The enquirer. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1804-1815, 1808-07-22
TIE ENQUiRER.
RICHMOND, JULY %, 1908.
ADDRESS

RICHMOND, JULT %, 1908.
ADDRESS
er THE COMMITTEE APPOINTED nY THE
ERIENpsor
TIE M4NUFAC7UPiNC ASSOCIATION
TO THE PEOPLE OF VIRGINIA.
FELLow-CITIzENs,
You have seen the French
Imperial Decree, and the British Orders of
Council, by which our commerce is, in eff
feet, destroyed. The injustice Of these two
nations tow 1rds America, has brought us TO
answer TO ourselves this question: ARE We
CAPABLE OF BEING ENTIRELY INDEPEH-
DENT, OR ARE WE NOT? Ii we are not,
II we must still get the necessaries of life
from foreign countries; we have before US
choice OF cviis.-We may continue our COM
merce as we have lately carried it on send
out our flag to be insu!ted in every sea, send
out our ships and cargoes to be plundered by
the corsairs of France and England, send
out our seamen to be seized, impressed, i'm
prisoned, hung up on the yards of British
ships, or chained to the oar and forced to fight
Tor their enemies against their friends, for
'ced to become instruments of violence ra-
pine and robbery even against the persons &
choose another evil-We may still get the
products OF Europe, by leagueing ourselves
with the one on the other ot the great bclli-
Serent powers, and claiming for our COM
! merce the protection of our ally: but what
are to be the consequences of this alliance ?
| L he first is to be immediately involved in all
the i;i;iTfeis of tiit,l ally and the last, 10 be
enslaved by her such is the concurrent
warning oi all history, ancient and modern.
here is third evil, by the adoption of
Hhich, we may still supply ourselves with
European manufac tures-that is, to permit
the ships of that power, which commands the
ocean. 10 became the carriers CT o;iG trade !;
to become OF Course its monopolist /; to sell
Us her articles aud take ours her cwn price
which rs prec.sly the s;rvitude in which
Great-Britain he'd cur commerce, while we
were colonies to her, and from which we wa
ged seven years war to emancipate our
selves. Such is the pre.ent state of the
world so perfectly have nations broken
through all the restraints of national courte-
sy; so entirely have they beaten down all
| those barriers of national law which former
ly guarded their intercourse so furious and
desperate is the conflict that agitates all Eu-
rope, and 50 wild and iicentious the anarchy
which RACES npon the ocean, that if we must
still have the products of Europe, we must
be content to get them by choosing among
| those evils We must get them ether by
Our own ships amidst insult, violence, plunder,
impressment and mercantile ruin--or W..
must get them by the ships of that nation
which triumphs upon the ocean, and .n such
terms as she shall prescribe to us--or we
must get them under the protection of an al
W. mt the price OF present peace and future
Independence.
| Thus situated, what remains for us to do,
but to withdraw from all intercourse with
those unjust nations, and look to those inter
| nal sources of supply, with which the bonn
ty OF Heaven has so abuGlantly blessed u.s.
II, as we hope, we have the virtnA to match
the crisis which presents itself; if we pos
sess the patriotic self-depial, the constancy,
the enterprise and perseverance, of which
our fathers in 1776 gave us so iliustrsous an
example; then indeed we shall be ndepen-
dent, Tor our independence will be placed
beyond the influence of foreign contact or col
iiSion Food and raimcnt arc the necessarics
Of HE. 4t the first our country has given us
such Overlooking abundance, that we have,
FLOR many years supplied bread to those
VINO now harrass us. We have not indeed
the luXurics of diet--but the patriots of 1916
have taught us how far liberty is to be pre-
itrred to luxury, the plain and simple repast
OF the freeman TO the voluptuous BANQUET of
| the colonial save.-Thus Astounding in plain
and wholesome food, is there any reason
| why we should go abroad For raimeut, the o.
ther necessary of life? We believe rot
we 1elieVe that we may at once become our
own manufacturers TO every necessary pur-
pose. We can supply to Ourselves the sub
stantial articles of clothing. We can 90 more
we can fa6riCate for ourselves the instru-
mchts of agriculture, and those domestic IL
| tensils and materials for building, which We
, have hitherto been IN the habit Of importing
from Europe.
l. Our colntri abounds in the finest cites
! Tor the erection Of those water-works. those
laboT saving machines To which Europe is
! so particularly indebted for the nourshing
state Of her manufactures. Ii is believed
that there is not 4 SPOT in Europe, perhaps
net in the world, which combines more ad-
vantages for the erection OF such works titan
the city OF Richmond itself
| 2. There can be 10 doubt that the nfechan-
ical genius of this country is ~ least equal
to the erection of such works. Carding ma
chimes have been ALREADY coristructc d in Sc
veral parts Of Virginia, & sp,ouing machines
In the northern states anH in Kentucky. In
a neighbonring state (Maryland.) artists, VIZ
leara. have already rendered themselves 10
an Institution corresponding in objects with
that nov submitted to Your consideration, &
! declare themselves capabis of erecting any
species oftnachincry necessary for their pur