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or the fluctuations in fancy stocks which alarm them with the 

 horrors of coming to want ; nor of the planter, with his thou- 

 sands of acres and his hundreds of slaves, who barricades his 

 door at night and lays his pistols at his bedside in terror of an 

 insurrection, and does not hear an unusual rustling of a leaf or 

 barking of a dog without a shudder, and without the mother's 

 hugging her children closer to her bosom. 



I shall not enter upon the question whether, in a mere pecu- 

 niary estimate, the supplies of a family may not be more cheaply 

 obtained by purchase than by product. But it must be consid- 

 ered as an established principle in domestic economy that ev- 

 ery farmer should look to his farm for all that his farm can 

 furnish him. Though it may seem better to sell his wool and 

 buy his bread, yet in all such cases he pays a double commis- 

 sion, to the purchaser of the wool and the seller of the bread, 

 who must both get their living out of the operation. But be- 

 sides this, the improvement of the farm, in such cases, gener- 

 ally comes to a stand ; habits of industry are not formed, or are 

 broken up ; habits of luxury and expenditure are engendered ; 

 and, with this, comes generally also the habit of getting trusted 

 and running in debt. This is the fatal snare ; and the farmer 

 presently finds himself irretrievably enfolded in the meshes of 

 bankruptcy ; and assignments, and mortgages, and writs, and 

 executions, those great curses of life, bring up the rear, with a 

 black cloud of mortification and misery. But besides these 

 considerations, in the resolute habit of living within one's own 

 means and depending mainly upon one's own exertions, there 

 is a moral gain, which can scarcely be overvalued. The first 

 lesson to be taught to every child is a lesson of self-dependence. 

 I know very well the advantages springing from a division of 

 labor, and as well, that every general rule must be modified by 

 various qualifications ; but it is a sound maxim in personal, 

 domestic, and, I may add, public economy, never to depend on 

 others for that which you can do for yourselves. This is that 

 element which more strongly marks the Yankee character, and 

 gives them that shrewdness and adroitness for which the 



