is owing to the improvement in machinery, the reduced price of raw cotton and the increased skill in the manufacture." The reduction in the price of the raw material was solely due to the increased supply, compared with the demand. The manufacture was already firmly established, before the year 1816. As early as the year 1810, there were North of the Potomac, fifty mills for spinning cotton in operation, and twenty-five more that went into operation the ensuing year. The weaving business had commenced, but was not so far advanced. Under those circumstances, the improvements in machinery and the gradual acquisition of skill would have infallibly taken place, with the common average duty, which was at that time about thirty-three per cent. on the value. It is at least doubtful, whether the favorable result was hastened by the tariff of 1816, which gave a protecting duty of six cents and a quarter per yard; amounting to sixty-two and half actual, and equivalent to fifty-two per cent. nominal duty ad valorem, on the prime cost of the cheapest India cotton goods at that time imported.

A similar fall of price, and owing to the same causes, took place in England, notwithstanding the partial competition of East India goods. It is well known that the returns of the official value of British exports, having been fixed long ago and never been changed, represent the quantities, as the returns of the declared show the actual value of each species of merchandise. The official value of cotton goods exported amounted in 1814, to £16.535.528. and in 1827, to £21.445.565 sterling. The declared value, for those two years, was £17.241.884 and £10.522. 357 respectively; but the true value for the year 1814 was, on account of the depreciated currency, only £14.655.000. Whilst the quantity had, during that period of thirteen years, increased near thirty, the value had decreased more that twenty-eight per cent. or, in other words the price of cotton goods had fallen near one half.

The suggestion, that this fall in Great Britain, was in any degree due to the competition with the American article, is quite groundless, since it was the result, partly, of the fall in the price of the raw material, which operated at the same time on both countries, principally, of improvements which originated in England and were subsequently adopted in America. It would be still

more preposterous to ascribe the fall of price in the foreign article to American competition, with respect to such as iron and sugar, of which we export none and import greater quantities than heretofore. Omitting the years 1813-1816, during which the annual average consumption of imported sugar was, by reason of the war, reduced to little more than forty millions of pounds, the annual average quantities, on which the duty was actually collected, appear by the Treasury returns to have been,

We have imported less than if we had not had the Louisiana

sugar, but actually more since, than before. Louisiana has only supplied our growing wants, and has left the foreign market, so far as the United States were concerned, in the same situation as heretofore. It is the same with respect to iron, to which we will soon advert.

We will only observe here, that the decline of price in the Pittsburgh iron, which cannot be ascribed to that of the foreign article, is also independent of the tariff. The iron works of West Pennsylvania were, and still continue to be, protected against foreign iron, and against that made within one hundred miles of the sea shore, by the expense of transportation, which is still 40, and prior to the last war amounted to 80 dollars, a ton. Considerable fortunes were made by the owners of the establishments which were directed with skill, frugality and a sufficient capital. But, there being no competition, the iron was dear and of inferior quality. The price of transportation was greatly diminished sometime after the peace, and the Juniata iron, of superior quality, was brought to Pittsburgh, at the expense of 30 and sold for 100 to 120 dollars a ton. This, united with unfavorable circumstances, under which the Western country then labored, prostrated the iron works for a while. But there was no intrinsic impediment; and with more experience, by the partial application of coal and various other improvements, the iron business has been revived, and the price of iron, of much better qual ity than formerly, reduced to about 90 dollars. The competition of the Juniata iron operated in this instance in the same manner as if it had been of foreign origin. Had it not been for it, the

iron of West Pennsylvania would neither have been improved in quality, or have declined in price. And this effect has been produced, without the slightest assistance from the tariff or any other cause, with the same competition to encounter, and through no other means but a judicious application of skill and enterprize.

The only effect, that can possibly be ascribed to a protecting duty, is that of encouraging the establishment of manufactures, which would not otherwise have existed, or of inducing a greater number of persons to embark in those already existing. The propriety of the duty depends, altogether, on the probability of speedy success; that is to say, of the manufacture being so far adapted to the circumstances of the country, that after having been assisted by the duty in surmounting the first difficulties incident to every new undertaking, it will be able to sustain itself and, without such assistance, to compete with the foreign article. It has been clearly shown that the manufacture is otherwise a losing concern, productive of national loss.

This leads to the important distinction between a permanent and a temporary protecting duty, the first imposing a perpetual tax, for the purpose of perpetuating a continued public loss; the other proper only when the prospect of speedy success is nearly certain. For if necessary to be continued for a long while, the loss continued for a period of years may be great'er than the object is worth; and it would have been much wiser to wait till the country was better prepared for commencing the manufacture. The question is, how the Legislature, on subjects so complex, is to decide, whether there is a probability that the result will in a short time be favorable? We answer first, that whenever the application is for a gradually increasing, instead of a decreasing rate of duties, it is a complete proof that the applicants wish a permanent and not a temporary duty; 2dly. that whenever the protecting duty required is exorbitant, this likewise clearly proves that there is not any expectation of a speedy favorable result. It is clear that the protection required must be proportionate to the difficulty of establishing the manufacture, and that the country is better prepared for those which require the least protection. A moderate and uniform duty will naturally encourage these without the necessity of any special legislative interference; whilst those alone will be postponed, which, for the very reason that they require a higher protection,

ought not yet to be attempted. Instead of an artificial and precarious system, the progress will be natural, steady and permanent. The charges on imported articles vary according to their nature, are seldom if ever less than ten, and sometimes amount to twenty per cent. A general duty of twenty per cent. added to those charges would give an actual protection of thirty per cent. much greater than that under which all the usual mechanical arts have been firmly established in the United States; greater than is asked by several branches now suffering under the present partial system; and amply sufficient for the encouragement of any manufacture, which there is any probability of establishing successfully within a reasonable time. The duty of thirty per cent. substituted in England to the entire prohibition of foreign silk stuffs has, notwithstanding the clamours of those interested, promoted, instead of injuring the British manufacture : and Mr. Hamilton, so often quoted, never proposed a protecting duty of fifteen per cent. ad valorem.

It has been correctly observed, that with the exception of the silk and some thread manufactures, the boasted departure by Great Britain from the restrictive system is nominal, since the former high duties on articles which she affords cheaper than any other country were entirely useless. The reduction of a prohibitory to a duty of fifteen per cent. proves at least, that the price of the domestic article was actually reduced to a rate that did not fear foreign competition. But there is a glaring contradiction between the assertion, "that nine tenths of the American people who do not affect foreign luxuries and fashions may be clothed with woollen, cotton, fur and leather fabrics of their own country, better and cheaper, than either could have been obtained abroad, if the tariff had never been enacted;" and the pertinacity, with which the restrictionists oppose the repeal or modification of the high duties, imposed precisely on the coarsest woollen and cotton fabrics, which are worn by nine tenths of the people.

Having examined the restrictive system in reference to the country at large and considered as a whole, your Memorialists will now call the attention of your honorable body to its effects on the various classes of society and different parts of the union. But they will confine themselves to its most prominent features,

and to the most important of the protected branches of industry: and for further details, they beg leave respectfully to refer to the expositions now prepared, or being prepared, by some amongst themselves, who have undertaken to collect the facts and will lay them before Congress.

It is not our intention to discuss the effect produced on the persons employed in large manufacturing establishments. The owners are entitled to much credit for their attention to the comfort, morals and education of those who are placed under their care. We only contend that there is nothing, in that respect, which should induce the Legislature to divert the people in general from other pursuits to that of being employed in a manufactory. Operatives in America stand in the same relation towards their employers, as those of similar establishments in other countries. The only difference consists in the higher rate of wages they receive; and for that they are not indebted to the manufacturers, but to that great cause already often alluded to, and the effect of which is acknowledged by the advocates of the protecting system, when they say, "that the peculiar advantage of the United States consists in the abundance and cheapness of fertile lands, affording an easy subsistence and high remuneration to labor." And they might have added, that this is the circumstance which keeps up that high remuneration, even in those parts of the Union where lands have acquired the highest value. Industry should be perfectly free, and every one left at liberty to select that pursuit which, in his opinion, will most contribute to his happiness. A comparison might nevertheless be drawn, between the respective situation, at the end of thirty years, of the working men, who have availed themselves of the natural advantages offered by the facility with which the rich unimproved lands of America may be acquired, and of those who have attached themselves to a manufacturing establishment.

But the restrictive system is,in every instance, injurious to those branches of industry which do not want special protection and often operates even against the protected manufactures. That system, when artificially enhancing the price of those commodities which are the products of such manufactures, necessarily enhances also the price of the products of every other branch of industry, or depresses that of labor. It is clear that the mechanic who pays