The Massachusetts spy, and Worcester County advertiser. [volume] ([Worcester, Mass.]) 1825-1831, 1826-12-06
gUorcester:
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 6, 1926.
PUBLIC MEETING


James Draper, Esq. in the chair.
The object of the meeting having been stat
ed, and the necessity Of speedily adopting
some measures for the relief of the manufac-
turcrs of wool from the evils under which they
are al present suffering, il was
ResOlred, That Committee be appointed
to draw up memorial to Congress on the
ubJect.-Whereupon Emory Washburn, Esq.
James Wolcott, jr Esq. and Mai. John
Brown were appointed. They withdrew, and
afterwards presented memorial, which was
adopted by the meeting, and James Wolcott,
jr. Esq. Capt. |. Southgate, and William Lin
colp, Esq. were appointed to procure sigma
lures thereunto, and TO forward the same 10
our Representatives in Congress.
.IEMORL.4L.
To The Honorable The Senate and the House of
Representatives. Of the United StateS, in
Congress assembled
The undersigned, citizens of the County of
Worcester, in the Commonw OF Massa-
chusetts, respectfully beg leave to represent,
before your Honorable Body, the wants and
Wool, and their claims upon your care and
protection.
In this stage Of our history, it can neither
be necessary nor decorous to employ your
time, in laboring to prove the Importance of
our Manufactures, nor how intimately their
prosperity is connected with the prosperity Of
our country. Experience has already shown
this. 1t has evinced, that, not the Mauulac-
turer alone, but every class III society is inter-
ested in the question of their proper eucour-
agement. Wher more than City millions Of
the capital wealth Of country is invested in
the production Of the necessaries of life, it
cannot be a difficult question whether that
capital shall be annihlated. Nor. would it
seem to be much more difficult question, to
determine whether that capital should remain
useless, or be Withdrawn and diverted, when,
by such diversion, the thousands to whose sup
port its employment contributes, must be be.
prived of the means of honest industry and
An honest livelihood. And such, in our view,
is the question now presented before your
honorable body. Ii is not whether our sec
ton or a separate interest of our country shall!
prosper, but it involves the prosperity ofevery
section, and every interest over which you are
callei to preside. Whenever Manufactures
have fourished, our country has prospered-
almost every klHu Vi property HAS Deen en-
HANGED in value, and the vicissitudes of the
manufacturing interests have sensibly affect
ed almost every interest in the country. This
has been more perceptible in manufacturing
districts, but it may be traced far beyond the
region where the spindle and the loom are
seen to operate.
The history Of our Manufactures will show
! that they need no protection against fair and
honorable competition. They have flourished
under such competition, and can triumphant
ly compete even with foreign commodities,
where they have only to contend with honora-
bic rivalship, and are not encountered by
fabrics forced upon our markets for the very
purpose Of depressing our home productions
Against fair rivalship, we repeat, our manu-
features have fourished, and our manufacture
ing districts have presented scenes Of profta-
BILE business and prosperous activity, that have
astonished while they gratiied the friends of
their country, Smiling villages have sprung
up where all was once desolation, and mar
kets have been formed where the products Of
The soil, before, were almost worthless. 1t is
in such markets that the planter Of the south
might find the surest and the safest sale of his
raw material, and il is to the home markets of
our country that the husbandman must look
for reward for his toll in the fertile regions Of
the west.
This has become so obvious to candid OBJ
servers, that an important revolution in public
opinion, favorable to the cause of manufac-
lures, has of late been rapidly going on. We
believe that this revolution should not be
checked. 1t speaks language which cannot
be dsregarded, and is. We trust, harhinger
! of better day, when a numerous and deserv-
ing class of our citizens will no longer be left
! to struggle with unnatural and unnecessary
difficulties, and to contend, in an unequal con-
1ict, with foreign and hostile interests.
Three years since an appeal to the then Con-
! gress, in behalf OF our manufacturers, met with
an attention which evmced a proper regard, in
| that body, TO the true interests of the nation,
and a new tariff was adopted, which was, at
first, thought to be sufficient guard against
the evils under which they were then labor
ing. But experience has developed the OBJ
lectionahle features of that tariff, far as re-
Hates to the manufa cture Of wool, and its ope-
rations, instead Of obviating anticipated evils,
have produced even greater than before ex-
isted. Our markets are flooded with the IA
brics of foreign manufacture, which are sold
at rate at which neither the foreign manu-
facturer nor our own can produce them. A
system of evasion has been adopted for the in
PRODUCTION of these fabrics, by which our reve-
nue. is defrauded while our manufacturers are
ruined. Under our present tariff our manufac-
lures are in progress of ruin and prostration,
from which nothing can save them but the
strong arm Of Government. To this we ap-
peal. We come before you to ask protection
against the evils which thus threaten our man
utac turers, and, with them, every class in So
ciety. We pray revision of the present ia
riff, and that it may be so amended that the
capital already invested in manufactures OF
wool may not be sacrificed, for the purpose OF
enriching those who have no claims TO your
sympathies or protection. In this matter we
would not dictate, nor even intrude definite
opinion. To your wisdom we commit the
question, and shall be content with whatever