MAY 8, 1830.] The Tariff. [H. of R. This argument struck me as possessing the merit of novelty in an unequal and unfair contest? Sir, they ask not for at least. Heretofore, I have heard it asserted by gentle- bounties-these would not be easily obtained from this men opposed to the tariff, that it was taxing the many for body. Applicants for favors here, more frequently meet the benefit of the few. But now the argument is revers- with frowns than smiles; they ask for protection; they ed, and we are taxing the few for the benefit of the many. have a right to expect it, and it is the duty of the GovernSurely, sir, the proposition cannot be sustained. Can any ment to afford it. gentleman believe that ten millions of people in the United The internal industry of our country must be sustained, States eat less, drink less, use less clothing, and otherwise that we may acquire absolute independence. Of what consume less, than the two millions in the southern States? value is our political liberty, of what account is our power Can it bepossible that in the South there is a greater con- to meet here freely to legislate for the Union, if we cansumption of foreign goods, more wine drank, more tea, sugar, not avail ourselves of our natural resources, to rescue coffee, and hardware used, than among the (10,000,000) us from a humiliating dependence upon foreign nations? ten millions of people in the other States? The commerce If political freedom was worth the severe struggle of the of the country, we are told, belongs to the South. Upon revolution, certainly to establish ourselves wholly indethis point there was a time when the gentleman entertained pendent of our first, our last, our only enemy, for the supmore liberal views. He will, therefore, pardon me while ply of articles necessary to our comfort, security, and deI take the liberty of quoting his own language: fence, and which enter largely into the consumption of "The back country of South Carolina has no more in- the country, is worthy a powerful effort, although it might terests in commerce, than every gentleman in the western be attended with a temporary inconvenience. We can country has. Commerce, from its universal diffusion and have no security except in a reliance upon our own reinfluence, is exclusively national in its nature, benefiting sources; upon the industry, skill, and enterprise of our equally every part of the country." own citizens, protected by wise and salutary laws. Such a policy gives life, vigor, and reality to freedom, and diffuses through our extensive country, energy, wealth, and power, calculated to make us happy at home, feared and respected abroad. Under its benign influence, our bays, our rivers, our lakes, our canals, and roads will teem with commerce, a home trade, a thousand times more valuable to the country than all its boasted foreign commerce; requiring no expensive navies to protect it; which the caprice and hostility of a foreign nation can neither impair nor annihilate. The gentleman, however, asserted that this their commerce is to be destroyed, and accordingly denounced the protecting system as tyrannical, oppressive, unequal, and unconstitutional. Here I would remark that this system, which is now so much abused by certain gentlemen, and against which they declaim so violently, has met the approbation of our Presidents, from Washington to the distinguished individual who at present occupies the Presidential chair. And, sir, as the opinions of Mr. Jefferson are now in high repute here, I would ask gentlemen who venerate the character of that eminent man, and profess a strong attachment and great deference to his opinions on some other subjects, to be consistent with themselves, and show some little regard for his sentiments in relation to the policy of encouraging domestic manufactures. Permit me to read a passage or two from a letter of his to Benjamin Austin: "That to be independent for the comforts of life, we must fabricate them ourselves. We must now place the manufacturer by the side of the agriculturist. The grand inquiry now is, shall we make our own comforts, or go without them, at the will of a foreign nation? He, therefore, who is now against domestic manufactures, must be reducing us either to a dependence on that nation, or to be clothed in skins, and to live like wild beasts in dens and caverns. Experience has now taught me that manufactures are now as necessary to our independence as to our comfort." Sir, much warmth and zeal have been manifested by gentlemen in the progress of this discussion; this may be all well enough, if intended to recommend them to southern cultivators, but is out of place here. When the gentleman [Mr. MCDUFFIE] attacks with such intemperate severity the right of the majority to govern, he attacks the fundamental principle of our republican institutions; he attacks the very principle which has given to him a seat on this floor. If the gentleman supposes, by the use of epithets, harsh terms, and reviling the majority of this House, stigmatizing it as an interested, oppressive, tyrannical, plundering majority, to bring it into derision, to degrade the Government of his country in the minds of his constituents, and encourage them to an open resistance to its laws, he may possible succeed; and, if he does, he will be among the first to deplore the consequences. We have been told, sir, that there exists in South Carolina a great excitement; that they are a high-minded and magnanimous people; that they are ground down to the earth by Such were the opinions of Mr. Jefferson in 1816, the the protecting system, will be driven to extremities; that very year in which, it is said, the system for the encourage- forbearance on their part is no longer a virtue; that resistment and protection of our manufactures had its origin, ance may be expected; that the measures of Government, or was distinctly avowed. Upon this principle of protec- if adhered to, will, in South Carolina, "spring up in armed tion to our citizens in their lawful pursuits, the Governmen." I attach very little weight to such high-toned dement has acted from the period of its organization. Your clarations; they may do very well to garnish a fourth of statute book is crowded with acts intended to protect and July oration, or answer an electioneering purpose during encourage merchants in their commercial pursuits. When a canvass; they will fail of an effect here. And I would commerce was assailed, the arm of the Government was merely remark to the gentleman from South Carolina, stretched forth for its defence; embargoes and non-inter- [Mr. BLAIR] that, from the fate of the "armed men," course were resorted to; when these were not sufficient, a navy was equipped, the sword of the nation was drawn, war ensued, and blood was the price paid for protection. And shall we leave our mechanics and manufacturers to suffer from the withering influence of foreign regula----- cadunt subiti per mutua vulnera fiatres." tions, without attempting to countervail them? When their Sir, I regret to see this spirit among our southern brepursuits are assailed by frauds, by perjuries, by fraudulent thren. That there is an excitement of the kind described, invoices, by desperate and bankrupt foreign merchants and among them, may be all very true; I believe it; and it may manufacturers, becomes, then, the arm of the Government be bordering upon frenzy, and wrought up to a high deparalyzed? Shall protection by legislation be withheld gree by intemperate political harangues and declamation. from those industrious men who work for you in peace, How is it to be allayed? What does the magnanimity of and fight for you in war? And must they be left to perish the South require of us in order to appease the angry whose story has furnished him with a trope so felicitous, he may derive a salutary moral; they turned their arms against each other, and nearly all perished the victims of fraternal war- H. of R.] The Tariff. [MAY 8, 1830. spirit of the storm which lowers in their horizon? No- from my own observation. I have lived long enough to thing less than the sacrifice of the industry, interests, pros- witness the salutary operation of the protecting system. perity, happiness, and independence of at least eight mil- During the late war, when most foreign manufactures lions of people. This is what is now demanded of those who were necessarily excluded, domestic commerce and manuadvocate the protecting system. The storm may gather factures, in the district from which I come, rose rapidly to on; let those who have been the instruments of exciting it, a flourishing condition: all kinds of industry prospered; suppress it; they can effect it without any sacrifice of their the farmers found ready markets for their produce: laborpolitical or natural rights; both may be preserved with the ers, mechanics, and manufacturers were actively employpublic peace. But their menaces will never deter me ed. A change awaited us; peace returned, and that which from a faithful and fearless discharge of my duty here to diffused joy and gladness through other parts of the counthe Union. try, brought gloom and distress upon us. The picture has Let me now ask, what would be the consequences to the been altered. After suffering for several years, during State which I have the honor in part to represent, if this which period business sunk to the lowest point of depresamendment should be adopted? Disastrous in the ex- sion, manufactures were every where going down, and treme. Pass this amendment, and you sweep with the our artists, without employment, were thrown helpless and besom of destruction one of the fairest portions of our coun- penny less upon the world: at length protection came; the try. It aims a death blow at the best interests of Penn- encouragement of the new tariff changed the scene, and, sylvania; it strikes at her iron, her salt, and other exten- where once gloom and despondence prevailed, you will sive manufactures. Pass it, and you will spread ruin and now find a flourishing city, crowded with an industrious distress where now is to be met the cheering hum of in- population, whose manufactures have quadrupled under dustry; and scenes will arise more calamitous than any that your much abused protecting system. I wish that southern ever yet visited that State. Her manufactures are now gentlemen, in making their tours of pleasure or for health, generally in successful operation; this amendment would would visit our section of the country; there they would overturn them. Upon my native city, which, from her receive practical illustrations of the benefits of the system, numerous and extensive manufacturing establishments, has and of its general importance to the whole country, and been called the Birmingham of America, this amendment particularly to the West, even "the far, far West," to use would inflict the most disastrous effects; adopt it, and the terms of the gentleman from New York, [Mr. CAMyou pass a ploughshare over a city of twenty thou- BRELENG] who seemed to think the West deserved his sand inhabitants, and consign that now flourishing and sympathy for the sufferings which he supposes they engrowing place to depopulation and ruin. Many other now dure under this system. Sir, I am from the West, alpopulous and thriving cities and towns, not only in Penn- though not from the far, far West;" we know the bur sylvania, but in other manufacturing States, would share dens we bear, the taxes we pay; and also know and apthe fate of Pittsburg. And all this would be brought preciate the great advantages derived from the protecting upon those who have confided in your acts. The manu- system. Yes, sir, it is as beneficial to the West as to any facturers have relied upon your legislation as a pledge that other portion of the country. Let the gentleman take his they would be protected. In Pennsylvania, the manufac- stand on the bank of the Ohio river, that great highway turers of iron and cotton have greatly increased within a few of the Union, he will then see what this great system has years. Your legislation has encouraged thousands to em- effected for the West, even for the "remotest West. bark their fortunes, their credit, their skill, their industry, will see the productions of every western State hurried their all, in enterprises and establishments eminently bene- along, in steamboats, to the great manufacturing district ficial and important to the country. All these it is now at the head of the Ohio, to be consumed there, and among proposed to prostrate at a blow. Are the previous acts the extensive iron establishments in the interior of Pennof this Government to be considered as involving no pledge sylvania. Sugar and molasses of Louisiana, lead and pelon its part? Are these, and all arguments in favor of the tries from Missouri and Illinois, pig iron and cotton from system of protection, to be derided as the doings of an in- Tennessee, bacon, hemp, and tobacco from Kentucky, terested and selfish majority? If the solemn legislation of and various productions of Ohio, are exchanged for the dothe Government is not to be considered as a pledge, what mestic manufactures of iron, glass, paper, steel, cotton, is it? It is mockery, it is insult, it is an invitation held out woollen, and other articles derived from the industry and to lure to their own destruction those who trust in it. Will skill of manufacturers in Pennsylvania, and parts of Virgi this Government first invite its citizens to adopt certain nia and Ohio. This is but a sketch, a mere outline of the measures, and to engage in certain pursuits and employ-picture. The whole interior feels the life-giving touch of ments of capital and industry? and, after they have done the American system. Sir, before gentlemen fix all the so, are they to be overwhelmed in calamities and ruin by sufferings of the South upon this course of policy, ought the versatile and reckless legislation of this body? The they not to pause, and weigh well both facts and arguments? evil would not rest with Pennsylvania, and other manufac- The gentleman from South Carolina [Mr. DRAYTON] turing States; it would affect the whole community; and thinks we cannot manufacture as cheaply as the British; the South would not escape its aggravating influence. that they can undersell us here, even in the cotton goods. What would be the effect of all this? Do gentlemen ima- Here, sir, experience and facts are at war with the gengine it would raise the price of cotton? Certainly that tleman's assertion. The protection afforded to our cotcannot be expected. Will it heal the grievances of the ton manufactures has accomplished the great object insouthern States? Will it soothe their wounded feelings? tended, and we can now be supplied with the coarser Will it afford them any consolation to be told of, or to kinds of cotton, and with cotton yarns, at prices not higher, witness, the distress and embarrassments which would be if not less, than those at which the foreign fabrics could be brought upon Pennsylvania by the proposed amendment? sold at a fair sale. I hold in my hand a letter from a perI appeal to the gentlemen themselves, and ask if the pros- son engaged in the cotton business in Manchester, stating tration of the industry of Pennsylvania would quiet the the prices there in December last. I have, also, a statecomplaints and the excitement in the South, of which we ment of the prices in Philadelphia. From these it aphave heard so much. pears that the Philadelphia yarns can be purchased for less The gentleman from South Carolina who immediately than the Manchester yarns, and that cotton cloths rate at preceded me, [Col. DRAYTON] has endeavored to show about the same with the Manchester; it is, however, genethat the manufacturers are suffering from the very mea- rally admitted that the American fabric is, in quality, susures which they themselves solicited. Sir, I differ from perior, and, I believe, is preferred in the Canton and Mexihim radically in that view of the subject. I may speak can markets. Why, then, it may be asked, keep up the He MAY 10, 1830.] Bank of the United States. [H. of R. duties? Sir, to shield our own manufacturers, who, by influence over the persons in their employment. The their ingenuity, skill, and superior work, can compete gentleman does them gross injustice; they are honorable with the British, not only at home, but even in the fo- men; men of integrity; men of liberal, of generous feelreign markets, from frauds, and an unfair competition, ings, especially towards those who are dependent upon from sacrifices at auctions, which desperate and bankrupt them. They would disdain to corrupt or intimidate even British dealers and manufacturers find it necessary to make. the most humble, obscure, and dependent individual atThe gentleman seemed to think that we should relax tached to their establishments. They well know that ef the restrictive system, because, he says, the British take forts of this kind would recoil upon themselves, and bring from us more flour than all the other countries of Europe, upon them the indignant frowns of an honest community. Asia, and Africa together. Let us see how this matter The gentleman is also much mistaken in the views he enstands, and whether we ought to favor the British manu-tertains of the character of our mechanics, by supposing, facturer in return for the purchases of our flour by the for a moment, that they are influenced by corrupt motives subjects of Great Britain. of self-interest, or the fear of offending those by whom Exports of Flour, from 1st October, 1827, to 30th Septem-have been brought up among them; I live in their very they are employed. Sir, I was born among mechanics; I ber, 1828. midst; I know them well; I know they deserve no impuTotal quantity of flour exported from the United States tations of this kind. These men are as honorable as any to all parts, 860,809 barrels, of which there were ex-class in our community. A strong feeling of independence ported to England 21,488 governs them in their opinions, and in the exercise of their 1,770 rights. Although they are mechanics, they are not the less virtuous on that account; they know that they are freemen; 23,258 they feel that they are freemen, and like freemen they act. 50,593 They are as patriotic, and as much devoted to their coun87,219 try, to its laws, and to the Union, as the man who rolls in affluence, and may have a thousand slaves to call him master. Such I know to be the character of the people of 161,070 Pennsylvania; of her mechanics and her manufacturers; and such, I trust, it will ever remain. If they should ever 110,610 become so degraded as basely to barter their principles 145,261 for interest, they will then no longer deserve to be free. [It was now after five o'clock.] Ditto to Scotland Total exported to Great Britain Total exported to Gibraltar To other British possessions Grand total of flour exported to Great Britain There were exported to Cuba 157,194 Now, sir, it appears that the small island of Cuba takes from us nearly as much flour as the whole British empire; that Brazil and the Danish West Indies, each, also take from us almost as much as Great Britain and Ireland, with all her other possessions, in Europe, Asia, and America. We are under no obligations for British consumption of American bread stuffs. The truth is, they will receive nothing of the kind from us until their people are threatened with starvation. Flour shipped to Great Britain must be there bonded, and cannot be taken into market unless at high rates of duty, even when there is a scarcity, and the wheat of that country has risen to a price exorbitant. While on this part of the subject, permit me to give Mr. Huskisson's opinions in relation to the protection of the agricultural interests of Great Britain. He says: "There is, therefore, no effectual security, either in peace or war, against a frequent return of scarcity, approaching to starvation, such as we have of late years so frequently experienced, but in our maintaining ourselves habitually independent of foreign supply. Let the bread we eat be the produce of corn grown among ourselves, and I, for one, care not how cheap it is; the cheaper the better; it is cheap now." [It was then at seventy-two shillings per quarter.] "Again: To ensure a continuance of that cheapness and that sufficiency, we must ensure to our own growers that protection against foreign import which has produced these blessings, and by which alone they can be permanently maintained. A steady home supply is the only safe foundation of steady and moderate prices." Such is Mr. Huskisson's doctrine, and it is to this I wish to confine those gentlemen who point to him as the polar star of free trade. Protection is the basis of Mr. H.'s whole system; protection of British industry against all foreign rivals. We ask the same for American industry. Mr. BURGES moved that the committee rise, wishing to deliver his views on the important subject under debate, but unwilling to commence at so late an hour of the day. The committee refused to rise, and Mr. BURGES declined going on. Mr. McDUFFIE expressed a wish and a right, by parliamentary usage, to close the debate, and hoped no gentleman would reserve his remarks until after he [Mr, McD.] had spoken. Mr. BURGES, however, would not consent to commence what he wished to say, at so late an hour; and, after one or two motions to that effect, The committee rose, and the House adjourned. MONDAY, MAY 10, 1830. BANK OF THE UNITED STATES. Mr. POTTER, of North Carolina, by leave of the House, offered the following resolutions: 1. Resolved, That the constitution of the United States confers no power on Congress to establish a corporation with authority to manufacture money out of paper, and circulate the same within the limits of any of the States. 2. Resolved, That if such power existed in Congress, it were unwise and inexpedient to exercise it, and especially to the extent contemplated in the present charter of the Bank of the United States. 3. Resolved, That the paper money or banking system, generally, is in its tendency ruinous to the interests of labor, and dangerous to the liberties of the people. 4. Resolved, therefore, That this House will not consent to the renewal of the charter of the Bank of the United States. The resolutions having been read, Mr. POTTER said it was not his object to invite discusHaving the honor, in part, to represent a district in sion on the subject at this time. He had offered the resoPennsylvania distinguished for its manufactures and its lutions as a set-off to the report of the Committee of Ways manufacturing population, I cannot refrain from noticing and Means, on the same subject; and he pledged himself, the remark made by the gentleman [Mr. MCDUFFIE] rela- whenever it came up for consideration, to make good the tive to the influence which he supposes is exercised at propositions embraced in his resolutions. He had offered elections by capitalists or employers, who are stigmatized them altogether, independently of any regard to mere peras cold hearted, avaricious monopolists, who exert a venal sonal partyism, with which he acknowledged no sympathy VOL. VI.-116 H. of R.] Public Lands. [Mar 10, 1830. move its commitment, which would only tend to delay the whatever, but as a guaranty to the American people, from his place in this House, that the measure, to prepare the way for which the report of the Committee of Ways and Means had been brought in, would be resisted here. Mr. A. H. SHEPPERD, of North Carolina, differed It should be resisted here; and he earnestly hoped that the from Mr. ISACKS. He suspected that this bill was not the people, in every section of the United States, would, remnant of an old system, but the stepping stone to a new forthwith, fix their attention upon this subject, as one involv-one. At any rate, it proposed a measure of a very grave ing, in the most essential manner, their dearest rights and and important character, and he hoped it would take the interests; and that, by a timely and vigilant exercise of ordinary course, by going to a Committee of the Whole their power at the polls, they would take care to organize House, where it could be examined and discussed. He this House with a direct reference to the adjustment of made that motion. lutions on the table. The SPEAKER deciding that the motion to lay on the table took precedence of the motion of "consideration," The question was put on laying the resolutions on the table, and decided in the affirmative as follows: this question. For the present he moved to lay the reso- Mr. VINTON, of Ohio, made a few remarks to show the necessity of passing on this bill before the close of the Mr. WHITTLESEY demanded that the question, whe-present session. The bill proposed to reduce the price ther the House would consider the resolutions, should be of certain of the public lands from one dollar and twentyput, lest the entertaining of the motion by the House five cents to seventy-five cents an acre, and, if it were might affect the price of the stock, &c.; but, permitted to lie here unacted on, no one would enter public land while the measure is pending. The effect would be, therefore, to suspend the entry of lands until the bill was finally disposed of, and the revenue from that source be consequently cut off. He hoped the bill would YEAS.--Messrs. Alexander, Allen, Alston, Anderson, not be committed, because that would endanger its being Angel, Archer, P. P. Barbour, Bell, John Blair, Boon, acted on during the session; but that it would be taken Borst, Brodhead, Brown, Cambreleng, Carson, Claiborne, up on Monday next, and either passed or rejected; if reClay, Coke, Hector Craig, Robert Craig, Crawford, Crock-jected, the public mind would be undeceived, and settlers ett, Crocheron, Davenport, J. Davis, W. R. Davis, De- would know what they had to depend on. berry, Denny, Desha, Earll, Findlay, Ford, Forward, Mr. IRVIN, of Ohio, made a few remarks to show the Fry, Gaither, Gordon, Green, Hall, Harvey, Haynes, injurious effect which this measure would have on the Hemphill, Hinds, Hoffman, Hubbard, Ihrie, Irvin, Isacks, interests of Ohio, and that he wished time to reflect on R M. Johnson, C. Johnson, Kincaid, P. King, Lecompte, and examine it, no opportunity for doing so having been Lewis, Loyall, Lumpkin, Martin, Thomas Maxwell, Mc afforded to him by the Committee on the Public Lands. Creery, McCoy, McDuffie, McIntire, Mitchell, Monell, Nuckolls, Pettis, Polk, Potter, Powers, Rencher, Roane, Russel, Scott, Wm. B. Shepard, A. H. Shepperd, Shields, Semmes, Sill, S. A. Smith, Speight, Stanbery, Standifer, Strong, Trezvant, Tucker, Verplanck, Wayne, Weeks, Wickliffe, Williams, Yancey.-89. Mr. WILLIAMS, of North Carolina, moved the indefinite postponement of the bill; but this, under the pending motion, not being in order, he varied it to a motion that the bill be laid on the table. Mr. WHITE, of New York, called for the yeas and nays, and they were ordered. NAYS.-Messrs. Armstrong, Arnold, Bailey, Noyes Bar- Mr. CLAY asked Mr. WILLIAMS to withdraw his mo ber, Barringer, Bartley, Baylor, Bockee, Burges, Cahoon, tion, to give an opportunity for one or two words of exChilton, Condict, Conner, Cooper, Cowles, Crane, Creigh-planation. ton, DeWitt, Doddridge, Duncan, Ellsworth, Geo. Evans, Mr. WILLIAMS replied, that, if one or two words were Mr. DRAYTON, of South Carolina, and Mr. WHITE, of New York, were, at their own request, excused from voting on the question, each stating that he was interested as a stockholder in the bank. Mr. HALL, of North Carolina, stated to the House that as he happened to be without the bar of the House when his name was called, he was therefore precluded from voting, but that he would have voted against laying the resolutions on the table. Mr. ARCHER rose to move that the resolutions be printed; but the admission of a motion requiring unanimous consent, and it being objected to, the motion failed. PUBLIC LANDS. Mr. JENNINGS said, the subject of this bill was not so new as some gentlemen imagined. It had been before Congress in one form or other for six years past. He proceeded to make some remarks on the bearing of the bill; but the merits of it not being in order, he was interrupted by the Chair; and The motion to postpone the bill to Monday was agreed to. Mr. VINTON then submitted the following substitute, which he intended to offer when the bill should come up for consideration, and which, on his motion, was ordered to be printed, viz. Be it enacted, &c. That all public land which has been or may be exposed to sale for the several periods of time hereinafter enumerated, and remains or shall remain unsold, shall be thereafter subject to entry and sale at the prices hereinafter specified, that is to say: for twenty years and upwards, at one dollar per acre; for twenty-five Mr. ISACKS, from the Committee on the Public Lands, years and upwards, at eighty cents; for thirty years and reported, without amendment, the bill from the Senate upwards, at sixty cents; for thirty-five years and upwards, "to reduce the price of a portion of the public lands at forty cents; for forty years and upwards, at twenty cents; heretofore in market, and to grant a preference to actual for forty-five years and upwards, at ten cents per acre. settlers." SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That, before any tract Mr. I. remarked that this bill was a mere remnant of a of land shall be subject to entry at any of the prices aforesystem familiar to the House; that the provisions of the said, it shall, at each of the aforesaid periods of time, be bill were simple, and easy to be understood, and con- offered at public sale in the same manner that the public tained nothing which required a reference of it to a Com- lands are or may be required, by law, to be exposed at mittee of the Whole House. He, therefore, would not public vendue; and, at such public sale, the land so of fered may be sold for any sum per acre not less than that at which it will be thereafter subject to entry under the foregoing provisions of this act. SEC. 3. And be it further enacted, That, when any tract of land shall remain unsold after having been for fifty years exposed to sale, according to the provisions of this act, it shall not be thereafter subject to entry and sale at the land office for the district within which it may be situated, but shall be withdrawn from market, and remain subject to the future disposition of Congress. THE TARIFF LAWS. [II. of R. tions are "set in note-books, conned and learned by rote," and uttered and published; "and cast into our teeth," in the councils and legislative halls of our own nation. The political literature of England is imported into the United States. All the false and fabricated theories of the old world, whatever has been tried, and convicted, and branded in England, though condemned like common felons to transportation there, are with a diligence unknown in former times, imported and naturalized, and acclimated in this country; and sent abroad to deceive, divide, and, if possible, destroy the American people. The English Reviews and the Southern Review teem alike with this On motion of Mr. MALLARY, all the intervening or- foul progeny of delusion. The system of political econoders, engrossed bills, &c. were postponed to a future day, my, prepared for the United States, is equally, and at the and the House resolved itself into a Committee of the same time, the colloquial theme for the statesmen of St. Whole, Mr. POLK in the chair, on the bill to amend the James' and of South Carolina. The English Commons and act in alteration of the several acts imposing duties on im- the American House of Representatives listen to the same ports." The question being on Mr. MCDUFFIE's amendment, reasonings, and the same abuses of our whole protects Mr. BURGES rose, and said, he would first of all present system. to the gentlemen of the committee his most cordial thanks Whether this united effort be the effect of united counfor the courtesy of their last adjournment. The ques-cils and identical interests, it matters not; for the great tion had been ably discussed, but not altogether finished; object towards which it moves is in both the same, and, if and he had more fear of wearying their patience, than successful, must again place these United States in a conhope of exhausting the subject under debate. I would not dition of colonial dependence on Great Britain. trespass on your indulgence, [said Mr. B.] by any attempt Sir, our ancestors migrated hither to build a country, to do again what has been already so well performed. an independent country, as well for themselves as for Where better hands have reaped, I will satisfy myself their descendants. When they had landed here, they with the humbler office of gleaning the field; or such looked out upon the earth on which they had placed their diligence as they have bestowed on cutting the crop, I feet, and back again on the friendly bosom of the ocean will endeavor to bestow on bringing home and securing which had borne them to these shores, and then up to the clear blue heaven over their heads; and lifting their the harvest. Should any one throw a lighted torch into a field of hands in thanksgiving and supplication towards the God ripened corn, all honest men would rush forward to ex-above, they resolved, under His direction, to depend on tinguish the flame. If such a thing, left by the incendiary, those hands and those elements for their subsistence, for were found by the prudent husbandman, burning in his their food, their clothing, and habitation. Independence orchard or garden, he, although without fear that his green was their first aspiration; independence of that country grass or flourishing trees might be injured, yet would, which had driven them into exile. From that hour to this, from habitual care and prudence, either with his foot or all true Americans, who have understood and pursued his hoe, strike out and extinguish the smoking nuisance. the great interests of this country, have lived and labored When deleterious nostrums or counterfeited coin are for this independence. All Britons and friends of Britain, abroad, the press takes jurisdiction of the circulating mis-all anti-Americans, as well before as at and since the revolu chief; and, by advertisement, the people are warned to tion, have opposed its growth and establishment, or plotsecure their pockets and preserve their persons. We ted and toiled for its subversion and overthrow. enact precautionary laws to exclude pestilential diseases; It has been the great and established policy of England, and he who should wilfully bring the plague into a popu- from the first settlement of the colonies to this time, to conlous city, might, even in the most free country, be in fine the people of this country to agriculture, the fisheries, danger of receiving the reward of his wickedness. and commerce, with herself, and herself alone. The inciThese are but minor, because limited and circumscribed pient efforts of our fathers to produce for themselves mischiefs. When sovereigns mingle brass with silver or either their own apparel, or the instruments of their labor, gold, and thus debase the coin, they become (if so hum-were, by English enactment, made a kind of colonial ble a term may be applied to such elevated delinquents) nuisance, and punished as a class of misdemeanor against the swindlers of nations. When statesmen adulterate the the peace and dignity of the crown. The patriots of those, great fountain of public opinion, they mingle poison with like the patriots of these times, resolved, and never abanthe streams from which a whole people drink. Men, de-doned the resolution, to labor, as they might choose, luded and deceived by the maddening draughts, sce, or either at the plough, the loom, or the sail. This conflict seem to see, deadly foes in their fellow-citizens, their of policy, this effort in the colonies for moral and phyneighbors, friends, and brothers. Like the tenants of a sical independence, and that British arrogance of domaniac hospital, they, for imaginary wrongs, fly at each minion over the wants and necessities of our ancestors, others' throats. Deinagogues again drug the bowl, and produced the revolutionary conflict. Moral and physical, again the delirious potation is swallowed; and thus it not political independence moved that great question. comes to pass, that this fair world is changed into a paradise The tax on tea was incidental to more deep and weighty of demons. It is, sir, as if, "for some strong purpose," argument; but not otherwise the moving cause, than the the God of heaven might permit the prince of the powers lighted linstock explodes the shell, which, in its blazing of the air to blow out from his sultry and mildewed lips course, carries terror and desolation through a beleagued an impoisoned atmosphere; so that the dews and showers city. should fall, deleterious and desolating, on the green bosom It was in support of this independence that the whigs of the earth; and this bland and refreshing air become of the North and South first united. Here the Adamses, "none other than a foul and pestilential congregation of Hancocks, Otises, and Warrens, of New England, met vapors." and mingled their toil and their blood with the Pinckneys, the Haynes, the Lawrences, and Sumpters, of South Carolina. On this ground, too, Greene, from the North, met and reunited the scattered array of southern war. Under the influence of this debased condition of public opinion, the American people are slandered; their laws calumniated; the national policy is traduced; and this, not only by hireling foreigners, but the same maledic-| Where now is the patriotism of those times? Do we, in |