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There has been a small decline in the price of Liverpool Forty pairs of working oxen, at $50 per pair,
salt, in sacks of four bushels, since March, 1830, but all Forty horses, at $100 each,
other salts show no other change since that time, except Horizontal sugar mill,
against consumers.

SUGAR.

Two sets of boilers, at $1,500 each,
Buildings of all descriptions,
Twelve carts,

Thirty ploughs,

All other utensils, such as timber, wheels, hoes,
spades, axes, scythes, &c. &c.

[H. OF R.

2,000

4,000

4,000

3,000

25,000 1,200

300

1,500 $170,000

The next subject to which I will call the attention of the committee, is the manufacture of sugar. Sir, it is proposed by this bill to reduce the duty on sugar one-half cent per pound. This looks like a small sum when we advert only to the duty on one pound; but when we come to apply it to millions, it becomes a question of vast importance; and, as my honorable friend from Louisiana [Mr. WHITE] said the other day, there is no telling what This, Mr. Chairman, is the capital upon one sugar planmay be its effect; they may be able to go on; they may tation, the largest portion of which is in perishable probe overwhelmed with ruin by it. The manufacture of perty, and is constantly wearing out and giving way, and sugar, I have been often told by gentlemen familiar with must of necessity be supplied from the Western and that subject, yields a very precarious and uncertain pro- Southern States.

fit. Its success depends upon many circumstances, about The annual disbursements of this plantation are estimatwhich it is impossible beforehand to make any certain cal-ed at $10,700; and, sir, I derive these facts from well culation. Some years the profits will be pretty hand-authenticated documents, which have not been, and, I presome; some years the losses will be very severe. But, sume, cannot be, disputed. How, then, is this $10,700 sir, I wish to state to the committee the amount of capital yearly expended? I will show you, sir. which is invested in this business, and to show its intimate The first item is $3,000, for provisions, such as connexion with other branches of agriculture, and with the agriculture of the Western States particularly. It is stated, upon the best authority, that in Louisiana alone there are more than five hundred sugar-plantations. These plantations employ a capital of at least fifty millions of dollars. Now let us see how this capital operates on the agriculture of the Western States.

We will take one of those plantations, capable, in a good season, of producing 400,000 pounds of sugar; we will first examine the amount of capital invested, and the manner of its investment.

The first item I find is land, 1,500 acres,
The next is ninety hands, at 600 dollars each,

$75,000

54,000

flour, pork, beef, corn, &c. &c,
Clothing of all sorts,

Medical attendance and medicine,
Annual losses in negroes,
Taxes

Horses and oxen,
Repairs for buildings,
Ploughs, carts, &c.
Overseer,

$3,000

1,500 500 1,500

500 1,200

700

300

1,000

$10,700

This, sir, is the annual expense of one of these plantations, distributed among the farmers, the mechanics, the * Wher. it was proposed to repeal the duty, Mr. VIN-horse and slave-driver; and even the medical gentleman TON, of Ohio, stated, in the House of Representatives of comes in for his share, and a snug little sum of five hunthe United States, that a reduced duty would not affect dred dollars goes to the support of Government, by way the cost to consumers, though destroying a large amount of taxes. The expense of one plantation, to be sure, of domestic capital and employment. does not make a very imposing figure; but let us see

Mr. DODDRIDGE, of Virginia, said that he had seen $12 what are the annual expenses of five hundred plantations. given in his country for a bushel of alum salt, and recol- Why, sir, it is just the little sum of five million three hunlected when it was reduced to $5, because of the improve-dred and fifty thousand dollars, principally distributed ment of the mountain roads; but that the price remained among the farmers and mechanics of the country. Sir, if at three dollars until the Kanawha works displaced the I were legislating here upon local principles, looking to foreign article. He had seen the time when twenty-four the immediate interest of my constituents alone, without bushels of wheat would not pay for one of alum salt; and, regard to the general prosperity of my whole country, to at the same place, he had seen salt so reduced in price, destroy this interest would be the last thing I should think that a barrel of it would not pay for a barrel of flour. He of doing, to promote theirs. What view any gentleman supposed that a bushel of foreign salt had not been con- upon this floor from Tennessee; what view any gentlesumed in more than half of his (congressional) district man here from the waters of the great Mississippi, can for the fifteen preceding years; and thought, if such salt take of this question, which will cause him to vote for was wholly excluded, the whole quantity required would destroying the sugar plantations, is passing strange to me. be furnished without inconvenience. We have great difficulty in the West now in finding a Mr. REED, of Massachusetts, referred to many proceed-market for our surplus produce; and, in my opinion, if, ings of the Revolutionary Congress, to encourage the ma- by our legislation here, we were to destroy the manufac nufacture of salt, and, at the date of these resolutions, he ture of sugar in Louisiana, the policy would be perfectly said that the business had been commenced in his neigh- suicidal. Destroy this system, and the rich alluvial botborhood, by evaporating sea water. That the capital now toms of the Mississippi will be at once converted into vested in the manufacture in Massachusetts amounted to fields of cotton, corn, and rice, and the whole agricultural 1,754,576 dollars, making, annually, 503,686 bushels of community up the Mississippi, and its tributaries, will feel salt, equal to the best alum, or Turk's Island. That the the shock most ruinously. The supply of agricultural repeal of the duty in 1807, though almost ruinous to ma- products is already much greater than the demand. This nufacturers, rendered only a small and temporary benefit preposterous act of ours-and gentlemen must excuse to consumers. That there were more than eight hun-me, for I cannot call it by any name less offensive—instead dred small factories in his district, whose competition had of increasing the demand, will greatly augment the supreduced the price to thirty cents for fifty-six pounds of ply. I repeat, sir, that to me it is matter of profound assalt, (the duty being then twenty cents on that quantity,tonishment, that any man, representing upon this floor and he estimated the whole capital employed in the do- the interest of any portion of Tennessee, should, by his mestic manufacture at eight millions of dollars. vote, paralyze the operations of the sugar plantations.

H. OF R.]

The Tariff Bill.

[JAN. 24, 1833.

Such a man must be manacled in party politics, and com- day. These measures greatly crippled and weakened pelled to subserve the views of men rather than the good of his constituents. From such politicians may God preserve our country!.

the commerce of Massachusetts. Yea, sir, they cost her millions. Before she had time to recover her wonted energies, she was again driven from the ocean by the late I have said, Mr. Chairman, what would be my course war. A succession of adverse events crowded upon her, if I were legislating with a view to the interest of my con- one close upon the heels of another, until utter ruin seemstituents alone. But, sir, I am proud to announce to the ed to be her certain doom. Her citizens were thrown committee that I go against destroying the sugar planta- completely out of employment; they saw every thing detions, upon other and more enlarged' considerations than caying and falling into ruin around them. These things merely because they benefit my constituents. I go against produced very great excitement, as a matter of course; destroying them, because they form a link in that chain of and the orators of the day said many foolish things, I have policy which alone can make us independent of foreign no doubt, and some of the people committed some foolish Powers. Destroy these plantations, and you at once place acts. But, sir, at their maddest period, they never went, us at the mercy, and make us dependent upon foreign by a stone's throw, as far as South Carolina has now gone. Powers for every pound of this most essential and univer- During the war we ascertained our weak points. We sal article of consumption; and in a short time we shall be saw, as I before have stated, that we were dependent upcompelled to pay at least double what we have to pay on foreign Powers for the essential articles for carrying now. Sir, I call upon gentlemen to reflect before they on a war. We of the South and West saw and felt the destroy a system which has given us a better and a cheaper great necessity of building up some system of policy article than we ever had before. I recollect very distinct- which would make us completely independent of all foly when my constituents had to give for common brown reign Powers. The Virginia policy of protecting domes sugar twenty-five cents per pound. They now get a tic manufactures by laying high duties on foreign goods much superior article for half that price. On these sub. imported here, was adopted in 1816, with increased enerjects of great national policy, the system must be taken gy. By this time, however, Massachusetts had recomaltogether. The man who has to legislate on them ought menced her old and favorite pursuit, and was fairly again to be able to survey the whole Union, and see how it will before the breeze, prosecuting a most vigorous and prooperate. It is in vain to legislate to promote the interest fitable commerce. But here, again, she was doomed to of one section of the Union, to the disparagement of all another sad reverse of fortune. We commenced buildothers. This partial and local system of legislation, I am ing up the American system. We told Massachusetts proud to say, my constituents do not desire. They would that she must divide her profits with the manufacturer feel the most profound contempt for any man who pre- and the farmer. In short sir, by legislative act after tended to be a politician, and who was thus contracted legislative act, we drove her almost entirely from the and limited in his views of policy. They would laugh ocean, and compelled her, in self-defence, to take shelhim to scorn; they would tell him that, in their estima- ter in the workshops. Yes, sir, we coerced her to tion, he occupied in the political world the same station commence manufacturing; and what her hand findeth which the dry-land terrapin occupies in the animal world. to do, she does with all her might. She became reconSir, my constituents are for the Union, the whole Union; ciled to her fate, and determined to make the most out and when they instruct me to vote to protect the sugar of manufactures that she could. And now, sir, just as manufactures in Louisiana, it is not because they are im- she and others, who have, under the protection held mediately and directly interested in those manufactures, out and extended by our laws, ventured all they have in but because, as I before said, it is an important link in the that system, are beginning to realize some of its benefits, great chain of national policy. For the same reason, sir, she and they are told by us, you must now turn your atthey have taught me to believe it was right to give pro- tention to something else; you must abandon your miltection to the cotton and woollen manufactures of Massa- lions vested in manufactures; your profits are entirely too chusetts. Massachusetts is one member of our national great. It is true, we could pursue the same business if family. She is the venerable sister who rocked the cra- we would; the tariff, or protecting laws, give us the same dle of our independence. I meet with no man who does protection south of the Potomac that they give you north not admit that Massachusetts did as much, if not more, of it, but we do not choose to avail ourselves of these adthan any State in the Union, in achieving that indepen- vantages, and we have determined you shall not. This is dence of which we all so proudly boast. Sir, in that pro- the state of things upon which we are now called to act, tracted, but glorious struggle, she not only freely ex- and I appeal to gentlemen to pause before they make this pended her treasure, but she consecrated the cause of sacrifice. I, for one, cannot find it in my soul to do it; I liberty, by pouring out the blood of her noblest sons. She consider it a ruinous step to the whole nation; I consider has been a great sufferer in building up this very policy it most dishonorable and dishonest to withdraw now our which we are called upon to destroy. But gentlemen, in plighted protection from those States who, under the preanswer to all this, very phlegmatically say, Massachusetts sumed good faith of an American Congress, have emhas behaved badly in latter times. I agree, sir, that, at barked their all in the system. Sir, I represent liberal one period "in latter times," she did put on a good many and enlightened freemen on this subject, and I will not airs; she scolded and flirted, and said many hard words; do an act so totally unworthy of them as this would be; but she never has gone as far as some of her sisters have an act which they would disdain to do; an act which I gone, before and since, although, in my humble opinion, should feel merited their frowns and their scoffs. My she has had much greater cause of complaint than any of constituents, sir, have no feelings of ill-will to gratify tothem have had. Massachusetts was emphatically a com- wards Massachusetts, or any of the other States, and esmercial State. Her vocation was upon the ocean. She pecially none towards Massachusetts. They feel that their was carrying on "free trade" with all the world, much to interest can in nowise be promoted by destroying the her own advantage as she thought, when she was in- prosperity of any of the New England States. Sir, since terrupted by the introduction of the "American system"I have had the honor of a seat in this House, I have found by Virginia. Gentlemen must not make wry faces when none more willing to do justice to my constituents than the they are told that the seeds of this system were sown Representatives from Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode by Virginia. Sir, the restrictive system, the non-in- Island, and Vermont. My constituents know these things, tercourse laws, and the embargo, which fell with such and appreciate them. Many other most interesting views a heavy and disastrous hand upon the commerce of Massa- might be presented to the committee on this subject, but chusetts, had their origin in the Virginia doctrines of that I feel that I have detained them already too long, and

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I will now, very briefly, notice the growth and manufacture of wool; and the first thing to which I will call the attention of the committee on this subject, is, the amount of capital vested in this business.

It is useless, sir, for me to make any comment upon this item; I therefore content myself with merely calling the attention of the committee to the amount of capital employed, the number of persons engaged and supported by it, and the amount of agricultural products consumed by it. He that runs may read, and every man can estimate for himself what the effect upon the community, particularly the farming community, will be by destroying this branch of our national industry. The probable number of sheep in the Unit

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ed States is 20,000,000, and worth, on an average, two dollars per head, The sheep farms, generally, do not support three sheep to the acre, summer and winter, though the land be pretty good, and well managed. Of the 20,000,000 sheep, it is supposed that about 5,000,000 are in the State of New York, having had 3,496,539 in 1825, the latest returns at hand; and it is known that many of these sheep are fed upon lands worth from sixteen to thirty dollars per acre; and in Dutchess county, in which are over 500,000 sheep, the lands on which they are fed are worth about twenty-five dollars per acre. It is then probable that the average worth of farms in the United States capable of supporting three sheep to every acre throughout the year, is ten dollars the acre: 20,000,000 of sheep will require 6,666,666 acres, at ten dollars,

$40,000,000

65,000,000

Capital in sheep, and lands to feed them, $105,000,000
The 20,000,000 sheep produced 50,000,000
pounds of wool annually, the average
value of which, for three years, 1829,
1830, and 1831, exceeded forty cents per
pound, or $20,000,000. (The crop of
1831 was worth more than $25,000,000.)
The crop of wool, having reference to
the whole quantity made into cloth of va-
rious qualities, is worth $40,000,000,
which is about the gross annual product
of wool and its manufactures in the Unit-
ed States. If the woollen goods import-
ed, valued at $6,000,000, be added,
there will be allowed for each person
in the United States three and a half
dollars worth of woollen goods per an-
num, including blankets, carpets, &c., as
well as clothing.

The fixed and floating capital vested in the
woollen manufactories in the United
States, such as lands, water-rights, build-
ings, machinery, and stock on hand, and
cash employed, may be estimated at

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wool annually, or 50,000 persons in the
whole.

It is reasonable to suppose that each laborer
subsists two other persons, say 150,000
in all, deriving a direct support from the
woollen manufacture, or otherwise.
Each person will consume at least twenty-
five dollars worth of agricultural products
annually, or $3,750,000 worth of subsist-

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[H. OF R.

22,500,000

Capital involved in the growth and manu-
facture of wool in the United States, - $167,500,000

The annual value created by, or accruing to, agricul-
ture, because of the growth and manufacture of wool,
may be thus shown:
Wool,

Provisions to manufacturers,

Fuel, timber, and other products of the
land, supplied

Charges for transportation, and food of
horses and other animals employed, be-
cause of the factories,

The following should rightfully be added
to show the whole operation of the wool-
len manufactures in the United States:
For every 100,000 pounds of wool manu-
factured there is a constant employment,
equal to the labor of six men, in the
erection and repair of buildings, mill-
wrights' and blacksmiths' work, and in
the building and repairing of machinery,
whether for wool worked up in the fac
tories or in families, say 3,000 men,
whose labor subsists at least 9,000 other
persons, 12,000 in all, and consume each
twenty-five dollars worth of agricultural
produce annually, is

$20,000,000 3,750,000

500,000

500,000 $24,750,000

300,000

$25,050,000

Making the whole number of persons employed because of the manufacture of wool, 162,000, and requiring of the product of manufacture, for materials and subsistence, the very large amount per annum of $25,050,000. And it should be observed that there is no foreign market to which we can send our $25,000,000 worth of wool, and breadstuffs, and meats. It would all be as if annually lost to landholders and cultivators, were the home market destroyed in abandoning the manufactures of wool; and those who are now consumers of the products of agriculture must, of necessity, become producers, and lessen the 40,000,000 prices of grain, &c.

- $145,000,000

Capital directly vested in the growth and
manufacture of wool,
The proportion between the amount of
wool used in the factories, and worked
up by household industry, is as three to
two, and, on the average, it will employ
one person to work up 1,000 pounds of

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H. or R.]

The Tariff Bili.

[JAN. 24, 1833.

that the demand has by no means kept up with the sup- have had but a small value, if any value at all, except beply. The whole crop of cotton grown in the United cause of these factories in many places. States, in 1816, was about 68,000,000 pounds; the price "In the preceding amounts of persons employed or of cotton that year was twenty-nine cents per pound; subsisted, or wages paid, no regard is had to the very it fell the following year to twenty-six cents; in 1818 it numerous individuals employed by, or making profit upon rose to thirty-three cents; thus giving a most extrava- the supply or preparation of materials, in the transportagant profit to the cotton grower of the South, and had tion of them, by land or water, the factories, or in the the effect that great profits always have upon every carriage of the articles made, to the markets for them; employment in this country, where every citizen is at the value of all which must be much larger than the liberty to embark in any business that he may believe sum paid to workmen employed in the manufacture itself, most profitable. Thus it was with the cotton business: which probably subsists, directly and indirectly, not less and from 68,000,000 pounds in 1816, it has now increased than 25,000 persons; affording for the whole an average to more than 300,000,000 pounds; and, as a matter of annual value of $120 each, including, of course, interest course, prices began to come down; and down and down on capital earned." they come, until that business is not much more profitable than other branches of agriculture, though I am told it is still something more so; and I have no hesitation in saying it would be much more decreased in price than it is, were it not for the home market which our manufactories create.

I have taken a very hasty view of some of the most important branches of American industry. The observations which I have made, have not been upon the details of the bill before us. That part of the subject has been most fully and amply investigated by several gentlemen who have preceded me in the discussion. I think it has It is estimated that these manufactories of cotton con- been conclusively shown that, if this bill pass, the whole sumed upwards of one-fifth of the whole cotton crop system of which I have been speaking, must fall to the in the United States. South Carolina ought to reflect ground. If gentlemen are really desirous of understandthat, since 1816, the cotton-planting business has spread ing the details of this bill, I beg them to commune freely itself into the Southwestern States, and that they grow with my friend who sits near to me, [Mr. APPLETON,] almost two pounds where the Atlantic States grow one; who will take a great deal of pleasure in giving them any for instance, in 1831, the Atlantic States produced information on that subject; and I believe all parties ad148,000,000 pounds, and the Southwestern States pro- mit that no gentleman upon this floor is more competent duced 227,000,000.

These facts, to my mind, show conclusively the reasons why the price of cotton is down at its present low ebb, and they show equally that if it were not for the manufactories, which consume annually about 77,000,000 pounds of raw cotton, the price would be made lower

than it is.

The capital employed in the cotton manufacture in the United States at this time, is estimated at $44,914,984. There are 23,300 men employed in this business, and 39,000 women, and 5,121 children under the age of twelve years. The wages paid to these men, women, and children, per annum, is $12,155,722.

The number of persons subsisted directly by the cotton manufacture is 131,481.

1,641,353 pounds of starch are consumed by them annually: 17,245 barrels of flour for sizing, are consumed by them.

46,519 cords of wood are used by them. 24,420 tons of mine coal, and upwards of 9,000 tons of charcoal, are consumed.

I omit many items, and enumerate these merely to show the intimate connexion between the agriculture and labor of the country and the cotton manufactories. Nothing can be more interesting than this subject, and, if I had time, I would pursue it through all its various ramifications, and show its effects upon the community; but 1 must pass on.

GLASS.

to the task.

Upon the whole, after diligent inquiry, after a patient examination of the whole system of protecting our own labor from foreign competition, a thing which all other nations do, I have been brought irresistibly to the conclusion that it has benefited the farmers; that it has benefited the mechanics; that it has benefited our commerce, foreign and domestic; that this system, (by a voluntary tax, if, indeed, it be a tax at all, when by it we get cheaper and better articles than we ever did before,) I say, that this system, while it has protected our own citi. zens, has supplied the current expenses of Government, has paid off an immense national debt, which otherwise must have been paid by grinding and oppressing the people by the most odious of all systems-a direct tax.

To show that it furnishes to the consumer cheaper and better articles of use and consumption among them, I need only enumerate a few leading articles of necessity.

Coarse cottons, when we had to rely on the foreign manufacturer, sold at from twenty to twenty-five cents. By the act of 1816, a duty of eight and three-fourths cents was imposed on the foreign article. This nearly excluded it, and made the business very profitable to our own citizens. The consequence was, as it always will be in this country of free and equal laws, that there was a great rush of capital into this business. The law held out equal advantages to every citizen in the United States, whether he lived in Georgia, Virginia, Pennsylvania, or Massachusetts. And I have been told by an honorable member of this House from North Carolina, that he knew of one establishment in that State, employing about one hundred thousand dollars of capital, that yielded its proprietor a

I will read a short, but very interesting paragraph on the subject of manufacturing glass in the United States. "On the whole, it seeins quite reasonable to believe that the value of the glass manufactured in the United profit of about twenty per cent.; and the honorable genStates is

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The amount of persons employed is

Do.
Do.

do. subsisted,
wages annually paid,

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$3,000,000 tleman from Georgia, [Mr. CLAYTON,] I think, told us at 2,140 the last session, in a speech which he delivered upon this 10,800 floor, that he owned an establishment which yielded him 720,000 a profit of fifty per cent. I am very much pleased at And this pleasing fact is manifest, that, while the work- these profits of my southern neighbors, and hope more of men obtain high wages, by which they and their families them will embark in the business. In Massachusetts, are plentifully and comfortably subsisted, there has been Connecticut, and Rhode Island, the competition has been a general decline in the selling price of glass, as com- so great, that the profits to the manufacturer have been pared with what it was before protection was afforded to very much decreased; and the price to the consumer this interesting manufacture, of about fifty per centum; throughout the United States has been reduced by this and, further, that a large part of the materials used would home competition from twenty to twenty-five, down to

JAN. 24, 1833.]

The Tariff Bill.

[H. of R.

from six to seven cents per yard; and this is the effect, in the republic. Thus, sir, would this system make us inmy opinion, which adequate protection will have upon dependent of all the world; and, at the same time that it every branch of our home manufactures. put money into circulation in the interior, it would greatly improve the physical and moral condition of the whole country.

Lead formerly sold, in the Atlantic cities, at six and eight cents per pound; but since a duty of three cents per pound has been imposed on the foreign article, we now get it in Missouri at three and a half cents. Window glass formerly sold from ten to fourteen dollars per ton.

A duty of three and a half dollars per one hundred feet on foreign window glass has brought the price down to the consumer to four and four and a half dollars per ton, instead of ten and fourteen. Every cottager now, if he choose, may enjoy the light of Heaven, without admitting the bleak wind.

Cut nails were formerly worth from ten to twelve cents per pound. By a duty of five cents on foreign nails, we get much better nails now at six cents per pound.

Copperas before the late war was very fluctuating in price, but most generally sold at three cents per pound. During the war it sold from seventeen to twenty cents. After the war we imposed a duty of two cents per pound on foreign copperas, and it now sells at two and a half cents per pound. And if we are wise, we never again shall be subject to the fluctuations of the foreign article, nor shall we be subject to the enormous price which we were compelled to pay during the late war.

But, sir, there is no surplus yet in the treasury; and I think my honorable friend [Mr. INGERSOLL] from the Committee of Ways and Means has shown, not only that there is not now a surplus, but that there will not be a surplus even as remotely as 1835. Sir, what are the facts on this subject? Why, the Secretary of the Treasury, in his annual report, tells us that, on the first of January there was a surplus of one million six hundred thousand dollars. Now, my friend, [Mr. INGERSOLL,] who belongs to the financial committee of this, House, and whose peculiar province it is to examine into the state of our treasury accounts, (and, without intending to pay him a compliment, I understand, from all sides, that he is completely master of this subject,) what does he tell us about this surplus of one million six hundred thousand dollars now in the treasury? Why, sir, he says that there are one million six hundred thousand dollars in the treasury; but he tells us that one million four hundred thousand dollars of this surplus is composed, to speak in the financial language of the day, of "unavailable funds." Or, in plain English, sir, this sum of one million four hundred thousand dollars is composed of notes upon broken banks, which nobody will have, and which are likely to be funds in the treasury for some time to come. These are some of the blessed fruits of using the local State banks as places of deposite for the public funds. And from the seed which seems to be sowing, since the edict has gone Epsom salts were manufactured to a very limited ex- forth that the United States Bank must go down, we have tent, if at all, in this country, prior to 1824. While we a goodly prospect of reaping a very bountiful crop of relied upon the foreign manufacture, we had to pay from these depreciated, these rotten, these broken bank notes. ten to twelve cents per pound. Under the act of 1824, Banks in every direction, anticipating the destruction of a duty of four cents per pound was imposed on the fo- the United States Bank, are springing into existence, reign article. Under this protection, the manufacture of like mushrooms, between the setting and the rising of the this medicine, of such universal use among all classes, sun. and a timely dose of which has saved many a heavy doctor's bill, has sprung to very great perfection in our own country. At the time the duty of four cents was imposed by the act of 1824, the price, as I before stated, was from ten to twelve cents per pound. In 1826, it fell to seven and a half cents; and in 1831, a much superior quality could be bought at three and a half cents per pound.

When we imported our alum, we generally had to pay about seven and a half dollars per cwt. During the war the price rose to eighteen cents per pound. The price at present is three and three-fourths cents per pound.

If time would permit, this comparative view might be extended to almost every branch of this system which has brought our country. to such an enviable height of prosperity.

But when these stubborn facts stare gentlemen in the face-when they are compelled to admit that the nation at large, and that every particular section of it is enjoying the highest state of prosperity, they then turn upon us, and say there is too much money in the treasury; and that, in order to exhaust and empty the treasury, this system must be pulled down. Sir, if other gentlemen thought on the subject as I do, we could soon employ the treasury surplus when there shall be one, much to the advantage of the people, and to the improvement of the country. I am now and always have been opposed to keeping much money in the treasury; but I would not tear down this system which has made us so prosperous and happy, and throw ourselves at the foot of British power and cupidity. No, sir, I would pursue a very different plan of emptying the treasury. I would build roads and canals. I would clear all our navigable watercourses of obstructions, so that the farmer might get to market with his produce. In short, I would carry on a judicious system of internal improvement. I would build up a system of education that should carry light and knowledge to every cottage in the remotest corners of Vor. IX.-84

In New York, on the 2d and 3d day of the present Legislature, there were petitions for thirty-four new banks in that State.

In Pennsylvania, eleven have been petitioned for from the country, beside those in the cities.

In Maryland, the Governor recommends a State bank founded on State funds.

In Alabama, one has been already incorporated with a capital of two millions.

In my own State, one has been incorporated with a capital of three millions.

The Governor of Kentucky recommended one of enormous capital.

In Ohio, I believe one has been incorporated with a capital of seven millions of dollars.

In Louisiana, a bank has been incorporated, with eight branches, and very large capital; the amount not exactly recollected.

In North Carolina, a bank has been incorporated, with a capital of two millions of dollars, with branches at discretion; and thus, and thus we proceed, cramming every hole and corner of the country with this stagnant paper of local banks, which is not able to travel a Sabbath day's journey without being depreciated fifteen and twenty per cent. We are in a very fair way to have a new and ample addition of shin plasters, as they were called by the old farmers when I was a boy. Yes, sir! Fayetteville, Virginia Saline, Owl Creek.

These notes, once sent out, they must fall somewhere, and nine times out of ten they will fall upon the laboring, the innocent, unsophisticated part of the community.

But, sir, I must return to the question of a surplus in the treasury; I hope the committee will excuse this digression.

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