The Somerset herald and farmers' and mechanics' register. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 183?-1852, 1845-12-23
TUESDAY, DECEMBER %, l845,

tec10n does not exist In them; and, con-
sequently, if it be not possessed by the
General Government, it must be extinct.
Our political system would thus present
the anomaly of people stripped Of the
right to foster their own industry, and to
counteract the most selfish and destruc-
tive policy which might be adopted by
foreign nations. This surely cannot be
the case; this indispensable power, thus
surrendered by the States, must be within
the scope of authority on the subject ex-
pressly delegated to Congress. In this
conclusion am confirmed, as well by the
opinions of Presidents Washington, Jef-
ferson, Madison, ane Monroe, who have
each repeatedly recommended this right
under the Constitution, as by the uniform
practice Of Congress, the continued ac-
quiesence of the States, and the general
understanding of the people. jackson s
second Annual Message.
Yet now Congress was to learn for the
first time by Executive instruction that
they possessed no CONSTITUTIONAL pow
Err to protect our own home industry
no power to countervail theinjurious reg
Nations of other countries-no power to
protect the labor of our own citizens from
the destruction which must be brought
upon it by an unrestricted competition
with the pauper labor Of Europe; but our
own hardy sons of toll must be impover-
ished and ground down as long as the
wretched beggars up1er a foreign Govern
ment were compelled by their necessities
TO labor at lower rates than freeborn Ame-
ricans. Such was the doctrine distinct
ly promulgated by the President in his
Message. and especially by his Secretary
of the Treasury. Well might they be
called extraordinary, for such they certain
ly were. Were the American people pre-
pared to sustain opinions like these 3
Would they subscribe to the dogma that
their own Government had no power to
protect them! That was the doctrine
there was no evading it; and Mr.. S. de-
sired TO know whether this committee
were prepared 10 give it the impress of
their sanction!
This, however, was but one of the ex-
| traordinay doctrines in this most extraor-
dinary production. 1t contained others
equally strange, equally new, equally per-
nicious in tendency, equally destructive
in practical operation. Would the people
believe it! This document from the Sec
retary recommended the imposition Of an
excise on American manufactures-to
take the duties off British goods, and put
on the American.
! Mr.. Johnson, of Tennesree, here again
interposed, and, as the gentleman was
speaking great deal about the protection
Of our home industry and domestic man.
ufactures, Mr.. ]. desired to ask him
mother question. When the Govern
ment protected these manufactures, who
paid! And if all were protected alike,
what benefit was there in the protection!
Mr.. Stewart resumed. The gentle
man asked bin who paid9 The gentle
man and his friends held the doctrine
that the consumer always paid the duty,
and the Secretary told the nation that the
poor man was taxed eighty-two per cent.
on cotton goods over the rich man. Yes.
this poor man seemed special favorite
of the honorable Secretary: He had in
troduced him ten times in the course of
two paragraphs of the report. His SYM
pathy was greatly excited that this un-
happy ''poor man. was taxed one hun
dred and fifty per cent. on his cotton shirt
because there was specific duty on i'm
ported cotton goods of nine cents yard.
Now, if this specific duty of nine cents
amounted to hundred and fifty per cent.
ad ralorem that fixed the price of the
cotton to the ''poor man" at six cents
| a yard, for nine cents was Jus. hundred
and fifty-per cent. on six cents. SO the
practicable effect of the ho-rid tax was,
that this "poor man" got good shirt at
sixpence yard. And Mr.. S. would tell
the gentleman another thing. When
those most abominable mininums, which
so excIted the wrath of the Secretary, had
! first been introduced in 1916 by William
Lowndes-one of the purest patriots and
most intelligent statesmen that had ever
graced these Legislative halls, and sustain
ed too, by John q. Calhoun, scarcely less
distinguished-India cotton goods, of the
very coarsest quality, known to every
lady at the time by the name of hum-hums
cost thirty three cents a yard; so that the
.spoor man" would then have had to pay
four dollars for twelve yards Of it, and the
effect of the infamous minimums had been
that every poor man in the country could
now get better article for six and
quarter cents. That was the way the
people were taxed and oppressed by the
protective system; and this was the man
ncr In which the "poor man. was ground
down 10 the dust to benefit his rich mo-
nopolist! The Secretary pursuaded this
poor man that he was taxed eighty-two
per cent. more than the rich man, and
this was quite nsuflerable, yet he paid
only six cents for what formerly cost him