Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1857-10-17


that of the reduction of the Tariff, is of great
Importance, and the plan suggested by the
secretary of the Treasury, which is to reduce
the duties on certain articles, and to add to
the free list many articles now taxed, and es-
pecally such as enter into MANUFACTURES,
are not likely or at all produced in the coun.
try, is commended to your candid and careful
consideratiom.-Pr Pres. Message, 1858, p. 10.
This was the judgment of President Pierce
in December, 1858, on this proposition, pre-
scented to the country, by NJ. Secretary Guth-
rie. Butthe Southern men opposed it on the
ground l have stated, and in that opposition
they were successful. And il vas left to two
members-one representing Pennsylvania, and
the other from observation-disclosures an opposi-
ton man, and the other an administration
man-to present the minority views in the
House Of Representatives, on the plan pro.
posed by Mr.. Guthrie, and their representa-
ton was in approval Of the plan of the Sec1e-
tary himself. The South was successful, the
measure was defeated ,{and the manufacturers
of 1853, ga, So, '516, and 81, have been
charged, each year, " sum of $800,OOO,
which they have paid p the Treasury of the
United States, overAo pg with the specie of
the country, there to idle TO the embar-
rassment of every iHlvidual interest, and
hanging, like an impending cloud, over every
section of the country, except so far as the
Secretary himself was able to deplete the
Treasury by redeeming the public debt before
it became due, at premium of 20 and 81 per
cent.
This is the fact to which 1 wish to call your
attention, that the manufacturing interest of
this country was the second, if not the first,
to feel the present calamity. The manufac-
turers heve been called on, in the pursuit of
their industry and enterprise, to meet the
manufacturers of other countries in the mar
kets ofthe world. They have gone into eve
ry market of the world, and have paid on
those manufactures duty Of from 20 to 80
per cent. on the raw materials, on which their
labor, ingenuity, and invention, have been
expended, while not one dollar was paid by
the manufacturers with whom they came into
competition, and the money they paid went
Immediately into the treasury of the United
States.
Now in this regard have nothing further
to say. | stand here to encourage and to de-
fend, as embodying the true principles Of our
people, and the industrial intereste of the
country, the proposition made by Mr.. Guth-
RE. Not that it is protective policy, or free
trade policy, forit is neither; but it touches
vital point in regard to our industrial interests
as it gives to the manufacturers of the United
States the raw materials which they use free
Of duty, and thus relieves them of the pay.
ment Of seven or eight millions q dollars per
year, and enables them to come into COMPETE
ton on equal terms with other manufacturers
in other parts of the world. am aware that
in times OF depression like the present, which
wear all the semblances of panic, that men
are likely to look to the past in the hope to
re establish some measure or principle that
has passed away. l do not myself think this
80 rfIso ,alt
proceeds from the present disturbed condition
Of the public mind, will, at no distant day,
meet with the returning wave of prosperity
and that which we erect today will be wash
ed away by the wave which shall come i'm
mediately after US, tor be assured that the dis
tress which is now npon US is not of lasting
character. (Applause.) | dislike the cloud
that rests on us this night, soon to be dispell-
ed by the opening of the morning, and the
dawnIng of the new day. 1t is impossible in
the nature of things, that 81, 900, 900 of peo-
pie, endowed with such intelligence, energy,
and fertility of resources, can for any length
of time be oppressed by the temporary calami-
ty which has come over US. No; they will
rise above it; even the collections Of the
press, this day, exhibit evidences of the reeu-
peratiye power of depressed men. The Amer
lean people We're never more happily describ-
ed, in their superabundance, surely, tLan by
Wordsworth -
'iAs the Freeman, welded to his life and hope
And hazard and hard labor, interchauged
With that majestic incidence so dear to
Native man."
This is the character of the people, resting
momentarily under the calamity which is
passing over the country, but who will soon
rise, never again TO be crushed down. cloud
cheers) 1t is not, therefore, out of this timid-
ity or temporary fears that may fill our minds
at this time, that we should take an unstable
view of measures of reform or legislation nee
essary for us, and in this simple proposition
to which have referred, Americas industry
has every element of protection which it can
desire.
But it has failed. do not speak of the
change in the Tariff of this wear, which was
a great improvement. There was then threat.
ened an accumulation of ga, 600, 900 in the
Treasury of the United States on the lst of
July, 1858. Every one knows that the com.
merce, the manufactures, and theRindustry
of the country, would be paralyzed under
that accumulation, and, at the last moments
of an expiring Congress such a change was
at lastgmade in the revenue laws as would
have relieved the country from the perils that
now exist, had it been made year, or even
six months earlier.
Even now, had the pressure been deferred
six weeks, it could not have occurred at all
this year, for the vast agricultural products of
the West would have been available, and if
the products could have been forwarded to
the Atlantic coast, they would at once have
relieved the business comm unity from its en-
barrassments. 1t is because we have stuck
just between working and sleeping, with no
time to look at the past or the future, that we
have been disenabled from bringing forward
the wealth of the West which itself alone
with the products of this year, would in
another year have reduced the price of every
thing, so that the country would have moved
on steadily, as in years before.
The true idea of the revenue system, neces-
sary for this country is that which has been
already suggested-a duty levied on imports
sufficient to maintain the government, and
| give incidental protection to the manufacture
ing interests of the country. 1t is the
theory of Washington, OF Jackson of CAL
| houn-of every man who has been connect
| ed with the government even upon that ad-
verse side Of the political organizations of
the country. The duty may be %, 30 or 50
| per cent, whatever may be deemed necessary
but there should always be EN- admission of
raw materials, that enter into manufactures,
as should place their interests on level with
the manufactures OF every other people; and
thus we should go through the world with
the same advantages that other governments
give to their artisans.
There is another principle which may be
embodied, in the re organization of this sys.
tenn. The principle of ad UaLorem duties has