INTRODUCTORY DISCOURSE. 37 



nates at home ? whether it is contagious or not ? are questions solemnly 

 debated by the profession, and treatises of much learning and inge- 

 nuity have been written on both sides. (38) It is stated by Humboldt 

 that a plague, called the matlazahuatl, prevails about once in a century 

 among the indian race in Mexico ; that in 1545 eight hundred thousand 

 died of it, and in 1576 two millions ; and that it never attacks white 

 people. Can this be the disease which swept off whole nations of our 

 northern Indians before the european settlement of this country ? and 

 if it be true that the yellow fever, as is alleged, seldom if ever attacks 

 the mexican indians here is a very extraordinary field open for investiga- 

 tion. 



It would be a gigantic work to point out those subjects of investiga- 

 tion applicable to political science, and which demand attention from 

 their peculiar application to this country or from their general impor- 

 tance. Let me glance at a few. How far a representative government 

 upon the federal principle may be extended ; the extent of judicial 

 independence ; the arrangement of the elective franchise ; the constitu- 

 tion of the executive power ; the establishment of a veto, or qualified 

 negative ; the institution of an executive council ; the organization of 

 the appointing power ; and the constitutional rotation of office. If we 

 are astonished to find these principles in government so unsettled and so 

 much afloat, we are equally surprised to learn that the very elements oi 

 political economy are still unknown or controverted. There is, in fact, 

 much abstruse investigation, and much metaphysical subtlety in this 

 science ; and, perhaps, more terra incognita than in any other of equal 

 importance. A mere hint at a few points will sufficiently illustrate this 

 proposition. 



The following among others, are still subjects of speculation and con- 

 troversy : what is national wealth ? the means of producing it ? the 

 influence or action of the generating causes ? their immediate or distant 

 effects ? their apparent or actual results ? the different ramifications of 

 the sources of wealth; such as labour, capital, the circulation of com- 

 modities or commerce ? and the revenue or consumption ? the source of 

 wealth ; whether in labour, foreign commerce, land, or capital stock ? in 

 what capital consists ? the nature of money ? the proportion which the 

 circulating money of a country bears to the whole value f the annual 

 produce circulated by it ? whether labour is the standard of value, and 

 whether there is au immutable standard measure of value ? whether 

 agricultural labour is exclusively productive or most productive ? 

 and perhaps the most controverted subject of political economy is, 

 whether the home of foreign commerce is most productive of nation- 

 al wealth. 



I am persuaded that sufficient has been said to show that this institu- 

 tion embraces the most important objects of investigation ; deeply, in- 

 timately, essentially, and extensively connected with the best interests 

 of science, the prosperity of our country, aiid the dignity of man. 



