Early and Growing Commerce of the United States [pp. 365-378]

368 EARLY AND GROWING COMMERCE OF THE UNITED STATES.
imported by many individuals far beyond their means of payment, and
the courts were filled with suits against delinquent debtors. The importing states took advantage of their situation, and levied duties on
imports for their own benefit, at the expense of the other states.
" Thus burthened with public and private debts, and pressed with
taxes, and with a scarcity of money, some of the states, in order to
remedy the evil, had recourse to paper money and tender laws; and in
one state there was an open insurrection, which threatened not merely
the peace and existence of that state, but the peace and existence of the
Union itself."*
Happily for the country, and for the interests of mankind, the wisdom of our fathers was adequate to the great emergency. A common
danger suggested a convention of the states, which, after able, pro.
tracted, and patriotic deliberations, presented to the world the constitution, under which, for nearly three fourths of a century, we have prospered beyond all example. The hand of God should be marked in the
result. Under this constitution, one of the first grants of power to
Congress was that of regulating commerce with foreign nations, among
the several states, and with the Indians.
Soon after the establishment of the present government, Mr. Jefferson, then secretary of state, in an answer to a call of the House of Representatives, made a report, in which he proposed a liberal system of
commercial policy. "Instead of embarrassing commerce under piles of
laws, duties, and prohibitions," he says, "it should be relieved from all
its shackles in all parts of the world. Would even a single nation begin
with the United States this system of free intercourse, it would be advisable to begin it with that nation."t
We have already marked the origin and progress of the various commodities which have in the past, and still make up the sum of our export trade, whether the product of agriculture or manufactures.
We propose now a review of the results of the American foreign
commerce with all nations, since the formation of the government.
Scarcely had we entered into the family of nations, than there opened
in Europe the fearful drama of the French Revolution, which in its results seemed once again to have involved the world in chaos. The
United States, preserving her neutrality, became the common carrier for
all nations, conducted the commerce of their colonies, and supplied them
from her own resources with the results of her industry. Never, in the
history of the world, was there a more rapid and extraordinary pros.
perity. Every other art and pursuit seemed eager to merge itself into
commerce. Capital poured into this channel. The principles of trade
and all experience were set at defiance. No adventure could be too rash
for success. However, gold crowned the efforts of the most ignorant
operators. What wonder that we became a nation of merchants, or that
in population the United States rose at once to the character of the first
commercial nation in the world. I "Fixed and permanent improvements
were established throughout the United States," says Mr. Seybert; "the
accumulated capital of our merchants enabled them to explore new
sources of wealth; our cities were augmented and embellished; our
* Pitkin's Statistics, p. 31. t We extract from Seybert. X Seybert.