Andrew W. Young
Andrew White Young (1802-1877) was born in Carlisle, Scholarie County, in upstate New York in 1802. He was of Dutch and Irish ancestry. His education consisted of a few years in the common school system and half a term at the Middlebury academy when he turned nineteen. While still in his youth, he would alternate between working as a farm laborer and a schoolteacher. He would eventually cease working as a teacher at the age of twenty, when he gained employment as a clerk at a mercantile business. Later, in 1830, Young would establish the newspaper The Warsaw Sentinel, before purchasing the Republican Advocate in 1832, with the former newspaper being merged with the latter. Young would remain as the editor of the Advocate for three years, before selling the newspaper in 1835.
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It was around this time that Young started writing literary works of a more scholarly manner. In 1835, Young produced his first work, entitled Introduction to the Science of Government. This was a general work on law and governance designed for the instruction of youth. It would go through numerous editions and expansions with the third edition of the work containing Young’s first contribution to political economy. This third edition contained “a brief treatise on political economy” of approximately ninety pages. This work also represented the first elaboration of Young’s protectionist views. Young would continue to produce works on political science.
I In 1848, he would produce his Principles of Civil Government. He would then follow up this work in 1855 with his monumental treatise, The American Statesmen, which ran over a thousand pages. Although primarily a work on political history, it does contain various commentaries on economic questions. Young’s next work would be on political economy and would appear in 1864. This was his treatise National Economy: A History of the American Protective System. Whilst primarily a history of protective legislation, it also contains various theoretical arguments and commentaries.
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In addition to his business and literary pursuits, Young would also be active in politics. As a committed member of the Whig Party, he would represent Wyoming County in the New York State Legislature in 1845 and 1846, where he would also participate in the 1846 Constitutional Convention in that state. In the 1860s, Young would also be active in the American Iron and Steel Association, where he would be commissioned to produce several pamphlets which were circulated by the Association. These pamphlets included Protection vs. Free Trade: Letters to the American Voter, and The Doctrine of Protection, Familiarly Explained. At the age of seventy, Young would pass away in his home in Warsaw, New York, in February of 1877,