710 



F A U xM E R S • R E G I S 1' E R 



nocessily olTrnud to extend some encouragements 

 to industry. Bui shall we opprees our agriculture, 

 merely to dcmonsirale iluu atiu?ps have a tenden- 

 cy to excite countervailing etibrtp, and load it with 

 English impusiiionp, lor the sake of the inade- 

 quate reinibursenieiits ul' English prices'? 



J^el him u'iio hopes to live to seethe agricul- 

 tural class of the IJniled Stales, reduced by Eng- 

 'Irsh policy lo a temh part of ihe tiaiion, undertake 

 1o prove, that ^uch a reduction \vo\dd he a prool'ol' 

 its propperiiy. If he could delt-nd such a theory, 

 he would at last he practically disa[)|)ointed, un- 

 less our manufacturers should drive the English 

 nianuliactures out of the world, and occupy their 

 place. The ingenious device of agriculture in 

 England, in bestowing money on noble, clerical, 

 military and chartered idlers, lor the sake of sell- 

 ing its products to get back a part ol its own, 

 would turn out still more miserably, except for the 

 vast addition lo the manulacturing class, by foreign 

 demands lor its labor. IT England only manu- 

 /actured lor herself, her manuliiciures would con- 

 stitute but a wretched market lor agriculture. 

 One laborer Reds many manuliicturi'rs. One 

 manufacturer supplies many laborers. Before the j 

 promise ol English prices for bread and meat, ; 

 tobacco and cotton, can be realized, from driving ' 

 in manulacturing by protecting duties, we must 

 he able to drive out manufactures by protecting : 

 fleets into every quarter of the globe ; and so 

 like some bnoby heirs, lake up a pareni's lollies, ' 

 at the period he is forced to lay ihem down. 



Still more hopeless is the promise of the manu- | 

 facturing mania, " thai it will make us indepen- 

 dent oCloreign nations," when combined with its j 

 other promise of providing a market fhr agricul- ' 

 ture. The promise of a market, as we see in the j 

 experience of England, can only be made good, 

 by reduciuf; the aiiricultural class lo a tenth part 

 of Ihe nation, and increasing n)anulacturers by 

 great manufaclural exporiaiions. This reduciion 

 can only be accomplihed tiy driving or seducin<j 

 above nine-tenihs of the agricultural class, into 

 oiher classes, and the increase by a brave and 

 palrioiic navy. Discon'ent and nn'sery will be 

 ihe fruits of ihe first operation, and these would 

 constitute the most firlorn hope for success in the 

 second. By exchanginrj hardy, honest and free 

 husbandmen lor the classes necessary to reduce 

 the number of aariculturists, low enough to raise 

 the prices of their products, shall we become more 

 independeiit of foreiirn nations '? What! Secure 

 our independence by banliers and capitalists'? 

 Secure our independence b}' impoverishing, dis- 

 coiiraL'inii and annihilaiinir nine-ienihs of our 

 sound yeoiTianry '? By turning them into swind- 

 lers, and depcnilents on a masier capitalist lor daily 

 bread. 



There are tv>-o kinds of independence, real and 

 imaginary. The hrst consists of the rinhf of na- 

 tional seli-government ; ilie second of individual 

 tasie or prejudice. The yeomanry of the forest 

 are best calculated to preserve the first, and the 

 yeomanry of the loom arc best calculated I o feed 

 the second. A surrender ol'the lirst lo obtain the 

 second, would be a mode olsecurinc our indepen- 

 dence, like Ensland'ri converiinfr her hardy tars 

 into baibers and tailors, in order lo become inde- 

 pendent cl French iiishion'-. 



The rnm-iufaclmini: mania nccu.ses the ri;-rri- 

 cullurai spirit of uvaiicc uud wunl of patriGlitrn, 



whilst it ofiers to bribe it by a prospect of better 

 prices, whittles down independence into cargoes 

 of lancy goods, and proposes to melamorphuse 

 nine-tenihs of ihe hardy sons of tiie lorest into 

 every thir.g bul heroes, lor the grand end ol'gralily- 

 j ing the avarice of a capitalist, moneyed or paper 

 ' interest. 



0|)irdon is sometimes prejudice, sometimes zeal, 

 and often ciafl. These counterleits of truth have 

 I universally deluded the majority of nations into 

 I the strange conclusion, that ii will flourish by 

 ' paying bounties lo underlakers for national salva- 

 j lion, lor national wealth, and lor naiional inde- 

 pendence. The first imposture is detected, the se- 

 t cond begins to be strongly suspected, but the 

 third has artfully provoked its trial, at a moment 

 j when it can conceal the cheat under the passions 

 excited by transitory circumstances. Hatred of 

 I England, a pretended zeal lor national honor, 

 I and the real crali of advancing the pecuniary in- 

 terest of a few capitalists, have conspired lo paint 

 ' a protecting duly system, into so strong a resem- 

 blance of patriotism and honesty, as to lead agri- 

 culture by a bridle made of her virtue and igno- 

 rance, towards the worship of an idol, compound- 

 ed of lolly and wickedness. 



English aiiricullure has completely tried the 

 project of enriching itself, by buying markets with 

 bounties. It has providetl more of ihese markets, 

 than the agriculture of any other nation. Yet it 

 is unable lo leed its own [teople, many of whom 

 are indebled to foreign agriculture lijr daily bread. 

 No profession in England is deficient in hands, 

 but the agricultural, and none other a cypher in 

 government. They have lords, bishops, oflicera 

 civil and military, soldiers, sailors, bankers, loan- 

 ers and capitalists in abundance, and all of them 

 have an influence in the government. These are 

 ihe markets in which the English agriculturista 

 have successively laid out their money, in order to 

 get good prices, and ihe more of these markets 

 they buy, the less liberty and wealth they retain. 

 If Ihe agriculture of the United States would 

 only consider how it happens, that it can yet live 

 upon six shillings sterling a bushel for wheat, 

 when the English agriculture is perishing vvil.h 

 sixteen, the film drawii over its eyes by the ava- 

 rice with which ihose charge it. who design to 

 cheat ii, would (all ofl'. I'he solution of Ihe appa- 

 rent wonder, lies in the delusion of buying price by 

 bounties. The bountips are partly, but never 

 com|<leiely, reimbursed by 'he price. Though the 

 payer of Ihe bounties gets more price, he gains 

 less profit than Irom ihe lower price, when he paid 

 no bounties. Therelbre Ihe receivers of the boun- 

 ties become rich and idle, and the receivers of the 

 price, poor and laborious. And this efl'ect is in- 

 evitable, because the bounties must for ever out- 

 run the prices they create, or nobody could subsist 

 on them. If the bounty paid was equal lo one 

 shilling a bushel on wheat, and should raise the 

 price nine [)ence, the receivers ol'ihe bounty would 

 gain three pence a bushel on all the wheat of the 

 nation, and agriculture would lose it, though it 

 not a higher price. And this obvious fraud is pre- 

 cisely ihe result of every promise in every form 

 made by charier and privilege lo enrich or encou- 

 rage agriculture. 



The agriculture of the United States, found it- 

 telf in the, happiest situation for prosperity ima- 

 ginable, al ihe end oi' the revolutionary war. It 



