Edwardsville spectator. [volume] (Edwardsville, Ill.) 1819-1826, 1820-09-05

us, enjoying all the benefits we could
afford her as colonies. When other in
terests are endangered by foreign powers
OF regulation, you are not backward in
resisting them at the risk of war; if
ship or cargo is seized, seaman, native
or naturalized, impressed, or discrimi-
mating duties imposed on tonnage, you
do not leave things to CIRCULATE them
Selves" every thing is protected, every
thing defended, but manufactures-these
alone are unworthy of national protec-
ton. DEGREES and orders in council
that embarrass commerce, are not suf-
fered to operate unmolested but sys-
TEN of bounties and drawbacks, destruc-
tive not only of interests equally impor-
tant, but in their consequences invov-
ing all in one common destruction, are
practically opposed only by the favorite
maxim, leare as alone, let them regu-
late themselves. l hope we shall ex-
tend it to all, or be consistent and apply
it to none. We are independent in
name, have the powers of sclf-govcrn-
ment-but tamely content ourselves
with being dependent on our rival for
articles of necessity and the means of
defence. We cannot clothe or arm our
soldiers, build or equip a navy, without
procuring from England the means
National pride and honor ought to revolt
at the degrading reflection. l hope to
see the day when, in full command of
our consumption and means of defence,
our resources retained at home, our
great interests safe from foreign compe-
tition, we shall be in fact, as we'll as
name, free and Independent states.--
This contamination viii not be brought
about by folding our arms and leaving
the industry OF the country to regulate
itself. 1t was not thus that, in the first
Punic war, you emerged from colonial
dependence; that in the second, you
successfully defended your dearest ma
tional rights. Before we can be, what
our resources enable us TO attain, YOU
must wage the third Punic war-not of
arms, but Of legislation assail our rival
where she is vulnerable, in the source
Of our greatest danger--her systems OF
bounties, drawbacks and premiums, and
in her manufactures, where the congress
of IVA assailed her: SO at least as far
as self-defence will authorise-protect
our own.
The bill proposes an additional duty
on hemp of twenty dollars per ton; it
was deemed necessary that for an article
of the first necessity, without which we
could neither build nor equip ship,
we should not be dependent, as we now
are, for the supply ON foreign nations,
In case Of war all our naval prepara-
tons might be suspended until it could
be produced here. 1t is so essential for
national defence, that we must command
enough for our own consumption
Viewed as an agricultural production,
which was formerly raised in great guam
titles in the western states, but which
has been destroyed by foreign competi-
ton, or as manufacture, ii equally de-
serves protection-at time when our
provisions, excluded from foreign mar
kets, do not command a price which
pays the expense of cultivation--when
the agriculture of the country is as de-
pressed as its manufactures, ii needs at
least so much protection as to enable it
to compete with foreign productions
These reasons, it is hoped, will exempt
the duty on this item from the charge of
hostility to agriculture. This article
now pays duty Of thirty dollars a ton,
the wholesale price of which is two hun
dred and forty dollars--equal to twelve
and an half per cent. ad valorem-the
proposed increase will be twenty-one
per cent. If considered as a manufac-
tured article, essential for consumption
and defence, it is hoped that the propri-
ETY. of the increased duty will be appar-
ent, as it can be raised to an amount far
beyond the demand; the domestic COM
petition will make the increased price
on the imported article but temporary.
The same apply to the additional duty
on cotton, and the further one which
must meet with general assent, that if
the manufacturers of cotton supply the
country with their fabrics, they ought to
use our own raw material and not i'm
port it from India. The cotton planters
must not indulge in fancied security
In 1917 the foreign cotton imported and
consumed in the United States, was
100000 pounds, in l8l8-4,ooo, 900,
in 1919 it amounted to $500, 900: when
they find it thus increasing, and France
and England imposing high duties on its
importation, they ought to be awakened
to the necessity of at least securing the
domestic market, not trusting entirely to
r.