being 83,000 tons of dew-rotted hemp, and about 4000 tons waterrotted.

Cotton, the great staple of the Union, is chiefly a product of the South. It is the produce of the herbaceous or annual cotton plant, and is of two kinds - the Sea Island or long staple, and the upland or short staple. The former, which is of superior quality, is grown chiefly in the Carolinas and Georgia, on the Atlantic, and in some parts of the State of Texas. Cotton was first planted in the United States in or about 1787, and was first exported in small quantities in 1790. Since then its culture has become enormous, and the rapidity with which it has been developed is truly wonderful. In the beginning of the present century, the annual exportation was less than 5000 bales, in 1859 it had increased to 5,196,944 bales, of 400 pounds each. The whole crop is the product of thirteen States, but is chiefly obtained from eight of them. Immense as is the quantity produced, the demand is equal to the supply. The civil war has led to a temporary cessation of the trade, which, now that peace is restored, will doubtless speedily regain its activity. Prior to the production of cotton in such vast quantities in the more Southern States, it was extensively cultivated for domestic purposes in North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, and Southern Illinois; and it is not improbable that its cultivation may be re-established in some of these States, with profit to the producer and advantage to the consumer. The number of plantations in which upwards of five bales were produced was, in the year 1859, 74,031.

The dairy products of the United States are large. Considerable quantities are shipped yearly to Great Britain. The quantity of butter produced in the year 1859-60 was set down at 460,509,854 pounds; and the production of cheese reached 105,875,135 pounds.

Although large quantities of sugar and molasses are imported into the United States, the product of cane sugar in 1859 was 302,205 hogsheads; and of molasses 16,337,080 gallons - Louisiana being the State where the great bulk of American sugar is produced. A large quantity of sugar is obtained from several species of the maple tree, that yielding the richest juice being the rock or sugar maple. The manufacture is said to have originated in New England in 1752, and extended from thence into the North-Eastern States, where the tree principally abounds. It is found in beautiful groves, called sugar orchards; and in the months of February and March, when the days grow warm and the nights are frosty, the trees are bored with augurs about two feet from the ground, and from the holes thus made the

sap exudes, and is collected in wooden troughs, and boiled on the spot. The quantity of maple sugar made in 1859 was 302,205 hogs-heads.

Sorghum, a species of grass, commonly known as Indian millet, produces a saccharine juice, which in 1856 began to attract attention. In 1859, less than four years from its introduction, the plant had become a most important agricultural staple. It thrives wherever Indian corn will grow. It may be cultivated in the same manner. When fully grown, it is from 6 to 18 feet high; the stalks of 1 to 2 inches diameter. The stalks yield on an average about 50 per cent. of their weight in juice, or, to the acre, from 150 to 400 gallons, and about 12 per cent. of sugar. Excellent rum is made from the seeds.

In the production of tobacco, every State and Territory has a share, the principal coming from Virginia, Kentucky, and Maryland, where it has been the staple since their first settlement; and it is also extensively grown in Kentucky, Ohio, Missouri, and other States. Besides the quantities required for domestic use, large amounts are exported. Several of the Northern States are showing a considerable increase in the growth of this staple. In 1859, the total produce was 429,390,771 pounds. There are upwards of 15,745 plantations on which 3000 pounds or more are raised.

The hay crop of 1859 was 19,129,128 tons. This crop is mainly confined to the Northern States. In the Southern States, the weather is so mild as to allow cattle to graze during the greater portion of the year, rendering a hay harvest less necessary. The estimated value of the above crop is upwards of $150,000,000.

Rice was first cultivated in South Carolina in 1694, and four years afterwards, 60 tons were shipped to England. Since that time, it has been so successsfully culivated, that in 1860 it reached 190 millions of pounds. South Carolina and Georgia are the principal producers out of the sixteen States in which it is grown. A large amount is exported.

Hops are principally cultivated in New York, though every State and Territory, with the exception of Florida, New Mexico, and Dacotah, contributed to the crop of 1860, which amounted to upwards of 10 millions of pounds.

Potatoes are raised in every part of the Union, the Irish potato principally in the Northern, and the sweet potato chiefly in the Southern section. The yield for 1860 was upwards of 110 millions of bushels of the former, and 35 millions of the former [latter?]

The last returns upon the subject of wine making show a large increase in an article which promises to become one of great com

mercial value. The wine culture has increased in a number of States, but more particularly in Ohio, California, and Kentucky. These three States made nearly one million of the 1,860,008 gallons reported in 1860.

The orchard products of the United States consist principally of apples and pears, of which the value in 1860 was nearly 20 millions of dollars, showing an increase in ten years of about 12 millions of dollars; an increase owing to the great attention which has been paid to the introduction and cultivation of improved varieties of fruit, and the processes of preservation by artificial means, which now employ a large amount of capital.

The number of acres devoted to the different crops in 1860 were hay and pasturage, 33,000,000; Indian corn, 31,000,000; wheat, 11,000,000; oats, 7,500,000; cotton, 5,000,000; rye, 1,200,000; peas and beans, 1,000,000; Irish potatoes, 1,000,000; sweet potatoes, 750,000; buck-wheat, 600,000; tobacco, 400,000; sugar, 400,000; barley, 300,000; rice, 175,000; hemp, 110,000; flax, 100,000; orchards, 500,000; gardens, 500,000; vineyards, 250,000; miscellaneous, 1,000,000.

The largest average crop per acre of wheat, was in Massachusetts, 16 bushels; the smallest, in Georgia, 5 bushels. Of rye, largest, Ohio, 25 bushels; smallest, Virginia, 5 bushels. Of Indian corn, largest, Connecticut, 40 bushels; smallest, South Carolina, 11 bushels. Of oats, largest, Iowa, 36 bushels; smallest, North Carolina, 10 bushels. Of rice, Florida, 1850 lbs., South Carolina, 1750 lbs., Louisiana, 1400 lbs. Of tobacco, largest, Missouri, 775 lbs.; of seed cotton, largest, Texas, 750 lbs.; of Irish potatoes, largest, Texas, 250 bushels; smallest, Alabama, 60 bushels; of sweet potatoes, largest, Georgia, 400 bushels.

The value of the live stock and domestic animals forms an important item in the statistics of the country. A most satisfactory increase in the number and varieties is shown by the last returns. The total value of the live stock was, in 1860, $1,107,490,216. The horses numbered 6,115,458; asses and mules, 1,129,553; working oxen, 2,240,075; milch cows, 8,728,862; other cattle, 14,671,400; swine, 32,555,367. The number of sheep returned in the last census of 1860 was 23,317,756, and the amount of wool 60,511,343 lbs. In addition to the number of sheep just given, it was reported that about 1,505,810 were not included in the returns, being owned by other than farmers. The total increase of sheep in ten years was 1,594,536.

CHAPTER XV

CURRENCY, BANKING, AND STATE DEBTS, 1791-1860

I. THE FIRST UNITED STATES BANK

A. Hamilton's Views on the Bank, 17901

Among Alexander Hamilton's plans for placing the new government on a sound financial basis, none was more important than the one which had for its end the establishment of a United States Bank. Accordingly, in 1790, he submitted to Congress a plan for such a bank, and gave his reasons for his act as follows:

The establishment of banks in this country seems to be recommended by reasons of a peculiar nature. Previously to the Revolution, circulation was in a great measure carried on by paper emitted by the several local governments. In Pennsylvania alone, the quantity of it was near a million and a half of dollars. This auxiliary may be said to be now at an end. And it is generally supposed that there has been, for some time past, a deficiency of circulating medium. How far that deficiency is to be considered as real or imaginary, is not susceptible of demonstration; but there are circumstances and appearances, which, in relation to the country at large, countenance the supposition of its reality.

The circumstances are, besides the fact just mentioned respecting paper emissions, the vast tracts of waste land, and the little advanced states of manufactures. The progressive settlement of the former, while it promises ample retribution, in the generation of future resources, diminishes or obstructs, in the mean time, the active wealth of the country. It not only draws off a part of the circulating money, and places it in a more passive state, but it diverts, into its own channels, a portion of that species of labor and industry which would otherwise be employed in furnishing materials for foreign trade, and which, by contributing to a favorable balance, would assist the introduction of specie. In the early periods of new settlements, the settlers not

1 Legislative and Documentary History of the Bank of the United States, etc. (Washington, 1832), 23-5, 28-9.

only furnish no surplus for exportation, but they consume a part of that which is produced by the labor of others. The same thing is a cause that manufactures do not advance, or advance slowly. And, notwithstanding some hypotheses to the contrary, there are many things to induce a suspicion, that the precious metals will not abound in any country which has not mines, or variety of manufactures. They have been sometimes acquired by the sword; but the modern system of war has expelled this resource, and it is one upon which it is to be hoped the United States will never be inclined to rely.

The appearances alluded to are, greater prevalency of direct barter in the more interior districts of the country which, however, has been for some time past gradually lessening, and greater difficulty, generally, in the advantageous alienation of improved real estate, which, also, has of late diminished, but is still seriously felt in different parts of the Union. The difficulty of getting money, which has been a general complaint, is not added to the number, because it is the complaint of all times, and one in which imagination must ever have too great scope to permit an appeal to it.

If the supposition of such a deficiency be in any degree founded, and some aid to circulation be desirable, it remains to inquire what ought to be the nature of that aid.

The emitting of paper money by the authority of Government is wisely prohibited to the individual States by the national constitution, and the spirit of that prohibition ought not to be disregarded by the Government of the United States. Though paper emissions, under a general authority, might have some advantages not applicable, and be free from some disadvantages which are applicable to the like emissions by the States, separately, yet they are of a nature so liable to abuse - and, it may even be affirmed, so certain of being abused - that the wisdom of the Government will be shown, in never trusting itself with the use of so seducing and dangerous an expedient. In times of tranquillity, it might have no ill consequence; it might even perhaps be managed in a way to be productive of good; but, in great and trying emergencies, there is almost a moral certainty of its becoming mischievous. The stamping of paper is an operation so much easier than the laying of taxes, that a government in the practice of paper emissions, would rarely fail, in any such emergency, to indulge itself too far in the employment of that resource, to avoid as much as possible one less auspicious to present popularity. If it should not even be carried so far as to be rendered an absolute bubble, it would at least be likely to be extended to a degree which would occa