The Evansville journal. (Evansville, Ind.) 1834-184?, 1846-10-01

| Ter.
From Andrew Stewards Speech, in Congress.
A CHAPTER FOR WORKING MEN
! TO READ.
Mr.. Stewards system was this: Selectthe
articles you can manufacture TO the full ex-
tent Of our own wants, then ia the language
OF Thomas Jefferson, ''impcse on them du-
lies lighter at first, and afterwards heavier
and heavier as the channels of supply were
opened" This was Jefferson's plan; the
reverse of modern democratic "free-trade"
Next Mr.. S. went for the levying the highest
rates of duty OF the Injuries of the rich,
and not on the necessaries of the poor
Encourage American manufactures, and
while on the one had the poor man found
plenty of employment, on the other he got
his goods cheap. He could clothe himself
decently for a mere niae. He wanted no
foreign commodities but his tea and coffee,
and they were free and should remain Free
The poor man could now buy cloth for fall
suit from head to foot for less than one dol
Tar of substantial American manufacture
He had himself worn in this hall garment
of this same goods, at 10 cents per yard,
and it was so much admired that more than
dozen members had applied for similar
garments, and they had been supplied to
Senators and others; yet we are told the
tariff taxes and Expresses the poor Pun
| high revenue duties on wines, on brandies,
on silks, on laces, on Jewelry, on all that
which the rich alone consumed and which
the poor man did not want. Take off the
duties from the poor mans necessities, and
give him high wages for his work. That
was the way 10 ditfuse happiness and pros
perily among the great body of the people.
That was good sound democratic policy
He was for lifting up the poor He was for
'levelling upwards for increasing the do
nestle comfort of our own laboring popua
,ion-the true democracy of the county,
The rich could pay, and ought 10 be made
pay, and they should pay; the poor man
could not, and should not with his consent
Mr.. S. went for the system which elevates
the poor man in the scale Of society; that
promoted equality, that essential element in
all fee Governments, not by pulling down
the higher, but by lifting up The lower class
to their level. The gentleman from Aaba-
ma and his fIiends advocated policy which
would have precisely the opposite effect
Their system wonld truly make the ''rich
richer and the poor poorer.n The gentle
man advocated system whose direct and
undeniable tendency was to destroy, and
thereby give monopoly TO the heavy CAPT
talists. He would benefit those very ''mil-
lionares'' of whose presence he complained
so loudly. Free trade would inevitably de-
grade the wages of labor in every depart
ment of industry, whether employed in the
fields or in the workshops TO the level of
wages in Europe; this was as certain as the
flowing and ebbng of the tide. What could
be palmer? Take two coterminious States
-Keniucky and Ohio. Suppose in Ken
lucky, as in Europe, wages was II 1-2 Cts
per day, and in Ohio, as in the United
States, rs cents per day. Now was it not
perfectly clear that unless Ohio protected
her prosperous labor, the productions of the
low price labor of Kentucky, boots, shoes,
hoes, everything would come in, and COM
pei the mechanics and laborers TO come
down to IL l-2 cents day, or give up their
markets, quit work, buy every thing, sell
nothing. and get rich! And he submitted,
would not this be the effect of ''free trade"
with Europe? The only difference was the
cost of transportation across the Atlantic;
and with The modern facilities of steam, a
ton of iron could be brought from Europe TO
this country for less than 81; less than it
would cost to car; it 90 miles on common
roads. Such would be the manifest and
ruinous effects of 'lree trade on the wag q
of labor in every department of the national
Industry; and any reduction of protection
would be a reduction 10 the same extent of
the wages of labor.
1t would degrade the free labor of this
, country to the miserable condition Of The
serl labor of foreign lands, where men were
slaves-without the means of educating their
children working from the cradle to the
) grave, and never aspiring to any thing be-
yound sclnty and miserable subsistence
and such was the condition to which 'sfree
trade" must inevitably bring the now pro-
, tected and prosperous labor of this great
country. Pull down the walls built up by
the tariff of 40 TO protect and defend Amer
] lean labor-let the cheap productions of the
, low priced labor of Europe flow freely into
r markets, and you must sooner or later come
down to their degraded condition-noral
and political. He, therefore, earnestly ap
pealed to the laboring people of this conn
uy-the sovereigns of the land-"whc
made all and paid all,' 10 come quickly &c
e the rescue, 10 save themselves from the de-
grading and disastrous effects of free trade.
The power was in their own hands-they
$ could protect themselves at The ballotbox
D and, if they did MOI, they would deserve
e the degradation 10 which they would bt
: doomed. To every candidate for office pro