The Aberdeen examiner. [volume] (Aberdeen, Miss.) 1866-current, 1883-03-01


cessitv of the Development of manu-
features as one of the elements of the
national strength, but, sir, can we not
have the manufactures without the
burden of protective tariff !? Is it
true that diversification of industries
is thing unattainable in this coun-
try, with its almost infinite variety of
climate, soil,productions,and interests,
except at the cost and sacrifice which
this system of protection entails =?
Sir, there have been long periods
of time in the history of this country
when protective tariffs were not in
operation. Did our manufactures
cease to exist during those periods ?
! have before me Bishops History of
American Manufactures from the ear
lest time down to 1863. No one can
read this history--although written
by protectionistwithout becoming
convinced that American manufac-
lures are the natural growth of this
country and have demonstrated their
capacity to exist and grow and thrive
under any kind of tariff, high Or low,
prospective per se,or for revenue only.
Sir, long before the era of protective
tariffs, long before we had national
tariff of any kind-indeed, from the
earliest Colonial period down to the
Revolutionary observation-disclosures ex-
listed and flourished and attained
vigorous life and an ample develop
ment exposed to foreign competition,
unaided by the Legislation of the
mother country, and in defiance of its
hostile and prohibitory enactments.
As illustrative of this tendency to
arts and manufactures may be men
toned the fact that the first exports
sent from the American Colonies to
Europe consisted almost exclusively
of manufactures in the strickest sense
of the term"
We have heard some discussion
here of the per cent. necessary to Sc
cure the home market for the manu-
facture of glass, in which my friend
from North Carolina Mr.. VANCE
participated with his usual ability.
Perhaps it may shed some light upon
this subject to state that one of the
chief articles mentioned in the cargo
of vessel of the London company
employed in the early efforts to make
settlements upon the coast of North
America, on her return voyage, was
glass. Concerning this article the
author says:
The glass-house stood in the woods
about a mile from jamestown, and
although very unpretending in its
dimensions and appointments, it was
doubtless the first mandatory ever
erected in this country. Page 20, vol
ume ~
Many of the people became very
industrious and began to vie with one
another in planting, building, and
other improvements. A salt-work
was set up at Cape Charles, on the
Eastern Shore, and an iron work at
Falling Creek, in jamestown River,
where they made proof on good iron
ore, and brought the whole work so
near to perfection that they wrote
word to the company in London that
they did not doubt but to finish the
work and have plentiful provisions of
iron for them by the next Easter.
page 2S.)
The candid historian is, however,
compelled to state that these manu-
featuring enterprises were not destin-
ed to long existence in Virginia.
They had to succumb to competition;
not the competition of foreign pauper
labor, Mr.. President, but to "a com
petitor then, as now, more formidable
than paupcr labor, to wit, the superior
attractions of agriculture. The cul-
tlvation of tobacco became profitable
and all the artisans quit their work
and devoted themselves to its culture.
In assigning the cause OF this change
of pursuit, Bishop says:
"The Virginia colonists were essen
TALLY planters, and regarded CONNER
cial as well as manufacturing pursuits
as less respectable than agriculture.
The climate and the fertility of their
soil and the cheapness and abundance
Of the land enabling many to acquire
estates more immortal in extent, all
occurred with the native tastes of the
inhabitants in fostering this sentiment.
page 35.)
Il n X
But when we come to the indus
trial history of the Northeastern and
Middle Colonies we find people and
a country to whom manufacturing
enterprises was more congenial. |
Bishop says:
"What a sterile soil and rugged
climate, they early betook themselves
to manufacturing and commercial
enterprises; and so successfully, that
at the present day there is scarcely a
useful art Of ancient or modern times
that is not "naturalized' among them,
and scarcely region of the globe so
remote or inaccessible that is not
familiar with the products of their
labor" page 36)
/ cannot here 90 over all the man
ufactures of which this author gives
account; but there is not an industry |
whose products are enumerated in
the schedules of this bill but was es-
tablished and in operation throughout
the American Colonies. Chemicals,
pottery, glass, metals, iron and steel;
woods; liquors, distilled and ferment-
ed; cotton, wooden, silk, flax, paper,
leather, lumber, and long list of
other fabrics. | can only call especial
attention to the then condition of the
industries which are now before us
asking protection; | mean cotton and
wooden, iron and steel. In the ear
Hest settlement of the Colonies, the
of cotton, wooden, and
Imam co1na into NV icta,oa opI ottoinad