[128] Madison, Jefferson County, was to Indiana what Maysville was to Kentucky and Shawneetown to Illinois, an important entrepôt and place of debarkation for pioneers moving to the interior. The early railways built to Madison and Maysville, emphasize this.—Ed.
[129] Flint’s generalization regarding the Southern states is too sweeping. Virginia and Kentucky were the only commonwealths in which the people voted viva-voce. North Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, and Louisiana, authorized the written ballot in their constitutions, and in South Carolina it was established by statute. The use of the ballot was a custom of long standing in New England, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey, dating from the middle of the seventeenth century. In New York it was introduced as an experiment in 1778, and permanently adopted ten years later. Virginia changed to the written ballot for all popular elections, in her constitution of 1864, and Kentucky in hers of 1891; so that at present it is universal in the United States.—Ed.
LETTER XX
Circumstances that retard Manufacturing Industry, and Causes of its prosperity
Jeffersonville, (Indiana,) Aug. 15, 1820.
In my letter of the 26th of June last, I mentioned that mechanics were leaving the towns of the western country, becoming cultivators in the back woods. In many cases, their former habits are such as are not well calculated to reconcile them with their new situations. It appears evident that such people, placed in the forests, cannot for some time raise a quantity of produce sufficient to procure in exchange such foreign luxuries as they formerly consumed, and such articles of imported dress as they have been accustomed to wear. The former may be easily dispensed with, but for the latter a substitute must be provided. Family manufacture is the obvious resource; but it must proceed slowly in cases where the females are not acquainted with this branch of industry, and {239} in the uncleared woods, which are not suitable pastures for sheep. It is to be regretted that manufacturing establishments are not erected, as these would not only furnish employment more congenial to the habits of artizans, and preserve to them their wonted accommodations, but would be of vast national importance under the present circumstances of America.
I trust that a brief exposition of a few of the principal causes which retard manufacturing industry, and of the means of promoting it, in this country, will not be unacceptable to you; especially as the policy of America, on that subject, affects at once the interests of both countries.
The primary obstacle that has hitherto prevented Americans from fabricating their own necessaries, from the products of their own country, is universally acknowledged to be an extensive intercourse with Great Britain, in exporting produce, and importing manufactured goods in return;—a correspondence that subjects American artisans to a competition with a country in which wages are low, labour subdivided, and in which the most stupendous mechanical apparatus is employed.
The indecision which has heretofore characterized the conduct of the United States, with regard to manufactures, seems to have originated in the diversity of interests represented in the government. The people of the southern States are, for several reasons, averse to making concessions for procuring home-made goods. They are comparatively little devoted to mechanical pursuits, and still less acquainted with the diversified operations of workshops. Their negroes are seldom trained to any thing but agricultural and menial services, and the {240} condition of these labourers is otherwise unfavourable to the acquisition of skill in new employments. This part of the country, besides, exports large quantities of cotton, tobacco, and rice, articles that do not excite the jealousy of the landed interest in Britain; but, on the contrary, almost enjoy a monopoly of the British market. It is plain that the people who possess advantages of this kind, have it more in their power to continue traffic with England than their northern neighbours, whose produce is excluded by the corn laws of that country, which have been wisely enacted.
Traders who have capital vested in ships, and in the importation of manufactured goods, form a class that is more interested in opposing an independent system than any other. Though their influence in Congress appears to be declining, some time must elapse before their funds can be directed to other pursuits.