770 



F A R M E R S' REGIS T E R 



to good, they are also necessary for (he preservation 

 of our happiness Tlie portion of liberty and happi- 

 ness enjoyed under the expensive system of govern- 

 ment existing in Britain, is owing to the productiv<-ness 

 of labor; and not to the operations of the paper, 

 patronage party, and official con.-ipiracy for })ilfer- 

 ing that labor as the ingenious conspirators pretend. 

 Though h._'r average product of wheat is tiiirty-five 

 bushels, worth at least one hundred and five dollars, 

 she finds it better to convert so much of her land and 

 labor to the still more profitable objects of raising 

 wool, cheese, meat, with other agricultural products, 

 and to manufacturing, as to have occasion for the im- 

 portation of the bread-stulf. To this great pioduc- 

 tiveness of labor it is owing, that she is the happiest 

 and freest country of Europe, under the greatest load 

 of pecuniary expenditure. In the United States, ag- 

 riciilture must for ages graduate the productiveness ol 

 labor, in spite of the projects of statesmen, and the fal- 

 lacy of stock-jobbing. If we rush into English extra- 

 vagance without gaining the productiveness in that oc- 

 cupation which must feed it, the majority of the peo- 

 ple must be speedily ground down to a degree of po- 

 verty, below an ability to preseive a free govcrnmfiit, 

 or to acquire personal happiness. Let us therefore 

 provide the foundation, before we rear this splendid 

 superstructure, by abolishing a mode of inclosing lands 

 which produces notliing, consumes a great portion ol 

 our labor, and by impoverishing the soil, daily dimi- 

 nishes the productiveness of the residue. 



[NoteC— Pag3 7G0.] 



A date being necessary for estimating the opinions 

 contained in the foregoing essays, the reader is inform- 

 ed, tliat they a|)peared in the ephemeral columns of a 

 newspaper, before the year 1810, and that the notes 

 were written in the Ijeginning of the year IS 14. 

 Though the last number w as belter calculated for the 

 place of its original apjjearance, (as well as some other 

 parts of the work) tlian for that it now unexi)ectediy 

 occupies, it is stufered to remain, because, however 

 light, it IS true ; but lest its tone may infect its matter, 

 it seems proper to advert to the same subject more 

 seriously. 



Society is unavoidably made up of two interests only, 

 in one of whic-fa all special and particular modifications 

 of interest are included ; namely, one subsisting by 

 industry ; the oilier by law. Government is institut- 

 ed for the happiness of the first interest, but belonging 

 itself to the second, it is perpelually drawn towards 

 tliat by the strongest cords. T'lerefore, unless the first 

 is able very accurately to distinguish between laws 

 calculated to do it a benefit or an injury, it mu-t be 

 gradually sacrificed to the appetites of the second, be- 

 cause government, a member of the second, legislates. 

 All men enjoying honour, power or wealth by law, or 

 striving toacquiie either through that channel, are like 

 coin struck with the same dies. Tlie engravers, 

 avarice and ambition, constantly mark the same 

 etching, asid tlie aqua fortis, self-interest, indelibly 

 imprints it on the human mind. From this fact, the 

 preference ol' a republican government is deduced, as 

 calculated for checking the natural fiisposition of 

 legislatures or the government, to favor the minor 

 class, composed of legal or factitious inieres's, at the 

 expense of the major class, comnos<'d of natural inte- 

 rests ; including all who subsist, not by means of legil 

 donations, but hy useful talents in every form, such as 

 those employed in agriculture, manufacturing, tuition, 

 physic, antl all trades and sci-^ntific proCes-ions. 

 Tlie propensit3'-of lav.' to sacrifice the great cr natural 

 interest of nations, to the class of little or factitious 

 interests, arises from two causes; one, the government 

 i)eing tlie matrix of the latter, views her progeny with 



the eyes of an owl, and considers them as beautiful: 

 the other, that although law can enable the small class 

 lo live on the great one, it cannot enable the great 

 class to live upon the small one; uniting to produce 

 this propensity in a degree so violent, that mankind 

 have pronounced it irresistible, except by a counter- 

 vailing union betvveen strong republican fetters upon 

 government, and a degree of political knowledge in 

 ihe major class, sufficient to prevent these fetters from 

 being broken by laws. The remedy is so rare, that 

 many honest men doubt of its existence ; and have 

 concluded in despair, that the major class or general 

 interest of a nation, must inevitably become the slave 

 of the minor or factitious interest in some mode. 

 Otliers believe, that by exciting the general interest to 

 watch, to think, and to judge for itself, its intellect will 

 be brightened, and its rights preserved. But all ngree 

 that 1. either any individual nor any interest dictated to 

 by another can prosper ; anil that political ignorance 

 universally implies political slavery. Election has no 

 power beyond a charter or a commission, to prevent 

 the elected from being transferred by his election from 

 the great class of the general interest, to t!ie little class 

 of factitious or legal interest ; on the contrar}^ the 

 stiucture of republican government is raised upon the 

 princij le, that it necessarily transfers him from one to 

 the otiier, at least in most instances, 'ibis is unani- 

 mously admitted by the elected themselves. They 

 sepaiate into two parlies, called ins aiid outs. The 

 ins say that the outs are influenced by a desire to get 

 in, and the outs that the ins are influenced by a desire 

 to keep in. Agreeing that both belong to the minor 

 class, and neither to the major class, which can neither 

 get in nor keep in ; these two members of the minor 

 class vote in constant opposition, because they stand 

 in each other's way, which could not possibly happen 

 if they were genuine members of the general interest 

 class. How tiien can the major class expect happi- 

 ness from Ihis species of political gambling for a rich 

 stake which it pays, and the gamblers alternately win, 

 if it has no skill in the game ? 



Agriculture is the most powerful member of the 

 class constituting the general interest, but if her sons 

 are too ignorant to use this power with discretion, 

 (like a body of elephants thrown into confusion in a 

 battle) they rush in every direction, trampling down 

 friends and foes for a short time, and inevitably become 

 an easy prey lo their enemies. As the most powerful 

 individual constitiuing the major class of general in- 

 terest, the political ignorance of agriculture would of 

 course destroy the lights of the wliole class. If she 

 divides herself between any of the members of the 

 inferior class, each of her moieties enlist under an 

 aristocratical or monarcliical power; whether it be 

 called executive, legislative, credit or charter, and the 

 member obtaining the victury by her aid, becomes her 

 master. Just as in a division of her forces between 

 a king and a nobility, the king or the nobility, and not 

 agriculture, gains a victory, bo:h over her, and over 

 ail her weaker associates in the class of the general 

 interest. 



As iher'^ are two classes of interest only in society 

 tliere are also only two political codes, each appro- 

 priated by nature to one class. The code of the 

 minor class is constituted of intrigues and stratagems 

 to beguile the major class, and to advance the separate 

 interests of the individuals, parlies and legal combina- 

 tions, of which the minor class is compounded. The 

 code of the major class consi>ts of good moral princi- 

 ples, by which the national rights and hajipiness can 

 only be preserved. The guilt of oflensive war, and 

 the virtue of defensive, are the essential qualities of 

 the respective codes. One is compounded of the best, 

 and the other of the worst qualities of human nature ; 

 and the members of the general or natural interest of 

 society can never avoid oppression, nor sustain a just 

 and free government, unless they are skilled in both. 



As the extension of comfort and happiness is the 



