9 



merce. She was poor iiiclccd with all her gold. She saw 

 her fault, and wisely went to work to correct it. She turned 

 her attention to agriculture and manufiictures, and our ven- 

 erated Honorar}^ President has told us of her present great- 

 ness. 



There are two periods in the history of our country worthy 

 of note. The lirst was the action of England towards her 

 colonies jirevious to the revolution. She held them in such 

 absolute subjection that, besides the common domestic indus- 

 try and the ordinary mechanical employments, no kind of 

 manufacturing was allowed. In 1750 a manufactory of hats 

 in Massachusetts drew the attention and excited the jealousy 

 of Parliament. All colonial manufactories were declared to 

 be common nuisances, not excepting even forges, in a coun- 

 try possessing in abundance every element for the manufac- 

 ture of iron. In 1770 the great Chatham, alarmed by the 

 first manufacturing attempts of New England, declared that 

 the colonies ought not to l)e allowed to manufacture so much 

 as a hob-nail.* Freed from the trammels which had been 

 imposed upon them, and reduced consequently to their own 

 resources for the supply of their wants, the United States 

 found during the war that manufiictures of every kind had 

 received a remarkable impulse, and that agriculture was de- 

 riving from them such benefits that the value of the soil, as 

 well as the wages of labor, were largely increased in spite of 

 the ravages of war. After the war, the manufactured pro- 

 ducts of England again found an open door ; and encountering 

 the inffiut manufactures of America in free competition, the 

 latter being unal)le to sustain themselves, the industry which 

 had sprung up and prospered during the war was extin- 

 guished. Our manufacturers were ruined, our merchants, 

 even those who had hoped to enrich themselves by importa- 

 tions, became bankrupt ; and all these causes united had such 

 a disastrous influence upon agriculture, that a general depre- 



* 8ee I/ist. p. 1(;7 ; Hiutoa's U.S., pp- 181-103 ; Tucker, vol. i. p. 81. 



