Sentinel of the valley. [volume] (Woodstock, Va) 1841-1848, 1844-05-09

est, and all duties were tax upon it i
81 ne ala not think that veil-arrang-
Gu system OF revenue duties, made sta
ole aha permanent, would be particular
~ Durdensome or Injurious to the com.
lnerce OF this country; but these prohlbi-
TORY duties, and great fluctuations,
break up and destroy commerce, increase
ITS hazards, and discourage those ensag-
ed IN it. This interest was bound. al
ieast equally with others,to bear its share
OF the expenses OF the government. fo
IL required It's peculiar protection; but it
could not be destroyed without deep and
lncurable injury to all other interests;
and these great and sudden changes.
from prohibltory duties on the one side to
duties below the wants of the treasury 70.
revenue on the other, were almost as
Sad, perhaps even worse, to the com
merce Ut the country, than the excessive
taxation.
lie then considered the practical eff
fect OF the present prohibitory dates u
pom the agricultural interest. This he
treated as the great interest-the basis
OF all others, and paramount to all 9th
ers-as the interest in and from which
the great mass of the citizens of the
country derived their subsistence, their
comtorts.and their independence; as the
interest to which the situation of our
country most strongly invited extensions;
as the interest IN the custody of which
our institutions were most safe.
tie then spoke in detail of wool, flour
beef, pork, cheese, hemp, cotton, rice.
tobacco sugars, as among the prominent
agricultural productions; inquired which
among these great products were within
the reach of the protection of Cong, ess
IN the way of imposing duties upon i'm
ports. and concluded that wool, hemp,
and sugar. were tie only three in the
list OF ten; hat as to the other articles, our
country exported, and did not import;
and that, Tor the seven-hour, beet, pork
cheese, cotton. rice, and tobacco-otlr
country was an exporting and lot an
importing country, and that our market
was the market of the world, not Of
any one country, and much less the
single market of our country.
He freely admitted that the other
three great articles-wool, hemp, and SUI
gar-ln the present condition of the
commercial nations, must depend exclu
stvely upon the markets of the United
States. and that they deserved all the
protection which a ,evenue system of du-
ties would afford. They were great and
worthy interests, and as such, had a
right to claim their proper weight in this
legislation; yet they were not exclusive
interests, and not one, and all of them
had right to demand, or would demand,
exclusive care.
Neither our time nor space will allow
Us to follow the speaker into his detailed
examination of each of taese command
ing articles of agricultural production,
and we must therefore say, in gross. !
that the conclusions were, that those in.
terested in each would be just to all the
others; that the present duty upon wool
OF the finer qualities, although little ex.
ceeding 40 per cent. showed itself in a
strongl y probibltory form, having dimin-
ished the trade 81 per cent, as compared
with the SIX preceding years; and more
than SO per cent. as compared with the
single year before the operation of the
law, and when many of the factories
were closed; that $50 in the 800 was
strong protection to this interest, when
1t was considered that the tax must fall
upon the producers of the nine articles
before named, which would not be pro-
t,ected; and that the wool growers, un-
Outstanding this relation to their asri-
cultural hrethren-that the price of
wool IN this country now is much higher
than IN any other wool growing country,
and that the production is one OF the
most easy extension over the whole IT,
Mon, IN case it shall be forced to an un-
natural profit-will be content with a
protection OF $50 in the $lO0, in case
that can have promise of permanency;
That the present protection upon hemp,
separate from its manufactures, is shown !
to be less than 80 per cent from the
importations made under the present
law, and that, inasmuch as the difficu,-
ties as to that article are not in its
growth, but its manufacture; in its
preparation for use; in the process of
rottlns either by dew or by water; and as
there Is no hope that we can force our
'ew-rotted hemp into the uses to which
the foreign water.rotted article is ap-
piled, he could rot, for moment, doubt
that duty of 50 per cent. would be sat
isfactory to the hemp grower, that he had
already considered the article of sugar,
and he could only add that it was the
duty of those interested IN it TO make
careful examination. and see whether
even that agricultural interest coald not
bring itself broadly and satisfactorily
within the revenue principle Of arranging
a tariff of duties.
Mr.. Wright passed from this to corr
paratiye view of the profits of capital in
the three great branches of domestic in
dustry-manufactu commerce, and
agriculture; and while he vas upon this |