62 



iNEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Hept. 15, I8a&jyvj> 



faculty of forming it, it is unparalleled. I deem 

 this last circumstance as important as it is pecu- 

 liar. A voyage from the State of Maine to New- 

 nation ? It is even allowed by Adam Smith, that Orleans, for instance, demands all the varieties ot 



those of political economy ? Is it not founded on 

 a state necessity, where the interference is not to 

 protect the interest of an individual, but that of a 



defence is of more importance than opulence, and 

 that an independent supply of subsistence lies at 

 the foundation of the means of defence. 



The truths of political economy must in their 

 practical application be limited by higher ma.xims 

 of state, to which even in theory tliey are held 



skill and care, all the ruggcdiiess of strength, all 

 the intrepidity of spirit, all the look-out vigilance, 

 if I may so e.xpress it, that constitute the merit 

 and character of a sailor. It indispensably re- 

 quires every thing but astronomical navigation, 

 and costly chronometers ; and these we may safe 



apil 



subordinate, as being less general. The second I ly leave to those highly estimable but favoured 

 law enacted by the first Congress under the pres- 1 sons of Neptune, who traversing tlie Indian seas 

 ent Constitution, the act of the 4th of July, 1789 | under the kind influence of trade winds and se- 

 for the imposition of duties, declares in preamble, i rene skies, enjoy a comparative ease and luxury 



of condition. 



Undoubtedly the most specious and able oppo- 

 nents of Manufactures, are those alarmed commer- 

 cial capitalists who kindly some years since, an(l 

 very fairly under the circumstances, furnished us 

 with coarse India cottons at thirty cents a yard — 

 They say they are tired of having constantly 

 sounded in their ears the fact — tlie trutli — that 



that its object is to impose such duties as would 

 render the United States independent of foreign 

 nations, for military and other necessary essen- 

 tial supplies. And is not clothing as necessary 

 as food .' Have we so soon forgotten the distresses 

 of the revolutionary army — the embarrassments 

 of the last war, occasioned by a want of clothing ? 

 You cannot at once estnblish Manufactures upon 



the event of a war, and they never will be estab- i those incomparably better are now furnished for 

 lished, if upon the recurrence of peace you vote | seven cents a yard by our own manufactures.— 

 them useless. For want of clothes and blankets, 1 Truth it seems loses its relish by repetition. It is 

 your army must perish. For want of canvass, your j the sad complaint of a recent grave publication 

 proud Navy must lay by the wall; or else perpe- { that its authors sicken at finding it every where 

 trating something like treason, ycu must trade renewedly repeated from Hamilton's Report, that 



covertly with your enemy, giving him aid and 

 comfort, sustain his resources and help him to the 

 means of victory over yourself. 



Our course is clear. We must sustain Manufac- 

 tures — not only for the reasons already assigned. 



the temporary favour to the manufacturer would 

 end in national benefit ; that the momentary en- 

 hancement of price would assuredly terminate in 

 certain and steady diminution. The Parliament 

 of Great Britain deemed it necessary to impose 



but as' the true, best nutriment of our foreign ; tor the protection of her peculiarly home manufac 

 trade, and our strongest bond of political union. — , tures, against the claims of her India manufac 

 Great Britain condescend^ to recei\e from us the tures, a duty of £123 sterling for every £100 of 

 raw materials of her Manufactures — she admits the true value, as evidenced by the public sales of 

 for her purposes and interests our cotton. The i the East India Company. Here in addition to all 

 cotton growing interest of this country is a great , costs and charges, freicrht, insurance, commissions 

 and important one; nothing ought to be dore^ or , and agency, was a duty of one hundred and twen- 

 said, or thought, that can injure it. But I cannot I ty-three per cent, imposed, and so imposed as to 

 conceive how cotton planters can be injured, when render evasion impossible. This was done in spite 

 :ou raise up at home a rival customer — able to of the East India Company — .in empire witliin an 

 pay — who purchases more, with the exception of empire — connected with the finance of the coun- 

 England, than all the other countries of Europe — try — in some degree controlling its great organ, 

 and who next to England purchases the most and the Bank of England — respected if not dreaded 

 pays as well. We must have announced to us , by the ministers — with at least si.xty able mem- 

 new notions of commercial dealing, if between hers of parliament, chosen by its influence — rep- 

 two commercial competitors, the introduction of a resenting its interests — and itself the Regent over 

 third is injurious to the holder of tlie article. Can sixty millions of men. And yet some of us who 

 any one doubt that home competition has kept up have been instrumental in procuring a measure of 

 the price of our cotton abroad ? And is not this a ; faint analogy for our own country, have been 

 direct benefit to the Southern planter — a substan- 1 charged by those not quite yet an East India Com- 

 tial support to foreign trade — a new bond of con- j pany, with hostility to that great essential inter- 

 nexion — a source of reciprocal benefit and grate- [ est, the navigation of the country. As if we could , 

 ful feeling between the North and -South.' W"ill have been so senseless and inconsistent in urging 

 not tlien the errors — the flimsy errors that have ' a fair degree of support to the general Jlanufac- 

 veiled the truth of this matter — be soon stripped i tures of tlie country, to harbour any ill-will to the 



away ? Will not the bubbles that have been froth 

 ed up and blown out from the ferment of Congres- 

 sional declamation, though irradiated by many a 

 rainbow hue, explode at the touch, and vanish into 

 empty air ? Indeed it is only from manufactures 



proudest and most successful of them all. For 

 what is a ship but the noblest specimen of manu- ; 

 facturo human skill can exhibit — and in that, 

 what nation has shown skill surpassing our own ? : 

 No — no — God speed tlic ship — the shuttle — and | 



that we can now look for an ;,ctive and extended tlie plough — says every manufacturer who under 



Commerce. stands his own interest and that of the nation | 



With some, and to be sure, important excep- That ship is every day returning more and nioie i 

 tions, we are ceasing to be the exporters of the fieighted with the gross materials that manufac- j 

 gross produce of the forest, or the field — we have \ tures demand — and is every day more and more | 

 avast old country of our own to supply. Our | accustomed to add to its outward cargo the im- 1 

 coasting trade, the best nursery of seamen, is proving articles that our shuttle furnishes, begin- 

 hourly increasing, through the aid of manufac- niug to be cheap enough for foreign competition, | 

 tures. In extent, variety, quickness of returns, and valuable enough for foreign envy ; and they j 

 requisition of nautical talent, and of course the | both are increasing their demand of the plough, | 



with no other envy of it than the delightful 

 that it is its proud prerogative to make that b 

 which it vexes, and to draw inexhaustible pi 

 from that it can never exhaust. 



What was Brougham's consoling apology fof^ 

 excessive exportation to this country of '1(3, 'j 

 '18 ? He rejoiced in them because by their 

 they would stifle in the cradle those rising Mai 

 factures in the United States which the war 

 forced into existence. After this declaration fi 

 I a liberal and enlightened statesman, seeking 

 country's good, though perhaps wishing ug 

 harm, the security of our national Manufacti 

 becomes doubly an object of national pride and 

 tional honour, the Statesman's care and the Pa] 

 ot's love. We ought to arouse for them even 

 most affectionate zeal, wlien we find their desti 

 tion is the object of that powerful, enlightel 

 and persevering nation, who now sits eminent 

 elate upon that throne of prosperity, which 

 been erected by the labour and decorated by 

 skill and taste of her manufacturers and artisti 

 and whose broad and deep foundation it is tlie ci 

 stant efforts of her statesmen to confirm and c 

 solidate. "Our steam engines," her states 

 and orators exclaim, " pay the interest of our 

 tional debt and fight our battles." The inventl 

 of Arkwright more than redeem the errors of Li 

 I North. The improvements of Watt — the genwIM 

 and taste of Wedgewood sustained the politic! 

 heroism of Pitt, and enabled him to be the pil 

 that weathered the storm — they now aid the fin 

 ^ ness, prudence, and dexterity of Canning 

 promise a durability of pre-eminence coeval wit 

 j science, and unless checked by American fore 

 ; sight and imitation, co-extensive with the (Jlobt 

 j It is here on this very spot — this dear Rhod 

 ; Island and Providence Plantations, tliat I wish f 

 ' pi-oclaim again and again, as witli the voice of 

 messenger bringing glad tidings, that the interest 

 of Commerce — of Manufactures — of Agriculture 

 are congenial and identical. Let us, then, unitin; 

 in perfect political harmony, raise here a tempi 

 to the genius of public utility — of national Indus 

 try — Let it be decorated by three Altars — the firs 

 simple and turf-clad, dedicated to Agriculture 

 The second to Manufactures, emblazoned bj 

 the embellishments of every art : The third, k 

 Commerce, constructed of the beaks of ships, ol 

 sterner stuff than the Carthagenian galleys, the 

 rostrum of tlie Gracchi, and of Tully, surmounted, 

 surrounded by naval tropliies. On the first we will 

 leave a space for a name to be inscribed. On thf 

 second wo would transfer one from a fact recori 

 ed, on a more imperisliablc monument than tlie 

 tar and temple itself — Hamilton's Report on Mai 

 ufactures in 1791, in v/hich the introduction of the 

 first cotton mill in this country is mentioned, and 



the introducer was Slater. And on the oth 



er we would engrave with the point of the sworo 

 of Gree.ve, the name of Perry. Yes — tins is 

 consecrated soil. — It was hero our ancestors first 

 announced in terms plain and unevasive, the doc^ 

 trine not of mere religious toleration, but of per- 

 fect religious freedom. Here they held forth that 

 lively experiment, that a most flourishing civil 

 state may stand, and best be maintained with a 

 full liberty in religious concernments. It is theit 

 voices I hear — their forms I see — imploring us to 

 hiiitate their example, and demanding of us why 

 wc cannot be the authors of a new doctrine, of 

 perfect political, as they were of religious concili« 

 ation. Our different theories and dogmas, the ex- 



