FEB. 15, 1832.] The Tariff. [SENATE. the 1st of March. We know that it was not received until Are the causes of the complaints which we hear feigned eight weeks after Congress adjourned, and the Senate will and unfounded, or are they real? and is the hand of opsee that it is important to ask the reason why the statement pression bearing heavily upon that portion of our counwas not given before the close of the session, in order to trymen who are now urging their claims for relief? They apply the proper remedy, if there was in fact any reason believe a system of taxation, unjust, unequal, and oppreswhy this could not be done. We are now far advanced in sive in its operations, is to be continued and fastened upon the present session; the subject of our commercial rela- them-not for the support of the Government, which is tions with the British colonies has come up before Con- the only legitimate object of taxation, but in order that a gress under peculiar circumstances: information has re- particular class of men may be benefited by their labor; peatedly been sought for from the Executive, and yet this that their prosperity is to be checked, and their labor document is withheld, which all must see to be important rendered unproductive to them, that capital vested in and necessary to enable Congress to act understandingly manufactories may be rendered more profitable to the upon this question. owners. Entertaining this opinion, they are surely right The document referred to should have been communi- in requiring Congress now to take this subject into concated to the Senate near the 1st of December; and more sideration, and to grant relief so far as they are entitled than two months have elapsed since the time which the to it. No time can be so proper as the present, when we Secretary is required by the act of Congress to present are about to establish a system of finance suitable to a nait, and yet nothing has been seen or heard of it. The re- tion free from debt and all incumbrance. It seems to me quest might be made, and the returns given, all within that it is likewise the interest of the manufacturers that the space of six days, and yet for seven weeks it has not this controversy should be brought to a close. There is been done, and the duty has been neglected. He wished one kind of protection which they certainly need; that is, also to know what had become of the answer to the re- some security against frequent legislative changes on this solutions that were long since submitted by himself and subject. Stability and permanency in the system is of his colleague relative to the trade between the United more importance than any protection you can extend to States and the British West India colonies, calling for im- them, when that protection is held by an uncertain and portant information, most of which could have been given precarious tenure. In order to give this security, the long before now. Some of it might not have been ob- taxes upon the community must be reasonable; if they be tained at that time; but can it have been necessary to not, nothing can be more certain than that a period will spend two months in collecting it? In order to know the arrive when a change will be effected, and under circumreason why this information had not yet been received, and stances and feelings least favorable to their interests. why documents so important to the Senate were withheld, the community, or any great portion of it, be oppressed, Mr. H. submitted the following resolutions: and no disposition be manifested by those who profit by that oppression to alleviate their sufferings, but little regard will be paid to their welfare. This is the natural course of things, and no class of men can claim an exemption from it. If Resolved, That the Secretary of the Treasury be directed to inform the Senate why the statements of the foreign commerce of the United States, required by the act of the 10th February, 1820, have not been transmitted to Congress; and, if there is any impediment to a compliance To the argument that Congress ought not to reduce with the provisions of that act, what legislative provision the taxes on protected articles, because existing laws is necessary to remove it. have induced men to employ their capital in these estaResolved, That the Secretary of the Treasury be di-blishments, the answer is a plain one. Every man who rected to inform the Senate why he has not reported in answer to their resolution of 22d December, 1831, calling for information in regard to the British colonial trade; and when the answer is to be expected. These resolutions lie on the table one day. THE TARIFF. The Senate resumed the resolution of Mr. CLAY relative to the tariff. has thus invested his money, must have looked to the probability of a reduction of taxes and imposts whenever the public debt should be discharged, and the Government should no longer need the money accruing from high duties. In addition to this, those upon whom this taxation has operated with most severity, have, at all times, insisted upon its injustice, and avowed their determination never to relax their efforts until they obtained redress. This argument, therefore, loses much of the force to Mr. GRUNDY rose, and said he was aware that he which it would be entitled under different circumstances. could contribute but little of talent or information upon I cannot, myself, consider the manufacturers as authorizthe subject now under discussion; and that most of what ed to claim a continuance of the present duties, on the he should say would be a dull, cold repetition of that which ground of any pledge, expressed or implied, given by the has been said by others. Notwithstanding this, said Mr. Government. Still these establishments exist, and should G., I have no apology to offer for consuming the time of be regarded as a portion of the public interest; and, of the Senate. Sir, we ought to consume time; we ought to course, the same attention should be paid to them as to consult long together, nor should we ever separate until the other great interests of the country, in any adjustment this whole matter is adjusted. Our constituents expect which may be made upon the subject. it; the Executive has recommended it; duty demands it; Being desirous to present an entire and unbroken view and the fault is ours if it be not accomplished. When it is of the opinions I entertain in relation to the tariff, the Serecollected that the people of the United States have nate will indulge me, before I do so, in disposing of, and borne adversity of every kind, both in peace and in war, putting out of the way, some remarks not bearing directly with courage, fortitude, and perseverance, shall we so act upon this subject, which I regretted to hear advanced in as to exhibit to the world the strange but melancholy this discussion. regretted their introduction, not bespectacle of discords and strifes, arising out of the very cause they were not susceptible of a satisfactory reply, success of our Government and the prosperity of our coun- but because the subject before us was of magnitude suffitry, which shall endanger our existence as a nation? We cient to require our individual attention, and because I are at peace with all nations, and, from present appear- was unwilling that party politics should provoke one ances, are likely to remain so; the public debt is extin- unkind feeling in this debate. Others, however, have guished for all practical legislative purposes; and at this thought and acted differently, and have thereby made it time, when gladness should pervade the land, and every the duty of the friends of the administration to meet their American heart rejoice, there is more discontent than at assailants upon the ground they have selected. At the the most gloomy and distressing periods of our history. same time I wish it to be understood that neither retort SENATE.] The Tariff. [FEB. 15, 1832. nor recrimination form any portion of my design. I will is in favor of a reasonable and judicious tariff, and that the only endeavor to do justice to those who have no oppor- Senator from Kentucky is in favor of an unreasonable and tunity of being heard or defending themselves upon this injudicious one. For my own part, I think them both floor. wrong in principle. Revenue, in my judgment, should in I understand the Senator from Kentucky [Mr. CLAY] all cases be the primary object in the imposition of duties, as saying that, owing to some cause, (and he left it to and protection should only be incidental and subordinate. be inferred,) most probably from the equivocal course The description given by the Senator from Kentucky pursued by the present Chief Magistrate, his opinion, of the proceedings on the 4th March, 1829, and the chaon the south side of Mason and Dixon's line, was under-racter given to that vast assemblage of citizens collected stood to be in opposition to the tariff, or at least to the in this place, was altogether different from what I had principle of protection; while, on the north side of that supposed. I was not here, and, therefore, can only speak line, a different opinion is ascribed to him. A charge of from what I have heard and read. Taking that for my this kind I never expected to hear. I did suppose the whole guide, I thought that the thousands and tens of thousands American people had understood him in the same way. had assembled here for gratulation and congratulation, Upon this, as upon all other subjects, when occasions have and to see that man clothed with the robes of office "who presented themselves, he has fearlessly and independently had filled the measure of his country's glory." That genadvanced his opinions, regardless of the consequences to tleman [Mr. C.] I know did not participate in the general himself. He is not one of those who change their opi- joy; but he was neither intimidated nor dispirited; for, nions from day to day, as some politicians do, who snuff the although he left the city, so soon as he reached the popular breeze, and obey its inspiration. On great poli- heights of Georgetown he raised the standard of oppositical questions he forms his opinions upon reflection, and tion, and with a loud voice called upon his scattered lehe abides by them until his judgment instructs him that gions to unite and stand ready for the ensuing conflict; he ought to change them. Upon the subject now under and, amidst the roaring of artillery, he carried defiance discussion, his opinions were made public so early as the even to the cannon's mouth, although then under the conmonth of April, 1824; and I defy any man, in or out of trol of the "military chieftain." the Senate, to show that he has ever written or uttered I was pleased with the highly painted picture of the one word inconsistent with the sentiments then expressed. prosperity of the West, exhibited by the Senator from I differ from him in opinion upon this subject; but that Kentucky. I knew it was a mere fancy-piece, far exdifference is no reason why I should not place his opi- ceeding the reality. I should, however, have been more nions fairly before the Senate and the nation. His letter gratified, if, in putting down the flourishing cities, towns, to Dr. Coleman, of North Carolina, of the 26th April, and villages of the West, he had inserted the city of Nash1824, contains a true exposition of his sentiments in rela- ville. It would have been no disadvantage to the picture; tion to this subject. Since that letter was written and for we there have some wealth and prosperity, likewisepublished throughout the United States, two presidential mostly growing, however, out of agriculture and comelections have taken place; and the result of them we all merce, and ordinary mechanical labor. We are not much know. I will now read to the Senate an abstract from indebted to manufacturing establishments. When that that letter, containing all that relates to this matter. Senator is informed, as I now inform him, that he has in Mr. G. then read the following: that place a number of respectable friends, I hope, in the "Providence has filled our mountains and our plains next picture of the kind with which we are favored, Nashwith minerals-with lead, iron, and copper, and given us ville will have a place; and if the neighboring Hermitage soil and climate for the growing of hemp and wool. These should be offensive to the eye of the painter or his friends, being the grand materials of our national defence, they it can be omitted. Notwithstanding the omission of this ought to have extended to them adequate and fair pro- flourishing city, and although I think the whole descriptection-that our own manufactories and laborers may be tion too poetical and overwrought, still I am gratified with placed on a fair competition with those of Europe, and the reflection that we now have an assurance that neither that we may have within our country a supply of those "war, pestilence, famine, nor any other direful scourge" leading and important articles so essential in war. Be- has visited the country since the 4th March, 1829. yond this, I look at the tariff with an eye to the proper I little expected, in a debate upon the subject of the tadistribution of labor, and to revenue, and with a view to riff, to hear the old and well known cry of proscription the discharge of our national debt. I am one of those who sounded in our ears. But, "from the abundance of the do not consider a national debt a national blessing, but heart the mouth will speak;" and this subject is now rerather a curse to a republic, inasmuch as it is calculated vived by the Senator from Kentucky. I had supposed to raise around the administration a moneyed aristocracy that the resolution introduced by the Senator from Ohio, dangerous to the liberties of the country. This tariff, I [Mr. EwING,] was intended to hang anti-proscription mean a judicious one, possesses more fanciful than real speeches upon; I will, therefore, not go into that subject. danger." An ample opportunity will be afforded to do so when that I now submit to the Senate, whether what I have read resolution shall be taken up, unless, indeed, the Senator does not contain a clear, explicit, and unequivocal ex- from Ohio, upon reflection, shall change his opinion, and pression of the opinions of the writer upon the subject permit his resolution to sleep the sleep of death. Alnow under consideration; and whether we cannot as dis- though I am no advocate, nor ever have been, for turning tinctly understand the kind of tariff which he advocates, men out of office for a full and frank expression and exfrom the few lines I have read, as we can the opinions of ercise of political opinions, yet there is one thing worthy the Senator from Kentucky, from his three days' speech of great consideration. The people of the United States on the same subject. The President declares himself in believed a change in those who administered the Governfavor of the principle of protection; and that protection in ment proper and necessary. Whether they decided right the articles mentioned, and some others, may properly or wrong, I shall not now inquire; but I submit to the form the primary considerations of a tariff. In this, the Senate whether the just expectations of the country can opinions of the President, and the Senator from Kentuc- ever be realized when the public believe the hand of reky, [Mr. CLAY,] agree; nor can I discover any difference form should be applied, by a change of the Chief Magis between them, except it be in the use of the term "ju-trate only. It is true that, in such a case, the first office dicious," with which the Senator from Kentucky seems of the Government is placed in different hands; but if all to find fault. the subordinate officers remain, no material alteration in If in this they differ, I should infer that the President the administration of the Government will be effected, FEB. 15, 1832.] The Tariff [SENATE. found faithful. Such is the man, trusted by all, and always found faithful, resorted to in difficult cases by the Senator himself, devoted to his country, and knowing no other, who, we are now told, is a "heartless foreigner, without American feelings." and the Chief Magistrate will find his intentions and views than any other American statesman, and has always been constantly thwarted by those who are opposed to his opinions. I will state one fact, of which the country is not apprised, and the evidence of which I have before me, furnished from an authentic source. Here is a list of all the clerks in the different offices in this city, distinguishing those who belong to the different political parties; and it appears that a large majority, a very large one, are on the side of the Senator from Kentucky, and opposed to the present administration; and although I will not publish their names and proclaim their political opinions to the Senate, yet, if that gentleman has any desire to know who his friends are, I will furnish him with the information, although I presume he knows his friends better than I do. I will now say a few words upon the subject of the balance of trade, which is urged as an argument against enlarging the commerce of the United States. The argument is, that if a nation exports less than it imports, the difference is a loss, and the balance of trade is against such nation. Upon these premises, it is argued that, as the importations into the United States, taking several years in succession, exceed the amount of the exportations, our foreign commerce is disadvantageous and unproMr. Gallatin, yes, Albert Gallatin, has been charged by fitable. The great error, in my opinion, in this mode of the Senator from Kentucky with possessing feelings alien reasoning, is, that the gain or commercial profit is charged to this country, and has been told to go home to his native as a loss. There is nothing more true in the commercial land, and teach there lessons of political economy, before world, than that the exports and imports of a nation are he undertakes to teach us upon these subjects. Let us regulated by each other, and that commerce cannot exist see who this Mr. Gallatin is, that has thus fallen under the and be carried on by two countries when this is not the displeasure of that honorable Senator. He is an older case. In regular commerce, each country may be procitizen of America than either that Senator or myself, fited and grow rich by an interchange of commodities, although we were both born here. He was here during and the balance of trade, according to this reasoning, be the war of the revolution; he was here at the adoption of against both. I will illustrate this in a way familiar to the the federal constitution; and in the great political conflict Senator from Kentucky and myself. Suppose a citizen which terminated in the expulsion of the elder Adams of Kentucky shall take his drove of horses, costing, at from office, he literally headed the van of the republican home, two thousand dollars, to the State of Alabama, and forces. When Mr. Jefferson came into power, and cast there exchange them for cotton worth three thousand his eyes over the whole United States, for the purpose of dollars, after paying all expenses, and shall return to calling to his aid, in the administration of the Government, Kentucky, bringing with him his three thousand dollars the ablest, wisest, and most patriotic men, he selected Mr. worth of cotton. In this case, Kentucky has exported Gallatin as one of his chief counsellors. During the eight two thousand dollars worth of her property, and three years of his administration, Mr. Gallatin superintended thousand dollars worth of property has been imported and conducted the financial department of the Govern- into Kentucky. Now, according to this balance of trade ment. When Mr. Madison came into office, Mr. Gallatin doctrine, Kentucky has lost one thousand dollars, when, was continued in the same station until it became necessary in fact, she has gained precisely that amount. Nor has to send ministers abroad to negotiate a treaty with Great Alabama lost any thing; for the horses may be worth in Britain, and then Mr. Gallatin was associated with that Alabama one-half more than they are in Kentucky. They honorable Senator and other distinguished citizens to may even be so valuable as to command four thousand whom that high duty was assigned. Under Mr. Monroe's dollars to the purchaser in Alabama, so that four thousand administration, he was our minister at different periods, at dollars worth of property has been obtained for three. both the courts of Great Britain and France. Under the Thus each State has gained a thousand dollars worth of last administration, of which the Senator from Kentucky property by the exchange, and yet the balance of trade [Mr. CLAY] was a distinguished member, when a delicate is against both. The same principle applies between the and difficult negotiation respecting the colonial trade was United States and foreign nations. If we export to the to be opened with Great Britain, Mr. Gallatin was selected amount of seventy millions, and import to the amount of as the most suitable character to whom could be entrusted ninety millions, there is a gain of twenty millions, with that responsible duty; and he carried with him abroad the deduction of the whole cost of carriage, or producing instructions prepared and signed by that gentleman him- the interchange of the articles of commerce. A ship self. Further, when an exposition and argument was may leave Boston, with trinkets worth two thousand thought necessary to be laid before the arbiter, the King dollars, may barter them with the Indians on the Northof the Netherlands, by the last administration, vindicating west coast for furs, may exchange those in China for silks our claim to the territory in dispute between the State of and teas, and return with a cargo worth fifty thousand Maine and Great Britain, Mr. Gallatin was selected to prepare it. This was not finished at the late change of the administration; and, by our present Chief Magistrate, Mr. Gallatin was requested to complete it. You, Mr. President, remember that, in 1811 and '12, this same Mr. Gallatin was looked to, by the politicians of that day, as a political Mentor; and that, next to Mr. Madison, no man in the councils of the country contributed more to the success of the United States in the great struggle in which they were then engaged. Sir, of what offence has Mr. Gallatin been guilty? He has ventured to differ in opinion with the honorable Senator from Kentucky upon the subject of a tariff of duties, and this is the sin for which he can find no forgiveness. Others may condemn him; I will, however, take the liberty of considering him one of the wisest, best, and most patriotic men that was ever engaged in the public affairs of this country. He has been trusted oftener and longer, and by more administrations, in high and important stations, dollars. By this process, the owners and the country are enriched; and yet the balance of trade, of which gentlemen talk, is largely against the United States. Indeed, according to this theory, the more profitable the voyage, the more is the balance of trade against us; and if we could obtain foreign commodities for nothing, it would be altogether against us. Yet, would not our country be enriched by presents of rich cargoes from abroad? Would any citizen of the United States think himself or his country made poor, if a friend in England should send him a ship load of the most valuable British fabrics as a present? Would he send them back because they caused this balance of trade to be against the country or himself? Reverse the picture. Send fifty thousand dollars worth of your wealth abroad, and exchange it for two thousand dollars worth to be brought back. Here the balance of trade is largely in favor of our country; but is any body enriched by it? On the contrary, are not all concerned in such commerce made poor? If we were to give away our produce and merchandise, "the balance of trade, on this theory, would be altogether in our favor. [FEB. 15, 1832. parts of the cotton-growing country? The planter does not himself export his own cotton, but sells it to his merThe best trade is, when, for every little you send out, chant in discharge of his store account. Now the mermuch comes back. Then are our citizens and our coun-chant pays him for the whole of his cotton; but, in the artry flourishing and getting rich. The farmer will tell you ticles purchased, there is one-third charged on account of that it is better to get ten pounds of sugar for a bushel of this tax. This is plain and manifest to every one who recorn than five pounds. He always likes the balance of trade flects upon this subject. The importing merchant, when against him in that way, and it is just so with the nation. he arrives with his merchandise at the city of New York, When gentlemen say that commerce is not encouraging Philadelphia, Boston, or Baltimore, is charged by the GoAmerican industry, I answer that the articles exported vernment with forty or fifty per cent. as an import duty are the products of American labor; that the ship is of upon the articles imported by him. He, of necessity, adds American manufacture, and made of American timber; that to the price, and then sells to the Western merchant, that the sailors who navigate the vessels are Americans, with a profit added to both. To the Western merchant and their labor is American labor. The whole is an Ame- the original cost, the import duty or tax, and the wholerican transaction, and encouragement to American industry.sale dealer's profit, constitute the cost of the article; and Foreigners have nothing to do with it, except that they upon all these, added together, he lays his profits. furnish our citizens with favorable contracts, by an interchange of articles, the products or manufactures of their respective countries, by which the wealth and prosperity of the United States are promoted and enlarged. The statement I am now about to make will show something of the operation of the tariff upon the Western farmers and mechanics. Cost of merchandise in Europe, Value at the warehouse, Add an ad valorem duty of forty per cent., Actual cost to the importing merchant, Actual cost to the Western merchant, $100 00 10.00 110 00 44.00 154 00 15 40 169 40 42 35 Mr. President, why is this protection through the medium of high duties claimed by the American manufac turers? It must be owing to one of two causes. Either the articles can be manufactured much cheaper in other countries, or the American manufacturers desire unreasonable profits. That many articles can be made cheaper abroad than in this country, there is no doubt. Labor is cheaper. In Russia and Sweden, the wages of an able-bodied laborer are only six or seven cents a day; in Great Britain, the price is very little higher. In the latter country, with a population of one hundred and sixty-five to the mile square, more people are found ready to starve, and of course are willing to work for a bare subsistence, than in the United States, which does not contain seven for each Actual cost to the farmer and mechanic, mile square. This inequality in the price of the produc- The increase of the price to the farmer and mechanic tion of articles, arising from the difference in the price of in the Western country, in consequence of the tax, may labor, can only be obviated in one of two ways. must either reduce the price of labor, by degrading the The import tax itself is people of this country, so far as to compel them to labor Importing merchant's profit on it, for a bare subsistence, or you must tax the community to make up the difference in favor of the American manufactures. The first mode, I hope, has no advocates here or elsewhere. The second mode is unjust and oppressive, as I will now endeavor to show. You be shown thus: Increase to the Western merchant, $211 75 $44.00 4.40 48 40 12 10 $60 50 Making the increased price to the Western It is unjust. The Senate will indulge me in illustrating farmer and mechanic, this in a plain way, which is my habit of conducting argu- Upon every hundred dollars worth of goods bought in ments on all subjects. Suppose ten men engaged in agri-Europe and carried to the West, our people pay a tax, in culture, and you, by your enactments of your laws, cause consequence of the tariff, of more than sixty dollars. This five of them to abandon that, and adopt some other pur- tariff tax is higher on the Western people than on any other, suit--manufactures, if you please; and you, at the same because on account of their distance from the seaboard, time, require that one-third of the products of the five re-and the greater number of dealers through whose hands maining agriculturists shall be given to them; all men the goods pass: each adding his profits, and the time ocwould at once exclaim, this is plain, open, palpable injus- cupied in the transactions, making the profits higher, they tice. Now, sir, where is the difference between this and are made to pay a sort of compound tariff. In this statecompelling the agriculturists to give one-third more for ment, a duty of forty per cent. ad valorem has been assumall the articles for which they exchange the products of ed as the average amount of duties, although it is believed their farms; or, when you compel them to give one-third that a higher rate of duty is actually paid on most articles more in the money for which they have sold their crops, consumed in the Western country. Upon presenting this and this for the benefit of those who have abandoned their view of the subject, no one can fail to perceive that the former pursuits? For instance, a planter, in the neigh- duty does enter into the price of the article to the conborhood of Nashville, where I live, sends his three bales sumer, which refutes at once the fallacious idea that high of cotton to New Orleans to purchase or exchange for im- duties have a tendency to reduce the price of imported ported articles for the consumption of his family. Now, articles. To say to a plain minded man that the owner the Government takes no part of his cotton from him, his of an article worth ten dollars could afford to sell it cheapagent exchanges the whole of them for the articles order-er by compelling him to pay five dollars as a tax before ed; but, in fixing upon the price of the articles received in he sold it, would be to him a very unreasonable suggesexchange, one-third is added on account of the duties im- tion. He could not believe it; and yet it would be just posed. It seems to my mind very evident that one-third as rational as the arguments we hear upon this subject. of the man's cotton is gone as certainly and effectually as I admit that a strong and ardent competition between if the Government had taken it in the first instance, and domestic and foreign manufactures will reduce articles to then permitted him to purchase the articles one-third the lowest price at which they can be produced and brought cheaper. into the market; and, therefore, I am not in favor of taxing What is the common practice which prevails in most out the foreign manufactures, which must be the effect of FEB. 15, 1832.] The Tariff. [SENATE. high duties, and of placing ourselves wholly in the power upon this floor. She stands not alone; North Carolina of the domestic manufactures. Rather than see this state and Virginia have firmly and eloquently declared the of things, I would say to all the nations of the earth, come same opinions; and Georgia has given certain and unerring and trade with us; bring us the production of all soils and indications that she will denounce the inequality and inclimates, bring us the articles produced by your industry, justice of this system. When I see such a union of feeling ingenuity, and skill, and receive in exchange the super- and sentiment prevailing among those who have the best abundance of the products of our country. Then, sir, means of judging of the effects produced upon their conyou would see competition; then you would see prosper- stituents, I must be excused for paying but little regard ity return to every portion of the United States, and more especially to that which, under the withering influence of this high tariff system, has almost become desolate. to the theories and opinions of gentlemen who live remote, and do not possess the means of forming a correct judgment. These gentlemen could as well succeed in convincing him who is badly clad, and is shivering in the winter's blast, that he was well clothed, and warm, and comfortable, or him, who is perishing for want of food, that he suffers not from hunger, as to satisfy the people of the South that this system is not the cause of their depression and grievances. It is urged that the prices of articles have fallen since the adoption of the tariff of 1828; and this is ascribed to the introduction of the system. If the gentlemen could show that the price of protected articles only had fallen, or that the fall had been confined to this country only, there would then be some plausibility in what they say. But the unprotected articles have fallen in a still greater de- In regard to the Western country, and every portion of gree; and the fall is co-extensive with the commercial it, I have always considered this system injurious. It is world. We must then look to other causes for the declen- true the fertility of our soil redeems us from that state sion of prices, than our home competition. These can be of suffering which is felt in some other parts of the country; found, in the first place, in the depreciation of our money. but it checks and retards the prosperity and growth of the Money in the United States is now of one-third more West. There is the largest body of rich land, of which value than it was a few years since. The amount of the we have any knowledge, inviting to agricultural pursuits; circulating medium has been greatly reduced, in the re- and you do violence to nature, whenever you so regulate establishment of a sound currency; the price of lands and society by your laws, as to prevent its improvement and all other property has fallen about one-third; and the same cultivation. Bread stuff's, horses, mules, cattle, and hogs, causes which have reduced their value, or price, must have been and can be produced and reared in the greathave a similar influence upon articles of merchandise. est abundance. Now, the true interest of the Western farThe improvement of machinery, also, has contributed mer lies in obtaining a good market for these articles in greatly to diminish the price of production in manufactur-the cotton-growing States; but the policy which has been ed articles. Another cause which has had great influence pursued, has impoverished these States; they are rendered upon this subject, is, that almost all Europe is now in a unable to buy, and are compelled to raise the means of state of peace, and, consequently, laborers have become their own subsistence at home, although their soil and plenty, and labor cheap. climate are ill adapted to the production and raising of The prosperity of a nation depends upon the wealth and them. The effect of this system has been to destroy the prosperity of its citizens; and that policy, which is calculat-beef market of the Western country. tax. ed to impoverish the great mass of the community, must I should like to know what benefit has arisen to any operate to the prejudice of the national welfare. If an great class of the community in that section of the Union. individual is compelled to give a hundred and fifty dol-It is true the manufacturers of rope and cotton bagging lars for articles which, without the tariff, he could have have found a readier market by the high duty on these purchased for one hundred dollars, he is certainly worth articles; but the cotton growers, corn growers, and raisers less by fifty dollars than he would have been without this of stock, have lost by taxation more than the manufacThis operation is going on continually throughout turers have gained; and this is the general effect of this the country; and, therefore, I believe Southern Senators system. One man is compelled to give more for an article when they say that, with the same industry, and quan- than he would otherwise do, that the favorite of legislatity of labor applied as formerly, that whole region of tion may thereby obtain profits. In order to show more country is becoming poorer and poorer every day. Why clearly the inequality and injustice of the system, let it be should I not believe them? Can I give credit to the opi- remembered that about two-thirds of all the exports of nions of those who are strangers to the condition of the the United States consists of articles grown or raised in the people in that section of the United States, when they tell Southern States. How, then, does it happen that New us that the South is in a prosperous and flourishing con- England, the exports from which are small, should, since dition, rather than to those Senators who come from those the introduction of this system, have grown in wealth and States, and have their interests especially committed to their prosperity beyond all former example, while that portion charge? The Senator from Maine, [Mr. HOLMES,] who of the country most favored in soil and climate, producing resides so far to the Northeast that his State runs into a more abundant crops than in former years, has experiBritish province, or a British province into it, which, I am enced less prosperity than at any former period, and has not able to say, for I have not yet sufficiently examined sunk almost into poverty and despair? The cause, to my the subject; a Senator from Rhode Island, [Mr. KNIGHT,] mind, is quite manifest. By the operation of this tariff, skilled in arithmetic, who can count the profits upon his the products of the labor of one portion of the Union is fingers' ends, that his constituents are making by this sys- transferred to another. That operation is effected in this tem; and a Senator from the West, far beyond the moun- way; the grower of articles for exportation is not permittains, come forward and attempt to prove that those who ted to interchange them, how and where he can, so as to represent them do not understand their true interests! be most advantageous to himself; but, by the high duties, Mr. President, has the land of Washington, Henry, and Jefferson; has the land of Iredell and Davie; has the land of the Pinckneys and the Rutledges; has the land of the Baldwins and the Waltons, all-all lost the breed of noblemen? Are their political descendants the degenerate sons of worthy sires' We know, sir, that this is not so; that, for intelligence and patriotism, they are not excelled by the men of any other clime or country. Already, we have heard the sentiments of South Carolina ably proclaimed VOL. VIII.-26 he is compelled either to purchase his foreign articles at the increased price occasioned by those duties, or he must purchase the articles from New England at such price as the manufacturers may choose to affix to them; equal, at least, to the price of the foreign articles, with the duties added to it. This, sir, is the great object of the system. It is to prevent the citizens of the United States from carrying on commerce and exchanges in that way which may be most profitable to them, and constrain them to |