fare--it does
not augment the elements of public prosperity--it is but immoral
GAMBLING, which transfers an unproductive imaginary wealth from one hand
into another, without augmenting the stock of national property:--that
is not commerce: and _it is a degradation of the character of a
nation, when the interests of that speculation have the slightest
influence, or are made of the slightest consideration in the regulation
of a country's policy_. Such an example has its full weight with
every other kind of mere money-hunting. It would be the greatest fault
to regulate a country's policy according to the momentary interests of
worshippers of the almighty dollar, who look but for a momentary profit,
not caring for their fatherland and humanity--nothing for the
principles--nothing about the tears and execration of millions, if only
that condition remains intact which gives them individual profit--though
that condition be the misfortune of a world. Wherever that class of
money-hunters is influential, there is a disease in the constitution of
the community. It is vain to complain against the dangerous doctrines of
socialism, so long as such money-hunters have any influence upon
politics. The genus of Rothschilds has done more for the spread of
socialism than its most passionate sectarians.

Take on the other side the contrasting fact of the Erie Canal. I
remember well that some were terrified, when in the councils of the
Empire State first was started the idea of that gigantic enterprise. And
now when we hear that its nett proceeds amount to about three millions
of dollars a year--when we see the almost unbroken line of boats on
it--when we see Buffalo becoming the heart of the West, the pulsation of
which conveys the warm tide of life to the East; and by the
communication of that artery, bringing the wonderful combination of the
great western lakes into immediate connection with the Atlantic, and
through the Atlantic with the Old World--when we see Buffalo, though at
four hundred miles distance from the ocean, without a navigable river,
living, acting, and operating like a seaport; and New York, situated on
the shores of the Atlantic, acting as if it were the metropolis of the
West--when we consider how commerce becomes a magic wand, and transforms
a world of wilderness into a garden of prosperity, and spreads the
blessing of civilization where some years ago only the wild beasts and
the Indian roamed--then indeed we bow with