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MAY 8, 1830.]

The Tariff.

[H. OF R.

General Government should be moved as far south as the slave is worth but twelve and a half cents per day banks of the Potomac, (5th Marshall's Washington, p. 260.) whereas that of the free laborer of the manufacturing Our southern brethren will retain their part of the benefits States is worth at least fifty cents per day; and lastly, of the compromise; our part is rapidly wearing away; and that there is a general and melancholy dilapidation of the national debt will now so soon be paid off, that the estates, and impoverishment of families, indicative of a inequality in the distribution of the payment of it, ought rapid decline. A word or two on each topic. not to enter into a general estimate of the distribution of the permanent expenditure of the Government. Of the naval expenditure, I will admit that, under some headsthose of navy-yards and construction perhaps three-fourths of the expenditures are north of the Potomac But of the six navy-yards, one is at Norfolk, and one at this place; and of the northern stations, one, at least, is not the seat of great expenditure. The item of pay afloat, which is perhaps one-fourth of the whole, I presume, is mostly expended abroad. Of the remaining three-fourths, it is possible that two-thirds are expended north of the Potomac; making but one-half the whole.

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supplies, and every thing else, must have been proporWhen cotton was thirty cents per pound, land, labor, tionably high. There is, therefore, not such a reduction in the real price as there would seem to be. Or, if cotton did sell for thirty cents, while it cost but eight to raise it, this was a price so extravagant and unnatural, that it must inevitably lead to speculation, over-production, and disastrous reaction. It could not last two seasons, and would carry in itself the germ of wide-spread ruin.

it is exceedingly doubtful if the tariff has had any agency There has no doubt been a decline of the real price, but The residue of the expenditure of the Government is not ascribe the depression exclusively to the tariff, but arin producing it. The gentleman from South Carolina did either equally diffused, or takes place in greater propor-gued only that it added to the pre-existing distress. The tion to the South. The salaries of the Government offi- great evil has been the uniformity of pursuit in the eers, of all classes, are geographically distributed. The planting States, and the too rapid extension of this diplomatic expenditure takes place abroad, and the South culture, caused by the opening of the new lands. The receives her full share of its benefits. The heavy charge general effect of the state of the world has contributed to of fortifications preponderates at the South; here, too, the same end. The depression is universal. Labor has the greater part of the expense of the army accrues. become less valuable by a change from war to peace, as The enormous and growing expenditure of our Indian was well stated by my colleague, [Mr. DAVIS] and relations is mostly at the South. Our whole military es- still more, perhaps, by the multiplication of labor-saving tablishment had its origin in the Indian relations of the machinery. country. I know the military defence of the country against any foe, savage or civilized, is an institution for twelve and a half cents a day, and that of the free laThe labor of the slave, said the gentleman, is worth the general good, wherever the expenditure is made; but borer fifty cents. Twelve and a half cents a day, leaving the same may be said of the navy, and of the public debt. out Sundays and thirteen holidays, is thirty-six dollars a In short, this subject, I think, is much misunderstood. Iyear. This, I am advised, is less than the annual hire of believe if one were to go through the appropriation bills, the slave. In other words, the labor of a slave is worth, and trace to their ulterior destinations the entire expen- beyond the expense of keeping him, more than thirty-six ditures of the Government, he would find them distri- dollars per year. This slave will cost his master not more buted with great approach to equality throughout the than three hundred dollars. So that, what the gentleman Union. kind of property there is much more in the South, than calls very poor property, yields twelve per cent. Of this there is manufacturing property in the North; and there is very little manufacturing stock, which yields, in any quantity, more than half the interest specified. But I know no such contrast exists, to the advantage of the South, as these facts would seem to show. The productive labor there is charged with the support of a great deal of unproductive labor. But the free citizen of the North, out of his fifty cents a day, has also to support his children, who are too young, and his parents, who are too old to work; and the colder climate, higher standard of living among the laboring classes, and the necessity of bearing a part of the burdens of society, as free citizens, are all charges upon the wages paid to the northern laborer.

But the comparison between a Government expenditure in this country, and that of the British Government during their long war, which the gentleman rated quite within bounds at one hundred millions of dollars annually, entirely fails. In Great Britain, in consequence of the credit enjoyed by the Government, a hundred millions of dollars were annually raised by loans, and thrown into circulation; and as even the annual interest of the former loans was defrayed by new loans, there was no immediate charge upon the people, and the whole operation was an addition for the time of so much to the national wealth. But in this country, and in any country where the supplies of the year are raised by taxation within the year, a Government expenditure is but taking from one pocket to put into another. Every dollar expended among the people must first be taken from the people by taxation. There could therefore neither be advantage on the one side, nor hardship on the other, until the gentleman could make out his case of unequal collection and unequal distribution; in the attempt to do which, in my judgment, he has wholly failed.gr well

of the decay of fine estates, and the desolation of the hosThe gentleman spoke, in strong and beautiful language, pitable mansions of the last generation. These are statements, not to be listened to with any other feelings than those of sincere and respectful sympathy. The fame of the hospitality of the South is as wide-spread as our Union, The gentleman from South Carolina painted, in very any of its honest and honorable sources should be dried and as old as our history. I would be the last to wish that strong colors, the distress of the planting States. I lis-up. But it is not the tariff which has caused its decline. tened to his remarks on this topic with great interest. II might even suggest that the fact itself is perhaps overam not at all disposed to underrate their force; and, did stated. Where a conspicuous family mansion passes into I agree in the correctness of the views of the gentleman other hands, and a great estate vanishes, the melancholy on this subject, I could not take the course I do. But I fact strikes our notice, and produces a strong impression must think some of his facts mistaken, and this opinion of the cause of the depression of the planting interests not less so. Listening with great attention to collect the facts by which he illustrated the extent of the distress of the planting States, I could distinguish but these three: first, that cotton now sells for but ten cents per pound, whereas it formerly sold for thirty; secondly, that the labor of the

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upon the community. But the successive rise of new
fortunes is far less calculated to be observed.
searcely suppose that none of those hospitable establish-
ments, which have dropped into decay, have been suc-
ceeded by others, which have risen into opulence.

to think, it is not the tariff law which has occasioned it.
But grant the decline to be more general than I am apt

H. OF R.]

The Tariff.

MAY 8, 1830.

It is the statute of distributions, of which gentlemen must to pay their State debts. But the difficulty about the railcomplain, if they wish estates to be kept together. Ever road is, that the public mind is not yet generally satisfied since I have heard any thing of the South, I have beard of its feasibility, and it was thought expedient to delay so this complaint; and considerably before the tariff law of large an expenditure till it could be voted by pretty gene 1816, that, whereas the nature of their property required ral consent. As to paying the debts, the question was, estates to exist in a pretty ample extent, they were con- whether there did not exist adequate funds without the stantly broken up by partition, to the ruin of ancient fami- tax. I do not mean that the people of Massachusetts have lies; and with these causes it was supposed that the cli-a passion to be taxed for the mere love of taxation; but, mate, and a certain generous profusion, springing from to the extent of paying their debts, my friend may believe very amiable feelings, but not reconcilable with thrift, me, that they will tax themselves, when it is necessary, might have co-operated. But, be the cause what it will, with great readiness. And as for the railroad, if the Gethe effect is older than any tariff law except that of 1789; neral Government will pay us the debt she owes us for the and, for the truth of this proposition, I appeal to every services of our militia in the war-services as patriotic, as gentleman who hears me. prompt, as efficient as those of the militia of any State in the Union-I will agree, for one, to subscribe it to any railroad that shall be projected with a safe prospect of success. Not tax ourselves for roads! Why, we do it in every town in the State, and every year; and so we do for schools. The single town of Boston pays annually little short of two hundred thousand dollars for its schools, nearly half of it by a public tax for its free schools; nor is the rest of the State proportionably behind the capital. This is our economy in expenditures for public institutions.

But the evil is not confined to the South. It exists no toriously in every other part of the country. The same decay of families is conspicuous in New England. In our large cities, it is almost proverbial that the splendid mansion of one generation is a boarding-house in the next. I do not remember a family rich by inherited wealth for three generations. It is, as the gentleman describes it, sad to contemplate, in the individual instance-sad that the children should so seldom die beneath the roof of their fathers; that names endeared by liberality and benefactions But the gentleman [Mr. McDUFFIE] tells us, we ought to one generation, should be forgotten, or remembered to protect our manufactures ourselves by State bounties. only as objects of commiseration in the next. But we He forgets that this is impossible. How could we prevent consider the whole operation as the healthiest in the poli- the introduction of foreign fabrics into our State? So long tical system, effecting a constant infusion of new, untainted as we had the power it was exercised. It was very libe blood. It is an operation by which merit, thrift, and in-rally exercised, as early as 1645, by the infant colony, and dustry get their share in the great prizes of life, which it was one of the last acts of the independent State of are no longer distributed by the lottery of birth. It is a Massachusetts under the confederation. The gentleman, republican distribution of estates, not effected by cut-throat perhaps, has not contemplated the colonial history of the agrarian laws, such as have been alluded to in this debate, but by the gentle hand of nature, under the dictates of the kindest affections, sanctioned by a wise legislation.

The gentleman from South Carolina spoke in the harshest terms which the language affords of the "monopolists" of the manufacturing States. I cannot persuade myself that the gentleman would deliberately repeat himself half of what he uttered on this topic, in the order of the debate; but if I wished him to give a description of those engaged in manufactures, which would most effectually bring discredit on his argument, rather than reproach on their cause, I would desire him to represent as monopolists men who are breaking down with competition.

industry of the country; a chapter to the full as instructive as the colonial history of its politics. When he tells us that the Southern States now stand in the same relation to the manufacturing States that the whole colonies did to Great Britain-that they have changed masters, but gained nothing by the change-that the existing laws are a bundred times more oppressive to the South than the colonial system was to America, I must think that he recollects only that the staple products of the South were indeed liberally encouraged by the mother country, and bounties awarded for their culture; while the iron mace of prohi bition lay on the industry of the North; our navigation shut out from the world, beyond the Capes, and from the North We are told by southern gentlemen of the generous of Europe, and just permitted to range between the West South. One gentleman from South Carolina had it the Indies and Cape Finisterre; and our manufactures subject"too generous South." This was not the language of the ed to restraints the most odious and tyrannical, making it mover of this amendment; [Mr. McDUFFIE] but even he, highly penal to carry a dozen hats from one colony to anin reference to the vote on the Maysville road, somewhat other, and denying us the right to make a hobnail. As significantly compared the liberality of the South with the soon as we were independent, we did turn to the industrieconomy (to which he paid a compliment, and I have no ous arts. Massachusetts immediately enacted her naviga doubt a sincere one) of the North. Sir, the South is gene- tion law; but it availed her nothing; and her tariff, but it rous; but as her generosity has permitted her, on this topic, bound nobody but herself, and merely threw her markets to be very jealous of her own interests, I trust she will open to her neighbors. When we are tauntingly asked carry it so far as to forgive us for doing the same. The why we do not pursue this policy ourselves, it is not amiss South is generous, liberal, high-minded. I acknowledge to state that Massachusetts had, before the adoption of the it; I have seen it; I may be permitted to say, I have ex- federal constitution, her own tariff, in which some articles, perienced it. What New England is, I shall not say. I and that of cotton fabrics among the rest, paid higher du am a son of New England. My fathers for two centuries ties than any levied by the United States, till the law of have tilled her sacred soil, where they now rest; and all 1816. When the federal constitution was adopted, the that I have or hope, I owe to her noble institutions. Her praise is "fit theme for any tongue but mine."

But the gentleman must not think we are generous only with other people's money, as he appeared to intimate in his allusion to the subject of internal improvement. We pay our own money, We have paid it from the settlement of the country; and if we are prompt to practise this lesson abroad, we learned it at home.

Another gentleman from South Carolina, [Mr. BARNWELL] commending the wisdom of the people of Massachusetts, said that they had such a dislike for taxation, that they could not be got to subscribe for a railroad, nor even

States lost the power of protecting their own manufac tures; and Mr. Madison, in the earliest debates, gives this as a reason why the duties, under the Federal Government, should be laid so as to promote that end.

The gentleman from South Carolina made some remarks on capital, which I could not but think rather invidious, and at war with the general liberality of his views. Moderate, and even large private accumulations of capital perform a very valuable office in the community. They fulfil many of the beneficial ends of banking, without the evils attending banks, and in a variety of cases to which banks cannot reach. Capital cannot benefit its owner till

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it has first benefited the community around him: and in this country capitalist is only another name for a clerk employed by the active community to transact their money business, for small wages and no thanks.

[H. of R.

that an association of men who will not quarrel with one another, is a thing which never yet existed, from the greatest confederacy of nations down to a town meeting or a vestry; seeing that we must have somebody to quarrel with, But, be this as it may, the gentleman from South Caro- I had rather keep our New England associates for that lina utterly misconceives our population, in the effect purpose, than to see our bickerings transferred to others. which he ascribes to capital over elections. If he will They are circumscribed within such narrow limits, and come and visit us, I will show him a people, which the their population so full, that their numbers will ever be wealth of Attalus could not tempt-which the gold of the the minority; and they are marked, like the Jews, with Indus could not carry to an election. The gentleman has such perversity of character, as to constitute, from that spoken of his district-he must allow me to speak of mine. circumstance, the natural division of our parties." I have the honor to represent the district containing very I make this reference with no unfriendly feeling to the large manufacturing places, Waltham and Lowell, where memory of Mr. Jefferson; I would tread lightly over his more property is probably invested in manufactures than ashes. The expressions I have quoted were uttered in at any other place in the Union. The town of Lowell, high party times; but they are a correct indication of the especially, has, within ten years, grown up from a few policy of which the North has been, and is, the victim. farm-houses to a population of six thousand seven hundred souls, provided with all the establishments and institutions, the schools and churches, of an advanced community; a population as moral, as intelligent, as substantial as any in the Union. It has grown up exclusively under the manufacturing influence. Here, if anywhere, there has been a forcing process; and in such a district, if anywhere, the corrupting influence of capital must be seen. And now I aver, if, by any arts of misrepresentation, the suspicion could be infused into the minds of the people of that district, that their representative was under the influence of the moneyed capital invested in it, it would cost him his seat. That is no very strong expressiou. But there does not live the man in New England-no, not even he of whom she is fondest and proudest, who could stand a day under such a suspicion reasonably entertained.

I do not speak of bribery, neither did the gentleman from South Carolina; but of the indirect, if you please, the honest influence of capital. The truth is, the fact is the other way. Our people are jealous and watchful of this influence. They read for themselves, think for themselves, vote for themselves. Ours is not the part of the country, where the slavish discipline of party, the fruit of all corrupt influences, exists. Hence our groundless internal feuds; hence our ridiculous subdivisions of which the "generous South" ought not to complain, for she has always known how, and never better than at this moment, to turn them to very good account, in monopolizing the Government of the country.

The gentleman compared the relation of the planting to the manufacturing States with that of the colonies of Great Britain before the revolution; and went so far as to say that the former had now a hundred times more to complain of than the latter had then. What was the complaint of the colonies? That they were subject to the control of & Government in which they were not represented, and whose laws consequently were not calculated for their benefit. But is not the South represented in the Government of the United States? Represented, did I say? Has she not contrived, as soon as a political revolution could possibly be brought about, always to be in a majority? Was it not that triumphant southern majority which called this manufacturing systemin to existence? The chairman of the Committee on Commerce, in his late report, states the fact in the plainest terms, that the restrictive system which commenced in 1807, and of which the war was the last measure, laid the foundation of the manufacturing po licy. What says Mr. Jefferson again? (letter to Mr. Leiper, 21st January, 1809;) "I have lately inculcated the encouragement of manufactures to the extent of our own consumption, at least in all articles of which we raise the raw materials. On this the federal papers and meetings have sounded the alarm of Chinese policy, destruction of commerce, &c., that is to say, the iron, which we make, must not be wrought here into ploughs, axes, hoes, &c., in order that the ship owner may have the profit of carrying it to Europe, and bringing it back in manufactured form; as if, after manufacturing our own raw materials for our own use, there would not be a surplus produce rying it to market, and exchanging it for those articles of which we have not the raw material; yet this absurd hue and cry has done much to federalize New England. Their doctrine goes to the sacrificing agriculture and manufactures to commerce; to the calling all our people, from the interior country to the sea shore, to turn merchants; and to convert this great agricultural country into a city of Amsterdam. But I trust the good sense of our country will see that its greatest prosperity depends on a due balance between agriculture, manufactures, and commerce, and not in this protuberant navigation, which has kept us in hot water from the commencement of our Government, and is now engaging us in war,"

The gentleman from South Carolina spoke with no little bitterness on the subject of majorities and minorities; of sufficient to employ a due proportion of navigation in carthe oppression, the despotism, the tyranny implied in adopting and pursuing a course of policy prejudicial to the interests of a minority of the people. It is true the gentleman is in a minority on this question, and perhaps this alone, of all the great questions on which parties are now divided. I cannot but hope that he has spoken with causeless severity, in reference to the present case; but we of New England, towards whom his remarks were in part directed, can well believe his sincerity, in deploring the hardships to which a minority must submit. If there is bitterness in that cup, we have drank it to the dregs. We have been in a minority on this and every other question; and I will show the gentleman, from a very high authority, that our brethren of the South have not only made a substantial benefit out of our position, but have

I beg leave to say, sir, that these are Mr. Jefferson's views on these subjects, not mine. I quote them to show the gentleman in what councils, and under whose auspices, the manufacturing system had its origin. New England did remonstrate, murmur, protest against it. While writhing under burdens almost too grievous to be borne, she did utter her complaints, in a tone, patriotic as now echoed by the South, but treasonable in her; a tone, that never has been and never will be forgiven her, and which has given "If we reduce our Union to Virginia and North Caro- her brethren a pretext to set their foot upon her neck, lina, immediately the conflict will be established between and press her beaming forehead to the dust. And now, the representatives of these two States, and they will end what is the consequence? Because she will not sit still. by breaking into their simple units. Seeing, therefore, and see those establishments prostrated into whic her

"Used us for their mirth, yea, for their laughter,
When we were waspish.""

In 1798, a letter was written by Colonel Taylor, of Caroline, to Mr. Jefferson, on the subject of a secession, on the part of Virginia and North Carolina, from the Union. Mr. Jefferson opposes the project, and, among other reasons, makes use of the following:

H. OF R.]

The Tariff.

[MAY 8, 1830.

capital was driven; because she is not willing that the laws prohibitory policy, recur to the examples of European napassed against her will, beneath which her manufactures tions, instead of adverting to those of their own country, have grown up, should be swept abruptly away, she is which would be more appropriate and illustrative. To avaricious, inconsistent, a hungry, grasping monopolist; support my position, I shall appeal to our own history, as and the vocabulary of the language is tasked for terms of it has been represented to us, not by the enemies, but by opprobrium to heap on her. If the colonial system, which the friends of the American system. General Hamilton, led to the declaration of independence, had been adopted in his celebrated report, in January, 1791, says: “ Manoby a parliamemt, in which the colonies were represented factures of cotton goods, not long since established in Be and had a majority; if the stamp act had been the measure verly, in Massachusetts, and at Providence, in the State of of a cabinet, in which Patrick Henry had been Prime Min- Rhode Island, and conducted with a perseverance corre ister, John Adams, Lord Chancellor, Dr. Franklin, First sponding with the patriotic motives which began them, Lord of the Treasury, Mr. Jefferson, Secretary of State seem to have overcome the first obstacles of success, profor Foreign Affairs, and Samuel Adams, King, (as Dr. ducing corduroys, velvets, fustians, jeans, and other simiJohnson thought Speaker Cushing wanted to be,) had this lar articles, of a quality which will bear a comparison with measure been forced on Old England by a triumphant co- the like articles brought from Manchester. lonial majority, and then these colonies, on a change of Providence has the merit of being the first in introducing affairs, finding or fancying it injurious to themselves, had into the United States the celebrated cotton mill, which clamored for its repeal, at the sacrifice of a vast capital in not only furnishes materials for that manufactory itself, but England, which had been invested under it, then the rela- for the supply of private families for household manufac tion of the colonies to the mother country would have re-ture. Other manufactures of the same material, as regu sembled that of our southern brethren to the manufactur- lar businesses, have also been begun in different places in ing States, and would have failed to engage the sympathies Connecticut, but all upon smaller scales than those above of the world. mentioned. Some essays are also making in the printing and staining of cotton goods. There are several establishments of this kind already on foot."

The one at

Sir, I cannot approve the tone in which this amendment has been urged on us. If any good is to be done, it is by conciliation; and in that work I will begin as soon and go Mr. Tench Coxe, in his letter to Mr. Gallatin, when Se as far as any man. I will join in any bona fide attempt to cretary of the Treasury, says: "The neighboring States of remove the burdens of the revenue laws, not inconsistent Massachusetts and Connecticut quickly followed Rhode with interests to which the faith of the Government is Island; and the tables which are annexed, imperfect as they pledged. I am willing to begin by my colleague's [Mr. unavoidably are, manifest the universality and magnitude GORHAM] proposition to grant a drawback of the whole of the cotton manufactures in 1790. If a very sober produty on cotton bagging, on every yard of that article, whe-dence shall estimate the value of the water-spun and steamther foreign or domestic, wrapped round the bale of cotton, spun cotton yarn at the price at which they can be importon exportation; thereby relieving the southern planter ed, without profit, from Europe, there will remain an op from a burden which he regards as peculiarly onerous, and portunity for much lucrative business in extensive works." yet preserving to the western manufacturer the benefit of the duty. And I believe, if, instead of this tone of fierce denunciation, a conciliating language were used, that every thing might be effected, which the real interests of the country require. But the gentleman himself would be the last to respect men who could be wrought upon by such invective, against those whom they represent And while he tells us that the repeal of these laws would reduce our manufactures to ruin, it seems hardly necessary to say that he cannot expect us to sit still, and vote for his amend

ment.

Mr. MALLARY followed with a few remarks: after which,

General Hamilton, in another part of his report, states that it is certain that several important branches of mantfactures have grown up and flourished with a rapidity which surprises, offering an encouraging assurance of Bue cees in future attempts; of these, it may not be improper to enumerate the most considerable. He then specifies those of "leather, skins, iron, steel, wood and cabinet wares, flax, hemp, ardent spirits and malt liquors, bricks, tiles, and pottery, writing and other kinds of paper, hats, shoes, refined sugar, soap, candles, copper and brass wares, tin wares, great quantities of coarse cloths, coatings, serges, flannels, &c., &c."

A friend has this moment put into my hands the follow Mr. DRAYTON said, it was not his purpose to sustain ing extract, which he made from a Connecticut newspaper the observations which he should offer to the committee," Hartford, third of October, 1791.-Woollen manufactures by a long series of statistical calculations, or by elaborate-The quality of the cloths, more especially the coarser, is deductions from the principles of political economy. Be acknowledged, on all hands, to be superior to that of the ing under the impression that the public mind was under- English of the same fineness. They can be afforded as low going a change, that many of those who had been undoubtas English cloths of the same fineness." ing proselytes of the "American system," began to perceive its errors, and to feel its evils, it would be his object to exhibit to them its delusions in a plain and practical manner. In the prosecution of his design, he should confine himself exclusively to endeavoring to establish the following propositions :

First. That our manufactures flourished so long as those who were engaged in them were left to the free exercise of their own exertions: and that they have invariably declined under a restricted system, excepting when their prosperity was owing to the public calamity.

Secondly. That the arguments relied upon by the advocates of restricted industry, are fallacious, and their assertions contradicted by facts.

1st. That our manufactures flourished, so long, &c., &c. It is a trite remark, [said Mr. D.] that, in our investigations, we often overlook what is immediately before us, and speculate upon that which is remote. It is thus that the restrictionists, in their reasonings upon the effects of

a

Mr. Coxe, in a supplementary letter, thus speaks of our manufactures shortly anterior to the non-intercourse and embargo laws. "The States of Rhode Island and Massachusetts have expelled all doubts about the practicability of the cotton operations. With the smallest territory in the United States, Rhode Island has already attained and introduced into her vicinity a cotton branch of our manofactures, as valuable as the cotton branch of any country in Europe was at the time of the formation of our present constitution. Heavy cotton goods cannot be imported without a loss. It is a fact of great importance, that none of the productions of the earth, whether of natural growth, or the fruits of cultivation, in the middle, northern, and eastern States, which can be considered as raw materials, are now exported, in an unmanufactured condition, to foreign markets. The manufacturers may be said to pur chase and employ a quantity equal to the whole; for if small parcels of raw materials have been lately exported, much greater quantities of fimilar soreign articles have been

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ntroduced from abroad. The landed interest have no actual foreign purchasers for its wool, flax, hemp, hides, and skins of domestic animals, and various metals. The momentous fact is therefore satisfactorily established, that the American manufacturers' demand has greatly surpassed the abilities of the planters, farmers, landholders, &c., to supply these five descriptions of materials. There is, at this time, no other redundant material than cotton." Such was the situation of our manufactures, until the embargo and non-intercourse laws. After their enactment, Mr. Coxe informs us, in the year 1814, that "it is found that our cotton wool has every where forced itself into manufacturing uses; and there is no reason to doubt that the value of our manufactures, though much extended since 1810, very greatly exceeded, in that year, the highest value of the raw material heretofore exported in any annual period. This prosperity of the cottou manufactures was without the aid of the double duties, and with but little assistance from the labor-saving machinery. But when the vast importance of mechanism, since introduced in lieu of laboring hands, is considered, in connexion with our power to produce cotton, the diffusion and extent which the cotton manufactures must obtain, particularly in a state of war and blockade, cannot be estinated."

The foregoing is a representation of our manufactures, up to the period and after the commencement of the late war. Their condition, during the war, is thus described by Mr. Niles, in his Register for January, 1814: "There are now running in the neighborhood of Providence, Rhode Island, no less than one hundred and twenty thousand spindles; these spindles make one hundred and ten thousand pounds of yarn each week, and consume about six millions of pounds of cotton (or twenty thousand bags) per annum. The value of the cloth made from this yarn is estimated at eight millions one hundred and forty thousand dollars a year." Mr. Niles adds: "We cannot fear that our manufactures of cotton, wool, &c. will be affected should peace take place to-morrow, The present great profits may be reduced, but there is room enough for their fall, whilst they yet may be as lucrative as man should desire."

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[H. OF R.

until the non-intercourse and embargo laws; that the de-
mand of the manufacturers "had greatly surpassed the
abilities of the planters, farmers, landholders, &c. to sup-
ply them with wool, flax, hemp, hides, and skins of domes-
tic animals." Although the duties had then been increas-
ed, they were still moderate, and exclusively imposed for
revenue. Here, it seems to me, terminated the solid pros-
perity of manufactures. The non-intercourse, the embar-
go laws, and the war, gave to them unnatural stimulants.
From these adventitious causes, their progress was so
rapid, that Mr. Niles exultingly exclaimed, in 1814, that
they could not be affected by an immediate
peace; that
there was room enough for their fall, while they yet
might be as lucrative as man should desire." Notwith-
standing this confident prediction, as soon as peace was
concluded, Mr. Niles, in his Register, in 1815, held the
following language: "The free and unrestricted admis-
sion, at present allowed, into the United States, of cotton
fabrics of foreign production, not only extinguishes the
hope of a reasonable profit, in future, from the manufac-
ture of similar goods at home, but threatens the speedy
destruction of the establishments already created for that
purpose, and the loss of the immense capital invested in
them." It would be inferred from these expressions, that,
upon the return of peace, the duties were instantly reduc
ed. The fact is, that the war, or double duties continued
until 1816. In that year protective duties were granted,
which were increased in 1818, in 1824, and, again, in 1828.
The complaints of the manufacturers became louder after
every augmentation of the duties; and the gentleman from
Massachusetts, [Mr. EVERETT] who represents one of the
greatest manufacturing districts in the Union, tells us, that
but few of the manufacturers in it have escaped ruin; and
that those who have been less unfortunate, are struggling
with difficulties and embarrassments.

It will be found, upon examination, that the distresses of the manufacturers commenced with the era of protection in 1816. We never heard of their distresses before; we have never cease to heard of them since. The causes of these distresses are evident. High duties induce capitalists, without any knowledge of the subject, to invest their funds in manufactures, as a lucrative speculation. Companies are thus formed, consisting of presidents, secretaries, directors, &c. The expenses incidental to these companies are so considerable, that even protection duties will not enable them to sell their fabrics to a profit; and yet the quantity they produce gluts the market, and injures not only themselves, but the regular, practical manufacturers, who with competent skill and personal attention and economy, might otherwise obtain a fair renumeration for their labor.

From the extracts which I have made, it appears that our manufactures, in 1790, comprehended a variety of articles-that "several important branches had grown up with a rapidity which was surprising;" among others, "great quantities of coarse cloths, coatings, serges, flannels, &c. According to Mr. Coxe, the tables which he annexed to his letter, " manifested the magnitude of the cotton manufacture in 1790." This was the condition of our manufactures shortly after the adoption of the federal constitution, when our moneyed capital was smallwhen our white population scarcely exceeded three mil- Whilst we were fettering our trade with onerous duties, lions of persons-when our national debt amounted to fit not only upon fabrics, but upon raw materials, Great Brity-four million one hundred and twenty-four thousand four tain, perceiving the evils of her ancient commercial code, hundred and sixty-four dollars, and when the duties upon resolved to introduce a more enlarged and liberal policy. imposts were low, those upon hemp being fifty four cents In spite of an opposition supported by numbers, and the hundred and twelve pounds; upon unmanufactured wealth, and influence, and prejudice, and cupidity, she iron seven and a half per cent. ad valorem; and upon cot-repealed upwards of two hundred of her navigation laws, ton and woollen goods five per cent. ad valorem ; raw wool entered into equal commercial duties with most of the and a variety of other articles being exempt from any du- European nations, and admitted various raw materials ties. Let it also be recollected that, at this time, the raw upon the payment of low duties. In 1825, she allowed material of cotton was imported, and that the British ex- the importation of one hundred and thirty-one articles, clusive commercial code prevailed with unmitigated vigor, subject to duties from fifteen to thirty per cent., the If, under these circumstances, our manufactures were greater part of which had previously, either been proflourishing and increasing, to what other causes could hibited, or encumbered with imposts almost tantamount their prosperity be attributed, thau to moderate imposts, to prohibition. Mr. Huskisson declared, in the House to free competition, and to the liberty which our citizens of Commons, in 1827," that he had had the good for enjoyed of prosecuting those branches of industry which were suited to their capitals, their skill, and the demands of the country, untramelled by the interference of legislators, who never did, and never can understand and direct the interests of individuals as well as they can themselves. We have seen that manufactures continued to advance VOL. VI-115.

tune to persuade the House, within a few years, to repeal fifteen hundred restrictive and prohibitory statutes." Instead of taxation being increased by these commercial relaxations, between the year 1815 and the present time, Great Britain has abolished taxes to an amount exceeding thirty millions of pounds sterling. She has, by these

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