the products of the manufactories have advanced upwards of threefold, from one million and three-quarters to six million and a half! This logic of figures puts to flight all the delusive theories which would either deny the fact of a decline in our foreign commerce, or attribute it to the diminution of money, and consequent fall of prices. The produce of the high tariff States is not affected by those causes. The produce of the sea, namely, fish, oil, whalebone, and spermaceti, which goes from the high tariff States in the Northeast, sells as well as ever. The produce of the manufactories, too numerous to be detailed, especially after reading a list of them an hour ago, also goes from the same State, and is vastly increased. But the produce of agriculture, namely, beef, pork, bacon, flour, grain, cotton, rice, tobacco, &c., &c., which goes from the Southern and Western States, is largely sunk in value; the produce of the forest, which goes principally from the same States, and consists of skins and furs, of tar, pitch, rosin, and turpentine, of staves and shingles, hewn timber, masts, spars, boards, and other lumber, has also sunk in value. Sir, there is no mistake in these figures! no error in these deductions! no room for any diversity of opinions! The high tariff works alike, throughout all its departments, and in every operation, at home and abroad. It is hurtful to the farmer and the planter; it is beneficial to the fisherman and the manufacturer. It sheds the whole of its benign influences upon the Northeast; it reserves all its baleful effects for the South and West!

[MARCH, 1832.

Now,

ing into other manufactures, as checks, linens, carpeting, patent floor cloth, boot webbing, and hair seating, which cannot be made from the flax grown in this country, of a quality to answer the purposes of the consumers.' under the old colonial system, these manufac turers would have been obliged to use American flax, and to have paid Americans for it; but under our high tariff, they buy the flax from abroad; and the high duties upon all the manufactures of flax, as threads and twines, checks and linens, carpetings and floor cloths, boot webbing and hair seating, enables them to sell the manufacture sufficiently high to enable them to buy the foreign material, and the people are to be deluded with the story that this is a domestic manufactory! The quantity of foreign flax imported into the United States in two years after the tariff of 1828, and remaining in the country for consumption, was ninetysix thousand seven hundred and forty-two dollars' worth; which, of course, went into our domestic manufactories. It is the same thing with other articles; for our custom-house books show an import of foreign wool, since the tariff of 1824, to the value of two million seventy-two thousand one hundred and eighty-five dollars; of foreign hemp to the value of three million five hundred and forty-one thousand six hundred and forty-two dollars; of foreign indigo to the value of four million eight hundred and thirty-five thousand seven hundred and sixtyseven dollars; of foreign raw hides to the value of eleven million one hundred and seventy-two thousand seven hundred dollars; and of foreign Several speakers, Mr. President, have read furs to the value of two million seventy-seven to us the accounts of British oppression during thousand two hundred and thirty-five dollars: our colonial vassalage. They have shown that making, in the whole, an importation of foreign we were allowed to manufacture nothing for materials, in five articles alone, to the amount ourselves, and were compelled to purchase the of twenty-five millions of dollars, in the short manufactures of the mother country. This space of six years, between the years 1824 and was certainly a great oppression upon the col-1830. And this is the net amount which reonists, and deserved their highest resentment; mained in the country for consumption, after but in some respects the present state of trade deducting the re-exportations. This immense between the West and the high tariff States is sum has been paid to foreigners, instead of on a worse footing for the West than that of American citizens; so that, in this respect, our the colonists was with the mother country. In trade with the Northeastern manufacturers is on the first place, the colonists bought their man- a far worse footing than that of the old coloufactures from the mother country at a cheaper nists with Great Britain. But I trust that this rate than we buy from the high tariff States, hardship will soon be relieved, and that, in the especially in the essential articles of woollen modification of the tariff at the present session, goods. In the next place, the colonists paid in the farmers and planters of the United States their own productions, we in money. In the will be admitted into the benefits of the Amerthird place, the colonists furnished the raw ican system, and secured in the domestic supmaterials to be worked up in England, while ply of the raw materials to our domestic manuthe West furnishes scarcely any raw material factories. I hope for this much for the farmfor the Northeastern manufactures, and many ers, and for the honor of the system. For of them employ foreign materials, to the exclu- nothing can be more absurd than to erect dosion of American materials. We have a very mestic manufactures upon foreign materials; striking instance of this in a memorial now nothing more contradictory than to predicate upon our tables from a firm of flax manufac-independence for goods upon dependence for turers near Philadelphia. It contains this re- materials to make them out of; nothing more markable sentence: "The manufactures your iniquitous than to give to the manufacturers memorialists produce are from foreign flax ex- the home market of goods, and not give to the clusively, and consist of shoe threads, tailor's farmers the home market of raw materials; threads, twines, and flax and tow yarns enter-nothing more insulting to the understandings

MARCH, 1832.]

The Tariff-Reduction of Duties.

[SENATE.

of the people, than to call such a one-sided mo- | resolutions. I am in favor of dropping both nopoly an American system.

the resolutions before us, and sending another
to a committee, directing that committee to
bring in the whole tariff in one bill-every item
now subject to duty; that we may take it up
for decision, begin at the beginning, and go to
the end; altering what we can alter, and show-
or condemnation. This is what I am now for;
and for this purpose, I now conclude my speech,
and offer you a resolution in amendment, or
substitution of those which are now depending,
(instructing the committee to which the subject
should be referred, to report a bill embracing
all the items on which a reduction might be
thought proper, either with or without fixing
the rate of duties on each article.)
The Senate then adjourned.

The West, then, Mr. President, in common with all the agricultural portions of this Union, has a deep and direct interest in the preservation and extension of foreign trade. If she looked to her interest alone, if she looked at the question under the single aspect of selfishing the result to the people, for their approval benefit, she would be an advocate for unrestricted commerce with all the world. She would continue the cry, upon which she went to war twenty years ago, for free trade and sailors' rights! But the West is not individual in her existence, nor egotistical in her policy. She is a sectional division of an extended confederacy; she belongs to a great political system; she is subject to a duplicate form of Government; and these conditions impose upon her obligations, which neither duty nor patriotism permit her to disregard. Her Government must be supported, and that support requires revenue; her independence must be maintained, and that independence requires a home supply of certain articles. Foreign commerce presents the most convenient subject for revenue, for the support of the Federal Government; and the levy of that revenue may be made the means of encouraging the production of the essential articles which our independence requires to be made at home. Hence the necessity of qualifying the unlimited freedom of trade, which our pecuniary interest might require; and hence, also, the measure of that qualification. And this, Mr. President, brings me back to a point which I mentioned before, and which, upon this subject, is the law and the prophets with me: revenue, to the extent of the Government wants; protection as an incident to revenue.

Mr. President, I hope I have been fortunate enough to make myself intelligible to the Senate. I certainly understand myself, whether others do or not. I am an enemy to unnecessary taxation, and mean to vote for reducing the revenue to the wants of the Government. I am an enemy to a public debt, to its substance as well as to its shadow, and mean to vote for relief from the burdens as well as relief from the name of our present debt. I am a friend to domestic industry, and intend to give it a fair protection under the regular exercise of the revenue-raising power. I am a friend to a judicious tariff, in contradistinction to an injudicious, or a political, or a sectional one; and mean to have regard to every public interest-the farmer as well as the manufacturer -the consumer as well as the producer-the importer as well as the exporter, in adjusting the future scale of the tariff duties. Above all, I am a friend to the cultivators of the earth, and mean to labor hard to give them some benefit from the reduction of the revenue, in lowering the price of land! and abolishing the tax on salt. For the rest, I am in favor of action, not words. I am for going to work on the tariff bill, and ceasing to debate on the tariff

MONDAY, March 19.
The Tariff.

The Senate again proceeded to consider the following resolutions, submitted by Mr. CLAY on the 9th January last:

Resolved, That the existing duties upon articles imported from foreign countries, and not coming into competition with similar articles made or produced within the United States, ought to be forthwith abolished, except the duties upon wines and silks, and that they ought to be reduced.

Resolved, That the Committee on Finance report a bill accordingly.

And Mr. HAYNE's amendment thereto, proposed on the 16th of January, viz:

Strike out all after the word "countries," and insert as follows:

"Be so reduced that the amount of the public revenue shall be sufficient to defray the expenses of Government according to the present scale, after the payment of the public debt; and that, allowing a reasonable time for the gradual reduction of the present high duties on the articles coming in competition with similar articles made or produced within the United States, the duties be ultimately equalized, so that the duty on no article shall, as compared with the value of that article, vary materially from the general average."

Mr. HAYNE then called for a division of the question; and the vote was first taken on striking out all of the original resolution after the word "Resolved," by yeas and nays, and negatived, as follows:

YEAS.-Messrs. Benton, Bibb, Brown, Ellis, Forsyth, Grundy, Hayne, Hill, Kane, King, Miller, Moore, Poindexter, Robinson, Smith, Troup, Tyler, White-18.

NAYS.-Messrs. Bell, Buckner, Clay, Clayton, Dickerson, Dudley, Ewing, Foot, Frelinghuysen, Hendricks, Holmes, Johnston, Knight, Marcy, Prentiss, Robbins, Seymour, Silsbee, Sprague, Tipton, Tomlinson, Waggaman, Wilkins-23.

The President declared that the amendment of Mr. HAYNE was rejected, and the original resolution adopted.

SENATE..]

TUESDAY, March 20.

The Tariff-Reduction of Duties.

[MARCH, 1832. had prepared his amendment, and should offer two resolutions, which he read as follows:

Resolved, That the Secretary of State be requested to report to the Senate the laws and commercial regulations of foreign countries in relation to duties on imports, and the bounties and other regulations for the encouragement of exports, which in any manner tend, in their effect and operation, to counteract the duties now imposed by law on their im portation into the United States, as far as they may have been received at the department, since the receipt of those published by order of Congress.

Resolved, That the Secretary of the Treasury be requested to report to the Senate the present credproviding by law for the gradual reduction thereof, its on duties on imports; and the expediency of to what extent, and at what time. Also, to report the existing laws, as to provide for the assessment on the expediency of making such alterations in of ad valorem duties, according to a valuation of imported articles in the port or place of importation; and, also, to report whether any, or what alties on non-enumerated articles of importation, so terations ought to be made in the law imposing daas effectually to prevent frauds, and the evasion of the payment of the duties.

Mr. HAYNE inquired of Mr. WILKINS whether he understood him, correctly, as proposing only to repeal the duties on the unprotected articles, leaving the protected articles untouched. Such would certainly be the effect of his amendment, which touches none but the articles coming into competition with those made or produced in the United States; and how a reduction of the duties on them, amounting, in the whole, to no more than seven millions of dollars, could reduce the revenue to a sum sufficient merely to defray the expenses of the Government, was more than he could understand, unless the expenses were to be enormously increased.

Strike out all after the word forthwith, and insert the following: "so far reduced, or altogether abolished, as to bring down the amount of the public revenue to a sum sufficient to de- Mr. WILKINS supposed that the reading of the fray the ordinary expenditures of the Govern-resolutions, with which he proposed to accomment, after the payment of the national debt, pany his amendment, would have satisfied the as proposed in the late report of the Secretary gentleman from South Carolina as to the extent of the Treasury, and without a view to a sur- of reduction to which he was willing to go. plus revenue, or for distribution, having such If, by any change of our commercial regularegard as they may deem expedient to such an tions, and the present mode of collecting duties, ultimate equalization of duties as will render an equivalent could be given to the manufac them efficient for the purpose of their imposi- turer, he would be willing to reduce the duties tion." on the tariff articles to that extent. A beneficial change could also be made in the imposts on what are denominated non-enumerated articles; and, also, in the valuation of imported goods. By assessing the duties in proportion to the value of the goods in the United States, instead of their value at the foreign port, material benefit would result to the American manufacturer, and frauds on the revenue would be lessened. With these changes, he thought some reduction of duties might be made on the tariff articles, without operating to the injury of domestic industry.

Mr. WILKINS said it was conceded that the revenue must be reduced in consequence of the approaching extinction of the public debt; and the question was, in what manner the duties should be spread over the various articles of imports. He was not willing to concede, in arranging the duties, the principle of protection. However erroneous the legislation of the country may have been, which led to the present posture of its industry, he was opposed to the abandonment of that system. He did not deem it consistent with public faith to withdraw from manufactures that protection under which they had grown up. He was willing, however, to conciliate the interests opposed to this system, and for that purpose he

Mr. CLAY made some remarks in opposition to the amendment. If any thing was to be done this session, in relation to the tariff, it must be done without the very long delay which

The Tariff-Reduction of Duties.

the adoption of the resolutions would occasion, | friends had much to do to save it from utter unless the session should be extended through the year. The amendment, by itself, would not effect any object which the gentleman had in view. After all, there was but one question to be decided whether we were to retain the protective principle or not. Afterwards the question would arise, on what protected articles a reduction could be made. It was difficult to say a priori what should be the precise reduction of duties on all articles. If we reduce or abolish the duties on unprotected articles, at this session, to the extent of seven millions, and leave the protected class of duties untouched till the next session, we should probably go far enough, though not so far as he was willing to go. But the adoption of the gentleman's proposition would inevitably prevent the possibility of effecting any reduction whatever at this session.

Mr. TAZEWELL said that, in effect, there were three distinct propositions under consideration, and it was necessary to compare these with each other, before any correct opinion could be formed as to the propriety of adopting either. It was true that the Senator from New York (Mr. MAROY) had not yet presented his scheme in form; but as he had read his resolutions in his place, and had announced his purpose of offering them as a substitute for the amendment proposed by the Senator from Pennsylvania, (Mr. WILKINS,) if the latter should be rejected, the Senate was so compelled to consider this project in deciding upon the propriety of adopting either of the others.

[MARCH, 1832.

tion system; but these regulations, as they | protection shall bring more revenue into the exist, certainly have an unfavorable bearing Treasury than the ordinary expenses of the upon the protected interests. He would not Government required. It is obvious, then, that abandon the system, for he considered it as the expressed and unqualified proposition of the constitutional and expedient. But he would Senator from Pennsylvania is better than this. yield much for the sake of having the subject So far as they regard the revenue derivable settled at once, and forever. He was not afraid from what are called the duties on unprotected of the delay growing out of his amendment. It articles, both the Senators from Pennsylvania would have a great effect. Inquiries had been and Kentucky concur in proposing the total set on foot by the Treasury Department, which abolition of all these duties, except those imwould result in very important information. posed on wines and silks. In this respect, then, their schemes are similar. But that of the Senator from New York differs from each of them in this: he, although in favor of a diminution of the duties imposed upon some of these unprotected articles, is for retaining all the duties imposed upon others, which he called luxuries. His reason, too, for this, deserves some notice. He tells the Senate that, if they repeal the taxes which are now imposed upon articles consumed by the rich only, the tariff policy will become more odious than it now is. Therefore, for the purpose of preserving the American system in good odor with the people, they must retain the duties upon luxuries, and continue the burdens unnecessarily Comparing these three schemes according to imposed upon the rich, lest the poor, (I beg the grammarian's mode, he would say that that pardon of the gentleman from Pennsylvania, of the Senator from Pennsylvania was in the who has told us that there were no poor in this positive degree, and was simply bad; that of country,) lest the less wealthy, (to use his the Senator from Kentucky (Mr. CLAY) was in phrase,) should complain more loudly than they the comparative, and was worse; and that of now begin to do of the grievous impositions the Senator from New York was in the super-upon their comforts and necessaries. lative, and was the worst of all. Or, if gentlemen pleased to reverse this comparison, he would say that the New York project was positively bad, the Kentucky project comparatively better, and that of Pennsylvania was the best of all of them, although, for himself, he must say that bad was this best. Therefore, if he was bound to take one of these bitter potions, he should be compelled to take the last as that which was the least disagreeable.

All these several plans propose to reduce the amount of the future revenue of the United States; and the question was, how much? To this question the Senator from Pennsylvania answers, to the measure of the ordinary expenses of the Government, so as to leave no surplus in the Treasury, to become hereafter the subject of scuffle and scramble; and this he announces in the terms of his amendment itself without qualification or reserve. The Senator from Kentucky said the same thing in his argument, but he does not express it in his resolution; and he qualified the declaration made by him, by saying afterwards that his scheme of reduction would be limited by that protection. Give him adequate protection for manufactures, and he announced distinctly his perfect willingness to reduce the amount of the revenue to any point which the most moderate would propose. To use his own strong language, in that case, he would not be "outbragged" by any

one.

But adequate protection he must and would retain, even if the preservation of such

The

Senator from New York is unwilling, then, to reduce the revenue even to the extent proposed by the Senator from Kentucky.

The Senator, with his accustomed frankness, told the Senate that the revenue, if reduced to the full extent of his scheme, by abolishing all the duties imposed upon all the unprotected articles, would still, he feared, amount to at least eighteen millions, three millions more than the Treasury report states to be requisite to satisfy the utmost wants of the Government, But he could not agree to reduce it more at present, because he should then be compelled to diminish the necessary protection required for the support of his favorite system, which he was not disposed now to do. The Senator from New York proposes, however, to retain a large portion of even these duties, which both the other Senators are willing to abolish, and this with a distinct knowledge that such a proposition must necessarily augment the amount of revenue, and so increase the quantum of the surplus "spoil," to be hereafter distributed in some form or other.

Of all the evils, said Mr. T., which in his judgment were most to be deprecated in this country, was the accumulation of surpluses in the Treasury. Its effects must be either to transform this Government into a monster of wanton and bloated extravagance, or to generate new feuds and differences between the States as to the mode of distributing it. Either result would be equally destructive of the Union