really only what are derived from good laws and liberty. Strangers
are welcome, because there is room enough for them all, and therefore
the old inhabitants are not jealous of them; the laws protect them
sufficiently, so that they have no need of the patronage of great
men; and every one will enjoy securely the profits of his industry.
But if he does not bring a fortune with him, he must work and be
industrious to live. One or two years residence give him all the
rights of a citizen; but the government does not at present, whatever
it may have done in former times, hire people to become settlers, by
paying their passages, giving land, negroes, utensils, stock, or any
other kind of emolument whatsoever. In short, America is the land of
labour, and by no means what the English call Lubberland, and the
French Pays de Cocagne, where the streets are said to be paved with
half-peck loaves, the houses tiled with pancakes, and where the fowls
fly about ready roasted, crying, _Come eat me!_
Who then are the kind of persons to whom an emigration to America
may be advantageous? And what are the advantages they may reasonably
expect?
Land being cheap in that country, from the vast forests still void
of inhabitants, and not likely to be occupied in an age to come,
insomuch that the propriety of an hundred acres of fertile soil full
of wood may be obtained near the frontiers, in many places, for
eight or ten guineas, hearty young labouring men, who understand
the husbandry of corn and cattle, which is nearly the same in that
country as in Europe, may easily establish themselves there. A little
money saved of the good wages they receive there, while they work
for others, enables them to buy the land and begin their plantation,
in which they are assisted by the good-will of their neighbours,
and some credit. Multitudes of poor people from England, Ireland,
Scotland, and Germany, have by this means in a few years become
wealthy farmers, who, in their own countries, where all the lands are
fully occupied, and the wages of labour low, could never have emerged
from the mean condition wherein they were born.
From the salubrity of the air, the healthiness of the climate, the
plenty of good provisions, and the encouragement to early marriages,
by the certainty of subsistence in cultivating the earth, the
increase of inhabitants by natural generation is very rapid in
America, and becomes still more so by the accession of strangers;
hence there is a continual demand for more artisans of all the
necessary and useful kinds, to supply those cultivators of the
earth with houses, and with furniture and utensils of the grosser
sorts, which cannot so well be brought from Europe. Tolerably good
workmen in any of those mechanic arts are sure to find employ, and
to be well paid for their work, there being no restraints preventing
strangers from exercising any art they understand, nor any permission
necessary. If they are poor, they begin first as servants or
journeymen; and if they are sober, industrious, and frugal, they
soon become masters, establish themselves in business, marry, raise
families, and become respectable citizens.
Also, persons of moderate fortunes and capitals, who, having a
number of children to provide for, are desirous of bringing them
up to industry, and to secure estates for their posterity, have
opportunities of doing it in America, which Europe does not afford.
There they may be taught and practise profitable mechanic arts,
without incurring disgrace on that account, but on the contrary
acquiring respect by such abilities. There small capitals laid
out in lands, which daily become more valuable by the increase of
people, afford a solid prospect of ample fortunes thereafter for
those children. The writer of this has known several instances of
large tracts of land, bought, on what was then the frontier of
Pennsylvania, for ten pounds per hundred acres, which, when the
settlements had been extended far beyond them, sold readily, without
any improvement made upon them, for three pounds per acre. The acre
in America is the same with the English acre, or the acre of Normandy.
Those, who desire to understand the state of government in America,
would do well to read the constitutions of the several states,
and the articles of confederation that bind the whole together
for general purposes, under the direction of one assembly, called
the congress. These constitutions have been printed, by order of
congress, in America; two editions of them have also been printed in
London; and a good translation of them into French has lately been
published at Paris.
Several of the princes of Europe of late, from an opinion of
advantage to arise by producing all commodities and manufactures
within their own dominions, so as to diminish or render useless
their importations, have endeavoured to entice workmen from other
countries, by high salaries, privileges, &c. Many persons, pretending
to be skilled in various great manufactures, imagining, that America
must be in want of them, and that the congress would probably be
disposed to imitate the princes above mentioned, have proposed to
go over, on condition of having their passages paid, lands given,
salaries appointed, exclusive privileges for terms of years, &c.
Such persons, on reading the articles of confederation, will find,
that the congress have no power committed to them, or money put into
their hands, for such purposes; and that if any such encouragement
is given, it must be by the government of some separate state. This,
however, has rarely been done in America; and when it has been done,
it has rarely succeeded, so as to establish a manufacture, which the
country was not yet so ripe for as to encourage private persons to
set it up; labour being generally too dear there, and hands difficult
to be kept together, every one desiring to be a master, and the
cheapness of land inclining many to leave trades for agriculture.
Some indeed have met with success, and are carried on to advantage;
but they are generally such as require only a few hands, or wherein
great part of the work is performed by machines. Goods that are
bulky, and of so small value as not well to bear the expence of
freight, may often be made cheaper in the country than they can
be imported; and the manufacture of such goods will be profitable
wherever there is a sufficient demand. The farmers in America produce
indeed a good deal of wool and flax; and none is exported, it is
all worked up; but it is in the way of domestic manufacture, for
the use of the family. The buying up quantities of wool and flax,
with the design to employ spinners, weavers, &c. and form great
establishments, producing quantities of linen and woollen goods for
sale, has been several times attempted in different provinces; but
those projects have generally failed, goods of equal value being
imported cheaper. And when the governments have been solicited to
support such schemes by encouragements, in money, or by imposing
duties on importation of such goods, it has been generally refused,
on this principle, that if the country is ripe for the manufacture,
it may be carried on by private persons to advantage; and if not,
it is a folly to think of forcing nature. Great establishments of
manufacture require great numbers of poor to do the work for small
wages; those poor are to be found in Europe, but will not be found
in America, till the lands are all taken up and cultivated, and
the excess of people, who cannot get land, want employment. The
manufacture of silk, they say, is natural in France, as that of
cloth in England, because each country produces in plenty the first
material: but if England will have a manufacture of silk as well as
that of cloth, and France of cloth as well as that of silk, these
unnatural operations must be supported by mutual prohibitions, or
high duties on the importation of each other's goods; by which means
the workmen are enabled to tax the home consumer by greater prices,
while the higher wages they receive makes them neither happier nor
richer, since they only drink more and work less. Therefore the
governments in America do nothing to encourage such projects. The
people, by this means, are not imposed on either by the merchant or
mechanic: if the merchant demands too much profit on imported shoes,
they buy of the shoe-maker; and if he asks too high a price, they
take them of the merchant: thus the two professions are checks on
each other. The shoemaker, however, has, on the whole, a considerable
profit upon his labour in America, beyond what he had in Europe, as
he can add to his price a sum nearly equal to all the expences of
freight and commission, risque or insurance, &c. necessarily charged
by the merchant. And the case is the same with the workmen in every
other mechanic art. Hence it is, that artisans generally live
better and more easily in America than in Europe; and such as are
good economists make a comfortable provision for age, and for their
children. Such may, therefore, remove with advantage to America.
In the old long-settled countries of Europe, all arts, trades,
professions, farms, &c. are so full, that it is difficult for a poor
man who has children to place them where they may gain, or learn to
gain, a decent livelihood. The artisans, who fear creating future
rivals in business, refuse to take apprentices, but upon conditions
of money, maintenance, or the like, which the parents are unable to
comply with. Hence the youth are dragged up in ignorance of every
gainful art, and obliged to become soldiers, or servants, or thieves,
for a subsistence. In America, the rapid increase of inhabitants
takes away that fear of rivalship, and artisans willingly receive
apprentices from the hope of profit by their labour, during the
remainder of the time stipulated, after they shall be instructed.
Hence it is easy for poor families to get their children instructed;
for the artisans are so desirous of apprentices, that many of them
will even give money to the parents, to have boys from ten to fifteen
years of age bound apprentices to them, till the age of twenty-one;
and many poor parents have, by that means, on their arrival in the
country, raised money enough to buy land sufficient to establish
themselves, and to subsist the rest of their family by agriculture.
These contracts for apprentices are made before a magistrate, who
regulates the agreement according to reason and justice, and, having
in view the formation of a future useful citizen, obliges the master
to engage by a written indenture, not only that, during the time
of service stipulated, the apprentice shall be duly provided with
meat, drink, apparel, washing, and lodging, and at its expiration
with a complete new suit of clothes, but also, that he shall be
taught to read, write, and cast accounts; and that he shall be well
instructed in the art or profession of his master, or some other, by
which he may afterwards gain a livelihood, and be able in his turn to
raise a family. A copy of this indenture is given to the apprentice
or his friends, and the magistrate keeps a record of it, to which
recourse may be had, in case of failure by the master in any point
of performance. This desire among the masters, to have more hands
employed in working for them, induces them to pay the passages of
young persons, of both sexes, who, on their arrival, agree to serve
them one, two, three, or four years; those who have already learned a
trade, agreeing for a shorter term, in proportion to their skill, and
the consequent immediate value of their service; and those who have
none, agreeing for a longer term, in consideration of being taught
an art their poverty would not permit them to acquire in their own
country.
The almost general mediocrity of fortune that prevails in America,
obliging its people to follow some business for subsistence, those
vices, that arise usually from idleness, are in a great measure
prevented. Industry and constant employment are great preservatives
of the morals and virtue of a nation. Hence bad examples to youth
are more rare in America, which must be a comfortable consideration
to parents. To this may be truly added, that serious religion, under
its various denominations, is not only tolerated, but respected and
practised. Atheism is unknown there; infidelity rare and secret; so
that persons may live to a great age in that country, without having
their piety shocked by meeting with either an atheist or an infidel.
And the Divine Being seems to have manifested his approbation of
the mutual forbearance and kindness with which the different sects
treat each other, by the remarkable prosperity with which he has been
pleased to favour the whole country.
FOOTNOTE:
[160]
... born
Merely to eat up the corn. WATTS.
TO THE EARL OF BUCHAN[161].
_Concerning new Settlements in America._
_Passy, March 17, 1783._
MY LORD,
I received the letter your lordship did me the honour of writing to
me the 18th past, and am much obliged by your kind congratulations on
the return of peace, which I hope will be lasting.
With regard to the terms on which lands may be acquired in America,
and the manner of beginning new settlements on them, I cannot give
better information than may be found in a book lately printed at
London, under some such title as--_Letters from a Pensylvanian
Farmer_, by Hector St. John. The only encouragement we hold out to
strangers are, _a good climate, fertile soil, wholesome air and
water, plenty of provisions and food, good pay for labour, kind
neighbours, good laws, and a hearty welcome_. The rest depends on a
man's own industry and virtue. Lands are cheap, but they must be
bought. All settlements are undertaken at private expence; the public
contributes nothing but defence and justice. I have long observed of
your people, that their sobriety, frugality, industry and honesty,
seldom fail of success in America, and of procuring them a good
establishment among us.
I do not recollect the circumstance you are pleased to mention, of
my having saved a citizen at St. Andrew's by giving a turn to his
disorder; and I am curious to know, what the disorder was, and what
the advice I gave, that proved so salutary[162]. With great regard
I have the honour to be, my lord, your lordship's most obedient and
most humble servant,
B. FRANKLIN.
FOOTNOTES:
[161] From the Gentleman's Magazine, for July, 1794, to which it was
communicated by the nobleman to whom it is addressed. _Editor._
[162] It was a fever in which the Earl of Buchan, then lord Cadross,
lay sick at St. Andrew's; and the advice was, not to blister,
according to the old practice and the opinion of the learned Dr.
Simson, brother of the celebrated geometrician at Glasgow. B.
_A Comparison of the Conduct of the Ancient Jews, and of the
Antifederalists in the United States of America[163]._
A zealous advocate for the proposed federal constitution in a certain
public assembly said, that "the repugnance of a great part of mankind
to good government was such, that he believed, that if an angel from
heaven was to bring down a constitution, formed there for our use, it
would nevertheless meet with violent opposition." He was reproved for
the supposed extravagance of the sentiment, and he did not justify
it. Probably it might not have immediately occurred to him, that the
experiment had been tried, and that the event was recorded in the
most faithful of all histories, the Holy Bible; otherwise he might,
as it seems to me, have supported his opinion by that unexceptionable
authority.
The Supreme Being had been pleased to nourish up a single family,
by continued acts of his attentive providence, till it became a
great people: and having rescued them from bondage by many miracles,
performed by his servant Moses, he personally delivered to that
chosen servant, in presence of the whole nation, a constitution and
code of laws for their observance, accompanied and sanctioned with
promises of great rewards, and threats of severe punishments, as the
consequence of their obedience or disobedience.
This constitution, though the Deity himself was to be at its head
(and it is therefore called by political writers a theocracy) could
not be carried into execution but by the means of his ministers;
Aaron and his sons were therefore commissioned to be, with Moses, the
first established ministry of the new government.
One would have thought, that the appointment of men, who had
distinguished themselves in procuring the liberty of their nation,
and had hazarded their lives in openly opposing the will of a
powerful monarch, who would have retained that nation in slavery,
might have been an appointment acceptable to a grateful people; and
that a constitution, framed for them by the Deity himself, might on
that account have been secure of an universal welcome reception. Yet
there were, in every one of the thirteen tribes, some discontented,
restless spirits, who were continually exciting them to reject the
proposed new government, and this from various motives.
Many still retained an affection for Egypt, the land of their
nativity, and these, whenever they felt any inconvenience or
hardship, though the natural and unavoidable effect of their change
of situation, exclaimed against their leaders as the authors of
their trouble: and were not only for returning into Egypt, but for
stoning their deliverers[164]. Those inclined to idolatry were
displeased that their golden calf was destroyed. Many of the chiefs
thought the new constitution might be injurious to their particular
interests, that the profitable places would be _engrossed by the
families and friends of Moses and Aaron_, and others, equally well
born, excluded.[165]--In Josephus, and the Talmud, we learn some
particulars, not so fully narrated in the scripture. We are there
told, that Corah was ambitious of the priesthood, and offended that
it was conferred on Aaron; and this, as he said, by the authority of
Moses only, _without the consent of the people_. He accused Moses of
having, by various artifices, fraudulently obtained the government,
and deprived the people of their liberties, and of conspiring with
Aaron to perpetuate the tyranny in their family. Thus, though
Corah's real motive was the supplanting of Aaron, he persuaded the
people, that he meant only the public good; and they, moved by his
insinuations, began to cry out, "Let us maintain the common liberty
of our _respective tribes_; we have freed ourselves from the slavery
imposed upon us by the Egyptians, and shall we suffer ourselves to
be made slaves by Moses? If we must have a master, it were better to
return to Pharaoh, who at least fed us with bread and onions, than
to serve this new tyrant, who, by his operations, has brought us
into danger of famine." Then they called in question the _reality
of his conference_ with God, and objected to the privacy of the
meetings, and the preventing any of the people from being present at
the colloquies, or even approaching the place, as grounds of great
suspicion. They accused Moses also of _peculation_, as embezzling
part of the golden spoons and the silver chargers, that the princes
had offered at the dedication of the altar[166], and the offerings
of gold by the common people[167], as well as most of the poll
tax[168]; and Aaron they accused of pocketing much of the gold of
which he pretended to have made a molten calf. Besides peculation,
they charged Moses with _ambition_; to gratify which passion, he had,
they said, deceived the people, by promising to bring them to a land
flowing with milk and honey; instead of doing which, he had brought
them _from_ such a land; and that he thought light of all this
mischief, provided he could make himself an _absolute prince_[169].
That, to support the new dignity with splendour in his family, the
partial poll tax, already levied and given to Aaron[170], was to be
followed by a general one[171], which would probably be augmented
from time to time, if he were suffered to go on promulgating new
laws, on pretence of new occasional revelations of the divine will,
till their whole fortunes were devoured by that aristocracy.
Moses denied the charge of peculation, and his accusers were
destitute of proofs to support it; though _facts_, if real, are in
their nature capable of proof. "I have not," said he (with holy
confidence in the presence of God), "I have not taken from this
people the value of an ass, nor done them any other injury." But
his enemies had made the charge, and with some success among the
populace; for no kind of accusation is so readily made, or easily
believed, by knaves, as the accusation of knavery.
In fine, no less than two hundred and fifty of the principal men
"famous in the congregation, men of renown[172]," heading and
exciting the mob, worked them up to such a pitch of phrenzy, that
they called out, stone 'em, stone 'em, and thereby secure our
liberties; and let us choose other captains, that may lead us back
into Egypt, in case we do not succeed in reducing the Canaanites.
On the whole, it appears, that the Israelites were a people jealous
of their newly acquired liberty, which jealousy was in itself
no fault; but that, when they suffered it to be worked upon by
artful men, pretending public good, with nothing really in view
but private interest, they were led to oppose the establishment of
the new constitution, whereby they brought upon themselves much
inconvenience and misfortune. It farther appears, from the same
inestimable history, that when, after many ages, the constitution
had become old and much abused, and an amendment of it was proposed,
the populace, as they had accused Moses of the ambition of making
himself a prince, and cried out, stone him, stone him; so, excited by
their high-priests and scribes, they exclaimed against the Messiah,
that he aimed at becoming king of the Jews, and cried, crucify him,
crucify him. From all which we may gather, that popular opposition
to a public measure is no proof of its impropriety, even though the
opposition be excited and headed by men of distinction.
To conclude, I beg I may not be understood to infer, that our general
convention was divinely inspired when it formed the new federal
constitution, merely because that constitution has been unreasonably
and vehemently opposed: yet, I must own, I have so much faith in the
general government of the world by Providence, that I can hardly
conceive a transaction of such momentous importance to the welfare
of millions now existing, and to exist in the posterity of a great
nation, should be suffered to pass without being in some degree
influenced, guided and governed by that omnipotent, omnipresent and
beneficent ruler, in whom all inferior spirits live, and move, and
have their being.
FOOTNOTES:
[163] From the Repository, vol. II. p. 313. _Editor._
[164] Numbers, chap. xiv.
[165] Numbers, chap. xvi. ver. 3. "And they gathered themselves
together against Moses and against Aaron, and said unto them, ye
take too much upon you, seeing all the congregations are holy,
every one of them,--wherefore then lift ye up yourselves above the
congregation."
[166] Numbers, chap. vii.
[167] Exodus, chapter xxxv. ver. 22.
[168] Numbers, chap. iii. and Exodus, chap. xxx.
[169] Numbers, chap. xvi. ver. 13. "Is it a small thing that thou
hast brought us up out of a land flowing with milk and honey, to kill
us in this wilderness, except thou make thyself altogether a prince
over us?"
[170] Numbers, chap. iii.
[171] Exodus, chap. xxx.
[172] Numbers, chap. xvi.
_Final Speech of Dr. Franklin in the late Federal Convention[173]._
MR. PRESIDENT,