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MAY 4, 1830.]

The Tariff.

879 [H. OF R.

that it is a matter of utter indifference with him how the avails are expendet? Can any thing be more appa- this doctrine of bounties. The gentleman says, in subLeaving, then, the first branch of the subject, I come to rent than that the manufacturers of woollens or silks, if stance, that the good will of a majority of the American the avails should be expended in these articles, would in people is secured by the disbursement of forty-five per no respect be benefited by this reservation of forty-five cent. of the whole fruits of the labor of the South among per cent. in the pocket of the purchaser of the cotton? them; and how are these disbursements made? Not in Can any thing be more evident than if such a deduction money. No one pretends that any money is distributed, were made and reserved by the purchaser, it would be for the money arising from imposts comes into the treasuclear gain to him, without aiding in any manner to pay the ry, and is used to defray the exigencies of the Governduties on such merchandise as the owner of the cotton ment. I take it for granted that the gentleman means no might see fit to take in return? If the manufacturer of more by a disbursement of bounties, than I have already cotton paid in cotton goods, he might afford them cheap-intimated-he means, that the price of goods is raised in er; but he cannot compel others to sell their goods cheap- the market by the duties on foreign merchandise; and, in er, because he has reserved to himself forty-five per cent. consequence of that, our maufacturers realize more for out of the cargo. ing the duties on imports, it is nothing but the old doctheir goods. If this be all that is meant by exports paytrine under a new name-it comes to nothing more than what has always been familiar to us in all discussions upon this subject-it is what every opposer of the protection of home industry has contended for, namely, that the means to assert that there is a loss somewhere, between consumer is burdened with the duty, unless the gentleman the sale of raw produce and the sale of goods, to the consumer. If there be such a loss, or any loss which goods, on being sold, do not indemnify, I will show that it does not fall on the planter.

apparent that foreign goods come charged with all expenses into our market, and, if any one is burdened, it is the consumer.

I will not weary patience by pursuing this matter further; for, if I do not greatly mistake, I have shown enough to prove the unsoundness of the doctrine, that exports pay the duty on imports-that the planters of the South pay two-thirds of the revenue, because they export two-thirds of the amount of produce which goes out of the country. I have felt much solicitude to understand the gentleman from South Carolina [Mr. MCDUFFIE] correctly, for I thought he put forth a new doctrine, such as I have been commenting upon. He has risen twice to explain, and by his explanation has placed the question on ground somewhat different from my understanding of the general tenor of his argument. As I am about passing from and considered the planter as transacting the business, for I have thus far thrown aside the machinery of trade, this part of the subject to another, I will state how I now the purpose of disencumbering the subject; but it becomes understand him, and hope he will correct me if I am wrong. necessary now to look at business as it is. I understand him now to say that the price of cotton is does not usually ship his produce, but sells it to the not affected in the foreign market by the tariff, but still American merchant, who pays him for it all it is worth The planter the planters are burdened with the payment of two-thirds in the English market, saving freight and charges, and of the revenue, under the operation of the tariff in some pays him in money. If, therefore, any loss ensues afterother way. I have already intimated that, if his argument wards, by taking merchandise in exchange for it, this loss could not be maintained by showing the planter suffered falls on the merchant, and not upon the planter. That no a loss in the sale of his produce, the only disputable such intermediate loss occurs, is rendered sufficiently cerground left was upon the question whether he suffers to tain by the fact that merchants always have, and still conthe amount alleged as a consumer of foreign merchandise. tinue to carry on trade. It would seem very obvious, The gentleman, after laboring at great length to prove therefore, that the merchant gets indemnified for all his that the duties fell on the growers of cotton, rice, and to- costs and charges, whether they arise from duties or merbacco, said the evil did not stop here: if it did, the coun-chandise, or any other cause; and it seems to be equally try would not bear a system so unjust and ruinous in its operation a moment. But [said he] forty-five per cent. of our labor is arrested at the custom-house, and disbursed as a bounty among the manufacturers of the United States. If the doctrine be true, which was thrown out in the argument of the gentleman, that the manufacturer of England reduces the price of raw cotton, because he cannot raise the price of goods, and thus takes the duty out of the planter, it would destroy this argument respecting bounties; for if the tariff does not raise the price of English merchandise here, but leaves it where it was before the passage of the law, it is difficult to see how it affords a bounty to the manufacturers of this country; indeed, we have the declaration of the gentleman himself, that the manufacturers are right when they say the price of goods has not increased much. I will not, however, press this argument, as it seems not to be admitted that the duties are not taken out of the raw produce, but will dismiss it with one remark: if the duties are paid on the raw produce, they are not paid also by the consumer; it is therefore necessary, either to abandon the ground that the English manufacturer controls the market, and reduces the price, because he cannot raise the price of his goods, or to give up the position that the manufacturers here receive a bounty, as a bounty, as it is called, rests entirely on the supposition that foreign merchandise is made dearer in our market by the duties, and that the consumer pays the dif ference. One argument proves that the planter, as producer, pays the duties, the other that the consumer pays them thus they are twice paid, if both arguments are well founded.

might be no misapprehension about it, for I am aware that I have been thus particular on this point, that there the worthy gentleman from South Carolina has been considered as putting forth a new doctrine, as giving a new explanation of the effect of the revenue system upon the South; but I believe, as the matter now stands, it is but a new name for an old acquaintance.

bears the burden of the Government, and pays two-thirds He, however, persists in the opinion that the South of the revenue. He insists that, out of sixty millions of imports, his three millions of inhabitants consume forty millions. I have anticipated nearly all that need be said in answer to this argument. I shall, however, make a few additional observations. There are no exact data by which this point in controversy can be settled, but I will appeal to the judgment of all persons acquainted with the population of the South to settle the question by their own observation. Slaves constitute a considerable portion of this population, and no one, I think, will contend that they consume much foreign merchandise, nor is there any reason for believing that the white population consume more largely than the population of any other region. The gentleman himself assures us they are too poor, too deeply involved, to spend diffusely. The climate of the northern and middle regions is more severe, and calls for more clothing and greater expenditures to make life comfortable; and, if the truth could be reached on this question, there is little doubt that the inhabitants of the

880

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The Tariff.

[MAY 4, 1830.

with asserting, and on all occasions reiterating the assertion
that duties are taxes, grievous, burdensome taxes, grinding
down and oppressing the poor, and robbing the rich.
There is good reason for this, as no such proof can be
adduced. We have experience in this matter, which will
afford much useful instruction, if we but listen to it. I
will go no further back than 1824, when the complaints,
which have reached to this day, began. The tariff of
duties was then increased, and it was then insisted, with
prophetic confidence, that goods would rise, and the law
bear upon the public with grievous weight; but time proved
that the prophets were not inspired, for goods declined,
notwithstanding the duties, until they were sold at prices
ruinously low.

Then came the much abused law of 1828, which I do not
approve of in all respects, and the same desponding tone
was again heard-the same misery and ruin from taxes were
again depicted in strong colors; but history again runs coun-
ter to prophecy, for goods fell, instead of rising, and were
If they fail
never known so low in the market, as during the last year.
These are strong and very conclusive facts.
of producing conviction, as I have no doubt they will, it is
in vain for me to attempt the hopeless task of doing it, for
there will be unbelievers.

northern and middle regions would prove to be the greatest consumers on an average. The gentleman, however, assigns about three millions of persons to the cotton, rice, and tobacco region, and about nine millions to the residue of the country. He assigns to the three millions forty millions of imported merchandise, and to the nine millions twenty millions of like merchandise. The bare statement of the case, I am sure, must convince every one that the premises assumed cannot be maintained. But there is another consideration which demonstrates the fallacy of the argument. We have been told by the gentleman and bis colleague [Mr. BLAIR] that the West drives a large trade with the South in agricultural products, to the amount of several millions of dollars, and that the North and East also participate in this trade, and yet the whole amount of their labor, being in cotton, tobacco, and rice, is consumed in foreign merchandise, for the gentleman says the market of this country is the most miserable in the world, affording them nothing worth naming. The inference is readily made, where do they, upon this view of the matter, find the means of taking these large supplies, if they consume foreign products equal to the amount of their whole labor How do they pay for stock and provisions from the West, and for the produce from the North? Can any evidence Taxes are a popular theme; the very term itself excites show more clearly that the avails of labor are applied to this purpose, and that they are not all spent upon foreign jealousy, and often resentment, for great efforts are made merchandise? Can any proof show more satisfactorily to establish a conviction in the public mind, that the people that the South does not take dutiable articles in pay for are laboring under heavy burdens where none exist, and their exported products to the extent represented, and they are often called upon to war against their best interests, that they do not consume such articles to the extent repre- under the delusive hope of bettering their condition. This sented? On the whole, without enlarging upon this topic, may account for much of the complaint we hear, though I it seems to be manifest that the South is no more bur-entertain no doubt of the sincerity of gentlemen from the dened, as consumers, than all other portions of the country, and has as little occasion to complain as any other region,

South, who oppose the tariff on this floor.

As they charge us with false reasoning, when we assert the competition of our manufacturers with foreign produe Having pointed out what I consider some of the leading tions reduces the price, instead of burdening the consumer 'errors in the opinions and reasoning of the member from with a tax, I shall proceed to show that such is but the natuSouth Carolina, I now come to a very interesting and im-ral operation of the protecting system, and that those who portant portion of the matter in debate. I have hitherto met his arguments, and examined them, as if it were a question on which the burden of taxation is devolved by the impost laws; and having, as I believe, established the fact, that, so far as duties operate as taxes, the South does not participate beyond its just proportion, I shall now proceed to point out what appears to me to be the operation and effect of the revenue system.

The great cause of complaint has beeu, that these laws, by imposing duties on imported goods, raise the price, and subject the consumers to a tax, because it is said that a duty is a tax; and if it has the effect imputed to it, I agree that the assertion is well founded. As complaint has identified itself mostly with cotton and woollen fabrics, I shall confine my remarks principally to them.

Labor lies at the bottom of most human affairs. All assume that duties are necessarily taxes, are in deep error. property, no matter by whom possessed, nor to what use applied, is the fruit of labor. The rich are made so by amassing together the earnings of those who toil from day to day. It is now a period of general peace and plenty provisions and merchandise are abundant and cheap beyond former example, and yet there is much distress and embar perplexed rassment; we hear, by every arrival, of the money pressure in Europe, and we have felt it here. Many are to understand this state of things; but if we go back, and trace the history of events, we shall find there is no mys tery in it. From the commencement of the French reve She had armies and lution forward for twenty-five years, Europe was involved in a succession of disastrous wars, navies, numerous beyond all former example, fed and sustained at the public expense, while they devastated the country, and destroyed the property of individuals.

dis

We manufacture these articles; and the argument is, that not only foreign fabrics, but our own, are increased in price equal to the amount of duties. But nothing can be The peace of 1815, which restored general repose, more evident than the falsity of this reasoning, in its general application; for cotton cloths are daily sold in the banded by far the larger portion of these troops, put a stop market for from six to eight cents a yard, which, if im to demands for new levies, and those who had been fed ported, would be subject to a duty of thirty-five cents the and sustained by the labor of others began to work fo square yard. It would be difficult to persuade a man that their own support. In this way the laboring population he pays a tax of thirty-five cents the yard, when the arti- was greatly increased, and the annual products of labor cle costs but six cents. This remark is applicable to a were greatly multiplied. The natural effect upon the mar large portion of our manufactures, and shows how inatten-kets of the world is precisely what we have witnessed. tive to matters of fact gentlemen are, who declaim against duties as onerous taxes.

If duties are taxes, the fact is capable of clear, demonstrative proof; for if a duty of a dollar a yard be levied on cloth, it will immediately be worth a dollar more, and every one who buys will find himself paying the tax, provided such is the effect of a duty. Yet, easy as it seems to be to adduce such proof, no gentleman has ever hazarded the attempt to do it; but all have contented themselves

The increase of production in all branches of industry has overloaded the market with almost every kind of thing to which human labor applies itself, and the value has fallen, and fallen upon a principle familiar to every boy that sells eggs from his basket, or tape from the counter: when an article is abundant, it is cheap; when scarce, it is dear

Let us now bring these facts home, and see in what manuer they have borne upon the affairs of this country. During this long and destructive war, our country was a

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neutral power, and the unnatural state of Europe threw | process has been making its way in England, we have ininto our hands a great and profitable trade, which took off vested a large capital in the woollen trade also, and now our agricultural produce at great prices, and the nation employ probably more than a hundred thousand laborers advanced in wealth and power beyond example. Our in the manufacture of woollen cloths. Nothing can be workshops were then in England, and we paid her labor- more evident than that the increased labor of England, ers for most of the manufactured articles we purchased. combined with our own, must greatly augment the amount We gave her the best market she had for her surplus pro- of goods thrown annually into the market. What is the ducts, and paid extravagant prices. The gentleman from effect? The markets are filled to repletion, and prices South Carolina has told us that England sustained herself, fall. And why do prices fall? Because an increased conin this contest against the world, by disbursing annually a sumption is required to take off the supply; a man has hundred millions of public money, which gave vigor and ten dollars, which he can spare from his earnings to buy activity to business; but all the advantages derived from this kind of cloth; if it will buy only five yards, he must that source must have been far short of the value of her content himself with that; but if it will buy ten yards, it trade with us. She drew from us a large share of the re-contributes more largely to his comfort and happiness. sources by which she subsidized Europe, and maintained This illustrates the ordinary operations of business. As herself against the almost undivided front of that conti- prices decline, consumption increases, because the public nent. Her population labored for us, and took from us have ability to buy more. What I have said of woollens the money to pay the heavy taxes imposed upon them. is equally applicable to cottons, leather, hats, glass, and all Yes, sir, the United States, by giving employ to the labor- the other manufactures, which employ a large portion of ers of England, contributed largely, very largely, to build our population. It is the increased number of laborers, up the power and wealth of that enterprising country, and and the increased supply of goods, which forces the value it may well be doubted whether she could have sustained downward; and the same principle has been operating herself through that arduous confliet without this resource. upon agricultural products, until it has brought them down The peace of 1815 constitutes a new era in our affairs. where they are, and the value of land with them. It is The controlling influence in the trade of the world, which plenty, and not want that oppresses the world; it is the the chances of war had thrown upon us, perished when want of markets, and not the want of merchandise. repose was restored. Nations, whose affairs had been While English labor is at work with great activity, ours deranged under the wasting influence of war, and whose is no less industrious. It matters not with what power citizens had sought a precarious existence, where it could our labor bears upon theirs, because they work, as the be had, returned to the cultivation of the earth, and re- gentleman from South Carolina says, for bread, and must sumed the arts of peace. The ocean expanded its bosom work on, or starve, if wages run down to a penny a day; to receive them, and channels of trade, which had been and the less pay they get, the harder they must work to obstructed by British power, were opened, and business support themselves. A pressure upon them, therefore, by renewed. The commerce and traffic which we had enjoy-severe competition, diminishes the value of capital and ed under an unnatural state of things, was now transferred labor, but does not tend materially to diminish the quanto its rightful proprietors; and those whom we had fed with the products of our soil now began to feed themselves, and we were driven back upon our own resources, and the trade which grows out of them.

tity of goods annually made. There can be no new division of English labor. They have no wild lands to flee to, as a refuge from starvation; nor can they drop one branch of manufacturing, and enter into another, to any We have become manufacturers. I need not detain great extent, for the value of labor has as strong a tenthe committee to point out all the operating causes which dency to equalize itself, as water has to come to a level; have brought us into that business; but it is well known and the operation of this principle has already filled all that the policy of this Government has been such, that our employments. They cannot therefore stop, manufacturdestiny in New England could not be avoided, and we ing woollens or cottons, whatever may be the pressure felt have been forced, I believe I may say against public sen- from our pursuing the business, so long as the employment timent, into that employment. The Government, by a will give bread to the laborer; all they can do is to sell series of measures, beginning as far back as 1807, has goods cheap, by reducing the price of labor, and realizing brought us to the position we occupy; and the policy can- less profit on capital. Their destiny is fixed, and they not now be abandoned, without producing a shock that must be our competitors. There is no mystery, therewould prostrate the community. If earlier events had fore, in the decline of cotton and woollen goods. The not given rise to manufacturing, the peace of 1815 pro-acting principle is the same that reduces the fare in opposbably would: for, while other nations shut out of their ing lines of steamboats and stages. It would scarcely markets the agricultural products of two-thirds of the have been credited a few years ago, that the fare of a pasUnion, I am not able to comprehend how the population senger from New York to Albany would be reduced from can exist if they are all farmers, for labor must be divided to supply mutual wants.

six to one dollar, and the business be continued; nor would a prophet have gained credence, who, ten years ago, should have foretold that cottons would now be purchased for six cents, as good as were then selling for twenty-five cents.

He who can understand that ten men can perform more service than five, need not be at a loss for reasons to explain the decline in the value of cotton and woollen goods. It is the competition of labor-the increased production of the article-a competition which English labor cannot shun, and which they must be content to meet under every disadvantage, unless they and our adversaries here can sueceed in breaking down our manufacturers.

We are manufacturers as well as farmers-that is our present condition; and what is the effect produced by our labor upon the price of such articles as we fabricate? Here is the great point in controversy. Those opposed to us say they are dearer, and complain of the burden; we think there is little cause for this complaint, and believe that every one who examines into the subject with candor, having a single determination to reach the truth, will soon be convinced that the doctrine which is main tained, that duties are necessarily taxes, is a radical error. I desire that the matter should be seen as it is. We manufacture woollens, and so do the English. They supplied both their own and our demands until we began to clothe ourselves. The peace has increased their number of la borers in all branches of industry, as is admitted by the gentleman from South Carolina, and of course the amount of goods annually produced is increased. While this presented. VOL. VI-111.

This is, I hope, a plain and intelligible view of the operations of manufacturing in this country; and I leave gentlemen to settle the question for themselves, whether the system of revenue is a system of bounties and taxes, grinding down the poor, and robbing the rich, as has been re

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[MAY 4, 1830.

I will now ask the attention of the committee to another would be diminished, and the quantity produced be lessened. view of the subject. The doctrine advanced by the gentle- How would it be with cotton? The causes which would man from South Carolina is very broad and comprehen- diminish goods, would tend to increase the quantity of cotsive. It aims at an entire revolution in trade; for he pro- ton annually produced. Under the change of policy, the poses to appropriate the markets of this country to the use labor of the South would not be diminished, while that of of the planter, to enable him to sell such merchandise as other portions of the United States, being thrown out of he may receive in pay for cotton, rice, and tobacco. It of business, would seek employ where it could realize most course, aims at the destruction, not of cotton and woollen profit. If sugar should not be cultivated, then that disestablishments alone, but of all manufactures, or his object trict of country must grow cotton; all the cotton now conwill not be attained. The purpose seems to be to drive sumed in our manufactures would, in addition, be sent into home competition out of the market, to give place to fo- the markets of Europe. These causes combined would reign goods, and this cannot be accomplished short of the greatly increase the amount of that article exported annudestruction of manufacturing-for while we continue to ally; and, if the aggregate of cotton is increased, while make goods, we shall be competitors for the market. the aggregate of goods is diminished, the inference is obSuppose the object of the gentleman should be accom-vious; the price of goods would rise, while the price of cotplished, and all the population engaged in the manufac- ton would sink. ture of cotton, wool, hemp, leather, furniture, salt, nails, cutlery, and the numerous other branches which I need not name, should be turned out of their employments, and forced back upon the soil for subsistence, and all the capital employed in these arts should be sacrificed? What would be the effect upon the trade and prospects of the country? The first effect would be to depopulate the North; for when these occupations cease, the farmer will cease to have any object to cultivate the soil, as he will have no market for the products of his labor. And I can assure the gentleman from South Carolina, that, if the South were to have undisputed possession of our market, under such circumstances, they would have but a miserable prospect of thrift in it, for we should have no means of paying for their imported merchandise.

Suppose, then, I repeat, that the deadly blow which this policy aims, should fall upon us, our factories should stop, and the business of manufacturing, in all its various kinds, and with its thousand ramifications, should be brought to a perpetual stand, and the vast population which live by it, and give life and joy to the whole community, should be driven, as they must be if you take away the power of earning food, back into the wilderness, upon savage life, to sustain a precarious existence-what benefit, I ask, can result even to the South by this process of desolation? The inquiry is not put with the hope of convincing any one of the folly of pursuing such a policy; but there is much in it worthy of attentive consideration, as it touches very nearly the interests of gentlemen who seek to drive competition from our markets, by placing them under the conThe next obvious effect would be to diminish the num-trol of foreign industry. I beg of them to examine the ber of persons and the amount of capital engaged in manu-matter with candor, and decide for themselves whether facturing; for, while we dismiss all our own population they do not mistake their own interests.

from these pursuits, England cannot increase the number Cannot gentlemen find other causes for the depression of her laborers. All who work for a living are obliged to of business besides the tariff If the value of lands, or labor now, and to the utmost extent of their power, be- the value of produce, or of any other property, declines, cause labor is cheap, and bands that work for bread can- it is immediately ascribed to the revenue system. Every not be idle. There would therefore be a clear diminution thing evil, and nothing good, is imputed to the laws. The of laborers, equal to the number of persons engaged in gentleman from South Carolina has gone so far as to assert such employment in this country. It follows, that a less that the fall of property is a tax springing from this source. quantity of goods would be produced, and prices would But I cannot learn that property in the South has declined rise, while our ability to buy would be diminished, because more in value than elsewhere. It has experienced a great our labor would cease to be productive. If the gentleman depression in all trading countries, and the cause is obvi from South Carolina imagines the South would reap such ously over-production from the great activity of labor. If profits from this state of things as has been represented, goods and produce fall, land and other property must follow. he is mistaken, for another reason. If his policy makes I can find an easy and satisfactory solution of the delabor and capital of no value in one part of the Union, pressed value of cotton, without charging it upon the tariff. while it may be employed to great advantage in another, In 1818, we exported ninety-two millions of pounds to the population he oppresses will, in self-defence, and from foreign countries, and the amount has gone on increasing, necessity, become competitors for the profits of a good until, a 1827, we exported two hundred and ninety-two milbusiness. The labor and capital of the North and East lions of pounds. I have no account of the two last years, will be carried into the business of the South, until cotton, and therefore cannot speak of them. While in this period rice, and tobacco are brought as low, by over-production, of nine years the exports have more than tripled, we have as other agricultural products; for labor in one branch of greatly increased our own consumption, by multiplying business can never maintain an ascendancy in profit over our factories. In addition to this, the quantity produced others for any length of time. in Brazil, Egypt, and other foreign countries, has been much augmented, so that in truth the market is glutted with the article; and it is rather matter of surprise that it maintains itself where it is, than that it has declined. The raw cotton has, for the last three years, varied very little in value, while cloths have fallen from ten to five cents the yard. Can the planter see nothing in all this but the with ering influence of the tariff! Can he not comprehend that if the supply outruns the demand, the article must sink in value, and that the fall is not the work of the tariff, but his own work?

Again: if the revenue system is to be overturned, the effect will probably be as deeply felt by the sugar planter as any citizen of the United States-for no one feels a stronger dependence on a protecting duty. Suppose that interest should fall a victim to the policy, would it bring with it no injurious consequences to the South? Is it not well known that the production of sugar gives an increased value to slaves, because it opens the best and almost the only valuable market for that kind of property? Gentlemen can judge better than I can, how much their property will suffer; but if I am rightly informed, the overthrow of the sugar planters would be more deeply felt than any operations of the tariff.

I have already expressed a belief that the state of things which seems to be so earnestly coveted would probably raise the price of goods-because the number of laborers

I may as well here notice another statement of the gentleman, which I thought rather extravagant. He said that Mississippi paid a tax into the treasury of the United States, under the revenue system, of twelve hundred thousand dollars annually; and, in another part of his argument, he informed us that she exported to the amount of three mil

MAY 4, 1830.]

comment on the statement.

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lions of dollars, and that slave labor was actually worth but, despots, avaricious, grinding monopolists, as merciless and twelve and a half cents per day. If he allows one-half of unrelenting as the cannibal, who turns a deaf ear to the the whole population of Mississippi to be in the field, it cries of infancy for mercy. Yes, sir, the gentleman has would just about pay the tax, and no more. I make no loaded us with these hard, unkind epithets, and has reiterated them in many forms in the course of his remarks. Sir, what is the revenue system, and what are its objects? Sir, I declare, in the sincerity of my heart, that I feel It is well known, to every statesman at least, that it is the deep pain and anguish when I hear such language on this leading policy of the great trading States of Europe to floor, because its tendency is to excite deep feelings of reimpose heavy duties on all the products of industry ma- sentment in the injured party, and to promote sectional tured by their own citizens. The object is to secure to hostility. It pains me no less to be obliged to notice it; the working population the means of subsistence. Eng- but, sir, if I could pass by such language in silence-if I land, for example, imposes duties on foreign bread stuffs, could sit here without repelling it, I should be unworthy which exclude them from her markets under ordinary cir- of representing the people who sent me here, and uneuinstances, that her own farmers may have the benefit of worthy of the State to which I belong. If gentlemen will feeding the nation. She also imposes a heavy duty on silk, provoke us by attack, for one I shall not refuse to meet it; that her laborers may make it; and in this manner she watches if they will assail us with calumnious epithets and compaover the laborer, to provide, as far as she can, for his neces-risons, let them not flinch when the mirror is held to themsities. Such, also, is the policy of all the great States. How selves. In what I say, however, I have no personal alluare we to meet it? How can we buy goods, if they will take sion, for I number many southern gentlemen on this floor none of the products of our labor in return? How can the among my most esteemed acquaintances. Nine millions of farmer of the north, the west, or the middle States, buy, if despots and monopolists, more cruel than any tyrant that he cannot sell? What is to become of him if the home ever disgraced a throne, because less merciless than cannimarket be destroyed, and he be put to depend on these bals! Who is it that bandies such language? Who is it foreign countries for the sale of his products? He cannot that calls the honest tiller of his own land, and the laborilive under such disadvantages, and is obliged to look to a ous manufacturer, relentless despots, guilty monopolists! beneficent and parental Government for protection. He He who holds dominion over his thousands of acres and his asks for no bounties for any one-no corn from the public thousands of slaves. He who, not content with a part, arerib, as the gentleman intimated, but merely that this Go-rogates to himself the whole resources of the country, and vernment may so far interest itself in the fate of the people, stuns us with the cry of oppression, because we will not as to countervail the policy of other nations, which in its consent to be ruined by an overpowering monopoly, under operation is designed to bear favorably upon their own the delusive guise of free trade. It is, as the gentleman labor, but injuriously on ours. He asks that the wasting was pleased to say of the manufacturer, the "lordly" planter. influence of the laws of other States may not reduce the It is he that maintains, as I learn from high authority, laborers here to beggary. He asks of a Government dis- (speeches of Messrs. ROWAN and HAYNE,) that slavery is tinguished above all others, because it is free, and ema- favorable to liberty, because labor degrades the human nates from the people, that regard for popular interests mind, and so assimilates men to a state of bondage, that which no despotism dares refuse its humblest subject. none but those who bask in the sunshine of luxury and This is the revenue system-the tariff system-the pro- ease can appreciate liberty. tecting system.

The "lordly" English merchant and factor, the trumWhat is the free trade system? as it is called, by misnomer, peters of free trade, with their insolent parade of wealth, for it has been more appropriately denominated "the fetch and their feet, as the gentleman from New York [Mr. and carry system." Its aims are high, and its scope is CAMBRELENG] says, upon the necks of their own people, broad, if I have rightly understood the gentleman from come here to join in the cry of aristocracy, monopoly, and South Carolina. He does not complain that the South are despotism! They come here to lift their voices, with the not left at liberty to raise as much cotton, rice, and to- gentleman from New York, [Mr. CAMBRELENG] against the baceo as they please; nor does he complain that they are honest laborer, and to tell him, in scorn, that his principles not at liberty to send it where they please, and to sell it to are in his pocket, and his conscience in his purse. Sir, if whom, and when they please. No, sir, the laws of the you would excite loathing and disgust in the minds of the country leave them as free and untrammelled as the air, men who went from the plough, the anvil, and the bench, on all these points-but this is not enough; and they com- to meet oppression at the very threshold, and who achievplain of wrong and injury, uay, threaten us with resented the independence of the nation, tell them they know ment, because they have not the entire market of the United States to sell the goods in, which are received in pay for these commodities. They complain of the competition of American industry, because it supplies a portion of our wants with manufactured articles, and takes up a part of the demand. They would have the whole to themselves. The planters would apply to their own benefit the entire resources of the country, by compelling us to buy the goods they would furnish to us, instead of working for ourselves. They give a preference to English labor, and would have us work with axes and spades from English shops. They aim to build up the cotton, tobacco, and rice interests, at the expense of the rest of the nation, to make nine millions of people bow down to three millions, to constrain us to give up the market to them, and ruin ourselves, that they may try an idle experiment to see if they cannot obtain a larger price for cotton. God has given them a monopoly of these articles, so far, at least, as respects us; but with this they are not content, and insist on a monopoly of the market throughout the United States; and because we resist this grasping disposition, we have been called by the gentleman from South Carolina

not how to appreciate liberty, because labor degrades their understandings. If you would teach their posterity to hate and despise you, compare them with your slaves; tell them their condition approximates to bondage; rouse their indignation with calumnious taunts and unjust reproaches and you will accomplish your purpose; for they are men, and have the feelings of men. I will not follow examples often set here, by calling them generous, chivalrous, and magnanimous; for they want no soft words from me-they know their rights, and how to maintain them, and this is the highest commendation language can bestow. This people have been kind and generous to me, and I will not, cannot, requite it with ingratitude. I lament that any thing should have occurred to call for these remarks; but I should fail of the duty I owe to my constituents, as well as to my State, to sit here in silence, and hear them calumniatedto hear them called monopolists, because they insist on the right of this Government to protect its citizens-to hear them stigmatized as tyrants, because they refuse to return to colonial bondage. The gentleman from South Carolina labors under great misapprehensions, and, when he comes to be better informed, will abandon the unjust sentiments

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