H. OF R.] The Tariff. [MAY 29, 1832. Mr. McDUFFIE resumed, and occupied the committee ed, complain, it is natural, it is just to them, and becoming until half past three o'clock in conclusion of his speech, me, to gratify them if I can; to look narrowly into my [which is given entire above.] When he had concluded, course, before I determine on it; if I must oppose their Mr. CRAWFORD, of Pennsylvania, obtained the floor, wishes, to do it in a spirit of kindness; and to allow no and said, I present myself to the committee in the dis- unworthy consideration to guide me in deciding the great charge of a solemn duty. The present is no ordinary question submitted. I have approached this day under occasion, but one of the most grave impression; involving, the strong operation of all these influences; but a firm on the one hand, interests as extensive and broad as were conviction of what the interests of the country require at ever committed to man, and, on the other, as the honor- my hands, a stern sense of duty, and an opinion free from able gentleman from South Carolina [Mr. MCDUFFIE] doubt, that the prosperity of this nation is intimately conhas, within a few moments, assured the committee, the nected with an adherence to the existing policy, leave me fate of an empire. The duty of a representative is at all no alternative but opposition to the views of those to times arduous: if it bestows high, and, in the instance of whom I would have been most happy to accord whatever the humble individual before you, unmerited honor, it did not involve a dereliction of duty. carries with it the deepest responsibility, under the influence of which a well balanced mind always acts. It has been remarked, Mr. Chairman, that fluctuation in private pursuit is fatal to individual career. It is not less so to Legislation, even its simplest and plainest results, never national weal. What people have reached pre-eminent prosfails to impose upon every gentleman who hears me the perity, in any walk, without steadiness of purpose? Has recollection that he is deputed to this Hall to gratify no there ever been a nation, distinguished for arms, for the feeling of faction or party, but that he is placed on an fine arts, for science, for commerce, for manufactures, for eminence, that he may look around over the whole ground, agricultural success, whose policy did not direct its chief and, like a skilful husbandman, to whose charge and su- efforts to sustain and strengthen the occupations that were perintendence it is for a season entrusted, make it pro- thought to be worthy of the fostering care of the Governductive of as plentiful a harvest of prosperity and good as ment? Can we hope that we shall form an exception in it is capable of yielding. It is his duty, moreover, to pe- future history, and that the frequent alterations which netrate, as far as may be given to him, into the murky at- have taken place in, and the more frequent attacks which mosphere of time, and decide not for himself, not for have of late been made upon, the system of encouraging those alone who placed him here, but for his whole coun-and protecting domestic manufactures, will not prevent try; and not for it as it exists only, but for it as it will be; our advance in improvement, and will not obstruct our not for the present generation singly, but for future times progress to a degree of prosperity reaching almost to the and future men, who will, I trust, long, very long, enjoy utmost limit of human wishes? What would be the conthe peace, happiness, and plenty which are ours, after sequence of success in the attack now making upon it? the voices which now fill the capitol of the United States Perhaps to leave us on the very spot we occupied some shall be silent, and grass shall wave over the heads of those fifteen years ago, surrounded by the appearance of wealth whose minds are most actively engaged in schemes of per- and comfort. Alas! it was only the appearance: for a few sonal ambition, or in the more worthy purpose of endca- short years dissipated the illusion, and opened our eyes voring to achieve our country's good. This conviction of to the sad reality that almost every ingredient of human duty, ever present, is doubly serious when we enter upon misery was mixed up in our cup. But we had retained measures which we know are of vital character, and must and brightened our national honor; our national character leave their impress, deep and indelible, upon the great floated on the broad and gay banner of our country, waftinterests of an entire community. These considerations ed to and again by the breath of a world's admiration. are best entitled to have their full weight, and will most Our countrymen had, what is always found in company certainly be allowed it, when it is recollected (and who, with character and honor, firm hearts, determined to rethat has the soul of a man, can forget the fact?) that this deem their situation, and conform, as far as might be, the most favored and blessed of all the nations is unhap their habits and pursuits to their new condition. Bringpily divided, and widely separated, on the policy which ing to their efforts economy and industry, it is to this much has been long adopted and steadily persevered in for more abused system that we are mainly indebted for a prosperithan forty years; and that we not only differ in sentiment, ty that has realized the dreams of the visionary, and but are of dissentient opinions, marked by sectional boun- overgone the calculations of the most sanguine. It is imdaries. Heretofore, the diversity of views which has cha- possible to look upon the picture which the country north, racterized our entire most prosperous course, has pervaded east, and west, and a portion of that south of us, presents the whole mass; and although various, and in some sense for the gratification of the mental eye, without shrinking perhaps discordant, materials composed the edifice, they from the idea that so much competency, and comfort, and so run into each other, that the structure stood firm and happiness are to be destroyed; that the fountains of so erect amidst the storms that have more than once beaten much of all that is desirable are to be dried up, which upon it. May it always do so! only require to be kept open to furnish a stream of abun For every part of this nation I feel as becomes an Ame-dance and independence, of useful occupation, and an rican citizen. We are all of one family; having the same adequate reward for it, which are the elements of indiviinstitutions; the same protection; the same duties to per- dual and collective felicity. Let us, then, at the least, form; the same interests; and the same destiny;--would preserve, to this great plan for developing our capabilito God I could add that our opinions harmonized! If I ties, its present lines and boundaries, and learn the lessons know myself, I would not, for dominion over my race, in- of wisdom from the good and wise who have preceded fringe the rights of any portion of my fellow-citizens. The us in the great duty of guarding and promoting the wel part which the Southern section of the Union has ever fare of the American people. borne in the perilous passes through which our country To this end, to show the unvarying opinion which has has moved, the chivalrous character so justly accorded to prevailed in regard of the constitutional power, as well as it, and the high and generous qualities by which it has the expediency of the policy I am endeavoring to support; always been known, would prompt to any sacrifice not and to exhibit to the committee the agency which the forbidden by duty. I hope I may be permitted to say Government has had in directing and inviting investments that my service here has confirmed, by personal observa-in manufacturing, I now propose to refer to some legislation and experience, the exalted estimate made of Sou-tive and documentary evidence on these points. therns, whom I have pride and pleasure in calling present constitution went into operation in the month of countrymen. When such brethren, so held and esteem- March, 1789, and on the fourth day of July following, a Our MAY 29, 1832.] The Tariff. [H. OF R. most auspicious day to the United States, a law was enact-the affairs of Government, as well in its legislative as in its ed, with this preamble: "Whereas it is necessary for the executive departments, and that the system which had support of Government, for the discharge of the debts of been early devised, and long recognised, it was their purthe United States, and the encouragement and protection pose to uphold. This law was to expire by its own limiof manufactures, that duties be laid on goods, wares, and tation one year after hostilities should cease between merchandises imported:"--thus establishing the principle the United States and Great Britain, and would have exby the construction of those who figured contemporane-pired on the 17th of February, 1816, but that a law was ously with the formation of the constitution, embracing enacted on the 22d January, 1816, to continue the war many who had actually participated in entwining around duties until 30th June, 1816, and afterwards forty-two per us that bond by which we have been so happily held toge- centum on existing duties. The report of Mr. Secretary ther. Long and late be the day when that cord shall be Dallas, a citizen of my own State, to whose distinguished broken! This principle has been uniformly recognised talents and virtues I cannot refrain from paying the tribute ever since, and has, as I conceive, been engrafted upon of my profound respect, made in December, 1815, chaour system of policy and Government, as part and parcel racterizes the duties prior to 1812 as the permanent duthereof. By a law of 10th August, 1790, the duties so ties; the report of the Committee of Ways and Means of imposed were increased. The next evidence of the this House, of which the honorable Mr. Lowndes, of South sense of the country, in order of time, is the famous report Carolina, was then chairman, a gentleman who, to the reof Alexander Hamilton, of the 5th December, 1791, agret of all, and the loss of his country, is no longer among sufficient monument of itself to the greatness of any name, men, whom I regard it as a personal misfortune not to have but forming in the high pillar of his fame, built up of so known, and to whom his native State, prolific as she has many and such varied and rich materials, furnished by as been in intelligence and virtue, never produced a superior, exalted endowments as heaven has perhaps ever vouch- read on the 9th January, 1816, uses this most remarkasafed to man, only one block of the many which compose ble language: "The permanent laws now in force may be it. This most masterly and cogent argument is full of the expected, after the expiration of temporary duties, to prolessons of truth, and with a sort of prophetic power has duce," &c.; and the projet of a tariff prepared by Mr. anticipated and answered almost all the objections, if not Dallas, in February, 1816, in conformity with a resolution every one, I have ever heard urged, or read, against the of this House, reiterates the expression permanent duties, policy I am advocating. To it I will not refer honorable and recommends encouragement and protection to manugentlemen, for I presume it is familiar to all who hear me; factures. I have been thus particular in referring to the but I beg leave to say that it is a fountain from which, I employment of the same exact and singularly expressive think, draughts of wisdom and intelligence may be drunk, word in the various official documents of almost four years, that, if they do not convince, can hardly fail to delight and and in the first law which imposed duties to any amount instruct. Laws were passed on the 2d May, 1792, and for a special occasion, or transitory purpose, as marking 7th June, 1794, severally enlarging the duties; and it is and defining, with the greatest precision, the views of the a remarkable fact that, by the last of these laws, the duties public men and of the Legislature of the time. It is diffi which it imposed upon iron, and the manufactures thereof, cult to believe the use of it was accidental, or that it was were higher than, and those upon the manufactures of cot- not intended to stand for what it imports. But there reton were exactly as high as, the duties charged upon the mains a testimony in favor of extending the sinewy and same articles by the bill submitted by the honorable chair- protective arm of the Government over our comparatively man of the Committee of Ways and Means, [Mr. McDUF- infant establishments, in the opinion of one whose authoFIE.] Thirty-eight years ago, when we had compara-rity on any subject connected with the exercise of constitively little, scarcely any thing, to encourage or protect, tutional power, or on the expediency of any particular the duties on the two first articles named were thought to course of policy, will be certainly respected by all, and be judiciously fixed at fifteen per cent., and it is now pro- regarded as entitled to quite as much attention as that of posed to reduce them, after two years, to twelve and one-any other individual in the nation. I allude to the eldest half cents, and to put down the last mentioned manufac-surviving ex-President of the United States. Mr. Madison, ture to the same measure of duty which was applied to it by his message of the 7th December, 1815, to Congress, in 1794. Various legal provisions were made, increasing gave a new impulse to the protective system. It is true the duties, until we reach that one of 3d March, 1807, he was speaking of the adjustment of the duties on imwhich repealed the duty on salt that had been imposed ports to the object of revenue, but he repudiates the idea by the act of 1789, and increased at different periods, of leaving the industry and ingenuity of the country to its particularly by a law of 8th July, 1797. And here I ask own course, under all circumstances, but advises the expermission to break the continuity of this historical ac- tending of protection to them, "as due to the enterpriscount of the legislation of the country, by stating a fact, ing citizens whose interests are now [were then] at that goes very far to prove the great interest taken in, and stake," and expresses the opinion that "the manuthe importance annexed to, our domestic industry, in facturing industry will become, at an early day, not 1810. The act of the 1st of May of that year, which pro- only safe against occasional competitions from abroad, vided for taking the census of the population of the Unit- but a source of external wealth and domestic comed States, enjoined it upon the marshals and assistant mar- merce. And further, in the mind of this enlightened shals to enumerate the manufactories and manufactures. statesman, the public patronage (if I may so speak) might Without noticing further the act of 26th March, 1804, be most judiciously bestowed upon articles of primary creating a small additional duty of two and one-half per public or private necessity, and whose materials "are excentum, for defraying the expenses of the Tripoline war, tensively drawn from our agriculture." This most discontinued by various acts until 3d March, 1815, or the tinguished and venerable man, whose whole life had been act of 27th March, 1804, modifying the duties on certain spent in the service of his country, in founding and estaarticles, matters stood thus when the war of 1812 was de- blishing this Government, in reasoning his fellow-citizens clared. The law of 1st July, 1812, followed, superad. into the conviction that our present constitution was adding one hundred per centum, on what? I beg honorable mirably calculated to promote and ensure their happiness, gentlemen to mark, on the "permanent duties now im- in legislating under it in this House, in performing the posed by law upon goods, wares, and merchandise imported," &c. In the first section of this law I have first met with the word permanent, of most significant import, showing the understanding of those who then administered duties of the highest ministerial department, and, finally, closing his most valuable public course in the execution of the most important trust that his confiding fellow-citizens could place in his hands, would seem to have had the H. OF R.] The Tariff. [MAY 29, 1832. $44,914,984 00 32,036,760 00 There are of cotton mills in the United States, 795. 1,860,779 00 14,016,502 00 Consumption of agricultural products, 3,750,000 00 In connexion with the foregoing let us look at the cotton crop grown in this country, its increase of product, and at its increase of consumption both in the United States and England. case of woollen manufactures in his reflections, when he made his communication to the National Legislature. The law of 1816 was enacted on the 27th April, and was, as I have always understood, carried by the votes of Southern gentlemen against New England wishes. On this subject the course of my own State has never wavered. But I have heard it said in this House, though I believe not on the present occasion, that the course of those gentlemen on this floor in 1816, who voted for the law of that year, has been misunderstood or misrepresented, if it is interpreted into any approbation of the policy, or if, from their conduct on that occasion, it shall be inferred that they lent their aid to building up and strengthening the system of encouragement and protection to domestic manufactures; and the reason assigned is, that that law contemplated and effected a reduction of duties. With great In 1831, there were produced, in the United States, of deference for the opinions of others, it strikes me this is cotton, 375,925,302 pounds; the consumption of this an error. The duties with a view to protection were not country is said to be more than one-fifth of the whole, say, those of 1812, 1813, 1814, or 1815; they formed no part however, one-fifth, 75,185,060; the value of the manufacof the permanent, but were properly styled, by Mr. ture, allowing that the cotton is increased fourfold in the Lowndes, to be temporary duties, strictly war duties, process, which is the general estimate, must be equal to imposed to enable us to carry on our military operations; four-fifths of the crop, and to the whole export of the arand were, by the law of July, 1812, which originated ticle. According to the statistics of Mr. Pitkin, there them, to continue during the war, and for one year after were exported 87,397,645 pounds of cotton in 1819, and it ceased. I speak of course of the increase of duties the consumption of Great Britain, in the same year, was enacted by that law. The true inquiry, to enable you to 428,000 bags. Our manufacturer's consume now sevenascertain whether, in 1816, there was an increase or di- eighths as much as was exported twelve years ago, and minution of duties, not on the war, but on the permanent nearly one-half as much as was consumed in Great Britain imposts, is, what were the duties before July, 1812 The then, and almost one-third as much as she uses at present. answer to that question will show that they were lower, The average export of cotton for five years immediately considerably lower, than those provided by the law of before the war was 57,000,000 pounds, or about 190,000 1816, or, in other words, that that law increased them. bales of 300 pounds, less than is actually consumed in the The duties on iron, woollen, and cotton manufactures United States at this day; which, as stated before, is were but fifteen per centum before 1812; and what were 75,000,000 pounds, or 250,000 bales of 300 pounds. they by act of 1816? On rolled bar iron thirty dollars per ton, and on iron manufactures twenty per centum on the value; on woollen and cotton manufactures twenty-five per centum until 30th June, 1819, and afterwards twenty per centum. Nay, more, on some of the articles now most complained of, as carrying an onerous duty, there was not one cent levied until 1816; unmanufactured wool, for instance, which was then for the first time subjected to any duty, when fifteen per centum ad valorem was imposed upon it. The several laws of 1818, 1824, 1828, and 1830, are too well known to the committee and the country, as respectively increasing the duties on imports, except the last, which went to enforce their collection, to require any further notice than to be mentioned. If we used one-sixth of the crop, prior to 1816, which is believed to be within the truth, but to ascertain which accurately there are no means at hand, it would give 11,000,000 pounds, or about 36,666 bales of 300 pounds, as used before the war; we now consume very nearly seven times as much, or the increase of consumption has been, in sixteen years, within a trifle of seven hundred per centum. In England, from 1781 to 1785, there was an average annual use of 10,941,943 pounds; from 1805 to 1810, her manufactures consumed, one year with another, 76,601,775 pounds, about the quantity we now use. The London price current for January, 1832, estimates the present annual consumption of England at 245,000,000; showing an increase of 220 per cent. in twenty-two years. From 1816 to 1832, the British manufacture rose from 93,920,055 to 245,000,000 pounds, or 160 per centum, against 700, in the United States. The cotton crop in this country in 1816 did not much exceed 81,000,000; it was in exports exactly 81,747,116 pounds, or 272,490 bales of 300 pounds; very little more than we use now. It was in the last year very nearly 376,000,000, or 1,253,333 bales; exhibiting an increase of production of almost 500 per centum in sixteen years. During this period, the consumption has increased in Great Britain, as we have already seen, from 94,000,000 to 245,000,000, or about 150,000,000 pounds, equal to 500,000 bales, leaving an excess of production, beyond English consumption, of 131,000,000 pounds, or 436,666 bales, of which we consume nearly one-half. What, I ask you, Mr. Chairman, and this committee, has been the consequence of this steady pursuit of one line of policy-of the encouragement by which you invited your citizens to engage in manufactures, and of the protection which you virtually undertook should be extended to their enterprises, by a series of measures, in my judgment wisely originated and wisely persisted in by the clearest heads and best hearts? What they intended it should be; what it was precisely their purpose should follow. Manufactories have sprung up in a large proportion of the country; not in one town, not in one district, but every where; and, like the dews, and rains, and sunshine from heaven, stimulating every thing, and furnishing food for every body. Will you destroy what you have built up? It cannot be denied that the legislation on this subject has been the corner-stone of many, if not The immense consequence, of even this single branch most, of these establishments. Will justice allow you to of industry, cannot be overlooked; nor is it easy to perallure from other pursuits, and to lead from other invest-ceive how, extended and extending as it is, this great outments, into this branch of industry, only to withdraw the let for raw cotton can injure him who produces it to sell. inducements you had held out? Let us inquire what is at The manufacture of wool is perhaps still more importstake, and how large are the interests that implore you not ant; certainly not less so. to endanger their existence; endanger, did I say? not absolutely to destroy them! Take two or three of the leading manufactures of the country; for example, cotton, wool, and iron. The number of factories in the United States I do not know; but it is estimated that the number of sheep is not smaller than 20,000,000, and that their average value may be fairly put at two dollars per head. MAY 29, 1832.] Aggregate value of sheep, The cloth and other articles, into which it is The capital invested in the manufactories, The wages paid to those employed in them, not including the mechanics and laborers employed in the building and repair of houses, machinery, &c., cannot be, although I have no positive information on the subject, less than The annual consumption of agricultural cause of the manufacture of wool, will be, Of wool, Provisions, Fuel, timber, &c. Food of horses and other animals engaged in transportation, Total, The Tariff. $40,000,000 20,000,000 This effect, so advantageous to those who have occasion to buy iron, (and who is there that, in some shape or other, does not find it convenient, indeed, necessary to do so?) may be very distinctly traced, it is thought, to Ameri40,000,000 can competition. The state of things abroad can scarcely 40,000,000 have produced it: for in England the price of iron has not fallen to any amount worthy of notice since the depreciation of 1829, while in that year, 1830, and 1831, it has sunk in the United States about twenty-five per centum. Swedish and Russian iron were higher in 1830 and 1831 than in 1824, having fluctuated, and borne generally a 10,000,000 higher price between those two extremes than at either of products, be- them. With English iron it was not so. In July, 1828, after intelligence of the passage of our tariff law of 19th $20,000,000 May, 1828, reached England, it fell from £8 9s. sterling 3,750,000 to £7 9s. (that is £1 or $4 44;) in 1829 it was further reduced 500,000 from £7 98. to £6, (£1 9s. equal to $6 50;) throughout There were made at these furnaces, in 1830, 155,348 tons of iron. the remainder of 1829, and during 1830, it continued at 500,000 £6; and in 1831 its price was from £6 to £5 10s. It is manifest that the single variation of price, and that slight, $24,750,000 in English iron, since 1829, could not have had the smallNot to speak of the land which subsists the sheep and fur- est influence in effecting the reduction in the cost of this nishes those products. indispensable metal, which has been steadily progressing The remaining interest to which I have adverted is iron.in our own country.* I cannot state the precise number of furnaces, but there I would not be more tedious than is absolutely necessary, were known to be in operation, in the United States, in and shall not, therefore, refer to the various other manuthe year 1830, two hundred and two, and the enumera- factures now in operation in the United States; the leather, tion was incomplete. the linen, and hempen, the copper, the sugar, and the many different branches which exercise the ingenuity and industry of our fellow-citizens. Why shall we take a step which will put to hazard, and, as I think, destroy, those immense interests? Because, say honorable gentlemen with whom I have the misfortune to differ in opinion, the Tons, 96,621 policy which cherishes them works oppression and injury 28,273 to one section of the country, and to one interest, called, generally, the planting interest. If this were so, I should deeply regret it; but, before we inquire into this allega tion, let us look for a moment at the relative value of those interests which are said so much to conflict. The cotton 11,444,410 raised in the United States, in 1831, was, according to my calculation, worth, at nine cents per pound, $33,833,277. 10,861,440 I freely admit, as has been suggested by the honorable From which bar iron was furnished to the amount of Made at bloomeries, bar iron, Castings The bar iron, at the market price for 1830, ($96 663 per ton,) was worth Castings, - 90,768 5,853 - $9,342,030 2,102,380 In 1828, the iron made amounted to 130,881 tons, and was worth In 1829, the iron made amounted to 142,870 tons, and was worth In 1830, the iron made amounted to 163,542 tons, and was worth (The bar iron made at bloomeries being pig iron.) But the gentleman from South Carolina, [Mr. McDUFFIE,] that 11,528,134 agricultural pursuit is one of the leading engagements of life; that it lies at the foundation of national wealth and 11,444,410 prosperity; and that he who grows wheat, or corn, or cotreduced to ton, literally produces and adds so much to the aggregate possessions of the community, and, in this particular, is It will be observed, that while the increase in quantity more useful than he who, by an interchange of commodiis nearly twenty-five per centum in two years, the addition ties, may contribute to your convenience, but amasses only to the market value does not reach five and a half per cen- for himself by shifting possession, and not by creating, if tum; and that, although the iron product was larger, by I may so speak, that which did not exist before. more than twelve and a half per centum, in 1830, than planter is in nowise more useful than the manufacturer, 1829, yet its aggregate value was less. who, by his skill, and ingenuity, and industry, gives to an article a value that it had not previously: to whatever extent the manufacture is worth more than the raw materials of which it is composed, by so much has he added to the common stock, and given existence and being to so much increase of our entire wealth. He contributes as efficiently, therefore, to the permanent prosperity of the country, to creating a fund from which comfort, and competence, and happiness are diffused throughout society, as the planter; each in the proportion of the accessions which they severally make to the joint stock. Nay, although the manufacturer's contribution should not be to a greater H. OF R.] The Tariff. [MAY 29, 1832. amount, it would be to a higher degree and greater ex-into Boston 284,504 barrels, and 3,955 half-barrels of tent: for his means necessarily flow in a thousand rills, flour, 681,131 bushels of corn, 239,809 bushels of oats, through those he employs, over the whole land, irrigating 50,000 bushels of rye, and 33,489 bushels of shorts; and and fertilizing every field and hamlet. into Providence, Rhode Island, 71,369 barrels of flour, 216,662 bushels of corn, and 7,772 bushels of rye. ring the same period there were discharged from the port of Philadelphia 420,353 bushels of corn, 201,878 bushels of wheat, and 110,557 bushels of rye and barley. We have seen what is the addition of the planter in the The woollen mills cannot yield less, though $32,036,760 Du I have not spoken of the sugar, molasses, tobacco, and other articles annually conveyed to the Eastern and Northeastern States from the Southern and Midland regions. The consumption, Mr. Chairman, of bread stuffs and vegetable productions in the manufacturing districts exceeds the export to foreign countries of the same articles. 32,036,760 One branch of industry naturally and inevitably, in the ordinary course of events, aids and sustains another. 11,444,410 While the manufacturer consumes the fruit of the soil, More than twice the value of the cotton crop of 1831. Take another view. The wages of the operatives in factories are original wealth; they are produced or created wealth, that had no pre-existence. Like the rewards of labor, they are cumulative; and being the yield of the hand and the head, do not merely transfer, but make property. In cotton mills the aggregate annual wages In woollen mills they cannot be short of the farmer is enabled to purchase and use the product of $75,517,930 the loom, and the exports in the various mechanic arts find employment in supplying the wants and the comforts, and sometimes the luxuries, if you please, which increased means justify their neighbors in indulging, while from them they draw the ingredients of their own enjoyment. Thus live the people of the Northern and Middle States, each occupation contributing its proper proportion to the general sum of means and happiness; and the whole consummates, I verily believe, as much of contentment and $14,016,502 felicity as the lot of man permits. The bread of industry 10,000,000 is always sweet. The diversity of pursuit to which I have alluded is indispensable to prosperity. There may 7,493,700 be-it arises out of the circumstances that there must be-in a country which has but one leading occupation, $31,510,202 a few instances of very great wealth; but, according to At Lowell, in Massachusetts, alone, I have been inform- my conception, there will not, there cannot be as much ed, $50,000 were paid weekly for wages, some two or competence and comfort spread over the whole surface, three years ago; since which time, three very large com- as where each man is more or less dependent upon his panies for the manufacture of cotton at that place have neighbor for his supplies and employment. This most been incorporated, with capitals amounting to two millions felicitous operation of the system, for which I am conand two hundred thousand dollars, who are now erecting tending, is the strongest argument in its favor, It has the buildings necessary to conduct their business. It is been the principal instrument, under Providence, in reworthy of remark, as showing at one point the powerful deeming from embarrassment and misfortune all the couninfluence which the domestic system exerts in advancing try in which it has been established. It has not only the public prosperity, that, on the ground which the town built up towns, and settled wildernesses, but it has perof Lowell now covers, there were seven years ago but formed a more difficult, and, at the same time, more three or four farmhouses; that the last census gave it a po- grateful task--it has revived declining villages, and repulation of seven thousand; and that when the above suscitated those upon whom the hand of death was almost companies shall have their works in full operation, (in laid. Where the voice of complaint was once feebly ut1834,) there will be required as agents and operatives, &c. [tered, and the countenance of despair would almost chill to carry them on, at least five thousand additional per- your blood, you now hear the laugh of hilarity, and see sons; giving, as the entire population of Lowell, in nine the jocund and delightful expression of face, which is the years, twelve thousand souls, besides the natural increase; index of a mind at ease. making it the second, and placing it before Salem, the oldest, town in Massachusetts. While those who have engaged in these pursuits have advanced their own pecuniary concerns, they have beneReturning to the cotton, woollen, and iron manufac-fited the communities in which they have been located, to tures, the three great branches which I have selected as illustrative of the whole, there remains yet another as pect in which I desire to present them to the committee. What amount of agricultural products do they consume? Of cotton, say seventy millions, at nine cents, allowing five millions of pounds for common domestic purposes, Of wool, say forty-five millions, at forty cents, allowing five millions as above, Subsistence, an extent almost incalculable, and of which even those who are enjoying the advantage scarcely know the value, nor will they duly appreciate it, unless, unhappily, its fountains should be broken up. It is like the possession of full health, of which those only from whom it has been taken understand the real value. The progress of this $6,500,000 country in prosperity has been unexampled; if our course of policy be judicious, and the present system is main18,000,000 tained, that prosperity will be, I had almost said, illimita11,250,000 ble. If, which will not believe, it should be the determination of this body to retrograde, what will be the $35,550,000 consequence? The means now employed in the manuExclusive of fuel, timber, &c., and of food for horses factories will be, in a great degree, if not entirely, lost; and other animals employed in transporting the raw ma- the fortunes of those engaged in them will be generally terial and manufactured article, which, about iron works blighted, if not dissolved, and they themselves, the bone especially, it is well known, must be very great. The and muscle of the country, will be crushed, in most inextensive domestic market furnished to the grain-growing stances, to rise no more. How shall their capital be withStates may be exemplified by mentioning the imports of drawn from their present pursuits? It is invested in one or two places. In the year 1831 there were carried houses, lands, water-power, and machinery; the proper |