The
carriage of our own commodities, if once established in another
channel, cannot be resumed in the moment we may desire. If we lose
the seamen and artists whom it now occupies, we lose the present
means of marine defence, and time will be requisite to raise up
others, when disgrace or losses shall bring home to our feelings the
error of having abandoned them. The materials for maintaining our
due share of navigation, are ours in abundance. And, as to the mode
of using them, we have only to adopt the principles of those who put
us on the defensive, or others equivalent and better fitted to our
circumstances.
The following principles, being founded in reciprocity, appear
perfectly just, and to offer no cause of complaint to any nation:
1. Where a nation imposes high duties on our productions, or
prohibits them altogether, it may be proper for us to do the same by
theirs; first burdening or excluding those productions which they
bring here, in competition with our own of the same kind; selecting
next, such manufactures as we take from them in greatest quantity,
and which, at the same time, we could the soonest furnish to
ourselves, or obtain from other countries; imposing on them duties
lighter at first, but heavier and heavier afterwards, as other
channels of supply open.
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