The political family: or A discourse, pointing out the reciprocal advantages, which flow from an uninterrupted union between Great-Britain and her American colonies. By Isaac Hunt, Esquire. ; Numb. I.

The political family: or A discourse, pointing out the reciprocal advantages, which flow from an uninterrupted union between Great-Britain and her American colonies. By Isaac Hunt, Esquire. ; Numb. I.

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Title page

§

A DISCOURSE, &c.

[Page]

A DISCOURSE, &c.

THE jealousies which at present unhappily subsist between Great-Britain and her colonies, render a discourse on this subject as delicate and hazardous, as the fatal consequences of a rupture between them make it weighty and important. But though the die be doubtful, yet in so interesting a cause I will venture a cast.

In this discourse I shall consider the mother country and her colonies as a body politic.

[Page]By union in a body politic I understand (with Baron Montesquieu) such a harmony as makes all the particular parts, as opposite as they may seem, concur to the general welfare of the whole, as discords in music contribute to the melody of sounds.

Protection requires dependence in return. But to preserve that dependence, agreeable to the principles of an English constitution, it is necessary there should be a union of laws and government. And this union is necessary for the security of liberty, and the well conducting of commerce, on which the happiness of our political society is founded.

As in the natural body all the inferior springs of life depend upon the motion of the heart, so in the body politic all inferior jurisdictions should flow from one superior fountain. Two distinct independent powers in one civil state are as inconsistent as two hearts in the same natural body. Because if such a thing can be imagined, they must constantly interfere [Page] in their operations, so as to reduce the WHOLE to anarchy and confusion, and bring on a dissolution in the event. A due subordination of the less parts to the greater is therefore necessary to the existence of BOTH.

According to the great Mr. Locke—that which constitutes a political society is nothing but the consent of any number of freemen, capable of a majority, to incorporate into such a society. This consent is either expressed or implied: expressed, when men in a state of nature for their mutual defence, agree upon certain rules for their government: Implied, when they come into and continue in a country where there is a civil state already settled, and receive the benefit and protection of the laws of that state.

The common law of England declares the original consent of the people, and may be stiled the constitution of their civil state. But as the affairs of all nations are in a continual fluctuation, by [Page] the common law, any part of it then declared may from time to time be altered by acts of parliament. Sage and reverend judges, ever since the emigration of the American colonists, have often solemnly determined that as they settled a part of the British empire, they tacitly agreed to be governed according to the common law of their parent country.

These colonies are of two kinds: Such as have been newly found out by the subjects of Great-Britain, and purchased from the natives by the authority of the crown, as Pennsylvania, &c. or such as have been conquered in open and just war, as Jamaica, Quebec, &c. In the first, the laws of England were in force immediately upon their discovery and settlement. In the other, the laws of England did not take place till declared so by the conqueror. But in both, acts of the British parliament bind the colonists where they are specially named according to the adjudications of [Page] able lawyers and judges throughout English America.

His Majesty's predecessors have granted to many of the colonies certain privileges by charters. The laws of England in force at the time of the settlement of new discovered colonies;—Acts of parliament made since, in which they are expressly named;—And laws enacted by themselves in pursuance of their charters, and approved and confirmed in England, seem then to be the constitutions of such colonies. This also is similar to the constitution of the Roman colonies. They received their laws from the people of Rome, or they enacted them by their inferior senates, or by the consent of the people of the colonies. Though every particular colony had laws distinct from the general laws of Rome, yet they were either dictated to them, or confirmed by the Triumviri. They are of that sort of colonies which Baron Pussendorss mentions [Page] as united to the mother country by a kind of unequal confederacy.*

The fires kindled by the late act of parliament imposing a duty of threepence in the pound on tea, have led me into this consideration of the nature of the governments of the British colonies. Far be it from me to determine the legality of imposing such duties. The subject has been so amply discussed [Page] by abler pens, both in England and America, as to make it unnecessary. But thus much I would observe, no government can be supported without great charge: And every one who enjoys a share of protection should pay his proportion for the maintenance of it in one way or other.

Much has been said about external and internal taxes. I know but little difference between them. Struggle and contrive as you will, says Mr. Locke; lay your taxes as you please, the traders will shift them off for their own gain; the merchant will bear the least part of them and grow poor last; things of necessity must still be had, and things of fashion will be had as long as men have money or credit. If the merchant pays a quarter more for his commodities he will fell them at a price proportionably raised. But though the duty may be legal, many things are lawful which are not expedient. A strenuous execution of the strict letter of the law is often [Page] the greatest injustice. It was a saying of the Emperor Tiberius, in relation to taxes, sheep should be fleeced not flead. The Grand Seignior, according to the constitution of the Ottoman empire, may ordain a taxation; but the universal murmurs of his subjects make him sensible of the necessity of restricting this power. All mankind are liable to be deceived, and to err by misinformation and false appearances: And it is the glory of a man to acknowledge and correct an error when it is discovered: We find the British Senate, upon decent and legal applications, in the case of the stamp-act, did not think it unbecoming their dignity, to reconsider that act. The result of their deliberations was such as fully convinced us, justice and moderation were the noble principles which actuated that august body. They shewed us we may safely confide in them, not only as our protectors from foreign enemies, but as the grand conservators of liberty, throughout the wide extent of the British dominions. [Page] Let us then, on our part, convince them by our conduct, we are a sober, loyal, and grateful people, worthy of their highest favours.

Had the colonists on that occasion, or on occasion of the late acts of parliament concerning trade, been mad enough to have thrown off their dependence on Great-Britain, she must have looked upon it as a breach of the original compact, and that thereby the constitutional union in legislation and government was dissolved; the reciprocal advantages of which union will appear, if we consider the bad consequences of it's dissolution.

It is easy to believe, Great-Britain will not tamely give up her right of regulating the trade of colonies, which she has planted, raised, supported and protected at a vast expence of blood and treasure: Nor will she suffer the profits of that trade to fall into the hands of rival nations. And though she is able to crush them as a moth, yet her expences in sending fleets and armies to [Page] conquer her own subjects and maintain her sovereignty must be immense; besides the loss of the profits of their trade in the mean time; the advantages of which I shall mention hereafter. On the other hand, I will admit, for argument's sake, the colonists are able to protect themselves by land; yet this cannot be done without a union among themselves.

How difficult a thorough union is to be effected in the colonies will appear, besides other instances, from the disputes about the quotas which the continental colonies should furnish for their own defence, when the common enemy were butchering and scalping many hundreds of the inhabitants, and laying waste their frontiers. The animosities which have long subsisted between some of them about settling their boundaries have not yet subsided. By their charters they have been used to different forms of internal government and laws. Different modes of worship have been established in many of them. It is, [Page] therefore, scarcely probable they ever can or will be united without being under the sovereignty of some superior state, whose interest it is to continue them so, and protect them. But admitting they may be united, and, as I said, they can protect themselves on the land side: Yet who would protect their many thousands of unarmed ships, their cities, and their long extended, and, at present, defenceless sea coasts, from the depredations of pirates and rovers, or the greater power of ambitious and aspiring states, who are watching for such an opportunity like vultures hovering o'er their prey? To whom, then, but Great-Britain, can they go for succour? Or, if they would withdraw their dependence, who can deliver them out of her hands? Not France or Spain. The British navy is superior to both united. If it were not, those powers would not consent to defend and protect them for nothing. They would divide them among themselves, and require not only [Page] dependence, but absolute subjection. There is no need of arguments to prove, it is more eligible to submit to laws made by a protestant British Sovereign, an august Assembly of right honorable and right reverend Nobles, the representatives of a free people, connected with them by the ties of blood, similarity of manners, and common interests, and by a President General appointed by the crown, at the head of delegates chosen by the colonies to sit in grand council*, than by the arbitrary edicts of a French monarch, which his parliament is only to register; and it is better for a man to be at liberty to worship God in the manner he believes is most agreeable to him, by the toleration of a British government, than be forced to conform to the superstitious rites and ceremonies of the Romish church by the racks and tortures of a Spanish inquisition. It seems, [Page] therefore, as much the interest of the colonies to avoid throwing off their dependence on Great-Britain, as it is her's to protect them from their enemies, support them in their liberties, and encourage them in their commerce;—the reciprocal advantages of which I am next to consider.

The British American dominions extend through such various climates that they can produce most of the commodities war or peace require. They can supply most of the delicacies as well as conveniences and necessaries of life. Yet nature hath poured forth her blessings, in a different manner, upon the different regions of the world, for the mutual intercourse and traffic of mankind, that thereby they may have a dependence upon one another, and be united by their common interest*.

Every inhabitable country hath a superfluity of some kind of natural product, and no country can produce all [Page] the necessaries and conveniencies of life. Hence arise the reciprocal advantages of commerce in general, as it carries out of a country what is superfluous, and returns what is wanting.

The power of a state consists in the multitude of it's subjects well employed, and the riches of it's treasury. Trade encourages the labourer to industry. Industry procures him property, by which he is encouraged to undertake the charge of a family, and to propagate his species. If he cannot be industriously employed, he will scarcely venture to make himself, and a woman whom he loves, miserable, by seeing the tender pledges of their affection, whom they might be the means of bringing into the world, starving for want of bread. It is reckoned a million of the inhabitants of Great-Britain are daily employed in manufactures for the American colonists, most of whom cannot get other employment. Consequently many thousands are thereby induced to marry. Hence it is the number of her [Page] inhabitants is not decreased, notwithstanding many thousands have formerly come over to her colonies, or have been destroyed in her wars. The trade and population of the colonies have, therefore, a considerable tendency to increase the number of subjects in Great-Britain.

The enlargement of commerce increases the riches of a state. The riches of a nation are the sinews of war, and the establishment of peace. Power and strength are principally acquired by money. Money will procure arms and friends. Nothing else is wanting to obtain dominion, but wisdom and the permission of divine Providence. The ordinary customs upon merchandize in England which go into the treasury are now above forty times more than they were at the death of Queen Elizabeth, when the American colonies began to be considerable. And Mr. Anderson observes the trade of Great-Britain with her colonies is equal in quantity, and more in profit than all the other commerce she has with the rest of the world. One [Page] half, therefore, of these additional riches of the treasury, arises from the colony trade. Hence it is the British navy is now double in number, of larger size, and carries heavier metal than at the revolution. Many thousand ships are constantly employed in this trade, which is a perpetual nursery of seamen to fit out the King's ships. Besides the advantages Great-Britain receives from the trade of her colonies, in the increase of her subjects, the employment of her industrious poor in manufactures, the support of government by duties on merchandize, and the increase of her naval power, her landed interest is also greatly increased. This plainly appears from the country gentlemen and farmers having better household furniture, greater stocks of cattle, and lands better improved since she had colonies. The demand for, and consumption of what the farmer produces must be in proportion to the number of people employed in manufactures and navigation. Great-Britain, it is thought, may support sixteen [Page] millions of inhabitants* more than she does at present, and the greater part of these will find employment in manufactures, which it will be the interest of the colonies to take off her hands, if they increase, as they are likely to do from their great extent of territory. The continental colonies abound in timber and iron ore. There are numberless symptoms of other valuable ore, which, doubtless, in the course of time, ingenious men, if encouraged, will discover. The land, in general, is very fit for tillage. Pennsylvania and New-York in particular may be justly termed the granary of the West-India islands, which daily increase in the number of inhabitants. Besides, without mentioning the wheat which they send to Portugal and Spain, and their dominions, they ship great quantities up the Straits; and some few years ago they relieved Italy [Page] from famine; by which means they were enabled to make considerable remittances to Great-Britain they could not otherwise have done, on account of the late restriction on their commerce. While therefore the inhabitants can be advantageously employed in these branches of business, and in the fisheries along their coasts, it is not their interest to engage in manufactures which they can import from Great-Britain at a much cheaper rate than they can make them themselves. Woolen and linen they must have. Fine linen can not be made up, if the flax be not pulled before the seed is ripe. Flax seed brings in more to the farmer, if we consider the price of labour*, than the flax itself. The [Page] flax-seed which New-York and Pennsylvania ship to Ireland, I am well informed, overpays the fine linen which they import from thence. It is also idle to attempt to raise so many sheep as will produce wool enough for cloathing while they import woolens at the price they now do from Great-Britain. On the frontiers the wolves and foxes destroy the sheep and lambs in such a manner, that few of the farmers attempt to raise them. In the interior parts the profits of the lands in tillage, and the fodder which the sheep require in the long winters, are such, that the farmers do not raise more than is sufficient to produce wool to employ their children and servants when they can be spared from agriculture, which [Page] is but seldom. Indeed, when a farmer's children are growing up and he must employ servants in the fields and meadows in the summer, it is better they should be employed in such manufactures than be idle in the winter. During the fishing season, most, if not all the tradesmen near the sea coasts in the northern colonies find their account in leaving off their trades and pursuing the fisheries. Manufactories in populous cities like Philadelphia for setting poor vagrants to work are very proper. Sturdy beggars, however, might be better employed in mending the highways, in clearing the rivers of the rocks, and thereby improving the communication between different parts of the country. But for the colonists to enter into manufactures in general, in the circumstances I have mentioned, must be greatly to their loss, as well as a prejudice to the trade, and of consequence to the wealth and power of Great-Britain. For manufactures are founded in poverty. Wherever there is a vast extent [Page] of territory to be settled and cultivated, and lands can be taken up, at an easy rate, especially in this province, under landlords so generous and indulgent to their tenants, as our honourable Proprietaries, people find it more beneficial to apply themselves to agriculture.

The West-India islands find the advantages so great which they receive from raising and making sugar, molasses, rum, ginger, pimento, coffee and drugs, that they make them the principal objects of their industry, and import provisions from the continental colonies, and their cloathing from Great-Britain: In return for which, they export their own products, which greatly augment his Majesty's customs, and employ many thousands of the manufacturers and seamen of Great-Britain, and, at the same time, have procured to the planters immense estates. A union, therefore, in commerce, is attended with these reciprocal advantages, that the mother country and the colonies are both more usefully employed in the products [Page] they exchange, than by raising or manufacturing all they stand in need of.

The importance of the colonies to Great-Britain will ever be greater, as they increase, which they will still do while they have such a vast extent of country to settle, and can so easily earn bread for the maintenance of a family. Ship timber, house timber, copper, hemp, iron, pitch, tar, turpentine, potash, fish, &c. which she imports from Norway, Sweden, and Russia, can all be supplied by her North American colonies. Virginia, Carolina, and the southern continental colonies produce not only tobacco, rice and indigo, but silk, as good in quality and, very probably, will in time, as much in quantity, as she imports from Italy, Turkey, or the East-Indies. The colonies abound in fruits and drugs equal to Spain, Italy, or any other country. To receive all these articles from her own subjects, a great part of which she receives from foreign nations (who in a case of necessity may refuse to supply [Page] her, as Sweden did in the article of iron in this century) will enrich them, while, at the same time, it will increase her naval power, furnish her industrious people at home with employment, enable her to protect the trade of her colonies, continue their immunities, and procure others in the Mediterranean, and other foreign ports, which the powers to whom they belong cannot procure from one another, and render her the Arbitress of Europe. Besides, a time may come, when Great-Britain shall find it her interest to employ a much greater number of her people in manufactures, and upon the loss of a crop in an unfruitful season, may stand in need of bread, with which she can be abundantly supplied by her American subjects. On the other hand, as America will constantly increase in the number of inhabitants, and improvement of land, her trade in the manufactures of her mother country must increase in proportion, and, consequently, require a more extensive protection from the British flag. [Page] This British naval power will also prevent the inveterate enemies of both the mother country and her colonies from possessing hereafter any considerable tract of territory on the continent of North-America, and thereby having an opportunity of stirring up the Indian natives to massacre, and butcher the colonists: And while the emissaries of France and Spain are kept from amongst them, they will find their account in carrying on the fur and peltry trade with our people; the advantages of which to Great-Britain and the colonies are immense.

But, waving the protection of the mother country, with what state can the colonists carry on a trade to advantage equal to that with her. Most of the branches, before enumerated, are the leading articles of their commerce, which GreatBritain wants, and other parts of Europe produce in common with the colonies, and of which she would take from her colonies only, if they could, as they will in time, be able to furnish her with [Page] a sufficient quantity, duties will be imposed upon commodities of foreign growth or production, and, very probably, bounties given for the same produced in the colonies, as was lately proposed in the article of iron. These reciprocal advantages of a union must, therefore, be as long as Great-Britain continues mistress of the ocean; her industrious manufacturers multiply by being enabled to marry, and maintain their children, and the American seas abound in fish, the mines with ore, or the hills covered with timber, and the many millions of acres yet unplanted can produce any of the commodities before enumerated.

Let us now consider Great-Britain and her American colonies as a family, the establishment of which depends upon unity, friendship, and a continued series of mutual good offices.

Colonies, my Lord Bacon observes, are the children of more ancient nations. Children receive nourishment from the milk of their mothers, till they are capable [Page] of digesting other food! And they receive from the hands of their parents, protection from the insults and injuries, to which their feeble, infant state is exposed. They ought, therefore, when they have attained the state of youth, or manhood, to evidence their gratitude, by a pious love and filial obedience. But though, obedience be due to parents, parents ought not to provoke their children to wrath. The state of minority is temporary. When that state ceases, the right of chastisement and absolute command ceases also. But honor, reverence, esteem and support, when wanted, in return for nourishment, education, and protection are perpetually due to the parent.

Great-Britain has been a nurseing mother to her colonies. Her first embarkations to America, and her first conquests there, were attended with great expence, without any immediate return of profit; and, at the same time, drained her of many people useful at home. Her floating castles have protected and [Page] daily do protect their trade. Royal licences have been granted to collect money for the promotion of learning and virtue in the colonies; and the money was generously given by their brethren in Great-Britain. The inhabitants of Great-Britain have, above sixty years ago, nobly and generously established and supported, and still do support a venerable society, who send over gentlemen of piety, learning, and virtue, to publish the glad tidings of salvation in the colonies, which before were the haunts of wild beasts, and idolatrous savages: And she hath lately, at a great expence of blood, and millions of treasure, saved them from the butchering knife of savage, and the unjust encroachments of ambitious enemies.

On the other hand, the advantages which (as I mentioned before) she receives in the encouragement of her manufactures, the extension of her commerce, and the increase of power, by sea and land, from the trade of her industrious colonists, have already rendered [Page] her the Queen of nations; and in a short time, Great-Britain and her American colonies, if they continue united, must inevitably be the most powerful Empire in the world. The advantages of which are not only reciprocal to them, but to all the protestant and christian states of Europe. Because the love of virtue and liberty, which is predominant and peculiar in Englishmen, will diffuse itself wherever it can have INFLUENCE.

Notes

*

Omnis coloniarum respublica in legibus et legum curatoribus fuit posita. Leges vel a populo Romano acceperunt, vel ipse sibi per senatum aut populum condiderunt. Leges autem suas quaeque colonia habuit praecipuas, a Romanis quidem legibus seperatas; sed tamen a Romanis Triumviris datas.—In coloniis concilium erat et Senatus. Sigonius de antiq. jure civ. Rom. L. 2, 185. Veliternos et circeienses colonos repitisse captivos suos a Romanis, ut in eos legibus suis animadverterent. Liv. De quibus territoriis, si quando quaestio movetur, respiciuntur leges civibus datae; id est, coloniis. &c.—Leges datae coloniis tuendae erant.—Flaccus. The Romans (who are followed now by the nations of Europe) when they sent out a colony, continued it under the jurisdiction of the Mother-Commonwealth. Puffendorff.

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*

See a plan of a propsed Union, said to be laid before the congress by a very respectable and judicious gentleman.

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*

Hic Segetes illic veniunt, felicius Uvae. Virg.

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*

See Mr. Anderson's introduction to his Commercial History p. 14. The ingenious Dr. Franklin computes she can support a much greater number. See his Interest of Great-Britain with respect to the colonies.

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*

We can import a hank of three dozen yarn from Ireland for two pence half-penny. A spinster in Pennsylvania receives six-pence, currency, and her diet for such a hank; and in the summer season can earn from 1ʃ6 to 2ʃ3 currency per diem in hoeing corn or tobacco, in reaping or making hay. The daughters of the industrious Germans do not disdain to thresh corn, and plow; and the usual price of such labour is 1ʃ6 a day. A labouring man fit to break flax or comb wool can earn from fifteen to twenty pounds sterling a year; and his diet, in driving a team for an iron master, or a miller, or in grubbing, malling rails, plowing and clearing meadow, reaping and mowing. And it is found to be the interest of landed men to give them such wages. They would employ more at the same rates could they get them. But such wages soon enable the industrious among them to settle a family on land of their own.

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THE POLITICAL FAMILY: OR A DISCOURSE, POINTING OUT THE RECIPROCAL ADVANTAGES, Which flow from an uninterrupted Union between GREAT-BRITAIN and her AMERICAN COLONIES.

BY ISAAC HUNT, ESQUIRE.

NUMB. I.

PHILADELPHIA: PRINTED, BY JAMES HUMPHREYS, JUNIOR.

M DCC LXXV.

§

§

[Page]

TO THE WORTHY MERCHANTS, FARMERS, AND MECHANICS OF THE PROVINCE OF PENNSYLVANIA, IN TESTIMONY OF ESTEEM AND FRIENDSHIP, THIS DISCOURSE IS INSCRIBED;

BY THEIR MOST HUMBLE SERVANT, THE AUTHOR.

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Title statement

The political family: or A discourse, pointing out the reciprocal advantages, which flow from an uninterrupted union between Great-Britain and her American colonies. By Isaac Hunt, Esquire. ; Numb. I.

Hunt, Isaac, ca. 1742-1809.

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Text Creation Partnership,

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2004-08.

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N11152

ID [TCP]

N11152

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Evans 14123

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APY0681

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14123

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Early American Imprints, 1639-1800 ; no. 14123.

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— The political family: or A discourse, pointing out the reciprocal advantages, which flow from an uninterrupted union between Great-Britain and her American colonies. By Isaac Hunt, Esquire. ; Numb. I., Hunt, Isaac, ca. 1742-1809..

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32 p. ; 19 cm. (8vo)

Printed, by James Humphreys, Junior.,. Philadelphia: :: MDCCLXXV. [1775]. (Title vignette (Reilly 1013).)

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