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THE 
 
 SECOND CRISIS 
 
 V 
 
 AMERICA, 
 
 OR 
 
 A CURSORY VIEW OF THE PEACE 
 
 LATELY CONCLUDED BETWEEN 
 
 GREAT BRITAIN AND THE UNITED 
 STATES, 
 
 Examining the manner this event will operate on the Commerce of America, la 
 what manner it is likely to produce benefits or evils to Merchants, Manufacturers, 
 Agriculturists, and Distillers; in what manner it will affect the Tonnage interest, 
 and embracing generally the various influence it may have on the destinies of the 
 United States in their future connexions, Political and Commercial, with the rest 
 of the civilized world ; together with some remarks and opinions relative to that 
 extraordinary event which has astonished the world, the return of Napoleon to 
 *tie throne of France. 
 
 BY A CITIZEN OF PHILADELPHIA; 
 
 NEW-YORK : 
 
 PRINTED BY JOHN H. SHERMAN, 1 
 
 NO. 30, NAISAU-STREET- 
 
 1815. 
 

 Sf 
 
THE 
 
 SECOND CRISIS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Slate of War and PeaceDeclaration of War Ratification of 
 Peace The Crisis War produced The necessity of the measure 
 and its results Reference to the Amendment of the Militia Sys 
 tem Inquiry into the causes which induced England to accede to 
 Peace, &c. 
 
 THERE is no event in the occurrences of times more important 
 to nations than the transition from peace to the tutbid scenes of war; 
 or the recurrence from the struggles and deprivations attendant on 
 that state, to the calm tranquillity of those visions of social comfort 
 which peace generally invites. In the latter case, the soldier re 
 signs his sword for the more genial instrument of art and industry 
 Relinquishes the discipline of camps and arduous marches to guide 
 the plow on his native hills, or mix in the busy hum of cities. And 
 the man who knit his brow, and felt the forces of his soul hardened 
 to deeds of death and carnage, returns to the bosom of his family 
 with smiles beaming on his countenance, and the milk of humanity 
 at his heart. Such are the interesting eras which have latterly oc 
 curred in the history of these states. On the 1 7th day of June, 
 1812, war was declared by America against England, in consequence 
 of a series of insults and aggressions which the spirit of forbearance 
 could no longer brook, when repeated and various struggles for re 
 dress had been found ineffectual ; and on the 1 8th day of Februa 
 ry, 1815, a peace was ratified and exchanged by the President; 
 with our ancient enemy, upon the basis of a treaty which promises 
 ood faith, and an observance ef equal right* 
 
 685163 
 
\ 
 
 4 
 
 To a nation, situated as was America, the recourse to hostilities 
 with England, a power gigantic in arms, and wielding a maritime 
 sceptre which had awed every other nation on the earth ; whose 
 resources of credit, and whose fiscal operations, under revolving 
 centuries, were, in comparison to us, a? millions are to units, was 
 indeed A CRISIS ; and the militation of a young and unprepared peo 
 ple, (for thirty years rocked in the cradle of peace) against a na 
 tion holding such imposing attitudes, was an epoch in our annals, 
 sufficient to shake the nerves of even the inflexible patriot, whose 
 bosom had never beat with any other throb more enthusiastic than 
 the honour and prosperity of his country. 
 
 Three years ha^e not yet elapsed before the calamities of war 
 are at an end ; and all the doubts and fears to which the contest 
 gave birth, are dispersed by the happy return of peace, and the 
 glorious results which have attended our virtuous and energetic 
 struggle. To some cold-blooded politician, perhaps, who keep 
 the debts and credits of this war, with a mercantile accuracy, rny 
 assertion, that the nation has crowned itself with ar/immortal wreath 
 of glory, may be disputed ; it may be advanced that we have not 
 conquered Canada, or that we have not gained an inch of territo 
 ry ; but the accession of territory, or the occupation of Canada, 
 was neither of them the cause which prompted us to unsheath the 
 sword, or invoke the God of battles to our aid. 
 
 Our recourse to arms, was the last resort of an insulted nation, 
 who had ineffectually endeavoured to avert the calamities of war 
 by an appeal to justice, which was contemptuously and arrogantly 
 denied her; and the honour and dignity of the country was impli 
 cated, if uot branded with disgrace, had she refused any longer to 
 appeal to that unhappy experiment, the desperate ultimatum of a 
 wronged and forbearing people. 
 
 There is not that curt or potentate in Europe, however despo 
 tic, who has not viewed our contesi, with an interest rarely felt; 
 and al hough jealous;of our rising greatness, inimical to the ethics 
 of the republican school, or wedded to tjie prejudices and abuses 
 of ancient dynasties, there has been an enthusiasm excite4 in the 
 breasts of princes incontestibly in our favour; and which, although 
 it was secret as the gr*ve, and lifted not a finger for our salvation 
 or our cause, yet refrained from ever enlisting against us, or moving 
 with the policy of our enemy. 
 
Vainly should we endeavour to inquire, whether the fate of Po 
 land, lhat brave unhappy nation, vibrated yet upon the sensibility 
 of their nerves ; and that the events which succeeded, and which 
 shook the crowns and diadems of monarchs to the earth, had their 
 weight in retrospection. True, however, it is, that like the gods of 
 Homer, they held their scales in balance as by the fiat of Olympus, 
 and the contest, fortunately, did not continue long enough to suf 
 fer their interest or their wishes to preponderate iw either ; single- 
 handed was the conflict, and Heaven be praised, so it ended ! 
 
 The brilliant achievements of our infant navy on the lakes and 
 ocean, live in too glowing colours in the bosom of my countrymen, 
 to need a repetition. The affairs of Chippewa, of Erie, Plattsburg, 
 Baltimore, and Orleans, are yet such evergreens of honor and re 
 nown on laud, that it would be a reflection on my readers to reca 
 pitulate their glory, or rehearse those deeds of valour which are 
 yet the uppermost themes of commendation ; and which, while they 
 excite the liveliest emotions of national patriotism, tend in a measure 
 to sooth those bosoms, which have been rent w ith the severest an 
 guish by the casualties and disasters attendant on a state of war. 
 
 Peace is again restored us, and let those of our countrymen who 
 yet show their ledger of losses, and groan over what they may term 
 the waste of blood and treasure, console themselves with the reflec 
 tion, that the nations of the earth who have looked with unbiassed 
 eye upon the contest, will say we have preserved our Ubertv and 
 nationality in it ; and with one consent, will decide on the gallant vic 
 tories of our arms; and the superiority wh ch a brave and self-taught 
 people, by the virtue of their cause, have obtained over a venal 
 monarchy ad an imperious foe. In brief, our character has been re 
 trieved from ignominy, and instead of an insulted and pusilanimous 
 people, we rank exalted in the opinion of the surrounding world 
 and stand dignified in eur own. 
 
 The steady patriotism of our yeomanry, having been tested 
 throughout this contest, will adduce a striking lesson for future wars, 
 when we may unhappily be visited fry them ; that a good and whole 
 some arrangement of the militia system, which shall te.ch to the 
 hardy freeman the rudiments of the art of war, and which shall fit 
 him in the day of peace, for the exigencies of all times and seasons, 
 would be the safest and soundest policy our government could pur 
 sue. 
 
Various militia systems have been adopted by ali the slates, am! 
 one and all of them in the opinion of the writer defective. To enter 
 into an analysis or discussion of this subject, would be too far to im 
 pede the progress of the present inquiries, and dilate the work be 
 yond the narrow compass of a pamphlet ; suffice it to say, that in 
 stead of the accustomed method of turning out and parading through 
 dirty streets, with rusty arms, ragged coats, columns dispropor ioncd, 
 and squares that looked like triangles, as must be recent in the rc- 
 mombrance of those who witnessed our reviews in a day of securi 
 ty that schools well appointed should be instituted, and certain 
 drilling days should be regularly attended by the incipient, under 
 the peualty of a fine to be rigidly exacted; that semi-annual reviews 
 should be held with all the pomp and splendour of a national fte, 
 and that instead of the ragged men of Falstaflf, who formerly were 
 wont to walk up and dowu a dirty city to save a fine, we should 
 see a body of tacticians, well apparelled, well accoutred (although 
 not in uniform) and *lio, while they should feel a pride themselves, 
 will create applause in the beholder. To effect this, the staie gov 
 ernments must not lean too much on economy. A suit of clothes per 
 year ought at least to be the equivalent of the patriotic yeoman 
 vho devotes his hours of industry, to learn how to defend his coun 
 try ; fines well collected, and justly appropriated, would partly de 
 fray the expense, and the pride and honour of the state might well 
 afford the other. 
 
 Before I enter further into the important views which the sub 
 ject of this inquiry embraces, a question of some curiosity suggests 
 itself, as to what has been the probable causes which have operated 
 on Great Britain, to abandon that system of procrastination, which 
 strongly marked each preceding feature of the negociation with our 
 ambassadors, and to accede with such sudden and unlookedfor pre 
 cipitancy to the formation of, a Treaty which met the views of our 
 ministers, and the instantaneous acceptance of the British regent ; a 
 Treaty which, without even touching upon any of the subjects of for 
 mer conferences, confined itself merely to the preliminaries of jus 
 tice and equity; two subjects which had never been disputed by 
 America, and which, on any proposals, on the part of England, would 
 have been inquired into and adjusted. Who is the prophetic seer of 
 the nation that could have foretold such a finish to such a contest, 
 
that the priuciple and leading features cf a treaty of peace and am 
 ity with Britain, should rest on commissioners, duly appointed to 
 run a Geographical line from the lakes in the woods, through differ 
 ent regions adjacent, to mark the middle boiiDttevy of territorial 
 rights; a lake scarcely spoken of five years ago in either country, 
 and even now obscurely known by the geographies and topogra- 
 phists of London. 
 
 The peculiar care manifested by the British ministers on this 
 questio n of boundary, would seem to indicate that they persuaded 
 themselves into a belief that the imperial flag of Great Britain was 
 destined to wavt for many centuries more on the American conti 
 nent : hence we see so much caution and precision in several arti 
 cles of the treaty, on territorial sovereignity. 
 
 In case of any dispute on this subject it is to be decided by some 
 friendly European power, that is to say, the Emperor of Russia, or 
 Austria, the king of Prussia, or any king, Bonaparte excepted, may, iu 
 the course of human even .s be honored with a title perhaps of equal 
 weight and glory toany they or their ancestors ever enjoyed, no Ies& 
 than Geographer thncral to his Britannic Majesty and the United 
 States of America, and although none of those sceptred mortals may 
 estimate the real dignity attached to such a high calling, yet there 
 are few of my readerswho will not join me in opinion that the title ia 
 question reflects more honour on any of those monarchs, and has 
 more real solidity attached to it, thau the Kingdom of Hanover has 
 given, by that title being annexed to the monarch of the British Isles. 
 
 I have a presentiment that we shall never be under the necessity 
 of troubling any of the royal race in Europe on this subject; it is 
 already decided by the laws of nature, and must ere long, be so by 
 the political and progressive strength of our country. A nation speak 
 ing the same language, influenced by the same habits, with a popu 
 lation already of eight millions, and with a fair prospect of doubling 
 that number iu less than twenty years, is not likely to be plagued 
 very long with questions relative to the rights of European sove- 
 reigQty to any part of the Americau Continent. 
 
 Whether we shall dry fish on the coast of Labrador, or shoot 
 bears beyond the present imperial boundary, we shall leave to our 
 descendants to arrange some 30 or 50 year? hence, but we shall car 
 ry to the tomb of the Capulets a full conviction that the treaty of 
 
8 
 
 peace, recently concluded, is the last instrument that will be signed 
 between Great Britain and the United States, respecting the terri 
 torial sovereignty of either on this Continent. 
 
 Had the conduct of England, as regarded the negotiations at 
 Ghent, been of that character which carried with it the indications 
 of good faith and a desire for pacification, the treaty would not now 
 b 1 A muter of sui prise, nor have been so unexpected an event as it 
 has proven some causes therefore, as yet behind the curtain, have 
 operated on the ministry of England, to give up their wild preten 
 sions of territorial aggrandizement in America, and spurred them to 
 the .erminaiion of differences on just and honourable terms, at a mo 
 ment when the war had assumed a most critical aspect. 
 
 Th. publication of the correspondence of the ministers at Ghent, 
 by the American government, was calculated to produce great asto 
 nishment in the eyes ol all Europe ; the arrogant and ambitious pre- 
 trn iocs of England bore a most striking contrast with the unsophis 
 ticated good, faith prominent in all the conferences and correspon 
 dences of the American diplomatists, and had no doubt, its weight 
 in altering both ihe tone and systertfof British negociatiou. Those 
 powers of Europe who were convened in the general congress at 
 Vienna, for settling tlie rights of nations, and consolidating a peace 
 among themselves, would no doubt, unhesitatingly express their dis 
 satisfaction at the pretensions manifested by England in this politi 
 cal drama ; as similar doctrines, might, at a future and no distant day, 
 be attempted to be imposed by England on themselves, and their silent 
 acquiescence, as regarded the United States, be urged as a plea of 
 justice against them. 
 
 The policy, therefore, of the publication of the dispatches, from 
 our ministers, however it may have galled England, was obvious as 
 regarded ourselves. It spoke volumes at a glance and carried with 
 it the weight of twenty manifestos. It was a clear development 
 of facts and portrayed the character and cause of our hostilities, 
 and the features England was inclined to give them; and further, 
 it was putting the question to continental Europe, and testing wheth 
 er they were inclined to yield to a principle of interested policy 
 pursued by England against these states, and which once establish 
 ed became a precedent, which naturally enough, would hereafter 
 be turned against themselves. 
 
It is not impossible that England might also hare foreseen the 
 probability of that miraculous event which has astonished both he 
 mispheres. She, no doubt, well knew the gentiment of the military 
 of France, and their devotion to that chief who had so often led 
 them to victory, and who never suffered skill or courage in the 
 field to pass unnoticed or unrewarded. And although she might not 
 have calculated on so sudden an explosion, or that the bold attempt 
 f Napoleon in resuming sovereignty, would have been attended 
 with unopposed success ; yet she might have seen sufficient to 
 have demonstrated to her the necessity of concentrating her forces 
 at home, and to be prepared for any changes which the continent of 
 Europe might display. 
 
 If any cause yet stronger than the public exposure of the pre* 
 tensions of England, has operated on her to conclude this peace, I 
 am inclined to believe that it is the situation of the Peninsula of 
 Spain, and the distracted state of those important colonies of that 
 monarchy in South America. England has for years past enjoyed 
 the treasures of those exhaustless mines, with which the unhappy 
 and enslaved Americans, have been cursed. The day of slavery is 
 however fast dissipating the shackled descendants of the Incas 
 have burst their chains, and a new and great empire is about to 
 astonish the world. What part England will take in the momentous 
 drama is yet to be discovettd, one part she assuredly will, and 
 there is one part which it materially behoves the United States 
 to take ; that is, to aid in unloosing the fetters of a galled and gallant 
 people. POLICY dictates it; the INJURIES we have received from 
 European Spain demand ample compensation, and warrant any 
 measures. The claims which American citizens have on the Spa 
 nish monarchy would be more than sufficient purchase money for 
 the Spanish Floridas, and if she will neither sell them or cede them, 
 or refund her robberies, I see nothing to prevent our taking them 
 vietarmis.l return to my subject that England has long meditat 
 ed deeply on the situation of Mexico, various testimonies might 
 prove, and that this may have had a considerable impetus in closing 
 the contest wiih the United States, in order to be ready to engage in 
 ne more profitable, at the first favourable moment, I am also dispo 
 sed to credit, and also that the blow against Spain, or against her pos- 
 is now prosecuting and will he struck bj fioglaid a tfcf 
 
Jt 
 
 first politic opening, and however singular it may appear, it may yd 
 be possible and probable, that England for once may range herself 
 on the side of justice and the rights of man, and for a promised remu 
 neration (perhaps) of certain provinces of this vast continent, engage 
 to emancipate a nation from bondage. That these causes, and 
 others, which are too carefully screened in the cabinets of Europe to 
 be read with accuracy on this side of the Atlantic, have had their 
 "weight in producing this wonderful change in the pretensions of 
 England as regards these states, the lapse of a very little time will 
 place beyond contradiction or doubt ; ad interim, however, should 
 these be rejected as visionary, speculative, or as far fetched surmises 
 by any of my inquiring readers, there is another cause well suited 
 to the armor propria of the patriotic American, which might not per 
 haps Puit the palates of the purlieus of St. James s, but would not 
 be unsavory to ourselves. This cause, which modesty might forbid 
 us to dilate on, or even refer to, is neither more or less than that 
 England, tired with the repeated discomfitures she met on land, on 
 lake and ocean, wherever she came in contact with our forces, (hith 
 erto so despised and held in contempt,) began to consider that should 
 the same series of success continue to attend the arms of America, 
 she might find in a few months longer extension of the contest, all 
 her Spanish laurels, in the yellow leaf; and that her proudest boast, 
 and vaunted prerogative of supremacy on the ocean, earned by slow 
 and progressive measures, at the price of more money and blood than 
 her islands contain, might be rendered nugatory : and instead, as hith 
 erto, the dread of surrounding states, by the despotic power of her 
 floating engines of blockade and contribution, she had forfeited 
 her imposing character in the estimation of spectators, by her toting 
 although unequal contest with a nation, who, at the commencement 
 did not possess one hundredth part of her naval armament and 
 "who had already cruised victoriously and with prosperity in the 
 English channel, and who had rode triumphantly in that called St. 
 George s, laying their sea-ports iu a state of blockade or contribu 
 tion. Whether my readers will allow weight to this last cause as 
 signed, will depend on their own view of the subject. One thing, 
 however, has fact to corroborate it, that insurance across the Irish 
 channel, had risen from 1-2 per cent, the usual rate, to 6 per cent, 
 making eleven additional premiums. And had the war 
 
11 
 
 12 months longer, and our national cruisers, expressly equipped for 
 sailing, reached iheir intended destinations, the 6 ^er centuc might 
 have quadrupled itself, and the whole navy of England would not 
 hare been sufficient to protect her from an American blockade. 
 
 The list of British vessels caotured, burnt and destroyed by our 
 cruisers, as well private as national, does not res<t on our own asser 
 tions, they are recorded at Lloyd s, and whether we view the num 
 ber, or the enterprise, and valour displayed by our countrymen in 
 effecting this extended scene of capture and destruction, we havq 
 the satisfaction to know they are without parallel in naval warfare. 
 Hitherto the world had attached no ordinary degree of stigma to the 
 pursuit of privateering, and cupidity was deemed the sole motive to 
 those who engaged therein, but it was reserved for the United States 
 to develope the fact, that a love of gain was not the premordial con 
 sideration of American cruisers, whether private, or national. Amor 
 Patria, gallantry, and humanity have distinguished the conduct of 
 *ur officers and seamen, in all their rencounters with the enemy. 
 
 British cruisers had been so accustomed to carry the private 
 armed vessels of their enemies, whether in equal fight, or by gallant 
 ly attacking them with boats, that they did not anticipate any new 
 er extraordinary species of resistance from us; but to thfir surprise 
 and mortification, they have not only been foiled, but beaten in al 
 most every attempt they made on the ocean or in the harbours, against 
 our vessels. 
 
 The attack on the privateer Neufchatel by the boats of the fri 
 gate Eudymion, and the attack of the General Armstrong by an im 
 mense number of boats from a British squadron in the harbour of 
 Fayal, have given a demonstratioa of American enthusiasm aud 
 valour, fatal to the glory, the discipline and tactics of the British ua- 
 vy ; and in my humble opinion, these, and an infinite number of simi 
 lar instances that had occurred, taught the British ministry to anti 
 cipate the direful consequences of protracting a war, where every 
 day seemed to add to the glory of their enemy, and to augment his 
 means of annoying and destroying the commerce of Great Britain. 
 
 Thus, at the moment that they supposed Orleans in their posses 
 sion, and that such was their expectation, the speech of the Regent 
 from the throne proclaims, when he says, that fa hopes to fi; sh the 
 contest with America, with glory to the English arrai, at ibis roe- 
 
13 
 
 uieut do they propose a peace on those terms of equal justice for 
 which alone we contended, arid which we had repeatedly offered to 
 treat upon before ; and cot waiting even for the news of the occu 
 pation of Orleans by the British troops, they conclude a treaty of 
 peace, which, in the same faith, these states have always manifested, 
 was ratified as soon as it was received. 
 
 Waving all further consideration of what were the motives which 
 induced Great Britain to the hasty adoption of this measure, when all 
 denoted more extensive preparations, and the most hostile front ; I 
 sh^ll only express this, my opinion, that neither a sense of honour or 
 equity, or a just appreciation of the rights of nations had any thing 
 to do with her decision. These are considerations which are as a 
 dead letter in the eyes of those disciples of Machiavel, who direct 
 policy of that nation ; and here I beg leave to state, that whate 
 ver may be my opinion of the conduct of the British government eith 
 er past, present or future, it has not, and I trust, never will eradicate 
 from my mind, a regard and respect for the individual character of 
 British subjects as such, we view them analogous to ourselves ia 
 habits, in feelings, as well as in language ^but it is against a gov 
 ernment whose acts have been uniformly hostile to our republic,^ 
 that we have directed our remarks, and shall continue so to do, until 
 a change of policy or measures on the part of the government of 
 Great Britain, shall convince us of the sincerity of her frequent pro 
 fessions to cultivate a good understanding, aud to preserve a lasting 
 peace with the United Stales. 
 
CHAPTER. II. 
 
 Commerce considered in a day of Peace America the general cor* 
 rier in the time of European war The jealousy of Enf land-* 
 Its consequences The effect Peace will have on our Shipping and 
 Tonnage interest-Its effect <m Agriculture the culture of Grain 
 considered Digression on the agriculture of South America, 
 Cultivation of articles of foreign Growth not yet introduced gener 
 ally in America considered ; such as ike Vine, Olive Tree, Gum 
 Tree, &c. The adventure and experiment which distinguishes 
 America-Distillation in a day of Peace, and Manufactures cm- 
 
 The phrases, Peace and Plenty, Peace, Commerce and Pros 
 perity, have beeu so ofteu hacknied and toasted, and drank inflow 
 ing cups, that it may create a little astonishment in the minds ot* 
 the strongest opponents to the late war, that COMMERCE on the return 
 of PEACE, instead of being attended with its expected concomitant 
 PROSPERITY, should be narrowed and confined within a more limit 
 ed circle, that its profits should be reduced to the lowest grade of 
 percentage, and that instead of the cornucopia of abundance, which 
 in our late trade was the result of the general war in Europe, we 
 shall find it harder to gain a dollar on the ocean, than we did to 
 gain ten, when fortune made us the carriers of the world. 
 
 This has. in a measure, already exemplified itself, by the doubt 
 and hesitation which has marked every commercial movement since 
 the cessation of hostilities ; and if, on the very outset of our pacific 
 career, this truth has already developed itself, when a reciprocal 
 interchange of various articles interdicted in a state of war, invited a 
 certain portion of commerce ; how much more forcibly would it dis 
 play itself, when that interchange, so long denied to nations and 
 ourselves, was satisfied and became limited merely to that supply 
 necessary for annual consumption. 
 
 Although Europe be at this moment in a very unsettled condi 
 tion, and the return of Bonaparte, as well as her opposing interests, 
 !*B towards involviog her again IB hostilities before many moaths. 
 
14 
 
 yet wisdom dictates, that uncertain events should never be relied on, 
 and it behoves us not only to look to the actual state of affairs, as 
 they now stand, but to be ready to receive with an open palm the favor 
 of ither chance or fortune, or be equally ready to oppose adversity, 
 sb mid she approach, by the maxims of the goddess Minerva in prac 
 tice. Should peace yet be maintained in Europe, and it is more natu 
 ral to look towards this event than to calculate on an eternal system 
 of warfare 7 ,* our commerce must consequently be confined to those 
 an Seles of necessity, the natural growth of these states, which may 
 not be the productions of Europe, or cultivated at least in a minim 
 proportion to their wants ; and our system of exchange of articles 
 must be solely limited to those which may be necessary for our own 
 
 consumption, whether in the crude state, or that of manufacture. 
 
 The commerce of America, from the year 1 793, until the late 
 conclusion of the European peace, was profitable beyond any cal 
 culation in record. The powers of Europe, militating one against 
 the other, combatting one year in the cause of France, and the 
 next on the side of England ; each drawn progressively, for 
 their own momentary salvation, into the contest, completely over 
 turned the whole commercial economy as well as the productive in 
 dustry of continental Europe. Their states and their kingdoms, 
 from the prince who reigned to the meanest peasant, were thrown into 
 distraction and confusion the stimilus to industry or agriculture 
 was no more. The fields the farmer plowed, the grain he sowed, 
 and the harvest he hoped to reap, were no longer in existence the 
 enemy might come was coming and would arrive and what 
 avail is industry, when it is to be the prey for pillage ? where is the 
 stimulus for labour but in gain ? Such were the woful reflections, of 
 many an honest husbandman on both sides of the political arena. 
 What then was more natural, than America, by the general necessi 
 ty becoming the carrier of nearly all the Christian world ? England 
 aWne ameng all the nations^in the map of Europe, who held a name or 
 
 And even tl 
 
 restoration of Napoleon, although it at present bears the mo?r 
 menacing front, may nevertheless lead to this event, and even in fixing the repose of 
 Europe on a more solid basis, either by his death, r by his being made a party i 
 th general congrew, neither of whick events are out f tfee liae f probability. 
 
13 
 
 consequence, maintained any commerce. By (he influence of bev 
 navy she was able to sustain her trade with her colonies; yet even 
 in I his commerce she was obliged to maintain it by an expense un 
 known and unfelt by the United States at that periud. The im 
 mense expenditure, which (he support of a navy like that of Eng 
 land must occasion, will be well understood without a comment, 
 and the enviable situation, in which (he United States enjoyed the 
 freedom of the ocean and the commerce of the world, will be also 
 comprehended without any illustration. 
 
 This, and this alone it was, which excited the jealousy and envy 
 of England, which produced the capture of our vessels bound to 
 France in 1793 to 1796, which led to those orders ot council in 
 England condemning the trading of vessels from one port to another 
 of a different nation, (known und^r the general term of trading roija- 
 gcs,) and obliging the vessel to clear from, and return to, her native 
 port. It was this, which next produced the strict examination of 
 the role d equipage, ultimately producing the late obnoxious er- 
 derf in council which eventuated in war. 
 
 J That England should be jealous of the rising greatness of Ameri 
 ca and her distended commerce, was a necessary result of her noli- 
 cy, but in the moral spirit of justice, professed by civilians, she had 
 no more right to make manifest that jealousy by oppression, than any 
 other power nor indeed so much, as she integrally maintained her 
 commerce, while the nations of Europe were without its benefits, and 
 dependent on America and herself for their supplies /besides, as the 
 war belonged as much to England as to France, or was rather kept 
 alive by her policy, and was maintained more for the preservation 
 of that monopoly which has made her a power of qonsequeuce among 
 nations, than for any conquests or aggrandizements which France 
 might meditate ;} she had less rea?on for complaint against the tem 
 porary good fortune of the United States of America than any other 
 power.-J-Frauce, during the last four years of war, introduced ihe 
 hostile decrees of Berlin and Milan ; but with, ut entering into the 
 tale discussion, of whether the last orders in council, or these had 
 priority; none who consider this great question dispassionately, wit! 
 deny, that the repeated captures and acts of aggression of England 
 kd France to those retaliating measures, denominated the continei 
 tal lystem ; which, while they materially affected our sectuii} , and 
 
16 
 
 amounted to H infringement of our rights, aimrd all the energy of 
 (heir resentment against England. The edict which indiscrimi 
 nately doomed to conflagration every article manufactured in Eng 
 land, or the growth of her colonies, was a link of the same chain, 
 adopted Icgctalionis. against the legislative code of England. These 
 retaliatory acts of the two nations manifested a rancour rarely be 
 fore seen, and threatened a \var of extermination. Their stand 
 ards might have floated to the winds of heaven on either side with 
 the words ad internidoncm, stamped in the largest characters, with- 
 oiil creating a sentiment of surprise; and all states and governments 
 were taught by their conflicting foes, that any of their subjects were 
 implicated and sacrificed without remorse, who aided, however in 
 directly, the views of either. 
 
 nland closed the whole continent of Europe by decrees and 
 statutesJwhich the unrestrained and adventurous spirit of Fredonians 
 would have laughed at but so it was the ports of Europe were 
 closed, and the vast dominions of France were left without a ship 
 or seaport of trade.^Besides this, she was daily stabbing vitally her in 
 terests in manufacture, (the only traffic of industry left her,) by Jo- 
 troducing under a thousand disguises, the manufactures of herself, 
 and her Indian possessions. From these causes, France availing her 
 self of her power, drew that extended circle of prohibition which, 
 while it fostered her internal commerce, aimed a death blow against 
 the designs, as well as the revenue of England. | 
 
 Apologising for a digression, which in generafcourse, I trust may 
 not be deemed irrelevant, I return to my subject. In what manner 
 will this return of peace affect our commerce ? As we have before 
 said, provided continental Europe be at peace, the ctmmerce of Ame 
 rica, must be very limited^and it is much to be dreaded, that before 
 {\\hfact is experimentally displayed to our adventurers, that great 
 mischief will individually befal them. It was within a few years back 
 remarked, by many a navigator, that sail where you would, there was 
 no nook, no port so small, but he found the flag of America before 
 him. Th<? scene may now be changed, these states may no longer 
 be the universal carrier, and the stars of our national flag may not 
 for some time, be seen triumphantly waving with the incalculable 
 gains of a distorted commerce. Europe at peace, we are on a foot* 
 ing with all other commercial nations, England excepted, who wain^ 
 
17 
 
 itins a superiority by possessing more colonies than any other pow. 
 er, regulating aud limiting their trade according to their -will or 
 iuterest, at tlie same time, interdicting the United Stales from any 
 trade, which might be beneficial, and admitting only such articles as 
 she cannot herself supply. 
 
 This leads us naturally to inquire into what effect it will have 
 upon our shipping, and whether it will tend to their increase or di 
 minution, and my opinion, unhesitatingly is, that it will operate to 
 ward the immediate decrease of our commercial tonnage, and that 
 too, in a very severe degree, without salutary measures are used to 
 prevent it. 
 
 Where traffic is precarious, and its profits few ; where a 
 nation only enjoys that reduced commerce, admitting solely of in 
 terchange of its overplus productions, on a limited scale, for arti 
 cles of a foreign growth or fabric, which may suit its consumption 
 or habits, there can exist but little excitement to adventure. Egre- 
 giously shall those be mistaken who consider that the dashing mer 
 chants of these states will, as heretofore, be the money making men. 
 The present system will return to that of the old plodding times of 
 pounds, shillings, and peace. The ledger, and profit and loss ac 
 count will require a careful circumspection, and to be narrowly 
 attended to in all foreign traffic. A very moderate profit abroad 
 will leave a minimum profit on return after payiug freight and va 
 rious charges, and the regular percentage on imports, will nett but 
 little on their sales after paying outward and inward duties. 
 
 That spirit which looked upon a ship as a prelude to a fortune, 
 which considered a shipholder as the monopolizer of gains, will feel 
 a shock which will prostrate all the hopes and calculations of the 
 inexperienced or too sanguine adventureji| An apathetic indiffe 
 rence will naturally succeed to this dangerous enthusiasm. And 
 those who meditated alone on the ocean as being the paternal pro 
 tector of their fortunes, will have the current of their feelings chang 
 ed, and will look to iheir maternni earth and native soil, with patient 
 and well-regulated industry for a moderate support. 
 
 With no more ports to trade with than before the war of 1783, 
 of what use will now be our extensive forests of shipping ? At that 
 epoch, only 2 Indiameo sailed out of Philadelphia, and I shall not 
 be found very incorrect iu the assertion, that oot more thao 7 or S 
 
 3 
 
18 
 
 sailed from ail the ports of the United States. Our increase of 
 population may, perhaps, warrant a double trade with foreign pos 
 sessions, and a double importation, but further than this we cannot 
 look with safety (or profit or success, end unless our exportation* 
 keep an equal pace with our imports, the balance of trade will be 
 injurious. 
 
 The different maratime powers of Europe are in want of shipping, 
 and the overplus of our tonnage will oaturaHy find foreign owners, 
 and, as we can, upon a general scale, build vessels at a cheaper rate 
 than most of the nations of Europe, one species of our industry 
 will meet a recompense in becoming ship-builders instead of ship 
 owners. 
 
 Dismissing this subject without further remark, we have now to 
 inquire in what manner peace will affect agriculture, manufactures, 
 and distillation. 
 
 In the first consists the natural, unalienable, and progressive 
 strength of the nation ; governed and fostered by the omnipotent 
 mercies of Providence, by the genial return of seasons, and brought 
 to maturity and abundance by the hand of art and industry. 
 Throughout our distended continent agriculture is the vivifying 
 and all-important branch of labour on which the happiness or misery 
 of the community depends. During war, however, there is as much 
 speculation and hazard attendant on this employment as on others; 
 it thus frequently happens, that farmers become rapidly rich or 
 poor ; are superabundantly paid for their labour, and their land, or 
 dwindle and become distressed for want of an adequate price for 
 those commodities on which they have bestowed both time and 
 toil. The speculator on paper, in stocks, or any other ideal re 
 presentative of property i^uot more liable to the chances of profit 
 and loss than the farmer in the unsettled times of war. A fluctua 
 tion of 20 to 50 per cent, either in the rise or fall of an article, is 
 oftentimes witnessed within six mouths, and although, generally 
 speaking, the farmers throughout these states have been more for 
 tunate than otherwise, during our contest, and the few years preceed- 
 ing it yet some have met equal adversity with the merchant or 
 any other occupation. 
 
 The d iy of peace produces a general level with agriculturists in 
 the same ratio that it does with commerce. That extraordinary, 
 
aud at times, unaccountable rise and depression of articles of oiu 
 ioternal growth is no more to be looked for thau the rise and de 
 pression of a yard of broadcloth. The farmer, therefore, who would 
 calculate his gains in receiving 10 or 12 dollars per barrel, for his 
 flour, must take into consideration his loss if he realizes but 3 or 4. 
 
 The real value of a barrel of flour, iu times of peace, taking it in 
 an aggregate and comparative view, can never be more than d dol 
 lars. In (he months succeeding harvest, and when the greatest 
 abundance is in market, it will not command this price. France, 
 from her being excluded from all external commerce, and not allowed 
 to supply hs-r colonies, even during the season of war, when that 
 dreadful name conscription was on foot, seldom witnessed her flour to 
 exceed 36 francs, or something less than seven dollars for tlu: 200lb. 
 In the year 1 795 alone, owing to the horrors of the revolution and 
 a failure in the crops, together with the starvation edicts of England, 
 did it ever take an enormous rise ? and the policy of the government 
 soon checked this evil so pregnant with many others. 
 
 Whilst treating on this subject, it may be well to notice, that the 
 period is not distant when South America aud Mexico will like 
 wise be important granaries; the reason this has not already ta 
 ken place, arises not so much from limited population, as from the 
 restrictions that Spain has for three centuries persevered in, against 
 the settlement of foreigners in her dominions, from the barbarous 
 and antisocial system of her political institutions, whose cardi 
 nal principle consisted in the necestdly of keeping 17 millions of in 
 habitants, in this vast continent, in the lowest state of ignorance 
 and misery, in order to swell the pomp, and nurture the disposition 
 of a parcel of monks and mountebanks on a little peninsula of 
 Europe. 
 
 The laws of nature and reason will no longer be violated in such an 
 outrageous manner, as they have been for ages, on this beautiful con 
 tinent ; the bounties of a beneficent God will be, ere long, displayed 
 throughout this hemisphere, aud millions of unborn descendants of 
 Europeans, as well as the offspring of the Incas, will bless the 
 names of those who, in this century, have so largely contributed 
 to the emancipation of the western world, from the feudal chains 
 f Europe. But to return to my subject. I think it very pro- 
 
20 
 
 bablc, that in less than 30 years, South America and Mexico wiir 
 be enabled to export immeuse quantities of grain. 
 
 Wheat grows in abundance in almost every part of this continent. 
 Indian corn may be cultivated every where. The banks of the ri 
 ver Magdalcua, as well as all the adjacent country, already yields 
 a superabundance of rice. A few years ago there was scarcely suffi 
 cient raised for the consumption of the country ; but since the peo 
 ple have declared themselves independent of Spain, and the new 
 government have removed the shackles from commerce and agri 
 culture, the change produced has been truly magicah 
 
 There are now above a hundred rice plantations, where there was 
 one four years back. During the late war between the United 
 States and Great Britain, many vessels of considerable tonnage 
 were loaded with this article at Carthagena and on the coast, for 
 Jamaica ; i: became so abundant that the price was as low as two, 
 to two and a half dollars a hundred weight. The grain is equally, 
 or, perhaps, more nutritious than our Carolina rice; it is not as well 
 cleaned, but that circumstance will be remedied by the improve 
 ments that are rapidly finding their way to those countries. There 
 is no doubt in my mind, that in a tew years rice will rank among 
 the exports of Carthagena, not only for the West Indies, but for the 
 European markets; and there is likewise no doubt, that it can be 
 raised in this part of New Grenada without many of the disadvan 
 tages attached to its culture in Carolina and Georgia. 
 
 The wheat that now comes down Jhe river Magdalena, from a 
 place called Ocana. in the interior, is equal in quality and flavour 
 to the Barbary grain. The flour, at present made, is not quite as 
 white as ours, but will be equally so, when proper attention is di 
 rected towards manufacturing it. 
 
 Tobacco and cotton^ in all their various qualities, may be suc 
 cessfully cultivated in almost every part of these regions, and in fact, 
 nature has so peculiarly endowed this part of the earth with all the 
 varieties of climate and soil, that it not only yields indigenous ar 
 ticles, which no other part of the earth can ever rival, but is capable 
 of producing whatever can be raised in either zone. 
 
 These remarks will, no doubt, have their due weight with many 
 of my reflecting readers, and may teach our landed proprietors t 
 reflect, that neither they nor their heirs are to calculate on the Unit- 
 
ed States being, as they have hitherto been, the unrivalled granary 
 of the universe. 
 
 The agriculturist, in a time of peace, must, therefore, look mere 
 to the wants of the community at home than to those abroad. Our 
 southern planters of rice, cotton, and tobacco will, no doubt, enjoy 
 the great benefit of a foreign market ; but as all those articles are 
 the growth of foreign countries, they must not calculate on the ex 
 clusive supply of them ; but that their prices will be governed by 
 the same limitation which extends to every other article the pro 
 duce of the earth. 
 
 The cultivation of various articles, some of which we yet import 
 from abroad, and others of too limited a culture, will be found to be 
 attended with more profit to the farmer than many others hitherto 
 considered of the first importance such as woad, an article easily 
 raised and of great value in dying. The olive tree, which has al 
 ready been known to thrive in our climate, and if I am not mistaken, 
 has been cultivated by our president, Jefferson, is another article, 
 opening a wide field, which would well repay its first cultivators. 
 Mustard seed is an article which reflects a shame on our agricultur 
 ists, that it is not produced in abundance among us. This article 
 sold for two dollars aud even three dollars per pound during the war, 
 which might give a great piofit to the cultivator at 50 cents, or in 
 deed, one half that price. Ginseng, a plant indigenous to our soil, 
 has not sufficient attention ; ten times the quantity might meet a 
 good market that is now. raised. The Spanish tobacco plant, the 
 seed of which cao easily be imported from Cuba, would yield con 
 siderable profit to those whose lands were genial to its cultiva 
 tion. In this article the agriculturist should be particularly careful 
 in his choice of land, in which he may make his essay, and should 
 inform himself well on this subject, in which there is no difficulty to 
 insure success in his project. Hops, senna, ginger, turmeric, rhubarb, 
 and many other articles of inferior grades and value might be men 
 tioned, which would suit our soil and various climate. 
 
 The cultivation of the vine too, which hitherto,- more from inat 
 tention to soil aud climate, has, as yet, been unsuccessful, will one 
 day bounteously repay the more prudent and successful cultiva 
 tor. Doctor Logan, io a letter written from Stentou, in February, 
 1 799, gives, in my opinion, some useful hints on this subject ; he is 
 
88 
 
 guided in his remarks, however, by the climate of France, in which 
 he saw them cultivated. A due attention to th. remarks made by 
 Doctor Logan, and adapting them to the climate and soil in which 
 this essay may be made, will most likely be attended with success. 
 The gum tree, a native of Africa, known better by the general 
 term Senegal gum, and which is used in almost all muuufactures of 
 linen and cotton, by hatters, and also by apothecaries, under the 
 name of gum arable, might be successfully transplanied from that 
 country, and thousands of acres of our land in Geoigia, Florida, 
 and West Louisiana, unproductive at present to their holders, (many 
 of them barren sands,) might, in the course of a few years, without 
 any labour, (for the tree requires none,) become flourishing forests of 
 this valuable thorn, producing mines of wealth from this exotic 
 gum ; the value of which has been so highly estimated, that the na 
 tion, whether France or England, who had possession of the colony 
 of Senegal, al ways debarred the world from any interference in her 
 monopoly of (his article. The only exception to this general prin 
 ciple was, while France, unable to assist her colonies, threw them 
 op n to neutral commerce. This tree, which grows to the height of 
 10 to 1 feet, if planted for the purpose of hedges, might be made be 
 neficial in a double manner, forming a safe barrier to all iuclosures, 
 and yielding at the same time a revenue to the possessor. Should 
 there be any impediment in procuring this from Senegal, England 
 now holding possession of St. Louis, and preserving her monopoly by 
 interdicting all trade but her own, it may be found in abundance 
 on the Atlantic coast of Barbary, although it does not flourish to the 
 extent to yield the exportation of its gum. These are not Utopian 
 ideas. Experience has proved, by the introduction and growth of 
 the cotton plant within a few years in the southern states, as well as 
 the sugar cane, the genial properties of our soil and climate; and 
 the extent of those advantages a Benevolent Deity has yet in store, 
 for the industry and enterprise of the citizens of this favoured 
 region. 
 
 Maoy other articles of foreign growth, as yet unknown and un- 
 cultivated among us, may strike the imagination of the reader and 
 researcher, which might be of equal importance to attend to; those 
 already mentioned, however, are sufficient to demonstrate, thai we 
 have not yet paid all that attention to enriching our soil, or reaping 
 
23 
 
 from it all tho?e bounties with which the beneficient hand of the 
 Creator has so liberally visitedthe earth. 
 
 la a state of civil society, to what other object thau wealth 
 is the toil of mau directed. The wisest man may he said to 
 work the least, as he employs himself on those objects which 
 may be the most productive, aud yield him the highest price 
 for his labour. The nearest road to wealth is the one gener 
 ally sought for, though thousands miss the track. Those who 
 pursue the beaten foot-way of their ancestors, and are never in 
 duced to swerve from it, however alluring the prospect, may rank 
 perhaps, among the most prudent and unaspiring. They enjoy a 
 dull monotony, and their slumber* are never disturbed by doubts 
 or enlivened by the imagery of hope they have nothing to gain or 
 lose in the great lottery of fortune. To such men an innovation 
 or experiment is as the forbidden fruit, one which, as their forefa. 
 thers never tasted, they maintain the same self denial. Howerer se 
 cure tliis wary prudence may make such men, unhappy for the 
 world would it be, did such a general apathy prerail. Where, alas ! 
 would be the arts and sciences, the refinements and improvements, 
 and those useful discoveries, which adorn the history of revolving 
 years and ameliorate tbe condition of mankind ? Soon, indeed, 
 would they vanish from our sight buried in the gloom of gotbic ig 
 norance. .But, fortunately for the world, these are r.he smallest por 
 tion of society. The majority, and particularly in this country, pos 
 sess an ardent spirit for adventure and experiment ; an enthusiasm 
 for improvement and discovery by no means general throughout 
 Europe. It is this which bag given us a tide of prosperity in com 
 merce, unexperienced in the history of the world it is this which 
 has stimulated us as inhabitants of a vast and free region, not only 
 to dive into the mysteries of foreign commerce, but to extract from it 
 all that is valuable to ourselves. The improvements of Europe, and 
 ^refinements, rose from a state of barbarism and villauage pro 
 giessively, and varied the scene from savage to social life by slow 
 gradations. The itates f America were ushered into existence un 
 der all the advantages of modern ethics and philosophy. From the 
 date of the declaration of their independence, they may be said to 
 have been born and nurtured under the first couptellatious of ge 
 nius that ever illumined the world ; the doctrines and tenets 
 tf a Newion aud a Locke, a Voloey and a Lelaud, were all uoder- 
 
24 
 
 itood and investigated by a Kittenhouse and a Franklin, a Jefferson 
 and a Hamilton; and in place of gradual steps to information, we 
 had the arcana of Europe unveiled to us, thereby affording an op 
 portunity to demonstrate the boldness and extent of native genius, 
 vhen unencumbered by prejudice, and unrestrained by despotism. 
 To the euterprize and researches of a Fulton, do we owe the vast 
 advantages which have been alieady derived, aud are likely to 
 progress to an unlimited extent, from the discovery of a proper aud 
 powerful application of steam, in impelling the " skarfed bark." 
 through her liquid element, and directing her course with swift 
 ness, in opposition to the winds of Heaven, aud in defiance of coun 
 ter currents. The uew, the wonderful, and yet uuthought-of ad 
 vantages to which this great improvement may extend, is a fair 
 field for reflecting genius to predicate both fortune aud fame by its 
 application to useful objects, aud to the economy of time and labour. 
 The historian of America shall with enthusiastic fervour dwell upon 
 the memory of this liberal and enlightened citizen, and shall, iu the 
 general sentiment of his cotemporaries, deplore the irreparable loss 
 the arts have suffered by the short duration of his earthly career. 
 Had more extended years been allotted him by the fiat of Omnipo 
 tence, that masterly and energetic genius might have discovered 
 still stronger traits, and have furnished even more brilliaut facts to 
 philosophy than those with which he has adorned it. 
 
 Reverting to my subject of the adventure, inherent in my coun 
 trymen, it strikes me that the same wisdom and researches which 
 unfolded riches to their view iu traversing the ocean, will now be 
 directed to their pursuits on land. 
 
 The same spirit of industry in the establishments of landed pro 
 perties, with productive incomes, may be looked for at home, which 
 hag within these last twenty years been directed abroad in foreign 
 speculations. The careful culture of new and valuable plants, herbs, 
 trees, Arc. hitherto considered as exotics, wi lno doubt, interest rrio * 
 or less the genius of my country meu and should there not 
 a sufficient enthusiasm excited, or doubts and dreads a* 
 with regard to the success, which might or might not be their attend- 
 anti, ii would be a just and generous act of policy in the government, 
 in the first instance, to establish nurseries and agricultural semina 
 ries, until the general principles regarding their culture should be 
 
25 
 
 well understood. SHEEP, particularly the MERINO breed, will re 
 quire the fostering hand of government for their prosperous cultiva 
 tion and increase. On, these however, I defer my remarks for ano 
 ther chapter. 
 
 A In a general view, therefore, of the question whether the agricul 
 tural interest will be benefitted by the restoration of peace, in the 
 present posture of affairs with the rest of the world, it is my opinion, 
 that for the few occurring years, until some new channels for indus 
 try are opened, the labour of the farmer will be increased and his 
 profits diminished. Enthusiastic, like all other callings and profes 
 sions in life, the farmer will at once employ great labour to procure 
 great crops, but he will be doomed to meet a sad reverse in his sales 
 from what he has long been accustomed to receive. The treasona 
 ble and demoralized principle of furnishing flour and various arti 
 cles of provision, to the enemy during a state of war, has been one 
 great cause for the price which wheat has hitherto sustained^ The 
 cultivator of the earth will now discover that in the beaten track 
 of his forefathers, small profits will furnish him a livelihood, but 
 should he, in the day of general peace, look for the same emoluments 
 which arose from the confusion of a general war, and the distractions 
 of Europe, he will meet a woful disappointment. 
 
 A great source of wealth to many of our industrious inhabitants 
 of the remote parts of the states of Penngylvania, ^few-York, Vir 
 ginia, Maryland, and Kentucky, has been produced by the fermen 
 tation of grains and fruits, under the operation of distillation. These 
 liquors were disseminated throughout the union, were vended in 
 large quantities in the commercial cities, and in them frequently 
 underwent the operation of the liquor-vender or brewer; who, by 
 the aid of certain drugs, by mixtures, &c. produced a liquor assi 
 milated to those imported from abroad, and such as might suit the 
 general demand, either *br the consumption of the country or suit 
 able for exportation. Vast quantities of this distillation of our 
 country, properly known under the name of whisky was manufac 
 tured and changed into brandy, cherry-bounce, Holland gin, Ja 
 maica and Antigua rum. and various liqueurs which met a icady 
 sale at foreign markets, and a considerable consumption in our 
 own. The events anterior to the war which occasioned but a par 
 tial introduction of foreign spirit?, and the war, which afterwards 
 produced almost their utter exclusion, gave to the proprietors of 
 
26 
 
 stills, an advantage which no other causes could have operated. The 
 fermented spirits they produced, and which hitherto had neyerbeen 
 varied from its original distillation, now assumed the character of 
 the camelion, and changed from white to red, to green or blue, at 
 the option of its possessor ; it partook of the taste of the juniper, oj 
 sugar cane, and various other ingredients, and was sold under an 
 hundred different shapes and titles. Atone period, duriug the war, 
 rye and Indian corn, as being the staple and best articles for pro 
 ducing this liquor, assumed a price nearly equal to wheat ; although 
 their actual value and cost of raising, is not entitled to more than 
 one half, or one-third. Apples rose to a price never known before, 
 and even turnips and potatoes as a substitute and succedaneum, 
 claimed a value they never before had seen in the history of this na 
 tion. Stills multiplied in all quarters, and those who lived in cities, 
 under every disadvantage, erected them; whilst formerly none but 
 the farmers who could make them an auxiliary to the fattening of 
 his pork, by the redundancy of grain, could ever consider them as 
 attended with profit. 
 
 The distiller, however, must now calculate on very reduced pro 
 fits, and the tax on his still will reduce it still lower. The price that 
 he obtained for his unadulterated and pure corn whisky, will now 
 in a short time, purchase the rum of the West Indies, or the bran 
 dies of France; and as every native liquor is the be^t, no ooc will 
 loach the brewed or manufactured whisky, in the shape of either 
 brandy, gin, or spirits, while the genuine is to be procured on equal 
 terms. It naturally follows, that distillation will be attended with 
 many misfortunes; a decrease of stills will ensue, and the price ob 
 tained for these last three years, for rye and other grains, as well 
 as fruits and roois of the earth, will decrease in a certain ratio, 
 though I am deceived if they will decrease in the same proportion 
 as the recu t of fhe still. 
 
 In this light I am inclined to consider the distiller of fermented 
 liquors, as one of the many sufferers by the change of the times; and 
 it deeply behoves him to be on his ward ag-iinst the reduction of 
 price, which must naturally ornn ; an4 also, the diminishing de 
 mand soth *t home acd abroad, particularly that which latterly has 
 been occasioned by the various armies of ihe United States, and 
 
27 
 
 which, in IOBI and consumption, carried off immense quantities of this 
 article. 
 
 The manufacturer next engages, in a very serious manner, ray at 
 tention ; if any class of our citizens will suffer great injury from the 
 transition of the times, it is likely to be the patriotic, the enthusi 
 astic and adventurous mauufacturer. |The benefits derived by the 
 United States during the contest with Great Britain, by the indus 
 try employed in manufacturing various cloths of cotton, linen, and 
 woollen, &c. by the erection and establishment of various machine 
 ries, the numerous and inappreciable establishments founded ou the 
 improved chymestry, the mineral and metallic productions necessary 
 to other civil arts, are all likely to be but indifferently repaid to 
 the capitalist, who embarked his fortune iu >hese pursuits. The be 
 nefits derived by the nation have been numerous, and far greater 
 than a general observer would suppose. Jn a time of war to foster 
 and encourage the artizau in such employments as were calculated 
 to alleviate the wants of the community, and particularly tfie sol 
 dier in the service of his country, was a natural and interested feel 
 ing in the government ; a decided preference was, therefore, shown 
 to the manufactures of our own people; and contracts, by the agents 
 appointed by government, were entered into for large supplies ot ne 
 cessary articles for clothing, expressly stipulating, that they were 
 the fabric of the country. Almost every article of clothing which 
 were furnished to the troops of the United States, not excepting 
 blankets, were the manufacture of our own citizens; and the last 
 mentioned article, manufactured in a particular manner, (a mixture 
 of cotton and wool,) possessing superior properties in many respects, 
 for the service of the camp, afforded greater comforts to the sol 
 dier, than two of those imported, and heretofore generally used. 
 
 The great expense to which the manufacturing capitalist has 
 been submitted, in the new career in which he started, whether 
 guided by interest or stimulated by patriotism, or by both, is likely 
 to eventuate in much disappointment and loss.l 
 *The interest of England urges ber by ever]/ means to force her 
 various fabrics into the most general circulation ; and the trade with 
 the greatly extended territory of these states, diversified by various 
 seasons and climates, has been ever considered the most profitable 
 and important that England enjoyed. 1 Interest, the polar star 
 
28 
 
 of nations, (as well as individuals,) directs her to pursue that path 
 which \\ ill aid and encourage the exportation of hei manufactures 
 and her traffic with America ; and the height of refiiu-meBt to 
 which her artizans have arrived, gives her a decided preference 
 even in the opinion and fancy of our own citizens, to similar goods 
 of natural fabrication. 
 
 The proper distribution of colours, the just appropriation of 
 light and shade, the evenness of thread and above all, the exqui 
 site finish and jjlaze, which certain goods receive from the hand of 
 the adept, naturally gives them a value in the eye of every behold 
 er. Besides which, there is another provocative to value and 
 choice that indefineable something which exists under the name 
 of fa hion, and which imperiously governs the fancy and caprice of 
 the world. As hitherto Europe, and particulary England and 
 France, have been the rabiters and precedents of this camelion god 
 dess, even across the Atlantic ; it will be found an unattainable 
 effort to correct this despotism of fancy, without a strong induce 
 ment operating sensibly on the interests of the community. 
 
 It may be argued that patriotism shonld stimulate us to encour 
 age the workmen and mechanics of our native soil, but it would be 
 argued in vain. Will any one of us purchase an article made at 
 home } of a thread more uneven, of an inferior finish, of a fashion 
 out of date, merely because it was made at home, wheu for the 
 same, or perhaps less money, we can procure the newest fashion of 
 England, carrying with it colours better executed, and an appear 
 ance more beautiful ? Even admitting that the article might be 
 stronger and wear better, unless the eye and fancy were pleased, 
 there must be a greater stimulus to obtain it a preference videlicet^ 
 its price. 
 
 Notwithstanding the raw material may be the natural production 
 of our soil; the low price of labour, and the high perfection to which 
 machinery has been brought in Europe, gives the manufacturer 
 abroad, and particularly England, (as having the articles most suited 
 to our wants,) a decided advantage over this country. And those 
 articles, after paying all charges abroad, the freight across the ocean, 
 and the import duty at home, can yet afford a commission and a 
 profit, and undersell that manufactured by ourselves of the same 
 texture ; and what is a necessary and a serious part tf these coasi- 
 
29 
 
 derations is, the mercantile policy united with the policy of her;;enj- 
 er, undeviatingly pursued by England through the medium of her 
 bounties, drawbacks, and the system of long credits established 
 by the traders of that nation ; the great sacrifices they are always 
 ready to make, in order to destroy competition, in order to secure 
 a market, and the political influence which is always connected 
 with her agency, which will be a formidable antagonist to our do 
 mestic ingenuity and industry. 
 
 That these men who have aided by their enterprise and activity 
 ihe general government, and the nation at large, in the employ 
 ment of their energies and capitals ; who hare clothed the sol 
 dier in his camp, providing also for the daily wants of a vast 
 continent ; should, in a day of peace, and what is termed general 
 joy, be thrown from employment and involved in difficulties and 
 distress, is a reflection which roust arrest the attention and feelings 
 of our rulers and the community. 
 
30 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 How far the general government can protect the citizens of the 
 United States under changes of War to Peace The necessity of 
 calling a Convention, its legality and its effects considered Ex 
 ports particularly noticed Imports considered Manufactures, 
 the Economy resulting therefrom Export duties on Wheat, Cot 
 ton* and other articles, considtred Canals and Roads considered 
 The necessity of Government holding those improvements in their 
 own hands The abuse of Lotteries, &c. 
 
 The preceding chapter has been employed to demonstrate that 
 neither the merchant, the agriculturist, nor the artizan, (particular 
 ly the one exclusively employed in fabricks,) will receive any of 
 those various benefits which were looked upon to be the result of 
 the return of peace; but on the contrary, that each will be likely to 
 experience a sudden and disastrous check in their pursuits, and, 
 thai the artizan, or manufacturing capitalist, is the most exposed to 
 suffer disappointment, and serious inconvenience by the revolution 
 of the times. 
 
 There are evils in human life which admit of no remedy or pal 
 liation ; yet in political ethics, there are few evils so bad but they 
 might be reduced, if not wholly cured. The inquiry, therefore, is, 
 in what manner can the evils likely to ensue, be deprecated, and 
 Jiow far is it in the power of thesr states, in their political wisdom, 
 to extend the paieuta) hand to protect their children and depend 
 ants? A nation is rich, powerful and envied, only by its wise and 
 just administration. Hitherto the United States have been the 
 envy of the Christian trorld ; and thus the Buffering subjects of the 
 ancient dynasties of Europe, have courted emigration to our shores, 
 abandoning, as they will tell you, poverty and degradation at home, 
 to find comfort, if net wealth ; and a character in society, if not ho 
 nours, in a land of freedom. It is sincerely to be hoped that the 
 same wise policy which has conducted, as yet, the only republic in 
 the world, to happiness and fame, may still exist; and that this 
 
31 
 
 day of general peace, which, in its consequences, seems to excite 
 some alarm io our bosoms; may only be the prelude to more able 
 and just plans, to preserve our prosperity, and crown with additioual 
 honours the sachems of our nation. 
 
 In order to prog! ess with safety, and give a powerful impetus to 
 those measures, which it may prove the policy of the United Stales 
 to adopt, it appears to me iudispensably uecessary that a conven 
 tion should be called by the majority, (if not the unanimous voice of 
 the states,) to alter and amend the CONSTITUTION, as circumstances 
 and the present situation of the world may require. It is not a con- 
 Tention similar to the Eastern convention, that is here alluded to; 
 itic not but I forbear from expressions on this subject that con 
 vention has received its final dismissal to the " tomb of the Ca~ 
 pulets ;" and as it is unmanly to level a blow at a prostrate and 
 defeated enemy, however insidious were his designs; I refrain from 
 any animadversions on its motives, or its principles. The conven 
 tion that I here propose, is a convention by the unanimous voice 
 and feelings of the confederated states; or, at least a majority of 
 them; in a day of peace and tranquillity; and after our contest with 
 the greatest maritime power of the world has ended with honour to 
 the American name. If this can be effected, I think the measure 
 will be attended with benefits to the nation ; but any other conven 
 tion than one constitutionally authorised, should have no more 
 weight with the general politics and municipal regulations of the 
 geaeral government, than the statistical laws and regulation of 
 Georgia < r Louisiana, have with the District of Maine. 
 
 The collected wisdom and virtue of those who framed the consti 
 tution of these states, produced, as they supposed, as perfect a poli 
 tical instrument, fitting to the temper of the times then existing ; as 
 wisdom and virtue could dictate. And one great and judicious part 
 of its perfection consisted, in its being liable to alterations and 
 amendments, as circumstances and policy might demand ; vhich al 
 terations could only be made by a concurrence of a majority of the 
 states. Nearly thirty years have elapsed since the federal com 
 pact was made: the constitution, perfect as it aright then seem to 
 those who organized it, was not even considered by them to be of 
 that perfection in all its clauses, as would suit ail times and all events. 
 It was left open for experiment and circumstances to prove, wherein 
 
its excellencies or defects consisted. Considering the widely extend 
 ed territory over which it was to operate, it could not be supposed 
 that the coup d ccil of human sagacity could divine the events of 
 years, the changes which might operate on culture, and commerce, 01 
 the various improvements and increase which time might occasion 
 in a new and thriving empire. The addition of various states, also, 
 which now include a large portion of the territory of the nation,, 
 could not have engaged the attention of the authors of our present 
 constitution; being ignorant, at that time, of what portion of soil the 
 additional states should consist, and its properties and productions. 
 Who, at that time, would have contemplated on the accession of 
 New Orleans, by purchase, and the free navigation of that won 
 drous river, the Mississippi; (subjects of themselves, of magnitude 
 sufficient to arrest the consideration of aa empire,) but as events 
 which would require the revolution of at least a century to 
 produce ? 
 
 The regulations, as regards exports, have been long considered by 
 many general politicians, unbiassed and uninfluenced by party, to 
 be a defective portion of this national instrument. 
 
 Almost every nation in the world, (America excepted,) draws v 
 revenue, greater or lesser, from all such articles as are derived from 
 the recult of the earth, or are the natural and indigenous produc 
 tions of their soil and those who have a circumscribed and limited 
 territory, auJ a superabundance of subjects, wisely and politically 
 give a bounty on certain articles of manufacture; in order to induce 
 industry to take another channel, and direct it from the tillage oK 
 the earth te mechanism and the arts. The policy of various coun 
 tries directs them, to apportion this duty on their different articles 
 of export, in those proportions, which, while it enriches the revenue, 
 would not act as a prohibition, or admit a neighbouring nation to 
 supply the article at a lower rate. The constitution of the United 
 States allows the exportation of every article of domestic growth or 
 manufacture, free of any duty, drawing therefrom no revenue for 
 the nation. Doubtless this principle had motives of a generous 
 kind for its origin; and those motives, it will naturally be supposed, 
 were no other than to create a stimulus for the culture of the soii ? 
 among a people, who had an immraense tract of territory, and a 
 small population, in comparison, scattered over it. The policy i* . 
 
33 
 
 obvious between cations, where in the one case, the acres are tea 
 times more numerous than tiie iuhabitauts ; and in the other, where 
 the inhabitants are leu times more Lumerous than the acres. To 
 aid cultivation by the strongest inducements, was the natural policy 
 of the United States, on the declaration of their independence; and 
 to do this with effect, it appeared both reasonable and wise, that 
 the fruits of the earth should be unshackled arid unrestrained. 
 Thirty revolving years have shed their benignant blessings on its 
 children thirty summers have yielded to the labours of the hus 
 bandman, increasing plenty ; and the sons of those who cultivated with 
 care and economy, their ten and twenty acres, now cultivate in ease 
 and affluence their hundreds. Thousands of miles, (not acres,) where 
 the hammer was never heard to sound; where the tread of civili 
 zed man had never, thirty years ago, been known to explore, are 
 now changed from sombious and majestic forests, to populous states, 
 beautiful towns and hamlets, surrounded by verdant fields of rich 
 and luxuriant grain, or pasturage; and the dark swamps and mo 
 rasses, which engendered pestilence, now flourish with all the pride 
 and beauty of the Indian corn, the rice plant, the cotton shrub, and 
 the sugar cane. Tens upon tens of thousands (if acres, which had 
 never felt the plow or harrow wound their bosoms, are now con 
 verted into fields of gay and variegated landscape ; and new states, 
 rich in every article of necessity, are rising, as by enchantment, in 
 the hearts of regions, which, w r hen the constitution . was formed, 
 were only trackless wilds. 
 
 Considering these important changes, as the probable results of 
 that free and liberal policy which animated our forefathers ; and 
 which, emanating from virtue, unwarped and unbiassed by the pre 
 judiced, and selfish dogmas of ancient courts, (in which patriotism is 
 defined, to enrich the pampered few, and treason, that which scatters 
 even crumbs to the galled and suffering multitude.) Considering 
 these as the results of our policy, the constitution wisely provided 
 for its own revision, when the duties of the nation might invite 
 it. That hour, from various causes, seems now to present itself; it 
 calls not, however, for any fundamental alteration in the fair instru 
 ment of our national greatness. Its principles have been long tested 
 by ourselves and the world, to be the happiest production of wis- 
 and virtue, and the best safeguard to the righti of man. Yet 
 
 5 
 
34 
 
 it calls, notwithstanding, for the revision of certain parts of it, and 
 that particularly, which regards the exports of our raw materials, or 
 those produced from the recult of the autumn. The hitherto vise 
 pr-licy of this instrument has now produced all the desired effect, 
 buib in cultivation and emigration; and it is now time that the go 
 vernment shoM derive from them, an ample revenue; and that this 
 tax sboul i be raised, not from the consumer at home, but from the 
 consumer abroad. Wheat, Indian corn, rice, cotton, hemp, flax^eed, 
 and tobacco, may at this day be said to form the staple and pro 
 minent productions of the soil of North America, as also the most 
 important branch of her exports; each of those articles is capable of 
 extracting from itself a revenue, by a duty laid on its exportation; 
 which, although in the first instance, paid by the merchant at home, 
 would be an additional value on the article abroad, as not bring 
 able to be furnished elsewhere at a cheaper rate, the consumer must 
 refund it. 
 
 The policy which would dictate those export duties, would be 
 wise to leave them always open for the consideration of congress, 
 either for their increase, reduction, or abandonment, as times and 
 circumstances might vary. The remarks in my second chapter, 
 in which I look to the future agricultural prosperity of Spanish 
 America, admonish us, that the PRESENT is THE HOUR at which we 
 can safely raise a revenue ; which, at a period not very far distant, 
 it might be dangerous to attempt. The day of peace also, is the day 
 fitted for the experiment. The commerce of peace is merely that 
 of au exchange of articles of one nation with the other, for their rela 
 tive wants speculation and great profits are asleep. It, therefore 
 becomes more easy to ascertain what taxation these articles will ad 
 mit, without being introduced into foreign markets under any dis 
 advantage from a competition the world at large being now fair 
 competitors with us. This is considering that Europe will yet re 
 pose. To estimate the amount of taxation that these exports would 
 bear, must be the inquiry of a board instituted for the purpose; the 
 demands for, and the consumption of the article must be duly con 
 sidered, and particular attention paid that the taxation should be 
 apportioned to each article according to its estimation and standard 
 abroad, and its greater or lesser cultivation; so that it would not 
 in any measure militate against the interest of any iudiyidua 
 
35 
 
 pccies of useful culture, or by distressing it, reduce the spirit of 
 that enterprise which it might engage. 
 
 Without entering into any calculation of the amount of exports, 
 or what percentage they wouJd bear, I shall confine myself to a ge 
 neral assertion, of the correctness of which, arithmeticians may here 
 after determine that if a wholesome, unoppressive, and propor 
 tional duty was levied by the government, ou each article exported, 
 th?t iis product would he not only equal, but greater than all ihe 
 duties receivrd from importation in a time of peace; and that this 
 would redder uuiitcessary many of the taxes imposed to defray th 
 expenditures of ihe war, and the debts of the nation, will, I am con 
 vinced, be palpably visible to tiie nation itself. 
 
 The policy which introduced the clause in our constitution, for 
 bidding duties on exports, however beneficial in its intention, or 
 even in the motives upon which it was established, has been tested 
 by time, to be injurious to our present interests. To a nation which, 
 like the Chinese, would make its fundamental policy consist of a 
 to 1 ! interdiction of maritime enterprise, which should forbid all 
 exports in ships of its own ; which should aim to avoid intercourse 
 wr. i other countries; and resolutely determine against all inter- 
 eli-tttge of political or national relations with the rest of the world. 
 To such a nation, (who, like China, would be also competent to 
 maintain this policy,) the principle of free and untaxed export 
 would unquestionably be wise and necessary. Yet who is he that can 
 assert that the fabrics of China are not taxed before they are per 
 mitted to pass the barrier walls ? or even should this oot be the 
 case, it amounts to the same thing ; the artlzau must pay so much 
 for his privilege to work, and the government draws a revenue 
 from the industry and profits of her subjects. Little is known of 
 China, but \\ certainly does not hold out alluring principles for the 
 imitation of these states. The policy of her non-intercourse may, 
 perhaps, be well adapted to her peculiar civilization, to her fear 
 and contempt of the rest of the world ; but it has no traits in it 
 which suit the taste and enterprize of the independent citizen of 
 America. 
 
 It is more than probable, that to this very source we may our 
 selves trace this principle in our constitution. From the beginning 
 to nearly the close of the last century, the Chinese nation was seen 
 
36 
 
 with the same sensibility with which we view the brilliant tinr of a 
 picture reflected by the camera obscura ; or that sensation of deliglu 
 with which youth witness from the pit or boxa* of a theatre, the illu 
 sions of a pageant or a drama; the Chinese nation was but little 
 known, and it was judged only by the beauties of its exterior dra 
 pery, the tinsel which decorated its productions, and the character 
 of novelty which the dissimilarity of its productions ,and manners 
 presented, compared with every other nation on the globe. The 
 la*;! century was an age of curiosity and philanthropy ; every means 
 by vuiich human happiness could be promoted was sought with en- 
 thKsiacm;it was a virtuous zeal, which can never be too much che 
 rished nor admired, and even its errors are entitled to some respect. 
 Among those errors was the admiration of this antisocial policy of 
 the Chinese, who have become, probably better known, and less en 
 titled to admiration or imitation. We know now that their 
 internal condition is the most inveterate of all tyrannies and slave 
 ries ; and that the barbarity of its internal government is better 
 adapted to excite the execration than the respect of mankind. It 
 wag the fashion, however, in the last century, to admire the Chinese. 
 Of all the writers of that age. none condemned, and many held forth 
 the Chinese as examples of admiration, for wisdom and perfection 
 in their policy. Mankind are never so ready to bestow their ad 
 miration as on objects above their comprehension ; and objects of 
 this kind, insusceptible of immediate examination, are readily takcu 
 upon authority. The Chinese existed as a nation without export 
 ing her own products, or importing those of others. It was in the 
 last age an opinion among the most influential body of men, which 
 has ever existed at one period in the world, that such a policy 
 would be wise in every nation; and the founders of our constitu 
 tion adopted the opinion, at least so far as this principle goes. But 
 we might, with as much reason, adopt the principles of Voltaire s 
 sincere Huron, as a rule of civil government, as the notions of Chi 
 nese policy which then prevailed. 
 
 To investigate this principle of our constitution, which forbids 
 a tax upon exports, we might consult facts better known and 
 easily accessible. Overcoming that proverbial fondness which 
 mankind unhappily displays for being cheated, we m,ust ex- 
 amiae the simple truths which experience ought to have brought 
 
37 
 
 under our eyes long ago. We should consider that society, no 
 more than a family, can exist without resources to defray expen 
 diture; that even, if as a nation we stood single in the world ; or se 
 parated, like the Chinese, from the common intercourse of nations, 
 that there must be a portion of the property of every individual, 
 in some shape, surrendered as a contribution to the general support 
 of the national family to its protection to its prosperity in a 
 word, to the use of its government. The government must have 
 household furniture, and subsistence, and allowance for wear and 
 tear. When we have determined this principle in our own minds, 
 we have only to inquire by w hat means this contribution to the ge 
 neral stock, from the stock of individuals, can be made with the 
 greatest, ease and the least inconvenience. This inquiry will lead 
 us to examine the nature of the impost, or the tax upon goods im 
 ported fim abroad; we take a piece of broad cloth, and we find 
 that in it? prosress to and from the foreign loom, it has to pay J. 
 The cost of purchase of the sheep. 2. Subsistence of the shepherd. 
 3. The wool stapler. 4. The wool factor. 5. The wool comber. 
 6. The spinner. 7. The weaver. 8. The dyer. 9. The fuller. 
 10. The cloth dresser. 11. The factor. 12. The expenses of 
 transport and package. 13. The export duty. 14. The freight. 
 15. The in-Miance. 16. The impost duty. 17. The proiit to the 
 importer. 18. The retail or wholesale draper besides ten or 
 twelve intermediate descriptions of persons, such as washers, pick 
 ers, cloth-markers, warehouse-men, and labourers, porters, pack 
 ers, &c. &c. 
 
 This enumeration of persons employed, serves to show the varie 
 ty of hands which must be paid severally, in proportion to the 
 established value of their time, ingenuity, labour, and the capi 
 tal which is employed in the manufacture aud the trade ; and it 
 leads us to a more simple view of the question, which it is eeces- 
 sary to ask, in order that we may discover how this money and the 
 services are paid ; or from what source it is derived, or who pays 
 these various descriptions of people, employed in the raising of the 
 wool, passing it to the loom, aud finishing and transporting it to 
 the foreign market ? 
 
 The question is already asked in stating it who pays all thete 
 expenses ? 
 
38 
 
 To perceive the operation clearly, and answer it distinctly, we 
 must state a preliminary fact, that no part of the work or service 
 performed on this piece of broad cloth, is performed without pay 
 ment for the service; and it is sufficient I} 7 comprehensible to the 
 plainest understanding, that as the making of clo h is undertaken 
 for the purpose of obtaining subsistence, or augmenting the amount 
 of property, in those who engage in the trade ; that each of those 
 who dispose of the article, in whatever shape; whether in ihe fleece 
 or in the yarn, or in the finished cloth, each of them must obtain 
 something more than the original and accumulative cost if the ar 
 ticle; this is called profit which always signifies something more 
 than the previous cost. We must therefore, add the profits of each 
 successive dealer to the prime cost, and the price of hbour. 
 
 How is the man, who last sells the article, paid ? Or, in other 
 vords when this piece of broad cloth arrive^ in New- York, or 
 Philadelphia, the duties are all paid, and the cloih on the .-helf of 
 the trader who sells it for use, who then pays for it ? The answer is 
 plain; as none of the artisans are unpaid, as all the duties on the 
 English export are paid as the import duties are paid, and the re 
 tail draper buys only to sell at a profit ; the only mode by which it 
 can be done, is by accumulating all the previous expenses, and add 
 ing the draper s profit, which makes the selling price of the article ; 
 so that we here see that the man who wears the cloth, is he who ac 
 tually pays all the labourers, factors, export duties, freight, insur 
 ance, import duties, and the profit of the several factors and deal 
 ers, through whose hands it has passed. 
 
 To possess a very clear perception of the momentous truths which 
 are involved in this consideration of the progress of the manufac 
 ture and sale of a piece of cloth, we have only to ascertain what is 
 the relative or positive value of the wool, and what the relative or 
 positive value of the del h when sold. In England we shall suppose 
 the average price of wool per pound, for superfines, may be taken 
 at two shillings and six pence, or equal to our half dollar the pound, 
 and estimating a loss of one half the weight in the manufacture, 
 that each yard weighs one pound; and that the broad cloth thus 
 made and weighed, sells, or has sold, in our market, from eight to 
 eighteen dollars the yard. While we perceive with astonishment the 
 augmentation of price from the raw wool till it covers the back of 
 
39 
 
 him who pays for it ; \e cannot but perceive that he who pays for 
 the cloth to wear it, is the person who pays all those tribes of work- 
 meu all the duties of export and import all the freights, and all 
 the profits of the toreign factor and the domestic draper. 
 
 But we must, in order to perceive these facts in the manner io 
 which they apply to our practice, and our own affairs, reflect, 
 that the same principles apply to every article imported from 
 abroad; we shall then be able to perceive how our policy is 
 calculated to benefit other nations at our own expense ; while, 
 by refusing to ourselves the same advantages which every other 
 nation derives from the exports of its products, we confer on 
 them an advantage for which they do not give us any equivalent, 
 nor even thanks arid in some cases derision for our folly. 
 
 We perceive that so far as we purchase the productions of foreign 
 nations, we pny for all the intermediate social labour, briweeu the 
 fir?t cost of the raw material and the import duty ; which whole va 
 lue is in fact a contribution paid by us to the nation from which we 
 pure hase, as much as any other tax. Let us offer a very loose es 
 timate, taki.ig the piece of broad cloth for our datum. 
 
 An end of broad cloth of 25 yards, say sells for 15 dollars 
 
 the yard, product g 375 
 
 Deduct 25 per cent, profits of draper, . 93 
 
 Price before importation, ...... 282 
 
 From the gross price before importation, deduct the price 
 of the wool at half a dollar a pound, and allowing 50 
 per cent, waste, ...... 50 
 
 232 
 
 Thus it appears, that for the product of 50 pounds of wool, ma- 
 oufactured in foreign countries, and for the support of foreign arti 
 sans, factors, export duties, and freights, we pay nearly five times 
 the original cost of the raw article. 
 
 Apply the principle of this single case of a piece of broad cloth, 
 to the aggregate of our commerce with foreign nations, and it will 
 be seen that w voluntarily or blindly contribute to the support of 
 
AU 
 
 foreign industry, and foreign government; while we refuse cur- 
 selves the privilege of la} ing an internal duty on articles of our o\ui 
 production, which ate equally necessary to foreign nations- 
 
 It requires only to compaie the price of our raw cotton with the 
 prices of the same article produced in other nations, and the price 
 of the manufactured article produced from our staples, to show that 
 it is in our power to make other nations contribute to our industry 
 and revenue, as we now do to theirs, Particular attention would be 
 required in the classification of the taxable articles of export. 
 During the disturbances in Europe, from tiie year 1 795, to the late 
 conclusion of the general peace, a considerable and productive re 
 venue might have been raised by a very small duty on flour ex 
 ported to Kurope, South America, and the West Indies; a duty of 
 even twenty cents per barrel might, for a great part of this time, 
 have been obtained without producing the least effect on the trade, 
 or injury to the merchant, or exporter. The tax levied by the go 
 vernment on exportation, when there is not a competitor to under 
 sell in the market abtoad, is always paid by the consumer; as has 
 been seen in the case of a piece of broadcloth. Thus, when the mu 
 nicipal regulations of Spain, in order to encourage the importation 
 of flour into her colonies from her possessions in South America, 
 laid a duty in the islands of Cuba, Porto Rico, &c. of eight dollars 
 per barrel ou foreign flour; the effect was to raise the price in 
 those islands from 12 to 20 dollars, because they weie ignorant of 
 the true state of agriculture in their continental possessions, and 
 their capacity to supply the wants of those colonies. A competi 
 tion with the United States, under these circumstances, was futile, 
 and the extra price of eight dollars per barrel, while these regula 
 tions existed, were paid not b} the merchant of the United States, 
 but by the unlucky Spaniard who eat the flour in the colonies, 
 wliose legislators were ignorant of the operation of trade, and of the 
 productions of their own country. To attempt, however, a heavier 
 tax than twenty cents on the barrel, on the exportatiou of this ar 
 ticle, might be dangerous, and perhaps unnecessary ; leaving it 
 for the experience of a few months to prove whether it might, with 
 safety, be increased ; or whether it might not be poiitU to abstain 
 from any imposition ou this article. As France. Poland, Sicily, 
 Macedonia, and Odessa, (in the Euxiue,) and many ports in the 
 
41 
 
 Mediterranean and islands in the Atlantic will become, on the con* 
 tinuation of peace, competitors in this article. How soon their in 
 dustry will be directed with that ardour which will reward it by 
 abundant harvests, is yet to be seen. Whether their spirits are bro 
 ken and destroyed by the long continuance and the calamities of 
 war ; or whether they will be reanimated by the return of peace^ 
 will be perceived in the policy adopted by their different govern 
 ments. 
 
 One measure of policy might enable us, however, to raise an im 
 portant revenue from this article without fear of any competition 
 from foreign countries, it would without doubt, in the first instance, 
 be attended with expense, but would at the same time be adding 
 to the wealth of the nation : this is, the cutting of canals from 
 one navigable water to another, and so intersecting the country that 
 those articles which are now loaded with a heavy land carriage, 
 should find an easy water transportation, unattended with one-fifth 
 part of the expense. A canal cut from Pittsburg, to communicate 
 with the Chesapeake or Susquehanna, and from the Susquehanua to 
 the waters of the Delaware, and from those of the Delaware to the 
 Kariton, would open an inland communication from Orleans to 
 Champlain, and our most northern and eastern states, by water; 
 thereby affording the means of a safe and economical conveyance 
 of the different products of each state to the other, and enabling us 
 at Philadelphia, New-York, or New London, to receive the flour of 
 the western counties of Pennsylvania, at a price which would war- 
 rani the enaction of an important export duty, the revenue of which 
 would in a very few years, on this very article, defray all the ex 
 pense of locks and canals, which this highly valuable and national 
 improvement would require. (See William J. Duane on Roads, 
 Canals, &c. And Robert Fulton, in the Appendix.) 
 
 There are various other articles, the abundant production of these 
 states, in which the same caution is not necessary, being not the 
 growth of other countries, or cultivated so inconsiderably as not to 
 admit of a competition ; and the ports of all Europe being throwo 
 open, causes them an increased, instead of a diminishing demand, 
 Cotton is one of those articles on which an export duty may be laid* 
 without the fear of injuring the exporter, or cauiiug to tta 
 vator a loss. 
 
 6 
 
42 
 
 During the wars hi Europe, through the severe, although just 
 policy of France, England was almost alone the consumer of this 
 article ; her jealousy against the manufacturers of France evinced 
 itself invarious ways, and the municipal decrees of France manifest 
 ed her anxiety to encourage and support her establishments in this 
 article, by the most rigid exclusion, and severest penalties. 
 
 France, as well as many, if not all the powers of Europe, will, 
 on the consolidation of a peace, direct their attention to the esta 
 blishment and improvement of their cotton manufactures Switzer 
 land, and Swabia, Saxony, and the countries between the Rhine 
 and Elbe, and Holland, particularly. Thus, instead of one mar 
 ket for this article, and it being in a measure under the jurisdiction 
 of England, and in the power of a few rich capitalists, to raise or 
 depress its price, and to establish its value according to their OWB 
 interests, we shall have the markets of the European world open to 
 us with purchasers, without fear of competition, strong enough to 
 affect any municipal duty the policy of our government may consi 
 der wise to adopt regarding it. Without further dilation on each 
 article the general mass of our exports being taken into view, it 
 will be easy to distinguish those which may suffer by a competition, 
 from others, which, having a continual demand from foreign coun 
 tries, may, without injury to the cultivator or exporter, be made a 
 source of easy and productive revenue to the nation, harmless in 
 its operation on every class of society. In this number are tobac 
 co, flaxseed, rice, beef, pork, giuseeg, quercitron, wool, and many 
 other articles which will themselves manifest their importance by 
 the foreign demand. 
 
 There is one important subject which calls for the attention of gov 
 ernment, this is to remedy an evil which the generous character of our 
 government has led us to adopt, in confering too readily on individu 
 als, corporations, and societeis, certain privileges and charters, which 
 in many instances, have been abused, and which, in most instances 
 it would be politic for the government to reserve for itself. Thus 
 we see seminaries and churches built by lottery, which, gloss it as 
 we may, is neither more nor less, than gambling and thus we also 
 see turnpikes made the property of individuals and corporations, 
 which often times are conducted lather as the subject of private 
 speculation than of public benefit; and instead of being, as intended, 
 
43 
 
 ao accommodation and comfort to the traveller) occasion him incoa 
 veaieuce and expense. 
 
 If lotteries are considered, in some measure, harmless, aod are 
 sanctioned by the government ; they, as well as turnpike roads and 
 canals, might be made very important objects of revenue ; and if 
 seminaries of instruction are required in various parts of our exten 
 sive territory, government would have the full and efficient means 
 in their hands to enable it both to establish and protect them ; and 
 I am decidedly of opinion, that national institutions are preferable 
 in many points, to private or individual schools; and that, while 
 they offer a cheap and well appointed theatre for instruction, they 
 also tend to excite the gratitude of the student, and inspire him 
 with those sentiments of patriotism and reverence for his country, 
 which stimulates him to noble ambition, and surrounds her, in the 
 day of danger, with a bulwark of strength in the virtue of her 
 citizens. 
 
 That lotteries should be applied to the building of places of pub 
 lic and divine worship, must strike the mind of the sensible and re 
 ligious man, as a perversion of taste and sentiment, and an incor 
 rect code of morality, which does not accord with our professions, 
 or even the rest of our actions. There are few nations, I believe, 
 who have a juster sense of religion than the United States of Ame 
 rica ; and no people whose actions correspond more with their pro 
 fessions, both of religion and morality without the latter the first 
 canaot exist, except as a mantle of duplicity : it behoves, there 
 fore, government, as well as societies themselves, to expel from their 
 ethics, a system which although it may not absolutely vitiate, is in 
 opposition to those doctrines which are inculcated from the pulpit. 
 A well appointed government, where individuals are not themselves 
 competent to erect a place of worship, should always have both 
 the will and the deans to aid and encourage an undertaking which 
 has religion for its basis. 
 
 Turnpikes and canals should exclusively belong to government, 
 and I am of opinion, rather to the general government than to the 
 individual states. One system of turnpiking and locking, and that 
 the most approved, would thus be adopted, and no adverse princi 
 ples of economy in one state, and profusion in another, cause an 
 undue bearing on society, or mar a work intended for a general be- 
 
44 
 
 aefit ; ind the fee simple of these grand improrements being t 
 in the nation, would form an eternal aud increasing animal revenue, 
 and would accommodate the trader or traveller from Georgia to 
 Maine. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Commercial Inquiries continued Tax on Foreign Tonnage and 
 Countervailing Duties recommended Further reflections on Ma 
 nufactures Merino Sheep, ind the Spanish breed of South Ame 
 rica The policy of continuing the Double Duties Articles 
 which would yield a safe revenue by Duties on Export Impost 
 Taxation The hitherto just administration of our Revenue 
 Laws, and cheerful submission of our citizens Tax on News 
 papers, &c. 
 
 * 
 
 In order to foster the shipping interest of these states, foreign 
 bottoms, both on exports and imports, should pay a considerable 
 additional duty, as also a tax on tonnage, and a higher rate of pi 
 lotage. These countervailing impositions will be found not only 
 politic, but imperious in the government to adopt ; as otherwise we 
 shall discover too soon the annual decrease of our tonnage, and 
 foreign bottoms, the carriers of our own products. Metamorphosing 
 too rapidly iuto the Chinesian system, we should, with regret, 
 perceive from the natural course of interest, each nation trading 
 with us, carry away under their own flag, the articles they desired ; 
 and the proud stars and stripes of our nations, which have hitherto 
 waved prosperously and triumphantly in all regions, doomed to suf 
 fer, alas! the saddest reverse of fortune eclipsed and neglected in 
 their own.* 
 
 * The important article of cotton pay?, at this day in England, a doty of 50 per 
 rent, more in American bottoms than English; the duties we can lay on goods 
 imported in British ships, although nominally countervailing, it is to be hoped for 
 the prosperity of our flag on the ocean, are by no means an equivalent for this 
 extravagant taxation, (so few being the carriers of our importations.) Doea it not 
 prove the necessity of taxing the exportation of the article at a high rate, say 
 three cents per pound, at home, so as to draw a revenue from the consumer abroad, 
 and which, according to the Ugem talitnis, would, however hard it might bear, be 
 bnt justice as regards Great Britain. 
 
 A circular letter from Liverpool, of the date of the 30th March, states " It seem? 
 to be in contemplation by the chancellor of the exchequer, to take off the war duty 
 sn British ships, and leaving it te peratc OB those of other nations, making a diL 
 
46 
 
 Every nation possesses the right of directing, according to iU 
 wisdom, its municipal concerns, encouraging its exports or imports,, 
 raising from either a revenue, or prohibiting one or both, as its in 
 terests may dictate, or the policy of their states may render neces 
 sary. Thus Spain, and France, and England, &c. have interdict 
 ed the entry of manufactured tobacco, and various other articles. 
 Thus Spain forbids the exportation of it and various articles from 
 her colonies, unless to the Peninsula with license. Thus England 
 establishes similar practices and restraints on their commerce with 
 foreign nations in her colonies, and at home, interdicting the en 
 trance of certain articles which might militate against her interest, 
 by the penalty of burning; prohibiting the exportation of others, 
 and giving bounties for either entry or export, as she deems politic. 
 
 ISfot wishing to see the agricultural interests of America either 
 abandoned, or in any manner diminished, by the introduction or 
 premature establishment of manufactures, we, nevertheless, should 
 feel a sentiment of deep regret, if those enterprising men who have 
 nationally introduced various articles of the first necessity generally 
 imported, should be abandoned in their pursuits, at a moment they 
 had reached nearest to perfection. 
 
 It behoves us to remember that the day of peace may again be 
 soon disturbed, and that those articles which were found of the first 
 necessity in a day of war, may again be wanted and wanted in 
 vain. Should the history of the times declare, that those men who 
 in our late exigencies, risked their capital and employed their time 
 
 frrence of two pence sterling per pound on cotton, which will amount to prohibi 
 tion by American." 
 
 Quoting the duties on entry, it states cotton wool in British ships, sixteen shil 
 lings and eleven pence per 100 pounds in foreign ships twenty-five shillings and 
 six pence upwards of 50 per cent. 
 
 Rice, in any bottom not from British plantations, twenty shillings and one far 
 thing per hundred. From British plantations, or the East Indies, seven shillings 
 Mght pence and one-third. 
 
 Isthis not sufficient motive for the United States to lay such countervailing duties, 
 particularly on the exportation of cotton, as to prevent the loss suffered by Ameri 
 can vessels! and should we not, in our ships, lay such a duty as would frustrate 
 intentions so decidedly hostile to our tonnage, and so favourable to their own P 
 With respect to rice, each nation naturally fosters their own products, or those of 
 their colonies they h*ve a right so to do but the supply of rice from British 
 plantations and the Ea< Indies is not so abundant as to create a competition, 
 should we lay a considerable duty on the exportation of that article. 
 
47 
 
 in pursuits so patriotic and beneficial, were all deserted by (lie go 
 vernment, and consequently ruined by the return of peace, by this 
 tacit and tame indulgence, or preference to competitors from abroad : 
 in such an event, is it probable there ever would be again adven 
 turers brave enough to saddle themselves and families with penury, 
 should a future day demand the same efforts ? Besides, it should 
 r>e considered that the encouragement of every article manufactur 
 ed by ourselves is an accumulation of national wealth; and each ar 
 ticle we no longer import, is placing so far the balance of trade i 
 our favour ; that every dollar expended on internal industry, is like 
 the sustenance of life to the human body, as food which enters into 
 the general circulation, and is an addition to the public health and 
 strength. 
 
 I should be sorry, at this early period, to see America become 
 the complete workshop which England and Holland exhibit; but 
 at the same time, I should be more concerned to see articles of the 
 first necessity, which it behoves every nation to foster and encour 
 age, in order to consolidate her independence, abandoned and re 
 jected with apathy or indifference, and suffered to perish, because 
 a foreign nation might be able to supply them for a few cents less 
 money per yard. 
 
 All the cotton, hempen, and woollen goods which have lately 
 been fabricated withiu these states, I consider among this class 
 all the productions of minerals and metals are of the same charac 
 ter; and, I ara decidedly of opinion, that great care should be la- 
 ken to encourage them, by laying such duties as, while they should 
 not interdict the importation of necessary foreign fabrics, should 
 give a decided encouragement to the American manufacturer, and 
 enable him to carry on his business in such a manner as, although 
 he might not too rapidly amass inordinate wealth, he should be en 
 abled to reap equal profits with the manufacturer abroad, and be 
 able to support his establishment and his family, in a manner suit 
 able to the happy condition of our country. In order also to aid 
 the manufacturer of woollens among us, considerable attention should 
 be paid to the breeding of sheep, particularly those of the finest 
 wool, and those of the Spanish breed, known by the name of Me 
 rinos. Fairs should be established in various central parts of each 
 state, and bounties of considerable value should be allowed by go- 
 
48 
 
 vernment to the finest wool and largest fleece. A duty on expofta 
 tion, not amounting to prohibition, but such as to make an impres 
 sion on the foreign purchaser, should also be laid, which duty should 
 be assigned as a fund for the payment of the premiums to ihe care 
 ful and fortunate cultivator. Regulations similar to those of the 
 Merino Society of Philadelphia, of which Mr. James Cakhrel), of 
 Haddonfield, New- Jersey, is president, should be pursued by go 
 vernment, but on a larger and more interesting scale. The intro 
 duction of this valuable breed of animals among us has been one of 
 the many occurrences arising out of the distracted state of Europe, 
 which America has profited by. The adventurous and patriotic 
 farmer, who has embarked the largest part of his property in this 
 pursuit, ought lobe under the immediate care and protecting hand 
 of his government. The success or misfortune of the individual, 
 in this instance, becomes the success or misfortune of the nation in 
 general ; and there is no country into which this valuable and pro 
 ductive race of animals have been introduced, but they have at 
 tracted the attention and care of its rulers. And America free, and 
 justly appreciated wise, will surely not bi3 the only nation neglect 
 ful of her interests, and the prosperity of her industrious citizens; 
 particularly when it has been proved, that this gregarious race of 
 animals thrive better on our soil, and in the temperature of our cli 
 mate, than on any spot in Europe, their native valleys of Spain only 
 cxcepted; and between these and the climate and pasturage of our 
 own country there appears to be little or no preference. The< 
 dampness and moisture of England, and the northern climates of 
 Ehrope, is particularly injurious to these animals; cold or heat 
 have neither of them half the prejudicial effects as constant rains or 
 damps, the latter occasions diseases to sheep, and deteriorates the 
 quality of the wool. During the war the stimulus to this gregariaD 
 industry was great, and the increase of flocks has been proportion- 
 ably considerable. Among the various persons, holders of this 
 breed of sheep, we cannot avoid noticing the names of a few who, 
 by their spirited attention and perseverance, have acted as exam 
 ples to others, and made known the value of the breed, in opposi 
 tion to envy and prejudice. 
 
 The names of chancellor Livingston, of New- York, colonel 
 Humphreys, of Connecticut, James CaldweJI, ef Haddoofield, New- 
 
49 
 
 Jersey, Dupont and Boudoin, of Wilmington, Delaware, and Ben/- 
 jamin B. Howell, of Philadelphia, will long >*- remembered as he 
 patrons of this patriotic aud national pasturage. Like to th- \ a- 
 triarchs of old, their flocks have flourished and increased; and by 
 the munificent hand of a fostering government, they shall spread and 
 distend in the possessions of their descendants, and their rich fiYeces 
 shall speckle with white the green plains, <he valleys, aud the 
 mountain s side, of that vast continent with which the bounteous 
 hand of Heaven has gifted us. and enjoins us to embellish with indus 
 try and art, so that it may yield us an abundant supply lor all our 
 wants and enjoyments. 
 
 What is to prevent us from introducing into our country the Va 
 cuna sheep, from the mountains of Peru and Quito ? The wool of 
 this animal is as far superior to the Merino, as the latter is to the 
 common sheep ; aud the elevated regions of Louisiana, as well as 
 several other pans of our country, are congenial for ihe ^roerration 
 of f .his interesting animal. The writer has conversed with iluse do 
 have examined, with astonishment and delight, the crude produc 
 tions of industry made out of this wool ; who have seen a shawl and 
 bed covering of such exquisite texture and beauty made by those 
 people out of it, as to rival in elegance some of the best perform 
 ances of the European world, and to give him an idea of the 
 future importance of introducing the Vacuna breed of sheep into 
 the United States. In place of this beautiful and valuable animal 
 roving in a neglected state among the mountains of South Ame 
 rica, it may be made the source of indefinite future wealth to the 
 agriculturist and manufacturer of our country, adding thereby a new 
 mine of riches to the nation. 
 
 Hitherto an idea has been generally disseminated, that the Va 
 cuna sheep cannot be domesticated, and Spanish writers, as well aa 
 the government, were interested in giving currency to this belief. 
 Independent of the fact, that there is scarcely any animal in crea 
 tion, that is not carnivorus, but what is susceptible of domestica 
 tion, the writer has the highest authority of a resident iu that coun 
 try, who had ocular proof of several Vacuna rams and ewes being 
 Bade perfectly tame, although they had been caught after they were 
 full grown ; but he (eels convinced, that if taken in a state of in* 
 fancy, and bred up with the common sheep, they would speedily be 
 
 7 
 
divested of their native wildness, and become the most useful race 
 of animals that a beneficent deity lias given to civilized ntaukind. 
 
 Leaving this subject opeu for dilation to the pen of those better 
 acquainted with it than myself, and who can better delineate the va 
 rious advantages which will be derived from measures calculated to 
 produce the increase of valuable sheep, as also the cultivation of pas 
 turage in general, I proceed to inquire, whether prohibitory duties 
 on either import or export are, or are not, adviseable; and also, 
 into the policy of the continuance of double duties for a certain 
 time. 
 
 There are certain articles, the inherent properties of nations, 
 which may be particularly adapted either for the cultivation of the 
 earth, for the preservation and nourishment of particular plants, or 
 for the encouragement and prosperity of certain manufactures pe 
 culiar to the habits and industry of the people. Thus England for 
 bids the exportation of copper in certain compositions, without par 
 ticular permission, and under certain restrictions. Thus would she 
 confiscate vessel and cargo that should carry from her shores a 
 pound of fullers earth.* Thus have certain of the Italian states 
 forbid the exportation of the nvcula of the silk worm ; the empe 
 ror of India, under penalty of death, the exportation of certain 
 dyes, or the discovery of their secret combinations. I am not 
 aware of any article yet discovered, inherent to the soil of America, 
 that should demand a total prohibition ; but should such discovery 
 at a future day occur, that by preserving the integral possession of 
 either a mineral or a plant, these states could maintain, without 
 competition, any species of agriculture or fabric ; it would become 
 politic to adopt measures calculated to secure this object, which has 
 ever been considered by nations as just ; and preserving to their 
 citizens and subjects a natural vein of wealth and for this the 
 constitution should povide. 
 
 There are various articles, however, which are exported from 
 America, on which a considerable revenue might be raised, and 
 which would also have the effect to encourage our manufactures at 
 home, and excite an emulation in industry and art. 
 
 * This article ii tho product of ur soil, large quantities, and of a superior qua 
 lity, being found in the neighbourhood of Wilmington. Delaware. 
 
Thus flaxseed, which is exported in large quantities to Great 
 Britain, ami particularly to Trelaud, might well bear a considerable 
 tax OD exportation, and which the manufacturer in that country. 
 and ultimately the consumer of linen goods, would have to pay. 
 As we have, heretofore, imported large quantities of linen fabrics, it 
 might be argued that we ultimately would be the payers of this tax; 
 but it must be observed that there are many other nations besides 
 ourselves, who are the consumers of linen goods. The colonies of 
 Great Britain, in particular, open considerable markets for consump 
 tion, and the kingdom of Great Britain itself, requires a vast supply. 
 Besides, this export tax would enable the American manufacturer 
 in flax, to vie with the fabrication in Europe, both in texture and 
 colour ; and the homespun linen doth of America, which for dura 
 bility has even now a preference, would, in the course of a very 
 lilt It time, assume a character in the eyes of ourselves and other 
 countries, if not more prized, at least not interior to that of Europe. 
 What nation on the earth can excell America in advantages for 
 bleaching grounds : and have we not the additional advantage of 
 possessing within ourselves the ashes peculiarly adapted to the pro 
 cess of whitening ? 
 
 As the cultivators of flax have already experienced, that owing to 
 the high price of land in Great Britain and the scarcity ot it, that it 
 is cheaper for them to import the seed from America, and to cut ihe 
 flax in its most valuable state proper for manufacture, than to per 
 mit it to ripen and seminate, (when it is only fit to be used for the 
 coarser qualities of linen,) paying even a freight for it across the At 
 lantic ; and as there is no European power that can furnish it to 
 them at a lower rate, vast quantities being annually consumed in 
 the oil it produces; so would they find, that with a duty exacted 
 from it by the American government, that it still would be politic 
 in them to continue the importation of seed in preference to raising 
 it at home. The article of potash also, ought to produce a govern 
 mental revenue from similar arguments, as the northern nations of 
 Europe only can furnish this article, and that never under the price 
 that the American ashes can be afforded, with an additional charge 
 of duty. England and France, but England particularly, is de 
 pendant on foreign nations for this auxiliary and very valuable ar 
 ticle 10 various employ men ts. 
 
52 
 
 The policy of continuing; thr double duties on most articles im 
 ported from abroad, will strike very forcibly, for two reasons, on 
 the minds of our reflecting statesmen. The first, and a very im 
 perious one, is the necessity for raising sufficient revenue for the 
 yenr 1815, to liquidate and diminish a part of the large debt the 
 United States has been obliged to contract during the late war, and 
 to defray the considerable expanses yet arising from that state, on 
 the immediate return of peace. The second reason, is one of poli 
 cy and humanity, and founded on justice. Aware that there are 
 certain establishments, within our country, which had their rise 
 from the state of war, and which may be found, boh impolitic and 
 unprofitable to continue in a state of peace ; it behoves the govern 
 ment to protect capitalists so situated, and who ma} have a large 
 Block of articles on band, already manufactured, from the ruin and 
 desolation which must attend them, if forf ign articles of the same 
 kind were admitted without the percentum duty. Many of those 
 artisans calculated, and very naturally, on the duration of hostili 
 ties; aud if, at this day, an influx of articles of a similar denomina 
 tion should take place from abroad, and be allowed to undersell 
 them, the value of their property would be, most probably, vitally 
 iojured and destroyed. It is, therefore, incumbent on the policy 
 and justice of our national legislators to allow a certain necessary 
 time for the disposal and consumption of articles of this nature. Al 
 though many ariicles of our manufacture will naturally thrive and 
 vie with those from abroad, if properly encouraged by our govern 
 ment, jet. there are others which it will be found prudent to aban 
 don ; aud rather continue the importation than to hazard the en- 
 terpnze of competition at so early a day. Many articles of hard 
 ware, porcelain, &c. are included in his survey of our arts. Fine 
 instruments of iron and steel, ping, hattons, &c. and all articles in 
 which tin is a staple ingredient, aud also those in which the clay 
 of foreign countries is superior to our own, ought not to be cultivat 
 ed by us. as the advantage would assuredly be against our compe 
 tition ; they possessing local and natural advantages, which we 
 should have to pay a considerable premium to attain, and the 
 American artizan would sustain loss from hi* industry, unless ao 
 absolute prohibition was laid on thir importation from abroad. 
 
 Ginseng, 1 believe to be n * ic t.ecultar : o the soil of Ameri 
 ca ami out small quantities are raised elsewhere than in the United 
 
53 
 
 States ;* the general use in China has given a value to it from which 
 advantages are to be derived, and some revenue to the govern 
 ment as there is liule fear of a rival in the trade of this article for 
 some time. From the Spanish possessions, we have not, as yet, 
 a competition to look to, at least, not until the liberly of this na 
 tion has been for some years established. Much larger quantities 
 of this article might be raised with profit to the agriculturist ; and 
 it behovei these states to draw a revenue from its exportation, 
 while the day exists that they can do so with safety. 
 
 From this subject, I am led to inquire, whether the present in 
 ternal taxation is salutary ; and whether it would not be prudent and 
 adviseable, as speedily as possible, to retrench this system on va 
 rious articles, if not entirely to abandon it. A taxation on labour 
 and industry, on professions and callings in life, is, in my opinion, 
 inimical to those principles of liberty which shoHld be cherished in 
 a well regulated republic. A taxation on the higher luxuries of 
 life on charriots, liveries, race horses, and such establishments as 
 denote superabundant wealth, may be wholesome and beneficial; 
 as the pum raised from them could never be severely felt by their 
 owners, as riches alone could place them in their possession. But 
 a taxation on the sweat of the brow, arid on the poor artisan, whose 
 weaUh consists in the labour of his hands, is an expedient which 
 should be resorted to only from necessity. 
 
 The danger and exigencies of the times, a national calamity, 
 or threatened invasion by a powerful foe ; may render this species 
 of finance incumbent, to be resorted to as an auxiliary, in order to 
 strengthen the hands of government and afford additional security 
 by the increase of the national resources. But when the storm 
 which ravaged her has subsided ; whew the danger which menaced 
 her is dissipated in the calm of peace ; it strikes me as but politic 
 and prudent, to abstain from every imposition which tends to 
 shackle industry, or discourage the labouring artisan in that pur 
 suit of life, into which fortune or inclination may have thrown 
 him. Excise laws and internal imposts, are besides universally 
 
 * It is raised however, in Thibet, Khoroeson, and Persia, and its price is fluctua 
 ting ; hut it is no where found in such abundance as in the United States. That of 
 Thibet is much legq esteemed. 1 do not class this as an article calculated to pro 
 duce any considerable revenue 5 considering its demand and price at the only mar- 
 ket it commands, as too precarious. This article is indigenous to South, as well 
 as Nortk America , 
 
54 
 
 hateful to the citizens and subjects of all nations; it bears with it, a 
 species of slavish submission, and places power and consequence 
 into the hands of a numerous body of petty officers; too frequently 
 inclined to exert it with inflexible rigidity, and to deny that lenity 
 and compassion, which the laws of nations should extend to the 
 sufferings of their subjects. The property of an individual may 
 be jeopardized, and even his future success in life be obscured by 
 the rapacity and unfeeling heart of an official tax gatherer. 
 
 In England, where (his species of taxation is more general than in 
 any other part of Europe, and where the government has long re- 
 sorted to this exaction on her subjects in order to meet its wants and 
 supply those inordinate expenses which her civil list, her sinecures 
 and all the abuses of her complex and artificial system demand ; 
 these officers are beheld with the greatest abhorrence and consider 
 ed as leeches of the state, who suck without feeling or remorse, the 
 blood of the poorest plebeian, even more voraciously than that of the 
 titled son of exhaustless wealth. The most crying distresses of the 
 people of England are raised against these legalized vultures and 
 the most alarming indignation has been caused by the effects of this 
 municipal tyranny. It vexes and galls the indigent aod industrious 
 trader, whose paltry capital, the product of diurnal labour and the 
 most pinching economy, is more narrowly watched than the ware 
 houses and vaults of his princely and powerful neighbour, who, from 
 the possession of abundance has the power of blinding the eyes of 
 these harpyes of the law, and giving in their own estimate, as their 
 interest, and not their consciences, may dictate ; a natural conse 
 quence of this method of taxation is, the demoralizing principles 
 it excites, and the petty arts and frauds it encourages, to elude the 
 vigilance of the domestic spy, in bosoms which otherwise would 
 not harbour a guilty or disgraceful sentiment. 
 
 The scanty profits of the industrious million, are earned with so 
 much anxiety and toil, that they find thetn, without any reduction, 
 but barely sufficient to meet those wants?, which " nature is heir to ;" 
 and this state of poverty, truly depressing, inclines them to veil, if 
 possible, their traffic and concerns, in such a manner, as to delude 
 the prying ami vigilant eye of these Janisaries of justice ; while 
 the opulent vender, whose warehouses and vaults are groaning with 
 his wealth, is prompted by motives more sinister and avaricious, 
 
55 
 
 and less excusable to enter the same lists of deception ; and wlio 
 possessing with ihe will, the means of surer uccess, playi his game 
 with less danger and more certain profit. 
 
 All exactions which strike the subject or citizen, as tyrannical 
 or unjust, inclines him to discontent and violation of the laws. 
 When taxation is light, smuggling is never resorted to ; and on the 
 contrary, when it is grievous and imposing, this species of national 
 fraud, becomes a perfect system, and is pursued as a livelihood 
 without remorse, and scarcely a consciousness of guilt. 
 
 America has hitherto demonstrated to ancieat Europe in her sys 
 tem of government the predominance of virtue over vice of the 
 dictates of conscience over that of interest. A smuggler or de- 
 frauder of the revenue of the nation has been considered among us 
 almost as a political murderer, and his punishment by society on 
 detection was even greater than the law itself inflicted ; so few 
 however, have been the instances among us during the time of peace, 
 and while commerce was maintained with every nation in the globe, 
 that it would be difficult to cite them. Outlawry and disgrace was 
 however their portion, from the universal voice of their fellow citi 
 zens. 
 
 During the late dispute with England, and the interdiction of 
 either imports or exports with that nation and her colonies ; some 
 few venal wretches were found, even ready to sacrifice national ho 
 nour, and their integrity of name and character, at the altar of dis 
 honest wealth ; prostituting at the shrine of Plutus, those moral ob 
 ligations which had hitherto been viewed in Europe, as the brilliant 
 ef transatlantic virtue. The officers of our revenue, as scrupulous 
 of their integrity as the merchant, from the director of the customs 
 to the tide waiter, had never sullied their palms or consciences by a 
 bribe. Is there that immaculate under officer, or searcher, in En 
 gland, (I might in generals, say Europe) who could, being an officer 
 a twelvemonth, assert the same ? 
 
 I should be sorry to witness the introduction of a species of 
 venality and corruption, hitherto held in detestation in the moral 
 code of our nation, from the pressure of any municipal regulations; 
 which, from their severity, their unequal bearings, or any other 
 cause, should operate upon the hitherto unblemished citizen, to 
 resort to deception, or by an artful and insidious iuterpretatioa of 
 
56 
 
 the letter, elude the spirit and intention of the law. An evil or 
 vice ouce introduced into society, is difficult to be forgotten or ex 
 pelled. Virtue, which may be comprised in the words, integrity 
 and forbearance, is of such pure water, that to receive a stain, is to 
 forever sully it. Corrupt ideas once introduced into the pale of hi 
 therto inflexible honesty, is apt to sap and destroy even the noblest 
 principles. It is, therefore, that we should avoid the introduction, 
 and with careful precaution, arrest the continuance of such hard 
 taxntion, as should induce the dealer, the mechanic, or the mer 
 chant, or the inferior orders of society, to forfeit their integrity io 
 order to evade the evil which menaces them ; or from more corrupt 
 motives, enjoy an advantage by their dexterity and art, which their 
 honest neighbour or competitor in business, would not participate. 
 
 Various branches of industry, by the late acts of Congress, lay 
 ing internal duties, are burthened by taxation ; some of them are 
 articles of the first necessity, others of luxury. The cordwainer, 
 the hatter, the saddler, (see the law) the tobacconist, &c. &c. arc 
 all obliged to pay certain duties on articles manufactured by them, 
 above a certain value, while other trades are exempted. Now al- 
 tho-igh I should be sorry to be the agent to introduce a system of 
 fraud and misconstruction of the letter of this law, in order to 
 evade its iuteotion, yet I must say, that the virtue of even tbis 
 nation, is not strong enough to avoid availing itself of the means of 
 fered to elude a tax which is hateful, (by the common method of 
 11 whipping the devi) round the stump.") The manufacturer of 
 each of those articles, instead of keeping a regular account of sales, 
 and placing his items in his book, as disposed of; will, as it were, 
 sink the manufacturer in his own person, and make his foreman his 
 representative. The hatter therefore who is to pay a tax on all hat* 
 above two dollars in value, will, upon the manufacture of a cer- 
 taiu number of hats of that quality which are usually retailed at 
 five or six dollars, make a purchase from his foreman of all the 
 stock on hand. The foreman, by a calculation of what the article 
 actually costs, will discover that he can afford to sell it at two dol 
 lars, or a trifle above it ; the 20 per cent, will therefore be paid on 
 this sum, if paid on any sum ; (fos hats of two dollars value are not 
 taxed;) instead of its being paid on six dollars, the price which the 
 hat will cost to the head that wears it : for the bat manufacturer 
 
5? 
 
 will have changed his profession, to the wholesale and retail dealt*; 
 in the article. The shoemaker, saddler, tobacconist, and all oihet 
 branches of mechanics, who are taxed, will follow the same prin 
 ciple ; if one does, all will do it. It will be considered no breach 
 of morality ; or if even so considered, the general usage will be a 
 salvo to their consciences; for the man too scrupulously honest to 
 stoop to this chicanery, must abandon his business, as he will pay 
 20 per cent more than his neighbour for his commodities, which 
 would eventuate in ruin, as he could be undersold by every other 
 man in the market. 
 
 In this manner will the first steps at defrauding the revenue be in 
 troduced in a nation hitherto rigidly scrupulous, in their exact 
 compliance with the laws of taxation : and this national demoral 
 ization is to be feared, from the effect it may produce hereafter, 
 and the tendency it may have to wean the affections of the citizen 
 from bis government, and from those moral obligations he has hi 
 therto considered so sacred. 
 
 Taxation on spirituous and fermented liquors may be considered 
 as a wholesome regulation. The tax on whiskey, although it falls 
 on the consumer, does not yet fall so heavy as to prohibit his drink 
 ing quite as much, or even more than may do him good. A tax 
 however, which would lay a mild and admonitory restriction on the 
 abuse of this article, cannot reasonably be objected to; and the 
 inward duties on foreign spirits, should be so arranged as to justify 
 it. All high priced imported liquors, are fair subjects for taxation ; 
 it is one seldom felt by those who pay it, and from which want and 
 industrious poverty are ever exempts. It would be the criterion of 
 wisMom and virtue in our government, so to organise taxation, that 
 its burthens should bear the lightest on that class of society who 
 can feel them most; and by judicious selections of articles of export 
 and import, capable of producing a revenue from imposition them, 
 avert from the poor, a yoke which would be unfelt by the rich ; 
 and by reaping a benefit from the consumer abroad ; remove the 
 necessity of imposing or continuing taxations, which are felt solely 
 by our own citizens. The taxation on household furniture will, in 
 its operations, adduce the strongest arguments for its discontinu 
 ance : as although a small and precarious sum may be raised from 
 
 8 
 
58 
 
 itj it will not be sufficient to defray the expense of the officers era- 
 ployed in assessing a-nl collecting it. 
 
 The tax upon printers of newspapers is oppiesshe, and frills 
 with severe effect on a calling and class of the community, who 
 are, generally speaking, link able to bear a deduction from their 
 slender incomes. The wisdom and virtue of our government, will not 
 sanction & law, nhich carries undue oppression on any part of society 
 and particularly ou one which is the great medium of disseminating 
 information and useful knowledge to the most remote and divi 
 ded districts of this vast continent ; and which has tended more 
 than any other, to enlighten the general mass of its citizens, and 
 to make those improvements and discoveries, with which the world 
 has been enriched, particularly of late years, a general property, 
 which diffused its benefits in a distended circle ; and has given 
 each individual a facility of acquiring important facts, which with 
 out them, would have demanded much labour to have attained, and 
 which he might never have surmounted. A free press has long 
 been considered * TJie Palladium of Civil Liberty," and no nation 
 ever enjoyed it to a greater extent thaa these United States. 
 
 The increased taxation on goods, sold by public auction, is also a 
 subject which calls for consideration, as although it may produce 
 an additional revenue, it nevertheless, has an undue bearing. lu 
 every other instance of taxation at home, it is the consumer that 
 eventually pays the tax, for if a double duty be laid on sugar, cof 
 fee, or other article, the iraporu-r charges it to the grocer, and the 
 grocer to the person who buys it for consumption. But in this in 
 stance, it is the importer or seller who pays the tax, and not the 
 buy er. It falls very heavy also on those who, possessing an article, 
 which, from various causes may be of dull sale, and who pressed for 
 means, are obliged to dispose of it at auction, as they not only suf 
 fer the sacrifice of a reduced price, but have that price still more 
 reduced by this duty to government. And it will no! be denied, 
 thitj generally speaking, i- is such persons who most frequently re-- 
 sort to this method of disposing of their goods. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 Reflections on the return of Napoleon to the throne of Franc*. 
 Considerations an regards Hostilities on the Continent. The n- 
 tcrcsts of England to maintain a Continental War. Political 
 considerations oj the government of England, her system of Com- 
 mercial Monopoly, &c. Surmise on the Result of Hostilities, 
 should they take place. The interest of America to remain aloof 
 from the contest, &c.-~Conciusion. 
 
 A vast field for inquiry here presents itself; one which, while it 
 arrests the attention of all the potentates of Europe is not less in- 
 terf-sting to the imagination of the American reader; inasmuch as 
 it may materially affect the future pursuits and interests of this 
 nation, by the results which may eventuate from it on the con 
 tinent of Europe; I mean the return of Napoleon to the scepire of 
 France. 
 
 Thb extraordinary event produced in so extraordinary a man 
 ner, and as far as we are yet informed, unattended with the shed 
 ding of a single drop of blood, is a trait in the annals of preseat 
 history, which will stagger the credibility of succeeding generations ; 
 and indeed is of that miraculous character, which even puzzles the 
 imagination of living witnesses of the fact, to arrange under the de 
 nomination of natural events. The former exploits performed by 
 this surprising mortal, who for twenty years seemed to have chain* 
 ed victory to his car, and to conquer and overthrow all obstacles 
 and all opponents as by the act of volition ; although they partake of 
 that degree of grandeur which throws a blaze of glory on the his 
 tory which traces his career, are yet of that natural character, 
 which although nevrr excelled, present to the imagination events 
 of a similar stamp, in perusing the histories of other nations, and in 
 tracing the steps of a Philip and m Alexander, or of a Caesar and 
 a Hannibal : but there is no parallel; QO analogous event in history, 
 
60 
 
 which relates that a soldier of fortune, an usurper besides, of 
 throne, and clothed moreover with an imperial purple of his owe 
 frt.uion* who after banishment and defeat, should ii; ten short 
 months returu unopposed to his capital and kingdom ; invading a 
 vast territory with a few hundred followers, marching upwards oi 
 two hundred leagues without a solitary sword to oppose his pro 
 gress, and banishing in turn the legitimate sovereign of the nation, 
 whom his invading conquerors had seated on the throne surrounded 
 with regal spendour. 
 
 There, is throughout the whole of this transaction so much of the 
 marvellous, that was a similar story wound up in the Arabian Tales 01 
 other Eastern Romance, the imagination of the reader might be plea 
 sed with its fanciful arrangement, and perhaps place it foremost in 
 the rank of wonders, talismans, genii, and enchantments. A Coriola- 
 nus was banished from Rome for his unbending and haughty temp 
 er, after having clothed his nation with glory, by his too severe 
 and UHgrateful countrymen : iu his resentment he directed his 
 arms and vengeance against her, and employed her enemy in his 
 cause. But he entered not her portals in triumph, and even had he 
 sacked her capital there would have been no analogy in the two 
 events. In the one case was a general employing a powerful army 
 against his native, although ungrateful country ; in the other a 
 banished emperor returning without an army to reclaim his throne ; 
 and whether the voice of the military, or the general voice of the 
 nation recalled him, there is, notwithstanding, that mystery and 
 miracle, in every feature of this unique performance, which calls 
 forth sentiments of the profoundest admiration, and even claims the 
 astonishment, if not the applause of his implacable enemies. 
 
 I mean not, however, to be his panegyrist. My intentions ki 
 treating on this subject, are directed to other objects ; yet, without 
 offence to any reader, I hope I may be allowed the priviledge of 
 expressing my admiration of the talents of this surprising man. As 
 to entering the lists, to extoll him as a virtuous lawgiver ; as de 
 voted to the glory and happiness of France; or to deprecate him for 
 his mad ambition, his cruelty, or his tyranies ; I have no desire . 
 and I consider that writer, whatever may be his own opinion of 
 him, or his career, who would, at this day, force that opinion upoc 
 
61 
 
 the world against its consent, as being the only creed deserving cre 
 dit, atrog.tti;]g to liimsr If much more wisdom and importance lhau 
 lie has any title to. It is posterity alone \vho can form a correct 
 judgment of his merits or demerits, his virtues or his infamy, his 
 greatness or his weakness; by the touchstone of his actions will he 
 be tried by the future historian, and mankind will judge of him 
 not as he appears to be, but as he really has been. No man s his 
 tory is known until after death. The events which are passing be 
 fore our eyes, have not yet been completed. Various circumstances 
 which appear as realities, are but shadows, and many that we adopt 
 as truths, are but semblances or falsehoods. Many are the men, 
 who while living, were thought to be pious; who, when dead, have 
 been discovered hypocrites. Many also who have excited pity and 
 compassion by their sufferings, have been found to have been un 
 worthy of it, or not to have suffered at all ; and man) others who 
 have had the execration of their cotemporaries, have been disco 
 vered to have been martyrs by posterity. The saint has proved a 
 sinner, and the sinner saint, when exhibited before the unprejudiced 
 ordeal of after times. How many tyrants, surrounded with pomp 
 and splendor, hare received the sycophantic adulation of their 
 subjects ? How many good kings, from the intrigues and corrup 
 tion of neighbouring and ambitious* nations, have been obliged to 
 lead l^eir subjects to the slaughter, deluge the laud with blood, and 
 drown it in tears, or people it with orphans and with widows, whose 
 prayers have been offered up to heaven against them. Viewing 
 man as he exists, we oftentimes are led astray ; how much more s 
 then are we liable, when that man is a mighty monarch. Without 
 further pursuing thii digression, we leave Napoleon and his tri 
 umphs, and his defeats, his virtues or his vices, to that historian of 
 posterity who with facts before him will " nothing extenuate or 
 set down ought iu malice." 
 
 The return of this extraordiuary man to be the ruler of France, 
 be he good or bad, vinuously or viciously inclined, of which there 
 are various* sentiments, is pregnant, however, with momentous events, 
 and exhibits, at the same time, a singularity in history which no 
 anteror time has furnished. The question, whether the military 
 of France, or the voice of the French nation, which may be uoder- 
 itood as the plurality of voices, have called him from his retreat. 
 
02 
 
 is not necessary to discuss. Speculation alone could guide us in a 
 determination ; but to assert, that there was not a great enthusiasm 
 in a vast portion of the people of France, for his return, would be 
 an absurdity ; in as much as to say, that the whole nation, men, 
 women, and children were paraiized, or under the influence of en- 
 chantmeu* for twenty-two days, which it took him to march from 
 Frejus to Paris, and enter it triumphantly. 
 
 Tin-re iris been an idea started, which, if it have any foundation 
 whatever, is ilip greatest novelty which ever occurred in the history, 
 of any time past. And if the present have given it birth, the future, 
 I am convinced, will record it, and preserve ii as a curiosity far ex 
 ceeding the seven wonders of the world combined. This is ut>iher 
 more or less, than that the government of Great Britain has been 
 acc^sary to the escape of Napoleon from Elba, and to his return 
 to the throne of France. I must say, that this hypothesis is too sin 
 gular a one for any argument or for my belief. And I should not 
 have ventured even to have mentioned it here, but for the manner 
 thf Times Paper, a governmental paper, takes to exculpate the 
 ministry of England, and particularly colonel Campbell, who was 
 placed as his companion at Elba, for hib escape, and this, before any 
 accusation had been made, or any reflection cast upon .hem in any 
 public print. If Great Britain, or rather the present dynasty of 
 that nation, discovered they could not exist without a war: and that 
 a continental war would even be less expensive and less injurious 
 to them, than a continuance of hostilities with America, thfcmay 
 at once account for the haity conclusion of peace with these states ; 
 and there was no surer way offered than to place Napoleon again 
 on the throne. If Great Britain could have played so adroitly this 
 game, which ought to have some name more emphatic than a 
 ruse de guerre, she certainly has outwitted the allies, and even her 
 own subjects in a style that bears no competition, and which, should 
 it so prove, will deserve a niche on the loftiest pillar of political ro 
 mance. 
 
 The subject, however, of most importance for our eonsideratioa 
 and that of the world, is what effect is likely to be produced by the 
 return of this surprising mortal on the political arena whether the 
 mighty armies, which ii is sia f M. .! yying themselvf* agninst 
 him, will come in collision with those of France, aud whether the 
 
63 
 
 Kiomeutary repose which Europe has enjoyed, is like to that calm 
 which oftentimes is the foreboding sympiom of dissolution; -fd hat 
 this ephemoral peace is to be succeeded by those appalling convul 
 sions which shall again shake Europe to her centre, and make fu 
 ture historians tremble as they dictate the faithful page to posteri 
 ty ; or, whether at that awful moment, when opposing armies are iu 
 the mightiness of their strength, arraigned front to front, and ready 
 to throw that thunderbolt of war, which ignorant of all but its dire 
 ful commencement, lenves its termination to accident and fate : 
 Whether, at this moment, the angel of mercy bearing the olive 
 branch of peace, may not descend, and dictating bounds to ambi 
 tion, and justice to princes, find fitter and fairer scabbards for the 
 unsheathed sword, than the bosoms of mortality ? These are ques 
 tions indeed of interesting import. That the latter may be the re 
 sult, humanity might offer up her prayers with devotion and re 
 ceive commendation in the sight of Heaven, but whether one or 
 other of these events will happen, is at this moment so hid in obscu 
 rity, that to offer even a surmise on the subject, is bordering OD 
 presumption, and merits an apology. 
 
 When on one side, I view Europe and the decisions of the con 
 gress of Vienna, as far as they have been made known to us ; when 
 I view the spirit of partition in the bosom of princes who disclaim 
 ed it and the principle of power, establishing RIGHT, together 
 with larger armies on foot, than its monarchs ever before embattled ; 
 I am led to adopt the opinion that there yet remains fuel to light 
 up wars, whose flames an half a century might not quench. On 
 the other hand, when I view desolated Europe, sick with disaster, 
 wasted and impoverished by the continual sacrifice of blood and 
 treasure ; her fields, which iu former days, were luxuriantly rich, 
 with all the bounties of a beneficent Deity, abandoned and desert 
 ed : the mournful peasant bewailing, in his old age, his props, his 
 comforters and support ; and bis grand children clinging to his 
 knees, unprotected orphans Gracious Heaven ! do I exclaim, 
 merciful and just protector of this sphere, are these deeds necessary ? 
 Are they permitted and sanctioned by thy inscrutable wisdom ? Is 
 the ambition, the animosity, or the passions of kings and emperors, 
 and their counsellors, to be visited upon their subjects, by these ex- 
 crutiatiug and exterminating miseries ? Is there yet no end ap- 
 
64 
 
 preaching to these scenes of slaughter ? or, as tiic sultry summer s 
 day, when the mighty storm approaches, when the Heaven s are 
 overcast, and that bolt, which rives the " knotted oak," is launch 
 ed from the canopy above, anrl the winds descend, destroy in g all 
 that feverish vapour which nature sickened at ; even so are all the 
 impurities of vicious courts to be li lotted out but by the extinction 
 of their subjects? Is the catalogue of their crimes so black, to call 
 down such vengeance ? Or will not conscience, thai arbiter in the 
 breasts of monarch? as of men, at length decide the dreadful con 
 flict ; and upon a basis of moral justice and mutual right, consoli 
 date the world in peace ? 
 
 I ask pardon of my reader for the hyperbole my warmth and 
 feelings have excited. I should have calmly viewed this subject 
 in a political manner, and I find myself invoking Heaven. Such 
 however may have been the feelings of wiser and better men, and 
 as such although reprehensible in these pages, I forbear its erasure. 
 
 I am aware that there are many who, more perhaps from want of 
 reflection and consideration, than from any other cause, will place 
 all the disaster and blood which may flow, at the door of him, who 
 England has termed the distroyer of the human race ; I mean Na 
 poleon; that his return and the events which may grow out of it, 
 particularly the renewal of hostilities, should they take place, will all 
 be the emanations of his mad ambition ; I have already said I am 
 not here as the panegyrist of this man, but 1 trust I may declare 
 my sentiments on this subject without offence. 
 
 His return to France, will be admitted, was not the work of eu- 
 chantment ; he must have had a large portion of France ID his favour, 
 and this must have been made known to him; whether it were the 
 military or the majority of the nation, is in my present view of this 
 question, a matter of little importance. The force that abetted him 
 or invited his entry into France was sufficient to protect him, and 
 put down all opposition, and to seat him safely on his throne at 
 Paris, without the slaughter of a single soul ; of whatever this power 
 consisted, it was nevertheless the strongest and most imposing pow 
 er in France; and that it was inimical to the reign of the Bour 
 bons is evident from its acts. HH Napoleon then have refused to 
 accede to its wishes in recalling him to his imperial pur? l. uld 
 have annihilated a sentiment so imposing, so general, so exten- 
 
5 
 
 aive? \fotild it have altered the feeling towards the Bourbons? ojr 
 would it not rather have excited to revolt, to the election of another 
 chief to another revolution and most probably to scenes of civil 
 war and indiscriminate slaughter ? Among; all the generals of Bona 
 parte, none colud have been exalted, however great his merit, but 
 jealousy would have had an open field; none could have assumed 
 his honour without exciting enmity ; and leagues and parties would 
 have been formed for rival candidates ; his appearance put all 
 these feuds to rest. By the voice of the sTongest power of France 
 he was undoubtedly recalled to the throne, and he has solemnly re 
 nounced his intention of extending France beyond her limits. Thfi 
 monarchs of Europe cannot certainly pretend to dictate a rulrr for 
 thirty millions of souls which France contains, or to the stronger 
 power of the thirty millions ; on this head therefore, the} have no 
 grounds for war : if they dispute or disbelieve the intentions of 
 Bonaparte, a strong and powerful army to protect Iheir bnmers, 
 and a combination to that effect, should he mean false, is all that 
 prudence or justice calls lor; but should they invade France, r!e- 
 lermined to crush this Chief and support the Bourbons in spite of 
 the declared will of the strongest powers of that nation, is not 
 Ihe scene of desolation which may ensue rather to be laid at their 
 doors than at the door of Napoleon ? If France be invaded, impe 
 rious duty calls him to defend it ; unthreatened or uninvaded, 
 should he strike the blow, no one will venture to exculpate him 
 or defend him from the judgment that may then with justice be 
 alleged against him. 
 
 If I am permitted to offer an opinion on this novel scene which 
 at this moment so deeply interests the world, it is, that there will 
 either be no bloodshed in this business, and that all the powers will 
 again meet in a general congress, in which Bonaparte will be ac 
 knowledged and make one, or that the campaign will be a sanguin 
 ary and a short one, and perhaps, the last that will for many years 
 to come, be fought on the European continent. 
 
 I am inclined rather to the laiter opinion, and that the blow will 
 be struck. I am induced to this belief from the great exertions 
 England is apparently making, and the troops she is sending to the 
 continent. The interest of England stimulates her to rekiudle, 1C 
 
 9 
 
66 
 
 possible, a renewal of hostilities on the continent; and she will im 
 doubtedly endeavour to keep it alive as long as possible. When f 
 Bay the interest of England, I view it only in a political light, as 
 regards the present hour. A renewal of hostilities, will, without 
 doubt, increase the taxes and impositions of Great Britain as well 
 as her national debt, in order to maintain the war ; and this viewed 
 in one light cannot be considered as her interest. To lessen them 
 all, would appear, according to reason, to be much more so. But 
 a war on the continent establishes her monopoly ; and as she has 
 refined so long upon that system of supplying all the world with her 
 fabricks, and making her ports the general market of mankind, in 
 order to maintain unrivalled that system; no augmentation of the 
 national debt, no increase of popular burthens, to whatever amount 
 they may extend, have any consideration, compared to the princi 
 ple of general monopoly. This sentiment has become so prepon 
 derating in the minds of the rulers of that nation, it has become so 
 interwoven iu all her constitutional acts and decrees; has become, 
 indeed, so much the master spirit, which guides and directs her 
 helm of state, that before it all other considerations bend ; nud 
 however stupendous they may appear to the eyes of surrounding 
 mortals, they are minor subjects and unworthy of a thought, to the 
 niachiavelian policy which rules the destiny of this insulated des 
 potism. 
 
 Ten months of peace, has again proved to the ministers of that 
 nation, as did the peace of Amiens, that it has more danger iu it 
 than an eternal war. Peace to be sure, she has not enjoyed ; for the 
 war we have lately emerged from, was of deeper consequences to her 
 than she had calculated on. It was intended no doubt to have 
 been maintained as an episode, or interlude, to the great drama of 
 the continent ; but it hae, eventuated with some tragic scenery, 
 which was foreign to both the tempei and inclinations of the " Mis- 
 tress of the Ocean" 
 
 It was, however, ihe ten months peace of the continent, which 
 had ;he most threatening and portentous aspec; in the affairs of En 
 gland. The genius of man is generally the same in every clime and 
 country. A selfish motive prevails even with the most liberal : 
 Thus we find, that the moment a continental peace was con 
 cluded ; peopUjofall descriptions the man of moderate income 
 
67 
 
 the one of rather depressed circumstances the nobles of greal 
 and magnificent fortunes all flockt-d, as by general const nt, even 
 to that clime, which from the prejudice of centuries, they had been 
 taught to detest; and which from difference of habits and lan 
 guage, was uncongenial to their tempers; merely because they 
 could live and enjoy themselves at a cheaper rate, and escape from 
 the exactions and taxation of their own government. Not onlv 
 France, but the continent of Europe, swarmed with cmigrat on from 
 England ; and a sentiment was fast awakening in the bosoms of the 
 nation, that to expatriate themselves WHS to better their fortunes. 
 There were, however, a portion of the community who could not 
 put this in practice. The poor and needy dependant of diurnal pro 
 fits the artisan the trafficker the merchant, ayd particularly 
 those who received a scanty subsistence from daily labour, seemed 
 to be excluded from this enjoyment of deserting their soil. And 
 on them was to fall heavy the burthen of supporting the government 
 under which they lived. A government oppressed tenfold in propor 
 tion to any other in Europe, as regards the exactions on its subjects. 
 It had arrived at this crisis, when the enaction of the corn laws, which 
 forbid the importation of grain under such a price, awakened a feel 
 ing in the bosoms of wretchedness, which threatened the most despe 
 rate results; these laws, were indeed, neither more or less, than for 
 bidding those Englishmen who remained at home, from eating bread 
 at the reduced price ; which their more favoured countrymen who 
 sought the neighbouring soil of the continent, enjoyed. They were, 
 however, imperious laws, and founded on the first necessity. The 
 landed interest, of the nation, was laid prostrate if they were not en 
 acted. It was the first step to national and universal ruin. When 
 the landed interest of a nation is suffered to sink, all classes follow 
 with it. And although the landed interest of England is tmall. com 
 parative to her manufacturing interest, yet they are so dependant, 
 that the same vortex which ingulphed one, would destroy the other. 
 Wirh the national domain, or landed interest, exists also the nation* 
 al debt ; and without the support of this interest, by these severe 
 laws, a national bankruptcy threatened to ensue. Whatever dan 
 ger was menaced therefore, from the populace ; the case was ur 
 gent, was indispensable an-i imperious; and there was 110 other 
 means offered to save the nation. 
 
68 
 
 A continental war, would at once put at rest this question ; whicb, 
 although maintained by the government of England, was carried at 
 the risk of a civil insurrection; was enforced at the point of the t>ay- 
 onet ; and was attended with many appalling features. Jt was, how 
 ever, maintained ; and the opposition of the populace of London, 
 was routed -<nd dispersed. But who could say that opposition was 
 destroyed ? The samr sentiments pervaded the minds of the suffer 
 ing multitude; and might or may agaiu be awakened and stimula 
 ted to future riots, of more alarming and eventful character. As 
 long as peace exists wiih France and the continent, so long must 
 th - se obnoxious and unpopular laws remain in force; a war renders 
 their enaction or continuance as unnecessary ; and although the shi 
 vering sons of wretchedness and despair, will be in such case, no bet 
 ter off than at present, (and perhaps worse,) yet the bitter and cruel 
 orrtonnance of their resentment, will become as a dead letter ; and 
 although it may live in their remembrance, it will not remain as ao 
 exiting statute of their rancour. 
 
 It is from these, ?nd other considerations, that I adopt the senti 
 ment that England will industriously endeavour to foment a j. al- 
 ousy on the continent against Fiance, and to enter into the war 
 herself, with any power that will join lu-r ; and indeed, rather than 
 fail in this object, I should even consider it, as an event, by no 
 means surprising, that she would make an alliance with Fiance, 
 even against the other continental powers, thereby evincing at once 
 to the world, the justice of princes, ihe faith of treaties, and the con 
 siderations which bind allied monarchs in the present epoch of po 
 litic*! strife. 
 
 However contradictory to the tenets of many of my readers, 
 houever opposite to their sentiments or feelings, I consider it as a 
 duty which I owe myself, whilst treating on this subject, to declare 
 that I am impressed with the conviction, that the dynasty of Eng 
 land is drawing rapidly to a close, and that, before many revolving 
 months shall furnish matter for the pen of the steady historian, aa 
 event of this most important character is about to present itself for 
 record ; T mean the downfall of a government, of that government 
 which has, for many centuries held and maintained the most impo 
 sing attitude amongst the nations of the earth ; and which has ex 
 ercised and administered its sovereignty by the brightest examples 
 
69 
 
 o! virtue in theory, and by the blackest enormities of vice iu prao 
 lice ; which lias shown resplendent with the most brilliant deeds of 
 chivahic valour ; \vhich h s been ornamented by the most splendid 
 trophies oi glory and patriotism; which has justly boasted of her im 
 mortal sons of literature; and ha? beeo truly the liberal patron of 
 every art and science ; btr has sullied her f;mie by the most atrocious 
 intrigues of cabinets ; has been the giant of despotism in the four quar 
 ters of the globe has visited, with unrelenting hand, her massacres 
 from Asia to America has vainly endeavoured to concentrate in 
 herself the wealth of all humanity and bouying herself up by a 
 system founded upon the most fallacious principles " that there is 
 no eud to national credit, and national monopoly; has, to maintaio 
 it, been as the fabled Pelops to her children, offering them up as a 
 ready sacrifice to ministerial ambition has deluged the groaniog 
 earth with blood, and invited th- wrath of Heaven to chastise her. 
 That the hour, the portentous hour, when this mighty nation of 
 Britain is to suffer in the throes of revolution, is : -?t approaching, I 
 am ready to hazard as an assertion, and ready also to qnXlify it by 
 saying, that although I shall regret he enormities and the 
 sanguinary honors which may How from it, a ir which are the ge 
 neral features of revolutions ; yet. as an event that deeply interesti 
 the future happiness of mankind, I -hail rejoice a*, it ; as by levelling 
 that enormous raoUDttin of HLR nationa debt, which poets might 
 distinguish by piling O.-SA upon PELION, it will give t.- the civilized 
 world a just and true balance, which, HS long as its ficticious and 
 pernicious power exists, can never be accomplished. England 
 herself will then become a nation interesting to all others ; 
 emancipated from a bondage bejoml comparison, she will inter- 
 oalU possess more physical *treug h and powers, than she has done 
 for ages. And although she has for the last century, in some mea 
 sure ruled the destiny of nations, she will hive a noble objeci in view, 
 that of rulin? justly her otvn destiny, and makintr mortality with- 
 in her happy ; and while conscious of its real blessings, grateful for 
 the mercy of a benevolent creator: subjects at present almost lost 
 in the remembrance of her loc ! population. 
 
 I have stiled this imperfect Pamphlet the SECOND CRISIS of 
 America Should the event T above a hide to, take place iu our 
 day, aud I am iucliued to believe that short lived meo will live to 
 
70 
 
 see it, the present epoch might well be called the SECOND CRISIS 
 of the world ; for siace the mighty flood which swept from the face 
 of earth its records, never has there been one so important and so 
 eventful as this would be to the children of humanity. 
 
 I draw to the conclusion we are now, thank Heaven, in the 
 enjoyment of peace after an arduous and glorious struggle with a 
 nation that dictates even laws to Europe all that remains of war 
 is an insolent barbarian on the shores of Africa who has invited 
 the rod of our resentment. My fellow citizens, will I am convinced, 
 agree with me in one point, if in no other, which those pages contain; 
 which is, that at this day of general confusion, where all is unsettled 
 and doubtful and where reason itself proves but speculation; fhat 
 the wisest policy is to stand aloof from foreign influence or foreign 
 prejudice; pursuing the paternal advice of our EVEU TO BE REVER 
 ED WASHINGTON " Friendship with all nations, entangled alliances 
 with none" and also cherishing such systems of internal policy as 
 will make us what we term ourselves INDEPENDENT STATES 
 independent of all the nations of the earth, when the 4ay of danger 
 may render it necessary. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 I introduce, without any apology, the following remarks oi 
 iny fellow citizen, Mr. William J. Diiaue, of Philadelphia, toge 
 ther with a letter from that great and deeply to be lamented cha 
 racter, Mr. Fulton ; who has, by the researches of his penetra 
 ting mind, so adorned philosophy, and whose early departure from 
 this world, is a loss to mankind in general. 
 
 We recommend those of our readers, who have not yet seen this 
 work of Mr. Duane, to possess themselves of it; it was published 
 in Philadelphia, in letters, in the year 1810, and possesses great 
 merit. Mr. Duane thus speaks of Canals: 
 
 " Of the peculiar benefits of canals, in preference to roads, much 
 may be said ; I shall not, however, be very diffuse on the subject. 
 Canals are important to the farmer and landholder, because they 
 enhance the value of the lands, woods, coals, iron and other mines, 
 to the extent of at least forty miles on each side of the country 
 through which they pass ; because they enable the farmer to carry 
 his produce to market, and to return in his boat loaded with goods 
 or manure, at an expense twenty times less than by roads, and 
 because all that is thus saved is actual profit; they are important 
 to him, besides, in case he should want either to drain his lauds or 
 to irrigate them ; and they also enable him to employ his horses or 
 ox j ri entirely upon his farm, and not on the road. 
 
 Canals are important to the manufacturers, because they enable 
 them to collect and transport the raw materials and fuel that are 
 wanted ; to convey the goods manufactured, at so cheap a rate as 
 to admit their selling their productions at a much cheaper price 
 than similar goods could be imported for. 
 
 Canals are important to the miner, because they enable him to 
 convey to market such heavy or bulky articles as would not beat 
 the cost of land transportatioo. 
 
73 
 
 Canals are important to merchants on the sea coast and in tte 
 interior, by affording a certain and cheap conveyance for 300 (is or 
 articles imported by the former, and for the produce returned by 
 the latter ; hut they are still more important by opening a trade be 
 tween all parts of our immense continent, which must at no Distant 
 day, rival, if not entirely supevcede a large foreign trade. 
 
 Canals in winter may answer, as in Holland and Flanders, all the 
 purposes of the best constructed roads they are thus used, in those 
 countries, by means of sleighs, as much as tl ey are by means of 
 .boais in summer. 
 
 Canals, including the towing path, do not occupy more ground 
 than our turnpike roads ; a canal forty feet wide and a mile long 
 would occupy but five acres of ground. 
 
 An able English writer upon inland uavigation, Mr. John Phil 
 lips, makes these impressive remarks. " All canals may be con 
 sidered as so many roads of a certain kind, on which one horse 
 will draw as much as thirty horses on ordinary turnpike roads, or 
 on which one man alone will transport as much as three men and 
 lighteen horses usually do ou common roads. The public would 
 be great gainers, were they to lay out upon making everv mile of 
 canal twenty times as much as they expend upon a mile of turni/ike 
 road ; but a mile of canal is often made at a less expense than a 
 mile of turnpike. Were we to make the supposition of two states^ 
 the one having all its cities, towns and villages upou navigable riv 
 ers and canals, having an ea^y communication with each other 5 
 the other possessing the common conveyance of lard carriage ; 
 and supposing both states to be equal as to soil, climate and indus 
 try ; commodities and manufactures in the former state might be 
 furnished thirty per cent cheaper than in the latter ? or in other 
 words, the first state would be a third richer and more affluent 
 tha* the other." 
 
 Our own countryman, Mr. Robert Fulton, whose scientific and 
 practical knowledge as an engineer, are only equal d by his pa 
 triotic efforts to make it useful to his country, has vuitteu largely 
 aod ably respecting the superiority of canals." 
 
74 
 
 MR. FULTON S COMMUNICATION. 
 
 SIR, 
 
 BY your letter of the 29th of July, I am* happy to find 
 that the attention of congress is directing itself, towards the opening 
 of communications through the United States, by means of roads 
 and canals ; and it would give me particular pleasure to aid you 
 with useful information on such works, as I have long been contera* 
 plating their importance in many points of view. 
 
 But a year has not yet elapsed since I returned to America, and 
 my private concerns have occupied so much of my time, that as yet 
 I have acquired but very little local information on the several ca 
 nals which have been commenced. 
 
 Such information, however, is perhaps at present Dot the most 
 important branch of the subject, particularly as h cai Ijp obtained 
 in a few months at a small expense, whenever the public mind shall 
 be impressed with a sense of the vast advantages of a general sys 
 tem of cheap conveyance. 
 
 I hope, indeed, that every intelligent American will in a few 
 years, be fully convinced of the necessity of such works to pro 
 mote the national wealth and his individual interest. Such con 
 viction must arise from that habit of reflection which accompanies 
 the republican principle, and points out their true interest on sub 
 jects of political economy. From such reflections arises their love 
 of agriculture and the useful arts, knowing them to augment the 
 rich*-* and happiness of the nation; hence also their dislike t 
 standing armies and military navies, as being the means of inciea- 
 sing the proportion of non-productive individuals, whose labour is 
 not only lost, but who must be supported out of the produce of the 
 industrious inhabitants, and diminish their enjoyments. 
 
 Such right thinking does great honour to our nation, and leads 
 forward to :he highest possible state of civilization, by directing the 
 powers of man from useless ami destructive occupations, to pursuits 
 which multiply the productions of useful labour, and create abun 
 dance* 
 
75 
 
 Though such principles actuate our citizens, they are oot yet in 
 very instance, a\v*re of their best interests ; uor can i> In: expect 
 ed that they should perceive at once the advantages of tho.se plans 
 of improvement, which are still new in this country. Hence the 
 most useful works have sometimes been opposed ; and we are not 
 without examples of men being elected into the state legislature? for 
 the express purpose of preventing roads, canals, and bridges being 
 constructed. But in such errors of judgment our countrymen have 
 not been singular. When a bill was brought into the British parlia 
 ment fifty years ago, to establish lu npike roads throughout the 
 kingdom, the inhabitants for forty miles round London petitioned 
 against such roacis; their arguments were, that good roads would 
 enable the farmers of the interior couniry to bring their produce to 
 the London market cheaper ban they who lived nearer the city, 
 and paid higher rent : that the market would be overstocked, the 
 prices diminised and they unable to pay their rent, or obtain a liv 
 ing. The good sense of parliament, however, prevailed ; the roads 
 were made, the population and commerce of London increased, the 
 demand for produce increased, and he who lived nearest to London 
 still had a superior advantage in the market. 
 
 In like manner I hope the good sense of our legislature will pre 
 vail over the ignorance and prejudice which may still exist against 
 canals. And here an imoortant question occurs, which it may be 
 proper to examine with some attention in this ear!) stage of our 
 public improvements whether, a a system, we should prefer ca 
 nals to turnpike roads? Our habits are in favor of roads ; and few 
 of us have conceived any better method of opening communications 
 to the various parts of states But in China and Holland, canal* ire 
 more numerous than roads; in those countries the inhabitant* art 
 accustomed to see all their productions carried either on natural or 
 artificial canals, and they would be as murh at a lo*s to know how 
 we, as a civilized people could do without such means of convey 
 ance, as we are suprised at their perseverance and ingenuity in mak 
 ing them.* England, France, and the principal states of Europe, 
 commenced their improvements with roads, but as the science of 
 
 * The royal canal from Canton to Fekin, is 82* miles loog, its breadth 50 feet, 
 its depth nine feet. 
 
76 
 
 the ensrineer improved, and civilization advanced, canals were io- 
 troditrrd, &nd Eugtand and Frauce are now making every exertion 
 to s*.1 (he whole of their heavy productions water-home, for they 
 havt become sensible of the vast superiority of canals over roads. 
 
 Our system perhaps ought to embrace them both : cauals fr the 
 long carriage of the whole materials of agriculture aud manufac 
 tures, and roads for travelling and the more numerous communica 
 tions of the country. With these two modes in contemplation, 
 when public money is to he expended with a view to the greatest 
 good, we should now consider which object is entitled to our first 
 attention. Shall we begin with canals, which will carry the farm 
 ers produce cheap to market, and return him merchandize at re 
 duced prices? Or shall we first make roads to accommodate travel 
 ler, and let the produce of our farms, mines and forests, labor un 
 der such heavy expenses that they cannot come to market ? 
 
 To throw some light on this interesting question, I will base my 
 calculations on the Lancaster turnpike road. There the fair ex 
 periment has been made to penetrate from Philadelphia to the in 
 terior country, and the mode of calculation here given will serve 
 for drawing comparisons on he utilii} of roads, and cauals, for all 
 the great leading communications of America. 
 
 From Philadelphia to the Susquehanna at Columbia, is seventy- 
 four miles; that road, if I am rightly informed, cost on an average 
 6,000 dollars a mile, or 444.000 dollars for the whole. On it, from 
 Columbia Philadelphia, a ban el of flour, say 200 weight, pays 
 one dollar caniage. A broad wheeled wagon carries 30 barrels or 
 thiet tons, and pays for turnpike three dollars; thus for each too 
 carried, the turnpike company receives only one dollar. 
 
 I will now suppose a canal to have been cut frem Philadelphia 
 to Columbia, and with its windings, to make 100 miles, at 15,000 
 dol ;is* a mile, or for the whole 1,500,000 dollars. On such canal, 
 one man, one boy^ and horse, would convey 23 tons 20 miles a 
 day. -f on which the following would be the expenses : 
 
 *On averaging the canals of America, 15,000 dollar? a mile will be abundantly 
 sufficient to construct them in the best manner, particularly if made on the inclined 
 plane .irinciple, with small boat?, each carrying six tons. 
 
 fOne horse wi l draw on a canal, from 25 to 50 torn, 20 miles in one day. lhave 
 itate the Ka-t th*y ever do, and the highest rate of charges, that oo deceptipa 
 s5ay enter into these calculations 
 
77 
 
 One man, - dolls. 1 00 
 
 One burse, - - - 1 00 
 
 One i^oy, - - - - 50 
 
 Tolls for repairing the caual - - - 1 OG 
 
 Tolls for passing loc^s, inclined planes, tunnels and aque 
 
 ducts, 1 00 
 
 Interest on the wear of the boat .... 50 
 
 Total, . dolls. 5 00 
 
 This is equal to 20 cents a ton for 20 miles, and no more ban 
 one dollar a ton for 100 miles, instead of 10 dollai? paid by the road. 
 Consequently for each ton carried fr >m Columbia to Philadelphia 
 on the canal, the company might take a toll of six dollars instead 
 of one, u hich is now got by the ro id ; and then the flour would 
 arrive at Philadelphia for seven dollars a ton instead often, wh ch 
 it now pays. The merchandize would also arrive at Columbia 
 from Philadelphia, for three dollars a ton less than is now paid; 
 which cheap carriage both ways would not only benefit the farmer 
 and merchant, but would draw more commerce on the canal than 
 now moves on the road, and thereby add to the profits of the comp^. 
 oy. 
 
 But to proceed with my calculations, I will suppose, that ex 
 actly the same uumber of tons would move on the canal that are 
 now transported by the road. Again, let it be supposed that at one 
 dollar a ton the turnpike company gains five per cent, per annum on 
 the capital of 44-1,000 dollars, or 22,200 dollars, consequent!) 22.200 
 tons must be carried, which at six dollars a ton to the canal conn>a- 
 oy would have given 133.200 dollars a year, or eight and a half 
 per cent, for their capital of 1,500,000 dollars. 
 
 The reason of this vast difference io the expense of carriage 
 by roads or canals, will be obvious to any one who wiM take the 
 trouble to reflect, that on a road of the best kind four horses, aiid 
 sometimes five are necessary to transport only three tons. On a 
 canal one horse will draw 25 tons, and thus perform the work of 40 
 horses; the saving thereof is in the value of horses, <heir Vrding, 
 shoeing, geers, wagons, and attendance. These facts should m 
 
78 
 
 duce companies to consider well their iuterest, when contempla- 
 ting an enterprise of this *ort, and what would be their profits, not 
 only in interest for their capita!, but the benefit which their lands 
 would receive by the cheap carnage of manure and of their produc 
 tions. 
 
 In considering the profit to accrue to a company from a canal 
 instead of roads, there is another important calculation to be made, 
 and for that purpose I will proceed with the Lancaster turnpike 
 supposing it to extend to Pittsburgh, 320 miles. On which the 
 carnage being at the. rate now paid from Columbia to Philadelphia, 
 that is 10 dollars a ton for 74 miles, the ton from Pittsburgh would 
 amount to 42 dollars, at which price a barrel of flour wou d cost 
 fom dollars in carriage, an expense which excludes it from the mar 
 ket. Thus, grain, the most important and abundant production of 
 our interior country, and which should give vigor to our manufac 
 tures, is shut up in the districts most favorabie to its culture ; or to 
 render it portable and convert it into cash, it must be distilled to 
 brutalize and poison society. In like manner, all heavy articles of 
 lill e monied value, can only move within the narrow limits of 100 
 miles ; but were a canal made the whole distance, and by one or 
 more companies, they might arrange the tolls in the following man 
 ner, so as to favor the long carriage of heavy articles. 
 
 The expense of man, boy and horse, as before stated, would cost 
 only three dollars to boat one ton of flour 300 miles, this is 30 cents 
 a barrel ; suppose then, that the company receive 70 cents a barrel 
 or seven dollars a ton, flour could then come from Pittsburgh to 
 Philadelphia for one dollar a barrel, the sum which is now paid from 
 Columbia ; thus the canal company would gain seven dollars a ton 
 by a trade which could never move through a road of equal length. 
 Here we see that on canals the tolls may be so arranged as to draw 
 to them articles of little monird value, and it would be the interest of 
 the company or companies to make such regulations. But on turn 
 pike roads no such accommodation of charges in proportion to dis 
 tance, can be effected, because of the number of horses which can- 
 Dot be dispensed with/ Even were the roads made at the public 
 
 * In my work on small canals, publ shed in 1796, page 140 there is a table show 
 ing a mode of rejulatiug the boats and tonnage in such manner, that a ton may be 
 transported i:*00 miles for five doll 11-3 : Yet ; >y this method canal companies would 
 ;:ain more toll than by any other means yet practised. 
 
79 
 
 expense, and toll free, still the carriage of one ton for three hund 
 red miles would cost at least thirt) -five doliarfl. But were canals 
 made at the public expense, and no other toll demanded than should 
 be sufficient to keep then) in repair, a too in boating and tolfs 
 would only cost three dollars for 300 miles; and tor 35 dollars, the 
 sum, which must be paid to carry one ton 300 miles on the best 
 ef roads, it could be boated three thousand five hundred miles, aud 
 draw resources from the centre of this vast continent. 
 
 But striking as this comparison is, I will extend it. The mer 
 chandize which can bear the expense of carriage on our present 
 roads to Pittsburg, Kentucky, Tennessee, or any other distance 
 pays 100 dollars a ton, could be boated on canals ten thousand miles 
 for that sum. 
 
 As these calculations are founded on facts which will not be de 
 nied by any one acquainted with the advantages of canals, it is the 
 interest of any man of landed property, and particularly of the far 
 mers of the back countries, that canals should be immediately cori- 
 tructed and rendered as numerous as the funds of the nation will per 
 mit, and the present population requires; and as inhabitants mul 
 tiply most toward the interior and must extend westward, still mo 
 ving more distant from the sea coast and the market for their pro 
 duce, it is good policy 3ud right that canals should follow them. In 
 25 years our population will amount to 14 millions; two-thirds of 
 whom will spread over the western conntries. Suppose then that 
 3,500,000 dollars were annually appropriated to canals, such a sum 
 would pay for 300 miles of canals each year, and in 20 years we 
 should have 6000 miles circulating through and penetrating into 
 the interior of the different states ; such sums though seemingly 
 large, and such works, though Hpparently stupendous, are not more 
 than sufficient to keep pace with the rapid increase of our popula 
 tion, to open the market and carry to every district such foreign 
 articles as we, near the coast, enjoy. With this view of t lit subject, 
 arises a political question of the utmost magnitude to these states 
 Which is 
 
 That as our national debt diminishes, and the treasury increases 
 in surplus revenue, will it not he the best merest of the peonle to 
 continue the present duties on imports, and expend the products in 
 national improvement ? 
 
80 
 
 To illustrate this question, I will state some examples of the rate 
 of fuii s <u.d the expense of carriage, to prove that by keeping on 
 the (iuiies and making canals with the revenue, goods in a great 
 Dumber of instances will be cheaper to the consumer, thaa by ta* 
 king oflf the duties, and leaving the transport to roads. 
 
 FIRST EXAMPLE, 
 
 Brown sugar pays in duty, two and a half cents & 
 
 pound, or for 100 pounds, dol. 2 50 
 
 It pays for wagoning 300 miles, - - 5 00 
 
 Total, dol. 7 50 
 
 By the canal, it would cost in boating 15 cents for 300 miles; 
 Consequent)^ the boating and duty would amount to two dollars 
 sixty-five cents ; therefore, b) keeping onihedui} and making ca 
 nals, sugar would arrive at th> interior, 300 miles, for two dollars 
 thirty five cents rhe hundred weight cheaper than if the duties were 
 taken off and the transport left to roads. 
 
 SECOND EXAMPLE 
 
 One bushel of salt, weighing 56 pounds paid in 
 
 duty, - dol. 20 
 
 To carry it 300 miles by roads, the expense is - 2 50 
 
 Total, dol. 2 70 
 
 By the canal it would cost for boffting 300 miles, seven and a 
 half cents. Bv k^rping <n >be duties and rmkiug the canals, it 
 would arrive to the interior ron>>i:n r t -- fi >: I ^is ihi^y-two and 
 a half cents thebu?frf cheaper thaa were the duties taken off and 
 the transport left to roads. 
 
81 
 THIRD EXAMPLE. 
 
 Molasses pays five cents a gallon duty, this is for 
 
 100 Ib. - dolls. 75 
 
 It pays for wagooing 300 miles, - 5 00 
 
 Total, dolls. 5 75 
 
 By the canal, the carriage would cost 15 cents, and it would 
 arrive at the interior, at four dollars ten cents the luodred weight, 
 or 27 cents a gallon cheaper than were the duties taken off, and 
 the transport left to roads. 
 
 Numerous other articles might be stated to show that the real 
 mpde of rendering them cheap to the interior consumer, is to keep 
 on the duties and facilitate the carriage with the funds so raised. 
 These, however, may be considered as partial benefits, and not 
 sufficiently general to warrant keeping on the duties. But there is 
 a point of view in which I hope it will appear that the advantages 
 are general, and will be fel* throughout every part of the states, It 
 is by reducing the expense of all kinds of carriage, and thus econo 
 mise to each individual more than he now pays in duty on the fo 
 reign articles which he consumes. 
 
 FOR EXAMPLE. 
 
 Wood, for fuel, is an article of the first necessity : it cannot 
 bear the expense of transport twenty miles on roads; at thai dis 
 tance it is shut out from the market, ami the price of fuel is conse 
 quently raised the amount of the carnage; were a cord of wood 
 carried twenty miles oo roads, it would pay for wagoning at least 
 three dollars; on a canal it would pay twenty cents; thus, on only 
 one cord of wood, there is an economy of two dollars eighty cents, 
 which economy would pay the duty OD fourteen pounds of tea, at 
 twenty cents the pound duty ; 
 
 Or 140 pounds of sugar, at two cents the pound duty; 
 
 Or 56 pounds of coffee, at five cents the pound duty ; 
 
 Or 14 bushels of salt, at twenty cents the bushel duty; 
 
 Or 56 gallons of molasses, at five cents the gallon duty. 
 11 
 
82 
 
 I will now suppose a city of 50,000 inhabitants, who for their 
 household and other uses, will consume 50 thousand cords a year, 
 on which there would be an economy of 140,000 dollars, a sum in 
 all probability equal to the duties paid by the inhabitants. For 
 the duties divided on the whole of the American people, are but 
 two dollars twenty-eight cents to each individual. Here I have es 
 timated each person to pay two dollars eighty cents, yet this esti 
 mate is made on one cord of wood to each inhabitant of a city j 
 were 1 to calculate the economy on the carriage of building timber, 
 lime, sand, brick, stone, iron, flour, corn, provision and materials 
 of all kinds, which enter or go out of a city, it would be five 
 times this sum ; and thus the towns and cities are to be benefitted. 
 The farmer or miller who lives 20 miles from a market, pays at 
 least twenty-two cents to wagon a barrel of flour that distance ; by 
 the canal it would cost two cents; the economy would be twenty 
 cents; at 100 miles the economy would be 100 cents, and at 150 
 miles it would be 150 cents; beyond this distance flour cannot 
 come to market by roads ; yet at this distance the economy of 150 
 cents on the carriage of one barrel of flour would pay the duty 01 
 
 7 1-2 pounds of tea; 
 
 Or 75 pounds of sugar; 
 
 Or 30 pounds of coffee; 
 
 Or 7 1-2 bushels of salt ; 
 
 Or 36 gallons of molasses. 
 
 Thus it is. that the benefits arising from a good system of canals, 
 are general and mutual. Therefore should peace and the reduction 
 of the national debt, give an overflowing treasury, I hope you, and 
 the majority of Americans, will think with me, that the duties 
 should not be taken off nor diminished ; for such an act, instead of 
 relieving the people, would really oppress them, by destroying the 
 means of reducing the expense of transport, and of opening to them 
 a cheap mode of arriving at good markets. 
 
 To proceed with these demonstrations, let us look at the rich pro- 
 ductions of our interior country : 
 
 Wheat, flour, oats, barley, beans, grain, and pulse of all kinds ; 
 
 Salt, saltftd beef, pork and other meats ;* 
 
 * Animals are now driven to market 300 or more miles, at a considerable expense 
 and loss of fksh, for two principal re-ason- : first, the expense of transporting the 
 salt to the interior; and, second, the expense of carrying the salted meats t 
 market. 
 
Hides, tallow, beeswax; 
 
 Cast and forged iron ; 
 
 Pot and pearl ashes, tanner s bark ; 
 
 Tar. pitch, rosin and turpentine ; 
 
 Hemp, flax and wool ; 
 
 Plaister of Paris, so necessary to our agriculture ; 
 
 Coals and potter s earth, for our manufactures; 
 
 Marble, lime and timber for our buildings. 
 
 All these articles are of the first necessity, but few of them can 
 bear the expense of five dollars the hundred weight to be transport 
 ed 300 miles on roads. Yet on canals they would cost in boatiug 
 only 15 cents the 100 weight for that distance. 
 
 There is another great advantage to individuals and the na iou 
 arising from canals, which roads can never give. It is that when a 
 canal runs through a long line of mountainous country, such as the 
 greater part of the interior of America, all the ground below for 
 half a mile or more may be watered and converted into meadow 
 and other profitable culture. 
 
 How much these conveniences of irrigation will add to the pro 
 duce of agriculture and the beauties of nature, I leave to experi 
 enced farmers and agricultural societies to calculate. 
 
 In Italy and Spain it is the practice to sell water out of the ca 
 nals, for Altering meadows and other lands. In such cases tubes 
 are put into the canal, under the pressure of a certain head of wa 
 ter, and suffered to run a given time for a fixed price ; the monies 
 thus gained add much to the emoluments of the canal companies. 
 
 But with all these immense advantages which canals give, it 
 may be a question with many individuals, whether they can be 
 constructed in great leading lines, from our sea coast and naviga 
 ble rivers, to the frontiers of the several states, or pass our moun 
 tains and penetrate to the remote parts of our interior country. 
 Should doubts arise on this part of the plan, I beg leave to assure 
 you, that there is no difficulty in carrying canals over our high 
 est mountains, and even where nature has denied us water. For 
 water is always to be found in the valleys, and the canal can be 
 constructed to the foot of the mountain, carrying the water to (hat 
 situation. Should there be no water on -he mountain or it? fides, 
 there will be wood or coals; either or both of which can be brought 
 
84 
 
 cheap to theMrorks by means of the canal. Then with steam ea- 
 gin. s ih-.i upper poods of canal can be filler! from the lower levels, 
 and with the engines the boats can on inclined planes be drawn 
 from ?he lower to the upper canal. For this mode of operating it 
 is n res-sary to have mall boats of six tons each. As the steam 
 engines are to draw up and let down the boats on inclined planes, 
 no water is drawn lor the upper level of canal, as when locks are 
 used. Consequently when the upper ponds have been once filled, 
 it is only necessary that the engine should supply leakage and 
 evaporation. There is another mode of supplying the leakage and 
 evaporation of the higher levels: on the tops and sides of moun 
 tains there are hollows or ravines, which can be banked at the 
 lower extremity, thus forming a reservoir to catch the rain or melt 
 ed snow. From such reservoirs the ponds of canal can be replen 
 ished in the dry months of summer. This mode of reserving 
 water is iu practice in England for canals, and in Spain for irriga 
 tion. In this manner I will suppose it necessary to pass a moun 
 tain 800 feet high ; then four inclined planes each of 200 feet rise, 
 would gain the summit, and four would descend on the other side. 
 Total, eight inclined planes and eight steam engines. Each steam 
 engine of 12 horse power would cost about ten thousand dollars, in 
 all 80.000; each would burn about 12 bushels of coal in 12 hours, 
 or 96 bushels for the eight engines for ene day s work. 
 
 The coals in such situations may be estimated at 12 cents 
 
 a bushel or ... dolls. 1 1 52 
 
 At each engine and inclined plane there must be five men 
 total 40 meo at one dollar each, . , 40 
 
 Total, dolls. 51 52 
 
 For this sum they could pass 500 tons in one day over 
 the eight inclined planes, which for each ton is only 10 cents. 
 
 S ippose. the mountain lobe 20 miles wide, boating for 
 each too would cost . 20 do. 
 
 Total, 30 cents. 
 
85 
 
 a ton, for passing over the mountain, which will be more or lest 
 according to circumstances. These calculations being only intend 
 ed to remove any doubts which may arise on the practicability of 
 passing our mountains- 
 Having thus in some degree considered the advantages which 
 canals will produce in point of wealth to individuals and the na 
 tion, I will now consider their importance to the union and their 
 political consequences. 
 
 First, their eflfi ct on raising the value of the public lands, and 
 thereby augmenting the revenue. 
 
 In all cases where canals pass through the lands of the United 
 States, and open a cheap communication to a good market, such 
 lauds will rise in value for twenty miles on each side of the canal. 
 The farmer who will reside twenty miles from the canal can in one 
 day carry a load of produce to its borders. And were the lands 
 600 miles from one of our sea port towns his barrel of flour, in 
 weight 200 Ib. could be carried that distance for 60 cents, the price 
 which is DOW paid to carry a barrel 50 miles on the Lancaster 
 turnpike. Consequently, as relates to cheapness of carriage, and 
 easy access to market, the new lands which IIP 600 miles from the 
 sea ports, would be of equal value with lands of equal fertility which 
 are 50 miles from the sea ports. But not to insist on their being of 
 so great value until population is as great, it is evident that they 
 must rise in value in a three or four fold degree, every lineal mile of 
 canal would accommodate 25,600 acres. The lands sold by the Uni 
 ted States in 1806, averged about two dollars an acre, and certain 
 ly every acre accommodated with a canal, would produce six dol 
 lars thus only 20 miles of canal each year, running through national 
 lands, would raise the value of 512,000 acres at least, four dollars 
 an acre, giving 2,048.000 dollars to the treasury, a sum sufficient 
 to make 136 miles of canal. Had an individual such a property, 
 and funds to construct canals to its centre, he certainly would d* it 
 for his owu interest. The nation has the property, and the nation 
 possesses ample funds for such undertakings. 
 
 Second, on their effect in cementing the union, and extending the 
 principles of confederated republican government. Numerous have 
 been the speculations on the duration of our union, and intrigues 
 have been practised to sever the western from the eastern state?. 
 
86 
 
 The opinion endeavoured to be inculcated, was, that the inhabi 
 tants beyond the mountains were cut off from the market of the At 
 lantic states; that consequently they had a separate interest, and 
 should use their resources to open a communication to a market of 
 their own ; that remote from the seat of government they could 
 cot enjoy their portion of advantages arising from the union, and 
 that sooner or later they must separate and govern for themselves. 
 Others by drawing their examples from European governments, and 
 the monarchies which have grown out of the feudal habits of nations 
 of warriors, whose minds were bent to the absolute power of the few, 
 and the servile obedience of the many, have conceived these states of 
 too great an extent to continue united under a republican form of gov- 
 ernmenit, and that the time is not distant when they will divide inte 
 little kingdoms, retrograding from common sense to ignorance, adopt 
 ing all the foliie? and barbarities which are every day practised iu 
 the kingdoms and petty states of Europe. But those who have 
 reasoned in this way, have not reflected that men are the crea 
 tures of habit, and that their habits as well as their interests may be 
 go combined, as to make it impossible to separate them without fal 
 ling back into a state of barbarism. Although in ancient times 
 some specks of civiliza ion have been effaced by hordrs of unculti 
 vated men, vet, it is remarkable that since the invention of printing 
 and general diffusion of knowledge, no nation has retrogated in 
 science or improvements; nor is it reasonable to suppose that the 
 American?, who have as much, if not more information in general* 
 than any oilier people, will ever abandon an advantage which they 
 have once gained. England, which at one time was seven petty 
 kingdoms, has by habit long been united into one. Scotlaud by 
 succession became united to England, and is now bound to her by 
 habit, by tnrnpike roads, canals and reciprocal interests. In like 
 manner all the counties of England, or departments of France, are 
 bound to each other; and when the United States shall be bound 
 together by canals, by cheap and easy access to market in all di 
 rections, by a sense of mutual interest arising from mutual inter 
 course and mingled commerce, it will be no more possible to split 
 them into independent and separate governments, each lining its 
 frontiers with fortifications mid troops, to shackle their own exports 
 and imports to and from the neighboring states ; thau it is DOW 
 
87 
 
 possible for the government of England to divide and form again 
 into seven kingdoms. 
 
 But it is necessary to bind the states together by the people s 
 interests, one of which is to enable every man to sell the produce 
 of his labour at the best market, and purchase at the cheapest. This 
 accords with the idea of Hume, " that the government of a wise 
 people would be little more than a system of civil police; for th 
 best interest of man is industry, and a free exchange of the produce 
 of his labour for the things which he may require." 
 
 On this humane principle, what stronger bonds of union can be 
 invented than those which enable each individual to transport the 
 produce of his industry 1,200 miles for 60 cents the hundred weight i 
 Here then is a certain method of securing the union of the states 
 and of rendering it as lasting as the continent we inhabit. 
 
 It is now eleven years that I have had this plan in contemplation 
 for the good of our country. At the conclusion of my work on 
 small canals, there is a letter to Thomas MiiTlin, then governor of 
 the state of Pennsylvania, on a system of canals for America. la 
 it I contemplated the time when "canals should pass through every 
 vale, wind round each hill and bind the whole country together m 
 the bonds of social intercourse ; and I am now happy to find that 
 through the good management of a wise administration, a period has 
 arrived when an overflowing treasury exhibits abundant resource?, 
 and points the mind to works of such immense importance. 
 
 Hoping speedily to see them become favorite objects with the 
 ivbole American people. 
 
 I have the honour to be, your most obedient, 
 ROBERT FULTON 
 
 Washington, December Sth, 1807. 
 
 END. 
 
 
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