Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1844-07-05

tains of snow, or the alternate frosts aud
thaws of an early autumn and tardy spring
Our summer seed time is not yet passed
when the south begins her harvest, and the
pillow is often frozen in the burrows before
the winter grain can be committed to the
earth. Yet such are the industry, the en-
terprise, the untameable energy of our
hardy people, that in spite of these accumu-
lated difficulties and discouragements, Yer
mont stands, in point Of production, as COM
pared with population, if not first, very near
the head Of the list. But the wants of man
and beast in so rude climate are so much
greater, and their variety of supply so much
less, that almost the whole produce of the
soil is required for domestic consumption,
and little surplus is left for the purchase of
necessaries of foreign growth. Domestic
animals must be both fed and sheltered for
half the year, and this involves not only
time, labor, and direct expense to the
farmer, but the outlay Of costly, arrange
menls for storing and preserving the various
articles of food required for the consumption
Of his stock. So the quantity and variety
Of clothing needful to meet the changing
seasons, the greater necessity for nutritious
and stimulating diet, the supply of fuel, ex-
pensive modes of building to ward off the
rigors of winter, and to preserve for long
periods a stock of vegetable food; all these
impose additional burdens upon the farmer.
On the other hand, his season of productive
labor is short, the variety of his products
narrow, and the obvious result is, that the
diligent and perseverng toll of summer
Ia, I,
the consumption of long and unproductive
winter. A few horses and cattle, little of
the produce of the dairy, small and
yearly decreasing quantity of lumber, and
the fleeces of our sheep, are all we have to
spare. 1t is upon these products that the
northern farmer relies for the means to pay
his taxes, educate his children, and give
them slender outfit when they abandon the
paternal Preside, and commence their pill
grimage to the sunny South, or the mighty
West. PROSTATE our manufactures, deprive
US of this one resource, and you plunge US
into absolute, hopeless, irretrevable ruin.
The subject, Mr.. Chairman. is one OF
such vast comprehension and extent, it adj
mits of such an infinite variety of argument
and illustration, and involves such a mass of
details, that not single hour only, but days
would be required for its adequate discus
sion; and find myself enforced by the mar
row limits prescribed by the parliamentary
law of this House, either to content myself
with presenting some very general consider
atoms, or to confne myself to a very partial
view of the question. | ought not to COM
plain of the one hour rule, both because
voted for its adoption, and because in de-
Lucrative assembly of two hundred men,
bers, all of whom aspire to be heard, while
none is content to listen, the eXuberance OF
eloquence must somehow be checked, and
such rule may be considered as a necessary
evil But for this evil, if such it be, there
is ready remedy by appealing to our Cesar
the people-through the press; and it is
happily no breach of privilege TO print as a
speech that which never was spoken
Moreover, gentlemen who want the stem
toran power of lungs required to fill the
echoing void of this vast Hall, may find con-
ISOLATION in the reflection, that the still small
voice of the press will penetrate to hooks
and corners where the tones of the speaker
are never heard.
| shall, then, make no effort to compass
an impossibility, by essaying full discus
sion Of the tariff question within the space
of a single hour, and shall'imit myself 10
some remarks of general character.
beg, however, not to be understood as un'
dervaluing the importance of minute ex.
animation and precise detail. None could
have listened to the instructive speech of the
gentleman from Maryland, (Mr. Wethered, }
so repete with sound sense and practical
knowledge, without being convinced OF the
value of such accurate statistics. But, sir
it has been my fortune to have had even {
better instructor. have been schooled il
this matter by dear bought experience
Myself unhappiIy manufacturer, know
too well the indispensable necessity OF the
most rigorous exactness in the calculation o
the numerous elements of profit and loss.
have learned how disastrously an apparently
insignificant change in the arrangement o
duties may affect large establishment, ant
that trivial modification ofth tariff, which
shall not perceptbly vary the amount ofrev
enue, and shall scarcely save penny to any
individual consumer, may work utter run
TO the manufacturing capitalists, and thu
hundreds who depend upon him. But, attel
all, this experimental knowledge makes mt
suspicious of the accuracy of statistical de
tail, and the reasonings founded on it, and
know not whether have been more strongl.
moved to ridicule or contempt, by the igno
rant assumptions and the puerile calculation
to which have listened upon this floor.
Figures, it is said cannot lie; but thi
aphorism, mere truism in its proper sense
is in its popular use mischievous falsehood
In the rage for what are called facts in thi
calculating age, it is astonishing how ca
gerly supposed facts and half truths ar
caught at, to the neglect of the most obviou
principles and how readily these facts, b