No. 151.] 269 



American industry, from patriotic, and not from narrow and interest- 

 ted motives, would entitle these champions to civic wreaths, and the 

 public gratitude. 



The friends of the American system are called upon to make some 

 efforts in counteraction of principles and designs which we believe 

 to be subversive of the true and enlightened policy of our country. 

 We, in particular, are called on to vindicate our commercial empo- 

 rium from the reproach — that a spirit exists here, among our own 

 citizens, unfriendly to the growth of American manufactures j un- 

 friendly to the equal pace of agricultural, manufacturing and com- 

 mercial prosperity. 



As if the city of New-York, the great mart to which the products 

 of the whole country, which enter into commerce, agricultural or man- 

 ufacturing, tend with a centripetal force, which every day enlarges 

 its sphere of attraction; — to which agriculture and manufactures, 

 even beyond the mountains, are constantly seeking avenues — as if 

 the commerce of such a city was to be a loser and not a gainer by 

 their general prosperity and activity! 



There needs but little insight into the details of the commerce of 

 our city and the country at large, to show how utterly groundless and 

 fallacious in experience the idea has been proved — that manufactures 

 are injurious to commerce, and that as they increase commerce must 

 decline. 



Precisely the reverse is the verdict of experience. For as our 

 manufactures have increased, the variety and amount of our exports 

 have increased along with them. Already our coarse cotton fabrics 

 come into competition with, if they do not indeed exclude, those of 

 European nations in South American markets. The most valuable 

 commerce which any nation can carry on, must always be the inter- 

 change of the productions of its own industry, for those of other na- 

 tions who will receive them. Agricultural products, bread-stuffs in 

 particular, few countries will ordinarily receive from any other; for 

 almost all depend on their own soil for their supplies, and take un- 

 wearied pains to foster their own agriculture. As our manufactures 

 increase in extent and variety, we furnish more articles for export to 

 the different nations in the four quarters of the globe, with whom we 

 carry on commerce, who do not produce them. If we seize on these 

 proffered facilities, our own agriculture and manufactures, like those 

 of England and France, will sustain and extend our -foreign com- 



