The Charlotte journal. [volume] (Charlotte, N.C.) 1835-1851, 1846-09-04
NUMBER IS.

! mlnishing duties, tho rcd1cti ms ought 10
DO made upon reasonable notice 10 the poo
pie whose property and business will be at
lected by them. Ia Iha. case there may DO
| inconvenience to some, but II does not bring
! ruin down upon so many innocent people.
! No! giving time, infant factories are de-
stroyed by the hand Of legislation, end the
older and more mature establishments are
compelled TO diminish their Operations lorth-
with, and consequently TO discharged num-
Der OF their Isborers, and reduce the wages
Of all. The laborers suffer more than tho
owners, because they are less able 10 bear
/ il. Tho sudden loss of work will he TO
many Of them and their families a loss OF
! food and raiu.enl and tina. which the law
maker is commanded to pray for-hls 4" dat
! " bread he would be thus rudely taking
by Law from the workingman OF his coun-
| try. And the experimental tariff act was
the more Objectionable, inasmuch as many
of our country mcn-the Northern laborcrs,
who arc to suffer under twill be put out
Of employment, in the beginning OF winter,
when other empoymcnls will be obtained
with grea, officially; aud al the north the
poor, without labor wages, encounter de-
gree Of suffering, N that lnclement season,
which We have 20 Just conception Of al tho
south. You mus, see il before you can iDl'
" appreciate it. Also, n sudden alteration
! of the tariff must of Decessity, disturb tho
! home maIke, oil our manufacturers, coal
diggers, and mechanics, and involve hun
dreds and ;housands-in losses to eomc, Eu-
in 10 others, and suffering to many.
Even bad tariff law, then, should not
be repealed so us to fall down too hastily,
when its gradual abrogaion would create
less inconvenience to the Government, and
It's sudden change may Cypress the poor,
or do injustice to any section. The Gov
eminent ought TO have compassion on all
the people, and particularly upon the la
boring classes. The manufacturers at the
North are not all abbot Lawrences, )"
whose fortune has been the theme OF so
many tariff speeches. The compromise
tariff act, under Gen, Jackson, in 1888, re-
ducod the duties gradually md periodical
" Tor nine years. IL gave nine years no.
ice. This Experimental Tariff will re
duco all the duties upon only four months
notice The latter was harsh, cruel, IN
Just legislation; harsh to the wealthy, cru
Ell to the laborer, and unjust to both; and
the general welfare did not require IT.
Third The Independent Treasury, OF
itself great change; the "arehouslng
act another and the Experimental Tariff,
the greatest of them all, will, when taken
onelher, work an entire revolution OF our
financial system. One at time they might
have been introduced more safely, some OF
them wisely. But, by being so nearly UNI.
ted, as they will be, in the time OF their
commencement, il is calculated TO excite
apprehension and alarm. To put them III
to simultaneous operation was, indeed
political movement Of party too violent and
too potent for good. They will effect all
tho business of the people most Injurious
ly; and, with Government expenditure
of $50 900, 900 and reve.ue under $780,.
600 600, the Government itself may be
crushed under their combined operation.
To attempt it when the nation was at war
abroad, and the Government was in the
money market, or soon expected there, as
a borrower at home, clearly appeared to
my mind 10 be unwisely jeopardmg public
credit and private confidence. Revolutions
arc seldom reforms, and certainly reforms
need not always be revolutions. One must
reasonably fear that, WITHOUT a miracle,
such strong measures, aolng with their
combined power against ne existing order
Of things in the country may create a re-
yulsion in trade, pecuiary distress, hard
times, popular eXcIomenis, and sectional
| ag,alions, preceding another contest for
the Presidency, aid do lobody any good
but a few political agitaors and rich spec
ulators. thought they would so very far
towards producing an o'crthrow OF the De-
mocradc parry, if the did not entirely ac-
complish 1t. These Consequences we're too
natural not to be rpprehended and the
last mentioned resut was openly predicted
hy sorpc and probably anticipated by 9th.
ers of my own flends, who yet voted for
the experiments tariff bill without approx.
inc of il. Unless il should be repealed, or
Materially modified, its consequences now
5elong to the developments of the future;
so need notillustrate the grounds Of my
conviction ~ mauter statements. Let
time test its correctness.
! Fourth. In none Of the tariff acts Of the
United States in former years was the in.
ldustry of our own country burdened by dis
examinations made against home manufac.
lures. Their policy was to build up and
not to destroy, to protect and net to op.
press. Not so the experimental tariff
And is il not n mistake to suppose that the
republican people of North Carolina were
at any time hostile to those acts merely
because they we're protective 2" Our hos
uhty was aimed at the erteat Of the thing,
not the thing itself; at erireme protection,
not protection per Sc. With here and there
an individual eXception--for republicans
in those days were allowed TO dificr-I
boldly affirm that this was the republican
doctrine of our State; and the people will
know it TO be true when | remind them
that i was precisely the point Of our dis