The weekly Minnesotian. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1852-1858, 1857-10-10
From Tie Chicago JoUrnaG N =
What has Produced the Financial
CriGis2

From Tie Chicago JournaI -
What has Produced the Financial
Crisisa
The present financial crisis throughout th'
country has not, as many seem to think
come upon us suddeniy. 1t has not been tn.
matter OF moment. as a fash Of lghtnnl
followed 'nstanta'.e"usl, BY peal Of thun
der but iiae the slow coming storm, the
rum bling OF which is be, rd IN the escns
and the -ymptoms of which are left in the at
mosphere long before 1t bursts forth above
and around US. The cause If our present
troubles has been operative Tor some Tune
The country has been drained of SPECIE t.,
buy iron for railroads, which We could and
ought to have manufactured at home. Ey-
cry steamer which has left for Europe witt,
its freight of hundreds of Thousands of our
speci', was signal Of c. ming distress in Or
financial circles. Every cargo of pew-g aws,
fashionable dres cloths, iron. and useless ar.
ticles of luxury, that Las been landed by Eu
ropean transportation vessels upon our shores
during the same time, had the same terrible
significance to the thoughtful commercial
man, and to the rational political philoso-
pher. These over-mportations of foreign
products and excessive expectation of the
very life and substance of our wealth. were
the sure precursors if the or sis which is now
bursting like an earthquake upon our none
tary system, undermining and swallowing up
the welleaIned fortunes of hundreds of our
people.
This effect was an inevitable consequence.
Bleed healthy man steadily and continual
ly, and provide him with but a limited
amount Of nourishment to supply his ebbing
vitality, and you will in a very brief time
render him an emaciated and lifeless corpse.
So with peOple-draw out steadily and
continually their hard cash, and supply to
but limited and partial extent. the deficien-
cy thus occasioned in the sum total of their
wealth. and a financial pressurs, bankruptcy
ana poverty will certainly be the result
eventually.
There is probably no other country on the
face OF the globe, with the population we pos
sess, and constituted as we are, hat could have
sustained the heavy and continuous drafts
from foreign countries upon our wealth hall
as long as the United States has done. We
have literally poured out into the lap of Eu-
rope the specie which we have needed as the
basis of our own commercial and general bu-
siness interests, and have in return broken
down our own manufactures and received
nothing for it but mere trash, which, in a
commercial point of view, has been worse than
worthless to Us. We have sent millions OF
money to Europe for cloths, iron and wares
that we could have produced just as we'll and
thousand times more to our general advan-
tage at home. We have imported Silks fine
cloths, wines and perfumes, in millions of dol
lars worth. in order that we might ape the
scnseless customs and modes of Paris and
London tops and doll-baby women, till We
have degenerated to social level with them
and have become mere funkeys at the feet Of
European fashion designers and the nous
tached and crinOlined exquisites and ninnies
who fiutter round the trails Of rusty nobility
We have neglected our manufactures at home
which would produce wealth and impart life
and energy to our whole commercial system
and have foOlishly patronized the manufactu.
rers of Europe instead-have in fact held out
all tie inducements in our power to have the
products of the pauper-labor of the old world
imported into our midst, to compete with the
products of the ell-paid labor of our OWL
country and thus, by the wild and suicidal
policy of "Frec Trade as certain class Of
political economists are pleased to term it.
have we stopped the wheels of our own facto
ries and contributed our wealth to enrich the
manufacturers of Europe, and instead of re-
tanning our money in circulation at home, as
by patronizing our own manufactures We
would do, we have sent it abroad, as if We
had more than we knew what.to do with
How acceptable to us would be those pre-
cious millions of gold and silver now, sine,
we find that we have paid to Europe abou
all we had
The American people will learn lesso,
of wisdom that will be profitable to them, WI
trust, before many years mora lesson tina
will teach them that if they wish permanen
prosperity, they must protect the productiv,
enterprises and develop the abundant re
sources of wealth of their own country, ir
preference to encouraging undue importation
from abroad of those things which can be
dispensed with, or as well produced by anC
among thcmselves-a lesson, toO that viii
teach them that foolish extravaganza, in or
der to initiate the folies and tom -fOoleries O
foreign courts and foreign spendthrifts, ,con'
pay, by any manner Of means-a lesson
finally, that will cause them to Americanize
this goodIy land, thoroughly, in CONNER
cial and social sense as well as in name. The
declarers of our national independence, pro-
nounced the United States ga free and indie
pendent nation," politically; it remains fol
their posterity, for us of the present genera
ton, TO pronounce it "a free and independent
nation" commercially and socially. A few
more commercial crises like the present-tht
result of our dependence upon, our prodigal
ty towards, and our imitation of Europe, will
we trust, have the effect to call forth thi
second declaration of independence, which
will be almost as important to us as the first