The daily union. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1845-1857, 1846-07-24

on imports, and for other purposes
CONCLUDED.
Mr.. seldom said:
Further to explode this much-puffed home market
Of the manufacturers, is only necessary to contem-
plate the circumstances Of country, its extent and
resources and the necessary Of its prOduc-
tons over domestic consumption. The agricultural
and planting interests must greatly predominant, and
for centuries TO come, far the larger proportion OF
our citizens must be engaged in the culture of the
earth. Without any pretsnsion TO strict accuracy,
but as reasonable approximation 10 truth, II has
been estimated that the labor of one agrculturst
will suffice for the support of ten manufacturers
How. 'hep, when the agricultural must far excel
the anufacturng classes, and the disproportlon be
tween them, by natural increase, is daily enhancing,
is il poss 10 conceive that the home market Of the
manui5t drers seriously diminish or absorb
the products of the agrculturistsi Reference 10
the statistics furnished by the returns TO che Sec
rotary of the Treasury in 1910, and the report OF
Teneh Coke, already alluded 10, as contrasted with
the results Of the of l640, conclusiyey es-
tsblishes the folly Of looking the home market Of
the protected classes. Since 1873 Notwithstanding
all the sumuants OF thirty years Of nearly uninter-
rupted protection, manufactures have advanced less
than rs per cent in annual YIELD while the products
Of agriculture have been more than tipled and very
nearly quadruped. How long it will be before, al
this rate of comparative progress, the manufacturers
shall afford home market TO the surplus production
Of the agricultursts submit to the ingenious casu'
stry Of such protectoniss as, emboldened by their
frequent argument that the competition Of one
try exceeds the competition Of that and all others be-
Sides Or IN palmer language that the part is greater
than the whole, may feel disposed to sgnalize them
selves by establishing that the less contains the
greater. No, sir; let mo penl-up Utica conhne our
powers" The expansive energies and enlargng
products Of our agricuurists demand the markets
of the world As 1t now is, under the operation OF
your unwise restrictions they suffer enormous ex-
actions at home, and at the same time have their
resources dried up at the fountain by depression OF
prices and their righful avenues to gainful ex.
changes and enlarged consumption, from their best
customers, blocked up or sensibly narrowed. While
suffering, they are in insult to their intelligence
or derison Of their wrongs sought TO be soothed by
lullaby promises that they also receive projections,
Well may they reply, 1--WE need no protection, and
least OF all such as you will give us"
The oppressive operation Of the system on the
commercial and navigating interests of the country
are apparent to the most superficial observation,
though their extent is perhaps not in general duly
appreciated With the cutting off Of imports, the
decline of exports, the very elements Of their susie
| nance and prosperity are Withdrawn. The gains
of commerce are naturally greatest as likewise the
employment of capital, ships, and sailors, in the
most extended foreign exchanges. The carrying
trade between distant countries, and especially Of
the great products of southern regions, has ever
constituted the prime sources OF wealth and pow
er. In all history, whatever nation has most
largely engrossed il has for the time been the
seat Of riches and dominion, Of refinement, the
arts, and all the concomitants Of difused intelli
gence and advanced civilization To this Tyre but
| a city on piers owed the magnihcence and wealth
which justified the description OF Holy Writ that
| her merchants were princes and her trafhckers
| the honorable of the earth" With it Carthage
| so long sustained with the conquerors Of the olden
world her renowned struggle for mastery and en-
pre- In the glory of its transient possession, We
nice hailed as the bride Of the seas and city
of lagunes and swamps shone respondent with pal
| aces and temples, and almost alone breasted and
broke the advancing tide Of Mosem fanaticism, be.
| fore which all Christendom trembIed. From Por-
tugal to Spain, from Spain to Holland, and finally
to England, as this trade has passed, ii has borne
on crest the sceptre of the seas and brought in
its wake all the valuable resources of power
wealth. and progress in the arts and rehnements Of
| life. Among the youngest nations OF the earth,
| from our cradle the blood inherited from the old
sea-kings Of the north, and stimulated In its trans
| mission through the veins Of our parent country,
has displayed ITSELF and, from the advantages Of
our position, the genius Of people, the freedom
of our institutions, and through happy union,
| the command of so many of the staple products Of
| the earth in its temperate and tropic climes, we
have entered nobly and with every prospect of sue
cess in the of competition with the nations OF
| the earth for the commerce ofthe world. The strug
gle is glorious one, not, trust, to be conducted
| amid the thunders of war, and sgnallzed at every
step by the crash Of ornaments and the groans Of
the dying and the dead, but by the arts of peace,
amid the exchange of reciprocal benefits, and to be
won by the frs, in the gifts Of Providence, and the
most wise to discern and develop, by casting off all
trammes, the freeborn energies of its people and
the resources Of it's position. believe it to be our
high mission to snatch the palm, and in this marcb
| upon the mountain wave," TO surpass the renown
and prowess even Of Albion's sea girt isle and her
world famed tars. But to do so, restrictions and
| he off apdfh p tuInUa nj
our commerce plumed to fly over every sea, and
visit every cline. The petty coastng trade, which
your restrictive system boasts, though, if statistics
are to be credited erringy here, to substitute
to your widespread commerce in the import OF man
ufaotures and their exchanging exports, creeping,
as it must do, from shore to shore, and finding lis
ittes vehicles in the small craft of schooners and
boats, can supply the nurseries of hardy sea
men, create the fleets of stately merchantmen and
"rch-freighted argoses," engage the enterprise and
capital or draw the returns in the products and
treasures of every cline, that are requisite to give
pre-emnence in the boundless tracts of old ocean IS
| realm.
| Apart from such far-sighted policy as a simple
question of national gain in each case it may be well
questioned whether the supply of any article Of con-
sumption here had not better be supplied by commerce
from the most distant point than by internal produc-
ton provided az, indeed in no other case It will be
introduced from abroad it can be furnished by i'm
porta,ion as cheaply. For, while by the consump-
ton of the internal product, you may give reasonable
gains to one person, the producer Tor at most to
two, himself and his retailer) by the use of the
imported article you have given larger gains to the
foreign producer, to the intermediate agents who
sell for him. to the navigators who have transported
it, to the importer and the retailer While, therefore,
| the home consumer receives at the same cost, and
is no sufferer he has benefited larger number even
of his countrymen, and foreigners besides; and
it, in addition as to a considerable must be, those
foreigners have been paid by the products of the
consumer or his countrymen, he has gained to
himself, or given to some fellow countryman, all the
profits on such sale of his products. In other
words where the cost of production is cheaper
abroad and it can be furnished at the same price
with the internal products, there must be larger
margin of profit on which may be written the names
OF al engaged in efectng the exchange, and, like
wise that ofthe producer Of the article, with which
the foreign import has been purchased.
| With this illustration fthe superior benefits Of
| foreign commerce, and how distributed, who can
appreciate the extent and infinite number of losses
sustained to the whole nation, but especially the
ntile and bv the