CHAP. XI.

OUTRAGES OF WORKMEN.

or miners in the space of four years.

239

"When

66

criminals are arrested," said a local record," no

The case was related of a

He was shot by her fifty persons were obtained." It is

are revealed, that

testimony can be had. man walking out with his wife. side, and, although as many as standing by, no proof could be generally said, when such crimes the perpetrators are foreigners. But this is surely no proof that the perfection of government is found in the United States. It only shows that, whatever may be the defects of the English form of government, it is not to them that the discontent of the labouring classes can be traced, since that class is just as discontented in America where there is nothing to complain of, and adopts precisely the same method of making its discontent known and felt. If it be political oppression which gives rise to the alleged wrongs and sufferings of the working man in England, he ought to be relieved from them directly he takes up his abode in a land where there is no political oppression, except such as his own class originates. But this is the very class, according to Americans, which commits all the outrages, and causes all the disturbances, in their country; and thus they afford involuntary proof that their "free institutions" have nothing to do with the success of the government, but that it is due to the superfluity of land, and the immense natural resources of the

9 New York Tribune,' letter dated, "Pottsville, April 14th, 1867."

Republic. The relations between capital and labour can probably never be better dealt with than when they are left to regulate themselves, without the interference of the Legislature. One side or other is sure to be dissatisfied with the mediator, if he is armed with the power of enforcing his decision. It may be said with truth that in America nothing has yet been done towards settling the great social problem which has embarrassed older communities for generations past. There conditions exist which ought to ensure, if anything could, a perfect understanding and entire harmony between employer and employed-a boundless market, land to be bad almost for the asking, abundance of room for all. Yet even in a country so blessed we find most of the melancholy antagonisms and feuds of the Old World faithfully reproduced. Is it any wonder that perfection is not attained in a land where neither of the advantages just enumerated can be enjoyed, where labour and capital are encumbered by a thousand difficulties which cannot be experienced across the Atlantic in the present century? A large pauper population and an overburdened market, almost every trade so crowded with competitors that a low rate of wages is a natural consequence, these are the disadvantages under which an old community labours. Many earnest men of America still hope to satisfy the expectations of the emigrants who flock to their shores from all parts of the world by gradually bringing into general custom the plan of co-operative

CHAP. XI.

HOPES OF THE PEOPLE.

241

workshops and association. Several establishments based on this principle have already been tried in the West. In New York the experiment has failed. But the scheme is still regarded with confidence, and the idea of the "progressive" party is that there shall be no more hired labourers in the country, but that men shall work for a share of profits instead of for wages.10 These aims can be accomplished in the United States, if anywhere. Almost any experiment can be attempted there with safety. But the good is all to be achieved in the future, for at present the working man, without capital to assist him, is scarcely any better off in America than he is in England, and a skilled workmen is not often so well off. He is taxed as heavily as in England, if the price he is compelled to pay for clothing be taken into account, and his wages are only nominally higher. The dollar in these days is not more than the equivalent of the English shilling. The addition of that modern specific for all human troubles, the "vote," is not always sufficient to compensate the workman for the inconvenience of uprooting his old associations, and for the expense of settling his family in a strange land.

10 See the North American Review,' for July, 1867.

R

CHAPTER XII.

PROSPECTS OF THE UNION.

1

WE have seen that at every stage in the history of the Union a large proportion of the people have been profoundly dissatisfied with the government, and that even the founders of the Constitution seriously questioned its stability. In three States only was the Constitution adopted unanimously, and in other States there was scarcely a sufficient majority to carry the measure. The Convention in which the instrument was drawn up several times nearly separated without coming to any agreement. Washington admitted that the contest had been one, not so much for glory, as for existence. John Quincy Adams spoke of the Constitution as a compact "extorted from the grinding necessity of a reluctant nation." It had no sooner been ratified than it brought into existence two great parties, which have ever since, under various names, been at issue concerning the construction of its fundamental provisions. The interests of the States were incompatible, and their bitter dissensions have deepened with

2

1 Story, chapter ii. p. 191.

2 Sixth President.

CHAP. XII. EARLY APPREHENSIONS FOR THE UNION.

243

each successive generation. In a very remarkable letter from Jefferson to the ex-President Martin Van Buren, he says-"General Washington was himself sincerely a friend to the republican principles of our Constitution. His faith, perhaps, in its duration might not have been as confident as mine; but he repeatedly declared to me that he was determined it should have a fair chance of success." Hamilton, it is well known, thought that the government could not last; and men like Otis, Hopkins, John Adams, and Gouverneur Morris-all of whom had an important share in defining the Constitution-fully agreed with him. Two years before Hamilton's death— namely, in 1802—he wrote a letter to Gouverneur Morris, in which he spoke of himself as "still labouring to prop the frail and worthless fabric."4 more than one great American it has been held that the founders of the Constitution intended to provide the means for bringing the government to a peaceable end, by the failure of choice of electors." Others anticipated dismemberment from the increasing area of the Union, and from the impossibility of establishing a complete identity of feeling or interests. With the growth and prosperity of the country,

By

3 Written 29th June, 1824, and first published in 1867. See 'Political Parties,' by Martin Van Buren (New York, 1867). Appendix, p. 434.

5 Ibid. p. 48, and supra, p. 58.

• Ibid. p. 84. 6 "This country, fully peopled or half-peopled, is large enough to make five or six great nations, each with its system of central and local government. The time will come when it will be so divided,