Page:Memoir upon the negotiations between Spain and the United States of America which led to the treaty of 1819.djvu/82

72 country, the Anglo-American merchants know not what to do, and commerce is as it were paralized at every point of the Union. The English have endeavoured to draw off their balances in specie, and other nations will give no credit to men who thus abuse publick faith. It has been heretofore every where said, that a Jew could cheat the most circumspect and sagacious; but experience has long since established it as a positive maxim, that an Anglo-American will completely overreach the most astute and cunning Jew. These people not only manage to impose upon, and to sacrifice strangers, but they are continually destroying each other, by horrible frauds and impositions in their transactions and dealings.

It is astonishing, in a country so advantageously situated for commerce, where they have no imposts or taxes to pay, where every species of industry is entirely free, and where far from having suffered calamities by the war, or other disastrous events, as in Europe, they acquired such large fortunes, and enjoyed so much prosperity during the unfortunate contest among the European nations, that the people should be found plunged in wretchedness, and the commercial houses almost all either bankrupt or tottering.

Such is the present state of the Anglo-Americans; and it is easy to perceive and trace the causes which have led to this rapid and ominous decay.