the blessing of independence, they would gain more wealth, become more happy, and be vastly more powerful, in the execution of that purpose, than by roaming abroad to get what costs more than it comes to, and what hitherto has impeded the growth of this country more than all other causes, and neutralized the gains of domestic industry and home labor.

God made the country, and God made the people, the one fitted to the other. It is true that all things naturally adapt themselves to the influences of their position, and it matters little whether the country was made for the people, or the people for the country; or whether both were providentially designed for each other; or whether neither of these propositions were exactly true when considered apart it is Providence at last that brings about these mutual adaptations where the two are brought together. It is true any how that the Anglo-Saxon race are not behind any other race in enterprise and in all the capabilities of making the most of their circumstances, and in putting forward society and civilization, wherever they are. They have done a great work since they made a home on this continent, and the only obstacle to their career is a looking back and hankering after "the leeks and onions of Egypt," and holding on to the apron-strings of a parent-race. This country has come to be a world in itself; and if all the rest of the world were sunk to-day, never to be found, we might feel the want of tea and coffee, and a few foreign luxuries, for a season, till substitutes should be found, or the same things be produced among ourselves; but the skill, science, art, industry, labor, enterprise, civilization, resources, and capabilities, still left behind, would amply supply the loss, and it would scarcely be felt. It would be far better than a system of Free Trade, as the world now is, holding us for ever in bondage. Let this country be put on its own resources and capabilities, and it would rise and march, with giant strides, to its own proper and legitimate destiny of unexampled wealth, greatness, and power. It requires nothing to accomplish this but an adequate system of protection.

Home trade is always best, and most productive of wealth. It is no matter in what sphere the operation of this principle be considered, the result will be the same. It will be best appreciated by viewing it on a small scale. Take any man, of any calling, in his own narrow circle. If he keeps within his own limits, is industrious and frugal (frugality is self-protection, or a tariff of duties which every man of good economy imposes on himself and his

neighbors), he is sure to prosper. It is husbanding his own affairs well at home, that makes him rich. If a farmer wants any addition to or change in his stock; or any of the products of the manufacturer or the mechanic; or groceries or cloths of a tradesman; or whatever be his wants, or the wants of any other member of the community, no such person makes a long journey, or sends an agent abroad, at an unnecessary cost, if he be a man of economy. But he accommodates himself as near home as possible. Every one finds, by experience, that a home trade is the best and most profitable, and that "far-fetched" is always "dear bought." The economy of home trade is all comprehended in this simple view.

Examples of this kind illustrate all others, between persons of the same pursuits, and persons of different pursuits, running through all classes of society. The farmer wants the mechanic's products, and the mechanic wants the farmer's; the tradesman supplies the people in his neighborhood with articles which they want, and can not get at home, and takes their surplus products to trade in where they can not trade; and both parties are accommodated, with profit to both. The nearer home a trade is made, is both private and public economy; and a trade made AT home, is better and more economical, than that made anywhere else. Transportation, and the pay of intermediate agents, are always a tax and a loss, which a home trade saves to one party or the other, and always to the public.

If it be said that these intermediate agents need employment, it can be obtained without living on others; and the principle of such a reason, carried out, as will be seen, is, that men should live on each other, till nothing remains among them all. But the very object of giving employment to these agents, and multiplying other employments, is best secured on the principle of protecting and augmenting home trade; for that is the best way to extend, enlarge, and diversify commerce. It is not proposed by advocating home trade, to restrict commerce. On the contrary, it is maintained, that, by keeping things well at home, on a small or large scale, with individual persons or communities, is the safest and surest way to branch out. But that person or that community that branches out without a good foundation at home, will be likely to get into trouble. It is by keeping everything tight and secure at home, that the extension and ramifications of trade are carried on with profit; and the greatest part of the trade of society, of the world, is transacted in a small way, and in very limited spheres. It is these

small and limited operations of commerce which sustain large and extended transactions; whereas probably not a thousandth part of the minor operations ever reach the larger, though they always constitute the basis. All the little trade of society, which, after all, makes its great bulk, is noiseless, everyday, commonplace, between neighbors, in the never-ceasing exchanges which they carry on with one another, for mutual advantage and profit. The thriving man is he who is always found working at home, and the nearer his customers are, so much the better for him; and the nearer he is to those with whom he trades, so much the better for them. Their business is compact, firm, prosperous. This is the way a man, a community, a nation gets rich; and being rich, becomes a better customer, the man to his neighbors, the community to adjoining communities, and the nation to other nations; and under such a system, all these parties are mutual helps to each other. It is because there is a home foundation, created at home, to trade upon. Without this, they could not trade at all, honestly, and with profit. It is not good economy to employ intermediate agents in trade, for the sake of employing them. In that way men become a burden to each other. But the better way is, to work and thrive at home, and thereby create occasions for a trade that shall set these agents in motion, and make them necessary; and the greater the home thrift, so much more numerous and extensive will be the ramifications of trade which it calls into action, beginning at home, and branching out over the nation, and over the world.

All engaged in home trade, are parties to the nation; but in the case of imports and exports, the nation is a party. It must be seen that a home trade can not but be beneficial to the nation; and the more of it, the better. All engaged in it are parties to the same commonwealth. Some lose, and some gain; but the commonwealth is always a gainer in domestic trade. In the commerce of the world, the world is the commonwealth, and as a whole is made richer. In the same manner as individual persons are parties to the nation, in a home trade, nations are parties to the world's commonwealth, in the world's trade; and in the same manner as some of the parties to a nation become rich, and others poor, in a home trade, one gaining and another losing, according to their respective systems of private economy, so in the world's trade, between nations as parties, one is benefited and another injured, one gains and another loses, according to their respective systems of public economy. In all foreign commerce, the nation is a party, and the

negotiator the agent. If all the agents together sell more than they buy, the nation, so far as these transactions are concerned, is a gainer, and adds to its capital. But if the agents buy more than they sell, the nation, on the same conditions, is a loser, and parts with capital. Although these two propositions are incontrovertible, in the form in which they are stated, yet, many things are to be considered, to determine, whether, in the case of the first, it would not have been still better for the nation, if a part of this trade had been done at home; while it is manifest, in the case of the second, that it would have been better for the nation, if so much of this trade had been done at home, as to have prevented the balance against it. In order to determine on what conditions, in the case of the first proposition, it would have been better for the nation, if a part of this trade had been done at home, and what part of it, it may be observed, it would be precisely that portion of the imports which could have been produced at home, under a system of protection, and in their production made to consume what was sent abroad to buy them. In that case, all the profits of these transactions, in consumption of raw materials, in production, and in the home trade concerned in it, in all its stages, would have become a part of the permanent capital of the nation, besides the additional employment for subsistence which it would have given to the parties engaged in it. As the Southern Planter, cited elsewhere, says, "Figures can't calculate the difference. It outstrips everything but the human imagination" in its results.

This position of a nation, as a party, in all its foreign commerce, seems to have been entirely overlooked by the Free-Trade economists. Yet, who can deny that it is so, for all the purposes of public economy? We do not say that the nation, as such, does the business; nor, that the agents are not parties, to the extent of their own transactions, as much and as truly as if they were engaged in the home trade. But we do say, that, for all purposes of public economy, the nation is not only a party, but THE party, when the entire amount of these transactions of its foreign commerce is considered; and the nation may be a loser, when the merchants, who have occasioned this loss, have made their fortunes, as shown in a former chapter. Nor can the nation lose without dividing the loss among the people. The principle that the nation is a party in its foreign commerce, considered as a whole, is that which controls this question, and determines when, and how far it has need of a protective system.

As remarked in the opening of this chapter, the branches of foreign commerce are like the tenders of a fleet, the scouting parties of an army, the roving agents of a great commercial house. They are not the fleet, nor the army, nor the trading company. They are mere sprigs of a tree, offshoots of a trunk, accidents of a system; and if the nation be a great and powerful one, of abundant territories and resources, and without foreign dependencies, these sprigs may be cut off, and these accidents dropped, without any very sensible effect, possibly with benefit to the main body. This latter contingency, to wit, a possible benefit, depends on others, which it is unnecessary here to consider, inasmuch as it is not proposed to abandon the foreign commerce of the United States, and inasmuch as it is granted, that, under proper regulations, it may be beneficial. But, it, is one of the greatest imaginable mistakes, to assume, that it is beneficial, in any case, and without a well-considered and discreet regulation. A world of facts has been presented, in the progress of this work, to show, and which conclusively prove, that the foreign commerce of this country has hitherto, for want of proper regulation, been one of the most formidable obstacles to the general prosperity, and an insuperable impediment to the march of this great commonwealth in that career of improvement, greatness, and power, the elements of which have been planted in its bosom by Providence, and which are inherent parts of the republic. It is also a very common and great mistake to put our foreign commerce before our home trade, in the estimate of its comparative importance; nor is it less common to overestimate its comparative amount.

The average annual aggregate of our imports and exports, in a healthful state of foreign trade, does not ordinarily much exceed two hundred millions of dollars, or one hundred millions of each. But what is this, compared with the aggregate amount of our home trade? It is a very inconsiderable fraction, as the facts stated in the note below will show.*

By the "statistics of products and condition of certain branches of industry of Massachusetts, for the year ending April, 1845" — official documents - it appears, that the products of the industry and labor of that state, for the aforesaid year, amounted to $124,735,264; that the capital invested, as the basis of this producing power, was $59,145,767; and the hands or persons employed in these productions, were 152,766. The average annual export of the products of the United States, of all kinds, for the last twenty years, has been about $80,000,000. It appears, therefore, that the annual product of the industry and labor of the single state of Massachusetts, is full 50 per cent. in excess of all the exports of the whole United States.