that lie unheeded under their feet. Import duties are not to be considered merely as enactments for promoting American manufactures, for they constitute the principal source of national revenue. It might be difficult to form a conception of a revenue {241} that could be collected at less expense, or of taxation raised in a more voluntary manner on the part of the people. But as moderating these duties must unquestionably, on every occasion, be injurious to home industry, and as augmenting them to the extent of the total prohibition of foreign goods would introduce smuggling, the two objects of the system are in some degree incompatible in the present state of money affairs.
The capital vested in uncultivated lands, is a mere dormant stock which cannot be applied to such active employments as the erection of workshops, machinery, and other outlays necessary for the establishment of manufactories, unless it is replaced by other funds. Neither is it so easy to procure money as formerly by mortgaging cultivated lands, now when the prices of produce are so low.
The expedients resorted to, in keeping base money in circulation, are, with respect to manufacturing interests, as impolitic as they are, in fact, unjust. Bankers, who are virtually insolvent, are to be ranked amongst the opposers of manufacturers, as it must be impossible for such men to contemplate the reduction of the quantity of money so essential to industry, without dreading the retribution that awaits them.
The present condition of the United States is well suited to convince the people of the expediency of making exertions for supplying their own wants. Europe is no longer to be relied on as a market for their produce, and Great Britain in particular has in effect excluded the grain and
