FEB. 10, 1832.] The Tariff. [SENATE. chase in England, at six cents a yard, the precise sort of about it. The oppressiveness of the duty on fine woollens cotton goods as he would have to purchase here at eight may be illustrated by the well avouched fact, that a perand eight and a half cents, and has recently made a ship-son can travel from New York to Montreal and back on ment from that country, either to the East Indies or the saving which will accrue from the purchase of two Pacific Ocean." [Mr. ŠILSBEE said that he could say suits of clothes at the Montreal prices. In support of nothing about the trade to Manilla; his shipment was or- this, I refer to a statement annexed to the speech of the dered to Asia.] Yes sir, we understand this matter per- Senator from South Carolina, exhibiting the tailor's bill at fectly. An assorted cargo has to be made out, and coarse large, the entire accuracy of which is sustained by the cottons make a part of the assortment. They are sent in most satisfactory authority. I state the further fact, the search of a market; and if, as in the case of the shipment error of which, if error there be, can readily be detected Manilla, a temporary scarcity chance to exist at any by a resort to figures, that a yard of cloth, which can be place, a sale is then effected at a small profit; but if no purchased in Liverpool at two dollars, comes to the Amesach scarcity prevail, a loss is sustained. We are con-rican consumer at a price exceeding four dollars per yard. tinually told of the cheap price at which coarse cottons Falling under the two dollars and fifty cents minimum, are sold in this country. Why not then put it to the test? the duty alone is one dollar and sixty-eight and threeRepeal the duty if you can sell as low as the Englishman, fourths cents; to which, if the charges of transportation not only here, but abroad. Abandon this, to my mind, only be added, and nothing allowed for mercantile profit, lle notion of foreign combinations to inundate the coun- the cost is increased to four dollars and eighteen and threetry with their fabrics at a losing price, with the view of fourths cents. breaking down our manufacturers. The foreign me- Take next the article of flannels, on which the honorchanist will no more be willing to play a losing game than able Senator from Kentucky displayed his eloquence and the American mechanist. He requires a reasonable profit wit. The duty on all flannels costing fifty cents per on his labor as well as other people; and he will no more square yard, and less, is twenty-two and a half cents the make us free gifts, than our manufacturers will make to square yard. Now, the flannel which is usually required foreign nations free gifts. The people of the country will for the poor people and working classes, costs from ten to judge of the sincerity of these declarations, by looking twenty cents in England; and is subject to a duty here, nto facts. The first and most important is, that large varying from one hundred and twelve and a half per cent. quantities of cotton goods are brought into the country to two hundred and twenty-five per cent., under the miniand sold at a profit in despite of the high duties; proving mum system-a system, than which nothing is better conclusively the greater cheapness of the fabrics, which, calculated to deceive and mislead--a system which is graAlthough thus burdened, can enter successfully into com-duated upon the false principle of imposing a slighter petition with the domestic fabrics. An article like leno, duty on luxuries than on necessaries; which operates heafor moscheto blinds, costs in England from two to four vily enough in all conscience on the rich, but which grinds cents a yard, and the duty regulated by the price is from the poor into dust and ashes. Flannel of no quality can two hundred and eighteen to four hundred and thirty-five be imported at less than a duty of forty-five per cent.; per cent. If an article costs in England thirty-eight and and if twenty per cent. be added for the charges of im. three-fourths cents per yard, the duty is one hundred per port, the flannel makers are protected by a bounty of from ceat.; and if seventeen and a half cents per yard, the sixty-five to two hundred and twenty-five per cent. This duty is fifty per cent. And yet talk of touching these brings me, sir, to the Saluda gap view of this subject. dities--the American system is to be abandoned, and ruin I would ask no clearer illustration of the operation of this spread over the land; and this declaration is not only made entire system, than the trade between Kentucky and aere, but sustained by the unanimous vote of the Legisla- South Carolina, under the free trade system, and this misture of Pennsylvania. The fact is, that the country is shapen and deformed American system. South Carolina, made to pay from $4,200,000 to $9,000,000 per annum, under the first, exchanges with England her products, at for the support of the cotton manufacturers. My own their lowest point of production, for English products, opinion is, that the last sum is by no means an extravagant at their lowest point of fabrication. Kentucky carries on computation. I have fallen on an estimate which will elu- the same trade with South Carolina, and her supplies are cidate the grindstone system of my honorable friend from obtained at the lowest price also. The ability of South South Carolina, [Mr. HAYNE,] upon a larger scale. It is Carolina to purchase, is limited only by her wants; and Kentaken from Mr. Raguet's valuable paper. It is said that tucky finds the most valuable market there for her stock. 69,000,000 pounds of cotton are manufactured in the The mercantile and navigating interests participate in the aited States. The number of men, women, and chil-advantages of this fair, equal, and profitable trade. Here dren employed is computed at 50,000. Now, if the tax is the golden circle which embraces all, and benefits all. imposed for protection is but one cent per yard, it imposes But, sir, Government sees proper to interpose, and proan annual tax of $2,400,000, which distributes a bounty hibits the traffic between South Carolina and England, of $48 per head on each of the operatives; if two cents a except upon the payment of extravagant duties. What yard, then an annual tax of $4,800,000, and to each is the influence which this interference produces? South operative a bounty of $96; and if three cents, a tax of Carolina has to give for the articles, under an average duty $7,800,000, and a bounty of $144. And this is paid over of fifty per cent, twice as much as under the free and above the full value of the article in foreign markets. trade system, and so does Kentucky; while her ability to The last subject which I shall attempt to follow out carry on the trade with Kentucky is necessarily diminsomewhat into detail, is the woollen manufactures; and ished one-half. Has not this state of things operated most seek as speedily to relieve the Senate from the dryness of injuriously to both? and has not Kentucky sacrificed the this investigation, as I possibly can, in justice to the subject. one-half of a valuable market? Sir, the same reasoning I have before me, sir, a morning paper, which notices a applies to any new market which may be opened to her, recent importation of yarns already "dyed in the wool,” and affects, to the same deleterious extent, her trade with for the manufacture of woollen goods. The wool grower all the South. The honorable Senator [Mr. CLAY] drew does not seem to have the same measure of justice meted us a humorous picture of the Kentuckian wending his out to him, as the sugar planter. The importation of the way to Charleston on the Lord's day, with a turkey under sirup from the cane is considered by the custom-house as his arm, to purchase of some rich nabob a yard of flannel prohibited under the duty on sugar, or, more properly, for his wife and children. Certainly nothing could be subject to the same duty; but the wool duty is avoided by more ridiculous than the figure the Kentuckian would cut, the importation of ready spun yarn, and nothing is said under the influence of the high duty system. Sir, he VOL. VIII.--23 SENATE.] The Tariff. [FEB. 10, 1832. would be told, on reaching Charleston, that his turkey man in New York may have taken it into his head to spewould not pay even the duty on the yard of flannel, much culate upon our necessities. less purchase the flannel itself. $4,000,000 5,497,000 9,000,000 13,000,000 $31,497,000 I have thus terminated the examination which I had But further. The honorable Senator was pleased to proposed, and nothing remains but that the aggregate tax taunt South Carolina for its resolution not to purchase on these four articles be presented. The tax on bar iron Kentucky horses, hogs, and cattle. How did it escape alone, exclusive of all other taxes on iron, which would the honorable Senator, that he was throwing ridicule nearly double it, is, upon his favorite American system? Is it not, in refer- On sugar and molasses, exclusive of white, ence to England, the same as the South Carolina resolves On cotton fabrics, in regard to Kentucky? We will not buy of England at On woollens, the lowest price, but will raise for ourselves, cost what it may. We will not buy of Kentucky at her lowest price, Making an amount on these four items, of but will raise our own hogs, horses, and cattle, cost what From which, if you deduct one-third for possible errors, they may. The parallel appears to me to be perfect; and you have upwards of $20,000,000 annually levied on the yet the first is to be sustained, while the last is ridiculed. industry of the country. I have neither time nor strength The woollen manufactures of this country are sustained to enter further into the arcana of this system. I will at an annual expense of from $6,500,000 to $13,000,000, content myself by reading an extract which has been furestimating the differences between the foreign and do- nished me by a friend, on the subject of British taxation, mestic prices. The correctness of these conclusions may and, as I proceed, Senators can make the application to be tested by any gentleman who will be at the trouble of cur own condition. "The magnitude and severity of investigating the subject. The estimated quantity of taxation may be illustrated by a few comparative facts. woollens produced in the United States, when added to The gin and whiskey that exhilarate John Bull, yield a the amount imported, will furnish the data. For what sum to the Government equal to the revenue of the Spanpurpose is this exorbitant tax imposed? The Senator ish monarchy. The tax levied on beer which slakes his from Kentucky told us, from information derived from thirst, is equal to the revenue of Bavaria. He pays as one who, for ten years, had been engaged in the woollens much on the tea that refreshes his wife, as Francis I draws business, that he had realized but a profit of two per from 6,000,000 Neapolitans; as much on the tobacco cent. for ten years; and the Senator, with emphasis, told which gratifies his appetite, as 4,000,000 Italians pay to us that it was not two per cent. per annum, but two per Charles Felix; as much for the soap which washes his cent. for ten years. Now, sir, can any thing be more hands, as suffices to support the Pope with all his soldiers preposterous, than the levying of those high exactions and retinue; and for the privilege of having daylight in for the support of a concern so absolutely hopeless? How his house, as would fill the coffers of the King of Ham can capital be more unprofitably invested? The truth is, burg. And finally, the taxes levied on his thirst alone, that the effort is made to overstep centuries-to convert, as it variously inclines to brandy, rum, whiskey, beer, or by political nostrums, a youthful nation into one of two wine, exceeds the money paid by 50,000,000 Russians for thousand years' standing. the benefit of paternal despotism." How rapidly we are I cannot take leave of this subject, without giving to imitating this blessed example, I leave to others to decide. the Senate an occurrence which took place in the Com- We are nevertheless told that no relief will be afford mittee on Finance. When we came to the article of negro ed; that the protective system will be sustained. If a clothing, the venerable chairman [Mr. SMITH] proposed man can see the limit, in point of time, to his sufferings, a reduction of the duty to twenty-five per cent. ad valo- he braces himself up, and composedly awaits the arrival I inquired whether any negro clothing was manu- of the period when his sufferings shall cease. The South factured in the United States, and was answered that has endured this system patiently for fifteen years. To nothing specifically such was made. I urged, then, a this day she has looked with all the eagerness which hope total abolition of the duty-represented that it would be and confidence inspires; and now, when the wants of the kindly taken by the South, and would go far to produce Government are gone, she is still told that this iron system harmony. I was answered by the Senator from New will not be relaxed. When, then, will the anticipations York, [Mr. MARCY,] that there was a manufacturer in the of its friends be realized, and an equality of price be es city of New York, with whom he had conversed on that tablished between the fabrics of this country and foreign subject, and from him he had learned that he was about fabrics? The answer must be, when we shall have attained to manufacture something out of coarse cotton to answer a maximum of population equal to that of England. the purpose, and that he had samples of the intended Then, and then only, will this end be brought about. manufacture with him. I desired that they might be Run the contrast, Mr. President, between the situation of shown to me, and they were accordingly produced the the two countries. Go with me to the map of this Union next morning; and here they are, sir. [Mr. T. here ex- and its territories, and tell me when, in the current of hibited two samples resembling corduroy, the one ribbed time, our population will become as dense as that of Eng and the other plain, which were handed about the Senate.] land; when shall our countless and immeasurable wilderI desire Senators to examine it for themselves, and to say ness be threaded? The tide of population has not yet whether this mere holiday stuff, not fit even to be worn reached the foot of the Rocky Mountains; and when shall on a holiday in the month of November, would be accepted arrive the time when it shall overcome those mountains, by them as a substitute for the close, thick, warm article and flow to the shores of the mighty Pacific? Here is which was formerly imported, and in which the laborers spread out before us a region capable of containing a poof the South were formerly clothed; I say formerly, for pulation of 200,000,000 souls, at which distant and unthe importation has ceased, because of the high duty ascertainable day labor will be reduced to the necessity system. The landholder of the South is subjected to the of taking the wages which it now breathes on in Europe. necessity of procuring any thing he can pick up, in order [He here read from a newspaper the following: "The to clothe his slaves; and now we are to be put off with Paris papers announce the complete restoration of tranthis miserable substitute at some distant day when this quillity at Lyons. The only question now is, how the about to be manufactured article shall come to be manu- starving workmen are to be provided for. In a private factured. Sir, I am not choleric or rash; but I confess letter, it is stated that more than one-third of the work that I experience none of the most quiet and peaceable men are without any employment at all, and that the sensations when I am told that we are to be denied the other two-thirds do not earn more than seven to ten abolition of a duty on a necessary article, because some pence a day."] Sir, we hear much talk about colonizing rem. FEB. 10, 1832.] The Tariff. [SENATE. the free blacks of this country, with which this Govern- succeed. Only offer sufficient inducements, and the shutment has nothing more to do than with the inhabitants of tle and the loom would be abandoned for the hothouse. It Siberia, without a previous amendment of the constitu- would come recommended for adoption and support by tion; but what do we see in Great Britain? Every expe- all the considerations which lead to the advocacy of the dient is resorted to, which human ingenuity can devise, American system--independence of foreign nations. And to get rid of the starving whites; and if a new labor-sav- why not be independent of other nations in our supply of ing machine is introduced, it is the signal of riot and con- tropical fruits, as well as in the article of broadcloth? fusion. When, then, will labor be content with the scanty The pineapple system might be found, however, to cost wages in this country that it is across the Atlantic? For too much; and then, if the Government sought to get rid antil the great operative, man, shall be content to earn of it, our ears would be deafened, as they now are, with bat barely enough to keep body and soul together, pro- the cries of plighted faith, public honor, and I know not duction here cannot rival, in cheapness, European produc- what. Our doors would be besieged, as they now are, tion. WiH not America realize Dr. Franklin's tale of the by the adventurers of fortune; and if we from the South boy and the whistle? After all the noise which is made ventured to urge the propriety of modifying or abolishing about home industry, shall we not pay too much for the the system, we should no doubt be told that we were the whistle? advocates of a policy which would recolonize America. I have said that the effort is made to overstep centuries; The honorable Senator from Kentucky was undoubtedto advance from infancy to old age, without waiting for ly right in the prediction in which he indulged when this the due course of nature. This is not the first effort of system was first introduced. He told us that he had then this sort which has been made in this country: a similar foretold the speedy accession of States to its advocacy. effort was made in Virginia in the year 1661. The colo- He was certainly correct. Massachusetts, I well rememRists, whose settlements had not spread more than fifty ber, gave but a single vote in favor of it in 1820. I think miles in any direction from Jamestown, resolved to adopt the member who gave that vote came from Boston, and the silk culture; and the Government, impelled, no doubt, was, for that vote, discarded by his constituents. Let jusby the eloquence of some wise politician, who sought to tice be done to New England; she stood out manfully against rival Henry IV of France, by introducing the silkworm it until after 1824. To New York and Pennsylvania, aidinto Virginia, as Henry had done in France, held out strong ed by the West, are we mainly indebted for this policy. inducements, in the form of bounties, for the planting of the But I put it to the candor of Senators representing here mulberry and the culture of silk. For a time all went on the New States, to say if they do not recognise in our arswimmingly large orchards were planted; and, upon the guments similar arguments to those which they formerly annunciation of the fact, that the then monarch of Eng- urged. And I, moreover, submit to them, without inland had appeared in public, dressed in a full suit of Vir- tending the slightest disrespect, whether they have not ginia silk, you can well imagine the spirit of pride and ex- become the advocates of this system, more from the fact utation which pervaded the colony. But the Government that their States have become interested in and under it, Very soon had the wisdom to see that nature was wiser than from the conviction that the views which they formerthan man; that she beckoned the settlers to the wilder-ly urged were unfounded and erroneous. I make a siminess, and admonished them that the most ready mode of lar appeal to the Senators from Louisiana, and of them I enriching themselves, and benefiting posterity, was to ask, without intending to offend, whether, if the duty on conquer and subdue the earth, and, from that great labo-sugar had not been imposed, they would not have perseatory, to extract not only the necessaries, but the luxuries vered in that line of opposition which formerly drew upon of life. Many of the mulberry trees, then planted, still them the censures of Mr. Carey and Mr. Niles. Sir, this exist in the neighborhood of Williamsburg, and the wind, system is calculated to win by high rewards, rather than as it sighs through their decayed branches, speaks, in plain by conviction. It elevates the money principle above the and intelligible language, of the impotence and folly of all influence of moral and just political causes. It appeals to man policy which is attempted to be set up in opposi- the motives of self-interest, in place of those high and lofty tion to the decrees of nature. My honorable friend in my motives which should alone control, and it appeals not in eye Mr. CoxE] has often looked upon these monuments vain. Sir, this money principle was actively put in moof bygone times, and has, no doubt, regarded them with tion, when, I will not say, and brought to bear on the mingled emotions of regret and ridicule--regret, that our large and fertile county of Shenandoah, which is reprecommon ancestors should have been deaf to the admoni-sented in the other House by my excellent friend, now tions of wisdom; and ridicule, at the puny and abortive before me, [Mr. ALLEN.] A national road was spoken of, effort which they made. Shall we not lay this thing to to run through that county; and numerous surveys were our hearts, and profit by it? Sir, what is the condition of accordingly made. The engineers were almost as famithe United States? and in what does that situation differ liar in the houses of the citizens as their household gods; from Virginia, when she made the experiment of which I and the road was to be laid out so as to run by every man's have spoken? Is the wilderness reclaimed? Is the earth door. But I say it, with pride and with pleasure, that subdued? I need not repeat what I have already said upon the inhabitants of that great valley county could not be the subject, when engaged in another branch of the in-made to yield their principles; and while they were ready quiry. But if the situation of the old States is different, to admit that a good road was a good thing, they neverwhat is the difference between the colony at Jamestown, theless esteemed the preservation of the constitution as a in 1661, and the States of Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri? better thing still. Money, however, has been properly Faere, they are in the midst of a wi derness-a virgin and said to be the key to unlock the strongest fortress; and, fertile soil inviting them to reclaim it; and yet these States sir, it is but too apt to prostrate and destroy all that is are uniting in support of this American system, and agree pure and virtuous in the heart of man; it paves the way to lax the very axe with which the forest is to be felled, to the overthrow of republics, and buries in ruin temples and the spade and plough with which the earth is to be erected to liberty. cultivated. Man cannot worship God and mammon; and if you would preserve the political temple pure No one doubts but that the silk culture might have been and undefiled, it can only be done by expelling the money forced if Government had persevered in bestowing boun- changers, and getting back to the worship of our fathers. ties, and so might the culture of any thing else. If our Here Mr. TYLER, it being at a late hour, gave way wise men should conclude that the raising of pineapples to a motion to adjourn, and the Senate adjourned to Monwould contribute to the encouragement of American in- day. dustry and American wealth, they could undoubtedly On Tuesday following Mr. TYLER resumed his argu SENATE.] The Tariff. [FEB. 10, 1832. avert the dissensions which now so unhappily exist. May ment. He began by apologizing to the Senate for the time which, he feared, he had so unprofitably consumed. The Senate was witness to the infirmity under which he had risen to address it. Their kind indulgence to him, under such circumstances, had sunk deep into his heart. He searched his heart to ascertain whether he could find lurking within it any feeling of selfishness or of party; and, after the most careful examination, he could find nothing You have been told, Mr. President, that Virginia was comof the sort. He was compelled to enter into this discus-ing into the advocacy of this system, and that her conversion, and now to continue it, exclusively from a sense of sion would take place in seven years. Let no man " lay duty to the country. Least of all have I been influenced this flattering unction to his soul." Her constancy and by any vain or idle conceit that I could enter the lists suc- perseverance have been tested by another branch of this cessfully with the honorable Senator from Kentucky. 1 system-one which deeply addressed itself to her interest; have only sought to break the deep spell of his enchant- and yet she has resisted it, and her resistance continues ment; and, if justice and equality in the operations of unabated. The honorable Senator is well aware that no Government are not mere empty and unmeaning terms, State in this Union requires more the advantages of good I flatter myself that I have not been wholly unsuccessful. roads and channels of intercommunication. I trust, most What party purpose am I subserving? With what party sincerely, that her wants in this respect will be liberally am I allied on this question? Where, sir, is the great do- supplied out of the exchequer of the State; but, sir, she minant party of the country--the Jackson party? Its asks no boon at the hands of this Government, and depreligaments are torn asunder on this great and vital question; cates, above all things, its interference in her local affairs. and the members of that party, on this floor, from this She may become the advocate of this system, but not until side of the Potomac, with, I believe, but two exceptions, she shall have abandoned the high political motives on are found under the outspread banner of the Senator from which she has ever acted. When justice to others shall Kentucky, [Mr. CLAY,] who wields an influence over the have ceased to operate upon her; when she shall have legislation of Congress, as I verily believe, more power-elevated her petty and ephemeral interests above and over ful and more controlling than any other man, or set of men, the constitution, then, and not before, will she be broken in this country, the manufacturers, and they alone, except- into the advocacy of this American system. ed. We, from the South, look in vain for our allies; we I know that the effort is making to sever, in sentiment are thrown upon our own unaided resources; and yet, sir, and feeling, Eastern and Western Virginia. I have the I would have you set it down in your note-book, and let firmest confidence in the wisdom and prudence of my fel the historian preserve a faithful record of the fact, that if low-citizens, both of the East and West; and that inspires a Senator from Virginia, however high the obligations of me with the hope that all such efforts will be unavailing. public duty may be which impel him, votes against a I have even heard something said about a division of the nomination to office, or differs from the administration State. I have but a single sentiment to express upon that on any question, no matter what may be his reasons, the subject, and it is, "Virginia now, and Virginia forever." welkin is made to ring with loud notes of condemnation, I trust that the jarring which will, as surely as man is man, and the whole pack are let loose full-mouthed at his heels. occur in all deliberative bodies, and has occurred in our Where are those public sentinels now, sir? What has be- Legislature, will pass off as a summer cloud, leaving in the come of their sleepless vigilance? Where now their high horizon no trace of its existence. Upon this tarifi ques regard for the good of the country? Are they asleep upon tion, sir, there can be no division of feeling marked out by their posts, amidst "the rocking of these battlements?" geographical lines. The exactions levied on the industry And will they not arouse themselves on a question so vital of the West are as great in their oppression as those levied and absorbing as the present--a question which, without on the East. Whether produce consist in tobacco, wheat, a metaphor, may be regarded as big with the fate of this cotton, or stock, the articles of consumption come to each republic? equally taxed, under the additional disadvantage to the When I finished the other day, I was commenting on a West, that inasmuch as the Atlantic country is their prinremark which had fallen from the Senator from Kentucky, cipal market, whatever is calculated to impoverish that [Mr. CLAY,] in reference to the advance which this sys- market, must inevitably affect Western industry. The tem had made. I appealed to Senators to say if they had reasoning which I have before employed in regard to become converts from conviction that the arguments they the trade between Kentucky and South Carolina, applies had opposed to it formerly were unfounded; or whether in full force to Western and Eastern Virginia. I need not their conversion had not been brought about by the all- express the obligations of gratitude under which I lie to powerful and controlling circumstance that the States Western Virginia for the elevation, in the public eye, which they represented had become interested in the which I have, from time to time, experienced. I can never measure. appealed to them then, as I now do, to know so far forget myself as to hesitate in espousing her inte whether they did not recognise in our arguments those on rests; but, in my honest opinion, this protective system is which they formerly relied. I did this, sir, in no taunting at war with the interests of all Virginia, both Eastern and spirit. My object was to induce them to re-weigh their Western; and it is due to myself that I should have exarguments; to review the ground which they formerly pressed my opinions honestly, and, therefore, fearlessly, occupied; and then to inquire whether they would unite upon it. in the cry against the complaining and rebellious South. If you can go into the interior of a State, and look into There were some speeches delivered in Congress and the employments of her citizens--to bestow favors on some, elsewhere, which were considered conclusive; one, in par- and lay exactions on others--what can you not do? Where ticular, raised the gentleman who delivered it high ins the limit to the power of this Government? You pay Southern esteem. Could that gentleman have heard with domiciliary visits. You find the owner of the house what praise his name was pronounced; could he have wit-dressed in English broadcloth, and you prescribe its use, nessed the pleasure that beamed from almost every eye, under the penalty of heavy taxes. You glance at the winwhen that great effort in the cause of his country was dow, and the light is admitted through glass imported spoken of, his heart would have thrilled with a sensation from abroad; your patriotism is immediately kindled, and of more value than the possession of empires. He looked its use is also proscribed under similar penalties. His to the whole country, bound in no manacles of sectional family is clothed in cambrics, and cottons, and calicoes, interest; he pryed deeply into the future, and tried to from abroad, and straightway your patriotic fervor boils FEB. 10, 1832.] over. Not content with this, you range over his farm; obtains from England, it is obvious that he drives an the plough, the hoe, the axe, the spade, arrest your atten- equally advantageous trade with both; but suppose that tion, all made of English iron, and he is startled with a France raises the price of her broadcloths and other doleful cry, and to his astonishment he is informed that he manufactures, and demands double the price that Engis pursuing a course which will recolonize America. Let land requires, would the cotton planter continue to exgentlemen carry out this system, and where is it to end? change with France for a single day? No, sir; not an Suppose that Government should conclude that the wear- hour. If he did, he would soon realize the effect of selling ing of American wigs would be highly conducive to cheap and buying dear, in the utter ruin which would overpublic prosperity, and should lay a heavy tax on every take him; and I ask if such would not be the effect upon man who should not wear a wig; would it not be in keeping the trade to the Northern States if the ports were opened. with the rest of the system? Sir, I cannot conceive of Would we exchange our cotton, tobacco, corn, flour, rice, any thing which the wit of man can devise, so full of incon-pork, and beef, for iron, at ninety dollars the ton, when gruities, not to say absurdities. we could exchange with England for her iron at twentyfive the ton? Or, would such exchanges be carried on for other articles under similar disadvantages? The common sense of every man would answer the question in the negative. My honorable friend from South Carolina, in the course of his able argument, attempted to show, and I must think he fully succeeded, that a duty of fifty per cent. subducted from the producer the benefit of one-half of his export. The Senator from Kentucky, however, pronounced him mis- I come now, Mr. President, to analyze the argument of taken, and periled his life upon the issue. He inquired, the honorable Senator, on which he planted himself with in a triumphant tone, how this could be possible, unless so much confidence, viz. that the tariff had been the cause the Senate came to the conclusion that a duty of one hun- of a reduction in prices. I have already, to a great exdred and fifty per cent. not only absorbed the whole value tent, answered this by the analysis into which I have gone of the export, but, moreover, brought the farmer fifty on the subject of iron, woollens, cottons, and sugar. That per cent. in debt. The error of the honorable Senator there has been a diminution in foreign prices, and in some Mr. CLAY] consists in his taking off the duty, instead of instances in home prices, I do not mean to deny. But laying it on. To take one hundred and fifty from one that is not the question. The real question, and the one hundred, would puzzle arithmetic; but, sir, the case is of deep and absorbing interest, is, whether home prices this. If the farmer exports one hundred dollars worth have fallen to the same common level with the prices of of tobacco, corn, or cotton, he would exchange but fifty husbandry, and with foreign prices. That they have not, dollars of his export in articles subject to a duty of one has been made sufficiently obvious. It is an argument hundred per cent., and would bring home fifty dollars in against every day's experience. Take any one article, cash to meet the duty, which would make him obviously for instance, the article of wine, and prohibit the importhe loser to the amount of one-half of his export. But, tation of it, and every body knows that the effect would take an article subject to a duty of one hundred and fifty be instantaneous in advancing the price. Now, sir, a parper cent-iron, for example. One thousand dollars worth tial exclusion by high duties produces, as far as it goes, of produce is exported to England, the shipment being similar effects. The fact is, that the tariff has produced made with a view to purchase iron. The exporter would the very opposite effect from that contended for. While be compelled to purchase but four hundred dollars worth of iron, and to bring home with him six hundred in money in order to meet the duty exacted here. Can any thing serve more clearly to illustrate the magnitude of this oppression, than the very case which I have taken? And does not the same result take place if he exchanges with the American manufacturer? Remember, sir, that the duty enters to the price, and the same quantity of produce will therefore procure but the same quantity of iron at home or abroad. Is not, then, the argument of my honorable fend from South Carolina fully sustained? If so, I can but recommend to my honorable friend the exercise of the spirit of clemency towards the Senator from Kentucky. He has forfeited a high stake, and I trust that the forfeiture will be remitted without hesitation. every thing has fallen in Europe to the minimum price of production, the tariff interposes, and prevents the same effect here. Thus, while sugar has fallen in the islands from fourteen cents to one and a half, it is here upheld by the tariff at from six to nine, and other articles are similarly circumstanced. The law of price operates uniformly throughout the world, and, unless obstacles are interposed by Government, will find its level with as much certainty as that the mountain stream will continue to flow on until it attains the level of the ocean. The honorable Senator might have found, in the state of the currency, the true cause for the reduction of prices, both at home and broad. In 1816, the redundancy of the circulating medium in this country was estimated by Mr. Crawford, the then Secretary of the Treasury, at sixty per cent. beyond the wants The honorable Senator has attempted to convince us of of the country. Now, money is like every other article the importance of the home market to the cotton growers. in market; when the supply exceeds the demand, the value This view is, if possible, more deceptive than the home falls; two dollars, if only one be wanting, sink to the value market for grain, produced by this system. It proceeds of the one; and the two will, therefore, only purchase to upon the supposition that it requires more cotton goods the amount of the one. This creates a nominal price, in to supply our consumption, when manufactured here, than contradistinction to the true price; and this was our conin England-a fallacy so obvious, that it requires no argu-dition after the war with England. Nor was this state of ment to refute it. The same view would be equally un- things confined to this country. The war which had so sound when applied to the supply of the world. To the cot- long desolated Europe, produced there, also, a reduntongrower it must be ever a matter of perfect indifference, dancy of circulating medium. The banks there, as here, all things being equal, whether one country or more sup- had to suspend specie payments; and the general resumpplies the world in cotton fabrics. But a certain quantity tion of specie payments occurred there at very much the of cotton is required for that supply; and the demand same time it did here. They commenced here in the Is the same to the extent of that quantity, no matter what year 1816, to a limited extent, but were not universally nation may deal out the supply. I do not mean to deny resumed until 1819-20. The resumption in England was but that he might be benefited by multiplying his markets, gradual, beginning with the one pound notes, and terminatprovided he carried on a barter on principles of equality ing in a general resumption about the year 1824. Now, with all. But, sir, suppose two nations to be his customers, the tariff of 1816 imposed a duty equivalent to an average and he their customer. Take England and France, for of thirty per cent., and this undoubtedly served to counterexample. Now, so long as he procures from France, in act the effects of a reduction of the circulating medium *xchange for his cotton, the same quantity of articles as he to the extent of the duty. The tariff law, in other words, |