the impossibility of employing all the resources of the country in commerce would force open our eyes to see the necessity of investing a portion of it in manufactures. Here, then, we lose our population, whilst other towns gain it. Boston, for instance, by reason of the immense accumulation of wealth in the hands of its inhabitants, becomes, by the laws of political economy, a permanent market as well for domestic manufactures and products, as for imported articles. Amesbury, Lowell, Dover, are the site of vast manufactories, and thither our mechanics and traders emigrate, following the concentration of capital, wherever it takes place. But we, on the other hand, have neither natural sites for manufactories, nor that immense accumulation of riches, which should secure to us, at present, the means of successful competition with any of those places, to which the recent revolutions in the conduct of business have imparted such great accession of wealth or population.

Caleb Cushing, The History and Present State of the Town of Newburyport (Newburyport, 1826), 109-114 passim.

PART VII

NATIONAL CONSCIOUSNESS

CHAPTER XX-NATIONAL SPIRIT

130. Objections to a Protective Tariff (1816)

BY REPRESENTATIVE JOHN RANDOLPH

John Randolph "of Roanoke," representative and senator from Virginia, was one of the most unique characters in the annals of Congress. Individual and erratic, he never hesitated to attack any measure he disliked, although it might be the measure of the party with which he was nominally connected, the Democratic. His eccentricities, scathing wit, burning but uneven eloquence, and proneness to take and to give offence made him famous. After the War of 1812 he was a firm advo cate of states' rights, and denounced both the tariff and the Missouri Compromise. The economic changes brought about by peace with and in Europe forced the protective-tariff question to the surface, where it has remained. - For Randolph, see Winsor, Narrative and Critical History, VII, 317.— Bibliography: Providence Public Library, Monthly Reference Lists, II, 43-49; Channing and Hart, Guide, § 174. For another discussion of the tariff, see No. 78 above.

MY

Y honorable colleague (Mr. SHEFFEY) has said, that the case of the manufacturers is not fairly before the House. True! it is not fairly before the House. It never can be fairly before the House; whenever it comes before us, it must come unfairly, not as "a spirit of health but a goblin damned"—not "bringing with it airs from Heaven, but blasts from Hell"-it ought to be exorcised out of the House for, what do the principles about which such a contest is maintained amount to, but a system of bounties to manufacturers, in order to encourage them to do that which, if it be advantageous to do at all, they will do, of course, for their own sakes; a largess to men to exercise their own customary callings, for their own emolument; and Government devising plans, and bestowing premiums out of the pockets of the hard working cultivator of the soil, to mould the productive labor of the country into a thousand fantastic shapes; barring up, all the time, for that perverted purpose, the great, deep, rich stream of our

prosperous industry. Such a case, sir, I agree with the honorable gentleman, cannot be fairly brought before the Hc se. It eventuates in this whether you, as a planter will consent to be taxed, in order to hire another man to go to work in a shoemaker's shop, or to set up a spinning jenny. For my part I will not agree to it, even though they should, by way of return, agree to be taxed to help us to plant tobacco; much less will I agree to pay all, and receive nothing for it. No, I will buy where I can get manufactures cheapest; I will not agree to lay a duty on the cultivators of the soil to encourage exotic manufactures; because, after all, we should only get much worse things at a much higher price, and we, the cultivators of the country, would in the end pay for all. Why do not gentlemen ask us to grant a bounty for the encouragement of making flour?- the reason is too plain for me to repeat it; then why pay a man much more than the value for it, to work up our own cotton into clothing, when, by selling my raw material, I can get my clothing much better and cheaper from Dacca.

Sir, I am convinced that it would be impolitic, as well as unjust, to aggravate the burdens of the people, for the purpose of favoring the manufacturers; for this Government created and gave power to Congress, to regulate commerce and equalize duties on the whole of the United States, and not to lay a duty but with a steady eye to revenue. With my good will, sir, there should be none but an ad valorem duty on all articles, which would prevent the possibility of one interest in the country being sacrificed, by the management of taxation, to another. What is there in those objects of the honorable gentleman's solicitude, to give them a claim to be supported by the earnings of the others? The agriculturists bear the whole brunt of the war and taxation, and remain poor, while the others run in the ring of pleasure, and fatten upon them. The agriculturists not only pay all, but fight all, while the others run. The manufacturer is the citizen of no place, or any place; the agriculturist has his property, his lands, his all, his household gods to defend; and, like that meek drudge, the ox, who does the labor, and ploughs the ground, and then, for his reward, takes the refuse of the farm yard, the blighted blades and the mouldy straw, and the mildewed. shocks of corn for his support; while the commercial speculators live in opulence, whirling in coaches, and indulging in palaces; to use the words of Dr. Johnson, coaches, which fly like meteors, and palaces, which rise like exhalations. Even without your aid, the agriculturists are no match for them. Alert, vigilant, enterprising, and active, the

manufacturing interest are collected in masses, and ready to associate at a moment's warning, for any purpose of general interest to their body. Do but ring the fire bell, and you can assemble all the manufacturing interest of Philadelphia, in fifteen minutes. Nay, for matter of that, they are always assembled, they are always on the Rialto; and Shylock and Antonio meet there every day, as friends, and compare notes, and lay plans, and possess in trick and intelligence, what, in the goodness of God to them, the others can never possess. It is the choicest bounty to the ox, that he cannot play the fox or the tiger. So it is to one of the body of agriculturists, that he cannot skip into a coffee-house, and shave a note with one hand, while with the other he signs a petition to Congress, portraying the wrongs, and grievances, and sufferings he endures, and begging them to relieve him; yes, to relieve him out of the pockets of those whose labors have fed and enriched, and whose valor has defended them. The cultivators, the patient drudges of the other orders of society, are now waiting for your resolution. For, on you it depends, whether they shall be left further unhurt, or be, like those in Europe reduced, gradatim, and subjected to another squeeze from the hard grasp of power. Sir, I have done.

Annals of Congress, 14 Cong., I sess. (Gales and Seaton, Washington, 1854), 686-688.

131. An Argument for Internal Improvements

(1817)

BY REPRESENTATIVE JOHN CALDWELL CALHOUN

Calhoun, the philosopher-statesman, as representative, senator, cabinet officer, and vice-president, was one of the great triumvirate who led the legislators of the second generation. His career divides itself into halves. During the first portion he advocated the bank, the protective tariff, and especially a national system of roads and canals; but he retired from the vice-president's chair in 1832 a fiery supporter of states' rights. He defended nullification, opposed the protective tariff, called for strict construction of the Constitution, and upheld the right of his constituents to take their slave property with them to the territories. - For Calhoun, see Winsor, Narrative and Critical History, VII, 324.- Bibliography: Lalor, Cyclopædia, II, 573-582; Channing and Hart, Guide, § 174.- For another discussion on internal improvements, see No. 21 above.

AT

T peace with all the world, abounding in pecuniary means, and, what was of the most importance, and at what he rejoiced, as most favorable to the country, party and sectional feelings

immerged in a liberal and enlightened regard to the general concerns of the nation—such, said he, are the favorable circumstances under which we are now deliberating. Thus situated, to what can we direct our resources and attention more important than internal improvements? What can add more to the wealth, the strength, and the political prosperity of our country? . . . It gives to the interior the advantages possessed by the parts most eligibly situated for trade. It makes the country price, whether in the sale of the raw product or in the purchase of the articles for consumption, approximate to that of the commercial towns. In fact, if we look into the nature of wealth, we will find that nothing can be more favorable to its growth than good roads and canals. An article, to command a price, must not only be useful, but must be the subject of demand; and the better the means of commercial intercourse the larger is the sphere of demand. . .

But, said Mr. C., there are higher and more powerful considerations why Congress ought to take charge of this subject. If we were only to consider the pecuniary advantages of a good system of roads and canals, it might indeed admit of some doubt whether they ought not to be left wholly to individual exertions; but when we come to consider how intimately the strength and political prosperity of the Republic are connected with this subject, we find the most urgent reasons why we should apply our resources to them. . . . We occupy a surface prodigiously great in proportion to our numbers. The common strength is brought to bear with great difficulty on the point that may be menaced by an enemy. It is our duty, then, as far as in the nature of things it can be effected, to counteract this weakness. judiciously laid out, are the proper remedy. much did we suffer for the want of them! the consequential inefficacy of our military movements, to what an increased expense was the country put for the article of transportation alone! In the event of another war, the saving in this particular would go far towards indemnifying us for the expense of constructing the means of transportation.

Good roads and canals In the recent war, how Besides the tardiness and

It is not, however, in this respect only, that roads and canals add to the strength of the country, Our power of raising revenue, in war particularly, depends, said he, mainly on them. In peace our revenue depends principally on the imposts; in war this source, in a great measure, fails, and internal taxes, to a great amount, become necessary. Unless the means of commercial intercourse are rendered much more