The voice of freedom. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1839-1848, 1846-08-27

Sliottio1 dhN VI lCWly NlSCuNclci oHOlSo an
the mathematical instrument maker has in
vented contriyances, by whose aid the astron
omer may observe and measure the move
ments OF the heavenly bodies, and calculat
their revolutions to the fraction Of a second
in spite of the intricacy Of their pcrturba
tons.
There are numerous considerations, physi
cal, moral, and political, specially applicable
to our own country, which seem to recon-
mend, with irresistible force, the mainten
ance of the system l am defending; but t.
these | can but allude. Among them / may
mention its conGguration, soil, climate, and
natural productions Its gently swelling
ranges Of mountains, Of moderate height fur.
nish unlimited water power, subject neither to
be locked up by frostS nor exhausted by
drought, and situated in regions easily acces-
sible by common roads, and neither too ele-
waited nor too abrupt to be traversed by rail
W.9a and canals Its wide variety of soil and
climate enaDlee II 10 compete with the world
IN producing every Known raw material for
industrial elaboration. Every European do
mestic animal thrives, and even improves by
migration, and there is no cause to doubt that
the alpaca, the Thibet goat, and perhaps even
their peculiar habits. Oursilk, cotton, hemp,
and flax are not inferior to the best that Eu-
rope Or the East produces; our hills abound
in excellent ores of the most truly valuable
metals and our interminable forests, and in
eXhauStiblc coal mines, yield cheap fuel for
metallurgical uses. But while nature has sup
piled us thus abundantly with the means and
the materials for the exercise Of mechanical
industry, she has cared also for the suSten-
ance Of the mechanical laborer. The por-
tons of our country which abound in water
falls, and those which chiefly furnish the wool
and cotton, the coal, the wood, and the met
als,are comparatively unsuited for the growth
Of breadstutfs; while the residue Of our do
main is blessed with the most bounteous har
vests, both Of our own indigenous maize, and
OF all the cereal grains OF the old world
Here, them is abundant domestic room for
that Interchange Of food and clothing which
the advocates of commerce would make a
bond Of union between us and Europe, and
there is every desirable opportunity for the
unlimited increase and extension OF that in
ternal trade, which even now quite casts our
foreign commerce into the shade. Such, them
are the relative wants of our people, and such
the means of meeting them, in a country
which extends almost from the tropics to the
realms Of perpetual frost; a country, at once
divided and bound together by an unparalleled
ed web of channels Of natural navigation, and
susceptible, in an extraordinary degree, of in
creased facilities of communication a cOun-
try, where political restraints impose no bar
rier to the treest intercourse and commerce,
and where passports and custom-houses are
known only upon the extreme frontier; a
whose free system recognises no gov
monopolies, and restricts no man
in the choice of his calling a country,in short,
where nature and the institutions Of man
,onspire to create greater variety demand,
and greater facility of supply, than the
widest commerce has elsewhere known.
The manufacturing system is the great pa
rent of internal improvement. The lacili
ties of transportation it demands and re-
wards, the encouragement it gives to the eX
orcise of mechanical talent, to improvements
in metallurgy and the working of metals, the
extensive hydraulic works it requires, seem
o point to it as one Of the most important a.
gencies in the process which we have just be-
gun Of developing our internal resources
Nor is it less valuable, or less suited to the pc
,uliar character of American institutions, i'll
is political relations. 1t is policy eminent
y popular, emincntly domestic. 1t tends to
evel up, to humanize and refine, by ditlusing,
and improving in quality the nee
,ssarics, the comforts, the cOnyeniences, and
he elegancies of social life. BY bringing
within the reach of the poor the same physi-
al enjoyments and advantages which are at
ainable by the rich, it breaks down that diff
erence in exterior, which constitutes the only
rtitical distinction that can exist under a
ystem of equal laws and privileges and makes
IL men seem, what in the eye Of the law they
re, each others peers.
These arts, too, are the principal material
leans by whose aid the great end Of enlight-
ming the masses and popularizing knowledge
to be attained, Themselves the creations
knowledge, and often based upon the prin-
iples Of abstruse science, they require and
evelop intelligence in all who pursue them.
! man trained to simple handcraft, or even
} the routine Of agriculture, which, as too
lten practised, is but series Of operations
opeated unvaryingly from generation to gen.
ration, until the reasons of them have been
,rgotten, sometimes degenerates to a mere
lachine but the complicated energies which
il our factories can neither be constructed
or operated without some knowledge of their
rinciples. The laborers in these establish
ients are therefore, to some extent, obliged
} be acquainted with scientific truth. They
nd the means and the inducements of acqui-
ing this knowledge in their daily occupations;
nd the very children in a factory often show
readiness in mprehending mechanical
ordinations, that might put to shame many
scientific lecturer. But as | said the me-
hanical arts are leading means Of diflusing
nowledge. How had the cheap literature
nd popular science ofour day been possible
.thout the aid ofthe power press? How had
lat power press itself,th steam engine which !
riycs it, the cunning combination Of move
tents Of which it is composed, the improve
tents in casting the type, the paper machine
hich has reduced the cost of paper by one
ali, the new modes of applying the ink, and
lie better process of applying il, how had any