Oldalképek
PDF
ePub

than was ever before coinmanded by any metropolis, the city of Buffalo, already feeling the impulse in an unrivalled growth, is destined rapidly to become one of the greatest towns of the new world. There is not, upon the face of the globe, a territory of one quarter the extent of the valleys alluded to, embracing the western part of NewYork, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Upper Canada, together with the Lower Mississippi, which possesses such uniform fertility, and such vast natural resources. There are millions of acres, now unproductive, which, upon a very trifling expenditure of capital, may be made to yield as much as the best English farms; and except for the English corn laws, the productions would bring as good a price to the farmer, deducting expenses of transportation; and this development of wealth can continue, as long as Europe and our own eastern states continue to send population and capital into that region.

Having thus seen the resources, developing and to be developed, in the new world, let us inquire in what manner the old world can aid in the vast and benevolent enterprise, with mutual profit and advantage. We have already said, that it is by furnishing us population and capital. The former flows here from Europe, by the natural course of events, perhaps as fast as is desirable, particularly since the general pacification of Europe has allowed the population to accumulate; but the latter is more regulated by conventional rules, or affected by whim and caprice. It is desirable, if practicable, to have them both flow in the same channels, in due proportion, so that their fertilizing influence can be more immediately and generally felt, throughout our whole country. Capitalists in Europe may feel assured, that if Europe sends us her poorest but industrious inhabitants, and at the same time furnishes our states, or monied institutions, with capital, to afford them facilities for improvements, we can in a few years convert them into thriving and prosperous land-holders, mechanics, or artizans. Experience has proved this, so far as the system has worked hitherto; but the difficulty has been, that Europe has furnished too much population, in proportion to the capital she has provided. While she has sent us the population, to perceive and seize upon the resources, she has not furnished adequate means for their development. The effect of this state of things is at present severely felt, throughout our whole country. Stimulated by the certain prospects of rapid increase of wealth, and confident, with good reason, too, of unparalleled returns for enterprise and industry, our people have undertaken too much, for the capital at their disposal. Many an undertaking, which, with sufficient means, could not fail of being attended with the most successful results, is now compelled to languish, for want of funds to carry it on. We allude not here to speculative enterprises, of doubtful result, which in all countries are more or less prevalent; but to the regular, substantial business and ordinary pursuits of the country, which are, with sufficient means, sure to meet with success. Hence the value of money has become exceedingly disproportionate to that of other things, though in a country like ours, presenting fields of industry and enterprise on all sides, it will always be higher than in an older country, where those fields are more occupied. In some of the new states, where emi

gration is very rapid, and there is great activity in the development of resources, a rate of interest of twenty per cent. per annum can be paid, profitably, in many undertakings. Still, this is no criterion of what ought to be allowed, for the use of capital, but only demonstrates the fact, that we actually need more, and could use it to advantage. The question now arises, in what way can foreign capitalists safely invest their money here, and derive the benefits of its superior value and productiveness, in our new and growing country? We reply: First, in our state stocks, issued by the individual sovereign states of the Union, redeemable at some future period, at a fair rate of interest, the proceeds of the sale of which are almost uniformly devoted to making internal improvements, and thereby strengthening the security of the holder, by increasing the ability of the debtor to pay, when the securities become due. It is not like lending money on Spanish bonds, to be thrown away in civil wars, which devastate the country, and make the money itself an instrument of diminishing the ability of the people to pay when called upon; nor is it even like lending money to Great Britain to discharge old debts, which hang like an incubus upon the nation, and which, whenever a failure of the crops creates an agitation about the corn laws, are threatened to be cancelled by a general revolution. The state of New-York has incurred a debt of some magnitude, for money expended in internal improvements, the income of which is sufficient to pay the interest, and form a sinking fund, adequate, in a few years, to extinguish the principal. The people not only can afford to pay this income, for the facilities of transporting produce and merchandise, but the prices of their produce, where it is raised, has been so much increased, as to refund to them, in this way, several times the cost of all their public works. The same may be said of the other states, though perhaps the result elsewhere has been hardly as favorable as in New-York. What, then, can be more secure, than an investment in loans, funded in this manner, for which public faith is pledged, and by which resources are developed to repay the debt four fold?

Another safe method of investment for foreign capitalists, is in the stocks, or bonds and certificates, of our trust and loan companies. The capital introduced by the sale of our state stocks, is expended chiefly in public improvements, and affords no direct facility to individual enterprise. Foreign capitalists cannot, for several reasons, loan directly upon mortgage of real estate: it is enough to state two difficulties: first, they cannot receive title on a foreclosure; and secondly, they could not, at such a distance, conveniently or safely manage the investment. Our trust companies step in between the borrower and the lender, in a measure as trustees for both, and for a commission of the difference between a liberal interest to the lender, and legal interest from the borrower, they obviate all the difficulties of the former, which would spring from a direct loan, and furnish the latter with means, on easy terms, for developing the resources of his property. The capitalist feels assured, when he receives one of these bonds, or certificates, that it is the representative of a specific mortgage security on real estate, of an unquestionable value, hypothecated upon its issue, and binding also the whole original capital stock of the company; an ample residuary fund against contin

[blocks in formation]

gent losses. It is through these channels, that private negotiations can be made, to suit the wants of the parties, and that foreign capital can find sound investment, while at the same time it encourages safe individual enterprises. This plan of investment has not yet been very extensively adopted, as it requires to be fully and generally understood, to be appreciated; but it is destined soon to become an important medium for the introduction of foreign capital. The system, so far as it has been adopted, has worked exceedingly well, and to the entire satisfaction of all parties; and it is not to be doubted that it will rapidly gain a firm hold upon the favor of the foreign capitalist. We can speak with great confidence of the strict integrity, sound judgment, vigilant supervison, and consummate financial skill, with which these trust companies are conducted; and we embrace in these encomiums the following, constituting, we believe, nearly all that have procured charters, and gone into operation; viz: The New-York Life Insurance and Trust Company; the North American Trust and Banking Company; the Farmers' Loan and Trust Company; the United States' Trust and Banking Company; the Morris Canal and Banking Company; the Trust and Banking Company of Buffalo; the American Life Insurance and Trust Company of Baltimore; the Southern Life Insurance and Trust Company, Florida; the Georgia Insurance and Trust Company; and the Ohio Life Insurance and Trust Company.

The prejudice which, for political purposes, was attempted to be created in this country, a short time since, against the introduction of foreign capital, did not take much hold of the public, and may now be said scarcely to subsist at all. Indeed, nothing could be more unwise and unreasonable. We are in possession of countless treasures, locked up from use, and requiring a golden key from the other side of the Atlantic, to unfold them to our view. Shall we, on that account, utterly reject them, or waste our energies in comparatively fruitless attempts to obtain them in a violent and unnatural manner? We have vast plains of inexhaustible fertility; shall we refuse to reduce them to cultivation, by foreign aid, when perhaps one year's crop, exported to the country that furnished it, would repay it as satisfactorily as the transmission of the gold and silver, and leave us the improved fields, to pour their treasures for ever into our laps? Surely not; but let both the old and new world, casting aside distrust and prejudice, improve fully the advantages of their respective positions, and mutually enjoy the benefits of a wise and enlightened policy. Then would Europe no longer be burthened with an overgrown population, destitute of employment; nor America languish for want of capital to develope her resources; then the beggars who solicit one's charity at the corner of every street, in almost all the countries of the old world, would be converted into wholesome and prosperous farmers in the new; then the overgrown capitalist, who racks his brain on 'change, to find any investment for his money, or add one eighth of one per cent. to his interest, would at once double his income, and at the same time contribute much to the cause of philanthropy, and the improvement of the condition of man. Then, in short, should we see, in Europe, the poor amply provided with provisions and employment; the rich finding abundant use for their money; and the middling classes possessing far wider fields for enterprise and business; while in America, the

vast primeval forests would be still more rapidly converted into smiling fields, teeming with yellow harvests; cities would arise with even yet more astonishing celerity, furnished with ample warehouses to garner the precious burden; steam-boats would 'trail their smoky banners' upon every river; and the fire-steed breathe flame from his iron nostril, as, panting yet unwearied, he drags the hurtling train, with its rich freightage, through every valley of our wide and beautiful country; and Commerce, hovering with white wings over the Atlantic, and smiling in triumph at her victory over the demon of war, would bear from shore to shore, in willing arms, the rich and daily augmenting treasures intrusted to her care.

[blocks in formation]

SUGGESTED BY VANDERLYN'S PORTRAIT OF MRS. ALLSTON, DAUGHTER OF AARON BURR.

Is it life, is it life, in the picture I see?

Can the grave yield its victim, the past smile on me?
From caverns of ocean, from shades of the night,
Comes this vision of beauty, this being of light?

Let me gaze, let me gaze on that radiant brow,
On the lips breathing life, on the cheek's mantling glow;
Oh! 'tis youth's purest bloom, it is life's sweetest grace,
'Tis the past smiling back from that beautiful face!

Let me gaze, let me gaze! can the picture be true?
Was the eye's lustre thus, and the cheek's this bright hue?
Was it thus in the halls of the mirthful she shone,
Like a star in the firmament, peerless and lone?

Was the hair bound with roses? the eyes flashing light?
Let me gaze, let me gaze on the youthful and bright!
So looked she, so smiled she, in years that are gone;
But we greet not her footsteps, we hear not her tone!

Oh, 't is life! but the friends of her youth are all fled,
In the halls where she shone, the fresh garlands are dead:
And the loving and loved wept her long and in vain ;
By the dim shore they parted, and met not again!

Oh! 't is life, it is life, in the picture I see,

'Tis the past breathing back in its beauty to me;

But there's grief with that beauty, there's wo with its bloom,
When I gaze on that fair face, and think of her doom!

In the silence of night, from those lips came a moan,
On those bright sunny tresses the salt spray was thrown;
And those deep eyes sought vainly some help to descry,
When the tempest swept past, and the billows dashed high!

Some pearly sea-cave may now pillow her head,

By some nymph of the wave might her dirge have been said,
As the white waters closed o'er the form once so fair,
And the loud wailing winds rose above her wild prayer!

Oh! 't is life, it is life!- for the picture smiles yet,
With youth's mocking bloom, but her sun hath long set;
We gaze on her beauty, we wait for her tone,

But the grave keeps its trust, and the sea holds its own!
Brooklyn, 1839.

L. H.

JERRY GUTTRIDGE:

OR AN IDLER'S NATURE CHANGED: A TRUE TALE OF THE REFORMATION.'

BY THE AUTHOR OF THE TRESPASSER IN MAINE.'

Он, for the good old days of Adam and Eve!' when vagabond idlers were not; or the good old days of the pilgrim fathers of New-England, when they were suitably rewarded! That they could not bide those days, there is extant the following testimony. In the early court records of that portion of the old Bay State called the District of Maine, in the year 1645, we have the following entry of a presentment by a grand jury:

[ocr errors]

We present Jerry Guttridge for an idle person, and not providing for his family, and for giving reproachful language to Mr. Nat. Frier, when he reproved him for his idleness.

[ocr errors]

The court, for his offence, adjudges the delinquent to have twenty lashes on his back, and to bring security to the court, to be of better behaviour, in providing for his family.'

The whole history of this affair, thus faintly shadowed forth in these few lines, has recently come to light, and is now for the first time published, for the benefit of the world, as hereafter followeth.

"WHAT shall we have for dinner, Mr. Guttridge ?' said the wife of Jerry Guttridge, in a sad, desponding tone, as her husband came into their log hovel, from a neighboring grog-shop, about twelve o'clock on a hot July day.

'O, pick up something,' said Jerry, ' and I wish you would be spry and get it ready, for I'm hungry now, and I want to go back to the shop; for Sam Willard and Seth Harmon are coming over, by an' by, to swap horses, and they 'll want me to ride 'em. Come, stir round;

I can't wait.'

'We have n't got any thing at all in the house to eat,' said Mrs. Guttridge. What shall I get?'

'Well, cook something,' said Jerry; no matter what it is.'

'But, Mr. Guttridge, we have n't got the least thing in the house to cook.'

'Well, well, pick up something,' said Jerry, rather snappishly, for I'm in a hurry.'

I can't make victuals out of nothing,' said the wife; if you'll only bring any thing in the world into the house to cook, I'll cook it. But I tell you, we have n't got a mouthful of meat in the house, nor a mouthful of bread, nor a speck of meal; and the last potatoes we had in the house, we ate for breakfast; and you know we didn't have more than half enough for breakfast, neither.'

[ocr errors]

Well, what have you been doing all this forenoon,' said Jerry, 'that you haven't picked up something? Why did n't you go over to Mr. Whitman's, and borrow some meal?'

'Because,' said Mrs. Guttridge, 'we 've borrowed meal there three times, that is n't returned yet; and I was ashamed to go again, till that

« ElőzőTovább »