The Charlotte Journal

WEEKLY ALMANAC.
From the Baltimore Monument.

FALSE PRIDE

It has always been a matter of regret that false pride could not be made a criminal offence. It is the parent of as many crimes as almost any vice: for such I hold it to be—at some descriptions of it. Where it is harmless, it is much to be pitied, and generally leads to impropriety. How many men have been made scoundrels by the false pride of a foolish wife, and an extravagant family? It is a compound of ignorance, deception and envy, and the world is full of it. So long as it operated upon individuals alone, it was a matter of trifling consideration; but strange as it may appear, false pride strikes at the very root of a virtuous and flourishing country: like intemperance, it is assuming the shape of a national calamity, and merits the serious regard of every reformer. Thousands who go forth as armed knights upon a crusade against manifest evils, have themselves become victims to the insidious enemy. Self-interest may prompt a man to do a good action, but false pride never; it is incompatible with true virtue. In our own country, its chief abuse consists in making labor a disgrace—thus striking at every foundation of our prosperous condition. There never was an age in which there was so much showing, so little hard work—no period that could boast of so many Jerry Diddlers, above stairs or below—nor pamper such a wild spirit of riot as the present. The rich man is the Lazarus of tomorrow. Fortunes are staked upon the rise and fall of stocks, upon the cast of a die. In the morning, all eyes are cast upon the money article, and the evening finds the speculator a pauper within the walls of a prison. The log cabin is itself thunder struck at the restless methods adopted to retain wealth. Why does this great disposition to luxury prevail? Certainly not for the enjoyment of happiness; for it is fruitful of regret and anxiety—not for health, for it enervates and frequently destroys. Sir, I think, says one, that no man need want in this country, who can buy and fell a tree; consequently, the being true, it cannot be from necessity. False pride whispers, it is not genteel to work. How banefully is this illustrated in the successful merchant making his son a loafer. Very seldom. Does the professional man make his son a mechanic? More seldom still. But does not every merchant make his son the vender of cloths and calicoes. Why is the yard stick more honorable than the workman's plane? The goose quill more than the type? But unfortunate humanity runs further! Look back twenty years, and behold the bare-footed adventurer, at the present time rolling in wealth, or spending his annual income of thirty thousand dollars per annum in pampering ladies of his daughters! Do they teach them the useful rudiments of domestic duties? Very rarely. Is it because the exercise of domestic duties is injurious to health? Oh! no! False pride says it would be ungenteel for ladies to work. It would tarnish the fair hand and the fingers that bring such sweet sounds from the piano, to dust the gorgeous instrument. How supremely ridiculous is this illegitimate pride: Thousands of daughters whose fathers have been raised in the kitchen, their grandfathers in a horse-stable—would feel insulted if asked, if they had ever made a loaf of bread, or washed out a pocket handkerchief? Would more likely prate about "good society," "mixed company," and the dignity of their ancestors! A few years more roll around, and the thrifty but prudent parent dies; and then comes the scramble for some ten or twelve divisions of hard earned estate. How small does a fortune appear when apportioned to numerous heirs. The daughters must of course marry gentlemen, for pride dictates it—and the gentlemen must of course squander their patrimony. And what has the parent bequeathed to society and his country? Children raised in idleness, without the stimulant to add one iota to the general substantial prosperity of the country. Can there be a doubt but what honest labor is daily becoming more and more stigmatized? And what follows? A grovelling imitation from the cellar to the garret! a spirit of extravagance in all classes; to indulge in which, the most unprincipled means are resorted to! Let it proceed with the same rapid march that it has commenced, and it will be a stigma to earn your bread by the sweat of your brow. Infect the country- the farmer, with the same poison that flows through the population of the large cities, and you make the country of Franklin a parallel to that of Montezuma. With us, labor is every thing! it is more precious than the mines of Mexico; more valuable than countless wealth. It is not only the foundation, but the main arch of our confederacy: unite it with education, and they form a tower of strength, upon which our liberties may rest forever. The priceless metals of the earth may exalt a nation to the highest altitude of transient glory; but like the brilliant phenomena that illuminate the heavens, they dazzle but for a moment; and as in the case with Spain, sink into darkness or gloom. Not so with the labor of man; its glory is centered in the heart, and we behold it in the strides of internal improvement-the success of invention-the perfection of mechanical skill, and the inculcation of those exalted moral principles which give durability to our best institutions, and raise mankind in their own nature and existence. Industry is the grand lever upon which this nation must depend for its continued growth; and idleness does not more retard its usefulness, than false pride does to bring it into disrepute- just as the turning of a simple valve makes powerless the mightiest engine.