Dunlap's Pennsylvania packet , The general advertiser — Philadelphia, Pa., 1775-03-27 00:00:00, page 1

A SPEECH delivered in Carpenter's Hall,
March 16th, before the Subscribers towards a
Fund for establishing Manufactories of Woollen,
Cotton and Linen in the city of Pbilade'pbia. —
Published at the request of the company.
Gentlemen,
tf^^^A, >,HEN I refle& upon the extent of
^ J* "Lb the fubjedt before me, and confi
-6,™ W "^ der the final! (hare of knowledge
^^ ^L I possess of it, I confefs I rife with
V k ji k timidity to speak in this assembly;
' Yrf'V'i/'V an d it is only because the requests
of fellow citizens in every laudable undertaking
should always operate with the force of commands,
that I have prevailed upon myfelf to execute the
talk you have aligned me.
My business upon this occasion is to lay before
you a few thoughts upon the Necessity, Pos
sibility and Advantages of establishing
woollen, cotton and linen manufactories among us.
The Necessity of establishing these manufac
tories is obvious from the Association of the Con
gress, which puts a flop to the importation of
British goods, of which woollens, cottons and
linens always made a considerable part. So large
has been the demand for these articles, and so
very necessary are they in this country, that it is
impossible for us to cloath ourselves without sub
stituting some others in their room. lam far
from thinking that the non-importation agreement
will be so transitory a thing as some have suppl d.
The appearance of a change of measures in Eng
land refpeding the Colonies, does not flow from
a convi&ion of their injustice. The fame arbitra
ry Ministers continue in office, and the fame ar
bitrary Favourites continue to abuse the confidence.
of our Sovereign. Sudden conversions should be
trusted with caution, especially when they have
been brought about by interest or fear. I shall
think the liberties of America established at an easy
price by a two or three years non-importation
agreement. By union and perseverance in this
mode of opposition to Great-Britain, we shall af
ford a new phenomenon in the history of man
kind, and furnifh posterity with an example to
teach them that peace, with all the rights of hu
manity and justice, may be maintained by the ex
ertion of (economical as well as military virtues.
We dull moreover demonstrate the falfliood of
thofefyftems of government, which exclude patri
otism from the lift of virtues ; and (how, that we
aft most furefy for ourselves, when we ad most
difintereftedb for the public.
The Possibility of establishing woollen,
cotton and linen manufactories among us is plain,
from the success which hath attended several at
tempts that have been made for that purpose. A
great part of the inhabitants of several of the
counties in this province cloath themselves entire
ly with woollens and linens manufactured in their
own families. Our wool is equal in quality to
the wool of several European countries, and
if the fame pains were bestowed in the culture of
our sheep which are used in England and Spain, I
have no doubt but in a few years our wool would
equal the wool of Segovia itfelf. Nor will there
be a deficiency in the quantity of wool which will
be necessary for us, if we continue to adhere to
the association of the Congress as ftridly as we
have done. If the city of Philadelphia consumes
20,000 sheep less this year, than it did last, how
many 20,000 sheep may we suppose will be saved
throughout the whole province. According to the
ordinary encreafe in the breed of sheep, and allow
ing for the additional quantity of wool which a
little care of them will produce, I think I could
make it appear that in five years there will be wool
enough raised in the province to cloath the whole
of its inhabitants. Cotton may be imported upon
such terms from the Weft-Indies and southern
Colonies, as to enable us to manufacture thick
lets, calicoes, &c. at a much cheaper rate than
, they can be imported from Britain. Considering
bow much these fluffs are worn by those clafles of
people who constitute the majority of the inhabi
tants of our country, the encouragement of the
cotton manufactory appears to be an object of #e
utmost confequenee. 1 cannot help suggesting in
this place, although it may appear foreign to our
fubjeCt, that the trade to the Weft-Indies and
southern Colonies for cotton, would create such a
commercial union, with the middle and northern
Colonies, as would tend greatly to strengthen that
political union which now subsists between them.
I need fay nothing of the facility of cultivating
fiax, nor of the excellent quality of the linens
which have been already manufactured among us.
I shall only add, that,this manufactory may be
carried on without lessening the value of that
trade which arises from the exportation of our
flaxfeed to Ireland.
I cannoj help laying a good deal of flrefs upon
the public spirit of my countrymen, which re
moves the success of these manufactories beyond
a bare poflibility, and seems to render it in some
measure certain. The resolves of the Congress
have been executed with a fidelity hardly known
tj l.&sin any country, gnd tbat too without thg
O R,
GENERAL
M O N D A Y,
VOL. IV. NUMB. 17%
DUNLAP'S
assistance of fire and sword, or even of the civil
Magistrate, and in some places in direct oppositi
on to them all. It gives me the utmost pleasure to
mention here, that our province is among the
foremoft of the Colonies in the peaceable mode of
opposition recommended by the Congress. When
I reflect upon the temper we have difeovered in
the present controversy, and compare it with the
habitual spirit of industry and ceconomy for which
we are celebrated among strangers, I know not
how to estimate our virtue high enough. I am
sure no objects will appear too difficult, nor no
undertakings too expensive for us in the present
st ru ggle. The sum of money which has been
already fubferibed for the purpose of these manu
factories, is a proof that I am not too sanguine in
my expectations from this province.
I come now to point out the Advantages we
shall derive from establishing the woollen, cotton
and linen manufactories among us. The firft ad
vantage I shall mention is, we shall save a large
sum of money annually in our province. The
province of Pennsylvania is supposed to contain
400,000 inhabitants. Let ns suppose that only
50,000 of these are eloathed with the woollens,
cottons and linens of Great-Britain, and that the
price of eloathing each of these perfbns upon an
average amounts to £.5 sterling a year. If this
computation be just, then the sum annually saved
in our province by the manufactory of our cloaths
will amount to £.250,000 sterling. Secondly,
Manufactories next to agriculture are the basis of
the riches of every country. Cardinal Ximenes
is remembered at this day in Spain more for the
improvement he made in the breed of sheep, by
importing a number of rams from Barbary, than
for any other services he rendered his country.
King Edward the IV. and Queen Elizabeth, of
England, are mentioned with gratitude by histo
rians for passing acts of Parliament to import a
number of sheep from Spain; and to this mixture
of Spanish with English sheep, the wool of the
latter owes its peculiar excellence, and reputation
all over the world. Louis the XIV. King of
France, knew the importance of a woollen manu
factory in his kingdom, and in order to encourage
it allowed several exclusive privileges to the com
pany of woollen drapers in Paris. The effects of
this royal patronage of this manufactory have been
too sensibly felt by the English, who have within
these thirty or forty years had the mortification
of feeing the trade up the Levant for woollen
cloths in fume measure monopolized by the French.
It is remarkable that the riches, and naval power
of France have encreafed in proportion to this
very lucrative trade. Thirdly, By establishing
these manufactories among us, we shall employ a
number of poor people in our city, and that too
in a way most agreeable to themselves, and lead
expenGve to the company, for according to our
plan, the principal part of the business will be
carried on in their own houses. Travellers thro'
Spain inform us that in the town of Segovia,
which contains 60,000 inhabitants, there is not a
single beggar to be seen. This is attributed en
tirely to the woollen manufactory which is car
ried on in the most extensive manner in that
place, affording constant employment to the
whole of their poor people. Fourthly, By
establishing the woollen, cotton and linen manu
factories in this country, we shall invite manufac
turers from every part of Europe, particularly
from Britain and Ireland, to come and fettle
among us. To men who want money to purchase
lands, and who from habits of manufacturing are
disinclined to agriculture, the profpeflof meeting
with employment as soon as they arrive in this
country in a way they have been accustomed to,
would lefTen the difficulties of emigration, and
encourage thousands to come and fettle in Ame
rica. If they encreafed our riches by encreafing
the value of our property, and if they added to
our strength by adding to our numbers only, they
would be a great acquisition to us. But there are
higher motives which should lead us to invite
strangers to fettle in this country. Poverty, with
its other evils, has joined with it in every part of
Europe, all the miseries of slavery. America is
now the only asylum for liberty in the whole
world. The present contest with Great-Britain
was perhaps intended by the supreme Being,
among other wife and benevolent purposes, to
(how the world this affylum, which, from its re
mote and unconnected situation with the rest of
the globe, might have remained a secret fur ages.
By establishing manufactories we Eretch forth a
hand from the ark to invite the timid manufacturers
to come in. It might afford us pleasure to trace
the new sources of'happinefs which would imme
diately open to our fellow creatures from their
settlement in this country. Manufactories have
been accused of being unfriendly to population. I
believe the charge should fall upon slavery. By
bringing manufacturers into this land of liberty
and plenty, we recover them from the torpid state
in which they existed in their own country, and
place them in circumstances which enable them to
Laconic hufb^nds and ft,ffiers ? fend th^ we add
I===== f™*^=======
HMWWBW
I shall now confider the objections which
have been made to the establishment of manu
fadories in this country.
1 he firft, and most common objection to manu
factories in this country is, that they will draw
off our attention from agriculture. This objecti
on derives great weight from being made original
ly by the Duke of Sully, against the establishment
of manufactories in France. But the history of
that country shows us, that it is more founded in
(peculation than fa&. France has become opu-
Lht and powerful in proportion as manufactories
have flourifhed in her, and if agriculture has not
kept pace with her manufactories, it is owing en
tirely to that ill judged policy which forbad the
exportation of grain. I believe it will be found
upon enquiry that a greater number of hands have
been taken from the plough, and employed in
importing, retailing and transporting British wool
lens, cottons and linens, than would be Efficient to
manufacture as much of them as would cloath all
the inhabitants of the province. There is an end
less variety in the geniuses of men, and it would
be to preclude the exertion of the faculties of the
mind, to confine them entirely to the simple arts
of agriculture. Besides, if these manufactories
weie conduced as they ought to be, two thirds
of the labour of them will be carried on by those
members of society who cannot be employed in
agriculture, namely, by women and children.
A second objection is, that we cannot manu
facture cloaths so cneap here, as they can be im
ported from Britain. It has been the misfortune
of most of the manufactories which have been set
up in this country, to afford labour to journeymen
only for fix or nine months in the year, by which
means their wages have necessarily been so high
as to support them in the intervals of their labour:
It will be found upon enquiry that those manu
factories which occupy journeymen the whole year
are carried on at as cheap a rate as they are in
Britain. The expence of manufacturing cloaths
will be lessened from the great Eare women and
children will have in them; and I have the pleasure
of informing you that the machine lately brought
into this city for lessening the expence of time and
hands in fpmniog, is likely to meet with encou
ragement from the legislature of our province. In
a word, the experiments which have been already
made among us, convince us that woollens and
linens of all kinds may be made and bought as
cheap as those imported from Britain, and I be
lieve every one who has tried the former, will ac
knowledge that they wear twice as well as the
latter.
to the general tide of human happinefi. Fifthly,
The establishment of manufactories in this coun
try, by lessening our imports from Great-Britain,
will deprive European luxuries and vices of those
vehicles in which they have been transported to
America. The wisdom of the Congress cannot
be too much admired in putting a check to them
both. They have in effect said to them, “ Thus
far shall ye go, and no further." Sixthly, By
establishing manufactories among us, we ereCt an
additional barrier against the encroachments of
tyranny. A people who are entirely dependant
upon foreigners for food or cloaths, must always
be fubjeCt to them. I need not detain you in set
ting forth the misery of holding property, liberty
and life upon the precarious will of,our fellow
fubjeCts in Britain. I beg leave to add a thought
in this place which has been but little attended to
by the writers upon this fubje&, and that is, that
poverty, confinement and death are trifling evils,
when compared with that total depravity of heart
which is connected with slavery. By becoming
slaves, we shall lose every principle of virtue.
We shah transfer unlimited obedience from our
Maker to a corrupted majority in the British
Iloufe of Commons, and shall esteem their crimes,
the certificates of their divine commission to go
vern us. We shall cease to look with horror upon
the prostitution of our wives and daughters to
those civil and military harpies who now hover
around the liberties of our country. We shall
cbearfuly lay them both at their feet. We shall
bbg our chains. We shall cease to be men. We
shall be Slaves.
A third objection to manufactories is, that they
deftrcry health, and are hurtful to population.
The fame may be said of navigation and many
other arts which are eflential to the happiness and
glory of a state. I believe that many of the dis
eases to which the manufacturers in Britain are
fubjeCtare brought on, not so much by the nature
of their employment, but by their unw— efome
diet, damp houses, and other bad accommodati
ons, each of which may be prevented in America.
A fourth objection to establishing manufactories
in this country is a political one. The liberties
of America have been twice, and we hope will be
a third time preserved by a nonimportation of
British manufactures. By manufacturing our own
cloaths we deprive ourselves of the only weapon
by which we can hereafter effectually oppose
G'reat-Britain. Before we answer this objection
it becomes ci to acknowledge th^ obligations wt
T HE
ADVERTISER.
} _
m a r „b H 27th, 1775.
HORSE
W HY N O T,
Riling eight years old,
From bis Excellency Governor EDEN,
AND he 011 cover mares this season, till the
firft °f Angutt, at the plantation of Written
Cripps, within one mile of Salem, Weft Jersey, at
Forty Shillings the single leap, Three Pounds the
season, cash, and Four Pounds if credit fix months,
Whynot is a beautiful bright bay, full fifteen
hands high, with a star and snip, black legs, main
and tail ; and is allowed by competent judges, to
be one of the handsomest horses on the Continent.
Whynot was got by Fearnought, a son of old Re
giilus, his fire the •Godolphin Arabian, Whynot's
dam was got by Othello, his grandam by Spark,
and his great grandam was an imported mare, calf
led the Old Field mare. He won the following
purses, in seventy three, /.50 at Nottinglftm ;
in seventy-sour, £.50 at Nottingham ; £. 50 at
Baltimore; £. 50 at Newtown Chester ; he like
wise won a purse of £. 50 in Virginia, when in the
polEflion of Mr. Lee, He will be sent to Mr.
Cripps the 25th of March, and will be Lifted eve
ry ten days from Mr. Cripps, to my plantation, as
it will be the proper time to try the mares at each
place. t—Good parttire will be provided at each place
at two (hillings and fix-pence per week. Any
Gentlemen inclining to fend their mares, shall be
gratefully acknowledged, by their humble fe; vant,
JAMES FALMAN.
T O-'p/foR R O wf
At ONE o'clock in the afternoon, at
JOHN II A R T's
VENDUE-STORE,
At the corner of South and Front-Streets,
Will begin the SALE of a neat affortnent of
M E R C H AN p I Z^
*XXXX ? ^XXX^XXXXX ? *XX*
March zzd, 1775.
TO BE S O L D,
At PUBLIC VENDUE, by the fubferiber,
on the sth of April next, on the premises, and
may be entered on the next day,
A VALUABLE PLANTATION or
trad of land, situate in Ridley Township,
Chester County, containing 163 acres of good land,
one half of which is cleared, the rest well timbered,
about 6 acres of meadow and more may be made,
and well watered ; few places excel this in advan
tages of water, as Little Crum Creek runs through
the fame, on which there have been works erected,
such as a forge and smaller hammer for plateing of
iron ; there is a good stone dwelling house, log
kitchen, barn and liable, a never failing spring
near the house, a good bearing orchard of grafted
fruit, within three quarters of a mile of a Efficient
landing on the tide, about twelve miles distant front
the city of Philadelphia, and three from Chester.
The whole in tolerable good repair. Likewise will
be fold the fame day, a piece of improved marsh,
containing 7 acres, lying on Ridley Creek, about
a mile and a half diitant from laid place. The
title indisputable. The sale to begin at ten o'clock,
and the terms which are easy will be made known
on the day of sale, when attendance will be given,
by SAMUELCROSBY.
March zzd, 1775.
The SUBSCRIBER has purchased that noted
owe to our merchants for consenting so chearfully
to a suspension of their trade with Britain. From
the benefits we have derived from their virtue, it
would be unjust to insinuate that ever there will
be the lead danger of trusting the defence of our
liberties to them; but I would wish to guard
against placing one body of men only upon that
forlorn hope to which a non importation agreement
must always expose them. For this purpose I
would fill their stores with the manufaduies of
American looms, and thus establish their trade
upon a foundation that cannot be shaken. Here
then we derive an answer to the last objection that
was mentioned; for in proportion as manufacto
ries flourifh in America, they must decline in Bri
tain, and it is well known that nothing but her
manufactories have rendered her formidable in all
our contests with her. These are the foundation
of all her riches and power. These have made
her merchants nobles, and her ncbles princes.
These carried her so triumphantly through the
late expensive war, and tliefe are the support of
a power more dangerous to the liberties of Ame
rica than her fleets and armies, I mean the power
of corruption.—l am not one of those vindictive
patriots who exult in the profpea of the decay of
the manufactories of Britain. I can forgive her
late attempts to enslave us, in the memory of our
once mutual freedom and happiness. And should
her liberty—her arts —her fleets and armies and
her empire ever be interred in Britain, I hope
they will all rife in British garments only in
America.