Chapter I (2)

I arrived at this place on Thursday evening last, and now on Sunday
morning before church am addressing you this note........ I find the
Springs very agreeable and the company very pleasant, yet there does
not appear to be so many of the “dashers” here as I have seen. The
crowd is very great, in fact it is quite a mob of fashionable folks.
Mrs. Plitt is very agreeable and quite popular. Mrs. Slidell is the
most gay, brilliant and fashionable lady at the Springs; and as I am
her admirer, and attached to her party, I am thus rendered a little
more conspicuous in the _beau monde_ than I could desire. Mrs. Rush
conducts herself very much like a lady, and is quite popular. She has
invited me to accompany her to Alboni’s concert to-morrow evening, and
I would rather go with her to any other place. Alboni is all the rage
here. I have seen and conversed with her, and am rather impressed in
her favor. She is short and thick, but has a very good, arch and
benevolent countenance. I shall, however, soon get tired of this
place, and do not expect to remain here longer than next Thursday. Not
having heard from you, I should have felt somewhat uneasy, had Mary
not written to Mrs. Plitt. I expect to be at home in two weeks from
the time I started. Mrs. Plitt desires me to send her love to you,
Mrs. Baker and Miss Hetty. Remember me affectionately to Mrs. Baker,
Miss Hetty and James Henry, and believe me to be

Yours affectionately,
JAMES BUCHANAN.

Numerous public letters written by Mr. Buchanan in these years, 1851 and 1852, find their appropriate place here. They exhibit fully all his sentiments and opinions on the topics which then agitated the country.

[TO COL. GEORGE R. FALL.[4]]

WHEATLAND, near LANCASTER, Dec. 24th, 1851.

MY DEAR SIR:—

I am sorry I did not receive your letter sooner. I might then have
given it the “old-fashioned Democratic” answer which you desire. But I
am compelled to leave home immediately; and if I should not write at
the present moment, it will be too late for the 8th of January
Convention. I must therefore be brief.

My public life is before the country, and it is my pride never to have
evaded an important political question. The course of Democracy is
always straight ahead, and public men who determine to pursue it never
involve themselves in labyrinths, except when they turn to the right
or the left from the plain forward path. Madison’s Report and
Jefferson’s Kentucky Resolutions are the safest and surest guides to
conduct a Democratic administration of the Federal Government. It is
the true mission of Democracy to resist centralism and the absorption
of unconstitutional powers by the President and Congress. The
sovereignty of the States and a devotion to their reserved rights can
alone preserve and perpetuate our happy system of Government. The
exercise of doubtful and constructive powers on the part of Congress
has produced all the dangerous and exciting questions which have
imperilled the Union. The Federal Government, even confined within its
strict constitutional limits, must necessarily acquire more and more
influence through the increased and increasing expenditure of public
money, and hence the greater necessity for public economy and watchful
vigilance. Our Constitution, when it proceeded from the hands of its
framers, was a simple system; and the more free from complexity it
remains, the more powerfully, satisfactorily and beneficially will it
operate within its legitimate sphere.

It is centralization alone which has prevented the French people from
establishing a permanent republican government, and entailed upon them
so many misfortunes. Had the provinces of France been converted into
separate territorial provinces, like our State governments, Paris
would then no longer have been France, and a revolution at the capital
would not have destroyed the Federative Republic.

Had the principles I have enumerated been observed by the Federal
Government and by the people of the several States, we should have
avoided the alarming questions which have arisen out of the
institution of domestic slavery. The people of each State would then,
to employ a homely but expressive phrase, have attended to their own
business and not have interfered in the domestic concerns of their
sister States. But on this important subject I have so fully presented
my views in the enclosed letter to the great meeting in Philadelphia,
held in November, 1850, that it would be useless to repeat them, even
if time would permit.

From your friend, very respectfully,
JAMES BUCHANAN.

Footnote 4:

From the _Mississippian_ of January 9, 1852.

[TO THE CENTRAL SOUTHERN RIGHTS ASSOCIATION OF VIRGINIA.]

WHEATLAND, near LANCASTER, April 10, 1851.

MY DEAR SIR:—

I have received your kind letter of the 2d inst., with the resolutions
adopted by the Central Southern Rights Association of Virginia,
inviting me to address the Association at such time as may suit my
convenience, and to counsel with them “in regard to the best means to
be adopted in the present alarming crisis, for the maintenance of the
Constitution and the Union of these States in their original purity.”

I should esteem it both a high honor and a great privilege to comply
with this request, and therefore regret to say, that engagements,
which I need not specify, render it impossible for me to visit
Richmond during the present, or probably the next month.

The Association do me no more than justice, when attributing to me a
strong desire “for the maintenance of the Constitution, and the Union
of the States in their original purity.”

Whilst few men in this country would venture to avow a different
sentiment, yet the question still remains, by what means can this
all-important purpose be accomplished? I feel no hesitation in
answering, by returning to the old Virginia platform of State rights,
prescribed by the resolutions of 1798, and Mr. Madison’s report. The
powers conferred by the Constitution upon the General Government, must
be construed strictly, and Congress must abstain from the exercise of
all doubtful powers. But it is said these are mere unmeaning
abstractions—and so they are, unless honestly carried into practice.
Like the Christian faith, however, when it is genuine, good results
will inevitably flow from a sincere belief in such a strict
construction of the Constitution.

Were this old republican principle adopted in practice, we should no
longer witness unwarrantable and dangerous attempts in Congress to
interfere with the institution of domestic slavery, which belongs
exclusively to the States where it exists—there would be no efforts to
establish high protective tariffs—the public money would not be
squandered upon a general system of internal improvements—general in
name, but particular in its very nature, and corrupting in its
tendency, both to the Government and to the people; and we would
retrench our present extravagant expenditure, pay our national debt,
and return to the practice of a wise economy, so essential to public
and private prosperity. Were I permitted to address your Association,
these are the counsels I should give, and some of the topics I should
discuss, as the best means “for the maintenance both of the
Constitution and the Union of the States, in their original purity,”
and for the perpetuation of our great and glorious confederacy.

With sentiments of high regard, I remain yours, very respectfully,

JAMES BUCHANAN.

[TO SHELTON F. LEAKE, ESQ., AND OTHER GENTLEMEN.[5]]

Footnote 5:

From the _Lancaster Intelligencer_, February 24, 1852.

RICHMOND, February 12, 1852.

GENTLEMEN:—

On my arrival in this city last evening I received your very kind
letter, welcoming me to the metropolis of the Old Dominion and
tendering me the honor of a public dinner. I regret—deeply regret—that
my visit to Richmond will necessarily be so brief that I cannot enjoy
the pleasure and the privilege of meeting you all at the festive
board. Intending merely to pass a day with my valued friend, Judge
Mason, my previous arrangements are of such a character that I must
leave here to-morrow, or, at the latest, on Saturday morning.

But whilst I cannot accept the dinner, I shall ever esteem the
invitation from so many of Virginia’s most distinguished and estimable
sons as one of the proudest honors of my life. Your ancient and
renowned commonwealth has ever been the peculiar guardian of State
rights and the firm supporter of constitutional liberty, of law, and
of order. When, therefore, she endorses with her approbation any of my
poor efforts to serve the country, her commendation is a sure
guarantee that these have been devoted to a righteous cause.

You are pleased to refer in favorable terms to my recent conduct “at
home in defence of the Federal Constitution and laws.” This was an
easy and agreeable task, because the people of Pennsylvania have ever
been as loyal and faithful to the Constitution, the Union, the rights
of the sovereign States of which it is composed, as the people of the
ancient Dominion themselves. To have pursued a different course in my
native State would therefore, have been to resist the strong current
of enlightened public opinion.

I purposely refrain from discussing the original merit of the
Compromise, because I consider it, to employ the expressive language
of the day, as a “finality”—a fixed fact—a most important enactment of
law, the agitation or disturbance of which could do no possible good,
but might produce much positive evil. Our noble vessel of State,
freighted with the hope of mankind, both for the present and future
generations, has passed through the most dangerous breakers which she
has ever encountered, and has triumphantly ridden out the storm. Both
those who supported the measures of the Compromise as just and
necessary, and those who, regarding them in a different light, yet
acquiesce in them for the sake of the Union, have arrived at the same
conclusion—that it must and shall be executed. They have thus, for
every practical purpose, adopted the same platform, and have resolved
to sustain it against the common enemy.—Why, then, should they
wrangle, and divide and waste their energies, not respecting the main
question, which has already been definitely settled, but in regard to
the process which has brought them, though from different directions,
to the same conclusion? Above all, why should the strength of the
Democratic party of the country be impaired and its ascendency be
jeoparded for any such cause? We who believe that the triumph of
Democratic principles is essential not only to the prosperity of the
Union, but even to the preservation of the Constitution, ought
reciprocally to forget, and, if need be, to forgive the past, and
cordially unite with our political brethren in sustaining for the
future the good old cause of Democracy. It must be a source of deep
and lasting pleasure to every patriotic heart that our beloved country
has so happily passed through the late trying and dangerous crisis.
The volcano has been extinguished, I trust, forever; and the man who
would apply a firebrand, at the present moment, to the combustible
materials which still remain, may produce an eruption to overwhelm
both the Constitution and the Union.

With sentiments of high and grateful respect,

I remain your fellow citizen,
JAMES BUCHANAN.

[TO JOHN NELSON, WM. F. GILES, JOHN O. WHARTON, JOHN MORRIS, CARROLL
SPENCE, AND OTHER CITIZENS OF BALTIMORE.]

WHEATLAND, near LANCASTER, February 3, 1852.

GENTLEMEN:—

In returning home through your city on Saturday last, I had the
unexpected honor of receiving your kind invitation to partake of a
public dinner at such time as might best suit my own convenience. For
this distinguished and valuable token of your regard, please to accept
my most grateful acknowledgments; and, whilst regretting that
circumstances, which it would be too tedious to explain, will deprive
me of the pleasure of meeting you at the festive board, you may rest
assured that I shall ever highly prize the favorable opinion you
express of my poor public services.

To the city of Baltimore I have ever been attached by strong ties. In
early life I had selected it as the place where to practice my
profession; and nothing prevented me from carrying this purpose into
effect but my invincible reluctance, at the last moment, to leave my
native State. The feeling which prompted me in 1814, during the last
war with Great Britain, to march as a private to Baltimore, a
circumstance to which you kindly allude, resulted from a patriotism so
universal throughout Pennsylvania, that the honor which may fall to
the lot of any one of the thousands of my fellow-citizens who
volunteered their services on that trying occasion, scarcely deserves
to be mentioned.

If I rightly read “the signs of the times,” there has seldom been a
period when the Democratic party of the country, to which you and I
are warmly attached, was in greater danger of suffering a defeat than
at the present moment. In order to avert this catastrophe, we must
mutually forget and forgive past dissensions, suffer “bygones to be
bygones,” and commence a new career, keeping constantly in view the
ancient and long established landmarks of the party. Most, if not all
the great questions of policy which formerly divided us from our
political opponents, have been settled in our favor. No person, at
this day, thinks of re-establishing another national bank, or
repealing the Independent Treasury, or distributing the proceeds of
the public lands among the several States, or abolishing the veto
power. On these great and important questions, the Whigs, after a long
and violent struggle, have yielded; and, for the present, at least,
would seem to stand upon the Democratic platform. The compromise
measures are now a “finality”—those who opposed them honestly and
powerfully, and who still believe them to be wrong, having
patriotically determined to acquiesce in them for the sake of the
Union, provided they shall be faithfully carried into execution.

On what issues, then, can we go before the country and confidently
calculate upon the support of the American people at the approaching
Presidential election? I answer unhesitatingly that we must fall back,
as you suggest, upon those fundamental and time-honored principles
which have divided us from our political opponents since the
beginning, and which from the very nature of the Federal Constitution,
must continue to divide us from them until the end. We must inscribe
upon our banners a sacred regard for the reserved rights of the
States—a strict construction of the Constitution—a denial to Congress
of all powers not clearly granted by that instrument, and a rigid
economy in public expenditures.

These expenditures have now reached the enormous sum of fifty millions
of dollars per annum, and, unless arrested in their advance by the
strong arm of the Democracy of the country, may, in the course of a
few years, reach one hundred millions. The appropriation of money to
accomplish great national objects sanctioned by the Constitution,
ought to be on a scale commensurate with our power and resources as a
nation—but its expenditure ought to be conducted under the guidance of
enlightened economy and strict responsibility. I am convinced that our
expenses might be considerably reduced below the present standard, not
only without detriment, but with positive advantage both to the
government and the people.

An excessive and lavish expenditure of public money, though in itself
highly pernicious, is as nothing when compared with the disastrous
influence it may exert upon the character of our free institutions. A
strong tendency towards extravagance is the great political evil of
the present day; and this ought to be firmly resisted. Congress is now
incessantly importuned from every quarter to make appropriations for
all sorts of projects. Money, money from the National Treasury is
constantly demanded to enrich contractors, speculators, and agents;
and these projects are gilded over with every allurement which can be
imparted to them by ingenuity and talent. Claims which had been
condemned by former decisions and had become rusty with age have been
again revived, and have been paid, principal and interest. Indeed
there seems to be one general rush to obtain money from the Treasury
on any and every pretence.

What will be the inevitable consequence of such lavish expenditures?
Are they not calculated to disturb the nicely adjusted balance between
the Federal and State Governments, upon the preservation of which
depend the harmony and efficiency of our system? Greedy expectants
from the Federal Treasury will regard with indifference, if not with
contempt, the governments of the several States. The doctrine of State
rights will be laughed to scorn by such individuals, as an obsolete
abstraction unworthy of the enlightened spirit of the age. The
corrupting power of money will be felt throughout the length and
breadth of this land; and the Democracy, led on by the hero and sage
of the Hermitage, will have in vain put down the Bank of the United
States, if the same fatal influence for which it was condemned, shall
be exerted and fostered by means drawn from the Public Treasury.

To be liberal with their own money but sparing of that of the Republic
was the glory of distinguished public servants among the ancient
Romans. When this maxim was reversed, and the public money was
employed by artful and ambitious demagogues to secure their own
aggrandizement, genuine liberty soon expired. It is true that the
forms of the Republic continued for many years; but the animating and
inspiring soul had fled forever. I entertain no serious apprehensions
that we shall ever reach this point, yet we may still profit by their
example.

With sentiments of the highest respect, I remain your friend and
fellow-citizen,

JAMES BUCHANAN.

To these should be added an address made at a festival in Philadelphia on the 11th of January, 1851, on the establishment of a line of steamships between that city and Liverpool. The account is taken from the journals of the time.

After Governor Johnston had concluded, Morton McMichael came forward,
and said that he had been instructed by the Committee of Arrangements
to propose the health of an eminent Pennsylvanian who was then
present—one who had represented his State in the National legislative
councils, and had occupied a chief place in the administration of the
National Government, and in regard to whom, however political
differences might exist, all agreed that his high talents, his
unsullied integrity, and his distinguished public services had justly
placed him in the foremost rank, not only of Pennsylvanians, but of
all Americans. He therefore gave

The health of the Hon. James Buchanan.

When Mr. Buchanan rose to reply, there was a whirlwind of cheers and
applause. In the midst of it the band struck up a favorite and
complimentary air, at the end of which the cheering was renewed, and
several minutes elapsed before he could be heard.

Mr. Buchanan, after making his acknowledgments to the company for the
kind manner in which he had been received, proceeded to speak as
follows:—

What a spectacle does this meeting present! It must be a source of
pride and gratification to every true-hearted Pennsylvanian. Here are
assembled the executive and legislative authorities of the
commonwealth, several members from the State to the present Congress,
as well as those elected to the next, and the Board of Canal
Commissioners, enjoying the magnificent hospitality of the city and
the incorporated districts adjacent—all of which, in fact, constitute
but one great city of Philadelphia.

What important event in the history of Philadelphia is this meeting
intended to celebrate? Not a victory achieved by our arms over a
foreign foe. Not the advent amongst us of a great military captain
fresh from the bloody fields of his glory; but the arrival here of a
peaceful commercial steamer from the other side of the Atlantic. This
welcome stranger is destined, as we all trust, to be the harbinger of
a rapidly increasing foreign trade between our own city and the great
commercial city of Liverpool. All hail to Captain Matthews and his
gallant crew! Peace, as well as war, has its triumphs; and these,
although they may not be so brilliant, are far more enduring and
useful to mankind.

The establishment of a regular line of steamers between these two
ports will prove of vast importance both to the city of Philadelphia
and the State at large. And here, let me observe, that the interests
of the city and the State are identical—inseparable. Like man and
wife, when a well-assorted couple, they are mutually dependent. The
welfare and prosperity of the one are the welfare and prosperity of
the other. “Those whom Heaven has joined together, let not man put
asunder.” If any jealousies, founded or unfounded, have heretofore
existed between them, let them be banished from this day forward and
forever. Let them be in the “deep bosom of the ocean buried.”

The great Central Railroad will furnish the means of frequent and
rapid intercommunication between the city and the State. In the course
of another year, Philadelphia will be brought within twelve or
fourteen hours of our Great Iron City of the West—a city of as much
energy and enterprise for the number of inhabitants, as any on the
face of the earth; and, I might add, of as warm and generous
hospitality. I invite you all, in the name of the people of the
interior, to visit us oftener than you have done heretofore. You shall
receive a hearty welcome. Let us become better acquainted, and we
shall esteem each other more.

But will this great undertaking to extend the foreign commerce of
Philadelphia with Europe, by means of regular lines of steamers, prove
successful? To doubt this is to doubt whether the capital,
intelligence, and perseverance, which have assured signal success to
Philadelphia in every other industrial pursuit, shall fail when
applied to steam navigation on the ocean. But after to-night there can
be “no such word as fail” in our vocabulary. We have put our hand to
the plough, and we must go ahead. We dare not, because we cannot, look
back without disgrace; whilst success in foreign commerce will be the
capsheaf—the crowning glory of Philadelphia.

The distance of Philadelphia from the ocean, and the consequent length
of river navigation, have hitherto constituted an obstacle to her
success in foreign trade. Thanks to the genius of Fulton, this
obstacle has been removed, and the noble Delaware, for every purpose
of foreign commerce, is as if it were an arm of the sea. We learn from
the highest authority, that of the pioneer who was an officer in one
of the first steamers which ever crossed the Atlantic, and who has
successfully completed his ninety-ninth voyage, that the difference in
time from Liverpool between New York and Philadelphia is only about
twenty hours. This is comparatively of no importance, and cannot have
the slightest effect on the success of the enterprise.

Fulton was a native citizen of Pennsylvania. He was born in the county
where I reside. And shall not the metropolis of the native State of
that extraordinary man who, first of the human race, successfully
applied steam power to navigation, enjoy the benefits of this
momentous discovery which has changed the whole face of the civilized
world? Philadelphia, in her future career, will gloriously answer this
question.

Philadelphia enjoys many advantages for the successful pursuit of
foreign commerce. Her population now exceeds 400,000; and it is a
population of which we may be justly proud. It is of no mushroom
growth; but has advanced steadily onward. Her immense capital is the
result of long years of successful industry and enterprise. Strength
and durability characterize all her undertakings. She has already
achieved distinguished success in manufactures, in the mechanic arts,
in domestic commerce, and in every other industrial pursuit, and in
the natural progress of events, she has now determined to devote her
energies to foreign commerce.

And where is there a city in the world, whose ship-yards produce finer
vessels? Whether for beauty of model, rapidity of sailing, or
durability, Philadelphia built vessels have long enjoyed the highest
character. Long as I have been in the public councils, I have never
known a vessel of war built in this city, not fully equal to any of
her class afloat on the waters of the world. A few weeks since I had
the pleasure of examining the steamer Susquehanna, and I venture to
say, that a nobler vessel can nowhere be found. She will bear the
stars and the stripes triumphantly amid the battle and the breeze. May
we not hope that Philadelphia steamers will, ere long, be found
bearing her trade and her name on every sea, and into every great
commercial port on the face of this earth?

The vast resources of the State which will be poured into the lap of
Philadelphia, will furnish the materials of an extensive foreign
commerce. And here, in the presence of this domestic family
Pennsylvania circle, may we not indulge in a little self-gratulation,
and may we not be pardoned, if nobody else will praise us, for
praising ourselves. We have every reason to be proud of our State; and
perhaps we ought to cherish a little more State pride than we possess.
This, when not carried to excess, when it scorns to depreciate a
rival, is a noble and useful principle of action. It is the parent of
generous emulation in the pursuit of all that is excellent, all that
is calculated to adorn and bless mankind. It enkindles the desire in
us to stand as high as the highest among our sister States, in the
councils of our country, in the pursuit of agriculture and
manufactures and every useful art. This honorable feeling of State
pride, particularly when the Pennsylvanian is abroad, out of his
native land, will make his heart swell with exultation, if he finds
that Philadelphia has become a great commercial city, her flag waving
over every sea, her steamers to be seen in every port—an elevated
position in which Philadelphia, if she but wills it, can undoubtedly
be placed.

The great and good founder of our State, whose precept and whose
practice was “peace on earth, and good will to man,” immediately after
he had obtained the royal charter, in the spirit of prophetic
enthusiasm declared, “God will bless, and make it the seed of a
nation. I shall have a tender care of the government that it be well
laid at first.”

How gloriously this prediction has been verified! God has blessed it,
and the seed which the founder sowed has borne the richest fruit. We
are indeed a nation, confederated with thirty other sovereign nations
or States by the most sacred political instrument in the annals of
mankind, called the Constitution of the United States. Besides, we are
truly the keystone of this vast confederacy, and our character and
position eminently qualify us to act as a mediator between opposing
extremes. Placed in the centre, between the North and the South, with
a population distinguished for patriotism and steady good sense, and a
devoted love to the Union, we stand as the days man, between the
extremes, and can declare with the voice of power to both, hitherto
shalt thou go, and no further. May this Union endure forever, the
source of innumerable blessings to those who live under its beneficent
sway, and the star of hope to millions of down-trodden men throughout
the world!

Bigotry has never sacrificed its victims at the shrine of intolerance
in this our favored State. When they were burning witches in
Massachusetts, honestly believing at the time they were doing God’s
service, William Penn, in 1684, presided at the trial of a witch.
Under his direction, the verdict was: “The prisoner is guilty of the
common fame of being a witch; but not guilty as she stands indicted.”
And “in Penn’s domain, from that day to this,” says the gifted
historian, “neither demon nor hag ever rode through the air on goat or
broomstick.”

From the first settlement of the province until the present moment,
the freedom of conscience established by the founder, has been
perfect. Religion has always been a question exclusively between man
and his Creator, and every human being has been free to worship his
Maker according to the dictates of his own conscience.

Bigotry, madly assuming to itself an attribute belonging to the
Almighty, has never attempted to punish any one of his creatures for
not adapting his belief to its own standard of faith. We have great
cause to be proud of the early history of Pennsylvania.

Pennsylvania, more than any other State of the Union, has been settled
by emigrants from all the European nations. Our population now exceeds
two millions and a quarter; but we cannot say that it is composed of
the pure Anglo-Saxon race. The English, the Germans, the Scotch Irish,
the Irish, the Welsh, the French, and emigrants from every other
European country have all intermingled upon our happy soil. We are
truly a mixed race. And is not this a cause for self-gratulation?
Providence, as if to designate his will that families and nations
should cultivate extended intercourse with each other, has decreed
that intermarriage in the same family shall eventually produce a
miserable and puny race, both in body and in mind; whilst
intermarriages among entire strangers have been signally blessed. May
it then not be probable that the intermixture of the natives of the
different nations is calculated to produce a race superior to any one
of the elements of which it is composed. Let us hope that we possess
the good qualities of all, without a large share of the evil qualities
of either. Certain it is that in Pennsylvania we can boast of a
population which for energy, for patient industry, and for strict
morality, are unsurpassed by the people of any other country.

And what is her condition at present? Heaven has blessed us with a
climate which, notwithstanding its variations, is equal to almost any
other on the face of the earth, and a soil capable of furnishing all
the agricultural products of the temperate zone. And how have we
improved these advantages? In agriculture we have excelled. I have
myself been over a good portion of the best cultivated parts of the
world; but never anywhere, in any country, have I witnessed such
evidences of real substantial comfort and prosperity, such farm-houses
and barns, as are to be found in Pennsylvania. It is true we cannot
boast of baronial castles, and of extensive parks and pleasure
grounds, and of all the other appendages of wealth and aristocracy
which beautify and adorn the scenery of other countries. These can
only exist in countries where the soil is monopolized by wealthy
proprietors and where the farms are consequently occupied by a
dependent tenantry. Thank Heaven! in this country, every man of
industry and economy, with the blessings of Providence upon his honest
labor, can acquire a freehold for himself, and sit under his own vine
and his own fig tree, and there shall be none to make him afraid.

Then in regard to our mineral wealth. We have vast masses of coal and
iron scattered with a profuse hand under the surface of our soil.
These are far more valuable than the golden sands and golden ore of
California. The patient labor necessary to extract these treasures
from the earth, and bring them to market, strengthens the sinews of
the laborer, makes him self-reliant and dependent upon his own
exertions, infuses courage into the heart, and produces a race capable
of maintaining their liberties at home and of defending their country
against any and every foreign foe. Look at your neighboring town of
Richmond. There three millions of tons of coal are annually brought to
market, and the domestic tonnage employed for sending it abroad
exceeds the whole foreign tonnage of the city of New York. All these
vast productions of our agriculture and our mines are the natural
aliments of foreign commerce for the city of Philadelphia.

But this is not all. Our Central Railroad will soon be completed; and
when this is finished, it will furnish the avenue by which the
productions of the great West will seek a market in Philadelphia. It
will connect with a chain of numerous other railroads, penetrating the
vast valley of the Mississippi in different directions, which will
bring the productions of that extended region to seek a market in
Philadelphia.

And with these unexampled materials for foreign commerce, is it
possible that the city of Philadelphia will hold back? Will she not
employ her capital in a vigorous effort to turn to her own advantage
all these elements of wealth which Providence has placed within her
reach? What is the smallest share of foreign commerce to which she is
legitimately entitled? It is at least to import into Philadelphia all
the foreign goods necessary for the supply of Pennsylvania and the far
West, which seek her markets for their productions. She is bound, by
every principle of interest and duty, to bring to her own wharves this
amount of foreign trade, and never as a Pennsylvanian shall I rest
satisfied until she shall have attained this measure of success. Shall
she then tamely look on and suffer her great rival city, of which
every American ought to be proud, to monopolize the profit and
advantages to which she is justly and fairly entitled? Shall New York
continue to be the importing city for Philadelphia? Shall she any
longer be taunted with the imputation that so far as foreign trade is
concerned, she is a mere provincial and dependent city? She can, if
she but energetically wills it, change this course of trade so
disadvantageous to her character and her interests; and the
proceedings of this meeting afford abundant assurances that from this
day forth she is destined to enter upon a new and glorious career. She
must be prepared to encounter and to overcome serious competition. She
must therefore nerve her arm for the struggle. The struggle is worthy
of her most determined efforts.