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THE AMERICAN SYSTEM.
SPEECHES
ON
THE TARIFF QUESTION,
AND ON
INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS,
PRINCIPALLY DELIVERED IN
THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES.
BY
STEWART,
LATE M. C. FROM PENNSYLVANIA.
-A. IF O IR, T !*, A. I T
PHILADELPHTA :
HENRY CAREY B A I R D,
INDUSTRIAL PUBLISHER,
406 WALNUT STREET.
1872.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1872, by
ANDREW STEWART, JR.,
In the Offica of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C.
A BIOGBAPHICAL SKETCH.
ANDREW STEWART, now in his eighty-second year, was born
in Fayette county, Pa., and never lived out of it. His father,
Abraham Stewart, was born in York, Pa., and his mother,
Mary Oliphant, in Chester county, Pa. They emigrated while
young to Fayette county, where they were married in 1789.
They raised a family of children, of whom the eldest was
Andrew, the subject of this notice, who was born June llth,
1791, near Uniontown, where he now lives. At an early age
he became self-dependent ; till eighteen he worked on a farm
and taught a country school ; afterwards, to pay his way while
going to school and reading law, he acted as a scrivener and as
clerk at a furnace. At the age of twenty-three he was admit
ted to the bar, and in the same year was elected to the Legis
lature; was re-elected for three years, and when a candidate
for the Senate, without opposition, President Monroe tendered
him the appointment of District Attorney for the United States,
which, preferring to a seat in the Senate, he accepted, but
resigned it after his election to Congress, in 1820, where he
served eighteen years, out of a period of thirty, going in and
going out with the Hon. Thos. H. Benton ; and he is now the
only surviving member of the seventeenth Congress, as stated
by President Buchanan, in a speech in Philadelphia, shortly
before his death, that he and "Mr. Stewart, of Fayette, were
the only survivors of the seventeenth Congress," to which they
were elected in 1820.
In 1848, when Mr. Stewart was a candidate for the Vice-
Presidency, he declined a nomination for Congress, and in the
Convention in Philadelphia, after the nomination of President
Taylor, it was left to the Pennsylvania delegation to nominate
a candidate for Vice-President, who, after having retired to
agree upon a nominee, upon the first ballot Mr. Stewart had
3
4 A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH.
fourteen out of twenty-six, the remaining twelve voting for Mr.
McKennan and several others, when, without taking a second
ballot, to make it unanimous, the chairman of the delegation
hurried back into the Convention and reported that they had
failed to agree, whereupon Mr. Fillmore was nominated and
confirmed, as was stated and published at the time without
contradiction.
On the accession of General Taylor to the Presidency, the
Pennsylvania delegation in Congress recommended Mr. Stewart
for Secretary of the Treasury; but, being at the time confined
to a sick bed, he declined the appointment ; and it may be
stated, as a remarkable fact, true of no other man, living or
dead, that Mr. Stewart served in Congress with every President
before General Grant, except the first five and Taylor, who
was never in Congress. This fact will appear by reference to
the Congressional Biographical Dictionaries.
While in Congress, it will be seen that Mr. Stewart served
on several of the most important committees, among them as
Chairman of the Committee on the Tariff, and the Committee
of Internal Improvements, constituting together, what was well
called by Mr. Clay, " The American System "—in the advocacy
of which, Mr. Stewart commenced and ended his political life.
This system, he always contended, lay at the foundation of
the national prosperity — the one protecting the national indus
try, and the other developing the national resources. He called
it the "political thermometer," which always had and always
would indicate the rise and fall of the national prosperity. In
concluding one of his speeches, he put this whole matter in a
nutshell when he said :
The true American policy is this :
1st. Protect and cherish your national industry by a wise system of
finance, selecting in the first place those articles which you can and
ought to supply to the extent of your own wants—; food, clothing, Jiabi-
tation, and defence— and to these give ample and adequate protection,
so as to secure at all times an abundant supply at home. Next select
the LUXURIES consumed by the rich, and impose on them such duties
as the wants of the Government may require for revenue ; and then
take the necessaries of life consumed by the poor, and articles which
we cannot supply, used in our manufactories, and make them free, or
subject to the lowest rates of duty.
A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 5
2d. Adopt a system of national improvements, embracing the great
rivers, lakes, and main arteries of communication, leaving those of a
LOCAL character to the care of the States ; and on these expend the
surplus revenue only ; thus uniting and binding together the distant
parts of our common country, and at the same time securing the most
efficient system of defence in war, and the cheapest and best system
of commercial and social intercourse in peace.
3d. Introduce enlightened economy in every branch of the public
expenditures. Lighten the burdens, diversify the employments, and
secure and increase the rewards of labor in all its departments. And,
4th. In your foreign relations follow the advice of the father of his
country — "observe good faith and justice towards all nations— culti
vate peace and harmony with all." Thereby illustrating the beauty
and perfection of our Republican institutions, holding up a great
example of "liberty and independence," for the nations of the earth
to admire and imitate. This was the great and true American system
which he hoped yet to see adopted and carried out. We owe a great
example to the world — let it be given ; this was the duty, as he trusted
it would be the destiny of this, our great and glorious Republic.
Mr. Stewart belonged to the Democratic party up to 1828,
when the party, at the dictation of the South, under the lead
of Van Buren, Buchanan, and others, gave up the tariff and
internal improvements for office, exchanging measures for men,
principles for pelf; here Mr. Stewart took an independent stand.
He said he would stand by his measures, going with those who
went for, and against those who went against them. He came home
in the midst of the excited contest between Jackson and Adams
for the Presidency, in 1828, when his constituents were known
to be more than two to one for Jackson ; and in a public speech
declared his intention " to vote for Adams, whose friends sup
ported his measures, whilst the Democratic party, as such,
opposed them. If for this they chose to turn him out, so be it;
he would never surrender his principles for office. If he did,
he would be a political hypocrite, unworthy the support of any
honest man ; he would rather go out endeavoring to support
what, in his conscience, he believed to be the true interests of
his constituents and his country, than to go in by meanly be
traying them."
The Democrats took up Mr. Hawkins, of Greene county, then
Speaker of the Senate, and used every means, fair and foul, to
exasperate the Jackson men against Mr. Stewart ; yet, with all
6 A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH.
their efforts, although Jackson had a majority of 2800— more
than two votes to one — in his district, Mr. Stewart was elected
over the Jackson candidate by a majority of 235, a result un
precedented ; showing a degree of personal popularity on the one
side, and of magnanimity and forbearance on the other, with
out a parallel in the history of elections. Mr. Stewart was
afterward re-elected for four terms, when he peremptorily de
clined a re-nomination.
At the age of thirty-four Mr. Stewart married the daughter
of David Shriver, of Cumberland, Md., and raised a family of
six children, who are all living except Lieutenant-Commander
Wm. F. Stewart, U. S. K, who was lost on the U. S. S. Oneida,
on the 24th of January, 1870 ; being at the time executive
officer of the ship, and one of the most promising officers of his
age in the service — so pronounced, in letters of condolence after
his death, by all of the officers under whom he had served.
His last heroic words, on being urged to take the boat as the
ship was going down, were, " No ; let others take the boat, my
duty is on board my ship," and he went down with her.
Mr. Stewart has frequently been urged by friends, clubs, and
committees, to collect and prepare for publication a selection
from his speeches, especially on the tariff question, addressed
to the " farmers, mechanics, and workingmen ; " but, owing
to the multiplicity of his business engagements, he has been
unable so to do until, by reason of a recent confinement to his
house by sickness for some months, he has been enabled, with
the assistance of one of his sons, to collect such of those on the
subjects of the Tariff and Internal Improvements as remained
after the burning of his office in 1844, selections from which
will be found in this volume.
Mr. Stewart has carried into private life the same devotion
to these measures that distinguished him while in the public
service ; and in his eighty-second year he is found among the
foremost in advocating railroad improvements, which, when
completed, will make his native county one of the richest and
most prosperous in the State. To show his constant zeal and
restless activity in the cause of domestic industry, and home
manufactures, it may be stated that he has erected a blast fur
nace (now in operation), rebuilt a glass works, has built eleven
A BIOGKAPHICAL SKETCH. 7
saw mills, four flouring mills, planing mills, etc., besides more
than 200 tenant and other houses ; has bought and sold over
80,000 acres of land, and has between 30,000 and 40,000 acres
still left, much of it in the West, and yet twenty-one years of
the prime of his life were devoted to the services of his country
in her State and National Legislatures.
Among his many patriotic and benevolent acts, the follow
ing is one of the most recent, the account of which is copied
from the American Standard, of May 23, 1872 :
UNIONTOWN SOLDIERS' ORPHAN SCHOOL. — It will be remembered
that some time ago a correspondence appeared in the papers between
Hon. Andrew Stewart, Prof. Wickersham, and the Principal of the
Uniontown Soldiers' Orphan School, relative to an endowment which
Mr. Stewart generously proposed to make for the benefit of the chil
dren in the Uniontown school. As nothing has since been published,
it may be thought that the proposition has never been carried into
effect. To correct such an impression, I desire to say that Mr.
Stewart has put into execution his design by appropriating the interest
of $10,000 annually, to be distributed among the children who leave
the school at the age of sixteen years, according to merit, based upon
scholarship, industry, and good conduct. Several have already
received the benefit of this fund, and during the present year about
thirty will become recipients in proportion to their merits as above
indicated.
Though but recently introduced, the plan gives great promise of
accomplishing much good. It is certainly one happily conceived,
most generously executed, and as one of the last acts of a long and
useful life, will be a prouder and more enduring monument to its pro
jector, when he rests from his labors, than the most imposing granite
obelisk.
It is to be hoped that it will be the beginning of a system of educa
tion and training for a large class of poor and neglected children, for
whom no one cares, and many of whom will find their way to houses
of correction, and finally be added to the list of criminals. That this
plan may eventually lead to the establishment of such a school here,
and others throughout the State, is, I believe, Mr. Stewart's earnest
wish. A. H. WATERS,
Principal of Uniontown S. O. School.
Such is a brief outline of the life and services of a self-made
man, who commenced life with nothing. Should not such ex
amples encourage and stimulate the efforts of every young man
of this great and free country, where all start in the great race
of life with the same prospects of future wealth, fame, and
position ?
CONTENTS
A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
FIRST DIVISION— THE TARIFF.
SPEECH I.
In favor of the protective policy and against the free trade tariff
of 1846 — repealing the protective tariff of 1842 — (Delivered
in the House of Representatives, U. S., 14th of May, 1846)..
The pernicious effects of party spirit — The effects of protective
duties on prices — The effects of the tariff on labor and in
vested capital — Wages of labor and national prosperity go up
and down with protective and free-trade duties — Protection
destroys monopoly, by building up competition, the only thing
that can destroy it — Protection is not for the benefit of mono
polies and invested capital, but for those struggling into life
against the cheap capital and low wages of Europe — Protection
is for the benefit of the South, now having raw material, cotton,
minerals, low wages, and water power, running to waste — It
is for the West, now working the hoe against the loom, and
giving foreigners a monopoly of labor-saving machinery, which
enables one hand to pay for the labor of a hundred in the
field — Taxation a false clamor, the whole revenue being de
rived from duties on foreign goods, and paid by the importers
for the privilege of selling them in our markets — Farmers
and laboring men living on the productions of their own
country pay nothing — Our national revenue being a voluntary
and not compulsory contribution paid by those only who
choose to purchase and consume foreign, in preference to
home productions — President Jackson said, the true Ameri
can policy is to " draw from agriculture the superabundant
labor and employ it in mechanism and manufactures,1' he
said, " take from agriculture 600.000 men, women, and child
ren, and you at once give a home market for more breadstuffs
9
10 CONTENTS.
than all Europe now furnishes us " — Jefferson said, " first
select the articles we can furnish for ourselves, and impose
on them duties lighter at first but heavy and heavier after
ward as the channels of supply open" — President Polk, just
the reverse, said, " when a duty is so high as to increase
the home supply and thereby diminish imports, then reduce
the duties so as to check home supply and increase foreign
imports and revenue " — Mr. Walker, his Secretary of the
Treasury, reported that the true policy was " to prevent the
substitution of American fabrics for foreign goods" — Jefferson
said, make the duties " heavier and heavier " as the home
supply increases — Polk said, make them lighter and lighter
to destroy home supply and increase foreign imports — Thus
Polk and Walker stood directly opposed to Jackson and Jef
ferson whom they professed to follow — Polk and Walker for
foreign, Jefferson and Jackson for home productions.
Comments of the press in every State then in the Union 61
Letters from Baron Charles Dupin and Henry Clay 71
SPEECH II.
On that portion of President Folk's message and Secretary
Walker's report relating to the tariff— (Delivered in the
House of .Representatives, U. S., 9th of December, 1845,
only five days after these documents were communicated to
Congress) 72
Comments and opinions of the press in every State then in the
Union — Selected from hundreds of others of like import —
Showing that the American system was supported by the
Whigs or Republicans, and opposed by the Democrats 97
SPEECH III.
In defence of the tariff of 1842, and against the repeal of the
land distribution act — (Delivered on the spur of the occasion
in the House of Representatives, U. S., 13th day of March,
1844, a few minutes after the introduction of the bill it de
nounced, as will be seen by the introductory remarks) 103
Comments taken from papers published in every State in the
Union— Giving their views as to the speech and the policy
advocated 129
SPEECH IY.
In favor of a bill for the protection of wool and woolen manufac
tures, and in reply to Messrs. McDuffie of South Carolina, Bu-
CONTENTS. 11
chanan and Ingham of Pennsylvania, and others — (delivered
February 1st, 1827) — showing the abandonment of the pro
tective policy by the leaders of the Democratic party, together
with an extract from a speech of Mr. Stewart to his consti
tuents, at Uniontown, Pa., July 4th, 1827, giving his reasons
for joining the weak party, and leaving the strong — Going
for Adams against Jackson 134
SPEECH Y.
Advocating the tariff of 1828 — With amendments — Which were
adopted — Making it the strongest and best tariff ever adopted
— Also in reply to Mr. Wright of New York, Mr. Buchanan of
Pennsylvania, and others— (Delivered April 8th, 1828)— Fol
lowed by the Wickliffe anecdote, showing the origin of the
common expression " I acknowledge the corn " 158
SPEECH YI.
Contrasting the Republican protective tariff of 1842, and the
Democratic free-trade tariff of 1846, and showing the effects
of the respective policies of the two parties generally upon the
revenue and prosperity of the country — The disastrous effects
of the Democratic policy with the happy effects of the Repub
lican policy — The American system — Tariff and internal im
provement promoting the agricultural, mechanical and manu
facturing interests of the country — (Delivered in the House
of Representatives, U. S., June llth, 1848) 191
The facts stated in this speech were never denied or disproved.
Comments and opinions of the press 214
SPEECH YII.
In favor of Western improvements and of the tariff— Generally
denouncing the opposite or Southern system — Showing that
protection and prosperity were always coincident, while ruin,
national and individual, always followed free-trade — (De
livered Jan. 16th, 1844), together with Mr. Stewart's de
fence of himself against the abusive attack of Mr. Weller .... 219
SPEECH YIII.
In favor of the tariff of 1824 — The first general protective tariff
passed by Congress, and in reply to Messrs. McDuffie, Webs
ter, Randolph, and others, which bill was passed with but
nine negative votes in all the Western and Middle States, in-
12 CONTENTS.
eluding New York, and 78 for it— With a majority in the
New England States against it— Being there more interested
in commerce than manufactures— (Delivered in the House
of Representatives, U. S., April 9th, 1824) 248
SPEECH IX.
Extracts from a speech in opposition to the proposed repeal of
the tariff of 1828, and in reply to Mr. McDuffie of South
Carolina (and others), Chairman of the Committee of Ways
and Means, who reported the bill— (Delivered in the House of
Representatives, U. S., June 5th, 1832) 268
Such a bill as the British Chancellor of the Exchequer would
have sent us to destroy America, to make room for British
manufactures in exchange for Southern cotton — If not
passed the South will not remain in the Union five months,
says Mr. McDuffie — The consequences of such a step fore
told—The South now indebted to the Union for protection
against dangers lurking in her own bosom — Concessions only
increased demands — The North might be conciliated, not
frightened — Taxation the cause of rebellion — No man now
compelled to pay a dollar of tax to this government, it was a
voluntary contribution by those preferring foreign to Ameri
can goods — Protection reduced prices, and thousands using
domestic productions only, pay not one cent into the treasury
— The South now gets home-made cotton for 6 cents, for
which they paid when protective duties were imposed in
1816 25 cents per yard — For glass $4 instead of $12 a box —
Nails 5 cents instead of 12 cents per pound, and so of an infinite
variety of other articles — Not a single article of domestic
manufacture could be found that was not in the end reduced
in price by increased home supply — This was the taxation
against which the South threatened to rebel — But what would
be the taxes that rebellion would bring to raise armies and
navies to war against this government that now cherished
and protected the South — A war that would end, not only in
the subjugation and destruction of the South, but would
brand the memories of its authors with eternal infamy.
Comments and opinions of the press 293
LKTTER to the Hon. James Gr. Blaine, Speaker of the House of
Representatives, on the tariff— (The argument condensed) . . 295
CONTENTS. 13
SECOND DIVISION— INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS.
SPEECH I.
Extracts from a speech on internal improvements — Cumber
land Koad — (Delivered in the House of Representatives, U.
S., January 27th, 1829) — Advocating the power and policy
of adopting a general system of internal improvements, op
posed by the Democracy on constitutional grounds, declaring
that hereafter there would be but two parties, one for federal
poiver, the other for state rights — One for national protection
and national improvements, the other opposed — In fact, one
for destroying the attachment and confidence of the people
in the national government by false charges of usurpation,
taxation and oppression, threatening resistance, and rebel
lion — The other contending that there was much more dan
ger of the States usurping the rights and overthrowing the
national government, than the reverse — The senators and
representatives in congress being elected by the legislatures,
and the people of the States, and of course responsible to
them, and going with their constituents, the people and the
States in all conflicts between the States and national gov
ernment 302
SPEECH II.
[Extract.]
Internal improvements — (Being the last half of a speech de
livered in the House of Representatives, U. S., Jan. 28th,
1824) — In favor of the first law establishing a general system
of national improvements, by the national government 322
SPEECH III.
Internal improvements — (Delivered in the House of Represen
tatives, U. S., Jan. 29th, 1828) — In opposition to an amend
ment to the appropriation bill offered by Mr. Drayton of
South Carolina, virtually destroying the law of 1824, laying
the foundation of a general system of internal improvements
by the U. S. Government 333
SPEECH IV.
Remarks in opposition to the motion of Jas. K. Polk, Chair
man of the Committee of Ways and Means, to defeat the
Cumberland Road — (Delivered in the House of Representa
tives, U. S., June 16th, 1834) 344
14 CONTENTS.
SPEECH Y.
Extract from a report of 112 pages, made by Mr. Stewart, as
chairman of a committee appointed by a national conven
tion, on the subject of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, held
in the Capitol, Washington City, commencing December 1st,
1826 354
SPEECH YI.
Extracts from a report of 122 pages on the Chesapeake and
Ohio Canal, made by Mr. Stewart, as Chairman of the Com
mittee of Internal Improvements, May 22nd, 1826, in the
House of ^Representatives — Showing the great interest Gen.
Washington took in opening communications between the
Eastern and Western sections of the country, long before
the revolution — Which he always said " constitutes the best if
not the only cement that could hold the East and West to
gether" — Hence in 1784 — the first year after the war — with
a view to ascertaining the best route, he explored, on horse
back, amid uninhabited mountains filled with savage Indians
and beasts of prey, first the route between New York and
the Lakes — Next the Pennsylvania route, between the Juni-
ata and the Connemaugh — Then this connection between the
Potomac and Youghiogheny. and finally the Virginia route,
by the James River and Kanawha — In his report he gave a
decided preference to the Potomac and Youghiogheny, as the
shortest and most central — But predicted the final accom
plishment of all, and immediately entered upon the survey
of this route, as chief engineer employing subordinates at
his own private cost, and made a report and map of the line
corresponding with the line since improved — This map, in
Washington's handwriting, was found in the hands of Gen.
John Mason, of Georgetown, among a great mass of Wash
ington's papers, which came into his hands as his successor,
as president of the Potomac Co.— After great travel, labor
and expense Washington succeeded in getting the necessary
aid and legislation from Virginia and Maryland, but predicted
most remarkably the trouble in getting through Pennsylvania,
but said, there was a large portion of the western part of that
State that would "reiterate their claims," until they would
finally succeed— Since fulfilled to the letter— In consideration
of Washington's great labor and personal expenses, the legis
lature of Yirginia in a law subscribing 150 shares of stock,
CONTENTS. 15
in behalf of the State, unanimously inserted a clause sub
scribing an equal amount, in the name and for the benefit of
Gen. Washington, which he declined to accept for his own
use, but wanting the money to carry on the work, he agreed
to take it with the understanding that it should be applied to
some benevolent object, and finally devised it to aid the gov
ernment in founding a National University in the city of
"Washington, which patriotic purpose Congress has never yet
carried out 356
SPEECH YIL
Chesapeake and Ohio Canal — In favor of internal improve
ments generally, and especially of the proposed improvement,
connecting tide water at Washington with the Ohio, at Pitts
burgh and the Northern Lakes — Showing the superiority of
this route over all others, as to distance, grades, centrality,
and contrasting it with the Pennsylvania and other proposed
lines of improvement — (Delivered at " Clay Island," July 4th,
1825, to the corps of U. S. Military Engineers, employed
upon the work, and a large meeting assembled on that
occasion) 375
SPEECE VIII.
Breaking ground of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal — With
speeches of Mr. Adams, President of the United States, and
others— Near Washington— July 4th, 1828— With other in
cidents and proceedings on that occasion 382
SPEECH IX.
Connellsville Railroad, August 1871 — Giving an account of the
origin, progress and final completion of the Pittsburgh, Bal
timore and Washington Railroad — Gen. Washington's early
connection with it — Its enemies, embarrassments and delays
— How and by whom the means were obtained — Its superior
ity in all respects over other routes — Especially over its great
enemy and rival the Pennsylvania Central Railroad — Its wes
tern connections, and bright prospects in the future 395
LETTERS recommending the publication of Mr. Stewart's
Speeches in 1851 398
INDEX .401
SPEECHES OX THE AMERICAN SYSTEM.
1ST DEFENCE OF THE PROTECTIVE POLICY.
DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF KEPRESEXTATIVES, U. S.,
OX THE 14th DAY OF MARCH, 1846.
MR. STEWART said he regretted that this great question
of national protection, the most important that could possi
bly occupy the attention of American statesmen, was con
stantly resolved by gentlemen on the other side into a mere
question of party. Separated from the pernicious influences
of party, he was sure there could be but one opinion upon the
subject. The contest was for the American market. For
eigners, and especially the British, were the parties on the
one side, and the Americans on the other ; and the only
question was, which side should we take? By adopting
"free trade" we give our markets and our money to for
eigners ; by adhering to protection, we secure both to our
own people. Disguise it as you will, this is the true and
only question to be decided, and the fate of the country
depends on the result. He trusted gentlemen would decide
in favor of their own country — in favor of their own farmers,
mechanics, and laboring men — that they would protect their
own people employed in the fields and 'in the workshops, in
the conversion of our own agricultural produce into articles
for use, instead of importing them from abroad ; for it was
demonstrable that more than one-half of the hundred mil
lions of dollars annually sent abroad to purchase foreign
goods, went to pay for foreign agricultural produce worked
up in these goods by labor employed and fed in foreign
countries, instead of our own.
^ Mr. S. begged gentlemen upon this great American ques
tion, to separate themselves from party prejudice, and come
2 17
18 DEFENCE OF THE PROTECTIVE POLICY.
up to its consideration in a true American spirit. It was a
question that soared far above and beyond the reach of mere
party interests and party considerations. Why, then, these
party appeals? Was it because gentlemen were afraid to meet
the question on its own intrinsic and independent merits — was
this the motive of these appeals to the poor, pitiful and paltry
purposes of party politics ? Was this a time or an occasion for
such appeals ? No. Let this great question of protecting
American industry be discussed on great — broad American
principles, and it would be so discussed by every one who
had a true American heart in his bosom.
Mr. S. said he would now proceed to answer the argu
ments that had been urged against protection, and in favor
of free trade, and then give his own views as to the true
American policy to be adopted and maintained by this coun
try ; and in doing so he would study clearness and simpli
city, for " truth needs not the foreign aid of ornament ; " he
would state facts — facts which he was prepared to establish
by official, or other conclusive evidence, with the inferences
fairly deducible from them — and he would submit them with
confidence to the candor and good sense of this House and
of the American people.
In the first place, then, he'Vould notice some of the argu
ments urged upon all occasions against protection, and just
now repeated by the gentleman from Alabama [Mr. Payne],
who had spoken last.
EFFECT OF PROTECTIVE DUTIES ON PRICES.
^ The first argument of the gentleman had been the posi
tion, that the eifect of a protective tariif was oppressive,
especially on the poor, and on the interests of agriculture
and labor. How was it oppressive upon these ? No other
interest in the country was half so much benefited by the
tariif as the farmers, and mechanics, and workingmen. The
gentleman said that it injured them by increasing the price
of manufactured commodities ; for the gentleman's assertion
was, that protection did invariably increase the price of the
articles protected. Now, in reply, Mr. S. would distinctly
put forth this assertion, to which he challenged contradic
tion, viz : that there never was a protective duty levied in
this country, on any article which we could and did manu
facture extensively, which had not resulted in bringing
down the price of that article ; and he challenged gentle-
DEFENCE OF THE PROTECTIVE POLICY. 19
men to point him to a single instance in reference to which
this was not true. The prices of commodities, instead of
being raised by protection, had been reduced to one-third,
one-fourth, and even to one-tenth and one-twelfth part of
what had been paid for them when imported from abroad.
The gentleman, if he had walked up to the Fair, might
there have seen American cotton, such as had cost, when the
enormous minimums were first imposed for its protection by
Mr. Lowndes and Mr. Calhoun, eighty-five cents a yard,
now ready to be delivered in any quantity, and of better
quality, at seven cents; and woollen jeans, sold in 1840 at
sixty-five cents, now selling, of superior quality, for thirty-
five ; and these articles were subject to the very highest
duties in the whole catalogue — proving, beyond all contes
tation, the truth of the proposition denounced as an absur
dity by the gentleman, that the highest duties often produce
the lowest prices, when levied on articles which we can sup
ply to the extent of our own wants. Here was the result
of American industry, skill, and improvement, when left
free to act out their own energies, and occupy, fully and
freely, their own appropriate markets, without the disturb
ing and destructive competition of the pauper labor of
Europe. Mr. S. had mentioned the article of cotton, because
it afforded a striking illustration of the general doctrine,
showing that the minimums, the highest protective duties,
had produced the greatest reduction of prices. But the
same thing was true, to a greater or less extent, with respect
to every protected article in the entire list. Mr. S. stated
incontrovertible matters of fact. He challenged contradic
tion — he courted investigation — he defied gentlemen to dis
prove an atom of what he had asserted. And, to put this
truth in the strongest light, he repeated that the highest and
most obnoxious duties, those abhorred minimums, against
which gentlemen had wasted such furious denunciations,
presented precisely the very cases where the reduction of
price had been the greatest. Those duties, it is said, now
amounted to two and three hundred per cent, ad valorem.
And why ? Because they were fixed specific duties. They
remained stationary, however prices might change ; and, of
course, as the price went down, the duty bore a larger and
still larger proportion to it. At first, the duty was, say,
half the price of the article ; as the price declined, the duty
became equal to the price ; then it became greater than the
price ; then double the price ; and, at length, treble ; and
20 DEFENCE OF THE PEOTECTIVE POLICY.
then gentlemen exclaimed in horror, " What an abominable
duty ! It is three hundred per cent, on the total value of
the article ! What horrible profits ! How the duty must
raise the price ! " when, all the while, the duty remained
the same, and its effect had been, not to increase, but to
bring down the price to one-third of what it was — from
thirty cents down to ten cents per yard ; and this was rob
bery and plunder ! And still the gentleman said it was an
absurdity, which no man could swallow, to say that the
higher the protective duty the lower the price. Now, Mr.
S. would venture to say, that if the duty on iron and its
manufactures were increased to-morrow five hundred per
cent., the rapid rush of capital into that business, and the
vast increase of supply would be such, and the consequent
reduction of price so great, that the United States would
soon supply the world with iron, its capacity for its produc
tion being unlimited. He had stated facts, showing that
high duties had produced low prices. Can the gentleman
deny them? There they stand on impregnable foundations,
firm as the hills ! Let the gentleman and his friends dis
prove them as they can. That such is the practical opera
tion of the system is fully established by the fact, that whilst
manufactures of various kinds had declined to one-fourth
of their former price, agricultural produce and the wages of
labor had undergone little or no reduction, owing to the
constantly increasing home demand for both, resulting from
the protective policy. He submitted it as a matter of fact,
known to every man, woman and child in the country,
where manufactures existed, that they paid less for manu
factured goods, and received more for their labor and their
produce, owing to an increased demand. Yet, in the face of
these universally admitted facts, we are told every day on
this floor, that the tariff increases prices, and robs and plun
ders the farmers ! !
But Mr. S. wished to be understood correctly. He did
not say that the effect of all duties was to diminish prices ;
on the contrary, he did not deny that it was the effect of
some duties to increase prices. But what he said was this :
that duties levied on articles we could make, to the extent
of our own wants, and with a view to protect and increase
our own manufactures, did in all cases operate, in the end,
to lower prices, by increasing capital, competition, and sup
ply. Duties imposed on foreign articles which we could not
make for ourselves, would generally increase the prices,
DEFENCE OF THE PROTECTIVE POLICY. 21
because they did not increase the supply by increasing home
competition. His position was this : duties levied for reve
nue on articles we cannot produce, generally increased prices ;
whilst protective duties, levied on articles we can and do pro
duce, always, in the end, diminished prices. The truth of both
these propositions was proved by undeniable facts, and by
all experience. And the reason was just as obvious as the
fact. When the supply of an article was not equal to the
demand, he admitted the immediate effect of a high duty
might for the moment increase the price and profits of its
manufacture, but this very increase induced capital to rush
into it, and the competition and increased supply resulting,
soon brought down the price and profits to the lowest rates,
proving the truth of the proposition, that the " higher the
duty, the lower the price." The imposition of a duty on an
article produced here, gave an impulse to American enter
prise ; the machinery employed in its production was studied
and improved ; an increased supply was the natural conse
quence ; and increased supply, while the demand remained
the same, must always diminish prices. Would the gentle
man undertake to deny that the proportion between demand
and supply regulated price ? Mr. S. hardly thought that
he would go so far as that. But, as the gentleman had as
serted that duties raised prices, he was bound to prove the
truth of his position by quoting facts. The man who
asserted a thing to be a fact was bound to prove it, in court
or out of court. As a lawyer the gentleman knew this to
be so. Now, Mr. S. challenged the gentleman to put his
finger on one solitary case where his assertion was true.
What one protected article, the product of American skill
and industry, had been permanently increased in price, after
the duties, however high, had been first imposed for its pro
tection ? Mr. S. had challenged gentlemen, one and all, to
point out a single article, a pin or a needle, the price of
which had been increased after the imposition of a protec
tive duty. They had failed to do it. He had called on
them at the commencement of the session to hunt up some
article. Nearly six months had elapsed, yet they had failed
to find one ; and he now called on gentlemen to point out
one if they could. He heard no answer. No article could
be found. And yet, gentlemen stood up in the face of the
country and the world, and advanced the position that pro
tective duties always increased prices. Mr. S. made his
appeal to facts. Let the gentlemen meet him with facts. They
22 DEFENCE OF THE PEOTECTIVE POLICY.
could not ; they dealt altogether in assertions against facts.
Now if, as Mr. S. had proved, protective duties had not
increased but reduced prices, what became of all this clamor
about high prices, robbery, oppression, and plunder ? It
vanished into thin air ; it had no foundation to stand on ;
and gentlemen were bound by their own principles to go for
the protective policy, which reduced the price of manufac
tured goods by increasing the supply ; whilst, on the other
hand, it increased thejgrice^ by increasing the demand for
agricultural produce, and enhanced the wages of labor by
increasing its employments.
THE EFFECT OF THE TARIFF ON LABOR AND INVESTED
CAPITAL.
But gentlemen said, that while the tariif was oppressive
on the interests of agriculture and of labor, it was highly
beneficial to invested capital, to the rich monopolists, the
lords of the loom. Now, Mr. S. said that just the reverse of
this was true. While protection greatly benefited both
agriculture and labor, it was but a small advantage, if any,
to vested capital. The gentleman and his friends, without
knowing it, were in fact doing more for the benefit of vested
capital, by keeping up this agitation and opposition to the
tariff, and thereby establishing a monopoly by checking
competition, than all the tariff men in that House put
together. In the case of vested capital the tariff had done
its work ; it had built the manufactories up ; it had intro
duced improved machinery and increased skill ; it had done
all that fixed capital required. Vested capital was now on
its feet — it could get along without help. They had ex
ported during the last year between four and five million
dollars worth of cotton cloth ; they had beaten the British
out of their own markets. The great manufacturers of
these goods feared no foreign competition ; they had over
come that, and Great Britain was compelled to impose dis
criminating duties in her East India colonies on American
cottons— first 8, then 10, and finally 15 and 20 per cent., to
enable her manufacturers to keep the possession of her own
colonial markets. Our manufacturers had thus beaten
down British competition in the Chinese and other foreign
markets^ What invested capital now feared, was American
competition at home. But gentlemen exultingly say, if you
can beat the foreigner, what do you want with protection ?
DEFENCE OF THE PROTECTIVE POLICY. 23
I answer, the invested capital in these branches don't want
it. But I want it, not to favor them, but to encourage fur
ther investments, and build up competition elsewhere. The
protective tariff raised against them that very competition.
While advocating, therefore, the continuance of our exist
ing tariif, and resisting its reduction, Mr. S. was working in
the most direct and efficient manner for the interests of
American labor — he was resisting foreign ; he was going
for the interests of the American farmers and the American
laborers, and not for the interests of large vested capital ;
he went to destroy existing monopoly, by increasing invest
ments and competition — the only thing that could destroy it.
It was the gentlemen, and those who acted with them, by
keeping up this tariff agitation — who were aiding vested
capital. This agitation operated to check new investments,
and of course to promote and secure monopoly. Those who
were contemplating the investment of new capital would
defer it. One would say to another, " Don't build a new
mill or furnace now, the tariff is going to be reduced." Mr.
S. knew this to be true. He had heard of twelve large
companies who had intended to build furnaces in Pennsyl
vania this spring, but had suspended their purpose till they
should see what Congress would do with the tariff at the
present session. Did this hurt those who already owned
manufacturing establishments ? Certainly not ; it was the
very thing to aid them. This gave New England a mono
poly ; it secured in her hands that which the people of
Pennsylvania and the people of the South most wanted.
They wanted protection — New England could do without
it. Virginia wanted it, North Carolina wanted it, so did
South Carolina, and Georgia, and all the West. They
wanted protection to build them up ; in New England the
tariff had done its work — it had fulfilled its office. New
England might now say to this Government, "Father, I
am now of age ; I am on my own feet ; I can make my
way through the world : I have met John Bull and beat
him ; I thank you very much for what you have done for
me, and I will be a burden on you no longer ; now take care
of the younger branches of the family."
The rest of the country was comparatively young in manu
factures. They still needed the helping hand of Govern
ment ; they wanted protection in their infancy. New Eng
land was magnanimous and patriotic; she wished to see
other portions of the country prosper by following her ex-
24 DEFENCE OF THE PEOTECTIVE POLICY.
ample ; when the South and West supplied, as they could,
the coarser goods, she would go to work on the finer fabrics.
Did not gentlemen see that by reducing the tariff they were
checking investments in their own country and in mine, in
the South and West, and thereby securing a monopoly and
high profits to vested capital, wherever it existed, which
could only be reduced by enlarged competition at home?
Was not this true ? Was it not common sense ? He put it
to every man's understanding. It was not only common
sense, but, what was more, it was proved by universal
experience.
To show the practical operation of the protective policy,
he would take, by way of illustration, the neighboring iron
works at Mount Savage, near Cumberland. That establish
ment has been built up within a few years. Sometime
before it was commenced, land could be bought there for
two and three dollars an acre, which could not now be pur
chased under twenty or thirty dollars ; and mineral lands
had lately been sold at hundreds of dollars per acre, which,
a few years before these improvements were made, were com
paratively worthless. Such were the effects of the protec
tive policy. Was this system hurtful to agriculture ? Then
let gentlemen look at the Laurel Factory, not far from this
city. The proprietor of that factory lately bought the
ground on which it stood for five dollars an acre ; and the
same proprietor was now trying to purchase land in the
neighborhood at fifty, and could not get it. This was the
effect of giving the farmers a market. Manufacturing estab
lishments multiplied the value of farms in their vicinity
often ten, twenty, and sometimes, mineral lands, an hundred
fold. And what was its effect upon labor? Did it not
increase the price of labor ? What raised prices, but an in
creased demand ? What depressed prices, but the destruc
tion of employment? The protective policy, by increasing
the number of manufacturing establishments, of course in
creased the number of persons employed in them, thereby
creating a greater demand and higher wages for labor.
Laborers of all descriptions flock to the furnaces — coal-
diggers, choppers, teamsters, and a thousand others. Now,
suppose the gentleman should quit his agitation, make no
more appeals to party, and no more anti-tariff speeches,
what would be the effect ? Would not others go to build
ing up new establishments ? And would not that furnish
new markets for farmers, and employment for labor of all
DEFENCE OF THE PROTECTIVE POLICY. 25
sorts? The Mount Savage works employed in various
ways, on the ground and in the neighborhood, four or five
thousand men. Let three or four more such establishments
go up in that vicinity, and you would have at once a de
mand for three or four times as many hands, and for all sorts
of agricultural produce in the same proportion. How, then,
could gentlemen assert that the protective policy favored
invested capital, and was oppressive to labor and agriculture ?
[Mr. Holmes, of S. C., put a question to Mr. Stewart,
whether all this was not done by taxing the South for the
benefit of New England ?]
The gentleman asked whether all this benefit did not
grow out of a tax upon the South ? Mr. S. would answer
the gentleman ; if these factories were built by Government,
then this might, to some extent, be true. But they were
built, not by Government, but by individual enterprise;
and what sort of a tax was it upon the South, to give them
better goods for one-fourth the price they formerly paid ?
Mr. S. said he was very sorry that his excellent friend from
South Carolina should feel such deep regret at the prosperity
of New England. If he thought New England was getting
rich by manufactures, he would advise him to go home and
do likewise — to follow their example, and grow rich also.
The gentleman said that the planters of the South were
working the whole year for a profit of four or five per cent.,
while the manufacturers of New England were getting forty
or fifty. This was a great error — but, if true, was it not a
free country? Who gave New England exclusive privi
leges ? Why did not the South engage in the same forty or
fifty per cent, business, instead of working on at four or five ?
Why did not they commence with coarse fabrics, made from
their own cotton, just as New England had done before
them? But New England was now passing from that
stage, and going into the higher and finer branches. The
South, he was glad to learn, were now commencing. True,
they were yet in the A B C of the business ; they were in
their infancy ; they wanted the fostering care and protection
of Government. The tariff on the coarse fabrics was now
for their benefit. New England wanted it no longer on the
coarse, but only on the higher and finer fabrics, in which
they were now struggling with foreigners, who were en
deavoring to break them down by flooding our markets with
these articles at an under-value, hoping to indemnify them
selves for temporary losses by future exorbitant prices, ex-
26 DEFENCE OF THE PROTECTIVE POLICY.
torted from us when American competition is put down and
destroyed.
Mr. S. said he had been greatly amused by listening to
the ingenious but sophistical reasoning of gentlemen who
had gone into extended calculations to prove that cotton
manufacturers were now realizing 100 per cent., clear profits,
annually — yes, exactly 100 per cent. Yet the fact was
notorious — seen in all the eastern papers — that the stocks
of those very manufacturing establishments were selling
every day, on change, often below par. Would men realiz
ing 100 per cent, sell their stock under par? or would other
capitalists suffer it to be thus sold ? Besides, if these calcu
lations of gentlemen be correct, do they not see, at a glance,
that all the capital of the country, (for capital is quick and
clear-sighted,) would rush at once into this 100 per cent,
business — capital from England, and all Europe, would soon
be into it, and what then ? The business would soon be
overdone — and then what? It would become the very
worst business in the world. Gentlemen must be very
credulous themselves, or think others so, to indulge in such
absurdities. Business was like a pendulum — if you give it
a strong impulse in one direction, the reaction was sure to
carry it as far in the opposite direction. If any branch of
business, by protection or otherwise, become highly profita
ble, the rush of capital into it would soon bring it down to
the very lowest rates of profit.
POLICY OF THE SOUTH.
How was it that Southern gentlemen could shut their
eyes to the result of their own unwise policy ? Let them
look how they stood, and then look at the North. The
North applied their shoulder to the wheel ; they went to
work to better their condition ; they husbanded their own
resources ; they employed and diversified their labor ; they
lived upon their own means ; kept their money at home to
reward their own industry, instead of foolishly sending it
abroad to purchase what they could so well and so profita
bly supply at home. But South Carolina and her Southern
sisters would touch neither hammer nor shuttle. They
sent away their money to New England or to old England.
And what was the consequence of these two opposite sys
tems ? South Carolina was poor and dependent, while New
England was independent and prosperous. South Carolina,
DEFENCE OF THE PROTECTIVE POLICY. 27
when the Federal Constitution was adopted, had five repre
sentatives, North Carolina five, and Virginia ten represen
tatives on this floor. They all cherished a deadly hostility
to everything connected Avith the manufactures, internal
improvements, and progress of every kind. They denied to
this Government the power of self-protection and self-im
provement ; they went for the stand-still, lie-down, go-to-
sleep, let-us-alone, do-nothing policy ; they had tried to live
on whip syllabub, political metaphysics, and constitutional
abstractions, until it had nearly starved them to death, while
the Northern States had wisely pursued the opposite policy ;
and what had been the effect on their relative prosperity ?
New York began with six representatives in that hall ; now
she had thirty-four. Pennsylvania began with eight, and
now she had twenty-four. Virginia, with North and South
Carolina, had commenced with twenty representatives, and
now they have, altogether, but thirty, and New York alone
has thirty-four. Such are the fruits of the opposite systems
of policy adopted by the North and South. Judge the tree
by its fruits. Will men never learn wisdom from experi
ence ? He would rejoice to see the South as prosperous and
as happy as the North. They had all the elements of wealth
and prosperity in profusion around them — the raw materials
and bread stuffs, minerals, and water-power in abundance,
running to waste. If they would allow him to offer them
advice, it would be to abandon an exploded and ruinous
policy ; follow the example of the North, and share in their
prosperity. Instead of coming here repining and complain
ing that the North was rich and prosperous, making forty
or fifty per cent, profit on their capital, whilst the South real
ized but four or five, just turn round, quit your four or five
per cent, profits, and go to work, at what you allege yields
forty or fifty. If the tariff was confined to the North, you
might complain ; but it was free to all alike — North and
South, East and West. Go to the hammer and the loom,
the furnace and the forge, and become prosperous in your
turn. All these blessing are within your reach, if you will
but put forth your hands to grasp them ; they are offered
freely to your acceptance. You enjoy great advantages.
You have not only all the advantages enjoyed by the North
for manufacturing, but you have others superadded; you
supply the raw material, and above all, you have labor with
out wages, perfectly available for such purposes ; the hands
of the young and old, now useless for the field, might, in
28 DEFENCE OF THE PROTECTIVE POLICY.
factories, become highly profitable and productive opera
tives. Take hold, then, of the same industry which had
made New England great, and especially on those branches
of it which New England now could and would spare. Then
South Carolina would be, thus far, independent both of
New England and of all the world. She could no longer
hope to compete with Texas and the rich lands of the South-
- west in the production of cotton. Her wornout fields must
sink in the contest with the virgin soil of the new States.
Then let her address herself to manufactures. The gentle
man from South Carolina seemed to observe, with grief and
envy, that New England was enjoying profits of from forty
to fifty per cent. That was not true ; but what if it
was ? If she gave that to South Carolina for six cents per
yard, which Carolina once could not get from abroad
under thirty-six, the question for Carolina to look at was,
not what profits New England made, but what prices she
charged her.
That gentleman wanted his State to go to old England
for all she required. We were all to depend on Europe for
our manufactured articles. Foreign countries were to enjoy
exclusively the profitable business yielding forty and fifty
per cent., while we were all to turn farmers, and join the
gentleman in working, as he said, for a profit of four and
five per cent, (and when all became farmers it would be ten
times worse), competition having ceased, old England would
again make the gentleman pay twenty-five cents a yard for
what New England now offered them for six. Was not
this patriotic ? Was it not a noble, an enlarged American
policy ? England was to be allowed to monopolize all the
profitable business, the result of labor-saving machinery,
while we were to content ourselves with the plough and the
hoe, and profits at the rate of two or three per cent. Was
that the policy for America to pursue? They might be
Americans who recommended it, but they were certainly
playing into the hands of our trans- Atlantic competitors.
If manufacturing was such profitable business as these gen
tlemen represented it to be, why not let Americans have it
rather than foreigners ? Why not keep our money and our
profits to ourselves, instead of giving both to the labor of
Great Britain ? The profits of manufacturing were chiefly
owing to an enlarged market, and to the use and constant
improvement of labor-saving machinery. The saving of
labor and the increase of human power produced in this
DEFENCE OF THE PROTECTIVE POLICY. 29
manner was almost incalculable. By its aid one feeble
woman or child was enabled to accomplish more in a day
than would pay for the productions of forty able-bodied,
hard-handed men without it. Did gentlemen desire, and
was it their policy, to let England enjoy all this benefit, and
keep it to herself as a monopoly ? It was this labor-saving
machinery, and this alone, that kept the British Government
from bankruptcy. This prolific source of wealth and power
enabled the British people to stand up under a debt of four
thousand millions of dollars, and to pay taxes to the Govern
ment amounting to more than two hundred and fifty mil
lions every year. This was the result of her immense
labor-saving machinery, estimated to be equal to the labor
of eight millions of men. Was it the policy of gentlemen
to let England have this profitable business of manufac
turing all to herself? That seemed to be the policy of the
Secretary of the Treasury. Indeed, he had avowed it in
his report to be his settled policy to break down the manu
facturers of our own country, and derive his revenue from
British and other foreign goods. His policy was in his own
words, to prevent "the substitution of domestic rival products
for imported articles." This policy of substituting American
for foreign goods, he says, is injurious to the revenue, and
must be arrested by reducing the duties so as to let in the
productions of foreign labor, and thus break down American
median ics and manufacturers, and put an end to this grow
ing evil of " substituting American rival products for foreign
goods" This sentiment the Secretary has repeated several
times in his report. See pages 3 and 6. His policy was to
increase the revenue by increasing importations ; and, as he
would reduce the average of duties one-third, of course,
to get the same amount of revenue, we must add J to our
imports. This was manifest and undeniable. Our present
imports amounted to one hundred millions ; to carry out
the Secretary's plan we must raise them to one hundred and
fifty millions. Our exports were about one hundred mil
lions, and of course fifty millions in specie would be required
annually to pay the balance. The whole specie of the
country had never been estimated at more than eighty mil
lions. How, then, was his policy to work ? How was he
to make up this deficit? Xot from the banks, for they
wrould be broken up within the very first year of such a
system ; and then what was Mr. Secretary going to do for
his revenue ? The duty on foreign iron, he tells us, is 75
30 DEFENCE OF THE PROTECTIVE POLICY.
per cent. He was for reducing it to 30 per cent. — less than
one-half. We must, of course, import more than double
the amount of foreign iron to get the present amount of
revenue, and to that extent break up American supply.
Now, it was impossible to make our people double their
consumption, and so the result must necessarily be to get
them to take foreign goods where they now took domestic,
thus supplying the demand from abroad, and of course
destroying the domestic article to that extent. Was not all
this plain ? Could any man in his senses deny it ? And
then, besides, where was the Secretary going to get the
money to pay for all these foreign goods ? There was the
rub. The gentleman from Virginia [Mr. Bayly] talked
about exporting potatoes to Ireland. Export potatoes to
Ireland ! He would tell that gentleman that last year we
imported 211,327 bushels, paying a duty of ten cents per
bushel — 15,045 from Ireland, while Ireland took of all our
grain only 790 bushels of corn, not a barrel of flour, corn-
meal, or a bushel of grain, or its productions in any other
form. The whole of our mighty export of breadstuffis to
England, Scotland, and Ireland, amounted to less than
$224,000, less than one-fourth of a million — less than could
be furnished by a single Western county. Potatoes were
cheaper in Ireland than in the United States, yet the people
are starving, because they had no protection against Eng
land, no money, no employment. This was the effect of
" free-trade " with England, and it was precisely the condi
tion into which "free-trade" with England would soon
bring this country, if it were adopted. "Free-trade" with
England reminded him of an anecdote of an Irishman, who,
when complaining of starvation in Ireland, was asked
whether potatoes were not very cheap? he answered,
" Chape ! the Lord love ye, they're but saxpence a bushel."
"How is it, then, you are starving?" "Just because we
have no work, and can't get the saxpence." [A laugh.]
Such were the fruits of exchanging agricultural products for
manufactured goods — the products of manual labor for the
products of machinery — working the hoe against the loom.
Such had been, and always would be, the result of this
miserable system of policy, whenever and wherever adopted.
TAXATION.
Next, the gentleman complained of taxation. If protec
tive duties, as he had proved, reduced prices, where was the
DEFENCE OF THE PROTECTIVE POLICY. 31
taxation ? But suppose it to be admitted that the duties on
foreign goods are added to the price. Then I ask what tax
did farmers and laborers now pay the United States?
Nothing. Many of them used nothing but domestics.
They bought no foreign goods except tea and coffee, and
they were free. Thousands and hundreds of thousands of
our people don't pay a dollar a year into the National
Treasury, and thousands not a cent. How would it be
under a system of direct taxation? The burdens of the
Federal Government would fall on farmers and laborers
more heavily than the heaviest State taxation. Under a
system of direct tax the proportion of Pennsylvania would
be three millions a year — more than double her present heavy
State taxation. But all these burdens put together are
nothing compared to the taxes imposed on us by the British.
To form an idea of its extent, let every gentleman ascertain
the number of stores selling British goods in his district.
These merchants are all tax-gatherers for England, taking
millions and tens of millions of specie from our farmers for
British agricultural produce, AVOO!, arid everything else con
verted into goods, and sent here and sold to our farmers,
who have those very materials on their hands rotting for
want of a market ; and this is the ruinous system recom
mended to our farmers by these " free-trade " advocates.
The farmers understand it, and they will let gentlemen
know it at the polls. They will let gentlemen know what
they think of this " buy everything and sell nothing policy"
They know that the farmer who sells more than he buys
gets rich, and he who buys more than he sells gets poor ;
and they know that the same theory is true with regard to
nations ; they know that, to sell more and buy less, is the
way to wealth, and that the opposite course is the road to
bankruptcy and ruin. A striking illustration of the truth
of this may be found in the fact that during the reduction
of duties under the compromise act our imports exceeded
our exports upwards of three hundred millions, and the
consequence was that our specie was all exported, our banks
broken, the treasury empty, people impoverished, and two
hundred millions of State six per cent, bonds sent to Europe
to pay this unfavorable balance of trade, where they still
remain, drawing away our specie to pay the interest — a dead
weight upon the energies of the people. Such are the bles
sings and benefits of low duties, and should this destructive
bill pass, they will soon return in all their bitterness.
32 DEFENCE OF THE PROTECTIVE POLICY.
The idea that a balance of trade against us is not an
unfavorable indication, was a plausible absurdity into which
sensible men were sometimes seduced. The error consisted
in the assumption that our imports consisted of cash or were
converted into cash : whereas they were imported for con
sumption, and were consumed. Now, was it not manifest
that if a nation sold one hundred millions, and bought and
consumed one hundred and fifty millions of foreign goods,
the nation would be fifty millions in debt? Suppose an
individual sells one hundred dollars worth of produce, and
buys and consumes one hundred and fifty dollars worth of
goods, is he not fifty dollars in debt? And if true of an
individual, is it not equally true of a nation ?
The true American policy was PROTECTION and INDE
PENDENCE. It was to make America independent of all
the world. That was sound American policy ; and he
trusted no man would suffer himself to be so carried away
by mere party politics as to advocate "free-trade" and
starvation, twin sisters, "one and inseparable." Protection
was the policy which would spread comfort and happiness
over the face of a smiling land. Its effect would penetrate
our forests, and reach to the remotest hamlet in the West.
This would keep our money at home, instead of sending it
across the ocean to enrich British farmers and manufacturers
to the ruin of our own.
EFFECT OF THE PROPOSED BILL ON THE REVENUE.
What was the theory of our learned Secretary? We
must reduce duties to increase our revenue. Now, Mr. S.
said, and he defied contradiction, that as truly as the ther
mometer indicated the increase or diminution of heat in the
atmosphere, just so truly did the increase or diminution of
the tariff mark the increase or the diminution of revenue.
He appealed to the record, and defied his opponents to the
test.
This Mr. S. pronounced a most extraordinary scheme —
the greatest absurdity that ever entered into the imagination
of man. The Secretary's plan was to increase the revenue.
And how was it to be accomplished ? By reversing the rule
adopted in this and every other country from the beginning
of time. His plan was, not to increase, but reduce, duties,
the source of revenue. Now, he wished to state a few plain
facts, derived from this very report of Secretary Walker's
DEFENCE OF THE PROTECTIVE POLICY. 33
itself, utterly subversive of his whole theory. In the first
place, his voluminous tables showed, at pages 956 and 957,
that for the last 25 years the tariff and the revenue had
invariably gone up and down together. 2d. That, in 1842,
under a 20 per cent, tariff, the net revenue was only
$12,780,173, while under the present tariff, averaging, he
says, near 40 per cent., the last year (1845) the net revenue
was $27,528,112, as given at page 23, more than double
that of 1842, and corresponding exactly with the increase
of the duties. Yet, in the face of these facts, he proposes to
reduce the duties to increase the revenue ! But this is not
all; this report further shows this fact, that the present
tariff is now yielding more revenue than has ever been
received, with the exception of a single year (1836), since
the foundation of the Government. But what is most
astonishing, the Secretary, at page 47 of his report, gives the
amount of revenue his favorite standard, 20 per cent., would
yield on the whole imports of the last year, free, dutiable,
and all, and
He makes it $22,636,864
From which deduct amount on tea and coffee,
made free 2,400,000
Leaves $20,236,864
And from this deduct the expenses of collec
tion 3.500,000
And he has left only $16,736,864
And this was subject to a still further reduc
tion on $15,346,830 of goods re-exported 3,069,000
$13,667,864
Thirteen millions less than the present tariff. And this is a
war measure, leaving only $13,767,864 assessed on the
imports of 1845, which were 25 millions more than the
average imports of the last 9 years ; and at an average duty
of 25 per cent., according to the same calculation, the reve
nue would be only $17,097,330. This was the. Secretary's
own calculation. See page 47 of his report. But if the
Secretary will take 67 millions, the average of dutiable im
ports (page 9), his 20 per cent, will give him less than ten
millions net revenue.
Yet the Secretary recommended a reduction of duties to
an average rate of 20 per cent., and in support of this recom
mendation he had accompanied his report with a table, at
3
34 DEFENCE OF THE PROTECTIVE POLICY.
page 956, showing the revenue under different tariffs for the
last twenty-five years, viz., four years immediately before
the tariff of 1824, four years under the tariff of 1824, four
years under the tariff of 1828, ten years under the compro
mise bill, and three years under the tariff of 1842. And
what was the result ?
For the four years preceding the tariff of 1824 the aver
age gross revenue was $22,753,000. Under the tariff of
1824, which its opponents at the time predicted would ruin
the revenue and compel a resort to direct taxation, the aver
age for the four years of its duration was $28,929,000.
Next came the " bill of abominations/' the " black tariff of
1828," which it was said would bankrupt the treasury be
yond all question ; and what was the result ? The average
revenue during the four years of its operation increased to
$30,541,000. Then came the compromise bill of 1833,
which brought the tariff down by biennial reductions to a
horizontal duty of 20 per cent. ; and what was its effect upon
the revenue? The revenue declined pari passu with the
tariff, yielding for ten years an average of $21,496,000,
and the last year of its operation under the 20 per cent,
duty only $16,686,000 gross revenue, netting $12,780,000,
while our expenditures were more than double that amount.
Then came the present tariff, which yielded more than
$32,000,000 gross— $27,500,000 net revenue. Now, what
does our profound Secretary of the treasury propose to do to
improve the revenue ? Mark it ! He proposes to reduce
the tariff to an average of about 20 per cent., which " expe
rience proves/7 he says, will give the highest revenue, and
yet this very report shows the fact that a 20 per cent, tariff
in 1842 yielded only $12,780,000, while the present tariff
last year yielded $27,526,000. Thus, according to the
Secretary, twelve is more than twenty-seven! A new dis
covery in arithmetic. The new "free-trade" system of
finance says — " reduce the duties to increase the revenue," a
doctrine not only urged upon Congress by the Secretary and
The Union, his organ, but by all the advocates of this
new tariff on this floor. " Reduce the duties to increase the
revenue!" Can anything be more absurd? Are not
duties the source of revenue ; and would it not be just as
sensible to say "reduce the revenue to increase the re
venue?" Duties and revenue being convertible terms.
Suppose you want twenty-five millions from the tariff —
that sum must be raised, no matter how you impose the
DEFENCE OF THE PROTECTIVE POLICY. 35
duties ; and why not so arrange them as to protect and sus
tain your own national industry — thus making taxation
itself prolific of benefits and blessings to the people?
Making it the means of protecting national industry, enlarg
ing the markets for agriculture, increasing the employments
and wages of labor, developing your own national resources,
and securing your national prosperity and independence ;
thus making taxation itself a blessing, instead of a curse, to
your country ?
On the subject of the revenue, he would venture to pre
dict, that if the system of measures recommended by the
Secretary — the reduction of the tariff, the change from
specific to ad valorem duties, the Subtreasury, and the
warehousing system were adopted — the revenue next year
would not be half the amount it will be this year. Mark
the prediction, not half.
Who could deny the fact that with the raising of the
tariff the revenue increased, and with its diminution the
revenue fell off, till at last under 20 per cent., which the
Secretary considered the very beau ideal — the very perfec
tion of a revenue system — the nett revenue sank down to
less than thirteen millions? There was the Secretary's
theory — and there, alongside of it, stood his proof; and his
proof utterly subverted his theory. Did it prove that re
ducing duties to 20 per cent, raised the revenue to its high
est point! Just the reverse. It reduced it to the very
lowest point of depression. While his theory said that 20
per cent, would give the " highest" his proof showed that it
gave the very " lowest."
FOLLY AND EXTRAVAGANCE OF THIS ADMINISTRATION.
And was not this a pretty time to select for the reduction
of duties? Now, when we had just entered into a war,
whose duration no man could predict or calculate. When
we went to war in 1812 we doubled the duties : now it was
proposed to cut them down one-half! What a consummate
proof of political wisdom and financial ability was here
exhibited? Why, then, destroy the present admirable
tariff, that had worked so well, and adopt such a miserable
and rickety system as this ? Why destroy a tariff that had paid,
since 1842, inclusive, no less than $34,307,224 of the prin
cipal and interest of your public debt, and leaving in your
treasury, on the first of July, 1845, a balance of §7,658,306,
36 DEFENCE OF THE PEOTECTIVE POLICY.
which added to the above, gives a surplus revenue, over and
above the ordinary expenditures, of $41,965,520, derived
from the tariff of 1842, including the payments of that
year ? This he stated from official annual Treasury reports
of 1843, page 31, of 1844, page 19, and of 1845, page 25.
Yet this tariff, which had yielded this large surplus, is to be
destroyed in the midst of war, to carry out an absurd reso
lution adopted some years ago by an irresponsible political
cabal assembled at Baltimore ; and this was their leading
and almost only argument in its favor. Mr. S. called the
attention of the chairman of the Committee of Ways and
Means to the fact, and he should like to hear his explana
tion of it. The estimates made by the Secretary of the
Treasury, before there was a word said about war or the
prospect of war — estimates rendered in a time of profound
peace to meet the ordinary expenses of the Government —
had been more by six millions and a half than the expendi
tures of the preceding year. If gentlemen doubted it, he
would refer them to the Secretary's report. He wished the
chairman to explain how it was that the peace estimates for
this year exceeded by more than six millions the peace ex
penditures of the last year ; and, besides this, we had had a
bill appropriating a million and a half to make good deficient
appropriations. Add this million and a half to the six mil
lions and a half he had just mentioned, and it would make
eight millions, by which amount our peace expenditure for
the present year surpassed those of the last. There stood
the fact in the Secretary's own report, and Mr. S. challenged
the chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means, or any
friend of the Secretary or of the Administration, to deny it.
Was this war brought about to conceal these enormous and
unprecedented expenditures in time of peace, exceeding by
six or seven millions the expenditures of preceding years ?
The Avar would smother up all this extravagance, and con
ceal it from the public view. All wasteful expenditures
would now be attributed to the war. The war would be a
blanket wide enough to cover all. And here he would add
another fact — it was one the people ought to know — it was
this : That the appropriations reported passed, and to be
passed, amounted already this session to the enormous sum
of $57,237,075 ; and would, perhaps, reach sixty millions
before the adjournment — nearly three times our ordinary
appropriations. And, in the face of all this, we are to pass
this miserable party bill reducing the revenue fully one-half.
DEFENCE OF THE PROTECTIVE POLICY. 37
There was another thing of which the tariff was an index,
and that was the public prosperity. When the people are
poor they could not afford to consume luxuries ; imports
fell off, and down went the revenue. But when duties were
high a-nd domestic competition was excited, agriculture
having abundant markets, and labor full and profitable em
ployment, the people became prosperous ; they lived in com
fort ; they could afford to pay for fine goods and luxuries —
and up went the revenue. Reduce the tariff, break up Ameri
can industry, and you clothed the people in rags, and your
treasury became bankrupt. The national revenue and the
national prosperity went up and down together, and were
always coincident with national protection. This he asserted
as an undeniable fact, proved by every page of our finan
cial history, from the days of the revolution up to the pres-
sent hour.
A CHAPTER FOR WORKING MEN TO READ.
Mr. S.'s system was this: Select the articles you can
manufacture to the full extent of our own wants, then, in
the language of Thomas Jefferson, " impose on them duties
lighter at first, and afterwards heavier and heavier as the
channels of supply were opened/7 This was Jefferson's
plan ; the reverse of modern democratic " free-trade." Next
Mr. S. went for levying the highest rates of duty on the
luxuries of the rich, and not on the necessaries of the poor.
Encourage American manufactures, and while on the one
hand the poor man found plenty of employment, on the
other he got his goods cheap. He could clothe himself
decently for a mere trifle. He wanted no foreign commodi
ties but his tea and his coffee, and they were free, and should
remain free. The poor man could now buy cloth for a full
suit from head to foot for less than one dollar of substantial
American manufacture. He had himself worn in this hall
a garment of this same goods, at ten cents per yard, and it
was so much admired that more than a dozen members had
applied for similar garments, and they had been supplied to
Senators and others ; yet we are told the tariff taxes and
oppresses the poor. Put high revenue duties on wines, on
brandies, on silks, on laces, on jewelry, on all that which
the rich man alone consumed and which the poor man did
not want. Take off the duties from the poor man's necessa
ries, and give him high wages for his work. That was the
38 DEFENCE OF THE PROTECTIVE POLICY,
way to diffuse happiness and prosperity among the great
body of the people. That was good sound democratic
policy. He was for lifting up the poor. He was for
"levelling upward;" for increasing the domestic comfort
of our own laboring population — the true democracy of the
country. The rich could pay, and ought to be made to pay,
and they should pay ; the poor man could not, and should
not, with his consent. Mr. S. went for the system which
elevated the poor man in the scale of society ; that promoted
equality, that essential element in all free Governments, not
by pulling down the higher, but by lifting up the lower
classes to their level. The gentleman from Alabama and
his friends advocated a policy which would have precisely
the opposite effect. Their system would truly make the
" rich richer and the poor poorer." The gentleman advo
cated a system whose direct and undeniable tendency was
to destroy competition, and thereby give a monopoly to the
heavy capitalists. He would benefit those very " million
aires" of whose presence here he complained so loudly.
Free-trade would inevitably degrade the wages of labor
in every department of industry, whether employed in
the fields or in the workshops, to the level of wages in
Europe ; this was as certain as the ebbing and flowing of
the tides. What could be plainer ? Take two coterminous
States — Kentucky and Ohio. Suppose in Kentucky, as in
Europe, wages was 12 J cents per day, and in Ohio, as in
the U. S., 75 cents per day. Now was it not perfectly clear
that, unless Ohio protected her prosperous labor, the pro
ductions of the low price labor of Kentucky, boots, shoes,
hoes, everything would come in, and compel the mechanics
and laborers of Ohio to come down to 12 J cents a day, or give
up their markets, quit work, buy everything, sell nothing,
and get rich! And he submitted, would not this be the
effect of " free-trade" with Europe? The only difference
was the cost of transportation across the Ohio and across the
Atlantic; and with the modern facilities of steam, a ton of
iron could be brought from Europe to this country for less
than $4 ; less than it would cost to cart it 20 miles on com
mon roads. Such would be the manifest and ruinous effects
of " free-trade," on the wages of labor in every department
of the national industry ; and any reduction of protection
would be a reduction to the same extent of the wages of
labor.
It would degrade the free labor of this country to the
DEFENCE OF THE PROTECTIVE POLICY. 39
miserable condition of the serf labor of foreign lands, where
men were slaves — without the means of educating their
children — working from the cradle to the grave, and never
aspiring to anything beyond a scanty and miserable subsist
ence ; and such was the condition to which " free-trade "
must inevitably bring the now protected and prosperous
labor of this great country. Pull down the walls built up
by the tariff of '42 to protect and defend American labor —
let the cheap productions of the low-priced labor of Europe
Row freely into your markets, and you must sooner or later
come down to their degraded condition — moral and political.
He, therefore, earnestly appealed to the laboring people of
this country — the sovereigns of the land — who " made all
and paid all/' to come quickly to the rescue, to save them
selves from the degrading and disastrous effects of " free-
trade." The power was in their own hands — they could
protect themselves at the ballot-box, and, if they did not,
they would deserve the degradation to which they would be
doomed. To every candidate for office propound this ques
tion : " are you in favor of protecting American against
foreign labor by a PROTECTIVE TARIFF ? " And let his an
swer be conclusive. This is the remedy — the only remedy.
Let it be adopted, and all will be well. He stood there the
firm friend and humble advocate of the laboring man. He
had been a laboring man himself; he knows their priva
tions and had participated in their toils ; and to deserve and
receive the approbation of the laboring poor, of the mechanics,
and log-cabin men of this country, would be more grateful
to his heart than all the praises of all the presses of the
land. It would be the crowning and cherished reward of
all his efforts — the only reward to which he aspired.
Labor, productive labor, was the great source of national
wealth. Its importance was incalculable. Compared with
this all other interests dwindled into perfect insignificance.
What is all other capital combined compared to the capital
of labor — hard-handed, honest labor — the toiling millions
— the great fountain of our national prosperity — look at it.
Suppose we have but two millions of working men in the
United States, whose wages average $180 per year — this is
equal to the interest of $3000 at six per cent. Each laborer's
capital, then, is equal to $3000 at interest. Multiply this
by two millions, the number of laborers, and it gives you a
capital amounting to the enormous sum of six thousand
millions of dollars, producing, at six per cent., three hundred
40 DEFENCE OF THE PROTECTIVE POLICY.
and sixty millions of dollars a year. This was the " labor
capital" he wished to sustain and uphold. This was the
great national industry he wished to protect and defend
against the ruinous and degrading effects of a free and
unrestricted competition with the pauper labor of foreign
lands. He went to secure the American market for Ameri
can labor. In the great struggle for the American market
he took the American side. On the other hand, the gentle
man from Alabama and his friends went for the British ;
for foreigners; for "free-trade;" for opening our ports to
the manufacturers of all the world ; for bringing in freely
the pauper productions of Great Britain, to overwhelm the
rising prosperity of our own poor but industrious citizens.
They went for crushing American enterprise; grinding
down American labor, and putting their countrymen on a
footing with the very sweepings of the poor houses of
Europe ; and would, in the end, bring them down to their
political, as well as their pecuniary and moral condition.
Mr. S. was for cherishing American labor; for giving it
high wages; for surrounding it with all the substantial
comforts of life. Which was the true friend of the PEOPLE ?
And yet these " free-trade " advocates, from the Secretary
down, professed to be the exclusive friends of the " poor
man," and we are denounced as the friends of " millionaires
and monopolists." We now imported fifty millions worth
of British goods annually, and therein we imported twenty-
five millions worth of British agricultural products — of
English wool, English grain, English beef and mutton,
English flax, English agricultural productions of every
kind. And yet gentlemen would rise here and talk of a
British market for our breadstuffs. Why, how much of
this did England take ? Not a quarter of a million, in all
its forms !
Here was .a beautiful reciprocity. Here were the beau
ties of free trade. Here was our equality of benefits. We
took fifty millions in British goods, one-half of it agricul
tural produce, while she took one-quarter of a million of
our breadstuffs. This was our boasted British market.
What was this British market to us ? The American mar
ket consumed annually nearly a thousand millions of
American grain; the British market one-quarter of one
million. Great Britain took of our flour not a twentieth
part as much as Massachusetts, not a tenth part of the
amount taken by the East and West Indies ; not a third
DEFENCE OF THE PROTECTIVE POLICY. 41
part as much as Brazil ; not as much as the little Island of
Cuba; and not much more than half as much as Hayti.
Poor, miserable, negro Hayti, took last year 53,144 barrels
of our flour, while England, Scotland, and Ireland together,
took but 35,355 barrels of flour, and one barrel of corn-meal.
Yet we are told, in the face of these official facts, by the
Secretary of the Treasury, that we must take more British
goods, otherwise she will have to pay us " cash for our
breadstuff s, and, not having it to spare, she will not buy as
much of our cotton." What an insult to American farmers
is this. As an honorable man, must he not blush for his
reputation when he looks upon these facts? But what
better could we expect from this American Secretary, who,
over and over, in his report, denounces the substitution of
American manufactures for foreign goods, and declares that
direct taxation is more equitable and just than duties on
foreign goods, especially in its operations on the poor !
Better levy taxes on our own productions than on those of
foreigners ! Such are the doctrines openly avowed by this
Secretary to favor his miserable system of " free-trade."
Away with such British doctrines as these ! They could
never find favor with the American people, while a spark
of patriotism animates their hearts, or a drop of Revolu
tionary blood runs in their veins.
The gentleman from Alabama will no doubt discover
another terrible absurdity when Mr. S. stated that Great
Britain exported and sold more agricultural produce than
any other country in the world. Yet it is strictly and un
deniably true. Exported, not in its original form, but
worked up and converted into goods, iron, cloths, etc., con
sisting of raw materials and breadstuffs. Great Britain
exported, on an average, more than two hundred and fifty
millions of dollars' worth of manufactures, one-half of the
whole value of which consisted of the produce of the soil.
The United States took about one-fifth part of all the ex
ports of Great Britain — being more than all Europe put
together. In a report of a committee in the British Parlia
ment, made some years ago, it appeared that the British
goods consumed by the people of the different countries of
Europe, — France, Russia, Prussia, Austria, Spain, Belgium,
etc., amounted to fourteen cents' worth per head, while the
people of the United States at the same time consumed
three hundred and fifty-Jour cents' worth per head ! This
showed the immense importance of the American market to
42 DEFENCE OF THE PROTECTIVE POLICY.
Great Britain, and accounted for her great solicitude to
retain it. It also showed the superior wisdom of the
European Governments in excluding British goods by high
and prohibitory tariffs ; thus developing and relying upon
their own resources, encouraging and sustaining their own
national industry, promoting their own prosperity, and thus
establishing (as we should do) their own national indepen
dence on the most solid and lasting foundations.
Mr. S. invited scrutiny into the facts he had stated ; he
challenged contradiction. He put them before gentlemen,
and begged them to examine and disprove them if they
could. He invited them to reflect upon them in a spirit
of candor. To dismiss from their minds all party bias ; to
rise for once superior to the low grovelling prejudices of
party ; to wake up to the great interest, and feel for the real
strength and true glory and independence of their native
land.
BENEFITS OF THE TARIFF TO FARMERS.
Gentlemen dwelt entirely on the benefits of foreign trade.
They went altogether in favor of importing foreign goods,
and creating a market for the benefit of foreigners. Would
our own agriculture be benefited by a process like this?
Nothing could more effectually divert the benefit from our
own people and pour it in a constant stream upon foreign
labor. No American interest was so much benefited by a
protective system as that of agriculture. The foreign
market was nothing, the home market wras everything to
them ; it was as one hundred to one. The tariff gave us
the great home market, while the gentleman's scheme was
to secure us, at best, but the chance of a market abroad,
while it effectually destroyed our secure and invaluable
market at home. Gentlemen were very anxious to compete
with the pauper labor of Europe. I will tell them one fact :
With all the protection we now enjoy, Great Britain sends
into this country eight dollars' worth of her agricultural
productions to one dollar's worth of all our agricultural
productions (save cotton and tobacco) that she takes from us.
This I will prove by the returns furnished by Mr. Walker
himself in support of the bill which he has laid before the
Committee of Ways and Means. Now, I assert, and can
prove, that more than half the value of all the British
merchandise imported into this country consists of agricul
tural products, changed inform, converted and manufactured
DEFENCE OF THE PROTECTIVE POLICY. 43
into goods. And I invite a thorough analysis of the facts.
I challenge gentlemen to the scrutiny. Take down all the
articles in a store, one after another — estimate the value of
the raw material, the bread and meat, and other agricultural
products, which have entered into their fabrication, and it
will be found that one-half and more of their value consists
of the productions of the soil — agricultural produce in its
strictest sense.
Now, by reference to Mr. Walker's report, it will be seen
that, for twelve years back, we have imported from Great
Britain and her dependencies annually fifty-two and a half
millions of dollars' worth of goods, but call it fifty millions,
while she took of all our agricultural products, save cotton
and tobacco, less than two and a half millions of dollars'
worth. Thus, then, assuming one-half the value of her
goods to be agricultural, it gives us twenty-five millions of
her agricultural produce to two and a half millions of ours
taken by her, which is just ten to one ; to avoid cavil, I put
it at eight to one. To test the truth of his position, he was
prepared, if time permitted, to refer to numerous facts.
But for the information of gentlemen who are such great
friends to the poor and oppressed farmers, I will tell them
that we have imported yearly, for twenty-six years, (so says
Mr. Walker's report,) more than ten millions of dollars'
worth of woollen goods. Last year we imported $10,666,1 76
worth. Now, one-half and more of the value of this cloth
was made up of wool, the subsistence of labor and other
agricultural productions. The general estimate is, that the
wool alone is half. The universal custom among farmers,
when they had their wool manufactured on the shares, was
to give the manufacturer half the cloth. Thus we import,
and our farmers have to pay, for five millions of dollars'
worth of foreign wool every year in the form of cloth,
mostly the production of sheep feeding on the grass and
grain of Great Britain, while our own wool is worthless for
want of a market ; and this is the policy gentlemen recom
mend to American farmers. Yes, sir; and not satisfied
with five millions, they wish to increase it to ten millions a
year for foreign wool. Will gentlemen deny this ? They
dare not. They supported Mr. Walker's bill, reducing the
duties on woollens nearly one-half, with a view to increase
the revenue; of course, the imports must be doubled,
making the import of cloth twenty millions instead of ten,
and of wool ten instead of five millions of dollars per annum.
44 DEFENCE OF THE PROTECTIVE POLICY.
This was the plan to favor the farmers, British farmers,
by giving them the American market. Their plan was to
buy everything, sell nothing, and get rich. (A laugh.)
What was true as to cloth was equally true as to everything
else. Take a hat, a pair of shoes, a yard of silk or lace,
analyze it, resolve it into its constituent elements, and you
will find that the raw material, and the substance of labor,
and other agricultural products, constituted more than one-
half its entire value. The pauper labor of Europe employed
in manufacturing silk and lace got what it eat, no more ;
and this is what you pay for when you purchase their goods.
Break up your home manufactures and home markets,
import everything you eat and drink and wear, for the
benefit of the farmers. Oh, what friends these gentlemen
are to the farmers and mechanics and laborers of this
country — no, sir, I am wrong, of Great Britain.
As a still stronger illustration of his argument, Mr. S.
referred to the article of iron. Last year, according to Mr.
Walker's report, we imported $9,043,396 worth of foreign
iron, and its manufactures, mostly from Great Britain,
four-fifths of the value of which, as every practical man
knew, consisted of agricultural produce — nothing else. Iron
is made of ore and coal ; and what are the ore and coal
buried in your mountains worth? Nothing — nothing at
all, unused. What gives them value ? The labor of horses,
oxen, mules and men. And what sustained this labor but
corn and oats, hay and straw for the one, and bread and
meat and vegetables of every kind for the other. These
agricultural products were purchased and consumed, and
this made up nearly the whole price of the iron which the
manufacturer received and paid over to the farmers again
and again, as often as the process was repeated. Well, is
not iron made in England of the same materials that it is
made of here ? Certainly ; then is not four-fifths of the
value of British iron made up of British agricultural pro
duce ? And if we purchase nine millions of dollars7 worth
of British iron a year, do we not pay six or seven millions
of this sum for the produce of British farmers — grain, hay,
grass, bread, meat, and other provisions for man and beast
— sent here for sale in the form of iron ? He put it to the
gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Bayly) to say if this was not
true to the letter. He challenged him to deny it, or dis
prove it if he could. The gentleman's plan was to break
down these great and growing markets for our own farmers,
DEFENCE OF THE PROTECTIVE POLICY. 45
and give them to the British; and yet he professed to
be a friend to American farmers ! ! " From such friends,
good Lord, deliver them !" One remark more on this topic.
Secretary Walker informs us that the present duty on iron
is 75 per cent., which he proposes to reduce to 30 per cent.,
to increase the revenue. To do this, must he not then
double the imports of iron ? Clearly he must. Then we
must add ten or twelve millions per year to our present
imports of iron, and of course destroy that amount of our
domestic supply to make room for it. Thus, at a blow, in
the single article of iron, this bill is intended to destroy the
American markets for at least eight millions of dollars
worth of domestic agricultural produce to be supplied from
abroad ; and this is the American — no ! the British — system
of policy which is now attempted to be imposed upon this
country by this British-hating Administration ! Let them
do it, and in less than two years there will not be a specie-
paying bank in the country. The people and the Treasury
will be again bankrupt, and the scenes and sufferings of
1840 will return ; and with it, as a necessary consequence,
the political revolutions of that period.
REPEAL OF THE CORN LAW — ITS EFFECTS.
But the gentleman congratulates the West on the prospect
of an early repeal of the corn laws. But, in his opinion, if
the corn laws were repealed, the people of the West Avould
scarcely get a bushel of their grain into England on any
terms.
[J/r. Bayly. Do you mean what you say, that not one
bushel will go there ?]
Mr. Stewart. I will answer the gentleman by giving him
Lord Ashburton's speech in the House of Lords a few days
ago. He states that nine-tenths of the grain now imported
in Great Britain is supplied from the north of Europe, al
though they pay a tax of fifteen shillings the quarter ; while
that from Canada, and the United States passing through
Canada, pays but four shillings. Repeal the duty of fifteen
shillings, and will they not supply the whole? Most clearly
they will. The fact is notorious, that most of our grain and
flour now goes to England through her colonial ports, and
at colonial duties, thus evading the operation of the corn
laws, while the grain and flour from the north of Europe
must always pay the highest duties imposed by the corn
46 DEFENCE OF THE PEOTECTIYE POLICY.
laws. Hence Lord Ashbtirton very justly argues, that we
must be overwhelmed if the corn laws are repealed, and this
great advantage, now enjoyed by Canada and the United
States, of importing flour and grain at about one-fourth of
the duty paid by the importers from the Baltic and Black
sea. Repeal the corn laws — put them on an equal footing
with us, and is not the question settled, and the market lost
to our grain and flour in all time to come? Nothing can
be clearer. And yet gentlemen exult in the prospect of the
repeal of the corn laws, and are ready to sacrifice the whole
of our manufactures and home markets to bring it about.
Such will be the operation of the repeal of the corn laws on
American agriculture, and such is the statement of Lord
Ashburton, who perhaps knows as much about the matter
as even the learned gentleman from Virginia. But this is
not all. This opinion of Lord Ashburton is sustained by
the most intelligent merchants in Great Britain. Such is
the uniform tenor of the testimony recently taken before a
select committee of the House of Commons on this subject.
Henry Cleaver Chapman, one of the witnesses, and one of
the most intelligent men in the kingdom, says : " Repeal
the corn laws, and the growing trade with Canada and the
Western States of America will be crushed by the cheaper
productions of the Baltic and the Black sea ; consequently,"
he adds, "America, Canada, and British shipping would
receive a severe and decisive blow by the repeal of the corn
laws." But still the gentleman from Virginia exults in the
prospect of the repeal of the corn laws, and boasts of the
market it will open to our Western farmers, to whom, how
ever, he will not give one dollar for their rivers and im
provements — not a cent — but is anxious to seduce them into
this British free-trade trap ; but he would say to the West,
" timeo Danaos," trust your friends, and beware of your
enemies. Look at the boasted foreign market, what is it ?
Comparatively nothing. Look at facts. The agricultural
productions of the United States, exclusive of cotton and
tobacco, are estimated at one thousand millions per year.
Our exports to all the world amounted last year to
$11,195,515. Of this, Great Britain took about two and a
half. All the rest was consumed at home. So the foreign
markets of the world amounted to 11 millions, and the home
market to 989 millions. Yet the gentleman had just pro
nounced the foreign markets everything to the farmers, and
the home markets comparatively nothing. We are told by
DEFENCE OF THE PROTECTIVE POLICY. 47
the gentleman, as well as by the Secretary of the Treasury,
that if we will reduce our tariff, England will repeal her
corn laws, and open her ports to our bread stuffs to enrich
our farmers. Now, sir, I beg farmers to look at official
facts sent to us by this Secretary a few days since. Look at
the report on commerce and navigation, and you will be
astonished to see that England, Scotland, and Ireland last
year took from the United States 2010 bushels! of wheat,
and 35,355 barrels of flour, equal in all to 178,785 bushels
of wheat — not equal to the production of a single county in
Pennsylvania or Ohio. England imports about eighteen
millions of bushels of wheat yearly. For six years, prior
to 1843, she imported annually more than twenty millions,
and of this only 178,785 from the United States — not a
hundredth part of her foreign supply. What an immense
market for our bread-stuff! And will the repeal of the
corn laws help you? Clearly not. It will favor other
countries just as much as it will favor you; if the duty is
taken off of your grain, it is taken off of theirs. So it leaves
you just where you are; nay, worse. For we now get a
large amount of grain to England through the Canadian
ports at 4 shillings duty, while the grain of Europe now
pays 18. Repeal the corn laws, and this advantage is lost
forever, and our trade through the colonial ports is at an
end. Clearly, then, the repeal of the corn laws will be an
injury, and a great injury, to our farmers on the Canadian
frontier, without in the least favoring anybody else.
Last year Great Britain and Ireland took of all the grain
and bread-stuffs of the United States, wheat, rye, oats, corn,
flour, and meal of all kinds, 223,251 dollars' worth, not a
quarter of a million; and we took from her 49,684,059 dol
lars' worth of her goods — nearly fifty millions of dollars.
These are official facts, yet the Secretary of the Treasury,
who communicates them, says, if we don't reduce our tariff,
and take more British goods, England will have to pay us
specie for our bread-stuffs. What an absurdity. She takes
one-fourth of a million of our bread-stuffs, and we take fifty
millions of her goods ; yet she must pay specie for our bread-
stuffs ! ! But Great Britain took in the same year $35,675,859
worth of cotton, yet this cotton-growing Secretary is not sat
isfied. We of the West must break up our markets, send
our specie to England to purchase wool and other agricul
tural produce, converted into goods, and support labor, fed
by British bread and meat, so that England may have plenty
48 DEFENCE OF THE PROTECTIVE POLICY.
of specie to pay high prices for Mr. Walker's cotton. Far
mers of the West, what say you to this ? Will you submit ?
If you do, you are slaves, and you deserve it. But another
fact. Our exports of manufactures last year, including those
of wood, amounted to $ 13,429,166. Assuming, as in the
case of British manufactures, that one half their value is
made up of American agricultural produce, then we export
nearly seven millions of dollars' worth of agricultural pro
duce in the form of manufactures, which does not glut or
injure the foreign markets for our flour and grain in its
original form. To use a familiar illustration : Western
farmers send their corn, hay, and oats, thousands of dollars'
worth, every year to the Eastern market, not in its rude and
original form, but in the form of hogs and horses ; they give
their hay-stacks life and legs, and make them trot to market
with the farmer on their back. [A laugh.] So the British
converted their produce, not into hogs or horses, but into
cloth and iron, and send it here for sale. And, viewing the
subject in this light, he could demonstrate that there was
not a State in the Union that did not now consume five
dollars' worth of British agricultural produce to one dollar's
worth she consumes of theirs. Time would not permit him
to go into details ; but he would furnish the elements from
which any one could make the calculation. Assuming that
consumption and exportation are in proportion to population,
then we import 50 millions of British goods, and 25 mil
lions — one-half — is agricultural produce. We export to
England agricultural produce [excluding cotton and to
bacco] 2J millions. Divide these sums, 25 and 2J millions,
by 223, the number of Representatives, and it gives
$112,108 as the amount of British agricultural produce con
sumed in the form of goods in each Congressional district ;
and $11,210 as their export to Great Britain of agricultural
produce. This gives the proportion of ten to one. Yet
gentlemen are not satisfied, and wish still further to increase
the import of British goods, and still further prostrate and
destroy the American farmer, and mechanic, and laboring
man, to favor foreigners.
EFFECT UPON CURRENCY.
To show the effect upon currency, as well as agriculture,
suppose the gentleman from Virginia [Mr. Bayly] Avants a
new coat ; he goes to a British importer and pays him twenty
DEFENCE OF THE PROTECTIVE POLICY. 49
dollars, hard money, and hard to get. England takes none
of your rag money. [A laugh.] Away it goes, in quick
time. We see no more of it ; as far as circulation is con
cerned, the gentleman might as well have thrown it into the
tire. I want a coat. I go to the American manufacturer
and buy $20 worth of American broadcloth. He wore no
other, and he would compare coats with gentlemen on the
spot. [A laugh.] Well, the manufacturer, the next day,
gave it to the farmer for wool ; he gave it to the shoemaker,
the hatter, and blacksmith ; they gave it back to the farmer
for meat and bread ; and here it went from one to another.
You might perhaps see his busy and bustling $20 note five
or six times in the course of a day. This made money
plenty. But where was the gentleman's hard money?
Vanished ; gone to reward and enrich the wool-growers and
farmers, shoemakers, hatters, and blacksmiths of England.
Now, I go for supporting the American farmers and me
chanics, and the gentleman goes for the British — that's the
difference. Can the gentleman deny it? There are but
two sides in this matter, the British and the American side ;
and the simple question is, which side shall we take ? The
great struggle is between the British and American farmers
and mechanics for the American market, and we must decide
which shall have it.
EXPOSED.
Mr. S. would here take occasion to state a fact that would
startle the American people.
The British manufacturers have, at this moment, posses
sion of this Capitol. Yes, sir, I tell you and the country —
one of the principal committee rooms in this house is now,
and has been for weeks past, occupied by a gentleman for
merly residing in Manchester, England, w7ho has a vast
number, perhaps hundreds, of specimens of goods sent from
Manchester (priced to suit the occasion) to be exhibited to
members of Congress to enlighten their judgments, and, in
the language of his letter of instruction from Manchester of
the 3d January, '46, accompanying these specimens, to en
able members of Congress "to arrive at just conclusions in
regard to the proposed alterations in the present tariff."
Yes, sir, agents, specimens, and letters from Great Britain,
instructing us how to make a tariff to suit the British.
50 DEFENCE OF THE PKOTECTIVE POLICY.
Speaking of the President's message, this Manchester letter-
writer calls Mr. Polk "a second Daniel come to judgment, a
second Richard Cobden ; " and so delighted were they in
England with Mr. Walker's celebrated free-trade report, that
it was ordered to be printed by the House of Lords. After
all this, having our President and Secretary on their side,
they ought to have been content, without sending their let
ters of instructions here to direct us what kind of a tariff
they wish us to pass. But if their chancellor had sent us a
revenue bill, he could not have furnished one to suit Great
Britain better than the one furnished by the Secretary of the
Treasury. Parliament would pass it by acclamation. Sir
Robert Peel understands his business ; he proposes to take
the duties off bread-stuffs and raw materials of all kinds
used by their manufacturers, and remove every burden, so
as to enable them to meet us and beat us in our own mar
kets, and in the markets of the world, where Yankee com
petition is beginning to give them great uneasiness. Last
year we exported hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth
of cotton goods into the British East Indies, and beat the
British in their own markets, after paying discriminating
duties imposed to keep us out, first 8, then 10, and finally
15 per cent. In this great struggle, Sir Robert Peel comes
to the rescue; he repeals the duty on cotton and wool, and
bread and meat, and everything used by British manufac
turers, to enable them to go ahead in this struggle with the
Americans. He understands the great interests of his
country, and, like a great and true statesman, he takes care
of them. He sees a new crisis, and he meets it like a man.
He sees that the manufacturers of Great Britain, the great
pillars of her national prosperity, are pottering to their fall ;
he sees that powerful rivals are springing up in the United
States and in Europe, who are not only supplying them
selves, but threatening to drive Great Britain out of the
markets of the world. To meet this new and fearful crisis,
what does he do ? He addresses the lords and landholders
of England, with whom he had been always politically
identified, thus : " Gentlemen, stern necessity now demands
that you surrender some temporary advantages to save your
country and yourselves. Our manufactures are threatened
with destruction ; they are your great and only markets ;
they consume, carry abroad, and sell one hundred and twenty-
five millions of your agricultural produce annually — thus
making England the greatest agricultural exporting country
DEFENCE OF THE PROTECTIVE POLICY. 51
in the world. But if you suffer your manufactures to be
destroyed by foreign competition, what becomes of you?
Where are your markets ? Can you carry your bread and
meat, your wool and other products abroad in a raw and
unmanufactured form? Our manufacturers are giving way;
last year the United States sold in the foreign markets more
than THIRTEEN MILLIONS of manufactured goods, and the
question is now presented, will you sustain your manufac
turers in this struggle by cheapening their living, or will you
hold on and break them down, and with them your country
and yourselves ? " This noble and patriotic appeal had its
effect ; the corn laws were repealed. And what does Mr.
Walker do? Just the reverse. He proposes to take off all
protective duties, and impose heavy burdens on the raw
materials, dye-stuffs, etc., used by our manufacturers, so as
effectually to prostrate and break them down. Sir Robert
Peel takes burdens off his steed, while Sir Robert Walker
piles bags of sand on his — then crack their whips — clear
the road — a fair race ! [A laugh.] Such is the difference
between British and American policy. Sir Robert Peel's
present system furnishes powerful arguments for adhering
to our protective system — his object is, not to favor, but to
beat us ; and our course is, not to defeat, but to favor his
purpose. This will not only be the effect of the tariff pro
posed by our Secretary, but it is its open and avowed pur
pose and design. Is it not the proclaimed purpose of the
message and report to increase the importation of British
goods, and of course, to that extent, destroy American
supply ? Does not the Secretary propose to reduce the pro
tective duties on most articles more than one-half for the
purpose of increasing revenue; and if the revenue is increased
by reducing duties one-half, must not the imports be more
than doubled? This is self-evident; and if you double
your imports of foreign goods, must you not destroy to that
extent American supply ? Most certainly, unless the Sec
retary can, in his wisdom, devise a plan to make people eat,
drink, and wear double as much as they now do. But
where will we find money to pay for them? But, startling
and extraordinary as it may appear, our Secretary, for the
first time in the history of the world, has boldly and openly
avowed it as the object of the Government to break down
and destroy its own manufactures, for the purpose of making
way for those of foreigners. In the very first paragraph of
his argumentative report, he sets out with stating that the
52 DEFENCE OF THE PROTECTIVE POLICY.
revenue of the first quarter of this year is two millions less
than the first quarter of the last, and that this has been oc
casioned by the substitution of highly protected American
manufactures for foreign imports; and this evil, this terrible
evil, this American Secretary proposes to remedy by re
ducing the protective duties, and thus breaking up this
abominable business of "substituting domestic products"
made by American labor out of American produce, for
British goods, made by British labor out of British produce.
Oh, but he hates the British. Now, sir, this is not only the
doctrine of his text, but it runs through his whole sermon
of 957 pages. No wonder it was printed by the House of
Lords ; and let our Secretary carry through this bill, and
Queen Victoria would gladly transfer the seals from Sir
Robert Peel to Sir Robert Walker, for the latter will have
rendered her a greater service than any other man, dead or
living.
But this is not only the doctrine of the Treasury report,
but of the message itself. The revenue standard laid down
in the message aims a death blow at all American industry. It
suggests a kind of "sliding scale" so that whenever any branch
of American industry begins to beat the foreigner, and sup
ply the market, and thereby diminish imports and revenue,
this is evidence that the duty is too high, and ought to be
reduced, so as to let in the foreign rival productions ; but let
the President speak for himself — here is his revenue standard
in his own words :
" The precise point in the ascending- scale of duties at which it is
ascertained from experience that the revenue is greatest, is the
maximum rate of duty which can be laid for the bona fide purpose
of collecting money for the support of Government. To raise the
duties higher than that point, and thereby diminish the amount col
lected, is to levy them for protection merely, and riot for revenue.
As long, then, as Congress may gradually increase the rate of duty
on a given article, and the revenue is increased by such increase of
duty, they are within the revenue standard. When they go beyond
that point, and as they increase the duties the revenue is diminished
or destroyed, the act ceases to have for its object the raising of
money to support Government, but is for protection merely."
What is this but a rule to favor foreigners and break
down Americans? The moment the American by his
superior industry and skill begins to succeed, and by supply
ing the market imports and revenue diminish, then the duty
must come down so as to increase foreign imports and the
revenue. This is the plain and inevitable operation of the
DEFENCE OF THE PROTECTIVE POLICY. 53
rule, and who would go into manufacturing under such an
an ti- American rule as this, making the penalty — death by
the law — certain and inevitable? And yet we are told that
this system is to be permanent — a system based upon fluctua
tions and continual change, is to be permanent ! Under this
executive rule, what duty could be permanent ? It was " a
sliding scale," working by legislation. The President says,
continue to increase the duty so long as it increases revenue,
but reduce it when it is so high as to reduce revenue. What
would be the practical result ? The President runs up his re
venue duty on articles we do not now produce ; these duties
at length induce the investment of capital ; machinery and
labor go to work and supply the market ; imports and re
venue consequently fall off; then down with the duties till
you destroy American competition and supply. This done,
and again the President puts up his revenue duties till he
again starts competition ; then down with the duties again ;
and so on forever. Such must be the practical working of
the system. Yet it is recommended as a permanent system,
to put at rest the agitations of the tariff! So far from it,
Congress would have to remain in session permanently to
watch and adjust this Executive " sliding scale," to suppress
and keep down American labor, and secure to foreigners the
undisputed possession of the American market. In the lan
guage of the Secretary, to prevent the " substitution of Ameri
can rival fabrics for foreign goods ; " and this system was
certainly admirably calculated to accomplish this, its avowed,
object.
EFFECT OF AD VALOREM DUTIES.
Ad valorem duties had been universally rejected through
out the world, and whenever specific duties could be adopted,
they were substituted for ad valorems. And why ? Because
all experience had proved that they led to all kinds of frauds
and evasions, and were utterly inadequate to the purposes
of either revenue or protection. They favored the foreign
manufacturer and foreign importer at the expense of the
honest American. The foreign manufacturer sold his goods
to his own agent, who was the importer. They made out
and swore to their invoice at any price they pleased, thus
cheating the revenue, whilst they broke down our honest
shippers, mechanics, and manufacturers. For these destruc
tive effects there was no remedy. On the other hand, specific
duties, levied on the thing, and not its price, must be fairly
and honestly paid.
54 DEFENCE OF THE PROTECTIVE POLICY.
Another pernicious effect of ad valorem duties was this —
they gave protection when it was not wanted, and took it
away when it was — thus when goods went down in price
abroad, and consequently ran into our markets, the duties
went down with the prices, but when the prices rose so
high abroad that they could not be imported, then the duties
were high in proportion ; for instance, when iron was $60
per ton abroad, and could not be imported, then 30 per cent,
ad valorem Avould be $18 per ton; but if iron fell to what
it was a few years ago, $25 per ton, when it could and would
be imported to the ruin of our manufacturers, then the duty,
30 per cent., would fall down from $18 to $7.50 per ton;
thus making dear goods dearer and cheap goods cheaper —
giving high protection when none was wanted, and no pro
tection at all when it was. These were a few of the many
objections to this miserable and ruinous system of ad valo-
rems, adopted here when cast off and rejected everywhere
else ; but this was in perfect harmony with the Secretary's
whole scheme, which was avowedly to prevent the " substi
tution of American manufactures for British goods." Its
purpose was to favor the British and break down the Ameri
cans, and it would answer its purpose. It was playing into
the hands of Sir Robert Peel, and carrying out the policy
of this British-hating Administration. Giving up Oregon
was nothing, but giving up our national independence, and
reducing us again to the condition of colonies, was too bad.
The remedy is with the People, and they must apply it.
If gentlemen desired an appropriate title for their bill, he
would furnish one, and move it as an amendment if the
bill passed, viz :
" A bill to reduce the duties on luxuries of the rich, and to increase
them on the necessaries of the poor : to bankrupt the Treasury, strike
down American farmers, mechanics, and working men ; to make way
for the products of foreign agriculture and foreign labor ; to destroy
American competition, thereby establishing a foreign monopoly in
the American market; and, by adopting the principles of free-trade,
to reduce the now prosperous labor of this country to the degraded
level of the pauper labor of Europe, and finally destroy the prosperity
and independence of these United States, and again reduce them to
the condition of colonies and dependencies of Great Britain."
A CHAPTER FOR MECHANICS AND FARMERS.
The operation of this bill upon the national industry will
be seen from the following examples, assuming that the re-
DEFENCE OF THE PROTECTIVE POLICY.
55
duction of wages will always be in proportion to the reduc
tion of protection, and that as home consumption cannot be
increased, home production must be diminished to the extent
of the increased importations:
Employments, etc.
II
a*
III
Estimated increase
of importations
under the pro
posed duties.
x ac .
• •LO
I'll
iff
£
Proposed duties, as
per Mr. McKay's
bill.
$42 250
$45 000
45 per ct
30 per ct
Tailors
1 173028
200 000
50 '
30
200 000
61 '
30
Hatters
16 646
110 000
49 '
30
Tanners . . ...
128 217
100 000
40 *
20
Iron makers
Miners of coal
4,489.553
223,919
106 905
1,185,000
125.000
100 000
75
67
90
30
30
25
Paper makers
51 724
150 000
75 '
30
Hemp, cordage, etc... .
Lead
355,875
275,000
65
92 '
25
20
Pins
45 078
50 000
70 '
20
Nails and spikes ....
66 '
20
Manufactures of wool.
" cotton
" silk...
Salt
10,057,875
13,863,383
10,650.000
898 663
2.000,000
5,150.000
700,000
1 000 000
40
90
42 "
76 "
30
25
25
20
Sugar ....
4 780 555
630 000
75 "
30
Brandy and sp'ts dist'd
from grain, etc
Wool
1,045,363
1,689 794
365,650
200 000
180 "
40 "
100
30
Blankets
1 000 000
20 000
30 "
20
Potatoes
58 949
150 000
36
20 '
The question, then, is distinctly presented to all these
mechanics, manufacturers, and farmers, whether they are
prepared to submit to these reductions in their prices and
wages, or give up the market to foreigners ? One or the
other they must do — and why ? Mr. Walker says, to in
crease the revenue ; but this is manifestly not true ; for when
you take all the increase of imports Mr. Walker himself
estimates, and assess on these the proposed reduced duties
there will be, on his own showing, a loss instead of a gain
of revenue. Then why the proposed reduction ? To sub
stitute foreign for American fabrics, as declared in Mr.
56 DEFENCE OF THE PROTECTIVE POLICY.
Walker's report. To favor foreigners, by breaking down
American mechanics, manufacturers, and farmers ; and this
anti-American measure is to be passed under the party lash
of this Administration, and to be approved by the people.
We shall see!
But gentlemen were in love with the scheme, and the
party had ordained that it should be tried. Let its advo
cates go home and tell the shoemakers, and carpenters, and
blacksmiths, and tanners, and hatters, that they had voted
to take twenty per cent, off those articles which were the
products of their labor. Tell the shoemakers that the Secre
tary of the Treasury proposed to double the import of shoes
for the purpose of increasing the revenue, but that the real
effect would be to reduce the revenue; and when these
honest and hard-working men asked their representatives
why they voted for such a scheme, their only answer must
be, to break up your labor. Let them go into their districts
and tell the hatters that the Secretary intended to bring in
one hundred and ten thousand dollars more of foreign hats.
Tell the blacksmiths that Mr. Walker intended to bring in
two hundred thousand dollars worth of iron manufactures.
Go and tell the tailors that he intended, in like manner, to
bring in two hundred thousand dollars' worth more of ready-
made clothing, reducing the protection on that article from
fifty down to thirty per cent., and let them understand that
the fruit of this reform would be to reduce the revenue and
reduce the price of their work twenty per cent., to throw
multitudes of them out of employment, and to supply the
place of their labor in the market by the labor of English
and French shoemakers, English hatters, English black
smiths, and English tailors ; and how wras it probable these
men would be pleased ; and, what was of more consequence
to certain gentlemen, how was it likely they would vote ?
[A good deal of restlessness was here manifested.] Mr. S.
said he knew it was a very unpleasant topic in certain quar
ters, but what he said was true, and gentlemen would find
it to be true. He warned them to remember his words,
that, just so sure as they passed this new tariff bill, so cer
tainly would they destroy the revenue, destroy the country,
and destroy their party ; and, if the last was the only conse
quence, he would not regret it — it would be a godsend to the
country. He told them beforehand they would not have
money to pay the ordinary expenses of the Government, let
alone the expenses of the war.
DEFENCE OF THE PROTECTIVE POLICY. 57
GENERAL OPERATIONS OF THE BILL.
Mr. S. said he had been considering the subject somewhat
in detail ; he now wished for a moment, in conclusion, to
present the subject in a more general and comprehensive
point of view. He wished gentlemen to turn to the 47th
page of the Secretary's report, and they would there see these
statements : that the dutiable imports last year were $95,-
106,724, which exceeds by twenty-five millions the average
of dutiable imports for the last nine years. (See page 71.)
The Secretary further states, that the average amount of the
duties imposed by the present tariff is 32.40 per cent. ; which
at first he proposed to reduce 19 J per cent., but since the
war has raised to 22. But to simplify the calculation, let
us put the dutiable imports at one hundred millions, the
present duties at 33 and the proposed duties 22 per cent. —
just one-third off. If you reduce the duties one-third, you
must, to get the same revenue, increase your imports one-
third — that is, instead of one hundred, you must have one
hundred and fifty millions of dutiable imports. Then, is it
not clear that the only effect of the measure is to increase the
foreign imports fifty millions of dollars ! Without increas
ing the revenue one cent, or lightening the burdens of the
people one farthing, you get exactly the same revenue. The
people pay precisely the same amount to Government, but
they pay fifty millions more to foreigners, lose that much
specie, destroy fifty millions of our productions, and with it
the hundreds of millions of capital and thousands of honest
and industrious people thrown out of employment !
Now we pay one hundred millions to foreigners, and
twenty-seven to Government — making one hundred and
twenty-seven millions of dollars. By this bill we will pay
one hundred and fifty millions to foreigners, and twenty-
seven millions to Government, making one hundred and
seventy-seven millions — just fifty more than the people now
pay. And why ? To favor foreigners and destroy Ameri
can labor. That was the effect, and the only effect, of this
measure. It was to increase the burdens of the people just
fifty millions of dollars a year. You may increase your
imports, but you cannot increase your exports ; you cannot
force them upon other countries. They will take what they
want, and no more. And what follows ? First, you must
send fifty millions in specie abroad, to pay for one year's
excess of imports. Next year, having no specie, you will
58 DEFENCE OF THE PROTECTIVE POLICY.
send your State and National bonds, at 6 per cent., as you
did under your 20 per cent, duties and excessive imports a few
years since ; and then again follows repudiation and bank
ruptcy, State, National, and individual. But this is not all ;
there is another and a worse consequence. You may add
one-third to your supply of foreign goods, but you can't
compel the people to eat, drink, or wear one-third more ;
and if you could, it would ruin them. Then, if you can't
increase consumption) it follows that you must destroy fifty
millions of American production, to make room for this
additional fifty millions of foreign goods.
But can you, by reducing duties, increase your imports
fifty millions ? The attempt will be a failure, and the effect
will be to reduce your revenue one-half, and to reduce the
wages of labor here; just as you reduce the duties, your
laborers must continue to work on at these reduced rates or
starve. They will work on, and your imports and your
revenue will be reduced together. The people, ground down
and impoverished by this levelling and degrading system,
can purchase and consume nothing from abroad. If you
want to replenish your Treasury, protect your national in
dustry, and keep it prosperous ; and then, having the ability,
they will purchase foreign goods and enrich your Treasury.
A poor people make a poor Treasury, and a rich people a
rich one. This resulted from the fact, that in this country
the revenue was a voluntary and not compulsory contribution
by the people to the Government. When did they con
tribute by the purchase and consumption of foreign goods ?
When they had the ability — when they were prosperous ;
and hence it always happened that when the people were pro
tected and prosperous, under high tariffs, we had a full
Treasury ; and when the people were impoverished by " free
trade/' the Treasury and the country always had and always
would become bankrupt together. Such was our uniform
experience — such the unbroken evidence of our financial
history, and no man could deny it.
CONSEQUENCES OF THIS POLICY FORETOLD.
Let gentlemen go on and pass this bill ; let them carry out
their system ; let them involve the country in war — double
the expenditures of Government, as they had done — create a
large national debt — reduce the revenue by reducing the duties
to one-half of what they now are — destroy the national
DEFENCE OF THE PROTECTIVE POLICY. 59
industry — bankrupt the Treasury and the people with your
ad valorem and warehousing system, your hard money Sub-
treasury, and your paper money Treasury note bills; — go on,
gentlemen, and see where you will come out. You will do
one good thing, at least — you will relieve the country from
the curse of this whole anti-American and British free-
trade system, and restore the true American policy in 1848.
Carry out your measures ; prostrate all the walls that now
surround and protect the national industry; break down
your manufacturing establishments throughout the length
and breadth of the land ; compel them, as the only means
of saving what they have, to close their doors, and turn out
850,000 operatives into the streets, without work, to beg or
starve ; let them go to the farmer for employment, and he
will tell them his markets are gone, and that his condition
is no better than theirs. It will then be seen who the tariff
benefits. What will these people do? Go back, and tell
the manufacturers to go on, and they will work for half
price ; and the farmer offering his produce at the same rate,
then the manufacturer can resume, when loss of protection
is made up by reduction of prices. Reduce the tariff and
you reduce wages in precisely the same ratio — proving
clearly that the operation and object of protective duties are
to enable the manufacturers to pay high prices to laborers and
to agriculture. Carry out your measures, and you will soon
find where the " shoe pinches " — you will find out who the
tariff protects ; or, if you do not, the farmers and laborers
will tell at the polls.
Gentlemen could not escape it. The tariff, after all,
would be the great absorbing question. It was in its effects
national and diffusive — felt not merely in the thronged cities,
but reaching in its consequences the remotest hamlet in the
far West. Texas, Oregon, and other exciting questions of
the day, were ephemeral, and would soon pass away ; but
the tariff and protection lay at the very foundation of the
national prosperity, and could never cease to interest deeply
the American people.
Sir, pass this " free trade " bill, submitted to and approved,
as he understood, by the cabinet ; bring back the scenes of
1840 ; and in eighteen months you will scarcely have a
specie-paying bank, or a specie dollar left in the country ;
and again will be heard throughout the land the cry of
"change! change! any change must be for the better*"
Political revolutions are the fruits of popular suffering and
discontent; in prosperity the cry is "let well enough alone"
60 DEFENCE OF THE PROTECTIVE POLICY.
\_A voice. Then as a Whig you ought to go for the new
tariff.]
Yes, said Mr. S., if I was like some gentlemen on this
floor — If I loved my party more than my country, I would ;
but as I love my country more than my party, I will not.
If it were not for the lash and drill of party discipline, this
" British bill " would find few advocates on this floor. It
,was the bantling of party — the illegitimate offspring of the
Baltimore Convention — that Pandora's box, whence origi
nated most of the troubles that now afflict this country.
But he again warned gentlemen — pass this bill, and, in the
strong language of a Democratic Senator on a late occasion,
it will sink " the party so low that the arm of resurrection
could never reach it."
But this measure, we are told, is to be a measure of per
manency ; it is to give peace and repose to the country. If
so, it would be the peace and repose of death. No, sir, you
may strike down the country, but the blow would but rouse
and excite the people to return it with such vigor and energy
as to prostrate the aggressors. This bill a measure of peace-!
No ; it is a measure of war — war upon the people — worse,
far worse, than a war with England — a war upon the
national industry in all its departments ; and the people will
make war upon it — war, unceasing and interminable war —
war on the hustings, and war at the ballot-box. Pass this
destructive bill, and Mr. S. said he would call on the
people — the honest hard-handed farmers, mechanics, and
laboring men of the land, to fling their banners to the breeze,
with this inscription : " The British free-trade tariff 0/1846 —
Repeal ! REPEAL ! ! REPEAL ! ! ! " and never lower it till it
triumphed — as triumph it would most gloriously — in the
renewal of the tariff of 1842, and with it the restoration of
our national prosperity and independence.
THE TRUE AMERICAN POLICY
The true American policy is just the reverse of that recom
mended by this administration. It is this :
1st. Protect and cherish your natural industry by a wise
system of finance, selecting in the first place those articles
which you can and ought to supply to the extent of your
own wants — -food, clothing, habitation and defence — and to
these give ample and adequate protection, so as to secure at
all times an abundant supply at houie. Next select the
DEFENCE OF THE PROTECTIVE POLICY. 61
LUXURIES consumed by the rich, and impose on them such
duties as the wants of the Government may require for
revenue; and then take the necessaries of life consumed by
the poor, and articles which we cannot supply used in our
manufactories, and make them free, or subject to the lowest
rates of duty.
2d. Adopt a system of national improvements, embracing
the great rivers, lakes, and main arteries of communication,
leaving those of a LOCAL character to the care of the States ;
and on these expend the surplus revenue only ; thus uniting
and binding together the distant parts of our common
country, and at the same time securing the most efficient
system of defence in war, and the cheapest and best system
of commercial and social intercourse in peace.
3d. Introduce enlightened economy in every branch of the
public expenditures. Lighten the burdens, diversify the
employments, and secure and increase the rewards of labor
in all its departments. And : —
4th. In your foreign relations follow the advice of the
father of his country — "Observe good faith and justice to
wards all nations — cultivate peace and harmony with all."
Thereby illustrating the beauty and perfection of our Repub
lican institutions, holding up a great example of " libertyjand
independence," for the nations of the earth to admire and
imitate. This was the great and true American system which
he hoped yet to see adopted and carried out. We owe a
great example to the world — let it be given. This was the
duty, as he trusted it would be the destiny, of this, our great
and glorious republic.
COMMENTS AND OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.
To show the fact that the " American system" — Tariff and
Internal Improvements — has been supported by the Repub
lican and opposed by the Democratic party for nearly half a
century, we copy a number of notices and opinions of the
press, running back to 1824, and of which those immediately
following are a part, from papers published in every State
then in the Union, taken from a scrap-book kept by
Charles Stewart. These notices also show a very remarka
ble coincidence of opinion, expressed by these papers simul
taneously throughout the United States, not only in refer-
62 DEFENCE OF THE PEOTECTIVE POLICY.
ence to the merits of these speeches, but also as to the policy
and measures they advocate. It appeared that there was
] 55,000 copies of this speech printed in pamphlet form in
Mr. Gideon's office alone, in Washington, to supply the
orders of members of Congress and others; besides hundreds
of thousands, in German as well as English, printed else
where, and distributed throughout the country. Besides,
these notices, by the ablest editors in the country, contain
important facts and arguments worthy of preservation.
" We finish this masterly effort of Mr. Stewart, this week. Those
who have read the two first portions as published in the Watchman,
are doubtless waiting impatiently for this paper. This speech con
tains more common sense and plain truth on the subject of the
tariff than any we have seen for some time. It exposes as with a
sunbeam the darkness and hidden folly of those who would make
the American people ' hewers of wood and drawers of water ' for
England. It exposes that suicidal policy which would crush our
own, and build up the manufactories of Europe. And it also shows
how false is the pretended policy of free-trade which England pro
poses, in a, spirit of boasted liberality, to adopt ; and how mischiev
ous it would prove to us, to be deceived thereby. A paper of such
value has rarely been published. " — Watchman, N. C.
" It must be a source of as much pride and pleasure to the Whigs
of Pennsylvania, as it is gratifying to Mr. Stewart, to have such a
compliment paid to his talent, as the following, by a Bostonian.
As a man of talent, Mr. Stewart ranks among the first in Congress,
and what is most consoling to the people, is the fact that all his tal
ent and time are devoted to their welfare. Conscious of the recti
tude of his principles, he is bold and fearless in the discharge of his
duty, and while he strips the verbiage and sophistry from the false
arguments of his free-trade opponents, and exposes their selfish
ness to the entire world, he is also decorous and respectful, and
never says aught to wound the private character or feelings of any
one. As great, powerful, and convincing as he is in debate, just in
proportion is he spoken of in his private relations. Pennsylvania
may well be proud of him, and their pride is increased from the fact
that Mr. Stewart is selected as a man worthy of respect for his ser
vices to the Industrial world, by such a man as Hon. Abbott Law
rence, of Boston. Who is not proud of him ?
" The speech referred to was published in the Advocate on the 22d
ult., consequently our readers know that the speech is entitled to the
confidence of such a liberal patriot as Mr. Lawrence ; several patrons
have asked its republication, but we have not determined to do so
yet, as it is fresh to the recollections of all.
"THE HON. ABBOTT LAWRENCE. — This gentleman, with his charac
teristic liberality and patriotism, has authorized the printing, at
Washington, of twenty thousand copies of Mr. Stewart's Speech in
defence of the protective policy for distribution, directing the printer
to draw on him for all expenses. The diffusion of such documents,
at this time, in the South and West, cannot fail to produce salutary
effects. The author of this speech may well be proud of such a
compliment from such a source." — Boston Advocate.
COMMENTS AND OPINIONS OP THE PRESS. 63
" Read it, and after you have read it, hand it to your neighbor and
ask him to read it ; no matter what party he belongs to, every body,
every man, woman and child ought to read thoroughly Mr. Stew
art's remarks upon the tariff. It is an excellent speech, upon a
most important subject. The question is whether we shall do our
own manufacturing at home, by our own citizens, and with our own
capital, where our farmers raise the provisions to feed the operatives,
or let it be done abroad for the benefit of foreigners, Is it cheaper,
is it better for the public interest, for the people of the United
States, to patronize foreign work-shops, than to sustain those which
they have at hooaf ? That is the question, and we desire every/ree-
man in Vermont to ask himself that question, and to make up his
mind upon this important subject. We say again, read it atten
tively." — Vermont Gazette.
" A considerable portion of our paper to-day is occupied with the
admirable speech of the Hon. Andrew Stewart on the tariff, to which
we invite the attention of our readers. It is one of the many most
triumphant replies of this great defender of the protective policy, to
the free-traders in Congress, which completely annihilates their
absurd theory of free-trade. The arguments of Mr. Stewart are
unanswerable, and cannot fail to convince every man who reads
them, we care not how prejudiced he may be against protection,
that the tariff policy is the only true policy for the nation. He
shows clearly in this speech, that all experience has proved, that
whenever the protective doctrine has been abandoned the country
has labored under embarrassments and the people have suffered — •
the poorer classes especially ; while on the contrary, when the
tariff has been high the country has nourished, and the people, rich
and poor, have prospered. The speech abounds in facts which prove
this beyond contradiction, and if every locofoco in the country could
be furnished with a copy of it and read it, he could not fail to be
convinced at least of its truth, and, if he had a true American heart
in his bosom, would cease his senseless opposition to this great meas
ure of his country's prosperity. We recommend to our Whig
readers, after they have read this speech themselves, to hand it to
their locofoco neighbors, and induce them to read it also. They
may do some good in this way.
" Mr. Stewart is the great champion of the tariff in the present
Congress, and is an honor to the State he represents. Pennsylvania
has not now, and never had a more able and faithful guardian of her
interests in that body. His manly, vigorous and able defence of the
tariff of 1842, the life blood of Pennsylvania prosperity, cannot fail
to endear him to his constituents, and make them feel proud of him.
We trust he will be kept in the position he is, until this question is
finally put at rest, by being settled upon some permanent basis.
To such men as Mr. S. we owe our prosperity, and to such men we
must look for its continuance." — New York Chronicle.
" Mr. Stewart of Pa. made a speech an hour long, every line of
which is worth a golden eagle, if it could only reach every working-
man in the country.
" He then turned to Mr. Bayly, and said he would notice some of
his assertions. Mr. Stewart then made one of the most successful
attempts ever witnessed in Congress to annihilate the arguments of
a political opponent." — New York Tribune
64 DEFENCE OF THE PROTECTIVE POLICY.
" We have published in this week's paper another of Mr. Stewart's
admirable speeches on the tariff. It exhibits facts and arguments
that are unanswerable ; and shows Mr. Secretary Walker's free-trade
policy to be not only false and unfounded, but that exactly the
reverse of his theories is true. Mr. Stewart, in referring to the
scenes of 1840, said : ' Pass this Treasury bill, approved, as he under
stood, by the cabinet, — restore your 20 per cent, tariff — bankrupt
your treasury — paralyse your national industry — break down your
farmers, manufacturers and mechanics, by importing goods and
exporting money — pass this bill, and in eighteen months you will
scarcely have a specie-paying bank, or a specie dollar in the country.
Pass this bill, and you will not only bring back the scenes, but you
will bring back with them the political revolutions of 1840.' [A
voice :] ' Then as a Whig you ought to go for the new tariff.' To
this Mr. Stewart answered — and his answer is worthy of all praise.
Brief as it is, it contains more genuine patriotism than could be
sifted out of the thousand and one braggadocio speeches that have
been delivered on the Oregon question.
" ' Yes,' said Mr. Stewart, ' if I was like some gentlemen on this
floor, if I loved my party better than my country, I would ; but, as I
love my country more than my party, 1 will not.'
" Let unprincipled slaves of party read Mr. Stewart's answer, and
reflect whether it is nobler to serve their country faithfully or to act
as traitors, with the venal desires and hopes of participating in the
plunder of a despoiled and conquered republic !
" Mr. Stewart's speech should be extensively circulated and read,
in order that the country may be fully apprised of its true situation
on this vital question." — Delaware Journal.
" The important fact that the inevitable tendency of a protective
tariff" is to reduce the price of the protected goods, is fully arid clearly
established, and the Hon. gentleman shows with great power, the
exceeding love which is felt by the Secretary of the Treasury, for
the ' poor man.' He shows that under the operation of a protec
tive tariff, the ' poor man ' is able to buy his cotton at six cents a
yard, instead of paying thirty-six cents a yard for an inferior article,
under the system of free-trade the Secretary desires ; that the
young carpenter who is about to erect a house for his wife and
children, pays but four cents a pound for nails, under a protective
tariff, while in 1816, under a system of free-trade, his father paid
sixteen cents a pound for the same article.
"' The British manufacturers whom Mr. Secretary Walker seems
so much disposed to favor, instead of the manufacturers of the
North and East, the British agriculturists whom Mr. Secretary
Walker is so desirous of assisting to the injury of the farmers of the
Western and Middle States, are under deep obligations to our
American Secretary, and most faithfully does Mr. Stewart present
him to the American people. Massachusetts alone consumes annu
ally thirty-three millions of the agricultural produce of the other
States of the Union. Great Britain consumes but two and a half
millions of the products of our grain-growing States, while we im
port from her about fifty millions annually of manufactured goods,
and yet all the energies of the Secretary of the Treasury are bent
to the accomplishment of his purpose of benefiting the British
manufacturer, while our own labor is to be unrewarded and our
workshops to be abandoned." — Transcript, R. /.
COMMENTS AND OPINIONS OF THE PRESS. 65
" We invite the special attention of our readers to the very
searching and pointed remarks of the Hon. Andrew Stewart of Pa.,
which we publish in to-day's paper. The speech is somewhat
lengthy, and occupies a considerable share of our small sheet. We
looked over it intending to abridge — give our readers the strong
points, leaving out the balance, But on examination we could find
no part that should be left out. The strong points embraced the
whole speech. The speech is characteristic of Mr. Stewart — plain,
practical, demonstrative in its character. He places Mr. Walker's
celebrated report in the most unenviable position. How Mr. Walker,
or his friends for him, will get out of those egregious blunders, not
to say falsehoods, which are now, for the first time, dragged into
the light, arid p-resented for the consideration of the American peo
ple, we cannot see. On the subjects of the tariff arid commerce,
Mr. Stewart has no superior in Congress. He has the statistics at
hand that he has been treasuring up for years, and the member
that takes hold of him must come into the conflict doubly equipped,
or he will be badly used up. Figures will not lie, and on these Mr.
Stewart plants himself, and shakes defiance in the teeth of Mr.
Walker and his friends.
" We are informed that the members have ordered some forty or
fifty thousand copies of the speech to be printed on their own pri
vate account, to be circulated throughout the country." — Record, Md.
"Mr. Andrew Stewart of Pennsylvania has stood up manfully
for the cause of protection to American industry, in the House of
Eepresentatives. The opponents of the tariff, in Congress, aided
by the agents of British manufacturers out of doors, are making
great efforts to bring us again under the system of low duties and
large importations. The country, it is true, had a fair trial of this
system during the Yan Buren administration ; and we would think
that the results of the experiment then were not such as to make
the people anx-ious to try it again. Yet the very same policy which
proved insupportable in 1840, which had brought the country into
extreme distress and broke down a powerful party — the very same
policy, Sub-Treasury and all, is now to be again forced upon us.
Treasury notes, defalcations and bankruptcy, will ensue afterwards
— in due order as before.
" The influences which determine the issues of popular elections
— what are they ? It would require a minute analysis to detect
and discriminate them. A party making war upon American indus
try, yet calling itself democratic, after it has prostrated every great
interest of domestic labor, disordered the currency and spread an
irredeemable circulation over the land, impoverished the Treasury,
and created a public debt — is finally driven from power by an over
whelming popular majority. What then ? Why after a brief inter
val, the Whigs having possession of power only long enough to pass
one great measure of protection to home industry, and to repeal one
hurtful measure, the Sub-Treasury — the return of prosperity, pro
duced by these measures, caused former sufferings and the occasions
of them to be forgotten ; and now we see the same party, whose
destructive policy had become insupportable, restored again to
power to recommence the same identical policy which every man
of sense must know will produce the same inevitable results.
" But let us hear Mr. Stewart ; he is speaking of the war which
5
66 DEFENCE OF THE PROTECTIVE POLICY.
the Administration is now waging upon American industry — the
destruction of which is to be preliminary to the general system of
national prostration likely to follow from the adoption of the gov
ernment policy." (Speech follows.) — Reville, Kentucky.
"A few days since, the Hon. A. Stewart, one of the ablest and
most distinguished members of Congress from this State, reviewed
the free trade doctrines contained in the annual report of the Secre
tary of the Treasury. The speech excited much attention at the
time, because of the many important facts and arguments which it
embodied. Its author has since revised it, and in this corrected
form, it will be found at length in our first page. We bespeak for
it a candid and careful consideration. It is especially worthy the
attention of every Pennsylvanian, of all who are in favor of ade
quate protection to home industry. Perhaps there is no man in
the country better acquainted with this subject than the fearless
and talented representative of the Eighteenth District." — Inquirer,
Phila.
" Upon the tariff question, the greatest that can claim the atten
tion of any legislative body, there have been no less than 78 speeches
made during the present session — 25 in the Senate, and 53 in the
House of Representatives. In the Senate, Evans, Choate, and
Wright of the North, Berrien and McDuffie of the South, and Ben-
ton and Crittenden of the West — all master spirits of the land ; yet
none of the speeches of these great men has received any consider
able notice or circulation. Look, too, in the other branch of Con
gress, and you will find the same state of things. The same state,
do I say? No, not exactly; there is one bright exception, but only
one. Although the wisdom arid genius of that great body of states
men and orators have been concentrated upon this one question —
although this was the focus at which every ray of intellect centred,
yet every other speech fell still born from the press, while that of
Andrew 'Stewart has passed through several editions in pamphlet
form, amounting to some 100,000 copies, translated into German,
and republished in almost every Whig newspaper of the day." —
Examiner, Md.
" Side by side with Mr. Clay, has Mr. Stewart, through years of
Congressional labor, through success and defeat, advocated and sus
tained the same principles. While the one, from his elevated
position, saw and indicated the way, the other has more effectually
and powerfully aided to make it plain. We venture to say that no
man in America has, with so much power and practical common
sense, simplified, and brought home to the understandings of the
people, the true sources of national greatness and of the happiness
of the common people. He is, as our readers and the whole country
know, an eminently practical man. No stronger evidence could be
given of the truth of these suggestions than the immense editions
which have been published at various times, and in different sec
tions of the Union, of his numerous speeches on the tariff. These
have amounted to several hundreds of thousands of copies." — Free
Press, Va.
" We publish upon our first page an extract from the recent
speech of Mr. A. Stewart in review of Secretary Walker's Keport,
COMMENTS AND OPINIONS OF THE PRESS. 67
and shall continue the publication in subsequent numbers. This
speech is well worth a careful study. It would be impossible to
conceive a more thorough explosion than it makes of the doctrines
of Secretary Walker and the free-traders."— Sentinel, Flor.
"We have transferred to our columns to-day the admirable
speech of the Hon. Andrew Stewart, of Pennsylvania, in the House
of Representatives in Congress, on the subject of the tariff. It is
an able ex-position of the fallacies and false arguments of the Presi
dent and Secretary of the Treasury in the Message and Secretary's
Report, and deserves a careful perusal." — Independent, Mass.
" We invite attention to some extracts from a late speech of
Andrew Stewart, and regret that our columns forbid publishing the
speech entire. It is a caustic arid withering reply to Mr. R. J.
Walker's labored report, and exposes with truth and severity the
mis-statements and fallacies of the secretary." — Miscellany, Ga.
" The speech of Mr. Stewart in reply to the sophistries of Sir
Robert J. Walker, the President's bold advocate of British interests,
to the destruction of our own, will be read with satisfaction by every
friend of his country. It is able, interesting, and conclusive, and
justly commands the attention of all men of intelligence through
out our country.
" We have been obliged to delay the publication of the speech for
some time, on account of the press of legislative proceedings." —
Whig, Flor.
" We commend to perusal the eloquent speech of Mr. Stewart of
Pennsylvania, The fine-spun free-trade Utopian schemes of the
visionary Secretary of the Treasury are brushed away by this
speech, as easily as the sun doth dispel the early dew.
" The speech was not made merely to take up the time of the
House; but to expose the falsity of the Treasury Report, and we
have not met with a more searching and investigating speech in a
long time." — Telegraph, Mich.
"We would particularly call the attention of the members of all
parties to Mr, Stewart's speech. It is certainly conclusive, as the
returns there used are derived from official sources. Editors
throughout the country should publish it as a matter of general in
formation to their readers, and besides, it should be preserved for
political reference hereafter." — Democrat, Mo.
" We call the special attention of our readers to the speech of the
Hon. Andrew Stewart of Pennsylvania contained in this number of
the Palladium. It is too long for most articles published in a coun
try newspaper; but long as it is, owing to its particular merits, it is
worth the time of a hundred careful readings. Let no man who
takes or can get the Palladium, lay it aside for good, till he
thoroughly reads the speech. Again we say, read, read. Please
lay it up for future reference." — Palladium, Ohio.
"This able and distinguished friend of domestic industry, Mr
Andrew Stewart of Pa., whose recent speech in the House of Repre-
68 DEFENCE OF THE PROTECTIVE POLICY.
sentatives we have already noticed, having seen his remarks on the
tariff, commented on in the Union, has addressed a letter, through
the National Intelligencer, to Mr. Secretary Walker, explaining
and vindicating his views ; and dealing powerful blows at the fallacies
in the Secretary's Report. Mr. Stewart and the friends of the tariff,
need not, however, discuss over arid over again the tariff subject.
Argument has been exhausted — facts have become burdensome,
reasons are piled mountain high — Pelion upon Ossa. The great
matter is now in the hands of the party — to be settled as a party
question. Particularly is it in the hands of the Representatives
from Mr. Stewart's own State. If Pennsylvania is willing to see the
tariff prostrated, and protection to home manufactures abandoned —
what other State ought to resist the mandate of the party — or why
should the Whigs waste their energies in vain attempts to stop the
determined action of the dominant power ? We cannot see the use,
in this case, of contending unnecessarily, against what will be done
— because, if the experiment is to be tried, we want the whole
responsibility thrown upon those who effect the mischief." — Gazette,
D. C.
" We give our readers in to-day's paper, to the exclusion of almost
every thing else, the speech of the Hon. A. Stewart, of Pennsyl
vania, delivered in Congress on the subject of the tariff— and
request our friends, particularly our democratic friends, to peruse it
attentively and impartially. The tariff is no party question, it is an
AMERICAN question. Gen. Washington, Mr. Jefferson, Mr. Madison,
Mr. Monroe, and Gen. Jackson, were all advocates of both the con
stitutionality and expediency of protecting home industry by the
General Government." — Mail, Camden, N. J.
" We most sincerely wish that every man in the State could read
this able speech ; we are clearly of the opinion that every one would
acknowledge the truth and force of Mr. S.'s arguments arid facts, and
feel a consciousness of pride thrill his entire frame, to know, that
Pennsylvania has one Whig in Congress, able and willing to take
care of her interests. We feel proud of Mr. Stewart, and the people
of York county may also feel proud, for, although he is not a York
county man, still he reveres this county, (not for her locofocoism,
however,) but because the remains of'his ancestors are deposited in
her soil, and because he has warm friends and admirers, who appre
ciate his worth, residing within her confines." — Tlie Advocate, Pa.
11 We commence in this day's paper the publication of Hon. A.
Stewart's late Speech in Congress, on the Protective Policy. Mr.
Stewart is a Pennsylvania member, and one of the ablest men in
the present Congress. His speech abounds in. sound, logical argu
ment, and cannot fail of pleasing all who will take the pains to read
it. We hope all our readers will give it an attentive perusal. We
shall give the conclusion next week." — WJiig, 111.
" Andrew Stewart has obtained for himself a name as the defender
of that policy (the tariff,) which is the common source of prosperity
to the agriculturalist, the mechanic and the laborer, and no eulogy
of ours can stimulate him to renewed ardor and zeal, in the defence
of the rights of the poor, or endear him to his constituents and to
COMMENTS AND OPINIONS OF THE PKESS. 69
the nation any more, we know, but we feel it, due to ourself and to
the country to advise them of his manly efforts in their and our
behalf.
" Time and again, when the protective system has been threatened
by demagogues on the one hand, and the ignorant and skeptical on
the other, has he stept forward, and by his almost unbounded knowl
edge and overwhelming illustrations driven off and kept at bay these
disturbers of American industry. And as a proof of his continued
devotedness and fond attachment to a policy, which has caused the
country to rise from her folorn condition, and to put on her wonted
mantle of cheerfulness, no sooner had Congress assembled at its
present session, than he made a powerful speech, in which he strip
ped the flimsy arguments of his excellency James K. Polk, of their
sophistry, and exposed the naked skeleton to an indignant public."
— Telegraph, N. H.
" We are indebted to the National Intelligencer for a copy of the
speech of Mr. Stewart, which we publish on the first and second
pages of to-day's paper. The facts and arguments presented in this
speech are such, we think, as cannot be refuted — and whatever fate
may await the present tariff, Mr. Stewart deserves, and will receive,
the thanks, not only of his immediate constituents, but of the friends
of domestic industry throughout the Union, for his efforts to save
it." — Herald, Maine.
11 We ask the careful perusal, on the part of our readers, of the
excellent speech of the Hon. A. Stewart, of Fayette, on the tariff,
which we publish to-day. It is a master production, exposing in a
clear and forcible manner the numerous fallacies and unfounded
arguments contained in the Free-Trade Report of Secretary Walker.
There is no man in Congress better prepared to meet the opposition
in its onslaught upon the tariff of 1842 than Mr. Stewart. Upon
every matter relating to the protective policy he is perfectly at
home, and he has thus far proven more than a match for those who
are bent upon prostrating the industrial energies of the nation.
Would that every member of Congress from Pennsylvania, without
distinction of party, would stand up thus nobly in defence of our
dearest interests." — Berks Journal, Pa.
"The excellent speech of this first rate representative in the Con
gress of the United States occupies a very large space in to-day's
paper, but, as it is a very interesting document, both as regards the
questions discussed and the able manner in which they are handled,
we doubt not that our readers will be pleased with its publication.
We ask for it, on the part of all intelligent and honest men, an im
partial perusal.
" Since ever Mr. Stewart has occupied a place in the councils of the
nation, he has evinced a degree of devotion to the interests of the
country unsurpassed, and exhibited such a profound knowledge of
its institutions and the policy that should govern it, that he has
gained for himself, from one end of the Union to the other, a repu
tation of which any man might be proud." — Free Press, Gin.
"We have just finished the perusal of the speech of the Hon. A.
Stewart, of Pennsylvania, delivered in the House on the llth ult.,
70 DEFENCE OF THE PROTECTIVE POLICY.
on the subject of Mr. Walker's report, and the operation and effects
of his tariff. Gross and numerous as we knew were the errors of
Mr. Walker, both in theory and in figures, our examination of his
estimates and statements had not been sufficiently searching to give
us a correct idea of the magnitude of these errors, false theories, and
premises, until the perusal of this speech from Mr. Stewart. We
shall endeavor, shortly, to find room for the whole of it, as it ought
to be perused by every citizen. In the meantime, we will take up
some of the points alluded to." — State Journal, N. 0., La.
"We commend to the attention of our readers Mr. Stewart's
admirable speech on the tariff, which will be found in our columns
to-day ; do not fail to read it carefully — it will abundantly repay you
for the time you may devote to it — read it and pass it round to your
Democratic friends." — Herald, Ala.
" Mr. Andrew Stewart, member of Congress from Pennsylvania,
has in a recent speech demonstrated the insufficiency of the tariff
of 1846, and thoroughly exposed the chicanery of the Secretary of
the Treasury's report. Read the following extracts. We have
seen nothing on the subject so conclusive." — Courier, S. C.
" Mr. Stewart's speech in the House yesterday was a masterly
expos<2 of the British partialities and predilections of our free-trade
advocates, and defence of the true American interests and rights of
the American mechanic and farmer and American labor. Mr.
Stewart is a strong man, and 'his speech is unanswerable. He made
the true issue — American labor versus British pauper labor — and
called upon those who were for placing British pauper labor above
the labor of the mechanic and farmer of America, to array them
selves against the present admirable tariff, while those who were
for sustaining American labor against the pauper labor of Europe
would of course stand by the American tariff." — Baltimore Patriot,
Md.
" Hon. Andrew Stewart, of Fayette county, is deservedly esteemed
as one of the most useful and efficient Representatives in Congress
from this State. He has indeed acquired a high reputation through
out the country as an able champion of protection to American
industry, so that our whole State has cause to be proud of him as a
bold and fearless advocate of her interests, involved as they are in
the present tariff. He has made another excellent speech in defence
of that measure, for a copy of which we are indebted to the polite
ness of Hon. John Strohm, Representative in Congress from Lan
caster, and which we lay before our readers this week, commencing
on our first page. It will be seen that he has in a brief and compre
hensive manner reviewed and exposed the fallacious humbugs raised
against the tariff by the anti-protectionists of the South, and their
panders at the North." — Montrose Register, Pa.
The foregoing notices and comments are taken from hun
dreds of others of the same tenor, and expressing the same
opinions, both as to the speech and the policy advocated.
LETTERS. 71
LETTERS.
Copy of a letter from Baron Charles Dupin, member of
the House of Peers, arid the ablest advocate of the protective
policy in France, dated
PARIS, 16*7i May, 1846.
"HONORABLE SIR: — Be so kind as to accept a copy of my speech
[60 pages in French] upon the commercial interests of nations, con
trasted with those of Great Britain. If I had known of your most
able speech of the 14th of March, it would have been highly useful
to ine for the light it spreads upon that matter.
"I am, Sir, with the highest esteem, your most obedient servant,
"BARON CHARLES DUPIN.
" To MR. A. STEWART, of Pennsylvania."
Extract from a letter from Henry Clay, dated
ASHLAND, 26th June, 1846
" MY DEAR SIR : — I have read your excellent speech on the pro
tective policy with great satisfaction. It is a most triumphant vin
dication of that policy, and I concur with you heartily in most of
what you have so well said. I differ with you on the first part of
your position — ' That duties levied for revenue on articles we cannot
produce increased prices, whilst protective duties levied on articles
we can and do produce diminished prices • ' or rather I should say,
that it should be received with some qualification. Duties levied
for revenue on articles we do not produce do not always enhance the
price If,- however, I am right in this view, it does not affect
the main and strong current of your able speech.
" What will be the fate of the pending measure ? I wish you
would give my respects to some of our Democratic friends in the
Pennsylvania delegation, and ask them whether they now think the
President (Polk) is a better tariff man than I am.
" I arn your friend and obedient servant,
"H. CLAY."
Extract from a letter from J. & G. Gideon, dated
WASHINGTON, October 21th, 1846.
" DEAR SIR : — The number of your speech printed by us during
the last session is as follows :
Number furnished individuals (members)... 60,000 copies.
" " by order of Mr. A. Law
rence, Boston 20,000 "
" " Committees 60,000 "
140,000 "
After adjournment to Committees 25,000 "
To others, etc., number not known.
" Yours truly,
" J. & G. GIDEON.
" HON. A. STEWART."
ON THE PORTION OF THE PRESIDENT'S MES
SAGE AND TREASURY REPORT RELATING
TO THE TARIFF.
DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, U. S.,
ON TUESDAY, 9th DECEMBER, 1845.
THE House having- under consideration the resolution to refer that
portion of the President's message in relation to the tariff to the
committee of ways and means —
Mr. Stewart moved to amend the resolution by inserting
thereafter instructions to the committee to report " as the
sense of this house that the tariff of 1842 ought not to be
disturbed." In supporting this motion, Mr. 8. said, that he
thought the house ought to meet this question at once, and
give an expression of its views and purposes. The people had
heard with alarm the language of the executive message on
the subject of the tariff. Mr. S. was in possession of letters
just received from individuals who had commenced manu
facturing establishments, and who wished to know whether
it would be safe for them to proceed. Their inquiry of him
was, what was going to be done ? Whether the entire sys
tem of protective policy was to be overturned, as had been
recommended by the executive? That inquiry was coming
up from all parts of the country; he could not answer
them ; and he thought it the duty of this house to reply to
these inquiries, and to let the people know at once whether
the policy of protecting American industry was to be sub
verted or established. Surely it was their obvious duty to
come up to the question fairly and openly, and at once, and
give a distinct expression of their views.
It had been intimated by a gentleman from Alabama,
over the way, [Mr. Payne,] that the report from the Secre
tary of the Treasury was a most extraordinary document.
Extraordinary it certainly was, and many new and very
extraordinary doctrines did it contain. Mr. S. concurred
very heartily with the gentleman in thus much of what he
had said. — The report was a document setting forth doc-
72
trines in political economy such as never before had been
promulgated by any authorized officer of government, and
the positions there assumed were such as had startled the
country. It was therefore manifestly proper and highly
obligatory on this body that it should give as prompt an
expression as possible of its views and intentions in the pre
mises. Mr. S. proposed to draw forth to view, and to
public examination, in as brief a manner as he could, some
of these opinions and doctrines.
The first doctrine which he should notice, and which was
most distinctly avowed in the secretary's report, was that
the protective policy was unconstitutional, and if so, there
must be an end of it. The secretary said expressly that the
tariff of 1842 was atoo unequal and unjust, too exorbitant
and oppressive, and too clearly in conflict with the funda
mental principles of the constitution."
These were his express words; that the tariff of 1842
was clearly in conflict with the fundamental principles of
the constitution ; and he had made an argument to prove
this. He quoted the Constitution, and then argued, by way
of inference, that the power to lay a duty for protection was
not in this government. His report says :
" A partial and a total prohibition are alike in violation of the
true object of the taxing power. They only differ in degree, and not
in principle. If the revenue limit may be exceeded one per cent., it
may be exceeded one hundred. If it may be exceeded upon any
one article, it may be exceeded on all ; and there is no escape from
this conclusion but in contending that congress may lay duties on
all articles so high as to collect no revenue, and operate as a total
prohibition.
" The constitution declares that 'all bills for raising revenue shall
originate in the house of representatives.' A tariff bill, it is con
ceded, can only originate in the house, because it is a bill for rais
ing revenue. That is the only proper object of such a bill. A tariff
is a bill to ( lay and collect taxes.' It is a bill ' for raising revenue ; '
and whenever it departs from that object, in whole or in part, either
by total or partial prohibition, it violates the purpose of the granted
power.1'
Mr. S. here referred to the messages of Washington, Jef
ferson, Madison, and Monroe, all of whom over and over
again, in the strongest and most emphatic language, urged
upon congress the propriety of protecting domestic manufac
tures. He then came to the message of Gen. Jackson — a
name which, he should suppose, would still have some small
measure of authority, at least, with those who once professed
themselves pre-eminently his friends. Mr. S. would place
74 PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE AND TREASURY REPORT.
in distinct and open contradiction the opinions held by the
present executive and his Secretary of the Treasury, as con
tained in the message of the one and the report of the other,
and the opinions of Andrew Jackson as contained in his
executive messages to congress. He had already presented
the doctrines of the existing administration as they were
embodied in the report of the secretary of the treasury.
He would now proceed to read a paragraph from the
message of President Jackson, by way of refreshing gentle
men's recollection as to what had been the opinions on this
subject avowed by that distinguished man. Mr. S. consi
dered the passage he was about to quote as containing one
of the clearest and strongest vindications of the constitu
tional power to lay duties, for the purpose of protection, that
had ever been put forth to the world. Here it is :
" The power to impose duties upon imports originally belonged
to the several states. The right to adjust these duties, with a view
to the encouragement of domestic industry, is so completely iden
tical with that power, that it is difficult to suppose the existence of
the one without the other. The states have delegated their whole
authority over imports to the general government, without limita
tion or restriction, saving the very inconsiderable reservation relat
ing to the inspection laws. This authority having thus entirely
passed from the states, the right to exercise it for the purpose of
protection does not exist in them ; and, consequently, if it be not
possessed by the general government, it must be extinct. Our po
litical system would thus present the anomaly of a people stripped
of the right to foster their own industry, and to counteract the
most selfish and destructive policy which might be adopted by
foreign nations. This surely cannot be the case; this indispensable
power, thus surrendered by the states, must be within the scope of
authority on the subject expressly delegated to congress. In this
conclusion I am confirmed, as well by the opinions of Presidents
Washington, Jefferson. Madison, and Monroe, who have each re
peatedly recommended this right under the constitution, as by the
uniform practice of congress, the continued acquiescence of the
states, and the general understanding of the people." — Jackson's
Second Annual Message.
Yet now congress was to learn, for the first time, by exe
cutive instruction, that they possessed no constitutional
power to protect our own home industry — no power to coun
tervail the injurious regulations of other countries — no power
to protect the labor of our own citizens from the destruction
which must be brought upon it by an unrestricted competi
tion with the pauper labor of Europe ; but our own hardy
sons of toil must be impoverished and ground down so long
as the wretched beggars under a foreign government were
PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE AND TREASURY REPORT. 75
compelled by their necessities, to labor at lower rates than
freeborn Americans — were the doctrines distinctly promul
gated by the President in his message, and especially by his
Secretary of the Treasury. Well might they be called extra
ordinary, for such they certainly were. Were the Ameri
can people prepared to sustain opinions like these? Would
they subscribe to the dogma that their own government had
no power to protect them ? That was the doctrine — there
was no evading it, and Mr. S. desired to know whether this
house was prepared to give it the impress of its sanction ?
This, however, was but one of the extraordinary doctrines
in this most extraordinary production. It contained others
equally strange, equally new, equally pernicious in tendency,
equally destructive in practical operation. Would the people
believe it ? This document from the secretary recommended
the imposition of an excise on American manufactures — to
take the duties off British goods, and put them on the
American.
[J/r. Johnson, of Tennessee, here interposed, and desired
to ask him a question. When the government protected
these manufactures, who paid the duties ?]
Mr. Stewart disliked these interruptions; but since the
question was put, he would answer it. The gentleman
asked him who paid. The gentleman and his friends held
the doctrine that the consumer always paid the duty, and
the secretary told the nation that the poor man was taxed
eighty-two per cent, on cotton goods over the rich man.
Yes, this poor man seemed a special favorite of the honor
able secretary. He had introduced him ten times in the
course of two paragraphs of the report. His sympathy was
greatly excited that this unhappy "poor man" was taxed
one hundred and fifty per cent, on his cotton shirt, because
there was a specific duty on imported cotton goods of nine
cents a yard. Now, if this specific duty of nine cents
amounted to a hundred and fifty per cent, ad valorem, that
fixed the price of the cotton to the "poor man" at but six
cents a yard, for nine cents was just one hundred and fifty
per cent, on six cents. So the practical effect of this horrid
tax was, that this " poor man " got a good shirt at sixpence
a yard. And Mr. S. would tell the gentleman another
thing. When those most abominable minimums, which so
excited the wrath of the secretary had first been introduced,
in 1816, by William Lowndes — one of the purest patriots
and most enlightened statesmen that had ever graced these
76 PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE AND TREASURY REPORT.
legislative halls, and sustained, too, by John C. Calhoun,
scarcely less distinguished — India cotton goods, of the very
coarsest quality, known to every lady at the time by th.?
name of hum-hums, cost thirty-three cents a yard; so that
the "poor man" would then have had to pay four dollars
for twelve yards of it, and the effect of the infamous mini-
mums had been that every poor man in the country could
.now get a better article for six and a quarter cents. That
was the way the people were taxed and oppressed by the
protective system ; and this was the manner in which the
"poor man" was ground down to the dust to benefit the
rich monopolist ! The secretary persuaded this poor man
that -he was taxed eighty-two per cent, more than the rich
man, and this was quite insufferable, and yet he paid only
six cents for what formerly cost him thirty-six cents, and of
an inferior quality at that. On that thirty-six cents, the
tariff of 1816 laid a duty of nine cents, which was then but
twenty-five per cent, ad valorem; it is now one hundred
and fifty per cent., and why ? Because the price is reduced
from thirty-six to six cents per yard.
These dreadful minimums had, in their practical conse
quences, given the farmers a market, given their children
employment, made their land profitable, filled the country
with the hum of contented industry, and had brought down
the price of the poor man's clothing from thirty-six cents a
yard, down — down — down, as the system proceeded, till, at
last, it gave it to him at six cents a yard. Now the secre
tary cried out that the duty on these cottons was a hundred
and fifty per cent, ad valorem ! Enormous ! Horrid ! And
why ? The duty had not changed, but the price had. As
the price went down the duty went up. At thirty-six cents
per yard, nine cents duty would be twenty-five per cent. ;
at six cents a yard, the duty would be one hundred and
fifty per cent ; and if the price descended to one cent a yard,
then the duty would be nine hundred per cent. ! The poor
man robbed, plundered, and oppressed by a duty of nine
hundred per cent., simply because he got a yard of cotton
goods for one cent a yard ! Let the manufacturer run up
the price to thirty-six cents again, and the oppression is all
over ; the duty of nine cents a yard falls instantly to twenty-
five per cent., a moderate revenue duty. No more com
plaint; these friends of the "poor man" are perfectly
satisfied.
Such was the practical operation of these odious mini-
PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE AND TREASURY REPORT. 77
mums which had reduced the poor man's cotton goods from
twenty-five and thirty cents per yard to six and eight cents
Yet this was the system which must be given up ; this was
the operation which was so oppressive and so unconstitu
tional that it must be suffered to exist no longer upon our
statute book ! The duty was to be taken off the foreign
goods, and put upon American manufactures ; such was the
doctrine of this report and message which says —
[If/-. Johnson, of Tennessee, here again asked Mr. Stew
art, if the tariff brought down the prices of articles, why
did the manufacturer want it, and what was it that brought
down the price of other goods in proportion?]
Mr. Stewart replied that such was not the fact. Other
goods, not manufactured here, silks, velvets, etc., had not
declined in the same ratio, nor had wages or agricultural
produce ; because the protective tariff had increased the
supply of domestic goods by increasing competition, and had
sustained wages and agricultural produce by creating an
increased demand for both. If the gentleman could com
prehend that demand and supply regulate price, it would be
all plain to him.
Yes, sir, and could the secretary accomplish what seems
to be his purpose, the destruction of our domestic cotton
manufactures — which he says now amount to eighty-four
millions per annum, and which, of course, adds that much
annually to our national wealth, strike this out of existence,
destroy this immense competition and supply — soon, very
soon, the "poor man," without employment and with
diminished means would have to pay the foreigner two or
three times the price he now pays at home. Such are
the favors this administration would confer upon "poor
men." The gentleman asks, if protection reduces prices,
why do manufacturers want it ? It was not increased prices,
but increased business they wanted — a wider market ; it was
the advantage of improved machinery, increased skill, and
enlarged sales that reduced prices ; 5 per cent, profit on a
business of $5000 a year was more than 20 per cent, profit
on $1000; and the sale of six pairs of 'shoes a day, at ten
cents profit, was better than the sale of one pair at fifty-
cents profit. Is the gentleman satisfied ?
When interrupted, he had been controverting the doc
trines put forth by the secretary in his report. He had
referred to a table which had been reported by the com
mittee of ways and means, for the purpose of showing the
78 PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE AND TREASURY REPORT.
enormous tax which was imposed by the system of mini-
mums ; but when the secretary, by the assistance of the
honorable chairman of the committee of ways and means,
was preparing with great labor and pains this document, he
seemed to forget that he was, at the same moment, furnish
ing mathematical proof of the exact extent to which protec
tion had reduced prices. By converting specific into ad
valorem duties, the duty runs up precisely as the price runs
down; so by showing an increased rate of duty, the gentle
men have only shown reduced prices.
The duty is fixed, and cannot vary. The ad valorem
duties are always the same. None were imposed by the
tariff of 1842 above 50 per cent. How, then, does the
President, in his message, get duties of 200 per cent. ? This
can only be done by converting the specific duties into ad
valorem duties; and, when this is done, a high duty only
shows a low price. If the duty is 200 per cent., the price
must be one-half only of the duty. Thus, we are told
that glass pays the enormous duty of 200 per cent., and
why ? Because the duty is $4 per box, and the price $2 per
box ; but if the glass went down to $1 per box, the duty
would be 400 per cent. Thus we are told by the Secretary
of the Treasury that the people paid in all a tax of eighty-
four millions, of which but twenty-seven went to the gov
ernment, and fifty-four to the manufacturers ; and he re
ferred to a list of sixty or seventy articles paying specific
duties, which, when converted into ad valorem^ amounted to
more than a hundred per cent. Very well ; and what did
this prove? Why, simply that the prices of those articles
had been greatly diminished, as in the case of cottons. The
same duty which, when levied, had been but 25 per cent.,
had now become 100 per cent., simply because the price
had gone down to one-fourth part of what it was. So the
main result of all the labor and cyphering of the secretary
and chairman of the committee of ways and means had been
to furnish to the whole country official demonstration that
prices had been reduced by a protective tariff to one-fourth
or one-fifth of what they had been in 1816. Take a plain
illustration : the tariff imposed a duty of four cents per
pound on nails ; the price of nails in 1816 had been 16
cents per pound ; so that the duty was then 25 per cent, on
the price ; but the same duty, we are told in this report,
is now 100 per cent. ; arid how so ? Because the price
had fallen from sixteen cents to four cents per pound.
PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE AND TREASURY REPORT. 79
Very oppressive on the " poor man/' who has thus to pay
LOO per cent, on nails ! The explanation of all this was
perfectly plain and easy. The effect of competition, ma
chinery, skill, and industry, had increased the supply, and
by an increased supply, in this as in all other cases, had
reduced the price of glass, cotton, etc., whilst it had ren
dered the whole country prosperous by the increased demand
for all the productions of the farmers.
Mr. S. thanked the secretary for his reference to his docu
ment ; it had furnished to him and to the country undeni
able proof, from the highest authority, to what an extent
prices had been reduced, insomuch that the duty on one
article, though reasonable at first, had now risen to three
hundred and eighty-nine per cent, ad valorem, brought
about solely by the reduction of the price. Mr. S. defied
escape from this position. Let any gentleman take the
report and examine it, and the more they examine, the
more would they be convinced that this was a true explana
tion of the whole matter. Yet this was held forth for the
purpose of exciting alarm ; it furnished a topic for popular
declamation; it might persuade the "poor man" that he
was greatly oppressed, because he paid a tax of two hun
dred per cent, on his window glass ; and he perhaps would
not understand that if glass fell to a dollar a box, he was
taxed four hundred per cent., or if by any improvement in
the manufacture he should be enabled to get his glass at fifty
cents a box, why then he would be paying the enormous
unheard of tax of eight hundred per cent. This same " poor
man" of the secretary sometimes wanted to buy a few nails,
and the secretary alarmed him by the intelligence that nails
were taxed a hundred per cent, on their value. So they
were ; but what did they pay for them ? He used to pay
sixteen cents a pound, but this wicked oppressive tariff had
brought them down to four cents. Now, who did not see
that if a specific duty of four cents a pound on nails was
converted into an ad valorem duty, it amounted to a hundred
per cent., and should nails be brought down to a cent a
pound, the duty would be four hundred per cent. ! What
an oppression to get nails at a penny a pound. Surely the
" poor man" was likely to be utterly crushed and ruined.
Mr. S. said he had wished to point out some other of the
extraordinary doctrines contained in this paper of the secre
tary, and there was one which would startle the country; it
was covered up in cautious language, but when the veil was
drawn aside, and the truth exposed, he again warned gentle
men that it would startle the country. This free-trade
secretary had recommended an EXCISE on American manu
factures. Yes, that was the protection he had provided for
American industry ; it was to take off the duty from foreign
manufactures, and put it on our own. Hear him :
" In accordance with these principles, it is believed that the
largest practicable portion of the aggregate revenue should be
raised by maximum revenue duties upon luxuries, whether grown,
produced, or manufactured at home or abroad"
Let mechanics and manufacturers hear that. — Every
American artizan should hear it. The duty was to be on
articles, etc., whether grown, produced, or manufactured at
home or abroad. Here was an American secretary distinctly
recommending to levy the highest rate of revenue duties on
goods manufactured at home. What was this but an excise ?
— What else was an excise than a tax on the manufactured
goods of this country ? Yet this was the secretary's recom
mendation. How would American people like it?
Both in the message and in the report, the administration
had given its own definition of what, according to its under
standing, was a revenue standard of duty; and this was the
language of the President's message :
" The precise point in the ascending scale of duties at which it
is ascertained from experience that the revenue is greatest, is the
maximum rate of duty which can be laid for the bonafide purpose
of collecting money for the support of government. — To raise the
duties higher than that point, and thereby diminish the amount col
lected, is"to levy them for protection merely, and not for revenue.
As long, then, as congress may gradually increase the rate of duty
on a given article, and the revenue is increased by such increase of
duty, they are within the revenue standard. When they go beyond
that point, and, as they increase the duties, the revenue is dimi
nished or destroyed, the act ceases to have for its object the raising
of money to support the government, but it is for protection merely."
Here was the rule by which duties were to be laid. The
moment an American manufacturer had succeeded in sup
plying our own market, and began to thrive in his business,
that would be a proof that the duty was too high for reve
nue ; it was no longer a revenue duty but a protective duty,
and it must forthwith be reduced. As the American fur
nished more goods to the country, less foreign goods would
be imported, revenue would be diminished, and the duty
must come down ; that was the rule. And now Mr. 8.
would ask, under such a rule as this, what man in his senses
PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE AND TREASURY REPORT. 81
would invest a dollar in manufactures? What was the pros
pect before him ? The moment when, by industry and enter
prise, he should succeed in getting the better of his foreign
competitor, down with the duty. If a shoemaker or a hat
ter, by making better or cheaper hats or shoes, had got pos
session of the market, the eye of this free-trade system was
fastened on him like a vulture. The secretary found he
was doing too well, and the duty must be reduced to let in
the foreigner. Such was the plan of this administration.
The mechanic, finding his protection thus diminished, and
having no other resource but his business, would go on to
work longer and to work harder than before, and when, by
working out of hours, he had contrived to get over the op
position of his own government, and his foreign competitor,
and began to get together a little profit, the same doctrine
would repeat the process: the duty would evidently be too
high — down with it ! The " poor man " would now take his
children from school and bring them into the shop. They,
too, would now work, while the man himself worked har
der and harder. But what would be the result ? It would
only bring him under the President's rule; the duty must
be again lowered, and still go on to be lowered, more and
more, till at last this free-born American must be ground
down by the action of his own government to the degraded
and wretched condition of an English pauper or a Russian
serf. The moment an American laborer succeeded by his
exertions in shutting out foreign competition, the foreigner
must be let in and put over him. What sort of a rule was
this ? For whom would one suppose it to be made ? For the
American manufacturer or the European? Clearly it was a
rule for the benefit of the foreigner. And could an inde
pendent and intelligent American consent to live under such
a rule? The moment the American rises to his feet, in this
struggle with foreigners for the American market, he is to
be knocked down by this executive poker, and walked over
by his Secretary Walker. [A laugh.] And this was their
American system. Mr. S. insisted it was a British system.
It was just such a system as Sir Robert Peel would have
recommended, could he have spoken through President Polk
as his trumpet ; its practical, its universal operation, would
be what he had just now described. And would the house
endorse a system like this ? This was the far-famed "free-
trade system/' now for the first time promulgated by an
American fiscal officer.
82 PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE AND TREASURY REPORT.
Since the improvements in steam, the cost of transporta
tion was comparatively nothing. Take off the duty, and
the British workshops would be brought to our doors. Sup
pose these British laborers were in Alexandria, working at
twenty-five cents, was any man so blind as not to see that
they must soon break down the workmen of Washington,
who were receiving seventy-five cents a day? The employer
would soon begin to talk to them in a very intelligible lan
guage. "My competitors in Alexandria get labor for
twenty-five cents a day, and you must take the same or
quit." Now, where was the difference, whether the distance
was a little greater or a little less ? The practical operation
of the system would be just the same. And this was the
blessed system of free trade ! The workmen of England
and France could work cheaper than ours, and the free-trade
doctrine held that we must buy wherever we could buy
cheapest. Down went the duty, in came foreign goods, out
went American money ; and out and out it went till we had
no more money to send, and the people and their govern
ment became bankrupt together. This was the blessing
which the compassionate secretary had in store for the "poor
man ! " Oh, how he loved him ! He brought in " the poor
man " ten times in two paragraphs ! But his love would be
very apt to operate like the love a certain bear once had for
a "poor man," when he hugged him to death. [A laugh.]
Mr. S. had seen Mr. Walker's name announced for the
presidency. Now, an uncharitable observer might perhaps
say that Mr. Walker was looking to be the " poor man's "
candidate. If so, he proposed a wise plan, for his system
would soon make all the people poor, and then he would go
in by acclamation. [Much merriment.]
The secretary's system might not inaptly be termed a
plan to manufacture " poor men." Such would be its prac
tical result, and there would be no escaping it. Let the
gentleman from Alabama [Mr. Payne] examine the report
as long as he pleased, and see if he could make anything
else out of it. — And now Mr. S. would ask the members
of this house, and his countrymen generally, whether the
adoption of such a plan would not be equivalent to passing
a law that henceforth no further capital should be invested
in manufactures? It was in the nature of a notice before
hand, and it ran in this wise : " Gentlemen, you may invest
your money in such way as you deem best, but we here
notify you that, as soon as you shall have supplied the
PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE AND TREASURY REPORT. 83
American market, and we find that in consequence of your
success imports begin to diminish, the duties must be re
duced, and foreign goods must be let in until we get revenue
enough to pay all government officers." With such a notice
before him, who would engage in manufactures ? Who would
invest the capital he had received by inheritance or accumu
lated by his own enterprise and toil with the certainty before
his eyes that just as soon as he began to gather a little
strength, to acquire greater skill to improve the modes of
labor, and to realize its reward by getting the better of
foreign competition, he must be knocked down, and the
foreigner let in to ruin him ? This might be called, in cer
tain parts of the country, " legging for the British." Gentle
men from the West understood what was meant by the term
" legging." [Yes, yes, and a laugh.] This rule would
guaranty the American market to the foreigner forever, or
until American labor was ground down and degraded to the
half-starved and wretched condition of the serfs and paupers
of Europe ; and the American masses, thus deprived of
the means of educating their children, would be obliged to
work as in Europe, from the cradle to the grave, and their
moral and political condition would in the end be no better
than theirs.
Such most clearly must be the practical and inevitable
operation of this rule, if carried out. And are these the
benefits and blessings this administration has in reserve for
the " poor man ? "
But the Secretary of the Treasury had made other very
wonderful discoveries in finance. What did he tell us?
"Experience proves that, as a general rule, a duty of twenty
per cent, ad valorem will yield the largest revenue." Yes ;
experience proved that an ad valorem duty of twenty per
cent, would yield the greatest amount of revenue. Twenty
per cent, yield the greatest revenue ! Why, what was the
great, broad, universally-known experience of the country ?
We had a tariff of twenty per cent, in 1841-2, and what
was our revenue ? Not one-half of what it now is. The
whole amount of revenue from imports was then about
thirteen millions, and this year it was twenty-seven millions.
Was thirteen more than twenty-seven ? If so, the secretary
is right ; if not, he was clearly wrong ? And what was the
effect of their twenty per cent, horizontal duty ? Under its
operation the country was prostrated, the government itself
was bankrupt, and the people were little better. Yet this
84 PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE AND TREASURY REPORT.
man could say, in the face of these well-known facts, and
of the American people, any one of whom knew better, that
an average duty of twenty per cent, yielded the greatest
amount of revenue. The secretary had even gone further
yet than this : in his famous circular he had assumed that
twelve and a half per cent, horizontal was the true revenue
standard. Some western scribbler asked him, through the
Eress, how much revenue 12 J per cent, would give on one
undred millions of imports? (that being more than the
average amount). The answer must be twelve and a half
millions; then deduct three and a half millions, the expense
of collection, and but nine millions of nett revenue would
be left to pay twenty-six millions of expenditures. To
make up the revenue, you must add more than one hundred
millions to your imports, while your whole specie has never
been estimated at more than eighty-five millions ; then all
your specie goes for your first year, and where will you get
money for the next year? — These questions, being rather
troublesome, were never answered.
The truth was, that the revenue resulted from the tariff,
and followed it. When the tariff was low, the revenue was
low; when the tariff was high, the revenue was high. That
had been the uniform experience of the country, and he
challenged gentlemen to show the contrary. It must be so ;
it could not be otherwise. And why ? Because the result
of protection was to make the people rich, and taking off
protection was to make them poor. When the people were
rich the treasury was full ; as the country became poor the
treasury was impoverished. — In this country the revenue
was a voluntary, and not, as in other states, a compulsory con
tribution, made by the people to the government. The con
dition of the treasury was, in fact, a political thermometer,
to test the prosperity of the country. According to the
national prosperity, so would the revenue ever be found.
When men were impoverished, could they purchase goods
freely ? Certainly not. When prosperous, their wives and
daughters could purchase costly clothing and rich furniture,
and then many goods were always imported. But when
the country was impoverished, by the ruinous policy now
recommended, men would wear their old coats, their wives
and daughters stay at home and mend them, merchants
could not get money to import goods, and the treasury
would be bankrupt.
Under the compromise law the duties ran down till they
PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE AND TREASURY REPORT. 85
reached the point of 20 per cent. ; then was the gentle
man's Utopia; then according to the secretary, the revenue
ought to have been abundant ; but who had yet forgotten,
or could ever forget, what had been then the condition
of the treasury, and of this entire nation ? The treasury
was so perfectly bankrupt that it could not borrow one
dollar. The states were everywhere repudiating their debts,
and the national character lay prostrate and bleeding. That
was the condition, and every body knew it, to which a
twenty per cent, tariff had brought this land ; and yet at
this day the first fiscal officer of the government had the
front to recommend a return to that state of things. In
our great humiliation and distress the tariff of '42 came
in like a delivering angel ; it raised and restored the reve
nue ; it replenished a tarnished treasury ; it brought repu
diation into disrepute ; it made a bankrupt law useless; in
a word, it struck the whole country as with the wand of an
enchanter, and brought back plenty, and credit, and enter-
prize, and hope, and public character. Why, then, disturb
it ? What mischief had it done ? The secretary deprecated
agitation, but who agitated the country ? It was the secre
tary himself and his friends. The friends of protection every
where cried out, "give the country repose," "give the coun
try prosperity and peace under the tariff as it is."
His hour, Mr. S. said, was fast drawing to a close. He
must hasten on, and merely glance at many of the remain
ing topics of the message and report, some of which, had
time permitted, he should have been glad to have noticed
somewhat more at large. The report, for the first time in
an official form, had promulgated the doctrine of " free
trade," which is openly and distinctly avowed ; and, to en
force the argument, reference is made to the "free-trade"
existing among the states: and it is declared that "recipro
cal free-trade among nations would best promote the inter
est of all ;" that "the manufacturing interest opposes reci
procal free-trade with foreign nations ; " " and if it desired
reciprocal free-trade with other nations, it would have de
sired a very different tariff from that of 1842."
These are his positions, and they fully sustain the doctrine
of " free-trade."
But the policy recommended by this administration, if
carried out, would be ruinous to Pennsylvania, because her
iron and other manufactures are carried on mostly by ma
nual labor, and not, as in New England, by labor-saving
86 PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE AND TREASURY REPORT.
machinery, and therefore, to induce the investment of capital
and the acquisition of skill and experience, she must be
protected against a too free competition with the depressed
and low priced labor of Europe.
The report represents the foreign market as all important
to the farmer, whilst the home market it considers of small
comparative consequence ; yet it appears from official docu
ments that our annual exports of agricultural products (de
ducting cotton, tobacco, and rice) have not for a series of
years exceeded an average of ten millions of dollars, whilst
the domestic market amounts to more than fifty times that
sum. Massachusetts, it is ascertained, imports and consumes
annually thirty three millions of dollars worth of the agri
cultural products of the other states, whilst Great Britain,
from whence we import about fifty millions of dollars' worth
of manufactured goods annually, (one-half of the whole
value of which consists of agricultural produce, raw mate
rial, and the substance of labor,) does not take, of all the
agricultural productions of the United States (excluding
cotton, tobacco, and rice) two and a half millions of dollars'
worth a year: thus estimating one-half the value of our
imports to consist of agricultural produce converted into
goods, it follows that we import and consume about twenty-
five millions of British agricultural produce in the form of
manufactures, whilst she takes less than two and a half from
us; so that we purchase and consume ten dollars' worth of
British agricultural produce, converted into cloth, iron, and
other goods, to one dollar's worth of the same articles she
takes from us. Yet according to the report, the foreign
market to the farmer is every thing and the home market
nothing.
The report says that protective duties are levied exclu
sively for the benefit of the rich monopolists at the expense
of the farmers and laborers. Now, he contended that just
the reverse of this was the truth. That the practical effect
of protection was to increase the number of manufacturing
establishments, and thus destroy monopoly by promoting
competition ; and that by withdrawing labor from agricul
ture to manufactures, you not only diminish the supply, but
at the same time increase the demand for agricultural pro
duce, and of course increase its price; whilst on the other
hand, by increasing manufacturing establishments you in
crease the supply of manufactured goods, and of course
reduce their price, so that the farmer is thus enabled to sell
PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE AND TREASURY REPORT. 87
for more and buy for less. If demand and supply regulate
price, this conclusion is inevitable. Yet the report says
" the tariff is a double benefit to the manufacturer and a
double loss to the farmer."
The Secretary of State (Mr. Buchanan) understood this
much better, when he sent a toast some time since to the
manufacturers of Pittsburg to this effect : " The election of
James K. Polk has saved the manufacturers from being
ruined and overwhelmed by excessive competition." He
was right. It certainly did favor the invested capital, the
monopolists, by checking competition, and thereby keeping
down the wages of labor and the produce of the farmer,
which would, in a different result, have been enhanced in
price by an increased demand. This is illustrated by the
fact that at Pittsburg, shortly before the tariff of 1842, the
laborers in the factories were put on half work, and of
course half pay ; and almost immediately after its passage
they were restored to full work and full pay. It was for the
sake of the laborer and farmer, therefore, that he advocated
the protective policy, and not for the "rich monopolists" —
the only class that will be benefited by the course of this
administration in the check their policy will give to compe
tition and new investments of capital, while the "poor
laborer and the farmer" will be the only sufferers by it.
I submit to every man of practical common sense, whether
such must not be the result. And yet we are gravely told
by both the message and report that protective duties operate
exclusively for the benefit of the rich capitalists at the ex
pense of the " poor laborer and the farmer ! "
But, finally, this whole question, so interesting to the
American people, turns upon a simple question tf fact : " Do
protective duties ultimately increase or reduce the prices of
the articles on which they are levied?"
Now, the message and the report assume (but fail to
prove in a single instance) that protective duties have in
creased prices, and are therefore oppressive and burden
some ; while, on the other hand, he asserted, and was ready
to prove by the documents referred to, by every price cur
rent and every merchant in the country, that the prices of
protected goods have been reduced by competition since the
odious minimums and specific duties were first imposed for
protection in 1816 to one-half, one-third, one-fourth, and in
some instances to one-sixth part of what they were at that
time, as in the case of coarse cottons, glass, iron, nails, etc. ;
88 PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE AND TREASURY REPORT.
yet, in the face of these undeniable facts, it is asserted that
the duty (nine cents a yard — 150 per cent.) is added to the
price of the domestic as well as the imported goods, and is
paid by the consumer, and that the "poor man" is thus
taxed on his coarse cotton goods 82 per cent, more than the
rich ; when the fact is admitted that the poor now get a better
article made at home, and paid for in labor or produce, at
one-fourth of the price he paid in 1816, when the minimum
duties were first imposed ; while on the other hand, the
wages of labor and the produce of the farm, flour, grain,
meat, etc., have undergone little or no reduction of price,
owing to the increased demand produced by the increase of
manufactures. Such has been the effect of protective duties.
But revenue duties levied on articles not produced or manu
factured at home, may and do generally increase prices,
because they do not produce competition and increased
supply. But to the facts. I call upon the President and
secretary for their proofs. Show me the evidence that in a
single instance protective duties have permanently increased
prices. This you assert, and I deny. This is an issue of
fact, and not of argument. Produce, then, your evidence,
that protective duties have permanently increased prices, and
then go on and denounce protection as plunder, robbery,
and oppression. But first prove your facts, and then make
your argument. I ask the secretary as a lawyer, would any
court in Christendom tolerate for a moment the course you
pursue ? You bring a suit against A. who denies your
claim. Are you at liberty to assume the facts without proof
to be just as you want them, and then make your speech,
and ask a verdict? Surely not. Yet such is the course
pursued on this great question. You assume without proof,
that protective duties increase prices, and then contend that
the " poor man" and the farmer are oppressed and plun
dered by the tariff. Now, if this be found to be untrue in
point of fact, and that the reverse is true, that they reduce
prices, and of course lessen burdens, then what becomes of
all your arguments and speeches against the oppressions of
the tariff? They fall lifeless to the ground.
He denied the right of the enemies of the tariff to assume
these facts, and called on them for the proof. The facts lie
at the foundation of the whole question, and he trusted they
will be furnished.
The President and secretary tell us they want a revenue
tariff — a tariff that will just yield revenue enough to meet
PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE AND TREASURY REPORT. 89
expenditures, and no more. Well, according to their own
showing, the present tariff is the very thing they want.
They tell us officially that the expenditures this year have been
$29,*96S,207, and the revenue has been $29,769,133. Now
is it possible to get the tariff nearer right than it is? Why,
then, disturb or change it, when, according to their own
theory, it is exactly right ? Last session we were threatened
with a large surplus, and were then told we must "reduce
the tariff to reduce the revenue." Now we are told we
must " reduce the tariff to increase the revenue." So,
whether there was too much or too little, the remedy was
always the same — "reduce the tariff — reduce the tariff."
Doctor Sangrado's cure for all things — "bleeding and warm
water." [A laugh.]
We are told by the secretary that the manufacturers are
all making immense profits — 20 or 30 per cent. But can
this be possible? Is not capital free everywhere? and will
it work for 4 or 5 per cent, at agriculture, as is alleged,
when, by going into manufactures, it could realize 20 or 30?
If this were true, the rush of capital into manufactures would
soon be so great as to reduce it to the very lowest rates of
profit. But if the manufacturers supply goods at one-fourth
of their former cost, and still make money, why complain?
And why break down or drive away this profitable business,
where, by the use of labor-saving machinery, one hand will
do the work of forty ? Why drive this 30 per cent, business
abroad, and continue to labor here at 4 or 5 per cent, profit,
and exchange the productions of forty hard working men
here for the labor of one woman, with the aid of labor-sav
ing machinery abroad ? Why not keep this profitable busi
ness in our own country ?
The secretary, in his report, tells us that "on coal and
iron the duties are far too high for revenue," and that
they ought to be reduced to the " revenue standard," which
he assumes to be about 20 per cent. Now, if the aver
age duty on these articles exceeds, as the secretary alleges,
60 per cent., then according to his views, more than two-
thirds of the duty must be taken off of iron and coal, which
would extinguish the fires of every furnace and every forge
in Pennsylvania, destroying millions of capital, and sending
millions abroad to purchase the agricultural produce of
foreign countries, converted into iron. Try this Anti-
American system, and hear what Pennsylvania has to say
to it ! I need not anticipate her ; she will speak for herself.
90 PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE AND TREASURY REPORT.
This is not what she understood by the Kane letter, and she
will say so.
The secretary says : " Where the number of manufacto
ries is not great, the power of the system to regulate the
wages of labor is inconsiderable ; but as the profit of capi
tal invested in manufactures is augmented by the protective
tariff, there is a corresponding increase of power, until the
control of such capital over the wages of labor becomes irre
sistible." Was there ever a greater error entered into the
imagination of man ? There is not a laboring man in this
country who does not know that quite the reverse of this is
the fact ; that where the demand for labor is small, wages go
down ; and where manufactories multiply, and as the demand
for labor increases, wages go up. Yet the secretary has it,
that when the demand for labor is small, wages are high ;
and when the demand is great, wages are low !
The secretary tells us, exultingly, that " England has
repealed her duties on cotton, and reduced them on bread-
stuffs." True, but is not this the work of the protective
policy ? The A merican manufacturer is abroad throughout
Europe with his goods, underselling England even in her
own markets. Hence she is obliged to take every burden
off her manufacturers to enable them to maintain the com
petition. Hence they repeal the duty on cotton and provi
sions, not for favor, but to beat us — not to benefit us, but to
save themselves. The secretary boasts of British liberality,
with the notorious fact before his eyes, that except on
cotton, the average duties levied at this moment in Great
Britain on all our imports exceed 300 per cent. ; while our
duties on her imports do not average 33. This is British
liberality, so extolled and eulogized by the American Secre
tary. England, we are told, will follow our example, if we
adopt " free- trade." Will she? Hear what she says on
this subject through her ministry. The Duke of Welling
ton, very recently, in reply to Earl Grey and others, stated
in the house of peers, "that when free-trade was talked of
as existing in England, it was an absurdity. There was no
such thing, and there could be no such thing as free-trade in
that country. We proceed (says he) on the system of pro
tecting our own manufactures and our own produce — the
produce of our labor and our soil ; of protecting them for
exportation, and protecting them for home consumption ; and
on that universal system of protection it was absurd to talk
of free-trade."
PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE AND TREASURY REPORT. 91
The secretary says, if we do not take British goods, they
will have to pay cash for our cotton ; and, "not having it to
spare" they will buy less, and at lower prices. We must
cease manufacturing, and send our money to England, so
that she may have "money to spare" to buy southern
cotton. This is the idea. The north and the west are to be
sacrificed to make a market for southern cotton. But does
not the secretary see that by impoverishing the north and
west, a worse result would follow ? They would soon be
unable to buy anything ; whereas, if protected and prosper
ous, having the means, they would have the will to pur
chase and consume foreign goods. Thus the secretary's
" free-trade " plan would most effectually defeat his own
purpose, if carried out.
But England, we are told by the secretary, will, if we
relax, repeal her corn laws. She may for the moment, to
avoid starvation ; and not an hour longer. But, if repealed,
would it inure to our benefit ? Would she not obtain her
supplies of wheat much cheaper from the North Sea and
the Baltic, from Odessa, Warsaw, Dantzic, and Hamburgh,
where, for seven years, ending 1840, the price of wheat was
seventy-seven cents per bushel, while here it was §1.40
on the seaboard ; and freight from there was but thirteen
cents per bushel, and from here thirty-six ? At this time
the price there is ninety cents, and here $1.15. But the
repeal of the corn laws would equally favor the wheat of
the Baltic, while a great portion of our wheat finds its way
to Great Britain, through Canada, at the colonial duties,
thus escaping the operation of the corn laws.
But let the administration adopt its system, and let the
manufacturers close their doors and turn out seven or eight
hundred thousand people to beg or starve, and they will
soon hear a voice that will make them tremble. Yes, and
this Secretary of the Treasury himself will hasten to declare,
as did the Emperor of Russia, who tried this system of free-
trade for a short time, but soon renounced it in this em
phatic language :
"Agriculture left without markets, industry icitliout protection,
LANGUISH AND DECLINE. SPECIE IS EXPORTED AND THE MOST SOLID
COMMERCIAL HOUSES ARE SHAKEN. The public prosperity would soon
feel the wound inflicted on private fortunes, if new regulations did
not promptly change the actual state of affairs.
"Events have proved that our AGRICULTURE and our COMMERCE, as
well as our MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY, are not only paralyzed^ BUT
BROUGHT TO THE BRINK OF RUIN."
92 PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE AND TREASURY REPORT.
Such would be the effects of the system now recommended
for our adoption, and such would soon be the language this
administration or its successors would be obliged to adopt.
Sir, if I loved my party more than my country, I would re
joice to see this administration carry out its measures, for
its speedy overthrow would be inevitable.
Mr. S. said he would now present the doctrines of this
.administration in direct opposition to Thomas Jefferson and
Andrew Jackson, and let the people decide for themselves.
Protection is not only denounced by this administration as
unconstitutional, but also as oppressive to the farmer and
laborer. Well, what says General Jackson on this subject?
He says :
'; It' we omit or refuse to nse the gifts which God has extended to
us, we deserve not the continuation of his blessings. He has filled
our mountains and our plains with minerals — with lead, iron, and
copper ; and given us climate and soil for the growing of hemp and
wool. These being the grand materials of our national defence,
they ought to have extended to them adequate and fair protection
that our own manufactories and laborers may be placed on a fair
competition with those of Europe. I will ask, what is the real
situation of the agriculturist ? Where has the American farmer a
market for his surplus product? Except for cotton, he has neither
a foreign nor home market. Does not this clearly prove, when there
is no market either at home or abroad, that there is too much labor
employed in agriculture, and that the channels for labor should be
multiplied ? Common sense points out, at once, the remedy. Draw
from agriculture this superabundant labor ; employ it in mechanism
and manufactures ; thereby creating a home market for your bread-
stuffs, and distributing labor to the most profitable account; and
benefits to the country will result. Take from agriculture, in the
United States, 600,000 men, women, and children, and you will, at
once, give a home market for more breadstuff's than all Europe now
furnishes us. In short, sir, we have been too long subject to the
policy of British merchants. It is time that we should become a
little more Americanized; and, instead of feeding the paupers and
laborers of England, feed our own; or else, in a short time, by con
tinuing our present policy, we shall all be rendered paupers our
selves."
The secretary's report says we ought not to adopt protective
duties because other nations do so, and says, " with revenue
duties only throw open our ports to all the world/' But what
says Thomas Jefferson ; here are the words of that profound
and patriotic statesman in his report to Congress on this
subject :
"But should any nation, contrary to our wishes, suppose it may
better find its advantage by continuing its system of prohibitions,
duties, and regulations, it 'behooves us to protect our citizens, their
PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE AND TREASURY REPORT. 93
commerce and navigation, by counter prohibitions, duties, and re
gulations also. Free commerce and navigation are not to be given
in exchange for restrictions, and vexations, nor are they likely to
produce a relaxation of them. Where a nation imposes high duties
on our productions, or prohibits them altogether, it may be proper
for us to do the same by theirs ; first, burdening or excluding those
productions which they bring here in competition with our own of
the same kind ; selecting next, such manufactures as we take from
them in greatest quantity, and which, at the same time, we could
the soonest furnish to ourselves, or obtain from other countries ;
imposing on them duties, lighter at first, but HEAVIER and HEAVIER
afterwards, as other channels of supply open. Such duties having
the effect of indirect encouragement to domestic manufactures of the
same kind, may induce the manufacturer to come himself into these
states."
Now President Polk says, that duties can be imposed
only for revenue, and not for protection, and that when the
home supply diminishes revenue, the duties ought to be re
duced so as to increase imports. But Jefferson's rule is
precisely the reverse. He says, as the domestic supply in
creases the duties ought to be increased, not reduced as Mr.
Polk has it. The dudes, according to Jefferson's plan,
ought to be made heavier and heavier to favor the Americans.
Folk's lighter and lighter to favor foreigners.
Which is right, Jefferson or Polk ? one or the other must
be mistaken, as they are directly at issue.
Here they stand directly opposed — which side as Ameri
cans ought we to take? He had always been and still was
attached to the old Jeffersonian democracy, the opposite of
modern progressive democracy, and he believed that a majo
rity of the old and honest democrats of Pennsylvania would
still be found faithful to the tried and true Jeffersonian
principles when brought to the test.
On the subject of the tariff Jefferson's plan was the only
true one, "select the articles we can and ought to manufac
ture for ourselves, give them full and adequate protection,
' lighter at first, but heavier and heavier ' as the domestic
supply increases, and for revenue increasing the duties on
luxuries consumed by the rich." This is the true American
system as expounded by Thomas Jefferson himself; it is
the standard around which all his friends should now rally
— and those who desert this standard are traitors to his
principles.
Mr. S. said, he wished to consider for a moment the tariff
as connected with agriculture, and it might startle the sec
retary to tell him that Massachusetts now exported to for-
94 PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE AND TREASURY REPORT.
eign markets more agricultural produce then any other state
in the Union. She exported it as the British exported it,
not in its raw form, but converted into manufactures ; and,
what was still more important to the grain-growing states,
she exported it in a form not to compete with, or at all
affect, the price of produce, in its raw condition in the for
eign markets. And it might startle the secretary still more
to tell him that millions of dollars' worth of hay, oats, straw,
grass, and corn, were transported annually over the moun
tains to the Atlantic markets, from Ohio, Kentucky, and
the other Western States. But is it not strictly and unde
niably true ? Not in its original form, but like British goods,
converted and changed into a condition in which it can be
transported to market. Converted into hogs, horses, and
fat cattle ; for what are these but the corn, oats, and hay, of
the Western farmer, changed into animated forms, and made
to carry itself, to market. A fat hog carries eight or ten
bushels of corn to market, and a fine Western horse carries
seventy or eighty dollars' worth of hay and oats to the
Eastern market, with the farmer on top of it, who sells it
for cash, and returns home to repeat the process. And thus
foreigners convert their agricultural produce, not into hogs
and horses, but into cloth, iron, hats, shoes, every thing you
find on the merchant's shelf, and send them here for sale and
consumption. Our merchants throughout the country, so
far as they sell foreign goods, are in fact but retailers of
foreign agricultural produce, converted into goods and sent
here for sale ; and, when we look abroad at their vast num
bers, is it surprising that money should be scarce ? It has
clearly proved that more than half the value of a yard of
cloth consists of wool, and the substance of labor employed
in its manufacture. That nine-tenths of the value of pig
iron consists of agricultural produce, and even a yard of
lace is but little else than the subsistence of the foreign pau
per labor employed in its fabrication. Yet the farmer seems
not to be aware, that when he pays twenty dollars for a
suit of British cloth he sends ten dollars of the twenty in
hard money (they take no paper) to purchase British wool,
and bread, and meat, while he has no market for his own.
Yet is it not true? And is not this the policy recommended
by his administration? He was admonished to be brief, but
he would, while on this point, state another fact susceptible
of the clearest demonstration, that the constituents of every
member in this house from Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and all
PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE AND TREASURY REPORT. 95
the grain-growing states, are, and at this moment, purchas
ing and consuming five dollars' worth of British agricultu
ral produce to one dollar's worth Great Britain takes of
theirs. By referring to the official reports on commerce and
navigation for ten or twenty years back, it would be found
that our imports of British goods amount to nearly $50,-
000,000 a year, while she has taken, of all the agricultural
products of the grain-growing states of this Union, flour,
grain, meat, etc., less than two millions and a half. Now,
if only half the value (and it was much more) of these goods
consisted of agricultural produce, this would give ($25,000,-
000) twenty-five millions of British agricultural produce
taken annually by us, to two and a half millions of ours
taken by them, just ten to one. Xow, assuming that con
sumption is in proportion to population ; then these Western
gentlemen's constituents are consuming not five but ten dol
lars' worth of British agricultural produce to one Great
Britain takes from them ; and yet the secretary is not satis
fied, but wishes to increase the import of foreign goods to
favor the farmers! Reduce the duties, says the administra
tion, to increase imports, and amen, say most of the repre
sentatives of these Western farmers. But what would these
farmers say to their representatives when they come to look
practically and not theoretically at this matter? He, Mr. S.,
intended to call their attention to it. He intended, after
the example of the secretary, to address some questions to
the farmers of this country, and he hoped soon to have their
answers to lay before the house ; he wanted the facts on
both sides. He would ask, for instance, how much agricul
tural produce there was in a yard of domestic cloth, or a
ton of iron? and whether, if brought from England, (where
it was made of the same materials,) they did not purchase
English wool and provisions converted into cloth, iron, etc.,
when they had no market for their own ? He would ask the
merchants and manufacturers what were the prices of cot
ton and woollen goods, glass, iron, nails, etc., in 1816, when
the first protective tariff was adopted, and what were they
now? He would ask the working men what would be the
effect of " free-trade,'7 recommended by the Secretary of the
Treasury, on the wages of labor in this country? Such
questions, in his judgment, would not only furnish impor
tant facts, but, what was more important, it would bring the
farmers and laborers to investigate this subject in a common
sense practical point of view, and to figure it out for them-
96 PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE AND TREASURY REPORT.
selves; in this way more would be done to bring the people
to a right understanding of this highly interesting subject,
than by all the speeches made here or elsewhere.
The message tells us that a protective tariff benefits the
rich at the expense of the laboring poor. No, sir; it is just
the reverse. The tariff is a rampart thrown around our
national labor, the great element of our national wealth.
The tariff furnished the only security our laborer had against
the degrading and leveling effects of an unrestricted corn-
petition with the pauper labor of Europe. As you reduce
this wall of protection, you reduce the wages of labor. As
you reduce labor, you reduce the national wealth, which is
the sum of your productive industry.
Sir, I stand here the advocate of labor — labor in the field
and in the workshops — this struggle for national protection
is a struggle for national prosperity. Who can estimate the
value of our national labor? It amounted to hundreds of
millions of dollars. A poor man's labor is his capital ; if
he earns only $120 per annum, this is equal to a capital of
$2000, at 6 per cent. ; if you have a million only of labo
rers, this gives you a capital of two thousand millions of
dollars; and is this not worth your care and your protection ?
Must this vast American labor be prostrated and trodden
down to make a market for foreign goods ? to increase reve
nue by increasing the imports, sending millions abroad to
sustain foreign labor, to obtain a few thousand dollars of
revenue? The naked question presented is, shall we favor
foreign industry or our own? Shall we take the foreign or
the American side in this great struggle for the American
market? This is the great and true question involved in
this issue of protection or no protection. This administration
has taken the foreign side of the question. They denounce
all protection as unconstitutional. I take the American side.
And I fearlessly appeal to the good sense, the enlightened
patriotism of the American people, the farmers and laborers,
whose interests are at stake, to decide this question. The
issue is now fairly made up, and must be decided. Is pro
tection constitutional or not ? Has Congress the power to
protect the national industry? Sir, let gentlemen pull down
this wall of protection thrown around the national industry
by the tariff of 1842, inundate the country again with for
eign goods, send all our money abroad to pay for them,
again bankrupt the people and the treasury as in 1841 ;
let gentlemen do this, and go home, to meet the frowns of
an indignant and ruined people.
COMMENTS AND OPINIONS OF THE PRESS. 97
COMMENTS AND OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.
\Ye copy from the scrap book already referred to, the follow
ing notices from among hundreds of others of like tenor
published in newspapers throughout the United States.
" The report of Kobert J. Walker, Secretary of the Treasury, sub
mitted to Congress at the opening of the present session, lauded the
tariff of 1846, as the greatest measure perhaps that has been adopted
since the formation of our government— it was truly a wonderful
measure, and that report has called forth from his Democratic friends
the most extravagantly fulsome laudations, and its author pro
nounced the greatest financier of the age. It was truly a Demo
cratic document of the modern kind.
" On the llth of January, Hon. Andrew Stewart, of Pennsylvania,
made a speech in the House of Representatives, in which, among
other things, he scathingly reviewed Mr. Secretary Walker's report,
and pointed out some of his misstatements in very plain language,
and in such a way as is not calculated to increase confidence in the
accuracy or veracity of the honorable secretary. It will be seen
from the extracts which we present in another column, and to which
the reader's attention is directed, that Mr. Stewart openly and
directly impeaches the truth and fairness of Mr. Walker's state
ments, and calls upon him to substantiate them. Mr. Stewart also
holds himself bound to maintain his statements if they are denied."
— Knoxville Tribune, Tenn.
" Hon. Andrew Stewart, of Pennsylvania, made sad work with
Secretary Walker's annual report, proving it full of falsehoods and
misstatements. He is just the man that can do it successfully and
with effect. He puts his words down and clinches them so tight,
that no locofoco need ever attempt to overset them. If we can get
a copy of the speech, we will publish it." — Traveller, Louisiana.
" We invite the special attention of both the friends and foes of
the doctrine of Protection, to the lucid exposition of the Hon.
Andrew Stewart, in the House of Representatives. The speech
speaks for itself — and we hope every one will avail himself of the
privilege of giving it an attentive perusal. No man in the Union
understands this subject as thoroughly as Mr. Stewart, and the
Secretary of the Treasury will find in him a knight who can tilt the
lance with such precision and accuracy, as to extort a cry for quar
ter. It is a most scathing review of the document in which Mr.
Walker set forth the beauties of free-trade — a trade free for all other
countries but our own — free for every other nation on which the
sun shines ; but restricted, when our own country attempts to trade
or traffic with a neighboring nation." — Gazette, D. C.
" We ask every reader of the Whig to give the speech of Mr.
Stewart, of Pennsylvania, a perusal. It will be found on the first
page of this week's paper. Mr. Stewart most successfully exposes
the errors arid intentional misstatements of Mr. Secretary Walker,
made in his annual report to Congress. And, as this report of Mr,
7
98 PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE AND TREASURY REPORT.
Walker has been extensively circulated, we hope the speech of Mr.
Stewart will be also extensively circulated and read. So effectually
did Mr. Stewart expose the errors of Mr. Walker, that he has since
come out and confessed to an error of four millions in amount, in
one of his statements." — Leavenworth Whig, Ind.
"We are under obligations to the Hon. George Ashmun, the ac
complished and fearless member of Congress from the 6th District,
for a copy of the last speech of Mr. Stewart, of Pennsylvania, upon
the tariff. A part of this speech will be found in to-day's paper,
and the remainder we shall lay before our readers next week. We
hope it will be read and weighed by every one who has anything at
stake, or a duty to discharge, in the impending attacks on the
tariff. The views of Mr. Stewart upon this great question, which
he has made his study, and to the consideration of which he always
brings an earnestness in some measure commensurate with the im
portance of the subject, we have seldom read more clearly or forci
bly stated or more boldly uttered than in the speech before us." —
Transcript, Mass.
" No man in the country has risen more rapidly in the public es
teem than the Hon. Andrew Stewart, of Pennsylvania. The indus
try and research displayed in his masterly efforts in behalf of a Pro
tective Tariff, on the floor of Congress, have won him the highest
respect among the first minds in the country, and stamped him
as a true representative of the genius of his State. Mr. S. has a
fine talent for elucidating difficult and complex questions, over
coming by a sort of intuition, what requires plodding industry with
most men." — Gazette. Ohio.
" We have perused this able speech, and consider it one among
the best we ever read. We intended to have published a large por
tion if not all of the speech, but, unfortunately, it got misplaced, and
could not be found till too late to publish it. It is well worth a
place in every Whig paper in the country ; 'the people' should see
and read it, and we regret that we cannot give our readers more than
the closing remarks." — Weldon Herald, N. C.
" Upon our first page will be found an extract from the lucid
speech of the Hon. A. Stewart, of Pennsylvania, which will be read
with interest. Mr. Stewart has won golden opinions in the House
of Representatives for his manly exposition of the ' withering
curses ' of locofocoism, and we are happy in being able to give ex
tracts from a speech so sound and so patriotic." — Voice of Freedom,
Vt.
" We regret that our limits will not permit us to make extracts
from this speech, which proves that the secretary's theories and
facts are always at war. He cites a number of instances of the con
tradictory character of his report, and stamps falsehood upon his
vaunting on the admirable workings of the tariff of '46, which were
made by the secretary to mislead and deceive the people with re
gard to its practical operations. Gross and palpable misstatements
are fastened upon the report, of millions of dollars."— Lexington
Advertiser, Miss,
COMMENTS AND OPINIONS OF THE PRESS. 99
" Mr, Stewart's speech upon the tariff, at the commencement of
the session, has been circulated throughout the Union, and every
where with interest. It is the most sensible, plain and candid expo
sition of the tariff policy that has yet been published; and will do
more to enligliten the public mind upon that subject, than ten
thousand reports like that of the Secretary of the Treasury. Mr.
S. has examined the whole subject with the greatest care, and
probably possesses more information upon the practical operations
of the different systems which have been imposed upon the country,
than any other man in it. He is extremely desirous of obtaining
well authenticated facts respecting the prices of produce, of all
kinds of home manufactures, and foreign manufactures of similar
articles, and of the wages of labor at different periods since 1816." —
Rhode Island Chronicle.
" Our readers will find in this day's Era the speech of the Hon.
Andrew Stewart, of Pennsylvania, in answer to that of Mr. McCler-
nand, of Illinois. We read the latter with a view to see what ex
cuses a man could find for voting against the obvious interests and
welfare of his constituents. His fulsome and nauseous flattery of
the President is really too great even for a time-serving politician in
Congress. The way in which he is handled by Mr. Stewart will
afford our readers a treat. As to Mr. McClernarid's model President
and model Secretary of the Treasury, they meet with no mercy.
The gross blunders of the latter are ably exposed." — New Era, St.
Louis, Mo.
" The able and distinguished friend of domestic industry, Hon. A.
Stewart, of Pennsylvania, who recently made a speech in the
House of Representatives, we have already noticed, having seen his
remarks on the tariff commented on in the Union, has addressed a
letter, through the National Intelligencer, to Mr. Secretary Walker,
explaining and vindicating his views ; and dealing powerful blows
at the fallacies in the Secretary's Report. — Alexandria Gazette,
D. C.
" Mr. Stewart, in his speech on the floor of Congress some weeks
since, took occasion to expose the false positions which the Presi
dent, in his message, and the Secretary, in his report to Congress,
had assumed in regard to the operation of the present tariff. For
this, it appears, Mr. Stewart is assailed through the columns of the
Goverment paper, in an article which he supposes to have been
written by the secretary himself, and in which his statements are
denounced as 'egregious misrepresentations;' whereupon he joins
issue with the secretary on questions of fact, and calls upon that
dignitary to sustain his position by proof, offering at the same time
to substantiate all his own statements by official documents. Mr.
Stewart has taken a stand on this question from which he cannot
be driven, either by the sophistry of the President and his Secretary
or the Government paper— and Mr. Polk and Mr. Walker owe it to
their own characters as well as to the nation, to bring forward their
facts, if any they have, or, in case they have none, then come out
manfully and honorably and acknowledge that they have assumed
false positions and promulgated erroneous doctrines." — The Whig,
Ky.
100 PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE AND TREASURY REPORT.
" Well may the people of Fayette and the 18th District be proud
of their representative in Congress. He is everywhere receiving
the highest plaudits for the firm, decisive, and able stand which he
has taken in defence of the American policy of protecting our own
labor. In Pennsylvania, such is the enthusiasm which he has ex
cited, that the presses, in counties where there is no Whig repre
sentative, put in a claim on him to represent their people, as well
as his own more immediate constituents." — The Herald, 111.
" In Mr. Stewart the friends of the tariff have an able champion.
There is no man in Congress probably who has paid more attention
to this subject, who understands it more thoroughly than Mr. S.,
or who is more vigilant and active in its support. War having been
proclaimed by the Democratic administration of James K. Polk,
against this great measure, he is prompt to sound the alarm, and
array himself in its defence. In this he is well fortified by facts and
arguments, and will be backed by his Whig colleagues, but the
power and force of party drill may prove too strong to be resisted,
and the tariff must fall ! The Democracy will doubtless be found
rallying almost in a body to the standard of Free-Trade, unfurled
by the President — that President, too. who was represented by his
friends in Pennsylvania, as being ' a letter Tariff man than Mr.
Clay I ' Shame upon the recreants who thus imposed upon and
cheated a confiding people." — The Banner, N. Y.
" We are gratified by the returns from Pennsylvania, to see that
our esteemed and distinguished friend, Andrew Stewart, is returned
to Congress by a majority near six times as large as heretofore.
This is not less complimentary to himself than it is creditable to
the State. Mr. Stewart is a noble fellow, an ornament to our Na
tional Assembly — a man of eminent ability — long devoted to the
interests of his country. To the subject of the tariff he lias devoted
all the energies of his powerful mind for years past, and is perfectly
at home in all its intricacies. He is the great champion on this
subject in the House. Devoted to the Protective Policy — armed
•with the argument of omnipotent fact at every point, he stands
forth the able expounder of Pennsylvania's interests — the eloquent
and powerful advocate of the nation's policy. Well may Pennsyl
vania do honor to such a man ; and we prophecy that the day is not
far distant when he will not only be honored as the great exponent
of Pennsylvania's interests, but likewise as the champion of the
rights and interests of American Freemen." — The Press, Conn.
"The readers of the Voice will notice that we occupy a large
share of this number with the speech of Mr. Stewart. We have
done this because we think it as valuable matter as we could pre
sent to both Whigs and Democrats, and we hope no one will leave
this speech unread on account of its length. Our general plan is
to put the whole of such documents in one number of the paper,
that they may the more conveniently be preserved. Let each
Democrat who sees the speech but read it attentively, and we think
it will make an impression on his mind favorable to seeing things in
their true light, unless he is so far gone that the truth cannot save
him."— Voice, N. C.
COMMENTS AND OPINIONS OF THE PRESS. 101
" We have been favored with a pamphlet copy of the speech of
the Hon. A. Stewart, in relation to the tariff of 1842, as recently
delivered in the House of Representatives. Many of the views of
Mr. Stewart are particularly interesting and able, and they will be
read with the more interest now that the President and his political
friends have thrown off all disguise and avowed themselves foes to
a measure so vital to the interests of Pennsylvania and the nation
at large. Instability of legislation is indeed one of the greatest
curses of this country." — Inquirer, N. Y.
" We this week make some valuable extracts from the speech of
Andrew Stewart, Esq., member of Congress from Fayette county,
Pa., on the subject of the tariff, to which we would direct the atten
tion of all into whose hands this number of our paper may fall.
That is the grand rallying point, arid the one to which we desire
most to see all eyes directed. If we had nothing else in view, the
honor, the prosperity, and the perpetuation of the free institutions
of our country should prompt us to urge the protective policy." —
Freeman, Go,.
" The last Volunteer contains the greater portion of Mr. Secretary
Walker's free-trade report, and as a thorough exposure and refuta
tion of its gross fallacies, absurdities, and sophistries, we give the
able speech of the Hon. Andrew Stewart, of the Fayette district of
the State. We hope our readers will give it a careful perusal, and
then lend the paper to their locofoco friends who may desire to
have the mysteries of Mr. Walker's report unravelled." — Chronicle,
N.J.
" We embrace this first opportunity to find room for the unan
swerable argument of Hon. Andrew Stewart, a noble son of Penn
sylvania, in refutation of the sophisms of Mr. Polk and Mr. Walker,
on the tariff. The speech was delivered in the House of Repre
sentatives of the United States, on Tuesday, December 9. In the
first part of the speech, the 'Constitutional ' objections of Southern
men are answered, in relation to protection, by quotations from
Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, and Jackson." — Gazette,
Mich.
" We regret our inability to give the whole of Mr. Stewart's
speech on the subject of the tariff, but we have prepared as large a
portion of it for this day's weekly as we could find room for. It is
one of those plain, practical illustrations of well known facts that
will not fail to strike the good sense of every man who reads it." —
The News, Va.
"The remarks of the Hon. Andrew Stewart, in defence of the
tariff, and in protection to our own industry, will be found in to
day's paper, and we hope will be universally read, as it is a masterly
and irresistible argument, and holds up the President and Secretary
Walker to the gaze and the scorn of every Northern man. Never did
the enemies of the prosperity of any country — never did a Tory in
the Revolution receive so scathing, so withering a rebuke as has
been dealt to these free-trade Tories by the Representative from
Fayette. We repeat the hope that it will be read by all, and ex-
102 PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE AND TREASURY REPORT.
tensively published over the land, as an antidote to the poison of
Folk's message arid Walker's report, that will be understood by all.
Circulate the document." — Register, Maine.
"Hon. Andrew Stewart, of Pennsylvania, the ablest champion
and defender of a protective tariff in the nation, has been using up
the late report of the Secretary of the Treasury. Eead a portion of
his speech in to-day's Courier." — Courier, New Castle, Del.
" Would that every member of Congress from Pennsylvania, with
out distinction of party, would stand up thus nobly in defence of our
dearest interests. It is a scandal and a shame that prominent arid
influential members from this State, whose constituents look to
them to stand by a measure that has done so much to advance the
prosperity of our citizens, should basely ' crook the supple hinges
of the knee,' and follow the party in the destruction contemplated.
The time may come when these faithless servants will repent in
sackcloth and ashes the course they are now pursuing. In the
meantime, it affords us no small pleasure to know that "the Whigs
will stand up to a man, and contend with the opposition inch by
inch, every foot of ground upon which the tariff of 1842 rests for
support. They may be defeated in their gallant endeavors to uphold
a measure so fraught with benefits and blessings to all classes of the
community — we fear they will— but come what may, we have the
assurance they will remain true to their principles — true to their
plighted faith — true to their constituents, and true to the best in
terests of the great body of the people." — The Herald, Pa.
11 The speech of Mr. Stewart is one of the best, in behalf of Whig
principles, which has been spoken in the Halls of Congress during
the present session, and therefore, young gentlemen, as you value
the privilege and feel proud of the dignity of being or soon becom
ing 'Independent sovereigns,' we ask you to read and study it." —
Herald of Freedom, N. H.
"If you want your understanding enlightened upon the subject
of the tariff, by clear, sound, matter-of-fact argument, don't lay this
paper down until you have read the speech of the Hon. Andrew
Stewart, of Pennsylvania. It is the best tariff speech we have ever
read. It should be posted up in every farmer's house, in every shoe-
shop, hat-shop, smith-shop, and every other kind of shop and factory
from Maine to Louisiana." — Galaxy, Vt.
" Having referred to the men and measures most prominent in the
recent Presidential canvass, we will proceed to give our impressions
as to the 'why and wherefore' of victory enuring to the Whigs.
Briefly, then, we regard the action of the 29th Congress upon the
subject of the tariff as the principal cause of Whig success.
" Pending the discussion of the tariff bill of '46, it was declared by
Mr. Stewart, of Pennsylvania, in debate, that 'the passage of said
bill would be the greatest Godsend the Whigs ever had, and would
inevitably cause the defeat of the Democracy in '48.'
" Prophecy has become history, and hence, not the veto, not the
sub-treasury, not the Mexican war, not internal improvements, not
the 'Wilmot proviso,' not the eclat of General Taylor's military
COMMENTS AND OPINIONS OF THE PRESS. 103
services, not 54° 40', not the extraordinary and efficient services of
the Whig Congressional Committee, not Whig clubs, speeches,
documents, and organization ; nor yet Democratic default in these —
not 'France, its king and court' — nor yet the 'extra' pay, and -in
clination of General Cass to ' swallow all Mexico, Cuba, and Yuca
tan,' caused his defeat, but mainly the reduced duty upon coal and
iron. Indeed, all of these combined, though each, doubtless, meas
urably tending to the success of the Whigs^ would have been essayed
in vain but for the manifest disregard of Pennsylvania interests
shown by the aforesaid Democratic Congress." — Sun, Baltimore, Md.
"Having last week given our readers a taste of Hon. Andrew
Stewart's speech on the subject of the report of the Secretary of the
Treasury, involving the tariff, Mexican war, etc., we have been re
quested by several to publish it in full, with which request we
comply. We regret that we are compelled to divide it ; but, without
omitting other important matters, we find it impossible to give it
all this week." — Freeman, Fla.
" Bead Mr. Stewart's speech. It is made up of facts and deduc
tions. It is a plain, sensible expose" of the tendency of Mr. Walker's
tinkering. Pennsylvania may well be proud that she has in the
National Legislature such a champion of her interests." — The
Journal, S. C.
The foregoing extracts, with others, show that the tariff,
or protective policy, has always been a national, and not a
local question, always and everywhere, throughout the
Union ; supported by the Whig and Republican parties, and
opposed by the Democratic party, from our earliest history
up to the present time.
IN DEFENCE OF THE TARIFF AND DIS
TRIBUTION.
DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF
THE U. S., MARCH 13th, 1844.
MR. STEWART, of Pennsylvania, rose to inquire of the Chair
whether the previous question, which had been called on the
engrossment of the bill, would preclude discussion on the question
now propounded by the Chair, " Shall this bill pass ? "
The Speaker having replied in the negative —
Mr. Stewart said : However unprepared, I am neverthe
less glad, sir, of the opportunity thus unexpectedly acquired
of saying a few words on this important measure before its
final passage. On coming into the hall a few minutes since,
I was surprised, sir, to learn that this bill to repeal the
Distribution Law, reported by the Committee of Ways and
Means within the last hour, had been already read a first
and second time under the previous question, and was now
on its final passage. Sir, is this fair? is it right, that this
bill, by far the most important that has occupied the atten
tion of the present Congress, should thus be hurried through
all its stages, and finally passed, under the gag, without
amendment or debate ? Why this hurry and haste ? Why-
post with such dexterity to this destructive deed ? Why is
this important measure to be thus despatched in an hour,
when days and months have been spent in the discussion
of matters of comparative insignificance? The motive can
not be mistaken : its friends are afraid of discussion ; they
fear the development of facts which must prostrate them
before the people ; but they cannot escape, sir. They may,
by the gag, suppress debate here, but they cannot, thank
God, gag the people and the press ; they can and will speak
out, in tones of thunder, against the doings of this day.
The proceeds of the sales of the public lands of this
country belonged to the States of this Union. It is a fund
which this Government holds in trust for the people of the
States ; and a period has arrived in our history when, by
the maladministration of this Government, a state of things
104
THE TAKIFF AND DISTRIBUTION. "' 105
has been brought about in which the States are involved in
debt, a debt which was not only crushing the people of the
country under taxation, but was driving some of the States
to repudiation and bankruptcy. Is this Government to
furnish no relief to the States of this Union ? Does it owe
no obligations to the States and to the people?
Are we to sit here calmly and see the States and the
people of the Union crushed under the weight of direct
taxation, see the character of the country disgraced, see
repudiation stalking forth throughout the land, and this
House and this Government, which had the power to relieve
the people from their burdens and redeem this Government
from disgrace, do nothing? This was a matter in which
this Government was deeply interested. The interest and
honor of this Government must be sustained or destroyed
with the interest and honor of the States — they are insepa
rable — we are one people in the estimation of mankind, and
share in the same glory and in the same disgrace.
Sir, you will have a surplus in the Treasury, at the end
of the year, derived from the existing tariff, if let alone.
And what will you do with it? Why not give the pro
ceeds of the land to the States, to which it justly and fairly
belongs? If you do not, you will be driven to the necessity
of another Distribution Law to divide the surplus revenue
among the States.
GENERAL JACKSON IN FAVOR OF DISTRIBUTION.
This policy was strongly recommended and urged by
General Jackson, not in one, but in three of his annual
messages, and it had been adopted in Congress by a majority
of more than four to one, 155 to 38 in the House, and 24
to 6 in the Senate. Yet gentlemen now contend that this
measure is not only highly inexpedient, but unconstitutional ;
and Mr. Van Buren, in his Indiana letter, declares that the
people would "stultify" themselves by its adoption — a
declaration by which he not only stultifies General Jackson,
but himself also. General Jackson, in his first message,
advocates the policy of distribution, and says, "the most
safe, just, and federal disposition that can be made of the
surplus revenue will be its distribution among the States,
according to their ratio of representation." In his next
message of 1830, he renews this recommendation, and takes
up and answers, at great length, and with great ability, all
106 THE TARIFF AND DISTRIBUTION.
the objections that had been urged against the policy of
distribution — the very same objections that are here urged
by Mr. Van Buren and his friends, he answered and over
turned, in their order, No. 1, 2, 3, 4, occupying several
pages of his message, to which he commended the gentleman
from Virginia, [Mr. Dromgoole,] who had reported this bill.
In his message of 1832, General Jackson again took up and
discussed, at great length, the subject of the public lands :
he says they ought to " cease, as soon as practicable, to be a
source of revenue ; " that " the idea of raising revenue from
them ought to be abandoned ; " that they would endanger
the " harmony and union of the States;" and he expressly
declares, what is unquestionably true, that these lands were
pledged to the General Government to pay the revolutionary
war debt, and that that debt being now discharged, the
" lands were released from the pledge, and it is in the dis
cretion of Congress," he says, " to dispose of them in such
way as may seem to them best." Such are the sound and
deliberate opinions of General Jackson ; yet Mr. Van Buren,
who concurred with him at the time, now says, in his Indiana
letter, that the people would "stultify themselves by the
adoption of a proposition so preposterous." These are his
words — a high compliment to his "illustrious predecessor"
— "a preposterous proposition," which, Mr. Van Buren
says, no one but a fool would think of, and that " its agita
tion, he regrets to say, is calculated to degrade the character
of the American people in the estimation of mankind."
These, sir, are perhaps some of the developments which
gentlemen intended to suppress by the previous question.
Why not give the land proceeds to the States? We are
now receiving under the tariff of '42 more revenue than we
want ; during the last month we have received more than
two millions of dollars in the single port of New York.
Suppose we receive in all the other ports in the Union no
more than is received in New York, and it will amount to
four millions per month, equal to forty-eight millions per
year. Still gentlemen are not satisfied, and a bill has been
reported by the Ways and Means to repeal the tariff of '42,
because it has destroyed the revenue, and they have substi
tuted one which they say will increase the revenue. Yes,
sir, the Globe also, in an editorial article of the 10th of last
month, stated that the last Whig Congress had " doubled
the expenditures of the Government, and reduced the
revenue one-half" — a statement made in the face of official
THE TARIFF AND DISTRIBUTION. 107
documents showing that the reverse was much nearer the
truth. Yes, sir, the report on the finances at the opening
of this session shows that the ordinary expenditures during
Mr. Van Buren's administration amounted to nearly thirty-
four millions in one year, and averaged more than twenty-
eight millions; while in 1842 and '43, under a Whig
Congress, the average was little over twenty-three, and that
the revenue had been increased by the Whig tariff of '42
from less than fourteen millions in 1840 and '41 to more
than eighteen millions in 1842 and 1843, and it would be
more than twenty-five, and might possibly reach thirty
millions the present year. Yet the Globe says, in the face
of these facts, that the Whigs have " doubled the expendi
tures, and reduced the revenues one-half!"
From present prospects, am I not justified, sir, in saying
that we shall have a large surplus over and above the cur
rent expenditures? Why not then give the proceeds of the
lands to the States to relieve the people of the indebted
States from the load of taxation by which they are now
ground down to the earth? This fund justly belongs to the
States — in the language of General Jackson, this Govern
ment now holds it in trust for the States after the paying of
the revolutionary debt, for which it was pledged, and a
Court of Chancery, upon a bill filed, would decree this fund
to the States on proof of the payment of the debt for which
it was pledged. You have no use for this fund, then why,
I repeat, sir, not give it to the States to which it rightfully
belongs ? What better use can you make of it ?
Mr. Dromgoole said, pay off the Whig debt with it !
The Whig debt ! I thank the gentleman for this sugges
tion — the Van Buren debt he should have said. Yes, sir,
the existing debt was inherited by the Whigs from the gen
tleman and his party; it was the only legacy Mr. Van
Buren had left to his country when he retired from office.
He had found the treasury with a surplus of more than six
teen millions of dollars over and above the amount deposited
with the States, to which add the proceeds of the bank stock,
and the amount he received exceeded twenty-four millions.
Well, sir, he not only expended this 24 millions with all the
revenues of the Government, but he left the people saddled
with a debt of $17,356,998, consisting of treasury notes,
unpaid appropriations, and debts outstanding ; and this was
the debt the gentleman [Mr. Dromgoole] is pleased to call
the Whig debt — it is ours, but we got it by descent, it came
108 THE TARIFF AND DISTRIBUTION.
from that gentleman and his party ; but the Whigs could
pay it, and would pay it, if gentlemen would let the present
tariff alone a few years longer. The Whigs had paid part
of it, and would soon pay the whole. But if gentlemen suc
ceeded in reducing the tariff as proposed by the Committee of
Ways and Means, to which the gentleman [Mr. Dromgoole]
belonged (seven out of nine of that committee were Van
.Buren men), this debt will soon be again doubled, especially
if you superadd the extravagance and prodigality of another
Van Buren administration — of which, however, sir, I am
happy to believe there is not the slightest probability.
But why, let me ask gentlemen, repeal the distribution
law ? it is not now in operation, and it cannot operate till
all the duties are brought down to 20 per cent. Why repeal
it then ? unless the Committee of Ways and Means contem
plate the reduction of the duties to 20 per cent., for till this
is done there can be no distribution under the existing law.
But I have another question to ask the committee — if you
repeal a part, why not repeal the whole of the law ? This
law gives to each of the new States 500,000 acres of choice
land over and above their distributive share. This part of
the law is left unrepealed, and in full force, while all the
rest of the States are deprived of all the benefits of this law
now and forever. As to the old States the law is repealed,
but the new States are left to enjoy the benefits of its pro
vision. Why is this so ? This certainly requires explana
tion, and it was perhaps partly to avoid this also that the
previous question has been called.
The revenue plans of the Committee of Ways and Means
are wholly unintelligible to me — precisely the same measure
is proposed at one time to reduce, and at another time to
increase, the revenue ; whether there be too much or too
little revenue, the same remedy is recommended, a "reduc
tion of the tariff — down with the tariff." So these political
doctors have, it seems, the same remedy for all diseases. In
1832, when we had a surplus revenue of upwards of $17,-
000,000 to relieve the treasury, Mr. McDuffie, then chair
man of the Ways and Means, reported just such a bill as
this reducing duties, and it was then supported by the pres
ent chairman [Mr. McKay, of N. C.] as a measure calculated
to reduce the revenue. Now, that honorable gentleman
reports a similar bill reducing the duties for the contrary
purpose, the increase of the revenue; how the same measure
is to have opposite effects at different times I am at a loss to
THE TARIFF AND DISTRIBUTION. 109
discover, perhaps the honorable chairman can explain it.
This bill proposes to reduce the duties to about what they
were in 1840 and '41, when the revenue from imports was
about fourteen millions of dollars. Now, under the present
law (the act of '42) the revenue would probably be about
double that amount, yet the Committee of Ways and Means
propose to repeal the act of '42, and reduce the duties to
about what they were in 1840 and '41, for the avowed pur
pose of increasing the revenue. This surely requires expla
nation ; I cannot understand it, nor do I see how any body
else can. But how, I ask, is a general reduction of duties
to increase the revenue? Clearly this could only be done
by a corresponding increase of imports. If you reduce your
duties one-half, you must certainly double your imports to
get the same amount of revenue. The Secretary of the
Treasury says we will have twenty millions of revenue
under the existing law, and he wants five millions more,
and the Committee of "Ways and Means, to accomplish this
object, instead of increasing the duties one-fourth, reduce
them one-fourth ; clearly then they must increase imports
one-half. Our imports have averaged for some years past
about one hundred millions ; on this, with the present tariff,
the secretary says we will this year have twenty millions of
revenue ; reduce it one-fourth and we will have but fifteen.
To make up this loss, we must import twenty-five millions
more goods ; and to add five millions (the required amount)
to the revenue, we must import twenty-five millions addi
tional, making an increased importation of fifty millions, to
get five millions of revenue which is not wanted, and would
never be acquired by this measure if it were.
But our present amount of foreign imports, viz.: one hun
dred millions, is sufficient to supply the demand ; how then
are you to make room for fifty millions more? This can
only be done by destroying fifty millions of dollars of our
own domestic productions, to make way for that amount of
the productions of foreign industry. We must, according to
this financial scheme, not only destroy fifty millions of dol
lars' worth annually of our productive industry, but we must
send fifty millions of dollars of hard cash to foreign coun
tries, to purchase what we now do produce, can produce, and
ought to produce at home; and for what? To raise five mil
lions of revenue by taxation, which is not wanted ! Now,
sir, I submit, is this a wise, is it an American policy? Is
it not rather a British policy, a plan to reduce the duties and
110 THE TARIFF AND DISTRIBUTION.
open our ports to the importation of British goods, to the
sacrifice and destruction of our own mechanics, farmers, and
manufacturers? Yes, sir, and this is to be done by an
American Congress, and by the representatives of the Ameri
can people ! Can such an anti-American — such a British
system as this, stand for a moment before this free and
enlightened people? Pass this bill, sir, take five dollars
off bar iron, and still more off iron in all its other forms, and,
sir, you will go far to extinguish the fires of every furnace
and of every forge in Pennsylvania. By this bill you will
strike down your own mechanics — your hatters, your-shoe-
makers, your blacksmiths, your tailors, your saddlers ; in
short, all your mechanics ; you will paralyze and prostrate
your glass works, paper mills, tanneries, salt work, collieries,
lead mines — your woolen and cotton factories ; but above
all, you aim a death blow at the American farmers, not only
by destroying their home markets, almost the only markets
they now have, but what is still worse, you will convert the
mechanics and manufacturers thus thrown out of employ
ment into agriculturists, into producers instead of consumers
of agricultural productions.
When you double production and diminish consumption
one-half, do you not ruin and destroy the farmers of this
country ? And, sir, allow me to say, that in a country like
this, where seven-eighths of the entire population is engaged
in agriculture, when agriculture is destroyed, the country
itself is destroyed. Agriculture is the great basis and founda
tion on which every thing else depends ; when the farmer pros
pers, all prosper ; when he sinks, all the rest, professional men,
mechanics, and all go down with him. It is the great object
therefore to take care of agriculture, make this prosperous
and the whole country will prosper ; and how is agriculture
to be made prosperous but by building up and sustaining
home markets. It is therefore not for the manufacturers,
but for the mechanics and farmers, yes, sir, for the farmers,
that I advocate the protective policy. There is one impor
tant fact which lies deep at the foundation of the whole
subject, to which I am anxious to attract the attention of the
farmers and politicians of this country, and it is this, that
half, and more than half, of the entire price of the hundred
millions of dollars a year of foreign goods imported into
this country is agricultural produce raised on a foreign soil,
worked up and manufactured into goods, and then sent here
for sale; and that the farmers and people of this country
THE TARIFF AND DISTRIBUTION. Ill
send in this way fifty millions of dollars a year to purchase
foreign agricultural produce, in the shape of goods, while
foreigners take little or nothing from us ; our whole agricul
tural exports to all the world (excepting cotton and tobacco)
do not amount to ten millions of dollars a year ; thus, sir,
we purchase five dollars' worth of foreign agricultural pro
duce to every dollar's worth we sell ; this may seem strange,
but it is strictly true ; I defy contradiction — I challenge
investigation. Let gentlemen disposed to contest it select
an article of foreign goods, a yard of cloth, a ton of iron, a
hat, a coat, a pair of shoes, any thing, " from a needle to an
anchor," examine its constituent parts, the raw material,
the clothing and the subsistence of the labor employed in
its manufacture, and it would be discovered that more than
half, often three-fourths, of the whole price is made up of
agricultural produce. It is a well known fact that farmers
often make hundreds of dollars' worth of domestic goods,
cloths, etc., without using a dollar's worth of any thing not
produced on their own farms ; goods and cloth thus made
are therefore entirely agricultural ; and are not the same
materials used in the manufacture of goods, whether made
on a farm or in a factory ?
Mr. S. said he had ascertained the fact from his own
books kept at a furnace, that more than three-fourths of the
price of every ton of iron sold, was paid to the neighboring
farmers for their domestic goods, their meat and flour, that
clothed and fed his hands ; for their hay, corn, oats, etc.,
that sustained his horses, mules, and oxen, employed about
his works. In England, iron is made of the same materials
that constitute it here ; well, we now import, manufactured
and unmanufactured, eight millions of dollars' worth of iron
and steel ; say only half its value is agricultural produce,
thus, then, we send four millions of dollars a year to pur
chase foreign agricultural produce, converted into iron, and
sent here for sale, while our own country is filled with ore
and coal, buried and useless, and the produce of our farmers
left without markets. Will the farmers of this country sub
mit to such a system as this — openly advocated and adopted
to favor foreign industry at the expense of our own ? Will
they tamely and silently agree thus to be crushed and sacri
ficed? No, sir, they will not; they will speak out against
this unjust and ruinous measure; your tables will soon groan
under the weight of their remonstrances against it. I call
on them to do so ; I call on them to come to the rescue
before it is too late.
112 THE TAKIFF AND DISTRIBUTION.
BRITISH BILL.
The avowed object of this bill is to open our ports to the
importation of British goods — to favor foreign farmers and
mechanics, and destroy our own. Sir, give the people time
to be heard, and this bill cannot pass ; let it be discussed, and
it can never pass an American Congress. There is one way
in which it can pass — send it to the British Parliament, and
it will be passed by acclamation. England would give
millions to secure its passage. It had recently been stated
in an official report, read in the House of Commons, that
unless the American Tariff of 1842 was modified and re
duced, Great Britain would have to pay the United States
cash for their cotton, instead of paying in goods as she
formerly had done ; and this bill accordingly modifies and
reduces the tariff of 1842 to suit the wishes of the British
Chancellor, who, while he recommends free-trade and low
duties to us, takes special care to adhere to his own pro
hibitory system. While this bill proposes greatly to reduce
the duties on foreign distilled spirits, England exacts a duty
of 2700 per cent, on ours ; and this is reciprocity ! This
bill reduces the duties on tobacco and its manufactures,
while England demands 1200 per cent, on ours, and actually
collects $22,000,000 of revenue annually from our tobacco,
equal to the whole revenue of this Government — such is
British reciprocity and free-trade. Since the tariff of 1842,
the tables with England have been turned ; last year the
balance of trade with Great Britain exceeded $13,000,000
in our favor, instead of being about that amount against us,
as in former years. The imports of specie had in the last
year reached the unprecedented amount, as appears by
official reports, of more than $23,000,000, most of it from
Great Britain. No wonder England and her statesmen
were anxious for the reduction of the American \Vhig Tariff
of '42. No wonder her Chancellor exclaims against the
tariff, and says it will oblige them to send us specie instead
of goods hereafter to pay for cotton. No wonder our coun
try is rapidly recovering from its late depression — that its
course is again onward and upward — that its former pros
perity is returning — a prosperity it always had and always
would have under an efficient protective system, but which
it never had and never would have without it. No wonder
specie had become abundant — that the banks had resumed
— that exchanges had become equalized and interest reduced
THE TARIFF AND DISTRIBUTION. 113
— that manufactures had revived — that agriculture was re
covering — that the mechanical and every other branch of the
national industry was fully and profitably employed. All
these were the necessary and undeniable fruits of the existing
tariff policy — results seen, felt, and acknowledged through
out the land — yet, in the face of all these facts — shutting
their eyes to these great lights blazing up before them — the
Committee of Ways and Means have reported a bill to
repeal this beneficial act of 1842, and bring us back to the
low duties and the low condition of 1840. They have
struck a death-blow at this policy — a policy which had
vindicated its adoption by all its fruits, which had fulfilled
all the hopes of its friends, and falsified all the predictions
of its enemies; but shall this blow be unavailing ? No, sir, it
will recoil and overwhelm its authors. The people who
have experienced the benefits and the blessings of this
measure, will not abandon it. Even its enemies are now
disposed to give it a fair and full trial, and condemn it only
when it fails. Then why not, sir, wait till the people have
an opportunity to pass upon this question at the approaching
elections? They will then settle it one way or the other.
If the enemies of the tariff policy prevail, they can and
will repeal it ; but if you repeal it now, and its friends are
successful, it will be immediately restored. Then why not
let it abide this result ? Let it go to the people, let them
decide it, and, for one, sir, I am prepared to acquiesce in
their decision. The Committee deprecate agitation ; why
not, then, let the matter rest. Let the experiment be tried,
and if it fails, put it down. Whence the urgent necessity
of a change; what interest in the country calls for it; who
has demanded it; who has petitioned for this or any other
change? No one; but the Committee of Ways and Means
say we must have more revenue — more revenue — and how
do they propose to raise it? By reducing the duties; and
this, my word for it, will result, as it always has resulted,
in a reduction of revenue ; it is the necessary and natural
consequence. This was once the opinion of the honorable
chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means [Mr.
McKay] himself, and as there is now every prospect of a
redundant revenue, I should not be surprised if, before the
bill is disposed of, it should be advocated as a measure to
reduce the revenue, and this report be amended by striking
out the words " a bill to increase the revenue," and inserting
the words, "a bill to reduce the revenue." I affirm it as a
8
114 THE TARIFF AND DISTRIBUTION.
fact, and here challenge contradiction, that the revenues of
the country always have been increased or diminished, as we
increased or diminished the duties on foreign goods ; and
why will this not be the result now ? [Here Mr. McKay
called Mr. Stewart to order, and said it would be time
enough to discuss the tariff when that measure came up for
discussion].
Yes, said Mr. S., the gentleman has got a vote to print
and circulate 25,000 copies of his report — his speech in
favor of his bill — and no doubt he is anxious to suppress
any reply ; but, sir, I have accidentally got in between two
previous questions, and I wish to say a little on the other
side, and little it will be compared with the voluminous
report of the Committee of Ways and Means, which report,
I assure the gentleman, I will take great pleasure in sending
to my constituents, who will readily comprehend and appre
ciate its destructive doctrines. But the gentleman tells me
to wait till the tariff comes up for discussion ; sir, this may
never happen ; may not the majority pass that bill, as they
are passing this important bill, under the previous question ?
a majority may take the bill out of committee, and pass it
under the gag without amendment or .debate; and from the
disposition evinced to suppress debate on this occasion, have
we not a right to apprehend that the same course will be
pursued on the subject of the tariff, which, if passed at all,
must be passed under the gag — it will not bear debate.
But, sir, when I was interrupted by the honorable chair
man of the Committee of Ways and Means, I was about to
say, that if this bill increases the revenue to meet the de
mands of the treasury, it can only fulfil this office by nearly
doubling importations. It repudiates protection, and adopts
the horizontal plan ; with a few exceptions, it brings every
thing down to thirty per cent, till the 1st of September,
1845, when there is to be a general reduction of all ad
valorem duties to twenty-five per cent, and under, resulting
in a reduction of the duties imposed by the tariff of 1842
about one-third, or say one-fourth ; then it is manifest that
you must import one-fourth more foreign goods to make
good the loss of revenue by this reduction, and one-fourth
more to raise the additional five millions required, making
an increase of one-half, viz.: fifty millions, which must, of
course, destroy that amount of our own production; for
instance, by this bill one-half the protection is taken off
hats; two-fifths off ready-made clothing; two-thirds off
THE TARIFF AND DISTRIBUTION. 115
shoes ; one-half off manufactures of iron ; so that the hatters,
tailors, shoemakers, and blacksmiths lose one-half of their
protection, and the Treasury one-half the revenue ; and to
make up for this loss of revenue we must, of course, double
the importation of hats, shoes, manufactures of iron, and
ready-made clothing, destroying a corresponding amount of
our own production, as the consumption will continue the
same whether the supply be furnished at home or from
abroad ; three cents is taken off every pound of imported
wool costing over seven cents; of course we must greatly
increase the importation of wool to make good this loss of
revenue.
To understand the injurious operation of this bill upon
every branch of the national industry, agricultural, manu
facturing, and mechanical, I would suggest to the reader to
turn to the table marked " C " in the appendix to the report
of the Committee of Ways and Means, where he will
see the precise extent to which every branch of industry
will be affected by this measure. This report itself will
thus furnish the best and most conclusive evidence of the
destructive effect of the proposed measure upon American
labor, and its beneficial effects upon foreign, and especially
British industry; hence he had denominated this a "British
bill," because it was calculated to advance the interest of
British mechanics, manufacturers, and farmers, at the ex
pense of our own.
But, sir, if more revenue is wanted, why not increase the
duties on luxuries consumed by the rich, rather than thus
strike down the poor man's labor, and take the bread from
the mouth of his children, to make room for the importation
of $50,000,000 worth of foreign goods ? Is this, sir, an
American measure ; can it receive the support of an Ameri
can Congress, or the representatives of the American
people ? I call on the authors of this ruinous measure to
come forth in its defence. I call on them to assign some
reason for its adoption. • I can readily discover reasons
enough why England should desire its adoption, but they
are the very reasons why we should reject it; just so far as
it benefits them it injures us; this is a contest between
foreign and American mechanics, farmers, and manufac
turers, for the American market, and the question is, which
side shall we take? The tariff of 1842 shuts out the for
eigner, and gives the Americans the market; this bill
proposes to repeal the tariff of 1842, and give it to the
116 THE TARIFF AND DISTRIBUTION.
foreigner ; to open our ports, and again flood our country
with foreign goods, and export money by ship-loads to pay
for them ; and why ? I again ask the committee upon
what principle of national policy this measure is sustained ?
THE TARIFF DEMOCRATIC — FREE-TRADE MONARCHICAL.
Mr. Dromgoole replied to enable bare-headed people to
buy cheap hats !
Mr. Stewart. To enable bare-headed people to buy cheap
hats ! Sir, let me tell the gentleman if he carries this
measure, the poor people of this country would not only go
bare-headed, but bare-backed; they would be doomed, like
the paupers of Europe, to go half-fed and half-clad. The
tariff, sir, is "the poor man's law;" it is this, and this alone,
that gives him employment and wages. Just as the tariff
goes down, the wages of labor will go down with it. Repeal
the tariff — adopt the gentleman's favorite plan of " free-
trade," and you will bring down the labor here, in every
department of industry, to the level of the labor of the serfs
and paupers of Europe. This is certain — it is inevitable.
As certain as the law of gravitation — as inevitable as that
the removal of an obstruction between two unequal bodies
of water, will reduce the one to the level of the other.
Repeal the tariff, and what is there to prevent our country
from being instantly inundated with the productions of the
low-priced labor of Europe? When hatters, shoemakers,
blacksmiths, and all must come down and work as cheap as
they do, or give up the market ! With the present facilities
of intercourse by steamships, you might as well attempt to
establish higher wages and higher prices on one side of a
street than on the other, as to establish and sustain higher
prices and wages here than in Europe, under the delusive
and Eutopian scheme of " free-trade." But, sir, this scheme
would bring in its train other and more fearful consequences.
Adopt this scheme, and you will soon bring down and
degrade the now free and prosperous labor of this country,
not only to the moral, but to the political condition of the
slaves and serfs of Europe. By reducing their wages, you
deprive the poor man of the means of educating his children
and fitting them to be free. By thus depressing one class
of your people, you necessarily elevate another. You divide
society horizontally into upper and lower classes — distinc
tions and titles supervene — jealousies and finally hostilities
THE TARIFF AND DISTRIBUTION. 117
follow, and liberty itself is in the end swallowed up in
monarchy. Such are the political and moral tendencies of
every step in the direction of free-trade. The protective
policy is, therefore, democratic in its character and tendencies,
it is a policy which promotes equality, not by depressing one
class, but by elevating all — by elevating, sustaining, and
protecting the labor of your own country against the ruinous
and degrading effects of a too free competition with the low-
priced and depressed labor of Europe. These are views
which belong to this subject, and should not be overlooked
or disregarded by those who represent the free labor of this
country, and especially by those who make professions of
democracy and love of the people. Now is the time, and this
is the question, to test their sincerity. Those who represent
slaves may be excused, but those representing freemen will
be held to a strict accountability.
THE DUTIES ADDED TO THE PRICE, NOT TRUE.
The great and leading objection to the protective policy
is, that the duties are added to the price, and paid by the
consumers. This objection lies at the foundation of the
opposition to this policy ; and, if unfounded, this opposition
ought to cease. The duty is added to the price ; this is the
theory. Now, sir, how is the fact; what says experience?
All experience proves that this objection has no existence,
save in the imaginations of those who make it.
Now, sir, I lay it down as a general proposition, that
there never was a high protective duty imposed upon any
article, from the foundation of this government to the present
day, the price of which has not been in the end reduced —
greatly reduced — in many instances to one-half, one-third,
and one-fourth of what it had been before those protective
duties were imposed. This, sir, may seem to gentlemen on
the other side to be a strong declaration ; but, sir, I make it
deliberately, with a full conviction of its truth, and I chal
lenge gentlemen to disprove it — I defy them to point out a
single instance to the contrary. Let them examine, and
.they will find invariably that wherever the duties have been
highest the prices have ultimately come down the lowest,
and for a very obvious reason — high duties promote compe
tition, and competition never fails to bring down prices.
This effect is invariable and universal ; but unfortunately
the duties always run up as the prices run down ; hence the
118 THE TAEIFF AND DISTRIBUTION.
frightful lists of duties exhibited by the Committee of Ways
and Means, amounting to 200, 300, and 400 per cent.
When first imposed these duties were but 30 or 40 per cent. ;
but now, owing to the reduction of prices, they have run up
to 200 or 300 per cent. By way of illustration, take the
article of glass, on which a duty of $4 a box was imposed at
a time when glass cost $12 ; this was then a duty of 33 per
cent.; but now when home competition, induced by this pro
tective duty, has brought down the price to $2 a box, the
duty, owing to this reduction of price, is 200 per cent, in
stead of 33. The same is true of many other articles on
which the duty, when imposed, did not exceed 20 or 30 per
cent. ; but now, owing to reduction of price produced by
home competition, they amount to 200 or 300 per cent.
When four cents per pound duty was put on cut nails the
price was twelve cents per pound, and this duty, of course,
was 33 per cent. ; but now, when the effect of this protective
duty has been to reduce the price of nails from twelve to
three cents per pound, the duty is increased to 100 per cent.
This is equally true of spikes, rods, wood screws, etc.
Again, eight cents a yard duty was imposed on coarse cot
tons when imported at twenty cents, being a duty of 40 per
cent. ; but now, when the price has come down to five cents
per yard, the duty goes up to 160 per cent.
Sir, I could go on and enumerate more than twenty such
instances where the duties, though moderate when imposed,
now actually exceed the price of the article ; yet we are told
that in all cases the duty is added to the price and paid by
the consumer ! That is, that the consumer pays $4 a box
duty on glass that he buys for $2 ; four cents a pound on
nails that he buys for three cents ; and eight cents a yard on
coarse cotton goods that he buys for five cents. Such are the
absurdities in which these stale anti-tariff theories involve
their votaries ; but suppose what they allege were true in
point of fact, and that the duty is really added to the price,
the cost of cotton goods being twenty cents when the duty
of eight cents was imposed, add the duty, the price would
be, of course, twenty-eight cents a yard, and the duty only
28 per cent, instead of 160, as stated by the committee.
Hence, if you raise the price fivefold then the duty is quite
reasonable, and there will be no objection whatever to its
payment. Let the manufacturer, then, run up his price
from five to twenty-five cents a yard, and he at once silences
all the objections of the Committee of Ways and Means, as
THE TARIFF AND DISTRIBUTION. 119
this would fix the duty at 30 per cent., just what they want
it. But suppose the manufacturer were to reduce his price
to one cent a yard, then the duty, being eight cents, would
be 800 per cent. Horrid oppression ! Who would submit
to pay a duty of 800 per cent. ? Who could then refuse to
go with the Committee of Ways and Means for reducing
such enormous duties?
But the Committee of Ways and Means say that the ob
ject of this bill is to increase the revenue by reducing the
duties ; yet, in the very same paragraph they say that should
the revenue be found redundant, to avoid the horrid evils
of deposits or distribution among the States, the duties
should be instantly reduced, so as to reduce the revenue to
the wants of the Government ; at this time, the committee
say, there is not revenue enough, and they propose to increase
it by reducing the duties ; but should it turn out that there
is too much, then they say reduce it by reducing the duties.
Thus a reduction of duties is alike effectual with the com
mittee for a reduction or for an increase of revenue. Excel
lent disciples of Dr. Sangrado, who had but one remedy for
all diseases, " bleeding and warm water." How such a pal
pable contradiction is to be reconciled or explained I am at
a loss to conjecture.
The committee proceed next to say that it is the true
policy of every interest in the country, except manufacturers,
to advocate the proposed reduction of duties, and they espe
cially name agriculture. Now, sir, in my opinion the re
verse of this proposition is true ; agriculture is much more
interested in the maintenance of the present protective tariff
than the manufacturer, and for the most obvious reasons :
high protective duties are calculated to induce increased in
vestment in manufactures. The effect of this is clearly to
increase the demand for the raw material and breadstuffs
produced by the farmers ; and the necessary consequence of
this increased demand is to increase the price of everything
the farmer has to sell, and, by increasing the quantity, re
duce the price of manufactured goods. Thus the protective
policy enables the farmers to sell higher and buy lower;
while on the other hand increased competition obliges the
manufacturer to sell lower and buy his supplies at higher
rates ; yet it is asserted in this report, and in every anti-
tariff speech, that high protective duties are imposed for the
benefit of the manufacturer at the expense of the farmer.
Now I submit whether practically the opposite of this pro-
120 THE TAEIFF AND DISTRIBUTION.
position is not the truth ; and whether such is not the neces
sary and unavoidable result of the great laws of demand and
supply, which regulate and control prices throughout the
world.
But agriculture is still further benefited by the protective
policy. By increasing manufactures it withdraws a portion
of the capital and hands from agriculture and converts them
into consumers instead of producers, into customers instead
of rivals, thus diminishing the quantity and increasing the
demand for agricultural supplies, and at the same time in
creasing the supply and reducing the price of the manufac
tured goods which they get in exchange. Thus, in every
point of view in which the subject can be considered, the
farmer is more benefited than the manufacturer by the
adoption and maintenance of the protective policy. By way
of illustration, suppose in a village there is one manufactu
ring establishment of woollen goods, here the surrounding
farmers sell their wool and other agricultural supplies ; the
manufacturer, having a monopoly, regulates his own prices,
as well as those of the farmers, he demands what he pleases,
and gives what he will. But suppose a high protective
tariff on woollen goods is passed, and instead of one woollen
factory there spring into existence five or six in this village ;
the existing monopoly is at once destroyed ; there is six
times the demand for wool and provisions. This increased
demand necessarily increases the price of everything the
farmer has to sell, and by glutting the market with six times
the quantity of woollen goods, the price is necessarily reduced.
Such are the plain and obvious benefits of the protective
policy to the farmers ; yet politicians would have them be
lieve that they are oppressed and ruined by this policy,
which can alone render them prosperous.
And here, sir, it may not be improper to remark, that Mr.
Van Buren entirely concurs with the Committee of Ways
and Means. In his letter to the Indiana convention he
says: "The great body of mechanics and laborers in every
branch of business, whose welfare should be an object of un
ceasing solicitude on the part of every public man, have been
the greatest sufferers by our high protective tariff, and would
continue so to be were that policy persisted in, is to my mind
too clear to require furthur elucidation ; " but he further
says, what is much nearer the truth, that high duties are in
jurious to the manufacturers themselves, for whose especial
benefit we are told by the committee these high duties are
THE TARIFF AXD DISTRIBUTION. 121
imposed. Mr. Van Buren says : " Excess of duties, which
tempt to an undue and ruinous investment of capital in their
business, is injurious to the manufacturers;" and how — by
promoting competition and reducing prices? But is not
this for the benefit of the consumers ?
But this is not all Mr. Van Buren says against the pro
tective policy — he says, " the period has passed away when
a protective tariff can be kept up in this country/7 that the
tariff " increases the poor man's taxes in an inverse ratio to
his ability to pay/' and that direct taxation is a more equal
and just system of revenue than duties on foreign goods.
These, sir, are Mr. Van Buren's opinions upon the tariff, as
proclaimed to the world in his Indiana letter.
But let us look a little into the details and practical opera
tion of this bill on the great agricultural, manufacturing,
and mechanical interests of our country.
In the first place it greatly reduces the duties on wool and
woollens of all kinds ; three-fourths of the duties and more
are taken from coarse cottons and calicoes ; lead is robbed
of more than nine-tenths of its protection. But Pennsylva
nia seems to be singled out for destruction. Her iron, her coal,
her glass, her paper, her salt, and leather are all struck down
together, and we are to go to England for iron, coal, glass, etc.
Yes, sir, in 1842 we imported more than four millions of
bushels of coal under a duty of $1.75 per ton. This bill
reduces it to $1. Of course you must double, and doubtless
you will treble the quantity imported ; and for what ? To
increase the revenue. A few days ago Pennsylvania passed
a resolution unanimously instructing us to go for protection
" without regard to revenue. " Yes, sir, these are the words,
protection " without regard to revenue ; " and here we are
reversing the rule, going for a bill for revenue without regard
to protection ; voting for 20,000 copies of a report in favor
of this anti-tariff, anti-American, this British bill.
But this bill greatly, very greatly reduces the duties on
whiskey, brandy, gin, and wine. AVe must import whiskey
and brandy for revenue, and give the rich their wine at one
half the present duty, and they must of course drink double
the quantity or we lose revenue. What say you temperance
men to this? You must all get drunk on foreign spirits to
increase the revenue. Tax the poor by direct State taxation,
and let the rich indulge in wine, brandy, silks, and laces at
lower rates ! No, put the duties high on luxuries, and dis
tribute the proceeds of the land among the States to relieve
122
THE TARIFF AND DISTRIBUTION.
the poor from taxation. Sir, pass this bill to lighten the
burdens of the rich, while you double the burdens, reduce
the wages, and destroy the labor of mechanics and the poor,
and go home and hear what they have to say on the subject.
The following abstract from table C, in the appendix to the report of the committee, will
show the practical operation of this bill upon the mechanical, agricultural, and manufac
turing interests of the country.
Names of the articles.
Present
duties.
Proposed
duties.
Names of the articles.
Present
duties.
Proposed
duties.
EFFECT UPON MECHANICS.
Clothing, ready-made by
Per ct.
50
Per ct.
30
Whale or fish oil
Wool costing over seven
cents per Ib
Per ct.
44
3c per
Per ct
30
Ib off
Linseed oil
43
30
30
20
Spirits from grain, first
proof.
132
42
30
25
Brandy, etc., from other
55
25
Hat bodies
43
30
*i 75
$1 00
Hats and bonnets of ve
getable substances
Children's boots and
shoes
35
60
25
30
EFFECT UPON MANUFAC
TURERS.
40
30
India-rubber shoes
Clocks
30
30
20
20
Carpetings, treble grain-
87
30
OA
Untarred cordage
Iron cables or chains
Cut and wrought spikes..
Cut nails
188
80
82
43
30
30
30
30
Venetian
other ingrain.
Coarse cottons, (being a
45
46
30
30
Brass kettles (hammered)
43
30
120
30
Japanned, plated, and
53
30
gilt ware
Cutlery of all kinds
Sole-leather
30
30
53
25
25
25
Furniture, oil cloth
other kinds
62
54
30
30
Calf-skins
37
25
77
31
Bricks and paving tiles...
25
15
72
56
30
25
Hard soap
51
30
Chinaware
30
20
EFFECT UPON FARMERS.
Steel, cast, shear, and
36
21
Wheat ... . . .
35
25
Glass cut
186
30
120
25
window, 8 by 10.
62
30
Cheese
70
25
12 by 16
165
30
Vinegar
54
25
Lead, pigs, and bars
66
30
Pearl or hulled barley
67
30
51
30
The 12th section of the bill provides that after the 1st of
September, 1845, all the duties above 25 per cent, are to be
reduced to that horizontal standard, 25 per cent.
In 1842 we imported more than 4,000,000 gallons of
wine, and nearly 2,000,000 gallons of distilled spirits. Eng
land imposes 2700 per cent, duty on our whiskey, and we,
by way of reciprocity, now propose to reduce our duties on
English and Irish whiskey (1,650,000 gallons of which,
with other distilled spirits, were imported in 1842) to a mere
nominal , duty ! The duty of twenty-five cents on wheat
would also be affected. This bill brings all duties above 30
THE TARIFF AND DISTRIBUTION. 123
per cent, down to 30 per cent. — a horizontal tariff, except on
a few specific articles ; and in one year more it brings the
duties down to 25 per cent., discriminating for revenue be
low that standard. This was bringing it nearly down to
Mr. Van Buren's standard, established in his famous In
diana letter. His maximum was 25 per cent, till the debt
was paid, and then 20 per cent., discriminating for revenue
below that amount, but in no case above it for protection.
This was Mr. Van Buren's plan, as laid down in that letter ;
to which he referred gentlemen who might be disposed to
doubt it.
[Here Mr. S. was interrupted by a call to order from a
Van Buren man.]
Mr. S. said gentlemen seemed very solicitous about order
when their favorite men and measures were assailed, but
nothing was out of order when it suited their purpose. Why
was not the gentleman from Ohio [Mr. Duncan] called to
order, when, on a bill to fix the time of holding the elections,
he had introduced a coon, a dead coon, and had dissected it
{professionally, discussed it scientifically, inside and out; he
iad introduced all the Whig banners and flags of the cam
paign of 1840, and displayed them with great pomp, cir
cumstance, and ceremony; and all this, in the estimation of
gentlemen and of the Chair, was then perfectly in order?
/
DISTRIBUTION ADVOCATED.
From recent intelligence, coming in from all quarters, it
is now manifest that we shall have a surplus revenue at the
end of the year, independent of the proceeds of the public
lands. If, then, the tariff yields revenue enough, as I doubt
not it will, why not distribute the land proceeds among the
States, to relieve their people from oppressive taxation ?
Pennsylvania, sir, owes a debt of forty millions of dollars,
contracted in the prosecution of a stupendous, but ill-advised,
system of internal improvement, equally important to Ohio
and the whole West, and hence she had claims for assistance
on this Government.
[Mr. McKay said, if she had contracted a debt of §40,-
000,000, let her pay it !]
Sir, if you withhold her share of the public lands, how is
she to pay it? Her debt is now increasing, by the addition
of §2,000,000 annually, on account of interest. She could
pay it by doubling and trebling the present heavy taxation,
THE TARIFF AND DISTRIBUTION.
which now crushes her people to the earth. Yes, double the
taxes of Pennsylvania, and it would not pay the interest of
her debt, let alone the principal.
As a Pennsylvanian, therefore, I go for the proceeds of the
public lands to aid the people of Pennsylvania to pay their
debt. Pennsylvania has a clear, legitimate, undoubted right
to one-tenth part of the land or its proceeds. The popula
tion of Pennsylvania is one-tenth part of the population of
the Union ; and if we were to distribute the land itself to-mor
row among the States of this Union, Pennsylvania would get
more than one hundred million acres of the public lands.
Would not that be an ample fund in the end to pay off the
debt of Pennsylvania thrice told ! Now, I claim, as a Repre
sentative from Pennsylvania, her share of the proceeds of the
public lands ; and I hope no Representative from Pennsylva
nia, who looks at the condition of his constituents, crushed
under this weightof taxation, of unceasingand increasing taxa
tion, would vote against it. He thought that no gentleman
from Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Louisiana, Alabama, Maryland,
Michigan, Mississippi, and other indebted States, some of
them more, and others almost as much, indebted as Pennsyl
vania, in proportion to their population and means, ought, and
he hoped none of the Representatives of these States would
vote, to withhold from their people their share of the land,
and by so doing, rivet taxation on them and their posterity
forever. By the terms of the grants or deeds of cession,
these lands had been ceded by the States to the Union. And
for what ? To pay the Revolutionary war debt. And when
that was paid, the lands were to go to the States, including
the new States, and those which had made the cessions.
What does this Government want with this fund ? It
has an abundance of revenue, and if we relieve the people
of the States from taxation by giving them what they are
entitled to — the proceeds of the public lands — do we not re
lieve the people of these United States ? Do we not relieve
the people of this Government from taxation, when we re
lieve the people of the States from taxation? (For the
people of the States and the people of the United States are
the same people.)
I submit whether it is not right and fair to relieve the
indebted States of this Union from the heavy burden of
taxation which is crushing their people, by giving them their
share of the proceeds of the public lands. The tariff, so far
as it operates as a tax upon the people, is the lightest form,
THE TARIFF AND DISTRIBUTION. 125
and least felt, inasmuch as the payment is entirely voluntary;
but the chief burden of taxation in this form is thrown from
the people of this country upon the foreigner, who is obliged
to reduce the profits and the prices of his goods, in order to
get them into market, wherever there is an American price
established by American labor.
But, sir, there is another argument in favor of distribu
tion — so long as the proceeds of the public lands come into
the Treasury of the General Government, we never can have
a firm, settled, established revenue policy. The fluctuations
in the proceeds of the sales of the lands in past years, vary
ing as they have from less than $2,000,000 to upwards of
$24,000,000 per annum, if they are suffered to remain in
the general Treasury, we must raise and reduce the tariff
of the country correspondingly. I would take the proceeds
of the lands and give them to the States, if for no other
reason than to relieve the Treasury from this unsettled policy,
and to give the country a firm and established revenue
system.
In 1836, the public lands yielded upwards of $24,000,000,
a sum sufficient to defray all the expenses of the Govern
ment, and of course creating an immense surplus; then we
heard the cry of " repeal the tariff — down with the tariff —
too much revenue." But in two or three years the proceeds
of 'the lands sank down to less than $2,000,000; then was
raised the cry of " up with the tariff." Thus, so long as the
proceeds of the lands, this uncertain and fluctuating source
of revenue, go into the Treasury, nothing can be settled or
fixed in the tariff policy of the Government.
I hope, therefore, the representatives of the indebted
States will go with me and vote down this bill to repeal the
distribution act, and thus relieve their tax-ridden people
from the burdens of direct taxation, and at the same time
relieve the Treasury from this source of revenue, which un
settles and deranges not only the finances, but the trade
and business of the country. Sir, this measure of distri
bution is equally important to the non-indebted States ; they
would receive an equal proportion of the proceeds of the lands,
which could be applied to purposes of education or of
improvement, or to whatever the wisdom of their people
might direct.
This measure of distribution is a measure of relief to the
States, and I now predict that we will have two parties in this
country — the " relief party ," going for distribution, and "the
126 THE TARIFF AND DISTRIBUTION.
anti-relief and tax party " going for direct taxation. There
were only two ways of paying the State debts — distribution
or taxation; taxation, unmitigated taxation, now, henceforth,
and forever. Which are you for is the question, and gentle
men must meet it. They must either go for distribution and
relief, or for taxation and no relief. They have their choice,
they must make it and be responsible to the people.
The improvements made by the States, and which had
been the great cause of involving them in debt, are highly
beneficial to the United States, in connection with the trans
portation of the mails, the promotion of commerce among
the States, and the defence of the country in time of war;
and hence, the United States was bound to help pay for
them, by giving the proceeds of the public lands.
General Jackson advocated the distribution of the surplus
revenue among the States, on this ground. He contends, in
his message of 1830, with great truth, that the improvements
made by the States, " constitute the surest mode of conferring
permanent and substantial benefits on the whole Union."
Besides, he contends that the money distributed by the Gene
ral Government among the States, " would be more judiciously
applied and economically expended, under the direction of
the State legislatures." Such were some of the arguments
urged by General Jackson in favor of this policy which Mr.
Van Buren now denounces as a " preposterous proposition,"
— the mere agitation of which, he says, is disgraceful to the
character of the American people, and which his friends on
this floor are now voting down, without a word of explanation
or debate. What will the illustrious Chieftain of the Her
mitage say to this ?
THE WHIG AND VAN BUREN SYSTEMS.
But, sir, we are told that " the Whigs are a party with
out principles." Sir, are not their principles known and
avowed every where ? On this subject, the Whig system is
this : Remove from the National Treasury that disturbing
source of revenue, the Public Lands, and give them to the
States to which they rightfully belong, to pay their debts,
and relieve the people from taxation. Then regulate the
tariff, so as to supply revenue enough for an economical ad
ministration of the Federal Government, by imposing pro
tective duties on such articles as we can and ought to supply
at- home, and revenue duties on luxuries and articles not pro-
THE TARIFF AND DISTRIBUTION. 127
duced, sufficient to supply the wants of Government. This
is the Whig system. Now, sir, what is the Van Buren
system ? Just the reverse. It is to refuse all relief to the
people and the States, by distribution or otherwise ; to reduce
the tariff, and let in foreign goods to the destruction of our
own industry ; exhaust the wealth and currency of the country
to pay for them ; double the expenses of Government, to
enrich office-holders and favorites, and leave the Government
again as they left it in 1840, after twelve years' administra
tion, impoverished, and overwhelmed with bankruptcies and
debts, State and National, amounting to more than $220,-
000,000. How was it, sir, during the twelve preceding
years, when Whig policy prevailed ? Look at the official
reports from the Treasury, and you will find, sir, that during
that period we paid off §141,000,000 of the war debt, ex
pended §12,000,000 for internal improvements, and left the
country with a surplus revenue of more than $12,000,000
a year, a sound currency and universal prosperity ; but in
1828 there came a change. The next twelve years was a
period of disastrous experiments, resulting in the excessive
increase of banks, the ruin of the currency, the inordinate
importation of foreign goods, the consequent destruction of
agriculture, manufactures, and the mechanic arts, and the
involvement of the States and people in a foreign debt of
more than $250,000,000, which now hangs like a millstone
about their necks. The people could stand it no longer ;
they determined, in 1840, to have a change — to throw off
this incubus — but, by an unforseen event, this was defeated.
The period is, however, rapidly approaching when the people
will again come to the rescue, and achieve the great object
they then had in view.
But we are told, sir, by Mr. Van Buren himself, that this
glorious revolution of 1840, was the result of infatuation,
folly, and madness, on the part of the people. Sir, is this
true ? Is it not a foul slander on the American character ?
Is it not a gross insult to the people, and will it not be so
regarded ? Sir, that election was the result of a deep and de
liberate conviction of the ruinous effects of Mr. Van Buren's
policy — effects seen and felt, severely felt, throughout this
land. The people saw that nothing but a change — a thorough
change — could save the country from hopeless bankruptcy
and ruin. That conviction has since been strengthened and
confirmed ; and the beneficial effects of the Whig tariff of
'42, now rapidly restoring the national prosperity, furnish
128 THE TARIFF AND DISTRIBUTION.
new and powerful motives to stimulate and strengthen the
friends of reform. Sir, if you want evidence, look to the
unequivocal indications of public opinion throughout the
country. Is not the " handwriting upon the wall " in
characters so large and legible that "he who runs may read?"
In 1840, the people, by the unprecedented majority of 145,-
000, pronounced judgment against Mr. Van Buren. Can
this be overcome without a change ? And where are the
changes in his favor ? Where is the man who voted against
him then, who is for him now ? or if there be any such
changes, are there not two to one the other way? But, sir,
if there were nothing else, the passage of this bill, withhold
ing from the people, in their time of need, their share of the
Public Lands, and the attempt to repeal the tariff of '42,
and again inundate the country with foreign goods, break
down our own farmers, mechanics, and manufacturers, by
the passage of this destructive, anti-American, anti-tariff
bill, would of itself be abundantly sufficient to condemn
any party, however popular, with a vast majority of the
free, enlightened, and patriotic people of this country.
The people will not permit any man, or party of men,
long to trample upon their rights and interests with im
punity. I know, sir, they have borne much for the sake
of party ; they have excused bad actions by the ascription
of good motives. But there is a point where " forbearance
ceases to be a virtue ; " that point has been reached and
transcended. The people have decided upon a change, and
they will have it. They expressed this determination in
1840 — they will repeat it in 1844, with increased emphasis.
The decree has gone forth, and is irrevocable. It is seen
on every hill — it is heard on every breeze — and felt in
every throb of the popular pulse. The hand is upraised,
and the blow will follow as certain as the stroke of fate ; as
well might you attempt to avert the winged lightning or
stop the thunderbolt of Jove. The popular will is formed;
it is the true and just sovereignty in this land ; it must be
respected and obeyed. And politicians can no more stay it
in its course, or avert it from its purpose, than the tempest-
tost mariner can the winds and the waves that over
whelm him.
COMMENTS AND OPINIONS OF THE PRESS. 129
COMMENTS AND OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.
" We commence to-day, and shall finish next week, the publication
of Mr. Stewart's able speech on the bill to repeal the land distribu
tion law. We advise our readers to preserve the number containing
this valuable speech, which abounds with useful and interesting
matter, and will furnish them a club with which to demolish the
flimsy arguments of the locofocos1. Bead it — study it, and make it
your own — it behooves every Whig to be fully prepared to meet the
adversaries of Clay and Protection. Mr. Stewart held the locos of
the House very uneasy for an hour, and they tried various expedi
ents to put him down, but without accomplishing their object." —
Palladium, Ohio.
" We learn from Washington that the best judges there have pro
nounced the speech of Mr. Stewart, — part of which will be found in
this paper, — to be the best delivered on any subject during the ses
sion. A great number of copies have been ordered by different
members, for distribution among their constituents, and we cannot
doubt that it will do much good. We have looked through it with
a view of making extracts, but not finding any part which we could
properly omit, we shall give it entire.
" We have seen no production of Mr. Stewart's in which he has
displayed more strongly his ability to render the most abstruse sub
jects intelligible to the most common reader — It is an argument
addressed, in fact, to the people, and we venture to predict that no
mechanic, or farmer will or can rise from the perusal of this speech,
without participating with its author, in his zeal for the ' American
system.' The facts are so strong — the arguments so conclusive —
the whole so plain arid intelligible, all must admit their force." — Bos
ton Patriot, Mass.
" All this Mr. S. saw, and with patriotic devotion to the great
interests of the American people, he determined to make one more
effort to save them ; and how that effort has succeeded will be
spoken in tones of thunder through the ballot-box next fall, and echoed
from Maine to Georgia — from the Atlantic to the Western pale of
civilization. Mr. Stewart is, undoubtedly, one of the ablest statesmen
of his age. His whole career, since his first entrance into public
life, has endeared him, not only to the people of his native state, but
to the whole Union." — Visitor, Bait., Md.
"Another extract from this gentleman's able speech in defence of
the tariff will be followed up by others. The high estimation in
which it is held may be inferred from the following paragraph, which
we find in a late number of the Washington Whig Standard : —
" ' We are requested to state that the able speech of the Hon.
Andrew Stewart, of Pa., in favor of the tariff and distribution, is still
for sale at the office of Messrs. Gideon on 9th street, at $1 per hun
dred. Fifty thousand copies of the speech have already been issued
and disposed of.'" — The Mail, N. J.
" We commend the speech of Mr. Stewart, of Pennsylvania, pub
lished in this paper, to the attentive perusal of every man into whose
9
130 THE TARIFF AND DISTRIBUTION.
hand it may come, be he Whig or locofoco. It is a plain and power
ful common sense production, free from all vulgarity and personal
abuse ; arid yet, strange to say, this is the speech which created such
a row in Congress, exciting the wrath of that blackguard and bully,
John B. Weller, and his dastardly assault upon Mr. Shriver, a gen
tleman little more than half his weight. We do not know that it
will be necessary to publish any more speeches on the subject of the
tariff. Mr. Stewart's arguments and facts are unanswerable ; and
that, perhaps, is the reason why the locofocos were put so completely
out of humor during the delivery of his speech." — Reporter, Penn.
" On our outside page will be found this able defence of American
labor. We commend it to the notice of our readers. It is con
densed, brief and to the point. It should be read by every man,
woman and child in the country.
" Especially should every farmer make himself thoroughly ac
quainted with its arguments. Mr. 8. shows conclusively the folly of
admitting foreign products, and thus breaking down our manufac
tures, and thus destroy the home market. Again we say, let every
one read it."— The Times, Ky.
" We ask particular attention to the masterly speech of Mr. Stew
art, of Pennsylvania, to which we have devoted a good part of
our columns this week. It is a clear and unanswerable defence
of the protective policy of the Whig party, and shows to a demon
stration what the country may expect should the reins of govern
ment again come into the hands of the locofocos. The name of
Van Buren ' will rhyme to nothing but ruin,' and with his sub-treas
ury and down-with-the-tariff policy, it would be ruin and distress
indeed. Read it, farmers, mechanics and laboring men — then hand
it to your neighbor for perusal, arid a correct decision will certainly
follow," — Courier, Mass.
"The speech of Hon. Andrew Stewart, a Representative from
Pennsylvania, will be found in to-day's paper. We commend it to
our readers, assuring them that it is eminently worthy of an atten
tive perusal." — The Herald, Ashborough, N. C.
" On the first page of to-day's paper we publish the first part of a
speech by the Hon. Andrew Stewart, on the tariff question, which
we wish every reader of the Register, Whig, Antirnason, Locofoco,
Tyler, etc., to peruse with care and attention, giving to the facts and
arguments adduced, due weight and consideration. Next week we
will publish the remainder. Mr. Stewart takes a plain, practical
view of the question, and defends the interests of the laboring peo
ple of the United States, against assaults made on them by the
Vandal Locos, who wish to reduce them to a level with the poor of
the monarchical and despotic government of the Eastern world, with
signal ability." — Banner, Ind.
11 Upon the topics of which it treats, no man is more competent
to speak than Mr. Stewart. By the by, we know no one whose uni-
COMMENTS AND OPINIONS OF THE PRESS. 131
form adherence to Whig principles entitles him to more favor from
the Whig party than Andrew Stewart; and in his selection by the
Whig Convention, as the candidate for the office of Vice-President,
they would riot err. He would, we are convinced, not only prove
popular with the Whigs of Pennsylvania, but with all such in other
States who have regard for the peculiar interests of the working
classes of our country, and the true policy of our Government." —
Herald, Frederick, Md.
" The following is from the speech delivered by Mr. Stewart before
the House of Representatives, in March last. The speech is an
unique production, and the facts and arguments contained in it are
sufficient to overrun all the force which can be brought to bear upon
the subject of protection by the advocate of free-trade, or of a
tariff for revenue only." — Standard, N. Y.
" We call the attention of our readers to the extracts from the
speech of Mr. Stewart, of Pennsylvania, in defence of the present
tariff. He handles without gloves the adherents of free-trade and
the enemies of American industry. We think it next to impossible
for a sane man to read his able exposition of the benefits of a tariff
without being convinced of the direful results from a repeal or
modification of the present salutary tariff." — Independent, R. I.
" A considerable portion of our paper to-day is occupied with the
concluding part of Mr. Stewart's speech on the tariff and distribu
tion question. As we intimated last week, the speech is one of the
most clear, forcible, and searching papers we have met with for
some time. Mr. S. handles his subject as one well acquainted with
all its operations and bearings, and shows, it seems to us. conclu
sively, that the Whig, Clay, American policy is the only policy that
can ever render our country prosperous and happy, arid make her
people truly independent, which we wish every reader of the Register,
Whig, Antimason, Locofoco, Tyler, etc., to peruse with care and at
tention, giving to the facts and arguments adduced, due weight and
consideration." — Register, Conn.
" It is a very just remark of the Washington, Pa., Reporter, that
4 Mr. Stewart may be regarded as the shield of the Whig party on
the floor of the House of Congress.' His constant watchfulness over
the true interests of the people, and his fearless defence of Whig
measures, entitle him to the esteem and gratitude of the whole
country. With the bravery of an Achilles, he is ready for every
exigency, bearing himself nobly, and to an extent successfully,
through every battle." — Statesman, N. H.
''If you want your understanding enlightened upon the subject of
the tariff, by clear, sound, matter-of fact argument, don't lay this
paper down until you have read the speech of the Hon. Andrew
Stewart, of Pennsylvania. It is the best tariff speech we have ever
read. It should be posted up in every farmer's house, in every shoe-
shop, hat-shop, smith-shop, and every other kind of shop and factory
from Maine to Louisiana." — Sentinel, Maine.
132 THE TARIFF AND DISTRIBUTION.
" The extracts from the late speech of the Hon. Andrew Stewart,
in another column, cannot be too attentively read and considered.
Mr. S. has gained ' golden opinions ' in all parts of the country, for
the ability he has displayed on this subject. An eastern editor
styles him the ' shield and buckler ' of the Whig party in the present
Congress, and well he deserves the compliment." — Press, Mo.
" The following strong and convincing arguments in demonstra
tion of the practical benefits of the Farmers by the Protective Sys
tem are e'xtracted from a speech made in Congress by the Hon.
Andrew Stewart, of this State. They constitute a complete refuta
tion of the attacks made on the tariff in the locofoco papers." —
Star, Ga.
''As we shall take occasion to refer at some length to the speech
in a few days, we will now only say that Mr. Stewart is one of the
most industrious and judicious advocates of protection in Congress,
and has embodied in his speech all the arguments that can be ad
duced to strengthen his views on this momentous question. In fact,
we intend to lay his speech by, and if we should ever take part in
politics again, it will save us the necessity of taxing our patience for
' strong points ' in favor of domestic industry." — Gazette, Nashville,
Tenn.
" The conclusion of Mr. Stewart's able and convincing speech in
defence of the Tariff and Distribution, will be found on our first page.
We say to the farmer, who is inclined to credit the assertion made
in Franklin county and elsewhere, that the existing tariff is ' ruin
ous and oppressive,' to read this speech, and see how their interests
are to be sacrificed by the locofoco bill now undergoing discussion
in the House. We say to the mechanic, look at the table on the
first page and see what ' love for protection ' the dear locos have."
— Whig, Del.
" The Speech of the Hon. Andrew Stewart — referred to by our
correspondent — is, by every Whig, at least, who has read it, con
sidered well worthy of the high encomium pronounced upon it by
him. That it may be even more extensively read than it has been,
we shall endeavor to give it a place in our columns hereafter." — Mes
senger, Ala.
"Our readers will not complain that we have occupied the most
of our space to-day, with Mr. Stewart's speech on the tariff. Let
every man in favor of home manufactures, ' mark, learn, and in
wardly digest ' this common sense and unanswerable argument." —
Voice of Freedom, Vt.
" We have this week commenced publishing Mr. Stewart's speech
on the tariff. It is an able speech, and deserves to be read by every
friend of American industry, and home protection. Read it, and then
hand it to your neighbor, with a request that he may read it, and
do with it as you have done." — Sentinel, London, Va.
COMMENTS AND OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.
133
" In my last notice of the proceedings of the House of Represen-
tives, I unintentionally omitted giving you any account of the pow
erful speech of the Hon. Andrew Stewart, of Pennsylvania, on the
bill for repealing the Distribution Act, and for reducing the tariff.
Every effort was made to prevent Mr. Stewart's obtaining the floor
and to gag him, if possible, upon the great and vital question, which
its advocates wished to thrust unceremoniously upon the people of
this country." — Journal, S. C.
PROTECTION OF WOOL AND WOOLEN MANU
FACTURES.
DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OP REPRESENTATIVES OF
THE U. S., FEBRUARY IST, 1827.
THE bill for the protection of the Woolen Manufacturers having
been read a third time, and the question being on its passage —
Mr. Stewart rose in defence of the bill. He supported it
on the ground that it was a bill for the benefit of agricul
ture. In his opinion, no State in the Union had a deeper
interest in its success than that which he had the honor in
part to represent. In supporting this measure, he regretted
to find himself placed in opposition to two of his most dis
tinguished colleagues [Messrs. Ingham and Buchanan], with
whom he had co-operated, with great pleasure, in support
of the tariff of 1824. That bill was not more important, in
his judgment, to the agricultural interest of Pennsylvania
than the bill under consideration. What is the object of
this bill, Mr. Chairman ? It is the encouragement of the
growth and manufacture of wool at home, and to prevent its
importation from abroad. It is to create a home market for
our farmers ; a safe and a sure one, which no changes in
Europe can affect. It is to prevent the importation of the
agricultural produce of foreign countries, to the neglect and
ruin of our own. What, he inquired, is the importation
of cloth, but the importation of agricultural produce ? Is
not cloth the product of agriculture ? Analyze it ; resolve
it into its constituent elements, and what is it ? Wool and
labor. What produces the wool ? Grass and grain. And
what supports labor but bread and meat? In Europe it got
no more, and scarcely that. Thus cloth is composed of the
grass and grain that feed the sheep, and the bread and meat
that support the laborer who converts the wool into cloth.
And are we to be told that it is the policy of this country,
where seven-eighths of the whole population are agricul
turists, thus to import annually eight or ten millions of
dollars' worth of grass and grain, and bread and meat, con
verted into cloth, and that, too, from the starving and
134
WOOL AND WOOLEN MANUFACTURES. 135
miserable countries of Europe, while our own are rotting on
our hands ? Sir, this is the policy we are pursuing, and its
continuation is advocated by the opponents of this bill.
That the importation of cloth is the importation of agricul
tural produce, may be regarded as a novel doctrine ; and to
assert that thousands of tons of grass and corn are annually
transported from Ohio and Kentucky to the Atlantic mar
kets, would be considered as no less strange ; but it was not
less true. It was transported, not in its rude and original
shape, but, like the cloth, in a changed and modified con
dition. It was animated, converted into live stock, cattle,
and horses. Each one of these animals carried five or six
tons of hay, and fifty or one hundred bushels of corn, for
consumption, to the markets of the East, which it is the
policy of this bill to sustain and to increase. Hence he con
tended that it was a bill for the benefit of agriculture.
There was no foundation for the objection urged by
gentlemen, that it would " tax the farmer and ruin agricul
ture." This argument had been urged a thousand times
against this policy. It was urged against the minimum of
twenty-five cents per yard, imposed by the tariff of 1816,
upon cotton. This principle was then ably and successfully
advocated by his colleague [Mr. Ingham], who, he was sorry
to find, opposed it now.
What had been the effect of the minimum duty imposed
upon cotton ? It had afforded effectual protection in that
case, as it would in this. It had established manufac
tures in this country ; and had this taxed the farmer ? No.
It had the opposite effect ; it furnished the country a better
fabric, for one half the sum it cost before. This Avould not
be denied. Nor was this all. It had supplied a home
market to the Southern planters for 180,000 bales of cotton
last year, worth six or seven millions of dollars ; and this
market was not only permanent, but increasing ; thus veri
fying every anticipation of its friends, and furnishing a most
triumphant refutation of every objection urged by its ene
mies. It furnished facts and experience, in opposition to
speculation and theory. And would not similar effects re
sult from a similar policy adopted in regard to wool ? Why
not? He defied ingenuity itself to furnish a distinction.
What was required to convert cotton into cloth ? Capital
and labor. And what was required to convert wool into
cloth ? The same — capital and labor. Then, if the capacity
of the country for the production of the raw material is
136 WOOL AND WOOLEN MANUFACTURES.
equal in both cases, its capacity for the manufacture of the
cloth in both cases must be equal. This could not be con
troverted. But he contended that the capacity of the
country for the production of wool was greater than its
capacity for the production of cotton. Cast your eyes abroad
over the Union, he said, and scarcely a State is to be found
which is not, in a greater or less degree, adapted to the pro
duction of wool ; yet how few do you find adapted to the
culture of cotton ?
If this view of the subject, then, said Mr. S., be correct,
it follows as an inevitable consequence, that the protection
proposed by this bill, so far from taxing agriculture, will have
the same effect as that produced in the case of cotton — to
diminish the price of the manufactured article, and at the
same time furnish a permanent home market, not only for
millions of wool, annually, but also for the flour and other
agricultural products of Pennsylvania, and the other interior
and Western States. Even now, without the benefit of this
bill, the New England States imported last year 629,000
barrels of flour from Pennsylvania and the other agricul
tural States, for consumption in their manufacturing estab
lishments, while all Europe, from whence we purchased and
imported more than $60,000,000, took less than 57,000
barrels of our flour — not the one-tenth part of the amount
consumed in New England. Then adopt this measure ; let
our farmers purchase their cloths where they can pay in
their own productions, and no longer compel them, by your
anti-American policy, to wear foreign wool, and support
foreign labor, feeding on foreign bread, when our own fields
are lying waste for want of a market for the fruits of our
own labor.
There was another view of the subject in relation to agri
culture, which he begged leave to submit. The fact seemed
to be admitted on all hands, that, unless protection be
promptly extended to our woolen factories, they must inevi
tably sink. The most undoubted evidence is upon our
tables, of the determination of some of the most extensive
woolen factories in the Union to wind up their business,
having suffered a loss of 10 per cent, on their capital during
the last year. The capital interested in these institutions is
estimated at about $80,000,000. Refuse to pass this bill,
and you not only destroy this immense capital, but you
also destroy the market it supplies for millions, as your
wool, flour, and other agricultural productions, and, at the
WOOL AND WOOLEN MANUFACTURES. 137
same time, force this immense capital into agricultural pur
suits, and compel the thousands of hands engaged in manu
factures to become producers instead of consumers — rivals
in agriculture instead of customers : a result alike deplorable
to the agriculturist and manufacturer, and by which we may
be again doomed to witness, in case of war, the disgraceful
and humiliating spectacle of an American Minister applying
to Congress to suspend the non-intercourse, to enable us to
receive from our enemy blankets to cover our soldiers and
fulfil our treaty stipulations with the Indians.
But, sir, we are told that this bill will create monopolies,
and tax with a " monstrous " and " odious " taxation, the
farmer, "for the benefit of a few overgrown capitalists/'
This is the old and often refuted argument, mere assertion,
which all the experience of this country had disproved.
The tendency of this policy was, Mr. S. contended, precisely
the reverse of this theory ; it was to destroy monopolies, and
to benefit the farmer; it would increase the number of
woolen establishments ; increase the quantity of the manu
factured articles; increase competition; and of necessity
diminish the price of the manufactured fabrics, while an in
creased demand for the raw material, and breadstuifs, would
as inevitably enhance their value. For example, the woolen
establishment at Steubenville, we are told, consumes annu
ally $50,000 worth of the agricultural produce of the sur
rounding country; if, by rejecting this bill, you should
destroy that establishment, what would be the effect on the
farmers ? It would not only destroy this market, but
greatly increase the quantity of agricultural produce, by
converting customers into rivals ; consumers into producers
of agricultural produce. But suppose, sir, on the other
hand, that, by passing this bill, you erect three other estab
lishments at Steubenville, or in its vicinity, of equal extent
— and Mr. S. had this morning received a letter from a
gentleman in that part of the country, stating that he had
an establishment which cost him $50,000, ready to go into
operation in case this bill passed ; — suppose this and two
others, of which he had personal knowledge, should go into
operation, would this impose an odious tax on the farmer,
for the benefit of the manufacturer? "Would this create
monopolies ? No, sir, precisely the reverse ; it would dimin
ish the quantity, by withdrawing labor from agricultural
production, while it would increase the demand in a three
fold degree, and reduce the price of the manufactured
138 WOOL AND WOOLEN MANUFACTURES.
fabrics, by an increased production of them. Thus, the
price of agricultural produce would be increased by an in
creased demand ; and the price of cloth would be diminished
by its increased production. This was the effect of this
policy applied to cotton ; it would have the same effect if
applied to wool. He defied gentlemen to establish a dis
tinction, unless they could reverse the order of nature, and
repeal the laws of cause and effect. And this, Mr. S. con
tended, was the universal, the plain, the practical effect of
this policy, wheresoever it had been adopted; and such
would be the effects of this bill. It will secure for the
farmers of Pennsylvania a market for their wool and flour,
to an extent equal to that furnished for the cotton of the
South; the opinions of his colleagues [Mr. Ingham and Mr.
Buchanan], to the contrary notwithstanding. The farmers
of this country understand the subject; they understand
their own interest ; they look at it practically ; they know
that the erection of an extensive manufacturing establish
ment in their neighborhood, for the consumption of their
wool and other produce, is no " tax/7 is no injury to them ;
but, on the contrary, a great and positive benefit ; and gen
tlemen reckoned without their host, if they expected
to convince them by stale theories and metaphysical
refinement.
Mr. S. would now dismiss this branch of the subject, on
which he feared he had dwelt too long. The argument
which seemed to be most relied upon was, that this measure
would " destroy commerce." This argument Mr. S. con
sidered as equally unfounded. It was a sound political
axiom, that the prosperity of commerce would always be in
proportion to the prosperity of agriculture and manufactures.
This maxim was universal in its application to this as well
as in all other countries. There could be no greater error
in political economy, than to suppose the policy which pro
moted the interest and prosperity of one of the great depart
ments of national industry, would destroy or injure any of
the others. The interests of all were so intimately and in
separably blended together, that it was impossible to adopt
a policy which would promote the interest and prosperity
of one which would not promote the interest and prosperity
of all. He asserted it as a general principle, sanctioned by
all experience, that the policy which gave successful activity
to one great branch of national industry, would soon impart
its beneficial and vivifying influence to all the rest. It was
WOOL AND WOOLEN MANUFACTURES. 139
like the pebble cast upon the lake, which spread its undu
lations to the remotest shores. Commerce was properly
called the hand-maid of agriculture and manufactures ; her
legitimate office was to carry and exchange the surplus pro
ductions of the world. If, by your policy, you destroy your
agriculture and manufactures, which are inseparably con
nected, you will destroy the office of commerce — " Othello's
occupation's gone " — and your commerce must sink into a
common grave with your agriculture and manufactures ;
they furnish the daily bread it feeds upon. Look to the
history of all times, past and present ; it furnishes a strong
and unbroken chain of evidence in support of this position.
Look to Great Britain. That country furnished an illus
trious example. Where will you find so great a manufac
turing nation, yet where so great a commercial country as
that ? And who is so ignorant as not to know that she
owes her commercial prosperity entirely to the prosperity of
her manufacturing institutions ? Destroy her manufactures,
and what becomes of her commerce, of her agriculture, of
the nation ? Sir, it is gone — inevitably gone ; she cannot
survive the destruction of her manufactures a single day ;
this was the vital spark which infused life and animation
into her whole system ; and nothing was more true than the
declaration lately made in her Parliament, that a contest for
manufactures was a contest for " national existence/' What
was it, sir, that enabled this little island to maintain a
bloody contest of more than twenty years with the colossal
power of Napoleon, and finally to triumph on the ever-
memorable field of Waterloo ? What enabled her during
this period to subsidize all Europe, and support an army of
400,000 men ? Sir, it was the prosperous condition of her
manufactures ; by these she wielded a power, derived from
labor-saving machinery, equal to 200,000,000 of hands, and
thus laid the world under contribution. How will you ac
count for the ability of that nation to raise from her people
for the maintenance of this war $7,038,000,000—4,653,-
000,000 by taxes, and 2,070,000,000 by loans ? Is it not
attributable entirely to the prosperous condition of her nu
merous and immense manufacturing establishments ? Yet
we are told that manufactures are to " ruin commerce, tax
agriculture, and destroy the revenue." As well might gen
tlemen tell us that bread is destructive to human life ; or
that the genial sunshine and refreshing showers are destruc
tive to the vegetable kingdom. But suppose for a moment,
140 WOOL AND WOOLEN MANUFACTURES.
contrary to all experience, that the establishment of manu
factures would injure commerce. Are we to be told that
the interests of agriculture and manufactures are to be sac
rificed at the shrine of foreign commerce — an interest more
favored and more protected than any other in the nation ?
Are we to be told that we must import grass and grain ;
import wool, agricultural produce, to keep commerce and
.navigation employed? With the same propriety might
gentlemen advise the Pennsylvania farmer, whose grain is
rotting in his barn, to send his wagon to Canada for a load
of wheat, for the sake of keeping his team employed !
Mr. S. said it had also been alleged by gentlemen that
this measure would greatly diminish the revenue. This
he denied; and expressed the opinion that it would greatly
improve the revenue. What was lost on cloths, he con
tended, would be more than supplied by an increased
importation of other articles. The only plan to increase
your revenue is, by a wise and salutary system of legislation,
to increase the prosperity of the country; to increase its
ability to purchase and consume foreign productions. Make
the people rich and prosperous, and in the same proportion
you will add to the revenue ; depress the national industry,
destroy your agriculture and manufactures, and your com
merce and your revenue must sink with them. These he
considered as sound principles of political economy, which
were invariable and universal in their application. By way
of illustration, Mr. S. referred to facts : At the woolen
establishment at Steubenville, it appeared there was annu
ally consumed $30,000 worth of imported goods, such as
paid the highest rate of duties, groceries, coffee, tea, sugar,
etc., paying into the Treasury at least $10,000 per annum.
Destroy this, with the thousands of other establishments
which contributed in like manner to the Treasury, and what
becomes of your revenue ? By this destructive policy you
dry up the great springs and fountains which now replenish
your public coifers ; you take away the business and bread
of thousands of your people ; you destroy their ability to con
tribute to your revenue by the consumption of foreign
goods; they can no longer purchase teas and coffee,
silks and crapes, but are compelled to seek a miserable and
scanty subsistence by the cultivation of the soil, without
a market for the fruits of their labor. It is known that
since the tariff of 1824, the manufacturing establishments of
New England had greatly increased; and last year, when
WOOL AND WOOLEN MANUFACTURES. 141
your aggregate imports were greatly diminished, the imports
of Boston were $600,000 more than they were the year
before — a fact, which showed most conclusively, that by
increasing your manufactures, you not only supply a market
for your farmers, but you also increase both your commerce
and your revenue, by the increased importation and con
sumption of foreign commodities.
It was the great increase of the manufacturing establish
ments in that district of country, that prevented the com
merce and importations of Boston from experiencing a decline
similar to that felt in every other portion of the Union. But
if the manufacture of our cloths should have the effect to
diminish the revenue, would gentlemen contend that it would
be a wise policy to send millions of money abroad to purchase
and import wool, and woolen goods, for the sake of adding a
few thousand dollars to our revenue? This principle, if
followed out, would result in establishing the general posi
tion, that, for the sake of revenue, we should import every
thing, and produce nothing. How long would such a
system last? It was as absurd in theory as it would be
ruinous in practice.
His colleague urged the oft-refuted argument, that this
bill would lead " to frauds and smuggling." Why had it
not this effect in the case of cottons, where the duties were
as high, if not higher, than those proposed by this bill? It
was as easy to smuggle cotton as woolen goods ; yet he never
heard any complaint on this score. The argument of " frauds
and smuggling," however, was one of those general and com
mon-place objections which operate against all duties, and
all protection ; for what duty was it that might not be as
readily evaded by frauds and smuggling as the proposed
duty on woolens? This was a standing argument against
all tariffs ; and he was surprised to hear it come from his
colleague, who had always been friendly to the tariff policy.
Other gentlemen contend that the present duties are suffi
ciently high. This is, however, an argument against fact
and experience ; our tables are loaded with the most clear
and convincing proofs to the contrary. Why they were
inadequate, it was not very material to inquire. If it were,
the reasons are sufficiently obvious. In the first place, the
payment of the present duties is evaded by those engaged
in the trade, three-fourths of which, at least, was in the
hands of British merchants and British manufacturers, who,
by false invoices, by importing the cloths in an unfinished
142 WOOL AND WOOLEN MANUFACTURES.
state, and by various other false and fraudulent practices,
defrauded the revenue, and evaded the duties. But what
operated mostly against us — and it was a cause of a perma
nent eharactei — was found to exist in the changed condition
of Europe. Lately, when all Europe was in arms, the
British supplied the wants of the world, all the world were
her customers, and all the world paid her tribute. Since the
restoration of peace, the Continental Powers of Europe had
turned their attention from arms to the cultivation of the
arts — the din of industry prevailed where lately was heard
the din of arms — they had everywhere introduced labor-
saving machinery ; they had become rivals instead of custo
mers ; they had guarded themselves against British skill and
British capital, not merely by protecting duties, but by whole
systems of prohibitions. Russia, in 1823, had enacted a
tariff recommended by Count Nesselrode, containing no less
than three hundred and forty prohibitions ! France, Prussia,
and Germany, had pursued a similar policy. These countries
have already acquired a degree of skill and perfection, in the
use of scientific power, that enabled them not merely to
supply their own wants, but to meet Great Britain in the
fair and open field of competition, and to supplant her in
foreign markets. These evils were increasing; Great Britain
cannot long sustain the competition, for the most obvious
reason ; labor pays in France but the one-third part of the
taxes imposed on it in Great Britain ; and agriculture being
less burdened, of course the means of subsistence were much
lower.
The consequence is, that there is no longer a market for
British fabrics; her manufactories must go down for want of
employment. Labor, says Mr. Peel, in the English Parlia
ment, is compelled to subsist "on a half-pint of oat meal
per day." And where is England to find employment for
her starving and tax-ridden operatives ? where is she to find
refuge from impending ruin ? In war, by withdrawing the
attention of Europe from the arts, and again engaging them
in arms. England must have war ; her manufacturers will be
driven to desperation without it. They force their fabrics
into our market at a sacrifice, because they can find a market
no where else ; and thus our woolen institutions must be
ruined and destroyed, unless they can labor as low as the
starving operatives of England ; or unless the aid proposed
by this bill is speedily afforded for their relief.
Will gentlemen reject this bill, and withhold this relief?
WOOL AND WOOLEN MANUFACTUEES. 143
He appealed to the magnanimity, to the justice of the South,
to say whether, after, by the application of the principle of
this bill to cotton, by which their planters had secured a
home market for six or seven millions of dollars' worth of
their cotton annually, and received in exchange the manu
factured fabrics at one half of what they before cost them —
whether they would now withhold a similar protection from
the suffering wool and grain growers of Pennsylvania, for
whom they professed so much friendship ? They would ob
tain by this bill a similar market for their products, which
were now excluded from Europe. It was to this protection
of this home market, home consumption policy alone, they
could look for relief. He appealed to gentlemen represent
ing the wool-growing, and grain-raising States, would they
vote against this bill, and withhold this protection ? Would
they go home and tell their constituents that, although they
had no market fbr their produce abroad, they should have
none at home? That, though their grain was excluded from
Europe, still they should be compelled to wear European
wool, and support European labor, feeding upon European
bread? That they would not protect our own establish
ments, our own markets, in the Eastern States, which last
year consumed six hundred and twenty-nine thousand bar
rels of flour from the other States, together with wool and
other agricultural produce, amounting to at least eight or
ten millions per annum? Were gentlemen disposed to
adopt such a course ?
No country, Mr. S. affirmed, had ever flourished without
manufactures, and manufactures had never flourished in any
country without protection ; in few countries were the pro
tecting duties as low as ours ; in most countries they were
prohibitory. By this policy France had risen like a phoenix
from the ashes of a wasting and desolating war of thirty
years ; her finances were prosperous and ample ; her people
industrious and happy ; and every branch of her industry
protected and successful. Look at all-powerful Russia, sur
rounding and guarding her industry with a rampart of three
or four hundred prohibitions. Look, on the other hand, at
the once powerful and proud, but now poor and prostrate
Spain, who, by neglecting her own industry, and depending
on foreign labor for the supply of her wants, had become
dependent, and little better than a colony of France. Look at
miserable Ireland and Portugal, dependent on England. In
short, history furnishes no example of a nation adopting " the
144 WOOL AND WOOLEN MANUFACTURES.
free-trade policy/7 neglecting their own national industry,
and depending upon the industry and skill of other countries
for the supply of their wants, that did not finally become
dependent and tributary ; and shall we not profit by these
examples ?
The true policy of this country, Mr. S. said, was to make
New England, instead of Old England, the great theatre of
our manufactures. They had the capital, and their population
had become sufficiently dense to justify its employment in
this way. We shall thus create in our own country, an
ample market for the consumption of the cotton and sugar of
the South, and the wool and flour of the Middle and Western
States, which no longer found a market abroad. It will make
the great sections of our Confederacy mutually dependent on
each other. It will bind and unite them together by the
strong ties of interest and intercourse, combining all the ele
ments of National prosperity — agriculture, manufactures, and
commerce. These, with a good system of internal communi
cations, would render our prosperity perfect, and our Union
indissoluble. This constituted what was properly and em
phatically called the " American system of policy." It
was a system he never would abandon, it was a subject on
which he could make no compromise. He would be a traitor
to the best interests of his country if he did. He would
oppose those who were opposed to this system, and he would
support those who supported it. His maxim was " measures
and not men;" a maxim from which he would never depart.
This system was intimately and inseparably connected with
the best interests of the State from which he came, as he
believed it was with those of the whole Union. He was
firmly convinced that the adoption of this system alone would
enable this nation speedily to attain that proud pre-eminence
among the Nations of the earth to which our great advan
tages, natural and political, gave us a just right to aspire.
Regarding the bill under consideration as a part of that sys
tem, it should have, through all its vicissitudes, his cordial
and unwavering support. He concluded by expressing the
hope that the motion to re-commit would not be adopted, and
that the bill might pass in its present shape.
WOOL AND WOOLEN MANUFACTURES. // 145
SPEECH IN REPLY.
Xfc^Orc^
Messrs. MDuffie, Ingham, Cambreleng, and others, having spoken
in reply, and against the bill —
Mr. Stewart again rose, in reply, and said that he had not
intended to trouble the House again on this subject; but he
felt himself constrained by the remarks just made by his
colleague and the gentleman from New York [Mr. Cambre
leng], to offer a few remarks in reply. He would vote
against the motion of his colleague [Mr. Buchanan] to re
commit the bill. Its recommitment at this late hour of the
session, he contended, would be tantamount to its rejection.
He had voted for the proposed duty on imported spirits,
when offered as an amendment by the gentleman from Ken
tucky, [Mr. Wickliffe;] if offered as an amendment he
would vote for it now. If this object, however, were deemed
so important, why had not his colleague referred it by
resolution to the Committee on Manufactures, while the
subject was before them ; or why was it not offered by his
colleague [Mr. Stephenson] when the bill was in the Com
mittee of the whole, for amendment ? He would suggest to
his colleague, whether he might not arrive at his object,
if it were at all practicable, by having it introduced in the
Senate ; and if it could not be introduced there, of course, it
would be stricken out if introduced here. He, however,
differed with his colleague, who had declared that the pro
posed duty on imported spirits and hemp was more important
than the duty on wool and woolens. Their relative im
portance appeared from the importations of 1825. The im
portation of wool and woolens that year amounted to about
$12,000,000; while the importation of spirits, distilled from
grain, amounted to only $484,000, and hemp to $431,000 ;
all other spirits amounted to $1,650,000; the whole less
than one-fourth of the importation of wool and woolens :
hence, he thought himself justified in saying that his col
league had misapprehended the matter when he had sup
posed the provisions of this bill less important than the ob
jects to which he had referred; but if the motion prevailed,
Mr. S. contended, that not only the bill, but also the objects
sought by the recommitment, would be lost. For this reason
he would vote against the recommitment, the object of which
could be attained elsewhere. But his colleague had taken
occasion to declare that the bill under consideration would
10
146 WOOL AND WOOLEN MANUFACTURES.
operate injuriously on the interests of Pennsylvania; and,
that if Pennsylvania was true to herself, she would vote
against this bill. Against this opinion Mr. S. earnestly pro
tested — no State in the Union was more deeply interested in
the passage of this bill than Pennsylvania. It was by sus
taining and increasing our home manufactures alone, that
Pennsylvania is to obtain a market for her productions, now
excluded from Europe by absolute prohibitions. Great
Britain from whom we purchase about ten millions of dollars7
worth of wool and woolen goods, annually, takes in exchange
from Pennsylvania, what? Nothing but cash. She takes
not $50 worth of all her agricultural productions ! ! Yet
we are told if Pennsylvania is true to herself she will
oppose this bill ; by so doing, in his judgment, she would be
false to herself, false to her interest, and false to her uniform
principles and policy. What State in the Union had been
so uniform, so consistent, so steady and unwavering as Penn
sylvania, in maintaining the principles and policy of this
bill? None — look at her votes — look at the tariff of 1824,
you will find but one solitary vote out of twenty-six against
it; wherefore, then, this sudden revolution, this sudden
change on this subject; he was at a loss to conjecture.
The gentleman from New York [Mr. Cambreleng] might
make long and ingenious speeches, he might deal in stale
theories and metaphysical refinements as much as he pleased,
but the real question could not be disguised. All admit that
there is at this moment a struggle of life and death between
the British and American manufacturers, not for the foreign,
but the American market. The contest is between New Eng
land and Old England, and the question is, which side are
we to take ? Shall we save seventy or eighty millions of our
own capital, and our own markets, for our own people, or
sacrifice them for the benefit of foreigners, and foreigners
who have shut their ports against us ? The gentleman from
New York [Mr. C.] has called this a " New England bill,"
and from principles of "patriotism" he says he is opposed
to it. " It is immaterial" he says, " to us, whether we get
our cloth from Manchester or Boston." This may suit the
patriotism of the representative of a city where it is said that
three-fourths of the woolen business is in the hands of
British merchants, and British manufacturers ; but Mr. S.
took his principles from another school. For he had been
told in the course of the debate by a gentleman from South
Carolina [Mr. M'Duffie] that there are two schools of politi-
WOOT, AND WOOLEN MANUFACTURES. 147
cal economy — one headed by Adam Smith, and the other
by Mathew Carey — a British and an American school, and
we are warned by that gentleman against giving up the
sound doctrines of Smith, for what he is pleased to call the
" Statistical Nonsense of Mathew Carey." Now, sir, although
the views of Adam Smith and other British writers may
suit the purposes of the gentlemen from New York and
South Carolina, yet they must give me leave to say that I
would not give one page of the " Statistical Nonsense" of
Mathew Carey on this subject, for all the theories of Adam
Smith, and their long and learned speeches into the bargain.
The gentleman from New York, after the example of the
gentleman from South Carolina, has volunteered a grave
lecture to the Pennsylvania Delegation as to the course they
ought to pursue. He has told us of the taxes and burdens
this bill will impose on the farmers of Pennsylvania, and
their wives and daughters ; now, sir, I have only to say,
that when I want advice upon this subject I will not go to
the Representative of the commercial city of New York for
it, to Adam Smith, or the British chancellor, Mr. Huskis-
son. He could assure the gentleman that the Pennsylvania
farmers and their wives and daughters understand their own
concerns quite as well as he could tell them. Sir, let the
gentleman go with me into the interior and western parts of
Pennsylvania, amid the ruins of our once flourishing manu
factories. Let him ask the farmers what would be the eifect
of restoring these establishments. Sir, they will inform him
that instead of taxing them it will add 100 per cent, to their
farms, that it will revive and reanimate every branch of
industry, and enable their wives and daughters again to
purchase and consume foreign goods, and thus enrich the
public treasury. From letters just received by Mr. S. he
was informed that several extensive woolen establishments
in the West, if the protection afforded by this bill were
granted, would again be put in operation and again diffuse
their benefits and blessings over the surrounding country.
The consumption of foreign goods and groceries, paying the
highest rates of duties, at all these manufacturing establish
ments was immense, and would more than supply all the
loss of revenue by the non-importation of woolens. Hence
he contended that the universal assumption that this measure
would impair the revenue was founded in error. Experience
showed that the importations, and of course the revenue re
ceived, last year, by the manufacturing cities of the East were
148 WOOL AND WOOLEN MANUFACTURES.
greatly increased, while the revenue and importations of
other parts of the Union had been greatly diminished. The
arguments that this bill will destroy the revenue, destroy
commerce, and tax the farmer, are all alike, they are against
all experience. The policy which will enrich the country, will
enrich your treasury by enabling the people to purchase and
consume foreign goods. By promoting the prosperity of one
great branch of national industry you promote all the rest.
Sir, the plain question is, shall we abandon our manufac
tures, and our agriculture, and import agricultural produc
tions — wool and woolens from Great Britain, whose policy
now compels her people to starve before they dare consume
a mouthful of American bread, or American meat, though
it were offered to them for nothing? It is made by their
laws a penal offence to do so. Sir, this is the question, and
gentlemen cannot escape from it. The gentleman from
South Carolina (Mr. M'Duffie), adroitly attempts to evade
the arguments which he cannot meet by saying that they put
him in mind of " the house that Jack built.77 This is a
reply unworthy of that gentleman. It is a reply that any
body could make to any argument. It was his (Mr. S.'s)
object, and the object of this bill, to sustain the houses the
nation had built, which were about to fall by foreign fraud,
if not by force, and which it was our duty as American
statesmen to defend and uphold.
Sir, we are told that we must buy from Great Britain that
she may buy from us. How is this matter? Great Britain
buy from us ! what does she buy from the Middle and
Northern States ? Sir, nothing. Great Britain, from whom
we bought, in 1825, upwards of $42,000,000 merchandize —
$10,682,000 of it wool and woolens, took in exchange of
the agricultural produce of all the States north of the Poto
mac and Ohio an amount less than $500 ! and yet we are
told by American statesmen, gentlemen representing these
States, that we must purchase wool (and why not flour too)
from Great Britain to induce her to purchase from us ! I
repeat it, and I defy contradiction, for it is proved by our
records, that in 1825 the whole importations into England,
Scotland, and Ireland from this country to feed and support
their manufacturers did not amount to $200 ! ! Sir, only
$151 ! Of flour, rye, corn, wheat, oats, pulse — and every
other species of grain, $88 ! Of all kinds of animal food —
beef, pork, bacon, etc. — $34 ! And of all kinds of drink —
whiskey, gin, beer, cider, etc. — $29 ! With these facts staring
WOOL AND WOOLEN MANUFACTURES. 149
him in the face, the British Minister himself would blush
to ask the grain growing States of the Union to " buy from
them that they might buy from us." Sir, I would say to
him, as I now say to the gentleman from New York, the
duties proposed by this bill on British wool and woolens are
too low. When Great Britain resorts to prohibition I will
countervail her policy by a like resort to prohibition. If
she prohibits our flour and provisions, I will prohibit her
wool and woolens. We can live as independently of her as
she can of us. If she will take but $151 worth of our bread
and meat to feed her manufacturers, I will take but $151
worth of her wool and woolens. I will go to New England
or Steubenville and buy from those who will buy from me
and who will gladly give us cloth in exchange for our pro
visions and wool. That the cotton growing States of the
South should advocate the consumption of British goods is
not surprising when we advert to the fact that in the same
year, 1825, Great Britain bought more than $30,000,000
worth of Southern cotton, and more than $3,000,000 of their
tobacco and rice, and this single fact explains the whole
secret of their hostility to this bill. The farmers of the
Northern and Middle States must wear English wool, be
cause England consumes Southern cotton ! The clamor
about destroying the revenue, ruining commerce, and tax
ing the farmer, was all well enough to fill up a speech.
But the gentleman from New York (Mr. Cambreleng) de
ceived himself if he supposed the farmers of Pennsylvania
were to be carried away by such arguments. They were
an intelligent class of men who viewed the subject practi
cally, and who could not be deceived in relation to it. Sir,
the farmers of Pennsylvania and New York know that it
is better for them, and better for the nation, to save the
$10,000,000 a year which is now sent abroad for woolens,
and to get them at our own manufacturing establishments
by an exchange of equivalents, by exchanging wool and flour
for cloth. They know, sir, that last year New England
imported and consumed upwards of $3,000,000 worth of the
flour of Pennsylvania and the other grain growing States
with an equal amount of other provisions, while Old Eng
land took not a mouthful to feed her half-starved opera
tives. They know, sir, that the object of this bill is to
create and sustain a home market for the consumption of
their own agricultural produce which no longer finds a market
abroad. They know that if this bill fails these manufactures
150 WOOL AND WOOLEN MANUFACTURES.
and this market, with the millions of capital invested in
them, are gone — are lost to the nation, and that the British,
having thus triumphed over the American manufacturers,
will demand whatever prices they please for their goods,
when the competition is crushed and put down. And, sir,
will the Representatives of these farmers, of these wool and
grain growing States, promote this result by refusing this
protection ? He hoped not — for one, he would not. Other
gentlemen might entertain different views, but with his con
victions he would feel himself a traitor to the best interests
of his constituents if he voted to embarrass or defeat the
measure — a measure which he regarded as more important
to the agricultural interest of Pennsylvania than any other pro
vision that ever had been, or ever could be introduced into any
tariff. It would create for Pennsylvania a permanent market
for her wool and provisions similar to that furnished to the
cotton of the South by the protection extended in 1816, to
the manufactures of cotton, amounting to about $7,000,000
per annum. But the gentleman from New York has said
that the importation of manufactured cotton was greater
since 1816 than for a number of years before. This might
be true, and still it proved nothing, for our importations
were, we all know, for a long time prior to that period
interrupted by non-intercourse, embargo and war.
[Mr. Cambreleng explained by saying he did not confine
himself to that period.] — Mr. S. continued. It mattered not,
he said : the material fact was not denied by the gentleman,
that we now not only supply our own market with better
coarse cottons, at half their former price, but actually export
large quantities to foreign markets, where we meet the British
manufacturer on equal terms, and compete with him success
fully. And so it would be with reference to woolens, if
adequate protection were afforded by the passage of this bill.
He defied gentlemen to show why the same policy which
enabled us to supply ourselves and export cottons, would not
have the same effect with respect to woolens. When the
duties of 1816 were imposed for the protection of cotton
manufactures, precisely the same arguments were urged from
all quarters against that measure, that we now hear reiterated
against this. Gentlemen from the South told us then, as
they tell us now, that the duties were prohibitory, that they
would destroy the revenue, destroy commerce, tax the whole
community, establish monopolies, etc. But experience has
proved in that case, as it would in this, that these objections
WOOL AND WOOLEN MANUFACTURES. 151
were unfounded. The effects were precisely the opposite of
those anticipated — it increased commerce, reduced the price
of cottons one-half, and furnished the planters of the South
an annual home market for 54,000,000 of pounds of their
cotton. These were facts, and facts which could not be con
troverted or denied.
If the arguments of gentlemen opposed to this bill were
well founded it must be a ruinous measure indeed — several
gentlemen had labored to demonstrate that it would ruin the
manufacturers which it professed to relieve, by administering
a dangerous and excessive stimulus to this branch of industry,
that capital would be everywhere attracted to it, that the
business would be overdone, the market glutted with woolen
goods, that prices would consequently fall below what they
now were, and thus the manufacturer would himself be ruined
by this measure — while other gentlemen, on the same side,
contend that it will ruin the farmers, and tax enormously the
whole community by increasing the price of the woolen
fabrics, that it will create odious monopolies, etc., all for the
benefit of a few wealthy manufacturers ! One gentleman
[Mr. Archer], with great ingenuity, had supported in a long
and elaborate argument both of those positions, and had suc
ceeded in proving, no doubt to his own satisfaction, that this
bill would ruin the manufacturers by diminishing the price,
and ruin the consumers by increasing the price. Mr. S.
would not attempt to answer arguments so opposite. They
answered each other, and were thus neutralized and re
futed.
As to the argument of his colleague [Mr. Ingham], that
smuggling would be promoted, it was an argument
against all tariffs. The existing revenue duties on teas, cof
fee, etc., were much higher than the proposed duties on wool
and woolens, yet we hear no complaint or objections to them
on account of smuggling, though everybody would admit
that it was much easier to smuggle tea and coffee than it
would be to smuggle wool and woolen goods. The facili
ties for smuggling woolens, it is said, are great in this
country, on account of the great extent of our maritime fron
tier ; and were not, he would ask, the same facilities afforded
for smuggling every other species of goods ? But he denied
that these facilities were as great here as those existing in
other nations separated from each other, not by oceans, but
by rivers and such other boundaries as separated the States
of this Union ; yet even with these great facilities for smug-
152 WOOL AND WOOLEN MANUFACTURES.
gling we see these nations protecting themselves against each
other, not by high duties merely, but by absolute prohibi
tions — prohibitions were common in the tariffs of France,
England, Russia, Prussia, and indeed in every country
where manufacturers had ever flourished. Some of these
tariffs contained more than 300 prohibitions.
Before he concluded, Mr. S. begged leave to say a word
in reply to his colleague [Mr. Buchanan], who contended
that the commencement of the duties on wool and on woolen
goods should be simultaneous, and this was one of the objects
of the proposed recommitment. In this also he differed in
opinion Avith his colleague. The only way to create a mar
ket for our own wool was to sustain and increase our woolen
manufactures by affording them adequate protection and en
couragement. To stop the importation of the raw materials
at once, would leave them without an adequate supply ;
when our flocks were sufficiently increased, when the neces
sary capital had been invested, and when our establishments
have got into fair and successful operation, then the duty
will, according to the provisions of the bill, fall down upon
the foreign wool and exclude it when the country has ac
quired the capacity to furnish it to the extent required. He
therefore thought the postponement of the increased duty on
wool for a year or two was a wise and necessary provision — •
when he expressed this opinion, however, he was far from
concurring in the opinion expressed by his colleague [Mr.
Ingham], that the whole United States did not furnish at
present a supply of fine wool sufficient to make a suit of
clothes for each member in this house ; on the contrary, he
knew of two flocks west of the Ohio, which alone furnished
wool of the finest quality, fine enough for any member, suf
ficient, and more than sufficient to furnish each member
five .full suits of clothes annually !
Mr. S. said he would notice one other remark of the
gentleman from S. C. [Mr. M'Duffie], and he had done.
The Hon. gentleman from S. C. has said that the course I
am pursuing in supporting this measure, in his opinion, so
injurious to the revenue, was a course calculated to destroy
what he is pleased to call my " hobby " internal improve
ment. Sir, the tariff policy is not less a hobby of mine than
internal improvement — these are hobbies that run together,
they pull the same way — they are united, inseparably united.
They constituted together the grand "American System/'
and they must stand or fall together. The tariff was to
YFOOL AND WOOLEN MANUFACTURES. 153
furnish a market by establishing manufactures at home, to
consume the raw materials and breadstuifs of the Middle
and Western States which he had already showed were ab
solutely excluded from Europe by prohibitory lawrs, and the
system of internal improvement was to facilitate by good
roads and canals the intercourse resulting from this state of
things — to facilitate the exchange of the productions of the
agricultural States for the productions of the manufacturing
States, thus binding the Union together by the strong ties
of interest, of intercourse, and of mutual dependence. The
South, Mr. S. said, would ultimately have to unite in this
great system, when the cottons of Egypt, the Indies, and
South America shall have driven them too from the Euro
pean market ; a period rapidly approaching, for gentlemen
say they are now compelled to sell at a loss ; they, too, will
then be advocates of this policy. Sir, it is this system of
national improvement and national protection which is to ele
vate this country to the high and exalted rank she is
destined to hold among the nations of the earth ; it is iden
tified with the future prosperity and glory of the Republic.
Sir, it is with these convictions, convictions firm and im
movable, that he supported this measure, and should sup
port every similar measure, so long as he held a seat upon
that floor. But the gentleman from South Carolina [Mr.
M'Duffie] would pardon him if he, in turn, should say to
him that he [Mr. M'D.] also had his hobby, and that in his
[Mr. S.'s] judgment, the course which the gentleman was
pursuing was calculated to destroy his hobby also.
I [said Mr. S.] have ridden with the gentleman from S. C.
on this hobby ; but if the gentleman would compel him to
go against tariffs and internal improvements, against all
those great principles which Mr. S. could never abandon, he
should be constrained, however reluctant, to leave him ; but
he thought the gentleman would fail if he made the effort
to give it this direction. They [Mr. M'D. and Mr. S.] had
acted together on this subject [Mr. S. was understood as
referring to the Presidential question] in 1825, and under
like circumstances they would act together in 1829. Mr.
S. would always hold himself bound, he said, to carry into
effect on this subject the known mil and wishes of those
whom he had the honor to represent, and whom he never
would, knowingly, misrepresent on this or any other subject.
His maxim was " measures, and not men ; " he should al
ways support the measures he thought right, he cared not
154 WOOL AND WOOLEN MANUFACTURES.
where they originated, by whom they were supported, or by
whom opposed. This was the course he had prescribed to
himself — he thought it a correct course, and he would pur
sue it on all occasions firmly and fearlessly.
[After Mr. Stewart delivered this speech, he left the
Democratic and went with the Republican party, which
supported his measures — the tariff and internal improve
ments — the leaders of the Democratic party having ex
changed with the South " measures for men," principles for
promotion, Mr. Buchanan getting Secretary of State and the
Presidency, Mr. Ingham Secretary of the Treasury, and Mr.
Wilkins Minister to Russia, and afterward Secretary of
War, and others according to their merits.
When Mr. Stewart returned home, after the adjournment,
he made a speech to the people of his district — overwhelm
ingly Democratic — declaring his determination to go for Mr.
Adams, and against General Jackson, saying that, with his
convictions, if he did not, he would be false to himself, to
his country, and his constituents; and if they chose to turn
him out for doing so, all right. The Democratic party then
took up the Hon. Wm. G. Hawkins, President of the Senate
of Pennsylvania, residing in Greene county, which had
never had a member in Congress in the district, composed
of Fayette and Greene. Yet after an exciting contest, and
every effort made to defeat Mr. S., he was elected by a
majority of 238 — 225 in Fayette and 13 in Greene; while
Jackson had a majority over Adams of 2800, being more
than two to one in his district, a result unprecedented in the
history of elections. Mr. S. was afterwards re-elected several
times. In 1848, he declined the nomination to Congress,
having been nominated by the convention of his district for
Vice-President, for which he afterwards received a majority
of the votes of the Pennsylvania delegation in the national
convention that nominated General Taylor in Philadelphia,
and afterwards was recommended to General Taylor, by a
majority of the Pennsylvania delegation in Congress, for
Secretary of the Treasury, which was declined in consequence
of his confinement at the time by severe illness.
To show Mr. Stewart's motives for leaving the strong
and joining the weak party in his district, we copy from
"Niles5 Register," vol. xxxii. page 412, a few of the con
cluding paragraphs of the speech he made to his constitu
ents after his return home,]
WOOL AND WOOLEN MANUFACTURES. 155
SPEECH AT UNION TOWN, PA.
JULY 4, 1827.
At the celebration of Independence, at Union Town, the following
toast was drunk :
Our Representative in Congress: — His untiring zeal in
support of the "American System," in protecting and de
fending our interests from the assaults of our enemies,
" foreign and domestic, open and insidious," entitles him to
the thanks of his constituents, and the gratitude, of his
country.
After the cheering which followed this toast had ceased, Mr.
Stewart, the Representative of the Fayette and Greene district, rose
and addressed the meeting in a speech of considerable length, from
which we make the following extract :
At peace with the world, the foreign relations of our
country present no questions of doubtful policy of difficult
determination ; but the attention of American statesmen is
at this time principally attracted to the great and important
subject of establishing a wise and permanent system of inter
nal policy, adapted to the present situation and exigencies of
our country : a system, having for its object the development
of our vast resources, and the improvement of our internal
condition on the one hand ; and on the other, to countervail
the restrictive and prohibitory policy of other countries
towards us, by extending equal and adequate protection to
every branch of the national industry, to agriculture, to
manufactures, to commerce. A system providing for a just
and equal expenditure of the public revenue throughout the
whole country from which it is drawn, by everywhere
building up proud, and permanent, and glorious monuments
of internal improvement, facilitating "internal commerce
among the several States," the north with the south, the east
with the west, uniting and bringing them together by strong
and indissoluble bonds; promoting their defence in war,
and their prosperity in peace. In short, a system dispensing
its benefits and its blessings alike to all, shedding joy and
gladness over this free and happy land — and what system is
to accomplish this? I answer, that system to which you
have just referred — the American System — which the next
Congress will be called upon to adopt or reject. On this
great question, so interesting to us all, the parties in Con
gress are nearly equally divided. The contest will, there-
156 WOOL AND WOOLEN MANUFACTURES.
fore, be obstinate and protracted. Pennsylvania holds the
scale between the north and the south : if she is faithful to
herself, to her best interests, to her uniform principles and
policy, all will be safe ; otherwise, all will be lost, and the
country left in its present unimproved, dependent, and em
barrassed condition. The south, and the opposition generally,
you will again find arrayed in solid column against this
system of policy.
If the present administration and its friends support, as
they do, this system of policy, am I required by any of you
to desert it, and join the opposition ? If they support the
Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, as they did — only one member
in the six New England States voting against the bill, which
passed on this subject — am I also to desert this favorite
measure of yours, and join the opposition in opposing it?
If they advocate appropriations to repair and extend the
Cumberland road, must I join the opposition on this subject,
too, lest I may be called an administration man? Who among
all my constituents, would require me to pursue such a
faithless, unprincipled, and dishonorable course? No, gen
tlemen, so far as this policy and these measures are concerned,
I am an administration man, *and should merit the just
reprobation of every honest man in the community if I were
not.
Gentlemen, I have no interest to promote separate from
yours. From the present administration I never have and
never will ask any favor personal to myself: I aspire to no
higher situation than that which I derive from the kindness
and favor of the people of this district; a favor and kind
ness already extended far beyond my deserts. In my public
course, (if I know myself,) I have had but one object, and
that was to promote the true interests of my constituents ;
these interests I have endeavored to understand. I have
marked the movements of men and the progress of events
with reference to those interests, when the best opportuni
ties were afforded of forming a correct judgment, and I am
free to say the result has been a firm and settled conviction,
that, to promote your interest, and the interests of my
country, I must support the policy of the present adminis
tration — the policy of the "American system" — it is the
policy of Pennsylvania and of the nation ; calculated alike
to promote our prosperity, independence, and happiness, and
to accelerate our rapid and onward inarch to greatness and
to glory.
WOOL AND WOOLEN MANUFACTURES. 157
Believing, on the other hand, as I do, that it is the great
and primary object of the opposition to arrest these measures,
and to prostrate the system of policy, so important to us all,
I shall resist their efforts ; I should be base and recreant if
I did not. I care not by what wiles, or with what weapons,
they wage war against these measures — I care not what
names they may assume, or with what names they may be
associated — I care not with what mighty political instru
ments they may aim the mortal blow ; for one, humble as I
am, I will attempt to ward it off though I may fall beneath
it. I have no wish, politically, to survive the downfall of
these measures.
This course, gentlemen, may not be trimmed to the popu
lar breeze ; it may not tally with the present state of popular
opinion ; yet it is a course which accords with the great and
true interests of the country, and, sooner or later, it will
receive the sanction of the public approbation. Already has
the course of the opposition alarmed many of our most dis
tinguished and clear-sighted statesmen ; it has opened the
eyes of the farmers and manufacturers to a true view of the
subject, and a just sense of their danger. The next session of
Congress will remove the mask, and disclose the true aim
of their batteries to every eye unblinded by prejudice.
Pennsylvania, ever faithful to herself and the country, will
stand erect in the hour of trials : she will never abandon her
republican colors ; she will not commit political suicide by
uniting with any party of men in opposing her best, her
dearest, her most vital interest. Patriotism, principle, policy,
all unite their voices, to forbid it, and their admonitions will
neither be unheard nor disregarded.
Gentlemen, I will detain you no longer. Called up by the
kind expression of your approbation of my past conduct, I
felt it my duty to give you this frank and full disclosure of
the course which a sense of public duty requires me to pursue
in future : it looks, you perceive, to measures, and not men ;
it is the course pointed out by principle, and I will add, by
patriotism, and which I must follow at every hazard. By
it I may forfeit your favor and confidence, but no earthly
consideration can tempt me to betray your interest. — I offer
you as a sentiment :
" The American System" and its friends throughout the
Union.
-"- V ••: '
ON THE TARIFF.
DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, U. S.,
ON THE 8th OF APRIL, 1828.
MR. STEWART rose and said, he had been deprived by
sickness of the advantage of hearing most of the discussions
on the subject now under debate ; he was still much indis
posed ; but the deep interest which he felt, in common with
his constituents, in this measure, forbade him to be silent
[After receiving the bill and suggesting a variety of amend
ments he intended to offer reducing the duties on the raw
materials, and increasing them on the manufactured goods,
he proceeded to say :]
There was one cardinal principle which lay at the very
foundation of the protecting system, which had been wholly
lost sight of by the committee, that was, to keep the duties
higher on the manufactured articles than on the raw mate
rial, otherwise the foreigner would always find it his inter
est to work up the raw material at home, and thus oblige us
to purchase and pay for, not only the raw material, but the
labor employed and the provisions consumed in its manu
facture.
If one or the other must be imported, nothing can be
more evident than that it is much better for the farmer that
we should import the raw material than to import the ma
nufactured article, and for this plain reason ; if wool, hemp,
flax, etc., were imported raw, it would be worked up by
American labor, feeding on American bread and meat ; but
if worked up into cloth in England, we lost this market for
both. Our imports of woolen goods, Mr. S. said, amounted
on an average to from 8 to 10 millions of dollars a year,
while our imports of wool amounted to less than half a mil
lion. The committee have told us that the wool used in
making a yard of cloth is equal to one half its value, so
that in $8,000,000 of cloth, there is 4,000,000 of dollars'
worth of wool, and the balance of its value mostly consisted
of agricultural produce, provisions, soap, tallow, wood,
teazles, fuel, etc. ; all these must be paid for by those who
158
ON THE TARIFF. 159
purchase and consume the cloth. A practical manufacturer
had furnished him, Mr. S. said, with the cost of the compo
nent materials of a yard of cloth, the result was, that more
than three-fourths of the whole price was made up of agri
cultural productions. Thus, in a yard of cloth worth $4.00,
There was of wool $2 00
Provisions, fuel, soap, tallow, etc 1 15
Profits, etc., etc 85
$4 00
Thus the American farmer who purchases five yards of
British cloth, worth $4.00 per yard, actually pays for $10.00
worth of British wool, $5.75 of British bread, meat, fuel,
soap, etc., and $4.25 only for profits, making in $20.00,
$15.75 for foreign agricultural produce, while his own is
rotting on his hands for want of a market, and this was the
ruinous and absurd policy we are pursuing ; sending 8,000,-
000 of dollars to England every year to purchase woolen
cloth, more than three-fourths of which actually went to pay
for wool and other agricultural productions, and the same
thing was in a greater or less degree true in relation to
twenty or thirty millions of other manufactured goods im
ported, viz: $4,000,000 of hemp and flax goods; $8,000,000
of cottons ; $5,000,000 of iron and its manufactures, etc.
These, if manufactured at home, would create a market for
that amount of American labor and capital, instead of being
sent abroad. This vast sum would be kept at home to en
rich our own country, and reward our own industry.
This was the evil : will this bill afford a remedy ? In his
opinion it would not; with proper amendment it might;
as it now stood it was a delusion alike destructive in its
tendency to both the farmer and manufacturer.
Look at its provisions, you will find it to be a bill for the
destruction, and not for the protection of American manu
factures. What is the real state of the case? The American
manufacturers are engaged in a struggle of life and death
with the British. They say without aid they must go down ;
and we in fact now see them tottering to their fall. They
call upon their country — they call upon us for protection.
They ask for relief, and the bill offers them not protection,
but additional burthens. They ask " for bread, and we
give them a stone." This was not mere assertion ; let gentle
men look into the bill ; what does it propose ? It proposes
to increase the taxes 100 per cent, on the wool, flax, and
160 ON THE TARIFF.
hemp, purchased by the manufacturer, without giving him
any corresponding protection ; and this is done under the
specious arid delusive pretext of protecting the farmers.
The farmers are not to be thus deceived ; they understand
their own interest too well; they want no double duties of
this kind, unless also granted to the manufacturers; they
want a market — a home market, created by home manufac
tures ; they see plainly enough, that if the manufactures are
destroyed, their market is gone ; they have no foreign mar
ket ; they can have none: their reliance, their sole reliance
is on the markets at home. The idea that the interests of
the farmer and manufacturer are at variance, was all a de
lusion ; the same destiny awaits them — they must rise or
fall together. Their fortunes are embarked on the same
sea, and in the same vessel; they must sail triumphant be
fore a prosperous breeze, or sink together in a common
grave. They are bound together by ties, which no friendly
hand will ever attempt to sever; and the labored efforts
now made to create jealousies between them, had no friendly
origin ; it proceeded either from a misapprehension, or a
disregard of their true interests.
The bill proposes to raise the present duty on coarse wool,
of a species not produced in our own country, from 15 to 150
per cent., and for this enormous increase of duty on coarse
wool; what additional protection is offered to the manufac
turer, who is already sinking under the weight of foreign
competition? Only 3J per cent! Thus an increase of
more than 100 per cent, is proposed, to keep out half a mil
lion dollars' worth of wool, and 3J per cent, to keep out eight
millions of dollars' worth of woolen goods. We thus ex
clude a handful of raw wool, and import in its stead ten
times as much made up into cloth, and all for the protection
of the farmers ! From such protection they might well ex
claim, "Good Lord, deliver us."
The bill next proposes to raise the present duty on hemp
and flax, from $35 to $60 per ton, equal to about 100 per
cent. But there is not one cent of protection proposed on a
single article manufactured of hemp or flax, except sail
duck. Now it was a known and admitted fact, that the
water-rotted hemp used for sails and rigging, was not pro
duced in this country ; the consequence is, that you compel
the manufacturer to pay nearly double the present duty for
his hemp, while he gets not a cent of additional protection
on his manufactured goods. The consequence would be his
ON THE TARIFF. 161
immediate and utter destruction. Then what becomes of
the farmer ? Where is the market for his hemp and flax ?
And where his market for grain and provisions ? It is gone,
destroyed by this ruinous system of legislation, and instead
of importing raw hemp, to be manufactured by American
labor, subsisting on American grain and provision, we will
import the manufactured goods ; for who would be so stupid
as to import hemp, charged with a duty of sixty dollars per
ton, when he could import it in a manufactured state, at a
duty of 25 per cent.?
Next the bill very properly proposes to raise the duty on
bar iron, if hammered, to twenty dollars and if rolled at
thirty dollars per ton. But no increase is proposed on ma
nufactures of iron, except 10 per cent, on a few specified
articles. Thus the duty on bar iron will be about 50, while
the duty on manufactures of iron is only 25 per cent. What
wrould be the effect? Would this exclude iron? No; it
would be imported in a manufactured state ! Even now,
without this additional temptation to fraud and evasion, the
British are in the habit of getting their bar iron welded to
gether in the form of hoops, calling it " wagon tire," and
thus bringing it under the denomination of "manufactured
iron/7 by which means they get it in at about fifteen dollars,
instead of thirty dollars per ton. This shows the propriety
of the rule, that the duty on manufactures should always
be higher than the duty on the raw material, for it was
surely better, if the foreign article must be imported — to
import it in its raw state, and employ our own labor in con
verting it into articles for use, rather than to have this done
abroad, by which foreign labor and foreign agriculture would
be encouraged instead of our own.
These were some of his objections to the bill in its present
form, and he now gave notice, that with a view to remove
these objections, he intended to move several amendments,
the object of which would be to give protection to the ma
nufacturer, by making the duties on manufactured goods
correspondent to the duties imposed on the raw material ;
he would therefore move in the first place, to give a pro
gressive increase of 5 per cent, per annum on woolen ma
nufactures, until it arrived at 50 per cent., so as to corres
pond with the proposed increase of the duty on wool ; still
leaving it the advantage over cloth of seven cents per pound,
specific duty equal to about 30 per cent, on common wool.
The second amendment he proposed, would be to add a pro-
11
162 ON THE TARIFF.
gressive duty of 15 per cent, to the present duty on all ma
nufactures of hemp and flax. This would raise the duties
in the end to 40 per cent., which would fall considerably
short of the proposed duty of sixty dollars per ton on the
raw material. Next he would ask the committee to add a
like increase to the present duties on all manufactures of
iron and steel, by which these duties would also be raised to
40 per cent. The propriety of these amendments would be
obvious by adverting to the present state of our importa
tions, to which the committee, he thought, had not suffi
ciently attended.
1st, As to woolen goods, we import about ten millions
dollars a year, while of wool we import less than half a
million.
2d, Of manufactures of hemp, and flax, we import about
four millions dollars, and of raw hemp and flax, little more
than half a million.
3d, Of manufactures of iron, we import about three mil
lions dollars a year, and of bar-iron, about one and a half;
it was therefore evident that the great evil consisted in the
importation of the manufactured goods, and not of the raw
material. This was the great error in the bill, that while
it proposed heavy duties on the raw material, it gave no
protection to the manufactured article. The committee were
all anxiety to exclude a few pounds of wool, while they
permitted the importation of twenty times the amount in a
manufactured shape. The bill would betray the farmer,
whom it affected to favor — it would tempt him by this high
duty on wool, to increase his flocks, while it would destroy
even the existing markets, and leave him without any.
This would be the plain and practical operation of the bill
in its present shape, and it was proper that the people should
know it in time to avoid it.
There was no country in the world as exclusively engaged
in manufactures as Great Britain ; her manufactures were
the main stay of the nation, they were the great source of
her immense revenue, the grand pillar that supported her
agriculture, and the aliment that fed and sustained her ex
tensive commerce. There the manufacturers pay an excise
annually to the government, of no less than $138,000,000,
while the whole revenue of this government amounted to
about twenty millions. It was stated by writers of reputa
tion and authority, that their consumption of agricultural
produce amounted to $1,408,000,000 per annum ; in that
ON THE TARIFF. 163
country where the policy of protecting and supporting ma
nufactures is perfectly understood, what is the system
adopted ? It is precisely the reverse of that recommended
by this bill ; instead of putting duties on the raw material,
they have taken them off to the last farthing. After the
restoration of peace in Europe in 1816, when those countries
turned their attention from war to the cultivation of the
arts, when in consequence of this, Great Britain found her
foreign markets greatly diminished, and herself in fact
struggling with powerful rivals, what did she do ? Look at
her legislation — we see her ministers recommending the re
peal of every duty which imposed a burden on her manu
facturers; when we, in 1816, extended protection to our
cotton manufactures, she reduced soon after her duty on
raw cotton, from a penny half penny per pound, to 6 per
cent, ad valorem. When we protected woolens in 1824,
she immediately defeated the whole of our protection by
reducing the duty on raw wool, from six pence sterling, to
one penny per pound ; and now when the American and
British manufacturers are engaged in a struggle of life and
death, a struggle for the American market — what a contrast
does the policy of the two countries present ? We see Mr.
Huskisson coming forward in Parliament, with a bill to re
peal all the duties affecting the manufacturer — to repeal even
the penny a pound on wool, while our committee recom
mend an increase of 20 per cent, ad valorem, with a specific
duty of seven cents per pound, equal to more than 100 per
cent, of increase on coarse wool. Mr. Huskisson reduces
the duty on hemp and flax, we increase it — he reduces the
duties on all kinds of dye stuffs, indigo, etc., expressly for
the purpose of favoring the manufacturers, who, he says,
can no longer go ahead in the race of competition, unless
every pound of burden is taken off them — do we follow his
example? No, sir, whilst Mr. Huskisson takes the last
feather off the back of his old and experienced coursers, to
run against the Americans, what does our committee of
manufactures propose ? Do they propose to lighten their
burdens also ? No, sir, they propose to throw bags of sand
upon their backs, then crack the whip, cry clear the way, a
fair race. With such inequality it is impossible that we can
maintain the competition, our establishments must inevi
tably go down unless some additional protection is afforded
to countervail the effect of these heavy duties imposed on
the raw materials. We have heard the highest eulogies
164 ON THE TARIFF.
pronounced on Mr. Huskisson, for his liberal and enlight
ened policy, by gentlemen opposed to the tariff; they tell us
that while we are imposing heavy duties in this country,
Mr. Huskisson is taking them off, and thus " freeing trade
of its shackles." Do gentlemen deceive themselves, or do
they wish to deceive others ? True, Mr. Huskisson recom
mends the repeal of duties, but for what purpose ? Not to
leave the manufacturer without protection, but to increase
his security. He begged gentlemen to look at Mr. Huskis-
son's speech of 1824, which had been so much admired, as
a powerful defence of the principles of " free-trade." Sir,
it is anything else. In the very first sentence of this pro
found and elaborate speech, Mr. Huskisson distinctly an
nounces his object, which was, he said, to repeal the duties
levied on the importation of " materials employed in some
of our principal manufactories;" he then proceeds in detail
to recommend the reduction of duties on wool, iron, copper,
lead, etc. In consequence of the high duties on these raw
materials, foreigners could undersell them, and he states the
fact, that " extensive orders received at Birmingham, had
been transferred to the continent, because the British manu
facturer could not fill them on the terms required, in conse
quence of the high duty on the raw material ; " — he then
proceeds to recommend a reduction of the duties on a great
variety of articles used by the manufacturer, descending to
the most minute and trifling items — indigo, logwood, mad
der, shumach, verdigris, fustic, etc., etc.; these duties, he
says, operate " as a premium, to encourage the inhabitants
of other countries to do for themselves, that which, greatly
to our own advantage, we should otherwise have continued
to do for them ; " and he held himself at liberty, he says,
" to propose a still further reduction of these duties, should
this be found insufficient to enable the British manufacturers
to preserve their foreign markets;" and concludes this
branch of the subject with a general provision, fixing the
duties on all raw materials unspecified, 30 per cent, lower
than on manufactured goods. As to wool, Mr. Huskisson
says, " the duty is now one penny per pound on all foreign
wool. It has been stated to me, that even this rate of duty
presses heavily upon the manufacturers of coarse woolens,
in which we have the most to fear from foreign competition,
and that considerable relief would be afforded by reducing
it to one half penny per pound."
Mr. Huskisson, it is true, proposes to reduce the duties
ON THE TARIFF. 165
on some articles of manufacture, but it is expressly on the
ground that they are so firmly established that the protec
tion is no longer necessary ; for instance, as to cotton, he
says, " it will not be denied that in this manufacture we are
superior to all other countries, and that by the cheapness
and quality of our goods, we undersell our competitors, in
all the markets of the world, open alike to us and to them
— I do not except [he continues,] the market of the East
Indies, (the first seat of the manufacture,) of which it may
be said to be the staple, where the raw material is grown,
where labor is cheaper than in any other country, and from
which England and Europe were, for a long time, supplied
with cotton goods ; now, however, British cottons are sold
in India, at prices lower than they can be produced for by the
native manufacturers. If any doubt could possibly remain,
that they had nothing to fear from foreign competition, es
pecially in their own markets, it must vanish, when I state
the fact, that we exported last year, ,£30,795,000 sterling,
of cottons, [equal to $138,000,000,] yet such has been the
fear of jealous monopoly, and such the influence of old
prejudices, that in our book of rates, the duties, will the
committee believe it ? " exclaimed Mr. Huskisson, " stand
at this moment, (1824,) at £75 per cent, on certain goods,
on others at £67 10s., on a third class at £50 per cent.7'
" It is impossible/7 he says, " not to smile at the discri
minating shrewdness which made these distinctions, and
which could discover, that with a protection of £67 10s.,
more was necessary to make the balance incline on the side
of the British manufacturers, in the market of his own
country. These absurd duties, and absurd distinctions attach
alike upon the productions of our own subjects in the East
Indies as upon those of other countries.77
Here we see Mr. Huskisson proposing to reduce the duties
on cottons ; and why ? Because they are no longer neces
sary, they had acquired such perfection as to fear no com
petition, still he retained a duty of 10 per cent. Was it
candid or fair in Mr. Huskisson, thus to ridicule " the dis
criminating shrewdness 7' of those wise statesmen, who went
before him, and provided those duties ? 67 J per cent., he
sneeringly says, was deemed necessary to protect the domes
tic manufacture of cotton, and yet he himself had but just
stated the reason why these duties were necessary at the
time of their adoption ; it was to protect the British manu
facturer against the Indies, from whence, he says, they were
166 ON THE TARIFF.
then supplied with cotton goods, where the raw material
was grown, and where labor was cheaper than in any other
country. Hence it was necessary then to adopt these " absurd"
duties of 75 and 67J per cent, to protect the infant manu
factures of England, against the old establishments of India,
in the same manner precisely that it is now necessary here,
to protect our infant manufactures against the old establish
ments of Great Britain. And, sir, I have no doubt the
time will come, and it is not perhaps distant, when we too
will no longer require these protecting duties; when we
will be able to export to all the world, and when Mr. Hus-
kisson will find it necessary, again to resort to these 67 J per
cent, duties, to exclude American cottons as his ancestors
had to do, to exclude those of India. I repeat sir, it was
neither candid nor respectful in Mr. Huskisson, thus to de
nounce as "absurd and ridiculous," what he well knew was
indispensable, and laid the foundation of their present pros
perity. But his motive is not entirely concealed ; these
duties having answered their purpose, and being no longer
necessary, are repealed ; for the sake of what ? The example
to other countries; that they may be induced, he says, to
follow our example, and abandon the protecting system ;
and what then ? Why England would have the undisputed
possession of the market ; and he judged correctly as to the
effect, for gentlemen on this floor have caught the bait, and
are actually referring to this very speech of Mr. Huskisson,
as evidence that the protecting policy is abandoned in Eng
land, and we, they say, should fallow this bright example.
But what does Mr. Huskisson himself say as to his ob
ject ; can any one who will examine the subject, fail to see
through his policy? He says, "Let foreign countries look on
and see our course, arid I have no doubt when the govern
ment of the continent shall have contemplated for a few
years longer the happy consequences of the system in which
we are now proceeding, that their eyes will be opened." Yes,
sir, their eyes will be opened. " They will then believe,"
says Mr. Huskisson, " but at present they do not, that we
are sincere and consistent in our principles." No doubt, sir,
very sincere in reducing duties no longer necessary. " They
will then imitate us," he says, " in our present course, as they
have of late been adopting our cast off systems of restric
tions and prohibitions. That they have hitherto suspected
our sincerity and looked upon our professions as LURES to
ensnare them, is not very surprising, when they compare
ON THE TAKIFF. 167
those professions with those codes of prohibition which I
am now endeavoring to pare down and modify to a scale of
moderate duties." These were Mr. Huskisson's own decla
rations ; and if he could succeed by such means in inducing
us to arrest our tariff, and to put our foot in the trap he has
so artfully set lor us, we would deserve the fate that would
await us. But in conclusion, Mr. Huskisson takes special
care to assure the Parliament that all the reductions he pro
posed were " right and proper in principle, and calculated
to afford encouragement and assistance to their manufac
tures ; " which was, in fact, the legitimate end and object of
every tariff.
After all this, gentlemen tell us that Mr. Huskisson and
Mr. Canning have yielded to the liberal system of free-trade,
and that we should follow their example. They were
repealing the duties imposed by Edward and Elizabeth, by
Pitt and Fox, duties that protected and raised the British
manufacturing skill and industry to its present unexampled
height ; constituting the foundation and basis of the power
and the glory of the British empire ; and now, when they
have acquired such skill and power, perfection and extent,
that they are fairly beyond the reach of competition, her
ministers cry out to those who are wisely following their
footsteps to wealth and independence, stop ! you are wrong !
you are wrong to follow the examples of our ancestors which
you see us now discarding, and adopting in their stead, the
new and glorious theory of free-trade. It is unwise and
unmanly to resort to artificial regulations to protect your
selves against us ; we are willing to meet you in the open
field of fair competition. Yes, sir, the giant may well tell
the stripling to lay aside the pistol, and meet him in the
open field with the weapons which nature's God had sup
plied. Well might Napoleon dispense with arms when he
had conquered the world ; and well might Mr. Huskisson
recommend free-trade when it would make the world
tributary to England.
Mr. S. said he would now proceed to notice some of the
few arguments which he had had an opportunity of hearing
on this subject, advanced by his colleague [Mr. Stevenson]
and Mr. Wright, of New York, who had framed this bill.
In the first place they attempt to sustain it as a measure for
the benefit of the farmers, and endeavor to array the farmers
and manufacturers against each other. The attempt of the
latter gentleman to misrepresent the report of the Secretary
168 ON THE TARIFF.
of the Treasury, and to show that the secretary wished to
protect the manufacturer at the expense of the farmer, was
uncandid and illiberal ; it was utterly unworthy of the
gentleman from New York. No impartial man, he affirmed,
could read that able and luminous report without rising
from its perusal with a full and thorough conviction, that
it was the great object of the Secretary of the Treasury to
advance the interests of agriculture as well as manufactures.
Yet, the gentleman boldly asserts, that the secretary wishes
to protect the manufacturer at the expense of the agricul-
turer of the country. Surely, if the honorable gentleman
would take the trouble to read the whole of the secretary's
report, he must be satisfied that he had done him great
injustice, and he hoped he would have the magnanimity to
acknowledge it. In the next place, his colleague [Mr.
Stevenson] had said, that the protection extended to
manufactures greatly exceeded the protection received by
the farmers, and by way of illustration, he says, that the
duties received on cloth last year, amounted to $3,000,000,
while those on wool amounted to only $105,000 ; could
his colleague be serious in urging such an argument?
Everybody knows that the duties received was evidence of
the amount of importation, and not of the amount of pro
tection afforded. The bill proposes to raise the duty on
wool 100 per cent., amounting to prohibition. Next year,
if the bill passed in its present form, there would probably
be no wool imported, and, of course, no duties. So that,
according to his colleague's argument, there would then be
no protection at all on wool, though the duties were actually
raised 100 per cent. ! ! This was the plain and inevitable
result of the gentleman's argument. This fact showed,
however, another circumstance, not unworthy of notice, viz. :
that the importations of cloth amounted to thirty times
more than the importation of wool, and that there was
fifteen dollars' worth of wool imported, worked up into
cloth, to one dollar's worth imported in a raw state ; and
that, therefore, it was fifteen times more important to our
farmers to exclude the cloth than the wool, which was
exactly the opposite of the conclusion at which the gentle
man wished to arrive.
The next argument offered by his colleague to justify the
low rate of duty proposed on coarse woolens, was equally
unfortunate. The object was, the gentleman said, to spare
the farmers, the poor men, and the Southern slaves. Spare
ON THE TARIFF. 169
the farmers, how? by compelling them to purchase their
clothing from Great Britain. The poor man would prefer
American cloth, which he could procure in exchange for his
own labor, to giving cash to the British, even though he
got it at a lower rate. But the argument that the duty
would raise the price to the consumer, was an argument
against all experience; protection had, in the end, always
lowered the price, as it would do now ; and no real friend
to the policy of protecting our national industry would use
such an argument. The only sound rule upon this subject,
he said, was this: that duties imposed upon imported
articles which could not be produced at home, alone
operated as a tax, while duties imposed upon what we can
produce at home, always brought down the price in the end.
Such always had been, and such always would be the result.
In selecting objects for protection, there were four things to
be considered.
First. The capacity of the country to produce the article
to the extent required. Second. To encourage the manu
facture of that which induced the greatest consumption of
agricultural produce. Third. Of that which employed the
greatest amount of labor-saving machinery. And fourth.
Of those things for which we have now to pay cash to
countries taking none of our produce in exchange. These
were the proper objects of our attention, and among them he
would number manufactures of wool, of cotton, of hemp, of
flax. These manufactures were, alone to be effectually pro
tected by excluding the manufactured goods. You may
shut out the raw material, but it will answer no purpose if
you still admit the manufactured article, which must always
bring the raw material with it. It was the introduction of
foreign manufactures that carried off our currency by ship
loads; it was this that exhausted and impoverished our
country ; and it was here that the remedy should be applied.
To attempt to cure the evil in any other way was mere
political quackery, it was a deception upon the country ; to
impose heavy duties on wool would never lead to its con
sumption ; you must increase the ability of the manufacturer
to purchase and consume it; and this was alone to be
accomplished by granting him increased protection and
encouragement.
But his colleague, as well as the gentleman from New
York, [Mr. Wright,] had contended, that inasmuch as some
of the manufacturers examined before the Committee had
170 ON THE TARIFF.
said, that under like circumstances they could manufacture
in this country as cheap as they could in England ; and then
assuming that the only difference was in the price of wool,
which they stated at about 60 per cent, against the American
manufacturer, they endeavored, by a very long and
labored argument, to prove that the protection afforded by
this bill was equal to the difference in the price of wool.
But could it be possible that gentlemen would attempt to
persuade this house, and the American people to believe,
that the American manufacturer required protection only
against a difference in the price of wool ? he did not intend
to labor this point with the gentleman, but he would
briefly direct his attention to some other circumstances
which, he trusted, they would consider not altogether un
worthy of consideration.
In the first place he would ask, was nothing required to
protect the American manufacturer against the evasions,
the frauds and perjuries which were known and admitted to
be practised every day by the foreign importer, who, being
in most cases the foreign manufacturer himself, he of course
fixed the cost of his goods at what he pleased, and paid
duty accordingly ; it being the foreign cost, and not value,
that governed the duties. This was a bad regulation, and
he intended to submit an amendment to correct it, by fixing
the value in the American ports, and not the cost in the
foreign country. This was the practice in Great Britain
and all other countries as far as he knew, and he saw no
reason why it should be departed from here. The effect of
this regulation had been to throw more than three-fourths
of the woolen business into the hands of foreign merchants
and manufacturers ; the American merchant being obliged
to pay the duties honestly according to the prices actually
paid as proved by his invoices.
In the next place he would ask gentlemen if nothing was
required to protect the American manufacturer against the
constant efforts of our foreign rivals to break them down by
throwing vast quantities of goods into the market? was
nothing required to counteract the effects of the premiums
and bounties which were paid by the government in Great
Britain to their exporters ? was nothing required to sustain
the infant and rising institutions of our own country, strug
gling for existence against the immense capital, the skill, the
experience, the combined power of the old and long-estab
lished institutions of Great Britain, exerting every nerve to
ON THE TAEIFF. 171
strangle them in the cradle ? In such a contest it did seem
to him to be unworthy of American Statesmen, called upon
by the cries of their suffering fellow-citizens, to look on with
cold indifference, and gravely debate about a cent or two of
additional protection. Sir, as Americans, in such a case we
should extend the hand of assistance promptly and freely.
We have millions and hundreds of millions at stake. If
these institutions go down for want of protection, who will
again be found willing to risk his capital in so hazardous an
enterprise ? when will we see these institutions again rise
from the dust? where will our farmer then look for a
market for his produce ? where will the thousands of manu
facturers thus thrown out look for employment ? Was it pos
sible, in such a crisis, when half the States of this Union
had sent us their memorials, when our tables groaned under
the loads of petitions daily presented from all parts of the
country, calling upon us to protect the American against
the British manufacturer — was it possible to sit here de
liberating, day after day, week after week, and month after
month, to determine whether we will save these establish
ments or not ? For the character of the country he hoped
not ; he hoped an adequate protection would be granted,
and granted promptly.
There was one other consideration which rendered in
creased protection necessary at this time. Since the restora
tion of peace in Europe, many of the continental powers
have turned their attention to the erection and encourage
ment of manufactures, and instead of being customers have
become powerful rivals of Great Britain. The natural effect
has been, to throw thousands of the British manufacturers out
of employ, who, of course, become paupers. The govern
ment was, therefore, compelled to support them at an expense
of about twenty-five millions of dollars a year. To reduce
the amount of this expense, the government agreed with the
manufacturer, that if they will keep them employed, the
government will pay one-half, one-third, one fourth, or one-
fifth of their wages, the manufacturer paying the balance ;
hence, the British manufacturer having a considerable por
tion of the wages of his hands paid out of the poor rates, was
enabled to undersell the American manufacturer. If gentle
men would place the Americans on an equal footing in this
respect, by paying their laborers, they would not be troubled
for further protection. These were some of the reasons
which rendered additional protection necessary, and which
172 ON THE TARIFF.
showed that the difference in the price of wool was not the
only thing against which protection was required, as had
been contended by his colleague [Mr. Stevenson] and the
gentleman from New York.
Much had been said about the Harrisburg convention and
American System, they had been often, and he thought un
necessarily introduced into this debate, and made the subjects
,of much censure, and unmerited abuse. The Harrisburg
convention represented the feelings and sentiments of a
large majority of the people of this nation ; they had assem
bled from half the States of this Union ; and for talent and
patriotism, in his opinion, they were inferior to no conven
tion of men, that had ever assembled on a similar occasion,
in this or in any other country, and he regretted that their
recommendations had been so little attended to by the com
mittee of manufactures.
As to the "American System," language furnishes no term
of reproach or abuse, that has not been applied to it; it
had been called a system of robbery, of oppression, and of
injustice, which ought and should be resisted. This was
strong language, to say the least of it, and' he hoped the feel
ing in which gentlemen indulged would pass away with the
occasion ; he could not forbear to express his regret at seeing
his colleague [Mr. Stevenson] joining the enemies of the
tariff in this hue and cry against the American System. He
calls this system a " cant phrase," and a by-word. Mr. S.
said he entertained very different views upon this subject.
" The American System," which he understood to mean the
policy of protecting domestic manufactures, and promoting
internal improvements, he considered as constituting a sys
tem of national policy, which lay at the foundation of the
present contest for political power. The great question to
be decided was, whether the American System was to be
established or put down ; this was the true question at issue,
and it was in vain to disguise it — it could not be disguised
in this house, and it could not be much longer disguised in
this country. The line had been already so often and so
distinctly drawn, that every one must see and understand it ;
the contest was no longer between federalists and democrats,
but between the friends and enemies of domestic manufactures.
Already we see the forces not only marshalled in this house,
but throughout the nation on this great question. A ma
jority of the States of this Union have pledged themselves
by solemn legislative resolves, to support the one side or the
ON THE TARIFF. 173
other. On the one side we see most of the Southern States,
Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Ala
bama, Mississippi, Tennessee, etc. On the other side we see
New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut, Massachusetts,
Ehode Island, New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Ohio,
Indiana, etc. The enemies of this policy, fearful of the re
sult, if this be made the question in the Northern and Middle
States, have artfully endeavored to divert public attention
from it, by holding out the idea, that the contest is between
the old federal and democratic parties. The absurdity, how
ever, of this must be apparent when we advert to the fact,
that there are not more than twenty-eight federalists in both
Houses of Congress, and these about equally divided on the
Presidential question. It was therefore evident, that the old
party names had nothing to do with the present contest.
The division of parties now stood on new ground, and must
be determined on new principles; the fate of the American
System was the question to be determined, and it became
every man to take his stand on the one side or the other.
Mr. S. said he had no hesitation as to his course, he would
support the men who supported these measures, which he
regarded as connected with the lasting prosperity of this
country. There was, however, another and an opposite system
to the one just mentioned, called the British System — a sys
tem, which made every merchant and storekeeper in this
country a collector for British merchants and manufacturers.
The British merchants and manufacturers import their goods,
sell them at auction, receive the amount, duties and all in
cash ; for the duties (about one-third of the whole amount)
they give bond without interest to the government, payable
in six, eight, and twelve months, which, in three voyages
will be more than equal to the whole value of the original
cargo. Your country merchants who purchase these goods
carry them into every part of the Union, sell them for cash,
return to the Atlantic cities to give it again to the British
merchants and manufacturers for a fresh supply ; and thus
the country was impoverished and exhausted. This was
the true source of the distress and embarrassment 'so uni
versally complained of, and such were the effects of the
British System, as contradistinguished from the American
System. His colleague had said, however, that too much
prosperity weakened, while adversity strengthened the bonds
of our Union. If this were true, the gentleman's plan
would certainly perpetuate the union by keeping us in
174 ON THE TARIFF.
poverty ; but he denied the soundness of the argument, he
maintained the reverse of this proposition, a system which
would grind down the people, would weaken their attach
ment to the government, which was after all the only genuine
cement that was to preserve this noble edifice from falling
to pieces. Strengthen the attachment of the people to the
laws and government, and you will strengthen the bonds
that bind us together.
Several gentlemen, Mr. S. said, had referred to a state
ment made by him at the last session on this subject ; it had
also been noticed in many of the public prints, and had
called down upon him the severe animadversion of the
authors of the celebrated Boston report. The statement he
had made was, that in 1825, Great Britain did not take
more than $500 worth of the agricultural produce of all
the States north of the Ohio and Potomac to feed her manu
facturers. This had been contradicted, and reference had
been made to the commerce and navigation of that year, to
show that $108,000 worth of flour had been exported in that
year to Great Britain ; so it appeared by the custom-house
books. But who was so ignorant as not to know, that not a
pound of this flour ever went to Great Britain : — it was im
possible according to the existing laws of Great Britain.
During the whole of that year, and for a long time before,
the British corn laws were prohibitory, and did not admit
the importation of a single pound of flour, or a bushel of
grain, from any foreign country ; of course no part of this
flour could have entered into her consumption. What other
productions of the farmers of this country were exported to
Great Britain in that year ? If gentlemen would take the
trouble to examine, they would find that all the productions
of animals, meat of all kinds, butter, cheese, beef, pork,
bacon, etc., exported in 1825 to Great Britain, amounted in
all to thirty-four dollars ; and of beer, porter, cider, spirits,
molasses, sugar, etc., the amount was thirty-six dollars. So
that, instead of $500, it appears at the utmost extent, her
importation of grain and provisions of all kinds from the
United States, in 1825, could not have exceeded $70; and
he would no doubt be safe in saying seventy cents ; for
doubtless this $70 worth of bacon, beef, 'pork, beer, cider,
spirits, etc., was consumed by the sailors long before it
reached its port of destination.
It might be asked, what became of the $108,000 worth
of flour ? This was easily explained ; we know that very
ON THE TARIFF. 175
often cargoes shipped to Great Britain never go there ; part
of a cargo may be disposed of at the port for which the vessel
clears out, and part in another country, for instance : the
cotton part of a cargo might be sold in England, and the
flour which could not be sold there might be carried to
France, Spain, or some other country. Vessels, it is well
known, often clear out for Cowes (a port on the British coast,)
and a market. These vessels merely touch at this port to
ascertain the state of the foreign markets and regulate their
ulterior destination accordingly. Yet the whole cargo of
every vessel cleared out for " Cowes and a market," was en
tered at our custom-houses as exported to Great Britain ;
hence our exports to Great Britain appeared much greater
than they really were ; this accounted for the $108,000 of
flour apparently exported to Great Britain in 1825. Mr. S.
therefore contended, that instead of $500 there was not
$100 worth of American provisions of every kind sent to
Great Britain in the year referred to ; and yet we are required
to purchase from Great Britain, that she may purchase from
us. Could such a course of policy as this find an advocate
in any of the grain growing States of the Union ? Our com
merce with Great Britain was on a much more favorable
footing before the Revolution. Whilst colonies, she ad
mitted our productions in exchange for her manufactures, as
she now did from her other colonies. As soon as we achieved
our independence, she commenced her system of exclusion,
which she has systematically maintained ever since; and
now enforces with so much rigor, that recently an American
merchant was prohibited from selling to the manufacturer
who supplied his cargo, a few barrels of damaged flour as
sizing, on the ground that it would be a violation of their
corn laws. In referring to the early history of our com
merce with Great Britain, Mr. S. said, he found a fact which
confirmed the statement he had just made, it was this : that
for six years before the Revolution, viz., from 1768 to 1774,
our imports from Great Britain averaged about $10,000,000
per annum, and our exports $8,000,000, leaving a balance
against us of only $2,000,000 a year; and for six years after
the Revolution, viz., from 1783 to 1789, though we con
tinued to purchase the same amount from her, she took less
than $4,000,000, only half the amount she received from us
before, leaving a balance of nearly $6,000,000 a year against
us. So far, therefore, as our commerce is concerned, it would
have been better if we had continued colonies, unless we re-
178 ON THE TARIFF.
turn " measure for measure," when she ceases to take from
us, cease to receive from her. The balance of trade with
Great Britain was now more than $7,000,000 against us ;
exclude cotton, and it will be more than $25,000,000 a year
against us. No wonder our cities and the nation were drained
of their currency. Such was, and such must continue to be
the ruinous effects of our present system. In seven years,
from 1795 to 1802, the aggregate balance of trade against
the United States, with all the world, amounted to $106,-
976,367 ; of this amount, the balance with Great Britain,
alone, amounted to $106,118,104, leaving for all the rest of
the world a balance of less than half a million against us.
This showed how effectually we were made tributary to
Great Britain, who took little or nothing from the north,
but the money we got in our trade with other countries.
From 1801 to 1811 (ten years), the accumulated balances
against us in our trade with Great Britain amounted to the
enormous sum of $220,000,000, as appeared from Pitkins'
Statistics. From 1793 to 1800, the whole of the exports
from Great Britain, to all the countries of Europe, only
amounted to $36,000,000, a year ; while her exports to the
United States alone, during the same period, amounted to
upwards of $41,000,000 a year, being $5,000,000 more than
all Europe put together ; yet she excluded our productions
by absolute prohibition. She will not permit the importa
tion of a barrel of our flour, though offered for fifty cents.
This showed the wisdom of other countries, and the folly of
ours in strong relief. By this policy of excluding the pro
ductions of other countries, and protecting her own industry
against all competition, Great Britain had been enabled to
sustain a war for twenty-five years with the colossal power
of Bonaparte, when he swayed the sceptre of almost entire
Europe. Her people were thus enabled to sustain an annual
burthen, amounting to nearly $300,000,000, while it pros
trated this country to raise, during our late war, $11,000,000
a year by taxation. Such was the effects of encouraging
domestic manufactures. It was by her manufacturing estab
lishments Great Britain laid the world under tribute. It
was her manufactures that filled her exchequer, by the pay
ment of excises, amounting to $138,000,000 a year ! It was
these establishments that raised her excises in twenty-five
years to the vast sum of $4,625,000,000, while her imports
amounted to less than $1,700,000,000, leaving a balance of
$2,925,000,000 in her favor, equal to $117,000,000 a year!
ON THE TARIFF. 177
It was these establishments that sustained her agriculture,
furnishing her farmers with a market to the amount of
$940,000,000 a year for grain alone, independent of meat
and other provisions, wool, hemp, flax, etc., amounting no
doubt to a much greater amount ! It was these establish
ments that sustained her all-powerful navy ; that clothed
her armies ; that supported and nourished her unbounded
commerce, a commerce that traversed every sea, and whitened
every ocean, bringing back its rich returns, and pouring a
constant shower of gold into the lap of that favored land.
Such were the effects of manufactures there, and such, he
contended, would be their effects here, if properly protected
and sustained by the Government. By means of these estab
lishments, Great Britain wielded a scientific power, afforded
by labor-saving machinery, equal to 200,000,000 of hands ;
she thus employed 200,000,000 of slaves — slaves not requiring
overseers and masters ; not requiring to be clothed and fed ;
not requiring to be tasked, and kept in motion by the lash ;
but sustained and impelled by water or steam. Aided
by this machinery, one man was able to pay for the labor
of 200 farmers. They purchase our cotton, say $20,000,000
a year ; with this they make the world tributary to them,
to the amount of hundreds of millions. What she receives
from us, she makes the basis of her national wealth ; what
we take from her we consume; it is made the basis qf no
wealth, but like " the baseless fabric of a vision, leaves not
a wreck behind." Our commerce with Great Britain, he
therefore contended, was not an exchange of equivalents ; it
might be assimilated to our exchange of beads and gewgaws,
for the furs and pal tries of the Indian tribes.
Mr. S. said he would now notice a few of what might be
called the standing arguments of the enemies of the protect
ing system. If we look to the numerous memorials from
all the Southern States, in opposition to the tariff; if we
look to the arguments urged in and out of the House ; if
we look to the late report of the committee of ways and
means on the subject, it will be found that the whole of the
opposition rests upon three or four bold assumptions. If we
grant the premises thus assumed, the conclusions against us
are irresistible ; but if the premises are shown to be false,
then the whole superstructure must tumble to the ground.
He therefore proposed for a moment to examine the premises
on which this opposition was mainly founded ; in the first
place it is asserted, that we have no constitutional power to
12
178 ON THE TARIFF.
pass a tariff for the protection of domestic manufactures ;
secondly, that this policy is destructive of the revenue;
thirdly, that it is destructive of commerce ; fourthly, that it
is oppressive and ruinous to agriculture, and, fifthly, that it
is " taxing the many for the benefit of the few." First, then,
as to the constitutional power, Mr. S. said he considered it
too clear to admit of argument. The Constitution expressly
declares, that Congress shall have power " to lay and col
lect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises, to pay the debts, and
provide for the common defence and general welfare ; " and
the Government had accordingly acted upon this clear ground,
from the foundation of the Government up to the present day,
and the right to impose duties for the protection of manu
factures was not only expressly asserted in the acts of the
first Congress, but had been reasserted by every executive,
and by the most eminent and distinguished statesmen, in
support of this position. He begged leave to read a few
extracts from the messages of the several Presidents on this
subject.
General Washington, in his first message, delivered
January 8, 1790, says: "The advancement of agriculture,
commerce and manufactures, by every proper means, will
not, I trust, need recommendation." Again, in his message
of October 25, 1796, he says: " Congress have repeatedly,
and not without success, turned their attention to manufac
tures, and the object is of too much importance not to secure
a continuance of their efforts in every way that shall appear
eligible ; " he also recommends to Congress the establishment,
by law, of agricultural societies, to grant " premiums, pecu
niary aids, etc."
In the messages of Mr. Adams and Mr. Jefferson, we
also find the subject of manufactures frequently recommended
to the favor of Congress. Mr. Jefferson, in his letter to
Benjamin Austin, Esq., in 1816, uses this strong and em
phatic language : " To be independent for the comforts of
life, we must fabricate them ourselves — we must now place
the manufacturer by the side of the agriculturalist. The
grand enquiry now is, shall we make our own comforts, or
go without them, at the will of a foreign nation ? He there
fore who is now against domestic manufactures, must be in
favor of reducing us either to a dependence on that nation,
or be clothed in skins, and to live like wild beasts in dens
and caverns — I am proud to say I am not one of these, ex
perience has now taught me that manufactures are as necessary
ON THE TARIFF. 179
to our independence as our comfort ; " and expresses his de
termination to wrest this weapon from foreign hands, by
purchasing nothing foreign when the domestic article can
be had, without regard to price.
Mr. Madison, in his message of 5th November, 1815,
recommends to Congress, "The just and sound policy of
securing to our manufactures the success they have obtained,
and are still obtaining, etc." And in his message of 15th
February, 1815, he says : " There is no subject that can enter,
with greater force and merit, into the deliberations of Con
gress, than a consideration of the means to preserve and pro
mote the manufactures which have sprung into existence,
and attained an unparalleled maturity throughout the
United States, during the period of the European wars.
This source of national independence and wealth, I anxiously
recommend to the prompt and constant guardianship of Con
gress." In his message of 5th December, 1815, his recom
mendations on this subject are equally strong and emphatic,
and says that by proper protection and encouragement " our
domestic manufactures may, at an early day, not only furnish
a source of domestic wealth, but also of external commerce."
These recommendations are repeated and reinforced in his
message of December 3d, 1816.
Mr. Monroe, in several of his messages, strongly recom
mends the subject of manufactures to " the systematic and
fostering care of Congress," and especially in his message of
December, 1819, he makes a very strong appeal on this
subject.
Mr. Adams, in his first message to Congress, of December,
1825, has also recommended the protection and encourage
ment of manufactures and agriculture to the favorable con
sideration of Congress.
Thus we have the express recommendations of every exe
cutive since the foundation of the government, to which he
would add the opinion of Mr. Hamilton, contained in his
masterly report on this subject, made as Secretary of the
Treasury to Congress ; he says : " A question has been made
concerning the constitutional right of the government of the
United States to apply this species of encouragement ; but
there is certainly no good foundation for such a question.
" The National Legislature has express authority, ' to lay
and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises, to pay the
debts, and provide for the common defence and general wel
fare/ with no other qualifications than that, ' all duties, im-
180 ON THE TARIFF.
posts, and excises shall be uniform throughout the United
States; that no capitation or direct tax shall be laid unless
in proportion to numbers ascertained by a census or enu
meration taken on the principles prescribed in the constitu
tion;' and that l no tax or duty shall be laid on articles
exported from any State.7 These three qualifications ex-
cepted, the power to raise money is plenary and indefinite,
and the objects to which it may be appropriated are no less
comprehensive, than the payment of the public debts, and
the providing for the common defence and general welfare.
The terms, ' general welfare/ were doubtless intended to
signify more than was expressed or imported in those which
preceded ; otherwise numerous exigencies incident to the
affairs of a nation, would have been left without a pro
vision. The phrase is as comprehensive as any tha£ could
have been used ; because it was not fit that the constitutional
authority of the Union, to appropriate its revenues, should
have been restricted within narrower limits than the * general
welfare;' and because this necessarily embraces a vast
variety of particulars, which are susceptible neither of speci
fication nor of definition.
" It is, therefore, of necessity left to the discretion of the
National Legislature to pronounce upon the objects, which
concern the general welfare, and for which, under that
description, an appropriation of money is requisite and
proper. And there seems to be no reason for a doubt, that
whatever concerns the general interests of learning, of agricul
ture, of manufactures and of commerce, are within the sphere
of the national councils, as far as regards an application of
money," etc. So much for the question of constitutional
power; if gentlemen could overturn the opinions of those
who made the constitution, and have administered it ever
since, of course no opinion of his could be of any avail.
The second ground assumed by the opponents of the tariff
is, that it will destroy the revenue; some say to the amount
of four, and others, eight millions, we had precisely the same
predictions, from the same gentlemen, as to the effect of the
tariff of 1824. But unfortunately for their characters as
prophets, instead of diminishing, it has increased the revenue,
and such will be the effect of this and every other tariff,
properly framed. The revenue would always be in propor
tion to the prosperity of the country, this was an invariable
rule ; it would always be in a ratio corresponding with the
ability of the people to purchase and consume the produc-
ON THE TARIFF. 181
tions of other countries, and although the tariff might lessen.
the importation of some articles, it would increase the im
portation of others, in a corresponding degree; besides a
diminished quantity would yield an increased revenue,
owing to the increase of the duties imposed. Manufactures
destroy the revenue ! he would ask gentlemen if the manu
factures of Great Britain destroyed her revenue ? It was
her manufactures alone that sustained her revenue, and with
out them the nation would be bankrupt in a single year ;
this could not be denied by any one at all acquainted with
the financial condition of that country. The whole net
revenue of Great Britain for the last year (1827), as stated
by Mr. Peel in the House of Commons, a few months since,
was £49,581,000 sterling, equal to $220,000,000, and of this
at least $128,000,000 was the product of the excises levied
on her manufactures, which exceeded the whole amount of
our revenue for the last six years ! ! Destroy the manufac
tures of Great Britain, and her commerce, her revenue, and
her agriculture, sink together in a common grave. Manu
factures constituted the main pillar of the British Empire,
they drew to her coffers the wealth of the world ; by these
she subsidized Europe, by these she raised a revenue from
her people of more than $250,000,000 a year, during her
struggles on the continent ; while the United States would
have been bankrupt by an attempt to raise a tithe of this
amount. She was the most manufacturing, and we the most
agricultural nation in the world ; compare our financial
resources, take one of the years of our late war, say 1814,
when every thing was taxed, land, carriages, watches, stores,
distilleries, etc., etc., yet the whole amount of our revenue,
in that year exclusive of loans, amounted to $11,500,000
only, and our loans to $23,000,000, making $34,500,000,
while Great Britain raised during the same year (1814), by
taxes, $301,000,000, and by loans $245,000,000, making in
all $546,000,000, when we were bankrupted by an effort to
raise $35,000,000, and two-thirds of it by loans, bearing six
and seven per cent, interest; this showed what kind of
foundation there was for the assertion, that the protection of
manufactures \vould destroy our revenue.
The third objection was, that the tariff would destroy our
commerce; this was about as well founded as the objection
just examined. The manufactures of Great Britain, every
one knew, furnished the aliment that fed and sustained her
immense commerce; employing 20,000 vessels and 150,000
182 ON THE TARIFF.
seamen. "We were told in 1824, that the bill then passed
was the stone that would sink the last ship beneath the wave,
and the gentleman from New York [Mr. Cambreleng] then
told us it would destroy $30,000,000 of commerce and
$7,000,000 of revenue; what was the result? These
predictions, like the rest, turned out to be visionary ; instead
of destroying, it greatly increased our commerce, as was
apparent, from an examination of our exports and imports,
for three years before, and three years after the passage of
that bill. For three years before the tariff of 1824, our
imports amounted to $241,000,000, and our exports to
$221,000,000, leaving a balance of $20,000,000 against us.
For three years after the tariff (viz. from 1824 to 1827) our
imports amounted to $261,000,000, and our exports to $257,-
000,000, leaving a balance of $4,000,000 against us; thus
our commerce was increased in this short period $20,000,000,
and the balance reduced from $20,000,000 to $4,000,000 ;
here are practical results, opposed to theory and speculation.
We are now told the same thing, and such would again be
the result, if the bill passed with the necessary amendments,
which he trusted it would receive before its final passage
through both houses. It was unnecessary to say more on
this branch of the subject, and he would turn his attention
to another prominent objection to this policy, which although
entirely unfounded, had been so often repeated, that it
became a sort of settled maxim among many of our political
economists ; the maxim was this : that the tariff-policy was
"taxing the many for the benefit of the few;" give gentle
men their own premises and they can prove anything, but
the premises here assumed, happened to be untrue, as was
clearly proved by the following table, showing the amount
of duties now imposed on certain articles, the prices formerly
paid for them, when imported, and the prices now paid,
when supplied at home.
Present duties. Former cost Present cost when
when imported. made at home.
Indian Cotton Goods 30 pr. ct. 20cts.pr.yd. 9 cts. per. yd.
English " 25 " 25 " 13 "
Nails 5 cts. Ib. 16 7 cts. pr. Ib.
Glauber Salts 2 " 10 3 "
Copperas 2 " 6 3 "
Refined Saltpetre 3 « 10 7 "
Window Glass $3 a 4 box. $15 00 box. $5 00 per box.
Bed-ticking 25 pr. ot. 50 25 cts. per yd.
Satinet 33 1-3 1 50 30 "
Negro Cloths 32 1-3 50 37 "
Broad " 33 1-3 6 00 3 00 "
Cotton Yarn, No. 16 25 pr. ct. 100 30 "
Cheese 9 cts.lb. 15 6 ots. pr. Ib.
ON THE TARIFF. 183
One-third less than the duty, so that if the price would
fall, by repealing the duties, as is contended, cheese would
be worth three cents less than nothing ! !
Since the tariff of 1824, there is not an article embraced
in it, the price of which has not been greatly reduced ; cot
ton bagging had fallen from 37 J to 25 cents per yard, wool
and woolens, on which the duties were greatly increased,
have fallen at least 33 J per cent., etc., yet gentlemen gravely
insist, with these facts staring them in the face, that protect
ing duties will raise the price, and tax the many for the
benefit of the few! ! The above facts, however, furnished a
complete refutation of these absurd notions and idle theories,
so often repeated.
Mr. Stewart said he would, in conclusion, beg the atten
tion of the committee to the only remaining objection which
he proposed now to notice. It was this, that " the protec
tion of domestic manufactures operated injuriously upon the
farmers and agriculturists of the country." This constituted
one of the standing and leading grounds of objection to the
policy he was advocating, and indeed it had been favored
by his colleague [Mr. Stevenson], who had talked much of
the tax which the duty on woolens would impose upon the
farmers, etc. In the first place, it would be proper to con
sider what the present condition of our agriculture was; to
see what effect manufactures had had on agriculture in other
countries ; and what had been, and would be, their effects
here.
During the general war in Europe, which continued to
prevail, with but few months' intermission, from 1793 to
1815, a period of nearly twenty-three years, having an
abundant foreign demand, a great portion of our labor and
capital was of course attracted to agriculture, so that in 1810,
when the census was taken, it appeared that seven-eighths
of our whole population was engaged in the cultivation of
the soil ; this demand was, however, suddenly arrested and
cut off by the restoration of peace in 1815, when the powers
of Europe abandoned war and returned to the cultivation
of the soil ; the effect was, that our exports of flour fell, in
five years, from seventeen millions of dollars to less than
four ! and all our other agricultural exports, except cotton,
tobacco, and rice, fell off in a corresponding proportion. At
the close of the war, in 1814, Great Britain took from us
nine millions of dollars' worth of cotton, and about six mil
lions of flour and provision ; last year she took twenty-five
184 ON THE TAEIFF.
millions of cotton, and not a single barrel of flour; it was
excluded by absolute prohibition ; twenty years ago we ex
ported more than double the quantity of flour, grain, and
other provisions that we export now; in 1806, it amounted
to more than twenty millions, in 1826 to less than ten,
while in 1820 the exports of cotton was less than thirteen
millions, and in 1826 more than thirty, so that whilst our
foreign market for grain and provisions had fallen off more
than one-half, the market for cotton had more than doubled ;
this might be sport for the South, but it was death to the
Middle and Western States. The South says, "Let us
alone," we are doing very well ; while the Northern, Middle,
and Western States cry out for protection; having no foreign,
they must seek a home market, in home manufactures. By
referring to our commerce and navigation for the year 1826,
it would be seen that the total exports of domestic produc
tions from the State of Pennsylvania, having twenty-six
representatives on this floor, amounted to only $3,158,711,
while those of South Carolina, with but nine representatives,
amounted to $7,468,966 ; our exports of cotton had increased
within the last eight or nine years from 81 to 203,000,000
of pounds, while the imports into three of our Northern
cities last year had exceeded their exports by $24,208,758 ;
this showed, in a strong light, the great advantages enjoyed
by the Southern cotton-growing States over the Western
and Middle grain-growing States ; and yet gentlemen from
the South threaten resistance, a separation of the Union,
and God knows what all, if Pennsylvania and her sister
States of the North attempt to relieve themselves by estab
lishing domestic manufactures, to consume their wool, grain,
and other provisions, instead of sending their last dollar to
import them from Great Britain, who refuses to take a dol
lar's worth of anything from them in return. He would
appeal to the magnanimity and to the justice of the gentle
men from the South, and ask them if they could reconcile it
to their own consciences, thus to force so great a portion of
their fellow citizens to remain in poverty and dependence
on a foreign power acting so unjustly towards them. These
States having the power to relieve themselves, would be
false and faithless to themselves and their posterity, if they
did not exert it; and, instead of resisting, he thought their
brethren of the South should lend them a helping hand —
they would ultimately find a surer and a better market for
their cotton in New England than they would find in the
mother country.
ON THE TARIFF. 185
But Soutnern gentlemen appeared apprehensive, that if
we take less of British manufactures, she will take less of
their cotton, and this idea in fact lay at the foundation of all
the violent opposition to this policy in the South ; no doubt
this was a sincere and honest opinion, but he considered it
entirely erroneous. He believed that the South was not
dependent on Great Britain for a market, but that Great
Britain was in fact dependent upon the South for a supply
of cotton, an article which constituted the basis of her na
tional wealth ; she could obtain an adequate supply nowhere
else. If this raw material was withheld for a single year,
the effect would be ruinous; her manufactures of cotton
alone amounted to $300,000,000 a vear . but how, he would
ask, would Great Britain undertake to exclude our cotton,
even if she had the disposition to do so? Not by duties;
this would be taxing her manufacturers, who, after being
relieved to the last cent, could scarcely maintain the compe
tition in the markets of South America. So far from in
creasing, she had been compelled to repeal the whole of her
duties on raw cotton ; this was done not to favor us, but to
sustain her own manufactures. The British consumption
of cotton at present was about 162,000,000 of pounds, and
of this 125,000,000 was American, amounting to 77 per
cent., and this proportion is rapidly increasing — a few years
ago, less than half her supply was American ; our cotton is,
in fact, better and cheaper than that of any other country,
and so long as it is so, Great Britain will find it her interest,
and finding it her interest, she will take it in preference to
any other. Her manufacturers, left free to choose for them
selves, will always purchase from those offering them the
best and cheapest article, without inquiring whether they
took British manufactures or not ; so that the fears enter
tained by Southern gentlemen are visionary and unfounded ;
no country in the world could rival our Sea Island cotton,
and it was to the manufacture of the finer fabrics the British
attention was now mostly directed. The best India cotton
would not bring more than 14 or 15 cents, while it
was stated by a gentleman in South Carolina, that a planter
had even this season, when the price was unusually low,
sold his Sea Island cotton at $1.43} per pound; with this
there could be no competition, therefore they had nothing
to fear from any part of the world. Gentlemen in the South
had, in 1824, when the tariff was under debate, expressed
the same apprehensions. We were then told, as now, that
186 ON THE TARIFF.
if the bill passed, Great Britain would cease to purchase
their cotton, that she would exclude it, etc. The bill passed,
and what had been the result ? the very next year she took
nearly double the quantity she had taken the year before ;
in 1824, she took but 282,773 bales; in 1825, she took
425,195 bales. If such were the effect of the tariff on the
cotton trade, it would be well for the South if we passed the
tariff every year; thus the predictions of the enemies of the
tariff had been happily defeated in every instance. They
told us in 1824 it would destroy the revenue ; it had in
creased it. They told us it would raise the prices of goods ;
they had fallen more than 30 per cent. They told us it
would destroy the British market for our cotton ; it had in
creased nearly 100 per cent. These prophecies are again
repeated every day, and with no better reason ; the results
would again prove them false prophets, arid the gentlemen
themselevSj as friends of their country, ought, as he had no
doubt they would, rejoice in the disappointment of their own
gloomy foreboding.
As to the effects of manufactures on the agriculture of the
country, he would make but a few additional remarks ; and
in the first place, he laid it down as a general principle, estab
lished by the experience of all countries, that agriculture
had always flourished in proportion to the number and ex
tent of manufactures.
Great Britain was admitted on all hands to be the great
est manufacturing nation in the world, and the United States
the most agricultural. In England, only one-third of the
people were engaged in agriculture ; in the United States,
according to the census of 1810, seven-eighths were engaged
in this employment — in Great Britain, the consumption of
grain alone produced in that small island, not as large as
some of the States of this Union, was equal to $18,000,000
every week, more than double our exports of flour and grain
of all kinds to all the world. If she would take one week's
supply from us, we would be satisfied.
To show the beneficial effects of manufactures on the
value and productions of land, he would contrast the United
States and Great Britain, one being the most agricultural,
and the other the most manufacturing nation in the world,
which he thought would place the matter in a just and
clear light :
ON THE TARIFF. 187
No. employed Whole popula- No. of Value per No. of acres t
in agriculture. lation. acres. acre. each person.
In England 1-3 15,000,000 32,000,000 $241 2
United States 7-8 12,000,000 646.000,000 4 53
Ireland 2-5 7,000,000 20>0,000 180 3
Virginia 9-10 1,000,000 41,000,000 5 41
Here was exhibited, by a few facts, the most conclusive
and irresistible evidence of the powerful influence of manu
factures in sustaining agriculture. In England, where nearly
two-thirds of the people were manufacturers, land was worth
on an average $241 per acre, while in the United States,
where not more than one-eighth of the people were employed
in manufactures, the land on an average was not worth
more than $4 per acre; other causes, it was true, had their
influence, but this was the most important and influential.
The gentleman from Virginia [Mr. Randolph] had given
us a description of the miseries of Ireland, a people who, he
said, " lived on the potatoe, the whole potatoe, and nothing
but the potatoe/7 who he described as the lazeroni who were
reduced to the " minimum and pessimum of human exist
ence." Let the gentleman, however, for a moment compare
the resources of that country with his own native State, the
ancient dominion, and perhaps he would not think so con
temptibly of the Irish. In Ireland two-fifths of the people
only were engaged in agriculture, yet they exported more
grain and flour than the whole United States put together,
though it was not half as large as the State of Virginia. If
the gentleman would look at the exports of Ireland in the
year 1823 he would find that her exports of flour and grain
amounted to $9,000,000, while the whole exports of the
United States of these articles amounted to only $6,500,000,
leaving a balance in favor of Ireland of $2,500,000. In the
same year her exports of animals and animal productions
was $16,500,000, while those of the United States amounted
to only $2,500,000, leaving in her favor a balance of $14,-
000,000, which made an excess of grain and animal food ex
ported more tl#m the United States of $16,500,000, about
$3 to one. Her exports of butter alone amounted to
$8,500,000, while our whole exports of flour, grain, meat,
provisions, spirits, etc., amounted to only $9,000,000 to all
the world ! Yet her population was not half, and her ter
ritory not one-thirtieth part ours. There they had less
than three, and here we had more than fifty acres to each
individual ; there only two-fifths, and here nearly seven-
eighths were engaged in agriculture ; yet their agricultural
188 ON THE TARIFF.
exports of grain and provisions amounted, in 1812, to more
than double those of the whole United States. After this
statement of facts, which the gentleman could not controvert
or deny, how, he would ask, would old Virginia, as to re
sources, compare with Ireland, the land of the " lazeroni f "
This was the effect of manufactures and of persevering indus
try. But this was not all. By referring to the financial
history of Ireland, the gentleman from Virginia would also
find that the people of Ireland actually paid more revenue
into the Exchequer every year than was paid by the people
of the United States; and if he would look back to the year
1814, during our war, when every nerve was strained in this
country, and taxes were imposed on almost everything, with
all our exports we were able to raise only $34,500,000, and
$23,000,000 of this by loans, while Ireland raised in the
same year $82,000,000, more than double that of the United
States, $39,000,000 of which was raised by taxes, and $43,-
000,000 by loans. Such were the facts which history fur
nished ; and however humiliating they might be to our
pride, it was proper that we should look at them, inquire
into the causes, and correct the ruinous and paralyzing policy
which had led us to these extraordinary and painful results.
The remedy, he thought, was easy and obvious ; it was at
home — cherish and protect our own industry — protect it
against all foreign competition, in short, put the country
on its own resources instead of looking abroad for what we
ought to and can furnish at home. This is the true secret of
the system that enabled great Britain to stand under a bur
den which we could not sustain for a single hour. Look at
her enormous debt of $3,775,000,000, contracted during a
war of nearly twenty-three years, waged against the colossal
power of Napoleon, the interest of which alone amounted
annually to more than five times the whole revenue of the
United States. Great Britain adopted none of the maxims
of our Southern anti-tariff politicians, who contend that we
should " buy where we can buy cheapest." She compels
her manufacturers to consume British bread, and no other,
though it were offered to them for nothing. So far as free-
trade will make other nations tributary to her, she is willing
to adopt it, but no further. This was the part of wisdom,
and he hoped yet to see this nation adopt a similar policy.
Why was the price of agricultural produce high during
the late war ? Why was money plenty ? And why did in
dustry everywhere enjoy ample reward ? The reasons are
ON THE TARIFF. 189
obvious : it was because a part of our surplus agricultural
laborers were drawn off to another theatre of action, and thus
became consumers instead of producers, customers instead of
rivals; and because British manufacturers were then excluded,
and the millions of dollars before sent abroad were kept in
active circulation at home. Wretched, indeed, must be that
policy which makes war a blessing and peace a curse to the
country.
Mr. S. said he had examined the bill under consideration
with all the attention of which he was capable, and which
his situation had permitted, and he thought the burdens
which the bill, as reported, would impose on the manufac
turer, would not be compensated by corresponding benefits.
He trusted, however, it would be so amended as to benefit
the country, benefit the farmers, and save the manufacturers
from the ruin which impended over them, and which must
soon and certainly fall upon and crush them, unless shielded
and protected by the strong arm of Government. Mr. S.
said he would detain the committee no longer, he had ex
hausted his own strength, and no doubt their patience ; and
after thanking the House for the attention with which he
had been heard, he took his seat.
NOTE. — The amendments Mr. S. advocated were mostly
adopted, and the bill as passed the highest and best protec
tive tariff ever enacted, with but six votes against it in all
the Western and Middle States, New York included, and
eighty votes in said States for it.
THE ORIGIN OF THE COMMON SAYING, " I ACKNOWLEDGE
THE CORN."
During the debate on the tariff of 1828, when Mr. Stew
art first undertook to demonstrate to the American farmers
and laboring men that they were every year sending millions
of dollars in coin to Europe to pay for foreign agricultural
produce, converted by foreign labor into goods and sent here
for sale, thus enriching foreign farmers and laboring men,
instead of retaining these millions at home to enrich them
selves ; a farmer, he said, who goes into a store and buys
a hundred dollars' worth of foreign cloth, lace, iron, every
thing, what does he pay for? Agricultural produce, wool,
flax, or hemp, and the bread, meat, and vegetables consumed
by foreign labor while converting them into cloth. A yard
190 ON THE TARIFF.
of lace worth $6 is but $6 worth of foreign farm and garden
produce, consumed by some poor man or woman, whilst
making the lace, and who got barely what they eat for their
work, and that is what you pay for when you buy the lace. To
say that a lady carries $6 worth of bacon and beans, cab
bage and krout round her neck, converted into lace, may
seem strange, and it would be equally strange to say that
Western farmers in Ohio and Kentucky send their hay,
grass, corn, and other grain to New York and Philadelphia
to pay for foreign agricultural produce, converted into goods.
Here Mr. Wickliffe, of Kentucky, interposed, and said
"there never was a ton of hay or a bushel of corn or grain
of any other kind sent from Kentucky to Philadelphia or
New York."
"Will the gentleman, then, tell us," said Mr. S., "what
they do send?" Mr. W. replied, they send horses, cattle,
hogs. Very well, then, how much grass, grain, hay, and
other produce does a farmer put into the skin of a horse worth
$100 ? Just $100 worth, which, thus animated with life
and legs, carries this $100 worth of produce to Philadelphia
and New York, with the owner on top of it (a laugh). And
how much of like produce does a fat ox worth $50 carry to
the Eastern market? Just $50 worth. And how much
does a fat hog worth $10 carry ? Just $10 worth of corn.
Here Mr. Wickliffe sprang to his feet and exclaimed, amid
much laughter, "Mr. Speaker, I acknowledge the corn."
This went into the papers, and it is said gave rise to the
common saying, " / acknowledge the corn."
CONTRASTING THE REPUBLICAN PROTEC
TIVE TARIFF OF 1842, WITH THE DEMO
CRATIC FREE-TRADE TARIFF OF 1846, AND
SHOWING THE EFFECTS OF THE POLICY
OF THE TWO PARTIES GENERALLY UPON
THE REVENUE AND PROSPERITY OF THE
COUNTRY.
DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, U. S.,
ON THE llth DAY OF JUNE, 1848.
[Extract from Speech.]
THE President and secretary both repeat, that the tariff
of 1846 has not only greatly increased the national pros
perity, but that it has actually increased the revenue
$8,000,000. Now, so far from this being true, it clearly
appears from the secretary's own showing, that the revenue
would have been $7,202,657 more, had the tariff of 1842
continued in operation. So that instead of gaining $8,000,-
000, we have lost more than $7,000,000 of revenue by the
tariff of 1846— a blunder of more than $15,000,000 in a
single year !
Now, for the facts I refer gentlemen to the first pages of
Mr. Walker's last three annual Reports on the Finances-;
they will there see it statecTTHat, in the fiscal year 1845, the
revenue from customs was $27,528,112 — that in 1846, the
revenue was $26,712,667 — producing an average amount
of revenue, under the tariff of 1842, of $27,120,389.
Whereas, in 1847, under Mr. Walker's great revenue tariff
of 1846, he himself states that the revenue from customs is
but $23,747,864 — nearly three millions less than in 1846,
and nearly four millions less than in 1845. Yet we are told,
in the face of these official facts, that the tariff of 1846 has
increased the revenue $8,000,000. But this is not all ; by
referring to the secretary's late Report on Commerce and
Navigation, (not yet printed,) it will be seen that the duti
able imports in 1847 were $10,365 404 more than in 1845.
191
192 PROTECTIVE AND FREE-TRADE TARIFFS.
under the tariff of 1842; and had it been still in force, this
excess, at 32 per cent., (the average of the duties under the
tariff of 1842,) would have yielded $3,416,429 of revenue,
which, added to the excess of revenue received in 1845 over
1847, $3,786,228, makes the sum of $7,202,657 more
revenue under the tariff of 1842, had it remained in opera
tion, than has been received under the tariff of 1846. Now
what becomes of the secretary's $8,000,000 of increased
revenue? Instead of $8,000,000 plus, his tariff of 1846 is
$7,000,000 minus. Or to prove it in another and simpler
form, Mr. Walker says the average of duties under the tariff
of 1842 was 32 per cent., and under the act of 1846, they
are 22 per cent. — consequently, the revenue upon the same
imports must be one-third less. So that instead of $23,-
747,864, the amount received under the existing law, we
should have received, under the tariff of 1842, one-third
more, viz.: $31,663,812. These are mathematical results,
derived from Mr. Walker's own reports, and there is no
escape for him or his defenders. I call on them to deny it,
if they can. But besides all this, Mr. Wajker, in his annual
report last winter, page 1, estimates the receipts from cus
toms for the fiscal yea^~1847, at $27,835,731; he has
received, he says, but $23,747,864 — four millions less than
his estimates. Yet the President and secretary both boast
that the tariff of 1846 has more than realized their expecta
tions. Now, if $4,000,000 less than their estimate equals
their expectations, then they must have, for the purpose of
deception, deliberately made their estimate $4,000,000 more
than they expected to receive. Can the secretary explain
this? I hope he'll try, but I predict he will not.
But Mr. Walker contends that the tariff of 1846, having
greatly increased the export of domestic products, has, as a
matter of course, brought in a corresponding increase of
imports and revenue. But has the tariff of 1846 increased
the amount of domestic exports ? I say it has not, and I
shall prove it by Mr. Walker's own figures. I shall show
conclusively that the only increase of exports has been in
breadstuffs and provisions, required to prevent starvation,
and would have been taken to the same extent, and paid for
in the same way, without regard to our tariff, or anything
of the kind. Now take the export of domestic products
for ten years, from 1835 to 1845, and deduct therefrom
the amount of breadstuffs and provisions, and it will be
found that the annual export of domestic products, exclusive
PROTECTIVE AND FREE-TRADE TARIFFS. 193
of breadstuffs and provisions, was §91,813,589; then take
the export of domestic products during the last fiscal year,
under the tariff of 1846, viz.: $150,637,464, and deduct the
breadstuffs and provisions, $65,906,273, and it leaves of
everything else but $84,720,191— more than $7,000,000
less of domestic exports last year, exclusive of provisions
and breadstuffs, than the average of the preceding ten years ;
yet, in the face of these facts, furnished by his official
Report on Commerce and Navigation, he gravely tells the
American people that free-trade and the tariff of 1846, and
not the famine in Europe, have produced the great increase
of exports and imports. The report not being printed, I
cannot refer to the pages from which I derive these facts,
but they are accessible to gentlemen who wish to inquire.
Next as to the modus operand^ the plan by which the
President and secretary attempt to make it out that they
have received more revenue under the tariff of 1846 than
was received under that of 1842. How is this done? It
is done by cutting up the years ; taking a few months of one
year, and a few months of another — five months under the
tariff of 1842 and seven under the tariff of 1846. Now
everybody knows that the tariff of 1846 was passed in July,
and did not go into operation till December; during this
period of four or five months, imports paying duties were
almost entirely arrested. The fact being that the duties
would in a few months be greatly reduced, a very large
amount of goods, which would have come in and paid duty
according to the then existing tariff of 1842, were withheld
till the duties came down. They were piled up in ware
houses, or kept in bond till the tariff of 1846 and low duties
took effect; besides, goods which had paid heavy duties
were re-exported, and the duties withdrawn from the
Treasury, to be returned when the duties came down — thus
a pipe of brandy, for instance, which, under the tariff of
1842, had paid one dollar per gallon duty, the owner, by
re-exporting it with a drawback of the duty, and re
importing it immediately after the tariff of 1846 took effect,
reducing the duty nearly one-half, would clear forty cents a
gallon; thus robbing the tariff of 1842, and giving its
/ revenue to the tariff of 1846. During this period of five
/ months, of course little revenue, in. comparison, was coming
J in, though the country was still nominally under the tariff
of 1842. Now these are the months which this very candid
secretary takes for his estimate of the produce of the tariff
13
-/I .
194 PROTECTIVE AND FREE-TRADE TARIFFS.
of 1842. As soon as the reduced tariff of 1846 went into
operation, all these goods, which had been held back waiting
for the reduced duties, were at once poured in, and in pours
revenue by millions. The goods and duties withdrawn
from the tariff of 1842 now return under the tariff of 1846 ;
and these are the months which this truth-seeking secretary
takes, as showing the comparative product .of this model
tariff, contrasted with five months of the tariff of 1842,
giving a little over $7,000,000 for five months ; when, for
two years before, the revenue had exceeded an average of
$27,000,000 ! And this is put forth as a fair comparison.
He might as well compare the strength of a giant and that
of a child, by putting down what the giant could lift when
on a sick bed and in his last hours, and what the child
could lift in the vigor of health, and under a sudden and
violent excitement. Would this be a very satisfactory way
of proving that the child was stronger than the giant ? Yet
the comparison would be just as fair.
The next thing the learned secretary attempts to prove is,
that under low duties more revenue is always obtained than
under high duties. To show this, he selects ten years'
income under high tariffs, and ten years under a low one.
He selects ten years, from 1832 to 1842, under the compro
mise bill, for his low tariff, and ten years, under the high
tariffs of 1824 and 1828, with two years under the tariff of
1842, as the high tariff period. Now, I assert that in these
very years, his own figures prove that we got $82,000,000
more under the high tariff than we did under the low. For
the proof, I refer gentlemen and the secretary to his own
official Report on the Finances in 1845, page 956. Here
you have his own report. Take it down, gentlemen; I
desire you to make a minute of what I state, for what I say
I can prove. I hope the ex-chancellor of the exchequer
[Mr. McKay] will pay special attention'to these statements.
I say, on Mr. Walker's own showing, that under the ten
years of low tariff the receipts were $214,885,858, and that
under the high tariff years the receipts were $297,842,215.
The difference in favor of the high tariff is $82,956,356—
$8,295,635 per year ; and yet the secretary and the Presi
dent say that all experience proves that low tariffs give the
most revenue! I refer (said Mr. S.) to date, book, and
page. Let them look at it. I want Mr. Walker himself to
look at it. I suppose when he sent us his report, with all
these confident statements, supported by figures too, he
PROTECTIVE AND FREE-TRADE TARIFFS.
195
thought it would answer its purpose. He owes it to his
character for truth and candor to come out and admit or
deny this statement, or authorize some friend to do it for
him on this floor. Will it be done? We shall see.* Here
are the tables taken carefully from Mr. Walker's report :
Revenue, for ten years, under low tariff,
from 1833 to 1842.
Revenue for ten years, under the high
tariffs of 1824, 1828, and 1842.
1833 $24,177,578
1834 18,960,705
1835 25.890,726
1836 30,818,327
1837 18,134,131
183S 19,702,825
1839 25.554.533
1840 15,104,790
1841 19,919,492
1842 16,622,746
1825 $31.653,871
1826 26,083,861
1827 27,948,956
1828 29,951,251
1829 27,688,701
1830 28,389,505
1831 36,596,118
1832 29,341.175
1844 29,236,357
1845 30,952,416
$214,885,853
$297,842.211
214,885,853
Difference in favor of high tariffs, in ten years $82,956,358
Loss of revenue, in ten years, under the low tariff,
$8,295,635 per annum.
THE COMPARATIVE EFFECTS OF HIGH AND LOW TARIFFS
ON EXPORTS AND IMPORTS — BALANCE OF TRADE, ETC.
The Secretary affirms that the balance of trade is always
in our favor under a low tariff; that our exports exceed our
imports, and that the exports of breadstuff's and provisions
are especially increased. Now I say that, deducting the im
ports during the ten years of high tariffs, selected by the
secretary for comparison, from the imports during the ten
years of low tariffs, and it will appear that the balance
against the country under the low tariff was $401,976,076 —
equal to $40,197,607 a year; and, deducting during each
period the goods re-exported, the balance against the country
would be increased to the sum of $423,455,724. And how
had it been paid ? By $200,000,000 of State bonds sent to
Europe to pay for goods, a mercantile debt of nearly an
equal amount, resulting at the end of the low duty period,
* No answer was ever given, or explanation made or attempted.
196
PEOTECTIVE ASTD FEEE-TRADE TARIFFS.
in 1840, 741, and 742, in repudiation and bankruptcy, State,
National, and individual, throughout the land. Yet we are
told by the President and Secretary that low duties produce
prosperity, National and individual, and especially the pros
perity of the farmers and laborers — of the " toiling millions/'
" the voters " — those who control the policy and measures
of Government. Yes, sir, these are the very men they would
thus deceive and ruin. Here are the tables of exports and
imports, taken from Mr. Walker's Annual Report on the
Finances, dated December 3, 1845, page 956 :
Imports in ten years under low tariff
or compromise bill.
Imports in ten years under the high tariffs
of 1824, 1828 and 1842.
1833 $108,118.311
1834 126,521,332
1835 149,895,742
1836 189,980.035
1837 140,989,217
1838 113,717,404
1839 162,092,132
1840 107,141,519
1841 127,946,177
1842 100,162,087
$1,326,563.956
924,587,880
$401,976,076
1825 9 96,340,075
1826 84,974,477
1827 79,484.068
1828 88,509,824
1829 74,492,527
1830 70,876,920
1831 103,191,124
1832 101,029,266
1844 108,435,035
1845 117,254,564
$924,587,880
Excess of imports in ten years
of low tariff, $401,000,000. Equal
to $40,000,000 a year against the
country.
Yet we are told that low tariffs always favor the country
and promote the national prosperity.
But this is not all. Take the exports from the imports
during these ten years of low duties, and it will be found
that the debt against the people of the United States in favor
of foreigners is, $176,166,242. What a sum of national
prosperity is here exhibited ! But there was another very
important fact he wished here to bring to the attention of
the House and the country — it was this : that, during eight
years of the highest tariifs, of 1824 and 1828, one hundred
and three millions of surplus revenue were applied to the pay
ment of the public debt, and that during a corresponding
period of eight years of low duties under the compromise
bill, after wasting $40,000,000 of surplus revenue, a debt
of about $40,000,000 was contracted ; showing a failure of
PROTECTIVE AND FREE-TRADE TARIFFS. 197
revenue to meet expenditures, under the low duties, of about
$80,000,000 in eight years ; and it further appears, that after
the tariff was raised, in 1842, there were paid in the four years
of its existence nearly $40,000,000 of public debt ; and now,
since the repeal of the tariff of 1842, and the restoration of
low duties, the revenue has again run down, and the national
debt is again running up at the rate of $40,000,000 or $50,-
000,000 a year. Here are facts that speak volumes as to
the effect of high and low tariffs on the revenue and national
prosperity. What a commentary is this on Polk and Walker's
theory of low duties producing high revenue, and high tariffs
producing low revenue !
Such is the evidence in favor of Mr. Walker's position,
that low tariffs always turn the balance of trade in our favor.
Such are the happy effects of his policy of free-trade. Low
tariffs always have been, and always will be, the ruin of the
country. Let any man look at the scenes of general distress
which always have followed this insane policy; the ruin of
flourish ing establishments, the multiplication of-bankrupteies,
the advertisements of sheriffs' sales, the destruction of credit
and confidence, the prostration of enterprise, the stagnation
of trade, and general condition of discontent and misery
which have invariably succeeded the adoption of these false
and visionary theories, and he will find one of the best cri-
terions to judge of their political soundness. And such, I
say, will always be the consequence of a repetition of the
experiment. Mr. Walker says that they never have fol
lowed. I say they always have. Their whole theory is a
mistake, and practice will ever so prove it to be; and when
it is put forth in the very face of facts which every intel
ligent man knows, it is difficult to resist the conclusion
that there is an object to be attained by misleading the public
mind.
Again : The secretary asserts that low duties have always
been accompanied l>v a greatly increased export of bread-
stuffs. And he attributes the sudden augmentation in those
exports during the last season, not to the famine in Ireland,
and over the South of Europe — not at all ; but solely to his
model tariff of 1846 ! That is what has done it all. Low
duties, not starvation, have induced the people of the old
world suddenly to eat Indian meal, and call out for American
flour and American beef. But I wish to ask him — and I
put the same question to Southern gentlemen in this House —
if this reduction of duties is the thing which has produced
198 PROTECTIVE AND FREE-TRADE TARIFFS.
so large an export of breadstuff's, pray why had it not, in this
same degree, increased the exports of cotton and tobacco ?
The export of cotton under this model tariff of our model
President has been less by $4,000,000 than the average ex
ports of ten years past (from 1835 to 1845), less of tobacco
by a million and a half — less of manufactures by nearly
$2,000,000 — less of the productions of the forest — less of
almost every thing but breadstuffs and provisions. How is
this to be accounted for ? Dr. Walker's specific of '46 has a
double operation — purgative as to breadstuffs and provisions,
but astringent as to everything else. Who can doubt that
famine, and nothing but famine, has produced this greatly
increased exportation of breadstuffs? *
But what produced this falling off under this beautiful
free-trade policy ? Was that, too, the fruit of the tariff of
1846 ? Why has there been no increased exports of cotton?
Southern gentlemen, cotton-growers, how is this? And you,
ye tobacco-growers, how comes it that, under Mr. Walker's
patent machine to increase exports, the export of tobacco has
fallen off a million and a half? What say you to that? Was
this the happy effect of the tariff of 1846 ? The secretary
tells us that the starvation in Europe has had little or nothing
to do with the consumption there of our breadstuffs; nothing
whatever. Well, the starvation has ceased, breadstuffs are
down, and now the redoubtable Mr. Secretary Walker is
like to be caught in his own trap ! I tell you that in a few
weeks more the corn laws in England, sliding scale and all,
will be in full operation. They were merely suspended, not
repealed, during the famine ; and now, when the famine is
over, and Mr. Walker is caught in Sir Robert PeeFs trap,
the corn laws go into full effect on the first day of March
next, and then exports cease, the revenue falls off, and Mr.
Walker will have to appeal to us to restore the tariff of
1842, to replenish his empty sub-treasury, and feed his
starving armies and officers, civil and military, at home and
abroad.
Referring again to the low tariff period, from 1833 to
1842, under the compromise bill, and the high tariff period,
from 1817 to 1832, the secretary says, "The average exports
of breadstuffs and provisions were much larger in the years
of low, compared with high duties." Indeed, he repeats
* Congress passed a bill to send provisions to relieve the starving people of
Ireland.
PROTECTIVE AND FREE-TRADE TARIFFS.
199
this over and over again, that the " export of breadstuffs
and provisions was much greater under low than high
duties," which he says " the tables of the Treasury clearly
prove" Now, I propose to examine these tables, and will
" clearly prove by them" just the reverse of the secretary's
position, to an extent that will astonish the secretary him
self, if he can be astonished at anything. I will show that,
during four years of the period referred to, under the tariff
of 1828, the highest tariff we ever had, we actually exported
to Great Britain more than one hundred times as much bread-
stuffs and provisions as we did during four years under the
low duties of the compromise bill.
[Mr. Holmes said, you mean, I presume, one hundred per
cent., not one hundred times more.]
I mean, said Mr. S., what I say, one hundred times more.
[J/r. Holmes — Please, give me the facts* ]
Mr. 8. — I will, and I want you to take them down — ex
amine them at your leisure, and disprove them if you can ;
here are the facts taken from the annual Treasury Reports
on " Commerce and Navigation," carefully revised by an
officer of this House. I refer to Great Britain, not only
because she is our principal customer, but because Mr. Wal
ker has referred particularly to our exports of breadstuffs to
England, and says, we must take more of her goods, or
" she will have to pay specie for our breadstuffs, and not
having it to spare, she will reduce the price of cotton." But
here is the table from Mr. Walker's report which he would
give to the gentleman from South Carolina [Mr. Holmes]
for his special attention.
Four years
under high
tariff of 1828.
Imports
from Great
Britain.
Exports of
breadstuffs
to Great
Britain.
Four years
under low
tariff,
Comp'se bill.
Imports
from Great
Britain.
Exports of
breadstuffs
to Great
Britain.
1829 . ...
$27 000 000
$1,777.124
1835
$66.000,00(1
$28,917
1830
26 000 000
1 606,738
1836
86,000.000
1,684
1831
47 000 000
5 578 592
1837
52,000.000
1,402
1832
42 000 000
541 787
1838
49,000,000
62,626
Average p. year.
$142,000,000
$35,500,000
$0,504.241
$2,376,050
$253,000.000
$63,250,000
$94,629
$23,657
Thus it appears, from Mr. Walker's own official docu
ments, that during four years of our highest tariff — the
tariff of 1828 — we took about half as many goods from
Great Britain, and she took one hundred times as much of
our breadstuffs as she took during four years of our lowest
tariff. Yet, Mr. Walker repeats, over and over again, that
200 PROTECTIVE AND FREE-TRADE TARIFFS.
our export of breadstuff's has always been greater under low
tariffs than under high tariffs, and refers to Treasury tables
to prove it ! Has Mr. Walker looked at these reports ? Does
he know what they contain ? He surely does not, or he
never would have ventured upon such statements as these.
Here it is seen that, in 1836, we took 86,000,000 of dollars'
worth of goods from Great Britain, and she took 1684 dol
lars' worth of breadstuffs from us in payment ! Yet Mr.
Walker says in his report of 1845, page 13, that we must
take more English goods, otherwise " the increased sum Eng
land will have to pay for our breadstuffs we will not take
in manufactures, but only in specie, and not having it to
spare, she brings down, even to a greater extent, our cotton/'
86,000,000 of British goods will not pay for 1684 dollars'
worth of American breadstuffs, and the balance England
will have to pay " in specie, and not having it to spare,"
will bringdown the price of our cotton ! Is not this "cool"
— is it not wonderful ?
But Mr. Walker says the farmers are particularly bene
fited by free-trade and low duties; the dear farmers — "the
toiling millions" — the "voters" — who control the affairs
of Government; these, he says, are the men most benefited.
Benefited by what? By importing, as in 1836, 86,000,000
of dollars' worth of British breadstuffs, raw materials and
labor combined in the form of British goods, in exchange
for 1684 dollars' worth of breadstuffs taken from us! What
makes foreign goods? Agricultural produce and labor —
nothing else. The raw material and provisions constitute
more than half of the value of all foreign goods, and the
balance of the price is made up of the wages of labor and
profits of capital ; these are the elements, and the whole of
the elements, of price ; and this is, in fact, what the Ame
rican farmer pays his money for when he buys foreign goods
— foreign agricultural produce, and foreign labor — while
American farmers are left without a market for their wool
and provisions, and their money sent to import it, in the
form of cloth and other articles, from abroad. Is this not
true to the letter? Yet this, we are told, is the policy to
favor American farmers !
Mr. Walker talks much of breadstuffs. His report is
stuffed with breadstuffs, " ad nauseam" It was a fact sus
ceptible of the clearest proof, that from the day of our in
dependence to the present hour, we have imported twenty
dollars' worth of breadstuffs in the form of goods from Great
PROTECTIVE AND FREE-TRADE TARIFFS. 201
Britain, to one dollar's worth she has taken from us in their
raw form. What proportion of the price of goods was
made up of the breadstuffs consumed by the labor employed
in producing the raw materials, and afterwards in convert
ing them into goods ? Take a ton of iron, or a yard of silk,
it was all labor — labor from the ore to the anchor, from the
worm and leaf to the finished ribbon — all labor. And what
did this labor get ? It got what it eat — breadstuffs — bread,
and hardly enough of that ; and this is what we pay our
money for when we buy foreign goods. Taking this view
of the subject, Mr. Brown, a distinguished British writer,
has lately said, that " Great Britain exports more agricultu
ral produce than any other nation in the world " — exported
in the form of goods. Now, he wished to inquire, what
part of the value of foreign goods consisted of breadstuffs;
he believed one-half would be a fair calculation, but to pre
vent cavil, say one-eighth. And what follows ? It follows
mathematically, that in 1836, under Mr. Walker's low tariff,
we imported from Great Britain, in the form of goods,
sixty-three dollars and eighty-three cents worth of British
breadstuffs to every centos worth she took from us in its raw
state. Here are the facts; and Mr. Walker, who is great
at figures, can make the calculation for himself. In 1836,
we imported 86,000,000 of dollars' worth of British goods,
and she took 1684 dollars' worth of our breadstuffs — that
is §510.68 worth of British goods to one cent's worth of
our breadstuffs. Now, assuming that one-eighth part of the
price of goods is made up of the breadstuffs consumed by
the labor employed in their manufacture, and it will amount,
as stated, to sixty-three dollars and eighty-three cents7 worth
of breadstuffs imported from Great Britain in 1836, to one
cent's worth that she took from us ; and yet Mr. Walker
says, we must take more British goods, otherwise she "will
have to pay us specie for our breadstuffs, and not having it
to spare, she will not pay as much for our cotton ! " What
a financier — what a statesman is this, whose report is pro
claimed by his friends to be "the greatest production of the
age/' He reduces duties one-half to increase the revenue.
And how? By doubling our imports of British goods, made
up of British agricultural produce and British labor, to
favor American farmers, mechanics, and workingmen — "the
toiling millions." No wonder his report was printed by
order of the British House of Lords, of which Mr. Walker
speaks with so much pride and exultation. And the gentle-
202
PROTECTIVE AND FREE-TRADE TARIFFS.
man from Illinois [Mr. McClernand] is in ecstasies with
the Report; and he too tells us of the wonders the tariff of
1846 has done for his constituents, and for the farmers and
grain-growers of the West; free-trade, low duties, and Bri
tish goods, are the very thing for them. Now, he wished to
tell the gentleman one thing, and he hoped he would take
it down and examine it — it was this : that under the low
tariff in 1836, his constituents (assuming that they consume
goods and export breadstuff's in proportion to the rest of the
people of the United States) purchased and consumed 373,-
000 of dollars' worth of British goods, containing 46,000 of
dollars' worth of breadstuffs, being one-eighth of their value,
to every seven dollars' worth of breadstuffs Great Britain
took from them ; this result was produced by dividing the
whole amount of imports of goods and exports of bread-
stuffs by 230, the number of Representatives on this floor.
To show that these calculations were correct, he would fur
nish the following table, which he commended to the care
ful examination and consideration of the farmers and grain-
growers of the United States, taken from Mr. Walker's
report.
YEARS.
Amount of imports
from Great Britain.
Am't of breadstuff's
imported in goods
estimated at % of
their value.
Am't of breadstuffs
exported to Great
Britain from U. S.
UNDER HIGH TARIFF.
1829
$27,000,000
$3 375 000
$1 777 124
1880
26,000,000
3,250,000
3,606,738
1831
47,000,000
5 875 000
5 578 592
1832
42,000,000
5,250,000
541.787
Total
Average of 4 years..
$142,000,000
35,500,000
$17,750,000
4,437,500
$9,504,241
2,376,060
UNDRR Low TARIFF.
1835
1836
$66,000,000
86,000,000
$8,250,000
10,750,000
$28,917
1 684
1837
52 000 000
6 500 000
1 402
1838
49,000,000
6,125,000
62,626
Total
$253,000,000
$31,625,000
$94,629
Average of 4 years..
63,250,000
7,906,250
23,657
1836
$86,000 000
$10 750,000
$1 684
Goods imported.
Breadstuff's imported.
Breadstuffs exported.
THE EFFECT OF LOW DUTIES AND FREE-TRADE ON LABOR
AND PRICES.
Thus it appears that the learned secretary's facts and his
theories are always at war. His Utopian schemes look
PEOTECTIVE AND FREE-TRADE TARIFFS. 203
exceeding well till his facts are brought to bear upon them,
then they vanish into thin air. Unfortunately for Mr.
Walker, ingenuity cannot overcome truth, for "truth is
mighty and will prevail." To show the contradictory cha
racter of Mr. Walker's reports, he would here cite a few out
of a great many instances.
In one part of his report the secretary boasts of the happy
effects of the tariff of 1846, in reducing taxes, lightening the
burdens of the poor, of the " toiling millions." In some
instances, he says, they have been reduced from 100 and
200 per cent, down to 20 and 30. On bar iron the duty
had been brought down from 75 to 30 per cent. — from $25
to §10 per ton; on the poor man's coal, the duty had been,
reduced from 67 down to 30 per cent. — more than half the
tax had been taken off foreign coal ; now, this all looks very
well for the consumers of iron and coal, but after a while he
comes to speak of another class of the " toiling millions ;"
the voters of Pennsylvania, who make iron and dig coal ;
and now hear what this consistent secretary tells them. He
tells them that the tariff of 1846 is the very thing for them;
he congratulates them on the fact that " coal and iron are
in greater demand, are bringing better prices than before the '
the repeal of the tariff of 1842 ;" these are his very words, j
Now, how the tariff of 1846 can at the same time reduce the ;
prices of iron and coal to favor consumers and raise them to '
favor producers, is a theory I cannot understand — it is an
up and down, yes and no operation, which will puzzle the
ingenuity of the secretary himself to explain. But, then,
he has another, and a worse difficulty to explain. The
object of the tariff of 1846 was to increase the revenue.
Now, what has been its effect? It has destroyed more '
than half the revenue arising from these very articles, with
out benefit to any body but the foreign importer who sells us
his iron, according to Mr. Walker, for a " better price," pays
ten dollars instead of twenty-five into Mr. Walker's empty
sub-treasury, puts the fifteen dollars as additional profits into
his pocket, which, under the tariff of 1842, he would have
paid into the treasury. Now the same thing may be said
of coal — instead of a duty of six cents a bushel, the foreign
importer now pays less than three, sells his coal at a " better
price," and fobs the difference. Who then does Mr. Walker's
tariff benefit? The foreigner, and the foreigner only, at
the expense of the American treasury and the American
people. Salt was another article illustrating the folly of
204 PROTECTIVE AND FREE-TRADE TARIFFS.
low duties, the effect of which was to destroy revenue and
increase prices; the prices are increased by diminishing
home supply, and giving the foreigner the control of the
market, and the revenue is reduced by the operation. Nearly
three-fourths of the duty was taken off salt to favor the
poor — the result is, that foreign salt has raised 25 per cent.,
and the treasury has lost three-fourths of the revenue.
And yet Mr. Walker insists that his tariff favors the poor
and increases the revenue ! The same thing is true in an
infinite variety of similar cases, which he had not time now
to particularize; he would, however, refer to one or two,
for the benefit of the South — the cotton-growers, the great
admirers of the tariff of 1846. Now how has it affected these
gentlemen ? The duty had been greatly reduced on cotton-
bagging ; this checked the domestic supply, and the price, I
am credibly informed, has increased from twelve cents per
yard, under the tariff of 1842, to twenty cents under the glori
ous free-trade tariff of 1846. The treasury getting less, and
the consumer paying more ; the price of the cotton itself has
been reduced nearly one-third, amounting to a loss on the
cotton crop of $20,000,000. Cotton, under the tariff of
1842, brought ten cents per pound, it is now down to seven,
and still declining. The sugar business, I am told, has
fared even worse than the cotton. Mr. Walker is himself
obliged to admit that the cotton interest has suffered ; and
what Southern interest has not? The injury is universal,
and the suffering must soon become so. The famine and the
potato had saved, for the moment, the North and West ; but
that over, and the floods of foreign goods will soon sweep
away their last dollar. Such always has been and always
will be the effect of low duties. Nothing but war and famine
have saved this administration ; it is now the daily bread it
feeds upon ; destroy the war at home, and the famine abroad,
and it cannot survive an hour.
Before leaving this topic, he wished to make one other
remark, it was this: that it appeared from the treasury
reports, that the imports of iron, coal, salt, etc., had been
very little increased, so that the treasury had actually lost
more than half the revenue on these articles, amounting to
several millions of dollars, which was so much clear gain to
the foreign importer, while Mr. Walker's "poor people"
had been obliged to pay more for these necessaries of life,
imported from abroad, than they had to pay under the
oppressive and much abused tariff of 1842, when produced
at home.
PROTECTIVE AND FREE-TRADE TARIFFS. 205
But there is another position taken by Mr. Walker in
favor of the free-trade theory, which I cannot let pass unno
ticed. Mr. Walker distinctly avows it to be his purpose
and his policy, to prevent " the substitution of rival domestic
products" for similar foreign goods. This purpose was
more than once avowed by Mr. Walker in his celebrated
report of 1845. It is his declared policy to put down the
productions of American industry, American "rival pro
ducts," and give the American market to our foreign
" rivals." And these are the principles and the policy openly
avowed by an American Secretary, and sanctioned by an
American President — to prefer the productions of foreign to
those of American industry — to send away of our money, $50,-
000,000 more than was required under the tariff of 1842, to get
the same amount of revenue. And why send this fifty addi
tional millions to support and enrich foreign labor, instead
of our own ? Why destroy the markets for fifty millions of
the productions of American agriculture and American labor
combined, and supply its place with the productions of
foreign agriculture and foreign labor? I demand a reason
for preferring foreign to American productions. I ask our
President and Secretary, why they prefer foreign hats, shoes,
boots, coats — everything they eat, drink, and wear — to those
of American manufacture ? Why they prefer foreign sugar,
salt, iron, and coal, when our resources are abundant and
inexhaustible, and our labor ready and willing, with proper
protection and encouragement, to bring them forth ? But
no! This must not be permitted. " Domestic rival pro
ducts" must not, says Mr. Walker, be substituted for those
of foreign countries, and especially for those of England ;
for, says Mr. Walker, if we don't take more British goods,
" England will have to pay specie for our breadstuff's, and
not having it to spare, she will bring down the price of our
cotton." No wonder this report was printed in the House
of Lords; and its author would appear much better advo
cating such doctrines before the House of Lords, than before
our American Congress. They were British doctrines — not
American ; and they must be so pronounced by every true
American heart. Yet we are told, that Mr. Polk is " the
model President," and Mr. Walker, the " model" Secretary ;
and a pretty pair of "models" they are. [A laugh.] Queen
Vic. would surely grant a patent for such " model " Ameri
can statesmen as these. But let them look out. Old Rough
is coming, with his check shirt and home made coat, to
206 PEOTECTIVE AND FREE-TRADE TARIFFS.
pitch all these miserable models and British doctrines over
board, to go where they belong.
But, sir, Mr. Walker's ostensible object is revenue. He
reduces duties to increase revenue, and this can only be done
by increasing imports in a greater ratio than the reduction
of duties — for instance: he has reduced the duty on hats
from 50 to 30 per cent. ; on shoes, from 45 to 30 per cent. ;
on ready-made clothing he has reduced the duties from 50
to 30 per cent. ; on smith work, from 61 to 30, making
an average reduction of more than 40 per cent, on these
articles. This will, of course, diminish the revenue 40 per
cent, unless the imports are increased in the same propor
tion. Now, why import two-fifths more shoes, hats, clothing
ready-made, and blacksmith work from abroad, and throw
our own mechanics out of employment, to beg or starve, and
give our money to foreigners by millions, without adding a
cent to the revenue — robbing American industry of its just
rewards, and giving it to foreigners; and this is the way
Mr. Walker favors and supports American labor, the " toil
ing millions? "
A DIALOGUE.
Suppose Mr. Walker calls to settle with his hatter on the
Avenue, Mr. Tod, saying, "Sir, I am sorry to leave you,
but I must get my hats from England hereafter, to enable
her to pay me a high price for cotton ; but remember, sir, I
am a great friend to the ' mechanics and workingmen,' and
particularly to the ' voters ; ' " would not Mr. Tod be very
apt to tell him that he would vote for those who supported
American industry and American mechanics, instead of
foreigners, and would he not be very likely to receive the
same kind of comfort from his tailor, shoemaker, blacksmith,
and all?
Suppose Mr. Walker next addresses the iron, the woolen,
the cotton, the paper, the glass, and other manufacturers of
the United States, saying, "gentlemen, you must cease to
substitute your ' domestic products } for foreign goods ; and
to compel you to do so, I have taken off more than half the
duty levied by the tariff of 1842 on the foreign ' rival pro
ducts.' " But why, they may say, Mr. Walker, thus destroy
American capital and American labor, giving our money
and our market to foreigners? Why send millions of
money abroad to purchase foreign wool, and other agricul
tural produce — breadstuff^, and raw materials in disguise — •
PROTECTIVE AND FREE-TRADE TARIFFS. 207
fashioned into goods, which we can better supply at home,
made of American agricultural produce, and saving millions
and hundreds of millions of dollars to fill up the channels
of circulation at home, making our own, instead of foreign
countries prosperous? "Well, there is some force in this.
But gentlemen," says Mr. Walker, " I reduce the duties to
increase the revenue. How will you answer this, gentle
men ? " The answer, sir, is plain ; these low duties never
did, and never will increase revenue. The revenue has
always gone up and down with the duties, they being the
source of revenue. In this country, where the revenue is a
voluntary, and not a compulsory contribution, by the people
to the Government, the way to make a rich treasury is to
make a rich and prosperous people. Send your money
abroad, break down and impoverish your own citizens, and
you, of course, impoverish your treasury. When do people
purchase and consume rich goods, paying high duties?
When they have the ability, when they are prosperous.
When do they abstain ? When they are poor, and without
money. If you wish, sir, to enrich your exchequer, give
protection and prosperity to your own people, as the one
is always the consequence of the other. " But, gentlemen,"
says Mr. Walker, "I have another reason for reducing
duties, it is to favor the 'poor — the toiling millions' — by
reducing the price of their goods." Well, sir, how is this?
Have you done it? You tell us that you have, by the
tariff of 1846, reduced the duties on iron, coal, salt, and
many other leading articles, more than one-half, and yet
you yourself tell us in your late official report, that the
prices of these articles are now higher, under the tariff of
1846, than they were before the repeal of the tariff of 1842!
Can you explain this ? " Well, gentlemen, not exactly —
not at this moment." Well, sir, will you allow us to do it?
"Certainly, gentlemen, certainly, if you please." Well, sir,
by destroying protection, and opening our ports to foreign
ers, you alarm capital — you check investments — you break
down competition, and you, of course, diminish supply and
increase prices. " Demand and supply regulate prices."
Give protection, increase your machinery, start new factories,
stimulate competition, increase suppjy, and you reduce prices.
This, sir, is a law of trade, as certain in its operations as the
ebbing and flowing of the tides. " Well, gentlemen, I am
not practically acquainted with these matters. I am a
cotton-grower, I wish to make money plenty, and prices
208 PROTECTIVE AND FREE-TRADE TARIFFS.
high abroad where I sell, and make it scarce and prices low
at home where I buy; I want to sell in a high, and buy in
a low market. I have not now time to discuss this question-
further. I am very busy, I must go to the Treasury, but I
beg you to believe that I am the special friend of the
American mechanics, workingmen, and particularly the
voters. Good-bye, I must be off."
But Mr. Walker has not only reduced the duties on the
productions of American mechanics, but he has reduced
still more the duties on the luxuries of the rich. Among
the rest, he has reduced the duty on foreign brandy and
spirits distilled from grain nearly one-half; and this, too, is
done to increase the revenue. We must, therefore, import
and drink double as much brandy and spirits as we did
under the tariff of 1842, otherwise Mr. Walker will lose
revenue. Yes, sir, import and consume double as much
brandy to get the same amount of revenue. Instead of
reducing, he should have doubled those duties, and if he and
his friends will drink foreign liquors, let them pay for them.
But Mr. Walker's revenue has gone down, and he now calls
on Congress to make up for the loss of revenue on brandy,
fine cloths, and other luxuries, by taxing the poor man's tea
and coffee. Let him restore the duties on the rich man's
brandy, and other luxuries, and then talk of taxing tea and
coffee, and not before ; and till he does this, he will never
succeed in perpetrating this outrage on the American
people.
Knowing that low duties always invite excessive imports,
resulting in a large balance of trade against the country,
ending in bankruptcy and ruin, Mr. Walker undertakes to
show that an unfavorable balance of trade is of no import
ance ; that the balances against us have been frequent and
heavy. Yet, he says, our country has survived and pros
pered.
But does not Mr. Walker know that excessive imports,
and an unfavorable balance of trade, are always followed by
the exportation of specie, with all its disastrous conse
quences ?
Mr. Walker might as well tell a farmer in Pennsylvania,
who sold his whole crop to a merchant from whom he got
all his supplies for his family, that it made no difference to
him whether, at the end of the year, the balance was in his
favor or against him. A nation is a family upon a large
scale, and the same principles of industry and economy that
PROTECTIVE AND FREE-TRADE TARIFFS. 209
secures wealth and prosperity to the one, will secure it to the
other. The great error, on this point, consists in the
assumption of a fact that is not true — that the foreign goods
we purchase are to be re-sold, whereas they are imported for
consumption, and are consumed, and the balance against the
country has to be paid in cash.
I must hasten on — but I cannot omit to notice, for a
moment, one of the greatest absurdities of this extraordinary
report. Mr. Walker gravely tells us, that our domestic
products amount to $3,000,000,000 a year; of this we
exported last year $150,000,000, the balance being required
for the supply of the home market ; but he says, that by
adopting low duties, we might increase our exports and
imports to $900,000,000, and our revenue to $90,000,000 a
year. This he makes out by supposing, against all experi
ence, that foreign countries would take from us three times
as much as they now do ; but supposing what has always
happened, that by low duties you break down and paralyze
your own national industry, export your specie, involving
the country in ruin and bankruptcy, destroying both exports
and imports, then what? Instead of $900,000,000, your
exports and imports will sink down to less than $250,-
000,000, the ordinary amount. But Mr. Walker goes
further still ; he says, by adopting absolute and unqualified
free-trade, resorting, of course, to direct taxation for revenue
— levying the taxes on the American people instead of foreign
goods — Mr. Walker says we would " measure our annual
trade in imports and exports by thousands of millions!"
Who can but smile at such insanity run mad. Mr. Walker
might measure his imports by " thousands of millions" if he
had money to pay for them, but when he tells us that the
whole of the specie in the United States does not exceed
$90,000,000, not enough to pay for one month's imports
under his "free-trade" system, how long would it last?
His "free-trade" engine would blow out before it got fairly
under way. Our imports may depend upon ourselves, but
our exports depend upon the disposition of foreign countries
to purchase ; and they will not purchase from us when they
can supply themselves. If Mr. Walker can devise a plan
to create a famine or the potatoe rot in Europe, he may, to
some extent, carry out his theory, but not otherwise. ' We
can purchase as much as we please while we have money or
credit; but like the reckless spendthrift, when these are
gone, we must quit, and go to work, or starve. There is
14
210 PROTECTIVE AND FREE-TRADE TARIFFS.
but one way in which Mr. Walker's plan of making our
imports and exports amount, under " free-trade," to " thou
sands of millions," and that is the plan, no doubt, he has in
view. That is, to export our ore and coal to England, and
bring it back in bar iron, axes, hoes, shovels, needles, and
anchors. Export our wheat and corn, and bring it back in
flour ; or what is worse for us, and better for them, worked
up in costly manufactures. Send them our hogs, and bri-ng
them back in Bologna sausages. Send them our raw hides,
and bring them back in leather, shoes, gloves, etc. Send
them our wool at fifty cents per pound, and buy it again at
ten times that amount, in cloth — paying, not only for the
wool, but for the foreign labor, and the profits of foreign
capital employed in its manufacture. Send ten dollars7 worth
of raw material, and buy it back with the addition of one
hundred dollars paid to foreign labor for working it into
goods, while our own labor is left without money and without
employment. I see it stated, that one dollar's worth of iron,
made into main-springs of watches, is worth $20,000 ; and
this is all labor and its subsistence.
Such is Mr. 'Walker's theory of "free-trade" carried out
to its practical results — this, he says, would give employment
to all our ships. Yes, sir, and with the same propriety he
might advise a western Pennsylvania farmer to load his
wagon, with wheat, and take it to Kentucky to be ground,
and bring back his flour, to keep his team employed — what
would the farmer say to Mr. Walker's proposition ?
THE DEGRADING EFFECT OF " FREE-TRADE" ON LABOR
AND WAGES.
But, sir, I wish to present another, and a more important
view, in connexion with this subject of " free-trade," which
Mr. Walker regards as the greatest blessing that could be
bestowed upon the people of this country, and especially
upon the laboring people — the "toiling millions" as he calls
them — in whose prosperity and welfare he seems to take
such especial interest ; he speaks of increasing their " com
fort, education, and intelligence," of " enhancing wages of
mechanics and toiling workmen," blessing them with in
creased prosperity.
Now, I undertake to say, and to demonstrate, that just
the reverse of all this would be its consequences; and I
submit the matter to the enlightened judgment and decision
PROTECTIVE AND FREE-TRADE TARIFFS. 211
of the American people. I say that, instead of enhancing
wages and increasing the " prosperity, comfort, education,
and intelligence" of "the toiling millions," it would de
grade them in every department of industry, to the miser
able condition of the pauper and serf-labor of Europe, sub
sisting themselves and families on a shilling a day.
Break down the walls of protection, repeal the tariff, open
your ports, establish free-trade, and let in the products of
foreign twelve and a half cents a day labor, and American
labor must quit work and give up their markets till our
money is all gone; then our mechanics and workingmen
must come down, and work as cheap as they do. Is not
this inevitable? And these are the blessings Mr. Walker has
in reserve for the dear people, " the voters," " the toiling
millions." Mr. Walker says in his Report, that " freight,"
with steam and modern improvements, amounts to little or
nothing; that duties are the only thing that prevent for
eigners from taking free and full possession of our markets,
and in this he is right for once ; they will take possession
of our markets till American labor, mechanics, and all,
come down and work for a shilling a day. Is not this per
fectly clear? Can it be doubted or denied? For illustra
tion: suppose in Baltimore manufacturers and mechanics
hire workmen at twenty-five cents a day, and here in Wash
ington they pay a dollar, will not the Baltimoreans send
down their goods, hats, shoes, clothes, everything, undersell
the hatters and others here, and must they not either give up
business, or bring their labor down to the Baltimore stand
ard ? They may buy as long as they have money, but when
their money is all gone, they must work cheap or starve.
The only difference between Europe and Baltimore is the
" freight," which Mr. Walker says is now but a slight im
pediment to imports. Such would be the ultimate effects
of " free-trade " on American labor.
The great object and office of a tariff is to protect high and
prosperous labor against the ruinous effects of free competi
tion with low-priced and depressed labor. Low labor wants
no protection against high labor, but the high must be pro
tected against the low, or by free competition be brought down
to its level. This result follows just as certainly as the
removal of a wall which separated two unequal bodies of
water, would bring the one down to the level of the other.
Proclaim " free-trade," open your ports to the productions of
the pauper and serf-labor of Europe, working for ten cents
212 PROTECTIVE AND FREE-TRADE TARIFFS.
a day, and what follows ? In pour their goods, and out
pours your money ; goods come in and money goes out, till
it is all gone ; then we must make our own hats, shoes, and
clothing, or go without. And this is the way in which
Mr. Walker, his " model President," and the advocates of
" free-trade," would increase the wages, and promote the
"comfort, education, and intelligence" of the American
people — by degrading them to the condition, moral and
physical, and, in the end, the political condition, too, of the
paupers and slaves of foreign despots. How could Ameri
can freemen live on a shilling a day ? How could they
educate their children, who would be obliged to work from
the cradle to the grave ? Unfitted to be free, they would be
come subjects and slaves. Depress one class, and you of
course elevate another — put down the many and you build
up the few — first you establish a nobility, and next a king.
I submit, would not such be the tendency, if not the end of
" free-trade," carried out to its final results ? Yet this is
" democracy" the modern " progressive democracy," as
preached and practised by Polk and his party.
But this is not all. The duties levied on foreigners to
protect our laboring men, furnish nearly the whole revenue
for the support of Government. But establish " free-trade,"
and you not only release the foreigner and his goods from
all taxation, but you transfer the burdens to your own im
poverished people — you appoint swarms of tax-gatherers to
harass and plunder them — to sell their last cow, and take
the last bite of bread from their children, to support your
wars, your standing armies, tax-gatherers, lords, princes,
and pensioners. The revenue collected from protective
duties heretofore levied on foreign goods was felt, not as a
burden, but as a blessing and benefit in the protection and
prosperity it gave to the national industry; but repeal
these duties, paid by foreigners for the privilege of selling
their goods in our markets, open your ports, crush your
labor, inundate your country with foreign productions, and
then resort for revenue to direct taxation, and you convert a
blessing into a bitter curse. But, thank God, the remedy is
in the hands of the people ! I leave Mr. Walker and free-
trade with "the voters," the " toiling millions," to settle the
matter in their own way.
Mr. Walker says, "it will soon become an axiomatic
truth, that all tariffs are a tax upon labor and wages " — on
American labor. A small mistake; if he had said a tax
PROTECTIVE AND FREE-TRADE TARIFFS. 213
opon/oragrn labor, for the protection and encouragement of
American labor, he would have been right. This is a small
blunder. He will no doubt revise and correct in it his next
essay on the beauties of " free-trade."
But Mr. Walker boasts that his report of 1845, published
in England by order of Parliament, " accelerated, if it did
not produce the repeal of the corn laws." This is another
blunder. The corn laws were only suspended till Mr.
Walker repealed the odious anti-British tariff of 1842.
That accomplished, and the famine over, the corn laws go
into operation again on the 1st of March, sliding scale and
all. But Mr. Walker says he has not only converted Great
Britain, but he has staggered all Europe. Hear him !
Hear him! "France, Russia, Germany, Austria, Italy,
Prussia, Switzerland, Holland, Belgium, Denmark, Sweden,
and even China have moved, or are vibrating or preparing
to move, in favor of the same great principle;" another
blunder, these nations, or most of them, so far from relax
ing, are increasing or strengthening their protective systems,
wherever their markets are likely to be invaded by foreign
manufactures coming into competition with their own. But
who told Mr. Walker they were " vibrating or preparing to
move?" They may vibrate a little, to amuse Mr. Walker,
and induce him to take our duties off their goods, and he
has done it. And what have they done? Nothing —
nothing at all. They are " vibrating," but their tariff vibra
tions all go up instead of down, while they laugh at Mr.
Walker's simplicity.
But, above all, I beg you to protect and cherish your
national industry ; to protect and sustain it against the
efforts of its enemies,/ore/^7i and domestic, to break it down.
Labor lies at the very foundation of the national prosperity.
Labor, in every department — in the fields, in the workshops,
in the factories — cherish it and preserve it as the great ele
ment of your national wealth and independence. When labor
prospers, all other interests prosper. When labor is depressed,
all other interests must suffer and sympathize with it.
What is all other capital compared with the capital of
labor? Estimate your labor at one-tenth of your popula
tion, say 2,000,000 of laboring men; if they earn but §180
per year, this is equal to the interest of a capital of $3000
per annum at 6 per cent, which, multiplied by 2,000,000,
the number of laborers, makes our labor capital equal to
six thousand millions of dollars ; and this is the great ele-
214 PROTECTIVE AND FREE-TRADE TARIFFS.
ment of power and wealth and prosperity that Mr. Walker
would sacrifice and degrade to the wretched
[NOTE. — The last pages of the only remaining copy of this speech
in pamphlet form are destroyed.]
To show that the facts stated by Mr. Stewart in this
speech were never contradicted or denied, we refer to the
following incident :
Shortly after the close of the tariff debate, Mr. Stewart
and Judge Bayley of Va., were competitors for the floor;
when the Speaker was about to assign the floor to Mr. Bay-
ley, Mr. Stewart said he had a point to make, in which he
felt confident the chair and the house would sustain him ; all
would recollect that at the close of his speech, on the tariff,
the gentleman from Va., Mr. Bayiey, rose and pledged him
self to answer this speech before the, close of the debate, or
forfeit his right to ever speak again upon this floor. He
has never answered or attempted to answer it, nor any one
else, and he has therefore forfeited his right to the floor. The
chair recollecting the fact, sustained the point, and amid
roars of laughter, assigned the floor to Mr. Stewart.
COMMENTS AND OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.
" We have just perused this admirable and triumphant refutation
of Mr. Secretary Walker's free-trade doctrine. The famine in
Europe which created a great demand for our breadstuffs enabled
the advocates of the free-trade policy for a while to deceive those
who look merely upon the surface of things, by attributing this
exportation all to a low tariff. While this exportation temporarily
saved the country from the ruinous effects of the tariff of 1846, the
loco papers have been shouting with tones of exultation — ' where's
the ruin ? ' Mr. Stewart shows that this increase of the exports of
breadstuffs is in no degree owing to the repeal of the tariff of 1842,
but to the famine. The export of cotton has been less by four mil
lions of dollars than the average exports of the last ten years, and
tobacco a million and a half. If this reduction of the tariff has
caused an increase of exports, why has it not extended to some
other articles than breadstuffs ?
" But a change is already felt — starvation is ceased — already our
cities begin to feel that there is a ' pressure in the money market.'
The Argus and some other papers may for awhile continue to throw
out the inquiry, ' where's the ruin ? ' But this will be only for coun
try consumption where the trouble is not yet seriously felt. Mr.
Stewart says that on the first of March next, the corn laws of Eng
land will be again in full operation — that they were merely suspen
ded during the famine — and then Mr. Walker will be caught in Sir
COMMENTS AND OPINIONS OF THE PRESS. 215
Robert Peel's trap ; exports will cease, the revenue fall off, and Mr.
Walker be obliged to call for a restoration of the tariff of 1842 to
replenish his empty treasury and to feed his armies and officers at
home and abroad, military and civil.
" We look upon this speech as a complete and triumphant refuta
tion of the long and visionary report of Mr. Walker." — Standard,
N. Y.
" The following is from, the speech delivered by Mr. Stewart before
the House of Representatives, in March last. The speech is an
unique production, and the facts and arguments contained in it are
sufficient to overrun all the force which can be brought to bear upon
the subject of protection by the advocates of free-trade, or of a
tariff for revenue only." — Gazette, Va.
" We commend to the attentive perusal of our readers, the speech
of Mr. Stewart. We consider it a most valuable production. Mr.
Walker and his famous report are minutely dissected, and their de
formities fully exhibited. It is the best expose of the relative bear
ings of a high and low tariff we recollect to have seen. Let none be
deterred from reading this speech, because of its length. Commence
it, and you will finish it." — Mail, N. J.
" The conclusion of Mr. Stewart's able and convincing speech in
defence of the tariff will be found on our first page. We say to the
farmer, who is inclined to credit the assertion made in Franklin
county and elsewhere, that the existing tariff is ' ruinous and oppres
sive,' to read this speech and see how their interests are to be sacri
ficed by the locofoco bill now undergoing discussion in the House.
We say to the mechanic, look at the table on the first page and see
what ' love for protection ' the dear locos have." — Gazette, Ky.
" It is a very just remark of the Washington, Pa., Reporter, that
1 Mr. Stewart may be regarded as the shield of the Whig party ou
the floor of the House of Congress. His constant watchfulness over
the true interests of the people, and his fearless defence of Whig
measures, entitle him to the esteem and gratitude of the whole coun
try. With the bravery of an Achilles, he is ready for every exi
gency, bearing himself nobly, and to an extent successfully, through
every battle.' " — Whig, Mo.
" Mr. Stewart, of Pennsylvania, has made an able and practical
speech in favor of Western improvements and in vindication of
Whig principles.
" He replied to the labored arguments and erroneous statements
of Jameson, Kennedy and Ficklin, with much effect. With a ' pen
cil of light,' he delineated the whole American system as the very
foundation of our national prosperity. Next week we shall make
copious extracts from this admirable speech ; we have read it with
much pleasure and profit. It is a plain exposition of Whig prin
ciples." — Statesman, N. H.
"The excellent speech of this first rate representative in the Con
gress of the United States, occupies a very large space in to day's
paper, but, as it is a very interesting document, both as regards the
216 PROTECTIVE AND FREE-TRADE TARIFFS.
questions discussed and the able manner in which they are handled,
we doubt not that our readers will be pleased with its publication.
We ask for it, on the part of all intelligent and honest men, an im
partial perusal.
"Since ever Mr. Stewart has occupied a place in the councils of
the nation, he lias evinced a degree of devotion to the interests of the
country, unsurpassed, and exhibited such a profound knowledge of its
institutions and the policy that should govern it, that he has gained
for himself, from one end of the Union to the other, a reputation
of which any man might be proud." — Register, Ind.
"The Hon. Andrew Stewart, the talented Whig Representative in
Congress from Fayette county, well known as a distinguished advo
cate of the tariff policy, attacked the President's Message in the
House, on Wednesday last, and it is said, ' entirely demolished its
free-trade arguments.'
" The speech of Mr. S. is spoken of as able and conclusive, so much
so that no champion of the Administration from the free states at
tempted a reply. The only one who offered was of Tennessee, a
roaring locofoco free-trade man, Johnson, who after blustering
awhile and endeavoring to rebut the arguments of Mr. Stewart, was
finally silenced, being met in a way he little expected. We shall
publish the debate when received." — The News, Miss.
"We this week make some valuable extracts from the speech of
Andrew Stewart. Esq., member of Congress from Fayette county,
Pa., on the subject of the tariff, to which we would direct the atten
tion of all into whose hands this number of our paper may fall.
That is the grand rallying point, and the one to which we de
sire most to see all eyes directed. If we had nothing else in view,
the honor, the prosperity, and the perpetuation of the free institu
tions of our country should prompt us to urge the protective
policy." — Sentinel, Conn.
"We particularly ask attention to the speech of the Hon. Andrew
Stewart, member of Congress from Pennsylvania, to Mr. Walker,
the Secretary of the Treasury. As yet, we confess, we have not
given the ponderous report of the Secretary any more than a casual
reading, a glance at its leading points — not that we do not consider
it of any importance, but because we have not had time to digest
its crude arid monstrous propositions. Under the peculiar circum
stances of the country, and from the position of the parties, we are
disposed to attach more than usual importance to this document ;
and we had determined to give it a patient reading, with a view of
expressing freely our opinions upon it. When about to do so, the
speech of Mr. Stewart met our eye, and we transcribed it from the
columns of the National Intelligencer, with a hearty approval of its
manly spirit. It is pungent in its language, and unanswerable in its
arguments and deductions. If this is a foretaste of the gauntlet Mr.
Walker has to run, he will have occasion for all the haste he can
conveniently make to get beyond the lash of the friends of pro
tection.
" But for the present we hand Mr. Walker over to Mr. Stewart,
and we beg the friends of the country — the friends of protection —
those who would save the poor man from the mercies of the dema-
COMMENTS AND OPINIONS OF THE PRESS. 217
gogue, to read and see how a small, man can be used up on his own
ground." — Ohio State Journal.
" Mr. Stewart's speech on the tariff of 1842, and on Mr. Secretary
Walker's free-trade report, delivered a few weeks ago in Congress, is
published in this paper. The space it occupies could not be" better
filled. Plain and practical, it can easily be comprehended by the
intelligent reader. It is to the point, and exposes forcibly the
anti-American policy which has been so industriously promulgated
by President Polk and his Secretary of the Treasury; and there
fore we trust that every one into whose hands this paper may fall,
will give it a careful and honest perusal." — Republican, 111.
" There never was more truth and humor put into a brief com
pass than in the following pithy extract from the recent speech of
Hon. Andrew Stewart, of Pa., in the U. S. House of Representatives.
It describes that miserable thing, Polkism, with the faithfulness of a
daguerreotype :
" ' But this administration goes by the rule of contrary ; their
theories and their measures are always at war. When they preach
economy, I look out for extravagance; when they flatter the people
as the true sovereigns of the land, then comes a veto ; when they
cry peace, then look out for war : when they say democracy, look out
for aristocracy ; when they denounce paper money, look out for
treasury notes ; when they say 54° 40' or fight, look for " slink out,"
and 49; when they say no conquest, look out for all of Mexico.'
" It is said that no speech yet delivered in Congress has been so
largely subscribed for as Mr. Stewart's, 50,000 copies having been
already sent out." — Herald, La.
il We have placed upon the opposite page the speech of Hon.
Andrew Stewart of Pennsylvania, on the subject of the tariff. It
needs no comment but such as every sensible reader will make for
himself. We commend it to the friends of James K. Polk, whose
election was advocated on the ground of his especial friendship for
4 Protection to the farmer arid mechanic.' " — Register, Vt.
"Mr. Stewart of Pennsylvania has made an able and practical
speech in vindication of Whig principles.
" He replied to the labored arguments and erroneous statements
of Jameson, Kennedy and Ficklin, with much effect. With a ' pen
cil of light,' he delineated the whole American system as the very
foundation of our national prosperity. Next week we shall make
copious extracts from this admirable speech : we have read it
with much pleasure and profit. It is a plain exposition of Whig
principles." — Whig, Tenn.
*' We publish the entire speech of Mr. Stewart, of Pa., in favor of
Western improvements and the protective tariff policy, in this day's
News. It exhibits, in a clear and plain manner, the course of the
two political parties upon these important and vital questions. Let
every Farmer, Mechanic — every Western man — read it with atten
tion. This speech of itself is worth the subscription to the Ohio
News for one year, to any Western man." — News, Ohio.
218 PROTECTIVE AND FREE-TRADE TARIFFS.
The Raleigh (North Carolina) Star publishes the speech of the
Hon. Andrew Stewart, of Pennsylvania, in defence of the tariff, and
calls attention to it in the following language :
" Let no one fail to read the able arid interesting speech of Mr.
Stewart, in to-day's Star on the tariff. It uses up Mr. Polk and Sec
retary Walker most effectually. "
" The speech of the Hon. Andrew Stewart on our first page should
be read by every citizen who has a vote at the next Presidential
Election. Its facts exhibiting the past official conduct of General
Cass, its exposition of his inconsistencies upon matters of civil
policy, and its unanswerable argument against locofoco measures and
policy in general." — Telegraph, Harrisburg, Pa.
"The following strong and convincing arguments in domonstra
tion of the practical benefits of the farmers by the protective system
are extracted from a speech made in Congress by the Hon. Andrew
Stewart, of this State. They constitute a complete refutation of the
attacks made on the tariff in the locofoco papers." — The Freeman,
R. I.
11 On our first page will be found an able speech on the tariff, by
J/r. Stewart, of Pennsylvania. Farmers, Mechanics and Laboring
men, read it, and remember what you read." — Gazette, Ga.
" We this week publish the able and interesting speech of Mr
Stewart, of Pa., on the tariff. Whigs read it and commit to your
memory — honest locos read it and reflect." — Star, S. C.
IN FAVOR OF WESTERN IMPROVEMENTS
AND THE TARIFF.
DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, U. S.,
JANUARY 16TH, 1844.
MR. STEWART, of Pa., said, that although he was not from
a Western State, yet the State from which he came was as
deeply interested in the improvement of the navigation of
the Western waters as any State in the Union. These great
rivers were, in fact, but extensive feeders of those great lines
of improvement connecting the Atlantic and Western States,
made by Pennsylvania and Maryland at an expense of some
$50,000,000, constituting a debt which now rested with
mountain weight upon their people. These State works
were alike national in their character and their benefits, and
ought to have been made by national means, and would
have been so made, with all the other great works of inter
nal improvement which had involved the States of this Union
in a foreign debt of $200,000,000, had that great "American
system " of policy been continued, which had just been de
nounced in such emphatic terms as " an imposition — an ex
ploded humbug," by the gentleman from Missouri [Mr.
Jameson], Mr. Kennedy, of Indiana, and Mr. Ficklin, of
Illinois, and over the " explosion " of which they had ex
ulted in so much triumph. True, it had been exploded, and
the prosperity of this country from its deepest foundations
had been involved in the explosion. It had thrown back
this great nation a century from the point where it would
have now been, had that " explosion " not occurred ; and
had involved the States (and among the rest the States repre
sented by these gentlemen) in debts and embarrassments,
from which (if this denounced system was not speedily re
stored) they would not recover for a century to come.
THE EFFECT OF THE VAN BUREN SYSTEM ON THE INTE
RIOR AND WESTERN STATES.
Mr. S. affirmed, and could demonstrate, that by adopting
Mr. Van Buren's system, the whole of the great interior and
219
220 WESTERN IMPROVEMENTS.
Western States would be now, henceforth, and forever, ex
cluded from all participation in the benefits of the disburse
ment of the ample revenues of this Government, amounting
to some twenty or thirty millions a year. Without the
power of internal improvements (a power which Mr. Van
Buren expressly denied), where, he would ask these gentle
men, is the object? He called on them to point their finger
to a single one in the interior and Western States on which
any portion of the national revenue could be constitution
ally expended. Look at the great heads of appropriation.
Where are your navy and army, for which seventeen mil
lions are this year required ? Where your forts and fortifica
tions ; your light-houses, buoys, and beacons ; your sea
walls, breakwaters, and harbors; your custom-houses, for
eign intercourse, surveying, and Indian departments ? Were
any of these in the interior ? None — not one. These were
the objects on which the revenues of the Government had
been expended, poured out like water, and, without this
power, must continue to be expended, now and forever.
The people of the great interior and the West were thus
doomed to be tax-payers, " hewers of wood and drawers of
water," as they had been for the seaboard. Their money,
like their vast rivers, might continue to flow in ample streams
to the Atlantic; and by denying this beneficent power,
you blot out the sun which alone could exhale and carry
back, in refreshing showers, any portion of these vast con
tributions to the interior sources from which they come.
Draw a line five miles from the seaboard, the external
boundary of the United States, and he believed he would be
safe in saying that there had not been expended, out of three
hundred millions, as much within this circle since the ex
plosion of " the whig system " by the Maysville and Wabash
river vetoes, as had been expended, first and last, in the
erection of these buildings for the accommodation of Con
gress ; and even that amount, small as it was, must (accord
ing to Mr. Van Buren) have been expended in violation of
the Constitution.
How gentlemen who advocated these appropriations, and
represented the interior and Western States, so deeply in
terested in the policy of internal improvements, could, con
sistently with " their principles," support Mr. Van Buren,
who expressly denied their constitutionality, he was at a
loss to imagine. [Here Mr. Wentworth inquired by what
authority Mr. S. charged Mr. Van Buren with denying this
WESTERN IMPROVEMENTS. 221
power.] Mr. S. said, on the authority of his own signature,
not once, but repeatedly ; and, for the gentleman's information,
lie would read a paragraph from Mr. Van Buren's letter of
the 4th October, 1832, to a committee at the Shocco springs,
North Carolina, where, in answer to a request for his opin
ion on the subject of internal improvements, he says : " The
broadest and best defined division is that which distinguishes
between the direct construction of works of internal improve
ments by the General Government, and pecuniary assistance
given by it to such as are undertaken by others."
" The Federal Government/7 says Mr. Van Buren, " does
not, in my opinion, possess the power first specified ; nor
can it derive it from the assent of the States in which such
works are to be constructed." He afterwards expressly ap
proved the veto of the bill subscribing stock to the Mays-
ville road, which was of the second class of works specified
above ; and he also approved of the veto of the bill for the
improvement of the navigation of the Wabash river ; and,
upon the same principles, were he now President, he would
be bound by his oath to veto this very appropriation. Yet
gentlemen advocate this measure with great zeal and ability,
and he fully concurred in all they said in its favor; but
how could they, at the same time and in the same breath,
advocate the election of Mr. Van Buren to an office in which
he would be obliged to veto this appropriation if it passed ?
This was the dilemma. The gentleman from Missouri [Mr.
Jameson] has told us that the Whigs are " a party without
principles," and that his party had principles, and that they
will "stand or fall by them." Now, the gentleman must
give up his man or his principles — he cannot support both ;
they are antipodes. Which will he do ? He says they will
stand by their principles — very well ! This they may do ;
but with the man they are sure to fall. The Whigs, the
gentleman says, are the " fag ends of all parties ; " they
live in " glass houses." He has talked very learnedly about
" coons, hard cider, cider-barrels," etc., and informs us that
the Whigs have been weighed in the balance and found
wanting — a small mistake. It was Mr. Van Buren who was,
in 1840, weighed in the balance and found wanting ; and he
would now predict that in 1844 he would be found much
lighter than he was then, because the effects of his princi
ples and measures had been severely felt, and were now
better understood by the people. But these were small
matters. He would now give his attention to something
222 WESTERN IMPEOVEMENTS.
more important. Whilst denouncing the "American sys
tem," which had been called the Clay system, reference had
been made to the antagonist system — the Van Buren system,
which, in 1830, had been established on its ruins. This was
a great question ; it lay at the very foundation of the national
prosperity, and he was glad of the opportunity now pre
sented of calling public attention to it.
THE VAN BUREN AND WHIG SYSTEM CONTRASTED.
What were these two opposite systems of national policy ?
And what had been their effects on the country ? To under
stand this, it was necessary to refer to a few historical facts,
which he would do very briefly.
The great object of the American system was the protec
tion of American against foreign industry by a protective
tariff, and the disbursement of the surplus revenue (which
always had, and always would, result from such a tariff) for
the improvement of the internal condition of the country.
The collection of revenue for one great object — national
protection, and its disbursement for another equally import
ant object — national improvements. In ten years this sys
tem had paid off more than one hundred and twenty-five
millions of war debt, and left in 1832, when that debt was
discharged, an annual surplus of about eighteen millions of
dollars. Now, was it not manifest that if this policy had
been continued, and the surplus annually applied to internal
improvements by direct appropriations and subscriptions of
stock to works of a national character, made under State
authority, the amount expended since 1832 (allowing no in
crease of revenue from the increase of wealth and popula
tion), would have now amounted in the aggregate to more
than two hundred and fifty millions of dollars, and would
have accomplished all, and more than all, the States have
since done, without involving this Government or the States
in one dollar of debt? — promoting, at the same time, a just
and equal expenditure of revenue in the interior and West
ern States, in the execution of a great system of improve
ments, which, for defence in war, would be vastly superior
to forts and fortifications, by promoting rapid concentration
and movement. And if war never occurred these improve
ments were worth all they cost for the peaceful purposes of
facilitating and cheapening intercourse among the States —
the transportation of the mails, and of uniting and binding
WESTERN IMPROVEMENTS. 223
together the distant parts of our extended country in the
strong and enduring bonds of interest and intercourse.
Such would have been some of the happy fruits of this " ex
ploded American system." He well remembered that, in
1824, the Committee on Roads and Canals, of which he was
then a member, seeing the period of the final payment of
the public debt rapidly approaching, when a large surplus
revenue would be left unemployed in the treasury to crush
the tariff and destroy the country, with a view to prepare
for that event in time, a bill was reported laying the foun
dation of a system of internal improvement coextensive with
the whole country, to absorb this surplus of eighteen mil
lions a year, after the payment of the public debt, by orga
nizing a board of internal improvement to survey all the
great lines of internal communication, and have maps and
plans of the whole, with estimates of their costs, in readi
ness, when the debt was paid, on which to expend this sur
plus. This bill was passed with the powerful aid of the
distinguished senator from South Carolina [Mr. McDuffie] ;
and six years thereafter, when these surveys and estimates,
under the direction of Mr. Calhoun, were nearly completed,
and the public debt nearly discharged, a bill for the sub
scription of stock in the Maysville road — a link in a great
chain of communication proposed to connect the Ohio river
with the Gulf of Mexico — was passed, and this was the
occasion seized on by Mr. Van Buren, as he would show, to
break down this whole system, and thus force back upon
the treasury this enormous surplus, which could be in no
other wise expended, and thereby break down the tariff, de
stroy our manufactures, ruin agriculture and the mechanic
arts, inundate the country with foreign goods, and export
all the hard money in the country to pay for them, and
throw upon the States the burden of making these works of
internal improvement, which they were moreover tempted
to undertake by the promise of the distribution among them
of this annual surplus of eighteen millions of dollars. But
the first distribution of forty-five millions had not yet been
paid over when Mr. Van Buren was elected President, and
who immediately called an extra session of Congress, recom
mended the repeal of the law, and withheld from the States
more than nine millions of dollars, the fourth instalment of
the first distribution. The States thus tempted having com
menced their systems of improvement, were obliged to go
on, still hoping for the promised aid, until they found them-
224 WESTERN IMPROVEMENTS.
selves involved in a debt of two hundred millions, which
this Government was bound in good faith to pay out of the
proceeds of the public lands, or the surplus revenue, which
would again result from a protective tariff if that policy
were again adopted and adhered to.
Now, was it not clear that if the Whig system had been
maintained, and the annual surplus of eighteen millions had
been applied to internal improvement since the payment of
the debt, in 1832, all the works made by the States would
have been accomplished, and much more, without debt or
embarrassment of any kind? He would now prove that
Mr. Van Buren had himself contrived the whole plan of
breaking down this system, which would ere now have
elevated this country to a point of prosperity and power
without a parallel, and had substituted his own destructive
system, which had crushed this great "nation, in spite of all its
youthful energies, down to that degraded condition, strug
gling amid bankruptcies, and repudiation, State, national,
and individual, in which it was found when the last Whig
Congress assembled, and from which that Congress had
succeeded in partially relieving it by passing the tariff of
1842, and thus restoring the protective policy. To prove
that Mr. Van Buren was, in fact, the author of all this mis
chief, he referred to his letter to Sherrod Williams, of Ken
tucky, dated at Albany, the 8th of August, 1836, in which
he says, that although he doubted the constitutional power
of Congress to distribute the surplus revenue among the
States, yet that he had " favored the idea as the only means
of arresting internal improvements by the General Govern
ment;" that General Jackson had concurred in this opinion,
and he had accordingly recommended this plan of distribu
tion — not in one, but in two messages, in which all the ob
jections now urged by Mr. Van Buren's friends against it
were fully and satisfactorily answered ; and he would com
mend this message to the attention of gentlemen now op
posed to distribution. They would find this policy most
ably advocated and defended in General Jackson's annual
message, dated 7th December, 1830, in which the fear was
expressed that Congress would appropriate the money to
local objects ; and, to avoid this, he recommended that it be
given to the States, that they might appropriate it to na
tional objects.
WESTERN IMPROVEMENTS. 225
COMPARATIVE EXPENDITURES OF THE VAN BUREN AND
WHIG ADMINISTRATIONS.
When Mr. Van Buren came into power he found the
treasury with a surplus of $25,748,463; from which deduct
unavailable funds and amount deposited with the States, and
it still left an available surplus of upwards of sixteen mil
lions of dollars ; to which add proceeds of bank stock, etc.,
sold, upwards of eight and a half millions, making about
twenty-five millions of dollars of surplus funds ; yet with
all this, and more than thirty-one millions a year of revenue,
he left the treasury more than eight millions of dollars in
debt, besides outstanding claims and debts amounting to
several millions more. On the other hand, Mr. Adams, when
this exploded and denounced American system was in opera
tion, with six millions a year less revenue, paid off in four
years upwards of forty-five millions of dollars of the war debt,
and left a surplus of about six millions in the treasury when
he retired. During Mr. Adams's administration, when like
appropriations were made for internal improvements, the
whole expenses of Government amounted, on an average,
to about twelve and a half millions a year, while, during
Mr. Van Buren's administration, they were increased to an
average of more than thirty millions per year, and in one
year to more than thirty-seven millions, nearly three times
the amount expended by Mr. Adams. This was the " eco
nomy and reform " of Mr. Van Buren's administration, and
it was the benefits and blessings of this system gentlemen
seem so anxious to have restored. [Order, order, from both
sides.] These were " spoils " worth having ; and no wonder-
they were somewhat impatient to have them again ; these
were facts which he was prepared to establish by official
documents ; and such was the difference between the Van
Buren and the American or Whig systems ? [Here was a
general call to order, and much confusion.] As this seemed
to be an unpleasant topic, Mr. S. said he would turn his
attention to something else.
WHAT THE LAST WHIG CONGRESS HAD DONE FOR THE
COUNTRY.
Several gentlemen had inquired what the last Congress —
the Whig Congress — had done for the country. If in order,
he would tell them : They had restored the national pros-
15
226 WESTERN IMPROVEMENTS.
perity by restoring the protective policy. The beneficial
effects of the Whig tariff of 1842 were already seen, felt,
and acknowledged throughout this country ; it had revived
manufactures, created new markets for the farmers, and had
given employment to laborers everywhere ; it had turned
the balance of foreign trade from about twenty millions, the
average balance for the last ten years against us, to a very
large balance in our favor (with Great Britain alone the bal
ance last year was $13,604,000 in our favor), resulting in the
importation of twenty-two millions of specie, which had
found its way into the banks, enabling them to resume
specie payment ; thus restoring a sound currency, and redu
cing the rate of interest from 4 or 5 per cent, per month
to 4 or 5 per cent, per annum. And whilst it had conferred
all these benefits and many more upon the country, it had at
the same time increased the revenue from customs, as ap
peared by the late treasury report, from $12,496,834 in 1840,
to $18,176,720 in 1842, and an estimated revenue from cus
toms of twenty millions for the current year (and he had
no doubt it would exceed by three or four millions this
estimate), making an increase of revenue in 1842 over the
year 1840 of more than six millions and a half of dollars.
Yet the Globe and Mr. Van Buren's friends here are crying
out, " reduce the tariff to increase the revenue ; " when we
had too much revenue the cry was, " reduce the tariff to
reduce the revenue." So, whether we have too much or too
little, the remedy was the same ; reduce the tariff! reduce
the tariff!! This was the great panacea, the Van Buren
nostrum, to cure all diseases. [Here was another general
call to order.] Mr. S. said he was but answering the in
quiry, " What had the late Whig Congress done for the
country?" He was showing the important fact that they
had done more for the country than had been done for the
last fourteen years — that they had lifted the country up from
the degraded and prostrate condition in which Mr. Van Bu
ren had left it, and if gentlemen did not wish this question
answered they ought not to have asked it.
But this was not all the Whig Congress had done for the
country. By the introduction of economy and retrench
ment, they had reduced the expenditures of Government
from $26,394,343, the amount appropriated for 1841, to about
twenty-two millions last year. It had revived the policy
(wholly abandoned by Mr. Van Buren) of improving the
navigation of the Western waters, and had appropriated
WESTERN IMPROVEMENTS. 227
$150,000 to these objects. [Here Mr. S. was interrupted by
the inquiry, where is the evidence that Mr. Van Buren had
abandoned this policy ?] Where is the evidence ? Here in
the records of this House. In the last two years of Mr. Van
Buren's administration the estimates of the officers in
charge of these works were withheld by the secretary
contrary to his uniform practice, and contrary to his duty,
unless ordered so to do by the Executive. But Mr. Van
Buren had not only withheld the estimates, and thus stopped
the appropriations for these objects, but he had actually
sold the snag-boats and tools on the Cumberland road, as
the end and final winding up of all these operations ; and
whilst he thus withheld every dollar from the interior and
the West, he more than doubled the expenditures of Govern
ment. [Here was another call to order by Mr. Cave John
son and others — sustained by the Chair.] Why had the
gentlemen not called his friend from Missouri [Mr. Jameson]
to order when he applied all sorts of epithets to the Whigs —
called them the " fag ends " — a party without principles,
bank and anti-bank, tariff and anti-tariff, abolition and anti-
abolition ? This was all in order. He had told us that for
" principles the Whigs had substituted coonery, coons, coon-
skins, hard-cider, cider-barrels, canoes, and carousals."
They had promised much and performed nothing. These
were the gentleman's words, as reported ; yet this was all in
order — perfectly in order. But to show in reply what the
Whig principles were, and their effects, was all out of order.
Be it so. And as it was out of order to say anything
against Mr. Van Buren, he would have to submit and pass
to something else.
LOOK TO TARIFF AND RETRENCHMENT FOR MEANS.
It had been asked by several gentlemen, where was the
money to come from to make these improvements? If in
order, he would answer the inquiry. He would, in the first
place, adhere to the present protective tariff, which would
soon yield an ample surplus, by making the people prosper
ous, and furnishing them the means to purchase and con
sume foreign imports ; the revenue would always be in exact
proportion to the ability of the people to purchase and
consume foreign goods. And in the next place, he would
get the money for their Western improvements by retrench
ing the expenditures on the seaboard, on the army and
228 WESTERN IMPROVEMENTS.
navy, and forts and fortifications. The increased expendi
tures for the war and naval departments had been enormous,
and ought to be greatly reduced. The average expendi
tures for the war and navy departments during Mr. Adams's
administration amounted to only $7,750,000 per year ; du
ring Mr. Van Buren's administration they had increased to
$16,872,000 per year, and this year there are required upwards
of seventeen millions ! In these branches there ought to be
a reduction of five or six millions at least. He would never
vote for duties on tea or coifee, or otherwise tax his constitu
ents to keep up these enormous and useless establishments —
useless, and worse than useless. In peace and in war a good
system of roads and canals, with the citizens, soldiers, and
volunteers, rapidly concentrated and moved without fatigue
to any point where their presence might be required, was a
more efficient and available system of defence for such a
country as this than all the forts and fortifications and stand
ing armies that could be raised. For this he had the
authority of the most distinguished men that ever graced the
War Department of this Government — and among them
Calhoun, Cass, and Spencer, whose reports on this subject
were most able and conclusive. With the railroads since
constructed from this city, North and South, what hostile
foot could have ever profaned this capitol ? Before the
enemy could have got out to sea from Baltimore, the forces
from Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore could
have been concentrated, with all their munitions of war, at
this point for its defence. Of what use were your forts ?
The enemy went round them and captured and burnt your
city almost without resistance ; and with the present im
provements in the West, Upper Canada Avould have been
taken without a struggle. He would therefore take from
the army and navy and from forts and fortifications enough
to make all these Western improvements without increasing
the expenditures of the Government or the burdens of the
people.
The claims of these Western rivers to the fostering care
of the Government were peculiar and imperative. These
rivers were the internal concerns of no State in the Union ;
they were external to all the States — they were boundaries ;
like the Atlantic, they washed the shores of many States,
but passed through the territory of none. No State, there
fore, ever had, or ever would appropriate a dollar for their
improvement ; hence they must be improved by the Govern-
WESTERN IMPROVEMENTS. 229
merit, or remain forever as they now are. The subject
would, he hoped, be referred to a select committee, or the
Committee on Roads and Canals, and not to the Ways and
Means, who have, we are informed, refused to appropriate
one dollar to internal improvements of any kind, no doubt
on constitutional grounds, as two-thirds of that committee
were friends of Mr. Van Buren, who denied the power, as
had been shown.
THE CONSTITUTIONAL POWER CONSIDERED.
How any constitutional lawyer could deny to this Gov
ernment the power to improve rivers and make roads and
canals, he had always been at a loss to comprehend. This
power was just as clear, and sustained on precisely the same
grounds, as the power to erect a fort, improve a harbor,
or to purchase a mail-bag. The Constitution gave Con
gress no express authority to do any of these things ; they
were incidental to the power of defence — of "regulating
commerce" and "establishing post-offices," which powers
necessarily carried with them the means of their own exe
cution ; but the express authority was given to Congress to
pass all laws necessary and proper to carry into effect these
powers. Hence the power to defend the country gave Con
gress the right to purchase cannon and erect forts as the
means of defence. Now, if a railroad or a canal was found to
be as available for defence as a fort, had they not as good
a right to adopt it ? Who could doubt it ? The Constitution
says, " Congress may regulate commerce with foreign na
tions and among the States." What right have you to build
a ship or improve a harbor ? The Constitution is silent
upon the subject. It is because you have the power to regu
late commerce with foreign nations. And was it not mani
fest that you have precisely the same power to regulate
commerce among the States by improving rivers or harbors,
or other means equally appropriate to this end? Most
clearly. To have specified in the Constitution all the means,
would have been to make a code and not a Constitution.
You have whole systems of legislation in relation to the
transportation of the mail ? Whence the right to pass all
these laws imposing fines and forfeitures ? It could only be
sustained as incidental to the power conferred on Congress
"to establish post-offices and post-roads." Now if roads
were as necessary to transport the mail as coaches and con-
230 WESTERN IMPROVEMENTS.
tractors, mail-bags, etc., has Congress not the same right to
construct them as means to accomplish this end ? Certainly
it had. Thus each grant of power carried with it, as a
necessary and indispensable incident, the means of its own
execution. The military power carried the right to con
struct military roads ; the commercial power, commercial
roads ; and the post-office power, post roads. Without the
right to adopt means these grants of power would be idle
and nugatory. When it is proposed to construct a road or
canal, the question for Congress to consider is, whether it
is necessary and proper as a means of executing any of the
constitutional powers of Congress ? Defence in war, com
merce in peace, or the transportation of the mail, if its
fitness to any of these ends was admitted, the question was
settled, and this right to construct it was undoubted. This
was briefly his view of the constitutional power of Congress
over the whole subject, and it was fully sustained by Chief
Justice Marshall in the opinion delivered in the case of Mc-
Culloch and Maryland.
THE TARIFF AND PROTECTION.
Many gentlemen, and the gentleman from South Carolina
[Mr. Holmes] among the rest, had introduced the tariff
into this discussion. That gentleman, addressing himself to
the Western members, had suggested that if they would go
with him to destroy the tariff he would support an appro
priation for the Mississippi. As a Western man, he rejected
the gentleman's proffered aid. He would not consent that
the gentleman should drive a dagger deep into their vitals,
even though he might be willing to vote a pittance to pay
their funeral expenses. He was utterly opposed to the in
troduction of the gentleman's wooden horse in the West.
He wished none of the gentleman's help on such conditions.
He would say to him, "timeo Danaos et dona ferentes" If
that gentleman could pour out the whole resources of the
Government into the West it would be no compensation, not
the tithe of compensation, for the injury the repeal of the
tariff would inflict upon that great agricultural country.
He deeply regretted to see that the representatives of
some of the Western States on this floor were now nearly
unanimous against the protective policy, where formerly
(as the journals would show) they were unanimously in its
favor. The Western people and their interests were the
WESTERN IMPROVEMENTS. 231
same now as then. Whence this change ? It was obviously
political. These States were now represented by the political
friends of Mr. Van Buren, who had recently declared in
a letter to the editor of the Richmond Enquirer that he was
opposed to the late protective tariff " both in its principles
and details." They must therefore either abandon the pro
tective policy or abandon Mr. Van Buren ; and it seems that
they have determined to adhere to the man and abandon the
cherished policy of the West, without which they never can
be prosperous; and this, upon some proper occasion, he
would endeavor to demonstrate.
He could not forbear, however, to notice briefly some of
the arguments urged by gentlemen from the West against
the protective policy, and especially by the gentleman from
Missouri [Mr. Jameson], who had spoken last, and who had
but substantially repeated the objections urged by Mr. Van
Buren and others. In reply, he would submit very briefly
some facts and general reflections, to which he invited the
sober and dispassionate attention of the Western farmers,
who could not long be imposed upon by stale theories in
opposition to well-known and ascertained facts.
In the first place, the gentleman from Missouri [Mr.
Jameson] has told us that the foreign market was everything
and the home market little or nothing ; " that one-third of
the State of Missouri could furnish surplus agricultural pro
duce enough to supply all the persons engaged in manufac
turing in the East."
2. That the Western farmers were robbed and plundered
by the protective tariff for the benefit of the Eastern manu
facturers.
3. That the effect of the protective policy was to "increase
the price of everything the farmer has to buy, and reduce
the price of everything he has to sell."
4. That the protective duty was always added to the price
of the goods and paid by the consumer, whether the goods
were of foreign or domestic origin, " for the manufacturer
always puts up his goods to the full amount of the duty;"
and thus (he says) the Western farmer is obliged to pay
from 30 to 200 per cent, duty to the Eastern manufacturer.
5. That the " protective policy creates and cherishes mo
nopolies."
Now, these comprehend all the great and substantial ob
jections urged against the protective policy, condensed into
a single view. They covered the whole ground, and they
232 WESTERN IMPROVEMENTS.
were all contained in Mr. Van Buren's letter of the 15th
February last to the Indiana convention, and repeated in
almost every anti-tariff speech in and out of this House.
He proposed to take up each of these stereotyped objec
tions, and to show, not by theories and assertions, but by
ascertained and admitted facts, that they were not only
false and unfounded, but that exactly the reverse of each
was the truth ; and he would confidently submit the matter
to the judgment of every farmer and every man in the coun
try, who would give the facts a calm and dispassionate con
sideration.
Now, sir, as to the first proposition : Is the foreign market
for our agricultural produce everything, and the domestic
market little or nothing ? By referring to the census of
1840, it would be seen^ that the agricultural productions
peculiar to the States north and west of the Potomac, Ohio,
and Mississippi — to wit : grain of all kinds, flour, meat, fruit,
animals, animal productions, etc., — amounted to more than
$1,000,000,000, while the exports of these articles for the
last ten years to all the world amounted, on an average, to
only $8,500,000. Now, if the manufacturers and the me
chanics throughout the United States consumed only one-
tenth part of these agricultural products it would amount to
one hundred millions ; yet the home market was nothing !
And one-third of the State of Missouri could furnish a sur
plus more than sufficient to supply all the Eastern demand !
Now, he affirmed, and the gentleman's own premises would
show, that there was more than eight, and he might say ten
dollars7 worth of agricultural produce raised on the soil of
Great Britain and sent to Missouri for sale and consumption
to one dollar's worth of agricultural produce sent from Mis
souri to Great Britain. This might seem strange, but it was
true, not only of Missouri, but of all the other Middle and
Western States.
FOREIGN IMPORTS — AGRICULTURAL PRODUCE — VIEWS
FOR FARMERS.
Now, he presumed, it would be admitted — it could not be
denied — that one-half, and more than one-half, of all the
foods imported from abroad, was strictly agricultural pro-
uce, consisting of the raw materials and breadstuffs, the
subsistence of labor worked up and manufactured into arti
cles of use. Well, the imports from England in 1842 were
WESTERN IMPROVEMENTS. 233
§33,446,499 ; one-half being agricultural produce, would
make $16,723,249. Missouri contained one-forty-fifth part
of the entire population of the United States, and the gentle
man says consumes foreign imports in proportion to her
population. She therefore consumed of the agricultural im
ports from England, in 1842, $371,622 worth. Our exports
of all the agricultural productions of the Middle and Western
States, flour, grain, meat, fruit, animals, and animal produc
tions to England amounted, in the same year, to $2,021,307
— Missouri's share of which, according to her population,
would amount to §44,918 ; so that Missouri has bought $371,-
622 worth of English agricultural produce, and sold to her
only $44,918 worth ! — less than one-eighth part. But is it
true that one-half of the value of all foreign goods imported
is agricultural produce ? This is an important question, and
one which he was anxious that the farmers of this country
should thoroughly understand. It had not heretofore re
ceived due consideration, and he was anxious to impress it
upon the public mind. Take cloth, glass, iron, everything
— analyze them, resolve them into their elements, so to speak,
and you wrill find that much more than the half of their value
or price is made up of agricultural produce. In a yard of
common cloth, take the wool (itself nearly half its value), the
bread and meat and other articles composing the subsist
ence of the labor employed in its manufacture, with other
subordinate ingredients, and you will find that three-fourths
of its value is derived from the produce of the soil ; farmers
often make in their own families woolen goods for con
sumption and sale to the amount of hundreds of dollars,
without purchasing a dollar's worth of anything not produced
on their own farms. Is not this cloth, then, made up en
tirely of agricultural produce? And is not all cloth com
posed of the same materials, whether made in factories or on
farms ? If, then, the farmer purchases foreign cloth, does
he not, in fact, purchase foreign agricultural produce con
verted into cloth, while his own produce is, to use the lan
guage of the gentleman, " rotting on his hands for the want
of a market?" How, then, can Western representatives
contend that it is better for their constituents to send their
hard money (for England takes no other kind) to purchase
agricultural produce in the shape of goods in preference to
establishing manufactories and markets at their own doors,
and keeping their money in active and profitable circulation
at home ? Will you foster the interests of British farmers in
234 WESTERN IMPROVEMENTS.
preference to our own ? In a contest between the British
and American farmers for the American market, he asked
gentlemen from the West which side they would take ? The
protective tariff is the American side — the opposite is the
British side : which side will you take ? This is the true
question at issue, and it can neither be disguised nor evaded.
[Here was a general call to order by the anti-tariff men.]
Mr. S. remarked that what he had said in respect to cloth
was equally applicable to iron, glass, and indeed every species
of manufactures. He had himself made iron, and he knew,
as a matter of personal observation and experience, that when
he sold his iron he paid eight dollars out of every ten of the
whole price to the neighboring farmers for grain, etc., to feed
his horses, oxen, and mules ; and bread, meat, and domestic
goods, to clothe and feed his hands. Four-fifths of. the
whole value of iron was therefore strictly and truly agricul
tural produce ; and the representatives of farmers, with Mr.
Van Buren at their head, wished to go to England to buy
iron, four-fifths of the value of which was British agricultural
produce, in preference to sustaining those great markets for
the farmers — the iron-works of our own country.
Our importations of foreign goods for consumption (de
ducting re-exports) amounted, upon an average, for the last
ten years to $114,399,434 per year, one-half being agricul
tural, the result is that we have imported from abroad
annually into the United States, for sale and consumption,
$57,199,717 worth of agricultural produce, the growth of a
foreign soil, whilst our whole exports of the agricultural
products of the Northern, Western, and Middle States, have
fallen short of $8,500,000, on an average, for the last ten years.
Was this a sound system for a country in which seven-
eighths of the entire population were employed in agricul
ture? But there was another view which showed the great
value and importance of manufactures to the farmers, to
which he wished to call their special attention. It was
this: In 1842 we exported $8,410,694 worth of domestic
manufactures, one-half of which (and he might safely say
two-thirds) was the produce of the farmers converted into
goods, and thus sent abroad for sale, making an exportation
of agricultural produce, in the shape of goods, to the
amount of five millions and upwards ; and this year, he had
no doubt, the amount of domestic manufactures exported
would be more than ten millions of dollars, exceeding the
whole exports of grain, flour, meat, fruits, animals, and ani-
WESTERN IMPROVEMENTS. 235
mal productions — and this, too, in a form not to affect inju
riously the prices by overstocking the foreign market with
agricultural produce in its raw and unmanufactured condi
tion. In this way Great Britain was, in fact, the greatest
exporter of agricultural produce in the world — not in its
rude and original form, but by doubling its value by the
addition of labor and profits. In 1841 her exports of manu
factures amounted to the enormous sum of $230,000,000 —
making her exports of agricultural produce, in this form,
$115,000,000. The products of her labor-saving machinery
were equal to the results of the labor of eight millions of men.
This was the great element of wealth in England, as it was
and would be here and everywhere. Destroy the labor-
saving machinery of Great Britain and she would be bank
rupt in a single year. By this she laid the world under con
tribution, and enabled her people to pay $250,000,000 of
revenue annually. So much for the relative value of the
foreign and home market for agricultural produce, and the
effect of the protective policy on the interest of the farmers.
THE EFFECT OF PROTECTION ON PRICES.
The next proposition of the gentleman from Missouri
[Mr. Jameson] was, that "the effect of the protective policy
was to increase the price of everything the farmer has to
buv, and reduce the price of everything the farmer has to
sell."
Now, does not all experience, as well as the well-known
laws of demand and supply, clearly prove that precisely
the reverse of this proposition is the truth ? The effect of
the protective policy, it is admitted on all hands, is to build
up and increase the number of manufacturing establish
ments, and thereby to increase the demand for the raw ma
terials and breadstuff's produced by the farmer, and thereby
increase (not diminish) the price of everything the farmer
has to sell ; and, by increasing the number of manufactu
ring establishments increase the quantity of manufactured
goods, and thereby reduce (not increase) the price of the
goods which the farmer has to purchase. Hence, by in
creasing the demand, you increase the price of everything
the farmer has to sell; and, by augmenting the quantity,
reduce the price of everything the farmer has to purchase.
Such was the well-known operation of the great law of de
mand and supply, universal and invariable in its results.
236 WESTERN IMPROVEMENTS.
Besides, by increasing manufactures, you withdraw a portion
of the labor employed in agriculture, and employ it in manu
factures — making customers and consumers of those who
were before rivals in the production of agricultural supplies.
And these results were not only theoretically, but they were
practically true. He saw it stated this morning in a paper
from that gentleman's [Mr. Jameson] country that wheat
had recently risen fourteen cents in the bushel, and that pork
was selling for double the price it brought just before the
passage of the late protective tariff. And on the other hand,
he affirmed it as a fact, he defied contradiction, and invited
gentlemen to the scrutiny, that there was not a single article
of any sort or kind which had been highly protected,
(which we had the capacity to produce, and had succeeded
in producing), that the price had not been invariably re
duced by the home competition, stimulated and excited by
protection to less, often to one-half, one-third, and one-
fourth part of the price paid for the same article when ex
clusively imported from abroad. He would refer to coarse
cottons, for which everybody knows we paid fifteen and
twenty cents a yard before they were manufactured here, which
are now bought (of better quality made at home and paid for
in produce) at five and six cents per yard — glass, for which
we paid, when imported, $12 per box, is now made at home
for $2 per box. This is the way prices are increased, and
the farmers are " robbed and oppressed," in the language of
the gentleman, by the protective policy ; this is the way this
gentleman's constituents are fleeced of " half their hard earn
ings by the Eastern manufacturers." Now he defied the
gentleman to put his finger on a single article in the whole
tariff on which high protective duties had been levied, that
had not in time been reduced, and very greatly reduced in
price by domestic competition — and yet, in the face of these
facts, the gentleman stands up and gravely repeats this stale
and threadbare theory, " that protective duties increase the
price of everything the farmer has to buy, and reduce the
price of everything he has to sell."
THE DUTY ADDED TO THE PRICE — NOT TRUE.
Next, the gentleman tells us that " the duty is always
added to the price and paid by the consumer, on both for
eign and domestic goods ; for the domestic manufacturer, he
says, always raises his goods by the amount of the duty;"
WESTERN IMPROVEMENTS. 237
and this theory is also advanced by Mr. Van Buren in his
letter to the Indiana convention, before referred to. Now
let us see how this theory will bear the test of a practical
examination. The consumer has to pay the duty to the
manufacturer • this is the universal theory. Now, if the
gentleman would turn to the tariff he would find that the
duty on the lowest priced cotton goods was upwards of eight
cents per square yard ; these goods were sold to the gentle
man's constituents in Missouri for six cents, and often less
than six cents per yard. Now, if the gentleman would go
home and undertake to convince the simplest old woman in
his district that she was obliged to pay the Eastern manu
facturer eight cents a yard duty on a yard of coarse cotton,
which she bought for six, he would undertake a task in
which, with all his eloquence and ingenuity, he would ut
terly fail. The duty on glass wras $3 per box, a duty im
posed when foreign glass was imported and sold at $10 and
$12 per box; now it was selling in his country for $2.50
per box ; the duty on nails had been five cents per pound,
imposed when the price was ten or twelve cents, now they
are made and sold for four cents. Such were the fruits of
the protective policy by which the price of glass had been
reduced from $10 to $2.50, and nails from twelve to four
cents per pound ; and the same was true of paper, type,
hardware, and an infinite variety of articles. Now, if the
gentleman would go home and tell his constituents the
honest, plain, common-sense farmers of Missouri, that they
had to pay $3 duty on a box of glass which they could pur
chase for $2.50, and five cents a pound duty on nails which
they purchased for four, they would laugh in his face. Yet
he has just gravely asserted that "the duty is always added
to the price by the manufacturer, and is paid by the consu
mer." Now, with such facts before him, he thought it
might puzzle even a Van Buren man to believe Mr. Van
Buren himself, who had asserted this same thing in his In
diana letter, where, perhaps, the gentleman had got this
idea.
The gentleman next says that the protective policy creates
and cherishes monopolies. Now, if to increase competition
(the admitted effect of this policy) was to create and cherish
monopoly, then the gentleman was right ; but if to promote
competition was to destroy monopoly, then the gentleman
was wrong. In this, as in all the other cases, the reverse of
the gentleman's proposition was true. Protection promoted
238 WESTERN IMPROVEMENTS.
competition, and thereby destroyed monopoly. This was
too clear to admit of illustration or argument.
His time was nearly out, and in conclusion he would say
that he advocated the protective policy, not as a policy cal
culated or intended to advance the interest of the manufac
turers at the expense of any other class ; on the contrary,
he regarded it as a policy eminently calculated to advance
the welfare and prosperity of agriculture.
AGRICULTURE WAS THE GREAT OBJECT OF THE PRO
TECTIVE POLICY.
It reduced the price of manufactured goods by promoting
competition, while on the other hand it enhanced the price
of agricultural produce by increasing the demand and
diminishing the supply, by withdrawing a portion of labor
from this great department of industry, and employing it in
the consumption instead of the production of agricultural
supplies. It was therefore for the benefit of the farmers,
and not the manufacturers, he advocated this policy.
Agriculture was the great parent of production ; it was
the great fountain of national wealth and prosperity. In
this country, where seven-eighths of the entire population
were employed in agriculture, it might be emphatically said
that the " farmers produced all and paid all ; " and at the
ballot-box they were all powerful. He hoped they would
for once make common cause ; that they would unite in one
great vigorous effort to advance their own interest — the in
terest of the nation ; to protect and defend their own great
American markets against the efforts of foreigners to occupy
them, by breaking down our protective policy, and inunda
ting our country with their agricultural produce, manufac
tured and worked up into goods, and thus sent here for sale,
while their own ports were hermetically sealed against our
productions by prohibitory duties. He appealed to the
farmers of the great West — he implored them to come to
the rescue — to defend and maintain their own great Ameri
can interests, by electing men to this House and to the
Executive Government who would take the American side
against foreigners in this great struggle now going on for
the American market. The remedy was in their own
hands, and it was their own fault if they failed to apply it.
If they failed, they themselves would be the sufferers. The
great American Whig system had been tried, fully tried.
WESTERN IMPROVEMENTS. 239
In 1816 we passed a protective tariff, which, with the tariffs
of 1824 and 1828, hud paid off (principal and interest) of
the war debt, in 1832, $229,000,000. It had furnished
a sound and uniform currency ; it had rendered the whole
country eminently prosperous in all its interests, agricultural,
manufacturing and commercial ; and just at the time this
war debt was paid off, and the surplus of eighteen millions a
year, derived from the protective policy, was about to be
applied to the construction of those internal improvements,
which had since involved the States in a foreign debt of
more than $200,000,000, there came "a frost, a killing
frost ;" this American system of policy was, in the language
of gentlemen, " exploded," and the Van Buren system, in
troduced by Mr. Van Buren himself, then prime minister,
established on its ruins. In a few years the expenses of
Government were doubled, and almost trebled; internal
improvements arrested and transferred to the States ; the
protective tariff repealed and the country ruined ; agricul
ture, manufactures, and commerce went down together ; and
individuals and governments, State and national, involved
in one common scene of bankruptcy, repudiation, and deep
disgrace. Such were the clear and undeniable fruits of the Van
Buren policy, and such was the admitted condition of things
in 1840, when the people, who had forborne till " forbearance
ceased to be a virtue," rose in their might and resolved to
throw off this ruinous system and return to the system that
had rendered them prosperous ; by one united and vigorous
effort they had succeeded for the moment by the election of
Harrison and a Whig Congress, who had partially restored
the national prosperity by the tariff of 1842; but all their
high hopes and bright prospects were struck down by the
death of their chief, and the succession of a man who is now
an adherent of the Van Buren system. Thus, sir, the
popular effort of 1840 to restore the Whig system had been
defeated and postponed ; but, thank God, the time is ap
proaching, and is at hand, when the people would again
come up with redoubled vigor and energy to the rescue.
They were defeated in 1840, but in 1844 they would suc
ceed, as he hoped and believed, by a still more triumphant
majority, because the ruinous effects of the Van Buren sys
tem, and the beneficial effects of the Whig policy, were now
more clearly seen and better understood. This was a con
test for measures, not for men — men were nothing, measures
and principles everything ; much for weal or for woe depended
240 WESTERN IMPROVEMENTS.
upon the result ; the fate of the country, lie believed, was
involved in the issue. Shall the country get up and again
advance in a career of prosperity under new auspices, or fall
back into the wretched and deplorable condition in which
Mr. Van Buren left it in 1841 ? This was the great ques
tion at issue — a question which touched the interest of every
man in this country deeply and vitally, and in reference to
which he could neither be indifferent nor silent.
Against Mr. Van Buren personally he had said nothing
— he had nothing to say ; it was to his measures and princi
ples he was opposed. He firmly believed before God that
the re-election of Mr. Van Buren would be the greatest
calamity that could befall this country. Under this solemn
conviction he felt it to be his duty to avert this calamity if
he could. It was a duty from which he could not be diverted
nor driven by any species of intimidation here or elsewhere.
It was a high duty he owed to his country and his constitu
ents, and he would be false to them and to himself if he
failed, on all proper occasions, firmly and fearlessly to per
form it.
MR. STEWART'S DEFENCE OF HIMSELF
AGAINST THE ABUSIVE ATTACK OF MR.
WELLER.
[Mr. Winthrop moved that the gentleman from Pennsyl
vania [Mr. Stewart] have leave to speak a second time ; and
the yeas and nays being demanded, the yeas were 152, nays
18. So leave was granted.]
Mr. Stewart returned his cordial thanks to the House for
this manifestation of its kind disposition towards him, and
for the present opportunity of explanation. He had been
about to say, when up before, that he made no personal
attack on any one, nor any allusion of a personal or offensive
character ; he had entered only into general remarks, and
that in answer to those of other gentlemen on the great
questions of public policy which divided the country. For
this he had been assailed in the manner which all present
had heard, and which it was not necessary to characterize,
because it sufficiently characterized itself. He said that
every gentleman on that floor would bear witness that, du
ring the course of discussion, both in Committee of the
Whole and in the House, different gentlemen, the gentle
man from Indiana [Mr. Kennedy] and from Illinois [Mr.
WESTERN IMPROVEMENTS. 241
Ficklin] had spoken of " the exploded American system,"
and had denounced it as leading to the most destructive
effects on the public prosperity. The gentleman from
Missouri [Mr. Jameson] followed in the same strain, and,
speaking of the Whig party, took occasion to characterize
it as the " coon party ; " a party without principles ; the frag
ments of a party ; the fag ends of all parties ; as weighed in
the balance and found wanting ; and had spoken of the Whig
policy as now utterly exploded. After all this, what had
Mr. S. done ? He had only replied to these charges, first
made by other gentlemen, and, in so doing, had endeavored
to vindicate the policy of the Whigs, and to show that it had
been productive of very great blessings and benefits, and
had rendered the country prosperous. On the other hand,
he had spoken of what was usually known and spoken of as
the Van Buren policy, and had set its effects in contrast,
endeavoring to show the practical consequences of both sys
tems on the welfare of the country, and to make it appear
that the latter policy had plunged the country in debt, and
stricken down the interests of agriculture and manufactures.
He considered these as legitimate subjects to be brought up
in reply to what had been said on the other side. The gen
tleman from Missouri, [Mr. Jameson] had said that, unlike
the Whig party, Democracy had principles for the eye of
the world, and principles it would stand or fall by. Mr.
S., in reply, had a perfect right to speak of those principles,
according to his views of them, and this he had done ; but in
all the remarks he made he had indulged in no personal al
lusion to the member from Ohio, or to anybody else. To
that member he was a stranger, and always would be. He
had made no allusion to him. He had endeavored to show
that the opposite line of policy was injurious. In so doing,
he acted on a great principle of public duty, in endeavoring
to ward off from his country the introduction again of a
policy which, as he believed, had operated to weaken and
destroy the foundations of the public prosperity.
After he had made an argument resting on these princi
ples, the member from Ohio, at a very early hour, immedi
ately after the reading of the journal, rose in his seat before
Mr. S. was in the House and made a violent personal attack
upon him, and such a one as Mr. S. would not here charac
terize, as he could not while restrained by the rules of par
liamentary decorum. All the House had heard it. In that
attack he had charged Mr. S. with having made a " stump
16
242 WESTERN IMPROVEMENTS.
speech," as having violated all propriety, as having spoken
in a manner unworthy of a man, and had concluded with
moving the previous question.
[Here Mr. S. quoted several passages from Mr. Weller's
speech, especially that in which he pledged himself to dis
prove all Mr. S. had said about Mr. Van Buren, or take the
brand of falsehood on his own forehead ; and, if he did, then
'to fix it on the forehead of Mr. S.]
Now, as Mr. S. had made no personal allusion whatever
to the gentleman — no, the member from Ohio — but had
spoken only on matters of general interest to the House and
to the country, he would ask of every candid and fair man
whether it was his duty to sit in silence under such a charge
against him? The personal attack was perfectly unpro
voked, and it was made in terms such as Mr. S. could not
suitably characterize without violating the rules of order ;
they characterized themselves. Thus assailed, what had
been his course? On the first opportunity in which he
could get the floor he alluded to these remarks, he had quo
ted the report of them, and had then added that he was pre
pared to sustain all the charges he had made to the very let
ter ; and thereupon he had gone into the proof from public
documents and Mr. Van Buren's own letters. Mr. S. ap
pealed to all who had heard him to say whether he had not
made out, fully and substantially, the truth of every single
charge. He would submit that question to the recollection
of every gentleman on that floor. And there he had left the
subject. He made no remark of a personal nature. All he
had done was to remove the brand of falsehood from his own
brow and let it rest where it might. He could not have
said less.
The member on the next day, in reply to these remarks,
in which there had not been one word of personality to any
gentleman in that House, and after sleeping on the matter,
came into the House and accused Mr. S. some ten or twelve
times of " falsehood," of " lies," of having uttered " false
hood No. 1," falsehood No. 2, No. 3, No. 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and
9. This was an easy way to answer an argument or get
out of a difficulty ; but would such an answer satisfy an
intelligent and enlightened community ? Would they not
infer that no better reply could be made? The member had
admitted the facts but denied the inferences, as to the with
holding the estimates for these Western improvements ; and
this, in his polished language, is lie No. 1. Next, he [Mr.
WESTERN IMPROVEMENTS. 243
S.] had expressed the opinion that from Mr. Van Buren's
principles, as he had read them, he would be bound to veto
the proposed appropriation were he now President; and
this was lie No. 2. Next, Mr. S. had expressed the opinion
that the tariff of 1842 had promoted the national prosperity ;
and this was designated as lie No. 3 ; and so on with all the
rest. Now,thow easy would it be to retort these vulgar epi
thets. The member has said that my speech had been made
" one hundred times on every stump in the West." These
were his very words ; and what was this ? Truth, of course.
Now, Mr. S. here reaffirmed every position he had before
taken, and held himself ready to establish by the most indis
putable testimony the truth of every one of them. He ap
pealed to that House to say whether the member had -dis
proved, or in the least impaired, one of them. He should
avail himself of a proper occasion to prove this ; and such a
day would come. He here pledged himself before that
House and before the country to make out the most perfect
demonstration of all that he had asserted. The member
from Ohio did not once deny that Mr. Van Buren had with
held the estimates for the Cumberland road ; he had only
denied the inference of Mr. S. from the fact that theisecretary
had acted under his instructions. He admitted the estimates
were withheld, but denied that the President had given his
secretary any instructions to withhold them. Now, the
member could no more prove that Mr. Van Buren did not
instruct the secretary to do it than Mr. S. could prove that
he did. Neither of them was present. But Mr. S. had
inferred that as it was the secretary's official duty- to report
the estimates, and as he had always previously done it, he
could not on that occasion have avoided doing it unless
acting under Executive instructions. "What Mr. S. said was
a matter of inference, and not an assertion of fact at all.
There had been some little difficulty as to a date, and as to
whether he had withheld them a few days or a few months,
more or less. And what difference did that make as to
the general fact? There was one thing about which the
member had triumphed very confidently : he said he would
prove, and he did prove, that Mr. Van Buren did sign bills
making appropriations for works of internal improvement.
Certainly he did; nor had Mr. S. ever denied it. What he
said was that Mr. Van Buren denied the power of this
government to execute works of internal improvement; and
not only so, but that even the consent of the States could
244 WESTEKN IMPEOVEMENTS.
not confer upon it the power. And for this he had shown
Mr. Van Buren's own words. If the member had proved
that, after avowing this principle, Mr. Van Buren acted
afterwards in utter inconsistency with it, that was a matter
between the member and his candidate. If he could prove,
and did prove, that Mr. Van Buren acted against his own
faith, and violated his oath of office, that was the member's
own affair.
Mr. S. knew very well that Mr. Van Buren's friends could
show that he held very different opinions at different times.
Mr. S. could have shown the gentleman more than that: he
could have shown him that Mr. Van Buren voted in favor
of putting turnpike-gates upon the Cumberland road to tax
the free citizens of Pennsylvania for travelling over a high
way in their own Commonwealth ; but President Monroe
had vetoed the bill as unconstitutional, thus putting down
an unconstitutional law for which Mr. Van Buren had de
liberately voted. This was a greater violation of the Con
stitution than the other case. Latitudinous as Mr. S. was
held by some to be on the interpretation of the Constitution,
he could not go that, and he voted against the bill. Mr. S.
might further have proved that Mr. Van Buren voted for
the tariff of 1828, and about twenty times against the reduc
tion of the high duties imposed by that bill. Mr. S. had
voted against the high duties in the tariff of 1828, and
for their reduction. Extravagant as his notions were said
to be, he could not go the length Mr. Van Buren iiad gone,
though that gentleman had said he was now against the ex
isting tariff, both in its principles and details. If in these
things he was inconsistent with himself and his own avowed
principles, Mr. S. could not help it. Mr. S. insisted, then,
that he had fully established all the charges he had brought.
There had been some dispute as to what the building of
this Capitol had cost; the member from Ohio had stated
that it cost but a little over a million. Mr. S. understood
that to build it at first and repair it after it was partially
burnt, had cost between three and four millions.
He pledged himself to prove every position he had taken ;
he reaffirmed every one of them fully, to vindicate himself
in the course he had pursued, and wipe off from his brow
that brand of falsehood the member was so anxious to fix
upon it, let it rest where it might.
Mr. S. went on to say that it did seem to him that if, when
a member of that House discussed, in an orderly parliamen-
WESTERN IMPROVEMENTS. 245
tary manner, questions relating to the generally policy of the
country and the Government, deprecating such as he deemed
to be destructive in their tendency, he was to be interrupted
by cries of " falsehood " and " lies," the freedom of debate
was gone. If such a state of things was to be tolerated the
members might as well return at once to their constituents ;
their rights were gone ; and there was nothing in our insti
tutions any longer worth preserving. If they could not
retain personal respect enough for each other to observe per
sonal decorum in debate; if that House of the people's
representatives was thus to be degraded and disgraced by
low, vulgar, billingsgate abuse, the liberties of that body and
of the country were gone. The people themselves, by the
acts of their representatives, would be degraded in the face
of the world, and popular government and popular institu
tions would fall into disrepute and become a reproach.
These disgraceful scenes enacted in this hall would de
grade the character and weight of this House, and destroy
the high and commanding influence which it always had
exerted in the administration of the affairs of this Govern
ment. This is, emphatically, the people's House, where
they speak and act through their immediate representatives ;
those who destroy its character and influence, destroy the
just power and influence of the people themselves, and
thereby strike a blow at the very heart of freedom. He
protested against such a condition of things.
[Mr. MeConnel (interposing). And I protest against your
slandering the majority of this House.]
Mr. Stewart resumed. He should notice no such inter
ruptions. But he did say that so long as interruptions of
this kind, and such as had repeatedly broken in upon his
former remarks, were to be permitted, and a member, while
attempting to discharge his public duty, was to be put down
by cries of liar and villain, the freedom of debate was gone,
and the rights of the minority sacrificed. He never would
descend to follow such examples ; he should do his duty on
that floor firmly and fearlessly, nor was he to be driven from
it by any such attacks. He was told that he could go out
of doors to explain ; but his constituents had not sent him
to that House to engage in fisticuff fights, or carry public
measures by force of battle. He would not descend to such
a course. On that principle he might encounter every
blackguard in the street who was brutal enough to assault a
man who gave him no provocation. He should not descend
246 WESTEKN IMPKOVEMENTS.
to a personal contest with persons of that sort here any more
than he would there.
He hoped to see this whole state of things reformed ; but
whether it should be reformed or not, if the character of
that House was to be degraded, it should not be by any act
of his. He should not be deterred from pursuing the even
tenor of his way, and discharging his duty by any such as
saults, personal as they might be, or abusive as they might
be. He was sent there to discharge a responsible public
duty, and he should discharge it. He should, on all proper
occasions, attack the policy of the last administration, now
gone out of power; and he should continue to do this be
cause he believed in his heart and conscience and before
heaven that the policy of the man who was at the head of
that administration was such as, if persevered in, must break
down the country and involve it in hopeless debt, embar
rassment and ruin, while he believed as sincerely that the
tariff was the only measure which had in any degree lifted
it up from the prostration where the Van Buren policy had
left it. Under that conviction he felt that he had a duty to
perform, so far as his efforts might go, viz. : to prevent the
country from again coming under the influence and sway
of such a man ; for should he again come into power Mr. S.
would be ready to despair of the republic. All her great
and vital interests must be prostrated. These were his firm,
religious convictions in the matter; and, deeply feeling
them, he could not sleep in peace upon his pillow did he not
exert what little influence he might possess to avert from his
country so great a calamity.
He thanked the House for the indulgence accorded to him
in the opportunity thus afforded to put himself right before
the House and before the country. He submitted it to the
House to judge whether he had done anything to justify the
attack which had been made upon him. He appealed to
gentlemen opposed to him to say whether it was not all fair
to reply to attacks openly made upon the Whig party, as
being a party without any principles, and as having been
weighed in the balance and found wanting. He had felt
called upon to vindicate those with whom he acted from
such accusations. This he had done, and this was all he
had done. He could not vindicate it in any other way. He
could not stoop to a contest of fisticuffs, or any other species
of personal contest. He was not a fighting man ; but if he
were, he could not fight all who had here assailed him.
WESTERN IMPROVEMENTS. 247
He would conclude by telling gentlemen around him, one
and all, that he was not to be silenced by any abusive
course ; that he was not to be deprived of his constitutional
freedom of speech ; that he should go on firmly and faith
fully to discharge the high duty he owed to an enlightened,
free, virtuous, and honorable constituency; but he should
always do this in a manner as decorous as the rules of that
House could require. He never would follow the example
which had been set to him. He deeply regretted the only
error which in this case he had committed — an error which
he hoped the House and the country would forgive, and
which he certainly never should repeat, viz. : the noticing,
in any shape or form, remarks which fell from the member
from Ohio.
IN FAVOR OF THE TARIFF OF 1824
DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF REPKESENTATIVES OF
THE U. S., APRIL 9th, 1824.
MR. STEWART said, he regretted that the motion now
submitted, to reduce the proposed duty on iron, compelled
him to depart from the determination he had formed, not to
trouble the House with any remarks of his, upon this sub
ject. But when he saw, in this motion, a blow aimed at
the vital interests of those whom he had the honor to repre
sent upon this floor, it would be a culpable dereliction of
public duty in him to remain silent. He did not intend,
however, he said, to enter upon the discussion of the
general principles of the bill, further than was necessary to
meet and obviate the arguments which had been employed
by gentlemen who had supported the proposition now under
consideration.
The objections urged by the honorable gentleman from
Massachusetts [Mr. Fuller], who first addressed you, are
in substance these — That the proposed increase of duty on
iron would impair the revenue — injure the farmer — tax all
classes of the community — destroy the business, and increase
the burdens of commerce and navigation — prostrate the
navy — create monopolies — shut the ports of Russia against
our produce — and all for the benefit of a few overgrown
and wealthy iron masters. This, Mr. S. said, he believed
was a fair and full statement of the grounds of opposition
assumed, not only by the honorable gentleman [Mr.
Fuller], but also by his colleagues [Mr. Webster and Mr.
Reed] as well as the gentlemen from South Carolina and
Virginia [Messrs. M'Duffie and Randolph].
In the first place, Mr. S, said, it would be proper to
inquire into the nature of this proposition, fraught with such
direful consequences. It was, he said, nothing more nor
less than a proposition to add 37 cents a hundred to the
existing duty on bar iron, equal to $7.40 per ton, — not a
protecting, but a mere revenue duty.
The quantity of iron consumed in the United States was
248
THE TARIFF OF 1824. 249
estimated at 45,000 tons per annum. During the existence
of the embargo, non-intercourse, and war, which created a
necessity for the domestic manufacture of this article, capital
to a large amount was invested, iron works sprang up in
almost every part of the country, and the home supply was
soon equal to the demand. However, peace was soon
restored, which again let in the foreign article. Still our
infant establishments maintained the unequal contest suc
cessfully, until Congress interposed, not to protect but to
destroy them; and by the iniquitous tariff of 1816, which
increased the duties upon sugar, etc., nearly 100 per cent.,
reduced the duty upon iron from 32 per cent, to $9 per ton.
This gave the death blow to the American manufactures.
They sunk one after another — the importations increased
regularly every year, until they rose from 3000 to 33,787
tons per annum, leaving about 12,000 tons for domestic
production ; and the importation of pig iron had also in
creased from 104 tons to 3000 per annum. But, sir, we are
told by the honorable gentleman from Massachusetts [Mr.
Fuller], that the Russians (from whom we get the most of
our iron) are poor, and if we don't buy their iron, they
cannot buy our produce. The gentleman feels no regret
for the fate of the American manufacturer, who is thus
destroyed — the American laborer, who is thus left without
employ and without bread — the American farmer, who is
thus left without a market for his produce ; but his sympa
thies are all alive for the poor serfs and cossacks of his
imperial majesty, the Emperor of all the Eussias, lest they
should starve for want of our produce. But, sir, do they
take our produce for their iron? No, sir; they are not
such fools as to follow our example, and take from us what
they can produce at home. Sir, they take almost nothing
but your cash. How stands the account? Last year we
imported from Russia to the amount of $2,258,797 ; while
the amount of domestic produce exported to Russia
amounted to only $51,635 ; leaving a balance to be paid in
cash, of $2,207,162. So much for the often-repeated argu
ment that we must buy from Russia, or Russia would not
buy from us. We give at the rate of $44 for their produce,
and get back one for ours. Such a policy as this would
ruin any nation. No wonder that, with such a system, our
currency was reduced in three years from $110,000,000 to
$45,000,000: no wonder that our stocks, and everything
transferable, were remitted to Europe to pay an unfavorable
250 THE TARIFF OF 1824.
balance of trade : no wonder that agriculture, commerce,
and manufactures, were all alike struggling for their exist
ence. If there is, however, continued Mr. S., any article
we ought to manufacture above all others, an article for
which we should be independent of the world, he contended
that it was iron; it was equally necessary in peace and in
war; it was intimately connected with the defence of the
country, as much so as powder and ball. Our country, he
said, abounded with ore, with coal, provisions, everything
necessary for its manufacture, and the raw material was
useless for any other purpose; the capital was already
vested, and labor unemployed, which wanted but the
vivifying touch of governmental patronage and protection,
to spring at once into successful operation, saving millions
to the nation, affording a market to the farmer, and employ
ment to labor.
But, we are told by the gentleman from New York [Mr.
Cambreleng], that our iron is not so good as the imported —
that it is not suitable for the manufacture of cannon. And,
sir, is it come to this ? Are we to depend on Europe for
our cannon ? — Is this nation, boasting of its independence,
to look to Europe, to the Holy Alliance, for the means of
national defence ? He disputed the fact of inferiority. The
cannon, as well as those who manned them, during the
late war, were purely American; and where, sir, is the
evidence of their inferiority ? He fearlessly affirmed that
neither the metal of our guns, nor the metal of our men,
were ever surpassed. He would appeal for proof to the
splendid achievements on the plains of Bridge water and
New Orleans, — to the glorious deeds on Erie and the ocean.
Mr. S. then went on to reply to another objection urged
by his colleague [Mr. Breck], who said we must wait till
we acquire capital and skill. We must not go in the water
till we have learned to swim. These, he contended, were
in existence, and it was the object of this measure to put
them in motion. During the war there was no want of
either capital or skill. Though they were put down at
present, by an unwise and ruinous policy, yet he hoped, by
the adoption of this measure, they would be resuscitated.
If his colleague, he said, wished to create capital and skill,
the only way to arrive at his object was to pass this bill.
He would wait forever, if he withheld protection and
encouragement, which was the breath that gave being, life,
and motion, to industry, capital, and skill, in every country
THE TARIFF OF 1824. 251
where they were seen to prosper. Gentlemen might ransack
all history, ancient and modern, and they could not find a
single instance to the contrary. The gentleman from South
Carolina [Mr. M'Duffie], continued Mr. S., has contended
with more ingenuity than force, that the country could not
furnish the article in question, and that the only effect would
be to increase the duty which operated as a tax upon the
whole community, without benefiting the manufacturer — he
also contended that it would impair the revenue. Mr. S.
said he could not comprehend how the tax on the imported
article could be increased, and the revenue diminished:
both positions he contended could not be correct — the duty
and the revenue were the same. If the duty was increased
on an article imported, the revenue must, of necessity, be
increased in the same proportion. But it appeared that the
effect of a measure on the revenue did not depend on the
nature of the measure itself, but upon the source from which
it originated. A bill was reported during the last Congress,
by the Committee of Ways and Means, in which (according
to the recommendation of the Secretary -of the Treasury) a
duty of $20 per ton was proposed on iron, not for protec
tion, but to increase the revenue. Now, when the same duty
is recommended by the Committee of Manufactures, together
with fifty or sixty other items of that revenue bill, at the
same rate of duties, we are told it will ruin the revenue.
So that the same duties when proposed by the " Ways and
Means " will improve the revenue, which, when proposed by
the " Manufactures," will destroy the revenue, and lead to
direct taxation. Such arguments might do to frighten and
alarm the people ; but, for his part, he did not believe there
was any witchcraft in the word " manufactures," which
could thus change the effect and operation of this measure.
He had no doubt but that this bill would greatly promote the
prosperity of the farmers and manufacturers, and, at the
same time, add several millions per annum to the revenue.
The true plan to increase the revenue, according to his
judgment, Mr. Stewart said, was by a wise policy to increase
the wealth and resources of the people who pay it. Cherish
and sustain your own industry ; rely upon your own means ;
develop and bring into activity your own vast resources;
keep your money at home ; buy less, and sell more : in
short, make a rich and prosperous people, and you will
make a rich and flourishing treasury — depress the people,
and the revenue would sink with them. The revenue
252 THE TARIFF OF 1824.
derived from imposts, he contended, would always be in
proportion to the ability of the people to purchase and con
sume foreign products; those who now merely raised bread
enough to live upon, would, if employed in manufactures,
be able to consume tea, coffee, sugar, and other articles,
which paid an enormous revenue to the public treasury.
To illustrate this, he would, with the permission of the
House, refer to a few facts which fell within his personal
knowledge and observation. In the county in which he
resided, during the late war, and at its close, there were, in
successful and prosperous operation, some twenty or thirty
iron works, of different kinds, employing, perhaps, fifty
persons each, and saving to the nation from ore and coal
(which now remains buried and useless,) nearly $500,000 a
year. Attached to many of these works, were found stores
of foreign goods, supplying the workmen and others, to the
amount of, say $2000 per annum, mostly groceries, tea,
coffee, sugar, etc. — of which nearly one-half of the whole
price went into the public treasury, in the shape of duties.
Since the restoration of peace, and the repeal of the pro
tecting duties in 1816, these works, he said, had been mostly
abandoned, their owners were ruined and insolvent; the
miserable hands were turned adrift without employment;
the farmer, who then received from fifty to eighty cents per
bushel for his grain, was now unable to get half that amount;
the government had lost the thousands of revenue derived
from the sale and consumption of foreign goods ; and com
merce and navigation had lost the profits of their importa
tion. The nation was impoverished by the annual loss of
millions of money, which now went to support and enrich
the farmers and manufacturers of England and Russia,
instead of our own, who were suffering for want of a market.
Land, and its produce, property of every kind, had depre
ciated more than 50 per cent., producing the most heart
rending scenes of distress, embarrassment, sacrifice, and
bankruptcy, among those who lately enjoyed the most
cheering and flattering prospects. Sir, upon what principle
can such policy as this be justified or defended ? He put it
to honorable gentlemen to say, whether they could look on
such a scene with indifference ; whether they could reconcile
it to their consciences, to give a vote which would withhold
protection from their suffering fellow-citizens, who were
struggling with the boors of Russia and Sweden ? He
hoped the protection would be granted : if not for the sake
THE TARIFF OF 1824. 253
of the manufacturer, he asked it for the sake of the farmer
— for the sake of the revenue — for the merchant — for the
nation : it was demanded by everything American — by every
proud and patriotic feeling.
But, sir, we are told by the honorable gentleman from
Virginia [Mr. Randolph], that this duty on iron will op
press the poor ; that it will tax the farmer, who, having no
market for his corn, cannot buy iron, and " will be com
pelled to plough his fields with a crooked stick." Sir, the
object of this bill is to give to our farmers a market. Iron
works consumed immense quantities of grain, and would
gladly give iron in payment; whereas, in Europe, they
refuse our grain, and require cash. He could safely assert,
upon the best evidence, that there were single manufacto
ries in the United States, which consumed, annually, more
of our grain than both England and France put together,
from whom we purchased to the amount of thirty or forty
millions a year. He would refer the honorable gentleman
to the farmer himself: — ask him, whether the erection of
manufacturing establishments in his neighborhood will
injure his farm, or his business? whether it will compel him
to " plough with a crooked stick ? " But, says the gentle
man, it will oppress the poor, and tax all classes. Let
gentlemen, before they pronounce the proposed addition of
thirty-seven cents a hundred on iron oppressive, look to some
of the existing duties. By the existing tariff, which is too
sacred to be touched or altered, you impose duties, varying
from 50 to 180 per cent, on tea, coffee, sugar, salt, etc., articles
consumed by the poor, while many of the most refined
luxuries, jewelry, etc., pay but 7| per cent. According to
the existing duties, the poor man who buys $50 worth of
sugar, tea, and salt, a year, pays $25 of taxes into the treas
ury ; while the rich man, who buys $50 worth of jewelry,
pays but $3.75. A more iniquitous system of taxation never
existed in any country : yet it must not be touched ! A
duty of a few cents on iron, for the purpose of encouraging
the manufacturer at home, was pronounced by the gentle
man from South Carolina [Mr. M'Duffie] an intolerable
tax ; while a duty of 120 per cent, on tea, which could never
be raised here, was not worth the gentleman's notice at all ;
it excited no uneasiness whatever. But we are referred by
gentlemen to the remonstrances from our chambers of com
merce. Sir, and who compose these chambers of commerce ?
He was credibly informed, that a majority of them were
254 THE TARIFF OF 1824.
British merchants and persons connected with British
merchants and manufacturers. No wonder, sir, that
they complain ; that they remonstrate against any alteration
of a system of policy by which they have been enabled
to grow rich at our expense — which has rendered this
nation more dependent and more completely tributary
to Great Britain than we were when colonies; a system
which favored foreigners, and destroyed our own merchants,
which gave them almost the entire supply of our market.
It was a fact, of universal notoriety, that more than two-
thirds of all the goods imported from Great Britain were
imported on account of British merchants and British manu
facturers ; who, if let alone, with the facility of our auctions,
and the benefit of our system of credits, by which we loaned
to British merchants, out of the pockets of our people, more
than five millions a year, without interest, they would soon
succeed in driving the American merchant completely from
the ocean. No wonder, then, that they should remonstrate
against any change in such an admirable system, by which
they receive from us more than thirty-four millions a year.
But the British minister, it is said, has remonstrated with the
Secretary of State against the increase of duty on iron ! The
British minister has remonstrated ! And are we so humbled ?
Must we ask the British minister whether we may employ
our own people to make our own iron ? Sir, does Great
Britain ask us whether she may exclude our produce from her
ports? Such a suggestion there would meet with merited con
tempt. These remonstrances against the measure were, with
him, Mr. S. said, so many arguments in its favor. It would
benefit us in the same proportion that it would injure them ;
our loss was their profit, and our profit would be their loss.
The honorable gentleman from Massachusetts [Mr. Web
ster] has made a most pathetic appeal to the House on be
half of " commerce and navigation," which he represented as
struggling for its existence, scarcely able to keep its head
above water. If you impose this duty on iron, the honora
ble gentleman says, you throw the last stone to sink the
ship. What ! $7.40 a ton upon iron ruin commerce and
navigation ! ! — an interest which had experienced more favor
than any other in the nation ; which was owned and directed
by men of great wealth and capital, ruined by a trifling duty
on iron ! It was impossible. To build a ship of 100 tons
burden, only 4 tons of iron was required, upon which the
whole increase of duty would be only $29.60. So that
THE TARIFF OF 1824. 255
$29.60 on each vessel of 100 tons burden, was to " sink the
ship," ruin commerce, and destroy the navy. He had a
better opinion of our commerce, and our navy, than to sup
pose they were to be seriously affected by a matter of this
kind. But, sir, with what propriety can commerce com
plain, when a slight protection is asked by the manufactur
ing interests of the country — foreign commerce, which has
ever been the favorite of government; which has been pro
tected at the expense of every other interest in it — not only
by fleets and navies, but by discriminating duties, equal to
600 or 700 per cent. ? An American coasting vessel, of one
hundred tons, for instance, making twelve entries a year,
only pays $6 duty, while a foreign vessel, of the same
size, and for the same entries, pays $600. An American
vessel, of three hundred tons, engaged in foreign trade,
making five entries per annum, would pay only $90 duty,
while a foreign vessel, under like circumstances, must pay
$750. But, sir, permit me to remind the honorable gentle
man from Massachusetts [Mr. Webster] of -so me of the other
burdens and taxes, to which the farmers and manufacturers
of this country are subjected, for the benefit and protection
of foreign commerce. Sir, for what was the late war de
clared? Was it not emphatically for the protection and
defence of "free-trade and sailors' rights?" A war which
had involved this nation in a debt of more than $100,000,000 ;
had filled this land with widows and orphans; a war in
which the farmers and manufacturers had suffered every
privation ; in which they had freely and bravely fought,
and bled, and died, for the defence of "free-trade" against
foreign aggression ; and now, when they ask a trifling duty,
to protect them against foreign competition, equally destruc
tive to them, they are gravely told that it cannot be
afforded, lest it may injure commerce and navigation ! But
sir, this is not all. Are we not called upon, almost daily,
in this House, to appropriate millions after millions of the
public money to erect light-houses, buoys, and beacons, along
the coast, for the protection and benefit of " foreign com
merce ;" to support ministers, consuls, and agents, through
out the civilized world ; for the regulation and protection of
our " foreign commerce ;" for the erection of forts and forti
fications, for the defence of our harbors, dock yards, and com
mercial cities ; for the support and maintenance of fleets and
public ships to guard and protect our foreign commerce
throughout the world ; and, he understood, it in some in-
256 THE TARIFF OF 1824.
stances cost the government more money to protect our
merchants (especially in the Baltic) than the whole of the
commerce was worth ? Look, sir, at the enormous expense
of sending abroad fleets to distant seas, to suppress the
pirates that annoy our foreign commerce. And who pays
these immense expenditures ? Not the merchants, but the
farmers and manufacturers of this nation. And when they,
the farmers and manufacturers, ask, in turn, that their
interests may be protected, not by duties of 600 or 700 per
cent. — not by war, nor by forts, nor lights, nor fleets, nor
navies — not at the expense of millions of the public money,
but by a mere act of legislation ; what, sir, is the reply of
the friends and champions of commerce and navigation, this
highly favored interest ? They gravely tell us, that we don't
need protection; they cry, "let us alone; you will injure
the revenue, tax commerce, and destroy the carrying trade."
Might not these replies be retorted, when the merchants
claim protection ? Might they -not be told, that the protec
tion they sought would diminish the revenue, tax the farmer
and manufacturer ? Might they not, moreover, be asked,
what great and signal service the foreign merchants had ren
dered this country, to entitle them to such special favor?
Look at the ruinous balance of trade against us. But he
would not recriminate ; he was willing to extend every rea
sonable aid and protection to commerce ; but he, at the same
time, thought that this was not the only interest in the
country ; he thought there were other great and important
interests in the nation, entitled to equal favor.
But commerce was represented as being on the decline,
as well as agriculture and manufactures. This was, he con
sidered, a matter of course. Commerce was the offspring of
agriculture and manufactures; where there was neither
agriculture nor manufactures, there could be no commerce ;
they must rise and fall together. The only legitimate busi
ness of commerce was to distribute and exchange the surplus
productions of labor. If, by a wise policy, you restore your
agriculture and manufactures to their former prosperity, com
merce will revive ; and soon again will it be seen to spread its
white bosom to the prosperous breeze. But even if this meas
ure should have the effect of lessening the foreign carrying
trade, still we would be more than compensated by the
increase of internal commerce and the coasting trade. But,
would it be seriously contended, that we should import what
we do not want, for the sake of employing foreign com-
THE TARIFF OF 1824. 257
merce? Was it consistent with sound policy, to import our
iron from Russia, when we could produce it at home, merely
to employ commerce? As well might it be contended, that
we ought to export our flour to England, and have it manu
factured into bread, and re-imported, to keep commerce and
navigation employed ! ! And this would not be more absurd
and ruinous than much of the system now in operation.
Mr. S. begged leave here to notice another argument, which
had been urged, not only against the duty now under consid
eration, but against the bill generally : it was this : — that the
proposed measure would operate injuriously on the farmers ;
that it was " taxing the many for the benefit of the few.'7
The effect, Mr. S. contended, would be directly the reverse :
it would benefit the farmers much more than the manufac
turers. To simplify his views on this point, he said, he
would confine them to a single county, in which he would
suppose there to be, at present, a single manufacturing
establishment, employing one hundred hands, consuming
§10,000 worth of grain and other agricultural productions,
and making $20,000 worth of the manufactured article ; and
then suppose that, by the operation of this measure, there
should spring up in this county, ten new and rival establish
ments, of equal extent, you thus withdraw one thousand hands
from agricultural employment, and make them consumers
instead of producers ; you give the farmers an increased
market to the amount of $100,000 ; and you save $200,000
a year, in one county, which is kept in profitable circulation
at home, giving life and activity to every branch of industry,
instead of being sent to support the industry of England,
who, by her existing laws, will not suffer her people to con
sume a pound of our flour, even if it were offered at fifty
cents a barrel ! ! This, Mr. S. contended, was the plain and
obvious tendency of the great measure under discussion.
And which, he begged leave to ask, was the more benefited,
the farmer, or the manufacturer ? Undoubtedly the former.
The increased market and increased demand for his pro
duce, necessarily increased the price ; while the increased
competition among the manufacturers, and the increased
quantity of the manufactured article thrown into the market,
as inevitably diminished the price ; so that the farmer would
get more for his grain, and give less for his manufactured
goods. Yet, with these plain results before us, it was still
gravely urged upon the House, by almost every honorable gen
tleman who had opposed this bill ; it was a principal ground
17
258 THE TAKIFF OF 1824.
of opposition, that it would "ruin the farmers, tax the
many for the benefit of the few, create monopolies, enable
the rich manufacturer to extort from the people," etc.,
while, in fact, its real tendency and effect was, he contended,
precisely the reverse.
But, Mr. S. said, there was another and still stronger
view of this subject, in relation to its effects upon the inter
est of the farmer and agriculturist. It was a fact (however
strange it might appear), susceptible of the clearest demon
stration, that this nation, almost entirely agricultural,
instead of exporting, actually imported agricultural labor,
from the poor and wretched countries of Europe, to the
amount of $20,000,000 or $30,000,000 a year. He did not
mean to say that it was imported in its rude and original
shape ; but it entered into the composition of manufactures ;
and, thus altered and modified, was imported and consumed
among us. Sir, of what is your imported cloth composed ?
your imported iron, spirits, hemp, linen — in short, almost
everything ? Count the cost of the raw material, the wool,
hemp, flax ; then add the price of the provisions, the bread,
meat, fuel, etc., consumed by those employed in the fabrica
tion of the manufactured articles, and you will find that
one-half, nay, two-thirds of the price of our imported goods
consisted of agricultural labor, and went to support and sus
tain the farmers of foreign countries, of England, France,
and Russia — while our own, shut out from Europe, and
shamefully abandoned at home, were left without a market,
and without a motive to industry. With an almost unlimi
ted extent of fertile territory, abounding with the finest soil
and most delightful pastures, we were importing even grass
from foreign countries in the shape of tallow and wool.
Last year we had imported vast quantities of both ; 4,000,000
pounds of tallow, equal to the product of 80,000 cattle.
And was it wTise in this nation, where 83 per cent, of the
whole population were employed in agriculture, to import
$20,000,000 or $30,000,000 worth of agricultural produce
every year, in the shape of manufactures from abroad, and
most of it from England, whose territory was not much
larger than some of our States, and where the proportion of
agriculturists was not equal to one-third of her population ?
The immense sums thus sent to Europe, he argued, were
worse than thrown away ; for the amount was not only lost
to the country, but it introduced the labor and industry of
other countries to paralyze and destroy our own. He com-
THE TARIFF OF 1824. 259
pared it to the money expended by an individual in the
purchase of spirituous liquor, or other deleterious drugs, the
use of which impaired the health and ruined the constitu
tion ; in both cases the loss of the money was the smallest
part of the evil. These being the effects of the present sys
tem on the farmers, any change would be to them desirable
— it might be for the better, it could not be for the worse.
The Hon. gentleman from Massachusetts [Mr. Webster]
has been pleased to denounce the restrictive policy as unwise
and injudicious. He, Mr. S., would respectfully ask the
honorable gentleman to point to the country that, neglect
ing the protection and encouragement of its own industry,
and depending on foreign labor and skill for the supply of
its wants, was not ultimately ruined. History furnishes, he
said, no such instance. Look at miserable Poland, Italy,
and Portugal, adopting the free-trade policy. Look at
wretched Ireland, dependent on England. Look at the
once flourishing, but now degraded^ Holland, sinking like
ourselves, under the deleterious influence of the free-trade
system. He also referred to the once powerful and proud,
but now poor and prostrate Spain. She, when self-depen
dent, relying on her own internal energies and resources,
was feared and respected by the most powerful nations on
the continent ; but since, like us, she had opened her ports to
foreign nations, and become dependent on foreign labor,
foreign capital, foreign industry and skill, for the supply of
her wants, all the wealth of her South American provinces,
the rich mines of Peru and Chili, could not save her ; she
had sunk, under the withering influences of this wretched
and ruinous system, to her present abject and degraded con
dition. And, were it not for the cheapness of our govern
ment, the freedom of our institutions, the wars in Europe,
which gave us a market, and the great and unparalleled
advantages, natural and political, that we enjoy, this country
too would have long since sunk under our present unnatural,
anti-American, and destructive system of policy. But, sir,
look for a moment, on the other hand, to the condition of
those nations with inferior advantages, protecting, by high
duties and prohibitory laws, their own people, and their own
industry, against the injurious effects of foreign competition.
Look at France, rapidly rising, like the Phoenix, from the
ashes of a wasting and desolating war of thirty years ; her
finances prosperous ; her revenue ample ; every branch of
industry protected, prosperous, and successful; excluding
260 THE TARIFF OF 1824.
even England, who had so recently placed the Bourbons on
the throne. Look at all-powerful Russia, guarding herself
against foreign competition by a perfect system of prohibi
tions, selling us iron, etc., to the amount of between $2,000,-
000 and $3,000,000 a year, and taking in return less than
a fortieth part in the produce of our soil, and the balance in
cash. It is true, sir, that, in 1820, Russia determined to
try our system of free-trade, of " buying where she could
buy cheapest." But mark the consequence. She soon
found herself on the brink of ruin, and quickly retraced her
steps. In less than two years the Russian Minister, Count
Nesselrode, declared, in his official report, that this policy
compelled Russia to pay a " ruinous tribute " to England,
France, Prussia, and Austria, who " remained faithful to their
prohibitory systems." "Agriculture," he says, " without a
market, industry without protection, languish and decline ;
specie is exported ; and the most solid commercial houses
are shaken," etc. Accordingly, in 1822, Russia re-enacted
her tariff; not like ours, proposing mere revenue duties, but
one which contained no less than 340 prohibitions ; and, in
January last, a few months since, this Russian tariff under
went a " judicious revision," by which the number of prohi
bitions was greatly increased. And finally, look, sir, at
Great Britain, the most illustrious instance that the world
has ever furnished of the complete triumph of the protect
ing policy. But, we are told that England prospers in spite
of this system. As well might it be said, that men live in
spite of the bread they eat ; that the grass grows in spite of
the rain and sunshine ; or, that the globe we inhabit per
forms its splendid course in spite of the agency of that Being
" who rides in the whirlwind and directs the storm." Sir,
England extends ample protection to every branch of her
industry — agriculture, manufactures, and commerce. Eng
land is dependent on England alone; she buys nothing that
she can produce, and produces everything that can be
bought. By the use of labor-saving machinery, England,
with a population of 14,000,000, wields a manufacturing
force equal to 220,000,000 of hands ; one boy, in an Eng
lish factory, can produce as much as will purchase the pro
duce of fifty American farmers ; one pound of cotton is so
manufactured as to purchase 2000 pounds — thus, ten cents
is made equal to $200 by the addition of labor, principally
of machinery. Her cotton manufactures alone are estimated
at $224,000,000, while the raw material costs less than
THE TARIFF OF 1824. 261
$25,000,000; her agricultural produce (upon a territory
comparatively limited, and of inferior soil) is estimated at
$487,000,000 a year, while our whole agricultural exports
(exclusive of cotton and tobacco) are less than $12,000,000 —
not equal to the support of 250,000 manufacturers, at $50 a
head. Sir, what is it that enables Great Britain to lay the
world under contribution ? What enabled her to subsidize
all Europe ? to support an army of 400,000 men ? to sus
tain for nearly thirty years, an exhausting, bloody, and deso
lating war, with the colossal power of France, and finally
enabled her to triumph on the ever-memorable field of
Waterloo ? Was it not the wealth derived from her manu
factures? What was it, he asked, that enabled her, during
that period, to raise 7038 millions of dollars, 4653 millions
by taxes, and 2070 millions by loans ; whilst her people,
notwithstanding these tremendous burdens, enjoyed an
unusual degree of prosperity ? Was it not attributable to
her flourishing manufactures ? And how was it, that now,
in time of peace she could raise, and her people could pay,
with ease, and without a murmur, $252,000,000 of revenue
per annum ; $119,000,000 of which arose from the excise
on twenty-five articles of manufacture ! — while it would con
vulse this nation to its centre, to raise, in the same way,
one-twentieth part of the amount. Sir, were we not ruined
in our resources, and prostrate in our power, by a petty Avar
of two and a half years duration ? The revenue paid by the
people of Great Britain, in one year, was equal to half the
whole amount of the expenditures of this government for
thirty years. Since the late war she had reduced her taxes
$28,000,000 a year; and, after defraying her enormous
expenditures, and paying §135,000,000, the annual interest
of her national debt, she had left an efficient annual sinking
fund of twenty-two millions and a half. And whence did
she derive these immense resources ? Trace them to their
origin, and you will find it resulted from the protection and
encouragement afforded to her national industry — to her
manufactures ; which, at the same time, afforded a market
for her farmers, and employment for her commerce. In
Great Britain, without manufactures, neither agriculture nor
commerce could be sustained ; they were to them the breath
of life — the daily bread they fed upon. The opposition to
this measure, Mr. S. said, springs from two sources : — The
commercial interest on the seaboard, and the cotton and
tobacco planting interest in the South. The first, from an
262 THE TARIFF OF 1824.
unfounded, though sincere apprehension, that it would
diminish the business, and increase the burdens of commerce
and navigation; the second, from an apprehension, no doubt
equally sincere, but equally unfounded, that, if we cease to
purchase from Europe what we can and ought to make for
ourselves, Europe will cease to purchase their cotton and
tobacco, which now constituted three-fourths of the whole
agricultural exports of this Union. These two powerful
interests had hitherto governed this nation, and dictated its
policy. The interior and the West, until lately, constituting
but a small part of the great concern, of course, had to sub
mit; but having now arrived at the age of discretion, they
claimed a right to participate in the administration of the
government. They were opposed to the present ruinous
system of policy, which was predicated on a state of war in
Europe. While all Europe was in arms, when kings, aban
doning all other pursuits, were contending in fields of blood
for kingdoms, crowns, and diadems, the United States,
enjoying an unbounded market, grew rich at their expense.
But Europe had changed in her condition ; instead of uni
versal war, there is now universal peace; millions of men
had exchanged the sword for the plough ; had quit war and
gone to work ; instead of consumers, they had become pro
ducers ; instead of customers, had become rivals — and our
produce was not only excluded from Europe, but the rival
commodities had, in many instances, followed us to our own
shores. During the last year, even wheat, potatoes, oats,
etc., had been imported in considerable quantities ; and it
had become necessary to protect ourselves, by duties, against
these importations ; and even this (the proposed duty of
twenty-five cents on wheat) had been opposed by the hon
orable gentleman from Massachusetts [Mr. Webster], on
the ground that the importation of foreign wheat gave
additional employment to our mills, and increased the busi
ness on our canals. Our own iron works were also to be
abandoned, to import our iron from Russia, for the sake
of employing our " commerce and navigation!" This, he
said, appeared to him to be about as wise as it would be in
a Pennsylvania farmer, who, having a mill on his own
farm, yet carried his grain a hundred miles into Virginia,
to have it ground, for the sake of employing his wagon and
horses ! Would it not be better for the farmer to sell his
wagon, or employ it in some other way ? And so he would
say to the merchant.
THE TARIFF OF 1824. 263
But, sir, look at the effects of this policy — this system of
free-trade — "Buying where we can buy cheapest;" look to
what it has brought this once happy and prosperous land.
With a government the cheapest, the freest, and the best
upon earth; with a country possessing every advantage of
climate, situation, and soil; yet filled with monuments
of misery and wretchedness, of general embarrassment,
bankruptcy, and ruin — Peace brought no relief to the
farmer — none to the manufacturer : to them it brought no
blessings ; to the country at large it presented a cheerless
prospect — of agriculture depressed, manufactures ruined,
and the energies of the nation relaxed, broken, and pros
trate. And even commerce, we are told by the honorable
gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Webster, though he
contends that the country was never in a more prosperous
condition), is " scarcely able to keep its head above water."
Sir, all the great interests of the country are at the lowest
point of depression ; they are struggling for life — sinking
with agriculture, the basis and foundation of all, into a
common grave. And why was this land of freedom, this
home of liberty, thus clouded and o'ercast with this dark
gloom and despondence, without a ray of hope to lighten or
cheer the long vista of futurity? There was no war, no
famine, no plague, no taxes in the land : could the cause
then be doubtful ? Did it not evidently result from our
present ruinous system of policy? Was it not because the
national industry was unprotected ? — because we looked to
Europe, instead of our own people, our own resources, for
the supply of our wants? — because we buy from abroad
almost everything we eat, and drink, and wear? Look at
the national currency, reduced, says the Secretary of the
Treasury, in three years, from one hundred and ten to forty-
five millions of dollars — all gone, together with the evidences
of the public debt, government, canal, and bank stocks, to pay
part of the debt due to foreign merchants and manufac
turers ; to whom, it was estimated, that we were still in
debt $92,000,000 of dollars : more than double the whole
currency of the country. Our imports increased, and our ex-
ports diminished. In 1815 and 1816, our imports amounted
to the enormous sum of $244,000,000, and our exports to
only $134,000,000. Property of almost every kind, and in
almost every part of the country, with which he was ac
quainted, depreciated more than 50 per cent. ; the migra
tion of foreign skill and capital into the country checked;
264 THE TAEIFF OF 1824.
eight millions of dollars of revenue lost by the surrender of
public lands ; sales stopped, and the price reduced to $1.25 —
the manufacturing establishments, erected throughout the
country during the war, abandoned and dilapidating, insol
vencies, sales, and sacrifices, had become common and
familiar matters of every day's occurrence; while all the
efforts of state legislation to administer relief had proved
unavailing : the disease was beyond their reach ; it was
national, and required a national remedy. That remedy, he
said, was contained in the bill under consideration, and he
hoped to see it speedily and successfully applied. It was
true, it had been called by the gentleman from Virginia
[Mr. Garnett] a "bitter pill;" he believed, however, that
the best medicines were not always the most pleasant ; and
it was certainly better to take even a " bitter pill" than
perish. But it certainly could not, with propriety, be pro
nounced bitter, since the honorable Speaker [Mr. Clay] had
just thrown in such a vast quantity of molasses.
The strong ground, however, on which this measure was
met and opposed, was, that it would operate injuriously to
the interests of the sugar, cotton, and tobacco planters of the
South ; that it would increase the price of the coarse fabrics
with which they clothe their slaves, etc. This argument
takes for granted the fact in controversy; a fact which he
could not admit — viz., that this measure would enhance the
price of the article manufactured. This he denied; and in
sisted that New England could, and would, manufacture the
raw materials of our own country, cheaper than could be done
in Europe, after they were transported three thousand miles,
encountering all the expenses of shipping and re-shipping,
excises, imposts, etc., to which they were thus subjected. When
it was proposed to increase the duty upon coarse cottons,
this same objection, that it was " taxing the many for the
benefit of the few," was echoed in newspapers, speeches, and
memorials, from Maine to Georgia. The duty was neverthe
less imposed ; and what has been the result ? Coarse cottons,
of superior quality, are now manufactured in this country,
for one half the price formerly paid to Great Britain;
and now, instead of importing, we exported, last year, to the
amount of $545,000 worth, to foreign countries, after snp-
aping the home consumption, amounting to many millions;
ich were saved and distributed among our own farmers and
cotton growers, instead of going to Europe to reward foreign
industry, instead of our own. The same result had attended
THE TARIFF OF 1824. 265
every industry that had received adequate protection — leather,
nails, wood, umbrellas, shoes, boots, hats, etc. ; and, from
estimates made, it appeared that we saved by the manufac
ture of shoes, boots, and hats, alone, upwards of thirty-four
millions per annum. He therefore felt warranted by uniform
experience, in the opinion, that the articles proposed to be
protected by this bill — cotton, iron, coarse woolens, hemp, etc.,
— would ultimately, and at no distant period, be furnished
cheaper of American than foreign manufacture. If there
was any certainty in the laws of cause and effect, this result
was inevitable. But the establishment of manufactories of
cotton, etc., would not only afford a market for grain and
other provisions, but also for the cotton of the South ; for the
time might come, and was perhaps not distant, when the
planters of the South might share the fate of the farmers of
the western and middle states. They, too, might be deprived
of their European market; which might be interrupted and
cut off, not only by war, and the many other vicissitudes
that interrupt the intercourse between nations, but it was a
fact of serious import to the South, that the culture of cotton
was rapidly extending itself, not only in the British Islands,
but also in Egypt and South America. Since 1818, the
price had fallen, as appeared by the English prices current,
from 28 to 7 cents a pound ; our flour had also, owing to
the glut of the market, fallen from $8 and $10 a barrel, to
$4.50; and tobacco, from $185 to $75 per hogshead. These
were some of the effects of a general peace in Europe, and
they furnished powerful arguments in favor of the abandon
ment of a policy subject to such ruinous vicissitudes ; and
pointed out the necessity of adopting a permanent system of
American policy, which should extend protection and en
couragement to American industry, and look to Amwican
means for the supply of American wants ; and, if there was
any nation under the sun, capable of supplying all its own
wants, he contended it was this one. It was as inconsistent, he
said, with our interest, as it was incompatible with our honor
and independence, to look to the crowned heads of Europe,
the Holy Alliance, for either the means of national defence
or national subsistence : our fathers had achieved their inde
pendence in vain, if it was thus to be compromised and
"sold for a rness of pottage." What did we not suffer dur
ing the late war, for want of necessary supplies? It cost
you at least 100 per cent, more to clothe a soldier, than it
does at present. And the humiliating spectacle was pre-
266 THE TARIFF OF 1824.
sen ted to the world, of an American minister applying to
Congress to suspend the non-intercourse, to enable us to get
from our enemies, blankets, to fulfil our treaty stipulations
with the Indians!! This state of things soon forced into
existence every variety of manufactures. Millions of capital
were promptly invested, which relieved the nation. But, as
soon as peace was restored, Congress, by an act of the most
flagrant injustice, instead of extending protection to those
who relieved them in the hour of need, repealed the duties,
and enabled the enemy to crush them at once, by throwing
into our market a supply of goods equal to two years' con
sumption : the customs that year (1816) amounted to thirty-
six millions ; whereas, in 1 820, (four years afterwards,) they
amounted to but twelve millions. In 1815 and 1816, our
imports, he repeated, amounted to two hundred and forty-
four millions : and our exports to only one hundred and thirty-
four millions. Great Britain thus, by a single blow, did more
to prostrate and destroy American wealth, independence, and
power, than she could have effected by a ten years' war.
"We were thus at once reduced to our former dependent,
colonial, and tributary condition. But, he hoped the period
had now arrived, when these shackles, forged and riveted
by foreign hands, were to be broken asunder ; when this
nation, taking a high, a dignified, an independent stand,
summoning forth her own boundless resources, should tell
the kings of Europe, that she would no longer "pay them
tribute" When the South and the West would look to New
England, instead of Old England, for a market and supply
for an exchange of equivalents — thus strengthening the
bonds that unite us, by the strong ties of interest and inter
course.
And, in conclusion, he would beg leave to appeal to
the liberality, the magnanimity, the patriotism, of the en
lightened representatives of the South, who, under an ample
protection, were basking in the sunshine of prosperity ; and
he would ask them, in a spirit of frankness and conciliation,
whether they could reconcile it to their consciences to with
hold the trifling protection offered in this bill, to the suffer
ing farmers and manufacturers of the interior and the west?
He would appeal to the distinguished representatives of the
sugar planters of Louisiana, who, with a protecting duty of
three cents a pound on sugar, were rapidly acquiring unbounded
wealth and princely fortunes. He would also appeal, with
the same friendly feelings, to the liberality, nay, he would
THE TARIFF OF 1824. 267
say, to the justice of the gentlemen from the North, who so
ably represented, upon this floor, the interests of "com
merce and navigation," the favored few, and he would ask
them, whether, while they were protected and defended, not
merely by enormous discriminating duties, but also at the
expense of millions of the public treasure, at the expense of
the best and richest blood of this country, they would turn
a deaf ear to the calls of the farmers and manufacturers, the
great mass of the community, for protection, not by the
sword or the purse of the nation, but by a simple act of
legislation, by the passage of this bill. Sir, said Mr. S., I
hope and trust the protection they ask will be granted, and
granted by the votes of some of the gentlemen, at least, to
whose liberality, to whose justice, to whose patriotism, he
had appealed. He hoped the present destructive system of
policy would now be abandoned ; and, upon its ruins there
would arise a system of American policy, protecting and
cherishing American industry ; a policy which, in his con
science, he belived would alone save this nation from ulti
mate bankruptcy, and raise it to that proud pre-eminence
among the nations of the earth to which the distinguished
advantages derived not only from the valor of our fore
fathers, but from nature, and from nature's GOD, gave us a
just right to aspire.
EXTRACTS FROM SPEECH IN OPPOSITION
TO THE PROPOSED REPEAL OF THE TARIFF
OF 1828, AND IN REPLY TO MR. M'DUFFIE
OF S. C., WHO REPORTED THE BILL, AND
OTHERS.
DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES THE
STH OP JUNE, 1832.
MR. STEWART having moved to strike out the whole of the free-
trade bill reported by Mr. M'Duffie, and to insert one of nineteen
sections, which he offered as a substitute ; and having stated at
some length the principal points of difference between the two bills,
proceeded to say :
That he regarded the question involved, as decidedly the
most important that could possibly occupy the attention of
the people of this country, and of their representatives here
assembled. It involved not only the prosperity and welfare
of the nation at large, but of every individual in it. The
question was, wThether the agriculture, manufactures, and
commerce of this country should be prostrated or upheld ;
whether we should rely on our own vast resources, or return
to a worse than colonial dependence on Great Britain;
whether our farmers and mechanics were to be sacrificed, to
make way for the productions of the soil and workshops of
England ; whether we should pull down the walls erected
by our predecessors, to guard and protect our national in
dustry, and thus inundate our country with foreign goods,
export our specie, and renew the melancholy and desolating
scenes of 1817, 1818, and 1819, which followed the reduc
tion of the duties in 1816 ; or, whether we should firmly
maintain our protective system ? A system which has vin
dicated its adoption by all its fruits, fulfilled all the hopes
of its friends, and falsified all the predictions of its enemies;
a system under which the country had risen to its present
high and palmy state of public prosperity. In short, he said,
the contest was now between the British and the American
farmers and manufacturers, for the American market ; and
the question is, which side shall we take? This is the real
question at issue, and it can neither be disguised nor evaded.
268
OPPOSITION TO REPEAL OF TARIFF OF 1828. 269
If the British Chancellor had sent us a bill to flood our
country with British manufactures — destroy American and
build up British industry — make us again dependent and
tributary, and crush a great and growing rival, he could not
have devised a better plan than that proposed by the Treas
ury Department. "What would he propose? The very
thing here recommended ; to reduce the duties, and thus
remove the obstructions to the importation of British goods.
England would give millions to secure the passage of either
the bill reported from the treasury ^ or that by the Commit
tee of Ways and Means. The chairman of the Committee
of Ways and Means [Mr. M'Duffie] had frankly avowed his
object ; it was to destroy American, and make way for
British manufactures — to increase the importation of British
goods, and the exportation of American specie. So, that,
money becoming plenty in England, prices would rise, and,
consequently, cotton would command a better price ; and on
the other hand, money becoming scarce in the North, prices
would fall, and they would obtain their supplies at a cheaper
rate ; in other words, his object was to enrich England, by
importing her goods, and impoverish this country, by send
ing our money to pay for them.
The gentleman frankly admits, however, that it is better
for the American farmer to pay even higher prices for Ameri
can manufactures, because he gets a higher price for his
produce in exchange. But this wont do ; we must consent
to destroy our manufactures, give up our agriculture, and
send our money to England, to induce her to give " two
cents a pound more for cotton." And if our manufactures
and mechanic arts are destroyed, what odds ? It is an easy
matter, the gentleman says in his report, for " a hatter or a
shoemaker to take up some other trade ! ! ! " What other
trade, when all are alike destroyed ? Can he beg ? No,
for all would be beggars. But they have an alternative
left ; and what is it ? To go, hat in hand, to some southern
nabob, with his thousand slaves, and his six hundred
votes, and beg leave to hoe corn, at six pence a day, among
his negroes ! ! Yes, sir, this is the result of the system of
policy proposed for our adoption ; and if we do not promptly
agree to it, South Carolina, we are told, will not remain in
the Union five months ! ! If these are her only terms of
compromise, I say, for one, let her go. But, no, sir; she
will not go, if she is wise. She is more indebted for
security, against dangers that lurk in her own bosom, to
270 OPPOSITION TO REPEAL OF TARIFF OF 1828.
this Union, and to its dreaded power, than any State in it.
The people of South Carolina cannot shut their eyes to the
perils of such a step, though some of her advisers may. She
will pause, I trust, and pause long — before she commits this
fatal suicidal act. Let her look for a moment at the conse
quences of such a step, to the present and all future genera
tions — to the cause of liberty throughout the world ; let her
look to her own situation, and to her own resources — to her
means of prosecuting a war against this government ; for
resistance to the law must result in civil war — this was
inevitable. It was proper and right, therefore, that she
should first calmly and dispassionately review the whole
ground. Where are her army and navy, her men and money,
to contend against the united energies of this powerful
Union ? For, let it be remembered, this Union will remain
unbroken, though rebellion may, for a short season, raise
her black and bloody standard within its borders. Such
things have happened more than once in the brief history
of our government, and never with so little cause as now
exists in the South. During a period of extraordinary pecu
niary distress, the people of Western Pennsylvania had re
sisted the tax-gatherers, sent by this government to sell
their last cow, and the bread from the mouths of their
children — still they yielded at once when force was threat
ened. But where is the tax-gatherer now? Such a thing
is unknown under this government. No people under
heaven enjoyed so many blessings, with so few burdens, as
this people. No man is coerced to pay a cent for the sup
port of government; our revenue is derived from duties
levied upon foreign goods, and paid partly, as he would
show, by foreigners, and partly by those who chose, volun
tarily, to purchase and consume them. Wherefore, then, this
perpetual clamor about robbery and plunder, resistance and
rebellion? Where are the burdens and oppressions, com
plained of? They existed only in the dreams and imagina
tions of gentlemen ; they were but shadows, which a mo
ment's cool reflection would forever dispel. These things
surely could never produce resistance — there was nothing to
resist ; but resistance, if it should come, would be put down,
as it always had been, without bloodshed, and without diffi
culty. He hoped, therefore, to hear no more about " glori^
ous rebellion ; " it was not a fit argument to be addressed to
this House, or this country. We come here to listen to
reason — not threats. This was not the language of concilia-
OPPOSITION TO REPEAL OF TARIFF OF 1828. 271
tion ; he would never be driven from the discharge of his
duty by threats like these; he would not compromise with
treason, or concede anything to a spirit of rebellion. To
yield to such a spirit, was putting everything to hazard ; its
demands would only be increased by concessions. The more
we yield, the more will it demand, until it ends in resistance.
Such a spirit must be met at once with justice, with firm
ness, and with decision ; this was the only true course, and,
he hoped, it was the course that would now be adopted.
But, sir, it must be admitted, on the other hand, that there
are many gentlemen in the South who are disposed to ap
proach this subject in a different spirit, and with a view to
its amicable and satisfactory adjustment; to such he was
disposed to make every concession that could be made, with
out absolute ruin to the country in which he lived, and the
people he had the honor to represent ; hence, he had pro
posed the bill now under consideration. This bill proposed
an annual reduction of duties on everything, except certain
specified articles, of 10 per cent, per annum, for two years in
succession, and to admit negro clothing free of duty. It
contained, however, compensating provisions in the reduc
tion of duties on unprotected articles; guards against frauds;
the regulation of the value of the pound sterling ; the prompt
payment of duties; and the omission of the one dollar mini
mum. Such was the general outline of the bill he had pro
posed ; it was proposed in a spirit of compromise and
concession, and, in that spirit, he hoped it would be accepted.
But it was due to himself to say that it was entirely dif
ferent from the bill he would have proposed, had he been
left free to take the course which the real interests of the
country required, without reference to the discontent pre
vailing in the South. The payment of the public debt pre
sented the most glorious opportunity of elevating this country
to the highest point of national prosperity and national
greatness ; but this glorious opportunity, with all its benefits,
must be yielded to the unfounded prejudices of the South.
The course which the interests of this country demanded,
and which, under other circumstances, he would have pro
posed, was to reduce the revenue, by repealing the duties on
what we cannot produce, and increasing those upon what we
can ; to give ample protection, or none at all. The reverse
of the course now proposed was the true one : instead of
reducing the duties, as proposed by the Secretary of the
Treasury, on wool, and woolens, cotton, gkss, salt, leather
272 OPPOSITION TO EEPEAL OF TARIFF OF 1828.
iron, and their manufactures, he would increase them gradu
ally, at the rate of five per cent, per annum, until the market
was completely secure to the American farmer and manufac
turer ; he would thus encourage the investment of capital,
and the acquisition of skill ; he would extract wealth from the
rich mines of the mountains; cover the hills and valleys
with flocks and herds; fill the country with smiling villages,
and have us become in fact, as well as in name, a free and inde
pendent people. He would put the country upon its own
resources for what it can and ought to produce, instead of
importing it; stimulate domestic instead of foreign industry;
diversify labor, promote competition, break down monopoly,
increase production, diminish prices, create markets for
agriculture, save the millions now sent abroad. The only
effectual way to reduce the revenue was to diminish imports
by increasing duties. The idea of reducing revenue by
increasing imports (the source of revenue) involved an ab
surdity on the very face of it. But why import wool and
woolens? What country, under heaven, possessed such a
capacity for their production? And, with proper encourage
ment and protection, the day was not distant when we would
export woolen, as we now do cotton goods. Why not ? Is
not our capacity for the production of wool greater than for
the production of cotton ? If we can succeed in converting
one into cloth, at the lowest price, why not the other?
Why is the cotton manufacture so successful ? The reason
is obvious; because it received protection by the mini
mum introduced by Mr. Calhoun, into the tariff of 1816,
whereas woolens were left without protection until 1824.
The one manufacture was sixteen years old, and the other
only eight. Woolens, however, for the time, had advanced
more rapidly than cottons. The supply of woolens was now
estimated at forty millions per annum, while that of cottons
did not exceed twenty-eight ; and he would hazard nothing
in the prediction, that, if the present protection be continued
on woolens, as long as it had been on cottons, we should not
only save the thirteen millions of dollars, now sent abroad,
but would soon export woolens, and undersell the British,
on equal terms, in the foreign markets of the world, where
they now acknowledge our superiority in the cotton manu
facture, by counterfeiting our marks — a fact notorious, and
admitted by all.
Bad as was the bill reported by the chairman of the Com
mittee of Ways and Means [Mr. M'Duffie], yet, in two
OPPOSITION TO REPEAL OF TARIFF OF 1828. 273
respects, at least, he thought it decidedly preferable to that
of the Secretary of the Treasury. The first was, that, by
reducing the duties to 12 J per cent, it would effect a reduc
tion of the revenue, while the secretary's would increase it.
The second advantage was, that this project, if adopted,
would arrest all our manufactures at once, and bring the
country immediately back to a high protective tariff; while
that of the Treasury Department would only protract a
ruinous struggle, and more effectually destroy the manufac
turer 'in the end; it would also delay the return of the
country to a sound and enlightened system of protecting
policy. The duties, in neither of these bills, amounted to
protection. Anything short of this was alike destructive.
Where 40 per cent, was required for protection, thirty was
no better than five, except for revenue. There was no
civilized and enlightened country on earth that neglected to
guard and protect, by adequate regulations, its own industry.
No government ever neglected it without incurring imme
diate ruin ; and that protection must always be graduated
to the state of the national prosperity ; high prosperity and
high labor required high protecting duties ; impoverished
countries, wThere labor was low, required less. The idea of
"free-trade" was now universally exploded ; it had no advo
cates in the world, except a few enthusiasts in our Southern
States ; it was found to be an ignis fatuus that had always
led its followers to certain destruction — beautiful in theory,
but ruinous in practice. The Emperor Alexander of Russia,
some few years since, captivated with this theory, had relaxed,
for a season, his high system of protection ; but soon his
prime minister, Count Nesselrode, in an official report, in
formed him that the effect of the reduction of duties had
been there what it would be here ; it had, he said, made
Russia pay a " ruinous tribute to England and France, who
remained faithful to their prohibitory systems; agricul
ture," he stated, " was without a market ; industry, without
protection, languished and declined ; specie was exported, and
the most solid commercial houses were shaken." He, accord
ingly, recommended a tariff, containing no less than one
hundred and forty prohibitions, which was adopted, and the
country was restored to its wonted prosperity.
The effect of free-trade, even if universally adopted, would
be to reduce the most prosperous country to the condition
of the most depressed. But should any nation be so in
fatuated as to adopt free-trade, while others adhered to
18
274 OPPOSITION TO REPEAL OF TARIFF OF 1828.
the restrictive policy, it would fall an immediate sacrifice —
a miserable victim to its own folly and rashness. The pro
tection of every country must be in proportion to its pros
perity. Nothing was clearer than that high-priced and
prosperous labor required high protection against low-priced
and depressed labor. If, in two contiguous territories, en
forcing protection, the one highly prosperous, and the other
greatly depressed — in the one the productions of labor being
high, shoes and hats, for instance, commanding two dollars —
in the other, where money was scarce and labor low, they
were sold for one dollar — suppose, then, these two countries
adopt " free-trade," what will be the effect ? Would not the
low-priced productions of cheap labor, cheap hats, cheap shoes,
cheap every thing, flow into the prosperous country, paralyzing
its industry, and drawing away its money, until the money
being thus transferred from the rich to the poor country, the
depressed would become the prosperous, and prosperous the
depressed nation ? Such would be the effect of free-trade
between this country and Europe, even if they were willing
to adopt it. Our laborer must work for six pence per day,
or yield the market to the paupers of Europe. But how
much more ruinous if we relax and they adhere to their re
strictive policy ? The reduction of protection would reduce
the price of labor in this country just as certainly as the re
moval of an obstruction, which separated two ponds of un
equal elevation, would depress the one to the level of the
other, or depress the higher in proportion to the reduction
of the wall of separation. Hence, he contended that this
was a most important contest. It was a contest to uphold
the labor of this country on the one hand, and to press it
down on the other ; not one kind of labor only, but every
kind — agricultural, manufacturing, and mechanical. The
question was, whether we should employ and cherish our
own industry, and circulate our money at home, or send it
abroad to import wool and woolens, iron, hats, shoes, every
thing, from foreign countries ? Labor is the foundation of
national prosperity ; it is the great parent of all production.
Depress labor, and you depress the nation. Labor would
prosper or decline precisely as you increase or diminish pro
tection. Let gentlemen withdraw protection, and flood our
country with foreign goods, export our money, and prostrate
and paralyze all the laboring classes in the fields and the
workshops ; and let them go home and tell their constituents
that they prefer British to American productions, unless they
OPPOSITION TO REPEAL OF TARIFF OF 1828. 275
would work as cheaply as the paupers of England, the serfs
of Russia, or the slaves of the Indies ; let them say so, and
ask their suffrages, and receive their answers. This might
do in the south, where labor had no voice — where the master
votes for his slaves ; but it would not satisfy the hardy, in
dependent, and enlightened yeomanry of the Northern, Mid
dle, and Western States. The effect of this system of free-
trade was to divide society horizontally into upper and lower
classes — into nabobs and paupers ; rich men and beggars ;
princes and dependants ; that was the legitimate result of
the system. It was nothing to the employer that labor was
depressed. It was nothing to the consumer, who lived upon
his income, upon the interest of his stocks, his mortgages,
and bonds, that labor went supperless to bed : his income re
mained the same, though he paid his laborers but six pence
a day. Mr. S. said he knew the sufferings and the toils of
labor ; he had himself labored for years in the field and in
the workshop. It was to the laboring people he was in
debted for every thing. He stood here their representative
and advocate ; and, when he deserted them, he hoped that
heaven would desert him. The day had not yet come, he
trusted, when the aristocracy were to rule this country. We
had heard much during the debate, about the will of the
people. The will of the majority had been stigmatized as
" the most odious tyranny — worse than the mob, more des
potic than a Turkish Divan." He would notice these re
marks directly. He supported this system of policy from
views widely different from those avowed by many gentle
men. He legislated not for the benefit of the manufacturers,
but the farmers of the country. It was the farmers, in fact,
who were most benefited by this system of policy. Gentle
men talked of this as a system to sustain and enrich over
grown manufacturing establishments. This was all a
delusion. The existing establishments are not to be bene
fited in the end, though, for the moment, they might be
relieved from the injurious effects of foreign competition.
This system, he said, while it destroyed foreign competition,
called into life and activity competition at home ; which,
however beneficial it might be to the country at large, was
not calculated to increase the profits of capital already in
vested, no more than the establishment of half a dozen new
stores, taverns, hat or shoe factories, in a village, would be
calculated to increase the business and the profits of those
who already enjoyed the monopoly. To illustrate his view
276 OPPOSITION TO REPEAL OF TARIFF OF 1828.
of this part of the subject, he would suppose a case of
common occurrence — the case of an interior town, in which
there was a single woolen factory, where the neighboring
farmers sold their wool, and bought their supply of cloth.
The manufacturer, having no competition, regulates both
his own prices and those of the farmer. But suppose, in
consequence of the encouragement afforded by a high tariff,
lialf a dozen new factories should spring up in this town,
producing six times the quantity of cloth, and creating a
demand for six times the quantity of wool and provisions,
would not the increased production of cloth soon glut the
market, and reduce the price? while the increased demand
for all the productions of the farmer, would as certainly
increase his prices and his profits. He would enjoy the
double advantage of receiving more and paying less. This
Was the plain and practical operation of the protective
policy. It was the farmers, after all, who enjoyed its
benefits to a much greater extent than the manufacturers.
Hence he called upon all who represented the farming and
agricultural interests of this country, to rally round, to
sustain, and support this system, so essential to their pros
perity and welfare. In support of this view of the subject,
he begged leave to mention a single additional fact, stated
to him by a highly respectable merchant and manufacturer,
then present. It was this : That, before the manufacture
of cotton goods had succeeded in this country, he sold to the
farmers foreign cottons at 40 cents per yard, and received
butter at 10 cents per pound. That now he sold them
better goods, of his own manufacture, for 10 cents a yard,
and gave 20 cents a pound for butter, and for other pro
ductions in the same proportion. That then he got two
pounds of cotton for one yard of cloth, and now he gave
two yards of cloth for one pound of cotton. Such was the
effect of this system in favor of both the farmer and the cot
ton planter, whose true interest it most evidently was, not to
destroy, but to increase, by every means in their power,
the manufacturing spirit of this country, to stimulate com
petition, enlarge the capital, and increase the production of
manufactured goods, thereby reducing the price of all they pur
chased, and increasing the price of all they had to sell. Mr. S.
appealed to the cotton planters themselves, to say whether
such was not the plain and practical operation of the system ;
and, if so, whether they were not bound, by every principle
of self-interest, as well as of liberal and enlightened policy,
to support it.
OPPOSITION TO REPEAL OF TARIFF OF 1828. 277
On the subject of taxation, Mr. S. thought there was
much misapprehension. Some gentlemen contended that
the duties are paid by the producer, others by the consumer ;
when, in fact, they were paid (to a great extent) by neither.
Duties levied on articles not manufactured or produced in
this country, he admitted, were paid (so far as the price was
enhanced) by the consumer ; but duties levied on articles
extensively manufactured in this country, were taxes levied
upon and paid into our treasury by foreigners. This was
perfectly plain and evident. For the sake of illustration,
select any article you please, now manufactured extensively
in this country, the price of which was known and estab
lished, then increase the tax, say 10 or 20 per cent, on the
foreign rival production, this could not affect the price
established by the manufacturers here. The foreigner must
sell at this price, and, of course, pay the duty himself.
Take the case of hats, shoes, cloth, iron, glass, or anything
else of American manufacture, having a fixed market price ;
glass, for instance, is manufactured here, at five dollars per
box. Then, suppose we add one dollar per box to the duty
on foreign glass — a cargo is imported and sold — it can bring
no more than five dollars per box. Who then pays the
duty? Clearly the foreigner. The American consumer
pays no more for his glass after the tax, than he did before
it was imposed; he still gets glass at five dollars, the duty
being deducted from the profits of the foreign manufacturer;
and what was true with regard to glass, was true with
regard to everything else. That such had been the practical
operation, was established, beyond all doubt, by the foreign
invoices filed in the custom house. He had taken the
trouble to examine ' into this matter, and gentlemen would
there find the fact proved beyond all doubt, that immedi
ately after the increased duties, imposed by the tariffs of
1824 and 1828, took effect, the prices of the foreign articles
on which they were levied, fell in the foreign market
precisely by the amount of the duty. The price in the
American market remained the same. How did this occur ?
The importing merchant told the foreign manufacturer that
an additional tax was imposed in the United States, but he
could get nothing more on account of the duty, and he must,
therefore, deduct it from the price, otherwise he could not
purchase. The deduction was made accordingly, as was
proved by the invoices to which he referred. Immediately
after the tariff of 1828, the invoices showed a fall of four
278 OPPOSITION TO REPEAL OF TARIFF OF 1828.
dollars and forty cents a ton on foreign hammered bar iron,
and seven dollars on rolled, precisely the amount of the
increased duty ; and the same thing had occurred in relation
to cloths, prints, and many other articles. And what is the
plan proposed by the Secretary of the Treasury ? It is to
repeal these taxes, thus imposed upon foreigners, and thereby
enable them more effectually to break down and destroy the
manufacturers of this country, to flood our country with
foreign goods, export our specie, and prostrate every branch
of the national industry. The effect of this system was to
lighten the burthens and increase the profits of foreign
industry, and ruin and depress our own ; and it is for us to
say whether we will adopt this system ; whether we will
take the side of the American or the foreigner, in this mighty
struggle for the American market.
He now came, Mr. S. said, to an argument of great
importance. It, in fact, lay at the foundation of all the
opposition and clamor against the tariff policy. He referred
to the assertion, made upon all occasions, that the duty is
added to the price, and therefore operated as a tax upon
consumption. If this assertion should prove to be unfounded
in point of fact, as he hoped to be able clearly to show,
then, there being no addition to the price in consequence
of the protecting duty, of course there could be no grounds
of complaint. Now, so far from the duties levied for pro
tection adding anything to the price, he hesitated not to
affirm, and he challenged gentlemen to the scrutiny, that
high protecting duties had never failed in a single instance
to diminish the price, and the reduction of the prices of
articles highly protected, had been much greater than on
other articles of the non-protected class. And this reduction
of price, he also affirmed, had been universal, wherever-
adequate protection had been afforded. He defied gentle
men to point out a single exception ; yet, in the face of
these facts, it was asserted that the duty was added to the
price ! To illustrate his argument oil this point, he would
mention a few out of a long catalogue of articles which he
held in his hand. The duty on coarse cotton goods had
been increased 125 per cent.; the price had fallen from
twenty-five to six cents a yard, and instead of importing the
article, we now not only supply our own consumption, but
actually export it to the amount of nearly two millions of
dollars per annum. On many grades of woolens, the duty
had a few years since been increased on some articles 100
OPPOSITION TO REPEAL OF TARIFF OF 1828. 279
per cent., and the price had fallen to less than one-half its
former amount. Our market was already supplied ; and if
the protection was continued, we should soon export
woolens to a greater extent than we now do cotton goods.
The duty on window glass had been increased nearly 100
per cent.; the price had consequently fallen from fourteen to
four dollars per box ; the importation had entirely ceased,
and exportation had already commenced. The same might
be said of cut nails, shot, lead, chemical preparations, and
an almost infinite variety of articles, many of which were
now actually bought at our factories for less than the
amount of the duty ! Yet, sir, we are gravely told, in the
face of all these facts, that the duty is added to the price,
and that the consumer has to pay it. The man who pur
chases American calico in Philadelphia for six cents per
yard, has to pay eight and three-quarter cents a yard duty! !
This was the result of the argument, and the gentleman
from New York [Mr. Cambreleng], had proved it by
figures, as clearly as that two and two make four. He
would not fatigue the committee with a further enumera
tion of articles ; but, when gentlemen daily and hourly
asserted the fact that the duty operated as a tax by in
creasing the price, he hoped they would at least produce
some single instance to prove it. But, if gentlemen failed
to prove the truth of this assumption, that protecting duties
increased prices, the whole clamor and noise about taxation,
robbery, and plunder, was false and unfounded, and all the
fine and flowery speeches built on this foundation must go
for nothing — they vanish into thin air, and,
" Like the baseless fabric of a vision, leave not a wreck behind."
The whole ground of complaint against the tariff was
entirely removed. Assumptions against facts, and theories
against experience, would not do ; something more than these
was required to satisfy an intelligent people.
But the fact that a reduction of price followed an increase
of protection, was not now more certain than the cause that
produced it was obvious. Protection increased competition,
competition increased production, and increased production
never failed to produce a diminution of price. This was an
invariable and unviversal rule, as certain and unerring in
its operations as the ebbing and flowing of the tides. Com
petition was the great agent that worked out these wonder
ful results. A better illustration of the truth of this propo-
280 OPPOSITION TO REPEAL OF TARIFF OF 1828.
sition could not be found, than was afforded by the familiar
fact, that abundant crops always produced low prices, and
short crops high ones.
The first section of the Treasury Bill, adopted by the
Committee on Manufactures, proposes a total repeal of the
tariff of 1828. He was at a loss to see how gentlemen who
had voted for that law (and the Secretary of the Treasury,
Mr. McLane, was himself one of the number) could now
advocate its repeal. Four years ago gentlemen passed this
law ; they held out the promise of protection to the country ;
they invited capital to engage in manufactures ; they encour
aged the farmer to increase his flocks; they told him he
should have protection. Capital had been tempted by these
promises and inducements to go to work ; millions had been
invested in woolen, in iron, cotton, and various other
branches of manufacture. They are just now getting under
way, struggling into life against a powerful rival, when this
proposition like a clap of thunder in a clear sky, comes to
ruin and destroy them. The gentleman from New York
[Mr. Hoffman] who had just resumed his seat, was of the
number who voted for this law which he is now about
to repeal, and thus sacrifice those who were deceived and
deluded by the promised protection of the act of 1828. It
was saying to them as the veiled prophet of Korassan said
to his deluded followers, when he threw off the veil and
doomed them to destruction :
" There, ye wise saints, behold your light, "your star,
Ye would be dupes and victims, and ye are."
How such a course of policy could be justified and de
fended, he was at a loss to conjecture. By the act of 1828,
gentlemen said to the manufacturers, build up. By this,
they say, pull down. Though an action for damages could
not, perhaps, be sustained against the gentleman from New
York [Mr. Hoffman], yet there was at least ground for a
pretty plausible declaration, and he did not know that juries
might not be found who would award damages.
Numerous laws had been passed by the mother country,
before the Revolution, making it a highly penal offence to
erect forges and factories in this country. Those laws were
mild and just compared with this kind of legislation. Those
laws deceived nobody. They were prohibitory, preventive,
and prospective in their operation. They warned the people
against investing their money in manufactories. But this sys-
OPPOSITION TO REPEA.L OF TARIFF OF 1828. 281
tern of legislation was deceptive, retrospective, and destructive.
It first invited capital to engage in manufactures, and then
passed an ex post facto law to destroy it. It was inviting the
citizens to do a meritorious act, and afterwards punishing him
with the utmost severity. This was worse than the Roman
tyrant, who concealed the law so as to entrap his people.
Such a system was more abandoned in principle, and more
destructive in its effects on the Northern and Middle States,
than would be a law to emancipate all the Southern slaves ;
yet who would dream of proposing such a measure, and
what a flame would it not produce throughout the Union ?
But if the people of the manufacturing and grain grow
ing States will not consent to be sacrificed to make a market
for British goods, the South will destroy the Union ! And
must we yield to threats like these ? He hoped not. Look
for a moment at the importance of the home market for
agriculture. The quantity of land in cultivation in the
United States he had seen estimated at 350,000,000 of acres ;
if valued at $10 it would amount to $3,500,000,000. The
annual productions of land are supposed to be equivalent to
its value. If this was correct, then the annual productions of
land in the United States would be $3,500,000,000. Of this
the whole was consumed at home, except the miserable
amount $47,000,000 ; and of this pittance, $32,000,000 was
cotton, tobacco, and rice ; leaving the whole of the agricul
tural exports north of the Potomac to all the world at
$15,000,000!! Yet gentlemen seem disposed to destroy
the immense home market by opening our ports to British
goods. Agriculture lies at the foundation of the national
prosperity. When it prospers, all prosper; when it de
clines, all suffer. He appealed to the observation and expe
rience of every one for the truth of this remark. This, he
affirmed, was the grand thermometer by which the degree
of national prosperity was always ascertained.
The American people had long been taught to look for
ward to the period of the final extinguishment of the public
debt as to a glorious jubilee ; when the nation, released from
this thraldom, would be left free to adopt a system of policy
which, while it would render us independent of foreign
countries, would at the same time awaken to new activity
and life all our energies and all our resources, improving
our internal condition, facilitating internal commerce, and
rendering this free government, as it should be, the wonder
and admiration of the world. But, sir, if the payment of
282 OPPOSITION TO REPEAL OF TARIFF OF 1828.
the public debt is to be made the occasion of adopting an
opposite system — of arresting the progress of internal im
provement; of prostrating our manufactures; paralyzing
our agriculture; depressing and degrading the free labor of
this country ; demoralizing its character, and breaking down
its lofty, noble, and independent spirit; if such was to be
the result, and he verily believed such would be the effect
of the system now proposed by the Treasury Department,
then he said the payment of the public debt would be con
verted into the most blighting and withering curse that ever
afflicted any people.
What is the true course of policy now to be adopted?
Ask an enlightened American statesman, and he will tell
you. Select from this long catalogue those articles which
we can and ought to manufacture, and for which we ought
to be independent of the world — wool, woolens, iron, cot
ton — which paid, in 1831, fourteen millions of revenue.
Cut off this revenue by a gradual increase of the duties, run
ning them up to the point of ultimate prohibition, encourage
capital to go to work, stimulate industry, elicit your re
sources, promote competition, increase production, save your
money, supply yourselves, and finally, supply the world
with these articles, as you will do, if you are wise. This
was the only -true course to reduce the revenue, and, at the
same time, advance the national wealth and independence.
It would .not only have this happy effect, but it would tend
more than any other thing to strengthen the bonds of our
national union ; it would bind together the distant parts, by
the strong and enduring ties of interest and intercourse. Our
manufactures would naturally spring up in the populous and
comparatively sterile regions of the North. The fertile val
leys of the West would afford ample and profitable employ
ment to agriculture. The South would still grow the rich
products of cotton, tobacco, sugar, and rice ; the capital of
our cities employed in commerce, the handmaid of agricul
ture and manufactures, would carry away the surplus of
each, and bring back equivalents from abroad. Added to
this, a judicious and extended system of internal improve
ment, uniting the remote sections of our common country,
the North with the South, the East with the West, facili
tating and cheapening the exchange of their respective pro
ductions, destroying distance, promoting social intercourse,
diffusing intelligence — in short, making our country not
only the admiration of the world, but the very perfection of
OPPOSITION TO EEPEAL OF TARIFF OF 1828. 283
everything that the aspirations of the enthusiast, or the
prayers of the patriot, could ask or desire. The money
expended on internal improvements might be invested as
stock in companies incorporated by the States, the proceeds
re-invested in other works, producing and re-producing
their kind, until all was accomplished, when our country
would present a scene of unparalleled happiness, prosperity,
and power — the revenue arising from these works, paid
with pleasure, and, for a full equivalent in the end, might
be adequate to all the demands of government. Such a
system, in peace, would not only be a source of countless
benefits and blessings, but, in war, it would constitute at
once the most abundant source of revenue, and power
ful system of defence. The physical force of the country
could be concentrated, by means of railroads, canals, and
steamboats, with the rapidity of thought, either to repel
invasions from abroad, or [pointing to the South] to sup
press insurrections at home.
Such would be the system of policy which he would adopt,
were he free to pursue the course which patriotism and
public policy so clearly indicated. But, he repeated, all
this must be sacrificed and given up as a peace offering
to the South. But even this was spurned. Concessions on
the one side seemed but to swell demands on the other. If
we surrender our plan of reducing the revenue, by exclud
ing imports, and adopt the opposite, then we are required to
regulate the reduction so as completely to sacrifice our in
terests. This was not compromise : it was dictation on the
one side, and submission on the other ; and I, for one, said
Mr. S., if gentlemen are not disposed to meet us in the
spirit of mutual concession and amicable adjustment, will
make strict right and justice my guide, and let consequences
take care of themselves.
Mr. S. said, he had now presented his general views of
this subject, and after a brief reply to some of the argu
ments of the chairman of the Committee of Ways and
Means [Mr. M'Dufne] would trespass no longer on the time
and attention of the committee.
In the first place, that gentleman has been pleased to de
nounce, in the most unmeasured terms, the people of this
country : such a philippic against the will of the majority I
have never before heard. He has not hesitated to declare, that
the " will of the majority is the veriest despotism on earth ;
that any other tyranny was preferable to this ; worse than
284 OPPOSITION TO REPEAL OF TARIFF OF 1828.
the worst revolutionary times in France." That the " ma
jority had no more moral sense than a mob ;" that " a Rus
sian despotism was preferable to this, because one tyrant
could be satisfied, the people never." That he " would
prefer living under any tyranny, rather than under this
inexorable tyrant — 'King Numbers, King Demos/ or in
other words, a government of the people." Now, he sub
mitted to the gentleman, whether this was proper language
to be used here, by one representing a portion of the
people of this country, whether free or not free ; was this
the language of compromise and conciliation — was this the
tone in which to ask for concessions ? What was the inevit
able result of such doctrines? If the majority is not to
govern, who is ? If the people are to be put down, who is
to be put up ? We must have some government. It results
in what the gentleman seemed to desire : the substitution of
one tyrant for many; his majesty the king, for their majesties
the people. Such sentiments, Mr. S. said, he was astonished
to hear uttered here ; and the more astonished to hear them
come from such a source. It was not long since he heard
pronounced from that same gentleman, standing in the
same spot, one of the most splendid and eloquent eulogiums
upon the people ; upon the will of the majority ; upon their
purity, patriotism, and public virtue ; and he had heard the
gentleman then, with as much admiration and delight, as
he now heard him with mortification and regret. He begged
leave to call the gentleman's attention to a single sentence
of that patriotic and eloquent appeal. The gentleman then
said, " The people are essentially patriotic ; with them, self
ishness itself is public virtue. By the laws of moral neces
sity, they are obliged to will their own happiness." Such
were the sentiments of the gentleman then ; they did him
honor; they were the sentiments of every American; of
every friend of his country and its free institutions. He
hoped they were still his sentiments, and that these declara
tions were but the ebullitions of temporary excitement.
The gentleman from South Carolina [Mr. McDuffie] has
been pleased to denounce the tariff as a system of plunder,
imposed upon the South by New England for her especial
benefit. A New England system ! Sir, is this so, or is not
the reverse nearer the truth ? Let us look into this matter
for a moment. Before the late war, the capital of New
England was engaged in commerce; Southern gentlemen
then controlled the policy of this country; they were the
OPPOSITION TO REPEAL OF TARIFF OF 1828. 285
majority; they had power; and how did they use it?
Their motto, with regard to New England, as avowed by
one of their distinguished leaders on this floor, was " Delanda
est Carthago." The commerce of New England was accord
ingly destroyed : non-intercourse, embargo, and finally war,
swept it, as with the " besom of destruction," from the
bosom of the deep. She remonstrated, but submitted to her
fate. Her capital was forced from commerce to manufac
tures. This, the wants of' the country rendered absolutely
necessary ; and how was she protected ?
After the restoration of peace, in 1816, the duties were
reduced one-half, except on a few articles, among which was
coarse cottons. The country was inundated with foreign
goods ; our manufacturing establishments were destroyed,
and the imports became so excessive that the balance of
trade against us in two years rose to the enormous sum of
$111,000,000, bringing in its train the desolating scenes of
1818, 181 9, and 1820. He need not describe them ; they could
never be forgotten. Manufactures being thus destroyed, by
this outrageous policy, New England was driven back again
to commerce. And what next? Why, sir, in 1824 a gen
eral tariff was adopted for the encouragement and protection
of manufactures, and their capital had again to be transferred
from commerce to manufactures. This, with another meas
ure of the same kind, in 1828, constituted what the gentle
man is now pleased to call the " New England system of
plunder." Who were the authors of this system? Cer
tainly not New England. Look at the journals,' and gen tie-
men 'would find that, so far from New England being the
author of this policy, it was forced upon her by others. The
vote of the six New England States, on the tariff of 1824,
stood fifteen for and twenty-three against it. In 1828, their
vote stood sixteen for and twenty-three against the tariff;
making, together, thirty-one for and forty-six against these
two measures. In Pennsylvania; New York, Ohio, and the
Western States, the vote was, on the tariff of 1824, for it,
seventy-eight, against it, nine; and on the tariff of 1828,
for it, eighty, against it, six ; making fifteen against, and
one hundred and fifty-eight for those two acts.
Yet, in the face of these facts, we are told every day that
this policy of protection is a New England system of grind
ing oppression on the South. Now, sir, this system has
been literally forced upon New England by New York and
Pennsylvania, and he hoped gentlemen would not pass over
286 OPPOSITION TO REPEAL OF TARIFF OF 1828.
Pennsylvania to abuse New England for what we had done.
Sir, we covet the censure of having been the authors of this
system, which has contributed so much to advance the pros
perity, happiness, and independence of this country. We
are proud of the odium, nay, the glory, of having established
this system ; and it would be base and dishonorable to sit
silent in our seats, and hear New England abused on
account of measures we have adopted ; and, although Penn
sylvania and New York had forced this system on her, New
England did not talk of resistance or rebellion, but, in a
spirit of patriotism, acquiesced in the will of the majority ;
she had conformed to what seemed to be the settled policy
of the country ; she had vested her capital, under the protec
tion promised, and shall we now desert her? Shall we
violate our pledge? Shall we shamefully and perfidiously
sacrifice those great Eastern markets for our agriculture? —
a measure alike destructive to them and to us, and for
what? In the delusive hope of silencing the unfounded
clamors of the South. He hoped not. Pennsylvania was
unanimous in adopting this policy, and he hoped she would
be unanimous in maintaining it; he hoped for the same
unanimity here that was found on a recent occasion in her
State Legislature; he hoped she would exhibit no " dough
faces " on this question ; he hoped she would never sacrifice
her policy and her principles to conform to the wishes of
any administration, no matter who might be at its head.
To factious opposition he was as much opposed as any man
on that floor, as his votes would prove, and to them he
appealed ; he had voted uniformly upon all political ques
tions, under the present Administration, with a majority of
his colleagues, who would not be suspected or charged with
being opposed to the present Chief Magistrate ; but on all
great and vital questions of public policy, he never would
surrender his principles, or the interests of his constituents,
to conform to the views of men in power.
In the next place, the gentleman [Mr. M'Duffie] draws a
most melancholy picture of the depressed condition of the
South, of their deserted fields and desolated towns, of the
impoverishment and dismay that overspread the l-md.
Now, if all this were true, the tariff had not the slightest
agency in producing it; for the true causes, if the facts
existed, gentlemen must look to the increased production
of cotton at home and abroad. Since 1819 the production
of cotton in the South had increased four-fold — from 87,-
OPPOSITION TO REPEAL OF TARIFF OF 1828. 287
000,000 of pounds in 1819, to 375,000,000 in 1831, of
which 228,000,000 were produced in the new States, where
little or none was produced in 1819. But was the picture
true, or was it not the mere creature of the gentleman's own
excited imagination ? In opposition to this theory he would
state one or two facts for the consideration of the gentleman,
who had represented New England as growing rich and
powerful at the expense of the South. Look at this fact,
sir. By the late apportionment bill, the seven tobacco and
cotton growing States, south of the Potomac, have gained no
less than seven new members on this floor, while the six
New England States had actually lost one. Yet, in the face
of this fact, we are gravely told that the people are deserting
the South, and seeking more prosperous climes, while popu
lation, in fact, was rushing to the South with unexampled
rapidity.
The people of New England were seen daily quitting
their homes, endeared by a thousand ties, and emigrating to
the South, leaving their friends and relatives; leaving a
free for a slave country; leaving a healthy for a sickly
climate; risking their lives in a country in every way
uncongenial to their feelings and their habits; and why?
To make their fortunes in the South. The facility of
acquiring wealth in that region presented these powerful
attractions ; but who ever heard of a Southern man going to
New England to make his fortune ? They went there occa
sionally to spend a few thousand dollars at the Saratoga
and Ballstown springs, which they would scarcely miss. But
let a Southern planter go on to a Pennsylvania or a New
England farm, and he would starve. What was the fact?
The Southern nabob did not even supervise his own labor ;
it was managed by overseers. While he rioted in luxury
and ease, the Pennsylvania and Northern farmer was up and
in the field, from daylight until dark — not with his slaves,
but his sons, and oftentimes his daugthers too ; and, with
all, they made but a scanty subsistence. Could they afford
to ride in their carriages, and visit the springs with all the
pomp and splendor of Southern magnificence ? Yet, gentle
men from the South come here and tell us we are rioting in
wealth, acquired at their expense ! That they are depressed ;
and that we must consent to sacrifice our industry, import
our wool, our hemp, iron, everything from England, and
send our last dollar to pay for it, to induce England
to take a little more of their cotton; and, if we don't
288 OPPOSITION TO REPEAL OF TARIFF OF 1828.
consent thus to bow down and degrade ourselves to a condi
tion of poverty and dependence worse than slavery itself,
why, forsooth, they will dissolve the Union ! And what
then ? He would not say what then might be the condition
of the South. But it was a question worthy of their own*
serious consideration. Now, sir, unless gentlemen could
show that men were in the habit of exchanging a pros
perous, free, and healthful country for one poor and de
pressed, he hoped they would say no more about the deso
late and deserted condition of the South, and the prosperous
and nourishing state of the North. The reverse was the
truth, as the march of population, that unerring vane
that always indicated the direction of the prosperous gale,
proved beyond all doubt. The South was growing with
unparalleled rapidity, while the North was declining in
population and political power. This fact could not be con
troverted.
But the gentleman undertakes to account for this sup
posed prosperous condition of the North, and the depressed
condition of the South, by saying that Northern labor " went
to elections and clamored at the polk" Now, sir, this is a
topic which the gentleman ought not to have introduced
into this discussion; he regretted its introduction; but,
since it had been introduced, he would say a word or two in
reply. The gentleman ought to have recollected that, if
Southern labor did not clamor at the polls, it nevertheless
had its representatives on this floor. Yes, sir, three-fifths
of the Southern slaves are represented here. Take away
the votes given by Southern property — by Southern slaves
— and you reduce the representation of the Southern cotton
growing anti-tariff States nearly one-third. Yes, sir, nearly
one-third of the whole of the Southern delegation represents
property. In South Carolina, according to the late census,
four of her nine members on this floor were the representa
tives of property. Yet, the gentleman talks of Northern
labor clamoring at the polls ! ! The gentleman himself, with
his one hundred slaves, and sixty votes, denounces the ma
jority as King Numbers; King Demos. Might we not
retaliate, and call hard names ? Why should a Southern
planter, with his one thousand slaves, have as many votes
as six hundred Northern freemen, who might each possess
an equal amount of property ? Why not, with equal jus
tice, suffer our manufacturers to vote for three-fifths of their
spindles and their looms, or other laboring machines?
OPPOSITION TO REPEAL OF TARIFF OF 1828. 289
What, allow me to ask, does the South give for this im
mense political power? Nothing at all. Why? Because
this very system of raising revenue from duties levied on
foreign imports, instead of direct taxes, entirely relieves the
South from the payment of the equivalent, in the increased
amount of taxes which they agreed to pay as a consideration
for this concession. When the constitution was formed, the
revenue was raised by contributions levied on the several
States, according to their representation in Congress. The
South, always fond of political power, proposed to the less
ambitious North that, if they would agree to give three-
fifths of their slaves representatives in this House, they
would consent to pay taxes in the same proportion. To this
proposition they assented, and the matter was so arranged
in the constitution. No direct tax is now collected. The
whole revenue is derived from duties on imports, whereby
the South is relieved entirely from the consideration they
were to give for this political power. Yet, with all these
advantages, they complain, and threaten to resist the right
of the majority to govern ! !
But, to save appearances, the gentleman is driven to the
necessity of asserting a new and extraordinary principle — a
new discovery in political science. It was this : that the
producer pays the taxes; that he who buys an article,
makes it. Hence, he infers that British manufactures, pur
chased and imported into the South, are American manufac
tures, just as much as if they were made in the United
States. " There cannot," says the gentleman, in his report,
" be a more palpable and delusive error, than the vulgar
notion that imported manufactures, purchased with the agri
cultural staples of this country, are foreign productions. They
are as strictly and exclusively the productions of American
industry, as if they were manufactured in the United States."
They make these manufactures, the gentleman says, not with
looms and spindles, but with ploughs and hoes. He that
buys an article makes it : this is the argument. But it
proves too much. Follow it out, and what does it prove?
It proves clearly, that, as England buys Southern cotton,
she produces it, and is, therefore, a cotton growing country ;
or, rather, our Northern merchants purchase it, and, therefore,
they are cotton planters. But the South, also, purchases New
England cotton and woolen goods, therefore they manufac
ture them, and become particeps criminis in this infamous
business of manufacturing! It also proves, that, if the
19
290 OPPOSITION TO REPEAL OF TAEIFF OF 1828.
gentleman himself, on his way to his lodgings, should call
and buy a pair of shoes, he becomes a shoemaker, for he who
buys a thing makes it ; he buys a hat, and he is a hatter ;
cloth for a coat, and he is a woolen manufacturer ; pays the
tailor for making it, and he is a tailor ; thus, when he arrives
at his lodgings, he finds that, according to this theory, he
has, in this short space of time, and for this trifling sum,
actually become a hatter, a shoemaker, a woolen manufacturer,
and a tailor ; in short, that he is " Jack of all trades, but,
unfortunately, master of none." Such is the obvious and
inevitable result of the gentleman's argument.
But the gentleman further contends, that exports and im
ports must correspond, and hence he infers that, if we do
not import and consume British goods to the amount of
$30,000,000 a year, she will not buy more than that amount
of their cotton. This Mr. S. considered an unsound position.
When the British manufacturer went into the market to
purchase his supply of cotton, he took the cheapest and the
best he could find, without inquiring in what country it
grew, or what was the state of the trade of that country.
But, even if the position were correct, what would follow ?
It would follow, as an unavoidable consequence, that if it
were not for the consumption of imports in the Northern,
Middle, and Western States, the South would lose at least
two-thirds of their present market for cotton, tobacco, and
rice. Of the $40,000,000 of Southern exports, the North
and West consume and pay for at least $26,000,000. Thus,
by dissolving the Union, the gentleman from South Carolina,
upon his own principles, will deprive the South of two-
thirds of their foreign market for cotton, besides losing the
Northern home market, worth at least $10,000,000 per an
num. Exports and imports must correspond, says the gentle
man. Well, how does this matter stand? In 1830, the
whole imports south of the Potomac amounted to about
$2,000,000 ; their exports to $30,000,000: while, north of
the Potomac, the imports were $61,000,000, and the exports
$20,000,000. Hence, it appears that the South are the ex
porters, and the North the importers ; the South the sellers,
and the North the buyers. We, of the North and West,
therefore, are tributury — " hewers of wood and drawers of
water " for the South. But, with all this, they are not con
tent — we must be degraded to the condition of abject slaves;
and if we object, they will dissolve the Union ! Sir, it is
the South, and not the North, that is most benefited by the
OPPOSITION TO REPEAL OF TARIFF OF 1828. 291
Union. It is the Northern merchant who buys the Southern
cotton, and makes sale of it at home and abroad. It is the
Northern manufacturer who furnishes their supplies cheaper
and better than they ever got them elsewhere. By a dis
solution of the Union, the South would suffer as much as
the North ; the interests of all are united ; they must stand
or fall together. We must cherish and sustain each other.
By taking away our protection, the South
" Takes that which naught enriches them,
But makes us poor indeed."
He was surprised to hear the gentleman from South Caro
lina speak of the advantages of our trade with Great Britain,
and of the liberality of her policy toward us. The balance
of trade with England last year, against us, amounted to
upwards of $11,000,000, and the export of specie to Eng
land, in that period, had amounted to more than half that
sum, producing universal embarrassment and distress in our
mercantile community. The pressure had been so great that
the specie in the United States' Bank had been reduced, in
a few months, more than one-half — sent to England to make
up this unfavorable balance. Great Britain received less
than §60,000 of all the grain and bread stuffs of this country,
while we received $30,000,000 worth of her manufactures.
And this was the liberality which had been so highly eulo
gised ! She excluded our produce by absolute prohibition,
and by duties, amounting to four and five hundred per cent.
This was British " free-trade ! "
The gentleman from South Carolina appeared to be in
dignant at some remarks which he had found in Niles's
Register. Now, he thought gentlemen who were continually
threatening resistance, nullification, and a dissolution of the
Union, should be the last to arraign others for intemperate
language. When Southern gentlemen declare their deter
mination to dissolve the Union, Mr. Niles, the gentleman
Bays, insultingly exclaims : " lei them go" And was this not
what they desired ? Did they wish to be restrained ? Such
sentiments, the gentleman says, merit the " reprobation of
every friend to the Aarmony of the Union ! ! " He was happy
to hear the gentleman speak well of the harmony of the
Union — one sentiment, at least, in which he entirely con
curred with that honorable member.
In conclusion — the gentleman from South Carolina [Mr.
M'Duffie] has painted, in the most glowing colors and fksci-
292 OPPOSITION TO REPEAL OF TARIFF OF 1828.
nating forms, the glorious advantages to the South of a
dissolution of this Union. But was there not another side
to this picture? and to this he begged gentlemen to turn,
their calm and dispassionate attention. Before they took
this fearful plunge let them look over the precipice on which
they stand into the yawning gulf beneath. On the other
side of this picture was written, in flaming capitals : " trea
son, rebellion, civil war" with all its fearful consequences.
Let it be remembered, that no State can go out of this Union
until it has conquered all the rest. When one State is gone,
no two remain united. We have heard of the benefits of
destroying this Union : but what will be its cost to those
who may attempt it? From imaginary ills they fly to
" others that they know not of."
They now complain of taxation ! But what will be the
taxation necessary to raise and sustain armies and navies to
contend against this Government ? — a Government which
now, with fond and parental affection, guards and protects
the South. But taxation would be the smallest item in the
frightful catalogue of their calamities. There is still another
leaf in this book, to which gentlemen should look. And
can they behold it with indifference ? It is the page on
which posterity will write the epitaph of the authors of the
destruction of this happy and glorious Union ; of those who
should involve us in all the horrors of civil war ; who should
arm father against son, and brother against brother ; who
should destroy this bright and glorious example — the only
free Government on earth.
How deep and how loud would be their denunciations,
how bitter and how blasting would be the curses with which
posterity would brand the memories of those men ! And
will not their sentence be just ? Where will they look for ex
tenuation or excuse? Taxation! it is imaginary, not real.
All contributions here are voluntary, not compulsory. No
people under heaven are half so lightly taxed, or half so
highly blessed. In other countries the people are taxed
twenty times the amount, to support despots ; imposed, not
by themselves, but by arbitrary power. Compared with,
this country, in England taxation was as 18 to 1 ; yet they
submit, and we rebel. Will not the people of the South
look at these facts, and pause before they do the fatal deed
that must seal forever their own destruction? In this
Union the gentleman from South Carolina had everything
to hope : his name might go down to posterity among the
OPPOSITION TO REPEAL OF TARIFF OF 1828. 293
most distinguished men of the age : his talents might adorn
its highest offices, to which he had a just right to aspire;
and much as I may differ with that gentleman, said Mr. S.,
both as to men and measures, yet such is my opinion of his
talents and his worth, that I would rejoice to see him at this
moment filling the highest of the executive departments of
this government, or the highest of its diplomatic stations.
That gentleman may be carried away by momentary excite
ment ; still I cannot doubt his attachment to this Union,
which I trust he will never sacrifice to imaginary evils.
The blessings of this government, and the value of this
Union, I have never heard so forcibly urged, or so eloquently
portrayed, as by the gentleman from South Carolina himself;
and I cannot in conclusion, better express my own feelings,
than by repeating the very words uttered by that gentleman
in concluding an able and eloquent speech on another occa
sion, when he said : " The liberty of this country is a sacred
depository — a vestal fire, which Providence has committed
to our hands for the general benefit of mankind. It is the
world's last hope ; extinguish it, and the earth will be cov
ered with eternal darkness — but once ' put out that light, I
know not where is that Promethean heat that shall that
light relume.'"
I appeal to the gentleman — I ask him, is he prepared to
destroy that " sacred depository/7 the Union and the liberties
of his country ; is he prepared to extinguish, in fraternal
blood, that "Vestal fire committed to his hands by Provi
dence, for the benefit of mankind ; " is he prepared to de
stroy " the world's last hope ; " to put out and extinguish
forever, that great and glorious light of liberty and union
now blazing up to the heavens, illumining the path, and
cheering the onward march of the friends of freedom
throughout the world, and thus to " cover the earth with
eternal darkness ? " Is he prepared for this ? — I pause for
a reply.
COMMENTS AND OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.
" We commence to-day the publication of the speech of Mr. Stew
art, on the subject of the tariff. As this is a subject of such vital
importance to the people of this section of the country, we are sorry
our room will not permit us to publish more of the speeches that
have been delivered, pending the interesting discussion which has
so long occupied the attention of the House. The speech of Mr.
294 OPPOSITION TO REPEAL OF TARIFF OF 1828.
Stewart, however, contains a comprehensive view of the whole
ground of debate. He enters into an examination of the several
bills presented to the House, and shows that the duties recom
mended by either of those bills, are entirely inadequate for protection.
He exhibits and enforces such a system, as in his opinion is neces
sary to sustain the manufacturing arid agricultural interests of the
country. We were particularly pleased with the just indignation
with which he treated the threats of the nullifiers of the South, and
his assertion that notwithstanding he was willing to give up some
thing on terms of concession, he was determined to yield nothing
to intimidation. As much as he would deplore the withdrawal of
any of the States from the Union, he would prefer it to an abandon
ment of the interests of the country, and suffer the minority to rule
the majority. He calls upon the friends of the tariff to remain
united 'in sustaining a policy which is absolutely necessary for the
continuance of our present prosperity, and appeals to the South, by
their love of liberty, and of country, to pause, and reflect, before
they strike the fearful blow which must at once prostrate this fair
fabric, which was reared and cemented by the blood of our ancestors,
and blot out forever ' this great and glorious light of liberty,'
which is now illumining the world.
" There are few members in the House better acquainted with the
details of the tariff than Mr. Stewart, and none have manifested
greater zeal in advocating and supporting it. He considers it, as
it really is, a subject of great importance to his constituents, and
has, therefore, used every exertion to sustain it. His late speech
we consider as one of his most able efforts in defence of the system,
and notwithstanding its great length, we have no doubt the inter
est which our readers generally take in the subject will ensure it a
general reading." — Philadelphia Gazette.
NOTE. — The above is selected from among many others.
LETTER TO THE HON. JAMES G. ELAINE,
SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESEN
TATIVES, ON THE TARIFF.
[THE ARGUMENT CONDENSED.]
SIR, — Permit an old personal friend to address to, and
through you to others, a few brief reflections on the subject
of the tariff, now under discussion in the House over which
you so ably preside.
First — It seems to me, sir, that there is a disputed fact on
which the whole theory of free-trade, with all the speeches
on that subject depend for support, that ought to be settled
before the debate can properly proceed. The fact, or rather
assumption, is this, that all protective, as well as revenue,
duties are " added to the price of the domestic as well as for
eign goods, and paid by the consumer." This has always
been denied — the proof repeatedly called for, but never fur
nished, because, upon examination, the reverse was found to
be the truth.
If Mr. Kerr and his friends assert the disputed fact, that
the duties are added to the price and paid by the consumer,
are they not bound to prove it? Suppose these learned
lawyers went into court with a disputed claim and demanded
a verdict without proof, would not judgment go at once
against them ? And what better right have they to demand
judgment in your court, where the laws are made, than in
a court where they are administered ? If it be true that
the duty is added to the price, the proof is accessible by
reference to all of the prices current ever published, showing
the prices of the goods when the duties were first imposed
for their protection, and then the prices afterward, as manu
factures and home competition have progressed ; and why
has not this proof been produced ? Simply because in attempt
ing to do so they discovered that instead of increasing prices
the effect of protective duties was to reduce them, thus oblig
ing these gentlemen, according to their own theory, to go for
protection to reduce taxation.
295
296 LETTER ON THE TARIFF.
To settle this disputed question, whether protective duties
in the end increase or reduce prices, let Mr. Kerr send a
resolution to the Secretary of the Treasury to furnish the
prices of home manufactures, when the duties were first im
posed for their protection, and the prices since, from time to
time, as the supply has been increased by home competition,
experience and skill, which Mr. Young, the able Chief of the
Bureau of Statistics, can soon supply, and thus settle now
and forever this important question of fact, upon the truth
of which the free-trade theory, speeches and all, depends en
tirely for support.
By reference to the debates of 1828, '32, '44, '45, and '46,
it will be seen that it was then proved, by the prices current
and by mercantile books, that protective duties levied on
articles we successfully manufactured at home had in the
end, by the investment of capital, competition, and increased
supply, invariably caused a reduction in the prices of such
goods ; yet, in the face of these established facts, gentlemen
went on then, as now, reiterating every day this false theory,
on which their whole case depended, that protective duties are
added to the price and paid by the consumer.
Revenue duties levied on articles we do not produce, it is
true, are often added to the price and paid by the consumer ;
but protective duties levied on articles we can and do suc
cessfully manufacture at home have always in the end caused
a reduction in price, by an increased supply resulting from
home competition, improved labor-saving machinery, skill,
experience, etc. The immediate effect, however, of a high
protective duty, by excluding foreign supply, is temporarily
to increase the price by diminishing the supply ; but this
very increase of price hastens its reduction by attracting
capital from other less profitable employments, thereby in
creasing home competition and supply, and, of course, in
the end reducing the price. It is admitted that this effect
may sometimes be interrupted by temporary causes — war,
famine, depreciated or redundant currency, extraordinary
demand, etc. ; but these exceptions do not impair the general
truth of this theory.
Now, sir, this whole matter is controlled by one great law,
generally ignored, the law of demand and supply, a law that
regulates the price of all the necessaries of life with as much
certainty as the law that regulates the ebbing and flowing
of the tides. Whatever increases the supply, reduces the
price, and whatever reduces the supply, increases the price.
LETTER OX THE TARIFF. 297
Hence it follows that the ultimate effect of protective duties
is to reduce prices by increasing home competition and
supply.
In the debates of '44 — '46 it was shown that in 1816,
there was a duty of about seven cents a square yard imposed
on cotton goods then selling at twenty-five and thirty cents
per yard, by a bill reported by Mr. Lowndes and advocated
by Mr. Calhoun, of S. C., and that afterwards a duty of $4
per box was put on glass, three and a half cents per pound
on nails, etc., which at the time of the debate appeared to
be selling, cotton for six cents a yard, glass at $3J a box,
nails at three and a quarter cents a pound, etc. Yet it was
still contended., then as now, that the duty was added to the
price and paid by the consumer. That is, that the consumer
who bought a yard of domestic cotton for six cents, paid seven
cents duty ; on a box of glass he bought for $3.50 he paid
§4 duty ; on a pound of nails he bought for three and a quar
ter cents, he paid a duty of three and a half cents. These
facts were not denied, but the theory had to be maintained,
that the duty was added to the price, or all their speeches
about taxation, oppression, etc., would have vanished into air.
Now I -have a few questions to put to Mr. Kerr, the able
and astute leader of the free-trade party, which I hope he
will answer in the speech he has promised to make when
the Ways and Means report the tariff bill to the House.
Now Mr. Kerr, in a speech a few days ago, estimated
the home manufacture of iron at $202,000,000; wool at
$176,000,000, and cotton at §170,000,000, making together
$548,000,000. Then suppose Mr. Kerr, who boasts that
he is free-trade from the crown of his head to the soles
of his feet, succeeded in his efforts to reduce the duties
on iron and woolen goods below the point of adequate pro
tection, and thus destroyed $378,000,000, the present home
supply, he says, of iron and woolen goods. What would
be the effect of this on the prices of these articles in the
markets of the world ? Would they not be doubled ? How
many millions of American capital would it destroy? How
many millions of tons of ore and coal, now being developed,
would it leave useless in the ground ? How many thousand
working men, now profitably employed in making this
$202,000,000 worth of iron, would it throw out of employ
ment, and how many millions would it take out of the
pockets of our farmers who now supply the bread, meat,
vegetables, hay, oats and corn, consumed by the men,
298 LETTER ON THE TARIFF.
women, and children, horses and mules, employed in mak
ing this iron at home, by sending this $202,000,000 to
Europe to purchase that amount of foreign coal and ore,
bread, meat, and grain, worked up there as here into iron,
to be laid down as rails over the richest mines of ore and
coal, and the most productive land in the world ? Thus
robbing our farmers of their markets, our laborers of em
ployment, and our country of its money to enrich foreigners
at our expense. Are not such the legitimate results of free-
trade ? Are not such the benefits and blessings it would, if
carried out, confer upon America's farmers and working
men?
Mr. Kerr also estimates the home manufacture of woolen
goods at $176,000,000. Is not the wool considered one-half
the value of the cloth ? And is not the other half principally
made up of the wages and subsistence of labor? And is not
this what you pay for, when you buy the cloth ? Why
then give to foreigners $176,000,000 for woolen goods,
which, under favor of protection, is now retained in our own
country, and distributed among our own people ? And is
this not equally true of all other goods brought from abroad
in competition with American Manufacturers ? And if not,
please point out the exceptions.
Is not inadequate protection worse than none, as it en
courages American manufacturers to struggle on until they
are totally ruined ? Whereas if all protection were withdrawn
at once, they would if possible save their capital by trans
ferring it to some better employment ?
I also ask Mr. Kerr, whether the consumer pays any part
of the duty on articles where American competition has
established an American price in the American markets?
Suppose the price of American pig iron is established in
New York by home competition at $50 a ton, the present
price — take off the duty, and will not the foreigner continue
to sell his iron for $50, the American price? then add $10 to
the duty, must he not pay this $10 into the treasury, and
still sell his pigs at $50, the established American price?
He can't get more, and he wont take less. So whether the
duty is high or low, on or off, the consumer gets the iron at
the same price. Again, do not protective duties not only
sustain our wages at home, but are they not now lifting up
the down-trodden labor of Europe, where every day it is
demanding higher wages, threatening to go to the United
States where it can get two or three times the amount,
LETTER ON THE TARIFF. 299
and must not the capitalist submit to the demands of labor
or loose it ?
Again, we ask, is not the common idea that either protec
tion on the one hand, or free-trade on the other, is the true
policy of all nations alike an absurdity ? What can be
more clear than that in the commercial intercourse between
two countries, in one of which labor and its productions are
high, and in the other low, protection is always the true policy
of the high priced and free-trade of the low priced country ?
as between the United States and Europe. Would not free-
trade open our ports to the free importation of their goods
and the exportation of our money until our money was all
gone ? Then would not our prosperous labor have to come
down to their degraded level — make our own shoes, hats,
caps and clothes, or go without them ?
Mr. Kerr and others have repeated over and over that
protective duties favor the rich monopolists at the expense
of the farmers and laboring men. Now I submit to the
candor and good sense of Mr. Kerr and others, whether just
the reverse of this is not true.
Suppose in some village there is a single woolen or other
factory owned by some rich monopolist who dictates the
wages of labor and the price of wool and other produce in
his neighborhood. Then suppose, by a highly protective
tariff you build up two or three other competing woolen
mills in this village, requiring two or three times as much
labor, two or three times as much wool and provisions, and
producing two or three times as much cloth, would this not
favor the farmer and the laborer by increasing the price of
the produce of the one, and the wages of the other, at the
expense of the rich monopolist, who would thus have to pay
more for what he bought, and take less for what he sold,
thus destroying monopoly by building up competition, the
only thing that can destroy it?
By doubling the duty on pig iron, would not the first
effect be to raise the price by shutting out the foreign supply
and thereby causing such a rush of capital into this highly
profitable business as soon to increase the home supply by
home competition to such an extent as not only to supply
ourselves, but Europe also with pig iron, our capacity for
its production being unlimited, while theirs is becoming
every day more and more exhausted ?
I would be glad to know what answer Mr. Kerr and his
friends would have to make to these questions should they
meet with them in debate.
300 LETTER ON THE TARIFF.
Protective duties should be specific. Ad valorem duties
not only promote frauds and undervaluations, but what is
worse, going up and down with the price of foreign goods,
they take away protection when foreign goods are low and
protection is needed, and give higher protection when they
are high and protection is not so much required.
But why destroy American manufactories by free-trade ?
Why give foreigners a monopoly of labor-saving machinery ?
Why compel our people to work the plough and hoe against
the spindle and the loom, by the aid of which latter one
woman can pay for the labor of fifty men in the field ?
To the non-producers it matters not how low the produc
tions of labor are, which they purchase and consume, nor to
the rich monopolist, how low the wages of labor he has to
pay ; but to productive labor the great and only source of
national wealth, embracing more than three-fourths of our
entire population, protection is life and free-trade is death.
Let free-trade strike down productive labor and the blow
will be felt by the nation through its every nerve.
Will the free-trade Democrats permit me to ask them why,
in the Senate and House, they go against reducing protective
duties on articles extensively produced in their own districts
— iron in Pennsylvania, coal in Maryland, salt, sugar, etc.,
elsewhere ? Is it not because they consider these protective
duties a good thing ? And if good in their own districts
and States, why not equally good in others ? Are not the
votes therefore of these free-traders against reducing protec
tive duties for the benefit of their own constituents, a virtual
confession of judgment in favor of protection ? Or do they
so vote because protection, as Senator Morton said a few days
ago, is a party question, as was proved on Mr. Cox's motion
to reduce the duty on pig iron, when every Democrat outside
of Pennsylvania voted for the reduction except two, one in
Michigan, the other in Kansas ; and is not this likely to be
the great, if not the only, issue in the approaching presiden
tial campaign, all the other issues having been surrendered
and given up by the anew departure?" Can the Republi
cans desi:*3 a better issue ?
When was our country ever more prosperous than it now
is under the present protective tariff ? Go where you may,
you see its rich fruits springing up in the greatest profusion.
Furnaces, factories, iron, cotton, woolen mills, with railroads
being everywhere constructed to carry and distribute the
mineral and agricultural productions, resulting from the pro-
LETTER ON THE TARIFF. 301
tective policy, to their appropriate markets, reducing internal
taxation, paying off, with unnecessary rapidity, the national
debt, and filling the treasury to overflowing, the revenue
from customs, where not paid by the foreigner, being a vol
untary contribution, paid by those only who prefer foreign
to American goods — thousands who use American produc
tions only paying not one cent into the national treasury.
Why then interrupt this general prosperity by this constant
and injurious free-trade clamor and agitation ? Why thus
check this onward and upward national progress by filling
the country with anxiety, trepidation, and alarm? Let
Congress repeal the direct taxes, take the duties off tea and
coffee, and leave the protective tariff as it is, and thus entitle
themselves to the gratitude and the thanks of the whole
country, now reaping everywhere the rich rewards of this
wise system of Republican policy. But I must stop. There
is no end to this subject.
In endeavoring to express in a few wrords what pages
would be required to elucidate, I fear I have sacrificed clear
ness to a desire for condensation ; but these brief suggestions
are intended, in fact, merely as hints, to be improved and
elaborated by abler and younger minds.
Yours very respectfully,
EIGHTY-ONE YEARS.
HON. JAS. G. ELAINE, Speaker, etc.
UNIONTOWN, PA., April 10th, 1872.
INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS— CUMBERLAND
ROAD BILL.
DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, U. S.,
JANUARY 27th, 1829.
[Extracts from Speech in favor of Internal Improvements.]
MR. STEWART expressed his regret that gentlemen had
deemed this a fit occasion to draw into discussion all the
topics connected with the general power over the subject of
internal improvements. If repeated decisions, and the uni
form practice of the government could settle any question,
this, he thought, ought to be regarded as settled. The
foundation of this road was laid by a report made by Mr.
Giles, the present governor of Virginia, in 1802, and was
sanctioned the next session by a similar report, made by
another distinguished Virginian [Mr. Randolph], now a
member of this House — it was the offspring of Virginia, and
he hoped she would not now abandon it as illegitimate. Com
menced under the administration of Mr. Jefferson, it had
been sanctioned and prosecuted by every President, and by
almost every Congress, for more than a quarter of a century.
His colleague [Mr. Buchanan], who had opened the de
bate on this subject, seemed to regard the bill with more
alarm than the people of the South did the tariff. He had.
denounced it as a most daring and dangerous usurpation
of power, as tending directly to consolidation or separation ;
as even worse than the sedition law ; as alike destructive to
the rights of the States, and the liberties of the people. He
had, indeed, conjured up a most frightful picture. He had
himself called it a " spectre," true : but it was one of his
own creation ; " a spectre " at which he says even the fed
eralism of former days would have "shrunk back with
horror." He had, therefore, felt it his duty to sound the
tocsin of alarm — he had exhorted the friends of state-rights
to rally their forces — he had appealed to Virginia, whose
voice, he said, had awakened some of her slumbering sisters,
and kept alive the wholesome doctrine of state-rights; and
of this school, he too, it seems, has become a sudden, and of
302
CUMBERLAND ROAD. 303
course, zealous disciple. He had, however, taken but one
step — he must take another, and that was to deny also the
constitutionality of the tariff: this he might do at the next
session ; and then, and not till then, could he be admitted
into full communion ; he must go the whole or nothing.
The gentleman has, in fact, distinctly informed us in his
speech, that the politicians of this country are hereafter to be
divided into two great parties ; the one in favor of " federal
power, and the other wedded to state-rights ; " in other words,
those who advocate and those who deny the power of this
government to protect domestic manufactures and promote
internal improvements. These are the subjects, and the only
subjects, over which the power of this government is now
warmly resisted. These were the great points of controversy,
and he agreed with his colleague that every man must take
his stand on the one side or the other. The issue was made
up. These measures must be abandoned or sustained. The
power exists or it does not, there was no half-way course.
If it existed in the one case, it existed in the other ; they were
kindred measures, and in his opinion, would stand or fall
together. After the public debt is paid, which must occur
in a very few years, why, you will be asked, impose a tariif of
duties, when there is no object on which you can expend the
revenue? These subjects were inseparably connected; they
constituted one system of policy; it was against this system,
that the party " wedded to state-rights " were directing their
efforts, and it was this system that its friends were now called
upon to defend and uphold.
Mr. S. appealed to the representatives of the interior and
the West — without internal improvements, he inquired,
what they were ever to expect from the ample expenditures
of this government? They must bear their full share of the
public burdens, pay their full share of the public revenue,
without the possibility of participating in its benefits — the
whole would go to the seaboard. In the interior and the
West, they had no forts and fortifications, no ships and
navies; no sea-walls, dock-yards, lighthouses, buoys and
beacons. He affirmed, without fear of contradiction, that
from the foundation of the government to the present time,
the whole civil expenditures of the government, for all pur
poses except internal improvements, in the whole Union,
twenty miles from the tides of the ocean, had not been
equal to the expenditures on a single fortification ! ! De
plorable, indeed, must be their condition without this
304 CUMBERLAND ROAD.
power — it amounted to a positive exclusion of the interior
and the West, from all participation in the benefits of the
public expenditure. Their wealth, it was true, like their
vast rivers, would continue to flow in uniform and never-
ceasing streams to the ocean, bearing to it their ample con
tributions. But, by destroying this power, you blot out
forever that sun which alone could take up a portion of this
great deep, and return it in copious and refreshing showers,
over the vast region from which it was drawn, to invigorate
and replenish the numberless fountains from which it origi
nally flowed.
Without roads and canals, of what avail was it to the
people of the West to possess a country, abounding with all
the essential elements of wealth and prosperity — of what
avail was it to have a country abounding with inexhaustible
mines of coal and ore ; to possess a fruitful soil and abund
ant harvests, without the means of transporting them to the
places where they were required for consumption ? With
out a market, the people of the West were left without a
motive for industry. By denying to this portion of the
Union the advantages of internal improvements, you not only
deprive them of all the benefits of governmental expenditure ;
but you also deprive them of the advantages which nature's
God intended for them. Possessing the power, how, he
asked, could any representative of the interior or western
portions of this Union vote against a policy so essential to
the prosperity of the people who sent him here to guard
their rights, and advance their interests ?
With these remarks, he would proceed to examine the
question of power.
The right of this Government to construct such roads and
canals as were necessary to carry into effect its mail, military,
and commercial powers, was as clear and as undoubted as
the right to build a post-office, construct a fort, or erect -a
lighthouse. In every point of view the cases were precisely
similar, and were sustained and justified by the same power.
The 8th section of the 1st article of the Constitution,
enumerated in a few brief sentences all the great powers and
ends of this Government, and among the rest was found the
power "to establish post-offices and post-roads/' " to declare
war," " provide for the common defence," " to suppress in
surrections and repel invasions," " to regulate commerce
with foreign nations and among the several states," ending
with the express grant of the power " to make all laws neces-
CUMBERLAND ROAD. 305
sary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing
powers" Without this last power the Constitution would
have been a dead letter — the Government could never have
gone into operation. The means to be employed in carrying
into effect the powers conferred upon this Government were
not indicated — their selection was of necessity left to the
sound discretion of Congress, with this single qualification,
that they should be " necessary and proper" means to attain
the end proposed ; the degree of their necessity was also left
for Congress to determine. This doctrine was established by
the Supreme Court, and laid down as their unanimous opin
ion by Chief Justice Marshall, in the case of McCulloch
against the State of Maryland (4th Wheaton, 421). "The
sound construction of the Constitution," says that enlight
ened judge, "must allow to the national legislature that
discretion with respect to the means by which the powers
which it confers are to be carried into execution ; which will
enable that body to perform the high duties assigned to it,
in the manner most beneficial to the people — let the end be
legitimate ; let it be within the scope of the Constitution,
and all the means that are appropriate ; which are plainly
adapted to the end ; which are not prohibited ; but consist
with the letter and the spirit of the Constitution, are consti
tutional." " Where the law is not prohibited, and is really
calculated to effect any of the objects entrusted to the Gov
ernment, to undertake here to inquire into the degree of
its necessity, would be to pass the line which circumscribes
the judicial department, and tread on legislative ground."
The power, said Mr. S., "to establish post-offices and
post-roads," involves the power and the duty of transport
ing the mail, and of employing all the means necessary for
this purpose ; the simple question then was this — Are roads
necessary to carry the mail ? If they were, Congress had
expressly the right to make them, and there was an end
of the question. Roads were, he contended, not only neces
sary to carry into effect this power ; but they were abso
lutely and indispensably necessary — you cannot get along
without them ; and yet we are gravely told that Congress
have no right to make a mail road, or repair it when made !
That to do so would ruin the States and produce consolida
tion — ruin the States by constructing good roads for their
use and benefit — produce consolidation by connecting the
distant parts of the Union, by cheap and rapid modes of
inter-communication. If consolidation meant to confirm
20
306 CUMBERLAND ROAD.
and perpetuate the Union, he would admit its application ;
but not otherwise. But we are told that the States will
make roads to carry the mail — this was begging the ques
tion. If the States would make all the roads required to
carry into effect our powers, very well ; but if they did not,
then we may, undoubtedly, make them ourselves. But it
was never designed by the framers of this Constitution, that
this Government should be dependent on the States for the
means of executing its powers : " its means were adequate
to its ends" — this principle was distinctly and unanimously
laid down by the Supreme Court in the case already referred
to : " No trace," says the Chief Justice, " is to be found in
the Constitution of an intention to create a dependence of
the Government of the Union on the States for the execu
tion of the powers assigned to it — its means are adequate to
its ends. To impose on it the necessity of resorting to
means it cannot control, which another Government may
furnish or withhold, would render its course precarious ;
the result of its measures uncertain, and create a dependence
on other Governments, which might disappoint the most
important designs, and is incompatible with the language of
the Constitution." And this was in perfect harmony with
the constant and uniform practice of the Government.
Mr. S. begged gentlemen to turn their attention for a
moment to the statute book, and see what the practice of
Government had been : what had been already done by Con
gress in virtue of this power of" establishing post-offices and
post-roads." In 1825, an act had been passed, without a
word of objection, which went infinitely further than the bill
under consideration. His colleague [Mr. Buchanan] was then
a member of this House, and, no doubt, voted for it. His
eloquence was then mute — we heard nothing about State
rights, spectres, and sedition laws. This bill, regulating the
post-office establishment, not only created some thirty or
forty highly penal offences, extending not only over the Cum
berland Road, but over every other road in the United States,
punishing with the severest sanctions, even to the taking away
the liberty and the lives of the citizens of the States, and re
quiring the State courts to take cognizance of these offences
and inflict these punishments. This was not all ; this act not
only extended over all the mail roads ; but all other roads
running parallel with them, on which all persons are prohib
ited, under a penalty of fifty dollars, from carrying letters in
stages or othei vehicles, performing regular trips; and author-
CUMBERLAND ROAD. 307
izing too, the seizure and sale of any property found in them
for the payment of the fines. The same regulations applied
to boats and vessels passing from one post town to another.
Compare that bill with the one under debate: this bill had
two or three trifling penalties of ten dollars, and was confined
to one road of about one hundred and fifty miles in extent,
made by the United States, while the other act, with all its
fines and forfeitures, pains and penalties, extended not only to
all the mail roads in the United States, but also to all parallel
roads ; yet no complaint was then heard about the constitu
tionality of this law, or the dreadful consequences of carrying
the citizens hundreds of miles to be tried — under it no diffi
culty had ever been experienced, and no complaint had ever
been heard. There had been no occasion for appointing United
States justices, and creating federal courts, to carry this law
into effect, about which there was so much declamation on
this occasion : this was truly choking at gnats and swallow
ing camels. To take away life by virtue of the post-office
power for robbing the mail, is nothing ; but to impose a fine
often dollars for wilfully destroying a road which has cost
the Government millions of dollars, is a dreadful violation of
State rights ! An unheard of usurpation, worse than the
sedition law; and went further towards a dissolution of the
Union than any other act of the Government. Such were
the declarations of his colleague ; he hoped he would be able
to give some reason for thus denouncing this bill, after vot
ing for the act of 1825, which carried this same power a
hundred times further than this bill, both as regards the
theatre of its operation and the extent of its punishments.
With respect to military roads and canals, Mr. S. begged
leave to say a few words. The Constitution has conferred
upon this Government the power to declare war and provide
for the common defence; with the express right of employing
all the means necessary for this purpose ; they therefore had
the undoubted power to purchase cannon, build forts, provide
all the munitions of war, define and punish offences, not be
cause they were mentioned in the Constitution, but because
they were necessary and proper means for the national de
fence. Were not roads equally necessary, nay, in many cases
even more necessary for this purpose? Without roads your
cannon and other munitions would often be useless and un
availing. In a country like this, Mr. S. contended, a good
system of roads and canals, opening easy communications
from the centre to the extremes of the Union, constituted the
308 CUMBERLAND ROAD.
most powerful and efficient system of defence. In a country
relying for defence and protection, not upon standing armies,
but upon the citizen soldiers, scattered over an immense con
tinent, whatever facilitated the rapid concentration and rapid
movement of the physical force of the nation, to the places
where its presence might be required by the public exigen
cies, was of the utmost importance. As a means of national
'defence, he contended that a system of interior canals, extend
ing from the north to the south, from Boston to St. Mary's,
by which our armies and munitions of war could always be
ready to meet and repel the enemy — moving pari passu with
them, would be vastly more important and successful as a
means of defending our extended and exposed Atlantic bor
der than all the forts and fortifications that could be erected
at any expense. Forts were fixed and immovable; they
could not be transferred to the point of attack : if the enemy
came to them they might repel him, but not otherwise. Com
pare them in time of peace : forts and fortifications were a
burden of constant and never-ceasing expense, a standing
army must be kept up to garrison and keep them in repair,
while roads and canals, equally efficient in war, were in time
of peace worth more than they cost, in the facilities they
afforded to internal commerce, and as bonds of union between
the distant parts of our common country. More than this, if
the funds for their erection were invested as stock, as in the
case of the Chesapeake and Delaware and the Dismal Swamp
canals, in addition to all these advantages in peace and war,
they would be a never failing source of revenue — a source
which war would not dry up but would increase, by the vast
increase of coasting trade it would force upon them. Hence,
Mr. S. contended, that as a means of national defence, roads
and canals were more important than forts and fortifications ;
and if so, as the right of selecting the means of defence be
longed expressly to Congress, their right to construct roads
and canals for this purpose, was, of course, more clear and
undoubted, than the right to erect forts. It had, however,
been contended by his colleague and others, that the Consti
tution gave expressly the right to erect forts, etc. This was
a palpable mistake. The Constitution contained no such
provision. The clause referred to by gentlemen was inserted
for a totally different object ; it was not to give the power to
erect forts, that was taken for granted ; but to give Congress
"exclusive legislation" over them when erected. The object
was to exclude State laws and State jurisdiction from our
CUMBERLAND ROAD. 309
forts, and for very sound and obvious reasons. This was
the object, and the only object of this clause so much relied
on. So far from granting the power to erect forts, it evi
dently went upon the assumption that this power existed as
a matter of course resulting from the general power over all
the means necessary for carrying into effect the great objects
and ends of Government.
Having thus established, and, as he thought, conclusively,
the right to construct roads and canals for mail and military
purposes, he came next to say a few words on the subject of
those which appertained to the express power of " regulating
commerce with foreign nations and among the several States"
This power carried with it, as a necessary incident, the right
to construct commercial roads and canals. From this grant
Congress derived precisely the same power to make roads and
canals that it did sea-walls, light-houses, buoys, beacons, etc.,
along the seaboard. If the power existed over the one it
existed over the other in every point of view ; the cases were
precisely parallel : it was impossible to draw a distinction
between them. This power was essential to every Govern
ment — there was no Government under the sun without it.
All writers on national law and political economy considered
the right to construct roads and canals as belonging to the
commercial power of all Governments.
There were great arteries of communication between dis
tant divisions of this extensive empire, passing through
many States, or bordering upon them, which the States
never could and never would make. These works were
emphatically national, and ought to be accomplished by
national means.
He instanced the road now under consideration — it passed
through Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, yet neither
of these States would have given a dollar to make it. It
passed mostly through mountainous and uninhabited regions.
He adverted to the Potomac, Ohio, and Mississippi rivers.
Important as these were to all the States, yet they were the
internal concerns of none — they were mere boundaries to
which the States would give nothing, while they had so
many objects exclusively internal requiring all their means.
For these reasons he was utterly opposed to the project of
dividing the surplus revenue of the General Government
among the several States ; this would be to surrender the
national means which the people had confided to this Gov
ernment for national purposes to mere local and sectional
310 CUMBERLAND ROAD.
objects, while those truly national would remain forever un
provided for. He did not claim for this Government the
power to make roads and canals for all purposes. The
powers of this Government and of the States were distinct
and well defined. To the national Government belonged,
under the Constitution, the power of making national roads
and canals for national purposes. To the States belonged
the power of providing for State and local objects. The
roads and canals projected and executed by States and pri
vate companies were often highly important in a national
point of view ; and to such, in his opinion, this Government
ought always to afford aid in a proportion corresponding
with the interest the nation had in their accomplishment.
When individuals were willing to go before and vest mil
lions of their private funds in works strictly and truly na
tional, connecting the remote sections of the Union together
(of which we had two distinguished examples, one in this
district and the other in a neighboring city, Baltimore), could
this Government, charged with the care and guardianship of
all the great interests of the nation, look on with cold indif
ference? Was it not our duty to lend a helping hand to en
courage, to cheer, and sustain them in their noble and patri
otic efforts ?
To all the considerations of interest and patriotism which
could influence States or individuals, to undertake works of
this sort, this Government had superadded other high and
important obligations. States and individuals were not
bound, as was this Government, to provide the means of de
fending the nation ; of transporting its mails ; of regulating
its commerce ; of suppressing insurrections, repelling inva
sions ; in short, of preserving the Union and advancing all
its vast and various interests. And what, he asked, would
more effectually promote all these great objects than the
construction of internal improvements, connecting the widely
separated parts of our common country more closely together ?
Notwithstanding all this, we have been gravely told by gen
tlemen, in the course of this debate, that this Government
had nothing to do with internal improvements ; that they
belonged exclusively to the States ! ! Such arguments scarcely
merited a serious reply. The reverse of the position would
certainly be much more plausible.
Mr. Stewart said, he would now proceed to answer, as
briefly as possible, some leading arguments urged by gentle
men in opposition to the bill under consideration. His col-
CUMBERLAND ROAD. 311
league [Mr. Buchanan] had said that this bill proposed a
greater stretch of power than the sedition law. This was an
argument " ad captandum vulgus." He would not do his
colleague the injustice to suppose that he was so ignorant of
the Constitution of his country as seriously to address such
an argument to the understanding of this House. The bill
under consideration was necessary to carry into effect the
express power of transporting the mail. What power of this
Government was the sedition law intended to carry into
effect ? None. It was therefore not only clearly unconstitu
tional on this ground, but it went directly to abridge the
freedom of the press, and, of course, was a plain and palpable
violation of that provision in the Constitution which declares
that " Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of
speech or of the press" Now, if his colleague could show
any provision in the Constitution in the slightest degree im
pugning the right of Congress to pass this bill, then he might
have some excuse for offering such an argument, otherwise
he had none. The gentleman had, in a very labored effort,
endeavored to prove that this Government had no kind of
jurisdiction or control whatever over this road. Yet his
own amendment recognized the existence of the very po\ver
which he denies. By his amendment he proposes what?
That this Government shall cede the road to the States, with
the power to erect gates and collect as much toll as was ne
cessary to keep it in repair. But his whole argument went
to prove that Congress did not possess the. very power which
his amendment assumed and proposed to transfer to the
States. The gentleman's amendment and his speech were
therefore at open war with each other, and would perhaps
both perish in the conflict. Certainly both could not sur
vive — one or the other must fall.
The gentleman, proceeding in his argument, had assumed
premises which nobody would admit, and then, with an air
of great triumph, he drew conclusions which even his own
premises would not support. He takes for granted that this
Government, with all its mail, military, and commercial
powers, has no more right to make a road to carry these
powers into effect, though a State, than any individual pos
sessing none of these powers, would have. Thus having
assumed what was utterly inadmissible, he triumphantly in
quires whether an individual, having obtained leave to make
a road through another's land, could put up gates and exact
tolls ? The gentleman says surely not. But he said surely
312 CUMBERLAND ROAD.
I
es, unless expressly prohibited by the contract. Suppose,
•y permission, I build a mill, said Mr. S., upon that gentle
man's estate, and construct a bridge and turnpike road to
get to it, have I not as much right to demand toll at the
bridge as at the mill ? Most undoubtedly ; so that the gen
tleman's premises and his conclusion were alike fallacious
and unsound. This position had been taken by both the
gentlemen from Virginia [Mr. Barbour and Mr. Archer],
to whom he would make the same reply. A most extraor
dinary argument had been advanced against military roads :
the public enemy may get possession of them in war ! ! Was
it possible that an American statesman could, at this time
of day, urge such an argument ? It might be addressed to
a set of timid savages, secure in the midst of the wilderness.
The enemy get possession of our roads, and therefore not
make them ! Such cowardly arguments would deprive us
of every possible means of defence. The enemy, it might
be said with equal propriety, may get our ships, our forts,
our cannon, our soldiers, and therefore we ought not to pro
vide them. What would the brave freemen of this country
say to the men who would deny them roads to travel on,
lest the enemy might take them from us in war ? They
would reply, with Spartan magnanimity, " let them come
and take them."
It has been urged, with great zeal and earnestness, by the
gentleman from Virginia [Mr. Barbour] that if this Govern
ment had the power to construct roads and canals on the
principles contended for, that then we might take possession
of the New York canal, and all the roads and canals in the
country. Mr. S. disclaimed any such right ; this would not
be the use but the abuse of power. Congress was confined,
by the Constitution, to the use of such means as were neces
sary and proper, and it would be neither proper nor neces
sary to take possession of the New York canal ; it could be
used for all the purposes of this Government, without com
mitting such an outrage. Mr. S. said he held it, in all cases,
to be the indispensable duty of every gentlemen who brought
forward any measure of internal improvement, to demonstrate
to the satisfaction of a majority of Congress, that it was na
tional in its character ; that it necessarily and properly be
longed to the execution of some one of the express powers of
this Government. Indeed, if he failed to do this, it was
impossible that it could be adopted. Hence there was no
danger of the dreadful consequences which gentlemen seemed
CUMBERLAND ROAD. 313
to anticipate ; these dangers were imaginary. The cases
supposed could never happen, and if they did, it would be
an abuse of power; and what power was there belonging to
this Government that might not be abused? Congress had
power enough to ruin the nation, and power that could not
be controverted. Congress may impose taxes without any
limitation ; they may raise an army of a hundred thousand
men ; they may crush the people under these burdens ; but
it did not follow that because these powers might be abused
that therefore they did not exist. On this principle there
could be no power, for all power was liable to be abused by
those to whom it was delegated. The great safeguard which
the people had against the abuse of power was the ballot-box.
This remedy they held in their own hands — it was the great
palladium of their liberties; and it was the only remedy for
the abuse of the great express powers of Government. But
in relation to all the incidental or implied powers employed
in the selecting of means there was a double check, the bal
lot-box and the Supreme Court. Congress may declare war
against all the world, lay taxes, raise armies to any extent,
and the Supreme Court could not interpose ; but if they
employ means to carry these measures into effect, which are
not " necessary and proper " to obtain the end proposed by
them, then the Supreme Court have said that they would
feel themselves bound to pronounce such laws unconstitu
tional. Hence he contended that the power of internal im
provement being an incidental power, was not only highly
beneficial in its tendency, but also perfectly innocent and
harmless. It was not the frightful Briareus described in
such glowing colors by his colleague.
A great deal had been said on the subject of jurisdiction ;
that, if it existed at all, it must be exclusive; that it could
not attach to soil, and much metaphysical refinement of this
sort, which had little to do with the subject. On this point,
the only sound and practical rule was, that this Government
had a right to assume such jurisdiction over their roads as
was necessary for their preservation and repair by such
means as should be deemed most expedient, leaving every
thing beyond that to the States. Thus far the constitution
declared the legislation of Congress to be " the supreme law
of the land, any thing in the constitution and laws of any State
to the contrary notwithstanding." This, left to the laws of
the States, the right to punish all oifences and other acts com
mitted upon the road, in the same manner as though they had
314 CUMBERLAND ROAD.
occurred in any other part of their territory. Such had been
the uniform practice of the government in executing all its
powers up to the present time, and no complaint had ever
been made or inconvenience experienced.
It has been universally conceded on all hands in this de
bate, that the consent of the States could not confer any ju
risdiction or power on this Government beyond what it had de
rived from the constitution. This was too clear a proposition
to admit of doubt. Yet the names of Jefferson, Madison,
Monroe, and Gallatin, were introduced, and relied on. Did
gentlemen forget that Mr. Gallatin was the very first man
that ever suggested the plan for making the Cumberland
road, and that it had been sanctioned and actually constructed
under the administrations of Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe?
Their opinions were thus reduced to practice, which was the
best evidence in the world — " by their fruits shall ye know
them."
Mr. S. said his colleague [Mr. Buchanan] had divided the
powers of Government into two classes, external and internal.
The first, he says, belong to the General Government, and
the second, with a few exceptions, to the States. It was
matter of astonishment that any one who had ever read the
Constitution, should seriously advance such a proposition.
He begged his colleague to look at the 8th section of the first
article of the Constitution ; which contained the enumeration
of the powers of Congress, and he would find that so far as
this Government was concerned, the reverse of his proposition
was the fact ; that of the eighteen substantive grants of power,
there were but two external ; all the rest operated internally
upon and among the States, and were to all intents and
purposes internal and not external powers : thus, by assuming
false premises, almost any conclusion might be established.
On such arguments as these (if arguments they would be
called,) the Chief Justice of the United States bestowed a
merited rebuke when he said that u ingenuity by assuming
premises, may explain away the Constitution, and leave it a
magnificent structure to look at; but totally unfit for use."
The radical vice of most of the arguments urged against
this power, was found in this, that they treated this Govern
ment as an alien and a foreigner in its own country. The
common parent and protector of all the states is habitually
regarded with an eye of jealousy and distrust, instead of
generous confidence. This course was calculated to create
hostility ; to beget hatred and heart burnings, where nothing
CUMBERLAND ROAD. 315
should exist but affection and confidence. Such doctrines
were anti-republican and dangerous; they tended to the
destruction of the Union.
But we are told that internal improvements will destroy
the States and produce disunion. Destroy the States by
giving them money, by making roads and canals for their
use at the national expense ! Produce disunion by binding
and uniting together distant parts of our common country,
by promoting harmony of interest and feeling; creating
mutual dependence of the agricultural, planting, and manu
facturing districts, on each other for markets and supplies,
by virtually removing the mountains that divide them ;
destroying time and space, and constituting us, in fact, as
well as in theory, a united people. Yet all this, we are told,
is to destroy the Union ! Such logic was too refined for the
comprehension of common sense. No, sir; destroy this
power, and you cut one of the strongest cords ; you break
one of the firmest links in the chain of our Union ; you rob
this Government of one of its most popular and beneficent
powers ; you leave it nothing but its odious powers of taxation ;
of imposing burdens without benefits ; of taking, without the
power of giving.
He could not better express his ideas on this subject, than
by adopting the language of the immortal Washington, who
asserted the existence of this power in the General Govern
ment even before the formation of the present Constitution,
when its powers, as all must admit, were much more circum
scribed and limited than they now are. In 1784, when
urging the opening of roads to the west, he says : " I wish
every door to that country may be set wide open, and the
commercial intercourse with it rendered as free and easy as
possible. This, in my opinion, is the best, if not the only
cement that can bind them to us for any length of time, and
we shall be deficient in foresight and wisdom if we neglect
the means of effecting it. Our interest is so much in unison
with this policy, that nothing short of that ill-timed and
misapplied parsimony and contracted way of thinking which
intermingles so much in our public councils, can counteract
it." Such was the language of the father of his country on
this subject, more than forty-five years ago. If opposition to
internal improvements was then justly denounced as " ill-
timed and misapplied parsimony," as contracted and illiberal,
what would be said of it now ?
Mr. S. said he had trespassed already, he feared, too long
316 CUMBERLAND ROAD.
on the time and patience of the committee. He would notice
but one or two topics more, and would detain them no longer.
The opinion and the hope had been repeatedly expressed on
this floor, that the system of internal improvement would be
soon arrested. Sir, said Mr. S., that opinion is as unfounded
as the hope is vain ; the impulse is given ; the spirit of improve
ment is abroad upon the earth ; it has gone forth ; it is the
' voice of the people, and will of the nation ; its benefits and
blessings are every where seen and felt, and its advantages
demanded by the people. There were other active and
powerful causes at this moment generating, and would soon
be in full operation, causes which would give the system a
resistless and overwhelming impulse; an impulse to which
resistance would be as vain as human efforts to arrest the
majestic march of the Mississippi, or to prevent the genial
showers of heaven from descending to cheer and refresh a
thirsty land. This required no spirit of prophecy to foresee.
The causes to which he referred were plain and obvious. He
pointed to the rapid extinction of the national debt, which
would, in a few years, leave a surplus revenue of ten or
twelve millions annually for these objects. He adverted to
the progress of improvements throughout the country, fur
nishing to all conclusive evidence of their utility and im
portance ; brushing away the cobweb arguments and meta
physical notions about " state rights." He also pointed to
the effect of the new census about to be taken ; the effect it
would have in bringing a vast accession of strength to the
cause of internal improvement. Nearly, if not all the new
and growing States of the Union, were decidedly in its favor,
while the States declining in the scale of political power were
alone opposed to it. And to this opposition might perhaps be
traced one of the principal causes of that decline. These
States neglected to improve the bounties of Providence, and
by denying the power of this Government over the subject,
they excluded themselves from all participation in its expendi
tures. This was an evil which the people alone could correct.
The remedy was in their own hands, and it was their own
fault if they did not apply it. They would apply it, and he
hoped yet to see even Virginia among the foremost states in
the Union in favor of this policy, which she now denounced
as unconstitutional.
^T-rhy were the population, the power, and prosperity of the
South on the decline ? All their productions found a ready
and abundant market abroad. In the last ten years, their
CUMBERLAND ROAD. 317
exports of cotton and tobacco alone amounted to more than
all the other exports of the United States put together.
Within that period, their exports of cotton and tobacco
amounted to $320,000,000, while all the other exports of the
nation amounted to less than §220,000,000. How was the
decline of the South to be accounted for, but by referring it
to the total neglect of those advantages of internal improve
ment, internal commerce, and internal supplies, which they
had within their reach? They looked too much abroad,
and not enough at home. They relied too much upon
foreign supplies, and neglected too much their own internal
resources. This he would not say was the sole cause, but he
would express the decided opinion, that it was among the
most powerful and efficient causes which had led to the
unhappy results in that portion of our common country to
which he had adverted.
We have been told that there is a great party in this
country wedded to what they call " state-rights." This party
was, on all occasions, found united in resisting this govern
ment in the exercise of what he considered its indispensable
and most beneficial powers. They were always preaching
up the dangers of this Government ; endeavoring to alarm
the people with the idea of consolidation ; holding up before
them frightful pictures and imaginary evils. They talked
much of the public liberties, of usurpations, and oppressions.
On some occasions they went so far as to call on the people
to resist. It was time the people should examine these
doctrines, and see what was their tendency, and on what
foundation they rested. In his opinion, their tendency was
first to weaken, and next to destroy this Government. It
was gradually to undermine what could not be directly
overthrown. It was to wean off the affections, and destroy
the confidence of the people in their government; and, when
these were gone, all was lost — this Government could live
alone in the affections and confidence of the people. This
was the vital spark which animated the system ; it was the
corner-stone that sustained the whole fabric. Destroy this,
and the whole edifice, this temple of liberty, with all it con
tained, would be instantly a pile of indiscriminate ruins.
He was far from imputing to any a disposition to destroy
this Government ; but were it possible for such a design to
exist, how would it operate? Not by open violence. This
would be premature and unavailing ; but it would be by
rendering the Government odious among the people, with-
318 CUMBERLAND ROAD.
drawing from it their confidence, creating dissatisfaction,
producing distrust, and finally, when its foundations were
thus sapped, its strength and power destroyed; when the
mine was dug, and the train laid, then to apply the match,
" Cry havoc, and let slip the dogs of war."
This was the only way in which treason could ever operate
successfully, so long as this Government enjoyed the confi
dence of the people ; so long as it retained their affections,
so long as they remained virtuous and faithful to the con
stitution and themselves, all was safe. Without these, he
repeated, all was lost.
Let us inquire, for a moment, whether there is, in fact,
any kind of foundation for the apprehension and alarm
lest this Government would swallow up the States and
assume what the gentleman from Virginia [Mr. Archer]
was pleased to call "autocratical and Russian powers."
What is this Government? How is it composed, and to
whom is it responsible ? The answer to these plain ques
tions would not only show that all these apprehensions were
vain, but that the real danger lay in the opposite direction ;
that there was much more danger of this Government being
destroyed by the States, than there was of the States being
destroyed by it. This was a Government of the people,
formed by the people, and responsible to them. Those who
administered it were elected by the States and the people of
the States, and were responsible to them, and to them only.
From whom do we derive our authority to sit here and
legislate? From the people of the States. If we fail to
guard and protect their rights, they will hold us responsible ;
but if, on the other hand, we fail in our duty to this Govern
ment ; if we fail to guard and protect its rights, where is the
responsibility? who is there to call us to account? Not the
people of this national district of ten miles square. No, sir.
Congress is responsible to the people of the States. Where
then was the danger of the rights of the people and the
rights of the States being destroyed by their own representa
tives ? Such apprehensions were idle and unfounded. Were
the States in any danger from the Senate ? Whence did
they derive their offices, and to whom were they responsible ?
They were elected by, and responsible to the legislatures of
the several States ; and had " state-rights " anything to fear
from them? Certainly not. But had this Government
nothing to fear? Were its rights and its powers in no
CUMBERLAND ROAD. 319
danger? Sir, look at the bills and propositions on your
table, and answer the question. It was high time there
should be a party to defend the rights of this Government
from undue encroachments.
A proposition is now under debate in the other House, to
take the whole surplus revenue at the end of every session,
and divide it among the States. What would be the effect
of this measure? Would it not arrest every national work,
paralyze all the efforts, and prostrate all the powers of this
Government? Sir, adopt this proposition, and you make it
the interest of the representatives of every State to swell the
surplus and increase the dividend which they are to carry
home to their constituents. And how is this object to be
accomplished? By withholding appropriations from the
army, the navy, forts, fortifications, and internal improve
ments ; in short, from everything that would reduce the
common fund to be distributed. If a fort or other public
work is required in a particular district, all will unite against
it, as it would favor one district at the expense of all the
rest, and thus lead to an unequal distribution. What, then,
is to become of this Government, when it is thus robbed by
the States of the means of carrying into effect its great and
essential powers? There were other propositions of similar
import ; among them was one to take the public lands, and
divide them too among the States, or surrender them to the
States in which they were located, in direct violation of their
solemn pledge for the payment of the public debt. For
these reasons he contended that, if there was danger of
" usurpation," it was that this Government, and not the
States, would be robbed of its legitimate powers. It was
impossible for this Government to destroy the States ; it was
dependent upon the States for all the means of executing its
indispensable powers ; but how easy was it for the States to
destroy this Government ? It could be done in a moment.
Let them refuse to elect senators and representatives, and
the Government is at an end ; it is destroyed at a blow. This
Government cannot infringe upon the rights of the States
without their own consent, expressed through their represen
tatives in Congress. But suppose the States instruct their
willing and obedient servants here to rob this Government
of its power, its money, and its means, and transfer them to
the States. Suppose we obey ; to whom are we responsible ?
To those on whom we are dependent for favor ? The people
of the States, and their legislators who direct the act, and
320 CUMBERLAND ROAD.
divide the spoil. He hoped such an event was remote;
but if this happy Government was doomed to perish (which
God forbid), it would perish not by having too much power,
but too little ; it would fail in consequence of its weakness,
not of its strength.
But why, sir, this jealousy, this never-dying hostility to
this Government? Why these attempts to fritter away, and
destroy its most essential powers? Why these unceasing
endeavors to bind it in manacles and chains, to paralyze its
energies, and prostrate all its powers ? Is it not this Gov
ernment that guards the rights and protects the liberties of
the people? Is it not this that secures them tranquillity in
peace, and defence in war ? Whether at home or abroad, it
throws around every citizen the mantle of its protection, and
by conferring on him the proud title of " an American citi
zen" secures him an honorable passport throughout the
world. He considered this Union as the sacred repository
of the happiness and best hopes of this people — as the last
asylum of persecuted liberty on earth. Destroy it, and you
destroy the influence of our bright example. You extin
guish the light of our glorious revolution, which now blazes
up to Heaven, illumining the path, and guiding the foot
steps of those who are on their march to freedom.
This Government, therefore, instead of being regarded with
what his colleague [Mr. Buchanan] was pleased to call
" wholesome jealousy and distrust," should be regarded with
wholesome confidence and affection ; it should be dear and
precious to the heart of every patriot, to the friends of free
dom throughout the world. For himself, he never did, and
he never would, belong to this jealous " party," no matter
what its name, or what its professions ; no matter by whom
it might be led, or by whom it might be followed ; no
matter what seductive allurements of power and of patron
age it might hold out to enlist the mercenary or the ambi
tious under its banners ; so long as he considered its doc
trines dangerous to the Union, prosperity, and liberty of
the country, as destructive to the best interests of those
whom he had the honor to represent, he would, regardless
of consequences, resist it with an uncompromising opposition,
he would resist every attempt to rob this Government of any
of its great and essential powers ; its power of protecting its
own internal industry, and improving its own internal
condition. Regarding these as the most important powers
that this Government possessed, so they would be the last he
CUMBERLAND ROAD. 321
would consent to surrender. The first he regarded as essen
tial to our national independence, the last to our national de
fence. Without them, " the value of the Union " might
well be made the subject of calculation. He belonged, Mr.
S. said, to that party (and, thank God, there was such a
party in this country), whose business it was not to destroy
the confidence of the people in this Government by constant
clamor about " state-rights," consolidation, usurpation, and
oppression, but firmly to maintain the just rights and
powers of this Government ; to guard and protect it against
all its enemies, whether foreign and domestic, open or
insidious; to resist every attempt to trample upon the con
stitution and laws, or to render them odious among the
people. This he considered " the great Republican party."
This was the party to which he always had, and always
would belong ; and it was the party to which his colleague
[Mr. Buchanan] always had been, and always would be
opposed.
21
INTERNAL IMPROVEMENT.
DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, U. S.,
JANUARY 28, 1824.
BUT the gentleman from Virginia [Mr. Archer], who
has just addressed you, admits the power to make military
roads and canals. This, Mr. S. said, he considered a sur
render of the whole question. The gentleman says it prop
erly belongs to the power " to raise armies and provide for
the common defence," and thus admits the right of Congress
to select the means to accomplish the ends of government ;
and if a majority of Congress think roads and canals neces
sary and proper for the transportation of the mail, and the
regulation of commerce, they have, undoubtedly, upon the
same principle, and by virtue of the same power, a right to
make them. But even suppose you confine its exercise to
military roads and canals ; by this you can accomplish all
the great objects contemplated by the friends of this bill.
If the honorable gentleman will compare Mr. Gattatin's re
port, which embraces the whole subject for mail, military,
and commercial purposes, with the report of Mr. Calhoun,
now at the head of the War Department, on the subject of
" Military Roads and Canals," he will find their systems, in
all material respects, to be the same. Mr. Calhoun, in fact,
says, at the close of his enumeration : " Many of the roads
and canals which have been suggested are, no doubt, of the
first importance to the commerce, the manufactures, the agri
culture, and political prosperity of the country, but are not,
for that reason, less useful or necessary for military purposes.
It is, in fact, one of the great advantages of our country, en
joying so many others, that, whether we regard its internal
improvement in relation to military, civil, or political pur
poses, very nearly the same system, in all its parts, is required.
The road or canal can scarcely be designated, which is not
highly useful for military operations, and which is not equally
required for the industry or political prosperity of the com
munity ; " and had the roads and canals pointed out, he adds,
322
INTERNAL IMPROVEMENT. 323
" been completed before the late war, their saving, in that
single contest, in men, money, and reputation, would have
more than indemnified the country for the expense of their
construction." He then recommends the very plan proposed
by this bill for procuring the necessary plans and estimates,
as preliminary to their execution ; so that, by passing this
bill, you do no more than has been required by the Secretary
of War for military purposes alone ; and the gentleman from
Virginia [Mr. Archer], who has admitted the power to make
military roads and canals, may, with perfect consistency, sup
port this bill with a view to strengthen the military defences
of the country. And, having the power to make roads and
canals for the defence of the country, will it be seriously
contended that the State through which they pass may de
feat them, though indispensably necessary for the safety and
best interests of the country ? To give the power to defend
the country, without the means of its execution, would be
ridiculous and absurd ; it would be a degree of folly which
could not be imputed to the wise frarners of our excellent
Constitution ; besides, these powers were perfectly innocent
and harmless. What possible injury could result? If, in
their exercise, Congress should transcend the limits of a
sound discretion ; if they should resort to means not " neces
sary and proper," to attain the end — the Supreme Court,
possessing a power of supervision and control, will correct it.
But, sir, if the liberties of this country — if the States have
any thing to fear from the General Government, it is not
from their incidental or resulting powers ; it is from their
great and express powers ; the power to " raise armies," and
to " lay taxes." Here their power is not only unlimited, but
it is without check, without control.
But he not only thought the General Government pos
sessed the power over the subject of roads and canals, but
he considered the question settled ; if any question could
ever be settled by frequent and solemn decisions in Congress,
this was. He found in the statute booK a whole system of
laws under the head of " roads and canals ; " and were all
these laws unconstitutional ? Laws for the construction of
the Cumberland road had received the sanction of every Exe
cutive, and of almost every Congress, since the administra
tion of Mr. Jefferson, who had signed the first law on the
subject. But the strongest and most unequivocal expression
in favor of the power was to be found in the proceedings
had in the last Congress, on the bill providing for the erec-
324 INTERNAL IMPROVEMENT.
tion of toll-gates on the Cumberland road. This bill cer
tainly carried the constitutional power of Congress over the
subject, to its utmost limit. It assumed complete sovereignty
and jurisdiction within the territory of the States, establish
ing tolls, and inflicting pains and penalties upon those who
might disregard or violate its provisions ; yet this bill, thus
exerting the constitutional power of Congress to its utmost
extent, passed in committee of the whole (though it encoun
tered the powerful opposition of the honorable gentleman
from Virginia,, who had just spoken [Mr. Barbour], and
several others), by a vote of more than two to one, and after
an amendment was adopted, appropriating a sum of money
to repair the road previous to the erection of the gates, the
bill passed, by ayes and noes, by a large majority ; and even
Virginia and North Carolina, so remarkable for their con
stitutional scruples, stood divided on the passage of the bill,
the former 8 to 12, the latter 5 to 5. And, in the Senate,
where the constitutional powers of this Government were cer
tainly well understood, where you find many of the most
able, experienced, and enlightened constitutional lawyers iri
this or any other nation, this bill passed with all its powers,
and all its provisions, gates, penalties, money, and all, by a
vote of 29 to 7, and even some of the seven who voted against
it, he understood, were influenced, not by any doubt of the
power, but by a doubt of the expediency of degrading this
great, free, national road to the level of common toll roads,
for the sake of the trifling sum required to keep it in repair.
By this strong and almost unanimous decision, the question,
in Congress at least, ought to be considered as settled.
He came next to consider the second question — Is this
measure expedient? And this, to his mind, was the most
important branch of the subject. On this ground, the bill,
he said, had met with very little opposition. Gentlemen
who had denied the constitutional power of Congress over
the subject, had generally admitted the expediency of the
measure. Some objections, however, had been made to it
on this ground, which first claimed his attention. The honor
able gentleman from Virginia [Mr. Archer], has said that
the national debt, of nearly $100,000,000, should be first paid.
Mr. S. said, that he was quite sure that he felt as much
anxiety as that honorable gentleman to discharge the na
tional debt, and he would go as far to retrench the expendi
ture of the Government, to accomplish it. But the national
debt, he said, had been overrated. The honorable gentle-
INTERNAL IMPROVEMENT. 325
man would find, after deducting the 3 per cent, stocks, the
subscription to the National Bank, and the amount of 7 per
cents, which would be discharged by the balance now in the
Treasury, the amount, to be redeemed, of the national debt,
instead of $100,000,000, was, in fact, little more than $61,-
000,000, which, by the regular application of the ordinary
sinking fund, would be entirely extinguished in less than
eight years. What, then, was to be done with the sinking
fund of $10,000,000 per annum ? Was it to be wasted in
idle extravagance ? Besides, Mr. S. said, many of the pre
sent sources of expenditure would soon be dried up. The
annual appropriations for the erection of forts, and the
gradual increase of the navy would soon be rendered un
necessary by the accomplishment of those objects. Our
enormous pension list must soon be reduced by the hand of
time, and the annual expenditure upon this Capitol, this
splendid monument of national extravagance, which had cost
as much as would have completed a canal from here to Cum
berland, must cease. These results would produce an annual
saving of nearly $3,000,000 per annum, which might be well
applied to internal improvements ; or, if gentlemen would
consent to give to this object the increase of revenue, which
would arise from the adoption of the new tariff, it would be
sufficient for two or three of the first years of its operation.
Another objection made was, that this measure would
lean to an unequal distribution of the public funds. This,
Mr. S. said, must depend upon the plan hereafter adopted.
For his own part, he was free to say that he would prefer a
plan to distribute the fund set apart for this purpose, among
the States according to their representation in this House ;
reserving to Congress the right to designate the objects upon
which it should be expended within, or adjoining the several
States; and, by referring to Mr. Gallatin's report, it would
be seen that there was scarcely a State in the Union which
was not intersected or bounded by some great national object
of internal improvement. This fund, yielding an annual
and certain aid to the States, would give a general impulse
to improvements throughout the Union ; it would stimulate
and strengthen the efforts of the States, and induce them, in
many cases, to commence great undertakings of this kind,
which would never be attempted without it.
Thus, the distribution would be salutary; it would be
just, equitable, and beneficial to every portion of the Union.
But, Mr. S. said, he would ask the honorable gentleman
326 INTERNAL IMPROVEMENT.
from Virginia whether the expenditures of the General
Government were, in other respects, equal among the States?
Look at the immense expenditures on the seaboard, in the
erection of forts and other public works of defence, in build
ing and supporting a navy for the protection of 'foreign com
merce, and for defending it against foreign aggression ; the
late war was emphatically a war in defence of " free-trade
and sailors' rights," in support of which, the interior of the
West had expended their full portion of JDlood and treasure.
Of the $560,000,000 expended since the formation of the
Government, how much had gone to the benefit of the inte
rior, in promoting internal commerce among the States?
Scarcely $2,000,000 for constructing the Cumberland Road,
and this trifling sum the State of Ohio was required to
refund. Was this an equal, was this, he asked, a fair distri
bution of the public funds ? Must all be devoted to foreign
commerce, and nothing to internal commerce among the
States ? Sir, said he, the interior is now laboring under a
complication of difficulties, which rendered their situa
tion truly distressing. The manufacturing establishments,
which heretofore furnished a market for the farmer (for
want of adequate protection), had sunk under the weight of
foreign competition ; without canals, the products of agricul
ture would not bear transportation to the Atlantic markets ;
thus, the farmer, without a market, was left without a mo
tive to industry. Here Mr. S. mentioned a variety of facts,
showing that the West paid annually a tax of near $3,000,-
000 for the transportation of goods, and a heavier duty was
paid on glass and other articles carried from the West to
Baltimore, than was paid by the foreign article in the same
port; nineteen-twentieths of this expense would be saved
by a single canal connecting the Eastern and Western waters.
He then took an extensive view of the canals and internal
improvements of England, where twenty-two canals crossed
their mountains, uniting the Eastern and Western waters of
that Kingdom. He also adverted to the policy of France,
Holland, and several other European nations, and contrasted
their policy in this respect with our own. While no nation,
he said, possessed the same advantages, the same facilities,
or the same inducements as this for internal improvements,
yet none had done so little. As a nation, he said, we had
done almost nothing ; we were far behind the Holy Alliance,
and had scarcely kept up with the Ottoman Porte in attend
ing to the internal concerns of our own country, by develop-
INTERNAL, IMPROVEMENT. 327
ing its resources, and facilitating internal trade by internal
improvements. If we were asked by our constituents why
we lavished millions every year, for the benefit and protec
tion of foreign commerce, and did nothing to promote inter
nal commerce among the States, were we prepared to give
them a satisfactory answer?
But, as nothing but what was foreign appeared to satisfy
some gentlemen ; as they appeared to have an aversion to
everything that was domestic, that was internal, that was
American, whether in reference to commerce or manufac
tures, still they might, he said, be gratified — they might
have foreign commerce at home, at least if distance made
commerce foreign. For instance, he said, our Atlantic mer
chants might be as profitably employed to themselves, and
much more so to the country, in importing lead from Mis
souri, instead of bringing it from Europe. While the voy
age would be equally foreign as to distance, it would be
infinitely more secure and advantageous. In a single year
(1816) we had imported from abroad more than 20,000,000
of pounds of lead. Every year it cost the nation more than
half a million of dollars, while our own country furnished
this article in inexhaustible quantities. In the West we
had whole districts of country literally composed of lead,
sufficient to supply the universe; yet, for want of the neces
sary facilities for transportation, such as this bill was in
tended to afford, these immense sources of national wealth,
of national independence, remained, and must continue to
remain, dormant and useless. This was a single instance
selected to illustrate the policy of this measure, while the
argument would apply with equal force to an almost infinite
variety of other sources of wealth in the interior, as iron,
glass, etc., the raw material of which remained buried in the
earth, useless and unproductive, and which only required
the plastic and vivifying touch of governmental patronage
and protection to spring at once into useful and prosperous
activity.
Mr. S. here introduced another argument in favor of this
measure, drawn from its evident tendency to enhance the
value of the public lands, of which the Government still had
for sale more than 400,000,000 of acres, and with respect to
which Congress had expressly, by the Constitution, power
to make "all needful rules and regulations," and certainly
there could be no "regulation" better calculated to increase
their value, to facilitate their sale, and to induce their settle-
328 INTERNAL IMPROVEMENT.
ment, than a good system of roads and canals, opening a
cheap, free, and easy communication with them. In sup
port of this argument, Mr. S. read several extracts from Mr.
Gal latin's report, made in 1808, which states, among other
things, that " the opening of an inland navigation from tide
water to the great lakes would immediately give to the great
body of lands bordering on those lakes as great value as if
they were situate at the distance of one hundred miles by
land from the sea-coast ; and if the proceeds of the first 10,-
000,000 of acres which may be sold were applied to such
improvements, the United States would be amply repaid in
the sale of the other 90,000,000." Mr. S. also referred to
some calculations made on the subject, in a letter addressed
to Mr. Gallatin by Mr. Robert Fulton, to whose genius the
world was so much indebted, in which he demonstrated that
the public lands, 600 miles from the seaboard, would, by
the use of canals, enjoy all the advantages of those within
fifty miles of it by land. " Every mile of canal/' he stated,
"through the public lands, would accommodate 25,600 acres;"
" and the land sold," says Mr. Fulton, " in 1806, averaged
about two dollars per acre — with a canal it would produce
six dollars. Thus, he says, only twenty miles of canal each
year, running through national lands, would raise the value
of 512,000 acres four dollars per acre, giving $2,048,000—
a sum sufficient to make 136 miles of canal." Hence, it
was evidently the interest and duty of the Government
speedily to adopt a system of policy which, while it greatly
increased its revenue and resources, would, at the same time,
open a market to the West, facilitate trade and intercourse,
unite the great geographical sections of the Union, and thus
promote the permanent prosperity of the nation.
Sir, possessing as we do the only free government upon
earth, blessed by Divine Providence with every variety of
climate and of soil, unconnected with Europe, and strangers
to the storms which disturb her repose, enjoying tranquillity
at home, and at peace with all the world, it is the policy of
this Government to turn its attention to its own internal im
provement, to bring into activity its own immense resources,
which, as yet, were but partially developed ; to minister to
the wants, and relieve the distresses of our own people, by
seeking out and adopting appropriate remedies, by building
up proud and permanent and glorious monuments of inter
nal improvement, which will remain to the latest posterity
as so many memorials of the wisdom and munificence of
INTERNAL IMPROVEMENT. 329
their ancestors. Unique in our situation, occupying a proud
pre-eminence among the nations of the earth, sir, we owe a
great example to the world, not by conquering and destroy
ing nations, but by cultivating the arts of peace, by making
our people as prosperous and as happy as they are free. His
heart beat high with joy and gladness when he contemplated
the delightful prospect which, he flattered himself, was rap
idly rising into view, when this nation would cease to be
dependent upon European skill and industry for the supply f
of its wants ; when we should enjoy the utmost degree of
prosperity ; when New England, now sufficiently populous,
instead of Old England, should become the great and prin
cipal seat of our manufacturing establishments — the South
cultivating and supplying the raw material, while the West,
offering to the hand of agriculture a rich and productive
soil, will always afford the breadstuffs in abundance. Thus,
the great sections of our Republic will become customers
instead of rivals, mutually dependent upon each other both
for a market and supply. Then, with the proposed system
of internal improvement, by which the provisions of the
West would find a rapid, cheap, and easy conveyance to the
East, in exchange for return cargoes of manufactured arti
cles, and the cottons of the South enjoying similar facilities
of exchange with the North, our independence would be
come perfect, and our Union indissoluble.
In a country so extensive as this, spreading itself over an
almost unlimited extent of territory, divided into great geo
graphical sections by high and almost impassable mountains,
and presenting an exposed military frontier of seven or eight
thousand miles, a well regulated system of internal improve
ments, whether regarded in relation to its military strength,
its political stability, or commercial prosperity, was of the
utmost importance. With it we would be the strongest,
without it the weakest nation on earth, possessing the same
population and resources. Sir, this nation must depend for
its security and its liberty not upon standing armies, but
upon the virtue and patriotism of the people — on the militia,
the citizen-soldiers of the Republic. Standing armies in
time of peace he deprecated as inauspicious to freedom ; he
regarded them as a most destructive bane and intolerable
burden. The strength of this nation therefore, in all emer
gencies, would be in proportion to the facility with which
'the physical force of the country could be promptly and
rapidly concentrated at any point where its presence might
330 INTERNAL IMPROVEMENT.
be required, whether " to suppress insurrections " at home,
or "to repel invasions" from abroad. Suppose your sea
board to be threatened by the combined fleets of Europe,
without the possibility of knowing at what point you were
to be attacked, what would be a standing army of even
100,000 men, distributed along a maritime frontier of three
or four thousand miles, without facilities for prompt and
rapid concentration ? They would be weak and inefficient.
How much more powerful and effectual would be a system
of inland navigation, extending from the North to the South,
connecting in one common chain the whole of your Atlantic
cities, and thence, like the radii of a circle, penetrating the
interior to its centre, enabling the whole physical strength
of the country to be rapidly delivered at any given point,
where they could move, with all the munitions of war,
"paripassu" with the enemy, always fresh and unbroken
by the fatigue of long and forced marches. These advan
tages are not imaginary. They have been already in some
degree realized on the New York Canal, where we now trans
port troops and munitions of war more than three times the
distance in the same period, and at less than one-third the
former expense without fatigue to the soldier, or the destruc
tion of property attendant upon land transportation. As a
means of national defence therefore, roads and canals were
incomparably the best. In peace, liberty had nothing to
fear from roads and canals — from standing armies it had.
In peace, forts were useless ; nay, worse. They were a bur
den of expense. Roads and canals, whether in peace or in
war, afforded every facility for commercial intercourse, and,
if made by subscribing stock, would be, instead of a public
burden, a constant source of revenue to the Government,
presenting such facilities that, by stamping on the earth, an
army will spring into existence and rush to the point of
danger or alarm.
But, independent of their military and commercial advan
tages, roads and canals, considered in a political point of
view, would form one of the most powerful bonds of union
among the States. They virtually removed mountains, con
quered time and space, brought distant parts of the country
more nearly together, and united them by the strong ties of
friendship, of interest, of intercourse. And here he begged
leave again to quote the language of Washington, the Father
of his Country, whose solemn advice could never be too often'
repeated. In speaking of the Western country, forty years
INTERNAL IMPROVEMENT. 331
ago, he says : " For my own part, I wish sincerely every
door to that country may be set wide open, and the commer
cial intercourse with it rendered as free and easy as possible.
This, in my opinion, is the best, if not the only cement, that
can bind these people to us for any length of time ; and we
shall be deficient in foresight and wisdom if we neglect the
means of effecting it. Our interest/7 he says, " is so much
in unison with this measure that nothing short of that ill-
timed and misapplied parsimony and contracted way of
thinking, which intermingles so much in our public councils/
can counteract it."
If the policy which opposed this measure forty years ago
was justly considered unwise, ill-timed, contracted, and illib-
eral, what would be said of it now ? Since then a new
world, as if by magic, had sprung up in the West ; the wil
derness had yielded to the hand of industry; ships had
taken the place of the Indian's canoe ; and splendid cities
and towns and cultivated fields had risen on the ruins of
savage huts. If it then required roads and canals as the
" best and only cement" to hold together the East and the
West, how much more are they required now ? Then the
Western people were surrounded by powerful and hostile
savage tribes ; they were not only dependent on the Atlantic
States for protection and for supplies, but were bound to
them by all the ties of a common kindred and of filial affec
tion, bearing to the Eastern States the relation of the first
colonies to the mother country. But how is it now ? The
population of the West is the growth of its own soil ; their
wealth and resources are increasing every day ; they are be
coming of themselves a great and powerful people, and, as
they increased in weight, it would be the part of a wise policy
to increase the number and strength of the ties which unite
them to the East. Though it is true, sir, that the West
cling to their brethren of the East with a fond affection and
an ardent attachment ; though they cheerfully perform an
annual pilgrimage over yonder rough and rugged mountains,
to worship here with " a more than Eastern idolatry " at this
temple of liberty, this altar of our Union ; yet, sir, remem
ber that the time may come (which God forbid) when an
unwise and unjust policy may weaken those attachments,
however strong, and stifle those affections, however pure.
Though all is sunshine now, still a cloud may yet appear to
darken and to mar our political horizon. How long was it
since the threat of resistance, the thunder of rebellion was
332 INTERNAL IMPROVEMENT.
heard on this floor from another quarter ? Though he did
not for his own part apprehend any danger at present, yet it
was, he repeated, the part of a wise policy to strengthen by
every possible means the ties which bind this Union together ;
for upon it depended the peace and the happiness and the
best hopes of this people. Destroy this, and you extinguish
the last lamp of liberty ; you prostrate the last citadel of
freedom. Thus, freedom left without a friend, and liberty
without a sanctuary, the fell principles of " the Holy Alli
ance " would spread, unresisted, their gloomy dominion over
the universe.
Sir, I feel that I have trespassed too long on the patience
of the committee, and I will only add, that the power to pass
this bill is as clear to my mind, as its exercise is expedient.
It is almost the only power you possess of conferring benefits
and blessings upon the States ; of expending the people's
money for the people's benefit ; and its exercise, more than
any other, would tend to promote and to perpetuate the
union, harmony, and prosperity of this nation ; and, as he
considered this the most salutary power that the General
Government possessed, so it would be the last that he would
consent to surrender. It was a power which every well-
regulated Government must possess — the power of self-im
provement.
Sir, defeat this bill, and you give the death-blow to the
best hopes and best interests of this nation. Pass it, and
one other (he meant the tariff), and the 18th Congress will
have nobly done its duty. It will be hailed by future gene
rations as having laid the foundation of a system of policy
which would soon raise this nation to the high and brilliant
destiny that awaits it. Let the fate, however, of this measure
be what it might, he would, at least, have the satisfaction
of recording his name in its favor.
INTERNAL IMPROVEMENT.
DELIVERED ix THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, U. S.,
FEBRUARY 29th, 1828.
In opposition to the amendment offered by Mr. Drayton, of S. C.,
limiting the surveys, under the internal improvement act of 1824.
MR. STEWART said he regarded the motion now made to
restrict the appropriation proposed in the bill, to carry into
effect the act of 1824, as a blow aimed at the foundation of
the whole system of internal improvement.
The act of 1824, authorizing the organization of a corps
of engineers to make surveys and estimates of such roads and
canals as the President should deem of national importance,
for mail, military, or commercial purposes, was considered
by every body at the time as constituting the basis and
foundation of a general system of internal improvement.
This measure, after full and ample discussion, was adopted
by a large majority in Congress. It was then foreseen, that
the period of the final extinction of the national debt was
fast approaching, when there would be ten millions of dollars,
now applied to that debt, annually remaining in the treas
ury. To be in readiness for this event, it was thought wise
to provide in time for its judicious and economical expendi
ture, by having all the advantages of our country, for works
of internal improvement, fully explored by scientific engineers,
and the results spread before Congress, so as to enable them to
determine as to the relative importance of the various works,
proposed ; as also, to enable the Government to progress
with the execution of such of them, in the meantine, as the
means of the treasury would justify. Immediately after the
act of 1824, the President organized this corps. Appropria
tions have been annually made, and the engineers have
been diligently employed in carrying into effect the objects
of that law — and now, when these engineers have just
acquired the practical skill and experience necessary to
qualify them for the performance of the great task set before
them, when the work is in vigorous and successful prosecu
tion, all of a sudden it is to be arrested, the corps disbanded,
333
334 INTERNAL IMPROVEMENT.
and the whole system virtually destroyed. And why is this
course to be adopted ? Mr. S. said, he had listened atten
tively to the arguments urged by gentlemen in its favor,
which it appeared to him might all be classed under three
heads. The first and leading ground of objection was, that
it furnished the administration with the means of advancing
its own popularity. Second, that enough had been done;
and third, a want of constitutional power.- Mr. S. said, he
regretted to see the first political battery opened, and kept
up with so much fury. Gentlemen seem disposed to sacrifice
this important system, for the purpose of putting down the
present administration. Such was the obvious and manifest
result of their arguments. Mr. S. was sorry to see the de
bate assume this character. It resolved the whole subject
into a mere party question. The true merits of the subject
were lost sight of amid the fire and smoke of party excite
ment. This was too much the case at present, with every
thing brought before the House. Instead of attending to
the business for which we are sent here, we employ our
time in useless, nay, worse than useless discussions of the
Presidential question — a question which it is for the people,
and not for Congress to decide — a question which he hoped
the people themselves would determine, and that it might
never again devolve upon this House.
Mr. S. said, he felt it due to himself, however, to say that,
never, since he had the honor of a seat upon that floor, had he
introduced any subject having the remotest connection with
the Presidential question, nor had he ever participated in
the discussion of such topics, when introduced by others.
He came here neither to attack nor defend the administra
tion ; he did not consider this the proper place for such dis
cussions — the stump was a more appropriate theatre for such
displays. But, sir, when I see attacks made upon the pres
ent administration, for the purpose of destroying a system
of policy which I regard as essential to the prosperity of the
country, I feel myself called on by an imperious sense of
public duty to vindicate the system, and the men who are
faithfully and honestly endeavoring to carry it into effect,
and the more especially against charges which I believe to
be without any just foundation. We are told, by the gentle
man from Virginia [Mr. Rives], who has just resumed his
seat, that this power has been abused by those entrusted with
its execution, that much of the money has been expended
on local, and not on national objects. Mr. S. said he had
INTERNAL IMPROVEMENT. 335
turned much of his attention to the subject, and he defied
the gentleman to point out a single work surveyed, that was
not of national importance, either for mail, military, or com
mercial purposes. It was easy to deal out general denun
ciations, but the gentleman had failed to make a single
specification, though he held the whole list of surveys in his
hand. Why not point out some particular instance in which
this power had been abused ? It is not the number of miles,
or the extent of the cost, that makes a work national — a
work of one mile in extent was often as national as one of a
thousand miles. In the contemplated chain of inland navi
gation, from Boston to the South, extending more than a
thousand miles, the land cuts, to connect bays and rivers,
were often inconsiderable in extent, yet they constituted a
part of the great line itself, and were as national as any part,
or the whole put together. The repair of a bridge, or
removal of an obstruction in any of your great mail roads,
would be an object of national importance in reference to
the mail ; yet this the gentleman would regard as local.
The gentleman has also endeavored to alarm the House by
the exhibition of a long list of surveys, consisting of sixty-
nine in number ; but he has failed to inform us of the fact,
that many of these surveys constitute but the several links
of one great chain of interior communication. Many great
national objects, Mr. S. contended, remained yet to be ex
amined — our country had not yet been fully explored. The
object was to present all our national advantages for inter
nal improvement in a single view, to enable us to select the
most important, to open the great arteries of communication
first, and afterwards to supply the less important veins and
tributaries. Until this was accomplished, the system would
be incomplete — to stop now would be to leave the work
half finished.
The gentleman from Virginia contends that these surveys
are not worth the money they have cost : true — if the gen
tleman's plan prevails, they will be worth nothing. These
maps were not made to be put up at auction to the highest
bidder ; they were procured to enlighten and guide us in the
paths of future legislation — to show us what will be practi
cable, and what profitable — to enable us to avoid those im
provident and wasteful expenditures, which must result from
a want of accurate information. As to the auction value of
public works, he would ask the gentleman what would the
forts and fortifications, erected on the seaboard, at the expense
336 INTERNAL IMPROVEMENT.
of millions, bring at auction? The whole would not bring
as much as the stock subscribed in 1824, in a single canal.
What would this splendid edifice bring? What would the
Cumberland Road bring ? Nothing ! Yet, does it follow
that they are worth nothing to the nation ? The value of
public works is not to be estimated in dollars and cents,
but by the benefits and blessings they confer on the country.
These surveys, as a mere matter of topography, he contended,
were worth to the country more than they cost, even if no
improvements ever resulted from them. The gentleman
has, with an air of confidence and triumph, charged the
executive with the abuse of this power, because the act of
1824 requires the President to have such roads and canals
surveyed as he shall deem of national importance ; yet the
President, he says, has not acted on his own opinion, but on
information derived from members of Congress and others.
And how, he would ask that honorable gentleman, is the
President to form "his opinion" of the importance of
proposed roads and canals, but from the information derived
from others ? Would the gentleman have the President to
visit, personally, and inspect the route of every road and
canal, before deciding on the propriety of a survey? Surely
not ! This would be requiring the President to perform the
duties of Chief Engineer. The law, it is true, required the
President to act upon his own opinion, but that opinion was
to be formed from the best evidence he could obtain. When
these duties were performed by a Virginia President, it was
all right. We heard not a whisper of objection. But party
feeling now seems to have so perverted the judgment of some
gentlemen, that they appear to think the executive can do
nothing right ; while others, perhaps, think he can do nothing
wrong. For his own part, Mr. S. said, he belonged to
neither of these parties ; he was ready to pronounce censure,
or bestow praise, according to the dictates of impartial
justice. He had but one rule of political action, and that
was to support " measures, and not men." By this maxim
he had been, and should continue to be governed. He
would support the men who supported the measures which
he believed best calculated to promote the welfare and
prosperity of the country ; and he would oppose those opposed
to those measures, without regard to names or parties. The
measure now under consideration, was one which had great
influence with him — he would support its friends, and oppose
its enemies, now, henceforth, and forever, without regard to
INTERNAL IMPROVEMENT. 337
the men who might succeed or fail in the struggles going on
for political power.
More surveys have already been made, gentlemen say,
than can be executed. One work (the Chesapeake and Ohio
Canal) it is said, will exhaust the surplus "revenue for many
years. Gentlemen, surely, had not referred to the facts in
this case, or to the bill reported. "What is asked in this case?
Only one million of dollars, and that to be paid in five equal
annual instalments — not so much as has been expended on a
single fortification on the seaboard ; and this was riot asked
as a gratuitous appropriation, but as a subscription to stock,
which, while it would accomplish a great national work,
alike important in peace and in war, would yield an annual
revenue of more than six per centum on the investment ; and
would, therefore, in a mere pecuniary point of view, be
highly advantageous to the Government. While we see the
several States nobly advancing in the great work of internal
improvement, and even incurring debts to a large amount,
shall this Government, with stronger and more urgent in
ducements, fold its arms, and look on in listless indifference ?
States constructed internal improvements for commercial
purposes merely ; but the Xational Government have super-
added to these other powerful inducements : the defence of
the country in time of war — the transportation of the mail —
and the uniting and binding together, by these powerful ties,
the distant parts of this vast empire, were considerations
which ought to weigh much with the General Government,
in adopting this policy. But these were considerations which
could have no influence at all with the individual States.
Still they were outstripping the General Government in the
grand and noble march of improvement.
Another gentleman [Mr. Hamilton] objects that the engi
neers are withdrawn, by these surveys, from their appro
priate duties in the camp and garrisons. This was a service
into which the officers (Mr. S. understood) were anxious to
get ; it was certainly a service in which they were more
profitably employed, both for themselves and their country.
The young officers thus escaped from the scences of vice,
dissipation, and idleness, which too much prevailed in camps
and garrisons, in time of peace. They were strengthened
and invigorated, mentally and bodily, by a life of activity
and exposure in the field. It was, therefore, better for the
officers themselves to be thus employed, than to be confined
to an idle and dissolute life in camps and garrisons, inde-
22
338 INTERNAL IMPROVEMENT.
pendent of the great advantages the country would, in
future, derive from their valuable labors. But we are told
that the organization of this corps has increased to a dan
gerous extent the already too great patronage of the execu
tive. This Mr. S. denied. How, he asked, does the transfer
of a corps of engineers from one species of service to another,
increase the executive patronage? If these appointments
were made de novo by the President, then there would be
some color for the objection ; but these men are officers, and
are entitled to their pay, whether they are employed in the
garrisons or in making surveys. It, therefore, he contended,
led to no increase of the executive patronage.
It is also objected by gentlemen that the objects ought to
be designated by Congress, and not left to the executive dis
cretion. An attempt had been made to insert this provision
in the act of 1824, at the time of its passage, but very few
votes were given its favor. The utter impossibility of this
kind of legislation was seen and acknowledged on all hands.
Attempt to designate the surveys in this House to be made
next season — every member will have some important
national work in his district, and some, two or three, per
haps ; if you provide for one, you must provide for all, or
nothing can be done. Such a course of legislation would be
alike idle and impracticable.
But another objection is urged by the honorable gentle
man from New York [Mr. Oakley]. He contends that the
money should be divided by Congress among the several
States, to be expended as they might think proper. Does
not the gentleman see, at once, that this would be to defeat
the execution of every great national object, and to divert
the national funds from their only legitimate purpose — the
carrying into effect the great objects and powers of this Gov
ernment, its defence in war, and its commerce in peace?
Besides, it would be an evident violation of the Constitu
tion, which requires the revenue to be applied to the pay
ment of the debts, and to providing for the common defence
and general welfare of the Union ; by applying it to mere
local and State purposes — to making county and township
roads — while the great national works would remain forever
unexecuted and unprovided for. Such a disposition of the
national funds, he contended, therefore, would be alike im
politic and unconstitutional.
Mr. S. said he had noted other arguments urged by gen
tlemen against this measure, but feeling anxious to close this
INTERNAL IMPROVEMENT. 339
discussion, with a view to take up the tariff, he would not
now detain the House with the notice he had intended to
give them. On the question of constitutional power, which
had been drawn so largely into this discussion, Mr. S.
begged leave to say a few words in explanation of his own
views, which were somewhat different from those expressed
by the gentleman on the same side with himself. To his
mind there was no power exercised by Congress more clearly
granted, than the right to provide for the construction of
roads and canals. There was no bill upon the files of the
House, which Congress had, in his judgment, a clearer right
to pass, than the bill under consideration. He did not claim
this right, however, from the power to " provide for the
common defence and general welfare," nor did he claim the
right to make all roads and canals for all purposes ; he
claimed the right merely to construct such roads and canals
as were " necessary and proper to carry into effect some one
of the powers expressly granted to Congress by the Consti
tution," and, when it was shown that a particular road or
canal was necessary and proper, as a means of carrying into
effect any one of the express powers, he did not see how it
was possible for gentlemen to deny our right to act upon it,
unless they were prepared to pronounce all the laws in our
statute books unconstitutional ; for our legal code consisted
of little else than legislative provision for carrying into
effect the powers conferred upon Congress by the Constitu
tion.
The Constitution, in the space of twenty lines, granted all
the powers conferred on Congress. Having thus indicated,
in the fewest possible words, the general powers, it con
cludes the grant with this comprehensive provision : " And
Congress shall have the right to pass all laws necessary and
proper for carrying into effect the foregoing powers," thus
leaving to the wisdom and discretion of Congress the selec
tion of the means " necessary and proper " for starting the
machinery and keeping in successful motion the wheels of
Government. To have attempted to point out in the Con
stitution the various means which might, from time to time,
become necessary in carrying forward this vast Government,
was impossible — it would have been to provide a code, and
not a Constitution.
Among the powers expressly granted, we find the power —
" To raise armies and navies, and provide for the common
defence ;
340 INTEENAL IMPKOVEMENT.
" To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among
the several States ; and
" To establish post-offices and post-roads."
He now put it to the candor and good sense of gentlemen
to say if a particular road was " necessary and proper/' as a
means of defending the country in time of war, had not Con
gress clearly and expressly the right to construct it ? They
had expressly the right to provide all the means necessary
and proper for the national defence — and, if a road was ad
mitted to be necessary and proper for this purpose, there
was an end of the question. What right have Congress to
build forts and armories — to purchase cannon, etc.? The
Constitution says nothing about such things as armories and
cannon ; yet our right to provide them is not disputed- — and
why ? Because they are necessary and proper for our de
fence in time of war. If a road be necessary to transport
your cannon to the points of attack, have you not precisely
the same right to provide the one as the other ? It is impos
sible to draw a distinction. No one at all conversant with
the delays and disasters experienced during the late war,
especially on the northwestern frontier, would deny the
utility of good roads as a means of national defence.
By virtue of the power to regulate commerce with foreign
nations, we build light-houses and sea-walls, clear out harbors,
and erect buoys and beacons. The power to do these things
has never been disputed — and why ? Because they are neces
sary to facilitate the passage of ships and other vessels to
and from our ports, along our bays and rivers. Now, if this
may constitutionally be done, " to regulate commerce with
foreign nations," how is it possible for gentlemen to deny
our right to do the same thing in effect, by improving our
interior navigation by canals, under the power " to regulate
commerce among the several States?" If the right exists in
the one case, it undoubtedly exists in the other. Ingenuity
itself could not point out a difference. It was certainly as
constitutional to build a canal-wall to facilitate commerce as
to build a sea-wall for the same purpose.
As to the other power mentioned — the power " to estab
lish post-offices and post-roads" — he would detain the
House with but a very few words. By virtue of the first
clause of this grant, " to establish post-offices," Congress has
not merely established offices, but has passed whole volumes
of laws and regulations, organizing a department, with all
its various and complex machinery. It has enacted
INTERNAL IMPROVEMENT. 341
laws providing the severest punishments for offences com
mitted against the mail, even to taking away the lives of
the citizens of the States, and requiring the State courts to
take cognizance of some of these offences ; yet we hear no com
plaints about State rights or a want of constitutional power.
Whence do you derive the power to do all this ? The Con
stitution is silent on the subject. All it says is, that Con
gress may " establish post-offices." If, then, you may law
fully go into the States and hang up the citizens because you
have a right " to establish post-offices," may you not, with
much more propriety, and much more advantage to the
States, expend your money among their citizens, in con
structing post-roads under the same grant of power ? Eoads
are not merely necessary, but indispensably necessary for
the transportation of the mail, and Congress has certainly
the right to construct them whenever it is necessary to carry
this power into effect. Gentlemen say that we can use the
State roads ; but suppose the States should decline to make
roads, especially across the mountains, where the mail must
pass between the seat of Government and the western world,
who will have the hardihood to say that Congress has not
the power to open a road for this purpose, if necessary ?
The framers of the Constitution have required Congress to
provide for the transportation of the mail, and have ex
pressly given the right to do whatever is necessary and
proper to carry this power into effect. A road is necessary ;
yet we are told that Congress has no power to construct it.
We must wait till the States shall think proper to do it for
us — wait till the States furnish the means of executing our
powers. Such a construction must prostrate the general
Government ! As well might gentlemen require us to wait
till the States should erect forts and fortifications, and pro
vide the means of defence in time of war. No, sir ; when
ever a power is conferred on this Government by the Con
stitution, it is paramount and independent of all other
powers ; it carries with it as an inseparable incident all the
means necessary for its full and complete execution, and the
selection of these means is left by the express terms of the
Constitution to the wisdom and sound discretion of Con
gress. It was impossible that it should be otherwise. The
means of executing the powers of this Government, like every
thing else, must change and vary with the advance of im
provement and the progress of the arts. These were briefly
his views of the constitutional power of Congress over the
342 INTERNAL IMPROVEMENT.
subject of roads and canals. Each power carried with it
its own appropriate means of execution. The military power
carried with it the power to provide military roads and canals ;
the commercial power carried commercial roads and canals ;
and the mail power carried with it the power to construct
mail roads wherever necessary.
Mr. S. said, he would notice one other objection briefly,
and he would detain the House no longer. We are told,
said he, that this appropriation of $30,000 is a very extra
vagant and wasteful expenditure ; that we are largely in debt;
and that we ought to do nothing towards internal improvement
till the national debt is paid off. Now, sir, there is no one ap
propriation in the whole range of public expenditure more
important, or that looks forward to more beneficial results.
As to the public debt, it was now paid off faster than the
public interest or the creditors required. We had no right
to pay the debt before it became payable ; and eight and a
half millions a year would as soon extinguish the debt as
$80,000,000. He would, therefore, reduce the annual sink
ing fund to eight and a half millions. The balance, one
and half millions, with the usual surplus, making about
$2,000,000 a year, he would now apply annually to internal
improvements. By this means we should acquire skill and
experience by the time the debt was finally extinguished,
some seven or eight years hence, when there would be an
annual surplus of $10,000,000 a year. If we do nothing
but hasten the payment of the debt, according to the views
of some gentlemen, until the whole is paid off, what will be
the effect ? At the end of that time we will commence
the work of internal improvement with a surplus of $10,-
000,000 a year, without skill, without experience, without
practical engineers, without those improved plans of con
struction always the result of experience, and what would
be the result ? Would it not lead to wasteful and extra
vagant expenditures ? Would not the great demand for
labor, by the expenditure of $10,000,000 a year, and the
increased quantity of money thus suddenly thrown into
the market, so enhance the price of every thing as to re
quire double the sum required at this time to do the same
work? He, therefore, contended that it was the part of
wisdom and sound policy to commence now with a judicious
and economical expenditure of two or three millions a
year, and throw forward a few years, if necessary, the final
payment of the debt. This would lead to the most happy
INTERNAL IMPROVEMENT. 343
results, not only in reference to the advantages he had just
referred to, but it would also return a portion of the money
now paid into the treasury by the people to its ordinary
channels of circulation ; it would supply currency ; stimulate
industry; afford markets to the farmer; employment to
laborers; and produce in other parts of our country the
beneficial — the magical — effects which have resulted from
the New York Canal.
These were some of his views, very imperfectly presented,
of the policy which ought to be* pursued. He thanked
the House for their attention, and hoped the motion would
not prevail, which he regarded as an attempt, virtually, to
repeal the act of 1824, which constituted the basis of a
system of policy from which, he firmly believed, this country
had more to hope than from any other act of legislation
ince the foundation of the Government.
REMARKS IN OPPOSITION TO THE MOTION
OF JAMES K. POLK TO DEFEAT THE CUM
BERLAND ROAD.
DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,
U. S., JUNE 16TH, 1834.
ME. STEWART expressed his surprise that this motion
should come from the chairman of the Committee of Ways
and Means [Mr. Polk], who, he understood, would interpose
no obstacle to the passage of this bill, though from constitu
tional doubts he would be constrained to vote against it.
But as that gentleman had, notwithstanding, thought proper
to move the reduction of the sum from $652,000 to $300,000,
he would not object to it, provided the gentleman would
modify so as to strike out the provision in the bill which
made this appropriation final, and thus make it conform to
the bill reported by the Committee of Ways and Means, of
which he was chairman ; but if it was the object of the
gentleman to reduce the sum more than one-half, and still
retain the restriction which made the appropriation final, he
would be obliged to resist it ; and he now wished to know
distinctly from the honorable chairman whether he would so
modify his motion or not. [Mr. Polk signified his unwil
lingness so to modify, and said that his purpose was to reduce
the sum and make it final, as he thought it sufficient, and
the estimate extravagant.] Mr. Stewart said he would be
glad to know upon what ground the gentleman undertook
thus to condemn the estimates of the department of war as
extravagant. The Secretary of War, the chief engineer, and
the officers of the engineer corps, who made this estimate,
had no interest in making it extravagant ; besides, it was
made after two years' operations on the road, when the precise
cost of labor and materials was accurately ascertained. This
estimate was printed and placed, more than two months ago,
on the gentleman's table, giving in detail the exact quantity
of work required to be done ; every perch of stone, every
drain, culvert, side wall, and bridge — every thing required
to complete the road from one end to the other, with the
344
JAMES K. POLK AND THE CUMBERLAND ROAD. 345
precise cost of each item. Now, let the honorable chairman
take up this estimate — no doubt he had examined it — let him
point out a single item that is unnecessary, or too high ; a
single thing that is extravagant ; let him put his finger on
it, sir, and I will consent to strike it out ; this he has not
attempted. Why, then, shall the gentleman, without
knowledge or examination, rise in his place, and, with his
eyes shut, pronounce at random this minute and detailed
estimate, made after two years' experience, by practical,
disinterested, and scientific engineers, absurd and extravagant ?
Why ask this House to adopt his mere dictum in opposition
to the enlightened opinions of the War Department, com
municated to this House by the President himself; to do so
would be equivalent to a vote of censure, which he hoped
the House was not prepared to give. It is an easy matter,
sir, for gentlemen to talk here about extravagance and
prodigality ; it is easy to say, as has been said, that this road
has cost $50,000 a mile, and that the people upon it have
made fortunes by getting contracts at extravagant rates ;
this is mere declamation. Look at the records in the
department, and you will find that the most difficult portion
of this road, made during the late war, in the midst of
mountains, overcoming difficulties considered insurmountable,
at a time when the price of labor and provisions was at the
highest, passing sixty miles over mountains, cost less than
§10,000 per mile; the next portion, from Uniontown to
Washington, cost only $6,400 per mile, including bridges.
A cheaper road, under similar circumstances, he contended,
had never been constructed ; and, so far from making fortunes,
the fact was notorious, that there were more honest and
industrious men ruined on this road by taking contracts too
low, than there were who had made fortunes by getting
them too high.
But how, it is asked, is the repair of this road now so
expensive ? By attending to a very brief statement of the
facts, this would be readily understood. This road was
originally constructed by laying down a substratum or
pavement of loose stone one foot in thickness, and super-
adding six inches of fine stone to give it a smooth surface;
and thus it was left without any system for its preservation,
exposed to the uncontrolled action of the travel and the
elements for more than fifteen years, during all of which time
only three appropriations were made for its repair, amounting
together to $178,000. The road was therefore in a most
346 JAMES K. POLK AND THE CUMBERLAND ROAD.
ruinous condition, the whole of the six inches of fine stone
gone, and much of the rough pavement cut through and
destroyed. In this condition the States of Pennsylvania,
Maryland, and Virginia took it up, and passed the laws
referred to in the bill providing for the erection of gates and
the collection of tolls, whenever Congress should appropriate a
sum sufficient to put the road in a " complete state of repair."
To these acts Congress has assented ; and two appropriations,
one in 1832 and the other in 1833, have been made, to carry
these acts into effect, and thereby throw the burden of repairs
from the national treasury on those who have the use and
benefit of the road. The condition of the road was inspected
personally by the Secretary of War, and also by General
Gratiot, the chief engineer, who were satisfied, from its
dilapidated and rufiious condition, that a complete and
thorough repair, such as was expressly required by the State
laws, could only be effected by taking up the road from its
foundations, and reconstructing it on McAdam's plan,
for which limestone (very scarce and expensive in the
mountains) was the only suitable material ; and it is mainly
attributable to this fact that the expense of the repairs has
been so great. In pursuance of this plan, more than two-
thirds of the whole road has been taken up, and the first
stratum of four and a half inches of fine broken limestone
put down, and on much of it the second stratum, making
nine inches of metal. It is, therefore, too late for the
gentleman from Tennessee [Mr. Polk] to talk about a
different plan ; it is too late to rake up estimates made seven
or eight years ago. The plan has been adopted by the
executive department ; it has been sanctioned by Congress,
and has been two years in progress ; and now, after the
whole road (except about forty miles) has been taken up, and
is partly completed on the plan adopted, the gentleman talks
about a new system ; it is too late, sir. Surely the gentleman
would not himself consent to put broken sandstone on the
fine limestone already put down. To do so, would, indeed,
be a wanton waste of public money ; it would not last six
months ; it would all be ground into sand before the next
meeting of Congress, when a further appropriation would be
required to place the road in a condition to receive gates;
the State laws requiring, as a condition precedent, the
" complete and thorough repair of the road/7 preliminary to
the erection of gates.
The question, therefore, as to the plan and the amount
JAMES K. POLK AND THE CUMBERLAND ROAD. 347
required, he regarded as definitively settled by the concurrent
action of the department and of Congress : and the only
question remaining to be decided was, whether the whole or
a part only of the sum required, should now be appropriated.
This was a question about which he felt very little solicitude,
and should be perfectly satisfied1 with any decision the House
might think proper to make. He would, however, suggest
a few considerations which seemed to him to favor the
appropriation of the whole sum.
In the first place, the department, having the certainty of
funds, could regulate their operations accordingly; the whole
road would at once be put under contract, and the work
continued throughout the year, without the injurious delays
which occur here in the passage of appropriation bills, by
which the work has now been suspended for nearly eight
months ; and a considerable portion of the work done last
summer had, during the winter and spring, been entirely
destroyed by the combined action of the frost, rain, and
travel, and must be again repaired at additional expense.
Again, Congress, by making a final appropriation, would
be relieved from all further trouble with this most trouble
some subject; and those interested in the road would find
it to their interest to hasten the erection of gates, and promote
an economical and profitable expenditure of the money, it
being the last appropriation. But while Congress appro
priate partially from time to time, they have no such inte
rest. Hence he thought every consideration of economy and
sound policy favored the appropriation of the entire sum at
once. The gates would be sooner up, it would cost less, and be
in every way better than to continue to encounter the delays
and embarrassments which attended partial appropriations.
The objection urged against appropriating the whole sum.
by the chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means, on
the ground that it would lock up this large sum in the
treasury till the road was finished, was altogether unfounded.
Surely that gentleman knows that the money would be
drawn from the treasury only as wanted, and that till re
quired, it would remain blended with the other funds, and
applicable to the other wants of the Government. But the
gentleman has also endeavored to alarm the House with the
idea of a deficiency of revenue ; and, standing as he did, in
the attitude of chancellor of the exchequer, his opinions
were entitled on that account to some weight. But here
the gentleman again comes in direct collision with the
348 JAMES K. POLK AND THE CUMBERLAND ROAD.
Secretary of the Treasury, who says, in his annual report,
communicated early in the session, that after satisfying all
the estimates for the service of the year, and discharging
the last dollar of the public debt, there would still remain,
exclusive of unavailable funds in the treasury on the 31st of
December next, $2,981,796.05, nearly three millions of dol
lars ; and a few days since, in answer to a call from the Senate,
the secretary says, the revenue has so far overrun this esti
mate, and that the actual surplus, at the end of the year,
after satisfying all demands, will exceed four millions of
dollars ; and yet, in the face of this statement, the chairman
of the Committee of Ways and Means is found opposing his
own bills, and withholding from the Government the sums
required for the public service, lest there should be a deficit
in the treasury. He was at a loss to conceive why this
large surplus was to be retained ; what benefit was it to the
people to have their money idle when it could be put into
profitable circulation ? To retain it could profit no one ex
cept the stockholders of the deposit banks ; but would the
people be satisfied to see four millions of their money in the
hands of rich bankers and stock-jobbers to speculate on,
without paying one cent for the use of it? Yet such would
be the effect of the gentleman's course. It was to give this
money to the deposit banks, instead of giving it to the
people, by expending it for their benefit on this great road,
on which the mails and travel from this city and the sea
board to nine western States were in daily motion.
Much had been said about the enormous cost of this road ;
it was always selected as the theme for economical speeches.
"Why were gentlemen silent when other appropriations,
much more useless and extravagant, were considered ? If
gentlemen would look to the facts, they would find that this
road, from its commencement, twenty-eight years ago, had
cost less, repairs and all, than the House in which we are
now sitting ; less than a single fortification now erecting a
few miles below this city, still unfinished, and to \vhich
annual appropriations are granted without objection? Com
pare these objects in point of utility, and how do they stand ?
The road, even in time of war, for the transportation of
troops, was more important than those forts ; and, in time
of peace, the road is invaluable; while the forts are not
only useless, but a constant burden on the treasury. Why
did not the honorable chairman think of economy and the
condition of the treasury when the fortification and other
JAMES K. POLK AND THE CUMBERLAND ROAD. 349
appropriation bills were under consideration ? Why are the
interior and the West to be forever excluded from all par
ticipation in the benefits of public expenditure? It was a
fact worthy of special notice, and he called the attention
of the House to it, that in the whole volume of annual
estimates of appropriations for the public service, amount
ing to upwards of twenty-three millions of dollars, there
were but two objects embraced in all the interior and West
ern States ; the one was the Cumberland road, the other the
Ohio and Mississippi rivers; not another object could be
found. He stated it as a fact, and he challenged contradic
tion; and it was a fact, to which he wished to call the
attention of the American people, that the whole annual
expenditures of this Government, in all the interior portion
of the Union, did not amount annually, to half the sum
expended on a single fortification ! Yes, sir — draw a line
one mile from the flow of the tides, one mile from the ex
ternal boundary of the whole Union, and he affirmed that
the whole expenditures within this circle, on public works
of every description, did not amount annually, to one mil
lion of dollars ; not one million out of twenty-four ; not one-
third part of the cost of this splendid edifice went to all the
interior and West. The whole revenue (of which they paid
their full proportion) was disbursed on the seaboard and
the lakes, in the erection of forts and fortifications, harbors,
light-houses, buoys and beacons, sea-walls, breakwaters,
custom-houses, navies, dock-yards, and a thousand such ob
jects ; while the whole interior and West are put off with a
reluctant appropriation of a few thousand dollars for the
Cumberland Road, and the Ohio and Mississippi. Are we
to be doomed forever to be mere tax payers, " hewers of
wood and drawers of water" for the seaboard? Is our
money, like our rivers, to flow in perpetual streams to the
ocean, no portion of it returning? He hoped not; he
hoped a sense of justice and liberality would prevail ; if not,
a spirit of retaliation might be engendered, productive of the
most injurious effects.
We have just passed, almost without objection, the harbor bill,
granting to the Atlantic and the lakes, $652,000
The fortification bill, granting, 287,000
The annual light-house bill, for oil and salaries, 251,000
For new light-houses, etc., 395,000
$1,585,000
Besides some three or four millions more, for the support of
350 JAMES K. POLK AND THE CUMBERLAND EOAD.
the navy, and its appendages, dock-yards, etc. Thus, while
we are granting, annually, some six or eight millions to be
expended on the seaboard, without objection, is it reason
able or just for gentlemen from that quarter to refuse this
pittance to preserve a great public road, necessary to enable
us to come here, and mingle our voices Mrith theirs in favor
of these liberal, not to say lavish expenditures on the sea
board, every one of which could be defeated by the votes
of the friends of this road ? Under these circumstances, he
submitted whether opposition from the seaboard to this
appropriation could be justified or defended.
He regretted to find some of his own colleagues opposed
to this appropriation, but trusted their opposition would be
withdrawn when they reflected that many of the honest citi
zens of Pennsylvania, who had taken contracts on this road,
and to whom large sums were due, would be ruined by the
failure of this bill ; and the more especially when they re
flected that this money went not from Pennsylvania, but
from the nation, to relieve a portion of the people of that
State, who, while they sustain their full share of the burden,
had no share in the benefits of an expenditure of more than
twenty millions of dollars for improvements in that State.
He expressed his astonishment that Western gentlemen, who
travelled on this road, should be opposed to it ; the destruc
tion of this road would be a non-intercourse between this
city and the West ; or, if gentlemen ventured upon it at all,
it would be at the hazard of their limbs and lives. If this
portion of the road is to become impassable, why continue it
further west? Why continue to appropriate money to ex
tend the road through Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois ? This
road was made under a compact with the new States. It
was made in consideration that they should exempt the public
lands from taxation ; they had complied ; they had paid the
consideration, and fulfilled the compact. But these States
had no power to legislate for the preservation of this road ;
it was not within their jurisdiction ; and it would be a vio
lation of good faith and the spirit of the compact for this
Government now to suffer this road, made for the benefit of
the new States, and for an adequate consideration, to go to
destruction.
Gentlemen had seized on this as a suitable occasion to
raise the constitutional question and denounce the general
policy of internal improvement as unwise, as leading to ex
travagant and unequal expenditures, and to unjust and
oppressive taxation.
JAMES K. POLK AND THE CUMBERLAND ROAD. 351
The constitutional power of Congress over the general
subject, he said, was not involved in this question. This
was not a proposition to construct an original work, but
merely to preserve a work already constructed, and that, too,
under a compact with the States. As to extravagant expen
ditures for internal improvements, about which so much had
been said, he utterly denied it. Where or when had such
expenditures occurred ? Let gentlemen point out a case of
useless or wasteful expenditure. This had not — it could not
be done. Congress had legislated for internal improvements
for forty years, and the whole expenditure for roads and
canals throughout the Union did not amount to more than
half as much as had been expended by the single State of
Pennsylvania! It did not average half a million a year.
Yet, to hear gentlemen declaim upon this subject, a stranger
would suppose that this was almost the only source of public
expenditure threatening the subversion of the Government.
Who ever thought of incurring a debt or borrowing money
to promote internal improvements ? No one ; the idea was
never suggested. Its most ardent friends never claimed
more than the mere surplus, after satisfying all the other
wants of Government; and what injury or danger could
result from this ? None. He declared it to be his opinion
that if the tariff of 1824 had not been sacrificed to the spirit
of party the surplus revenue would now amount to at least
twelve millions a year. It had averaged this sum for the
last eight years. In 1832 more than eighteen millions had
been applied to the public debt ; and, had this tariff been
continued, instead of fears of a deficiency in the treasury, we
would now have at least twelve millions to distribute among
the States for internal improvement. In ten years this
would amount to one hundred and twenty millions. And
what would be the effect of such an expenditure ? Would
not this soon become one of the most beautiful and prosper
ous countries under heaven — united and bound together by
indissoluble bonds ; new sources of national wealth every
where opened ; new activity and life imparted to every de
partment of industry ; agriculture, manufactures, and com
merce all prosperous ; in short, making our country what it
ought to be and what it would be — the wonder and admira
tion of the world ? And all this accomplished, too, without
imposing one cent of internal taxation. This immense reve
nue would be paid by foreigners, levied on foreign goods,
and paid by the foreigner, or his agent, for the privilege of
352 JAMES K. POLK AND THE CUMBERLAND ROAD.
importing and selling them here. And, whether the duties
were on or off, all experience proved that the price to the
American consumer was the same. When we reduce the
duty the foreigner adds it to the price ; he puts the duty
into his own pocket instead of our treasury. He appealed
to experience for the truth of this position. Last year we
repealed the duty on some hundred articles, amounting, in
many cases, to fifty or sixty per cent. — the duty on tea, cof
fee, spices of all kinds, fine linens, silks, etc. They now
come in free of duty ; and are they any cheaper ? Not a
cent. On the contrary, some of them have risen in price.
Thus our treasury and our people lose $15,000,000, hereto
fore paid annually by foreigners into our treasury ; lost, too,
without advantage to any portion of the American people ;
but, on the contrary, with positive injury, by destroying do
mestic industry, and facilitating the introduction of millions
of foreign goods which ought to be manufactured at home.
He declared it to be his honest and firm conviction that the
late repeal of the tariff, to appease nullification, would, if not
soon corrected, destroy our manufactures, agriculture, reve
nue, and internal improvements, without benefiting in the
slightest degree any individual in the United States. It
would throw back this nation more than half a century in
its late rapid and onward march to a condition of unrivalled
prosperity and power.
He would pursue this subject no further, but return to the
immediate question before the House; and, in conclusion,
would state, in a few words, what he conceived to be the
true and only question presented by the motion of the gen
tleman from Tennessee [Mr. Polk]. It was simply whether
the House would concur with the Senate in granting the
whole sum at once to complete the repairs, or whether they
would appropriate a part now and the balance hereafter.
Let the gentleman restrict it as he pleased, it would come to
this in the end : the whole sum would be granted. The
States have agreed to erect gates ; but when ? Not till the
road was put in " complete repair." To this Congress has
assented. A plan has been adopted and partly completed ;
it cannot be changed; $652,130 is required to complete it.
The commissioners appointed by the States are not author
ized by law to erect the gates till the repairs are completed.
The sum now proposed by the amendment is obviously in
sufficient for this purpose ; and, consequently, the gates can
not, be legally erected. Hence, the question at the next ses-
JAMES K. POLK AND THE CUMBERLAND ROAD. 353
sion will be presented whether the road shall fall back on
the treasury, to be kept free, as heretofore ; or whether the
compact with the States to " complete the repairs " shall be
fulfilled, the gates erected, and this Government forever re
lieved from this perplexing subject. This was the true state
of the question. He repeated he felt no great solicitude as
to the decision whether the whole or a part should be now
appropriated ; he thought, however, the object would be
sooner and better accomplished, and at less expense, by ap
propriating the whole sum to complete the work. If so, he
would pledge himself never again to ask for another cent ;
and all the gentlemen immediately interested were, he be
lieved, prepared to concur in this pledge. But if only a part
of the sum required by the department to complete the work
and erect the gates was now granted, no such pledge could
or would be given.
[NOTE. — On taking the vote, Mr. Folk's motion was re
jected; but the next day, in the absence of many friends of
the road, it was reconsidered, and adopted by a small majo
rity ; but finally passed.]
23
EXTRACT FROM REPORT OF 112 PAGES,
MADE BY COMMITTEE APPOINTED ON
THE SIXTH OF DECEMBER, 1826, BY THE
CHESAPEAKE AND OHIO CANAL CONVEN
TION, HELD IN THE CAPITOL, WASHING
TON CITY.
FOUNDED ON THE REPORT OF THE UNITED STATES BOARD
OF INTERNAL IMPROVEMENT TO THE DEPARTMENT
OF WAR.
MR. STEWART, from the said committee, made the following Report :
That the committee have given to the subject their unre-
mitted attention since the time of their appointment, but
find it impossible, in the short period allowed them, to make
their report as full and as perfect as could have been desired.
They have examined, however, with great care and atten
tion, the able and scientific report lately made by the Board
of Internal Improvement, which, it is but just to say,
reflects great credit on their industry and talents. The
great error, however, into which the Board appear to have
been betrayed by a want of accurate local information,
is found to consist in the extravagance of the PRICES of
labor and materials, established as the basis of their esti
mate, which estimate must of course rise or fall in a ratio
corresponding with the increase or diminution of this
standard.
The committee, therefore, with a view as well to test the
accuracy of the estimate of the Board as to furnish one of
their own, have found it necessary, in the first place, to
establish an analysis and table of prices, corresponding to,
and contrasted with, that of the Board. This being the
most important, so the committee also found it to be the
most difficult and delicate part of their task. They are
happy, however, in being able to state that they have suc
ceeded, with perfect unanimity among themselves, in adopt
ing the following table of prices, which, they trust, will
meet the approbation of the Convention.
354
REPORT OF COMMITTEE. 355
In establishing these prices, the committee had recourse
to the following sources of information :
1st. To the prices actually paid for labor and materials on canals
now in progress both east and west of the mountains ;
2d. To numerous reports of committees appointed along the im
mediate line of the canal, to collect facts and information on the
subject ;
3d. To the personal knowledge and observation of the members
of the Convention, engineers, .and others, from whom much valua-
able information was derived ;
4th. The actual cost of similar works, executed in the immediate
vicinity of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal route, where all the cir
cumstances, the labor, materials, and local facilities are the same :
5th. Offers made by responsible men to give security and execute
the work. All these tests, the committee are happy to find, concur
in establishing the prices they have adopted, and in proving, conclu
sively, that the work can be performed for about one-third part of
the estimated cost.
And, finally, from the analysis detailed by the Board, of
the prices on which their own estimate is grounded, the
committee have inferred the source of the error of that esti
mate, and sought to harmonize the results of these facts, and
of common experience, with the reasoning of the Board.
[NOTE. — Then follows the report of appendix of 112
pages.]
EXTRACTS FROM A REPORT OF 122 PAGES
ON THE CHESAPEAKE AND OHIO CANAL,
ON THE 22D OF MAY, 1826, BY ME. STEWART, AS
CHAIRMAN OF THE COMMITTEE ON INTERNAL IMPROVE
MENT, HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, U. S.
MR. STEWART, from the Committee on Roads and Canals, to which
the subject had been referred, made the following report :
The Committee on Eoads and Canals, to whom was referred the
joint memorial of the Central Committee and the Commissioners
appointed by Virginia, Maryland, and the United States, to open
books for the subscription of stock in the Chesapeake and Ohio
Canal, with sundry petitions from the citizens of Pennsylvania
and Maryland on the same subject, respectfully report :
That they have given the important subject referred to
them all the consideration which the short time allowed at
so late a period of the session would permit.
In presenting the subject to the consideration of the House,
the committee propose, in the first place, to take a brief view
of the early history of this measure, its origin and progress up
to the present time ; then to state some of the most important
facts and results disclosed by the recent surveys, together
with an estimate of the probable expense of the work, and
the ways and means for its accomplishment, and finally pre
sent some of the benefits and advantages which it is believed
will compensate the nation for the cost of its construction.
The committee have obtained possession of a variety of
letters, reports, maps, and papers, connected with this sub
ject, in the handwriting of General Washington, extracts from
which are annexed to this report. From these papers it
appears that the importance of improving the navigation of
the Potomac river, which affords the nearest and most prac
ticable connection with the Western waters, attracted the
attention of the Colonial Government of Virginia whilst yet
a province of Great Britain. Among the manuscripts
referred to, the committee find a report, in the handwriting
of General Washington, dated in 1754, stating all the diffi
culties and obstructions to be overcome in rendering the
Potomac navigable, and he actually succeeded, says his
356
REPORT ON CHESAPEAKE AND OHIO CANAL. 357
biographer [Colonel John Marshall], in getting an act passed
by the Colonial Government, " to open the Potomac so as to
make it navigable from tide water to Wills' Creek, and the
business was in a train which promised success when the
Revolutionary War diverted the attention of its patrons, and
of all America from internal improvements to the great objects
of liberty and independence. As that war approached its
termination, subjects which, for a time, had yielded their
pretensions to consideration, reclaimed that place to which
their real magnitude entitled them ; and the internal navi
gation again attracted the attention of the wise and thinking
part of society. Accustomed to contemplate America as his
country, and to consider with solicitude the interests of the
whole, Washington now took a more enlarged view of the
advantages to be derived from opening both the eastern and
the western waters, and for this, as well as for other purposes,
after peace had been proclaimed, he traversed the western
parts of New England and New York." And in a letter
to the Marquis of Chastelleux, he says : " I have lately made
a tour through the lakes George and Champlain, as far as
Crown Point ; then returning to Schenectady, I proceeded
up the Mohawk river to Fort Schuyler ; crossed over the
Wood creek which empties into the Oneida lake, and affords
the water communication with Ontario. I then traversed
the country to the head of the eastern branch of the Susque-
hanna, and viewed the Lake Otswego, and the portage be
tween that lake and the Mohawk river, at Conajoharie.
Prompted by these actual observations, I could not help
taking a more contemplative and extensive view of the vast
inland navigation of these United States, and could not but
be struck with the immense diffusion and importance of it ;
and with the goodness of that Providence which has dealt
his favors to us with so profuse a hand. Would to God
we may have wisdom enough to improve them ! I shall
not rest contented until I have explored the western country,
and traversed those lines (or great part of them) which have
given bounds to a new empire."
In the fall of the same year [1784], it appears that General
Washington, being so deeply impressed with the importance
of uniting the eastern and western waters, and devoting all
his time and attention to it, actually explored the route of
the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal as far as Pittsburg. When
he returned he made out a detailed and accurate report of the
distances, the advantages and disadvantages of the several
358 REPORT ON CHESAPEAKE AND OHIO CANAL.
routes, examined by him, and on comparing them he
expressed, unequivocally, his opinion that the Potomac
and Ohio afforded the nearest and most practicable route
for the accomplishment of his favorite plan of approximat
ing the eastern and western waters;* and what is a most
remarkable fact, he at that early day predicted the accom
plishment of the New York Canal, and that the trade of the
West would soon be sufficient to supply with business not
only the Potomac and Ohio, and New York canals, but
also one through the Susquehanna to Lake Erie, which he
thought would also be found practicable.
But a circumstance still more remarkable, and one which
shows in a most striking point of view the character of this
great and extraordinary man is, that among his manuscript
papers endorsed in his own handwriting, the committee have
found a map exhibiting the whole route of the Chesapeake
and Ohio Canal indicating the practicable point of connec-
tion, which appears to be precisely the same recommended
by the United States Board of Engineers in their report
made to Congress at the last session ! This map also ex
hibits the route of a road or portage to connect the Eastern
and Western waters, commencing at Cumberland and termi
nating at the Youghiogany, precisely at the point where the
present Cumberland road strikes that river, and without any
material deviation in the intermediate space. Having made
these surveys and reports, General Washington succeeded in
getting a company incorporated by the concurrent acts of
Virginia and Maryland to improve this navigation, of which
company he consented, at the pressing solicitation of Mr.
* Extract from the manuscript calculation of General Washington [1784].
Distance from Detroit to the several Atlantic seaports :
From Detroit, by the route through Fort Pitt and Fort Cumberland,
To Alexandria (or Washington City), 607 miles.
" Richmond 840
" Philadelphia 745
" Albany 943
" New York 1103
At present, from the head of steamboat navigation, on the Ohio, at Pittsburg,
the comparative distances by the New York and Chesapeake and Ohio Canals,
stand thus: —
To New York, by French Creek and Lake Erie 784 miles.
From Pittsburg to Washington, by the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, 346 "
Difference 438 in
favor of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal.
And General Washington's views are confirmed by Mr. Gallatin, who, in his
report on internal improvements, says, "the Potomac furnishes the shortest
communication from tide water to the nearest western river."
REPORT OX CHESAPEAKE AND OHIO CANAL. 359
Jefferson, Mr. Madison, and other distinguished individuals
who cooperated with him, to accept the presidency. In his
letters to the governors of Virginia and Maryland, to the
members of Congress, and others, he labored incessantly to
impress upon them the immense importance of opening a
cheap and easy communication with the Western country by
means of internal improvements. " He suggested the ap
pointment of commissioners of integrity and abilities, exempt
from the suspicion of prejudice, whose duty it should be,
after an accurate examination of the Potomac, to search out
the nearest and best portage between it and the streams ca
pable of improvement which run into the Ohio. Those
streams were to be accurately surveyed, the impediments to
their navigation ascertained, and their relative advantages
examined. The navigable waters west of the Ohio, towards
the great lakes, were also to be traced to their sources, and
those which empty into the lakes' to be followed to their
mouths These things being done, and an accu
rate map of the whole presented to the public, he was per
suaded that reason would dictate what was right and proper.
For the execution of this latter part of his plan
he had also much reliance on CONGRESS ; and in addition to
the general advantages to be drawn from the measure, he
labored, in his letters to the members of that body, to estab
lish the opinion that the surveys he recommended would add
to the revenue by enhancing the value of the lands offered
for sale. Nature," he said, " had made such an ample dis
play of her bounties in those regions that the more the
country was explored the more it would rise in estimation."
The assent and cooperation of Maryland being indispensable
to the improvement of the Potomac, he was equally earnest
in his endeavors to impress a conviction of its superior ad
vantages on influential indivi uals of that State. In doing
so, he detailed the measures ichich would unquestionably be
adopted by NEW YORK AND PENNSYLVANIA FOR ACQUI
RING THE MONOPOLY OF THE WESTERN COMMERCE, and
the difficulty which would be found in diverting it from the
channel it had once taken. "I am not," he added, " for dis
couraging the exertions of any State to draw the commerce of
the Western country to its seaports. The more communica
tions we open to it the closer we bind that rising world (for
indeed it may be so called) to our interests, and the greater
strength shall we acquire by it. Those to whom nature affords
the best communication will, IF THEY ARE WISE, enjoy the
360 KEPOKT ON CHESAPEAKE A1ST> OHIO CANAL.
greatest share of the trade. All I would be understood to
mean, therefore, is, THAT THE GIFTS OF PROVIDENCE MAY
NOT BE NEGLECTED.
" But the light in which this subject would be viewed with
most interest, and which gave to it most importance, was its
political influence on the Union. Nor need I press the neces
sity of applying the cement of interest to bind all parts of the
' Union together by indissoluble bonds ; especially of binding that
part of it which lies immediately west of us to the Middle States."
Thus it clearly appears that General Washington in 1784 en
tertained no doubts of the power of the National Government,
to engage in a general system of internal improvement, even
before the adoption of the present Constitution, when its
powers, all admit, were much more limited than they are at
present, and for the extension and enlargement of which the
present Constitution was formed and adopted by the States.
Delighting to dwell on these patriotic, clear-sighted, and
prophetic views of the Father of his Country on the subject
of internal improvement, and believing that this gratifica
tion will be common to all, especially at a time when the
subject is attracting so much of the public attention, the
committee will venture to present some additional views and
arguments urged by Washington in favor of the Chesapeake
and Ohio Canal.
In a letter addressed to a member of Congress, when
speaking of the importance of this subject and the dangers
of a separation of the Eastern and Western States, unless
measures were adopted to prevent it by facilitating inter
course between them, which he pronounced to be " the best,
if not the only cement to bind them together." He adds,
" this is a matter which, though it does not come before
Congress WHOLLY, is in my opinion of great political im
portance, and ought to be attended to in time." And, in
speaking of the danger of severation, he says, " It may be
asked how are we to prevent this ? Happily for us the way
is plain. Our immediate interests, as well as remote political
advantages, point to it ; whilst a combination of circumstan
ces render the present time more favorable than any other
to accomplish it. Extend the inland navigation of the
Eastern waters; communicate them as near as possible
with those which run westward ; open these to the Ohio ;
open also such as extend from the Ohio towards Lake Erie ;
and we shall not only draw the produce of the Western
settlers, but the peltry and fur trade of the lakes, also to
REPORT OX CHESAPEAKE AND OHIO CANAL. 361
our ports ; thus adding an immense increase to oar exports,
and binding those people to us by a chain which never can
be broken."
His letter to the governor was communicated to the assem
bly of Virginia, and the internal improvements it recom
mended were zealously advocated by the wisest and most
influential members of that body ; while the subject re
mained undecided, General Washington, accompanied by
the Marquis La Fayette, who had crossed the Atlantic, and
had devoted part of his time to the delights of an enthusi
astic friendship, paid a visit to the capital of the State.
Xever was reception more cordial, or more demonstrative
of respect and affection, than was given to these beloved
personages. But amidst the display of addresses and of
entertainments which were produced by the occasion, the
great business of promoting the internal improvements then
in contemplation, was not forgotten ; and the ardor of the
moment was seized to conquer those objections to the plan,
which yet lingered in the bosoms of those who could per
ceive in it no future advantages to compensate for the pres
ent expense.
An exact conformity between the acts of Virginia and
Maryland, being indispensable to the improvement of the
Potomac, the friends of the measure deemed it advisable to
avail themselves of the same influence with the latter State,
which had been successfully employed with the former;
and a resolution was passed, soon after the return of Gene
ral Washington to Mount Vernon, requesting him* to
attend the legislature of Maryland, in order to agree on a
bill which might receive the sanction of both States. This
agreement being happily completed, the bills were enacted
under which works, capable of being rendered the most
extensively beneficial of anything yet attempted in the
United States, have been nearly accomplished.
These acts were succeeded by one, which conveys the
liberal wishes of the legislature, with a delicacy scarcely
less honorable to its framers, than to him who was its
object. The treasurer had been instructed to subscribe
in behalf of the State, for a specified number of shares in
each company. Just at the close of the session, when no
refusal of their offer could be communicated to them, a bill
was suddenly brought in, which received the unanimous
* General Gates was associated with him in the mission.
362 REPORT ON CHESAPEAKE AND OHIO CANAL.
assent of both Houses, authorizing the treasurer to sub
scribe for the benefit of General Washington, the same
number of shares* in each company as were to be taken
for the State. To the enacting clause of this bill was pre
fixed a preamble,f in which its greatest value consisted.
With simple elegance, it manifested to the world, that in
seizing this occasion to make a donation, which would in
some degree testify their sense of the merits of their most
favored and illustrious citizen, the donors would themselves
be the obliged. However delightful might be the sensa
tions produced by this delicate and flattering testimony of
the affection of his fellow-citizens, it was not without its
embarrassments. From his early resolution to receive no
pecuniary compensation for his services, he could not be
persuaded to depart ; and yet this mark of the gratitude
and attachment of his country could not easily be rejected,
without furnishing occasion for sentiments he was unwilling
to excite. To the friend who conveyed to him the first in
telligence of this bill, his difficulties were thus expressed :
" It is not easy for me to decide, by which my mind was
most affected, upon the receipt of your letter of the sixth
instant, surprise or gratitude. Both were greater than I
had words to express.
i( The attention and good wishes which the assembly has
evinced, by their act for vesting in me one hundred and
fifty shares in the navigation of the rivers Potomac and
James, is more than mere compliment. There is an unequi
vocal and substantial meaning annexed. But, believe me,
sir, no circumstance has happened since I left the walks of
public life which has so much embarrassed me. On the
one hand, I consider this act, as I have already observed, as
a noble and unequivocal proof of the good opinion, the affec
tion and disposition of my country to serve me, and I
should be hurt, if, by declining the acceptance of it, my
refusal should be construed into disrespect, or the smallest
slight upon the generous intention of tho legislature; or
* One hundred and fifty shares.
j" " It is in these words : ' Whereas, it is the desire of the Representatives of
this Commonwealth to embrace every suitable occasion of testifying their sense
of the unexampled merits of George Washington, Esquire, towards his country;
and it is their wish, in particular, that those great works for its improvement,
which, both as springing from the liberty which he has been so instrumental
in establishing, and as encouraged by his patronage, will be durable monuments
of his glory, may be made monuments also of the gratitude of his country :
Be it enacted, etc.' "
REPORT OX CHESAPEAKE AND OHIO CANAL. 363
that an ostentatious display of disinterestedness, or public
virtue, was the source of refusal.
"On the other hand, it is really ray wish to have my
mind, and my actions, which are the result of reflection, as
free and independent as the air, that I may be more at lib
erty (in things which my opportunities and experience have
brought me to the knowledge of,) to express my senti
ments and if necessary, to suggest what may occur to me,
under the fullest conviction that although my judgment
may be arraigned, there will be no suspicion that sinister
motives had the smallest influence in the suggestion. Not
content then with the bare consciousness of my having
in all this navigation business, acted upon the clearest con
viction of the political importance of the measure, I would
wish that every individual who may hear that it was a
favorite plan of mine, may know, also, that I had no other
motive for promoting it, than the advantage of which I
conceived it would be productive to the Union at large, and
to this State in particular, by cementing the Eastern and
Western Territory together, at the same time that it will
give vigor and increase to our commerce, and be a conve
nience to our citizens."
On the 22nd of December, in the same year, 1784, Gen
eral Washington presided at Annapolis, at a convention of
delegates, consisting of the most distinguished patriots of the
Revolution, from Virginia and Maryland, at which it was
resolved, among other things, " That it is the opinion of
this conference that the removing the obstructions in the
Potomac river, and making it navigable, will increase the
commerce of Virginia and Maryland, and greatly promote
the interest of the United States, by forming a free and easy
communication and connection with the people settled on the
Western waters, already considerable in numbers and rapidly
increasing. It will afford them proof of our disposition to
connect ourselves with them by the strongest bands of
friendship and mutual interest."
In another letter, addressed to a member of Congress on
this subject in 1784, General Washington uses this emphatic
language ; " For my own part I wish sincerely every door
to that country (the West) may be set wide open, and the
commercial intercourse with it rendered as free and easy as
possible. This, in my opinion, is the best, if not the only
cement, that can bind these people to us for any length of
time; and we shall be deficient in foresight and wisdom if
364 REPORT ON CHESAPEAKE AND OHIO CAXAL.
we neglect the means of effecting it. Our interest," he says,
" is so much in unison with this measure, that nothing short
of that ill-timed and misapplied parsimony and contracted
way of thinking, which intermingles so much in our public
councils, can counteract it."
If the policy which opposed this measure, more than forty
years ago, was justly pronounced by Washington unwise,
ill-timed, contracted, and illiberal, what would he say of it
now ? Since then, a new world, as if by magic, has sprung
up in the West ; the wilderness has yielded to the hand of
industry ; ships have taken the place of the Indian canoe ;
and splendid cities and towns, and cultivated fields, have
risen and spread themselves over the ruins of savage huts.
Then the means of the country were limited ; the nation was
in debt, and exhausted by the revolutionary conflict which
had just terminated. If then the policy that opposed this
measure was justly considered "contracted and illiberal"
what must be said of it now, when the means and resources
of the country are ample, and when the inducements to this
measure, both in a commercial and political point of view,
have so greatly increased with the increasing growth, popu
lation, and resources of the Western States, and as they
increase in weight, so it is the part of a wise policy to increase
the number and the strength of the ties which bind them to
the East.
But to return to the narrative. It appears from an ex
amination of the proceedings of the Potomac Company,
incorporated by the concurrent acts of Virginia and Maryland,
in 1784, that they went on to expend in the prosecution of
the improvement of the natural bed of the river, until they
expended $311,555, the amount of their subscribed stock,
twenty years tolls, and the further sum of $174,000,
borrowed by the Company of the State of Maryland, banks,
and individuals, without having accomplished the object,
which is now admitted, on all hands, can be obtained, only
by an independent and continuous canal, placed above the
influence of tides or freshets. For the accomplishment of
such a canal, the States of Virginia and Maryland, by con
current acts of legislation, have recently incorporated a
company : in these acts, the Congress of the United States,
on the 3rd of March, 1825, and the State of Pennsylvania,
on the 7th of February, 1826, passed acts of concurrence;
all of which have received the approbation of the original
Potomac Company, and nine commissioners have been
LETTERS. 365
accordingly appointed, three by the President of the United
States, and three by each of the States of Virginia and
Maryland, to open books for the subscription of stock for
the completion of the first section, as far as the great coal
mines near Cumberland ; and these commissioners are now
waiting the final report and estimates of the Board of Internal
Improvement, to enable them to enter on the discharge of
the duties of their appointment.
LETTERS.
Letter to Mr. Stewart from Gen. Jno. Mason, successor of Gen.
Washington as President of the Potomac Improvement Company.
GEORGETOWN, llth May, 1826.
DEAR SIR :— I have received your esteemed note of the 6th in
stant. I need not say that I shall always be ready to contribute
everything within my reach or power to one of the most sublime
schemes conceived in any country, that of the Ohio and Chesapeake
Canal ; but, I pray you, sir, to be assured that it will, at all times,
give me great pleasure to comply with any request of yours.
I have a large bundle of papers, collected by General Washington,
committed to me by himself a year or two before his death, in rela
tion to the object of which we are now in pursuit; some of them,
unfortunately, I entrusted to gentlemen, who have not returned
them. In looking over the collection, I perceive none that I sup
pose would be useful to our present purpose, but the nine papers I
now send you ; they all bear the stamp of authenticity from his own
hand, either being of his autography or bearing an endorsement
from his pen. They embrace a period, as you will perceive, from
1754 to 1785, and will evince throughout, with what interest and
accuracy he looked to the object.
The communications of the winter 1784-5, have relation to a con
ference held at that time in Annapolis, between the States of Vir
ginia and Maryland, regarding the opening of the Potomac river,
and certain roads from its head waters to those of the Ohio ; to
which General Washington, General Gates, and Colonel Blackburn,
were deputed on the part of Virginia, but the latter gentleman did
not attend on account of indisposition.
I commit to you, my dear sir, on this occasion the same trust that
was placed in me by the great author and compiler of these papers
— make such use of their contents as to you may seem best for the
cause in which they were prepared. Could he look down on us from
the mansions above, he could but approve of the exertions now
making to carry into execution the vast designs originated by his
foresight and anxiety for the development of the resources of our
country.
I annex a list of the papers sent, be pleased to return them to me
when you have done with them, as they are precious relics. Should
they be wanted at a future session, they will always be ready in my
hands.
I am, with great regard and respect, dear sir, yours,
J. MASON.
ANDREW STEWART, Esq.
366 REPORT ON CHESAPEAKE AND OHIO CANAL.
Summary of the reports of Mr. Johnson.
Sketches of the country between the waters of the Potomac, and
those of the Youghiogany and Monongahela.
From Captain Hanway, to General Washington, as to the com
munication between the waters of the Potomac arid those of the West.
Dr. Craik to General Washington, on the communication between
Wills' creek and the Youghiogany.
The first in General Washington's hand writing — the others bear
ing his endorsements.
Letter from General Washington, of 20th July, 1770, known to
have been to the late Governor Johnson, of Maryland.
Letter from same to Joseph Jones, and James Madison, of 28th
November, 1784.
Letter from same to same, of 3d December, 1784.
Letter from same to James Madison, of 28th December, 1784.
Report of General Washington and General Gates to the General
Assembly of the Commonwealth of Virginia, dated 28th December,
1784, respecting; conference with the State of Maryland at An
napolis.
These last five in General Washington's handwriting.
Summary of the Reports of Mr. Johnson, Mr. Semple, and G.
Washington, respecting the navigation of Potomac river — by Gen-
eral Washington.
From the mouth of Patterson's creek to the beginning of Shenan-
doah Falls, there is no other obstacles than shallow water; thence,
for six miles, rocky, swift, and uneven water, in which distance there
are four falls; the first, tolerably clear of rocks, but shallow, may
be much amended by a passage on the Maryland side. Two miles
from this, and half a mile below the mouth of the Shenandoah, is
the spout ; a considerable rapid of swift and uneven water, which is
confined to a narrow passage ; a passage to avoid this, by removing
some rocks on the Maryland side, may be had. One of the other
two falls is also swift and ugly, not much unlike the spout, but a
passage between.
Eight miles lower down is another fall, but easy and passable.
Two miles further are a cluster of small islands, with rocks and
rapid water — from hence to the Seneca Falls fine smooth water.
Seneca Falls not very difficult. Observations of G. W. — 1754.
MR. SEMPLE.
From the Widow Brewster's (two miles above the Great Falls),
there is good water for five miles to the Seneca Falls. Here contin
ued rocks and rifts for near a mile, easily passed between an island
and the main by raising short dams. From the Seneca Falls pretty
good water to Payne's Falls. At most seasons this is a narrow rift
of rocks extending across the river, which may be passed, though a
natural channel inland. From hence to the spout, two miles, this is
difficult and dangerous, made so by almost the whole water of the
river being forced through a narrow, rocky passage, which subjects
vessels to the danger of filling; to be avoided by a channel inland, a
mile higher above Harper's Ferry, an obstacle more difficult and
expensive, requiring a channel to be dug and walled along the river
LETTERS. 367
at least half a mile, with rocks therein. Head or beginning of She-
namloah Falls next obstacle ; here there is already a natural channel
between the main and an island. Hence to Fort Cumberland no
other obstruction than shallow water in places.
MR. JOHNSON.
From a little below Fort Frederick to Caton's Gut little or no ob
struction. House's Fall, another rift, between that and Antietam,
and what is called Sheppard's Falls, a little below Shepherdstown,
being the only obstructions, and which might easily be removed at
very small expense. From Caton's Gut to Payne's Falls (about five
miles).
VIRGINIA, July 20th, 1770.
SIR : I was honored with your favor of the 18th of June, about
the last of that month, and read it with all the attention I was capa
ble of. From that time till now I have not been able to inquire into
the sentiments of any of the gentlemen of this side in respect to the
scheme of opening the inland navigation of Potomac, by private sub
scription, in the manner you have proposed ; and therefore any
opinion which I may now offer on this head will be considered, £
hope, as the result of my own private thinking, not of the public.
That no person concerned in this event wishes to see an under
taking of the sort go forward with more sincerity and ardor than I
do, I can truly assure you, and will, at all times, give any assistance
in my power to promote the design ; but I leave you to judge from
the trial, which before this you have undoubtedly made, how few
there are (not immediately benefited by it) that will contribute any
thing worth while to the work, and how many small sums are requi
site to raise a large one.
Upon your plan of raising money, it appears to me that there will
be found but two kinds of people who will subscribe much towards
it : those who are actuated by motives of public spirit, and those
again who, from their proximity to the navigation, will reap the
salutary effects of it, clearing the river. The number of the latter
you must be a competent judge of; those of the former is more
difficult to ascertain ; for which reason I own to you that I am not
without my doubts of your scheme falling through, however san
guine your first hopes may be from the rapidity of subscribers, for
it is to be supposed that your subscription papers will probably be
opened among those whose interests must naturally incline them to
wish well to the undertaking, and consequently will aid it ; but when
you come to shift the scene a little, and apply to those who are un
connected with the river and the advantage of its navigation, how
slowly will you advance !
This, sir, is my sentiment generally upon your plan of obtaining
subscriptions for extending the navigation of Potomac ; whereas I
conceive, that if the subscribers were vested by the two legislatures
with a kind of property in the navigation under certain restrictions
and limitations, and to be reimbursed their first advances with a high
interest thereon, by a certain easy toll on all craft proportionate to
their respective burthens, in the manner that I am told works of this
sort are effected in the inland parts of England— or upon the plan
of turnpike-roads ; you would add thereby a third set of men to the
two I have mentioned, and gain considerable strength by it. I mean.
368 EEPORT ON CHESAPEAKE AND OHIO CANAL.
the moneyed gentry, who, tempted by lucrative views, would advance
largely on account of the high interest. This I am inclined to think
is the only method by which this desirable work will ever be accom
plished in the manner it ought to be ; for, as to its becoming an ob
ject of public expense, I never expect to see it. Our interests (in
Virginia, at least) are too much divided ; our views too confined, if
out finances were better, to suffer that, which appears to redound to
the advantage of a part of the community only to become a tax upon
the whole — though in the instance before us, there is the strongest
• speculative proof in the world to me of the immense advantages
which Virginia and Maryland might derive (and at a very small com
parative expense), by making Potomac the channel of commerce
between Great Britain and that immense territory ; a tract of coun
try which is unfolding to our view the advantages of which are too
great and too obvious, I should think, to become the subject of se
rious debate, but which, through ill-timed parsimony and supineness,
may be wrested from us and conducted through other channels, such
as the Susquehanna (which I have seen recommended by some
writer), the lakes, etc. How difficult it will be to divert it afterwards
time only can show. Thus far, sir, I have taken the liberty of com
municating my sentiments on the different modes of establishing a
fund ; but if from the efforts you have already made on the north
side of Potomac it should be found that my views are rather imagi
nary than real (as I heartily wish they may prove), I have no doubts
but the same spirit may be stirred up on the south side, if gentle
men of influence in the counties of Hampshire, Frederick, Loudon,
and Fairfax will heartily engage in it, and receive all occasional
sums, received from those who may wish to see a work of this sort
undertaken, although they expect no benefit to themselves from it.
As to the manner in which you propose to execute the work, in
order to avoid the inconvenience which you seem to apprehend from
locks, I profess myself to be a very incompetent judge of it. It is a
general received opinion I know, that, by reducing one fall, you too
frequently create many ; but how far this inconvenience is to be
avoided by the method you speak of, those who have examined the
rifts — the depth of water above, etc., must be infinitely the best
qualified to determine. But I am inclined to think, that, if you were
to exhibit your scheme to the public upon a more extensive plan,
than the one now printed, it would meet with a more general appro
bation ; for so long as it is considered as a partial scheme, so long
will it be partially attended to — whereas, if it was recommended to
the public notice upon a MORE ENLARGED PLAN, AND AS A MEANS OP
BECOMING THE CHANNEL OF CONVEYANCE OF THE EXTENSIVE AND VALUA
BLE TRADE OF A RISING EMPIRE ; and the operations to begin at the
lower Landings, (above the Great Falls,) and to extend upwards as
high as Fort Cumberland ; or as far as the expenditure of the money
would carry them ; from whence the portage to the waters of Ohio
must commence ; I think many would be invited to contribute their
mite, that otherwise will not. It may be said the expense of doing
this will be considerably augmented. I readily grant it, but believe
that the subscribers will increase in proportion ; at any rate I think
that there will be at least an equal sum raised by this means, and
that the end of your plan will be as effectually answered by it.
G. WASHINGTON.
To Governor JOHNSON, of Maryland.
LETTERS. 369
MOUNT VERNON, 3cZ December, 1784.
GENTLEMEN : — I returned yesterday from Annapolis, having con
ducted the Marquis La Fayette that far on his way to New York,
and left him proceeding on the road to Baltimore, on Wednesday
last.
This trip afforded me opportunities of conversing with some of the
leading characters in the different branches of the Legislature of
Maryland, on the subject of inland navigation, and the benefits
which might arise from a commercial intercourse with the Western
Territory. I was happy to find them so forcibly struck with the
importance of these objects ; and that there appeared the most
favorable disposition to give encouragement to them.
Like us, they have two interests prevailing in their assembly — or
rather in the present instance like ourselves have two ways by which
the same interest is to be effected. The ill-grounded jealousies
arising therefrom serves in some degree to embarrass this measure
of public utility. The Baltimore interest has already obtained an
act to encourage, and to empower a corporate company to remove
the obstructions in that part of the Susquehanna, which lie within
the territory of Maryland. And this, I perceive, is all that can be
obtained in behalf of Potomac, from that quarter.
As no public money, therefore, is likely to be obtained from that
State, and as little chance perhaps of getting it from this — should
not the wisdom of both assemblies be exerted without delay to hit
upon such a happy medium as will not on the one hand vest too
much power and profit in a private company ; — and on the other to
hold out sufficient inducements to engage men to hazard their for
tunes in an arduous undertaking ? If the act does not effect this the
object of it is defeated ; and the business of course is suspended ;
which, in my opinion, would be injurious ; as the present moment is
important, favorable, and critical ; and the spirit for enterprise
greater now than it may ever be hereafter.
It is to be apprehended the money-lenders among the class of pri
vate gentlemen are but few; resort, therefore, must be had to mer
cantile funds, from whence nothing can be extracted if there is not a
prospect of great gain, present or future — but to you, gentlemen,
these observations are unnecessary, as you are better acquainted with
public funds, and the circumstances of individuals than I am ; and I
am sure are not to learn that the motives which predominate most
in human affairs is self-love and self-interest.
The bill I sent you is exceptionable in some parts, and gives dis
content in others — so I am informed — for it came to my hands at a
moment when I could not read, much less consider it. Would it not
be highly expedient, therefore, as the session of both assemblies
must soon draw to a close, for each to depute one or more members
to meet at some intermediate place, and agree, (first knowing the
sentiments of the respective assemblies,) upon an adequate bill to be
adopted by both States ? This would prevent dissimilar proceedings,
as unproductive as no bill — save time — and bring matters at onc^ to
a point. A measure of this kind is consonant, I know, with the ideas
of some of the leading members of the Maryland Assembly, who
requested me to suggest it to my friends in our assembly, and inform
them of the result.
From what I can learn, there was in the meeting held at Alexan-
24
370 REPORT ON CHESAPEAKE AND OHIO CANAL.
dria too great a leaning to local advantages on one part, and tor
much compliance on the other part, to obtain general approbation
of the bill which proceeded from it. I shall not pronounce on either
side, but imperfections, if they really exist, at the meetings pro
posed, may be rectified ; and a liberal plan adopted which shall have
no eye to the interested views of a few individuals to the prejudice
of the majority ; who, rather than damp the spirit which was up,
resolved, it is said, to submit to any plan, rather than impede the
undertaking.
At such a meeting as has been suggested, of delegates from the
two assemblies of Virginia and Maryland, might it not prove a politic
step for them to agree upon a representation to be made by their
respective assemblies to the State of PENNSYLVANIA, of the political
advantages which would flow from a close connection with the .West
ern Territory; and to request their concurrence to make the com
munication through their State AS EASY AND AS DIFFUSIVE AS POSSIBLE ?
— pointing to the consequences which in the course of things must
follow, if we do not open doors for their produce and trade. That
State has many Delegates in the A.ssembly who would relish such a,
proposition highly. It would on our parts appear attentive and
respectful ; and if rejected on theirs, place them (at least in the eyes
of those people) in the wrong — and excite their reiterated appli
cations, which most assuredly would effect it.
Another thing, in my opinion, should also be the object of this
meeting, and that is to agree upon a sum, to be advanced by the
States of Virginia and Maryland, for the purpose of opening a
road between the eastern and western waters. The company (if
one should be formed), and the bill have nothing to do with this —
and the western settlers are not in circumstances to effect it them
selves.
With very great esteem and regard,
I am, gentlemen,
Your most humble servant,
G. WASHINGTON.
JOSEPH JONES and )
JAMES MADISON, j
Extract of a Letter from James Craig to General Washington, dated
Mount Vernon, October 2, 1784.
I have thought it might be more satisfactory to leave you the
different accounts I received respecting the communication between
the waters of the Youghiogany and the North Branch of the Poto
mac, that you might, from a view of the whole, collect an opinion
for yourself. It appears to me, that the land carriage from the
Fork of Youghiogany to Cumberland, which, from a variety of
accounts, will not be more than thirty miles, is to be preferred to
sixty miles of difficult navigation up the Little Crossing, and twenty
miles land carriage afterwards, which is the distance from the
Little Crossing on the Turkey-foot road to Cumberland. If the
communication is to be carried on by the Little Crossing, the
Turkey-foot road is to be preferred to Braddock's old road, as it is
infinitely Better, and above two miles shorter. Indeed I found the
whole Turkey-foot road across the mountains much better and
LETTERS. 371
nearer than Braddock's road ; that if there were good entertain
ment, no one could hesitate in the choice.
I have received of Lund "Washington twelve pounds seven shil
lings and sixpence, being the expenses down. The general account
of expenses must be deferred until I have the pleasure of seeing you.
OLD TOWN, January 26, 1785.
SIR : — In a short time after you left my office, I examined the
falls of Cheat river, agreeable to your request ; and find that it will
be impossible to effect a navigation up it, through the Laurel hills.
I have made the strictest inquiry where the most advantageous and
nearest communication by land can be had, from the North Branch
to the Western waters, and find it will be to the falls of the Tyger
Valley Fork of the Monongahela river ; it will not exceed forty miles
from Logstones Ford on the North Branch to the said falls; and I
have reason to believe, and am confident from my own knowledge
of the greatest part of the way, and the information I have had of
the other part, that a good road may be made. The falls of the
Tyger Valley Fork is about nine miles from its junction with the
West Fork, and upwards of thirty miles above the mouth of Cheat
river, and near the centre of the most settled as well as most
fertile part of the counties of Monongahela and Harrison, thence a
navigation may easily be had up the West Fork ; and consequently
by a short land carriage down the Little Kenhawa.
I am, sir,
Your most obedient and very humble servant,
SAMUEL HAN WAY.
His Excellency GENERAL WASHINGTON.
To the Honorable the Assembly of the Commonwealth of Virginia.
Pursuant to the resolves of the Honorable the Seriate and House
of Delegates, and conformably to the direction of the executive
authority of the State, we repaired to the city of Annapolis, and
held a conference with the gentlemen appointed by the legislature
of Maryland : the result of which is contained in the enclosure
No. 1.
In consequence of the opinion given by the conference the legis
lature of Maryland have passed the Act inclosed, No. 2, and the
Resolves, No. 3.
It may be necessary for us to explain the reason for the provision
in the act " that if subscriptions should be taken in, or a meeting of
subscribers directed by the legislature of Virginia, at times differ
ent from those in the act, then there should be a meeting at the
time appointed by Virginia; and subscriptions made at times by
them appointed, should be received." It was thought by the con
ferees to be most proper to appoint certain times in the act ; but
as it was doubtful whether the act would get to Virginia in time to
be adopted at the present session of the assembly, it was adjudged
necessary to make a provision to accommodate the scheme to an
act to be passed by Virginia, on the next session of their assembly
without the necessity of having recourse again to the legislature of
Maryland; but it is the opinion of the conferees, that an act upon
372 REPORT ON CHESAPEAKE AND OHIO CANAL.
similar principles to that passed by Maryland ought, if possible, to
be passed by the assembly of Virginia at this session. This would
give a speedy beginning to the work, and an opportunity of em
bracing the present favorable state of things for accomplishing the
views of the two States.
The act appears to us, from every consideration we can give it,
to be founded on just and proper principles, and to be calculated to
answer in every respect the purposes for which it is designed : we
conceive it a duty therefore to declare, that it meets our entire
•approbation.
The reasons why this act has not the signature of the Chief Ma
gistrate are, because he is not present, and because it wants not this
formality to give it validity.
We should do injustice to our feelings, were we not to add, that
we have been happy in meeting gentlemen of liberality and candor,
impressed with the importance of accelerating the purposes of the
Legislature of Virgiria, of opening a free and easy intercourse with
the Western Territory, and for the extension of inland navigation;
and that there has been a perfect accordance of sentiment in the
Legislature of the State.
Respectfully submitted by
G. WASHINGTON, and
HORATIO GATES.
ANNAPOLIS, December 28th, 1784.
MOUNT YERNON, 28<7i November, 1784.
GENTLEMEN : — After the several conversations we have had on the
subject of inland navigation, and the benefits which would probably
be derived from a commercial intercourse with the Western Territory,
I shall make no apology for giving you the trouble of the enclosed.
It is a matter of regret, however, that I cannot accompany them
with some explanations and observations. It was intended they
should have met me at Richmond, they missed me on the road —
travelled to Baltimore — returned — and were put into my hands at
the moment I was setting out for Annapolis, to which place I mean
to accompany the Marquis La Fayette, who expects to embark
about the middle of next month at New York for France. I could
not think of withholding these papers until my return, as I shall
probably accompany the above gentleman from Annapolis to Balti
more ; therefore, in the order I receive, 1 send them to you ; your
own judgment in this business will be the best guide, but, in one
word, it should seem to me that, if the public cannot take it up
with efficient funds, and without those delays which might be
involved by a limping conduct, it had better be placed in the hands
of a corporate company. What encouragement, and what powers
to give this company, deserve all the consideration which I per
suade myself, you, gentlemen, will bestow. The Maryland Assem
bly is now sitting. If I should return in time I will have the power
of writing to you again on the subject ; in the meanwhile, if your
leisure will admit, I should be glad to know your sentiments on, and
what will probably be the issue of, this business.
I am, etc.,
G. WASHINGTON.
To JOSEPH JONES AND JAMES MADISON, Esqrs.
LETTERS. 373
ANNAPOLIS, IQth December, 1784.
DEAR SIR : — I have been favored with your letter of the llth.
The proceedings of the conference and act and resolutions of 'this
Assembly consequently thereupon, herewith transmitted to the
Assembly, are so full of explanations of the motives that governed
in this business, that it is scarcely necessary for me to say anything
in addition to them, except that State seems highly impressed with
the importance of the objects which we have had under considera
tion, and are very desirous of seeing them accomplished.
We have reduced most of the tolls from what they were in the
first bill, and have added something to a few others. Upon the
whole, we have made them as low, as we conceived, from the best
information before us, and such estimates as we had means to cal
culate upon, as they can be fixed without hazarding the plan alto
gether. We made the value of the commodity the governing prin
ciple in the establishment of the tolls; but having an eye to some
bulky articles of produce, to the encouragement of the growth and
manufacture of some others, as well as to prevent a tedious enumera
tion of the different species of all, we departed from the general rule
in many instances.
The rates of tollage, as now fixed, may still appear high to some of
the Southern gentlemen, when they compare them with those of the
James' river, but as there is no comparison in the expense and risk
of the two different undertakings, so neither ought there to be in the
tolls. I am fully persuaded that the gentlemen who were appointed,
and have had this matter under consideration, were actuated by no
other* motives than to hit (if they could do so) upon such a happy
medium as would not give jealousy to the public on one hand, nor
discouragement to adventurers on the other. To secure success
and to give vigor to the undertaking, it was judged advisable for
each State to contribute (upon the terms of private subscribers) to
the expense of it, especially as it might have a happy influence on
the minds of the Western settlers.* Though there is no obligation
upon the State to adopt this, if it is inconvenient or repugnant to
that opinion, yet I should be highly pleased to hear that they had
done so, as also the resolution respecting the roads of communica
tion, both of which look, in some degree, to different objects, are
both very important. That by the Youghiogany (through Pennsyl
vania) is particularly so for the fur and peltry of the lakes, because
it is the most direct route by which they can be transported, whilst
it is also exceedingly convenient to the people inhabiting the Ohio,
or Alleghany, above Fort Pitt, the lower parts of the Monongahela,
and all the Youghiogany.
Matters might, perhaps, have been better digested if more time
had been allowed, but the fear of not getting the report to Rich
mond before the Assembly should have risen, occasioned more
hurry than accuracy, or even real dispatch. But to alter the act
now further than to accommodate it to circumstances where it is
essential, unless there be discovered something obviously wrong, it
will not do. The bill passed this Assembly with only nine dissent
ing voices, and got through both Houses in a day, so earnest were
they to get it to you in time.
* It is to be observed that only part of this money can be called for immediately,
even if the subscription fills, and afterwards, no faster than the work advances.
374 REPORT ON CHESAPEAKE AND OHIO CANAL.
It is now near twelve at night, and I am writing with an aching
head, having been constantly employed on this business since the
22d, without any assistance from my colleagues, General Gates
being sick and Colonel Blackburn not attending: but for this I
would say more. I am, etc.,
G. WASHINGTON.
JAMES MADISON, Esq.
CHESAPEAKE AND OHIO CANAL.
THE 4th of July, 1825, was celebrated on Clay Island, in the Yohog-
any River, by the brigade of engineers, under the charge of James
Shriver, Esq., to survey the route of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal,
and the neighboring citizens of Srnithfield, etc. It was a large party,
and the affair was conducted in a very handsome style. The toasts
also were good, and highly appropriate. One of them was :
Our Guest from Faydte, the Hox. A. STEWART. The
zealous and able advocate of internal improvement. The
first to propose in Congress the design of connecting the
East and the West by the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal. He
merits and has our warmest thanks.
This toast was received by the company with much warmth of
feeling; and, accordingly, Mr. Stewart rose to make suitable ac
knowledgments, and delivered the following address :
Hr. President and Gentlemen : I would do violence to my
own feelings, as well as injustice to you, were I not to ex
press my grateful — my sincere acknowledgments for the
flattering compliment you have paid me, and for the still
more flattering manner in which it has been received by
this numerous and respectable assembly. A compliment, I
assure you, as unexpected as it is unmerited by me. That
I have been zealous in my endeavors, however humble, to
promote the great cause of internal improvements, I will not
pretend to deny. Regarding it, as I did, a cause in which
not only my immediate constituents had a deep and vital in
terest, but as one in which the good and glory of my country
was concerned, I could not but be zealous.
But, gentlemen, when your partiality carries you so far as
to give me credit for ability as well as zeal in the discharge
of my public duties, candor, on my part, requires me to say
that you give me credit for more than I have any just right
to claim.
You have also been so kind as to attribute to me the honor
of having first proposed, in Congress, " the design of uniting
the Eastern and Western waters by the Chesapeake and
Ohio Canal." Though I was the first to bring this subject
before Congress, yet, I assure you, the honor was at that
375
376 CHESAPEAKE AND OHIO CANAL.
time by no means enviable, though I asked but $10,000 to
make the necessary surveys ; yet so general was the impres
sion that the project was utterly impracticable, that when
the vote was taken I found myself in a very lean minority ;
to increase my mortification, on my return home, I found
the same unfavorable sentiments entertained by many of
those whom I had the honor to represent. Stimulated rather
than discouraged by opposition, I determined to have the
necessary surveys made upon my own responsibility. This
determination I made known to Mr. James Shriver, who I
found occupied in selecting materials on the subject, who, at
once, with a promptitude and patriotic zeal that did him the
greatest honor, undertook the task, and in a short time, with
a party of public spirited young men, who joined us in the
expedition, we repaired to the summit level, where Mr. Shri
ver remained for a considerable part of the season, in the
midst of hills and mountains which no human foot before
had, perhaps, ever trod, until he collected the materials for
the work, which he has since published. And this work, it
is but justice to say, gave the first great impulse to this move
ment. It was the result of these surveys, which Mr. Shriver
exhibited in person at the Canal Convention at Washington
City, that removed all doubt as to the practicability of this
work. During the next session of Congress, $30,000 were
appropriated, and a board, composed of the most able ar.d
accomplished engineers in this or perhaps any other country,
assisted by several brigades of topographical engineers, many
of whom I have the pleasure to see present on this occasion,
gave the whole route a thorough examination, and their re
port demonstrated not only that it was practicable but that
it could be accomplished, at an expense small compared with
the magnitude and utility of the work. During the last
session, a bill was passed appropriating $40,000 to continue
the surveys, to which, in the House of Representatives, there
was not a word of opposition. Also, another act was passed,
with the unanimous assent of sixteen States, and but thirty-
four negative votes, confirmatory of the laws of Virginia and
Maryland, incorporating companies to prosecute the work to
the Pennsylvania line, under which nine commissioners have
recently been appointed to carry this object into effect.
This, gentlemen, is a brief outline of the origin and progress
of the work thus far. As to the future, it is not for me to
speak.
But, gentlemen, if we look to the unexampled rapidity
CHESAPEAKE AND OHIO CANAL. 377
with which this work has gained upon the public confi
dence — if we look to these strong and unequivocal expres
sions of national feeling in its favor, to which I have ad
verted — if we look to the general and diffusive nature of its
benefits — its connection with the seat of the national Govern
ment, uniting, by a canal of less than 320 miles, streams
whose waters wash the shores of a majority of all the States
in the Union ; opening a direct communication through
the very heart of the Republic, connecting the Atlantic
seaboard Avith the boundless Valley of the Mississippi, — in
short, if we advert to the peaceful and prosperous situation
of our country; the abundance and excellence of labor,
and especially the flourishing condition of our national
finances, affording an annual surplus of more than thirteen
millions beyond the ordinary expenditures of the Govern
ment, applicable to the national debt and internal improve
ments, under favor, also, of an administration pledged in
its outset to the great cause of internal improvements, I think
it may be safely affirmed, that, with such prospects before
us, we have every thing to hope, and nothing to fear.
But it has been suggested that Pennsylvania, under the
influence of a contracted, illiberal and suicidal policy, will
refuse her consent to this measure, and thus embarrass, if
not defeat, the accomplishment of this grand national de
sign. The suggestion is a slander. Pennsylvania, the second
State of our confederacy, can never prove so faithless to her
self and to the nation. What State in the Union has so
deep, so vital an interest in the success of this measure as
Pennsylvania? This canal, commencing in Washington
City and terminating at the lakes, will pass for more than
250 miles through Pennsylvania, thus making her territory
the great theatre of one of the most splendid works ever
erected by the art or ingenuity of man. Xot only con
ferring wealth upon her people, by the immediate expendi
ture of millions of money among them, but securing to her
benefits and blessings which will descend to her latest pos
terity ; making her the grand thoroughfare for all the rich,
unbounding and fertilizing commerce moving through this
connection between the Atlantic and Western States : and is
it to be supposed that Pennsylvania is weak or wicked
enough to reject such a boon, freely offered to her acceptance
by the rest of the Union ? Such a suspicion cannot be in
dulged. Where is the traitor politician who would thus
sacrifice the best interests of the State at the shrine of a mean,
378 CHESAPEAKE AND OHIO CANAL.
illiberal and perverse po^oy? For should the general
Government be thus expelled from our territory to a more
southern connection, what must be the consequence ? With
a national canal passing round us on the south, and the
New York Canal on the north, Pennsylvania would be left
without a market and without commerce, to wither and
decline.
But it is said that Pennsylvania intends uniting the eastern
and western waters by the Juniata and Conemaugh. If
the State is examined from the one extreme to the other, ]
venture to affirm, no point of connection will be found
throughout her territory so eligible as that chosen by the
United States.
By referring to the reports and recent surveys, it will be
found that, by connecting the Susquehanna and Potomac,
through the Canadoguinit and Conogocheague creeks, which
can be easily accomplished, the distance from Philadelpia to
Pittsburgh will be less than by the route of the Juniata and
Conemaugh. And by a glance at the map, it will also ap
pear that from Harrisburg, the point of divergence, the route
by the Potomac and Yohogany will pass through counties
in Pennsylvania with a population, according to the census
of 1820, of 157,043 (exclusive of Allegheny and Westmore
land), sending sixteen representatives to the State legislature;
while the counties on the route, from the same point by the
Juniata and Conemaugh, have but 70,797 of a population,
and only seven representatives ; yet the latter is called the
Pennsylvania route !
A still more important consideration in favor of this route,
is, that it has been ascertained to be perfectly practicable, at
a comparatively moderate expense, furnishing three times the
quantity of water required at the summit, with a tunnel of
only one and three-fourths miles ; while, with respect to the
Juniata route, not only the United States engineers express
strong doubts whether " nature has furnished the possibility
of a canal by that route," but the only gentleman of the
Pennsylvania board of any experience pronounces this route,
in his report, to be " utterly impracticable," without a tun
nel of seven miles, at a depth of nearly 900 feet under
ground.
But there is a fourth consideration, which, with Pennsyl
vania, ought to be conclusive. This connection through the
State will be made at the expense of the Union, while the
other (were it practicable), must be accomplished at the ex-
CHESAPEAKE AND OHIO CANAL. 379
elusive expense of Pennsylvania, leading to a system of heavy
and oppressive taxation, or creating a debt which will rest
like an incubus upon the commonwealth, for, perhaps, a cen
tury to come. If, then, this route be the nearest even from
Philadelphia to Pittsburg ; if it will accommodate more than
double the population in. Pennsylvania; if it is decidedly the most
practicable, and if it is to be accomplished without any ex
pense to Pennsylvania, making her territory the great high
way for the immense commerce between the Atlantic and
Western States, through a canal, in every point of view,
more magnificent and important than that of New York ;
can Pennsylvania, with such facts before her, doubt as to
the course she ought to pursue ? Ought she not to be the
first and foremost advocate of this measure? But if this great
national design, this great bond of union between the East
and West, did not touch the territory of Pennsylvania, if
she had but a common interest in its success, would it com
port with the character of the great a.nd patriotic State of
Pennsylvania, yielding to an illiberal and contracted policy,
to oppose the execution of a work which must not only
confer the most lasting benefits on our country, but stand
an eternal monument to the honor and glory of the Re
public?
Let other nations boast of their palaces, their pyramids
and splendid piles, erected at the people's expense, to pamper
the pride or perpetuate the power of some pageant monarch,
or proud usurper. Yet be it our pride to expend the peo
ple's money for the people's benefit, in building up proud
and permanent, and glorious monuments of internal improve
ment, alike useful in peace and in war ; uniting the distant
parts of this extended, and extending Republic, to
which our children's children may look, in after times,
and bless and praise the wisdom and munificence of their
ancestors.
And when was there a period in our history more auspi
cious to the commencement of the great work of internal
improvement than the present? At peace with all the
world ; unconnected with Europe, and strangers to the storms
which disturb her repose; unique in our situation, abund
ant in resources, the freest government on earth, and a coun
try embracing in its wide domain every variety of climate
and of soil, intersected everywhere by vast mountains, lakes
and rivers, extending their arms from the east to the west,
and from the west to the east, as if to clasp each other, and
380 CHESAPEAKE AND OHIO CANAL.
imploring, as it were, the aid of industry and art to unite
them in the sacred bonds of a perpetual union, making them
the fruitful sources of wealth — of intercourse — of harmony
and love, to the boundless millions that repose upon their
border, awakening, by their plastic touch, to new activity
and life, every branch of industry, agriculture, manufactures
and commerce ; opening every where new and abundant
sources of wealth, which must, otherwise, forever remain
dormant and unknown.
If internal improvements have decorated and adorned,
and enriched other countries, why shall they not ours?
"What country under heaven presents such advantages or
such inducements ? If the traveller in Europe be every
where delighted on his journey by magnificent roads and
splendid canals, shall he come here to be disappointed?
Shall this proud Republic lag behind the monarchies of
Europe in improving its own condition : in conferring bene
fits and blessings on its people ? Or should the time come
(which God forbid) when this happy Government, sharing
the fate of former Republics, shall fall beneath the power
of some successful Caesar, shall it be permitted to the proud
usurper, looking abroad over the desolated land, to ask in
triumph the fallen friends of liberty, Where are the bene
fits left by your boasted Republic ? Where the foot-steps
of its power, or the monuments of its glory ? Where the
remains of any of the boasted blessings which it has con
ferred upon the people? — none — none. Nothing left by
which the Republic is to be remembered or regretted —
nothing to recall to recollection the happy days gone by —
nothing to rekindle the sacred love of liberty in the
bosoms of her votaries — nothing to call forth the tear of
regret for its fall. No, gentlemen, this must not, cannot
be. Let us advance in the goodly work in which we are
engaged ; let us fill the land with these evidences of re
publican wisdom, and republican magnificence. These
will be found our best security in times of danger — they
will be found the most effectual means of counteracting the
sad vicissitude to which I have adverted.
But I perceive I am getting into a boundless field. I
have already trespassed too long on your attention ; permit
me to repeat my obligations, my grateful acknowledgments
for this manifestation of your confidence and kindness ; and
believe me, gentlemen (for I speak in the sincerity of my
heart), when I say that if I could even for a moment indulge
CHESAPEAKE AND OHIO CANAL. 381
the pleasing dream that my humble and unimportant name
should ever be associated with any thing connected with
the good and glory of my country, I would not desire for
it a more exalted niche in the temple of fame than that
in which your kindness has this day been pleased to place
it.*
* Mr. S. here pointed to his name, which appeared suspended, with a number
of others, from the boughs of the trees over the temple of liberty.
BREAKING GROUND OF THE CHESAPEAKE
AND OHIO CANAL, 1828.
FRIDAY last, the 4th of July, the anniversary of the
Declaration of the Independence of the United States, was a
proud day for the District of Columbia — for the States
interested in an open navigation from the Chesapeake to the
lakes, and to the waters of the Mississippi — for the friends
of internal improvements every where.
On that day, which, by concurrent votes of the president
and directors of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company,
and the corporations of Washington, Georgetown and Alex
andria, had been fixed upon for breaking ground upon the
line of the canal, this interesting ceremony took place, in the
order prescribed by the committee of arrangement, as heretofore
published, which was most successfully carried into eifect by
General Thornton and Colonel Stull, marshals of the day,
and the aids whom they appointed.
At an early hour, the members of the several corporations,
and those who were invited to accompany them and the
president and directors of the canal company on this inter
esting excursion, began to assemble at Tilley's hotel, and
cordial greetings were exchanged between them. At half
past 7 o'clock the President of the United States arrived,
escorted by Captain Turner's and Captain Tyler's troops of
cavalry, under the command of Major Stewart, who politely
tendered their services, on this occasion, which were found
highly useful throughout the day.
Amongst the gentlemen composing the company, thus
assembled at the invitation of the committee of arrangement,
were (besides the President of the United States) the sec
retaries of the treasury, war, and navy departments, Mr.
Rush, General Porter, and Mr. Southard ; the Postmaster
General, Mr. McLean ; Senators of the United States, Mr.
J. S. Johnston and Mr. Bouligny, and Mr. Washington,
Representative in Congress; Mr. Yaughan, the minister of
Great Britain to the United States ; Baron Krudener, the
minister of Russia, and Baron Maltitz, secretary of legation
382
BREAKING GROUND UPON THE CANAL. 383
from the same power; the Chevalier Huygens, minister from
the Netherlands ; Barun Stackelberg, charge' d'affaires from
the king of Sweden ; Mr. Lisboa, secretary of legation from
the emperor of Brazil ; Mr. Hersant, vice-consul general of
France, — comprising all the representatives of foreign powers
at this moment in the city and able to attend. Among the
other invited guests was the commander of the army, Gen
eral Macomb, and General Stuart and Colonel Brooke,
surviving officers of the revolutionary army.
The invitations were necessarily circumscribed within the
limits of the accommodation which the boats procured by
the committee of arrangements were calculated to aiford. It
was a subject of unmixed regret to the committee that the
same accommodation could not be extended to all, which
they were able to provide for a few only. Besides those
invited, a great number of the most respectable citizens of
the district and adjoining States, either accompanied the
procession by water, or kept pace with it by land.
About eight o'clock the procession was formed on Bridge
street, and moved on, to the excellent music of the full band
of the marine corps, to High street wharf, where they em
barked in perfect order : as previously arranged, and the
boats immediately set forward, amidst the cheers of the
crowds which lined the wharves.
The President of the United States, to whom General
Mercer had presented the spade, stepped forward, and, with
an animation of manner and countenance, which showed that
his whole heart was in the thing, thus addressed the assembly
of his fellow citizens :
" Friends and fellow citizens : It is nearly a full century
since Berkeley, Bishop of Cloyne, turning towards this fair
land which we now inhabit, the eyes of a prophet, closed a
few lines of poetical inspiration with this memorable pre
diction :
1 Time's noblest empire is the last ; '
A prediction which, to those of us whose lot has been cast
by divine Providence in these regions, contains not only a
precious promise, but a solemn injunction of duty, since upon
our energies, and upon those of our posterity its fulfilment
will depend. For, with reference to what principle could it
be, that Berkeley proclaimed this, the last, to be the noblest
empire of time ? It was, as he himself declares, on the
transplantation of learning and the arts to America. Of
learning and the arts. The four first acts — the empires of
384 BREAKING GROUND UPON THE CANAL.
the old world, and of former ages — the Assyrian, the Persian,
the Grecian, the Roman empires — were empires of conquest ;
dominions of man over man. The empire which his great
mind, piercing into the darkness of futurity, foretold in
America, was the empire of learning and the arts — the
dominion of man over himself, and over physical nature —
acquired by the inspirations of genius, and the toils of
industry ; not watered with the tears of the widow and the
orphan ; not cemented in the blood of human victims ;
founde'd not in discord, but in harmony — of which the only
spoils are the imperfection of nature, and the victory achieved
is the improvement of the condition of all. Well may this
be termed nobler than the empire of conquest, in which man
subdues only his fellow-men.
" To the accomplishment of this prophecy the first necessary
step was the acquisition of the right of self-government by
the people of the British North American colonies, achieved
by the Declaration of Independence, and its acknowledgment
by the British nation. The second was the union of all
these colonies under one general confederated government —
a task more arduous than that of the preceding separation,
but at last effected by the present constitution of the United
States.
" The third step, more arduous still than either or both the
others, was that which we, fellow citizens, may now con
gratulate ourselves, our country, and the world of man, that
it is taken. It is the adaptation of the powers, physical,
moral, and intellectual, of this whole union, to the improve
ment of its own condition : of its moral and political condition,
by wise and liberal institutions — by the cultivation of the
understanding and the heart — by academies, schools, and
learned institutes — by the pursuit and patronage of learning
and the arts: of its physical condition, by associated labor to
improve the bounties, and to supply the deficiencies of nature ;
to stern the torrent in its course; to level the mountain with
the plain ; to disarm and fetter the raging surge of the ocean.
Undertakings, of which the language I now hold is no
exaggerated description, have become happily familiar, not
only to the conceptions, but to the enterprise, of our
countrymen. That, for the commencement of which we are
here assembled, is eminent among the number. The project
contemplates a conquest over physical nature, such as has
never yet been achieved by man. The wonders of the
ancient world, the pyramids of Egypt, the Colossus of Rhodes,
BREAKING GROUND UPON THE CANAL. 385
the temple of Ephesus, the mausoleum of Artemisia, the wall
of China, sink into insignificance before it — insignificance in
the mass and momentum of human labor, required for the
execution — insignificance in the comparison of the purposes
to be accomplished by the work when executed. It is, there
fore, a pleasing contemplation to those sanguine and patriotic
spirits who have so long looked with hope to the completion
of this undertaking, that it unites the moral power and
resources — first, of numerous individuals — secondly, of the
corporate cities of Washington, Georgetown, and Alexan
dria — thirdly, of the great and powerful States of Pennsyl
vania, Virginia, and Maryland — and, lastly, by the subscrip
tion authorised at the recent session of Congress, of the whole
Union.
" Friends and fellow-laborers, we are informed by the
holy oracles of truth, that, at the creation of man, male and
female, the Lord of the universe, their Maker, blessed them,
and said unto them, be fruitful and multiply, and replenish
the earth, and subdue it. To subdue the earth was, there
fore, one of the first duties assigned to man at his creation ;
and now, in his fallen condition, it remains among the most
excellent of his occupations. To subdue the earth is pre
eminently the purpose of the undertaking, to the accom
plishment of which the first stroke of the spade is now to be
struck. That it is to be struck by this hand, I invite you to
witness — [Here the stroke of the spade]* — and in performing
this act, I call upon you to join me in fervent supplication
to Him from whom that primitive injunction came, that he
would follow with his blessing this joint effort of our great
community, to perform his will in the subjugation of the
earth for the improvement of the condition of man. That
he would make it one of his chosen instruments for the pre
servation, prosperity, and perpetuity of our union. That he
would have in his holy keeping all the workmen by whose
* Attending this action was an incident, which procured a greater sensation
than any other that occurred during the day. The spade which the President
held struck a root, which prevented its penetrating the earth. Not deterred by
trifling obstacles from doing what he had deliberately resolved to perform, Mr.
Adams tried it again, with no better success. Thus foiled, he threw down the
spade, hastily stripped off and laid aside his coat, and went seriously to work.
The multitude around, and on the hills and trees, who could not hear, because of
their distance from the open space, but could see and understand, observing this
action, raised a loud and unanimous cheering, which continued for sometime
after Mr. Adams had mastered the difficulty ; when a Jackson man in the
crowd exclaimed in a loud voice, " A Hickory root" which gave rise to a tre
mendous shout by the Jackson men, this celebration occurring just before the
election between Adams and Jackson in 1828.
25
386 BREAKING GROUND UPON THE CANAL.
labors it is to be completed. That their lives and their
health may be precious in his sight ; and that they may live
to see the work of their hands contribute to the comforts and
enjoyments of millions of their countrymen.
" Friends and brethren, permit me further to say, that I
deem the duty, now performed at the request of the president
and directors of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company,
and the corporations of the District of Columbia, one of the
most fortunate incidents of my life. Though not among
the functions of my official station, I esteem it as a privilege
conferred upon me by my fellow-citizens of the district.
Called, in the performance of my service heretofore as one of
the representatives of my native commonwealth ; in the
senate, and now as a member of the executive department
of the government, my abode has been among the inhabitants
of the district longer than at any other spot upon earth. In
availing myself of this occasion to return to them my thanks
for the numberless acts of kindness that I have experienced
at their hands, may I be allowed to assign it as a motive
operating upon the heart, and superaddecl to my official ob
ligations, for taking a deep interest in their welfare and
prosperity. Among the prospects of futurity which we may
indulge the rational hope of seeing realized by this junction
of distant waters, that of the auspicious influence which it
will exercise over the fortunes of every portion of this district,
is one upon which my mind dwells with unqualified pleasure.
It is my earnest prayer that they may not be disappointed.
" It was observed that the first step towards the accom
plishment of the glorious destinies of our country was the
Declaration of Independence. That the second was the
union of these States under our federative government. The
third is irrevocably fixed by the act upon the commencement
of which we are now engaged. What time more suitable for
this operation could have been selected than the anniversary
of our great national festival ? What place more appropriate
from whence to proceed, than that which bears the name of
the citizen warrior who led our armies in that eventful
contest to the field, and who first presided as the chief
magistrate of our union ? You know that, of this very
undertaking, he was one of the first projectors ; and if, in
the world of spirits, the affections of our mortal existence
still retain their sway, may we not, without presumption,
imagine that he looks down with complacency and delight
upon the scene before and around us?
BREAKING GROUND UPON THE CANAL. 387
" But, while indulging a sentiment of joyous exultation, at
the benefits to be derived from this labor of our friends arid
neighbors, let us not forget that the spirit of internal im
provement is catholic and liberal. We hope and believe
that its practical advantages will be extended to every indi
vidual in our union. In praying for the blessing of heaven
upon our task, we ask it with equal zeal and sincerity upon
every other similar work in this confederation ; and par
ticularly upon that which, on this same day, and perhaps at
this very hour, is commencing from a neighboring city. It
is one of the happiest characteristics in the principle of
internal improvement, that the success of one great enter
prise, instead of counteracting, gives assistance to the execu
tion of another. May they increase and multiply, till, in
the sublime language of inspiration, every valley shall be
exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low ;
the crooked straight; the rough places plain. Thus shall
the prediction of the Bishop of Cloyne be converted from
prophecy into history, and, in the virtues and fortunes of
our posterity, the last shall prove the noblest empire of
time."
As the President concluded, a national salute was fired by
a detachment of United States artillery posted upon the
ground. As soon as the cheering which followed the close
of the President's speech had subsided, the chairman of the
committee of arrangements delivered the following brief
address :
" In the name of the committee of arrangements of the
corporations of the district, I tender to the president and
directors of the canal company, and to this crowd of gratified
spectators, our congratulations on the happy commencement
of this great work.
" To the president of the company, we and the country
are indebted for his early, persevering, and successful efforts
in the great cause, the triumph of which we have this day
assembled to honor ; and we cordially respond to those
emotions which the occasion is so well calculated to inspire
in his breast.-
"To the President of the United States we are under
obligations for the kindness and cheerfulness with which he
accepted our invitation to practically begin the labor, which
is to unite, by closer ties of amity and interest, the inhabitants
.of the borders of the Atlantic, of the margins of the lakes,
and of the rapidly peopling forests and prairies of the
388 BREAKING GROUND UPON THE CANAL.
interior. In the name of our corporations, we return out
acknowledgments to him for the countenance and aid which
this undertaking has constantly received from him.
"To the director from the State of Pennsylvania, who
may be considered, in his present relation to us, the repre
sentative not merely of his own State but of the whole West,
we offer our cordial felicitation on the prospect of the early
completion of the work which has just now been symbolically
begun, and of which he too has been the zealous and efficient
advocate.
" To the almost unanimous support of the senators and
representatives of the Western States, united to that afforded
by valuable friends from other States, we of the Atlantic
shore, greatly owe the aid which Congress has liberally
granted to this undertaking. It is our earnest hope, that, in
the advantages to be derived from the opening of this great
channel of commerce — from the construction of this great
central chain of union — the States of the West will find their
most sanguine calculations surpassed by the reality, and that,
in the result, the whole sisterhood of States will be made
sensible of the benign influence of liberal legislation."
When the chairman had concluded : —
Mr. Stewart (the director above referred to), after returning
his thanks to the committee from the three corporations of
the district, for the flattering terms in which they had noticed
him in the address delivered by their chairman, begged to
avail himself of this occasion, to tender also his grateful
acknowledgments to the stockholders now present, for the
distinguished and unexpected honor they had conferred on
him, by calling him from a distant residence, to a seat at the
board of directors. He had, however, to regret that, owing
to his very limited experience, he could bring to the board
little more than his hearty good will ; and an ardent desire to
do every thing in his power to give energy to the prosecution
of this great work to a speedy and successful termination ; a
work pre-eminently national in all its aspects, commenced, as
had been well remarked by the president of the company,
under the most cheering auspices, by the hands of the chief
magistrate of the greatest republic on earth, and in the
presence of the official representatives of several of the most
refined and powerful nations of Europe.
"Designated by you, gentlemen (said Mr. S.) as the rep
resentative of the Western States, on this occasion I may
venture to tender you their thanks for the just tribute you
BREAKING GEOUND UPON THE CANAL. 389
have paid to the liberal and magnanimous spirit by which
they have been governed. I need not say that the people of
the West take a deep and lively interest in the success of
this great enterprise. They have spoken their sentiments by
much higher authority, by their immediate representatives
in Congress : for, in eight of the nine Western States there
was but one vote against the liberal appropriation granted
at the last session to this object, and to which we are so
greatly indebted for the gratification we all experience on
this glorious and joyful occasion.
"Looking, as we do, in the West, with intense interest to
the accomplishment of the great object, it would be unjust,
on this occasion, to withhold the expression of our obligations
to our brethren in the East, for their liberal support ; for, in
eight of the Eastern States, likewise, there were but eight
votes in the House against this appropriation. Our obliga
tions, however, are confined to no section ; they belong to the
whole union. Justly regarding this as an object eminently
national, the representatives from all portions of our country,
influenced by a liberal and enlightened policy, extended to it
a generous support. This liberality, however, was not con
fined to this object alone, but was extended largely and freely
to others — to Tennessee, to Ohio, to Pennsylvania.
"You have very justly, gentlemen, described this as 'a
great central chain of union between the Atlantic and Western
States.7 I am happy, however, in the conviction that there
are other and stronger ties which bind us together — ties of a
higher and nobler origin — ties ' not made with hands/ but
found in the hearts, in the affectionate attachment, in the
patriotic devotion of the people to the government and union
of the States. These are the bonds of union, after all, to
which we must look, and on which we must rely ; these are
the bonds which we are called on by every patriotic feeling
to cherish, to strengthen, and increase. Every attempt, no
matter from what quarter it may come, to dissolve these
bonds, to weaken these ties, which bind the people to the
union, to the constitution, and laws of their country, should,
as it must, meet the indignant reprobation of every true
patriot. For. should this union be destroyed, what becomes
of this fair land, with all its cheering prospects ? Where
will persecuted liberty longer look for an asylum ? Where
will the patriot turn his eyes for safety? What becomes of
our bright example to the friends of freedom throughout the
world ? Gone ! extinguished forever.
390 BREAKING GROUND UPON THE CANAL.
" But I will dismiss this reflection as inappropriate to the
occasion, as an event beyond the reach of anticipation, to
which we should never look but to avoid it.
" I present you, gentlemen, and all present, the congratula
tions of the West on this occasion ; and permit me to express
the hope that we will be able to complete the work, now so
happily begun, as far as Cumberland in three years from
this day ; and, by a union and co-operation with our friends
at Baltimore, when the two works become united on the
Potomac river, with a common object and a common interest,
may we not indulge the hope that the day is not distant when
we shall again assemble, at the summit level, to celebrate an
event still more glorious than this — the mingling of the
waters of the Chesapeake and Ohio ; when we may truly
exclaim,, without the aid of Berkeley's spirit of prophecy,
'Art's noblest, triumph, is the last.' "
These addresses being concluded, the spade was taken,
and sods of earth dug in succession by the president of the
canal company, the mayors of Washington, Georgetown and
Alexandria, the Secretaries of the Treasury, War, and Navy,
the Postmaster-General, the Commander of the army, the
Revolutionary officers present, the directors of the canal
company, and then by a great number of other persons.
After a few moments of repose, the procession again
formed, and returned to the boats, and by the way of the
canal back to the tide- water, where they re-embarked on
board the steam boats.
A cold collation was then partaken of on board the boats,
with a relish sharpened by exercise, and by the gratification,
free from the least particle of alloy, which the whole excur
sion and the incidents of the day had afforded to all.
At the table on the deck of the Surprize, the President
of the United States, being called upon for a toast, gave the
following :
" The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal — Perseverance ! "
The president of the canal company, on being called upon
for a sentiment, gave the following :
" The Constitution of the United States— The offspring
of mutual concession, may it be preserved by mutual for
bearance ! "
The Secretary of the Treasury, being also called on for a
toast, gave the following, which only spoke the universal
feeling :
" The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal — May its completion
BREAKING GROUND UPON THE CANAL. 391
be as productive of public benefits, as its commencement
has been of social pleasure."
By this time the steam boats had arrived opposite to
Georgetown ; and, after lying in the stream a few minutes,
proceeded down the river, and swept up to Davidson's
wharf, in the <?ity, where most of the passengers were landed,
at about half past two o'clock ; and the company dispersed
to their respective homes, with the kindest feelings in them
selves and to one another.
Thus ended the most delightful commemoration of this
eventful day that we have ever witnessed, and thus auspi
ciously was begun the work upon the Chesapeake and Ohio
.Janal.— Nttes' Register, Vol. 34, p. 325, 1828.
CONNELLSVILLE RAILROAD.
'EARLY HISTORY OF THE ROUTE — ITS SURVEY BY GENERAL
WASHINGTON — HE PREDICTS PENNSYLVANIAN OPPOSI
TION — PRESENT AND FUTURE OF THE ROAD.
At a late celebration [1871] at the town of Confluence, Pa., on the
Pittsburg, Connellsville, and Baltimore Eailroad. the venerable Hon.
Andrew Stewart was called upon for a speech. Remarkable interest
was excited by the address of the aged orator and life-long friend
of the new route.
MR. STEWART opened with a high and merited compli
ment to the town of Confluence, which, from its many local
advantages, must soon become an important mountain city.
With three converging rivers at this point, and where, no
doubt, three railroads would soon unite — one from the
South, and another from the North, and a third, the great
road whose completion we now celebrate, up the middle toe
of the Turkey foot. These rivers and roads would bring to
this highly favored point the rich agricultural, mineral, and
lumber supplies furnished by the mountains and valleys
traversed by the rivers and roads to which he had referred.
Mr. S. then went on at length to state many new and
very interesting facts, showing the great superiority of this
road over all other roads crossing the Alleghany Mountains,
as to distance, grades, safety, cheapness, etc.
The distance from Pittsburg to Washington was a fraction
less than 300 miles, and although it passed over nine moun
tains, which cross its pathway at right angles, yet, strange
to say, it has but a single summit, from which, descending
east and west, two graduated inclined planes, one following
the Youghiogany, at an average grade of thirteen feet per
mile, 120 miles to Pittsburg, never losing sight of the river
or crossing it once, and, of course, following the river could
have no ascending grades. The eastern plane, in like man
ner, descending from the same summit, by the waters of the
392
CONNELLSVILLE RAILROAD. 393
Potomac, 180 miles, at an average grade of twelve feet per
mile to Washington City. These were important facts,
showing the superiority of this line, which had never been
stated.
Nature had done much more for this route. She seems
to have made it on purpose for this road. In removing
these nine mountains, six west and three east of the summit,
nature had done more work to make a pathway for this road
than could have been done by all the men and money, mat
tocks and shovels, in the whole world in a hundred centu
ries ; but this is not all that nature has done for this her
favorite route. She has deposited at its single summit the
richest mines of coal and ore ever discovered, where an
eastern train having ascended from tide water, with a full
load to this summit, may take double the quantity from a
switch, which will follow on this descending grade of thir
teen feet per mile, without being felt by the engine or seen
by the engineer until it reaches Pittsburg ; and in like man
ner a western train may double its load with iron or coal at
this summit, and carry it to the tides of the ocean, aided by
gravity, without any increase of power or expense.
EFFECT OX MONOPOLY.
But there were other facts, he said, showing the great
superiority of this work, especially over its great rival and
enemy, the Pennsylvania road, a matter in which the people
are deeply interested. This fact was, that, since the opening
of this road, the Pennsylvania road had to reduce her charges
about one-third — 28 on travel, and 40 per cent, on freight,
making a clear gain to the people using this road of more
than half a million a month, or $6,000,000 a year. If such
are the effects of the competition of this road in a few weeks,
what will it be when it is finally finished and fully
equipped?
The Pennsylvania road having no longer the power to
take away our charter, the Supreme Court having pro
nounced "this outrageous legislation unconstitutional and
void ; they are now endeavoring to cut off our western con
nections by obtaining control of all the roads going west
ward from Pittsburg. In this they will be equally unsuc
cessful. Western connections for this road will soon be
opened, and, in the meantime, let the Pennsylvania road
and her subordinates bring the trade and travel to Pitts-
394 CONNELLSVILLE RAILROAD.
burg, where, being free to choose, they will take this road,
being the shortest, safest, and cheapest line, and, when it is
full, those it cannot accommodate will take the Pennsylvania
or some other route.
GENERAL WASHINGTON ON NATIONAL HIGHWAYS.
Mr. Stewart then went on to state a great variety of new
and highly interesting facts in reference to the origin and
early history of this route, which facts, he said, he had found
in a large box containing a bushel or more of the original
reports, letters, etc., in the handwriting and manuscripts of
General Washington, which had been handed over by him
shortly before his death to General John Mason, of George
town, his successor as president of the company having
charge of the work by which he (Washington) intended to
connect the East and West, by route of the Potomac and
Youghiogany rivers. Throughout these letters and reports,
addressed to the Legislatures of Virginia and Maryland,
members of Congress and others, he contended that roads
across the mountains were the only means of keeping the
East and West united ; without them, for many reasons, he
said, separation was inevitable.
Mr. Stewart had himself condensed the substance of these
papers in the supplement to a report on the subject made by
him to the nineteenth Congress, of which he was a member,
in 1826. It would then be seen that Washington, the first
year after the close of the revolutionary war, in 1784, not
only re-examined this route, but also, with a view to insti
tute a comparison with other routes, actually explored the
route of the New York Canal to the lakes ; also the line
of the Pennsylvania improvements, by the Juniata and Cone-
maugh, from Philadelphia to Pittsburg, and likewise the
route of the James river and Kanawha in Virginia, giving
the comparative advantages and distances of each, and pre
dicting their accomplishment; but he pronounced this the
shortest and in every way the best route, and with remark
able sagacity and foresight he predicted that the hostility of
the Pennsylvania Legislature might embarrass and delay the
passage of this work through this State, but said the people
of the western part of the State, so deeply interested, would
resist this unjust and illiberal policy, an*d "reiterate" their
just claims until they would finally succeed — which prophecy
has just been fulfilled.
COXNELLSVILLE RAILROAD. 395
FIRST SURVEY.
General Washington's first report of his examination of
this route was made to the Colonial Legislature of Virginia
in 1754, when he was only twenty-two years of age. In
the same year, with the aid of some Virginia volunteers, he
actually cut out this route from Cumberland to " Washing
ton's Meadows," five or six miles south of the Connellsville
road, at the Ohio Pyle Falls, when he was met and driven
back by 1100 French and Indians, after a three days' battle,
which ended by an honorable capitulation, on the 4th of
July, 117 years ago. Washington took out a warrant for
this tract of land, embracing "Fort Necessity/' his first
battle-field, and owned it to the day of his death. The next
year, in company with General Braddock, he aided in open
ing this road from "Fort Necessity" to " Braddock's
Fields/' near Pittsburg. General B. died of his wounds,
and was buried near " Fort Necessity," in the middle of
Braddock's road (to conceal the place of his interment from,
the enemy), where, in 1802, when a boy, Mr. S. saw his
bones disinterred in the presence of Thomas Fawcett, an old
mountain hunter, who pointed out the spot where Braddock
was buried, who then and always said he shot Braddock, for
driving his brother Joseph from behind a tree, and in order
to save the army, which was accomplished by Washington
taking command.
HIS LATER SURVEY.
As soon as Washington resigned his commission as com-
mander-in-chief, he mounted his war-horse, armed with
compass and chain, and dashed into the mountains, amid
savage beasts of prey, and Indians still more savage, and
made the maps and surveys to which he had referred, cross
ing the river about a mile above " Turkey Foot," where we
now stand. He then descended the river in a canoe to the
" Ohio Pyle Falls," with an Indian guide, who, on behold
ing the falls, exclaimed, "Ohio Pyle!" which, in English,
means " Beautiful Falls." Here they left their canoe, and
proceeded west by land. Shortly after this, Washington
was again called from this his favorite work, by his election
to the Presidency of the United States, but immediately on
surrendering this office, at the end of eight years, he resumed
the presidency of the company in charge of this work, and
prosecuted it unceasingly until he took a cold, resulting in
396 CONNELLSVILLE RAILROAD.
quinsy, which ended his glorious life. This work he com
menced at twenty-two, and he followed it up to the day of
his death.
MR. STEWART TAKES UP THE WORK.
Beginning where Washington quit, Mr. S. said, in 1821,
more than half a century ago, he asked Congress for an appro
priation of $30,000 to survey this route, but failed to satisfy
them of its practicability. To remove this difficulty, he got
James Shriver, an able civil engineer, with some other young
gentlemen to go with him to the summit level, and make
the surveys necessary to show the practicability of this work,
which he had printed, and placed a copy on every member's
table, when, at the next session, he succeeded in obtaining
the appropriation of $30,000. Mr. Calhoun, then Secretary
of War, immediately organized a corps of topographical en
gineers to make the surveys, commencing on the top of the
mount-aii), where, Mr. S. said, he afterwards met Mr. Cal
houn, and slept in a tent with him for several weeks. He
evinced the greatest interest in the work, and advocated the
construction of the summit section first, for the purpose of
showing its practicability, and securing its completion east
and west. After the completion of the surveys, liberal sub
scriptions of stock were made by Congress, the District
cities, Virginia, Maryland, and individuals, and on the 4th
of July, 1828, the first shovelful of earth was removed by
the hands of John Q. Adams, then President of the United
States, in the presence of the foreign ministers, heads of
departments, members of Congress, and a vast concourse of
people. This work was thus commenced as a canal at
Washington City, and prosecuted to completion as far as
Cumberland, at a cost of $11,000,000; here the canal was
superseded by the construction of a railroad, and opened as
such from Cumberland to Pittsburg, thus consummating
this great and favorite object of the " Father of his Country/7
connecting the East and West by the waters of the Potomac
and Youghiogany.
ENEMIES, AND FINAL TRIUMPH OVER THEM.
Mr. S. then went on, at some length, to speak of the nu
merous delays and embarrassments experienced by the com
pany from the jealousy and hostility of the Pennsylvania
Railroad, and also from the attempt of the president and
COXXELLSVILLE RAILROAD. 397
part of the stockholders to abandon the work and surrender
the charter, in which, after a protracted struggle, they were
fortunately defeated. If lost then, it would have been lost
forever.
Mr. S. said he had detained the meeting too long, but he
could not conclude without a word in reference to the gen
tlemen to whom we are most indebted for the completion of
this work. To John W. Garrett, he said, we are most in
debted, more than to any other man, living or dead ; next
to Mr. Garrett, to Mr. Hughart, the president, and Mr.
Latrobe, chief engineer, and their able corps of assistants.
Others, it is true, have done some of the wind work. Some
of us have helped to kindle the fire and blow the bellows,
but Mr. Garrett raised the money, he put the iron on the
anvil, while Messrs. Hughart, Latrobe, and assistants have
wielded the ponderous sledges and directed the powerful
blows that worked out this glorious result. He, therefore, in
conclusion, asked three times three united cheers for Garrett,
Hughart, Latrobe, and their assistants, which were given
with a heartiness and sincerity that showed the vast audience
was in entire sympathy with him.
PITTSBURG AND CONNELLSVILLE BRANCH ROADS.
In this connection, the following items of intelligence, from the
Cumberland (Md.) Neius, of the loth of August, show how rapidly
as well as effectually, the Connellsville Railroad is building up the
country along its route :
" The branch railroad from Mineral Point, on the Con
nellsville Railroad, to the town of Somerset, in Somerset
county, ten miles in length, has been graded and ballasted,
and the work of laying the rails was begun yesterday, and
will be completed by September 2d, if no unforseen event
occurs to interfere.
"The branch road from Garrett Station to Berline, in
Somerset county, distance eight miles, has been let, and is to
be completed within ninety days.
"A large part of the grading on the branch from Meyer's
Mills, near Dale City, to Salisbury, has been completed, and
the work is progressing quite vigorously." — Baltimore Sun,
Aug. 19, 1871.
LETTERS
RECOMMENDING THE PUBLICATION OF
ME. STEWART'S SPEECHES IN 1851.
[From Daniel Webster.]
MARSHFIELD, August 15th, 1851.
DEAR SIR : — I am glad to hear you contemplate publishing1 Mr.
Stewart's speeches on the tariff. I have heard or read most if not all
of them. They are able, plain, practical, original, and exhaustive,
adapted to the comprehension of the plainest people. Their pub
lication cannot fail to do a great deal of good, and will I doubt not
be received with public favor, and be extensively circulated arid
read. When published I will be pleased to purchase a number of
copies.
Yours respectfully,
D. WEBSTER.
[From Governor Hunt of New York.]
ALBANY, August 25th, 1851.
DEAR SIR : — I will render you any aid in my power in publishing
the speeches of the Hon. Andrew Stewart in favor of the protective
policy. Having heard most of his speeches in Congress I was enabled
to form a correct estimate of their merits. He was eminently success
ful in simplifying the tariff question, and making the practical ope
rations of the system perfectly plain to the most common under
standings.
Yours respectfully,
WASHINGTON HUNT.
[From Hon. Reverdy Johnson.]
SARATOGA SPRINGS, August 16th, 1851.
SIR: — Yours of the 2nd finds me here. The publication of Mr.
Stewart's speeches during his most useful and distinguished career
in Congress, which you are about to publish, will be a valuable
aquisition to the political knowledge of the country. To a mind
remarkably practicable and discriminating he has united untiring
industry, guided by a pure and enlightened patriotism. His labors
have been signally promotive of the great and true interests of the
nation, and I shall be surprised if the work is not received with
general favor throughout the country.
With regard, your obedient servant,
RKVERDY JOHNSON.
[With many others of like tenor.]
398
LETTERS. 399
[From Speaker Winthrop.]
WASHINGTON*, March 2nd, 1847.
GENTLEMEN : — I have the honor to acknowledge your letter of the
26th ult., inviting me to be present at a Public Dinner to be given
to the Hon. Andrew Stewart. I am deeply sensible of the fitness
of the compliment to the distinguished Representative from the
Eighteenth District of Pennsylvania. The labor of the whole
country owes him a debt of gratitude. No man in the Union has
asserted the claims of all branches of American industry, to the
fostering care of the Government, more ardently or more ably. New
England appreciates his services no less than Pennsylvania, and I
earnestly hope that some son of New England may be with you, to
express her sentiments on the occasion. For myself, I regret sin
cerely that indispensable engagements will deprive me of the plea
sure of availing myself of your very kind invitation.
I am, very respectfully,
your obliged friend and obedient servant,
ROBT. C. WlNTHROP.
Hon. E. Joy Morris, and others, Committee, etc.
[The above from speaker Winthrop, with many others of like
import from eminent members of the Senate, House, etc., was re
ceived and published, with the speeches and proceedings at the
dinner given complimentary to Mr. Stewart, in the Assembly build
ings, Philadelphia, on the 6th of March, 1847.]
INDEX.
Adams, John, on manufactures, 178.
John Q., on manufactures, 179.
remarks of, 383.
Administration, folly and extravagance
of, 35.
Ad valorem duties, effect of, 53.
Agricultural exports, 281.
population in 1810, 183.
produce consumed by manufac
turers, 189.
produce exported in. the form of
manufactures, 94.
produce, Great Britain the greatest
exporter of, in the world, 41.
produce imported in form of manu
factures, 40, 41, 42, 94.
produce in form of manufactures,
48.
interests of Pennsylvania need
protection of manufactures, 150.
produce, market furnished for, by
manufactures, 137.
produce taken by Great Britain,
174.
produce the great element in the
cost of iron, 111.
productions, value of, 281.
products imported in form of manu
factures, 232, 258.
products, effect of exchanging for
manufactured goods, 30.
Agriculture, importance of protection
to, 110.
how benefited by protection, 119,
120.
percentage of population engaged
in, 258.
the great object of the protective
policy, 238.
American agriculture, effect of the re
peal of the corn laws on, 45.
American and British markets for ag
ricultural produce, 40.
American competition, 22.
interests, 23.
labor, 96.
manufacturers, appeals of, 171.
manufactures to be destroyed,
269.
market, the struggle for, 146
26
American market broken down by for
eign rivals, 170.
market, contest for, 17.
market, importance of, to Great
Britain, 41.
policy, the true, 60.
principles, 18.
spirit, need of, 18.
system, 157.
system, reproach cast upon, 172.
system, tariff " and internal im
provement, 152.
Appropriations of 1846, 36.
Archer, Mr., of Va., on the effect of
protection, 151.
Argument on the tariff condensed, 295-
301.
Ashburton, Lord, speech of, 45.
Assumptions of the free traders, 87, 88.
Balance of trade, 32.
of trade under tariffs of 1842 and
1846, 195, 196.
of trade with Great Britain, 176.
Bankruptcies of Van Buren svstem,
127.
Bayley, Mr., of Va., 30, 44, 45, 48, 214.
Benton, Hon. T. H., 3.
" Bill of abominations," 34.
Elaine, Hon. J. G., letter to, 295.
Blankets, our dependence upon our
enemies for, 137.
Bonds exported, 31.
Breadstuff's exported under low tariffs,
199.
export of, 30.
imported in form of manufactures,
202.
Britain saved from bankrutcy by labor-
saving machinery, 29.
British and other foreign markets for
agricultural produce, 40, 41.
bill, 112.
Chancellor opposed to American
protection, 112.
doctrines, 205.
free-trade tariff of 1846, 60.
goods, object to open our ports to,
112.
imports of grain, where from, 45.
401
402
INDEX.
British influence, 49.
liberality, 90.
manufactures necessity for a mar
ket for, 142.
manufacturers in possession of the
Capitol, 49.
merchants remonstrating against
American protection, 254.
system of an American adminis
tration, 45. .
taxgatherers in America, 31.
Buchanan, Hon. James, 3, 134, 138, 145.
reply to, 152.
Calhoun, John C., 19.
and the tariff of 1816, 273.
the minimums of 1816, sustained
.by, 76.
Cambreleng, Mr., of New York, 145,
146, 149, 150, 182.
Canning, Mr., 167.
Capital, effect of protection on, 22.
Carey, Mathew, school of political
economy of, 147.
statistics of, 147.
Chapman, Henry C., on the effect of
the repeal of the corn laws, 46.
Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, breaking
ground of, 382-391.
General Washington on, 356, 374.
remarks of Mr. Stewart on break
ing ground of, 388.
report on, 354-374.
speech on, 375-381.
Clay, Henry, letter of, 71.
Cloth, agricultural produce in a yard,
159.
a product of agriculture, 134.
Commerce and navigation, protection
awarded to, 254.
Commerce dependent upon agriculture
and manufactures, 138.
Competition, American, 22.
Compromise tariff, ruin produced by, 31.
Connellsville Eailroad, early history of
route, 392.
Mr. Stewart's remarks, at celebra
tion, 392.
Consequences of policy foretold, 58.
Constitutional power, 229.
" Corn," " I acknowledge the," 189.
Corn laws, effect of the repeal of, 45.
effect of the repeal of on the far
mers of the United States, 91.
repealed in the interest of the
manufacturers, 50.
Cotton, American, necessary to Great
Britain, 186.
goods, British beaten out of their
own markets under protection, 22.
Great Britain would have to nay
cash for, 112.
home market for, 135, 151.
Cotton manufactures of Great Britain,
185.
production of, 286.
Cottons cheapened by protection, 150.
produced, 273.
Craig, James, letter to Gen. Washing
ton, 370.
Cumberland road bill, speech on, 302-
321.
remarks on, 344-353.
Currency, effect of change of tariff upon,
4o.
reduction of, in three years, 249.
Defence of the tariff and distribution,
104-128.
Democratic party, Mr. Stewart leaves,
154.
Dialogue, a, 206.
Distribution advocated, 123.
and the tariff, defence of, 104-128.
General Jaekson in favor of, 105.
law, 104.
Dromgoole, Mr., of Va., 106 , 107, 116.
Duncan, Mr., of Ohio, 123.
Dupin, Baron Charles, letter of, 71.
Duties added to the price not true, 117.
doubled in 1812, 35.
how proposed to be reduced, 121-
122.
levied for revenue increase prices,
21.
payment of, evaded, 141.
proposed reduction of, 109.
should be higher on manufactured
articles than on raw materials,
158.
Duty added to price, not true, 236.
added to the price, the free-trade
assumption of, 295.
not added to the price, 278.
producing highest revenue, 83, 84.
who pays ? 75.
East Indies, British discriminating du
ties in, 22.
Effect of protective duties on prices, 18.
Election of 1840, 127, 128.
Engineers to make surveys for roads
for Government, 333.
England anxious to reduce our tariff,
112.
labor-saving machinery in, 260.
repeal of duties by, 90.
to be allowed to monopolize labor-
saving machinery, 28.
tribute to, 260.
would give millions to secure an
American free-trade tariff, 269.
English import of wheat, 47.
European governments, protective sys
tems of, 42.
Europe, dependence on, 28.
INDEX.
403
Excise on American manufactures, pro
posed by Mr. Walker, 75, 80.
Expenditures of the government, 106,
107.
Expenditures under the Van Buren
and Whig systems, 225.
Exports and imports in 1815 and 16,
263.
and imports of north and south,
290.
to Great Britain, 1768 to 1774, 175.
under tariffs of 1842 and 1846, 195,
202.
Factories, ruins of, in Pennsylvania,
147.
Farmers and mechanics, a chapter for,
34.
benefit of tariff to, 42.
market, how increased, 257.
the friends of ! 44, 45.
Ficklin, Mr., of Illinois, 219.
Foreign debts contracted under free-
trade and paid off under protec
tion, 239.
market for agricultural produce,
smallness of, 136.
markets for grain, extent of, 46.
France, 142, 143, 259.
Free-trade agitation, effect of, in pre
venting improvements, 23.
and protective tariffs, revenue
under, 191.
and starvation, one and insepar
able, 32.
effect of, in Ireland, 30.
effect of, on labor and prices, 202,
210.
effects of, in Russia, 91.
gives our markets and our money
to foreigners, 17.
has ruined all countries which
have adopted it, 143.
monarchical, 116.
will level American laborers down
to the condition of those of Eu
rope, 116.
would reduce the most prosperous
country to the condition of the
most depressed, 273.
Freetraders challenged, 19, 21.
Fulton, Robert, 328.
Furnaces which would have been built
but for free-trade agitation, 23.
Gates, Gen. Horatio, and Gen. Wash
ington to assembly of Va., 371.
Gideon, I. and G., statement of, 71.
Grain imported into Great Britain, 45.
Great Britain an exporter of agricul
tural produce, 41.
competition of continental manu
factures with, 171.
Great Britain, manufactures and com
merce of, 139.
manufactures of, 162.
power derived from her diversified
industries, 176.
power to raise taxes, 176.
reduces her duties, 166, 167.
revenues of, 181.
taxes raised by, 139, 261.
the power to carry on the contest
with Napoleon came from her
manufactures, 139, 261.
what we buy from her, 148.
what she buys from us, 148.
Hamilton, Alexander, on manufactures,
179.
Hanway, Samuel, letter to Gen. Wash
ington, 371.
Harmony of interests, 138.
Harrisburg Convention, 172.
Hawkins, Mr., of Greene County, runs
against Andrew Stewart for Con
gress, 5.
Hemp, duty on, 145.
import of, 145.
High and low tariffs, exports and im
ports umler, 195-202.
Hoe, the, against the loom, 30.
Holland, effect of free-trade on, 259.
Holmes, Mr., of S. C., question put by,
25.
Home and foreign markets compared,
86.
for agricultural produce, 232.
Home market for agricultural produce,
magnitude of, 136.
importance of, 42.
Hunt, Washington, letter of, 398.
Huskisson, Mr., 147.
tariff bill of, 163-166.
Importers, frauds of, 170.
Import of agricultural produce in form
of manufactures, 40-44.
Imports, 232.
and duties 1845, 57.
dependent upon the prosperity of
the people, 140.
effect of increase of, 57.
from Great Britain 1768 to 1774,
175.
under tariffs of 1842 and 1846, 195,
202.
various 1828, 162.
Improvements prevented by free-trade
agitation, 23.
western, speech in favor of, 219-
247.
Increased prices not what is wanted
by the manufacturers, but in
creased market?, 77.
404
INDEX.
India, England protects, 166.
lugham, Hon. S. D., 134, 135, 138, 145,
151, 152.
Internal improvements, speeches on,
302-321, 322-332, 333-343.
Ireland and Portugal, 143, 259.
Ireland, effect of free-trade on, 30.
occupations of the people of, 187.
starvation in, 30.
the miseries of, 187.
Irishman, anecdote of, 30.
Iron, agricultural produce the great
element in the cost of, 111.
consumed in the U. S., 248.
duty on, 45.
imports of, 44.
proposed reduction of the duty
on, 248.
works during war of 1812-15, 252.
Italy, effect of free-trade on, 259.
Tackson, Andrew, on protection, 73.
in favor of distribution, 105.
on distribution, 126.
on protection, 92.
Jackson and Adams, presidential con
test between, 5.
Jameson, Mr., of Mo., 2J9, 231.
Jefferson, Thomas, on manufactures,
178.
on Ohio and Chesapeake Canal,
359.
on protection, 92, 93.
quoted, 37.
Johnson, Mr., of Tennessee, 75, 77.
on the navigation of the Potomac,
367.
Johnson, Reverdy, letter of, 398.
Kane, letter of Mr. Polk, 90.
Kennedy, Mr., of Ind., 219.
Kerr, Mr., of Ind., 295-299.
Labor, American, 96.
and wages, effect of free-trade on,
210.
the effect of free-trade on, 273.
effect of low duties on, 202.
effect of protection on, 22, 24.
in England, 142.
-saving machinery in England,
260.
the source of wealth, 39.
Land improved in value under protec
tion, 24.
Lands, proceeds of sales of public, 104.
Laurel Factory, 24.
Lowndes, Hon. W., of S. C., the mini-
mums of, 75.
Lowndes, Mr., 19.
McClernand, Mr., of 111., 202.
McDuffie, Mr., of S. C., 108, 145, 146,
148, 152, 153.
and others, speech in reply to, 268-
293.
his object to destroy American
manufactures, and build up
British, 269.
McKay, Mr., of N. C., 108, 113, 123.
rates of duties proposed by, 55.
Machinery, advantages of, 28.
Madison, James, on Chesapeake and
Ohio Canal, 359.
on manufactures, 179.
Manufactories, effect of, 90.
Manufacturers, profits of and protection
to, 89.
Manufactures, condition of, 159.
exports of, 48.
no country had ever flourished
without, 143.
the friends and enemies of, 172.
Market, American, contest for, 17.
for agricultural produce, destruc
tion of, 45.
for wool, how to create, 152.
Marshall, Chief Justice, 230.
Mason, Gen. John, letter of, 365.
Massachusetts an exporter of agricul
tural produce, 93.
Means, look to tariff for, 227.
Mechanics and farmers, a chapter for,
54.
Minimum on cotton, effect of, 135.
Minirnums of 1816, 75.
of Messrs. Lowndes and Calhoun,
19.
"Monopolies," 137.
Monopoly and monopolists, 86, 87.
Monopoly, how secured under free-
trade, 23.
Monroe, James, on manufactures, 179.
Mount Savage iron works, 24, 25.
National defence, roads as a means to,
307, 322.
Neiv England and not Old England
should be the great theatre of
manufactures, 144.
New England did not need protection,
23.
prospering because of manufac
tures, 28.
Nesselrode, Count, 142.
on the effects of free-trade on
Russia, 260.
New York, representation of, 27.
North Carolina and Virginia, repre
sentation of, 27.
Nullification, 291.
Occupations of the people of Great
Britain and the United States,
187.
INDEX.
405
Operations of the tariff bill, 57.
Oregon, giving up, 54.
Payne, Mr., of Alabama, 18, 72, 82.
Peace of 1815 brought ruin to iron
works, 252.
Peel, Sir Robert, 181.
appeal of, to lords and landlords,
50.
playing into the hands of, 54.
policy of, 49, 50.
Pennsylvania, agricultural produce of,
taken by Great Britain, 146.
debt of, 123.
flour consumed by New England,
149.
importance of protection to, 145,
146.
importance of the wool and woolen
interests to, 134.
on protection, 121.
ruins of factories in, 147.
would be ruined by the policy of
the administration, 85.
Pennsylvania's devotion to protection,
'146.
share of proceeds of sale of public
lands, 123.
Pittsburgh and Connellsville branch
roads, 397.
Poland, 259.
Policy, consequences of, foretold, 58.
of the South, 26.
Polk, Jas. K., 50.
message reviewed, 72-96.
on duties for revenue and protec
tion, 93.
quoted, 52, 80.
remarks in opposition to motion
of, 344-353.
Portugal and Ireland, 143, 251.
Potatoes, import of, 30.
Potomac Improvement Co., Gen.Wash-
ington President, 365.
President's message 1845, 72.
Press, comments and opinions of, 61-
70, 97-103, 129-133, 214-218,
293.
Price, duty not added to, 236.
not true that the duty is added to,
117.
Prices, effect of low duties on, 202.
effect of protective duties on, 18,
87, 235.
reduced below the duties, by pro
tection, 237.
reduced by protection, 135, 182,
296.
reduction of, under protection,
19.
Protection and independence the true
American policy, 32.
and the tariff, 230.
Protection, arguments against, 232.
causes increased domestic compe
tition, 77.
constitutionality of, 73, 74.
effect of, in reducing prices below
the duties, 75-78.
effect of, on prices, 235.
elevating effects of, 117.
Gen. Jackson on, 92.
gives no exclusive privileges, 25.
needed by the South and West, 23.
objections to, examined, 177.
of wool and woolen manufactures,
134-157.
secures our markets and our money
to ourselves, 17.
the health that gives being, life and
motion to industry, 250.
things to be considered in selecting
objects for, 169.
why necessary, 22, 23.
Protective duties always in the end
produced lower prices, 20, 21,
117.
effect of, 86, 87.
effect of, on prices, 18.
effect of, on prices and exports,
264.
Protective policy, agriculture the great
object of, 238.
in European countries, 142.
necessary, 170, 171.
speech in defence of, 17-61.
Protective tariff, a rampart thrown
around our national labor, 96.
Prosperity, national, 37.
results in the largest revenue, 84.
Public lands, fluctuations in proceeds
of the sales. 125.
Randolph, Mr., on the miseries of Ire
land, 187.
Reproach cast upon the American sys
tem, 172.
Republican party, Mr. Stewart joins,
154.
Repudiation under free-trade, 85.
Revenues and expenditures under pro
tection 1845, 89.
Revenue before tariff of 1824, 34.
effect of proposed bill upon, 32.
in 1836, 33.
in 1842, 33.
in 1845, 33.
standard of duty, 84.
surplus in 1832, 108.
the, dependent upon the prosperity
of the people, 140.
under tariff of 1824, 34.
under tariff of 1828, 34.
under tariff of 1842, 34, 35.
under tariffs of 1842 and 1846,
191.
406
INDEX.
Kevenue under the "compromise"
tariff of 1833, 34.
Ruin under free-trade and restoration of
prosperity under protection, 239.
Russia, 142, 143, 260.
free-trade and protection in, 260,
273.
imports from and exports to, 249.
the Emperor of, on the effects of
free-trade in Russia, 91.
Russian tariff of 1823, 142.
Semple, Mr., on the navigation of the
Potomac, 366.
Shriver, James, 375.
Sliding scale of duties for the ruin of
Americans, 52, 53, 80.
Smith, Adam, theories of, 147.
school of political economy, 147.
Smuggling, 141.
Mr. Ingham on, 151.
Spain, 143, 259.
Specie, imports of, under tariff of 1842,
112.
Specific duties become high ad valo-
rems by decline in the prices of
the protected articles, 76, 78, 79,
117.
Spirits, British duty on, 112.
duty on, 145.
imported, 122.
import of, 145.
South and West most needed protec
tion, 23.
South, does protection tax the? 25.
poor because it does not diversify
its industries, 26.
the, appealed to, 143.
the, policy of, 26.
why does it not engage in manu
factures? 25.
would become prosperous by ma
nufactures, 27.
Stephenson, Mr., 145.
Steubenville woolen factory, 137, 140.
Stevenson, Mr., 167, 168,172.
Stewart, Andrew, a candidate for the
Vice Presidency, 3.
and the Uniontown Soldiers Or
phan School, 7.
birth and parentage of, 3.
business enterprise of, 6.
district attorney of the U. S., 3.
elected to Congress, 3.
elected to the legislature, 3.
leaves the Democratic party, 5.
marriage of, 6.
on the American system, 4.
positions held in Congress, 4.
recommended for Secretary of the
Treasury, 4.
re-elected to Congress in a demo
cratic district, 5.
Stewart, Andrew, defence against at
tack of Mr.Weller, 240.
early interest in route of the Con-
nellsville railroad, 396.
re-elected to Congress, a Republi
can, 154.
remarks of, on breaking ground
of Chesapeake and Ohio Canal,
388.
Stewart, Lieut. Com. U. S. N., 6.
Tariff a great and absorbing question,
59.
and distribution, defence of, 104-
128.
and protection, 230.
argument condensed, 295-301.
benefit of, to farmers, 42.
bill, proposed, provisions of, 159.
democratic, 116.
effect of, on labor and capital, 22.
look to, for means, 227.
may be made prolific of blessings
to the people, 35.
of 1824, effects of, 182.
of 1824, speech in favor of, 248-
267.
of 1828, speech in opposition to
repeal of, 268-293.
of 1842, a delivering angel, 85.
of 1842 ought not to be disturbed,
72.
of 1842, proposed repeal of, 113.
of 1842, revenue under, 106.
of 1842, surplus revenue under, 36.
Tariffs of 1842 and 1846 contrasted,
191-214.
Taxation, 30.
and repudiation, 105.
Taxes levied upon us by Britain, 31.
Taylor, President, nomination of, 3.
Title, proper, for proposed tariff, 54.
Tobacco, British duty on, 112.
Treasury report 1845, 72.'
Uniontown, speech at, 155.
Soldiers Orphans School, 7.
Van Buren, Martin, 105, 106, 107, 123,
219, 237, 239.
on proper rates of duties, 123.
on protective duties, 120, 121.
Van Burcn system, 222.
effect of, on Interior and Western
States, 219.
Van Buren and Whig systems, 126.
expenditures under, 225.
Wages an element in competition be
tween countries, 38.
as an element in competition be
tween people, 82.
effect pf free-trade on, 210.
INDEX.
407
"Wages, effect of the reduction of duties
upon, 55.
Walker, Hon. R. J., absurdities in re
port of, 32, 47.
converted Great Britain and other
countries to free-trade, 213.
object to break down American
manufactures and increase the
import of British, 51, 52.
on the necessity of our importing
British goods, 91.
policy of, 29, 32, 51, 52, 56, 57, 77.
rates of duties proposed by, 55.
recommends an excise on Ame
rican manufactures, 75, 80.
report, an extraordinary document,
72.
on the substitution of American
products for foreign, 29, 52.
report printed by order of the
House of Lords, 50, 52, 205, 213.
report quoted, 29.
reports reviewed, 29, 32, 41, 45,
47, 51, 72-96, 191-214.
would increase the revenue by re
ducing the duties, 32.
War debt paid by the protective sys
tem, 222.
Washington, Gen., early interest in
Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, 356-
374.
first survey of, 395.
letters of, 367-374.
on internal improvements, 356-
374.
on manufactures, 178.
on national highways, 394.
on the navigation of the Potomac,
366-374.
Ways and Means, plans of the Com
mittee, 108.
Ways and Means, report of the Com
mittee, 114.
Webster, Daniel, denounces protection.
259.
on commerce and navigation, 254.
on protection and free-trade, 262,
263.
letter of, 398.
Weller, Mr., defence against the attack
of, 240.
Wellington, Duke of, on free-trade in
England, 90.
Western and Interior States, effect of
Van Buren system on, 219.
Western improvements, speech in favor
of, 219-247.
Western representatives opposin^ pro
tection, 230.
Western rivers, 228.
Wheat exported to Great Britain, 47.
Whig and Van Buren systems, 126.
Whig congress, what it did for the
country, 225.
Whig system, 222.
Wickliffe, Mr., of Ky, 145, 190.
Winthrop, Hon. R. C., 240.
letter of, 399.
Wool and woolens, 43.
imports of, 145, 158.
Wool and woolen manufactures, pro
tection of, 134-157.
Wool, duties collected on, 168.
fine, in the United States, 152.
Woolen factories, capital invested in.
136.
Woolen manufactures, protection of.
134-157.
Woolens, coarse, duty on, 168.
Woolens produced, 273.
Workingrnen, chapter for, 37.
Wright, Mr., of N. Y., 167, 169.
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To which are added a series of practically useful Agreements
and Reports. By JOHN BLENKARN. Illustrated by fifteen
large folding plates. 8vo. . . . . . $9 00
•DLINN.— A PRACTICAL WORKSHOP COMPANION FOR TIN,
-0 SHEET-IRON, AND COPPER-PLATE WORKERS :
Containing Rules for Describing various kinds of Patterns
used by Tin, Sheet-iron, and Copper-plate Workers ; Practical
Geometry; Mensuration of Surfaces and Solids; Tables of the
Weight of Metals, Lead Pipe, etc. ; Tables of Areas and Cir
cumferences of Circles ; Japans, Varnishes, Lackers, Cements,
Compositions, etc. etc. By LEROY J. BLINN, Master Me
chanic. With over One Hundred Illustrations. 12mo. $250
HENRY CAREY LAIRD'S CATALOGUE.
pDOTH.-MARBLE WORKER'S MANUAL:
Containing Practical Information respecting Marbles in gene
ral, their Cutting, Working, and Polishing ; Veneering of
Marble ; Mosaics ; Composition and Use of Artificial Marble,
Stuccos, Cements, Receipts, Secrets, etc. etc. Translated
from the French by M. L. BOOTH. With an Appendix con
cerning American Marbles. 12mo., cloth . . $1 50
•DOOTH AND MORFIT.—THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF CHEMISTRY,
° PRACTICAL AND THEORETICAL :
Embracing its application to the Arts, Metallurgy, Mineralogy,
Geology, Medicine, and Pharmacy. By JAMES C. BOOTH,
Melter and Refiner in the United States Mint, Professor of
Applied Chemistry in the Franklin Institute, etc., assisted by
CAMPBELL MORFIT, author of "Chemical Manipulations," etc.
Seventh edition. Complete in one volume, royal 8vo., 978
pages, with numerous wood-cuts and other illustrations. $5 00
pOWDITCH.— ANALYSIS, TECHNICAL VALUATION, PURIFI-
-° CATION, AND USE OF COAL GAS :
By Rev. W. R. BOWDITCH. Illustrated with wood engrav
ings. 8vo $6 50
•DOX.— PRACTICAL HYDRAULICS:
A Series of Rules and Tables for the use of Engineers, etc.
By THOMAS Box. 12mo. $2 50
TjUCKMASTER.— THE ELEMENTS OF MECHANICAL PHYSICS :
By J. C. BUCKMASTER, late Student in the Government School
of Mines ; Certified Teacher of Science by the Department of
Science and Art ; Examiner in Chemistry and Physics in the
Royal College of Preceptors ; and late Lecturer in Chemistry
and Physics of the Royal Polytechnic Institute. Illustrated
with numerous engravings. In one vol. 12mo. . $1 50
TMJLLOCK.— THE AMERICAN COTTAGE BUILDER :
A Series of Designs, Plans, and Specifications, from $200 to
to $20,000 for Homes for the People ; together with Warm
ing, Ventilation, Drainage, Painting, and Landscape Garden
ing. By JOHN BULLOCK, Architect, Civil Engineer, Mechani
cian, and Editor of " The Rudiments of Architecture and
Building," etc. Illustrated by 75 engravings. In one vol.
8vo $3 50
HENRY CAREY BAIRD'S CATALOQtrB.
DTJLLOCK. — THE RUDIMENTS OF ARCHITECTURE AND
D BUILDING:
For the use of Architects, Builders, Draughtsmen, Machin
ists, Engineers, and Mechanics. Edited by JOHN BULLOCK,
author of " The American Cottage Builder." Illustrated by
250 engravings. In one volume 8vo. . . . $3 50
•DURGH.— PRACTICAL ILLUSTRATIONS OF LAND AND MA-
•° RINE ENGINES :
Showing in detail the Modern Improvements of High and Lovr
Pressure, Surface Condensation, and Super-heating, together
•with Land and Marine Boilers. By N. P. BURGH, Engineer.
Illustrated by twenty plates, double elephant folio, with text.
$21 00
•p-JRGH.— PRACTICAL RULES FOR THE PROPORTIONS OF
D MODERN ENGINES AND BOILERS FOR LAND AND MA
RINE PURPOSES.
By N. P. BURGH, Engineer. 12mo. . . . $2 00
TVJRGH.— THE SLIDE-VALVE PRACTICALLY CONSIDERED :
By N. P. BURGH, author of " A Treatise on Sugar Machinery,"
"Practical Illustrations of Land and Marine Engines," "A
Pocket-Book of Practical Rules for Designing Land and Ma
rine Engines, Boilers," etc. etc. etc. Completely illustrated.
12mo $2 00
TDYRN.— THE COMPLETE PRACTICAL BREWER :
Or, Plain, Accurate, and Thorough Instructions in th« Art of
Brewing Beer, Ale, Porter, including the Process of making
Bavarian Beer, all the Small Beers, such as Root-beer, Ginger-
pop, Sarsaparilla-beer, Mead, Spruce beer, etc. etc. Adapted
to the use of Public Brewers and Private Families. By M. LA
FAYETTE BYRN, M. D. With illustrations. 12mo. $1 25
•DYR?*.— THE COMPLETE PRACTICAL DISTILLER :
Comprising the most perfect and exact Theoretical and Prac
tical Description of the Art of Distillation and Rectification ;
including all of the most recent improvements in distilling
apparatus ; instructions for preparing spirits from the nume
rous vegetables, fruits, etc. ; directions for the distillation and
Dreparation of all kinds of brandies and other spirits, spiritu
ous and other compounds, etc. etc. ; all of which is so simpli
fied that it is adapted not only to the use of extensive distil
lers, but for every farmer, or others who may wish to engage
in the art of distilling By M. LA FAYETTE BYRN, M. D.
With numerous engravings. In one volume, 12mo. $1 50
HEXRY CAREY BAIRD'S CATALOGUE.
pYRNE.— POCKET BOOK FOB RAILROAD AND CIVIL
** NEERS:
Containing New, Exact, and Concise Methods for Laying out
Railroad Curves, Switches, Frog Angles and Crossings; the
Staking out of work; Levelling; the Calculation of Cut
tings; Embankments; Earth-work, etc. By OLIVER BYRNE.
Illustrated, ISmo,, full bound . . . . . $1 75
BYRNE.— THE HANDBOOK FOR THE ARTISAN, MECHANIC,
AND ENGINEER :
By OLIVER BYRNE. Illustrated by 185 Wood Engravings. Svo.
$5 00
TDYRNE.— THE ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS OF PRACTICAL ME-
•° CHANICS :
For Engineering Students, based on the Principle of Work.
By OLIVER BYRNE. Illustrated by Numerous Wood Engrav
ings, 12mo. , $3 63
TDYRNE.— THE PRACTICAL METAL-WORKER'S ASSISTANT:
Comprising Metallurgic Chemistry ; the Arts of Working all
Metals and Alloys ; Forging of Iron and Steel ; Hardening and
Tempering ; Melting and Mixing ; Casting and Founding ;
Works in Sheet Metal; the Processes Dependent on the
Ductility of the Metals ; Soldering ; and the most Improved
Processes and Tools employed by Metal-Workers. With the
Application of the Art of Electro-Metallurgy to Manufactu
ring Processes; collected from Original Sources, and from the
Works of Holtzapffel, Bergeron, Leupold, Plumier, Napier, and
others. By OLIVER BYRNE. A New, Revised, and improved
Edition, with Additions by John Scoflern, M. B , William Clay,
Wm. Fairbairn, F. R. S., and James Napier. With Five Hun
dred and Ninety-two Engravings ; Illustrating every Branch
of the Subject. In one volume, Svo. 652 pages . $7 00
T)YRNE.— THE PRACTICAL MODEL CALCULATOR:
For the Engineer, Mechanic, Manufacturer of Engine Work,
Naval Architect, Miner, and Millwright. By OLIVER BYRNE.
1 volume, 8vo., nearly 600 pages . . . . $4 50
TDEMROSE.— MANUAL OF WOOD CARVINS : With Practical II-
lustnniions for Learners of the Art, and Original and Selected de-
eigris. By WILLIAM BEMHOSE, Jr. With an Introduction by
LLEWELLYN JEWJTT, F. S. A., etc. With 128 Illustrations. 4to..
cloth $3 00
HENRY CAREY BAIRD'S CATALOGUE.
•DAIRD.— PROTECTION OF HOME LABOR AND HOME PRO-
•° DUCTIONS NECESSARY TO THE PROSPERITY OF THE
AMERICAN FARMER :
By HENRY CAREY BAIRD. 8vo., paper . 10
•DAIRD.— THE RIGHTS OF AMERICAN PRODUCERS, AND THE
WRONGS OF BRITISH FREE TRADE REVENUE REFORM.
By HENRY CAREY BAIRD. (1870) .... 5
T)AIRD.— SOME OF THE FALLACIES OF BRITISH-FREE-TRADE
U REVENUE-REFORM.
Two Letters to Prof. A. L. Perry, of Williams College, Mass. By
HENRY CAREY BAIRD. (1871.) Paper .... 5
•DAIRD .—STANDARD WAGES COMPUTING TABLES :
An Improvement in all former Methods of Computation, so ar
ranged that wages for days, hours, or fractions of hours, at a spe
cified rate per day or hour, may be ascertained at a glance. By
T. SPANGLER BAIRD. Oblong folio . . . . .$500
•DAUERMAN.— TREATISE ON THE METALLURGY OF IRON.
Illustrated. 12mo. . . . . . . . $2 50
•DICKNELL',S VILLAGE BUILDER.
*° 55 large plates. 4to $10 00
•pISHOP.— A HISTORY OF AMERICAN MANUFACTURES:
From 1608 to 1866 j exhibiting the Origin and Growth of the Prin
cipal Mechanic Arts and Manufactures, from the Earliest Colonial
Period to the Present Time ; By J. LEANDER BISHOP, M. D., ED
WARD YOUNG, and EDWIN T. FREEDLEY. Three vols. 8vo.,
$10 00
TjOX.— A PRACTICAL TREATISE ON HEAT AS APPLIED TO
° THE USEFUL ARTS :
For the use of Engineers, Architects, ete. By THOMAS Box, au
thor of "Practical Hydraulics." Illustrated by 14 plates, con
taining 114 figures. 12mo>. ...... $4 25
QABINET MAKER'S ALBUM OF FURNITURE :
Comprising a Collection of Designs for the Newest and Most
Elegant Styles of Furniture. Illustrated by Forty-eight Large
and Beautifully Engraved Plates. In one volume, oblong
$5 00
QHAPMAN.— A TREATISE ON ROPE-MAKING :
As practised in private and public Rope-yards, with a Description
of the Manufacture, Rules, Tables of Weights, etc., adapted to the
Trade ; Shipping, Mining, Railways, Builders, etc. By ROBERT
CHAPMAN. 24mo, . .,»... $1 50
HENRY CAREY BAIRD'S CATALOGUE.
nRAIK.— THE PRACTICAL AMERICAN MILLWRIGHT AND
U MILLER. .
Comprising the Elementary Principles of Mechanics, Me
chanism, and Motive Power, Hydraulics and Hydraulic
Motors, Mill-dams, Saw Mills, Grist Mills, the Oat Meal Mill,
the Barley Mill, Wool Carding, and Cloth Fulling and Dress
ing, Wind Mills, Steam Power, &c. By DAVID CRAIK, Mill
wright. Illustrated by numerous wood engravings, and five
folding plates. 1 vol. 8vo. . . . . $5 00
pAMPIN.— A PRACTICAL TREATISE ON MECHANICAL EN-
U GINEERING:
Comprising Metallurgy, Moulding, Casting, Forging, Tools,
Workshop Machinery, Mechanical Manipulation, Manufacture
of Steam-engines, etc. etc. With an Appendix on the Ana
lysis of Iron and Iron Ores. By FRANCIS CAMPIN, C. E. Ta
which are added, Observations on the Construction of Steam
Boilers, and Remarks upon Furnaces used for Smoke Preven
tion ; with a Chapter on Explosions. By R. Armstrong, C. E.,
and John Bourne. Rules for Calculating the Change Wheels
for Screws on a Turning Lathe, and for a Wheel-cutting
Machine. By J. LA NICCA. Management of Steel, including
Forging, Hardening, Tempering, Annealing, Shrinking, and!
Expansion. And the Case-hardening of Iron. By G. EDE.
8vo. Illustrated with 29 plates and 100 wood engravings.
$6 00
pAMPIN.— THE PRACTICE OF HAND-TURNING IN WOOD,
U IVORY, SHELL, ETC.:
With Instructions for Turning such works in Metal as may be
required in the Practice of Turning Wood, Ivory, etc. Also
an Appendix on Ornamental Turning. By FRANCIS CAMPIN ,
with Numerous Illustrations, 12mo., cloth . . $3 00
n APRON DE DOLE — DTJSSAUCE.— BLUES AND CARMINES OF
^ INDIGO.
A Practical Treatise on the Fabrication of every Commercial
Product derived from Indigo. By FELICIEN CAPRON DE DOLE.
Translated, with important additions, by Professor H. Dus-
6AUCE. 12mo«
8 HENRY CAREY BAIRD'S CATALOGUE.
rjAREY.— THE WOKKS OF HENRY C. CAEEY :
CONTRACTION OR EXPANSION? REPUDIATION OR RE
SUMPTION? Letters to Hon. Hugh McCulloch. 8vo. 38
FINANCIAL CRISES, their Causes and Effects. 8vo. paper
25
HARMONY OF INTERESTS; Agricultural, Manufacturing,
and Commercial. 8vo., paper . . . . . $1 00
Do. do. cloth . . . $1 50
LETTERS TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.
Paper $1 00
MANUAL OF SOCIAL SCIENCE. Condensed from Carey's
"Principles of Social Science." By KATE MCK.EAN. 1 vol.
12mo $2 25
MISCELLANEOUS WORKS: comprising "Harmony of Inter
ests," "Money," "Letters to the President," "French and
American Tariffs," "Financial Crises," "The Way to Outdo
England -without Fighting Her," "Resources of the Union,"
"The Public Debt," "Contraction or Expansion," "Review
of the Decade 1857 — '67," "Reconstruction," etc. etc. 1 vol.
8vo., cloth $4 50
MONEY: A LECTURE before the N. Y. Geographical and Sta
tistical Society. 8vo., paper ..... 25
PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE. 8vo. . . . $2 50
PRINCIPLES OF SOCIAL SCIENCE. 3 volumes Svo.; cloth
$10 00
REVIEW OF THE DECADE 1857— '67. 8vo., paper 50
RECONSTRUCTION : INDUSTRIAL, FINANCIAL, AND PO
LITICAL. Letters to the Hon. Henry Wilson, U. S. S. 8vo,
paper . 50
THE PUBLIC DEBT, LOCAL AND NATIONAL. How to
provide for its discharge while lessening the burden of Taxa
tion. Letter to David A. Wells, Esq., U. S. Revenue Commis
sion. 8vo., paper ....... 25
THE RESOURCES OF THE UNION. A Lecture read, Dec.
1865, before the American Geographical and Statistical So
ciety, N. Y., and before the American Association for the Ad
vancement of Social Science, Boston ... 50
THE SLAVE TRADE, DOMESTIC AND FOREIGN; Why it
Exists, and How it may be Extinguished. 12mo., cloth §1 50
HENRY CAREY BAIRD'S CATALOGUE. 9
LETTERS ON INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT. (1867.)
Paper . • . 50
KEVIEW OF THE FARMERS' QUESTION. (1870.) Paper 25
RESUMPTION! HOW IT MAY PROFITABLY BE BROUGHT
AROUT. (1869.) 8vo., paper .... 50
REVIEW OF THE REPORT OF HON. D. A. WELLS, Special
Commissioner of the Revenue. (18G9.) 8vo., paper 50
SHALL WE HAVE PEACE? Peace Financial and Peace Poli
tical. Letters to the President Elect. (1808.) 8vo., paper 50
THE FINANCE MINISTER AND THE CURRENCY, AND
THE PUBLIC DEBT. (18G8.) 8vo., paper . . 50
THE WAY TO OUTDO ENGLAND WITHOUT FIGHTING
HER. Letters to Hon. Schuyler Colfax. (1865.) STO., paper
$1 00
WEALTH ! OF WHAT DOES IT CONSIST ? (1870.) Paper 25
QAMTJS.— A TREATISE ON THE TEETH OF WHEELS :
Demonstrating the best forms which can be given to them for the
purposes of Machinery, guch as Mill-work and Clock-work. Trans
lated from the French of M. CAMUS. By JOHN I. HAWKINS.
Illustrated by 40 plates. 8vo $3 00
pOXE.— MINING LEGISLATION.
A paper read before the Am. Social Science Association. By
ECKLEY B. COXB. Paper 20
pOLBTJRN.—THE GAS-WORKS OF LONDON:
Comprising a sketch of the Gas-works of the city, Process of
Manufacture, Quantity Produced, Cost, Profit, etc. By ZERAH
COLBURN. 8vo., cloth 75
pOLBURN.— THE LOCOMOTIVE ENGINE :
Including a Description of its Structure, Rules for Estimat
ing its Capabilities, and Practical Observations on its Construc
tion and Management. By ZEHAII COLBURN. Illustrated. A
new edition. 12mo. . . . . . . $1 25
pOLBURN AND MAW.— THE WATER- WORKS OF LONDON :
Together with a Series of Articles on various other Water
works. By ZERAH COLBURN and W. MAW. Reprinted from
"Engineering." In one volume, 8vo. . . $4 00
DA.GT7ERREOTYPIST AND PHOTOGRAPHER'S COMPANION :
12mo., cloth $1 25
10 HENRY CAREY BAIRD'S CATALOGUE.
T) TUCKS.— PERPETUAL MOTION :
Or Search for Self-Motive Power during the 17th, 18th, and
19th centuries. Illustrated from various authentic sources in
Papers, Essays, Letters, Paragraphs, and numerous Patent
Specifications, -with an Introductory Essay by HENRY DIRCKS,
C. E. Illustrated by numerous engravings of machines.
12mo., cloth $3 50
TjTXON.— THE PRACTICAL MILLWRIGHT'S AND ENGINEER'S
" GUIDE :
Or Tables for Finding the Diameter and Power of Cogwheels ;
Diameter, Weight, and Power of Shafts ; Diameter and Strength
of Bolts, etc. etc. By THOMAS DIXON. 12mo., cloth. $1 50
TpNC AN,— PRACTICAL SURVEYOR'S GUIDE:
Containing the necessary information to make any person, of
common capacity, a finished land surveyor without the aid of
a teacher. By ANDREW DUNCAN. Illustrated. 12mo., cloth.
$1 25
TVJSSAUCE.— A NEW AND COMPLETE TREATISE ON THE
** ARTS OF TANNING, CURRYING, AND LEATHER DRESS-
ING:
Comprising all the Discoveries and Improvements made in
France, Great Britain, and the United States. Edited from
Notes and Documents of Messrs. Sallerou, Grouvelle, Duval,
Dessables, Labarraque, Payen, Rend, De Fontenelle, Mala*
peyre, etc. etc. By Prof. H. DUSSAUCE, Chemist. Illustrated
by 212 wood engravings. 8vo $10 00
TjUSSAUCE — A GENERAL TREATISE ON THE MANUFACTURE
•^ OF SOAP, THEORETICAL AND PRACTICAL:
Comprising the Chemistry of the Art, a Description of all the Raw
Materials and their Uses. Directions for the Establishment of a
Sonp Factory, with the necessary Apparatus, Instructions in the
Manufacture of every variety of Soap, the Assay and Determination
of the Value of Alkalies, Fatty Substances, Soaps, etc. etc. By
PROFESSOR H. DUSSAUCE. With an Appendix, containing Ex
tracts from the Reports of the International Jury on Soaps, as
exhibited in the Paris Universal Exposition, 1867, numerous
Tables, etc. etc. Illustrated by engravings. In one volume 8vo.
of over 800 pages $1000
TJTTSSAUCE.— PRACTICAL TREATISE ON THE FABRICATION
•L/ OF MATCHES, GUN COTTON, AND FULMINATING POW
DERS,
T.y Professor II. DUSSAUCE. 12mo. . . . $3 00
HENRY CAREY BAIRD'S CATALOGUE. 71
JQTJSSAUCE.— A PRACTICAL GUIDE FOR THE PERFTJMEE:
Being a New Treatise on Perfumery the most favorable to the
Beauty without being injurious to the Health, comprising a
Description of the substances used in Perfumery, the Form
ulae of more than one thousand Preparations, such as Cosme
tics, Perfumed Oils, Tooth Powders, Waters, Extracts, Tinc
tures, Infusions, Yinaigres, Essential Oils, Pastels, Creams,
Soaps, and many new Hygienic Products not hitherto described.
Edited from Notes and Documents of Messrs. Debay, Lunel,
etc. With additions by Professor H.DUSSAUCE, Chemist. 12mo.
$3 00
nUSSAUCE.— A GENEEAL TEEATISE ON THE MANTTFACTUEE
** OF VINEGAE, THEOEETICAL AND PEACTICAL.
Oomprising the various methods, by the slow and the quick pro
cesses, with Alcohol, Wine, Grain, Cider, and Molasses, as wel\
as the Fabrication of Wood Vinegar, etc. By Prof. H. DUSSAUCE.
I2mo. $5 00
nUPLAIS.— A COMPLETE TEEATISE ON THE DISTILLATION
U AND MANTTFACTUEE OF ALCOHOLIC LIQUOES :
From the French of M. DUPLAIS. Translated and Edited by M.
McKEXXiE, M D. Illustrated by numerous large plates and wood
engravings of the best apparatus calculated for producing the
finest products. In one vol. royal 8vo. $10 00
Q^r" This is a treatise of the highest scientific merit and of the
greatest practical value, surpassing in these respects, as well as
in the variety of its contents, any similar volume in the English
language.
TYE GRAFF.— THE GEDMETEICAL STAIR-BTJILDEHS' GUIDE:
Being a Plain Practical System of Hand-Railing, embracing all
its necessary Details, and Geometrically Illustrated by 22 Steel
Engravings ; together with the use of the most approved princi
ples of Practical Geometry. By SIMON Ds GRAFF, Architect.
4to $5 00
TYTER AND COLOE-M AXES' S COMPANION :
Containing upwards of two hundred Receipts for making Co
lors, on the most approved principles, for all the various styles
and fabrics now in existence ; with the Scouring Process, and
plain Directions for Preparing, Washing-off, and Finishing tho
Groods. In one vol. 12mo. . . .. . . §1 25
12 HENRY CAREY BAIRD'S CATALOGUE.
•PASTON.— A PRACTICAL TREATISE ON STREET OR HORSE-
** POWER RAILWAYS :
Their Location, Construction, and Management ; with General
Plans and Rules for their Organization and Operation ; toge
ther with Examinations as to their Comparative Advantages
over the Omnibus System, and Inquiries as to their Value for
Investment; including Copies of Municipal Ordinances relat
ing thereto. By ALEXANDER EASTON, C. E. Illustrated by 23
plates, 8vo., cloth $2 00
pORSYTH.— BOOK OF DESIGXS FDR HEAD-STONES, MURAL,
C AND OTHER MONUMENTS :
Containing 78 Elaborate and Exquisite Designs. By FORSYTE.
4to., cloth $5 00
*^* This volume, for the beauty and variety of its designs, has
never been surpassed by any publication of the kind, and should
be in the hands of every marble-worker who does fine monumental
work.
pAIRBAIRN.— THE PRINCIPLES OF MECHANISM AND MA-
1 CHINERY OF TRANSMISSION :
Comprising the Principles of Mechanism, Wheels, and Pulleys,
Strength and Proportions of Shafts, Couplings of Shafts, and
Engaging and Disengaging Gear. By WILLIAM FAIRBAIRN,
Esq., C. E., LL. D., F. R. S., F. G. S., Corresponding Member
of the National Institute of France, and of the Royal Academy
of Turin ; Chevalier of the Legion of Honor, etc. etc. Beau
tifully illustrated by over 150 wood-cuts. In one volume 12mo.
$2 50
pAIRBAIRN.— PRIME-MOVERS :
Comprising the Accumulation of Water-power; the Construc
tion of Water-wheels and Turbines; the Properties of Steam;
the Varieties of Steam-engines and Boilers and Wind-mills.
By WILLIAM FAIRBAIRN, C. E , LL. D., F. R. S., F. G. S. Au
thor of "Principles of Mechanism and the Machinery of Trans
mission." With Numerous Illustrations. In one volume. (la
press.)
niLBART.— A PRACTICAL TREATISE ON BANKING:
By JAMES WILLIAM GILBART. To which is added: THE NA
TIONAL BANK ACT AS NOW IN FORCE. 8vo. . . $4 50
pESNER.— A PRACTICAL TREATISE ON COAL, PETROLEUM,
W AND OTHER DISTILLED OILS.
By ABRAHAM GESNER,M. D., F. G. S. Second edition, revised
and enlarged. By GEORGE WELTDEN GESNER, Consulting
Chemist and Engineer. Illustrated. 8vo. . . £3 50
HEFRT CAREY BAIRD'S CATALOGUE. 13
QOTHIC ALBUM FOE CABINET MAKERS :
Comprising a Collection of Designs for Gothic Furniture. Il
lustrated by twenty-three large and beautifully engraved
plates. Oblong $3 00
nBANT.— BEET-BOOT SUGAR AND CULTIVATION OF THE
W BEET:
By E. B. GRANT. 12mo $1 25
QBEGOBY .— MATHEMATICS FOB PBACTICAL MEN :
Adapted to the Pursuits of Surveyors, Architects, Mechanics,
and Civil Engineers. By OLINTHUS GREGORY. 8vo., plates,
cloth $3 00
Q.BISWOLD.— BAILBOAD ENGINEEB'S POCKET COMPANION.
Comprising Rules for Calculating Deflection Distances and
Angles, Tangential Distances and Angles, and all Necessary
Tables for Engineers ; also the art of Levelling from Prelimi
nary Survey to the Construction of Railroads, intended Ex
pressly for the Young Engineer, together with Numerous Valu
able Rules and Examples. By W. GRISWOLD. 12mo., tucks.
$1 75
nUETTIEB.— METALLIC ALLOYS :
Being a Practical Guide to their Chemical and Physical Pro
perties, their Preparation, Composition, and Uses. Translated
from the French of A. GUETTIER, Engineer and Director of
Founderies, author of "La Fouderie en France," etc. etc. By
A. A. FESQUET, Chemist and Engineer. In one volume, 12mo.
$300
TTATS AND FELTING:
A Practical Treatise on their Manufacture. By a Practical
Hatter. Illustrated by Drawings of Machinery, &c., 8vo.
$1 25
TTAY.— THE INTEBIOB DECOBATOB:
The Laws of Harmonious Coloring adapted to Interior Decora
tions : with a Practical Treatise on House-Painting. By D.
R. HAY, House-Painter and Decorator. Illustrated by a Dia
gram of the Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary Colors. 12mo.
$2 25
TTUGHES.— AMEBICAN MILLEB AND MILLWEIGHTS AS-
**• SISTANT :
By WM. CARTER HUGHES. A new edition. In one volume,
12mo. • . ... $1 50
14 HENRY CAREY BAIRD'S CATALOGUE.
TTUNT — THE PRACTICE OF PHOTOGEAPHY.
By ROBERT HUNT, Vice-President of the Photographic Society,
London. "With, numerous illustrations. 12mo., cloth . 75
THIRST.— A HAND-BOOK FOR ARCHITECTURAL SURVEYORS:
Comprising Formulae useful in Designing Builders' work, Table
of Weights, of the materials used in Building, Memoranda
connected with Builders' work, Mensuration, the Practice of
Builders' Measurement, Contracts of Labor, Valuation of Pro
perty, Summary of the Practice in Dilapidation, etc. etc. By
J. F. HURST, C. E. 2d edition, pocket-book form, full bound
$2 50
JERVIS.— RAILWAY PROPERTY:
A Treatise on the Construction and Management of Railways ;
designed to afford useful knowledge, in the popular style, to the
holders of this class of property j as well as Railway Mana
gers, Officers, and Agents. By JOHN B. JERVIS, late Chief
Engineer of the Hudson River Railroad, Croton Aqueduct, &c.
One vol. 12mo., cloth. .... . $2 00
JOHNSON.— A REPORT TO THE NAVY DEPARTMENT OF THE
U UNITED STATES ON AMERICAN COALS :
Applicable to Steam Navigation and to other purposes. By
WALTER R. JOHNSON. With numerous illustrations. 607 pp.
8vo., . ... $10 00
JOHNSTON.— INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE ANALYSIS OF SOILS,
U LIMESTONES, AND MANURES-
By J. W. F. JOHNSTON. 12mo 35
T7-EENE.— A HAND-BOOK OF PRACTICAL GAUGING,
For the Use of Beginners, to which is added a Chapter on Dis
tillation, describing the process in operation at the Custom
House for ascertaining the strength of wines. By JAMES B.
KEENE, of H. M. Customs. 8vo. . . $1 25
HE:NTRY CAREY BAIRD'S CATALOGUE. 15
inSNTISH.— A TREATISE ON A BOX OF INSTRUMENTS,
And the Slide Rule ; with the Theory of Trigonometry and Lo
garithms, including Practical Geometry, Surveying, Measur
ing of Timber, Cask and Malt Gauging, Heights, and Distances.
By THOMAS KENTISH. In one volume. 12mo. . , $1 25
T7-OBELL.— ERNI. —MINERALOGY SIMPLIFIED :
A short method of Determining and Classifying Minerals, by
means of simple Chemical Experiments in the Wet Way.
Translated from the last German Edition of F. VON KOBELL,
•with an Introduction to Blowpipe Analysis and other addi
tions. By HENRI ERXI, M. D., Chief Chemist, Department of
Agriculture, author of "Coal Oil and Petroleum." In one
volume. 12mo. , . . $2 50
T ANDRIN.— A TREATISE Off STEEL:
Comprising its Theory, Metallurgy, Properties, Practical Work
ing, and Use. By M. H. C. LANDRIN, Jr., Civil Engineer.
Translated from the French, with Notes, by A. A. FESQUET,
Chemist and Engineer. With an Appendix on the Bessemer
and the Martin Processes for Manufacturing Steel, from the
Eeport of ABRAM S. HEWITT, United States Commissioner to
the Universal Exposition, Paris, 1867. 12mo. . . $3 00
TARKIN.— THE PRACTICAL BRASS AND IRON FOUNDER'S
•^ GUIDE.
A Concise Treatise on Brass Founding, Moulding, the Metals
and their Alloys, etc.; to which are added Recent Improve
ments in the Manufacture of Iron, Steel by the Bessemer Pro
cess, etc. etc. By JAMES LARKIN, late Conductor of the Brass
Foundry Department in Reany, Neafie & Co.'s Penn Works,
Philadelphia. Fifth edition, revised, with extensive Addi
tions. In one volume. 12mo $2 25
lf> HENRY CAREY BAIRD'S CATALOGUE.
TEAVITT.— FACTS ABOUT PEAT AS AN ARTICLE OF FUEL:
With Remarks upon its Origin and Composition, the Localities
in which it is found, the Methods of Preparation and Manu
facture, and the various Uses to which it is applicable j toge-
. ther with many other matters of Practical and Scientific Inte
rest. To which is added a chapter on the Utilization of Coal
Dust with Peat for the Production of an Excellent Fuel at
Moderate Cost, especially adapted for Steam Service. By II.
T. LEAVITT. Third edition, 12mo, . . . $1 75
TEROUX,— A PRACTICAL TREATISE ON THE MANUFAC-
'*J TURE OF WORSTEDS AND CAEDED YARNS:
Translated from the French of CHARLES LEBOUX, Mechanical
Engineer, and Superintendent of a Spinning Mill. By Dr, H.
PAINE, and A. A. FESQUET. Illustrated by 12 large plates, In
one volume 8vo. . . . . . . . . $5 00
^ESLIE (MISS).— COMPLETE COOKERY:
Directions for Cookery in its Various Branches. By Miss
LESLIE. 60th edition. Thoroughly revised, with the addi
tion of New Receipts. In 1 vol. 12mo., cloth . . $1 50
T ESLIE (MISS). LADIES' HOUSE BOOK :
a Manual of Domestic Economy. 20th revised edition. 12mo.,
cloth $1 25
T ESLIE (MISS).— TWO HUNDRED RECEIPTS IN FRENCH
COOKERY.
12mo 50
TIEBER.— -ASSAYER'S GUIDE:
Or, Practical Directions to Assayers, Miners, and Smelters, for
the Tests and Assays, by Heat and by Wet Processes, for the
Ores of all the principal Metals, of Gold and Silver Coins and
Alloys, and of Coal, etc. By OSCAR M. LIEBEK. 12mo., cloth
$1 25
T OVE.—THE ART OF DYEING, CLEANING, SCOURING, AND
FINISHING :
On the most approved English and French methods ; being
Practical Instructions m Dyeing Silks, Woollens, and Cottons,
Feathers, Chips, Straw, etc.; Scouring and Cleaning Bed and
Window Curtains, Carpets, Rugs, etc.; French and English
Cleaning, etc. By THOMAS LOVB. Second American Edition, to
which are added General Instructions for the Use of Aniline
Colors, 8vo. , . „ , , , . , „ 5 00
HENRY CAREY BAIRD'S CATALOGUE. IT
TV/TAIN AND BROWN.— QUESTIONS ON SUBJECTS CONNECTED
01 WITH THE MARINE STEAM-ENGINE :
And Examination Papers ; with Hints for their Solution. By
THOMAS J. MAIN, Professor of Mathematics, Royal Naval College,
and THOMAS BROWN, Chief Engineer, R.N. 12mo., cloth $150
MAIN AND BROWN.— THE INDICATOR AND DYNAMOMETEI :
With their Practical Applications to the Steam-Engine. By
THOMAS J. MAIN, M. A. F. R., Ass't Prof. Royal Naval College,
Portsmouth, and THOMAS BROWN, Assoc. Inst. C. E., Chief En
gineer, R. N., attached to the R. N. College. Illustrated. From
the Fourth London Edition. 8vo. . . . $1 50
M
M
M
M
AIN AND BROWN —THE MARINE STEAM-ENGINE.
By THOMAS J. MAIN, F. R. Ass't S. Mathematical Professor at
Royal Naval College, and THOMAS BROWN, Assoc. Inst. C. E.
Chief Engineer, R. N. Attached to the Royal Naval College.
Authors of " Questions Connected with the Marine Steam-En-
gine," and the '' Indicator and Dynamometer." With numerous
Illustrations. In one volume Svo $5 00
ARTIN.— SCREW-CUTTING TABLES, FOR THE USE OF ME
CHANICAL ENGINEERS :
Showing the Proper Arrangement of Wheels for Cutting the
Threads of Screws of any required Pitch ; with a Table for
Making the Universal Gas-Pipe Thread and Taps. By W. A.
MARTIN, Engineer. Svo. . .' .*.'•.*'. . 50
ILES— A PLAIN TREATISE ON HORSE-SHOEING.
With Illustrations. By WILLIAM MILES, author of " The Horse's
Foot"
OLESWORTH.— POCKET-BOOK OF USEFUL FORMULAE AND
MEMORANDA FOR CIVIL AND MECHANICAL EN3INEERS.
By GUILFORD L. MOLESWORTH, Member of the Institution of
Civil Engineers, Chief Resident Engineer of the Ceylon Railway.
Second American from the Tenth London Edition. In1 one
volume, full bound in pocket-book form . . . . $2 00
rOORE.— THE INVENTOR'S GUIDE:
Patent Office and Patent Laws : or, a Guide to Inventors, and a
Book of Reference for Judges, Lawyers, Magistrates, and others.
By J G.MOORE. 12mo., cloth $1 25
APIER.— A MANUAL OF ELECTRO-METALLURGY :
Including the Application of the Art to Manufacturing Processes.
By JAMES NAPIER. Fourth American, from the Fourth London
edition, revised and enlarged. Illustrated by engravings. In
one volume, Svo $2 00
18 HENRY CAREY BAIRD'S CATALOGUE.
N1
TVTAPISR.— A SYS IBM OF CHEMISTRY APPLIED TO DYEIN3 :
•^ Bv JAMES NAPIER, F. C. S. A New and Thoroughly Revised
Edition, completely brought up to the present state of the
Science, including the Chemistry of Coal Tar Colors. By A. A.
FESQUET, 'Chemist and Engineer. With an Appendix on Dyeing
and Calico Printing, as shown at the Paris Universal Exposition
of 1807, from the Reports of the International Jury, etc. Illus
trated. In one volume 8vo., 400 pages . .-.. •» . $5 00
•M-EWBERY.— GLEANINGS FROM ORNAMENTAL ART OF
iN EVERY STYLE;
Drawn from Examples in the British, South Kensington, Indian,
Crystal Palace, and other Museums, the Exhibitions of 1851 and
1862, and the best English and Foreign works. In a series of one
hundred exquisitely drawn Plates, containing many hundred ex
amples. By ROBERT NEWBERY. 4to. . . . $15 00
CHOLSON.— A MANUAL OF THE ART OF BOOK-BINDING :
Containing full instructions in the different Branches of Forward
ing, Gilding, and Finishing. Also, the Art of Marbling Book-
edges and Paper. By JAMES B. NICHOLSON. Illustrated. 12mo.
cloth . . .'"."" . . . . . $2 25
•M-ORRIS.— A HAND-BOOK FOR LOCOMOTIVE ENGINEERS AND
1N MACHINISTS:
Comprising the Proportions and Calculations for Constructing
Locomotives ; Manner of Setting Valves ; Tables of Squares,
Cubes, Areas, etc. etc. By SEPTIMUS NORRIS, Civil and Me
chanical Engineer. New edition. Illustrated, 12mo., cloth
$2 00
•VTYSTROM. — ON TECHNOLOGICAL EDUCATION AND THE
1N CONSTRUCTION OF SHIPS AND SCREW PROPELLERS :
For Naval and Marine Engineers. By JOHN W. NYSTROM, late
Acting Chief Engineer U. S. N. Second edition, revised with
additional matter. Illustrated by seven engravings. 12mo.
$2 50
(TNEILL.— A DICTIONARY OF DYEING AND CALICO PRINT-
U ING:
Containing a brief account of all the Substances and Processes in
use in the Art of Dyeing and Printing Textile Fabrics : with Prac
tical Receipts and Scientific Information. By CHARLES O'NEILL,
Analytical Chemist ; Fellow of the Chemical Society of London ;
Member of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Manchester ;
Author of " Chemistry of Calico Printing and Dyeing." To which
is added An Essay on Coal Tar Colors and their Application to
HENRY CAREY BAIRD'S CATALOGUE. 19
Dyeing and Calico Printing. By A. A. FESQUKT, Chemist and
Engineer. With an Appendix on Dyeing and Calico Printing, as
shown at the Exposition of 1867, from the Reports of the Interna.
tional Jury, etc. In one volume 8vo., 491 pages . . $6 00
QSBORN.— THE METALLURGY OF IRON AND STEEL :
Theoretical and Practical : In all its Branches ; With Special Re-
ference to American Materials and Processes. By II. S. OSBORN,
LL. D., Professor of Mining and Metallurgy in Lafayette College,
Easton, Pa. Illustrated by 230 Engravings on Wood, and 6
Folding Plates. 8vo., 972 pages $10 00
ASBORN.— AMERICAN MINES AND MINING :
** Theoretically and Practically Considered. By Prof. H. S. Os-
BORX, Illustrated by numerous engravings. 8vo. (In preparation.)
pAINTER, GILDER, AND VARNISHER'S COMPANION:
Containing Rules and Regulations in everything relating to the
Arts of Painting, Gilding, Varnishing, and Glass Staining, with
numerous useful and valuable Receipts; Tests for the Detection
of Adulterations in Oils and Colors, and a statement of the Dis
eases and Accidents to which Painters, Gilders, and Varnishers
are particularly liable, with the simplest methods of Prevention
and Remedy. With Directions for Graining, Marbling, Sign Writ
ing, and Gilding on Glass. To which are added COMPLETE .INSTRUC
TIONS FOR COACH PAIXTIXG AND VARXISHIXG. 12mo., cloth, $1 50
pALLETT.— THE MILLER'S, MILLWRIGHT'S, AND ENGI-
f NEER'S GUIDE.
By HEKRT PALLETT. Illustrated. In one vol. 12mo. . $3 00
pERKINS.— GAS AND VENTILATION.
* Practical Treatise on Gas and Ventilation. With Special Relation
to Illuminating, Heating, and Cooking by Gas. Including Scien
tific Helps to Engineer-students and others. With illustrated
Diagrams. By E. E. PERKINS. 12mo., cloth . ." . $125
tNS AND STOWE.— A NEW GUIDE TO THE SHEET-IRON
AND BOILER PLATE ROLLER :
Containing a Series of Tables showing the Weight of Slabs and
Piles to Produce Boiler Plates, and of tfie Weight of Piles and the
Sizes of Bars to Produce Sheet-iron ; the Thickness of the Bar
Gauge in Decimals ; the Weight per foot, and the Thickness on
the Bar or Wire Gauge of the fractional parts of an inch ; the
Weight per sheet, and the Thickness on the Wire Gauge of Sheet-
iron of various dimensions to weigh 112 Ibs. per bundle,- and the
conversion of Short Weight into Long Weight, and Long Weight
into Short. Estimated and collected by G. H. PERKIXS and J. G-
STOWE '. . ; '/'.' . . ' - &W
20 HENRY CAREY BAIRD'S CATALOGUE.
pHILLIPS AND DARLINGTON.— RECORDS OF MINING AND
* METALLURGY :
Or, Facts and Memoranda for the use of the Mine Agent and
Smelter. By J. ARTHUR PHILLIPS, Mining Engineer, Graduate of
the Imperial School of Mines, France, etc., and JOHN DARLIXGTOX.
Illustrated by numerous engravings. In one vol. 12mo. . $2 00
pRADAL, MALEPEYRE, AND DUSSATJCE. — A COMPLETE
•*• TREATISE ON PERFUMERY:
Containing notices of the Raw Material used in the Ait, and the
Best Formula;. According to the most approved Methods followed
in France, England, and the United States. By M. P. PRADAL,
Perfumer-Chemist, and M. F. MALEPEYRE. Translated from the
French, with extensive additions, by Prof. II. DUSSAUCE. 8vo. $10
pROTEAUX.— PRACTICAL GUIDE FOR THE MANUFACTURE
* OF PAPER AND BOARDS.
By A. PROTEAUX, Civil Engineer, and Graduate of the School of
Arts and Manufactures, Director of Thiers's Paper Mill, 'Puy-de-
Doine. With additions, by L. S. LE NORJIAXD. Translated from
the French, with Notes, by HORATIO PAINE, A. B., M. D. To
which is added a Chapter on the Manufacture of Paper from Wood
in the United States, by HENRY T. BROWN, of the "American
Artisan." Illustrated by six plates, containing Drawings of Raw
Materials, Machinery, Plans of Paper-Mills, etc. etc. 8vo. $5 00
•REGNAULT.— ELEMENTS OF CHEMISTRY.
By M. V. REGXAULT. Translated from the French by T. FOR
REST BEXTOX, M. L., and edited, with notes, by JAMES C. BOOTH,
Melter and Refiner U. S. Mint, and WM. L. FABER, Metallurgist
and Mining Engineer. Illustrated by nearly 700 wood engravings.
Comprising nearly 1500 pages. In two vols. 8vo., cloth $10 00
T)EID.— A PRACTICAL TREATISE ON THE MANUFACTURE OF
11 PORTLAND CEMENT:
By HEXRY REID, C. E. To which is added a Translation of M.
A. Lipowitz's Work, describing anew method adopted in Germany
of Manufacturing that Cement. By W. F. REID. Illustrated by
plates and wood engravings. 8vo. . . . . $7 00
•DIFFAULT, VERGNAUD, AND TOUSSAINT.— A PRACTICAL
*" TREATISE ON THE MANUFACTURE OF COLORS FOR
PAINTING :
Containing the best Formulas and the Processes the Newest and
in most General Use. By MM. RIFFAULT, VERGXAUD, andTous-
PAIXT. Revised and Edited by M. F. MALEPEYRE and Dr. EMIL.
WIXCKLER. Illustrated by Engravings. In one vol. Sva. (lit
preparation.}
HENRY CAREY BATRD'S CATALOGUE. 21
TJIFFAULT, VERGNAUD, AND TOUSSAINT.— A PRACTICAL
• TREATISE ON THE MANUFACTURE OF VARNISHES :
By MM. RIFFAULT, VERGXAUD, and TOUSSAIXT. Revised and
Edited by M. F. MALEPEVRE and Dr. EMIL WINCKLEU. Illus
trated. In one vol. 8vo. (In preparation.)
CjHUNK.— A PRACTICAL TREATISE ON RAILWAY CURVES
W AND LOCATION, FOR YOUNG ENGINEERS.
By WM. F. SHUXK, Civil Engineer. 12mo., tucks . . $2 00
OMEATON.— BUILDER'S POCKET COMPANION:
Containing the Elements of Building, Surveying, and Architec
ture ; with Practical Rules and Instructions connected with the sub
ject. By A. C. SMEATON, Civil Engineer, etc. In one volume,
12mo. . . . . .' . . . $1 50
gMITH.— THE DYER'S INSTRUCTOR:
Comprising Practical Instructions in the Art of Dyeing Silk, Cot
ton, Wool, and Worsted, and Woollen Goods: containing nearly
800 Receipts. To which is added a Treatise on the Art of Pad
ding ; and the Printing of Silk Warps, Skeins, and Handkerchiefs,
and the various Mordants and Colors for the different styles of
such work. By DAVID SMITH, Pattern Dyer, 12mo., cloth
$3 00
gMITH.— THE PRACTICAL DYER'S GUIDE:
Comprising Practical Instructions in the Dyeing of Shot Cobourgsj
Silk Striped Orleans, Colored Orleans from Black Warps, ditto
from White Warps, Colored Cobourgs from White Warps, Merinos,
Yarns, Woollen Cloths, etc. Containing nearly 300 Receipts, to
most of which a Dyed Pattern is annexed. Also, a Treatise on
the Art of Padding. By DAVID SMITH. In one vol. 8vo. $25 00
MAW.— CIVIL ARCHITECTURE :
Being a Complete Theoretical and Practical System of Building,
containing the Fundamental Principles of the Art. By EDWARD
SHAW, Architect. To which is added a Treatise on Gothic Archi
tecture, <fcc. By THOMAS W. SILLOWAY and GEORGE M. HARD
ING , Architects. The whole illustrated by 102 quarto plates finely
engraved on copper. Eleventh Edition. 4to. Cloth. $10 00
SLOAN.— AMERICAN HOUSES:
A variety of Original Designs for Rural Buildings. Illustrated by
26 colored Engravings, with Descriptive References. By SAMUEL
SLOAX, Architect, authorof the " Model Architect," etc. etc. Svo.
$2 50
gCHINZ.— RESEARCHES ON THE ACTION OF THE BLAST.
FURNACE.
By C3AS. SCHIXZ, Seven plates. 12mo. . . . $4 25
22 HENRY CAREY BAIRD'S CATALOGUE.
gMITH.— PARKS AND PLEASURE GROUNDS :
Or, Practical Notes on Country Residences, Villas, Public Parks,
and Gardens. By CHARLES H. J. SMITH, Landscape Gardener
and Garden Architect, etc. etc. 12mo $2 25
STOKES.— CABINET-MAZER'S AND UPHOLSTERER'S COMPA-
° NION:
Comprising the Rudiments and Principles of Cabinet-making and
Upholstery, with Familiar Instructions, Illustrated by Examples
for attaining a Proficiency in the Art of Drawing, as applicable
to Cabinet-work ; The Processes of Veneering, Inlaying, and
Buhl- work ; the Art of Dyeing and Staining Wood, Bone, Tortoise
Shell, etc. Directions for Lackering, Japanning, and Varnishing;
to make French Polish ; to prepare the Best Glues, Cements, and
Compositions, and a number of Receipts, particularly for workmen
generally. By J. STOKES. In one vol. 12mo. With illustrations
$1 25
STRENGTH AND OTHER PROPERTIES OF METALS.
Reports of Experiments on the Strength and other Properties of
Metals for Cannon. With a Description of the Machines for Test
ing Metals, and of the Classification of Cannon in service. By
Officers of the Ordnance Department U. S. Army. By authority
of the Secretary of War. Illustrated by 25 large steel plates. In
1 vol. quarto . $10 00
riULLIVAN.— PROTECTION TO NATIVE INDUSTRY.
By Sir EDWARD SULLIVAN, Baronet. (1870.) 8vo. . $1 50
rnABLES SHOWING THE WEIGHT OF ROUND, SQUARE, AND
1 FLAT BAR IRON, STEEL, ETC.
By Measurement. Cloth . . . . . 63
mAYLOR.— STATISTICS OF COAL:
Including Mineral Bituminous Substances employel in Arts and
Manufactures ; with their Geographical, Geological, and Commer
cial Distribution and amount of Production and Consumption on
the American Continent. With Incidental Statistics of the Iron
Manufacture. By R. C. TAYLOR. Second edition, revised by S.
S. HALDEMAN. Illustrated by five Maps and many wood engrav
ings. 8vo., cloth . -...'.. . . . $6 00
rpEMPLETON.— THE PRACTICAL EXAMINATOR ON STEAM
1 AND THE STEAM-ENGINE :
With Instructive References relative thereto, for the Use of Engi
neers, Students, and others. By WM. TEMPLETOX, Engineer, 12mo.
$1 25
HENRY CAREY BAIRD'S CATALOGUE. 23
(THOMAS.— THE MODERN PRACTICE OF PHOTOGRAPHY.
By R. W. THOMAS, F. C. S. 8vo., cloth . ... 75
•JIHOMSON.— FREIGHT CHARGES CALCULATOR.
By ANDREW THOMSON, Freight Agent . . . . $1 25
•PURNING : SPECIMENS OF FANCY TURNING EXECUTED ON
•*• THE HAND OR FOOT LATHE :
With Geometric, Oval, and Eccentric Chucks, and Elliptical Cut
ting Frame. By an Amateur. Illustrated by 30 exquisite Pho
tographs. 4to $3 00
BURNER'S (THE) COMPANION:
Containing Instructions in Concentric, Elliptic, and Eccentric
Turning; also various Plates of Chucks, Tools, and Instru
ments; and Directions for using the Eccentric Cutter, Drill,
Vertical Cutter, and Circular Best ; with Patterns and Instruc
tions for working them. A new edition in 1 vol. 12mo. $1 50
TTRBIN — BRULL. — A PRACTICAL GUIDE FOR PUDDLING
U IRON AND STEEL.
By ED. URBIN, Engineer of Arts and Manufactures. A Prize
Essay read before the Association of Engineers, Graduate of the
School of Mines, of Liege, Belgium, at the Meeting of 1805-6.
To which is added a COMPARISON OF THE RESISTING PROPERTIES
OF IRON AND STEEL. By A. BRULL. Translated from the French
by A. A. FESQUET, Chemist and Engineer. In one volume, 8vo.
$1 00
TTOGDES.— THE ARCHITECT'S AND BUILDER'S POCKEl COM-
V PANION AND PRICE BOOK.
By F. W. VOGDES, Architect. Illustrated. Full bound in pocket-
book form $2 00
In book form, ISmo., muslin . , . . 1 50
•TTCTARN.— THE SHEET METAL WORKER'S INSTRUCTOR, FOR
" ZINC, SHEET-IRON, COPPER AND TIN PLATE WORK
ERS, &c.
By REUBEN HENRY WARN, Practical Tin Plate Worker. I'lus-
trated by 32 plates and 37 wood engravings. Svo. . . $3 CO
nrTATSON.— A MANUAL OF THE HAND-LATHE.
** By EGBERT P. WATSON, Late of the " Scientific American," Au
thor of "Modern Practice of American Machinists and Engi
neers," In one volume, 12mo. .; . .. .... . . $1 50
W
W
24 HENRY CAREY BAIRD'S CATALOGUE.
ATSON.— THE MODERN PRACTICE OF AMERICAN MA
CHINISTS AND ENGINEERS :
Including the Construction, Application, and Use of Drills, Lathe
Tools, Cutters for Boring Cylinders, and Hollow "Work Generally,
with the most Economical Speed of the same, the Results verified
by Actual Practice at the Lathe, the Vice, and on the Floor.
Together with Workshop management, Economy of Manufacture,
the Steam-Engine, Boilers, Gears, Belting, etc. etc. By EGBERT
P. WATSON, late of the "Scientific American." Illustrated by
eighty-six engravings. 12mo. . . . . $2 50
ATSON.— THE THEORY AND PRACTICE OF THE ART OF
WEAVING BY HAND AND POWER:
With Calculations and Tables for the use of those connected with
the Trade. By JOHX WATSOX, Manufacturer and Practical Machine
Maker. Illustrated by large drawings of the best Power-Looms.
8vo. . «. . $10 00
T*TEATHERLY.— TREATISE ON .THE ART OF BOILING SU-
VV GAR, CRYSTALLIZING, LOZENGE-MAKING, COMFITS,
GUM GOODS,
And other processes for Confectionery, <fec. In which are ex
plained, in an easy and familiar manner, the various Methods
of Manufacturing every description of Raw and Refined Sugar
Goods, as sold by Confectioners and others . . $2 00
.— TABLES FOR QUALITATIVE CHEMICAL ANALYSIS.
By Prof. HEINRICII WILL, of Giessen, Germany. Seventh edi
tion. Translated by CHARLES F. HIKES, Ph. D., Professor of
Natural Science, Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pa. . $1 25
WILLIAMS,— ON HEAT AND STEAM :
Embracing New Views of Vaporization, Condensation, and Expan
sion. By CHARLES WYE WILLIAMS, A. I. C. E. Illustrated. 8vo.
$3 50
•yyORSSAM.— ON MECHANICAL SAWS:
From the Transactions of the Society of Engineers, 1867. By
S. W. WORSSAM, Jr. Illustrated by 18 large folding plates. 8vo.
$5 00
WOHLER.— A HAND-BOOK OF MINERAL ANALYSIS.
By F. WOHLER. Edited by H. B. NASOX, Professor of Chemistry,
Rensselaer Institute, Troy, N. Y. With numerous Illustrations.
12mo. $3 00
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