SHOET INQUIEY 
 
 INTO THE 
 
 COMMERCIAL POLICY 
 
 UNITED STATES; 
 
 RIGHT PRINCIPLES OF REVENUE LAWS, 
 
 INTERNATIONAL COMMERCE. 
 
 BY A MERCHANT OF BOSTON. 
 
 BOSTON: 
 
 WILLIAM D. TICKNOR AND COMPANY. 
 
 mdccc: 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The following pages are prepared in the hope of bring¬ 
 ing the subject before the public. They contain nothing 
 novel or different from what has appeared before, but are 
 an attempt to explain and set forth, in a short and simple 
 manner, the principles of Trade, as agreed upon by nearly 
 every prominent writer on political economy. 
 
 In this country, where the right of suffrage is so general, 
 it is important that all matters pertaining to the advance¬ 
 ment of the nation, should be fully discussed and under¬ 
 stood, and the object of the writer will be attained if 
 these remarks shall lead to an examination of the subject 
 by those more able to illustrate and instruct. 
 
 Boston, November 20 , 1845 . 
 
REMARKS. 
 
 Most writers upon the principles of Trade and 
 Commercial intercourse, have agreed that it is for the 
 permanent advantage of all nations, to free them¬ 
 selves, as far as practicable, from the effect of boun¬ 
 ties and prohibitions, and to establish then- revenue 
 laws upon a liberal and just basis. 
 
 It is generally acknowledged, that Labor is the 
 source of all wealth ; that the aim and end of com¬ 
 merce is to facilitate the exchange of commodities, 
 or the products of labor, between the different classes 
 of producers, either of the same, or of foreign coun¬ 
 tries ; and that it is the tendency of human enter¬ 
 prise, if left unshackled by laws, to procure the most 
 of the productions of others, in exchange for what 
 each class may have to part with. 
 
 . In many of the nations of the old world, the prin¬ 
 ciples and laws which make up what is termed their 
 mercantile system, have been introduced at periods 
 of international enmity and warfare, and in ignorance 
 
6 
 
 of what political economists of later days have de¬ 
 monstrated to be the true sources of national pros¬ 
 perity and wealth. 
 
 The reform has been gradual and slow, as it must 
 necessarily be, in countries burthened with debt, re¬ 
 dundant in population, and in which great interests 
 have grown up under the mistaken system of partial 
 legislation. 
 
 Whatever advances have been made towards an 
 equality of laws upon this subject, have been forced 
 by the energy and perseverance of the enlightened, 
 from the unwilling monopolists whose interests were 
 favored under the old abuses. 
 
 In the United States, embracing a great variety of 
 climate and extent of territory, a large proportion 
 of which is either unsettled, or devoted to agricul¬ 
 tural purposes, no good reasons yet exist against 
 establishing our mercantile system upon a sound ba¬ 
 sis, by which all interests shall be equally benefited, 
 and in accordance with the principles so clearly laid 
 down by Adam Smith, Say, Ricardo, McCulloch, Mill, 
 and Buchanan, and in our own country by Professor- 
 Cooper, Condy Raguet, Vethake, Tucker, and many 
 others. The great preponderating interest is that 
 of agriculture, which requires no especial protection, 
 and for the advancement of which the freest ex¬ 
 change of productions, in all the natural markets of 
 the world, for the articles required in barter, and lib¬ 
 erty to buy and sell on the best terms, is the greatest 
 good that laws can guarantee to them. It will there¬ 
 fore be well if we establish a system which is likely 
 to be permanent, before any great interests are forced 
 
7 
 
 into being; inasmuch as, sooner or later, unequal 
 protection must yield to the enlarged views conse¬ 
 quent upon an increased knowledge of the subject. 
 
 It may perhaps be thought, that in New-England 
 the manufacturing interest, under the encouragement 
 of our revenue laws, has increased to such an ex¬ 
 tent, as to deserve and demand the continued protec- 
 ti:n of government; but it will be one of the objects 
 of this tract to show, that no fear need exist that this 
 interest will receive any permanent injury from an 
 equalization of the laws; and to prove, that if Ameri¬ 
 can manufactures can be exported to China, South 
 America, and other markets, where, no such protec¬ 
 tion exists, we certainly need fear no competition in 
 our own markets, where the most radical friends of 
 free trade are willing to allow a protection, conse¬ 
 quent upon raising by imposts on foreign goods, the 
 necessary revenue for the support of government. 
 The right understanding of the laws of interchange 
 between nations, has been much retarded by certain 
 political watchwords, which often appear in our re¬ 
 views and journals. These are, “ over-importations,” 
 “export of specie,” “protection to American labor 
 against the pauper labor of Europe.” In examina¬ 
 tion of these, an extract is given from Mr. Mill’s 
 “ Elements of Political Economy,” chap. 3d, section 
 5, on Interchange: — 
 
 “ The commodities imported are the cause of 
 
 THE BENEFITS DERIVED FROM A FOREIGN TRADE. 
 
 “ The benefit which is derived from exchanging one 
 commodity for another, arises, in all cases, from the 
 commodity received, not from the commodity given. 
 
8 
 
 When one country exchanges, in other words, when 
 one country traffics with another, the whole of its 
 advantage consists in the commodities imported — it 
 benefits by the importation, and by nothing else. 
 
 “ This seems to be so very nearly a self-evident 
 proposition, as to be hardly capable of being rendered 
 more clear by illustration ; and yet it is so little in 
 harmony with current and vulgar opinions, that it 
 may not be easy, by any illustration, to gam it ad¬ 
 mission into certain minds. 
 
 “ When a man possesses a certain commodity, he 
 cannot benefit himself by giving it away. It seems to 
 be implied, therefore, in the very fact of his parting 
 with it for another commodity, that he is benefited 
 by what he receives. His own commodity he might 
 have kept, if it had been valued by him more than 
 that for which he exchanges it. 
 
 “ The corresponding facts are evidence equally con¬ 
 clusive in the case of nations. When the nation ex¬ 
 changes a part of its commodities for a part of the 
 commodities of another nation, the nation can gain 
 nothing by parting with its commodities; all the 
 gain must consist in what it receives. If it be said, 
 that the gain consists in receiving money, it will 
 presently appear, from the doctrine of money, that a 
 nation derives no advantage, but the contrary, from 
 possessing more than its due proportion of the pre¬ 
 cious metals.” 
 
 This is a doctrine, as Mr. Mill says, entirely at 
 variance with the generally conceived opinions on 
 the subject, but a careful re-perusal of his argument 
 will convince the reflecting of the justice of his posi- 
 
9 
 
 tions; and in further illustration, an extract from 
 Section 13, of the same chapter, is given, entitled 
 « The value of the precious metals determines 
 
 WHETHER A COUNTRY SHALL EXPORT OR IMPORT. 
 
 “ Metallic money, or more generally speaking, the 
 precious metals, are nothing more, considered strictly, 
 and in then essence, than that commodity which is 
 the most generally bought and sold, whether by indi¬ 
 viduals or by nations. 
 
 “ In ordinary language it is immediately acknowl¬ 
 edged, that those commodities alone can be exported, 
 which are cheaper in the country from which, than 
 in the country to which, they are sent. 
 
 “According to this proposition, if gold is cheaper in 
 any one country, as in England, for example, it will 
 he exported from England. Again, if gold is dearer 
 in England, than in other countries, it will be import¬ 
 ed into England. But, by the very force of the 
 terms, it is implied, that in any country where gold 
 is cheap, other commodities are dear. Gold is cheap, 
 when a greater quantity of it is required to purchase 
 other commodities. 
 
 “ It is evident, therefore, that a country will export, 
 that is, commodities other than the precious metals, 
 only when the value of the precious metals is high. 
 It is equally evident, that she will import (that is, to 
 excess,) only when the value of the precious metals 
 is low. The increase, therefore, of the quantity of 
 the precious metals, which diminishes the value of 
 them, gradually diminishes, and tends to destroy, the 
 power of exporting other commodities: the diminu¬ 
 tion of the quantity of the precious metals, which in- 
 2 
 
10 
 
 creases their value, increases, by a similar process, 
 the motive to the exportation of other commodities, 
 and of course, in a state of freedom, the quantity ex¬ 
 ported. 
 
 “ The once prevalent opinion, (says Mr. M’Cul- 
 loch,) that wealth consists exclusively of gold and 
 silver, naturally grew out of tire circumstance of the 
 money of all civilized countries being almost entirely- 
 formed of these metals. The attention was gradual¬ 
 ly transferred from the money's worth, to the money 
 itself; and the wealth of individuals and of States 
 was measured, not by the abundance of their disposa¬ 
 ble products, but by the quantity of these metals ac¬ 
 tually in their possession. 
 
 “ The acquisition of a favorable balance of payment 
 was the grand object to be accomplished; and heavy 
 duties and restrictions on importations, and bounties 
 and premiums on exportation, were the means by 
 which this object was to be attained. 
 
 “ It cannot excite our surprise that a system, haring 
 so many popular prejudices in its favor, and which 
 afforded a plausible apology for the privileges enjoyed 
 by the manufacturing and commercial classes, should 
 have early attained, or that it should still preserve, 
 notwithstanding the overthrow of its principles, a pow¬ 
 erful practical influence.” 
 
 It having been shown, that neither over-importa¬ 
 tions, or the export of specie, are subjects of alarm, 
 or to be feared as prejudicial to the interests of the 
 nation, under a proper system of banking and rev¬ 
 enue laws, it will be proper to consider the danger 
 
11 
 
 to American labor from competition with the (so 
 called) pauper labor of Europe. 
 
 It has been shewn by Professor Tucker, in his 
 “ Progress of the United States,” that only about one 
 in twenty of the population of this country are en¬ 
 gaged in manufactures, and that the number employed 
 in agriculture are five times as great as those in man¬ 
 ufactures of every kind ; and even out of this num¬ 
 ber, the proportion who come into competition with 
 the product of artisans abroad, must be very small. 
 Now it is worthy of remark, that we hear little or 
 nothing about the competition of pauper labor from 
 this immense agricultural interest, and there seems 
 to be no fear on the part of this' interest, but that 
 they will be able to produce butter, cheese, pork, 
 cotton, wool and flour, on as good terms as any other 
 nation. All that they ask of government is, liberty 
 to export their productions to the natural markets of 
 the world, and to receive, in exchange, such thin gs 
 as necessity or fancy may dictate, on the best possi¬ 
 ble terms. 
 
 It is also worthy of inquiry, whether this outcry 
 about pauper labor does not entirely arise from a few 
 capitalists, whose interests are doubtless temporarily 
 advanced by the present exclusion of foreign commo¬ 
 dities, and by the taxation of the whole country for 
 their benefit, or by political presses who have never 
 fully examined into the various bearings of the sub¬ 
 ject. Even in regard to the pauper labor of Europe, 
 statements have lately been made, and not denied, 
 which demonstrate that the wages in the mills of 
 England are but little below what is current for 
 
12 
 
 similar labor in this country; and, taking into con¬ 
 sideration the greater number of hours of work in 
 the mills of the United States, and the fact that, 
 here, a girl usually attends to three looms, whereas 
 in England, only two, there is conclusive proof that 
 the cost of manufacturing, estimating the production 
 of the loom in pounds weight of cloth, per piece, or 
 per yard, is no more, and perhaps even less than in 
 England. Further evidence of this is to he found 
 in the fact before stated, that the productions of our 
 mills are shipped and sold in foreign markets, in free 
 competition with English goods. Should these state¬ 
 ments he denied, an abundance of statistical facts 
 will he brought forward to prove the statement here 
 made, which facts have only been kept back from a 
 feeling that they were unnecessary to the argument. 
 
 “ Such a catalogue of solemn fooleries as the Brit¬ 
 ish Tariff, (said an English writer, in 1842,) does 
 not exist in the three kingdoms. Some fifty or sixty 
 years hence, we are not without hopes that it may 
 strike the premier of the day, that, by an entire abo¬ 
 lition of every custom’s duty, the purchasing people 
 who happen to he the nation, will be rendered richer 
 by the exact difference between the price of the 
 home and the foreign articles, which such duties de¬ 
 prive us of, whilst the revenue would gain by a mil¬ 
 lion and a quarter sterling per annum, which we 
 now consume and waste in the collection of duties, 
 and the abortive attempt to prevent smuggling.” It 
 would perhaps be disrespectful to designate our own 
 laws upon this subject as “ fooleries,” but the Tariff 
 law of 1842, or in fact, any of the preceding tariffs, 
 
13 
 
 cannot stand the examination of any one impressed 
 with the principles of justice, of equality, or of en¬ 
 larged views of international commerce. 
 
 Even to the initiated they are puzzles, and one 
 duty upon woollens, another on cottons, a third upon 
 mixed fabrics, a different per centage upon buttons, 
 yet another upon pins, with some two or three va¬ 
 rious ones upon screws, brads, and nails, must ap¬ 
 pear ridiculous enough to future generations, or even 
 to the philosophic thinker of the present day. 
 
 Allowing that a system of impost duties is the 
 best plan on which a revenue can be collected, it 
 cannot be doubted that it is the duty of government 
 to render this system, as far as practicable, equal, 
 simple, and free from details and vexatious differ¬ 
 ences. 
 
 “ Protecting duties, as well as bounties, (says a 
 writer upon the commercial policy of Great Britain,) 
 are imposed for the benefit of the ignorant and inca¬ 
 pable. Where the workmen at home, or the climate 
 furnishes a better article than can be got from abroad, 
 no protection is required. It is only where the home 
 are inferior to the foreign articles, and therefore do 
 not sell, that it becomes necessary, by means of pro¬ 
 tecting duties, to force the sale, by which we tax the 
 many for the benefit of the few, depress ingenious in¬ 
 dustry, and actually hold out a bounty on indolence 
 and rapacity. 
 
 “ Such manufactures as cannot stand then- ground 
 without undue protection, should be left to their fate; 
 and if they should decay, the capital and industry 
 
14 
 
 they employ will flow naturally into other and more 
 profitable channels. 
 
 “ Impost duties are framed on this narrow notion, 
 that it is profitable to sell and not to buy, though 
 wholly inapplicable to the concerns of a great na¬ 
 tion.” 
 
 If prohibitions and restrictions are injurious to 
 the commercial prosperity of England, how much 
 more so are they to that of the United States, as 
 from our vast extent of territory, the great variety of 
 our productions, our mineral wealth and water-power, 
 our mechanical skill and enterprise, we are able to 
 compete with any nation, both in agricultural and 
 manufacturing pursuits. 
 
 It is very clear that, under a currency not unduly 
 increased, the sum total of our exports will about bal¬ 
 ance the sum total of our imports ; and if, for some 
 single year, by reason of excess of specie, of paper 
 money, or from any other cause, the imports should 
 exceed the exports, it would soon correct itself by 
 the export of the cheapest commodity. 
 
 A perusal of the authorities mentioned in this Tract, 
 will doubtless convince any one, not biassed by per¬ 
 sonal interest, that no fears need be entertained for 
 the success of our manufacturing interests, under a 
 just system of revenue laws. 
 
 If there should be any so prejudiced, it may be due 
 to them to examine the subject in its worst possible 
 view. 
 
 It has been the good fortune of the writer to have 
 journeyed through a great portion of the United 
 States, to have made a pedestrian tour in the coal 
 
15 
 
 regions of Pennsylvania, steamed down the Ohio, 
 and up the Missouri rivers, to have passed on the glo¬ 
 rious Mississippi, from New Or’eans to the Falls 
 of St. Anthony, — traversed extensive prairies, looked 
 at lead-diggings, talked about copper, and made in¬ 
 quiries after corn, hemp, tobacco, and all those things 
 which make up the wealth of a nation; — to have 
 steamed through the great chain of lakes, from Supe¬ 
 rior to the St. Lawrence; and mingling with intelli¬ 
 gent men of every pursuit, to have used that faculty 
 which nature has so bountifully bestowed upon the 
 natives of New-England, to discover all he could. 
 
 On every side he has found fertile lands, ready to 
 repay speedily the farmer by its products, for the slight 
 toil of planting and harvesting — a profusion of mineral 
 wealth waiting for the energy of man to combine it 
 to useful ends,— all this umvrought nature, apparently 
 wasting in its abundance, for the want of human 
 skill and labor. And the question forced itself upon 
 his mind, if it be good policy, by partial legislation, 
 to draw men from these manly pursuits, to immure 
 them, for twelve or fourteen hours per day, 'within 
 the walls of a cotton mill. Even the most selfish le¬ 
 gislation would seek to extend, rather than retard 
 the agricultural interests, leaving the more confined 
 and less healthful pursuits of the mill and the work¬ 
 shop to foreign nations. If it is feared that we 
 should grow more corn, cotton, &c., than would be 
 taken by foreign nations, in exchange for their goods, 
 or could be consumed by ourselves; when that time 
 arrives, we shall assuredly manufacture at home, and 
 
16 
 
 this will always be done, when more advantageous 
 than to buy of others, tariff or no tariff. 
 
 And here it may he suggested to the manufacturers 
 of the North, who are the only class that can, by any 
 course of reasoning, be supposed to be benefited by 
 the present system, that the competition most to be 
 feared will not be from the mills of Europe, but from 
 the Valley of the Ohio and Mississippi, and from 
 those States where mineral wealth, cheap food, raw 
 materials, and all the great foundations of manufac¬ 
 turing prosperity, exist in the greatest abundance. 
 
 The unfairness of the present system towards the 
 great agricultural interests, can be illustrated by the 
 article of cotton. The actual growth of the cotton 
 in the States, is more than two millions of bales; of 
 which, allow (for simplifying the argument) a half 
 million of bales for the consumption of our own 
 mills, leaving a million and a half for exportation — 
 for the half million of bales consumed in New Eng¬ 
 land the South gets back, say in fair exchange, the 
 various productions of the North, and for the million 
 and a half bales going to foreign countries, it would, 
 under a just system, receive in barter the various pro¬ 
 ductions of foreign countries; but before such returns 
 can get to the planter of the South and West, they 
 are liable for the payment to government of duties, 
 varying, upon coarse manufactures, from fifty to one 
 hundred per cent., thereby lessening, by the amount 
 of duty, what the South and West would actually 
 receive in exchange for the cotton shipped. If it be 
 replied to this argument, that, in the course of time, 
 the North will take all the cotton of the South, and 
 
17 
 
 supply her with every kind of goods, the cotton- 
 planters and Western farmers would naturally reply, 
 that they will be happy to do this, so soon as the 
 North can supply them on the best terms; but in the 
 mean time they want liberty to trade wherever it 
 may be most to their advantage, and to get back in 
 exchange for then - productions, such articles as they 
 desire, without undue interference of legislation. 
 
 The recent reduction in the British Tariff, by 
 which the duty upon articles imported from America, 
 exclusive of tobacco, will not average twenty per 
 cent., and in the opinion of well-informed persons 
 much less, followed as it has been, by a period of 
 great prosperity, both commercial and manufacturing, 
 sustains the truth of the positions here advocated. 
 That this reduction should have been made, in op¬ 
 position to all those great interests, which have grown 
 up under the former system of high duties and boun¬ 
 ties, shows how conclusive must have been the argu¬ 
 ments in favor of liberal legislation. 
 
 It is to be hoped, that this enlightened course will 
 be met by a corresponding liberality on the part of 
 the United States, and that the advocate for the 
 abolition of the duties on bread stuffs, in the British 
 Parliament, will not be again met (as in 1842) by 
 the taunt, that while the English were lessening the 
 duties on American productions, the Americans were 
 actually increasing the duties on British goods. To 
 those who prize facts above all theories, this fact of 
 the increased prosperity of England, consequent upon 
 the reduction of duties, is one of great value, while 
 the example of Spain, with its Commercial System 
 3 
 
18 
 
 of extravagant duties, and consequent army of smug¬ 
 glers and custom-house officers, annually retrograding 
 in the scale of nations, is equally conclusive. An 
 extract from a late Review upon the Spanish peo¬ 
 ple well illustrates the effect of their system : — 
 
 “ One of the leading features of the Spanish mind 
 is, we are told, a dislike of foreigners and their pro¬ 
 ductions. We can understand this dislike. It is the 
 natural reluctance which most people feel to compare 
 themselves with persons more advantageously sit¬ 
 uated, or to place the fruits of then own industry in 
 juxtaposition with those of an industry far more en¬ 
 lightened and ingenious. This gives us some hopes 
 of Spain ; for if it. he ashamed of its inferiority, it 
 may some day, perhaps, he excited to enter upon a 
 course of generous rivalry with foreign countries. At 
 the same time, however uncomfortable may be the 
 feeling that accompanies them, foreign manufactures 
 necessarily find their way into Spain, because she 
 herself may be almost said to produce none. 
 
 “ From these causes it has come to pass, that there 
 is no scene in Spanish life without a smuggler 
 mixed up in it. The peasant smuggles through ne¬ 
 cessity, the rich man through avarice, or the pleasure 
 of cheating the revenue. 
 
 “The whole Southern coast, from Barcelona to 
 Cadiz, is perpetually transformed, at night, into one 
 long strand, for the landing of contraband goods. 
 An army of smugglers, four hundred thousand strong, 
 is said to hover about the Sierras, holding communion 
 there with proscribed foreigners, and receiving from 
 them the materials of rendering millions of people 
 comfortable , free of duty. 
 
19 
 
 “ It is impossible not to admire the sagacious policy 
 in which this state of things originates. The gov¬ 
 ernment wants money, and therefore levies upon 
 foreign goods, not a reasonable duty, which the peo¬ 
 ple might perhaps be induced to pay, but a monstrous 
 duty, which the least glimmering of common sense 
 would show to be uncollectable. 
 
 “But how does the drama terminate? does the 
 Exchequer, replenished by a thousand channels, over¬ 
 flow with gold doubloons ? On the contrary, most 
 lame and impotent is the conclusion of all this law¬ 
 making, of all this bottomless policy, of all this 
 Iberian statesmanship ! Nothing comes of them but 
 an empty treasury, the annihilation of trade, the 
 paralysis of industry — the ruin, in one word, of the 
 whole nation. 
 
 “ It is quite true that we, also, here in these British 
 Islands, are guilty of many foolish things on the sub¬ 
 ject of commerce. But of that some other time. 
 Our business just now is not self-examination, but 
 the catechising of a neighbor, a far more agreeable 
 task.” 
 
 The doctrine that high duties permanently lower 
 prices, is too plainly a false one to require refutation, 
 and is only worthy of notice on account of its having 
 been advocated by parties, who by some good fortune, 
 other than sound reasoning powers, have attained a 
 position in the community. 
 
 It being a universal law of trade, that all perma¬ 
 nent production is regulated by the cost that such 
 production bears to its price, it necessarily follows, 
 that whenever the price of an article falls below the 
 
20 
 
 cost of production, for any length of time, the labor 
 and capital employed therein will he transferred to 
 some other pursuit. 
 
 The idea of low prices stimulating production, or 
 that a business will be continued for any considerable 
 time under a certain loss, is too ridiculous to require 
 argument. An extravagant duty, by preventing the 
 commerce in any article, or lessening its consump¬ 
 tion, may so check the natural demand as to cause 
 the price to fall at the place of production, more 
 even than the increased duty, thus actually lessening 
 the price in the market where the duty has been in¬ 
 creased ; this lower price, however, can be but 
 temporary, unless other causes intervene, to lessen 
 the cost of production. 
 
 The argument sometimes used, that the price of 
 brown sheetings, lower now than some years ago 
 when the duty was less, is in consequence of ad¬ 
 vanced duty, is without any foundation. The lessen¬ 
 ing of the price of sheetings is wholly owing to other 
 causes, such as the reduced price of the raw material, 
 (far greater than that of the manufactured article,) 
 improved machinery, increased speed of looms and 
 spindles, and less price per piece paid for labor. 
 
 That the price of sheetings’ has not been reduced 
 on account of increase of duty, can be best exempli¬ 
 fied by reference to the price of cotton, as compared 
 with the price of cloth, at different periods. 
 
 In answer to the often urged reason for protective 
 duties, that they increase the employment of Ameri¬ 
 can labor, it has before been stated that exchanges 
 are equal or nearly so — that imports increase exports. 
 
21 
 
 If one hundred cases of calicoes are shipped from 
 Liverpool to Boston, something will he required to 
 he taken hack in payment — prohahly, at this time, 
 one thousand barrels of flour; and it is very plain 
 that the production of wheat necessary to make this 
 thousand barrels of flour, in all its operations of 
 ploughing, reaping, grinding, package, and shipping, 
 will employ about the same number of people as 
 making the cloth would have done. 
 
 The policy and justice of equal revenue laws, in 
 reference to the commercial interests and pecuniary 
 advantage of a great nation, having been examined, 
 it may not perhaps be thought irrelevant to look upon 
 the subject in a moral point of view. 
 
 “ That Political Economy,” says Archbishop Whate- 
 ly, “ should have been complained of as hostile to re¬ 
 ligion, will probably be regarded, a century hence, 
 with the same wonder, almost approaching to incre¬ 
 dulity, with which we, of the present day, hear of 
 men sincerely opposing, on religious grounds, the 
 Copernican system. But till the advocates of Christ¬ 
 ianity shall have become universally much better ac¬ 
 quainted with the true character of their religion, than 
 universally they have ever yet been, Ave must always 
 expect every branch of study, every scientific theory, 
 that is brought into notice, will be assailed on religious 
 grounds, by those who have either not studied the 
 subject, or Avho are incompetent judges of it.” 
 
 The NeAv Testament, Avhich an eminent la\A r yer 
 has beautifully described as containing the foundation 
 of all laAV, and the observance of Avhose precepts 
 leads equally to national greatness and individual 
 
22 
 
 happiness, emphatically concurs in the doctrines here 
 advanced, to act justly towards other nations, as “we 
 would that they should do unto us,” not waiting for 
 them to lead the way; with full confidence that such 
 justice and liberality, apart from other considerations, 
 is the very method to insure permanent prosperity to 
 the great interests of the nation. 
 
 Let us in this, as in all other matters, dedicate our 
 broad country to the principles of the faith we profess, 
 confident that the doctrines of Christianity, carried 
 out in all the concerns of the nation, lead to the true 
 greatness. 
 
 May we fully believe, in the language of Mr. Sum¬ 
 ner, that “ The truest tokens of grandeur in a State, 
 are the diffusion of the greatest happiness among the 
 greatest number, and that passionless, god-like jus¬ 
 tice, which controls the relations of the State to 
 other States, and to all the people who are committed 
 to its charge.”