DAVID HENSHAW'S ADDRESS. 225 



the object of our toil ; if we seek to avoid labor as an evil ; if 

 we endeavor to produce a large amount of the good things of 

 this life, by availing ourselves of the known forces of nature, be- 

 stowed without cost by the bounty of Providence; if we seek this 

 end by the diffusion of knowledge, — the purpose for which we are 

 here assembled, — by the invention of curious and complicated 

 machinery; if abundance be the object of our pursuit, the pur- 

 pose of our exertions; and if, in reaching this practical conclu- 

 sion, we use every means in our power for overcoming natural 

 obstacles to produce the greatest result with the least effort, — with 

 the smallest amount of labor, — we should be careful to allow no 

 artificial rules, no mere social, legal regulations, to defeat this 

 purpose, or obstruct us in this pursuit. 



Statutory regulations, defining the business we may follow, 

 the mode in which it may be conducted, and controlling the 

 channels of exchange, are but fallacious expedients for augment- 

 ing our producing capabilities. The laborer is not aided by 

 shackling his limbs ; and freedom in selecting and in pursuing 

 our vocations seems as important to success as freedom in the 

 personal exertions of the laborer. Abundance being the object 

 of man's toil, he ought to be left as free to procure that abun- 

 dance, by exchanging the articles which he can more easily and 

 cheaply produce than can be done by his fellow, for the more 

 easily and cheaply produced articles of other kinds, by other 

 people and in other countries, as he is here left free in the choice 

 of his calling, and in the application of his labor. 



If the tropical fruits can be procured here cheaper in exchange 

 for our ice, the natural product of our winter climate, than they 

 could by raising them in a hothouse by artificial heat ; and if 

 the people of the Tropics could get a larger supply of ice by 

 exchanging their fruits, produced by natural heat and without 

 labor for it, than they could obtain by the same amount of labor 

 in making ice by chemical refrigeration, why should legal ob- 

 stacles be placed in the way of this exchange 1- Why should 

 artificial bars close this road to abundance ; and, above all, why 

 cherish the fallacy that such obstacles protect labor and benefit 

 producers ? The purpose of all our social regulations is or should 

 be to secure abundance ; but were the object to protect labor, it 

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