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city, reduced almost to extremity, but lifted from despair to hope by sight of approaching deliverance. Industry began to revive in the genial warmth of this new-born confidence. Even the diplomatic agents of foreign governments felt obliged to notice, in their official correspondence, the favorable change which was taking place. Lord Dorchester communicated the fol- · lowing views to the British Cabinet, under date of October 14, 1788:

The manufactures of the States are in their infancy, yet the enterprising genius of the people may be gathered from the great exertions of individuals in this branch under all their present embarrassments. In Connecticut, attempts have been made to make silk, and with success; specimens are shown at New Haven College, and Dr. Styles, the president, who is a man of genius and perseverance, is indefatigable at present in promoting it. Nail manufactories are already established; there are two in Albany that supply the whole country, and the importation of nails from Great Britain has ceased in that neighborhood. A white-glass manufactory has lately been set on foot in Jersey, and the sale is not inconsiderable.

Pennsylvania has taken the lead in various branches of manufacture; it is said that there are at this time between two and three hundred stocking looms in the city of Philadelphia and different parts of the State, with full employment. Machines for carding and spinning cottons have been introduced, and jeans can be made on moderate terms. The culture of cotton is at present much attended to in the Southern States.

Similar observations passed between the public men of the United States. St. John Crevecoeur wrote from New York to Jefferson, October 20, 1788:

Never was so great a change in the opinions of the best people as has happened these five years; almost everybody feels the necessity of coercive laws, government, union, industry, and labor. I hope the small differences entertained by some people about the

mode of regeneration will no longer be a barrier; such will be the foundations of America's future peace, opulence, and power. The exports of this country have singularly increased within these two years, and the imports have decreased in proportion; manufactures of the most useful kind are establishing in Pennsylvania, Connecticut, and Massachusetts; in the South they begin to cultivate cotton, and in the North they are erecting engines to spin it. Nails, canvas, cordage, glass, woolens, linens are now making as good of their kind as any in Europe. Bridges are building everywhere, new communications are opening, new settlements forming; the fisheries have been singularly prosperous this year; even here a singular spirit of improvement is conspicuous; they are paving all their streets in dos d'âne, with elegant foot-paths on each side; toward the North river immense docks are filling up with the adjacent banks, over which a beautiful street, sixty feet wide, is already laid out, which begins at the Battery and is to extend two miles, a considerable part of which is already done and paved. Four thousand pounds have been subscribed for embellishing and enlarging the City Hall, in order to accommodate the new federal corps with more decency, and Major l'Enfant has been appointed to preside over the works, which he has planned himself. This country, once consolidated, will easily pay its debts, by a wise system of commercial law encourage the industry of its inhabitants, and draw forth all their genius.

D. Humphries wrote from Mount Vernon to Jefferson, November 29, 1788:

The arts of peace are progressing in the old States, perhaps more rapidly than they have ever before done. The spirit of improvement is gaining ground. The three great bridges lately erected in Massachusetts do that State vast credit. The enterprise in trade and manufactures, supported by domestic economy, has, during the last year, for the first time made the exports from thence considerably more valuable than the imports into it. To this the trade in the East Indies has not a little contributed.

It is not difficult to point out the causes of this great change for the better. Behind the people spread a gloomy past, embittered with unredressed grievances

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and the harsh discipline of suffering; in the forward: distance appeared the dawn of a new era, aglow with bright promises. Cheered by that magnificent prospect, all classes turned their faces resolutely toward the future. Enterprise woke from its long sleep. Capital ceased to keep aloof from industrial undertakings, and took hold of ventures with both hands. Confidence, leaning fondly on hope, waved her enchanted wand over the scene, and industry began to ply her busy trades. Satisfaction and tranquillity left no room for the foreboding and the discord which for years had disturbed the American commonwealths. This was because the belief had become general that liberty had been strengthened, the rights of labor rescued, the destiny of the republic exalted, and the happiness of mankind increased, by the establishment of the new federal government, which thus, even before its legislative machinery could be set in motion, gave to all the material interests of the country some of the effects of positive protection. The "more perfect Union" was in itself alone a system of national defense, compared with the feebleness and inefficacy of the Confederation, so that society felt in all its ramifications the beneficial influence of a realization of greater security.

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CHAPTER IX.

PETITIONS TO CONGRESS FOR PROTECTION.

The first Wednesday in March, 1789, which was the fourth of the month, had been fixed by law as the date on which to inaugurate the new government; but a quorum of the House of Representatives was not formed until the following first of April. Within one week from that day, James Madison brought forward the subject of the tariff, as the most important which could engage the attention of members, and as the most pressing and indispensable of the measures to be acted on at that session. Just three days after the discussion commenced, a petition was presented from "the Tradesmen, Mechanics, and others of the Town of Baltimore," in which they said:

The happy period having now arrived when the United States are placed in a new situation, and the adoption of the general government gives one sovereign Legislature the sole and exclusive power of laying duties upon imports, your petitioners rejoice at the prospect this affords them; and America, freed from the commercial shackles which have so long bound her, will see and pursue her true interest, becoming independent in fact as well as in name. And they confidently hope that the encouragement and protection of American manufactures will claim the earliest attention of the supreme Legislature of the nation; as it is a universally acknowledged truth that the United States contain, within their limits, resources amply sufficient to enable them to become a great manufacturing country, and only want the patronage and support of a wise, energetic government.

Below is a condensed summary of this petition, recorded in the House Journal, as—

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Setting forth that, since the close of the late war and the completion of the Revolution, they have observed with serious regret the manufacturing and the trading interest of the country rapidly declining, and the attempts of the State Legislatures to remedy the evil failing of their object; that, in the present melancholy state of our country, the number of poor increasing for want of employment, foreign debts accumulating, houses and lands depreciating in value, and trade and manufactures languishing and expiring, they look up to the supreme Legislature of the United States as the guardians of the whole empire, and from their united wisdom and patriotism and ardent love of their country, expect to derive that aid and assistance which alone can dissipate their just apprehensions, and animate them with hopes of success in future, by imposing on all foreign articles which can be made in America, such duties as will give a just and decided preference to their labors, discountenancing that trade which tends so materially to injure them and impoverish their country-measures which, in their consequences, may also contribute to the discharge of the national debt and the due support of government; that they have annexed a list of such articles as are or can be manufactured amongst them, and humbly trust in the wisdom of the Legislature to grant them, in common with the other mechanics and manufacturers of the United States, that relief which may appear proper.

Considering the long and intense and embittered opposition of the South, in later years, to the protective system, on the ground of its unconstitutionality, the next petition, presented the very next day, possesses extraordinary significance. That petition came from the shipwrights of the principal city in the State which, in 1832, raised the banner of nullification against the tariffs of 1824 and 1828, and threatened separation from the Union unless the offensive laws should be annulled. The signers begged Congress to protect them from foreign encroachment. Here is their appeal, as it exists upon the records of the nation's House of Representatives:

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