In my many speeches I have dwelt largely on the necessity that there is for America to act this part.  I have not concealed that I am informed that many gentlemen of commerce are timid concerning it, and I have ventured to warn this young but great republic against materialism.  But commerce involves this danger only when it is bent on instant profit at any price, and cares nothing for the future, nothing about that solidity of commercial relations on which permanent prosperity depends.  Adventurous money-hunting is not commerce.  Commerce, republican commerce, raised single cities to the position of mighty powers on earth, and maintained them there for centuries.  It is merchants whose names shine with immortal lustre from the glorious book of Venice and Genoa.  Commerce, as I understand it, does indeed apply its finger to the pulsations of present conjunctures, but not the less fixes its eye steadily on the future.  Its heart warms with noble patriotism and philanthropy, connecting individual profit with the development of natural resources and of national welfare; so that it spreads over the multitudes like a dew of Heaven upon the earth, which blossoms through it with the flower of prosperity. Such a commercial spirit is a rich source of national happiness;—­a guarantee of a country’s future, a pillar of its power, a vehicle of civilization and convoyer of its principles.

Let me exemplify the difference between that noble beneficent spirit of commerce and the merely material money hunting, which falsely usurps the name of commerce.

Since the fatal arithmetical skill of Rothschilds has found out how to gain millions by negotiating, out of the pockets of the public, loan after loan for the despots, to oppress the blind-folded nations, a sort of speculation has gained ground in the Old World, worthy of the execration of humanity—­I mean the speculation in loan shares;—­the paper commerce called stock-jobbing.  It is the shame-brand upon our century’s brow, that such a commerce is become a political power on earth; and unscrupulous gamesters, speculating upon the ruin of their neighbours, hold the political thermometer of peace and war in their criminal hands.  But it is not commerce—­it deserves not the name of commerce—­it does not contribute to public welfare—­it does not augment the elements of public prosperity—­it is but immoral GAMBLING, which transfers an unproductive imaginary wealth from one hand into another, without augmenting the stock of national property:—­that is not commerce:  and it is a degradation of the character of a nation, when the interests of that speculation have the slightest influence, or are made of the slightest consideration in the regulation of a country’s policy.  Such an example has its full weight with every other kind of mere money-hunting.  It would be the greatest fault to regulate a country’s policy according to the momentary interests of worshippers of the almighty