must be so as long as your laws make a discrimination against it ; but the object of this bill is to place our citizens upon a just equality with their foreign rivals, and thus to enlarge their business, and add to the wealth and prosperity of the nation, without injury or inconvenience to any man. TONNAGE DUTY. EARLY in the session of 1828-9, Mr. Sprague offered a Resolution, instructing the Committee of Ways and Means, to inquire into the expediency of repealing the Tonnage Duties upon ships and vessels of the United States, and such foreign vessels, as had a right to be put upon an equality with our own, which was adopted by the House. Mr. Sprague, subsequently, by authority of that Committee, of which he was a member, made a full Report, accompanied by a Bill to repeal those duties. It passed the House at the same session, but was not then taken up in the Senate. At the next session, it passed both branches, and became a law. The following speech was made in the first debate upon the subject in the House. |