coercion, and not according to their independent judgment. More- over, a person incapable of managing his private busi- ness ought not to have a voice or influence in pub- lic affairs. It is probable that women are denied the vote for the same reason because the greater part of them are in a dependent condition ; and the law takes WHO VOTE, AND WHY. 51 no note of exceptions. Of late there has arisen in this country and England a vigorous discussion of the pro- priety of woman suffrage ; at the same time that women have, in far greater numbers than ever before, become independent laborers which is a calamity to themselves and to society. 79. General manhood suffrage, which prevails in the United States, is required by justice, and is necessary to the perpetuation of peace in a community or nation. By his vote each man has his influence upon those affairs which are common to all the citizens ; if he is outvoted, he is still satisfied, because it was his hope to outvote his opponents, and it is his hope to have the majority with, him at another time. 80. It is sometimes urged that only those who possess property ought to be allowed to vote taxes and appro- priations for public purposes. This proposition has an appearance of justice; but, besides being impracticable, it rests upon a wrong view of society. It supposes a degree of meanness and bad spirit in the poor, and of intelligence and liberality in the wealthy, which we do not find in actual life; and it would facilitate a division of men into classes, the poor arrayed against the rich, which, if it existed, would make free government al- most if not quite impossible. 81. Suppose even that the poor were not only the most numerous, but also the least intelligent and the most selfish, which is not true : it is still a fact that the rich and intelligent possess great influence over their poorer neighbors, by reason of their greater means and knowl- edge, which it is their duty to use for the general good. Any regulation which would make it unnecessary for 52 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. them to use this influence, or to take that part in polit- ical affairs which is necessary to give them their natural and just predominance (arising from the possession of wealth and intelligence), would be an injury to the com- monwealth. 82. If general manhood suffrage any where leads the poor to vote money out of the pockets of the rich, waste- fully, or for needless or corrupt purposes, the reason is that the rich-have abdicated their proper place and in- fluence in political society, and have selfishly given them- selves to mere money-getting or a life of pleasure, by which they endanger not only themselves, but, what is of greater consequence, the stability of the community. It is an additional argument in favor of general suf- frage if it compels the wealthy and intelligent, as an act of unavoidable self-defense, to exercise that influence in political affairs which justly and naturally belongs to them ; and if it reminds them that their prosperous for- tunes bring with them duties and responsibilities. 83. Take notice that a free state or republic can not remain prosperous if the more fortunate of its citizens withdraw themselves from political duties to devote their lives to money-getting or to pleasure. Take no- tice, too, that when a rich man complains that his poorer neighbors many of whom he probably employs vote against his interest, you will find that he conducts him- self toward them selfishly, and thus loses the influence which his wealth naturally gives him if he rightly uses it. 84. Under our system the states have the exclusive power of declaring, each for itself, which of the citizens shall vote ; being prohibited only from excluding per- sons on account of race, color, or previous condition of WHO VOTE, AND WHY. 53 slavery. They can not, however, give the franchise in- discriminately, for the Federal Government has the ex- clusive authority to declare who shall be citizens. Thus no state could allow Chinese to vote, because these peo- ple are not capable, under the laws of the Federal Gov- ernment, of becoming citizens. But any state may adopt an educational or property franchise or condition, only making it equally applicable to all its citizens. 54 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. XII. WHAT OFFICERS SHOULD NOT BE ELECTED. 85. In order to enable the people to take an intelli- gent and real interest in politics, it is necessary that they shall have to elect but a few persons. 86. The persons who compose the law-making body ought to be elected, and at frequent intervals, in order that they may come fresh from the people, and know their will. 87. The executive head of the community, be he Pres- ident, Governor, or Mayor, ought to be elected by the people, and probably at less frequent intervals than the legislative body, as our Federal Constitution provides, because thus the government gains in stability of pur- pose, without danger to liberty. 88. The judges ought in na case to be elected, but should be appointed for life or good behavior by the executive. Thus only can the majesty and dignity of the courts of justice be maintained. It is absurd and wicked to degrade a judge by forcing him to appeal to the voters for election ; because justice has nothing to do with political parties, and ought to be beyond the in- fluence of partisan strife. A court does not deal with policies, but with principles. 89. It is sometimes urged that a President or Gov- ernor or Mayor may appoint an improper person as judge; and this is true; but even a bad man, placed WHAT OFFICERS SHOULD NOT BE ELECTED. 55 for life in an exalted and entirely independent position, is likely to conduct himself well ; and an executive of- ficer, though he might make a careless or bad appoint- ment to a temporary office, will think twice before he selects for a life office, and one so important as a judge- ship, a man whose career, if it should be disgraceful, would be a constant reproach to him who created him judge. 90. The officers subordinate to the executive ought not to be elected, but appointed by their chief. Otherwise there is confusion in the government, because chief and subordinates deriving their authority from the same source, election, there arises necessarily division of re- sponsibility, and the public business is left undone or is corruptly done. 91. The provisions of our Federal Constitution are very wise upon this point. The President may appoint and remove even so low a grade of officers as postmas- ters and minor revenue officers. It has sometimes been proposed to make the place of Postmaster elective but to do so would be to make these officers irresponsible ; and as the President could not remove them for incom- petency or corruption, because they would hold their places independently of him, and from the same source which gave him his, you can easily see that the Post-of- fice Department would be exposed to the grossest mis- management, without the possibility of a remedy. 92. What is true of this is true of all the executive departments. No officers charged with enforcing the laws ought to be elected, because they would thus be independent of their chief, be he President, Governor, or Mayor. The business of a government does not differ 56 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. in this respect from that of a merchant or a railroad company; and no merchant could successfully conduct his business if his clerks, bookkeeper, and porters were appointed and removable, not by himself, but by his cus- tomers. 93. But in many of our states this blunder is made ; and the people are obliged to elect many minor executive officers, and even those persons who form the cabinet of the Governor ; and, as though to breed the extreme of confusion, in New York and some other states these sub- ordinate officers are chosen at different times from their nominal chief, and are thus not merely independent of his will, but often his political opponents, disagreeing with his policy, and naturally inclined to make him in- efficient by opposing or carelessly carrying out his orders. 94. This foolish system makes government difficult, favors corruption, and screens inefficiency, because it divides responsibility among many persons ; and it is the cause of almost all the misgovernment from which so many of our states and cities have suffered and are still suffering. 95. It seems to have been the device of ingenious po- litical demagogues, helped, as these usually are, by well- meaning but ignorant people, who were taken with the plausible appeal that to make the people elect all their officers would be to give them more power over public affairs. So long as it is tolerated in any part of our political system, so long the baser sort of politicians will continue to impose their " slates " upon the voters, dis- able these from exercising an intelligent control over their rulers, and make government a mockery. 96. For, the people, busy with their own affairs, have WHAT OFFICERS SHOULD NOT BE ELECTED. 57 not leisure to scrutinize the characters of a number of candidates presented to them on the same ticket; the press, occupied with a great variety of public interests and questions, is equally disabled. Every man, of per- haps a dozen, on a ticket, uses his influence to elect all the others, bad and good, as well as himself, and thus the popular vote is stultified. See how different is the case in a presidential election. Then the people are asked to vote for but three persons the President, Vice-President, and a Member of Congress; and the character, abilities, political principles, and history of these three individuals receive the closest scrutiny from the press and public speakers during the canvass, so that every fault or evidence of unfitness is brought to light, and the people have a fair chance to vote intelligently. 97. Only the chief executive officer, in any system, ought to 1)0 elected by the people ; and upon him should be placed the grave responsibility of selecting the sub- ordinates by whose help he is to carry on the public business. If then he fails, he and his party may fairly be held responsible by the people, and punished at the next election. 02 58 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. XIII. OF POLITICAL CONSTITUTIONS. 98. A political Constitution is the instrument or com- pact in which the rights of the people who adopt it, and the powers and responsibilities of their rulers, are de- scribed, and by which they are fixed. 99. The chief object of a constitution is to limit the power of majorities. 100. A moment's reflection will tell you that mere ma- jority rule, unlimited, would be the most grinding of tyrannies ; the minority at any time would be mere slaves, whose rights to life, property, and comfort no one who chose to join the majority would be bound to respect. 101. It is the object of constitutions to protect minor- ities in certain common rights, and to restrain the pow- er of majorities, who may do, or enact, or cause to be done, only what in any case the Constitution permits ; and have no right, no matter how numerically strong they may be, to invade the minority in those rights which the Constitution secures to all the citizens. 102. Out of this thought grow all the provisions of a political Constitution as, for instance, under our own, no majority can deprive a criminal of trial by jury, or elect its candidates for longer than a prescribed term, or deprive the minority of life or property by unequal laws, or enact laws contrary to the provisions or outside of the limitations of the Constitution. OF POLITICAL CONSTITUTIONS, 59 ^ 103. It is a merit in any constitution to be brief, and to state only general rules or principles, to be applied practically by the law-making power ; because thus this instrument, which ought to be but rarely and cautiously altered, is more elastic, and more easily applied to chang- ing circumstances, and to a great variety of life. It is the proper function of a constitution, for instance, to declare the term during which a President, a Member of Congress, or a Governor shall hold office, for that may and ought to be a permanent regulation ; but it would be an error to fix in the constitution the amount of sal- ary either ought to receive ; or even to prohibit the re- election of an officer, for circumstances may occur mak- ing it expedient to re-elect. For instance, had the so- called " one-term principle," which is not a principle at all, but a mere foolish expedient, been incorporated in our Constitution, we should not have re-elected Mr. Lin- coln in 1864, an event which did more than any battle to bring the war to an end, by convincing the South- ern people that the Federal policy would not suffer change. It has become a tradition having the force of a Constitutional provision that the President shall not be chosen for a third term. The example set by Gen- eral Washington, in this respect, is likely to be followed ; for if any President desired a third term, this would be plain proof of inordinate and dangerous ambition in him, rendering him unfit for the office ; and if in such a case a President used the power of his patronage to pro- cure a nomination, it would be wise to vote against him at every hazard. But it is a proper constitutional regu- lation that salaries shall not be increased or diminished during the term of the incumbent ; for a salary is in the 60 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. nature of a contract, and ought to be beyond the reach of increase from corruption, or diminution from party malevolence. It is proper that the Constitution should prohibit human slavery ; but it is better to declare by laws not only the penalties for smuggling, theft, etc., but also what constitutes these and other crimes except treason, which, being a purely political offense, its defi- nition ought to be immutably fixed, as it is in our Fed- eral Constitution, and not left to the political passions of any period. But even here Congress, in the Constitu- tion, is wisely charged to declare the penalty of treason. Again, it is proper that the Constitution should create a Supreme Court, as ours does ; but it would be unwise that it should also fix the number or location of minor courts, because as the country grows these may have to be increased ; and accordingly our Constitution leaves Congress to establish these minor courts. OF THE LEGISLATIVE OR LAW-MAKING BRANCH. (J XIV. OF TEE LEGISLATIVE OR LAW-MAKING BRANCH. 104. Legislative bodies have usually two Houses, as in our Congress and state Legislatures. In the Federal o <~J Congress, the Senators are chosen by the Legislatures of the different states, and are supposed to represent the states, while the representatives are chosen directly by the people in districts. 105. Action in a law-making body means change ; and laws ought to be changed seldom, and never with- out full discussion and consideration. 106. All the arrangements of modern legislative bod- ies in free nations are wisely made to secure these ends. Thus we have two Houses, each of which must separate- ly discuss and agree to a bill before it can become a law ; one of those Houses chosen by a different set of electors or for a longer term than the other ; the executive veto which, bear in mind, is solely to ask the two Houses to reconsider their bill, and not at all to obstruct or abrogate the law for when it once becomes a law in spite of his veto, the executive is bound to enforce it. To the panic end are all the Parliamentary rules and forms which cause delay in the passage of new laws. 107. All these are wholesome and necessary checks on the law-making power. It is therefore a great blun- der to accuse Congress or a state Legislature, as incon- siderate people sometimes do, of "wasting time in de- 62 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. bate." A representative body is never so usefully em- ployed as when engaged in discussing the measures be- fore it ; and it is never so dangerous to the people as when the majority are strong enough to prevent de- bate, and pass laws by the mere overwhelming force of votes ; because laws so passed, without discussion which means examination are likely to be unwise. 108. Another reproach which is sometimes cast at our legislative bodies is that the ablest men are not chosen to seats. But our Congress and Legislatures do not pre- tend to be collections of the ablest men in the nation. They are representative bodies ; and the delegates are supposed to represent the constituencies. When, there- fore, you see a quiet and perhaps dull old farmer sent to the House from some Western district, comfort your- self with the reflection that he represents the agricultur- al interest. He may not be intellectually greatly above his constituents but that is a very good thing. He knows how to speak from their stand-point and they have a right to be heard. If the .people of any dis- trict send a fool or an unfit or incapable person, that is their risk : they leave themselves without influence in the House just as a New York district was, when once it sent John Morrissey as its representative. Our Con- gress does not contain the most brilliant men in the nation, nor all the ablest men ; but it has a great body of solid ability always ; and it is the better for contain- ing little genius. 109. Any one who is familiar with Washington or our state capitals knows that constituencies gain im- mensely in political power by sending able men as dele- gates, and lose when they send demagogues ; and also OF THE LEGISLATIVE OR LAW-MAKING BRANCH. 63 that the influence of a political district may be very much increased by keeping the same man a long time in its service. It could be easily shown, for instance, that the residents of Mr. Elaine's district in Maine, or of Mr. Dawes's in Massachusetts, or of Mr. Cox's in New York, have during the last six or seven years exercised a great deal more than their proportion of influence over the condition and laws of the country, because these expe- rienced and skillful men knew how to guide legislation. But if the people in any district or state choose, negli- gently or perversely, to send only inexperienced or in- capable men, that is their business and their loss. Remem- ber always that ours is a representative government, and not a government of the ablest men ; and that if there is any where a constituency composed mainly of foolish or ignorant or misguided people, they have a right to be heard, and their folly, whether it is a foolishness of irredeemable paper- money, or of Grangerism, or of Trades- Union ism, or what not, is' likely to be the sooner exploded if it is officially displayed in Congress, and there subjected to the fi'-e of open criticism. 64 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. XV. OF TOWN MEETINGS. 110. A town, or township, is the smallest political sub- division we recognize. The school district is only to regulate the free school. The wards in cities are the equivalents of the townships in the country. 111. When the people of a town (or township, as they say in most of the states) meet together annually to dis- cuss the affairs of their township, to elect its officers, appropriate the money required to carry on its affairs, criticise what has been done or left undone in the past year, and to declare, after discussion, what shall be done or left undone "in its local concerns during the year to come that is a Town Meeting. 112. In such a place each citizen has opportunity to bring up such suggestions as he pleases, recommending them with his best ability; there alone the people act directly, and not by delegates ; and by this democratic parliament the local affairs of the township its roads, schools, police, health can and will be the most effi- ciently and economically managed. 113. The town meetings have been called the nurse- ries of free government,' because in them the people learn the art of self-government ; public spirit is devel- oped, because each citizen may exercise a direct influ- ence upon affairs with which he is familiar; men be- come skilled in debate, and, what is more important, OF TOWN MEETINGS. 65 learn to submit quietly to the majority when that hap- pens to decide against their wishes. In. those states where town meetings are held, they have always had an important influence upon the political character of the population. Unfortunately in most of our states the town meeting is unknown or has fallen into disuse, and the powers which it ought to exercise are scattered among county and district officers, to the destruction of one of our most important political organizations. 66 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. XVI. OF EDUCATION. 114. A certain degree of intelligence is necessary to make a man a good citizen of a free state. Experience has proved that an elementary education is very helpful to any one in acquiring this degree of intelligence; though, pray remark, it is not absolutely essential nor absolutely effective in all cases for both you and I know a man who can neither read nor write, but whose good sense and sound judgment make him a very ad- mirable citizen ; and I have known a number of persons whom even an academic or college education has not made his equals. Bear in mind therefore that what we call education is not the equivalent of intelligence, but only a very helpful means to it. 115. An elementary education, also, is absolutely nec- essary in these days to enable a man to serve success- fully in any but the very lowest occupations, and its general diffusion is therefore a means to increase the prosperity of a community, and to prevent pauperism as well as crime. 116. Hence the necessity of schools, and the justifi- cation of free or public schools. Such a school, main- tained and inspected by the state, is not a charitable but a political institution, in the broadest sense. It is to the interest of all the citizens that every child in the state shall have so much education as shall enable it to OF EDUCATION. 67 comprehend our political institutions, and to follow in- telligently some useful industry. That much, and no more, the state, in the common interest, ought to provide free of charge for all. But it should not only provide free elementary schools : it ought also to require that all the children between certain ages shall be sent to these public free schools. 117. A compulsory school law ought to include the children of the wealthy as well as those of the poor; and it ought to compel attendance during four years say from ten to fourteen not in a school, but in the pub- lic or free school of the district. Then and then only the free schools will serve one of their most important political uses, by bringing all the children of the com- munity together, in a way which will make citizens of all classes know each other, and thus prevent that alien- ation of the less from the more prosperous, which is a grave danger to free government. Moreover, if all the children of a neighborhood must go to a free school during certain years, all the citizens will feel the ex- treme importance of making that school effective, both in discipline and instruction. 118. Free instruction in the public schools should be confined to the elementary branches. A child which at fourteen or fifteen has been thoroughly drilled in read- ing, writing, arithmetic, drawing, and the simpler parts of physical geography, and if possible musical nota- tion, is fitted either to begin to learn a trade, or, if its parents desire, to enter a higher academy for fur- ther studies. But as all can not afford to send their children to an academy or college, it is not fair to bur- den all for the support of these higher schools. For 68 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. the more extended education, those who desire it ought to pay. It is not required for the safety or welfare of the state that all the children shall be trained or pre- pared for professional or business life. The common- school system has in many states become cumbrous and inefficient, because too much is attempted ; and boys old enough to be taught useful trades, which would make them independent citizens, are kept in free high-schools at Latin and other advanced studies until they are nine- teen or twenty, and when they enter the world think it a hardship or a disgrace to labor with their hands, and sink into dependent positions as clerks and shopkeepers, half -starved clergymen, idle lawyers, or office-seekers. It is an injury to the community when a public -school system is made to foster false pride and vain ambition, and to fit youth for a limited range of callings, which are easily overstocked; and it is a grave injury to the youth, who get from such a training wrong views of life, which affect their whole subsequent lives. A certain degree of education is a help to a youth in acquiring a useful trade or calling ; and that much ought to be provided free of cost by all. 119. It has been found very difficult, in most of our states which have attempted it, to enforce compulsory school attendance under a general law ; and this is one of the cases, of which I shall speak to you farther on, where it is wiser to allow the people of a county or town or school district to decide; letting each minor locality determine for itself whether or not it will com- pel attendance at school. The question is new to most of our people ; and a compulsory law is not likely to be enforced until its importance is more generally felt OF EDUCATION. 69 Again, in the Southern States, prejudice of race would make a law or regulation compelling the attendance of white and black children in the same schools hateful to the whites and painful to the colored children; and such a law would therefore be highly unwise, and is not likely to be adopted by any of those states. Yet the white people of the Southern States would act most un- wisely did they neglect or refuse to provide free schools for the colored children; and they would do well to compel the attendance of all children in free schools setting apart, if they prefer, schools for the colored chil- dren. But to allow any child, colored or white, to go without a common-school education is a costly blunder; because such neglect will increase crime and pauperism both of which cost the tax-payers dear. 70 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. XVII. OF TAXES. 120. The tax is what the citizen pays out of his earn- ings or wealth, or both, to defray the necessary cost of protecting his life and property to enable him to pro- duce, accumulate, and exchange with security and con- venience, without devoting a part of his time and strength to the labor of defending himself and guard- ing his accumulations against robbers. 121. This general defense of the lives and property of all we delegate to governments ; and it results that when a government levies taxes, and yet fails to make the life and property of every individual secure, it fails of its duty, and robs the tax-payer. 122. Free government is the best, because under it the people are able constantly to hold their government responsible, and force its officers to fulfill their duties, and to conduct affairs economically ; or, if they fail, to remove them and put more capable men in their places. 123. We delegate to the government federal, state, city, or county also some other duties besides that of protecting us in life and property, as I have before told you : such as carrying the mails, building and repairing roads, the survey of lands, the improvement of harbors, etc. To defray the cost of these undertakings we must pay also a general contribution, which is improperly called a tax. It is in fact an assessment, to each person, OF TAXES, 71 for an improvement in the benefits of which he shares ; and for this assessment he therefore gets some return in conveniences. Many things which we thus delegate to governments or public authorities might be better or more cheaply done by associated private effort. For in- stance, toll-roads made and kept in order by private cor- porations are almost always in better order than coun- ty or other public roads ; and as only those pay toll who use them, the tax or assessment thus laid is more just and equal than one laid on property in general, where the poor are very apt to pay more than their share. 124. But all taxes imposed to defray the cost of pre- serving the peace, protecting life and property, dispens- ing justice, and punishing criminals, are loss. They are so much taken from the wealth or accumulated savings of a nation and flung into the fire. If all men were honest, peaceable, and just, there would be no need of governments, there would be no taxes, and there would be, therefore, the more wealth, and, of course, the more comfort and enjoyment in the world for all. Every thief, burglar, robber, murderer, every avaricious, grasp- ing, unjust man, in the community, makes it the poorer, and takes something from the comfort of every honest man. 125. Hence the importance that every man shall be a good citizen, just to his fellows, and honest in all his dealings ; hence, too, the importance of general educa- tion, which tends towards virtuous conduct, because it better enables men to get an honest living ; of just, equal, and stable laws, because these tend to make men just and honest, by removing from them temptations to 72 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. greed and dishonest gains. For these taxes are the cost- ly penalties of vice, ignorance, and selfishness. 126. Taxes are either direct or indirect, and it may be said that direct taxes are those exacted directly from the consumer, and indirect those paid by the producer, middle-man, or exchanger, who adds them to the price lie exacts from the consumers, who thus pay indirectly. 127. Bear in mind that all taxes are paid by the con- sumer or user, in the end. 128. Direct taxes are those laid on real estate and on personal property in actual use, on incomes, and on polls or heads. Our state and other local revenues are all raised by direct taxation. 129. Indirect taxes are duties on goods imported, or on goods manufactured for sale at home ; in the last case they are called excises. But you easily see that the merchant who imports goods, or the manufacturer at home, does not submit to the loss of the amount of tax he pays. He makes it in either case a charge upon his goods, and adds it to their price. Not only that, but as he must take the risk of loss by fire or other accident, or by falling prices or a lack of market after the duty or excise is paid, he adds a percentage to the price to cover these risks; for he knows that the government will not return him the taxes he has paid, no matter if he should entirely lose his goods the day after he had paid the tax or duty upon them. 130. Hence indirect taxes are less economical than direct taxes ; they inflict more loss upon the consumer compared with the amount of revenue raised. But be- cause indirect taxes are paid by the consumer with other payments, in small and often insignificant amounts at a OF TAXES. 73 time, and without the intervention of that universally hated person the tax-gatherer, this mode of raising rev- enue has always been a favorite with the people ; and because an indirect tax is thus collected with less fric- tion, and can be increased secretly, as it were, and with- out its effect being so immediately and plainly felt by each individual tax-payer, it has always been a favorite with governments. 131. The revenues of the Federal Government arc almost entirely derived from indirect taxes. 132. As these are difficult of adjustment and compli- cated, their arrangement almost always gives opportuni- ty to selfish and scheming persons to impose upon Con- gress, and get it to favor their pursuits either by exemp- tion where a tax should be laid, or by laying a tax where the general interest requires none; or finally, by in- ducing Congress to change the duty or tax, either raising or lowering it, by which change manufacturers or im- porters or speculators may make extraordinary gains. Thus a tax system, whose only proper end is to raise a certain amount of revenue for the government, is often misapplied to providing a bounty for certain favored pursuits, or enabling influential speculators to make un- just gains at the cost of the mass of the people. 133. In spite of these abuses, however, it is probable that indirect taxation will remain a favorite means of raising revenue in all countries for a long time to come ; and the citizens have no remedy against its abuse, ex- cept to insist upon the sound and indisputable principle that the sole proper purpose of taxation is to raise the revenue required by the government ; and to hold legis- lators to a strict account in this matter. D 74 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. XVIII. OF PROPERTY. 134. Whatever you earn or produce or create by your labor or ingenuity or forethought, or all combined, is your property ; it belongs to you, because you have tak- en the trouble to produce it; and you have the right to do with it what you will. You may, for instance, consume or waste it all. 135. If you produce more than you consume, what remains over is still your own, your property, to which you have the exclusive right against other persons. This surplus which remains .over in your hands is called capital. Thus if you have saved enough from your product to buy yourself a spade, or a chest of tools, or a plow and span of horses, these articles are properly capital, and their possession constitutes you to that de- gree a capitalist. Ignorant persons misuse this word, and imagine a capitalist to be one who has accumu- lated some vague but large amount of property. I want you to understand that this is a foolish limitation of the meaning of this word. 136. Capital might be called the net profit of labor, if it were not that, in order to its existence, another element than labor is required, namely, self-denial or economy. For it is possible for a man to destroy, by consumption or waste, or both, all that he earns OF PROPERTY. 75 or produces ; and a considerable part of mankind do actually live in this way from hand to mouth, as we say. 137. Industry and economy united are therefore re- quired, as you see, to accumulate that surplus which we call capital ; and as both these are voluntary and irk- some exercises : as you deny yourself both when you engage in productive labor and when you refrain from consuming or wasting what you have produced^ it fol- lows that no other person can have so good a claim on your surplus as yourself. 138. In a rude or savage society, a man who wished to accumulate property had not only to labor to create it, and to exercise self-denial to save it, but he had to devote a considerable part of his time and strength to defending his possessions as well as his life against others. To save this last necessity, society and govern- ments were organized, their purpose being to make life and property secure against attack ; and by a general co-operation and contribution of efforts or of means to overawe and punish depredators. Armies, navies, the police, the courts, and the body of laws in obedience to which all these act in a free state, are simply means for the protection of life and property at a cheaper rate and in a more effective manner than could be done by individual efforts ; and every nation is therefore, in this respect, only a great co-operative association, in which each member contributes somewhat from his ac- cumulations or earnings to pay the charges for preserv- ing the rest. It is only by thus delegating the power of protection to a few members of society that the remain- der can get time to produce sufficient for consumption 76 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. and a surplus which surplus \\e call wealth or capital. And it is only where this protection is effective that men are encouraged to the labor and self-denial neces- sary to create property or wealth. 139. I want you to fix firmly in your mind that every dollar's worth of property or wealth in the world is a dollar's worth of proof that somebody at some time did not only labor to produce it, but denied himself some pleasure or comfort in order to save it. For though God gave us the soil, the seasons, rain, and many other means of production just as he gave us our hands, strength, and brain these are in themselves not wealth. The gold lay in California for centuries, and was useless and worthless until man's labor dug it out ; and in like manner every natural product is worthless until the la- bor of man is applied to it. For instance, the plains of California might be covered with wheat ; but, unless it was harvested, it would be worthless. You may say that cattle would eat it ; but unless the cattle were aft- erwards caught and slain, and their hides and meat pre- served by the labor of Imen, they would be worthless ; and if, being caught, the^ were wastefully shot and left to rot, no surplus or -capital would be saved. 140. Remember, too, that what we call the wealth of a nation is only the aggregate wealth of its members, and represents the results of their industry and self-de- nial. To increase this wealth, therefore, a people must both labor and save ; and to be encouraged in these irk- some duties, they must feel themselves secure in the enjoyment of what they produce and accumulate. Ev- ery thing, therefore, which makes property less secure, which exposes it not merely to open attack by predatory OF PROPERTY. 77 men, but to loss by bad laws, or by inefficient or corrupt rulers, weakens the spirit of accumulation. 141. But to maintain civilization, great accumulated wealth and an active desire by the people to accumulate more are absolutely necessary. If you will try to im- agine a nation whose members have accumulated no property, you will see that to them civilization is impos- sible, even if they desired it. For such a people would have neither houses, cattle, nor tools all of which are accumulated wealth or capital, to possess which men must previously have labored and denied themselves. But you must see that such a civilization as ours re- quires much more than houses, cattle, and tools. "We have schools, shops, factories, roads, railroads, steam- boats, telegraphs, and a great multitude of other things, to possess any one of which we must have, previous to their construction, accumulated property or wealth enough by our labor and self-denial to pay their cost. A nation whose members had accumulated no property, and who consequently lived from hand to mouth, could not afford to build a railroad or a factory or a school- house ; each person would be busy providing food for himself; and no laboring force could be diverted to these other objects, because no means or capital would be at hand to support such a force while it was laying a stone wall or rolling a rail, which at the close of the day they could neither eat nor clothe themselves with. 142. Nor, if accumulation should at any time cease, could civilization continue ; because in such a case the weal tli already accumulated would quickly be spent, and the nation would be left without the means to maintain its instruments of civilization. If, for in- 78 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. stance, the Californians had unanimously determined to dig out all the gold in their mountains, and confine themselves rigidly to that industry alone, or if Califor- nia had been a sterile desert, yielding only gold, when the mines gave out they would have had to abandon the country, and leave it once more to become a desert. As production and accumulation ceased, civilization would have fled the state. But as the land is fertile and the settlers turned also to agriculture, they used natural resources which, unlike gold mines, never fail ; and the accumulation of wealth went on when gold ceased to be abundant. OF MONEY. 79 XIX. OF MONEY. 143. But to encourage production and facilitate ac- cumulation, something besides security of property is required. Each man can not produce all the articles he needs for comfort and enjoyment, because many things which he desires can not be produced in the climate or on the soil where he lives. Moreover, he can work to much greater advantage, produce more easily, and accu- mulate more rapidly, if he confines himself to one or a few articles of production. If you are a carpenter and I a shoemaker, it would plainly be an advantage to both of us, I wanting a house, and you shoes for your family, if we agreed that you would build me the house, and I should make you a certain number of shoes. This kind of exchange is called barter. 144. Imagine now a tribe or nation to whom barter is unknown, but who have learned to accumulate prop- erty. Each family aims to provide all it needs by its own labor; and whatever its surplus may be it stores away. You will see the monstrous inconvenience of such a condition, because the surplus may be perisha- ble. But, what is far more serious, such a surplus could have no value,' for unless it could be sold, which means exchanged for some other articles giving comfort or enjoyment, it would simply accumulate, and in time 80 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. rot. That is to say, unless you can exchange your sur- plus for something else, it is absolutely worthless. 145. Fix clearly in your mind, therefore, that to es- tablish industry and self-denial, which means to make civilization possible, it is necessary, first, that property shall be secure ; and, second, that the possessors of prop- erty shall be able freely to exchange it for other articles which they desire; and that if you take away the possi- bility of exchange, production will cease. 146. If you had hides and I coffee, you might, if you could find me, give me hides for my coffee; and thus both of us would be benefited and pleased. We should, however, first be at the trouble of finding each other, and would probably waste much time in this pursuit, which would be so much taken from the production of other hides and coffee. If now a third person should appear, ready to carry your hides to me, and bring back to you my coffee, plainly that would be an advantage to both of us, who could go on in the pursuits in which we had most skill, and in which therefore we could produce the most. 147. This third person is called a merchant, and his business is commerce. For his trouble we should both be ready to pay him a share of our products, because by using his labor and skill we are enabled to produce a greater quantity. 148. But how am I to be sure that the merchant to whom I intrust my coffee is honest, and that he will really bring me back hides ? He may be a rogue. To smooth the way and make us both secure, we have an ingenious contrivance called MONEY, the precise nature of which it is very important that you should understand. OF MONEY. 81 149. If the merchant who offers to exchange for us our hides and coffee can leave with us, as a pledge of his honesty, something which either of us will accept of the other as really valuable, and equally valuable with onr products, we shall of course be satisfied. For if the merchant should disappear with your hides, you would still have that with which you could buy my coffee. 150. Take another example : If you are a shoemaker, it is necessary for you to receive for your shoes either the actual articles you need to consume, or something which will buy these. You may be willing to accept for shoes an order on the farmer for oats and butter, another on the miller for flour, another on the tailor for clothing, another on the hatter for hats. But your great object has been to have at the end of all these transac- tions a number of shoes for which you need no article which is at once to be consumed by you or your family. These surplus shoes, the result of labor and self-denial, are your capital. What will you take for them ? Not an order for more butter, oats, flour, clothes, hats for your shoes will keep as well or better than any of these articles. Yet they are cumbrous; rats may eat them; a damp storage-place may spoil them ; fire may destroy them ; in course of time they would rot ; and a new fashion in shoes may meantime make them unsaleable. If you could get for your surplus slices something which had real and universal value, and which yet should not be cumbrous or easily destroyed, or subject to loss by change of fashion, you would evidently be benefited. 151. This something is gold and silver, two metals whose peculiarity is that their rarity and wide use for ornamental purposes gives them a fixed value all over D2 82 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. the civilized world, and which are not cumbrous nor easily destroyed. A hundred dollars' worth of shoes re- quire a storehouse, with guards against dampness, fire, and rats. A hundred dollars' worth of gold or silver you can lay away on a shelf, or, if necessary, carry in a bag. 152. Still, if you were going to exchange your shoes for gold or silver, you would have to assay it, to ascer- tain its purity, and to weigh it, that you should be sure of getting the proper quantity and purity. To save you and all of us these time -wasting labors, governments undertake the trouble of coining. This means that the government, at a mint, assays the gold and silver, pu- rifies them, and by a mark on each coin denotes its fine- ness and weight. That is to say, it certifies that a sil- ver dollar, or a gold five-dollar piece, really and truly contains a dollars worth of silver or five dollar^ worth of gold. 153. It follows that a gold or silver dollar is an object having a real value. If you choose to melt it, you can sell the gold or silver in it for a dollar. If you give it in exchange for a dinner, you do not swindle the tavern- keeper. 154. The government, having for the general con- venience and economy coined the money or certified its value, may rightly, for the same end, punish false coin- ers or counterfeiters ; and it may declare that its coinage shall be accepted by all the citizens in their transactions at the weight and purity which it has certified which is called making it a "legal tender." This is in order that no man shall put his neighbor to trouble, in mak- ing payments, by disputing these qualities of the coin. OF MONET. 83 155. But it is evident that this does not give the gov- ernment a right to debase the coinage, by certifying that to be a dollar which contains less than a dollar's worth of gold or silver, for this would be to cheat the people ; still less can it affix arbitrary denominations to things, as pieces of birch-bark, or of paper, and command them to be accepted as money, or make them a legal tender as we say, for tin's would be to authorize one citizen to swindle another. All that the government does in coin- ing is for the general convenience to declare the purity and certify the actual weight of apiece of metal. 156. Since the great gold discoveries in California and Australia, gold has been more exclusively used for money than formerly ; and in several countries, our own among the number, silver coins have been struck worth a trifle less than their face or denomination, the object being to prevent waste from melting and recoining. Such coins are called "tokens," and are used only for convenience as " small change." 84: POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. XX. OF LABOR AND CAPITAL. 157. The spirit of accumulation of industry and self- denial being once aroused in a people, and encouraged by their security in the enjoyment of property, and fa- cility in exchanging their surplus products, which gives them value, it is clear, considering the difference in men some being weak of body, less persistent, less inge- nious, or less self-denying than others that inevitably some will accumulate less property than others; and that many will, in fact, accumulate nothing, but consume all they produce, and as fast as they produce it. 158. But in many emergencies of a man's life it is absolutely necessary that he shall have some surplus to start with. Take as an instance the gold-hunters in the early days of California. A multitude of men rushed to the rich placer diggings, hopeful of speedy fortune ; but a large part of them presently discovered that they must eat and drink, and be clothed and sheltered, while they looked for and dug out gold ; and not having a sur- plus sufficient to provide themselves with food, clothing, and shelter in this emergency, what should they do? Die? No; a man who found himself in that situation sought out another who had a surplus, and said to him, Give me food, clothing, and shelter, or the means of get- ting these, and I will give you my strength and skill, until I have saved by self-denial a surplus sufficient to OF LABOR AND CAPITAL. 85 enable me to prospect and dig on my own account. That is to say, he became a laborer for hire, or wages. 159. Suppose now he could have found no one thus ready to hire him and pay him wages ? Suppose every man who had a surplus (this surplus being capital) had laid it away in a strong box, and refused to use it in paying wages for the labor of the man without surplus ? Do you not see that the chief sufferer in this case the only immediate sufferer indeed would be the man without surplus or capital, and in need of food and other necessaries of life, which he could get only by wages or theft? 160. But here you have the whole question of capital and labor ; and if any body tells you that there is a nec- essary and natural antagonism between capital and la- bor, you may safely set him down as an ignoramus. 161. Capital is simply accumulated savings. He who has it becomes the enemy of labor only when he hides his capital in an old stocking or a fire-place, or in the ground : when he refuses to make use of it. When he does this we call him a miser, and despise and dislike him, as is but just, for then only he sets up his selfish interest against his fellow-men. i 162. But while property, surplus, or capital is used by its possessors, it is a benefit to the whole mass of those who have no capital, and to whose advantage it is, as in the case of the needy miner, to be able to receive wages for their labor. The more numerous the laboring or non-capitalist class is, the more important to them, you must see, is a large accumulation of capital, for they de- pend on that to enable them to earn wages, and in their turn, if they will exercise self-denial, to save a 86 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. surplus ; and no one is so seriously injured as the laborer for wages, by any event be it a war, an unjust law, or a corrupt government which lessens the safety of ac- cumulations, alarms their owners, and makes them re- luctant to venture on new enterprises. 163. It is therefore fortunate for the less prosperous of mankind that the spirit of accumulation leads those who own property to seek ways in which to use this very property or capital in adding to their stores ; for thus the efforts of the poor, the non-capitalists ', are lightened, and made 'more productive for themselves than they otherwise could be. 164. Capital is simply accumulated savings. In the United States any laborer may hope to become a capi- talist, if he has health and intelligence, by the exercise of industry and economy ; and it is one of the common- est, as well as, to a thoughtful man, one of the most sat- isfactory experiences, to see a young man, after laboring faithfully for hire for a time, presently begin on his own account, and by and by become, in his turn, the em- ployer of other men's labor as well as his own. 165. While it will probably, for a long time to come, be necessary as well as advantageous to the mass of men to labor for wages, that country is the most for- tunate in which it is the easiest for an industrious and self-denying citizen to lift himself from the condition of a hired man to that of independence, however modest. It is extremely important that neither laws nor customs shall interfere with this change, but that all doors shall be opened for it. For though not one in a thousand of the laborers for wages may choose thus to elevate him- self to independence, it adds materially to the content- OF LABOR AND CAPITAL. 87 ment and happiness of all to believe that if they chose to do so they might; and that efforts not beyond their powers would always open the way to them. 166. As the accumulated wealth or savings in any country is thus a source of subsistence and a means of advancement, not merely to the individual owners of this wealth, capital, or property, but to the whole popula- tion, and especially to that part of it which labors for wages, and who could not receive wages if accumulated capital did not exist, or if it were destroyed, so it may be said without exaggeration that no part of the com- munity has so vital an interest in the abundance^ free- dom, and security of capital as those who labor for wages. For though the individual capitalist may be se- riously inconvenienced by events which lessen or make insecure his accumulations, he has still the resources of removing his capital, especially if it consists of money, to a more secure place, of withdrawing it, at whatever loss, from enterprises which afford employment by giv- ing the means out of which to pay wages, or, in the final resort, of living upon it without seeking any return for its use. In any of these cases the laborers for hire suffer first and most severely. This you may see in every great panic and business crisis in our country, when those who possess a surplus or capital at once begin to hoard it, and to withdraw it from enterprises ; and it is seen upon a large scale in such a country as Mexico, where long-con- tinued civil disorders have caused both the hoarding and removal of capital, and where, consequently, though the wealthy live well enough, and even increase their capi- tal, the mass of the people remain in indigence, and find it extremely difficult to achieve more than a hand-to- 88 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. month existence, and this though their country has great natural wealth and a fine climate. 167. Consequently those who assert that capital is the enemy of labor, or who favor unjust laws, arbitrary inter- ference with the course of industry or the uses of capital, or a corrupt and wasteful administration of the govern- ment all which are attacks upon capital and its owners are the worst enemies of the laborers for wages, and injure these precisely in the degree in which the unjust law or wasteful administration discourages or hinders the accumulation of capital. 168. Hence trades - unions and international societies, when they teach that capital is the foe of labor, and that the laborer for wages ought or must always remain a hireling ; when, in carrying these doctrines into practice, they endeavor to limit the number of hours a laborer shall work, and the number of persons who shall learn a trade ; or when they support usury laws, an irredeema- ble paper currency, and extravagant appropriations by the government for public works really strike a blow at the comfort and prosperity of the class which labors for wages. 169. In several following subdivisions I shall try to make plain to you how interference with the free use, circulation, and increase of capital is, aside from its in- justice, specially injurious to the non- capitalist class- to those who labor for wages and to whose advantage O O it is to be able to accumulate a surplus, and to become, by their honest labor, capitalists themselves. For I re- mind you again that a "capitalist" is not necessarily a man of great wealth. The carpenter who owns his chest of tools is to that extent a capitalist : he has a surplus, OF LABOR AND CAPITAL. $$ which he can sell or rent out. The Liverpool match- boy, who called himself a " timber-merchant on a small scale," was not so far wrong: he had goods to sell ; and if he owned the matches, he was also a capitalist to that extent 90 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. XXL OF USURY LAWS. 170. If you have any kind of surplus property or capital, you may hide it, like a miser ; or you may use it yourself in enterprises where it enables you to em- ploy the labor of others, for which you pay them wages ; or you may let some one else use it. 171. If you part with your property permanently, or sell it, you expect to get for it an equivalent, in money or some other kind of property. If you part with it temporarily, or lend it to another, you reasonably de- mand an equivalent to repay you for the temporary deprivation of its use or enjoyment. Thus, if you lend or let your house or farm or money, you require and receive rent the rent of money being called interest. 172. The rent which you would be willing to pay for a two-story frame house depends on its situation, the purpose for which you can use it, and the number of persons who would like to occupy it. For if it were even very valuable, but to you only, and valueless to every one else, it is clear that I, the owner, could not demand a high rental, because you would refuse to give it. Nor would it be unjust in you to offer only a low rental, because, in such a case, if the house is valuable to you alone, that proves that it is your skill, your in- dustry, your labor and talent, or your self-denial, and OF USURY LAWS. 91 not the intrinsic value of the house, which are under the circumstances to give it value. 173. Not only does the rental value of the house de- pend on its situation, but it is likely to vary from year to year, as similar houses are more or less abundant, or as there are more or fewer purposes for which they can be used. 174. If, now, Congress or the state Legislature should enact a law prescribing that all two-story frame houses throughout the state or the United States should be rented for no more than fifty dollars per annum, this would evidently be a ridiculous, and moreover an unjust regulation, for such a house may be five times as desira- ble in one situation as in another that is to say, five times as valuable to you, who want to hire its use of me. 175. But take notice that while such a law might temporarily and in the first instance benefit a part of the poorer people for whose advantage demagogues would cry out for its adoption it would presently and permanently injure them; for, first, it would at once put a stop to the building of such houses, whereby me- chanics would be thrown out of employment; second, it would incommode the poorer people, by lessening the number of houses in proportion to occupants, and con- fining them therefore to narrower quarters ; and, third, capital, thus menaced and oppressed, would take alarm, and be rapidly removed to countries where the people were not silly enough, and demagogues not powerful enough, to enforce such arbitrary regulations. And while not merely the capital which was originally in- tended to be invested in two-story frame houses, but much other capital would thus disappear, and all enter- 92 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. prises supporting labor would be checked, the owners of two-story frame houses, who would actually lose, would in their turn be so much less able to employ labor. Thus, for the temporary gain of a small part of the people the occupiers of two-story frame houses already built the whole laboring population, the mass of the people, would be seriously injured. 176. It is therefore clearly to the general advantage that the house-owner shall be allowed to make such ar- rangements with his tenants as to rent as shall be mutu- ally agreeable to them. 177. But a two-story frame house is the equivalent of money ; money was expended to build it ; and what is true of the house is equally true of the money. If you borrow my house, it is to use it, and I exact pay- ment for this use, and graduate payment according to the demand for it, just as you agree to pay according to its value to you. If you borrow of me a thousand dollars, it is equally to use it : you may want to build with this sum a two-story frame house. Clearly the law ought not to interfere either to compel you to pay more or me to receive less than we can mutually agree shall be a fair rental or interest for the money. 178. Obviously no Legislature can tell beforehand what I ought to pay or you to receive as rent for your money any more than for your house, because it can not take into account all the various and varying cir- cumstances of each case. It is just as ridiculous, unjust, and injurious to the mass of the people to prohibit men from paying more than seven per cent, for money as to declare that they shall pay no more than fifty dollars a year rent for a two-story frame house. OF USURY LA WS. 93 179. For in the one case, as in the other, capital, arbi- trarily interfered with, seeks other uses, and flies away to freer regions, in each case to the injury of the non- capitalist class, because the wages fund is lessened if capital is diminished. 180. In practical effect, as money is a form of cap- ital easily concealed, a usury law works in this way : Some capital is sent away to places where no such law prevails, as from New York to our Western States ; some remains, the owners preferring to keep it near at hand, and of this a part is invested in securities, such as railway bonds, and thus also substantially goes to en- terprises in other states; and for that which is actu- ally lent out at home, the borrower is obliged to pay a premium, or sum down on receiving the loan, which really raises the rate he pays, and raises it in a manner unprofitable to him, because it obliges him to pay a con- siderable sum down, of which he entirely loses the use, and on which he gets no interest. Moreover, where usury laws prevail and are enforced, borrowers have generally to fee an agent or middle-man, who receives the premium, in order to save the lender harmless against the law. Thus not only do usury laws make capital less abundant and of course enterprises and wages less in the same measure but the borrower him- self is usually injured by having to pay premiums grad- uated upon his individual necessities, and not upon the general demand for money. 181. On the other hand, many of the Western States will show you the advantage, not merely to a country, but to the individual laboring man, of letting borrower and lender arrange their own terms. These states were 94 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. rapidly built up on borrowed capital, which they drew from the East by the offer of high rates of interest. Cultivating a rich soil, and settled on cheap lands, the Western farmers could afford" to pay high rates of inter- est, because their returns were very great. An Indiana farmer twenty years ago could well afford to give twen- ty per cent, for money, because if he used it to buy Congress land and plant corn, his first crop often paid for his whole investment. "If I can make thirty per cent., why should I hesitate to pay fifteen ?" said a sen- sible Western farmer to me only a few years ago. Ob- viously he was right ; and a law prohibiting him from paying more than seven would have been an injury to him and to hundreds of others like him namely, labor- ing men without capital, but able to make extraordinary gains by their labor if only they could borrow a little capital. It would have injured them, because they could have borrowed no money at a low rate. Take, for in- stance, a laboring man who, by saving his wages, was able to buy one hundred and sixty acres of Congress land, but must borrow the means to plant his crop and harvest it. He could afford to pay a high rate of inter- est ; he could not afford to let his land lie idle. It was the poor 'man who was benefited by the power to borrow, of which a usury law would have deprived him by keep- ing money out of the state. 182. It is sometimes said that high interest eats up the poor. But plainly it is only the improvident or speculative poor who suffer. On the contrary, it ought to be said that natural rates of interest will make men more prudent in entering upon new enterprises; for they will more accurately count the cost, and will be OF USURY LAWS. 95 less apt to expose themselves to vicissitudes and chances. Many a man borrows at seven per cent., and pays a premium making his interest equal to ten or twelve, who would hesitate to borrow at ten or twelve per cent, outright. 183. Bear in mind, then, that usury laws are injurious chiefly to those who labor for wages, by lessening the wages fund of the country, and by disabling them from borrowing sums by the help of which they might, with energy and prudence, become capitalists in their turn, and achieve independence. 184. You see, therefore, how foolish is the policy of the trades-unions and other labor associations, which op- pose the repeal of usury laws in the states, and have even demanded that Congress shall enact such a law to apply to the whole United States. 96 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. XXII. OF BANKS, BANKING, AND CREDIT. 185. If I have a thousand dollars which I shall need to use three months from now, but do not need in the mean time, it would be an advantage to me to be able to lend it out at interest for three months. But it might happen that you wanted to use a thousand dollars for three months and no more ; and it would be an advan- tage to you to be able to borrow, not for a year or a longer term, but for three months only. If we two could know of each other's wants at the right time, both of us would be benefited ; and not we two only, but also all whom our joint arrangement enabled you to employ with my thousand dollars, and me with the interest I received of you. 186. In every civilized community there are daily hundreds, or rather hundreds of thousands, of such in- stances; and BANKS are established to enable the bor- rower and lender to be quickly accommodated. Expe- rience has shown that the demand of lenders can be foretold, depending, as it does, upon business transac- tions arising out of commerce, manufactures, and agri- culture, which have their regular periods. A banker, therefore, acts upon his knowledge of the laws of com- merce and the laws of nature, which tell him that money realized by one set of transactions may be safely OF BANKS, BANKING, AND CREDIT. 97 loaned to persons engaged in another set, to be returned in time to be used for a third, and so on. You can see, for instance, that a miller, having sold his flour, can lend his money, to a farmer, who wants to plant his crop ; provided that at harvest the farmer, who will then sell his crop, will return the loan to the miller. The storekeeper, with whom laborers spend their wages for the necessaries of life, receives meantime money, which he may lend to the miller in case he should want to repair his machinery. 187. A bank is an association to facilitate such loans, and its interests are therefore harmonious with those of the whole community, and especially with those of the class who work for wages ; because the less capital lies idle, the more will be at the disposal of those who want to employ labor and pay wages. 188. A bank is in fact an association for the safe- keeping and the loaning of money. It becomes respon- sible to us for the money we deposit with it ; allows us to draw checks at will against our deposits; in some cases pays us a low rate of interest on the sums we leave with it ; and makes its profit by lending at higher rates. As it is responsible to us for our money, it must lend on good security only, and must know the charac- ter as well as the circumstances of borrowers ; and as it must return us our money at any time, and without pre- vious notice, its managers can lend only at short dates, or " on call " that is, to be repaid by the borrower after a short interval, or on demand. And it is to the bank- er's interest not only to make as many loans as possible, but to make them prudently, to competent men on good security ; for he has capital of his own at stake, and if E 98 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. he should fail to pay his depositors on demand, they would close his bank and seize his property. 189. Thus you see that a bank is a means for the eco- nomical use of capital ; and every economy of this kind makes more abundant the fund out of which wages are paid, and thus secures a greater range and amount of employment to those who work for wages. 190. What is thus true of banks is, of course, equally true of credit in general. If a mechanic, on the strength of his good name and of his chest of tools, can borrow a hundred dollars for a year or for a term of years, and if he has a profitable use for the money, evidently he is benefited by the credit he has. He may use it to pay the wages of men he employs; and with the help of a small loan may in time achieve real independence. And if, after having accumulated property, his character and property secure him credit for ten thousand dollars, and enable him to employ fifty or a hundred men, still that credit would be a benefit not only to him, but to all whom by its help he was able to employ for wages. 191. Thus credit is useful to the poor, and not mere- ly to the rich / and to the many, and not only to the individuals who have or use it. 192. But it may be misused ; as if I should borrow money to be used in an enterprise, as a mill, which was unprofitable. Here my laborers would still receive the money in wages. I should lose that ; but they and the mass of laborers also would lose, secondarily, because the capital sunk or lost in the unprofitable mill would be dead ; it would never more be available for wages or consumption ; it could not increase, and would produce no profits available for wages; and by every such loss OF BANKS, SANK TNG, AND CREDIT. 99 of capital, the whole community, including, as you plainly see, the laborers for wages the non-capitalists as well as the capitalists are the poorer. Thus when a bad law tempts or forces capital into naturally unprofit- able industries, this is a loss to the mass of the laborers as well as to the owners of the capital. 193. In many cases, indeed, the individual capitalist prudently saves himself from loss, by insurance. Thus when a mill or factory is burned down, or swept away by a broken dam, the owners may receive its full value from an insurance company ; they may use this money to rebuild their factory, and thus give temporary em- ployment to a large number of men ; and to a superfi- cial view the loss might appear a gain. But you must see that, first, the operatives stand idle while the mill is rebuilding; or if they seek employment elsewhere, do so at a loss to themselves by the cost of removal, and at a loss to others of their own class by increasing the sup- ply of their kind of labor at the very time that the de- mand is diminished ; and, second, the old mill rebuilt will only give employment to its former operatives, while if the mill had not been destroyed, the capital used in rebuilding it would have been available for a new mill or other enterprise, which would have given employment to an additional number of hands. 194. Thus you see that destruction of capital works to the injury of the non-capitalist class; and that the Chicago fire, though it gave employment for a time to a multitude of carpenters, masons, bricklayers, and others, and caused an artificial and seeming prosperity in that place, was a loss to the mass of our population, because in fact it lessened the capital, surplus, or wealth of the; 100 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. country, and thereby impaired the means of giving em- ployment all over the land. The Boston and Chicago fires have much to do with the general stagnation in business all over the country for the last year, because capital which would have been used in other enter- prises and expenditures, and consequently in the pay- ment of wages for other and new production, has been concentrated in Boston and Chicago, and used to repair waste and losses : to replace what had been destroyed. 195. But an unprofitable enterprise is just as much a destruction of capital as a fire ; and if I should hire you for a year to carry bricks from one side of a road to the other and back, though you might in the mean time live from your wages, I should have sunk my capital, and the mass of the laborers in the community would have suffered a loss, because there would be less capital out of which to pay wages. 196. Thus you see that credit, which is only capital in another shape, can not be misused without inflicting a loss on the whole community, and especially on the laborers for wages. And you see how foolish are the people who would like to have the government borrow vast sums of money to be expended in what are called " public works," of doubtful and certainly not establish- ed utility ; for if it were certain that a new canal or railroad or other so-called " improvement " would be profitable, private capital would quickly create it. The plea is that such projects would give employment to great numbers of men. But if they are employed in unprofitable enterprises, they and the mass of laborers are in the end injured by the loss of capital, which involves a decreased fund out of which wages may be paid. OF BANK-NOTES. 101 XXIII. OF BANK-NOTES. 197. Besides receiving money on deposit, and lending it out on security, which is their proper and legitimate business, banks sometimes issue notes or bills of their own. 198. This is a peculiarly profitable business: for a bank-bill bears no interest; it is liable to be destroyed by fire or water ; it is likely to remain out for a consid- erable period indeed, issue-banks often take pains to cause their bills to be circulated at a great distance from the 'bank in order to keep them out the longer ; and, finally, as the bank-bill becomes a medium of exchange, the people are in a manner compelled to accept it. But if a bank fails, the laborers for wages, the non-capitalists, are sure to suffer most of the loss which occurs from the depreciation of the bills. A bank note or bill has there- fore some of the features of a forced loan by the bank from the public. 199. In the United States we have been so long ac- customed to see the issue of bills made the most con- spicuous business of a bank, that in the common appre- hension a bank is synonymous with a paper-mill, a machine to create shin-plasters, and to suspend specie payments whenever, by granting unwise credit and imprudent loans, it has helped to create a commercial revulsion. 102 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. 200. I want you, therefore, to fix in your mind the fact that the issue of bills is not a necessary, and hardly a legitimate part of the banking business; that the most solid and also the most profitable banks in the world do not issue notes at all; and that bank-notes, though a convenience, are not absolutely necessary to any people. California, for instance, had in 1873 a number of re- markably solid, useful, and profitable banks, but it had only two banks of issue ; and as it might have had many more, their absence is a proof that they were not needed. 201. A lank-note is not money / on the contrary, it is only a promise to pay money. It is one of several kinds of promises to pay ; and differs from the others mainly in these particulars that it bears no interest, and that the holder has no security in his own hands. 202. If you have in your pocket a twenty-dollar gold- piece, you have actually in your possession that much value. But if you have in your pocket a bank-note for twenty dollars, you have only a certificate that somebody else, a bank, namely, which may be a thousand miles distant, and of whose managers you know nothing, has your twenty dollars. 203. Now, if you wished to carry about with you two or" three hundred, or even one hundred dollars, it would obviously be more convenient to carry bank-notes to that amount than money ; for the paper bills are lighter than coin, and more easily concealed from thieves. 204. This convenience of carriage and concealment is the only excuse for the existence of bank-bills, and it is a sufficient excuse where men need to carry about con- siderable sums. But a laboring man, whose whole wages for a week amount perhaps to less than twenty dollars, OF BANK-NOTES. 103 and who pays out the greater part of this sum at once for subsistence, is not inconvenienced by the weight of his money. He does not need bank-bills ; and there is no need for small bills to accommodate him. Small bills, of less denominations than five dollars, are in some respects a convenience ; but their use drives coin out of circulation, and so does an injury, in a time of commer- cial panic, by helping to cripple the banks. Moreover, the poor, who are usually the holders of small bills, in a time of bank failures are sure to suffer loss from such bills ; and it is not fair that they should be thus exposed. 205. For these reasons the issue of bank-bills for sums smaller than five dollars ought to be totally prohibited. 206. A bank-note, being only a certificate that the bank has the bill-holder's money, may be accepted as a public convenience, if the public is willing ; but as every man has a right to his own property at all times, it is clear that the bank has no right to refuse me money which is mine whenever I present its bill. You may for your own convenience allow the bank to keep your twenty-dollar gold-piece; but you ought to have the power to call the money back into your own possession at any time ; for if you could not do that, you would keep your money and refuse the bill. 207. Hence bank-notes can not be made a legal tender, because they are not money, but only the certificates showing that somebody else has your money ; and they ought always to be redeemable at will in coin, which alone is money. 20S. When a bank issues notes or bills, its object is to gain money by borrowing without interest, of the general public. If it issues one hundred thousand dollars in 104 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. bills, that implies that it holds one hundred thousand dollars in money in its vaults or till, ready to redeem these bills. In practice, however, banks do not keep so much money idle ; they keep on hand only such a smaller sum as general experience has shown to be usu- ally sufficient for redemption. But experience has also shown that all bankers are not prudent or wise; and hence the government now rightly requires that a bank, before it issues bills or notes, shall deposit a sum in property at all times readily convertible into coin, which shall be held for the redemption of the bills. United States bonds, which are the best security we have, and most readily convertible into money, are used for this purpose. 209. With the management of banks which confine themselves to the business of receiving deposits and making loans the government has no right to interfere any more than it does with the business of a merchant, farmer, or shopkeeper. For I have no more right to expect the government to care for the safe-keeping of my money than of my goods in store, my house, or other property. 210. Banks of issue, however, stand in a different cate- gory. They exercise a power over the public so great and so liable to abuse, in the privilege granted them to issue non-interest-bearing notes, without security in the holders' hands, things which take the place of money, that the people have a right to demand that such issues shall be made only under rigid checks. 211. It is proper, therefore, that the government shall require the deposit of United States bonds to an amount greater than the amount of bills issued. Should the OF BANK-NOTES. 105 bank fail, these bonds would be sold by the government, and out of the proceeds the bill-holders would be paid first. Under this, which is called the National Banking System, the bill-holders are secure against loss by fail- ure of the bank ; and there is no doubt that this system is more secure, and of greater public convenience than any system of state banks. It was first applied by the State of New York to its own banks; and Secretary Chase, seeing its merits, applied it to the whole country. 212. With this ought to go a law rigidly requiring the banks at all times to redeem their bills in money ; and providing for the instant forfeit of a bank's charter the moment it refuses this, its primary duty. Unfortunate- ly, hitherto in this country banks have been allowed to suspend specie payments in every great commercial panic ; and as they long ago learned to count upon this, they were induced, by the security of exemption from punishment, to make imprudent loans, and for their own gains to help on the coming crisis. 213. But with a sufficient deposit of bonds in the Treasury, a prohibition against small bills, and rigid pun- ishment for a suspension of specie payments, there is no sound reason why any one who desires should not be allowed to set up a lank of issue, in any part of the country. If they become too numerous, they will cease to be profitable, for the bills will be sent home for re- demption too constantly, and the superfluous banks will wind up their affairs. 214. You will see by this the folly of the debates in Congress about regulating the number of banks of is- sue, and their distribution over the country as though, when national bank-bills circulate with equal credit in E 2 106 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. every part of the United States, it could make any dif- ference where the banks happened to be placed. 215. Also you will see the ignorance of those leaders of the labor movement who cry out against national banks as monopolies, making huge profits out of the people. That this is the rankest of follies will be plain to you if you remember that a bank-note is used only as a convenience by the people ; and that, under prop- er regulations promptly enforced, banks of issue are a real and important convenience ; while banks of deposit and credit are, as you have seen, of the greatest and most positive advantage to the mass of laborers for wages. 216. If the labor -movement leaders had brains and honesty enough to demand a resumption of specie pay- ments by the banks, they would do the country a real and very great service ; but instead of that they cry for " more greenbacks," about which I will next proceed to tell you something. But I must first explain to you that, under the present currency system, the national banks are obliged by law to redeem their notes, not in money, but in greenbacks ; which means that they ex- change their own for the government's irredeemable promise to pay money. If two wrongs ever made a right, this plan might have some merit. It would be better, because simpler, to absolve the banks from redemption of any kind for a specified time ; and thus separate their currency from that of the government. Then they would at least prepare themselves for resumption, which now they do not. At present every attempt to with- draw greenbacks from circulation the first duty of the government, if it is honest threatens and alarms the banks, who see the power of redeeming their notes less- OF BANK-NOTES. 107 ened, and themselves fatally embarrassed ; and thus, while we keep up the absurd farce of making the banks redeem their notes in greenbacks which means only that we exchange one irredeemable promise to pay for another we force them to oppose with all their strength all attempts by the government to redeem and withdraw its greenbacks ; and in fact oblige the banks to lend their countenance, openly or secretly, to every movement for " more greenbacks." For obviously, if the issue of these government notes could be doubled, the banks would find it easier and cheaper to redeem their notes in them. 108 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. XXIV. OF "MORE GREENBACKS." 217. A Greenback is a non-interest-bearing promise to pay money, issued by the government, and for whose re- demption the holder has no security in his own hands. It is, so far, precisely like a bank-note ; but it has two features which make it differ from a common bank-note : you can not sue the issuer of the note the govern- ment, namely and that has used its power to make it a legal tender. A bank-note, as you saw a while back, has some of the features of a forced loan ; the green- back has all it is a forced loan. If I should compel you to give me your dollars in exchange for a piece of paper on which I had written simply " I O II " so much, that would be a forced loan you would probably call it a robbery ; and that is precisely what the government did when it issued irredeemable promises to pay, and made them a legal tender. 218. If a banker issues one hundred thousand dollars in bills, that is evidence that he is the owner of one hun- dred thousand dollars in money or other property, which or, more correctly, one hundred and ten thousand dollars he has deposited in the Treasury as security that he will redeem his notes on demand. 219. If now a banker were to set up a claim to issue one hundred thousand dollars in bills, on the plea that he had no money or property at all with which to re- OF "MORE GREENBACKS." 1Q9 deem them, he would be rightly thought a fool ; and if he persisted in such an absurdity, he would be sent by his friends to the lunatic asylum. If he should de- mand, besides, that these bills which he desires to issue should be declared a legal tender, no doubt lie would be put into a strait-jacket, or sent to the incurable ward, and the lowest attendant in the asylum would laugh at him as an absurd creature; for it would require very little brains to see his blunder. 220. But this is precisely what the government does in issuing greenbacks. It issues promises to pay, on the plea that it has no money ; and it makes them a legal tender because they are not good. For if they were good, it would not need to force us to accept them, which is the only object of the legal-tender clause ; and if the government had money, it could have no excuse or oc- casion for issuing notes. 221. For you must not forget, what was shown you under the head of Taxes, that a government can earn or create nothing ; it is not a producer. Again, you saw, under the head of Money, that when the government coins money it does not create gold or silver ; nor does it add to their value by coining them ; it does not even own the metal it coins ; but only, for the general con- venience, stamps your or my or John Smith's gold with its certificate that each piece contains a specified quan- tity of the metal. 222. This service plainly gives it no right to declare any thing else money ; but if it did, it would be you or I or John Smith, and not the government itself, who would have the right to carry iron or paper to the mint to be stamped. HO POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. 223. Nor does its authority to declare the gold it stamps a legal tender give it power to make any thing even gold a legal tender for more than its actual and real value. For in all this it creates nothing : it only exercises a power delegated to it for the general conven- ience, to make public declaration of a value already existing. 224. Let me repeat to you once more that a govern- ment has no power to create value in any way or sense ; for it does none of the things out of which, we have seen before, value grows : it neither produces, nor ex- changes, nor saves / it only expends or destroys whatever is given to it by society. It is, in fact, like a pauper ; for, like a pauper, it exists by the contributions of oth- ers ; and as it can have no surplus, but necessarily lives from hand to mouth, and by the labor of others, a pau- per might as well put out demand notes as a govern- ment ; for the bills of each would represent, not existing values, but values destroyed and extinct, and therefore not values at all, but nothing. If you will reflect that in order to call in and redeem the greenbacks the gov- ernment would have to first raise money by taxes or by what is in the long run the same thing, by sales of bonds you will see that the greenback is simply a cer- tificate that the government has actually spent and de- stroyed that much property ; and that, as before said, it represents, not value existing, but value extinct, which is nothing. 225. You will see by this the extraordinary hallucina- tion of those people who cry out for " more greenbacks." In a time of war, when the expenditures of the govern- ment enormously exceeded the largest sum it could raise OF "MORE GREENBACKS." from taxes, it was authorized to borrow money. It bor- rowed many hundreds of millions, upon bonds, or obli- gations promising to repay the lenders at a certain time, with interest at a stipulated rate. This was perfectly legitimate and honest. But, by a singular blunder, the government also chose to borrow money by a forced loan from its citizens, for which it gave, not interest-bear- ing bonds, but notes promising to pay, but neither stipu- lating time of repayment nor granting interest for the use of the money. Such a note made by an individual would be void ; made by the government, it was toler- ated, on the express ground that the government needed vast sums for its current expenditures, and must get money where and in whatever way it could. 226. But circumstances have changed. The taxes now equal the expenditures, and there is a large annual surplus even. How then can we have "More green- backs ?" On what excuse, in what way, for what pur- pose, can the government borrow money ? What shall it do with the money for which it is to issue " more greenbacks ?" The " more greenback " people seem to have perceived this dilemma, and to meet it they have begun to urge a great system of " public works" canals, railroads, and other costly improvements. But if we are to run in debt for these, surely it is better to do so hon- estly, by selling our bonds, than dishonestly, by increas- ing the amount of a forced loan which ought long ago to have been paid out of the surplus revenue, instead of redeeming bonds not yet due. POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. XXV. OF COMMERCE. 227. You have seen, under the head of Property, that the surplus, or that part of his product not needed by the producer for his own consumption, has no real value, and can not become wealth or capital unless he can exchange it for something else. 228. It is not less true that the value of the surplus grows in the precise measure in which the facility of exchanging it is increased. 229. The Nebraska farmer, unable to get his corn to market, is forced to burn it as fuel ; and no matter how rich his land, or how great his crop, the surplus on his hands is after all worth only so much wood. If he could send it to Chicago, it would be worth a good deal more than so much fuel. If he could as cheaply send it to New York as to Chicago, it would bring him a still greater price ; and its value to him would be in- creased with every market he could touch. When I was a boy, Ohio had no railroads, and the farmers near Cincinnati used to sell eggs in that market for three cents a dozen, because that was their only market. Railroads have so greatly increased for them the facility of exchanging eggs, that they now get even in Cincin- nati probably at least five times as much as formerly. You can see that they gain this great advantage simply OF COMMERCE. 113 by increased facility of exchange. Railroads have ex- tended their market for selling eggs. 230. Nor is this increased facility of exchanging eggs for other products a benefit to the farmer alone ; for if formerly, for lack of cheap transportation, eggs were very cheap in Cincinnati, they were very dear in many other places. To facilitate the exchange only equalized the prices, and thus increased the comfort of the mass of consumers, and also the wealth of the mass of pro- ducers. For if eggs were any where very dear, that is a proof that they were scarce there ; and facility of ex- change created abundance where before was scarcity. 231. Pray fix in your mind therefore this fundament- al truth, that every impediment to the exchange of prod- ucts is an injury ; and that every removal of such an impediment is a benefit, because it increases the rewards of the mass of producers, and the abundance, and hence the comfort and happiness of the mass of consumers. 232. Hence the satisfaction with which people wel- come railroads ; the benefit of steamboats, steamships, bridges, and all other means by which w r e decrease the cost of transportation. For you can see that if a farmer can send his eggs to only one place, Cincinnati, where n\en want to buy eggs, he can not hope to get as much for them as if he could with cheap transporta- tion send them to any one of a dozen cities. And as he would send his eggs only to places where they would bring a higher price where therefore eggs were scarce cheap transportation, by creating abundance in those places, would benefit consumers there. 233. Commerce means the exchange of products. If I have more hides than I need, and you have more 114: POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. clothing than you need, and if I want clothing and you hides, it is plain that -we shall make an exchange of our surpluses if we can get together and agree upon a price. It is clear, too, that we shall both benefit by such an ex- change, because when it is made, each of us will have less of the articles which he could not use, and more of those which he wanted. 234 Moreover, you can see that it would be an advan- tage to you, having clothing to exchange for hides, if you could find, not me alone, but a hundred others, with surplus hides to exchange for clothing, because you would hope thus to get more hides for your clothing. It would be an equal advantage for me if I were the only possess- or of hides within the reach of a hundred men having clothing to exchange. But, evidently, all the owners of surplus hides would be benefited if they could come in contact with all the possessors of surplus clothing be- cause thus the market of all would be broadened, and the price would be equalized for the mass. 235. Thus you see that unimpeded commerce is a ben- efit to the mass of producers; and that every impedi- ment preventing a part of the owners of surplus clothing from reaching a market of hides, while it may be an ad- vantage to the few who do reach it, and who would thus have a monopoly, would be an in j ury, first, to those who were prevented from reaching it ; but, second, and more important, to the whole of those who were anxious to exchange hides for clothing. 236. Every impediment to free exchange, therefore, whether natural or artificial, is an injury to the mass of consumers who are the whole people. 237. Nevertheless, every act of exchange which takes OF COMMERCE. 115 place, even where a close monopoly exists on one side, or in regard to one product, is still an unmixed benefit, for it increases abundance and comfort, though in a less measure than if the monopoly did not impede free ex- change ; and thus it would be wrong to say that men, under any circumstances, become poorer by voluntary exchange. It is, however, quite certain that capital in- creases far more slowly where impediments exist to a free exchange of surplus products. 238. Impediments to the exchange of products are ei- ther natural or artificial. The natural obstacles are very numerous, but may be comprised under the general head of distance. A river is an impediment to commerce, un- til it is bridged or a ferry-boat crosses it ; an ocean is a greater, which can be overcome only with the help of ships. Differences in 'language and habits are natural impediments. Providence, which placed natural imped- iments in the way of the exchange of products, gave to different and distant parts of the earth different climates, soils, and capacities for production, so that what is pro- duced in one country is needed in many others ; and ev- ery part of the earth is fitted to produce something which is desired by the people of other parts. 239. You will quickly see the wisdom of the Creator in this, for it compels mankind to intercourse with each other ; and commerce is thus one of the main agents in spreading civilization over the world, in bringing men and nations together in a humane and brotherly spirit; in subduing barbarism, preserving the peace, and in in- creasing constantly the area over which industry and self-denial are rewarded, property is made secure, and civilization becomes possible. 116 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. 240. Imagine a nation which was so favored by cli- mate and soil that it could and did produce within its bounds all and every thing that its members required, and you will see that such a nation would soon cease to have any influence upon the outer world for good at least ; it would become selfish ; would scorn, because it did not need, commerce ; would lose the immense advan- tage of intercourse with other nations ; and, having no such commerce or intercourse, would presently contract vices, such as ignorance, superstition, contempt of for- eigners, and disregard of justice, which would degrade its civilization. But imagine the earth divided among nations, each sufficient to itself, and you will see Africa or Greenland reproduced all over the planet. 241. Moreover, God, whose design in surrounding our lives with difficulties evidently was to force us to exer- cise ingenuity, courage, persistence, patience, daring, and enterprise all those which we call manly virtues had this in view also in creating impediments to intercourse between men in distant parts of the earth, but at the same time making such intercourse, for the purpose of exchanging products, absolutely essential to our comfort and highest well-being ; and impelling us therefore, by the most powerful motives, to overcome the impediments he has created ; and making us feel that we are the higher and the better, as well as the wealthier and more comfortable beings, in the measure that we do overcome them. There is no doubt that the character of the whole Chinese nation has been degraded by their long-contin- ued abstinence from foreign commerce, and their con- sequent seclusion from other nations. Had they during the many centuries of this seclusion been actively en- OF COMMERCE. 117 gaged in foreign commerce, it is certain they \vould have been less selfish, less ignorant, less superstitious, more courageous and enterprising, and more truthful and just, than as a nation they now are. 242. Artificial obstacles to exchange arise out of laws, which either prohibit exchange with foreigners entirely, as formerly in Japan, or lay a penalty on such exchange, as regards certain products : this is still done in many countries, among them our own. 243. All such artificial restrictions are impolitic, inju- rious, and, unless all commerce is prohibited, necessarily partial and unjust. 244. It is possible to imagine a nation like the Japan- ese determining for religious or other reasons to seclude themselves entirely from the world ; and therefore total- ly prohibiting commercial as well as other intercourse with foreigners. In such a case the whole people accept less abundance, and deny themselves comforts and lux- uries which they can not themselves produce. All are injured, all suffer loss and deprivation; and if injustice is done, it is by all to all. 245. But among civilized nations, like our own, the prohibitions and penalties on foreign exchange are no- where of this character ; they are- always partial being laid only upon a few articles ; and thus an essential in- justice is done to those who would, if they were allowed, exchange their products for those articles which are for- bidden them, or who must pay a penalty for such ex- change. For instance, if I am a farmer, who need to exchange my surplus wheat for clothing, it is an injus- tice to me if the law forbids me to make this exchange wherever I may choose ; for, as we have seen, if by any 118 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. impediment it narrows my market, it lowers my profit. I may be able to get more cloth for my wheat in Ger- many than in rny own neighborhood : a law which makes me pay a penalty for doing so is clearly partial and un- just. Or I may be a blacksmith, and prefer Swedish bars for my horse-shoes; why should you, who make American bars, urge a law to make me pay a penalty for my preference ? 246. Fix in your mind that Commerce is not a swin- dling transaction, but a purely beneficial operation; that every act of honest trade increases the happiness and prosperity of all who are concerned in it / that when we two exchange products, each is the more com- fortable and the better off for the exchange for each has given that which he wanted less for that which he wanted more. 247. God, who placed natural obstacles in the way of free exchange, has yet made it laudable and beneficial in us to use all our strength and ingenuity in overcom- ing these impediments which he has placed in the way of the freest and widest exchange of commodities. 248. When, therefore, human governments interfere by laws (which while they exist it is our duty to obey) to obstruct such exchange, they arrogate to themselves authority greater than that assumed by the Creator, and do an injury, moral as well as physical, to all who are subject to such laws. 249. Property, as you have before seen, originates in three acts: labor, self-denial, and exchange. A law which should forbid men to labor, or limit their right to labor except in prescribed ways and hours, ought to be resisted by all sensible men as an unjust interference. OF COMMERCE. 119 A law which should limit the right of self-denial or compel me to spend my accumulations as fast as I cre- ated them, would be no less unjust and monstrous. But a law which interferes with my right to exchange my surplus where I like is only more endurable to us be- cause we are accustomed to it. It does not differ in principle ; and how potent custom is in making us toler- ant of unjust laws we already see in the ease with which men submit to trades-union regulations limiting the du- ration and the manner of men's laboring. 250. Nor is it strange that the trades-unions, who in- terfere with the right of a man to labor when, where, or how he likes, favor also the enactment of laws unjust- ly and in a partial manner impeding the exchange of products or commerce. Their course, in this respect, is logical. They abhor abundance, and make scarcity their god. 251. The most magnificent and conclusive example of the benefits of unobstructed commerce is afforded by our own country. The Constitution of the United States provides carefully for the most entire and unobstructed freedom in the interchange of products over the greater and the most fertile part of the American continent, and among thirty-seven different political communities; and no one doubts that it is to this absolute freedom of exchange, guarded with the utmost jealousy against ev- ery exaction and interference, that we owe our wonder- ful advance in wealth, as well as in the. ingenuity and intelligence of our people. Consider what must have been our condition had Virginia been allowed to lay restrictions and penalties on commercial intercourse with Pennsylvania, or New York to interfere with her citizens 120 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. when they sought to exchange products with Massachu- setts, or the North with the South, or the East with the West, as was done under the Confederation. 252. Yet if any such interference is beneficial, it would seem to be more necessary to protect the West against New England than against Europe ; or the South against the North than against England and France. For, the plea for such interference being that it is nec- essary to enable the establishment of manufactures at home, and to maintain a high rate of wages, it is clear that Michigan or Georgia manufacturers, for instance, can be more easily undersold by Massachusetts or New York than by English or German manufacturers, who must carry their goods so much farther to market, and must also draw their raw materials from a greater dis- tance; and an iron-master in Indiana or Missouri would feel the competition of his Pennsylvania or New Jersey rival far more keenly than that of an Englishman, who must send his iron three thousand miles farther to mar- ket. Yet the Western and Southern manufacturers make no complaint of such home competition. 253. The Southern leaders were more logical. They wished to destroy the Union because they imagined that thus they could set up home manufactures in the South- ern States ; and their attempt was really, and in many cases avowedly, a protectionist measure ; an intentional and deliberate interference with the free exchange of products. 254. You must understand, however, that the people of the United States have long and deliberately consent- ed to a policy in regard to external commerce which I have shown you to be injurious to the general welfare. OF COMMERCE. 121 No political party is yet united in demanding that the people shall be guaranteed the right of free exchange. Nor can it be doubted that the Congress has power to lay duties discriminating in favor of some branches of industry and of course against others ; for it is the essence of such discrimination that it shall injure some in order to benefit others. This is one of the great bat- tle-grounds of opinion in the United States; and as many large individual interests are arranged in favor of such discrimination, and as the masses who are in- jured have not the means for as compact an organiza- tion as the few whom self-interest guides, it is probable that we shall see protective tariffs for many years cum- bering our statute-books, and lessening the general pros- perity. 255. When the Constitution was adopted, most states- men still believed that a country needed such interfer- ence with the free exchange of products, to enable the establishment of home manufactures ; hence the power given to Congress to " regulate commerce," which un- doubtedly means and has always been held to imply the power to interfere with exchange, not merely for pur- poses of revenue, but for the object of " protecting," as it is called, home manufacturers. The first tariff or scale of external duties enacted by Congress had this object in view; and though unjust, partial, and impolitic, there is no doubt that Congress has the constitutional right thus to derange industry by partial laws. 256. One plea on which protective tariffs, as such inter- ferences are called, have been justified, is that thus only can we have diversified industries. If this were true, it would really justify the protectionist system for diver- F 122 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. sified industries are a great benefit to a nation. But in the next section I shall show you that so far from favor- ing a diversity of industries, protective tariffs have really, in our country, discouraged and destroyed many small industries, and created a powerful and to the people ir- resistible tendency of both capital and labor toward a few great industries. OF DIVERSITY OF INDUSTRIES. 123 XXVI. OF DIVERSITY OF INDUS TRIES. 257. That nation or people is happiest which has the most widely diversified industries ; because its members will be led inevitably to the exercise of great and varied ingenuity and enterprise, while at the same time capital, the fruit and reward of labor, will be more equally dis- tributed among the population than in a country where but a few industries are pursued. 258. Take, for instance, a region devoted to grazing, or to the cultivation of cotton only, and you will find the mass of the people dull and subordinate, and the wealth in few hands. In like manner examine a dis- trict devoted mainly to the production of crude iron, coal, or cotton fabrics, and you will find the mass of the people subordinate, in poor circumstances, comparatively ignorant and unenterprising, and not ingenious, while the greater part of the wealth of the community is con- centrated in a few hands. 259. But find a district where the people are engaged in a multitude of small industries, and you are sure to find wealth more equally divided, comfort more widely diffused, and the people more enterprising, intelligent, ingenious, and independent. 260. To contrive a system of laws, therefore, whose tendency and effect would be to draw large numbers from the smaller industries which they would naturally 124 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. pursue, and concentrate their labors upon a single pur- suit, would be to degrade the character of such a popu- lation, by making it less ingenious, enterprising, and in- dependent than before ; and this the more if this single industry should be of a kind which required, in the mass of those engaged in it, but little skill or thought, and at the same time required that much capital should be de- voted to it. For in that case not only would the charac- ter of the people deteriorate, but wealth would more and more be drawn away from the smaller industries, and concentrated in the larger, and the mass of the people would become in time less prosperous and comfortable. 261. Now this grave injury has been done to large classes of our population by what is wrongly called the system of "Protection to Home Industry" which is sim- ply an interference with the right of free exchange. 262. To comprehend how "Protective" laws, so call- ed, degrade home industry, and prevent diversity of in- dustries, I must first explain to you the natural progress of industry in any country that course which the Cre- ator has laid out by what are called Natural Laws. 263. When a new country begins to receive popula- tion, men being scarce and land abundant, it is inevita- ble that wise men will turn to industries which require for their prosecution the least amount of labor, because the rate of wages will be high, laborers being few. Hence in our new territories grazing is at first a favor- ite and profitable occupation. As population increases, lands rise in price, and farming is begun ; and presently villages make their appearance, where blacksmiths, car- penters, masons, wagon-makers, and shopkeepers gather, to supply the farmers' needs, and afford him for at least OF DIVERSITY OF INDUSTRIES. 125 a part of his surplus products a near market. Capital or surplus rapidly increases in a new country ; as popu- lation continues to stream in, new industries are devised, and the region which at first imported every thing ex- cept its meat becomes more and more self-sustaining; for capital, intelligently directed, spies out the wants of the people and the natural resources and advantages of the land ; and it is not long before even some articles of manufacture begin to be exported to neighboring districts. 264. By this time roads and perhaps railroads have been built, and, by lessening the cost of transportation and increasing production, the cost of living has been greatly cheapened ; new enterprises no longer offer such great rewards as at first to capital, and the rate of inter- est has consequently fallen ; increasing population has lowered the rate of wages without, however, necessarily lessening the comfort of the laborers, for all prices are also less, as you have seen. Finally, there is a numer- ous class of hired laborers, whereas in the beginning al- most every man was his own employer. At this stage what we call manufactures naturally arise. Capital, seeking new means of profitable employment, provides machinery, raw material, and wages, for the use of labor- ers also seeking new ways to earn a living. 265. This is the natural course of a country's indus- tries where arbitrary and partial laws are not used to force both capital and labor out of the channels Nature lias provided. In this natural development the ingenu- ity and enterprise of the people have constant exercise ; capital is for a long time pretty equally diffused, be- cause there will be a great and increasing diversity of 126 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. small industries ; the character of the population will be high, its independence great, and prosperity will be gen- eral. The greater operations of industry, which require extreme concentration of both capital and labor, will be long deferred, until at last the country's natural re- sources are fully explored, and the accumulation of wealth and the increase of population are both so great as to lead naturally and safely to such employment for both. The stages of development in such a case will be slow, but sure, and there will be no great crisis or pan- ic, nor any marked lowering of the condition of the people. Their ingenuity and desire for prosperity would lead them to devise new industries and control new en- terprises as fast as capital and labor offered to prose- cute them ; and it is an important consideration that these new enterprises would grow naturally out of the conditions of the country, as to climate and productions, and the wants of the people. 266. Unfortunately this natural and sound growth is not permitted. Different motives, among which are na- tional pride, a desire for more showy production, the subtle fallacy of a " home market," so called, but main- ly the greed for wealth and supremacy in individuals, unite to bring about the adoption of unjust and partial laws, enacted to favor some special branch of industry. These laws, under the beguiling name of " Protection to Home Industry," lay heavy duties on a few foreign prod- ucts, in order to enable those who produce these articles at home to charge a higher price for them, and to give them the command of the home market which means only, as must be plain to you, to compel the mass of the people to buy of the favored individuals at a higher OF DIVERSITY OF INDUSTRIES. 127 price than they could, but for these laws, buy for else- where ; in other words, to impede the free exchange of products. 267. For instance, New England capitalists helped, I believe, originally by some Southern men began to clamor for duties on foreign-made cotton goods ; and, contrary to the wish of the first promoters of cotton man- ufactures, a high duty was put on the importation of for- eign calicoes, sheetings, and other manufactures of cotton. 268. Of course, a duty on the foreign product is a bounty on the home product. The home manufacturer raises his price to the price at which the foreigner can sell after he has paid the duty. A duty on calicoes, therefore, confessedly makes calico the home as well as the foreign product dearer than it would otherwise be ; and all who wear calico all the women and children in the land, that is to say mnst pay more for their dresses, in order that the insignificant number engaged in making calicoes at home shall obtain their bounty. 269. Now it has never been pretended that the people of New England were starving when a duty was laid on calicoes and other cotton goods. They were, accord- ing to all accounts, an extremely industrious and inge- nious people, engaged in such a multitude of small en- terprises that "Yankee Notions" was the generic name of a great class of small inventions and products, all use- ful to mankind. Capital was widely dispersed in these petty industries, for which the character of the country and its inhabitants was well fitted ; large fortunes were few, and not easily accumulated, but the average of com- fort, intelligence, and public spirit was uncommonly high. 270. The effect of the protective duty was, 1st, by 128 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. offering an unnaturally high reward to capital, to draw that away from a number of the smaller industries, and concentrate it in a few great buildings filled with costly machinery. 2d. To draw away a large part of the la- boring population from their petty industries and their country homes into large manufacturing towns, and to employments which made them more dependent and less ingenious and self-helpful than before. 271. The life of a mill or factory operative being of a low kind, offering no hopes of advancement, and a smaller average of comfort than intelligent and enter- prising people like to submit to, the best class of the New England population presently withdrew from it, or nev- er entered it ; but capital then not superabundant in the country having been diverted to manufacturing on a great scale by the "protective" duty, was made less abundant for small enterprises. The temptation of cheap and fertile lands drew off the most enterprising popula- tion to the Western States ; and the Yankee girls left the factories to fill the vacant places of the emigrants. 272. The manufacturers, to fill the gap, began system- atically to import foreigners, mostly of a low grade of intelligence, and have continued to do this to the present time ; with results evident to the country in a gradual but serious deterioration in the character of the popu- lation, the corruption of politics, the increase of vice, crime, and ignorance. 273. To bring about these evils the women and chil- dren of the whole United States were compelled to pay tribute, during a great many years, every time they bought a new calico dress or a yard of muslin. Mean- time this "protection to home industry," or favoritism OF DIVERSITY OF INDUSTRIES. 129 to a few at the cost of the great mass, has built up a few very great fortunes, and a large population, subject, ignorant, to a large extent the easy prey of demagogues, and in every way inferior to that it superseded ; the average of comfort and prosperity in New England is much lower than it was before "Protection;" and pau- perism has greatly increased. 274:. You see here that " Protection to Home Indus- try" was a curse to people who were "protected," at the same time that it was unjust to that great mass of the population which, not being engaged in cotton man- ufactures, was not " protected," but had to pay, in high- er prices for clothing, the cost of protection to a few. 275. Take now another case, where an attempt was made to "protect" both the producers of a raw material and its manufacturers of course once more at the ex- pense of the great mass of the people, who are consum- ers. The wool-growers and the wool manufacturers combined to appeal to Congress for " protection," and "encouragement for their home industries;" and their demands were granted. Naturally both American wool and American woolen goods immediately rose in price that was the object of the men who asked for the high duties. Woolen shirts, trousers, coats, blankets, carpets, all cost all of us more, in order that these two home industries might be favored. 276. The exclusion of foreign wool and woolens caused, 1st, a rapid and great increase in the production of American wool, but also in the price of mutton for the farmers, sure of a high price for wool, would not sell so many sheep to the butchers as before. But mutton, too, is an article of universal consumption. 2d. The F 2 130 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. high duty caused the establishment of a large number of woolen mills, with expensive machinery, to build and work which capital was drawn from other industries where it was before usefully employed. At the same time people were drawn from farms and other employ- ments into the woolen mills. Thus, as in New England in the previous case, industry was in a double way de- ranged. 277. But hardly had all the wool-growers and woolen manufacturers got fairly to work when it was discover- ed that the exclusion of ' foreign-grown wool from so large a market as the United States had made it so cheap in Europe that manufacturers there could still sell their goods here, after paying the high duty, in com- petition with ours in our own market. Then followed a demand for still higher duties on the foreign goods. 278. But this additional protection for themselves en- abled our manufacturers to import some foreign wools ; whereupon the wool-growers began to clamor : they had greatly increased the product of wool for sheep breed rapidly; and as many had paid high prices for sheep, and for fine bucks, they did not like to lose the benefit of protection. 279. But it was reasonably urged by manufacturers that to exclude foreign wools entirely was to confine our manufacturers to making but few varieties of goods, and those not the most profitable, because for most kinds of goods the manufacturer needs to mix in the looms the wools of different climates and countries. Hence the exclusion of foreign wool, and an overstocked market in some kinds of goods, caused the stoppage of many factories, a general stagnation of the business under the OF DIVERSITY OF INDUSTRIES. high duties, remember consequent fall in the demand for American wool, and prostration of the protected wool-growers ; all to the advantage of only a few wealthy and cautions manufacturers, who happened to be able to take advantage of the low prices. 280. Here was a loss to farmers, manufacturers, and operatives by "protection." Nor was this all. Ma- chinery lives though men die. If it stands idle, it dete- riorates ; new inventions supersede it by and by ; and if it has stood idle, it has not earned the cost of replace- ment: hence actual loss of much capital. As to the workmen, drawn away from other and more healthful employments, and made more dependent than formerly, many were now turned adrift. 281. To achieve these miserable results to cause loss to the farmers as well as to the manufacturers and their laborers, to derange an important industry, and benefit only a few speculators who were ready to take advan- tage of the general loss the whole American people were obliged by a partial and unjust law to pay during several years needlessly high prices for coats, trousers, blankets, carpets, flannels, and woolen dresses. 282. Take yet another example, differing from the foregoing the manufacture of crude and rolled iron, which includes pig and railroad and other bars. Laws placing a penalty on the use of foreign iron have existed on our statute-books for a great number of years; they were adopted on the pica that we possessed rich ores and abundant coal and limestone ; and that we could not safely be dependent on foreign nations for so nec- essary an article as iron, because we might in such a case be very seriously inconvenienced in the case of 132 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. war. I hope you are logician enough to see the fallacy in this proposition it lies in the implication that with- out a penalty on the use of foreign iron, and a conse- quent bounty to the home manufacturer, no American would have engaged in this industry. But if, as is most true, we have abundant supplies of excellent ores, fuel, and fluxes that is to say, if Nature has put us into an uncommonly advantageous position for making iron, surely it is too much to say that we could not or would not use these natural advantages without an additional bounty from the government. 283. The "protective" bounty, however, caused a rapid flow of capital and labor from various other in- dustries to this crude pursuit one of the lowest of all, the least elevating to those engaged in it. The capital and labor were diverted from industries naturally more productive, and this of course put a serious loss upon the general community ; because thus less aggregate wealth was produced, and the means of exchange were lessened. But, further, the hope of extraordinary gains from protection which promised the iron-master a mo- nopoly of the home market led men to rash ventures. Many placed their iron-furnaces badly, so that they la- bored under natural disadvantages, and needed protection, in fact, not from European iron-masters, but from their more judicious neighbors. I have been told by several iron-masters that the furnace of the late Thaddeus Ste- vens of Pennsylvania was thus misplaced, and that when he constantly appealed for a higher duty on foreign iron, for more, and more, and more "protection," he spoke from his own experience, and for his own neces- sities, and not those of the judiciously placed furnaces. OF DIVERSITY OF INDUSTRIES. 133 284. Another result of "protection" was that the protected iron -masters, even where the furnaces were well placed, often neglected to apply the most scientific methods in their work. They had become accustomed to depend on bounties and " protection " granted by the government, and no longer used their brains, as they must have done had they, like the shoemakers and blacksmiths and carpenters, the farmers, sewing-women, and the immense mass of unprotected laborers, been obliged to depend upon their own ingenuity. Mr. Abram Hewitt, of New Jersey, himself a prominent iron-master and zealous protectionist, in a Report on Iron at the last French Exhibition, reproached the American iron-masters for this neglect, and pointed out that at that time many of our works were conducted on methods long ago abandoned in Europe as uneconomical. In another case an American, visiting an English man- ufacturer of a specialty in woolen goods, discovered that, in spite of our high tariff, he continued to export his goods to the United States ; and asking curiously how it could be afforded, the Englishman replied by showing him that he had just put in an entire set of new and greatly improved machinery, and had sold his old and wasteful machinery to a manufacturer in the United States to his competitor, namely, who depended not on ingenuity or cheap means of production, but on " protection," and no doubt petitioned Congress for higher duties as soon as lie had set up the Englishman's cast-off machines. Protection, you see, dulls ingenuity, because it destroys a market for it. If an American mechanic invents a machine for saving labor in a " pro- tected" industry, he lias the less chance to profit by its 134: POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. adoption, because the capitalists to whom he offers it depend less on economy or ingenuity than on the gov- ernment's bounty or protection, taken out of the people's pockets. 285. The object of a duty on foreign iron is, of course, to enable the American iron-master to charge a higher price for his product. This addition to the natural price of iron must be paid by the American people, for other nations will not pay it they will prefer to buy in a cheaper market, and thus protection ruins our foreign commerce. But think for a minute what an addition to the price of iron means. It means that the carpen- ter shall pay more for liis tools, the blacksmith for his horseshoes, the house-builder for his nails, the house- keeper for her pots and kettles, the farmer for his im- plements it means that houses shall be dearer and house-rent higher ; that all agricultural operations shall cost more, wherefore bread must be higher; that all ma- chinery shall be more costly, and therefore all clothing and othe$ necessaries of life produced by machinery shall be dearer to the poor ; and, finally, that railroads, which use enormous quantities of iron in rails, locomotives, and cars, shall be more costly, and therefore freights higher forever to the farmer, who wants to get his produce to market. 286. That is to say, a duty on iron takes something out of the pocket of every man, woman, and child in the United States, and by that much lessens their comfort and prosperity ; and it does this, as you have seen, to make the fortunes of a comparatively small number of capitalists engaged in the production of iron, and to enable them, according to Mr. Hewitt, to work with wasteful means and processes. OF DIVERSITY OF INDUSTRIES. 135 287. For the workmen do not benefit by the tariff, but only the capitalists. It is not pretended that the high duty obliges or causes the iron-masters to pay their laborers wages above the average standard of wages in the country : the protectionists only claim that the high duty enables the payment of wages in the protected indus- tries equal to those paid in the unprotected. But those now engaged in the furnaces and factories, where they are crowded together, and rendered less intelligent, less in- genious, less independent than the average of their coun- trymen, would, if there had been no iron-furnaces at all, have been engaged in other and more healthful occupa- tions; and they are thus injured by the protective duty, by being lured into the furnaces ; and in the end are left without employment by a commercial crisis in their trade, caused by over-production, brought about entire- ly by the stimulant of bounty or "protection." The high duty on iron tempted capitalists by the prospect of extraordinary profits, and thus caused an unnaturally rapid expansion of this business ; with the result, sure from the first, of a general paralysis, involving loss of capital, which is an indirect but certain loss to the mass of laborers ; but also, and directly, bringing suffering to the laborers engaged in the production of iron, and to their families. 288. You see, in these three instances, that 1st. Pro- tection diverts capital from numerous diversified and naturally productive into fewer and naturally less pro- ductive channels : which is an injury to the mass of the people, because it checks their enterprise and ingenuity. 2d. It diverts labor in the same measure for labor fol- lows capital ; and it places the laborer always in a more 136 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. dependent and precarious situation. 3d. It causes loss of capital, which is a serious injury to the country, for capital is accumulated wealth, and one of the most im- portant tools for further increasing wealth. 4th. Final- ly, it is a means of deranging industry, and thus sudden- ly throwing great numbers of men out of employment. 5th. And it does all this injury in a most costly manner, by a tribute levied upon the whole population. 289. I might exhibit to you many other examples of the folly and loss of " protection " as the high duty on foreign salt, which, 1st, destroyed some part of our foreign commerce, where our ships were able to carry an outward cargo cheaply only on condition of bring- ing home salt from Liverpool or the West Indies ; and, 2d, actually enabled a combination of salt monopolists, two or three great companies, to close some of the more important of our own salt-works, and thus lessen the supply to the American people. I saw myself, two years ago, the great West Virginia Salt-works standing idle, and when I asked the reason, was informed that the owners were hired by the Associated Salt-Producers to close their works (and of course to discharge all their workmen). This is called " Protection to Home Indus- try." 290. Again, a high duty was laid on foreign lumber and timber ; with the result, 1st, of breaking up an important trade in finished lumber which our merchants had es- tablished with Australia and the West Indies, but which was driven to Canada by the tariff which made lumber dear here ; 2d, making all houses dearer, and house-rents higher for the laboring men and their families ; and, 3d, causing the needless destruction of our own forests, which OF DIVERSITY OF INDUSTRIES. 137 we ought much rather to have preserved with great care, so long as our neighbors would sell us theirs. 291. I hope it is plain to you that all obstacles to the exchange of products are injurious ; and that as God allows and incites us to use our utmost ingenuity to lessen and overcome those natural obstacles which he has placed, so it is the most egregious folly in us to add artificial ones. In doing so, we inevitably sink capital or accumulated wealth, and expose the laboring part of the population to undue hazards, losses, and suffering. 292. Yet trades-unions and labor societies encourage this system, miscalled " protection," and thus show once more the folly which rales them, their ignorance of nat- ural laws, and their unn'tness to undertake the control of labor. 293. For, bear in mind that 1st. If there had never been an iron-furnace, a cotton or woolen mill, in the whole United States, our population would still have been fully employed, and at good wages. For our coun- try is but thinly populated, and with unobstructed pro- duction and exchange there will be for a century to come a dozen days' work for every man ready to labor a day. 2d. Without " protection " we might have had fewer cotton and woolen mills and iron-furnaces, but we should have had a far more diversified industry; a more general and equal distribution of wealth ; more numer- ous opportunities for enterprising men of small means to use their inventive skill in small businesses; and hence greater independence, and with this a higher average of general intelligence, thrift, and comfort than we have. 294. Protection drew our capital and labor into un- dertakings which were not naturally profitable (for else 138 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. there would have been no reason for protection) ; hence loss of capital or wealth a lessening of the total amount of accumulated savings in the nation. But, as I showed you under the head of Property, every loss of capital is an injury primarily to the mass of those who labor for wages ; secondarily to the whole community. 295. Moreover, protection, by offering the special temptation of a bounty to a few industries, and these of kinds in which the laborers are on the whole least bene- fited and made most helpless, exposes these industries to over-production, and thus causes commercial revulsions, stagnation in trade, and general loss, with particular suf- fering to the laborers in the protected industries, who are at such times thrown out of employment ; and a general derangement of wages in all employments. 296. I have told you before that no 'merely selfish policy can in the long run prosper. God did not make the world so. Unselfishness is as much a natural law as the law of gravitation ; and he who seeks to benefit himself by injuring others strives against nature, and though he may succeed in his direct purpose, is sure in some other w r ay to sustain greater injury. And what is thus true of individuals is still more true of nations, which, as their life extends beyond that of individuals, are very certain to reap as they sow. OF STRIKES. 139 XXVII. OF STRIKES. 297. When laborers for wages make a demand upon their employer, accompanied with a threat that if he re- fuses they will leave him, they are said to " strike." 298. Of course, every workman has a right to make his own terms with his employer ; and it can make no difference so far as right goes whether he acts singly or whether he joins a number, great or small, of his fel- low-laborers in arranging or rearranging these terms. All laws having for their object the prevention of such combinations and strikes are therefore unjust and op- pressive. Every man has an inalienable right to seek to better his condition, and the means he uses for that end lie within his discretion, saving only, of course, that he must keep the peace. As a workman has no defense against an oppressive employer except the threat to leave him, it is the extreme of injustice to deprive him of that. 299. His strike may bring loss and inconvenience not only upon his employer, but upon the general communi- ty : that does not lessen his right to strike, or to com- bine with others in a strike. It may be unwise, and bring suffering upon him and his associates and their families : that, too, does not impair his right. In short, when a laborer strikes, he exercises only the liberty of deciding to whom and on what terms he will give his 14:0 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. labor ; and to interfere with that right would be to take away his freedom and make him a slave. 300. But the rights he has and uses he must allow to others ; and the striker has no right to coerce any other working-man to join him : when he does that, he becomes a criminal of a very grave kind, for his wrong affects the rights of all working-men. If it were granted that a striker might rightfully force another workman to join him, he would thereby give up his own rights and liber- ties ; for clearly, if he may abridge the freedom of an- other, somebody else, by the same right, may lessen his. If you have a right to force me not to work, another may by the same right force you to work. The striker therefore commits the grossest and most absurd tyranny when he interferes to force some other man to cease work. We see such attempts made in this country occasionally, but usually only by the most ignorant of our laborers ; every interference of the kind ought to be severely and sternly punished, as a dangerous attack upon society. 301. In our times strikes usually take place upon a great scale. The organization of trades-unions has brought hired laborers into close connection, and en- abled them to act in large masses for various purposes. Hence we have seen, in this country, strikes in which thousands of men were united ; and in England, where the trades-unions are more powerful and compact or- ganizations than here, it has happened that a general strike of the laborers in one industry was supported by those engaged in others, out of a general fund of their societies. In all this the workmen were exercising only the inalienable right of determining for whom and on OF STRIKES. what terms they would labor ; and so long as they did not attempt to force unwilling laborers to join them, and did not otherwise break the peace, interference with them would have been the grossest injustice. 302. Whether strikes have or have not on the whole benefited the workmen is a question on which political economists differ, and which it is not easy to decide upon facts. My own belief is that strikes, as they are con- ducted, have dorre no lasting good to the strikers or to the mass of laborers, but, on the contrary, have injured them. Take, for instance, an industry which yields di- rect employment to ten thousand men ; and suppose them to unite in a strike : while they stand out, they are not only consuming their savings or those of other workmen who support them and are thus the poorer; but also they are idle, and are tempted to form bad hab- its. Idleness itself is a very bad habit. If they succeed, the increased rate of wages which they have compelled will not probably for a long time to come restore to them their former savings and comforts. Meantime, however, it is probable that other persons have been drawn into their industry, and thus by their own act the number of persons seeking their bread by this industry has been in- creased, and in the nature of things the demand for wages is greater, proportioned to the capital available for wages, than before ; and either wages will presently fall again, or some part of the laborers will be thrown out of employment. 303. Trades-unions have apparently sought to prevent this natural consequence by arbitrary and tyrannical regulations concerning the employment of apprentices and 6f non-unionists ; and by attempts to shorten the 142 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. hours of labor, winch is of course only an indirect way of increasing the rate of wages. Also they have en- deavored to " make work " by forbidding men to do more than a certain amount of work in a given time. All these are deplorably rude and temporary expedients, the contrivance of men ignorant of natural laws, and, what is even more mischievous, flying in the face of the golden rule. To forbid a boy to learn a trade which he desires, to prohibit the employment of non-unionists, are acts of pure selfishness ; and the whole spirit of the trades-unions in this matter is one which seeks to mo- nopolize benefits at the expense of other men. But, as I told you before, nothing is truer, or more plainly proved by the whole experience of society, than that no merely selfish policy can achieve a great or lasting success. God did not make the world so. 304. When wages are permanently too low in any well- established industry, that means that too many persons are seeking to share in the gross returns of that industry. The remedy lies in either increasing the demand for the goods, which means widening the market for them, which can be done only by an extension of commerce, when more capital would be profitably invested in the indus- try ; or in decreasing the number of persons desiring employment in it. Now a strike certainly does not widen the market for goods ; it does not extend com- merce, which is the only way to permanently increase demand ; and, by alarming capital, is far more likely to decrease than to increase the proportion used in the giv- en industry ; and by stopping work it checks the accumu- lation of that which is already in vested. But it does .not decrease the amount of labor offering for the OF STRIKES. 143 strikers simply stand idle, and mean to re-enter the same industry as soon as the contest between them and their employers is decided ; as soon, that is to say, as one side or the other has suffered all the loss it can bear. I can not see, therefore, how the conditions are changed by the strike except for the worse ; and a strike of this kind can, I imagine, permanently increase the prosper- ity of the workmen just about as much as a man can lift himself from the ground by a vigorous tug at his coat-collar. 144 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. XXVIII. OF TRADES -UNIONS. 305. The theory taught by the trades- union leaders is that in striking the laborers demand only a share of the profits of the capitalists who are -their employers. Thus they persuade the working -people that " capital," as they say, is the enemy of " labor," and that " labor " can prosper only by depriving "capital" of some share of its profits: that one man can gain only by another's loss. 306. You will ask, perhaps, whether it is not true that the owners of capital do seek to increase their profits, even at the expense of their hired laborers ; and whether, therefore, there is not a natural antagonism, not between capital and labor, but between the employer and his hired work-people ? 307. Undoubtedly both employer and employed seek their own benefit; and where the employer has the working-men in his power he will seek to increase his profits by lessening their remuneration. This, however, can happen only where the laborers are slaves, and where the master therefore has a monopoly of their services. Where the workmen are free and moderately intelligent, and competition in business is unobstructed, if capital makes abnormal gains, other capital at once rushes in to partake of these; if wages are above the average, other laborers rush in to share the higher ra.tes ; and in OF TRADES-UNIONS. 145 either case profits or wages, as the case may be, fall to a general average. 308. Now a trades-union seeks to prevent this natu- ral fall of wages by restricting the taking of apprentices and the employment of non-unionists ; that is to say, by, so far as its members can, making a close corporation or monopoly of their trade. But suppose the capitalists should in their turn try to prevent the extension of the industry by combining to prevent fresh capital flowing into it ? The one course would be as reasonable, as log- ical, and as vain as the other. 309. "When wages in any industry fall to a point too low to afford the laborers engaged in it a comfortable subsistence, and with prudence and economy a small sur- plus, that is a proof that labor presses too severely upon the capital which can be profitably employed in that in- dustry. Suppose now ten thousand persons employed in such an industry, and all enrolled in the trades -union. Their present course would be to strike. Their true course would be to use the fund which every trades-union ac- cumulates, to send surplus members to a region where labor is better rewarded : that is to say, to re-establish the disturbed equilibrium. 310. THERE ARE NO SURPLUS MEN IN THE WORLD: when any one appears to be so, he is only in the wrong place. Enable him to go elsewhere, and teach him that he shall if need be do something else, and he is no longer sur- plus, but highly necessary to civilization. More than one half of our planet still lies waste and useless, and suffers for lack of strong arms and stout hearts to redeem it. 311. And here I come to one of the most mischievous blunders of the trades-unions. They teach, if not cli- G 146 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. rectly, yet by the spirit of their doctrines, that men have a vested right in their employments : that a mason has a right to remain a mason, and that society owes him a liv- ing by that trade. I wish particularly to warn you against this error. No man has the least right to subsistence as merely a mason, or a shoemaker, a lawyer, a clergy- man, a tailor, a bricklayer, or a miner. If his labor as a mason is surplus, if no more masons are wanted when he comes along with his trowel, it is his duty, not to con- spire against society with absurd regulations about ap- prentices and hours of labor, but to go at something else. A man who regards himself as only a shoemaker, a ma- son, a tailor, a lawyer, a physician, or a clerk, becomes thereby a contemptible object lie loses his independ- ence, and makes himself the sport of circumstances. In our days, when new inventions continually change the methods of labor, it is especially hazardous for men to bind themselves for life to a single employment; and those only can hope to benefit both themselves and their fellow- laborers who, when they find their occupation overcrowded, have courage and independence enough to seek a new calling, and if possible a new field of la- bor. 312. Trades -unions and labor societies arise out of a perfectly just feeling, among hired laborers, that they are less comfortable than they wish to be. Education has, in all civilized countries, given to the great class of laborers for wages the taste and desire for a greater amount of comfort than contented them in other days. But the means they take to obtain their desires are, as I have tried to show you, mostly crude and in violation of natural laws. OF TRADES-UNIONS. 313. Trades-unions should use their means to seek out new fields of labor; to teach their members energetic- ally that though to-day they may be shoemakers, they can, if need be, achieve success as shepherds, gold-min- ers, farmers ; that dependence is hateful ; that inde- pendence is possible to all who have health and will ; and that migration is the duty of the strongest. 148 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. XXIX. THE MALTHUSIAN THEORY. 314. When you come to read more elaborate works of Political Economy than this, you will perceive that some of the ablest writers on this subject speak of the desira- bleness of placing a check upon the increase of popula- tion. Mr. Mill, indeed, and those who follow him, hold that such a check is absolutely necessary ; that popula- tion should bear a " gradually diminishing ratio to capital and employment;" and he urges it as a duty upon the laboring classes to postpone marriage, and bring fewer children into the world. 315. The Rev. Mr. Malthus, an English clergyman, presented to the world, in the year 1798, a lamentable and alarming picture of what must happen if men con- tinued to increase upon the earth, while land could not increase. He believed that the best and most fertile soils were first occupied; that as population increased, the best soils lost some of their fertility, and the poorest came into use ; and thus, naturally and inevitably sup- posing him to be right the more mouths, the less food ; and we should by and by be involved in a general and disgusting scramble for dinner, in which, of course, the weakest would starve. Upon this theory Mill and other writers, whom you wil'l by and by read, base their ap- peal for a decrease of population. 316. But it will strike you, if you reflect upon the THE MALTHUSIAN THEORY. 149 matter, that, first, as it is not possible by law to prevent men from marrying and breeding children ; and as, ac- cording to Mill and others, abstinence from the solace of the family life is to be expected only of the most thoughtful and prudent in which they are right, of course the result would be degeneration of a people, who, acting under such a belief, would in fact breed mainly from the lowest part of the race. Thus a nation which embraced these views would presently find an in- crease of the ignorant and improvident, and a decrease of the wise and good : in seeking to make population stationary, it would breed out the brains. 317. But, secondly, it is not true that the most fer- tile lands are the first taken up. On the contrary, in the first settlement of a country the poorest lands are taken up, and are used in the least productive way for graz- ing mainly. Later, as population presses, agriculture is begun, but in a wasteful manner, and still not on the best lands ; and it is not until both capital and labor are abundant that men begin to redeem the soils naturally most fertile, namely, the swamps and overflowed lands. This, which I think Mr. Henry C. Carey, of Philadelphia, was the first to demonstrate, you may see in all parts of our own country. Nor is this all : as population presses upon the supply of food, the arts of agriculture are im- proved ; manures are saved; old lands are redeemed; and all parts of the soil are made to bear larger crops. 318. The trades-unions and other labor societies ap- pear to have accepted the dolorous view upon this sub- ject which some Political Economists have presented to them, and are acting upon it. If it is true that a gen- eral scramble for food is imminent, they are perhaps 150 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. right in seeking to protect themselves, by forming their trades into close corporations ; by keeping out new mem- bers ; by seeking to do as little work, and get as high pay as arbitrary regulations promise them. 319. But the most fertile part of our planet still lies unimproved, and in the possession of savages. When Mr. Malthus wrote, the whole great continent of Aus- tralia lay unoccupied : now it supports already some millions of English-speaking people, and adds yearly and enormously to the food and clothing supply of the world. When Mr. Mill began to write, California was occupied only by cattle, and a few Mexican families who slew these for their hides alone : now that great state ex- ports wheat and wool and wine in immense quantities. Texas, as large and as fertile as France, is almost empty. South America alone would support in comfort a pop- ulation greater than that of Europe and the United States together. Oceania, New Guinea, and many parts of Africa, now possessed by savages, are ready to receive and support an energetic and thrifty population. 320. The world lies open in these days, when steam- ships and fire-arms make migration safe and migra- tion is one of the great remedies for the grievances of labor. Hence the importance of the trades-unions : if only they would turn from their strife against natural laws, and make themselves the instruments of a vast and well-organized scheme for founding new nations. OF PROHIBITORY LA WS, SO CALLED. 151 XXX. OF PROHIBITORY LAWS, 80 CALLED. 321. Benevolent and philanthropic men, unless they are also wise, which is not always the case, are fond of trying to make men virtuous by act of Legislature. Long experience has shown, however, that purely social evils or excesses, or even prejudices, where these last are based on differences of race or color, can not be cured by laws. 322. The intemperate use of spirituous liquors is one of the greatest curses to which modern society is ex- posed ; it is the cause of at least three quarters of the vice, crime, poverty, pauperism, and misery to be found in our country. If you were to cut from the newspapers all the reports of murders and attempts to murder during a year, yon would find that at least three out of four arose out of the misuse of spirituous liquors. If you trace to its source any case of crime, poverty, or extreme misery you may meet, the chances are at least four to one that you will n'nd " Rum did it." If we could prevent the misuse of spirituous liquors, we should save at least one half of the taxes collected by states, cities, and counties, and very appreciably raise the average of comfort and prosperity among the people. The gravity of the evil is so gener- ally recognized that the word "Intemperance" has come to have a narrow application in the public mind, being used generally to signify the misuse of alcoholic drinks; 152 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. though men may be and constantly are intemperate in many other things, as in eating, in the strife after wealth or social or political distinction, or in their use of cards and other means of amusement ; and I have known boys who were intemperate in eating candy and gingerbread, in the use of fire-crackers on the Fourth of July, or in novel-reading. 323. When a boy manifests a morbid and depraved de- sire for candy, judicious parents deny him this indulgence but they do not necessarily deprive all his brothers and sisters who have no such morbid craving. So when a man has contracted a passion for gambling, he does well to avoid the use of cards entirely ; but it does not follow, because some men intemperately waste their means in po- ker-playing, that all elderly ladies and gentlemen should be forbidden a harmless and pleasant game of whist. 324. In many of our states, however, philanthropic persons demand what is called a Prohibitory Liquor Law a law entirely forbidding the sale and use of spirit- uous liquors ; and they demand this because they believe it is the only way to extirpate the vice of intemperance. 325. Law-makers, in order that their labors may be effective and useful, are bound to bear in -mind the pas- sions and natural tastes of mankind. Not every wrong or evil can be cured by law; and there are matters which the wise law-maker leaves unnoticed on the stat- ute-books. 326. Further, it is important for you to know that any law is unwise which has not the general favor of the community to which it is to be applied; for if a law lias not this general countenance and support in public opin- ion, it can not be enforced in a free state. It is only a OF PROHIBITORY LA WS, SO CALLED. 153 despotic ruler who can, by force of arms, terrify and compel his subjects into a change of their habits. Hence such a law as that lately before Congress, and wrongly called a " Civil Rights bill," is most unwise, because it offends the long-existing and bitter prejudices of a very large part of the community, and, besides, attempts to obtain for the colored people what it is not the province of law to secure for any one, namely, social equality : the right by law to force themselves into the society of persons who do not like them. A law compelling all hotel -keepers to receive colored men as guests favors the colored men at the expense of the whites for it leaves to the latter no hotel to which they can resort without offense to their feelings. These feelings may be foolish or wrong; but they exist and they are so strong and bitter that they can not be removed by laws. Time, in such a case, is better than laws. The Civil Rights bill in fact comes under the head of Prohibitory Laws, which we are considering. 327. In legislating upon the use of spirituous liquors, a wise law-maker would remember that the craving for stimulants is universal among mankind ; that spirituous liquors and wines are of important use in diseases, and when moderately used are doubtless of service in pre- venting some diseases ; that the right of a man to de- cide whether or no he needs a stimulant can not be de- clared by any general law, because each case must neces- sarily be judged upon its own features, and it must therefore practically be left to himself ; that it is not a function of law to prevent a man in)\\r'mg himself else the government would have to interfere in every act of our lives : but only to prevent him from injuring others ; G 2 154 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. and that, finally, a law prohibiting the sale and use of an article in universal demand can not be carried into effect without vexatious and justly hateful searches in private houses and interference with individual desires and tastes. To a wise law-maker, therefore, greatly as he might be impressed with the evils arising to society out of the misuse of spirituous liquors, a general law totally prohibiting their use and sale within a state, or the United States, would seern inexpedient, because it could not be enforced, and, if it could be, would involve an unjust and vexatious interference with individual rights. 328. Prohibitory liquor laws are thus unwise, and their adoption ought to be opposed because they are directed not against the abuse, but against the use of an arti- cle. But society has a right to seek, by judicious regu- lations, to protect itself against the results of the misuse of liquors. It has a right to exact of the retail liquor- seller a tax or penalty for the privilege of pursuing his injurious calling, and to establish and enforce severe penalties for selling without such permit or license. It may rightly levy a fine upon the liquor-seller in whose house a drunken man is found ; and put a penalty upon habitual drunkenness which might very justly be hard labor for the benefit of his family. Also the community may refuse entirely to license bar-rooms or other places for the sale of liquor at retail and its consumption on the premises. Moreover, it would be eminently just to devote the proceeds of liquor-licenses to the support of the hospitals, poor-houses, orphan asylums, jails, and pen- itentiaries which the misuse of strong drink does so much to fill ; and the necessities of these charitable and penal institutions might be made, in any state or county, OF PROHIBITORY LAWS, SO CALLED. 155 the measure of the license fees which should be exacted from liquor -sellers, instead of fixing a mere arbitrary sum. In this way, at least those who keep and frequent tippling-houses would be obliged to make up to the com- munity some part of the money-loss inflicted upon it by their vice. 329. In the vain attempt to prohibit the use of intoxi- cating liquors, the temperance people have neglected many practical measures for lessening the misuse which is all they have any business with. It is but re- cently, for instance, that they have awakened to the great advantage of empowering small communities, townships, or even school-districts, and wards in cities, to decide, by a vote of the inhabitants, the question whether liquor-licenses shall be granted or denied within their bounds. This is called " local option," and I will proceed to explain to you its uses. 156 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. XXXI. OF "LOCAL OPTION." 330. "Local option" is an application of the principle of Decentralization, which I explained to you in Section VIII. 331. In our political system, as you have read, some things are assigned to the Federal Government, some to the state government, and some by this to the count} 7 , city, and township governments. Of late, it has been seen by wise men that some matters which have been usually left to the state, or to the counties and cities, might advantageously be assigned to the smaller polit- ical subdivisions. 332. For instance, a compulsory school law is found to be very difficult of enforcement over a whole state. In some parts public opinion would readily sustain such a law ; in others it is opposed, and where this is the case such a law is likely to be a dead letter. Again, a law refusing liquor -licenses would be sustained by public sentiment in some localities, but would be openly vio- lated in others, where the public opinion was decidedly hostile to it. 333. If, now, instead of adopting one rule for all the people of a state, the Legislature should empower every township, city, ward, or school - district to declare by a vote of its citizens, to be taken once a year, that within the limits of such a subdivision licenses should be grant- OF "LOCAL OPTION." 157 ed, or refused, it is evident that, as each of these small subdivisions would decide for itself, its inhabitants would be directly thrown upon their responsibility. If the majority wished tippling-shops, they would vote for li- censing them ; if they wished to extirpate them, they would vote to refuse licenses ; but it would be certain that public sentiment would enforce the law. Moreover, by such an expedient the friends of temperance would be able to raise the question once a year, to bring it prominently before the people in each locality, and to show the people, by statistics and facts, the economical advantages of temperance. This course has been pursued for a number of years in the township of Vineland, in New Jersey, and the people annually vote to refuse all licenses to sell liquor. They have found, as the result of their firmness, that crime and pauperism are almost en- tirely banished from their town. 334. The expedient of local option can be usefully extended to other measures of policy ; and if this is done, it will, by and by, bring us back to the town-meet- ing system of New England, which I described to you in Section XV., and thus one of the most important po- litical reforms possible in our system would be brought about ; for thus the people of a small locality, in pub- lic meeting assembled, would once more discuss their local affairs, and vote directly upon the policy they wish to pursue and the money they are willing to spend for public purposes. 158 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. XXXII. OF CORPORATIONS. 335. A Corporation is an association of persons united to promote a common purpose, either of morals, pleas- ure, or business. Thus a church, a library association, a college, a Masonic or other benevolent society, an in- surance or railroad or telegraph company, is a corpora- tion. 336. Corporations are called in law "artificial per- sons," which means that they have no natural existence, but are the creatures of law. It is commonly said of them that they "have neither bodies to be kicked nor souls to be damned," which means that they are not ame- nable to the usual penalties for misconduct. It is, there- fore, necessary and proper to limit strictly their powers and privileges, to impose severe penalties for their mis- conduct, and to enable the public to hold them quickly and easily to account in the courts. Legislative bod- ies, whose first duty is to protect the rights of the peo- ple, may justly regard corporations with suspicion, and scrutinize with great care all grants of power to such bodies. 337. But the right of free association for business and other purposes is of so great importance that it ought not to be unduly hampered. All persons in a state ought to have equal rights to form corporations, under general laws, carefully drawn ; and it ought never to be necessary OF CORPORATIONS. 159 to go to a legislative body for a special charter, or instru- ment creating a corporation. General laws should equal- ly limit and define their powers and privileges, and im- pose equal penalties for misconduct. Thus a general railroad law should stand on the statute-book, subject to which any body of men within the state might form themselves into a railroad company ; and the same is true of telegraphs, steamships, library societies, churches, etc. Thus monopolies would be prevented, and a fruit- ful source of corruption in legislative bodies removed. For where special charters are granted, it is a common occurrence to see rival companies struggling against each other before legislative committees, and using bribery to gain their ends or defeat their opponents. 338. While the rights and powers of corporations ought to be rigorously defined and limited, those which are granted them are as sacred as any personal rights, and ought to be as secure against attack. A corporation, when it does wrong, or exceeds its powers, is amenable to the courts ; to drag it before a Legislature or Con- gress, for what is called " Investigation," is not only un- just, but tends invariably to the corruption of the legis- lative body. For the corporation will defend itself ; and, being a creature without a soul, whose members feel no personal or moral responsibility for the corporate acts, it is very likely to be unscrupulous in self-defense if it is attacked in an unjust way. 339. As corporations have unusual powers, and are often in the nature of monopolies, the governments which create them may rightly require of them reports of their operations at regular and fixed intervals ; and pro- vide penalties for failure to report regularly or correct- 160 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. ly ; as well as for violation of the law under which they exist. In this way accurate information concerning them is made accessible to the public. With the help of such information, and with unrestricted liberty to form new corporations, subject to equal and general laws, restrictions, and penalties, monopolies may and will be kept in order. It depends, however, upon the vigilance of the people to do this ; for corporations, like govern- ments, are always ready to presume upon the ignorance and carelessness of the people. CONFEDERATION AND UNION. XXXIII. OF CONFEDERATION AND UNION. 340. You already know from history that our country was first settled mainly by English people, who were formed into different colonies, subject to the British crown. The English eventually acquired all the settled parts of our Atlantic seaboard. 341. The management of colonies by all the European governments was, at that time, conceived in the most narrow and selfish spirit. A colony was held, by the ablest statesmen of the last century, to be rightly treated as a dependency whose inhabitants were to enrich only the government whose flag they served, and the nation from which they were derived ; and the people of a col- ony were therefore forbidden to trade with foreign na- tions, and even to manufacture for themselves many articles which were produced in the mother country. 342. The British Navigation Act closed the North American ports to all but English ships, forbade any but English subjects to engage in foreign trade, and pro- hibited the exportation of sugar, tobacco, cotton, wool, and other products of the colonies, to any country but England. Also the English colonists were forbidden to establish manufactures of several kinds, because it was held that they would thus injure the industries of En- gland. 343. It was this interference with the right to produce 162 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. what 'they pleased, and to freely exchange their prod- ucts where they could do so most advantageously, which began that alienation from England which ended in the Revolutionary War and the independence of the col- onies. The greater part of the wrongs set forth in the Declaration of Independence grew out of the efforts of the English government to confine the commerce of the colonies to the mother country ; out of the determina- tion of the Americans freely to produce what they pleased, and freely to exchange their products wherever it was to their advantage to do so. I call your atten- tion to this fact, in order that you may see the extreme importance which civilized men attach to these rights. 344. At the close of the Revolutionary War the colo- nies, which had become states, formed themselves into a Confederation; but, jealous of their separate independ- ence, and fearful of a new master, the states, in the Articles of Confederation, reserved, each to itself, almost all the powers of government. 345. The government of the Confederation had no president or other executive ; it had no power over in- dividuals, either to tax, to coerce, or to punish them. It consisted of a Congress of delegates elected by the state Legislatures, and upon this Congress were devolved cer- tain duties, which, however, it had no power to per- form. All its determinations were to be carried into effect by the states, whom, however, it had no power to coerce. 346. The states, under the Confederation, reserved to themselves the power of the purse. The Congress could declare the amount of revenue needed to carry on the general government, but the taxes were laid and collect- CONFEDERATION AND UNION. 163 ed by the states, according to a general apportionment, and when, as sometimes happened, some states did not pay in their quota, the Congress had no power to enforce its payment. The Congress had authority to declare war, but it could not raise a single soldier : that was re- served to the states. The Congress was made an arbi- trator between the states : but it was powerless to en- force its decisions. Finally, the states, which alone could levy taxes, reserved to themselves the regulation of com- merce, and the right to tax the exchange of products, not only those coming from abroad, but also those which were sent from one state to another ; and it was not long before high and vexatious duties were exacted, for the "encouragement of home industry," on the importation of goods from one state into another, which led, natural- ly, to retaliatory laws, and presently to such obstruction of the exchange of products as caused a general pros- tration of all industries in all the states. Production was discouraged, because markets were limited ; at every state boundary custom-house officers stood to exact trib- ute of the man who had something to exchange ; and as the profitableness of industry depends on the right to exchange, and is diminished by every check placed upon the freedom of exchange, and by every limitation of the area over which a product may be exchanged, production was fatally hampered, and the whole country fell into poverty. 347. The first movement toward a better form of gov- ernment arose out of a convention called to remove some unendurably vexatious fetters upon the exchange of products. Commissioners were appointed by the Leg- islatures of Maryland and Virginia to make freer to the 164 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. people of those states the navigation of the Rivers Po- tomac and Roanoke, and the Chesapeake Bay. They were unable to act effectively ; and at their instance the Legislature of Virginia, in 1786, proposed a convention of commissioners from all the states, " to take into con- sideration the state of trade, and the propriety of a uni- form system of commercial relations." These commis- sioners advised a convention to revise the Articles of Confederation, and it was this body which in 1787 framed our present Constitution. 348. Once more you see the extreme importance to the prosperity of industry, of freedom of exchange. Our Constitution grew out of the necessity of freeing the ex- change of products from the fetters imposed upon it by the states ; and, accordingly, those who framed it took care to secure in the most effectual manner this great ob- ject. 349. The Constitution differs in but two fundamental particulars from the Articles of Confederation : it gives the Central Government direct power over individuals ; and it establishes absolute freedom of exchange between all the states, and leaves the regulation of foreign com- merce, which was and is still regarded as a source of revenue, exclusively in the hands of the Federal Gov- ernment. All other changes were mere incidents arising naturally out of these two. For with power to levy tax- es and to punish individuals came the necessity for an executive and a judicial branch of the government ; and for the rest: the government of the Confederation was charged with the declaration of war and peace, the maintenance of post-roads, the regulation of the coinage, the maintenance of embassadors abroad, etc., etc., just as CONFEDERATION AND UNION. 165 our Federal Government is only it had no power to cause any thing to be actually done ; because it had no power to coerce individuals, to enforce its acts by courts or soldiers, or to raise a revenue. 350. The adoption of the Constitution, by freeing the exchange of products among the states, at once revived industry, by vastly enlarging the market for all products. When men could once more sell without obstruction what they had raised and produced, every energy was stimulated which before was crushed, and we began thus, by the removal of obstructions to exchange, that career of prosperity and growth which has been the wonder of the world. 351. The union of the states under a Central or Federal Government has thus been the direct cause of all our long and remarkable career of prosperity, and this because, first, it has secured to our people, within certain limits, unrestricted freedom of exchange, which has acted as a constant stimulant to their enterprise, ingenuity, and in- dustry. It has set a prize on intelligence by securing its products an immense market, covering the greater and the richest part of the continent. Second, the Constitu- tion assured homogeneous laws and free intercommuni- cation over the whole of our territory, and thus made migration possible and safe, whereby new fields of activ- ity are constantly opened to the thrifty poor and to the restless and adventurous of our population. 352. Finally, the self-government in local affairs re- served to the states has enabled these to experiment safely, and to make changes in the state constitutions, not always for the best, but often needed improvements, and thus, by comparing results, to gradually and safely improve our system of government. 166 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. XXXIV. TEE AMERICAN POLITICAL SYSTEM. 353. Appended to this volume you will find the Fed- eral Constitution, which I advise you to read with care. 354. You will discover that this instrument creates a government of limited powers, but of unlimited author- ity within its province. For instance, the President of the United States can not appoint any state officer, nor issue a command to him not even a j ustice of the peace or a constable in a township ; but he may draft or com- pel half a million of citizens into the army in case of war. Congress may declare war, and levy taxes to carry it on ; it may declare who are citizens, how much gold shall go to a dollar, and how many pounds of wheat to a bushel ; but it can not enact or repeal a city charter, nor interfere in the acts of even a township's trustees. 355. This limitation and division of powers we call Decentralization. You have read of it in Section VIII. ; and its practical application is one of the most important and beneficial features of our political system. 356. Under it, you must remember, the Federal Gov- ernment has absolute command and power over every citizen and his property ,for certain purposes and in cer- tain relations ; and this is necessary to give it efficiency. But it is absolutely without power over the citizens in other relations, and this is necessary to secure our THE AMERICAN POLITICAL SYSTEM. 167 liberties, and to give elasticity to our political system ; which means to make change possible without revolu- tion. 357. The people of the United States are a nation; the Federal Government is a national government in the truest and largest sense of the word ; and the Constitu- tion empowers it to do all that any nation can require of its government, and to act in the most direct and de- cisive manner upon the individual citizen. 358. The Federal Government has the exclusive charge of our intercourse, as a nation, with other nations ; and it alone can make treaties. If you travel abroad, your citizenship is declared by a Federal passport ; your rights are defended by the Federal Government; you are known as a citizen, not of New Jersey or California, but of the United States; the flag of your country is the Fed- eral flag; and foreign governments have not even any official knowledge of the existence of our states. 359. The Federal Government has the exclusive au- thority to make treaties, to declare war and peace, to raise armies and maintain a navy ; and though the militia in time of peace are trained by the states, it must be ac- cording to rules adopted by the Federal Congress. It has the entire charge of the common defense against at- tack from other nations, and has the power to defend its own existence against rebellion, and make its own laws obeyed by all the citizens all state constitutions and laws to the contrary notwithstanding as was shown in the late war. It is empowered to raise revenue by in- ternal as well as external taxes, and, if necessary, to bor- row money for these and many other purposes. Its tax- collectors and other officers proceed directly against the 168 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. individual citizen, and in its own courts. It has the ex- clusive authority to establish and maintain post-offices, to. coin money and punish counterfeiters ; to fix weights and measures, to regulate commerce, to take cognizance of offenses committed at sea, in the territories, and against the laws of nations ; to enact bankrupt-laws, to declare who shall be citizens, and to grant patents and copyrights. In all these matters the state governments have absolutely no authority ; and all laws enacted by Congress, for these and other purposes recited in the Con- stitution, are the supreme law of the land, and as such entitled to your faithful obedience, even though a state constitution or laws should command you to the contra- ry. For, an act of Congress, a decision of the United States Supreme Court, or a command of the President when this is in accordance with an act of Congress, is above any or all state laws and constitutions. The states are so completely prohibited from interfering with the Federal Government in its own field, as this is prescribed in the Constitution, that they can not even tax Federal bonds ; and the Federal power is so supreme, within its limits, that it may punish even so small an offense as the obstruction of one of its mail wagons. 360. It may be well to explain to you here, also, that when a citizen disobeys a Federal law he is directly dealt with arrested, tried, and punished by Federal officers and courts ; but when a state adopts an uncon- stitutional law, the citizen called on to obey it appeals to the Federal Supreme Court, and its decision on the question is final. Thus the President does not act di- rectly against states as he may against citizens ; and this is an important distinction. THE AMERICAN POLITICAL SYSTEM. 361. In all that concerns us as a nation, either in our external or internal interests, the Federal Government is thus supreme. But in a great many important relations it has nothing to do with us ; and these are left as abso- lutely to the state governments, and to the county and city governments, as the other and general interests are given to the Federal Government. In fact, great and apparently overshadowing as is the power of our Central Government, it is scarcely felt by the individual citizen, except when we have a war, which involves the raising of armies and a navy, and heavy taxation, or when we are cursed with a heavy debt, or serious internal disorders. Before the late war there were millions of Americans who hardly knew that there was a Federal Government, except when they voted for a President or a Member of Congress. The Federal revenues were then collected entirely at a few custom-houses ; the only tax-gatherer seen by the mass of citizens was a state officer ; and the only evidences of the Federal power's activity which then came under the notice of the multitude of citizens were in the benefits they received from post-offices, light- houses, and the survey of wild lands. 362. A state government has the exclusive authority to maintain peace and order within its limits, to punish crimes, except those committed against the United States or against the laws of nations ; to appoint the police and maintain the prisons ; to regulate the tenure of lands and the rules of inheritance ; it has charge of educa- tion and the public health ; it creates and regulates all corporations, such as railroad and insurance companies, within its limits ; it declares who of its citizens shall vote ; it may regulate the sale of liquors and poisons, H 170 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. and abolish nuisances. In all these matters, and others of the same kind, the state has jurisdiction and power, to the exclusion of the Federal Government ; and the Governor, the state Courts, and the state Legislature have abundant power to perform all their duties. 363. For instance, though the Federal Government has the right and power to punish resistance to or violation of its own laws any where within the national limits, it has no right to interfere in case of a riot or insurrection against the state authorities, until these, in a formal and prescribed manner, call on it for aid. If you remember what you read in Section VIII. about the meaning and advantages of decentralization and local self-government, you will easily comprehend the reasons for such a divi- sion of power, and perceive that it is not arbitrary, or fancifully made. 364. Within the state there are a number of political subdivisions : the county, township, and school-district, and the city and ward ; all these are created and may be changed by the state Legislature, and to each a part of the work of government is assigned by the state con- stitution and in accordance with custom, which varies somewhat in different states. A city ward is the equiv- alent of a township ; but cities are with us governed by a charter granted by the state Legislature, while county governments are usually prescribed in a state constitution. There is no reason for this difference ; and the practice of granting special charters to cities has been the cause of much ignorant and mischievous legislation, and of wide-spread corruption. A city gov- ernment needs to be somewhat differently constituted from that of a county ; but there is no reason why all THE AMERICAN POLITICAL SYSTEM. the cities of a state should not exist under a single char- ter, carefully drawn. 365. The table which you will find on the next page will give you a summary view of the different political subdivisions recognized in our system, with their duties and officers. You will see how we proceed step by step, from the smallest political division, where the people act directly upon measures which most immediately concern their daily lives, to the largest^to which general powers only are intrusted, having reference solely to the welfare and security of the whole nation. Take notice that by this division of powers and duties, first, government is made less cumbrous, and is therefore likely to be more efficient and economical ; second, that as the power of a subdi- vision becomes more formidable, it is less intimately brought in contact with the people thus the state gov- ernment does not concern itself with roads, and the Federal Government has no charge of schools or the police ; third, that thus the people are accustomed as much as possible to act directly upon their local and private interests, leaving only matters of more extended interest to the charge of the more distant and neces- sarily representative governments, as the state and the Federal authorities. Thus political education and the spirit of independence are maintained. 172 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. Name of Division. Has charge of Officers. School District. The free or public school. School trustees. Trustees, justice of Local peace, small offenses the peace, consta- Township. in justice's court ; roads, pounds, local nuisances, ble, clerk, road- master, assessor paupers, taxes. and collector of taxes. Main or county roads and bridges; nuisances, pub- Judge, prosecuting lic health, general police, attorney, clerk, crimes and general of- public adminis- fenses, county court, clerk trator, sheriff, su- County. for public records, ad- perintendent of ministration of wills, su- schools, coroner, perintendence of schools treasurer, super- and of paupers, collection visors or commis- of taxes for state and sioners, surveyor. county, jail, poor-house. General peace and order; the enactment and en- 9 State. forcement of all laws ap- plicable to the whole state, and under which all local bodies act, and to which they are sub- ject (the state laws are the supreme law of the state, all county or town- ship laws to the contrary Governor, secretary of state,treasurer, attorney- general, superintend't of education, circuit courts and courts of appeal, public works, Legislat- ure. notwithstanding), militia drills, corporations, right of suffrage. President, secreta- ries of state, treas- Federal. War and peace, foreign re- lations, public lands, In- dians, army and navy, light-houses, customs' du- ties, coinage, weights and measures, post-offices. ury, interior, post- mast.-general and attorney - general, postmasters, rev- enue collectors of different kinds, and a multitude of other officers and clerks. OF THE RIGHTS OF AN AMERICAN CITIZEN. 173 XXXV. OF THE INALIENABLE RIGHTS OF AN AMERICAN CITIZEN. 366. In all the constitutions, Federal and state, the people have reserved to themselves certain rights and immunities, which none of their governments are allowed to interfere with ; and it is important that you should understand these. 367. As an American citizen, you are a free man ; and no one has a right to enslave your person, except for crime, of which you must first be convicted, upon a fair trial in open court ; or to take from you your prop- erty, except by due process of law. 368. You have a right to believe what you please ; to worship God as you please ; to express your opinions on all subjects freely (but you may be punished for libel- ous attacks on your fellow -men) ; to print what you please (with the same restriction) ; to assemble with whom you please, for lawful and proper objects ; to petition the state or Federal Government for redress of grievances. 369. You have a right to be arrested only for cause mentioned in a proper and legal warrant, served by an authorized officer of the law, who must show you his au- thority. 370. Yon have a right to be released on bail, unless charged with a capital crime ; and to be produced be- fore the nearest court, on a writ of habeas corpus, in or- 174 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. der that that court shall decide whether your arrest and confinement were properly made, and for sufficiently probable cause. 371. You have a right to a speedy trial by jury, to be confronted with the witnesses against you, to engage a competent person for your defense, and to know at once and definitely, before your arrest, what you are charged with. 372. Tou have a right to appeal to the proper court for protection to your person and property ; and if the constituted authorities fail to protect you, you have a right to damages for their neglect. 373. You have a right to. be secure in your house against searches by officers of the law, except on proper warrant, which must first be shown you, and for sufficient cause. 374. You have a right to keep and bear arms, but not, in most of our states, to carry them concealed upon your person. 375. You have a right to sue for damages any officer of the law who arrests or tries you in an unlawful man- ner. 376. These are the sacred and inalienable rights of all American citizens, and no constitution or law can deprive him of them. They make him secure against unjust or usurping rulers, and against unscrupulous at- tacks from a fellow-citizen. They enable the citizen to be safe against injustice, or to obtain, by summary or im- mediate methods, redress against unjust attacks. They are possessed by all the people women and children as well as men. OF THE DUTIES OF AN AMERICAN CITIZEN. XXXVI. OF THE DUTIES OF AN AMERICAN CITIZEN. 377. If yon have political rights of which, even by your own will, you can not divest yourself, and which are therefore properly called inalienable, so you have political duties which also you can not justly neglect or lay aside. 378. It is your duty as an American citizen to obey the laws, even if they are, in your belief, unjust or un- wise. General Grant once shrewdly said that the best way to procure the repeal of an unjust or unwise law was to rigorously enforce it. It is your right to expose the folly or injustice of a law, to demand its repeal, and to try to get a majority to repeal it. But while it re- mains a law, you are to obey it. 379. It is your duty, if you are of age and a man, to vote at all elections, and to inform yourself beforehand what measures and men you ought as a good citizen to support. 380. It is your duty to insist upon the prompt execu- tion of the laws ; to be ready, even at much personal in- convenience, to aid in their enforcement, if you are called upon by proper officers; and to resent with indignation every sign of lawlessness and violence, and require its vigorous suppression. For instance, if a riot should break out in a city where you are living, you are not to go out of town until it subsides ; but you are to hasten 176 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. to offer your support to the authorities, and to require their prompt and decisive action to restore order. 381. It is your duty if you are a voter to serve, when called on, as a grand or petit juror; and this at even great inconvenience. 382. It is your duty, if you are a man, to serve in the militia, if the law commands it; and every American voter ought to have a sufficient knowledge of the man- ual and use of arms to enable him to act efficiently if called out as part of the posse comitatus to put down a riot. 383. It is your duty to act generally with some polit- ical party, and to exert your influence upon its leaders to induce the nomination of capable and honest men for office. And it is your duty, if your party nominates a bad man, to vote against him, and thus keep the public and general good before your eyes, and set an example of true public spirit before your fellows. 384. It is your duty to watch the conduct of public of- ficers, to see that they perform their duties and observe their constitutional limitations ; and if they do not, then it is your duty to help to expose them, and at the elec- tions to punish them. For it is only by such vigilance that a nation can preserve its liberties unimpaired. 385. These are your political duties, which you can not neglect or abjure without disgrace to yourself and harm to the country. OF TRIAL BY JURY. 177 XXXVII. OF TRIAL BY JURY. 386. When a crime or an offense has been committed, and the police officers have arrested the person suspected of it, the prosecuting officer collects the evidence against him, and upon the meeting of the grand jury lays it before them in the form of an indictment. They investigate the charge ; call witnesses before them if they wish, and if they have reason to believe guilt probable, they return the indictment with the indorsement, "A true bill." If they believe that the charges are not sustained, they make return " Not a true bill," whereupon the person is released ; but he may be rearrested if, subsequently, new evidence is found against him. 387. The grand jury is a body of responsible citizens, usually twenty-three in number, selected under the eye of the court. We have, of course, grand juries for the Federal as well as for the state courts. Their authority to investigate crimes and offenses is not limited to cases laid before them by the prosecuting officer; they may make independent investigations, and if they find guilt or blame, may make what is called a presentment, which may thereupon be followed by an indictment, and this by trial. Upon the meeting of the grand jury, it is usu- al for the court to instruct them in their duties, and it may also direct their especial attention to notorious of- II <2 178 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. fenses. All their proceedings are secret, and the oath the grand jurors take makes secrecy a duty. 388. The object of a grand jury is to prevent injustice. If the prosecuting attorney were alone empowered to bring offenders to trial, he might either misuse this pow- er for purposes of revenge, and thus annoy and disgrace innocent persons; or he might be bribed to withhold an indictment, and thus favor the escape from justice of wealthy or powerful criminals. The powers of the grand jury are a check upon him ; and their number, and the care usually taken to select only responsible and well- known citizens, makes the corruption of a grand jury improbable. The grand jury has power to compel the attendance of witnesses. 389. When a person charged with a crime or an offense is brought to trial, it is before a petit jury. The judge is not allowed to decide upon the guilt or innocence of the prisoner for he might be prejudiced, or unduly in- fluenced ; twelve men, chosen from a numerous list of citizens, are appointed to hear the evidence, and to de- clare upon the question of guilt. In selecting a jury, the accused, and the plaintiff or the prosecuting attorney, have a right to " challenge" or object to a certain number peremptorily, or without giving reasons, and they may ob- ject to others if they can show that these are prejudiced. The judge attends to the pleadings of the lawyers ; takes care that witnesses are properly sworn and examined; and, in his summing up to the jury, points out to them if the counsel on either side have made unsupported assertions, instructs the jury in their duty, and endeavors to clear the case of all extraneous matter ; his charge is of course without bias or favor. Thereupon the jury retire to OF TRIAL BY JURY. 179 deliberate; and if they can unanimously agree, their foreman announces the verdict. The judge then deliv- ers the sentence, as provided by the law. "When an ac- cused person has been regularly acquitted by the verdict of a jury, he can not again be brought to trial for the same offense. 390. Now you can see that it is highly important, for the cause of justice and public order and morality, that both the grand and petit juries shall be composed of in- telligent and upright citizens ; otherwise crime will go unpunished, and society will suffer in a way not easily repairable. Bear in mind, therefore, that to serve on a jury is one of the most important duties of an American citizen a duty which he can not avoid without wrong- ing the community of which he is a part. 180 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. XXXVIII. THE PRIMARY MEETING AND THE CAUCUS. 391. Party management begins in the townships and wards, and with the action of the body of members of the party in these districts. The primary meeting is the place where all the members of the political party may express their will, and where they choose delegates to the larger bodies called nominating conventions. If it were convenient, all the members of the party in a county might meet in one place, to select delegates or to nominate candidates ; and in New Jersey and some other states this was formerly done. But the township or ward primary meeting is now general, because it is the least inconvenient. The primary meetings select delegates for the county, congressional, and state con- ventions; and these delegates, meeting in conventions on an appointed day, nominate the candidates for office. Any person who is a voter in the township or ward, and at the next preceding election is known to have voted with the party holding the primary meeting, may prop- erly take part in it. 392. As party government is inevitable and necessary in a free country, it is the duty of every citizen to attend the primary meetings of the party with which he acts. If honest and intelligent men neglect the primaries, they thereby hand the control of their party over to bad men. It is important to the welfare of the country that both THE PRIMARY MEETING AND THE CA UCUS. 181 the great political parties shall be controlled by wise and honest men ; for a corrupt or debased minority can offer but a feeble opposition to the majority, and in reality helps to strengthen and to debase the majority; whereas a powerful, honest, and intelligent minority compels the majority to govern carefully and honestly. The de- moralization of the party which is in the minority may thus, as you see, bring calamities on a country. 393. " Politics " have always been, in every free state, an enticing profession, followed by many honest and high-minded men out of a desire to see their favorite principles prevail; by other men to advance their private fortunes ; and by yet others from a mixture or combina- tion of both these motives. Our own politics are less corrupt, and our own politicians, taken as a class, are far more scrupulous than those of most free nations have been, either in ancient or modern times. When, there- fore, men talk or write about the peculiar debasement of our politics, you need not entirely believe them. There is a good deal of irritating ignorance and some corruption among our political leaders, but not nearly as much as there is in England or France ; it vexes us more because we meet it face to face. The truth is that our party politics are more intelligently, less dishonestly, and more honorably conducted than those of Great Britain, with which we are oftenest compared, and that the average of political morality is higher in the United States than in any other nation in the world. 394. In an ideal state, the people, gifted with unfailing discernment of merit, would select continually, and with- out prompting of any kind, the wisest and ablest men for their rulers; and these rulers would devise always 182 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. the most beneficent and the noblest of policies for the nation. Practically, however, these matters are managed somewhat differently. The people are guided more or less by newspapers and by political leaders ; men, able or the reverse, are brought into political life by careful management of their friends, or of the higher chiefs of a party, who are always on the lookout for capable men to help them ; platforms are studied over and prepared by small coteries of politicians, to make them attractive to the people and conformable to the principles which the party desires to advance; and to return to our primary meetings the delegates chosen at these are for the most part selected beforehand by the political man- agers of a county or district, to insure the nomination of certain candidates. Thus where several persons desire a nomination for the same place, the primary meetings are the scene of the strife between them and it is there that good citizens may defeat a corrupt or incapable candidate in their own party. 395. The preparatory work which I have described to you above is done in what is called a caucus which is simply a private meeting of influential politicians. Whether the caucus shall be a good or an evil thing de- pends on the character of the men who compose it. It is a method of political action used alike by the best and the vilest politicians ; the wisest and most necessary measures of the last twelve years, for instance, as well as the basest and most injurious, have been discussed and prepared in caucus before they were presented to the public ; and both the ablest and the worst of our polit- ical leaders have been introduced into political life, and advanced in it, in these silent, secret, but not therefore THE PRIMARY MEETING AND THE CAUCUS. 183 necessarily evil councils, by their friends. In a country where intelligence is so widely diffused, and where there is so high an average of ability, it is very seldom that a man, except after long and brilliant service, becomes so conspicuously the one man for the place that his party retains him as a matter of course. 396. A fault in our political arrangements makes the caucus very often, in the hands of bad men, an instru- ment for elevating corrupt men to power. This is the practice, in the states arid cities, of electing a great many of the executive officers. Where this is done, the cau- cus enables corruptionists to prepare a ticket composed of a few good men and a large tail of the lowest class of politicians, and such a "slate" is then forced upon the party as " the best thing that can be got." The viler kind of politicians do not trouble themselves much about a Congressional caucus ; but wherever a dozen or twenty candidates are to be nominated, there is their op- portunity. If the executive head, be he President, Gov- ernor, or Mayor, has the selection, appointment, and re- moval of all his subordinates, a " slate " becomes impos- sible, and the caucus is no longer so powerful a tool in the hands of bad men. In some of our states, at one time, members of Congress were chosen on a general ticket ; that is to say, the whole Congressional delega- tion of the state was voted for by all the people of the state. But experience showed that the caucus put a few good men and a multitude of bad ones on the same ticket ; and as both parties did this, the result was for evil only. It is sometimes urged that if the President, Governor, or Mayor has unrestrained power to appoint or remove his subordinates, he will appoint bad men. 184: POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. But even the decisive check of the Senate does not al- ways suffice to prevent the appointment of conspicuously bad or incompetent men ; and it does serve to conceal the faults of a ruler, and lessen his responsibility to the people, in a mischievous manner. It is better that a President or Governor or Mayor shall show his charac- ter plainly by bad appointments; for then he will be- come hateful to the people, and lose his chance of re- election, while the caucus will be shorn of its power for evil. 397. Do not be ashamed or afraid to meet in caucus, if you should by and by take part in politics; but re- member that bad men and measures may be defeated there as well as at the primary meetings. And as a sound rule for party action, remember that if, in spite of your efforts, your party nominates a bad man for office, you should openly vote against him. For it is better, for your party's interest, that it should be defeated if it nom- inates bad men than that it should succeed. When a political party becomes the tool of corrupt or ignorant men, it is in danger, not of a temporary, but of a lasting defeat. If both parties nominate bad men for an office, it is better that your own party should be defeated ; for it is not in that case responsible for the misgovernment, and your party leaders may learn wisdom from defeat. Hence, the more ardently you desire the success of your political party, the more vigorously you may scratch the bad names off your ticket when you go to the polls. OF THE DUTY OF THE MINORITY. 185 XXXIX. OF THE IMPORTANCE AND DUTY OF THE MINORITY. 398. The first duty of a minority is to become a ma- jority. 399. A minority is just as likely to be right as a ma- jority; and if it is, and if it persists in asserting its principles, and if its leaders are able enough to frame a practical and constitutional policy, and to meet their opponents in argument before the people, it will by and by find itself in the majority. For " the people, right- ly instructed, always favor the right." The long course of the anti-slavery discussion showed this. The first anti-slavery men were not practical politicians, but mor- alists; they demanded immediate and unconditional emancipation, because slavery was unjust, and injustice ought at any price to be removed. These excellent men had but little direct influence on practical politics for the answer to their appeal was that the Constitu- tion forbade interference with slavery where it existed. What they did was to advertise to the people, with won- derful courage and pertinacity, the monstrous wickedness of slavery. The political leaders of the minority, how- ever, seized their opportunity, and at the auspicious time framed a policy upon the slavery question which was both practical and constitutional. They said, " We will not touch slavery in the states where it exists 186 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. that would be unconstitutional ; but we demand that it shall not be extended to the territories, which are con- trolled by the Federal Government." With that policy they appealed to the people ; and as it was both right and practical, and constitutional, and as the minority possessed very able leaders, who freely met their oppo- nents in public debate, in time they achieved a perfectly legitimate political victory. 400. A minority is contemptible, and must fail, when it has neither principles nor policy to oppose to the ma- jority, but relies upon abuse of its opponents, or mere criticism of the majority's blunders. For in such a case, unless the majority is extraordinarily corrupt or inefficient, the people, seeing no principles at issue, will condone its offenses, and maintain it in power, out of a conservative spirit which is one of the most valuable qualities in a free people. Nor are they wrong in this ; for if the minority have no satisfactory policy or princi- ples to offer, their struggle is merely one for place or office, with which the people have but little sympathy. 401. In general, inefficiency is more quickly resented by the people in their rulers than corruption, unless that assumes the dimensions of mere vulgar robbery, like Tweed's in New York ; but the strongest appeal of a minority to the American people is against injustice; and a party in power may lose an election, and find it- self suddenly deserted by its strongest friends among the people, on such an issue as that called the Poland Gag Law", which was bettered to attack the liberty of the press. 402. A strong and able minority is a very important part of a legislative body. Its office there is to exam- OF THE DUTY OF THE MINORITY. 187 ine and criticise the propositions and acts of the party in power; to scrutinize its expenditures; to expose its inefficiency, its usurpations of power; to ridicule its blunders ; and to oppose all attempts at bad legislation. Where a minority is strong in votes, and has able lead- ers, the first effect of its vigilance is to make the party in power more careful in administration and legislation, and thus to benefit the country ; and its second effect is to rally to its side the most independent and ablest members of the majority, and thus if the majority is inefficient or corrupt to prepare the people's minds for a change at the elections. 403. But, on the other hand, where a legislative mi- nority lacks ability and statesmanship, and offers a merely factious or trivial opposition, it is very apt to fall into contempt with the people, and to injure its own prospects of political success. 188 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. XL. OF CITY GOVERNMENTS. 404. A city is a political corporation, created by the state, and governed according to a charter framed by the state Legislature, and which may be altered or repealed by that body at will. This charter prescribes the duties and defines the powers of the rulers, just as any other political constitution does. 405. In our political system cities have become the strongholds of misrule. This arises from two causes: first, the city government concerns itself more intimate- ly with the lives of the inhabitants than any other, wherefore there is a proportionately greater possibility of corruption and maladministration ; second, city charters, almost without exception, subdivide power and respon- sibility among boards or commissions, and thus disable the people from discovering the authors of corruption and misrule, and from punishing them even if they are known. 406. The inhabitants of a city depend upon their cen- tral political authorities to make, repair, and clean the streets, to regulate the police, to abate nuisances, to pro- tect them against fires, to adopt and enforce health regu- lations, to grant licenses to sell liquor, to provide public markets, to regulate street cars and gas-pipes, to care for the water supply, to manage the parks and other public places, to take charge of paupers, to control hospitals, to OF CITY GOVERNMENTS. 189 manage the free schools, to control wharves and piers if it is a sea-port, and to do a number of other things, of which some, outside of cities, are done by each citi- zen for himself, or by the private enterprise of citizens united for the purpose, and others are divided among county, township, and school-district authorities, each independently and directly responsible to the people. Moreover, all public work in a city is on a large scale, and involves very great expenditures, compared with those of a rural county. Finally, the population of a city is less homogeneous in character than that of a rural county ; the proportion of poverty is much great- er ; the number of people who live from hand to mouth is larger ; the average of comfort is lower ; the depend- ent part of the population is more numerous. At the same time, little or nothing is left for the people to de- termine in the smaller divisions the wards and school- districts ; and they are thus made politically ignorant. 407. Under such circumstances, it is of great impor- tance that the central power, to which so much is as- signed, shall be clearly visible to the people, in order that they may always and easily hold it responsible. The entire executive power and responsibility ought to be given to a single man the Mayor because then every citizen who had cause of complaint would know whom to blame. The Mayor ought to have the appointment of all his subordinates, because thus only can he hold them to their duty. The executive powers that is to say, the enforcement of the laws ought not in any de- tail to be assumed by the Council ; for this is a most fertile source of corruption. The Council, which is the city's legislature, ought to be a numerous body, so that 190 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. each councilman or alderman should be personally known to his small constituency, who could then oblige him to care for their interests, and punish him for neg- lect or corruption. Finally, the courts in a city ought to possess a very high character, and neither judges nor justices of the peace ought to be elected, but should be appointed probably by the Governor of the state and for life or good behavior, and they should have large sal- aries. With such a system, the city government would be amenable at all times to the will of the inhabitants, who could punish extravagance, inefficiency, or any kind of maladministration, at the elections, if they chose ; and could at any rate make as good a government as they wished. Moreover, I want you to remember that where great power is given to an executive, able men like the place, and will seek it ; for able men like to exercise power. But if you make of a governor or mayor only a figure-head, and give the real power to others, the of- fice falls into contempt. 408. Now almost all our city governments in this coun- try are framed on principles directly contrary to those I have stated above. The executive powers, which ought to be concentrated in a Mayor, are divided among dif- ferent boards and commissions, and are thus frittered away. The Council is usually a small body ; the judges and justices of peace are elected, together with a large number of executive officers ; the different parts of the executive hold office for different periods, and the peo- ple can never, at a single election, remove all the officers who have been concerned in maladministration ; and finding themselves thus disabled, and compelled, more- over, to vote for a great number of officers of whose OF CITY GOVERNMENTS. character and fitness they can not inform themselves, they presently lose all interest in public affairs, and re- sign the political power to knaves and their tools. The Mayor of a city like New York, did he have the powers which belong to the office, would have authority and patronage almost equal to that of the President of the United States ; and the office would be one for which the ablest citizens would strive. But if he has no power, or but little, really able men will refuse the place. 409. City governments are made needlessly cumbrous and corrupt, also, by performing some duties which might well be left to private effort. For instance, the fire-insurance companies could manage a fire depart- ment much more cheaply and effectively than a political government. Again, the question of licensing drinking- shops might well be left to the people in the wards. Street-cleaning could, perhaps, be left to the wards also, though, as it has to do with the general health, this might not be possible unless the city government as- sumed not only the inspection of streets, but the punish- ment by fine of those ward authorities who neglected this duty. Finally, the city ought not to own market spaces, docks, piers, or other property used by private individuals. The city government should exercise, of course, the right of police and inspection, but it can not own and manage such property either profitably or efficiently. 410. If you remember what you read about Decen- tralization and about the Responsibility of the Execu- tive, you will see the way in which city governments may be reformed : first by relieving them of work which they can not do well ; and next by fixing power and re- 192 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. sponsibility upon the Mayor. What is wanted is to en- able the people readily, and at a single effort, to change the whole administration ; then they can really punish maladministration and they undoubtedly will, when- ever it begins to oppress or offend them. For the mass of the people are vitally interested in moderately good government, and will inevitably get it, if the machinery of government is so arranged that they can, by willing it at the polls, punish the inefficient or corrupt rulers. SOME FAULTS IN OUR STATE CONSTITUTIONS. 193 XLI. OF SOME FAULTS IN OUR STATE CONSTITUTIONS. 411. It is a grave fault of most of our state constitu- tions that they allow, and in some cases make necessary, special legislation. By this is meant acts specially grant- ing privileges to particular persons. You will see, if you consider for a moment, that where such grants are made, the Legislature becomes subject to the attack of cunning and unscrupulous men, who will seek privileges injurious to the people ; that rival corporations will oppose each other before the Legislature, and resort to bribery to gain their ends or defeat their opponents ; and that for perfectly proper objects men will be put to a needless expense and trouble to obtain a special charter. 412. Whatever any citizens or association can right- fully do, they may do under general laws, equally ap- plicable to all other citizens. Thus every state should have a clearly drawn general railroad law, and other general laws under which all kinds of corporate enter- prises could be prosecuted without the necessity for special charters ; and the Legislature should be forbid- den in the Constitution to grant or to entertain any ap- plication for a special charter of any kind whatever. 413. It is another grave fault of most of our state constitutions that they interfere with the power of the Governor to appoint his subordinates in the executive department, and thus weaken responsibility, and cause I 194 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. confusion in the government. Every where, also, the sheriff is elected in the counties ; whereas he ought to be appointed by the Governor. He is the Governor's lieu- tenant in the county ; the peace officer, who in case of riot or public disturbance has a right to call out the body of citizens, and with whom in all such emergen- cies the Governor communicates. His office, which is of right a very high and responsible one, is now de- graded, and, having large fees annexed to it, it has long been one of the important political " spoils." 414. It is another grave fault in almost all our state constitutions that they oblige the people to elect the judges, and thus debauch the courts, and lower their tone and authority. 415. It is another grave fault of the state Constitutions that they restrict the power of the people, in the coun- ties and townships, to refuse to license drinking-shops, to adopt compulsory education regulations, and to do other things for which they ought to be competent. Thus the Constitution errs in making too rigid the gen- eral rules under which the people are to live. OF TERRITORIES, MANIFEST DESTINY, ETC. 195 XLII. OF TERBITORIES, PUBLIC LANDS, COLONIES, AND MANIFEST DESTINY. 416. One of our greatest and most important political safeguards lies undoubtedly in the possession of vast quantities of public lands, and in the wise and liberal policy under which these lands have been thrown open to settlement. 417. The Federal Government is the original owner of waste or unsettled lands both those in the terri- tories and those which lie within constituted states. It has made a free gift to every state of a large quantity of these public lands, to be used for the support of pub- lic schools and of agricultural colleges ; it usually gives to a state all the swamp and overflowed lands within its bounds which were public or Congress lands ; and it gives to every actual settler one hundred and sixty acres from the surveyed lands, free of cost, except the trifling charges for proofs of actual settlement and continued cultivation. It has also, within a few years, given a great quantity of land to railroad companies, on condi- tion that these should construct and work railroads through these lands, and thus open them to settlement. 418. The political advantage of our possession of so vast a quantity of wild lands lies in this, that it leaves open for many years a broad field for the exertions of the more adventurous, enterprising, and restless part of 196 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. our community. A hired laborer to whom the condi- tion of dependence has become hateful has no refuge in a thickly settled European state except emigration to a distant country, and abandonment of his own nationality. This ought not to deter an European from emigrating ; but the American workman is happy that he need not leave his country, but may, under the protection of its flag and laws, settle himself on the public lands, and there, with very little capital, achieve independence at least, and perhaps more. He has not to fear unequal or strange laws; for the farthest Western territory is ruled by Congress upon well-defined principles, and be- comes a state as soon as it has acquired a sufficient population. The flag which floats over him commands peace and order, and the whole power of the Federal Government is ready to make his life and property se- cure. 419. A territory is organized politically by permission of Congress ; its Governor and other executive officers and judges are appointed by the President ; it has a Legislature which enacts laws of local application, but Congress has the right to reject any of these acts. The inhabitants elect a delegate who represents them in Con- gress, but who has no vote. His duty is to tell the House in which he sits the wants of his constituents. When the people of a territory desire to form themselves into a state, they are allowed by Congress to frame and adopt a Constitution. This they present to Congress, for its scrutiny and approval ; and Congress may in its discretion reject the instrument, and thus refuse to cre- ate the state ; and from this decision there is no ap- peal, except to another Congress. Some territories, as OF TERRITORIES, MANIFEST DESTINY, ETC. 197 Colorado, have applied several times for admission as states. The people of a territory do not vote for Pres- ident. 420. Hitherto we have been fortunate in our territo- rial acquisitions, for we have gained land encumbered with but few inhabitants, and well fitted by climate, soil, and other natural properties, for the prosperous set- tlement of our own farmers and mechanics. Thus not only our laws, but, what is of infinitely greater impor- tance, our manners and customs, have been easily trans- ferred to and made dominant in these new lands ; and it is one of our greatest pieces of national good-fortune that, with unimportant local differences, we are still, in spite of the vast extension of our boundaries, a homo- geneous people that is to say, a nation whose parts or elements are similar, not only in language, but in hab- its, customs, manners, methods of thought, and modes of action. 421. If you will think clearly, you will see that what we want, for the future, is not more people, but more land. If we should receive no further additions of pop- ulation from Europe, we are now so numerous and so prosperous that our numerical increase will be very rap- id. But we shall constantly receive great numbers of European immigrants, and these, who readily adapt themselves to our customs, are a welcome addition, and quickly become a part of us. For their descendants and ours, it would be a great advantage if we could se- cure still more vacant or sparsely settled territory, pro- vided that these new lands were, by their climate and productions, fitted for settlement by our own people. When, therefore, people use the phrase "Manifest Desti- 198 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. ny," they mean if they reflect at all not that we ought to or could without hurt to ourselves annex indiscrimi- nately all the states adjoining us, but that it is a part of our natural and sound policy to possess ourselves, for the use of our own people, of all the waste and desert lands lying near our boundaries. 422. Plainly, the annexation of tropical islands like Cuba, San Domingo, or the Hawaiian group, does not fall within this policy ; for, 1st, these countries have al- ready a tolerably dense population. 2d. This population is alien to ours in race, and in all its habits and customs, as well as in language. 3d. These islands are not suit- able to make homes for our farmers and mechanics ; on the contrary, their products are grown on estates where a few planters employ, at very low wages, great num- bers of rude laborers, and need but a very few intel- ligent mechanics nor could their industries be profit- ably pursued in a different way. Finally, the people whom we should have to accept with the land, in annex- ing these islands or the thickly settled parts of Mexico, are not fitted by character or training for the duties of American citizenship ; and, as they occupy the land, there would be but a slender possibility of assimilating them to ourselves. But, on the other hand, we could not with security to ourselves refuse them political rights, if we made them a part of our body politic. It is repug- nant to our political theory to hold territories except with the expectation of their speedily becoming states ; because otherwise local self-government would be im- paired, and the Federal administration would unduly in- crease its patronage and means of corruption. 423. Thus, as we want land and not people, sound OF TERRITORIES, MANIFEST DESTINY, ETC. 199 policy tells us not to annex territory which has already an independent and tolerably dense population. But sound policy also urges us to cultivate intimate and friendly relations with our neighbors ; and this we can do with advantage to ourselves as well as to them by establish- ing with them the utmost freedom of commercial ex- change. Commerce makes sure and faithful allies ; and if we were wise enough to establish and maintain ab- solute free trade with Canada and Mexico, with the Sandwich Islands, with San Domingo and Hayti, and with Cuba if, as is probable, that island becomes inde- pendent of Spain we should greatly extend our own commerce, and should have the use of all these countries without the responsibility of ruling them. We should find them willing and faithful allies in case of war; and our own course toward them would preserve them from the aggressions of European powers. In this way, I would like you to believe, we should best fulfill, if not our Manifest Destiny, what is of greater importance, our . Manifest Duty, toward these weaker neighbors of ours. 200 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. XLIH. WHEN WE NUMBER ONE HUNDRED MILLIONS. 424. The larger the machine, the more important is it that it shall be built upon sound principles of mechan- ics, and that it shall be carefully managed in accordance with the laws of its construction ; for a break in a ma- chine which weighs a hundred tons and moves at a great speed in all its parts is more disastrous than one in a hand-machine whose momentum is insignificant, even if its speed of revolution should be great. 425. What is true of a piece of machinery is equally true of a state or nation. The more populous it is, and the more extended its area, the more un wieldly it be- comes, the more disturbing is every friction of the parts, and the more vital it is that its managers or rulers shall J, be made to adhere closely to the principles on which its* government is constructed. 426. The fundamental and most vital principle under- lying our political system is that called DECENTRALIZA- TION, by which the duties imposed by the people upon their rulers are divided among several distinct govern- ments, each acting independently in its sphere, but all subordinate to one general or organic law, called with us the Federal Constitution, and so arranged as to work harmoniously to a common purpose. 427. You have seen, in other sections, how this divi- sion of powers is regulated in our political system ; and WHEN WE NUMBER ONE HUNDRED MILLIONS. 201 I have explained to you that it has clearly defined ob- jects : namely, to leave as much as possible to the pri- vate enterprise and ingenuity of the people ; to leave to them also, in the smaller political subdivisions, the direct management of their minor or local affairs, and thus to train them in independence, self-government, and public spirit; secondly, to enable the people easily to control and change their rulers at regular elections, and to do this in one locality without necessarily disturbing the whole country ; thirdly, to give the people, in their different subordinate governments, strongholds against possible usurpation of power by the Federal rulers, and in the Federal government security for peace, order, and free exchange and intercommunication in all the parts ; fourthly, to relieve the Central or Federal government of a multitude of details, the control of which would make it cumbrous, inefficient, and tyrannical, and would dangerously increase the patronage of the Federal rulers and their power to corrupt the people ; and, finally, to enable the people of different states, counties, and even townships to determine, each locality for itself, upon local regulations and laws suited to their habits and cus- toms all of which laws, however, are to be in conform- ity with the Federal Constitution and the laws of Con- gress. 428. Thus we secure uniformity in the general sys- tem, with independence, variety, and elasticity in details ; the least interference with personal liberty, combined witli security to person and property. 429. We Americans enjoy the most perfect govern- ment in the world ; and we owe to it almost all the bless- ings which make our lives exceptionally happy. Peace, I 2 202 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. liberty to a degree unknown to the subjects of European powers, free opportunity for the exercise of all our fac- ulties, knowledge and intelligence within the reach of the humblest citizen, security against injustice, stability of order these and other blessings we owe, not to the rulers we choose, but to the form, of government under which we live, which is as beneficent in what it leaves undone as in what it does. 430. But in all earthly contrivances there is a tend- ency to change; and it has been noticed that as we increase in population there is an increasing propensity to impose more upon the Federal government, and to take from the powers of the local governments. This all wise citizens ought to resist, for as we increase in population it is necessary that we shall even add to the number of objects over which the people shall determine and rule in their local governments ; for thus only can their political training be continued. If the Federal army should always be held ready to put down local dis- orders ; if the state Legislatures should continue to un- dertake the government of cities ; if the Legislatures or Congress should undertake the adoption of prohibitory laws ; if Congress should assume the charge of public education and the control of corporations : by the time we number a hundred millions the American people will have far less public spirit and far less capacity for self-government than now. 431. It is in this direction that wise citizens will strive to guard against future dangers. The inconveniences, the temporary maladministration, and above all the ap- parent carelessness with which the people condone blun- ders in their public servants, need not give you occasion WHEN WE NUMBER ONE HUNDRED MILLIONS. 203 for gloomy forebodings. Our people are naturally in- attentive to minor details in their governments. They forgive much to their rulers, if only they are convinced that these have an honest desire to serve the public. They are slow to lose their faith in old public servants, and especially in a political party which has once se- cured their confidence by conspicuous good service. Thus, for the good work it had done, the Democratic party was maintained in power long after it had become corrupt and inefficient; and no doubt the Republican party, its successor, will in like manner retain the public confidence after it has lost all proper claim to it. 432. This quality, wnich is often vexatious, and some- times causes thoughtful men to despair, is in fact a most valuable trait in any people; for it secures what is of the very greatest importance in public affairs STABILITY. 433. Change is so great a curse that we could not even abolish so great a wrong as slavery without great tempo- rary suffering; and that people is happiest and most likely to maintain its liberties, and to be prosperous, which, by natural temperament, dislikes change, and can be moved to it only upon important occasions and for clearly and even pressingly necessary objects. Stability of laws, stability in industry and business, stability of character and of purpose in the individual, are all of far greater importance than the most brilliant experiments in government, or the most seductive and adventurous enterprises. 434. But finally bear in mind that NOTHING is STA- BLE EXCEPT JUSTICE. Unjust and unequal laws are liable to perpetual change. APPENDIX. I. ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION. H. THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. IH. THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. IV. WASHINGTON'S FAREWELL ADDRESS. ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION. Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union between the States of New Hampshire, Massachusetts Say, Rhode Island, and Providence Plantations, Connecti- cut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. ARTICLE I. The style of this confederacy shall be " The United States of America." ART. II. Each State retains its sovereignty, freedom, and in- dependence, and every power, jurisdiction, and right -which is not by this confederation expressly delegated to the United States in Congress assembled. ART. III. The said States hereby severally enter into a firm league of friendship with each other, for their common defense, the security of their liberties, and their mutual and general wel- fare, binding themselves to assist each other against all force of- fered to or attacks made upon them, or any of them, on account of religion, sovereignty, trade, or any other pretense whatever. ART. IV. The better to secure and perpetuate mutual friend- ship and intercourse among the people of the different States in this Union, the free inhabitants of each of these States paupers, vagabonds, and fugitives from justice excepted shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities of free citizens in the several States; and the people of each State shall have free ingress and regress to and from any other State, and shall enjoy therein all the privileges of trade and commerce, subject to the same duties, impositions, and restrictions as the inhabitants thereof respective- ly ; provided that such restrictions shall not extend so far as to 208 APPENDIX. prevent the removal of property imported into any State, to any other State, of which the owner is an inhabitant ; provided also, that no imposition, duties, or restriction shall be laid by any State on the property of the United States, or either of them. If any person guilty of, or charged with treason, felony, or other high misdemeanor in any State, shall flee from justice, and be found in any of the United States, he shall, upon demand of the governor or executive power of the State from which he fled, be delivered up, and removed to the State having jurisdiction of his offense. Full faith and credit shall be given, in each of these States, to the records, acts, and judicial proceedings of the courts and mag- istrates of every other State. ART. V. For the more convenient management of the general interests of the United States, delegates shall be annually ap- pointed in such manner as the Legislature of each State shall direct, to meet in Congress on the first Monday in November in every year, with a power reserved to each State to recall its delegates, or any of them, at any time within the year, and to send others in their stead for the remainder of the year. No State shall be represented in Congress by less than two, nor by more than seven members ; and no person shall be capable of being a delegate for more than three years, in any term of six years ; nor shall any person, being a delegate, be capable of hold- ing any office under the United States for which he, or another for his benefit, receives any salary, fees, or emolument of any kind. Each State shall maintain its own delegates in any meeting of the States, and while they act as members of the committee of the States. In determining questions in the United States, in Congress as- sembled, each State shall have one vote. Freedom, of speech and debate in Congress shall not be impeach- ed or questioned in any court or place out of Congress ; and the members of Congress shall be protected in their persons from arrests and imprisonments during the time of their going to and from, and attendance on Congress, except for treason, felony, or breach of the peace. ART. VI. No State, without the consent of the United States, ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION. 209 in Congress assembled, shall send any embassy to, or receive any embassy from, or enter into any conference, agreement, alliance, or treaty, with any king, prince, or state ; nor shall any person hold- ing any office of profit or trust under the United States, or any of them, accept of any present, emolument, office, or title of any kind whatever, from any king, prince, or foreign state ; nor shall the United States, in Congress assembled, or any of them, grant any title of nobility. No two or more States shall enter into any treaty, confederation, or alliance whatever, between them, without the consent of the United States, in Congress assembled, specifying accurately the purposes for which the same is to be entered into, and how long it shall continue. No State shall lay any imposts or duties which may interfere with any stipulations in treaties, entered into by the United States, in Congress assembled, with any king, prince, or state, in pursuance of any treaties already proposed by Congress to the courts of France and Spain. No vessels of war shall be kept up in time of peace by any State, except such number only as shall be deemed necessary, by the United States, in Congress assembled, for the defense of such State or its trade ; nor shall any body of forces be kept up, by any State, in time of peace, except such, number only as, in the judg- ment of the United States, in Congress assembled, shall be deemed requisite to garrison the forts necessary for the defense of sucli State ; but every State shall always keep up a well-regulated and disciplined militia, sufficiently armed and accoutred, and shall provide and constantly have ready for use, in public stores, a due number of field-pieces and tents, and a proper quantity of arms, ammunition, and camp equipage. No State shall engage in any war without the consent of the United States, in Congress assembled, unless -such State be actually invaded by enemies, or shall have received certain advice of a resolution being formed by some nation of Indians to invade such State, and the danger is so imminent as not to admit of a de-lay till the United States, in Congress assembled, can be consulted ; nor shall any State grant commissions to any ships or vessels of war, nor letters of marque or reprisal, except it be after a dcclara- 210 A PPENDIX. tion of war by the United States, in Congress assembled, and then only against the kingdom or state, and the subjects thereof, against which war has been so declared, and under such regulations as shall be established by the United States, in Congress assembled, unless such State be infested by pirates, in which case vessels of war may be fitted out for that occasion, and kept so long as the danger shall continue, or until the United States, in Congress as- sembled, shall determine otherwise. ART. VII. When land forces are raised by any State for the common defense, all officers of or under the rank of colonel shall be appointed by the Legislature of each State respectively by whom such forces shall be raised, or in such manner as such State shall direct, and all vacancies shall be filled up by the State which first made the appointment. ART. VIII. All charges of war, and all other expenses that shall be incurred for the common defense or general welfare, and allowed by the United States, in Congress assembled, shall be de- frayed out of a common treasury, which shall be supplied by the several States, in proportion to the value of all land within each State, granted to, or surveyed for, any person, as such land and the buildings and improvements thereon shall be estimated, ac- cording to such mode as the United States, in Congress assembled, shall, from time to time, direct and appoint. The taxes for pay- ing that proportion shall be laid and levied by the authority and direction of the Legislatures of the several States, within the time agreed upon by the United States, in Congress assembled. ART. IX. The United States, in Congress assembled, shall have the sole and exclusive right and power of determining on peace and war, except in the cases mentioned in the sixth Article ; of sending and receiving embassadors; entering into treaties and alliances, provided that no treaty of commerce shall be made whereby the legislative power of the respective States shall be re- strained from imposing such imposts and duties on foreigners as their own people are subjected to, or from prohibiting the exporta- tion or importation of any species of goods or commodities what- soever ; of establishing rules for deciding, in all cases, what capt- ures on land or water shall be legal, and in what manner prizes taken by land or naval forces in the service of the United States ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION. shall be divided or appropriated ; of granting letters of marque and reprisal in times of peace ; appointing courts for the trial of piracies and felonies committed on the high seas ; and establish- ing courts for receiving and determining finally appeals in all cases of captures ; provided that no member of Congress shall be appointed a judge of any of the said courts. The United States, in Congress assembled, shall also be the last resort on appeal, in all disputes and differences now subsisting or that hereafter may arise between two or more States concerning boundary, jurisdiction, or any other cause whatever ; which author- ity shall always be exercised in the manner following : Whenever the legislative or executive authority, or lawful agent of any State in controversy with another, shall present a petition to Congress, stating the matter in question, and praying for a hearing, notice thereof shall be given by order of Congress to the legislative or executive authority of the other State in controversy, and a day assigned for the appearance of the parties by their lawful agents, who shall then be directed to appoint, by joint consent, commis- sioners or judges to constitute a court for hearing and determin- ing the matter in question ; but if they can not agree, Congress shall name three persons out of each of the United States, and from the list of such persons each party shall alternately strike out one, the petitioners beginning, until the number shall be re- duced to thirteen ; and from that number not less than seven nor more than nine names, as Congress shall direct, shall, in the pres- ence of Congress, be drawn out by lot ; and the persons whose names shall be so drawn, or any five of them, shall be commission- ers or judges, to hear and finally determine the controversy, so always as a major part of the judges, who shall hear the cause, shall agree in the determination ; and if either party shall neglect to attend nt the day appointed, without showing reasons which Congress shall judge sufficient, or, being present, shall refuse to strike, the Congress shall proceed to nominate three persons out of each State, and the secretary of Congress shall strike in behalf of such party absent or refusing; and the judgment and sentence of the court, to be appointed in the manner before presented, shall be final and conclusive ; and if any of the parties ahull refuse to submit to the authority of such court, or to appear or defend their 212 APPENDIX. claim or cause, the court shall nevertheless proceed to pronounce sentence or judgment, which shall in like manner be final and de- cisive ; the judgment or sentence and other proceedings being in either case transmitted to Congress, and lodged among the acts of Congress for the security of the parties concerned ; provided that every commissioner, before he sits in judgment, shall take an oath, to be administered by one of the judges of the supreme or superior court of the State where the cause shall be tried, " well and truly to hear and determine the matter in question, according to the best of his judgment, without favor, affection, or hope of reward." Provided, also, that no State shall be deprived of ter- ritory for the benefit of the United States. All controversies concerning the private right of soil claimed under different grants of two or more States, whose jurisdictions, as they may respect such lands, and the States which passed such grants are adjusted, the said grants or either of them being at the same time claimed to have originated antecedent to such settle- ment of jurisdiction, shall, on the petition of either party to the Congress of the United States, be finally determined, as near as may be, in the same manner as is before prescribed for deciding disputes respecting territorial jurisdiction between different States. The United States, in Congress assembled, shall also have the sole and exclusive right and power of regulating the alloy and value of coin struck by their own authority, or by that of the respective States ; fixing the standard of weights and measures throughout the United States ; regulating the trade and managing all affairs with the Indians, not members of any of the States ; provided that the legislative right of any State, within its own limits, be not infringed or violated ; establishing and regulating post-offices from one State to another, throughout all the United States, and exacting such postage on the papers passing through the same as may be requisite to defray the expenses of the said office ; appointing all officers of the land forces in the service of the United States, excepting regimental officers; appointing all the officers of the naval forces, and commissioning all officers what- ever in the service of the United States ; making rules for the government and regulation of the said land and naval forces, and directing their operations. ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION. 213 The United States, in Congress assembled, shall have authority to appoint a committee, to sit in the recess of Congress, to be de- nominated " A Committee of the States," and to consist of one delegate from each State ; and to appoint such other committees and civil officers as may be necessary for managing the general affairs of the United States under their direction ; to appoint one of their number to preside ; provided that no person be allowed to serve in the office of president more than one year in any term of three years ; to ascertain the necessary sums of money to be raised for the service of the United States, and to appropriate and apply the same for defraying the public expenses; to borrow money or emit bills on the credit of the United States, transmit- ting every half-year to the respective States an account of the sums of money so borrowed or emitted ; to build and equip a navy ; to agree upon the number of land forces, and to make requisitions from each State for its quota, in proportion to the number of white inhabitants in such State, which requisition shall be bind- ing ; and thereupon the Legislature of each State shall appoint the regimental officers, raise the men, and clothe, arm, and equip them, in a soldier-like manner, at the expense of the United States; and the officers and men so clothed, armed, and equipped shall march to the place appointed, and within the time agreed on by the United States, in Congress assembled ; but if the United States, in Congress assembled, shall, on consideration of circum- stances, judge proper that any State should not raise men, or should raise a smaller number than its quota, and that any other State should raise a greater number of men than the quota there- of, such extra number shall be raised, officered, clothed, armed, and equipped in the same manner as the quota of such State, un- less the Legislature of such State shall judge that such extra num- ber can not be safely spared out of the same, in which case they shall raise, officer, clothe, arm, and equip as many of such extra number as they judge can l>e safely spared, and the officers and men so clothed, armed, and equipped shall march to the place appointed, and within the time agreed on by the United States, in Congress assembled. The United States, in Congress assembled, shall never engage in a war, nor grant letters of marque and reprisal in time of peace, 214 APPENDIX. nor enter into any treaties or alliances, nor coin money, nor regu- late the value thereof, nor ascertain the sums and expenses neces- sary for the defense and welfare of the United States, or any of them, nor emit bills, nor borrow money on the credit of the United States, nor appropriate money, nor agree upon the number of ves- sels of war to be built or purchased, or the number of land or sea forces to be raised, nor appoint a commander-in-chief of the army or navy, unless nine States assent to the same ; nor shall a question on any other point, except for adjourning from day to day, be de- termined, unless by a vote of the majority of the United States, in Congress assembled. The Congress of the United States shall have power to adjourn to any time within the year, and to any place within the United States, so that no period of adjournment be for a longer duration than the space of six months, and shall publish the journal of their proceedings monthly, except such parts thereof relating to treaties, alliances, or military operations as in their judgment require se- crecy ; and the yeas and nays of the delegates of each State, on any question, shall be entered on the journal, when it is desired by any delegate ; and the delegates of a State, or any of them, at his or their request, shall be furnished with a transcript of the said journal, except such parts as are above excepted, to lay before the Legislatures of the several States. ART. X. The committee of the States, or any nine of them, shall be authorized to execute, in the recess of Congress, such of the powers of Congress as the United States, in Congress as- sembled, by the consent of nine States, shall, from time to time, think expedient to vest them with ; provided that no power be delegated to the said committee, for the exercise of which, by the Articles of Confederation, the voice of nine States, in the Congress of the United States assembled, is requisite. ART. XI. Canada, acceding to this Confederation, and joining in the measures of the United States, shall be admitted into, and entitled to all the advantages of this Union ; but no other colony shall be admitted into the same unless such admission be agreed to by nine States. ART. XII. All bills of credit emitted, moneys borrowed, and debts contracted by or under the authority of Congress, before the ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION. 215 assembling of the United States, in pursuance of the present Con- federation, shall be deemed and considered as a charge against the United States, for payment and satisfaction whereof the said United States and the public faith are hereby solemnly pledged. ART. XTTT. Every State shall abide by the determinations of the United States, in Congress assembled, on all questions which by this Confederation are submitted to them. And the Articles of this Confederation shall be inviolably observed by every State, and the Union shall be perpetual ; nor shall any alteration at any time hereafter be made in any of them, unless such alteration be agreed to in a Congress of the United States, and be afterward confirmed by the Legislatures of every State. And whereas it hath pleased the great Governor of the world to incline the hearts of the Legislatures we respectively represent in Congress, to approve of, and to authorize us to ratify the said Ar- ticles of Confederation and perpetual Union, Know ye, that we, the undersigned delegates, by virtue of the power and authority to us given for that purpose, do, by these presents, in the name and in behalf of our respective constituents, fully and entirely ratify and confirm each and every of the said Articles of Confederation and perpetual Union, and all and singular the matters and things therein contained. And we do further solemnly plight and en- gage the faith of our respective constituents, that they shall abide by the determinations of the United States, in Congress assembled, on all questions which by the said Confederation are submitted to them; and that the Articles thereof shall be inviolably observed by the States we respectively represent, and that the Union shall be perpetual. In witness whereof, we have hereunto set our hands in Congress. Done at Philadelphia, in the State of Pennsylvania, the ninth day of July, in the year of our Lord 1778, and in the third year of the Independence of America. CONSTITUTION OP THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. WE, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America. ARTICLE I. SECTION 1. 1. All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives. SECTION 2. 1. The House of Representatives shall be composed of members chosen every second year by the people of the several States ; and the electors in each State shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the State Legislature. 2. No person shall be a Representative who shall not have at- tained to the age of twenty-five years, and been seven years a citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that State in which he shall be chosen. 3. Representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, ac- cording to their respective numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole number of free persons, including those bound CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. 217 to service for a term of years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other persons. The actual enumeration shall be made within three years after the first meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent term of ten years, in such manner as they shall by law direct. The number of Rep- resentatives shall not exceed one for every thirty thousand, but each State shall have at least one Representative ; and until such enumeration shall be made, the State of New Hampshire shall be entitled to choose three ; Massachusetts, eight ; Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, one; Connecticut, five; New York, six; New Jersey, four ; Pennsylvania, eight ; Delaware, one ; Maryland, six ; Virginia, ten ; North Carolina, five ; South Carolina, five ; and Georgia, three. 4. When vacancies happen in the representation from any State, the executive authority thereof shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies. 5. The House of Representatives shall choose their Speaker and other officers, and shall have the sole power of impeachment. SECTION 3. 1. The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, chosen by the Legislature thereof, for six years ; and each Senator shall have one vote. 2. Immediately after they shall be assembled in consequence of the first election, they shall be divided, as equally as may be, into three classes. The seats of the Senators of the first class shall be vacated at the expiration of the second year, of the second class at the expiration of the fourth year, and of the third class at the ex- piration of the sixth year, so that one third may be chosen every second year ; and if vacancies happen, by resignation, or otherwise, during the recess of the Legislature of any State, the executive thereof may make temporary appointments until the next meeting of the Legislature, which shall then fill such vacancies. 8. No person shall be a Senator who shall not have attained to the age of thirty years, and been nine years a citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that State for which he shall be chosen. 4. The Vice-President of the United States shall be President K 218 APPENDIX. of the Senate, but shall have no vote, unless they be equally di- vided. 5. The Senate shall choose their other officers, and also a Presi- dent pro tempore, in the absence of the Vice-President, or when he shall exercise the office of President of the United States. 6. The Senate shall have the sole power to try all impeachments. When sitting for that purpose, they shall be on oath or affirmation. When the President of the United States is tried, the Chief Justice shall preside ; and no person shall be convicted without the con- currence of two thirds of the members present. 7. Judgment in cases of impeachment shall not extend further than to removal from office, and disqualification to hold and en- joy any office of honor, trust, or profit under the United States ; but the party convicted shall nevertheless be liable and subject to indictment, trial, judgment, and punishment according to law. SECTION 4. 1. The times, places, and manner of holding elections for Sen- ators and Representatives shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may, at any time, by law, make or alter such regulations, except as to the places of choosing Senators. 2. The Congress shall assemble at least once in every year, and such meeting shall be on the first Monday in December, unless they shall by law appoint a different day. SECTION 5. 1. Each House shall be the judge of the elections, returns, and qualifications of its own members, and a majority of each shall constitute a quorum to do business; but a smaller number may adjourn from day to day, and may be authorized to compel the at- tendance of absent members, in such manner and under such pen- alties as each House may provide. 2. Each House may determine the rules of its proceedings, pun- ish its members for disorderly behavior, and, with the concurrence of two thirds, expel a member. 3. Each House shall keep a journal of its proceedings, and from time to time publish the same, excepting such parts as may in CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. 219 their judgment require secrecy ; and the yeas and nays of the members of either House, on any question, shall, at the desire of one fifth of those present, be entered on the journal. 4. Neither House, during the session of Congress, shall, without the consent of the other, adjourn for more than three days, nor to any other place than that in which the two Houses shall be sit- ting. SECTION 6. 1. The Senators and Representatives shall receive a compensa- tion for their services, to be ascertained by law, and paid out of the Treasury ofthe United States. They shall in all cases, except treason, felony, and breach of the peace, be privileged from arrest during their attendance at the session of their respective Houses, and in going to and returning from the same ; and for any speech or debate in either House they shall not be questioned in any other place. 2. No Senator or Representative shall, during the time for which he was elected, be appointed to any civil office under the author- ity of the United States which shall have been created, or the emoluments whereof shall have been increased, during such time ; and no person holding any office under the United States shall bo a member of either House during his continuance in office. SECTION 7. 1. All bills for raising revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives ; but the Senate may propose or concur with amendments, as on other bills. 2. Every bill which shall have passed the House of Representa- tives and the Senate, shall, before it becomes a law, be presented to the President ofthe United States: if he approve he shall sign it, but if not he shall return it with his objections to that House in which it shall have originated, who shall enter the objections at large in their journal, and proceed to reconsider it. If, after such reconsideration, two thirds of that House shall agree to pass the bill, it shall be sent, together with the objections, to the other House, by which it shall likewise be reconsidered, ami if approved by two thirds of that House, it shall become a hrv. But in all such cases the votes of both Houses shall be determined by yeas 220 APPENDIX. and nays, and the names of the persons voting for and against the bill shall be entered on the journal of each House respectively. If any bill shall not be returned by the President within ten days (Sundays excepted) after it shall have been presented to him, the same shall be a law, in like manner as if he had signed it, unless the Congress, by their adjournment, prevent its return, in which case it shall not be a law. 3. Every order, resolution, or vote, to which the concurrence of the Senate and House of Representatives may be necessary (except on a question of adjournment), shall be presented to the President of the United States, and before the same shall take effect shall be approved by him, or, being disapproved by him, shall be re-pass- ed by two thirds of the Senate and House of Representatives, ac- cording to the rules and limitations prescribed in the case of a bill. SECTION 8. The Congress shall have power 1. To lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general wel- fare of the United States ; but all duties, imposts, and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States ; 2. To borrow money on the credit of the United States ; 3. To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian tribes ; 4. To establish a uniform rule of naturalization, and uniform laws on the subject of bankruptcies throughout the United States ; 5. To coin money, regulate the value thereof and of foreign coin, and fix the standard of weights and measures ; 6. To provide for the punishment of counterfeiting the securi- ties and current coin of the United States ; 7. To establish post-offices and post-roads ; 8. To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by secur- ing, for limited times, to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries ; 9. To constitute tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court ; 10. To define and punish piracies and felonies committed on the high seas, and offenses against the law of nations ; CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. 221 11. To declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make rules concerning captures on land and water ; 12. To raise and support armies, but no appropriation of money to that use shall be for a longer term than two years ; 13. To provide and maintain a navy ; 14. To make rules for the government and regulation of the land and naval forces ; 15. To provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the Union, suppress insurrections, and repel invasions ; 16. To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining the militia, and for governing such part of them as may be em- ployed in the service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively the appointment of the officers, and the authority of training the militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress ; 17. To exercise exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever over such district (not exceeding ten miles square) as may, by ces- sion of particular States and the acceptance of Congress, become the seat of the Government of the United States, and to exercise like authority over all places purchased by the consent of the Leg- islature of the State in which the same shall be, for the erection of forts, magazines, arsenals, dock-yards, and other needful build- ings; and, 18. To make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other pow- ers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any department or officer thereof. SECTION 9. 1. The migration or importation of such persons as any of the States now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be pro- hibited by the Congress prior to the year one thousand eight hun- dred and eight, but a tax or duty may be imposed on such impor- tation, not exceeding ten dollars for each person. 2. The privilege of the writ of hiO. Non-intcrfi-rencc theory, tin-, 30. Non-partisan government n frnud,4S. Nurseries of free governments, tbo town meetings are, 04. One hundred millions, when we number, 200. "One-term principle" not a princi- ple at all, 59. Over-production caused by bounties, 185. Paper money, so called, not money at all, 101. 258 INDEX. Parties, political, how composed, 47. . ' Party action, rules for, 184. government necessary, 48. politics, American, compara- tively honorable, 181. Penalties on exchange, 117. People, the, will punish inefficiency and corruption, 49. Petit jury, 178. Philanthropists not always wise,151. Platforms sometimes look both ways, 49. Politics an enticing pursuit, 181. the importance of, in a free state, 11. Poor, false idea of the, 51. how they are benefited by the safety of capital, 86. Population should it be checked, 148. Postmasters, the election of, would be a blunder, 55. Powers, division of, 38, 40. President his power of appoint- ment, 55. Primary meetings, 180. Private enterprise should not be checked, 29. Prohibitory legislation, 152. Property, how, originates, 118. the fruit of labor, 76. the rights of, justified, 75. what it is, 74. Public lands, 195. opinion, the, of knaves, 16. Railroads, 36. Responsibility can be no greater than the author- ity given, 43. of the Executive, 191. Rights, inalienable, list of, 173. Ring, the New York, 24. Rulers easily corrupted, 24. "Rum did it," 151. Salt, free, 136. " Savior of Society," the, a wretched sham, 22. Scratching a ticket, duty of, 184. Selfishness causes despotic rule, 20. sure to fail, 138. Self-sacrifice, 14. Senate, power of the, over appoint- ments, 44. Sheriff should be appointed, 194. Shin-plasters, 101. " Slate," a political, 57, 183. Small industries make a people in- telligent, 123. notes, why, should be forbid- den, 103. Society, rights of, against liquor- sellers, 154. why, is formed, 13. Soul, men supposed to have a, 14. what prudence dictates to a creature with a, 15. Souls, corporations have no, 158. Special legislation corrupts Legis- latures, 193. evil of, 159. Specie payments, 106. Stability a main condition of prog- ress, 49. importance of, 203. State governments, the authority and powers of, 169. States have power to confer the electoral franchise, 52. Strike, what is a, 139. Striker, a, must keep the peace, 140. Strikes, whether, have benefited workmen, 141. Subordinates,who ought to appoint, 44. Surplus men, no, in the world, 145. sometimes necessary, 84. Taxes, direct and indirect, 72. why we pay, 70. Taxing power, abuse of the, 73. Telegraphing, 36. "Tenure of office" law, absurdity of the, 45. Territorial organization, 196. Town meeting, 157. meetings described, 64. "Trades, boys should learn, 68. Trades-unions interference ofj with production, 141. should found new na- tions, 150. Twenty per cent., case where a poor man could not afford to pay less than, 94. Two-story frame-house, a, 90. Union, advantages of the, 165. Use and misuse, 155. Usury laws injurious to poor men, 93, 95. INDEX. 259 Value, real, of a dollar, 83. Vested interests, 146. Vinelaud, example of, 157. Virtue necessary to maintain liber- ty, 20. Vote, who, and why, 50. Voters, independent, 47. Wages paid out of accumulated cap- ital, 87. what are, 85. Waste, all taxes are, 71. Wealth, duty of, 51. 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