Political Economy. 155 
must have a greater relative value, must be preferred, else the 
price would not be given. Nor will the importation of any com- 
modity continue, as soon as the same commodity can be produced 
cheaper, or better at home. The merchant, in all his operations, 
is inevitably controuled by the nature of things. Should he at^ 
tempt defiance— he will be ruined, and disappear. 
‘‘ Foreign commerce has never fiaid the interest of the sums 
sjient in the fir ose cut ion of the exfiensive wars it has induceclF 
As you, and myself, value somewhat differently the benefits 
resulting from foreign commerce, v/e could also not well agree 
with regard to the amount of national expenditure for which they 
would compensate. If those benefits are so great, as I am in- 
clined to think they are, the weight of your argument falls to the 
ground. 
Independentiy of this, I cannot admit, tliat foreign commerce 
is the cause of all modern wars. This idea has seized on your 
imagination so forcibly, that it re-appears on almost every page of 
your political discussions — 'but is it true ?*■ Or ought we not ra- 
ther to say, that the passions of those who rule, have, in our mo- 
dern times, found in the collisions caused by foreign commerce, 
the most convenient, and popular fir et ext for the wars which their 
gratification demanded ! 
I will not advert to our own situation at this moment. I will 
not say, that any rooted animosities, or inveterate prejudices of 
leading politicians ; or the ever active, axod unabating thirst for 
vengeance of a considerable body of foreigners, whom personal 
wrongs drove from their native shores, had the least share in bring- 
ing it about. I will not question that the western people, and 
particularly those of Kentucky, would be equally zealous in the 
defence of injured sailors rights, even if the war, in which we are 
engaged, should have drained their country of circulating medium, 
instead of making it abound ; even if their produce should have 
* I think it is. Look through the history of the European wars particu- 
iarlv those of England, and it will be found so. It is not a little singular that 
in 1738, the king, the lords, the comnaons, and the British people were actu-. 
ally outrageous in support of the principle that Free shies make fhee coges. 
Sir Robert Walpole could not withstand the torrent ; and one of the most 
efficient causes of his ultimate dismissal, was, that he did not take care to in- 
sert this principle as a national right, in his convention at Parbo ; a right, iu 
defence of which, the British nation actually went to war with Spain in 1739. 
Flags were displa}ed, and cockades worn in almost every town of the kingdorcft 
'vltli mottoes such as Free trade : ko Search, Tempom mutantur. T. C, 
