The North-Carolinian. [volume] (Fayetteville [N.C.]) 1839-1861, 1850-03-02

'oi Tue pIOuuCts VI your udttc InuusuEs
the products of your soil, which is your
true native industry. Then is it not great
injustice to your planters, your farmers,
ana your consumers, to shut those mark.
cts against them by protective or prohibi-
tory duties on imports which decrease the
power OF foreigners to buy, as YOU limit
the quantity von can take from them. In
the first place you narrow the market and
abrldge the competition amongst those who
would be purchasers Of their produce; and
you also conhne them to buy prote cted
articles at home, for the avoweL and un-
disguised purpose Of raising prices, s. pre-
vent their getting their necessaries cheaper,
by imposing restrictions on Importation
THIS IS double injustice. 1t is unques-
tionabie that the accumulatins wealth aud
property Of individuals in the aggregate,
promotes national ag.randisement aud So
c'ai comfort; and any thing that prevents
this is a national loss.
1t never can be said that If am con
lined to one market to make my sales
can do as we'll as if | bad competition aris-
ing from a choice of the markets of the
world or il am restricted to buy what
want AT home, or to import under pro
tective duties, that | can do as we'll as If
no prohibition existed. You call prot.c-
tive duties necessary 'mposts; deem
them most injurious restrictions, and
doubt their advantage, in many cases, to
the protected parties. They are positive
loss to the nation. No part of your rea-
soning astonished me more than your re-
marks about cutton. You say you produce
to the value Of $4,000. 900 dollars, but if
manufactured at home it would be increas-
ed fourfold. presume you do not mean
to assert that this fourfoid increased value
could be effected without increased capital
and hands, although that inference may be
drawn from what you state. |, therefore,
ask this question,-how are you to with
draw both capital and hands from other
pursuits, without serious and manifest in
jury to them? And with you, where is
great enterprise, sagacitv, aud intelligence,
and where every man is at perfect liberty
to employ his capital and his industry as
he pleases, | ask whether they would not
become cotton spinners, weavers, &c,
&C., 1t their industry was better remune-
rated in those channels than in their pre-
sent pursuits? Is it, therefore, wisdom
to Withdraw energy, enterprise, labOur,
and capital from other pursuits. and from
your true native industry-the cultivation
| OF the produce Of your soii-where you
have regions ot virgin earth and other ad-
in the world possesses, and force all these
faculties into manufacturing labour, when
other countries have greater advantages
than you, aud when protecting duties are
necessary to sustain it at the cost Of all
partise not protected
AS soon as you have capital aud labor
which can be more protitably v employed in
factories than otherwise, the sagacity of
your people will find it out, without their
being bolstered up with high tariff. Capt.
tai can then venture into them " ith safety,
without any fear Of the next Congress be-
ing able to injure them by reducing the
duties. Until the natural course Of events
has brought those changes round, it is not
| the policy Of any country to force their
citizens out of pursuits, in which climate
or other circumstances give them peculiar
advantages, and which they, therefore,
| find it their interest to follow, to induce
them to adopt others that are stimulated
into existence by bounties Of protective
duties The division Of labor is we'll un-
derstood to be productive of great advan-
tages; but you would destroy this by en-
courasing planters and other industries tn
become manufacturers, irrespective Of eli.
mate or other circumstances which may
be favorable to them.
You say no country can attain due
strength or prosperity, which does not, by
its labor, carry its own produc ctions as
nearly as possible to the point Of ultimate
consumption. l agree with you, that no
nation can attain strength or prosperity ex-
cept by its own labor; but you must not
force that laber into particular channels,
when it is more advantagcously employed
in other pursuits. The meddIing inter-
ference Of Government in those matters is
national suicide. Individuals are much
better Judges how they can employ their
time, their capital, and their labor, most
productivity, than any government. 1t
has not been of our sins here, that We have
interferred aud legisIated too much. You
state, that, under your present tariff, some
articles have produced less revenue than
under higher rate Of duties. This being
SO, it follows your own manufacture Ol
those articles is sufficiently renumerative
to the manufacturer. and has supplied the
consumer SO as to render larger imports
unnecessary; or if that is not the case,
that the consumers have the advantage oi
the reduction Of price on the imported ar
ticle; in either case the country is gain
er, by obtaining supply for less quan
tity of their productive labor: this surel
must he their interest. l CONTEND that I
is the true interest Of state to let tn,
capita! and labor Of the nation Aow int,
that channel that pays best. 1t does ap
pear most extraordinary, that you. who's
sole dependence for replenishing your ex
chequer is almost altogether ON import du
ties. should suggest and recommend tn
most efectual way Of decreasing them.
| See the effects here of decreased rate