5164. MERCHANTS, Peace and.—
Some
of our merchants have been milking the cow;
yet the great mass of them have become
deranged. They are daily falling down by
bankruptcies, and on the whole, the condition
of our commerce is far less firm and really
prosperous, than it would have been by the
regular operations and steady advances which
a state of peace would have occasioned.
Were a war to take place, and throw our agriculture
into equal convulsions with our
commerce, our business would be done at
both ends.—
To Horatio Gates. Washington ed. iv, 213.
Ford ed., vii, 204.
(Pa.,
1798)
