Moral Views of Commerce, Society and Politics in Twelve Discourses

These commentaries by a Unitarian minister--on topics such as prices, profits, trade, taxation, production, working conditions, monoply and slavery--examine in their moral implications troubling economic, political and social policy issues of the Jacksonian era. The author is acutely aware of the stresses created by growing wealth and social inequality; one manifestation he examined would later be termed "conspicuous consumption."