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357 Gouverneur Morris Papers, Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Columbia University , item 850. 26 • Oration on the Love of Wealth (1805) This essay and the ones that follow all date from 1805 and seem to have been designed as school exercises. On the last page, Morris has endorsed this manuscript: “Oration on the Love of Wealth. June 1805, for young Fleming. The Subject had been anticipated by a Senior Student.” •• Of all the Passions or Propensities of the human Heart, none has been the Subject of more frequent or more severe Satire than the Love of Wealth; and none has exercised such constant and universal Dominion. Must the Bolts of Genius be hurled again at the Head of Avarice; or shall youth be permitted to burn a transitory Grain of Incense before the Idol of Age? When we behold those Scenes of Dissipation which decorate every Circle of our festive Land, Scenes where the wrinkled Brow of Oeconomy is alike the Object of Scorn and Derision, we cannot but acknowlege there is no Need to declaim against a Passion devoted to general Contempt. But when we hear of the sly Usurer who turning a sanctimonious Eye to Heaven filches, with impious Hand, the monthly Impost of five per Cent which he has laid on the Necessities of unfortunate Men the revolted Soul can find no Terms to vent her Indignation. Such are the variant Sentiments imprest on the Heart by those Events which rise to View in every populous Town. Extreme in all Things, Fools neither seek nor find that golden Mean where Wisdom and Virtue hold their awful State. But who shall arrogate to himself the Praise of living under their holy Sway; or who presume to publish their sublime Decrees? Without pretending to a Claim, which would be imprudent in the Wariest, and in persons of our Age compleatly ridiculous, let me (tho timid) dare to examine whether this general Passion be essentially vicious. To dwell on my Subject in the Abstract and enquire whether Man, in his primeval State, was stimulated by a Love of Wealth; or whether it befel him 358 chaPtEr 26 (with other Mishaps) from the Indulgence of impious Curiosity, might involve us in a theological Maze as intricate as the questions of Freewill and Predestination. Let us therefore leave theological as well as metaphisical & political Science to those numerous and sage Professors who will doubtless enlighten the World whenever they shall have been so fortunate as to understand themselves. Let us keep a firm Footing in Fact, while the Land of Conjecture is surveyed patented parcelled out and retailed by the System Mongers of the World. That fairy Land which abounds in delightful Views and has never repaid the Expence of Tillage. It may be well at the Outset to enquire in what does the Love of Wealth consist, or of what is it constituted. Among the Poor it is inseparably blended with a Love of Existence; for he who has nothing craves, and justly too, the Necessaries of Life. One Grade higher Men seek for those Conveniences and those thousand little Things which enter into the complex Idea of Comfort. If we pass on we come to that Station in which a Love of Wealth is confounded with a Love of Independence, and we cannot wholly quit the Votaries of Independence before we are surrounded by those who court Distinction and only toil for Riches because they court Respect. Should we rise a little more we shall find ardent Spirits who grasp at Gold as the Means of Power; and one Step further leads us again into the cold Abode of Penury where, our Circle compleated, we behold a palefaced Victim who submits to starve because he wants Courage to spend. Which of all these shall we stigmatize for the Love of Wealth? Shall it be the Wretch whose daily Labor is required to earn his daily Bread, or him who seeks Comfort for the Wife of his Bosom and Children of his Bed that he may enjoy the Smile of domestic Felicity? Every Countenance tells me that to this Question the Heart says No.Well, then, shall we brand him who struggles to rise above a State of Dependence that he may display the natural Bent of his Disposition, or him whose chief Pleasure is derived from the Consideration and applause of his Fellow-Men? There is an honest Pride which pleads in Favor of the one, and a Consciousness of...

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