FOR SALE BY M. CABEY ty SON, (Price three dollars,} VINDICLflE HIBKRNIC^E: OR, IRELAND VINDICATED: An attempt to develop and expose a few of the multifarious errors and falsehoods respecting Ireland, in the Histories of M;iy, Temple, Whitlock, Borlase, Rushworth, Clarendon, Cox, Carle,' Leland, Wurner, Macauley, Hume, and others, particularly in the 1, clary Tales, of the Conspiracy and Pretended Massacre of 1641. By'M. CAREY. Extract from the Jlnalectic Magazine, for May, 1819, page 417. " Mr. Carey is one of the many Irishmen, that, relinquishing- the endear- ments of their native soil, have sought, under our free institutions, an en- joyment of that civil liberty and unrestrained exertion of honest industry, which the tyranny of its oppressors denied to them in their much injured country The lapse of many years, since he has been a citizen of the Unit' od States, the success which has crowned his labours in an arduous occupa- tion, the new attachments formed by him during- a long residence among \is, and the respectability acquired by him as a member of our commuiiitv, have not, however, had the power to obliterate from his memory ti : , of his fathers, nor to chill the fervour of youthful devotion, imbibed among the scenes of his boyhood, towards suffering and slandered Ireland. He has, therefore, been induced to apply his moments of leisure in a laborious exa- mination of some of the calumnious imputations cast upon the character of that nation by the policy or malignity of the British historians. And by a. patient investigation of th. sources from which they derive their facts, and a careful collection and comparison of the numerous authorities, has been enabled to exhibit to the work!, in this publication, a most interesting and curious picture of the systematic rapine and misrepresentation which the Irish have endured at the hands of the government and writers of Kngland : and, at the same time, a conclusive refutation of the most serious and most injuri- ous charge which has rested on the national character of Ireland. " The story of her manifold wrongs has been so often told, that all but Irish- men are tired cf the theme; and her sufferings have called forth so much of the finest eloquence, both of verse and prose, that a repetition of them nov/ would command a very faint attention. " Mr. C. has wisely avoided such a detail, and limited himself to a disquisi- tion on a few prominent circumstances, relative to which the friends of Ire- land have been generally silent Nor is his book a mere querimonious des- cant on the inhumanity of the British sway in that country ; it is an indignant and Impassioned, but certainly a most convincing argument, to prove the falsity of certain accusations against the Irish people, which have been so boldly pronounced, and acquiesced in so generally, that, at first view, it seems idle now to controvert them. "Clarendon, Voltaire, and Anquetil, besides all those authors of less note mentioned in the title page, join in the hue and cry against the Irish. Yet, strange as it may seem, Mr Carey satisfactorily establishes these remarkable positions that there is no reason to believe a conspiracy existed for a ge- nsurrection in Ireland on the twenty-third of October 1641 ; still less a il conspiracy to cut the throats of all the English throughout the whole Jcingdom ; and that the stories of the massacres perpetrated by the Irish, are founded on the most palpable falsehood and perjury. He further shews, conclusively, that the rebellion, such as it was, far from being iinpro voked, was exacted by a system of treatment in the greatest degree cruel and unjust, on the part of the government, arising from a predetermined plan to despoil the unhappy Irish of their lawful possessions. " When an author performs such service to the cause of truth, and success- fully attempts a vindication of a whole people from calumnies, strengthened by the acquiescence of nearly two centuries, it would be worse than hyper- criticism to quarrel with the collocation of his words, or the cadence of his sentences. " Polished diction undoubtedly adds charms to truth ; but important truths are not the less valuable because clothed in the plainest language. We shall not, therefore, enter at all into a discussion of our author's style ; and if his frequent use of strong epithets may seem to evince a greater degree of an- gry feeling than is consistent with the calmness of elegant composition, the theme will surely be allowed to supply a justification for even warmer in- dignation, i " The testimony of O'Conally, and the proceedings consequent thereon, are too long for insertion. But it is, we may safely say, not such proof as any court of criminal jurisdiction in our country -would consider sufficient for the foun- dation of a conviction for the most trivial crime. " Such is really the character of the information pretended to be given by O'Conally ; and upon the contradictory "ravings of this besotted wretch, un- corroborated by either fact or testimony, has been founded the imputation upon the whole body of Irish Catholics, of the most infernal plot of which civi- lized or savage man was ever guilty. And yet so little do writers of history (so called) investigate the authorities, that the veracity of this informer has never before, so far as we have seen, been called in question. To every stu- dent of the annals of Ireland, therefore, we may safely recommend the work of Mr. Carey, as essential to a right understanding of her story : unless, in- deed, lie be willing to undergo the fatigue of perusing that huge mass of books and records, from which Mr. C. has selected the substance of his Vin- dicix And even to such, if such there be, this book would be a most useful guide and assistant." FOR SALE AS ABOVE, (Price half a dollar,} THREE LETTERS TO MR. GARNETT, on the Present Ca- lamitous State of Affairs. By M. CAREY. Extract from the Jlnalectic Magazine, for March, 1820, page 238. " Mr. Carey's Three Letters are worthy the attention of all such as desire to form their opinions impartially on the subject. He is a zealous, a persever- ing, and an able advocate. He has written much and thought much on this question : and his writings have the advantage of being free from the crude- ness and looseness, as to statistics, that impair the value of so many produc- tions of less experienced champions on either side. " An answer to these Letters, and to the Addresses of the Philadelphia Society, made not hastily and heedlessly, but after careful research, and in a style of sober argument, is an undertaking wortjiy the ambition of the ablest among the opponents of manufactures ; until such appear, the palm of logic rests with Mr. Carey and his co-labourers." (Price three dollars,} THE POLITICAL OLIVE BRANCH : OR, FAULTS ON BOTH SIDES FEDERAL AND DEMOCRATIC. A Serious Appeal on the ne- cessity of Mutual Forgiveness and Harmony. RECOMMENDATIONS. Extract of a letter from James Madison, Esq. President of the United States. Washing-ton, January 28, 1815. " I have not been able at yet to do more than glance at the plan of the work, and run over a few of its pages. The course adopted of assembling authentic and striking facts, and addressing them impartially and indepen- dently, but with becoming emphasis, to the attention of the public, was best fitted to render it a valuable and seasonable service : and it appears that the success of your labours will well reward the laudable views with which it was undertaken." Extract of a letter from Thomas Jefferson, Esq. ex-president of the United States* Monticello, Feb. 9, 1815. " I thank you for the copy of the Olive Branch you have been so kind as to send me. .Many extracts from it, which I had seen in the newspapers, had excited a wish to procure it. A cursory view over the work has con- firmed the opinion excited by the extracts, that it will do great good.'* Extract of a letter from W. Sampson, Esq. New York, Feb. 15, 1815. ' I have read your Olive Branch ; and I can now express my sincere satis- faction. I must ofU T you my best compliments upon a production, which breathes the sentiments of pure and manly patriotism." Extract of a letter from the if on. U'm. Kimtis, Esq. noiv minister of the United States in Holland. Boston, Nov. 16, 1814. "The Olive Branch is certainly calculated to do great good. It bears, as you observe, the marks of rapidity : but it is the rapid, rectilineal course of an enlightened mind, directed by strong common sense." Extract of a letter from Richard / now Minister Plenipotentiary of t/t<- United States at the Court of St. James's. Washington, April 28, 1815. R. R. has been free to declare upon all occasions, and the sentiment is now still further strengthened, that he thinks the country owes Mr. C. a very targe debt for the patriotic, the zealous, and the intelligent efforts of his pen during the late struggle ; for his energetic, spirited, yet candid de- fence of public principles und public measures; for his just exposition of our institutions; for his discriminating and indefatigable selection of authen- tic documents illustrative of our history, and the forcible, perspicuous, and unanswerable commentaries which he has superinduced upon them. II. It. places, at a very high rate, the share which Mr. Carey's publications have had in serving to rescue us from danger, and to secure our triumphs ; and IK- anticipates in the mass of truth which they have diffused throughout the Union, effects from them of further and more lasting benefit." " There is perhaps no book extant, that in so small a compass contains so great a quantity of momentous political truth. Like the two-edged sword, said to have been wielded by the angel of light against " Satan and his angels," it dispels and puts to flight an army of error and falsehood." Weekly Register, vol. vii. page 371. (Price 50 cents,} ADDRESSES OF THE PHILADELPHIA SOCIETY FOR THE PROMOTION OF NATIONAL INDUSTRY. Extract from the American Farmer. "Had we anticipated the masterly and, patriotic addresses of the Phila- delphia Society for the promotion of National Industry, before the publica- tion of our first No , we should gladly have remained silent We should have blushed to speak on subjects to be simultaneously discussed in a manner far transcending- our ability. And now, could we know that all the readers of the American Farmer would peruse the Nos. of those excellent ad- dresses, no more of our comparatively trifling- essays would appear. But our belief to the contrary, and the expectation which may have been justly excited, must be our apology for continuing- our Nos. We are happy to find in what we have seen of that grand production, some notions which we had conceived, fully confirmed, and we hope not a little praise maybe rendered to its author, if some of the bright rays which have been shed on ourselves, should be occasionally, but faintly, reflected upon our readers.'? Extract of a letter from John -Adams, Esq. ex-president, to the Editors of the Ma- intfacturers and Farmers' 1 Journal. "The gentlemen of Philadelphia have published a very important volume upon the subject, which 1 recommend to your direful perusal." Extract of an address from Benjamin Austin, Esq. ' This subject has produced researches, which demonstrate the abundant resources of our country, and the practicability of accomplishing those im- portant objects, (the establishment of national manufactures) with the aid of government. Among the foremost, the Philadelphia Society, for the pro- motion of National Industry, is entitled to our thanks for their perseverance in tliis national and laudable pursuit." Extract of a letter from General Harrison, to the publishers. " I should be wanting in candour not to acknowledge, that I have been converted to my present principles in favour of Manufactures, by the lumi- nous views upon the subject which have been published by your Society. " Yours, & c . W. H. HARRISON. " Columbus, Dec. 27, 1819." H > > ^533 1 ll 3.8 S . 8-w 3 2- 5 > ^ E : H- o , o w 2 S O O> O g k 5 O o> w o o> o o, o o n^ ?s u I o 1 > W r * i a H NATIONAL INDUSTRY " In all its shapes and farms," PROTECTED. 19. Cordial attachment to a good government. 18. New towns springing up. 17. General prosperity. 16. Property rising in value. 15. Debts easily collected. 14. Capital, talent, and indus- try, sure of success. 13. Revenue increasing. 12. Credit preserved at home and abroad. 11. Numerous houses build- ing. 10. Great accession of immi- grants and capital. 9. Bankruptcies rare. 8. Poor rates diminishing. 7. Population rapidly increas- ing. 6. Early and numerous mar- riages. 5. Every person able and wil- ling to work employed. 4. Industry protected. 3. Moderate importations. 2. Protecting duties. 1. Prohibitions of what can be made at home. UNPROTECTED. 31. Disaffection to a govern- ment regardless of the suffer- ings of its citizens. 30. Monied men engrossing the estates of the distressed. 29. Legal suspension of the collection of debts. 28. General distress. 27. Failure of revenue. 26. fc Property depreciating daily. 25. Houses falling to decay. 24. Rents reducing. 23. Sheriffs* sales. 22. Banks stopping payment. 21. Credit impaired at home and abroad. 20. Staples sinking in price. 19. Capital, talents and indus- try, without employment. 18. Emigrations in quest of an asylum abroad. 17. Immigration discounten- anced. 16. Population sluggish. 15 Marriages rare. 14. Merchants and traders fol- lowing in their train. 13. Manufacturers bankrupt. 12. Manufacturing establish- ments in ruins. 11 Soup houses. 10. Increase of idleness, pau- perism and guilt. 9. Poor rates augmented. 8. Workmen discharged. 7 Decay of national industry. 6. Remittances of government and bank stock. 5. Drain of specie. 4. Great bargains of cheap fo- reign goods. 3. Immense importations. 2. Light duties on manufac- tures. 1. Heavy duties on teas, wines, coffee, spirits, &c. THE OR, AN ATTEMPT TO ESTABLISH AN IDENTITY OF INTEREST BBTWEE9 AGRICULTURE, MANUFACTURES, AND COMMERCE; AND TO PROVE, THAT A LARGE PORTION OF THE MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY OF THIS NATION HAS BEEN SACRIFICED TO CO3IMERCE; AND THAT COMMERCE HAS SUFFERED BT THIS POLICY NEARLY AS MUCH AS MANUFACTURI ' ' ' ' BY M. CAREY, AUTHOR OF POLITICAL OLIVE BRANCH, VIXDIflJE HinF.IlXIC2E, &C. &C, *' But few examples have occurred of distress so general and so severe as that " -which has been exldbited in the United Stales" Report of the Secretary of the Treasury. "If any thing- can prevent the consummation of public ruin, it can only " be ncno councils,' a sincere change, from a sincere conviction of past errors." Chatham. " Jlfen will sooner live prosperously under tlie worst government, than starve *' under the best." Postlethwait's Dictionary. " A. merchant may have a distinct interest from that of his country. He "may thrive by a trade that will prove her ruin." British J\ferchant. " Manufactures are now as necessary to our independence as to our com- fort." Jefferson. " It is the interest of the community, with a view to eventual and per- " manent economy, to encourage the gruioth of manufactures" Hamilton. PHILADELPHIA : M. CAREY & SON. 1850. As this book has been written, and is now published, merely from public motives no copy right is secured. Should any printer or bookseller in any part of the union, either from the importance of the subject, the desire of. doing good, or the hope qf making profit, feel disposed to repubhsh it, he has ,not only', percni?*ion, ;but is invited to carry his views into operation. The writer 'requests, however, to be consulted, and have two weeks from this day, to rrah^ 'corrections/ should any be found necessary. March 17, 1820. J. n. A. SKKURKTT, PRINTER. TO THOSE CITIZENS OF THE UNITED STATES, WHOSE EXPANDED VIEWS EMBRACE THE KINDRED INTERESTS OF AGRICULTURE, MANUFACTURES, AND COMMERCE; WHO BELIEVE THAT NATIONAL INDUSTRY IS THE ONLY LEGITIMATE SOURCE OF NATIONAL WEALTH AND PROSPERITY ; WITH DR. FRANKLIN, "THAT INDUSTRY IN ALL SHAPES, IN ALL INSTANCES, AND BY ALL " MEANS, SHOULD BE PROMOTED ;" WITH THOMAS JEFFERSON, " THAT MANUFACTURES ARE NOW AS NECESSARY TO OUR " INDEPENDENCE AS OUR COMFORT $" WITH ALEXANDER HAMILTON, "THAT THE INDEPENDENCE AND SECURITY OF A COUNTRY " ARE MATERIALLY CONNECTED WITH THE PROS- PERITY OF ITS MANUFACTURES j" WHO ARE OPPOSED TO THE POLICY OF LAVISHING THE WEALTH OF THE NATION TO SUPPORT FOREIGN GOVERNMENTS AND FOREIGN MANUFACTURERS, AXD IMPOVERISHING OUR OWN COUNTRY AND OUR FELLOW CITIZENS ; WHO HOLD THE SOUND DOCTRI.VK, THAT NATIONS, LIKE INDIVIDUALS, MUST SUFFER DISTRESS AND MISERY WHKN THEIR EXPENSES EXCEED THEIR INCOME; AND THAT A POLICY WHICH CONVERTS A LARGE PORTION OF OUR CITIZENS INTO HUCK- STERS AND RETAILERS OF FOREIGN PRODUCTIONS, INSTEAD OF PRODUCERS FOR HOME CONSUMPTION, IS RADICALLY UNSOUND ; AND FINALLY, THAT THE RUINOUS EXPERIMENT WE HAVE MADE OF OUll PRE- SENT SYSTEM FOR FIVE YEARS, POINTS OUT WITH A PENCIL OF LIGHT THE IMPORTANT TRUTH PUT ON RECORD BY LORD CHATHAM, THAT IF ANY THING CAN PREVENT THE CONSUMMATION OF PUBLIC RUIN, IT CAN ONLY BE NEW COUNCILS ; A SINCERE CHANGE, FROM A SINCERE CONVICTION OF ERROR," THIS WORK IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED, BY THE AUTHOR. CONTENTS. PAGE CHAPTER I. Preliminary observations. State of the nation. Whence t * it arises. Short-sighted policy. Decline of commerce inevitable. Substitutes ought to have been provided for the superfluous mercantile capital, talent and industry. 17 . CHAPTER II. Sketch of the state of the nation from the peace of Paris till the organization of the present federal government. Analogy -with our present state. Unlimited freedom of commerce fairly tested. ..... 32 CHAPTER III. Adoption of the federal constitution. Its happy effects. Utter impolicy of the tariff*. Manufactures and manu- facturers not protected. Hamilton's celebrated report. Glaring inconsistency. Excise system. Its unproduc- tiveness. - 47 CHAPTER IV. Memorials to congress. Deceptions report. List of ex- ports. Tar iff*ofl.8O4>. Wonderful omission. Immense importations of cotton and woollen goods. Exportations of cotton. - - ... 69 CHAPTER V. Various causes which prevented the ruinous operation of the car I if tariffs. Declaration of war. Blankets for In- dians. Disgraceful situation of the United States. Governor Gerry. Sufferings of the army. Rapid pro" gress of national iiuhistrif. - - - 77 IV CONTENTS. CHAPTER VI. State of the country at the close of the war. Pernicious consequences to the manufacturers. Mr. Dallas^s tariff. Rates reduced ten, twenty, and thirty per cent. CHAPTER VII. Rum of the manufacturers, and decay of their establish- ments. Pathetic and eloquent appeals to congress. Their contumelious and unfeeling 1 neglect. Memorials neither read nor reported on. Revolting contrast between the .fostering care bestowed by the Russian government on their manufacturers, and the unheeded sufferings of that class of citizens in the United States. - - 95 CHAPTER VIII. Dilatory mode of proceeding in congress. Lamentable waste of time. Statement of the progress of bills. Eighty-two signed in one day', and four hundred and twenty in eleven! Unfeeling treatment of Gen. Stark. Culpable attention to punctilio. Rapid movement of compensation bill. -* - 112 CHAPTER IX. Attempts to prove the state of affairs prosperous. Their fallacy established. Destruction of industry in Phila- delphia and Pittsburg. Awful situation of Pennsyl- vania. 14,537 suits for debt, and 10,326 judgments confessed in the year 1819. Depreciation of real estate 115,544,629 dollars. 126 CHAPTER X. Causes assigned for the existing distress. Extravagant banking. Transition to a state of peace. Fallacy of these reasons. True cause, destruction of industry. Comparison of exports for six years. - 135 CHAPTER XI. The everlasting complaint of " taxing the many for the benefit of the few.' 7 Fallacy and injustice of it. Amount of impost for fourteen years. For the year 1818. Im- post for the protection of agriculture in that year above 4,500,000 dollars. 142 CONTENTS. V CHAPTER XII. Immense advantages enjoyed by the farmers and planters for nearly thirty years, viz. a domestic monopoly and excellent foreign markets. Exorbitant prices of the necessaries of life. Great extent of the domestic mar- ket. Internal trade of the United States. 149 CHAPTER XIII. Calumnious clamour against the manufacturers on the ground of extortion. Destitute of the shadow of founda- tion. Take the beam out of thine own eye. Rise of me- rino wool 400 per cent. Great rise of the price of mer- chandize after the declaration of war. - - 161 CHAPTER XIV. Tfie agricultural the predominant interest in the United States. Great advantages to agriculture from the vici- nity of manufacturing establishments. Case of Aber- deen. Of Harmony. Of Providence, fall of lands the result of the decay of manufactures . - - 172 CHAPTER XV. General reflexions on commerce. Conducted on terms of reciprocity, highly advantageous. Commerce of the United States carried on upon very unequal terms. Has produced most injurious consequences. Tables of exports. Estimates of the profits of commerce. Perni- cious consequences of the competition of our merchants in the domestic and foreign markets. The ruin of so many of them the result of the excess of their numbers. 185 CHAPTER XVI. Fostering care of commerce by congress. Monopoly of the coasting and China trade secured to our merchants from the year 1789. Revolting partiality. Wonderful increase of tonnage. Act on the subject of plaster of Paria. Law levelled against the British navigation a*t. Rapidity of legislation. - - - - 213 CHAPTER XVII. Erroneous views of the tariff. Protection of agriculture in 1789. Prostrate xtat*' of the staples of South Caro- VI CONTENTS. Una and Georgia. Ninety per cent, on snuff, and one hundred on tobacco. Striking contrast. Abandonment of manufactures . ... -221 CHAPTER XVIII. An awful contrast. Distress in Great Britain, because she cannot engross the supply of the world. Distress in the United States, because the home market is inun- dated with rival manufactures. CHAPTER XIX. Encouragment and patronage of immigrants by England and France. Advantages of the United States. Great numbers of immigrants . Their sufferings. Return of many of them. Interesting table. - - 233 IX INTRODUCTION. 3een to render inverting a large * hucksters and TTITS work may be considered as a second edition, much enlarged and improved, of the Three Letters to Mr. Garnett, recently publish- ed ; as it contains nearly the whole of the mat- ter of those letters. It is nevertheless presented to the public in a state that requires apology for its imperfections. This apology rests upon the circumstances which have given rise to it, and the situation of the country. Books, written as this has been, on the spur of the occasion, to shed light on passing subjects of policy, on which the decision may be precipitated previous to their appearance, (if not hurried through the press,) cannot, without injustice, be tried by the rigor- ous rules of general criticism. Tins would be al- most as unfair as to scan a house erected in haste for a new settler in the wilderness, by the rules laid down by Palladio or to criticise the dress of a lady whom circumstances have forc- ed to appear before the eye in entire dishabille, as rigorously as if she had made her entree into a ball room on a gala evening. The grand object of such books is to convey information. Ornaments of composition are but secondary considerations. Whatever effect tliey are likely to produce, depends on the time of their appearance. The object may be wholly defeat- X INTRODUCTION. These views of our affairs are presented to the public with a sincere belief of their sound- ness. But," like other theorists, I may have deluded myself. However, whether right or wrong, the discussion cannot fail to prove use- ful as it will shed light on the most important subject that can occupy the public attention the means of promoting individual happiness, and national " wealth, power, and resources" of removing the present intolerable evils, of which the secretary of the treasury, in his re- port of the Slst ultimo, has justly declared, that "fenv instances have occurred, of distress so general, and so severe, as that which has been exhibited in the United States." This important subject is worthy of the undivided attention of every man interested for the public welfare. If my views be incorrect, I shall rejoice to have the errors pointed out, and shall cheerful- ly recant them. Any suggestions on the subject will be received with thankfulness, and attend- ed to. But if the ground 1 have taken be cor- rect, I hope and trust the investigation may lead to a different course of policy, calculated to enable us to realize the blessings promised to us by our constitution and our natural advan- tages,which at present so provokingly elude our grasp. M. C. Philadelphia, March i7th< 1820 NEW OLIVE BRANCH CHAPTER I. Preliminary obsemations. State of the nation. Whence it arises. Short-sighted policy. De- cline of commerce inevitable. Substitutes ought to have been provided for the superfluous mer- cantile capita^ talent and industry. IT is impossible for any one who can say with Terence " I am a man interested in whatever concerns my fellow men" to take a calm and dispassionate view of the existing state of affairs, in this heaven-favoured land, without feeling deep distress, and a melancholy conviction, that we have made a most lamentable waste of the immense advantages, moral, physical, and poli- tical, we enjoy advantages rarely equalled, scarcely ever exceeded ; and that our erroneous policy has, in live years, produced more havoc of national wealth, power, and resources, and more individual distress, than, in a period of profound peace* has taken place in the same * Other nations usually and naturally recover in peace from the injuries inflicted by war. We rose in war and alas ! are sinking in peace ! ! ! What an awful view ! 4 # space of time, within two hundred years, in any nation of Europe, except Portugal. , ; eS That governments are instituted for the pro- tection, support^ and benefit of the governed, is [& , nlzburiv .as ok! as the dawn of liberty in the world. The administrators are the mere agents of their constituents, hired to perform certain duties, for which they are here paid liberal sa- laries. The grand objects of their care are the se- curity of person security of property acquired, and in the acquisition of property with the right of worshipping God as each man's con- science dictates. And government, by whatever name it may be called, is only estimable in pro- portion as it guards those sacred deposits. Our dear-bought experience proves, that the happi- ness of individuals and the prosperity of nations are by no means proportioned to the excellence of their forms of government. Were that the case, we should rank among the happiest of na- tions, ancient or modern: whereas, unfortunate- ly, at present we occupy a low grade. It is a mealancholy feature in human affairs, that no institutions, however perfect no ad- ministration, however upright or wise, can guard the whole of a nation against distress and em- barrassment. Accidents, not to be foreseen, or, if foreseen, not to be guarded against impru- dence, extravagance, and various other causes, ( 19 ) will frequently, in the most prosperous commu- nities, produce a large portion of distress. This state of things is no impeachment to the good- ness of the form of government, or the wisdom of its administrators. But when large bodies of people, whole sec- tions of a nation, are involved in distress and embarrassment when capital, talents, industry, and ingenuity afford to their possessors no secu- rity of prosperity when productive industry is laid prostrate when the most useful establish- ments, the pride, the glory, the main spring of the wealth, power, and resources of nations, are allowed to fall to ruins, without an effort to save them on the part of the legislative power when the constituents, writhing in distress and misery, call in vain on their representatives for relief, which is within their power to afford there must be something radically wrong in the people, or in the form of government, or radi- cally vicious and pernicious in its legislation. The policy of a free government, good or bad, emanates from the legislative body, which has the destinies of the nation in its hands. The executive officers in such nations, who are generally stiled the administration, have little power to avert the evils of a vicious, or to pre- vent the beneficent consequences of a wise legislation. This is peculiarly the case in our country. Preparatory to stating the plan 1 propose to pursue in this pamphlet, it is proper to exhibit a view of the actual situation of the country, to justify the strong ground I mean to take. And believing the sketch given in the second Ad- dress of the Philadelphia Society for the pro motion of National Industry to be correct, an its brevity being suited to the limits I am oblig- ed to observe, I annex it. 1. Our profitable commerce is nearly annihi- lated. 2. Our shipping reduced in value one-half. 3. Of our merchants a considerable portion bankrupt, and many tottering on the verge of bankruptcy. The commercial capital of the country reduced, it is believed, seventy million! of dollars. 4. Our manufacturing establishments in a great measure suspended, and numbers of them falling to decay. 5. Many of their proprietors ruined. 6. Thousands of citizens unemployed through- out the United States. 7. Our circulating medium drawn away to the East Indies and to Europe, to pay for arti- cles which we could ourselves furnish, or whicl we do not want. 8. A heavy annual tax incurred to Europe in the interest payable on probably 20 to 25,000,000 of dollars of government and bank stock, like- wise remitted in payment. 9. Real estate every where fallen thirty, forty, or fifty per cent. 10. Our great staples, cotton, flour, tobacco, yc. reduced in price from thirty to forty per cent. 11. Our merino sheep, for want of protecting the woollen manufacture, in a great measure destroyed, and those that remain not worth ten per cent, of their cost. 12. Large families of children become a bur- den to their parents, who are unable to devise suitable means of employment for them. 13. Numbers of our citizens, possessed of va- luable talents, and disposed to be useful, but un- able to find employment, are migrating to Cuba, where, under a despotic government, among a population principally of slaves, and subject to the horrors of the inquisition, they seek an asylum from the distress they suffer here ! 44. Hundreds of useful artisans and mecha- nics, who, allured by our form of government, migrated to our shores, have returned to their native countries, or gone to Nova Scotia or Ca- nada, broken hearted and with exhausted funds. 15. Men of capital are unable to find any pro- fitable employment for it in regular business. 16. Citizens who own real estate to a great amount have large debts due them and im- mense stocks of goods, cannot mortgage their real estate, dispose of their stocks but at extra- vagant sacrifices, nor collect their debts. 17. Citizens possessed of great wealth, have it in their power to increase it immoderately, by purchasing the property of the distressed, sold at ruinous sacrifices by sheriffs, marshals, and otherwise thus destroying the equality of our citizens, and aggrandizing the rich at the ex- pense of the middle class of society. 18. The interest of money extravagantly usu- rious. 19. Distress and misery, to an extent not to be conceived but by those who have an oppor- tunity of beholding them, spreading among the labouring class in our towns and cities. 20. Bankruptcy and poverty producing ai alarming increase of demoralization and crime. 21. The attachment to our government liable to be impaired in the minds of those who are ruined by the policy it has pursued. 22. After having prostrated our national ma- nufactures, lest we should injure the revenue, the revenue itself fails, and we are likely to be obliged to recur to loans or direct taxes to meet the exigencies of the government. 23. Numbers of banks in different parts of the ( 23 ) union, deprived of their specie by the extrava- gant drains for Europe and the East Indies, obliged to stop payment. 24. Legislatures driven by the prevalence of distress, to the frightful measure of suspending the collection of debts. That such an awful state of things could not exist in a time of profound peace, without some great natural calamity some radical defects in the people great vice in the form of govern- ment or an unsound system of policy, will not be controverted. Our distresses do not arise from any natural calamity. None has befallen us. Nor from the people. They are shrewd, in- telligent, industrious, active, and enterprizing to a high degree. A wise legislator or statesman could not desire sounder materials to form the structure of a happy and prosperous society, and render his name immortal. Nor from the form of government. That, like every work of man, it has defects, must be con- ceded. But that it is the best the world ever witnessed, is susceptible of full proof on fair comparison with any that at present exist or that ever existed. They are therefore chargeable to our policy, which, I repeat, emanates from our general legis- ( 34 ) Jature, to whom, if our evils are not irremedia- ble, we must apply for relief. This declaration, as to the source of our dis- tresses, requires qualification, so far as regards the diminution of our commerce, and the depre- ciation of the prices of our staples generally, which congress could not have prevented. Cotton is an exception. For the ruinous re- duction that has taken plac t e in that article, they are answerable to their country. They might have readily made a domestic market, which would have preserved the price from any material depreciation, and saved the cotton plan- ters above 7,000,000 of dollars, and the mer- chants who purchased before the reduction, nearly 4,000,000. Had our statesmen considered the subject profoundly, as their duty demanded, they might have readily foreseen that the new state of affairs throughout the world required a total change of policy. As we could no longer hope to be the carriers for Europe ; and as the immense armies disbanded by the different belligerants, would be devoted partly to the labours of the field, and partly to work-shops and manufactories, where- by not only the markets for our staples, bread- stuffs particularly, would be diminished, but the quantity of manufactures there would be greatly increased ; it required but little sagacity to see that a large portion of the talents, the capital, and the industry of our merchants, would be bereft of their usual employment, and that every motive of policy and regard for the pub- lic and private welfare required that some other channel should be opened to give them activity. But these were views beyond the grasp of most of our statesmen ; and far from holding out any new inducements to enter on manufac- turing pursuits, which would have absorbed all the superfluous mercantile capital, they unwise- ly diminished those that existed, by repealing the double duties in June, 1816, whereby the revenue lost millions of dollars, and the manu- facturing industry of the country received a mortal wound. It required but slender consideration to have foreseen, at an early period, the goal to which the policy we pursued after the late war, tended. The domestic exports of the country, the grand legitimate fund for the payment of our imports, for twenty years, from 1796 to 18 1 5, inclusive, amounted to only 698,676,879 dollars, or an average of nearly 35,000,000. Whereas our imports in the year 18 15, exclusive of re-expor- tations, amounted to above 118.000,000. Lives there a man who could for a moment doubt where such a course of proceeding would land us ? or, that our exports, which, under the im- mense advantages we enjoyed during the French revolution, only rose to the above average. would never, in a time of peace, enable us to pay for such extravagant importations? It was impossible to take a most superficial view of the subject, without being satisfied that we were as completely in the high road to destruction as a young man who has attained to the possession of a large estate, and who expends more than double his income. A wonderful feature in the affair is, that the net impost which accrued in 1815, was 36,306,023 dollars, being one million more than the preceding average of our exports for twenty years ! ! Independent, therefore, of all concern for our manufacturers, and indeed, were there not a sin- gle manufacturer in the country, some decisive efforts ought to have been made to diminish our imports, in order to arrest the career of national impoverishment. But the flourishing state of the revenue, which with too many of our statesmen, absorbed all other considerations, appeared to promise a new fiscal millennium. And hence the fatal repeal of the internal duties, which was carried by the overwhelming majority, in the house of representatives, of 16 1 to 5, in December, 1817 than which a more wild and injudicious measure could hardly have been de- vised. We have lived to see its folly, and to deplore its consequences. What would be thought of the skill of a physician, who, while bleeding his patient to a state of inanition, was congratulating himself on the quantity and excellence of the blood pouring out of his veins ! such is the case precisely of those statesmen, who form their ideas of national prosperity from the great extent of the customs, more frequently a sign of decay, as it has prov- ed with us. What a sound lesson Ustariz, a Spanish author, gives on this subject ! how de- serving of attention ! but how little attended to ! " It aggravates the calamity of our country that the cus- u toms have improved and yielded more by the increase u of imports ; since it is so unfortunate a circumstance for " us, that in order to advance them a million of dollars , esti- " mating one duty with another at the rate of eight per cent., u after an allowance for frauds and indulgences, there must 4t be drawn out of the kingdom twelve millions of dollars"* It cannot be too deeply lamented, that in placing before congress the calamitous situation of our manufactures and manufacturers, (which, by the way, is but very lightly touched on) both the president and the secretary of the treasury, the former in his message, and the latter in his annual report, in recommending attention to the relief of this suffering class of citizens, express some hesitation on the subject, and speak hypo- thetically, particularly the secretary. * Ustariz on the theory and practice of commerce and maritime affairs, vol. \. p. 6. ( 28 ) The president states: u It is deemed of importance to encourage our domes- " tic manufactures. In what manner the evils whicih have " been adverted to may be remedied, and how it may be a practicable in other respects, to afford them further en- " couragement, paying due regard to the other great interests " of the nation, is submitted to the wisdom of congress. 3 The observation of the secretary is " It is believed that the present is a favourable mo- u ment for affording efficient protection to that increasing " and important interest, if it can be done consistently ru ith " the general interest of the nation'." Good heavens! what an appalling if! Was there ever such an unlucky word introduced into a public document ! "Tjf it can be done consist- ently with the general interest of the nation ! 5 ' As if a statesman could for an instant doubt whether protecting and fostering the national industry reducing our imports or expenses, within our exports or income and arresting the progress of distress and decay, could, in any possible case, be otherwise than " con- sistent with the general interest of the nation!" As if it could be a matter of doubt, whether the contingency of a farmer or planter pay- ing twenty, thirty, or forty dollars more per annum, (supposing that to be the case, which I shall prove to be as destitute of foundation, as the sublime theory that this earth rests upon a tortoise) is to be put into competition with the bankruptcy of our manufacturing capitalists the beggary of our working people and the im- poverishment of the nation ! Intending to investigate the rise and progress of the calamities of this country, I shall divide the subject under the following heads : 1. Present calamitous state of affairs. Causes. 2. State of the nation from the peace of Paris till the year 1789. 3. Adoption of the federal constitution. Con- sequences of that measure. Tariff of 1789. Fatal errors. Mr. Hamilton's Report. 4. Tariff of 1804. 5^ Declaration of war. Disgraceful situation of the country. 6. State of the nation at the close of the war. 7. Mr. Dallas's tariff. 8. Ruin of the manufacturers and decay of their establishments. 9. Dilatory mode of proceeding in congress. 10. Destruction of industry in Pennsylvania, 11. Erroneous causes assigned for the exist- ing distress. 12. The complaint of taxing the many for the benefit of the few. 13. Immense advantages enjoyed by the far- mers and planters for thirty years. >' 30 14. Fallacy of the clamours on the ground of extortion. 15. Advantages to agriculture from manufac- turing establishmens. 16. General reflexions on commerce. View of that of the United States. 17- Fostering care of commerce by congress. 18. Contrast between the conduct of the Bri- tish government and that of the United States. 19. Advantages that might have arisen from the proper encouragement of manufactures, by the accession of immigrants. Some of my friends have endeavoured to dis- suade me from using the freedom of style, which prevails in this work. They declare it imprudent, as likely to irritate congress, and prevent their attending to the applications of the manufacturers. I have duly weigh- ed this very prudent advice, and cannot per- suade myself to adopt it. The manufacturers require no favours. They only seek justice. Believing the system pursued radically vicious and pernicious, it is the right and the duty of every man who suffers by it, to enter his protest against the ruinous course pursued to trace it to its causes and to display its conse- quences. I have used the language of a free- man. If the conduct I denounce, betrays a ma- nifest departure from duty, can there be any impropriety in marking the departure? In coun- tries less free than the United States, far greater severity is used in discussing the conduct of go- vernment. Why then should v it be criminal or improper here? If any of my statements be in- correct, or my inductions illogical, I shall freely retract and apologize for them. But till then, 1 throw myself on the good sense of the commu- nity, and dare the consequences. CHAPTER 11. Sketch of the state of the nation from the peace of Paris till the organization of the present fede- ral government. Analogy with our present state. Unlimited freedom of commerce fairly tested. At the close of the revolutionary war, the trade of America was free and unrestrained in the fullest sense of the word, according to the theory of Adam Smith, Say, Ricardo, the Edin- burgh Reviewers, and the authors of the Ency- clopaedia. Her ports were open, with scarcely any duties, to the vessels and merchandize of all other nations. The rate of duties in Pennsylvania, was only two and a half per cent. Even these were nuga- tory : because there was a free port established at Burlington, by the state of New Jersey, where goods intended for Philadelphia were entered, and conveyed over to this city clandestinely., The same fraudulent scenes were acted in other states, and thus trade was, as I have stat- ed, wholly free. ( 33 ) If enthusiasts did not too generally scorn to trammel themselves by attention to facts, which are so very troublesome, and refuse to be dove-tailed into their specious theories, this case would settle the question of unrestrained com- merce for ever and prove, that the system ought to be postponed till the millennium, when it is possible it may stand a chance of promoting the welfare of mankind. But till then, woe to the nation that adopts it. Her de- struction is sealed. To a theorist " facts are stubborn things," not unlike those formidable obstructions in the Mississippi, which, in the elegant diction of the navigators of that immense river, are called snags and sawyers. When their barks come in contact with them, a wreck ensues. They there- fore take all imaginable care to avoid them. Thus it is with the true theorist. He carefully avoids all the facts that endanger his system, how strong or convincing soever they may be. This saves an immensity of trouble. Hence in some of the grand systems of political economy, which have acquired great celebrity, you may travel through fifty or a hundred pages together, of most harmonious prose, all derived from a luxuriant imagination, without your career be- ing arrested by a single fact. But on a little reflection or examination, you may as readily 34 liud a single fact, recorded elsewhere in ten lines, which demolishes the whole. From almost every nation in Europe, large shipments were made to this country many of them of the most ludicrous kind, which implied an utter ignorance of the wants, the situation and the resources of the United States. Among the rest, the recesses of Monmouth street, in London, and Plunket street, in Dublin, the recep- tacles of the cast-off clothes of the two metropo- lises, were emptied of a portion of their contents : for it was supposed that the war had rendered the nation destitute of every thing, even of cover- ing. Happy was the man who could send " a ve?i- ture^ as it was called, to this country, which the misguided Europeans supposed an El Dorado, where every thing was to be converted into gold with a cent per cent, profit at least. Goods often lay on the wharves for many days for want of store room. House rent rose to double and treble the former rates. The importers and con- signees at first sold at great advances and be- lieved they were rapidly indemnifying them- selves for the deprivations and sufferings of the war. But these glorious times soon came to a close, like those of 1815. From "day dreams" and delusive scenes of boundless wealth, the citizens awoke to pinching misery and distress. The ( 35 ) nation had no mines to pay her debts. And in- dustry, the only legitimate and permanent source of individual happiness, and national wealth, power, and resources, was destroyed, as it has recently been by the influx, and finally by the depreciation of the price, of the imported ar- ticles : for the quantity on hands being equal to the consumption of two or three years, of course the great mass of goods fell below cost often to half and one-third. All our citi- zens were at once converted into disciples of Adam Smith. They purchased every species of goods " cheaper than they could be manu- factured at home." Accordingly domestic manu- factures were arrested in their career. The weaver, the shoemaker, the hatter, the saddler, the sugar baker, the brewer, the rope maker, the paper maker, jc. were reduced to bankruptcy. Their establishments were suspended. Their workmen were consigned to idleness and beg- gary. The payment for the foreign rubbish ex- hausted the country of nearly the whole of its specie, immense quantities of which had been in- troduced to pay the French armies, and likewise from the Spanish colonies. Two-thirds probably of the specie then in the country were composed of French crowns. However calamitous the present state of affairs, we have not yet sunk to so low an ebb, as at that period. I have in 1786 seen sixteen ) houses to let in two squares, of about 800 feet, in one of the best sites for business in Philadel- phia. Real property could hardly find a market. The number of persons reduced to distress, and forced to sell their merchandize, was so great, and those who had money to invest, were so very few, that the sacrifices were immense, Debtors were ruined, without paying a fourth of the demands of their creditors. There were most unprecedented transfers of property. Men. worth large estates, who had unfortunately en- tered into business, were in a year or two totally ruined and those who had a command of ready money, quadrupled or quintupled their estates in an equally short space. Confidence was so wholly destroyed, that interest rose to two, two- and a half, and three per cent, per month. And bonds, and judgments, and mortgages were sold at a discount of twenty, thirty, forty, and fifty per cent. In a word, few countries have expe- rienced a more awful state of distress and wretchedness. While our citizens were writhing under these evils, destitute of a circulating medium, in- dustry universally paralized, thousands every where deprived of the means of supporting their families, bankruptcy daily swallowing up in its vortex our merchants, tradesmen, manufac- turers, and artisans it is not wonderful that recourse was had to various indefensible means ( 37 ) to palliate the evils. The real source, that is, the want of an adequate tariff to protect national industry by high duties and prohibi- tions, was not explored and even if it had been, there existed no authority competent to apply a remedy. Among the expedients employed, emissions of paper money, legal tenders, appraisement acts, and suspensions of the operation of courts of justice in regard to the collection of debts, were the most prominent. These were but misera- ble palliatives of a disorder arising solely, I re- peat, from the destruction of the national indus- try, and which nothing but its resuscitation could remove. In Massachusetts, the sufferings rose higher than in any other part of the United States. Riotous collections of people assembled in va- rious parts at the periods for convening the courts of common pleas, to prevent their pro- ceedings, and actually in every instance but one, according to Judge Marshal, carried their pur- poses into execution. In fact, so severe was the distress, and so numerous were the debtors, that they had a majority in the legislature more than once. The evil under the existing form of government was incurable. It ended in an open insurrection, under Shays, a revolutionary officer, which was crushed by the energy of ( 38 ) governor Bowdoin and his council and the de- cision of generals Lincoln and Sheppard. Some idea may be entertained of the state of public affairs, quite as deplorable as those of in- dividuals, from the circumstance that governor Bowdoin having raised four thousand militia against the insurgents, there was not money enough in the treasury to support that small army for one week; and they could not have been marched but for the patriotism of a number of public-spirited individuals, who subscribed the sum necessary for the purpose. The insurrection produced a salutary effect, by spreading a conviction of the utter inefficacy of the existing form of government, and of the imperious necessity of adopting a new one. The difficulty under which the federal constitution laboured in its progress, notwithstanding the im- petus it received from this alarming event, shews that it would have probably failed of success, had not the public distress arrived at its highest pitch. Those of our citizens, who ascribe the exist- ing calamities to the baleful career of the banks, are advised to consider this parallel case, where- in banks had no agency. When the war closed, there was but one bank in the United States, that of North America, located in the city of 'Philadelphia, with a capital of 400,000 dollars. ( 39 ) And in 1785, when distress and misery generate the state, many of the citizens, in eastiJiey can- to discover the source, believed, or affected to believe, that they sprang from the operation of this institution. Accordingly petitions were pre- sented to the legislature to repeal its charter. Counsel were heard at the bar of the house for and against the bank the late respected Judge Wilson in defence, and Jonathan Dickinson Sar- geant, father of the present member of congress from Philadelphia, in opposition. The state, let it be observed, was then divided into two par- ties, very violently embittered against each other. The repeal was quite a party question, and decided by party views. The majority in the legislature were hostile to the institution, and repealed the charter, which measure they re- garded as a sovereign remedy for 1 all the exist- ing evils. Had the repeal been effectual, it would have multiplied instead of diminishing them. But having a charter from congress, the bank set the legislature at defiance, and pursued " the even tenor of its way," unruffled by " the pelt- ings of the pitiless storm." It may gratify curiosity to see the view given of the tremendous influence which was conjured up for this institution, in order to alarm the citizens, and justify the repeal. The committee to whom the petitions were referred, in their report stated governor Ireigners will doubtless be more and more in- Cision of f oecome stockholders, until the time may arrive ,,-^n uffs enormous engine of power may become subject to "foreign influence. This country may be agitated with the " politics of European courts ; and the good people of Ame- " rica reduced once more into a state of subordination and de- a pendence upon some one or other of the European powers ."'# On the 17th of Feb. in the year 1784, the Massachusetts Bank was incorporated, with power to hold in real estate 50,000/. and to raise a capital stock of 500,000?. The subscrip- tion did not, I have reason to believe, exceed at that time 400,000 dollars. In the same year, the state of New York in- corporated the bank of that name, with the ex- tent of whose capital I am unacquainted. These were the only banks in existence in the United States, previous to the adoption of the federal constitution. And as distress and embar- rassment equally pervaded those states where there were none, it is absurd to ascribe the evil to those institutions where they existed. In North Carolina there were two emissions of paper money, with a legal tender, from 1783 to 1787. They depreciated fifty per cent, in a short time. The following extracts will convey a tolerably adequate idea of the state of affairs during the * Journal of the house of representatives, March 1785. :h 38, period embraced in this chapter, and exonerate me from the charge of exaggeration. They can- not fail to be worthy the attention of such of our statesmen as are disposed to trace na- tional calamities to their proper causes, in or- der to guard against their return at a future period. " In every part of these states, the scarcity of money has " become a common subject of complaint. This does not 44 seem to be an imaginary grievance, like that of hard times, 44 of which men have complained in all ages of the world. " The misfortune is general, and in many cases it is severely 44 felt. The scarcity of money is so great, or the difficulty of 44 paying debts has been so common, that riots and combina- 44 tions have been formed in many places, and the operations of 44 civil government have been suspended"* 44 Goods were imported to a much greater amount than could 44 be consumed or paid for" \ 44 Thus was the usual means of remittance by articles the 44 growth of the country, almost annihilated, and little else 44 than specie remained, to answer the demands incurred by " importations. The money, of course, was drawn ojf; and 44 this being inadequate to the purpose of discharging the whole 44 amount of foreign contracts, the residue was chiefly sunk by 44 the bankruptcies of the importers. The scarcity of specie, 44 arising principally from this cause, was attended withevi- 44 dent consequences ; it checked commercial intercourse 44 throughout the community, and furnished reluctant 44 debtors with an apology for withholding their dues both 44 from individuals and the public. "j: * Dr. Hugh Williamson. | Minot's history of the Insurrection in Massachusetts, p. 2. \ Idem, p. 13. 6 ) " On opening their ports, an immense quantity of foreign " merchandize was introduced into the country, and they were u tempted by the sudden cheapness of imported 'goods, and by " their own wants, to purchase beyond their capacities for " payment. Into this indiscretion they were in some mea* " sure beguiled by their own sanguine calculations on the " value which a free trade would bestow on the produce of " their soil, and by a reliance on those evidences of the pub- " lie debt which were in the hands of most of them. So ex- u travagantly too did many estimate the temptation which " equal liberty and vacant lands would hold out to emi- " grants from the old world, as to entertain the opinion that " Europe was about to empty itself into America, and that " the United States would derive from that source such an " increase of population, as would enhance their lands to a 1 " price heretofore not even conjectured."* " The bonds of men, whose competency to pay their debts " was unquestionable, could not be negociated but at a dis- " count of thirty, forty, and ffty per centum : real property "was scarcely vendible; and sales of any articles for ready ''money could be made only at a ruinous loss. The pros- " pect of extricating, the country from those embarrassments " was by no means flattering. Whilst every thing else fluc- " tuated, some of the causes which produced this calami- a 'tous state of things were permanent. The hope and fear " still remained, that the debtor party would obtain the vio " tory at the elections ; and instead of making the painful " effort to obtain relief by industry and economy, many " rested all their hopes on legislative interference. The mass " of national labour and national -wealth, was consequently di- " minis hed!"\ " But the public treasury did not afford the means of " keeping this force (under Lincoln) in the field a single " week : and the legislature not being in session, the consti- tuted authorities were incapable of putting the troops in * Marshal's Life of Washington, V. p. 75. ildem, p. 88. ( 43 ) "motion. This difficulty was removed by individual pa- " triotism !"* " Property, when brought to sale wider execution, sold at so " hw a price as frequently ruined the debtor without paying " the creditor. A disposition to resist the laws became com- " mon : assemblies were called oftener and earlier than the "constitution or laws required."! " Laws were passed by which property of every kind was " made a legal tender in the payment of debts, though pay- " able according to contract in gold or silver. Other laws u installed the debt, so that of sums already due, only a " third, and afterwards only a fifth, was annually recover- " able in the courts of law.'^ " Silver and gold, which had circulated largely in the latter " years of the -war, were returning by the usual course of trade, " to those countries, whence large quantities of necessary and " unnecessary commodities had been imported. Had any gene- " ral system of impost been adopted, some part of this " money might have been retained, and some part of the " public debt discharged ; but the power of Congress did M not extend to this object ; and the states were not united " in the expediency of delegating new and sufficient powers " to that body. The partial imposts, laid by some of the " states, were ineffectual, as long as others found their in- " terest in omitting them." " The people of New Hampshire petitioned ; and to " gratify them the legislature enacted, that when any debtor "shall tender to his creditor, in satisfaction of an execution for " debt, either real or personal estate sufficient, the body of the u debtor shall be exempt from imprisonment, and the debt " shall carry an interest of six per cent. ; the creditor being u at liberty either to receive the estate, so tendered, at a a value estimated by three appraisers, or to keep alive the * Idem, p. 121. f Ramsay's S. Carolina, II. p. 428. \ Belknap's History of New Hampshire, II. p. 352. Idem, p. 356. ( 44 ) " demand by taking out an alias, within one year after the " return of any former execution, and levying it on any " estate of the debtor which he can find."* This distressing state of things accounts for a fact which has always excited deep regret, and which, I believe, has never been traced to its source. I mean the depreciation of the pub- lic securities, which the holders were obliged to part with at ten, twelve and fifteen cents in the dollar, whereby a large portion of the warm- est friends of the revolution, who had risked their lives and embarked their entire property in its support, were wholly ruined, and many of its deadly enemies most immoderately enriched. Never was Virgil's celebrated line more ap- plicable Sic vos non vobis, mellificatis, apes. . The reader is requested to bear these pic- tures of distress in mind, during the perusal of the chapter in which I propose to investigate the causes assigned for the evils under which the community labours at present. They shed strong light on the subject. Well as I am aware of the pertinacious ad- herence of mankind to theory, and the difficulty of breaking the intellectual chains by which it * Idem, p. 429. ( 45 ) holds the mind, I cannot refrain from again urging the strong case of this country at that period on the most serious. consideration of the disciples of Adam Smith, Say, Ricardo, and the other political economists of that school- It ought to dispel for ever the mists, on the subject of un- restrained commerce, which that abstruse work, the Wealth of Nations, has spread abroad. Here the system had fair scope for operation. The ports of this country, I repeat, were open to the commerce of the whole world, with an impost so light as not even to meet the wants of the treasury. The consequences followed, which have never failed to follow such a state of things. Our markets were glutted. Prices fell. Competition on the part of our manufac- turers was at an end. They were beggared and bankrupted. The merchants, whose importations had ruined them, were themselves involved in the calamity. And the farmers who had felici- tated themselves on the grand advantage of "buying foreign merchandize cheap," sunk likewise into the vortex of general destruction. Would to heaven that the precious and in- valuable lessons these facts afford may not in future be thrown away on our statesmen and the nation at large ! Had they been duly attended to, at the close of tire late war, the United States, instead of the afflicting scenes they now exhibit, would present a picture of prosperity, 46 ) public and private, which would have realized the fondest anticipations of the philosophers of both hemispheres anticipations which have been most lamentably disappointed and " like the baseless fabric of a vision," scarcely " left a trace behind." CHAPTER III. Adoption of the federal constitution. Its happy effects. Utter impolicy of the tariff. Manufac- tures and manufacturers not protected. Hamil- ton^ s celebrated report. Glaring inconsistency. Excise system. Its unproductiveness. THE adoption of the federal constitution ope- rated like magic ; produced a total change in the state of affairs ; and actually removed no small portion of the public suffering, by the con- fidence it inspired, even before the measures of the government could be carried into effect. The United States began their career in 1789 with advantages never exceeded, rarely equalled. The early administrators of the government had a high degree of responsibility. They were laying the foundations of an empire which may be the most extensive and powerful the world ever knew, and whose destinies they held in their hands. The tariff was fraught with errors of the most grievous kind. Disregarding the examples and the systems of the wisest nations of Europe, it was calculated to sacrifice the resources of the country for the benefit of foreign manufacturing nations. And indeed had it been framed by an agent of any of those nations, it could not have answered the purpose better. It afforded them nearly all the benefits usually derived from colo- nies, without the expense of their support. It deprived our manufacturing citizens of all the advantages of reciprocity in their intercourse with the rest of the world. The era is not long passed over, when any man who dared to arraign the conduct of the early congresses under the federal constitution, and accuse them of having established tariffs which sacrificed the dearest interests of their country, and clipped its wings in its flight to- wards the high destinies to which its extent, its government, the energies of the people, and the great variety of other advantages which it pos- sessed, bid it aspire, would be regarded with jealousy, and covered with obloquy. The voice of reason, of truth, and of history, would have been smothered amidst the loud clamours of prejudice and party. But I trust the fatal results of the system have prepared the public mind to hear with patience, and judge with candour, the facts on which I ground these opinions, and the inductions I draw from them. To those ,who consider the mode in which the members of congress are elected the vari- ous quarters from which they come the differ- ( 49 ) cnt degrees of illumination that prevail in the districts they respectively represent how many neglect to prepare themselves fully for the stations they occupy it will not appear wonder- ful that the views of a portion of them are con- tracted, and do not embrace on a broad and com- prehensive scale, the interests of the nation as one grand whole. The want of adequate protection to the pro- ductive industry of the manufacturers, conspicu- ous in the first and the succeeding tariffs, may be accounted for from the concurrence in one object, of four descriptions of citizens, whose particular views, however, were entirely dif- ferent. I. The most influential members of the mer- cantile class have appeared at all times jealous of the manufacturers, and been disposed to re- gard adequate protection to them as injurious to the prosperity of commerce. Hence they have too generally and too successfully opposed pro- hibitions and prohibitory duties as limiting their importations of bale goods. Although there are many gentlemen of this class whose views are expanded and liberal, there is a large proportion whose opposition remains unabated. II. The agriculturists too have been equally jealous of the manufacturers opposed the im- position of duties adequate to the protection of their fellow citizens and not allowed a single 7 article to be prohibited. They dreaded an ex- travagant rise of price as a necessary result of securing the home market to our own citizens. It does not appear to have ever entered into their calculations, that, in a country like the United States, where monopolies are excluded, and where industry and enterprize so generally prevail, and are so wholly uncontrolled, the com- petition would, to use the words of Alexander Hamilton, assuredly " bring prices to their proper level" III. The third description comprised the dis- ciples of Adam Smith, who contended that trade ought to be allowed to regulate itself that commerce should be left unrestrained that all nations ought to buy wherever they could pro- cure articles cheapest, #$c. $jc. IV. The fourth class considered themselves, and were regarded by others, as of a higher or- der. The whole of their political economy was, however, confined within very narrow limits. It never travelled beyond the collection of reve- nue. The ways and means were their alpha and omega, their sine qua non. Provided the trea- sury was overflowing, they had neither eyes, nor ears, nor tongue for any other object. The spread of bankruptcy throughout our cities the decay of splendid manufacturing establish- ments the distress of thousands of useful men wailings of helpless women and children ( 51 ) never excited any alarm. The importation of foreign goods, to the amount of 60,000,000 dollars, which exhausted the country of its specie, produced almost universal distress and devoted thousands of workmen to idleness, and part of them to beggary, was a subject of rejoicing for it brought 15,000,000 dollars into the treasury ! This was the salve for every sore the panacea, which, like the waters of the Jor- dan, cleansed off all the ulcers and foulnesses of the body politic. This statement may appear too severe. But I beg the reader will not decide on the correct- ness or incorrectness of it, till he has read the chapter on the contumelious and unfeeling neglect of the pathetic applications of the manu- facturers to congress for relief in 1816, 1817, and 1818. The views of these four descriptions of citi- zens were aided by the extensive prevalence of a host of prejudices, which were sedulously in- culcated by foreign agents, whose wealth and prosperity depended on keeping this market open to their fabrics, and repressing the growth of our manufactures. 1. The idea of the immense superiority of agri- cultural pursuits and agriculturists over manu- factures and manufacturers, was almost univer- sally prevalent. It had been fondly cherished by Great Britain and her friends here during the colonial state of the country, and long after- wards : and no small portion of the citizens of the United States were unable to divest their minds of the colonial trammels, when the coun- try assumed its independent rank among na- tions. 2. The same keen sensibility on the subject of smuggling was manifested, as we have so often witnessed more recently. This was assign- ed as a reason for admitting three-fourths of all the manufactured merchandize under a duty of five per cent.! ! 3. The miserable outcry on the subject of " taxing the many for the benefit of the few," which is still used as a sort of war whoop against the manufacturers, was then in full force. 4. The back lands, it was asserted, ought to be cultivated before the labour of our citizens was diverted off to manufactures. 5. The high price of labour in this country was by many regarded as an insuperable bar. and a proof that " we were not yet ripe for ma- nufactures." 6. The demoralization asserted to be inse- parable from manufacturing establishments, was among the prominent objections. There is a magic in great names which ren- ders their errors highly pernicious. That Mr. Jefferson is a truly great man, is now, I believe, universally admitted, since the baleful passions, excited by party, have subsided, and the atro- cious calumnies with which, in the days of fac- tion and delusion, he was overwhelmed, have sunk into deserved oblivion. But that he has had no small degree of instrumentality in giving currency to the system we have pursued, it would be vain to deny. He has drawn a con- trast between manufactures and agriculture, so immensely advantageous to the latter, as to have fostered the old, and excited new prejudices against the former, many of which still maintain their sway. Mr. Jefferson was born, brought up and lived in a slave-holding state, a large portion of the industry of which is devoted to the cul- ture of tobacco, one of the most pernicious kinds of employment in the world. It more completely exhausts the soil, and debases and wears out the wretched labourer, than any other species of cultivation. How, under such circum- stances, he could have drawn such a captivating picture of the 'labours of the field, it is difficult to say. His Arcadia must have been sought, not in Virginia or Maryland, but in the tales of Chaucer or sir Philip Sydney. This is not a place to enter into a comparison of these occupations, otherwise the boasted supe- riority might be found not to rest on so stable a basis as is generally supposed. Mr. Jefferson lately retracted his opinions on those subjects. In a letter to B. Austin, Esq. of Boston, he distinctly states : " To be independent for the comforts of life, we must "fabricate them ourselves. We must now place the manufac* " turer by the side of the agriculturist" " Experience has taught me, that manufactures are now as necessary to our independence, as to our comfort" In order to justify the character I have given of the taritF of 1789, I annex a description of two tariffs, one calculated to protect and pro- mote individual industry and national prosperity, and the other to destroy both. FEATURES. Jl sound tariff Jl pernicious tariff 1. Renders revenue subservient 1. Regards revenue as the grand to the promotion of individual in- object of solicitude. dustry and national prosperity. 2. Prohibits no article whatever, 2. Prohibits such articles as can however competent the country be fully supplied at home on rea- may be to supply itself. sonable terms. 3. Imposes such low duties on 3. Imposes heavy duties on arti- manufactures, as, while they serve tides interfering 1 with the rising the purposes of revenue, cannot pro- manufactures of the counti y. mote national industry, or prevent 4. Admits articles that do not in- or materially check importation, terfere with the manufactures of 4. Raises as large a portion of the nation on light duties. the revenue as possible on arti- cles not interfering with the manu* factures of the nation. CONSEQUENCES. JL sound tariff Jl pernicious tariff Secures employment to industry, Deprives a large portion of the capital, talent, and enterprize. industry, capital, talent, and enter- Preserves the circulating medium, prize of the citizens of employ, and daily adds to the wealth, power, ment. and resources of the nation. Drains aw*iy the circulating me- Extends prosperity and happiness dium, and exhausts the national re- in every direction. sources. Spreads misery anddistress through the country, as we find by dear Bought experience. ( 55 ) If the tariff in question be tried by this stand- ard, which 1 trust will be found correct, and by its results, I shall be exonerated from censure. It was extremely simple. It enumerated about thirty manufactured articles, subject to seven and a half and ten per cent, duty Coaches, chaises, S;c. to fifteen and about eight or ten to spe- cific duties. All the remainder were thrown together, as non-enumerated, and subject to Jive per cent.!! Its protection of agriculture is re- served as the subject of another chapter. Blank books, Paper, Paper hangings, Cabinet wares, Buttons, Saddles, Tanned leather, Anchors, Wrought iron, Gloves, Millenery, At 7\ per cent. Tin and pewter ware, Canes, Whips, Ready made clothing, Brushes, Gold, silver, and plated ware, Jewelry, Paste work, Manufactures of leather, Hats. At 10 per cent. Looking glasses, Window and other glass, Gunpowder, China, stone -and earthen ware, Buckles, Gold and silver lace, Gold and silver leaf, Paints. At 15 per cent. Coaches, chariots, chaises, solos, &c. Subject to specific duties. H Cents. Cents, Boots, per pair - 50 Untarred cordage and Leather shoes 7 yarn, per cwt. 90 Silk shoes or slippers - 10 Twine or pack thread, Cables, p v er cwt. - - 75 per cwt. 200 Tarred cordage, do. - 75 Wool and cotton cards, Unwrought steel, per Ib. 56 per dozen - 50 Non-enumerated articles, subject to 5 per cent. Bricks, Brass in sheets, Brazing copper, Combs, Clocks, Copper bottoms, Hair powder, Inkpowder, Linens and other manufac- tures of flax, Maps and Charts, Paints, Printed books, Paintings, Silks, Slates, Starch, Sealing wax, Worsted shoes, Brass manufactures, China ware, Cannon, Cutlery, Cotton goods of all kinds, Fire arms, Gilt wares, Hempen cloth, Iron manufactures, Japanned wares, Lead manufactures, Muskets, Printing types, Pottery, Pins, Steel manufactures, Stone ware, Side arms, Sail cloth, Tin wares, Wood manufactures, Woollen goods of every ki &c. &c. In order to form a correct estimate of the effect of those duties as protection, it is neces- sary to take a view of the situation of this coun- try and of those with which our citizens were to compete which were principally, Great Bri- tain, France, Germany, and the East Indies. The United States had recently emerged from a desolating war of seven years duration, and a peace of six years had heen as destructive to their resources. Their manufacturers were pos- sessed of slender capitals, and as slender credit. Workmen were inexperienced and wages high. All the expenses, moreover, of incipient under- takings were to be encountered. The chief counterbalance for all these disadvantages, was the freight and commission on the rival arti- cles. Great Britain possessed every possible advan- tage in the conflict. Her manufacturers had the secure possession of their domestic market and had only to send their surplus productions to this country their machinery was excellent -they had drawbacks, in general equal to, and often greater than, the expenses of transporta- tion skilful workmen and wages compara- tively low. Her merchants were possessed of immense capitals, and gave most liberal credits. The cheapness of living and labour in France, Germany, and more particularly in the East Indies, afforded the people of those countries advantages over our manufacturers, only inferior to those enjoyed by Great Britain. Under these circumstances, I trust it will be admitted by every man of candour that it would 8 ( 38 ) be a mere mbckery and insult to common sense, to pretend that five per cent., which, as appears above, was the duty on seven-eighths of all the manufactured articles imported into this country, was imposed with a view to protection. Revenue alone was the object. Having to struggle with such a lamentably impolitic system, it is wonderful that our manu- factures made any progress. It reflects great credit on our citizens, that they were able to emerge from such an overwhelming mass of difficulties, as they had to encounter. While the grand leading manufactures of cot- ton, wool, iron, steel, lead, flax, and pottery ; were thus subject to only five per cent, duty, lest smuggling should be encouraged, it may afford some gratification to curiosity to exhibit a statement of the very high duties on tea, coffee, rum, c. which were wholly unrestrained by any fear of smuggling. 1789. Price. Duty. Per cent. Souchong, per Ib. - - - - 39 AQ 10 9O 25 AO Bohea do. .... Madeira, per gallon .... Jamaica rum, do. - - - - 15 100 40 1 91 6 18 10 01 40 18 25 9O i~ 2 z ^2 1 1 ^O Salt, per bushel - - - - - 12 A 2 6 50 Thus a yard of broad cloth or muslin, value four dollars, paid no more duty than a pound of hyson tea, value 49 cents ! ( 59 ) The amount of goods subject to ad valorem duties, imported in 1789, 1790, and 1791, was as follows Per cent. 1789. 1790. 1791. 5 n 10 12$ 15 S 7,136,578 520,182 305,248 5 2,700 14,605,713 1,067,143 699,149 4,876 SI 1,036,477 * 7,708,337 1,114,463 314,206 5,654 7,969,731 S 16,376,881 19,179,137* The duties oh the above were about 2,600, 000 dollars: and the whole amount of the im- post for those three years, was 8 6,494,225 dollars.f The residue, about 3,800,000, was collected principally from teas, wines, sugar, salt, spirits, spices, and coffee ! This completely justifies the character of the tariff, that as large a portion as possible of the impost was levied on articles not interfering with national industry ; and that the duties on -manufactured merchandize w r ere as light as the exigencies of the * government would admit. The manufacturers at this period, as they have done so often since, besought the protec- tion and threw themselves on the liberality of congress ; but they experienced the same de- gree of slight as they have done in 1816-17. On the eleventh of April, 1789, Samuel Smith, Seybert, 158. j Idem, 395. ( 60 ) Esq. of Maryland, presented to congress a inorial from the manufacturers of Baltimore, stating 44 That since the close of the late war, and the completion 44 of the revolution, they have observed with serious regret 44 the manufacturing and the trading interest of the country " rapidly declining, and the attempts of the state legislatures 44 to remedy the evil, failing of their object; that in the 44 present melancholy state of our country, the number of 44 poor increasing for want of employment, foreign debts " accumulating, houses and lands depreciating in value, and 44 trade and- manufactures languishing and expiring ; they 44 look up to the supreme legislature of the United States, 44 as the guardians of the whole empire, and from their uni- 44 ted wisdom and patriotism, and ardent love of their coun- " try, expect to derive that aid and assistance, which alone " can dissipate their just apprehensions, and animate them 44 with hopes of success in future ; by imposing on all foreign 44 articles, which can be made in America, such duties as will "give a just and decided preference to their labours ; discoun- " tenancing that trade which tends so materially to injure " them and impoverish their country ; measures which in 44 their consequences may contribute to the discharge of the 44 national debt, and the due support of government ; that 44 they have annexed a list of such articles as are, or can 44 be manufactured amongst them, and humbly trust in the 44 wisdom of the legislature to grant them, in common with 44 other mechanics and manufacturers of the United States, 44 that relief that may appear proper."* It would require a long chapter to develope the utter impolicy of this tariff, and its inauspi- cious effects on the industry and happiness of a Debates of Congress, I. 29. ( 61 ) large portion of our citizens, and on the national prosperity. My limits forbid me to display the whole of its deformity. I annex one further view of it : In 1793, the amount of merchandize imported at 7 and 8 per cent, was about - $ 15,328,000* On which the net duty was about - g 1,151,000 This included all articles of clothing, whether cotton, woollen, or silk, (except India goods, subject to twelve and a half per cent.) The net duty on coffee for the same year was 8 l,226,724f Or nearly ten per cent, more than on the whole of the clothing of the nation ! Let us examine how this might have been ar- ranged for the promotion of the prosperity of the country. Suppose that the duty on coffee had been re- duced so as to raise only - $ 700,000 And that the duty on cotton and woollen goods had been raised to 2O per cent., which might have reduced the importation to S 8,50O,OOO, and produced - 1,700,000 > 2,400,000 which is beyond the aggregate of the duties stated. * Seybert, 158. f Idem, 438. Or, suppose that the duty on coffee had re- mained unaltered, and on cottons and woollens been increased to 25 per cent. and that the importations had been diminished to 5.000,000 of dollars, the revenue would have been unim- paired. What an immense difference ! In one case nearly 7,000',000, and in the other 10,000,000 of dollars saved to the country ! Three or*1four hundred thousand people rendered happy! A market for the farmers for probably 3,000,000 Ibs. of wool ! and for the planters for 4,000,000 Ibs. of cotton ! But it is a humiliating truth, that very few of our statesmen have ever predicated their mea- sures on national views. They are almost all sectional. They do not fall within Rousseau's description : u It belongs to the real statesman to elevate his views in thz " imposition of taxes, above the mere object of finance, and tJ "transform them into useful regulations" It is a melancholy operation for a real friend to the honour, power, resources, and happiness of the United States, to compare the tariff of 1789, and the principles on which it is predi- cated, with the preamble to a law of the state of Pennsylvania, passed anno 1785, four years be- fore. The sound policy, the fostering care of its citizens, and of the resources of the state display- ( 63 ) eel in the latter, form a strong and decisive con- trast with the utter impolicy of the tariff. SECT. I. " Whereas divers useful and beneficial arts " and manufactures have been gradually introduced into " Pennsylvania, and the same have at length risen to a u very considerable extent and perfection, insomuch that u during 1 the late "war between the United States of America " and Great Britain, when the importation of European goods " was mucli interrupted, and of ten very difficult and uncertain, " the artisans and mechanics of this state, were able to supply " in the hours of need, not only large quantities of weapons " and other implements, but also ammunition and clothing, " without which the war could not have been carried on, where- u by their oppressed country was greatly assisted and relieved. SECT. ii. " And whereas, although the fabrics and manu- "factures of Europe and other foreign parts, imported into this u country in times of peace, may be afforded at cheaper rates " than they can be mdde here, yet good policy and a regard to " the well being of divers useful and industrious citizens, who " are employed in the making of like goods in this state, de- " mandofus that moderate duties be laid on certain fabrics and " manufactures imported, which do most interfere with, and '"which (if no relief be given) -will undermine and destroy the, " useful manufactures of the like kind in this country : For this " purpose,'" &c. &c. In the year 1790, Alexander Hamilton, who saw the errors of the tariff of the preceding year, presented congress with his celebrated Re- port on Manufactures, the most perfect and lu- minous work ever published on the subject. It embraces all the great principles of the science of political economy, respecting that portion of the national industry applied to manufactures.. and is admirably calculated to advance the happiness of the people, and the wealth, power, and resources of nations. It more richly de- serves the title of " The Wealth of Nations, 5 ' than the celebrated work that bears the name. This Report swept away, by the strongest argu- ments, all the plausible objections on which the paralizing influence of the tariff rested for sup- port. The lucid reasoning, as level to the most common capacity, as to the most profound statesman, is not enveloped in those abstrac- tions and metaphysical subtleties which abound in most of the books on this subject, and which, like the airy spectres of the dreamer, elude the grasp of the mind. I annex a few of those grand and sublime truths, with which this work abounds, and which bear the strongest testimony against, and con- demnation of, the course which this country has pursued. " The substitution of foreign for domestic manufactures, " is a transfer to foreign nations of the advantages of ma- " chinery in the modes in which it is capable of being .employ- " ed -with most utility and to the greatest extent"* How many millions of the wealth of this country have been thus " transferred to foreign nations" during the thirty years of our career! * Hamilton's Works, Vol. I. ( 65 ) , How much of this wealth was used to scourge us at Washington, on the frontiers of Canada, and in the Chesapeake ! What a lamentable use we have made of the advantages which heaven has lavished on us ! " The establishment of manufactures is calculated not ( 87 ) In the city and neighbourhood of Philadel- phia, there were employed In the cotton branch - 2325 persons. In the woollen - - 1226 do. In iron castings .... 1152 do. In paper making - - - - 950 do. In smithery ----- 75O do. The value of the manufactures of the city of Pittsburg, which in 18(5 employed 1960 per- sons, was 2,617,833 dollars. And every part of the country displayed a similar state of prospe- rity. 11 ow deplorable a contrast our present state exhibits ! CHAPTER VI. State of the country at the dose of the -war. Per- nicious consequences to the manufacturers. Mr. Dattas's tariff. Rates reduced ten, twenty, and thirty per cent. THE war was closed under the most favoura- ble auspices. The country was every where prosperous. Inestimable manufacturing estab- lishments, in which probably 60,000,000 of dol- lars were invested, were spread over the face of the land, and were diffusing happiness among thousands of industrious people. No man, woman, or child, able and willing to work, was unemployed. With almost every possible va- riety of soil and climate and likewise with the three greatest staples in the world cotton, wool, and iron the first to an extent commensurate with our utmost wants, and a capacity to produce the other two a sound policy would have ren- dered us more independent probably of foreign supplies, for all the comforts of life, than any other nation whatever. Peace, nevertheless, was fraught with destruc- tion to the hopes and happiness of a considerable portion of the manufacturers. The double duties ( 89 ) had been imposed with a limitation to one year after the close of the war. And a tariff as a sub- stitute was prepared by the secretary of the trea- sury, witiuluties fixed at the minimum rates which he thought calculated to afford them protection. On many of them, these rates were insufficient. Yet had his tariff been adopted, it would pro- bably have saved the country forty or fifty mil- lions of dollars and prevented a large portion of the deep distress that pervades the land, and which is driving legislative bodies to the despe- rate measure of suspending the course of jus- tice.* But a deep-rooted jealousy of manufac- turers was entertained by many of the members of congress, on the ground of imputed extortion during the war: and the old hacknied themes of " taxing the many for the benefit of the few'' the country not being ripe for manufactures wages being too high the immensity of our back lands, &;c. >c. 8jc. were still regarded as unanswerable arguments. In consequence of the combined operation of these causes, the rates were reduced on most of the leading articles ten, fifteen, and in some cases thirty per cent. Every per cent, reduced was regarded by many of the members as so much clear gain to the country. Some of them appeared to consider * Measures of this description are adopted, or under con- sideration by four or five states. Others will probably fol- low the example. It is contagious. ( 90 ) manufacturers as a sort of common enemy,* with whom no terms ought to be observed ; and there was no small number who were disciples of Colonel Taylor, of Caroline county, Va.f who ^Ex-Governor Wright, of Maryland, was .among the most violent of the members. His jealousy and hostility were without the least disguise, and were carried to an ex- tent that is hardly credible. A motion for a reduction of the duty on cottons having failed, he attempted to have it re-considered on the ground that some of the members who voted in the majority, were concerned in the cotton manufacture ! f Colonel Taylor is, I believe, a tobacco planter and has never, in any of his plausible works, raised his voice against the extravagant duties on snuff and manufactured tobacco. On this tender topic he is silent as the grave. Yet a chap- ter on it would have come from him with great propriety. It is a subject with which he ought to be thoroughly ac- quainted. I venture to hint that he might with great ad- vantage read the instructive fable of the lawyer's goring bull, which, with a suitable commentary on snuff and tobacco du- ties, might be very well prefixed as part of the prolego- mena to some of the amusing chapters of his Arator. It may not be amiss likewise to whisper gently in his ear, that even tobacco in the leaf is subject to fifteen per cent., which is exactly the same duty as that imposed on silks, linens, clocks, brazing copper, gold leaf, Hair powder, printed books, prints, slates, starch, stuff and worsted shoes, sealiig wax, thread stockings, &c. &c. Who, then, can reflect without astonishment, that this gentleman and Mr- Garnett take a lead in the opposition to the protection of manufac- tures, although their own rude produce is protected by the same duty as the above finished manufactures ! After this, we may well ask, with amazement, " -what next ?" Be it what it may, it cannot surprise us. ( 91 ) holds the broad, unqualified doctrine that every dollar paid as duty or bounty to encourage ma- nufactures, is a dollar robbed out of the pockets of the farmers and planters ! Wonderful states- man ! Profound policy ! How all the Sullys, and Colberts, and Frederics of Europe must " hide their diminished heads'* when their practice is put in contrast with this grand system of politi- cal economy ! To convey a correct idea of the spirit that prevailed in that congress towards their manu- facturing fellow citizens, I annex a statement of various articles, with the. duties as reported by Mr. Dallas, and as finally adopted : AIITICLES. TT 8 Tariffadopted. Per cent. Per cent. Blank books - - 35 3O Bridles - 35 30 Brass ware .... 22 20 Brushes 35 30 Cotton manufactures of all sorts 33 1-3 25 (Those below 25 cts. per square yard, to be dutied as at 25 cents.) Cotton stockings - 33 1-3 2O China ware 30 20 % Cabinet ware ... 35 3O Carriages of all descriptions - 35 3O Canes - 35 30 Clothing, ready made 35 3O Cutlery - 22 2O Cannon - - 22 20 Earthen ware - 30 2O Glass ware - - -SO -2Q ARTICLES. Harness Iron ware Leather and all manufactures of leather ... Linens ... Manufactures of wood Needles Porcelain - Parchment ... Printed books - v Paper hangings Paper of every description Printing types Pins Silks Silk stockings ... Sattins Stone ware ... Saddles Thread stockings Vellum Walking sticks - Whips v - . Woollen stockings Woollen Manufactures generally Boots, - per pair Iron in bars and bolts, per cwt. Shoes and slippers of silk, per pair - of leather for children Mr. Dallas's Tariff., Per cent. 35 - 22 Tariff adopted Per cent. 30 20 35 30 2O 15 35 30 22 20 30 20 35 30 35 15 35 30 35 30 35 20 22 20 20 15 20 15 20 15 30 20 35 30 20 15 35 30 35 30 35 30 28. 20 28 25 200 cts. 150 cts. 75 45 40 30 30 25 20 15 The various reductions of two and three per cent, evince the huckstering spirit that prevail- ed, utterly unworthy of the legislature of a great nation. Mr. Dallas made a difference jf five and ( 93 ) one-third per cent, between the two great arti- cles, cottons and woollens, rating the former at thirty-three and a third, and the latter at twenty- eight, in consequence of our possessing a bound- less supply of the raw material of the former, whereas that of the latter was rather limited. After an ardent struggle, the duties were re- duced, and both rated alike at twenty-live per cent. All the southern members voted for the reduction, except five, Messrs. Jackson, Marsh, and Newton, from Virginia, and Messrs. Cal- houn and Mayrant, from South Carolina, who enjoy the melancholy consolation of having en- deavoured to stem the storm. The cotton plan- ters who united in the vote for the reduction, have dearly expiated their error, in rendering their fortunes and the prosperity of their country dependent upon the' contingencies of foreign markets, instead of securing a large and con- stantly increasing market at home. This ought to be eternally sounded in their ears. Rarely has there been much greater impolicy and rarely has impolicy been more severely and justly punished. They fondly and absurdly thought that thirty cents per Ib. for cotton would last for ever. The committee of commerce and manufac- tures ; many of the most enlightened members of congress; and the agents of the manufac- turers, strongly remonstrated against the reduc- tion of duty ; and, as with a spirit of prophecy, predicted the fatal consequences, not merely to the manufacturers, but to the nation. But they might as well have attempted to arrest the cata- racts of Niagara with a mound of sand. Preju- dice was deep, inveterate, and unassailable. It has never in times past had eyes nor ears ; and, notwithstanding the elevation of character, and the superior illumination to which we fondly lay claim, we are not likely to offer to the ad- miring world an exception to the general rule. Of this unpalatable position our brief history, alas ! affords too many damning proofs. CHAPTER VII. llain of the manufacturers, and decay of their es- tablishments. Pathetic and eloquent appeals to congress. Their contumelious and unfeeling neglect. Memorials neither read nor reported on. Revolting contrast between the fostering care bestowed by the Russian gcrcernment on their manufacturers, and the unheeded sufferings of that class of citizens in the United States. FROM year to year since that time, ruin spread among the manufacturers. A large portion of them have been reduced to bankruptcy, from ease and affluence. Many are now on the brink of it. Most of them had entered into the busi- ness during the war, under an impression, as I have already stated, that there was a sort of im- plied engagement on the part of the govern- ment, that having been found so useful in time of need, they would not be allowed to be crush- ed, afterwards. To what extent there was any foundation for this idea, I am unable to decide. Suffice it to say, that all the calculations predi- cated on it were wholly and lamentably disap- pointed. The strong arm of government, which alone could save them from the overwhelming ( 96 ) influx of foreign manufactures, by which they were destroyed, was not interposed in their be- half. Noble establishments, the pride and orna- ment of the country, which might have been rendered sources of incalculable public and pri- vate wealth, and'which Edward III, Henry IV, Frederic the Great, and Catharine II, would have saved at the expense of millions, if neces- sary, are mouldering to ruins. And to crown the whole, millions of capital, which had every claim to the protection of government, has be- come a dead and heavy loss to the proprietors. At every stage of this awful progress, the de- voted sufferers not only appealed to the justice, but threw themselves on the mercy of their re- presentatives. The utmost powers of eloquence were exhausted in those appeals, some of which may be ranked among the proudest monuments of human talents. In the second session of the fourteenth con- gress, 1816-17, there were above forty memo- rials presented to the house of representatives from manufacturers in different parts of the United States, and some of them, particularly that from Pittsburg, fraught with tales of ruin and destruction, that would have softened the heart of a Herod. Not one of them was ever read in the house! The Pittsburg memorial was, it is true, printed for the use of the members. ( 97 ) The following is a list of the applications No. 1816. Memorials. Subjects. 1 Dec. 16. From New York Iron manufactures. 2 16. New Jersey do. 3 20. New York Umbrellas. 4 27. Massachusetts do. 5 30. New Jersey Iron manufactures. 6 1817, Jan. 6. New Jersey do. 7 8. New York do. 8 9. Philadelphia do. 9 10. Connecticut Iron manufactures. 10 10. New Jersey do. 11 13. Pennsylvania do. 12 13. New Jersey do. 13 14. Boston do. 14 16. Kentucky Bar iron. 15 20. Pennsylvania Bar iron. 16 22. Pennsylvania Iron manufactures. ir 27. New Jersey Bar iron. 18 28. Pennsylvania Iron manufactures. 19 29. Berkshire, Manufactures generally. 20 29. New York do. 21 30. New Jersey Iron manufactures. 22 30. N. York, Manufactures generally. 23 30. Oneida County do. 24 31. New York do. 25 Feb. 1. Pennsylvania Iron manufactures. 26 3. New York do. 27 4. Pennsylvania do. 28 4. N. York, Manufactures generally. 29 4. New York do. 30 6. Connecticut Iron manufactures 31 6. New York and Vermont do. 32 8. Pennsylvania do. 33 11. N. Jersey, Manufactures generally. 34 It. New York Iron manufactures ( 98 ) No. 1817. Memorials. Subjects. 35 Feb. 13. From Rhode Island. Cotton and woollen. 36 13. Connecticut do. 37 17. Pittsburg, Manufactures generally. 38 20. Illinois Lead. 39 24. Baltimore, Manufactures generally. 40 26. Philadelphia do. 41. 28. Oneida do, 42 28. Berkshire do. No description of mine could do justice to the force of some of these memorials. I shall there- fore present & few short specimens of the facts and reasonings they placed before the eyes of congress, to enable the reader to form a correct estimate of the extremely culpable neglect of the voice of their constituents, displayed by that body. The applications were as ineffectual as those of the congress of 1774, to the ministers of George III, and were treated with as little ceremony. From the Philadelphia Memorial. " We regard with the most serious concern the critical and " dangerous situation in which our manufactures are placed " by the recent extravagant importations of rival articles; u which, owing to the great surplus of them, and to the pres- " sure for money, are in many cases sold at such reduced " prices, as to render it impossible for our manufactures to " compete with them. We believe that with the interests u of the manufacturers are connected the best interests of " the nation and that if the manufactures of the country " are deprived of that support from the legislature of the u United States, to which we think they are fairly entitled, ( 99 ) 44 the evil will be felt not by us merely, but by the "whole na- * 4 tion ; as it will produce the inevitable consequence of an un- "favourable balance of trade, "whereby our country will be im- 44 poverished, and rendered tributary to foreign powers, whose 44 interests are in direct hostility with ours." From the Pittsburg Memorial. ;4 The committee have found that the manufacture of cot* " tons, woollens , flint glass, and the filer articles of iron, has " lately suffered the most alarming- depression. Some branches 44 which had been several years in operation, have been de- 44 stroyed or partially suspended ; and others, of a more re- 44 cent growth, annihilated before they were completely in " operation. 44 The tide of importation has inundated our country with "foreign goods. Some of the most valuable and enterprizing " citizens have been subjected to enormous losses, and others " overwhelmed rvith bankruptcy and ruin. The pressure of 44 war was less fatal to the hopes of enterprize and industry, 44 than a general peace "with the calamities arising from the "present state of our foreign trade. 14 It was confidently believed, .that the destinies of the u United States would no longer depend on the jealousy and 44 caprice of foreign governments, and that our national free* 44 dom and welfare were fixed on the solid basis of our in- 44 trinsic means and energies. But these were 4 airy dreams. 1 u A peace was concluded with England, and in a few months a we were prostrate at her feet. The manufacturers appealed 44 to the general government for the adoption of measures thai u might enable them to resist the torrent that was sweeping 44 away the fruits of their capital and industry. Their com- u plaints were heard with a concern which seemed a pledge 44 for the return of better days. The tariff of duties, esta- 44 blished at the last session of congress, and the history of 44 the present year, will demonstrate the falsity of their expec- u tations. " England never suffered a foreign government, or a com* ( 100) " bination of foreign^ capitalists, by glutting her own market, " to crush in the cradle, any branch of her domestic indus- " try. She never regarded, -with a cold indifference, the ruin of " thousands of her industrious people, by the competition of "foreigners. The bare avowal of such an attempt would " have incurred the indignant resistance of the whole body " of the nation, and met the frowns, if not the instant ven- " geance of the government. The consequences of this po- " licy in England are well known; her manufactures have " become a source of wealth incalculable ; the treasures of " Spanish America are poured into her lap ; her commerce u is spread over every ocean, an.d, with a population com- " paratively small, she is the terror and the spoiler of Eu- *' rope. Take from England her manufactures, and the foun- " tains of her wealth would be broken up ; her pre-emi- " nence among nations would be lost for ever. u For a speedy redress of such pressing evils, we look " to the government of the union. Will they uphold the sink- " ing manufactures of the country, or -will they not f are their " late assurances of aid and protection forgotten with the " crisis that gave them birth? Let them realize the hopes " of the country, and act with decision before it be too " late. " In the United States we have the knowledge of the " labour-saving machinery, the raw material, and provi- u sions cheaper than in Britain ; but the overgrown capital " of the British manufacturer, and the dexterity acquired " by long experience, make a considerable time, and heavy " duties necessary for our' protection. We have beaten " England out of our market in hats, shoes, boots, and all " manufactures of leather : we are very much her superior " in ship building ; these are all the works of the hands, " where labour-saving machinery gives no aid ; so that h?r " superiority over us in manufactures, consists more in the ex- " cellence and nicety of the labour-saving machinery, than hi " the wages of labour. With all their jealousy, and restric- " tions upon the emigrations of workmen, the distresses and " misfortunes of England will, by due encouragement, send ( lot ) u much of her skill and knowledge to our shores ; let us be " ready to take full benefit of such events, as England her- u self did when despotic laws in Germany, and other " parts of Europe, drove their manufacturers into Britain, " which laid the foundation of her present eminence. "That the cotton trade and manufa-'.tmc is a concvra u of vast importance, and even of leading' interest to the' " country, is a truth, your memorialists Tconce've/too \rA- " pable, to be denied or doubted. Were not our own con- " stant observation and daily experience sufficient to es- " tablish it, the prodigious exertions of our ever-vigilant " and indefatigable rival, directed against this particular in- " terest, would place the matter beyond a question. For " where a judicious and enterprizing opponent (as England " undoubtedly is in this respect) directs her strongest en- " gines of hostility, we have reason to conclude there lies " our vital and most important concerns. This considera- " tion is coming home to us with more and more force ; and " the cotton planter, as well as the manufacturer, must have u before this time discovered the alarming fact, that our great "rival has become possessed of both our plants and seeds of " cotton, which she is employing all her vast means to pro- " pagate in the East Indies and other British possessions, " with an energy and success which threaten the most alarm- " ing consequences. When your memorialists consider that " the article thus jeopardized is the great staple of the u country, they cannot but hope the people and their re- " presentatives will be generally convinced, that it is not " the interest of individuals alone that is at stake, but that u of the whole community. " An appeal is made to the equity, to the patriotism of the "southern statesman : his aid and co-operation is invoked for " the relief of the suffering manufacturers of the northern and 44 middle states. 44 In the interior of the United States, few articles can " be raised which will bear a distant transportation ; pro- 41 ducts much more valuable when the grorver and consumer 44 are near each, other, are therefore excluded from cultivation. 102 ) u A dependence on foreign markets in the most prosperous " times necessarily restricts the labours of agriculture to a very "few objects ; a careless, decrepit, and unprofitable cultivation a is the known result. " The propriety of these observations may, in some de- f '"gree, be illustrated by the difference in value between the '"land in the vicinity of a large town, and at a greater dis- , st larn:f- from it. The labour which produces the greatest " quantity of 'subsistence is bestowed in the culture of arti- 44 cles too cumbrous for transportation; and in general a " farm which will subsist fifty persons in its vicinity, would u not subsist the fifth of that number three hundred miles '" off. If the value of land be so much enhanced by the prox- " imity of a market, and so rapidly diminished by the dis- " tance of transportation, the introduction of manufactories, " and the creation of an interior market, ought to be regarded " as peculiarly auspicious to the interest of agriculturists. " Confining our views to the western country, we might em- u phatically ask, with what exportable commodities shall were- "store the balance of trade, now fast accumulating against "us? How arrest the incessant drain of our capital? Our "manufactures are perishing around us, and already millions " have escaped, never to return" It will remain an eternal blot on the escutcheon of the fourteenth congress, that this pathetic address received no more attention than if it had been from a party of field negroes to a marble-hearted overseer. From the Oneida Memorial. " That the above county contains a greater number of " manufacturing establishments, of cotton and woollen, than " any county in the state, there being invested in said es- " tablishments at least 600,000 dollars. " That although the utmost efforts have been made by ( 103 ) 44 the proprietors to sustain those establishments, their u efforts have proved fruitless, and more than three-fourths 44 of the factories remain necessarily closed, some of the pro- 44 prietors being wholly ruined, and others struggling under 44 the greatest embarrassment. u In this alarming situation, we beg leave to make a last " appeal to the congress of the United States. While we " make this appeal, our present and extensive embarrass- " ments in most of the great departments of industry, as " well as the peculiar difficulty in affording immediate relief " to manufacturers, are fully seen and appreciated. Yet your " petitioners cannot believe that the legislature of the union " will remain an indifferent spectator of the wide-spread ruin 44 of their fellorv citizens, and look on, and see a great branch " of industry, of the utmost importance in every community, "prostrated under circumstances fatal to all future attempts 44 at revival, without a further effort for relief. We would 44 not magnify the subject, which we now present to con- 44 gress, beyond its just merits, when we state it to be one of 41 the utmost importance to the future interests and welfare 44 of the United States. 44 It is objected that the entire industry of the country 44 may be most profitably exerted in clearing and cultivating 44 our extended vacant lands. But what does it avail the "farmer, when neither in the nation from which he purchases 44 his goods, or elsewhere, can he fnd a market for his abun- 44 dant crops f Besides, the diversion of labour from agricul- ture to manufactures, is scarcely perceptible. Five or six 44 adults, with the aid of children, will manage a cotton 44 manufactory of two thousand spindles." These memorials were all referred to the com- mittee of commerce and manufactures, which was then, so far as regarded them, a committee of oblivion. After a lapse of two months, that is, about the middle of February, a bill for the re- ( 104 ) lief of the iron masters was reported read twice and suffered to die a natural death ; hav- ing never been called up for a third reading. All the other memorials passed wholly unno- ticed and were never even reported on by the committee ! What renders this procedure the more revolting, is, that some of them were from large bodies of men of the first respectability. That from New York was signed by the governor of the state, and other eminent characters. And, moreover, many of the peti- tioners had agents at Washington to advocate their claims. The senate displayed the same culpable dis- regard of the applications, the sufferings, and the distresses of their fellow citizens, engaged in manufactures, as the house of representa- tives. They afforded no reliefnor did they even once consider the applications of the pe- titioners. But they paid somewhat more regard to decorum. The petitioners and memorialists had in succession leave granted them to with- draw their papers, on the motion of a member of the committee of commerce and manufac- tures ! ! The practice of congress, it appears, is to read the heads of petitions ; and then, without further enquiry, to refer them to the committee to which the business properly appertains. It cannot fail to excite the astonishment oi tiie citizens of the ( 105 ) United States to learn, that when they have found it necessary to meet and address their representatives, elected to guard their interests, and paid liberally for their services, those re- presentatives do not condescend even to hear or read what are their grievances, or the mode of redress proposed ! This is really so very inde- corous and so shameful as to be absolutely in- credible, if the fact were not established on good authority. Many of the most despotic princes of the East usually read the petitions of the mean- est of their subjects. But under the free govern- ment of the United States, the great tides of New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Boston, may combine together to seek relief from in- tolerable grievances; respectfully address their representatives ; and have their prayers not merely rejected, but not even heard ! The an- nals of legislation may, I am persuaded, be ran- sacked in vain for a parallel to this outrageous conduct. When we reflect on the waste of time in frothy speeches on points of little importance or on points of great importance, after the sub- ject has been completely exhausted and com- pare it with that economy of time which for- bids the spending ten or fifteen minutes in reading a petition from a great city, the capi- tal of a state, with a population of above a mil- lion of people, we are lost in astonishment at the 14 106 ) introduction of a practice which so egregiously violates every rule of duty, decency, and pro- priety. In the ensuing session, 1817-18, the same pa- thetic appeals to the justice, the humanity, the generosity, the public spirit of congress were made, and with little more effect. Two unimportant acts alone on the subject of manufactures were passed at this session. One increasing the duties on iron, and the other on copper, saddlery, harness, cut glass, tacks, brads, sprigs, and Russia sheetings. But on the great and important articles of cotton and woollen goods there was no increase of duty. The ad- ditional duties on iron have been ineffectual as the manufacture is at present in a most pros- trate state. Allegiance and protection are reciprocal du- ties. To withhold the one forfeits the claim to the other. And it is due to justice to state, that the manufacturers of the United States, w r ho, with their families and persons of every de- scription depending on them, amount to 1,500,000 souls with a capital of 8 150,000, 000, and producing probably 8 350,000,000 per annum, have not had that protection from the government to which their numbers and their importance give them so fair a claim. ( 107 ) A large portion of mankind, probably, even in this country, three-fourths, have no property but in the labour of their hands. To so many of them as are divested of this by an erroneous policy, one of the grand objects of government is destroyed And therefore, so far as property is concerned, their situation is no better than that of the subjects of despotism. I go further. The situation of the manufac- turing capitalist in the United States is incompa- rably worse than that of the manufacturing sub- jects of the monarchs of Europe, so far as regards the protection of property. This strong expression will excite the sur- prize of some superficial readers. But it is a crisis that demands a bold expression of truth. And the assertion need not be retracted or quali- fied. Here is the proof. Let Mr. Garnett, or Mr. Pegram, or any of the agricultural delegates re- fute it. Let us suppose a subject of Russia,* to invest a capital of one hundred thousand dol- lars in a manufacture of calicoes. He has no foreign competitor to dread. The fostering care of the government watches over him with the tenderness of a parent. He has loans if neces- sary. Bounties are also occasionally afforded. No combination of foreign rivals can operate * The reasoning applies equally to France, England, and Austria. : ) ( 108 ) his destruction. The domestic market is secured to him, with no othejr than the fair and legitimate competition of his fellow subjects, which always guards the rest of the nation against imposition. His plans arrive at maturity. He reaps the rich reward of his talents, his time, his industry, his capital. He gives support to hundreds, perhaps thousands, and is daily adding to the wealth, power, resources, and independence of the coun- try which affords him full protection ; and amply repays her kindness. Let us turn from this delightful picture of fos- tering and tender care, under a despotism, to ' the wretched, depressed, and vilified American capitalist, under a government which in its prin- ciples is really and truly the best that ever ex- isted. He invests one hundred thousand dollars in a similar establishment; engages hundreds of people in a useful and profitable manufacture \ finally conquers all the various difficulties that new undertakings have to encounter; and brings his fabrics to market, in the hope of that reward 1 to which industry, capital, and talent have so fair a claim. Alas ! he has to meet not only the com- petition of his fellow citizens, but of all the ma- nufacturing world. While he is excluded abso- lutely by prohibition, or virtually by prohibitory duties, from nearly all the markets in Europe, and indeed elsewhere, the East Indies, England. France, and Italy divide the home market with ( 109 ) him, which is crowded with cargoes of similar articles, by the cupidity or the distresses, but as often by the stratagems, of foreign manufac- turers, in order to overwhelm him, and secure the market ultimately to themselves. Their goods are sent to vendue, and sacrificed below prime cost in Europe. His cannot find a market, but at a sacrifice which ruins him. He implores relief from hi^ unfeeling countrymen. But he implores in vain. Their hearts are steeled against his sufferings. They meet all his complaints, all his prayers, with trite common places about " taxing the many for the benefit of the few, free trade," 6jc. fyc. and he is charged with extor- tion by men who for thirty successive years received from him and his brethren extravagant prices for all their productions ! He becomes bankrupt-, and dies of a broken heart. His family, born to high expectations, are reduced to a state of dependence. His workmen are driven to idleness and want, and exposed to the lures of guilt. The state is deprived of a useful citizen, who might have added to her " wealth, power, and resources." His fate operates as a beacon to others, to beware of his career And the wealth of the nation is exhausted to pay for foreign articles, substitutes for which he could have furnished of far better quality, and, though nominally dearer, in reality cheaper. This is the policy, and these arr its consequences, atlvo- ( 110 ) cated by the agriculturists of Virginia ! ! And this is the deleterious policy, fraught with de- struction to the happiness of a large portion of its citizens, that is pursued by the United States of America. * Hundreds of capitalists throughout this coun- try thousands of workmen millions of de- stroyed capital and the general impoverish- ment of the nation, bear testimony to the cor- rectness of this hideous portrait, so disgraceful to our country, such a libel on its mistaken policy. To such a man what does it signify by what name you call the government ? It is, you say, a republic. True. But, alas! he is ruined by its impolicy. The most despotic government in the world could do no more than ruin him. And some of them, it appears, would have protected him. Therefore, 1 repeat, so far as property is concerned, the difference is against the United States. In fact, the better the form of government, the more grievous his dis- tress. Under a despotism " to suffer and sub- mit" would be " his charter." But to be mocked and deluded with the promise of equal rights arid equal protection under a free government, and unfeelingly consigned to destruction by his own fellow citizens, and representatives, by the men whom he has clothed with the power to destroy him barbs the dart with tenfold keen- ( 111 ) Having submitted this portrait to the citizens of the United States, I ask, whether there be a greater contrast between the conduct of a fond mother towards her only and darling child and that of a rigorous step-mother, towards a step- child, which interferes with her views towards her own offspring, than there is between the treatment of manufacturers in Russia and in the United States ? If these views be unpalatable, the fault is not mine. Let those answer for them, who have ren- dered their exposure necessary. Their truth can be judicially proved. The situation of a very considerable portion of our citizens, is far worse than in the colonial state. They had then no competitors in the mar- kets of their country but their fellow subjects of Great Britain. Now they have competitors from almost every part of Europe and from the East Indies. The case of the paper makers affords a striking illustration of this position. One- half of them in the middle states are ruined not by the importation of British paper, of which little comes to this market but by French and Italian, with which our markets were de- luged for two or three years after the war. CHAPTER VIII. Dilatory mode of proceeding in Congress. La- mentable waste of time. Statement of the pro- gress of Mils. Eighty -two signed in one day! and four hundred and twenty in eleven! Un- feeling treatment of Gen. Stark. Culpable at- tention to punctilio. Rapid movement of com- pensation bill. To every man interested in the honour and prosperity of the country, it is a subject of deep regret to reflect on the mode in which the pub- lic business is managed in and by congress. It is among the sources of the distress and embar- rassment of our affairs, and requires an early and radical remedy. While in session, a con- siderable proportion of the members are em- ployed in chatting writing letters to their friends, or reading letters or newspapers. They pay little or no attention to the arguments of the speakers, except to those of a few of distin- guished talents. To some of the orators, how- ever, this is no great disappointment ; as their speeches are too often made for the newspa- pers, and to display their talents to their c stituents. ( "3 ) But the lamentable waste of time by the spirit of procrastination in the early part of the session, and by never-ending speechifying throughout its continuance, is the greatest evil, and is dis- creditable to congress and highly pernicious to the public service. There is in almost every ses- sion some subject of real or factitious importance, on which every member capable of speaking thinks himself bound to harangue, and to "keep the floor," for two, three, four, five or six hours. The merits of the speeches are generally mea- sured by the length of time they occupy. They are all, to judge by the puffs in the newspapers, elegant, wonderful, powerful, admirable, excel- lent, inimitable. In most cases, it will be found, as is perfectly natural, that the early speeches, on each side, particularly if by men of talents, exhaust the subject ; and that those which follow them, do little more than retail the arguments previously advanced. It surely requires no small disre- gard of decorum for a member to occupy the time of a public body, to whose care are entrust- ed the concerns of a great nation, with such fan tiguing repetitions. The debate on the repeal of the compensa- tion act cost some weeks; that on the Seminole war, fills six hundred octavo pages; which, if divested of the duplications, triplications, and quadruplicates, the rhetorical flourishes, and 15 extraneous matter, would be reduced to two hundred perhaps to one hundred and fifty. The Missouri question will probably fill from eight hundred to one thousand pages. Some of the prologues to these speeches are, as was hu- mourously observed by a member long since, like "sale coats," calculated to suit almost any other subject equally well. Arid during this miserable waste of time, excitement of angry passions, and seditious threats of separation, there is a total suspension of the business of the nation, whose blood flows at every pore whose revenues are failing whose manufac- tures are paralized of whose commerce one- half is annihilated whose merchants and manu- facturers are daily swallowing up in the vortex of bankruptcy whose great staples have fallen in price at least thirty per cent. and which ex- hibits in every direction most appalling scenes of calamity and distress ! Some idea may be formed 'of the mode in which the business of this nation is conducted by its legislature, from the following chronolo- gical statement of the periods at which the acts of successive sessions were approved by the presidents. Between their passage in the two houses and the dates of the presidents' signa- tures, there may be some few days difference, for which the reader will make allowance. But be that allowance what it may, it cannot remove ( 115 ) the accusation of a most ruinous waste of time, and a most culpable and shameful procrastina- tion of public business in congress. In the first session of the twelfth congress, which commenced on the 4th of November, 1811, and terminated on the 6th of July, 1812, there were one hundred and thirty-eight acts passed, which were signed by the president in the following chronological order In November - - 2 . December ...... 8 January ...... 9 February -----*- 14 March - - 14 April 26 May - 21 June -------- 17 July 1st 8 July 6th - 29 138 Twelfth congress. Second session. From November 2, 1812, to March 3, 1813. Sixty-two acts November --------1 December --------4 January --------11 February 23 March 3d 23 62 ( 116 ) Thirteenth congress. First session. From May 24, to Aug. 2, 1813. Fifty -nine acts. May - - June -------- July August 2d - - - - 00 3 32 24 59 The twenty-four acts signed on the 2d of August, contain forty-six pages of close print. The act imposing the direct tax, is in the num- ber, and contains twenty-two pages. Thirteenth congress. Second session. From December 6, 1813, to April 18, 1814. Ninety-foe acts. December - January .-... -7 February .'....--- 7 March - - - 27 April 1st to 16th 18 April 18th - 34 Thirteenth congress. Third session. From September 1814, to March 3, 1815. One hundred acts. September - - - - - October --.--.. November December - January ------ February - - - - - March 1st - March 3d 95 19 9 38 4 31 10O The thirty-one acts signed on the 3d of March, contain thirty-five pages. This was the ever memorable session of con- gress, in which the imbecility of the majority and the factious violence of the minority, brought the nation to the jaws of destruction, previous to the close of the war. Fourteenth congress. First session. From December 4, 1815, to April 30, 1816. One hundred and seventy-three acts. December ----.... o January -----...4 February -----.. 15 March ... 14 April 2d to the 24th 39 26th and 27th - 59 29th 31 30th - 8 173 Fourteenth congress. Second session. From December 2, 1816, to March 3, 1817. One hundred and fourteen acts. In December -.--...c. ( 145 ) The entire impost for fourteen years, from 1801 to 1814, inclusive, was - S 159,762,602* On Spirits - 25,441,543 Wines 7,646,476 . Sugar - 19,455,110 Salt - 4,057,047 Teas - - 8,565,874 Coffee - --- 10,777,113 Molasses - 4,98O,65O Sundry articles - 7,47O,317f 88,434, Leaving a balance of S 71,328,472 f To which add half of the last item of sun- dries, as probably on manufactures - 3,735,158 Total 875,063,630 This is the whole amount levied on manufac- tures of every kind, for fourteen years, being about five millions and a half per annum ! The white population of that period averaged probably about 7,000,000. Of course the duties paid on manufactures amounted to about eighty cents per head ! And this is the sum and sub- stance of the " taxes levied on the many by the ew^ and the immense favours conferred on " the few'' by " the many!" which have furnish- ed matter for so many tedious speeches in con- gress, tiresome declamations at public meetings, and verbose newspaper essays and paragraphs * Seybert, 454, J: Idem, 398 to 405. (0 ( 146 ) without end or number; with which "the welkin has rung" and which, I repeat, have called in- to activity all the base passions of our nature, and excited a deadly hostility in the minds of one portion of our citizens against another. The clamour would have been contemptible, had the whole sum been granted as an alms, or through generosity. But when it is considered that every dollar of this sum has been raised for the mere purpose of revenue, language cannot do justice to the feelings the affair is calculated to excite. I shall now consider the subject at a more re- cent period. The whole amount of duties ad valorem for 1818, was - - $11,947,260 To which add for manufactures of lead, iron, and steel; glass bottle s v copperas, allum, and other articles subject to specific duties - 694,493 Total on manufactures - 12,641,753 A large portion of those duties was levied on silks, high-priced cambrics and muslins, gauzes, fine linens, lace shawls, lace veils, pearls, embroidery, gold lace, &c. &c. which our citizens do not manufacture. These duties are by no means chargeable to the protection of manufactures suppose - - 1,500,000 Balance of impost supposed for protection of manufactures - $11,141,753 Against this we must set off all the duties levied for the protection of agri- culture, viz. On spirits, for the encouragement of the cul- ture of grain, and the protection of the peach brandies, rye whiskey, &c. of the farmers S 2,646,1 86 Sugar - ... 1,508,892 Cotton - 126,542 Hemp - - 148,873 Indigo ..... 19,049 Coals - .... 46,091 Cheese ~ - - - - , - - - 16,694 Impost for protection of agriculture - - S4,572,32T Leaving a balance against the manufacturers of S 6,569,426 When we consider how frugal and economi- cal the great body of our farmers are in the eastern, middle, and western states; how few of them, comparatively speaking, purchase im- ported articles, except groceries; and how ex- pensively the inhabitants of our cities and towns live in general; it will appear more than proba- ble, that of the goods on which the above duties are collected, not nearly one-half are consumed by farmers. A view of the preceding tables and statements affords the following results 1. That the whole amount of the duties levied on manufactured articles, of every description, for the year 1818, having been only about 12,- 600,000 dollars, and the population of the Uni- ted States at present being about 10,000.000, of whom probably eight are white, the average is ( 148 ) only about one dollar and a half for the white population. 2. That of this amount about one-eighth part is levied on articles not interfering with our manufactures. 3. That there are duties levied in favour of agriculture equal in amount to more than a third part of those levied on manufactures. 4. That when the latter duties are set oft* against those levied for the protection of ma- nufactures, the remainder is about seventy -five cents for each free person in the United States. 5. That probably more than half of the goods on which those duties are levied, are consumed in towns and cities and of course that the amount paid by the farmers and planters is not above sixty cents per head, notwithstanding the senseless and illiberal clamour excited on the subject. 6. That were all the duties on manufactured articles removed, the burdens of the commu- nity would not be diminished a single dollar; as there is no more revenue raised than the emergencies of the government require, and of course some other tax or duty must be devised. CHAPTER XII. Immense advantages enjoyed bij the farmers and planters for nearly thirty years, -viz. a domes- tic monopoly and excellent foreign markets. Exorbitant prices of the necessanes of life. Great extent of the domestic market. Internal, trade of the United States. FOR nearly thirty years, the farmers and plan- ters of this country enjoyed a high degree of prosperity. They had almost universally excel- lent foreign markets for all their productions and, from the commencement of the govern- ment, have had a monopoly of the domestic market, having had the exclusive supply of the manufacturers, who have not consumed of fo- reign vegetables, bread-stuffs, butcher's meat, fowls, fuel or any other of the productions of ' agriculture, to the amount of one per cent, per annum. It is, nevertheless, a fact, however in- credible, that those citizens, enjoying this im- portant domestic monopoly, and having laid very high duties on all the articles that inter- ( 150 ) fere with their interests, as snuff, tobacco, cotton, hemp, cheese, coals, $>c. ; accuse their manufacturing fellow citizens as monopo- lists ; who are not only shut out of nearly all the foreign markets in the world by prohibitions and prohibitory duties ; but, even in their own markets are exposed to, and supplanted by, fo- reign adventurers of all countries! !! It is diffi- cult to conceive of a more unjust charge, or one that comes with a worse grace from the ac- cusers. During this long period, the farmers sold in all cases at high, and in many at most exorbi- tant prices. To instance a few articles, in order to illustrate the remark: we paid them ten and twelve, and thirteen dollars a barrel for flour twelve to eighteen cents per Ib. for beef and pork twelve to fourteen cents for tobacco fifteen to thirty cents for cotton; and in the same proportion for all their other productions, though it is well known, they could have afford- ed them at half those prices, and made hand- some profits. In one word, the history of the world affords few, if any instances, of such a long-continued scene of prosperity as they en- joyed. The manufacturers cheerfully paid those prices. The cotton-weaver, the smith, the shoe- maker, the carpenter, the labourer, who earned ( 151 ) six, seven, or eight dollars per week, never lisp- ed a word of complaint, when they paid twelve or ti.irteen dollars per barrel for flour, eight or ten cents per pound for mutton, ?c. jc. Would to heaven they had experienced the same degree of liberality from their farming and planting fellow citizens ! which, alas! they have not. It remains to ascertain the effect of this mo- nopoly in favour of their agricultural fellow citizens, which our manufacturers have for thirty years afforded them without the least murmur. It is impossible to ascertain with precision the number of our citizens engaged in manufac- tures, with their families. The census is misera- bly defective in this respect. It does not furnish the population of the towns and cities, which would afford a tolerable criterion. We are there- fore left to mere estimate. The highest number that I have ever heard surmised, is two millions; the lowest, one. Truth, as is generally the case, may lie in the medium. I will therefore assume one million and a half. As there may be some objections on the sub- ject of the number thus assumed, I annex the ground on which it rests. I suppose, as I have stated, the white popula- tion of the country to be about eight millions, and to be proportioned as follows ( 152 ) 10-16ths, agriculturists - - - 5,QpO,000 3-16ths, artists, mechanics, manufacturers, &c. - - - 1,500,000 3-16ths, professors of law and physic, gentle- men who live on their income, merchants, traders, seamen, &c. - - 1,500,000 8,000,000 I believe I would not have been wide of the mark, in adding 500,000 to the second item, and deducting 250,000 from each of the others. But I prefer taking ground as little as possible liable to cavil. Pirom, an eminent English statistical writer, es- timates the average annual consumption of grain in England, at two quarters, or sixteen bushels, for each person.* Colquhoun, strange to tell, estimates it only at one quarter. I will assume the medium of twelve bushels. At this rate the consumption of the manufacturers would 'be about 18,000,000 of bushels per annum. The average price of wheat in the United States during the wars of the French revolution, was about one dollar and seventy-five cents per bushel. - For the last two years, it has been about * " The average prices of all these several kinds of grain " being 20s. 6 " ruin, to the jate that has ^befallen so many of their Brethren, is the " extortion"* they are said to have practised during the late war, which, if they have an opportunity, they will, it is assert- ed, repeat. The justice of this accusation is as firmly believed by a large portion of the people of the United States, as if it were supported by - proofs from holy writ." Great zeal and address have been employed by persons whose interests are subserved by exciting hostility against the manufacturers, to disseminate this prejudice. JJnfortunately their efforts have been crowned with success. The accusation, it is true, has been refuted times without number; but, re- gardless of the refutation, it is still advanced 31 ( 163 ) with as much confidence as if disproof had ne- ver been attempted, and, indeed, as if it were impossible. This reproachful charge has been recently advanced by a respectable body of planters, whose opportunities and situation in life should have shielded them from falling into such an error. The general meeting of delegates of the United Agricultural Societies of Virginia, in a memorial adopted on the 10th of January, de- precate the idea of being placed " At the mercy of an association, who, competition being " removed, will no longer consider the intrinsic value of an " article, or what price would afford a fair profit to the ma- " nufacturer, but how much the necessities of the consumer " would enable them to extort. Of this spirit we had a sujp- " dent specimen during the late war with Great Britain" This very gentlemanly, decorous, and vera- cious accusation is the act of Thomas Cocke, Edmund Ruffin, John Edmonds, George Blow, W. P. Ruffin, W. J. Cocke, Nicholas Fanleon, Charles H. Graves, Richard Cocke, John Pegram, Roger A. Jones, "l Theophilus Field, j John Jones, and ) Henry Jones, j>E3crs. When these gentlemen were thus denouncing " the extortion practised in consequence of the necessities of the consumer,'' it is wonderful they did not pause a little, and reflect on the price of fifteen dollars per cwt. which they received in 1818 for their tobacco, in conse- ( 163 ) quence of the necessities of the shippers, where- by so large a portion of those shippers were ruined, and so many illustrious families reduced from a state of affluence to penury and depen- dence ! They might also turn their attention to the extravagant price of two and three dollars per bushel for wheat, and eleven, twelve, thir- teen, and fourteen dollars per barrel for flour. These reminiscences would have been rather malapropos, and deranged some of the flowery paragraphs of their memorial. Our own offences are easily forgotten. "They are marked in sand" while those of our neighbours are "en- graven on marble." As the prejudice on this subject has produced the most deleterious consequences, not merely on the happiness . and prosperity of the manu- facturers generally, but on the power and re- sources of the nation, 1 hope for a candid hear- ing, while I investigate it, and undertake to prove 1. That the charge is not only not true, but the reverse of truth ; that the rise of price was perfectly justifiable; and that the shadow of ex- tortion did not attach to the procedure. 2. That the charge of extortion would apply with infinitely greater force and propriety to the farmers, planters, and merchants, who in this case are the accusers, than it does to the manu- facturers. ( 16* ) The accusation has been more frequently predicated on the rise of the price of broad cloths, than of any other article. As in this case it comes before us in a tangible form, and sub- ject to the talisman of figures, I shall there- fore confine myself to this prominent and con- spicuous case ; observing, en passant, that the facts and reasoning appjy equally to other branches. They all stand on nearly the same ground. In every case, in which a rise of price took place, it arose from a cause similar to that which operated on broad cloth. Therefore if the charge be disproved in this instance, it falls to the ground on the whole ; just -as when, during the late war, several vessels were cap- tured in circumstances exactly similar, the trial of one decided the fate of the rest. The facts of the case are, superfine broad cloth was sold previous to the war at from eight to nine dollars per yard during the war it rose to twelve, thirteen, and fourteen. On this "extortion" the changes have been rung from New Hampshire to Georgia from the Atlantic to the Mississippi. It is considered as a set off against, and justification of, the wide- spread scene of desolation, the sacrifice of capi- tal to the amount of millions, the ruin of hun- dreds of capitalists, and the extreme distress of thousands whose sole dependence is on the la- bour of their hands on which congress have ( 165 ) for years looked with unfeeling indifference, without taking a single effectual step to relieve the sufferers, or to remove their sufferings. The value of every manufactured article de- pends on the price of the raw material the cost of workmanship and the prolit of the capi- talist by whom it is produced. That a rise in the price of either or both 'of the two first will justify a rise in the price of the article, is too manifest to require proof. Now, to the senseless and calumnious outcry against ^extortion," on this subject, it would be sufficient to state the simple fact, that the raw Inaterial experienced a most extraordinary rise, as will appear from the following statement of the prices at different periods Prices of Merin'o wool. 1812. May 1. per'lb. 75 cents. July 20. - 75 to 10O* Oct. 1. - 75 to 150* 1814. May 1. - - 3OO to 4OO* Aug. 29. - - - - 300 to 400* Nov. 14. - - 30O to 400* This alone would settle the question beyond the power of appeal. Let it be observed, that it requires two pounds of wool to make a yard of superfine cloth. Therefore the difference in the price of the raw material accounts for and fully justifies the rise * Grotjan's Price Current. ( 166 ) in the price of the cloth. Two pounds in May, 1812, cost one dollar and fifty cents ; in May, 1814, they averaged seven dollars. It follows, that the per centage of profit was not so great on the cloth at fourteen dollars as at eight. I do not know the expense of workmanship; but shall suppose it five dollars per yard. Any other sum would answer equally well. 1812. May 1. 2 Ibs. wool ... 1 50 Workmanship - - 5 00 Profit 6 50 1 50 Price of cloth - g 8 OO Profit about 20 per cent. 1814. May 1. 2 Ibs. wool - - - - g 7 Workmanship - - - 5 T Profit Price of cloth Profit 16f per cent. 12 2 $14 Wages, too, rose considerably in consequence of the increased demand for workmen; for however extraordinary it may seem to colonel Pegram and his friends, it is nevertheless true, that a workman thinks he has as clear a right to raise his wages in case of an increased de- mand, as a planter has to raise the price of his tobacco or cotton in similar circumstances. There is, moreover, another item of consi- derable importance to be taken into view. Owing to the utter impolicy of our govern- ment, and the want of adequate protection to the woollen manufacture, the business had not been carried to any extent previous to the war. The establishments were at that time to be ( 167 ) erected, at an enormous expense, and under considerable disadvantages. This warranted an extra price, in the shape of interest. I now proceed to prove, that had the woollen and other manufacturers raised the prices of their fabrics, without any rise in the raw mate- rials, or wages, or without any extraordinary ex- pense of buildings, neither the farmer nor the merchant could justly censure them, without at the same time pronouncing their own condem- nation. So far as respects the farmer, I might rest the question on the case stated, of the Me- rino wool. The rise on this article, from seven- ty-five cents to three and four dollars, in two years, was among the most extravagant ad- vances ever known in the annals of trade. And if the charge of " extortion" would ever fairly lie against a rise in price, it would in this case in- dubitably. Never was the admonition " First cast the beam out of thine own eye and then t/iou shalt see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye" more appropriate. Had the Pharisee in the gos- >1, reproached the publican with pride, he would not have been more culpable than the far- mer, who raised his wool four hundred per cent, and reproaches the manufacturer with " extor- tion" for raising the cloth, made of that wool, fifty per cent. Indeed in all the exuberant stock 168 ) of human fplly, there cannot be found any thing more extraordinary or extravagant But the defence does not i;est on this ground alone. It is corroborated by almost every article of agricultural produce, which has always risen in consequence of an increased demand. Tore- move all doubt, if doubt could have existed, I state from the Philadelphia price current the various prices of four articles at different periods, with the very extraordinary advances on them. Flour, Tar. Pitch. 1809. 1810. 1813. 1813. Hams. 1813. Jan. 16. March 6. May 1. Aug. 1. Jan. 9. May 8. Jan. 9. May 8. Oct. 9. Jan. 9. May 8. Oct. 9. - per bbl. g 5 50 7 50 - 8 00 11 OO - 2 10 4 00 2 50 4 50 - 5 00 per Ib. 9i 11 - - 14J So much for the farmers. Let us now ex- amine how far they are kept in countenance by the proceedings of the merchants. War was declared on the i.8th of June, 1 8 is. An immediate rise of price took place in every article in the market which was either scarce or likely to become so. Some were at once raised fitly, sixty, and seventy per cent. ( 169 ) 1812. June 9. per Ib. S 1 30 96 1812. July 13. 15* Imperial tea Hyson Coffee White Havanna sugar, per cwt. 14 75 Brown do. do. 12 75 All these advances took place in less than five weeks. 1 35 20 18 50 16 00 Russia hemp Havanna molasses Souchong tea 1812. June 9. per ton S 242 5O 56 50 1812. Aug. 10. S30O OO 721 75 Salt, per bushel 1812. May Aug. 1813. Oct. 1814. Aug. Oct Tin, per box 1812. May Aug. Oct. 1814. Aug. Plaster Paris, per ton 1812. June Aug. 31. Oct. 5. Dec. 14. 55 85 1 35 - 2 25 3 OO - 28 OO - 32 00 - 33 00 - 50 OO - 12 37 - 14 50 - 15 50 - 17 50 This was all regarded as perfectly fair, ho- nest and honourable. There was not the sha- dow of " extortion" supposed to be in it. The merchant, who raised his souchong tea fifty per cent, was so deeply engaged in clearing the ma- nufacturer's eye of the " mote," that he quite forgot to " take the beam out of his own." ( 170 ) Can the citizen, who buys flour at six dol- lars, and sells it occasionally in the West Indies for twenty, twenty-live, or thirty dollars, with- out a deep blush reproach the manufacturer with " extortion" for raising broad cloth, from eight to fourteen dollars, when the raw material rose so extravagantly ? or even had the price of the latter remained stationary? Rise of price, in consequence of scarcity or increased demand, is, or is not, "extortion" This is a dilemma, on the horns of which the farmers, planters and merchants are caught. If it be " extortion," they have been and are u ex- tortioners"* in the fullest sense of the w r ord ; as they always have and always do raise the price of their produce or merchandize, in conse- quence of scarcity or increased demand. In- deed, if this be extortion, all mankind are ex- tortioners lawyers, doctors, apothecaries, house owners, ship owners, money lenders, planters, and farmers, without distinction; for they all raise their prices in consequence of an increas- ed demand. But if this be not extortion, as it certainly is not, then every man, woman, or child in the nation, from the highest, proudest, haughtiest, and wealthiest, down to the lowest scullion, who has advanced the charge of " ex- tortion" against the manufacturers, has broken the eighth c'ommandment of the decalogue, and u borne false witness against his neighbour." ( 171 ) I trust, therefore, that there is no man of libe- rality in the country, who considers the subject with due attention, but will allow that the inces- sant clamour against the manufacturers for ex- tortion, is illiberal and disgraceful to the age utterly destitute of foundation in direct hostility with that brotherly regard which fellow citizens owe each other, and which is the surest founda- tion of harmony and happiness in a community; and that it produces a system of conduct incon- sistent with the soundest principles of political economy as well as destructive to the perma- nent wealth, power, and resources of the nation. CHAPTER XIV. agricultural the predominant interest in the United States. Great advantages to agricul- ture from the vicinity of manufacturing esta- blishments. Case of Aberdeen. Of Harmony. Of Providence Fall of lands the result of the decay of manufactures. As the agriculturists are now, and are likely to be for a century at least, the predominating interest in this country, and have a decided influence in its legislation, it is of immense im- portance that they should form correct views on the system best calculated to promote the general welfare. And it is much to be regretted that the endeavours to persuade them, that there is an hostility between their interests and those of their manufacturing fellow citizens, have been but too successful. Never was there a prejudice much more unfounded, or more pernicious to their prosperity and to that of the nation at large. It is proved, (page 159) that the annual con- sumption of the city of Philadelphia in food and drink, amounts to about 8 11,000,000, all paid to the farmers, which is more than one-fifth part of all the domestic exports of the United ( 173 ) States for the last year; within ten per cent, of the whole of the articles of food exported within that year; and almost thirty per cent, of the average domestic exports of the nation for the last thirty years. To the farmer and planter the home market is incomparably more advantageous than the foreign. Woeful experience proves that the lat- ter is subject to ruinous fluctuations. Where- as the former is permanent and steady, little liable to vicissitude. It furnishes demand for the farmer's vegetables, his poultry, his fruit, his fuel, and various other articles, which are too perishable, or too bulky in proportion to their value, for exportation. The income from all these forms an important item in the prospe- rity of the farmer. This is true, even in small countries, as England, Ireland, and Scotland, of which every part is contiguous to, or not far distant from the advantages of navigation. But it has ten-fold weight in a country like the Uni- ted States, of which a large and important portion is from three to fifteen hundred miles distant from the emporium to which its pro- ductions must be transported before they are put on shipboard to be forwarded to a mar- ket. The difference, to these portions of this country, between a foreign and domestic mar- ket, is probably equal to fifty per cent, of the whole profits of farming. As theories, however plausible, are liable to C great errors, unless supported by the bulwark of facts, I presume that it cannot be unaccepta- ble to the reader, to have these important views supported by facts of undeniable authenticity. I therefore submit for consideration the case of the neighbourhood of Aberdeen, in Scotland, and that of the settlement of Harmony, in the state of Pennsylvania. " Have we not opportunities of observing every day, that " in the neighbourhood of a ready market, no inducements are " necessary to excite the common farmer to become industrious^ " and carry on improvements of every sort with success f A " particular case occurs to me just now, that is so directly u in point, that I cannot resist the temptation of producing " it, as an example of the rapid progress -with which improve' " merits in agriculture are made ^vhen circumstances are fa- ^ v our able. " The town of Aberdeen HAS MADE GREAT ADVANCES IN U " TRADE AND MANUFACTURES WITHIN THESE THIRTY OR " FORTY YEARS PAST. The number of inhabitants has in- " creased greatly within that period. Money has become more "plenty there than formerly . Their manner of living is now " more elegant and expensive ; articles of luxury have in- " creased. In consequence of good roads having become " more common, horses and wheel-carriages have also be- u come extremely numerous. On all which accounts, the de- u mand for fresh vegetables has greatly increased in that place u within the period above-mentioned. " But on account of the particular situation of that town, " it was a matter of some difficulty to augment the produce " of the fields in that neighbourhood, and supply the daily " increasing demand for these. This city is placed in the *' midst of a country that is naturally the most sterile that can u possibly be imagined. For, unless it be a few hundred acres " of ground that lie between the mouths of the rivers Dee 44 and Don, close by the town, there was not on inch of ( 175 ) 11 ground for many miles around it that could supply the in- 44 habitants -with amj of the necessaries of life. On the east is u the German Ocean. On the south the Grampian moun- " tains come close to the river, terminating in a head-land 44 on the south side of the harbour, called the Girdle Ness : " and on the west and north, it is environed for many miles 44 with an extended waste, the most dismal that can be con- 44 ceived, in which nothing can be -discovered but large u masses. of stone heaped upon one another, interspersed 44 here and there with a few bushes of starved heath, or dis- u joined by uncomfortable bogs and spouting marshes, the " most unpromising to the views of the farmer that can pos- " sibly be imagined. u But what is it that human industry cannot perform ! 44 what undertaking is too bold for man to attempt when he " has the prospect of being 1 repaid for his labour! Even these 44 dismal wastes, it was imagined, might be converted into 44 corn-fields. The ground was trenched ; the stones were 44 blasted by gunpowder, and removed at an immense ex- "pense; manures were purchased: and thousands of acres 44 of this sort of ground are now waving -with the most luxu- 44 riant harvests, and yield a rent from Jive to eight pounds ster- 44 ling per acre. 44 In any other part of the world that I have seen, it would 41 be reckoned impossible to convert such soils to any valua- 44 blc use ; and the most daring improver that I have met 44 with any where else, would shrink back from attempting 44 to cultivate a field which an Aberdeensman would con- 44 sider as a trifling labour. Loilg habit has familiarised 44 them to such arduous undertakings, undertakings which 44 could not be attempted any where else ; as, unless in such 44 a particular situation as I have described, the improver "could never be repaid. For in what other part of Europe 44 could a man lay out one hundred pounds sterling, or up- 44 wards, on an acre of ground, before it could be put under 44 crop, with any prospect of being repaid ? yet this is no 44 uncommon thing in that neighbourhood. 44 Nor is this all : For to such a height is the spirit for ( 176 ) " improvement risen in that part of the world, that they are " not only eager to cultivate those barren fields, but even " purchase these dreary wastes at a vast expense, for that " purpose. The last spot of ground of this sort that was to be " disposed of in that neighbourhood, was f cue d off by the town " of Aberdeen in the year 1773, for ever, at an annual quit-rent, " or, as we call it, feu-duty, of thirty-three or thirty-four shil- " lings sterling per acre, although it -was not then, and never " could have been worth sixpence per acre, if left in its native u state nor could be converted into corn-ground but at an " expense nearly equal to that above-mentioned. " Could I produce a more satisfactory proof, that A " GOOD MARKET WILL ALWAYS PRODUCE A " SPIRITED AGRICULTURE ?"* To this Scotch case, which is nearly as strong and conclusive as the mind can conceive, I shall add a more recent American one, which has a peculiar interest. The settlement at Harmony, in the state of Pennsylvania, was begun in the fall of 1804, and is probably the only settlement ever made in America, in which from ,t}ie outset agricul- ture and manufactures proceeded hand-in-hand together. The progress to wealth and prospe- rity, therefore, has been far beyond any previous example in this country. "In 1809, they built a fulling mill, which does a great " deal of business for the country, a hemp mill, an oil mill, " a grist mill, a brick warehouse, 46 by 36 feet, having a "wine cellar completely arched over; and another brick * Anderson on the means of exciting a spirit of National Industry, p. 63, ( 177 ) il building of the same dimensions. A considerable quan- u tity of land was cleared. The produce of this year was u 60OO bushels of Indian corn; 4500 bushels of wheat; 44 450O bushels of rye ; 5000 bushels of oats ; 1O,OOO bu- " shels of potatoes ; 400O Ibs. of flax and hemp ; 10O bushels 44 of barley brewed into beer ; and 50 gallons of sweet oil, " made from the white poppy, and equal to the imported " olive oil. Of this produce they sold 3000 bushels of corn, " 1000 bushels of potatoes, 1000 bushels of wheat; and " they distilled 1600 bushels of rye. " In 1810, a wool-carding machine and two spinning jen- 44 nies were erected, for the fabrication of broad cloth from " the wool of merino sheep. A frame barn was built, 100 44 feet long, and a brick house built, to accommodate 2O " weavers' looms."* " After breakfast, we visited the different branches of 44 manufactures. In the wool loft, eight or ten women were " employed in teazing and sorting the wool for the carding 44 machine which is at a distance on the creek. From thence 44 the roves are brought to the spinning house in the town, " where we found two roving billies and six spinning jen- 44 nies at work. They were principally wrought by young 44 girls, and they appeared perfectly happy, singing church 44 music most melodiously. In the weaving house sixteen 44 looms were at work, besides several warpers and win- " ders."f 44 After dinner we visited the soap and candle works ; 44 the dye works ; shearing and dressing works ; the turners, 44 carpenters, and machine makers; and, finally, we were con- 44 ducted through the warehouses, which we found plenti- 44 fully stored with commodities ; among others, we saw <4 450 pieces of broad and narrow cloth, part of it of merino 44 wool, and of as good a fabric as anif that ever was made in 44 England. We were told, that they could sell the best broad 44 cloth, as fast as made, at ten dollars per yard"\ *Melish's Travels, ii. 68. f Idem, 70. i Idem, 71. ( 178 ) "The society now [1811] consists of about 800 persons, " and the operative members are nearly as follow : one " hundred farmers ; three shepherds ; ten masons ; three " stone-cutters ; three brickmakers ; ten carpenters ; two " sawyers ; ten smiths ; two wagon makers ; three turners ; " two nailors ; seven coopers ; three rope makers ; ten shoe- " makers ; two saddlers ; three tanners ; seven taylors ; one " soap boiler ; one brewer ; four distillers ; one gardener ; " two grist millers ; two oil millers ; one butcher ; six join- "ers; six dyers, dressers, shearers, &c.; one fuller; two " hatters ; two potters ; two warpers ; seventeen weavers ; " two carders ; eight spinners ; one rover ; one minister of "religion; one schoolmaster; one doctor; one storekeeper, "with two assistants; and one tavern keeper, with one " assistant."* The original stock, in 1804, was 20,000 dollars, which was expended in the purchase of land, and in supporting themselves till they commenced their operations. And, in 1811, their property amounted to the wonderful sum of 220,000 dollars. " 900 acres of land - jS 90,OOO " Stock of provisions - 25,OOO " Mills, machinery, and public buildings 21,OOO u Dwelling houses - 18,O()0 " Horses, cattle, hogs, and poultry 10,000 " 100O sheep, one-third of them merinoes, of which one ram cost 100O dollars 6,000 " Stock of goods, spirits, manufactures, leather, im- plements of husbandry, &c. &c. 50,000 $220,000j * Melish's Travels, ii. 77. f Idem, 80. ( 179 ) To this delightful picture of the blessed effects of a judicious distribution of industry, the states- man ought to direct his eyes steadily. It holds out a most instructive lesson on the true policy to promote human happiness, and to advance the wealth, power, and resources of nations. The histor) of the world may be examined in vain for any instance of such rapid strides made by any body of men, wholly unaided by boun- ties, premiums, loans orimmunities from govern- ment. The Harmonists were true practical po- litical economists. They did not, like so large a portion of the rest of the people of the Uni- ted States, lavish their wealth on the manufac- tures of a distant hemisphere, nor buy abroad cheap those articles which they could procure at home. In the sound and strong language of Mr. Jefferson, they " placed the manufacturer beside the agriculturist;" and they have reaped the copious harvest which such a policy cannot fail to secure. One such practical example out- weighs volumes of the visionary theories of those closet politicians, who are the dupes of their heated imaginations. Mr. Gallatin's report on manufactures, dated April, 17, 1810, contains an important statement of the situation of a manufactory in Providence, Rhode Island, which sheds great light on this subject, and which is entitled to the most seri- ous attention. ( 180 ) In this manufactory there were employed, males - 24 Females 29 And besides the above, there were employed for the establishment, in neighbouring families, males - 50 Females ........75 Thus, out of one hundred and seventy-eight persons, there were one hundred and four fe- males. The report is so far deficient, that it does not detail the respective ages of the work people ; but judging from the state of other ma- nufactories, we may assume that at least half of the whole number were children. If this be admitted, it will follow, that there were men 3/ Women - 52 Male and female children - - 89 irs To the farmer this statement presents itself in a peculiarly striking point of light. Of the whole number of persons to whom this manufactory afforded employment, more than two-thirds be- longed to the circumjacent farm-houses, who were thus enabled to gather up fragments of time, which would otherwise have been inevit^ ably lost. It is not improbable that the profits of their labour were nearly equal to the pro- fits of the farming. I might cite the cases of Brandy wine, Wil- mington, Pittsburg, Providence, Lancaster, and a hundred other places in the United States, where the establishment of manufactories, by affording an extensive and advantageous mar- ket to the farmer, doubled and trebled the price of the lands in their neighbourhood and in- creased in an equal degree the comforts and prosperity of the farmers. And on the contrary, numberless instances are to be met with, in which the recent decline of manufactures has reduced the lands to one-third, or one-fourth, of the previous price. The average reduc- tion of the price of land in the neighbour- hood of Pittsburg is one-half of what it was bought and sold for in 1813, 14, and 15. The farmers of the United States have been induced to oppose protection to their manufac- turing fellow citizens, lest they should be oblig- ed to purchase domestic, at a higher rate than imported manufactures. This erroneous policy has carried its own punishment with it. The re- duction in the price of the farmer's produce, which can be obviously traced to the prostra- tion of the manufactories, has in many cases been quadruple the saving in the price of the ar- ticles he purchased. I take as examples, raw wool and woollen cloth, and suppose that the farmer could buy foreign cloth for six dollars, and would have to pay, in consequence of pro- tecting duties, nine for American a difference that never existed in regular trade. The prices of goods purchased at auction, cannot with pro- priety be taken into account. They baffle all calculation. Merino wool now sells for fifty cents per pound: of course it would require twelve pounds to pay for a yard of British cloth. But had the woollen manufacture been duly protected, wool would be at least one dollar. Thus nine pounds of wool would pay for a yard of. domestic cloth, at the presumed advance of price. Let it be added, moreover, that the farmer would probably sheer twice or three times the quantity of wool, were the price one dollar, that he does at present: for had the woollen manufacture been protected, the me- rino sheep, in which such immense sums were invested, would have been preserved, instead of so large a portion of them being consigned to the slaughter-house. Believing that the prejudices prevailing on this subject have done more injury to this coun- try, and more retarded its progress than all the wars it ever carried on, from the landing of " the Pilgrims' 5 to the present hour, I make no apology for adding another instructive quota- tion from the respectable writer who figures so largely at the commencement of it. Would to heaven that those farmers and planters ( 183 ) who form the majority of the legislature of the United States, were duly impressed with the soundness of his statements, and predicated the laws of their country on the useful lessons they furnish! The United States would then present a different spectacle from what they do at pre- sent to their friends and enemies a spectacle of gratulation to the former, and of mourning to the latter. " A nation peopled only by farmers must be a region of in- 44 dolence and misery. If the soil is naturally fertile, little 41 labour will procure abundance ; but for want of exercise " even that little labour will be burthensome and often ne- " glected. Want will be felt in the midst of abundance ; " and the human mind be abased nearly to the same degree u with the beasts that graze in the field. If the region is 44 more barren, the inhabitants will be obliged to become 44 somewhat more industrious and therefore more happy. 44 Those therefore who wish to make agriculture flourish hi 44 any country, can have no hope of succeeding 1 in the attempt 44 but by bringing commerce and manufactures to her aid; 44 which, by taking from the farmer his superfluous produce, "gives spirit to his operations, and life and activity -to hit 44 mind. Without this stimulus to activity, in vain do we 44 use arguments to rouse the sluggish inhabitants. In vain 44 do we discover that the earth is capable of producing the 44 most luxuriant harvests with little labour. Our own abun- 44 dant crops are produced as undeniable proofs of this in 44 vain. But place a manufacturer in the neighbourhood, who 44 will buy every little article that the farmer can bring to 44 market, and he will soon become industrious the most bar- 44 ren fields will become covered with some useful produce. 44 Instead of listless vagabonds, unfit for any service the- 44 country will abound with a hardy and robust race of men. 84 ) " fit for every valuable purpose : and the voice of festivity " and joy be heard in every corner, instead of the groam, " of misery and the sighs of discontent."* The vacancy in this page may be usefully filled with an extract from Parkes' Chemical essays, which bears cogently on this subject. " If a line be drawn upon the map of England, across the country from Sunderland to Bristol, all the counties on the west of this line, will be found jto contain coal. Formerly these were the least valuable districts, and the parts of the country which werethe most thinly populat- ed. Hence, when the constitution of the British parlia- ment was established, the greatest weight of representa- tion was given to the rich counties on the other side of that line. Whereas, now, owing to the establishment of manufactures, the coal counties have become the most popu- lous and -wealthy : and the agricultural districts have either been comparatively deserted, or at least have not much increased in population. " This accounts in some measure for the inequality of our representation, and shows very distinctly the value of our mines of coal, and that by the establishment of ma- nufactures, even the most sterile and forbidding district may be rendered populous, flourishing and opulent "\ * Anderson on National Industry, p. 61 fVol. II. p. 361. CHAPTER XV. General reflexions on commerce. Conducted on terms of reciprocity, highly advantageous. Commerce of the United States carried on upon very unequal terms. Has produced most injurious consequences. Tables of exports. Es- timates oj the profits of commerce. Pernicious consequences of the competition of our merchants in the domestic and foreign markets. The ruin of so many of them the result of the excess of their numbers. THE extent and value of the commerce of the United States have long been prolific themes for orators in congress, and writers of newspapers and it appears generally assumed to be only second to our agriculture, and far beyond manu- factures in importance. It has had incompara- bly more attention bestowed on it by our go- vernment, than either agriculture or manufac- tures. A candid investigation of those sounding pretensions, whereby they may have the seal of certainty imprinted on them, if they be correct; or, if otherwise, may be reduced to their pro- per standard, cannot fail to be interesting. That commerce, properly conducted, on fair and reciprocal terms, is highly beneficial, has never been doubted by any sound mind. It tends to civilize, and increase the comforts of, the great family of mankind. i But that it may be, and is occasionally, very injurious, is equally clear. When one nation receives only luxuries from another, and pays for them in necessaries of life, or specie, or in raw materials which would find employment for its own people, it is eminently pernicious. To make the matter more clear, I will sup- pose that England were to furnish France with her raw wool, lead, tin, iron, flax and hemp, and to receive in return Merino shawls, silks, satins, pearl necklaces, diamond watches, yc. the most devoted advocate for commerce would allow this species of it to be extremely pernicious. Again. If England furnished wool, flax, hemp, and iron, and received in return even necessary articles, such as broadcloths, linen, duck, hard- ware, jc. it would be highly disadvantageous ; as she would give the produce of the labour of five, ten, or twenty persons for that of one. But such a commerce would be transcend- ently pernicious, if England had a large portion of her population wholly unemployed, and capa- ble of manufacturing those articles for her own consumption. If this reasoning be correct, as applicable to ( 187 ) Great Britain, it is difficult to prove why the system should not be equally pernicious to the United States. It is as absurd, as impolitic, and as cruel to our citizens, who are suffering for want of employment, and who could manufac- ture cotton goods for us, to export such quali- ties of raw cotton, and receive cambrics and muslins in return, as it would be for England to export her wool, and import her woollen manu- factures. " Strike, but hear," said a general, about to offer some unpalatable opinions to a friend. As the views I am going to take of the subject of commerce, however true, are likely to be as unpalatable to the merchants as the opinions of the general to his friend, I say to them " strike, but hear." I shall attempt to prove 1. That a large proportion of the productive manufacturing industry of this country has been sacrificed to our commerce. 2. That the commerce of the United States has been carried on, upon very unequal terms and that it has produced most injurious re- sults upon the national prosperity. 3. That its extent and advantages have been overrated. And 4. That the numerous bankruptcies among 188 ) our merchants have chiefly arisen from the want of protection to manufactures. These views ire so repugnant to the feelings and prejudices of a numerous class of citizens, that 1 can scarcely hope for a fair discussion. More than half my readers will at once pro- nounce me deranged and be disposed to throw the book into the fire. Again, therefore, I say, " strike, but hear. 5 ' I. Sacrifice of productive industry. To prove the sacrifice of productive industry, I refer the reader to the tariffs of 1789,* 1791, 1792, and 1804, where he will find that the du- ties on seven-eighths of the manufactured goods imported into this country were originally at five then seven and a half then ten then twelve and a half and at length fifteen per cent, the advance not the result of the applica- tions of the manufacturers for protection, but to meet the increasing demands of the treasury. Heuce, with every possible advantage of water power, raw materials, machinery, talents, enter- prize, industry, and capital, until the declaration of war, three-fourths of the clothing of the in- habitants of all our towns and cities were of fo- reign fabrics and the wealth of the nation was lavished to support foreign workmen, and fo- * See page 55. ( 189 ) reign governments, while we had hundreds, nay thousands of citizens capable of supplying them, who were driven in many cases to servile and far less profitable labour. The experience of our late war, and the im- mense spring it gave to the industry and ma- nufactures of the country, prove that one-hall' the protection afforded to the merchants in the China trade would have enabled our citizens to have established the cotton and woollen branches on a liberal scale, and saved many millions of dollars to the country annually. This was unhap- pily sacrificed by the system of low duties, which was advocated by the merchants and adopted by congress to promote the interests of commerce. Tiie influence of the former has been success- fully exerted at all times, to prevent prohibitions and prohibitory duties. The unsoundness of the policy this country has pursued, by which it has been virtually placed in the situation of a colony to Great Bri- tain and the other manufacturing nations of Europe, appears palpable from the following considerations : So far as respects the cotton and woollen branches, on a large scale, we were almost as completely excluded from them by the impolicy of our tariff until 1812, as if a law had been passed to render their establishment penal. This declaration may surprize but is nevertheless ( 190 ) susceptible of proof. The two strong facts al- ready stated that with all our advantages for the manufacture of cotton, we consumed only 30,000 pounds in the year 1800. although we ex- ported about 30,000.000 and that in 1812, we were so dependent on Europe for woollens, that we had not a supply of blankets for our army, nor were our manufactories at that time in a situation to make provision for the emer- gency, place the matter beyond doubt. He that will not be convinced by these facts, of the ruin- ous policy we pursued and the wanton waste of our resources, would not be convinced, though one were to rise from the dead. The tariff of 1789, which established the five per cent, duty, might as well have had the fol- lowing preface, as the one which was prefixed to it: " Whereas, although this country has become indepen- " dent of Europe in its government, and by its arms it is u expedient that it should still continue in the colonial state, " so far as respects its supplies of all the essential articles " for comfort and convenience : " Therefore be it enacted, &c. that the duties to be levied " on the importation of manufactures of cotton, wool, linen, " pottery, lead, iron, steel, brass, and wood, be no more " than five per cent, ad valorem." However ludicrous this may appear, it only gives body and substance to the virtual effects of the tariff' ' ( 191 ) II. In order to prove my second position, I sub- join a view of our exports and imports, and a statement of the various species of the former for fifteen years. Our exports have consisted chiefly of four different species of articles 1. Necessaries of life. 2. Raw materials, which we ourselves could have manufactured, and which constituted one- fourth part of our exports. 3. Naval stores, of indispensable necessity for the nations which purchased them. 4. The luxury of tobacco, which is about one- eighth part of the whole amount. Our imports consist principally of 1. Tea, coffee, wines, spices, cocoa, choco- late, almonds, raisins, 6jc. which we do not raise, and which of course do not affect our national industry. 2. Spirits, sugar, cotton, indigo, hemp, malt, lead, >c. which interfere with the best interests of our farmers and planters. 3. Manufactures of cotton, wool, leather, iron, Sjc. ;c. which interfere with the interests of our manufacturers, and of which we could, by proper protection, supply ourselves with the greater part. 4. Luxuries, which tend to introduce extra- vagance, and deprave our morals. ( 192 ) Domestic exports for fifteen y ears ^ from 1803 to 1817, itt- clusive.* Cotton - Vegetable food Lumber, masts, &c. Tobacco - Animal food and animals Dried salt fish Pickled fish Whale oil and bones Spermaceti oiFand candles Ginseng, peltry, &c. Naval stores Pearl and potashes Manufactures Uncertain Average 8154,179,117 192,564,368 52,796,000 74,768,000 34,712,560 16,915,256 4,155,419 2,819,528 - 1,658,320 - 8,130,305 6,579,931 - 13,990,000 27,270,000 4,836,000 $ 595,374,804 g 39,691,653 A cursory glance at our exports, will satisfy the reader, that few nations have carried on commerce to more disadvantage, than we have done a large portion of ours. We have ex- changed the most valuable productions of na- ture in the rudest state, with the least possible degree of labour and received in return every species of merchandize in its most finished form of which labour constituted two-thirds, three-fourths, and four-fifths of the value. This more particularly applies to cotton, which wo * Seybert, 146-7. have shipped at an average of about twenty-five cents per pound, except Sea Island, and received back at an advance about five-fold thus enabling foreign nations to pay for the whole crop with one-fifth part of it and wantonly throwing away the remaining four-fifths. And a large por- tion of the manufacture being performed by ma- chinery, we have given the labour of twenty or thirty persons for one. Never was there a sys- tem more admirably calculated to stunt the growth of a nation; to destroy the effect of the advantages bestowed on it by nature ; and to render its inhabitants hewers of wood and drawers of water to other nations. One view of this subject is so appalling, that it will make the heart ache of every man who has any regard for the real interests of this coun- try, or a wish to advance its wealth, power, and resources. The increase by manufacture of the value of the raw material of cotton, was in 1811, accord- ing to Colquhoun, about five-fold. Let us see the operation of this portion of our commerce test- ed by that scale. We exported, it appears, in fifteen years, cot- ton to the amount of S 154,179,117 This, according to Colquhoun, produced S 770,895,585 Leaving to foreign nations the enormous pro- fit of S 616,716,468 Or an annual average of 8 41, 114,431 ( 194 ) Two-thirds of which we might by a sound policy have retained among ourselves. There can be no doubt that Great Britain de- frayed the whole expense of the war against us by the profits she derived from this single article, in a few preceding years. Thus our short-sighted policy tends to aggran- dize, at our own expense, foreign nations with which we have had, and may have, most peril- ous collisions. It now remains to give a general but concfse view of the injurious effects produced by our commerce. I shall confine myself to facts of such universal notoriety as to preclude controversy. Commerce has 1. Carried away our raw materials, and de- luged us with manufactures, whereby millions of capital invested in manufacturing establish- ments have been lost hundreds of the proprie- tors ruined and thousands of workmen reduc- ed to idleness, and exposed to the lures of dis- sipation and crime. 2. Subjected us to an expense for foreign in- tercourse and for the Barbary powers to the amount of nearly 12,000,000 of dollars in twenty years.* 3. Bankrupted an immoderate proportion of those who pursued it. *Seybert, 712, 713. 4. Caused a war, by which there is entailed on us a heavy debt of nearly 80,000,000 of dol- lars, and an annual interest of above 4,700.000 dollars. 5. Rendered a navy necessary, which creates an expense of above 3,500,000 dollars for the present year. 6. Given a prodigious spring to luxury and extravagance, by the superfluous articles it has introduced among us. 7. Drained away the circulating medium of the country, whereby every kind of business is paralized, and the nation impoverished. 8. Rendered us dependent on foreign nations for many of the comforts, and even some of the necessaries of life. That these consequences have resulted from our commerce, I trust will be admitted. They are considerable drawbacks on its advantages, which ought to be immensely great to counter- vail them. It behoves us then to examine the extent and value of this commerce, so highly prized and so dearly bought. III. I now proceed to my third. point, to prove that the extent and advantages of our commerce have been greatly overrated. ( 196 ) To simplify as much as possible a complicat- ed subject, I shall consider the commerce of the United States under five several heads. 1. The exportation of our superfluous pro- ductions. 2. The importation of necessary supplies. 3. The carrying trade. 4. The coasting trade. 5. The shipping. The first is beyond comparison the most im- portant. In it the whole nation is deeply inte- rested. Much of its prosperity depends on pro- curing suitable markets for its surplus produc- tions. This affords a strong stimulus to indus- try, which would otherwise pine and languish. To enable the reader to judge correctly on this subject, I annex a table of our exports from the organization of the government. For the first six years there was no distinction be- tween foreign and domestic. I have assumed that there were two-fifths of the former, and three-fifths of the latter, which is about the aver- age proportion of the whole of the subsequent period. ( 197 ) Exports from the United States from 1790 to 1819, Inclusive.* ITear. Domestic. Foreign. Total. 1790 f!2, 123,094 $8,082,062 20,205,156 1791 11,407,225 47,604,816 19,012,041 1792 12,451,860 $8,301,238 20,753,098 1793 15,665,744 $10,443,828 26,109,572 1794 19,815,741 $13,210,492 33,026,233 1795 28,793,684 $19,195,788 47,989,472 1796 40,764,097 26,300,000 67,064,097 1797 29,850,206 27,000,000 56,850,206 1798 28,527,097 33,000,000 61,527,097 1799 33,142,522 45,523,000 78,665,522 1800 31,840,903 39,130,877 70,971,780 18U1 47,473,204 46,642,721 94,115,925 18J2 36,708,189 35,774,971 72,483,160 1803 42,205,961 13,594,072 55,800,033 1804 41,467,477 36,231,597 77,699,074 1805 42,387,002 53,179,019 95,566,021 1806 41,253,727 60,283,236 101,536,963 1807 48,699,592 59,643,558 108,343,150 1808 9,433,546 12,997,414 22,430,960 1809 31,405,702 20,797,531 52,203,233 1810 42,366,675 24,391,295 66,757,970 1811 45,294,043 16,022,790 61,316,833 1812 30,032,109 8,495,127 38,527,236 1813 25,008,152 2,847,845 27,855,997 1814 6,782,272 145,169 6,927,441 1815 45,974 403 6,583,350 52,557^53 1816 64,781,896 17,138,556 81,920,452 1817 68,313,500 19,358,069 87,671,569 1818 73,854.437 19,426,696 93,281,133 1819 50,976,838 19,165,683 70,142,521 1,058,800,898 g 710,510,800 1,769,311,698 Average g 35,293,363 g 23,503,600 g 58,977,056 The surplus productions of the United States, the great and legitimate basis of our foreign trade, are, as appears from this table, far below what might have been expected from the population, and the resources of the country. They average, as we see, only about 35,000,000 of dollars, or * Seybert, 93. \ Estimated at three-fifths of the whole. Estimated at two-fifths. about 8,000,000 pounds sterlingper annum, from the organization of the government to the close of the last year. The average population of that period has been about 6,500,000 souls. It there- fore appears that we have exported only about five dollars and a half per head of our whole population. This nearly corresponds with our recent experience. During the last five years we exported of do- mestic productions about 305,000,000 dollars or 61,000,000 per annum. Our population dur- ing that period has probably averaged about 9,500.000 souls ; which gives an export of only six dollars and a half per head. It is thus indubitable that this department of our commerce, obviously the most im- portant, has been vastly overrated, and sinks into insignificance, on a comparison with our domestic trade, which, as may be seen (page 158) is nearly fifteen hundred per cent, be- yond it. The food and drink of Philadelphia, New York, Boston and Baltimore, supposing them to contain only 370,000 souls, at a quar- ter of a dollar per head daily, amount to near- ly as much as the average of the whole of our domestic exports! 370,000 persons at a quarter of a dollar per day, consume per annum - $ 33,300,000 ( 199 ) Yet there are hundreds and thousands of citi- zens of the United States that are unalterably convinced that the United States owe all their prosperity, all their improvements, all their wealth, to commerce ! ! I have in vain sought for a general statement of our imports. It is not to be found either in Seybert or Pitkin. The former, however, gives one for seven years, from 1795 to 1801, viz. 1795 - - - 869,756,258 1796 81,436,164 1797 75,379,406 1798 68,551,700 1799 - 79,069,148 1800 - - 91,252,768 1801 .... 111,363,511 8576,808,935 Average - - - 882,401,276 It is not easy to calculate the amount of fo- reign goods consumed in this country. The foreign exports for the preceding seven years were 336,792,386 dollars. Deducted from the above sum of 576,808,935 dollars, there is a balance for home consumption for that period, of 340,016,549 dollars, being an average of above 48,000,000 dollars. But during this time our commerce was far more flourishing than in other years. I shall, therefore, assume an ( 200 ) average consumption of foreign merchandize to the amount of 40,000,000 per annum, which will not be regarded as far from the fact. Dr. Seybert has hazarded a calculation, that the profits of navigation, are at the rate of fifty dollars per ton and he therefore sets down an average annual profit of 34,459,350 dollars! which would amount to 1,033,780,500 dollars in thirty years ! It is easy to perceive how extravagantly erro- neous this calculation must necessarily be. A vessel of three hundred tons would make, by freight alone, a profit to her owner annually of 15,000 dollars. Yet many of our merchants have had two, three, four, five, and six vessels of this size constantly employed for years have not lived extravagantly and yet have finally become bankrupts. Were the doctor's statement correct, the great body of ship-owners would have become as wealthy as Cosmo de Medici. Ten per cent, is regarded as a fair average of the profits of commerce. For freight 1 shall as- sume an equal sum. Hence is deduced the following result Average annual domestic exports - $ 35,293,3(33 Foreign goods consumed here, estimated at 40,000,000 4 - % 75,293,363 ( 201 ) Ten per cent, profit - - - 7,529,336 Add an equal sum for profit on freight - 7,529,336 Total - - $ 15,058,672 The carrying trade is far less important. Without much participation in it, the nation might have enjoyed, and may still enjoy, a most enviable state of prosperity. And it will proba- bly appear, in summing up its advantages and disadvantages, during the whole of our career, that the latter greatly outweigh the former. To form a decision on this point, it is ne- cessary to ascertain its extent. It consists of two distinct branches. In the first, the foreign merchandize in tramitu touches at our ports. In the second, the voyages are made from one foreign port to another. Of the first branch we have an accurate ac- count. The treasury returns distinguish between the exports of foreign and domestic articles. But of the second we can only form an esti- mate. The foreign exports from the United States, as appears by the preceding table, have aver- aged 23,683,000 dollars per annum for thirty years. It is probable that the other branch of the carrying trade is about one-half this amount. Some intelligent merchants whom I have con- 26 suited, estimate it at from 10 to i 5,000,000 dol- lars annually. But to afford the utmost latitude to the contrary side of the question, I shall sup- pose it equal to the other branch. Thus then stands the account of the carrying trade- Foreign exports - - g 23,680,000 Voyages from one foreign port to another, estimated at - 23,680,000 Profit, ten per cent. Add an equal profit for freight - Total profit of carrying trade $ 47,360,000 $ 4,736,000 - 4,736,000 $ 9,472,000 Summary. Profits of trade in exports, and in imports for home consumption Of carrying trade - - Coasting trade, supposed - - 8 15,058,672 9,47-, 000 3,500,000 $ 28,040,672 These profits are the utmost that can be claimed on the most liberal calculation. But I must observe that it is difficult to conceive that half of them could have ever accrued; as so large a portion of the merchants who are sup- posed to have acquired them, have been reduced to bankruptcy. This strong fact is utterly in- { 203 ) compatible with the idea of such profits, and I am persuaded would warrant a reduction of fifty or sixty per cent, of the amount. The offsets have been immense. Ship- wrecks falling markets and depredations to the amount of probably one hundred millions by the belligerants, under orders in council, de- crees, Sjc The aggregate of all these would pro- bably amount to thirty per cent, on the assumed profits. But even admitting that the whole sum of twenty-eight millions has been gained annually by commerce, it is worth while to consider whether it has not been like the Indian's gun. It has cost us from 1796 to 1815 For foreign intercourse - - S 9,615,140 Naval department - - 52,065,691 Barbary powers - 2,349,568 War debt 78,579,022 142,609,421* Average per annum - $ 7,1 30,471 The expenses chargeable to this account at present, and likely to continue, are Interest on war debt of S 78,579,022 554,714,741 Secretary's estimate for the navy, 182O 3,527,6OO % 8,242,381 * Seybert, 713. ( 204 ) This is above twenty-five per cent, in per- petuity on those profits of commerce, which are supposed to have accrued during the whole of the period in which it had every possible advan- tage that its warmest advocates could desire. It is moreover, nearly twenty per cent, of the whole average amount of the exports of the country embracing the period in which our staples com- manded exorbitant prices, which we are never likely to receive again. I therefore confidently rely, that those who have condescended to " hear," though they may have " struck," will, however reluctantly, ac- knowledge that at the touch of the talisman of truth, the boasted advantages of commerce have greatly diminished in amount and that it has indubitably cost the country more than it was worth. In taking an account of the numerous off- sets the collisions with the belligerants the chief part of the expense of the navy our war the war debt and its interest, it would be unfair not to draw a line of distinction be- tween the different branches of commerce. That important one which consists in the ex- portation of our surplus productions and pro- curing necessary supplies in return, ought pro- bably to be exonerated from any portion of these heavy items. It might be carried on for a century, without producing any of those conse- ( 205 ) quences. They have sprung almost altogether from the extraneous trade in the colonial pro- ductions of the belligerants, which arose from the general state of warfare of Europe, and from the cupidity With which it was pursued by our merchants. If this point of view be correct, then the account is reduced within a narrow compass. It may be useful to hazard a calculation on the present and probable future profits of commerce, in order more fully to prove my po- sition, that it has cost too dear. The domestic exports of 1819, were 50,976,838 Foreign exports - 19,165,683 Foreign goods consumed here, suppose - 60,OOO,OOO 130,142,521 As our markets have stood lately, a profit of five per cent, is a large allowance 6,507,126 Present profits on freights - - 1,000,OOO Coasting trade . . . . 1,50O,OOO S 9,007,126 Thus it appears, that for every dollar of the present gain of the merchants by commerce, the nation at large pays nearly a dollar of tax en- tailed on it by that commerce ! I now invite the attention of the reader to my last position, which is ( 206 ) IV. That the numerous bankruptcies among our merchants have chiefly arisen from the want of protection to manufactures. That an immoderate number of our mer- chants have been reduced to bankruptcy, is uni- versally admitted. The exact proportion can- not be ascertained. It has been carried as high as nine-tenths. This I believe extravagant. I as- sume two-thirds, which is supposed to be a low calculation. It remains to enquire how this ca- jfamitous result has taken place, under what is so generally sty led a flourishing state of our com- merce. Various causes have conspired to produce this effect. Commerce in this country has partaken of the nature of a lottery. The prizes were of- ten immense, but rare the blanks numerous. It has been attended occasionally with immo- derate profits, which have been succeeded by great losses. The profits fostered a spirit of ex- travagance and luxury, which wasted all the previous temporary advantages, and rendered the merchants unable to contend with the storms of adversity. But the chief source of the misfortunes of our merchants has been the extravagant num- ber of them which has proceeded from the ruinous policy of our tariff, as I hope to make appear. ( 207 ) Had the great, leading manufactures of cotton, wool, and iron, with some others, which were arrested by foreign importation, been duly pro- tected, as a sound policy dictated, during the thirty years of the existence of our government, thousands of young men in every part of the United States, who have been brought up to the mercantile profession, and increased its num- bers immoderately, would have been devoted to those branches. Many parents have destined their children to the pursuit of commerce, merely for want of other suitable employment, and without either the talents, the credit, or the friends requisite. Hence most of our merchants have generally had two or three, and some as many as four ap- prentices, who, when free, have become super- cargoes, or commenced a profession for which they were wholly incompetent, and thus added to the long list of bankrupts. The effect of this state of things is, that there are probably more shipping and import- ing merchants in the United States than in the British dominions in Europe. Almost every little port from Passamaquoddy to St. Mary's, has its body of merchants, and impor- ters, more or less numerous, who are con- stantly supplanting each other in the home and foreign markets, to their mutual ruin. The West Indies have thus proved the grave of the for- ( 208 ) tunes and happiness of half the merchants that have carried on trade with them. The trade to that quarter affords neither certainty nor secu- rity; as the prices are constantly fluctuating. The markets are either overstocked, or visited by a dearth. When the latter takes place, prices rise extravagantly. Intelligence arrives in this country. Our markets are crowded with ship- pers, who outbid each other, and raise the prices. Vessels are dispatched from all our ports, with full cargoes. The first, perhaps the second or third, is sold at a great profit. The glut sinks the price, and all the remainder sell at and often far below cost. The business is almost wholly a lottery, or species of gambling. Regu- lar commerce disclaims it altogether. The price of flour in the West Indies fre- quently rises, and as frequently falls to the amount of three, four, five and six dollars per barrel, in the course of two, three, or four weeks. Hence the merchant whose vessel sails at the rate of nine knots an hour, often makes a for- tune while his less fortunate neighbour, whose rate of sailing is only eight knots, is ruined. Thus the inordinate competition at home and abroad, has produced the effect of obliging the merchants to buy our staples dear and sell them cheap. The competition likewise operates ruin- ously inthe purchase of return cargoes, the prices being thereby greatly enhanced. These are among ( 209 ) the most striking causes of the ruin of so large a portion of fie mercantile class, and have obvi- ously resulted chiefly, if not altogether, from the depression of manufactures. I offer a calculation on the subject, which, even if somewhat erroneous, may prove useful. Suppose the whole number of merchants iu the United States, since the year 1789, to have averaged constantly 18,000 and that two- thirds of them have failed. Had manufacturing establishments been properly patronized, there probably would not have been more than 12,000; to the mass of whom the profession would have afforded a decent subsistence. In this case, it is probable that the bankruptcies would not have exceeded 2,000. Of course, 10,000 would have prospered out of 12,000 ; whereas, only 6,000 have succeeded out of 18,000. Whatever deduc- tion from, or addition to, this calculation, may be made, the inference cannot fail to be highly- favourable to the general scope of my argument, and to pronounce a strong sentence of condem- nation on the ruinous policy this nation has pur- sued. Another view may be taken of the subject. It appears that a large portion of our com- merce consists in the transportation of the mer- chandize and manufactures of other nations from the places of production to this country, and hence to those of consumption respectively. ( 10 ) But might not our merchants employ themselves as well in lending facilities to the industry of their fellow citizens, as to that of foreign nations ? Would not broadcloths from Young's, or Du- pont's, or Sheppard's manufactories or shirt- ings and sheetings from Schenck's or from Wal- tham, load a vessel as well, and pay as good a freight, as from Leeds or Manchester ? Would it not be at least as profitable to themselves, and as useful to their fellow citizens and to their coun- try, to export cargoes of home-made goods to South America, and import specie, as to de- luge their native country with foreign goods, drain it of its specie, and destroy its productive industry ? As 1 believe that the want of correct views on this point has been among the primary causes of the present distresses of the country, I hope to be pardoned for once more presenting it to the reader. The idea that the want of pro- tection to manufactures has proved highly perni- cious to the merchants, by an undue increase of their numbers, will appear plain to those who reflect, that, when by the restrictive system, and the war, there was a market open for, and pro- tection afforded to, domestic manufactures, great numbers of respectable merchants, in all our cities, devoted their time, their talents, and their capital to the cotton and woollen branches, very advantageously for themselves and for the court- ( *" ) try, while this protection continued but ulti- mately to the ruin of many of them. It is obvious that the inducements to commence a career in manufacturing are greater than to quit another business, and enter on this at an advanced period of life. And therefore I think it irresistibly fol- lows, that the successful opposition to the estab- lishment of manufactures has been the great cause of the superabundance of merchants, and that from this superabundance has flowed the bankruptcy of so large a proportion of them. It is frequently asserted, that though so many of the merchants have been reduced to bank- ruptcy, the country has gained even by their ruin. This doctrine, which I have tried to develope, I do not understand. Let us investi- gate it. Suppose a farmer to sell 5000 bushels of wheat at two dollars per bushel. The miller grinds it pays the farmer, and sells the flour to the merchant, who sells to the shipper. The lat- ter becomes bankrupt, and pays three, five, or ten shillings in the pound, as the case may be. Of course the flour merchant suffers a heavy loss. I cannot see how, from a transaction of this kind, which is an epitome of a large propor- tion of our mercantile business for years past, the country can be said to have gained. Money, it is true, is put into the pocket of one man, but it is withdrawn from the pocket of another. There is no increase of the national wealth. ( SIS ) Having in this chapter taken ground wholly new, with no former lights to illuminate my path, I may have occasionally wandered into er- ror. But I trust the wandering, whatever it may have heen, has not led me far astray and that the positions 1 have assumed, and the inferences I have deduced, if not wholly right, are not materially wrong. I CHAPTER XVL Fostering care of commerce by congress. Mo- nopoly of the coasting and China trade secured to our merchants from the year 1789. Revolt- ing partiality. Wonderful increase of tonnage. Act on the subject of plaster of Paris. Law level- led against the British navigation act. Rapidity of legislation. THE records of American legislation bear the most satisfactory testimony of the transcendent influence of the mercantile interest, and of the unceasing exertions made to fence it round with every species of protection the government could bestow. No fond mother ever indulged a beloved child more than congress has indulged commerce attended to all its complaints and redressed all its wrongs. My limits forbid a detail of the great va- riety of acts passed for the exclusive benefit of commerce, with which the statute book abounds. I shall confine myself to a few of the most prominent and important. I. The second act passed by the first con- gress contained clauses which secured to the tonnage of our merchants, a monopoly of the whole of the China trade and gave them para- mount advantages in all the other foreign trade. The duties on teas were as follow : In American vessels. In foreign vessels. Bohea teas Souchong and other Hyson teas All other green teas - per Ib. black teas - Cts. 9 10 20 12 Cts. 15 22 45 27 The annals of legislation furnish no instance of grosser or more revolting partiality than is displayed in this act, which established the first tariff. A pound of hyson tea, which cost fifty- six cents, imported in a foreign, paid twenty- jive cents more duty than in an American vessel. Whereas a yard of broad cloth, or two yards of silk, cambric, or muslin, value five dollars, paid but twenty-five cents, all together, or five per cent. Thus the foreign ship-owner was at once shut out of our ports, beyond the power of com- petition, for the benefit of the American mer- chant ; whereas the foreign manufacturer was invited in by a low duty : and the possibility oi ? competition on the part of the American manu- facturer wholly precluded ! Let me not be mis- understood, as if I regarded as incorrect the de- cided preference given to the American mer- chant. By no means. My object is to point out; the immense inequality of the treatment of the two bodies of men, which, to the great discredit. of our legislation, and the incalculable injury of our country, as I hope I have proved in the pre- ceding chapter, runs through our statute book. This is a digression, which the occasion called for. I return. II. The same act gave our merchants an addi- tional decisive advantage, by allowing a discount of ten per cent, on the duties upon goods im- ported in American vessels. III. Such was the fostering care bestowed on the mercantile interest,, that the third act was directed wholly for their security. By this act the tonnage duty on vessels belonging to Ame- rican citizens was fixed at six cents per ton ; on American built vessels, owned wholly or in part by foreigners, thirty cents ; and on all other fo- reign vessels, fifty cents. IV. In order to exclude foreign, vessels from the coasting trade, they were subjected to a tonnage duty of fifty cents per ton for every voyage ; whereas, our vessels paid but six cents, and only once a year. These four features of decisive protection, were enacted in a single session, the first under the new government. They placed the mercantile interest on high ground, and gave it overwhelming advantages over foreign com- petitors. In fact, they almost altogether de- stroyed competition. I shall state their effects at the close of this chapter. ( 216 ) It is not difficult to account for this parental care. The mercantile interest was ably repre- sented in the first congress. It carried the elec- tions pretty generally in the seaport towns, and had made a judicious selection of candidates. Philadelphia was represented in the senate by Robert Morris, and in the house of representa- tives by Thomas Fitzsimons and George Cly- mer, three gentlemen of considerable talents, and great influence. The representation in con- gress was divided almost wholly between far- mers, planters, and merchants. The manu- facturing interest was, I believe, unrepre- sented; or if it had a few representatives, they were not distinguished men, and had little or no influence. The tariff bears the most unequivocal marks of this state of things. Agriculture and com- merce engrossed nearly the whole attention of congress. Their interests were well guard- ed. Manufactures, as may be seen, (page 55) were abandoned to an unequal conflict with fo- reign rivalship, which consigned a large por- tion of them to ruin. V. (817. An act imposing two dollars per ton on all foreign vessels arriving from ports to which American vessels are not allowed to trade. I have shewn the revolting neglect with which the applications of the manufacturers were treat- ed, so highly discreditable to congress. It now ( 217 ) remains to contrast this procedure with the kind attention and fostering care bestowed on the merchants, and the rapidity of motion in their concerns. On the 29th of July, 1816, the governor of Nova Scotia, by proclamation, announced the royal assent to an art of the legislature of that province, whereby the trade in Plaster of Paris was intended to be secured to British or colo- nial vessels. To counteract this insidious measure, Mr. Rufus King, on the 17th February, 181 7, mov- ed in the house of representatives of the Uni- ted States, "that the committee on foreign re- lations be instructed to report such measures as they may judge necessary to regulate the im- portation of Plaster of Paris, and to countervail the regulations of any other nation, injurious to our own, relating to that trade." In four days afterwards, viz. on the 21st, Mr. Forsyth, chairman of that committee, reported a bill to regulate the trade in Plaster of Paris, which was read the first and second time on that day, and the third on the 3d of March. The yeas and nays were called, and it was pas- sed by a majority of eighty to thirty-nine. It was then sent to the senate ; there read three times on the same day, and passed with some amendments then returned to the house of representatives, who concurred in the amend- 38 ( 318 ) ments, and finally passed the bill. Thus it was actually read four times, amended, and passed in one day a case probably without example. It was only fourteen days from its inception to its approbation by the president. Let it be observed further, that the hostile measure which called forth this spirited act. was only about seven months and a half in ex- istence, when it was thus decisively counter- acted. What a contrast between this celerity of operation and the lame policy observed towards manufactures ! The all-important act prohibiting the entry into our ports of British vessels arriving from places from which American vessels are ex- cluded, was reported and twice read in senate on the 1st of April, 1818. On the 4th it was read the third time, and passed. On the same day it was read twice in the house of represen- tatives. On the llth it was read a third time, and passed. On the 16th it was presented to the president and approved by him on the 18th. Let any man, however hostile to manufac- tures or manufacturers, compare the progress of these two bills, involving such important prin- ciples, particularly the latter, with the snail's pace of any bill for the relief of manufacturers, and he will be obliged to confess that congress is actuated by a very different spirit towards the ( 819 ) two different descriptions of citizens. Both acts are manly and dignified, and worthy of the legis- lature of a great nation, determined to assert a reciprocity of advantage in its intercourse with foreign nations. The latter is an attempt to up- root the British navigation act, in one of its most important features, to which that nation is most devotedly attached. Considering its magni- tude and importance, it may be justly doubted whether it was not too precipitately passed. It was only four days on its passage in the senate and eight in the house of representatives. Be this, however, as it may, my present object is only once more to place in contrast the paternal care of commerce and the frigid and withering indif- ference, not to say hostility, towards manufac- tures, displayed in that body, which ought to "look with equal eye" upon, and to dispense equal justice to, all classes of citizens. And to close the catalogue, a bill for the pro- tection of commerce is now before congress, and not likely to meet with much opposition, which cannot fail to affect the agricultural interest severely, by very materially abridging the markets for their productions. It is calculated to effect the object of the last mentioned act, which has failed to answer the purpose in- tended. More detail is unnecessary. The position is fully established, that commerce has steadily ( 220 ) enjoyed all the protection the government could afford. Every hostile movement on the part of foreign nations, to the injury of our mer- chants, has been decidedly met and counter- acted. The consequence of this system has been to insure our merchants I. The whole of the coasting trade, amounting to 400,000 tons per annum. II. Eighty-six per cent, of the tonnage en- gaged in the foreign trade, viz. Total tonnage in the foreign trade for twenty- two years, from 1796 to 1817, - - tons 18,201,541 Of which there was American 15,741,632 Foreign 2,458,909 18,201,541 And III. An increase of tonnage unexampled in the history of navigation : Tonnage of the United States. Tons. In 1804 - - 1,042,402 1805 - - - 1,140,366 1806 - - 1,207,733 1807 - - - 1,268,545 1808 - - 1,242,443 1809 - - - 1,350,178 1810 - - 1,442,781 1811 - - - 1,232,502 1812 - - 1,269,997 In 1789 ions* - - - 201,562 1790 - - - 478,377 1792 ... 564,437 1794 - - - 628,816 1796 - - - 841,700 1798 - - - 898,428 1801 - - - 1,033,218 1802 - - 892,102 J803 - - - 949,171 CHAPTER XVII. Erroneous views of the tariff. Protection of Agri- culture in 1789. Prostrate state of the staples of South Carolina and Georgia. Ni?iety per cent, on snuff, and one hundred on tobacco. Striking contrast. Abandonment of manufac- tures. THE farmers and planters of the United States are under a strong impression I. That the tariff affords a decided protection to the manufacturers. II. That it operates as a " heavy tax on the many for the benefit of the few." And III. That there is no reciprocity in the case as agriculture is not protected. That the first position is radically erroneous, is self-evident from the lamentable situation of so large a proportion of the manufactures and manufacturers of the United States, on which I have already sufficiently descanted. The second is disproved in the eleventh chapter. To the discussion of the third, I devote the present one. There are not many of the productions of agriculture .which require protection, as there are few of them that are imported. Their bulk, in general, and the consequent expense of freight, afford them tolerable security. But such as are imported, or likely to be, have been sub- ject to high duties from the commencement of the government to the present time. The products of the earth imported into the United States do not much extend beyond hemp, cotton, malt, tobacco, cheese, indigo, coals and potatoes, which, by the tariff of 1789, were sub- ject to the following duties. Cents. Hemp - - per cwt. 6O Malt - - - per bushel 1O Coals - - do. 2 Cheese - - per Ib. 4 Manufactured tobacco do. 6 The duty on cheese was equal to fifty-seven per cent. ; on Indigo about sixteen ; on Snuff, ninety ; on Tobacco, one hundred ; on Coals about fifteen per cent. The duty on the raw materials, hemp and cotton, demand particular attention. They were about twelve per cent. imposed, in compliance with the suggestions of Mr. Burke, to aid the agriculturists of South Carolina and Georgia, Cents. Snuff - Indigo Cotton - - - perlb. 10 - - - do. 16 do. 3 Potatoes - - per cent. 5 ( 223 ) because they hoped to be able to raise those ar- ticles. South Carolina and Georgia at that period were at a very low ebb. Their great staples, rice and indigo, had greatly sunk in price and they had not as yet entered on the culture of cotton. JEdanus Burke, in a debate on the tariff, on the 16th April, 1789, to induce the house to lay a considerable duty on hemp and cotton, gave a melancholy picture of the situation of those states " The staple products of South Carolina and Georgia," he observed, u were hardly worth cultivation, on account " of their fall in price. The lands were certainly well " adapted to the growth of hemp: and he had no doubt but " its culture would be practised with attention. Cotton way u likewise in contemplation among- them : and if good seed " could be procured, HE HOPED MIGHT SUCCEED!! But the u low strong rice lands would produce hemp in abundance, " many thousand tons even this year, if it was not so late " in the season."* In a debate on the same subject, Mr. Tucker, another of the representatives from that state, re- echoed the plaintive strains of his colleague : " The situation of South Carolina was melancholy. Lt While the inhabitants were deeply in debt, the produce of " the state -was daily falling in price. Rice and indigo were u become so low, as to be considered by many not objects " worthy of cultivation. Gentlemen" he added, " will " consider that it is not an easy thing for a planter to change * Debates of Congress, vol. I. p. f9. " his whole system of husbandry in a moment. But accu- " mulated burdens will drive to this, and increase their em- " barrassments."* The duty on manufactured tobacco was in- tended to operate as an absolute prohibition and was liberally proposed with this view by Mr. Sherman, a representative from Con- necticut. " Mr. Sherman moved six cents per pound on manufac- " tured tobacco ; as he thought the duty ought to amount to " a prohibition"] While these high duties were imposed upon such of the productions of the farmer and plan- ter, as were likely to be imported, all the great leading articles of manufactures, as may be seen, (page 56,) were subject to only five percent. ! ! ! A striking contrast in the tariff or 1789. Per cent. Woollens ----- 5 Cottons ----- .> Pottery ----- ,? Linen ------ J Manufactures of iron - 5 lead - - $ copper - 5 Per cent. Snuff 90 Tobacco -.-.-.- 100 Indigo ----- 16 Coals 15 Cotton 12 Hemp 12 In the last chapter, I gave a sketch of the fos- tering care of commerce: Here we see in the very outset of the government the same care * Idem, 70, f Idem, 93. extended to agriculture, and an equal degree of neglect of manufactures the germ of that cruel and withering system, which has, I repeat, placed this country nearly in the state of a colony to the manufacturing nations of Europe which, without expending a single cent for our protec- tion, have enjoyed more benefits from our com- merce than ever were enjoyed by the mother country, during the colonial state of this conti- nent and more benefits than any nation ever enjoyed from colonies, except Spain. Perhaps even this exception is superfluous. In 1790, the tariff was altered, when indigo was raised to twenty-five cents per pound, and coals to three cents per bushel. In 1792, it was again altered, and hemp raised to twenty dollars per ton, and coals to four and a half cents per bushel. This was about twenty per cent, on hemp, and twenty-five on coals- whereas the leading ma- nufactures of cotton, wool, leather, steel, brass, iron, and copper, were only raised to seven and a half per cent. Passing over the intermediate alterations of the tariff, which 'all bear the same stamp, I shall notice the protection afforded at present to those agricultural articles usually imported. ( 226 ) Price.* Rate of duty. Duty. Per cent. Hemp, per ton - - - - S 114.00 8 30.00 26 Cotton, per Ib. - - - - .10 .3 30 Cheese in Holland - - .10 .9 90 Coals, per bushel - - .13 .5 38 Snuff, average per Ib. - - .16 .12 75 Manufactured tobacco - .10 .10 100 Segars per M - - - - 5.00 2.50 50 Geneva, per gallon .42 .42 100 Jamaica rum do. .70 .48 68 Brown sugar, per Ib. - - .8 .3 37-} All the other productions of agriculture are subject to fifteen per cent, duty ; which, be it ob- served, is the same as on more than half the manufactures imported into this country. We find the staple article of South Carolina and Georgia, of which the freight is about thirty per cent, secured by thirty per cent, duty the staple of Virginia by seventy -five, and one hun- dredand the peach brandy and whiskey, of the farmers generally, by sixty-eight and one hundred, while the cotton and woollen branches are exposed to destruction, and have been in a great measure destroyed, for want of a duty of forty -five or fifty per cent. ! ! ! To display the monstrous partiality of this procedure I shall contrast the duty and freight; of a few articles of both descriptions At the places of exportation respectively. Until FrHght Duty. Freight. Per c>. Perct. Total Per ct. Per ct. Total Hemp - - Cotton 26 30 24 30 50 60 Cotton stockings Cambrics - - 25 25 2 2 28 27 Cheese - - 90 15 105 Superfine cloth - 25 2 27 (Geneva - 100 10 110 Silks .... 15 1 16 Rum - . 68 10 78 Woollen stockings 20 2 22 Sn.;ir - - 75 5 80 Thread stockings 15 2 17 1 o'iKlCCO - 100 5 105 <; old leaf - - 15 1 16 Coals - - 38} 12 50J Linens ... 15 2 17 Sugar - . 37* 6 4JA It is hardly possible to conceive of a more revolting arrangement or one that more com- pletely violates the holy, the golden rule " All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to " you, do you even so to them." Now, in the face of this nation, I venture to ask, is there a respectable man in society, who considers the above items, and will not allow that the protection of agriculture is incompara- bly more complete, than of manufactures? And yet, wonderful to tell, the extravagant protection bestowed on the manufacturers, and the want of protection to agriculturists the insa- tiable appetite of the former, and the liberality and disinterestedness of the latter, are preached in long-winded speeches in, and memorials to, congress, and as long-winded newspaper essays, and are received as sacred and undeniable. ( S28 ) Another contrast. Potatoes Butter Flour - Malt Onions Duty. Per cent. - 15 15 15 15 - 15 Watches - Jewelry Inkpowder Printed books Worsted shoes Tobacco in the leaf - 15 Linens and silks Duty. Per cent. 15 15 15 15 Potatoes and tobacco linens, silks, and print- ed books subject to the same duty ! What won- derful talents this tariff displays ! How admira- bly it corroborates the fond " day dreams" in which we indulge ourselves, of our immense superiority over the benighted Europeans, who, mirabile dictu, according to Judge Story, are studying lessons of political economy under congress "The statesmen of the old world, in admiration of the "success of our policy , are relaxing the rigour of their own " systems ! !" So says the celebrated Salem memorial, edit- ed, according to public fame, by this learned judge. Objections have been made to the classi- fication of manufactured tobacco and snuff among the articles dutied for the benefit of agri- culture; as they fall under the denomination of manufactures. They are, it is true, manufactures. But that they are so extravagantly taxed, is not ( 229 ) from any partiality towards the manufacturers of them but to protect the planters. It requires no moderate share of modesty to assert, and of credulity to believe, that regard for the ma- nufacturers leads to lay a duty of one hundred percent, on manufactured tobacco, when for five years the manufacturers of woollens and cottons have in vain implored to have the duty on super- fine cloth, muslins, and cambrics, raised beyond twenty-five per cent. Even the Jew Apella, capacious as was his gullet, would not be able id swallow this fiction. I wish it distinctly understood, that as the prices of hemp, Geneva, rum, coals, 6jc. are sub- ject to frequent fluctuations in foreign markets, I do not pretend to vouch for the critical exactness at the present time, of the preceding quotations. I have collected my information from merchants of character, on whom reliance may be placed, and have every reason to believe that it is sub- stantially correct. CHAPTER XVIII. An awful contrast. Distress in Great Britain, because she cannot engross the supply of the world. Distress in the United States, because the home market is inundated with rival ma- nufactures. THIS shall be a short chapter. But I hope it will make a deep and lasting impression. The subject is of vital importance. I have drawn several contrasts between our policy, and that of foreign nations, to evince the imsoundness and pernicious consequences of the former. To one more I request attention. Great distress pervades the manufacturing districts of Great Britain, in which commerce largely partakes. And whence does it arise? Because her merchants and manufacturers can- not engross the supply of the world; for their capacity of producing every article made by machinery is commensurate with the wants of the whole human race; and, could they find a passage to the moon, and open a market there, they would be able to inundate it with their fabrics. Their government, with a fostering and pater- nal care, which by the contrast reflects dis- ( 231 ) credit on ours, secures them the unlimited range of the domestic market; and loses no op- portunity, by bounties, drawbacks, and every other means which can be devised, to aid them in their efforts to engross our and all other markets. But the wisdom of the other nations of Europe, guarding the industry of their sub- jects, excludes them from various markets which they were wont to supply and baffles their skill and sagacity. The great mass of their surplus productions is, therefore, disgorged on us, to the destruction of our manufacturers and the impoverishment of the nation. What a lamentable contrast we exhibit! Our manufacturers suffer equally. Their capital is mouldering away their establishments falling to ruins themselves threatened with bank- ruptcy, and their wives and children with de- pendence their workmen . dispersed and dri- ven to servile labour and mendicity and why? Not because they are excluded from foreign markets. They aspire to none. Their distress arises from being debarred of their home mar- ket, to which our mistaken policy invites all the manufacturers of the earth ! Thus, while the British government uses all its energies to enable the manufacturers of that nation to monopolize the markets of the United States, our government looks on with perfect in- difference, while the ill-fated, depressed, and vili- ( 232 ) fied American, defeated in the unequal struggle with powerful rivals and an energetic govern- ment, is bankrupted or beggared or in danger of bankruptcy or beggary and in vain invokes its protection! In a word, the representatives of the freest people on the globe, have less regard for, and pay less attention to the happiness of, their fellow citizens, than the monarchs of the old world to their subjects! Our citizens merely seek a portion of that protection which the most despotic monarchs in Europe afford their subjects. But they seek in vain. Pharaoh did not turn a more deaf ear to the applications of the Israelites, than congress have, for five years, to those of their fellow citi- zens who have contributed to elevate them to the honourable stations they occupy and who pay their proportion for services from the benefit of which they are in a great measure precluded. What a hideous, what a deplorable contrast ! What a libel on republican government! What a triumph for the friends of moharchy for those who hold the appalling heresy, to which our career affords some countenance, that man was not made for self-government. This is so shocking a state of things, that with all the evidence of the facts before my eyes, I can scarcely allow myself to credit it! Would to God, it were not true but alas ! it is a most afflicting reality. CHAPTER XIX. Encouragement and patronage of immigrants by England and France. Advantages of the Unit- ed States. Great numbers of immigrants. Their sufferings Return of many of them. Interest- ing table. SOME political economists have asserted that the strength of a nation consists in the number of its inhabitants. This, without qualification, is manifestly erroneous. A numerous population, in a state of wretchedness, is rather a symp- tom of debility than of strength. Such a popu- lation is ripe for treason and spoil. But a dense population, usefully and profitably em- ployed, and in a state of comfort and prospe- rity, constitutes the pride and glory of a states- man, and is the basis of the power and security of nations. Hence there is scarcely any object which the most profound statesmen and mo- narchs of Europe, have for ages more uniform- ly pursued than the encouragement of immi- grants possessed of useful talents. Under all the governments of Europe, there- fore, even the most despotic, inducements have been frequently held out to invite a tide of po- 30 p ulation of this description. And the wealth, power, and prosperity of some of the first rate nations, date their commencement from migra- tions thus promoted and encouraged. The de- cay and decrepitude of the nations from which the immigrants have removed, have been coeval and proceeded pari passu with the prosperity of those to which they have migrated. The woollen manufacture, the great source of the wealth and prosperity of England, owes its introduction there to the wise policy of Ed- ward III. who invited over Flemish workmen, and accorded them most important privileges. The horrible persecutions of D'Alva in the Netherlands, and the repeal of the edict of Nantz, in France, at a more recent period drove thousands of artists of every kind, possessed of great wealth, and inestimable talents, to England, whence she derived incalculable advantages. Spain, whose policy we despise, repeatedly encouraged settlements of immigrants to esta- blish useful manufactures, which had a tempo- rary success. But the radical unsoundness of her system, and her spirit of persecution, blast- ed all these promising attempts. France, under Louis XIV. pursued this sys- tem to a greater extent than any other na- tion. That king gave titles of nobility pensions and immunities, to various artists and manufac- turers, who introduced new branches of indus- ( 235 ) try into his dominions : and a great portion of the wealth which he squandered in the splen- dor of his court, and the ambitious projects of his reign, arose from his protection of those immigrants, and the manufactures they introduc- ed. If this policy was wise, and had the sanction of the statesmen of nations of which the popu- lation was comparatively dense, how much more forcibly does it apply to countries like the United States and Russia, of which the popu- lation bears so small a proportion to the ter- ritory ! No country affords more room for immigrants none would derive more benefit from them none could hold out so many solid and substan- tial inducements and there is none to which the eyes and longings of that active and ener- getic class of men who are disposed to seek fo- reign climes for the purpose of improving their condition, are more steadily directed. We have the most valuable staples the greatest variety of soil, climate, and productions an almost un- limited extent of territory and the most slender population in proportion to that territory, of any nation in the world, except the Indians, and perhaps the wandering Tartars. And had manu- factures, particularly the cotton, woollen and iron, instead of the paltry duty of five per cent, been early and decisively taken under the pro- ( 236 ) tection of the government, at its first organiza tion, after the example of other nations, there is no doubt but we should have had a tide of immigration beyond any that the world has ever witnessed. From the oppression and misery that prevail in various parts of Europe from the high idea entertained of the advantages of our form of government and from a variety of other cir- cumstances, it is fair to presume, that had immi- grants been able at once to find employment at the occupations to which they were brought up, we might have had an annual accession of 30 or 40,000 beyond the numbers that have settled among us. But I shall only suppose 20,000. To evince what might have been, from what has taken place, I annex the only two tables of immigration I have been able to find. And let it be observed that the first is necessarily very im- perfect ; as there was no governmental regula- tion to enforce the collection of accurate state- ments. In 1817, S 3 S40 immigrants arrived in ten ports : uza- ( 337 ) 18,114 In Boston 2,200 In Baltimore * - 1,817 New York 7,634 Norfolk - 520 Perth Amboy - 637 Charleston 747 Philadelphia - 7,085 Savannah 163 Wilmington, D. 558 New Orleans - 879 18,114 22,240* In New York, from March 3, 1818, to Dec. 11, 1819, the numbers reported at the mayor's office, were 18,929.t 18,532 English 7,539 Portuguese - 54 Irish 6,062 Africans 5 French 922 Prussians 48 Welsh - - 59O Sardinians - 3 Scotch 1,942 Danes - 97 Germans - - 499 Russians - - 13 Spaniards - 217 Austrians - 8 Hollanders - 255 Turk - 1 Swiss - 372 Polander 1 Italians ... 103 Sandwich Islanders 2 Norwegians - 3 Europeans not described 52 Swedes - 28 Passengers do. do. 113 18,532 18,929 The mayor of New YorkJ has given a cal- * Seybert, 29. f Report of the society for the prevention of pauperism, p. 67. J" The chief magistrate of this city has calculated that this number does not include more than two-thirds of the " 1 real number."a a Idem, p. 2O, ( 238 ) dilation, that these were but two-thirds of the whole number that arrived. Admitting this esti- mate, the whole number in twenty-one months was about 28,000, or 16.000 per annum. Twenty-thousand, which I have assumed, as what might have been annually added to our population by a sound policy on the subject of ma- nufactures, >vill be regarded as probable on a con- sideration of the preceding tables particularly that of the enormous arrivals in New York, not- withstanding a variety of discouraging circum- stances, of which the tendency was to repress or even to destroy the spirit of immigration. Among these, the principal one has been the calamities and wretchedness endured by most of those immigrants, whose fond hopes and ex- pectations were wholly blasted on their arrival here. Thousands and tens of thousands of artists, mechanics, and manufacturers, with talents be- yond price, and many of them with handsome capitals, escaped from misery and oppression in. Europe, and fled to our shores as a land of pro- mise, where they expected to find room for the exercise of their industry and talents. But the fond delusion was soon dispelled. As soon as they arrived, they sought employment at theix* usual occupations. None was to be found. Those whose whole fortune was their industry, wandered through our streets, in search even of menial employments, to support a wretched ex- ( 239 ) istence. And numerous instances have occured, of cotton weavers and clothiers, as well as per- sons of other useful branches, who have sawed and piled wood in our cities and some of whom have broken stones on our turnpikes for little more than a bare subsistence. Many hundreds have returned home, heart-broken, and lament- ing their folly, after having exhausted all their funds in the double voyage and their inevitable expenses. Their misfortunes operate as a beacon to their countrymen, to shun the rocks on which they have been shipwrecked. It is easy to estimate the effects that must have been produced by the dismal tales in the letters written by those who remained, and the verbal accounts of those who returned. It is not extravagant to suppose that every returned immi- grant prevented the immigration of twenty per- sons, disposed to seek an asylum here. And the melancholy letters, transmitted by those who had no means of returning, must have had nearly equal influence. Many of those who were unable to return, rendered desperate by distress and misery, have proved injurious to the country, to which they might have produced the most eminent advan- tages. I hazard an estimate of the gain that might have been made by a sound policy, which would have encouraged manufacturing industry, and promoted immigration, to the extent I have as- ( 240 ) sumed, viz. 20,000 additional per annum, since the commencement of our present form of go- vernment. I will suppose the value of the productive la- hour of each individual to be only a quarter of a dollar per day beyond his subsistence, which for 20,000 would have amounted to 8 1,500,000 per annum. The whole number that would have arrived in the thirty years, would have been 600,000. The annexed table exhibits a result, which petrifies with astonishment, and sheds a new and strong stream of light on the impolicy of our system. JVo. of im- Value of JVo. of im- Value of migrants. labour. migrants. labour. 180,000,000 1st year 20,000 % 1,500,000 16th do. 320,000 24,000,000 2d do. 40,000 3,000,000 17th do. 340.000 25,500,000 3d do. 60,000 4,500,000 18th do. 360,000 27,000,000 4th do. 80,000 6,000,000 19th do. - 380,000 28,500,000 5th do. 100,000 7,500,000 20th do. 400,000 30,000,000 6th do. 120,000 9,000,000 21st do. 420,000 31,500,000 7th do. 140,000 10,500,000 22d do. 440,000 33,000,000 8th do. 160,000 12,000,000 23d do. 460,000 34,500,000 9th do. 180,000 13,500,000 24th do. 480,000 36,000,000 10th do. 200,000 15,000,000 25th do. 500,000 37,500,000 llth do. 220,000 16,500,000 26th do. 520,000 39,000,000 12th do. 240,000 18,000,000 27th do. 540,000 40,500,000 13th do. 260,000 19,500,000 28th do. 560,000 42,000,000 14th do. 280,000 21,000,000 29th do. 580,000 43,500,000 15th do. 300,000 22,500,000 30th do. 600,000 45,000,000 s 180,000,000 697,500,000 The natural increase of the immigrants by generation, at five per cent, per annum, would make the number amount to 1,288,000. Of the addition I take no account. I barely mention, that an immigration of 10.000 annually, would. according to this increase, have produced the same result as the assumed number 20.000. Let us then state the results of different num- bers: The labour of 10,000, with the natural increase of five per cent, per annum, at a quarter of a dollar per day, would pro- duce in 30 years - S 697,50O,OOO That of 5,OOO with the same increase - S 348,750,000 It is fair to suppose that the articles pro- duced by them would be worth double the labour, or, in the first case, - $ 1,395,OOO,OOO In the secqnd S 697,50O,OOO These immense advantages we blindly threw away, while we were scuffling through the world at every point of the com pass, and " in every bay, cove, creek, and inlet," to which we had access, for a precarious commerce, which ruined the great mass of the merchants who pursued it exposed our hardy seamen to stripes and hon- tlag involved us in unnecessary collisions with the bellivserant powers and finally in war and entailed on us ahostof foreign ministers a wast- ing navy that will cost above 3,500,000 doll rs this year and a debt of nearly 80,000,000 of dollars ! Other views of the subject present them- selves. ( 242 ) Although a large proportion of the immigrants who arrive in this and other countries, are de- pendent on their labour for support, yet many capitalists immigrate ; and there would be double the number, could they employ their capitals ad- vantageously, I will assume an average of one hundred and fifty dollars for each immigrant, in money and property. This would amount in the whole to 3,000,000 dollars per annum, or in. the whole thirty years, to 90,000,000 of dollars. The consumption of the productions of agri- culture by those immigrants, according to the calculation in page 153, at the rate of a quarter of a dollar per day, would be at present per annum 54,000,000 of dollars, and their clothing at 40 dollars per annum, 24,000,000. Calculations have been made of the value to a state of an active, efficient individual. In Eng- land it was formerly, I believe, supposed to be about tool, sterling. I will suppose each im- migrant to be worth three hundred dollars this would make the amount of the 600,000 im- migrants assumed above, 8 180,000,000. These calculations are all necessarily crude and admit of considerable drawbacks. But what- ever may be the drawbacks, sufficient will re- main to prove to the world, that there probably never was a nation which had so many advan- tages within its grasp and never a nation that so wantonly threw its advantages away. ( 243 ) Summary. Suppose 10,OOO immigrants annually, with the natural increase of five per cent. Amount of labour in thirty years - g 697,50O,OOO Value of their productions - - S 1,395,OOO,OOO Amount of property imported - S 90,OOO,OOO Present annual consumption - - S 78,OOO,OOO As this chapter drew to a close, I met with a report made to the house of representatives of the United States, on the subject of immigrants, which deserves some notice. An application was made to congress by a body of Swiss, for a quantity of land, on more advantageous terms than those on which they are sold by law. The committee, after stating the necessity of lessening the existing indul- gences in the sale of the public lands, add " If the public interests should ever justify a relaxation u from them, it would be in favour of American citizens :" And recommend to the house the following resolution " Resolved, that the prayer of the petitioners ought not to " be granted. So far there is reason and propriety in the report. The terms on which lands are sold by the United States are sufficiently favourable for foreigners as well as natives. But when the ) committee notice the depressed situation of American manufactures, and assign it as a reason against encouraging the immigration of such a useful body of men, possessed of invalua- ble talents, it is a full proof that they did not study the subject profoundly. u In answer to that part of the petition which declares "that one of the principal objects is ' the domestic manu- " facture of cotton, wool, flax, and silk ;' the committee will " only say, that it may be well considered, Iww far it -would " comport "with sound policy to give a premium for the intro- " duction of manufacturers, at the moment rvhen^ by the almost " unanimous declaration of our manufacturers, it is said they " cannot live -without further protection." A more obvious idea would have been to have suggested such encouragement of manufactures, as would have relieved our citizens actually en- gaged in those branches, and held out due in- ducements for accessions to our population of the sterling character of the applicants in question. ERRATA. Page 70, line 1, for man read mind t 86, line 15, for nine, read ninety. 104, for and were never reported on, read, and, except three or four never reported on. 113, line 28, for octavo, read close printed. 126, line 7, for 115,544,629, read 105,544,629. The same error is to be found in page 133. 132, line 8, for 125 read 130. 140, line 9, for seven read six 147, line penult., for 10,000,000 read 9,500,000. 166, line 15, for 16 2-3, read 14 2-7. 205, line 23, dele often. 211, line 20, for sells the flour to read sells to the four. Some other errors of minor importance have escaped, which, wi above, the reader is requested to correct with his pen. INDEX. Amelia Island, story respecting the capture of, 82. Agriculture, protection of, 222. Appeals to congress, 96, 97. Allegiance and protection reciprocal duties, 106. American manufacturers, deplorable situation of, 108, 109. Advantages enjoyed by farmers and planters, for thirty years, 149. Average of domestic exports of the United States, 15T. Advance of price of agricultural articles, 168. Aberdeen, remarkable case of, 174. Agriculture promoted by manufactures, 174. Advantages of the United States, sacrifice of, 189. Anderson, on National Industry, extracts from, 174, 18 Bank of North America, establishment of, 38. Bank of the United States, establishment of, 77. Blankets, Indian, proposal respecting, 79. Bankruptcy of merchants, cause of, 205, 208, 210. British navigation act, measures to counteract the, 218. British government, laudable efforts of, 230. Bankrupt act, delay of the, HO. Banking assigned as the cause of distress, 135. Banks, forty -one, incorporated, 136. Banks, capital authorised, 136. Broad cloth, price of, 164 expense of making, 166. Cotton, reduction of the price of, the result of our erroneous po- licy, 24. Commerce, decline of, inevitable, 24. Cast-off clothes, importations of, 34. Cottons, omitted in the tariff', 73. Clothing, immense importations of, 74. Cotton, exportation of, 75. Cotton manufacture, in Rhode Island, state of the, 85. Cotton manufacture in the United States, 86. Contrast, striking, 224, 227,228,230. Commerce, protection of by congress, 213,214, 215, 216. Coasting trade secured to American merchants, 220. Committee of commerce and manufactures a committee of oblivion, 103. Congress, contumelious 'and unfeeling conduct of, 104, 105. Contrast between the situation of the American and Russian ma- nufacturer, 107. Congress, lamentable mode of proceeding in, 112, 121, 122. Compensation art, debate on, 113. Compensation act, indecently hurried through congress, 104. Consumption of the people of the United States, 158, 159. Carrying trade, view of the, 201, 2(M Commerce, general reflexions on. 186. .general, causes of, 19, 23, 42. INDEX. Duties in Pennsylvania in 1783, 32. Delusion in Europe respecting the United States, 34. Distress, general, picture of, 36. Duties, statement of, 59. Double duties repealed, 89. Dallas's, Mr. tariff, 91. Duties on agricultural productions, 222. D'Alva, persecutions of, 234. Distress, intensity of the general, 128. Domestic exports of the United States, 140. Duties, ad valorem, for 1818, 146. Dirom, quotation from, 152. Exaggeration, remarkable instance of, 40. Excise, product of, 67. Exports of the United States, 25, 70, 84, 191, 197. Extra tonnage on foreign vessels, 216. Extravagant prices of productions of the earth, 150. Eatables exported from the United States, 159. Extortion, calumnious clamour against, 161, 162. Extortion, generab view of, 170. Free port established at Burlington, 32. Facts are stubborn things, 33. Federal constitution, adoption of, 47. Funding system, effects of, 77. Foreign trade almost wholly secured to American merchants, 220. Flesh meat consumed in Paris, 153. Foreign markets, fluctuation of, 172. Government, proper objects of, 18. Great Britain, advantages of, 57. Gerry, El bridge, public spirit of, 80. Gerry, Elbridge, error of, 81. Grain consumed in England annually, 152. Gal latin's report, extract from, 180. Great Britain, distress of, 230. Havoc of national wealth in five years, 17. Hamilton, Alexander, Report of, 63, 64, 65. Hamilton, Alexander, inconsistency of, 66. Huckstering policy, 91, 92. Harmony, settlement of, 176, 178. Immigrants returning to Europe, or going to Canada, 21. Imports, immoderate extent of, 25, 42. Impost for 1815, enormous amount of, 26. Internal duties, repeal of, 26. Impolicy, lamentable instances of, 76, 79. Indigo and rice, scarcely worth cultivation, 223. Immigration, patronage of in England and France, 233. Immigrants, tables of, 237. Immigrants, deplorable state of, 238. Immigration, table illustrative of the advantages of encouraging, Impost for fourteen years, 145. Internal trade of the United States, 158. INDEX. Imports of the United States, species of, 191. Imports of the United States for seven years, 199. Jefferson, Thomas, injurious effects of his opinion, 53. Jefferson, Thomas, retractation of, 54. King, Rufus, motion of, respecting plaster of Paris, 217. Legal tenders, 43. Law of Pennsylvania, preamble to a, 63. Louis XIV. sound policy of, 234. Loss of industry in the United States, 131. Land, wonderful improvement of, 175. Lands rise in value in the neighbourhood of manufactories, 181 Merino sheep, destruction of, 21, 82. Massachusetts, sufferings of, 37. Massachusetts' treasury, poverty of, 38. Massachusetts bank, incorporated, 40. Manufacturers, hostile combination against, 49, ;"M Manufacturers, memorial of, 60, 69. Manufactures, wonderful progress of, 83. Merchants, estimate of the number of, 209. Morris, Robert, member of congress in 1789, 216. Manufacturers, ruin of the, 95. Missouri question, debate on, 114. Manufacturers of the United States, numbers of the, 151. Monopoly in favour of the farmers and planters, 151, 154. Merino wool, price of, 165. Merchants, undue proportion of, 206. New York bank, incorporation of, 40. North Carolina tender laws, 40. Navigation, profits of, 200. Oneida memorial, extracts from, 102. Political maxims, 18/27. Picture of the present state of affairs, 20. President's notice of the state of manufactures, 28. Paper money and legal tenders, 37. Public securities, depreciation of, 44. Prejudices, pernicious, 51,52. Political economy, sound maxims of, 65. Philadelphia, Manufacturers employed in, 87. Prejudice, influence of, 94. Prejudices, inveterate, 89. Partiality, revolting instance of, 214. Pl:,st'!- of Paris, Nova Scotia act respecting, 2 1 7. Prohibitory act, respecting British vessels, 218. Policy of Edward 111,96. Philadelphia memorial, extracts from, 98. Pittsburg memorial, extracts from, 99, 100. Paper makers, curious case of. 111. Punctilio, ill-timed and unfeeling, 124. Prosperity of the United States, attempts to prove the, 126. elphia, decay of industry in, 128, 129. ' lamentable state of, 130, 1 .- 1 . Pennsylvania, calamitous situation of, 1 INDEX. Pennsylvania, advantages of, 137. Philadelphia, consumption of, 159, 172. , Productive industry sacrificed, 188. Protection of agriculture, 147. Report of a committee of congress, deceptions, 69. Raw materials consumed in the United States, 155. Secretary of the treasury's notice of manufactures, 28. Smith, Adam, doctrine of, fairly tested, 35, 45. Sessions of courts prevented, 37. Shays, insurrection of, 37. Specie, drain of, 41. Smuggling, fears of, 52. Statesmen, narrow views of, 62. St. Domingo, horrible scenes at, 78. Secretary at war, proposition of, 79. Soldiers in Canada, perished for want of comfortable clothing, 82. State of the nation after the war, 88. Southern policy, errors of, 93. South Carolina and Georgia, low state of, in 1789, 223. Speechifying an enormous evil, 113. Seminole war, debate on, 113. Signature of bills by the president, date of the, 115, 116, 117, 119. Speaker of the house of representatives, duty of, 120. Stark, general, interesting case of, 123. Theorists, infatuation of, 33, 45. Tariff of 1789, errors of, 54, 55, 56. Tea, coffee, &c. subject to high duties, 58. Taylor, colonel John, remarks on, 90 Tariff, features of a sound and pernicious, 54. Tariff of 1804, remarks on, 72. Tonnage of the United States, statement of the, 220. Tariff, erroneous views of the, 221. Tariff, existing, extracts from, 226. Transition to a state of peace, 135, 139. Taxing the many for the benefit of the few, 142, 143, 144. Ustariz, sound maxims of, 27. United States, situation of, at the close of the revolution, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36. United States, advantage of, for immigrants, 235. Woollen goods omitted in the tariff, 73. Wool, quantity sheared, 82. War prices, 84. Woollen manufactures in the United States, state of the, 86. Wright, governor, violence of, 90. Woollen manufactures established in England, by immigrants from Flanders, 234. Washington, general, anecdote of, 119. THE END. 14 DAY USE RETURN TO DESK FROM WHICH BORROWED LOAN DEPT. This book is due on the last date stamped below, or on the date to which renewed. Renewed books are subject to immediate recall. or A r |?cnl/n --y'UCL J^ T V j; ; : ii\ DAViS . - Q^(j'-)6-^3^ i REC'D UD AUG 1 4 1970 OCT231959 APR -^ 1989 o5?& ^ $$ pe-C'O t-D MA i | o iyyj MAY 15 23JU V64C^ IN STACKS JIJI 9 JQK4 R EC M D LO LD 21A-50m-4,'59 (A1724slO)476B General Library University of California Berkeley TB U6US/ BERKELEY LIBB/IR,E S UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY