of confiding in the sacred character of that agreement, and proceeding in their business accordingly, the men of the North had come here, and pressed the Senate for the enactment of highly increased duties for protection? What would then have been heard in all parts of this city? How quickly should we have heard the resounding voices of the Southern delegation in ardent and loud remonstrance. Every where throughout the South, writers and orators would have been invoking the North to have respect to its engagements. Every where they would be declaiming against opening the wounds of the country afresh, and again plunging the nation into the danger of a civil war. And do not our friends from the South recollect that men have the same feelings in all parts of our country? Do they think they can pass a bill like this without wounding the sensibili ties of that great interest which is concerned in the protective system? Is it right to do so, admitting that they possess an accidental majority? The Senator from Vir ginia consoled himself and his Southern friends by an assurance that the protective policy has not now an ascendency in this nation. Where the ascendency is in thisjill-governed country, God only knows; but, be it where it may, I conjure gentlemen to let this subject alone. Is it not enough that they have tampered with the currency? Is our domestic industry also to be made the subject of experiment? Are men to go to bed at night, thriving laborers and prospering capitalists, and not know what they are to be when they awake in the morning? Are all the great interests of the country to be dragged into the service of mere party politics?

I adjure the Senate to rise to the greatness of Ameri can statesmen, and to atone, in some measure, for the injuries which have heretofore been inflicted on a bleeding country. There are some things too dear to be dragged into the vortex of political contest, and made the objects of party calculation. Let the protective policy remain where it has happily flourished for these four years past. There are yet but four years more, till we shall reach the expiration of the term limited by the compromise bill; and all parts of the country will acquiesce in its provisions, if they shall not now be rashly disturbed. But if this bill shall become a law, from that moment I shall hold myself absolved from all obligation to observe that compromise, and shall be ready, according as my sense of the public wishes shall point out my duty, to augment the rate of protection to any point which they may require. And, let me ask, are gentlemen quite sure that they shall retain, for years to come, the ascendency which they imagine themselves now to enjoy against this policy? Where are the ele ments of that great mass which supported and enforced the American system? Scattered by party-broken into fragments. But it still exists in Pennsylvania, in the Western States, in New England, in New York itself; and it is not improbable that a new combination may arise, far stronger than any you have yet seen. Should the man whom you of the South have contributed to place at the head of the Government recommend in his next message to Congress a revival of the protective policy, would he not find majorities in both Houses to support him? Does any man doubt it? And are gentlemen of the South prepared to see their whole secu. rity suspended on the will of one man? I trust not.

[SENATE.

barrass the proceedings of any legislative body. I have been both in the opposition and in the majority; and I do not approve and have never practised on the plan of wearying each other out by propositions merely intended to perplex and thwart the course of an opposing party. The manly, the becoming course is fairly to bring up mind to mind-patriotism on one side to patriotism on the other; and, when the intellectual struggle is over, to yield as promptly as we have contended vigorously. The majority must ever govern.

We have had a succession of motions in relation to particular articles comprised in this bill; and as it may often happen that a gentleman will feel himself bound to vote in relation to some particular interest in a manner different from those with whom he ordinarily acts, it has come to pass that the majorities on these different por. tions of the bill have considerably varied. I now wish to test the Senate in a group, so that there may be no escape on the ground of individual situation, in order that the country may know whether Congress regards its faith as pledged or not to an observance of the act of 1833. I am also moved by the consideration that there are one or two articles in this bill, with respect to which my own State feels particular interest; an interest, however, which is not confined to her, but which extends to western New York, to western Pennsylvania, and all the grain-growing States west of the Alleghanies. The article to which I more particularly refer is, with the exception of cotton bagging, the only one which gives us any personal concern in the protective policy. I allude to foreign spirits, on which it is now proposed to reduce the duty to thirty-three and a third cents--a sum exceeding the average price of the American article which is the rival of the foreign. And under what circumstances is this reduction proposed? There is not now a civilized nation in the world whose system of duties does not amount to an absolute prohibition of the introduction of foreign liquors. Holland, liberal as her general policy is, has, for the purpose of protecting her own production, excluded all foreign liquors whatever. England excludes a large majority of them. France does the same thing, and yet, at this moment, while we are thus excluded from the markets of all the world, it is proposed to reduce the protecting duty of our own citizens on this article one half. And when and how is this to be done? Of all foreign nations, England and France will be most benefited by such a reduction, Now, it is well known that, at this moment, our tobacco interest has to struggle against the rigor of their laws, which, in effect, are almost exclusive of this American product. Yet, instead of leaving in the hands of our negotiators the article of brandies, to be balanced against that of tobacco, it is proposed, without any equivalent, to reduce the duty on foreign spirits from 664 cents to 33 cents.

already too likely to overflow, this new element of dispute and heart-burning. I trust that, under these considerations, the majority will concur in the motion now submitted, and that we shall thus have a bill containing those items only on which there is no dispute.

Mr. CLAY'S motion to recommit the bill was negatived, by the following vote:

YEAS-Messrs. Bayard, Black, Calhoun, Clay, Clayton, Crittenden, Davis, Ewing of Ohio, Hendricks, Kent, Knight, McKean, Moore, Morris, Prentiss, Preston, Robbins, Southard, Spence, Swift, Tipton, Tomlinson, Wall, Webster-24.

NAYS-Messrs. Benton, Brown, Cuthbert, Ewing of Illinois, Fulton, Hubbard, King of Alabama, King of Georgia, Linn, Lyon, Mouton, Nicholas, Niles, Norvell, Page, Parker, Rives, Robinson, Ruggles, Sevier, Strange, Tallmadge, Walker, White, Wright-25.

The debate was further continued by Messrs. PRESTON and BLACK.

Mr. CALHOUN said he was fully apprized of the impatience of the Senate, and regretted to detain them at so late an hour; but he could not avoid saying a few words before the question should be put upon the passage of this bill. It now appears (said Mr. C.) that the administration party did not intend to respect the provisions of the compromise law. The people of the North seem, with but little exception, to be disposed to adhere to it. The question then arises, what course ought to be pursued by me, and by those who act with me, on this Subject? The course, as I apprehend, is an obvious one. So far as the manufacturing interests are concerned, they concur in the arrangement; not a petition has been presented, not an effort has in any shape been made, to disturb it. The present is the first attempt which we have witnessed in any wise to interfere with it. And this attempt is not made by manufacturers, but by politicians; and by politicians from the manufacturing region of the Union. I regret exceedingly that the South, which has so deep a stake in the observance of the compromise, should give any countenance to such a design. This bill does not violate our share of that arrangement; not an article of it; the violation is of that part of the bargain which belongs to the North. It rests, therefore, with the Northern interest to say whether they will sustain their public men in such an attempt or not. I leave it to them to settle the question.

As to myself, I care not how many duties are taken off, provided it be done by gentlemen from that section of the Union; but, in the mean time, I shall do my duty. We of the South, it is always to be remembered, are the weaker interest; in this sort of contest it is we who are to be the sufferers. I therefore, for one, will not vote to disturb the compromise of 1833.

I am pot, however, much surprised that the friends of the administration from the Southern States should be tempted to give their votes for this bill. We have long warred against the tariff; and when a proposition is made for repealing any portion of it, it is not wonderful that they should seize upon it with avidity. But let me tell them to beware. Will you, for the trifling benefit now held out to you, establish the principle that the act of 1833 is to be disregarded? You may now make a small reduction in violation of its provisions; but do you forget that, if that act remains inviolate, in 1842 six tenths of the whole protective duties will go off? Let me tell my Southern friends that I know the men with whom we have to deal. Abandon the compromise, and they will be among the first to resist all future reduction. We see the bait, but we do not perceive the hook that lies under it. We see a proposition to repeal the duty on salt; the motion, coming from a New York Senator, has the appearance of great magnanimity; but we did not remember, till we were reminded of it, that New

[FEB. 25, 1837.

York has laid a State tax of six cents a bushel on all salt ascending her canals. This salt duty is the bait; and for the sake of this small gain we are invited to disturb the arrangements of the compromise. But I can tell these fishers, they shall not catch me. I was caught once by following the same lead. I am not to be caught a second time. Wait till 1842, and you will find that which I say is true.

We have been told that the Senators in the opposition have given no pledges to observe the compromise law; but I ask, have either the chairman of the Committee on Finance, or other gentlemen of the same party, given any pledge that they will not violate that compromise when the year 1842 comes? They are now for reducing duties; but will they not then be for arresting the reduction provided by that act? Rely upon it, that is the very thing that they have in view. Their professed object is to get rid of the surplus, and they talk of making war upon the protective system, and even of its entire overthrow.

When men make professions, I am called upon to judge of their sincerity; I am in the habit of looking at the measures they pursue, and whether these measures are the fit and appropriate means toward the end they profess to have in view; and if I perceive that they are not, I hold it proper to be on my guard. I admit that these gentlemen are opposed to having a surplus in the Treasury, and I perceive that they have given a pledge to the South that they mean to make war upon the protective system. Such being their aim, what is the mode which they ought to take to attain it? Is not that mode obvious? Should they pick out the article of salt, to ac celerate the reduction proposed by the compromise of 1833? It was one defect of that arrangement that the reduction proposed by it was to be too rapid towards the close, and too slow in the beginning. The obvious rule of proceeding would rather have been to make it swift at first, and slow afterwards. It would have been perfectly easy to say that the amount of all protective duties should have been reduced one fifth on the 1st of Janua ry, in every year, for the five years. That would have reduced a greater amount than the whole of what is pro posed by this bill, and would have given a sure pledge to the South that gentlemen were sincere in their professions and promises. I should then have believed them. But when I see them proceed to select articles not made in the States where they have the majority, and see them opposing the reduction on articles made in States where they have not, I am naturally led to pre dict that, in 1842, they will come here and tell us that the reduction proposed by the compromise act is too rapid.

Our friends of the South (I speak now of such as are friends of the administration, who are all deeply inter ested in the articles of cotton and tobacco, and who, in relation to those articles, move all together, and must be sincere) found their course on the declaration of the Senator from Virginia, [Mr. RIVES,] who comes forward here as the personal friend and political organ of the President elect. That Senator tells us that Mr. Van Bu ren is a "practical politician." And when he is asked what Mr. Van Buren proposes to do, his reply is, that he intends to reduce the tariff in such a manner as that it shall not be injurious to any great interest of the country. And what, I pray you, is this but the old song which has been sung in our ears a thousand times? It is neither more nor less than the old story of a "judicious tariff." The Senator from Kentucky, the Senator from Massachusetts, and all the friends of the protective policy, are for a tariff which shall not be injurious to any of the great interests of the country. They have never asked for any thing else, if you take their account of it; and yet for this vague declaration, made at second

cently made a large investment in the State of Indiana, and was about to commence the business on an extensive scale in that State. Besides this establishment, Mr. T. believed that there was but one other of the kind in the United States, and that was situated at Jersey city, immediately opposite New York. The establishmcht in Philadelphia was confined to China ware alone. At these two porcelain establishments, American citizens had invested their property, and were making laudable exertions to compete, in this branch of industry, with British skill and British capital; and it surely was incumbent upon a wise Government to extend to enterprising individuals of this description its protection and encour agement. The amount of the foreign article imported into this country during the last year was $1,697,682, on which a duty was paid of $339,536. This duty afforded a sufficient protection; but if it should be abolished, the most serious inconvenience and injury, and not improbably total ruin, would result to the establishments at Jersey city and in Indiana.

The same remarks would apply to the proposed reduction of the duty on blankets used in the Indian trade. The Senator from Missouri, [Mr. BENTON,] who advo cated this measure, did so on information furnished to him by John Jacob Astor, a merchant, long and extensively connected with the American Fur Company. It was very true that blankets suited to our trade with the Northwestern Indians had never been manufactured in the United States. Those referred to in Mr. Astor's letter, which had been read to the Senate, were manufactured in England especially for that trade. They had been introduced many years ago by the English Northwest or Hudson's Bay Company, through their trading posts on Hudson's bay, or by the way of Montreal and Mackinac, and distributed as presents from the British Government, or sold by the fur traders, to the Indians; from which circumstance they were familiarly known all over the Northwest by the name of Mackinac blankets. Every trader who went into the Indian country found it necessary, to satisfy the Indians, that the blankets he offered them were of this description. The confessedly superior quality of this species of blanket was owing, perhaps, chiefly to the superior quality of the wool which entered into the fabric, as well as to the closeness and solidity with which it was woven. Under the fostering care and wise and paternal policy of Great Britain toward all her manufactures, this branch of industry had attained a perfection with which we were at present unable to compete; but, that we might do so in future, Mr. T. was of opinion that it would be wisdom on our part to profit by the experience of our great rival, and to pursue the same course which had established her manufactures upon so firm and immoveable a basis.

A few years ago an effort had been made by a woollen manufacturer in Indiana to make this description of blanket, and a sample had been sent to one of our military posts, for presentation to the Indians. The article was well made, the web was close and compact, as much so perhaps as the British blanket; but the wool was not so fine, nor of so long a staple, as that of the Mackinac blanket; in consequence of which, the Indians despised and rejected them. Mr. T. thought it would be good policy in this Government to extend such protection to the article, that our farmers might be encouraged in improving the breed of sheep and the quality of our wool. Could this be supplied, we might then enter into successful competition for the Indian trade with our rivals abroad. The question, in fact, now presented, was one between the American Fur Company, at the head of which stood that worthy and most enterprising citizen, John Jacob Astor, and the British Hudson's Bay Company.

It was very true that the American fur trader could not buy British blankets; and pay the duty, and yet

[FEB. 25, 1837.

sell at the same price, and make as large a profit on the article as the British trader. But it would in either case be a rare thing, indeed, to see a blanket sold low to an Indian, no matter at what price it had been bought. The price usually paid by the Indians amounted, in most cases, to the full value of his winter's hunt, and he remained more or less indebted to the traders when the hunt was over. The American Fur Company, as Mr. Astor informed the Senate in his letter, wielded a capi tal of a million of dollars. With a capital of this extent, that company could much better compete with its British rival than our infant manufacturers could possibly do with those of England. We should never forget the lesson taught us on this subject by the late war with Great Brit ain. Previous to that event, but little attention had been paid to the manufacture of woollen goods in the United States. And who that was acquainted in the least degree with the history of that contest could ever forget the sufferings of the soldiers of the left wing of the Northwest army, who operated on the Maumee river in the winter of 1812. The men were destitute of blankets not only, but of woollen clothes to shield them from the severity of that bitter season; and he would ask, was the country now any better provided? Should war be declared against Great Britain to-day, and the supply of British blankets of course cut off, were our factories in a condition to supply either our army or our Indians with blankets for the first winter's campaign? So indispensable was a good blanket in the eyes of an Indian, that it had been stated, in the letter read to the Senate, from Mr. Stewart, an intelligent and highly respectable member of the American Fur Company, that they would travel many hundreds of miles to procure one. It had been through British blankets, mainly, that the British talks had succeeded hitherto in wielding the Northwest Indians against us; and this would continue to be the case unless this Government should change its policy, and come into the Indian market with an article equal to that provided for them by him whom they called their British father. The Indians called the English blanket by a name which signified both coat and house. The question, therefore, now presented to the Senate was, whether, by keeping up, for the present, the high rate of duties on foreign blankets, Congress would enable our own citizens, who possessed but a small capital of but a few hundred dollars, to grow wool and manufacture that description of goods to supply our demand; or, by abol ishing the duty, enable the American Fur Company, with its millions, to compete more successfully with the British Fur Company-thereby prostrating our own infant manufactures at the feet of British skill and British capital. To so fatal a policy he would never give his

sanction.

He also objected to that provision of the bill which contemplated the reduction of the duty on foreign distilled spirits and on wines, and regretted that the motion of the honorable Senator from Kentucky [Mr. CRITTEN DEN] to strike it out had not prevailed. These articles, as imported, competed with those of domestic manufac ture. They were not necessaries of life; they were mere luxuries, used chiefly by the rich, who were well able to pay a high price for them. If our wealthy citizens were determined to persevere in the use of them, let them do so; but let us not, to accommodate them, injure our own country. The same remarks would apply to embroide ry, precious stones, perfumeries, and fancy and perfu med soaps, which it was proposed to relieve from duty. The high rates of duty which had been established for the purpose of paying the debts contracted by the rev olutionary and the late war had left the country with an overflowing Treasury; and the Government had but one alternative-either to reduce these duties or to divide a surplus. Between these, he should choose a reduction;