Phenix gazette. [volume] (Alexandria [D.C.]) 1825-1833, 1832-01-23

ness, too eloqaently teach Us that, without some
change in your policy. the days Ut our prosperity
ssre numbered" Sir, it is within my own ex-
perience, that, IN the devoted city IN which my
lot has been cast, thriving foreign commerce,
was, within few years past, carried on atreet 20
Europe. We had native merchants, with large
capitals, engaged id the foreign trade we had
thirty or forty ships, many OF them built ana all
owned in Charleston, and giving employment to
a numerous and valuable body Of mechanics and
tradesmen.. Look at the state OF things now
Our merchants bankrupt or driven away-thelr
capital sunk or transferred to other pursuits-our
ship yards broken up-our ships all sold!-yes,
Sir, / am told the very last OF them was lew
months ago brought to the hammer-our mechan-
les in despair-the very grass growing IN our
streets, and houses falling into ruins-real estate
reduced to one-t third part of its value, and rents
almost to nothing. The commerce, which we
are still suffered 10 enjoy, diverted from It's pro-
per channels, carried on with borrowed capital,
and through agents sent among US. and MAINTAIN
ed by the Tariff policy bearing of their profits to
more favored lands, eating out our substance
and leaving to our own people the miserable
! crumbs which fall from the table OF their Prospe-
rity. II we hy from the city to the country,
what do we there behold9 Fields abandoned;
the hospiable mansions Of our fathers deserted;
tiers. working ha, der anti faring worse; the plan
ter striving, with unavaling efforts, to avert the
ruin which is before him. 1t has often been my
lot. SIT, to see the once thriving planter reduced
to despair; cursing his hard fate, gathering up
the small remnants Of his broken fortune, and,
with his wife and little ones, tearing himself from
the Scenes Of bis childhood and the bones ut his
ancestors, to seek in the wilderness. that reward
for his industry, Of which your fatal policy has
deprived him.
consider the genial climate with which God has
blessed the SOuta---when we contemplate the rare
felicity OF our position, as the producers OF an ar
ticIe which, under proper system OF Tree trade,
would command the markets of the worlds 1t
not enough to fill our hearts almost to bursting
to find the richest blessings that an induigent
Providence ever showered down upon the heads
Of any people, torn from us BY the cruel policy
of our government, to find the bounties of Hca.
ven thus blasted by the hand of man? Sir, will
not deny that there are other causes besides the
Tariff. which have contributed to produce the
evils which have depicted. Trade can. to some
extent. be carried on with greater facility at New
York, and cotton may be raised more proftably
in Alabama; but these advantages would not have
broken up the commerce or depressed the agri
culture of South Carolina, while an unrestricted
intercourse with foreign nations enabled US to re-
alize the most moderate profits. Men do not
quit their accustomed employments or the homes
of their fathers, for any small addition to their
mr. fits. 1t is only when restriction has reached
point which leaves the door still open to one,
while it closes it against the other that this result
is produced; and therefore it is: that rapid
transfer Of capital and population is now added
to the other evils with which the old States are
afflicted
In this conditianssf the country, where is there
to be found fui6lment of the promises held out
to the south in 1894? We were then told that
we hadmlstaken the true character OF this system.
We were entrcated only to try it for short time.
We were told that the taxes imposed on foreign
articles would be but temporary; that the manu-
features would want protection but tor short
time-only to give them start-and that they
would soon be able to stand alone. We were
to have had double market for our cotton-higli
prices, revivng commerce, and renewed prospe-
rity. SIR, after the experience OF four years,
the tariff of '28 came up for consideration, by
which the protecting system was to be further
extended and enlarged. And what was found
TO have been the result of four years experience
at the Southi Not hope fulfilled, not one pro-
mise perfor med-aud our condition infinitely
worse than It had been four years before. Sir,
the whole South rose upas one man, and protest.
ed against any further experiment with this fatal
system. The whole Of the representatives OF Sc
ven States, Virginia, North Carolina, South Ca
roIina. Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and Ten.
nessee, with, / believe. but three dissenting vol:
ces,) recorded their votes, against that bill Sir,
do not gentlemen find in this fact, some evidence
If The dangerous character of that legislation on
which this system is based. Can it be wise-can
it be just-can it be prudent-to adopt and en-
force policy so essentially sectional in its cha
rac,er? Can we hope for harmony, peace and con-
cord, while enforcing system against which an
entire section Of your country so strongly revoltse
1t is the essential principle Of the representative
system. that mutual sympathy Of feeling and OF
interest, should bind together the people and
their rulers; and it may be worthy OF profound
reflection how far that principle is essentially pre-
served by a scheme of legislation, under which
the feelings and interests of so large portion of
the country are outraged and traWpled on. When
taxes are imposed, not By the representatives of
those who are to bear the bur:hens, but of those