linens and Asiatic manufactures; but, taking in all the ports of Great Britain, and those of foreign countries, this continent did, for several years before the war, import above three millions sterling per annum, and, since the conclusion of peace, our importation has been greater than ever, for now all Europe pours in like a flood her luxuries upon us. In this vast importation the people rejoice upon the same principle that the Portuguese do, who think that their great importation is a mark of their riches, when it is exports alone that make a country rich, and imports that impoverish it; and that all our bread and flour, beef, pork, horses, fish, lumber, fur, potash, rice, indigo, etc., are not able to keep us out of debt, I think the Legislature and every merchant must be fully convinced of, or we should not be millions in debt to Europe as we at present are; and this is the reason that we are not able to keep any money among us, for silver and gold imported for our provisions and productions cannot stay here whilst there is so great a balance in Europe against us. It, not being ours, is therefore no increase of our wealth. The only way of keeping gold and silver in these States is by consuming less of foreign commodities than what our own commodities will amount to, for then, whatever the balance is, it certainly is our own, and will stay in the States, but, our provisions and other produce not being by any means equal to our vast imports, our money must go, and this is the real and only cause of our distresses which we have and do now labor under. * * * Foreign commodities, which by us ought to be looked on as luxuries, must certainly impoverish these States by being brought in; but that is the fault of our importation, and there the mischief ought by wholesome laws to be cured; vanity and luxury spend them, and our merchants having imported and vended them, our money must go to pay for them; but, as that alone will not do, our lands have been and are every day sold to make up the deficiency. * * * That Britons who planted themselves here, and brought with them arts and sciences, should not be able in one of the best countries, situated in the most desirable climate under heaven, whose very forests abound with natural plenty, whose luxuriant soil refuses not to yield any fruits that its owner demands, and is actually capable of any productions that any part of the world is known to afford, and which in great measure experience has demonstrated-for this we can venture to assert, that whatever has been introduced here from Europe, or from under the tropic, to this continent, flourish here—that such a country, then, should have recourse to Europe, and even to the most despicable corners of it, and through them to Asia, in order to clothe themselves, is such a conduct of its inhabitants that a stranger unacquainted with these facts would pronounce them incredible; but would he not be astonished when he was told that the United States of North America were, according to the best calculations, above five millions sterling in debt to Great Britain, not only for useful goods (which we want), but for silks, chintz, calicoe, muslin, tea, etc., from Asia; and even for linen from Silesia and Austria via London and Amsterdam; hemp, diaper, sheeting, and other linens from Russia, and even from Archangel, when they have under their feet a country whose natural fertility surpasses any in the world? But they prefer ploughing the ocean, from the torrid to the frigid zone, rather than our fields, and to supply a whole kingdom with flaxseed, and afterward involve themselves in debt to that very people for linen-a people oppressed by their lords with extreme heavy rents, whilst the inhabitants of these States pay no rents at all. But, notwithstanding this, they choose to be in debt, and to have their lands taken from them, rather than to make their own linen. * * * Men being brought up with the notions of an extended foreign trade, they think there is no way to fortune but that; and therefore, more particularly since our declared independence, they, in pursuit of commerce, are exploring the whole globe, even from Greenland north to Falkland's Island south, and from lake Superior west to China east; all this in pursuit of imaginary wealth, whilst they have a redundancy of real wealth in their own soil; but, by means of their search after it in Europe, they impcrt such immense quantities of goods that they have thereby not only stripped us of every farthing of our money, but have and are daily reducing us to the greatest distress. * * * We are poor with a profusion of natural wealth in our possession. That we are poor needs no other proof than our prisons, bankruptcies, judgments, executions, auctions, mortgages, * * * etc., and the shameless quantity of business in our courts of law. Great Britain, in the reign of Edward the Sixth, sent the wool of England to Flanders, there to be manufactured, and then the cloth returned and sold to the English, whose true interest was not understood or pursued till the persecution in the Low Countries by the Duke of Alva; in consequence, thousands of manufacturers fled to England, where they were received with open arms, from which time manufactures increased, improved, and drew wealth from all other parts of the world. Let us, then, avoid the former ignorance of Great Britain, as well as her modern mistakes, and adopt that part of her present policy which gives protection, countenance, and encouragement to arts and sciences. But we are not without many persons among us who assert that we can import goods from France, Holland, Hamburgh, India, etc., cheaper than we can make them; and therefore conclude that it is our interest to encourage such importation; but, in order to convince them of their dangerous mistake, I will suppose a piece of Dutch or Irish linen costs in Europe forty shillings, which must be paid for either in our money or produce; but if a piece of equal quality be our own manufacture, and although it costs more per yard, it nevertheless is so much clear gain to the State, because the flax and labor of which it is composed is our own; but, in the first case, neither one nor the other; and this being equally true in all other goods, most of which are made or prepared by women and children, it is therefore so much clear gain. * * * To conclude, if, from what has been said, it appears that we have in our commercial pursuits been very much mistaken; and if we choose to continue to indulge ourselves in the luxuries and expensive goods of China, India and Europe, only because they come from far, and at dear rates, nothing but inevitable ruin will be the consequence; in order to avoid which we have no other effectual means or remedy for all those evils but that of reducing our imports and increasing our exports. These descriptive and argumentative statements well deserve the space given to them here, because they vividly portray the feelings which colored the circum stances of the time; because they exhibit in a clear light the diverse opinions which agitated the popular mind; because they outline the new current into which men's thoughts were tending in search of relief; because they convey a distinct impression of the societary paralysis and of the monetary pressure which characterized those critical days, in consequence of practicing free trade principles; and because they embody the matured views of an eye-witness, watchful of events, intelligent in observation, detailed in his record, and corroborative of the outcome under allied conditions in subsequent periods. Other proofs remain, however, which will show that our hapless country was in the throes of greater sufferings than even those set forth in the above recital. CHAPTER IV. UNDER THE CONFEDERATION-CONTINUED. As the central object of these early chapters is to establish, beyond cavil or dispute, the fact that free importations precipitated upon the country a multitude of evils, among which were private and public bankruptcy, followed by internal disorder, confusion, and accumulating dangers, it is worth while to multiply the proofs, and to exhibit them in every point of view, in order that the present may be enabled to look back intelligently from the vantage summit which experience has toilsomely reached, and, with true historical insight, study profitably the lessons taught by the vicissitudes of that distant past. From lack of proper stimulus to home production, the chief opportunity for the employment of capital was in trade, which constantly tended to degenerate in its methods; hence, the period immediately succeeding the Revolutionary war was, in a peculiar sense, an age of speculation. Trafficking in soldiers' certificates, in the public lands, and in the various evidences of the public debt, was the business of many who had money, and of many who had not. When the specie, brought in by the British and the French armies, and by the foreign loans to the United States, had largely flowed out to pay for excessive importations of European and Asiatic merchandise, a monetary stringency took place which amounted almost to a deprivation of a circulating medium. At length it became impossible to settle |