Page:The American Democrat, James Fenimore Cooper, 1838.djvu/176

170 pocket of the consumer, and the factor is amply paid for his services in his profits.

All legislation affecting the currency, commerce and banking, in a country like this, ought to be limited, as far as circumstances will allow, to general and simple provisions, the nature of the institutions forbidding the interference that is elsewhere practised with advantage. A familiar example will show our meaning. In all commercial communities there is a commercial mart, or a capital, where exchanges are effected, cargoes disposed of in gross, and where all the great interests of trade concentrate, as the blood flows to and from the heart. In identified governments, like that of England, for instance, legislation may respect this natural tendency to concentration in commerce, and enact laws for its especial benefit and protection. Thus an English law may have an especial relation to the interests of London, as the mart that regulates the entire currency of the kingdom. But, on the other hand, in a government like that of America, there is a principle of diffusion, which requires that the legislation should be general in its application. New York and New Orleans, for instance, regulate the currency and exchanges of the whole country; but congress cannot pass a law to aid these legitimate efforts of trade, since any legislation that should favor New York at the expense of Philadelphia, in appearances even, would be opposed to the controlling principle of the compact. It follows, that the interference of the government with all such questions, in this country, should be unfrequent and cautious, since it possesses a power to injure, with very little power to benefit.

The real merchant is a man of a high pursuit, and has need of great general knowledge, much firmness of character, and of far-sighted views, to succeed in his objects. He is a principal agent in extending