THERE are in every country certain important crises when exertion or neglect must produce consequences of the utmost moment. The period at which the inhabitants of these states have now arrived, will be admitted by every attent­ive and serious mind to be clearly of this description.

Our money absorbed by a wanton con­sumption of imported luxuries, a fluctuat­ing [Page 6]paper medium substituting in its stead, foreign commerce extremely circumscrib­ed and a foederal government not only in­effective but disjointed, tell us indeed too plainly that further negligence may ruin us forever. Impressed with this view of our affairs, the writer of the following pages has ventured to intrude upon the public. But as neither his time nor op­portunities will permit him to treat of all the great objects, which excite his appre­hensions or engage his wishes, he means principally to confine himself to that part of them, which have been most subjected to his observations and enquiries.

Just opinions on our general affairs, must necessarily precede such a wise sys­tem of commercial regulations, as will extend our trade to the greatest length to which it can be carried without affecting [Page 7]unfavorably our other weighty interests. It may therefore be useful in the first place, to take a comparative view of the two most important objects in the United States—our agriculture and commerce.

In a country blest with a fertile soil, and a climate admitting steady labour, where the cheapness of land tempts the European from his home, and the manu­facturer from his trade, we are led by a few moments of reflexion to fix on agri­culture as the great leading interest. From this we shall find most of our other ad­vantages result, so far as they arise from the nature of our affairs, and where they are not produced by the coercion of laws —the fisheries are the principal exception. In order to make a true estimate of the magnitude of agriculture, we must re­member that it is encouraged by few or [Page 8]no duties on the importation of rival pro­duce—that it furnishes outward cargoes not only for all our own ships, but those also which foreign nations send to our ports, or in other words, that it pays for all our importations—that it supplies a part of the cloathing of our people and the food of them and their cattle—that what is consumed at home, including the materials for manufacturing, is four or five times the value of what is exported —that the number of people employed in agriculture, is at least nine parts in ten of the inhabitants of America—that there­fore the planters and farmers do form the body of the militia, the bulwark of the nation—that the value of property, occu­pied by agriculture, is manifold greater than that of the property employed in every other way—that the settlement of our waste lands, and subdividing our im­proved [Page 9]farms is every year encreasing the pre-eminence of the agricultural interest —that the resources we derive from it are at all times certain and indispensibly ne­cessary—and lastly, that the rural life pro­motes health and morality by its active nature, and by keeping our people from the luxuries and vices of the towns. In short, agriculture appears to be the spring of our commerce, and the parent of our manufactures.

The commerce of America, including our exports, imports, shipping, manufac­tures and fisheries, may be properly con­sidered as forming one interest. So un­informed or mistaken have many of us been, that it has been stated as the great object, and I fear it is yet believed to be the most important interest of New-Eng­land. But from the best calculations I [Page 10]have been able to make, I cannot raise the proportion of property or the number of men employed in manufactures, fish­eries, navigation and trade to one-eighth of the property and people occupied by agriculture, even in that commercial quar­ter of the Union. In making this esti­mate I have deducted something from the value and population of the large towns for the idle and dissipated, for those who live upon their incomes, and for supernu­merary domestic servants. But the dis­proportion is much greater, taking the Union at large, for several of the states have little commerce, and no manufac­tures—others have no commerce and scarcely manufacture any thing. The timber, iron, cordage and many other ar­ticles necessary for building ships to fish or trade—nine parts in ten of their car­goes—the subsistence of the manufac­turers, [Page 11]and much of their raw materials are the produce of our lands. In almost all of the countries of Europe the most ju­dicious writers have considered commerce as the handmaid of agriculture; and if true there, with us it must be unquestion­able. We have few manufactories to throw into the scale against the landed in­terest. We have in our lands full employ­ment for our present inhabitants, and in­stead of sending colonies to new-discover­ed islands, we have adjoining townships and counties whose vacant fields await the future increase of our people.

If a comparative view of the importance of our various interests should terminate in a decided and great superiority of agricul­ture over all the rest combined—if emi­gration and natural increase are daily add­ing to the number of our planters and farmers—if the states are possessed of mil­lions [Page 12]of vacant acres, that court the cul­tivator's hand—if the settlement of these immense tracts will greatly and steadily encrease the objects of taxation, the re­sources, the powers of the country—if they will prove an inherent treasure of which neither folly nor chance can de­prive us, let us be careful to do nothing that can interrupt this happy progress of our affairs. Should we from a miscon­ception of our true interests, or from any other cause, form a system of commercial regulations, prejudicial to this great mass of property, and to this great body of the people, we must injure our country during the continuance of the error. I must final­ly return, under the disadvantages of fur­ther changes, to that plan, which it must be our sincere desire, as it is our serious duty at this time to devise.

[Page 13] While I feel an absolute conviction that our true interests should restrain us from burdening or impeding agriculture in any way whatever, I am not only ready to admit, but must beg leave to urge, that sound policy requires our giving every encouragement to commerce and its con­nexions, which may be found consistent with a due regard to agriculture.

The communication between the dif­ferent ports of every nation is a business entirely in their power—The policy of most countries has been to secure this do­mestic navigation to their own people. The extensive coasts, the immense bays and numerous rivers of the United States have already made this an important ob­ject, and it must increase with our popu­lation ^*.—As the places at which the car­goes [Page 14]of coasting vessels are delivered must be supplied with American produce from some part of the Union, and as the mer­chant can always have American bot­toms to transport the goods of the pro­ducing state to the state consuming them, no interruption to the market of the planters and farmers can be apprehended from prohibiting transportation in fo­reign bottoms from port to port within the United States—A single exception may perhaps be proper, permitting fo­reign vessels to carry from port to port, for the purpose of finishing their sales, any goods that shall be part of the car­goes they brought into the Union, from the last foreign place at which they load­ed. The fleets of colliers on the British coast evince the possible benefits of such a regulation

[Page 15] The consumption of fish, oil, whale­bone and other articles obtained through the fisheries, in the towns and counties, that are convenient to navigation, has become much greater than is generally supposed. I am informed that no less than five thousand barrels of mackarel, salmon and pickled cod-fish, are vended in the city of Philadelphia annually; add to them the dried fish, oil, spermaceti candles, whalebone, &c. and it will be found a little fleet of sloops and schoon­ers are employed in the business. The demand for the use of the inhabitants of those parts of the Union to which these supplies can be carried, is already consi­derable, and the increase of our towns and manufactures will render it more so every year. In the present state of our navigation we can be in no doubt of pro­curing these supplies by means of our [Page 16]own vessels. The country that interferes most with us at our own market is Nova Scotia, which also, I am informed, has had some emigrants from our fishing towns since the decline of their business. Such encouragement to this valuable branch of commerce, as would secure the benefits of it to our own people, without injuring our other essential interests, is certainly worth attention.—The Convention will probably find on consideration of this point that a duty or prohibition of foreign articles, such as our own fisheries supply, will be safe and expedient.

The article in the British trade laws, which confines the importation of foreign goods to the bottoms of the country pro­ducing them, and of their own citizens, appears applicable to our situation. By means of those two flags we should be [Page 17]certain of the necessary importations, and we should throw out of each department of the carrying trade every competitor, except the ships of the nation by which the goods were raised or manufactured. All trade with several countries, such as China and India, whose vessels seldom or never make foreign voyages, would be secured into our hands. It will be found, that an application of this regulation in practice, will be attended with no diffi­culties or inconveniencies, and besides the immediate benefits already mentioned, our merchants will be led directly to the original market for the supplies of which we stand in need. Instead of purchas­ing the goods of Russia or the East-Indies in England, France or Holland, our own ships will sail directly to the fountain from whence they have flowed to us through foreign channels. The credits [Page 18]given us in Europe after the peace, kept us in the practice of going to a very few places, for all our importations. But they have trusted us in many instances at a dear rate indeed, and however useful cre­dit may be as a supplement to our means of trade in this young country, it is very certain that we should first lay out to the best advantage our funds in hand.

These are the principal encouragements to foreign commerce, which occur to me at present as proper to form a part of a permanent system for the United States. Regulations for temporary purposes, such as restrictions and prohibitions affecting particular nations, I do not mean to speak of here. I must however observe, that they should be adopted with great pru­dence and deliberation, as they may affect us very unfavorably, if they should be [Page 19]tried in vain. In taking measures to pro­mote manufactures, we must be careful that the injuries to the general interests of commerce do not exceed the advantages resulting from them. The circumstances of the country, as they relate to this bu­siness, should be dispassionately and tho­roughly examined. Tho' it is confessed, that the United States have full employ­ment for all their citizens in the extensive field of agriculture, yet as we have a va­luable body of manufacturers already here, as many more will probably emigrate from Europe, who will chuse to continue at their trades, and as we have some citi­zens so poor as not to be able to effect a little settlement on our waste lands, there is a real necessity for some wholesome ge­neral regulations on this head. By tak­ing care not to force manufactures in those states, where the people are fewer, tillage [Page 20]much more profitable, and provisions dear­er than in several others, we shall give a­griculture its full scope in the former, and leave all the benefits of manufacturing (so far as they are within our reach) to the latter. South-Carolina, for instance, must manufacture to an evident loss, while the advancement of that business in Massachu­setts will give the means of subsistence to many, whose occupations have been ren­dered unprofitable by the consequences of the revolution. A liberal policy on this subject should be adopted, and the produce of the southern states should be exchanged for such manufactures as can be made by the northern, free from impost.

Another inducement to some salutary regulations on this subject, will be sug­gested by considering some of our means of conducting manufactures. Unless bu­siness [Page 21]of this kind is carried on, certain great natural powers of the country will remain inactive and useless. Our nume­rous mill seats, for example, by which flour, oil, paper, snuff, gunpowder, iron­work, woolen cloths, boards and scant­ling, and some other articles are prepar­ed or perfected, would be given by pro­vidence in vain. If properly improved, they will save us an immense expence for the wages, provisions, cloathing and lodging of workmen, without diverting the people from their farms—Fire, as well as water, affords, if I may so speak, a fund of assistance, that cannot lie un­used without an evident neglect of our best interests. Breweries, which we can­not estimate too highly, distilleries, sugar houses, potteries, casting and steel fur­naces, and several other works are carri­ed on by this powerful element, and at­tended [Page 22]with the same savings, that were particularized in speaking of water ma­chines—'Tis probable also that a fre­quent use of steam engines will add great­ly to this class of factories. In some ca­ses where fire and water are not employ­ed, horses are made to serve the purpose as well and on much lower terms than men. The cheapness and the easy en­crease of these serviceable animals insure us this aid to any extent that occasion may require, which however is not like­ly to be very great.

The encouragement to agriculture, af­forded by some manufactories, is a rea­son of solid weight in favor of pushing them with industry and spirit. Malt li­quors, if generally used, linseed oil, starch (and were they not a poison to our mo­rals and constitutions I might add corn, [Page 23]spirits) would require more grain to make them, than has been exported in any year since the revolution—I cannot omit to observe here, that beer strengthens the arm of the labourer without debauching him, while the noxious drink now used enervates and corrupts him—The work­ers in leather too of every kind, in flax and hemp, in iron, wood, stone and clay, in furs, horn, and many other articles employ either the spontaneous producti­ons of the earth or the fruits of cultiva­tion.

If we are convinced by these consider­ations, that regular factories of many kinds should be promoted in the most suitable parts of the Union, let us next consider whether the encouragements now held out to them are both sufficient and proper. The nearest rivals of our [Page 24]manufacturers are those of Europe, who are subjected to the following charges in bringing their goods into our market— The merchant's commission for shipping and the same for selling, cost of pack­ages, custom house papers in Europe, and the same with a duty of 5 per cent. here, porterages, freight, insurance, damage, interest of money, waste, and loss on ex­change—These may be rated at 25 per cent on the least bulky of our manufac­tures^†. Here is a solid premium, operat­ing [Page 25]like a bounty, while it happily costs the consumer nothing, for the charges of importation are unavoidable and the du­ty being merely for the purpose of reve­nue, is applied to pay the public debts and expences of which he owes his pro­portion. [Page 26]This encouragement can only be encreased by exempting raw materials from duty, which may be very safe and proper and by additional duties and pro­hibitions, which would induce the loss of the revenue and an injury to morals from smuggling, and would throw upon the other members of the commercial interest and the cultivators and improvers of our lands an unnecessary burden. The ma­nufacturers are a just and sensible body of men, and love their country. I feel a perfect confidence therefore, that when they see a substantial advantage of 25 per cent. in favour of their goods, which cannot be taken from them, they will de­sire that government should refrain from further duties and prohibitions. This estimate being made upon the finest of our manufactures, it is evident that the more [Page 27]bulky and weighty would shew the ad­vantages of our own workmen in a yet stronger light.

The clear air and powerful sun of Ame­rica is another advantage our manufacto­rers enjoy. When the linen and cotton branches shall become considerable, a great saving of time and money will be made by the climate, and where bleaching is effected principally by the sun and water, the quality of the cloth is known to be more excellent. The European process by drugs and machines impairs the strength. Ireland, I confess, with a cli­mate very different from ours, is remark­able for the quality of its linens, but they do not equal the American homespun in strength. In confirmation of the above opinion, I may mention that there was a plan formed before the revolution, by a [Page 28]number of English merchants of esta­blishing a company with a large capital, to import the brown linens of Europe to be bleached here for the supply of our markets.

In this country the consumer's money follows the delivery of the manufacture, therefore less capital is required. In e­very part of Europe extensive credits are given upon their goods. For though some nations have not got into the habit of trusting us, their own merchants are known to buy on easy terms of payment. France is perhaps as little accustomed to give these indulgencies as any other great country in Europe, yet nothing is paid for there, in less than two months, and the credits are extended from that time to twelve months according to the article. At the expiration of the term an accepted bill at sixty days is consider­ed [Page 29]as prompt payment, so that the actual term of credit is from four months to fourteen.

To these might be added several other little advantages, the joint benefits of which are sensibly felt, but I trust enough has been said to satisfy the just and pa­triotic mind, though concerned in the business, that a further addition of duties would not promote the general interests of the country. I must here beg leave however strenuously to recommend, that every duty on American produce or ma­nufactures, impoliticly and unkindly im­posed by the laws of several of the states, should be taken off, and that the justice and sound policy of the alteration should be declared and admitted in some public instrument: And as ships may be very properly considered as the greatest article [Page 30]we make, the tonnage on our own bottoms should be equalized throughout the Uni­on, and the extra duties on goods import­in vessels not belonging to the state in which they are landed, should be done a­way—Complaints against the trade laws of foreign nations come not consistently from those who lay similar burdens on their sister states.

A further encouragement to manu­factures will result from improvements and discoveries in agriculture—There are many raw materials, that could be produced in this country on a large scale which have hitherto been very confined. Cotton for many years before the revolution was not worth more than nine-pence sterling in the West-India Is­lands. The perfection of the factories in Europe has raised it to such a pitch, that besides the prohibition against shipping it [Page 31]from the colonies to any foreign port, the price has risen fifty per cent. The con­sumers in Pennsylvania have paid near two shillings sterling for the importation of this year. This article must be worth the attention of the southern planters.

If the facts and observations in the pre­ceding part of this paper be admitted to be true and just, and if we take into considera­tion with them the acknowledged superior­ity of foreign commerce, and the fisheries over our manufactories, we may come to the following conclusions—That the U­nited States of America cannot make a proper use of the natural advantages of the country, nor promote her agriculture and other lesser interests without manu­factures, that they cannot enjoy the at­tainable benefits of commerce and the fisheries, without some general restricti­ons [Page 32]and prohibitions affecting foreign nations, that in forming these restrictions and prohibitions, as well as in establish­ing manufactories, there is occasion for great deliberation and wisdom, that no­thing may be introduced, which can in­terfere with the sale of our produce, or with the settlement and improvement of our waste lands.

Among the political considerations, which must necessarily be admitted in treating of this subject, the force that may be required for our protection is not to be forgotten. It is certainly the greatest that attends it. America, we may assume, can have no inducement to engage in Eu­ropean wars. From our local situation we may keep ourselves long disengaged from them. The principal European na­tions would find us an unprofitable and [Page 33]troublesome enemy. The trade of France, Great-Britain, Spain, Holland and Portu­gal, which passes by our coasts, are a se­curity against their hostilities. A war a­mong them, in which we should take no part, would be more beneficial to our farmers, merchants and manufacturers than all the advantages we could obtain, if engaged in it ourselves. Our ships would carry for them, or instead of theirs, and our lands and manufactories would furnish the supplies of their fleets and is­lands in the West-Indies. To counter­balance these advantages, and to pay the expences of a war would require captures rich and numerous indeed, but what could compensate us for the drain of peasantry and the lost opportunity of cultivating commerce and the arts of peace. A war merely offensive cannot be apprehended. —The fortune of the British arms against [Page 34]America undisciplined and divided, will instruct our enemies to beware of invasi­ons after the military lessons taken from that long and serious contest. Having no foreign colonies whose situation and weakness would subject them to their at­tacks, and having all our resources at hand to defend our own coasts, and cut up their trade in its passage by our doors, no Eu­ropean power will be inclined to insult or molest us—should any of them be so in­sensible to their own interests, as to de­part from the policy, which evidently ought to govern them, America, by act­ing in concert with the most powerful ene­my of such hostile country, must com­mence a war, which however inconveni­ent and disagreeable to us, would be ru­inous to their West-India trade, and fatal to their colonies. We are not destitute of resources and powers to injure them or [Page 35]defend ourselves. Our inland navigation, coasting trade and fisheries, and the por­tion of foreign commerce we must inevi­tably enjoy, are no inconsiderable nurse­ries for seamen. Good naval officers we should not want; they have never been scarce, and one happy effect of the revo­lution has certainly been to raise the re­putation of the marine life and to en­crease the talents and respectability of its followers. Foreign seamen too, would find great temptations to enter on board our privateers and ships of war, and might be hired in any numbers we could pay. The increase of the strength and riches of the country, by filling up our vacant lands, is the infallible method by which the necessary means may be acquired.

It will not be amiss to draw a picture of our country, as it would really exist [Page 36]under the operation of a system of nation­al laws formed upon these principles. While we indulge ourselves in the con­templation of a subject at once so interest­ing and dear, let us confine ourselves to substantial facts, and avoid those pleasing delusions into which the spirits and feel­ings of our countrymen have too long misled them.

In the foreground we should find the mass of our citizens the cultivators (and what is happily for us in most instances the same thing) the independent proprie­tors of the soil. Every wheel would ap­pear in motion that could carry forward the interests of this great body of our peo­ple, and bring into action the inherent powers of the country. A portion of the produce of our lands would be consumed in the families or employed in the busi­ness [Page 37]of our manufacturers—a further por­tion would be applied in the sustenance of our merchants and fishermen and other numerous assistants, and the remainder would be transported by those that could carry it at the lowest freight (that is with the smallest deduction from the aggregate profits of the business of the country) to the best foreign markets. On one side we should see our manufacturers encou­raging the tillers of the earth by the con­sumption and employment of the fruits of their labours, and supplying them and the rest of their fellow citizens with the in­struments of their occupations, and the necessaries and conveniencies of life, in every instance where it could be done without injuriously and unnecessarily in­creasing the distress of commerce, the la­bours of the husbandmen and the difficul­ties of changing our native wilds into [Page 38]scenes of cultivation and plenty. Com­merce on the other hand, attentive to the general interests, would come forward with offers to range through foreign cli­mates in search of those supplies, which the manufacturers could not furnish but at too high a price, or which nature has not given us at home, in return for the sur­plus of those stores, that had been drawn from the ocean or produced by the earth.

On a review of the preceding facts and observations there appears to me reason to believe, that the necessary measures might be taken to render our farms pro­fitable and to improve our new lands, and that our manufactures, fisheries, na­vigation and trade, would still be consi­derable. The long voyage by which all interfering foreign articles must be brought to these markets, and the inevit­able [Page 39]necessity for a revenue, give us, as hath been demonstrated, a virtual bounty of 25 per cent. in favor of our own commo­dities, and this in the least favorable in­stances. When returning occonony, and the fall of rents, and provisions shall have reduced the expences of living, when our increasing farms shall have poured in their addition of raw materials, and we shall have felt the shortness of importation produced by the suffering of our credit abroad, and by the check which has been given to foreign adven­turers in our trade, this difference of 25 per cent. will have a sensible effect. Be­ing rated on the whole value of the arti­cle, that is, as well on the labour as the raw materials, it is in fact 50 per cent. on the labour in all cases where the work­manship is half the value of the manufac­tured goods, and so in proportion where it [Page 40]is more. Beer, distilled liquors, potash, gun­powder, cordage, loaf sugar, hanging and writing paper, snuff, tobacco, starch, an­chors, nail rods, and many other articles of iron, bricks, tiles, potters ware, mill­stones, and other stone work, cabinet work, corn fans, Windsor chairs, carriages, sad­dlery, shoes and boots, and other wearing apparel, coarse linens, hats, a few coarse woolen articles, linseed oil, wares of gold and silver tin and copper, some braziery, wool cards, worms and stills, and several other articles may be considered as esta­blished. These are tending to greater perfection, and will soon be sold so cheap as to throw foreign goods of the same kind entirely out of the market.

Many of the same circumstances, that favour the manufacturer will render the fisheries more profitable, and from the [Page 41]cheapness of vessels, they will be carried on at less expence than in the few last years. The American market, where the consumption (with population) is in­creasing fast, may be entirely secured to them. Our manufactories and towns will annually make larger demands for candles, oil, whalebone and pickled fish, and it may be policy, in cities where meat is yet so dear, to introduce the consumption of the dried cod. The Danish and French Is­lands, and the free ports in the West-In­dies, receive some of the produce of the fisheries—France is likely to take off a considerable quantity, as also are the Spa­niards, Portuguese and Italians, and the English will always want certain articles for their manufactories, though not to any great amount—New-England, the seat of the fisheries, has the great advantage of being the cheapest and most populous part [Page 42]of America. Its inhabitants are healthy, active and intelligent, and can be frugal; wherefore I am very much disposed to be­lieve, that many factories will in the course of a very few years revive their declining towns.

The commercial citizens of America have for some time felt the deepest dis­tress—among the principal causes of their unhappy situation were the inconsiderate spirit of adventure to this country, which pervaded every kingdom in Europe, and the prodigious credits from thence given to our merchants. To these may be add­ed the high spirits and the golden dreams that naturally followed such a war, closed with so much honor and success.—Tri­umphant over a great enemy, courted by the most powerful nations in the world, it was not in human nature that America [Page 43]should immediately comprehend her new situation—really possessed of the means of future greatness, she anticipated the most distant benefits of the revolution, and con­sidered them as already in her hands. She formed the highest expectations ma­ny of which however, serious experience has taught her to relinquish, and now that the thoughtless adventures and imprudent credits from foreign countries take place no more, ^* and time has been given for cool reflexion, she will see her true situation and need not be discouraged.

Our future trade may comprehend the fisheries with the exclusive benefit of supplying our own markets, as hath been already observed. The coasting trade will be entirely secured to us. The right of bringing the commodities of foreign countries may be divided with the ships [Page 44]of the nation from whom they come, or in those cases where they have no native ships the carrying trade may be our own. The revolution has opened to us some new branches of valuable commerce. The intercourse with France was next to none before the war, and with Russia, India and China not thought of. With activi­ty and strict oeconomy we may pay Eu­rope with some of the produce of India, for a part of the goods with which they supply us, and if we do not over-regulate trade, we shall be an entrepot of cer­tain commodities for their West-India and south American colonies. Besides these objects all the manufacturing coun­tries and many free ports will be open to us, and we may adventure in foreign ships to a considerable extent, though it would be more desireable to employ our own. As the proposed regulations would [Page 45]compel the British or Dutch merchants, to import into the United States a part of the produce of France and Spain in American bottoms, so may ours serve the general interests of their country by sending tobacco to Sweden, or flour, rice and live stock to the British colonies in the vessels of the respective nations.

The foundations of national wealth and consequence are so firmly laid in the United States, that no foreign power can undetermine or destroy them. But the enjoyment of these substantial blessings is rendered precarious by domestic cir­cumstances. Scarcely held together by a weak and half formed foederal consti­tution, the powers of our national govern­ment, are unequal to the complete execu­tion of any salutary purpose, foreign or domestic. The evils resulting from this unhappy state of things have again [Page 46]shocked our reviving credit, produced a­mong our people alarming instances of dis­obedience to the laws, and if not remedied, must destroy our property, liberties and peace. Foreign powers, however dispo­sed to favor us, can expect neither satis­faction nor benefit from treaties with congress, while they are unable to en­force them. We can therefore hope to secure no privileges from them, if mat­ters are thus conducted. We must im­mediately remedy this defect or suffer exceedingly. Desultory commercial acts of the legislatures, formed on the impres­sion of the moment, proceeding from no uniform or permanent principles, clash­ing with the laws of the other states and opposing those made in the preceding year by the enacting state, can no longer be supported, if we are to continue one people. A system which will promote [Page 47]the general interests with the smallest in­jury to particular ones has become indis­pensibly necessary. Commerce is more affected by the distractions and evils aris­ing from the uncertainty, opposition and errors of our trade laws, than by the re­strictions of any one power in Europe. A negative upon all commercial acts of the legislatures, if granted to Congress would be perfectly safe, and must have an excellent effect. If thought expedi­ent it should be given as well with re­gard to those that exist, as to those that may be divised in future. Congress would thus be enabled to prevent every regulation, that might oppose the general interests, and by restraining the states from impolitic laws, would gradually bring our national commerce to order and per­fection. Such of the ideas suggested in the preceding part of this paper, as shall [Page 48]be honored with the public approbation, may be better digested, and, if they appear worthy of it, may form new articles of con­federation, which would be the founda­tion of the commercial system.

I have ventured to hint at prohibitory powers, but shall leave that point and the general power of regulating trade to those who may undertake to consider the poli­tical objects of the Convention, suggest­ing only the evident propriety of ena­bling Congress to prevent the importation of such foreign commodities, as are made from our own raw materials. When any article of that kind can be supplied at home, upon as low terms as it can be imported on, a manufacture of our own produce, so well established, ought not by any means to be sacrificed to the interests of foreign trade, or subjected to injury by [Page 49]the wild speculations of ignorant adven­turers. In all cases careful provision should be made for refunding the duties on ex­portation, which renders the impost a vir­tual excise without being liable to the ob­jections against an actual one, and is a great encouragement to trade.

The restoration of public credit at home and abroad should be the first wish of our hearts, and requires every oecono­my—every exertion we can make. The wise and virtuous axioms of our political constitutions, resulting from a lively and perfect sense of what is due from man to man, should prompt us to the discharge of debts of such peculiar obligation. We stand bound to no common creditors. The friendly foreigner, the widow and the orphan, the trustees of charity and re­ligion, the patriotic citizen, the war-worn [Page 50]soldier, and a magnanimous ally—these are the principal claimants upon the feel­ing and justice of America. Let her ap­ply all her resources to this great duty, and wipe away the darkest stain, that has ever fallen upon her. The general im­post—the sale of the lands and every other unnecessary article of public property— restraining with a firm hand every need­less expence of government and private life—steady and patient industry, with proper dispositions in the people, would relieve us of part of the burden, and ena­ble Congress to commence their payments, and with the aid of taxation, would put the sinking and funding of our debts with­in the power of all the states.

The violence committed on the rights of property under the authority of tender laws in some of the states, the famili­arity [Page 51]with which that pernicious mea­sure has been recurred to, and the shame­less perseverance with which it has been persisted in after the value of the paper was confessedly gone, call aloud for some remedy. This is not merely a matter of justice between man and man; it dishonors our national character abroad, and the en­gine has been employed to give the coup de grace to public credit. It would not be difficult perhaps to form a new article of confederation to prevent it in future, and a question may arise whether fellow­ship with any state, that would refuse to admit it, can be satisfactory or safe. To remove difficulties it need not be retro­spective. The present state of things instead of inviting emigrants, deters all who have the means of information, and are capable of thinking. The settlement of our lands, and the introduction of manufactories and [Page 52]lines of trade yet unknown among us or requiring a force of capital, which are to make our country rich and powerful, are interrupted and suspended by our want of public credit and the disorders of our government.