ABSTRACT
". . . it is the duty of the legislator to find employment for all the people, and if he cannot find them employment in agriculture and commerce, he must set them to manufacturing." 1 This statement made in 1820 by Daniel Raymond, author of the first general text in economics to be written in the United States, well characterizes American thought during a period when the responsibility of the state for economic conditions was generally taken for granted. A committee of the Senate of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts demonstrated a similar point of view when making a report in 1825 on child labor in factories. Apparently without expectation of any contrary viewpoint, this committee observed: ". . . this is a subject always deserving the parental care of a vigilant government." 2 Daniel Webster apparently held no consistent philosophy as to the role of the state, but as one of the ablest debaters in the United States Senate he developed great shrewdness in selecting for attack the weakest arguments of his opponents. In an important debate on the subtreasury in 1838 he held up to scorn a noninterventionist viewpoint, declaring: "Let the Government attend to its own business, and let the people attend to theirs. . . . These ominous sentences Mr. President, have been ringing in my ears ever since they were uttered yesterday, by the member from New York." 3
