drama--a drama in which, I trust, America will so act its part, that in
the catastrophe justice and freedom shall triumph, violence and
oppression shall fall.

In my many speeches I have dwelt largely on the necessity that there is
for America to act this part. I have not concealed that I am informed
that many gentlemen of commerce are timid concerning it, and I have
ventured to warn this young but great republic against _materialism_.
But commerce involves this danger only when it is bent on
instant profit at any price, and cares nothing for the future,
nothing about that solidity of commercial relations on which permanent
prosperity depends. Adventurous _money-hunting_ is not commerce.
Commerce, republican commerce, raised single cities to the position of
mighty powers on earth, and maintained them there for centuries. It is
merchants whose names shine with immortal lustre from the glorious book
of Venice and Genoa. Commerce, as I understand it, does indeed apply its
finger to the pulsations of present conjunctures, but not the less fixes
its eye steadily on the future. Its heart warms with noble patriotism
and philanthropy, connecting individual profit with the development of
natural resources and of national welfare; so that it spreads over the
multitudes like a dew of Heaven upon the earth, which blossoms through
it with the flower of prosperity. _Such_ a commercial spirit is a
rich source of national happiness;--a guarantee of a country's future, a
pillar of its power, a vehicle of civilization and convoyer of its
principles.

Let me exemplify the difference between that noble beneficent spirit of
commerce and the merely material money hunting, which falsely usurps the
name of commerce.

Since the fatal arithmetical skill of Rothschilds has found out how to
gain millions by negotiating, out of the pockets of the public, loan
after loan for the despots, to oppress the blind-folded nations, a sort
of speculation has gained ground in the Old World, worthy of the
execration of humanity--I mean the speculation in _loan
shares_;--the paper commerce called stock-jobbing. It is the
shame-brand upon our century's brow, that such a commerce is become a
political power on earth; and unscrupulous gamesters, speculating upon
the ruin of their neighbours, hold the political thermometer of peace
and war in their criminal hands. But it is not commerce--it deserves not
the name of commerce--it does not contribute to public wel