Lexington union. (Lexington, Miss.) 1838-18??, 1843-07-01
From The ". T. Evening Post.
A CHAPTER ON THE VANITY OF
HUMAN WISHES.
ole who of old would rend the oak,
Dreamed not of the rebound"

Among the events which have been
talked OF IN the city, for day or two, is
the failure Ct MIR. Simmons, the United
States Senator from Rhode Island. Mr..
Summons was, not long since, said to be
worth handsome estate, which he had
amassed by printing, lnthe course
OF a few months the accumulations of years
have disappeared, and he finds himself
unable to meet his engagements. The
history of this reverse in instructive and
deserves TO be framed and glazed, and
hung up in the bed-chamber of every
member of Congress and every manufac-
turer, where it can be read every morn
ing.
The new tariff was passed, Mr.. Sim
mons, then Chairman of the Committee
on Manufactures in the Senate, was one
of the most jealous champions of restric-
ton. Being manufacturer he imagined
that his own interest would be promoted
by high duties, and accordingly he brought
in one of the three bills out of which the
present tariff was finally compounded. Of
course Mr.. Simmons took care to see that
the calico printers should be very pro-
ery protected. In framing the law, he
and his associate put duty OF nine cents
on every square yard ofprinted caIicos,
which amounts to prohibition. Since
that time the importation of printed cali
cos from abroad has almost entirely ceased
and we are told by an importing merchant
that probably not fifty cases OF this kind
of goods have been brought into the coun-
try, so completely have the high duties
excluded them.
The calico printers of America, Senator
Simmons and others, being thus left in the
entire monopoly of the market, from
which they had driven the foreign manu-
facturer, imagined that, in order to enrich
themselves, they had only to 60 to work
and give the country plenty of printed
calicoes. The effect has been precisely
what has always followed the laying of
eXhorbitant duties; the rival manufactu-
rers have ruined one another. Too many
persons engaged in the business, and en-
gagged too deeply; invested too much cap
ial, and employed too much labor, and
produced more goods than were wanted,
Large quantities OF cotton cloth were pur-
chased in haste, passed under the engraved
roller: ! and impressed with colored sprigs
and flowers. and so great has been the
overproductlon, that, in many instances,
they cannot now be sold for enough to pay
for cost of the cloth before it was printed.
Mr.. Simmons has failed, and we are told
that all the job calico printers of Rhode
Island, by which we understand those
who purchase the cotton cloth they print,
have failed with him-feilow victims of
his zeal for protection.
Mr.. Simmons and his friends cannot
complain that they fOundered for want of
proper warning. They embarked on an
ocean swimming with wrecks. The his
tory of our commercial tariffs show that
every increase OF duties leads to excessive
competition, and stimulates the produc-
ton of the protected articles to degree
far beyond the demand. Never were the
duties raised without hundreds of maniac
turers being ruined, and their goods sold
below cost. This consequence was poin-
ted out by the friends of free trade, again,
and again, in the discussion which ended
in passing the new tariff.
Meantime, we hear of numerous other
instances of ruin which the unhealthy
competition, awakened by the new tariff,
has brought upon the manufacturers. The
other day, the wollen mandatory atDud-
ley, in Massachusetts, one Of the finest in
the country, bvilI two years ago at the
expense of two hundred thousand dollars,
was sold for four thousand. Before us
lies an advertisement of the sale Of the
Cotton Factory Of the Spring Manufacm-
ring Company in Winchendon, in the
same state, bankrupt concern, made O.
yer to assignees, and TO be disposed Of to
the highest bidder, on the 10th of August.
The Amesbury Flannel Factory, in the
same state, is also advertised for sale.--
All over New England are felt the fatal
effects Of that eager competition which an
increase of duties is certain to bring with |
it.
OF course, we take no pleasure in hear
ing of individual embarraSsments. Many
of those who will owe Their ruin to the
new tariff, are probably among those who
neither petitioned for it nor voted for it;
but if they did either, we cannot deny that
they fully deserved the fate which their
selfish disregard of other mems rights has
drawn down upon them.
RcuOlUing Steam BGttery.--We yes
terday visited the performance of a new
instrument Of warfare or rather an old In
-,-...,,. I'm n re,y nrinciple. IL was a ,