them. It would be an abandonment of the very purpose for which it was instituted--the promotion of the "general welfare."

Doubtless this tendency ought to be clear and unequivocal. Important changes ought ever to be introduced with great caution and circumspection. But this is a very different thing from maintaining, that they cannot be introduced at all, be they ever so conducive to the public good, and ever so clearly demanded by the exigencies of the times. It were a defect in our polity, surely, and one equally singular and deplorable, that there should be no power vested in the agents of the public will, to institute measures essential to the promotion or security of the best interests of the community; no power to pass laws adapted to the emergencies of affairs, and to the varying aspects and relations of the world.

This would be to purchase exemption from the danger of encroachment, even could this exemption be thus obtained-at far too dear a price. If your construction of the Constitution on this point were correct, an amendment would be imperiously demanded; for it would in that case, be wholly inadequate to its purposes.

The States, individually, could do nothing effectual in this business, even if they had retained the power. Their regulations would want harmony and uniformity. Guided by no common will, they would perpetually traverse and defeat each other; and the result would be confusion, disorder and ruin. But they have not retained the power. It rests with the General Legislature, or it rests no where. And, if it rests with them, it can only be exercised by means of commercial regulations. No other method can be effectual.

NO. XXVII.

National wealth is the result of national industry. In whatever country there is a ready and profitable employment for labour and skill, there will not fail to be found a rapid increase of capital, and a corresponding diffusion of intelligence, enterprise, comfort and elegance. But this demand for labour and skill, cannot exist permanently in any country destitute of Arts and Manufactures. Without these, whatever may be the fertility of the soil, the inhabitants will be poor in the midst of their abundance.

It may, indeed, be said, that these are rather the results and evidences of industry and enterprise, than the causes which excite them. They are doubtless both. But it is sufficient if they are admitted to exist only in union; and this admission cannot be withheld. That nation has never existed, which had grown to power and opulence by means of agriculture alone. The case of the Southern States of this Union, cannot yet be adduced as an exception, though it is, perhaps, the most remarkable in the history of the world. But there have been peculiar features in our case, that can hardly be expected to occur again; and which are, if I mistake not, even now fading away from beneath the eye of the observer. A remarkable combination of circumstances contributed to give us a monopoly of one or two articles of produce, to which circumstances equally remarkable, conspired to give an extraordinary and factitious value.

I say factitious, for certainly no reasonable man now supposes, that the great staple of cotton, for example, will hereafter command the prices at which it was sold for a series of years. If there are still those who are shaping their measures by such an expectation, the lessons of severe experience will ere long undeceive them, The very extent to which the culture of this article has been pushed, would of itself be sufficient to effect a serious reduction in the price. And there are causes at work in other countries, and circumstances in their condition, from which we are to look for a still further reduction. So far as the foreign market is concerned, it is no dictate of a gloomy foreboding, to say that the harvest of the cotton planter is already reaped. Has it been such as to satisfy him? Have. its effects been such as to form a fair exception to my general remarks? Have the Southern States, with all their advantages of soil and climate, kept pace in the progress of wealth and improvement, with regions to which nature has been far less lavish of her bounties? Is it probable, that in the pursuit of the same system for the time to come, that has heretofore been followed, any considerable addition can ever be made to the population or wealth of the low country especially, between the Potomac and the St. Mary? Is it not probable that these have already reached their maximum?—A rate, taking the whole extent of this tract, hardly exceeding that of Norway. The individual proprietors of the soil, so long as their estates may almost vie in extent with some of the German principalities, may be rich; though this is far from being always true; but the aggregate wealth of the community is comparatively small, and, without a change of system, is not likely to increase. I will not pursue this train of thought further, though I think it worthy of the serious attention of those whom it immediately concerns.

If there be any soundness in these views, we cannot fail to perceive, that it is the true policy of every government to foster and protect the manufactures of its own citizens, and to render, as far as possible, the native industry and skill of the community, available to the supply of its own wants. This is the maxim on which the commercial codes of the wisest and most prosperous nations of the world are formed, without an exception. This has been the fundamental principle of British policy for centuries. Need we look further for proofs of its soundness and wisdom? And is it reasonable to believe, that a system which has operated so favourably there, will be found ruinous in its application to us? Why should it? What single advantage does Great Britain possess for the successful prosecution of manufactures, which is not possessed in an equal degree, at least, in this country? In the abundant supply of raw materials and in the facilities of water power-both cheaper and better than that of steam-we have the decided advantage. In mechanical skill and ingenuity, we are not surpassed by any people on earth. What then is to prevent our entering, at no distant period, into a successful competition with her in the general market? Nothing, unless it be a want of forecast and firmness in our Government, to adopt and pursue such a system of measures as shall secure our manufactures, during their incipient state, from being crushed in a competition with those of foreign countries, which, in that state, they would be unable to sustain. This is all that intelligent and prudent manufacturers demand. This is all they have a right to expect, and this, if

the Government be possessed of ordinary good sense, will not be withheld-not on account of the immediate interests of this class alone, but with a view to the ultimate interests of the whole community. These can, in no other way, be so effectually promoted. The history of every commercial nation in Europe, might be applied to, in support of this position.

What would have been the present condition of Great Britain, for instance, had her government been fettered by such restrictions as you would impose on ours? She would have continued, to this day, to sell the fleeces of her sheep to foreigners, as we at present do our cotton, and to purchase them back again enhanced in value by the skill and industry of foreigners, in a ten-fold proportion. In the days of Elizabeth, England was farther behind Italy in wealth and improvements, than Russia is, now, inferior to her. Her manufactures, which now supply the world, and her fleets which whiten every sea, have grown up under the general influence of the restrictive system. This system, impolitic as it is now represented, has been, and is, and will be, the very life-blood of her prosperity. There has been no departure from its spirit in the late modifications of her Tariff. The reduction of duty on many articles has been merely nominal. The present rates, in their protective operation, are as effective as the former. The imposts on some articles of extensive and constant use in her own manufactures, have been judiciously lowered; as also on some others which could not be considered as coming in competition with any of her native products. But a solitary instance cannot be adduced, in regard to which the market has been thrown open to free competition between her own citizens and foreigners.

On Woollens, for instance, there is, at present, a duty of sixty per cent Previously to 1819, the duty was still higher. Yet the present rate is an effectual prohibition; as much so, as if it were twice as high. The same is true of other articles. There has been a nominal reduction; but the reduced imposts are nearly, or altogether, prohibitory. Printed cottons from beyond the Cape of Good Hope are expressly prohibited. Other printed cottons are charged with a duty of seventy-five per cent.; and plain white cottons with one of sixtyseven. These are only specimens of the liberal commercial policy of Great Britain, of which we have heard so much from a certain quarter; and which is so often held up as a model of wisdom for our imitation, on the ground of its liberality. Of its wisdom I entertain no doubt, but wherein its peculiar claims to liberality consist, I am unable to divine.

It may be said, almost without exaggeration, that cotton is the single production of our country, that is admitted to her markets.

The duty on Tobacco, for instance, is four shillings per pound; that on Fir and Oak Timber, imported from foreign parts fifty-five shillings per load, while on the same articles brought from British possessions, it is only ten shillings. The very difference of duties is a prohibition. On other species of timber the difference is still greater.

Clap-boards are subject to a duty of nine hundred per cent.; spokes, for wheels, to one of 1200-and handspikes to one of 1500 per cent. more when carried from this country, than when carried from the British possessions.

Our Bread Stuffs, at one period the great staple of the country, and of which there was exported so recently as 1817, to the amount of more than 17,000,000 of dollars, are, in effect, excluded from her market. If the two last named articles, only, were subject to no higher imposts in the British ports than that on Cotton, we could, and should supply a great part of her consumption; and it would soon cease to be true, that four-fifths of our domestic exports were furnished by the States South of the Potomac." It may well be so now, when the productions of the other States are effectively prohibited from being

sent abroad.

The state of our commercial relations, with Great Britain particularly, prior to 1824, was a ruinous state. Almost every article of her manufacture was admitted, on the payment of a very moderate duty—a duty so moderate, as to cut off the hope of successful competition from our own manufactures; while Cotton was almost the only product of our country not excluded from her ports. Was the continuance of this state of things to be endured? Yet it was endured till it had spread embarrassment and distress over the whole country, with the exception of the Cotton growing region.

Yet in this state of things, with all the advantages on one side, and all the disadvantages on the other, we are cautioned, with oracular solemnity, not to increase the imposts on a particular product of her looms, lest she should be induced to lay a discriminating duty on Cotton imported in American bottoms, under the justifiable plea of retaliation. The 'justifiable plea,' indeed! Are we, forsooth, the aggressors in this commercial strife; this warfare of restriction?-We, who have only now, at length, been roused by the pressure of distress, and the prospect of impending ruin, to commence the system of retaliatory measures; or, rather-without reference to retaliation at all-of measures, which are intended, by increasing the home demand, and withdrawing to other profitable pursuits a portion of the labour heretofore employed in tilling the soil, to render it worth while for the farmer to reap the crop he had sown, and not leave it to perish in the field.

It is passing strange, that any man, with a knowledge of these facts and relations, should undertake to represent Great Britain as the patroness of free trade; and as 'cutting the cords that tie commerce to the earth.' A more unfortunate example for your argument could not have been selected. Yet she, certainly, of all countries in the world, might, so far as manufactures are concerned, most safely dispense with protecting duties. If she, with all her immense advantages, cannot venture on the experiment, it is hardly reasonable to suppose, that it should succeed with us. We have the authority of experience for saying that it could not succeed. The establishments of this sort already made, owe their existence to protecting duties; and by these they must, as yet, be sustained. Any other method of encouragement would be found both burdensome and inadequate. I repeat, if there is any one maxim which has been received as sound, and acted upon, hitherto, in every nation, it is that of securing, as far as possible, to their own skill and industry, the supply of the home market, in all those articles, for the production of which their situation did not disqualify them.

If this maxim be a sound one in application to other countries, it cannot be otherwise in regard to us. But whether it is correct or not,

in the abstract, still, if it is generally adopted, this fact of itself renders it unsafe for us to neglect it. It may, perhaps, be a correct principle of abstract reasoning, that all things should be left to find their own level; all interests, to take care of themselves. But, in order to a salutary application of this principle, a consentaneous movement and uniform progress of the whole commercial world were requisite. In the actual condition of things, all interests cannot take care of themselves. While all nations, with whom we have intercourse, are straining every nerve to promote their own industry, and devising every expedient to give its products an advantage in the market, we must adopt corresponding measures, or consent to see ourselves distanced and thrown out in the race. Nations farther advanced in arts and wealth, have a great advantage over us, which, for this very reason, they will be sure to retain. The competition is unequal; and unless balanced by artificial regulations, must forever remain so.

I will not, at present, pursue this discussion further. It is foreign from my purpose to inquire, whether the proposed increase of duty on woollens, which has produced so much excitement, is or is not judicious. It is enough to have shown that the protection of agriculture and manufactures, by means of commercial regulations, is both constitutional, and, generally speaking, sound policy.

NO. XXVIII.

I have, as I think, satistactorily shown, that when forming commereial regulations for the purpose of giving encouragement to domestic industry, the Government is within the sphere of its constitutional powIt is easy to show that, hitherto, there has been no undue or injudicious exercise of this power.

ers.

The protection afforded to manufactures has not been greater than their importance demands. They have not been cherished at the expense of other branches of industry. The encouragement given has not been more than adequate to the object to be attained, which was their firm and secure establishment.

In the Tariff adopted by the first Congress, the duties imposed were low. The Government was then in the first steps only of a doubtful experiment. It would have been unwise to increase the hazards to which it was of necessity exposed. Its measures were cautious. Its maxim was rather to stop within the line of true policy, than to incur the danger of over-stepping it.

The country too was poor-Capital for extensive undertakings was yet to be created. Population, even in the most cultivated parts, was sparse; and the most obvious and profitable employment of labour, was to be found in agriculture and commerce. To have laid heavy imposts, at that time, with a view to building up extensive manufacturing establishments, would doubtless have been injudicious. The country was not ripe for such a course. The small and partial protection extended to these interests, was probably sufficient to the wants of the community at that time. More effectual measures would, however, have been imperiously demanded much earlier than they were actually adopted, but