There was hardly a pauper in the republic.
The individual citizen amounted to more, as a man, than he does now. Wages were low, but the money commanded a larger amount of the necessaries of life than the higher wages of today.
Strikes and lockouts were unknown. “We have no poor,” was the matter-of-fact statement made in Congress by Hugh S. Legaré of South Carolina.
“There are no beggars,” said the English visitor, Charles Dickens.
In the whole world there probably was not a people more contented, progressive, and generally well-off than we were in the Forties.
Which were the naturally wealthy sections? The South and West.
Which was the naturally sterile section? The East.
Where is the bulk of all the immense wealth that has been produced since the Civil War? In the East.
How came it there? Class-law took it from the sections where it was produced, and gave it to those who were more cunning and selfish in framing national statutes.
