The daily union. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1845-1857, 1845-11-01
From the Philadelphia Public Ledger.
. nJTrrV nN yIJO0r

For many years past, the woollen manufacturers
Of New England have urged that they were the
champions of the agricultural interest; and that the
duties which they demanded on foreign cloths and
consequent bounties on their own, would promote
the agricultural interest in the production of Ameri-
can WOOL But when the representatives Of the
manufacturing interest reached practical details in
Congress- in the construction of tariffs, they nvari
ably contended for duties and determinations on
WOOL that would afford little or no protection to the
American farmer; and on these subjects they al
ways fought pitched battles with the agricultural
representatives. These agricultural representatives
were obliged to exercise all their vigilance and in
genuity to obtain tariff that would prevent the
mercantile manufacturers from surreptitiously intro
ducing fine foreign wool under low duties. They
had various devices for this purpose. One the
importation of fine foreign wool without cleaning;
| another, the mixture of very fine and very coarse
woods in the same bag, for the purpose Of ntrodu-
cling the whole as coarse wool, or mixture upon
low average. But most of these tricks were de-
feated by the sagacy Of the agricultural representa-
tives; and during the debates upon the tariff of l842
some of them were defeated by the representatives
from Vermont, the State which produces more fine
wool than any two others. #@
| But all these safeguards for the American pro-
ducers of wool will avail little under the patriotic
devices Of these mercantile manufacturers. They
| know a trick worth two Of any undertaken by the
| farmers in sef-defence. A few years ago, South
America furnished abundance of very coarse WOOL
which, being collected from the native owners by
American merchants at Buenos Ayres and Monte
video, was imported in a very unclean condition.
But, within few years. the yankees" the shrewd
mercantile manufacturers of Boston, have sent large
numbers of merino rams to South America for the
purpose of improving the wool of the notipe sheep.
They have bought immense tracts of land on the
pampas Tor plains) for nothing; covered them with
native sheep, bought also for nothing; mixed them
with merinoes from the United States, and hired
gauchos Cor South American Indians) and creoles
for next to nothing, to take all requisite care of
them. One merchant of Boston has sent there,
within few years. more than thousand merino
rams and is now the ostensible owner of million
of sheep, feeding through the whole year on the
pampas. We know not how far the merchant
princes" Of the manufacturing interest, sour first
men," are concerned in the ownership of these
Hocks; but we take it for granted, that specula-
| ton SO profitable would not escape their shrewd-
ness
| The pampas can support merino as well as other
sheep, and therefore produce fine well as coarse
wool; and Yankee ingenuity will-indeed, has--in-
vented machinery for cleaning this wool from burrs
and all other foreign substances And what will
fine wool; thus produced, cost the manufacturing
| owners, landed in Boston, Probably less than
cents for the pound. And the duty upon this ac-
cordng to the agricultural tariff of S43, is IS per
| centum; and this, upon 6 cents, will be cents l
mill; and thus this South American wool, produced
by those farmers the manufacturers of Boston, will
mill per pound!
Can American farmers raise wool for cents per
pounds No. Then where is the protection afforded
by the agricultural tariff of l642? II is precisely
like the protection afforded TO the farmer by the
same tariff, in the duties nseed and linseed oil;
that the first being cents per bushe, and that
on the second % cents per gaon---an arrangement
| under which all the faxseed is imported, because
the American farmer cannot raise it cheap enough
while he must pay tax of 25 CENTS or about 80 per
cent, every gallon of oil for painting his house.
And while the raising of wool will soon be Transfers
| red from the American farmer TO the merchant
prince" manufacturer, operating through pa1per la
Dor in South America, the farmer must pay heavy
bounty on his clothing, for the benefit Of this "mer-
chant-prince" manufacturer. And this is called pro
lection TO agriculture! Now, we are very willing to
see fine wool raised in South America for S or
CENTS or cent, or nothing and wrought into Amer
lean cloths. But we utterly unwilling to see the
farmer taxed for cloth, for the benefit Of the
facturer, while this very manufacturer, under the
same system of taxation, raises the wool. IL one
end of the bargain is taxed, let the other be equally
so and II the wool comes in Free so let the cloth
One pretence Of these manufacturers, in calling for
high duties, is the protection of American against
foreign agriculture and labor. Yet whenever they
can promote their own profit, they quite forget both
| Let them dismiss this cant, speak out boldly and
honestly, and say what they really feel and Drink
ave- and cfupon every opportuniiy--that in compe-
tition with their own profit they care not sixpence
| for American agriculture and labor. The woolIen
manufacturers Of Boston pratng about protection to
the farmer, against forcign panper labor, and then
raising their wool with pauper labor, on the plains
of South America, at a cost that would depauperate
the American farmer Pshaw How long will
American farmers be duped by such dishonest pre-
ferces