Character of the Tariff controversy--Peculiar
condition of the people--Efforts to enlist the
West in the interest of the South--Mr.
McDuffie--Mr. Hamilton--Mr. Rankin--Mr.
Garnett--Mr. Cuthbert--the West still shut out
from market--Mr. Wickliffe--Mr. Benton--Tariff of
1828 obnoxious to the South--Georgia
Resolutions--Mr. Hamilton--Argument to Sugar
Planters.
The Protective Tariff and Free Trade controversy, at its origin, and
during its progress, was very different in its character from what many
now imagine it to have been. People, on both sides, were often in great
straits to know how to obtain a livelihood, much less to amass
fortunes. The word _ruin_ was no unmeaning phrase at that day. The news,
now, that a bank has failed, carries with it, to the depositors and
holders of its notes, no stronger feelings of consternation, than did
the report of the passage or repeal of tariff laws, then, affect the
minds of the opposing parties. We have spoken of the peculiar condition
of the South in this respect. In the West, for many years, the farmers
often received no more than _twenty-five cents_, and rarely over _forty
cents_, per bushel for their wheat, after conveying it, on horseback, or
in wagons, not unfrequently, a distance of fifty miles, to find a
market. Other products were proportionally low in price; and such was
the difficulty in obtaining money, that people could not pay their taxes
but with the greatest sacrifices. So deeply were the people interested
in these questions of national policy, that they became the basis of
political action during several Presidential elections. This led to much
vacillation in legislation on the subject, and gave alternately, to one
and then to the other section of the Union, the benefits of its favorite
policy.
The vote of the West, during this struggle, was of the first importance,
as it possessed the balance of power, and could turn the scale at will.
It was not left without inducements to co-operate with the South, in its
measures for extending slavery, that it might create a market among the
planters for its products. This appears from the particular efforts made
by the Southern members of Congress, during the debate of 1824, to win
over the West to the doctrines of free trade.
Mr. McDuffie, of South Carolina, said: "I admit that the Western people
are _embarrassed_, but I deny that they are _distressed_, in any other
sense of the word. . . . . I am well assured that the permanent prosperity
of the West depends more upon the improvement of the means of
transporting their produce to market, and of receiving the returns, than
upon every other subject to which the legislation of this government can
be directed. . . . . Gentlemen (from the West) are aware that a very
profitable trade is carried on by their constituents with the Southern
country, in _live stock_ of all descriptions, which they drive over the
mountains and sell for cash. This extensive trade, which, from its
peculiar character, more easily overcomes the difficulties of
transportation than any that can be substituted in its place, is about
to be put in jeopardy for the conjectural benefits of this measure. When
I say this trade is about to be put in jeopardy, I do not speak
unadvisedly. I am perfectly convinced that, if this bill passes, it will
have the effect of inducing the people of the South, partly from the
feeling and partly from the necessity growing out of it, to raise within
themselves, the live stock which they now purchase from the West. . . . .
If we cease to take the manufactures of Great Britain, she will assuredly
cease to take our cotton to the same extent. It is a settled principle
of her policy--a principle not only wise, but essential to her
existence--to purchase from those nations that receive her manufactures,
in preference to those who do not. We have, heretofore, been her best
customers, and, therefore, it has been her policy to purchase our cotton
to the full extent of our demand for her manufactures. But, say
gentlemen, Great Britain does not purchase your cotton from affection,
but from interest. I grant it, sir; and that is the very reason of my
decided hostility to a system which will make it her interest to
purchase from other countries in preference to our own. It _is_ her
interest to purchase cotton, even at a higher price, from those
countries which receive her manufactures in exchange. It is better for
her to give a little more for cotton, than to obtain nothing for her
manufactures. It will be remarked that the situation of Great Britain
is, in this respect, widely different from that of the United States.
The powers of her soil have been already pushed very nearly to the
maximum of their productiveness. The productiveness of her manufactures
on the contrary, is as unlimited as the demand of the whole world. . . . .
In fact, sir, the policy of Great Britain is not, as gentlemen seem to
suppose, to secure the _home_, but the _foreign_ market for her
manufactures. The former she has without an effort. It is to attain the
latter that all her policy and enterprise are brought into requisition.
The manufactures of that country are _the basis of her commerce_; our
manufactures, on the contrary are to be _the destruction of our
commerce_. . . . . It can not be doubted that, in pursuance of the
policy of forcing her manufactures into foreign markets, she will, if
deprived of a large portion of our custom, direct all her efforts to
South America. That country abounds in a soil admirably adapted to the
production of cotton, and will, for a century to come, import her
manufactures from foreign countries."
Mr. Hamilton, of South Carolina, said: "That the planters in his section
shared in that depression which is common in every department of the
industry of the Union, _excepting those from which we have heard the
most clamor for relief_. This would be understood when it was known that
sea-island cotton had fallen from 50 or 60 cents, to 25 cents--a fall
even greater than that which has attended wheat, of which we had heard
so much--as if the grain-growing section was the only agricultural
interest which had suffered. . . . . While the planters of this region do
not dread competition in the foreign markets on equal terms, from the
superiority of their cotton, they entertain a well-founded apprehension,
that the restrictions contemplated will lead to retaliatory duties on
the part of Great Britain, which must end in ruin. . . . . In relation to
our upland cottons, Great Britain may, without difficulty, in the course
of a very short period, supply her wants from Brazil. . . . . How long the
exclusive production, even of the sea-island cotton, will remain to our
country, is yet a doubtful and interesting problem. The experiments that
are making on the Delta of the Nile, if pushed to the Ocean, may result
in the production of this beautiful staple, in an abundance which, in
reference to other productions, has long blest and consecrated Egyptian
fertility. . . . . We are told by the honorable Speaker (Mr. Clay,) that
our manufacturing establishments will, in a very short period, supply
the place of the foreign demand. The futility, I will not say mockery of
this hope, may be measured by one or two facts. First, the present
consumption of cotton, by our manufactories, is about equal to one-sixth
of our whole production. . . . . How long it will take to increase these
manufactories to a scale equal to the consumption of this production, he
could not venture to determine; but that it will be some years after the
epitaph will have been written on the fortunes of the South, there can
be but little doubt." . . . . [After speaking of the tendency of
increased manufactures in the East, to check emigration to the West, and
thus to diminish the value of the public lands and prevent the growth of
the Western States, Mr. H. proceeded thus:] "That portion of the Union
could participate in no part of the bill, except in its burdens, in
spite of the fallacious hopes that were cherished, in reference to
cotton bagging for Kentucky, and the woolen duty for Steubenville, Ohio.
He feared that to the entire region of the West, no 'cordial drops of
comfort' would come, even in the duty on foreign spirits. To a large
portion of our people, who are in the habit of solacing themselves with
Hollands, Antigua, and Cogniac, whisky would still have 'a most
villainous twang.' The cup, he feared, would be refused, though tendered
by the hand of patriotism as well as conviviality. No, the West has but
one interest, and that is, that its best customer, the South, should be
prosperous."
Mr. Rankin, of Mississippi, said: "With the West, it appears to me like
a rebellion of the members against the body. It is true, we export, but
the amount received from those exports is only apparently, largely in
our favor, inasmuch as we are the consumers of your produce, dependent
on you for our implements of husbandry, the means of sustaining life,
and almost every thing except our lands and negroes; all of which draws
much from the apparent profits and advantages. In proportion as you
diminish our exportations, you diminish our means of purchasing from
you, and destroy your own market. You will compel us to use those
advantages of soil and of climate which God and Nature have placed
within our reach, and to live, as to you, as you desire us to live as to
foreign nations--dependent on our own resources."
Mr. Garnett, of Virginia, said: "The Western States can not manufacture.
The want of capital (of which they, as well as the Southern States, have
been drained by the policy of government,) and other causes render it
impossible. The Southern States are destined to suffer more by this
policy than any other--the Western next; but it will not benefit the
aggregate population of any State. It is for the benefit of capitalists
only. If persisted in, it will drive the South to ruin and resistance."
Mr. Cuthbert, of Georgia, said: "He hoped the market for the cotton of
the South was not about to be contracted within a little miserable
sphere, (the home market,) instead of being spread throughout the world.
If they should drive the cotton-growers from the only source from whence
their means were derived, (the foreign market,) they would be unable any
longer to take their supplies from the West--they must contract their
concerns within their own spheres, and begin to raise flesh and grain
for their own consumption. The South was already under a severe
pressure--if this measure went into effect, its distress would be
consummated."
In 1828, the West found still very limited means of communication with
the East. The opening of the New York canal, in 1825, created a means of
traffic with the seaboard, to the people of the Lake region; but all of
the remaining territory, west of the Alleghanies, had gained no
advantages over those it had enjoyed in 1824, except so far as steamboat
navigation had progressed on the Western rivers. In the debate preceding
the passage of the tariff in 1828, usually termed the "Woolens' Bill,"
allusion is made to the condition of the West, from which we quote as
follows:
Mr. Wickliffe, of Kentucky, said: "My constituents may be said to be a
grain-growing people. They raise stock, and their surplus grain is
converted into spirits. Where, I ask, is our market? . . . . Our market
is where our sympathies should be, in the South. Our course of trade,
for all heavy articles, is down the Mississippi. What breadstuffs we
find a market for, are principally consumed in the States of
Mississippi, Louisiana, South Alabama, and Florida. Indeed, I may say,
these States are the consumers, at miserable and ruinous prices to the
farmers of my State, of our exports of spirits, corn, flour, and cured
provisions. . . . . We have had a trade of some value to the South in
our stock. We still continue it under great disadvantages. It is a
ready-money trade--I may say it is the only money trade in which we are
engaged. . . . . Are the gentlemen acquainted with the extent of that
trade? It may be fairly stated at three millions per annum."
Mr. Benton urged the Western members to unite with the South, "for the
purpose of enlarging the market, increasing the demand in the South, and
its ability to purchase the horses, mules, and provisions, which the
West could sell nowhere else."
The tariff of 1828, created great dissatisfaction at the South. Examples
of the expressions of public sentiment, on the subject, adopted at
conventions, and on other occasions, might be multiplied indefinitely.
Take a case or two, to illustrate the whole. At a public meeting in
Georgia, held subsequently to the passage of the "Woolens' Bill," the
following resolution was adopted:
_Resolved_, That to retaliate as far as possible
upon our oppressors, our Legislature be requested
to impose taxes, amounting to prohibition, on the
hogs, horses, mules, and cotton-bagging, whisky,
pork, beef, bacon, flax, and hemp cloth, of the
Western, and on all the productions and
manufactures of the Eastern and Northern States.
Mr. Hamilton, of South Carolina, in a speech at the Waterborough
Dinner, given subsequently to the passage of the tariff of 1828, said:
"It becomes us to inquire what is to be our situation under this
unexpected and disastrous conjunction of circumstances, which, in its
progress, will deprive us of the benefits of a free trade with the rest
of the world, which formed one of the leading objects of the Union. Why,
gentlemen, ruin, unmitigated ruin, must be our portion, if this system
continues. . . . . From 1816 down to the present time, the South has
been drugged, by the slow poison of the miserable empiricism of the
prohibitory system, the fatal effects of which we could not so long have
resisted, but for the stupendously valuable staples with which God has
blessed us, and the agricultural skill and enterprise of our people."
In further illustration of the nature of this controversy, and of the
arguments used during the contest, we must give the substance of the
remarks of a prominent politician, who was aiming at detaching the sugar
planters from their political connection with the manufacturers. We have
to rely on memory, however, as we can not find the record of the
language used on the occasion. It was published at the time, and
commented on, freely, by the newspapers at the North. He said: "We must
prevent the increase of manufactories, force the surplus labor into
agriculture, promote the cultivation of our unimproved western lands,
until provisions are so multiplied and reduced in price, that the slave
can be fed so cheaply as to enable us to grow our sugar at _three cents
a pound_. Then, without protective duties, we can rival Cuba in the
production of that staple, and drive her from our markets."