I am

and he calls upon the Democracy of the State to do so. willing to take him upon that issue. Let Pennsylvania give her casting vote; but let her give it herself, by her own strong hand, and not by others. If at the polls, after the free discussion and experience of the past, Pennsylvania votes with her vast multitudes of intelligent people, and gives the CASTING Vote for General Cass and General Butler, then so be it. Let her take the consequence. Thank Heaven, nobody but herself holds that casting vote at the present day. I hope she will give it; I hope she will consider it; and I hope she will give it, when she does give it, decisively and emphatically. Therefore I would say, if I could be heard by her, from the Delaware to the Ohio, from New Jersey to Maryland, I would say to her, that now the people of the United States look to see how Pennsylvania WILL

HERSELF GIVE HER OWN CASTING VOTE.

I will give a few facts in relation to the great interests of Pennsylvania. I understand that, after the law of 1842 was passed, sixteen or seventeen rolling-mills were erected to make railroad iron, a business then unknown in this country. Two thirds of them have stopped, and stopped for what? Fortyfive hundred workmen have been discharged. Miners' wages have been known to be high, and the discharge of people from these mills for making railroad iron has thrown out of employ. ment men earning together $1,800,000 a year Labor, therefore, to that amount, in these railroad iron mills, has been thrown out of employ. The imports of iron, since the new tariff, are enormous. All know that. It is said that orders have been sent out amounting to three millions. We shall see the difference by a short comparison of the imports of 1848 and of 1846:

Bar iron,

Pig iron,

6,600 tons. 7,716 20,428

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Sheets, hoops, rods, and nails, . 75,500 66

And here the increase is in articles of the highest manufacture, that is, articles in which the greatest quantity of labor is incorporated; for there seems to be in this policy a bloodhound scent to follow labor, and to run it down, and to seize and strangle it wherever it may be found. Sheet iron, and those species of iron

requiring the most labor, all come in cheapest under this system. As to some of these mills, and especially one at Danville in the State of Pennsylvania, which cost the proprietors seven hundred thousand dollars, which they paid in to the last cent, it is wholly stopped.

I will only add, that, if we mean to keep up American labor under these operations, we must hold to protecting our industry from the competition of foreign labor. Labor abroad is cheap, because the people live poor. English iron costs $8.02 per ton for wages; while American iron, the result of American labor, costs $15.82, because American labor means to live well, means to earn enough to educate its children, and to perform the duties of a citizen. Therefore I insist that it shall have wages, and high wages. We know that some others of these iron works are about to stop. The evil is not confined to this branch of industry. The wages of handicraft in Philadelphia are also cut down one third; I mean the hand-loom weavers, and fifteen hundred hands have been thrown out of employment in this branch of industry alone.

In connection with the tariff, in its operation upon these necessary articles, which I suppose it is the duty of our government to protect, I wish to advert to a fact or matter, I believe, not very much known. You know, Gentlemen, that the present tariff act was passed on the 30th of July, 1846. There seems to have been an apprehension that a state of things might arise under which there would be gross undervaluation, because all duties were ad valorem, and there was no specific duty laid upon any thing. The Secretary of the Treasury seems to have partaken of this apprehension. It would appear, that, under the influence of that fear, some few days afterwards, in the course of the same session, a bill was before Congress making the usual appropriations for civil and diplomatic services; and in that bill, at the suggestion of the Secretary of the Treasury, was inserted a section, not germain to the matter of the bill, but in close connection with this very tariff bill before us. It provides,

"Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That, in addition to the assistant appraisers authorized by law at the port of New York, there may be appointed, in the mode now prescribed by law, one additional assistant appraiser at said port, at a salary, as heretofore established, of fifteen hun

dred dollars per annum, to be paid out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated: Provided, said salary shall not commence, or appointment take effect, prior to the 30th of November next; and in appraising all goods, at any port of the United States, heretofore subjected to specific duties, but upon which ad valorem duties are imposed by the act of the 30th of July last, entitled 'An Act reducing the duty on imports and for other purposes,' reference shall be had to values and invoices of similar goods imported during the last fiscal year, under such general and uniform regulations for the prevention of fraud or undervaluation as shall be prescribed by the Secretary of the Treasury."

That is to say, that if the Secretary of the Treasury chose, he might, upon any such goods as had heretofore paid a specific duty, impose a value that should be ascertained, not by the appraisers, but by the invoices that accompanied the like article in the last fiscal year. Now, if the Secretary of the Treasury had seen fit to carry this section into operation, he might have kept the duties upon iron nearly as high as they now are. In point of fact I learn, that in November of last year the Secretary of the Treasury did send instructions to the appraisers of this port to look at their invoices, but never gave any direction whatever making it imperative upon them to adopt the value stated in the invoices of the preceding year. And from inquiry at the custom-house, through an intelligent source, I learn that to be the result. In 1845, the usual invoice price of iron was £10 sterling; now I believe it is about £5 6s. Then it was in the power, and it is now in the power, of the Secretary of the Treasury, if he sees fit, to say that all iron shall be taken according to the invoice of 1845, and pay ad valorem duty accordingly, instead of being taken according to the invoice of 1848. I learn that the difference will be just this. Taking the value of iron according to the invoices of 1845, and assessing the ad valorem duty which the present tariff provides, the duty would amount to $15 per ton, while by the recent invoices it would amount to but $9 per ton. So that at all times it has been in the power of the Secretary of the Treasury to keep the duty on iron from falling below $15 per ton. I say nothing as to the manner in which he should have discharged his duties. The probability is, that he has found the revenue from the customhouse sufficient to answer his purposes, and has not therefore seen fit to enhance this duty.

I have just adverted to certain interests affected by the present tariff, and a few more words remain for me to say respecting the more general question. And I say, if these hinderances to individual pursuits, individual occupations, and individual labor had not arisen or were not imposed by this tariff, yet the tariff, such as it is, is and must be destructive to the great interests of the whole people, whether manufacturers or not. I say that, because I see that we cannot stand for any length of time this overwhelming importation of foreign commodities, without an utter derangement of the currency of the country. That I take to be the great and general question after all, which embraces all interests, affects all men, and extends everywhere throughout the whole United States. Now let us look at some calculations upon this subject. The duties on imports for the year now current, that is, beginning with the 1st of July last, and ending with the 1st of July next, have been estimated at the treasury as likely to amount to $ 32,000,000. This is not an improbable estimate, because, for the year ending on the 1st of July last, they amounted to thirty-one millions and some odd thousand dollars. Now if this be so, taking the rates of duties as they now stand, to yield a revenue of $32,000,000, the present tariff requires an import of $155,000,000. We must import, therefore, to the amount of $155,000,000, if we expect to get thirtytwo millions of revenue, according to the established rates. Now let me show you how this is; and I will give you a statement made up partly of these importations, and partly of the importations and exportations together.

"The import of specie during the year ending 30th June, 1847, was $24,121,289.

"Under the tariff of 1842 the imports (exclusive of specie and reëxportation) were for the year ending 30th June,

less than 20 per cent., a loss of five millions of revenue.

23,747,864

"It is thus quite obvious, that under the tariff of 1842 we should have derived more revenue from a less importation, and left the balance to remain with us in the form of specie.

"The revenue of the year ending 30th June, 1848, is reported to have been $31,700,000, which, at the same rate, requires an import of one hundred and fifty-three millions. The rate of import has apparently continued about the same.

"The export of specie commenced in October, 1847, and has continued without intermission for upwards of a year, and cannot amount to less than fifteen or sixteen millions.

"Our domestic exports, year ending Jan. 1846,

66

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1847, the year of famine,

$101,718,000 150,000,000

being an excess in bread-stuffs and other provisions of forty-one millions over 1846."

Such is the statement. The general opinion is, that the exportation of grain cannot continue at this rate. It has already fallen off. This importation must stop somewhere, for how are we to pay for it? We export cotton, and this year our crop is very great, but the price is very low. We have an export of provisions, but far less than a year or two ago, and this export must fall off. We send the stocks of the United States abroad to all who will buy, but that cannot last; and yet the specie is constantly going out of the country. Ten millions have been sent abroad, I understand, since January last. How are we to get over this? And of what is left under the effect of this importation, the sub-treasury locks up what would sustain a circulation of fifteen or twenty millions. I must suppose this state of the tariff and the sub-treasury always going on, and always found together, like Castor and Pollux, under a Democratic administration. And who is benefited by it? It is all from the unwillingness of party men to acknowledge themselves in error. I appeal to you. You are all acquainted with the state of commerce and business. Do you know twenty men, active in business, sensible men, who do not wish the sub-treasury anywhere but where it is? Do you know twenty mechanics and manufacturers, men of sense and industry, who do not wish the tariff of 1846 had never been born? What is it that keeps it in being but prejudice, party pride, and obstinacy? Gentlemen, I have no right to speak here to members of a party to which I do not belong, but yet I would venture to beseech them to consider