An address to the people of the United States, on the policy of maintaining a permanent navy

AN

ADDRESS

TO THE

PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES,

ON THE

POLICY OF MAINTAINING

PERMANENT NAVY.

BY AN

AMERICAN CITIZEN.

PHILADELPHIA:

PRINTED BY JAMES HUMPHREYS FOR E. BRONSON

1802

TARRYTOWN, NEW YORK

REPRINTED

WILLIAM ABBATT

1921
BEING EXTRA NUMBER 71 OF THE MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WITH NOTES AND QUERIES

o

EDITOR'S PREFACE

UR first article is particularly timely, when we look back to
the period of only four years ago, when we were straining
every nerve to construct a great navy.

In 1802 our Navy was on a scale which now appears incredi
bly petty; yet small as it was, the debates in Congress show how
bitterly fought by the "Little America" party was the proposed
increase, of six frigates — and even then the favorable vote had a
"string" to it, providing that in the event of peace being made
with the Barbary Powers, work on the six should stop at once.
For a full understanding of what "unpreparedness" then cost
us, our readers should consult the "Life of General William
Eaton" by Charles Prentiss, where the shameful story of our
humiliating treatment by the Barbary pirates, because of our
weak navy, is told at length.

The "Address" is one of the rarest items of Americana — but
one copy having appeared for sale in many years. It is not
found mentioned in Allibone or Sabin, and its author's name
has not been suggested, as far as we know, until now. We be
lieve it was written by Enos Bronson, editor of "The Union."
"The United States Gazette," etc., and who was for years a pub
lisher and bookseller in Philadelphia, but in his later years a
teacher of the classics. His name appears in the Directories
from 1805 to 1824, in which latter year he apparently died, as
in the 1825 Directory his widow's name succeeds his own.

We regret not being able to give full particulars of his life ;
the story of a man of such ability as his ought to be fully set
forth, but we fail to find him even mentioned in any biographical
dictionary or encyclopedia, nor can we trace any of his de
scendants. What he has said in his "Address" would apply
with equal force to our navy and merchant marine, at any time
up to four years ago, and a single phrase from it might almost
serve as the creed of our Navy League: "When we relinquish
our navigation (Navy) we shall virtually relinquish our
independence."

Our second item is a very rare poem by an anonymous
author. It is a satire on the British Ministry of 1765, and
others high in authority, regarding their treatment of the
American colonies, and is especially severe on Lord Bute. In
a catalogue before us it is priced at $15.

It is particularly interesting from the fact that it contains

the first known use of the term YANKEE. Sabin refers to the
author's use of the phrase "Portsmouth Yankey," saying: "No
earlier use of the term within my knowledge. See the Monthly
Review, vol. 32, page 392." In the poem it is applied to an ex
patriated native of Portsmouth, N. H., John Huske (1721-73),
who became a member of Parliament and was active in support
of the Stamp Act.

It is interesting to note that the first use of the word destined
to become so famous was its application to a renegade Ameri
can, naturalized as an Englishman and noted as a Tory.

ADVERTISEMENT

THE Observations contained in the following Address were
written in the winter of ninety-eight. They were prepared
for public delivery in the autumn of eighteen hundred, and
are now submitted to the people of the United States with an
ardent though not sanguine hope, that they may contribute to
unite public opinion on a question upon which the author fears
that it cannot be divided without the most imminent hazard of
our national union and happiness.

Two previous questions are discussed in considering the
chief subject, the utility of a Permanent Navy. An establish
ment intended to guard our foreign commerce evidently presup
poses the importance of that commerce. And, as the necessity of
providing a Navy to defend it has been supposed to depend on
the mode of conducting it, where its utility was even admitted,
the importance of our navigation naturally arose as the second
question in order, though in magnitude perhaps equal to the
first. The introductory observations on the nature of commerce
and its beneficent operation in refining and exalting human
nature, may be deemed foreign to the chief design of the essay,
by those who have not thought the contrary opinions deserving
of serious refutation. They have found advocates, however, in
every age, and have been recently applied to the existing circum
stances of the United States, by Price, Mably, and Mirabeau.
Although they have not often found their way into our public
councils, they are introduced into private discussions without
them, and are not unfrequently relied on by the ardent friends
of liberty.

The Notes which the author now annexes to this address are
liable to unavoidable imperfection for the want of materials. In
the calculations of the expence which may be incurred, or which
may be precluded by a permanent Navy, little more has been
done than suggest the mode in which they should be pursued,
and to repel the unfair inferences which have been deduced from
the facts already ascertained and published.

AN AMERICAN.

T

AN ADDRESS, &c.

HE Period has arrived, fellow-citizens, when the approach
of peace calls upon us to decide on the policy of maintaining
a permanent Navy. Its enemies, fertile in ingenious argu
ment, have not only opposed our present armament in every
stage of its progress, but have laboured to prove the comparative
uselessness of the commerce and navigation which it was de
signed to protect. To trace the whole of their reasoning through
the mazes of subtilty and refinement, would extend my observa
tions beyond the limits which, I fear, your patience has already
prescribed.

Permit me, however, to solicit your indulgence while I endea
vour to expose its most striking delusions. Among those, the
glowing pictures of the happiness of states exclusively agricul
tural merit particular examination, since the importance of
commerce is an inquiry which properly precedes any considera
tion of the mode of conducting -it, or the means of affording it
adequate protection.

Let it be remarked that those opinions of national happiness,
drawn indeed from a few of the ancient commonwealths, but in
themselves erroneous, are wholly visionary when applied to the
United States. National, like individual happiness, must be
sought for in activity: and activity cannot exist without a
motive to produce it. Whether this motive be found amidst the
impetuous movements of war and the ardour of military glory,
or in the tranquil pursuits of peace and the indulgence of a re
fined taste, must depend on the relative situation of a state and
the prevailing habits of its people.

Were the Atlantic, which separates us from Europe, no wider
than the Eurotas or the Tyber, and the countries which bound
us on the West, powerful empires, we might, like Sparta or
Rome, look for employment in arms. But, remote from the com
mon theatre of war, to realize a military spirit, we must dissolve

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8 AN ADDRESS TO THE PEOPLE

the Union ; give to each state a military form ; and, renewing the
early ages of the world, derive activity from perpetual rival-
ships and contentions among ourselves. Such, from the begin
ning of time, has been the happiness of states purely agricul
tural; which are indeed but a single remove from barbarism.
Hunting and arms constitute their chief amusements. They
seek employment in the chace, in gratifying a spirit of rapine
and revenge, or in the noisy and disgusting carousals of a brutal
festivity.

History, divested of fable and romance, informs us that this
was the early condition of Greece, before commerce had wafted
to her shores the arts and sciences of Phoenicia and Egypt. At a
much later period we behold a similar state of society in the
forests of Germany, and in France, Italy, and Spain, when the
barbarians, pouring from their woods, bore down the towering
empire of Rome, and laid waste the refinement of the civilized
world. The magnanimity which, in the progress of man from
this rude state, darts a few solitary rays through the gloom that
envelopes it, is too apt to surprise and dazzle the fancy; and, in
dwelling on a few illustrious achievements, the mind insensibly
wanders from the path of sound philosophy. Let the enthusi
astic, or with more truth, the pretended admirers of unculti
vated nature, who have amused themselves by collecting its scat
tered virtues into a single picture, recollect that it is to their im
agery it owes its only beauty. Leave barbarism but for a mo
ment, and slavery or commerce must arise. The consequent dis
tinction of professions, and especially in modern times, the very
expensive profession of arms, must be supported either by a ser
vitude which compels a part of every society without any other
motive than fear, to furnish subsistence to the other ; or by com
merce, which stimulates the various departments of industry,
by the enlivening prospect of exchanging their respective super
fluities.

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MAINTAINING A PERMANENT NAVY 9

Placed at a distance from the warlike nations of Europe, and
taught rather to fear than to solicit an enlargement of territory
by conquest, the American politician must guard against na
tional apathy, by allowing the principles that promote activity
in peace an unrestrained operation. He must awaken the in
dustry of the farmer by opening a market for the surplus fruits
of the earth. The manufacturer he must invigorate by the cer
tainty of obtaining subsistence in the exchange of his wrought
materials. He must permit the man of taste to indulge his de
sire of refinement, and that desire to gain strength from the arts
which it creates. Until the structure of the mind be changed, it
must be thus provoked to exertion. Happy might it be for man,
if a spirit descending from heaven would hallow the soul, and
prescribing to it boundaries of indulgence, prevail on wealth to
employ her superfluities in extending to the poor the comforts of
life. Here would be a motive to industry independent on the
gratification of taste or appetite. When this period arrives it
will be time to legislate for it. But were the foreign commerce
of the United States to be annihilated, it would leave even this
disposition without an object. It would leave a people who, in
the midst of indolence, could procure the necessaries of life, and
who would have no motive to industry, because industry could
do no more. Is it said that the arts would arise among our
selves? Their progress in most states has been extremely slow,
even when accelerated by the inventions and discoveries which
commerce communicates from nation to nation. Like China,
whose arts, however rude1 and contracted, are the result of the

1Among the Literati of Europe there were two parties, respectively the
advocates of ancient Egypt and modern China. They never extolled the glory of
the one without detracting from that of the other. The travellers who speak
of the latter concur in the opinion here advanced. Not to speak of the fine arts,
in machinery of every description, except that employed in agriculture, they are
totally deficient. The cheapness of labour, a result of causes peculiar to them
selves and the other eastern natives, supplies indeed the want of it, but renders
the application of principles deduced from their circumstances to our own
dangerous as well as absurd.

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10 AN ADDRESS TO THE PEOPLE

uninterrupted labour of four thousand years r Like China, which
has been so often selected for imitation, did America contain
within herself all the sources of national vigor, disregarding
the connection of foreign commerce with the advancement of
science and literature,3 she might like China contemn it, as un-

2The history of some of the arts of China which pre-supposes the existence
of many others is as old. The commerce of India, which resembles China so
much, is known, on the authority of both sacred and profane history, to be
nearly so ; and as far back as the reign of the Emperor Justinian, silk was intro
duced into Europe from the latter country. The authority of Marco Polo, a
Venetian, who five centuries and an half ago travelled through and named the
country, is referred to by the celebrated Author of the Wealth of Nations (vol. 1,
page 108) to prove that it has not altered its appearance during the whole of that
period in which Europe has resumed her career, overtaken and surpassed China
wherever nature did not oppose her competition. The conquest of China by the
Tartars did not, like the inundation of the northern Barbarians, their brothers in
Europe, overwhelm the arts and sciences. The eastern conquerors with more
wisdom adopted, with a few alterations, the laws, languages, manners, and
fashions of the conquered. See Voltaire's Universal History — Grosier — Du
Halde, and Staunton.

3The defective language of China, which renders it necessary to employ a
whole life in acquiring a vehicle of thought, so that a man dies just as he has
learned to speak, would be almost sufficient to account for the rudeness of the
liberal arts in that country, and for the superstition which every where abounds,
— a superstition descending from idolatry to all the offices of life,* — to the posi
tion of their houses and doors, and boiling of their rice. Their printing resem
bles their language. The types employed on a single volume will fill a house, and
can be used for no other work. To this cause of the present rudeness of the
liberal arts and their slow progress in China, Voltaire adds their immoderate at
tachment to institutions and usages. A secondary cause may we not pronounce
it, which is itself the result of a contempt of foreign commerce. Is it not owing
to this disposition, common indeed to all the eastern nations, that Asia contains
more apparently distinct languages than any other quarter of the globe, that her
greatest states mutually despise one another, and regard with indifference the rest
of the world ? It is certainly from no profound calculation of interest, that they
neglect exterior commerce (vide Wealth of Nations, vol. 3, pages 30, 31, 32, 33).
Superstition which has made the ocean an object of detestation to some, and

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MAINTAINING A PERMANENT NAVY 11

necessary, at least to her internal energy. But while she is com
pelled to search abroad for the class of manufacturers, and finds
there the only market she can obtain for an immense fund of
superfluities, it will be difficult to decide whether her foreign
commerce is not as important to her,4 as it is by its enemies ad-

taught others to adore the elements of fire and water, must explain the founda
tion of that policy which we are invited to imitate. The Chinese have the honor
of having invented the mariner's compass, but they have the ignorance not to
know its use. Sir George Staunton (page 213, Staunton's Embassy, vol. 1)
could not prevail upon them to trust their safety to it by crossing, instead of
tediously coasting, their own Yellow Sea.

*M. Grosier tells us that if an imprudent person has built a house close to that of a
Chinese so that the angle formed by its roof flanks the wall or the roof of the other, the
unhappy Chinese ever after lives in dread of utter destruction from the malignant influence
of that angle. An implacable hatred instantly commences between the two families which
often produces a lawsuit and sometimes furnishes employment to the superior tribunals of
the nation. The same writer gives an account of a man who, having ineffectually paid a
sum of money to the Bonzes (priests) of a certain idol for the cure of his daughter,
brought a formal accusation against the idol itself, and, in spite of all the Bonzes could say
in its behalf, got its worship suppressed throughout the province.

4China, although without foreign commerce, is notorious for craft and disin-
genuousness. Candour, friendship, and benevolence, says M. Grosier, must, in
China, be sought, not in cities (which contain about 100,000,000 of people, or a
third of the population of the whole nation) but in the bosom of the country,
among that class of men who have devoted themselves to labour and agriculture.
The lower class of people are distinguished for the most abject servility to their
superiors (Sir George Staunton, vol. 1, page 263) and for imposition on one art-
other. They are dexterous, says M. Grosier, in adulterating and counterfeiting
everything they sell. A merchant of Canton, as Du Halde relates, gravely re
plied to a Captain who passionately reproached him for dishonesty in selling him
bales of damaged goods, "Blame, Sir, your knave of an interpreter, he assured
me that you would not suspect the bales." To strangers, above all, they exercise
an insatiable rapacity. That they are luxurious the most respectable travellers
assure us (Staunton's Embassy, chap, xi, vol. 1.) They have their tobacco,
araca nut, their tea, their ginseng. Add to these their profuse repasts, their
splendid festivals and illuminations, their magnificent robes of office, their pom
pous pageantry. Brissot, who recommends exterior commerce to the United
States, advises us to relinquish our navigation on account of the luxury which
it may introduce. May we not answer, that the cargo of the foreign ship, the
articles which minister to the excessive refinement of taste,* and not those who
navigate the vessel are the cause of luxury ?

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12 AN ADDRESS TO THE PEOPLE

mitted to be, to the nations with whom it connects her. And in
deed if the arts arise at home, domestic5 as well as foreign arts
will minister to that luxury so much, and so justly deprecated.
If they be sought for abroad, the proportion of agriculturalists
at home will be greater, and that happiness said to belong ex
clusively to agricultural states will, in a degree, be realized. As
agriculture excels all other arts in enlarging the understanding,
by the variety6 of its occupations, in purifying and ennobling the
heart, by the innocence, the simplicity, and the independence of
its pursuits, and their connection with all social and honorable
affections, our foreign commerce, which permits us to employ
almost our whole population in the culture of the earth, is more
favourable to morals and public virtue than the domestic arts
which might arise out of its ruins. In proportion moreover, as
our foreign commerce annually extends an exchange of the
necessaries of life, on our part, for its comforts, its conveniences,
and its luxuries on that of other nations, does this commerce
tend, in a small degree, to increase their dependence on us ; a de
pendence to which its enemies have avowed their willingness to
confide its protection and the tranquillity of our country.

Nature herself, seems to have contemplated an union of man
kind, in a commercial intercourse, embracing all the nations of
the earth. She has provided the means of communication be
tween the most distant countries, and laid the foundation of
their use in the various wants inseparable from human nature.
Under her maternal auspices, the superfluities of one land are
made to support the inhabitants of another. What in one region
is neglected or contemned, in another ministers to the necessi
ties or furnishes the conveniences and comforts of life. The

Wealth of Nations, vol. 2, pages 58 and 432, and vol. 3, pages 17 and
18.

*Vide Wealth of Nations, page 9 of vol. 1, and page 78 of vol. 2.

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MAINTAINING A PERMANENT NAVY 13

sugar and coffee of the Antilles; the spices of the Moluccas; the
tea, the silk, the porcelain of China ; the muslins and cottons of
Asia ; the woollens, linens and cutlery of Europe ; the drugs, the
dyes, the tobacco and grain, the silver and gold of Africa and
America : whatever the various soils and climates of the earth
engender, whatever industry, driven by necessity or fired by
genius, has discovered or invented, all contribute, through an
extensive commerce, to the civility, the refinement, and the hap
piness of man. Diseases and their remedies often spring from
different climates, and the peasant of the remotest corner of
Europe is frequently indebted to India, Mexico, or Peru for the
preservation of a blessing, without which life itself would no
longer be prized. But why need I say more. Is it not commerce
which breaks down those barriers to the extension of knowledge
that men have themselves created, by a diversity of manners and
customs, of religions, laws, and languages? Is it not commerce
which directs the labours of man to one common and illustrious
object, the perfection of the species? If it create luxury, it cor
rects barbarity. And had I to chuse where I should live and
perish in that round which connects the rise, progress and de
cline of empires, I would rather enjoy the sunshine of the arts
and the endearments of social intercourse, than waste my days
amidst the stupid indolence, the ferocious yells or the frantic
orgies of the wilderness.

To restrain luxury, let the whole force of education be em
ployed; education, the most important amidst so many objects of
national concern; the only one neglected by the legislators of
America. Let it be recollected however, that luxury cannot
prove as pernicious to a large as to a small republic. In the
United States it will be confined to the sea coast, and the rivers,
whose navigable waters intersect the lower country; the inhabi
tants beyond the mountains and remote from cities will escape
the contagion ; and constituting the great body of the people, will

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14 AN ADDRESS TO THE PEOPLE

serve as an impregnable bulwark to freedom. The southern
states, unfortunately for themselves, and yet more so for the
general prosperity of the Union, have fancied that, from a pecu
liarity of situation, their interest was to be found in a system
unfavourable to foreign commerce. The immediate effect of
this opinion on the largest of those states, from its connection
with my subject, I would exhibit to your view did not my time
forbid. Its consequences on the Union have been, and I fear will
continue to be fruitful of calamity. If the inhabitants of the
south entertain doubts concerning the utility of foreign trade, a
very large proportion of their fellow citizens elsewhere have a
fixed opinion on that object. Can it be supposed that the im
mense country bordering on the Ohio and the Mississippi will
assent to its annihilation? Has it, after the most urgent suppli
cation to the general government, and subsequent remon
strances to the court of Spain, obtained an access to a foreign
market that it will surrender for the sake of Union? Will the
people to the east relinquish the conveniences and ornaments of
life and their lucrative occupations to preserve an Union which
would no longer have an object? Our Union, fellow citizens,
gloriously triumphed over all the obstacles which opposed its
origin, and is I trust rising to maturity on the only solid basis,
the enlightened affection of the American people. Next to the
loss of our liberty, of which indeed it is the only certain security,
we should dread its untimely dissolution as the greatest calam
ity which could befall us. Ought then a system of policy to be
proposed which has a tendency to excite distrust and jealousy,
which has already opened a gulf that threatens to devour what
ever we hold most dear? Antifederalism sprung from an ima
ginary difference of interest between the members of the Union
supposed to be incompatible with its existence. The parties
which now sour social intercourse, and which have made the hall
of our legislative council ring with invective, have assumed vari
ous aspects with various titles; and doubtless, we are to look

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MAINTAINING A PERMANENT NAVY 15

abroad for the causes which have embittered their zeal. But to
this supposed diversity of interest, their origin must ultimately
be traced. The period is not remote, when they were marked
out by geographical as well as political boundaries ; when they
were designated as much by the territory which they inhabited
as the policy they advocated. Some of the members of the Federal
Legislature are even now so deluded by this false theory, or so
unguarded in their language, as to speak of an agricultural in
terest, distinct from if not opposed to, that of foreign commerce,
and of the propriety of promoting the one to the neglect of the
other. But it is vain to contemplate a destruction of our foreign
trade. The population of the country is too slender to admit of
it. It would endanger the whole fabric of society. The manners
and habits, the interest, opinions and affections of the people, all
rise in opposition to the measure — a measure which could not
be effected without destroying that Union which every honest
American will guard as the palladium of his country.

It is urged however, and with much confidence, that the im
portance of our foreign commerce does not imply the necessity
of establishing a Navy for its protection. Our productions, it is
said, are of universal demand. It is necessary only to open our
ports in order to have them crowded with the flags of every land.
We may therefore safely withdraw our seamen from the ocean,
and permit other nations to transport our commodities.

When we relinquish our navigation, fellow citizens, we shall
virtually relinquish our independence. We shall surrender to
the most powerful nation of Europe a monopoly of our produc
tions, and invest it with the dangerous privilege of controlling
our industry and commanding our resources. The navigation
which we surrender will become a firebrand of discord. Avarice
will endeavour to grasp it as a source of opulence, ambition as
an engine of power. In the lust of rivalship, each state will en
deavour to exclude her competitor from the American market.

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16 AN ADDRESS TO THE PEOPLE

To effect this purpose, commercial wars will be waged. The
command of the ocean being the object of the contest, it must be
decided by naval superiority. Should the weaker state attempt
an ineffectual struggle, her enemy will line our coast with his
ships. Stationed at the legal distance from the mouths of our
bays and harbours, they will intercept every hostile flag which
shall dare to appear. In vain do we proclaim to the world : our
ports are open to the commerce of every land — our numerous
rivers, our capacious bays, our wants which you have the means
of gratifying, invite you to bring hither the produce of your in
dustry. All access to our harbours is cut off by a barrier erected
beyond our jurisdiction, not under our control. Thus has a sin
gle nation in the exercise of the lawful rights of war, and with
out affording us even a shadow for complaint, limited us in our
supplies to what it can itself furnish, and contracted the demand
for our commodities to the narrow extent of its own wants. It
rests with the state become our carrier, to stamp what value it
pleases on the motives of our industry, or our industry itself.

Let us reverse this scene. Retaining our navigation, we con
tinue to transport our own commodities. We hold, by an impre
scriptible right, the prize for which Europe had been contend
ing. Her wars, instead of diminishing, extend the demand for
our productions. The freight for transportation, the ships, the
artists who build them , and the hardy seamen who direct them
are the property of the nation. Bearing aloft a neutral flag, we
are no longer in jeopardy from the avarice or ambition of every
nation who might chuse, for the gratification of either, to dis
turb the tranquility of the world. If the war be as extensive as
I have contemplated, it will transfer to America the navigation
of Europe. The contrary policy would not only be a dishonor
able surrender of the independence which Nature acknowledges
in every free state, an independence which we once nobly as
serted; but what would be deemed important by those who

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MAINTAINING A PERMANENT NAVY 17

profess to ridicule efforts to preserve any thing but money,
it would violate the soundest principles of economy. It would
destroy an extensive home market for the most bulky commodi
ties. In its various relations to agriculture and manufactories,
it would occasion incalculable injury. And to those who do not
dream of universal peace and perfection I add, that it would
drive from us a class of expert artists, and annihilate a body of
sixty thousand enterprising sailors, whose services might here
after be required in vain by the pressing emergencies of war.
Other nations have striven to multiply the sources of external
security, by giving to their artists at home a monopoly of this
valuable art. In violation of the rights of nature, they have en
deavoured to enlarge this nursery for seamen by forcing its ex
tension abroad, and shall America improvidently yield the ad
vantages which Nature has given her?

So much, fellow citizens, for the policy of this, the favourite
measure of the enemies of our Navy. But it is moreover, im
practicable on principles of union to surrender our navigation.
That our population is extremely slender when compared with
the immense extent of our whole territory, is true ; but it is not
equally true when considered in reference to every part of the
country by which it is actually supported. The Eastern states
contain a people who seek subsistence, not only by transporting
the articles of commerce, but from the bottom of the ocean. You
are told that they may be withdrawn from their present avoca
tions, and employed in the culture of the soil. Extremely easy
is this, in theory, but not so in practice. In vain will you com
pare the barrenness of a rocky soil, and the rigour of a northern
clime, with the fertility of the milder regions of the West. In
vain will you bid the fisherman of Nantucket to quit his incle
ment skies, and his precarious employment, to seek an easier
subsistence on the banks of the Ohio or the shores of Ontario.
Grasping his harpoon, from the helm of his vessel he points to

143

18 AN ADDRESS TO THE PEOPLE

his native rocks, and exclaims, with the ardour of patriotism,
"there are my treasures, this is my delight."

If it be impracticable, as well as impolitic, to relinquish our
navigation, we must, fellow citizens, afford it adequate protec
tion. A defenceless commerce offers to avarice and ambition
temptations which they are incapable of resisting. Responsible
to conscience and heaven alone, and urged by a policy which is
callous to remorse, can that spirit which aims at universal em
pire, or the avarice and jealousy which spring from a false idea
of a balance of trade, be taught, through a sense of justice, or the
remote connection of policy with virtue, to respect the rights of
nations? When have these principles directed the conduct of in
dependent states? How inadequate have they ever proved to re
strain individuals bound together by the affectionate ties and
amendable to the awful tribunals of society. And can it be sup
posed that powerful nations, mutually jealous, and rivals of
each other, accountable to God alone, will listen to their dictates
when they come in competition with their interest? An unpro
tected commerce will have to enter foreign ports under restric
tions which will, sometimes, amount to actual prohibition. In
terest being the only rule to which power will deign to submit,
where that can be promoted, no regard will be paid to reciprocal
obligation. Besides the motives to restrict or prohibit an unpro
tected trade, which are common to all nations, there are some
who avowedly subsist by plunder. It will not be declamation to
assert on the authority of the most respectable writer on the
law of nations,7 that the piratical states of Barbary are even em
ployed by the powerful nations of Europe, to distress the com
merce of their weaker rivals. Insecure is that commerce which,
when the world is at peace, relies for its freedom on the wisdom

7Vattel, book 2, chap, vii, sec. 78.

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MAINTAINING A PERMANENT NAVY 19

of the cabinets of the Princes, which has in so few instances been
capable of discerning, or willing to promote the happiness of
mankind. War, however, which changes the pre-existing, and
establishes new relations between states and empires, naturally
produces a policy unfavourable to the freedom of commercial in
tercourse. Laws, oppressive on the commerce of neutral na
tions, become here the obvious interest of the belligerent powers.
Neutrality is even odious to nations at war. They will court its
secret aid by intrigue, or they will fret it into open violence by
unwarrantable insults. An enraged competitor would destroy
that sun which shines with equal fervour on his rival as on him
self. Fear alone will compel a nation calmly to permit its enemy
to receive, through the commerce of a neutral state, the sinews
of war. Unless we possess the means of exciting this fear, in
vain may we desire to retain our navigation. A powerful state
will tell us "these ports you may enter, those you shall not."
Disregarding the rights of neutrality, while she dispatches her
squadrons to another quarter she will proclaim a whole country
to be blockaded, in order to starve its inhabitants into terms.
Where there is no plausible pretext for actual blockade she will,
by fraudulent constructions of the law of nations, a law which
is made, at once, every thing and nothing, as the authority of
force may please to interpret it, or by more fraudulent evasions
of existing compacts, extend the list of contraband articles. She
will finally tell us, "with this nation you are permitted to trade,
but with that you shall hold no commercial intercourse. You
shall not import the manufactures of this state, to that, you shall
not export your own commodities." She will specify not only
the channels of our commerce, but the burthen of vessels which
we shall employ, and the articles that shall compose their car
goes. Do we submit to the encroachments of one nation, our
submission will not only invite the rapacity, but will be con
ceived to justify or be urged to excuse, the spoliation of all. To
redress our wrongs, should we withhold our favours from the

145

20 AN ADDRESS TO THE PEOPLE

nation who has commenced the injury, she will plunder us to the
full amount of her wants. The only alternative then left us is,
by a general embargo, to blend our friends with our enemies.
To seek through a miserable retirement within our shell, to re
pair one loss by incurring a greater, and punish the plunderer of
three or twenty millions of our property, by an annual sacrifice
of sixty. And shall the expense which would attend the preser
vation of our independence, be deemed a sufficient reason for
abandoning it altogether? Had such been the policy of Seventy-
six, we should have continued the humble instrument of foreign
greatness, as we now are the sport of foreign cupidity.

But may not this argument, the strongest that has been ad
vanced by the enemies of our Navy, and the most frequently ad
duced because the most popular, be turned aganst them on a
liberal and comprehensive view of political economy? I trust it
can. It has already been adverted to. Permit me, for a mo
ment, to direct your attention more particularly to it. When the
hazard to be encountered in commercial intercourse is increased,
whatever be the cause, whether the wars of other nations or our
own, the price of insurance is proportionably augmented. The
risk of capture is added to the ordinary accidents of the sea, and
forms a part of the standard by which the insurer regulates his
premium. And by whom is this premium paid? Certainly by
the consumer of the articles insured. Is it conceived that the
merchant pays it? He must make a certain profit on his capital,
proportionate to its amount. Where a duty is imposed on any
commodity imported, its price is enhanced to the consumer. The
merchant advances the duty, but the consumer ultimately pays it.
In like manner, where the losses sustained at sea are increased,
or the danger8 of incurring them in magnified, an additional

8What may be hereafter the consequence of insecurity arising from the wars
of other nations may be ascertained by a recurrence to past experience.

In 1793, insurance from Philadelphia to the West Indies was from two and

146

MAINTAINING A PERMANENT NAVY 21

charge is laid upon every commodity by the merchant, in order
to repay himself the price of its insurance, together with a
profit on its advancement. And as, in the first instance, it is
immaterial whether the consumer pays the duty as a tax or as

an half to three and an half per cent. — To the West Indies and back five and an
half per cent. — From Philadelphia to New Orleans and back six per cent. —
Philadelphia to Europe generally three and an half, sometimes two, seldom four
per cent.

In June 1794 — To the West Indies five per cent. — West Indies and back eight
and an half per cent. — To New Orleans five per cent. — To London and back ten
per cent.

In June 1795 and 6 — nearly the same to the West Indies — To Europe rather
less.

In June 1797 — To the West Indies and back twelve and an half, fifteen, and
twenty per cent. — To Europe ten, seldom nine or eight per cent.

In June 1798 — To the West Indies twelve and an half to seventeen and an
half per cent. — To Europe twenty per cent.

In June 1799 — To Europe and back seventeen and an half to twenty — To
Europe ten to twelve and an half — To the West Indies ten per cent.

The above was copied from the books of one of the first houses in Philadel
phia. I annex to it a list of premiums established in the Insurance Company of
North America, on the 7th of March, 1794.

To Great Britain and Ireland

Holland and Ostend 15

Ports in France out of the Streights 20

Spain in the Bay of Biscay 20

Ocean, Portugal and { 30

Gibraltar j

Sweden and Denmark
Russia

Hamburg and Bremen 12*/2

All Western and Canary Islands 20
All British, Spanish, and Dutch * t I2y home 12V2

Isles and Ports in the W. Indies f

Swedish and Danish Islands 71/* 71/*

French Islands 20 30

New Orleans 12^

East Indies and China, to one Port 20
Home, to sail before the 1st of March

The Isle of France and the Mauritius 25 25

The two following lists are from the speeches of Mr. Gallatin on the 7th of
February, 1799. The report of the committee from which they were taken is
not in my possession.

147

22 AN ADDRESS TO THE PEOPLE

a part of the price of the commodity, so is it, in the last, as
immaterial on the score of expense, though all-important on
every other, whether he pays a certain sum when he purchases
an article as its insurance against the danger of capture, or
contributes that amount through a direct tax or an additional
duty on consumption towards the maintenance of a Navy that
will remove the danger. The instrument9 of commercial inter-

"The committee stated that about the time of the sailing of our ships of war,
the rate of insurance in Philadelphia, stood as followeth,

In 1799.

Out Home Out Home

To Russia 22y2 22^ 12 # 12^

Sweden 20 12J* l2*/2 l2*/2

Denmark & Hanse towns \7y2 17 y* 10 10

Holland 20 17J4 15

Great Britain 17 j£ \7l/2 10 10

Spain 17J4 17J* 12^
France

Portugal 15 15 10 10

Morocco 20 20 I2y2

Italy 27^ 27^ 17 J4 17

China and the East Indies 20 15 10 10

West Indies 17 y2 17 y2 I2y2 12V2

Africa 20 20 I2y2 I2y2

The foregoing facts are not adduced for the purpose to which the select
committee applied the last of them, and the inferences I shall draw from them
will not be affected by the reasoning opposed to that of the committee. I
mean to exhibit, not a particular effect produced by our present armament
in any period of its existence, but the general effect of a state of insecurity,
arising from wars in which we either bore no part, or confined our efforts
to repel aggression. The greatest expence of this insecurity, whether in
curred in insuring against real or imagined danger, is the difference between the
insurance against the risk of the sea, and the risk of the sea together with that
of capture. Assuming the insurance of 1793 as the first, we have about 6 per
cent for insurance out and in, to and from Europe and the West Indies, and
nearly 36 per cent for the highest insurance before 1799, for the last. Conse
quently 30 per cent is the amount of the extraordinary premium paid, in conse
quence of the real or apprehended danger of a voyage out and in, to and from
the West Indies or Europe. About one half of that, or 15 per cent must be
charged on our exports, and the other half, or 15 per cent, on our imports.

148

MAINTAINING A PERMANENT NAVY 23

course is also rendered more expensive by the risk to which a
defenceless commerce is exposed. The freight of a vessel may
be resolved into a profit upon the sum which she has cost her
owner and the expenses of the voyage. And the first is regu
lated by the profit of stock in other directions of industry, with
the additional consideration of the perishable nature of the

8Since the report of the select committee, the former have been augmented to
more than 70,000,000 of dollars. From an increase of population, the latter
must also have increased. As a part of our exports consists of articles imported
from abroad, and afterwards exported to pay for other imports, in what is called
an indirect trade of foreign consumption (a trade not as advantageous as the
direct, though not a mere carrying trade, as it has been represented to be*) I

*It would not be an improper digression from my subject to defend this part of our
commerce from the unjustifiable attack which has been made upon it by a respectable
authority. One-half of our exports have been stated to consist of foreign imports, and to
give rise to a species of commerce in which the American consumer, or cultivator, has no
interest. If I can prove, on the contrary, that this trade is necessarily connected with the
rest of our commerce, that the former merely disposes of the superfluous returns of the
latter, that the price of the former is another name for that of the latter, that without the
power of disposing of the former the value of the latter must sink ; that every risk which
affects the value of the one, either in importing or exporting, must regulate also the price
of the other; then must it be deemed equally entitled to protection with the rest of our
commerce, and all additional expense incurred in importing and exporting the articles which
enter into this portion of our trade is equally chargeable on the consumer or farmer, with
the additional expense attending the exportation of his own produce or the importation of
foreign manufactures. Permit me to give only a single statement and to refer, for a con
firmation of my argument, to Smith's Wealth of Nations. Our exports were admitted to
amount to 30,000,000, which the merchant exports on the credit of importing sugar and
coffee from the West Indies or manufactures from Europe. The thirty millions of Ameri
can we will say, for the sake of brevity, are sold in the West Indies at an advance of 66^
per cent and vested in the produce of the islands to the amount of 50,000,000. Of the fifty
millions of West India produce the United States require for their own consumption no
more than twenty, and to Europe, consequently, where they can find a market for the
surplus, they export the remaining thirty millions. They are, perhaps, disposed of in
Europe at an augmented price, and the European manufactures imported in return for
them may furnish another surplus of a different species of goods proper for the West India
market. It must be perceived from this statement that besides the encouragement given by
this trade to our artists who build the vessels employed in it, besides the various productions
which it consumes in our home trade, the profit of the merchant, the freight of the owner,
and the nursery which it creates for seamen, in which circumstance it resembles a carrying
trade, it is immediately connected with our direct trade of foreign consumption and equally
entitled to protection. Where perfect liberty exists as in 'America, to every class of
industry, and every direction of labor and stock, distinctions between the various fountains
of opulence, intended to recommend some more than others to the care and protection of
the Government, cannot but be invidious. They are not made in the spirit of the admirable
author of the Wealth of Nations, to whom they some times very uncandidly refer. He
wrote, not to disturb, but to restore the freedom of commerce, and to evince the impolicy
of those restraints upon nature which a delusive and jealous sense of utility had produced.
In a word, he was not the member of a party. See chap. V of book II, and especially the
62nd page of vol. II, of Smith's Wealth of Nations, edition 8, octavo.

149

24 AN ADDRESS TO THE PEOPLE

subject in which it is here invested, or the danger of losing the
capital itself. In peace this is great from the casualties of the
sea and the rapid decay of the materials of which the vessel is
constructed. In war it may be yet greater, from the frequency
of capture. The owner insures against this new risk and
charges the premium on the use of his vessel; the merchant
returns it and charges it on the commodities. Both, the con
sumer eventually pays." Of the second constituent of freight,
or the expenses of the voyage, which may be subdivided into
various items, I select only the wages of the seamen, because
the only one affected by the risk of capture. The wages of the
crew of a vessel are affected, not only by the price of labor in

will assume 100,000,000, the amount proposed by the select committee in 1799,
as the basis of calculation. I am therefore warranted in stating 15,000,000 of
dollars, as the loss which we should annually sustain in the present circumstances
of our commerce, from an insecurity, either real or imaginary, equal to that of
1799, when we were provided with some defence (however incompetent) for our
trade, when the only depredator upon it was not deemed to be at open war with
us, and his means of injury were, moreover, controlled by a superior force.

9On this part of the calculation I have proposed to pursue, I am very sensible
of a defect of materials. Having made this assurance, I offer the following :

Present amount of American tonnage 950,000 tons.

Internal trade which I except as not j . Cr~ ^^

equally exposed, f 5°'OC

Foreign trade and fisheries, 800,000

Value according to Mr. Coxe (View of the United States page 184) at 34
dollars per ton, 27,200,000.

According to Lord Sheffield (On American Commerce, page 87) at about 40
dollars per ton, 32,000,000.

According to respectable private information of the rates during the war, at
45 dollars per ton, 36,000,000.

A medium of the two first will be 29,600,000, and of the two last 34,000,000.
and of the two averaged values 31,800,000.

The first exceeds by but 200,000, the value assumed by the select committee
in 1799. Deducting from the last averaged value 1,800,000, for the sake of
round numbers and to avoid objections, and we have 30,000,000 for the value of
our foreign tonnage. At the premium established in the last note for a voyage
out and in, viz. 30 per cent, we have nine millions of dollars as the annual ex-
pence of insecurity, added to the freight of our vessels, and borne by the Ameri
can consumer. The risk, it must be observed, is that of 1799.

150

MAINTAINING A PERMANENT NAVY 25

other avocations, but by the peculiar hazard accompanying this.
War adds to this hazard, painful detentions in foreign ports,
the loss of liberty, or death from the hands of an enemy. And
the compensation for it constitutes a part of the augmented
price of freight. :(l Moreover, the owner of the vessel insures
his freight and charges the insurance as a part'1 of the freight

"Assuming 800,000,000 tons, as before, for our foreign trade, and allowing
100 tons* to each vessel, we have eight thousand vessels. Allowing a master or
captain, and a mate, and an average of four sailors to every vessel, and we have
eight thousand captains, eight thousand mates, and thirty-two thousand sailors,
for the whole number, whose wages were affected by the risk of 1799, or would
be hereafter affected by a similar hazard.

The wages of a captain or master before 1793 were from twenty to twenty-
five dollars per month. In 1799, sixty dollars.

The greatest difference of wages per month before and during the war, forty
dollars ; the least, thirty-five dollars ; average thirty-seven and an half dollars ;
X 8000 the whole number. of captains, or masters, gives a monthly expence of
300,000 dollars, incurred, in consequence of insecurity, for the wages of the
captains, or masters.

The wages of a mate before 1793 were from fourteen to sixteen dollars per
month: In 1799 from thirty-six to forty dollars: One half of 14 + 16= 15;
one half of 36 -f 40 = 38; difference 23, which multiplied by 8000, the whole
number of mates, gives a monthly expence of 184,000 dollars incurred, in conse
quence of insecurity, for the wages of mates.

The wages of common sailors before 1793 were from eight to twelve dollars
per month ;during 1799 from twenty to twenty-six dollars : One half of 8 + 12
= 10; and one half of 20 -f 26 — 23, the difference is 13, which multiplied by
32,000, the whole number of common sailors, gives a monthly expence of 416,000
dollars incurred, in consequence of insecurity, for the wages of seamen.

These three items added together make 900,000 dollars, which multiplied by
by 12 for the annual wages, give the sum of 10,800,000 dollars for the annual
augmentation of the wages of seamen, or the second item of freight, by the hazard
of capture in 1799.

nl shall not pretend to estimate this amount, or those arising from the addi
tional primage, which is a commercial term for the sum which the merchant
allows the captain on the whole freight of the vessel which he commands, and
which is about 5 per cent. — and the additional brokerage, which is a sum paid by
the underwriter to the broker who negotiates a policy for him, and which is about
one per cent, on the premium. It will be sufficient to state, that the hazard of

This number is assumed on a comparison of various articles in Dr. Morse's Gazetteer
and on private information. It is not confidently relied on. The number of seamen allowed
to a vessel, and especially their wages before and during the war, are believed to be
accurate.

151

26 AN ADDRESS TO THE PEOPLE

itself. The captain receives a primage proportionate to the
whole amount of the freight. The broker, for negotiating the
several policies, a profit upon all the premiums. And inasmuch
as all those expenses together render it necessary to employ a
greater capital in a certain number of vessels they limit the
extension of navigation, and by destroying a former or pre
venting a new competition, augment the price of freight. The
instrument by which commercial intercourse is maintained is
thus rendered more expensive, by various causes resulting from
a state of insecurity. But the whole expense is borne by the
consumer. By the merchant, no farther than as he himself
holds this character. In fine, as the cultivator of the soil dis
poses of his productions at a price reduced by the accumulated
expense of exportation abroad, their nominal value is depressed.
He purchases manufactures at a price enhanced by the addi
tional charge on the food which supports the manufacturer, and
the rude materials of which they are wrought, as well as the
extraordinary risk attending their importation. The real value
of his productions, which is to be estimated by the wants which
they will enable him to gratify, is sunk yet lower. The possi
bility of transporting our commodities to a foreign market,
where, according to their general character, they comprise a
small value in a great bulk, is rendered precarious.

1799, (whether real or imaginary, I must, contrary to a respectable authority,
deem altogether immaterial as to the immediate loss) applied to our present cir
cumstances, would produce an annual experice of 15,000,000 of dollars, for the
insurance of the articles of commerce, 9,000,000 for the insurance of the vessels
engaged in it, and 10,800,000 for the augmentation of seamen's wages beyond
the peace rates. In all nearly 35,000,000 of dollars for the annual expence which
would be incurred by the United States of America, in consequence of the com
mission of depredations as extensive as those of 1798, 1799, and 1800, on their
commerce.

I ask if this sum would support a Navy powerful enough to command respect
from other nations while we are engaged in a lawful commerce? For the mo
tives which those nations must ever feel to respect us, motives which must how
ever be unavailing while we are unarmed, I refer to Jefferson's Notes, pages 258,
259, and 260, new edition of 1801.

152

MAINTAINING A PERMANENT NAVY 27

It is not, let me add, our own wealth alone which we put in
jeopardy by this absurd system of economy. We are, under
certain circumstances, responsible for that of our allies. A
belligerent power is bound, by the law of nations, to hold sacred
the property of his enemy, provided it be within the territorial
jurisdiction of a neutral state. This jurisdiction extends to the
distance of one league from the sea-shore, and over all bays,
rivers and harbours within her territory. And the same law
declares that if a belligerent power capture the vessels of his
enemy within these limits, the neutral state shall indemnify
her ally for the loss which she sustains. What, let me ask, avails
the acknowledgement of a law where it can be violated with
impunity?

But if the risk arising from the wars of other nations; if
the depredations which belligerent powers are prone to commit
on the unprotected commerce of a neutral state; if the spolia
tions [I speak not here of the indignities to which we have so
patiently submitted for more than six years] are to be
deprecated, on an extensive view of political economy when
contrasted with the price of commercial security [and I insist
that they are], yet more deplorable would be the calamities of
a commercial war, to which, without the means of defence, we
should be ourselves a party. Let them not be estimated by the
events of a period when the world contributed, by the most
destructive havoc, to encourage our industry, and the mis
fortunes of other nations gave to our seamen the naviga
tion of the richest commerce. Nor should they be mea
sured by the feeble efforts of the crippled marine of France
during the last three years of that period. It had been
previously humbled by the naval power of Great Britain. Her
numerous squadrons deterred its shattered remnant from
tempting the ocean. It will not be deemed candid by those who
differ from me in opinion to estimate them from the transac-

153

28 AN ADDRESS TO THE PEOPLE

tions of the revolutionary war, mingled as they then were with
peculiar and complicated misfortunes. Let it be recollected,
however, that our population has since progressed more rapidly
than our arts. That our tonnage has been tripled ; our exports
quadrupled. That vast forests have been opened to the light
of cultivation by an industry which is cheered by the prospect
of distant markets. That the arts which we possess are inti
mately connected with, have in some instances grown out of,
our foreign commerce, which supplies their basis or furnishes
a demand for their products. That our hardy and enterprising
countrymen of the north have converted the Banks of New
foundland into a mine of wealth, of population and, if rightly
used, a formidable safeguard of independence. That we have,
moreover, incurred an immense debt, the price of the political
blessings procured by that war, and which all these resources
are to discharge. On these fountains of opulence, of enjoy
ment, of independence, what would be the operation of a com
mercial war, in which we should oppose our imbecility to the
naval strength of a powerful enemy? How are our harbours,
our maritime cities, defended? Many of our rivers present no
other obstacles to a foe, from their mouths to their sources, than
the rocks which terminate their navigation. A fleet of twenty
sail properly distributed would block up every harbour in the
United States. Half that number would shut up the Narrows of
New York, the entrance of the Sound, the ports of Boston and
Charleston, and the mouths of the Delaware and Chesapeake.
A single armed ship would intercept every bark that is carried
down the Mississippi. A stroke is aimed at our industry, whose
paralytic power would be felt through every department of the
community. The sinews of labour are withered. The husband
man neglects the harvest field, his ploughshare rusts in the fur
row. The disconsolate mariner beholds the sails of his vessel
idly flapping in the wind, or indignantly sees her led away by a
rapacious enemy. The fisherman of the north no longer fre-

154

MAINTAINING A PERMANENT NAVY 29

quents the Banks of Newfoundland, or courses the whale in the
Southern Ocean. He turns to the Atlantic, and with hopeless
dejection beholds the avenues of an employment to which nature
had conducted him in childhood, which she had made the honour
and support of his maturity, closed up. The silence of desolation
reigns in our cities. Perhaps even the flames of war fill them
with the cries of their defenceless inhabitants.12 Flying from
their paternal abode, they curse the wealth which invited the
rapacity of their enemy, and their government which surrenders
them a helpless prey to his power. Public credit calls in vain
upon the empty treasury for the sums destined for the national
debt. The necessary violation of private contracts undermines
the morals of society. The government itself, hitherto accus
tomed to rely almost exclusively, upon the duties on imports for
revenue to fulfil its engagements, sees the public confidence de
serting it, and all its operations delayed or defeated. Before the
loss of its old can be supplied by a new revenue, it institutes ex
pensive loans without funds to pledge as a security for their
redemption. Perhaps, at this awful crisis, it swells its expendi
tures by appropriations for defence, for that very Navy which
it recently spurned. It establishes a new system of taxation, not
only more expensive in collection, but from its drawing directly
on the purse of the citizen, and from its necessary or fancied
inequality, calculated to excite the clamour of the turbulent and
the discontented. A clamour, the more alarming from the period
at which this new system is called into operation, at the moment
when an enemy is on the coast ,when the channel of commerce is
obstructed and the capacity of the citizen for discharging even
the ordinary expenses of the government is restricted or utterly
destroyed. Gold and silver disappear. The banks are shut up.
A circulating medium consisting of their protested securities,

12Will such a calamity be deemed impossible after the recent bombardment of
the capital of a brave people by a British squadron ? One of the strongest cities
in the world !

155

30 AN ADDRESS TO THE PEOPLE

of the depreciated certificates of the public debt, of a new paper
currency issued on the verge of national bankruptcy, generates,
in its perpetual and rapid fluctuations, swarms of speculators
who intercept the blood of the nation before it has performed its
natural office, and glitter amidst her ruins. And shall we hazard
a situation so deplorable and trust our security, I had almost
said, our existence, to the mercy of every nation capable of
equipping a fleet of twenty sail? Can we expect succour from
abroad, when we cease to confide in ourselves? It has been often
urged, that those nations from whom we have the greatest dan
ger to apprehend, are most dependent on us for the employment
of their artists and subsistence of their distant colonies; and
that to this necessary dependence we may safely trust the pro
tection of our trade. It is not the first time it has been discov
ered, that if nations would consult their true interests, the
world would no longer be disturbed by their broils. Were the
policy of European governments founded always upon a virtuous
concern for the happiness of their respective subjects alone, were
they always capable of discerning the means of promoting that
happiness, we might venture to rely for security on the nature
of our commerce. But I will select the most commercial of those
states and pursue this reasoning. Great Britain, together with
her dependencies, receives from the United States a greater
quantity of food and materials than any other power in Europe.
From the superior excellence of her government, public interest
must be more frequently respected in her councils than in those
of any other foreign nation. The dependence so much relied on
must therefore operate here with peculiar force. When plund
ered by her cruisers or by those of other nations, turn here then,
Americans, and address her interest or supplicate her human
ity. Your addresses to her interest will be opposed by her pride.
She possesses the most powerful Navy in Europe. Her painters,
poets and orators have leagued her with Neptune and together

156

MAINTAINING A PERMANENT NAVY 31

with his trident have transferred to her the empire of the waves.
Supplicate her humanity! Whom do you supplicate? Not the
people of Britain, but a committee of her Peers. They regulate
the spirit of British commerce and the voice of the nation is that
of the merchants of Bristol, Liverpool, and London, of the Board
of East India Directors : the philanthropists who have dragged
from Africa to a miserable servitude thousands of helpless
wretches, whose only crimes were a capacity for labour and the
complexion of a burning climate. Behold their humane policy
deluging the plains of Indostan with the blood of her children,
and with a rapacity equally capricious and unrelenting, deso
lating the most populous region of the globe ! Will you judge of
the protection which you are to derive from their humanity?
They have avowed that it will be good policy in the nations of
Europe to let loose on you the rovers of Sallee and the corsairs of
Algiers. Infernal policy ! It is but a few years since two hun
dred Americans returned from a cruel servitude. On the South
ern shores of the Mediterranean I behold a land fertilized with
the blood of my countrymen. I behold the chains which bound
them to the instruments of labour and the bloody scourge just
fallen from the hands of their inhuman tyrants. Their cries
still vibrate in my ears. I hear them in the agony of despair
abjure their country and their God. Americans, extend your
protecting arms to the adventurous mariner. Do not, I conjure
you, add to the thousand hidden dangers of the deep, to the howl
ing tempest and the desert coast, the horrors of an Algerine
captivity. Had you yourselves witnessed the scoffs of the infi
dels and the tortures they inflicted on your countrymen, your
cannon would long since have thundered on the coast of Africa.
Told of their sufferings, your infant Navy struggled for life.
Faction however stifled her early efforts and you were content
to purchase a shameful treaty stipulating a price for the free
dom of American citizens. It is unfortunate indeed for Repub-

157

32 AN ADDRESS TO THE PEOPLE

lican governments, that they are too prone to act from the im
pulse of the moment and too seldom pursue the most important
objects with firmness. We are plundered by the states of Bar-
bary, and order six frigates to be built for the protection of our
trade. We buy a treaty and determine to build but three. Could
we tell how long this faithless people would think it convenient
to fulfil their contract? Again, our commerce is plundered by
the greatest naval powers of Europe, and its chief spoiler adds
insult to injury, proudly spurns our proffered reconciliation and
turns a deaf ear to our remonstrances. All parties at length
concur in ascribing these outrages and indignities to the same
cause, the want of a Navy sufficiently powerful to protect our
rights. And yet, when it is proposed to build six ships of the
line, it is urged that they cannot be finished before the present
hostilities are over. Fellow citizens, these hostilities will never
cease while our imbecility, the lamentable cause of them, exists.
Should the usurpation of France be limited or crushed, France
whom, if you remember, we once considered our national ally,
what may we not apprehend from the unrivalled Navy of
Britain? Experience has told us that it is not on national
friendship ; it is not on the sanction of natural law, it is not on
the faith of treaties, however solemnly ratified, but on a resolute
determination to defend our rights, that we are to found the
hope of security. When this resolution is blown about by the
gale of faction, when our resources 13 cease to be confided in,

I7ln two speeches delivered in Congress by the present Secretary of the
Treasury on the 7th and llth of February, 1799, our permanent resources (in
cluding internal duties, land and stamp taxes, which he there estimates at 2,600,-
000 dollars) are rated at 10,000,000 of dollars. In a report lately issued from the
same quarter, they are estimated, without the land or stamp tax, at 10,600,000 '
Such is the difference between our resources under the management of O (liver)
W(olcott) and A(lbert) G(allatin) !,

To serve a particular purpose, our expenditures for 1801, and 1802, were in
1799, calculated at 15,450,000, and 16,750,000 dollars respectively. In 1801, to

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MAINTAINING A PERMANENT NAVY 33

when national honor is decried and disgraceful submission
recommended, then all that renders dear the sounds of country,
of liberty, of independence is about to vanish forever. For when
you have prostrated your national character, when you have
tamely submitted to insults from foreign nations, and refused
your protection to a large part of the community, where will
your calamities terminate? Not in the mere destruction of
foreign commerce or the miserable slavery of thousands of your

serve another purpose, they are shrunk to about 7,000,000, including the expen
ditures for our persecuted Navy, and the interest on our public debt !

Adam Smith tells us, that the high interest of money in the United States
(then British provinces) is a proof of their rapid progress to opulence. The
public prints teemed with abuse of the government for borrowing at 8 per cent.
Six per cent stock was then selling at 16s. The new eight per cent stock did not
rise above par till a twelvemonth after it was issued ! Profound Financiers, wise
Statesmen !

Debate in the House of Representatives March 29th, on the State of the Union.
Mr. Giles said "that when he found the law for building the frigates would
pass, he stated it as his consolation, that the trees from which the frigates were to
be built were still growing." Again, "Perhaps, Gentlemen may say, what wilj
you do if France carries her injuries farther? I would, said he, draw ourselves
within our shell."

In his last speech, on that day, in reply to Mr. Harper, he concluded with the
following remarkable declaration: "As to the frigates, he gloried in his vote
against them; but with respect to the use of them, the gentleman (Mr. H.) was
mistaken. They were intended to be sent against the Algerines only."

In a committee of the whole, on the State of the Union, April the 17th, 1798,
Mr. Nicholas owned "it would be a painful thing to see our commerce carried on
by other nations ; but we have no choice, if it is not in our power to give equal
protection. The southern states, he said, had acted very liberally in this respect
when they had any thing in their power. They have consented to lay a burthen
upon themselves to increase the navigation of the United States ; but when they
were called upon to support additional burdens, they would expect to see that
the expence must conduce to some public advantage."

Mr. Baldwin, in a debate on Thursday, Jan. 17, 1799. "The operation of
building the frigates had been the subject of more particular enquiry, and more
pointed censure from all parts of the house, than any other ; It had always been
his opinion that it was less exposed to such censure than most of the other mea
sures."

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34 AN ADDRESS TO THE PEOPLE

countrymen. True, to be reduced to want is a great national
misfortune, and a generous people would feel the strongest re
pugnance at so glaring a violation of justice. But you will have
done even more. You will have humbled the American spirit,
extinguished the sacred fire of patriotism enkindled by the Revo
lution, and opened an easy avenue for despotic power. What
maintained the ancient republics — those famous seats of science
and liberty whose history is yet an inexhaustible mine of knowl
edge; at whose very names a sublime emotion thrills in our
veins? It was PUBLIC SPIRIT. A feeling in the whole republic,
of the wrongs of the most obscure citizen — an unconquerable
elevation of soul in each citizen, springing from a love of country
which could not quietly bear the indignities offered to her glory.
It was this which so long defeated the arts of intriguing dema
gogues. It was an heroic valour derived from this sacred feel
ing, which like the lightning of Heaven, kindling on the Grecian
armour, blasted and dispersed the effeminate hordes of Xerxes ;
which triumphantly bore the Roman Eagles from the Western
Ocean to the shores of the Euxine and the Caspian, from the
burning sands of Libya to the frozen glooms of Scythia. When
this spirit expired, liberty also expired, never more to revive.
Those once favoured states contained only the empty traces of
their former happiness ; phantoms which their orators endeav
oured to call up from the grave of oblivion, in order to rouse a
degenerate race. But in vain. Even their repentant tyrants
and conquerors, who while restricted by this virtue found it so
difficult to rob them of their freedom, were unable to restore it.
Sylla yielded to Rome her rights and she transferred them to a
succession of tyrants. Rome publicly proclaimed liberty to
Greece whom she had enslaved, but found her incapable of re
ceiving it. Greece and Rome finally fell a prey to Barbarians.
The vestiges of their former glory lie half concealed beneath the
rubbish of ages. The lonely traveler amidst wastes and mould
ering ruins, beholds them with solemn awe. They present a

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MAINTAINING A PERMANENT NAVY 35

melancholy picture at which the moralist heaves a sigh and the
patriot turns with apprehension to his native land.

The voice of modern is an echo of ancient experience. We
have recently beheld a nation, who, in the midst of despotic,
powerful, and ambitious neighbours, maintained her independ
ence and liberty, by upholding to the world the conviction that
they were prepared and resolutely determined to defend them.
Once happy Switzerland, with a territory small when compared
with ours, with not half the resources which replenish the coffers
of America, with your natural enemies at your doors, while the
ocean separates us from ours, how far did you outstrip us in the
path of Glory ! Sensible of the importance of national honor, by
repelling insults you prevented their repetition. Conscious that
the rights of nations will be respected only as they are defended,
by being always prepared for war, you secured to your citizens
the enjoyment of an almost uninterrupted tranquillity. You at
tracted the admiration of the world. Awed by the heroic valour
and patriotism of your citizens, insatiable avarice learnt to mod
erate her desires. Ambition rolled his gloomy course around
your mountains without daring to aspire to their summits.
Whilst surrounding nations were convulsed with war, and
alarm spread along the banks of the Rhine, the Danube and the
Rhone, the citizens of Helvetia slept undisturbed at their source.
Resting on his arms, he could from his cottage securely behold
the desolation of the tempest, and listen with composure to the
distant rumblings of war. Such, Americans, was the glorious
triumph of valour and patriotism. It is now no more. Those
mountains which were crowned with cheerful cottages and the
peaceful vine, now gleam with hostile arms. Their streams are
stained with blood, their rocks which had yielded to industry are
struck with barrenness. Those happy vallies which resounded
only the horn of the shepherd and the lowings of innumerable
herds are filled with the roar of cannon, the shouts of murderous

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36 AN ADDRESS TO THE PEOPLE

pursuit, and the groans of the dying. Oh ! Zimmerman, when
you wrote with the wisdom of a statesman and the fervour of a
poet on that national pride which distinguished your country,
little did you think that she was so soon to perish amidst its
ruins. Yes, my countrymen, Switzerland, by deserting the early
maxims of honor and independence on which she rose to glory,
has sunk into the melancholy list of dependent and degraded
nations. She fell a prey to indecisive counsels — to the love of a
repose by which she had been enervated, and to the dread of war,
the calamities of which were exaggerated by those whose politi
cal principles concurred with her enemy to complete her ruin.
Six years of condescension to a foreign power, and of confidence
in a treacherous security wasted her virtue and her strength
and finally surrendered her, a defenceless victim of unrelenting
perfidy and ambition.

Fellow citizens, listen to the voice of history; take warning
from the fate of other nations. Do not waste, in unprofitable
submission to the insults offered to your independence, the glory
acquired by those martyrs whose blood so recently streamed as a
sacrifice at her altars. Nature has given you rights, let not law
less power violate them with impunity. Unfortunate, indeed,
we should be, if Providence, who blessed our efforts for indepen
dence, had left us without the means of preserving it. Do her
not the injustice to believe that she has tantalized us with a
blessing which we can never enjoy. She has planted the live
oak, the cedar, the pine and the fir tree along our coast, from St.
Mary's to St. Croix. She has deposited in our mountains rich
mines of copper and iron. In the moist vallies between them,
she cherishes the flax and the hemp plant. She extends our com
merce through every ocean and to every clime. With the enter-
prize of freedom, she quickens the industry and improves the
skill of our naval artists. She braces the nerves and hardens the
sinews of our seamen, and fires them with an intrepidity which
difficulties serve only to confirm, and no dangers can appal.

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MAINTAINING A PERMANENT NAVY 37

And shall we spurn these advantages, and by neglecting to im
prove, cease to deserve, and ultimately lose them?

But it has been said that "a Navy when established may be
made use of as an argument for extending our power." If by
"power" we are to understand the means of enforcing a respect
for our neutral rights, which it is acknowledged have been
"shamefully violated," it is indeed the professed object of a per
manent Navy. But if by this expression we are to learn that
when strong enough to render ourselves respectable in the eye
of other nations, we shall be tempted to abuse our power, then, I
would compare this argument with the consolation which a sick
man would derive from being told that although his enemies
were plundering his house, and desolating his fields, he should
be content, since, if Heaven should please to renew his strength,
and raise him on his feet again, he might be tempted to pursue
and punish the robbers. Would not a child laugh if he were told
that manhood was not to be desired because its vigor might be
abused? And what is not liable to abuse? Let us, fellow citi
zens, dissolve our Union, and return to the dependent condition
from which we so recently passed, and to which so many illus
trious states have been more recently reduced, for ambition and
avarice may yet possess us, and our freedom to think and act
for ourselves lead us to violate the rights of others ! It is not to
connect us with the balance of Europe, nor to involve us in the
destructive wars which its adjustment cost her; it is to keep out
of her turmoils that a Navy is desired. It is to add to the many
and powerful motives whch foreign nations already have to re
spect us, another, that would stamp on the rest an almost irre
sistible force, and prevent them from being forgotten amidst
calculations of convenience and the violence of war.

All the complicated terrors of foreign conquests, of which we
are in no need, and which the whole nation, to a man, concur in
deprecating, and of domestic tyranny, of which we are in no

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38 AN ADDRESS TO THE PEOPLE

danger, but in the heated zeal or the artful misrepresentations
of the leaders of a party, have been brought to bear their whole
force against the establishment of a permanent Navy. Its ad
vocates have been openly charged with a desire of accumulating
power in the hands of the executive and a few other persons, in
order to increase our weight in Europe, and to feed the ambition
of a few individuals. Fellow-citizens, the usurpers of exclusive
patriotism have not always proved themselves the purest or the
wisest defenders of liberty. It is the quality of true friendship,
to which this sacred principle may without degradation be com
pared, to admonish us of our errors and to be more solicitous for
our happiness than our applause. The supporters of the admin
istration have been satisfied to permit their enemies to assume
the title of Republicans, while they retained only that of Feder
alists. Because they believed your liberty to be safe, and your
union, an object in few minds so intimately allied to the passions,
to be in danger. Monarchy in the United States of America!
It is absurd. It would not exist a day. The Federalists would
be the first to pull it down. Fellow-citizens, I beg of you, not to
judge the plain, the independent citizens of New England,
where the first blood was spilt in the cause of Freedom, by the
few foreigners whom commerce has conducted to our shores,
and who preserve a natural attachment to the country and the
institutions which they have left abroad. This would be as un-
candid as to blend with the refugees from Ireland, the temper
ate and respectable Democracy of the south. The Federalists, if
they can be supposed to disapprove of that constitution which
they ratified, and which they have ever believed they were zeal
ously defending, are yet too well informed on the subject of gov-

14Peter the Great, Montesquieu informs us, produced an insurrection in his
empire by an edict to shave the beards of the Russians. He was obliged to de
sist. The Tartars succeeded although not without blood-shed, in shaving the
heads of the Chinese. Is it supposed that men prize their hair more than their
liberty?

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MAINTAINING A PERMANENT NAVY 39

ernment, on the necessity of suiting the political institutions of
a people to their spirits/4 to desire a constitution whose admin
istration should be more permanent than our own. It is the pos
sibility of tranquilly changing our officers, that alone can save
us from anarchy, the forerunner of despotism. Fortunate will
it be if, as in a foreign country, the discontent which each ad
ministration must necessarily create, shall always cease with
the political character of the members who compose it. A good
citizen has little to care who holds the reins of government, while
the constitution of his country is maintained inviolate, and her
interests promoted. Banish suspicion, fellow-citizens, and you
will perceive that the Executive can never derive a dangerous
strength from a Naval Armament. It is here indeed, that a
Navy is wholly unlike a standing army. If it be ever converted
into an engine of ambition, its objects must be in a foreign coun
try; and the will of your legislature must be previously per
verted. A Navy can be employed to protect, but never to de
stroy, our liberty. To be useful it must, however, be permanent.
It is not the work of a day, as its enemies have assured us; nor
can the time at which its services may be required be always
foreseen. It is a sword, which, to be useful in war, must not be
permitted to rust in its sheath. Our enemies will behold its
brightness at a distance, and conspire with our love of tranquil-
ity to keep it unemployed. To anticipate danger will ever prove
the surest means of averting it. As a permanent Navy will af
ford the only adequate protection to our commerce, so will it also
prove a formidable bulwark of national defence. Fellow-citi
zens, do you confide in the width of the ocean which separates
you from Europe, to guard you from foreign invasion? You
have not measured the strides of ambition. Without a Navy this
distance is only apparent. Believe me, it will prove a delusive
security. A single month will transport an army across the At
lantic; the period it would consume on land in marching from
Charlestown to Washington. Consider the comparative ease of

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40 AN ADDRESS TO THE PEOPLE

transporting provisions, artillery, ammunition, and camp equip
age, on the ocean. The numerous delays to which an army on
land must be exposed, while pursuing a devious and untried
route over mountains and rivers, through almost impenetrable
forests, in continual alarm from the nightly fires and the fre
quent skirmishes of a vigilant and vindictive enemy. The dis-
ance does not exceed half what I have stated. Would you deem
your new Capital in safety, were an army of veteran troops, al
though at the distance of six hundred miles, in full march
against it. What a journey for an ambitious general inflated
with conquest! Shall I trace the route of Alexander from
Macedon to the Indian Ocean? It was three thousand miles,
over swollen torrents and through parched deserts, amidst
numerous nations whom, in the frenzy of ambition, he made his
enemies, that he might conquer them. They knew of his march
and were prepared to receive him. They fought and were van
quished. Our enemy, on the contrary, would be borne on the
surface of the ocean, impelled by the winds. His arrival would
be announced by his cannon. But Alexander, you would tell
me, overcame nations effeminated by sloth ! . My countrymen,
what may be our situation when enervated by long peace? We
were but lately aroused by the alarm of invasion. Had the
enemy actually arrived on our coast, were we ready to meet
him? Was our army enlisted? No! Even when recently dis
banded, after a period of two years had elapsed, but three
thousand men had been recruited, and those the sweepings of
our villages and cities. But, then, "the militia is regularly
trained and amply provided with arms and accoutrements."
Are they so here? It is fortunate. Go to the South and behold
them parading without a single musket, with not so much as a
fowling-piece. Every gentleman is an officer, and few officers
are better equipped than the men whom they command,15 If
such be our present preparation, what resistance shall we offer

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MAINTAINING A PERMANENT NAVY 41

to an enemy when time, whose unsparing hand has already
snatched from us the sword of Washington, shall have robbed
us of the remaining experience of our Revolutionary war?
When, lulled into a final security, the militia of the North is no
better than that of the South ; when shining with the splendour
of opulence we shall attract the eye of avarice ; when promising
an easy conquest we shall fire the breast of ambition! Alex
ander, you say, triumphed over states sunk in luxury and indo
lence. Behold Annibal on the plains of Italy ! He has crossed
the Mediterranean, traversed Spain, vanquished the ferocious
Gauls, climbed the frozen Alps, descended into Italy, and de
feated those brave and hardy legions destined one day to conquer,
to give law to the world. Rome itself is at length saved, for
AnnibaPs reinforcements are cut off. The expensive victories
of the Carthaginian general have literally overcome him. Pause
here, my countrymen, and behold the probable effect of your
Navy in frustrating an invasion. It has been stated by the
enemies of this establishment, "that it would not furnish a
sure defence to our country, for it would not guard our exten
sive coast from invasion. That it is not a necessary defence,

15I am not disposed to decry what is the natural defence of every country,
and the safest defence of a free state. But under the present militia system of
the United States, or any which has been contemplated, there is little ground for
the hope that it will ever be able to cope with the veteran armies of Europe.
May I be allowed here to ask a question which would not have been deemed fanci
ful among the wisest nations of antiquity ; it is, whether our militia system can
ever be improved while its offices are unconnected with those of the civil admin
istration ? Where the military character of a people is lost in the civil, in habits
necessarily pacific, how can military duties be made respectable, but by associa
ting them with the civil, and by making a military office the necessary avenue to
the highest honors which the nation can confer. When the road to glory is con
ducted through this department, by the laws, the military character will be digni
fied. The civil offices which terminate it will reflect a lustre on the military from
which it leads. The only remaining alternative, to pay the citizen for discharging
his duty as a soldier, is not congenial to the spirit of our constitution, nor as
likely to produce the end intended.

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42 AN ADDRESS TO THE PEOPLE

since we have waded through a bloody contest without its assist
ance." No! my countrymen, it would be impossible for the
Navy of Great Britain to guard her coast from invasion. But
if a Navy will not always prevent an enemy from landing on our
coast, it will at least render his invasion fruitless. Aided by the
militia on shore, it may shut him up in a seaport town. Hover
ing around the point on which he has disembarked, it may
deprive him of succours from abroad and rest his fate on the
issue of a single battle. Like the conquest of Scipio in Spain, it
may deprive the invader of the reinforcements necessary to
support his early success and render his most splendid victories
insidious overthrows.

A prudent general will never leave an enemy's fortress in
his rear. He will be ever careful to keep open a secure retreat
and to provide the means of obtaining timely succour. But the
Navy of an invaded country is a fortress in the rear of the
invader which he cannot control. When he is marching to an
attack, it may pour a host on his rear. When he is defeated it
leaves him no hope, no other alternative, but to surrender or
perish. At the end of a successful campaign, if the war be not
concluded, he may sit down within his entrenchments and
lament his victories. Is it not surprising that the last American
war should have been adduced to prove the inutility of a Navy?
Let the escape of the enemy from Boston ; let all that was left
undone in the commencement of that contest, for want of a
powerful Navy; let the correspondence of the American com
mander with the French admiral ; above all, let the last brilliant
achievement of that war, the capture of the British army at
York, attest the contrary. Yes, Americans, it is to a permanent
Navy you are to look for the protection of your commerce and
the preservation of that tranquility which you so highly esti
mate. It is to a Navy you must trust for security from invasion
and for success in war. Happy are we in being able to main-

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MAINTAINING A PERMANENT NAVY 43

tain our honor and independence by an institution which can
never endanger our liberty. While the nations of the other
continent have been compelled to guard against the encroach
ments of each other, by standing armies which have drained
their treasuries, loaded them with debts, corrupted their morals
and subverted their liberty, we can found our independence on
the instrument by whch our resources will be preserved and our
rights defended.

ON THE NAVY.

EVERY day's experience evinces the utility and necessity of
a Navy to the United States.

The hostilities of some, and the threatened depredations of
others of the Barbary Powers, should remind us of the state of
our own defence, and our ability to repel their aggressions. It
is feared, the appropriations for the support of the Navy made
by the last Congress, will not be found sufficient for its exigen
cies for the current year. So early as June, and not six months
after the grant of appropriations, the Secretary of the Navy
complains of their scantiness: — From this we may conclude
they are now nearly exhausted. The appropriation of Fifty
Thousand Dollars for the "Improvement of Navy Yards, Docks,
&c." was so inconsiderable, that all operations for this purpose
have been suspended; and should any untoward event render
the building of seventy-four gun ships necessary, there is not at
present in the United States a single public building yard pre
pared and ready for the purpose. When can there be a more
proper period than a time of peace for the founding Naval Ar
senals, and for completing Wharves, Dry Docks, &c., necessary
for the building, repairing and securing a Navy? — It is at this
time that labor is at the lowest rate ; when the most skilful work
men, and all materials of the best kind may be leisurely sought

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44 AN ADDRESS TO THE PEOPLE

for; — the works constructed upon the best principles, and com
pleted with the greatest care and fidelity, to render them dura
ble. Should this necessary part of our defence be delayed, until
our country is precipitately hurried into a war, we shall then
have to begin, what should have been completed. — A Navy will
be loudly called for, but called for in vain. — Our frigates are yet
to be built, but through improvidence no preparations have been
made. From the hurry and confusion incident to a state of war,
our arrangements will be hasty, expensive and but illy executed :
— And the delay, additional expence and inevitable consequences
to the United States will be incalculable.

FINIS

170