the support in my power to the
propositions which I lately transmitted to the Hall.

The fault I find in the scheme is, that it falls extremely short of that
liberality in the commercial system which I trust will one day be
adopted. If I had not considered the present resolutions merely as
preparatory to better things, and as a means of showing, experimentally,
that justice to others is not always folly to ourselves, I should have
contented myself with receiving them in a cold and silent acquiescence.
Separately considered, they are matters of no very great importance. But
they aim, however imperfectly, at a right principle. I submit to the
restraint to appease prejudice; I accept the enlargement, so far as it
goes, as the result of reason and of sound policy.

We cannot be insensible of the calamities which have been brought upon
this nation by an obstinate adherence to narrow and restrictive plans of
government. I confess, I cannot prevail on myself to take them up
precisely at a time when the most decisive experience has taught the
rest of the world to lay them down. The propositions in question did not
originate from me, or from my particular friends. But when things are so
right in themselves, I hold it my duty not to inquire from what hands
they come. I opposed the American measures upon the very same principle
on which I support those that relate to Ireland. I was convinced that
the evils which have arisen from the adoption of the former would be
infinitely aggravated by the rejection of the latter.

Perhaps gentlemen are not yet fully aware of the situation of their
country, and what its exigencies absolutely require. I find that we are
still disposed to talk at our ease, and as if all things were to be
regulated by our good pleasure. I should consider it as a fatal symptom,
if, in our present distressed and adverse circumstances, we should
persist in the errors which are natural only to prosperity. One cannot,
indeed, sufficiently lament the continuance of that spirit of delusion,
by which, for a long time past, we have thought fit to measure our
necessities by our inclinations. Moderation, prudence, and equity are
far more suitable to our condition than loftiness, and confidence, and
rigor. We are threatened by enemies of no small magnitude, whom, if we
think fit, we may despise, as we have despised others; but they are
enemies who can only cease to be truly formidable by our entertaining a
due respect for