EXJMEVA1 v F THE NEW ENGLAND * jOMMER*. ; '- '. \'ENC IEKTS -£p-«M< w< DUKE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY Treasure %oom I ■ ■«! EXAMINATION OF THE PRETENSIONS OF NEW ENGLAND TO COMMERCIAL PRE-EMINENCE. TO WHICH IS ADDED, A VIEW OF THE CAUSES OF THE SUSPENSION OF CASH PAYMENTS AT THE BANKS PHILADELPHIA.- PRINTED FOR M. CAREY. 1814. T, District of Pennsylvania, to toit: • BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the eighteenth day of November, in the Thirty-ninth year of the Inde- pendence of the United States of America, A. D. 1814. Henry C. Carey of the said District, hath deposited in this Office, the Title of a Book, the right whereof he claims as Proprietor, in the words following, to wit : " Examination of the Pretensions of New England " to Commercial Pre-eminence. To which is added, a " View of the Causes of the Suspension of Cash Pay- u raents at the Banks." In conformity to the Act of the Congress of the Unit- ed States, intituled " An Act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of Maps, Charts, and Books to the authors and proprietors of such copies dur- ing the times therein mentioned." And also to the Act entitled ** An Act supplementary to an Act entitled M An Act for the encouragement of learning by securing the copies of Maps, Charts, and Books to the authors and proprietors of such copies during the times therein mentioned," and extending the benefits thereof to the Arts of designing, engraving, and etching historical and other prints. D. CALDWELL, Clerk of the District of Pennsylvania. PREFACE. It is a melancholy fact, that the peace and happiness of nations are jeopardized and not unfrequently destroyed by the ambition of a few, acting upon the ma- ny, on the most frivolous grounds. His- tory furnishes instances of whole na- tions ruined, to promote the sinister views of one or two individuals. Athens is a melancholy proof. The war between her and Sparta, which reduced her from the highest pinnacle of happiness and glory to the lowest ebb of wretched- ness, was occasioned by the ambition of one man, Alcibiades. And to descend to humble life, it is on record that a selfish fisherman offered up most fervent prayers to* Jupiter for a hurricane, to IV enable him to catch fish with more ad- vantage. Another person, suffering with cold, is said to have set a house on fire, that he might warm his fingers at the blaze. The United States are on the point of exhibiting scenes somewhat analo- gous. We have several restless, aspiring, ambitious men, who for the mere chance of elevating them*elves above the rest of the community, and advancing their own paltry personal interests, scruple not to jeopardize the peace, the happi- ness, and the liberty of an entire nation. By an unceasing course of the most artiul and deceptive manoeuvres, they have produced an exasperation in the public mind, particularly in New Eng- land, which threatens the most alarming consequences. The grand instrument of producing this dangerous excitement, has been the restrictive system forced upon Congress by the lawless proceedings of the belli- gerents, and the clamours of the mer- chants for redress. This system which grew out of the remonstrances and com- plaints of the commercial people, has been in the most unqualified manner as- cribed to a hostility toward New Eng- land, and a determination to destroy commerce, to gratify that hostility. It is not easy to find a higher degree of indecency and indecorum — or of dis- regard to candour, than this charge evinces. Without a shadow of proof, or even without the smallest plausibili- ty, this allegation has been assumed as undeniably proved. Had it been sus- ceptible of judicial proof, and been fairly established in a court of justice, by the depositions of ten thousand witnesses, it could not have been more confidently made the basis of an endless, unvarying round of the most calumnious accusa- tions. A 2 Vi Absurd, and ridiculous, and improba- ble as these accusations are, the minds of a large portion of our citizens are completely poisoned with them, and prepared for a recourse to violent and lawless means, to procure redress of the alleged grievances. T ! ^ whole of these accusations may- be reduced within a narrow compass. They are built on this monstrous posi- tion-that the farmer who has produce for sale, may be tempted to shut the market against it, in order to gratify his malice towards the wagoner who has been accustomed to haul it, although it thereby falls in price forty or fifty per cent, and partly perishes on his hands. This is the plain unsophisticated state of the case. The Massachusettensian who makes the welkin ring with his bit- ter complaints of, and envenomed exe- crations against, the southern states for their hostility to commerce, is very lit- Vll tie more than the wagoner who hauls their tobacco, and their cotton, and their rice, and their naval stores to market. It cannot be pretended that agricul- tural states are benefited by the inter- ruption of commerce. Cullible, and cre- dulous, and open to deception, as the age is, this would be too extravagant a position to attempt to press on the pub- lic. Nor can Judge Lowell, or Timothy Pickering, esq. pretend that an embar- go, which prevents a citizen of South Carolina from sending his cotton to market, and reduces it from twenty to twelve cents, is not as highly pernicious to him as the suspension of navigation is to the ship-owner. It follows, therefore, that the lamenta- ble delusion that prevails, and which threatens consequences awful to reflect upon, is absolutely predicated on the false, the unnatural, the preposterous idea, that the southern states injure Vlll themselves in their most vital interests to have the pleasure of injuring the great commercial states, as they are ri- diculously styled ! ! ! In all this absurd and disgraceful clamour, it is never for a moment con- sidered, that the mighty state of New York, the powerful state of Pennsylva- nia, and Baltimore, the commercial part of Maryland, have almost universally united in all these measures. No man will pretend to compare Mas- sachusetts to New York or Pennsylva- nia for intrinsic resources, for advance- ment in population, or extent of terri- tory. Massachusetts proper increased in population in twenty years only 83,257, about 20 per cent. New York, in the same space of time, increased above 600,000, which is nearly treble her former numbers. IX Pennsylvania increased 375,000, or nearly double. Massachusetts depends for her pros- perity in a great degree on the courtesy of her neighbours. New York, Pennsylvania, and Mary- land, rely upon their own internal and intrinsic resources. The senseless outcry about " the commercial states" is as sickening as the croak in gs of a raven. New Hampshire a commercial state ! — Vermont a com- mercial state ! Connecticut and Rhode Island great commercial states! That this soi-disant enlightened age should be gulled and duped and deceived into these absurd opinions, is most lamenta- ble ! The district of Columbia, only ten miles square, exported in 1811, 18: 2, and 1813, S 5,040,000 During the same years, these four " great com- mercial states" exported only 6,601,000 The single agricultural state of South Carolina exported in the three last years fifty per cent, more than the above four " great commercial states v' South Carolina, 9,489,000 The four " commercial states ! ! !" of Vermont, New Hampshire, Connec- ticut, and Rhode Island, 6,601,000 Sincerely attached to the federal con- stitution — and abhorring convulsions and tumults— I have endeavoured to remove the errors that prevail on these topics, pregnant with awful consequen- ces. I hope I have not misspent my time. I trust that I have placed the matter in such a point of view as to lay at rest forever the arrogant and un- founded pretensions of New England, which have been made the instrument of producing so much mischief. These Essays have appeared in a XI larger work, the Olive Branch, which from its price, will be limited in its cir- culation. I have therefore judged it adviseable to print them thus separate- ly, in order that they may have a chance of spreading co-extcnsively with the errors they undertake to refute. A PENNSYLVANIA]*. Nov. 8, 1814. CHAP. I. Turbulence of Boston. Boston acts on Mas- sachusetts* Massachusetts acts on the rest of New England. Jealousies and discord sedulously excited* Hateful picture of the southern states* Commercial and anti- commercial states. Enquiry into the claims of New England. Tankeeism* Moral and religious people* Statistics, BOSTON, the metropolis of Massachu- setts, has been, for a long period, and more particularly since the close of the reign of federalism, the seat of discontent, complaint, and turbulence. It has been itself restless and uneasy — and has spread restlessness and uneasiness in every direction. It has thwarted, harrassed, and embarrassed the general government, incomparably more than ail the rest of the union together. Whatever difficulty or distress has arisen from the extraordinary circumstances of the times — and great difficulty and distress were inevitable — has been aggravated and mag- 14 nified to the highest degree, for the purpose of inflaming the public passions. The lead- ers in this business were clamorous when we were at peace in 1806 for war against England, on account of her depredations on their commerce, and denounced, in the most virulent stile, the imbecility and cowardice of the government. From the moment, when war was declared, they have clamour- ed for peace, and reprobated the war as wick- ed, unjust, and unnecessary, although the causes of war were incomparably greater in 1812 than in 1806. They have thrown every difficulty and obstruction in the way of the prosecution of the war ; and reprobate the administration for imbecility in carrying it on. They have, as I shall prove, brought the government to the very verge of bank- ruptcy; and reproach it for its necessities and difficulties. In a word, all their move- ments have had and still have but one object, to enfeeble and distract the govern- ment — and this object has been too success- fully attained. With a population of only 33,000 inhabi- tants, and with a commerce quite insignifi- 15 cant, compared with New York, Philadel- phia, Baltimore, or Charleston, Boston has by system acquired a degree of influence beyond all proportion greater than its due share — greater in fact than the above four cities combined — a degree of influence which has been exercised in such a manner as to become dangerous to public and private prosperity and happiness, and to the peace and to the permanence of the union. It has brought us to the very verge of its dissolu- tion, with the awful consequence — a civil war. The movers of this mighty piece of machinery — this lever that puts into convul- sive motion the whole of our political fabric, are few in number.— But they are possessed of inordinate wealth — of considerable talents —great energy — and overgrown influence. They afford a signal proof how much a few men may effect by energy and concert, more especially when they are not very scrupu- lous about the means, provided the ends are Accomplished. A northern confederacy has been their grand object for a number of years. They have repeatedly advocated in the public prints a separation of the states, 16 on account of a pretended discordance of views and interests of the different sections. To sow discord, jealousy, and hostility between the different parts of the union, was the first and grand step in their career in order to accomplish their favourite object. In fact, without this efficient instrument, all their efforts would have been utterly una- vailing. It would have been impossible, had the honest yeomanry of New England con- tinued to regard their southern fellow citi- zens as friends and brethren, having one common interest in the promotion of the general welfare, to make them instruments in the hands of those who intended to em- ploy them to operate the unholy work of destroying the noble, the august, the splen- did fabric of our union and unparalleled form of government. For eighteen years, therefore* the most unceasing endeavours have been used to poison the minds of the people of New England towards, and to alienate them from, rheir fellow citizens of the southern states. T'he people of the latter section have been pourtrayed as demons incarnate, and desti- 17 tute of all the good qualities that dignify or adorn human nature — that acquire es- teem or regard — that entitle to respect and veneration. Nothing can exceed the viru- lence of these caricatures, some of which would have suited the ferocious inhabitants of New Zealand, rather than a civilized or polished nation. To illustrate and remove all doubt on this subject, I subjoin an extract from a series of essays, signed M Pelham," publish- ed Anno 1796, in the Connecticut Courant, and said to be the production of some of the first men in point of talent, in the state of Connecticut. " Negroes are, in all respects, except in regard " to life and death, the cattle of the citizens of the ** southern states. If they were good for food, the " probability is, that even the power of destroying " their lives would be enjoyed by their owners, as "fully as it is over the lives of their cattle. It " cannot be, that their lavjs prohibit the owjiers "from killing their slaves, because those slaves " are human beings, or because it is a moral evil " to destroy them. If that were the case, how " can they justify their being treated, in aJl other " respects, like brutes ? for it is in this point of B 2 18 " view alone, that negroes in the southern states " are considered in fact as different from cattle. " They are bought and sold — they are fed or kept " hungry — they are clothed, or reduced to naked- •• ness — they are beaten, turned out to the fury of 41 the elements, and torn from their dearest con- l< nections, with as Little remorse as if they were * l beasts of the field:* Never was there a more infamous or un- founded caricature than this — never one more disgraceful to its author. Its vile character is greatly enhanced by the consi- deration, that a large portion of these very negroes, and their ancestors, had been pur- chased, and rent from their homes and families by New Englanders, who were actually at that moment, and long after- wards, engaged in the Slave Trade. The unholy and demoniac spirit that in- spired the writer of the above vile libel, has been, from that hour to the present, inces- santly employed to excite hostility between the different sections of the unioa. To such horrible lengths has this spirit been carried, that many paragraphs have occasionally ap- peared in the Boston papers, intended and 19 calculated to excite the negroes of the south- ern states to rise and massacre their mas- ters. This will undouhtedly appear incre- dible to the reader. It is nevertheless sacredly true. It is a species of turpitude and baseness of which the world has pro- duced few examples. Thus some progress was made. But it was inconsiderable. While the yeomanry of New England were enriched by a bene- ficial commerce with the southern states, they did not feel disposed to quarrel with them for their supposed want of a due degree of piety or morality. A deeper game was requisite to be play- ed, or all the pains taken so far would have been wholly fruitless. And this was sedu- lously undertaken. The press literally groan- ed with efforts to prove five points, wholly destitute of foundation. First, That .New England was exclusive- ly commercial. Secondly, That the other states were almost, and those south of the Patowmac, wholly agricultural. Thirdly, That there is a natural and in- 20 evitable hostility between commercial and agricultural states. Fourthly, That this hostility has uniform- ly pervaded the whole southern section of the union. And, Fifthly, That all the measures of congress were dictated by this hostility. I do not assert that these positions were ever laid down in regular form, as theses to argue upon. But I do aver, that they form the basis of three fourths of all the essays, paragraphs, squibs, and crackers, that have appeared in the Boston papers against the administration for many years past. " The Road to Ruin," ascribed to Judge Lowell, now before me, is remarkable for its viru- lence, its acrimony, its intemperance, and for the talents of the writer. He undoubt- edly places his subject in the strongest point of light possible for such a subject. But if you extract from his essays, the petitio principii of these positions, all the rest is a mere caput mortuum — all (i sound and fury." On these topics the changes are rung in endless succession. Never was the gutta non vi, sed scepe ca- 21 dendo, more completely verified. These positions, however absurd, however extra- vagant, however ridiculous they appear in their naked form, have, by dint of incessant repetition, made such an impression upon the minds of a large portion of the people of New England, that they are as thorough- ly convinced of their truth, as of any problem in Euclid. Boston having acted upon and inflamed Massachusetts, that state has acted upon, and put in movement the rest of New Eng- land : — and thus a people proverbially or- derly, quiet, sober, and rational, have been actually so highly excited as to be ripe for revolution, and ready to overturn the whole system ef social order. A confederacy has been formed, which, as I have stated, and as cannot be too often repeated, promises fair to produce a convulsion — a dissolution of the union — and a civil war, unless the seduced people of that section of the union can be recovered from the fatal delusion they labour under, and restored to their reason. I shall very briefly, and without much at- 22 tention to order or regularity, consider these positions. They are not entitled to a serious refutation, but merely as they have been made the instruments of producing so much mischief. Before I touch upon the commercial points, I shall offer a few observations on the high and exalted pretensions of New England, to superior morality and religion over the rest of the union. There has not been, it is true, quite so much parade with these exclusive claims as on the subject of commerce. Perhaps the reason is, that there was no political purpose to be answered by them. But that the people of New England are in general thoroughly persuaded that they very far excel the rest of the union in both religion and morals, no man who has been conversant with them can deny. This is a folly which is too general all over the world : but no where more prevalent, or to greacer extent, than in that section of the union. To pretend to institute a compari- son between the religion and morals of the people of Boston and those of Philadelphia, New York, or Baltimore, would be regard- 23 cd as equally extravagant and absurd, with a comparison of the gambols of a cow to the sprightly and elegant curvetings of an Arabian courser. The Rev. Jedediah Morse has in some degree devoted his geography to, and disgraced it by, the perpetuation of this vile prejudice. Almost every page that respects his own section of the union is fraught with encomium. He colours with the flattering tints of a partial and enamour- ed friend. But when once he passes the Patowmac, what a hideous reverse ! — Al- most every thing is there frightful carica- ture. Society is at a low and melancholy ebb, and all the sombre tints are brought forward to elevate, by the contrast, his fa- vourite Elysium, New England. He dips his pen in gall when he has to pourtray the manners, or habits, or religion of Virginia or Maryland, or either of the Carolinas or Georgia. I should enter far into the consideration of this procedure of Mr. Morse, but that it has been ably discussed by a superior pen. The editor of the Port Folio, himself a de- cided federalist, reprobates, and pronounces 24 a just and eternal condemnation on the illi- berality of making a school, or indeed any other book, a vehicle to excite animosities between fellow citizens of difFerent portions of the same nation. The New England character for morality has been various at various times. It was not long since at a very low ebb indeed. It is within the memory of those over whose chins no razor has ever mowed a harvest, that Yankee and sharper were nearly synoni- mous. And this was not among the low and illiberal, the base and the vulgar. It pervaded all ranks of society. In the mid- dle and southern states traders were univer- sally very much on their guard against Yankee tricks when dealing with New Eng- enders. They now arrogate to themselves, (and, for party purposes, their claims are some- times admitted by their political friends,) to be, as I have stated, a superior order to their fellow citizens. They look down on those to the southward with as much con- tempt, and with as much foundation too, as the Pharisee of old did on the despised publican. 25 Both of these views are grossly errone- ous. They never were so vile as they were formerly believed. They had, it is true, many worthless miscreants among them, who, on their migration to the other states, were guiltv of base tricks, which, by an illi- berally disgraceful to our species, but nevertheless very common, were charged to the account of the entire people of New England, and brought them under a most undeserved odium. I feel a pride and pleasure in doing jus- tice to the New England yeomanry. They will not suffer on a comparison with the same class of men in any part of the world. They are upright, sober, orderly, and regu- lar — shrewd, intelligent, and well informed — and I believe there is not a greater de- gree of genuine native urbanity among the yeomanry of any country under the canopy of heaven. And it is lamentable and unac- countable how they have allowed themselves to be so egregiously duped as they have been. I have known them long, and my respect for them has gradually increased in proportion as my knowledge of them ex- tended. But I shall never admit any exclu- sive claim to the virtues which I know they possess. And I have no hesitation in averr- ing, that although Boston, or Hartford, or Newhaven, may exhibit rather more ap- pearance of religion and piety, than New York, or Philadelphia, or Baltimore, yet the. latter cities possess as much of the reality. It would astonish and frighten many of the pious people here to be informed — but they may nevertheless rely upon the information as indubitably true — that a large proportion of the clergy in the town of Boston, are ab- solute Unitarians ; and scout the idea of the divinity of Jesus Christ as completely and explicitly as ever Dr. Priestley did. This is a digression. I did not intend to intro- duce it. But aince it is here, let it remain. And let me add, that the present principal of Harvard College was known to be of that persuasion, when he was elected. This fact establishes the very great extent and preva- lence of the doctrine. The high and sounding pretensions of New England on the subject of commerce have been almost universally admitted. No 27 person has ever thought it worth while to examine into the actual state of the facts. It has been presumed, that, in a matter where falsehood and deception were so easily detected, such confident assertions would not be made, unless they 7 rested on a strong foundation. And in drawing the line of demarcation between New England and the rest of the union, in the minds of the mass of the community, all to the north and east of the line was regarded as devoted to commerce — all to tne uth and west, to agriculture. It is hardly pessible to conceive a greater mistake. The reader will be astonished at the view I shall lay before him. 1 have been inexpressibly surprised myself, and even now can hardly credit my own statements. They are nevertheless indisputable. I have before me a regular set of lists of the exports of the United States for ten years, from 1791 to 1800 inclusive, from which I submit a few tables for the gratifi- cation of the reader. To save trouble in the addition, here and in all the other tables, I have substituted cyphers for the three last 28 figures in each item. This cannot materially affect the calculation : — Exports of foreign and domestic articles for five years, from 1791 to 1795 inclusive^ from Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Nezv York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, North and South Carolina^ and Georgia. Massachusetts. New Hampshire. 1791 2,519,000 dolls. 142,000 dolls 1792 2,888,000 181,000 1793 3,755,000 198.000 1794 5,292,000 1 53, 00U 1795 7,177,000 229,000 21,631,000 903,000 Rhode Island. Connecticut. 1791 470,000 710,000 1792 698,000 879,000 1793 616,000 770,000 1794 954,000 812,000 1795 1,222,000 819,000 3,960,000 3,990,000 29 New York. 1791- 1792- 1793- 1794- 2,505,000 2,535,000 2,932,000 5,442,000 1795 10,304,000 2,229,000 Pennsylvania. 3,436,000 3,820,000 C,»58,O0O 6,643,000 11,538,000 23,718,000 32,395,000 Maryland. Virginia. 1791 2,239,000 3,131,000 1792 2,623,000 3,552,000 1793 3,665,000 2,987,000 1794 5,686,000 3,321,000 1795 5,811,000 3,490,000 20,024,000 16,481,000 North Carolina. South Carolina 1791 524,000 2,693,000 1792 527,000 2,428,000 1793 365,000 3,191,000 1 TOdi *?°1 OOO 3,867,000 1795 492,000 5,998,000 18,177,00© 30 Georgia. 1791 491,000 1792 459,000 1793 520,000 1794 263,000 1795 695,000 2,428,000 When, my dear reader, you have tho- roughly examined these tables, pronounce sentence on the exclusive claims of New- England to commerce. It appears that the " great commercial state of Massachusetts" exported for five years of undisturbed peace and prosperity, during the administration of General Washington, but 17 percent, more than South Carolina — 26 per cent, more than Virginia — 8 per cent, more than Ma- ryland — 10 per cent, less than New Tork — and 33 per cent, less than Pennsylvania! The whole exports of the United States for these five years, were 1791 19,012,000 Dollars. 1792 20,753,000 1793 26,109,000 1794 33,026,000 1795 47, ,, 89 ) 000 146,889,000 31 RESULTS. I. The exports from New England for this period, were Vermont, 000,000 New Hampshire, 903,000 Rhode Island, 3,960,000 Connecticut, 3,990,OuO Massachusetts, 21,63 1, GOO 30,484,000 II. North Carolina and Georgia exported each above one hundred per cent, more than New Hampshire — and, united, nearly as much as New Hampshire and Rhode Island. Those two states exported about half as much as all New England, Massachusetts excepted. in. Maryland exported nearly as much as " the mighty state of Massachusetts," the metropolis of which has at all times affect- ed to be the commercial dictatress of the United States. iv. Virginia exported nearly one hundred per cent, more than all New England, Massa- chusetts excepted. 32 V. Three southern states exported eighty per cent, more than all New England- Maryland, 20,024,000 Virginia, 16,401,000 South Carolina, 18,177,000 54,682,000 New England, 30,484,000 And it appears, that the exports of New England, for these five years, were only about a fifth part of the aggregate exports of the nation. I now take the second period of five years, and submit to the reader the fair result. Exports for five years from 1796 to 1800, of foreign and domestic productions from Vermont, New Hampshire^ Rhode Island, Connecticut^ &?c. Vermont. New Hampshire. 1796 378,000 1797 275,000 1798 361,000 1799 361,000 1800 57,000 431,000 57,000 1,806,000 S3 Rhode Island. 1796 1,559,000 1797 975,000 1798 947.000 1799 1,055,000 1800 1,322,000 5,888,000 Massachusetts. 1796 9,499,000 1797 7,502 000 1798 8,639,000 1799 11,421.000 1800 11,326,000 Connecticut. 1,452,000 814,000 763/00 1,055 000 1,322.000 New York. 12,208 000 13 n v -8,000 14.3-: 0.000 lo, 7 19,000 14,045 000 48,387,000 72,580,000 Pennsylvania. 1796 17,513,000 1797 1 1,444,000 1798 8,915,000 1799 12,431,000 1800 11)949,000 Maryland. 9,201,000 9,811,000 12,746,000 16,299,000 12,264,000 62,252,000 60,321,000 H Virginia. South Carolina. 1796 5,268,000 7,620,000 1797 4,908-000 6,949,000 1798 6,113,000 6,994,000 1799 6,609,000 8,729,000 1800 4,430,000 10,668,000 27,328,000 40,960,000 Georgia. 1796 - 950,000 1797 - 644,000 1798 . 961,000 1799 -1,396,000 1800 -2,174,000 6,125.000 The whole value of the exports of the United States for these five years, was — 1796— —66,863,000 1797— — 51,195,000 1798— —61,143,000 1799— —78,665,000 1800— —70,971,000 328,837,000 35 The value of the exports of Vermont, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Con- necticut, was Vermont, 57,000 Dollars. New Hampshire, 1,806,000 Rhode Island, 5,886,000 Connecticut, 5,406,000 13,155,000 Which added to Massachusetts, 48,387,000 make— 61,542,000 RESULT I. The whole of the " five homogeneous New England States," which have so long arro- gated to themselves the character of exclu- sively commercial, for the above period, did not export 19 per cent, of the total value of the exports of the union. ii. South Carolina exported of native pro- ductions in that period, nearly seven eighths of the amount exported by Massachusetts of native and foreign; and more than three times