1
Whole No Ll$.
Tttrborough, Edgecombe County, JV. t) Tuesday, September 4, 1832,
Vol IX No 2.
The "North Carolina Free Press
tlY GKOROE HOWARD,
Is published weekly, at Tivo Dollars arid Fifty
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Letters addressed to the Editor must be post paid,
or they may not be attended to.
la order to give as early publicity as possible
to the favors of our correspondents, we deferred
publishing the following Address to the people
of South Carolina, recently issued by the Con
gressional delegation of thpt State, with the ex
ception of Messrs. Drayton, Blair and Mitchell.
"We invite an attentive perusal ofc this document.
The facts set forth, taken in conjunction with the
late movements in South Carolina and Georgia,
present subjects meriting the deepest considera
tion not only of the other Southern States, but of
every State in the Union.
ADDRESS
To the People of South Carolina,
The undersigned, a portion of your
Representatives in Congress of tho Uni
ted States, feel it to be their painful, but
indispensable duty, in the present extra
ordinary crisis of your affairs, to submit,
for your grave and solemn consideration,
the following brief views of your present
condition and future prospects, as they
are affected by the unconstitutional legis
lation of Congress. Whatever hopes may
have been indulged at the commencement
of tho session, that a returning sense of
justice on the part of the majority would
remove or materially mitigate the griev
ous load of oppression under which you
have 60 long labored, anil of which you
have so justly complained, the undersign
ed are now reluctantly constrained to de
clare that these flattering hopes, too long
deferred, and too fondly cherished, have
finally and forever vanished. A dispas
sionate review of the history and progress
of the protecting duties and of those kin
dred measures, which, in their combina
tion, constitute the "American System,"
has brought their minds to the deep and
deliberate conviction, that there is no
principle of re-action in the system itself
which will warrant the belief that Con
gress will ever voluntarily grant to the
planting States a restitution of those sa
cred rights, without which property has
no value and liberty itself is the mere
mockery of an empty name. On the
contrary, experience has conclusively de
monstrated that the system is essentially
progressive, each successive advance cre
ating additional motives and supplying
additional means for future acquisitions.
There is no principle of human action
more steady in its operation and more
boundless in its desires, than the thirst
of pecuniary gain, not even excepting
ambition. And it would be just as ra
tional to suppose that a military conque
ror would voluntarily arrest his own ca
reer of conquest, and retreat before his
quailing adversaries, as to hone that the
irresponsible majority who control the
legislation of Congress on this subject,
will voluntarily arrest their career of le
gislative exaction, urged on as they a.re
by the instinct of self interest, under the
guise of patriotism, and subject to no hu
man restraint but their own will,
In the history of the protecting system,
there are three distinct eras, each of them
unequivocally marked by the extended
combination and increased strength of
the manufacturing interests, and not
less unequivocally by the increased pro
action of those interests. In 1316, at
tU close of war which gave an unuatural
stimulus to domestic manufactures, the
liberality, the gratitude, and the patriot
ism of Congress all conspired to recom
mend, that in reducing and adjusting the
revenuo duties of the war to tho require
ments of a peace establishment, the man
ufacturing interests, which had gene
rously sustained the Government while
other interests had deserted it, should
be saved from the ruinous shock of a
too sudden transition, by making tho re
duction gradual and progressive. Ac
cordingly the duties upon cotton and
woollen manufactures were placed at the 1
ad valorem rate of twenty-five per cent-1
urn, with the provision that no cotton
fabric should be estimated as of less va-1
luo than twenty-five cents per square
yard, that being about the existing price
of the coarse cotton manufactures then
usually imported. The duty on ham
mered bar iron was fixed at the rale of
forty-five cents per hundred weight,
which didj not exceed twenty-five per
centum on the existing value of that arti
ticle, and the duty on all manufactures
of iron was placed at twenty-five per
centum ad valorem. In fact, it may be
stated generally, that the average of the
duties imposed upon the protected class
of articles by the Tariff of 1316, was not
more than twenty -five per centum, on
their value having reference to the then
existing prices, of such as were subjec
ted to minimum or specific duties; while
the mere revenue duties upon coffee, tea,
and wines, averaged at least fifty per cen
tum. The principle was here distinctly
assumed, that the unprotected articles
were the more appropriate subjects of
taxation, and ought to pay higher duties
than the protected articles, for the obvi
ous reason that the protection given by
the duties on these latter articles to one
class of American producers, necessari
ly itftposed an equivalent burthen upon
another class.
But even these rates of duty upon cot
ton and woollen manufactures, were tem
porary upon the very face of the act
which imposed them, it being expressly
provided that, in three years, they should
be reduced from twenty-five to twenty
percent, ad valorem. So far, therefore,
from being placed at this rate, for the ex
clusive purpose of protection, those du
ties were actually lower thai) others
which were exclusively designed for re
venue; and, so far from giving an implied
pledge that they should be retained and
extended, without reference to the fiscal
wants of the Government, the act of 1816
contained an express declaration, that
even the incidental protection of the re
venue rates should not continue above
twenty per cent. for"more than three
years. Instead, however, of acquies
cing in the provisions of the act of 1816,
the manufacturing interest was the first
to disturb them, by procuring the repeal
of the clause which provided that in three
years, the ad valorem duties on cotton &
woollen manufactures should be reduced
from twenty-five to twenty per cent.
But, still unsatisfied with the protec
ticn so generously yielded to them, the
manufacturers continued to clamor for
a yet greater increase of the duties, until
they succeeded, in 1824, in having them
raised on woollens from 25 to 33$ per
cent.; on iron to 90 cents per hundred;
while, on cotton manufactures, the min
imum was raised from 25 to 30 cents the
square yard, being equivalent to an ave
rage increase of 10 or 15 percent, ad va
lorem; and, on most other manufactures,
a very considerable addition was made
to the duties. The tariff of 1824 was
passed with the almost unanimous oppo
sition of the representatives from all the
Southern States; and nothing induced
the people of the South, at that time, to
acquiesce in it, but the solemn assurance
of its leading advocates that no further
call for protection would ever be made
in behalf of the manufacturing interest.
This pledge Was distinctly made in Con
gress during the discussion of that mea
sure. But this was soon forgotten or
disregarded, and, in 1826, renewed ef
forts were made to extend the protecting
duties, particularly on wool and woollen
manufactures, efforts which were perse
veringly prosecuted until 1828, when
they were crowned with complete suc
cess by the enactment of what has been
appropriately denominated a "bill of a
bominations." This act increased the
duties on woollen manufactures on an
average, more than 20 per cent, and most
of the protecting duties to a considerable
extent, though not quite so much.
Such is a brief history of the progress
of the protecting system since the late
war- a history which the people of the
Southern States can contemplate with
no other than the most melancholy re
flections. They cannot but perceive
that what was modestly solicited and
generously granted as a temporary pro
tection against the disasters of a sudden
change, produced by the act of the Go
vernment itself, is nov imperiously de
manded, with a more than two-fold in
crease, as a matter of right, and as a
measure of permanent policy. They
cannot fail to perceive, also, that, after
the progress and improvements of forty
years sixteen of them under a protec
tion of from twenty-five to fifty-five per
cent. during which our manufactures
have had full lime to reach their maturity,
a rate of protecting duties is now estab
lished as the permanent policy of the
country, four times as high as that which
was recommended by Alexander Hamil
ton; when those manufactures were in
their infancy. Upon every principle of
reason and justice, and upon the avowed
principles of Mr. Hamilton, the author of
the protecting system, no manufacture
can have any claim to protection which
cannot dispense with it alter a few years
of probation. But these principles are
entirely disregarded and reversed by the
present advocates of this system. The
experience, maturity, and improvements
which, according to those principles,
should induce the manufacturers to dis
pense with even the original protecting
duties, have had no other effect than to
increase their demands. The infant was
generously nourished in its feebleness,
now grown up to maturity, proves to be
a gigantic monster, which turns upon its
benefactors and devours their substance,
with an appetite increasing with its sta
ture, and which nothing can satiate.
Adverting to the several steps by which
this system has attained its present di
mensions, it will be seen, that, by the act
of 1824, the protecting duties were only
raised, on an average, about ten per cent.;
and even this increase was carried in the
House of Representatives by a meagre
majority of five votes only; whereas, in
1828, the amendments of the Senate,
which raised the duty on woollen manu
factures from 33 per cent, to an average
of more than 50 per cent, estimating the
effect of the minimums, and other protec
ting duties in proportion, were carried in
the House of Representatives by the over
whelming majority of 117 votes to 67! It
is thus apparent that the system is not
only progressive, but that each successive
advance has been greater than the pre
ceding, and that the number of its sup
porters has steadily increased at every
successive struggle in Congress.
Considered in reference to the condi
tion of the country, and the wants of the
Government, the recent struggle, and the
measure which has resulted from it, form
no exception to this remark. Indeed it
may be affirmed, with confidence, that the
system is, at this moment, stronger than
it ever has been at any former period.
In 1816, with a vast public debt to dis
charge, it was necessary to provide an an
nual revenue of $24,000,000. It is not
now necessary to provide more than half
that sum. If, therefore, in 1816, the
protecting duties did not average more
than 25 per cent, when it was necessary
to provide twenty-four millions of reve
nue, it clearly follows that, upon the
principles of the act of 1816, without re
ference to its prospective reductions; the
protecting duties should now be reduced
to 12! per cent, when it is not necessary
to provide a revenue of more than twelve
millions.
Yet, what are the provisions of the act
recently passed! The burthens of the
protecting duties are decidedly increased,
estimating the cash duties and diminish
ed credits, and they now actually stand
at an average of more than fifty per cent,
while the duties on the unprotected arti
cles, which, upon every principle of equa
lity and justice, should sustain the princi
pal part of the burthens of taxation, are
with a few inconsiderable exceptions,
entirely repealed. Upon those manufac
tures which are received in exchange for
the staple productions of the Southern
States, the aggregate increase of the
burthens of taxation beyond what they
were under the tariff of 1828, is believed
to be upwards of one million of dollars;
while the reduction or repeal of the du
ties on thost) imports which are received
in exchange for the productions of tho
tariff States, and are principally consu
med in those States, amounts to about
four millions of dollars. While, there
fore, the aggregate burthens of taxation
are diminished four millions of dollars by
this bill, the positive burthens of the Sou
thern States are not diminished at all, and
their relative burthens are very greatly in
creased. The relief w hich those States
will derive, as consumers, from the re
duction and repeal of the duties on the
exchanges of the North, will not be more
than equivalent to the increased burthens
imposed on the exchanges of the South.
On the other hand, those increased bur
thens on the exchanges of the South op
crate as bounties to the manufacturing
States to the amountof more than a mil
lion of dollars, and the reduction and re
peal of duties on their exchanges and
consumption operate as a relief to them
of at least three millions more. It re
sults from all this that the manufacturing
States are relieved and benefitted, by the
provisions of the new tariff, to the amount
of four millions of dollars annually, while
the unequal and oppressive burthens of
the planting States are not only undimi
nished, but greatly aggravated by their
increased inequality. Their burthens
are precisely the same now that the Go
vernment requires only twelve millions
of revenue, that they were when it re
quired double that amount. The extin
guishment of the public debt, to which
they looked forward with the most cheer
ing anticipations, brings them no relief.
On the contrary, it gives them the most
unequivocal assurance of their hopeless
condition and final destiny, so far as
these can be fixed by Congress. It may
he said, with perfect truth, that even
"hope which comes to all," comes not to
them. There never will occur ogain a
period so propitious as that which has
just gone by for urging upon Congress
the claims ot the planting States to be
relieved from the burthens of unconstitu
tional and oppressive taxation. Yet those
claims have been urged in vain upon aa
interested and irresponsible majority.
They have now made their ultimate
concession, and even that was yielded
with great reluctance, and accompanied
by the declaration of their leading advo
cates that the protecting duties would be
hereafter increased, particularly on wool
len manufactures, if fifty per centum
should be found an insufficient protec
tion, with cash duties, that are equivalent
to ten per centum more. What, then, is;
the boasted compromise offered to the
Southern States by this new tariff! It is
nothing more nor less than such an artful
arrangement of the duties upon imports
as throws the entire burthen of federal
taxation upon the productions of these
States, while the tariff States are not on
ly exempted from any portion ot that
burthen, but actually gain more than they
lose by the entire operation ofjhe system.
continued on the last page.)
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