we do for the information thou canst give, if fully acquainted with the business." In the concluding portion of the letter, Mr. Brown holds out to Slater the promise of "the credit as well as the advantage of perfecting the first water-mill [for spinning purposes] in America." When Slater came to Pawtucket and saw the machinery of Almy & Brown, he said, "These will not do. They are good for nothing in their present condition, nor can they be made to answer." As different persons who had seen these machines, and Mr. Almy himself, had pronounced them to be "worth nothing more than so much old iron," this decision did not surprise the proprietors. Mr. Slater used his best efforts to accomplish something with these wretched materials, but in vain. "After various disappointments, it was proposed that Mr. Slater should erect the series of machines called 'the Arkwright patents,' which he would not listen to till he was promised a man to work on wood who should be put under bonds not to steal the patterns or disclose the nature of the works. 'Under my proposals,' says he, if I do not make as good yarn as they do in England, I will have nothing for my services, but will throw the whole of what I have attempted over the bridge."" Mr. Slater received by the contract a half interest in the business, and "on the 18th of January, 1790, Mr. Brown took him to Pawtucket, where he commenced the machinery chiefly with his own hands. On the 20th of December he started three cards, drawing and roving frames, and two frames of 72 spindles, which were worked by an old fulling-mill wheel in a clothier's building, where they were used for twenty months, at which time several thousand pounds of yarn had accumulated on their hands, notwithstanding all attempts to sell or weave it. Early in 1793, Almy, Brown & Slater built a small factory, where the machinery was set in motion and increased as occasion served. Thus, after unexpected difficulties, delays and expenses, arising out of the want of patterns, suitable materials and workmen, was completed and put in operation the first successful water-mill for cotton in the United States."

Spinning-jennies had been used for some time. Samuel Wetherill, of Philadelphia, had conducted throughout the war a private manufacture of cotton and woollen goods, and in the Pennsylvania Gazette for April 3, 1782, appears his advertisement of "PHILADELPHIA MANUFACTURES, suitable for every season of the year-viz., jeans, fustians, everlastings, coatings, etc.—to be sold by the subscriber at his dwelling-house and manufactory, in South Alley, between Market Street and Arch Street and between Fifth and Sixth Streets, on Hudson's Square." In 1786 the Hon. Hugh Orr, of East Bridgewater, Mass., employed two brothers, Robert and Alexander Barr, to construct the first spinning-jenny and stock-card made in the United States. In March, 1787, Thomas Somers, an English midshipman who had been "brought up to the cotton manufacture," also constructed a model, under the direction of Mr. Orr, which was afterward

known as the "State's model," as Mr. Orr received a compensation from the State for exhibiting it and explaining its capabilities. In the same year the "Pennsylvania Society for the Encouragement of Manufactures and the Useful Arts" was instituted, and on the 9th of August of the same year Tench Coxe delivered an address before this society in the University of Pennsylvania, which was afterward published. "The speaker made a vigorous assault upon the various prejudices at that time entertained against the introduction of machinery and the establishment of manufactories. A proper regard for the interests of agriculture was recommended as the most important in any measures which might be adopted for the advancement of manufactures. The cultivation of cotton in the Southern States was recommended as an article from which the bestinformed manufacturers expected the greatest profits, and upon which some established factories depended. It thrived as well there, he said, as in any part of the world, and those States raised it formerly when the price was not half what it had been for several years past. It was then worth double the money which it sold for before the Revolution, European nations having prohibited its exportation from their colonies to foreign countries. The great progress made in agriculture and manufactures, particularly in Pennsylvania, since the year 1762, and still more since the late war, was adverted to, and a lengthy list of articles then made in the State was given. These included hosiery, hats and gloves, wearing apparel, coarse linens and woollens, some cotton goods, wool and cotton cards, etc. The advantage of America in having the raw materials and market at home, in exemption from duties, in the ability to sell for cash by the piece instead of large invoices on long credits, as imported goods were then sold, in the superior strength of American linens, in the better atmosphere for bleaching linen and cotton, were severally urged as so many inducements to undertake manufactures. He recommended the exemption from duties of raw materials, dye-stuffs and certain implements, premiums for useful inventions and processes, the invitation of foreign artists to settle by grants of land, and that every emigrant ship should be visited to ascertain what persons were on board capable of constructing useful machines or of conducting manufactures. The wasteful use of foreign manufactures was illustrated by the fact that the importation into Philadelphia alone of the finer kinds of coat, vest and sleeve buttons, buckles and other trinkets was supposed to amount in a single year to ten thousand pounds, and to cost the wearers sixty thousand dollars. In urging the benefits to the agricultural interests of manufactures in their midst, he ventured the assertion that the value of American productions annually consumed by the manu- ‹ facturers of the State, exclusive of the makers of flour, lumber and bariron, was double the aggregate of all its exports in the most plentiful year." The advantage of the American atmosphere for bleaching pur

poses was so marked that it is said that "A company of English merchants with a large capital was about being formed before the Revolution to import the brown linens of Europe, to be bleached in this country," where the superior sunshine and plenty of land were inducements. The operations of this society were conducted with great zeal and energy. Though they met with serious obstacles, such as the difficulty of finding artists and of making machines without models or with imperfect ones, as well as the obstructions caused by foreign agents, who thought that their craft was endangered by these efforts to foster home industry-though, owing to these circumstances, they did not get their first loom started until April 12, 1788, by the 23d of August they had increased the number of looms to twentysix, had turned out 11,367 yards of various fabrics, and had already realized from their sales a net profit which was at the rate of about 30 per cent. per annum upon their capital. In the mean time, flax had fallen from nine pence and ten pence a pound to seven pence, with the strong probability that it would go lower on account of the increased attention now paid to its cultivation, and cotton had come down from 36 cents per pound to 27 and 29 cents per pound. The price of cotton would be kept down should its cultivation succeed in the Southern States. If a good profit had been realized by the manufacture on a limited scale of materials purchased at the former high rates, one-half of which-the linen yarncould not be spun by machinery, it was certain that more extensive machines, moved by horses or water, must greatly increase the profit. Cardingmachines for which they had paid £100 could now be obtained for £60, and a jenny for which they had paid £28, for £15, and smaller implements were reduced in price in proportion." Careful estimates showed that an American jean better than the British could be produced 25 per cent. cheaper. The American goods were above half an inch wider and much heavier than the imported. This exhibit of the operations of the society was considered (and with reason) as highly encouraging by the committee of the board of managers, which consisted of George Clymer and Tench Coxe. We have already alluded to Mr. Coxe's failure to obtain the Arkwright machinery. A still more serious difficulty obliged the Legislature of Pennsylvania to pass (March 29, 1787) an act styled “An Act to encourage and protect the Manufactures of this State," which prohibited under certain penalties the exportation of manufacturing machines, the scarcity of which was the great obstacle to such undertakings. This act owed its existence to the fact that in the year 1787 two carding- and spinning-machines in the possession of a citizen of Philadelphia which were calculated to save the labor of one hundred and twenty persons were purchased by the agency of a British artisan, packed up in cases as common merchandise and shipped to Liverpool. This act, the operation of which was limited to two years, should not be put upon the same level with the

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acts of Parliament of 1774 and of 1781, prohibiting the exportation of machinery to America. The British acts were dictated by the selfish desire to keep the colonies in a state of dependence; the American act was an attempt to defend home industry against such underhand machinations. as the one which we have just described. 'The British merchant" of that period saw that his profits would be seriously affected by the progress of American manufactures. To prevent his misguided American customers from pursuing a course which threatened to materially diminish his income, he was ready to use every means in his power, and the activity exhibited in every section of this country so shocked his nervous system that perhaps some excuse may be found for even such proceedings as the following, which occurred soon after the investment in machinery above mentioned, which was made by a British artisan: "A quantity of cotton seed is stated to have been purchased in Virginia and burned, in order to prevent, if possible, the extension of the cotton manufactures in America and their injurious effects upon the importation of Manchester goods."

Such were the measures taken to stifle the spirit of enterprise which bid fair to make the American people one of the great powers of the earth. During this same year (1787), however, an event occurred which baffled the calculations of both the British merchant and the British statesman, and which gave an impetus to the manufactures of this country which speedily placed them upon a firm basis. We refer to the meeting of the Federal Convention and the adoption of the Federal Constitution. Capital is said to be "timid." No man wishes to risk his money in new enterprises when he literally does not know "what a day may bring forth." The peaceful adoption and ratification of the Federal Constitution proved that it was possible for the people of this country, however conflicting the interests of the various sections appeared, to make those mutual concessions which, if continued, would ensure the harmonious action requisite for a healthy development of the resources of the infant nation. The convention met just at the proper time to be influenced in favor of manufactures, as the society which was formed at Philadelphia during the year 1787 was just beginning active operations. It is thought that the efforts of that society to introduce the cotton manufacture, combined with the earnest recommendation of Mr. Coxe, had great weight with the members of the convention, especially with those from the South. Certain it is that the Southern delegates, when they returned to their homes, generally recommended the culture of cotton, and with such success as to secure increased attention to that crop.

The condition of this country immediately before the framing of the Constitution is thus portrayed by a writer who is well acquainted with the history of the first half century of our national existence: "The state of the industry of the country was depressed to a point of distress unknown in the midnight of revolution. The shipping had dwindled to nothing;

the manufacturing establishments were kept up by bounties and by patriotic associations and subscriptions, and even the common trades were threatened with ruin. It was plain, for instance, that in the comparative condition of the United States and Great Britain not a hatter, a boot- or shoemaker, a saddler or a brass-founder could carry on his business, except in the coarsest and most ordinary productions of his trade and under the pressure of foreign competition. When the Constitution had been sent to the people for their decision upon its merits, while its fate still hung in the balance, the influence of the tradesmen and manufacturers of the country was generally exerted in its favor, and in more than one locality obtained for it an acceptance which might otherwise have been withheld." The result proved that they had not overestimated the benefits to be derived from a settled form of general government. Not the least valuable of these benefits was the possibility of obtaining official information with reference to important matters of state-information which before that time had been exceedingly difficult to procure. On the 15th of January, 1790, during the second session of the first Congress, the House of Representatives ordered, "That it be referred to the Secretary of the Treasury to prepare and report to this House a proper plan or plans, conformably to the recommendation of the President of the United States in his speech to both Houses of Congress, for the encouragement and promotion of such manufactories as will tend to render the United States independent of other countries for essential, particularly for military, supplies."

Hamilton's Report on Manufactures.-Alexander Hamilton, who was then the Secretary of the Treasury, applied his attention at as early a period as his other duties would permit to the subject of manufactures, and he prepared an elaborate report, which was communicated to the House (Dec. 5, 1791) nearly two years after the date of the above resolution. An exhaustive review of this paper would require far more space than we have to give to the whole subject, nor would it be advisable even if the requisite space were available, as several of Hamilton's leading positions have been assailed, and have even served as political issues. Its value for our purpose consists in the facts which it contains, but we shall note in passing an error which is, at the present day, somewhat amusing. In arguing against a duty on foreign cotton he says: "Not being, like hemp, a universal production of the country, it affords less assurance of an adequate internal supply; but the chief objection arises from the doubts which are entertained concerning the quality of the national cotton. It is alleged that the fibre of it is considerable shorter and weaker than that of some other places, and that it has been observed, as a general rule, that the nearer the place of growth to the equator, the better the quality of the cotton." The latest and best authority upon this subject says, "The United States exceed all other countries in the production of cotton, both as to