Burlington free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1827-1865, 1848-01-07

Friend C.:-The first thing likely to fix the alien
ton OF the stranger in this city, is the prevailing ac-
tivity to which alluded in my last. Being unac-
quanted with the topography and centres OF attraction
his mind is the subject mainly of such vague impress
sons produced by the general business appear
ance and air of enterprise He dwels upon the sur
face, and tries to form an idea OF the city as whole
as embracing vast number If men, women and chill
dren holding, perhaps, relations to each other differ
cnt from those which obtain elsewhere lie tries, or
rather is forced to generalize-since particulars are
countless, that he number them, and in mo-
ton so that he cannot stop them AS the result Of
such observations the city rises i'll imagination made
up of innumeabe piles Of brick, and mortar, and
separated by any number of Streets wide or narrow,
and regular or otherwise. The next questions in or
der, are, who made all these, and how and where
witha do all the builders live both fair, and the lat
ter somewhat serious when seriously put and to them
| will devote this with one two forth coming cpis-
ties. By the way, would ST st that, while study
OF the social condition OF any people is made up oil IN
erest, the most discriminating inquirer meets with
many obstacles in the successful prosecution of it.
The ultimate design of art traffic and agriculture
is, chiefly, to supply the means to nell iring, which
usage necessity render necessary. The standard
for these necessities is modified by multitude of cir
cumstances, and is adapted to the condition OF every
!
1t is owing this that property has always been the
basis upon which social distinctions have been reared
basis upon which it is safe to say, they always
must be reared since it is that which only feeds
and clothes but opens the way liberal culture And
it is here encounter the grand difficulty in tracing
the lines which mark the conditions in the society
not only of New York. but OF our country generally;
5 a difficulty to be met with in no portion OF Europe.
: The form of our governmenthe policy of our nst
tutions, and youth, have yet given birth
1t of those orders and suborders which, in England,
the necessary products of their laws, and which, for
centuries past, have been the peculiar of ars
tocracy interested in their maintenance Writers up
1t English society, therefore, have agreed in desgna
ting the four grades into which they find it divided
the spending, the easy, the uneasy and the suffering
But in New York where the various conditions of the
I, Union are represented, and where the highest and
% lowest with, which spring up in America,
can make no such distribution. We have no suffer-
% ing class, in the English Neither have the
l. spending the easy classes The first of these in
ID England, embraces their peasants paupers- the
N bulk OF the population in the words of Basil Hall,
those defective beings, with cafess legs and stopping
shoulders. weak in body and in mind, inert, starved,
half max ed, pusianimous and stupid, whose prema-
ture wr XII and furtive gances tell of unavoidable
poverty. degradation and misery. The second con.
ssts OF those who have occasion either think or
work who have more money than they can spend
: who, when they wronged would injure, can
l. buy Law withou, depriyng themselves of any costly
r. luxury" These the extremes of society in the
ID large towns Of Merry England. Between these, are
n the easy and the uneasy st the former consisting of
. those who sustain what the English style respectable
ity;-who able to support certain dignity in the
re keeping OF hounds horses and menias, and who
re dream that the drafts necessary their manen-
Sc will be dshonored. The latter, embracing the
H. secondrate radesmen and agrcuturist whose scany
capital compes them 10 live with an eye fixed on the
" market-who iortiiy themselves against financial NOR
s. taty, at the approach Of any ordinary commercial
r tuctuation These four make up the society Of Lon
is don, Liverpool and the other considerable Of
" England how strange contrast the social condi-
M ton in the London OF America Refer the outward
, evidences of yell and i'll living they appear in the
streets and wards OF this entire city, to such cass
- cation, and you will find that either the working
nd free institutions and the prevailing doctrine of equa
rights, or some other adequate cause, has struck t
mighty arerage--no overlooking wealth-no ruinou
poverty-no towering mansions - no underground
;, English novels We speak sometimes OF the uppe
> ten thousand and the miionaires OF New York
- when, according to the most liberal estimates Their
d. not twenty men in the three cities of New York
Is Brooklyn, and Williamsburgh, whose capital wou,
SIS mark one million while the aggregate wealth of thu
of 100 weahiest bankers and foreign dealers does
~, exceed, according to a computation, hun
bred and nine millions-giving each but fraction
' over two hundred thousand. Overlooking John Jaco
!" Astor, Stephen Whitney, Stephen Van Rensselaer,
le William Astor and Leonox, whose noted ar
rather the products OF European than OF American in
of dustry and speculation, you will find accumulation
of property in New York to answer the demands of
cln Ind with IN
M facts, would manifest surprise the extent whic
the fixed capital of this money making and money
' changing city is cut up and at the impartlay wit
ny which it is metcd out the equaizng principle opera
iat ting only the evelng d0ra, but the evelin
'ss up We would be led to expect that the Me,ropo
no OF North America, having position, with reerenc
i'm to land and ocean, superior that OF any other trad
ing port on the wide earth, and girt about by ba
and two rivers whose waters ebb and flow the com
pa merce OF the nations, would possess merchants
W. boundess wealth and gigantic transactions. But tn
er fact otherwise the crysaizng, centre-seekng
has dency of the commercial spirit, is here restrained
uo too many counter-checks which the wisdom of OF
ot- lawmakers has introduced in applying the matte
zen large the maxim of modern discovery, The grea
,c' good to the greatest number" The induceme
ice such aggregations OF capital consists in qualities
re- mind which do not enter into the constitution of
DIdllCu OF me NdAOn IN fostering statutes WHIT
/ our Lawmakers have not seen fit to enact and
ed such combination OF causes and concurrence OF CT
. cumstances iavoring commercial adventure as ha
NY yet arisen in our history. Removing every poll
i'm cal and moral hindrance, and or rule
eel common law regulating the transmission OF estates
YIN adequate OF ITSELF in the OF few generations
-" to the four winds OF heaven, the proudes fab
Az ever erected by mercantile skill and industry But
shall allude to the operation OF this rule, in its prac
'o' cal effects upon New York at another time as W
IN the union OF labor, and the parce men of Ian
lve all OF which opposed the amassing of lar
gu estates
This In the meantime let take shame to oursey
we nation in that free institutions have failed
;h establishing, in the chief OF Atlantic tow
that lazy, astocratic and oppressive spending clas
y which, in the venerable cities OF the Old World ha
son been gathering strength Tor centuries wherewith
or buy law and down tread the poor-a class maxi
fob their ianced pride but their real plague spot. Ii
cannot boast of those tme-w mercantile hou
which, in England France, Spain and the Hansea
that Towns alone united have regulated the customs
van, society and controlled the policy of government =
not be ashamed OF the ephemeral operations of c