Or, is it the opinion of the
Representatives that the difficulty of changing the established
habits of a whole nation opposes an insuperable bar to this
improvement? Under this uncertainty, the Secretary of State thinks
it his duty to submit alternative plans, that the House may, at their
will, adopt either the one or the other, exclusively, or the one for
the present and the other for a future time, when the public mind may
be supposed to have become familiarized to it.
I. And first, on the supposition that the present measures and
weights are to be retained but to be rendered uniform and invariable,
by bringing them to the same invariable standard.
The first settlers of these States, having come chiefly from
England, brought with them the measures and weights of that country.
These alone are generally established among us, either by law or
usage; and these, therefore, are alone to be retained and fixed. We
must resort to that country for information of what they are, or
ought to be.
This rests, principally, on the evidence of certain standard
measures and weights, which have been preserved, of long time, in
different deposits. But differences among these having been known to
exist, the House of Commons, in the years 1757 and 1758, appointed
committees to inquire into the original standards of their weights
and measures.
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