The Madisonian. [volume] (Washington City [i.e. Washington, D.C.]) 1837-1845, 1842-08-11

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discrimination that can be known, generally, is du
tied goods in equality, and free goods and articles
clearly necessary, if any, for or in national defence
in time of war; because this all in the int
grail strength of the Republic and how far it nigh
be wise to keep the duties on jewery below the
smuggling standard, some of which could be carried
shore in the mouth has been the case, might be
worth consideration. But look at the situation Con
gress is placed in by this partial, dstracting rival
discrimination project-memorials and petitions from
manufacturing companies Of every description pres
sing for high protection and discriminating duties
Can we crafty all Can we discriminate for all to
the extent they would wish' If we give one a hun
dred per cent another eighty, another sixty another
forty, and on, will your variety of determinations
and diherentials, and projections, satisfy ALL Will
some OF them not accuse you of injustice, of partial
y of ignorance of the complexty of interests YOU at
tempt to regulate and build upi How can Congress
egislate for the changing notifications necessarily
belonging to industry, through supply and demand,
and the other numerous circumstances that operate
upon it You cannot give to some without taking
from Others turn it and twist it, and plan and sophis-
tcate it you may. Large manufacturing establish
ments will be subject like banking, to auctua-
ton, expansion, and contracton-depending on sup
ply and demand the former unlimited within the cap
a and credit and the latter uncertain to the extreme
Hence the sad reyerses in condition among those en-
ployed and dependent them in England and indeed
in our own country. You should not, by legislative
enactments, disturb the equilibrium of equal rights in
ndustriapursuit for by doing you misead distract
and Cypress the Free natural impulses of the People
in conserving their efforts towards citing liv-
ing and their pursuit of prosperity and happiness each
in his way. Man is eve~ endeavorng to assist
his happiness by promoting whatever he may believe
to be his interest, and it is natural; the impulse
evinces and itself through all the ramfcatons
Of association for Government, in the individual the
family, the industrial class, the local community
This is the general action of the People in the bust
,c nl tb,,, eb, ;ofa
ere with it under the idea of regulating and improv
ing what it cannot possibly understand from its count
less variety of cause and effect and diversified result
And believe me, Mr.. Chairman, this discrimination
process, with all Difference for the judgments of the
gentlemen who concocted it, evnces very imperfect
knowledge of human nature and of the spirit of the
Federal Constitution for the former certainly thrves
best when it is left free to manage its
in its own way, and the latter never intended that
equality of right among the People should be inter
fered with by legislation If these proposed indirect
tax duties, to the amount of the Government expen-
SEES, will be protection and encouragement to indus
try is represented, let the benefits extend to ALL
do not render the operation partial and invdous by
for the People cannot be made believe
that inequality in taxation is ndiscrminate bene
fit, tax their honest, unsuspicous credulity you
may
And more: do not talk so much about assisting the
poor by the cart polte of taxing his labor through
the medium of his consumption of necessaries after
having contributed to his poverty by unwise legsla
ton, in promoting and aggrandizing monopoly and
privilege in all its phases We need not talk about
making this that and the other, cheap for the work.
ing man let us simply do him justice and ne will
help himself; do him no overweening charity, for he
is freeman and wants none and will have none let
him stand upright with his fellowctizen in the
nomy of his country, which his right and all that
he demands pass no laws to place him at dsadvan.
tage that's all there will be sutciency of nequal-
ity Of condition. which, in its extreme, is the bane of
freedom, without passing laws to promote il, as all
partial ones do My constituents did not send me
here to assist in forming tariff Of mposts
that will be medium Of dispensing bountes, and pa
tronagc, and special privilege, and peculiar advan-
tage, either to persons, classes, or particular
branches of industry, but to vote for equal laws,
which is all that freemen want They elected me to
egislate for the great whole, not for secton Glass;
company, interest, and particularly where it con-
ficts with the veal of all; that to construe the
Constitution it literally is far words have
plain meaning, not to strain it out OF truth merely to
make out C a case )" that am to bear in mind
that the Union demands this impartial exercise of the
action of the Representative for that Union is fed
Grafton of States giving up portion of their powers,
defined in the CONSTITUTIONS for the better preser
walton of the whole, compact that must be rigdly
adhered to, the integrity of the Union depending
upon it.
II will be perceived, Mr. Chairman, that neither
speak think in sectional spirit in an isoIa-
ted iron, COAL cotton, woollen, or tobacco
discriminating spirit: nor in a mere agrcul-
tural, mechanical, manufacturing, commercial
discriminating spirit No. sir, speak in dis
interested Western splrit--in what believe by way
of general proposition essentially, all-uttaran
live and let live Ohio spirit. speak as l think, and
feel in spirit that embraces all sections all classes
all Industrial pursuits and interests; spirit that
comprises in its expansion all past, present, and to
come, of the independence and happy prospects of
this broad land-this glorious Union. In word, |
speak in american spirit.
The Constitution never could have intended this
discriminating policy in duties on imports because
it would have been violation of equal right and if
it could be pretended to be construed, we would
have go behind the instrument itself to the equal
rights of the people and the States that formed it,
a standard Of redress-a test too plain and Just for
the pretension to stand. know it has been argued
that policy and expectancy demand discrimination
and it is expected that the Constitution heretofore
must bend to both. No such thing. We will none
of it. Policy We always talking of policy-a
word in great demand; do not much like it; il
might be called an indefntism Of vague, crooked
features, but nesse prominent one it has air OF
roguery about it at times; it should not be at home
in Republic wish we would think less about such
a hackneyed, perverted available of wiseacre legis
lation. Let us have the unpublished, untainted un.
twisted policy of plain, direct truth. The word, tC
nv mind conveys the idea Of hotch-potch tortuous
schemng or haltng between wisdom and cunning
Honesty the best policy" as the old adage says
and why' Because honesty is no policy at all. Pol
icy, petition and privilege have given the good Peo-
pie of this Union no little trouble during their day.
and are not satisfied yet. They are curious trio
having engendered each other, and amalgamate into
and re-engender each other all the time. Policy and
petition producing privilege, and privilege and Pc
ion reproducing policy, and policy and privilege re-
producing petition and so they go on producing and
reproducing constantly, to the serious annoyance OF
the peace and wel-being of the People And what
is still more curious, these worthless have produced
the discriminating protection tariff bills under
discussion, presenting to vision the very striking
and if they go into effect the very touching, features
of the privilege family-a family that seem deter
mined to barrack the labor of the country as long
as they are permitted to inhict the imposition which
will be- it may be supposed, until the People dist
into Congress- through the alembc of the ballot-box
as much wisdom as will oblige this oaiDg family to