Great Britain, by parliamentary measures, had undermined our manufactures, and, receiving only our raw materials, repaid us with fabrics manufactured from them, while she excluded us altogether from the carrying trade with her colonial possessions.

John Quincy Adams sought to counteract this injurious legislation, by a revenue system, which should restore the manufacturing industry of the country, while he offered reciprocal trade as a compromise.

His administration ended during a beneficial trial of this vigorous policy.

But it taxed too severely the patriotism of some of the States, and was relinquished by his successors.
Indolence begets degeneracy, and immobility is the first stage of dissolution.

John Quincy Adams sought not merely to consolidate the Republic, but to perpetuate it.