Page:American Historical Review, Volume 12.djvu/776

 766 I F. GoodzL'iii at this time (the close of the Xapoleonic wars) Great Britain was deprived of important European trade, and, as a consequence, her manufacturers sent large quantities of goods to the United States and found a method of " getting under the tariff " that was disas- trous to American manufactures. The distress produced by this great importation was felt by manufacturers and their employees as far west as Pittsburgh, where, as we have seen, important indus- tries had already sprung up.^ The economic depression that followed this importation gave impetus to the great migration that had begun early in 1814. "ih the advent of the newcomers into the West came also eastern ideas in regard to manufactures and British goods. We have already mentioned that the West was too new to take part in the movement for the establishment of manufactures in 1807 ; but eight years had made great changes. With the beginning of the great migration, the increasing population demanded a larger supply of manufac- tured' goods; artisans as well as farmers emigrated, and the 'est in common with the East set up a clamor against English goods and made a demand for the establishment of home manufactures. A contributor to the ]Vcstcrn Spy said: "The enormous price which everything of foreign growth or manufacture bears at the present day must convince us that we cannot too soon commence our independence of other nations by growing and manufacturing for ourselves." He was pleased to see the spirit of independence dift'using itself throughout the country, especially this western coun- try which could never reap the least advantage from importations. He declared also that if the spirited exertions which were then mak- ing in some of the larger towns, met with the support of the farming interests, the West would in a very short time be able to change the course of the current which for several years had swept the specie from the country. Nor were such hopes altogether unfounded. Companies were then formed or were forming for the establishment of manufactures at Pittsburgh, Frankfort, Lexington, Louisville, Cincinnati, and many smaller places. - The economic reasons for establishing and maintaining home manufactories in the two sections were, hoyvever, radically different. In the East, infant manufactures were already established and their destruction by foreign competition would entail a large loss of capital. For this reason, domestic manufactures were needed in that section not only to insure industrial independence from Euroiie, but also to furnish employment to surplus labor and capital. In ' McMaster. IV. ,544. -Wcslcrn i>v, January jg. 1814.