The Evansville daily journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ia. [i.e. Ind.]) 1848-1862, 1861-03-08

circumstance which fixes our attention and
challenges our deepest regret is the general
distress which pervades the whole country
1t is forced upon US by numerous facts Of
the most incontestible character. 1t is in
dicated by the diminished exports of native
produce; by the depressed and reduced
state of our foreign navigation; by our di
minished commerce; by successive un-
threshed crops of grain perishing in our
barns for want of a market; by the alarm
ing diminution of the circulating medium;
by the numerous bankruptcies; by a uni
verSal complaint of the want of em ployment
and consequent reduction of the wages of
labor; by the ravenous pursuit after public
situations, not for the sake of their honorS
and the performance of their public duties,
but as means of private subsistence; by
the reluctant resort to the perilOus use Of
paper money; by the Intervention of legisla-
ton IN the delicate relation between debtor
and creditor; and, above all, by the low and
depressed state of the value of almost every
description of the whole mass of the prop
erty of the nation, which has on an aver
age sunk not less than fifty per centum
within a few years. This distress pervades
every part of the Union, every class of So
ciety; all feel it, though it may be felt in
OllCIOAb pIf1CGS III QttIST6uL utBTGcS- II Is
like the atmosphere which surrounds US; all
must inhale it, and none escape from it.
To the speech, from which the above is an
extract Mr.. Webster replied, denying that
the distress of which Clay had spoken and
on which he laid so much stress, was uni
versal. He considered New England ex-
empt from it; and where it did exist it had
its birth, not in the preceding tariff, but in
the expansion and collapse of the paper mon
ey system. He showed that a similar de-
preston in property had taken place in
Great Britain at a time when the Bank of
England had been in suspension for twenty
five years. Property had there decreased
in value almost as much as it now had in
the United States. Moreover, he was to-
tally opposed to granting more protection
to manufacturers than they already enjoyed,
believing that it would do no good; that it
would not abate the prevalent distress.
After a full and free discussion of the
subject for two months and a half, in which
Clay and Webster were each aided by the
speeches of many able men, the bill passed
the House by majority of five votes. 1t
then went to the Senate, where it also had
strong admirers and rs strong opponents
The first motion relating to it was TO refer
to the Committee on Finance a motion hos
tile to the bill. This was decided in the
negative by close vote, the ayes being %
to nays %. 1t was, thcreupon, referred to
the Committee on Manufactures, by whom
it was returned as it stood, with no propos-
ed amendments. Some, however, were
made when the bill was brought up in the
Senate, and with these it passed by vote
Of 25 to 81. The measure was supported
by Adams and Jackson, but opposed by
Crawford. 1t also received the support of
Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio and Ken
lucky.
It was opposed by all the cotton States,
Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina
and Massachusetts, the Southern States be-
lieving that they would be injured by it,
and that one section would be enriched at
the expense of the others. The bill, having
passed both houses, received the approba-
ton of President Monroe, and became the
law of the land.
Concluded tomorrow.