state Convention— small freeholds . 
341 
THE RELATION OF SMALL FREEHOLDS TO THE 
PROSPERITY OF THE STATE. 
BY E. H. BENTON, LEEOY. 
The subject we propose to investigate lies at the threshold of 
every student of political economy, and associates itself with every 
question discussed to its close. 
Superadded to the natural right of every human being born into 
the world to th q products only of the soil, we find in all civilized 
governments a civil right conferred by statutes, of permanent pro¬ 
prietorship in the soil also. That this distinction of natural and 
civil right to the products of the soil, or to the products and soil, 
is vital to right conclusions in our present investigation, will ap¬ 
pear as we proceed. 
That we may approximate to some degree of definiteness in 
our conclusions, we assume that the highest degree of prosperity 
is attained in any state where an individual owns just that amount 
of land which, by usual diligence and skill through the whole 
year, he can cultivate thoroughly without direct assistance, except 
from his own family. 
The principle upon which this standard is based is one which 
all agree to apply to all avocations of life—namely : That the 
highest degree of success in any employment is reached by him 
who devotes all his talents exclusively to it; or, to state the mat¬ 
ter still stronger, he only reaches success in any occupation who 
gives to it any thing less than all his time and faculties. Assum¬ 
ing these preliminary propositions to be sound, we are prepared 
to advance to the central one. 
Take any definite extent of territory, and the less the size of 
freeholds or proprietary estates the greater the accumulation of 
wealth, and the higher the character of its civilization ; while, on 
the other hand, the larger the estates, the nearer to barbarism and 
poverty will be the condition of the bulk of the population. 
Without going beyond the bonndary of the United States we 
