us; but they were untaught to bring cultivation in aid of its productive qualities; untaught to melt the ploughshare and the axe from its solid rocks. They needed, for their preservation, not walls and bulwarks, but the elements of useful knowledge; and had Massasoit or King Philip, and their tribes, possessed those means and instruments of improvement, which are in the hands of your children at school, I know not why they might not have perpetuated their national existence, and borrowed the improvements of our civilization, without sinking under the superiority of our arts and arms. If Providence has been pleased to write the chapter of their destiny in other and darker characters, let us, at least, (while we do all in our power to alleviate their condition,) cherish and respect those means of improvement, to which we owe our happier lot.

ACCUMULATION, PROPERTY, CAPITAL,
CREDIT.*

In compliance with your request, gentlemen, I appear before you, this evening, to take a part in the observance of the eighteenth anniversary of the Mercantile Library Association. This meritorious Institution was founded for the purpose of promoting mental improvement, among the young men of the city engaged in commercial pursuits. Its objects were, to form a library, well furnished with books best adapted to their use; to lay the foundation of scientific collections; to make occasional or stated provision for courses of instructive lectures; and to furnish opportunity for exercises in literary composition and debate. It would be superfluous, to offer any labored commendation of an institution of this description. It needs only to be named, in a commercial community, to be regarded with favor. It has already been approved by its good fruits, in the experience of many who have enjoyed its advantages; and has received the most favorable notice from distinguished gentlemen, who, on former anniversaries, have performed the duty which, on the present occasion, has devolved upon me.

Supposing, then, that the usefulness of such an institution is a point too well established, to need illustration, I have thought we should pass our time more profitably, this evening, by devoting our attention to the discussion of a few of the elementary topics connected with commerce, in reference to which there are some prevailing errors, and on which it is important to form correct judgements. These topics are, accumulation, property, capital, and credit; the simple enunciation of which, as the heads of my address, will

* An Address, delivered before the Mercantile Library Association, at the Odeon, in Boston, September 13, 1838.

satisfy this most respectable audience that, without aiming at display, it is my object to assist those before whom I have the honor to appear, in forming right notions on important practical questions. I may also add, that the views presented in a single discourse, on topics so extensive and important, must necessarily be of the most general character.

I. Some attempts have been made, of late years, to institute a comparison between what have been called the producing and the accumulating classes, to the disadvantage of the latter. This view I regard as entirely erroneous. Accumulation is as necessary to further production, as production is to accumulation; and especially is accumulation the basis of commerce. If every man produced, from day to day, just so much as was needed for the day's consumption, there would, of course, be nothing to exchange; in other words, there would be no commerce. Such a state of things implies the absence of all civilization. Some degree of accumulation was the dictate of the earliest necessity; the instinctive struggle of man, to protect himself from the elements and from want. He soon found, such is the exuberance of Nature, such the activity of her productive powers, and such the rapid developement of human skill,-that a vast deal more might be accumulated, than was needed for bare subsistence.

This, however, alone, did not create commerce. If all men accumulated equally, and accumulated the same things, there would still be no exchanges. But it soon appeared, in the progress of social man, that no two individuals had precisely the same tastes, powers, and skill. One excelled in one pursuit; one, in anothOne was more expert as a huntsman; another, as a fisherman; and all found, that, by making a business of some one occupation, they attained a higher degree of excellence, than was practicable, while each one endeavored to do every thing for himself. With this discovery, commerce began. The Indian, who has made two bows, or dressed two bear-skins, exchanges one of

er.

them for a bundle of dried fish, or a pair of snow-shoes. These exchanges, between individuals, extend to communities. The tribes on the seashore exchange the products of their fishing, for the game or the horses of the plains and hills. Each barters what it has in excess, for that which it cannot itself so well produce and which its neighbors possess in abundance. As individuals differ in their capacities, countries differ in soil and climate; and this difference leads to infinite variety of fabrics and productions, artificial and natural. Commerce perceives this diversity, and organizes a boundless system of exchanges, the object of which is, to supply the greatest possible amount of want and desire, and to effect the widest possible diffusion of useful and convenient products. The extent to which this exchange of products is carried, in highly-civilized countries, is truly wonderful. There are probably few individuals, in this assembly, who took their morning's meal, this day, without the use of articles brought from almost every part of the world. The table, on which it was served, may have been made from a tree which grew on the Spanish Main or one of the West-India islands, and covered with a tablecloth from St. Petersburg or Archangel. The tea was from China; the coffee perhaps from Java; the sugar from Cuba or Louisiana; the spoons from Mexico, Peru, or Chili; the cups and saucers from England or France. Each of these articles was purchased by an exchange of other products, the growth of our own or foreign countries, collected and distributed by a succession of voyages, often to the furthest corners of the globe. Without cultivating a rood of ground, we taste the richest fruits of every soil. Without stirring from our fireside, we collect on our tables the growth of every region. In the midst of Winter, we are served with fruits that ripened in a tropical sun; and struggling monsters are dragged from the depths of the Pacific ocean, to lighten our dwellings.

As all commerce rests upon accumulation, so the accumulation of every individual is made by the ex

Until he The tiller

As,

changes of commerce to benefit every other. exchanges it, it is of no actual value to him. of a hundred fields can eat no more, the proprietor of a cloth factory can wear no more, and the owner of a coal mine can sit by no hotter a fire, than his neighbors. He must exchange his grain, his cloth, and his coal, for some articles of their production, or for money, which is the representative of all other articles, before his accumulation is of service to him. The system is one of mutual accommodation. No man can promote his own interest, without promoting that of others. in the system of the universe, every particle of matter is attracted by every other particle, and it is not possible that a mote in a sunbeam should be displaced, without producing an effect on the orbit of Saturn, so the minutest excess or defect, in the supply of any one article of human want, produces a proportionate effect on the exchanges of all other articles. In this way, that Providence, which educes the harmonious system of the heavens out of the adjusted motions and balanced masses of its shining orbs, with equal benevolence and care furnishes to the countless millions of the human family, through an interminable succession of exchanges, the supply of their diversified and innumerable wants.

II. In order to carry on this system of exchanges, it is necessary, that the articles accumulated should be safe in the hands of their owners. The laws of society, for the protection of property, were founded upon the early and instinctive observation of this truth. It was perceived, in the dawn of civilization, that the only way in which man could elevate himself from barbarism, and maintain his elevation, was, by being secured in the possession of that which he had saved from daily consumption; this being his resource for a time of sickness, for old age, and for the wants of those dependent upon him; as well as the fund, out of which, by a system of mutually beneficial exchanges, each could contribute to the supply of the wants of his fellow-men. To strike at the principle which protects his earnings