By JOHN LORD, LL.D.
The _material_ consequences of the discovery of America were brilliant
and important. They first stimulated the passion for further
explorations, and among all the maritime nations of Europe. Hence
the voyages of Ojeda, of Nino, of Puiza, of Balboa, of Vespucci, of
Cabot, of Raleigh, and various other men of enterprise. They did
not rest until they had explored the coasts and rivers of the whole
American continent, north and south. The Spaniards took the lead, and,
following in their steps, the Portuguese doubled the Cape of Good
Hope, and established their factories in the islands of the Indian
Ocean. The Dutch and English were animated by the same zeal, until
the East and West Indies were known to travelers and merchants. The
French missionaries explored the wilds of the North, and sailed down
the Mississippi and the St. Lawrence. In a few years the grand outlines
of North and South America were known to geographical scholars. A
new world was opened to the enterprise of Europeans. Then followed
the conquest of such parts of America as stimulated the ambition and
avarice of the Europeans, especially of Spain, who claimed the quarter
part of the American continent. These conquests were atrocious, from
the cruelties inflicted on the unsuspecting natives, to whom the
country belonged. The discovery of the precious metals in Brazil, Peru,
and Mexico, and the repute of their abundance, was the cause of these
conquests.
At last followed colonization, not so much with a view of permanent
settlement or agricultural improvements, as the desire and hope of
getting rich in the mines. Colonization had no dignity until the
English settled in Virginia and in New England. Gold was the first
stimulus, a fertile country the second, and religious liberty the
third. The views of those who colonized Virginia were different from
those who landed on Plymouth Rock. But all the colonists doubtless
sought to improve their condition; and for two hundred years and more
the stream of emigration has flowed toward the West. The poor, the
miserable, as well as the intelligent and enterprising in all parts of
Europe, have regarded America as a refuge and a home.
We next notice an amazing stimulus to commerce, and the enrichment of
Spain by the possession of the new mines of silver and gold. Wealth
flowed in a steady stream to Spain, and that country became the richest
and most powerful in Europe. The Spanish navy became the greatest in
the world, and Spain prospered beyond all precedent.
Another interesting inquiry arises, how far the nations of Europe
were really enriched by the rapid accumulation of gold and silver.
The search for the precious metals may have stimulated commercial
enterprise, but it is not so clear that they added to the substantial
wealth of Europe, except so far as they promoted industry. Gold is not
wealth; it is the exponent of wealth. Real wealth is in farms, and
shops, and ships—in the various channels of industry, in the results of
human labor.
So far as the precious metals enter into useful manufactures, or into
articles of beauty and taste, they are indeed inherently valuable.
Mirrors, plate, jewelry, watches, gilded furniture, the adornments
of the person, in an important sense constitute wealth, since all
nations value them and will pay for them as they do for corn and oil.
So far as they are connected with art, they are valuable in the same
sense as statues and pictures on which labor has been expended. There
is something useful and even necessary besides food and raiment and
houses. The gold which ornamented Solomon’s temple, or the Minerva
of Phidias, or the garments of Leo X., had a value. The ring which is
a present to brides is a part of a marriage ceremony. The gold watch,
which never tarnishes, is more valuable inherently than a pewter one,
because it remains beautiful. Then when gold enters into ornaments,
deemed indispensable, or into manufactures which are needed, it has
an inherent value. It is wealth. But when it is a mere medium of
exchange—its chief use—then it has only a conventional value. I mean
it does not make a nation rich or poor, since the rarer it is the
more it will purchase of the necessities of life. A pound weight of
gold in ancient Greece, or in mediæval Europe, would purchase as much
wheat as twenty pounds weight would purchase to-day. If the mines of
Mexico, or Peru, or California had never been worked, the gold in the
civilized world three hundred years ago would have been as valuable
for banking purposes, or as an exchange for agricultural products,
as twenty times its present quantity, since it would have bought as
much as twenty times the quantity would buy to-day. Make diamonds
as plenty as crystals, they would be worth no more than crystals,
if they were not harder and more beautiful than crystals. Make gold
as plenty as silver, it would be worth no more than silver, except
for manufacturing purposes. It would be worth no more than silver to
bankers and merchants. The vast increase in the production of the
precious metals simply increased the value of the commodities for which
they were exchanged. A laborer can purchase no more bread with a dollar
to-day than he could with five cents three hundred years ago. Five
cents were really as much wealth three hundred years ago as a dollar is
to-day. Wherein, then, has the increase in the precious metals added
to the wealth of the world, if a twentieth part of the gold and silver
now in circulation would buy as much land, or furniture, or wheat, or
oil, three hundred years ago, as twenty times the quantity of gold and
silver would buy to-day? Had no gold or silver mines been discovered
in America, the gold and silver would have appreciated in value in
proportion to the wear of them. In other words, the scarcer the gold
and silver the more the same will purchase of the fruits of human
industry. So industry is the wealth, not the gold. It is the cultivated
farms and the manufactures, and the buildings, and the internal
improvements of a country, which constitute its real wealth, since they
represent its industry—the labor of men.
Mines indeed employ the labor of men, but they do not furnish food
for the body, or raiment to wear, or houses to live in, or fuel for
cooking, or for any purpose whatever of human comfort or necessity—only
material for ornament, which I grant is wealth so far as ornament is
for the welfare of man. The marbles of ancient Greece are very valuable
for the labor expended on them either for architecture or ornament.
Gold and silver were early selected as a useful and convenient article
of exchange, like bank notes, and so have inherent value as they
supply that necessity, but if a quarter part of the gold and silver
in existence would supply that necessity, the remaining three-fourths
would be as inherently valueless as the paper on which bank notes are
engraved. Value consists in what they represent of the labors and
industries of men.
Now Spain ultimately became poor, in spite of the influx of gold
and silver from the American mines, because industries of all kinds
declined. People were diverted from useful callings by the mighty
delusion which gold discoveries created. These discoveries had the same
effect on industry, which is the wealth of nations, as the support of
standing armies in our day. They diverted men from legitimate callings.
The miners had to be supported like soldiers, and the sudden influx of
gold and silver, intoxicated men and stimulated speculation. An army of
speculators does not enrich a nation, since they rob each other. They
earn money to change hands. They do not stimulate industry. They do not
create wealth, they simply make it flow from one person to another.
But speculations sometimes create activity in enterprise. They inflame
desire for wealth and cause people to make greater exertions. In that
sense, the discovery of American mines gave a stimulus to commerce
and travel and energy. People rushed to America for gold. Those
people had to be fed and clothed. Then farmers and manufacturers
followed the gold-hunters. They tilled the soil to feed the mines. The
new farms which dotted the region of the gold diggers added to the
wealth of the country in which the mines were located. Colonization
followed gold-digging. But it was America that became enriched, not
the old countries from which the miners came, except so far as the old
countries furnished tools and ships and fabrics. Doubtless commerce
and manufactures were stimulated. So far the wealth of the world
increased. But the men who returned to riot in luxury and idleness did
not stimulate enterprise. They made others idle also. The necessity of
labor was lost sight of.
And yet if one country became idle, another country may have become
industrious. There can be but little question that the discovery of
American mines gave commerce and manufactures and agriculture, on the
whole, a stimulus. This was particularly seen in England. England grew
rich from industry and enterprise, as Spain became poor from idleness
and luxury. The silver and gold, diffused through Europe, ultimately
found their way into the pockets of Englishmen who made a market of
their manufactures. It was not the precious metals which enriched
England, but those articles of industry for which the rest of the world
parted with their gold and silver. What has made France rich since the
revolution? Those innumerable articles of taste and elegance, fabrics
for which all Europe parted with its specie, not war, not conquest,
not mines. Why, till recently, was Germany so poor?—because it had
so little to sell to other nations—because industry was cramped by
standing armies and despotic government.
One thing is certain, that the discovery of America opened a new field
for industry and enterprise to all the discontented and impoverished
and oppressed Europeans who emigrated. At first they emigrated to
dig silver and gold. The opening of mines required labor, and miners
were obliged to part with their gold for the necessities of life.
Thus California, in our day, has become peopled with farmers and
merchants and manufacturers as well as miners. Many came to America
expecting to find gold and were disappointed and were obliged to turn
agriculturists, as in Virginia. Many came to New England from political
and religious motives. But all came to better their fortunes. Gradually
the United States and Canada became populated from east to west, and
from north to south. The surplus population of Europe poured itself
into the wilds of America. Generally the emigrants were farmers.
With the growth of agricultural industry was developed commerce and
manufactures. Thus, materially, the world was immensely benefited.
A new continent was opened for industry. No matter what the form of
government may be—I might almost say no matter what the morals and
religion of the people may be—so long as there is land to occupy, and
to be sold cheap, the continent will fill up, and will be as densely
populated as Europe or Asia, because the natural advantages are good.
The rivers and the lakes will be navigated. The products of the country
will be exchanged for European and Asiatic products. Wealth will
certainly increase, and increase indefinitely.
There is no calculating the future greatness and wealth of the new
world, especially in the United States. There are no bounds to
commerce, manufactures, and agricultural products. We can predict with
certainty the rise of new cities, villas, palaces, material splendor
limited only to the increasing resources and population of the country.
Who can tell the number of miles of new railroads yet to be made, the
new inventions to abridge human labor? What great empires are destined
to rise! What unknown forms of luxury will be found out! What new
and magnificent trophies of art and science will gradually be seen!
What mechanisms, what material glories are sure to come! This is not
speculation. Nothing can retard the growth of America in material
wealth and glory. The tower of the new Babel will rise to the clouds,
and be seen in all its glory throughout the earth and sea. No Fourth
of July orator ever exaggerated the future destinies of America in a
material point of view. No “spread eagle” politician ever conceived
what is sure to come.
And what then? Grant the most indefinite expansion—the growth of
empires whose splendor and wealth and power shall utterly eclipse
the glories of the old world. All this is probable. But when we have
dwelt on the future material expansion—when we have given wings to
imagination, and feel that even imagination can not reach the probable
realities, in a material aspect, then our predictions and calculations
stop. Beyond material glories we can not count with certainty.
The world has witnessed many powerful empires which have passed away,
“leaving scarcely a wreck behind.” What remains of the antediluvian
world? Not even a spike of Noah’s Ark, larger and stronger than
any modern ship. What remains of Babylon, of Thebes, of Tyre, of
Carthage—those great cities of wealth and power? What remains of Roman
greatness, even, except in laws and literature, and renovated statues?
Remember, there is an undeviating uniformity in the past history of
nations. What is the simple story of all the ages?—industry, wealth,
corruption, decay and ruin. What conservative power has been strong
enough to arrest the ruin of the nations of antiquity? Have not
material forces and glories been developed and exhibited, whatever
the religion and morals of the fallen nations? Can not a country grow
materially to a point under the most adverse influence in a religious
and moral point of view? Yet for lack of religion and morals the
nations perished, and their Babel towers were buried in the dust. They
perished for lack of true conservative forces—at least that is the
judgment of historians. Nobody doubts the splendor of the material
glories of the ancient nations. The ruins of Baalbec, of Palmyra, of
Athens, prove this, to say nothing of history. The material glories of
the ancient nations may be surpassed by our modern wonders, but yet all
the material glories of the ancient nations passed away.
Now, if this is to be the destiny of America—an unbounded material
growth, followed by corruption and ruin, then Columbus has simply
extended the realm for men to try material experiments. Make New York a
second Carthage, and Boston a second Athens, and Philadelphia a second
Antioch, and Washington a second Rome, and we simply repeat the old
experiment. Did not the Romans have nearly all we have, materially,
except our modern scientific inventions? But has America no higher
destiny than to repeat the old experiments, and improve upon them and
become rich and powerful? Has she no higher and nobler mission? Can she
lay hold of forces that the old world never had, such as will prevent
the uniform doom of nations? I maintain that there is no reason that
can be urged, based on history and experience, why she should escape
the fate of the nations of antiquity, unless new forces arise on this
continent, different from what the world has known, and which have
a conservative influence. If America has a great mission to declare
and to fulfill, she must put forth altogether new forces, and they
not material. That alone will save her, and save the world. It is
mournful to contemplate even the future material glories of America,
if they are not to be preserved—if these are to share the fate of
ancient wonders. It is obvious that the real glory of America is to be
something entirely different from that of which the ancients boasted.
And this is to be to the moral and spiritual, that which the ancients
lacked. And this leads me to speak of the moral consequences of the
discovery of America—infinitely grander than any material wonders, of
which the world has been full, of which nearly every form of paganism
has boasted, and which must necessarily perish, everywhere, without new
forces to preserve them. In a moral point of view scarcely anything
good resulted, at least to Europe, by the discovery of America.
It excited the wildest spirit of adventure, the most unscrupulous
cupidity, the most demoralizing speculations. It created jealousies
and wars. The cruelties and injustices inflicted on the Indians were
revolting. Nothing in the annals of the world exceeded the wickednesses
of the Spaniards in the conquest of Peru and Mexico. That conquest is
the most dismal and least glorious in human history. We see no poetry
or heroism or necessity. We read of nothing but crimes. The Jesuits,
in their missionary zeal, partly redeemed the cruelties, but they
soon imposed a despotic yoke and made their religion pay. Monopolies
scandalously increased, and the New World was regarded only as spoil.
The tone of moral feeling was lowered everywhere, for the natives were
crazed with the hope of sudden accumulation. Spain became enervated and
demoralized.
On America itself the demoralization was even more marked. There never
was such a state of moral degradation in any Christian country as in
South America. Three centuries have passed, and the low state of morals
continues. Contrast Mexico and Peru with the United States, morally and
intellectually. What seeds of vice did not the Spaniards plant! How the
old natives melted away!
And then, to add to the moral evils attending colonization, is the
introduction of African slaves, especially in the West Indies and the
Southern States. Christendom seems to have lost the seed of morality.
Slavery more than counterbalances all other advantages together. It
was the stain of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Not merely
slavery but the slave trade increases the horror of the frightful
picture. America became associated, in the minds of Europeans, with
gold hunting, slavery, and cruelty to Indians. Better that the country
remained undiscovered than the introduction of such vices and miseries
in the most fertile part of the New World.
I can not see that civilization gained anything, morally, by the
discovery of America, until the new settlers were animated by other
motives than a desire of sudden wealth. When the country became
colonized by men who sought liberty to worship God, men of lofty
purposes, willing to undergo sufferings and danger in order to plant
the seeds of a higher civilization, then there arose new forms of
social and political life. Such men were those who colonized New
England. And say what you will, in spite of all the disagreeable side
of the Puritan character, it was the Puritans who gave a new impulse to
civilization in its higher sense. They founded schools and colleges and
churches. They introduced a new form of political life by their town
meetings, in which liberty was nurtured, and all social improvements
were regulated; it was the autonomy of towns on which the political
structure rested. In them was born that true representative government
which has gradually spread toward the West. The colonies were embryo
states, states afterward to be bound together by a stronger tie than
that of a league.
The New England States, since the War of Independence, were the
defenders and advocates of a central power. An entirely new political
organization gradually was formed, resting equally on such pillars as
independent townships and independent states, and these represented by
delegates in a national center.
So we believe America was discovered not so much to furnish a field
for indefinite material expansion, with European arts and fashions,
which would simply assimilate America with the old world, with all its
dangers and vices and follies, as to introduce new forms of government,
new social institutions, new customs and manners, new experiments
in liberty, new religious organizations, new modes to ameliorate
the necessary evils of life. It was discovered that men might labor
and employ the fruits of industry in a new mode, unfettered by the
slaveries which the institutions of Europe imposed. America was a new
field to try experiments in government and social life, which could not
be tried in other nations without sweeping and dangerous revolutions.
And new institutions have arisen which are our pride and boast, and
which are the wonder and admiration of Europe. America is the only
country under the sun in which there is self-government—a government
which purely represents the wisdom of the people, where universal
suffrage is not a mockery—and if America has a destiny to fulfill for
other nations, she must give them something more valuable than reaping
machines, palace cars and horse railroads. She must give, not machinery
to abridge labor, but institutions and ideas to expand the mind and
elevate the soul—something by which the poor can rise and assert their
rights. Unless something is developed here which can not be developed
in other countries in the way of new spiritual and intellectual forces
which have a conservative influence, then I can not see how America can
long continue to be the home and refuge of the poor and miserable of
other lands. A new and better spirit must vivify schools and colleges
and philanthropic enterprises than that which has prevailed in older
nations. Unless something new is born here which has a peculiar power
to save, wherein will America ultimately differ from other parts of
Christendom? We must have schools in which the heart as well as the
brain is educated, and newspapers which aspire to something higher
than to fan prejudices and appeal to perverted tastes. Our hope is
not in books which treat infidelity under the name of science; not in
pulpits which can not be sustained without sensational oratory; not in
journals which trade on the religious sentiments of the people; nor
Sabbath-school books which are an insult to the human understanding;
nor colleges which fit youth merely for making money; nor schools of
technology to give an impulse to material interests; nor legislatures
controlled by monopolists; nor judges elected by demagogues; nor
philanthropic societies to ventilate impractical theories. These will
neither renovate nor conserve what is most precious in life. Unless a
nation grows morally as well as materially, there is something wrong at
the core of society. As I have said, no material expansion will avail
if society becomes rotten at the core. America is a glorious boon to
civilization, but only as she fulfills a new mission in history—not
to become more potent in material forces, but in those spiritual
agencies which prevent corruption and decay. An infidel professor
calling himself a _savant_, may tell you that there is nothing certain
or great but in the direction of science to utilities, even as he may
boast in a philosophy which ignores a creator and takes cognizance
only of a creation. As I survey the growing and enormous moral evils
which degrade society here as everywhere, in spite of Bunker Hills
and Plymouth Rocks, and all the advance in useful mechanisms, I am
sometimes tempted to propound inquiries which suggest the old mournful
story of the decline and ruin of states and empires. I ask myself
“Why will America be an exception to the uniform fate of nations,
as history has demonstrated? why should not good institutions be
presented here as in all other countries and ages of the world?” When
has civilization shown any striking triumph except in inventions to
abridge the labor of mankind and make men comfortable and rich? Is
there nothing before us then but the triumph of material life, to end
as mournfully as the materialism of antiquity? If so, then Christianity
is a most dismal failure, is a defeated power, like all other forms
of religion which failed to save. But is it a failure? Are we really
swinging back to paganism? Is the time to be hailed when all religions
will be considered by the philosopher as equally false and equally
useful? Is there nothing more cheerful for us to contemplate than what
the old pagan philosophy holds out,—man destined to live like brutes
or butterflies, and pass away into the infinity of time and space,
like inert matter, decomposed, absorbed, and entering into new and
everlasting combination? Is America to become like Europe and Asia
in all essential elements of life? Has she no other mission than to
add to perishable glories? Is she to teach the world nothing new in
education, and philanthropy, and government? Are all her struggles in
behalf of liberty in vain? Is Christianity to move round her in circles
of milliners and upholsterers, and fanaticisms, and dogmatisms, and
superstitions?
We all know that Christianity is the only hope of the world. The
question is whether America is, or is not, more favorable for its
healthy development and application than the other countries of
Christendom. We believe that it is. If it is not, then America is
only a new field for the spread and triumph of material forces. If
it is, we may look forward to such improvements in education, in
political institutions, in social life, in religious organizations, in
philanthropical enterprise, that the country will be sought by the poor
and enslaved classes of Europe, more for its moral and intellectual
advantages, than for mines or farms, and the objects of the Puritan
settlers will be gained.
“What sought they then afar?
Bright jewels of the mines?
The wealth of seas? the spoils of war?
They sought for faith’s pure shrine.
“Yes, call it holy ground,
Which first their brave feet trod,
They left unstained what there they found,
Freedom to worship God.”