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tude of the foundation. The only effect is, to foster 

 an excrescence, which, if not mortal to us as to other 

 commercial states, is just, because with the uttermost 

 of our false and foolish ambition, we cannot over- 

 stretch the foreign trade so far as they did beyond the 

 limits of the home agriculture. By thus seeking to 

 enlarge our pedestal, we make it greatly more tot- 

 tering and precarious than before. The fabric bulges, 

 as it were, into greater dimensions than before, but 

 while its native and original foundation is of rock, 

 the projecting parts are propped upon quicksand ; 

 for the sake of lodging a few more additional inmates, 

 in which we would lay the pain of a felt insecurity, 

 if not an actual hazard, upon all the family. We 

 rejoice in the luxuriance of a rank and unwholesome 

 overgrowth, and mistaking bulk for solidity, do we 

 congratulate ourselves on the formation of an excres- 

 cence which should rather be viewed as the blotch 

 and distemper of our nation." Trade has been en- 

 couraged and stimulated until its products have 

 glutted the accessible markets of the world, and until 

 the profits of capital have been so small that the 

 manufacturer and commercialist were barely com- 

 pensated for the ordinary risk of mercantile specula- 

 tion. The capital employed was sufficient to produce 

 manufactured articles to overstock the foreign markets 

 then open, and did not give room for the profitable 

 employment of more : for there is a limit to the 

 employment of capital, which is profit. Let us call 

 to mind the lessons of experience, reasoning may 

 fail, but experience cannot, and " one fact is worth 



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