No. 4. 



The Times. 



51 



The following letter, from a friend in 



Washington, was intended for our last num- 

 ber, but it was not received until our paper 

 had gone to press. 



Washington City, Aug. 22, 1837. 

 To the Editor of tlio Farmers' Cabinet: 



In looking to the present condition of 

 affairs, and following the retrospective with 

 a prospective view, we are called upon to 

 put in requisition, all our fortitude, sympa- 

 thy and forbearance. Fortitude to bear us 

 up under our trials, sympathy for the general 

 distress, and forbearance to those who have 

 been placed in our power by untoward events. 

 Truly, the state of the times has been dis- 

 tressing, yet the cry of " hard times" has 

 accompanied every year, nay, every month 

 and every day since my recollection ; and a 

 worse predicament may enthral us before 

 we shall enjoy improved circumstances. 

 The merchant has felt the shock, the manu 

 facturer is staggering under the blow ; the 

 mechanic, the farmer, and the laborer are 

 none of them to escape unhurt. Yet, amid 

 the distress consequent upon the wreck of 

 fortunes, there are manj'^ individuals in all 

 classes of society, who have cause to com- 

 fort themselves on their forethought and 

 prudence "m leaving well enough alone,'''' 

 without having entered into hazardous enter- 

 prises, for the purpose of bettering their con- 

 dition. Prudent industry has indeed ample 

 cause of felicitation, and in no class is this 

 exemption from dire calamity likely more to 

 abound, than among the farmers of the mid- 

 dle and northern states. While the preco- 

 cious plant, that like "Jonah's gourd," 

 which grew up in a night, is blasted by the 

 storm of adversity, the more humble one of 

 the farmer, whose growth has been slow 

 but sure, will be found strongly rooted in its 

 native soil in despite of the whirlwind, with 

 perhaps a partial loss of its foliage. Whe- 

 ther the measures of the government have 

 contributed to the present distress, or how 

 far it may be in the power of Congress, at 

 its anticipated meeting, to afford relief, it is 

 not my intention to discuss. Yet there are 

 causes, not political, which M'e may with 

 propriety and perhaps with profit, canvass, 

 which have had considerable influence in 

 producing the present unexampled embar- 

 rassments. It is our province to profit by 

 past errors, and like the bee, extract honey 

 from the apparently bitter plant. Not only 

 is adversity a better teacher than prosperity, 

 but it is the only school in which some men 

 will learn. A prevalent and unaccountable 

 desire not only to surpass one's neighbor in 

 obtaining riches, but to live more ostenta- 

 tiously, as if our happiness (the great object 



of pursuit,) depended more upon reputed 

 wealth than a competency, with a disposition 

 to enjoy it rationally, in temperate indul- 

 gence, and a proper discharge of our duties. 

 The dull plodding pursuits of labor did not 

 promise soon enough to realise to many, 

 their golden dreams. Commercial and other 

 extensive enterprises producing temporary 

 success, v/ere heralded over the world. 

 Many new adventures being started, pro- 

 perty acquired a fictitious value. Banks 

 and other new facilities being multiplied, 

 the belief daily gained ground, that with so 

 many fields of speculation, the ruling pas- 

 sion might soon be gratified to an indefinite 

 extent. Too many seeking thus to gain for- 

 tunes by their wits, and too few to earn them 

 by their labor ; multitudes were transferred 

 from the producing to the consuming class, 

 and the imports for a single year, exceed- 

 ed the exports more than sixty millions of 

 dollars. Our citizens thus became greatly 

 in debt at home and abroad ; notwithstand- 

 ing which, speculation was rife in everj'^ 

 quarter of the country, and in ever}"- descrip- 

 tion of propert}'. The moderate w^ell-doing 

 capitalist, aspiring to the condition of the 

 extensive, busy merchant, quitted the little 

 business for which his qualifications and his 

 means fitted him to be useful. Planners and 

 mechanics, deeming the em.ployments in 

 which they had prospered, too humble for 

 their sons, raised them to the dignity of the 

 learned or mercantile profession, and thus, 

 while the consuming population were in- 

 creased beyond their due bounds, the labor- 

 ing, the producing class, was greatly dimin- 

 ished. With the fancied accumulation of 

 wealth, extravagance kept apace, to the great 

 detriment and shameful neglect of agricul- 

 ture, the main business of our country, and 

 source of our wealth, which was greatly 

 curtailed in its products, both from this cause 

 and the general failure of crops. Provisions 

 doubled in price, and importations of foreign 

 grain became extensive. At length, selling 

 day has come ! and thousands are reduced 

 to bankruptcy, (either by the indiscretion of 

 themselves, or those for whom they had 

 vouched,) who had believed themselves se- 

 cure in opulence ; general distrust has taken 

 the place of general credit. The foreign 

 merchant who has not been a stranger to 

 pressure, owing to the extravagance of his 

 own land, has required of our importers, 

 payments of their heavy debts, and that too 

 in \he precious metals! who, upon turtjing to 

 the banks in this country for assistance, find 

 them with one accord to close their vaults 

 against them, and suspending specie pay- 

 ments, having generally issued notes twenty 

 times the amount of their real capital or solid 

 basis, and under the necessity of the case, 



