The New-Jersey gazette — Burlington [N.J.], 1785-11-21 00:00:00, page 1

Ift. Because not being enabled to form treaties,
trade cannot in their hands be made the basis of com
mercial compass.
2d. Because no regular system can be adopted by
thirteen different legillatures, purluing different ob
jeds, and feeing the fame object in different lights.
3d. Because if it were even to be presumed, that
they would at all times and in every ciicumßan'ce,
Sacrifice partial interests to the general good, yet the
want of harmony in their measures, and a common
force would forever defeat their heft intentions.
From these and a variety of similar considerations,
your memorialifts observe, that it will necessarily
follow, either that the trade of these states shall con
tinue to labour under all these inconveniencies, which
arise from the want of commercial treaties, the ba
lls of the intercourse between trading nations, —or
that the power of regulating trade, be transferred to
that honourable body, who alone by the confederati
on are empowered to make treaties.
Your memoriahfts cannot but observe on the in
consistency ms a system, which, while it empowers
the United States in Congress to treat with foreign
powers, deprives them of the means of doing it with
advantage, hnce no one can be ignorant that the con
nexions between nations is founded on mutual inte
rests, and that nothing is yielded by one, unless in
recompence of something gained cf the other.
If then we require facilities for cur commerce
from foreigners, we must be enabled tCafford or de
ny them others' that they may equally require in re
turn; it will.be otherwise in vain to expect an equi-
From the New-York Packet.
New-York, Nov. 178;.
Mr. Loudon,
TH^E general committee of mechanics of this city,
having been honoured by the committee of cor
respondence, with copies of a memorial from the
corporation of the chamber of commerce to the
Fgiflature of this fate ; also their circular let
• ters to the fates in union, and the counties inthis
fate, conceive they contain matter of so much
importance to the welfare of the federal union,
that they wifo them to receive a place in your
ufeful packet.
,^====*s ====^
To the Honourable the Representatives of the
People of the State of New-York, in Senate
and assembly convened.
The MEMORIAL of the Corporation of the
Chamber of Commerce,
Humbly Sheweth,
01 H\B your memorialing have seen with
concern, that a flounfhing and fuccefs
ful commerce has not yet been number
g ed among the bleJins that peace and
— independence have restored to the state,
but that trade, the great spring of agriculture and
manufactures, languishing under fatal obßrußi
ons, is daily on the decline— that your memoria
lists feel themselves constrained, by a variety of pub
lick and private considerations, to mention some of
the causes of that decline, and to solicit the early at
tention of your honourable body to an object, which
at once embraces the Separate inteießs of every or
der and class of citizens.
1 he decay of thole manufactures which formerly
made a part of our exports together with die check
agriculture has received from the advanced price of
labour and the devaluations of war, have been high
ly prejudicial to die commerce of tire Race ; but as
these evils require no other remedy but time, and a
mild and equitable government, your memorialists
pass them over as temporary inconveniencies, in or
der to call your attention to others, which without
the early interpolation of your honourable body, may
be more serious and lading.
By our federal union, no power is invested in the
representative sovereignty of America to regulate
trade; but on the contrary, that right is rcfeived to
the refpedfive Abates, who cannot possibly use it for
the common benefit :
[Vol. VIIL] T HE [Numb,. 393]
NE>JERSEY GAZETTE.
TRENTON:
M ONDA Yf November 21, 1785.
Printed by ISAAC COLLINS, Printer to the State.
(CIRCULAR to the STATES.)
New-York, Sept. 30, 1785.
Gentlemen,
AS a committee of correspondence of the city
of New-fori; we beg leave to address pur
, fclves through you to the fate of which you are
members, and take the liberty of inclofir,g you a
memorial from the chamber of commence of this city*
which, in our humble opinion, contains matter war
thy of your serious c.moderation.
Among rhe blefungs of our late revolution, it is
not the dealt that the laws and constitutions which
we have eßabhfhed are creatures of tire publics will,
and may be altered and modified by That power from
which toeir exigence was denied; ihe general
' ferife therefore of any defed in them will naturally
and easily operate a cute But this general sense is
not always to be effected with t:.clequrfitq celei ity.
; For although nothing can be more evident to reason
f than this piupifriou that whatever injures a pan
; is detiiinental to the ^./ole. yet a long, time, : may
dapfe before the feelings cf a community can be
excised by the ills which afflict any particular order
valent for that which they may enjoy without render
ing any.
Your memorialifts are sorry to add, that these re-
I fleXions are confirmed by daily experience, and that
Ithough they are well informed, that no endeavours
I have been wanting on the part of the United States
l in Congress, to procure such treaties as would place
I the trade of their constituents on the most relpeclable
;foundation; though they know that the commerce
;of this country (almost the only civilized one that
! does not manufacture for itfelf) is an inviting object
to the maritime nations of Europe, they Rill have to
; lament that no treaties are formed, by which they
i have obtained an equivalent for these advantages,
I and that they have even the mortification to find the
iinability of Congress to retrain commerce urged by
I thole who derive the greatest benefit from us, as an
l argument against miking the finalleft facrifice to the
iinterefts of these Rates.
Your memorialifts would further observe, that the
;commerce of this country must labour under the
greatest inconveniencies, unless speedily secured from
the depredations of Barbary corsairs, and inßead of
Ibeing the carriers of the commodities of other nati
-lons, they will even be compelled to seek protection
for their own, by uhng veflels of thole who are in
' alliance with them; that this evil can only be reme
died by expensive treaties, and an annual tribute in
co-operation with such a naval force, as will prevent
their violation. How far the resources of the United
States enable Congress to make arrangements, so es
sential to the honour and ptofperity of their constitu
ents, your honouiable body, who have the belt means
of comparing the sums paid into the common treasu
ry, with the various and complicated demands of our
extensive empire, are bed able to judge.
! Your memorialifts therefore, without enlarging
on these important fubjeds, submit the consideration
of them to your honourable body, in full confidence
that they will receive the earliest attention, and give
birth to such laws as may be necessary to invest the
United States in Congress, with power to regulate
trade, and to confine it, if it shall be found expedi
ent, to those nations that may incline to afford us
an equivalent for the advantages they may derive
from our commerce—to form treaties with the Bar
bary powers—to maintain such a naval edablilhment,
as will protect our coasts from those piratical invasi
ons, which our extreme weakness seems every day
to invite, and that while this Rate takes measures
to promote these important ends, it will negleX no
means to render them efficacious, by inviting others
to follow their example; and that such other means
will be applied to give relief in the premises, as to
your honourable body, in your great wisdom, shall
seem meet
And your memorialists, as in duty bound, will
ever pray.
By order of the Chamber,
JOHN AL 08, President.
^==l$ — — _^Q
of citizens. When we fee the landholder and mer
chant seduced into a falfe idea that dieir real in e
refts are different, it is not to be wondered at (though
it must be lamented) that one Rate should fuppofe°it
can derive advantage or may elcape danger from
circumfiances.of injury, or oppression to another.
But if leafon will not fuffice to shew the falmy of
such opinions, a happy but severe experience past,
and we apprehend a future experience less happy
and more severe will evince, that our union is the
bajis oj our grandeur and power. Ihe foundation
once removed, the fupeißiu&ure of national felicity
male crumble into dull )ou cannot but perceive
that although the late treaty with Britain has given
the name of peace, yet we in fad are called on to
Wage a variegated wai.—^^d unfortunately for us
as the enmity is less open, so the enemies are more
numerous.— UI Europe did indeed desire to fee us
independent; but now that we are become so, eacli
separate power is equally desirous of rendering our
interests subservient to their commercial polity . ° We
may, and perhaps we ought to accept these powers
who.(clofely allied to us in peace and war) find their
political interests connected with thole of the Uni
ted States. But abs, how frail is the tenure cf na
tional prosperity, when it hangs on the ties of poli
tical inteiefts. Inteiefts which perpetually change.
Whatever then may be the internal dikuffion between
particular citizens or between the teveral Rates on^
truth results to reason, and has been falsified by
long experience, that the prosperity of our countr.y
an'd the affluence of every order of cozens in it, has
kept equal pace with our foreign trade. Ahe ex
tention of the one, invariably b^s, and we may ven
ture to pronounce that it neceßarily must produce
an increase cf the other. Our commerce, foreign,
and dumeftic, forms allo the only source of a ma
rine, and hence the commercial war, which we
complain of, for we are so far removed from the
antient world, that by a marine alone we can be
refpe&ed as a nation; and unless the nation be re
fpeded, its citizens will be defpfed; unless the na
tion hath power to exa&, the citizen will in vain
demand his right. The injury and the insult nuy,
and in the firft instance, mull affect the interests and
the feelings of the merchant, but in the event every
citizen will fuffer from the wrongs which his fellow
citizen has endured, and so with refpe^t to the Rates
themselves; those molt commercial, those most de
pendent on the sea, will feel must k-rdibi) the attempts
of foreign nations to reßrid our trade in general,
and the carrying trade in particular. But when reve
nue is to be obtained, and whe, fleets are required,
the Rates lead commercial wid in vain regret tint
the commerce of their filter ft res is decayed, and
their feanien deßroyed. It is the part cf wisdom to
forefee, and of prudence to avoid those things which
we may clle want, the patience and the power to re
pel of endure. Ive request yen therefore, to.ufe he
inestimable privileges of which we are p Rtfed, and
from that elevated Ration on which freedon has pla
ced every ^meiican citizen, calmly and deliberately
to examine the conduct of foreign powers, with rela
tion to America, audit, from mature refection, you
shall be convinced that the right of regulating com
merce, or any other authority ought to be veiled in
the United States in Mongrels, additional to these
which they new possess, we invite y<u to coir , on d
with us on the important subj tt, and to t, k< inch
measures wiih your own legifiatuie, as ma\ be
must tfedu.il for giving to the fovrrUgn replan
tation of out innn, that consistency, efficiency and
rcf[efybilhy, which are recefcry to the lafety,
prosperity and bappineis of thole over whom they
prehde.
We arc, gentlemen,
Your moR humble Servants,'
Jacob Mor+is, B'iCiam Constable,
Eleazer Miißr, Daniel Nevin,
Daniel Phoenix, Archibald Currie,
'james Watson, PPiPDm Neifo)?,
PafchaP N. Smith, Nathamri Hazard,
David brooks, Apam Gi/chrif, jug,
Robert Bowne, jacobus Van Zandt,
Jonathan Lawrence, Alexander Stewart,