Geyer, Ghas. 

 18^+2, August 8th 



Dr. Engelbach's farm TRANSLATION 



Dr. Engelbach's farm, August 8, l8k2 



Dear Doctor, 



I received your letter of the 2nd of this month last night when I visited 

 your friends, the Kirchers; I gave them both your greetings, as well as Dr. Engelbach. 

 Mr. Kircher has a small shop in Arensville and considering the circumstances, seeras 

 to do quite weil* I told the people who were there your opinions about politics , but 

 as true as everything you said may be, it is not enough to give one courage and 

 hope for better times to come, because even if things get straightened out, the 

 import duties of other countries are still the main deterrent. The South and South- 

 west will never be able to produce cotton as cheap as the English do in East India 



cotton which was the main export product of the United States has reached a price 

 of 30 cents here, and it would be just as profitable to leave the fields unplanted. — 

 A bushel of wheat from Missouri and Northern and Southern Illinois could not be 

 brought to the eastern markets under 22 cts. and then be sold at a profit to England! — 

 Where is the profit for the trades people and especially for the farmers who work 

 under the hot sun? — You mentioned these two speculations concerning cotton and wheat 

 only as an example, and there is proof how useless a bank would be to support the 

 market. You close however: ,! that at lower prices, the market is bad depends on 

 circumstances in other countries over which we have no control". — This means nothing 

 eise but the import duties which not only make import of United States wares difficult, 

 but in many cases impossible; there is nothing which would prevent other countries 

 to swamp the local markets with their products; this prevents incentive on the part 

 of the Citizens in many hundreds of fields since, of course, they cannot compete 

 with the Europeans. Gertainly, for the same reason that the United States maintains 

 a Navy, just as well as the other seafaring nations and is faced with the necessity 

 of supporting it for her own security, the United States should introduce import 

 duties just as England, France, Germany in order to keep up the incentive and 

 let the workers get higher wages. I regret to be a dissenter of the Democratic 

 Party, but I am afraid that the Democrats lead us backwards in politics as well as 

 in economics. The local Whigs did not learn anything from the things yöu wrote. Of 

 course, it is to be regretted that there is no real leadership since the people in 

 Office change constantly. Please accept my opinions as written down in a hurry and 

 while I was frequently disturbed and there fore, rather mixed up. Düring the local 

 elections, the Democrats won — I am curious to learn how the election in St. Louis 

 in all of Missouri turned out. 



I am confident that you will change the name of Cuscuta pentagona to C. Ceanothi 



