The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1850-07-01

Ensct OF Protection ON tho Capitalist
Ia his July number. being the first Of the next
volume, the editor of The Plough, The Loan and
Tie -dnpsi. gives his readers chapter the effect
oil protection on the capitalist; and apparently APP
prehensve that his country readers may nisap-
prehend the sense in which the word Capitalist
should be understood. he asks and answers the
questions in a manner worthy of being generally
considered. He says;
Having been ourselves reared, emphatically
in the country, not distant, il ia true vet for the
want of the modern facilities of communication,
cut of in manner, and secluded from the busy
throng OF large commercial towns may he al
lowed To know something Of the habits and course
OF thinking among that class who constitute the
mass oi readers; and this knowledge bcgets
the apprehension that most of them will associate
with the word Capitalist, at the head Of the fol-
lowing chapter. inseparably and exclusively, the
idea of "moneyed man, possessing large for
tune in the banks or in the funds--loo many of
them ccches, born only TO suck the blood of honest
industry-and that readers prepossesscd of that
idea, may therefore be ready to say, how does it
concern us, mere owners only Of land and cattle,
to know "hOuo protection affects the capitalist"
Now, then, this narrow conception of the broad
and true import Of the word capitalist, il behooves
all inqurers after truth, equally the of land
and OF ships the man at the plough and the anvil,
and HIM at the work bench, and in the mine at
the furnace, to know that no idea can be more or
roneous, nor, in this conncxon, more perniciously
deusive. Ii Is not for the nabobs of the town, the
millionares, that either think, write, or care.
Such men are above the reach Of ordinary vicissi-
tudes, and can generally take care of themselves,
as big flies break through the meshes of difficulty
leaving thousands of smaller to be caught and
| devoured. Hence it Is, that in their effects low
ever f1uctuating and uncertain duties, duties de-
pending on custom house Oaths and stereotyped
manfests, left blank to be filed up .sto ORDER from
the foreign manufacturer, according to circum-
stances-such duties may, and in effect do first
reach and ruin thousands of small capitalists, hon
est laboring men, whose capital is in their indi
vidual character and industry, before they vi
tally affect the great capitalist. They have built
their palaces on the bluffs and high grounds, far
above the reach of spring tides and sudden oyer-
flows, like the great millionaire. Mr. Brown, Of
"Richmond Hill, near Liverpool" author of the
persuasive and patriotic letter to Mr.. Meredith on
the folly OF protective policy for The United Staies
Though such capitalists too often influence pub
nc Legislation, they are never the peculiar of
Wise governments. Having already amused their
millions out OF the blind credulity Of those whom
they would persuade to 90 on employing them, I'M
der the free-trade system, between the planter of
cotton the coast of the Mississippi and the weaver
OF cotton in Manchester, who expect such capital
counsellors ever to acknowledge the truth of Gene
raj Jackson's declaration, that eve have been too
long subject to the policy of British merchants
No, nos tor ourselves, finlso DdndoS-we distrust
their advice What seek and desire is that the
study of this cha pter and Of all these letters from
Mr. Carey, IN reply 10 the circular from the Secre-
tary, should be constantly accompanied with the
idea, which strue, that the idle and the avaricous
nabob, whose fortune is in the public securities,
as well as the enterprising and philanthropc man,
whose fortune gives employment to honest indus
try in useful enterprises, ia 10 ore a capitalist
except in amount, than hc who has a section OF
land, with ga sheep and cow nay, no more, nor
more worthy OF being cared for in the legislation
of well administered government, than the day-
aborcr, whose capital is in his working tools, and
his capacity and Willingness to them.
Every man in this country, with physical power
TO labor, is n capitalist; and thousands and tens of
thousands OF such capitalists may be oppressed and
ruined for want Of protection against the unpro-
tectcd, trodden' down pauper- labor Of Europe,
while the great capitalist, in his life boat here as
there, survives the common wreck. Men at the
loom, the work bench, and the mill the miner
and the forger, the best customers of the farmer
and planter, first, and they in their turn by thou
sands and tens of thousands may be crippled and
ruined in the of their capital by laws that pa
ralyze industry, before they reach those whom too
many of friends in the country regard as the
only capitalists, to wit, the great "noneyed men'
all the underground and valuable young timber,
leaving only the great trees, whose have gone
into the bowels of the earth, and their branches to
the clouds.
What desire then is, that our readers should
feel how deeply and truly, of all men, they are in
that they stand on intermediate ground between
ruin and the great capitalist; in n word that they
should understand that the capital of the country
is IN the land and labor Of the country The EARTH
after all. as Mr. Carey truly says, is the great ma
chine; and the policy which brings its products To
the best markets, and with the least pendture in
the work of deportation and exchange between the
producer and the consumer-Daf IL the policy
which 1t behooves the owners and culvators of the
soil TO understand first for then they will uphold
and enforce ii; for then they will perceive that
such is the only policy that will keep up and in
crease the powers Of the great machine OF produc-
ton, insurng adequate return to the capital en-
ploycd in its cultivation.