Clinton's introductory discourse. 75 



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 import- 

 ance. 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 of 

 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 of the annual 

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

 whether there is an immutable standard measure of value ? whether 

 agricultural labour is exclusively productive or most productive ? and, 



