The Northern star, and farmers' and mechanics' advocate. [volume] (Warren, R.I.) 1830-1834, 1834-07-19
REMARKS OF MR.. ROBBINS,
OR RHODE-IsLAND.

I'm presenting certain h0s0Itatons from the
people Of Kent County in II. T.
l am charged with, and rise to present,
certain resolutions on the subject on
which SO many resolutions and memori-
als to Congress have been presented at
. the present session and which, as it now
appears, might as well have been address
sed TO the dull cold eur Of death.
Thece resolutions come from the peo-
pele of Rhode Island, inhabitants Of the
county of Kent, IN, tha, State a county
that has connected with it many interest
ing associations among others that uris-
ing from lis being the birth place and
residence Of that Revolutionary hero,
who stood, in the mind of his country, as
heir apparent to the Commit nder-in- -Chiei
Of her Revolutionary armies, had it been
ordained by Providence that the war
should ouilast the life of her Washington,
(blessed be God, it was not so ordained y
l alude to Gen. Greene, namo that
throws,san interest over-the place Of his
nativity, and those early scehes, where
that great mind, in the shade Of retire.
ment, and in the modesty Of unconscious
genius, by his own culture, grew up to
those capacities which fitted him for
those brilliant parts which he afterwards
enacted OH the theatre of the revoutiona-
ry war. An interest not unlike, though
less intense, yet not unlike that connects
ed with Mount Vernon, which no Ameri-
can beholds without emotion, without say
ing in his secret thoughts and in his pride
OF heart, this was the home Of Washing
ton, my countryman and fellow citizen !;
a name that but another name for all that
is great and sublime in human character /;
whose fame, from the moment it first
broke upon the world, to the end of his
glorious career therein, was so elevated
as to be above the reach of envy--a fell
city peculiar 10 Washington in all the
history Of human greatness. For who
else in that immortal roll but
mperit nriduam supreme fine donna
ri?" Not one.
This interesting county is but Of small
extent, containing only four towns, and
these only about Twelve thousand inbasi-
tans. This people are almost exclu-
sively engaged in the business Of agri-
culture and manufacturers and their pur-
suits, animated as they have been by the
spirit of enterprise, and guided by the
lights of intelligence, have been attended
with great success. They have over
thirty different manufacturing establish
ments within their narrow limits, and a.
bout two millions of fixed capital invest
ed in them they were moving about
eighty thousand cotton spindles, and were
|eXpendng in the wages of manual labor
about four hundred thousand dollars an
nually. But now, more than one third
of these works are suspected, and that
proportion Of laborers dismissed from
employment the residue, though contin-
ued, are continued at a loss, and their
progress is from bad to worse. This is
their condition, their present condition,
as they tell US themselves. But the hon
orable gentlemen from Missouri, who, it
seems, knows their situation better than
they do themselves, tells them in his place
here, that they are under a great mis-
take in this matter; that, compared with
the average of late years, they never
were in moro prosperous condition
than they now are. Indeed! Then it
must be that these capitalists, who really
believed that they had suspended their
operations, and had dismissed their labor
ers, were in n state Of hallcinat;on no
such thing had taken place every spin
die was in motion as before. And these
poor laborers who really believed that
they were out of employ, and that in
consequence thereof, their families were
suffering the privation Of the necessarics
Of life, were in no such condition ; they
were still in full employ, at full wages
and their families were still fed, well
clothed, and enjoying all the comforts ol
life they had ever known. They saw,
us they believed, their water-wheels at
the falls, on their water courses, stopping
here, and there, and every where and
their establishments silent and deserted
but il was all an optical illusion. But
this mama, this astonishing mania, that
has produced these delusive phantoms,
these optical illusions, how is that to be
accounted for Why the same Hon.
Senator tells us, il is to be accounted for
by panic speech, made here upon the
floor Of this Senate. Then no conjurer,
no sorcercr, no magician, that never was,
can compete with your panic speech
The enchanter's rod operates only by
contact the patient must be present, for
the exhibition Of the specious miracle 10
be wrought upon him; but the potent
spell Of the panic speech, though pro.
nounced here in this Capitol, is felt to
the extremitics Of this Union at the
sound thereof, every where the whole
country is struck aghast with imagincary
distresses. And the magical effect is no
less astonishing, by the lerg,h Of its du- !