-

and abundance in which he lives, give him much leisure, and, along with it, the virtues of firmness, consistency, hospitality, and generosity, the general independence of his circumstances, placing him above any temptation of concealment or disguise, and his reliance on Providence for seed-time and harvest, setting him above the necessity of consulting or deferring much to others, give him independence of mind, energy and frankness of expression, manliness of tone, dignity of manners, and self-respect. Such is the combination of qualities, which may be looked for in the planter and independent farmer, so far as this character is formed under the influence of the pursuit.

The standard of this agricultural character, as it may be called, will, it is true, be lower or higher according to incidental circumstances; such, for instance, as the kind of labor which is chiefly employed; and for this reason, a difference may be expected between the agricultural character of the northern and southern United States. The advantage, in this respect, has been claimed for the latter, on plausible, if not on convincing grounds. It has been said, "The general occupation" (of the southern and southwestern States) "is and must be agriculture; and in it, we shall be able to practise a less exact economy, than is used where the laborer's compensation depends on his care and diligence. The planter who disposes of his crop in the gross, will have less of the spirit of trade, than the farmer, whose daily occupation is one of traffic. We find the fact to correspond with the inference. But this may not be without its compensation. A circumstance in which the great nations of antiquity are said to have mainly differed from those of modern times, is, that the people of the former lived less for themselves and more for the public and the State. The latter, in consequence of the commercial spirit, live more for themselves, for their domestic concerns, and the acquisition of wealth. Resembling the ancients in our institutions, we should resemble them in their public spirit. Where every citizen is raised to the rank of patrician (unless he be degraded from it by his own qualities), he should be more anxious to do honor to his rank by his personal character, and feel more interest in the prosperity, and more pride in the fame, of the commonwealth. He should know, that, however laudable and necessary may be

the proper pursuit of wealth, it is not the highest, much less the exclusive pursuit. To elevate the moral and intellectual character of himself, of his fellow-citizens, of his country, these are the first and highest objects. Admirable as the morality of Franklin is, for its own purposes, a higher and more generous morality is requisite for slave-holders.”*

CHAPTER VI.

MORAL TENDENCY AND INFLUENCE OF COMMERCE AND MERCHANDISE AS A PROFESSION.

ON our merchants, more than on any other class of our citizens, the reputation of our country for probity and honor immediately depends. The effects of the conduct of others are chiefly confined within our own limits; and the good or evil they may do, is seldom felt or known beyond them. The merchant, on the contrary, in the prosecution of his business, touches every portion of the earth, and comes in contact with the people of all nations. Whether our statesmen are wise and patriotic; our legislators enlightened and eloquent; our divines accomplished and pious; our lawyers and physicians skilful, learned, and faithful; our mechanics, ingenious and industrious, are domestic concerns, questions of opinion or prejudice, about which strangers may differ with us, without any imputation upon us as a moral and just people; but whether our merchants are honest; whether they are upright and conscientious; whether it is safe or dangerous to deal with them, are questions of fact, in which foreigners have a close and daily interest; are questions, too, not of theoretical speculation, but to be decided by the evidence of experience, by the actual transactions of business, not to be misunderstood by any capacity, nor concealed from the dullest comprehension.

The American merchant, then, should never forget, that he holds the character of his country, as well as his own, as a sacred

*

Judge Harper's Oration before the South Carolina Society for the Advancement of Learning, December, 1835; p. 13.

trust; and that he betrays both, when he enters into the crooked paths of dissimulation and artifice, or the still more devious ways of dishonesty and fraud. Strangers can know us only by the individuals they deal with, whom, in the spirit and usage of trade, they will take as specimens and samples of the whole nation. If they find their confidence abused, the reproach is visited, not only on the fraudulent merchant, but on his nation, and we are all condemned for his iniquitous cupidity. Every man, therefore, has an interest in the commercial character of his country, and merchants ought to consider themselves as the men by whom the intercourse of the human family, however scattered and remote, is kept up; as the instruments of civilization and intellectual improvement; as employed to distribute the comforts and luxuries of life over the whole surface of the globe. By them, the entire race of man, of every variety of complexion and character, and wheresoever they may inhabit, are brought together, and taught to know each other, and to aid each other. They are the peace-makers of the world; for they show it to be the interest and happiness of all to remain at peace; and they demonstrate, that it is easier to obtain the good things we may desire by commerce, than by conquest; by exchange, than by arms. They soften national asperities, and remove unjust prejudices. Such high functions require corresponding qualifications to perform them; and those who do perform them faithfully are among the noblest benefactors of mankind.

The life of a merchant, however, is necessarily a life of peril. He can scarcely move without danger. He is subject on all sides to disappointments, to fluctuations in prices and in the current of business, which sometimes leave him stranded on an unknown bar, and sometimes sweep him helpless into the ocean. These vicissitudes depend on causes which no man can control; and are often so sudden, that no calculation could anticipate, or skill avoid them. To risk much, to be exposed to hazard, belongs to the vocation of a merchant; his usefulness and success depend, in a great measure, on his enterprise. He must have the courage to explore new regions of commerce, and to encounter the difficulties of untried experiments. To be unfortunate in such pursuits is no more disgraceful to an upright merchant than

to fall on the field of battle is dishonorable to the soldier, or defeat to a general, who has done all that valor and skill could achieve to obtain the victory. Bankruptcy, therefore, is often the consequence of inevitable misfortune, and is no disgrace, if met with fidelity and honor.

the part

*

A writer, who ought to be well acquainted with the subject,* more than intimates, that the character of an American merchant is not highly respected abroad; that it is looked upon with distrust; and that it has been severely reproached. And he seems to write under the conviction, that our merchants have given too much ground for this want of respect, distrust, and reproach, on part of foreigners. And, while he admits, that our merchants have improved and are improving in this respect, he still complains of a looseness of principle and practice in contracting and paying debts among them, "very rare, if not unknown among men of the same standing in trade, in Europe, at least on the continent." He complains, that the ambition to do a great business is universal and devouring in this country; that the disposition to contract debts has become eager and reckless; that the obligation to pay them is but faintly felt, and that the failure to pay them hardly produces a sensation of shame in the defaulter, or any resentment or neglect towards him on the part of his friends or the public. He says, our commercial community seem to make a common cause with every delinquent trader, and to treat the most criminal extravagance, the most thoughtless indiscretion, the most daring and desperate speculations, with the lenity due to accident and misfortune. When the catastrophe which, sooner or later, awaits such proceedings, comes, a hasty arrangement is patched up between the debtor and his creditors, altogether under the dictation of the former, who deals out the remnants of his property, if there be any, to his friends or favorites, at his will and pleasure, with the air of a Lord Chancellor, and the creditors have nothing to do but to hear and submit to the decree, in the shape of an assignment. Debtor and creditor retire from this dishonest transaction mutually dissatisfied; the one to resume his business, his station in society, his pride and

*

Judge Hopkinson of Philadelphia, - Lecture on Commercial Integrity, 2d of March, 1832; pp. 4-8.

importance, his manner of living, without any visible degradation or retrenchment; and the other, to repeat the same system of credit, with the same disastrous credulity. It is not unfrequent for the same individual to run a second time over the same course of extravagance, folly, and ruin. If this is the manner of our settling the affairs of an insolvent, concludes he, we may imagine what becomes of the foreign creditor and his claims, and cannot be surprised if he is loud in his complaints.

Without undertaking to confirm the representations of this learned magistrate, and most respectable writer, still it cannot be denied, that the manner in which bankrupts have, in this country, and perhaps elsewhere, too frequently conducted themselves towards those who have trusted them; and especially the authority they have assumed, and sometimes insolently too, over their property, in exclusion of those to whom it rightfully belongs, are a subject of just and great complaint, utterly inconsistent with the principles of honest dealing, and tending to destroy all confidence and all security in commercial transactions. The moral duties imposed on a bankrupt merchant are twofold; they have respect to the approach of his bankruptcy,— and, again, to the condition of things when bankruptcy has actually overtaken him.

He

It rarely happens, that the ruin of a merchant is effected at a single blow, by a single unlooked for misfortune. It is more usually the result of a series of unfortunate events, or imprudent expenditures, each bringing him nearer to his overthrow. has usually many significant warnings of his fall, and cannot but see its approach, when he dares to look steadily towards it. But this he carefully avoids. He shuts his eyes upon it, he strives to deceive himself, and continues to deceive others. He turns from expedient to expedient, from bank to bank, from friend to friend, still increasing his debts and his difficulties, until he can struggle no longer, and sinks under a burthen, doubled and trebled by his desperate efforts to extricate himself. If he had had the wisdom, the manliness, the honesty, to yield to the pressure, when it first became too heavy for him, how many sacrifices would have been saved, how many debts avoided, how much injury and discontent prevented. This weakness, this reluctance to surrender, when he knows, or ought to know, that he cannot sustain the contest,