Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1844-04-19
POLITICAL.
AND MECHANICS, READ
THISl
THE EFFECTS OF THE NEW VAN buren, TARIFF ON
FARMERS AND MECHANICS.

m
TIIISl -
THE EFFECTS OF THE NEW VAN buren, TARIFF ON h.
FARMERS AND MECHANICS. -
Extract from the Speech Of Mr.. Steiourt Of Penn.
II is the object Of this bill to increase the reven-
ne five millions, by reducing the duties one-fourth y
To give this revenue our imports must be increased
at least fifty millions. Our present amount Of for !,
eign imports of one hundred millions is sufficient
to supply the demand. How, then, 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 amount Of
the productions of foreign industry We must, ac-
cording TO this financial scheme, not only destroy
fifty millions of dollars worth annually of our pro.
ductive industry but must send fifty millions OF
dollars of hard cash to foreign countries, to pur
chase what we now do produce, produce, and
ought to produce at home; and for what? To raise
five millions of revenue by taxation, which is not
wanted Now, sir, submit, is this wse is it an
american policy? Is it not rather British policy,
plan TO reduce the duties and open ports to the
importation Of British goods, to the sacrifice and
destruction of our own mechanics farmers, and
manufacturers Yes, sir, and this is to be done by
an American Congress, and by the representatives
of the American people! Can such an anti-Amer-
| ican-such British system as thls-stand for
moment before this free and enlightened people
Pass this bill, sir, take five dollars off bar iron, and
still more off iron in all its other forms, and, sir
you will go far to extingush the fires of every fur
vice and of every forge in Pennsylvania. BY this
bill you will strike down your own Mechanics
your hdtterS your shoemokers, your baeksmhs, your
taors, your sddlers; in short all your mechanics
you will paralyze and PROSTATE your glass works,
paper mills, tanneries, salt works, collieres, lead
mnes-your icoolen 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 convert the mechanics and manu-
facurers thus thrown out of employment into agri
culturiss, into producers instead of consumers of
agricultural productions When you double pro-
duction and diminish consumption one-half, do you
not ruin and destroy the farmers of this coun-
try? And, sir, allow me to say, that in n country
like this Where seven.eighths of the entire popula
ton is engaged in agriculture, when agriculture is
destroyed, the country itself is destroyed Agi-
culture is the great basis and foundation which
everything else depends when the farmer prospers,
all prosper; when he sinks, all the rest, profession
al men, mechanics, and all, go down with him. 1t
is the great object, therefore, to take of agri
culture make this prosperous and the whole coun-
try will prosper. And how is agriculture to be
made prosperous but by building up and sustaining
home markets? 1t is, therefore, not for the manu-
facturers, bat for the mechanics and farmers-yes,
sir, for the farmers, that advocate the protective
{ policy There is important fact which lies
4 deep at the foundation of the whole subject, to
which am anxious to attract the attention of the
farmers and politicians of this country, and it is
J this, that hall, and than half of the entire
: price of the hundred millions of dollars year Of
foreign goods imported into this country is dgricut-
t,,roi produce raised on 6re;gn soil. worked up
n and manufactured into goods, and then sent here
for sale and that the farmers and people Of this
country send in this way fifty millions of dollars
+ year to purchase foreign agricultural produce III
u nothing from us. Our whole AGRICULTURAL exports
tn all the world fexceo. cotton and tohscco, do no
= amount to ten nilIions Of dollars yeah thus sir
= we purchase fpe dollars worth of foreign agricul
!, tura produce to every dollars worth we SELL This
= NAV seem strange but it il strictly true I def
y contradicton-Ic Challenge investigation. Let gen
tlemen disposed to contest it select an article of for
: eign goods ward of cloth ton of IRON a hat +,
= coat, a pair of shoes, ANYTHING, from needle t
- an anchor" examine its constituent parts the RAJ
~ material the clothing and the subsistence of the la
= Dor employed in its manufacture. and il would b.
- discovered that moro than half often three orths
" of the whole price is made up of AGRICULTURAL pro
:, duce n is n we'll known fact that farmers ofte
~ make hundreds of dollars worth of domestic good.
;" clothes &c without usinp a dollars worth of any
u thing not produced ON their own farms Goods an
= CLOTH thus made are therefore entireN agricultural
=, and are not the same materials used in the manu-
81 facture of goods, whether made on farm orin
= fctory?
Il Mr.. s. said he had ascertained the fact from hi
~ own books kept at furnace that more than three
fourths of the price of every ton of iron Sold wa
,v paid to the neghboring farmers for their doest
~ eoods their meat and -four that clothed and fed
W hands for their hau corn oats, &c., that susta ne
,,sS his horses, mules, and oxen, employed about hi
~, works. In England iron is made of the same m,
ID terals that constitute it here; well, now impor
4 manufactured and manufactured, eight million
of dollars worth of iron and steel say only ha
IN its value is agricultural produce thus them we sen
in four millions of dollars year to purchase ereig
m agricultural produce converted into iron and ser
he here for sale, while our own country is filed wit
ore and coal, buried and useless, and the produc
of our farmers left without markets. Will the ta
mers of this country submit to such system
n, this-openy advocated and adopted to favor foreg
~ Industry nt the EXPENSE of orr own Will the
." IL. A. H. ad