I shall now consider the objections which have been made to the establishment of manufactories in this country.

The first, and most common objection to manufactories in this country is, that they will draw off our attention from agriculture. This objection derives great weight from being made originally by the duke of Sully, against the establishment of manufactories in France. But the history of that country shows us, that it is more founded in speculation than fact. France has become opulent and powerful in proportion as manufactories have flourished in her, and if agriculture has not kept pace with her manufactories, it is owing entirely to that ill-judged policy which forbade the exportation of grain. I believe it will be found, upon inquiry, that a greater number of hands have been taken from the plough, and employed in importing, retailing and transporting British woolens, cottons and linens, than would be sufficient to manufacture as much of them, as would clothe all the inhabitants of the province. There is an endless variety in the geniuses of men, and it would be to preclude the exertion of the faculties of the mind, to confine them entirely to the simple arts of agriculture. Besides, if these manufactories were conducted as they ought to be, two thirds of the labor of them will be carried on by those members of society who cannot be employed in agriculture, namely, by women and children.

country. Poverty, with its other evils, has | of our country. We shall cheerfully lay them joined with it in every part of Europe, all both at their feet. We shall hug our chains. We the miseries of slavery. America is now the shall cease to be men. We shall be SLAVES. only asylum for liberty in the whole world. The present contest with Great Britain was perhaps intended by the Supreme Being, among other wise and benevolent purposes, to show the world this asylum, which, from its remote and unconnected situation with the rest of the globe, might have remained a secret for ages. By establishing manufactories, we stretch forth a hand from the ark to invite the timid manufacturers to come in. It might afford us pleasure to trace the new sources of happiness which would immediately open to our fellow creatures from their settlement in this country. Manufactories have been accused of being unfriendly to population. I believe the charge should fall upon slavery. By bringing manufacturers into this land of liberty and plenty, we recover them from the torpid state in which they existed in their own country, and place them in circumstances which enable them to become husbands and fathers, and thus we add | to the general tide of human happiness. Fifthly, The establishment of manufactories in this country, by lessening our imports from Great Britain, will deprive European luxuries and vices of those vehicles in which they have been transported to America. The wisdom of the congress cannot be too much admired in putting a check to them both. They have in effect said to them-"Thus far shall ye go, and no further."-Sixthly, By establishing manufactories among us, we erect an additional barrier against the encroachments of tyranny. A people, who are entirely dependent upon foreigners for food or clothes, must always be subject to them. I need not detain you in setting forth the misery of holding property, liberty and life upon the precarious will of our fellow subjects in Britain. I beg leave to add a thought in this place which has been but little attended to by the writers upon this subject, and that, is that poverty, confinement and death are trifling evils, when compared with that total depravity of heart which is connected with slavery. By becoming slaves, we shall lose every principle of virtue. We shall transfer unlimited obedience from our Maker, to a corrupted majority in the British house of commons, and shall esteem their crimes, the certificates of their divine commission to govern us. We shall cease to look with horror upon the prostitution of our wives and daughters, by those civil and military harpies, who now hover around the liberties

A second objection is, that we cannot manufacture cloths so cheap here, as they can be imported from Britain. It has been the misfortune of most of the manufactories which have been set up in this country, to afford labor to journeymen, only for six or nine months in the year, by which means their wages have necessarily been so high as to support them in the intervals of their labor. It will be found, upon inquiry that those manufactories which occupy journeymen the whole year, are carried on at as cheap a rate as they are in Britain. The expense of manufacturing cloth will be lessened from the great share women and children will have in them; and I have the pleasure of informing you that the machine lately brought into this city for lessening the expense of time and hands in spinning, is likely to meet with encouragement from the legislature of our province. In a word, the experiments which have been already made among us, convince us that woolens and linens of all kinds, may be made and bought as cheap as those imported

from Britain, and I believe every one, who has tried the former, will acknowledge that they wear twice as well as the latter.

A third objection to manufactories is, that they destroy health, and are hurtful to population. The same may be said of navigation, and many other arts which are essential to the happiness and glory of a state. I believe that many of the diseases to which the manufacturers in Britain are subject, are brought on, not so much by the nature of their employment, but by their unwholesome diet, damp houses, and other bad accommodations, each of which may be prevented in America.

ENTHUSIASM

OF THE PEOPLE OF PENN. IN SUPPORT of
THE REVOLUTION.

PHILADELPHIA, JUNE 9, 1775.

The following paragraphs are taken from the Pennsylvania Mercury:

The ladies in Bristol township have evidenced a laudable regard to the interest of their country. At their own expense, they have furnished the regiment of that county with a suit of colors and drums, and are now making a collection to supply muskets to such of the men as are not able to supply themselves. We A fourth objection to establishing manufac-hear the lady, who was appointed to present tories in this country is a political one. The the colors to the regiment, gave in charge to liberties of America have been twice, and we the soldiers, never to desert the colors of the hope will be a third time preserved by a non- ladies, if they ever wish that the ladies should importation of British manufactures. By list under their banners. manufacturing our own cloths we deprive ourselves of the only weapon by which we can hereafter effectually oppose Great Britain. Before we answer this objection, it becomes us to acknowledge the obligations we owe to our merchants for consenting, so cheerfully, to a suspension to their trade with Britain. From the benefits we have derived from their virtue, it would be unjust to insinuate that ever there will be the least danger of trusting the defence of our liberties to them; but I would wish to guard against placing one body of men only upon that forlorn hope to which a non-importation agreement must always expose them. For this purpose, I would fill their stores with the manufactures of American looms, and thus establish their trade upon a foundation that cannot be shaken. Here then we derive an answer to the last objection that was mentioned; for, in proportion as manufactories flourish in America, they must decline in Britain, and it is well known that nothing but her manufactories have rendered her formidable in all our contests with her. These are the foundations of all her riches and power. These have made her merchants nobles, and her nobles princes. These carried her so triumphantly through the late expensive war, and these are the support of a power more dangerous to the liberties of America, than her fleets and armies, I mean the power of corruption. I am not one of those vindictive patriots who exult in the prospect of the decay of the manufactories of Britain. I can forgive her late attempts to enslave us, in the memory of our once mutual freedom and happiness. And should her liberty-her arts-her fleets and armies and her empire, ever be interred in Britain, I hope they will all rise in British garments only in America.

The spirit of opposition to the arbitrary and tyrannical acts of the ministry and parliament of Britain, hath diffused itself so universally throughout this province, that the people, even to its most extended frontiers, are indefatigable in training themselves to military discipline. The aged, as well as the young, daily march out under the banners of liberty and discover a determined resolution to maintain her cause even until death. In the town of Reading, in Berks county, there had been some time past three companies formed, and very forward in their exercise; since, however, we are well informed, a fourth company have associated under the name of the Old Man's company. It consists of about eighty Germans, of the age of forty and upwards. Many of them have been in the military service in Germany. The person who, at their first assembling, led them to the field, is 97 years of age, has been 40 years in the regular service, and in 17 pitched battles, and the drummer is 84. In lieu of a cockade, they wear in their hats a black crape, as expressive of their sorrow for the mournful events which have occasioned them, at their late time of life, to take arms against our brethren, in order to preserve that liberty which they left their native country to enjoy.

EXTRACT OF A LETTER FROM PHILADELPHIA,
DATED JULY 10, 1775, FROM A GENTLEMAN
OF CONSIDERATION AND FORTUNE.
"Travel through whatever part of this coun-
try you will, you will see the inhabitants train-
ing, making firelocks, casting mortars, shells
and shot, and making saltpetre, in order to
keep the gunpowder mills at work during the

their country: burying themselves under its ruins: throwing themselves into the flames rather than submit to the disgrace of humiliation before a proud enemy.

next autumn and winter. Nothing, indeed, is | lic treasury, and to hasten the deliverance of attended to but preparing to make a defence that will astonish the whole world, and hurl destruction on those who, to preserve themselves in office, have advised measures so fatal both to Britain and America. At least two hundred thousand men are now in arms, and well trained, ready to march whenever wanted for the support of American freedom and property. In short, a spirit of enthusiasm for war is gone forth, that has driven away the fear of death; and magazines of provisions and ammunition, by order of the states general of America, (or the twelve United Colonies) are directed to be made in all proper places, against the next campaign."

PATRIOTIC SENTIMENTS OF AN AMERICAN
WOMAN IN ADVOCACY OF THE REVOLUTION.

Born for liberty, disdaining to bear the irons of a tyrannic government, we associate ourselves to the grandeur of those sovereigns, cherished and revered, who have held with so much splendor the sceptre of the greatest states. The Matildas, the Elizabeths, the Maries, the Catherines, who have extended the empire of liberty, and, contented to reign by sweetness and justice, have broken the chains of slavery, forged by tyrants in the times of ignorance and barbarity. The Spanish women, do they not make, at this moment, the most patriotic sacrifices, to increase the means of victory in the hands of their sovereign? He is a friend to the French nation. They are our allies. We call to mind, doubly interested, that it was a French maid who kindled up amongst her fellow citizens, the flame of patriotism buried under long misfortunes: It was the maid of Orleans who drove from the kingdom of France the ancestors of those same British, whose odious yoke we have just shaken off, and whom it is necessary that we drive from this continent.

From a Philadelphia paper dated June, 1780. On the commencement of actual war, the women of America manifested a firm resolution to contribute as much as could depend on them, to the deliverance of their country. Animated by the purest patriotism, they are sensible of sorrow at this day, in not offering more than barren wishes for the success of so glorious a revolution. They aspire to render themselves more really useful; and this sentiment is universal from the north to the south of the thirteen United States. Our ambition is kindled by the fame of those heroines of antiquity, who have rendered their sex illustrious, and have proved to the universe, that, if the weakness of our constitution, if opinion and manners did not forbid us to march to glory by the same paths as the men, we should at least equal, and sometimes surpass them in our love for the public good. I glory in all that which my sex has done great and commendable. I call to mind with enthusiasm and with admiration, all those acts of courage, of constancy and patriotism, which history has transmitted to us: The people favored by heaven, preserved from destruction by the virtue, the zeal and the resolution of Deborah, of Judith, of Esther! The fortitude of the mother of the Maccabees, in giving up her sons to die before her eyes: Rome saved from the fury of a victorious enemy by the efforts of Volumnia, and other Roman ladies: So many famous sieges, where the women have been seen forgetting the weakness of their sex, building new walls, digging trenches with their feeble hands, furnishing arms to their defend-gers. If I live happy in the midst of my family, ers, they themselves darting the missile weapons on the enemy, resigning the ornaments of their apparel,. and their fortune, to fill the pub

But I must limit myself to the recollection of this small number of achievements. Who knows if persons disposed to censure, and sometimes too severely with regard to us, may not disapprove our appearing acquainted even with the actions of which our sex boasts? We are at least certain, that he cannot be a good citizen who will not applaud our efforts for the relief of the armies which defend our lives, our possessions, our liberty? The situation of our soldiery has been represented to me; the evils inseparable from war, and the firm and generous spirit which has enabled them to support these. But it has been said, that they may apprehend, that, in the course of a long war, the view of their distresses may be lost, and their services forgotten. Forgotten! never; I can answer in the name of all my sex. Brave Americans, your disinterestedness, your courage, and your constancy will always be dear to America, as long as she shall preserve her virtue.

We know that, at a distance from the theatre of war, if we enjoy any tranquility, it is the fruit of your watchings, your labors, your dan

if my husband cultivates his field, and reaps his harvest in peace; if, surrounded with my children, I myself nourish the youngest, and

No sooner, therefore, had they entered their own country, than, in the fulness of gratitude, on the banks of Jordan, at the common passage | over against Canaan, they built an high or great altar that it might remain an eternal monument of their being of one stock, and Then turning from their brethren, with unentitled to the same civil and religious priv-speakable dignity of soul and clearness of ileges, with their brethren of the other tribes.