Bedford inquirer. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1857-1884, 1859-04-15
VOL. 30. NO. l6.

can merchant bought British manufactures and
paid for them with American produce
| It will be remembered, that in his speech on
the tariff of 1916, Mr.. Calhoun admitted the
propriety of protecting the manufacturing in
terest which bad been created by the war. It
was not until after the election of John Quincy
Adams, aud the question of internal improve
ments by the General Government was made
part of DIR. Clay's American system, that the
South rallied against protective tariff as an
constitutional. The question then was not so
much whether there should be protection for
American manufacture, as whether large sur
! plus revenue should be created, to be expended
by Congress On internal improvements Con-
gress may have power TO levy duties s'to pro-
vide for the common defense and general
welfare and yet it may not be authorized
10 create large surplus 10 he expended in
internal Improvements. I note this distinc
tlon to marx period in our progress, and that
| may call the attention Of the Senate to the
fact, that this part of Mr. Clay's system hav-
ing been arrested by the movement of South
Carolina, the payment Of the public debt, and
tae transfer of the public money to the State
banks by General jackson, led to such an in
fation Of the currency, and gave such a stimu-
lus to enterprise and speculation that the States
entered upon an expensive system of roads and
canals, which led TO an issue of State bonds,
which became new element in our foreign
commerce, aud which element it is the duty Of
the statesmen of the present day to study and
comprehend.
Failing to obtain a renewal of It's charter,
the Bank Of the United States sold its branches,
and invested the greater portion of the pro-
ceeds in State bonds, and sent them to London
for sale, to reiasrate its capital. We all know
| that ths London Bankers and the Bank Of
/ England exerted their influence, and, by the
| depreciation Of the value Of the State bonds,
prevented their sale until by the failure Of the
| Bank of the United States, they we're no longer
fearful of its agency in placing our six per cent
| in competition with their securities. Having
broken down The Bank of the United States,
they permitted our credit to be so far reinsta-
| ted that our railroad companies were enabled
to purchase foreign iron with their bonds
This has been done until We have accumulated
a foreign debt of at least FIVE hundred million
dollars, the payment Of The interest upon which
and the continued Importation of foreign iron,
will soon create so large a balance against us
that our condition will be much worse than
colonial dependant upon England: for l beg
credit has become as much an article of corg-
merce as their cotton. 1t is now used TO pay
| for other merchandise, as well as iron and steel
and that this purchase Of foreign merchandise
| with our bonds is violation of the principles
| of trade, beg to remind them that commerce
/ should be reciprocal exchange OF the surplus
products of labor, and that, by exchanging our
credit for the products of English labor, wheth-
Z - L. -. ,E
disc, we create debt, the payment of the prin-
cipal and interest of which, will subject US to
all the contingencies which may at any time
affect the money market of Europe.
beg Senators to reflect for a moment on
the cause and effect of the late monetary crisis,
and to realize that the use of our credit in the
| shape of railroad bands is q new element of
commerce unknown to Adam Smith and the
other masters who taught them the science of
political economy. ] ask, if a protective tariff
is wise and expedient when our commerce was
an exchange of the surplus produce of our
labor, is it not indispensable now as the only
means of preventing ruinous foreign debt /
beg to remind them again, that the effect of the
ad Ualorem system of duties has been to change
the system of our foreign commerce. We no
longer have American merchants employed In
the purchase Of American produce to be ex-
changed for foreign merchandise. In their
place we have the agents of foreign manufac-
| turers, who invoice their goods at the cost of
production-not at the commercial price In the
foreign markets. These goods are placed In
our Government warehouses until the agent
can sell them by bis patterns 10 the jobbers.
These jobbers do not deal 10 American pro-
duce, but give their notes payable to thei- own
| order These notes are placed in the hands of
broker, aud sold at discount, which discount
the agent of the foreign house charges as part
of the price Of the goods? Who, ask, pays
this discounts Yea all must see that it is paid
by the consumer. The jobber pays the face of
the note; the agent receives what the jobber
pays, less the discount.
Would he sell the notes for such price un.
less he had made himself whole by the price at
which be had sold his goods Surely not who,
then, profits By this mode of levying our duties
| The government does not, because this system
favors class of invoices charging the goods at
less than their value In the foreign market Is
| it not obvious that the consumer does, because
he is compelled to pay the duties and the pro-
fits on what the retailers pay, which includes the
shave on the notes 10 the hands of the broker
| And what does the foreign agent do with the
proceeds of these notess Docs be buy Ameri-
can produce No. lie RENTS specie and thus
deranges our currency. The use of our credit
in the shape of railroad bonds has created
balance against us, which, ii the present system
.ontinues, will oyerwhelm us in irretrieyable
ruin. There is no hope of escape but in such
an increase of the duty on iron as to prevent
the further importation Of the foreign article.
! III we estimate that the interest on our debt
now payable in Europe be but'thiriy millions
and our imports of foreign iron and steel be but
thirty milliens, fand the average for ten years
has been forty milliena,) aud compound this
lsum for thirty years at six per cent interest, 1t