tant day-but not too distant, when we take into view the magnitude of the interests which are involved-to bring down the rate of duties to that revenue standard for which our opponents have so long contended. The basis on which I wish to found this modification, is one of time; and the several parts of the bill to which I am about to call the attention of the senate, are founded on this basis. I propose to give protection to our manufactured articles, adequate protection, for a length of time, which, compared with the length of human life, is very long, but which is short, in proportion to the legitimate discretion of every wise and parental system of government-securing the stability of legislation, and allowing time for a gradual reduction, on one side; and on the other, proposing to reduce the duties to that revenue standard for which the opponents of the system have so long contended. I will now proceed to lay the provisions of this bill before the senate, with a view to draw their attention to the true character of the bill.

Mr. C. then proceeded to read the first section of the bill. According to this section, he said, it would be perceived that it was proposed to come down to the revenue standard at the end of little more than nine years and a half, giving a protection to our own manufactures, which he hoped would be adequate, during the intermediate time. Mr. C. recapitulated the provisions of the section, and showed by

various illustrations how they would operate.

Mr. C. then proceeded to read and comment upon the second section of the bill. It would be recollected, he said, that at the last session of congress, with the view to make a concession to the southern section of the country, low priced woollens, those supposed to enter into the consumption of slaves and the poorer classes of persons, were taken out of the general class of duties on woollens, and the duty on them reduced to five per cent. It would be also recollected, that at that time the gentlemen from the south had said that this concession was of no consequence, and that they did not care for it, and he believed that they did not now consider it of any greater importance. As, therefore, it had failed of the purpose for which it was taken out of the common class, he thought it ought to be brought back again, and placed by the side of the other descriptions of woollens, and made subject to the same reduction of duty as proposed by this section.

Having next read through the third section of the bill, Mr. C. said that, after the expiration of a term of years, this section laid down a rule by which the duties were to be reduced to a revenue standard which has been so long and so earnestly contended for. Until otherwise directed, and in default of provision being made for the wants of the government in 1842, a rule was thus provided for the rate of duties there

after, congress being in the mean time authorized to adopt any other rule which the exigencies of the country, or its financial condition, might require. That is to say, if, instead of the duty of 20 per cent. proposed, 15 or 17 per cent. of duty was sufficient, or 25 per cent. should be found necessary, to produce a revenue to defray the expenses of an economical administration of the government, there was nothing to prevent either of those rates, or any other, from being fixed upon; whilst the rate of 20 per cent. was introduced to guard against any failure on the part of congress to make the requisite provision in due season. This section of the bill, Mr. C. said, contained, also, another clause, suggested by that spirit of harmony and conciliation which he prayed might preside over the councils of the union at this trying moment. It provided (what those persons who are engaged in manufactures have so long anxiously required for their security) that duties shall be paid in ready money-and we shall thus get rid of the whole of that credit system, into which an inroad was made, in regard to woollens, by the act of the last session. This section further contained a proviso that nothing in any part of this act should be construed to interfere with the freest exercise of the power of congress to lay any amount of duties, in the event of war breaking out between this country and any foreign power.

Mr. C. having then read the fourth section of the bill, said

that one of the considerations strongly urged for a reduction of the tariff at this time was, that the government was likely to be placed in a dilemma by having an overflowing revenue; and this apprehension was the ground of an attempt totally to change the protective policy of the country. The section which he had read, Mr. C. said, was an effort to guard against this evil, by relieving altogether from duty a portion of the articles of import now subject to it. Some of these, he said, would, under the present rate of duty upon them, produce a considerable revenue; the article of silks alone would probably yield half a million of dollars per annum. If it were possible to pacify present dissensions, and let things take their course, he believed that no difficulty need be apprehended. If, said he, the bill which this body passed at the last session of congress, and has again passed at this session, shall pass the other house, and become a law, and the gradual reduction of duties should take place which is contemplated by the first section of this bill, we shall have settled two (if not three) of the great questions which have agitated this country, that of the tariff, of the public lands, and, I will add, of internal improvement also. For, if there should still be a surplus revenue, that surplus might be applied, until the year 1842, to the completion of the works of internal improvement already commenced; and, after 1842, a reliance for all funds for purposes of internal improvement should

be placed upon the operation of the land bill, to which he had already referred.

It was not his object, Mr. C. said, in referring to that measure in connexion with that which he was about to propose, to consider them as united in their fate, being desirous, partial as he might be to both, that each should stand or fall upon its own intrinsic merits. If this section of the bill, adding to the number of free articles, should become law, along with the reduction of duties proposed by the first section of the bill, it was by no means sure that we should have any surplus revenue at all. He had been astonished indeed at the process of reasoning by which the secretary of the treasury had arrived at the conclusion that we should have a surplus revenue at all; though he admitted that such a conclusion could be arrived at in no other way. But what was this process? Duties of a certain rate now exist: the amount which they produce is known: the secretary, proposing a reduction of the rate of duty, supposes that the duties will be reduced in proportion to the amount of the reduction of duty. Now, Mr. C. said, no calculation could be more uncertain than that. Though, perhaps, the best that the secretary could have made, it was still all uncertainty; dependent upon the winds and waves, on the mutations of trade, and on the course of commercial operations. If there was any truth in political economy, it could not be that the result would agree with the prediction;

for we are instructed by all experience that the consumption of any article is in proportion to the reduction of its price, and that in general it may be taken as a rule, that the duty upon an article forms a portion of its price. Mr. C. said, he did not mean to impute any improper design to any one; but, if it had been so intended, no scheme for getting rid of the tariff could have been more artfully devised to effect its purposes, than that which thus calculated the revenue, and in addition, assumed that the expenditure of the government every year would be so much, &c. Could any one here say what the future expenditure of the government would be? In this young, great, and growing community, can we say what will be the expenditure of the government even a year hence, much less what it will be, three, or four, or five years hence? Yet it had been estimated, on assumed amounts, founded on such uncertain data, both of income and expenditure, that the revenue might be reduced so many millions a year!

Mr. C. asked pardon for this digression, and returned to the examination of articles in the fourth section, which were proposed to be left free of duty. The duties on these articles, he said, now varied from 5 to 10 per cent. ad valorem; but low as they were, the aggregate amount of revenue which they produced was considerable. By the bill of the last session, the duties on French silks was fixed at five per cent., and that on

Chinese silks at ten per cent. ad valorem. By the bill now proposed, the duty on French silks was proposed to be repealed, leaving the other untouched. He would frankly state why he made this distinction. It had been a subject of anxious desire with him to see our commerce with France increased. France, though not so large a customer in the great staples of our country as Great Britain, was a great growing customer. He had been much struck with a fact going to prove this, which accidentally came to his knowleege the other day; which was that within the short period of fourteen years, the amount of consumption in France of the great southern staple of cotton had been tripled. Again, it was understood that the French silks of the lower grades of quality could not sustain a competition with the Chinese without some discrimination of this sort. He had understood, also, that the duty imposed upon this article at the last session had been very much complained of on the part of France; and, considering all the circumstances connected with the relations between the two governments, it appeared to him desirable to make this discrimination in favour of the French product. If the senate should think differently, he should be content. If, indeed, they should think proper to strike out this section altogether, he should cheerfully submit to their decision.

After reading the fifth and sixth sections:

Mr. Clay said, he would now take a view of some of the objections which would be made to the bill. It might be said that the act was prospective, that it bound our successors, and that we had no power thus to bind them. It was true, that the act was prospective, and so was almost every act which we ever passed, but we could repeal it the next day. It was the established usage to give all acts a prospective operation. In every tariff law, there were some provisions which go into operation immediately, and others, at a future time. Each congress legislated according to their own views of propriety; their acts did not bind their successors, but created a species of public faith which would not rashly be broken. But, if this bill should go into operation, as he hoped even against hope, that it might, he had not a doubt that it would be adhered to by all parties. There was but one contingency which would render a change necessary, and that was the intervention of a war, which was provided for in the bill. The hands of congress were left untied in this event, and they would be at liberty to resort to any mode of taxation which they might propose. But, if we sup pose peace to continue, there would be no motive for disturbing the arrangement, but, on the contrary, every motive to carry it into effect. In the next place, it will be objected to the bill, by the friends of the protective policy, of whom he held himself to be one, for his mind was im

mutably fixed in favour of that policy, that it abandoned the power of protection. But, he contended, in the first place, that a suspension of the exercise of the power was not an abandonment of it; for the power was in the constitution according to our theory-was put there by its framers, and could only be dislodged by the people. After the year 1842, the bill provided that the power should be exercised in a certain mode. There were four modes by which the industry of the country could be protected:

First, the absolute prohibition of rival foreign articles. That was totally unattempted by the bill: but it was competent to the wisdom of the government to exert the power whenever they wished. Second, the imposition of duties in such a manner as to have no reference to any object but revenue. When we had a large public debt in 1816, the duties yielded 37 millions and paid so much more of the debt, and subsequently they yielded but eight or ten millions, and paid so much less of the debt. Sometimes we had to trench on the sinking fund. Now we have no public debt to absorb the surplus revenue, and no motive for continuing the duties. No man can look at the condition of the country and say that we can carry on this system, with accumulating revenue, and no practicable way of expending it. The third mode was attempted last session, in a resolution which he had the honour to submit last year, and which in fact ultimate

ly formed the basis of the act which finally passed both houses. This was, to raise as much revenue as was wanted for the use of the government, and no more, but to raise it from the protected and not from the unprotected articles. He would say that he regretted most deeply that the greater part of the country would not suffer this principle to prevail. It ought to prevailand the day, in his opinion, would come when it would be adopted as the permanent policy of the country. Shall we legislate for our own wants or that of a foreign country? To protect our own interests in opposition to foreign legislation was the basis of this system. The fourth mode in which protection could be afforded to domestic industry was to admit free of duty every article which aided the operations of the manufacturers. These were the four modes for protecting our industry; and to those who say that the bill abandons the power of protection, he would reply that it did not touch that power; and that the fourth mode, so far from being abandoned, is extended and upheld by the bill. The most that can be objected to the bill by those with whom he had cooperated to support the protective system, was that, in consideration of nine and a half years of peace, certainty and stability, the manufacturers relinquished some advantages which they now enjoyed. What was the principle which had always been contended for in this and in the other house? That, after the