The Middlebury people's press. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1841-1843, 1841-12-28
PEOPLES PRESS.
Tuesday Morning, Dec. %, ls4l.
THE TARIFF.

1t will be seen in this paper, that an inter-
esting debate in Congress has sprung up incl
dentaly upon motion to refer that part of the
Presidents message which relates to the Tar
ifft to the committee on manufactures. The
opponents of protection prefer the committee
of ways and means The result of the vote
upon the reference will afford something more
than an inkling of the final decision of con-
gress upon this vastly important subject. Al
though party lines are not SO invariably observ-
ed in relation to the Tariff as to other meas
ures, the same rank hostility to protection
which has been manifested in the Globe, Eve
ming Post, Journal of Commerce, N. H. Pat
riot, and other loco prints, characterizes the
great body of the opposition in congress This
party seem to be welded to southern policy as
by an indissoluble bond.
The grounds taken by the ant-tariffites are,
that duties imposed with any view to protec-
ton are unconstitutional.
Incidental advantages may result to the
manufacturing interest from Tariff for rev.
enue; but discrimination for this purpose would
be wholly inadmissibe. Messrs. Foster and
Smith, southern men, conceive that the CON-
mittee on manufactures is itself unconstitu-
tional, and should be abolished. Messrs. Wise.
Profit and others, the familiar friends of the
President declare that when the President
speaks of discriminating duties '',ciih reference
TO domestic policy, connected ,cih our manufac-
tures," he has no other object in view but the
revenue, and would wholly discountenance
Tariff for protection.
Thus is the doctrine boldly avowed, that an
American congress have no constitutional
right to lay duties for protection, nor in laying
duties for revenue merely, have they right
to discriminate for the benefit of any of the
great interests of the country. The interests
of manufacturer at least with which those of
the agriculturists are so entwined. that they
must survive or perish together, are scoffed at
by southern insolence, and like the petitions of
Abolitionists are even denied a committee to
give them hearing in the councils of the
nation.
How different are these views from those of
The founders of our Union, and the trainers of
the constitution. 1t is said that the very first
petition ever presented to congress was in ia
vor of protection. The sec ond act of con-
gress recognized the principle, and in 1916 the
South with Calhoun at their head, imposed up-
on the country the American System which
they now SO fiercely denounce. The powers
which the modern Lycurguses would deny to
the constitution are not only essential to our
but indispensable to our indepen-
dence as people. Foreign nations may
drive our commerce from the ocean, our mer-
chants from their counters, our mechanics from
their shops, and our manufactures from their
looms and their sPindles. They may rob our
farmers of two thirds of the value of their
produce in their ports before they will suffer if
to be sold in their markets.
In short, foreign SPECTATORS and sharpers
may roam unrestrained through the Union.
sweeping our currency into their pockets. |
swelling with wealth, just in proportion as our
own citizens shrink into paupcrism; and we
may be compelled to survey The scene of plum
der and impoverishment in despair. The on.
ly shield of defence is wrested from our hands
The Tariff must be imposed for revenue
alone Protective duties, and retaliatory en-.
actments are beyond the powers which the
constitution has conferred upon that govern. |
ment to whose guardianship the common well !
fare is entrusted
Such is the wretched state of imbeciity and |
ruin to which the worthless abstractionism of |
The South have already reduced us. Our rev.
pulmonary fathers fought for the freedom to
rade where they pleased, and to manufacture
what they pleased, of which Britain attempt
I'd 10 deprive us. But VIC have now vountari.
y assumed the shacklcs which her armies and
1avles in vain attempted to fix upon US. We
ire as completely the vassals of British wealth
md greatness as we should have been in
tate of colonial dependence.
Is it not time that this palsied nation had
weakened to sense of the wretched thraldom
o which Southern selfshness has reduced us ?
5 1T not time we should look around and con-
emplate the horrid abyss into which we are
tuPldly and rapidly plungingl If Southern I
nen cling for slave labor alone, let the DEM :
cracy of Northern working-men unite for 7
he free labor of their own hands; and let slave.
Olders distinctly understand that if thou II.