Cambridge History of American Literature: volume 3
Trent, William Peterfield, 1862-1939., Erskine, John, 1879-1951., Sherman, Stuart Pratt, 1881-1926., Van Doren, Carl, 1885-1950., Ed.

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[433] Appeal to common sense (1823), The crisis (1823), The Politi-cal economist (1824), Prospects on and beyond the Rubicon (1830), and an Appeal to the wealthy of the land (1836). Carey was primarily a controversial pamphleteer, and his contributions, although exerting considerable influence at the time, were not of lasting note.

The second and third quarters of the nineteenth century were marked by two significant facts. The industrial transition in the East, together with the immigration to the West and South, brought into the forefront of political discussion four economic problems. These were the labour question, the land question, the money question, and the free trade controversy.¹ Each of these gave rise to a vast pamphlet literature. The other important fact is the emergence of some interest in political economy as a science and the institution of college chairs devoted to the subject.

Taking up first the general economic discussion, two prominent names deserve attention. The Rev. John McVickar (1787-1868) occupied from 1817 at Columbia College the chair of philosophy, to the title of which there was added shortly thereafter that of political economy. Having already made a contribution to the banking system in New York under the pseudonym of Junius, he published, in 1825, his Outlines of political economy, followed a decade later by his First lessons in political economy (1835). The Outlines were a reprint of McCulloch's article in the Encyclopedia Britannica, but McVickar added what is described on the title page as Notes explanatory and critical and a summary of the Science. Thomas Cooper (1759-1840) was president of South Carolina College at Columbia, and from 1824 professor of chemistry and political economy. Having previously (1823) written Two tracts on the proposed Alteration of the tariff, he published in 1826 his Lectures on the elements of political economy, which ran through several editions and which devoted some attention to the views of the socialists in New York. Cooper followed this by a Manual of political economy (1834). Neither McVickar nor Cooper departed materially from the position of the nascent political economy in England. A keener writer was the Southern editor, J. N. Cardozo, whose Notes on political economy (1826) disclosed