Herald of the times. [volume] (Newport, R.I.) 1830-1846, 1832-08-09

|
| How, then, ] ask, can il be contended
that, in exercising this power, Congress
has usurped undelegated poweri
4 If, instead of saying this, you vary
your language, and say, that Congress,
in fixing tariff of duties on imports, with
a view to prote ction, has abused discre-
tionary power, it brings the inquiry pre-
cisely to what | stated it to be-an inQui-
ry as to the expediency Of the protecting
I policy
! And let il be reeollected that the ques-
! ton is not, whether new policy, aud
hitherto unknown to the Government,
shall now be adopted; but whether n pol
icy, coeval with the Government itself,
which has now been pursued for forty
years and upwards, and with gradually
increasing intensity; which is now in the
full tide Of experiment; with which inter-
ests, almost too vast to be calculated ,and
hardly to be conceived, have grown up
and are interviewer, and Oh which they
are dependent--the question now is,
whether this policy shall be continued, or
shall be abandoned Though this is re-
ally the qucslion-though these consid-
erations carry with them an imposing
wei ht towards settling this question:
yet am not willing to rest 1t, and leave
it to be decided on these considerations:
for ] am convinced that the policy is the
true policy of this country; and that, if it
had never been adopted, it ought now to
be adopted; that we are invited to it by
other considerations, that are irresistible.
/ With your indc!genccI will attempt, as
briefly as can, to lay before you the
grounds of that conviction. In a multi
! iarious and extremely complicated qucs-
tion, as one involving effects immediate
and remote, direct and consequential Of
"A scheme Of national policy, must be, it
is difficult to say enough for demonstra-
ton, without saying too much for patient
attention. will endeavor, however, to
do the one; and to avoid, if possible, do
ing the other. Permit me to premise a
| few remarks.
| We have a grcat country, possessing
great natural resources, yet to be devcl-
oped; and "A people, OF all others the best
fitted to develope them-a nation OF free
men, animated with the spirit, and pos
sessing all the energies Of fire edom; re-
marisable for their intelligence, their ae-
tivity, and their enterprises; sagacious,
inventive, and fertile in resource; prompt
and bold in adventure; ardent and inde-
iatigable in pursuit. They are hive
without drones; all are active, all on the
wing, every where, and ransacking ev-
cry field that promises profit; in country
too where no mortmain, no perpetnltles
! prevent alienation and check circulation;
where the accumulations Of one genera
ton are broken down in the next by dis
! tribution; where every new generation is
made up of individuals throw upon their
own resources to make their way in the
world for themselves; where there is no
passport to distinction but eminent merit,
and where that is an inlallible passport
where the first abilities and the highest
virtues connected, whatever may be
their birth, vindicate their way to the
first places in society-to the highest hon
ors Of the nation.
Now, what arc those natural resources
to be developed by this people, so fitted
to develope them' There Are many; u
few only of the more prominent need now
be indicated. There is "a capital in our
domain and its fertility; in its mineral
treasures, not yet fully explored, but
showing themselves in parts all over our
country, and boundless in extent; its
means of artificial power, by water and
by steam, also boundless, and every
where Gitiused; a domain more immense
and more valuable than ever was posses
sed before by any other people; a do
main that combines the elements oi a
world within itself; and when it shall be
filed up with its happy millions, when all
its faculties shall be uniolded, will rival
Europe; will not be less in numbers, aud
will be far superior in condition. IL our
energies are directed by our true policy,
the rising generation will not all have
passed away before these things come.
The infant born to day may live to see
that Add to all this, our ply sical re-
source in the labor of our great and grow
ing population, aided by their peerless
mental energies. Labor-here lies the
source Of all wealth; this is the mine of
all mines to work for its production, for
its issues are unceasing and inexhausti-
BILE. To open and fully to develope this
resource is to strike upon the fountain OF
national weath-to open the spring head
of, and to realize, the tabled Pactolus,
whose copious and unlailing stream was
stream Of gold. Nothings nothing vs.
so omnipotentin producing national wealth
as the labor of nation prohtably dIrec-
ted and fully developed.
We shall all agree, suppose, that il