An address to an assembly of the friends of American manufactures, convened for the purpose of establishing a society for the encouragement of manufactures and the useful arts, read in the University of Pennsylvania, on Thursday the 9th of August 1787, / by Tench Coxe, Esq. and published at their request.

An address to an assembly of the friends of American manufactures, convened for the purpose of establishing a society for the encouragement of manufactures and the useful arts, read in the University of Pennsylvania, on Thursday the 9th of August 1787, / by Tench Coxe, Esq. and published at their request.

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Title page

AT a numerous meeting of THE FRIENDS OF AMERICAN MANUFACTURES, at the University, on Thursday evening the 9th of Aug. 1787—

§

AN ADDRESS TO AN Assembly of the Friends of American Manufactures.

[Page]

AN ADDRESS TO AN Assembly of the Friends of American Manufactures.

GENTLEMEN,

WHILE I obey with sincere pleasure the commands of the respectable assembly whom I have now the honor to address, I feel the most trying emotions of anxiety and apprehension in attempting to perform so difficult and serious a duty, as that prescribed to me at our last meeting. The importance and novelty of the subject, the injurious consequences of mistaken opinions on it and your presence necessarily excite feelings such as these. They are lessened however, by the hope of some benefit [Page] to that part of my fellow citizens, who depend for comfort on our native manufactures and by an ardent wish to promote every measure, that will give to our newborn states the strength of manhood. Supported by these considerations and relying on the kind indulgence, which is ever shewn to well meant endeavours, however unsuccessful, I shall venture to proceed.

PROVIDENCE has bestowed upon the United States of America means of happiness, as great and numerous, as are enjoyed by any country in the world. A soil fruitful and diversified—a healthful climate—mighty rivers and adjacent seas abounding with fish are the great advantages for which we are indebted to a beneficent creator. Agriculture, manufactures and commerce, naturally arising from these sources, afford to our industrious citizens certain subsistence and innumerable opportunities of acquiring wealth. To arrange our affairs in salutary [Page] and well digested systems, by which the fruits of industry, in every line, may be most easily attained, and the possession of property and the blessings of liberty may be completely secured—these are the important objects, that should engross our present attention. The interests of commerce and the establishment of a just and effective government are already committed to the care of THE AUGUST BODY now sitting in our capital.—The importance of agriculture has long since recommended it to the patronage of numerous associations, and the attention of all the legislatures—but manufactures, at least in Pennsylvania, have had but a few unconnected friends, till sound policy and public spirit gave a late, but auspicious birth, to this Society.

THE situation of America before the revolution was very unfavourable to the objects of this institution. The prohibition of most foreign raw materials—considerable [Page] bounties in England for carrying away the unwrought productions of this country to that, as well as on exporting British goods from their markets—the preference for those goods, which habit carried much beyond what their excellence would justify, and many other circumstances created artificial impediments, that appeared almost insuperable. Several branches however were carried on to good advantage. But as long as we remained in our colonial situation, our progress was very slow, and indeed the necessity of attention to manufactures was not so urgent, as it has become since our assuming an independent station. The employment of those, whom the decline of navigation has deprived of their usual occupations—the consumption of the encreasing produce of our lands and fisheries, and the certainty of supplies in the time of war are weighty reasons for establishing new manufactories now, which existed but in a small degree, or not at all, before the revolution.

[Page] WHILE we readily admit, that in taking measures to promote the objects of this Society, nothing should be attempted, which may injure our agricultural interests, they being undoubtedly the most important, we must observe in justice to ourselves, that very many of our citizens, who are expert at manufactures and the useful arts, are entirely unacquainted with rural affairs, or unequal to the expences of a new settlement; and many we may believe, will come among us invited to our shores from foreign countries, by the blessings of liberty, civil and religious. We may venture to assert too, that more profit to the individual and riches to the nation will be derived from some manufactures, which promote agriculture, than from any species of cultivation whatever. The truth of this remark however, will be better determined, when the subject shall be further considered.

[Page] LET us endeavor first to disencumber manufactures of the objections, that appear against them, the principal of which are, the high rate of labor, which involves the price of provisions—the want of a sufficient number of hands on any terms,—the scarcity and dearness of raw materials—want of skill in the business itself and its unfavorable effects on the health of the people.

FACTORIES, which can be carried on by watermills, windmills, fire, horses and machines ingeniously contrived, are not burdened with any heavy expence of boarding, lodging, cloathing and paying workmen, and they multiply the force of hands to a great extent without taking our people from agriculture. By wind and water machines we can make pig and bar iron, nail rods, tire, sheet-iron, sheet-copper and sheet-brass, anchors, meal of all kinds, gunpowder, writing, printing and hanging paper, snuff, linseed oil, boards, plank and scantling; and [Page] they assist us in finishing scythes, sickles and woolen cloths. Strange as it may appear they also card, spin and weave by water in the European factories. Bleaching and tanning must not be omitted, while we are speaking of the usefulness of water.

BY FIRE we conduct our breweries, distilleries, salt and potash works, sugar houses, potteries, casting and steel furnaces, works for animal and vegetable oils and refining drugs. Steam mills have not yet been adopted in America, but we shall probably see them after a short time in New-England and other places, where there are few mill seats and in this and other great towns of the United States. The city of Philadelphia, by adopting the use of them, might make a saving of above five per cent. on all the grain brought hither by water, which is afterwards manufactured into meal, and they might be usefully applied to many other valuable purposes.

[Page] HORSES give us, in some instances, a relief from the difficulties we are endeavouring to obviate. They grind the tanners bark and potters clay; they work the brewers and distillers pumps, and might be applied, by an inventive mind, as the moving principle of many kinds of mills.

MACHINES ingeniously constructed, will give us immense assistance.—The cotton and silk manufacturers in Europe are possessed of some, that are invaluable to them. One instance I have had precisely ascertained, which employs a few hundreds of women and children, and performs the work of 12000 carders, spinners and winders. They have been so curiously improved of late years, as to weave the most complicated manufactures. In short, combinations of machines with fire and water have already performed much more than was formerly expected from them by the most visionary enthusiast on the subject. Perhaps I may be too sanguine, but [Page] they appear to me fraught with immense advantages to us, and full of danger to the manufacturing nations of Europe; for should they continue to use and improve them, as they have heretofore done, their people must be driven to us for want of employment, and if, on the other hand, they should return to manual labor, we shall underwork them by these invaluable engines. We may certainly borrow some of their inventions and others of the same nature we may strike out ourselves; for on the subject of mechanism America may justly pride herself. Every combination of machinery may be expected from a country, A NATIVE SON of which, reaching this inestimable object at its highest point, has epitomized the motions of the spheres, that roll throughout the universe *.

THE lovers of mankind, supported by experienced physicians, and the opinions of enlightened politicians, have objected to manufactures [Page] as unfavorable to the health of the people. Giving to this humane and important consideration its full weight, it furnishes an equal argument against several other occupations, by which we obtain our comforts and promote our agriculture. The painting business for instance—reclaiming marshes—clearing swamps—the culture of rice and indigo and some other employments, are even more fatal to those, who are engaged in them. But this objection is urged principally against carding, spinning and weaving, which were formerly manual and sedentary occupations. Our plan, as we have already shewn, is not to pursue those modes, unless in cases particularly circumstanced, for we are sensible, that our people must not be diverted from their farms. Horses, and the potent elements of fire and water, aided by the faculties of the human mind ( except in a few healthful instances ) are to be our daily labourers. After giving immediate relief to the industrious poor, these [Page] unhurtful means will be pursued and will procure us private wealth and national prosperity.

EMIGRATION from Europe will also relieve and assist us. The blessings of civil and religious liberty in America, and the oppressions of most foreign governments, the want of employment at home and the expectations of profit here, curiosity, domestic unhappiness, civil wars and various other circumstances will bring many manufacturers to this asylum for mankind. Ours will be their industry, and what is of still more consequence ours will be their skill. Interest and necessity, with such instructors, will teach us quickly. In the last century the manufactures of France were next to none; they are now worth millions to her yearly. Those of England have been more improved within the last twelve years, than in the preceding fifty. At the peace of 1762, the useful arts and manufactures [Page] were scarcely known in America. How great has been their progress since, unaided, undirected and discouraged. Countenanced by your patronage and promoted by your assistance, what may they not be 'ere such another space of time shall elapse.

WONDERFUL as it must appear, the manufacturers of beer, that best of all our commodities, have lately been obliged to import malt from England. Here must be inexcusable neglect, or a strange blindness to our most obvious interests. The cultivation of barley should certainly be more attended to, and if I mistake not exceedingly, the present abundant crop of wheat will so fill our markets, that the farmer, who shall reap barley the ensuing year, will find it the most profitable of all grains. We cannot, however, have any permanent difficulty on this article.

OF flax and hemp little need be said, but that we can encrease them as we please, which we shall do according to the demand.

[Page] WOOL must become much more abundant as our country populates. Mutton is the best meat for cities, manufactories, seminaries of learning, and poor houses, and should be given by rule as in England. The settlement of our new lands, remote from water carriage, must introduce much more pasturage and grazing, than has been heretofore necessary, as sheep, horses and horned cattle will carry themselves to market through roads impassable by waggons. The restrictions of our trade will also tend to encrease the number of sheep, horses and horned cattle, used to form a great part of the New-England cargoes for the English West-India islands. These animals are exported to those places now in very small numbers, as our vessels are excluded from their ports.—The farms, capital and men, which were formerly employed in raising them, will want a market for their usual quantity, and the nature of that country being [Page] unfit for grain, sheep must occupy a great proportion of their lands.

COTTON thrives as well in the southern states, as in any part of the world. The West-India islands and those states raised it formerly, when the price was not half what it has been for years past in Europe. It is also worth double the money in America, which it sold for before the revolution, all the European nations having prohibited the exportation of it from their respective colonies to any foreign country. It is much to be desired, that the southern planters would adopt the cultivation of an article from which the best informed manufacturers calculate the greatest profits, and on which some established factories depend.

SILK has long been a profitable production of Georgia and other parts of the United States, and may be encreased, I presume, as fast as the demand will rise. This is the [Page] strongest of all raw materials and the great empire of China, though abounding with cotton, finds it the cheapest cloathing for her people.

IRON we have in great abundance, and a sufficiency of lead and copper, were labor low enough to extract them from the bowels of the earth.

MADDER has scarcely been attempted, but this and many other dye stuffs may be cultivated to advantage, or found in America.

UNDER all the disadvantages which have attended manufactures and the useful arts, it must afford the most comfortable reflection to every patriotic mind to observe their progress in the United States and particularly in Pennsylvania. For a long time after our forefathers sought an establishment in this place, then a dreary wilderness, every thing necessary for their simple wants was the work of European hands. How great [Page] —how happy is the change. The list of articles we now make ourselves, if particularly enumerated would fatigue the ear, and waste your valuable time. Permit me however to mention them under their general heads: meal of all kinds, ships and boats, malt and distilled liquors, potash, gunpowder, cordage, loaf-sugar, pasteboard, cards and paper of every kind, books in various languages, snuff, tobacco, starch, cannon, musquets, anchors, nails, and very many other articles of iron, bricks, tiles, potters ware, mill-stones, and other stone work, cabinet work, trunks and Windsor chairs, carriages and harness of all kinds, corn-fans, ploughs and many other implements of husbandry, sadlery and whips, shoes and boots, leather of various kinds, hosiery, hats and gloves, wearing apparel, coarse linens, and woolens, and some cotton goods, linseed and fish-oil, wares of gold, silver, tin, pewter, lead, brass and copper, clocks and watches, [Page] wool and cotton cards, printing types, glass and stone ware, candles, soap and several other valuable articles with which the memory cannot furnish us at once.

IF the nations of Europe possess some great advantages over us in manufacturing for the rest of the world, it is however clear, that there are some capital circumstances in our favor, when they meet us in our own markets. The expences of importing raw materials, which in some instances they labor under, while we do not—the same charges in bringing their commodities hither—the duties we must lay on their goods for the purposes of revenue—the additional duties, though small, which we may venture to impose without risquing the corruption of morals or the loss of the revenue by smuggling—the prompt payment our workmen receive—the long credits they give on their goods—the sale of our articles by the piece to the consumer, while they sell theirs by [Page] the invoice to an intermediate purchaser—the durable nature of some American manufactures, especially of linens—the injuries theirs often sustain from their mode of bleaching—these things taken together will give us an advantage of twenty-five to fifty percent. on many articles, and must work the total exclusion of several others.

BESIDES the difference in the qualities of American and European linens, arising from the mode of bleaching, there is a very considerable saving of expence from the same cause. So much and so powerful a sunshine saves a great loss of time and expence of bleaching-drugs and preparations, and this will be sensibly felt in our factories of linen and cotton.

WE must carefully examine the conduct of other countries in order to possess ourselves of their methods of encouraging manufactories and pursue such of them, as apply [Page] to our own situation, so far as it may be in our power—Exempting raw materials, dyestuffs, and certain implements for manufacturing from duty on importation is a very proper measure. Premiums for useful inventions and improvements, whether Foreign or American, for the best experiments in any unknown matter, and for the largest quantity of any valuable raw material must have an excellent effect. They would assist the efforts of industry, and hold out the noble incentive of honorable distinction to merit and genius. The state might with great convenience enable an enlightened Society, established for the purpose, to offer liberal rewards in land for a number of objects of this nature. Our funds of that kind are considerable and almost dormant. An unsettled tract of a thousand acres, as it may be paid for at this time, yields very little money to the state. By offering these premiums for useful inventions to any citizen of [Page] the Union, or to any foreigner, who would become a citizen, we might often acquire in the man a compensation for the land, independent of the merit which gave it to him. If he should be induced to settle among us with a family and property, it would be of more consequence to the state than all the purchase money.

IT might answer an useful purpose, if a committee of this society should have it in charge to visit every ship arriving with passengers from any foreign country, in order to enquire what persons they may have on board capable of constructing useful machines, qualified to carry on manufactures, or coming among us with a view to that kind of employment. It would be a great relief and encouragement to those friendless people in a land of strangers, and would fix many among us whom little difficulties might incline to return.

[Page] EXTREME poverty and idleness in the citizens of a free government will ever produce vicious habits and disobedience to the laws, and must render the people fit instruments for the dangerous purposes of ambitious men. In this light the employment of our poor in manufactures, who cannot find other honest means of a subsistence, is of the utmost consequence. A man oppressed by extreme want is prepared for all evil, and the idler is ever prone to wickedness, while the habits of industry, filling the mind with honest thoughts, and requiring the time for better purposes, do not leave leisure for meditating or executing mischief.

AN extravagant and wasteful use of foreign manufactures, has been too just a charge against the people of America, since the close of the war. They have been so cheap, so plenty and so easily obtained on credit, that the consumption of them has been absolutely wanton. To such an excess [Page] has it been carried, that the importation of the finer kinds of coat, vest and sleeve buttons, buckles, broaches, breastpins, and other trinkets into this port only, is supposed to have amounted in a single year to ten thousand pounds sterling, which cost the wearers above 60,000 dollars. This lamentable evil has suggested to many enlightened minds a wish for sumptuary regulations, and even for an unchanging national dress suitable to the climate, and the other circumstances of the country. A more general use of such manufactures as we can make ourselves, would wean us from the folly we have just now spoken of and would produce, in a safe way, some of the best effects of sumptuary laws. Our dresses, furniture and carriages would be fashionable, because they were American and proper in our situation, not because they were foreign, shewy or expensive. Our farmers, to their great honor and advantage, have been long in the excellent oeconomical [Page] practice of domestic manufactures for their own use, at least in many parts of the union. It is chiefly in the towns that this madness for foreign finery rages and destroys—There unfortunately the disorder is epidemical. It behoves us to consider our untimely passion for European luxuries as a malignant and alarming symptom, threatening convulsions and dissolution to the political body. Let us hasten then to apply the most effectual remedies, ere the disease becomes inveterate, lest unhappily we should find it incurable.

I cannot conclude this address, gentlemen, without taking notice of the very favorable and prodigious effects upon the landed interest, which may result from manufactures. The breweries of Philadelphia in their present infant state require forty thousand bushels of barley annually, and when the stock on hand of English beer shall be consumed, will call for a much larger quantity. Could [Page] the use of malt liquors be more generally introduced, it would be, for many reasons, a most fortunate circumstance. Without insisting on the pernicious effects of distilled liquors, it is sufficient for our present purpose to observe, that a thousand hogsheads of rum and brandy, mixt with water for common use, will make as much strong drink as will require 120,000 bushels of grain to make an equivalent quantity of beer, besides the horses, fuel, hops, and other articles of the country, which a brewery employs. The fruits of the earth and the productions of nature in America are also required by various other manufacturers, whom you will remember without enumeration. But it is not in their occupations only, that these valuable citizens call for our native commodities. They and their brethren who work in foreign articles, with their wives, children and servants necessarily consume in food and raiment a prodigious [Page] quantity of our produce, and the buildings for the accommodation of their families and business are principally drawn from our lands. Their effects upon agriculture are of more consequence than has ever been supposed by those, who have not made the necessary estimates. So great are the benefits to the landed interest, which are derived from them, that we may venture to assert without apprehension of mistake, that the value of American productions annually applied to their various uses, as just now stated, without including the manufacturers of flour, lumber and bar-iron, is double the aggregate amount of all our exports in the most plentiful year with which Providence has ever blessed this fruitful country.—How valuable is this market for our encreasing produce—How clearly does it evince the importance of our present plan. But we may venture to proceed a step further—Without manufactures the progress of agriculture must be arrested on the frontiers [Page] of Pennsylvania. Though we have a country practicable for roads, our western counties are yet unable to support them, and too remote perhaps to use land carriage of the most easy kind. Providence has given them, in certain prospect, a passage by water; but the natural impediments, though very inconsiderable, and the more cruel obstructions arising from political circumstances, are yet to be removed. The inhabitants of the fertile tracts adjacent to the waters of the Ohio, Potowmack and Susquehannah, besides the cultivation of grain must extend their views immediately to pasturage and grazing and even to manufactures. Foreign trade will never take off the fruits of their labor in their native state. They must manufacture first for their own consumption, and when the advantages of their mighty waters shall be no longer suspended, they must become the great factory of American raw materials for the United States. Their resources [Page] in wood and water are very great, their treasures in coal are almost peculiar, As they cannot sell their grain but for home consumption and must propagate sheep and cattle for the reasons above stated, their country will in a short time be the cheapest upon earth. Let us observe the reduction of provisions and raw materials, which even the present year will produce among them, and thence judge, with the necessary considerations, of the time to come.

How numerous and important then, do the benefits appear, which may be expected from this salutary design! It will consume our native productions now encreasing to superabundance—it will improve our agriculture and teach us to explore the fossil and vegetable kingdoms, into which few researches have heretofore been made—it will accelerate the improvement of our internal navigation and bring into action the dormant powers of nature and the elements—it will lead us once [Page] more into the paths of virtue by restoring frugality and industry, those potent antidotes to the vices of mankind and will give us real independence by rescuing us from the tyranny of foreign fashions, and the destructive torrent of luxury.

SHOULD these blessed consequences ensue, those severe restrictions of the European nations, which have already impelled us to visit the distant regions of the eastern hemisphere, defeating the schemes of short-sighted politicians will prove, through the wisdom and goodness of Providence, the means of our POLITICAL SALVATION.

THE END.

Notes

*

David Rittenhouse, Esq. of Pennsylvania.

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§

§

[Page]

[Page]

AN ADDRESS TO AN ASSEMBLY OF THE FRIENDS OF AMERICAN MANUFACTURES,

CONVENED FOR THE PURPOSE OF ESTABLISHING A SOCIETY FOR THE ENCOURAGEMENT OF MANUFACTURES AND THE USEFUL ARTS. READ IN THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA, ON THURSDAY THE 9th OF AUGUST 1787, BY TENCH COXE, ESQ. AND PUBLISHED AT THEIR REQUEST.

PHILADELPHIA: PRINTED BY R. AITKEN & SON, AT POPE'S HEAD IN MARKET STREET.

M,DCC,LXXXVII.

AT a numerous meeting of THE FRIENDS OF AMERICAN MANUFACTURES, at the University, on Thursday evening the 9th of Aug. 1787—

[Page]

The HON. THOMAS MIFFLIN, ESQUIRE, in the Chair.

RESOLVED,

THAT the thanks of this meeting be presented to TENCH COXE, ESQUIRE, for his ingenious and excellent discourse, delivered before them, preparatory to the establishment of a society FOR THE ENCOURAGEMENT OF MANUFACTURES AND THE USEFUL ARTS: And that he be requested to furnish the secretary with a copy, for publication.

Extract from the Minutes,

W. BARTON, SECRETARY.

§

§

I DO certify that on this eleventh day of August 1787, a pamphlet, intitled, "An address to an assembly of the friends of American manufactures," printed by Robert Aitken & Son, at Philadelphia, was entered by them, according to an act of assembly, in the office of the Prothonotary of Philadelphia county, as the property of said Robert Aitken & Son.

J. B. SMITH, Prothon.

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Title statement

An address to an assembly of the friends of American manufactures, convened for the purpose of establishing a society for the encouragement of manufactures and the useful arts, read in the University of Pennsylvania, on Thursday the 9th of August 1787, / by Tench Coxe, Esq. and published at their request.

Coxe, Tench, 1755-1824.

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Text Creation Partnership,

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Ann Arbor, MI :

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2005-10.

ID [DLPS]

N15881

ID [TCP]

N15881

ID [STC]

Evans 20305

ID [NOTIS]

APW5855

ID [IMAGE-SET]

20305

ID [EVANS-CITATION]

99011983

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Early American Imprints, 1639-1800 ; no. 20305.

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— An address to an assembly of the friends of American manufactures, convened for the purpose of establishing a society for the encouragement of manufactures and the useful arts, read in the University of Pennsylvania, on Thursday the 9th of August 1787, / by Tench Coxe, Esq. and published at their request., Coxe, Tench, 1755-1824..

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30 p. ; 20 cm. (8vo)

Printed by R. Aitken & Son, at Pope's Head in Market Street.,. Philadelphia: :: M.DCC.LXXXVII. [1787].

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