Constitutional Whig. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1824-1832, 1824-04-16
Eighteenth Congress :.
DEBATE
ON TIE TARIFF BILL.

GPEECH OF Ma. p. p. BARBOUR, OF VA.
DELwEREp EstpAY, March, 90, 1924.
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Let US now, sir, examine the manner in which
wealth, acquired by manufactures is distribu-
ted. Some years ago, the persons engaged In
manufacturing cotton in England, were estima-
ted at 1000. They may fairly now, from the
extension, be set down, at least, at 1,000, 600.
II would be large calculation to suppose that
$4,000 of that number were interested in the
capital; but let the profits be ever great, eve
yy one knows that the laborers receive only wa
ges, and that too, scarcely enough for COM
Portable mafntenance.-Of consequence, the
whole profit passes into the hand of the capital
lists. Here, then, of 100000 of persons 50,-
600 receive the profits, whatever they are, and
$4,000 receive nothing beyond mere mainte-
nance.-Now, Mr.. Chairman, is it the policy of
this country to concentrate wealth in the hands
of few, or to give it the utmost possible diffu-
sion amongst our peoplel We have been told
that we ought to have am American policy. So
say I, sir. This system suits well the meridian of
G. Britain. 1t does not suit ours. The immense
burdens of that kingdom, the large loans which
are sometimes necessary to be effected, make it
convenient to the British government to have its
wealth in the hands Of few large capitalists.
They are convenient subscribers to large
toan for the service or government, or for a sub
sidy. With us, the principles of our govern
ment, the whoeframe Of our polity, require us not
to make large masses of wealth, but rather to
break themin smaller pieces.-Great inequality
in wealth would tend to warp our institutions
from their natural course. Sir, the structure of
society in Great Britain may be aptly illustrated
by one of the stately columns which support the
dome of this magnificent hall: Its base is of
freestone; its shaft, of domestic marble; its
capital, of fine Italian. The emblem Of ours is,
or ought to be, column, whose base, shaft, and
capital, are of the same material. l repeat, sir,
that system, tending to produce great Unequal
ity, may suit Great Britain it does not suit US.
And, after all, Mr.. Chairman, is wealth, though
desirable, the only great desideratum in govern
ment, especially in Carthage, sir, the rich
est city in the world, in her day, was, at the
same time, the weakest; and, in the last great
strugSl lie ior her political existence, she relied,
for her defence, upon an army of mercenary
soldiers, andwas utterly detected and oyertniown
by her poorer neighbours, the Romans--thqs
executing their famous denunciation, Deienda
est Carthage. Sir,'there are great moral and
political objections to the premature encourage
ment of manufactures.
Ishall not attempt, sir, to take the lecturers
chair, and read moral homily to the commit
tee; shall not stop to speak of the effects of
large manufacturing establishments, upon the
health, the manners, or the morals of the labor
ers; let it be- if gentlemen will have it, that con-
tinued toll, through the day, and part of the
night the continual smoke, oil, and lamps, of
these places, do not affect the health; let it be
that the early withdrawal of children from pa
rents, and the indiscriminate crowdng together
of sexes and ages do not affect the morals; let all
this be- and yet there is an objection in polit-
cal light, which makes me adverse to this policy.
In England, sir, if wealth can be accumulated,
If the government can squeeze taxes enough
from the people, to save it from sinking under
its mountain load of debt if the privileged or
dcrs and capitalists can be kept up, it matters
not that hundreds of thousands, that millions of
the people, are doomed to exist, not live; to be
considered as the machines which belong to the
establishment with no other difference than this,
that, whilst other machines are impelled by wa
ter, or fire, they are put into motion, by that
principle of animation which nature implanted
IN them. In this country, sir, we do not want
animated machines, we do not want plebs, or
populace; we want men, we want people; we
want citizens who obey the laws, not task-mas-
tiers; who do not receive their daily bread from
she hand of another, but from their own volun-
tary labor upon their own soil; who have stake
In the government, who feel and take an inter-
est in public affairs, and are ready and willing to
defend themselves men and citizens in their
rights of property, and civil and political lber-
million of Engiishmen engaged III cotton facto-
RIGS as day laborers, and million of American
citizens cultiyating their own soil. Look sir
at the riots in England in 1903, and 1919, when
whole manufacturing districts were reused into
acts of violence from the low price of labor,
and the high prices of provisions. A sudden
check to demand for manufactures, or tempo
Jary scarcity of gain, makes wages an INSULT
Gent resource for comfortable maintenance,
Remove them, and they settle down quietly to
their tasks. Reflect for moment sir, on the
scene in 1915, when the corn maximum was un-
der consideration, when my Lord Castlereagh,
late Lord Londonderry, caused the parliament
house to be surrounded by armed soldiers, to
keep of, what he was pleased to call mob;
that is the people, who feared, by the high price
of grain, they would starve for bread. In this
country, sir, where agriculture predorninates
no such difficulties occur; our own people eat
fiieir own bread, and have some to spare to the
British manufacturer. And let US not be I'M
easy sir, that we have too much bread-stuff; we
can always dispose of it, at some price; and III
be now low it is owing to the state of the world;
scare manufacturesin England low; for our man
ufacturers tell us, they so much so, that they
shall be ruined, il brought into competition with
theirs. Let me add, sir, for the comfort of our
sgricultursts, that some surplus ofgrain on hand,
is national blessing; they serve the purpose
which public granaries did in ancient times, to
supply defcienGyears; the very year, sir, after
the English farmers called for maximum on
corn, from their supposed abundance, the year
1916, such was the scarcity that it rose to G6
sterling the quarter Of eight busbeiy even IN