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Mr. Kennedy's life may be regarded in a two-fold aspect-his labors as an Author and his career as a Statesman being diverse but inseparable. The latter may be said to have commenced with his election to the Maryland Legislature in 1820, when 25 years of age, four years after his admission to the Bar, two years after his debut as an Author. Re-elected in 1821, and again in 1823, he was the following year appointed by President Monroe Secretary of Legation to Chili; which appointment he resigned before the Mission was ready to sail.

Espousing the side of the Administration of Mr. Adams, while continuing to reside in the strongly Jacksonian city of Baltimore, Mr. Kennedy was now virtually shut out from public life for years. But his interest in public affairs was undiminished, and his activity in support of his cherished principles unimpaired. In 1830 he wrote an elaborate review of Mr. Cambreleng's Report on Commerce and Navigation, ably controverting the AntiProtective fallacies of that Report. The next year he was a Delegate from Baltimore to the National Convention of Friends of Manufacturing Industry, which met in New York, late in the autumn, by which he was appointed on the Committee to draft an Address in defence and commendation of the Protective policy, which, in conjunction with his colleagues, Warren Dutton of Massachusetts, and Charles J. Ingersoll of Pennsylvania, he did, each writing a part.

In the autumn of 1838, he was elected a member of Congress from the double district of Baltimore city and Anne Arundel county-the first time a Whig had been elected from that district. He was promptly recognized and respected as one of the ablest of the many able new members, which the changes consequent on the monetary revulsion of 1837 had brought into the House. In 1841 he was again elected, and, on the assembling of the Whig Congress of that year, he was appointed chairman of the Committee on Commerce. In that capacity he drew a Report on our so-called Reciprocity Treaties, and their effect on the

shipping interest of this country, which widely commanded attention. Several other reports from his Committee evinced like ability and research. He also, in behalf of a Committee appointed by a meeting of the Whig members of both Houses, drew the celebrated "MANIFESTO" of the Whig members at the close of the Extra Session, exposing and denouncing the treachery of John Tylera document rarely surpassed in ability, perspicuity and scathing vigor.

Indeed, it may be asserted, that no person in this countrywrites on political questions with more clearness, eloquence and convincing argument, than Mr. Kennedy. His style in his literary productions has always evinced many excellent qualities; but when he touches great national topics, he seems to be imbued with a new power. The same qualities which give him this peculiar ability on such topics, render him also a rapid and eloquent narrator on historical subjects, as several of his public addresses testify, and as will doubtless be shown by his Biography of William Wirt, on which he is now engaged.

The State having been re-districted, he was again elected to the House in 1743, from the single district composed of the greater portion of the city of Baltimore, and served through the XXVIIIth Congress. In 1845 he was once more presented for re-election, but defeated by the diversion of a small portion of the Whig vote to a

Native American' candidate. In October of this year, (1846,) the Whigs of the city insisted on having his name on their Assembly ticket, and, to the astonishment of their brethren throughout the Union, he was elected, with two of his colleagues, in a city which gave a heavy majority against Henry Clay two years before, and still heavier against the Whig candidate for Governor in that year. So Mr. K. will this winter serve the city of his nativity in that capacity wherein he first evinced the qualities which have elevated him to a rank among the most eminent of American Legislators and Statesmen.

RECIPROCITY TREATIES.

AMONG the means recently resorted to by the General Government to regulate our commercial relations with foreign nations, no one has had a more injurious effect upon our best interests, both foreign and domestic, than what are very falsely called "Reciprocity Treaties."

Some of these the writer has already commented upon in the National Magazine, with a promise, then given, to notice others. It is now his purpose to show up the Treaty made by Mr. Wheaton with the German Zoll-Verein, which was, very properly,rejected by the Senate. His reason for so doing is, that he has been informed, from good authority, that a new Treaty with that power is in anticipation; and there is no better way to place before the public the merits of our commercial intercourse with Germany than by a reference to the former Treaty, which, had it been adopted, would have done, as will be shown, the most manifest injustice to our commerce, and to the home industry.

The great article of export from the United States to the territories included in the Zoll-Verein, is Tobacco; and it is to aid that particular interest that it is still proposed to make a treaty with them.

The writer has examined this subject with great care, aided by an investigation into the able reports and documents of J. Dodge, Esq.; who was sent to Germany in 1837 by our Government, as special agent, and at the particular instance of the Tobacco interest of this country. Mr. Dodge appears to have well understood the subject in all its bearings; and it is to be regretted he was not continued as the public agent, for, from the various documents emanating from him, (and published by order of Congress,) in the discharge of his duty, little doubt can be entertained that he would have effected the object of his mission, in a manner that would have given satisfaction to all parties, abroad and at home. Mr. Dodge's mission ended in 1841, by our Government refusing to continue it. Let us now examine the proposed benefits of the Wheaton Treaty; for in so doing, with the aid furnished by the published documents of Mr. Dodge, from which we make large extracts, we shall get at the merits of the case, and thus, perhaps, aid in preventing similar sacrifices from being hereafter made.

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Before, however, we commence this particular subject, we desire to enter our solemn protest against this mode of abol ishing our revenue laws. The power to regulate commerce is expressly given to Congress by the Constitution, and therefore it cannot be competent for the President and Senate, by the Treaty-making power, to annul a law of Congress which has fixed the rate of duty payable on articles imported, or to be imported, from any one country, by reducing them. We might show the unconstitutionality and injustice of making treaties to favor one particular interest at a great sacrifice to others; but this is unnecessary, as the broad ground first assumed is perfectly tenable and has been taken and sustained by some of the ablest men of the country.

But to return to the matter in hand: the benefits urged by the friends of Mr. Wheaton's treaty were, first, a diminution of duty on rice of twenty per cent; second, no duty to be assessed on our raw cotton; third, a diminution of twenty per cent. of the duty on lard; fourth, a deduction of one and a half Prussian thalers per centner on American leaf tobacco, and of two and a half Prussian thalers per centner on American tobacco stems.

Let us first examine the matter as regards “ Rice.”

The Dutch Government, in 1838, sent Commissioners to Berlin, with a view to the reduction of duties on certain articles. Among these was Rice, the produce of Java. These Commissioners succeeded, and the duty on Rice, both from Java, and subsequently from the United States, was reduced two thalers per centner. This reduction produced a great augmentation of the revenue, by increased consumption; and about six years since, it was understood that a further reduction would be made on Java and American rice, as soon as experience had confirmed the increase in the revenue. So that the reduction on rice did not depend upon the Treaty, but would and will take place, from motives of self-interest.

With respect to Raw Cotton, it is the settled policy of the Zoll-Verein, and one from which they dare not swerve, to admit cotton free of duty. Mr. Dodge has fully shown this, and we refer to the following extract of his report to our Min

ister at Berlin, dated Berlin, August 31, 1839:

"I have heard it remarked in Germany, that should the United States apply retaliatory duties on the manufactures of this country, the Zoll-Verein might possibly, in that case, put a duty on our raw cotton. I do not feel the slightest apprehension of their so doing; for Prussia, Bavaria, Baden, and Saxony, in which countries the manufactures of cotton, and in the last named of hosiery, exist in most perfection, know too well their own interests ever to put a duty on our raw cotton; and, from my personal knowledge of the industry of Germany, I know that such a measure would be destructive to their spinneries and to their cotton cloth and hosiery manufactures, and any one conversant with the subject must know that such a measure would fail of its intended effect, (injury to our cotton planters,) for it would not prevent one single pound less of our raw cotton from being exported to and manufactured in Europe. The injury it would do would be solely to German industry, to the great benefit of England; the injury would be to the Rhenish provinces, to Bavaria, to Baden, to Sax. ony; for one of these two things would be the consequence: either the German manufactures of cotton cloth and hosiery would, from the enhanced price of the raw material in this country, be driven from foreign markets, or they would have to obtain their twist and yarn from England; thus destroying the German spinneries and enriching the English spinner. I again repeat, the Zoll-Verein will never lay a duty on our raw cotton, for it would be solely to their own injury and to the benefit of England, and it would not prevent the consumption of one single pound less of our raw cotton in Europe; for the same quantity of cotton cloths and hosiery would be sent to foreign markets, and the only difference would be that the English weaver and hosiery manufacturers would have an increased demand for the supply of those markets."

This report of Mr. Dodge was communicated to the Prussian Government by the American Minister, October 1st, and from that period no duty was exacted on raw cotton, nor is there any fear that it will hereafter be subjected to any, as it would destroy the manufacture of that article throughout the territories of the Zoll-Verein; and yet this is pretended to be an advantage gained by Mr. Wheaton's treaty.

On the subject of "Lard," little need be said, for it is not an article of export to the Hanse towns or to any other part of Germany. That country produces Lard enough for its own consumption.

We come now to the article of tobacco, and here we shall have to draw largely upon the documents furnished by Mr. Dodge.

The diminution on tobacco, in Mr. Wheaton's treaty, is one and a half Prussian thalers per centner-equal to about one cent per American pound, or about twenty-seven per cent. from the former duty of five and a half thalers per centner. And on stems the deduction is two equal to one and a half cents per pound, and a half Prussian thalers per centnerAmerican. The treaty diminution is still a specific duty, levied on the weight without regard to the quality or cost of the article, and though less in amount, is liable to the same inconveniences, as pointed out by Mr. Dodge in his report already referred to. We quote also the following from that document:

"But the practical operation of the tariff of the Zoll-Verein is, on the contrary, against the produce of the United States, particularly as regards the leaf tobacco of Spanish colonies; for it is well known that our country, and greatly in favor of the the United States, and costs a much higher the Cuba tobacco is far superior to that of levies as high a duty on the leaf tobacco of price; yet the tariff of the Zoll-Verein our country as it does on that coming from the Spanish colonies."

In the preceding paragraph to the one quoted, Mr. Dodge has fully shown that there is no reciprocity in the tariff of the Zoll-Verein towards the liberal policy of the United States. Nor is it believed there is anything in the treaty to prevent the Zoll-Verein from diminishing, in like manner, the duty on Cuba tobacco, and in case of such reduction, the advantage now enjoyed by that tobacco over the American will still continue.

The consumption of American leaf tobacco and of stems, within the limits of the Zoll-Verein, is about 30,000 hhds., and of leaf tobacco, 26,250 hhds. Estimating the average weight at 1,000 lbs., the proposed reduction of duties on leaf tobacco, of one cent per lb., would be $262,500; and on stems, at one and a half cents per lb., would be $56,250making a total reduction in the duties on these articles of $318,750.

There is little probability that the proposed reduction would much increase the consumption of American raw tobacco in the Zoll-Verein. Messrs. Wheaton and Dodge conjointly addressed a memorial to the Deputies of the Zoll-Verein,

assembled at Dresden, in the summer of 1838, which contains the only scale of reduction which would really benefit the growers of American tobacco. We quote from it:

"1st Project. To reduce the import duties now levied on tobacco stems to two thalers per centner, and to reduce the duties on all other kinds of tobacco imported from North America to three thalers per

centner.

"2d Project.-1. In order to continue the protection already granted to the cultivation of the indigenous plant, a considerable duty might be levied (of three thalers, for example) upon all kinds of tobacco costing not more than 44 thalers, at the first port of entry in Europe, which is deemed the average price of indigenous tobacco in Germany.

"2. To lay upon leaf tobacco imported in hogsheads from North America, of which the value at the first port of entry is more than 4 thalers, a duty of two thalers and 23 silver groschens per centner. This duty will be equal to the average of that levied in Bavaria and Wurtemburg, according to the tariff of 1828, namely: of five florins per centner, sp-gewicht, equal to four florins and twenty-seven and one half kreut zers per Prussian centner, and in Baden according to the tariff of 1827, that is to say twenty-five kreutzers; and in Prussia according to the tariff of 1831, which is the present tariff of the Zoll-Verein, of five and one half thalers per centner. The average of those several rates is two thalers and twenty-three silver groschens per cent

ner.

"3. To lay a duty on tobacco stems imported from North America of two thalers per centner."

Such a diminution would be of real service by increasing the demand, while the slight reduction of the "Wheaton treaty" would be next to, if not quite, nugatory. Mr. Dodge on this part of the subject justly says:

American raw tobacco were, in these countries, very small; not half what they now are, except in Prussia. And this notwithstanding that in the two first-named States, the greatest quantity, and the best quality of tobacco is produced, that is grown in all Germany. Yet when these States successively entered the Zoll-Verein, Prussia succeeded in having her Tariff adopted, so that in fact the tobacco planters of the United States have Prussian Tariff on that article, in formmost severely felt the adoption of the ing the German Union of Customs.

We have no other desire than fairly and candidly to examine the Wheaton Treaty, and for the sake of the argument may admit that some increase in the consumption might possibly have taken place in case it had been adopted; but it surely could not have been beyond the ratio in which the duties were diminished, and had such increase taken place, it must necessarily have been by a slow process. Now suppose the term of the Treaty to be four years, the first year's increase would not have exceeded 800 hogsheads; the second year in the same ratio 2,040 hogsheads; the third year 4,247 hogsheads, and the fourth year 7,087 hogsheadsthe annual average being 3,543 hogsheads, and the total increase 14,174 hogsheads. The increase on the stems the first year 250 hogsheads, the second year 550, and the fourth 1,687 hogsheads. Total of stems in four years 3,374 hogsheads, or an annual average of 884 hogsheads.

Now the cost in the United States of ty which is usually sent to Germany, and 3,543 hogsheads of tobacco, of the quali of 884 hogsheads of stems, at an average of $3.55 per one hundred pounds, is alone, that the most sanguine friends of $155,738. And it is on this small amount the Treaty could possibly urge its benefits. For it has already been shown that, so far as regards the articles of cotton and rice, the decided interest of the ZollVerein has been to diminish the duty on the first, and to admit the second duty

"A slight diminution of the duty on our leaf tobacco would not effect the object we have in view. To be effectual and of mutual benefit to both parties, it ought to be reduced to such a rate as will encourage an increased consumption and prevent smug-free, without reference to the Tariff of gling.'

To effect this Mr. D. proposed three thalers per centner as the proper duty to be levied, while the duty of the Treaty was four thalers.

It should here be stated that previous to the joining of the Zoll-Verein, by Prussia, Bavaria, Baden, Hesse-Darmstadt, Wurtemburg, and the other countries now composing that Union, the duties on

the United States, and with regard to lard, it is only matter of astonishment how it found its way into the Treaty at all.

Having thus examined with candor the supposed advantages of the Wheaton Treaty, let us now look at the positive evil to this country which would have resulted from its adoption, and which must result from the future adoption of such a treaty.

There is no difficulty in proving that it would have greatly lessened the Revenue of the country. From the report of the Hon. Rufus Choate, of the Committee of Foreign Relations, of the Senate, the following concessions were made, under the false assumption that they were only equivalents to those made to us, by the Zoll-Verein.

"Article 1. The United States of America agree not to impose duties on the importation of the following articles, the growth, produce, and manufacture of the States of the German Association of Customs and Commerce exceeding

First, twenty per centum ad valorem on the importation of

1. All woolen, worsted, and cotton mits, caps and bindings, and woolen, worsted, and cotton hosiery, that is to say, stock ings, socks, drawers, shirts, and all other similar manufactures made on frames.

3. On all musical instruments of every kind, except piano-fortes.

Second. Fifteen per centum ad valorem on the importation of

1. All articles manufactured of flax or hemp, or of which flax or hemp shall be the component part of chief value, except cotton bagging or any other manufacture suitable for the uses for which cotton bagging is applied.

2. All manufactures of silk, or of which silk shall be the component part of chief

value.

3. Thibet, merinos, merino shawls, and all manufactures of combed wool, or of

worsted and silk combined.

4. Polished plate glass, silvered or not silvered; small pocket looking-glasses, from three to ten inches long and from one and a half to six inches broad; toys of every description, snuff boxes of paper mache, lead pencils, lithographic stones, and wooden clocks, known under the name of

Schwarzwalder clocks.

5. Cologne water, needles, bronze wares

of all kinds, planes, scissors, scythes, files, saws, and fish-hooks; gold, silver and copper wire, tinfoil, and musical strings of

all kinds.

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has made fully appear by his able Report, in which ninety-six articles of the growth, produce or manufacture of Germany are detailed, but many of which in the treaty are concealed under their Generic names.

The large importations into the United States of German manufactures are not known in this country. Our official Report of Trade and Navigation states the country from which articles imported are shipped, and makes no reference to the place of their production or manufacture. Germany has but few shipping ports, hence its most valuable articles, as silk, velvet, &c., come to us through the Port of Havre, and thus appear as importations from France. From information which the writer collected in Paris he has no doubt at least $2,500,000 of silks, silk velvets, and other fine merchandises of German manufacture are actually shipped to the United States from French ports. Many also of their bulky articles, manufactured in the Prussian provinces of the Rhine, and in the south of Germany, bordering that river and the Mayne, or in their vicinity, the seat of great industry, are shipped through Rotterdam, at the mouth of the Rhine; the Mayne flowing into that river near Mayence, and now that there is a railroad from Cologne on the Rhine to Aix-La-Chapelle, and from thence to Brussels and Antwerp, it is prob able many German goods will be shipped from Antwerp. The importations to the United States of German goods from Rotterdam is estimated by Mr. Dodge to be above half a million of dollars annually.

The extremely imperfect manner in which the report of trade and navigation annually issued by the Secretary of the Treasury is made up, so many goods being placed under the term of articles not enumerated, we can only approximately arrive at the articles mentioned in the treaty, and by examining the list of articles in the report of Mr. Dodge, it would appear that at least an amount equal to five-sevenths of the importations direct from Germany, and all of the indirect importations, through France, Holland and Belgium, would certainly be included in it-those through France being mostly is diminished to fifteen per cent-a rate silks and silk velvets, the duty on which of duty on these luxurious articles much below what is charged on some articles of the first necessity. Mr. Dodge on this subject says, Sec. 4:

"According to the aforementioned report, the importations into the United

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