The Somerset herald and farmers' and mechanics' register. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 183?-1852, 1846-04-28


TEN millions year for foreign wool. Will
the gentleman deny this! He dare not.
He has declared for Mr.. Walkers bill,
reduced the duty on woollens nearly ono
half, with view TO INCREASE the revenue;
Of course, the imports must be doubled,
making the import of cloth twenty mil
lions instead of ten, and of wool ten in
stead Of five millions of dollars per an
mum.
This was the gentleman's plan to favor
the farmers, BRITISH farmers, by giving
them the AMERICAN market. His plan
was 10 buy every thing, sell nothing, and
get rich. "a laugh.) What was true as
to cloth was equally true as to everything
else. Take a hat, a pair of shoes, yard
of silk or lace, analyze 1t, resolve it into
its constituent elements. and you will find
that the raw material, and the substance of
labor, and other agricultural products,
constituted more than one half its entire
value. The pauper labor of Europe en-
ployed in manufacturing silk and lace gol
what it eat, no more, and this is what you
pay for when you purchase their goods
Break up your home manufactures and
home markets, import everything you eat
and drink and wear, for the benefit of The
| farmers. Oh, what friends these gentle
men are to the farmers and mechanics
and laborers of this country-no sir, |
am wrong of Great Britain.
Now, | ask whether wool is not, in the
strictest sense. an agricultural production!
And if we import ten millions in cloth, is
not five millions of that sum paid for the
wool alene-a product of British farmers!
As still stronger Illustration OF his argu-
ment, Mr.. S. referred to the article Of
iron. Last year, according to Mr.. Walk
er's Report, we imported $9,043,396
worth of foreign iron, and its manulac-
lures, mostly from Great Britain, ,four-ffths
Of the value of which. as every practical
man knew, consisted of agricultural pro-
duce-nothing else. Iron is made of ore
and coal; and what is the ore and coal bu-
ried in your mountains worth! Nothing
nothing at all, unused. What gives it
value! The labor of horses, oxen, mules,
and men. And what sustained this labor
but corn and oats, hay and straw for the
one, and bread and meat and vegetables
of every kind for the other! These ag-
ricultural products were purchased and
consume d, and this made up nearly the
whole price of the iron which the manu-
facturer received and paid over to the far
mcrs again and again, as often as the pro-
cess was repeated. Well, is not iron
made in England of the same materials
that it is made here! Certainly: then
is not four-fifths of the value of British
iron made up of British agricultural pro-
ducc! and if we purchase nine millions of
dollars worth OF British iron wear, do
we not pay six or seven millions Of this
sum for the produce of British farmers
grain, hay, grass, bread, meat, and other
provisions for man and beast-sent here
for sale in the form of iron! He put it to
the gentleman from Virginia Mr.. Bayly)
to say if this was not true to the letter.
He challenged him TO deny it, or disprove
it if he could. The gentleman's plan was
to break down these great and growing
markets for our own farmers, and give
our markets to the British; and yet he
profesScd to be friend to American far
mers!! "From such friends good Lord
deliver THEMl' One remark more on
this topic; Secretary Walker informs US
that the present duty on iron is rs per cent.
which he proposes 10 reduce to 80 per
cent, 10 increase Me rersnue. To do
this, must he not then double the imports
of iron! Clearly he must. Then we
must add ten or twelve millions per year
10 our present imports of iron, and of
course destroy that amount of our domes-
tic supply TO make room for it. Thus at
a blow, in the single article of iron, this
bill is intended to destroy the American
markets for at least eight millions Of dol
lars worth Of domestic agricultural pro-
duce 10 be supplied from abroad; and this
is the American-no. the Brit,sh-sys-
tenn Of policy which is now attempted to
be imposed upon this country by this Bri
fish.hdiing .fdminisfrafion! Let them
do it, and in less than two years there
will not be specie paying bank in The
country. The people and the Treasury
will be again bankrupt, and the scenes
and suffering of ls40 will return; and
with it, as necessary consequence, the
political revolutions of that period.
The home market, Mr.. s. contcnded
was every thing to the farmer, and the
foreign market comparatively nothing
Massachusetts alone purchased and con
sumed fourteen times as much of thu
grain, -four, and meat Of the other State:
as the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland. from whom we took fift.
millions of dollars worth of manufacture
yearly. Massachusetts took 80 millions
worth, Exclusive of cotton and tobacco,
! while Great Britain took but two and