OUR CONSTITUTIONAL SHIPPING POLICY. 75 



dangers from foreign force depends not only on their forbearing to give 

 just causes of war to other nations, but also on their placing and continuing 

 themselves in such a situation as not to invite hostility or insult; for it 

 need not be observed that there are pretended as well as just causes of 

 war. * * * 



"With France and with Britain we are rivals in the fisheries, and can 

 supply their markets cheaper than they can themselves, notwithstanding 

 any efforts to prevent it by bounties on their own, or duties on foreign 

 fish. (1787.) 



"With them, and with most other European nations, we are rivals 

 in navigation and the carrying trade; and we shall deceive ourselves if 

 we suppose that any of them will rejoice to see it flourish; for, as our 

 carrying trade cannot increase without in some degree diminishing theirs, 

 it is more their interest, and will be more their policy, to restrain than 

 to promote it." 



The press of the time teemed with matter on the state of the Union 

 and the prospect of advancement under independent government. The 

 importance of the Union, in a commercial point of view, was one of the few 

 topics on which all writers seemed agreed. Shipbuilding, navigation and 

 commerce must be leading trades of America. Alexander Hamilton, of 

 New York, wrote as follows: — 



"There are appearances to authorize a supposition that the adven- 

 turous spirit which distinguishes the commercial character of America has 

 already excited uneasy sensations in several of the maritime pov^^ers of 

 Europe. They seem to be apprehensive of our too great interference in 

 that carrying trade which is the support of their navigation and the founda- 

 tion of their naval strength. * * * They foresee the dangers that 

 may threaten their American dominions from the neighborhood of states 

 which have all the dispositions, and would possess all the means, requisite 

 to the creation of a powerful marine. Impressions of this kind will naturally 

 indicate the policy of fostering divisions among us, and of depriving us, as 

 far as possible, of an active commerce in our own bottoms. This would 

 answer the threefold purpose of preventing our interference in their naviga- 

 tion, of monopolizing the profits of our trade, and of clipping the wings 

 by which we might soar to a dangerous greatness." 



For the purpose of accomplishing the best results of enterprise and 

 industry, every patriot believed with General Washington in the advantages 

 of a government "competent to assert and maintain every right of the 

 people." 



According to the judgment of Alexander Hamilton: — 



