Staunton spectator, and general advertiser. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 183?-1849, 1844-04-25
FARMERS AND MECHANICS, READ THIS!
EFFECTS OF THE PROPOSED VAN BUREN,
TARIFF ON FARMERS AND MECHANICS.

Extraet from Tie Speech IF NJ. Sewart, Of Penn.
II is the object Of this bill to increase the
revenue five millions, by reducing the duties
one-iourth. To give this revenue our imports
mast be increased at least fifty millions. Our
present amount OF foreign imports OF one hun
dred millions IS sufficient TO supply the de-
mand How, then, are you to make room for
fifty millions more? This can only be done
by destroying fifty millions Of our own do
nestle productions, to make way for that a
mount OF the productions of foreign industry. |
We must according to this financial scheme,
not only destroy fifty millions of dollars worth
annually Of our productive industry, but we
must send fifty millions of dollars of hard cash
10 foreign countries, to purchase what we now
do produce, can produce, and ought to pro-
duce at home and for what TO raise five
millions OF revenue by taxation, which is not
wanted! Now, sir, submit, is this a wise.
as II an american policy Is it not rather
BRITISH policy,a plan to reduce the duties and
open our ports to the importation of British
goods, 10 the sacrifice and destruction of our
own mechanics, farmers, and manufacturers
Yes, sir, aud this is to be done by an Ameri-
can Congress, and by the representatives of
the American people! Can such an anti
American-such British system as this
stand Tor moment before this free and en-
aightened people! Pass this bill, sir, take
five dollars of bar iron, and still more off iron
an all its other forms, aud, sir, you will go far
to extinguish the fires Of every furnace and Of
every forge in Pennsylvania. BY this bill
you will strike down your own mechanics
your hdtterS, your shOemakers, your black
smiths, your tailorS, your sadlers in short,
all your mechanics; you will paralyze and
frnt
nerieS, salt works, collierieS, lead mines
your tcoolien and cotton factories but above
all, you aim death blow at the american
farmers, not only by destroying their home
markets, almost the only markets they now
have, but what is still worse, you will con-
vert the mechanics and manufacturers thus
thrown out OF employment into agrculiurists,
into producers instead of consumers of agri-
cultural productions. When you double pro-
duction and diminish consumption one-half,
do you not ruin and destroy the farmers of
this country? And, sir, allow me to say,
that in country like this, where seven-eighths
OF the entire population is engaged in agricul-
ture, when agriculture is DESTROYED, the coun-
try itself is destroyed. Agriculture is the
great basis and foundation on which every
thing else depends; when the farmer prospers,
all prosper; when he sinks, all the rest, pro-
Eessionai men, mechanics, and all, go down
with him. 1t is the great object, therefore, to
take care OF agriculture =; make this prosper
Gus, and the whole country will prosper.
And how is agriculture to be made prosper
Gus but by building up and sustaining home
markets' 1t is, therefore, not for the manu-
facturers, but for the mechanics and farmers
yes, sir, for the farmers, that advocate the
protective policy. There is one important
at tho
whole subject, to which am anxious TO at
tract the attention of the farmers and polti-
clans of this country, and it is this. that half
and more than half, of the entire price of the
hundred millions of dollars year of foreign
goods imported into this country is agricul-
tural produce raised on foreign soil, work.
ed IN and manufactured into goods, and then
sent here for sale; and that the farmers and
people OF this country send in this way ffty
millions of dollars year to purchase FOREIGN
agricultural produce, in the shape of goods.
while foreigners take little or nothing from
as. Our whole agricultural exports to all the
world Except cotton and tobacco) do not
amount TO ten millions Of dollars a wear.
Thus, sir, we purchase fire dollars worth of
foreign agricultural produce TO every dollars
worth we SELL This may seem strange, but
1t is strictly true. DEFY contradiction
challenge Invesiigaton.-Let gentlemen dis
posed to contest it select an article of for
eIgn goods, yard OF cloth, d ton Of iron,
hat, coat pair of shoes, anything, afrom
needle to an anchor" examine its constituent
parts, the ran material, the clothing and the
subsistence of the labor employed in its man.
ufactnre, and it would be discovered that more
than half, often three-fourths, Of the whole
price is made up Of agricultural produce. 1t
is well known fact that farmers often make
hundreds OF dollars worth Of domestic goods,
cloths, &c, without using dollars worth of
anything not produced on their own farms
Goods and cloth thus made are therefore en-
frety agricultural and are not the same
materials used in the manufacture Of goods,
whether made on farm or i'm factory
Mr.. S. said he had ascertained the fac. from
his own books kept at a furnace, that more
than three-fourths Of the price Of every ton
OF iron sold, was paid 10 the neighborng far
mers for their domestic goods, their meat and
-four, that clothed and fed his hands for
their hay, corn, oats, Sc, that sustained his
horses, mules, and oxen, employed about his
works. in England, iron is made Of the same
Daterial5 that constitute it here we'll, now
import, manufactured and manufactured
eight millions Of dollars worth of iron and
steel say only half its value is agricultural
produce, thus, then. we send four millions of
dollars year TO purchase foreign agricultural
produce, converted into iron, and sent here
for sale, while our own country is filed with
ore and coal, buried and useless, and the pro-
duce of our farmers left without markets.
Will the farmers of this country submit to
such system as tbis-openly advocated and
adopted to favor foreign industry at the ex-
pense of our own2 Will they tamely and ST.
lenty agree thus to be crushed and sacrificed