6 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
or to destroy your life ; there being no law forbidding such acts, and no hu¬ 
man punishment for them, this man would probably do his pleasure. 
“ The law which restrains your freedom, lest you should do harm to others, 
is therefore your best friend ; because it restrains others from doing harm to 
you. Without it you would have no security for your property, youi person, 
or even your life. 
“Thus then we see, that those laws which are necessary for the mainte¬ 
nance of good order in society, are beneficial to each individual member of it ; 
for although by entering into a society suhject to civil government, we give up 
a share of our personal independence, we are more than compensated by the 
security we obtain for the rights which remain to us.” 
Comparatively few of onr people are familiar with the rights and 
duties of citizens, or with the principles of our civil government. They 
have been too much engaged in providing for the wants of life, to study 
into the nature of their civil and social duties; and the schools, where 
they might have acquired this knowledge, taught little of it. There 
are a thousand derelictions of duty, and petty offences against the good 
order of society, not punishable by law, which men commit from ig¬ 
norance, or without knowing or reflecting upon their evil ten lency. 
Where these are not only tolerated, but applauded, as they too often 
are, by the ignorant and the interested, it is no w mder that they should 
multiply, and too often grow into crimes. It is not the restraints of 
criminal law that can work a reformation in the heart, for where those 
most abound, and are most sanguinary in their punishment, we find 
that crime most abounds : it is the consciousne-s, impressed indelibly 
upon the human mind, of our moral and social obligations—and the 
conviction, growing out of our social relations, that it is our interest, 
and greatest source of true happiness, as well as a sacred duty to re¬ 
spect the rights, opinions and property of others, to the same extent 
that we ask others to respect these in us. If these precepts are taught 
in the schools, and imprinted on the ductile minds of youth, as they 
would be by instructing them in the objects, principles and necessity of 
civil government—in the rights and duties of citizens, and in the ten¬ 
dency and punishment of crime, they would become leading maxims in 
life, and result in much good to society. We are a new people, not 
only in history, but in government, manners and habits, and we ought 
consequently to be so in education and knowledge. There are no fo¬ 
reign precedents fitted to our condition. Under the governments of the 
old world, where power is monopolized by the few, the few only need 
be instructed In the principles of civil government—because the com¬ 
monalty have only to obey. But with us the commonalty do and must 
exercise the prerogatives of sovereignty—they must give the impress 
to our political and social institutions—and they ought perfectly to un¬ 
derstand the principles of the government which they control, the du¬ 
ties of its officers, and the rights and duties of its citizens. Hence the 
necessity of school books, adapted to our institutions and condition of 
society, which shall instruct and invigorate the mind, in the high duties 
of civil and social life, while the bone and muscle of the body are ac¬ 
quiring strength and vigor, so that both may simultaneously acquire 
maturity, and be fitted to perform the offices of manhood at the same 
time. Of this class of books we consider the “Young Citizen’s Manual,” 
and we therefore recommend it, not only for schools, but as a fit com¬ 
panion of young men who have entered upon the stage of business life, 
as the best book for this purpose that has fallen under our observation. 
The “Young Citizen’s Manual” has been unanimously adopted, by 
the trustees, as a class-book in the Albany Academy. 
“Public and Private Economy, by Theodore Sedgwick, "from the press 
of the Harpers, 12 mo. pp. 264—1836. Price 75 cents. 
This is a small and cheap volume that may be read with interest and 
profit by every class of American citizens, from the day laborer to the 
man of princely opulence, and which we respectfully beg leave to re¬ 
commend to their consideration. It is adapted to the institution and 
habits of our country ; and if the principles which it inculcates are car¬ 
ried out in practice, it cannot but tend greatly to advance our happiness 
and to perpetuate our freedom. 
The object of this volume is to make our people, what Cobbett long 
ago denominated them, “a thinking; people'’ —to teach them that they 
are yet deficient in many of the comforts and enjoyments which con¬ 
stitute the true happiness of man, but which are accessible to all, or a 
great portion of our population, under the highly favored condition in 
which Providence has placed them ;—that wealth, obtained by honest 
labor, whether mental or bodily, both of which are legitimate sources 
of wealth, confers the power of multiplying our individual comforts, of 
acquiring knowledge, a source of high intellectual enjoyment, and of 
dispensing happiness to others;—and that wealth can be acquired by 
all who practise industry and frugality—who are temperate in then- 
habits, and discreet in their expenditures. That ill-gotten, dispropor- 
tioned wealth, obtained by unfair dealing, by fraud, by oppression, by 
monopoly, generally contains the elements of its own destruction—and 
is most abused, by being employed for sensuality, pomp, parade, and 
splendid outside; and that this “no more fills the'mind with happiness, 
than husks and ashes, if eaten, would give strength to the body.” In 
short, its object is to make our people industrious, virtuous and wealthy 
—to show them the true use of wealth, in promoting substantial im¬ 
provement, civilization, refinement, and the happiness of the human 
family—and that when it is abused, in its expenditure, it tends power¬ 
fully to defeat these noble purposes. 
We intend, hereafter, so far to trespass upon the rights of the pub¬ 
lisher, as to make some extracts from the work, for our Young Men’s 
Department. In the mean time we make two quotations, as specimens 
of the author’s style, and of the happy and perspicuous manner in 
which he illustrates and enforces his propositions. 
“ Public- economy teaches, that all the wealth of the nation is divided into 
one great heap, which is the public wealth, and many smaller heaps, which 
is the private wealth. The public heap is that which belongs to the nation ; 
as in the United States, the public lands, the public stores, the money, and 
every other kind of public property. This is for the support of the army, the 
navy, the officers of the government, and all the public institutions. The pri¬ 
vate heaps are those which belong to private individuals exclusively, as a 
man’s farm, cattle, &c. Public economy teaches, that in the public stock all 
are partners, rich and poor, and that no man has a right to take a farthing 
without the public consent obtained. That all the wealth of a nation, public 
and private, may be supposed to be gatheredinto one great store-house, which 
is divided into public and private apartments ; that the common stock is 
stored in the public rooms ; that every industrious man has a private apart¬ 
ment, under the same roof, which is under his own lock and key. That as 
the public apartments are filled from the private, the better supplied the latter, 
the better will be the stores of the nation. That if a man set fire to, orin any 
way destroy those parts of the building, where the public property is stored, 
he is a loser of course, because he is a partner in it, though the flames do not 
reach his own apartment; and if, through lveedlessness, spite or malice, he 
kindles a blaze in one of the private apartments, he then destroys one of those 
heaps, out of which the great public store-house is furnished, 
“From this we see, that in all true economy, property, belong to whom 
it may, to the nation or to individuals, to rich or poor, is sacred, on account 
of the good it does—that it is very base and stupid for men to waste, burn or 
destroy any property, which is little better than a man’s breaking the window s 
of his own house, or putting fire to a city where he is the owner of stores and 
houses. It is the characteristic of a brute to waste and defile the food which 
he will need to-morrow. Property, ihen, is the life of the people, and it is 
suicide wantonly to destroy it.”—p. 30. 
“Arid what are intellectual pleasures? In presenting an answer to this 
question, we see the true value of property, and the leanness and meanness 
of poverty. Intellectual pleasure is that of the mind and soul, or of the heart ; 
it is that w hich we enjoy other than as that of mere animals. The social plea¬ 
sures, those which we possess in the society of friends and neighbors, make a 
large portion of these, pleasures of the mind and soul. Intellectual pleasure is 
found in the grace and beauty of life, in charity, in hospitality, in the luxury 
of spending our money so as to do the greatest good with it. It is in a good, 
comfortable, well furnished house, a well ordered farm, in the flower, the gar¬ 
den ; in observing neatness and order prevail in our abodes, and in seeing our 
children neatly and fitly clad. It is, or would be everywhere, if men would 
buy it with the money which they can and do earn. So simple, and cheaply 
purchased is much of this kind of pleasure, that those who are not rich can 
have it as well as the opulent ; and when the people come to care for, and to 
work in earnest mainly for these things, there will bean end of mohs and riots 
to avenge their wrongs, real or supposed, by the destruction of properly. They 
will then see how mean and stupid it is to waste that wealth which is the 
source of their greatest blessings, how like children to destroy the hen that 
lays the golden egg.”—p. 102. 
COMMON ROADS. 
Our road act has been so often amended, or rather mended, that, like 
an old garment, or an old kettle, it has in a measure become useless, 
failing to subserve the good purposes desired: and it is the general be¬ 
lief, that it is better to make an entire new one, than to attempt to patch 
up the old thing. The first step towards remedying an evil is to ascer¬ 
tain its cause. The defects of our road system seem to be, 
1. The short tenure of office, the circumscribed jurisdiction, and the 
consequent lack of system, and of knowledge in what concerns the ge¬ 
neral and permanent good, in the officers who are appointed to lay out 
the roads. 
2. The want of competent knowledge, both in theory and practice 
and the desire to subserve local or personal interests, too common in 
those who are appointed to superintend their construction and repair. 
3. The indolent, inefficient mode in which the laborers perform their 
share of the duty. 
Our roads should be laid out with reference to the public accommo¬ 
dation—with a view to afford the best and shortest routes for the great 
body of the people to reach market, and perform their ordinary "busi¬ 
ness: they should be constructed upon principles which will render 
them most perfect, most permanent, and most economical in the long 
run; and the labor should be directed by a competent engineer, and 
faithfully and honestly performed. Road-making is as much an art as 
shoemaking, and practice can alone make perfect in either; and it is as 
much a science as civil engineering upon our canals ani rail-roads.— 
The soil and substratum, drainage, inclination and materials, are all 
matters of the first moment in constructing roads; and in these matters 
our road officers are generally ignorant or reckless. What farmer 
would think of employing himself and hands in constructing his build¬ 
ings, or in making his shoes or harness, when he could have them done 
