Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1869-04-07


a poor man dare take one that is rich be-
fore any court in this land? Is there in
dividual projections there citizen pro~
lection in this land of liberty? Mr..
President, if railroad, or manufacturer,
or rich man is brought to the bar OF any |
court in this land by man not as well
OFF as he, or poor man, all the nice
points OF the law, and the arrangements
and knowledge ofjudicial precedents, are
brought to bear to defeat the poor and
the weak. If in despotic France you in> |
terfere so as to injure the meanest of its
citizens, the whole power OF the
government comes in for his protection.
have called to the individual atten-
ton of Senators, and have called to the |
attention of the body, the fact of the loss
of nearly ALL may say to-day all oil
your industrial interests but the apathy |
which seems to have been inocnlated into |
every nerve and into every vein OF this |
body and of the country, will not allow |
them to believe it until the mischief is
upon them Your immigration fell oil
thirty thousand last year from the year
before. Why is that SO Is 1t not q
clear case that it must be So? Where
can these people obtain employment by
coming here II they take possession
of the farms of the West, can they pros
duce sufficient to supply themselves, at
the cost Of everything now, with the
ordinary necessaries Of life ? Sir, 1t can
not be done. They can not come here,
and is it not a shame and disgrace to
| all your legislation that it should be so
1 Three hundred thousand Germans and
Irish come 10 this country with money in
their pockets and let me ask you OF the
Eastern States, do you send men and
women and children to the West with
money in their pockets 1t ought to be
known that the land on which at home
those immigrants cultivate their crops
and maintain their families and obtain
the means Of travel here and buy your
property, is patch of ground no bigger
than this Senate chamber.
You have lost your commerce. You
ask the reason for it; and there is not
man in this chamber that gives a salts
factory reason for the loss except and be-
cause we are not paying specie for our
bills. The reason is plain and simple
and the construction of your Treasury
is such that you, in common with the
capitalists of this country, are specula-
ting upon every industry and upon every
labOring occupation That is the reason,
and there is no other. | told you the
other day that the condition in which the
crops Of the South were placed, cOnses
quent on high prices, was the most dan
, lgerous and disastrous position that it
was possible to place them, for the appa>
rent high prices here give stimulus to
the operations in and the production of
f cotton in Egypt in India and in Brazil.
, 1t is my deliberate judgment, and nobody
can gainsay it, that in five years you
} | will be clamOring here for tariff to keep
out foreign cotton. How are you going
to pay your debts with that state of
things? Send more bonds to Europe;
send more of your capital away from the
industries Of the people
have pointed to the material cOndi-
ton of this country have told you that
/ | the farmers in the West can not produce
any thing by which they can be profit
ably employed or the wealth of the ma
ton enhanced. have been met by the
t | argument that if you get as much COM
T pensation from small crop as you get
. from a large crop the wealth of the nation
is as great. have not thought it worth
! while to answer the argument but it
, has maintained itself here in this body
and it is believed Is is worth while for
me, when the answer seems so plain,
that should burden the attention of the
Senate with relutation Of the idea
We were told that the tax on cotton
was Of great advantage to the Eastern
manufacturers; that it would give us the
monopoly of the manufacturing Of the
world; that we should burden the cotton
planter with a tax Of three cents pound,
compelling him to go into the market at
: twenty-five per cent. per annum to OBJ
tain that three cents, enhancing the cost
| of his production to that extent, and
then, by giving to the American manu>
? faCturer a drawback Of three cents per
pound, he could supply the markets of
the world. There are Senators here who
r believe that statement. tell them that
, in the matter of interest the difference
in the cost of capital in this country and
| in England would alone overcome that
3 difference. | say 10 them that the diff
ference in the cost of labor would alone
overcome that difference; the difference
! in the cost of supply and transportation
: would alone overcome that difference.
That is the advice that has been received
here and acted upon in the management
Of your taxes.
p But that which is more terrible than
any other is the advice that has been
acted upon in reference to the greater
3 subject and that which underlIes all
: others, thOt which either makes free
man of the citizen, ~ i slaVs-and that
is the finance this government. The
Senator from Ohio himself distrusts his
: own Judgment in reference to the policy
he has been pursuing The power that
} controlled the action of this Senate is the
, bankers advice and judgment ald
. nobody else's.
/ do not aTTaign before this bar or
elsewhere the banking advice which has
been received here. Tha bankers have
, undoubtedly given the best advice that
they knew how to give; but it is the
the experience Of every business man
| that banker man dealing in money
knows no more about the relations
which money assumes toward any other
occupation than he does about a
matter which is million Of
miles from him, and which he never
heard of. The men who have
assumed to dictate and to determine the
s financial policy of this country know no
more about the requirements, about the
necessities, about the character of the
employments of the people of this coun-
try, than if they never lived and yet,
sir, these men, whom have tried in my
own business, and who have tied that
business in such manner as to embar-
rass and almost destroy it; these men
who, whenever they depart from their
occupation Of counting money, have
always failed both in the advice they
have given and in the manipulation Of
any other business, are to- day debating
to this body the financial policy which
should control US.
| watched the Presidents inaugural
with anxiety. listened to every word
that he uttered. | watched his cOun~
tenance. | responded to the words
wherein he prolessed himself to be the
champion Of freedom and liberty; that