Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1845-08-14
From the Albany Argus
THE TARIFF AND THE WOOL
GROWERS.

GROWERS.
Appeals to the Agricultural interest to
come forward and sustain the Tariff as
1t is" are to be met with in almost all the
wing and ultra tariff prints that we have
opened for the last week or two The
farmers and the wool growers particularly,
are told in so many words, that the pres
ent tariff is the very root Of their individ-
ua prosperity, and Of the prosperity, which
as nation, the U. S. row enjoys! The
national lntelligencer, the leading whig
organ in the United States, and which
puts forth great pretenions to fairness and
candor-laIs readily into this game of i'm
pudent deception, In recent number,
taking for its text the remark of the Union
that "it is highly probable that there will
"be a majority in both houses sufficient to
"etfect decided reform Of the revenue
"system"-makes proclamation as fol-
lows;
"FoREwARNED, FoREARMED. Take
notice, all ye whom it may in anywse
concern, that the purpose OF breaking
down the Tariff at the coming session
of Congress is thus distinctly acknowl-
edged by the government paper, if a ma
jority can be secured in each house for
the purpose Mechanics, FARMERS, Mer-
chants-al We who have any interest in
the continuance of the present national
prosperity and progress-learn from this
disclosure that, unless you come forward
as one man to prevent 1t, the ave will be
laid to the root Of that national prosperity
by those whom you have set to watch over
it,"
The National Inteiligencer will soon
learn, and we suspect not much TO its sur
prise either, that this Tariff business is a.
bout as well understood in the back woods
as it is any where else, and that its at
te,npts to rally to the support of the eta
riff as it is" the great Agricultural inter-
est Of the country had better have been
spared. The farmers well know how it is
that whilst their business declines, the
manufacturer grows rich They know be-
cause they feel tt, that the present Tariff
was framed expressly for the benefit of the
manufacturer, and that he reaps nearly all
the benefit ofit-that the idea of protect
ing the farmers beef and pork and butter
and cheese and what not-aricles that
seldom if ever find their way into this
country from abroad-is all moonshine,
and was mere cover to the high prohib-
itory duties laid upon certain manufac-
tures-that the duty on wool, the only ar
tcle Of Importance that comes in compe-
ttion with the farmers products, amounts
in fact TO no protection at all-that nearly
or quite two.thirds of the cheap foreign
woods imported into the country, under
the low duty of five per cent, comes in
direct competition with the average OF that
grown here, whilst the manufacturer of
that wool is protected on his fabrics TO the
tune of 40 per cent.-and that more than
100000 of pounds Of this South Amer
lean and Smyrna wool was actually i'm
ported last year, under the Tariff as
il is"
You will scarcely find wool grower in
the country that does not understand the
precise operation of the present tariff, and
who does not feel and know that it is most
unequal and unjust, not in this particular
only but in many others that might be
pecilied-bearing as it does most heavily
upon articles of common use and necessi-
~, and light upon the Injuries of the rich
Nor, we suspect, will any Of this class of
citizens feel themselves particularly COM
plimented by these appeals Of the Intelli-
gencer and its adjuncts. Indeed, the
more shrewd of the wing par,isans, though
as ultra-tarif as any, and as much dis
posed to keep up the present inequality,
begin TO see the Importance of dverting
attention from this subject, and already
we find the Evening journal significantly
coughing down agitation. 1t is a little
remarkable, that the very paragraph in the
Union that drew out the 1ntelligcncer's
note of alarm for the safety Of tn Tariff, is
secuted by the Eve Journal here as an
idle or impotent threat. And it tells its
readers that, after all, Col, PoLK's election
will not effect the present tariff hair
and that its own predictions ofruin to the
manufacturing and industrial interests
were all electioneering blarney. Hear
this consistent print:
"AlI these threats are either idle or i'm
potent. The Tariff of AZ, black as it
was represented, for the purpose of delud-
ing the South during the Presidential can
vass, WILL NOT BE DISTURBED. Louisiana
cannot live without protection for her su-
CARS. Northern Locos dare not lay their
hands upon the Tariff. We are saddled
with Polk and Texas, but the Tariff will
be preserved"