imposed on us for the manufacture of it; and, without giving more instances, the very garments we wear are colored in part by indigo, cultivated by the slave labor of India, admitted free here; though the garments are taxed high, and though it is an American production, and once considerably raised in the Southern States. Hence, there is no indemnity for the other injuries of the protective system, by its employing or encouraging, in these ways, either American labor or capital; but, on the contrary, a direct discrimination in favor of the pauper labor all the world over, to the injury of all American labor at all competing with it, or which might compete with it, if protected by as high a duty as is imposed on the manufactures from it. And why not shield our labor in one case as fully as in the other; and by a like duty, if any of it is devoted, or would then be, to such productions? And if the farmer (not now financier) of Andalusia should ask for more protection for his pine-apples and grapes, could he not defend the prayer in aid of his American labor and capital quite as plausibly as some parts of the present system are defended?

To show, in other respects, how little averse its friends are to the use of foreign labor and foreign products, when useful to them, and that entirely free, let me refer the Senate to thirty or forty such articles in the act of 1842,-a list of most of which is appended to Table No. 4.*

The only escape from all this is a mere question of dollars and cents in profit and loss by manufactures, over other pursuits; and not the plausible but exploded one, that they are more American, and therefore more patriotic. But as to those greater gains, we have already attempted to explain how, in the long run, the species of manufactures raised up by high protection has not been durably productive of large profits to the whole engaged in them, or of advantage to the community as a whole.

If the restrictive system, then, employs no more American labor and capital than would be employed in other pursuits and in profitable manufactures here, without it,-if it uses foreign labor and foreign products, whenever more beneficial to the manufacturers themselves,if, in fine, it yields no greater profits to the whole country, as a whole, no greater ability and prosperity, than without it, I entreat gentlemen to point out how it is more patriotic, or useful, than other pursuits, so as to produce those great advantages, in a general point of view, which are supposed, by some, to counterbalance the many evils already explained. The only specific position left in their favor, unexamined, is, that they tend to make us independent, as a nation, of other countries. It is not independence in producing instruments and munitions of war, and for national defence, as many erroneously suppose; since those we have long made for ourselves, and the duties, high or low, are of little consequence; but it is independence for the necessaries and comforts, as well as some of the luxuries, of every-day and peaceful life. Yes, sir; this kind of independence is gravely urged as

* Appendix, H.

momentous to the nation, and for other classes, when the manufacturers themselves go to foreign countries for all their raw materials, dyes, and machinery, when obtained there cheaper; when they are dependent, and it is a part of their system to remain dependent, on foreign countries for much of their hides, hemp, cheap wool, indigo, and hundreds of other articles, because they obtain them at lower prices there. Can gentlemen forget that this is an admission of all we contend for, which is to be dependent on other countries for manufactures themselves, no less than other articles, when we can obtain them there cheaper, and only then?

On this principle, we only ask leave to amend this partial system so that we may go for fine cottons and woollens to England and France, where long experience and skill, and great capital, enable them to make such articles cheaper than here, and where improvements, too, are rapid and great. So, when dependence here between different classes and pursuits is commended by eloquent arguments in favor of diversity of pursuits and sweet interchanges of industry, is it forgotten that, under our system, this variety and kindness would still remain to a useful extent, and be, by our commerce, diffused wider to all people? It is this mutual dependence among inhabitants of all nations, as well as of the same, which is the great nurse of commerce, and wealth, and civilization. It divides among them the surplus of each, as well as all their arts and learning, and other excellences. It is the path-finder, not only to mutual gain, but a purer religion, and higher prosperity, and more durable peace, the world over. Foreign nations thus become as dependent on us as we on them;-not political dependence, which is often inadvertently confounded with this, but social and commercial and literary dependence, which is the best guaranty of progress in human affairs.

It is folly to suppose that we, or any other nation, can unite successfully within itself the productions and manufactures of all others, all climates, and all stages of civilization; that we, or England, can raise as cheap and usefully the drugs of Turkey as Turkey herself, or the fruits of Spain, or wines of France; or they compete with England in making iron, or with us in raising cotton or pork, or making lead. And hence, while we ought not to become fanatics or visionaries, attempting to concentrate everything in one spot (which alone could be effected by Deity, but never yet, for wise reasons, has been done even by Him), let us be content to buy all we need where it can without force be produced cheapest, whether at home or abroad; and sell all we do not need where it will bring most, whether at home or abroad. In this way, we shall follow out the apparent dictates of Providence, in giving advantages, in some things, to all climates and people, to be exchanged with others through the blessings of free commerce, and thus adopting the best apparent method of increasing our prosperity, and extending civilization, and securing peace throughout the world.

While all has changed and is moving onward, are we to go back, and cling to the dark restrictive systems of a ruder civilization? Are we prepared to take the backward step, so as to protect, by discriminating duties, the old channels of commerce by the Euphrates and the Isthmus of Suez, and again to build up Tyre, Alexandria, and Venice, rather than doubling the Cape of Good Hope? Are we to tax higher the use of steam in navigation, so as to encourage oars and sails?

are we

By officious legislation, sir, are we to stop all improvement; and, while this new power in commerce is bringing all nearer, and making every people better acquainted with each other's wants and abundance, -not only transferring St. Louis to Pittsburg, and New Orleans to Charleston, but Europe as near as Halifax in days of yore,to counteract these new facilities for more intimate, enlarged, prosperous and free trade, and, while the Celestial empire itself is opening its ports under the progress of the age, virtually block all foreign ones up to us and ours, forever, by a more stringent and restrictive policy on our part?

Much more must we beware of pushing this selfish system so as to operate not equally on one great people, but invidiously on sections and classes. Still more must we beware of such an unjust course among ourselves, and under our peculiar form of government, founded and to be sustained only on mutual concessions, mutual sacrifices and gains, and what should be durable and faithful compromises. Beware, sir, of seeking to escape from such compromises, though in technical legislation not forever binding,-lest all amicable and honorary engagements become stripped of much of their moral force, and we seem punic in appearance, if not in reality. Beware, too, of a permanent return to that system which has once been abandoned for its perils to all held holy in our political brotherhood. Beware of tearing open, to fester anew and worse, old wounds that had been mostly healed, and which wrong is inflicted by the exercise of such doubtful powers as will justify the wildest schemes of internal improvement; for that general welfare which can be set up by the interested in defence of all extravagances can justify distributions of the public treasures or public lands, and end in the assumption of two hundred millions of State debts. Beware of a policy, constitutional or otherwise, whose tendency is like that which, in the British corn-laws, now agitates our parent country to its centre.

Above all, sir, let us, like the senator from Maine, read the injunctions of the farewell address of the father of his country against the causes of disunion, as well as disunion itself. Let him read and re-read the injunctions of that warning voice against the spirit of partiality and encroachment towards fraternal rights; against the inroads that fanaticism, or avarice, or party, in the domineering spirit of powerful majorities, may be tempted to risk. Let him tell them to beware as to inconsiderate memorials here to dissolve that hallowed Union on account of one of the compromises which led to it;

and, above all, to

Beware how petitions are encouraged which, under the distresses of war, formerly were confined to a faction, and died, on their way hither, at the news of peace. Beware how such petitions are now encouraged to stalk into this very hall, from State legislatures, and urge us to unsettle the great compromises on which the Union itself rests, and which, if prostrated, may lead not only to separation, but scenes of border warfare, if not servile conflagration and carnage, such as never before crimsoned the pages of history.

NAVAL SCHOOL.*

Mr. WOODBURY's remarks on the naval school were substantially as follows:

sea.

He stated that the first and indispensable point, with a young officer, was, whether he could bear the exposure and roll of the ocean. If he could not, all expense in educating him for the service was lost. Hence, the first order long had been, and should continue to be, an order to After that experiment, if the constitution and taste of the individual proved suitable, it was not only proper to give him aid by literary and scientific instruction on ship-board, but, when off duty, on shore. The deck of the vessel, however, was the best schoolhouse or academy to begin with; and there, to mingle explanations and reading with actual experiment. Even on shore, the teaching should be rather to occupy suitably his leisure hours, and advance him in his naval pursuits, than to give him land habits or land tastes. The naval officer should be a sailor,- an informed, intelligent, moral, and intellectual sailor, if you please, but still a son of the ocean, and dedicated, heart and soul, for life, to all its arduous duties, great exposure and high responsibilities. In truth, his true home is on the mountain wave.

It was no more proper to send the army officer or the cadet at West Point to sea, than to keep the naval officer much on shore, and attach

A speech in favor of establishing a Naval School; delivered in the Senate of the United States, August 10, 1842.

him strongly to shore scenes and shore pursuits. The most abhorrent idea to a genuine tar is a land-lubber. Hence, the school for his leisure hours, while not afloat, should be, as it had been for many years, on or near salt water, and attached to some navy-yard.

Mr. W. had no great objection to changing a receiving-ship (the usual place for instruction) to a fort or barracks, or other suitable building connected with some naval station; though, in some respects, a vessel had advantages for illustration of nautical terms, and for forming nautical tastes and habits. A vessel should be used for short experimental cruises frequently, even if the school was on shore. But he entertained a decided opinion that the whole establishment should be under naval officers, naval discipline, and the jurisdiction of some naval station. And so far from admitting to the school any not officers, or officers before having seen sea-service, he felt confident that abuses would creep in, and the whole scheme prove abortive, if either of those courses was tolerated. Such, in a few words, were his general views on this topic. Assured as he was that this school would be conducted on the principle he approved, his vote would be given for the bill.

There was a mistake in supposing that the difference of pay in the navy and the commercial marine created the present difficulty in procuring a full supply of seamen. On the contrary, when promptly paid and humanely treated in the navy, sailors generally preferred it to the merchant service. They had better medical attendance when sick, and pensions when disabled; and there was an honest pride in wearing the insignia of their country, and serving under its public flag. It was regarded as an honor, and justly so. But the difficulty lay deeper. Our commercial marine had greatly increased in the last ten years, and the growth of our tonnage there had created a large additional demand for seamen in the domestic as well as foreign trade. At the same time, the navy had been so augmented recently as to require nine or ten thousand seamen, instead of only five. This was the true source of most of the difficulty.