Notes on the State of Virginia (1802)/Query 19
QUERY XIX.
THE preſent ſtate of manufactures,
commerce, interior and exterior trade?
We never had an interior trade of any importance. Our exterior commerce has ſuffered very much from the beginning of the preſent coteſt. During this time we have manufactured within our families the moſt neceſſary articles of cloathing. Thoſe of cotton will bear ſome compariſon with the ſame kinds of manufacture in Europe; but thoſe of wool, flax, and hemp are very coarſe, unſightly, and unpleaſant: and ſuch is our attachment to agriculture, and ſuch our preference for foreign manufactures, that be it wiſe or unwiſe, our people will certainly return as ſoon as they can, to the raiſing raw materials, and exchanging them for finer manufactures than they are able to execute themſelves.
The political œconomiſts of Europe have eſtabliſhed it as a principle that every ſtate ſhould endeavor to manufacture for itſelf: and this principle, like many others, we transfer to America, without calculating the difference of circumſtance which ſhould often produce a difference of reſult. In Europe the lands are either cultivated, or locked up againſt the cultivator. Manufacture muſt therefore be reſorted to of neceſſary not of choice, to ſupport the ſurplus of their people. But we have an immenſity of land courting the induſtry of the huſbandman. Is it beſt then that all our citizens ſhould be employed in its improvement, or that one half ſhould be called off from that to exerciſe manufactures and handicraft arts for the other? Thoſe who labor in the earth are the choſen people of God, if ever he had a choſen people, whoſe breaſts he has made his peculiar depoſit for ſubſtantial and genuine virtue. It is the focus in which he keeps alive that ſacred fire, which otherwiſe might eſcape from the face of the earth.—Corruption of morals in the maſs of cultivators is a phenomenon of which no age nor nation has furniſhed an example. It is the mark ſet on thoſe, who not looking up to heaven, to their own ſoil and induſtry, as does the huſbandman, for their ſubſiſtance, depend for it on the caſualties and caprice of cuſtomers. Dependence begets ſubſervience and venality, ſuffocates the germ of virtue, and prepares fit tools for the deſigns of ambition. This, the natural progreſs and conſequence of the arts, has ſometimes perhaps been retarded by accidental circumſtances: but, generally ſpeaking, the proportion which the aggregate of the other claſſes of citizens bears in any ſtate to that of its huſbandmen, is the proportion of its unfound to its healthy parts, and is a good enough barometer whereby to meaſure its degree of corruption. While we have land to labor then, let us never wiſh to ſee our citizens occupied at a work-bench, or twirling a diſtaff. Carpenters, maſons, ſmiths, are wanting in huſbandry: but for the general operation of manufacture, let our work-ſhops remain in Europe. It is better to carry proviſions and materials to workmen there, than bring them to the proviſions and materials, and with them their manners and principles. The loſs by the tranſportation of commodities acroſs the Atlantic will be made up in happineſs and permanence of government. The mobs of great cities add juſt as much to the ſupport of pure government, as ſores do to the ſtrength of the human body. It is the manners and ſpirit of the people which preſerve a republic in vigor. A degeneracy in theſe is a canker which ſoon eats to the heart of its laws and conſtitution.