To leave industry to itself, therefore, is, in almost every case, the soundest as well as the simplest policy.” 128
This under the quicksighted guidance of private interest, will, if left to itself, infallibly find its own way to the most profitable employment: and ’tis by such employment, that the public prosperity will be most effectually promoted. Indeed it can hardly ever be wise in a government, to attempt to give a direction to the industry of its citizens. Whatever has such a tendency must necessarily be unwise. “To endeavor by the extraordinary patronage of Government, to accelerate the growth of manufactures, is in fact, to endeavor, by force and art, to transfer the natural current of industry, from a more, to a less beneficial channel. Nothing equally with this, can contribute to the population, strength and real riches of the country.” 127 Nothing can afford so advantageous an employment for capital and labour, as the conversion of this extensive wilderness into cultivated farms. This position, generally, if not universally true, applies with peculiar emphasis to the United States, on account of their immense tracts of fertile territory, uninhabited and unimproved. “In every country (say those who entertain them) Agriculture is the most beneficial and productive object of human industry. The following are, substantially, the arguments, by which these opinions are defended. There still are, nevertheless, respectable patrons of opinions, unfriendly to the encouragement of manufactures.
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The embarrassments, which have obstructed the progress of our external trade, have led to serious reflections on the necessity of enlarging the sphere of our domestic commerce: the restrictive regulations, which in foreign markets abrige the vent of the increasing surplus of our Agricultural produce, serve to beget an earnest desire, that a more extensive demand for that surplus may be created at home: And the complete success, which has rewarded manufacturing enterprise, in some valuable branches, conspiring with the promising symptoms, which attend some less mature essays, in others, justify a hope, that the obstacles to the growth of this species of industry are less formidable than they were apprehended to be and that it is not difficult to find, in its further extension a full indemnification for any external disadvantages, which are or may be experienced, as well as an accession of resources, favourable to national independence and safety. The expediency of encouraging manufactures in the United States, which was not long since deemed very questionable, appears at this time to be pretty generally admitted.
And he there respectfully submits the following Report. The Secretary of the Treasury in obedience to the order of ye House of Representatives, of the 15th day of January 1790, 125 has applied his attention, at as early a period as his other duties would permit, to the subject of Manufactures and particularly to the means of promoting such as will tend to render the United States, independent on foreign nations, for military and other essential supplies.