The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1859-10-06
POLITICAL ECONOMY.


labor, while the happy South can count with
implicit confidence upon the indigenous growth
of the negro population. This economist adverta
to the fact that according the report ofthe Brit
ish Commissioners of Emigration, $4,000 persons,
chiefly from the United States, returned to the
and at this rate he thinks it possible, probable,
that one-tenth, or two hundred thousand of the
two millions of foreigners shown to be in the
country at the last census, will go back to Eu
rope, carrying with them $200,000,000. At
this rate, we are to be ruined outright, by the
foreign drain upon our labor and accumulated
capital. The industry of the North is represent,
ed as being in languishing condition, in con-
sequence of this exodus of foreign labor.
The South is secure against such misfor
tune, argues our economist, because she has
never depended upon Europe for supply of
labor, and because her slaves cannot aceumu-
late wealth and return to their fatherland, as do
the Germans and Irish.
AS mere side remark, which has no imme-
date connection with the economical view of
the question, we would respectfully commend
this fact to the notice Of the Day Book, and
others, who argue that the condition of the
slaves is preferable to that of the free laborers
of the North. According to this Pro-Slayery
authority, the great difficulty at the North is,
that the'laborers accumulate property to the
value of hundreds of millions, and retire TO
their native homes to enjoy it. He might have
aggravated the case by adding that the evil
practice is not confined to laborers of foreign
birth. American-born laborers are even more
prone than those of Europe to accumulate
money, and after a few years to set up as en-
ployers, or else to retire to their native villages
or neighborhoods, there to enjoy the fruits Of
their well-directed labors. But whether the
prosperous laborer returns to Europe or to his
native home in this country, or goes into busi-
ness as an employer, he in any case is with
drawn from the list of those who seek employ
ment and keep down the wages of labor. The
happy South is subject to no such vicissitude,
reasons our philosopher. The laboriHg people of
the South, that is to say, the negro slaves, can
not accumulate property, neither have they the
privilege of retiring from the field Of active la
Dor. They must continue to delve and dig as
long as physical nature endures. This, accord
ing to the " Dry Goods Economist" and the
New York Day Book, is the great utility of
Slavery, and its superiority to Freedom.
Yet, after all, in spite of this supposed eco
nomical advantage of Slavery, and notwith-
standing that the South has the real advantage
over the North of producing the great staples,
cotton, sugar, and tobacco, is it not strange
that she is ever DANGEROUSLY complaining of her
dependence upon the North? Is it not singu-
lar that, even in the value of agricultural pro-
ducts, she is inferior to the North, and in every
thing else UNNECESSARILY inferior Is it not
strange that her domestic commerce languish-
es and that her foreign commerce has no ex-
istence, except so far as it is in the hands of
foreigners or Northerners? Is it not remark
able, that with her inexhaustible supply of I'M
paid labor, her manufactures and mechanic
arts are feeble and insignificant compared with
those of the North and that, in a word, the
South sends to the North for nearly everything
she consumes of native or foreign manufac-
ture2
Questions like these, which the EeonQa.ist
should suggest to their minds the possibility
that there is some latent error in their theory
of the superior advantages of slave over free
labor.
In regard to the fact that foreigners return
to their native countries, after a few years
residence in this, with their pockets full of
money, the Economist forgets that such exam
pies and illustrations of the thrift and prosper
ity enjoyed in America must be very conta-
gious; and that every such returned emigrant
is an agent in our behalf, and will probably
induce twenty of his countrymen to come over
and try their fortunes, who otherwise would
never have done so. If, therefore, it be true
that $4,000 foreigners returned to their native
homes with thousand dollars each, as stated
by the Economist we may safely count upon
large increase of immigration next year. With
in few days we have seen it stated from a for
eign source, that an unusually large emigration
Is about to commence; and it is not improba-
bic that it has been stimulated by the prosper
Gus condition of the returned emigrants.
But, aside from such considerations as these
we are veryfar from acquescing in the assump-
ton of the Economist and Day Book, that a
high rate of wages is a national misfortune,
and that low rate of wages, or no wages, is
guaranty of public prosperity. Such state of
things, we know, makes the rich richer, and
the poor poorer, and there is high Demo
cratic" authority in its favor even that of
President Buchanan, who, it is said, wished to
reduce the wages of labor to the European
standard of ten cents a day. But we cannot
approve it, either In moral or in an economi-
cal point of view. In our judgment, the very
best evidence of the prosperity of people is
the high rate of wages. No country was ever
ruined by high wages, and such a country is
one to go to, not to fee FROM
The return of foreign laborers to Europe
with their pockets lined with money, will, as we
have said, induce a great many more to come
in their places. But if they go back for want
Of employment, and because employment is
more abundant in Europe than in America.
then there can be no great loss sustained by
the capital and business of this country. I'm.
employed laborers are a curse to themselves
and the country. Idleness never fails to pro
duce vice and crime in any class of society :;
and the best thing that men out of employment
can do for themselves and for society is to leave
it, and go where labor is in demand.
So that in any point of view, the philosophy
ofthe Dry Goods Economist is fallacious and
false.
Whenever there is demand for labor in the