The habits and institutions of the American people are peculiarly favourable to the adoption of manufacturing pursuits. They have no corporations with exclusive privileges, and no laws which enact any specific period of apprenticeship. Their well known spirit of enterprise, and the circumstance {250} of almost every man’s being acquainted with handling the axe, the hammer, the saw, and the joiner’s plane, must give a facility to the acquisition of mechanical labour. Besides, it is understood that a few weeks, or at farthest a few months, are enough to communicate the knowledge of most of those employments, and that the work can soon be reduced to practice by subsequent application. The progress already made in several branches of manufacture tend to inspire a strong hope as to future attainments. The fabrication of coarse cotton cloths, called _domestics_, which now undersell British goods of similar quality; the making of iron articles, of leather-hats, paper, types, engravings, the construction of steam-boats, and the building of ships, are mentioned as flattering examples. As the disposition to promote American manufactures is progressive, and as popular opinion dictates the measures of the government, it may be safe to infer that commerce with England is now in a deep decline, and that the erection of workshops (though it should be on a moderate scale) may be hailed as the liberation of the United States from foreign monopoly. FOOTNOTES: [130] The Philadelphia Society for Promoting Domestic Manufactures, organized in 1803, with Stephen Girard as president, was incorporated in 1805. A central warehouse was established, where articles of American manufacture could be concentrated and sold, thus doing away with the expense of middlemen. The society was active in advocating a protective tariff. The Cincinnati Society for the Promotion of Agriculture, Manufactures, and Domestic Economy was organized in 1819. Quarterly meetings were held, and prizes offered for the best essays on subjects relating to agriculture and domestic manufactures.--ED. [131] “_1st._ We will not purchase, or suffer to be used in our families, any imported liquors, fruits, nuts, or preserves of any kind, unless they shall be required in cases of sickness. “_2d._ Being convinced, that the practice which generally prevails of wearing suits of black as testimonials of respect for the memory of deceased friends, is altogether useless, if not improper, while it is attended with a heavy expense; we will not sanction it hereafter in our families, or encourage it in others. “_3d._ We will not purchase, for ourselves or our families, such articles of dress as are expensive, and are generally considered as ornamental rather than useful. “_4th._ We will abstain from the use of imported goods of every description, as far as may be practicable, and we will give a preference to articles that are of the growth and manufacture of our own country, when the latter can be procured.