American Eloquence, Volume IV. (of 4) by Various

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When gentlemen have succeeded in their design of an immediate or gradual
destruction of the American system, what is their substitute? Free
trade! The call for free trade is as unavailing, as the cry of a spoiled
child in its nurse's arms, for the moon, or the stars that glitter in
the firmament of heaven. It never has existed, it never will exist.
Trade implies at least two parties. To be free, it should be fair,
equal, and reciprocal. But if we throw our ports wide open to the
admission of foreign productions, free of all duty, what ports of any
other foreign nation shall we find open to the free admission of our
surplus produce? We may break down all barriers to free trade on our
part, but the work will not be complete until foreign powers shall have
removed theirs. There would be freedom on one side, and restrictions,
prohibitions, and exclusions on the other. The bolts and the bars and
the chains of all other nations will remain undisturbed. It is, indeed,
possible, that our industry and commerce would accommodate themselves to
this unequal and unjust state of things; for, such is the flexibility
of our nature, that it bends itself to all circumstances. The wretched
prisoner incarcerated in a jail, after a long time, becomes reconciled
to his solitude, and regularly notches down the passing days of his
confinement.

Gentlemen deceive themselves. It is not free trade that they are
recommending to our acceptance. It is, in effect, the British colonial
system that we are invited to adopt; and, if their policy prevails, it
will lead substantially to the recolonization of these States, under the
commercial dominion of Great Britain. * * *

I dislike this resort to authority, and especially foreign and
interested authority, for the support of principles of public policy. I
would greatly prefer to meet gentlemen upon the broad ground of fact, of
experience, and of reason; but, since they will appeal to British names
and authority, I feel myself compelled to imitate their bad example.
Allow me to quote from the speech of a member of the British Parliament,
bearing the same family name with my Lord Goderich, but whether or not
a relation of his, I do not know. The member alluded to was arguing
against the violation of the treaty of Methuen--that treaty not less
fatal to the interests of Portugal than would be the system of gentlemen
to the best interests of America,--and he went on to say:

"It was idle for us to endeavor to persuade other nations to join with
us in adopting the principles of what was called 'free trade.' Other
nations knew, as well as the noble lord opposite, and those who acted
with him, what we meant by 'free trade' was nothing more nor less than,
by means of the great advantages we enjoyed, to get a monopoly of all
their markets for our manufactures, and to prevent them, one and all,
from ever becoming manufacturing nations. When the system of reciprocity
and free trade had been proposed to a French ambassador, his remark was,
that the plan was excellent in theory, but, to make it fair in practice,
it would be necessary to defer the attempt to put it in execution for
half a century, until France should be on the same footing with Great
Britain, in marine, in manufactures, in capital, and the many other
peculiar advantages which it now enjoyed. The policy that France acted
on was that of encouraging its native manufactures, and it was a wise
policy; because, if it were freely to admit our manufactures, it would
speedily be reduced to the rank of an agricultural nation, and therefore
a poor nation, as all must be that depend exclusively upon agriculture.
America acted, too, upon the same principle with France. America
legislated for futurity--legislated for an increasing population.
America, too, was prospering under this system. In twenty years, America
would be independent of England for manufactures altogether. * * * But
since the peace, France, Germany, America, and all the other countries
of the world, had proceeded upon the principle of encouraging and
protecting native manufacturers." * * *

I regret, Mr. President, that one topic has, I think, unnecessarily been
introduced into this, debate. I allude to the charge brought against the
manufacturing system, as favoring the growth of aristocracy. If it were
true, would gentlemen prefer supporting foreign accumulations of wealth
by that description of industry, rather than in their own country? But
is it correct? The joint-stock companies of the North, as I understand
them, are nothing more than associations, sometimes of hundreds, by
means of which the small earnings of many are brought into a common
stock, and the associates, obtaining corporate privileges, are enabled
to prosecute, under one superintending head, their business to better
advantage. Nothing can be more essentially democratic or better devised
to counterpoise the influence of individual wealth. In Kentucky, almost
every manufactory known to me is in the hands of enterprising and
self-made men, who have acquired whatever wealth they possess by patient
and diligent labor. Comparisons are odious, and but in defence would
not be made by me. But is there more tendency to aristocracy in a
manufactory, supporting hundreds of freemen, or in a cotton plantation,
with its not less numerous slaves, sustaining perhaps only two white
families--that of the master and the overseer?

I pass, with pleasure, from this disagreeable topic, to two general
propositions which cover the entire ground of debate. The first is,
that, under the operation of the American system, the objects which it
protects and fosters are brought to the consumer at cheaper prices than
they commanded prior to its introduction, or, than they would command if
it did not exist. If that be true, ought not the country to be contented
and satisfied with the system, unless the second proposition, which I
mean presently also to consider, is unfounded? And that is, that the
tendency of the system is to sustain, and that it has upheld, the prices
of all our agricultural and other produce, including cotton.

And is the fact not indisputable that all essential objects of
consumption affected by the tariff are cheaper and better since the act
of 1824 than they were for several years prior to that law? I appeal for
its truth to common observation, and to all practical men. I appeal to
the farmer of the country whether he does not purchase on better
terms his iron, salt, brown sugar, cotton goods, and woollens, for his
laboring people? And I ask the cotton-planter if he has not been better
and more cheaply supplied with his cotton-bagging? In regard to this
latter article, the gentleman from South Carolina was mistaken in
supposing that I complained that, under the existing duty, the Kentucky
manufacturer could not compete with the Scotch. The Kentuckian furnishes
a more substantial and a cheaper article, and at a more uniform and
regular price. But it was the frauds, the violations of law, of which I
did complain; not smuggling, in the common sense of that practice, which
has something bold, daring, and enterprising in it, but mean, barefaced
cheating, by fraudulent invoices and false denominations.

I plant myself upon this fact, of cheapness and superiority, as upon
impregnable ground. Gentlemen may tax their ingenuity, and produce a
thousand speculative solutions of the fact, but the fact itself will
remain undisturbed. Let us look into some particulars. The total
consumption of bar-iron in the United States is supposed to be about
146,000 tons, of which 112,866 tons are made within the country, and
the residue imported. The number of men employed in the manufacture is
estimated at 29,254, and the total number of persons subsisted by it at
146,273. The measure of protection extended to this necessary article
was never fully adequate until the passage of the act of 1828; and what
has been the consequence? The annual increase of quantity since that
period has been in a ratio of near twenty-five per centum, and the
wholesale price of bar-iron in the Northern cities was, in 1828,
$105 per ton; in 1829, $100; in 1830, $90; and in 1831, from $85 to
$75--constantly diminishing. We import very little English iron, and
that which we do is very inferior, and only adapted to a few purposes.
In instituting a comparison between that inferior article and our
superior iron, subjects entirely different are compared. They are made
by different processes. The English cannot make iron of equal quality to
ours at a less price than we do. They have three classes, best-best,
and best, and ordinary. It is the latter which is imported. Of the whole
amount imported there is only about 4,000 tons of foreign iron that
pays the high duty, the residue paying only a duty of about thirty per
centum, estimated on the prices of the importation of 1829. Our iron
ore is superior to that of Great Britain, yielding often from sixty to
eighty per centum, while theirs produces only about twenty-five. This
fact is so well known that I have heard of recent exportations of iron
ore to England.

It has been alleged that bar-iron, being a raw material, ought to be
admitted free, or with low duties, for the sake of the manufacturers
themselves. But I take this to be the true principle: that if our
country is producing a raw material of prime necessity, and with
reasonable protection can produce it in sufficient quantity to supply
our wants, that raw material ought to be protected, although it may be
proper to protect the article also out of which it is manufactured.
The tailor will ask protection for himself, but wishes it denied to the
grower of wool and the manufacturer of broadcloth. The cotton-planter
enjoys protection for the raw material, but does not desire it to
be extended to the cotton manufacturer. The ship-builder will ask
protection for navigation, but does not wish it extended to the
essential articles which enter into the construction of his ship. Each
in his proper vocation solicits protection, but would have it denied to
all other interests which are supposed to come into collision with his.

Now, the duty of the statesman is to elevate himself above these petty
conflicts; calmly to survey all the various interests, and deliberately
to proportion the measures of protection to each according to its nature
and the general wants of society. It is quite possible that, in the
degree of protection which has been afforded to the various workers in
iron, there may be some error committed, although I have lately read an
argument of much ability, proving that no injustice has really been done
to them. If there be, it ought to be remedied.

The next article to which I would call the attention of the Senate, is
that of cotton fabrics. The success of our manufacture of coarse cottons
is generally admitted. It is demonstrated by the fact that they meet
the cotton fabrics of other countries in foreign markets, and maintain
a successful competition with them. There has been a gradual increase
of the exports of this article, which is sent to Mexico and the South
American republics, to the Mediterranean, and even to Asia. * * *

I hold in my hand a statement, derived from the most authentic source,
showing that the identical description of cotton cloth, which sold
in 1817 at twenty-nine cents per yard, was sold in 1819 at twenty-one
cents, in 1821 at nine-teen and a half cents, in 1823 at seventeen
cents, in 1825 at fourteen and a half cents, in 1827 at thirteen cents,
in 1829 at nine cents, in 1830 at nine and a half cents, and in 1831
at from ten and a half to eleven. Such is the wonderful effect of
protection, competition, and improvement in skill, combined. The year
1829 was one of some suffering to this branch of industry, probably
owing to the principle of competition being pushed too far. Hence
we observe a small rise of the article of the next two years. The
introduction of calico-printing into the United States, constitutes an
important era in our manufacturing industry. It commenced about the
year 1825, and has since made such astonishing advances, that the whole
quantity now annually printed is but little short of forty millions of
yards--about two thirds of our whole consumption. * * *

In respect to woollens, every gentleman's own observation and experience
will enable him to judge of the great reduction of price which has taken
place in most of these articles since the tariff of 1824. It would have
been still greater, but for the high duty on raw material, imposed for
the particular benefit of the farming interest. But, without going into
particular details, I shall limit myself to inviting the attention
of the Senate to a single article of general and necessary use. The
protection given to flannels in 1828 was fully adequate. It has enabled
the American manufacturer to obtain complete possession of the American
market; and now, let us look at the effect. I have before me a statement
from a highly respectable mercantile house, showing the price of four
descriptions of flannels during six years. The average price of them, in
1826, was thirty-eight and three quarter cents; in 1827, thirty-eight;
in 1828 (the year of the tariff), forty-six; in 1829, thirty-six; in
1830, (notwithstanding the advance in the price of wool), thirty-two;
and in 1831, thirty-two and one quarter. These facts require no
comments. I have before me another statement of a practical and
respectable man, well versed in the flannel manufacture in America and
England, demonstrating that the cost of manufacture is precisely the
same in both countries: and that, although a yard of flannel which would
sell in England at fifteen cents would command here twenty-two, the
difference of seven cents is the exact difference between the cost
in the two countries of the six ounces of wool contained in a yard of
flannel.

Brown sugar, during ten years, from 1792 to 1802, with a duty of one
and a half cents per pound, averaged fourteen cents per pound. The
same article, during ten years, from 1820 to 1830, with a duty of three
cents, has averaged only eight cents per pound. Nails, with a duty of
five cents per pound, are selling at six cents. Window-glass, eight by
ten, prior to the tariff of 1824, sold at twelve or thirteen dollars per
hundred feet; it now sells for three dollars and seventy-five cents. * * *

This brings me to consider what I apprehend to have been the most
efficient of all the causes in the reduction of the prices of
manufactured articles, and that is COMPETITION. By competition the
total amount of the supply is increased, and by increase of the supply a
competition in the sale ensues, and this enables the consumer to buy at
lower rates. Of all human powers operating on the affairs of mankind,
none is greater than that of competition. It is action and reaction. It
operates between individuals of the same nation, and between different
nations. It resembles the meeting of the mountain torrent, grooving, by
its precipitous motion, its own channel, and ocean's tide. Unopposed,
it sweeps every thing before it; but, counterpoised, the waters become
calm, safe, and regular. It is like the segments of a circle or an arch:
taken separately, each is nothing; but in their combination they produce
efficiency, symmetry, and perfection. By the American system this vast
power has been excited in America, and brought into being to act in
cooperation or collision with European industry. Europe acts within
itself, and with America; and America acts within itself, and with
Europe. The consequence is the reduction of prices in both hemispheres.
Nor is it fair to argue from the reduction of prices in Europe to her
own presumed skill and labor exclusively. We affect her prices, and she
affects ours. This must always be the case, at least in reference to any
articles as to which there is not a total non-intercourse; and if our
industry, by diminishing the demand for her supplies, should produce a
diminution in the price of those supplies, it would be very unfair to
ascribe that reduction to her ingenuity, instead of placing it to the
credit of our own skill and excited industry.

Practical men understand very well this state of the case, whether
they do or do not comprehend the causes which produce it. I have in my
possession a letter from a respectable merchant, well known to me, in
which he says, after complaining of the operation of the tariff of 1828,
on the articles to which it applies, some of which he had imported, and
that his purchases having been made in England before the passage of
that tariff was known, it produced such an effect upon the English
market that the articles could not be resold without loss, and he adds:
"For it really appears that, when additional duties are laid upon
an article, it then becomes lower instead of higher!" This would not
probably happen where the supply of the foreign article did not exceed
the home demand, unless upon the supposition of the increased duty
having excited or stimulated the measure of the home production.

The great law of price is determined by supply and demand. What affects
either affects the price. If the supply is increased, the demand
remaining the same, the price declines; if the demand is increased, the
supply remaining the same, the price advances; if both supply and demand
are undiminished, the price is stationary, and the price is influenced
exactly in proportion to the degree of disturbance to the demand or
supply. It is, therefore, a great error to suppose that an existing or
new duty necessarily becomes a component element to its exact amount of
price. If the proportions of demand and supply are varied by the duty,
either in augmenting the supply or diminishing the demand, or vice
versa, the price is affected to the extent of that variation. But
the duty never becomes an integral part of the price, except in the
instances where the demand and the supply remain after the duty is
imposed precisely what they were before, or the demand is increased, and
the supply remains stationary.

Competition, therefore, wherever existing, whether at home or abroad,
is the parent cause of cheapness. If a high duty excites production at
home, and the quantity of the domestic article exceeds the amount which
had been previously imported, the price will fall. * * *

But it is argued that if, by the skill, experience, and perfection which
we have acquired in certain branches of manufacture, they can be made as
cheap as similar articles abroad, and enter fairly into competition with
them, why not repeal the duties as to those articles? And why should we?
Assuming the truth of the supposition, the foreign article would not be
introduced in the regular course of trade, but would remain excluded
by the possession of the home market, which the domestic article had
obtained. The repeal, therefore, would have no legitimate effect. But
might not the foreign article be imported in vast quantities, to glut
our markets, break down our establishments, and ultimately to enable the
foreigner to monopolize the supply of our consumption? America is the
greatest foreign market for European manufactures. It is that to which
European attention is constantly directed. If a great house becomes
bankrupt there, its storehouses are emptied, and the goods are shipped
to America, where, in consequence of our auctions, and our custom-house
credits, the greatest facilities are afforded in the sale of them.
Combinations among manufacturers might take place, or even the
operations of foreign governments might be directed to the destruction
of our establishments. A repeal, therefore, of one protecting duty,
from some one or all of these causes, would be followed by flooding the
country with the foreign fabric, surcharging the market, reducing the
price, and a complete prostration of our manufactories; after which
the foreigner would leisurely look about to indemnify himself in the
increased prices which he would be enabled to command by his monopoly
of the supply of our consumption. What American citizen, after the
government had displayed this vacillating policy, would be again tempted
to place the smallest confidence in the public faith, and adventure once
more into this branch of industry?

Gentlemen have allowed to the manufacturing portions of the community
no peace; they have been constantly threatened with the overthrow of
the American system. From the year 1820, if not from 1816, down to
this time, they have been held in a condition of constant alarm and
insecurity. Nothing is more prejudicial to the great interests of a
nation than an unsettled and varying policy. Although every appeal to
the National Legislature has been responded to in conformity with the
wishes and sentiments of the great majority of the people, measures of
protection have only been carried by such small majorities as to excite
hopes on the one hand, and fears on the other. Let the country breathe,
let its vast resources be developed, let its energies be fully put
forth, let it have tranquillity, and, my word for it, the degree of
perfection in the arts which it will exhibit will be greater than that
which has been presented, astonishing as our progress has been. Although
some branches of our manufactures might, and in foreign markets now do,
fearlessly contend with similar foreign fabrics, there are many others
yet in their infancy, struggling with the difficulties which encompass
them. We should look at the whole system, and recollect that time, when
we contemplate the great movements of a nation, is very different from
the short period which is allotted for the duration of individual life.
The honorable gentleman from South Carolina well and eloquently said,
in 1824: "No great interest of any country ever grew up in a day; no new
branch of industry can become firmly and profitably established but in a
long course of years; every thing, indeed, great or good, is matured by
slow degrees; that which attains a speedy maturity is of small value,
and is destined to brief existence. It is the order of Providence,
that powers gradually developed, shall alone attain permanency and
perfection. Thus must it be with our national institutions, and national
character itself."

I feel most sensibly, Mr. President, how much I have trespassed upon the
Senate. My apology is a deep and deliberate conviction, that the great
cause under debate involves the prosperity and the destiny of the Union.
But the best requital I can make, for the friendly indulgence which has
been extended to me by the Senate, and for which I shall ever retain
sentiments of lasting gratitude, is to proceed with as little delay as
practicable, to the conclusion of a discourse which has not been more
tedious to the Senate than exhausting to me. I have now to consider the
remaining of the two propositions which I have already announced. That
is

Second, that under the operation of the American system, the products of
our agriculture command a higher price than they would do without it,
by the creation of a home market, and by the augmentation of wealth
produced by manufacturing industry, which enlarges our powers of
consumption both of domestic and foreign articles. The importance of
the home market is among the established maxims which are universally
recognized by all writers and all men. However some may differ as to the
relative advantages of the foreign and the home market, none deny to the
latter great value and high consideration. It is nearer to us;
beyond the control of foreign legislation; and undisturbed by those
vicissitudes to which all inter-national intercourse is more or less
exposed. The most stupid are sensible of the benefit of a residence
in the vicinity of a large manufactory, or of a market-town, of a good
road, or of a navigable stream, which connects their farms with some
great capital. If the pursuits of all men were perfectly the same,
although they would be in possession of the greatest abundance of the
particular products of their industry, they might, at the same time, be
in extreme want of other necessary articles of human subsistence. The
uniformity of the general occupation would preclude all exchange, all
commerce. It is only in the diversity of the vocations of the members
of a community that the means can be found for those salutary exchanges
which conduce to the general prosperity. And the greater that diversity,
the more extensive and the more animating is the circle of exchange.
Even if foreign markets were freely and widely open to the reception of
our agricultural produce, from its bulky nature, and the distance of the
interior, and the dangers of the ocean, large portions of it could
never profitably reach the foreign market. But let us quit this field
of theory, clear as it is, and look at the practical operation of the
system of protection, beginning with the most valuable staple of our
agriculture.

In considering this staple, the first circumstance that excites our
surprise is the rapidity with which the amount of it has annually
increased. Does not this fact, however, demonstrate that the cultivation
of it could not have been so very unprofitable? If the business were
ruinous, would more and more have annually engaged in it? The quantity
in 1816 was eighty-one millions of pounds; in 1826, two hundred and
four millions; and in 1830, near three hundred millions! The ground of
greatest surprise is that it has been able to sustain even its present
price with such an enormous augmentation of quantity. It could not have
been done but for the combined operation of three causes, by which the
consumption of cotton fabrics has been greatly extended in consequence
of their reduced prices: first, competition; second, the improvement of
labor-saving machinery; and thirdly, the low price of the raw material.
The crop of 1819, amounting to eighty-eight millions of pounds, produced
twenty-one millions of dollars; the crop of 1823, when the amount was
swelled to one hundred and seventy-four millions (almost double of that
of 1819), produced a less sum by more than half a million of dollars;
and the crop of 1824, amounting to thirty millions of pounds less than
that of the preceding year, produced a million and a half of dollars
more.

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