But this, perhaps, will ever be the case, till some misfortune
awakens us into reason, and the instance now before us is but a gentle
beginning of what America must expect, unless she guards her union
with nicer care and stricter honor. United, she is formidable, and
that with the least possible charge a nation can be so; separated, she
is a medley of individual nothings, subject to the sport of foreign
nations.
It is very probable that the ingenuity of commerce may have found
out a method to evade and supersede the intentions of the British,
in interdicting the trade with the West India islands. The language of
both being the same, and their customs well understood, the vessels of
one country may, by deception, pass for those of another. But this
would be a practice too debasing for a sovereign people to stoop to,
and too profligate not to be discountenanced. An illicit trade,
under any shape it can be placed, cannot be carried on without a
violation of truth. America is now sovereign and independent, and
ought to conduct her affairs in a regular style of character. She
has the same right to say that no British vessel shall enter ports, or
that no British manufactures shall be imported, but in American
bottoms, the property of, and navigated by American subjects, as
Britain has to say the same thing respecting the West Indies. Or she
may lay a duty of ten, fifteen, or twenty shillings per ton (exclusive
of other duties) on every British vessel coming from any port of the
West Indies, where she is not admitted to trade, the said tonnage to
continue as long on her side as the prohibition continues on the
other.
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