[ 9 3 
first page occupied with the answer to Colbert, let us 
ALONE. 
But as a mean of national defence, and national inde- 
pendence— as a mean of propagating among our citizens 
the most useful and practical kinds of knowledge— as a 
mean of giving that energetic, frugal, calculating and fore- 
seeing character to every branch of our national industry , 
that does not exist but among a manufacturing people— 
as a mean of multiplying our social enjoyments by con- 
densing our population— and as a mean of fixing the con- 
sumers and the producers in the immediate neighbourhood 
bf each other— I would encourage the commencement at 
least of home manufacture. Not the manufacture of gold 
and silver— not the velvets of Lyons or the silks 6f Spitah 
fields— the laces of Brussels and the lawns of Cambray— not 
the clinquaillerie and bijouterie of Paris and Birmingham, 
but such as we feel the want of in time of war ; such as 
inay fairly be regarded as of prime necessity, or immedi- 
ately connected with agricultural wants and pursuits. 
8thly. I would remark, that nature seems to have fur- 
nished the materials of manufacture more abundantly in 
Pennsylvania in particular, than in any country I know of. 
The very basis of all profitable manufacture, is plenty of 
fuel, easily, cheaply, and permanently procurable : the next 
desirable object, is plenty of iron ore ; iron being the ar- 
ticle upon which every other manufacture depends. It 
is to the plentiful distribution of these two commodities, 
that Great Britain is chiefly indebted for the pre-eminence 
of her manufactures and her commerce. I have not a 
doubt on my mind, but both pitcoal, and iron ore, are more 
plentifully distributed in Pennsylvania than in Great Bri- 
tain ; and that both the one and the other can be gotten at 
more easily and cheaply in this country, than in that. 
Moreover we have a decided superiority in the raw mate*; 
rials of Cotton, Hemp and Flax ; in our alkalies for glass 
B 
