130 LAND AND LABOR. 



estates should be equally divided among the natural 

 heirs, is, to prevent the accumulation and transmis- 

 sion of great properties, unbroken, from one genera- 

 tion to another. 



The measures here proposed are truly national; 

 they all pertain to the " general welfare of the United 

 States," and can not be left to the diverse and non- 

 action of the several States. Absolute uniformity is 

 required in these matters, that we may be truly a ho- 

 mogeneous people a nation. Indeed, the measure 

 which is most important of all, if it be possible to 

 separate them and say which is most important, can 

 not, by any possibility, be made operative in any one 

 State without the cooperation of all. They are all 

 national in their scope, and must be made national in 

 action. 



It will be said that these proposed measures would 

 be unwarranted innovations ; that the laws and cus- 

 toms which it is proposed to change are of time hon- 

 ored precedents ; that they have existed in their pres- 

 ent written and unwritten forms for generations ; that 

 they are hoary with age. 



That is the very point they are hoary with age ; 

 their roots are found firmly embedded in the despot- 

 isms and brutalities of the dark ages ; they are the 

 outgrowths of barbarism that have been perpetuated 

 in tyranny. It is because they are so hoary with age 

 that they are tainted with oppression and smell so 

 strongly of blood. It is time that they were buried, 

 ;in<l tli, -it something more merciful, more just, more 

 equal, should take their places. 



Adam Smith, in relation to some of these matters, 



