American watchman and Delaware advertiser. [volume] (Wilmington, Del.) 1822-1828, 1827-12-18

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ufactures in Wool, Cotton, Iron, and Hemp, is
believed to be of very high moment to the natun.
All the principal raw materials for carrying them
ON are at hand, or could be commanded The
skill for imparting excellence to them would come
at the proper time. There would be no want of
labor; to which an abundant water-powcr, as well
as artificial machinery. would every where be len
ding its assistance. Capital would be found for
investment in them. If their establishment, by
the immediate protection OF the laws, should. at
first, raise the cost of the articles, and for sue
cession OF years keep it up, true forecast looking
to the future, rather than adapting all its cacula-
tons to the existing hour, would not hesitate to
embrace the protecting policy Nations that would
found schemes, of solid and durable advantage,
must be ready to do so at the peril of temporary
privation. It is the great term of national, as Of
individual superiority and distinction TO buy
cheap, is not the only, or always the chief good.
1t is Tor Legislators. who have to deal with the prac.
tlca interests OF mankind, to give to abstract pro-
positions the necessary limitations. Considera-
tons, higher than those Of present mercantile gain,
have often swayed the counses of nations ;-of
nations whose wisdom, in this respect, we ought
not lightly to impugn, any more than can at all
question their long pre.eminence in prosperity.
Need it be said that England had her laws, to
protect her tonnage, Tor more than century; du-
ring all which time, she might have employed the
tonnage OF other states, at price much below that
at which she built and used her own !? Need it be
added what results to her maritime and CONNER
cial sway, have flowed from her resolute persc
verance in those laws? Need it be said that
France. conspicuous for positive as for progress
sve riches, and comforts, and power, still ex-
clutes from her territory fabrics that might trench
upon the custom OF her own workshops, in branch
es OF labor and art, believed to be conducive to
the national resources, whilst they confer, also,
the means Of individual thrift Shall the many
laws Of these two great States, at periods when
they were laying the foundations OF their manufac-
turing industry be recounted all tending to foster
it by inducements the most eflicacious-aw to the
essential principle Of which they still in many
instances systematically adhere Shall we call 10
recollection, especially, the ordinance of NJ. Cal
1 onne, which invited to France arti6cers from all
nations. allowing them equal privileges with those
they enjoyed in their native countries. and grant
ing them an immunity from duties on the impor
taton of the materials used in their manufactures ;
nay more--exempting them and their workmen
!. from all personal other taxes ? These, with
analogous illustrations, as numerous as applicable,
will be forborne, too familiar to be rccapitulated.
The protecting laws to our own tonnage, our own
coastng trade, our own fisheries still in force, and
which first raised up the PROSTATE navigation of
the United States, may supersede other references.
These show how the Fathers of the Republic were
! awake to the wisdom of other times and other ma
tions, knowing how to make it their own. Their
recorded opinions attest, that they were equally
awake to the principle ofcncourasing manufactures,
in the broadcast sense If they did not carry it
farther into practice, it is because proper dis
elimination in the circumstances of that early
day, whether as regarded the state of the world
from without, or our own internal condition, no
sufficient motive for giving to the principle more
extended application. But if this species Of IN
dIstry should not be prcmaturcy gone into, so
neither ought the laws to neglect it too long Ex-
celence is Of slow growth. Rarely is it quick or
spontaneous in the material, any more than in the
moral world. Time is an agent indispensable
towards Inducing People into the full knowledge
of the manufacturing arts. They are complex ;
, they are difficult. They arc to be learned only
by Stages, throughout long course Of application
and Efforts as mind is evolved by education; in
situations for promoting which, the laws, in the
wisest countries, are careful to found and to nur-
ture. When, therefore, neither paucty of popula-
ton nor Of means, any longer bold as reasons for
not cutivatng these arts amongst US, and when
! those external circumstances have passed away
) which drew nearly all of our population into COM
+ nerce or into husbandry, the period for perma-
nently fixing them as an integral interest IN tfc
State, seems fully to have arrived. Whilst re-
pose in tranquility the season is ausnclOus for
fernr effectuallv upon the work OF establishing
those specially recommended. Should hap
pen, it is not easy to state the augmented resources
with which we should meet its exigcncics with these
manufactures tlonrishng in perfection, any more
than to portray the Inconvenience which we should
know in their absence. 1t is, therefore, rom the
connection of their success with the leading inter-
ests of the State in peace war, that the convic
ton is felt that it would be cypedcnt TO secure
their success even at the sacrifice of cheapness to
the individual purchaser,
But no such consequence is to be arprchended.
, If it were question of fostering manufactures for
!, which the circumstances Of the corntrv yielded
not the abundant facilities. as with England when
, she fostered by her own laws her tonnage.