THE UNITED STATES MAGAZINE AND DEMOCRATIC REVIEW. VOL. X. JANUARY, 1842. No. XLIII. STATE CREDIT. THE Mississippi Bonds must be paid. To the last dollar, the last cent, the last mill, every pledge of the public faith, whether by the collective whole of our glorious Union, or by any one of its constituent parts, must be honorably redeemed be the con- sequences, be the cost what they may. Be justice done though the firmament fall. It is true that the People of the State have been shamefully defrauded. But it is not less true that it is to a great extent their owa fault. They have now to submit to the loss of about five millions of dollars as the natural retributive penalty of their own folly. And if they ~vill but lay well to heart the lesson they have been taught, it is worth its price. They have bought their experience much cheaper than some of their neighbors. Illinois and Indiana, for example, and Pennsylvania, par excellence! We are not surprised at the feeling which has been excited in Mississippi in relation to this subject. We are not surprised that a powerful and respectable opinion has formed and declared it- self against the payment of these bonds. It may perhaps be that of a majority of its citizens though the recent election is by no means to be regarded as any decisive evidence to that effect. It is easy to suppose that, among those whose suifrages have elected Governor Tucker, a much larger number than that of his majority over his competitor may have had no serious idea that the bonds ought to be, or actually would be, repudiated. Yet even if it were the present will of a clear popular majority, we would ascribe it rather to a temporary though natural exaspera- tion against the authors of this great fraud upon the State; blind- ing the eyes of the people to that more calm and just view of all 4 State Credit. [January, the bearings of the question, which we should still feel certain that they would not fail to take after a brief season of sober second-thought. Of one thing there is no doubt that the charge so angrily brought against the people of Mississippi, of a wilful and delibe- rate spirit of bad faith, of public dishonesty and dishonor, in the threatened repudiation of the bonds in question, is a gross cal- umny. Made originally by those whose pecuniary interest prompts their clamor on this charge, it is reechoed by a party press, which seeks to turn it to a political advantage. In our own opinion the argument of the anti-bond party is an unsound one; yet is it by no means a clear case or a simple question. There is a great deal to be urged, and with more than plausibi~ lity, on both sides; and we are well assured that the great body of those among the Democratic Party of Mississippi who support the repudiation, would be found the last to attempt or desire to evade the payment of a just debt or an honorable obligation No one would pretend that in a private transaction, parallel in all its features to the case in question, the slightest obligation, techni- cal or equitable, would attach on the part of the principal, to pay the bonds so fraudulently issued by a dishonest agent, in viola- tion of the express prohibition of the very authority under which the latter held all his legal existence. The principle of law in force in that State, moreover, is, that the transfer of choses in action, even to innocent third parties, can involve no prejudice to any rights or equities on the part of the obligor. If some one must suffer from the dishonesty of an unfaithful agency, it must be the party who trusts him without the proper and prudent scrutiny which he ought to have made into the nature and extent of his powers. If we apply to the State the analogy of a private trans- action of the same character, the advocates of repudiation must stand unanswerably justified. And this view of the question combined with a sympathy for the honest People that has been made the victim of the fraud of the case has led several of the democratic papers of the north to sustain them in that position. But, like many similar applications of private analogies to public transactions, the argument is, we repeat, in our judgment an un- sound one; and we should sadly belie the past character and course of the Democratic Review, if, entertaining this opinion, we should allow ourselves to be checked by any partisan consid- eration, from its frank and free expression. The anti-bond argument is this: In the first place, the Con- stitution of the State expressly requires that every law for the 5 1842.] State Credit. pledge of the public credit shall receive the distinct sanction of two successive Legislatures. Now it is true that a certain law was passed at one session, and duly confirmed at the next, author- izing the loan of the credit of the State, to the amount of fifteen millions of dollars, to the great Union Bank, which it was then determined to create. But a supplementary ~w was passed shortly after, involving a material change of the original law, and authorizing a direct subscription by the State to the stock of the bank ; and it was under this law, which had not passed through that ordeal of popular ratification prescribed by the Constitution of the State, that the transaction in question took place. At the time of the passage of this supplementary act, a minority in the Legisla- ture (at the head of which stood the recently elected Governor, Mr. Tucker) entered a formal protest against it, as unconstitutional and void. In the second place, the provisions of this very act itself were palpably violated in the issue of the bonds, by a fraud- ulent collusion between the Union Bank, the commissioners ap- pointed by it for the negotiation of the bonds, and the Bank of the United States, by which, through the name of Mr. Nicholas Biddle, they were purchased. They were sold at a credit instead of for cash, and instead of being made payable, according to the terms of the law, in current money of the United States, were made payable in London, in sterling currency, at a rate of 4s. 6d. to the dollar, involving a heavy loss, and a departure, as it is alleged, from that standard of par value, which was prescribed by the law. The total amount of loss thus sustained by the State, through the Bank, by the departure from this double requi- sition of cash and par, is computed by Governor McNutt, in his celebrated Letter to the Hopes of Amsterdam, at the enormous sum, on the five millions of bonds sold, of $1,084,781 00. Now, it is contended that the express conditions on which the public faith was plighted, as represented in these bonds, having been thus violated, no obligation affecting the State was created by the transaction ; that these violations of condition were not of an immaterial character, but substantially affecting the rights and the safety of the State, as the obligor on the bonds; the ability of the Bank to pay them, as well as to fulfil the objects of its crea- tion, being prejudiced to the amount of the sacrifice thus ille- gally and improperly incurred by it in the operation ; that the Constitution of the State, and the law under which the bonds were issued, were public documents, of which all parties interest- ed were bound to take notice, and to inform themselves, at their own peril if they should neglect so obvious a duty of prudence; that it is therefore to the Union Bank which issued, and the 6 State Credit. [January, Bank of the United States which purchased and resold, or pledged, the bonds in question, endorsed with its own guarantee, that the European holders of them must look for their redemption, and not to the people of the State of Mississippi ; and finally, that inasmuch as no portion of the proceeds of the bonds ever came into the treasury of the State, or under the control of any of its officers, there is no equity in the case against it so as to counter- act the undeniable technical illegality of the transaction on the part of the two banks, and to impose on the State an obligation of honor to redeem the bonds. Such are the leading points of the anti-bond argument. It is not to be denied that they constitute at least a strong prima facie case in favor of the proposed repudiation; and that they ought to silence the clamor we have heard against the people of Missis- sippi, as desiring to evade the redemption of the public faith of the State, fairly and legally plighted. That is precisely the hinge of the question, and to assume that the public faith is so plighted, is nothing more nor less than a complete peti- tio principii. And to infer from the present agitation of this controversy, that there either exists now, or is likely to arise, in any of the States of this Union, anything like a for- midable disposition to repudiate their public debts, is as ab- surd as it is calumnious. We are profoundly and perfectly con- vinced, that every dollar of the public stocks of every State in the Union will be eventually paid, to the last jot and tittle of the redemption of their plighted honor. Fearful as may be the de- moralization, with respect to the sanctity of contracts, which has been the worst of the fruits of our paper-money credit system, we have no fear that it has proceeded to such a length as this. And of one thing are we especially certain that the Democratic Party, which is and must continue in the long run the dominant power in the country, will be the very last portion of the whole people, with whom the base infamy of such a proposition will be ever likely to meet a favorable reception. For we are the party which, throughout the struggles and discussions of the last ten or twelve years, about these questions, has placed itself in oppo- sition to the excesses and abuses of credit the party of mode- ration, of prudence the paying, in contradistinction to the borrowing, party. In private affairs, it is always on the part of those the most bold and speculative in their calculations on credit and chance, that the most lax morality prevails in regard to the redemption of the obligations they are so adventurous in hazard- ing. And in public, it is from your Credit System parties that proceed your retroactive bankrupt laws, your bank suspensions, tolerated by opinion, and sanctioned by legislation, & c~ and from 1842.] State Credit. 7 them, too, if ever from any, that can alone proceed such a public act of State bankruptcy, as is here in question, if ever the press- ure of a public debt shall become too heavy to be sustained by the industrial energies of the people. If that day is ever to arrive in any of our States, the public creditor, whether he may reside at the antipodes, or in our own midst, may rely upon the assurance which, in the name of the American democracy, we feel authorized to give him, namely,that when he will find himself abandoned to his fate by those who now profees to be his pecu- liar friends, it will be the Democracy which will surrender to him everything but honor; which will cast to the winds every- thing but conscience; and which will sell out the fee-simple of the last foot of earth covered by the last hearth-stone, if neces- sary, for the payment of the last cent of principal or interest on the public debt. But to return to the Mississippi Bondswe repeat that they must be paid. rihe analogy, derived from the legal relations of a corresponding private transaction, on which the repudiation ar- gum~nt rests, is in our opinion deceptive, though specious, in its application to the circumstances of the present case. In the first place, no great force can be claimed for the argument of the un- constitutionality of the law in question. That the attention of the Legislature of 1838 was fully drawn to that point, is apparent from the fact of the protest against its passage by the minority, on that ground. Their act was an expression of their own judg- ment that it was constitutional; and representing, as they did by their majority, the people of the State, it is too much to expect that the foreign creditor, when in the act of lending his money, should undertake to revise and overrule their decision upon a point of that nature, made under their own high political and moral responsibilities, to the people and their own oath of office. Faithfully and honestly or notyet actually it cannot be denied that they represented the people; and the doctrine would be ab- surd, that when in the interval between the passage of a law, of per- haps disputed constitutionality, and a judicial decision to that ef- fect, equitable rights have arisen under its operation, involving the public faith to innocent private parties, a subsequent change of majority should justify the Legislature in repudiating all such obligations, on the ground of the different view now taken by it of the constitutional question. A legislative body must stand as the sole authoritative judge of its own constitutional po~vers, until the actio.n of the judiciary supervene, in some controversy of pri- vate rights. And though a law mny of course be declared void for unconstitutionality, as affecting injuriously the rights of oth 8 State Credit. ~January, cr8; yet it would be monstrous to claim for the people of a State as represented and embodied in its regularly constituted Legislature, the right themselves to take advantage of such a sub- sequently declared unconstitutionality, to repudiate, to their own benefit and the injury of innocent third parties, obligations as- stimed by them with all the solemn formality of an act of legis- lation, claiming to be for an object of public interest, and in the very act positively asserting its own constitutionality. They can- not thus take advantage of the dishonesty or ignorance, as the case may be, of their own elected representatives. If they will be guilty of the folly of sending such a set of men to their legis- Jative halls, they must for the present submit to the consequences for which they have themselves chiefly to blame, and for the future profit well by the experience for which they have been thus made to pay. The unconstitutionality of the law, then, clearly will afford no justification to the Anti-Bond party for the course threatened by a large part of the press of Mississippi,assuming that uncon- stitutionality to be beyond question, and putting out of view the important fact that Governor McNutt, the prime mover of repu- diation, himself signed the law referred to, and himself partially carried it into execution. Nor is the argument of illegality, derived from the mode of ex- ecuting the law, much stronger than that of the unconstitutionality of the law itself. The State subscribes to the stock of the Bank, and the five millions of bonds are delivered over to the officers of the latter, for the purpose of affording it the capital necessary to set it in operation, this being esteemed, by the false and morbid pop- ular opinion of the day, an object of high public concern and in- terest. Grant that, in the sale of them, the Bank, through its agents, the commissioners, may have in some respects transgress- ed the provisions of the law; the State ought not to have intrust- ed them to such unfaithful agents. The circumstance of their being changed in form, from current money of the United States to sterling currency, is immaterial in its nature, unless the former expression is fraudulently meant to give the State the advantage, in the payment of its interest, of the depreciated condi- tion of the paper current money of some portions of the United States. This is not to be supposed; and no other honorable in- terpretation can be put upon the expression than that of the true constitutional current money of the United States, gold and silver. The translation of the one currency into the other may or may not have been at the just rate of the par of exchange. We all know that extremely vague and loose ideas have been of late years very prevalent of the meaning of that little monosylla 184~2.] State Credit. 9 Me. Par has had a very different meaning with the one of our political parties than with the other. With the Whigs, inchi- ding a great majority of the commercial community, the current value of a suspended bank-note circulation has constituted the local standard of par, while specie has been at a greater or less premium ; while with the Democratic party the currency of the Constitution and of the world, the precious metals, have alone afforded the standard level from which the depreciation of the respective paper circulations of different sections have been measured downward. We cannot perceive in this feature of the transaction, taken even in its strongest shape, a just or honorable ground for the proposed repudiation. It ill becomes a sovereign State and that State a republic and a democracy to contest on petty technical grounds of such a character as this, the pay- ment of debts, however unwisely contracted and trusted in the hands of unfaithful agents, on the faith of which an innocent for- eign creditor has been induced to part with his property; to place it, if not in the coffers of the State treasury itself; at least in those of an institution in which the State was the largest stockholder, and which it created as a valuable object of public policy, for the presumed benefit and relief of its great commer- cial and agricultural interests. Nor does it appear by any means clear that after the delivery of the bonds to the Bank, in payment of the subscription of the State to its stock, the State has any further right to scrutinize the terms of any arrangement that may be made by the Bank to realize upon them the highest price ad- mitted of by the condition of the market provided that the State is credited with them at the full value of their face, at par and as cash, on its subscription to the stock. And this we under- stand to be the fact. That the directors of the Union Bank have wasted their capital in the false and dishonest system of banking and financiering which has prevailed in that State, is no fault of the foreign creditor, who lent his money on the credit, neither of the Bank, nor of its companion in iniquity, the Bank of the United States, but on that of the State of MississippL The State has doubtless sunk its money, as many a stockholder in many a bank, in that as in other parts of the country. This has not been caused by the fact of the loss sustained by the Bank on the sale of the bonds, be the true figure of that loss more or less. The same would have been the case had the bonds in question commanded a premium, instead of having been sold at a rate of live and six per cent. depreciation. The same would doubtless have been the case had the entire fifteen millions, originally contemplated, been consigned to the same destination. Happily for the people of VOL. X., No. XLIII. 2 to State Credit. [January, Mississippi, and thanks to the intelligent firmness of Governor McNutt, the State has lost only five millions, where it might have lost fifteen. it deserved richly the smaller loss it would have de- served richly the greater for the folly of which it was guilty, ia creating the Bank, and thus endowing it with the means of evil from the public treasury. It would have made no practical differ- ence in the result, whether the contribution of the State had been in the form of a loan of its bonds to the Bank, as contemplated ia the original act, or in that which was given to it by the supple- mentary act authorizing a direct subscription to the stock. Sub- stantially the transaction was the same. ,The former was fully authorized by the required constitutional ratification. The truth is, that the public opinion of the State in relation to banks and banking facilities was radically wrong. The people of Mississippi are now only paying the natural and usual penalty of human folly; and instead of complaining instead of staining the fair scutch- eon of the public faith and honor with the disgrace of this threat- ened repudiation they ought rather to consider themselves for- tunate in escaping with but one-third of the loss which they might have sustained, and which they so unwisely hazarded. The bonds must be paid, then ; and that they will be event- ually paid, whatever may be the action of the Legislature re- cently elected, we have no more doubt than we have that they ought to be. One good result, however, at least, may be ascribed to the agi- tation of this question in Mississippi and ~ve are duly and sin- cerely grateful for it. We allude to the total destruction of the European market for our public stocks. Our only fear is, that this effect may prove but temporary, and that a revival of the confi- dence of the foreign capitalist may renew yet again this perni- cious system of national borrowing, from which through the last ten years we have suffered so much. Our public credit is down now to so low a point that we can borrow no more Heaven forefend that it should rise again ! except to the extent of doing justice to the creditors on our actual existing debt. Such a state of things we often hear spoken of as a national calamity; it is rather a national blessing. In fact, the doctrine of public credit may be regarded as one of the most pernicious inventions of modern times. Witness its awful fruits in England ! as well as under other foreign governments to which it has alone furnished, by the unrighteous mortgage of the labor and property of unborn generations, the means of carrying on the wars, and sustaining the military establishments, with which they have desolated provinces and kingdoms. And within the past ten years in our own corm 1842.] State Credit. 11 try, extravagantly as we have used it, what good have we derived from it l Useful or useless, good or bad, our internal improve- ments constructed within that period is it the money which has been borrowed on the strength of State credit that has called them into being ~ Far, very far from it. We have gone into debt to European capital to an amount of nearly two hundred millions of dollars, on which, independently of the principal, which will soon begin from time to time to fall due, we must pay an annual tax on our whole industry and wealth of about twelve millions of dollars, but does the simple reader suppose that it is money we have been borrowing, through all this period ?~ If he does, we beg leave to undeceive him. It is no such thing, though we have been most ingeniously made to believe such to be the fact; and that the surplus wealth of European accumulation was thus seeking a mutually advantageous investment in our public works of im- provement, at rates of interest attractive to the foreigner, while lower than the value of the use of capital among us. The truth is, that though we have contracted so enormous a debt, express- ed in figures, and payable, principal and interest, in real money, we have actually received scarce a dollar of it from Europe. The process has been simply this. We have imported an excess of imports about equivalent to the amounts of public stocks we have sold to the European market. We have eaten, and drunk, and worn, and in various ways consumed them. Little if any trace of them now remains, except the debt which we have thus contracted to pay for them, and which must itself be paid by the sweat of our own and our childrens brows. An inflation of our own paper currency at home, and an unhealthy expansion of private commercial credits, have represented the amount of money presumed to be brought into the country as the proceeds of the sale of these public stocks. And if any one wishes to trace out the ultimate sequel and result of the ~vhole, and ascertain what has become of the nominal amounts of European wealth brought to our shores by this stock-jobbing financiering, he will find them so soon as the Bankrupt Law goes into effect, like the fairy money which the next morning converts into dry leaves, stand- ing in imposing array of figures and ciphers, among the worth- less assets of many a broken bank and ruined speculator. To some of our readers the proof of the assertion here made will be necessary to enable them fully to realize its truth. It can easily be drawn from a comparative view of the exports and im- ports of the country, taken in connexion with the simultaneous issues of State stocks, within the period referred to. It was in the course of the year 1839, that the European money-market for 12 State Credit. January, American stocks may be said to have been destroyed. No con- siderable amounts have been sold since the summer of that year, putting out of view the mere hypothecations which may have been made of some amounts in the possession of the Bank of the United States, and some few other institutions. The heavy issues of State stocks may be said to have commenced about 1830. The amounts created prior to that date had been com- paratively small, though after that they ~vent, up to and includ- ing 1838, rapidly crescendo. We use the tables compiled by an able hand, in the fall of 1839, from authentic official sources. The amount of stock authorized to be created by eighteen States, in each period of five years) from 1820 to 1838, was as follows, viz: From 1820 to 1825 $12,790,728 1825 to 1830 13,679,689 1830 to 1835, . . . . . 40,002,769 5 1835 to 1838 (say 3 1-2 years) . 108,223,808 $174,696,994 And the following are the objects for which these debts were authorized by the respective legislatures to be created, viz: For banking, . . . . . . $52,640,000 canals, . . . . . . 60,201,551 CC railroads, . . . . . . 42)871,084 turnpikes and McAdam roads, . . 6,618,958 miscellaneous objects, . . . . 8,474,684 $170,806,277 An examination of the imports and exports, as shown by the annual reports of the Secretary of the Treasury during the same time, furnishes the following results. For the sake of the com- parison between them, it is divided into two periods, the first from 1820 to 1830, and the second from 1831 to 1838, both inclusive: Excess of Excess of Year. Imports. Exports. Imports. Exports. 1820 $56,441,971 $51,683,640 $4,758,381 1821 41,283,236 43,671,894 $2,388,658 1822 60,966,339 49,874,079 11,081,260 1823 50,025,595 47,155,408 2,870,187 1824 55,211,850 50,649,500 4,562,350 1825 63,759,432 66,944,745 3,185,313 1826 60,434,865 53055,710 7,379,155 1827 56,080,932 58,921,691 2,840,759 1828 66,914807 50,669,669 16,245,138 1829 57,834,049 55,700,193 2,233,856 1830 56,509,441 59,462,029 2,952,588 $625,451,517 $587,788,558 $49,039,277 $11,367,318 11,367,318 $37,662,959 :1842.] State Credit. 13 Year. 1831 1832 1833 1834 1835 1836 1837 1838 Imports. 83,162,808 76,989,793 88,295,586 103,208,521 129,391,257 168,233,675 119,134,255 101,364,609 $869,789,304 Exports. 61,277,057 63,137,470 70,317,698 81,024,162 101,189,082 106,916,680 95,564,414 96,633,821 $675,460,384 Excess of Imports. 21,885,551 13,852,323 17,977,888 22,184,359 28,202,175 61,316,995 23,569,841 5,330,788 $194,379,920 From this table we see that the total excess of imports over exports (all kinds included) in the first period, eleven years, was $37,662,959, or an annual average of only three, millions four hundred thousand dollars. In the second period, eight years, the same excess rises to the enormous sum of $194,319,920, or an annual average of more than twenty-four millions of dollars. In order to ascertain the actual surplus importations of mer- chandise within these periods, it is necessary to deduct from these sums the respective surplus imports over the exports of the precious metals within the same periods. A view of the latter is presented by the following table, similarly divided as before by the year 1830: IMPORTS AND EXPORTS OF GOLD AND SILVER COIN. Year. 1821 1822 1823 1824 1825 1826 1827 1828 1829 1830 Total Imports. $8,064,890 3,369,846 5,097,896 8,379,835 6,150,765 6,880,966 8,151,130 7,480,741 7,403,612 8,155,964 $69,144,645 Excess of Exports, 1831 1832 1833 1834 1835 1836 1837 1838 7,305,945 5,907,504 7,070,368 17,911,632 13,131,447 13,400,881 10,516,414 17,747,117 $92,991,308 Excess of Imports, Total Exports. $10,478,059 10,810,180 6,372,9$7 7,014,552 8,797,055 4,098,678 8,014,880 8,243,476 4,924,020 2,178,773 $70,932,660 Excess of Imports. $1,365,283 2,782,288 136,250 2,479,592 5,977,191 $12,740,604 Excess of Exports. $2,413,169 7,440,334 1,275,091 2,646,290 753,735 $14,528,619 12,740,604 $1,788,015 1,708,986 9,014,931 5,656,340 2,611,701 2,076,758 6,477,775 4,324,336 5,976,249 3,508,046 $39,646,136 251,164 4,458,667 15,834,874 6,653,672 6,076,545 4,510,165 14,239,071 $55,054,158 1,708,986 $53,345,172 $1,708,986 14 State Credit. [January, From this table we see that there was an excess of exports over imports of gold and silver in the first of these periods of $1,788,015, or an annual average of about a hundred and seventy- nine thousand dollars. In the second period there is an excess of imports over exports of gold and silver amounting to $53,345,172, or an annual ave- rage of about six millions six hundred thousand dollars. Comparing together these tables, and confining our view to the commerce of merchandise alone, it appears that in the first period the excess of the imports of merchandise over the exports of the same, was $39,450,974, or an annual average of $3,586,452. In the second period, the excess of the imports of merchan- dise over the exports of the same, is in like manner seen to be $140,974,748, or an annual average of $17,621,843. The amount of State stocks issued within the first period, we have seen to have been $26,470,417. In the second we have seen them to rise to $148,226,577. The total excess of imports in the first period having been, as above stated, $37,662,959, about $20,000,000 may be as- sumed as the legitimate excess of imports, representing the commercial profit; the balance of that sum being a moderate allowance for the proceeds of so much of the State stocks issued as were sold in the foreign market. When issued thus mode- rately, it is probable that a considerable proportion of them found purchasers at home. To double that am6unt would then be a large allowance for the corresponding commercial profit within the second period of eight years; the deduction of which from the total excess of imports, as above stated, would leave about $154,319,920. Deduct from this about six millions as probably taken up on this side of the Atlantic, and we show the unnatu- ral and unhealthy excess of imports (with a proper allowance for the commercial profit) corresponding exactly with the amount of ~he sales of the public stocks abroad. Who, then, will pretend that the issue of the stocks has done anything more than simply to run up this enormous amount of debt, for ~this enormous amount of extravagant consumption, upward of a hundred and fifty millions of dollars in excess above our exports, after full due allowance for the commercial profit ~ This system is now, we trust, at an end. After the bitter expe- rience which so many of our States have reaped of its fruits, we hope that there is none now in which the people will tolerate any further issues of public stocks,whatever may be - the delusive 184~2.] State Credit. 15 pretences by which their advocates may seek to recommend them to sectional interests, or to the cupidity of the present genera- tion, which is thus made so dishonestly and oppressively to sad- dle posterity with debt for the indulgence of its own present ex- travagance. We should rejoice to see a prohibition inserted in the constitution of every State of the Union, against the legisla- tive power of contracting a public debt for any purpose whatso- ever. If we were willing to except the case of war and the pub- lic defence, it would be a reluctant and dissatisfied concession to existing popular delusions too strong to be immediately contended with. Taxation, direct taxation, by the voluntary action of the peo- ple themselves, is the only true and just and proper mode of rais- ing whatever funds may be necessary for any of the legitimate duties of government. Taxation, direct taxation, we mean, for the whole amount wanted for the principal,not for the mere pro- vision of the annual interest, to be paid to the foreigner as a vir- tual tribute of financial slavery. Shall we read in history of the devotion with which the citizens of besieged towns, or invaded kingdoms, have poured their wealth into the public treasury, un- stinted and unregretted, for the public defencewhen even wo- man has not only exulted in offering on the altar of patriotism the last jewel or ornament of gold which bound her hair, but has even delighted to weave the flowing beauty of those locks them- selves into bow-strings for the public serviceshall we read of such things, we repeat, and yet doubt the readiness and the lavish abundance with which our people, when attacked by insolent and unjust foreign aggression, if tve will only trust to them and ap- peal to them, will furnish every necessary to carry the country safely and honorably through any such crisis, however suddenly it may come l We repeat that ~ve see no necessity for public bor- ro~ving, even in such great public emergencies as this; and no war ought ever to be undertaken by this country, unsustained by such a public sentiment as would make the people fully prepared to contribute, both by direct taxation and voluntary service, all the means necessary to enable the government to maintain the national cause with honor and success. The ancients waged their wars without public loans; and Bonaparte bequeathed no debt to posterity, to pay for all his gigantic military operations. After deducting the large contributions which he forced from allied and conquered nations, there remains an enormous amount which, sus- tamed as he was by the enthusiasm of the nation, he was easily able to extract directly from the industry and resources of France itself. In the case of public improvements, there is still less rea- son for having recourse to borrowing, to obtain the money for 16 Lines. [January, their construction. If they are worth constructing, they are worth paying for. Satisfy the people, or the parties interested, on the former point, and there will be no great difficulty on the latter. It is always, in these cases, the present generation which e~pects to reap from them an advantage equivalent to their cost, in the development of resources, the opening of markets, and the enhancement of the value of property. Though posterity may, indeed, eventually inherit the whole, yet a regard for the benefit of posterity is very far from being the impelling motive to their construction; nor is there any reason or right in transferring to posterity, in the form of stock debt, not only the actual payment of their cost, but the entire risk of possible failure. If State governments will go on constructing works of internal improve- ment, instead of leaving them to the enterprise of private interest and sagacity, let them at least place this restraint upon their con- stant tendency to excess, by the obligation of imposing a simul- taneous direct tax on the people, to the amount of their cost. There will be little danger then of any other works being under- taken, than those which may be pretty safely relied upon to de- fray their own cost, and which will be indeed demanded by the public interest and will of the whole people. While, when cut off from their present habitual reliance upon the State government and the State credit, the different partit~ular sections which may de- sire the construction of local improvements, will have no difficul- ty in effecting their object, either by the private action of their principal citizens, or by combining their respective public resour- ces for the purpose, in some mode of voluntary self-taxation, for which it would be easy to make the requisite legal provision. LINES By a~nts. c. E. DA PONTE, On seeing a friend weeping over the remains of a lady to whom he had been for years attachcd but who had afterward become united to another. YES, moisten now with tears that face, More cold than winters snow; Pour out, oer her unconscious form, Thy agony and wo Not words, nor tears, nor mortal prayer, Can wake the spirit slumbering there!

16 Lines. [January, their construction. If they are worth constructing, they are worth paying for. Satisfy the people, or the parties interested, on the former point, and there will be no great difficulty on the latter. It is always, in these cases, the present generation which e~pects to reap from them an advantage equivalent to their cost, in the development of resources, the opening of markets, and the enhancement of the value of property. Though posterity may, indeed, eventually inherit the whole, yet a regard for the benefit of posterity is very far from being the impelling motive to their construction; nor is there any reason or right in transferring to posterity, in the form of stock debt, not only the actual payment of their cost, but the entire risk of possible failure. If State governments will go on constructing works of internal improve- ment, instead of leaving them to the enterprise of private interest and sagacity, let them at least place this restraint upon their con- stant tendency to excess, by the obligation of imposing a simul- taneous direct tax on the people, to the amount of their cost. There will be little danger then of any other works being under- taken, than those which may be pretty safely relied upon to de- fray their own cost, and which will be indeed demanded by the public interest and will of the whole people. While, when cut off from their present habitual reliance upon the State government and the State credit, the different partit~ular sections which may de- sire the construction of local improvements, will have no difficul- ty in effecting their object, either by the private action of their principal citizens, or by combining their respective public resour- ces for the purpose, in some mode of voluntary self-taxation, for which it would be easy to make the requisite legal provision. LINES By a~nts. c. E. DA PONTE, On seeing a friend weeping over the remains of a lady to whom he had been for years attachcd but who had afterward become united to another. YES, moisten now with tears that face, More cold than winters snow; Pour out, oer her unconscious form, Thy agony and wo Not words, nor tears, nor mortal prayer, Can wake the spirit slumbering there! i84~2.] .Motherwells Poems. 17 Yes, weep oer that pale loveliness, Upon that darkened bier Those pale lips closed the light all gone From eyes which were so dear! She may not hear, she may not see, How deep is now thy misery. How through those parted years thy soul Still kept its dream of youth, And absence had no power to shake Thy constancy and truth. Then heed them not why shouldst thou care, That they must witness thy despair! Yes, speak though vainly thou wilt breathe That imforgotten vow; She listens not it is no crime To kneel beside her now; Oh, no thy silent love of years May now be told, though told in tears. MOTHERWELLS POEMS. AN American republication of MOTHEItWELL, at last! Thank Heaven we are almost tempted to add. How such a genu- ine literary treasure, says the writer of the Preface to the edi- tion before us, should have so long escaped the notice of pub- lishers, ever on the look-out for what they may appropriate and again lucratively disperse, how so rare an exotic should have been until now neglected in the daily indiscriminate transplanta- tion of so many fruit-bearing and barren trees, of choice flowers and unsightly weeds, is difficult to explain; but so it has been. We can only say, that having early secured a copy of the only and the small edition ever published (in Glasgow in 1832), we have half-a-dozen times advised some of our publishing houses in this city to do themselves the honor of placing their names on the title-page of a reprint; and as many times execrated the barbarism and stupidity of their reply It was no doubt all very fine, but poetry was not the thing! A wonder has, however, come to light a publisher has at last been found, willing to hazard a few of his bank-notes, to place within reach of the Amer- ican public one of the most exquisite volumes of poems with * Poems, Narrative and Lyrical, by William Motlierwell. Boston: William D. Ticknor. MDCCCXLI. VOL. X., No. XLIII. 3

i84~2.] .Motherwells Poems. 17 Yes, weep oer that pale loveliness, Upon that darkened bier Those pale lips closed the light all gone From eyes which were so dear! She may not hear, she may not see, How deep is now thy misery. How through those parted years thy soul Still kept its dream of youth, And absence had no power to shake Thy constancy and truth. Then heed them not why shouldst thou care, That they must witness thy despair! Yes, speak though vainly thou wilt breathe That imforgotten vow; She listens not it is no crime To kneel beside her now; Oh, no thy silent love of years May now be told, though told in tears. MOTHERWELLS POEMS. AN American republication of MOTHEItWELL, at last! Thank Heaven we are almost tempted to add. How such a genu- ine literary treasure, says the writer of the Preface to the edi- tion before us, should have so long escaped the notice of pub- lishers, ever on the look-out for what they may appropriate and again lucratively disperse, how so rare an exotic should have been until now neglected in the daily indiscriminate transplanta- tion of so many fruit-bearing and barren trees, of choice flowers and unsightly weeds, is difficult to explain; but so it has been. We can only say, that having early secured a copy of the only and the small edition ever published (in Glasgow in 1832), we have half-a-dozen times advised some of our publishing houses in this city to do themselves the honor of placing their names on the title-page of a reprint; and as many times execrated the barbarism and stupidity of their reply It was no doubt all very fine, but poetry was not the thing! A wonder has, however, come to light a publisher has at last been found, willing to hazard a few of his bank-notes, to place within reach of the Amer- ican public one of the most exquisite volumes of poems with * Poems, Narrative and Lyrical, by William Motlierwell. Boston: William D. Ticknor. MDCCCXLI. VOL. X., No. XLIII. 3 18 .Molherwells Poemr. [January, which the literature of the language has been enriched within the past ten or twenty years. And we sincerely hope, that, as a just rebuke to those Bceotians of the trade, who could not see in such poesy the thing, the success of Mr. Ticknors edition will prove the rogues they lied. Ja the year of our Lord 1836, on a warm 19th of November, delicious with all the bright blandness of the climate of Andalu- sia, we were sitting on the fragment of an old Roman column, over- looking the ruins of the amphitheatre of the ancient city of Jtalica, a few miles from Seville, in te~te-d-t~te with an intelligent young Scotch artist, named B , a painter, from Glasgow. He had been an attached and intimate friend of Motherwell, whose death had taken place about a year previously. Delighted to meet there an American not only familiar with the name, but fully sympathizing with his own sense of the rare beauty of his poems, he was gratifying the eager curiosity of his companion by talking of the poets character, genius, and life. We parted at last with a promise on the part of B ,that on his return to Glasgow he would send us the requisite materials for a biograph- ical sketch of Motherwell, as also some additional poems written subsequently to the date of the published volume; on the recep- tion of which we promised to effect the publication of an Ameri- can edition, the proceeds of which should be transmitted for the benefit of the wife and two children, whom he had left in such a situation as to render any relief of this nature very desirable. We never heard more from B , and the American public has therefore remained ignorant of the new gems which had been set in the coronal of the English Muse. Whether he shared the fate of the thousands of his countrymen who visit the sunnier south, in quest of health, too late for any other purpose than to lay their bones in a foreign grave, or whether, in his professional ramblings C. in search of the picturesque, amid the lawless confusion thea prevailing in that part of Spain, our parting present of a pair of pistols proved insufficient to protect him from the dan- gers into which too free an indulgence of such a taste might be very likely to lead has never reached our ears. His wife and children, we have said. We leave the word unerased though, unhappily, not the literal truth. The language affords no other single one, to express the relation referred to, which we can use, except those which we will not. The person alluded to wts, unhappily to quote a line from an exquisite poem of his own, of which she was the subject, A mither, yet nae wife ! The details of such a history should hardly be publicly paraded 1842.] Motherwells Poems. 19 in these pages, were they even in our possession. It will be suf- ficient to say, that it was one of those unions in which the pas- sionate heart may vainly seek a compensation in any indulgence of an unwedded love, for a remorseful conscience and the justly unrelenting frown of society. The peculiar circumstances of the case were such as not wholly to forfeit, for the unfortunate per- son in question, the respect and regard of those to whom the parties and the history were known; while after the poets death his friends seemed to feel themselves under similar obligations toward her, and the children that were all he was able to bequeath her, as would have been the just due of one in whose union the sanction of Law had hallowed the bonds of Love. No reader will distort our language into an apology for such a relation as that to which we are here compelled to refer, under any circumstan- ces. We but repeat the impression of it, conveyed by the friend of the poet, thea freshly laid to realize the sad yearnings of his own wounded and wearied spirit I would that I were dreaming Where little flowers are gleaming, And the long green grass is streaming Oer the gone, for ever gone ! To allude to this circumstance is necessary, to make intelligi- ble several of the poems of the volume which will scarcely fail the most strongly to arrest the readers attention, and to move his heart. To do so in ungentler language than we have used, were a desecration of the grave in ~vhich is now buried whatever either of guilt or grief may in life have quickened the throbbings of the pulse which has long ceased to beat. And if any harsher spirit, fearing even to seem to excuse that for which excuse, there can be none, would rebuke what they may perhaps term a mor- bid and mistaken charity of judgment, we can only appeal to those who will have learned, from some of the mA and sweet con- tents of this exquisite volume, a kindlier sympathy with the heart of its author ;referring the stern reprover, too, to the beautiful precept of one Scottish poet, to whose memory the world does not refuse the forgiveness we here invoke for another, who has struck, with no unworthy hand, the long silent strings of the same lyre: Then gently scan your brother man, Still gentler, sister woman; Though they may gang a kennin wrang, To step aside is human: One point must still be greatly dark, The moving why they do it: And just as lamely can ye mark, How far perhaps they rue it. 20 .Motherwells Poemr. [January, The writer of the American preface expresses his regret that he has not been able to procure any information respecting Moth- erwells personal history. He mentions simply the fact of his having been the editor of a paper at Glasgow; that he studied much the older poetry of the English language, and published a volume of selections of ballads and other choice specimens of the bygone poetic literature of Scotland and England; that he was an occasional contributor to the magazines and reviews; and that he died on the 15th October, 1835, in the thirty-seventh year of his age. Besides the unfortunate circumstance above alluded to, there is but one other point that we have it in our power to add to this mea- ger outline,narnely, that the paper of which he was the editor, in Glasgow, was of high tory politics; a circumstance, probably, of no unimportant bearing upon the morbid and unhappy state of mind and character exhibited in his poetry. Motherwell was ev- idently a heart-broken man. There is a very sad impress of real- ity on some of these poems, in which he gives utterance to the great griefs that have desolated a strong and passionate soul. They burst from him in wailings, the more profoundly pathetic, from his own apparent efforts to suppress themto stifle the cry of bitterness and anguish, which will force itself forthto cover up beneath a robe of pride, of mighty endurance, and of scorn for the fleeting mockeries and shadows that throng the weary path of human life, a breast in which cancerous agonies the keen. est and the deepest are fast eating their way to the last holds of vitality. Yet had he evidently a kindly and a loving heart, a rev- erential spirit, and a fine sympathy with the holy and beautiful soul of nature, as it would speak pleasantly and soothingly to him from the thousand spiritual influences of earth and air and sky whether amid the sacred stillness of a Sabbath Summer Noon, the awaking music and brightness of a May Morn, or the sweet and solemn spell of the hour of Midnight and Moonshine. Why, then, so desolate, so dark, and so despairing, as his gentle spirit had evidently becomefrom the glimpses which some of these poems open to us down into its black and bitter depths ~ Sharp, doubtless, the pangs which had many a time pierced it through and through; and heavy the clouds of disappointment which may have one after another piled up their masses, be- tween his heart and that glowing glory of young hope which, to the poets eye, in the earlier morn of life, had flushed all creation with the warm hue of its own brightness. Yet still it seems to us that these causes, many and keen as they may perhaps have been, would hardly have produced that result which is apparent 1842] .Motkerwells Poemg. 21 through Motherwells poetry, had there not been added the gloomy and chilling influence of the political faith of which, as we have stated, he was a strenuous advocate. For what does High-Tory- ism in England mean, but despair of humanity ~ It looks around and abroad over the mass of men with no eye of hope, no heart of love. It distrusts, it fears, it despises, it hates. It beholds, in what- ever direction it may turn, a hideous panorama of wretchedness and wickedness. It knows no other remedy than to hang the wickedness, and to crush the wretchedness down yet lower in the dust. It beholds the most frightful social disparities and contrasts, the most heinous wrongs and oppressions, which grind out of the toil, and sweat, and blood, and starvation, and ignorance, and crime of the ninety-nine, the aliment to the pride, and power, and pampered luxury of the one. It beholds all this, and it acqui- esces in it, sustains it, justifies it. It recognises no equality, no brotherhood, and hut faint and feeble human sympathy, with those wretched ninety.nine. It hardens its heart against them, and shuts its ear to the moaning of their misery. It considers that this state of things grows out of the radical evil of human nature, whose necessary law is to be bad and to be wretched; and which must be crushed and coerced by heavy superincumbent restraints upon every impulse that may move it in the direction of its native freedom. It dreads nothing more than the idea of popular liber- ty; for it has no love for mankind, no faith in it, no hope for it. Such is the spirit of English Toryism,and going forth out of the mind of the individual who may be possessed by the dark tyranny of this political faith, it is enough, indeed, to cast a pall of most chilling and cheerless blackness over the moral universe around. Who can be happy with such a night-mare idea perpetually brood- ing over his soul 1~ Least of all men, the poet, the man of pure and tender heart, of loving sympathies with nature and his kind. And when, simultaneous with this pervading and perpetual cause of gloom and hopelessness, pressing upon such a heart from the murky atmosphere of the social world around it, are added individual griefs of blighted affections and disappointed aspira- tionswith the moral retribution, like the death-sting of the fire- circled scorpion, which is the inevitable reaction of the perver- sion of those passions which, when not angels to bless, become demons to torturewho can wonder that the result is an utter misanthropic despair and weariness of life, a consciousness of en- tire blight and failure of all the chances and hopes of this exist- ence, and a wild yearning for a dreamless and unwaking repose in the grave l But a truce to speculations which may perhaps after all be 22 .Mot/rerwells Poems. [January, purely fanciful. The brief space remaining at our command, we prefer to devote to some extracts from the volume itself. Its con- tents are very varied in subject and character. The imitations of the old English poetry, of different ages, are admirable; while noth- ing can exceed the wild, fiery energy of the heroic poems in which his object has been to shadow forth something of the form and spirit of Norse poetry. Few of Burnss Scottish poems surpass the sweetness of Jeanie Morrison ; and, though far from uni- form in merit, some of the songs are entitled to rank among the finest lyric poetry of the language. The greater numher of the whole are of the mournful character referred to in the preceding remarks, and seem to fall on the ear and heart like the wailing chant or dirges on the solemn tolling of funeral knells. The fol- lowing poem we extract, not merely for the sake of the heart- broken pathos that breathes through it, but for the illustration it affords to our remarks upon the unhappy circumstance above alluded to MY HElD IS LIKE TO REND~ WILLIE. My heid is like to rend, Willie, My heart is like to break, Im wearin aff my feet, Willie, Im dyin for your sake! o lay your cheek to mine, Willie, Your hand on my briest-bane, o say yell think on me, Willie, When I am deid and gane! Its vain to comfort me, Willie, Sair grief maun hae its will, But let me rest upon your briest, To sab and greet my fill. Let me sit on your knee, Willie, Let me shed by your hair, And look into the fnce, Willie, I never sail see mair! Im sittin on your knee, Willie, For the last time in my life, A puir heart-broken thing, Willie, A mither, yet nae wife. Ay, press your hand upon my heart, And press it mair and mair, Or it will burst the silken twine, Sne strang is its despair! o waes me for the hour, Willie, When we thegither met, O waes me for the time, Willie, That our first tryst was set! o waes me for the loanin green Where we were wont to gae, 1842.] .Motkerwells .Poemr. 23 And waes me for the destinie, That gart me luve thee sae! 0! dinna mind my words, Willie, I downa seek to blame, But 0 ! its hard to live, Willie, And dree a wands shame! Het tears are hailin ower your cheek, And hailin ower your chin; Why weep ye sae for worthlessness, For sorrow and for sin? Im weary o this warld, Willie, And sick wi a I see, I canna live as I hae lived, Or be as I should be. But fauld unto your heart, Willie, The heart that still is thine, And kiss ance mair the white, white cheek, Ye said was red langsyne. A stoun gaes through my heid, Willie, A sam stoun through my heart, 0! haud me up and let me kiss Thy brow ere we twa pairt. Anither, and anither yet! How fast my life-strings break! Fareweel! fareweel! through yon kirk-yard Step lichtly for my sake! The lavrock in the lift, Willie, That lilts far ower our heid, Will sing the morn as merriie Abune the clay-cauld deid; And this green turf were sittin on, Wi dew-draps shimmerin sheen, Will hap the heart that luvit thee As warkl has seldom seen. But 0! remember me, Willie, On land whereer ye be, And 0! think on the leal, leal heart, That neer luvit ane but thee! And 0! think on the cauld, cauld mools, That file my yellow hair, That kiss the cheek, and kiss the chin, Ye never sail kiss mair! We were assured by the poets friend that there was no more fiction in the preceding, than the supposed actual death of its subject. The connexion between it and the beautiful song enti- tled The bloom bath left thy cheek, Mary,~ will be obvious to every reader. To complete the narrative of this sad history, taken from his own verse, we conclude with the following, which is added in the American, to the contents of the original edition having been written by Motherwell but a few days be- .Motherwells Poems. [January, fore his death. We regret our want of space to make other quo- tations of a different character and less mournful tone. On its first publication some time after, in a newspaper, it was accom- panied with a remark, that no slight interest had been excited in Glasgow, in noticing how the prophetic yearning of the dying poet for the memory of affection had been realized his grave having been observed to be haunted by the constant visits of a young fe- male pacing it round, and keeping still fresh the last memorials offered there of love and grief. But peace be with that grave, and for its occupant, the charity due to human error, the sympa- thy which is the sacred right of all sorrow and suffering, and the love and admiration which none can deny as the just meed of the genius of a true Poet. LINES GIVEN TO A FRIEND A DAY OR TWO BEFORE THE DECEASE OF THE WRITER. October, 1835. When I beneath the cold red earth am sleeping, ~ fever ~ Will there for me be any bright eye weeping That Im no more? Will there be any heart still memory keeping Of heretofore? When the great winds, through leafless forests rushing, Sad music make; When the swollen streams, oer crag and gully gushing, Like full hearts break, Will there then one whose heart despair is crushing Mourn for my sake? When the bright sun upon that spot is shining With purest ray, And the small flowers, their buds and blossoms twining, Burst through that clay; Will there be one still on that spot repining Lost hopes all day? When no star twinkles with its eye of glory, On that low mound; And wintry storms have with their ruins hoary Its loneness crowned; Will there be then one versed in miserys story Pacing it round? It may be so, but this is selfish sorrow To ask such meed, A weakness and a wickedness to borrow, From hearts that bleed, The wailings of to.day, for what to-morrow Shall never need. Lay me then gently in my narrow dwelling, Thou gentle heart; And though thy bosom should with grief be swelling, Let no tear start; It were in vain, for time hath long been knelling Sad. one, depart! 184~21 CHORUSES FROM THE GREEK TRAGEDIES. BY H W. HERBERT, ESQ. I- CHORUS OF GREEK VIRGINS BEFORE THE SACRIFICE OF IPHIGENIA. TiC ap 75/IivaLoC ~3ta Xcn-o~ M/3DoC. Euripides, ~phigenia in dulis v 1036. STROFRE. WHOSE were those bridal measures, That through the Libyan flute so sweetly stole, Blent with the soft lutes call to choral pleasures,. And the wild reed-pipes liquid note, Melting the soul? When upon Pelions top they gave to float Their glittering love-locks on the breezy air, The tt~neful Muses fair, Striking the ground with golden-sandalled feet, While banqueted the gods in order meet, All as they hymned, in songs divinely sweet, Bright Thetis Great Oncides, Till the old Centaurs mount sent back the clang, And that ancestral grove of loftiest trees, As~eleus hymenean rang! While ever and anon that Dardan boy, Joves stolen joy, Brimmed with the mantling nectar up The womb of every golden cup, The Phrygian Ganymede! And on the silver-white sea-margins dancing, In mazy circles deftly now advancing, Retreating now with gleamy speed, Forth swelled the fifty daughters of the sea Their sister Nereids marriage symphony~ ANTISTROFRE. Forth with their pine-boughs glancing, And leafy coronals on every brow, From their deep glades and tangled thickets prancing~ Rushed the wild Centaurs frantic route, The steep hills down; To feast with gods the jovial board about, VOL. X No. XLIIL

184~21 CHORUSES FROM THE GREEK TRAGEDIES. BY H W. HERBERT, ESQ. I- CHORUS OF GREEK VIRGINS BEFORE THE SACRIFICE OF IPHIGENIA. TiC ap 75/IivaLoC ~3ta Xcn-o~ M/3DoC. Euripides, ~phigenia in dulis v 1036. STROFRE. WHOSE were those bridal measures, That through the Libyan flute so sweetly stole, Blent with the soft lutes call to choral pleasures,. And the wild reed-pipes liquid note, Melting the soul? When upon Pelions top they gave to float Their glittering love-locks on the breezy air, The tt~neful Muses fair, Striking the ground with golden-sandalled feet, While banqueted the gods in order meet, All as they hymned, in songs divinely sweet, Bright Thetis Great Oncides, Till the old Centaurs mount sent back the clang, And that ancestral grove of loftiest trees, As~eleus hymenean rang! While ever and anon that Dardan boy, Joves stolen joy, Brimmed with the mantling nectar up The womb of every golden cup, The Phrygian Ganymede! And on the silver-white sea-margins dancing, In mazy circles deftly now advancing, Retreating now with gleamy speed, Forth swelled the fifty daughters of the sea Their sister Nereids marriage symphony~ ANTISTROFRE. Forth with their pine-boughs glancing, And leafy coronals on every brow, From their deep glades and tangled thickets prancing~ Rushed the wild Centaurs frantic route, The steep hills down; To feast with gods the jovial board about, VOL. X No. XLIIL C/ioruse~ from the Greek Tragedies [January, And revel deeply in the joy divine Of bright ecstatic wine! A mighty, mighty light, 0 INereid dear, Thessalian virgins cried, thou soon shalt rear And Chiron wise, and heavens immortal seer, A mighty, mighty light ! did name, Who, landing there, with many a spear and shield, Through Priams high realm should spread relentless flame First warrior on the battle-field, All armed in panoply of burning gold, By Vulcan old, Wrought at the sweet sea-nymphs request, Thetis, who so supremely blest The god-like hero bore. Then did the gods forsake the Olympian bowers, For choral dnnces on the ocean shore, And culled high songs prophetic flowers, To hail the noble Nereids wedded state, And Peleus bridal day to celebrate. EPODE. But oer thy bright locks, and thy snowy brow, With votive wreaths the Greeks shall crown thee now, Jphigenia fair! And lead thee forth, a victim pure and young, Like some white heifer, spotless, wild, and free, Nursed the dim woods and shaggy cliffs among. Yet never, never did the rustic glee Of the rough shepherds lair, Nor Pans wild wood-notes, wak~a thee On the lone shore; Though they shall drag thee by the flower-crowned hair, And stain thy necit of snow with purple gore, The sacred hearths before, Who erst didst grace thy queenly mothers side, Meet, in the fragrance of thy glowing charms, To fill some hero-husbands royal arms, A happy bride! Ah, whither, whither now has fled The might of holiness, the empire dread Of maiden modesty, When impious daring stalks with dauntless tread, And lowly virtue shrinks unheeded by, And laws are trampled down by lawless scorn? low long, great gods! how long have ye forborne? 1842.] Choruses from the Greek Tragedies. 27 CHORUS OF GREEK VIRGINS IN THE TEMPLE OF THE TAURIC DIANA. S rrap& 7 7r~rptva~. Euripides, Iphiger& ia in Tauris v. 1089. STROFILE I. Thou bird, who pourest aye thy mournftil dirge, Along the rock-bound verge Of the deep sea, Thy mournful dirge, which all compassionate, Wailing thy mate! Be it mine, sad Halcyon, to compete with thee, A melancholy bird of no wild wing To soar the while I sing! Pining, alas! for the Greek forum free! Pining for Dian, whom faint mothers call From the green top of Cynthus tall! For the soft tresses of the waving palm! For the dark Daphnes verdant screen, And holiest umbrage of the olives sheen, Dear to Latona ! for the glassy calm Of those swan-haunted lakes, Which not a ripple breaks, Save when a white wing stirs it, where they float, The Muses sacred birds of saddest note! ANTI5TROPHE I. Witness, ye tears, which from your deep founts gushed, And down my pale cheeks rushed In copious flow; When reft from thee by the barbaric spear, My country dear, I clomb the foreign galley, sad and slow, And through the slave-mart reached this cursed spot, Wo, for the captives lot! While smoking yet they lay in ashes low, My native towers ! Alas! alas! the time, That bound me thus a slave in maiden prime Slave to the virgin-huntress of the wold, Her gory altars tending slave of thine, High child of Agamemnons royal line! Ay me! the noblest heart may well grow cold, At fortunes bitter spite, When, unaccustomed quite, It falls from bliss sublime to ruin base! Such change no heart may brook, and not despair. 28 Choruses from the Greek Tragedies. [January, STROFUE II. But thee, fair Argive, to thy native shores A flying bark shall waft of fifty oars, The spirit-stirring reed Of the wild wood-god, with its shrilly note, Timing the rowers speed! Thee, with sweet songs, that all around shall float, Tuned to the seven-stringed lyre, The minstrel master of prophetic fire, Shall the swift oars dash up the foamy sea Nor the sails belly to the snoring blast, While every sheet is strained nor free and fast The galley brave Walk in glad triumph the tumultuous wave! ANTISTROPHE II. Oh! could 1 stand, a slave no more, at home, Where streams the sun on shrine and hippodrome! Oh! could I cease to pray That breezy pinions oer my back would spread, And bear me hence away To those old halls, and that accustomed bed! Oh! could I stand again In festive dance amid the choral train, A happy maid, my mother dear beside, Tending some happy bride! Even as I stood of old, my ringlets flinging, In rich abundant clusters loosely swinging, When, decked with gauzy veils that rose and fell To the voluptuous musics thrilling swell, I filled my place In the blithe contests for the crown of grace! III. ~HORU5 OF GREEK VIRGINS. fi~L #3q ~LfL6~vTa, xa~ Euripzdes, Iphigenia in .~ulis v. 751 STROPITE. The host shall sail the mighty Grecian host! To Trojan SimoYs, that silver stream; Its ships shall crowd Apollos chosen coast; Its spears round Ilion gleam! Where wild Cassandra as we hear them say 1842.] Ckoruses from the Greek Tragedies. 29 Shakes loose the clusters of her golden hair, A priestess young and fair, All decked with wreaths of green immortal bay; When, by the prophet god possessd, That solemn phrensy fills her laboring breast. ANTIsTROPHE. Then! as that host with brazen bucklers glancing, Shall fill their rivers with the onry sound Of hostile squadrons to the shore advancing, Then, their strong ramparts round, And on their citadel, shall brave the fight Troys chosen chiefs while all in burnished arms, To rescue Helens charms Sister to those twin powers who star the night All Greece shall sweep in proud career! All Greece ! and bear thee back, won by the spear! ErODE- Then, then shall they defile thy mighty wall With battles crimson hue And beat thy towers and rock-built ramparts down, Old Phrygian town! Then shall they sack thy broad streets through and through, While many a sacred head to earth shall fall, And wild shall wail through many a marble hall ]Iriams lone spouse and all bis daughters rare! Loud! loud shall ring the echoes of despair In homes oerthrown, all for thy guilty sake, That didst thy nuptial vows so foully break, Helen, Joves child divine! Oh! never fall so hard a fate on me, Nor on my childrens children, as shall be To the rich maidens of the Lydian line, Or Phrygian brides, who, as their webs they twine, Sadly in mournful songs must soon inquire Ak! who shall drag me by the tresses bfight, While sinks my home in the red death-fires light, The captive victim of a chiefs desire? All, all through thee, thou fair predestined child Of that high dame and the white sea-bird wild; If that be true, as mystic legends tell, Which to the lovely Leda once befell When, Joves immortal glory cast aside, A swans broad wings he wore and neck of pride. Unless the tablets of Pierian song A tide of errors strange have rolled along, Teaching the sons of men no truth, but impious wrong- 30 [January ON ASSOCIATION AND ATTRACTIVE INDUSTRY. BY A FOURIERIST.* First .hrlicle. THERE is a monstrous mass of misery in the world, which pleads with deep and earnest tones for alleviation! This misery, under its innumerable forms of moral affliction and of physical wretched- ness, extends to all classes of society, and renders human exist- ence, which contains all the elements of a high order of happi- ness, a mournful pilgrimage, in which disappointment, suffering, and despair domineer with bitter tyranny over our feelings and our destinies. I intend to give, in a series of articles, a practical idea of a system of Association, which I believe will remedy this raise- ry, to which so little regard is paid by the political and scientific leaders of the world, who believe it to be the natural and una- voidable lot of mankind upon this earth. To realize the system, no appeal will be made to the charity * We have acceded to the request of the able and intelligent author of the papers of which the present is the first, to allow him to lay them before the readers of the Democratic Review, in the mode here adopted. Although such a course involves a departure from the general editorial system of the work, yet the peculiar interest of the subject induces us to do so, notwithstanding that they may contain many propositions to which we are far from yieI~ing our assent or endorsement. The subject is one of the mightiest extent and moment. Fou- rierism claims to be a full solution of the great problem of human society. It claims, too, to be the perfect development of a truly democratic freedom, as well as the earthly consummation of that Christianity which fell from the lips of Him who spake as never man spake. To these pretensions we are far from yielding the assent demanded by its eloquent and enthusiastic disciples. The subject is too profound, and its bearings and relations too vast, to permit us to pass any judgment upon it, on such a study as we have as yet been enabled to give it. But there is no doubt that it has made a rapid progress within the past tea years, and also that not a few minds of a very elevated order have, to a great- er or less extent, embraced its doctrine. We have long, indeed, perceived the general tendency of the age to the idea of Association, and believed that it con- tains the germ of a new civilization destined to overspread the earth, and to pro- duce results of happiness and good undreamed of yet by human hope. Whether Fourierism contains the true theory for the practical application of this idea, discussion must demonstrate, and experience can alone confirm. 1~feanwhiie it is entitled at least to an attentive and candid hearingand from none more than from an American democracy. With these remarks, to place the Democratic Re- view rectus in curia in reference to the subject of the present article, we leave the author to speak for himself and his doctrinevouching simply for the gener- ous enthusiasm of philanthropy and conviction from which alone we know his disinterested labors to proceed. ED. D. R.

30 [January ON ASSOCIATION AND ATTRACTIVE INDUSTRY. BY A FOURIERIST.* First .hrlicle. THERE is a monstrous mass of misery in the world, which pleads with deep and earnest tones for alleviation! This misery, under its innumerable forms of moral affliction and of physical wretched- ness, extends to all classes of society, and renders human exist- ence, which contains all the elements of a high order of happi- ness, a mournful pilgrimage, in which disappointment, suffering, and despair domineer with bitter tyranny over our feelings and our destinies. I intend to give, in a series of articles, a practical idea of a system of Association, which I believe will remedy this raise- ry, to which so little regard is paid by the political and scientific leaders of the world, who believe it to be the natural and una- voidable lot of mankind upon this earth. To realize the system, no appeal will be made to the charity * We have acceded to the request of the able and intelligent author of the papers of which the present is the first, to allow him to lay them before the readers of the Democratic Review, in the mode here adopted. Although such a course involves a departure from the general editorial system of the work, yet the peculiar interest of the subject induces us to do so, notwithstanding that they may contain many propositions to which we are far from yieI~ing our assent or endorsement. The subject is one of the mightiest extent and moment. Fou- rierism claims to be a full solution of the great problem of human society. It claims, too, to be the perfect development of a truly democratic freedom, as well as the earthly consummation of that Christianity which fell from the lips of Him who spake as never man spake. To these pretensions we are far from yielding the assent demanded by its eloquent and enthusiastic disciples. The subject is too profound, and its bearings and relations too vast, to permit us to pass any judgment upon it, on such a study as we have as yet been enabled to give it. But there is no doubt that it has made a rapid progress within the past tea years, and also that not a few minds of a very elevated order have, to a great- er or less extent, embraced its doctrine. We have long, indeed, perceived the general tendency of the age to the idea of Association, and believed that it con- tains the germ of a new civilization destined to overspread the earth, and to pro- duce results of happiness and good undreamed of yet by human hope. Whether Fourierism contains the true theory for the practical application of this idea, discussion must demonstrate, and experience can alone confirm. 1~feanwhiie it is entitled at least to an attentive and candid hearingand from none more than from an American democracy. With these remarks, to place the Democratic Re- view rectus in curia in reference to the subject of the present article, we leave the author to speak for himself and his doctrinevouching simply for the gener- ous enthusiasm of philanthropy and conviction from which alone we know his disinterested labors to proceed. ED. D. R. 1842.] On ~1ssociation and .Llttractive Industry. 31 and philanthropy of the age, for they have both been taxed in so many ways, and for so many purpos~s, that the world has become tired of projects which have no vitality in themselves, but must depend upon external aid for support. We shall propose a plan, which, once put in operation, will spread rapidly by its own inhe- rent excellence; and which, while it improves the condition of the laboring classes, will not encroach upon any vested or per- sonal rights, but will offer to the rich a stable and profitable in- vestment of capital. For an examination of the principles I shall set forth, I am peal to those who desire sincerely an amelioration of the condition of their fellow-men; to those who feel an ambition for taking part in a great and noble undertaking; and to those who, weary of the interminable strife and the barren controver- sies of political parties, desire new measures and new means of reform. I appeal also to conscientious Reformers who do not wish to waste their lives and labors upon ephemeral, selfish, and superficial schemes, which vanish with the day that has brought them forth. It is not political and administrative reforms that the world requires; it is a SOCIAL REFORM. The EVILS which afflict society are social, not political in their nature, and a Social Reform only can eradicate them. The causes of Human Misery lie too deep for mere political and administrative reforms to reach them; and so long as the leading and influential men of society continue to waste their efforts and intellectual energies in party strife and contention, and the mass suffer themselves to be guided by them, in the vain hope of a change for the better, they will vegetate together in the deplorable social condition in which all are now sunk. May it not truly be said of them, .t~at they are the blind leading the blind, and that they are wandering in a labyrinth of false po- litical doctrines and dogmas, and groping their way in social dark- ness, without any true principles and high objects to guide them 1 The history of this country proves practically that mere political and legislative reforms can do nothing for the happiness of man and the social elevation of the mass. We have had over half a century of political strife and controversies; different parties, federal and democratic, have had the ascendency; various poli- cies, Hamiltonian and Jeffersonian, have been carried out, and where are the great results which have been attained l We do not deny that commerce and industry have been greatly devel- oped; that vast internal improvements have been made, and an important material progress has taken place. But are the people happier l Have they pleasing and encouraging prospects before them I And are they moving onward toward some high Destiny 32 On .Rssociation, [January, which excites enthusiasm l No, far from it; social evils have increased, and to a melancholy extent; and the future offers us in the political world the prospect of bitter party strife, of dissen- sions and discord, and in the social world, of poverty and degra- dation for the mass. If we examine the present condition of society with an impar- tial eye, we shall find that abuses and evils have increased with fearful rapidity, and that they are much more intense at present than they have been at any former period. Our system of free, or, as it should properly be termed, false and anarchical competi- tion, is becoming more and more violent and relentless, and is engendering a degree of selfishness, antagonism, and animosity between all classes of society, which is revolting to contemplate. It is also leading to greater frauds and injustice in the business world than have ever before been practised, and to a commercial, financial, and industrial demoralization, which is almost legali- zing fraud and indirect robbery of every kind. The condition of the Laboring Classes is also becoming more precarious, and the uncertainty of obtaining employment is gradually increasing. The Mechanic and Laborer can no longer look forward as in for- mer years with the hope of securing a home for old age, but con- sider themselves fortunate if they can satisfy present necessities, and obtain the means of subsistence for the day. The price of rents, living, & c., has increased, while the price of labor has re- mained stationary or decreased; the power of Capital over Labor is augmenting, aad there is a general tendency to a reduction of wages by the operation of free competition among the Laboring Classes; who, pressed by want, offer the sad spectacle of mea competing with each other for the work which capitalists and employers require. The fluctuations and revulsions in commer- cial operations and in banking have become deeper and more sud- den, ingulfing the rich in ruin, and reducing the working classes to utter want, and often to starvation. They overwhelm with the most bitter disappointments and despair all classes, and produce an amount of moral suffering more than equal to that caused by the civil wars and revolutions of former periods. Our whole system of commerce and industry, based upon free competition and en- vious strife and opposition, is a round of harassing cares, anxie- ties, disappointments, hopes blasted, and unforeseen reverses and ruin. The business world is an arena of conflicts, overreaching, and fraud a school for the most callous selfishness, corruption, and demoralization. Its spirit has rendered pettycunning, craft, and business tact, the most important qualifications of men; made the practice of a pure truth and integrity almost impossible; set up wealth as the only standard of excellence; left in inaction the 1842.] and ..~ttractive Industry. 33 higher faculties of the mind; reduced the nobler pursuits, like the arts and sciences, below the mere ability of money-making and caused an intellectual prostitution and a moral degradatioa which are pitiful to look upon. But let us turn from the contemplation of what surrounds us, and take a general view of the, civilized nations of the earth. If we do so, we shall find, at present, times of misery and dis- tress such as the world has never seen before. I will lay before the reader a few statistical facts, which make the mind shudder with horror, when it reflects that so many millions of human be- ings wear out their lives in the wretchedness and wo which are here laid open before us. Before stating these facts I will remark, that the system of society of this country is the same as that of the civilized nations of Europe, where I find the examples of misery which I shall give. The difference between us and those nations, is the difference of government. But the form of gov- ernment is to the social system what the dress is to the body; we have in this country the same body or social organization as France or England; but instead of the tinsel trappings of royalty, we have placed upon it the plainer rohes of republicanism. If the social system be false, the form of government cannot correct the evils which it has engeizdered; to expect it were as vain as to hope to cure a diseased body by changing the dress. The form of government and of the administration exercise an influence only upon the surface j~f social rel~itions; they do not go to the foundation of society, and cannot eradicate such evils as poverty, ignorance, vice, and degradation, from which man should be first relieved. The great error which has been committed, is to have looked upon pQlitical reforms as a sufficient means of realizing social good. The history of the past proves the fallacy of this belief, and common sense dictates that we should abandon a worn- out and fruitless policy, which leads to no results, and seek for new plans and new measures of reform. Social evils are less intense in this country than in Europe, it is trueand why l Because we have a vast extent of soil and a thin population; and because there are outlets and new fields of action offered to the increasing population, and to those who cannot find employment, or who have been broken down in their fortunes. But we are verging gradually to~vard the frightful misery which exists in older civilized countries; nay, we are already in part in it, and we are moving roundward in the fatal circles of the horrible vortex.. Some of the miseries of which I shall speak are already upon us; and those which are not, should serve as bea- cons to warn us of our danger. VOL. X., No. XLIII.5 34 On Association [January, There are in the city of London about two hundred and thirty thousand beggars, thieves, pickpockets, and vagrants. What a vast array of human beings are here plunged in vice, crime, pov- erty, and degradation! In Paris there is in comparison nearly an equal amount of misery and depravity. In some of the wards where the poor reside, out of every twelve children born, eleven die the first year. If the entire annual product of France were divided equally among its thirty-two millions of inhabitants, each would have eleven cents per day; but of this scanty product a minority of the rich absorb so large a portion, that twenty-two millions have upon an average hut about six cents a day each, to defray all ex- penses food, lodging, clothing, education, & c. The fact that the annual income or product of France, equally divided among all, would yield but eleven cents per day to each person, shows the folly of Agrarian doctrines, of a reform in the currency, and of all such false and minor plans and schemes of amelioration. What France requires, is increased production of real wealth increased eight or ten foldwhich is only possible with Associ- ation and Attractive Industry. What is true of France is true of all other countries. We have had in this country nearly ten years of uninterrupted controversy about the currency, and our pol- iticians have not yet perceivect~that it is an entirely secondary ques- tion, and that the primary and important one is that of production.* In Sicily, an island so highly favored by soil, climate, and posi- tion, the condition of the people is frightful. Count Gasparin, Peer of France, in speaking of the state of its agriculture, and the poverty of the peasantry, says: When the crops are bad, or the prices of grain are low, so that the landholders require less labor, then the misery of the country becomes intense: without means of subsistence for the winter, it is not a rare thing to find peasants starved to death in the fields with grass in their mouths, from which they have vainly endeavored to draw nourishment. in Ireland, out of a population of eight millions, every third person experiences, during thirty weeks in the year, a deficiency of even third-rate potatoes. According to the Journal of the Statistical Society, of Janua- ry, 1840, there are ia Liverpool 7,862 inhabited cellars, damp, * Money, whether paper or specie, is merely the representative of the products of industry. By industry, we understand Agriculture, Manufactures, and Me-. chanics. If we wish to render a country rich and prosperous, we must increase those products, not their conventional representative. Instead of endless quarrels about the currency, we want a reorganization of industry, and a good appli- cation of the three elements of production, which are labor, capital, and talent. 1842.] and s~ttractive Industry. 35 dark, dirty, and ill ventilated; and in these lodge 39,300 of the working classes. In Ma.nchester, of 132,000 working people, 14,960 live in cellars. At Bury, one third of the laboring classes are so badly off, that in 773 houses, one bed serves for four per- sons; in 207 one for five; and in 78 one for six human beings. In Bristol, 46 out of every one hundred of the working classes have but one room for a family. In Glasgow, thirty thousand Irish and Highlanders are said, according to the description of Dr. Cowan, to wallow in filth, crime, and wretchedness in the cellars and wynds of this great commercial city. From ten to twenty persons, of both sexes, lie huddled together in their rags and filth on the floors each night. The cellars are beer and spirit shops. Multitudes of young girls, says Mr. Symonds, applied to Capt. Miller, the head of the Glasgow police, to rescue them from these scenes, to which they are driven by sheer want. A year or two served to harden and hurry them, from drunkenness, vice, and disease, to an early grave. The Register General states, that be has seen in one small garret, the husband, sick of a typhus; a sick child laid across the sick mans bed; two others sleeping under the bed; two window recesses let to two Irish lodgers at sixpence a week as resting- places for the night; the wife, a young healthy woman, lying in the same bed with her sick husband at night, and supporting the family by taking in washing, which was hung across the room to dry the parish authorities having forbidden the exposure of linen out of the windows. London Quarterly Review, for July, 1840. John Critchley Prince, a weaver and a poet, gives the following description of a night passed in a workhouse. He had been to the continent to obtain work, but having found none, he had re- turned to England. The first night after his arrival he applied for food and shelter at a workhouse ir Kent, and was thrust into a miserable garret, with the roof sloping to the floor, where he was incarcerated with twelve others, eight men and four women, chiefly Irish, the lame, the halt, and the blind. Some had bad legs, which emitted a horrible stench; some were in a high state of fever, and were raving for drink, which was denied to them; for the door was locked, and those outside, like the bare walls within, were deaf to their cries. Weary and way-w~n, he lay down on the only vacant place amid this mass of misery, in a sleeping-chamber for the unfortunate child of wo, the hapless vagrant in Christian England, at the back of an old woman who appeared to be in a dying state; but he could get no rest for the groans of the wretched around him; and the cra~vling vermin, which, quitting his companions, crept up and down his limbs, 36 On association [January, exciting in him the most horrid loathing. Joyfully did he indeed hail the first beam of the morning that broke through the cran- nies of this chamber of famine and disease; and when the keeper came to let him out, his bed-fellow was dead had quitted her mortal coil, unshrived, unwept, unpitied, and unknown ! London Monthly Magazine, July, 1841. We have no statistical details of n-liseryh in the United States, but we give the following general view of its condition, which we believe is not an exaggerated picture. Of the seventeen millions of human beings composing the population of the Uni- ted States, it is certain that (leaving slaves out of the account) not less than three or four millions are at this moment, and a very large portion at all times, in circumstances of comparative or extreme destitution. We are confident that this is not an over-estimate; although the number of actual paupers and habit- ual beggars may not exceed half a million. But when we add to these the vast army of confirmed drunkards, who, with glassy eyes, burning brows, and shaking knees, are reeling on their down- ward road, with their dependant wives and children, subsisting from hand to mouth, Heaven only knows how a daily repeti- tion of the miracle of the loaves and fishes, save that the baskets full of fragments are omitted, with the scarcely less number of immigrants from Europe, destitute of the means of subsist- ence, and of the intelligence and skill which would facilitate their acquirement; the wives and children of habitual idlers, loungers, and reprobates; the families of the crippled and diseased; of poor widows and persons out of employmentand the aggregate of human suffering from absolute want is frightful. Who can esti- mate it? Besides this melancholy amount of destitution and suffering among the white population of this country, we must not forget that nearly three millions of negroes, who are barely supplied with a minimum of physical wants, are toiling in slavery, and sunk in hopeless ignorance and degradation. But leaving aside these practical examples of misery, let us take a general view of the policy and condition of civilized na- tions. Here we see regions exhausted under the cultivation of a noxious plant, which is grown to furnish idleness and intel- lectual vr4uity with the means of a momentary occupation and excitement. There, districts planted with grain, not to sus- tain life, but to yield a poisonous liquid, which shall afford to grovelling masses a brutal exhilaration, with its attendants, mad- ness, folly, disease, and death. In one country we see black slaves, who labor from fear of the lash, producing the raw ma- terial which keeps at work the white slaves of another country, 1842.1 and .Rttractive Industry. 37 who labor from fear of want and starvation. Here the vessels of one nation are engaged ia stealing the children of Africa from their native land; there the vessels of another are cheating the simple natives of uncivilized regions out of their productions, and initiating them into the vices of civilization. In some countries we see destitute populations, deprived even of salt with their scanty vegetable food, to supply a small minority with the means of wasteful extravagance. In others we see them living and la- boring merely to create products for capital and commerce to speculate upon. The world is full of useless misery, which could easily be re- medied, and which oppresses all classes, the rich as well as the poor. The rich are harassed by disease and physical debili- ty, by apathy, melancholy, and hypochondria; while the laboring mass are worn out physically and morally in the misery and drudgery of our false societies. All classes are more or less mi.erable, and none can escape this condition, until a social organization is discovered, which will secure the happiness of all mankind. God sees in the human race a family of brothers, and he does not permit that a small minority shall be happy, and remain at the same time indifferent to the sufferings and miseries of their fellow-creatures. I.vet the rich and great discover the means of relieving the mass from their poverty and wretchedness, and they will discover at the same time the true means of their own social happiness. There are, on the part of those who are at their ease in society, a selfishness and indifference, which are as reprehensible as they are disgusting. They pay no attention to human misery; they ask not if there is any remedy; they do not even give a thought to the subject. Freed from poverty, they never reflect how hor- rible it is to wear out life in a continual combat with want and anxiety. Little do they think that perhaps with every thread of the gay habiliments which they wear, is interwoven the sigh of a human soul; and that on the delicacies and comforts which surround them, are spent the lifes energies and the vitality of exhausted frames, which have nerves that feel and suffer. Yes, the means of enjoyment, the luxuries of the world, are produced amidst want and suffering, and they come from the abodes of poverty and toil, laden with woes a hundred-fold greater than the delights which they give! The attention of political leaders, and of the influential, must be called to the subject of human misery. The condition of mankind demands~ and demands urgently, alleviation. Their appeals go forth, sometimes in the stifled moans of hidden miseries, sometimes in the loud wails of desperate wo. Wttrs, revolutions, and famine stride alter- 38 On .~ssociation [January, nately over nations, marking with characters of blood and devastation the annals of our societies. This state of things must cease; it is not the Destiny of Man. It has not its origin in the imperfection or depravity of human nature, but in a false organization of society, which deranges and misemploys all the elements of good in man,and produces discord, injustice, and mis- ery, where order, justice, and happiness might and should prevail. What are the great statesmen and legislators of this and other countries doing for the elucidation of true social principles, and the elevation of the mass l Unfortunately, they are doing nothing. Their attention is exclusively directed to political re- forms, and to changes of persons at the head of the administra- tion. The vast problem of a Social Reform, which is so much deeper and more important than any political reform, is entirely neglected. Personal ambition, plans of self-aggrandizement, ephemeral party rivalries and triumphs, individual and sectional interests, absorb the energies and talents of the political leaders of nations! If they were animated by a true and noble ambition, how could they waste their lives and labors in secondary and trifling subjects, when so grand an object as a reorganization of society and the elevation of the human race was offeked to their activiby l The world requires new social guides, new measures and new plans of reform. The intelligence of the age demands higher, wiser, and more practical improvements; it demands effectual remedies for present evils, and a policy which will not always prove abortive and deceptive. Instead of conflicts of interests, anarchical competition, and envious rivalry and opposition, the world wants Association, Combination of action, and Unity of in- terests. Instead of the present repugnant, ill-requited, and de- grading system of LABOR, it wants ATTRACTIVE INDUSTRY, and an equitable division of profits. Instead of endless controversies about the Currency, it wants increased Production, and the vast material economies, as well as moral blessings, of AssocIATioN. Let those who are convinced of the defects of the present sys- tem of society, and who are tired of the vain and sterile strife of parties, be not discouraged in their hope of a better future, by philosophical, political, and moral doctrines, which teach that the earth is, and was intended to be, a valley of tears, an abode of misery, where man was placed to combat and suffer that as evil has always existed, it will always continue to exist; that ignorance, pov& rty, and suffering form a part of the Destiny of Man, and enter into Gods scheme with regard to His creation. Let not their hopes be dampened by these views, for they are all false. A God of Justice has not placed the Human Race upon 184~2.] and .Rttractive Industry. 39 the earth to wear out a weary existence in a round of miseries, which outrage every sentiment of the heart, every desire and at- traction of the soul, and added tantalization to injustice, by im- planting in them a deep, unquenchable thirst for happiness. If he has given us limbs which suffer from the cold, he intended that they should be clothed; if he has given us stomachs which require food, he intended that they should be fed; if he has im- planted in us a love of Liberty and Justice, he did not design that Tyranny and Injustice should oppress and fetter us, and con- sume with their adder-fires the life-feelings within us. If the child comes into the world weak and ignorant, he intended that the strength and wisdom of mature age should extend it support, and call out all the capacities and talents with which it is en- dowed. But above all, if he has given man a Mind to compre- hend the vast scheme of creation, and a Soul to feel its sublime harmonies, he did not intcnd that that Intelligence should be ob- scured by the gloom of ignorance, and those feelings harassed and worn out in the discords, conflicts, and anxieties of our false so- cieties. He has assigned to man a high destiny, that of OVER- SEER of the GLOBE, and of the creations upon it; he has given him noble aspirations, and it must be contrary to his design that he should be a poor and ignorant drudge which is the case with nine tenths of the Race and crushed to the dust, as if the dust were his natural element. No, it cannot be! The present poor and degraded condition of the Human Race is not their Destiny. It is caused by a false system of Society and a false system of Indus- try, and it is only in a Social Reform that a remedy can be found. The earth is fruitful enough to produce in abundance all that is necessary for the physical wants and comforts of man. Let labor, capital, and talent be rightly directed, and it will yield in superfluity its material riches, ~vhich are of primary importance to our happiness. The efforts of men are so miserably applied in our present system of industry and free competition, that the great majority live in a state of destitution,their intellectual nature smothered, and their lives worn out in the anxieties of obtaining the means of a bare subsistence. Association and Attractive Industry are the remedies for the poverty which noW exists, and the train of evils which it engenders. in Association, Labor, Capital, and Skill, can be applied in the most efficient and judicious manner; great economies can be introduced, and a zest given to industry, which will increase production or real wealth to such a degree that abundance can be guarantied to all. Association and Attractive Industry will guaranty to Man richesthat is, a sufficiency of everything necessary to his 40 On .~qssociation [January, physical wants and comforts ;with riches will come pecu- niary independence and education; and with education, intel- lectual development. The mass have heretofore been tyrannised and oppressed, be- cause they have been ignorant and pecuniarily dependant. Let them become enlightened and wealthy, and oppression under all its forms will cease; they will then be respected; they will ob- tain their rights, and know ho~v to maintain them. He who is ignorant, poor, and dependant, is made use of as a tool,he is not respected,he is not looked upon as a MAN. He who is intelligent and independent is respected,it is felt that he was not created to be a beast of burden,he is a MAN! Riches and intellectual development are the foundation of human liberty and happiness; and Association and Attractive Industry will, and can alone, secure these precious advantages to all. If the earth be fruitful enough to furnish man with all that is necessary to his physical happiness, has he not in his own heart and mind the elements of his moral and intellectual happiness ~ He has. He finds within himself emotionssuch as friendship, love, ambition, and paternitythe true and harmonious satis- faction of which procure such high delights; and he finds also within himself intellectual powers which can surround him with wonders in the arts and sciences, and procure him the enjoy- ment of the harmonies of the one and the truths of the other. He wants a society which will develop the material riches of nature and the intellectual riches of the soul, and secure their possession to all mankind. If he can attain this double end, he attains his happiness. Human happiness is not an Utopia, an illusive chimera, which can never be realized; the elements of it are in and around us; we only require a society which will call them out. All classes, at present, are in a miserable condition. The poor possess nei- ther material nor intellectualriches, and their existence is a sick- ening combat against poverty, care, and anxiety. The rich have a sufficiency of material riches or physical comforts, it is true, but have little or no moral and intellectual riches; for our societies cannot secure even to a favored few the enjoyments in a true and harmonious mannerof the emotions and senti- ments, and the higher pleasures of the mind. They indulge so excessively in material pleasures, that their wealth is often a curse instead of a blessing. They are freed from the cares a~nd anxieties of procuring the means of existence; but having few high intellectual occupations to engage their attention, they become tired of the trivial and insignificant round of pleasures which society offers them, and their minds become a prey t~ 1842.] and attractive Industry. 41 apathy, melancholy, intellectual vacuity, ennui, mental dejection, and hypochondria. This state of things is a moral death for the mind, and renders the rich, surrouiided with all their luxuries, frequently more intensely miserable than the poor. Besides, how uncertain are they in their possessions! In the excesses and fluctuations of commerce, banking, and industryin the dis- hoaesty, frauds, and villanies to which the greedy and unprinci- pled strife after fortune leadshow many are precipitated sud- denly from affluence into poverty! And those who, by superior skill or chance, escape the reverses of fortune, may be almost certain that their children will not, but will be wrecked upon the thousand shoals of our societies, and ingulfed in ruin. Yes, our societies expose all men to dangers, sad reverses, and bitter dis- appointments. Let those who oppose ignorantly, and from pre- judice, the idea of a social reform, examine attentively the con- dition even of the most favored in society around them, examine their career, and see how unenviable in reality is their lot; see to how many evils, sufferings, and changes of fortune they are exposed; how often they are overtaken by misfortunes which they could not foresee or avert, and in how many instances they end their lives miserably. Some fall from affluence into poverty; others are disappointed by the bad conduct of children; some again, from these and other causes, take to the fatal cup, and die drunkards; while others are afflicted with poor health, and drag out an existence of debility and disease. There is not one per- son in twenty in our societies, who passes through life with even a moderate degree of good fortune; and as to that high and ele- vated happiness which man might enjoy in Association with At- tractive Industry, moral harmony of the passions, and an extend- ed cultivation of the arts and sciences, no one possesses it. A social reform is necessary for all classes, but particularly for the millions of our poor, down-trodden, and oppressed fellow- creatures, who cannot speak for themselves,who cannot plead their own cause, but must depend upon the intelligent and the rich to do it for them. There is an apathy and indifference among the influential classes and the political leaders of society, which are most repre. hensible. A great noise is made about trifling sins, which are of but small moment; while the crying sin of the times its dark, loathsome Selfishness is denounced by no sect or party. The rich, the clergy, and political leaders should direct their atten- tion to the sad and melancholy question of human misery; they should inquire earnestly if means do not exist to remedy it, and they should search conscientiously for those means. If they VOL. X., No. XLIII.6 42 On ./Issociatiun [January, pass by this important question in silent indifference, they be- come traitors to the cause of Humanity and of God, and they incur a responsibility which they will have to answer as best they can. One tenth part of the time and means spent in selfish pleasures, in sectarian controversy and party quarrels, would, if directed to the great and noble object of the social elevation and happiness of mankind, secure its realization. But now scarce an effort, scarce a thought, is directed to this important subject. Human misery is looked upon as a fatal evil, which cannot be remedied; and it is declared an Utopia, a visionary scheme, even to think of it. The clergy should in particular aid the cause of a social re- form; the elevation and happiness of the human race upon this earth, is the true preliminary step to be taken to secure their sal- vation hereafter. Give man a sufficiency, so that his higher intel- lectual powers and sentiments will not be deadened by poverty and anxiety; develop his intelligence that internal light which God has given him to direct him rightly; take temptations and pitfalls out of his path, and will he not move on more up- rightly and nobly in his earthly career, and be much more likely to obtain salvation,if acts and deeds can obtain it,than if he is plunged in poverty, forced into vice and crime, from ignorance, or circumstances which he cannot combat ?.~jf his bigher facul- ties and sentiments are smothered, and his sensual tendencies only called out; and if, in short, bis mind is uncultivated, so that he is left to move on amidst the thousand shoals and perils of our false societies, without any high moral and intellectual de- velopment to guide him, and to counteract tempting circum- stances without, and perverted passions within ~ There can be no doubt of it; and true religion, as well as enlightened reason, pleads for a social reform, nnd prompts us to labor for the organ- ization of a true social order. I shall lay before the readers of the Dem6cratic Review the plan of a social organization, which, I feel confident, will do away with a vast amount of the misery which now exists, and secure the social elevation of the mass. I call the attention of reflecting minds to this subject, and request them to devote to it that serious exa- mination which it merits. The system discovered by Founrux differs entirely from all those which have heretofore been pro- posed; it has not the least affinity with or relation to that of Owen, the Shakers, IRappites, or any other of which the public has an idea. It is a comprehensive, and noble system, which is not the arbitrary plan or scheme of an individual, but is deduced from certain great moral and intellectual laws, by which its truth can be proved. 1842.] and attractive Industry. 43 To do away with some prejudices which may exist in the mind of the reader, I will state explicitly 1. That the religious sentiment will be not only maintained, but nobly developed. It is now nearly smothered by misery and anxiety in the minds of the mass, and is degraded by sectarian dissensions. We wish Christianity; but we wish it felt and un- derstood by enlightened minds. 2. That the family tie and marriage will be preserved. They are now, in a vast number of cases, sadly smothered and de- graded by poverty, brutality, drunkenness, vice, and crime. How can ties of so delicate a nature exist with purity in a society which is full of misery, ignorance, and degradation l We do not wish to change the family sentiment, but we wish to change the circumstances which surround it. 3. That no community of property will exist. In the system which I shall explain in my future articles, individual property will not only be maintained, but the means of acquiring it will be extended to every member of society female as well as male. In our present societies, not one person out of ten if we in- clude women possess any property in their own right, and this is the cause of that revolting tyranny of the individual over the individual, which at present so generally exists. People cling, and rightly so, to the principle of individual property; but they do not see that it exists in theory, not in practice: that the Mass possess no individual property. The wealth of society is absorbed by a few, who make often the most oppressive and re- prehensible uses of it. The reform which we contemplate will embrace the following departments of society: The system of Industry, or mode of prosecuting agriculture, manufactures, and mechanics. The system of Commerce. The system of Education. The system of Isolated Households,which assigns to each family a separate dwelling, and a separate interest in society. The departments of society, which are true in their nature, and require no reform, but merely a true and noble development, are, The Religious Sentiment, and its external manifestation Worship. The Marriage Institution. The principle of Individual Property. That element or institution of the present social order to which men will no doubt cling with the greatest tenacity, is the Isolated Household. It must, however, be reformed, and Asso- ciation must be substituted in its place. The isolated household 44~ On ~1ssociation and .flttractive Industry. [January, is the fundamental cause of our present false and repugnant sys- tem of industry; it leads to waste, to discord and antipathy, to opposition of interests and envious competition, to quarrels and litigations, to an anti-social spirit, to a conflict of the individual with the public good, to a miserable system of agriculture, and to universal selfishness. We will explain a system of association, by means of which, isolated and separate families can be induced to unite and asso- ciate; in which unity of interests and concert of action can be introduced; an equitable division of profits, according to labor, capital, and skill, established; industry rendered honorable and ATTRACTIVE; individual rights and liberty vastly extended; the product of industry increased six or eight fold; the tyranny of Capital over Labor restricted; the monopolies, adulterations, enormous intermediate profits, and other frauds and extortions of commerce prevented; unity between the individual and the collective good, and general confidence attained; a practical and scientific education guarantied to the child; agreeable and varied occupations opened to all; and an abundance secured to every member of society. Such are some of the results which 1 can promise from the system of Association which I shall explain in future articles. Will our leading politicians, and those who take an interest in the social elevation of man, give their attention to the subject, and examine our new social principles l The world, we know. is full of petty schemes and plans of reform, of low party strife, and of selfish personal ambition, which divert mens minds from a subject so vast and general as a reorganization of society; but let us hope that there are some minds which will feel its impor- tance, and be willing to lend it their aid. The world wants a social reform; not superficial, political, and administrative changes, which lead to no results. The suffering mass plead for an abatement of their misery, plead for relief from the poverty, and harassing cares and anxieties which crush them to the earth. Will they be heard ?~ Are there no noble souls which can ab- stract themselves from the din and interests of parties, and be- come penetrated with a true and profound feeling for the greatest and noblest of undertakings the elevation, happiness, and dig- nity of the poor, the low, and down-trodden portion of the hu- man family l If there are, let them not be stopped or discour- aged by the opposition or ridicule of those common-place minds, which, steeped in the selfishness, contracted spirit, cold-hearted indifference, and animosities of society, are mere repeaters and echoes of its shallow policy, its false wisdom, its individualism, and its selfish precepts for individual conduct. 1842.] 45 A MONODY. BY CHARLES T. CONGD0N. As every heart its secret sorrow knoweth, So each doth cherish, in its inmost shrine, A hidden spring, whence consolation floweth, Not all unmixed half earthly, half divine. From it comes gladness that neer gives a sign Of its existence to the world around, But sadly sooths us, when our spirits pine, For joys that did in by-gone days abound, Joys that Youth lost, and Manhood has not found, We love the memory still that bids us sigh Nor from its saddest paintings turn away, Though tears our gaze may blind we know not why, We laugh, we weep yet still must we obey The promptings, that now shed a sunny ray Oer the dark desert round us, and now spread A gloomier shade upon our starless way, And now we sit us down and weep the dead, Now join the laughing choir by wine-crowned Bacchus led. The tuneful revel and the wildering dance Once more before the gladdened sight appear; Lip meeteth lip, glance answereth unto glance, And the loved lost, whom sorrows useless tear Called not to life again, again are near; The winged hours once more go smiling by, And flowers are twined around Times temples sere; Throbs each warm heart and flashes every eye, While sweet-voiced beauty fills the rose-wreathed beaker high. Tis past ! vanished the glittering scene! for Death Shakes his dark arrow mid that jocund throng, And flowers are withering in his rank cold breath The knell our music, and the groan our song. Skeleton-archer! grim as thou art strong! Who bade thee waste thy skill unerring here? Away, to those whove sought thy presence long Aim at the aged! stretch upon the bier Those who will greet thy blow without or sigh or tear! Ha, thou art nice! gray, palsied, doting age Thou. leavst to mock us still with lifes decay, As if to teach us, though we shun thy rage, Thy partner Time hath quite as sure a way To work our ruin ; tis thy joy to lay Thy fleshless hand upon unwrinkled brows; The very pastime of thy wanton sway

1842.] 45 A MONODY. BY CHARLES T. CONGD0N. As every heart its secret sorrow knoweth, So each doth cherish, in its inmost shrine, A hidden spring, whence consolation floweth, Not all unmixed half earthly, half divine. From it comes gladness that neer gives a sign Of its existence to the world around, But sadly sooths us, when our spirits pine, For joys that did in by-gone days abound, Joys that Youth lost, and Manhood has not found, We love the memory still that bids us sigh Nor from its saddest paintings turn away, Though tears our gaze may blind we know not why, We laugh, we weep yet still must we obey The promptings, that now shed a sunny ray Oer the dark desert round us, and now spread A gloomier shade upon our starless way, And now we sit us down and weep the dead, Now join the laughing choir by wine-crowned Bacchus led. The tuneful revel and the wildering dance Once more before the gladdened sight appear; Lip meeteth lip, glance answereth unto glance, And the loved lost, whom sorrows us