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"And when you have understood it, look at matters as they stand. Look at
the incompetence of our public officers, look at our ruined carrying
trade, at those vile enactions of fools, and worse than fools, the
Navigation Laws of the United States, and tell me whether things are as
they should be. Tell me what has become of liberty if you cannot buy a
ship where you can get her best and cheapest, and hoist your own flag upon
her, and call her your own? You may pay for her and bring her home with
you, but though she were ten times paid for, you cannot hoist the American
flag, nor register her in your own port, nor claim the protection of your
country for your own property--because, forsooth, the ship was not built
on American stocks, where she would cost three times her value, and put a
job into the hands of a set of builders of river steamboats and harbor
mudscows."
Loud murmurs ran through the audience, and cries of "That's so!" and
counter cries of "Freetrader!" were heard on all sides.


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