ILLUSTRATIONS

WINFIELD SCOTT

JAMES MADISON

JAMES MONROE

MARQUIS DE LAFAYETTE

MARTIN VAN BUREN

DANIEL WEBSTER

[THE speeches of Mr. Clay, before popular assemblies, for some dozen years after he removed to Kentucky, together with his forensic arguments and the part he took in the debates of the Legislature of that State for the same period, which laid the foundation of his reputation as a public man, and which have been represented by those who heard them as among the finest specimens of his oratorical and argumentative powers, are not extant in any form worthy of being published. It would, indeed, be most interesting, if we were able to display the fervid eloquence of Mr. Clay's youth, in company with the speeches of his riper years. We should then have before us some of the original elements of his fame. The press was not then able, as it is now, to send its reporters into the courts, to the hustings, and into legislative assemblies, to give to the public the speeches of gifted men. Even when Mr. Clay first appeared in the Senate of the United States, in 1806, and made several important speeches there, especially one on INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS, the press of the day failed to record them; and it was not till his second appearance in that body, when the session of Congress was far advanced, that we have an imperfect report of his virgin speech on DOMESTIC MANUFACTURES, which is here presented. This theme, as is well known to the student of history, was one of the great studies of Mr. Clay's public life, which was never relaxed to his dying day. A careful attention to this short speech will show that it contains all the fundamental elements

of the same argument which was afterward, during Mr. Clay's long public life, so much enlarged, so greatly diversified, so well illustrated, and so effectively enforced. In this speech we find the germ of all he ever said upon the subject. Mr. Clay's first conceptions of a great theme appertaining to state affairs, were next to infallible. He had only occasion to dilate-never to change. Even on the bank question, as we shall see, he only changed with a change of circumstances. There was no inconsistency. Like a skillful statesman, he had the frankness and the boldness to adapt himself to events which at one time were against the renewal of the charter, but which afterward rendered it imperative. Mr. Clay had previously and eloquently advocated domestic manufactures, while a member of the Legislature of Kentucky, as a State policy. In the Senate of the United States, on the 6th of April, 1810, the same subject being in debate before that body, Mr. Clay spoke as follows:]

MR. PRESIDEnt—

The local interest of the quarter of the country, which I have the honor to represent, will apologize for the trouble I may give you on this occasion. My colleague has proposed an amendment to the bill before you, instructing the Secretary of the Navy to provide supplies of cordage, sail-cloth, hemp, etc., and to give a preference to those of American growth and manufacture. It has been moved by the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Loyd) to strike out this part of the amendment; and, in the course of the discussion which has arisen, remarks have been made on the general policy of promoting manufactures. The propriety of this policy is, perhaps, not very intimately connected with the subject before us; but it is, nevertheless, within the legitimate and admissible scope of debate. Under this impression I offer my sentiments.

In inculcating the advantages of domestic manufactures, it never entered the head, I presume, of any one, to change the habits of the nation from an agricultural to a manufacturing community. No one, I am persuaded, ever thought of converting the plowshare and the sickle into the spindle and the shuttle. And yet this is the delusive and erroneous view too often taken of the subject. The opponents of the manufacturing system transport themselves to the establishments of Manchester and Birmingham, and, dwelling on the indigence, vice, and wretchedness prevailing there, by pushing it to an extreme, argue that its introduction into this country will necessarily be attended by the same mischievous and dreadful consequences. But what is the fact! That England is the manufacturer of a great part of the world; and that, even there, the numbers thus employed bear an inconsiderable proportion to the whole mass of population. Were we to become the manufacturers of other nations,

effects of the same kind might result. But if we limit our efforts, by our own wants, the evils apprehended would be found to be chimerical. The invention and improvement of machinery, for which the present age is so remarkable, dispensing in a great degree with manual labor, and the employment of those persons who, if we were engaged in the pursuit of agriculture alone, would be either unproductive, or exposed to indolence and immorality, will enable us to supply our wants without withdrawing our attention from agriculture, that first and greatest source of national wealth and happiness. A judicious American farmer, in the household way, manufactures whatever is requisite for his family. He squanders but little in the gewgaws of Europe. He presents, in epitome, what the nation ought to be in extenso. Their manufactories should bear the same proportion, and effect the same object, in relation to the whole community. which the part of his household employed in domestic manufacturing bears to the whole family. It is certainly desirable that the exports of the country should continue to be the surplus production of tillage, and not become those of manufacturing establishments. But it is important to diminish our imports; to furnish ourselves with clothing, made by our own industry; and to cease to be dependent, for the very coats we wear, upon a foreign and, perhaps, inimical country. The nation that imports its clothing from abroad is but little less dependent than if it imported its bread.

The fallacious course of reasoning urged against domestic manufactures, namely, the distress and servitude produced by those of England, would equally indicate the propriety of abandoning agriculture itself. Were you to cast your eyes upon the miserable peasantry of Poland, and revert to the days of feudal vassalage, you might thence draw numerous arguments, of the kind now under consideration, against the pursuits of the husbandman! What would become of commerce, the favorite theme of some gentlemen, if assailed with this sort of weapon? The fraud, perjury, cupidity, and corruption, with which it is unhappily too often attended, would at once produce its overthrow. In short, sir, take the black side of the picture, and every human occupation will be found pregnant with fatal objections.

The opposition to manufacturing institutions recalls to my recollection the case of a gentleman of whom I have heard. He had been in the habit of supplying his table from a neighboring cook and confectioner's shop, and proposed to his wife a reform in this particular. She revolted at the idea. The sight of a scullion was dreadful, and her delicate nerves could not bear the clattering of kitchen furniture. The gentleman persisted in his design; his table was thenceforth cheaper and better supplied, and his neighbor, the confectioner, lost one of his best customers. In like manner dame Commerce will 'oppose domestic manufactures. She is a flirting, flippant, noisy jade, and if we are governed by her fantasies, we shall never out off the muslins of India and the cloths of Europe. But I