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ing a set of capitalists, who, as their advocates on this floor have told us, will be satisfied with nothing but prohibition-monopoly? And yet they are doing, indirectly, that which they would not dare a tempt to effect directly. If the Government should have a Treasury fully able to sustain all drafts which could be made on it, no one would pretend that the collection of a direct tax to the amount of five or six millions, would not be an abuse of the power to "lay and collect taxes :" and yet the bill now on the table is infinitely worse; for, in the case supposed, the money collected would be in the Treasury for the benefit of the Union, while that proposed to be collected under this bill, is for the exclusive benefit of the manufacturing capitalists.

aid.

[APRIL 22, 1828.

provide for the common defence and general welfare." The use of those words is equivalent to a declaration that they should be levied for no other purpose. Then, are the duties proposed in this bill to be applied, when col. lected, to any one of the objects to which they are re. stricted by the constitution? Is it for the purpose of pay. ing your debts? No, sir. We hear that the public debt will soon be paid; and lamentations are uttered in this Hall, that, unless we embark on internal improvement on a magnificent scale, there will be no end to which the surplus revenue can be directed. Is it "to provide for the common defence?" None are so disingenuous as to pretend that is the object to be accomplished, or that other resources are not fully adequate for such purposes. The right to regulate commerce with foreign nations, Is it for the "general welfare Truly, sir, there are is another of the powers vested in Congress. Yet, under some on this floor, less ingenuous than others, who resort that power, even a manufacturer himself would not pre- to these magical words, (in which all who attempt to per tend that Congress has the authority to annihilate com- vert the constitution, I must not say designedly, find ammerce. That such will be the effect, to a certain extent, ple power to do whatever their imaginatio..s may sug under the operation of this bill, has been demonstrated gest,) and argue that it is for the "general welfare" that repeatedly; and, although it is denied, that denial seems manufactures should be encouraged. But, sir, I will nesustained by but a small degree of confidence, since ver consent to controvert that doctrine, when used as apneither facts nor arguments have been brought to its plicable to this subject. The ground assumed unequivo cally is, that Congress, having the right to "levy duties,' The regulation of commerce "between the States," are justified in exercising that power for the purpose of is another attribute of Congress, conferred by the consti- promoting manufactures in the United States. Others, tution. I will not incur that imputation of folly, which more infatuated, declare it to be an obligation on Congress would be justly applicable, if I were to undertake to to extend that power, until the duties become so high as demonstrate, that, by this grant, Congress has not acqui-to amount to a prohibition, in order to effectuate the same red the right to declare that the citizens of every State object. Having already adverted to the words of the South of the Chesapeake, shall sell the products of their constitution, and here stated the propositions of the advolabor to those States North and East of those waters, at cates of this bill, fairly, as they must admit, I should feel whatever prices the manufacturer may think proper, in no reluctance in consenting that the fate of this bill should charity or mercy, to give, and purchase from them alone, be determined, by submitting to any plain, honest, disat such rates as the insatiable cupidity of the one, and passionate mind, the decision of the question, whether the necessities of the other, may suggest. Yet, that such there is any authority under the constitution to pass it, is the degrading subserviency which they have in reserve for the purposes in view; or rather, whether its passage, for us, seems partially admitted; for gentlemen have had with those views, will not be, an open, direct, and palpathe kindness to go into arguments and calculations, to ble abuse of the constitution. show us, that, deprived of our markets in Europe, as we The passage of this bill, Mr. Speaker, will be oppresmust be by this bill, we have only to sustain ourselves, for sive and burthensome to the Southern States. From a some ten or twelve years, in a state of torpidity as to com- state of comparative ease and comfort, the government, merce, and then, perhaps, the Northern manufacturer by depressing her foreign commerce, increasing the price may be able to afford a market for our cotton. It is cer- of foreign merchandise, and diminishing the value of protainly an act of great kindness, that, when about to sacri- perty at home, has already involved them in embarrassfice their victim, they give an assurance, that if, at a fu-ments, with which they contend, with their usual manliture day, his restoration be necessary or important to ness, it is true, yet doubtful of the issue. You levy contheir own selfish purposes, he may in all possibility be tributions on them to an amount scarcely credible, and resuscitated. From such kindness we pray to be protect- expend it elsewhere. Depending solely on foreign comed. Tyrants, whether they are individuals or communi- merce for a market, and scarcely able to maintain a doubtties, are so absorbed by those passions which prompt ful contest in that market, with Brazil, Surinam, Demethem to acts of oppression and injustice, that if by chance rara, Egypt, and the East Indies--they have now the an unkind conscience should suggest their recollection, mortification-yes, sir, the humiliating consciousness of they seek relief rather in forgetfulness than reparation of knowing, that their own government is about to put an the evils. On no one, therefore, are we willing to de- end to that competition, by prohibiting the importation pend, when not only our constitutional rights, but our of the only articles we can receive for our cotton. Sir, pecuniary interests, are at hazard. We hold up to you we could contend with spirit and energy with generous the Constitution, and say to you-This is the league, the rivals in trade, who push their enterprise into those chancovenant between us. Beyond its limits you have nonels where we can compete on equal terms; but when authority to proceed; and when you do so, recollect that you are making efforts to reduce to a state of vassalage those who are at least your equals.

we see our own brethren, and our own government, devising schemes for our destruction, we cannot but ask them to pause, and reflect whether it was for this we surThat Congress have the power to "lay and collect du- | rendered to the General Government our right to regulate ties and imposts," has never been denied. But the right our own commerce with foreign nations or other Statesto do so is not an incident to its legislation; it is not an was it for this we gave you the power "to levy and coloriginal or elementary principle, growing out of the struc- lect duties and imposts?" If gentlemen will not do that, ture of this government, because ours is a government they must pardon me if I tell them there is reason to ap. which forms an exception to all general rules on this sub-prehend they will force us to consider, whether in fact ject. This, and all other powers of Congress, are deriv- we have surrendered all those prerogatives they seem deed from the constitution; and that instrument, when con- termined to exercise. ferring the authority to levy "duties and imposts," has defined the objects and purposes for which "duties and imposts" may be collected; viz. to pay the debts, and

I hope I may be excused for saying that I trust I shall never again hear it asserted, that the New England States will furnish us a market for our cotton. They never can

APRIL 22, 1828.]

Tariff Bill.

[H. OF R.

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Leaving of your revenue,

do it, so long as the quantity produced bears any propor- duties to the amount of
tion to what we now grow. The ratio of increase will al-
ways keep pace with that of consumption. The quantity
grown in the United States is of itself sufficient, or nearly
so, for the demands of the English market. It is a fair
estimate that we import as much of cotton fabrics from
England, as we export to South America. It is in vain
that manufacturers in the United States, (who are peti-
tioning every year for higher duties on cotton goods,) tell
us they can compete with the foreign article in South
America. The British have all the foreign markets, and
will retain them. Suppose, then, we are allowed by the
system which many are now desirous of establishing, to
supply the raw material for all cotton fabrics used in the
United States, (and this is the most that a manufacturing
fanatic would promise,) will it be pretended that such a
market will consume all our cotton? If not, having de
prived us of every other, it will be too late to leave the
few who may survive, to seek a new market, and estab-
lish new commercial relations to sustain themselves, and
restore their government to life and vigor.

Can those be serious who profess to be the advocates of internal improvement and the tariff at the same time? It is difficult to believe them so, without imputing to them an entire recklessness of all consequences which may result from experiments wholly at war with each other. Revenue is absolutely necessary to carry on your works of internal improvement; and the designs which the advocates of this bill are most desirous of accomplishing, is the exclusion of those foreign articles from which your revenue is collected. None will deny but that such is the design, and that it is to be effected either by duties so onerous as to give the manufacturer the market, in a short time, or by making them prohibitory, at once. By a reference to the table of imports, from the Treasury Department, it will be found that the articles named in this bill, and which it is intended to exclude, have paid into your treasury, within the last seven years, an aggregate of 58,150,867 dollars, or an average of 8,307,266 dollars per annum. This latter sum, then, is to be deducted from the annual receipts into the treasury. How is that deficiency to be supplied? By taxes levied directly on the people? This would indeed be giving a direction to American industry; for it would require all the labor which every man, woman, and child, could bestow, to enable them to pay their respective proportions of that tax. But no, sir; notwithstanding the little value which some gentlemen profess to attach to their seats here, and independent as they would have us believe they feel of the people, they would lay such a tax for internal improvement no sooner than they would dare to levy this eight millions, in the same way, on the same people, and pay it into the pockets of the manufacturers. And yet, while they are ministering to the fancy and imagination of the people, with schemes of wealth, splendor, and magnifi. cence, they are silently, by a species of legislation which should rather be called legerdemain, transferring from their pockets to the coffers of the manufacturers, the same sum of money. The people are deluded, sir, upon this subject; but the delusion would vanish, if you were to attempt to levy this sum by direct taxes.

For the last three years your revenue has been dimin ishing. None, I presume, will be disposed to doubt the accuracy of the estimates in the report of the Committee of Ways and Means, now on your table, who suppose that, for years to come, your revenne will amount to $20,000,000

By the act of Sil March, 1817, you have appropriated to the payment of the public debt, annually

By this bill of prohibitions and monopolies, you are to abandon

$10,000,000

$1,692,734

This sum, I believe, without detaining the House to make a calculation in figures, will barely be sufficient to pay the interest on the blance of the public debt. Then, from what sources are you to derive the current expenses of the Government? Your civil list is to be provided for-your army and navy must be supported-your pensions discharged-you are to continue the gradual increase of the navy-and, last of all, contingencies-that department which is found to absorb all excess of appropriations for every thing else, must never be forgotten in estimating the expenses of this Government. I have istened with some anxiety to hear what substitute was to be relied on for this deficiency: but no one has attempted to provide one. Two of the gentlemen from Maine, [Mr. ANDERSON and Mr. SPRAGUE,] with force and justice, portrayed the effects this bill is to have on your navigation-and particularly on your West India trade. But I believe both these gentleman would willingly agree to this bill so far as it relates to every article except hemp, iron, and molasses. I regret that I am not so familiar with the various sources of profit, incident to navigation, and the numerous operations giving employment to labor, which are dependant on it, as are the gentlemen from Maine. If I were, I should undertake to show that the lumber trade with the West Indies is nothing, literally nothing, in comparison with the commerce which is sustained by the cotton and rice of the South. That West India trade is confined to a few of the New England States, and restricted to but few articles. The growing of cotton and rice gives employment to our whole popu lation-we have no other pursuit-it gives freight to more of the tonnage of the United States, than any other articles of agriculture or manufacture. The quantity of cotton alone, the fruit of three years, ending 1st Oct, 1827, was 513,000,000; or an average of 171,000,000 annually. An estimate of your tonnage at sixteen hundred thousand, would not be complained of as too small. The freight of our cotton, then, gives employment to at least onesixth of your tonnage, to say nothing of the rice. And who are the carriers? They are the sailors, the ship owners of New England; of the same family of the manufacturers; and while these latter have enlisted in their views, all the weight, talent, and influence, of gentlemen advocating this bill, the former find advocates only in strangers, from the South. If gentlemen have no feelings in common with the South-if they are determined to immolate us- - they will, a is hoped, excuse us for inquiring whether they have no sympathies for those of their own brethren, whose interests are identi fied with ours--for those who have sustained the charac ter and honor of your flag-for those who have committed their fortunes to the winds of heaven, and to the waves of the seas. Will gentlemen drive them to the painful acknowledgment, that those capricious winds and turbulent waves, have been more kind to them than their own countrymen? This whole measure is fraught with injustice and oppression. It has grown out of a union of sectional interests and feelings, without regard to its general policy, or ruinous tendency to other parts of the Union.

It has been often urged as an evidence of the ruinous trade now carried on by the Middle and Eastern States, that they import more than they export, and that such an evil can be corrected only by protection and prohibition. It would perhaps be an unprofitable consumption of time, to attempt to demonstrate, that it does not always follow that, because a country imports more than it exports, it is therefore engaged in an unprofitable commerce. But, admit the fact to be, that the Middle and Eastern

H. OF R.]

Turiff Bill.

[APRIL 22, 1828.

States do import more than they export, does it follow | But there is, I admit, some probability, that their asser that they are justified, on any one of the principles which tions may be realized, if their designs can be accomare recognised as forming a rule of action between men, plished. But by what process will that consummation communities, or integral parts of the same nation, in de be effected? The answer is plain. When you have ex stroying the commerce of the Southern States, who im- cluded every species of foreign manufacture: when such port less than they export? No one, it is hoped, will an amount of capital shall be invested in sheep as to grow set up such a code, either of municipal or international wool in such quantities that the grower finds a market law. But that assertion, as to exports and imports, is not for only a third, and for that third he receives a nominal founded in fact-it is one of the fallacies by which many price: when all other channels of trade shall have been have been deluded, because concealed in a multiplicity abandoned: when capital, by this legislation, shall have of distorted and exaggerated statements, while the facts, been driven from its ordinary and legitimate employment, as they really exist, have been studiously excluded. and can find no other subject for operation; when causes To understand the advantages derived from the facilities like these have forced thousands and thousands of the afforded by the agricultural articles of the South, it must laboring classes into the factories, and they obtain a prebe recollected, that the Middle and Eastern States are carious subsistence from the kind mercies and benevolent our carriers, and in this way we give employment to their charities of their employers--then, and not until then, navigation that they are our purchasers, and thus their will these articles be rendered cheaper by protection and capital is employed; that we furnish almost the only ar, prohibition, because the raw material and labor will both ticles of exchange between this country, England, and be at the command of the monopolists. The consola. France, which sustain our commerce with those countion to be derived from the pleasure of purchasing out tries that the capitalists of the Middle and Eastern supplies at lower rates, on such terms, I resign most wil States import first into those States, which swell their lingly to the advocates of the “American System," with imports beyond their exports, but finally the same for the assurance that I shall never envy them the gratifica eign products are shipped coastwise to the Southern tion it may afford them. States, and we become the buyers, with all the accumu. lation of profit and charges which give returns for the employment of capital and labor. Yet it is the object of this bill to destroy at once this extensive (and you may call it complicated,) trade, which gives employment to more labor, capital, and industry, and pours into your treasury more revenue, than any other pursuit in which the people of this country are engaged. And for what purpose? Because, say some, England refuses to take some of our products. I ask, what does she refuse to take? I hear a gentleman behind me answer, in an under tone," she refuses our flour." Admitted, that she does exclude your flour, and that she does so with a view of encouraging her agricultural interes!-dos that furnish a pretext for your excluding most of her manufactures And for what? As a retaliatory measure? That is not pretended. There is a want of candor, sir, in the gen. leman who has alluded to the exclusion of our flour from the English market, as a reason why we should pass this bill. That does not afford even a pretext-and the bill itself bears me out in the assertion-for you have excluded the iron of Sweden, the hemp of Russia, and the cottons of France. Yet with all those nations you have treaties of amity and commerce, mutually beneficial; nor is it pretended they exclude any thing you export to them.

The events which have grown out of the efforts of manufacturers afford a striking illustration of the control and influence which a moneyed aristocracy, uni'ed in principle and feel ngs, and having in view the same common ob jects, can effect.

It was heretofore alleged, and the allegation had its force, that the collection of numerous persons of both sexes and of all ages, in these extensive establishments, and their employment in the same occupation, with few or no restraints on their communications, would tend to demoralize their habits, and introduce the same vices and immorality which are known to exist in all similar institutions in England. And how are those objections now obviated? You have the answer in the examination taken before the Committee on Manufactures. They woul have us believe that manufacturing in the United States has produced a new era in morality. That those proiniscuous assemblages of persons of either sex, engaged in one common pursuit, which have reduced the human family to the lowest state of personal and mental degradation known to exist among any people professing to be civilized have, in this country, by the establishment of Sabbath schools, the erection of churches, and the paternal care of the manufacturers, given those who are thus assembled, decided advantages for moral and religious instruction, over those who are engaged in the ordinary occupations But it has been repeatedly urged, that protection of life, abstracted from indiscriminate associations, and the yes, sir, and prohibition, (the first object of which is to pernicious influence of evil examples. This, sir, is levybuild up a moneyed aristocracy, by enabling them to de-ing too heavy a contribution on our credulity. Those mand extravagant prices,) are, in the end, to render the who have used this argument, (in charity, I will not call same articles cheaper to the whole community. That it artifice,) must suffer us to believe there are, among such may be the case, to a certain extent, may, or may the manufacturers of this country, some feelings and prinnot be true. The result will depend on contingencies, ciples of action common to those from whom they have which no one can anticipate with confidence. But that derived their skill in manufacturing, and their ideas of its such a result can ever take place, to the extent pretend-profits. Among these, none are more likely to exhibit ed, involves an absurdity so glaring, that all who assume themselves than a love of gain, and a determination to scthe position, incur the risk of being charged with infatu- quire it as rapidly as possible. This will be effected soonation, to an extent little short of the effects it often pro-est by exacting the greatest quantity of labor, and at the duces. lowest prices which will coinmand that labor. In the struggles which must ensue between the employer and the laborer on these subjects, the very kind feeling which we are now asked to believe exists on the part of one to wards the other, will be lost. When the manufacturers have become independent of you, by the bounties you are bestowing: when they have diverted the husbandman from his fields, his sons from their ploughs,and their wives from their domestic duties: when he has enticed the mechanic from his work bench; and you, by destroying your commerce, have driven the seamen from your merchant

Now, what are the present complaints? The manufacturers say, the foreigners undersell them in our market, and that the reason for this, is, the high price of wool in this country. This declaration is made, too, at the very moment the wool growers are declaring that, without a higher duty on wool, they cannot grow it. Then, by imposing a higher duty on wool, and a higher duty on manufactured goods, the manufacturer is to be enabled to sell them cheaper! It would seem that a fair statement of the proposition would suggest its refutation.

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men to the spindle and the power-loom, they will be independent of you, and of every other class of the commu. nity. When we have a Manchester and Leeds, a Sheffield and a B rmingham established, the Sabbath schools and churches with which it is now attempted to obviate objections which were formerly unanswered, will not only be neglected but abandoned. This has been the case elsewhere, and we must suppose it will be so here.

But of all the fallacies by which an unsuspecting people have been deluded, that which has induced them to believe your Tariff is to furnish a market for all their surplus agricultural products, is the most extravagant. This has been effected, by the thousands of pamphlets with which the country has been inundated, assuming as a fact, that which, at most, can be considered only as a specious argument. It is said by the friends of this bill, that 40,000,000 of dollars are invested in manufactures. By a reference to the evidence taken before the committee, it will be found that one laborer is employed for one thousand dollars invested. I do not pretend to strict accuracy-but no one will deny that I am sufficiently so, for the calculations necessary for this argument. This estimate will show that the capital invested gives em. ployment to 40,000 persons. The quantity of flour which that number of persons consume, furnishes no criterion of an increased demand to that extent; because the same number of persons would require the same quantity, when engaged in any other pursuits. The true method of testing the truth of this argument, is, to ascertain, as far as practicable, what is the proportion of labor which has been disengaged from the cultivation of the soil. Forty thousand persons, then, are laboring in factories. When I say that I admit onefourth of them to be men, I surely shall not be accused of making too small an estimate. Nor will it be pretended, as I presume, that all these have been drawn from agricultural employment. Yet I will accede that they have been, with a view to avoid being charged with any thing objectionable. Then the result is, that 40,000,000 of dollars invested, will, if we exclude woollen goods to the value of 9,000,000 of dollars, which yield a duty of more than three millions, give a better market for bread stuffs, in the proportion which the labor of ten thousand men bears to the whole agricultural product of the United States. I have stated the proposition as fairly as its advocates, I think, could desire. Having done so, can any one require that its extravagance should be rendered more manifest? If so, I solicit their attention to the following table of exports:

In 1824-5, the U. S. exported 976,792 bbls. flour, val'd at 85,759,176
813,906
857,820

1825-6 1826-7

64
66

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[H. or R.

difference in the prices of wool in this country and in England. I have used all the means within my reach, and if I have not succeeded to the extent of my wishes, I have not been altogether unsuccessful.

I have obtained the comparative prices in the London and Boston markets, on the first of each month, beginning with the 1st of October last, and they are exhibited in the following table: 1827. In Boston. Oct. 1-Spanish wool sold at 35 a 90 cts. American merino 37 a 45

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In London. 33 a 88 cts.

40 a 90

33 a 88

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American merino
Jan. 1, 1828-Spanish
American merino

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35 a 70
45 a 51

37 a 78

Feby. 1-Spanish

March 1-Spanish

American merino
April 1-Spanish

American merino
For these prices I am indebted to a Comparative Price
Current, issued weekly in New-York, in which, as I un-
derstand, all commercial men have great confidence.

While on the subject of wool, although I do not intend now to reply to the argument that the repeal of the duty on wool in England defeated the act of 1824, I will remark, that in 1821, when the duty on that article was a penny per pound, more was imported into England than in 1826, when it was admitted free of duty from their own colonies, and at the same duty from other countries; and that, even in 1824, when the act of Congress passed, the duty was only three pence per pound, from her own possessions, and six pence from foreign countries. Yet we are asked to believe that a repeal of duty of three, or at the highest of six pence per pound, on wool, in England, has neutralized the effect of the act of 1824, which imposed a duty of 33 per cent. on the imported fabric manufactured from that material.

Let it be recollected, too, that as to Spanish wool, the only difference in price in the London market and in the United States would be the duty here, which is 30 per cent. and the freight and insurance, which, I presume could scarcely exceed 5 per cent., making an ag gregate of 35 per cent. It is admitted that the protec tion afforded by the act of 1824 is at least 36 2-3 per ct. (by my calculation, however, it exceeds that,) which is an advantage of 1 2-3 per cent. Then, if they can com 4,212,127 pete on equal terms, where is the cause of complaint? 4,121,466 But, take the price of the American wool, (and it is that The average exports, then, of those three years, may we are to use exclusively in the end,) in our markets, be set down in round numbers, at four millions five hundred and it will be found to be far less than the mean price of thousand dollars. The value of the labor of those who Spanish wool in the English market; and if this be so, have been drawn from the growing of grain, compared it would seem that the petitioners themselves have not with this sum, shows at once the influence which such yet ascertained the causes of their failure, or having asarguments as those to which I have alluded, should have, certained them, they have not been disclosed. when used as an inducement to pass such a bill as this. But surely I am justified in saying, that if, by these means, agricultural labor is to be rendered so much more valuable, it would be resorted to by thousands, which this bill would necessarily deprive of other employment; and thus the supply of bread stuffs being equal in quantity to what it now is, would be the same in price: So that the agriculturist would gain nothing-positively nothing. We have heard at this session, for the first time, that the American manufacturer can complete with the foreigner-that he can manufacture as cheap, with the exception of the difference in the price of wool As this opinion has been reiterated by the witnesses who have been examined, and they are said to be men of experience and skill, it becomes an interesting inquiry, to ascertain the Vol. IV.-155

But I should be wanting in candor, if I were to conceal the opinion I entertain as to the relative facilities for manufacturing in this country and in England, whatever may be my ideas as to the propriety of granting additional protection. And I here present an obstacle to the success of manufacturers, with which I am surprised they are unacquainted-for surely they cannot be aware of it, or they would not have said, that except the difference in the price of wool, they can manufacture as cheap as in England. I allude to the difference in price of labor. "M'Donnell on Free Trade," a work which issued from the press not two years ago, gives a statement of the wages of artificers in England, from which I will read, viz: Per Week. 12s. or $2 661

Cotton weaver,

H. OF R.]

Weaver 6-4 cambrics & fancy goods, 15s.
Woollen weaver,
Dyer and dresser,

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States, which we had supposed was one of their characteristics. During the late war, when the labor of their agriculturists was rewarded by the high prices received from the Government for bread stuffs, and the manufacturer received ample returns for his skill and capital in clothing the army, the Southern States, deprived of eve

or 3 33 13s. 6d. or 3 00 17s. or 3 78 It is not uninteresting to compare those prices with what are paid by the manufacturers in the United States. Mr. Dexter, who was examined before the committee, gave the following account of the prices paid in his esta-ry species of commerce, with their produce rotting on blishment:

Head carder,

One machinist,

One weaver,

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$400 per ann. or $7 64 $150 per day, or 9 00 do

or 8 25

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1 00
2 50 per w❜k

do

or 6 00

2 50

do do

One fuller, one dresser,
two hands in finishing 1 25
room, & one dyer, each
Two assis't carders and
one assis't dyer, each

24 women and girls,

their hands, meeting requisitions from the Government for the prosecution of the war, in advance, derived some consolation from the belief that, if their Northern brethren were subjected to some of the evils incident to the war, they were exempted from others, and participated to a certain extent in operations from which some advantage could be derived. But, as soon as that war closed, a new one was commenced-a war on the commerce, the interests, the prosperity, and, I will add, the feelings of the South-a war, not in defence of honor, fame, or dis

The whole averaging from 80 to 100 cents per day, or puted rights, but one which has been waged for selfish from $4 80 to $6 per week.

Col Shepperd, another witness, pays,

aggrandizement, at the expense of justice and good faith, by the destruction and disregard of every principle of To 32 men, wages avr'ng $21 pr m'th, or $5 25 pr w'k. sound policy. One tariff has followed another, the last To 16 young men, do. always more oppressive than those which preceded it, until we had thought mercenary cupidity itself was sa

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To 11 men, an average of $26 pr m'th, or $6 50 pr w'k. tiated, and the extent of our contributions ascertained by

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do
do
Mr. Marland has 30 men at 1 dollar per day, or 6 dol-
lars per week. Mr. Young 11 men at 6 dollars per week,
and one man at 7 dollars per week-to females he pays
from 50 cents per day to 3 dollars a week. Mr. Wol.
cott has 71, averaging 75 cents per day, or 4 dollars per
week-38 young women at 40 cents per day or 2 dollars
40 cents per week-38 children at 25 cents per day, or
1 dollar 50 cents per week.

This comparison cannot be disputed. The English
prices are taken from an author which the advocates of
this bill declare to possess great merit; the American
prices are from the oaths of the manufacturers themselves.
The difference is more than I had supposed. Thus,
A woollen weaver receives in England,
In America, he receives from Mr. Dexter,
In England, the dyer and dresser receives,
In America, Mr. Dexter pays,
In England, a cotton weaver receives,
In America, Mr. Dexter pays women,
Mr. Wolcott,

Mr. Young, from $3 to
And to children, Mr. Wolcott pays

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I will not extend this parallel further. The House is in possession of it, and may draw their own conclusions. I will say, however, before I quit this subject, that, to say the least of it, the manufacturers are left to a choice of two alternatives, They were either ignorant of the prices paid in England, and therefore do not know how they are unable to contend with foreign competition; or, knowing those prices, suppose they have advantages equivalent to this difference, in other respects, which they did not disclose. The facts, however, are suffici ent for my purpose. They establish the impolicy of increasing the duties for the objects in view. If I am right in the data I have furnished as to the comparative prices of wool, then the cheapness of labor in England cannot be counteracted by legislation, and that is sufficient for the rejection of the bill. But if the manufacturers be right as to the prices of wool, that, added to the high price they pay for labor over the English manufacturer, puts an end to the question, and renders any thing further on this point wholly unnecessary.

I hope I may be allowed to say, that we have not discovered that magnanimity, in the Middle and Eastern

legislative enactments. But in this, too, we have been mistaken. We have deceived ourselves, it seems, in supposing that a fair and equal participation in the bene. to learn, that there are those who, if they have not the fits of this government was common to all. We are no s right, will assume the power, of prescribing to us the extent of our enjoyments, if indeed any can exist in a state of absolute subserviency.

As if

opposed to this system of piracy, (for, sir, it is piracy by There was a time when New England was as much legislation,) as any other part of the United States. Her sels doubled Cape Horn and the Cape of Good Hope; pursuits were then almost wholly commercial. Her vesher canvass whitened every sea where commerce and navigation were known, and her mariners returned with the rich and valuable productions of every soil and climate. But in an unpropitious moment, the political as well as the commercial world became convulsed, and, contrary to all that had preceded it, a star arose in the West, where it shone with increasing splendor. setting at defiance all the laws of nature, its course was eastward, and it soon shone with such brightness that the people fell down and worshipped it. By its dazzling light they were enabled to discover that their hills were so sterile and barren as to be unfit for cultivation, and suited only to the grazing of flocks: that their ware-houand should be closed; that their merchantmen were frail ses were no longer suitable depots for foreign merchandize, barques, calculated to dissipate the earnings of past years of labor and active industry, and should be abandoned:all must give place to the spindle and power loom. Arguments by which they had before convinced others, son, and having their origin only in ancient prejudices, were now found to be fallacious, wholly destitute of reaThey were astonished at their own delusion. If we, sir, of the Southern States, have not yet acknowledged the power and influence of this western light, possibly it is because its rays have not yet reached us. proach us with that bland mildness which has wrought so Should it ap wonderful a change on the moral and intellectual character of New England, we may not shut our eyes. Yet there is but little hope it will so far enlighten our benighted understandings, as to enable us to discover the justice, honesty, or good faith, which exists in transferring, by legislation, the fruits of our labor to avaricious manufacturers and stock-jobbing capitalists.

from us, in revenue, to expend eastwardly. I will not Sir, I will say nothing of the millions you now collect speak of your two companies of infantry, which have

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