A HISTORY OF rican Manufactures FROM 1608 TO 1860: EXHIBITING AND GROWTH OF THE PRINCIPAL MECHANIC ARTS AND AND COMPRISING F THE INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES IN MACHINERY, WITH A NOTICE.CF. Inventions, Tits, and the Results of each Decennial Census. BY J. LEANDER BISHOP, A.M., M.D. WITH AN APPENDIX, CONTAINING THE PRINCIPAL MANUFACTURING CENTRES, AND DESCRIPTIONS A HISTORY OF MANUFACTURES IN THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER I. A REVIEW OF THE STATE AND CONDITION OF MANUFACTURES IN THE FIRST TEN YEARS SUCCEEDING THE ADOPTION OF THE CONSTITUTION. DURING the twenty-five years that elapsed between the peace of Paris, which established the supremacy of Great Britain upon this continent, and the commencement of the present government of the United States, American industry received its first considerable impulse in the direction of Manufactures. The various non-intercourse measures and the war with the parent state promoted a steady growth of the domestic manufactures, which it had been the policy of Great Britain to discourage, particularly those of the household kind. Although by no means emancipated from dependence upon the workshops of Europe, a broad and permanent foundation for their future growth had been laid in the industrious, prudent and enterprising character of the early population of the country. Gathered from the productive ranks of the most active and ingenious nations of Europe, with a preponderance of the Anglo-Saxon element, their colonial training was well fitted to develope habits of patient toil, self-reliance, ready invention, and fertility in the use of resources. These qualities, so necessary to success in all the practical arts, were conspicuous in the American character. A varied and dexterous me chanical industry was all but universal. Upon this basis had been long growing up a comprehensive scene of domestic household manufacture from native materials of great aggregate value, which had materially lessened the annual balance against the Colonies, and had promoted the comfort of all classes. Notwithstanding parliamentary restraints, a long (13) |