ng from a prohibition, and the
consequent deficiency of vessels to transport the produce of the southern
states.

Our country is at present upon an average a thousand miles long from north
to south, and eight hundred broad from the Mississippi to the Ocean. We
have at least six millions of white inhabitants, and the annual increase
is about two hundred and fifty thousand souls, exclusive of emigrants from
Europe. The greater part of our increase is employed in settling the new
lands, while the older settlements are entering largely into manufactures
of various kinds. It is probable that the extraordinary exertions of this
state in the way of industry for the present year only, exceed in value
five hundred thousand pounds. The new settlements, if all made in the same
tract of country, would form a large state annually; and the time seems to
be literally accomplished when a nation shall be born in a day. Such an
immense country is not only capable of yielding all the produce of Europe,
but actually does produce by far the greater part of the raw materials.
The restrictions on our trade in Europe, necessarily oblige us to make use
of those materials, and the high price of labour operates as an
encouragement to mechanical improvements. In this way we daily make rapid
advancements towards independence in resources as well as in empire. If we
adopt the new system of government we shall, by one rash vote, lose the
fruit of the toil and expense of thirteen years, at the time when the
benefits of that toil and expense are rapidly increasing. Though the
imposts of Congress on foreign trade may tend to encourage manufactures,
the excise and dry tax will destroy all the beneficial effects of the
impost, at the same time that they diminish our capital. Be careful then
to give only a limited revenue, and the limited power of managing foreign
concerns. Once surrender the rights of internal legislation and taxation,
and instead of being respected abroad, foreigners will laugh at us, and
posterity will lament our folly.

AGRIPPA.

Agrippa, X.

The Massachusetts Gazette, (Number 396)

TUESDAY, JANUARY 1, 1788.

For the Massachusetts Gazette.

TO THE PEOPLE.

_Friends and Brethren_,

It is a duty incumbent on every man, who has had opportunities for
inquiry, to lay the result of his researches on any matter of publick
importance before the publick eye. No further apology will be necessary
with the generality of my read