omitted all reference to his efforts in behalf of that great system of PROTECTION TO AMERICAN INDUSTRY, with which, more closely than with any other legislative scheme, his name will for ever be connected. In order to place before the public, in its true light, the magnitude and merit of his exertions in its behalf, a connected statement of the condition and wants of the leading interests of the country will be necessary; and we deeply regret that our narrow limits forbid the detail which the importance of the subject would seem to demand. As we have already seen, in various modes and at various times in the history of the country, the propriety of building up American Manufactures had been recognized, though timidly and in apparent distrust of our national ability to ef fectuate so noble a scheme. In 1790 the Secretary of the Treasury was directed to examine and report upon the subject; and in 1810 the National Legislature had shown a marked solicitude to ascertain the actual progress of the United States in achieving the Independence commenced by the Revolution, by combining with the business of the census an inquiry into the condition of manufactures throughout the Union. Indeed, from the year 1808 to 1811, during the operation of what was called the Restrictive System, the importance of domestic manufactures became conspicuous to the nation, and sunk deep into the thoughts of every considerate statesman. During the four years-from 1804 to 1807, both inclusive-the average annual gross product of duties on merchandize imported, had been somewhat more than $24,000, 000-nearly double the average amount received under the operation of the system which succeeded. To supply this deficiency in the revenue, upon the approach of the war, the permanent duties, previously imposed upon imported goods, were doubled, by an act of July 18th, 1812, and an addi

tion of 10 per cent. was made to these double duties on goods imported in foreign vessels. This act, by its own limitation, expired on the 17th of February, 1816. The act imposing an additional duty, commonly called the "Mediterranean Fund," of 2 1-2 per cent. ad valorem, and a discriminating duty of 10 per cent. upon that additional duty, in respect to goods imported in foreign vessels, expired on the 3d of March, 1815. But the operation of the restrictive system, and of the war, fruitful as it was in suffering and mortification to the country, awakened to life in our soil the germ of future prosperity and independence. During the war, every patriot beheld with unmingled shame the illicit traffic which sprung up with the enemy, and saw clearly the necessity of providing, by legislation which should protect our own industry, against its recurrence. The principles of the social compact, requiring a surrender of a portion of the natural rights of the individual for the security of the whole society, were recognized, and the force of a similar principle, as operating between the several States of the Union and the federal government, was also felt. The variety of soil and of climate which the United States enjoyed, evinced her possession of all the elements of national independence: and the country felt the necessity of establishing a domestic, in preference to a foreign market, and the employment of domestic, in preference to foreign labor. Under the influence of this conviction, the march of domestic manufactures, which, from the peace of 1783 to the year 1808, had been slow but steady, after that period be came bold and rapid. Cotton manufactories were multiply ing at the North; so that, while in the year 1800 but 500 bales were manufactured, in 1815, 90,000 were reported ;-a capital of $40,000,000 was invested; employment was given

more than 100,000 persons, whose aggregate wages

amounted to $15,000,000, and all the branches of Agricultural and Commercial Industry had received a powerful stimulus from the rapid and beneficent development of the manufacturing resources of the nation. In 1816 the subject came directly before Congress. A revision of the tariff was not then needed for purposes of revenue: for, by the estimates of the Committee of Ways and Means, it was shown that the permanent laws then in force would produce more than $25,000,000 of revenue, while the ordinary expenses of the government were but little above $15,000,000, thus leaving a surplus in the treasury after the necessary appropriations had been made for the payment of the public debt. The whole question was debated with reference to the policy of Protection; and on the 12th of March a report was made by Mr. LOWNDES, of South Carolina, strongly recommending a Tariff of Protection, vindicating its expediency at some length, and containing a detailed bill to effect the object. The first avowedly Protective Tariff ever proposed to the nation, thus had its origin in South Carolina, and received the able and ardent support of Hon. JOHN C. CALHOUN. While the bill was before the Committee of the Whole, its principles and general policy were most powerfully urged by Mr. CLAY, who sought especially to secure a more effectual protection for woollen goods than the bill proposed. The measure encountered the violent opposition of the New England section, on the mistaken and since abandoned ground that it would injure her commerce, which at that time was her paramount interest. It became a law, nevertheless, but proved quite inadequate to the effectual protection of our manufactories in their inexperienced infancy. The derangements of the currency aided the embarrassment, and the cotton business (with main ref

erence to which the tariff was proposed,) continued in an un settled state.

No farther legislation, however, was proposed until the ses sion of 1819-20, when the subject of Protection again came before Congress, upon the same grounds and under nearly the same circumstances as before. A bill revising and im proving the tariff of 1816, was supported, zealously and with great effect, by Mr. CLAY, and passed the House but was defeated in the Senate.

In 1824, the distress of the country again forced the subject of our National Industry upon the attention of Congress. Our exports had dwindled to an inconsiderable amount, while our imports of foreign goods had largely increased: the country was thus drained of its currency, which is always, in every country, its life-blood: we had lost nearly the whole of the carrying trade, by which the commercial prosperity of the nation had been greatly enhanced: disorder and embarrassment had been introduced into all our domestic affairs: we found at home no market for the products of the soil: manufactures were depressed, and neither cotton nor wool found here any sale the produce of the farmer was stored in his barns, a dead-weight upon his hands: money to pay debts could only be procured at enormous and ruinous sacrifices: bankruptcy pervaded every class, destroying their prosperity, blighting their energy, and blasting their hopes: the price of labor was reduced almost to a level with that of the crowded and impoverished nations of Europe: the value of property throughout the nation had fallen nearly 50 per cent. within ten years and in all the departments of our industry were to be seen only prostration and embarrassment, nor could the

clearest-sighted discern aught of relief in the future. It became the duty of Congress to examine the CAUSES of this wide-spread and undeniable distress; and, as at this period the duties of the national representatives were not limited to taking care of themselves," they addressed themselves to their responsible task with energy and a sincere desire to remedy the ills which had settled upon the nation. In the opinion of the Committee to whose charge the subject was entrusted, the lack of efficient Protection for our Home Industry was the great central cause of all the suffering of the land; and a bill was accordingly reported, revising the Tariff of 1816, and placing American Labor in a far higher and more independent position than it had ever before occupied. The bill was PROTECTIVE in all its features; and as such received the unqualified support of Mr. CLAY. He was its champion throughout the earnest and powerful debate which succeeded its introduction. Opposed to him were some of the strongest men in the country, actuated by different motives, basing their hostility mainly upon local, sectional considerations, and led on by Hon. DANIEL WEBSTER, then, as he has always been regarded since, one of the most formidable opponents in debate any of our statesmen have ever been called to encounter. The speech of Mr. CLAY, delivered on the 30th and 31st of March, is one of the strongest and most logical arguments he ever delivered. He sacrificed nothing to eloquent display; his whole effort was to prove, by demonstration, by the clearest and most forcible reasoning and by all the experience of nations, the policy, the absolute necessity, of a Protective System; and then to enforce his views upon the attention of Congress and of the country, by every consideration of patriotism, and by appeals to every generous and noble impulse which could have weight with upright,