5000. MANUFACTURES, The Embargo and.—[further continued] .
It is true that the Embargo
laws have not had all the effect in bringing the powers of Europe to a sense of
justice which a more faithful observance of
them might have produced. Yet they have
had the important effects of saving our seamen
and property, of giving time to prepare
for defence; and they will produce the further
inestimable advantage of turning the
attention and enterprise of our fellow citizens,
and the patronage of our State
Legislatures to the establishment of useful
manufactures in our country. They
will have hastened the day when an equilibrium
between the occupations of agriculture,
manufactures, and commerce, shall
simplify our foreign concerns to the exchange
only of that surplus which we cannot consume
for those articles of reasonable comfort
or convenience which we cannot produce.—
R. to A. Penna. Democratic-Republicans. Washington ed. viii, 163.
(1809)
