Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 182?-183?, 1832-04-27

inthe Senate QtMe United States,
on the 2ad, Sd and 9Th, of
February 1882.
{ Continued
The friends of the American System have
been reminded, by the honorable gentleman
from Maryland, (Air Smith, that they are
the majority, and he has admonished them 10
exercise their power in moderation. The
majority ought never TO trample upon the
feelings, OF violate the just rights of The mi
nority. They ought never to triumph o.
yer the fallen, nor TO make any but tenn
perate and equitable Use of their power
But these counsels come with an i'll grace
from the gentleman from Maryland. He,
too, is a member of majority-a political
majority. And how has the administration
OF that majority exercised their power in
this country? Recall to your recollection
the fourth of March, 1929, when the
lank, lean, famished forms, from fen and
forest, and the four quarters of the I'm
ion, gathered together in the halls of pat
ronage or stealing, by evenings twilight,
into The apartments of the Presidents man
sion, cried out, with CHASTITY faces, and in
sepulchral tones: Give us bread! Give
US treasury pap! Give us our reward =
England's bard was mistaken ghosts will
sometimes come, called or uncalied. Go 10
the families who were driven from the en-
Payments on which they were dependent
for subsistence, in consequence of their ex-
ercise of the dearest right of frecmen. Go
TO mothers, whilst hugging TO their boSoms
their starving children. Go to fathers, who,
after being disqualified, by long public SER
vice, for any other business, were stripped
OF their humble places, and then sought, by
the minlons oil authority, 10 be stript ofall
that was left them-their good names-and
ask, what mercy was shown to them As
for myself, born in the midst of the Revolu-
ton, the first air that | ever breathed on my
native soil OF Virginia, having been that Of
liberty and independence, never expected
justice, nor desired mercy at their hands ;
and scorn the wrath, and defy the oppres-
sion ofpower
] regret, Mir President, that one topic
has, | think, unnecessarily been introduced
into this debate. allude TO the charge
brought against the manufacturing system,
as favoring the growth Of aristocracy. Fiji
were true, would gentlemen prefer support
ing foreign acCumulations Of wealth, by
| that description of industry, rather than in
their own country? But IS ii correct? The
Joint stock companies Of the n orth, as un-
( derstand them, are nothing moro than as
sociations, sometimes OF hundreds, by means
of which the small earnings OF many are
brought intoa common stock, and the aSsn-
claes, obtaining corporate privileges, are
enabledto prosecute, under one superintend-
ing head, their business TO better advantage.
Nothing can be more essentially democrat
ic or better devised 10 COuntcrpoise the in
( fluence of individual wealth. In Kentucky.
almost every mandatory known TO me, is
I in the hands of enterprising and self made
men, who have acquired whatever wealth
! they possess by patient and diligent labor
/ Comparisons are odious, and, but in defence
would not be made. But is there more ten
dency TO aristocracy, in a mandatory
/ supporting hundreds OF frcemen, or in a
( cotton plantation, with IFS not less numerous
slaves, sustaining, perhaps, only two white
families-that OF the master and the over
I seer?
! pass, with pleasure, from this disagreea-
I bic topic, TO two general propositions which
! cover the entire ground ofdebate. The first
! IS that, under the operation of the American
/ System, the objects which it protects and
/ fosters are broughtto the consumer at choap-
CT prices than they commanded prior to is
| introduction, or than they would command
3
not the country 10 be contented and satisf-
ed with the System, unless the second prop.
osition, which | mean presently also to con
slider, is unfounded And that is, that the
tendency of the System is TO sustain, and
that it has upheld, the prices of all our agri.
cultural and other produce, including cot
! ton.
And is the fact not indisputable, that all
essential obiartS ri cppeurnptiop of l..
the tariff, are cheaper and better, since The
act oflS24, than they were for several year.
I prior TO that law appeal, for IFS truth. I,
common observation and to all practica
men. appeal TO the farmer Of the coun.
! try, whether he does not purchase, on bet
ter terms, his iron, salt, brown sugar, cot
ton goods, and woollens, for his laboriDf
people? And / ask the cotton planter !
he has not been better and more cheaply SUP
piled with his cotton bagging? In REGARD
TO this latter article, the gentleman from
South Carolina was mistaken in supposin,
that ! complained that, under the eXistinr
duty, the Kentucky manufacturer could no
compete with the Scotch. The Kentuckiar
furnishes a more substantial and acheano
article, and at a more uniform and rccula
price But il was the frauds, ile violation
Of Jaw, of (which I did complain Not SNUG
Cling, in the common sense Of that practice
which has something bold, daring. and en-
f terprising in it, but mean bare faced cheat
ing by fraudulent invoices aud false demon
nations
plant myselfupon this FACT, ofcheap
ness and superiority, as upon impregnabl
ground. Gentlemen may tax their ingenu
ily and produce a thousand speculative so
lutions ofthe fact, but the fact itself ill re