Works of the late Doctor Benjamin Franklin/The Internal State of America
THE INTERNAL STATE OF AMERICA:
BEING A TRUE DESCRIPTION OF THE INTEREST AND POLICY OF THAT VAST CONTINENT.
THERE is a tradition, that, in the planting of New-England, the firſt ſettlers met with many difficulties and hardſhips; as is generally the caſe when a civilized people attempt eſtabliſhing themſelves in a wilderneſs country. Being piouſly diſpoſed, they ſought relief from Heaven, by laying their wants and diſtreſſes before the Lord, in frequent ſet days of faſting and prayer. Conſtant meditation and diſcourſe on theſe ſubjects kept their minds gloomy and diſcontented; and, like the children of Iſrael, there were many diſpoſed to return to that Egypt which perſecution had induced them to abandon. At length, when it was propoſed in the aſſembly to proclaim another faſt, a farmer of plain ſenſe roſe, and remarked, that the inconveniencies they ſuffered, and concerning which they had ſo often wearied Heaven with their complaints, were not ſo great as they might have expected, and were diminiſhing every day as the colony ſtrengthened; that the earth began to reward their labour, and to furniſh liberally for their ſubſiſtence; that the ſeas and rivers were found full of fiſh, the air ſweet, the climate healthy; and, above all, that they were there in the full enjoyment of liberty, civil and religious: he therefore thought, that reflecting and converſing on theſe ſubjects would be more comfortable, as tending more to make them contented with their ſituation; and that it would be more becoming the gratitude they owed to the Divine Being, if, inſtead of a faſt, they ſhould proclaim a thankſgiving. His advice was taken; and from that day to this they have, in every year, obſerved circumſtances of public felicity ſufficient to furniſh employment for a thankſgiving day; which is therefore conſtantly ordered and religiouſly obſerved.
I ſee in the public newſpapers of different ſtates frequent complaints of hard times, deadneſs of trade, ſcarcity of money, &c. It is not my intention to aſſert or maintain that theſe complaints are entirely without foundation. There can be no country or nation exiſting, in which there will not be ſome people ſo circumſtanced as to find it hard to gain a livelihood; people who are not in the way of any profitable trade, and with whom money is ſcarce, becauſe they have nothing to give in exchange for it; and it is always in the power of a ſmall number to make a great clamour. But let us take a cool view of the general ſtate of our affairs, and perhaps the proſpect will appear leſs gloomy than has been imagined.
The great buſineſs of the continent is agriculture. For one artiſan, or merchant, I ſuppoſe, we have at leaſt one hundred farmers, by far the greateſt part cultivators of their own fertile lands, from whence many of them draw not only food neceſſary for their ſubſiſtence, but the materials of their clothing, ſo as to need very few foreign ſupplies; while they have a ſurplus of productions to diſpoſe of, whereby wealth is gradually accumulated. Such has been the goodneſs of Divine Providence to theſe regions, and ſo favourable the climate, that, ſince the three or four years of hardſhip in the firſt ſettlement of our fathers here, a famine or ſcarcity has never been heard of among us; on the contrary, though ſome years may have been more, and others leſs plentiful, there has always been proviſion enough for ourſelves, and a quantity to ſpare for exportation. And although the crops of laſt year were generally good, never was the farmer better paid for the part he can ſpare commerce, as the publiſhed price currents abundantly teſtify. The lands he poſſeſſes are alſo continually riſing in value with the increaſe of population; and, on the whole, he is enabled to give ſuch good wages to thoſe who work for him, that all who are acquainted with the old world muſt agree, that in no part of it are the labouring poor ſo generally well fed, well clothed, well lodged, and well paid, as in the United States of America.
If we enter the cities, we find that, ſince the revolution, the owners of houſes and lots of ground have had their intereſt vaſtly augmented in value; rents have riſen to an aſtoniſhing height, and thence encouragement to increaſe building, which gives employment to an abundance of workmen, as does alſo the increaſed luxury and ſplendour of living of the inhabitants thus made richer. Theſe workmen all demand and obtain much higher wages than any other part of the world would afford them, and are paid in ready money. This rank of people therefore do not, or ought not, to complain of hard times; and they make a very conſiderable part of the city inhabitants.
At the diſtance I live from our American fiſheries, I cannot ſpeak of them with any degree of certainty; but I have not heard that the labour of the valuable race of men employed in them is worſe paid, or that they meet with leſs ſucceſs, than before the revolution. The whale-men indeed have been deprived of one market for their oil; but another, I hear, is opening for them, which it is hoped may be equally advantageous; and the demand is conſtantly increaſing for their ſpermaceti candles, which therefore bear a much higher price than formerly.
There remain the merchants and ſhopkeepers. Of theſe, though they make but a ſmall part of the whole nation, the number is conſiderable, too great indeed for the buſineſs they are employed in; for the conſumption of goods in every country has its limits; the faculties of the people, that is, their ability to buy and pay, is equal only to a certain quantity of merchandize. If merchants calculate amiſs on this proportion, and import too much, they will of courſe find the ſale dull for the overplus, and ſome of them will ſay that trade languiſhes. They ſhould, and doubtleſs will, grow wiſer by experience, and import leſs. If too many artificers in town, and farmers from the country, flattering themſelves with the idea of leading eaſier lives, turn ſhopkeepers, the whole natural quantity of that buſineſs divided among them all may afford too ſmall a ſhare for each, and occaſion complaints that trading is dead; theſe may alſo ſuppoſe that it is owing to ſcarcity of money, while, in fact, it is not ſo much from the fewneſs of buyers, as from the exceſſive number of ſellers, that the miſchief ariſes; and, if every ſhopkeeping farmer and mechanic would return to the uſe of his plough and working tools, there would remain of widows, and other women, ſhopkeepers ſufficient for the buſineſs, which might then afford them a comfortable maintenance.
Whoever has travelled through the various parts of Europe, and obſerved how ſmall is the proportion of the people in affluence or eaſy circumſtances there, compared with thoſe in poverty and miſery; the few rich and haughty landlords, the multitude of poor, abject, rack-rented, tythe-paying tenants, and half-paid and half-ſtarved ragged labourers; and views here the happy mediocrity that ſo generally prevails throughout theſe ſtates, where the cultivator works for himſelf, and ſupports his family in decent plenty; will, methinks, ſee abundant reaſon to bleſs Divine Providence for the evident and great difference in our favour, and be convinced that no nation known to us enjoys a greater ſhare of human felicity.
It is true, that in ſome of the ſtates there are parties and diſcords; but let us look back, and aſk if we were ever without them? Such will exiſt wherever there is liberty; and perhaps they help to preſerve it. By the colliſion of different ſentiments, ſparks of truth are ſtruck out, and political light is obtained. The different faſhions, which at preſent divide us, aim all at the public good; the differences are only about the various modes of promoting it. Things, actions, meaſures, and objects of all kinds, preſent themſelves to the minds of men in ſuch a variety of lights, that it is not poſſible we ſhould all think alike at the fame time on every ſubject, when hardly the fame man retains at all times the fame ideas of it. Parties are therefore the common lot of humanity; and ours are by no means more miſchievous or leſs beneficial than thoſe of other countries, nations, and ages, enjoying in the fame degree the great bleſſing of political liberty.
Some indeed among us are not ſo much grieved for the preſent ſtate of our affairs, as apprehenſive for the future. The growth of luxury alarms them, and they think we are from that alone in the high road to ruin. They obſerve, that no revenue is ſufficient without œconomy, and that the moſt plentiful income of a whole people from the natural productions of their country may be diſſipated in vain and needleſs expences, and poverty be introduced in the place of affluence.—This may be poſſible. It however rarely happens; for there ſeems to be in every nation a greater proportion of induſtry and frugality, which tend to enrich, than of idleneſs and prodigality, which occaſion poverty; ſo that upon the whole there is a continual accumulation. Reflect what Spain, Gaul, Germany, and Britain were in the time of the Romans, inhabited by people little richer than our ſavages, and conſider the wealth they at preſent poſſeſs, in numerous well-built cities, improved farms, rich moveables, magazines ſtocked with valuable manufactures, to ſay nothing of plate, jewels, and coined money; and all this, notwithſtanding their bad, waſteful, plundering governments, and their mad, deſtructive wars; and yet luxury and extravagant living has never ſuffered much restraint in thoſe countries. Then conſider the great proportion of industrious frugal farmers inhabiting the interior parts of theſe American ſtates, and of whom the body of our nation conſiſts, and judge whether it is poſſible that the luxury of our ſea-ports can be ſufficient to ruin ſuch a country.—If the importation of foreign luxuries could ruin a people, we ſhould probably have been ruined long ago; for the Britiſh nation claimed a right, and practiſed it, of importing among us not only the ſuperfluities of their own production, but thoſe of every nation under heaven; we bought and conſumed them, and yet we flourished and grew rich. At preſent our independent governments may do what we could not then do, diſcourage by heavy duties, or prevent by heavy prohibitions, ſuch importations, and thereby grow richer;—if, indeed, which may admit of diſpute, the deſire of adorning ourſelves with fine clothes, poſſeſſing fine furniture, with elegant houſes, &c. is not, by ſtrongly inciting to labour and induſtry, the occaſion of producing a greater value than is conſumed in the gratification of that deſire.
The agriculture and fiſheries of the United States are the great ſources of our increaſing wealth. He that puts a ſeed into the earth is recompenced, perhaps, by receiving forty out of it; and he who draws a fiſh out of our water, draws up a piece of ſilver.
Let us (and there is no doubt but we ſhall) be attentive to theſe, and then the power of rivals, with all their reſtraining and prohibiting acts, cannot much hurt us. We are ſons of the earth and ſeas, and, like Antæus in the fable, if in wreſtling with a Hercules we now and then, receive a fall, the touch of our parents will communicate to us freſh ſtrength and vigour to renew the conteſt.