The Massachusetts spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1821-1823, 1822-05-29
lnat me Immense wealth, power. and

vith a population of only about 10000 |
300 of people, obviously by the restrict
i've system, whereby she keeps the ma
tionaI industry employed on the raw ma
teriais of their own soil, and on those
collected fror every quarter of the
g.obe-trebling, quadrnpling, and quin-
Iapling their original value--and Ike
wise the present prosperous state OF
France, Notwithstanding all her suffer-
ings during twenty years. war, and her
subsequent prostration under hostile ar
mics resulting, in like manner, from
the restrictive system, afford the strong
est corroboration of IFS soundness that
can be conceived.
That the distress and Suffering which
actually exists in Holland, together with
the !smentable failure of her finances,
] in consequence of system similar to,
andenacted cotemporaneously with ours,
whereby the national industry has been
paralised, and the national manufactures
Frustrated, by immense importatiens Of
rival articles, satisfactorily prose, that
manufactures require the constant fos-
tering protection OF government to guard
them from the competition of foreign
rivals; and that where they undergo a
severe depression, all classes Of society,
as we'll as.ihe national resources, suffer
with them.
That to the experience of Holland, 50
full fraught with the most irresistible adj
monitiens, may be added that of the
United States after their two wars, which
furnishes powerful additional proof of
the pernieioas consequences of exposing
the manufacturing industry of nation
to the overwhelming competition of for
eign rivals, possessed of all the pre-em-
ineRt advantages which improved ma
chinerv. consurnmate skill, immense cap
itals. and the aid of bounties and draw
back at home, can afford. AT the close
of those wars, this country was in a
highly prosperous state. IdIeness was
banished the land. Every man, woman,
or child, able and willing to work was
fully employed. Pauperism was in a
great degree unknown. Happiness per-
vaded all ranks OF society. But the ees-
sation of war produced calamities which
war had ia vain attempted TO infiict
Enormous importations took place, which
glutted the markets, and berett our cili-
zens Of a chance of sale, and Of that re-
ward 10 which industry has an indefeas-
ible claim Goods to use a favour
tie phrase, 'swere imported cheaper
than they could be manufactured at
home.o Ruin spread among our manu-
facturers- Thousands of the working
classes of society, male and female, were
bereft of employment and of the means
of supporting themselves and their help
less children; devoted to idleness and
pauperism; and exposed to the lures of
vice and crime The productions Of
the country were entirely inadequate to
paw for the enormous amount Of foreign
Injuries calculated to demoraITze US, or
convenience and necessaries, most part
of which we could ourselves have sup
Piled To discharge the balance ex-
hausted the metaIick medium of the ma
tion, which spreada paralysis through
out all the operations of society, and
produced that distress which engendered
tender and appraisement laws. and all
those unhappy measures to which en-
barrassed communities are so often driv-
en-. Comnerce, which had been an eff
ficient agent in producing these scenes,
partook in both cases of the RUN which
n had produced. Agriculture, by few
years of this rufnous system, has lost
nearly all The advantages it derived
from an uninterrupted course Of pros
perity for nearly twenty years. And
our finances, 10 which the attention OF
many of our statesmen appeared exclu-
sivey directed, and Of which the lasting
prosperity was predicted with unlimited
confidence, have failed, with the gene
raj impoverislnnent of the nation an
impoverishment which is as certain a
consequence of the sacrifice of domestic.
TO foreign industry, as heat is the conse-
qnence of fire-or light that of the pres
ence Of the sun in his meridian splen-
door,
That We have beheld with satisfac-
tion the fostering care bestowed on com
Enerce from the organization ofthe gov
eminent to the present time, whereby
the tonnage of The ETnited States WAS ell
ev1ted 10 few years to the secondrank
among the nations of the earth; the
eoastiDg trade secured by prohibitions
under penalty of confscatiou of any for.
eign vessels interfering in it !; such dis