[MR. CLAY, in presenting a memorial from citizens of
Pennsylvania, in relation to the tariff, and in opposition to
the tariff act, took occasion, as requested by the memorialists,
to express his views in regard to the subject, briefly, as
follows.]
TWO motives had operated on my mind, and I believe on the minds of
others, to induce them to concur in the passage of the law, (of 1833.)
The first was, to avert the calamity of civil war, the fire of which
having been lighted up in South Carolina, threatened to extend its
flames over the whole union; the second was, to preserve from utter
destruction the system of protection which Pennsylvania favored, when
the law was passed; and I will repeat here, although it will not be
long before I shall have an opportunity to go into an examination of
the whole subject, that if the compromise act had not been adopted,
the whole system of protection would have been swept by the board, by
the preponderating influence of the illustrious man then at the head
of the government, (general Jackson,) at the very next session after
its enactment. With regard to the operation of this act, it is a great
mistake to say, that any portion of the embarrassments of the country
has resulted from it. Other causes have contributed to this result, and
it is to be attributed to the experiments which have been made upon the
currency. The embarrassments are also to be attributed to the action
of the states, which, by plunging into schemes of internal improvement,
have contracted debts abroad, and thereby given a false and fictitious
appearance to the prosperity of the country; and when their bonds
depreciated, the evils under which they now suffer, as a consequence,
ensued. As to the compromise, I have already said, that it is my
purpose, as long as I shall remain in the senate, to maintain, that
the original principles of the act should be carried out faithfully
and honestly; and if, in providing for an adequate revenue for an
economical administration of the government, they can at the same time
afford incidental protection, I shall be happy if both of these objects
can be accomplished; but if it should be necessary, for the interests
of Pennsylvania, to go beyond a revenue tariff, for the purpose of
obtaining protection, then I hope that every senator and representative
from that state, and those of other states, and other interests, who
think it necessary to transcend the revenue, will take up this subject
of protection, and carry it to the point which their local interests
demand.
In reply to Mr. Calhoun, Mr. Clay combated the idea of that senator,
that the tariff had created the embarrassments which had existed for
a long time in the country. He referred the senator to the discussions
upon the tariff acts, for the purpose of showing that the reverse was
true. If the senator would look to the tariff acts of 1824, ’28, ’32,
and the compromise act of 1833, he would find that the revenues of the
country had never been more from these acts, than the expenditures of
government. The whole surplus revenue, about which so much had been
heard, and which was attributed to the protective policy, originated
exclusively in the extensive land sales, which had swelled in one
year to the enormous amount of twenty-six millions of dollars. These
excessive sales alone, had exceeded the amount of the surplus revenue
which had ever been brought into the treasury.
Hereafter, I shall be able to show, that it will be impossible to stand
by the twenty per centum, even by withdrawing the whole of the land
fund from its appropriated purpose of distribution, and placing it in
the treasury.