The wealth of a nation consists of the wealth of all the individuals that compose it. The sources of wealth are labor, land, and capital. The last is indeed the product of the two former; but as it may be used to increase their value, it is considered by writers on political economy, as one of the original sources of national wealth. Whatever lessens either of these, or their productiveness when employed upon each other, lessens the wealth of the country. Capital may be employed in two ways; either to produce new capital, or merely to afford gratification, and in the production of that gratification be consumed, without replacing its value. The first may be called capital, and the last expenditure. These will of course bear inverse proportions to each other. If the first be large, the last must be small, and vice versa. Without any change of the amount of wealth, capital will be increased by the lessening of expenditure, and lessened by the increase of expenditure. Although the manner of dividing makes no difference with the present amount of national wealth, it makes a great difference with the future amount; as it alters materially the sources of producing it, the means of an equal, or increased reproduction. For instance, a man fond of noise and excited agreeably by the hearing of it, pays a dollar for gunpowder, and touches fire to it. He occasions an entire loss of that amount of property. Although the powder maker and the merchant, may both have received their pay, if it has not benefited the man, to him it has been a total loss; and if the sale of it was no more profitable than would have been the sale of some useful article, it has been an entire loss to the community. And if by the explosion the man is burnt, partially loses his reason, is taken off for a time from business, and confined by sickness to his bed, must have nurses, physicians, &c. the loss is still increased. And if he never recovers fully his health, or reason, suffers in his social affections and moral sensibility, becomes less faithful in the education of his children, and they are more exposed to temptation and ruin, and he is never again as able or willing to be habitually employed in productive labor, the nation loses equal to the amount of all these put together. And if his example leads other men to spend, and to suffer in the same way, the loss is still farther increased; and so on, through all its effects. And even though the powder maker and the merchant have made enormous profit, this does not prevent the loss to the community; any more than the enormous profit of lottery gamblers, or counterfeiters of the public coin, prevents loss to the community. Nor does it meet the case, to say that the property only changes hands. This is not true. The man who sold the powder made a profit of only a part even of the money which the other man paid for it; while he lost not only the whole, but vastly more. The whole of the original cost was only a small part of the loss to the buyer, and to the nation. The merchant gained nothing of the time, and other numerous expences, which the buyer lost; nor does he in any way remunerate the community for that loss. Suppose that man, instead of buying the powder, had bought a pair of shoes; and that the tanner and the shoemaker had gained in this case, what the powder-maker and the merchant gained in the other; and that by the use of the shoes, though they were finally worn out, the man gained twice as much as he gave for them; without any loss of health, or reason, social affection, or moral susceptibility; and without any of the consequent evils. Who cannot see that it would have increased his wealth, and that of the nation, without injury to any, and have promoted the benefit of all. This illustrates the principle with regard to ardent spirit. A man buys a quantity of it, and drinks it; when he would be, as is the case with every man, in all respects better without it. It is to him an entire loss. The merchant may have made a profit of one quarter of the cost, but the buyer loses the whole; and he loses the time employed in obtaining and drinking it. He loses also, and the community loses, equal to all its deteriorating effects upon his body and mind, his children, and all who come under his influence. His land becomes less productive. The capital of course produced by his land and labor is diminished; and thus the means are diminished of future reproduction. And by the increase of expenditure in proportion to the capital, it is still farther diminished, till to meet the increasingly disproportionate expences, the whole is often taken, and the means of future reproduction are entirely exhausted. Andas there is no seed to sow, there is of course no future harvest. This is but a simple history of what is taking place in thousands of cases continually; and of what is the tendency of the traffic in ardent spirit, from beginning to end. It lessens the productiveness of land and labor, and of course diminishes the amount of capital; while in proportion, it increases the expenditure, and thus in both ways is constantly exhausting the means of future reproduction. And this is its tendency, in all its bearings, in proportion to the quantity used, from the man who takes only his glass, to the man who takes his quart a day. It is a palpable and gross violation of all correct principles of political economy; and from beginning to end, tends to diminish all the sources of national wealth. “Oh,” said a merchant in a large country store, "it is a horrible business. When I set up my store at this corner, there were within a mile, a great number of able, thriving farmers; but now about half of them are ruined; and many of them were ruined at my store. And there is not a store in the country that sells ardent spirit, but what tends to produce similar results. Oh, it is a horrible business." And are not the laws which sanction it horrible laws? Do they not tend by their whole influence to render the business respectable, to perpetuate it, and permanently to produce such results? results none the less horrible because produced according to law; and which stamp the law that sanctions the business which produces them, with the dark, deep and indelible impress of vice? Nor was it by any means the greatest of the evils, that those farmers were ruined. In many cases too, their children were ruined; and the community was deprived of the benefits which they might otherwise have conferred upon it. Nor was this all, but many of them were thrown as a public burden into the alms-house, to be supported by a tax on the sober and industrious. Another part were corrupting the children and youth, and demoralizing society by the influence of their loathsome and pestiferous example. Was not that merchant then prosecuting a business which, toward the community, was palpably unjust? And are not the laws which sanction it, equally unjust? What moral right have legislators to pass laws, which enable men legally to injure their fellow men, to increase their taxes, and expose their children to drunkenness and ruin ? And what was the effect ultimately on the merchant himself? We say ultimately; because it does not follow, even if he for a time increased his profits by selling spirit, that it would ultimately promote his benefit. A passer of counterfeit money, may sometimes increase his present profit; but it does not follow that it will ultimately promote even his pecuniary interest. The permanent, valuable customers of that merchant, were constantly diminishing, as their ability was diminishing to purchase his goods, or to pay for them. Their farms were growing up to briars and thorns, the enclosures were falling down; their buildings were in ruin, their implements of husbandry scattered, or worn out; their children were at the grogshop or the scene of revelry and dissipation, and their whole interest was withering under the indignation of the Almighty. Of course, should they buy they had next to nothing with which to pay. Many died insolvent, and the merchant not unfrequently lost in bad debts from his rum customers more than his profits. And as the value of property around him diminished, as is generally the case around those death-fountains, the value of his custom diminished. Said another merchant, who has made a great estate, but never sold a drop of spirit, "When you shut up a grogshop, or tear it down and build on the spot a respectable store, it is surprising how rapidly property in the neighborhood begins immediately to rise." Suppose that the merchant first referred to had sold only to productive consumers; and such articles, as in the consumption would more than have replaced their value; as was the case with the shoes, as is the case with needful clothing, provisions, and other useful things. The property of the farmers would have been constantly increasing, and of course the value of their custom to the merchant, and of their wealth to the community. Their children with increased advantages, might more than have filled the place of their fathers, and thus, without injury to any, the good of all been promoted. The enormous taxes, for the support of paupers, and the prosecution of criminals, with which the community were burdened, might have been prevented; and also the peculiar exposure of the rising generation to drunkenness, death and hell.* So with all farmers and all merchants, and all other classes of men throughout the country. The traffic in ardent spirit is a curse to the whole community; a cancer on the vitals of all the sources of national wealth. Even if the present profits of those who sell to unproductive consumers were more, vastly more than those who sell only to productive consumers, as the property of their customers diminishes, and of course their ability to purchase, their future profits must be less. On the other hand, the ability of productive consumers, who replace what they consume with something of greater value, constantly increases; and of course their value as customers. They can purchase next year, not only as much as they have purchased this, but more; equal to the value of the addition which they have acquired, or a proportion of it. And thus what they consume becomes a source continually of increased reproduction, not only to them, but to the nation.t On the other hand, what is consumed but not replaced by something of a greater, or an equal value, is ultimately lost-and is, to that amount, a loss to the country. Whatever causes an increase of unproductive consumption therefore, causes a decrease of national wealth. And this evil attaches in a high degree and to an enormous extent, to the traffic in ardent spirit. If the property which the consumers pay were burnt, all would acknowledge it to be a total loss; though the merchant and the distiller and the grain grower might all have received their pay. But it would in that case be a loss vastly less than it is now. It is now not only an entire loss, but it diminishes, as we have seen, beyond almost any thing else the sources and the power of future reproduction. It is therefore not only a source of great present loss, but also a prevention of vast future gain. It diminishes in both ways, the wealth of the nation, and to an amount, equal, 1. To the whole sum which consumers pay for ardent spirit; estimated by those who are best acquainted with the subject at about $50,000,000 annually. 2. The loss of all the time which it occasions. 3. The diminished productiveness of land, labor and capital. 4. The loss of health and reason; and all the expenditures which it occasions. 5. The cost of supporting the paupers, and prosecuting the criminals occasioned by it. 6. The property lost in consequence of it by casualties on the land and on the ocean. 7. The shortening of human life and the consequent loss of human labor; amounting in all, as all acquainted with the subject admit, to a sum much greater than the cost of the liquor. Öne hundred million dollars a year is a sum far less than is lost to the United States by this destructive traffic. And yet this, and the diminution of future gain which it occasions, would in one generation amount to a sum greater than the present value of all the real estate in the country. And this loss, to a vast extent, is borne by those who are least able to bear it, the laboring classes of the community. It may not be amiss to advert for a moment to the beneficial uses to which this money might be applied; uses beneficial to the individuals, and to the nation. It would purchase 4,000,000 sheep at $2,50 each 400,000 head of cattle at $25 each 200,000 cows at$ 20 each 40,000 horses at $100 each 500,000 suit of men's clothes at $20 1,000,000 boys' do. at $10 500,000 womens' do. at $10 1,000,000 girls' do. at $3 1,200,000 barrels of flour at $5 800,000 do. beef at $10 800,000 do. pork at $12,50 3,000,000 bushels of corn 50 cts. 2,000,000 do. potatoes at 25 cts. 10,000,000 lbs. sugar at 10 cts. 400,000 do. rice at 5 cts. $10,000,000 10,000,000 4,000,000 4,000,000 10,000,000 10,000,000 5,000,000 3,000,000 6,000,000 8,000,000 10,000,000 and 2,000,000 gallons of molasses at 40 cts. a gallon It would also build, 1000 churches at $5,000 each support 2000 ministers of the gospel, at $500 each build 8,000 school houses, at $500 furnish 500,000 newspapers at $200 and establish 5,000 parish libraries at $600 each, 4,000,000 1,000,000 3,000,000 -and all in a single year. This might be repeated, year after year, making in one generation of thirty years, thirty times the above amount. Who then in our land need to be poor, or wretched? And what |