The Litchfield County post., 1827-12-27

duties fixed by it upon these articles are not
 adequate to the measure Of success in pro-
 lucing them at home, which their cardinal importance merits. A change since 1924, in he laws of Great Britain in regard to those. first named, has also rendered almost abOr- tive the provisions of the tariff in their favor It belongs to the purpose Of this Report,
 which looks to the encouragement ofthe na-
 tional industry in preference to any that IS fo- reign, here to state, that for period Of three years, ending with 1926, the value of cotton
 and woolIen goods, imported into the United States from the country just named, exceeds
 one hundred millions of dollars; and the val
 ue of iron and of articles manufactured from iron, seventeen millions. During one of these years the wOoll~ns exported from that cOun- try to this exceeds he amount ot those ex- ported to the whole of Europe put together.
 For the means of exchange against an amount of foreign manufactures so great, the United States have had these. principle staples of their 1Oil, viz wheat, flour, tobacco and cotton. The first of these, the same country
 has, by her laws, positively or virtually exclu- ded durug the same period Of years from consumption within her dOminions. The se- cond she has admitted, under duty of more than six hundrcdp per cent. The third she has i received with Iittle scruple. She has known how to convert it into means of wealth to her own industrious people, greater than had ev- CT before, in her whole annals, been derived from any single commodity. This she has done, first. by working it up for her own use upon the largest scale, and next making it subserve the interests of her foreign trade. She has seut it over all seas wherever mar ket opened but chiefly hack again to us, to be
 bought under the enhancements of her own labor at prices four and five fold those which she has paid us for it. Commerce, upon the
 terms attested by such facts, cannot be pro ] nounced just, as between the parties. The
 conviction is deeply entertained that the best
 interests of the nation point to the expedien- cy of reviewing and correcting species of
 commercial intercourse so unequal. It may be applicable to subjoin that the WOollen, cot ton, and iron goods, imported from all other
 parts ofthe world during the years indicated,
 are found to be but about one sixth part of the value of those obtained from the country.
 whose laws fall with edicts of exclusion. or
 whith such disproportionate duties on the
 produce of the U. States not only the articles
 mentioned, but more that might be mention
 ed.
 The complete establishment of American Manufactures in Wool, Cotton, Iron & Hemp, is believed to be of very high moment to the nation. All the principal raw materials for
 carrying them on are at hand, or could be
 commanded. The skill for impapting excel
 lence to them would come at the proper time. There would be no want of labor: to which an abundant water power, as well as artificial machinery, would every where be endiug its assistance Capital would be found for n- vestment in them. If their establishment. by the immediate protection of the laws, should, at first raise the cost of the articles, &, for succession ofyears, keep it up,a true forecast, looking to the future, rather than adapting all it's calculations to the existing hour. would not hesitate to embrace the protecting policy. Nations that would found schemes, of solid and durable advantage, must he ready to do so at the peril of temporary privation. It is the great term of national, as of individual superiority and distinction. To buy cheap, is not the only, or always the chief good. It is for the Legislators, whO have to deal with the practical interests of mankind, to give to ab- stract propositions the necessity of limitations. Considerations, higher than those of present mercantile gain, have often swayed the coun- ses of nations ;-Of nations whose wisdom, in this respect, we ought not lightly to impugn, any more than we can at all question their long pre-eminence in prosperity. Need i, be said that England had her laws,t protect her tonnage, for more than century; during all which time, she might have employed the tonnage of other States, at price much be- low that at which she built and used her own!
 Need it be added what results, to her maratme and commercial sway, have flowed from her
 resOlute perseverance in those laws! Need it
 be said that France, conspicuous for positive
 riches, and comforts, and power, still excludes
 from her territory fabrcs that might trench upon the custom of her own workshops, in branches of labour and art, believed to
 be conducive to the national resources,
 whilst they confer, also, the means of in diyldual thrift? Shall the many laws of these two great States. at periods when they
 were laying the foundations of their manu-
 featuring industry, be recOunted, all tending to foster it, by inducements the most effica- cious-laws to the essential principle of which they still in so many instances systematically adhere. These, with analogous illustrations,as numerous as applicable, will be forborne. as too, familiar to be reeapitulated. The pro tecting laws to our own tonnage, our own cOasting trade, eur own fisheries. still in force, and which first raised up the prostrate navi- gation of the United States. may supercede other references. These show how the Fath- CTS of the Republic were awake to the wisdom of other times and other nations, knowing
 how to make 1t their own. Their recorded