which most ennoble our species. Besides the advantages of liberty
and the most equal constitution, Heaven has given us a country with
every variety of climate and soil, pouring forth in abundance
whatever is necessary for the support, comfort, and strength of a
nation. Within our own borders we possess all the means of
sustenance, defense, and commerce; at the same time, these
advantages are so distributed among the different States of this
continent, as if nature had in view to proclaim to us: Be united
among yourselves and you will want nothing from the rest of the
world.

The more northern States most amply supply us with every necessary,
and many of the luxuries of life; with iron, timber, and masts for
ships of commerce or of war; with flax for the manufacture of linen,
and seed either for oil or exportation.

So abundant are our harvests, that almost every part raises more
than double the quantity of grain requisite for the support of the
inhabitants. From Georgia and the Carolinas we have, as well for our
own wants as for the purpose of supplying the wants of other powers,
indigo, rice, hemp, naval stores, and lumber.

Virginia and Maryland teem with wheat, Indian corn, and tobacco.
Every nation whose harvest is precarious, or whose lands yield not
those commodities which we cultivate, will gladly exchange their
superfluities and manufactures for ours.

We have already received many and large cargoes of clothing,
military stores, etc., from our commerce with foreign powers, and,
in spite of the efforts of the boasted navy of England, we shall