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 I 
 
 MR. WEBSTER'S 
 
 ADDRESS AT ANDOVER, 
 
 / 
 
 I 
 
 NOVEMBER 9, 1843. 
 
 
MR. WEBSTER'S 
 
 ADDRESS AT ANDOVER 
 
 NOVEMBER 9, 1843. 
 
 
 BOSTON: 
 
 PRESS OF T. R. MARVIN, 24 CONGRESS STREET. 
 
 18 4 3. 
 
■ W3S 
 
 Boston, Nov. 13, 1843. 
 
 My Dear Sir, 
 
 At the suggestion of friends, I have looked over the printed reports of my 
 remarks at Andover, for the purpose of publication, in a pamphlet, with some of the 
 papers and extracts which I read, or to which I referred, put into an Appendix. 
 
 I doubt, my dear Sir, whether at this season of the year, and under the circum- 
 stances, I should have gone to Andover to address a large collection of people, if a 
 disposition to comply with your own personal wishes, so kindly expressed, had not 
 formed a large part of the inducement. 
 
 Will you allow me, now, as a manifestation of my esteem and regard, to present 
 the pamphlet, in this public manner to you; and to avail myself of the opportunity 
 for expressing the gratification which I feel, in knowing not only your intelligent 
 and warm regard for the maintenance of the institutions of the country, but, also, 
 that amidst the duties of your Chair, and the labor which you are known to bestow 
 on the deeper studies belonging to your profession, you still find time to acquaint 
 yourself, extensively, with its great and leading interests. 
 
 DANIEL WEBSTER. 
 To Rev. Moses Stuart, Professor, &c. Andover. 
 
 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1843, by T. R. Marvin, in the Clerk's 
 Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. 
 
ADDRESS. 
 
 It is not without considerable reluctance, fellow-citizens, that 
 I present myself before this meeting, to-day. It had been my 
 purpose to abstain, for the time to come, from all public ad- 
 dresses before such vast assemblages. The invitation, however, 
 came from sources which I so much respect, and appeared to 
 urge my attendance with so much earnestness, that it was not 
 in my yielding nature to withhold my consent. And that con- 
 sent I cannot regret, when I look around me and before me, 
 and see such a collection from Andover, from all parts of this 
 county, and from the adjacent counties. 
 
 Gentlemen, I concur most zealously in the hope — and am 
 ready to perform any duty towards the accomplishment of what 
 we all desire — of the election of George N. Briggs and John 
 Reed to the offices of Governor and Lieutenant Governor of 
 the Commonwealth. I do not propose, on this occasion, any 
 extended discussion of State politics ; but I may say, generally, 
 that I wish to see Massachusetts restored to what she has been, 
 and characteristically is. In the proceedings of last year, I 
 have seen much which does not belong to Massachusetts ; much 
 that has no flavor, no relish, of the Old Bay State about it. 
 Gentlemen, I entertain not a particle of doubt that the good 
 sense and good feelings of the people, when once aroused — and 
 they are now aroused — will accomplish all that patriotism can 
 desire, to this end. The proof of this I see, not in a noisy 
 and vaporing spirit among the people, but in the deep earnestness 
 and sobriety with which sensible and patriotic men are prepar- 
 ing for the performance of their duty, as electors, at the present 
 crisis. 
 
4 
 
 Gentlemen, the Andovcr committee have desired me to ad- 
 dress this assembly on a number of vastly important topics. It 
 is quite impossible that I should enter far into so broad a field ; I 
 shall confine myself, in the remarks I have to make, to some of 
 the subjects by them suggested. 
 
 They desire that I should express my sentiments upon the 
 respective duties of the National and State governments ; upon 
 the duties of the general government to farmers, merchants 
 and manufacturers ; upon the importance, the necessity, of a 
 sacred observance of public faith ; upon the currency, and its 
 relations ; and the utility and importance of a universal medium 
 of payment. 
 
 Now, one part of my embarrassment arises from the fact, that 
 I really have little new to say, on any of these topics. By the 
 favor of the people, I have been a good deal in public life, and 
 upon these subjects my opinions are well known. They are 
 unchanged. And I avail myself of this occasion, not so much 
 to announce any new doctrines held by me, as to refer to sen- 
 timents long entertained, and often expressed. 
 
 The general government, all agree, is vested with certain 
 powersj and held to certain duties. It is its duty to defend the 
 country from foreign invasion ; to provide armies and equip 
 navies ; the treaty-making power is confided to it ; the super- 
 intendence of the foreign relations, and the maintenance of the 
 country's honor in foreign states, belong to it. This all ac- 
 knowledge. But upon its domestic duties, there has grown up 
 a difference of opinion of great breadth, leading to divers con- 
 clusions, on the one side and the other. 
 
 Upon these duties it is my intention shortly to say something, 
 and it is my wish that all remarks made upon the subject may 
 be taken in that spirit of conciliation and candor, from which 
 they proceed. I wish to persuade others of their correctness. 
 I know we have a common destiny ; that the good of the whole 
 country, embraces the good of all its parts ; and I desire that 
 at all times, by free and candid discussion, and consideration, 
 the differences of opinion which men entertain on these topics, 
 may be reconciled, and that all may approach, and finally stand 
 upon, the same ground. 
 
 A contest has agitated the country for years, upon the true 
 extent of the powers of Congress, in two particulars. 
 
5 
 
 1. As to its authority over the currency. 
 
 2. As to its power to encourage domestic industry by dis- 
 crimination, in laying duties. 
 
 And first, as to the currency. All agree that Congress pos- 
 sesses the power to regulate commerce, for that provision is 
 found in the Constitution in terms ; and that it has the power 
 to coin money, for those words are also found in the Constitu- 
 tion. But there is a wide difference of opinion as to what du- 
 ties are or are not fairly inferable from these grants of power. 
 In regard to this matter, which has so long divided the country, 
 and which will continue to agitate it, till it shall be effectually 
 settled, I must begin by a reference to some general principles 
 and leading facts. 
 
 Congress possesses the commercial power, that is, the power 
 of regulating commerce, and the power of coining money ; 
 and it may issue its own bills of credit. No State can either 
 coin money, regulate commerce, or emit its own bills of credit. 
 But, right or wrong, banking corporations are established under 
 State authority, and issue bills ; and these bills form, in fact, the 
 mass of the circulating medium of the country. And now, 
 since the use of these bills has become almost, if not wholly, 
 universal, the question arises, on what government devolves 
 the power of regulating the paper currency ? Now, gentlemen, 
 in my opinion — which I have entertained for many years — the 
 General government is bound to take care of the currency of 
 the country ; I think that it has a duty beyond merely coining 
 money and fixing its value ; that the power to regulate com- 
 merce gives Congress authority over that great instrument and 
 means of commerce, the actual circulating medium of the 
 country ; and that if paper is to take the place of coin, Con- 
 gress is bound to see that it is safe paper, and such as is not 
 likely to defraud and oppress the people ; to become base in 
 character, or run to excess. On these topics my opinions are 
 well known. I will venture to repeat them here — though in- 
 deed it may be questionable taste to quote from one's self. In 
 a speech in the Senate, on the Sub Treasury Bill, in September, 
 1837, I said : 
 
 Now, sir, when we look at the message, the bill, and the proposed amend- 
 ment, their single, exclusive and undivided object is found to be, relief to 
 the government. Not one single provision is adopted or recommended, 
 
with direct reference to the relief of the people. They all speak of reve- 
 nue, of finance, of duties and customs, of taxes and collections ; and the 
 evils which the people suffer, by the derangement of the currency and the 
 exchanges, and the breaking up of commercial credit, instead of being put 
 forth as prominent and leading objects of regard, are dismissed with a 
 slight intimation, here and there, that in providing for the superior and 
 paramount interests of government, some incidental or collateral benefits 
 may, perhaps, accrue to the community. 
 
 But is government, I ask, to care for nothing but itself? Is self-preser- 
 vation the great end of government ? Has it no trust powers ? Does it 
 owe no duties but to itself? If it keeps itself in being, does it fulfil all 
 the objects of its creation ? I think not. I think government exists, not 
 for its own ends, but for the public utility. It is an agency, established to 
 promote the common good, by common counsels; its chief duties are to 
 the people ; and it seems to me strange and preposterous, in a moment of 
 great and general distress, that government should confine all its delibera- 
 tions to the single object of its own revenues, its own convenience, its own 
 undisturbed administration. 
 
 I cannot say, Sir, that I was surprised to see this general character im- 
 pressed on the face of the message. I confess, it appeared to me, when 
 the banks stopped payment, that the Administration had come to a pass 
 in which it was unavoidable that it should take some such course. But 
 that necessity was imposed, not by the nature of the crisis, but by its own 
 commitment to the line of politics which its predecessor had adopted, and 
 which it had pledged itself to pursue. 
 
 It withdraws its care from the currency, because it has left itself no 
 means of performing its own duties, connected with that subject. It has, 
 voluntarily and on calculation, discarded and renounced the policy which 
 has been approved for half a century, because it could not return to that 
 policy without admitting its own inconsistency, and violating its party 
 pledges. This is the truth of the whole matter. 
 
 Now, Sir, my present purpose chiefly is, to maintain two propositions — 
 
 1. That it is the constitutional duty of this government to see that a 
 proper currency, suitable to the circumstances of the times, and to the 
 wants of trade and business, as well as to the payment of debts due to 
 government, be maintained and preserved ; a currency of general credit, 
 and capable of aiding the operations of exchange, so far as those opera- 
 tions may be conducted by means of the circulating medium ; and that 
 there are duties, therefore, devolving on Congress, in relation to currency, 
 beyond the mere regulation of the gold and silver coins. 
 
 2. That the message, the bill, and the proposed amendment, all, in effect, 
 deny any such duty, disclaim all such power, and confine the constitu- 
 tional obligation of government to the mere regulation of the coins, and 
 the care of its own revenues. 
 
 I have well weighed, Mr. President, and fully considered, the first of 
 these propositions— to wit, that which respects the duty of this government 
 in regard to the currency. I mean to standby it. It expresses/in my judg- 
 ment, a principle fully sustained by the Constitution, and by the usage of 
 the government, and which is of the highest practical importance. With 
 this proposition, or this principle, I am willing to stand connected, and to 
 share in the judgment which the community shall ultimately pronounce 
 upon it. If the country shall sustain it, and be ready, in due time, to 
 carry it into effect, by such means and instruments as the general opinion 
 shall think best to adopt, I shall co-operate, cheerfully, in any such under- 
 taking ; and shall look again, with confidence, to prosperity in this branch 
 of our national concerns. 
 
 On the other hand, if the country shall reject this proposition, and act 
 upon that rejection ; if it shall decide that Congress has no power, nor is 
 
under any duty, in relation to the currency, beyond the mere regulation of 
 the coins; then, upon that construction of the powers and duties of 
 Congress, I am willing to acknowledge that I do not feel myself competent 
 to render any substantial service to the public councils, on these great in- 
 terests. I admit, at once, that if the currency is not to be preserved by 
 the government of the United States, I know not how it is to be guarded 
 against constantly occurring disorders and derangements. 
 
 Before entering into the discussion of the grounds of this proposition, 
 however, .allow me, Sir, a few words by way of preliminary explanation. 
 In the first place, I wish it to be observed, that I am now contending only 
 for the general principle, and not insisting either on the constitutionality, 
 or expediency, of any particular means or any particular agent. I am not 
 saying by what instrument or agent Congress ought to perform this duty; 
 I only say it is a duty, which, in some mode, and by some means, Con- 
 gress is bound to perform. In the next place, let it be remembered, that I 
 carry the absolute duty of government, in regard to exchange, no farther 
 than the operations of exchange may be performed by currency. No 
 doubt, Sir, a proper institution, established by government, might, as here- 
 tofore, give other facilities to exchange, of great importance, and to a very 
 great extent. But I intend, on this occasion, to keep clearly within the 
 constitution, and to assign no duty to Congress, not plainly enjoined by the 
 provisions of that instrument, as fairly interpreted, and as heretofore un- 
 derstood. 
 
 The President says, it is not the province of government to aid individu- 
 als in the transfer of their funds, otherwise than by the use of the Post 
 Office ; and that it might as justly be called on to provide for the transpor- 
 tation of their merchandize. 
 
 Now, I beg leave to say, Sir, with all respect and deference, that funds 
 are transferred from individual to individual, usually for the direct purpose 
 of the payment and receipt of debts ; that payment and receipt are duties of 
 currency ; that, in my opinion, currency is a thing which government is 
 bound to provide for and superintend ; that the case, therefore, has not the 
 slightest resemblance to the transportation of merchandise, because the 
 transportation of merchandise is carried on by ships and boats, by carts 
 and wagons, and not by the use of currency, or of any thing else over which 
 government has usually exclusive control. These things individuals can 
 provide for themselves. But the transfer of funds is done by credit, and 
 must be so done ; and some proper medium for this transfer it is the duty 
 of government to provide, because it belongs to currency, to money, and is 
 therefore beyond the power of individuals. 
 
 To these extracts, I beg leave to add one from another speech 
 on the same subject, in March, 1838. 
 
 Is this measure, Mr. President, a just exercise of the powers of Congress, 
 and does it fulfil all our duties ? 
 
 Sir, I have so often discussed this point, I have so constantly insisted, 
 for several years past, on the constitutional obligation of Congress to take 
 care of the currency, that the Senate must be already tired of the speaker, 
 if not weary of the topic ; and yet, after all, this is the great and paramount 
 question. Until this is settled, the agitation can never be quieted. If we 
 have not the power, we must leave the whole subject in the hands of those 
 who have it, or in no hands ; but if we have the power, we are bound to 
 exercise it, and every day's neglect is a violation of duty. I, therefore, 
 again insist that we have the power, and I again press its exercise on the 
 two houses of Congress. I again assert, that the regulation of the general 
 currency — of the money of the country, whatever actually constitutes that 
 money — is one of our solemn duties. 
 
8 
 
 Tlie constitution confers on us, Sir, the exclusive power of coinage. 
 Tliis must have been done for the purpose of enahling Congress to es- 
 tablish one uniform basis for the whole money system. Congress, there- 
 tore, and Congress alone, has power over the foundation, the ground work, 
 of the currency; and it woidd be strange and anomalous, having this, if it 
 had DOthing to do with the structure, the edifice, to he raised on this foun- 
 dation ! Convertible paper was already in circulation when the constitu- 
 tion was framed, and must have been expected to continue and to increase. 
 But the circulation of paper tends to displace coin ; it may banish it alto- 
 gether; at this very moment it has banished it. If, therefore, the power 
 over the coin does not enable Congress to protect the coin, and to restrain 
 any thing which would supersede it, and abolish its use, the whole power 
 becomes nugatory. If others may drive out the coin, and fill the country 
 wit 1 1 paper which does not represent coin, of what use, I beg to know, is 
 that exclusive power over coins and coinage which is given to Congress by 
 the constitution ? 
 
 Gentlemen on the other side admit that it is the tendency of paper cir- 
 culation to expel the coin; but then they say, that, for that very reason, 
 they will withdraw from all connection with the general currency, and 
 limit themselves to the single and narrow object of protecting the coin, and 
 providing for payments to government. This seems to me to be a very 
 strange way of reasoning, and a very strange course of political conduct. 
 The coinage power was given to be used for the benefit of the whole coun- 
 try, and not merely to furnish a medium for the collection of revenue. 
 The object was to secure, for the general use of the people, a sound and 
 safe circulating medium. There can be no doubt of this intent. 
 
 If any evil arises, threatening to destroy or endanger this medium or 
 this currency, our duty is to meet it, not to retreat from it; to remedy it, 
 not. to let it alone ; we are to control and correct the mischief, not to sub- 
 mit to it. Wherever paper is to circulate, as subsidiary to coin, or as per- 
 forming, in a greater or less degree, the function of coin, its regulation natu- 
 rally belongs to the hands which hold the power over the coinage. This 
 is an admitted maxim by all writers ; it has been admitted and acted upon, 
 on all necessary occasions, by our own government, throughout its whole 
 history. Why will we now think ourselves wiser than all who have gone 
 before us? 
 
 This conviction of what was the duty of government, led to the es- 
 tablishment of the bank in the administration of General Washington. 
 Mr. Madison, again, acted upon the same conviction in 1816, and Congress 
 entirely agreed with him. On former occasions, I have referred the Senate, 
 more than once, to the clear and emphatic opinions and language of Mr. 
 Madison, in his messages in 1815 and 1816, and they ought to be repeated, 
 again and again, and pressed upon the public attention. 
 
 Nor, Sir, is the other source of power, in my opinion, at all more ques- 
 tionable. 
 
 Congress has the supreme regulation of commerce. This gives it, ne- 
 cessarily, a superintendence over all the interests, agencies and instruments 
 of commerce. The words are general, and they confer the whole power. 
 When the end is given, all the usual means are given. Money is the chief 
 instrument or agent of commerce ; there can, indeed, be no commerce 
 without it, which deserves the name. Congress must, therefore, regulate 
 it as it regulates other indispensable commercial interests. If no means 
 were to be used to this end but such as arc particularly enumerated, the 
 whole authority would be nugatory, because no means are particularly 
 enumerated. We regulate ships, their tonnage, .their measurement, the 
 shipping articles, the medicine chest, and various other things belonging 
 to them, and for all this we have no authority but the general power to 
 
regulate commerce ; none of these, or other means or modes of regula 
 tion, are particularly and expressly pointed out. 
 
 But is a ship a mora important instrument of commerce than money ? 
 We protect a policy of insurance, because it is an important instrument 
 of ordinary commercial contract; and our laws punish with death any 
 master of a vessel, or others, who shall commit a fraud on the parties to 
 this contract, hy casting away a vessel. For all this we have no express 
 authority. We infer it from the general power of regulating commerce, 
 and we exercise the power in this case, because a policy of insurance is 
 one of the usual instruments, or means, of commerce. But how incon- 
 siderable and unimportant is a policy of insurance, as the means or an 
 instrument of commerce, compared with the whole circulating paper of a 
 country ! 
 
 Sir, the power is granted to us ; and granted without any specification of 
 means; and therefore we may lawfully exercise all the usual means. I 
 need not particularize these means, nor state, at present, what they are or 
 may be. One is, no doubt, a proper regulation of receipts at the custom 
 houses and laud offices. But this, of itself, is not enough. Another is a 
 national bank, which, I fully believe, would, even now, answer all desired 
 purposes, and reinstate the currency in ninety days. These, I think, are 
 the means to be first tried ; and if, notwithstanding these, irredeemable 
 paper should overwhelm us, others must be resorted to. 
 
 We have no direct authority over State banks ; but we have power over 
 the currency, and we must protect it, using, of course, always, such means, 
 if they be found adequate, as shall be most gentle and mild. The great 
 measure, Sir, is a bank ; because a bank is not only able to restrain the ex- 
 cessive issues of State banks, but it is able also to furnish for the country 
 a currency of universal credit, and of uniform value. This is the grand 
 desideratum. Until such a currency is established, depend on it, Sir, what is 
 necessary for the prosperity of the country can never be accomplished. 
 
 I will presume on your patience,' gentlemen, only by re- 
 citing one farther quotation, which is from remarks of mine, 
 made at a meeting in Faneuil Hall, in July, 1838. 
 
 Whatever subordinate questions may have been raised touching a Sub- 
 Treasury, or a constitutional Treasury, or a Treasury in one, or in another, 
 or in yet a third form, I take the question, the plain, the paramount, the prac- 
 tical question, to be this, viz : — whether it be among the powers and the 
 duties of Congress to take any farther care of the National currency than 
 to regulate the coinage of gold and silver. 
 
 That question lies at the foundation of all. Other questions, however 
 multiplied or varied, have but grown out of that. 
 
 If Government is bound to take care that there is a good currency for 
 all the country, then, of course, it will have a good currency for itself, and 
 need take no especial pains to provide for itself any thing peculiar. But 
 if, on the other hand, Government is at liberty to abandon the general cur- 
 rency to its fate, without concern and without remorse, then, from neces- 
 sity, it must take care of itself; amidst the general wreck of currency and 
 credit, it must have places of resort and a system of shelter ; it must have 
 a currency of its own, and modes of payment and disbursement peculiar 
 to itself. It must burrow and hide itself in Sub-Treasury vaults; scoruing 
 credit, and having trust in nobody, it must grasp metallic money, and act as 
 if nothing represented, or could represent, property, which could not be 
 counted, paid piece by piece, or weighed in the scales and made to ring upon 
 the tables ; or it must resort to special deposites in banks, even in those 
 banks whose conduct has been so loudly denounced as flagitious and 
 
 2 
 
10 
 
 criminal, treacherous to the Government, and fraudulent toward the peo- 
 ple. 
 
 All these schemes and contrivances are hut the consequences of the 
 general doctrine which the administration has advanced, and attempted to 
 recommend to the country ; that is, that Congress has nothing to do with the 
 currency, beyond the mere matter of coinage, except to provide for itself. 
 How such a notion should come to be entertained, at this day, may well 
 be a matter of wonder for the wise ; since it is a truth capable of the 
 clearest demonstration, that from the first day of the existence of the Con- 
 stitution, from the moment when a practical administration of government 
 drew a first breath under its provisions, the superintendence and care over 
 the currency of the country have been admitted to be among the clear and un- 
 questionable powers and duties of Congress. This was the opinion in Wash- 
 ington's time, and his administration acted upon it, vigorously and success- 
 fully. And in Mr. Madison's time, when the peculiar circumstances of the 
 country again brought up the subject, and gave it new importance, it was 
 held to be the exclusive, or at least the paramount and unquestionable right 
 of Congress, to take care of the currency ; to restore it when depreciated ; to 
 see that there was a sound, convertible paper circulation, suited to the cir- 
 cumstances of the country, and having equal value, and the same credit, in all 
 parts of it. This was Mr. Madison's judgment. He acted upon it, and both 
 houses of Congress concurred with him. But if we now quote Mr. Madi- 
 son's sentiments, we get no reply at all. We may read his messages of 
 1815 and 1816 as often as we please. No man answers them, and yet the 
 party of the administration acts upon directly opposite principles. 
 
 Now, what has brought about this state of things ? What has caused 
 this attempt, now made at the end of half a century, to change a great 
 principle of administration, and to surrender a most important power of the 
 government ? 
 
 Gentlemen, it has been a crisis of party, not of the country, which has 
 given birth to these new sentiments. The tortuous windings of party 
 policy have conducted us, and nothing else could well have conducted us, 
 to such a point. Nothing but party pledges, nothing hut courses of politi- 
 cal conduct, entered upon for party purposes, and pursued, from necessary 
 regard to personal and party consistency, could so far have pushed the 
 government out of its clear and well-trodden path of constitutional duty. 
 From General Washington's presidency, to the last hour of the late 
 president's, (Gen. Jackson's,) both the government and the country have 
 supposed Congress to be clothed with the general duty of protecting the 
 currency, either as an inference from the coinage power, or from the ob- 
 vious and incontestable truth, that the regulation of the currency is natu- 
 rally and plainly a branch of the commercial power. General Jackson 
 himself was behind no one of his predecessors in asserting this power, and 
 in acknowledging the corresponding duty. We all know that his very 
 first complaint against the late Bank of the United States was, that it had 
 not fulfilled the expectation of the country, by furnishing for the use of 
 the people a sound and uniform currency. 
 
 There were many persons, certainly, who did not agree with him in his 
 opinions respecting the bank, and the effects of its agency on the country ; 
 but it was expressly on the ground of this alleged failure of the hank, that 
 be undertook what was called the great reform. There are those, again, 
 who think that, of this attempted reform, he made a very poor and sorry 
 business ; but still tbe truth is, that he undertook this reform, for the very 
 professed and avowed purpose, that he might fulfil, better than it had yet 
 been fulfilled, the duty of government in furnishing the people with a 
 good currency. The President thought that the currency, in 1832 and 
 1833, was not good enough ; that the people had a right to expect a better; 
 and to meet this expectation, he began, what he himself called his expert- 
 
11 
 
 ment. He said the currency was not so sound, and so uniform, as it was 
 the duty of government to make it ; and he, therefore, undertook to give 
 us a currency more sound and more uniform. And now, gentlemen, let 
 us recur, shortly, to what followed ; for there we shall find the origin of 
 the present constitutional notions and dogmas. Let us see what has 
 changed the Constitution, in this particular. 
 
 In 18-Y3, the public deposites were removed, by an act of the President 
 himself, from the Bank of the United States, and placed in certain State hanks, 
 under regulations prescribed by the Executive alone. This was the ex- 
 periment. The utmost confidence, indeed — an arrogant and intolerant 
 confidence — was entertained and expressed of its success; and all were 
 regarded as blind bigots to a National bank, who doubted. And when the 
 experiment was [tut into operation, it was proclaimed that its success was 
 found to be complete. Down to the very close of General Jackson's ad- 
 ministration, we heard of nothing but the wonderful success of the experi- 
 ment. 
 
 It was declared, from the highest official sources, that the State banks, 
 used as banks of deposite, had not only shown themselves perfectly com- 
 petent to fulfil the duties of fiscal agents to government, but, also, that 
 they had sustained the currency, and facilitated the great business of in- 
 ternal exchanges, with the most singular and gratifying success, and better 
 than the same thing had been done before. In all this glow and fervor of 
 self-commendation, the late administration went out of office, having 
 bequeathed the experiment, with all its blushing honors and rising glories, 
 to its successor. But a frost, a nipping frost, was at hand. Two months 
 after General Jackson had retired, the banks suspended specie payments, 
 deposite banks and all ; a universal embarrassment smote down the busi- 
 ness and industry of the country ; the Treasury was left without a dollar; 
 and the brilliant glory of the experiment disappeared in gloom and thick 
 darkness ! 
 
 And now, gentlemen, came the change of sentiments ; and now came 
 the new reading of the Constitution. A National bank had already been 
 declared by the party to be unconstitutional ; the State bank system had 
 failed ; and what more could be done ? What other plan was to be de- 
 vised ? How could the duty of government over the currency be now 
 performed ? The administration had decried a National bank, and it now 
 felt bound to denounce all State institutions ; and what therefore could 
 it do ? The whole party had laid out its entire strength, in an effort to ren- 
 der the late Bank of the United States, and any Bank of the United States, 
 unpopular and odious. It had pronounced all such institutions to be dan- 
 gerous, anti-republican, and monarchical. It had especially declared a 
 National bank to be plainly and clearly unconstitutional. 
 
 Now, gentlemen, I have nothing to say of the diffidence and modesty 
 of men, who, without hesitation or blushing, set up their own favorite 
 opinions, on a question of this kind, against the judgment of the govern- 
 ment and the judgment of the country, maintained for fifty years. I 
 will only remark that, if we were to find men acting thus in their own 
 affairs, if we should find them disposing of their own interests, or making 
 arrangements for their own property, in contempt of rules which they 
 knew the legislative and the judicial authorities had all sanctioned for 
 half a century, we should be very likely to think them out of their heads. 
 Yet this ground had been taken against the late bank, and against all Na- 
 tional banks; and it could not be surrendered without apparent and gross 
 inconsistency. What, then, I ask again, was the Administration to do ? 
 You may say, it should have retracted its error, it should have seen the 
 necessity of a National institution, and yielded to the general judgment of 
 the country. 
 
 But that would have required an effort of candor and magnanimity of 
 
12 
 
 which all men arc not capable. Besides, there were open, solemn, 
 public pledges in the way. This commitment of the party against a Na- 
 tional hank, and the disastrous results of its experiment on the State insti- 
 tutions, brought the party into the dilemma, from which it seemed to have 
 no escape, but in slutting oft", altogether, the duty of taking care of the cur- 
 rency. I was at Wheeling, in Virginia, in May of that year, (1837,) when the 
 hanks suspended payments, and at the risk of some imputation of had 
 taste, I will refer to observations of mine, made then, to the citizens of that 
 town, and published, in regard to the questions which that event would 
 necessarily bring before the country. I saw, at once, that we were at the 
 commencement of a new era, and that a controversy must arise, which 
 would greatly excite the community. 
 
 No sooner had the State hanks suspended, and among the rest those 
 which were depositories of the government, than a cry of fraud and 
 treachery was raised against them, with no better reason, perhaps, than 
 existed for that loud, and boisterous, and boastful confidence, with which 
 the late administration had spoken of their capacity of usefulness, and had 
 assured the country that its experiment could not fail. But whether the 
 suspension by the banks was a matter of necessity with them, or not, the 
 administration, after it had happened, seeing itself now shut out from the use 
 of all banks, by its own declared opinions, and the result of its own policy, 
 and seeing no means at hand for making another attempt at reforming the 
 currency, turned a short corner, and in all due form abandoned the whole 
 duty. From the time of the veto to the bank charter in 1832, the admin- 
 istration had been like a man who had voluntarily abandoned a safe bot- 
 tom, on deep waters, and having in vain sought to support himself by lay- 
 ing hold on one and another piece of floating timber, chooses rather to go 
 down, than to seek safety in returning to what he has abandoned. 
 
 Seeing that it had deprived itself of the common means of regulat- 
 ing the currency, it now denied its obligation to do so, declared it had 
 nothing to do with the currency beyond coinage ; that it would take care 
 of the revenues of government, and as for the rest, the people must look 
 out for themselves. This decision thus evidently grew out of party ne- 
 cessity. Having deprived themselves of the ordinary and constitutional 
 means of performing their duty, they sought to avoid the responsibility by 
 declaring that there was no such duty to perform. They have looked fur- 
 ther into the Constitution, and examined it. by daylight, and by moonlight, 
 and cannot find any such duty or obligation. Though General Jackson 
 saw it, very plainly, during the whole of his Presidency, it has now van- 
 ished, and the new commentators can nowhere discern a vestige of it. 
 The present administration, indeed, stood pledged to tread in the steps of 
 its predecessor ; but here was one footprint which it could not, or would 
 not, occupy, or one stride too long for it to take. The message, I had 
 almost said the fatal message, communicated to Congress in September, 
 1837, contained a formal disavowal, by the administration, of all power 
 under the Constitution to regulate the general actual currency of the 
 country. 
 
 The President says, in that message, that if he refrains from suggesting 
 to Congress any specific plan for regulating the exchanges, relieving mer- 
 cantile embarrassments, or interfering with the ordinary operations of for- 
 eign or domestic commerce, it is from the conviction that such measures 
 are not within the constitutional province of government. 
 
 How all this could be said, when the Constitution expressly gives to 
 Congress the power to regulate commerce, both foreign and domestic, I 
 cannot conceive. But the Constitution was not to be trifled with, and 
 the people are not to be trifled with. The country, I believe, by a 
 great majority, is of opinion that this duty does belong to government, and 
 ought to be exercised. All the new expounders have not been able to 
 
13 
 
 erase this general power over commerce, and all that belongs to commerce. 
 Tbeir fate, in (his respect, is like that of him in ancient story. While 
 endeavoring to tear up and rend asunder the Constitution, its strong fibres 
 have recoiled, and caught them in the (-left. They experience 
 
 " Milo*s fearful end — 
 Wedged in llic timber which he strove to rend." 
 
 Gentlemen, this constitutional powercan never be surrendered. We may 
 as well give up the whole commercial power at once, and throw every 
 thing connected with it hack upon the States. If Congress surrender the 
 power, to whom shall it pass, or where shall it be lodged ? Shall it be 
 left to six and twenty different legislatures? To eight hundred or a thou- 
 sand unconnected banks ? No, gentlemen, to allow that authority to be 
 surrendered, would be to abandon the vessel of State, without pilot or 
 helm, and to suffer her to roll, darkling, down the current of her fate. 
 
 For the sake of avoiding all misapprehensions, on this most important 
 subject, I wish to state my own opinion, clearly, and in tew words. I 
 have never said, that it is an indispensable duty of Congress, under all cir- 
 cumstances, to establish a National bank. No such duty, certainly, is cre- 
 ated by the Constitution, in express terms. I do not say what particular 
 measures are enjoined by the Constitution, in this respect. Congress has 
 its discretion, and is left to its own judgment, as to the means most proper 
 to be employed. But I say the general duty does exist. 
 
 I maintain that Congress is bound to take care, by some proper means, 
 to secure a good currency for the people ; and that, while this duty remains 
 unperformed, one great object of the Constitution is not attained. If we are 
 to have as many different currencies as there are States, and these currencies 
 are to be liable to perpetual fluctuation, it would be folly to say that we 
 had reached that security and uniformity in commercial regulations, which 
 we know it was the purpose of the Constitution to establish. 
 
 The banks may all of them resume to-morrow — I hope they will; but 
 how much will this resumption accomplish? It will doubtless afford good 
 local currencies ; but will it give the country any proper and safe paper 
 currency, of equal and universal value? Certainly it cannot, and will not. 
 Will it bring back, for any length of time, exchanges to the state they 
 were in, when there was a National currency in existence? Certainly, in 
 my opinion, it will not. We may heap gold bags upon gold bags, we may 
 create what securities, in the constitution of local banks, we please, but 
 we cannot give to any such bank a character that shall insure the receipt 
 of its notes, with equal readiness, everywhere throughout the valley of the 
 Mississippi, and from the shores of the Gulf of Mexico to the St. Law- 
 rence. Nothing can accomplish this, but an institution which is National 
 in its character. The people desire to see, in their currency, the marks of 
 this nationality. They like to see the spread eagle, and where they see 
 that, they have confidence. 
 
 I have observed already, gentlemen, that I have very little that 
 is new to say on these points. The above remarks, it will be 
 seen, put the question in this shape — and to this I adhere, to this 
 day — that if Congress is bound to furnish a currency for the 
 people, as well as for the government, then something beyond a 
 Sub-Treasury, something more than a vault, or series of vaults, 
 where the public money can be collected, and whence it can 
 be distributed, is necessary; on the other hand, if Congress is 
 not bound to do this, then it may resort to any scheme it may 
 
14 
 
 deem proper, for the collection and disbursement of revenue ; 
 although, even for that purpose, it is quite idle and ridiculous, 
 in ni\ l opinion, to talk about vaults, and sales, and bolts, and 
 locks. 
 
 Now, gentlemen, there are three propositions which I would 
 gladly submit to every candid man in every part of the coun- 
 try ; because it is my wish to establish the principles I espouse, 
 in the minds of men, by convincing them that they are honest, 
 just, and will tend to the benefit of community. These pro- 
 positions are — 
 
 1st. That paper, in the present state and condition of society, 
 will, and must, constitute the greater part of the currency — 
 the mass of the circulation. 
 
 All the humbug about a specie currency — a hard money sys- 
 tem — is altogether unworthy of a man of sense. We know 
 that Ave must, from some source or other, have paper for circu- 
 lation, and for the greater part of the circulation. Is there a 
 man here — is there a man anywhere — who will say without a 
 blush, that he expects an exclusive specie currency? Can any 
 sensible man so say, without feeling his cheek burn with shame ? 
 There is none such. Well, then, is there any one not satisfied, 
 
 2d. That a part, at least, of this paper currency, should be 
 universally, and every where, of equal value, and that value 
 equivalent to specie. 
 
 Is it not highly desirable that we should have a circu- 
 lating medium of universal receivability — if I may use such a 
 word ? The inhabitants of Maine, Georgia, the Valley of the 
 Mississippi — is it not to be wished that they all may have 
 some paper which every body will take? All candid men 
 must admit that it is. It is an object of high importance that 
 the people of Illinois, Indiana, Alabama, should have some- 
 thing which they can remit, without loss, to pay the manufac- 
 turers of Essex for their goods — it is as great an object to the 
 Essex manufacturers that they should. Well, if this be ad- 
 mitted, there is only one more proposition, and that is — 
 
 3d. That no State institution, nothing but the authority of 
 the United States, can furnish such a universal circulating me- 
 dium. 
 
 Can any State institution furnish such a currency ? Have 
 we seen any instance of it whatever ? We all know the con- 
 
15 
 
 trary. We have, in Massachusetts, bills of State banks which 
 are good and current throughout Massachusetts. They have 
 the same in Virginia. But if any of you were to go to-mor- 
 row to Richmond, or Petersburg, you would not find your Mas- 
 sachusetts money current there — although, indeed, you might 
 find brokers who would give you a premium on the bills, for 
 the purpose of Northern remittances ; still, your Massachusetts 
 bills would not be generally received. 
 
 The citizens of each State know the condition of their own 
 institutions ; and they trust them as far as they ought. But 
 they do not know, and ought not to be expected to know, the 
 condition and credit of all the institutions of all the States. 
 On the other hand, they do know the general laws and the 
 general institutions of the General government, and the credit to 
 which those institutions are entitled. We must then revert 
 to the government, which has the control of commerce and the 
 control of the currency — whose " spread eagle" is good every 
 where. And it is but a reasonable and just demand, to re- 
 quire such a government to give us a currency which shall be 
 welcome every where, and trusted every where. 
 
 Now, where is this power ? I answer, In the authority of 
 Congress to regulate commerce, and the great agent of com- 
 merce, money. Congress has the power of commercial regu- 
 lation by the Constitution ; it has also the power to coin ; and 
 according to Mr. Madison's matured judgment, the power to 
 coin, implies the power to say what shall take the place of the 
 coinage, if that coinage be displaced by paper. I will not go 
 over the whole range of the constitutional argument. Suffice it 
 to say, that those who made the Constitution did not doubt this 
 power. Gen. Washington did not doubt it, for he established 
 an institution for this very purpose — or at least, it was estab- 
 lished under his immediate authority and sanction. Mr. Madi- 
 son did not doubt it, — and I mention his name because its au- 
 thority is much relied on, as generally not favoring liberal con- 
 structions of constitutional powers. If not convinced in his 
 own private judgment, he said, as any reasonable man would 
 say, that the Constitution has thus been long interpreted — that 
 its meaning was fixed and must not be disturbed. That was 
 right. We have had a bank for forty years ; some say now it 
 is unconstitutional. Will they say so forty years hence ? 
 
16 
 
 Will they then think that what was thought right by our 
 fathers and grandfathers, who formed the Constitution and 
 established the government, was wholly wrong? I suspect 
 not. We must take the meaning of the Constitution as it has 
 been solemnly fixed, — fixed by practice, fixed by successive 
 acts of Congress, fixed by solemn judicial decision, or we never 
 shall have any settled meaning, at all. 
 
 It is absurd to say, that no precedent, no practice, no judicial 
 decision, no assent of successive legislators, nor all these to- 
 gether, can fix the meaning of an article in the fundamental 
 law. 
 
 I am well aware, gentlemen, that at the present moment, and 
 in the commercial States, the evils of a disordered currency 
 are partially remedied, and not so severely felt. But in' some 
 parts of the country they are as bad as ever. In the South 
 and West, there is no money which deserves the name. The 
 people trade almost wholly by barter. What they do call 
 money, is entirely without a fixed or general value; and the 
 great depreciation and fluctuation in the currency, is the cause 
 of much demoralization in the community, and a fruitful source 
 of other evils. Of all bad systems this is the worst. And 
 though we in this part of the country, just now, feel no par- 
 ticular harm from this source, yet the evil day will come. 
 
 There are certain laws of trade which will always operate, 
 so long as man is man, and which cannot be violated with im- 
 punity ; and just as surely as this is the case, just so sure shall 
 we again feel the effects of a disordered currency. There 
 is now, in the mercantile phrase, a better feeling in the commu- 
 nity, at least in the Atlantic States. There is an appearance of 
 returning prosperity and a revival of business ; but there are a 
 thousand banks in the country, ready to lend money to good 
 customers, under the doctrine, to which I cannot Avholly agree, 
 that all safe business paper may be discounted without danger. 
 A plenty of money will raise prices — prosperity will beget ex- 
 cess — and excess must result in revulsion. And these alter- 
 nations will be our lot, and our history, so long as we have no 
 general regulator of the currency. 
 
 Now, I will not say — I never have said — that a Bank of the 
 United States is absolutely necessary ; but I have said that it 
 has been tried for forty years with success, and is therefore en- 
 
17 
 
 titled to respectful consideration. Some eight years ago, in the 
 Senate of the United States, I said that a National bank had 
 done much good to the country, yet it was not worth my 
 Avhile to propose its re-establishment, while there was no gene- 
 ral call of the people for such a measure. I remain of that 
 opinion. I have said, more recently, that a National bank of 
 private subscriptions, and with the power of private discounts, is 
 out of the question. I think so still, though it may be I am 
 mistaken. My reason is, because State institutions for these 
 purposes have become so much multiplied, and because many 
 States derive large portions of their revenue from taxes upon the 
 capital of such banks. Nevertheless, I am quite willing to 
 agree that a Bank of the United States, upon the old model, is 
 perfectly constitutional ; and if in the opinion of a future Con- 
 gress, and in the judgment of the country, such an institution 
 should be deemed expedient, it shall have my hearty support. 
 But my opinion is, that the country much more needs some in- 
 stitution under National authority, with power to restrain in 
 some just mode, the amount of paper issues, than it needs a 
 bank which may itself make large discounts to individuals. 
 
 I have thus spoken upon commerce and the currency. 
 These lead directly to the tariff, or the policy of encouraging 
 domestic industry by laying discriminating duties on foreign 
 importations. 
 
 1 wish to state my opinions on this topic with some degree 
 of precision, because I believe there is a sort of ultraism pre- 
 vailing with regard to it, characteristic of the age. People run 
 into extremes, not only in politics, but in all other matters. 
 They are either on the Ganges, or at the extremity of the 
 West. There are men who would carry a tariff to prohibition 
 — again there are those who assert it to be perfectly unconsti- 
 tutional to lay duties with the least regard to favoring or en- 
 couraging the products of our own country. My opinion is, 
 that the power of favoring or encouraging productions of our 
 own, by just discriminations in imposing duties for revenue, 
 on imports, does belong to Congress, and ought to be exercised, 
 in all proper cases. 
 
 This, gentlemen, is my opinion, and I should be perfectly 
 willing to discuss the matter with any candid man in the Com- 
 monwealth. 
 
 3 
 
18 
 
 There are two propositions to which I invite your attention. 
 
 1st. Congress has the power to lay duties of impost. No 
 State has this power. This is a most important consideration. 
 
 2d. Before the adoption of the Constitution, and while the 
 States could lay impost duties, several of them laid such du- 
 ties, with discriminations avowedly intended to foster their own 
 products. They now can do no such thing. It must be done 
 by Congress, or not at all. 
 
 Now the power of Congress is to regulate commerce. And 
 in all English history, and all our own history, down to the 
 Revolution, and to the time of the adoption of the Consti- 
 tution, importation of some articles was encouraged, and of 
 others discouraged, or prohibited, by regulations of trade. 
 The regulation of trade, therefore, was a term of well known 
 meaning, and did comprehend the duty, or object, of discriminat- 
 ing, with a view to favor home productions. We find this to 
 have been so in England, from the time of her Tudors and 
 Stuarts down, and in America, the opinion I have stated was 
 held by Otis, Adams, and the other great and eminent men of 
 the Revolution. But upon this point I need not dwell, for the 
 whole doctrine has been placed upon immutable foundations by 
 a son of your own county, a most distinguished member of the 
 Senate of the United States, (Hon. Rufus Choate,) in his speech 
 of March, 1842. 
 
 The amount of the whole matter is this. History instructs 
 us, that before the Constitution was formed, the States laid 
 duties of imposts ; but each only for itself, and therefore the 
 duties were very different and unequal ; and the States which 
 laid duties for the protection of their own manufactures, were 
 immediately exposed to competition from others that had no 
 manufactures, who would open their ports freely to the goods 
 taxed by their neighbors. We see at once how vain it would 
 be for one State to look only to her own interests, while all the 
 others were looking only to theirs. Take a supposed instance, 
 for example, in the case of Massachusetts and Rhode Island. 
 Massachusetts had manufactures — Rhode Island had none. 
 Massachusetts laid duties on imported goods — Rhode Island did 
 not. The consequence would be, that the goods taxed by Mas- 
 sachusetts in her seaport towns, would be brought free into 
 Newport or Providence, and it would only be by a cordon of 
 
19 
 
 custom houses throughout the whole extent of her border, that 
 Massachusetts could prevent the introduction of those goods 
 into her territories. 
 
 The case is suppositious, but I speak to Massachusetts men, 
 who understand the effect of such a system, whose fathers ex- 
 perienced it, and I tell them that this obvious effect produced, 
 in Massachusetts, as much as any thing, the disposition to come 
 under a general government, and to ratify the Constitution. It 
 was, in fact, the full belief of the people, that this power of 
 laying discriminating duties was granted to Congress, as part of 
 the revenue power, and that it would be exercised. They had 
 a right to expect, and did expect, that it would be used bene- 
 ficially for their interests. 
 
 The whole history of the country, from 1783 to 1788, proves 
 this. That history is as important as that of any period of our 
 national existence. We see in it the then infant States strus:- 
 gling under a load of debt incurred in the sacred cause of the 
 Revolution — struggling under the extinction of commerce and 
 prostration of manufactures — and struggling all in vain. These 
 things produced that strong disposition which prevailed in 1784, 
 '85, '86, '87 and '88, to establish a uniform system of commercial 
 regulations, and extend also all proper encouragement to manu- 
 factures. 
 
 Gentlemen, a native of Massachusetts, certainly inferior to 
 none in sagacity, and whose name confers honor upon the 
 whole country — Dr. Benjamin Franklin — in 1787, expressed 
 his sentiments upon these points in a very remarkable manner. 
 The Convention to deliberate upon the formation of the Con- 
 stitution was held in Philadelphia in May, 17S7. Dr. Frank- 
 lin was then, if I remember aright, the governor of Pennsyl- 
 vania, and was chosen also as a member of the Convention. 
 As the delegates were assembling, he invitsd them to his house, 
 and read to them a paper on this subject, which was subse- 
 quently printed, and to extracts from this I would call your at- 
 tention. {Vide Appendix No. 1.) 
 
 Such, gentlemen, were the sentiments of Dr. Franklin. 
 They prove his far sighted sagacity, which could discern what 
 was than visible to so few eyes ; and that wisdom, which pointed 
 out a course so greatly beneficial. 
 
 Let me now revert to the opinions of Massachusetts in this 
 
20 
 
 respect ; to this good old Bay State, whose citizens we are 
 proud to be, and whose early espousal of the cause of a Na- 
 tional Government is so well known. I will observe, first, that 
 at the time these sentiments were uttered by Dr. Franklin, and 
 indeed, till a very recent period, the manufacturers of the coun- 
 try were shop-workmen ; tailors, hatters, smiths, shoe-makers, 
 and others, who wrought in their own shops ; but still the 
 principle is the same as if they were banded into corporations. 
 And he who denies to Congress the power to protect manu- 
 factures, as now carried on, denies protection as much to every 
 individual workman, as to Andover or Lowell. Let all classes 
 of artisans, in the cities and villages, think well of this. 
 
 Now, gentlemen, it did so happen that in the years of severe 
 disaster between the peace and the formation of the Constitu- 
 tion, the merchants and mechanics of Boston had their atten- 
 tion called to the subject, and their proceedings, only a little 
 earlier than this paper of Dr. Franklin's, sprang from the same 
 sense of necessity. I will trouble you to listen to some of 
 them, which 1 gather from the publications of that day. 
 
 „ Boston, April 18, 1785. 
 
 The minds of thn people being greatly and justly agitated by the apparent 
 intention of the government and the merchants of Great Britain to deprive 
 the industrious trader of every benefit of commerce, by the entire monopoly 
 of the same to themselves, and this apprehension being increased by au- 
 thentic advices received by the last ships, — at a numerous and respectable 
 meeting of the merchants, traders, and others concerned, at Fancuil Hall, 
 on Saturday, -the 16th instant, to consider the alarming state of our trade 
 and navigation, the following votes were unanimously agreed to : 
 
 Whereas no commercial treaty is at present established between the 
 United States and Great Britain, and whereas certain British merchants, 
 factors and agents from England arc now residing in this town who have 
 received large quantities of English goods, and are in expectation of re- 
 ceiving farther supplies imported in British bottoms or otherwise, greatly 
 to 1 1 10 hindrance of freight in .all American vessels; and as many more 
 such persons are daily expected to arrive among us, which threatens an 
 entire monopoly of all British importations in the hands of such merchants, 
 agents or factors, which we apprehend will operate to the prejudice of the 
 interest of this country, 
 
 Therefore, to prevent as far as possible the evil tendency of such persons 
 continuing among us, (excepting those of them who shall be approbated by 
 the selectmen) and to discourage the sale of their merchandize, we, the 
 merchants, traders and others of the town of Boston do agree, 
 
 First, That a committee he appointed to draft a petition to Congress, 
 representing the embarrassments under which the trade now labors, and 
 the still greater to which it is exposed; and that the said committee be 
 empowered and directed to write to the several seaports in this State, re- 
 questing them to join with the merchants in this town in similar appli- 
 cations to Congress, immediately to regulate the trade of the United States 
 
21 
 
 agreeably to the powers vested in^them liy the government of this Com- 
 monwealth ; and also to obtain instructions to their Representatives at the 
 next General Court, to call the attention of their delegates in Congress, to 
 the importance of bringing forward such regulations as shall place our 
 commerce on a footing of equality. 
 
 Voted, That the said committee be requested to write to the merchants 
 in the several seaports of the other United States, earnestly recommending 
 to them an immediate application to the Legislatures of their respective 
 States to vest such powers in Congress (if not already done) as shall be 
 competent to the interesting purposes aforesaid, and also to petition Con- 
 gress to make such regulations as shall have the desired effect: 
 
 Voted, That we do pledge our honor that we will not directly or indi- 
 rectly purchase any goods of, or have any commercial connexions whatever 
 with, such British merchants, factors, or agents as are now residing among 
 us, or may hereafter arrive, either from England or any part of the British 
 dominions, (excepting such persons as shall he approved as aforesaid) and 
 we will do all in our power to prevent all persons acting under us from 
 having any commercial intercourse with them, until the salutary purposes 
 of these resolutions shall have been accomplished. 
 
 So far, the merchants. Now, what said the mechanics, the 
 artizans, the shop-workmen to this ? You shall see : — 
 
 Boston, Wednesday, April 27. 
 
 At the adjournment of the meeting of tradesmen, &c, held at the Green 
 Dragon Tavern on Monday last, the following report of their committee 
 was read and accepted : — 
 
 Voted, That a committee be appointed by this body to draft a petition to 
 the next General Court, setting forth the difficulties the manufacturers of 
 this town labor under by the importation of certain articles, (to be enu- 
 merated in the petition,) and praying a prohibition, or that such duties may 
 be laid as will effectually protect the manufacture of the same. 
 
 Voted, That we do bear our public testimony against sending away our 
 circulating cash, for foreign remittances, as this practice we conceive is 
 calculated to impoverish the country, to distress individuals in the prose- 
 cution of their business and in the payment of their taxes. 
 
 Voted, That a committee be appointed to write to the committee of mer- 
 chants and traders of this town, enclosing them a copy of these votes, and 
 desiring a mutual correspondence on the subject. 
 
 Boston, Saturday, May 7. 
 
 Proceedings of the Traders and Manufacturers. 
 
 On Thursday last, agreeable to the notification, a meeting of the com- 
 mittee from the traders and manufacturers of the town was held at the 
 Green Dragon, consisting of twenty different branches, when the committee 
 appointed at a former meeting reported the following letter, sent to the 
 committee of merchants, traders and other citizens: — 
 
 Boston, April 26, 1785. 
 
 Gentlemen — We, being appointed by the tradesmen and manufactu- 
 rers of this town to inform you what measures they have adopted at this 
 important crisis of our affairs, beg leave to enclose a copy of their proceed- 
 ings, which they hope will meet with your approbation. 
 
 We shall, by all measures in our power, endeavor to cultivate that liar- 
 
22 
 
 mony so essentially necessary at this time ; and recollect with pleasing sat- 
 isfaction the union that has always subsisted between the merchants, 
 tradesmen and manufacturers of this town ; we should regret if any 
 measures should be now adopted by either, to impair that affection which 
 has ever been our happiness to boast. 
 
 But as the several branches of our occupations have of late been materially 
 affected by European importations, tve conceive ourselves in duty bound to pre- 
 vent, if possible, those supplies either by foreigners or own merchants. 
 
 We have therefore voted a petition to be presented to the next General 
 Court for this purpose, and as we doubt not the sincerity of your declara- 
 tion, "to encourage the manufactures of this country," we trust you will 
 support with your whole influence any measures calculated to promote so 
 desirable an object. We are, gentlemen, 
 
 With every sentiment of esteem, 
 
 Your obedient and bumble servants, 
 John Gray, 
 Benjamin Austin, Jr. 
 Samuel G. Jarvis, 
 John Skinner, 
 Sarson Belcher. 
 
 To the Committee of Merchants, Traders, and others. 
 
 Well, how did the merchants receive this ? I will show 
 you. Here is a letter, signed in their behalf, by that great 
 Patriot, and Prince of merchants, John Hancock. Here was a 
 full cooperation, between merchants and manufacturers, for 
 the united support of their own interests. 
 
 Boston, May 2, 1785. 
 
 Gentlemen — Your communications of the 26th ult. were interesting and 
 agreeable. Our situation is truly critical. To the United States in Con- 
 gress we look for effectual relief, and to them we have accordingly ap- 
 peaied. 
 
 We rejoice to find our sentiments and views harmonizing with yours, and 
 hope that our united exertions will be crowned with the desired success. 
 
 Shall cheerfully use what influence we have in promoting and en- 
 couraging the manufactures of our country, and for obtaining at the next 
 General Court such restrictions and excises as may have so happy a ten- 
 dency. 
 
 We derive great support' from that unanimity which appears to actuate 
 our respective proceedings, and while that subsists we can no more despair 
 of the commerce, trade and manufactures, than of the liberties of America. 
 We are, gentlemen, with much esteem, 
 
 Your most humble servants, 
 
 John Hancock, 
 
 In the name and in behalf of the Committee of Merchants, Tradesmen, and others. 
 To John Gray, Esq., Chairman of the Committee of Tradesmen, Manufacturers, &c. 
 
 But the mechanics did not limit their addresses to the mer- 
 chants of Boston. They addressed a spirited and sensible letter 
 to all the tradesmen and manufacturers of the Commonwealth. 
 (Vide Appendix No. 2.) 
 
23 
 
 Now, what is all this ? and what does it prove ? Why, 
 though at peace with England, our ships could not visit her 
 ports, or, in fact, those of any European nation. We had no 
 national flag; we were unknown upon the seas ; consequently 
 the British bottoms enjoyed the monopoly of our trade. So 
 great, indeed, was the depression among all classes, that some 
 gentlemen who had a little property left from the Revolution, con- 
 tributed to build three or four ships, on the Mystic river, so as to 
 give some employment to working ship builders. But, having no 
 national character, and no means of sustaining commerce, these 
 ships rotted on the ways, or at the wharves. The merchants 
 of Boston thought that voluntary agreements were the only 
 means in their power, and the agreement quoted above was one 
 result of their opinions. 
 
 Now, gentlemen, you have seen what happened in this state 
 of things. The merchants having thus resolved not to use 
 goods imported in foreign bottoms, in order to protect their own 
 interests, the manufacturing classes assembled, and, in view of 
 protecting their interests, they resolved not to use imported 
 goods at all. They appealed to the merchants, as you have 
 seen, and the appeal was answered with expressions of sym- 
 pathy and support. — The artisans, with Paul Revere and John 
 Gray at their head, next addressed themselves to the mechanics 
 in various parts of the State, setting forth the fatal consequences 
 to their interests, not only of importations in British vessels, but 
 of importations of foreign goods, free of tax, in any vessels what- 
 ever. They petitioned Governor Bowdoin, and the Legislature, 
 for relief, by the establishment of imposts. But, as I have said, 
 what could a single State do ? 
 
 This state of things continued till 1788, when the Massa- 
 chusetts Convention to consider the Constitution, was held in 
 Boston. Some of the most eminent persons who have shed 
 lustre on the State, were members of that Convention, and 
 many of them felt great doubts about adopting the Constitution, 
 as is well known. Among these were two individuals, none 
 other than John Hancock and Samuel Adams, the proscribed 
 patriots. But the energy, determination, perseverance and earn- 
 estness, of the mechanics and tradesmen of Boston, influenced 
 even these wise and great men, and tended to, and did, con- 
 tribute to the ratification of the Constitution, in an eminent 
 
24 
 
 degree. Any man will see this, who will look into the public 
 transactions of that clay. 
 
 There was a particular set of resolutions, founded on this 
 very idea of favoring home productions, full of energy and 
 decision, passed by the mechanics of Boston. And where did 
 the mechanics of Boston meet to pass them ? Full of the influ- 
 ence of these feelings, they congregated at the head quarters of 
 the Revolution. I see, waving among the banners before me, 
 that of the old Green Dragon. It was there, in Union street, that 
 John Gray, Paul Revere, and others of their class, met for con- 
 sultation. There, with earnestness and enthusiasm, they passed 
 their resolutions. A committee carried ihem to the Boston del- 
 egation in the Convention. Mr. Samuel Adams asked Colonel 
 Revere, how many mechanics were at the meeting ; and Colonel 
 Revere answered, " More than there are stars in heaven." 
 
 The resolutions had their effect. The Constitution was 
 established — and a universal burst of joy from all classes — mer- 
 chants, manufacturers, and mechanics, proclaimed the exul- 
 tation of the people at the thrice happy event. The journals 
 of the day tell us that, 
 
 On the ratification being declared, a very large concourse of spectators 
 testified tlieir satisfaction by repeated huzzas, and the whole Convention 
 having been previously invited, partook with a Dumber of respectable citi- 
 zens at a decent repast prepared in the Senate Chamber, where, in mutual 
 congratulations and testimonials of satisfaction, all party ideas were done 
 away, and such a spirit of joy, union and urbanity diffused, as, if continued, 
 must be attended with the most happy consequences through the Common- 
 wealth. The toasts given were truly conciliatory, and were, we believe, 
 drunk with sincerity "by every one present.^ All appeared willing to bury 
 the hatchet of animosity, and to smoke the calumet of union and love. 
 
 After this repast, the Convention dissolved. Thus far the proceedings of 
 the Convention. Now for those of the people. 
 
 The Committee of Tradesmen met, and, by public advertisement, re- 
 quested the attendance of the mechanics and artisans of every description 
 in town, at Faneuil Hall, in order to form and proceed in grand procession 
 therefrom, to testify their approbation of the ratification of the Federal Con- 
 stitution by the Convention. 
 
 This "grand procession took place;" and the artisans, me- 
 chanics, and manufacturers of Boston, together with the mer- 
 chants, and all other classes, indulged in the hope, not more 
 sanguine than the event warranted, that, under the operation of 
 the new national Constitution, prosperity would return, business 
 revive, cheerfulness and contentment overspread the land, and 
 
25 
 
 the country go rapidly forward in its career of growth and 
 success. 
 
 But, Gentlemen, this sentiment and feeling were not merely 
 the sentiment and feeling of Massachusetts. — We may look at 
 the debates in all the State conventions, and the expositions of 
 all the greatest men in the country — particularly in Massachu- 
 setts and Virginia — the great Northern and Southern stars — 
 and we shall find it every where held up as the great reason for 
 the adoption of the Constitution, that it would give the General 
 government the power to regulate commerce and trade. This 
 power was thus considered established, by the framers of the 
 Constitution, and has been steadily recognized by the govern- 
 ment. It was distinctly and in terms, recognized, by the very 
 first act laying duties of imposts ; and notwithstanding doubts, 
 and denial of it, in excited times, it yet pervades the whole 
 history of our legislation. The power, therefore, being clear, 
 and its application in times past certain, the remaining ques- 
 tion respects its utility and expediency. 
 
 Here, again, let me say, that I wish no exercise of the 
 power, without much consideration and moderation. The 
 shipping interest, the mercantile interest, as well as the me- 
 chanic interest, are concerned — and both and all must be look- 
 ed after and cared for. I wish, in fixing all laws on this subject, 
 that nothing excessive may be introduced ; that no traps shall 
 be laid ; that nothing unexpected shall spring up in the way 
 of the mercantile, or any other interest; but that only that 
 shall be enacted, which will be expedient for the whole country. 
 
 And let me remark upon the extreme injustice of attacking 
 the tariff on the ground that it favors the rich corporations of 
 New England. We know that this opinion has no real foun- 
 dation. We know that corporations are only partnerships, car- 
 ried on in a more convenient manner than they could be by 
 indenture ; that they are no monopolies ; and that it is because 
 of their convenience only that they are employed. 
 
 Gentlemen, I believe that a tariff of moderate duties, care- 
 fully laid, is expedient for the whole country. 
 
 1st. Because it augments the aggregate of national wealth, 
 by stimulating labor. 
 
 Moderate imposts upon such articles as we can and do manu- 
 facture, must inevitably furnish a stimulus to our labor, and it 
 
 4 
 
26 
 
 is now the general, nearly the universal opinion, that labor is 
 the source of wealth. Capital is a stimulus to labor. Now, 
 to me, it appears very plain that the stimulus can be applied 
 here with greater effect than at a distance, and that, conse- 
 quently, the country will be benefited accordingly. On this 
 point, I am aware of the authority of McCulloch and Mr. 
 Senior, writers of the very highest repute, both of whom I 
 have the honor to know, and whom I greatly esteem. 
 
 Mr. McCulloch is a gentleman avIio has contributed more 
 than any man of our age to a correct knowledge of statistics 
 and political economy. But if I may venture to say so, I think 
 some of his opinions a little too abstract — or at least, not 
 applicable here. Our state, I think, peculiar ; we have no such 
 broad distinction between capital and labor as prevails in 
 England. There is, indeed, no subject which so much re- 
 quires an Essay to set forth all its prominence, importance and 
 peculiarity, as American Labor ; there is nothing like it on the 
 globe ; and there never was. 
 
 Our labor reaches beyond mere subsistence. In Europe the 
 case is different. We know that, with us, labor earns for itself 
 and creates a capital ; and looking at our country, we there- 
 fore see that her condition is, and will be, most fortunate and 
 happy for a century to come. 
 
 Gentlemen, the labor of the United States is respectable. 
 We are emphatically a country of labor ; and labor with us is 
 not reluctant drudgery. It is cheerful, contented, spirited ; bt 
 cause it is respectable, and because it is certain of its re ware 
 Labor every where mixes itself with capital. The fiele 
 around us — how many of them are tilled by their owner|! 
 The shops in our towns — how many are occupied by their pi 
 prietors, for the convenient pursuit of their callings ! Hence, 
 in the United States, we see labor and capital mixed together 
 in a degree unequalled in the world. What is the value- of 
 a hundred acres of land at the foot of the Rocky mountains or 
 in the remote regions of Spanish South America? Nothing at 
 all. There is no value to any land till man has mixed his 
 labor with it. But the moment an American laborer drives his 
 plough through these acres, or fells a tree upon them, that mo- 
 ment he creates a capital, which every step he takes, and every 
 stroke he gives, constantly augments. He thus not only lives 
 
27 
 
 ■« 
 
 by labor, but every day's work, while it gives him subsistence, 
 adds to his means, his property, his capital. Where else in 
 this world shall we find the same state of things, to such a de- 
 gree ? 
 
 I have ventured to express a doubt whether all the opinions 
 of McCulloch are applicable to us ; but 1 acknowledge, with 
 pleasure, that on the subject of the importance of high wages, 
 he has expressed himself in the justest and noblest terms. He 
 has laid down maxims which lie at the foundation of national 
 prosperity in its highest state. This is what he says : 
 
 "The best interests of society require that the rate of wages should be 
 elevated as high as possible ; that a taste for the comforts, luxuries and en- 
 joyments of human life, should be widely diffused, and, if possible, inter- 
 woven with the national habits and prejudices. — A low rate of wages, by 
 rendering it impossible for increased exertions to obtain any considerable 
 increase of comforts and enjoyment, effectually hinders any such exertion 
 from ever being made, and is, of all others, the most powerful cause of 
 that idleness and apathy that contents itself with what can barely continue 
 animal existence. The experience of all ages and nations proves that 
 high wages are at once the keenest spur — the most powerful stimulus to 
 unremitting and assiduous exertion, and the best means of attachiug the 
 people to the institutions under which they live." 
 
 On this subject, gentlemen, I refer with approbation and 
 
 pleasure, to a very able speech in Congress, ten years ago, by 
 
 Mr. Appleton ; which I heartily commend to the perusal of 
 
 [every one, who desires to see the principles of political economy, 
 
 ipplicable to our condition, fairly set forth. 
 
 It is our good fortune, gentlemen, to live in a country dis- 
 tinguished, as the whole world say, by a high rate of wages. We 
 re here this day, in the midst of a county, agricultural, manu- 
 icturing and commercial. This very township and its institu- 
 tions show the happy results of this condition of things. It is a 
 beautiful township — few are more so. In an agricultural point of 
 view it is very fertile. There are streams in it which afford 
 facilities, improved to the fullest extent of their capacity, to 
 turn mills and drive machinery. And what rate of wages do 
 we see existing here ? We find that female operatives, after 
 paying their board, receive two dollars, or nine shillings ster- 
 ling, per week. Is there anything like this in the manufactur- 
 ing districts of England, France, Germany, or Prussia ? Noth- 
 ing. The male workmen, after paying their board, in like man- 
 ner clear twelve dollars a month. We cannot see this in any 
 other country. And there is a degree of personal elevation of 
 
 
28 
 
 character, of respectability, of education, among our laboring 
 classes, which is to be found nowhere else. Why should we 
 wish to change this happy condition, by any speculation, or exper- 
 iment, which will not be likely to improve, and may destroy it ? 
 
 I confess that many persons in the commonwealth, and per- 
 haps in the crowd around me, entertain opinions directly the 
 reverse of those which, in their operation and practical effect, 
 have produced, as 1 think, these results and this state of things. 
 I attribute them to misapprehensions, and am therefore desirous 
 that our opponents — for I will not call them enemies or ad- 
 versaries — may hear us with a spirit of candor, so that we may 
 see if our opinions and actions cannot be made to coincide. 
 
 Let me revert to Andover. Here is a township of about 
 nine miles square, occupied by an intelligent, well-fed, well- 
 clothed, well-housed population — there are ten or twelve neat 
 and commodious places of worship — twenty of those gems of 
 New England — free schools — where the sons of the rich and 
 the poor meet on an equal footing, and receive the same useful 
 instruction. Here, too, is a classical seminary, which has long 
 been distinguished for its ripe and elegant scholars, and, of 
 more recent establishment, a theological institution, the piety, 
 learning and talents of whose professors, have made it most 
 honorably known, not only in the United States, but in Europe. 
 
 Gentlemen, I believe — 
 
 2d. That the tariff favors every interest of the country. 
 The sugar planters of Louisiana, we know, it encourages. 
 The cotton growers of the South, I firmly believe, it helps, be- 
 cause I deem the maintenance of a steady market here of very 
 essential benefit to them. I believe, moreover, that it is favor- 
 able to the agricultural interest ; but upon this I need not en- 
 large, as I have recently, in another place, taken occasion to 
 speak upon this point. 
 
 There is one essential difference between the United States 
 and England, with respect to agriculture. There, the produce 
 of the soil does not feed the population ; consumers therefore 
 demand a free importation of foreign produce. With us it is 
 exactly the reverse. Our agriculture is productive far beyond 
 our consumption, and the great objects of our producers are an 
 augmented demand at home, and as much increase as possible 
 in the demand from abroad. We are sellers — the English are 
 
29 
 
 buyers — and this makes all the difference in the world in the 
 reasoning upon the case. 
 
 Gentlemen, the manufacturing interest is not a local interest, 
 and so much progress has elsewhere been made in certain man- 
 ufactures, that I cannot but think a more just feeling, as to this 
 point, must follow. There is hardly a State at the South, that 
 has not, at this moment, cotton manufactories ; and in New York 
 there are now for sale considerable quantities of Southern goods. 
 The following table, furnished me by a friend, will give infor- 
 mation of the manufactures of Virginia. 
 
 STATEMENT OF MANUFACTURES IN RICHMOND. 
 
 Cotton. — Three cotton manufactories, which have 14,200 spindles, 263 
 looms, and employ 610 hands or operatives. They consume $153,000 of 
 raw material, and turn out $378,000 in value of cotton fabrics per annum, 
 with a capital of $477,500. 
 
 Iron. — There are two rolling mills, one nail factory, three extensive iron 
 foundries, two saw and axe manufactories, and three extensive establish- 
 ments for the manufacture of agricultural implements, in which is a greater or 
 less amount of castings. The capital invested in these is about $500,000 — 
 they employ about 325 men — many of them with families — and consume 
 about $200,000 worth of iron, and $50,000 worth of coal ; and turn out 
 fabrics now to the value of about $700,000. 
 
 Recapitulation. — The amount invested in the manufacture of cotton and 
 iron, $977,500; the number of persons employed, say about 1,000 ; value 
 of coal, iron and cotton material consumed each year, $403,000; value of 
 manufactures per annum, $1,078,000. 
 
 Besides the above, which embraces cotton and iron alone, there is an 
 extensive paper mill, a woollen manufactory, flouring mills that manufac- 
 ture about 100,000 barrels of flour per annum, upward of $1,000,000 of 
 tobacco, manufactured into chewing tobacco, per annum, and in addition, 
 coach factories, manufactories of boots and shoes, guns and locks, one of 
 pianos, brass foundries, &c. &c. 
 
 Just previous to the adoption of the present tariff, the manufacturing 
 operations of Richmond, Petersburg, and other places throughout the State, 
 were curtailed one half. Tbey gradually recovered during the first six 
 months after the passage of the tariff, and most rapidly during the last eight 
 months; so that they are all doing a fair business now — while some of 
 them, the cotton factories, are pushed to their utmost to supply the demand, 
 which they are scarcely able to do. 
 
 Richmond memorialized Congres for the passage of that tariff", and so did 
 Petersburg, I believe. The memorial sent from Richmond, which had the 
 largest number of signatures ever put to a paper in the city, asserted these 
 propositions — 
 
 "That duties should be adequate to the purposes of revenue. That they 
 should be discriminating also — not only with a view to favor domestic pro- 
 ductions, but to benefit the consumer by enlarging the supply, and by 
 adding domestic competition, which is always active, to foreign compe- 
 tition, which is sometimes inefficient, and never regular and constant." 
 
 It was also further asserted that " under the tariff* policies of different 
 civilized nations, the only mode of relieving or aiding agriculture was by 
 diverting to other occupations a portion of the labor applied to it, and by 
 
30 
 
 increasing, at the same time, the domestic market for its products ; and that 
 therefore no branch of industry in the country has a clearer interest in the 
 due encouragement and support of home manufactures, than the agricul- 
 tural." 
 
 The total capital invested in the more important manufactures of Rich- 
 mond, is about $5,000,000. 
 
 The town of Petersburg has eight cotton manufacturing establishments 
 now in full operation. She has leased three flouring mills, a paper mill, a 
 woollen factory, &c., with a fixed capital of near $1,000,000 in cotton man- 
 ufactories, $125,000 in flouring mills, and $1,000,000 in tobacco manufac- 
 tories. 
 
 Wheeling, with a population of over 10,000 inhabitants, has about 136 
 establishments for the manufacture of domestic goods — raising, annnally, 
 1,243,000 bushels of coal, and giving employment to more than 1,700 per- 
 sons, yielding an annual product worth $2,000,000. Her chief manufac- 
 tures are iron castings, bar iron, and glass. Near Wheeling, and in the 
 vicinity of Richmond, 7,000,000 bushels of coal are raised annually. Near 
 Richmond alone, the quantity raised exceeds 5,000,000 bushels. 
 
 The small town of Fredericksburg has several iron and woollen manu- 
 factories, which, with flouring and other mills, employ a capital of about 
 $250,000. 
 
 Lynchburg. — This large and flourishing town, with near 7,000 inhabi- 
 tants, is a place of large operations in the manufacture of tobacco, iron, 
 flour, cotton, &c, amounting to several millions of dollars annually. 
 
 From other places where manufactories are in operation, I have no par- 
 ticular information. 
 
 General Estimate. 
 
 In Wheeling, Petersburg, Richmond, Lynchburg, Fredicksburg, and 
 Kanawha county, there are more than $11,000,000 employed in the leading 
 manufactures of these places. There are, besides, cotton manufactories, 
 blast furnaces, and foundries, in many of the counties. Virginia has every 
 element and every advantage for manufacturing. Cotton, iron, lead, hemp, 
 and wool, are diffused in each of her four grand divisions, and salt in the 
 Southwest. Her water power is not excelled, and I doubt whether it is 
 equalled in any other State in the Union. The importance of her manu- 
 factures is far better appreciated among her citizens than formerly. I doubt 
 whether so rapid, so general and so great a change in favor of this object, 
 has taken place any where else in the United States, as has occurred in this 
 old commonwealth during the last two years. She was the tobacco State 
 a few years ago — now the West, but for the peculiar excellence of her 
 tobacco, would crowd her out of foreign markets, or put the price down so 
 low that the cost of its production, and the advantage of more profitable 
 pursuits she enjoys by reason of her position, would induce her, perhaps, 
 to abandon entirely, certainly in a great degree, its culture in a few years. 
 
 Last year there were received at the port of New Orleans, from the 
 tobacco regions of the West, more than twice as many hogsheads of tobacco 
 as the entire crop of Virginia — while a large portion of the Western crop 
 was via the Pennsylvania improvements to Baltimore aud elsewhere. This 
 is an important fact regarding the destinies of Virginia. She must become 
 a manufacturing State. 
 
 The people generally are fast giving up their old notions on the tariff, or 
 those notions which once were regarded peculiarly Virginian. A majority 
 may now be found in favor of the tariff views, as advocated by the people 
 of Richmond in their memorial adverted to in the early part of this review. 
 
 Hurried as I am, I deem it of importance to give you this additional 
 sketch, showing the probable amount of raw cotton manufactured or used 
 by our factories in Virginia. 
 
31 
 
 In Petersburg, 
 
 by the Elluch Co., . 
 
 hales 1,500 
 
 
 ft 
 
 cc 
 
 Matoaca Co. 
 
 . 1 ,300 
 
 
 cc 
 
 cc 
 
 Mechanics' Co. 
 
 1,200 
 
 
 cc 
 
 cc 
 
 Merchants' Co. 
 
 . 1,200 
 
 
 St 
 
 cc 
 
 Canal Co. . 
 
 1,000 
 
 
 cc 
 
 cc 
 
 Battersea, 
 
 600 
 
 
 « 
 
 cc 
 
 Washington, 
 
 400 
 
 
 cc 
 
 cc 
 
 Eagle, 
 
 400- 
 
 -7,600 
 
 In Richmond, 
 
 cc 
 
 Manchester, 
 
 2,200 
 
 
 cc 
 
 cc 
 
 Richmond, 
 
 . 1,400 
 
 
 cc 
 
 cc 
 
 Spring Hill, 
 
 400- 
 
 -4,000 
 
 In Albemarle County 
 
 , Thad'well, 
 
 500 
 
 
 cc 
 
 cc 
 
 Union, 
 
 400- 
 
 — 900 
 
 
 
 , 600 
 
 In Fredericksb 
 
 urg, 
 
 
 
 600 
 
 In Lynchburg, 
 
 
 
 
 600 
 
 In the other smaller factories in the State, 
 
 . 
 
 1,000 
 
 15,300 
 
 I say, therefore, to all our brethren, that the manufacturing is 
 not an exclusive, but a general interest, and is to be properly 
 sustained, not by persuading the North to vote down the South, 
 for fear the South should destroy our interests, but by patri- 
 otism, moderation, and mutual conciliation and regard. 
 
 A tariff does not necessarily increase prices. One year after 
 the present tariff was established, many articles embraced in its 
 provisions were considerably lower than they had before been. 
 Here is a statement respecting certain of these articles. 
 
 New York, 6th November, 1843. 
 
 Mr Dear Sir, — In conformity with my promise on Saturday last, I now 
 send you the annexed statement of prices of articles of American manufac- 
 ture in this city, in the months of July, August, and September of 1842, 
 and the corresponding months of 1843. 
 
 Prices of Nails in 1S42. 
 July, . . . 4| to 4£ cents per lb. 
 August, . . 4£ to 4£ " 
 September, . 4^ to 4% " 
 
 Prices of best Penn. Pig Iron, 1842. 
 July, Aug., and Sept., $30 per ton. 
 
 Penn. Rolled Bar Iron, 1842. 
 July, August, and to Sept. 10, $70. 
 From Sept. 10 to October 1st, $75. 
 
 Prices ofJ\ r ails in 1843. 
 July, . . . . 3| cents per lb. 
 August, .... 4 " 
 September, . . 4 " 
 Prices of best Penn. Pig Iron, 1843. 
 July, Aug., and Sept., $25 per ton. 
 
 Penn. Rolled Bar Iron, 1843. 
 July, August, and September, $65. 
 
 Since August, 1842, there have been but very few, if any, nails manufac- 
 tured in this country of imported iron. Prior to January, 1842, the bulk of 
 nails sold in this market were from Swedes iron, when the wholesale price 
 of that description of iron seldom reached so low a point as $80 per ton. 
 Since August, 1842, the price has ranged from $70 to $75 per ton. Com- 
 petition among American manufacturers, (aided, probably, by low prices in 
 Europe,) has reduced the prices of bar iron and nails in this country. Pri- 
 ces of iron in Europe have been depressed in consequence of our tariff, 
 and consequently it is the operation of the tariff alone which now enables 
 
32 
 
 the consumer to purchase these articles at their present reduced rates. I 
 have long been satisfied that English iron, particularly, could be afforded 
 to us even under the present tariff; the prices in England being regulated 
 rather by what the articles would command here, than the cost of produc- 
 tion there. If this be true, the reduction of duties provided for by the com- 
 promise tariff went directly into the pockets of foreign producers. 
 
 Since writing the above, a friend has furnished me with the following 
 facts relative to the prices of Scotch pig iron in this city, and also in Scot- 
 land, in August, 1842, and August, 1843: — 
 
 Say — In August, 1842, the price in this city was, . . $25 00 per ton. 
 " 1843, " " . . . . $23 50 per ton. 
 
 Say — In August, 1842, the price of same iron in Scotland was £2 15s per ton. 
 In August, 1843, it would be, . . • . . £2 per ton. 
 
 And I ask any one if there is now any complaint of undue 
 high prices in any article to which the present tariff extends. 
 
 The Andover Committee, gentlemen, have mentioned the 
 public lands. Upon this topic I have but very little now to say. 
 Congress has affirmed the proposition that, in the present con- 
 dition of the country, the proceeds of the public lands belong 
 rightfully to the States. If it be so, then I say that this 
 is the time to make the appropriations of the lands, because now 
 is the time when the States need all their means. 
 
 In my opinion — though I reproach nobody, for I myself voted 
 for the bill — our legislation upon this subject has been incon- 
 sistent in this ; that when the land bill was passed, provision 
 was made that the appropriation should be void in case of war, 
 and at any rate limited to five years. I think this inconsistent, 
 and a sort of contradiction ; because, if the lands rightfully 
 belong to the States, they belong to them as well in war as in 
 peace, and forever, as well as for a time limited. And if we do 
 any thing in regard to the public lands, by way of ceding their 
 income to the States, the good of the country requires that it 
 should be done, once for all. The good of the country requires 
 that this question should be removed from the political arena, 
 and disposed of permanently. 
 
 Connected somewhat with this topic is the present condition 
 of the public credit. We live in a State, the credit of which 
 is good — is unimpaired. But there are States in the Union 
 whose credit is gone, and I believe that their people, and all 
 the people, should make every effort to restore that credit, at 
 whatever sacrifice of personal convenience or comfort. There is 
 danger of remissness in this respect — danger of want of effort 
 
33 
 
 and want of resolution. But we should all remember that we 
 all suffer — the country as a whole country, and every individual 
 as a part of the country, suffers daily from the existing state of 
 things respecting those State debts. We are all of the same 
 American family. None of us can shake off that character, or, 
 when abroad, disavow the relationship. Our States are much 
 more than independent individuals or corporations; they are 
 sovereign, but connected communities. Their faith is public 
 faith ; their failure is the failure of public faith. And each and 
 every one of us suffers from it. Nothing in a State can be 
 trustworthy, if the State itself be not. 
 
 I hold in my hand an Address from the Congress of the Con- 
 federation to the People, in 1783, a time, one of the darkest in our 
 history. It shows you what principles, what honesty, what de- 
 termination to preserve the public faith untarnished, pervaded 
 the bosoms of the great men of those days. I commend it to 
 your reflections. (Vide Appendix No. 3.) 
 
 This declaration of Congress is in favor of paying the debts 
 of the States, and of every one of the States. A similar crisis 
 has arisen now, and our country is again put to the severest test 
 of republican virtue. I may say that the question which now 
 rings throughout Europe is this: "Will the republican govern- 
 ments of America maintain their faith ?" If they will not, they 
 must be abandoned. The society of the world cannot exist 
 without faith among nations, any more than society at home 
 can exist without faith and trust among individuals. 
 
 But I say this faith and credit will be redeemed. At any 
 sacrifice it must be. The tarnish shall be wiped off from the 
 non-paying States, the credit of the country restored. And 
 now is the time to apply the public lands to this end. The doc- 
 trine of repudiation is at present avowed by nobody. Nobody 
 will stand up, and give the State to which he belongs open 
 advice to that resort. Times are growing better ; there are 
 omens of returning prosperity ; and I am sure that true and 
 good men, in every State, will exert themselves for the entire 
 re-establishment of character and credit. 
 
 Gentlemen, having detained you so long, I beg to say a 
 little, and it shall be very little, of a personal nature. 
 
 I am not a candidate for any office in the gift of the govern- 
 ment, or in the gift of the people. I have not been named for 
 
 5 
 
34 
 
 any office at my own suggestion, or, indeed, recently, with my 
 own previous knowledge. I am a private citizen ; and that 
 condition will never be changed by any movement, or effort, 
 made for that purpose by myself, or at my suggestion. In my 
 opinion, nominations for the high offices of the country should 
 come, if they come at all, from the free and spontaneous exer- 
 cise of that respect and confidence which the people themselves 
 may feel. All solicitations of such nominations, and all can- 
 vassing for such high trusts, I regard as equally inconsistent 
 with personal dignity, and derogatory to the character of the 
 institutions of the country. 
 
 As a private man, I hold my opinions on public subjects. 
 They are all such, in their great features and general character, 
 as 1 have ever held. It is as impossible that I should tread 
 back the path of my political opinions, as that I should retrace, 
 step by step, the progress of my natural life, until I should find 
 myself again a youth. On the leading questions, arising under 
 our constitutions and forms of government ; on the importance 
 of maintaining the separation of power, which those constitu- 
 tions establish ; on the great principles of such a policy as shall 
 promote all interests, maintain general harmony in the country, 
 and perpetuate the blessings of political and religious liberty — 
 my opinions, the result of no little study, and some experience, 
 have become part of myself. They are identified with all my 
 habits of thought and reflection ; and though I may change my 
 views of particular measures, or not deem the same measures 
 equally proper at all times, yet I am sure it is quite impossible 
 I should ever take such a view, either of the public interest or 
 of my own duty, as should lead to a departure from any cardinal 
 principle. 
 
 As a private man, I am ready to do all in my power to uphold 
 principles which I have ever deemed important, and to support 
 measures which the public interest, in my judgment, requires. 
 And as measures cannot be accomplished without the agency 
 of men, I am of course entirely willing to support the men of 
 the highest character, most unexceptionable principles, and who 
 may be most likely to be able to take an efficient and successful 
 lead in such measures. And here, perhaps, I ought to pause. 
 But the gentlemen who invited me to this meeting were pleased 
 to express their approbation of my conduct in remaining in the 
 
35 
 
 cabinet at Washington, after the other members, originally- 
 appointed by Gen. Harrison, had withdrawn. I should not 
 have alluded to this subject, gentlemen, on this occasion, but 
 for the reference which the committee have made to it. I am 
 aware that there are many persons in the country, having feel- 
 ings not unfriendly toward me, personally, and entertaining all 
 proper respect for my public character, who yet think I ought 
 to have left the cabinet when my colleagues did so. I do not 
 complain of any fair exercise of opinion in this respect ; and if, 
 by such persons as T have referred to, explanation be desired of 
 any thing in the past, or any thing in my present opinions, it 
 will be readily and cheerfully given. On the other hand, those 
 who deal only in coarse vituperation, and satisfy their sense of 
 candor and justice simply by the repetition of the charge of 
 dereliction of duty, and infidelity to Whig principles, are not 
 entitled to the respect of an answer from me. The burning 
 propensity to censure and reproach, by which such persons seem 
 to be actuated, would probably be somewhat rebuked, if they 
 knew by whose advice, and with whose approbation, I resolved 
 on staying in the cabinet. 
 
 Gentlemen, I could not but be sensible that great responsi- 
 bility attached to the course which I adopted. It was a mo- 
 ment of great excitement. A most unfortunate difference had 
 broken out between the President and the Whig Members of 
 Congress. Much exasperation had been produced, and the 
 whole country was in a very inflamed state. No man of sense 
 can suppose that, without strong motives, I should wish to differ 
 in conduct from those with whom I had long acted ; and as for 
 those persons, whose charity leads them to seek for such motive 
 in the hope of personal advantage, neither their candor nor their 
 sagacity deserves any thing but contempt. I admit, gentlemen, 
 that if a very strong desire to be instrumental and useful in 
 accomplishing a settlement of our difficulties with England, 
 which had then risen to an alarming height, and appeared to be 
 approaching a crisis ; if this be a personal motive, then I confess 
 myself to have been influenced by a personal motive. The 
 imputation of any other personal motive, the charge of seeking 
 any selfish advantage, I repel with utter scorn. 
 
 To be sure it excites contempt, but hardly any thing so 
 respectful as regret or indignation, when persons capable of no 
 
36 
 
 effort in any cause, but that of making a noise, and with no 
 other merit than that of interested partizanship — men, indeed, 
 yet reeking from their labors in the support of the most ques- 
 tionable measures of General Jackson's administration, and 
 others still odorous with the perfumes of the Sub-Treasury, 
 distend their throats, and admonish the country to beware of 
 Mr. Webster's infidelity to Whig principles. 
 
 Gentlemen, I thought I saw an opportunity of doing the 
 State some service, and I ran the risk of the undertaking. I 
 certainly do not regret it, and never shall regret it. And it is 
 in no spirit of boasting, or vain glory ; it is out of no undue 
 feeling of self-respect, that I say now, that I am ready to leave 
 it to the public judgment to decide, whether my remaining in 
 the cabinet was best for the country, or, on the other hand, 
 whether my leaving it would have been better for the country. 
 
 On this question I am in the judgment of this generation and 
 the next generation ; and am willing that my name, and fame, 
 and character, shall abide the result. 
 
 There was no difference between the President and myself 
 on the great questions of our foreign relations. I neither fore- 
 saw then, nor experienced afterward, any embarrassment from 
 such a cause as that. And it is but an act of justice, which I 
 always perform with pleasure, to say, that in the English nego- 
 tiations, and in other negotiations, I found the President influ- 
 enced by just principles and proper sentiments ; desirous of 
 maintaining, at the same time, the honor and the peace of the 
 country. 
 
 Gentlemen, exception has been taken to a note, addressed by 
 me to the editors of the National Intelligencer, of the 13th of 
 September, 1841, on the ground that that note implied a cen- 
 sure on my colleagues for leaving the President's cabinet. But 
 I intended no such reproach. I intended, certainly, only to 
 speak for myself, and not to reproach others. This was the 
 note : — 
 
 Washington, September 13, 1841. 
 
 To Messrs. Gules fy Seaton : 
 
 Gentlemen, — Lest any misapprehension should exist as to the reasons 
 which have led me to differ from the course pursued by my late colleagues, 
 I wish to say that I remain in my place — First, because I have seen no suf- 
 )i< itiit reasons for the dissolution of the late Cabinet by the voluntary act 
 of its own members. 
 
31 
 
 I am perfectly persuaded of the absolute necessity of an institution, under 
 the authority of Congress, to aid revenue and financial operations, and to 
 give the country the blessings of a good currency and cheap exchanges. 
 
 Notwithstanding what has passed, I have confidence that the President 
 will co-operate with the Legislature in overcoming all difficulties in the 
 attainment of these objects; and it is to the union of the Whig party — by 
 which I mean the Whig President, the Whig Congress, and tlie Whig 
 People — that 1 look for the realization of our wishes. I can look no where 
 else. 
 
 In the second place, if I had seen reasons to resign my office, I should 
 not have done so without giving the President reasonable notice, and afford- 
 ing him time to select the head to whom he should confide the delicate and 
 important affairs now pending in this department. 
 
 I am, Gentlemen, respectfully, 
 
 Your obedient servant, 
 
 Daniel Webster. 
 
 If in this there was any ambiguity, or any expression not 
 well chosen, or not well considered, candor, I think, might have 
 interpreted it by another letter, written and published about the 
 same time, addressed to a friend in New York, which I will 
 read. 
 
 Washington, Sept. 11, 1841. 
 
 My Dear Sir, — I thank you for your kind and friendly letter. 
 
 You will have learned that Messrs. Ewing, Bell, Badger and Crittenden 
 have resigned their respective offices. Probably Mr. Granger may feel 
 bound to follow the example. This occurrence can hardly cause you the 
 same degree of regret which it has occasioned to me ; as they are not only 
 friends, but persons with whom I have had, for some time, a daily official 
 intercourse. I could not partake in this movement. 
 
 It is supposed to be justified, I presume, by the differences which have 
 arisen between the President and Congress, upon the means of establishing 
 a proper fiscal agency, and restoring a sound state of the currency ; and 
 collateral matters, growing out of these differences. I regret these differ- 
 ences as deeply as any man ; but I have not been able to see in what man- 
 ner the resignation of the Cabinet was likely either to remove or mitigate 
 the evils produced by them. On the contrary, my only reliance for a 
 remedy for those evils has been, and is, on the union, conciliation and per- 
 severance of the whole Whig party, and I by no means despair of seeing 
 yet accomplished, by these means, all that we desire. It may render us 
 more patient under disappointment in regard to one measure, to recollect, 
 as is justly stated by the Presieent in his last message, how great a number 
 of important measures have been already successfully carried through. I 
 hardly know when such a mass of business has been dispatched in a single 
 session of Congress. 
 
 The annual Winter session is now near at hand ; the same Congress is 
 again soon to assemble ; and feeling as deeply as I ever did the indispen- 
 sable necessity of some suitable provision for the keeping of the public 
 money, for aid to the operations of the Treasury, and to the high public 
 interests of currency and exchanges, I am not in haste to believe that the 
 party, which has now the predominance, will not, in all these respects, yet 
 fulfil the expectations of the country. If it shall not, then our condition is 
 forlorn indeed. But for one, I will not give up the hope. 
 
 My particular connection with the administration, however, is with 
 
38 
 
 another department. I think very humbly — none can think more humbly — 
 of the value of the services which I am able to render to the public, in that 
 post. But as there is, so far as I know, on all subjects affecting our foreign 
 relations, a concurrence in opinion between the President and myself; 
 and as there is nothing to disturb the harmony of our intercourse, I have 
 not felt it consistent with the duty which I owe to the country, to run the 
 risk, by any sudden or abrupt proceeding, of embarrassing the Executive, 
 in regard to subjects and questions now immediately pending, and which 
 intimately affect the preservation of the peace of the country. 
 
 I am, dear sir, with constant regard, 
 Yours, &c. &c, 
 
 Daxiel Webster. 
 H. Ketchum, Esq., New York. 
 
 Gentlemen, it must have been obvious to all, that my re- 
 maining in the cabinet of the President, notwithstanding the 
 personal good will between us, after the separation between him 
 and the great body of the Whigs, could only be inconvenient 
 and unpleasant to both. My retirement, therefore, was the 
 necessary consequence of political occurrences, and I am not, I 
 think, called on to say more. 
 
 I hope I have not extended these remarks beyond the purpose 
 which I proposed ; and I close them by repeating the declara- 
 tion made by me, in another place, last year, that I am a Whig, 
 a Massachusetts Whig, a Faneuil Hall Whig, and none shall 
 have the power, now or hereafter, to deprive me of the position 
 in which that character places me. 
 
 APPENDIX No. 1. 
 
 An Enquiry into the Principles on which a Commercial System for the United 
 States of America should be founded. 
 
 There are in every country certain important crises when exertion or neglect 
 must produce consequences of the utmost moment. The period at which the in- 
 habitants oi these States have now arrived, will be admitted by every attentive and 
 serious mind to be clearly of this description. 
 
 Our money absorbed by a wanton consumption of imported luxuries, a fluctuat- 
 ing paper medium substituted in its stead, foreign commerce extremely circumscribed 
 and a federal government not only ineffective but disjointed tell us indeed too 
 plainly, thai further negligence may ruin us forever. Impressed with this view of 
 our affairs, the writer of the following pages has ventured to intrude upon the 
 public, lint as milher his time nor opportunities will permit him to treat of all the 
 great objects, which excite his apprehensions or engage his wishes, he means prin- 
 cipally to confine himself to that part of them, which have been most subjected to 
 his observations and inquiries. 
 
39 
 
 In a country blessed with a fertile soil, and a climate admitting steady labor, 
 where the cheapness of land tempts the European from his home, and tin- manu- 
 facturer from his trade, we are led by a few moments of reflection to fix on agri- 
 culture as the great leading interest. From this we shall find mosi of our other ad- 
 vantages result, so lar as they arise from the nature of our aflairs, and where they 
 are not produced by the coercion of laws — the fisheries are the principal exception. 
 In order to make a true estimate of the magnitude of agriculture, we must remem- 
 ber that it is encouraged by few or no duties on the importation of rival produce — 
 that it furnishes outward cargoes not only for all our own ships, hut those also 
 which foreign nations send to our ports, or in other words, that it pays for all our 
 importations — that it supplies a part of the clothing of our people and the food of 
 them and their cattle — that what is consumed at home, including the materials for 
 manufacturing, is four or live times the value of what is exported — that the number 
 of people employed in agriculture, is at least nine parts in ten of the inhabitants of 
 America — that therefore the planters and farmers do form the body of the militia, 
 the bulwark of the nation — that the value of property, occupied by agriculture, is 
 manifold greater than that of the property employed in every other way — that the 
 settlement of our waste lands, and subdividing our improved farms, is every year 
 increasing the preeminence of the agricultural interest — that the resources we de- 
 rive from it are at all times certain and indispensably necessary — and lastly, that the 
 rural life promotes health and morality, by its active nature, and by keeping our 
 people from the luxuries and vices of the towns. In short, agriculture appears to 
 be the spring of our commerce, and the parent of our manufactures. 
 
 The commerce of America, including our exports, imports, shipping, manufac- 
 tures, and fisheries, may be properly considered as forming one interest. So unin- 
 formed or mistaken have many of us been, that it has been stated as the great 
 object, and I fear it is yet believed to be the most important interest of New Eng- 
 land. But from the best calculations I have been able to make, I cannot raise the 
 proportion of property or the number of men employed in manufactures, fisheries, 
 navigation and trade to one eighth the property and the people occupied by agricul- 
 ture, even in that commercial quarter of the Union. 
 
 While I feel an absolute conviction that our true interests should restrain us 
 from burdening or impeding agriculture in any way whatever, I am not only ready 
 to admit, hut must beg leave to urge, that sound policy requires our giving every 
 encouragement to commerce and its connexions, which may be found consistent 
 with a due regard to agriculture. 
 
 The communication between the different ports of every nation is a business en- 
 tirely in their power. — The policy of most countries has been to secure this domes- 
 tic navigation to their own people. The extensive coasts, the immense bays and 
 numerous rivers of the United States, have already made this an important object, 
 and it must increase with our population. As the places at which the cargoes of 
 coasting vessels are delivered must be supplied with American produce from some 
 part of the Union, and as the merchant can always have American bottoms to 
 transport the goods of the producing State to the State consuming them, no inter- 
 ruption to the market of the planters and farmers can be apprehended from prohibit- 
 ing transportation in foreign bottoms from port to port within the United States. — A 
 single exception may perhaps be proper, permitting foreign vessels to carry from 
 port to port, for the purpose of finishing their sales, any goods that shall be part of 
 the cargoes they brought into the Union, from the last foreign place at which they 
 loaded. The fleets of colliers on the British coasts evince the possible benefits of 
 such a regulation. 
 
 The consumption of fish, oil, whalebone, and other articles obtained though the 
 fisheries, in the towns and counties that are convenient to navigation, has become 
 much greater than is generally supposed. I am informed that no less than five 
 thousand barrels of mackerel, salmon and pickled codfish, are vended in the city of 
 Philadelphia annually; add to them the dried fish, oil, spermaceti candles, whale- 
 bone, &c, and it will be found a little fleet of sloops and schooners are employed 
 in the business. The demand for the use of the inhabitants of those parts of the 
 Union to which these supplies can be carried, is already considerable, and the in- 
 crease of our towns and manufactures will render it more so every year. In the 
 present state of our navigation we can be in no doubt of procuring these supplies 
 by means of our own vessels. The country that interferes most with us at our 
 own market is Nova Scotia, which also, I am informed, has had some emigrants 
 from our fishing towns since the decline of their business. Such encouragement 
 to this valuable branch of commerce, as would secure the benefits of it to our own 
 
40 
 
 people, without injuring our other essential interests, is certainly worth attention. 
 The convention will probably find on consideration of this point that a duty or 
 prohibition of foreign articles, such as our own fisheries supply, will be safe and 
 expedient. 
 
 These are the principal encouragements to foreign commerce, which occur to 
 me at present, as proper to form a part of a permanent system for the United 
 States. Regulations for temporary purposes, such as restrictions and prohibitions 
 affecting particular nations, I do not mean to speak of here. I must, however, observe, 
 that they should be adopted with great prudence and deliberation, as they may affect 
 us very unfavorably, if they should be tried in vain. In taking measures to pro- 
 mote manufactures, we must be careful that the injuries to the general interests of 
 commerce do not exceed the advantages resulting from them. The circumstances 
 of the country, as they relate to this business, should be dispassionately and thor- 
 oughly examined. Though it is confessed, that the United States have full em- 
 ployment for all their citizens in the extensive field of agriculture, yet as we have 
 a valuable body of manufacturers already here, and as many more will probably 
 emigrate from Europe, who will choose to continue at their trades, and as we have 
 some citizens so poor as not to be able to effect a little settlement on our waste lands, 
 there is a real necessity for some wholesome general regulations on this head. 
 
 By taking care not to force manufactures in those States, where the people are 
 fewer, tillage much more profitable, and provisions dearer than in several others, 
 we shall give agriculture its full scope in the former, and leave all the benefits of 
 manufacturing, (so far as they are within our reach,) to the latter. South Carolina, 
 for instance, must manufacture to an evident loss, while the advancement of that 
 business in Massachusetts will give the means of subsistence to many, whose occu- 
 pations have been rendered unprofitable by the consequences of the Revolution. 
 A liberal policy on this subject should be adopted, and the produce of the Southern 
 States should be exchanged for such manufactures as can be made by the Northern, 
 free from impost. 
 
 Another inducement to some salutary regulations on this subject will be sug- 
 gested by considering some of our means of conducting manufactures. Unless 
 business of this kind is carried on, certain great natural powers of the country will 
 remain inactive and useless. Our numerous mill seats, for example, by which 
 flour, oil, paper, snuff, gunpowder, iron work, woollen cloths, boards and scantling, 
 and some other articles, are prepared or perfected, would be given by Providence 
 in vain. If properly improved, they will save us an immense expense for the 
 wages, provisions, clothing and lodging of workmen, without diverting the people 
 from their farms. — Fire, as well as water, affords, if I may so speak, a fund of assis- 
 tance, that cannot lie unused without an evident neglect of our best interests. 
 Breweries, which we cannot estimate too highly, distilleries, sugar houses, potteries, 
 casting and steel furnaces, and several other works, are carried on by this powerful 
 element, and attended with the same savings, that were particularized in speaking 
 of water machines. It is probable also that a frequent use of steam engines will 
 add greatly to this class of factories. In some cases where fire and water are not 
 employed, horses are made to serve the purpose as well and on much lower terms 
 than men. The cheapness and the easy increase of these serviceable animals insure 
 us this aid to any extent that occasion may require, which however is not likely to 
 be very great. 
 
 The encouragement to agriculture, afforded by some manufactories, is a reason 
 of solid weight in favor of pushing them with industry and spirit. Malt liquors, if 
 generally used, linseed oil, starcb, (and were they not a poison to our morals and 
 constitutions I might add corn spirits,) would require more grain to make them, than 
 has been exported in any year since the Revolution. — I cannot omit to observe 
 here, that beer strengthens the arm of the laborer without debauching him, while 
 the noxious drink now used enervates and corrupts him. — The workers in leather, 
 too, of every kind, in Hax and hemp, in iron, wood, stone and clay, in furs, horn, 
 and many other articles, employ either the spontaneous productions of the earth or 
 the fruits of cultivation. 
 
 A further encouragement to manufactures will result from improvements and dis- 
 coveries in agriculture. — There are many raw materials, that could be produced in 
 this country on a large scale, which have hitherto been very confined. Cotton, for 
 many years before the Revolution, was not worth more than nine pence sterling in 
 the West India Islands. The perfection of the factories in Europe has raised it to 
 such a pitch, that besides the prohibition against shipping it from the colonies to any 
 foreign port, the price has risen fifty per cent. The consumers in Pennsylvania 
 
41 
 
 have paid near two shillings sterling for the importation of this year. This article 
 must be worth the attention of the Southern planters. 
 
 If the facts and observations in the preceding part of this paper be admitted to be 
 true and just, and if we take into consideration with them the acknowledged supe- 
 riority of foreign commerce and the fisheries over our manufactories, we may 
 come to the following conclusions : — 
 
 That the United States of America cannot make a proper use of the natural 
 advantages of the country, nor promote her agriculture and other lesser interests, 
 without manufactures — that they cannot enjoy the attainable benefits of commerce 
 and the fisheries, without some general restrictions and prohibitions affecting foreign 
 nations — that in forming these restrictions and prohibitions, as well as in establishing 
 manufactories, there is occasion for great deliberation and wisdom, that nothing 
 may be introduced, which can interfere with the sale of our produce, or with the 
 settlement and improvement of our waste lands. 
 
 It will not be amiss to draw a picture of our country, as it would really exist 
 under the operation of a system of National laws formed upon these principles. 
 While we indulge ourselves in the contemplation of a subject at once so interesting 
 and dear, let us confine ourselves to substantial facts, and avoid those pleasing delu- 
 sions into which the spirits and feelings of our countrymen have too long misled 
 them. 
 
 In the foreground we should find the mass of our citizens the cultivators, (and 
 what is happily for us, in most instances, the same thing,) the independent proprie- 
 tors of the soil. Every wheel would appear in motion that could carry forward the 
 interests of this great body of our people, and bring into action the inherent powers 
 of the country. A portion of the produce of our lands would be consumed in the 
 families or employed in the business of our manufacturers — a farther portion would 
 he applied in the sustenance of our merchants and fishermen and their numerous 
 assistants — and the remainder would be transported by those that could carry it at 
 the lowest freight, (that is, with the smallest deduction from the aggregate profits 
 of the business of the country,) to the best foreign markets. 
 
 On one side, we should see our manufacturers encouraging the tillers of the earth 
 by the consumption and employment of the fruits of their labors, and supplying them 
 and the rest of their fellow citizens with the instruments of their occupations, and 
 the necessaries and conveniences of life, in every instance where it could be done 
 without injuriously and unnecessarily increasing the distress of commerce, the labors 
 of the husbandmen, and the difficulties of changing our native wilds into scenes of 
 cultivation and plenty. Commerce, on the other hand, attentive to the general 
 interests, would come forward with offers to range through foreign climates in search 
 «pf those supplies, which the manufacturers could not furnish but at too high a price, 
 or which nature has not given us at home, in return for the surplus of those stores, 
 ithat had been drawn from the ocean or produced by the earth. 
 
 The commercial citizens of America have for some time felt the deepest distress; 
 among the principal causes of their unhappy situation were the inconsiderate spirit 
 of adventure to this country, which pervaded every kingdom in Europe, and the 
 prodigious credits from thence given to our merchants. To these may be added the 
 high spirits and the golden dreams that naturally followed such a war, closed with so 
 much honor and success. Triumphant over a great enemy, courted by the most 
 powerful nations in the world, it was not in human nature that America should 
 immediately comprehend her new situation. Really possessed of the means of future 
 greatness, she anticipated the most distant benefits of the Revolution, and considered 
 them as already in her hands. She formed the highest expectations, many of which, 
 however, serious experience has taught her to relinquish, and now that the thought- 
 less adventures and imprudent credits from foreign countries take place no more, 
 and time has been given for cool reflection, she will see her true situation, and need 
 not be discouraged. 
 
 The foundations of national wealth and consequence are so firmly laid in the 
 United States, that no foreign power can undermine or destroy them. But the em- 
 joyment of these substantial blessings is rendered precarious by domestic circum- 
 stances. Scarcely held together by a weak and half' formed federal constitution, the 
 powers of our national government, are unequal to the complete execution of any 
 salutary purpose, foreign or domestic. The evils resulting from this unhappy state 
 of things have again shocked our reviving credit, produced among our people alarm- 
 ing instances of disobedience to the laws, and if not remedied, must destroy our 
 property, liberties and peace. Foreign powers, however disposed to favor us, can 
 expect neither satisfaction nor benefit from treaties with Congress, while they are 
 
 6 
 
42 
 
 unable to enforce them. We can, therefore, hope to secure no privileges from there, 
 if matters are thus conducted. 
 
 We must immediately remedy this defect, or suffer exceedingly. Desultory 
 commercial acts of the legislatures, formed on the impression of the moment, pro 
 ceedin£ from no uniform or permanent principles, clashing with the laws of the other 
 States, and opposing those made in the preceding year by the enacting State, can 
 no longer be supported, if we are to continue one people. A system which will pro- 
 mote the general interests with the smallest injury to particular ones, has become 
 indispensably necessary. Commerce is more affected by the distractions and evils 
 arising from the uncertainty, opposition and errors of our trade laws, than by the 
 restrictions of any one power in Europe. A negative upon all commercial acts of 
 the Legislatures, if granted to Congress, would be perfectly safe, and must have 
 an excellent effect. If thought expedient, it should be given as well with 
 regard to those that exist, as to those that may be devised in future. Con- 
 gress would thus be enabled to prevent every regulation, that might oppose the 
 general interests, and by restraining the States from impolitic laws, would gradually | 
 bring our national commerce to order and perfection. Such of the ideas suggested 
 in the preceding part of this paper, as shall be honored with the public approbation, 
 may be better digested, and, if they appear worthy of it, may form new articles of 
 confederation, which would be the foundation of the commercial system. 
 
 I have ventured to hint at prohibitory powers, but shall leave that point and the 
 general power of regulating trade to those who may undertake to consider the polit- 
 ical objects of the Convention, suggesting only the evident propriety of enabling 
 Congress to prevent the importation of such foreign commodities, as are made from 
 our own raw materials. When any article of that kind can be supplied at home, 
 upon as low terms as it can he imported on, a manufacture of our own produce, so 
 well established, ought not by any means to be sacrificed to the interests of foreign 
 trade, or subjected to injury by the wild speculations of ignorant adventurers. In 
 all cases careful provision should be made for refunding the duties on exportation, 
 which renders the impost a virtual excise without being liable to the objections 
 against an actual one, and is a great encouragement to trade. 
 
 The restoration of public credit at home and abroad should be the first wish of our 
 hearts, and requires every economy — every exertion we can make. The wise and 
 virtuous axioms of our political constitutions, resulting from a lively and perfect 
 sense of what is due from man to man, should prompt us to the discharge of debts of 
 such peculiar obligation. We stand bound to no common creditors. The friendly 
 foreigner, the widow and the orphan, the trustees of charity and religion, the patri- 
 otic citizen, the war-worn soldier, and a magnanimous ally — these are the principal 
 claimants upon the feeling and justice of America. Let her apply all her resources 
 to this great duty, and wipe away the darkest stain that has ever fallen upon her. 
 
 The general impost — the sale of the lands and every other unnecessary article of 
 public property — restraining with a firm hand every needless expense of govern- 
 ment and private life — steady and patient industry, with proper dispositions in the 
 people, would relieve us of part of the burden, and enable Congress to commence 
 their payments, and with the aid of taxation, would put the sinking and funding of 
 our debts within the power of all the States. 
 
 APPENDIX No. II. 
 
 To the Tradesmen and Manufacturers of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. 
 
 Gentlemen : — The large importations from Europe of the manufactures of this 
 country cull loudly on us to join in some united effort to remedy a measure so de- 
 structive. It is with regret we observe, that since the peace the importations into 
 this State have consisted of many articles which are usually manufactured among 
 ourselves, on which thousands of individuals depend for the maintenance of them- 
 selves and families, and many of our brethren who have been engaged in the war, 
 and are now returned to their occupations, rely for subsistence and support; we 
 therefore view the continuance of such a practice as tending to the ruin of those 
 several manufacturers and impoverishing great numbers of industrious members of 
 society. 
 
 Nothing can be more desirable at this important period than a firm, united exertion 
 to prevent the evils we apprehend, and, as we conceive, the interest of the whole 
 
43 
 
 is so intimately connected with those branches already affected, we should wish to 
 establish a union upon so broad a basis that it cannot fail producing the most 
 extensive and permanent advantages to the collective body of mechanics. 
 
 We conceive ourselves interested in one common cause, although the evils we 
 complain of are not equally felt by all. Yet we trust our brethren will view the 
 concern as general, and will be ready to join with us in all legal measures to obtain 
 a regulation in the present system of commerce, which, if not speedily checked, 
 must prove fatal to the whole. 
 
 If ever the attention of the manufacturers and mechanics of this Commonwealth 
 was required, this is the interesting moment. If we let this opportunity pass with- 
 out some endeavors on our part, we shall forever have reason to repent of our re- 
 missness ; every day brings fresh proofs of the necessity of our exertions, and we 
 cannot answer it to GOD, our COUNTRY, our POSTERITY, or OURSELVES, 
 if we are inactive at this decisive crisis. 
 
 The restrictions by the British Government on all American vessels, and the 
 shipping of goods from England to America in British bottoms, must eventually 
 operate to the destruction of ship building among ourselves, and render our vessels 
 of little value in prosecuting voyages to any part of the British dominions, and 
 entirely destroy our carrying trade, an object so essentially important to America. 
 
 We have reason to apprehend, from what has hitherto taken place, that not only 
 our ship building will be ruined, but every article of rigging, sails, blocks, and also 
 cordage ready fitted for the rigger, together with all the variety of ship chandlery, 
 will soon be imported by British merchants or factors, or brought in vessels freighted 
 as English bottoms ; the consequence must be the entire ruin of our ship builders, 
 blacksmiths, ropemakers, riggers, block-makers, sail-makers, with every other 
 branch of business connected with the equipment of vessels. 
 
 We need not mention other branches of trade and manufacture more immediately 
 affected by foreign importation— they are too keenly felt to need repetition, being 
 sensible that every implement throughout the whole system of mechanism will ere 
 long (without speedy assistance) be wrested from the hands of the industrious 
 American. 
 
 These things are not surmises, they are truths which cannot be controverted, — 
 they therefore require our joining in a petition to the next General Court, praying 
 that such duties may be laid on foreign importations of all articles usually manufac- 
 tured here, as will prevent their being brought among us to the injury of such indi- 
 viduals as are now in those branches. 
 
 As the time is now approaching for the choice of persons to represent us, the 
 ensuing year, on whom we greatly rely for the success of our petition, it is hoped 
 the tradesmen and manufacturers will exert their whole influence to make choice 
 of those men who are avowedly friends to the manufactures of this country. Your 
 own judgment will dictate to you such persons, whose connections, whose stead- 
 iness and whose patriotism will bear the test of scrutiny. 
 
 We are, gentlemen, with every sentiment of esteem, your friends and brethren 
 in a common cause. John Gray. 
 
 And they addressed the following letter to Governor Bowdoin : — 
 May it please your Excellency — We, the Committee of Tradesmen and Manufac- 
 turers of the town of Boston, do in their names congratulate your Excellency on 
 your appointment to the chief seat of Government. 
 
 It affords us the greatest satisfaction that a gentleman is placed at the head of this 
 Commonwealth who is so particularly acquainted with the interests of the country, 
 and on whose integrity, wisdom, and decision we can confidently rely. 
 
 Your Excellency's disposition to encourage the manufactures of this country (the 
 embarrassed state of which has not escaped your notice) gives us the most pleasing 
 expectation of your patronage and support, and we anticipate the fond idea that such 
 measures will soon be adopted by this State fully adequate to the removal of the 
 difficulties under which we at present labor. 
 
 The unanimity which so generally prevails throughout the several branches of 
 the Legislature, we conceive a happy presage to produce those national blessings so 
 earnestly desired by every sincere friend to the independence of America. 
 
 May your administration be happy. May union and stability prevail in all our 
 public counsels. And may your Excellency, by a faithful discharge of the im- 
 portant duties of your station, ever receive the warmest acknowledgments of the 
 people over whom you preside. 
 
 To which his Excellency made the following reply : — 
 
 Gentlemen — I am greatly indebted to the worthy body of tradesmen and manu- 
 
44 
 
 facturers in the town of Boston for their congratulations, and in particular to you, 
 gentlemen, for the obliging manner in which you have communicated them. 
 
 You certainly are not mistaken in your idea of my disposition to encourage the 
 manufactures of this country, and for that purpose I hope to see measures adopted 
 fillly adequate to the removal of the difficulties under which the several classes of 
 my fellow citizens do at present unhappily labor. To the forwarding and com- 
 pleting of such adequate measures, I shall be happy to contribute. 
 
 I thank you for your good wishes, and especially for the wish that my adminis- 
 tration may be happy. — Be assured, gentlemen, it shall be my endeavor to make it 
 so to every class of citizens throughout the Commonwealth, and particularly to the 
 tradesmen and manufacturers of Boston, whose prosperity it will give me great 
 pleasure to see, but much greater to promote. 
 
 James Bowdoin. 
 
 APPENDIX No. III. 
 
 Address from the Congress of the Confederation to the People, (1783). 
 
 If other motives than those of justice be requisite on this occasion, no nation could 
 ever feel stronger ; for to whom are the debts to be paid ? 
 
 To an ally, in the first place, who, to the exertion of his arms in support of our 
 cause, has added the succor of his treasure; who, to his important loans, has added 
 liberal donations ; and whose loans themselves carry the.impression of his magna- 
 nimity and friendship. 
 
 To individuals in a foreign country, in the next place, who were the first to 
 give so precious a token of their confidence in our justice, and of their friendship for 
 our cause, and who are members of a republic which was second in espousing our 
 rank among nations. 
 
 Another class of creditors is that illustrious and patriotic band of our fellow 
 citizens, whose blood and whose bravery have defended the liberties of their 
 country ; who have patiently borne, among other distresses, the privation of their 
 stipends, while the distresses of their country disabled it from bestowing them ; and 
 who, even now, ask for no more than such a portion of their dues as will enable 
 them to retire from the field of victory and glory into the bosom of peace and private 
 citizenship, and for such effectual security for the residue of their claims, as their 
 country is now unquestionably able to provide. 
 
 The remaining class of creditors is composed partly of such of our fellow citizens 
 as originally lent to the public the use of their funds, or have since manifested most 
 confidence in their country, by receiving transfers from the lenders, and partly of 
 those whose property has been either advanced or assumed for the public service. 
 
 To discriminate the merits of these several descriptions of creditors, would be a 
 task equally unnecessary and invidious. If the voice of humanity plead more loudly 
 in favor of some than of others, the voice of policy, no less than of justice, pleads in 
 favor of all. — A wise nation will never permit those who relieve the wants of their 
 country, or who rely most on its faith, its firmness and its resources, when either of 
 them is distrusted, to suffer by the event. 
 
 Let it be remembered, finally, that it has ever been the pride and boast of 
 America, that the rights for which she contended were the rights of human nature. 
 By the blessing of the Author of these rights on the means exerted for their defence, 
 they have prevailed against all opposition, and form the basis of thirteen independent 
 States. No instance has heretofore occurred, nor can any instance be expected 
 hereafter to occur, in which the unadulterated forms of republican government can 
 pretend to so fair an opportunity of justifying themselves by their fruits. In this 
 view, the citizens of the United States are responsible for the greatest trust ever 
 confided to a political society. If justice, good faith, honor, gratitude, and all other 
 qualities which ennoble the characterof a nation and fulfil the ends of governments, 
 be the fruits of our establishment, the cause of liberty will acquire a dignity and 
 lustre which it has never yet enjoyed, and an example will be set which cannot but 
 have the most favorable influence on the rights of mankind. If, on the other side, 
 our government should be unfortunately blotted with the reverse of these cardinal 
 and essential virtues, the great cause which we have engaged to vindicate will be 
 dishonored and betrayed; the last and fairest experiment in favor of the rights of 
 human nature will he turned against them, and their patrons and friends exposed to 
 be insulted and silenced by the votaries of tyranny and oppression. 
 By order of the United States in Congress assembled. 
 
 
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