I am not, generally speaking, their enemy.

I am their friend; but I am not for rearing them or any other interest in hot-beds.

I would not legislate precipitately, even in favor of them; above all, I would not profess intentions in relation to them which I did not purpose to execute.

I feel no desire to push capital into extensive manufactures faster than the general progress of our wealth and population propels it.
"I am not in haste to see Sheffields and Birminghams in America.
Until the population of the country shall be greater in proportion to its extent, such establishments would be impracticable if attempted, and if practicable they would be unwise." He then pointed out the inferiority and the perils of manufactures as an occupation in comparison with agriculture, and concluded as follows:-- "I am not anxious to accelerate the approach of the period when the great mass of American labor shall not find its employment in the field; when the young men of the country shall be obliged to shut their eyes upon external nature, upon the heavens and the earth, and immerse themselves in close and unwholesome workshops; when they shall be obliged to shut their ears to the bleatings of their own flocks upon their own hills, and to the voice of the lark that cheers them at the plough, that they may open them in dust and smoke and steam to the perpetual whirl of spools and spindles, and the grating of rasps and saws.

I have made these remarks, sir, not because I perceive any immediate danger of carrying our manufactures to an extensive height, but for the purpose of guarding and limiting my opinions, and of checking, perhaps, a little the high-wrought hopes of some who seem to look to our present infant establishments for 'more than their nature or their state can bear.' "_It is the true policy of government to suffer the different pursuits of society to take their own course, and not to give excessive bounties or encouragements to one over another.