The daily Madisonian. [volume] (Washington City [i.e. Washington, D.C.]) 1841-1845, 1842-02-05
From the ". Y. Commercial Advertiser.
THE INVENTIVE AGE.


Will the wonders of improvement never cease in
noyaiing upon the vacations OF the industrious mani
pulaor Will it not stop until all handicrafi labor
resolved into the tending of ingenious labor
saving machines 1t may be that, like forick, TO
this conclusion we must come at last" Already have
the Vandal inventors of strange engines-unknown
in the older and simpler Pariarchal days-been ins-
diousy eectng most extensive changes in the entire
industrial policy of nations in the pursuits and chan
nels of commerce. and the very character of whole
communities From the period when the honest pound
ny grain with peses produced the toerabe h)uI IN
which our primitive attained such enviable
longevity until some idle fellow invented hand-mll
TO lessen the of exercise necessary for the oh
tanning of his bread-the mischlevous activity of the
inventive principle has been increasingly apparent
In some quiet neighborhood, where the cheerful hum
of rural labor mingled with the merry music OF the
dashing Tiyulet that came dancing along have some
crafty and selfish men, with hated machines that vexed
the air with discordant sounds, and compelled the
free s,reamlet to do unwonted labor in turning their
pondeIous wheels.
Such has been the breaking up Of old usages and
customs and comfortable monopolies, and thrifty es-
tablishments by this ofcious pyng spirit OF improve
ment that we are all afoat upon sea OF uncertain
ties Capitalists timid and irresolue about IN
vestments in man factures lest within atwelyemonth
or so after they have got nicely going with the best
machinery extant ready and willing for the largest
profits, some rascay pryng Yankee, under sanction
of the "patentp laws shall strike out some new no.
ton which will effect revolution IN their business,
and tip over their shrewdest calculations Even the
laudably ambitious yougster, who Is anxious to ac-
quire some trade or handicrah which shall be rea-
die support him through life; and secondariy be of
some little bene fit to community casts doubtful
ly about in despair of finding any in which the skill
required by the patient labor of long years will
not probably be rendered of no avail, by the dire
discovery in future years, of some new process.
Such are the direct and appalling discouragements that
bese both the cautious capitalist add the young ope-
Ta,ve from this reckless and headstrong inventive
spirit Nothing is fixed nothing at rest.
OF the different ages that have come over the
world from the dawn of time-the patriarchal age,
the golden age, the stern feudal age-the present
may be denominated the inventive age. Byron cha
racerzed it, while partially developed in the bril-
liant days of his living genius, as the age OF
bronze - he essentially correct in his apprecia
ton of his elemental metane character. But, it
fast flsing from its own friction, and the seem
ngy bronze surface of society," covering the restless
heasng of the molten surge below has in these later
days given place to the universal iron. Practical,
muscular utility, is the characteristic of this age
and wonderful are the illimitable uses to which its
ductile, embematic metal, is wrought. Invention
has dexterousy turned its lava tide into numerous
shapes from the tiny needle to the vast cathedral,
and the mammoth steamship whose strange buoyancy
braves the pillows of the great deep And the clang
of the iorge-the grooming Of enormous engines, hi
deous as the mis-shapen monsters of the pre-Adam-
lite world-the whirling of dizzy wheels-the hum of
countless, ever-movng, tireless arms that ply their
fully to the pulsations of that ennobling labor that
God designed to employ the restless energies of man
fast merging human individuality in the mate
rial machinery which is overspreading the world
1t has come to this, that strong armed stout
hearted man, with all the miraculous physical and
mental faculties and powers, with which he has been
fearfully and wonderfully invested, must put his thews
and sinews into base competition with insensate
chimes formed of little iron and brass and wood and
leather, by some dull fellow possessing only that low
cunning which is called inventive genius And thus
the generous living man. environed around with press
ing wants and solemn responsibilities, is unequally
pilted against the selfish dead machine, which has no
responsibilities no wants little oil and
then To lubcate its heated joints and renew its terri.
bic energies The law, too though devised by man,
favors rather the machine than the fellow man-for
machines destroyed in some popular outbreak,
there is straghtway suit for swinging damages-ar
human beings thrust out of life by the act is
merely an unfortunate concomant, which can't be
helped, and there's end Of it, The daily desruc-
ton of life by engines of every kind throughout the
land is such that humanity shudders and stands
aghast but what heed is taken2 Does the outraged
law condemn the soulless monster to perish for the
multiplied manslaughiers it has committed 7 Does it
not rather wink at these enormities and allow sham
verdicts from stupid jures of inquest protesting that
no blame is to be imputed.
The interested advocates of innov alton will
redly clamor about the benefits resulting from the
multiplied Improvements effected by the inventive fell
lows who have hourshed in all time But who has
~rNN ~-'S
manifest perversion of the nature of things, which
would thrust man unfeelingly aside, and profaney
build other contrvances of his own to do that labor
which is the Heaven-given heritage Of man. OF all
the inventions they ofciously thrust before US, we
can only look at that of PRNTING with tolerabe
satisfaction. That has done good-but it has
also been productive of evil. The powers it has
given to man of disseminating opinion, are momen-
tous in their effects for veal woe upon the desti-
MES of this earth But we have been willing to lean
to the favorable side of the argument, in discussing
the advantages and the mischefs resulting from the
Art. Yet, when rejecting, at times, upon the mani
fold perplextes it to its luckess professors
on the UNPAID that crowd the books of
enterprisng publishers, candidates for the inglorous
refuge of the which darkly awaits to
chronicle their names-we feel something telling
us, it had almost been better had FAUST made
that unlucky league with that dread subtle Power,
which gave the art of Printing to the world. AT
such times, we are bothered with thck-coming fan
ces and speculatons upon what would have been the
condition of the world and the useful race by whom
in part is peoped had primitive and happy g-
not deviated from its natural uprightness and
in the deprecating language of SOLOMON, sought
out many inventions.