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." 
 

 
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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 
 <c only to increase the general stock of useful and produc- 
 44 tive labour, but even to improve the state of agriculture in 
 "particular."* 
 
 What a lesson is here for, the farmers and 
 planters, who have been unhappily excited to 
 view with jealousy and hostility those citizens 
 who contribute so largely to their prosperity ! 
 
 " It is the interest of the community, with a view to even- 
 u tual and permanent economy , to encourage the growth of 
 44 manufactures. In a national view, a temporary enhance- 
 44 ment of price must always be well compensated by a per- 
 41 manent reduction of it."* 
 
 44 The trade of a country, which is both manufacturing 
 44 and agricultural, will be more lucrative and prosperous than. 
 44 that of a country which is merely agricultural"* 
 
 44 The uniform appearance of an abundance of specie, as the 
 44 concomitant of a flourishing state of manufactures, and of 
 44 the reverse where they do not prevail, afford a strong pre- 
 " sumption of their favourable operation upon the wealth of 
 44 a country."* 
 
 44 Not only the wealth, but the independence and security of 
 44 a country, appear to be materially connected 'with the pros- 
 44 perity of manufactures . Every nation, with a view to these 
 44 great objects, ought to endeavour to possess within itself 
 
 * Hamilton's Works, Vol. I. 
 9 
 
( 66 ) 
 
 u all the essentials of national supply. These comprise the 
 " means of subsistence, habitation, clothing, and defence. 1 '*' 
 " Considering a monopoly of the domestic market to its 
 " own manufactures as the reigning policy of manufactur- 
 ing nations, a similar policy on the part of the United States , 
 " in every proper instance, is dictated, it might almost be 
 " said by the principles of distributive justice certainly by the 
 cc duty of securing to their own citizens a reciprocity of ad- 
 u vantages"? 
 
 Mr. Hamilton, however, displayed an extreme 
 degree of inconsistency. Notwithstanding the 
 conclusive and irresistible arguments of his re- 
 port, in favour of a decided protection of manu- 
 factures, and notwithstanding the failure of many 
 promising efforts at their establishment, in con- 
 sequence of the deluge of goods poured into the 
 market, instead of recommending an adequate 
 enhancement of duties to supply some defi- 
 ciency of revenue in 1790, he submitted a plan 
 for an excise on spirituous liquors, which was 
 one of the most universally odious and unpo- 
 pular measures that could be devised. It ex- 
 cited the western insurrection ; thereby tarnish- 
 ed the character of the country; and jeopar- 
 dized the government in it% infancy. 
 
 However strong the arguments may be in 
 favour of an excise on spirits, in a moral point 
 of view, it was under existing circumstances ex- 
 tremely impolitic. For the paltry amount raised 
 
 * Hamilton's Works, Vol. I. 
 
( 67 ) 
 
 from it for a considerable time after its adoption, 
 it was not worth while to incur the disaffection 
 of the citizens. The receipts for the first four 
 years were 
 
 In 1792 - - 8208,942 
 
 1793 337,705 
 
 1794 274,689 
 
 1795 337,755 
 
 Four years S 1,158,491* 
 
 Average $ 289,622 
 
 What a miserable sum as a set off against the 
 oppression and vexation of an excise and the 
 insurrection it excited ! How incalculably soun- 
 der policy it would have been, to have increased 
 the duties on manufactured articles, which 
 would not only have answered the purpose of 
 meeting the additional demands of the treasury, 
 and given a spring to the industry of our citi- 
 zens; but made an important addition to the 
 wealth, power and resources of the nation ! 
 
 The importations in 1792, subject to five and 
 seven and a half per cent, duty 
 
 Amounted to - - S 16,221,000f 
 
 1793, at 7J and 8 - - 14,966,000 
 
 1794, at 7 and 10 - ,- 17,700,000 
 
 1795, at 10 16,447,000 
 
 Four years, S 65,334,000 
 
 * Seybert, 477. | Idem, 159. 
 
( 68 ) 
 
 Two per cent, on this sum would have been S 1,306,620 
 Annual average $ 326,655 
 
 more than the net revenue arising from the ex- 
 cise, and with scarcely a dollar additional ex- 
 pense in the collection. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Memorials to congress. Deceptions report. List 
 ofexpoi*ts. Tariff of 1804. Wonderful omis- 
 sion. Immense importations of cotton and wool- 
 len goods. Exportations of cotton. 
 
 IN the years 1802, 3, and 4, memorials were 
 presented to congress from almost every de- 
 scription of manufacturers, praying for further 
 protection. In the two first years they were 
 treated with utter slight, and nothing was done 
 whatever. 
 
 In 1804, the committee on commerce and 
 manufactures made a very superficial report, 
 from which I submit the following extract as a 
 specimen of the sagacity of its authors. 
 
 " There may be some danger in refusing to admit the manu- 
 "factures of foreign countries; for by the adoption of such a 
 " measure, ive should have no market abroad, and industry 
 " tvould lose one of its chief incentives at home." 
 
 This paragraph is superlatively absurd, and 
 indeed more than absurd. It is wicked. In order 
 to defeat the object of the memorialists, it as- 
 sumes for them requisitions which they did not 
 contemplate, and which of course their memo- 
 
70 ) 
 
 rials did not warrant. No sound man in the Uni- 
 ted States ever contemplated the total " exclusion 
 of foreign manufactures." It was merely request- 
 ed that the memorialists should not themselves 
 be "excluded" from the domestic market by 
 foreign rivals and that the industry of our citi- 
 zens should be so far patronized, that they might 
 be enabled to supply a portion of the thirty mil- 
 lions of dollars, principally of clothing, imported 
 that year. 
 
 But admitting for a moment, for the sake of 
 argument, that foreign manufactures had been 
 excluded, who could persuade himself, that we 
 should therefore " have no market abroad for 
 our produce ?" War at that time raged in almost 
 every part of Europe, and the West Indies : and 
 those who purchased our produce, had at least 
 as powerful reasons to purchase as we had to 
 sell. The inhabitants of an island in danger of 
 starvation would suffer more from being de- 
 prived of supplies, than the producers by the 
 privation of a market. 
 
 To evince the futility of the ground assumed 
 in the report, I annex a list of some of the 
 great leading articles exported in that year : 
 
 Flour 
 
 Indian corn - 
 
 Bec-f 
 
 Indian meal 
 
 Hams 
 
 barrels 
 bushels 
 barrels 
 barrels 
 pounds 
 
 ' 810,000 
 
 1,944,873 
 
 134,896 
 
 111,327 
 
 1,904,284 
 
Butter - pounds 2,476,550 
 
 Cheese - pounds 1,299,872 
 
 Lard - pounds 2,565,719 
 
 Candles - pounds 2,239,356 
 
 Cotton ... pounds 35,034,175" 
 
 Tar barrels 58,181 
 
 Turpentine .... barrels 77,827 
 
 Staves and heading - feet 34,614,000 
 
 Boards, plank and scantling - feet 76,000,000* 
 
 These, gentle reader, are the kinds of pro- 
 duce, which the framers of this very profound 
 report were fearful would not find a market, if 
 " foreign merchandize was excluded. 5 ' Such 
 are the displays of wisdom and political eco- 
 nomy made to the legislature of" the most en- 
 lightened nation in the world." 
 
 This subject deserves to be further analyzed. 
 To reduce it to plain English, it means, that, if 
 the United States laid heavy or prohibitory duties 
 on silks, sattins, shawls, fi;c. or prohibited East 
 India cotton goods, ^c. the people of the West 
 Indies would refuse to purchase our lumber 
 the Manchester manufacturers our cotton and 
 the governments of Spain and Portugal, our 
 flour, Indian meal, $c. fyc. Such profound 
 views of political economy cannot fail to excite 
 a high degree of respect and admiration. 
 
 In the year 1804, the demands of the treasury 
 had greatly increased by an augmentation of ex- 
 
 * Seybert, 1 10. 
 
penditure, and by the 8 1 5,000,000 of debt funded 
 for the purchase of Louisiana. This required an 
 increase of duties. But the same impolicy and 
 neglect of affording adequate protection to the 
 productive industry of the country that prevailed 
 in the former tariffs, appear in that of this year. 
 The old system was continued, of raising as 
 large a portion as possible of the impost on ar- 
 ticles not interfering with our manufactures,, 
 and laying duties comparatively light on ma- 
 nufactures. Accordingly the duties on teas, 
 wines, coffee, sugar, jc. were raised without 
 fear of smuggling. 
 
 1804. 
 
 Price. 
 Cents. 
 
 Duty. 
 Cents. 
 
 Per cent. 
 
 Bohea tea per Ib. 
 
 14 
 
 12 
 
 85 
 
 Souchong do. ... 
 
 41 
 
 18 
 
 44 
 
 Hyson do. - 
 
 56 
 
 32 
 
 57 
 
 Hyson skin do. ... 
 
 24 
 
 2O 
 
 83 
 
 Imperial do. - 
 
 '75 
 
 ' 32 
 
 40 
 
 Lisbon wine per gallon - 
 
 80 
 
 30 
 
 37-i- 
 
 London market Madeira do. 
 
 160 
 
 58 
 
 36 
 
 Coffee, per Ib. - 
 
 15 
 
 5 
 
 33 
 
 While these articles were dutied thus high, 
 cotton and woollen goods, which formed the 
 great mass of the clothing of the country, were 
 subject to only fifteen per cent., which, in the 
 improved state of the machinery of Great Bri- 
 tain, and, so far as respects cotton, the low price 
 of labour in the East Indies, was so wholly inade- 
 quate for protection, that very few attempts 
 
( 73 ) 
 
 were made to establish them on an extensive 
 scale, and thus the nation was drained of im- 
 mense sums, for articles of which it could have 
 supplied a superabundance. 
 
 It is a remarkable and most extraordinary fact, 
 that cotton goods were never mentioned in the 
 tariff, before 1804 nor woollen goods before 
 1816, when the government had been in ope- 
 ration 27 years ! They were passed over, and 
 fell within the class of non-enumerated articles. 
 It is impossible to reflect on this fact, without 
 astonishment, and a conviction that there never 
 was adequate attention bestowed on the concoc- 
 tion of the tariff, which, while it was silent re- 
 specting those important articles, descended 
 to the enumeration of artificial flowers, cos- 
 metics, bricks and tiles, dentifrice, dates, dolls, 
 essences, fans, fringes, glue, tassels and trim- 
 mings, limes and lemons, mittens, gloves, pow- 
 ders, pastes, washes, tinctures, plums, prunes, 
 toys, wafers, jc. jc. 
 
 As few persons are aware of the extravagant 
 extent of the importations of clothing, I annex the 
 amount for five years, of articles subject to 15 
 per cent, duty, of which about nine-tenths were 
 cotton and woollen goods. 
 
 10 
 
1804 
 1805 
 1806 
 1807 
 1808 
 
 S 30,285,267 
 37,137,598 
 43,115,367 
 46,031,742 
 23,780,758 
 
 IS 180,350,732* 
 
 The re-exportation of articles of 
 the same description.for these years, 
 was 
 
 1804 
 1805 
 1806 
 1807 
 1808 
 
 000,000 
 l',587,801 
 2,075,601 
 2,197,383 
 
 755,085 
 
 Balance .... 
 
 Deduct for sundries, say ten per cent. 
 
 6,615,870f 
 
 173,737,862 
 17,373,786 
 
 Cotton and woollen goods consurned in five 
 
 years .... $156,364,076 
 
 Had the duty been twenty -five per cent., and 
 the imports 100,000,000, the revenue would 
 have gained, and there would have been an im- 
 mense saving to the nation of above 60,000,000 
 of dollars in four years ! When will statesmen 
 
 Seybert, 164. 
 
 
( 75 ) 
 
 learn the grand secret of " transforming taxes 
 into useful regulations ?" 
 
 During these live years, we exported of raw 
 cotton 
 
 1804 - Ibs. 36,034,175 
 
 1805 - - 38,390,087 
 
 1806 ... 38,657,465 
 
 1807 63,944,559 
 
 1808 - 10,630,445 
 
 Ibs. 183,656,713 
 
 Although we'supplied Great Britain with more 
 than a third of the cotton she used, so little pro- 
 tection was afforded to the manufacture of the 
 article here, that in the year 1805, our consump- 
 tion was only 1000 bags; whereas, had the fos- 
 tering care of the government been extended to 
 it, we might have used 100,000. And this all- 
 important manufacture, for which this country is 
 so peculiarly fitted by its capacity of producing 
 the raw material to any extent; its boundless 
 water powers, its admirable machinery, and the 
 skill of its citizens, never took root here until 
 the non-intercourse and other restrictive mea- 
 sures, affording our citizens a fair chance in their 
 own market, they were encouraged to turn their 
 attention,, and devote their talents and capital to 
 this grand object. In five years, that is, in 1810, 
 merely through this encouragement, the con- 
 sumption increased ten-fold, to 10,000 bales, or 
 3,000.000 Ibs. In live more, in consequence of 
 

 the war, it rose to 90,000 bales, or 27,000,000 
 Ibs. This affords a clear and decisive proof that 
 nothing but a sound policy was necessary to have 
 brought it early to perfect maturity. 
 
 There is not perhaps in history a greater in- 
 stance of utter impolicy and disregard of the 
 maxims of all profound statesmen, or of the solid 
 and substantial interests of a nation, than this 
 most lamentable fact exhibits. An inexhaustible 
 source of national wealth, power, and resources, 
 and of individual happiness, was bestowed 
 on us by heaven, and prodigally lavished away, 
 in favour of foreign nations who made use of the 
 wealth thus absurdly bestowed, to jeopardize 
 our independence; under the absurd idea that 
 as we had so many millions of acres of back 
 lands uncultivated, we ought not to encourage 
 manufactures ! ! Ineffable delusion ! As if the 
 thousands of men brought up to cotton weaving, 
 who, under proper encouragement, would have 
 migrated to this country, could be immediately 
 transformed into back country farmers, and in- 
 duced to encounter all the horrors of clearing 
 the wilderness ! This would be on a level with 
 some of the Metamorphoses of Ovid. And as if 
 the vast numbers of old men, of women, and 
 children, who might be most advantageously em- 
 ployed for themselves and for the nation, in this 
 branch, were in any degree calculated for a 
 country life, even under its most inviting form ! 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 Various causes which prevented the ruinous ope- 
 ration of the early tariffs. Declaratiaji of 
 war. Blankets for Indians. Disgraceful situa-. 
 tion of the United States. Governor Gerry. 
 Sufferings of the army. Rapid progress of 
 national industry. 
 
 A VARIETY of circumstances, which ought 
 to have been noted in page 47, combined to 
 rescue the United States from the ruinous con- 
 sequences that would otherwise have naturally 
 flowed from the impolicy of the tariffs of 1789, 
 1792, and 1804; of which, as I have already 
 stated, the obvious tendency was to afford the 
 manufacturing nations of Europe, nearly all the 
 advantages they could have derived from this 
 country in its colonial state. 
 
 The provision in 1790, for funding the debt 
 of the United States, threw into circulation an 
 immense capital, which gave life and activity to 
 business. The establishment, about the same 
 time, of the Bank of the United States, afford- 
 ed additional facilities to trade and commerce. 
 And the wars of the French revolution opened 
 
C 78 ) 
 
 a market for the productions of our agriculture, 
 in many instances at most exorbitant prices ; for 
 instance, occasionally from fifteen to twenty dol- 
 lars per barrel for flour in the West Indies, 
 Spain, and Portugal, and other articles in pro- 
 portion. We were thus enabled to pay for the 
 extravagant quantities of manufactures which 
 we consumed, and with which we could and 
 ought to have supplied ourselves. 
 
 The dreadful scenes in St. Domingo brought 
 immense wealth into this country with the emi- 
 grants who purchased safety by flight from their 
 paternal estates and their native land. 
 
 For a considerable time, moreover, we were 
 almost the sole carriers of the colonial produce 
 of the enemies of Great Britain ; as her fleets 
 were in full possession of the seas, and there was 
 no safety for the vessels of those powers in, hos- 
 tility with her. 
 
 But it was obvious that this system rested the 
 prosperity of the nation on the sandy founda- 
 tion of the w r ars, desolation, and misery of our 
 fellow men. And as it was not probable that 
 they would continue to cut each other's throats 
 to promote our welfare, a close of this dazzling 
 scene was to be expected, for which sound 
 policy required provision to-be made. But this 
 duty was totally neglected. We proceeded as 
 if this state of affairs were to last for ever. At 
 length we were abruptly cut off from the mar- 
 
( 79 ) 
 
 kets of Europe, and then a new order of things 
 arose, to dispel the prevalent delusion. 
 
 On the 18th of June, 1812, war was declared 
 against Great Britain. This event placed the 
 ruinous and deplorable policy of our government, 
 on the subject of its manufactures, in a glaring 
 point of light. With ra\v materials in abundance, 
 skill, enterprize, industry, water power, and 
 capital to the utmost extent, to secure a full sup- 
 ply for nearly all our wants, we had, in defiance 
 of the soundest maxims of policy, absurdly de- 
 pended on foreign nations for a great variety of 
 necessary articles, and even, Oh, shame! for our 
 clothing, than which the mind of man can hardly 
 conceive of more utter want of policy. 
 
 In consequence of this miserable system, at 
 the commencement of the war, the nation suf- 
 fered the disgrace of a regular proposition being 
 offered to congress by the secretary at war, to 
 suspend the non-importation act for the purpose of 
 importing a supply of Jive or six thousand blan- 
 kets for the Indians, for whom the department 
 had not been able to make provision ! and who 
 had of course become clamorous at the disap- 
 pointment! This melancholy tale will hardly find 
 credence. It is, nevertheless, sacredly true; 
 and if dear-bought experience were of any avail 
 in the regulation of the affairs of nations, this, 
 simple fact would be an invaluable lesson to our 
 statesmen, to warn them against the rock of 
 
80 } 
 
 
 abandoning national industry. But, alas ! to the 
 incalculable injury of the nation, it was entirely 
 disregarded in four short years, as will appear 
 in the sequel. 
 
 The good old governor of Massachusetts, 
 Elbridge Gerry, felt deep distress at the bitter 
 draught of the dregs of the chalice of humilia- 
 tion swallowed at this crisis by the government 
 of the United States, and brought the affair be- 
 fore the legislature of that state. 
 
 " It being- officially announced, that the Indians complain 
 u they cannot receive the usual supplies of goods, by rea- 
 " son of the non-importation act, and that they were not to 
 u be purchased within the United States. 
 
 " I submit to your consideration, whether it is not incum- 
 " bent on this state, to use the means in its power for en- 
 " abling the national government to rise superior to such a 
 u humiliating' circumstance ! In the year 1775, when our war 
 " with Great Britain commenced, and when, immediately 
 u preceding it, a non-importation act had been strictly car- 
 " ried into effect, the state of Massachusetts apportioned 
 " on their towns, respectively, to be manufactured by them, 
 " articles of clothing wanted for their proportion of the 
 " army, which besieged Boston ; fixed the prices and quali- 
 " ties of those articles, and they were duly supplied with- 
 * c in a short period. 
 
 " Thus, before we had arrived at the threshold of inde- 
 u pendence, and when we were in an exhausted state, by 
 " the antecedent, voluntary and patriotic sacrifice of our 
 " commerce, between thirteen and fourteen thousand cloth 
 u coats were manufactured, made and delivered into our maga- 
 u zine, within a few months from the date of the resolve rvhich 
 a first communicated the requisition. 
 
 " Thirty six years have since elapsed, during twenty-nine 
 
( 81 ) 
 
 " of which we have enjoyed peace and prosperity, and have 
 " increased in numbers, manufactures, wealth and re- 
 " sources, beyond the most sanguine expectations. 
 
 " All branches of this government have declared their 
 " opinion, and I conceive on the most solid principle, that 
 u as a nation we are independent of any other, for the neces- 
 " saries, conveniences, and for many of the luxuries of life. 
 
 " Let us not, then, at this critical period, admit any ob- 
 " struction, which we have power to remove, to discourage 
 " or retard the national exertions for asserting and main- 
 " taining our rights ; and above all, let us convince Great 
 " Britain that we can and will be independent of her for 
 41 every article of commerce whilst she continues to be the 
 " ostensible friend, but the implacable foe of our prosperity, 
 u government, union, and independence." 
 
 What a melancholy difference between the 
 two epochs, 1775, and 1812! Strength and vi- 
 gour in youth feebleness and decay in man- 
 hood! What lamentable havoc of national re- 
 sources in the interim ! 
 
 Mr. Gerry says, " as a nation we are indepen- 
 dent of every other." This is a most egregi- 
 ous error. " As a nation," extent of resources 
 considered, there was not then, nor is there 
 now, a more dependent people, perhaps, in the 
 world. In our towns and cities, one-half of our 
 population, males and females, are covered with 
 the fabrics and in the fashions of foreign na- 
 tions. He should have said, " we may and ought 
 to be independent." Two or three small words 
 make an immense difference. 
 
 If any thing could add to the mortification 
 
 11 
 
( 83 ,) 
 
 and regret which this circumstance must excite, 
 it is, that the quantity of wool sheared in 18 10 
 was estimated at 13 or 14,000,000 Ibs., and in 
 18 12, at 20 or 22,000,000 ;* and that various pro- , 
 mising attempts to establish the woollen manu- 
 facture, had been made at different periods, 
 during the preceding years, which, for want of 
 protection, had failed of success. 
 
 Next to the waste of the immense advantages 
 we possess for the manufacture of cotton, is to 
 be lamented the impolitic and irreparable de- 
 struction of the merino sheep, of which we had 
 to the value of about one million of dollars, 
 which government, by an increase of duty on 
 woollens, might have easily preserved. The con- 
 trast between our abandonment of them, and 
 the great pains taken, and expense incurred by 
 different nations to possess themselves of this 
 treasure, is strong and striking. 
 
 Hundreds of our ill-fated soldiers,~it is said, 
 perished for want of comfortable clothing in the 
 early part of the war, when exposed to the in- 
 hospitable climate of Canada.f 
 
 The war found us destitute of the means of 
 
 supplying ourselves, not merely with blankets 
 
 s 
 
 * Tench Coxe's Tables, preface, page xiii. 
 
 | I have heard a story, for which, however, I do not vouch, 
 that the capture of Amelia Island, by Governor Mitchell, 
 was ordered by government with a view to provide blankets 
 lor our suffering soldiers. 
 
( 83 ) 
 
 for our soldiers, but a vast variety of other arti- 
 cles necessary for our ease and comfort, of 
 which the prices were accordingly raised ex- 
 travagantly by the importers. Our citizens, and 
 among them numbers of our commercial men, 
 entered on the business of manufactures with 
 great energy and enterprize ; invested in them 
 many millions of capital ; and having, during the 
 thirty months which the war continued, the do- 
 mestic market secured to them, they succeeded 
 wonderfully. 
 
 Never was there a prouder display of the (I 
 had almost said) omnipotence of industry, than 
 was afforded on this occasion. It furnishes 
 an eternal lesson to statesmen. Our citizens ex- 
 hibited a spectacle perhaps without precedent. 
 Unaided by the expenditure of a single dollar by 
 our government^ they attained in two or three 
 years, a degree of maturity in manufactures, 
 which required centuries in England, France, 
 Prussia, 2jc., and cost their monarchs enormous 
 sums in the shape of bounties, premiums, draw- 
 backs, with the fostering aid of privileges and 
 immunities bestowed on the undertakers. The 
 supply became commensurate with the demand; 
 and full confidence was entertained that the go- 
 vernment and nation, to whose aid they came 
 forward in time of need, would not abandon 
 them to destruction, after the purposes of the 
 moment were answered. Fatal delusion ! 
 
Our exports for 1813 and 1814, were only 
 about 31,000,000 of dollars, or 15,500,000 per 
 annum. JHostile fleets and armies desolated those 
 parts of the country to which they had access. 
 Yet the nation made rapid strides in prosperity 
 by the creative powers of industry. Every man 
 was employed, and every man fully recom- 
 pensed for his labours. It may, how r ever, be sup- 
 posed that the farmers suffered heavily by the 
 exclusion of their productions from foreign 
 markets. The fact is otherwise. I state the prices 
 of three articles, flour, beef, and hemp, in the 
 Philadelphia market, in proof of this assertion. 
 Other articles commanded proportionable prices. 
 
 
 Flour 
 per barrel. 
 
 Beef 
 
 per barrel. 
 
 Hemp 
 per ton. 
 
 1813, Aug. 23 - - 
 Nov. 22 - - 
 
 $8 25 
 10 00 
 
 $15 50 
 15 50 
 
 $210 
 210 
 
 1814. Jan. 31 - - 
 July 4* - - 
 Dec. 5 - - 
 
 8 00 
 6 86 
 8 37 
 
 13 50 
 17 00 
 19 00 
 
 275 
 250 
 250 
 
 What a contrast at present ! We have 
 ported 
 
 e, 
 
 In 1816 
 1817 
 
 1818 
 
 Average - 
 
 $ 64,784,896 
 68,338,069 
 73,854,^37 
 
 SS 206,997,402 
 - g 68,999,230 
 
 * Specie payments were continued till August, 1814, 
 
( 85 ) 
 
 That is, above four hundred per cent, more than 
 in 1813 and 1814 and a premature decay has 
 nevertheless been rapidly gaining ground on the 
 nation by the prostration of its industry ! What 
 an important volume of political economy ! How 
 much more instructive than Condorcet, Smith, 
 Say, Ricardo, and the whole school of econo- 
 mists of this class ! 
 
 I am aware that from local circumstances, 
 cotton and some other articles were at reduced 
 prices at the places of production during the 
 war, from the difficulty and expense of trans- 
 portation. The fall of cotton was a natural con- 
 sequence of the impolicy of the planters in not 
 having previously secured themselves a domes- 
 tic market. 
 
 The following tables exhibit a statement of 
 the great advancement made ; and prove that 
 our citizens only require half the patronage of 
 government, which is afforded by England, 
 France, Austria, and Russia, to enabJe them to 
 enter into competition with die whole world. 
 
 State of the cotton manufacture within thirty miles of Provi- 
 dence^ R. I. in 181 5, extracted 'from a memorial to congress. 
 
 " Cotton manufactories - 140 
 
 " Containing in actual operation - spindles 130,000 
 " Using annually - - bales of cotton 29,000 
 
 " Producing yards of the kinds of cotton goods 
 
 usually made - - - - 27,840,000 
 
.( 
 
 " The weaving of which at eight cents per yard 
 
 amounts to - 2,227,200 
 
 " Total value of the cloth - g 6,000,000 
 
 " Persons steadily employed 26,000 
 
 State of the cotton manufacture throughout the United States 
 in 1815, from a report of the Committee of Commerce and 
 Manufactures. 
 
 Capital g 40,000,000 
 
 Males employed, from the age of seventeen 
 
 and upwards - - - - - 10,OOO 
 
 " Women and female children - - 66,OOO 
 
 Boys, under seventeen years of age 24,000 
 
 Wages of one hundred thousand persons, 
 averaging g 150 each g 15,000,000 
 
 " Cotton wool manufactured, nine thousand 
 
 bales, amounting to Ibs. - 27,000,000 
 
 " Number of yards of cotton, of various kinds, 81,000,000 
 
 " Cost, per yard, averaging 30 cents - g 24,300,000 
 
 State of the woollen manufacture throughout the United States 
 in 1815, from the s,ame. 
 
 " Amount of capital supposed to be invested 
 
 in buildings, machinery, &c. - E 12,000,000 
 
 " Value of raw material consumed 
 
 annually - - - 7,000,000 
 
 " Increase of value by manufac- 
 turing - ... 12,000,000 
 
 " Value of woollen goods manufactured an- 
 nually .... . g 19,000,000 
 
 Number of persons employed 
 
 r ' 
 
 sionally - 50,OOO 
 
 100,00t> 
 
( 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 -.--...<x) 
 In January - - -,- - - - -8 
 
 In February ....... 10 
 
 On Saturday, March 1st - 14 
 
 March 3d 82 
 
 114 
 
 The acts of this session are comprised in one 
 hundred pages. Those signed in January occu- 
 py three pages and a half those in February 
 
four those on the first of March nine and 
 those on the 3d seventy-three ! 
 
 Fifteenth congress. First session. From November 16, 1817, 
 
 to April 2O, 1818. One hundred and thirty acts. 
 November ... 00 
 
 December - - - - - 1 
 
 January . . . 7 
 
 February - - - 6 
 
 March - - - - - -1O 
 
 April 3d to 18th - 54 
 
 April 20th * . . . 53 
 
 130 
 
 The fifty-two acts signed on the 20th of 
 April, contain of J. E. Hall's edition, no less than 
 eighty-seven pages. In this session there were, 
 it appears, one hundred and six acts passed in 
 seventeen days and only twenty-four in the 
 preceding four months and a half! 
 
 The annals of legislation may be challenged 
 for any parallel case. 
 
 Fifteenth congress. Second session. From November 16,1818, 
 
 to March 3, 1819. One hundred and seven acts. 
 
 November .... 00 
 
 December - - - 7 
 
 January 4 
 
 February - - - 33 
 
 March 2d 8 
 
 March 3d - 55 
 
 107 
 
This system of procrastination has been coeval 
 with the government. I am informed by a gen- 
 tleman of veracity, that General Washington, 
 when an extraordinary number of acts were 
 presented to him on the last day of a session, 
 more than he could correctly decide upon, has 
 expressed a strong and most marked disappro- 
 bation of so incorrect a procedure. 
 
 Analysis. 
 
 Sessions of congress ... 9 
 
 Duration ...... months 39J 
 
 Acts passed -----.- 988 
 
 Of which were signed in eleven days - - 42O 
 
 Viz. 
 
 1812. July 6th 29 
 
 1813. March 3d 23 
 
 August 3d - - 24 
 
 1814. April 18th .... 34 
 
 1815. March 3d , - .31 
 
 1816. April 26th, 27th and 29th 90 
 
 1817. March 3d - - - - 82 
 
 1818. April 20th - 52 
 
 1819. March 3d ... - 55 
 
 Acts signed in eleven days - 420 , 
 
 Thus it appears that in three years and three 
 months there were 568 acts signed &ndir\eleve?i 
 days, as I have stated, 420 ! ! Wonderful sys- 
 tem of legislation ! 
 
 No small share of the censure due to the pro- 
 
( 120 ) 
 
 crastination of the public business, so visible in 
 the above proceedings, justly attaches to the 
 speaker for the time being. He ought to keep a 
 docket of the business brought before the house, 
 and urge committees to perform their duty. Cer- 
 tain days should be appointed to make reports, 
 which ought then to be called for. If not ready, 
 others should be fixed. And whenever the pub- 
 lic business is unnecessarily or wantonly pro- 
 crastinated, his duty requires the use of strong 
 animadversion. This arrangement would be pro- 
 ductive of the most salutary consequences. But 
 for want of this or some other system, a very 
 large portion of every session is literally thrown 
 away. And so much of the business is crowded 
 together at the close, that it is impossible to con- 
 coct it properly. Ever since the organization 
 of the government, three-fourths of all the im- 
 portant acts have been passed within the last 
 week or ten days of each session. 
 
 Is it then surprising that the national business 
 is egregiously ill-managed ? That the reitera- 
 ted requests of so large a portion of our citizens, 
 for a bankrupt and other^salutary acts, are of no 
 avail ? How is it possible for the members 
 how is it possible for a president to dis- 
 charge their respective duties conscientiously, 
 with such a system ? Can any powers short of 
 superhuman enable the latter to decide on the 
 justice, the propriety, the constitutionality of 
 
twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, sixty, seventy, or 
 eighty acts in one or two days ? Is not this 
 making a mere mockery of legislation ? 
 
 Two, three, and sometimes four months are 
 drawled away in the early part of the session 
 with three, four, six, eight, ten or twelve acts 
 and afterwards all the business is hurried through 
 with indecent haste. In the one portion of the 
 time, the progress resembles that of the snail or 
 the sloth in the other, that of the high mettled 
 racer. In fact and in truth, if Congress desired to 
 bring republican government into disgrace, to 
 render it a bye-word and a reproach, it would 
 not be very easy to devise a plan more admira- 
 bly calculated for the purpose than a considera- 
 ble part of their proceedings. 
 
 One ruinous consequence attending the sys- 
 tem pursued, is, that at the close of every ses- 
 sion, some of the most important bills are neces- 
 sarily postponed. 
 
 It is frequently said in justification of the pro- 
 crastination of congress, and the little business 
 that is executed in the early part of the session, 
 that the committees are employed in digesting 
 and preparing their reports. It is obvious, that 
 this must require time. But whoever considers 
 the nature of a large portion of the business thai 
 is discussed in that body, will be convinced that 
 it might be dispatched in a fifth part of the time 
 it occupies. 
 
 16 
 
Among the acts hurried through at the close 
 of the session, there are frequently some, and 
 among them private ones, which have "drag- 
 ged their slow length along" for months before, 
 and which might as readily he decided on in a week 
 as in six months. I annex the dates of introduc- 
 tion and of signature of a few to exemplify this. 
 
 Reported. Signed. 
 Act to divide the state of Pennsylvania 
 
 into districts, 1818. Feb. 4 April 20 
 Act for publication of laws, - Jan. 16 April 20 
 Act for relief of B. Birdsall Jail. 27 April 20 
 Act for incorporating Columbian In- 
 stitute, Feb. 3 April 2O 
 Act for relief of Gen. Brown, Feb. 9 April 18 
 Act for relief of T. & J. Clifford Jan. 2O April 20 
 
 The bill for the relief of T. $ J. Clifford, 
 which was three months on its passage through 
 the houses, contains about twenty lines, and was 
 for the remission of duties paid on articles not 
 subject to duty. Three days would have an- 
 swered as well for the discussion as seven 
 years. Such is the case with half the bills that 
 are crowded together at the last day of the ses- 
 sion. 
 
 Jt may not be uninteresting to make a few fur- 
 ther extracts from the journals, shedding addi- 
 tional light on this important subject. 
 
 1819. April 18. " Engrossed bills of the following titles 
 " (?iine in number) were severally read a third time and pass* 
 "ed" 
 
( 133 ) 
 
 April 20. " Bills from the senate of the following titles 
 " (ten in number) were severally read a third time and pass- 
 " ed." 
 
 Eodem Die. " A message from the senate that they have 
 " passed bills of this house of the following titles, to wit 
 " (eighteen in number.)" 
 
 By a careful search through the journals of 
 different sessions, we might find three or four 
 hundred bills, thus bundled together, and hastily 
 read oft* ten or a dozen en suite. 
 
 The case of General Stark deserves to be put 
 on record, to corroborate some of the opinions 
 offered in this chapter. 
 
 On the 6th of March, 1818, a petition was 
 presented by this old veteran, representing his 
 necessitous circumstances, and praying that the 
 bounty of the national government might be ex- 
 tended to him, in the decline of life, in com- 
 pensation of his faithful services in defence of 
 his country. It was referred to a committee, who 
 reported a bill on the 9th, which was read the 
 first and second time on that day. It then lay 
 
 tover untouched for above five weeks, till Saturday 
 the 18th of April, when it was passed and sent to 
 the senate, where it was read and referred to the 
 committee on pensions, who reported it on that 
 day without amendments. It was read the third 
 time on Monday the 20th, in committee of the 
 whole, and agreed to -with amendments. It being 
 against a rule of the senate to pass a bill under 
 those circumstances, on the same clav. Mr. Fro- 
 
mentin moved that the rule be dispensed with. 
 But this motion ivas unfeelingly rejected. And as 
 the session was closed that day, the bill of 
 course was lost ; and the venerable old hero, 
 about ninety years of age, and bending over the 
 grave, was disappointed at that time of receiv- 
 ing the pittance intended for him. The im- 
 portance of his victory at Bennington, which led 
 to those all-important events, the battle of Sara- 
 toga and the capture of General Burgoyne, 
 which stand conspicuous among the proudest 
 triumphs of the revolutionary war, is so deeply 
 impressed on the public mind, that every good 
 man in the nation felt deep regret at this very 
 ill-timed and ungracious punctilio. 
 
 The compensation bill, which was to render 
 members of congress salary officers, at the rate of 
 1500 dollars -per annum, passed by a former 
 congress, forms a proper contrast to the bill in 
 favour of general Stark. 
 
 It was read the first and second time 
 
 in the house of representatives - March 6th, 1815. 
 
 Read a third time and passed - 9th 
 
 Read first time in senate ... nth 
 
 Second time 12th 
 
 Third time and passed - - 14th 
 
 Laid before the president - - 18th 
 
 Approved same day. 
 
 What wonderful economy of time ! 
 Thus a bill for their own benefit which intro- 
 duced a novel principle into the country, in 
 
twelve days passed through all its stages from its 
 inception to the presidential approbation ! ! 
 
 What a reproach to congress arises from a 
 contrast of this case with that of the veteran 
 Stark ! How wonderfully their personal interest 
 accelerated their movements ! 
 
 The citizens of the United States, however, 
 are answerable for a large portion of the dere- 
 lictions of congress. Most of the members are 
 ambitious of popularity ; which forms one of the 
 principal inducements to seek a seat in that 
 body. And the utter inattention too generally 
 displayed by the citizens to the conduct of their 
 representatives, induces a degree of indifference 
 towards the interests and wishes of the con- 
 stituents. A more frequent call for the yeas and 
 nays, by those members who are sincerely de- 
 sirous of discharging their duty, and of having 
 the public business punctually attended to, to- 
 gether with a publication of lists of votes on all 
 important questions, previous to elections, would 
 operate powerfully on the feelings of the mem- 
 bers. If every member whose votes militated 
 with the substantial interests of his country, 
 were sure to be discarded, as he ought to be, on 
 the day of election, the proceedings of congress 
 would exhibit a very different appearance from 
 what they do at present. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Attempts to prove the state of affairs prosperous. 
 Their fallacy established. Destruction of indus- 
 try in Philadelphia and Pittsburg. Awful situa- 
 tion of Pennsylvania. 14,537 suits for debt, and 
 10, 3 6 judgments confessed in the year 18 1 9. 
 Depreciation of real estate 115,544,629 dol- 
 lars. 
 
 FOR a considerable time elaborate efforts were 
 made to prove that the great mass of our citi- 
 zens were highly prosperous. Even official mes- 
 sages, at no very distant day, announced this 
 idea. But the veil that obscured the appalling 
 vision of public distress is removed, and there 
 is now no diversity of sentiment on the subject. 
 Bankruptcy of banks individual ruin and 
 sheriffs' sales to an extent never known before 
 the idleness of thousands of those who have 
 no property but in the labour of their hands- 
 resolutions of town meetings memorials and 
 petitions from almost every part of the middle 
 and eastern states messages of governors de- 
 liberate instructions of the representative bodies 
 in some of the states acts of legislatures^ sus- 
 pending the collection of debts and, to close the 
 
long train of calamity, the emigration of Ame- 
 rican citizens to a Spanish colony, seeking an 
 asylum from the misery they suffer in their owu 
 country all distinctly proclaim a deplorable 
 state of society, which fully evinces a radical un- 
 soundness in our policy, loudly and imperiously 
 demanding as radical a remedy. No tempo- 
 rizing expedients will suffice. Nothing short of 
 a complete and permanent protection of the 
 national industry, so as to enable us to reduce 
 our demands from Europe, within our means of 
 payment^ will arrest us in the career of impover- 
 ishment and enable us to regain the ground 
 we have unhappily lost and take that high and 
 commanding stand among nations, which nature 
 and nature's God, by the transcendent advan- 
 tages bestowed on us, intended we should en- 
 joy advantages which for five years we have 
 so prodigally squandered. 
 
 Although the prevailing depression and dis- 
 tress are generally well known, yet few are fully 
 acquainted with their extreme intensity. Indeed, 
 it is at all times difficult and scarcely possible to 
 realize, from general description, the extent of 
 suffering which mankind endure whether by 
 war, famine, pestilence, or want of employment. 
 In the last case, it would be necessary to tra- 
 verse by -lanes and alleys to ascend to garret? 
 
( 1*8 ) 
 
 or descend to cellars to behold the afflicted 
 father, after having pawned his clothes and fur- 
 niture, destitute of money and credit to support 
 his famishing wife and children his proud spi- 
 rit struggling between the heart-rending alter- 
 natives of allowing them to suffer under hunger 
 and thirst, or else sinking to apply to the over- 
 seers of the poor to ask alms in the street or to 
 have recourse to soup-houses for relief.* These 
 are afflicting realities, with which, I hope, for the 
 honour of human nature, the presidents and dele- 
 gates of agricultural societies, who enter the 
 list to prevent the relief of their fellow citizens, 
 and perpetuate their sufferings, are wholly un- 
 acquainted. 
 
 I cannot here enter into particulars of the' 
 awful scenes that overspread the face of the 
 land, and shall confine myself to a slight sketch 
 of the lamentable devastation of national pros- 
 perity and private happiness, experienced in 
 Philadelphia and Pittsburg, which so many wor- 
 thy, but mistaken men are labouring to perpe- 
 tuate. 
 
 By an investigation ordered during last au- 
 tumn by a town meeting of the citizens of Phi- 
 
 * Some idea may be formed of the state of our cities, 
 from the circumstance, that in Baltimore, there are no less 
 than twelve stations for distributing soup tickets. In Phila- 
 delphia, the distribution is very great, at the rate of a pint 
 to each person. 
 
( 139 ) 
 
 ladelphia, and conducted by gentlemen of re- 
 spectability, it appears, so great was the 
 decay of manufacturing industry, that in only 
 thirty out of fifty-six branches of business there 
 were actually 7728 persons less employed in 
 1819 than in 1816, whose wages amounted to 
 $2,366,935. No returns were procured from 
 twenty-six branches, viz. 
 
 Bookbinders Manufacturers of gun-powder 
 
 Brewers Painters and glaziers 
 
 Brickmakers Plumbers 
 
 Carpenters Shoemakers 
 
 Coopers Shotmakers 
 
 Chocolate makers Sugar bakers 
 
 Calico printers Snuff and tobacco manufac- 
 
 Curriers turers 
 
 Chair makers Stonecutters 
 
 Dyers Turners 
 
 Engravers Tanners 
 
 Embroiderers Umbrella makers 
 
 Glovers Wheelwrights, &c. &c. 
 
 Glass manufacturers 
 
 Assuming only half the number, in these twen- 
 ty-six, that were in the other thirty, the aggre- 
 gate would be 11,592 and, were only one wo- 
 man or child dependent on each person, the 
 whole, out of a population of about one hundred 
 and twenty thousand, 
 
 Would amount to - persons 23,184 
 
 Whose wages would be - g 3,550,402 
 
 17 
 
( 130 ) 
 
 And allowing the work to be double the wages, 
 which is a moderate calculation, the value 
 would be jg 7,100,804 
 
 lost in a single city in one year! 
 
 Let us now survey Pittsburg, where we shall 
 behold a similar scene of devastation. This city 
 in 18 J 5, contained about six thousand inhabit- 
 ants. It then exhibited as exhilarating a scene of 
 industry, prosperity and happiness, as any place 
 in the world. Its immense local advantages, 
 seated at the confluence of two noble rivers, 
 forming the majestic Ohio; its boundless sup- 
 plies of coal; and the very laudable enterprize 
 of its inhabitants, had for a long time rendered 
 it the emporium of the western world. But, 
 alas! the immoderate influx of foreign manu- 
 factures poured in there shortly after the peace, 
 produced a most calamitous reverse. The ope- 
 rations of the hammer, the hatchet, the shuttle, 
 the spindle, the loom, ceased in a great degree. 
 Noble establishments, which reflected honour 
 on the nation, were closed; the proprietors 
 ruined ; the workmen discharged ; a blight and a 
 blast overspread the face of the city ; and the 
 circumjacent country, which had shared in its 
 prosperity, now equally partook of its decline. 
 By a recent and minute investigation, con- 
 ducted by citizens of high standing, the follow- 
 ing appeared to be the 
 
Actual state of the city of Pittsburg. 
 
 Persons deprived of employment, or less employ- 
 ed in 1819 than in 1816 1288 
 
 Supposing only one woman or child depending on 
 
 each of the above - - 1288 
 
 It would amount to 2576 
 
 The amount of work done in 1816 was - - 82,617,833 
 In 1819 - 832,000 
 
 Loss to Pittsburg - - - 1,785,833 
 
 Loss to Philadelphia, as before, - 7,100,804 
 
 Annual loss in two cities in one state . - S8,886,637 
 
 When the other cities and towns throughout 
 the union, where similar devastation has oc- 
 curred, are taken into view, it will not he an un- 
 reasonable calculation to presume it six-fold 
 elsewhere : but to avoid cavil, I will only sup- 
 pose it treble 
 
 Which will amount to - - - S 26,659,911 
 
 Philadelphia and Pittsburg .... 8,886,637 
 
 Total loss of industry .... 35,546,548 
 
 By the wretched policy of fostering foreign 
 
 manufactures and manufacturers, and foreign 
 
 governments ; buying cheap bargains abroad, 
 
 and consigning our own citizens to bankruptcy 
 
 -and beggary ! 
 
( 132 ) 
 
 
 With these overwhelming facts staring us in 
 the face, is it not insanity to be debating about 
 the causes of the existing distress? Who can en- 
 tertain a doubt as to the grand and primary 
 cause? Is it not as plain as "the hand writing 
 on the wall ?" Does it not clearly arise from the 
 destruction of national industry? What! an an- 
 nual loss in two cities, containing about 125.000 
 inhabitants, of nearly nine millions of dollars, 
 and proportionable losses almost every where 
 else! Such a course, steadily continued, wouldim- 
 poverish China more rapidly than she has ac- 
 cumulated her immense treasures. It is not 
 therefore wonderful that it has, in a few 
 years impoverished a nation whose sole patri- 
 mony was her industry. 
 
 Some public documents have recently ap- 
 peared, which prove the distress of the country 
 far more intense and extensive than had been 
 previously conceived. A committee of the 
 senate of Pennsylvania, appointed to enquire in- 
 to the extent and causes of the general distress, 
 addressed circulars to all the prothonotaries and 
 sheriffs in the state, whence they collected the 
 following awful facts : 
 
 The number of actions brought for debt in the 
 
 year 1819, were 14,537 
 
 The number of judgments confessed - 10,326 
 
 Exclusive of those before justices of the peace, 
 about half the number. 
 
( 133 ) 
 
 Imprisonments for debt in the city and county of 
 
 Philadelphia - 1,808 
 
 In Lancaster county - ... 221 
 
 In Alleghany county - 286 
 
 A report made to the house of representa- 
 tives, by a committee appointed for the same 
 purpose as that in the senate, appears to es- 
 timate the depreciation of the real estate in 
 Pennsylvania at one-third of the value ascer- 
 tained by the United States assessment in 1815, 
 which was 8316,633,889 of course the depre- 
 ciation is 8 1 15,544,629. 
 
 A memorial referred to in another report, 
 states 
 
 " That embarrassment is universal ; that the sordid and 
 " avaricious are acquiring the sacrificed property of the libe- 
 u ral and industrious; that so much property is exposed to 
 u sale under execution, that buyers cannot be had to pay 
 " more for it than the fees of office." 
 
 Would to God, that this affecting picture could 
 be placed in large characters in Congress Hall, 
 in the president's house, and in the offices of 
 the secretaries of state and the treasury, that 
 they might be led to take the necessary mea- 
 sures as early as possible to relieve such suf- 
 ferings. 
 
 This, let it be observed, is far from the whole 
 of the evil. The comparison is only a retrospec- 
 tive one to shew the precipitous descent we 
 have made from a towering height. Let us now 
 
( 134 ) 
 
 see the point to which we might, and hy a pro- 
 per policy would, have arrived. In five years, 
 from 1810 to 1815, as already stated, the manu- 
 facture of cotton increased from \ 0,000 to 
 90,000 bales, or 270,000,000 Ibs. The other 
 manufactures of the country increased very 
 considerably, but not in the same proportion. 
 
 By the statements of the marshals, and the cal- 
 culations of Mr. Coxe, a gentleman perfectly" 
 competent to this service, it appears that the 
 manufactures of the United States in 1810, 
 amounted to 172,000,000 dollars. 
 
 Let us suppose that in place of a multiplica- 
 tion nine-fold, such as took place in the cotton 
 branch between 1810 and 1815, the increase 
 was only double, it follows, that in 1815, the 
 whole of our manufactures must have amount* 
 ed to nearly 350,000,000 dollars. 
 
 Inferring from past experience, they would, 
 under an efficient protection by the government, 
 have increased from 1815 to 1820, fifty per 
 cent, and of course would now be above 500 3 - 
 000,000 dollars. 
 
 It is impossible to pursue this train of re- 
 flexion, and compare what we might be, with 
 what we are, without sensations of the keenest 
 distress, and a clear conviction of the radical 
 unsoundness of a policy, which has in a few- 
 years produced so much destruction of, happi- 
 ness and prosperity. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 Causes assigned for the existing distress. Extra- 
 vagarit banking. Transition to a state of peace. 
 Fallacy of these reasons. True cause, destruc- 
 tion of industry. Comparison of exports fm* six 
 years. 
 
 SINCE public attention has been drawn to ex- 
 plore the causes of the existing evils, some of 
 our citizens have ascribed them to the abuses of 
 banking, and others to " the transition from a 
 state of war to a state of peace"* overlooking 
 the real cause, the destruction of the national 
 industry and likewise overlooking the strong 
 fact, that all nations have fallen to decay, in pro- 
 portion as they abandoned, and have prospered 
 in proportion as they protected, the industry of 
 their people. 
 
 Let us briefly examine both of these alleged 
 causes of distress. 
 
 It is impossible to defend the legislative bo- 
 dies, who incorporated such hosts of banks at 
 once. They are deserving of the most unquali- 
 fied censure ; and it is to be regretted that they 
 cannot be rendered individually responsible for 
 Hie consequences. But the mischief that has 
 
( 18* ) 
 
 arisen from those banks, has been greatly over- 
 rated. I submit a few facts and reflexions on the 
 subject. 
 
 With the state of Pennsylvania I am more fa- 
 miliar than with any of the others ; and shall 
 therefore found my reasoning on the system pur- 
 sued here. It will apply, mutatis mutandis, to all 
 those which have carried banking to excess. 
 
 In 1814, the legislature of this state incorpo- 
 rated forty-one banks, of which only thirty- 
 seven went into operation of these 1 present a 
 view 
 
 Capital Capital 
 
 authorized. paid in. 
 
 Thirty-three country banks S 12,665,000 $ 5,294,238 
 Four city banks - 3,500,000 2,134,000 
 
 S 16,165,000 $7,428,238 
 
 
 Two reports, recently made to the legislature 
 of Pennsylvania, convey an idea that the capital 
 of these banks was much greater than it really 
 was. 
 
 " The people of Pennsylvania, during an expensive war, 
 " and in the midst of great embarrassments, established 
 " forty-one new banks, with a capital of 17,500,000 dollars 
 and authority to issue bank notes to double tiat 
 " amount."* 
 
 " A bill, authorizing the incorporation of forty-one bank* 
 
 # Report to the house of representatives, 
 
( 137 ) 
 
 "ing institutions, with capitals amounting to upwards of 
 " 17,OOO,OOO dollars, was passed by a large majority."* 
 
 Several of them had been in operation previ- 
 ous to the act of incorporation particularly the 
 Commercial Bank in Philadelphia, with a capi- 
 tal of i, 000,000 dollars, and others with pro- 
 bably capitals of 8750,000: so that the addition 
 then made to the banking capital of the state 
 was only about 5,700,000 dollars. It is perfectly 
 obvious, that in calculating the effects produced 
 by these banks, we must have reference not to 
 the capital authorized but to that actually 
 paid in. 
 
 Had every one of these banks been fraudu- 
 lently conducted, and become bankrupt, would 
 it account for the excessive distresses of the 
 state ? It would be idle to pretend it. The cir- 
 cumstance would have produced great tempo- 
 rary embarrassment but our citizens v would 
 soon have recovered, had their industry been 
 protected. 
 
 The population of the state is above 1,200.000. 
 Its manufactures in 1810, as stated by Mr. Coxe, 
 were 32,000,000 of dollars and had probably 
 risen in 1814, to 45,000,000. Its domestic ex- 
 ports for the last three years, have been above 
 20,000,000, or nearly 7,000,000 per annum. 
 Now, can it be believed that the specified increase 
 
 * Report to the senate 
 18 
 
( 138 ) 
 
 of banking capital in a state with such great re- 
 sources, could have produced such ruinous con- 
 sequences? Surely not. 
 
 In cases of great calamities, arising from em- 
 bargoes, blockades, unexpected war, or peace, 
 New York and Philadelphia have each suffered 
 nearly as much loss as the whole capital of all 
 those banks, and speedily revived like the 
 Phoenix from her ashes. 
 
 Let it be observed, that after deducting the 
 capitals of 
 
 The Bank of Lancaster 5 * - - S 600,000 
 
 Marietta 239,430' 
 
 Pittsburg - 316,585 
 
 Reading - - - 299,440 
 
 Easton 211,830 
 
 $ 1,667,285 
 
 The remaining country banks only average about 
 125,000 dollars each. Some of them operate 
 in a space, of which the diameter is thirty, forty, 
 or fifty miles. Surely the doctor's apprentice, 
 who, finding a saddle under his patient's bed, 
 ascribed his illness to his having devoured a 
 horse, was not much more ludicrously in error, 
 than those who ascribe the whole or even the 
 chief part of the sufferings of the state to this 
 cause. 
 
 * Four of these towns are places of importance, and 
 
 carry on trade very extensively. 
 
 v 
 
( 139 ) 
 
 Let it be distinctly understood that I freely 
 admit that some of those banks have done very 
 great mischief, and that several have been im- 
 properly conducted. But had the industry of 
 the state been protected, and trade flourished, 
 the great mass of them would have gone on 
 prosperously, and the whole would not have 
 produced one-tenth part o the injury that has 
 resulted from those that have been ill-managed. 
 
 Before I quit this subject, let me observe, 
 that the greater portion by far of these banks 
 have been, I believe, fairly and honourably con- 
 ducted : and that little inconvenience was felt 
 by or from any of them, from the time of 
 resuming specie payments, till of late, when 
 the unceasing drain of specie exhausted them 
 of the pabulum on which banks are sup- 
 ported, and obliged them to diminish their 
 issues, and to press on their debtors, of whom 
 many were ruined. Notwithstanding all their 
 efforts, several of the banks have been obliged 
 to stop payment. 
 
 The idea that the public distresses have been 
 a necessary consequence of " the transition to 
 a state of peace^ is still more extravagant. 
 To Great Britain the transition was truly for- 
 midable. She had by her orders in council, 
 blockades, and fleets, engrossed the supply of a 
 large portion of the continent of Europe, which, 
 on the return of peace, relied on itself, and there- 
 
( 140 ) 
 
 fore deprived her of various profitable markets. 
 But I ask any man of common sense, how this 
 applies to our case? Were we, at the treaty of 
 Ghent, excluded from any foreign markets 
 which we enjoyed during our short war? Surely 
 not. Far from having our markets circum- 
 scribed by " the transition to a state of peace," 
 they were greatly enlarged. In 18 15, our ex- 
 ports were, as appears below, seven hundred 
 per cent, more than in 1814, and treble in 
 the three entire years subsequent to the peace, 
 what they were in the three preceding years. 
 
 Domestic Exports from the United States. 
 
 1812 
 1813 - 
 1814 
 
 Average 
 
 $ 30,032,109 
 - 25,008,152 
 6,782,272 
 
 61,822,533 
 
 20,607,511 
 
 1815 
 1816 
 1817 
 
 Average 
 
 $ 45,974,403 
 
 64,781,896 
 
 - 68,313,500 
 
 179,069,799 
 59,689,933 
 
 That the " transition," from an average ex- 
 port of 8 20,000,000, to nearly 60,000,000, can 
 account for the lamentable and precipitous fall 
 we have experienced, no person of candour 
 will pretend. It would be equally wise to assert, 
 that a man was ruined by raising his income 
 from two thousand dollars to six thousand per 
 annum. If, however, he renounced his in- 
 dustry, and, when he only trebled his income, 
 
( 141 ) 
 
 increased his expenses six fold, then his ruin 
 would be as easily accounted for, as the lament- 
 able picture this country exhibits. 
 
 I was, however, in error. The " transition" 
 did produce the effect. Should it be asked how? 
 I reply The war protected the domestic industry 
 of the nation. It throve and prospered under 
 that safeguard, which the peace tore down de 
 fonds en comble. And congress, whose impe- 
 rious and paramount duty it was to step in, and 
 replace the protection, failed of that duty. The 
 consequences were foretold. The industry of 
 the country was laid prostrate its circulating 
 medium drained away its resources exhausted 
 and distress overspread the face of the land. 
 But it is too farcical for argument to assert that 
 a peace which trebled our exports, necessarily 
 brought on a state of distress and impoverish- 
 ment, which is chargeable wholly to our short- 
 sighted policy. 
 
CHAPTER XL 
 
 The everlasting complaint of " taxing the many 
 for the benefit of the few.' 5 Fallacy and in- 
 justice of it. Amount of impost for fourteen 
 years. For the year 1818. Impost for the pro- 
 tection of agriculture in that year above 
 '4.500,000 dollars. 
 
 THE changes have been rung throughout the 
 United States, since the commencement of the 
 government, on the immensity of the favours 
 conferred on the manufacturers, in point of pro- 
 tection their insatiable temper the impossi- 
 bility of satisfying them and the dreadful in- 
 justice of " taxing the many for the benefit of 
 the few," which has been used as a sort of war 
 whoop for exciting all the base passions of ava- 
 rice and selfishness in battle array against those 
 to whom the tax is supposed to be paid. 
 
 It rarely happens, in private life, that vocifer- 
 ous claims for gratitude can stand the test of 
 enquiry. When weighed in the balance of jus- 
 tice and truth, they are uniformly found wanting. 
 And as a public is an aggregation of individuals. 
 
( 143 ) 
 
 acted upon by the same views, and liable to the 
 same and greater errors, it would be extraordi- 
 nary, if similar claims of collections of people 
 were not found to rest on as sandy a foundation. 
 
 To investigate the correctness of this everlast- 
 ing theme has become a duty. To place the 
 subject on its true ground, will dispel a dense 
 mist of error and delusion with which it is en- 
 veloped. If the debt can be paid, let it,'in the 
 name of heaven, be discharged, and let us com- 
 mence de novo. If it be beyond the power of 
 payment, let the delinquent parties take the 
 benefit of the insolvent act, and exonerate them- 
 selves from a load, by which they are crushed 
 as between " the upper and ,the nether mill- 
 stone." 
 
 The expenses of our government require 
 revenues, which have risen from 4,000,000 
 to 27,000,000 dollars per annum. Provision 
 must be made for this sum in one or all 
 of three modes by excise direct taxes or 
 customs. The first is universally abhorred 
 here. The second are almost equally obnoxious. 
 It therefore follows, that the impost is the next 
 and grand resource. The sum required must be 
 raised without regard to manufactures or manu- 
 facturers and indeed if there were not a manu- 
 facturer in the country. It is out of the power of 
 the government to raise the necessary revenue 
 without laying considerable duties on manufac- 
 
( 144 ) 
 
 
 tures as all other articles, such as tea, sugar, 
 wines, coffee, are dutied as high as they will bear. 
 Therefore the manufacturers, who, let it be ob- 
 served, bear their own share of all these duties 
 of every description, are under no obligation of 
 gratitude whatever for them. 
 
 But let us examine the subject more closely. 
 Let us suppose that these duties had been laid 
 solely to serve the manufacturers, without any 
 regard to the emergencies of government and 
 that the proceeds had been reserved in the trea- 
 sury. Let us see what would be the extent of the 
 mighty boon. 
 
 The whole of this enormous and inextin- 
 guishable debt is comprised in the duties im- 
 posed on such foreign merchandize as would 
 rival our own manufactures. The utmost 
 cravings on the score of gratitude will not dare 
 to charge to the account the duties on sugar, 
 coffee, tea, wine, salt, #>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</., the price of two quarters for the mainte- 
 " nance of each person in these years, only amounts to 41 5." 
 Dirom on the corn larvs and corn trade of Great Britain^ 
 Appendix, page 51. 
 
one dollar and twenty-live cents. At this rate 
 the amount of grain would be 22,500,000 dol- 
 lars. 
 
 Dirom states the average daily consumption 
 of flesh meat in Paris at about five ounces and 
 three quarters for each person. An average for 
 London he supposes* probably more than dou- 
 ble that amount, or eleven and a half, which is 
 about five pounds per week. As our citizens eat 
 meat oftener, and our working people more 
 generally, than those of most other nations, it 
 will be fair to assume six pounds per week for 
 each person, which is equal to about three hun- 
 dredlmd twelve pounds and a half per annum. 
 At eight cents per pound, a moderate average 
 till lately, this amounts to twenty-five dollars 
 per annum, or for the whole 37,500,000 dol- 
 lars. 
 
 Allowing for milk, butter, eggs, vegetables, 
 fruit, lard, fire-wood, coals, home-made spirits, 
 c. one dollar per week, it amounts to 78, 
 000,000 of dollars. 
 
 The daily consumption of each individual in Paris, 
 " is pretty accurately ascertained, from the tax on cattle 
 paid at the barriers, to be about five ounces and three 
 quarters. In London it is probably more than double." 
 
 , 248. 
 
( 154 ) 
 
 Summary. 
 
 Grain 
 
 Animal food 
 
 Milk, butter, fuel, &c. &c. 
 
 Consumption of the manufacturers 
 
 S 22,500,000 
 37,500,000 
 78,000,000 
 
 8 138,000,000 
 
 Now, this is the market, for bare subsistence, 
 of which the manufacturers furnish a monopoly 
 to their agricultural fellow citizens, who have 
 uniformly regarded them with jealousy and mur- 
 muring often with decided hostility and who 
 have always assumed^ that duties imperiously re- 
 quired for the purposes of the treasury are favours 
 conferred on manufacturers ! 
 
 That this calculation is not materially wrong, 
 will appear from the following view A quarter 
 dollar per day, or a dollar and three quarters 
 per week for the maintenance of each individual, 
 which, as our citizens live, is moderate, would 
 amount to ninety-one dollars per annum, or 
 
 For one million five hundred thousand 
 
 people 
 
 - jg 136,500,000 
 
 Let me further observe, that this is a market 
 which might have been immensely increased 
 annually by emigration, had a sound policy held 
 out any encouragement to invite the manufac- 
 turers of Europe. 
 
 It is not easy to calculate the extent of the 
 market for raw materials which the manufac- 
 
( 155 ) 
 
 turers afford their agricultural fellow citizens, 
 and which might have been doubled by a cor- 
 rect system. 1 will state what I suppose it must 
 have been in 18 15, previous to the prostration 
 of manufactures. 
 
 Cotton g 9,000,000 
 
 Wool* - - - - - 10,000,000 
 
 Hemp 2,000,000 
 Hides, skins, furs, timber for houses and 
 
 ship-building, barley, hops, oats, &c. - 8,OOO,OOO 
 
 29,000,000 
 Brought forward for sustenance - - 138,000,000 
 
 Total - 8167,000,000 
 
 As th.e illiberal prejudices that prevail on this 
 topic, tend to excite jealousies and disgusts, that 
 may eventually prove dangerous to the har- 
 mony of the nation, too much pains cannot be 
 taken to remove them. I shall therefore place 
 the subject before the reader in a new, and not 
 less striking point of view. 
 
 I have shewn that the market afforded to 
 their agricultural fellow citizens by the manu- 
 facturers, amounts per annum to 8 167,000,000. 
 
 It is proper to examine the extent of the 
 market reciprocated to them. 
 
 It may be assumed that each white person in 
 the union consumes in furniture and clothing, at 
 the average rate of forty dollars per annum. 
 
 # Mr. Coxe states an opinion in his tables, that the 
 growth of wool in the United States in 1812, was from 20 
 to 22,000,000 Ibs. 
 
This, for the whole of the agricul- 
 turists, whom I have estimated S 
 at 5,000,000, amounts to - 200,000,000 
 
 And for the slaves, supposed to 
 be 1,500,000, at 15 dollars per 
 head, to - 22,500,000 
 Per contra ... 
 
 One-half the farmers throughout 
 the union make three-fourths 
 of their own clothing, which is 
 equal to - 75,000,000 
 
 The remaining half probably ma- 
 nufacture about one -third of 
 their clothing, equal to 33,000,000 
 
 The clothing for the slaves is 
 principally .of family fabrics. 
 This would warrant the de- 
 duction of, the whole 22,500, 
 000. But I suppose the plan- 
 ters may purchase to the aver- 
 age amount of five dollars for 
 each slave, this is S 7,500,000, 
 which leaves of family fabrics 15,000,000 
 
 Total amount of household fabrics consumed 
 "by the agriculturists. 
 
 Leaving the amount of clothing and furniture 
 purchased by them 
 
 Of this amount probably 10 per 
 cent, is of foreign manufac- 
 ture - 9,950,000 
 
 One-half of the manufacturers, 
 say 750,000, live in country 
 towns or in the country, and 
 purchase probably one-half of 
 their clothing from the far- 
 mers in the neighbourhood, say 15,000,000 
 
 222,500,000 
 
 123,000,000 
 
 99,500,000 
 
 24,950,000 
 
( 157 ) 
 
 Balance, being the whole of the consumption of 
 articles purchased of manufacturers by agri- 
 culturists $ 74,550,000 
 
 It thus appears, notwithstanding the cla- 
 mour against the manufacturers, that they pur- 
 chase of the agriculturists, nearly 100,000,000 
 dollars more than the latter purchase of them. 
 
 A contrast between the domestic exports and 
 the internal trade of the nation cannot fail to be 
 interesting, as it will enable us to ascertain 
 whether they have borne in the minds of our 
 citizens and statesmen the comparative rank to 
 w.,ichthey are entitled. 
 
 The domestic exports of the United States 
 for twenty-four years, from 1796 to 1819, 
 inclusive, have been - S 955,586,088 
 
 Average - ... - 39,816,088 
 
 I shall proceed on the assumptions on which 
 I have already ventured ; that the agriculturists 
 embrace about 5,000,000 of our white popula- 
 tion ; that all the other classes who are con- 
 sumers of the productions of the farmers and 
 planters are 3,000,000; and that each of the lat- 
 ter consumes to the amount of one dollar and 
 

 % 
 
 seventy-flve cents per week in food and drink. 
 Let us see the result 
 
 3,000,000 of people at one dollar and seven- 
 ty-five cents per week, equal to $5,250,000 
 " per week, or per annum - $ 273,000,000 
 
 Once more. 
 
 f white - - 8,000,000 
 Our present population is about { black . i, 5 OO,OOO 
 
 9,500,000 
 
 The average expenditure of forty dollars per 
 annum, already assumed, for 8,000,000 of white 
 people, 
 
 Amounts to $ 320,000,000 
 
 1,500,000 slaves, each 15 dollars - - 22,500,000 
 
 x f 345,500,000 
 
 Of which we import about - 60,OOO,OOO 
 
 Leaving a balance furnished by our own in- 
 dustry, of 285,500,000 
 
 To which add the above sum for food and 
 
 drink 273,000,000 
 
 It gives a total of - 558,500,000 
 
 Raw materials as before ... 29,000,000 
 
 Annual internal trade of the U. States % 587,50O,OOO 
 
 What exhilarating views ! The domestic mar- 
 ket for food and drink is nearly seven hundred 
 

 and the internal trade fifteen hundred per 
 cent, more than the average of our exports! 
 How infinitely more worthy of the attention of 
 our citizens and to be protected by our statesmen 
 than they have appeared! How transcendently 
 superior to that foreign commerce, which has 
 been fostered with so much care; has excited 
 so many collisions with foreign powers; cost us 
 so much for foreign embassies, navy, and war; 
 and entailed on us so heavy a national debt. 
 
 Again. 
 
 Our farmers will be astonished to learn that 
 the consumption of Philadelphia in. food and 
 drink, supposing the population 125,000 per- 
 sons, is very neafly equal to the amount of all 
 the eatable articles exported from this country 
 to every quarter of the world. 
 
 125,000 persons, at one dollar and seventy- 
 five cents per week, consume to the amount 
 of 218,500 dollars per week, or per annum S 11,375,000 
 
 Total exports from the United States for 1819, of the folio-w- 
 ing articles. 
 
 Custom-house 
 
 valuation. 
 
 Hams Ibs. 700,369 3 1O,555 
 
 Pork - - bbls. 28,173 563,470 
 
 Beef bbls. 34,966 454,558 
 
 Cheese Ibs. 1,148,380 114,838 
 
 Carried forward S 1,143,421 
 
( 160 ) 
 
 
 
 
 Custom house 
 
 
 
 
 valuation. 
 
 Brought forward 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 1,143,421 
 
 Sheep 
 
 - 
 
 8,445 
 
 21,113 
 
 Hogs 
 
 
 2,324 
 
 13,944 
 
 Poultry 
 
 - 
 
 1,184 
 
 3,552 
 
 Indian corn 
 
 bushels 
 
 1,086,762 
 
 815,072 
 
 Wheat - 
 
 do. 
 
 82,065 
 
 103,581 
 
 Rye - ... 
 
 do. 
 
 67,605 
 
 54,084 
 
 Barley - 
 
 do. 
 
 3,047 
 
 3,047 
 
 Oats - 
 
 do. 
 
 23,284 
 
 11,642 
 
 Beans - 
 
 do. 
 
 21,162 
 
 37,054 
 
 Peas - 
 
 do. 
 
 41,400 
 
 72,600 
 
 Potatoes - 
 
 do. 
 
 76,506 
 
 38,253 
 
 Apples ... 
 
 barrels 
 
 8,253 
 
 24,759 
 
 Flour ... 
 
 do. 
 
 750,660 
 
 6,500,000 
 
 Meal, rye 
 
 do. 
 
 48,388 
 
 241,940 
 
 Indian 
 
 do. 
 
 135,271 
 
 608,720 
 
 Buckwheat - 
 
 - do. 
 
 203 
 
 812 
 
 Ship stuff - 
 
 cwt. 
 
 828 
 
 4,968 
 
 Biscuit - - - 
 
 - bbls. 
 
 54,603 
 
 273,015 
 
 Do. - 
 
 kegs 
 
 44,184 
 
 33,138 
 
 Rice 
 
 . - tkrces 76,523 
 
 2,142,644 
 
 Total of eatable articles 
 
 12,147,339 
 
CHAPTER XIIL 
 
 Calumnious clamour against the manufacturers 
 on the ground of extortion. Destitute of the 
 shadow of foundation. Take the beq,m out of 
 thine own eye. Rise of merino wool 400 per 
 cent. Great rise of the price of merchandize 
 after the declaration of war. 
 
 THE most jjlausible argument used to defeat 
 the applications of the manufacturers for relief. 
 
 **JUhHMakMMMiMMk' ****._-'"'""* 
 
 and to consign those that have hitherto escaped 
 
 ^dHi^ > " 
 
 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. 
 
 
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