The Massachusetts spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1831-1858, 1832-06-06

adopted from the first and ever since observed. was
preceded by a preamble declaring its objects as
follows - Whereas it is necessary for the sup
port of government for the discharge OF the debts
of the United States and the encouragement and
protection of manufactures, that duties be laid on
goods, wares. and merchandise, imported
AID thus the very first act Of the organized Con- !
gress united with the law of self preservation, BY
the support Of the government just instituted the
two objects combined in the first grant of power to
Congress, the payment of the public debt and the
provision for the Common Defence, by the protec-
ton of manufactures. The next act was precisely
of the same character act of protection to
manufactures still more than Of taxation for revcn.
uo act imposing duties on tonnage, by which
duty of six cents ton was raised upon the YES
sells of the United States entering their ports, and
fifty cents per ton upon all foreign vessels nor
was this the only discrimination between the du.
ties ofoanage levied upon the vessels of the Unit
ed States, and upon foreign vessels upon all YES
sells built thereatterwards in the United States
but belonging in whole part to foreigners the
duty levied was thirty cents per ton. And upon
all merchandise imported in foreign vessels an adj
dton Of ten per cent on the amount of duties was
levied. These determinations were all protective
duties-protectiye of the domestic manufacture.
The argument which denies the power of Con.
gress to levy Duties for the protection Of domestic
manufactures, pronounces unconstitutional those
two first acts by which Congress exercised their
powers-acts among the most memorable, among
the most benehcent exercises &c power which have
rendered the Constitution itself blessing to the
nation. 1t eIpunges from the Constitution the
grant OF power to provide for the Common De
fence.
The government of the u States wa, novelty
in the annals of the world The Constitution was
an experiment. and all its operations have even to
the present times, been experimental. II pressn-
ted The spectacle of nation spread territory
exceeding that of the Roman empire governed by
Representative Democracy, combined with a
&c nd inda
1t was the steamboat of moral and political being.
1t seemed an attempt to couuteract the universal
law Of gravitaiion-to navigate against wind and
tde-to stem the irresistible current of rive:s-to
surmount the tempest, and overcome the flood. In
the process Of this experimental legislation, mis-
takes, some of them Of grave character, and of
alarming consequences have more than once been
made. During The administration of the first Pres
dent, an excise upon ardent spirits, an article,
which to the mind of the moralist and to the
heart of he Christian, presents subject, above all
others. suited to heavy, to burdensome, If not 10
pr0hibitory taxation was found in practice so i'll
adapted even to bear the burden of an extremely
moderate duty, that the attempt to raise one kim
died in one portion Of the Union, the fame of two
successive rebelliOns, while, throughout all the
other States, il was submitted to almost without
murmur.
At later date, and during the administrations of
Mr. Jefferson and Mr.. Madison, restrictive system
adopted for Uncommon defence against the bellige.
rent hostlities of the contending European powers
was found to operate with peculiar severity the
Northern and Eastern section of the Union and
there arose a spirit of extreme discomfort at the
system of government then pursued, which being
further exasperated by the subsequent war, provok
ed the people in that quarter Of the country, till
some of them were almost ready 20 renounce their
connection with the Union
The War terminated, but the restrictive system
which had preceded it, and the necessities with
which the War itself was attended, had created
and fostered new and more extensive manufacture
ing interest than had before existed. The inven-
tive ingenuity of few natives of the British Islands
avang itself not only of their own discoveries but
of those contemporaneously made in other parts of
the civilized world. and applying them to the exer
cise of the mechanic arts, had placed Great Britain
al the head of the manufacturing nations of mod
ern times and by that sympathy which c;rculates
through all the veins and arteries of national pow.
err had made her also ut the same time the rs and
greatest of commercial nations. Such was the
multiplication of physical power by the agency of
machinery, that, at the period to which alIus;on is
now made the mechanical inventions then in use
in Great Britain were estimated as equivalent to
the manual labor of two hundred millions of people
Thus producing more, and at less cost, than her
neighbors and rivals, of the many articles which
contribute TO the comfort and enjoyment of man.
she was enabled in great measure to command
the markets of the world; and connecting with
these advantages a steady system of commercial
policy, not only selfish and monopozing but az
EXPLICITLY ayowed in the parliamentary speeches
Of MIR. Huskisson, armed with permanent unrelent-
ing. premeditated hostility against the commerce
navigation, and manufactures of other nations. her
rivals and competitors, she had succeeded in rem
derlng them all tributary to her industry and in no
small degree dependent upon her power
OF this hostility and Of this depende nce the
people of the United States had shared more than
the inhabitants of any other portion of the globe.
From the time when they had shaken off their co.
lu0epcudPncn had ia III
Of their step-mother the most hated of her rivals,
The imbecity of their confederation left them
without resources of common defence, commercial
ly at her mercy, and the teBderest of her mercies
was cruelty 1t was in the instinct cf self preser-
Walton from this yawning ruin, that the .Constitu.
ton Of the United States had originated and il was
relief from the pressure of that iron hand that the
very hrst acts of the Congress of the United States
were provisnns for the common defence by the pro-
lection Of domestic manufactures.
This protection, with regard to one most imnor.
tant article of domestic industry that of ship build.
ing, was Immediate and effective. Your statistical
writers, Stybert and Ptkin, tell Won that il opera.
ted like eachantment. Providence. as if to reward
with instant success the memorable example given
by the American people to all the nations of the
earth, OF constituting themselves by a peaceabIe
and social compact, founded on the basis of human
rights, one coniederated people, seemed to adapl
the general history of the world in the most SIGNAL
manner to the new organization of the American
Government The wars OF the French revolution.
Immediately succeeding. gave redoubed efficacy
to the encouragement afforded by our new institn.
lions to cur shipping and navigation They OMEN
ed at the same time new avenues to our com,ne,c.
The colonial monopoes both of France and Rr;t'
ain were overiuled by the paramount interests of
their belligerent condition. The ports Of their
tropical Islands were burst open to eur shins and
our trades, by powers beyond their control We
became the carriers Of France because her com.
mercia flag was banshed from the ocean nv tho
naval supremacy of the British power; we became
often the carriers Of Britain herself interested to
neutral flag.
The injustice Of beligerent practices and pre.
tensions in proportion as they became grievous and
intoleFabie, threw us back upon our own resources
gave rise to succession of measures restrictive of
our own commerce, as well as of that with which
we were coniending, and induced a conflict which
hnalIy fretted into open war. In this state of
things II was that our dependence upon the maru
featured productions Of our enemies was most son
sbly and most extensively felt. Then il was tan,
the conviction became general that domestic
manufactures, OF all the articles essential TO the
comfort Of human life, were among the primary 81.
ements Of national independence Lei il he nh.
served, that this restrictive system. througbou,
and the war in which they terminated were ntc
emi1eD:ly Southern measures The Delepation
from South Carolina, in both Houses of Compress
voted unanimously for the declaration of war.
They had supported the Administration of Pres
idents Jefferson and Madison in the whole series Of
their restrictions in all their acts Of non -importa
ton, of non-intercourse and embargo. These
we're not measures acceptable to the Northern
and Eastern section of the Union. The people Of
that portion of the couRtry and majority of their
Representatives, in Congress, demonstrated against
them, opposed, resisted, almost rebelled against
them. They were forced upon them by the PIE.
ponderatiDg weight ard influence of the South
and by no state Of the confedcracy more steadily