tion, as proprietor of a farm, workshop, or any other producing establishment, over which he presides, and where, perhaps, he labors with his own hands, as to him who works for hire. The time has

never yet been in the history of the United States as an independent nation, when labor was not in this sense an independent agent-when it could not reject an unsatisfactory offer, and yet live. It is not pretended that labor has been able to dictate its own terms. That would be equally improper and unjust, as for the employer to do it. But it has always had an alternative. As a last resort the American laborer can at any time go to the backwoods. His independence is never necessarily sacrificed.

This wide back-woods field for American labor, is a security for its independence for ages to come, if not for ever, which no European economist could ever appreciate. It was for want of this fight, that Malthus stumbled, and all his followers after him, not excepting M'Culloch, who was doubtless influenced by the theory of Malthus. The European economists have never been able to see how labor could be independent, and have planned their system on the assumption that it must for ever remain the agent of power, and be satisfied with a bare subsistence.

It is this independence, in connexion with the means of supporting it, that has sustained the wages of American labor, and kept them so far above the rates of wages in Europe and other foreign countries.

In the light of this contrast, the condition of European and other foreign labor is one of absolute bondage. In the first place, it is for the most part deprived of all political influence. This is the primary cause of its misfortunes. In the next place, and also for the most part, it has no voice in its wages. There is no alternative left to it. It must work for what is offered, and work hard, or perish in want; and the wages doled out are measured by so nice an estimate for bare subsistence, as to be often insufficient for that. In all those countries, labor is the agent of power. Power dictates its wages, controls it, enslaves it; and it needs but a little reflection, in connexion with what has already been said, to see that this difference is immense, and immensely important.

Mr. Malthus's theory, that population tends to an inconvenient and self-destructive augmentation, solved, as was supposed, the great problem' of human society, as it had existed in Europe for so many centuries—as in all history it has to a great extent existed-and fully justified the subjection of the masses to the ser

vice of the few. It relieved the responsibility for the general oppression of mankind so much as not only to excuse the offence, as being the unavoidable result, the imperative decree of Providence; but it transformed the oppressors, in the very act, into the character of benefactors to the race. Instead of any fault of the few who lived on the labor of the many, the many were laid under the greatest obligations when the few should give them employment enough for subsistence-to keep soul and body together. With such a beautiful solution of this difficult problem, came also a satisfaction of the public conscience, and a confirmation of all the other doctrines of the European system. It was manifestly much easier to pronounce the evils of society no evils, than to apply a remedy; and it was a complete vindication, though it ought to have been shocking to entertain the thought that God, and not man, was responsible for them. Such, however, seems to have been the result of Mr. Malthus's theory.

But the opening of the new world, and the migration of the oppressed portions of mankind to this quarter, have presented a class of facts which falsify this theory, and nullify its conclusions -facts which existed at the very time when that theory was formed, and when it was adopted with so much eagerness to bolster up a fallacious system. The facts are simply these: The land of the American continent is open and free to all, and there never has been a time, and probably never will be-it certainly is not necessary—when a laboring man can not turn away from the wages offered him for his services on hire, and go and live an independent life on the unoccupied lands of the country. He may there be the proprietor of his own estate, and have all the rent, the profits of culture and of his labor, to himself. It is this chance, for ever existing, which for ever makes American labor INDEPEN

DENT.

The importance of this truth can not be overrated, and it is worthy of very particular consideration, since so much depends upon it. It is manifest that the European economists were greatly embarrassed, in view of the state of society with which they were surrounded, till the Malthusian theory came to their relief-a sad and gloomy prospect, indeed, for the masses of mankind. But it was a rescue for the economists. It was not only an apology for their general system, but an apology for that state of society out of which their system grew. In the order of nature, land was the first property, and the products of its culture and use were the

next. The land belonged to the king; the king parcelled it out among his lords-hence called "landlords ;" and hence the use of this term all the world over. The advancements of civilization erected on this basis a vast superstructure, and the principles of the basis ran up through and pervaded the whole. The system, as stated by the European economists, could always be reduced to three primary and fundamental elements: "Rent, profit, and wages;" the first going to the lords, or the superior classes; the second to the managers of their estates; and the third being the subsistence of the laborers. "To determine the laws," says Ricardo, "which regulate this distribution, is the principal problem in political economy."

But, it must be evident to every reflecting person, tolerably acquainted with the facts and state of society in these two great quarters of the world, Europe and America, that the three things above named as the fundamental elements of public economy in Europe, do not exist in the United States-are not to be found here, either in form or fact, so as to make a common basis of a common system. As the two last grow out of the first, and as the first does not exist in this country in any shape whatever, to an extent sufficient to constitute an element of public economy, it is manifest, that the other two, following from the first, must be wanting also. Inasmuch, therefore, as there can not possibly be a common basis, there can not be a common systein.

or starve.

Under the European system labor is forced into service. It has no alternative-no choice. It must work on the terms offered, It is, therefore, proper to say, as is the fact, that labor there is the agent of power. And in this phrase, agent of power, in such an application, it should be observed, is involved a principle -a principle of great and profound significancy, and of potent influence. The power that is thus usurped, is the dominant power of the European world. It may, perhaps, be supposed, that the European economists could not see how it was possible for labor to be free, independent, and have a voice in the terms of its services. In the state of society that existed around them, and as far as their vision extended, they could see nothing for labor but the doom of a forced service-a service forced by stern necessity, viz., that of subsistence. It was natural, therefore, that they should make no other provision for it in their system, and they never did make any other. They could not see so far as to discover what new light, the new experiments in the western hemisphere, would bring

to this great theme; though, if the abstract proposition had been considered, they might easily have seen, that labor would rise to independence, the moment it should be put beyond the grasp of a forced service. But it is not, perhaps, strange, that they could not foresee this from their remote position, when it is scarcely understood even by those who are planted in the midst of the scene, and are perfectly aware of the fact. How few of the most reflecting men in the United States, of the most erudite scholars even, or of the most profound statesmen, ever think of the influence and power of that political element which consists in the fact, that every American laborer can go into the backwoods whenever he pleases, and live a perfectly independent life? Thousands, the great majority, may be averse to such a resort; but some go, all can go, and they all know the field is open before them. Ever since the western shores of the Atlantic were first touched by the feet of European emigrants, the tide of population has been penetrating the heart of the American continent, without meeting with any landlord to demand rent, or with any manager of his estates, to absorb the profits of their enterprise. No kings had gone before to parcel out the territory among the few and lordly supporters of their thrones; or, so far as that had been done, these royal patents were, for the most part, nullified by the result of the American revolution. The way westward has always been open and free to all, and is still open and free. A man has only to push on a step farther than his predecessors, and set up his stakes. From that moment he has a home, is lord of his own estate, and by industry and economy may be independent of all the world. Such is the actual movement, and such the practical operation of American society. It always has been, and always is, moving on, and extending its limits, by the impulses of freedom, and the natural desire for independence. Like the undulations of the deep, wave follows wave, and it is all one great sea. All is composed of the same elements, and all is affected by the same influences. They who stay behind in the original centres of civilization, are as free as those who range on its outmost borders; that is to say, their services, if they work on hire, are no more forced than those of the western forester. Both work for independence, aspire to it, enjoy it; and each has it according to his own taste.

It is this constant movement, this constant tendency to move, and this knowledge that it is always in every one's power to move, into such a field, which constitute the independence of American labor,

and make it AN INDEPENDENT AGENT, as opposed to the position of European labor which is the AGENT OF POWER. The latter is a forced, while the former is a free and unconstrained, service; one is serving masters, while the other is working for one's self.

This is not only a political element, considered as a power in the state; but it is an element of public economy, considered as a cause of public and private wealth.

Starting with the rights of independence, as defined in the foregoing remarks, the American laborers aspire to the improvement of their condition, to add to their property, to accumulate commercial values, to get rich, to become wealthy, and to rise in the world. According to the declared principles of American society, which are well known to all, from the first start in life, and in all its stages, there is no honor, no trust, no place of power and influence, from which an American citizen is excluded by birth; and so far as the stepping-stones to distinction and eminence are made to depend on property and wealth, these, too, though a man begin the world with nothing, are placed within the reach of every industrious, frugal, and enterprising citizen. Labor, as capital, in the United States, is generally, if not universally, worth fifty per cent. on itself. That is to say, a frugal laborer can easily lay up half of his wages, which of itself, in all his savings, becomes, by proper investment, a productive capital-a nucleus, a foundation of wealth. The cumulative power of his labor and of his acquisitions, is very great, if well husbanded; and the country is full of examples of men rising from nothing and from the humblest condition, to great wealth, and to the highest stations of honor and Such are the goals of American industry and enterprise, from no one of which is any man necessarily excluded, by any law of society, however low may have been his starting point, however humble his birth.

trust.

This, as will be seen, is a perfect contrast, the direct opposite, of the condition and prospects of the European laboring classes. No provision is made for them, but that of bare subsistence. It is not intended or expected that laborers there should better their condition, and rise. They neither hope nor strive for it. They are born like cattle to be fed and worked; and the plan of society and of the economists, is, to get as much work out of them as possible. But the plan of, American society is to give to all classes equal chances; that of European society, to maintain the distinction of classes, and never to allow one to be merged in another, or all in