CHAP. VII. in which all other nations had acquiesced. But if 1794. they were to engage in such a contest, it was by a similar act, by opposing disabilities to disabilities, that it ought to be carried on. Upon this point, several members who were opposed to the resolutions avowed an opinion favourable to an American navigation act, and expressed their willingness to concur in framing regulations which might meet the prohibitions imposed on their vessels with corresponding prohibitions. Thus far they were ready to go; but they were not ready to engage in a contest injurious to themselves, for the benefit of a foreign nation.

Another avowed object of the resolutions was to favour the manufactures of the United States. But certainly it was not by discriminating duties, by endeavouring to shift commerce from one channel to another, that American manufactures were to be promoted. This was to be done by pursuing the course already adopted, by laying protecting duties on selected articles, in the manufacture of which America had made some progress, and by a prohibitory duty on others, of which a sufficient domestic supply could be afforded. But the proposed measure only went to the imposition of a tax on their own citizens, for the benefit of a foreign nation.

If the British market afforded an assortment of goods best suited to their consumption, and could give them cheaper, a prohibitory duty imposed upon those goods would only drive their citizens to seek them in another market, less able to supply their wants, and at a dearer rate. There

was nothing in this tending to encourage manu- CHAP, VII, factures.

If the United States were prepared to manufacture to the whole amount of their wants, the importation of all rival articles might be prohibited. But this they were not prepared to do. Their manufactures must progrees by slow degrees, and they were not to enter into a measure of this kind, for the purpose of retaliating on a nation which had not commercially injured them.

The resolutions then were adapted to the encouragement neither of the navigation, nor the manufactures of the United States, but of a foreign nation. Their effect would obviously be to force trade to change its natural course, by discriminations against a nation which had in no instance discriminated against the United States, but had favoured them in many points of real importance. By what commercial considerations could such a system be recommended?

That it would be attended with great immediate inconveniencies must be admitted; but for these, ample compensation was to be found in its remote advantages. These were, a diminution of American commerce with one nation by its proportional augmentation with another, and a repeal of the navigation act, and of the colonial system of Great Britain.

On the subject of forcing trade from one nation to another, which is, of necessity, so complicated in principle, so various and invisible in consequence, the legislature would never act but with the utmost caution.

They would constantly keep

1794.

CHAP. VII in view, that trade will seek its own markets, 1794. find its own level, and regulate itself much better than it could be regulated by law. Although the government might embarrass it, and injure their own citizens, and even foreign nations for a while, it would eventually rise above all the regulations they could make. Merchants, if left to themselves, would always find the best markets. They would buy as cheap and sell as dear as possible. Why drive them from those markets into others which were less advantageous? if trade with Britain was less free, or less profitable than with France, the employment of coercive means to force it into French channels would be unnecessary. It would voluntarily run in them. That violence must be used in order to change its course, demonstrated that it was in its natural

course.

It was extraordinary to hear gentlemen complaining of British restrictions on American commerce, and at the same time stating her proportion of that commerce as a national griev ance, and that the trade was so free as to become an injury. The very circumstance that she retained so large a share of it, was evidence that it did not experience in her ports unusual burdens, Whenever greater advantages were offered by other countries, there would be no need of legislative interference to induce the merchants to embrace them. That portion of trade would go to each country, for which the circumstances of each were calculated. If Great Britain purchased more American produce than she consumed, it

was because, all circumstances considered, it was CHAP. VIL the interest of America to sell her more than she 1794. consumed. While this interest continued, no mischief could result from the fact; when the cause should cease, the effect would cease also, without the intervention of the legislature. The interests of the United States might suffer should a foreign country be enabled, by legal aid, to engross an over proportion of their trade, but they could never complain with reason that a particular nation purchased too much of their produce, when it could be enabled to make those purchases only by offering better terms. To compel the American merchant to trade with France in articles in which it would be his interest to trade with Britain, in order to equalize the commerce of the two nations, was a very insufficient motive for the proposed discriminations.

Nor was it probable that the resolutions under consideration would effect their other avowed object, a repeal of the British navigation act.

In addition to the calculations which were offered to ascertain the real importance to Britain of the American trade, it was said that, to give the measure the desired effect, it must be extended to the absolute prohibition of all importation whatever. If America should obtain her usual supplies from other countries, accustomed to manufacture only for themselves, it would create a demand in those countries for British manufactures. The principles of hydrostaticks would apply. A country requires a certain amount of manufactures for its consumption. Reduce the internal supply of that

CHAP. VII. amount, and you then create a demand for the 1794. manufactures of other nations. America proposes

taking the articles she wants from France. France will have a demand on Britain to supply the deficiency which will be thereby created. Thus the consumption will still encourage the British manufacturer, though at the increased expense of a circuitous voyage.

The season, it was said, was peculiarly unfavourable to such experiments. The internal convulsions of France had laid her manufactures in ruins. She was not in a condition to supply her own wants, much less those of the United States. The superb column erected at Lyons could furnish no stimulus to the industry of her manufacturers.

But the attempt to stop the natural intercourse between the United States and Great Britain, though incapable of producing on the latter the full effect which was desired, might inflict deep and lasting wounds on the most essential interests of the former. The injuries which their agriculture would sustain from the measure, might be long and severely felt.

It had been proudly stated, that while America received articles which might be dispensed with, she furnished in return the absolute necessaries of life; she furnished bread, and raw materials for manufactures. "One would think," said Mr. Tracy, "to hear the declarations in this house, that all men were fed at the opening of our hand; and, if we shut that hand, the nations starve, and if we but shake the fist after it is shut, they die.”