188 [Senate 



life. And that would be, truly, independence. It has been said, if we 

 take nothing from other countries, other countries will take nothing 

 from us. In reply to this, I would remark that other countries will, 

 at all events, take nothing from us that they can do without — that 

 they can make or produce themselves. They, at least, always have 

 acted upon this principle; it is natural they should do so, and it is 

 high time that we do the same. It is a good maxim for any people, 

 individually and collectively to buy only that which they cannot them- 

 selves produce. The profits of the culture of silk are at least remu- 

 nerations. He who enters upon this business with the expectation of 

 realising five hundred to fifteen hundred dollars for every acre of 

 ground planted in mulberry trees, and with the supposition that he 

 can occupy as many acres as he pleases in this way, and with this 

 profit, will certainly be disappointed. But he who shall commence 

 it with a moderate portion of common sense, enlightened by proper 

 information, exercising due economy, moderate skill, and an ordinary 

 degree of American perseverance, with the expectation of a good liv- 

 ing profit, will be sure to succeed to his entire satisfaction. I am 

 inclined to the belief, that the culture of silk should be made one of 

 the objects of attention of every farmer's lamily, as is the production 

 of butter and other articles of domestic produce. Let every family 

 rear twenty to fifty thousand silk worms, more or less, as their situa- 

 tion and arrangements justify. Let them reel the cocoons, make what 

 sewing silk, mitts and hosiery they may require, out of the produce, 

 and sell the nicely reeled and prepared overplus raw silk to the mer- 

 chant or manufacturer. Is not the immense amount of butter con- 

 sumed in the United States, produced in this way? Are not many 

 other articles, of immense magnitude in the aggregate, all accumu- 

 lated from the collection together of small parcels produced in this 

 small way? Despise not, therefore, these small things; but remem- 

 ber, that as mountains are composed of ultimate atoms so small as to 

 be almost unappreciable, so is the aggregate of the wealth of a people. 

 Wliat though we have exported to foreign countries forty-seven 

 millions of dollars worth of cotton during the year ending 30th of 

 September, 1842, has not this mass of wealth been collected together 

 fiom the myriads of small bolls in which it grew, each in itself not 

 worth intrinsically the tithe of the tenth of a cent? And what though 

 ihe silk-worm, individuilly, produces but a small filament of itself, 

 and by itself almost worthless, does not the combination of these 

 filaments compose the thread that forms the fabric that costs us annu- 

 ally twelve to twenty millions of hard earned dollars? But I am by 

 no means ready to admit that the silk culture can only be carried 

 on profitably by farmers' families in a small way. When judiciously 

 pursued with such information, skill and economy, as are at all times 

 at command in all American communities, and as are necessary to 

 success in any other business, it will be found a proiitable business 

 on a large scale — on any scale. This has been proved satisfactorily 

 by the success, to an eminent degree, of the people ot the society 

 at Eronomy, Pennsylvania, and by Mr. Gill, of !\Iount Pleasant, 

 Ohio, and numerous others. On the score of profit, therefore, there 



