denominated, both by its friends and foes, a confession of faith, and I am inclined to ascribe to the associations which this term always brings along with it, a good deal of that microscopic criticism which we have witnessed for a few days past. Sir, if by this term a confession of faith-it only be intended that the paper contains propositions which ought to be believed before they are assented to, it is as true of this as it is of every other document which is introduced within these walls. But if this appellation be intended to convey the idea that there is any thing theoretic or speculative, any thing abstract or abstruse, any thing of mere closet meditation or moonlight philosophy, about these Resolutions, I entirely dissent from the justice of the nomenclature. It is no such cobweb affair. Adam Smith and John Baptiste Say may be the very old and new Testament of Political Economy, and yet this Protest may be as true as either of them. It is a plain, practical statement of the effect of an existing law upon the business interests of the Commonwealth, and of the probable influence upon those interests of a proposed change in that law. It is rather a confession of works, than a confession of faith. It deals with what is done, with what is doing, and with what is proposed to be done. And no gentleman ought to be permitted, and depend upon it, Sir, no gentleman will be permitted by his constituents, to escape from the responsibility in which this question involves him, by sheltering himself behind the antique armor, the rusty mail of abstract principles. - Gentlemen who vote against these resolutions must take one of two courses. They must either adopt the opinion that what is called the Protecting System is falsely so called, that it is not necessary, that it protects nobody, that it does no good to the country generally, or to this Commonwealth in particular, and that its abandonment will injure nobody, and in adopting such an opinion they will go counter to the doctrines of the very Report on which Mr. Cambreleng's Bill is based, to the sentiments of almost all the discreet and considerate men of all interests and all parties, and to the thousand evidences which our statistical tables, to say nothing of our own senses, are annually presenting us; - or, admitting that the system deserves its name, that it has protected American industry in general and the industry of Massachusetts particularly, that it has been a main spring in the prosperity of both our Commonwealth and our country, and that its abandonment would occasion a great diminution of that prosperity and a great depression of that industry, they must confess themselves guilty of giving their voluntary sanction to these results, and of basely assenting, under some personal or political influence, to the sacrifice of the interests and property of the people. And who doubts that such a sacrifice would ensue? Who doubts that if the manufacturing interests of the country were prematurely abandoned to their fate, not only millions of capital would be sunk, but thousands of hands would be thrown out of employment, the wages of labor be everywhere reduced, the hands thus diverted from manufacturing occupations be forced into agricultural pursuits, the number of agricultural producers be thus increased, the number of consumers diminished, and the prices and profits of our farmers be cut down? But even this is not all. There are hands, Sir, which, if taken away from the loom and the spindle, cannot be turned so readily to the plough or the spade. There are natural powers, too, which never tire in the work for which God has created them, but which will not consent to be made the sport of man's caprice. The factory girl and the water-fall which now lighten each other's labors and respond to each other's song, and together contribute so much to the prosperity and property of our Commonwealth, — what but the Protecting System has called them into action, and under what other system can that action be maintained? And even that portion of our labor, thus wrested from its present employment, which is capable of being diverted into agricultural occupations, where, think you, it will find those occupations? On the barren and rocky soil of Massachusetts? No, Sir. Anywhere but there. It will betake itself thousands of miles off; it will seek refuge in the rich valleys of the West; the tide of domestic emigration, to which the manufacturing policy of Massachusetts has been a bar, will be let flow, our population will begin to retrograde, and we shall be driven back into that old colonial condition, when it having been discovered by the British Parliament "that the erecting manufactories in the colonies, tended to lessen their dependence on Great Britain," our hat-makers were put under restrictions, the manufacture of iron and steel was prohibited, our slitting mills, plating forges, and furnaces were declared common nuisances, and even the best friends of our liberties in the mother country maintained that we ought not to be suffered to make a horseshoe or a hobnail for ourselves; when the fish that hangs on yonder wall, and the acorn that forms the apex of our dome, were the emblems of our only staples, and when the Indian that still is pictured upon our arms, was roaming at will through our primeval forests. Let me not be thought, Sir, to allude to the fisheries with disrespect. I like to look at yon time-honored emblem of the early industry and enterprise of our citizens. The simplicity of the fisherman has claims to our regard which have been endorsed by a higher than human authority. And there is something beside simplicity in his character. It was well said by my excellent friend from Nantucket, (Mr. Gardiner) the other day, that the Nantucket boys feared nothing and flinched from nothing, for they had been taught from their youth to battle with the monsters of the deep. That little barren island, Sir, of which he spoke, is a perfect miracle on the face of creation. Without containing within its own limits, I believe, a single material for building, or rigging, or furnishing a ship, without even a decent harbor to float one in, it has yet done more for the commercial and navigating interests of the country than any other spot on its whole surface. Success to the fisheries wherever they may be, at either cape and on any coast, and may yonder emblem always be suspended before the eyes of the Representatives of Massachusetts, not only reminding them of past energy and enterprise, but representing itself one of their present most valuable staples! But I cannot regard with any less satisfaction, Mr. Speaker, those other emblems which are quartered and clustered around it, the emblems of agricul ture, of commerce, of education, religion, and justice, no, Sir, nor even that of the despised and neglected militia,— after all, the only safeguard of a free State. And there is one, too, which is not yet among them, but which is even more distinguished by its absence, the emblem of an industry which was not even in embryo when these fresh-looking walls were reared; of an industry which is still in its infancy, but whose infant step is even now a giant's stride; which has done as much for the prosperity of our Commonwealth in its earliest youth, as others in their maturest age, and which, at the same time, instead of an envious and grasping rival to others, has proved itself their best patron and friend. Sir, the question now before us is, whether, so far as we are able to decide, this industry shall be cherished or crushed; whether its emblem shall be permitted to take its place among our most honored insignia, or whether it shall be consigned anew to that obscurity to which British interests and British tyranny originally doomed it, and from which it is now so auspiciously emerging. For one, Sir, I desire that the escutcheon of my native State may be adorned with the emblems of every industry which can afford employment to the faculties or reward to the enterprise of man; of every art which can improve his condition or increase his happiness; of every science which can give a higher reach to his intellect, or a wider range to his investigation; of every institution and every influence which can fit him for a better enjoyment of that glorious liberty which is his heritage here, or of that more "glorious liberty" which is his hope hereafter! The factories and the fisheries, agriculture and commerce, they have no opposite nor even separate interests; any more than the machine has a separate interest from the oil which destroys its friction, or the ship has a separate interest from the cargo which pays its freight. Alone, they may be crushed or broken. Alone, they are at the mercy of every change of domestic or foreign policy; now stimulated by a war-now depressed by a peacederanged by the mere breath of cabinets-disturbed by the mere vapors of the press. Separate, and you may snap them at will. But bind them up in the same bundle of life, and place them in the firm talon of Liberty, and they will be strong in each other's strength, and will form, too, the brightest ornament and the best defence of that liberty itself. Look at our history, Mr. Speaker, and say if this be not its lesson. Has not our commerce been stimulated to excess by the wars of Europe, as often as they have occurred, only to be involved in depression and disaster on the return of peace? Have not the products of our agriculture been multiplied in amount and in value, by the necessities of those who have been forced to beat their own ploughshares and pruning-hooks into swords and spears, at one moment, only to be left to rot in our granaries, or to be sacrificed in our markets, at the next? What was it, too, that first called our manufactories into existence? What but our own war with Great Britain and the commercial restrictions by which it was preceded, involving, as they did, the prevention, if not the prohibition, of all imports of foreign manufactures, and not so much the protection, as the absolute creation of almost all our own? And, when peace was restored, what but this very Tariff System, which then had its origin, and which it is now proposed to abolish, preserved our war-begotten establishments from entire destruction and overthrow? These lessons, if read aright, teach us that something beside dollars and cents is involved in this system. We gained but half our independence, Sir, when we fought ourselves free from the political yoke of Great Britain. Nor, can that independence be regarded as complete, as long as we have not within our own limits all the means of self-defence, in the largest sense of that term, including not merely arms for our hands and ammunition for our arms, but clothing for our limbs as well as food for our mouths. And those means we never can be sure of, until American industry is placed beyond the reach of these controlling and over-shadowing influences. Free from these influences entirely, indeed, it never can be. And we should willingly submit to such portion of them as a wiser Power may have designed, as ties of brotherhood and bonds of peace among the nations. We need be in no fear, Sir, of counteracting that Power in this respect. It is the last way to preserve peace, to show ourselves unprepared for the defence of our rights or territory. That dependence which, while we were colonies, as we have seen, it was the policy of the British Parliament to promote, by forbidding "the erecting of |