mentioned which required that the duties should be reduced in three years to 20 per cent., was repealed, and a broad foundation thus laid for the permanent establishment of the protecting system. This system has been still further extended and fortified by the several successive acts of 1820, 1824, and 1828, until by the passing of the act of 1832, (to take effect after the discharge of the public debt,) it has become incorporated into our political system, as the "SEttled policy of THE COUNTRY." We have not deemed it necessary, in tracing the origin and progress of this system, to go further back than the commercial restrictions which preceded the late war;-for whatever theoretical opinions may have been expressed by Alexander Hamilton and others in relation to it, at an earlier period, it cannot be denied that no duties were actually imposed beyond those deemed indispensable for the public exigencies, and that prior to the year 1816, no protection whatever was actually extended to manufactures, beyond what was strictly incidental to a system for revenue. The discrimination between the protected and unprotected articles now contended for as the very corner stone of the protecting system, was so far from being established by that act, that the highest duties were actually imposed on the very articles now admitted duty free, while the foreign manufactures which came into competition with our domestic fabrics were subjected to a lower rate of duty. The truth then unquestionably is, that the protecting policy, according to the principles now contended for, was never introduced into this country until the period we have mentioned, when it crept insidiously into the legislation of Congress in the manner above described. This will be made abundantly manifest to every one who will take the pains to trace the progress of the duties from 73 per cent., in 1790, up to 25 per cent., in 1816, 40 per cent., in 1824, and 50, 60, and even 100 per cent., in 1828 and 1832, and who will merely examine the manner in which these duties were adjusted in the various acts here referred to. As early as 1820, so soon indeed as the capitalists who had relied upon the powers of the Federal Government to enhance the profits of their investments by legislation, began to look forward to its eventful establishment as the settled policy of the country, they clearly perceived that an extension of the appropriations to objects not

embraced in the specific grants of the Federal constitution, was the necessary appendage of their system. They well knew that the people would not long submit to the levying of a large surplus revenue merely for the protection of manufactures, carried on almost exclusively in one quarter of the Union; and they therefore sought in the extension of the appropriations to new objects, for a plausible and popular excuse for the continuance of a system of high duties. With that instinctive sagacity, which belongs to men who convert the Legislature of a country into an instrument for the promotion of their own private ends, they clearly saw that the distribution of an enormous surplus treasure, would afford the surest means of bringing over the enemies of the American System to its support, and of enlisting in their cause not only large masses of the people, but entire States who had no direct interest in maintaining the protecting system, or who were even, in some respects, its victims. No scheme that the wit of man could possibly have devised, was better calculated for the accomplishment of this object. It proposed simply to reconcile men to an unjust system of national policy, by admitting them to a large share of the spoils ;-in a word, to levy contributions by the aid of those who were to divide the plunder. If the United States had constituted one great nation, with a consolidated Government, occupying a territory of limited extent, inhabited by a people engaged in similar pursuits, and having homogeneous interests, such a system would only have operated as a tax upon all the other great interests of the State, for the benefit of that which was favored by the laws, and when time had been allowed for the adjustment of society to this new condition of its affairs, the final result must have been an aggregate diminution of the profits of the whole community, by diverting a portion of the people from their accustomed employments to less profitable pursuits. In such a case, the hope might perhaps have been indulged that experience would demonstrate the egregious folly of enacting laws, the only effect of which would be, to supply the wants of the community at an increased expense of labor and capital. But it is the distinguishing feature of the American System, and one which stamps upon it the character of peculiar and aggravated oppression, that it is made applicable to a Confederacy

of twenty-four Sovereign and Independent States,-occupying a territory upwards of 2000 miles in extent,-embracing every variety of soil, climate, and productions,-inhabited by a people whose institutions and interests are in many respects diametrically opposed to each other,—with habits and pursuits infinitely diversified,—and in the great Southern section of the Union, rendered by local circumstances altogether incapable of change. Under such circumstances, a system, which under a consolidated Government would be merely impolitic, and so far, an act of injustice to the whole community, becomes in this country a scheme of the most intolerable oppression, because it may be, and has in fact been, so adjusted as to operate exclusively to the benefit of a particular interest, and of particular sections of country, rendering in effect the industry of one portion of the confederacy tributary to the rest. The laws have accordingly been so framed as to give a direct pecuniary interest to a sectional majority, in maintaining a grand system, by which taxes are in effect imposed upon the few, for the benefit of the many;and imposed too, by a system of indirect taxation, so artfully contrived, as to escape the vigilance of the common eye, and masked under such ingenious devices as to make it extremely difficult to expose their true character. Thus under the pretext of imposing duties for the payment of the public debt, and providing for the common defence and general welfare, (powers expressly conferred on the Federal Government by the Constitution,) acts are passed containing provisions designed exclusively and avowedly for the purpose of securing to the American Manufacturers, a monopoly in our own markets, to the great and manifest prejudice of those who furnish the agricultural productions which are exchanged in foreign markets for the very articles which it is the avowed object of these laws to exclude. It so happens, that six of the Southern States, whose industry is almost exclusively agricultural, though embracing a population equal to only one third part of the whole Union, actually produce for exportation near 40,000,000 annually, being about twothirds of the whole domestic exports of the United States. As it is their interest, so it is, unquestionably, their right, to carry these fruits of their own honest industry, to the best market, without any molestation, hindrance, or restraint, whatsoever, and

subject to no taxes, or other charges, but such as may be necessary for the payment of the reasonable expenses of the government. But how does this system operate upon our industry? While imposts to the amount of 10 or 12 per cent., (if arranged on just and equal principles) must be admitted to be fully adequate to all the legitimate purposes of Government, duties are actually imposed (with a few inconsiderable exceptions) upon all the Woollens, Cottons, Iron and Manufactures of Iron, Sugar, and Salt, and almost every other article received in exchange for the Cotton, Rice, and Tobacco of the South, equal on an average to about 50 per cent., whereby (in addition to the injurious effects of this system in prohibiting some articles, and discouraging the introduction of others,) a tax equal to one-half of the first cost is imposed upon the Cottons, Woollens, and Iron, which are the fruits of Southern industry, in order to secure an advantage in the home market, to their rivals the American Manufacturers of similar articles, equivalent to one-half of their value, thereby stimulating the industry of the North, and discouraging that of the South, by granting bounties to the one, and imposing taxes upon the other.

The Committee deem it unnecessary to go into an elaborate examination of the true character and sectional operation of the protecting system. The subject has of late been so frequently and thoroughly examined, and the bearing of the System been so completely exposed, that the argument is exhausted. To the people of the Southern States, there cannot be presented a more touching or irresistible appeal, either to their understandings or their hearts, than is found in the melancholy memorials of ruin and decay which are every where visible around us,-memorials proclaiming the fatal character of that system, which has brought upon one of the finest portions of the globe, in the full vigor of its early manhood, the poverty and desolation, which belong only to the most sterile regions, or to the old age and decrepitude of nations. The moral blight and pestilence of unwise and partial legislation, has swept over our fields, with "the besom of destruction." The proofs are every where around us.

It is in vain for any one to contend that this is a just and equal system, or that the Northern States pay a full proportion of the tax. If this were so, how is it to be accounted for, that

high duties are regarded in that quarter of the Union, not as a burden, but as a blessing?

How comes it that a people, certainly not unmindful of their interests, are seen courting the imposition of taxes, and crying out against any material reduction of the public burdens? Does not this extraordinary fact afford conclusive evidence that high duties operate as a bounty to Northern industry; and that whatever taxes the manufacturers may pay, as consumers, they are more than remunerated by the advantages they enjoy as producers? or, in other words, that they actually receive more than they pay, and therefore cannot be justly said to be taxed at all? When, in addition to all this, we take into consideration that the amount of duties annually levied for the protection of manufactures, beyond the necessary wants of the Government, (which cannot be estimated at less than 10 or 12,000,000) is expended almost exclusively in the Northern portion of the Union, can it excite any surprise, that under the operation of the Protecting System, the manufacturing States should be constantly increasing in riches, and growing in strength, with an inhospitable climate and barren soil, while the Southern States, the natural garden of America, should be rapidly falling into decay? It is contrary to the general order of Providence, that any country should long bear up against a system, by which enormous contributions, raised in one quarter, are systematically expended in another. If the sixteen millions of dollars now annually levied in duties on the foreign goods received in exchange for Southern productions were allowed to remain in the pockets of the people, or by some just and equal system of appropriation could be restored to them, the condition of the plantation States would unquestionably be one of unexampled prosperity and happiness. Such was our condition under a system of free trade, and such would soon again be our enviable lot. Of the results which would thereby be produced, some faint conception may be formed by imagining what would be the effect upon the industry of the people of our own State, if the $8,000,000 of foreign goods now annually received in exchange for our productions, and paying duties to the amount of upwards of $3,000,000, could be obtained by us duty free, or the duties thus levied, were expended within our own limits. Is it not ob