that the currency of the Union will partake largely of the common calamity; that our specie will be drawn away from us in ruinous amounts to pay for our excessive importations; and that the long desired day of return to a sound state of things will be still further postponed.

It would be easy, Mr. Speaker, to enlarge on each of these points of objection to the anticipated operation of the compromise act. But I have detained the House too long already, and other opportunities will occur. All I will add now is, that such being the opinion of great numbers of persons in all parts of the country, it is but reasonable, it is but just, that the subject should be deliberately investigated in all its bearings. We seek no exclusive hearing for the manufacturing interests. We desire that the labor of the country should be looked to, in all its branches. We believe that the existing revenue system, if adhered to, will be disastrous to all alike; and we desire that its operations should be examined in reference to all alike. The House will bear me witness that the resolution of inquiry introduced by me at the last session, and afterwards sanctioned by the Committee on Commerce, was thus broad, comprehensive, and general in its terms. I heartily wish that resolution could have been adopted, and that the fruits of the investigation it proposed were now be fore us. We should not, in such case, be engaged in disputing on such a barren and bootless issue as the present. It was a measure which commended itself to the intelligent approbation of the whole community, and nothing but a most groundless jea lousy of its object could have occasioned its defeat. I pray gentlemen to join in repairing the consequences of that defeat as far as we can. I pray them not to deny to this subject of the tariff a fair and full hearing at the present session, and not to send it to any committee who will be prevented, either by occupation or inclination, and much less by instruction, from attending to it thoroughly.

Sir, the strongest objection I have to the amendment and the instructions now under consideration is, that they seem to be proposed and pressed with a view to foreclose all further consideration or agitation of this subject of protection. They seem to have had their origin in something of the same design to de

prive the citizens of the free States of a hearing in relation to what may be called their own peculiar institutions, which has already deprived them of a hearing in regard to the peculiar institutions of the Southern States. Protection is an exploded term, says one. It is unconstitutional, and ought not to be so much as named in this House, says another. Abolish the Committee on Manufactures, says a third. Instruct the Committee of Ways and Means, says a fourth, to have no reference to the industry of the country. Sir, I implore gentlemen to take no such proscriptive course. I am not accustomed to deal in warnings. We have had quite too many of them from other quarters. But I tell them, that the excitement produced by your twentyfirst rule, deep and pervading as it has been in many parts of the country, when compared with that which would be produced by an arbitrary effort to rule this subject of discrimination in favor of our own labor out of the House, would be as the light murmuring of the distant wind, compared with the deeptoned thunder of the raging storm. The whole country has looked forward to this tenth year of the compromise act, as the time when the tariff was to be revised, as the time when the seal of silence which that act imposed was to be taken off, as the time when all who were interested in its provisions, were once more to be fairly and fully heard. I pray the House to grant that full and fair hearing by a Committee appropriate to the purpose.

There would be work enough, indeed, in such an investigation, for half a dozen Committees, and I would not object, myself, to having the labor thus distributed. The Committee on Ways and Means might examine the revenue system of the country, for instance, simply with reference to the finances. The Committee on Agriculture might investigate its operation on the farming and planting interests, the corn, and wheat, the cotton, tobacco, and rice interests. The Committee on Commerce might inquire into its effects upon the commercial and navigating interests of the nation, and might well extend their examination into the influence of those reciprocity treaties, as they are called, which are giving such an advantage to the shipping of foreign countries in our ports;— that West India Treaty of Mr. Van Buren's,

more particularly, which, during the last ten or twelve years, has increased the British tonnage clearing from our ports for the British colonies and provinces, more than twentyfold, while it has increased the American tonnage clearing from the same ports less than threefold; which has increased the British tonnage clearing for all foreign ports from our own ports more than fivefold, while it has increased the American tonnage less than twofold; and which has already reduced the American tonnage entering our ports direct from the British West Indies more than one half. The Committee on Manufactures might, then, confine their attention to the condition of our manufactures and mechanic arts, and to the effect which is likely to be produced upon them by the ultimate operation of the compromise act. We should thus have a series of reports of great interest and value, embracing different views of the same general subject, and affording a basis for sound, intelligent, and impartial legislation.

The paragraphs of the President's message now under consideration relate, however, solely to discrimination in reference to manufactures. Let them go, then, to the Committee on Manufactures. Why should they not? Is that Committee composed of gentlemen friendly to a protecting policy? So much the more reason for such a reference. It is the parliamentary right of every interest to be heard through a Committee of its friends. What harm can result from such a course? The mere reference will commit the House to no particular course of ac tion. The report of the Committee will be obligatory upon nobody. You have committed the President's plan of finance to those who are supposed to be favorable to the scheme; but you can crush the project, when it comes back, if you desire to do so, as easily as if you had referred it originally to its known opponents. So it will be with a protecting tariff, if one should be reported. If you are resolved to strike down the Labor of our own land, strike it down; but, in the name of all that is just and equitable, hear, HEAR, before you strike, and hear fairly, deliberately, and fully.

NOTE.

THE petition of Paul Pritchard, which was among the first presented to the Congress of the United States, after the adoption of the Constitution, and which is alluded to on page 311, will not be read without interest.

April 13, 1789.

TO THE HON. SPEAKER AND MEMBERS OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES IN THE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:

The petition of the Shipwrights of the State of South Carolina humbly

showeth:

That your petitioners reflect with pleasure that the Constitution of the United States gives the exclusive right of forming treaties and regulating commerce to the General Government of the Union, which can alone equally, safely, and effectually, exercise the same.

From the diminished state of ship-building in America, and the ruinous restrictions to which our vessels are subject in foreign ports; from the distressed condition of our commerce, languishing under the most disgraceful inequalities, its benefits transferred from our own citizens to strangers, who do not, nor ever will, feel those attachments which can alone render a mercantile interest useful to the country; and above all, mortified at the daily humiliating sight of our valuable staples lading the vessels and enriching the merchants of Powers who neither have treaties with us nor are friendly to our commerce; with deference and respect, your petitioners humbly entreat the early and earnest attention of your honorable House to these important considerations.

Enjoying a country which possesses every thing to make its commerce flourishing and its reputation respectable, there wanted but a supreme energetic system, capable of uniting its efforts and drawing its resources to a point, to render us a great and happy people. This system we trust the wisdom of the General Convention has produced, and the virtue of the people confirmed. Under your able and upright administration of the ample powers it contains, we look forward with pleasing hopes to the period when we shall once more see public

credit firmly established, private rights secured, and our citizens enjoying the blessings of a mild and active government.

No more, we trust, shall we lament our trade almost wholly in the possession of foreigners; our vessels excluded from the ports of some nations, and fettered with restrictions in others; or materials, the produce of our country, which should be retained for our own use, exported, and increase the maritime consequence of other powers.

To the wisdom of the General Legislature we look up for a correction of these public evils. The formation of treaties and the regulation of commerce are questions which can be committed with safety to the enlightened councils of the Union alone; it would be as unnecessary, as it would be unbecoming, in us to presume to point out the measures proper to be adopted. It is sufficient for us to join with our Northern brethren in asserting, that we have most severely felt the want of such a navigation act as will place our vessels upon an equality with other nations. To you, who are the only proper guardians of our general rights, we resort with confidence for redress, assured that no means will be left unattempted, to remedy these evils, and to render us respectable abroad and at home.

And your petitioners, as in duty bound, will ever pray.

Signed, in the city of Charleston, this 2d day of April, A. D. 1789, by order of the shipwrights.

It was in response to a similar movement among the ship-owners and shipbuilders in Boston, which seemed to aim at the exclusive protection of the navigating interests, that the Boston mechanics, at the head of whom was Paul Revere, put the following well-remembered interrogatory: "What difference does it make to us, whether hats, shoes, boots, shirts, handkerchiefs, tin ware, brass ware, cutlery, and every other article, come in British ships, or come in your ships; since, in whatever ships they come, they take away our means of living?"