American politician and political economist, born at Philadelphia on the 22nd of May 1755, of a noted family. He was educated in his native town. In 1776 he left the militia, in which he had been enrolled, joined the royalists and entered Philadelphia with Lord Howe, after whose retirement he was arrested and paroled. He then became a Whig, and in 1788 was sent to the Continental Congress. He was next a member of the Federal and Republican parties, and held offices under Adams and Jefferson. He was the first to advocate the growing of cotton in the South, and was the first to attempt to bring an Arkwright machine to the United States. His published works include Address on American Manufactures; Inquiry into the Principles of a Commercial System for the United Provinces (1789); View of the United States of America (1794); Thoughts on Naval Power and on the Encouragement of Commerce and Manufactures (1806); Memoir on the Cultivation, Trade and Manufacture of Cotton (1807); Statement of the Arts and Manufactures of the United States (1814). He died in Philadelphia on the 17th of July 1824.
