No. 216.] 375 



property, so nations can make no progress except by the adoption 

 of the same principle, the preservation cf their national interests 

 by the protection of their improved condition from the attack of 

 those who, either from bad government, bad institutions, or defective 

 education, occupy a lower place in the scale of civilization. As it 

 is only by competence and leisure to an extent sufficient to the culti- 

 vation of his intellectual nature and the education of his offspring, 

 that the individual man improves and perpetuates his character, so 

 nations, as composed of individuals, must enjoy competence and leis- 

 ure, or they can make no progress; to lose these is to lose their 

 civilization and relapse into barbarism, and this competence and 

 leisure they are sure to lose, if open to the attack of those whose 

 condition is below their own. Especially is this the case in the 

 relations under consideration, from the present condition of European 

 society, stimulated by the example of our progress to reach a position 

 similar to our own. To attempt the elevation of the species by the 

 abandonment of the gain which any portion of the race has acquired 

 by superior intelligence, industry or virtue, is unphilosophical, as it 

 removes the stimulus to effort which is furnished by the exhibition 

 of the advantages enjoyed, and renders palpable the error which the 

 benevolence of the advocates of a free trade has led them to adopt. 

 It is only by preserving to those who may have acquired it, their 

 preferable position, that the result they desire can be accomplished, 

 that the race can be advanced in civilization. 



Competence and leisure, the elements and the results of our im- 

 proved condition of society, are especially incompatible w'ith the 

 antagonism of an inferior condition, when the numerical power of 

 the lower class preponderates as in the relation of Europe and 

 America. It is also an error to suppose the superior civilization of 

 the smaller community, a reason for the removal of the protective 

 barrier, or the assumption that by an increase of power arising from 

 the advanced civilization, it will be able to hold its own in the 

 strife. It is only by the abatement of the hard service to which 

 individuals are subjected, that the improvement can be preserved and 

 advanced, and this abatement of service at once confers an advantage 

 upon the antagonist forces, the result of which is to overthrow the 

 whole structure of the improved society, and reduce the whole to a 

 common level. The working of this principle is obvious to every 

 intelligent observer of the competition and its results, which arises 

 between Americans and Europeans in any departn^ent of business in 

 the United States, whenever the number of the latter becomes suffi- 

 cient in any locality to demonstrate its results. The greater patience 



