There is a Tradition that in the Planting of New England, the first Settlers met with many Difficulties and Hardships, as is generally the Case when a civiliz’d People attempt establishing themselves in a wilderness Country. Being so piously dispos’d, they sought Relief from Heaven by laying their Wants and Distresses before the Lord in frequent set Days of Fasting and Prayer. Constant Meditation and Discourse on these Subjects, kept their Minds gloomy and discontented, and like the Children of Israel there were many dispos’d to return to the Egypt which Persecution had induc’d them to abandon. At length, when it was proposed in the Assembly to proclaim another Fast, a Farmer of plain Sense rose and remark’d, that the Inconveniencies they suffer’d, and concerning which they had so often weary’d Heaven with their Complaints, were not so great as they might have expected, and were diminishing every day as the Colony strengthen’d; that the Earth began to reward their Labour and furnish liberally for their Subsistence that their Seas and Rivers were full of Fish, the Air sweet, the Climate healthy, and above all, that they were there in the full Enjoyment of Liberty civil and religious. He therefore thought that reflecting and conversing on these Subjects would be more comfortable as leading more to make them contented with their Situation; and that it would be more becoming the Gratitude they ow’d to the divine Being, if instead of a Fast they should proclaim a Thanksgiving. His Advice was taken, and from that day to this, they have in every Year observ’d Circumstances of public Felicity sufficient to furnish Employment for a Thanksgiving Day, which is therefore constantly ordered and religiously observed.

I see in the Public Papers of different States, frequent Complaints of hard times, deadness of Trade, Scarcity of Money, &c. &c. It is not my Intention to assert or maintain that these Complaints are intirely without Foundation. There can be no Country or Nation existing in which there will not be some People so circumstanc’d as to find it hard to gain a Livelihood, People who are not in the way of any profitable Trade, and with whom Money is scarce because they have nothing to give in Exchange for it. And it is always in the Power of a small Number to make a great Clamour. But let us take a cool View of the general State of our Affairs, and perhaps the Prospect will appear less gloomy than has been imagined.

The great Business of the Continent is Agriculture. For one Artisan or Merchant I suppose we have at least 100 Farmers, by far the greatest Part Cultivators of their own fertile Lands, from whence many of them draw not only the Food necessary for their Subsistance, but the Materials of their Clothing, so as to have little occasion for foreign Supplies, while they have a Surplus of Production to dispose of, whereby Wealth is gradually accumulated. Such has been the Goodness of divine Providence to these Regions, and so favourable the Climate, that since the three of four Years of Hardship in the first Settlement of our Fathers here, a Famine or Scarcity has never been heard of among us; on the contrary, tho’ some Years may have been more, and others less plentiful, there has always been Provision enough for our selves, and a Quantity to spare for Exportation. And altho’ the Crops of last Year were generally good never was the Farmer better paid for the Part he can spare to Commerce, as the published Price Currents abundantly testify. The Lands he possesses are also continually rising in Value with the Increase of Population. And on the whole he is enabled to give such good Wages to those who work for him, that all who are acquainted with the old World must agree, that in no Part of it are the labouring Poor so well fed, so well cloth’d, well lodg’d and well paid as in the United States of America.

If we enter the Cities, we find that since the Revolution the Owners of Houses and Lots of Ground have had their Interest vastly augmented in Value; Rents have risen to an astonishing Hieght, and thence Encouragement to encrease Building which gives Employment to an abundance of Workmen, as does also the encreas’d Luxury and Splendor of Living of the Inhabitants thus made richer. These Workmen all demand and obtain much higher Wages than any other Part of the World would afford them, and are paid in ready Money. This Rank of People therefore do not, or ought not to compalin of Hard Times, and they make a very considerable Part of the City Inhabitants.

At the Distance I live from our American Fisheries I cannot speak of them with any Certainty; but I have not heard that the Labour of the valuable Race of Men employ’d in them is worse paid or that they meet with less Success than before the Revolution. The Whalemen indeed have been depriv’d of one Market for their Oil, but another I hear is opening for them, which it is hoped may be equally advantageous. And the Demand is constantly increasing for their spermaceti Candles, which therefore bear a much higher Price than formerly.

There remain the Merchants and Shopkeepers. Of these, tho’ they make but a small Part of the whole Nation, the Number is considerable; too great indeed for the Business they are employ’d in. For the Consumption of Goods in every Country has it Limits. The Faculties of the People, that is their Ability to buy and pay, is equal only to a certain Quantity of Merchandize. If Merchants calculate amiss on this Proportion, and import too much, they will of course find the Sale dull for the Overplus, and some of them will say that Trade languishes. They should and doubtless will, grow wiser by Experience, and import less. If too many Artificers in Town, and Farmers from the Country, flattering themselves with the Idea of leading easier Lives, turn Shopkeepers, the whole natural Quantity of Business divided among them all, may afford too small a Share for each, and occasion Complaints that Trading is dead; these may also suppose that it is owing to Scarcity of Money while in fact, it is not so much from the Fewness of Buyers as from the excessive Number of Sellers, that the Mischief arises; and if every Shopkeeping Farmer and Mechanic would return to the Use of his Plough and working Tools, there would remain of Widows and other Women Shopkeepers sufficient for that Business, which might then afford them a comfortable Maintenance.

Whoever has travelled thro’ the various Parts of Europe, and observed how small is the Proportion of People in Affluence or easy Circumstances there, compar’d with those in Poverty and Misery; the few rich and haughty Landlords, the multitude of poor, abject and rack’d Tenants, and the half-paid and half starv’d ragged Labourers; and views here the happy Mediocrity that so generally prevails throughout these States, where the Cultivator works for himself, and supports his Family in decent Plenty, will, methinks, see abundant Reason to bless divine Providence for the evident and great Difference in our Favour, and be convinc’d that no Nation that is known to us enjoys a greater Share of human Felicity.

It is true that in some of our States there are Parties, and Discords; but let us look back and ask if we were ever without them? Such will exist wherever there is Liberty; and perhaps they help to preserve it. By the Collision of different Sentiments, Sparks of Truth are struck out, and political Light is obtained. The different Factions which at present divide us, aim all at the Publick Good; the Differences are only about the various Modes of promoting it. Things, Actions, Measure and Objects of all kinds, present themselves to the Minds of Men in such a Variety of Lights, that it is not possible we should all think alike at the same time on every Subject, when hardly the same Man retains at all times the same Idea of it. Parties are therefore the common Lot of Humanity, and ours are by no means more mischievous or less beneficial than those of other Countries, Nations and Ages, enjoying in the same Degree the great Blessing of Political Liberty.

Some indeed among us, are not so much griev’d for the present State of our Affairs, as apprehensive for the future. The Growth of Luxury alarms them, and they think we are from that alone in the high Road to Ruin. They observe that no Revenue is sufficient without Economy, and that the most plentiful Income of a whole People from natural Productions of their Country, may be dissipated in vain and needless Expences, and Poverty be introduc’d in the Place of Affluence. This may be possible; it however rarely happens, for there seems to be in every Nation a greater Proportion of Industry and Frugality which tend to enrich, than of Idleness and Prodigality, which occasion Poverty, so that upon the whole there is a continual Accumulation. Reflect what Spain, Gaul, Germany and Britain were in the Time of the Romans, inhabited by People little richer than our Savages, and consider the Wealth they at present possess, in numerous well built Cities, improv’d Farms, rich Moveables, Magazines stor’d with valuable Manufactures, to say nothing of Plate, Jewels and ready Money; all this notwithstanding their bad, wasteful plundering Governments, and their mad destructive Wars; and yet Luxury and Extravagant Living has never suffer’d much Restraint in those Countries. Then consider the great Proportion of industrious frugal Farmers inhabiting the interior Part of these American States, and of whom the Body of our Nation consists; and judge whether it is probable the Luxury of our Seaports, can be sufficient to ruin such a Country. If the Importation of foreign Luxuries could ruin a People we should probably have been ruin’d long ago: For the British Nation claim’d a Right and practis’d it, of importing among us, not only the Superfluities of their own Production, but those of every Nation under Heaven; we bought and consum’d them, and yet we flourish’d and grew rich. At present our independent Governments may do what we could not then do, discourage by heavy Duties or prevent by Prohibitions such Importations, and thereby grow richer; if indeed, which may admit of Dispute, the Desire of adorning ourselves with fine Cloaths, possessing fine Furniture with good Houses, &c. is not, by strongly inciting to Labour and Industry, the Occasion of producing a greater Value than is consum’d in the Gratification of that Desire.

The Agriculture and Fisheries of the United States are the great Sources of our encreasing Wealth. He that puts a Seed into the Earth is recompenc’d perhaps by receiving twenty out of it; and he who draws a Fish out of our Waters draws up a Piece of Silver. Let us, (and there is no doubt but we shall) be attentive to these, and then the Power of Rivals with all their restraining and prohibiting Acts, cannot hurt us. We are Sons of the Earth and Seas, and like Anteus, if in wrestling with Hercules we now and then receive a Fall, the Touch of our Parents will communicate to us fresh Strength and Ability to renew the Contest.