FEB. 10, 1832.] The Tariff. [SENATE. and who is largely engaged in the iron business. His an- on the duties paid, the tax for twelve years, paid by a swer was brief and sententious, but full of pith and mo- ship of 418 tons burden, is equal to $10,943 93; which ment "we shall soon make it." Now, sir, is it not in- is equal to twenty-six dollars the ton, and, applied to the tolerable that this heavy tax of $22 40 per ton should be whole tonnage of the United States, which, according continued on the community for an indefinite period, un- to the last returns, was 1,260,787 tons, amounts to der the promise that, sooner or later, there will be made, $33,003,746 as a direct tax imposed on our shipping in in the United States, iron, of a quality equal to that im- twelve years.]} ported from abroad? I did not stand in need of the infor- This, sir, said Mr. T., is another of the bitter fruits of mation from the honorable Senator. The New York price the American system. This noble manufacture, the ship, current had assured me that the Russian and Swedish iron in the construction of which America had outstripped was indispensably necessary for our consumption. I there the world, employing, as it does, twenty times the amount found that it sold at one hundred dollars the ton, being of domestic labor and capital, with the highly favored iron equal to an advance of ten dollars in the ton over our iron; business, is made but a secondary matter, and is threatwhich excess of price would long since have driven it out ened with a continuance of the destroying influences of a of the market, if a proper substitute had been found for it system the most short-sighted, oppressive, and unjust, in the domestic article. that civilization ever tolerated. Sir, the Secretary of the The tariff has had the effect of keeping up the price Treasury, becoming sensible of the injurious effect of this of this article, notwithstanding the great fall which has iron tax on ship-building, has recommended the allowance taken place in foreign prices. I make good this assertion, of a drawback of the duty on articles entering into the conby referring to the report of the committee appointed at struction of ships. This would be another most admiraNew York by the tariff convention. In 1790, bar iron ble expedient for increasing the profits of the iron master. sold on the Atlantic seaboard at ninety dollars the ton; in But why not meet this question face to face? Why seek 1830, it sold in the same market at from eighty-five to to relieve one employment of the burden, and leave it on ninety dollars, while the price in the interior, I speak more the heads of others? Is there no sympathy felt by the particularly of the northwestern portion of Virginia, has Secretary for the farmer, the blacksmith, and other conundergone no diminution. [Mr. T. here read an extract sumers of iron, who are, to the extent of their consumpfrom a letter written by a gentleman in Monongalia county, tion, as heavily taxed as is the ship-builder? It is the part Virginia, in the following words: "Iron in this county is of a wise Government to put forth the engine of redress now scarcer and higher than ever known, except in war boldly and fearlessly. A resort to merely temporary extime-iron has been gradually increasing in value ever pedients is unworthy of it, and injurious discriminations since the tariff of 1824. You know this is a great country between different employments more unfortunate still. If for manufacturing of iron, yet we consider the duty op- my memory serves me, it is estimated that 150,000 blackpressive. The great body of the people here are farmers; smiths in the United States are thrown out of employment all have to use more or less of iron, it being an article we by the heavy duties on raw iron. Walk through the streets cannot do without. Before the year 1824, iron retailed of your cities and villages, and tell me from whence come at from five to six cents per pound. I live on a public road, and could, at my own door, exchange any of the products of my farm for iron: not so now. We buy it at retail in the stores, at seven and eight cents per pound, and that for cash. There is no bartering for iron here now, at what we used to call trade rates; nothing will buy it but that which is as good as cash."] Here are some of the blessed effects of the American system, which we have heard represented in this debate as a perfect panacea, or, more properly, as the philosopher's stone, which, by converting every thing to gold, had made this the golden age of the republic. Now, sir, while prices have remained stationary, or nearly so, in this country, during a period of forty years, how has it been elsewhere? Look to England, and you will find that in 1810 iron sold for £12 10 the ton, and that in 1830 it sold for but £5 5; that, in 1787, the whole product of the English mines was but thirty thousand tons, whereas, in 1830, it had swollen to seven hundred thousand tons. So that if the duty, now specific at thirty-seven dollars the ton on English bar iron, was repealed, the article could be procured in this country at a price varying from thirty-five to forty dollars the ton; in lieu of which, we are now compelled to give the enormous price of from eighty-five to ninety dollars the ton. This tremendous tax operates on an article which enters into the universal consumption of the country, and falls on all classes of society, the farmer, the mechanic, and the ship-builder. Take the ship-builder, and see how operates on him. it the immense quantities of hardware which fill the various stores which every where meet your eye? They are almost all imported from England, and at a less price than the raw iron, burdened with the duty, can be bought for in this country. A comparison of American and English prices will satisfy us of this. I present you a table which I have extracted from an appendix to the report of the select committee appointed on the memorial of the blacksmiths at the last session of Congress. Sheet iron, Price of Eng- American Price at Philadelphia. $52 23 $78 40 $165 to 176 42 22 78 40 120 to 140 31 10 78 40 170 to 180 29 41 Were there ever such exactions levied on a free people? And yet we are told, touch not the protective system--told so not only here, but by the great State of Pennsylvania, through the resolutions of her Legislature, unanimously adopted. Mr. Sarchet ascribed the insecurity of steam navigation in the United States to these exactions, and with much force. In England, accidents from the bursting of steam boilers rarely if ever occur; and it was said that it arose from the English boiler being thicker, and consequently more substantial. Iron being obtained there at a very low price, there existed no such induce [Mr. T. here read from Mr. Lee's exposition, under the head "taxes on ships," a statement of the actual charge in the construction of a first rate ship of 418 tons, for duties alone; which resulted in showing an addition in the price of $2,841 43, arising chiefly from the duty on iron: and taking a period of twelve years, the duties paid on articles entering into the necessary repairs, when added to the above sum, would be equal to $8,114 21; to which, *Since the above was in type, iron has been purchased in England if there be added the premium of insurance and interest for $22 22 per ton, for the American market. SENATE.] The Tariff. [FEB. 10, 1832 ment as exists here for practising economy in the use of and from this example of the effect of specific duties, who that article. Here, on the contrary, the smallest possible can doubt the superior advantage of ad valorem duties, quantity of iron is made to enter into the manufactory, which regulate themselves by the declension in the price, because of its high price. and thereby enable the consumer to derive full benefit I feel that I fatigue the Senate, but I cannot quit this from the fall in prices? Sir, I have before said that if subject without exhibiting a striking effect of the high this duty stood alone--if it was not dovetailed in with duties on the manufacture of hardware. An invoice of other duties equally extravagant, before the going down frying pans, for example, all charges included along with of the sun it would be stricken from the statute book. the duty of twenty-five per cent. ad valorem, costs in this For whose benefit is it exacted? For that of seven huncountry $96 24, leaving to the English manufacturer a dred sugar planters, one of whom, I have often heard it profit of $24 64 per ton; whereas, allowing to the Ame- stated, pocketed $30,000 in a single year from this single rican manufacturer a similar profit, he has, by reason of tax. We are nevertheless told that, if the duty be rethe extravagant duty on iron, and its consequent high duced, the price will be increased. The Senator from price, to obtain $170 36 for the same article which the Louisiana, however, sees this thing with clearer vision. Englishman sells in this country for $96 24. All other In his letter to the Secretary of the Treasury, he considers articles of hardware stand upon a similar footing. that the abolition of the duty would reduce the price of The facts which I have stated show to demonstration sugar to three cents in the pound. Sir, he is right, and the oppressive character of the iron tax, not only on indi- the Senator from Kentucky is wrong. The price would viduals, but upon whole trades; and I conclude this expo- necessarily be reduced, if the duty was repealed. The sition, by exhibiting the tax levied annually upon the com- amount of sugar raised for the consumption of the world munity through its instrumentality. It is estimated by the is estimated at 2,000,000,000 pounds; and the money emNew York committee, that the annual production of bar ployed in its purchase is about $60,000,000. In order to iron in the United States is equal to about 112,000 tons; raise it to its present price, clear of duty, say to six cents to which, if we add the annual importations, say 32,000, per pound, the money expended in its purchase must be we have for the yearly supply of the Union 144,000 tons; doubled, viz. $120,000,000, which would imply an inwhich, under the operation of an average duty of $30 per creased demand equal to twice the amount now produced; ton, the duty beyond all question entering into the price, whereas, if our home production entirely ceased, the adcauses a levy to be made on the people of the United ditional demand would not exceed four or five per cent., States, of $4,320,000, and under, among others, the frivo- and would augment the foreign price something like lous pretence of providing for a state of war, which may three-fourths of a cent in the pound. not come in the lifetime of any man now living. During I come now to the article of cotton goods. The manuthe second year of the late war, iron sold but for $115 the facture of coarse cottons commenced at an early period ton; and I submit to any man to say if such an augmenta- in this country. The abundance of the raw material, retion of price for the limited period of a war, and that, too, lieved from all charges of conveyance incident to its rewhen there exists not a speck upon the horizon to justify moval to the sites of the manufacturing establishments, the expectation of a war in any short time, can excuse, much gave a decided advantage in the home market to our less justify, the imposition of a tax for an unlimited period. fellow-citizens over the foreign mechanist. The simSugar is the next article which I propose to examine; plicity, and at the same time the perfection in the maand I will hasten to the close of the task with as much chinery, substituting manual labor to a great extent, speed as I can. The annual consumption of this country assisted also to produce this effect. Hence it was that the is estimated at 130,000 hogsheads, of 1,000 pounds each; most judicious and calculating manufacturers were opof which 80,000 are made at home, and 50,000 imported posed to what has been called the judge's bill, the mea. from abroad. The duty on brown sugar is three cents sure introduced in Congress, in 1820, by Judge Baldwin, per pound, and on white sugar four cents. The fact is preferring to rest upon the protection afforded by the act generally known, that sugar is currently sold in Havana, of 1816. I well remember the memorial presented to Porto Rico, and St. Croix, for from two and a half to the House of Representatives in 1820 by the Waltham three cents per pound, and commands in New York from manufacturers, and the strong argument on which they six to nine cents per pound. It is therefore obvious that relied. But, sir, the duties went up, and at this moment the duty enters into the price, and that thus an annual tax range from thirty to one hundred and fifty per cent. Not is imposed upon the public, of $4,000,000 on brown sugar content, by reasonable duties, to assist such efforts as the alone; to which, if there be added the molasses tax, an country were prepared to make with some advantage, the aggregate levy will be exhibited on the good people of advocates of the American system took in the whole these United States, of $5,497,000. The honorable Sena- range of cotton goods, and thereby levied on the country tor from Louisiana, [Mr. JOHNSTON,] in a letter written by burdens of the most oppressive character. him to the Secretary of the Treasury a few years ago, We have heard much about an export trade in cotton. which I have read with much pleasure, urges, by way of goods, and the Senator from Massachusetts [Mr. SILSBEE] sustaining and upholding this burden, an argument which was referred to as having ordered a shipment of cotton to no doubt rallied to his aid the humane and charitable of Asia a little prior to his leaving home. Now, sir, a few the North—those, especially, who are eternally shedding years since, the public prints fell to rejoicing and extears over the slave population of the South, and in whose changing mutual congratulations at the fact that another ears the clanking of chains, and the screams of the heart- merchant of Salem had made a profitable shipment of broken, are continually ringing. I allude to the view American cottons to Manilla. I beg permission to read which he takes to prove the value of the sugar culture to an extract from a valuable public journal, which it may the slave trade which is carried on from Maryland, Vir- be in the power of the honorable Senator either to susginia, and North Carolina. I shall not stop to canvass this tain or contradict. "It is true that a Salem merchant argument with him, but rely on facts to show conclusively shipped domestic cottons to Manilla, which, arriving there that the tax is enormous and excessive. In 1816, when on a scanty market, were sold at a profit of from ten to sugar sold for fourteen cents per pound, the duty was twenty per cent. But it is also true that other shipments two and a half cents, which was then equal to twenty per made since to the same place, from Salem, by other mercent. ad valorem; now, when sugar has fallen to three chants, have resulted in a loss of from twenty to forty per cents per pound, the tax is three cents, being equal to an cent. But this is not all. The same merchant who made ad valorem tax of one hundred per cent. With the fall the lucky hit at Manilla, has made another discovery, by in the price of sugar, the tax is more than quadrupled; which he is now profiting. He has found that he can pur 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 to 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 Amesuch 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, idle 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, into 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 imthree-fourths cents per yard, the duty is one hundred per port, the flannel makers are protected by a bounty of from cent.; 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. duties--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 here, 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. 60,000,000 pounds of cotton are manufactured in the The mercantile and navigating interests participate in the United 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. 19, 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. On sugar and molasses, exclusive of white, $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 reference to England, the same as the South Carolina resolves in regard to Kentucky? We will not buy of England at 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 Hamcan 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 affordmittee 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 rem. 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 escity 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 Engand 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 on a holiday in the month of November, would be accepted by them as a substitute for the close, thick, warm article which was formerly imported, and in which the laborers of the South were formerly clothed; I say formerly, for the importation has ceased, because of the high duty system. The landholder of the South is subjected to the necessity of procuring any thing he can pick up, in order to clothe his slaves; and now we are to be put off with this miserable substitute at some distant day when this about to be manufactured article shall come to be manufactured. Sir, I am not choleric or rash; but I confess that I experience none of the most quiet and peaceable sensations when I am told that we are to be denied the abolition of a duty on a necessary article, because some reached the foot of the Rocky Mountains; and when shall 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 until the great operative, man, shall be content to earn of it, our ears would be deafened, as they now are, with but 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. Will 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 rememnists, 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 ultation 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 perseratory, 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, th's 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 human 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. COKE] has often looked upon these monuments vain. Sir, this money principle was actively put in moof by-gone 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 There, 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 to tax the very axe with which the forest is to be felled, and the spade and plough with which the earth is to be cultivated. pure and virtuous in the heart of man; it paves the way to the overthrow of republics, and buries in ruin temples erected to liberty. 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. tes, 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 |