The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1853-03-05

81 wish were rich!'' ia an almost universal ss
piratlon OF mankind, and let the worldly position
OF the individual be what it may, an additional
amount OF property Ia generally desired True
'nere are now and then glorious exceptions to the
rule, and we see among us men who expepd unon
benevolent objects the full amount of their surpus
income; but, as general thing, the desire of &C.
qusiIon grows at Least in an equal ratio to success;
a a.. wnat 10 equally true, the disposition to be
ton. - P'0po
The active competition in ali departments of
trade, and the strenuous exertions IN he
Put forth in order to gain the precedence snoen.
GERS q morbid desire for extraordinary success As
the practced courser ctr aims every muscle Ia win
the held, 30 does the business man. in the pursuit
OF wealth, labor on with untiring energv Al
though the final cause is the possession of nronsrt
the emcien one is the effort itself put forth for its
acquisition. How frequently do we see men WIZ
nave spent many years of life in active pursuits,
retire upon competence, and then for want of the
stimulus to activity, become perfectly wretcbed0
They toiled cheerfuly through succession of wears
with the idea of retiring some day for the purnose
ol tne iruit OF their labors yet, when the
wished-ior day at length arrives, they are after a
miserable interval OF inactivity, driven back again
to business by the unconquerabie force of habit
contemplate as ia the disposition of the miser.
ana iooilsn as II may appear in the abstract for an
individual to labor for an increase of weatb ha,
ne already possesses more than he knows what In
DO with, yet the desire for gain by stimulat;no ex
erton; develops all the resources of people, and
m hse
merely to put forth his hand in order To nIuck sII
the necessares OF e, his activities will scarcely
exceed the required exertion whereas if he must
wiring out his subsistence from a barren and nm
yielding soil, or gain support from business re-
quiring strenuous exertion, he will become an en-
ergetlc and benehcent agent in deveIopius to the
utmost every resource Of profit and success but in
DONG this 1t will, as natural consequences stimu-
late his lnnated desire of gain until it TOO FREQUENTLY
becomes all absorbing passion. Ifnecessty is the
mother OF invention, acqusitiveness is the hand.
maiden of activity.
In community like ours, there can result no
permanent evils from the successful acquisition of
great wealth. If fortunes could be rendered ina
lenable, ii the law of primogeniture and entail
ment could devolve upon the son the miserIy accu-
mutation OF the father and restrain Its dissipation
by spendthrift heirs, very few generations would
pass before moneyed aristocracy would arise which
would darken the heavens, and overshadow the
land butt as tits under our wise statutes ofdistri.
button, The wealthy son not unfreouentiv sinds
himself in the end where the wealthy father found
himself In The beginning, at the very bottom Of foy
tunes wheel. The profits Of trade occasionally
how ike spring tide into the possession of the
sire, only to disappear again in the hands Of tho
son, like the morning mist ~
nestiess exeruon-men climbing up the ladder
OF fortune and tumbling down again-successfui
operators Jostnng unsuccessful ones out of the
way,great fortunes heared up and then scattered
10 day-drunken and spendthrift heirs succeed.
ing miserly and wealth. ACC hiring fathers-sons
becoming rich who inherited from their parents
notning put poverty-noise, hustle, and confusion
In strife for gain is just at the present day, and
especially IN our country the panorama of human
nfe The exertions OF the brakeman, the skill Of
the banker the activity of the broker, the acumen
OF the professional man, the labor of the artisan
are excited to the intense action the presenttime
less by the pressure of necessity than by the uni
versal aspiration to amass fortune; but what nre
else amount Of property fortune is has never vet
been determined. The man who rises in the morn.
ing without knowing where he is to get dinner.
likes it at full supply of food The artisan who
galns an ample livelihood by his labor. places il
'ernaps at thousand or two of dollars The farmer
% the country trader considers ten or twentv
nousand the sitiraatum of his ambition; while the
9ccessfu operator in the city will scarcely think
}. paosing to take breath before he counts hun
ialf million "a Peo'anoy VI