great staples of the southern and southwestern States, are cultivated with little or no profit, except where, from proximity to rivers, and unhealthiness of climate, white labor is precluded. The cotton planter, rice planter, and sugar planter, therefore, begin and carry on their establishments by means of slaves introduced into the State, or those purchased there; and free labor does not seem much promoted. Mining operations not only afford profitable employment for any number of slaves, but hold out high rewards and a healthful occupation for any excess of free population. The expenditure also of mining establishments is of such a nature, that it flows like blood throughout the universal system. The farmer, the smith, the carpenter, the stone cutter, the wagoner, and the merchant--in short, nearly every profession is requisite and paid. North Carolina has been compared to Switzerland, and the comparison, when applied to the mountainous sections of our State, is strikingly just. This part of North Carolina, like Switzerland, is debarrei from commerce by geographical position; and, like Switzerland, is inhabited by a hardy, free, and intelligent people. They, like the Swiss, finding no motive or reward of exertion at home, have hitherto emigrated; and, although they may not have become the mercenary ministers and victims of war, despotism, and famine, yet, as pioneers of new settlements, or in populous cities, they have died far from the places of their nativity. The mines supply to Saxony want of commercial advantages; and it is mineral wealth which has caused many populous cities to grow upon bleak, barren, and almost inaccessible mountains.

Already, and in the very infancy of the business, are the citizens of the State indebted to the mining interest for the restoration of the greatly depreciated currency of the country to a sound and safe circulating medium. The bills of the banks of North Carolina, at a discount but three years since of more than 8 per cent., are now at par. That they continue at par, depends upon mining success; for if any causes produce an abandonment of the mines, and golden harvests cease to be garnered up in the banks, your committee can see no reason why the same embarrassments should not recur.

If the mining interest of North Carolina is found not to be depreciated, but enhanced, by a comparison in results with the gold mines of other countries-if she derive from her mines all the advantages which another country derives from cultivating some great and cash staple, or from any manufacture whatever, then are the committee of opinion that our fellow-citizens, in preferring their solicitation for the establishment of a mint near us, will present themselves, not as importunate and claimless petitioners, but as suitors, asking for what they may expect in justice to obtain. For protecting the commercial interest of the commercial States, the General Government despatches ambassadors, and liberally expends millions in forts and naval armaments. The manufacturing States are encouraged by high tariffs, and the sugar planting interest is advanced by duties on sugars imported. To fix the standard purity and to regulate the coinage of the precious metals in all particulars, is exclusively within the power of the General Government. No individual State participates in this right; so that, be the advantages of a coinage at home ever so great, or be the disadvantages of a distant one ever so sensibly felt, North Carolina cannot relieve herself by an effort of her own. The powers of the General Government respecting the coin currency of the United States is not a divided right: it is not implied or disputed, but express and in exclusion. North Carolina cannot coin her own gold, as she might make her own roads and canals or

clear her own harbors and rivers. She may erect light-houses, but cannot establish a mint. Else so heavy is the interest upon dead capital incurred by this State alone, that the produce of the mines would soon be impressed among ourselves, and bear emblematically and literally the horn of plenty instead of E pluribus unum.

The value of the gold from different mines is so various, and, from want of means of detection, adulteration has become so common, that gold bullion has for some time ceased to be considered as money. While in ingots it cannot be estimated at a definite sum, but accounts must run upon interest until a remittance and return from Philadelphia. In many instances where the sums are large, the season unfavorable, and opportunities infrequent, there is a loss of full six months seldom less than four. Even deposited in an office of the U. S. Bank, it does not become available funds; nor will the bank itself stop an interest account of another bank, or of an individual, upon a deposite made of bullion, before a statement is received from the Mint. The amount of interest thus lost to the States of North Carolina and Georgia, for the present year alone, upon what should have been money, and was not money, but unproductive material, is, as may be easily computed, very large. For succeeding years, in all probability such loss will more than equal the interest upon the cost and current expenses of a

mint.

It is taken for granted, that, to establish and preserve a sound currency in any country, there must be in that country an amount of gold or silver of known value, proportionate to the paper money in circulation. Before the mines were opened, however, it was in silver coin alone, not in gold at a premium, that the banks of North Carolina could have pretended to pay their notes. But the transport of silver, especially to the upper districts, is so expensive and hazardous, and the exact price of dollars so unsettled, that, when experiments were made to answer the incessant drain upon supplies obtained at heavy per centages, the attempt was abandoned, and bank directors sought to support their sinking credit by sundry ingenious expedients. It is believed that the books of the Salisbury Branch Bank contain accounts relating to the purchase and transport of dollars, which would furnish a strong and experimental illustration of what it must cost to keep on hand specie to answer the urgent demands of a small institution. Any giv en amount of the precious metals passes off imperceptibly, yet rapidly, by the thousand channels of speculating brokers, of artists, of merchants, of emigrants, and of travellers; but the empty reservoirs experience no repleishing springs-no restoring showers. What are difficulties and losses to our citizens when money transactions are contracted, and in time of peace, will become ruin and impossibility as dealings are extended, and during war. Now, your committee submit with great confidence to the wisdom of the House, that the immediate conversion of gold bullion into money at home, will ensure in a simple yet effectual way, a constant and abiding specie deposite, abundantly adequate always to pay off any emission of bank paper which the exigencies of the country may require. They further feel assured that North Carolina, locally and circumstantially situated as she is, cannot in any other manner permanently effect an object so vitally important; and that all financial projects which do not result in this, will be found impracticable or extravagant. Taking the worst case, and admitting that gold coins may be speedily withdrawn-admitting even that they be received into the bank vaults hot, and that they should be drafted out before they were

cool, still it is apparent they have answered their end, and paid a debt. The bank may, and will be forthwith supplied afresh for each successive demand. So long as the State shall prudently imitate the policy of other nations, and forbear to touch the mining interest with the paralyzing finger of taxation, and so long as she welcomes the coming in of foreign capital and skill, the replacing supply will be ceaseless. As in the order of the natural world, new generations of the golden eagle will take flight from their native hills throughout whatever time the care of the State be exercised to cherish, not to strangle, establishments so happily springing into birth.

Towards conducting an extensive gold or silver mining concern, proximity to the place where unproductive bullion may be converted into available cash is of material consequence. This is especially the case where the money capitals of the country are small, and sums in hands of banks or individuals insufficient or not to be obtained for settling the current expenses of the mine. Under such circumstances, the workers are forced to provide from a distance, and keep reserved large amounts, on which they of course lose interest, commissions, and insurance. Besides this, they lose interest upon the bullion itself and cost of transport, which, were it immediately coined, would not only serve in payment for one occasion, but would naturally continue in circulation until bought up as any other article of merchandise, and an equivalent be substituted. It is also among the great benefits of mining establishments upon a large scale, that the laborers are usually paid off in cash at short intervals, and indebtedness thus avoided. To facilitate this, Mexico has six provincial mints, and one at the metropolis.

Your committee are further of opinion, that, independent of direct and immediate advantages, there are collateral and consequential advantages, which North Carolina would derive from home coinage of her bullion. It is well known that a great proportion of the gold now coined at the U. States' Mint passes directly into the consumption of the arts. In fact, the impression of coinage serves only as an index of purity, and is read as if marked 22 carats. Your committee therefore think that the assay and coinage of our gold near where it is produced would lead to gold leaf and wire manufactories, to fabrication of jewelry, and other uses of gold in the arts. Minor establishments of this sort, like work shops somewhat removed from the great cities, are very usual; and cheapness of living, health, light taxes, and other advantages which North Carolina enjoys, are much considered. Thus, Geneva, in Switzerland, has small and tributary manufactories of watches and jewelry, and is herself the great manufactory for the Paris dealers. That the profit of manufacturing a good part of our own gold will eventually be retained in the State, there can be no doubt, if we judge from the rapid enlargement of old shops, and the addition of new ones.

The importance of the discovery and working of the gold mines in North Carolina is materially enhanced by the decrease, so alarming to other countries, in the supply of the precious metals-a decrease so enormous as to Seem almost incredible without well authenticated statements. The influence of this decrease is now lamentably felt throughout every country of Europe, in a higher or less degree. Your committee extract a few sentences from a recent publication, written to explain the causes of the distresses in England, and which has attracted much attention.

"The steadiest industry (says the author of the pamphlet referred to) can no longer ensure success. The best founded expectations end but in disappointment: the wisest schemes lead but to ruin. It is not one branch of

industry alone that feels the pressure of the times. One manufacture is unsuccessful-all are equally borne down by one general oppression. Nor is this evil, though more acutely felt in England, peculiar to this country. The industry of every quarter of the world attests its infliction. From the Neva to the Ganges, from the Mediterranean to the Pacific ocean, its influence, lessened or exaggerated by the commercial systems of each country, acts in every region of the earth. Effects (proceeds the writer) so universally felt, it would be unphilosophical to attribute to any but a universal cause; and none is adequate to produce them but the increased value of the precious metals.”

An adjoined summary account of the annual supply of gold and silver is thus stated.

Decrease of the annual supply since 1810, 31,000,000 dollars, amount ing during the last nineteen years to an aggregate of 589,000,000 dollars. But it is not alone this extraordinary decrease in the supply to which the rise in value of the precious metals is attributable. Besides the decrease of supply, there has been a great increase in the demand for gold and silver since 1810, consequent in part upon the augmented consumption.

The number of gold and silver watches manufactured in France was, in 1789, 200,000, and, in 1819, had increased to 300,000. At present it is stated at 400,000.

In Mr. Huskinson's speech of 18th May, 1830, it is stated that the duty upon wrought gold and silver had risen in nett produce from less than £5,000 in 1824 to upwards of £105,000 in 1828-" a rise more than twenty fold, notwithstanding the greatly diminished supply from the mines, and the conséquent constantly increasing value of the precious metals." A numerical statement of the actual supply and demand of the precious metals for the last nineteen years is stated as follows: The supply for these nineteen years being estimated at 23,980,000 annually, making an aggregate of 455,980,000. Taking the metallic currency of the world at 3,000,000,000 of dollars, and estimating the wear and tear, recoining, loss by shipwreck, and at 2 p. mille annually, it would in 19 years amount to $114,000,000

The increase of the absolute quantity which has become requisite since 1810, estimating at 6 per cent.

180,000,000

The chasm in circulation occasioned by withdrawing of paper money since 1815, and since filled up by gold and silver coin, 300,000,000 And finally, the consumption of the precious metals by artificers, &c. at 30,000,000 dollars annually, amounts in nineteen years to

Total demand since 1810,
Deduct supply from mines

The deficiency appears to have been

570,000,000

1,164,000,000

455,620,000

708,380,000

66

Your committee do not intend to enlarge upon the many ruinous consequences, which, already in Europe, and to some extent in the United States, have ensued from the well established deficiency of gold and silver to such an amount. It is sufficient for their present purpose to point out, as one consequence of this decrease, that an enormous rise has of necessity taken place in the exchangeable value of the precious metals. The only source of restoration is the mines; and the period when they shall once more render their supply is the earliest looked in England for general success in commercial and industrious pursuits, lightened burdens, and a favorable change in the condition of the productive classes." It is, nevertheless, anticipated "that the unsettled state, both of Mexico and the South American States, must have the effect of keeping in abeyance for some time yet to come the full development of mining industry in those countries." Your committee think it is acknowledged, that, besides the rise in value of gold and silver jointly, as shown from the foregoing estimates, there is also a rise in the value of gold relatively to silver. This may be sensibly felt in North Carolina at no distant time, and when the wave which originates in the great commercial world shall have rolled itself progressively hither to beat upon our shores. Towards continuing the supply of what is expressively called the "world's money," North Carolina, experimental, limited, and recent as the operations upon her mines have been, nevertheless contributes no inconsiderable item. The total produce from the much celebrated Ural mines, in Russian Asia, from 1814 to 1824, has not exceeded, according to Humboldt's estimate, 17,000,000 dollars, i. e. $1,700,000 annually. By the most recent accounts from Chili, the yearly produce of the mines is stated to be 190,000 dollars, including, as would seem, silver as well as gold.

For the last nineteen years, all Brazil is not estimated to have exceeded an annual average of 1,240,000 dollars. Peru, which, from 1752 to 1801, had yielded annually upwards of 2,000,000 dollars, by the last accounts produced nothing worth mention. By a report from the executive government of New Grenada to Congress, it is boastingly stated that the mines in 1822 produced 1,270,000 dollars, as would appear, of silver and gold; and this amount has been since greatly diminished.

These estimates might be extended to the other sources from whence gold is derived, and go still further to show that North Carolina, unobtrusive as she has hitherto been upon the subject of her mines, need not shun comparison with any gold mining country in the world. The half million of dollars obtained during the present year from the mines of this State, has been obtained, as is well known, under all the embarrassments and discouragements consequent upon new enterprises in a new country. The auxiliary resources of the country were not developed, and there were no miners, as in other countries, a distinct profession. What has been done has been done under uncertainty and fear of results-even against the prejudices of a majority of our citizens. Yet have the establishments gone on increasing in numbers, in capital, and in returns. Indefinite fears of evil consequences which might follow gold mining, have given place to experimental conviction of beneficial influence. Jealousy of monopoly is becoming ridiculous, and mining hazards are more correctly appreciated. Should a favoring instead of smothering policy continue to be extended to the mining interest, and correct views be attained of what are the true riches of the State, there is every promise that the start North Carolina has taken will enable her to leave behind all other gold mining countries in the race of prosperity and happiness.