ABSTRACT
The word, wealth, signifies “that portion of the physical materials or means of enjoyment which is afforded by the labor and knowledge of man turning to use the animate or in-animate materials or productions of nature.” National wealth is nothing more than the aggregate of the individual masses of the matter of wealth. Wealth is limited to the physical means or materials of enjoyment. The two circumstances necessary to constitute wealth being, “objects of desire” and “procured by labor,” or effort, apply to human beings, like any other substances, such as iron or sheep, when tyrannically converted into objects of wealth. The more abundant their sources of happiness independent of wealth, the more unjust would they feel it to be to wring from those who have no other sources of enjoyment, a portion of that scanty source which is left to them.
