he thought it wise that the American people should, in case of war, not be dependent upon any foreign country for the things necessary to their sustenance and defense. “A judicious American farmer,” said he, “in his household way manufactures whatever is requisite for his family. He squanders but little in the gewgaws of Europe. He presents, in epitome, what the nation ought to be in extenso. Their manufactories should bear the same proportion, and effect the same object in relation to the whole community, which the part of his household employed in domestic manufacturing bears to the whole family. It is certainly desirable that the exports of the country should continue to be the surplus production of tillage, and not be come those of manufacturing establishments. But it is important to diminish our imports; to furnish ourselves with clothing, made by our own industry; and to cease to be dependent, for the very coats we wear, upon a foreign, and perhaps inimical, country. The nation that imports its clothing from abroad is but little less dependent than if it imported its bread.”
He was especially anxious not to be understood as favoring a large development of manufacturing industries with a numerous population of operatives. Referring to the indigence and wretchedness which had been reported to prevail among the laboring people of Manchester and Birmingham, he said: “Were we to become the manufacturers of other countries, effects of the same kind might
