Richmond enquirer. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1815-1867, 1832-03-06

tendency and the design of tho Restrictive Sysom
To exclude from the natural market. Even ii the
planters were willing 10 abandon their accustomed
and hereditary pursuits and embark in business of
manufacture, their entire capital would be deprived
OF more than half its value by the very of
ierringit. When TO this we add the consideration,
that n long probation of disastrous experiments
would be the only means of acquiring any thing
IKE the skill necessary to successful competition
WIN their Northern rivals, the reason will be OBJ
vious why the Southern States have not evated and
why they cannot cvodc, the burdens imposed upon
the productions of their industry, by abandoning
tlcir present pursuits, and cmbarng in the favored
branches OF industry. Nothing can be more extra
VACANT than To suppose that the people of inn
nensc cxten: of country embracing eight sovereign
States, can transfer thousand millions of capital
from agriculture To manufactures, with the same ia
City that u halter or a shoemaker can avoid tax
upon hats shoes, by taking up some other trade
As the restrictions imposed on the productions of
Southern industry are affected by the agency of in
d'fcct taxes, the burdens imposed upon the planting
states by the Protecting SYSTEM are not very mae
curaciy measured by the amount of the taxes levied
upon their productions. And, when the inequality
OF the Government disbursements added to tho
inequality of the contributions eXacted by import
duties 1t may he confidently affirmed that the bur
dens imposed upon the planting States ny the taxa
ton, prohibition, and disbursements of the Federal
Government, are more than equal To- the amount OF
taxes levied upon those imports which are obtained
IN exchange for the three great agricultural staples
OF cotton tobacco and rice. That duty upon an
import is equivalent to the same amount Of duty
upon the export which has been exchanged for it, is
but sclf-cvidcnt proposition to all who correctly
comprehend It's import. The planter is as injuri-
osly affected by shc duty as he would be by the
other, without any reference whatever to his own
consumption. Let it bc supposed that two planters
should each send a hundred bales of cotton to E,i-
rope, exchange them for manufactures and bring
these into the United States exclusively for salc-
and that one of them should pay an export duty of
forty per cent. the value of his cotton as went
out and the other AN import duty of forty per cent.
on the value of his manufactures as they came i'm: il
Is perfectly obvious that each of them would obtain
Tie same quantity of manufactures for his cotton i'm
f.urope-the same price for these manufactures i'm
the United Stajes-and, ut the maturity of their
bonds at the custom-house, each of them would
have to pay the amount of duty TO the Govern
ment Each would, therefore, realize the very same
price for his hundred bales of cotton; and, conse-
qucnily, the one who paid the duty upon his export
would sustain no heavier burden than the othcr.-
w hat IS true of the comparative effect of import
and export duties, upon the producers of one hun
dred bales OF cotton, is equally the effect
OF these duties on the producers of one million of
bales.
Whether the duty be laid on the export or OH the
import it is equally laid, in both cases. upon the pro-
duction of the planter. There cannot be more
Iaipabe and dcusivc error, than the vulgar notion
that imported manufactures, which have been pur-
chased by the agricultural staples of this country
are foreign productions They are as strictly and cy-
cusively the productions ofdomestic industry as if
they were manufactured in the United States. Look
ing, therefore, at the planting and manufacturing
states with the eye of an enlightened philosophy,
these two great divisions of the Union must be re-
garded as devoting their capital and labor to the
production oil the very same articles, for the very
same market. The Southern States manufacture
by The agency of plouglIs, and hoes and horses
what the Northern States manufacture bv the agcn-
cy of machinery; and they competitors for the
market ofthc United States, equally entitled to the
protection of the Government, by every principle of
Inv flin if,ia
nal justice. No Government upon the face of the
earth can have any,rght--this Government certain
y has no constitutional right-to nterpose its power
for tho purpose of driving of these great CONNIE
ors out of the Market in order that it may be ex-
ciusvcly enjoyed by the other Neither right
fully impose the slightest burden upon the one not
equally imposed on the dther with view to change
me state OF the competition and the relative condi-
tion of the contcnding parties. Yet, what has the
Congress of the United States done, under the i'm
posing and deceptive pretcXt of protecting domestic
industry? 1t has done all that the power of dis
terminating taxes can do, to destroy great
branch of domestic mdustry--if Southern indus
try may he called domesic-a and build up a RI
val branch upon ns ruins. Ii has laid discriminate
ing duties, averaging not less than forty per centum
upon The important productions of the planting
STATES while II has entirely exempted from taxation
the rival productions of the manufacturing States
consisting OF the very same description of articles
The amount of these Southern productions, upon
winch this discriminating tax is annually levied is
not less than thirty-fiyc millions of dollars; upon
which the tax levied, consequently, amounts TO If
millions of dollars. That this is specifically Il tax
upon the productions of the South, diminishing their
value to the producers very nearly equal amount
conclusIycly results from the admitted fact that these
tlriy-iivc millions of manufactures, produced by
the capital and labor of the Southern States after
paying, at the custom-housc, the amount of
fourteen millions of dollars, cannot be sold for any
higher price larger sum, than the very same guam
ty, and kind, and quality, of manufactures produc-
cd 10y the capital and labor of the Northern States,
paying taxes all 1t is, therefore, too plain to
he argued, that the annual sum which the planting
States receive for tho productions of their capital
and labor is fourteen millions of dollars less than
tho sum received by the manufacturing States
for the very same quantity and description of pro-
ductious; and it is equally plain that this enormous
inequality is produced by the discriminating and
partial taxes otthc Government, laid for the unrghtc
GUS but, nevertheless, avowcd purpose of producing
it, no soil, however productive--no climate, how
ever propitious--no industry, however efficient
can permanently maintain the competition, under
such circumstances. The most bcnignant dispensa-
tons of Providence arc countcractcd by human in
Justice, and, what adds to the cnormity of the out
rage, the farest portion of this great Confedcracy-
if not the farest, and of Heaven the most favored
region of the whole eartl-is literally undergoing
r silent but irresistible process of decay and desc
laiion, produced by gross pervcrsion of the very
power which is under the highest of human oblga-
tons prevent it. The whole ofte Southern staples
produced for expectation must utterly cease, when
they can be no longer exchanged for foreign pro-
ductions suitable tho demand of this country for