THE PROTECTIVE SYSTEM.
The cycle had come round which, periodically, and once in four
years, brings up a presidential election and a tariff discussion.
The two events seemed to be inseparable; and this being the fourth
year from the great tariff debate of 1828, and the fourth year from
the last presidential election, and being the long session which
precedes the election, it was the one in regular course in which the
candidates and their friends make the greatest efforts to operate
upon public opinion through the measures which they propose, or
oppose in Congress. Added to this, the election being one on which
not only a change of political parties depended, but also a second
trial of the election in the House of Representatives in 1824-'25,
in which Mr. Adams and Mr. Clay triumphed over General Jackson,
with the advantage on their side now of both being in Congress: for
these reasons this session became the most prolific of party topics,
and of party contests, of any one ever seen in the annals of our
Congress. And certainly there were large subjects to be brought
before the people, and great talents to appear in their support and
defence. The renewal of the national bank charter--the continuance
of the protective system--internal improvement by the federal
government--division of the public land money, or of the lands
themselves--colonization society--extension of pension list--Georgia
and the Cherokees--Georgia and the Supreme Court--imprisoned
missionaries--were all brought forward, and pressed with zeal,
by the party out of power; and pressed in a way to show their
connection with the presidential canvass, and the reliance upon
them to govern its result. The party in power were chiefly on
the defensive; and it was the complete civil representation of a
military attack and defence of a fortified place--a siege--with its
open and covert attacks on one side, its repulses and sallies on
the other--its sappings and minings, as well as its open thundering
assaults. And this continued for seven long months--from December to
July; fierce in the beginning, and becoming more so from day to day
until the last hour of the last day of the exhausted session. It was
the most fiery and eventful session that I had then seen--or since
seen, except one--the panic session of 1834-'35.
The two leading measures in this plan of operations--the bank and
the tariff--were brought forward simultaneously and quickly--on the
same day, and under the same lead. The memorial for the renewal
of the bank charter was presented in the Senate on the 9th day of
January: on the same day, and as soon as it was referred, Mr. Clay
submitted a resolution in relation to the tariff, and delivered a
speech of three days' duration in support of the American system.
The President, in his message, and in view of the approaching
extinction of the public debt--then reduced to an event of certainty
within the ensuing year--recommended the abolition of duties on
numerous articles of necessity or comfort, not produced at home.
Mr. Clay proposed to make the reduction in subordination to the
preservation of the "American system" and this opened the whole
question of free trade and protection; and occasioned that field to
be trod over again with all the vigor of a fresh exploration. Mr.
Clay opened his great speech with a retrospect of what the condition
of the country was for seven years before the tarriff of 1824,
and what it had been since--the first a period of unprecedented
calamity, the latter of equally unprecedented prosperity:--and he
made the two conditions equally dependent upon the absence and
presence of the protective system. He said:
"Eight years ago, it was my painful duty to present to the
other House of Congress an unexaggerated picture of the general
distress pervading the whole land. We must all yet remember some
of its frightful features. We all know that the people were
then oppressed and borne down by an enormous load of debt; that
the value of property was at the lowest point of depression;
that ruinous sales and sacrifices were every where made of
real estate; that stop laws and relief laws and paper money
were adopted to save the people from impending destruction;
that a deficit in the public revenue existed, which compelled
government to seize upon, and divert from its legitimate object,
the appropriation to the sinking fund, to redeem the national
debt; and that our commerce and navigation were threatened
with a complete paralysis. In short, sir, if I were to select
any term of seven years since the adoption of the present
constitution, which exhibited a scene of the most wide-spread
dismay and desolation, it would be exactly the term of seven
years which immediately preceded the establishment of the tariff
of 1824."
This was a faithful picture of that calamitous period, but the
argument derived from it was a two-edged sword, which cut, and
deeply, into another measure, also lauded as the cause of the
public prosperity. These seven years of national distress which
immediately preceded the tariff of 1824, were also the same
seven years which immediately followed the establishment of the
national bank; and which, at the time it was chartered, was to be
the remedy for all the distress under which the country labored:
besides, the protective system was actually commenced in the year
1816--contemporaneously with the establishment of the national bank.
Before 1816, protection to home industry had been an incident to the
levy of revenue; but in 1816 it became an object. Mr. Clay thus
deduced the origin and progress of the protective policy:
"It began on the ever memorable 4th day of July--the 4th of
July, 1789. The second act which stands recorded in the statute
book, bearing the illustrious signature of George Washington,
laid the corner stone of the whole system. That there might be
no mistake about the matter, it was then solemly proclaimed to
the American people and to the world, that it was _necessary_
for "the encouragement and _protection_ of manufactures," that
duties should be laid. It is in vain to urge the small amount
of the measure of protection then extended. The great principle
was then established by the fathers of the constitution, with
the father of his country at their head. And it cannot now be
questioned, that, if the government had not then been new and
the subject untried, a greater measure of protection would have
been applied, if it had been supposed necessary. Shortly after,
the master minds of Jefferson and Hamilton were brought to act
on this interesting subject. Taking views of it appertaining to
the departments of foreign affairs and of the treasury, which
they respectively filled, they presented, severally, reports
which yet remain monuments of their profound wisdom, and came
to the same conclusion of protection to American industry.
Mr. Jefferson argued that foreign restrictions, foreign
prohibitions, and foreign high duties, ought to be met, at home,
by American restrictions, American prohibitions, and American
high duties. Mr. Hamilton, surveying the entire ground, and
looking at the inherent nature of the subject, treated it with
an ability which, if ever equalled, has not been surpassed, and
earnestly recommended protection.
"The wars of the French revolution commenced about this period,
and streams of gold poured into the United States through a
thousand channels, opened or enlarged by the successful commerce
which our neutrality enabled us to prosecute. We forgot,
or overlooked, in the general prosperity, the necessity of
encouraging our domestic manufactures. Then came the edicts of
Napoleon, and the British orders in council; and our embargo,
non-intercourse, non-importation, and war, followed in rapid
succession. These national measures, amounting to a total
suspension, for the period of their duration, of our foreign
commerce, afforded the most efficacious encouragement to
American manufactures; and accordingly, they every where sprung
up. Whilst these measures of restriction and this state of war
continued the manufacturers were stimulated in their enterprises
by every assurance of support, by public sentiment, and by
legislative resolves. It was about that period (1808) that South
Carolina bore her high testimony to the wisdom of the policy,
in an act of her legislature, the preamble of which, now before
me, reads: 'Whereas the establishment and _encouragement_ of
domestic manufactures is conducive to the interest of a State,
by adding new _incentives to industry_, and as being the means
of disposing, to advantage, the surplus productions of the
_agriculturist_: And whereas, in the present unexampled state
of the world, their establishment in our country is not only
_expedient_, but politic, in rendering us _independent_ of
foreign nations.' The legislature, not being competent to afford
the most efficacious aid, by imposing duties on foreign rival
articles, proceeded to incorporate a company.
"Peace, under the Treaty of Ghent, returned in 1815, but there
did not return with it the golden days which preceded the
edicts levelled at our commerce by Great Britain and France. It
found all Europe tranquilly resuming the arts and the business
of civil life. It found Europe no longer the consumer of our
surplus, and the employer of our navigation, but excluding, or
heavily burdening, almost all the productions of our agriculture
and our rivals in manufactures, in navigation, and in commerce.
It found our country, in short, in a situation totally different
from all the past--new and untried. It became necessary to
adapt our laws, and especially our laws of impost, to the new
circumstances in which we found ourselves. It has been said that
the tariff of 1816 was a measure of mere revenue; and that it
only reduced the war duties to a peace standard. It is true that
the question then was, how much, and in what way, should the
double duties of the war be reduced? Now, also, the question is,
on what articles shall the duties be reduced so as to subject
the amount of the future revenue to the wants of the government?
Then it was deemed an inquiry of the first importance, as it
should be now, how the reduction should be made, so as to secure
proper encouragement to domestic industry. That this was a
leading object in the arrangement of the tariff of 1816, I well
remember, and it is demonstrated by the language of Mr. Dallas.
"The subject of the American system was again brought up in
1820, by the bill reported by the chairman of the Committee
on Manufactures, now a member of the bench of the Supreme
Court of the United States, and the principle was successfully
maintained by the representatives of the people; but the bill
which they passed was defeated in the Senate. It was revived
in 1824, the whole ground carefully and deliberately explored,
and the bill then introduced, receiving all the sanctions of
the constitution. This act of 1824 needed amendments in some
particulars, which were attempted in 1828, but ended in some
injuries to the system; and now the whole aim was to save an
existing system--not to create a new one."
And he summed up his policy thus:
"1. That the policy which we have been considering ought to
continue to be regarded as the genuine American system.
"2. That the free trade system, which is proposed as its
substitute, ought really to be considered as the British
colonial system.
"3. That the American system is beneficial to all parts of the
Union, and absolutely necessary to much the larger portion.
"4. That the price of the great staple of cotton, and of all our
chief productions of agriculture, has been sustained and upheld,
and a decline averted by the protective system.
"5. That, if the foreign demand for cotton has been at all
diminished by the operation of that system, the diminution has
been more than compensated in the additional demand created at
home.
"6. That the constant tendency of the system, by creating
competition among ourselves, and between American and European
industry, reciprocally acting upon each other, is to reduce
prices of manufactured objects.
"7. That, in point of fact, objects within the scope of the
policy of protection have greatly fallen in price.
"8. That if, in a season of peace, these benefits are
experienced, in a season of war, when the foreign supply might
be cut off, they would be much more extensively felt.
"9. And, finally, that the substitution of the British colonial
system for the American system, without benefiting any section
of the Union, by subjecting us to a foreign legislation,
regulated by foreign interests, would lead to the prostration of
our manufactures, general impoverishment, and ultimate ruin."
Mr. Clay was supported in his general views by many able
speakers--among them, Dickerson and Frelinghuysen of New Jersey;
Ewing of Ohio; Holmes of Maine; Bell of New Hampshire; Hendricks of
Indiana; Webster and Silsbee of Massachusetts; Robbins and Knight of
Rhode Island; Wilkins and Dallas of Pennsylvania; Sprague of Maine;
Clayton of Delaware; Chambers of Maryland; Foot of Connecticut. On
the other hand the speakers in opposition to the protective policy
were equally numerous, ardent and able. They were: Messrs. Hayne
and Miller of South Carolina; Brown and Mangum of North Carolina;
Forsyth and Troup of Georgia; Grundy and White of Tennessee; Hill
of New Hampshire; Kane of Illinois; Benton of Missouri; King and
Moore of Alabama; Poindexter of Mississippi; Tazewell and Tyler of
Virginia; General Samuel Smith of Maryland. I limit the enumeration
to the Senate. In the House the subject was still more fully
debated, according to its numbers; and like the bank question, gave
rise to heat; and was kept alive to the last day.
General Smith of Maryland, took up the question at once as bearing
upon the harmony and stability of the Union--as unfit to be pressed
on that account as well as for its own demerits--avowed himself a
friend to incidental protection, for which he had always voted,
and even voted for the act of 1816--which he considered going far
enough; and insisted that all "manufacturers" were doing well under
it, and did not need the acts of 1824 and 1828, which were made for
"capitalists"--to enable them to engage in manufacturing; and who
had not the requisite skill and care, and suffered, and called upon
Congress for more assistance. He said:
"We have arrived at a crisis. Yes, Mr. President, at a crisis
more appalling than a day of battle. I adjure the Committee on
Manufactures to pause--to reflect on the dissatisfaction of
all the South. South Carolina has expressed itself strongly
against the tariff of 1828--stronger than the other States
are willing to speak. But, sir, the whole of the South feel
deeply the oppression of that tariff. In this respect there
is no difference of opinion. The South--the whole Southern
States--all, consider it as oppressive. They have not yet
spoken; but when they do speak, it will be with a voice that
will not implore, but will demand redress. How much better,
then, to grant redress? How much better that the Committee on
Manufactures heal the wound which has been inflicted? I want
nothing that shall injure the manufacturer. I only want justice.
"I am, Mr. President, one of the few survivors of those who
fought in the war of the revolution. We then thought we fought
for liberty--for equal rights. We fought against taxation, the
proceeds of which were for the benefit of others. Where is the
difference, if the people are to be taxed by the manufacturers
or by any others? I say manufacturers--and why do I say so?
When the Senate met, there was a strong disposition with all
parties to ameliorate the tariff of 1828; but I now see a
change, which makes me almost despair of any thing effectual
being accomplished. Even the small concessions made by the
senator from Kentucky [Mr. Clay] have been reprobated by the
lobby members, the agents of the manufacturers. I am told they
have put their fiat on any change whatever, and hence, as a
consequence, the change in the course and language of gentlemen,
which almost precludes all hope. Those interested men hang on
the Committee on Manufactures like an incubus. I say to that
committee, depend upon your own good judgments--survey the whole
subject as politicians--discard sectional interests, and study
only the common weal--act with these views--and thus relieve the
oppressions of the South.
"I have ever, Mr. President, supported the interest of
manufactures, as far as it could be done incidentally. I
supported the late Mr. Lowndes's bill of 1816. I was a member
of his committee, and that bill protected the manufactures
sufficiently, except bar iron. Mr. Lowndes had reported fifteen
dollars per ton. The House reduced it to nine dollars per ton.
That act enabled the manufacturers to exclude importations of
certain articles. The hatters carry on their business by their
sons and apprentices, and few, if any, hats are now imported.
Large quantities are exported, and preferred. All articles of
leather, from tanned side to the finest harness or saddle, have
been excluded from importation; and why? Because the business
is conducted by their own hard hands, their own labor, and they
are now heavily taxed by the tariff of 1828, to enable the rich
to enter into the manufactures of the country. Yes, sir, I say
the rich, who entered into the business after the act of 1824,
which proved to be a mushroom affair, and many of them suffered
severely. The act of 1816, I repeat, gave all the protection
that was necessary or proper, under which the industrious and
frugal completely succeeded. But, sir, the capitalist who had
invested his capital in manufactures, was not to be satisfied
with ordinary profit; and therefore the act of 1828."
Mr. Clay, in his opening speech had adverted to the Southern
discontent at the working of the protective tariff, in a way that
showed he felt it to be serious, and entitled to enter into the
consideration of statesmen; but considered this system an overruling
necessity of such want and value to other parts of the Union, that
the danger to its existence laid in the abandonment, and not in the
continuance of the "American system." On this point he expressed
himself thus:
"And now, Mr. President, I have to make a few observations
on a delicate subject, which I approach with all the respect
that is due to its serious and grave nature. They have not,
indeed, been rendered necessary by the speech of the gentleman
from South Carolina, whose forbearance to notice the topic
was commendable, as his argument throughout was characterized
by an ability and dignity worthy of him and of the Senate.
The gentleman made one declaration which might possibly be
misinterpreted, and I submit to him whether an explanation of
it be not proper. The declaration, as reported in his printed
speech, is: 'the instinct of self-interest might have taught
us an easier way of relieving ourselves from this oppression.
It wanted but the will to have supplied ourselves with every
article embraced in the protective system, free of duty,
without any other participation, on our part than a simple
consent to receive them.' [Here Mr. Hayne rose, and remarked
that the passages, which immediately preceded and followed the
paragraph cited, he thought, plainly indicated his meaning,
which related to evasions of the system, by illicit introduction
of goods, which they were not disposed to countenance in South
Carolina.] I am happy to hear this explanation. But, sir, it
is impossible to conceal from our view the fact that there is
great excitement in South Carolina; that the protective system
is openly and violently denounced in popular meetings; and that
the legislature itself has declared its purpose of resorting
to counteracting measures: a suspension of which has only been
submitted to, for the purpose of allowing Congress time to
retrace its steps. With respect to this Union, Mr. President,
the truth cannot be too generally proclaimed, nor too strongly
inculcated, that it is necessary to the whole and to all the
parts--necessary to those parts, indeed, in different degrees,
but vitally necessary to each; and that, threats to disturb or
dissolve it, coming from any of the parts, would be quite as
indiscreet and improper, as would be threats from the residue
to exclude those parts from the pale of its benefits. The great
principle, which lies at the foundation of all free governments,
is, that the majority must govern; from which there is nor can
be no appeal but to the sword. That majority ought to govern
wisely, equitably, moderately, and constitutionally; but,
govern it must, subject only to that terrible appeal. If ever
one, or several States, being a minority, can, by menacing a
dissolution of the Union, succeed in forcing an abandonment of
great measures, deemed essential to the interests and prosperity
of the whole, the Union, from that moment, is practically
gone. It may linger on, in form and name, but its vital spirit
has fled for ever! Entertaining these deliberate opinions,
I would entreat the patriotic people of South Carolina--the
land of Marion, Sumpter, and Pickens; of Rutledge, Laurens,
the Pickneys; and Lowndes; of living and present names, which
I would mention if they were not living or present--to pause,
solemnly pause! and contemplate the frightful precipice which
lies directly before them. To retreat, may be painful and
mortifying to their gallantry and pride; but it is to retreat
to the Union, to safety, and to those brethren, with whom, or,
with whose ancestors, they, or their ancestors, have won, on the
fields of glory, imperishable renown. To advance, is to rush on
certain and inevitable disgrace and destruction.
"The danger to our Union does not lie on the side of persistance
in the American system, but on that of its abandonment. If, as
I have supposed and believe, the inhabitants of all north and
east of James River, and all west of the mountains, including
Louisiana are deeply interested in the preservation of that
system, would they be reconciled to its overthrow? Can it be
expected that two thirds, if not three fourths, of the people of
the United States would consent to the destruction of a policy
believed to be indispensably necessary to their prosperity?
When too, this sacrifice is made at the instance of a single
interest, which they verily believe will not be promoted by
it? In estimating the degree of peril which may be incident to
two opposite courses of human policy, the statesman would be
short-sighted who should content himself with viewing only the
evils, real or imaginary, which belong to that course which
is in practical operation. He should lift himself up to the
contemplation of those greater and more certain dangers which
might inevitably attend the adoption of the alternative course.
What would be the condition of this Union, if Pennsylvania
and New-York, those mammoth members of our confederacy, were
firmly persuaded that their industry was paralyzed, and their
prosperity blighted, by the enforcement of the British colonial
system, under the delusive name of free trade? They are now
tranquil, and happy, and contented, conscious of their welfare
and feeling a salutary and rapid circulation of the products
of home manufactures and home industry throughout all their
great arteries. But let that be checked, let them feel that
a foreign system is to predominate, and the sources of their
subsistence and comfort dried up; let New England and the West,
and the Middle States, all feel that they too are the victims of
a mistaken policy, and let these vast portions of our country
despair of any favorable change, and then, indeed, might we
tremble for the continuance and safety of this Union!"
Here was an appalling picture presented: dissolution of the Union,
on either hand, and one or the other of the alternatives obliged
to be taken. If persisted in, the opponents to the protective
system, in the South, were to make the dissolution; if abandoned,
its friends, in the North, were to do it. Two citizens, whose
word was law to two great parties, denounced the same event, from
opposite causes, and one of which causes was obliged to occur. The
crisis required a hero-patriot at the head of the government, and
Providence had reserved one for the occasion. There had been a
design, in some, to bring Jackson forward for the Presidency, in
1816, and again, in 1820, when he held back. He was brought forward,
in 1824, and defeated. These three successive postponements brought
him to the right years, for which Providence seemed to have destined
him, and which he would have missed, if elected at either of the
three preceding elections. It was a reservation above human wisdom
or foresight; and gave to the American people (at the moment they
wanted him) the man of head, and heart, and nerve, to do what the
crisis required: who possessed the confidence of the people, and who
knew no course, in any danger, but that of duty and patriotism; and
had no feeling, in any extremity but that God and the people would
sustain him. Such a man was wanted, in 1832, and was found--found
before, but reserved for use now.
The representatives from the South, generally but especially those
from South Carolina, while depicting the distress of their section
of the Union, and the reversed aspect which had come upon their
affairs, less prosperous now than before the formation of the
Union, attributed the whole cause of this change to the action
of the federal government, in the levy and distribution of the
public revenue; to the protective system, which was now assuming
permanency, and increasing its exactions; and to a course of
expenditure which carried to the North what was levied on the South.
The democratic party generally concurred in the belief that this
system was working injuriously upon the South, and that this injury
ought to be relieved; that it was a cause of dissatisfaction with
the Union, which a regard for the Union required to be redressed;
but all did not concur in the cause of Southern eclipse in the race
of prosperity which their representatives assigned; and, among them,
Mr. Dallas, who thus spoke:
"The impressive and gloomy description of the senator from
South Carolina [Mr. Hayne], as to the actual state and
wretched prospects of his immediate fellow-citizens, awakens
the liveliest sympathy, and should command our attention. It
is their right; it is our duty. I cannot feel indifferent to
the sufferings of any portion of the American people; and
esteem it inconsistent with the scope and purpose of the
federal constitution, that any majority, no matter how large,
should connive at, or protract the oppression or misery of any
minority, no matter how small. I disclaim and detest the idea
of making one part subservient to another; of feasting upon the
extorted substance of my countrymen; of enriching my own region,
by draining the fertility and resources of a neighbor; of
becoming wealthy with spoils which leave their legitimate owners
impoverished and desolate. But, sir, I want proof of a fact,
whose existence, at least as described, it is difficult even to
conceive; and, above all, I want the true causes of that fact to
be ascertained; to be brought within the reach of legislative
remedy, and to have that remedy of a nature which may be applied
without producing more mischiefs than those it proposes to
cure. The proneness to exaggerate social evils is greatest with
the most patriotic. Temporary embarrassment is sensitively
apprehended to be permanent. Every day's experience teaches
how apt we are to magnify partial into universal distress,
and with what difficulty an excited imagination rescues itself
from despondency. It will not do, sir, to act upon the glowing
or pathetic delineations of a gifted orator; it will not do to
become enlisted, by ardent exhortations, in a crusade against
established systems of policy; it will not do to demolish the
walls of our citadel to the sounds of plaintiff eloquence, or
fire the temple at the call of impassioned enthusiasm.
"What, sir, is the cause of Southern distress? Has any gentleman
yet ventured to designate it? Can any one do more than suppose,
or argumentatively assume it? I am neither willing nor competent
to flatter. To praise the honorable senator from South Carolina,
would be
'To add perfume to the violet--
Wasteful and ridiculous excess.'
But, if he has failed to discover the source of the evils he
deplores, who can unfold it? Amid the warm and indiscriminating
denunciations with which he has assailed the policy of
protecting domestic manufactures and native produce, he frankly
avows that he would not 'deny that there are other causes,
besides the tariff, which have contributed to produce the evils
which he has depicted.' What are those 'other causes?' In what
proportion have they acted? How much of this dark shadowing is
ascribable to each singly, and to all in combination? Would
the tariff be at all felt or denounced, if these other causes
were not in operation? Would not, in fact, its influence, its
discriminations, its inequalities, its oppressions, but for
these 'other causes,' be shaken, by the elasticity and energy,
and exhaustless spirit of the South, as 'dew-drops from the
lion's mane?' These inquiries, sir, must be satisfactorily
answered before we can be justly required to legislate away an
entire system. If it be the root of all evil, let it be exposed
and demolished. If its poisonous exhalations be but partial, let
us preserve such portions as are innoxious. If, as the luminary
of day, it be pure and salutary in itself, let us not wish it
extinguished, because of the shadows, clouds, and darkness which
obscure its brightness or impede its vivifying power.
"That other causes still, Mr. President, for Southern distress,
do exist, cannot be doubted. They combine with the one I have
indicated, and are equally unconnected with the manufacturing
policy. One of these it is peculiarly painful to advert to;
and when I mention it, I beg honorable senators not to suppose
that I do it in the spirit of taunt, of reproach, or of idle
declamation. Regarding it as a misfortune merely, not as a
fault; as a disease inherited, not incurred; perhaps to be
alleviated, but not eradicated, I should feel self-condemned
were I to treat it other than as an existing fact, whose merit
or demerit, apart from the question under debate, is shielded
from commentary by the highest and most just considerations. I
refer, sir, to the character of Southern labor, in itself, and
in its influence on others. Incapable of adaptation to the
ever-varying charges of human society and existence, it retains
the communities in which it is established, in a condition of
apparent and comparative inertness. The lights of science, and
the improvements of art, which vivify and accelerate elsewhere,
cannot penetrate, or, if they do, penetrate with dilatory
inefficiency, among its operatives. They are merely instinctive
and passive. While the intellectual industry of other parts of
this country springs elastically forward at every fresh impulse,
and manual labor is propelled and redoubled by countless
inventions, machines, and contrivances, instantly understood and
at once exercised, the South remains stationary, inaccessible to
such encouraging and invigorating aids. Nor is it possible to be
wholly blind to the moral effect of this species of labor upon
those freemen among whom it exists. A disrelish for humble and
hardy occupation; a pride adverse to drudgery and toil; a dread
that to partake in the employments allotted to color, may be
accompanied also by its degradation, are natural and inevitable.
The high and lofty qualities which, in other scenes and for
other purposes, characterize and adorn our Southern brethren,
are fatal to the enduring patience, the corporal exertion,
and the painstaking simplicity, by which only a successful
yeomanry can be formed. When, in fact, sir, the senator from
South Carolina asserts that 'slaves are too improvident, too
incapable of that minute, constant, delicate attention, and
that persevering industry which is essential to the success of
manufacturing establishments,' he himself admits the defect in
the condition of Southern labor, by which the progress of his
favorite section must be retarded. He admits an inability to
keep pace with the rest of the world. He admits an inherent
weakness; a weakness neither engendered nor aggravated by the
tariff--which, as societies are now constituted and directed,
must drag in the rear, and be distanced in the common race."
Thus spoke Mr. Dallas, senator from Pennsylvania; and thus speaking,
gave offence to no Southern man; and seemed to be well justified
in what he said, from the historical fact that the loss of ground,
in the race of prosperity, had commenced in the South before the
protective system began--before that epoch year, 1816, when it was
first installed as a system, and so installed by the power of the
South Carolina vote and talent. But the levy and expenditure of the
federal government was, doubtless, the main cause of this Southern
decadence--so unnatural in the midst of her rich staples--and which
had commenced before 1816.
It so happened, that while the advocates of the American system
were calling so earnestly for government protection, to enable
them to sustain themselves at home, that the custom-house books
were showing that a great many species of our manufactures,
and especially the cotton, were going abroad to far distant
countries; and sustaining themselves on remote theatres against all
competition, and beyond the range of any help from our laws. Mr.
Clay, himself, spoke of this exportation, to show the excellence of
our fabrics, and that they were worth protection; I used the same
fact to show that they were independent of protection; and said:
"And here I would ask, how many and which are the articles that
require the present high rate of protection? Certainly not the
cotton manufacture; for, the senator from Kentucky [Mr. Clay],
who appears on this floor as the leading champion of domestic
manufactures, and whose admissions of fact must be conclusive
against his arguments of theory! this senator tells you, and
dwells upon the disclosure with triumphant exultation, that
American cottons are now exported to Asia, and sold at a profit
in the cotton markets of Canton and Calcutta! Surely, sir,
our tariff laws of 1824 and 1828 are not in force in Bengal
and China. And I appeal to all mankind for the truth of the
inference, that, if our cottons can go to these countries, and
be sold at a profit without any protection at all, they can
stay at home, and be sold to our own citizens, without loss,
under a less protection than fifty and two hundred and fifty per
centum! One fact, Mr. President, is said to be worth a thousand
theories; I will add that it is worth a hundred thousand
speeches; and this fact that the American cottons now traverse
the one-half of the circumference of this globe--cross the
equinoctial line; descend to the antipodes; seek foreign markets
on the double theatre of British and Asiatic competition,
and come off victorious from the contest--is a full and
overwhelming answer to all the speeches that have been made,
or ever can be made, in favor of high protecting duties on
these cottons at home. The only effect of such duties is to
cut off importations--to create monopoly at home--to enable
our manufacturers to sell their goods higher to their own
christian fellow-citizens than to the pagan worshippers of Fo
and of Brahma! to enable the inhabitants of the Ganges and the
Burrampooter to wear American cottons upon cheaper terms than
the inhabitants of the Ohio and Mississippi. And every Western
citizen knows the fact, that when these shipments of American
cottons were making to the extremities of Asia, the price of
these same cottons was actually raised twenty and twenty-five
per cent., in all the towns of the West; with this further
difference to our prejudice, that we can only pay for them
in money, while the inhabitants of Asia make payment in the
products of their own country.
"This is what the gentleman's admission proved; but I do not
come here to argue upon admissions, whether candid or unguarded,
of the adversary speakers. I bring my own facts and proofs; and,
really, sir, I have a mind to complain that the gentleman's
admission about cottons has crippled the force of my argument;
that it has weakened its effect by letting out half at a time,
and destroyed its novelty, by an anticipated revelation. The
truth is, I have this fact (that we exported domestic cottons)
treasured up in my magazine of material! and intended to produce
it, at the proper time, to show that we exported this article,
not to Canton and Calcutta alone, but to all quarters of the
globe; not a few cargoes only, by way of experiment, but in
great quantities, as a regular trade, to the amount of a million
and a quarter of dollars, annually; and that, of this amount,
no less than forty thousand dollars' worth, in the year 1880,
had done what the combined fleets and armies of the world could
not do; it had scaled the rock of Gibraltar, penetrated to the
heart of the British garrison, taken possession of his Britannic
Majesty's soldiers, bound their arms, legs, and bodies, and
strutted in triumph over the ramparts and batteries of that
unattackable fortress. And now, sir, I will use no more of the
gentleman's admissions; I will draw upon my own resources; and
will show nearly the whole list of our domestic manufacture to
be in the same flourishing condition with cottons, actually
going abroad to seek competition, without protection, in
every foreign clime, and contending victoriously with foreign
manufactures wherever they can encounter them. I read from the
custom-house returns, of 1830--the last that has been printed.
Listen to it:
"This is the list of domestic manufactures exported to foreign
countries. It comprehends the whole, or nearly the whole, of
that long catalogue of items which the senator from Kentucky
[Mr. Clay] read to us, on the second day of his discourse;
and shows the whole to be going abroad, without a shadow of
protection, to seek competition, in foreign markets, with the
foreign goods of all the world. The list of articles I have
read, contains near fifty varieties of manufactures (and I
have omitted many minor articles) amounting, in value, to
near six millions of dollars! And now behold the diversity of
human reasoning! The senator from Kentucky exhibits a list of
articles manufactured in the United States, and argues that the
slightest diminution in the enormous protection they now enjoy,
will overwhelm the whole in ruin, and cover the country with
distress; I read the same identical list, to show that all these
articles go abroad and contend victoriously with their foreign
rivals in all foreign markets."
Mr. Clay had attributed to the tariffs of 1824 and 1828 the reviving
and returning prosperity of the country, while in fact it was the
mere effect of recovery from prostration, and in spite of these
tariffs, instead of by their help. Business had been brought to a
stand during the disastrous period which ensued the establishment
of the Bank of the United States. It was a period of stagnation, of
settlement, of paying up, of getting clear of loads of debt; and
starting afresh. It was the strong man, freed from the burthen under
which he had long been prostrate, and getting on his feet again.
In the West I knew that this was the process, and that our revived
prosperity was entirely the result of our own resources, independent
of, and in spite of federal legislation; and so declared it in my
speech. I said:
"The fine effects of the high tariff upon the prosperity of the
West have been celebrated on this floor: with how much reason,
let facts respond, and the people judge! I do not think we
are indebted to the high tariff for our fertile lands and our
navigable rivers; and I am certain we are indebted to these
blessings for the prosperity we enjoy. In all that comes from
the soil, the people of the West are rich. They have an abundant
supply of food for man and beast, and a large surplus to send
abroad. They have the comfortable living which industry creates
for itself in a rich soil; but, beyond this, they are poor. They
have none of the splendid works which imply the presence of
the moneyed power! No Appian or Flaminian ways; no roads paved
or McAdamized; no canals, except what are made upon borrowed
means; no aqueducts; no bridges of stone across our innumerable
streams; no edifices dedicated to eternity; no schools for the
fine arts: not a public library for which an ordinary scholar
would not apologize. And why none of those things? Have the
people of the West no taste for public improvements, for the
useful and the fine arts, and for literature? Certainly they
have a very strong taste for them; but they have no money!
not enough for private and current uses, not enough to defray
our current expenses, and buy necessaries! without thinking
of public improvements. We have no money! and that is a tale
which has been told too often here--chanted too dolefully in
the book of lamentations which was composed for the death of
the Maysville road--to be denied or suppressed now. They have
no adequate supply of money. And why? Have they no exports?
Nothing to send abroad? Certainly they have exports. Behold
the marching myriads of living animals annually taking their
departure from the heart of the West, defiling through the
gorges of the Cumberland, the Alleghany, and the Apalachian
mountains, or traversing the plains of the South, diverging as
they march, and spreading themselves all over that vast segment
of our territorial circle which lies between the _debouches_
of the Mississippi and the estuary of the Potomac! Behold,
on the other hand, the flying steamboats, and the fleets of
floating arks, loaded with the products of the forest, the farm,
and the pasture, following the course of our noble rivers, and
bearing their freights to that great city which revives, upon
the banks of the Mississippi, the name[5] of the greatest of
the emperors that ever reigned upon the banks of the Tiber, and
who eclipsed the glory of his own heroic exploits by giving an
order to his legions never to levy a contribution of salt upon a
Roman citizen! Behold this double line of exports, and observe
the refluent currents of gold and silver which result from
them! Large are the supplies--millions are the amount which is
annually poured into the West from these double exportations;
enough to cover the face of the earth with magnificent
improvements, and to cram every industrious pocket with gold and
silver. But where is this money? for it is not in the country!
Where does it go? for go it does, and scarcely leaves a vestige
of its transit behind! Sir, it goes to the Northeast! to the
seat of the American system! there it goes! and thus it goes!"
[5] "Aurelian," whose name was given to the military station
(presidium) which was afterwards corrupted into "Orleans."
Mr. Clay had commenced his speech with an apology for what might
be deemed failing powers on account of advancing age. He said he
was getting old, and might not be able to fulfil the expectation,
and requite the attention, of the attending crowd; and wished the
task could have fallen to younger and abler hands. This apology for
age when no diminution of mental or bodily vigor was perceptible,
induced several speakers to commence their replies with allusions
to it, generally complimentary, but not admitting the fact. Mr.
Hayne gracefully said, that he had lamented the advances of age,
and mourned the decay of his eloquence, so eloquently as to prove
that it was still in full vigor; and that he had made an able and
ingenious argument, fully sustaining his high reputation as an
accomplished orator. General Smith, of Maryland, said that he could
not complain himself of the infirmities of age, though older than
the senator from Kentucky, nor could find in his years any apology
for the insufficiency of his speech. Mr. Clay thought this was
intended to be a slur upon him, and replied in a spirit which gave
rise to the following sharp encounter:
"Mr. Smith then rose, and said he was sorry to find that he had
unintentionally offended the honorable gentleman from Kentucky.
In referring to the vigorous age he himself enjoyed, he had not
supposed he should give offence to others who complained of the
infirmities of age. The gentleman from Kentucky was the last who
should take the remark as disparaging to his vigor and personal
appearance; for, when that gentleman spoke to us of his age, he
heard a young lady near him exclaim--"Old, why I think he is
mighty pretty." The honorable gentleman, on Friday last, made
a similitude where none existed. I, said Mr. S., had suggested
the necessity of mutual forbearance in settling the tariff,
and, thereupon, the gentleman vociferated loudly and angrily
about removals from office. He said I was a leader in the
system. I deny the fact. I never exercised the least influence
in effecting a removal, and on the contrary, I interfered,
successfully, to prevent the removal of two gentlemen in
office. I am charged with making a committee on roads and
canals, adverse to internal improvement. If this be so, it is
by mistake. I certainly supposed every gentleman named on that
committee but one to be friendly to internal improvement. To the
committee on manufactures I assigned four out of five who were
known to be friendly to the protective system. The rights of the
minority, he had endeavored, also, in arranging the committee,
to secure. The appointment of the committees he had found one
of the most difficult and onerous tasks he had ever undertaken.
One-third of the house were lawyers, all of whom wanted to be
put upon some important committee. The oath which the senator
had tendered, he hoped he would not take. In the year 1795,
Mr. S. said, he had sustained a protective duty against the
opposition of a member from Pittsburg. Previous to the year
1822, he had always given incidental support to manufactures, in
fixing the tariff. He was a warm friend to the tariff of 1816,
which he still regarded as a wise and beneficial law. He hoped,
then, the gentleman would not take his oath.
"Mr. Clay placed, he said, a high value on the compliment of
which the honorable senator was the channel of communication;
and he the more valued it, inasmuch as he did not recollect
more than once before, in his life, to have received a similar
compliment. He was happy to find that the honorable gentleman
disclaimed the system of proscription; and he should, with his
approbation, hereafter cite his authority in opposition to it.
The Committee on Roads and Canals, whatever were the gentleman's
intentions in constructing it, had a majority of members whose
votes and speeches against internal improvements were matter
of notoriety. The gentleman's appeal to his acts in '95, is
perfectly safe; for, old as I am, my knowledge of his course
does not extend back that far. He would take the period which
the gentleman named, since 1822. It comes, then, to this: The
honorable gentleman was in favor of protecting manufactures;
but he had turned--I need not use the word--he has abandoned
manufactures. Thus:
"Old politicians chew on wisdom past,
And _totter_ on in blunders to the last."
"Mr. Smith.--The last allusion is unworthy of the gentleman.
Totter, sir, I totter? Though some twenty years older than the
gentleman, I can yet stand firm, and am yet able to correct his
errors. I could take a view of the gentleman's course, which
would show how inconsistent he has been. Mr. Clay exclaimed:
'Take it, sir, take it--I dare you.' [Cries of "order."]
No, sir, said Mr. S., I will not take it. I will not so far
disregard what is due to the dignity of the Senate."
Mr. Hayne concluded one of his speeches with a declaration of the
seriousness of the Southern resistance to the tariff, and with a
feeling appeal to senators on all sides of the house to meet their
Southern brethren in the spirit of conciliation, and restore harmony
to a divided people by removing from among them the never-failing
source of contention. He said:
"Let not gentlemen so far deceive themselves as to suppose
that the opposition of the South to the protecting system is
not based on high and lofty principles. It has nothing to do
with party politics, or the mere elevation of men. It rises far
above all such considerations. Nor is it influenced chiefly
by calculations of interest, but is founded in much nobler
impulses. The instinct of self-interest might have taught us
an easier way of relieving ourselves from this oppression. It
wanted but the will, to have supplied ourselves with every
article embraced in the protective system, free of duty, without
any other participation on our part than a simple consent to
receive them. But, sir, we have scorned, in a contest for our
rights, to resort to any but open and fair means to maintain
them. The spirit with which we have entered into this business,
is akin to that which was kindled in the bosom of our fathers
when they were made the victims of oppression; and if it has not
displayed itself in the same way, it is because we have ever
cherished the strongest feelings of confraternity towards our
brethren, and the warmest and most devoted attachment to the
Union. If we have been, in any degree, divided among ourselves
in this matter, the source of that division, let gentlemen
be assured, has not arisen so much from any difference of
opinion as to the true character of the oppression, as from the
different degrees of hope of redress. All parties have for years
past been looking forward to this crisis for the fulfilment of
their hopes, or the confirmation of their fears. And God grant
that the result may be auspicious.
"Sir, I call upon gentlemen on all sides of the House to meet
us in the true spirit of conciliation and concession. Remove,
I earnestly beseech you, from among us, this never-failing
source of contention. Dry up at its source this fountain of
the waters of bitterness. Restore that harmony which has been
disturbed--that mutual affection and confidence which has been
impaired. And it is in your power to do it this day; but there
is but one means under heaven by which it can--by doing equal
justice to all. And be assured that he to whom the country shall
be indebted for this blessing, will be considered as the second
founder of the republic. He will be regarded, in all aftertimes,
as the ministering angel visiting the troubled waters of our
political dissensions, and restoring to the element its healing
virtues."
I take pleasure in quoting these words of Mr. Hayne. They are
words of moderation and of justice--of sorrow more than anger--of
expostulation more than menace--of loyalty to the Union--of
supplication for forbearance;--and a moving appeal to the high
tariff party to avert a national catastrophe by ceasing to be
unjust. His moderation, his expostulation, his supplication, his
appeal--had no effect on the majority. The protective system
continued to be an exasperating theme throughout the session, which
ended without any sensible amelioration of the system, though with
a reduction of duty on some articles of comfort and convenience: as
recommended by President Jackson.