The northern galaxy. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1844-1848, 1844-05-29
SPEECH OF MR. GEO. P. MARSH,
OF VERMONT,
ON THE TARIFF BILL.
Delivered in the House Of Representatives 0

from the Committee of Ways and Means, Il
modify and amend the Tariff law of 1872
Ma. MARSH, Of Vermont, addressed the
Committee as follows:
We have cause, Mr.. Chairman, to congrat
ulate the House and the country upon the
temper in which this debate has been in gen
eral conducted. The gentlemen who have
participated in it have confined themselve:
more closely than is usual to the real CUES
ton al issue. They have maintained their re-
spectiye positions with cool earnestness Of
tone indicative of honest difference of opin-
ion, and no discussion Of the session has call
ed forth greater ability or exhibited more sue
cessful labor Of preparation.
The controversy is indeed momentous-
momentous both in its direct bearing on all
the great interests of the American people,
and because it has already become the means
of determining conclusively a point Of no
small importance, and hitherto much dispu-
ted. 1t has been asserted at the North. with
confident yehemence. that this is no party but
sectional issue; and that the Democrats of
the eastern and middle States are as staunch
supporters of the doctrine Of legislative pro-
| lection to domestic industry as their political
of the views of the party in the majority in
this House, from the Committee of Ways
and Means, settles this question forever
Hostility to tSe principle of Designed protec-
ton, whether direct or incidental, is openly
avowed, and in spite ofthe disclaimers Ofre-
bellious individuals, it must hereafter be re-
garded as an established article Of faith in
the creed Of the party assuming 10 be en-
phatically Democratic. 1t is no longer the
question, whether the dominant party on this
floor is or is not friendly to the industrial in
terests of their country, but whether certain
of its refractory members can be constrained
by the force of political discipline to bow the
knee, and prefer the supremacy Of their par
" to their own solemn convictions Of what
belongs to their country's good. 1t is test
of the stringency Of party organizations and
if, with ma jority Of more than two-thirds,
you fail to pass this bill,you willsupply new
proof of what the world already more than
half suspects, that the wand of the magician
is broken, and that the spell hath lost its pow
err to charm. American industry will begin
to feel that it rests upon a surer basis than the
shifting sands Of party ascendancy, and the
fundamental policy Of our country will come
to be regarded as, for a time at least, res judi
Gaia. We of the North shall cease to fear
that the capricious South, having now out
grown the need of that protection which has
done its office for her great staple, will a sec
ond time be able TO subvert the course Of our
trade, and change the occupations of our Ia
boring community.
1t has been made matter Of boast that the
citizens of certain southern State, which
has been at different periods within one gen.
| eration mostconspicuous on both sides OF this
great question, are the French Of America.
Gallant they may be, and, for aught | know,
gallant also as Frenchmen; but if we award
them this praise, they must pardon US for him
ting that they are also, like the French, an
peu rolages, somewhat tickle. Fickleness, in
a certain sex, and under certain circumstan-
ces, may be even graceful, but in Legislators
and statesmen it is, at best, but an equiyocal
attribute; and the people Of the South must
even bear with our phlegmatic tempers, if we
now relish the diet they prescribed for us, and
persist in acknowledging the value OF doc
trines which we first imblbed from their snpe-
rior wisdom.
That this is aquestion upon which section
al interests and sectional feeling have a very
strong bearing | am not disposed TO deny
Nor do pretend that can divest myself OF
their influence. Sin, 1 should be ashamed if
could. / dare not assume to be above the
partalities which belong to humanity; and
were | insensible TO such considerations
should be beneath them. | cannot, nay, sir,
| will not shut my eyes to the interests, the
claims of my own region, Of my own humble
State. While conscientiously believe that
the policy of protection is demanded by the
L. xf Ill h.. to hav Z M
it is vital and so deeply rooted is this cOuvic-
ton among those whom with my colleagues
have the honor TO represent, that the very
agitation Of this question: question suPPo-
sed to have been settled by the great contest
of 1870, when the nation, with unparalleled
unanimity. pronounced upon it in voice Of
thunder-has already produced a panic, whose
influence upon the price Of our only staple
will cost the wool growers of Vermont not
less than half million.
We of the extreme No nth, Mr.. Chairman,
are obliged to contend with physical difficult
ties TO which the more favored South and
West are strangers. Our territory is noun
tainous-our soil rugged and comparatively
unthankful. The bushel of corn, which the
labor of minutes produces for the Western
farmer, costs us the toll of hours. Our eli
mate is of even fearful severity; the Their
mometer rises to ninety-fve degrees above
zero, and falls to the congealing point of mer-
curry. In summer we swelter under the sun
OF the tropics, in winter we SILVER amid ST.
berian SHOWS. Even now, while ice have been
for weeks luxuriating beneath an Italian sky
my constituents are but just emerging from
polar frosts, and even the broad bosom Of our
noble lake is scarcely yet free from its bonds
of almost perennial ice. For great portion
of the year our highways are rendered al
most impossible by dnfted mountains of
snow, or the alternate frosts and thaws Of an
early autumn and tardy spring. Oursum-
mer seed time is not yet past when the south
begins her harvest, and the plough is often
frozen in the furrow before the winter grain
can be committed to the earth. Yet such |
are the industry, the enterprise, the untamea-
BILE energy of our hardy people, that, in spite !
Of these accumulated difficulties and discour- |
agements, Vermont stands, in point of pro-
duction, as compared 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 sup |
ply so much less, that almost the whole pro-
luce of the soil is required for domestic con-
.nd Ii,fIa e1,rnins Ia left for the rrtr