By this time you know I am one of those hopelessly old fashioned persons\u00a0who feels concern about the national debt. know plenty of professiona I economists\u00a0tell us not to worry. We only owe the debt to ourselves, and besides\u00a0we are a fabuIous I yri ch country.\u00a0Without pretending to fathom the intricacies of the economic argument as\u00a0to whether a nation as well as an individual or a corporation can go bankrupt,\u00a0let u~.take a ~Iook (It. a. few~ undel’l!:a~;~~~!tt~ \u2022.. 1 n 1918 J”he l1C1tionaJ wealth.of\u00a0” <~ ” ” ” , – ,” ” ‘ -,,’ ~.<\/p>\n
The United States amounted to 215 bi I Jion. dollars. Our national debt was then\u00a0S2 bHllon-, or 38 per cent of the natlonalwea1th. By 1951 our wea fth had more\u00a0than quadrupled, rising to 968 biqlon, but the debt had increased more than\u00a0Sfold to 511 bllJ ion”.so that the percentage of our nai”lonafwealth absorbed\u00a0by debt, Instead of being 38 per cent” was now 53 per cent, more than one do I …\u00a0\u00b7l arl:f:F–everytwo.<\/p>\n
What do we mean by nat lona 1 wea Ith? . ,What composed that 968 b I II i on do 1-\u00a0.’arsi n 1951? The stafisticians, Jne lude eight items In the list \u2022 The largest\u00a0is homes, amo~nt f ngfu{’90 b iff i on do 1 ‘ars \u2022 Then Comes I an d at 160 billion;\u00a0other bu I J dings, .138 bill ion; mach I nes, factory equ i pment and ra I 1 roads, 110\u00a0bi II ion; and gold heic:t in the United states, together with assets abroadt 44\u00a0” ,{“j , , ‘ ~\u00a0hi 11 ion. That makes the sweet tota I of 968 b.i II fon. And we owe more than ha If\u00a0of it — more than balfof all our great nation’s tangible assets.<\/p>\n
Last week we left HezekiahPrince talking with George Craigie at his man.,.\u00a0sion on Brattle Street In old Cambridge. Now we must get Hezeklah on his way,\u00a0From Cambridge he rode straight through to Kingston, Rhode Is land, where\u00a0was his own paternal home. His father and mother In fact were both stili\u00a0I iving and very glad to see him. Like most members of the Prince fam; Iy, they\u00a0were healthy and long-lived, Hezekiah’s father living to the age of 8B.. <\/em>his\u00a0mother to 96.<\/p>\n Next Hezekiah visited his sister at Plympton. She had married a descendant\u00a0of Governor Bradford of Plymouth and was the mother of nine children.<\/p>\n Hezekiah next passed through Pawtucket, crossed the river to Providence,\u00a0and kept on to Plainfield, Conn., a ride of 34 mi les. When he left Plainfield\u00a0on December 4 it was snowing and drifting badly. He lost his way in the storm,\u00a0but finally reached Tracy’s Tavern, after journeying only 13 mi les.<\/p>\n Hezekiah certainly had a lot of relatives, for on the next day he stopped\u00a0with his brother Kimball in New London. He evidently had a good time there,\u00a0for he stayed six days. The two brothers visited Fort Grisworld which had been\u00a0captured by Benedict Arnold in 1782 and where he had brutally put to death the\u00a0surrendered garrison. Says the diary, HMany evidences sti II exist of the\u00a0traitor’s acts in the plunder and destruction of New London1′.<\/p>\n In riding from Norwich to New London~ Hezekiah passed through the little\u00a0Indian vi Ilage where dwelt literally the\/ast of the Mohicans, the tiny rem\u00b7nants\u00a0of a once powerful tribe. “They have”, said Hezekiah, “a neat little\u00a0wooden church, and their dwellings are much like those of our own Penobscot\u00a0tr i oe at Bangor. The i r famous ch ief Uncas died about 1690. His rema ins are\u00a0buried in a I ittle roadside graveyard in Norwjch.l~<\/p>\n By December 12 Hezekiah had reached New Haven which he calfs ;;a thriving,\u00a0n j ce-Iook j ng p I ace, with beauti fu I shade trees and gardens:t. The nearer he got\u00a0to New York, the better he found the roads. When he reached East Chester he\u00a0wrote: !II find the roads improving; made 43 mi les today quite easy; my horse\u00a0fres h and act i ve as whe n I first s ta rted:1 \u2022 The next day he te I I s us that he\u00a0crossed Kings Bridge, and by a smooth road along the North River travelled\u00a0down Bowery Lane. He learned that th i s route and Broadway were the two best\u00a0roads lead ing to the city of New York.<\/p>\n Hezekiah did not stop over night in New York. He had no relatives there\u00a0and didn’tlearn of any sights he considered worth going out of his way to\u00a0vi s it, His on Iy comments on the Ameri can metropo J is were as follows: r’At\u00a0Bowery Vi Ilage I ca I led at a tavern and drank a tankard of good 01 d Dutch ale.<\/p>\n Some of the 0 I d wall s of the Stuyvesant mans i on house, whi ch was burned by\u00a0the British, are sti II standing,also the old pear tree planted by the governor.<\/p>\n The houses of Bowery Lane are small, with porches in front, the street lined\u00a0with trees gl istening with the scarlet autumn leaves, and between them gl impses\u00a0of the East River with a swarm of boats,”<\/p>\n Not stopp i ng in New York, Hezeld ah pushed on to Paterson, New Je rsey,\u00a0where his brother Christopher lived. He had to cross two rivers by ferry on\u00a0the way, but he arrived at Paterson before dark. Although Hezeklah was only\u00a022 years old he already had a brother both old enough and wealthy enough to\u00a0retire frombu$iness. He tells us that Christopher: was a retired shipmaster\u00a0living on his income in Paterson.<\/p>\n A sight Hezekiah considered well worth recording were the factories at\u00a0Passaic Falls. llThese factories”, he says, “were a great curiosity to me. They\u00a0cost $500,000; employ five hundred men on Marshall ‘s machinery works. The\u00a0cotton factory is carried by one water wheel, working some seven thousand\u00a0spindles, cards, spins and weaves 200 pounds a day~ dropping about 50 rolls a\u00a0minute. The jennies spin 144 threads at once; the looms weave thirty yardS a\u00a0day. A II the mach i nery is so accurate I y adj usted that any part may be stopped\u00a0and started again without interfering with other parts.<\/p>\n At Princeton Hezekiah stopped a whi Ie to view the famous battle ground.\u00a0but he says not a word about someth i ng much more famous the re -“. the Co liege\u00a0of New Jersey, later to become the great Princeton University. He is surprised\u00a0to find many slaves in New Jersey, but notes that emancipation is strongly\u00a0advocated.<\/p>\n The next day Hezekiah crossed the Delaware River at almost exactly the\u00a0spot where Washington crossed it when he surprised the Hessians at Trenton.<\/p>\n The next day he rode into Phi ladelphia, saw the phi lanthropist, Stephen Girard,\u00a0and even more impressive persons. Let’s have it in his own words: “President\u00a0Washington and his cabinet were objects of my curiosity. I had seen\u00a0Washington when he was in Boston In 1789. He is now, as he was then, tal I ,:::u\u00a0<\/em>superb, slightly corpulent, but straight and dignified. His dress coat was\u00a0buttoned to his chin, and his buckskin breeches and top boots were a perfect\u00a0fit. Gen. Knox imitated him closely in dress. Knox recognized me and greeted\u00a0me cordially. I took a look at the members of Congress in their seats, visited\u00a0the museum, and the grave of Franklin, who died three years ago. Politics\u00a0is the all-absorbing theme herein Phi ladelphia. Gen. Knox introduced me to\u00a0Mr. Bi ngham, who has just purchased a mll fi on acres on the upper Kennebec. He\u00a0wished me to act as his agent in surveying and settl ing these lands, but I was\u00a0ob I i ged to dec I I ne .”<\/p>\n On December 24th Hezekiah left Phi1ade Iphia” crossed the Schuylki II River\u00a0on a floating bridge, and notes that he passed through pros.perous farming coun ….\u00a0try settled by Germans. He stayed the night at Christianier .. Delaware. \u00a0Now you have heard me say more than once that Chrsitmas was not regularly\u00a0observed in our country until about the time of the Civi I War. The diary of\u00a0Hezekiah Prince’s horseback journey bears me out. He records his doings and\u00a0the continuation of his Journey on December 25, 1793, but in it is not a single\u00a0mention that it is Christmas Day. He wrote: “I find quite a difference be …\u00a0tWeen the Eng I ish and the Dutch sett Jers here. The former are nervous and active,\u00a0always on the move. The Dutch are corpulent, less active, and Jook as~.\u00a0sleepy as their peaked roof yellow houses.”<\/p>\n On December 27 Hezeklah was in Baltimore, where he found the harbor .’f …\u00a0frozen over and navigation suspended. With many rich merchants 1 Baltimore had\u00a0-the only bank south of\u00b7 Phi ladelphia. We wonder if Hezeklah can be correct in\u00a0-that, when we consider such places as Williamsburg and Charleston, stlil\u00a0farther south.\u00a0On the 29th Hezek i ahwrote: ,tWe crossed the rope ferry and rode through\u00a0an almost interminable forest for 35 miles to Blandensburg where we put up;\u00a0scarcely any inhabitant along the whole route.”<\/p>\n How strange it seems to us to hear a description of the site of Washington,\u00a0written by a Maine man as he saw the p lace before there was any city\u00a0there at all. Remember he had only a few days before left the national capital\u00a0which in 1793 was Phi ladelphia, and there he had seen President Washington,\u00a0General Knox, other cabinet officers, and the whole Congress. Now on the thir~’\u00a0tieth of OecemberHezeki ah wrote: “We rode to the p I ace intended for the new\u00a0Federal City. It is yet nothing but a forest, with here and there long I jnes\u00a0of felled trees where the streets are to be, A few workmen’s shanties stand \u00a0cl ustered near the capitol bui Iding and the President’s house, neither of\u00a0which has reached above the foundation walls, and it is said $200,000 have already\u00a0been expended. It is a dismal place, swampy and wet. They intend to\u00a0ca J lit Wash i ngton.<\/p>\n Crossing the Potomac, Hezekiah proceeded to Alexandria and Colchester,\u00a0passing within two miJesof Washington’s home at ~1t. Vernon. From Colchester\u00a0Hezekiah says he went over miserable roads, through a miserable God-forsaken\u00a0region to Fredericksburg. From that place he rode along the banks of the\u00a0Rappahanock River and dined with a planter at Bowling Green. The planter was\u00a0both a slave owner and slave trader, having over a hundred Blacks on his place\u00a0when Hezekiatidlned \\.)l\\’f\/j\u00b7hhrl. Of the country he wri tes: “From A lexandria to\u00a0Fredericksburg the travelling was bad, the settlers unthrifty, the society in\u00a0a bad state. At Fredericksburg I noticed a change for the better. The soli is\u00a0more ferti Ie; splendid forests of white oak adorn both sides of the river.\u00a0Large fiel ds of tobacco appear, and all a long the road are negroes roll ing\u00a0barrels of tobacco to market.!l Though Hezeklah didn’t know it, this was of\u00a0course the famous Tobacco Road.\u00a0Our traveler passed next day the birthplace of Patrick Henry, and the old\u00a0tavern whe re the young Henry once tended bar.<\/p>\n From Hanover Court House to Ri chmond the corduroy road was so bad that\u00a0Hezekiah lost his way, and instead of travel ing only 16 mi les between the two\u00a0places he covered more than 40 mi les before he came Into the new Virginia capital.\u00a0It was new, because after more than a hundred years at Williamsburg,\u00a0the capital had been moved to Richmond only a few years before Hezekiah’s ar~\u00a0rival. Hezekiah was impressed by the new brick capitol bui Iding, with its\u00a0portico and studded with columns reaching to the eaves. Jefferson had procured\u00a0the plans in Europe, and there was nothing else like it in America.<\/p>\n What was Hezekiah doing way down in Virginia, so far from his New England\u00a0relatives? I told you the Princes were a w’f’dely dispersed fami Iy, and the\u00a0diary soon reveals that Hezekiah was seeking close relatives even down beyond\u00a0the Potomac. On January 3 the diary records: !1I have arrived at the end of\u00a0my long, but pleasant and instructive, journey of more than 1,200 mi les. Here,\u00a0not far from Manchester, lives my brother Noah, with his wife and two chi Idren.\u00a0He has 15 s laves, all I ightly worked, comfortably clothed and fed, and seeming.c..\u00a0Iy happy. Yet Noah is among those slaveholders who favor emancipation. The\u00a0example of The North in liberating their slaves is doing its work, and the rest\u00a0of the states. I am confi dent 1 wi II soon set the i r Negroes free.”<\/p>\n How Ii tt Ie Hezekiah knew what the future he Id in store. He could not possib\u00a0I y foresee the invention of the cotton gin. wh i ch wou I d change the whole\u00a0economy of the South, mak i n9 sl aves extreme I y va I uab Ie and so necessary in the\u00a0eyes of the southern planter~ that a bitter war must be fought to settle the\u00a0issue which, in 1793, Hezekiah Prince was sure he saw on the way to peaceful\u00a0so I ut ion.<\/p>\n Hezekiah didn’t think much of the poor whites with whom he came in con~\u00a0tact. Of them he writes: lIThe poor whites, or crackers as they are called,\u00a0are but I ittle in advance of the Negroes. They are descended from criminals,\u00a0imported and kidnapped laborers sent to America in early days. They are not\u00a0exact I y s I aves, but indentured se rvants. The I ash is app lied to them as free I y\u00a0as to the Negroes. When released, they usually become vagabonds. They are\u00a0lazy and shiftless, and are the legitimate progenitors of the tmean white\u00a0trash’, desp i sed even by the Negroes.”<\/p>\n Hezekiah didn’t think much of the famous southern hunting parties, although\u00a0he was the owner of a fast horse, was a capital horseman, and renowned at home\u00a0s a crack shot. He writes, and this is the last item in the diary: ffl joined\u00a0but few of their hunting parties; they cannot for a moment be compared with\u00a0such sports in the forests of~1aine.!!<\/p>\n Hezekiah had spent twenty-two days on that journey from Thomaston, Maine\u00a0to Ivlanchester, Virginia. On January 25, 1794, after a good, long visit with\u00a0Brother Noah, our Ma ine trave Iler sol d his horse and equ i pment, proceeded to\u00a0Ri chmond and took passage on the schooner Betsey for Fai rhaven, Massachusetts.<\/p>\n Arriving at that port near New Bedford on February 3. Hezekiah hired a horse\u00a0and gig and drove to his father’s homedn Kingston, Rhode Is land. There, with\u00a0his parents, he spent the rest of the winter. Not unti I Apri I 8 was he back\u00a0in Thomaston, more than four months after the start of his horseback journey,<\/p>\n Year: 1952<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Read the script for “Little Talks” program #156, broadcast on October 5, 1952<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":405,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[787,35296],"tags":[],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7349"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/405"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7349"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7349\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}