In addition to this favor extended from the politic fears of the Spaniards, Wilkinson obtained a contract to furnish a considerable supply of tocacco for the Mexican market annually. This tobacco was to be paid for at ten dollars per cwt., or as Clark says, $9,50 delivered in the King's stores at New Orleans; when it was selling in Kentucky for $2 per cwt.

This contract, which Wilkinson had at the time the most perfect right to make, as much so as any private citizen has at this day, with a foreign government at peace with the United States, became the source of many malignant insinuations against him, when, as afterwards, he became an officer in the army of the United States. Payments under this contract for tobacco delivered at New Orleans, which were remitted to, and received by Wilkinson in Kentucky, although immediately paid away to the farmers of that State, were all trumpeted abroad as Spanish bribes. I will repeat what sixteen years ago I said on this subject. "It is due to the memory of General Wilkinson, to his distinguished services and persecutions, to declare that this part (meaning the tobacco contract,) of the subject was approached by the author, with strong prepossessions against his purity. But on sifting the mass of testimony procured by one military tribunal, and four committees of Congress, added to that presented to a second court; and finding the General acquitted by both courts, and their sentences approved (reluctantly approved in the last instance,) by two Presidents of the United States, the author has been forced into the conclusion that this military officer has been wronged in the suspicions and denunciations so long and bitterly indulged against his honesty. "General Wilkinson did certainly show no reserve in disclosing to his own government these connexions with the Spanish officers at New Orleans; nor any backwardness in developing the circumstances, or in soliciting inquiry from General Washington, or the elder Adams. "But one conclusive consideration in the mind of the writer, which confirms the honor and fidelity of Wilkinson, is, that, in his long and various public services, no one solitary instance can be justly alleged, in which he disregarded or violated the strictest, and most zealous discharge of his duty." How easy would it have been for Wilkinson, when stationed on the Sabine river and informed by Swartwout that Burr was descending to New Orleans, to have avoided patching up matters with the Spaniards on that frontier, or to have precipitated hostilities, never difficult, between enemies in the field? A negative course would have left New Orleans open to the plunder of Burr; active hostilities with the Spaniards would have been still more effectual. But what was his course? it was to agree with the Spaniards upon the Sabine as a temporary line between the United States and Spain, until farther negotiations of the two governments; and to hurry down to the defence of New Orleans, how effectually we all know. Yet this eminent officer seems to have been, with many brilliant qualities, an unfortunate An aid to Gates in the battle of Saratoga, second in command and then first, against the Indians on the Wabash, second in command at the battle of the Maumee, in 1794, commander in chief of the army of the United States, commissioner to receive Louisiana from France, Governor of Upper Louisiana, commander in chief against Montreal; still Wilkinson died in suspicion and disgrace-an exile in Mexico. While in Kentucky, was there an address to be written which should

man.

pour forth her ardent feelings-a debate in her district conventions to be opened on her vital interests,-Wilkinson was equally the author of the one, and the speaker in the other. So varied, rich and polished were the powers and acquirements of this singularly versatile person, that whether in the field of Saratoga, the cabinet of Governor Miro, or in the convention of the backwoodsman of Kentucky, this gifted man, drew all eyes upon him, and was looked up to as a leader and a chief. His memoirs furnish one of the most curious exhibitions of the vicissitudes of a public officer which the service of this republic affords. Wilkinson was an ardent speculator in lands and anything else which pleased his ardent imagination-he was no conspirator, either with Burr or with Spain.

I will follow this essay no farther than to say, that the land companies of the country, in the early history of the West, had no more connection with any foreign government than they now have all around us. Land, in our rapidly augmenting country, is as natural a subject of traffic as bread and meat; and it would be quite as well to connect the latter with intrigues of foreign governments as the former.

I can now only say, at the close of this naked vindication of Kentucky statesmen, some of whom were most esteemed friends, and others respected on the traditions and records of the State, that I wish I had time or ability to enlarge upon the real and genuine early spirit of the West. It is a noble theme-it is to delineate that spirit which scaled the Alleghanies and spread the dominion of the Republic to the banks of the Mississippi-which vanquished confederacies of the most warlike savages on this Continent, fed and armed by a European power, and in fine, has substituted for the wilderness and savage man, fields ripe with the blessed fruits of the farmer's labors-sacred churches, noble schools and halls of free legislation; and above all, a people of high-spirited intelligent freemen. Is this not a debt which the civilization of the world. owes to the early spirit of the West? This is the high mission of civilization which is now only fulfilling on the Pacific, amid the Placers of California, and the mountain gorges of Oregon-the appointed work which was begun in the stations of Kentucky and Tennessee. Are these not fruits worthier of a critics eye-worthier of a true historian's comment, who is imbued with the generous spirit of our own people, than the offences or mistakes of a few publlc men? What morbid taste is this, which prefers to feed on the garbage of stale and rotten slanders of ancient public servants, to feasting on the glorious works of the high and gallant deeds, which have spread a peace-and-labor loving people from the Alleghanies to the Pacific Ocean! What France, and Spain, and Great Britain, in the highest pride and power, have failed to do-the pioneers of the West, embracing the Puritans of the North-East, as much as the Long-Knife of Virginia, have greatly, wonderfully done, and are still doing, to the admiration of all true friends of humanity— civilizing and Christianizing America.

ART. III.-EARLY AND GROWING COMMERCE OF THE UNITED STATES.

In the following paper we shall hurriedly discuss the commerce of the United States, from the earliest authentic dates to the year 1833, and include a large number of interesting particulars, which have been overlooked by us, or been but slightly touched upon in previous articles. The period of 1833 is assumed as a very convenient one, for several reasons, among the chief of which is, that the elaborate statistics of Mr. Pitkins terminate there. When time admits, we shall, by examination of the year books of Congress, be able to bring down the subject with the same minuteness, to the present day, and furnish many important and valuable contrasts, &c.; but the reader, by reference to our last eight volumes, will find scattered under various heads, almost all the individual facts and particulars. We would point in confirmation to the article in vol. 1, on "The Origin and Progress of Commerce," and in vol. 2, on The Progress of American Commerce," &c.

The discovery of America, and its subsequent colonization, gave an impetus to the commercial operations of Europe, which has been enlarging ever since. It is impossible to describe, in language sufficiently strong, the important bearings of this event upon the history and prospects of mankind.

The colonies of Great Britain in particular, as we may gather from the terms of the charters accorded them, were intended at the earliest period, as the poles of an extensive commerce which was to be added to the empire; and considering the character of the earliest emigrants, hardy, bold, enterprising, conversant with the general principles and advantages of trade by their education in so considerable a trading nation as Britain, and the character of the country they were peoplingextensive seaports, great and innumerable rivers, admirable bays and harbors, fertile soil, and favorable climate-this intention could by no means have appeared unreasonable. Time has shown that the most enthusiastic expectations fell infinitely short of the reality.

With the struggles of the early colonists against man and nature, we all are familiar. A season of long probation had of necessity to be endured, and it served to form that hardy and resolute character which even yet adheres to their descendants. The New England pilgrims were the first, from their barren shores and rock-bound coasts, to go down to the sea, and assay its great perils. To this hardy, daring, and inimitable people, the boons of nature were to be found in the apparent denial of them all. Upon the pathless deep they are described in eastern gorgeousness, in the oratory of Burke, struggling at either pole, amid tumbling mountains of ice, in the frozen recesses of Hudson's Bay and Davis' Straits, beneath the arctic circle, and engaged under the frozen serpent of the south.

Few particulars can be offered of the commerce of the seventeenth century. We know that in 1647 a trade had been opened from the northern ports to Barbadoes and others of the West Indies; that a collector of customs was appointed at Charleston in 1685, and that the

津 Seybert, 54.

hardy enterprises of the Nantucket whalemen received their first impulse in 1690.

At the opening of the eighteenth century, the gross value of the exports and imports of all the American colonies, in their trade with all the world, did not exceed £740,000 sterling, or about three and one half millions of dollars, a sum which does not much exceed the average annual trade of the single states of Maine and Vermont, which are never regarded among our foreign trading states at all. It is less than our export alone of fish, oil, and candles.

A wider field began soon to appear. In 1731 parliament was petitioned to open the African trade to the Americans. The Pennsylvanians were already conducting profitable traffic in Surinam, Hispaniola, the West Indies, Canaries, and Newfoundland. "New England," said a chronicle of the times, " employs six hundred ships, sloops, &c., about one half of which sail to England."

The eyes of the mother country came soon to be opened to the dangers which threatened her from these aspiring, daring, and refractory children across the ocean. Like Phaton, they were stealing the horses of the sun, and unless arrested in their mad course, it was impossible to foresee the consequences. They had learned, too, to guide the reins of these horses. One may fancy the consternation in parliament. "The only use of colonies," said Lord Sheffield, "is the monopoly of their consumption, and the carriage of their produce." The same noble lord remarked, even after our independence, "It would hardly be the interest of the Americans to go to Canton, because they have no articles to send thither, nor any money. Nothing, nothing," declared their statesmen in parliament, "can be more prejudicial, and in prospect more dangerous to any mother kingdom, than the increase of shipping in her colonies."

One of the earliest acts of British jealousy and restriction was in 1730, and was aimed against the American trade with the Dutch and French colonies. This was followed up, in 1760, by the navigation act, which declared that certain specified articles of the produce of the colonies, and since known in commerce by the name of the "enumerated articles," should not be exported directly from the colonies to any foreign country, but that they should be first sent to Britain and there unladen, before forwarded to their final destination. What could be more preposterous and suicidal than such a proposition?

The act of 1764 provided further, that no commodity of the growth, production, or manufacture of Europe, shall be imported into the British plantations, but such as are laden and put on board in England, Wales, or Berwick-upon-Tweed, and in English-built shipping, whereof the master and two thirds of the crew are English.

In 1770 Mr. Burke announced with high gratulation in the House of Commons, that "our trade with America is scarcely less now than we carried on at the beginning of the century with all the world.

At the same period, Malachi Postlethwait, in an address to the parliament, remarked, "for if once a commercial union should take place between the British continental colonies and the islands, to a certain de

Seybert, and see his note.

gree they might think it worth their while probably to hazard the loss of the British markets, for the sake of the gain arising from the general freedom of trade to all other parts of the world. What then may become of our British navigation, to and from America? When that is lost, will not all our revenues, arising from our present American imports, be annihilated? and what will be the state of the public credit of this nation, when such a catastrophe should ever happen?"

The statistics of American commerce, from the opening of the century until the period of the Revolution, show a continued augmentation. During the troubles of that period, and of those which immediately preceded, some decline was of course inevitable. In 1771 the whole exports and imports of New England, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Maryland, Carolina, and Georgia, fell but little short of $30,000,000, having increased tenfold since the beginning of the century.

The war being closed, and an immense national debt of $12,000,000 accumulated, exclusive of state indebtedness, Congress found it absolutely necessary to provide a system of revenue adequate to the exigencies of the country. Experience had shown that impost duties could alone be relied upon, and were in other respects the least objectionable mode of taxation. Under the articles of federation, such duties could only be levied by the states, who thus reserved to themselves the exclusive control over their commerce. This state of things was attended with the most awkward and embarrassing results, and seemed likely at once to destroy all the benefits of the independence which had just been realized. Congress was left without a revenue, and was paralyzed. Foreigners began to exhibit their jealousies of the growing republic, and hostility to its commerce. Great Britain, France, Spain, Portugal, rejected all overtures to enter into treaties of commerce with us.* of the states opened their trade free with all nations, thus holding out superior encouragements to their neighbors. New York, in this manner, laid the foundation of the empire she now maintains. From the free ports goods might be smuggled into other states. Tonnage duties in different states varied from one to three shillings sterling the ton.

Some

As early as 1781 Congress prayed for the power to levy a duty of five per cent. ad-valorem, upon imports, to be continued until the payment of the debt. A further power of regulating the commerce of the states, was moved for in the same body, and negatived there. The states refused even to grant the duty. In 1783 the proposition was again urgently renewed, limited to the term of twenty-five years, but was not carried into effect.‡

The darkest period was now at hand. The country, it is maintained, was drained of specie by the extraordinary preponderance of the imports over the exports for several years, being often as three to one in regard to Great Britain. The interest of the debt was unpaid, public credit gone, the debt itself considered of little value, and sold to many of its original holders for about one tenth of its nominal value. Private credit was also much impaired. During the war, the collection of debts was in a great measure suspended, and on the return of peace, goods were

• Marshall's Washington, p. 5, 182. † What States refused, Seybert, p. 57.

+ Pitkins, p. 30.