at home to support the industry of our own citizens, as they formerly did that of squandering it in Europe and the East Indies, to support the industry of foreign nations, under the idea of " letting trade regulate itself," which it has never done in any age or country.

But however painful this procedure may be, it is a duty, The persons opposed to our views, without replying to our arguments, far less refuting any of them, repeat the hacknied common places of free trade, taxing the many for the benefit of the few, impairing the revenue, &c. &c. Free trade with them means, in strict propriety, to remove the restrictions that favour our own citizens, while all other nations maintain rigorous restrictions in favour of their subjects.

We therefore crave indulgence for any repetitions that may appear in this essay, as the inevitable consequence of the course pursued by the opposers of the system which we advocate. Whenever they advance new arguments, we shall meet them with new replies. To old arguments, ten times repeated, and as often refuted, we can only advance repetitions.

When we first began to address our fellow citizens, about nine months ago, on the distress and embarrassment so generally prevalent throughout the union, the existence of that distress and embarrassment was denied; endeavours were used to convince the public, that our statements on the subject were erroneous; that the country at large enjoyed a high degree of prosperity; and that whatever little pressure existed was confined to a few towns and cities where banks and over-trading had produced some ruin. It was unhesitatingly asserted, that the farmers and planters, the great body of the nation, had no reason to complainand accordingly made no complaint; and that all the clamour arose from a few manufacturers, who were, to the whole nation, as a few stray sheep to an immense flock.

These assertions although radically wrong, were made with such confidence, as to gain credence with those who did not look beyond the mere surface of things. Unfortunately for the country, as well as for the credit of those who who made them, their want of foundation is now obvious and so palpable, as to admit of no denial. Calamity has advanced upon us with such rapid strides, that whatever doubts may have been entertained heretofore, have now vanished. There is but one sentiment on the

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subject. That the distress is more intense in some parts of the union, than in others, favoured by local circumstances, is admitted-but that it is felt every where, is equally clear.

Would to heaven our descriptions had been unreal, and that we had been deceived. To none of our readers would the discovery of the error have been more agreeable than to ourselves. We present an outline of the leading features of our situation at the close of the war, and at present, which affords a most melancholy contrast, appalling to every friend not merely of this country, but of human happiness generally.

Our Situation at the close of the War.

1. Every man, woman, or child in the nation, able and willing to work, could procure employment.

2. We had an extensive and profitable cotton manufacture, spread throughout the union, and producing above 24,000,000 of dollars annually, which might, by proper encouragement, have been extended to 50,000,000 in a few years.

3. This manufacture consumed above one-fourth part of our whole crop of cotton.

4. We had a capital vested in merino sheep to the amount of one million of dollars.

5. We possessed a valuable woollen manufacture, which produced us annually clothing to the amount of nineteen millions of dollars-and which might have been extended before now to double the amount.

6. Almost all of our manufacturing establishments were fully and advantageously employed.

7. Confidence between our citizens was general. 8. Our debts to ots to Europe were fairly and honourably discharged.

9. Little, if any of our public stock was held in that quarter of the globe.

10. Money could be easily borrowed at legal interest. 11. Debts were collected without difficulty.

12. Our character, as a mercantile people, stood fair with the world.

13. Every man who had capital, could find advantageous employment for it in regular business.

14. The country was generally prosperous, except a few places which had suffered desolation during the war.

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Our Present Situation.

1. Our profitable commerce nearly annihilated. 2. Our shipping reduced in value one half.

3. Of our merchants a considerable portion bankrupt, and many tottering on the verge of bankruptcy. The commercial capital of the country reduced, it is believed, seventy millions of dollars.

4. Our manufacturing establishments in a great measure suspended, and many of them falling to decay.

5. Many of their proprietors ruined.

6. Thousands of citizens unemployed throughout the United States. [About 11,000 in the city of Philadelphia have been deprived of employment.]

7. Our circulating medium drawn away to the East Indies and to Europe, to pay for articles which we could ourselves furnish, or which we do not want.

8. A heavy annual tax incurred to Europe in the interest payable on probably 20 or 25,000,000 of dollars of government and bank stock, likewise remitted in payment. 9. Real estate every where fallen thirty, forty, or fifty per cent.

10. Our great staples, cotton, flour, tobacco, &c. reduced in price from thirty to forty per cent.

11. Our merino sheep, for want of protecting the woollen manufacture, in a great measure destroyed, and those that remain not worth ten per cent. of their cost.

12. Large families of children become a burden to their parents, who are unable to devise suitable means of employment for them.

13. Numbers of our citizens, possessed of valuable talents, and disposed to be useful, but unable to find employment, are migrating to Cuba, where, under a despotic government, among a population principally of slaves, and subject to the horrors of the inquisition, they seek an asytum from the distress they suffer here!*

*Emigration to Cuba." The schooner Three Sally's, captain Warner, sailed from this port on Sunday last, for Fernandina de Yuaga, a new port and settlement on the south side of Cuba, with 101 passengers, principally respectable mechanics, and their families, and late residents of this city.”—Philadelphia Daily Advertiser, Dec. 2, 1819.

"In the schooner John Howe, lately sailed upwards of one hundred passengers for the new settlement of Fernandina, in Cuba," ---Philadelphia Gazette.

14. Hundreds of useful artisans and mechanics, who, allured by our form of government, migrated to our shores, are returned to their native countries, or gone to Nova Scotia or Canada, broken hearted and with exhausted funds t 15. Men of capital are unable to find any profitable employment for it in regular business.

16. Citizens who own real estate to a great amounthave large debts due them—and immense stocks of goods, cannot mortgage their real estate, dispose of their stocks but at extravagant sacrifices, nor collect their debts.

17. Citizens possessed of great wealth, have it in their power to increase it immoderately, by purchasing the property of the distressed, sold at ruinous sacrifices by sheriffs, marshals, and otherwise-thus destroying the equality of our citizens, and aggrandizing the rich at the expense of the middle class of society.

18. The interest of money extravagantly usurious.

19. Distress and misery, to an extent not to be conceived but by those who have an opportunity of beholding them, spreading among the labouring class, in our towns and cities.

20. Bankruptcy and poverty producing an alarming increase of demoralization and crime.

21. The attachment to our government liable to be impaired in the minds of those who are ruined by the policy it has pursued.

22. After having prostrated our national manufactures, lest we should injure the revenue, the revenue itself fails, and we are likely to be obliged to recur to loans or direct taxes to meet the exigencies of the government.

23. Numbers of banks in different parts of the union, deprived of their specie by the extravagant drains for Europe and the East Indies, and obliged to stop payment.

24. Legislatures driven, by the prevalence of distress, to the frightful measure of suspending the collection of debts.

That this is an unexaggerated picture of the actual situation of our country, is, alas! too true. It affords a proof that our system has been radically unsound-and that a change is imperiously called for. Any change can scarcely fail to be beneficial.

"Liverpool, Nov. 2, 1819.---The Ann, captain Crocker, from New York, is now off this port, with upwards of one hundred returned emigrants."

These ruinous consequences were prophetically depicted with a pencil of light,' and also distinctly presented to the view of congress in their progress. Happy, thrice happy would it have been, had the warnings and heartrending statements which that body received been duly attended to-What shoals and quicksands would our prosperity have escaped!

The committee of Commerce and Manufactures in 1816 declared, that

"The situation of the manufacturing establishments is perilous. Some have decreased-and some have suspended business. A liberal encouragement will put them again into operation. But should it be withheld, they will be prostrated. Thousands will be reduced to want and wretchedness. A capital of nearly sixty millions of dollars will become inactive, the greater part of which will be a dead loss to the manufacturers. Our improvidence may lead to fatal consequences."

Again

"Can it be politic in any point of view, to make the United States dependent on any nation for supplies, absolutely necessary for ease, for comfort, or accommodation?

"Will not the strength, the political energies of this nation be materially impaired at any time, but fatally so in time of difficulty and distress, by such dependence?

"Do not the suggestions of wisdom plainly show, that the security, the peace, and the happiness of this nation, depend on opening and enlarging all our resources, and drawing from them whatever shall be required for public use or private convenience?”

The suffering citizens laid their calamitous situation before congress in the most eloquent appeals, but in vain. No part of the union suffered more than Pittsburg. From the address of that city we quote a single sentence

"The tide of importation has inundated the country with foreign goods. Some of the most valuable and enterprising citizens have been subjected to enormous losses, and others overwhelmed with bankruptcy and ruin.` The pressure of war was less fatal to the hopes of enterprise and industry, than a general peace, with the calamities arising from the present state of our foreign trade."

Part of the long catalogue of ills, it was out of our power to prevent; among the rest, the reduction of our commerce, and the consequent depreciation in the value of