The defence of their coasts has been another cause which obliges them to abandon the more lucrative pursuits of agriculture, to provide for their defence.

They have been compelled to sacrifice profit to safety.
The United States possessed a fertile, extensive, and unsettled country; and it might well be questioned how far their real interests would be promoted by forcing a further acceleration of the growth of their marine, by impelling their citizens from the cultivation of the soil to the navigation of the ocean.

The measures already adopted had been very operative; and it was by no means certain that an additional stimulus would be advantageous.

The increased duty on foreign tonnage, and on goods imported in foreign bottoms, had already been attended with sensible effects.

In 1790, the American tonnage was one-half the whole tonnage employed in their trade: in 1791, it was three-fifths: in 1792, it had increased to two-thirds.