110 Transactions of the 



and the power it gave, the story of their possessions to the modern 

 mind seem like fables. They founded kingdoms and established 

 dynasties. The lazy and the idle starved or served. If ye will not 

 habor, neither shall ye eat, was their maxim, and it was enforced. It 

 was understood that the only process by which property could be 

 rightfully obtained was by appropriation or by creation, and that 

 it was the unoccu])ied alone which could be appro])riated. With the 

 just, Avhether learned or simple, the acquisition of wealth for one's 

 self, and respect for this acquisition in another, w^ere not only correl- 

 ative, but were the necessary consequences of a law of universal 

 application. 



There is no dogma, nor theory, nor device under the sun, upon 

 which men liave been so universally agreed as that the right of prop- 

 erty underlies all true religion, government and civilization. With- 

 out it, deprived of all motive to acquire beyond the most absolute 

 necessity, man would sink into the savagedom from which it has 

 taken five thousand years to raise him. The justice of allowing un- 

 limited acquisition is evidenced by the fact that the desire is univer- 

 sal. No natural, inherent quality or passion is ours w'ithout there is 

 lying behind a benign purpose. 



If labor overcomes all things, it is only when its past results give 

 impetus to present purpose. Inventions, the work of free mind, have 

 been often accomplished without the aid of previously acquired 

 wealth. The faculty of invention is lodged in that class of minds 

 not directed in a large degree to the special pursuit of gold. But no 

 great works, no great designs, directly affecting large bodies of nien, 

 but have demanded as the first condition vast means of execution. 

 All the great wars of the world, waged for either good or evil ends, 

 have demanded and used preexisting capital to put armies in motion 

 by which they have been prosecuted. It required not only the accu- 

 mulated wealth of the world, but of that spontaneity or cheapness 

 of production of food alone existing in the lower temperate belt to 

 make the magnilicent works now lost in the wilderness of Asia, 

 Africa and America possible. It was this wealth that sent Portuguese 

 commerce to the coast of China and the great Ghengis Kahn, and 

 the gold torn b}'' pious but rapine hand from the Moor and Jew alike 

 sent Columbus into the unknown sea. And in our own days we all 

 know that without capital, labor would starve, commerce would 

 decay, and without at least securing respect for it, not one of those" 

 great works which connect oceans and continents, supplying human 

 wants, and if they do not conquer, shake the dominion of time and 

 distance, ever would have been constructed. 



We who represent more directly the creating and producing ele- 

 ment than tliat of trafhc and exchange, may well spend a brief hour 

 in contemplating our present prosperity, and examining some of the 

 dangers that threaten it. We may fairly congratulate ourselves u]^on 

 the business condition of our IState. We have shared, and are still 

 inliuenced by, the monetary troubles that, at present, in some sense 

 affect the business world. But we are fast recovering from this 

 influence. Our ])roductiveness is great, our titles are nearly settled, 

 our credit is appreciating, and, as a consequence, interest is decreas- 

 ing and business improving. The accumulations of capital are very 

 large for so young a community. These accumulations may fairly 

 be divided into three kinds, depending mainly upon the causes or 

 manner of their creation. 



