6 



of tlieir products, as the result of labor bestowed on raw material:^ 

 if we include all the leading manufactures, cotton, woolen, boots 

 and slices, and all iron products, was small compared with the pro- 

 ducts of farms ; and the government itself hardly recognized what 

 was going on until the great result was spread before it. I have 

 not been able to obtain the official report of our manufacturing in- 

 dustries of that year, but they will probably show about the same 

 proportion as at the previous census, when the value of our farm, 

 products was more than the greatest of them, and about equal to 

 ihem all- 

 Bat again, farming pays the nation by its contribution to our 

 foreign exchanges. Every nation should strive to supply all the 

 wants of its people just so far as its soil, climate, natural advantages 

 and mechanical skill will allow, but should always proJuce that 

 which under all circumstances it can do most advantageously. But 

 in any event, it should sell more than it buys, or it will end in bank- 

 ruptcy. The wants of a community of savages are few and easily 

 supphed ; but as fehey ascend in the scale of intelligence and civil- 

 ization, their wants rapidly increase, requiring a large field, a varied 

 chmate, and educated skill, to procure the means of their gratifica- 

 tion. The people of the United States stand on the highest plane 

 of civilization, and have a legion of wants, real and imaginary, which 

 are fostered by our national ambition and extravagance to such aa 

 extent that we have become — according to our wealth and popula- 

 tion — the largest purchasers of foreign products and commodities 

 of any nation on the earth. We send our commercial marine to 

 every nook and corner of the world, exj^loi'e all lands, and make 

 ourselves acquainted with the pecuHar productions and manufac- 

 tures of all people ; and, unhke Old England, not so much for the 

 purpose of selling our own surplus, as to buy of theirs. We im- 

 port choice fruits from the tropics, sugar from the West Indies, tea, 

 toys and " jimcracks " from China, silks from France and Japan 

 hides from South America, ii'on fi'om England, Norway and Eussia ; 

 and in fact a thousand other articles which we can and should jDro- 

 duce if we use them. To such an extent has this mania to covet, 

 buy and consume foreign articles been carried, that in a majority of 

 years the balance of trade has been against us ; and but for our 

 production of gold and silver, we should have been comj^elled, for 

 aught I know, to go into an assignment, and have our national es- 

 tate settled in a bankrupt court. Bad as the case now is, it would 



