“The laboring man in this bounteous and hospitable country has no ground for complaint. His vote is potential, and he is elevated thereby to the position of man. Under the government of this nation, the effect is to elevate the standard of the human race and not to degrade it. In too many other nations it is the reverse. What, therefore, has the laborer to complain of in America? By exciting strikes and encouraging discontent he stands in the way of the elevation of his class and of mankind.
“The tide of emigration to this country, now so large, makes peaceful strikes perfectly harmless in themselves, because the places of those who vacate good situations are easily filled by newcomers. When disturbances occur under the cloak of strikes it is a different matter, as law and order are then set at defiance. The recent outbreaks in Chicago, which resulted in the assassination of a number of valiant policemen through a few cowardly Polish Nihilists firing a bomb of dynamite in their midst, was the worst thing that could have been done for the cause of the present labor agitation, as it alienates all sympathy from them. It is much to the credit, however, of Americans and Irishmen that, during the recent uprisings, none of them have taken part in any violent measures whatsoever, nor have they shown any sympathy with such conduct.
“If the labor troubles are to be regarded as only a transient interruption of the course of events, it is next to be asked, what may be anticipated when those obstructions disappear? We have still our magnificent country, with all the resources that have made it so prosperous and so progressive beyond the record of all nations. There is no abatement of our past ratio of increase of population; no limitation of the new sources of wealth awaiting development; no diminution of the means necessary to the utilization of the unbounded riches of the soil, the mine, and the forest. Our inventive genius has suffered no eclipse. In the practical application of what may be called the commercial sciences, we retain our lead of the world. As pioneers of new sources of wealth, we are producing greater results than all the combined new colonizing efforts which have recently excited the aspirations of European governments. To the over-crowded populations of the Old World the United States still presents attractions superior to those of any other country, as is demonstrated by the recent sudden revival of emigration from Great Britain and the continent to our shores.”
CHAPTER XLVI.
AN IMPORTANT SYNOPSIS.
A Resume in Brief of the Leading Events Connected with Wall Street Affairs for Seventy-seven Years.
December, 1816.—The first savings banks in the United States went into operation.
July, 1820.—Great financial distress throughout America. The causes were excessive importations and a deranged currency.
August, 1833.—There was great commercial distress, caused by contraction by the United States Bank. The bank defended its course on the ground of the evident hostilities of the Administration, the public deposits, amounting to $10,000,000, having been withdrawn by order of the President.
May, 1837.—In this year commercial distress prevailed throughout the United States. On May 10th all the banks in New York city, by common consent, suspended specie payments, banks throughout the country following the example. In New York about 300 large failures took place. In Boston 168 failures were reported. In New Orleans houses stopped payment owing an aggregate of $27,000,000.