Gazette Of The United States

Extract of a letter from the State of Rhode-Island, dated May 23, 1789.

" The enemies of the Federal Government, triumph more than ever in this State, since the bill passed the House of Representatives of Congress, for levying a duty on all foreign merchandise, exported from this to any other State. As that bill exempts articles that are the growth and manufacture of this State, from being subject to impost; it places the farmers who are generally antifederalists in just such a situation as they have wished. They now derive all the benefits that the new government is capable of producing by encouraging the sale of domestic articles; while they are not exposed to any of its inconveniences.

—In addition to this reason, they are exceedingly gratified at such a stroke levelled against the mercantile interest. The legislature of this State have laid duties similar to what Congress impose. Our merchants therefore pay duties at home in the first instance, and afterwards in the State, to which they export such goods. This operates peculiarly hard, and will, I fear, be a means of hindering our majority from consenting to have a convention called, as they take pleasure in seeing the merchants crushed. They say they have greater advantages without entering into the union, than they could derive by becoming a member of it. I hope Congress will consider our situation and put the different classes of people in this State in a predicament equally disagreeable, by subjecting domestic articles to a similar imposition as they do foreign, that are exported from this, to any other State. Such a measure would soon draw our obstinate majority into the views of honesty, and the United States."