FEB. 1, 1832.] The Tariff. [SENATE. they may concur with us in reciprocating the duties to be "In this village we can say, without exaggeration, that levied on each side, or in compensating any excess of duty less crime or misbehavior of any kind can scarcely, if by equivalent advantage of another nature. Our com-ever, be met with in any community, however pure. merce is certainly of a character to entitle it to favor in Much and increasing attention is bestowed by our minismost countries. The commodities we offer are either ne-ters of each persuasion upon the moral and religious cessaries of life, or materials for manufacture, or con- instruction of those composing our village; and the numvenient subjects of revenue, and we take in exchange ber who constantly attend the different churches and either manufactures, when they receive the last finish of places of worship, is very great in proportion to the art and industry, or more luxuries. Such customers may population. The company give such encouragement to reasonably expect welcome and friendly treatment at every the subject as they with propriety can, and do not for a market. Customers, too, whose demands, increasing with moment countenance any improper or irreligious conduct. their wealth and population, must very shortly give full Persons of this latter description always meet with a employment to the whole industry of any nation what- prompt and invariable discharge from the premises." ever, in any line of supply they may get into the habit of [Mr. HILL--Read the whole.] calling for from it." This is all, sir, said Mr. H., to which his remarks apIs the Senator from Maine willing to pursue such a pro- plied, but here is the letter, and the Senator may have it tective system as is here proposed, not only the people until to-morrow morning to examine, if he chooses. And, of his State and mine, but the people of the South, will sir, is the encouragement to religious worship, and the accord with him in sentiment: the manufacturers them- discharge from employment for immoral and "irreligious selves in his State, who, he says, have been forced into conduct, "machinery"-persecution? Is there a man in the business much against their wishes, must also accord New England, who regards his character at all for reliwith him, since, according to his reasoning, the constant gion or morals, who would dare to condemn such an extendency of high duties has been to lower prices! If this ample? Is there, indeed, any one who would continue to be protection, well may they exclaim—we will have none withhold his approbation? Sir, I trust and hope that it of it! I ask the Senator, what are the sentiments of his will be long, very long, before "immoral and irreligious State on this subject, and whether I am correct if I should conduct" will cease in New England to be a disqualificasay that six of the seven Representatives in the other tion for employment or office. branch, fresh from the people, are at odds with the whole The Senator, sir, in his closing remarks, in the speech elaborate argument on the "protecting system?" I shall which he read, very gratuitously alludes to a resolution of leave to other and abler hands the speech of that gentle- mine, on a late nomination, the fate of which must have man; and content myself with expressing the hope that excited his sympathy, and seems to think that should I be when, in the great jubilee of 1833, he shall make his tri- hereafter translated to some future cabinet, I should not umphal entry in this capital of the republic as the head be disposed to inquire by what "disgraceful practices" I of a department, the chagrin of those he may displace obtained my place. Sir, I assure the Senator that I have will not prompt them in this body to institute an inquiry not the remotest expectation of such a promotion; and by what practices disreputable to the national charac- should I ever be so fortunate as to succeed to the place ter" he arrived there. which he once held, and be presented to this Senate for Sir, on Monday the veteran Senator from Maryland, their advice and consent, I hope and trust I should not be whose eye is not yet dim, nor his vigor unabated, made rejected for the "practices" imputed to the Senator from such a moving appeal as might have induced all on this oc- New Hampshire. The Senator, sir, quite as gratuitously casion to cast sectional jealousy and sectional hostility be- travelled out of his way to charge me with inconsistency. neath our feet-to measure out to others who believe they It is true, sir, that I have hitherto objected to the progress are unjustly suffering, that equal justice which we would of the protection of domestic manufactures. But I have yet claim for ourselves on an exchange of circumstances. If to learn that objection on the ground of prematurity was an we will not regard the man whose head is silvered with objection to the principle. What would have been premathe frosts of many winters, who more than half a century ture, and consequently inexpedient, in 1816, may be very since fought our battles and helped to gain the liberty we proper and expedient now. Suppose that a person should now enjoy; if we will not make some sacrifices to avert be nominated to this Senate for an office, having no other the calamity of disunion which he deprecates; if we will than party pretensions, and, upon inquiry, I should doubt not hearken to his warning voice, who stands in this body whether he had yet done enough for "the party" whose as a beacon light, directing where lie the dangerous rocks cause he had recently espoused, or whether he had not, on which our bark may be stranded; neither might we be in his indiscreet zeal, injured it, I might very properly moved should one of his companions break the cerements reject him upon the prematurity of his claims, without of the grave, come forth and appear among us. deciding upon his ultimate merits. Mr. H. having concluded, I find, sir, that, by obtaining this letter from Great Falls, Mr. HOLMES rose, and said, I regret, sir, that the Se- in New Hampshire, I have invaded the Senator's province, nator should have interlined, in his written speech of to- and overreached upon his jurisdiction. I regret, exceedday, any thing that I produced yesterday in debate, with-ingly, that the Senator's jealousy should exclude me from out first ascertaining whether it was correct. If the letter obtaining information from his constituents. I assure him from my friend, which I read to the Senate, on the sub-I did not intend an invasion of his dominions. I thought it ject of the moral and religious deportment of the manu- only an act of civility reciprocated for his kind interferfacturers of Great Falls, New Hampshire, imported in ences, not only to seek information from my constituents, the least that religion there was made a "machinery" for but to give them wholesome counsel, especially on the eve temporal purposes, or individual profit, I never could for- of an election. give myself in exposing this disclosure of my friend to the As to consistency, sir, man is a changeable being-he Senate of the United States. In New England, every is in perpetual mutation; so much so, that philosophers where, a perversion of the precepts of our holy religion have doubted whether there are or not more stamina vitæ, to objects of profit would be pointedly condemned by some principles of existence which remain unchanged the moral sense of the community. And could I have supposed that the letter which I produced disclosed such A practice or purpose, for the sake of the writer, and the community where he resides, I could never have exposed it. I will read the part which relates to this subject. through all the various revolutions to which he is subject; and equally changeable is his mind. This mutable propensity is discoverable in all New England, and is very common, I believe, in the Senator's own State; indeed, it may be found in the Senator himself. I have had, among my "When the illustrious Monroe shall retire, we believe no individual will stand more conspicuous for the Presidency than Mr. Adams. The only objection urged against him, so far from being an objection, is a strong reason why the people should delight to honor him. It is that he has not the manners of a courtier, that his address is plain, that he does not make all the parade which is peculiar to the great ones of the earth." Good! "Who will be the republican candidate, is not so certain. It will undoubtedly be, as in all former cases, some man who noble ends by noble means pursues;' some person who is the antipode of Clinton. If we were to look for such a character, we feel a perfect confidence in saying that no man unites more of the qualities of the honest, upright, and able statesman, than John Q. Adams." Very well! [FEB. 2, 1832 attended by a "prompt and invariable discharge." Instances have been known of discharges simply where males and females, attending constantly public worship, chose not to attend at the place and denomination preferred by a factory agent; this may be denominated "persecution for opinion's sake."] do "Excepting at the bar of the hotel, the company not permit any liquor to be sold upon their premises; and there is not within the corporation any spirituous liquors retailed, except at the hotel." Mr. HILL said he had not mistaken the spirit of the letter, although he had only heard it read hastily. Taken in connexion with other cases of coercion within his knowledge, in other establishments, his first impressions of this letter were unchanged. As to the quotation from the New Hampshire Patriot, published ten or fifteen years ago, having relation to certain men who have been conspicuous before the people, Mr. H. said, the answer he would make was "Men sometimes change; but principles never change." In "If the choice of President was to depend on the re- reference to the publications quoted by the Senator from publican voters of New Hampshire, we do not doubt that, Maine from the New Hampshire Patriot, it may be prowith the present impressions, Mr. Adams would be the per to explain further, that, up to that time, from the em man. They love and honor him, not only because he is a bargo, and through the war, both Messrs. Adams and son of New England, but because he possesses talents of Clay had acted with, and been supported by, the patriot the first order, and because those talents, in times of peril, party of the country, and been constantly opposed by the were devoted to the cause of his country." Better still! men of the Hartford Convention; under this state of Of another gentleman, whose name, from delicacy, I things, the New Hampshire Patriot supported them. But will suppress, this writer says: "Although emphatically a under a change of circumstances, when these gentlemen republican, in the party sense of the term, no man who threw themselves upon the federal party for support, and has presided in the Hall of Congress, ever commanded when Mr. Clay himself had proscribed the New Hamp the same respect of all parties, as did this gentleman-no shire Patriot, for refusing to go over with him to the man ever discharged the duties of Speaker with equal federal party, must not the Patriot have changed too, if it ability, and equal impartiality. Younger than Mr. Adams had continued that support? Mr. Clay is now in full or Mr. Crawford, he is, perhaps, not inferior to either in either respect. As a popular orator, there is probably not his equal in the country; and for ardor of attachment to republican principles, he is behind none of his country men." Excellent! Since these adulations and eulogies, the Senator himself must have undergone considerable mutation, or, from prudential motives, he stifles the opinions which he entertains. "We love our civil rights and privileges too well to place Jackson in the presidential chair. We do not like to be hanged without rhyme or reason. Let Jackson command our armies, but let some other man rule the nation." Mr. HILL, in reply, said, he had no intention to sneer at morality or religion; he respected all moral and religious institutions when confined to their appropriate spheres. These had been abused for sinister purposes; and if the tenor of the letter could not be understood here, he be lieved it would be well understood near the place where it was written. Having been furnished with the letter, he read from it: communion with Mr. Webster, and the whole federal party of the East; nay, more, in the Senate of the United States, he has made a violent attack on Albert Gallatin, land, and without whose aid Mr. Clay could never have whom the late administration appointed minister to Engnegotiated the treaty of Ghent, and accused him of being a heartless foreigner, who never had one American feeling. Is this no evidence that Mr. Clay has changed? Mr. CLAY then rose, and expressed a wish to address the Senate again on the subject under debate, but, as the hour was late, moved an adjournment; and The Senate adjourned. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 2. The resolution offered yesterday by Mr. FRELINGHUY. SEN, respecting the observance of Indian treaties, being taken up in course, Mr. FRELINGHUYSEN observed that he was not disposed to interrupt the progress of the debate on the tariff, assigned for to-day, and he would, therefore, move to lay the resolution on the table, and make it the order of the day for Tuesday next; which motion was adopted. THE TARIFF. "The company give such encouragement to this subject [moral and religious instruction] as they with propriety can, and do not for a moment countenance any improper or irreligious conduct; persons of this latter description On motion of Mr. HAYNE, the remaining business of always meet with a prompt and invariable discharge from the morning was postponed, and the resolution of Mr. the premises. A large majority of our girls have CLAY, on the subject of the tariff, taken up. seriously attached themselves to one or other of the reli- Mr. CLAY being entitled to the floor, was about to gious denominations, (of which we have four or five,) and proceed; when will not, consistently with their feelings, work or associate Mr. HAYNE rose, and said, that before the Senator comin any manner with those of even doubtful character. menced his remarks, it was due to him that he [Mr. H.] This at once brings the matter to our ears, and we rarely should explain the course he intended to pursue. He? hesitate." [That is, the females who unite themselves in proposed, before the question was taken, to call for a di- 1 membership to some church, (and in some establishments vision of it, so as to have it first taken on striking out the there is one, and only one church,) act as informers against resolution of the Senator from Kentucky--thus calling those who do not choose to join; these last are of doubt-upon the Senate to decide on the isolated question, whether ful character;" and when such are once informed against, any reduction whatever was to be made on the protected they are dismissed without hesitation, and turned on the articles during the present session, or whether the reduc cold charity of the world. Such "irreligion" as this is tion was to be confined to the unprotected articles, and 1 FEB. 2, 1832.] The Tariff. [SENATE. espoused, and by a persuasion, I hope not presumptuous, that it has the approbation of that Providence who has so often smiled upon these United States. should extend only to six or seven millions of dollars after the extinction of the public debt. If the resolution of the Senator from Kentucky should prevail, there would of course be an end of the whole question. But if the Senate Eight years ago, it was my painful duty to present to should agree to strike out, his amendment would then the other House of Congress an unexaggerated picture of come up for consideration, and would be open to any mo- the general distress pervading the whole land. We must dification the Senate might think proper to adopt. That all yet remember some of its frightful features. We all amendment had been originally intended to embrace what know that the people were then oppressed and borne down he understood would be the proposition of the free trade by an enormous load of debt; that the value of property convention. He had understood, however, since, that it was at the lowest point of depression; that ruinous sales varied somewhat from that proposition; and when he and sacrifices were every where made of real estate; that should be made acquainted with the precise character of stop laws and relief laws and paper money were adopted the views presented in the memorial of that convention, to save the people from impending destruction; that a dehe should probably modify his amendment so as to con- ficit in the public revenue existed, which compelled Goform to them. It was certainly not his intention to in-vernment to seize upon, and divert from its legitimate crease the taxes; and he should put his amendment in object, the appropriation to the sinking fund, to redeem such a shape as to preclude the inference that duties were the national debt; and that our commerce and navigation to be imposed on articles now admitted duty free, unless, were threatened with a complete paralysis. In short, sir, on a full examination by a committee, any of those articles if I were to select any term of seven years since the adopshould appear to be fit subjects for taxation. Mr. H. went tion of the present constitution, which exhibited a scene on to say, that while he was up he would notice an error of the most wide-spread dismay and desolation, it would into which he had fallen in the course of his remarks on be exactly that term of seven years which immediately this subject on a former occasion, and which the Senator preceded the establishment of the tariff of 1824. from Kentucky had since brought to his view. He had, I have now to perform the more pleasing task of exhion that occasion, quoted from an " Exposition of evi- biting an imperfect sketch of the existing state of the undence in support of a memorial to Congress of the Free paralleled prosperity of the country. On a general survey, Trade Convention, prepared by Henry Lee, of Boston," a we behold cultivation extended, the arts flourishing, the passage to be found in a note in which certain extracts face of the couutry improved, our people fully and profitfrom Niles's Register were referred to in support of the ably employed, and the public countenance exhibiting views of the writer. The Exposition having just been put tranquillity, contentment, and happiness. And, if we into his hands, and his attention being called to this note, descend into particulars, we have the agreeable contemhe had read to the Senate a sentence in which the opinions plation of a people out of debt; land rising slowly in value, of Mr. Niles and those of Mr. Lee were so connected to- but in a secure and salutary degree; a ready, though not gether, as to have made on his mind the impression, for the extravagant market for all the surplus productions of our moment, that the whole sentence had proceeded from industry; innumerable flocks and herds browsing and Mr. Niles. The error, however, was corrected in the gambolling on ten thousand hills and plains, covered with printed speech, which assigns to Mr. Niles and Mr. Lee rich and verdant grasses; our cities expanded, and whole the sentiments entertained by those gentlemen, respect-villages springing up, as it were, by enchantment; our exively, with regard to the character of the tariff of 1828. ports and imports increased and increasing; our tonnage, [Mr. CLAY said he was glad the gentleman from South foreign and coastwise, swelling and fully occupied; the Carolina had made the explanation, which was alike just-rivers of our interior animated by the perpetual thunder ly due to his worthy friend Mr. N., and manly, frank, and honorable on the part of the gentleman from South CaroEina himself.] Mr. CLAY then proceeded to address the Senate in vindication of his resolution, and of the protecting system, as follows: and lightning of countless steamboats; the currency sound and abundant; the public debt of two wars nearly redeemed; and, to crown all, the public treasury overflowing, embarrassing Congress, not to find subjects of taxation, but to select the objects which shall be liberated from the impost. If the term of seven years were to be selected of the greatest prosperity which this people have enjoyed since the establishment of their present constitution, it would be exactly that period of seven years which immediately followed the passage of the tariff of 1824. In one sentiment, Mr. President, expressed by the honorable gentleman from South Carolina, [Mr. HAYNE,] though, perhaps, not in the sense intended by him, I entirely concur. I agree with him, that the decision on the system of policy embraced in this debate involves the fuThis transformation of the condition of the country from ture destiny of this growing country. One way, I verily gloom and distress to brightness and prosperity, has been believe, it would lead to deep and general distress, general mainly the work of American legislation, fostering Amebankruptcy, and national ruin, without benefit to any part rican industry, instead of allowing it to be controlled by of the Union. The other, the existing prosperity will be foreign legislation, cherishing foreign industry. The foes preserved and augmented, and the nation will continue of the American system, in 1824, with great boldness and rapidly to advance in wealth, power, and greatness, with-confidence, predicted, 1st. The ruin of the public revenue, out prejudice to any section of the confederacy. and the creation of a necessity to resort to direct taxation. Thus viewing the question, I stand here as the humble but The gentleman from South Carolina, [Mr. HAYNE,] I bezealous advocate, not of the interests of one State, or seven lieve, thought that the tariff of 1824 would operate a reStates only, but of the whole Union. And never before have duction of revenue to the large amount of eight millions I felt more intensely the overpowering weight of that share of dollars. 2d. The destruction of our navigation. 3d. of responsibility which belongs to me in these deliberations. The desolation of commercial cities. And 4th. The augNever before have I had more occasion than I now have, mentation of the price of objects of consumption, and furto lament my want of those intellectual powers, the posses-ther decline in that of the articles of our exports. Every gon of which might enable me to unfold to this Senate, prediction which they made has failed-utterly failed. and to illustrate to this people, great truths intimately con- Instead of the ruin of the public revenue, with which they nected with the lasting welfare of my country. I should, then sought to deter us from the adoption of the Ameriindeed, sink, overwhelmed and subdued, beneath the ap- can system, we are now threatened with its subversion, palling magnitude of the task which lies before me, if I by the vast amount of the public revenue produced by that did not feel myself sustained and fortified by a thorough system. Every branch of our navigation has increased. consciousness of the justness of the cause which I have As to the desolation of our cities, let us take, as an examVOL. VIII.-17 SENATE.] The Tariff. [FEB. 2, 1832. It comprehends our coasting tonnage and trade, from which all foreign tonnage is absolutely excluded. It includes all our foreign tonnage, with the inconsiderable exception made by treaties of reciprocity with a few foreign Powers. It embraces our fisheries, and all our hardy and enterprising fishermen. ple, the condition of the largest and most commercial of at this system, its magnitude, its ramifications, its duration, all of them, the great Northern capital. I have in my and the high authorities which have sustained it. We shall hands the assessed value of real estate in the city of New see that its foes will have accomplished comparatively noYork, from 1817 to 1831. This value is canvassed, con- thing, after having achieved their present aim of breaking tested, scrutinized, and adjudged, by the proper sworn down our iron founderies, our woollen, cotton, and hemp authorities. It is, therefore, entitled to full credence. manufactories, and our sugar plantations. The destrucDuring the first term, commencing with 1817, and ending tion of these would undoubtedly lead to the sacrifice of in the year of the passage of the tariff of 1824, the amount immense capital, the ruin of many thousands of our fellowof the value of real estate was, the first year, $57,799,435, citizens, and incalculable loss to the whole community. and, after various fluctuations in the intermediate period, But their prostration would not disfigure, nor produce it settled down at $52.019,730, exhibiting a decrease, in greater effect upon the whole system of protection, in all seven years, of $5,779,705. During the first year of its branches, than the destruction of the beautiful domes 1825, after the passage of the tariff, it rose, and, gradually upon the Capitol would occasion to the magnificent edifice ascending throughout the whole of the latter period of which they surmount. Why, sir, there is scarcely an inte seven years, it finally, in 1831, reached the astonishing rest, scarcely a vocation in society, which is not embraced height of $95,716,485! Now, if it be said that this rapid by the beneficence of this system. growth of the city of New York was the effect of foreign commerce, then it was not correctly predicted, in 1824, that the tariff would destroy foreign commerce, and desolate our commercial cities. If, on the contrary, it be the effect of internal trade, then internal trade cannot be justly chargeable with the evil consequences imputed to it. The truth is, it is the joint effect of both principles, the domestic industry nourishing the foreign trade, and the foreign It extends to almost every mechanic art: to tanners, commerce, in turn, nourishing the domestic industry. cordwainers, tailors, cabinet-makers, hatters, tinners, brassNowhere, more than in New York, is the combination of workers, clock-makers, coach-makers, tallow-chandlers, both principles so completely developed. In the progress trace-makers, rope-makers, cork-cutters, tobacconists, of my argument I will consider the effect upon the price whip-makers, paper-makers, umbrella-makers, glass-blow of commodities, produced by the American system, and ers, stocking-weavers, button-makers, saddle and harnessshow that the very reverse of the prediction of its foes, in makers, cutlers, brush-makers, book-binders, dairy-men, 1824, has actually happened. milk-farmers, black-smiths, type-founders, musical instruWhilst we thus behold the entire failure of all that was ment-makers, basket-makers, milliners, potters, chocolateforetold against the system, it is a subject of just felicita- makers, floor-cloth-makers, bonnet-makers, hair-clothtion to its friends, that all their anticipations of its benefits makers, copper-smiths, pencil-makers, bellows-makers, have been fulfilled, or are in progress of fulfilment. The pocket book-makers, card-makers, glue-makers, mustardhonorable gentleman from South Carolina has made an makers, lumber-sawyers, saw-makers, scale-beam-makers, allusion to a speech made by me, in 1824, in the other scythe-makers, wood-saw-makers, and many others. The House, in support of the tariff, and to which, otherwise, mechanics enumerated enjoy a measure of protection I should not have particularly referred. But I would ask adapted to their several conditions, varying from twenty any one, who could now command the courage to peruse to fifty per cent. The extent and importance of some of that long production, what principle there laid down is these artisans may be estimated by a few particulars. The not true? what prediction then made has been falsified by tanners, curriers, boot and shoe-makers, and other workpractical experience? ers in hides, skins, and leather, produce an ultimate value It is now proposed to abolish the system to which we per annum of forty millions of dollars; the manufacturers owe so much of the public prosperity, and it is urged that of hats and caps produce an annual value of fifteen milthe arrival of the period of the redemption of the public lions; the cabinet-makers, twelve millions; the manufactudebt has been confidently looked to as presenting a suitable rers of bonnets and hats for the female sex, lace, artificial occasion to rid the country of the evils with which the sys-flowers, combs, &c., seven millions; and the manufactutem is alleged to be fraught. Not an inattentive observer rers of glass, five millions. of passing events, I have been aware that, among those It extends to all lower Louisiana, the Delta of which who were most eagerly pressing the payment of the pub- might as well be submerged again in the Gulf of Mexico, lic debt, and, upon that ground, were opposing appropri- from which it has been a gradual conquest, as now to be ations to other great interests, there were some who cared deprived of the protecting duty upon its great staple. less about the debt than the accomplishment of other ob- It affects the cotton planter himself, and the tobacco jects. But the people of the United States have not cou-planter, both of whom enjoy protection. pled the payment of their public debt with the destruction The total amount of the capital vested in sheep, the land of the protection of their industry, against foreign laws to sustain them, wool, woollen manufactures, and wooland foreign industry. They have been accustomed to re- len fabrics, and the subsistence of the various persons digard the extinction of the public debt as relief from a bur-rectly or indirectly employed in the growth and manufac den, and not as the infliction of a curse. If it is to be at-ture of the article of wool, is estimated at one hundred and tended or followed by the subversion of the American sixty-seven millions of dollars, and the number of persons system, and an exposure of our establishments and our at one hundred and fifty thousand. productions to the unguarded consequences of the selfish The value of iron, considered as a raw material, and of policy of foreign Powers, the payment of the public debt will be the bitterest of curses. Its fruit will be like the fruit "Of that forbidden tree, whose mortal taste its manufactures, is estimated at twenty-six millions of dollars per annum. Cotton goods, exclusive of the capital vested in the manufacture, and of the cost of the raw ma terial, are believed to amount, annually, to about twenty millions of dollars. If the system of protection be founded on principles erroneous in theory, pernicious in practice--above all, if it be To say nothing of cotton produced in other foreign countries, the unconstitutional, as is alleged, it ought to be forthwith abo-eulavation of this article, of a very superior quality, is constantly ex tending in the adjacent Mexican provinces; and, but for the duty, prolished, and not a vestige of it suffered to remain. But, before bably a large amount would be introduced into the United States, dow we sanction this sweeping denunciation, let us look, a little Red river and along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, FEB. 2, 1832.] The Tariff. [SENATE. These estimates have been carefully made by practical independent of foreign nations." The Legislature, not men, of undoubted character, who have brought together being competent to afford the most efficacious aid, by imand embodied their information. Anxious to avoid the posing duties on foreign rival articles, proceeded to incorcharge of exaggeration, they have sometimes placed their porate a company. estimates below what was believed to be the actual amount of these interests. With regard to the quantity of bar and other iron annually produced, it is derived from the known works themselves; and I know some in Western States which they have omitted in their calculations. Peace, under the treaty of Ghent, returned in 1815, but there did not return with it the golden days which preceded the edicts levelled at our commerce by Great Britain and France. It found all Europe tranquilly resuming the arts and the business of civil life. It found Such are some of the items of this vast system of pro- Europe no longer the consumer of our surplus, and the tection, which it is now proposed to abandon. We might employer of our navigation, but excluding, or heavily burwell pause and contemplate, if human imagination could dening, almost all the productions of our agriculture; and conceive the extent of mischief and ruin from its total over- our rivals in manufactures, in navigation, and in commerce. throw, before we proceed to the work of destruction. Its It found our country, in short, in a situation totally differduration is worthy, also, of serious consideration. Not to ent from all the past-new and untried. It became nego behind the constitution, its date is coeval with that in- cessary to adapt our laws, and especially our laws of imstrument. It began on the ever memorable 4th day of post, to the new circumstances in which we found ourselves. July--the 4th day of July, 1789. The second act which Accordingly, that eminent and lamented citizen, then at stands recorded in the statute book, bearing the illustrious the head of the treasury, (Mr. Dallas,) was required, by a signature of George Washington, laid the corner stone of resolution of the House of Representatives, under date the the whole system. That there might be no mistake about 23d day of February, 1815, to prepare and report to the the matter, it was then solemnly proclaimed to the Ame-succeeding session of Congress a system of revenue conrican people and to the world, that it was necessary for formable with the actual condition of the country. He had "the encouragement and protection of manufactures," the circle of a whole year to perform the work, consulted that duties should be laid. It is in vain to urge the small merchants, manufacturers, and other practical men, and amount of the measure of protection then extended. The opened an extensive correspondence. The report which great principle was then established by the fathers of the he made at the session of 1816, was the result of his inconstitution, with the father of his country at their head. quiries and reflections, and embodies the principles which And it cannot now be questioned, that, if the Government he thought applicable to the subject. It has been said had not then been new and the subject untried, a greater that the tariff of 1816 was a measure of mere revenue; and measure of protection would have been applied, if it had that it only reduced the war duties to a peace standard. been supposed necessary. Shortly after, the master minds It is true that the question then was, how much, and in of Jefferson and Hamilton were brought to act on this in- what way, should the double duties of the war be reduced? teresting subject. Taking views of it appertaining to the Now, also, the question is, on what articles shall the dudepartments of foreign affairs and of the treasury, which ties be reduced so as to subject the amount of the future they respectively filled, they presented, severally, reports revenue to the wants of the Government? Then it was which yet remain monuments of their profound wisdom, deemed an inquiry of the first importance, as it should be and came to the same conclusion of protection to Ameri- now, how the reduction should be made, so as to secure can industry. Mr. Jefferson argued that foreign restric- proper encouragement to our domestic industry. That tions, foreign prohibitions, and foreign high duties, ought this was a leading object in the arrangement of the tariff to be met, at home, by American restrictions, American of 1816, I well remember, and it is demonstrated by the prohibitions, and American high duties. Mr. Hamilton, surveying the entire ground, and looking at the inherent nature of the subject, treated it with an ability which, if ever equalled, has not been surpassed, and earnestly recommended protection. language of Mr. Dallas. He says, in his report, "There are few, if any Governments, which do not regard the establishment of domestic manufactures as a chief object 'of public policy. The United States have always so re'garded it. The demands of the country, The wars of the French revolution commenced about while the acquisition of supplies from foreign nations was this period, and streams of gold poured into the United either prohibited or impracticable, may have afforded a States through a thousand channels, opened or enlarged sufficient inducement for this investment of capital, and by the successful commerce which our neutrality enabled this application of labor; but the inducement, in its neus to prosecute. We forgot, or overlooked, in the gene-cessary extent, must fail, when the day of competition reral prosperity, the necessity of encouraging our domestic turns. Upon that change in the condition of the counmanufactures. Then came the edicts of Napoleon, and try, the preservation of the manufactures, which private the British orders in council; and our embargo, non-inter-citizens, under favorable auspices, have constituted the course, non-importation, and war, followed in rapid suc-property of the nation, becomes a consideration of genecession. These national measures, amounting to a total ral policy, to be resolved by a recollection of past emsuspension, for the period of their duration, of our foreign barrassments; by the certainty of an increased difficulty commerce, afforded the most efficacious encouragement of reinstating, upon any emergency, the manufactures to American manufactures; and, accordingly, they every which shall be allowed to perish and pass away," &c. where sprung up. Whilst these measures of restriction The measure of protection which he proposed was not and this state of war continued, the manufacturers were adopted, in regard to some leading articles, and there was stimulated in their enterprises by every assurance of sup- great difficulty in ascertaining what it ought to have been. port, by public sentiment, and by legislative resolves. It But the principle was then distinctly asserted, and fully was about that period (1808) that South Carolina bore her sanctioned. high testimony to the wisdom of the policy, in an act of The subject of the American system was again brought her Legislature, the preamble of which, now before me, up in 1820, by the bill reported by the chairman of the reads: "Whereas the establishment and encouragement of Committee on Manufactures, now a member of the bench domestic manufactures is conducive to the interest of a of the Supreme Court of the United States, and the prinState, by adding new incentives to industry, and as being ciple was successfully maintained by the representatives the means of disposing, to advantage, the surplus produc- of the people; but the bill which they passed was defeated tions of the agriculturist: And whereas, in the present un-in the Senate. It was revived in 1824, the whole ground exampled state of the world, their establishment in our carefully and deliberately explored, and the bill then incountry is not only expedient, but politic, in rendering us troduced, receiving all the sanctions of the constitution, |