FEB. 7, 1832.] The Tariff. 314 [SENATE. under cover of our gallant navy, would supply all our ours into the markets of the world could lower the price wants. But, sir, is it wise, is it just, to inflict a certain at most only two or two and a half per cent. evil upon the whole people for the benefit of a few, to the we see, by reference to the prices, that brown sugar, extent of a tax of near two and a half millions of dollars which, in 1816, was worth from twelve to sixteen, is now And yet yearly, to guard against the contingency of a war which worth only from six to eight cents; and, in Cuba, the is not likely to happen, but which, if it come, can bring qualities which, in 1816 and 1817, were worth from six to with it, in this respect, but very slight and temporary evils? eight cents, are now selling at from two to three cents. Sir, look to the tariff upon this single article, and the ef- The allegation, therefore, seems to me, as I think it must fects which will be produced by twenty-five years' perse-seem to all impartial persons, as utterly preposterous, in verance. In twenty-five years, at the present and neces- the sense, and to the extent, put forth. The causes of sarily increasing rates, the people of the United States will the reduction of prices, which have alike affected protecthave paid to the sugar planters of Louisiana more than ed and unprotected articles, lie much deeper than the tariff eighty millions of dollars-a sum nearly equal to the debt laws of 1818, 1824, and 1828. of the revolution--the price of our liberties; and for what vestigate them. benefit? Will they be able to purchase domestic sugar I will not now stop to incheaper after having paid this tax for twenty-five years? article of sugar, with others which might be suggested to Sir, the views which I have presented in relation to the No, sir, nor as cheap as the foreign. The cost of produc-enhance our detestation of the inequality, injustice, and tion will be necessarily greater in Louisiana than in the profligacy of this system, apply with equal, or nearly finer climates. Then, sir, how are the people to be in-equal force to all the other protected articles; to iron, demnified for paying this eighty millions of dollars to the hemp, wool, coarse woollens, &c. sugar planter? No one has told, and no one can tell. of industry are bountied and thrive, while all other classes Then, sir, where is the benefit? The direct benefit goes bear the burden and dwindle. Agriculture, the great These favored classes exclusively to the sugar planters--the recipients of the tax; paramount interest, is taxed to exhaustion; he who toils in but an indirect benefit arises to the other bandit inte- the earth, and he who ploughs the main, are plundered, rests, by securing the vote of Louisiana, to enable them under color of law, of their legitimate profits, to sustain to make similar exactions from the great planting interest a band of monopolists, who, by contrivance and concert, of the country. Sir, is there any intelligent man who be- have drawn into their views a majority of the country, lieves that if the sugar planters were the only persons in and affect to give law to political parties, and have long the country seeking protection from Congress, ten votes, since assumed a tone of dictation to Congress and the , a single vote, could be obtained beyond the limits of Executive. Louisiana, in favor of an imposition of an annual tax of four endure? Is it possible that the people, an overwhelming Is it possible, sir, that this state of things can millions of dollars for their benefit? No man believes it. majority of whom are laborers, and derive their support If, then, this subject has nothing intrinsic to justify this from the cultivation of the earth, can be much longer tax, how does it acquire any additional merit by its con- gulled into acquiescence, or dragooned into submission-nexion with other protected interests? Sir, this tax has that they will sustain a policy, the effect of which is to no merit, and ought instantly to be reduced to a mere re-make the rich richer, and the poor poorer? venue tax. Even then it would be more encouraged than all the other planting interests. refute the allegation, so often put forth, that the home Sir, I shall not stop to competition has reduced the price of sugar. one illustration, however. It has been seen that the whole I will offer domestic proportion bears about the same proportion to the whole quantity of foreign sugar, as two or two and a half does to one hundred. How can such an immense mass of the foreign article be essentially affected in its price by an addition to the whole quantity of only two per cent. Suppose a merchant has on hand ninety-eight hogsheads of sugar, each worth one hundred dollars, but another merchant brings into the same market two hogsheads, tion as the deepest and most unfortunate error of the Sir, I regard the adoption of the present mode of taxamaking the supply greater than the demand--in that case sages who formed and adopted the constitution. It is so the price must fall; but how much? Certainly not to an artfully disguised that it may insinuate itself into the comextent exceeding the whole value of the two hogsheads.munity, reach every class and condition of society, diWhy not? Because, rather than let the price go lower, minish the profits of labor, and impair the springs of so as to affect the ninety-eight hogsheads, the owner of industry, unseen, and almost unsuspected. It enhances them would find it his interest to buy up the two hogs- the price of almost every thing--of the salt that seasons heads, or, what is equivalent, would withhold from the the poor man's dish, the iron that points his plough, the ninety-eight hogsheads are worth nine thousand eight hun-dwelling, the beverage that slakes his thirst; it burdens Now how stands the case? The woollen that covers his body, the glass that lights his dred dollars; but two hogsheads come into market, and almost all the comforts and enjoyments of his life, in are about to reduce the price: two hogsheads of the nine-eating, in drinking, in his raiment, in walking, in riding, ty-eight are withheld, and the price remains firm, and the and in sleeping; and, in articulo mortis, it clings to the ninety six brought into market are worth nine thousand coffin that receives his mortal remains, and the spade that Six hundred dollars: and so it is demonstrated that if the prepares his last home, where he may sleep with his two hogsheads reserved are entirely lost, which, in prac-fathers, and mingle with mother earth. Sir, this indirect tice, would not be the fact, yet the loss, by the increased taxation has operated as a withering blight upon all the supply of two per cent. is only one hundred and ninety-fruits of Southern industry-it is converting the finest Six dollars, equal to two per cent. upon the value of the region of the earth into hopeless sterility and comparative market two of his own. whole. The most of them have been too much engaged in their opening the eyes of the people to their true condition. The great difficulty, and the only difficulty, consists in multifarious subject. It is the interest of monopolists, of necessary avocations to study and to comprehend this capitalists-of all those who consume more of the fruits of the earth, than they produce by the sweat of their brow-to disseminate false opinions, to league together in appropriating to themselves the bounties conferred by the Government, or in speculating upon the distresses occasioned by this ruinous and accursed policy. desolation. Apply these principles to the price of the whole supply in all the markets of the world, and the results will sions of this confederacy at the adoption of the constituLook, sir, at the relative condition of the grand divibe similar, in truth, identical-that is to say, as our whole tion. domestic produce is only two or two and a half per cent. but positively poor: the South, with a genial climate and The North and East were not only comparatively of the whole supply of the article, so the introduction of a kindly soil, was teeming with the rich fruits of the earth, How has this strange, and, at the first view, almost incredible result been effected? It has grown out of the diversity of pursuits in these great sections, acted upon by a mode of taxation onerous to one and beneficial to the other. [FEB. 7, 1832. and rejoicing in the midst of abundance. The export of guage and confusion of ideas--"that a national debt is a the raw material of the plantation States gave employment public blessing." Sir, it has been a blessing to that great to the principal part of our foreign tonnage; and streams section of this country which has been cheered and invi of wealth were pouring in from every quarter of the gorated by its refreshing streams; but a positive evil upon globe, upon that delightful region. But, sir, the first the whole region of the South. It enables us also to ungreat act under the new Government-the funding of the derstand something of the motives of that ridicule and dedebt of the revolution--laid the foundation of a system of nunciation which have been levelled at the present Chief policy, and gave efficiency to a mode of taxation, which Magistrate, for his avowed anxiety to extinguish that debt, have enriched regions naturally poor, and impoverished and relieve the people from a portion of their burdens. regions naturally rich. Sir, the extinguishment of the national debt will be felt as an evil by the monopolists and capitalists of the North and East; inasmuch as an annual flow of ten or twelve millions of dollars, in that direction, will be discontinued; and inasmuch as longer necessity for high taxes ceasing, an apprehension of reduction, at the moment when so much In the early period of the Government, the whole war capital is let loose, will beget difficulty and anxiety in debt of the revolution was funded: a large portion of it making investments in pursuits highly profitable or exor belonged to the Northern and Eastern States, and their bitantly bountied. Sir, this part of the subject awakens citizens became purchasers of much the largest portion of painful reminiscences of the tendency of Governments in the residue; that is to say, the whole debt of the United other countries and other times--of the humiliating fact, States, contracted by the old Congress, and the war debt illustrated upon almost every page of history, that all Goof the several States, were made the debt of the new vernments have been so cunningly devised and curiously Government. It issued certificates, subject to be trans-constructed, as to burden the many and benefit the fewferred, which were held by the creditors, and the interest to increase the strength of the powerful, and perpetuate was regularly paid, in like manner as shares are held in a the feebleness of the weak. We had believed that our bank, and interest paid to the stockholders. revolution, which was achieved for the sake of principle, The people to the South, then unburdened by excessive and not to escape from practical oppression, had opened taxation, could make larger profits upon a capital invested upon the world brighter hopes. We had hoped that our in land and slaves than the interest upon the public funds. constitution, which rests upon the immutable rights of man, They, therefore, instead of purchasing, were anxious to and the principles of eternal justice, would guaranty to sell their Government stock, and invest the proceeds in feebleness support and protection, and impose upon the the planting business. In the North and East, agricultural powerful wholesome and efficient restraints. Sir, we labor being less productive, the people there were anxious have long enjoyed this pleasing delusion; but is it not deto invest their means in Government stock. The interest,lusion? therefore, upon the whole public debt was flowing regu- To a superficial observer, ours seems to be, in fact, what larly to the North and East; and when we reflect that at it is in theory, a Government of the many for the benefit least three-fourths of the taxes raised for the payment of of the many. A closer investigation discloses the truth, principal and interest, were levied upon the South, and that it is, 'practically, a Government of the smallest possible the whole amount disbursed in the North and East, in the majority over the largest possible minority-that the extinguishment of the principal and interest of the debt; largest minority is laid under contribution to augment the and when we reflect that this combined operation has aggregate of exactions, and the majority is let down to the been applied to the debt of the revolutionary war; that lowest safe point, to enhance the value of the dividends; for the purchase of Louisiana; the immense war debt of and that this majority, thus small and effective, is, in fact, 1812, '15; and that for the purchase of Florida--we shall wielded by a combination of monopolists, capitalists, and begin to discern some of the great causes which have adventuring politicians, who divide among themselves the forced the profits of labor to flow from the South to the richest spoils of their triumphs, and throw but a crumbNorth and East, in a deep, strong, and steady current, if, indeed, so much--to the mere serfs of party. And, sir, not wholly unlike the great gulf stream of the ocean. It where is the check upon combinations for selfish and unis in this way that the unequal action of the Government principled exactions? The check of responsibility entire has more than counterbalanced the bounties of Providence; ly fails; for, though the dominant majority is responsible that those delightful regions of the South, upon which to their immediate constituents, yet they are under no reHeaven seemed to have smiled with beneficence, are sponsibility to the millions who are laid under contribu silently passing into decay and sterility, while the frozen tion. There is no responsibility of the parts to each other. North is unlocking its arms to receive the fruits of our Hence, in a widely extended confederacy, embracing large industry, and is every where exhibiting evidences of pros-sections of dissimilar and conflicting interests, combinations perity, and monuments of wealth and greatness. This upon the selfish principles may be formed without fear of view of the subject suggests a train of melancholy reflec-responsibility, and grind into the very dust large and floutions. It exhibits, in the strongest light, the diverse and rishing regions. This has been the precise operation of conflicting interests of great sections of the country, and the tariff system and the tariff majorities. Sir, I say it confirms the conviction that this indirect taxation, through with deep reluctance, but I feel it my solemn duty to say the medium of imposts, reduce it as you may, even to the it, that I can scarcely conceive of any Government more dan minimum of the necessities of the Government, will still gerous than one which enables irresponsible and proffioperate as a perpetual drain upon the profits of Southern gate majorities, in a widely extended country, inviting to labor-upon the exporting States--and transfer its bene- depredation and rapine, by dissimilar and conflicting inte fits to the North and East, or non-exporting States. It also rests, to lay under contribution whole sections, and all the affords a solution of the fact of the constant and steady profits of industry peculiar to those sections. opposition of the plantation States to high taxes and pro- Sir, it is this view of the subject which is most deeply digal expenditures; and the equally steady and persever-interesting to every individual who lives by the cultiva ing efforts of other great sections of the confederacy to tion of the earth in the Southern States. The whole augment the revenue, and squander the surplus in appro- South is subjected to a system of exaction, such as has priations to all sorts of objects. It enables us also to com- never been long borne by any free people on the globe. prehend, in some measure, that political paradox--which, I shall endeavor to illustrate this position, not by a resort to a simple and plain man, involves a perversion of lan- to political metaphysics, but by presenting those facts and FEB. 7, 1832.] OF DEBATES IN CONGRESS. considerations which lie upon the surface of things, and Looking into the tables of our domestic exports, I take to Of that whole amount, the articles of Southern production only amount as fol lows, to wit: The rice to Cotton to $1,553,482 24,035,058 Tobacco to 6,222,837 For wheat, naval stores of all sorts, and other exports from the South, cannot be precisely ascertained, but is believed to be about 5,000,000 318 [SENATE. foreign exchanges, are burdened with a tax of forty-five used in foreign exchanges, are entirely free from tax; per cent. The products of Northern labor, as they are hence an inequality which, in the long run, must of necessity be ruinous to the South. cotton, is just as much entitled to it as the Northern maAgain: The Southern planter, who makes a bale of nufacturer, who makes a piece of cloth, is entitled to his cloth. This is conceded on all hands: for both the bale of cotton and the piece of cloth are the fruits of their labor respectively. But both wish to carry their articles into market-and both are permitted to do it free of tax. consequence. But mark the The planter sends his cotton to Liverpool to exchange for cloth; but when he brings his cloth home, he is stopped at the custom-house, and told that he must surrender forty-five yards in the hundred. The planter then retains only fifty-five yards, though he has honestly earned one hundred. The Northern manufacturer is not 36,811,080 only permitted to keep his whole piece of one hundred yards, but, by the intervention of the tariff, he is enabled $13,062,990 to sell it at an advance of forty or forty-five per cent. upon the natural price. How then stands the case? Here From the foregoing statement, it appears that the South-are two men, who have each earned one hundred yards of ern States, comprising not one-third of the whole popula- cloth by their labor, worth one hundred dollars per piece tion of the Union, actually export annually, to foreign at the natural price-I mean, by natural price, the cost of Countries, near three-fourths of the whole export of do-production. The Southern man is compelled to give up mestic growth and production. How is it, sir, that, with forty-five yards, and is permitted to keep fifty-five yards, sich an immense export, the South is growing poorer? worth fifty-five dollars. How is it that the Northern population, comprising two- not only permitted to keep his hundred yards, worth one thirds of the whole population, export not more than one-hundred dollars, but, by the aid of the tariff, he is enaThe Northern manufacturer is fourth, and yet are abounding in all the comforts and bled to sell his one hundred yards, say for one hundred Juxuries of foreign countries, and increasing daily in pros- and forty dollars. That is, the one hundred dollars worth perity? How are the North enabled to buy and consume of labor of the Southern man is, in the long run, by the such a proportion of foreign imports? It is not because intervention of the tariff, made to be worth eighty-five they buy them with produce exported. No, sir. not by means of invading their capital, that they are en- of the Northern manufacturer. I exclude any enhanceIt is dollars less than the one hundred dollars worth of labor abled so to multiply their enjoyments. They are too pru- ment of the price of the fifty-five yards, because, in the dent for that, and, besides, their career to prosperity is practical operation, they are purchased for consumption. constantly onward. Then, sir, how is it that they can Is it possible to conceive a case of more revolting hardconsume nearly two-thirds of the whole importation, when ship? And yet this illustrates truly the operation of the they do not send abroad, of their own produce, one-third tariff. of the value of that which they consume, and when they by impost the Southern man's piece of cloth when imdo not invade their capital? Sir, the most that they would ported, should also tax by excise the Northern manufacTo do equal justice, the Government, as it taxes be entitled to, is the value of their exports, enhanced by turer's piece to the same amount; and wherefore ought the profits of freight upon exports and imports; and yet not this to be the case? Has not the Southern man just they consume more than double the whole amount of as much earned by his labors his piece, as the Northern their exports and freight. How is it done? It is through manufacturer has earned his by his labor? This is one of the instrumentality of the tariff system, which I will not the bitter fruits of indirect taxes. explain. The tariff, by enhancing the price of the foreign arti- will act, and the like results, to that extent, will be proamount the revenue may be reduced, the same principle And to whatever cle to the whole amount of the duty, enables the domes-duced. Sir, this is the great secret of the ruinous transfer tic manufacturer to bring his manufactures, of like kind, of the profits of Southern labor, to augment the prosperity into the market, and sell them for a price equal, or nearly of the North and East. equal to the foreign article, burdened as it is with a high duty. The domestic article is sent to the South, and duties. Though not assenting to that proposition, I will Again: It is said that the consumer pays the import sold for high profits, and drains off, in that way, a large assume that principle in this argument. part of the income of the Southern planter, for his cotton collects a revenue upon imports of, say twenty-three miland tobacco; and these profits, so made by the manufac- lions a year. turer, enable him to consume of the foreign importation. ducts, which are exchanged for the imports upon which Now the average of all the duties has been accurately these twenty-three millions are levied; that is to say, The South exports three-fourths of the procalculated, and it exceeds forty-five per cent. The South, seventeen millions of the duties are levied on goods extherefore, pays upon all they consume either forty-five changed for the products of Southern labor. Repeal the per cent. upon the price, if it be the foreign article, or tariff, and the South would be entitled to consume or to about the same amount in the enhanced price of the do- sell three-fourths of the imports. But, under existing mestic article. It is in this enhanced price, produced by circumstances, say the South consumes one-half the imimports, that the North extracts from the ports, then the South, as consumers, pay duties or taxes South a large share of their profits of planting; and by of eleven and a half millions. the use of these profits, so extracted, the North is enabled in the North and East; that is to say, they are consumed to substitute itself for the South, and consume the im- partly in consideration of their exports, and of course The other half is consumed Ports, which, in the absence of the tax, would have been pay, as consumers, six millions of dollars; but the North the legitimate fruits of Southern labor. the products of Southern labor, as they are used in the upon which five and a half millions of duties are to be In other words, and East are also to consume the residue of the imports, the duties on The Governinent SENATE.] The Tariff. paid. Now, how are the non-exporting States either to pay the five and a half millions, or to acquire the whole imports, upon which that sum is levied? [FEB. 7, 1832. "It is not less obvious that, if a given amount of capital and labor produces in the same time a less quantity of a certain commodity than could have been purchased with It is done precisely in the manner before stated; that that quantity of another article, which might have been is to say, although the South pays only half the taxes in produced in the same time by the same amount of capital the first instance, (or any other proportion, which, what- and labor, it is a national loss equal to the difference be ever it may be, is wholly immaterial, and leaves wholly tween the quantity produced and that which might have unaffected the truth of the argument,) still the South has been purchased with the proceeds of the same capital and suffered the North to extract from the profits of Southern labor otherwise applied. labor, by the enhanced prices of the domestic manufac- "With one thousand bushels of wheat, worth one dolture, a sum that enables the North to substitute itself as a lar a bushel, one thousand yards of cloth, of a certain quaconsumer in place of the South, and actually to enjoy the lity, may be purchased. If the capital and labor employed, fruits of which the South has been most unjustly stripped or which might be employed, in producing the thousand by means of the tariff. bushels of wheat, do, when applied to the production of So that, in fact, the South pays, directly and indirectly, similar cloth, produce in the same time one thousand upon consumption, near three-fourths, exceeding two- yards, there is neither comparative gain or loss in that apthirds, of the whole revenue of the Government collected plication of capital and labor. But if, thus applied, it proupon imports. To give entire accuracy to the statement, duces only eight hundred yards, there is an actual nationit is necessary to deduct the amount of freight, and the al loss of two hundred yards, equal to two hundred dollars, taxes upon the amount consumed by those who substitute or two hundred bushels of wheat, since the same labor themselves as consumers, by reason of sales of unprotect- and capital, if applied to the production of wheat, would ed articles in the South, the principal of which consists of have produced one thousand bushels, with which one live stock. thousand yards of the cloth might have been purchased." When we advert, sir, not only to the ruinous inequality in levying the taxes of this Government, but also to that other and more unequal operation--the disbursement of at least three-fourths of that revenue in the non-exporting States, we shall be able to discern the causes which have produced results so advantageous to the tariff States, and so disastrous to the planting States. To make this demonstration clearer, if that be possible, let us take a nearer view of the application of these principles to the actual state of things. It is desirable to have home establishments for the manufacture of coarse woollens. The manufacturer says he cannot go into it, as, without protection, it will be a losing business: that he can make more money in other pursuits than he can in the Sir, it would be an alleviation of these evils, severe as manufacture of coarse woollens. The Government, howthey are upon a great section of the Union, if we could ever, determines to have home establishments, and lays a know that this policy augments the national wealth and tax of fifty per cent. on all imported coarse woollens. the national prosperity. But, sir, such is not the fact. It The manufacturer goes into the business, not because, if is susceptible of demonstration, that this policy diminishes let alone, he could make as much money at it as in other the aggregate of national wealth. employments, but because the Government, by increasing It commends itself to the approbation of its friends, not the price of the foreign article fifty per cent., enables him as the means of increasing that wealth, but as the instru- to sell the home article at fifty per cent. above the natural ment of a forced and unnatural transfer of the profits of price. It is clear, therefore, that all who go into the busiagricultural labor, to enhance the capital and profits of ness have been induced, by the interference of Govern the manufacturing interest. But, sir, that an augmenta- ment, to abandon a more profitable, for a pursuit, in the tion of the wealth of the nation is not the consequence absence of such interference, less profitable. The naof these protecting duties, I beg leave to read a passage tional loss is exactly the original difference between the from a work of one of the most able, sagacious, and pro- old and the new pursuit. But the Government makes up found political economists,* that this or any other country that difference to the manufacturer, and often much more ever produced--of one, whose capacious mind, and as- than makes it up. How does the Government make it up? tonishing powers, have undergone a rectification by forty Why, by taxing all the consumers of the foreign article, years of experience in public life; and the monuments of and thereby enabling the manufacturer, by increasing his whose genius will attract the admiration of posterity, prices, to tax the consumers of the domestic article. The when the works of some of his bitterest revilers shall result of which operation is twofold: first, a national loss, have dropped from the memory of man. The argument by substituting an unproductive for a productive pursuit. is clear, compressed, and demonstrative. Secondly, a loss imposed upon the great body of consum ers, for the individual benefit of a few manufacturers, to enable them to pursue a business which not only impairs the national wealth, but which also enriches them. "A Government which acknowledges the principle, that no individual can be divested of his property for public purposes without indemnity, cannot claim the right to that indirectly, which it is forbidden to do directly. A sys- But, sir, I am aware that this reasoning is too unambi tem calculated to lay permanent burdens, greatly unequal tious and too minute to mingle itself with the magnificent and oppressive on some classes of society, or on a parti- conceptions of the Senator from Kentucky. He disdains cular section of the country, would be radically unjust, to push the powers of analysis to that high point, from and altogether indefensible, even though it might be at- which the eye may take in the very elements of these tended with some advantages to the community considered complex questions of political economy: unpretending as a whole. But whether such advantages are in fact accuracy is beneath the aspirations of his ambitious gerealized; whether, on any supposition, they ever can pro- nius. duce a profit equal to the actual national loss arising even from the indispensable duty of twenty to twenty-five per cent., must be first examined. That Senator opens his speech by adverting to the seven years next preceding the tariff of 1824 as being the most disastrous, and the seven years succeeding as the most "It is self-evident that the industry of a country is most prosperous, in the history of this country. The distress profitably employed; or, in other words, that a country acquires the greatest wealth, and its general prosperity is most advanced, in proportion as its capital and labor are most productive. Mr. Gallatin. of the former period is ascribed to the want of protection, and the prosperity of the latter is represented as the effect of the protective system. Sir, nothing can be more loose and inconclusive than this general statement. But, was the pecuniary distress, experienced in this country during the [years 1819, '20, '21, and '22, occasioned by the want of a FEB. 7, 1832.] OF DEBATES IN CONGRESS. The Tariff. 322 [SENATE. high protective system? If so, why did not England es- and drugged a young giant, who grows apace in spite of cape, which was literally barricadoed by restrictions and the poisons, ascribe to the medicaments his expanding prohibitions? Sir, the causes of that distress lay much form, his gigantic dimensions, and his compactness and deeper; the effects were first developed in Europe, and power of muscle. were there experienced in all the gradations of depression, stagnation, and, finally, of universal, unexampled, and vigorous sketch of the history of the tariff system; he Sir, the Senator from Kentucky has given you a rapid and overwhelming distress. Those causes operated upon adverted to the act of 1789, as having "sanctioned the the whole commercial world; their influence reached this principle;" he deplored the causes growing out of the country, and combining here with other causes peculiar to French revolution, which obstructed this salutary policy; ourselves, produced general depression and much distress. and remarked the singular coincidence of the recurrence The wars of the French revolution had convulsed the of this subject at the interval of every four years, from continent of Europe for twenty-five years; the arts of 1816 to 1832. Sir, I was surprised that the plainest prinpeace, and the pursuits of civil life, were neglected or ples of association did not awaken his attention to a similar abandoned, and every country, in turn, became the thea- recurrence of another great question at similar intervals. tre of war. The insular situation of England enabled her I was surprised that it did not occur to the recollection of to occupy a commanding position: for, while she, as one the Senator, that the tariff policy, now for the fifth time, of the belligerent Powers, made prodigious efforts on is agitated and discussed immediately upon the eve of the land, her navy swept the ocean, her commerce pervaded presidential election; that the tocsin is sounded, and the every quarter of the globe, and her workshops supplied banner unfurled, at the precise moment when a rally is to the whole of Europe. Notwithstanding her prodigious be made for the great and final struggle. Sir, this view expenditures, it may be well questioned whether she had of the subject calls up a train of melancholy reflections. ever enjoyed, in so eminent a degree, all the appearances It suggests the facility of combination of great pecuniary of prosperity. At the fall of Napoleon, France was cover- with great political interests, to seize upon the Governed with all the armies of Europe; the immense expendi-ment, and divide among themselves its patronage and its ture of public money created a demand for every thing, bounties. It suggests painful doubts, whether the Presiand prices went up to the very highest point: England dent-making faculty is not a power so preponderating in participated most largely in this apparent prosperity. Her our political machinery, that, when violently excited, it paper system--the Government expenditures--the sus- may not derange its harmonious action, or prove destrucpension of specie payments-the consequent depreciation tive of its organization. of the circulating medium, together with the unexampled influx of wealth from the continent of Europe, as the re- tem, upon the broad ground that it is the only policy effectThe Senator from Kentucky defends the protective sysward of manufacturing industry—all combined to give a ually counteractive of an unfavorable balance of trade. highly artificial value to every species of property, and Sir, I had not expected to hear this exploded doctrine inthe appearance of the highest degree of general prospe- troduced into this debate. I had supposed it would have rity. Her stupendous resources, stimulating to preterna- been suffered to sleep with the statesmen of the Tudors tural efforts her commercial and manufacturing interests, and the Stuarts. gave her an energy-a momentum--which carried her for- is the jest and the scoff of her practical statesmen, as well ward for several years, without much apparent diminution. as her writers upon political economy-save only in fallen, It finds no abiding place in Europe. It The armies of Europe were disbanded, and became impoverished, and devoted Spain, where much may be producers: every department of labor soon became over-found common to her and the defenders of the American stocked; Government expenditures ceased; specie pay-system. What, sir, is meant by the balance of trade? It ments were resumed; and a reaction ensued, every where is that commercial intercourse in which the importation exhibiting the most appalling distresses. This country exceeds the exportation. felt the reaction in the sudden depression of the price of every article of exportation. most fatal curse to the prosperity of this country, had were two hundred and seventy-three millions of dollars; The paper system--the years and three-quarters, our exports to Great Britain The Senator from Kentucky states that, in the last ten pervaded every portion of this Union; every county town that our imports, during the same time, were three hunand parish was inundated with bank notes, at a ruinous dred and twenty millions-giving an excess of imports of depreciation, and every species of property had risen to fifty-seven millions, which he sets down as clear loss, and the highest price. Deluded by false appearances, and exclaims emphatically, "How can the United States susthe facility of procuring money, the spirit of speculation tain themselves under this ruinous trade?" Sir, the fallacy was excited-large debts incautiously contracted-when of this argument consists in supposing, when the value of this sudden depression of prices came upon the country imports exceeds the value of exports, that a debt is conas a paralysis, and all those distresses of which the most tracted to the amount of the difference; whereas, in a fair of us retain a vivid and painful recollection. Among the commerce, prosecuted by a country with a commercial causes of that distress, the paper system was undoubtedly marine of her own, the value of imports, for a series of the most effective and most pernicious; and, where the years taken together, will be equal to the aggregate value system of banking was pushed to the greatest extent, the of exports and freights. greatest distress was invariably found. Sir, whatever of prosperity we have enjoyed since ports is just equal to the value of exports, it is clear that 1824, instead of being in consequence of the tariff, has there is a loss to the whole amount of freight. Yet this, In a single commercial operation, if the value of imbeen in despite of it. republic, in the finest region of the globe, with free in- a gainful nor a losing business. Again: If, in a single We are yet a young and vigorous according to the doctrine of the balance of trade, is neither stitutions, and a hardy, industrious, honest, and enterpris-operation, the value of imports is less than the value of g people. With so many favoring circumstances, it is al- exports, this, according to the balance of trade, is a gainTost impossible to arrest our career; particular sections ful commerce, though he who receives a return cargo less may be injured, but, as a whole, our course must be on- valuable than the outward, feels sorely that it is a losing ward. But our growth, our prosperity, and our great-business. Fiess, are all ascribed to the tariff of 1824, and the bill mercial operations of a country, the value of imports shall of abominations" of 1828--that prohibitory system, which be less than the value of exports, it is said the balance of So, if, instead of a single case, in all the comhas been alike the reproach and the curse of Spain, the trade is favorable; whereas nothing is more demonstrative country, of all others, in which it has been most fondly than, when the value of all the return cargoes is less than cherished. Sir, as well might the empiric, who had dosed the value of all the outward, that it is a losing business. VOL. VIII.--21 |