4994. MANUFACTURES, The Colonies and.—[continued].
During the present contest
we have manufactured within our families
the most necessary articles of clothing. Those of cotton will bear some comparison
with the same kinds of manufacture in Europe;
but those of wool, flax and hemp are
very coarse, unsightly, and unpleasant; and
such is our attachment to agriculture, and
such our preference for foreign manufactures,
that be it wise or unwise, our people will certainly
return as soon as they can, to the raising
raw materials, and exchanging them for
finer manufactures than they are able to execute
themselves.—
Notes on Virginia. Washington ed. viii, 404.
Ford ed., iii, 268.
(1782)
