On this point there may be difference of opinion.

But whichever of these we adopt, we express it in one of these two _principles_: "machines are a benefit," or "machines are an evil." "Importations are favorable," or "importations are injurious." But to say "there are no principles," is the lowest degree of abasement to which the human mind can descend; and we confess we blush for our country when we hear so monstrous a heresy uttered in the presence of the American people, with their consent; that is to say, in the presence and with the consent of the greater part of our fellow-citizens, in order to justify Congress for imposing laws on us, in perfect ignorance of the reasons for them or against them.
But then we shall be told, "destroy _the sophism_; prove that machines do not injure _human labor_, nor importations _national industry_." In an essay of this nature such demonstrations cannot be complete.

Our aim is more to propose difficulties than to solve them; to excite reflection, than to satisfy it.

No conviction of the mind is well acquired, excepting that which it gains by its own labor.

We will try, nevertheless, to place it before you.
The opponents of importations and machines are mistaken, because they judge by immediate and transitory consequences, instead of looking at general and final ones.
The immediate effect of an ingenious machine is to economize, towards a given result, a certain amount of handwork.