Stitched
1844 · New York
by Greeley, Horace
New York: Greeley & McElrath, 1844. First edition. Stitched. Dampstained and foxed throughout, a few small corner chips; a good copy.. 16 pp. 8vo. An impassioned discussion by Greeley. "...the apparent individual advantage is often to be pursued by a course directly adverse to the general welfare. We know that Free Trade asserts the contrary of this, maintaining that if every man pursues that course which seems most conducive to his individual interest, the general good will thereby be most certainly and signally promoted. But to say nothing of the glaring exceptions to this law which crowd our Statute-books with injunctions and penalties, we are everywhere met with pointed contradictions of its assumption, which hallows and blesses the pursuits of the gambler, the distiller and the libertine, making the usurer a saint and the swindler a hero. Adam Smith himself admits that there are avocations which enrich the individual but impoverish the community." Sabin 28492n. (Inventory #: 27872)