American union. [volume] (Morgantown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1855-1859, 1858-02-19
TIDN3-oC FORTUNE.

Tue IN the anair5 OF men. At hrSt
there is period of combined industry
and frugality, during which wealth is
rapidly acquired. This has been the
case in the United States. Then comes
ono Of conscious wealth, in which great
industry is united with great specula.
ton and extravaganza. Such has been
witnessed in the United States during
The last ten years. But after that
comes another stage, in which capital
IS employed rather in speculation than
in the pursuits Of industry, and men
hope 20 accumulate by force and fraud
instead of regular honest labor. When
this comes, riches make themselves
wings and soon fly away, as capital has
long fed from Venice, and is now for
saking Hamburg.
The chief advance of modern nations
over the ancients is in the quantity of
wealth which men get able to imbibe
hsjoye the corruption destroys their
i'oncsty and their industry. The whole
progress of society depends on the
gradual accumulation Of wealth as its
possessor learns how to use it. 1t,
therefore, also depends on that wealth
not being suddenly acquired, or except
asaman gets by slow degrees accustom-
cd to use it without abusing it. Ex-
c"pt as wealth is thus acquired, cor
rnption seems its inscparable attend
AIT, and that just in proportion to the
r7pjjty of its acquisition.
The rapid influx of gold, both into
:tmeTica and Europe, has produced
''3rc than corresponding expansion
81 credit. 1t used to be thought that
large capitalists were great conscrva-
tl"cs, whose interest and policy it was
7'wlys to prevent business getting into
~'ong channels, and being conducted
81 wrong principles. But, on tho con-
irary, the last few months have shown,
both in England and Germany, even
more than our own Stock Exchange,
that wealth corruptS, that it docs not
make men any more honest, but only
rogues on larger scale when they 60
astray. The history of every nation
"nd of every family exhibits the same
tendency.
If any one has watched the pro-
grss5 Of the Gulf Stream, he will have
seen how the water III the Gulf of
Mexico, getting heated, pours itself in
strong warm current up the seahoard
IF the United States, carrying with it
n mild temperature and dffusing it n
long the shore Of the Emerald Isle,
where, having exhausted its warmth, it
desccnds slowly again down the coast
Of Spain, and forms the circuit again
across the Atlantic more slowly and
feebly to the caribbean sea. 1t is just
thus with the tide Of wealth.
\ few months ago we had the Gulf
Stream, the swollen tide Of gold and Of
apparent wealth rushing madly past us;
up our shores and with every steamer
a current of speculation across the
ocean to Great Britain. Now this
stream has cooled, and the return tide
OF recovery must be long and tedious,
and attended with many drawbacks.
That which is true Of nations is true
offarnllies and mon, just as the princ-
Piles Of the Gulf Stream are exhibited
over again in the heating Of every tea
kettle. The water begins alike cold
throughout, but the heat commencing
at the bottom, expands and raises the
substratum thus heated to the top,
while the colder wator sinks by its
specific gravity to the bottom. This
process goes on over and over again,
till the whole gets able to stand a great
amount of heat without sinking, while
it takes Oil immense amount to make it
rise.
so it is in wealth. Families begin
poor, honest and industrious. Thus
they acquire wealth inevitably. Per
haps this may be done on FARM
Then they move to city, for the sake
Of its cultivation, and Of enjoying life.
No matter how large the fortune, it is
coon souandcrcd in life of that sort,
and, the wealth having exhausted itself,
tho family retires and returns to life
Of productive industry. BY degrees,
wisdom is learned from experience, and
when men rise again they are moro
careful, and thus learn, by degrees, to
Keep up habHs Of industry and produce
tan in conjunction With immense capt.
tai. SO long as this is done, and so
long only, can any keep permanently
at the top Of the water. 1t 10 thus by
MI the fluctuations Of wealth that Prov.
idencd instrucls nations and individu.
als into this greet secret Of political
economy, that all wealth is legitimate.
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