Also, that being in company with the Hon. Mr. Benton, of the Senate, in ascending the Ohio from Cincinnati, last fall, on board the steamboat Emigrant, said to belong to, and be in the employ of the Kenhawa Salt Company, which was towing a keel-boat to Maysville, Kentucky, loaded with alum or foreign salt, and delivered there for the purpose of salting pork in that part of Kentucky. Feb. 1830.

[SENATE.

Communication from General Tipton, of Indiana,

dated Logansport, Indiana, Nov. 24, 1830. Your printed letter of July last has been duly received, and I have made strict inquiry of merchants, and other gentlemen of intelligence of this vicinity, in relation to the salt monopoly. From facts collected from them, and some within my own knowledge, I have no hesitation in saying that there is, and has been for years, a monopoly of that article, to the great injury of the poorer class of the people

Communication from General Milroy, of Delphi, In- of Indiana. diana, dated Nov. 25, 1830.

Deposits for the sale of salt are established along the Ohio and the Wabash Rivers, at from thirty to forty miles from each other, by monopolists from Kenhawa, in Virginia, and from Kentucky. One agent of these monopolists is at this village; another at Lafayette, forty miles below, who rise or fall in their prices according to the competition they meet, and, by this means, oppress the poor, and amass wealth to themselves to a very large amount per annum.

I received your letter requesting information relative to the salt trade of this country. My limited acquaintance with mercantile business will enable me to say but little from my own knowledge on the subject. I can say, however, that the belief is universal, and uncontradicted in this part of the country, that agents employed by the salt manufacturers furnish exclusively the supply of that article for the valley of the Wabash; and that none is permitted to be vended by others, so far as can be prevented The salt manufactured at the wells at Kenhawa, by them; and that those agents are regulated by and in Kentucky, will not preserve pork in the fixed prices, under which they may not sell, but can southern climate. In the winter of 1822 I descendraise the price in proportion to the demand. It is ed the rivers to New Orleans, with a quantity of also believed that a scarcity of salt is frequently oc- pork put up with salt, made at the wells of these casioned by the inadequacy of the manufactories to monopolists. Soon after my arrival at New Orleans, produce sufficient supplies, or that those monopo- I was compelled to purchase Turk's Island salt, and lists hoard it up for the purpose of extorting exor-repack my pork; thereby incurring an expense of bitant prices; neither of which causes would oper- one hundred and fifty dollars. ate to produce the scarcity and high price so oppressive to the West, was the salt trade left open to the natural course of competition.

The monopoly of the salt trade is notorious, and is one of the greatest grievances to be complained of in the West; and it is believed that the unrestricted importation of alum salt is, perhaps, the only method which can be adopted effectually to break it down, unless Congress should think proper to declare it a criminal offence to attempt a monopoly of any article of necessary consumption, as the British parliament has done, and render such offence punishable by fine and imprisonment, which even would not be so effectual.

It will not be disputed but that a supply of alum salt is necessary in the West, even if the domestic salt was obtainable unembarrassed by monopoly, from its superior qualities in the preservation of beef and pork in a southern market, where we must of necessity send our surplus of those articles. It is believed by stock raisers, that a much larger quantity of salt is necessary for stock in the Western than in the Atlantic States, owing, doubtless, to the nature of the food on which they are subsisted, and the diseases to which they are subject.

I should have been much gratified to have been able to furnish you information on all the points on which you request it, and should have done it most cheerfully had I been in possession of it. Not doubting, however, but that the method you have taken will elicit it in abundance, I shall, therefore, rest satisfied, anxiously desiring the successful result of your efforts to repeal the salt tax entirely, concurring with you in opinion that it is the best service that can be rendered to the West next to the graduation of the price of public lands: in both of which great western measures, you have the concurrence of a vast majority of the West most ardently wishing you success.

I have no doubt that it would be of great benefit to Indiana to repeal the law levying a duty on foreign salt.

Communication from J. G. Reed, Esq., member of the Senate in the State of Indiana, dated Washington County, Nov. 30, 1830.

I received yours of July last, and am sorry that it is not in my power to give you a more full account of the subject matter therein contained. Relative to the act of last winter reducing the duty on salt, I have only to say that, in this section, it met with almost universal satisfaction, and a great anxiety is expressed that the entire duty be taken off this winter.

I now proceed to answer, in a brief and concise manner, a few of the queries propounded by you.

1st. "Whether the trade," &c.-It is, but at what works particularly I do not know. The monopoly extends throughout this State, and, I am informed, generally throughout the Western States. 3d. The price," &c.-Domestic salt is $1 25; foreign $1 50. The freight from New Orleans is one dollar per hundred.

66

4th. " Whether," &c.-They have; the depots are generally from twenty to thirty miles. 6th. "Whether salt," &c.-It is sold by weight, 50 lbs. to the bushel; a weighed bushel will not measure more than three pecks.

8th. "Whether," &c.-They sell only for cash in hand. The price is higher since the monopoly.

9th. "Do the," &c.-I do not know, but presume they do. Foreign salt competes with them. 11th. "Whether," &c.-It is not.

12th. "The expense," &c.-Some few years ago, I had a number of barrels repacked in New Orleans, which had been put up in domestic salt: it cost me $1 12 per barrel, and 124 cents for each hoop that was furnished in the place of those that got broken

12th. Beef nor pork will be received in New Orleans if put up in common salt.

13th. If any does go down put up in common salt, it has to be repacked with one bushel of alum salt for each barrel.

14th. I have long experienced the advantage of giving salt to stock of every kind; if I am working my horses, and they fail eating, give them salt or salt and water to drink; I discover it immediately restores them to their appetite, and they perform their labor much better. Through the winter I salt them twice a week, and through the working season every other day. I find it necessary to salt cattle through the winter once a week; they eat their rough food much better, and look better in the spring; and when the grass and herbs begin to put up, I find it necessary to salt every other day, and then through the summer twice a week, and have always noticed, if I neglected salting one week, my milch cows failed of their milk. I have some neighbors that seldom salt their stock at all, and I take notice that my cattle look as well in the spring as theirs do in the fall. Their reason for not salting they say is, that salt is so dear. Sheep and hogs require salt at any rate once a week through the summer; hogs put up fatten much better by being

well salted.

[SENATE.

salines, and are giving to the place a dilapidated and melancholy appearance, and doing a real injury to the country. There are many of these dead wells, and monopolizers pay the owner for letting ceive about $1,500 per annum for two dead wells. receives about $3,000 per annum for about $1,500 per annum for another. Many others receive less or greater sums Besides dead wells, there upon the same terms.

* *

one.

kind.

*

* *

*

*

*

*

are also unborn wells, whose owners are paid for
not letting them be dug. I know several of this
* * receives $1,250 per annum not to
receives $1,500
dig a well on his land;
receives
annually on the same terms;
$2,500 per annum in the same way; and I have
no doubt, many others, and it is all a thing of noto-
the price of salt was about a shilling a bushel, as it
riety in the neighborhood. Before the monopoly,
is called, and as often under as above that price,
and it could be got for any kind of trade; since the
monopoly, it is fifty cents cash, and none will be
sold for retail to the people of the States, except to
those who will bind themselves to avoid compe-
tition with the monopolizers at their depots. The
company that monopolize the works are the chief
shippers, and through their agents retail to the
people in most of the Western States, fixing their
which each State is to have, except so far as they
own price, their own weight, and the quantity
are interfered with by alum salt from New Orleans.

15th. The advantage of salt for damaged hay I know is great. I have seen hay that looked like it was almost entirely spoiled, and when stacked up with salt, cattle eat it clean, and looked well; but salt selling so high as it does, prevents us poor people from having it by us even for the use of our stock and pickling up our meat, as nothing but money will get it. Go to a merchant, and ask if he wants any kind of produce; if he says yes-well, I will bring it at such a day-I want some salt to pickle up my meat, for I have got no money-his After reading, or referring to the extracts of reply is, my salt is a cash article; I cannot sell it evidence, taken before the Committee of the for produce. Well, I am obliged to have salt; if you will trust me a little while, I will pay you the British House of Commons on the salt duties, money for it. His reply then is, I merely bring and reading or stating the communications resalt for accommodation; I make nothing on it; Iceived by himself from citizens of the Western must have the money down, or otherwise, will reply, I am selling on commission, and am obliged to have the money. On these terms I have known men to do without salt until they had suffered considerably for want of that article, unless they could borrow of a neighbor.

Honorable sir, if your interference in Congress can mitigate the matter, it will confer a very requisite favor on our neighborhood.

Mr. B., after reading or referring to these communications, which were given under the authors' names, stated that he had another of very material import which he would read to the Senate, but without the name. He had the less reluctance in doing this, because he had endeavored to give to the agent of the Kenhawa Company, who had been in attendance upon the other House during the session, an opportunity to answer. He had communicated the statement to a member of the Committee on Manufactures, whose name he was at liberty to mention, (Mr. J. S. BARBOUR, of Virginia,) for the express purpose of enabling the agent to answer it before that committee, but who had not availed himself of that opportunity.

States, Mr. B. proceeded to make copious and extended remarks upon the uses of salt in agriculture and manufactures; the difference between the impure and inferior salt made by boiling well water, and the clean, pure, and crystallized salt made by the rays of the sun, in hot climates, out of the water of the sea; the variety of uses to which the well water salt was wholly unfit and inadequate; and the cruel injustice, on the part of the Federal Government, of expelling the pure salt from the country by an oppressive tax, which might otherwise be had both cheap and abundant, for the purpose of compelling them to use the inferior salt at an enormous and unconscionable price.

1. He remarked on the value of salt to stock, as proved by both the English and American testimony. It was proved that the health of all animals was preserved by it; and with this preservation of health, ensued all the advantages of increased growth and fattening, prolonged life, multiplied offspring; and superior flavor to the flesh, the milk, the butter, the cheese, the bacon, beef, and pork, which were made from them. In England, it was computed that Statement of a citizen of Kenhawa, furnished as the advantage to the stock from all these sources anonymous, that he may not compromise his tran- | was 25 per cent. per annum. On one farm it

was rated at about 33 per cent.; and the aggregate advantage, or rather the aggregate loss to the farmers for want of salt, was stated to exceed the annual amount of the tax, which was about 7,000,000 dollars.

2. He remarked on the necessity of sun-made salt for butter and cheese. If put up in common salt, the butter soon became rancid, and sold at less than half the price of alum salt butter at New Orleans and in the West Indies. He attributed the general inferiority of American cheese to the impure salt which was used in making it; and dwelt upon the articles of cheese and butter as sources of wealth to the stock-raising States, if duly improved by the use of pure salt. He said the exports of the last years had reached the value of $177,000 per annum; which, though considerable, was a trifle compared to the consumption in our towns, and the export to the Lower Mississippi. He considered the farmers as losing the onehalf of their whole sales of butter and cheese, by using artificial salt, made by men, instead of using the natural crystallized salt, made by nature. To the cows on dairy farms, it was proved in England, that half a bushel of salt per annum was necessary; and the milk, butter, and cheese, all were richer and better flavored when that quantity, or more, was given. Common salt would do for the cows to lick; but alum salt was indispensable for butter and cheese that was to be long kept or exported.

3. In the article of bacon he estimated the loss at nearly one-half in using the fire-made salt. Such bacon would not sell for much more than half price in any of our market towns, and could not be carried to the Southern climates, or exported, without danger of spoiling, and becoming a total loss. Such bacon was often a drug in the market at New Orleans at two cents a pound, a mere refuse article at that price, while the alum salt bacon was a ready sale at six or eight cents.

[FEBRUARY, 1881.

| from the day it was put into the barrel till sold. A difference of one-third to be saved in the annual product of the hog-stock, would be immense to the farmers; and this difference would be saved by the repeal of the duty on alum salt.

5. In pickled beef.-For this purpose alum salt is absolutely indispensable. Beef could not be pickled without it; and, therefore, to find a market, the beef cattle were driven off upon the hoof. Mr. B. pronounced it to be a losing business, a most disadvantageous traffic, to any country to drive away its beef cattle to be sold on the hoof. The immediate loss in that operation was nearly one-half the value of the beef, and the whole loss of the hide, tallow, and offal; the consequential loss was, in the purchase of leather and manufactures of leather, and the purchase of soap and candles, and also in the loss of leather, soap, and candles for exportation. Pickled beef in New Orleans was usually from eight to twelve dollars a barrel, which was from four to six cents a pound. The farmers of the West usually sell their cattle at from 14 to 24 cents per pound; thus suffering a loss of nearly one-half on the beef; the hide and tallow, which is worth as much as the beef sells for at such rates, being thrown into the bargain, and given away. The disastrous ef fect of this suicidal business was seen in every town in the West, where foreign hides from South America, foreign leather, boots, shoes, and saddlery, and foreign soap and candles, from Europe and the Atlantic States, were daily exhibited for sale. Another disastrous consequence, but not so visible to the passing eye, was the loss of all these articles for expor tation. The exportation of soap and candles had lately amounted to 912,000 dollars in the year; and of leather, boots, shoes, and saddlery, to 450,000 dollars. These exportations went from the Atlantic cities to the West Indies, and chiefly grew out of the gifts which the Western farmers made of their hides and tallow to the drovers. They were exportations which belonged to the West, not only because it produced the material out of which the manufactured articles were made, but it was the best place for carrying on the manufactory of them on account of the cheapness of provisions, and the facilities of exporting direct to the West Indies.

4. In pickled pork.-For this purpose alum salt was indispensable. The artificial salt would answer no purpose. The poisonous ingredients called slack and bittern, which it contained, corrupted the pork in warm climates, and the soluble nature of the salt itself, by dissolving immediately, brought all the pieces in contact, and made each assist in destroying the other. The crystallized salt, besides being free from slack and bittern, is large in the grain, Mr. B. made a further illustration of the evils and so far insoluble that a layer of it remains of driving beef cattle from the West, in its for years between each piece of meat, and act- effect upon the internal navigation and domesing as a perpetual preservative. Mr. B. said tic markets of the great valley. The Mississippi that bacon might be made, after a fashion, with River was to the West what the Mediterranean boiled salt; but pickled pork not at all. For Sea was to the Romans; it is mare nostrumthat purpose, the sun-made salt was a sine qua our sea-and the steamboats and other boats non. For want of this salt, the Western farm-upon it constitute our navigation. The building ers had got into the general custom of making bacon, whereby they lost about one-third of the product of their hog-stock; for the bacon dried and wasted near a third by the time it was sold, and would then sell for no more than pickled pork, which lost not an ounce in weight

of these vessels gives employment to a multitude of useful and respectable mechanics; creates a demand for vast quantities of wood, iron, paints, and glass; furniture of every description; daily supplies of provisions; wood for fuel, now estimated at a million of dollars

FEBRUARY, 1831.]

Duty on Alum Salt.

[SENATE

per annum; and for an immense number of | B. animadverted in the most indignant terms persons to navigate and manage the boats. upon monopolies of every species, and placed The aggregate of all these expenditures con- the salt monopoly at the head of the abominanected with steamboat-building and navigation, ble and infernal list. He said this very mowas several millions of dollars per annum, and nopoly was one of the causes which brought was the most profitable kind of expenditure, Charles the First to the block. Queen Elizafor it was carried to the very doors of the peo- beth, though a petticoated tyrant, had the huple, and delivered into their hands in their own manity, or rather sagacity, to suppress the salt houses. Having drawn the picture of the ad- monopoly, towards the close of her reign; for vantages of steamboat navigation to the West, which act of mercy and condescension the Mr. B. ventured to make the suggestion that whole Parliament went in a body to thank and they would be nearly doubled by substituting bless her as an angel of beneficence. The bigota change in the beef trade, from driving the ed Stuarts revived it, and paid the forfeiture in cattle on the hoof to the Atlantic cities, to send- the loss of life and kingdom. There had been ing the beef pickled to New Orleans and the no monopoly of salt in England since Charles West Indies. Such a change would open a new the First had lost his head; the States beyond and immense head for freight down the river, the Alleghany Mountains were the only examand a corresponding increase for freight back; ple of that oppression at this time existing in for it was of the nature of exports and imports the civilized world. Mr. B. considered the to emulate each other; it would produce di- present duty on foreign salt as the father and minished prices for under cargo, of which salt guardian of this domestic monopoly. He conwould be the chief; and a corresponding in- sidered it the protector, defender, and supporter crease of every expenditure connected with the of the monopolists. He considered the act of construction and navigation of steamboats. He Congress which kept up this duty, as the law then averred that this change, and the stupen- which established this monopoly; and dedous benefits resulting from it, depended solely nounced such a law, not merely as odious and and exclusively upon the free use of alum salt oppressive, but as a species of impiety and sac-upon the abolition of the duty upon that ar- rilege, a species of revolt and rebellion against ticle-upon the simple and obvious process of the providence of God, who had created salt, permitting the Western people to use the salt and spread it through the universe, for the use according to their wants and wishes, which God of man and beast, and as the preservative prinhad created for them in all the islands of the ciple of life and health in both. The sea was Gulf of Mexico. And he ridiculed with con- filled with it, and the sun manufactured it. It temptuous sarcasm the affected alarms of those came cheap and pure from that manufactory, who expressed the fear that there would not be established by Divine wisdom, and co-extensalt enough if the domestic manufactories sive with the bounds of the habitable globe. checked their operations. He said it was a fear Salt was the preservative principle of the world. that there would be a failure of sunshine and Every living animal must have it; every species of food must contain it. Without it, universal Having briefly touched upon the important death and corruption would ensue. The disciuses of salt in agriculture, and especially for ples of Christ were called by their Master "the stock and provisions, Mr. B. proceeded to notice salt of the earth;" and that divine metaphor the disadvantages under which the farmers of was intended to convey to the understandings the Western States labored with respect to that of all people the knowledge of the preservative article. At the head of the list of these disad- nature of their mission, a mission which was to vantages, or oppressions, as they might with save the moral world from corruption, as salt greater propriety be called, stood the appalling preserves the animal and material world. Laws and astounding fact, that the whole salt trade to prevent any portion of the human race from of the West, so far as it depended upon the do- using the pure and perfect salt made by the rays mestic manufactories, was one vast and cruel of the sun out of the waves of the sea, if enactmonopoly! The amazing fact was proved by ed without a dire necessity, were impious cona variety of testimony; it was known to every trivances to frustrate the beneficence of God. A Western Senator present; it was felt at home war for self-preservation alone could justify such in every department of agriculture, by all the laws. They had existed in all countries, and farmers of the West. The baleful effects of had run highest where human liberty was at the this horrid monopoly were forcibly depicted by lowest ebb. They are now disappearing, vanthe witnesses whose communications he had ishing, and falling before the recuperative enerread. Double price and scant measure; the gies of popular rights. The gabelle fell, in whole country districted, allowanced, and stint- France, before the march of revolution. In ed; ready money exacted; wells rented from England, this unnatural tax, after attaining the their owners to lie idle; new wells prevented monstrous height of fifteen shillings a bushel, from being dug; overgrown fortunes to the sunk and disappeared before the labors of that monopolizers, privation, want, and suffering pre-eminent committee from whose reports a among the people and stock: such was the few imperfect and mutilated extracts have been shocking and revolting picture which these read. The salt tax disappeared from the communications presented to the Senate. Mr. | United States about twenty years ago, during

seawater.