Herald of the times. [volume] (Newport, R.I.) 1830-1846, 1831-11-24


too, that agricultural products have risen
whilst manufactured goods have fallen,
furnish the best proofs that the fall OF pri-
ces are to be mainly attributed to the
competition of domestic labor. II
The loudest complaints Of oppression
proceed from the South, particularly from
South Carolina; but that these complaints
are not owing to the tariff acts, is unques-
ably proved by the fact, that their pub
lie press, their memorials to Congress, y
other mediums of complaint, were as
much burthened with them before those
tionacts, as they have been since. In the
acquisition of the extensive and fertile
territories annexed to the United States
by the purchase of Louisiana, the lands
and property of the plantation states could
not fail to be depreciated by vast ac-
cession of lands, at least as fertile, for all
similar purposes. But it is inconceivable .
how a steady market for at least two hun .
dred thousand bales of cotton year, Ii
able to no fluctuaton from foreign inilu-
ence, can be injurious to the cotton grow
ing states; and, certainly, if the inhabit-
ants Of the less eXuberant and more in
dustrious latitudes of the central 8, east
ern states, were not, from the influence
of climate, or some other cause, less LA
bic to excitement and less addicted to-
complain than their Southern brethren,
they have much greater cause for it.
| The article of sugar is production of
the planting states receiving the full ben
eft of the protecting system. lfany ap-
plication of the system operates as tax
on consumption, it would apply to the du-
i,ty on sugar. 1t is true the cotton plant
ers of South Carolina will not admit that
protection to the cultivation of sugar is
any offset to their own iancied oppres-
sions; but it is apparent that the lands g.
capital devoted to the cultivation of the
sugar cane, are so much of both with
! drawn from The cultivation Of cotton, re-
lieving that culture from the effect of o.
yer production, the only evil which it has
any reason to fear.
1 The bread stufls, lumber, and nearly
all the other staples Of all the grain grow
ing States are excluded from European
markets by prohibitory duties. Whilst
the export of cotton has quadrupled, that
Of bread-stuffs has diminished in much
greater ratio with relation to the popula-
ton of the States that produce them. If,
instead ofspending their time in unavail-
ing complaints, they had not conformed
to circumstances, and turned their atten-
tion to manufactures, their grievances
would have been infinitely greater than
any Of which the southern states have ev-
\ er complained. Nothing could relieve
the farming interests of the middle states
but their own manufactures and the man.
uiactures of the eastern states. They a
lone supply that market which Europe
denies. In addition to the incalculablc
consumption of bread-stufls by the manu-
facturers of the grain growing states,
what is equivalent to million of barrels
Of their bread-stufIs, is imported every
year into the eastern states; relief, with
out which, the susceptibility Of these
states would have been tried to degree
of endurance far beyond that exacted
from their brethren ofthe south. 1t can
not escape observation, that while their
sufferings are announced in most eloquent
language, and in underwriting remon-
STRANGE, yet there has been so little spec
ilication Of the supposed causes, that it is
denied by many, among themselves, that
they suffer at all. There is even good
reason to believe, that within the last five
years, the interest on planting capital has
been more productive to the owner, than
the interest on the same amount Of capi.
tai employed in manufactures.
The states of New-Y York, Pennsylva-
MIA and Ohio have invested a capital of
enormous amount, which may be reck-
oned as at least fifty millions, within the
last ten years, in what are called inter-
nal Improvements, canals, railways, and
other facilities of transportation. This
capital depends entirely upon domestic
industry for its fruits. 1t would be a
dead loss to the four millions Of people |
who have expended it, and might as well
be abandoned at once, without the pro-
tected products of domestic industry for
its returns. Foreign commerce can yield
it little or no service; and to destroy those
guards which secure to it the home mar
ket, would be to render it altogether
a useless expenditure. Foreign COM
merce would in this way lose also one of
its most productive resources.
In our review of the operation of the
tariff upon the various interests of the Sc
veral states, it must never be lost sight
of, that one-ffth of the cotton crop which
is consumed at home, for which we may
estimate the sum paid at six millions Of,
dollars, is, in the course of a very short
time, worked up by manufacture to at