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McMASIER UlMlvfcKbtLt UBSAfflfi TO THE GREAT MASTER OF ECONOMIC SCIENCE, THE VKOFOUND TIIIXKER, AND TIIK CAREFUL OBSERVER OF SOCIAL PIIEXOMEXA, MY ^•E^•ERAnLE friend and TEACHER, IIEXllY C. CAREY, THIS VOLUME IS AVITII GRATEFUL AFFECTION INSCRIBED BY THE AUTHOR. rnirAPA., Nov. 1, 1371. INTRODUCTION. In offering this volume to tlio public it is proper to state that I niaivo no pretension to a critical knowledge of litera- ture or rlietoric, and that, when preparing the papers it con- tains, I did not suppose they would ever be collected for republication. They are expressions of opinion called forth by occasions; and, as the reader will observe, not unfrc- qucntly in tlic excitement of current debate in tlie National House of Representatives, or in response to invitations to address popular assemblies under circumstances that pre- cluded the possibility of reducing them to writing in advance of tiieir deli\ery. it is proper also to say tiiat I am not wholly responsible for their publication in l)Ook form, inas- much as they have been collected and annotated in deference to the judgment and wishes of citizens of different s"ctions of tlie country, who, though strangers to each otlier and en- gaged in pursuits involving apparently' conflicting interests, agreed in persuading me that by this labor I miglit render a service to those of my countrymen who are engaged in farm- ing or who depend on their labor for the means of support- ing their children while giving them that measure of educa- tion without which no American citizen should be permitted to attain maturity. While I regret some expressions in the colloquial portions of the Congressional speeches, and would have omitted them could it have been done without impairing the argument, I find no reason to question the soundness of my positions. The theory that labor — the productive exercise of the skill and muscular power of men who are responsible for the faith- ful and intelligent performance of civic and other duties — is merely a raw material, and that that nation which paj's least for it is wisest and best goA'erned, is inadmissible in a de- mocracy ; and when wc shall determine to starve the bodies and minds of our operatives in order that we may successfully compete in common markets with the productions of the under-paid and poorly-fed peasants of Europe and the pau- pers of England, we shall assail the foundations of a govern- INTUODUCTION. mont wliioh rests upon tlio inlellie to ascertain the cause of the sudden and general paralysis, or suggest a remedy for It. Yet I could not abandon ihcni, lor, as their al)lest recent American champion, Mr. Kdward Atkinson, of JJoston, in his article in the Atlantic Monthly for October, says of the details of the llevenuc Uc- form budget, they were "simple, sensible, and right." Was not each one a truism that might be expressed as a maxim — an indisputable proposition — the mere statement of which es- tablished its verity ? To prove that they were not responsible for the prostration of our industries, the want of a market for our breadstulfs, and the widespread bankruptcy that pre- vailed, required the enunciation of but one of tlieni : Cus- toms DuTiKs ARK Taxks.* Xo ouc cau dispute this proposi- tion, for the people pay them, and the Government collects them, and not only may but should raise its entire revenue through them. Surely nobody could have the temerity to assert that an industrious and prosperous people could be re- duced to idleness and bankruptcy by the repeal or reduction of taxes, and thus charge this national disaster to free trade and the doctrinaires who hnd kindly taught us Political Kconomy, and induced us to abandon the protective system. The case Avas clear. Yet, strange to say, perfect as the de- monstration seemed to be, I was forced by the condition of the country to doubt and ask myself whether, in some occult way, the reduction of the rate of duties might not have had something to do with producing it. The results promised b}' the teachers of ray cherished science, and those attained by experiment, were irreconcilable, and I was constrained to ask myself whether it might not be possible that Political Economy was not an exact — an absolute — science, the laws of which were equally applicable to all nations, without re- gard to the conditions and requirements of the people, or the extent, variety or degree of the development of their re- sources ? It was easier to harbor this doubt than to believe the alternative, which was, that the Almighty had not put * See Dr. Buahnol), in note, pages 317, 318. i INTRODUCTION. IX proiluclion, commorco nnd tiiuU" in tim United Stat oh uikUt the govuriiiDi'iit of iiiiivcr^ul and iniiniitalilc lawn, hut liad It'll tlii'ni to the control of ehaneo. ThiM eoncliision being inadniisHilile, tliere was notliiii;; left but to waive the further eonsiiU'ration of the subject, (jr to withdraw my theories from Ihu , : X INTRODUCTION. countries, whose people arc subjects, and whose wages mark the miiiiaiuin on which families may subsist. When yEsop's stupid dog snapped at the shadow in the water he lost his bone ; and the investigation convinced me that the attempt to secure a second market by reducing our customs duties had destroyed our home market, but opened no other for any of our productions except gold and silver, and State and corporate bonds. It had given England, with her low rates of wages and interest, two markets in which to sell, and by destroying our home market for grain, an additional one in which to buy; but had deprived us of the one'on which, under an adequate system of protection, we could always depend, as has been shown by the uniform general prosperity that has prevailed since the Morrill tariff of 18G1 went into effect. Thus it appeared that the fallacy was not in the ab- stract proposition which neither party disputed, but in the assumption that free trade would insure us two markets. Kindred to the loregoing proposition, and equall}' unde- niable as an abstract truth, seemed this other: You should BUY WHERE YOU CAN BUY CHEAPEST.* Yct wc had bccu doing this for ten years, and were bankrupt. This condition of atfairs could not, it seemed to me, be the result of reduced rates of duties, and the payment of reduced prices for what wc had consumed. What process of reasoning could show these facts to be related as cause and effect ? England could sell us railroad bars to lay over our wide stretches of limestone country, and our immense fields of coal and iron, at lower prices than, in the undeveloped condition of our resources, and with our higher priced labor and money, we could pro- duce them ; and we had bought our supply from her. With her accumulated capital, machinery, skilled labor, and her lower wages, she could also spin and weave cotton and wool, and make the cloth into garments cheaper than our countr}'- men could, and we had bought from her our clothes, or the cloth from which to cut them. So, too, she could sell us chemicals, pi'cpared drugs, pig-iron, raw steel, and an im- mense number of other commodities for less money than we could produce them ; and we had gone to her markets and bought them where we could buy them cheapest. Mean- whilo, we had mined hundreds of millions of dollars worth of gold and silver; had raised unprecedented crops of cotton, tobacco, and breadstuffs ; had produced immen.se supi)lies of naval stores and other exportable commodities ; and had, withal, issued hundreds of millions of interest-bearing bonds, by which our future pi'oductions and those of our posterity * See Dr. Busbnell, in notes, pages 2S5 and 354. I 1 INTRODUCTION. XI were mortgaged. Yet, strange to tell, in spite of the lower duties paid on our imports, and the lower than American prices at '.vhich we had procured our supplies, we had not gold and silver enoutjh to serve as a basis for a redeemable currency, and being, in many instances, unable to pay the interest on our bonds were sued and sold out by our English friends, to whom our gold, silver, and bonds had gone. We were, however, rich 'n one class of commodities — the produc- tions of the farm. Of these the people of the Western States had a superabundance. It was, however, unfortunately, not possible to make them available, as our English creditors would not take them even in payment of debts unless we would, after paying for their transportation to the sea-board let tliem have them at tlie low prices at which they could obtain like articles which had been produced by the ill-fed peasants of Russia, Prussia, Austria, Hungary, and Turkey. Than to do this it was better for farmers in the extreme West to let their crops perish on the field. Our condition was anomalous. There was no element of wealtli, or of the conveniences of life that could be produced by a reasonable amount of labor outside of the tropics of which we did not possess greater stores in the form of raw materials than an}' other nation ; and of the productions of the farm our supply was so superabundant that some of us were, as I have said, using corn for fuel ; yet, our manu- facturing operatives were poor and unemployed, our farmers Avere unable to pay for past purchases or IVesh supplies, and our mercliants and banks, involved in the common fate, were unable to meet their oblioations. Did this strange ex- perioiice prove that it is not best to buy where you can buy cheapest ? No. But it did prove that money-price is not the test of cheapness ; and tiiat we bu}' more cheapl}', though the nominal price of each commodity be higher when we buy what we consume of those who will buy what we produce at fair prices, than we do when we buy at lower prices for cash, or on credit, and permit our productions to perish for the want of a market. Thus did deductions from unquestion- able and present experience demonstrate the fallncy of the system of " established principles," which I had cherished as a sufficient economic creed. The terrible ordeal through which the working classes of England are now passing, is constraining her statesmen and scholars to brin^,- the prevailing system of Political Econom^- to the test of experience, and one of these scholars has been bold enough to deny not only the policy, but the morality of the proposition I have just considered. Mr. David Syme, in a well-considered and powerful article on the " Method of Po- B i ■ I ; I ! i i ' ! ^ I! i I ! [ zii INTRODUCTION. litical Economy," in the Westmi ster Review for July, 1871, ■which has come under ray notice since the foregoing was written, says : "A close investigation will, indeed, lead to the conclusion that the spirit of the moral law is incompatible with the modern economic doctrine of buying in the cheapest, and selling in the dearest market. For a scrupulous sense of duty will often compel a man to act contrary to his own personal interests. Such a man will conduct himself in his business relations on the strictest principles of honor and fair dealing, lie will refuse to take an advantage when the law may permit it, when, by so doing, he might prejudice the interests of others. He will not take all he can get, and give as little as he can ; but he will give as much as he can afford, and take only what is fair and equitable. This is not Utopianism, but the true spirit of the moral law. " If, moreover, we consider man in the social state, we shall find that the individual is bound to recognize the interests of others as well as his own. He cannot, even if he would, be guided in his social relations by an exclusive regard for his own interests. In seeking his own advantage he must be careful to do nothing that might in any way be injurious to his neighbor. He must not sell a spurious article for a genuine one, nor a deleterious compound for a wholesome one. He must not use false labels or unjust weights ICconomic science recognizes the existence of the social state, and the social state presupposes the existence of the social virtues — honor, honesty, and a regard for the feelings and rights of others." It was not easy to abandon opinions I had cherished through so many years, and in which my faith had been so implicit, but it was still more difficult to accept the oppo- site system, that of protection, which I had so often de- nounced as false, selfish, and exclusive. Nor did I do this hastily : more than two years had been devoted to the writings of the ablest advocates of both systems, and still I halted between them. Meanwhile, it became apparent to nie, not only that Political Economy was not a science, but that it was impossible to frame a system of abstract economic propositions which would be universally applicable and bene- ficent ; and, further, that the same principles could not be applied beneficially to England and the United States. The conditions of the two nations are not the same, but are in striking contrast. England is a small island, but the United States embraces almost the entire available territory of a continent. The former is burdened by an excess of popula- tion, and vexed by the question as to how she shall dispose INTRODUCTION. xiii of the excess ; but our great need is industrious people, and with us the question is how can we increase immigration. ..o has to import food for half her people, and her foreign trade is to her what seed-time and harvest are to the countries from which she procures Hie breadstuffs she requires but caunot produce; but were tliey on our soil, we could feed ten times tlie number of her whole people; and even while I write, the merchants of Minnesota, Iowa, and other northwestern States are suffering flnaucial embarrassment because the farmers they supply cannot find a market for their crops. She is dependent on foreign countries for most of the raw mate- rials she consumes ; but we have within our limits exhaust- less stores of every variety not dependent upon tropical heat for their production. Her resources are ascertained aud developed ; but ours await development, and in regions, any one of which is larger than all western Europe, including the British Islands, await definite ascertainment. Her popu- lation is compacted within narrow limits, aud her railroads are completed and paid for ; but our people are settled sparsely over half a continent, and most of our system of roads, for which the capital is yet to be produced, is to be constructed. The charges for transportation within her circumscribed and populous limits are very light ; but over our extended and thinly-settled country thej' are necessarily heavy. Her facto- ries were erected and supplied with machinery while she main- tained the most rigid system of protection the world has ever seen ; but ours arc to be built as experiments in the face of threatened free trade which would involve a more unequal competition than any against which she defended hers by protective duties and absolute prohibitions. Her average rate of interest is 3 per cent, per annum ; but ours is never less than 6 per cent, per annum, and in large sec- tions of the country is often 3 percent, per month. The great bod 3' of her laborers, even since the recent extension of the sutTrage, are subjects without civic duties ; but ours are citi- zens, and liable to such duties. She pays the daily wages of her workmen with shillings ; but we pay ours with dollars worth four shillings each, and give many classes of them more dollars than she does shillings : It is, therefore, impos- sible that the same economic polity can be applied with equal advantage to countries whose condition presents so many and such important contrasts. Ten years under a tariff which levied the lowest rates of duties consistent with the purpose of raising by imports the amount o^ revenue required by the current expenses of the government, sufficed to destroy the industries and credit of the American people. The immense advantages England ! i! ; 1 n i i XIV INTRODUCTION. possesses in manufactures and trade have enabled her to with* stand tlie untoward influence of free trade for a longer period than we were able to ; but at tlie end of a quarter of a cen- tury it has become apparent that even the mistress of the seas and the work-shop of the world cannot, at less cost than the loss of national prestige and threatened revolution, throw her ports open to unrestricted competition. The effect on England of the abandonment of the protective system does not exhibit itself in wide-spread bankruptcy as it did with us. The enormous accumulations of capital held by her privileged classes have prevented this. It is, however, ob- servable in the disappearance of the small farmer, and of the small work-shop that in more prosperous times would have expanded into a factory ; in the concentration of land and machinery in the hands of a constantly diminishing number of persons ; and in the rapidly increasing destitution, idle- ness, intemperance, and despair of licr laboring classes.* In the course of his admirable sermon before the Univer- sity of Oxford, DecemlxM' 20th, 1808, Rev. Brooke Lambert said : " The severance between the rich and the poor is to me an even sadder thing than the wretched state of the labor market. I can fancy a rcnicd}* possible for tlie one, I can foresee no remedy for the other. The gap between them seems widening every day, as trade and land fall into the hands of large capitalists, who absorb all smaller concerns, all smaller holdings." And Blnckwood^s Marjazine. for April, 1870, in an article entitled " The State, the Poor, and the Country," says : " The lamentable depression of trade, and consequent want of employment which have recently- prevailed, have now reached a most serious magnitude in many of the larger towns, and most of all in London and its far-spreading suburbs. The intensity of the distress in the metropolitan districts has not been equalled in recent times. And the break-down of our Poor-law S3'stem, despite all efforts of voluntary associations, has been appalling in its results. Not a week passes witliout several cases of ' deaths from starvation,' duly altestcnl by the verdict of coroners' in- quests, where the medical and other evidence reveals an amount of unaided wretchedness and starvation, which one would suppose impossible in a civilized country. Men, women and children d^'ing from sheer famine in the heart of the wealthiest city in the world ! " The extracts from the works of Sir John Byles, Sir Edward Sullivan, Professor Kirk, Messrs. Grant, Patterson, Smith, Hoyle, and other recent British writers, which will be found in notes throughout this volume, more than con- * St'c cxtrivcts from Grant's Home PolitioB, in note, pages 31, 32; and Sir Ed- ward Sullivan's Protection to Native Industry, pages 194, 195. INTROrUCTION. XV itaii d the s of ults. from in- s an 1 Olio Men, leart sir Ed- firm this statement. Sir Edward Sullivan admonishes the governing classes that if the}- do not wish to reduce England to the condition of a manufacturing country without work- shops or skilled workmen, they must protect native industry sufficiently to restore the home market for cotton fabrics, which has fallen off 35 per cent., by reason of the fact that the enforced idleness of masses of the working people has de- prived them of the ability to consume this indispensable ele- ment of comfortable attire ; and Mr. Iloyle produces from official statistics the figures to prove the startling statement. Nor can the liritish Government longer close its eyes to this distress and contip'-e to assert that the law of supply AND DEMAND is the hoaven-appointcd and all-sufliicient regu- lator of societary movements. It is even now feebly attempt- ing to regulate both supply and demand b}' its own action. To this end Earl (iranviile, Foreign Secretar}', as early as the 14th of April, 1870, addressed a circular dispatch to the Governors of British Colonies, from which I take the follow- ing paragraph : "The distress prevailing among the laboring classes in many parts of the United Kingdom has directed public attention to the question of Emigration as a means of relief. It has been urged on Her Majesty's Government that while there are in this country large numbers of well-conducted, industrious laborers, for whom no emploj'ment can be found, there exists in most of the colonies a more extensive demand for labor than the laboring class on the spot can supply. The result of emigration would, therefore, it is said, be equally advantageous to the emigrant and the colonies — to the former, by placing him in a position to earn an indepen- dence ; to the latter, i)y supplying a want that retards their progress and prosperity. Under the circumstances. Her Majesty's Government is anxious to be furnished with your opinion as to the prospects wiiich the colony under your government holds out to emigrants, both of the agricultural and the artisan class. " The points on which we should be specially desirous of I'ceiving information are: the classes of laborers whose labor is most in demand in the colony un^er your govern- ment; the numbers for whom emplo>-uient oould be found; the probable wages they would earn ; whether married men with families could obtain wages to enable them .o support their families, and house accommodation for their shelter; what assistance or facilities would be provided to pa&s the emigrants to the districts where their labor is in demand ; and whether any pecuniary assistance would be granted F J ■fii I I' ii ! i I I II XVI INTROmiCTION'. either toward their passages, or toward providing depots and subsistence on their lirst arrival, or toward sending them np to the country." Tliat ICngland will soon so far modify her revenue system as to re-adopt many of the distinctive features of the Pro- tective System, I confidently predict. Not that I credit her privileged classes with quick or enlarged sympathy with the laboring classes, but because I know that they have always had suflicient tact to avert popular outbreak by timely con- cession. And though I remember how the people of Ireland and Orissa were permitted to starve, I still believe that the consumers of England will consent to pay duties on such goods as compete with English labor in the home mar- ket, and relieve from taxation the tea, coffee, sugar, currants, raisins, tobacco, and spirits of the laboring classes, rather than incur the risk of widespread famine in London, Lanca- shire, and other great industrial centres of the country. But, were they capable of the fatuitj'of withholding their consent, the question has passed from their decision. Their last con- cession to the popular will, the extension of the suffrage, makes this one inevitable. The article in Blackxcood, alread}' referred to, thus defines the position of tlie question : "A new power has been introduced into our political sys- tem, new forces are at work within the pale of the Constitu- tion. The Government has become National in the fullest sense of the word ; and with the change a new br th of life is stirring society. New views are rapidly forujing ; new hopes and aspirations are entering into the heart of the masses. The rule of the middle classes established by the Reform Bill of 1832, has come to an end ; and the doctrines whicij regulated the legislation of that period are now being tested and considered from a different, indeed opposite point of view. " For nearly forty years the prime object of our legis- lation has been the interests of the Consumers ; now, we shall soon have the masses advocating their own interests as Producers. What is more, the State has now become simply the nation itself, acting through a chosen body of adminis- trators; and it is eas^' to discern that under the new regime the Government will be called upon to adopt a very different policy in domestic affairs from that represented by the prin- ciple of the Whigs and doclrinaires, which has been para- mount since 1832. That principle well suited the interests of the wealthy and comparatively fortunate classes, who needed no help from the State, yet who got all they asked for, by the abolition of all custom duties which shackled their business. But will that principle keep its ground now that the weaker classes also have a voice in the Government ? INTRODUCTION. XVll being legis- "Will tlicy not maintain that they, as an integral part of the nation, have a claim to be fully considered in the policy of the Govoniment ; and that, if they can point out an}- system of governmental action which will benefit them, without doing injustice to the rest of the community, no doctrinaire limitations upon the actions of the State shall be allowed to stand in the way ? The maxims of the Liberals, which have been i)redominant since liS32, will be thrown into the crucible and tried anew. Already in vague murmurs, which ere long will become distinct and earnest speech, the masses are be- ginning to say that the principles which have been in vogue during the rule of the middle classes will not suit them. 'Our interests,' they say, 'are those of Producers, not of Consumers. " ' We also are poor, and you are wealthy ; we are weak, and you are strong; with us employment is a far more pre- carious thing than it is witli you, and we have l)ut small earnings to fall back upon wlien out of work. State help, though not needful to the middle classes, is needed at times by us ; and we shall never rest contented until that principle is acknowledged and properly applied.' " The liovernment cannot long refuse to listen to this de- mand, wliich no longer comes from tiie laboring classes alone, but is enforced by many such writers as those to whom 1 am indebted for man}' of my most instructive notes, and now by Blackwood, the Quarter!;/ Itcvieivs, and other great organs of opinion. That school of political economists who pro- pound free trade as the result of their system is finding less favor with the thinkers of England than heretofore. They discover that it is not producing the results it promised, but other and very different ones, and are demanding that it be tested by the inductive s^'stem, and proven by the facts of experience. It has become clear to many of them that under its influence the working people are not prosperous or contented ; that the home market for some of their great staples diminishes steadilj'^ ; and that in spite of Government assurances that British trade increases, it is stationary, if not absolutely diminishing. Discarding statements prepared by skilful statistical jugglers like Mr. Wells, our late Com missioner of Revenue, they are comparing and analyzing re- sults for themselves, and have thus detected the fraudulent practices by which they have been deceived. The last trick British statistics have been made to pla}'^ was by her Majesty's Commissioners of Customs, who, to prove the steady in- crease of trade, proclaimed with much triumph that the ex- ports (luring 1870 were 11 per cent, greater than they were in 18GS. This cheering result, which, isolated from the gen- eral facts to which it is related, is true, is made to prove the XVlll INTRODUCTION. ii' ii|i steady increase of trade by a device that would do no dis- credit to the cunning and audacity of our great statistical manipulator. This is the process by which it is done. The rrench army moved toward the German frontier about the ir)th of July, 1810, and at the close of the year the war was at its height, promising not only to be of long dura- tion, Init tlireatening to involve all Europe. It caused a general suspension of the industries of France and (lernuiny, whose wares and fabrics were crowding those of England out of so many markets, or the employment of their opera- tives in the production of arms and munitions of war. It also gave England an immense market for these. But what was, perhaps, more important than all this, it caused the withdrawal of the commercial marine of those countries from the ocean, and gave the ships and shops of England a mo- nopoly of the carrying and foreign trade of the world. Ilcr trade could not fail to be exceptionally large thnt year, as owing to the war having extended far into it, and boon pro- longed by the folly of the Commune it will be this year. The Commissioners of Customs prove the virtues of free trade by contrasting the exports of this exceptional year with those of 18C8, in which they were lower than they have been since 1865. The following oilicial figures will sulllceto show that the exports from Great Britain for the last four years, including 1870, which was so exceptionally large, have on the average been less than during 1866 by the ccnsider- able sum of more than $6,700,000 per annum: 1866. Total value of British Exports £188,917,5;V') L^67. " " " 181,1SH,«71 1868. " " " 179,46;!. 6H 1869. " " " 18!),95:{.!'57 1870. " " " 199,649,9:58 The reader who will add the value of the four years, '67-70, and divide the result by four, and compare the figures thus obtained with the total exports of 1866, will ascertain pre- cisely how rapidly and steadily the trade of Great Britain increases. Mr. Syme, in the course of his article in the Westmwster Reme.iv, to which I have referred, says : " Political Economy exhibits no sign of progressiveness. Instead of discoveries, of which we have had none of any consequence since Adam Smith's time, we have had endless disputation and setting up of dogmas. Whatever progress may have been made in other sciences during the last century, there has been none in this. The most elementary principles are still matters of dispute. The doctrine of free trade, for instance, which is looked upon as the crowning triumph of Political Economy, is still very far from being uni- versally recognized. Even in England, after twenty years' INTRO nrCTION. XIX trial under most favorable circumstances, free trade has been put upon its dcftjnce. We make no progress, and from the very nature of our method of invcstigatiou, we can make none. The I'olitical Economist observes plienomenn with a foregone conclusion as to their cause. His iiiethod. in fact, is the method of the savage. The phenomena of nature, the thunder, the liglitnlng, or the eartluiuake, strike the savage with awe and wonder ; but he only looks within himself for an explanation of these phenomena. To liim, therefore, the forces of nature are only the efforts of beings like himself, great and pr verful, no doubt, but with good and evil propensities, and subject to every human capri(!e. Like the I'olitical I<]couomist, he Avorks within the vicious circle of his own feelings, and he cannot comprehend, any moie than the savage, how he can discover tlie laws wliich regulate the phenomena which he sees around him. The savage would reduce the Divine mind to the dimensions of the human ; the Political Economist would reduce the human mind to the dimensions of his ideal. " Our conclusion is, that the inductive method is alone applicable to the investigation of economic science, and that we shall never be able to make any solid progress so long as we continue to follow the d priori method — a method which has not aided, but clogged and fettered us in the pur- suit of truth, and Avhich is utterly alien to the spirit of mod- ern scientific inquiry." For the edification of those who may be incredulous as to free trade being on its defence in England, Mr. Synie refers to Profes.sor Bonamy Price's arraignment of it in the Con- temporary lievtew of February, 1871.* The London Quarterly Review for July [1871], contains a spirited article on " Economical Fallacies and Labor Uto- pias," in which it handles with great freedom " the school of political economists now in the ascendant." The date at which it was published proves that the author could not have seen the article entitled " Free Trade — Revenue Re- form," in our Atlantic for October, yet he says : " There is an utopianism which counts its chickens before they aie hatched, nay, cackles over chickens it expects to hatch from eggs that are addled." Referring to Mr. John Stuart Mill, who, had the Atlantic's article been anonymous, might, from the freedom with which it disposes of existing relations and interests, well have been suspected of its authorship, the Quarterly proceeds to sa}' : " If Mr. Mill, the recognized leader of that school, is to be designated as an economical 'enthusiast,' or perhaps more * See also remarks of Sir John Bylcs and Mr. R. II. Patterson, in notes, pages 199 and 200 ; and also of fair Edward Sullivan, in note, pages 378. 379. i I XX INTRODUCTION. properly ns tlie founder ami propagator of economical en- tliiisiiiHn), 111! Iiaa earned tluit designation more by tlie execs- Hive exercise of tlie dialectical than of the imaginative faculty, and docs not so much body forth to himself the forms of things unknown, as suggest to his disciples revolutions, un- realized even in imagination, of all existing relations between classes and sexes, as hxjivalh/ admissible, and not to bo set aside as practically chimerical without actual experiment. His enthusiasm is the speculative passion of starting ever fresh game in the wide Held of abstract social possibilities — . philosophicall}' indilferent to all objections drawn from the actual conditions of men, women, or things in the concrete. IMr. Mill would be very capable, like Condorcct, of deriving from the doctrine of human perfectibility the inference that there was no demonstrable reason why the duration of human life might not be prolonged indefinitely by discoveries (here- after to be made) in hygiene. And to all objections drawn from universal human experience of the growth and decay of vital power within a limited period, it would be cpiitc in the character of his mind and temper to rejjly cahnly that the life of man, like the genius of woman, had not hitherto been developed under such conditions as to draw out its capabilities to the full extent. Like Condorcct, too, while dealing perturbation all around him, Mr. Mill is impertur- bable, and might be described as he was, as ' nn viouton en rar/e — un Volcan convert de neiye ! ' " It was the opinion of the great Bonaparte, that Political Economy would grind empires to powder, though they were made of adamant. The ]3ritish Govei'unent is proving the excellence oi Ids judgment, and schooln en and theorists are industriously laboring to induce the American people to confirm it by even a grander illustration. This pretended science which, Mr. Mill says, " necessarily reasons frcra as- sumptions, and not from facts," is sedulously and devoutly taught at Yale, and most of our leading colleges. It is for- tunate that the intimate relations of many of the students with the industries and people of the country render the scholasticisms of their teachers harmless ; and in pai'ting from them, they sometimes throw back upon them the terrible results of experience, as their reply to the weary chapters of deductions from assumptions with which they have been tortured. How boldly and aptly, yet respectfully this may be done, was shown by Mr. Orville Justus Bliss, of Chicago, at Yale's last commencement. A leading scholar of his class, he had been selected to deliver the Valedictory, in the course of which he said : "A cry for relief has gone forth, and refuses to be hushed. IVTUODlTCriOV. XXI We cannot iihvuys inrnore thoso men. Neitlior can wt> for- evor Hiitisfy tlu>in !»}' (itiotiiiir Adimi Smith. SiippoHi; hoiiio wise inf ' 'hu- Wi'iillli of Nations ' in his hand beforo a mob of London broad- riottTs, and Itcyin to read the cliapti-r on wages ; wonbi they all go off rejoicing in the beauties of the science, and (con- vinced that they were happy ? Political Keononiy lias had ample trial in Kngland. A null agent recently saiti, ' I re- ganl my work people just as 1 regard my machinery. So long as the}' can do my work for what I choose to pay them, I keep them, getting out of them all I can. When my machines get old and useless, I reject them, and get new ; and thesi! people are part of my machinery.' Is not tluit a sulllciently rigorous application of the law of demand and supply ? An(i it descrii)es the whole factory system in Eng- land, up to the tinie when the agitators took it in hand. What it has dune for England, I need not repeat. Sutlico it to say, that Political Economy, as a solution of this (luestion, is a disastrous failure." And again: "The poor cannot help themselves. They are tied hand and foot with an enslaving destitution. We say: ' It is a free country; let every one make of himself as much as he can.' Wc challenge one and all to an unboiuuled competition. Hut to these people the seeming fairness is mocker}'. It rivals the brave l)oy who first takes a good long start, and then turns around and offers to race with you to the next corner. The child of the laborer may lift him- self from his degradation, and become a power for good. But there must be some measure of intelligence, to serve as a basis upon which to build. They must be made to feel that society- is their friend, not an enem}', whose prosperity is their defeat. What, then, is the laying of a cable, or the spanning of a continent? What beauty do they find in literature, what exaltation in science — 1 had almost said, what solace in religion ? Not 'n the name of an endansereil society, imminent as its peril is; not in the interests of great money-wlelders, plainly as those interests point to educated labor, do I plead the cause of these people ; but because they arc part of our common humanity, and have a right to partake of our common, intellectual, lesthetic, and social delight." I have said that I believe England will soon readopt man}' of the distinctive principles of the protective system. Un- less ive determine otherwise, she must do this soon. Her newly enfranchised producers will demand it, and the action of her colonics will impart vehemence to the demand. Pro- tection is a settled principle with the governments of Yic- H ' T XXII INTFloniTCTfOV. Vj ' .,,4 1 I I toriii, N't>w South WuIoh, (^iiociisIuikI, iiml oiIht Aiistralinn (•olfdiics Spc.'iUiim of thin, tofxctluir with the I'lict thiit Ihoy lire I'stjihlishiiijj; CiiHtomH rnioiis on the principles of tho Z«)llvtM't'iM, Cimrlcs WcMit worth I)ill((>, in his (Iriiitrr llriluin, HnvH: " It is ft conimf)!! doctriiu' in thi' colonics of l'lnj,'liinil timt (I nation cannot be callcil ' independent' if it has to cry f»nt tr) another I'or supplies of necessaries ; that true national existence is first attained when the country hecoint's capahio of supplying to its (»wn citizens those yoods without which they cannot exist in the state of comfort they have already reach(' «w ' : Ih ' • 1 w mi if li; \4 ?t' 20 PROTECTION TO AMERICAN LABOR. wliom T liavc quoted so extensively gives us, on page 72 of the volume, the legitimate result of the folly of the ehief American party to the tripartite alliance iu favor of free trade, when he says : " Cotton, up to the date when this controversy Imd been fairly coinincnced, had been worth, in the Englisli market, un average price of from 29 7-10 to 48 4-10 cents per pound; but at tills period a wide-spread and ruinous depression occured, cotton in 18'2() having fallen in England as low as 11 9-10 to 18 9-10 cents per pound." Thus had free trade, the reign of which the Democratic party is endeavoring to restore, accomp) shed its mission in the United States. Commerce, manu; vctures, and agri- culture, involving the merchant, artisan, farmer, and planter, were all prostrate and at the mercy of the capital- is' of Great Britain, whose selfishness is onl}' equaled by tluit of the class whose arrogance and unreasoning will had thus subjected the entire people of our cout..try to their control. EFFECT OF FREE TRADE ON THE POOR WHITES OF THE SOUTH. Mr. Chairman, having ascertained the result of the planters' free-trade policy upon their own interests and those of the people of the North, let us contemplate the condition of the masses of the people of the cotton States. I will not detain you by any reference to that of the slaves and free people of color. Other occasions will be more fitting for that. But on nearly one million of square miles of territory which the planters regarded as their exchisive domain, were some six or eight million people designated as " poor " or " mean whites," to whom were accorded all the rights of citizenship, and T will inquire whether their interests had been promoted by tliis policy ? Let us, iu contemplating their conditioi' for a few moments, do it, not from our stand-point, but through the eyes of southern men. Mr. Tarver, of Missouri, in the course of a paper on Domestic Manufactures in the Sonth and "West, published in 1847, says : "The free population of the South maybe divided into two classes — the slaveliolder and the non-slaveholder. I am not aware that the relative numbers of these two classes have ever been ascertained in any of the States, but I am satisfied that the non-slaveholders far outnumber the slaveholders — perhaps by three to one. In the more southern portion of this region, the non-slaveholders possess, gene- PROTECTION TO AMERICAN LABOR. 21 rally, I'ut very stniiU mcnna, and the land which they posxcss is almost univorsully poor, and so storilc that a scanty sul)sistonco is all tliat can bo derived from its cultivation; and the more fertile soil. I)eiiifr in tlie possession of the slaveholder, must ever remain out of the power of tliose wlio have none. "This state of thiiiffs is a great drawback, and bears heavily upon ^ and depresses the moral energies of tlic poorer classes i Tlie acquisition of a respectable position in the scale of wealth appears so difficult, that they decline the hopeless pursuit, and many of them settle down into habits of idleness, and become the almost passive subjects of all its consequences. And 1 lament to say that 1 have observed of late years that an evident deterioration is taking place in this part of the population, the younger portion of it being less educated, less industrious, and in every point of view less respectable, than their ancestors." Governor Hammond, addressing the South Carolina Institute in 1850, spoke of this portion of the people of the South when he said : "They obtain a precarious subsistence by occasional jobs, by hunt- ing, by fishing, by plundering fields or folds, and too often by what is in its effects far worse— trading with slaves, and seducing tliera to plunder for their benefit." William Gregg, Esq., addressing the same Institute in 1851, said : " From the best estimate that I have been able to make, I put down the white people, who ought to work, and who do not, or who are so employed as to be wholly unproductive to the State, at one hundred and twenty-five thousand liy this it appears that but one-fifth of the present poor whites of our State would be necessary to operate one miUion spindles 1 have long been under the impression, and every day's experience has strength- ened my convictions, tliat the evils exist in the wholly neglected condition of this class of persons. Any man who is an observer of things could hardly pass through our country without being struck with the fact that all the capital, enterprise, and intelligince is em- ployed in directing slave labor; and the consequence is that a hirgo portion of our poor white people are wholly neglected, and are suffered to while away their existence in a state but one step in advance of the Indian of the forest." Hon. J. H. Lumpkin, o ' Georgia, in a yT"^' on the In- dustrial Kegeneration of the South, published in 1852, in advocacy of the establishment of manufactures which had been attempted in Georgia, but which liad been resisted on the ground that they would become hot- beds of crime and endanger the safety of slavery, said : "It is objected that these manufacturing establishments will be- come the hot-beds of crime But I am by no means ready to concede that our poor, degraded, half-fed, half-clothed, and I 'ii: I ! :!ii i' 22 PROTECTION TO AMERICAN LABOR. Ignorant populntion — witliout Subhiitli schools or uny otiior kiml f>r instruction, incntiil or moral, or without uny just iipprociiititui of ohiiriictcr — will be injured hy givinj^ thcin cinidoynu'nt wliich will brinj,' them under U»c overnight of emoloyers who will inH|)iro them witlk Mclf-respcct by taking un interest in their welfare." Down to that time free trade had certainly done but little to bless the poor white people of tho South. Nor does it seem from recent descriptions, and fr(»m our obser- vation of then in military prisons and hospitals, to havo materially benefited them down to the present day. .1. li. Gilmore, Esq., "Edmund Kirke," in his discourse on the social and political characteristics of tie southern whites, before the Jersey City Literary Associadon, estimated the number known as the "mean whites" at over four mil- lions, and described them as " herding together in sparse communities and gleaning a sorry subsistence from hunt- ing, fishing, and poaching, in the mountain districts of Virginia, u))per Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and in the sand hills of North Carolina and the barrens of Tennessee, and throughout the rest of the South ; as hovering around the borders of large plantations, quartering themselves upon the * chivalry,' stealing the deer from their forests and the hams from their smoke-houses." He said they were tolerated by the planters for the two hundred thou- sand votes they gave for slavery and the mad theories of the planters, and added, " They are far below the slaves in morals and civilization; are indolent, shiftless, thieving, lying; given to whisky-drinking, snuft'-dipping, clay-eating, incest, and all manner of social vices. Not one in a thou- sand of them can read ; not one in ten thousand can write;" and that he " had met many who had never seen a book or newspaper, and some who had never heard of a Bible or a spelling-book." Mr. B. C. Truman, an accredited correspondent of the New York Times, in a letter to that journal, dated Mont- gomery, Alabama, October 23, 1865, said : "There is a class of beings in all the southern States known as f»oor whites. The little monosyllabic adjective does not give the aintest idea of these things with bodies and son's. How imder the heavens they live is a question for the philanthropist, if indeed that paragon of benevolence lias ever visited the region in whicli they exist — the 'homes' of the poor whites. In a visit to Spanish Fort a few days ago, in company with a naval officer, we stopped at the 'shebang' of one of this species. Most of these poor whites are natives. The individual whom we called upon, however, was a Scandinavian, but had lived in the place we found him for thirty PROTECTION TO AMEUICAN' LABOR. 23 'er, was a ypars. For a loiifj time ho inado liis livinj? by maimrnoturinj? lur- fnintiiio; but tlic trops run out years aj(o, ami Hiiicc thi-n he Iiuh ivod upon what he has raised, buying nothing; but sii^rar and ('otlVc, for wliich he traded (diickens and e>f>(s. His wife was of tlie rei,nibir mold, lean and h)n^r, with seven little (diildren by her side, and a pipe in her mouth. I told her I was a newspaper corresponilent. iiml slie did not know what that was. I endeavori'd to e.\|)lain. and found that she diil not know what a ntnvspaper was, nnd >jii she rfnidcs icUhiii txvvn(y vtilen of Mobile. The husband (rould not read or write his name, but could drink lik(> a Hsh. Both husl)and and wile had on wooden shoes, while the children exhibited no foot covurhip; except what nature had provided for them. "Throughout the southern portion of Alabama, upon both sides of the river, is what is known as the ' piney woods country.' It is one of the most barren soctioiu I have ever seen. Neither corn nor cotton will grow to any extent. Hweut potatoes are the chief pro- duct, and this vegetable and bacon, and a little corn bread, form the bill of fare morning, noon, and night all the year round. These people are scatterecl all through these piney woods, and live in log nuts which in a way protect them from the tempestuous weather and violent storms of wind and rain which howl through this barren waste during certain periods of the year. Oh, how 1 i)ity these |)oor beings who have been the recipients of uncounted woes and un- heard-of sufferings during the long, long years of African slavery !" Dixon, the traveling correspoiulent of the Bo.ston Daily Advertiser, whose adiiiirable letters prove him to be a keen observer and faithful reporter, writing from Fort Valley, Georgia, November loth, said : " Whether the North Carolina ' dirt-eaier,' or the South (.'arolina ' sand-hiller,' or the Georgia ' cracker,' is lowest in the scale of hu- man existence would be difficult to say. The ordinary plantation negro seemed to me, when I first saw him in any numbers, at the very bottom of not only probabilities, but also possibilities, so far as they affect human relations ; but these specimens of the white race must be credited with having reached a yet lower depth of s(|ualid and beastly wretchedness. However poor or ignorant or unclean or improvident he may be, I never yet found a negro who had not at least a vague desire for a better condition, an undefined longing for something called freedom, a shrewd instinct of self-preservation. These three ideas, or, let me say, shadows of ideas, do not rnaivo the cict-ire a man, but they lift him out of the bounds of brutedom. The Georgia ' cracker,' as I have seen him since leaving Milledgo- ville, seems to me to lack not only all f^iat the negro does, but also even the desire for a better condition, ;\:\d the vague longing for an enlargement of his liberties and his rights. I walked out into the country back of Albany and Andersonville, when at those places, and into the country back of Fort V^ alley this morning ; and on each occasion I fell in with three or four of these ' cracker ' fami- lies. Such filthy poverty, such foul ignorance, such idiotic imbe- cility, such bestial instincts, such groveling desires, such mean long- ings, you would question my veracity as a man if I were to paint the pictures I have seen ! Moreover, no trick of words can make I %m t li "jim i 1 ^^' i "1 11 L i' 24 rUOTECTION TO AMKRICAN LAnOR. plain tho Hcpno in and iiround ono of these liiihitiilionB ; no fertility of llln^,Mlll^'(■ Clin ctribody the 8ini|)it! fucts for n, northern niiiiii ; iinii the ciisi' is one in which even .seeinjf itself in scarcely hclicvin^f. Time and eilorl. will lead the negro up to intelligent nntnhood ; hut I almost douht if it will he puHsihlu to ever lift this ' white trauh' into respectaltility." Sir, is not tiio gentlomau from Indiana mistaken in as- aertiiij^ that fVoo trade " is the true theory of govorniiieiit," andcuii a policy which produces sucli results as these writers have depicted bo wise ? Can v/e rely ou it to pay the interest on our debt, to meet the pensions wo owe to those who have been disabled in our service, or to the widows and eliildren, or aged and dependent parents of those who have laid down their lives in our cause? Such free trade as lie advocates can produce but one result; and that is bankruptcy, personal, corporate. State, and national. It is against the laws of nature and the providence ol' God. It involves as a necessary coi sequence idleness for one half the year to all, and for al the year to many of our people who would find adequ ito and remunerative em- ployment under a system of di '^ersified industry. HOW ENGLAND ESTABLISHED HER SUPREMACY. The propositions I enunciate are not deduced from our experience alone. All history affirms them. Other na- tions have tried free trade and ever with the same result. England, the workshop of the world and mistress of the seas as she proclaims herself, tried it, and from the time of Alfred to that of Edward the Confessor, sold her skins for a sixpence, and bought back the tails for a shilling, by exchanging her unwrought wool for Dutch and Flemish clothing ; and the question as to how population might be prevented from exceeding the ability of the land to feed the people perplexed her rulers throughout the long period.* * Believing herself to bo strong enough she has renewed tho experiment, aud at tho end of a. quarter of a century of free trade, finds herself agitated ns never before by tho question, " How shall we feed our people ?" Daniel Grant says ; " No man doubts the broad fact that we cannot feed ourselves. It has been ac- cepted by Parliamentary Committees, made tho plea for large Inelosure Acts, and it caused the repeal of the Corn Laws ; equally as little can it be doubted that this condition is ever on the incruuso, for it is shown by the Registrar General's returns, and the ever-increasing competition for work. Day by day the tell-tale of our population mounts higher, and its results are to be found in the increas- ing requirements for foreign food. But at great Manchester meetings men tabu- late out this enormous increase, and appeal to it as an cvidonoe of the value of free trade; whilst tho facts are that our imports of food have only the one mean- ing, viz : we import that food which we cannot produce for ourselves. The re- PROTECTION TO AMERICAN LABOR. 25 Even 80 lato as tho thirty-sixth year of Mli/iiheth's reiffii ii hiw was eiincteil agaiiirtt"tho erecting' and Jiiaiii- taiiiiii^ of cottairrs," which, after recitin^^' that "{Ztcat in- coiivt'iiiciiot's have bocii found by exporionco to ^row by erecitinj^ and buihlinj^ of great nutnbors and nmltitU(U's of cottages wliieh are daily more and more increased in many parts of til is reahn," enacts that no sucli tenement shall bo ercjcted unless four acres of land bo attached to it. And C/liaries I., in 1630, issued a proclamation "against build- ing lious(!s on new foundations in London or Westminster, or within tiiroe miles of tho city or king's palaces." This j)roclamation also forbade tho receiving of inmates in tho nouses which would multiply tho inhabitants to such an excessive number that they could neither bo governed nor fed. The population of England has quadrupled since then, and her modern capitalists, regarding labor as raw material, maintain a supply of laborers in sufficient excess of the demand to cheapen it to tho lowest point, to which end the British islands raise for annual exportation, a (juar- ter of a million of pi'ople, feeding them in their unpro ductivo infancy and > uildhood. The change has been wrought by the diversification of her industry, which has been accomplished by so legislat- ing as to set at work all the poor of England with tho growth of her own lands ; ana the spectacle which Ire- land presents, of years of famine, and an industrious people whose attachment to their native land is intense, fleeing by millions from the homes of their childhood and tho graves of their ancestors, is the result of that one-sided free trade which England, since the Union, has forced upon her, by which her woolen, worsted, silk, cotton, and linen factories have been destroyed. Protected by her Intiuii that fond thus boars to our population makes itself felt in a viiricty i>f ways ; it changes the character of our pauperism, the eunditions of our dv!«H(ii- tion, and tho j)rico of food itself; it also enforces the importance of our i'.\|iiMt trade and the danger of foreign competition. All these ciroumstancoM, sn apjiii- rcntly remote, are linked together by tho one tie, that our land cannot feed our pooplc. " With respect to the first point, tho state of our pauperism, it is so rhnn^iod thnt it no longer represents its original elements. The first poor-law was bnsod on the idea tliat paupers were the idle and the worthless, and to sucli a labor test was the natural limitation of help; but to-day men seek work and cannot find it, enforced idleness saps energy, and thus it is they sink slowly down to )iauperism. The same may be said of destitution with even greater torco; that silent, hopeless, broken misery, which is too powerless to create work, too fi'dilo to force it, and too proud to beg — that poverty which sinks, sufi'ers, mid diis ; thai ik'slitution of all others the most fearful, and the most real, iiliio .springs from over i)0[iulation." — Home Politiea, by Daniel Grant, pmje 169. Luitdun, 1870. '11 ■'1 ' '. '\[ 1 ■; ;; "II in 26 PROTECTION TO AMERICAN LABOR. legislation of 1783, these and other branches of diversified industry were prosperous and her people contented at the date of the Union. But English free trade having done its work nothing is now of so little value in Ireland as an able-bodied laborer with a good appetite. Let him who would understand the causes of the miseries of the Irish people and the depopulation of Ireland read tlie thirteenth chapter of Henry C. Carey's Slave Trade, Domestic and Foreign. It is a brief story, but pregnani, with instruc- tion upon the point under consideration. I cannot tell, sir, when England first determined to abandon dependence on the production and exportation of raw materials, but find by reference to McCallagh's Indus- trial History, page 74, that in 1337 she passed an Act im- posing "A duty of forty shillings per sack on all wool exported by native mercliants and sixty shillings on all exported by foreigners. The next year a farliaraent was held at Westminster that went still fur- ther in tlie same direction, enacting that no wool of English growth should be transported beyond soas, and that all cloth-workers should be received, from whatever parts they should come, and fit places should be assigned them with divers liberties and privileges, and that they should have a certain,allowance from the king until they might be in a way of hving by their trade." While England remained a purely agricultural country her capitalists encountered the difficulties which those of the South have to overcome, and Wade, in his History of the Middle and Working Glasses, page 31, says : " In the year 1376 we have evidence of a strong disposition to vagrancy among laborers, in a complaint of the House of Commons that masters are obliged to give their servants high wages to pre- vent their running away ; that many of the runaways turned beg- gars and lived idle lives in cities and boroughs, although they have sufficient bodily strength to gain a Hvelihood if willing to work, and that Lne chief part turned out sturdy rogun, infesting the kingdom with frequent robberies." There are those who utter such complaints in our daya, and especially deplore the fact that they " are compelled to give their servants high wages to prevent their running away." At a meeting of the planters of Marlboro' dis- trici, South Carolina, the proceedings of which I find re- ported at length, and properly attested, in the Charleston Daily News of December 9th, the following, with many like resolutions, were adopted : PROTECTION TO AMERICAN LABOR. 27 " Resolved, That, if inconsistent with the views of the antliorities to remove the military, we express the opinion tha^. the plan of llio military to compel the freedman to contrsct with his former owner, when desired by the latter, is wise, prn ient, and absolutely neces- sary. " Resolved, That we, the planters of the district, pledge ourselves not to contract with any freedman unless he can produce a certifi- cate of regular discharge from his former owner, •' Resolved, That under no circumsti.ices whatsoever will we rent land to any freedmen, nor will we pcrmi' them to Hve on our prem- ises as employes. " Resolved, That no system can be devised for the present which can secure success where the discipline and management of the freedman is entirely taken out of the hands of the planter, and we Invoke the authorities to recogri^e this fact, which cannot but be apparent to them. "Resolved, That we re:iucst the military to cease the habit of making negroes act as couriers, sheriffs, and constables, to serve writs and notices upon planters — a system so destructive to good order and discipline." It is evident that neither the thunders of Gillmore'a " swamp angel," nor the howl of her ponderous shells, had sufficed to awaken these somnolent gentlemen to consci- ousness of the fact that the fourteenth century had passed in the Palmetto State. Englishmen in those early days exhibited the same ele- ments of character as the negroes of our days, showing that however the complexion of races may differ, the im- pulses and yearnings of humanity are the same in all times and among the children of all climes. Each man embraces the elements of perfect manhood and the germ of every human faculty and emotion ; and the Africo- American, in his new-found freedom, desires, as did the English laborer of the fourteenth century, to work for whom he pleases, at what he feels he can do best, and in the field which will give him the amplest reward. Slight as the stimulants applied to British manufacturing industry by parliamentary protection had then been, they caused the land-holders to manifest as much anxiety for despotic control over the laboring people as do tlie par- doned rebels of the South; and Wade tells us that the complaints of the Commons in 1406 furnish evidence of the competition which had commenced between rural and manufacturing industry at that day, and that — '• To avoid the statutes passed some years before for compelling tho.se who had been brought up to the plow till they were twelve years of age to continue in husbandry all their lives, agricultural i m mm # 1 Mi 11 1 28 PROTECTION TO AMERICAN LABOR. laborers had recourse to the expedient of sending tlieir children into cities and boroughs, and binding them apprentices when l.iey were under tliat age ; and that further, in order to counteract this, it was enacted that no person, unless possessed of land of a rental of twenty sliillin<;s a year should bi'vu children of any age apprentices to any trade or mystery within a city, but that the hildren should be brought up in the occupation of their parents, ov other business suited to their conditions." But even in those dark vJays the British Government seems to have been more enlightened than they who claim the right to legislate for the Southern States, or Brevet Brigadier General Fullerton, late Commissioner of the Freedmen's Bureau at New Orleans; for it provided that such 'ihildren were nevertheless to be allowed to be sent to a school in any part of the kingdom ; which their proposed legislation and his rtrbitrary orders for the government of the laboring people of Louisiana would effectually prohibit. These stupid parliamentary restrictions on the freedom of laborers were not to edure forever, and the progress of England in the development of her resources has been marked by a constantly-growing system of protei^tion, not always judicious, sometimes infringing the rights of the subject, but tending constantly to build up the power of the kingdom, increase the material com ort of the subject, and give her ascendency over the nations of the world. In 1727, Dean Swift, appealing to the Irish people in behalf of Ireland, said : " One cause of a country's thriving is the industry of tht people in working up all their native commodities to the last ; another, the conveniency of safe ports and havens to carry out their goods, as wiMc^ manufactured, and bring those of others am'ltle mam factured, as the nature of mutual commerce will allow ; amther, the disposi- tion of the people of the country to wear their ctvn manufactures and import as little clothing, furniture, food, or drink as they can conveniently live without." These were not abstract notions with him, for by that time England had become thoroughly protective in her policy, and was increasing in population, wealth, and power ; while Ireland, though not wholly disregarding the necessity of protecting her own workmen and developing her resources, exhibited a tendency to be governed by that plausible but shallowest of economical sophisms which teaches that it is wise, regardless of all other cir- cumstances and conditions, to buy where we can buy for least money and sell where we can sell for most, and was !■ W PROTECTION TO AMERICAN LABOR. 29 sinking in the so,.. it of national consideration. How pro- tective England had become, is illustrated by the fact that from having for many centuries exchanged her raw wool for manufactured cloths, she had in 1660 prohibited the exportation of unmanufachired wool. This prohibition continued till 1825. And to protei^t her silk manulhctur- ers, from 1765 to 1826, she prohibited the importation of silk goods manufactured in other countries, and confirmed the parliamentary prohibition by a reservation in the treaty of commerce concluded with France in 1786. She also prohibited the export of tools and machines used in various branches of manufactures. In 1696 she prohibited by special act of Parliament the exportation of Lee's stocking-frame — a machine invented nearly a century be- fore. She also prohibited by various acts the exporta- tion of certain machinery used in woolen, silk, cotton, and linen manufactures. Such favor did protection to English labor find that her laws prohibiting exportation were made to embrace presses or dies for iron buttons, engines for covering whips, tools for punching glass ; in fact, anything for which it was thought worth while on the part of any class of manufacturers or mechanics to seek protection at the hands of Parliament by securing Englishmen a monopoly of the implements required for the production of their goods. Ard when, in 1824, a commission, created to inquire into the expediency of repealing these prohibitions, reported generally in favor of the repeal, it was unable to recom- mend their unconditional abrogation, but qualified the suggestion by recommending that the Privy Council should continue to exercise their discretion in permitting the ex- portation of such tools and machinery then prohibited as might appear to them not likely to be prejudicial to the trade or manufactures of the United Kingdom, " because it is possible that circumstances may exist which may render ii prohibition to export certain tools and machines used in some particular manufactures expedient." To justify even this conditional repeal the commission set forth the advantages England had derived from the pro- tection of Ler infant or feeble industries in the following language : " Placed beyond all comparison at the liead of civilization as re- gards manuOicturing' skill, with, capital far more ample than is poa- aessed by any other people, vath clieap and inexhaustible supplies of ,'!n fii ii BM t'"': ! ;:' ' ' 80 PROTECTION TO AMERICAN LABOR. iron and fuel, and with institutions every way favorable to the de- velopment of the industry and ingenuity of her citizens, she must always be able at least to maintain her superiority of position where circumstances arc in other respects equal, and be ready to turn to the utmost advantage every improvement which may reach her in common with her less powerful rivals." It was not, we perceive, until by adequate protection to her labor she had kept the balance of trade in her favor long enough to make capital so abundant as to secure a steady and ample supply of money at low rates of interest ; and by setting all her people to work on the growth of her lands had trained artisans and accumulated an abun- dance of superior machinery, which had paid for itself by profits on its use, that England whs willing to admit the labor of the world to compete with that employed in her varied industries. Nor had she resorted to these devices alone in her pro- gress to this assured position, for an English writer, Porter, in his history of the Progress of the Nation, says : " Previous to 1825, the jealousy of our Legislature in regard to the progress of foreign manufactures was extended so far as to in- terfere even with the natural right of working artisans to transfer their industry to countries where it could be most profitably exerted. Any man who had acquired a practical knowledge of manufacturing processes was thereby rendered a prisoner in his own country, and not only might the arm of the law be interposed to prevent his quitting his native shores, but heavy penalties were imposed on all persons who should abet the expatriation of one of our artisans." ENGLAND PREACHES BUT DOES NOT PRACTICE FREE TRADE. These, however, were not the most effective means by which England has protected her capital and augmented her power. While prohibiting the exportation of tools and machines, and restraining her skilled workmen from emigrating, she was, from so early as 1337, as we have already seen, encouraging by special grants and privileges the artisans of other countries to bring the implements of the^r industry and -employ them within her limits. Her policy is unchanged. The free trade she proclaims is theo- retical and plausible, but to some extent false and delusive.* * England's enormous annual subsidies to Steamship Companies are part of an ingenious system of protection by which she hopes to maintain a monopoly of ship building and the carrying trade. She thus pays part of the freight ob PROTECTION TO AMERICAN LABOR. 31 Tho world hailed her admission of foreign grain free as u step toward really reciprocal free trade. Her state.':men, however, saw in it a master-stroke by which her manu- f^ioturing supremacy would be maintained. Sir Robert Peel knew that the manufactures of England were the source of her power ; that cheap food for her laborers was an element of cheap production ; and believed tliat so long as other nations would employ her to manufacture their raw materials it was immaterial whether she raised any grain, and that every acre of her arable land not required to raise vegetables and fruits which do not beur transportation, might be appropriated to sheep walks and pasturage, and, through lier diversified industry she would draw from the prairies of the United States, the banks of the Nile, and the shores of the Baltic a sup- ply of food far more generous than the insular dimensions of England could possibly yield. Her policy is to undersell all others. To do this she must depress the wages of labor, and to accomplish this she must provide her laboring people at the lowest possi- ble prices with cie simple and coarse fare on which her low wages compel them to live. To have retained the duties on grain would have been, in so far, to tax raw materials, as we do,* but she is too astute for that. She wants cheap food for her slaves as the southern planters did for theirs, and seeks to get it as they did by forcing British free trade on the American people. She is the foe of the working-men of every country, and impairs their wages by depressing those of the men upon whose toil her own power depends.f She protects the capital of '« foreign raw inntcriiils used by her manufacturers, and the fabrics and wares they export. These subsidies amounted last year, as was stated by the Chancellor of the Exchequer in his speech of April 20th, 1871, when presenting to Parlia- ment his budget for this year, to £1,225,000, or over $6,000,000. *The Act of July 14th, 1870, reduced the duty on tea and coffee and trans- ferred (0 the free list many varieties of raw material which we cannot yet pro- duce ; and I hope that Congress will, during the next session, make tea and coffee free. The harmless stimulants taken morning and evening by the farmer and laborer should not be taxed. I Let us for a moment think what are the conditions of our poor to-day. Apart from the question of our agricullurdl population, whose almost hopeless lot is best told by the simple fact, that in many places the tuxurj/ of meat is comparatively unkiwion ; apart from the questions of special emergency, such as the cotton famine, or the East End Emigration Society, which bag been brought into exis- tence for the purpose of relieving the great mass of destitution and poverty in PROTECTION TO AMERICAN LABOR. • ; 1; ■i^f' England as I wish to protect the labor, ingenuity, and en- terprise of the American people. Iler aim is to be the workshop of the world, and to bind the people of all other lands to the rude employments of unskilled agri- culture. Her agricultural interests resisted the repeal of the corn laws. To admit grain duty free it was said would ruin the farmers and lessen the market and taxable value of the land of the kingdom. But experience demonstrated the laws of social science and proved the harmony of in- terests by increasing the agricultural products of PJngland in a ratio equal to the increased amount of her import of raw material and food for her lpr.d and people. TREE TRADE EXHAUSTS LAND AND IMPOVERISHES FARMERS. I have said, sir, that a nation cannot prosper by foreign trade and agriculture alone ; and our bitter experience of wasted lands and oft-recurring bankruptcy, contrasted •with the steadily increasing affluence of the agriculturists of England, confirms the fact. Let us examine this ques- tion. We iDoast ourselves an agricultural people, and are content to look to nations beyond the seas for the fabrics we consume and a market for our products. Not having a home market we cannot diversify our crops, but must confine ourselves to the production of those commodities ■^ i-^" 'ii that neighborhood; apart from nil such spccia. ami exccptionni cases, wo h&ve the general sense of depression and want everywhere spread around us. It is not necessary to dwell on the scenes of human misery, where wholesale suicides or cruel murders mark the profound despair of those who lay trembling on the confines of want. It is equally unnecessary to recall those verdicts that appear time after time at coroner's inquests under the simple but expressive phraseology — "Death from Starvation." It is not nece'a.iry to recall these things, because the newspaper press of the country drivos these truths Irome without stint and without compromise; but it may be important to remember that the individual cases, which thus come to the surface, are known only by accident, and thiit the great mass of misery that suffers and dies, — dies and tells no tale. Occasionally and by accident the curtain is drawn on one side, and we see into the midst of the life of poverty that surrounds us; and v. .•■ then know by the glance thus afforded us, what the general life must be; wasted by poverty, decimated by fever, shattered by want; and it thus rises before us, in the full force of its ap- peal to that sense of human sympathy which is common to us all. But the general acceptance of the positions here stated will be aided by a few facts. Let us see what the barometer of pauperism has to tell us. Our pauper population in 1866, was 920,344; in 1867, 958,824; in 1868, 1,034,823; and the number is still increasing ; yet these numbers show that our pauper population has in- creased 114,479 persons in two years, or at the rate of more than 1000 per week. — Home Politics, by Daniel Grant, p. 3. London, 1870. PROTECTION TO AMERICAS' LABOR. 33 which will keep long and will bear transportation. Wheat, corn, pork, cotton, rice, tobacco, and hemp are our great sta|)le-s, and our crops, omitting those produced within a radius around the large cities, narrowing as they diminish in importance, decrease from year to year, while those of P^ngland, stimulated and varied by a home market, in- crease so wonderfully tliat science pauses before declaring that she has yet ascertained the measure of wealth a single well-fed acre under scientific culture will yield. 'IMie virgin soil of America gives back to the farmer at least thirty bushels of wheat to the acre ; and in his early crops he does not fear the Hessian fly, the midge, weevil, or any insect-destroyer of grain. In the old wheat-growing ^States remote from cities, the same amount of labor be- stowed upon an acre is rewarded by but seven or at best ton bushels, and the farmer regards himself as lucky whose fields are not visited once in three years by some of the deadly foes to wheat — the insects that live and swarm upon the diseased juices of feeble grain, the offspring of fam- ished soil. The most carefully-prepared tables I have been able to find give twelve bushels or less as the average wheat crop per acre of America. In England the fields are enriched by the bones, woolen rags, and other nutritious manures which we export ; thft grain crop is followed by a green crop, or those vegeta- bles, the tops of which absorb from the atmosphere and return to the earth the aliment abstracted by cereals ; and the amount of labor which, when England was a purely agricultural country, drew but from twelve to fifteen bushels of wheat from an acre, is now rewarded by from thirty-eight to forty-three bushels, or the equivalent thereof in roots for the sustenance of man and beast. Under our exhausting process of extorting from famished fields the last elements of the white crop, and our ex- portation of fertilizers and manures, our very fruit orop is disappearing. The diseased trees of the orchard, th a[)ple, the pear, the plum, blossom and bring forth fruity and the borer, the curculio, and others of the insect tribe that are sent to scourge us into good husbandry, revel in it, and it falls before maturity as if to give some sub sistence to the starved stem that gave it its sickly life. This is no fixncy sketch. In endeavoring to sell in the dearest money markets and buy where we can buy for least money, we have sold the very life of our acres and i) i;!til ml' u PROTECTION' TO AMEKICAN LABOR. 4; mortgaged oiir.selvca to a class of middlo-rnen, mostly for- eigners, vviio take the results of our industry us the price of carrying our products to market and bringing us the few and inferior coniruoi'lities — the tails — we receive m return for our skins. Our Jilb is au inevitable game of cross j)urposes. Ambitious of commercial importance wo produce only raw materials and can have no commerce, but must enhi.nce the niaritimo power of our rival by er statisti'iians calculate that her annual accumula- tion of capital has attained the enormous dimensions of £5U,000,000 or ;;;250,000,000. Her limits offer no invest- ments for this annual increase, and the managers of Lho railroads that carry our crops over our own soil to the sea- board for shipment extort exorbitant freights to enable them to pay interest on bonds sold at low rates to foreign holdei's, or pay large dividends to British capitalists who, in default of other investments offering profits equally great, have taken the stock. Without manufactures vfe can have neither foreign trade nor commercial marine ; for a purely agricultural people, depending on foreign na- tions for a limited market, have nothing with winch to freight vessels to the general markets of the world, and no assorted commodities to exchange for those that would enrich the country and build up upon the sea-board com- mercial empoiiums with native citizens and American in- terests. But, sir, let us look a little more closely at the eil'oct on the land of the country of the mad tlicories propounded by the gentleman from Indiana. Professor Henry gave it as his opinion, some years agOj (anr' I believe it to be true to-day,) that there was more wealth invested in our soil in fertilizing matter at the moment this country was dis- covered by Columbus than there is at present above the surface in improvements and ali other investments. Ohio, .111 . ,1 PROTECTION TO AMERICAN LABOR. 35 justly proud of her comparatively superior American agriculture, was admonished by John II. Klippart, Usq., corresponding secretary of her State Board of Agrictiltiiro in 1860, that her staple crop, wheat, was annually decreas- ing in its yield per acre; that in less than fifty years the average product was reduced from thirty to less than fifteen bushels per acre, and that unless her farmers turned their attention, and that very soon, to the renovation of their wheat lands, even Ohio would soon be one of the non-wheat-producing States. During the first five years of the last decade her corn crop averaged 36iVo bushels to the acre, while during the last five years of the decade its average had fallen to 32jVff- It matters little, practically, whether a man sell his acres or sell only their vital prin- ciples. It would have been better, could we have done •„, that we had exported our acres in all their breadth and depth than to have extracted from them as we have, and exported or burned as fuel their productive power. We should then have seei. Lhat that market in which goods can be bought for the k-.'st money is not always the cheapest, and realised how fearful a price we were paying for the tails of the skins we had sold so recklessly. I have referred to Ohio as an example, not because her case is exceptional, but because if it be exceptional it is in favor of her better than average American husbandry. The South has been less desolated by war than by long continued unreeiprocal free trade with England. The ravages of war can soon be repaired. Houses, canals, and railroads can soon be rebuilt. Villages, as unimportant as those of the South, (and in this I embrace her cities all other than New Orleans,) are things of very rapid growth in countries where men are free to exercise their skill or enterprise, and industry is well rewarded. But who shall restore her waste lands ? War Avas not the demon that blasted them ; it was the free trade that England imposes on serai-civilized .nations; it was the desire to create a monopoly of the cotton and sugar trade ; it was the belief that a poor and ambitious people whose expenditures anticipated their annual crop could be victorious in a comuiercial contest with a wealthy people whose diver- sified industries give them the control of all markets, and whose accumulations of capital enabled them to choose their own time and place for purchasing. I will not describe what I have seen in the South, or take the reports brought by ■»:'-n Ml 86 pnoTKrriov to American labor. I'' :' J ■■ ■' ^ iii '^'. iii m % ill mm 1 northern men. Let southern tnon describe tho condition of their phuitations. A i . lUhern journal, wliich is quoted by Caroy it» his Soeiul Science, l)ut of which the name is not givin, says: " An Akbiuna planter Hays that cotton haa destroyed more thi»n eivrth(|uakeH or volcunic; eruptions. Witness the red hills of (leorgia iind South Ciirolinti, which have produced cotton till the lust dying jras|) of the soil forliade any furllier attempt at cultivation; and the land, turned out to nature, reminds the traveler, as he views the dilapidated condition of tlie country, of the ruins of ancient Ure(!ce." Dr. Daniel Lee, in his Progress of Agriculture, in the United States Patent Office lieport for 1852, says : "Cotton culture presents one feature which we respectfully com- mend to the eaiiu'st consideration of soutlu^rn statesmen and plan- ters, and that is the constantly increasing deterioration of th(( soil devoted mainly to ihe jjroduction of tliis important crop. Already this evil has attained a fearful magnitude; and under the present common i)ractice it grows a little faster than the increase of cotton hales at the South. Who can say wlien or wliere tliis ever-augment- ing exhaustion of tlie natural resources of the cotton-growing States is to end, short of their ruin ? " De Bow, in his Resources of the South, published in 1852, says: " The native soil o*" middle Georgia is a rich argillaceous loam, resting on a firm clay foundation In some of the richer counties nearly all the lands have been cut down and appropriated to tillage ; a large ma.ximum of which have been worn out, leaving a desolate picture for the traveler to behold— decaying tenements, red old hills, stripped of their native growth and virgm soil, and washed into deep gullies, with here and there patches of Bermuda grass and stunted pine shrubs, struggling for a scanty subsistence on what was once one of the richest soils of America." Governor Hammond, in an address before the South Carolina Institute in 1849, after presenting the same class of facts, said : "These are not hiere paper calculations, or the gloomy specula- tions of a brooding fancy. Tlicy are illustrated and sustained by facts, current facts of our own day, within the knowledge of every one of us. The process of impoverishment has been visibly ana palpably going on step by step with the decline in the price of cotton." Clement C. Clay, of Alabaraa, speaking in the United States Senate, said : " I can show you, with sorrow, in the older portions of Alabama, in my native county of Madison, the sad memorials of the artless PROTECTION TO AMERICAN LABOR. 87 in and I'xlinustinp culture of cotton. Our Hinall planters, after takinjf the creimi ofT tlieir liinds, uniihle to restore tliem by rest, manures, or otherwise, are j!;"'"K furltier West aiid South in seareli of other virgin lands, which they may and will deHpoil and impoverisii iu like manner In traversing that county, one will discover numerous farm-houses, once the al)ode of industrious ami inlellineiit freemen, now occupied by slaves, or tenantless, deserted, and dilapidated; he will observe fiehlH, once fertile, now unfeneed. abandoned, and covered with those evil hurbingera, fo,\tail and brooniHcdfje ; he will see the moss fjrowiny w«!ro iimlorstood by Andrew Goo wluai lio publisliod liirt work on TriKlo in 17i'>0, and among utlior illustrations ol' liifi olt-ar approhonsion of thotii said: " Muiiiirikctiircs ill our Aiucriciiii oolonicH mIiohM bo tliHcixiiUf^iMl, j)r()liil)ilftl \Vi' ounlit iilwiiy.s to keep u wiilchriil cyo over our coloiiicH, to resfniin /hem /mm scftiiKj n/) nhi/ ofthv manii' fac.tnte.H xohivh are canictl on in fjrt;itl Jirituiin ; iiiid iiny Much utl(>ni|ils should ho crushed at the h('^iiiiiiii|( Oiu' colo- nies are iiuuh in the sumo state as Ireland was in wh'Mi they begun the woolen manufactory, and «,'iven Cor raisin),' heni[), flax, etc., doul)tleits they will soon bejjin to uninulacttiro, if not prevented. 'I'lierofore, to stop the proyreas of ani/ such numu/actare, it is proposed that no weaver liavo lil)erty to set up any looms, without first registering ut un odice, kept for that pnrjjose That all slitting-mills, and engines lor drawinj^ wire or weaving 8tockinj,'s, be put down Tliat all nefiroes he prohibited from weavinij either linen or woolen, or spill III Hi f or combing ivool, or working at any manu/aclurc of iron, I'urtlur than makin)>' it into pig or bar iron. That they also be p7'<>- hilited from manui'acturing hals, utockimja, or leather of any kind. This limitation will not abridge the planters of any liberty they now enjoy ; on the contrary, it will then turn their industry to promot- ing atul raising those rough nuiterials If we examine into the circumstances of the inhabitants of our plantations, and our own, it will appear tliat not oiic/ourth of their product redounds to their own profit, for, out of all that comes here, they only carry back clothing and other accommodations for their families, all of' wliich is of the merchandise and manulaclure of this kingdom. . . . . All tliese advantages we receive by the phiiitutions, he- .sides the mortgages on the planters' estates and the high interest they pay us, which is very considerable." * I think, sir, that I have shown by the extracts I have made from that remarkable book, "Cotton is King," that the men of the South understood the laws of trade (oertain as that of gravitation) well enough to comprehend the fact that free trade must ultimately destroy the varied inter- ests of the North. They may not, mad with ambition as they were, have seen that the operation of the laws whose penalties they were inflicting upon others would involve them in common destruction; but that they understood the fatal operation of free trade upon the great interests of the country is apparent in every chapter of the essay from which I have quoted. '^^ Sue quotations from Thomas Jcfl'urson in Speech on Contonuial Celobratioo^ Jan. 10, 1871, supra. ill.* .1 1; PROTKCTION TO AMKRTCAN LABOR. 89 I know not, .sir, wlK^tlior the gentleman froni Indiium has stuiliod the laws of social science, bnt they have Itcen thoroughly coniprehcndcd by tlie .statesmen of Kngland, and furnish the key alike to her diplojnacy and legisla- tion. Illustrative of this is the case of iVn-tugal. In the latter part of the Hcventecnth century she had established manufactures of woolen goods, which were tliriving, add- ing to the comfort and prosperity of her piioplc, and to her own rospijetahility and power, '^rhey, however, neciled protection against the ho.stile capital and more fully (level- oncd industry of P^nglaiid, and in lH8-i the (iovernmeut, discovering the advantages it derived from these manu- factures, resolved to protect them by prohibiting the im- portation of foreign fabrics of the kind, 'rheneeforward their increase was so rapid as to at*^ract the attention (A' British capitalists, who determined upon their destruction. This was not to bo accomplished at once; but, evading the technical language of the law, they manufactured arti- cles under the names and of descri[)tions not precisely covered by the act of prohibition, which woukl supply their places, and threw them in great abundance into the Portuguese markets.* The cft'cct upon the industry of the country was soon felt, and the Government gave its * Ttiis ilovico has been practiced upon during tlio two past years to the great dotri inent of the public revenue and of tliu American won! gro worn nU luanufucturcr, by invoicing woolen and worsted goods an manufacturea of cow and calf hair. Mr. .JameM Dobson, in a letter which appears in the New York Daily liulletin of •January 26th, IS71, saya : "In the firat place, I would say that thc^e ."o-callcd 'calf hair cloakinga' arc not made from the nnitcriala the importera fuy they are, but in place of being made from cow or calf hair arc only so in part — the baliinco being wool; and aomo goods that have been so claasified contain nothing but wool. Out of two hundred and eighty-flvo invoices that had ])a8Fud, between .July Ist to Nov. 7th, 1870, under the aaauipption of being calf hair, there were seventy invoices of curled Aatrachans which, if properly and honestly itivoicrd, would have paid duty as manufactures of worsted goods. Samples of these goods can be seen in the Appraiser's Offico in New York, if they have not been de.-troy •' since Nov. 7th, 1S7(). If they have, then I can produce certified sam]>l('M by the Deputy-Appraiser who passed them. About twenty specimcnsfof the poorer (juality of these so-called calf hair goods were submitted I'y the Treasury Depart- ment for microscopic examination, for the j)urpose of detecting whether any wool was contained in them, and in every instance wool was discovered, some s|)eci- mens contained seventy per cent, wool, while others had variul)le jiroportiona. You can find this repi^.t in the Treasury Department at Waahington. You can also find it embodied in the Department letters, of Dec. 7th and Sth, 187(i, to the Collector of the Port of New York. Again, your correspondent says that the assumption that one house in Uuddersfield had sent nine-tenths of these goods to tho United Stales, is groundless, like the rest of my statements. All I have to say to this is that I here quoted a portion of the American Consul'a letter written to tho Collector of New York, calling his attention to tho frauds that were being daily perpetrated on the revenue of the country. The letter 'uiu.ia date September 17th, 1870, a copy of which is on file both in New York iv :i|' 1 i i :r I'' : (! 40 PROTECTION TO AMERICAN LABOR, t I i ,■ 1 '*! 11 i ». 1 i^* ;:i attention to the matter, and prohibited the introduction of these "serges and druggets." But British capitalists were as determined that thtir fabrics should clothe the people of Portugal as they have since been that we should con- sume their cotton, woolen, steel, iron, and other goods; and what they had been unable to accomplish by the mere force of capital or by skilful evasions of Portuguese laws, they at last achieved by diplomacy. Portugal fail- ing to perceive that England could not produce Portu- guese wineo, as she cannot produce American cotton, hemp, rice, tobacco, and grain, listened to the words of such diplomacy as induced us to enter into the Canadian reci- procity treaty, and subjected the energy, ingenuity, and industry of her people to the control of the Govenmient Dud capitalists of England ; the inducement to this step, artfully put forward by Great Britain, was that the wines of Portugal should be admitted into Great Britain at a duty one-third less than that imposed on wines imported from other countries. The effect of this treaty on the indus- try'' of Portugal is narrated by an English writer, who says : " Before the treaty our woolen cloths, cloth serges, and cloth druggets were prohibited in Portugal. They had set up fabrics there for making cloth, and proceeded with very good success, and we might justly apprehend they would liave gone on to erect other fabrics until at last they had served themselves with every species of woolen manufactures. The treaty takes off all prohibitions and obliges Porluf:,al to admit forever all our woolen manui'actuies. Their own fabrics by this were perfectly ruined, and we exported £100,000 value in the single article of clotlis the very year after the treaty. "'I he court [of Portugal] was pestered with remonstrances from their manufacturers when the prohibition was taken off pursuant to Mr. Methuen's treaty. But the thing was passed, the treaty was ratified, and their looms were all ruined." — British Merchantmen, vol. 3, p. 2.53. In the spirit of the diplomacy of Methuen was the par- and Philadelphia, also at the Treasury Department at Washington, and is a public document. He says : "■ My attention having been drawn to the fnot that certain manufactui'^rs of this 'isfi'ict h.ive refused to give ciilf'-hair certificates to the goods sold tliia Inn in question, because they knew them to be false and did not wish to perjure them- selves for the sake of gain, however the impression gained ground that the sworn certificate was only a matter of form. I was led to infer that this house in question must bo the house who had so mii-lcd the manufacturer, and the develo])uients have reacher meh a form that I feel it incumbent on me to call the attention of the revenut )iBcers at J?ew York to all the invoices of this fii'in, which have passed through this agency. Pi:t TECTION TO AMERICAN Li SOK. 41 ■I 4 liamentary eloquence of Henry, now Lord Brougham, in 1815. Having described the eft'ect of the peace of 1814, which bound continental Europe to the use of British manufactures, and produced an excessive exportation of British goods in that direction, he said : •' The peace of America has produced somewhat of the same effect, thou.vith any chance of success. Tlie large capitals of this country are the great instrumevis of war- fare again.st the competing capitalists of foreign countries, and are !! ,1 ' J liili 1 ' '<1 S, tM ? i.;;i t I / ii! '■ i m 42 PROTECTIOX TO AMERICAN LABOR. lilt' most essotitiiil instruments now rcmaininfi^ by wliicli our mann- I'acturin;? supremacy can be maintained ; tiie ol'ner elements — cheap laUor. abundance of raw materials, means oC communication, an'l skilled labor — being rapidly in process of being realized." FRANCE, ENGLAND, PRUSSIA, SHODDY Nor, sir, have otliernations failed to discover that social life is not subject to chance, or to enforce what are now. , termed the laws of social science. Indeed, the more saga- ' cioiis and powerful nations have been compelled in self- defence to do what we — grand as are the dimensions and resources of our country — must do or be forever dependent and subject to ever more frequently-recurring periods of bankruptcy, private, corporate, State and national. Carlyle's brilliant word-painting depicts the horrors that flowed from contempt for the value of labor in France, and the historian of the rebellion just crushed will portray those which flowed from our disregard of the rights of the laboring people of our country. Had Louis XIV. appre- ciated the value and national power of the skilled indus- try of France, he would not have revoked the edict of Nantes ; commenting upon which, Uume says : "Above half a million of the most useful and industrious subjects deserted France, and exported, together with immense sums of money, those arts and manufactures wliich had chiefly tended to on- ricii that country. . . . Near fifty th.->usand refugees passed over into England." Since the days of Colbert, however, with the exception of a brief term during which slie adherred to the stipula- tions of a " reciprocity treaty," into which England in- veigled her, France has protected her industry by pro- hibitory acts, by bounties or concessions, and by high pro- tective duties. Her present astute ruler and the British Government have recently attempted to dazzle and mis- lead other nations with theoriesof free trade which neither wa'i willing to carry into operation ; but the tarirt' act pre- pared by M. Chevalier, after conference with Mr. Cobden, who, in his desire to improve the condition of the labor- ing classes of EnglaiMl by securing them cheap food, was led to adopt all the fallacies of the school of free traders, is perhaps the most scientifically protective revenue law ever devised. France permits none of her raw material, which is not absolutely in excess of her demand for food or fabrics, to ll PROTKCTION TO AMERICAN LABOR. 43 he exported ; nor will she cadinit into her ports .'viiy .'irt.icle tliat may come in c()in{)etition with her industry without requiring it to pay her and her people adequate eonqjon- sation for the injury such admission may inflict. A ri'cent illustration of this is before us. The free-trade papers aie announcing that France has determined to admit raw whalebone free of duty. They cannot, however, tell us, fchat she has consented to admit foreign hops on the same terms ; for while inviting cargoes of whalebone to her ports, she has rejected an application for the free admis- sion of hops. She welcomes the product of the American whaler, for whalebone enters into an infinite number of her manufactures. She has no domestic source from which she can derive the article; and the duty upon it as upon any raw material, was a tax upon her manufacturers, or a bounty to their rivals. She therefore remits the duty for the same reason that she taxes hops. She pro- duces much wine, and but little beer; and her own soil and labor furnish her with an adequate supply of hops for all uses wi:hin her limits. To admit them would be to injure her agriculturists, and perchance, to stimulate an appetite for a beverage that might injure the market for French wi'ies. We ship in the same vessel our wheat, and the ^' jnes, rags, and other refuse matter which would, were our own industry broadly diversified, after applica- tion to many jiurposes of use and pleasure, restore to the earth the elements extracted from it by the tons of wheat which they accompany to foreign markets. These France, England, and Germanv s^uard most sedulously; and in a pamphlet now before mc, entitled " The History of the Shoddy Trade, its Rise, Progress, and Present Posi- tion," published in London in 18G0, I find that in Eng- land : " Materiiils rofrardcd at ono time as almost worthless, are con- verted, by the improved processes of manual labor and machinery, into valuable elements of textile raanulactures. The seams or re- fuse of rags are used after lyinnj to rot, for the purpose of manuring arable land, particularly the hop p-rounds of Kent and adjacent coiutties, and are also made into flocU partially for bi'ddin" uses. 'I'hey are, moreover, (which seems stranjic indee!eful as tillage in like manner with tlie waste which falls ui^der scril)l)ling-i'nirines. The lalter is saturated with oil, in which consists, mainly, the ferlHizinfj 44 PROTECTION TO AMERICAN LABOR. property. Waste is of more value than dust for farming purposes, the former having been generally about double the price of the la'ter ; but dust has of late increased in value so as to be loell nigh equal to waste. A large quantity of these materials if annually sent from this district [the West Riding of York) into Kent and other counties to till the soil. Shoddy dust is useful in other respects thiui as liihiac. It is nuw even ciirel'uily preserved in separate colors and applied in the manu Jauiure of flock paper hangings, wliich are the l)est description of this article. Not a single thing belonging to the rag and siioddy system is valueless or useless. There are no accumnlations or moun- tains of debris to take up room or disfigure the landscape ; all, good, bad, and indifferent, are beneficially appropriated." Of these valuable materials this little work ^ows that America furnishes England more than any other nation, and that in point of quality her woolen rags are the best, even better than those derived from the city of London ; that so largely are we the consumers of the cloths manu- factured in greater or less part from our own refuse mat- ter, that a commercial crisis in this country affects every manufacturer in the shoddy districts ; and that the most calamitous eras in the history of the generally thriving towns depending on this manufacture were the years im- mediately following 1837 and 1857, when their industry ^vas entirely su.spended by the destruction of the Ameri- can market. France, less lavish of her wealth and more careful of the welfare of her people than we, sedulously guards such elements of wealth and comfort. How sedulously, will appear from the following extract from the little work I have just quoted : "As to rags, we have not been able to import any from France, on account of their having been prohibited as an article of export ; but according to the treaty of commerce just concluded between France and Kngland [that arranged between C.evalier and Cobden], the former has engaged to remove the prohibition, hat reserves the privilege of imposing a heavy duty on rags shipped thence to this country. The amount of duty has not been fixed yet, we believe ; but there are fears on our part that it will be such as to preclude either paper or woolen rags being brought over to any material ex- tent." The fear expressed by the writer was well founded. Shrewd men played at an intricate game when that treaty was made; and while France consented far enough to give a text upon which she and England might preach free trade to the other nations of the world, she reserved to herself the amplest power to maintain the most perfect de- PROTECTION TO AMERICAN LABOR. 45 P^i fensive warfare between her interests and those of aggres- sive England * Prior to 184:4, Enghind hjrself subjected rag- wool, that is, shoddy- wool prepared fronri rags by any otlier nation, to ji duty of a half-penny per pound ; but when other nations refused to sell her their rags in bulk, the prepared or rag- wool became the nearest a[)proach she could obtain in iidequate supply to that species of raw material, and she abolished the duty which, light as it was, favored the in- dustry of her rivals. Nor is Prussia behind France and England in this mat- ter, for the same pamphlet tells me that at Berlin there are a number of m.anufactories of rag-wool, several of which have been established by enterprising Englishmen from the shotldy towns of Dewsbiiry and Batley. "These factories," says tl>e writer, " prodnce botli sliocidy and muniro. and appear to be successful undertakinjfs. 'I'he principal reason why our countrymen prosecute this business at Uerlin and otlier places in Prussin. is berxuse that Government levies a heavy duty on the exportation of rags, and permits shoddy, the matni/ac- tured article, to go out free, thus affording facilities for an export trade in rag-wool not extended to rags." Insignificant as tiie territory of Prussia is in comparison with ours, the Government has found it well to insist upon Ep.glishmen, who wish to work the raw materials of the country, coming '.ith capital and maciiinerv' to furnish employment to its men, women, and children with the growth of the land, and to supply agricultural stimulants and a market for farm products within its limits, rather than re>peat the unsuccessful experiment of clothing the people in foreign goods by selling their raw material ui a price fixed by a distant customer, and buying it back in cloth at prices fixed by the same party. Will the Ame- rican people never learn this simple le«son? SKCRET OF Bonaparte's power. The first Napoleon said, and his words cannot be too often repeated in a republican country, a majority of whose people are dependent on their labor : "In feudal times tlure was one kind of property — land; but there has grown up another— industry. They are alike entitled to the protection and defense of the Government." *The French were merely throwing dirt in our eyes when they reduced their ad valorem duties from 50 or 30 to 15 per cent, on articles that would be equally 03 well prohibited by an ad valorem duty of 5 per cen' ; or in changing total prohibition for a 30 per cent, ad valorem duty on articles that could not be gold at a profit, even if admitted without any duty at all ; yet this is actually Wiiat is done. — SvUivan : Protection to Native liidiutry. Loudon, 1870. Am. Ed. p. 65. _ 'I I , 4' 1 n ■\ '1'! j 1 "F i! h: iiii mvU 46 PROTECTION TO AMERICAN LABOR And how did ho atteiapt to protect and defend whu; was and ever will hn. almost tlie only property and de pendence of the majority of the people— their skill and inilustry? Let ns learn from Chaptal, his Minister of the Interior, who, in his work on the Industry of France, says : •• A. sound loirisliilion on the subject of duties on imports is the Lrue siifeany exported raw materials. Hav- ing sold her skins for a six-pence, she bought back wliat few tails she couUi at any price. Her laboring people were P'Or, and is i .. now thf; case in Ireland, in such ex-' f'Sf's of .Ilia'. ; '/ t" feed a\d clothe them, that she was uver re. Sy W: .>:" a contingent to any party that might be enga^ *d 5m w«r 'd, if need be, to swell the ranks of both contending iimies. ^n the absence of protective duties, there was nothing oi s( little value to her as an able-bodied German peasant. But the establisiiment of that Customs- Union has changed all this. It protects her industry, and as a consequence she imports raw materials from America and all other countries that adhere to her ancient semi- barbarous policy, and exports her grain and wool con- densed into broadcloth and the multiform products of well- protected industry. The aimual crop derived from her soil increases per acre steadily as that of England, and in about the ratio of the diminution of ours. Wise laws have here again demonstrated the truth that there is a harmony between the varied interests of the people of a country, and that by a wide and universal diversification of employments the welfare of each and all is advanced. Forty years ago England had not perfected her protec- tive system, so far as to admit all raw materials free of duty, and Germany sold her thirty million pounds of raw wool, upon v.'hiv;h she collected a duty of twelve cents a {)ound, pari, of which, when manufactured into low grades of cloth, she sold at immense profits in Germany. But thirty years of protection have changed all this. Germany now raises over one hundred million pounds of wool, and imports very considerable quantities; and having com- pacted her grain and wool into fine cloths, she exports them to all parts of the world. When the Zoll-Verein was formed, says Henry C. Carey :* * Slnva Trade, DomeHic nnd Foreign, p. 310. This invaluable work does not, ns its title implies, relate spccinlly or mainly to chattel slavery. It is the illus- tration of the correctness of Mr. Carey's opinions drawn from the history nnd condition of many countries. If it be true that " history is philosophy teaching by example," its author should take a high pluce among nistorians. Carey's Slave Trade, Domestic and Foreign, should receive the consideration of every candid student of social tcionce, and no library is complete in this department without it. PROTECTION TO AMERICAN LABOR. 49 "The total import of raw cotton antl cotton yarn was about thrco liunilred thousand cwtB : but so rapid was the extension oftlic manufac- ture tiiat in i ss tha-i si., years it hau doubled ; and so cheaply were cotton goods sppplicd that a large export trade had already arisen. In 184;"), when ihe Union was but tej> years old, the import of cotton and yar had ri ached a million of h .ndred weights, and since that ♦ " ne there liaf en a large increase. The iron manufacture also giewso rapidly that wherc's, in 1834, the consumption had been only eleven pounds per liead ; in 1847 it had risen to twenty-five piiunds, I ^vi*" Jius more than doubled ; and with each step in this Oiroction, the people were obtaining better machinery for cultivating the land and for converting its raw products into manufactured on"s."* WASHIXGTOX, JEFFERSON, AND JACKSON. In what strange contrast with this policy, so fruitful of blessings, has been that which we have pursued, and of whicl the gentleman from Indiana claims President Johnson Ofc an adherent. ()pp(jsed to privileged classes we have leg "■ lated in the interests of but one class, and that an oli\.^;u chy ; proclaiming " the greatest good of the greatest ber" as our supreme desire, we have so legislated ,',s ti impair the value of labor, the only property of a ma-' rity of our people ; vaunting our national independen>- \' j have so legislated as to prevent our escape from a condi- tion of commercial, manufacturing, and financial depend- ence; and while justly proud of our general intelligence, we have so legislated as to justify the manufacturing and commercial nations of the world in classing us among the semi-barbarous governments, whose people, rich in natural wealth, have not the capacity to mould and transmute raw materials into articles of utility, comfort, and refinement, and in ranking the people of the United States, in their estimation, with those of Turkey, Portugal, Ireland, and the mixed races of Central and South America. The fathers of the country were, in this matter, wiser than their children. They had suffered from the rigid enforcement by Great Britain of Andrew Gee's suggestion to " keep a watchful ey ; over our colonies, and restrain them from setting up any of the manufactures which are carried on in Great Britain;" and they knew that if the nation they had founded was to be powerful, and its people prosperous, they must be relieved from that policy by the only means possible — the adherence to those defensive Iiws which * The largest and most successful iron and steel establishment .n the world is not in England. It is Krupp's, at Essen, Prussia. Its protectert wares compete with those of England in every country. !:< \i r ' ^ . di! .1 , ! . .a i "ii 50 PROTECTION TO AMERICAN LABOR. '^4 would protect an infant against the aggressions of a giant. The Constitution was adopted in 17b7 ; President Wash- ington was inaugurated in 1789, and in his address of the 8th of January, 1790, said : '• The surety and interest of the people reqniro that they should 'roiiiotu such manufuctures us tc>iid to render them independent of tlitrs for essential, particulurly for military suppHcs." And on the 15th of the same month. Congress resolved — "That it be referred to the Secretary of the Treasury to propose and report to this House a proper plan or plans conformably to tlie recommendutions of the President in his speech to both Houses of Conf^ress, for the encouragement and promotion of such manufac- tures us will tend to render the United States independent of other nations for essential, particularly for military supplies." And in 1791 Congress adopted an Act for imposing duties on imports, the preamble of which contains the following language : " Whereas it is necessary for the support of the government, for the discharge of the debts of the United States, and the encourage- ment and protection of manufactures, that duties be laid on goods, wares, and merchandise imported." In a communication five years later than this, Washing- ton said : " Congress have repeatedly directed their attention to the encour- agen: lut of manufactures. The object is of too much importance not to insure a continuance of these efforts in every way which shall appear eligible." And Mr. Jefferson, in his message of 1802, said that — "To cultivate peace, maintain commerce and navigation, to foster our tisheries, and protect manufactures adapted to our circumstances, etc., are the land-marks by which to guide ourselves in all our rela- tions." The.se expressions are inconsistent with the opinions adver.se to the policy of fostering manufacturers in this country embodied by Jeflerson in his Notes on Virginia in 1785 ; but he was not one of those fools who hold it a weakness to change an opinion, even under the discipline of experience ; and in a letter to Mr. Benjamin Austin, dated January 9, 1816, when the subject of a protective tariff was agitated by the people and was about to be brought to the attention of Congress, said in support of his matured judgment : "You tell me I am quoted by those who wish to continue our dependence on England for manufactures. There was a time ' .1 1' PROTECTION TO AMEUICAN LABOR. 61 when I might have been so quoted with more candor .... Wo have since experienced what we did not then believe, that there cxintH both profligacy and power enough to exclude us from the field of intercliange with otiicr nations — that to bo indcpennt for the comfortH of life, we must fabricate them curselveB. We viust now place the mauufactunr by the side of the agricullurt'st. He, therelorc, who is now against domestic manufacturCB must be for reducing us either to dependence on that foreign nation, or to be clothed in skins and to livo like wild beasts in denf and caverns. I um proud to say that 1 am not one of these. Kxper- t'lUKt has taught me that mann/adnrci. are now as necessary to our independence as to our conifjrt ; and if those who quote me as of a different opinion will keen pace with me in purchasing noihina foreign where an equivalait of d-omestic J^abi-ic can be obtained, without any regard to difference of price, it will not be our fatilt if we do not have a !.ui ply at home erpuil to our demand, and wrest that weapon of distress from the hand wliich has so long wantonly violated it." General Jackson's oft-quoted letter to Dr. Coleman, of North Carolina, wjks about eight years later than that of Mr. Jefferson, and nothing t^-t he ever wrote .illustrates more admirably his strong common sense and devotion to the rights and interests of all the people of the Union which lie so resolutely defended. Writing to one of that class vvlio have been pleased to call themselves " planters," to distinguish them from the "hard-fisted farmers" of the North, upon whose interests they were then waging war, that they might secure cheap food for their slaves, he said : " I will ask, wliat is the real situation of the agriculturist ? Where hfvs the American farmer a market for his surplus products? Except for cotton, he has neither a foreign nor a home market. Does not this clearly prove, wlien there i.s no market, either at home or abroad, that there is too much labor employed in agriculture, und that the channels of labor should be multiplied? Common sense points out at once the remedy. Draw from agriculture the superabundant labor; employ it in mechanism and manufactures, thereby creating a home market for your breadstuffs, and distribut- ing labor to a most profitable account ; and benefits to the country will result. Take from agriculture in the United States six hundred thousand men, women, anil children, and you at once give a home market for more breadstuffs ihan all Europe now furnishes us. Jn short, sir, we have been too long subject to the policy of the Hritish merchants. Tt is time we should become a little more Americanized, and instead of feeding the paupers and laborers of Europe, feed our own ; or else, in a short time, by continuing our present policy, we shall all be paupers ourselves." MAN" CANNOT COMPROMISE PRINCIPLES. Mr. Chairman, why have we not regarded the teachings of history, the monitions of the fathers, the oft-recurring and bitter experience of the past? Why have we been ■* ' '-iM 1^' I i ■ Cl'^V, 'I > ) . ,^V\M • m 52 I'UOTKCTION TO AMKRICAX LAHOR. *! h contont, to find the iiiiissofarti.siuj^aiulurtifiooraor the coun- try, at intervals of from seven to ten years, vvitliout employ- inenl. drawing (roni the savings bank their hoarded earn- ings, seeing the little hotncs, under the roofs of which they had hoped in ripe age to die, passing untlor the sheiilVs hatnrnor; and to see the forge, the funmco, the njill, and the workshop idle, and changing hands by lorced sale oftentimes at less than a fourth, and sometimes at but a tithe of their original cost? Why have we l>een content to see the crop of the farmer rot in the lield, while the laboring people of the cities were gnawed by hunger, and causing doubts of the stability of republican institutions by threatening, and in at least one instance ab olutely per- petrating, bread riots? Why has our march of emigra- tion been a march of desolation, and the son of him wiio emigrated to Ohio as the far West, finding his labor unre- warded by the famished land, been constrained to cry " Westward hoi" and go to contend with the trials and deprivations of frontier life, and found a new State still more remote from markets ? And why was it, sir, that when those who would over- throw our Government fired upon the Hag, that, with our unec^ualed ingenuity, our sheep walks of limitless extent, our boundless water power, and our measureless stores of coal and iron, we were unable to provide adequate clothing and arms for the seventy-five thousand men summoned to our defense? There is but one answer to all these questions. We suffered all these ills because we had disregarded the laws I am endeavoring to illustrate and other fundamental truths in which, on every public occasion, we proclaim our belief; had endeavored to maintain in this free and busy age an anachronism, involving the denial of all rights, and tlie repression of the native ability of the laborers of one half of our countiy ; and had endeavored to prove the solecism that slavery is an essential element of free institu- tions, and adds to the power of a country contending for supremacy with nations that are using every expedient to animate the industry, ingenuity, and enterprise of their peo- ple. By oppressing others we enfeebled and degraded ourselves. Slavery has its laws, a^id they are irreconcil- able with those which quicken industry and develop material power. Time will not permit, nor is this the occasion for their discussion. It is enough for the present to Bay that they do not tolerate intelligent or requited PROrKCTION' TO AMERICAN LABOR. C3 labor. Thoy were understood nnd onforcod by the slave owning oligiirchy, and wcro submitted to by tht? ninssoa of tlio people, whose urtfully fostered pride of rnee de- ludoil tlieni into tlie belief tiint the inequalitiea of caste were consistent with the demoeruey of a professedly Christian republic. At last the delusion is dis{)elled, and with it go till! cruel necessities by which those who, being freiMucn, were, under tlie coin{)roniiscs of the Constitution, enslaved by the inherent laws of slavery; and our country having corrected the solecism and banished the anachronism, may now enter upon a career of competition with the mo.>t advanced nations of the world. The vast and varied attractions the United States present to the hopeful, the enterprising, ingenious and skilled workmen of the world, are the means by which we may enfeeble all rival Powci's, wnile building up our own, and augmenting the prosper- ity of our rapidly-increasing people. Slavery being dead, let us entomb with it its twin barbarism, British free trade. Henceforth our legislation may well be directed to advancing the greatest good not only of the greatest num- ber, but tlic unquestioned good of all; and in this it will stand in strange contrast with its purposes and policy in the past. To show how wide that contrast will be, let mo turn again to King Cotton. On page 96 of this royal volume 1 find it written : "At the date of the ptissnpc of the NcbraHka bill, the imiltiplica- tion of provisions by their more extended cultiviition, was tlio only measure left that could produce a reduction of j)rices and meet the wantH of the planters. The Canadian reriprociti^ treaty, since se- cured. will bring theprodnctn of the British North American colanies, free of duty, into cunipetilion with those of the United States ivhen prices with its ride high." This was not written by an English hand. Our forges, furnaces, and factories were unprofitable capital. Coal, ore, and limestone lay undisturbexl ii-. the places of their original deposit, and mechanics of skill and energy v nt begging for employment. Yet an American writer rejo ced that the means had been secured by which the farmers of the country eould be made to suffer with the alllicted multitude. With that want of patriotism which has long characterized the leaders of the Demo- cratic party, he exulted over the subjection of the agri- cultural interests of his country to those of British North America by that misnamed reciprocity treaty with Canada > 'I: Mw' 64 PROTECTION TO AMERICAN LABOR. whlcli southern influence had forced upon us, and lauded it lis the sure means by which the farmer should be driven to a still greater distance from all otlier markets than that ullbrded by the few hundred thousand men who regarded no interests but their own, and believed that these could only be promoted by procuring still cheaper food for their millions of slaves. But listen to him again. On page 123 I find the follow- ing : " From what has been said, the dullest intellect cannot fail now to perceive tlie rationale of the Kansas-Nebraska movement. The Eoiitical influence which these Teiritories will give to the South will e of the first importance to perfect its arranjfcment for future slavery extension, whether by division of the larger .States and Territories now secured to the institution, its extension into territory hitherto considered free, or the acquisition of new territory to be devoted to the system, so as to preserve the balance of power in Coniiross. When this is done, Kansas and Nebra.ika. like Kentucky and Missouri, ivill be of little consequence to slaveholders compared with the cheap and constant supply of provisions they can yield. Nothing, therefore, tvill so exactly coincide ivith southern interests as a rapid emigration of freemen into these new Territories. White free labor, doubly productive over slave labor in grain-grotving, must be, multiplied loithin their limits, that the cost of provisions may be re- duced, and the extension of slavery and the growth of ''otton suffer no interruption. The present efforts to plant them with slavery are indispensable to produce suflBcient excitement to fill them speedily with a free population ; and if this whole movement has been a soiithern scheme to cheapen provisions and increase the ratio of the production of sugar and cotton, as it most unquestionably will do, it surpasses t\ie statesmanlike strategy which forced the people into an acciuiescence in the annexation of Texas. And should the anti- slavery voters succeed in gaining the political ascendency in these Territories, and bring them as free States triumphantly into the Union, what can they do hut turn in as all the rest of the loestem States have done, and help to feed slaves, or those who manufacture or sell the products of the labor of slaves ? " These paragraphs show that the slaveholders achieved what an examination of the topography of the country mignt have led them to regard as a last grand triumph. Their system held undisputed sway ; and let me ask v/hether, had they been content to live lender the Govern- ment that existed, it could have prospered long? Two interests alone were to be pursued: the growing of grain in the North and West, and the growing of cotton, sugar, rice, tobacco, and hemp in the South. In the light of the extracts, showing the rapid exhaustion of our soil by the exportation of its products, which I presented in the earlier I PROTECTION TO AMERICAN LABOR. 66 part of my ren.arks, and of the experience of every far- mer and planter, will it be asserted that this system of culture could long have continued? Science could have calculated the years of its possible deration wiiii almost perfect accuracy. When, under such a system, could the earth have rest for recuperation? And whence could come the stimulants to restore its wasted energies? The system omitted these • essential conditions of prosperity, and thereby provided for its own decline. The scheme was an impracticable one, which though it might have served as a temporary expedient, could not endure, for it was in conflict with the laws of Providence. It may be that an indistinct perception of this drove the oligarchy to the madness of war; for all now admit that there was not, in the election of Mr. Lincohi, or the purposes o. ./:e Eepublican party, anything to justify their attempt to ^ ^scroy the Union by war. But be this as it may, the war did but hasten, by a few years, the inevitable termination of their persistent folly and crime. The com- mercial crisis of 1860, following so closely upon that of 1857, and repeating, as both did so minutely, in all their details, the disastrous and wide-spread incidents of 1837 and 1840, would in themselves have constrained the people to dema 1 such legislation as would promote and secure a diversification of our industries, the development of our resources, and the laying of foundations for a widely-ex- tended commerce. The American people had become too numerous, too enlightened, too energetic, and had endured tr many of these commercial crimes to h?ve been willing longer to submit iheir fortunes and destinies to the control of the few arrogant theorists, whose views were so narrow and whose fancied interests were so diametrically opposed to those of all the rest of their countrymen. TUEN AND NOW. Sir, let us contemplate for a moment our condition when the champions of s'avery and free trade fired on the flag of the country. April, 1861, found us unable to clothe our soldiers or furnish the.n with impleme.-.ts and muni- ,tions of war. When the President called for seventy-five thousand troops, and that number of the flower of our countrymen promptly responded, they were clad, not in our blue alone, but in gray, the chosen color of our eneruy, in black, in red, or any other color, because we had not I fts 'a I i, : i : : i n i i •J 1, ■vW W'l , ' 'm ■ --'] ).[ ill i m 66 PROTECTION TO AMERICAN LABOR. the proper material with which to clothe them. "We had not the quality of liOn from which to fashion a gun barrel, nor could we ma'.-ce it. We had not blankets to shield our men from rain oi' frost, in camp or bivouac ; and as the people regarded ihe base character of the articles with which our army vao provided, many of which had been made from American rags in the shoddy towns of York- shire, they raised a universal cry of " fraud " against both* public officers and contractors. Our mills, forges, furnaces, and factories stood still. The frugal lalDorer was living upon the earnings of past years. Commerce, having dwindled from the expiration of the protective tariff of 1842, had ceased to animate our ports. The crops of the West stood ungathered in the fields, and the bankruptcy of 1857, from which we had not yet recovered, had returned to sweep away the few who had withstood the surge. But the case is altered now. Necessity has compelled us to do what reacon and experience long ago suggested. The fact that we determined to pay in gold the interest on our bonds and to obtain the required bullion by collecting the duties on imports in coin, has done much to animate and diversify our industry. This fact and the general results of the war* — for the duties we lay on raw materials and our internal taxes more than counterbalance the pro- tection afforded to many branches of industry by our tariff laws — have enabled us to recover from our prostration and started us in a career of prosperity and progress; and if wisdom guide our legislation, the waste lands of which I have read will soon be reinvigorated ; the ancient village will be absorbed in the expanding city; new towns will mark the plain and river bank ; and where the mean white and the negro have loitered listlessly through the months, diversified and well- paid industry, quickening their ener- gies and expanding their desires, will employ all their hours, and enable each to carve his way as an American citizen should do in a career that will afford him pleasure or profit. The gentleman fiom Indiana may desire to recall the idle- ness and misery of 1860, but I canrot believe that he is justified in intimating that President Johnson sympathizes with him in this respect. * The most immediate and beneficent of which was the volume of currency created by the isrue of greenbacks. ''Ill pIPR ■ \-^ ^ffl i i ' ft PRO'ECTION TO AMERICAN LABOR. 67 VIRGINIA. General Frank i*. Blair, jr., intent upon neutralizing any service lie may have rendered the country during the war, having gathered about him the representative men of the eighty thousand disfranchised traitors of Missouri with whom he now affiliates, recently charged, as does the gentlemai from Indiana, that the Republican party of the country is under the control of men whose object is to aggrandize Nuw England, and by a protective tariff tax the agricultural interests of the country for the benetit of a few wealthy manufacturers, and that the resistance offered to the admission of representatives of the con- quered but uuregenerated people of the South by Congress is the result of this purpose. How false this is he well knows; for every member of the family in the councils of which he bears so distinguished a part, and which always speaks as a unit, may be shown, by their published utterances, to understand that protection to American industry is essential to the prosperity of the agricultural interests of the country. Adequate protection to Ameri- can industry, its defense against the assaults of the accu- mulated capital, machinery, cheap labor, and skill of foreign countries, is of less importance to the middle and New England States than to any other portion of the country. The wasted South most needs it ; and next to the South, the Northwest, rich in all the elements of man- ufacturing greatness, and poor only from her want of local markets, which the diversification of her industry and developement of her multifarious resources woukl create. Sir, Virginia is not a New England State ; nor do her people delight in being called Yankees, though they will hereafter be as proud as we are of our national cognomen. But no portion of our country, unless it be General Blair's own Missouri, with her boundless stores of varied mineral wealth, wouiu be so blessed by setting all its poor at work upon the growth of its own lands as Virginia. A discrimi- nating wilter, who in August last traversed a large portion of the gold region of the Stale, in coni|xiny with three eminent mineralogists, in the course of an article in the December number of Harper's Magazine, says : "To give any adequate description of the mineral wealth which Virginia contains, would be not only to minutely describe every rod of her entire length, embracing hundreds of miles, but to enu- merate almost every mineral of value hitherto known among man- ^' I *l 'f .J . 1 P : I JJ'TT h iiiili ©8 PROTECTION TO AMERICAN TjABOR. kind. It is not in gold alone that she abounds — but, scattered in j)rofusion ov^r almost her entire surface are to be Found iron, copper, silver, tin. teiiurium, lead, plftinum, cinnabar, plumbago, manganese, asbestos, kaolin, slate, clay, coal, roofing slate of the greatest tura- bility, marbles of the rarest beauty, soap stone, sulphur, hcae-st^ne, equal to the best Turkey, gypsum, lime, copperas, blue stone, j^rnd stone, cobalt, emery, and a variety of other materials that we hn '3 hitherto been compelled to import or to do without. Indeed, it may be said, without exaggeration, that in the single State of Virginia, in the most singular ju.xtaposition of what might be considered geolog- ically incongruous materials, is to be found an almost exhaust- less fund of (iod-given treasures, more than enou";h to pay off our whole national debt, and only awaiting the magic touch of capital and enterprise to drag them to light for the benefit of man." Of what avail have these boundless deposits of multi- form riches been to the people of Virginia, and what have the Democratic party, .slavery, and British free trade done for their moj?t fortunately situated and devoted adherents ? The aristocracy of Virginiahave withheld from the laborer his hire, and the native fertility of their land has wasted away. They have traded in human muscles as a source of power, and laboring men have shunned their inviting climate ; and their water power, exceeding in one year the muscular power that all the slaves foui.d in the United States at the taking of the last census couM put forth in a lifetime, has flowed idly to the sea, often through forests so wide that it could " hear no sound save its own dashing." And the State, fro-w having at the close of the last cen^+^^ury been the first in point of population and political power, fell, in sixty years, as is shown by the census of 1860, to be the fifth in population, and to rank the eq,ual of free young Indiana in the fifth class in political p/)wer. The laws of Providence are inflexible, and it could not be therwise. Despising labo^r, the Heaven -appointed condition on which alone man shall eat bread, she tended year by year toward poverty and want, and though she raised millions of laboring people o^ every shade of hu- man complexion, the sweat of their brows enriched not her fields but those of other states. Like German/ before the establishment of the Zoll- Verein, and Ireland since the Union, she raised little else than labouring people for exportation. If he who fails to provide for his family be Vv . se than an infidel, what shall be said of the legislation • hat J'ives the heirs to so goodly a heritage as the lands of Vir^rinia forth in want and ignorance tfo dwell among strur.^'ers ? PROTECTION TO AMERICAN LABOR. 69 The RepuMictins of New England and the Middle States would mak.'aic, or Spanish, Egyptian, red and green Pyreneese, verd-a itique, Siennese, porphyry, brocatel, or other marbles, but .vhich are produced at little cost from the slate of Lehigh county. PENNSYLVANIA CHAIiLENGES GENEROUS COMPETITION. Is it said, sir, that Pennsylvania seeks to obtain a mo- nopoly of the American iron market? Why, then, does she ask you to so legislate tliat capital shall find its advan- tage, and the laborer become rich, in working the unmea sured iron and coal-beds of her near neighbors, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennes.- i ? England can no longei supply he: self with charcoal \ ig- iron. She has not the fuel. Her forests have yielded to the demand for pasturage and sheep walks. She is in this respect dependent on foreign countries, and buys such pi;_ metal as raw material where she can get it best and cheap- est, from Sweden, Norway, Russia, or Nova Scotia, all of which are in the same isothermal zone, in which arc found ■y i :i .1:1 I , " ' .Vk n 7i r cr. ' it n m 60 PROTECTION TO AMERICAN LABOR. underlying forests which yield an avernge of fifty corda per acre, the inexhaustible beds of better than Swedish ore of the Marquette region of Michigan and Wisconsin. And, gentlemen of the Northwest, I ask you whether pa- triotic Pennsylvania manifests a disposition to tax you for her advantage when she challenges your competition, and implores you to help her to outdo England without fight- ing and enrich yourselves by setting unemployed laborers at work with the growth of your own lands? The Besse- mer or pneumatic converter is coming largely into use, and the exigencies of the war and the incidental protection it has given our industry have created manufactories of Ameri'nn steel ; and in each of these facts you have a guarantee of steady increase in the demand for your un- rivaled product, and of the profits of the railroad compa- nies, which will carry away your commodities and return with people to build the cities your expanding iron and steel works must create. A few figures will verify these assertions. Dr. Robert H. Lamborn, than whom there is no more careful statistician, tells us that — " By comparing the production of this region witli that of other iron districts, it will be found that it produced in 1864 more pig metal than Connecticut or Massacliusetts in the same year, and sixty per cent, more than New York in 1850. Reckoning ore and metal to- gether, the mines of Marquette threw into consumption in 1864 154,'.)().'i tons of metal, or three-fifths as much as the total pig-iron prodiiction of the United States, according to the census returns o." 1850, and one-eigMi of all the pig-iron ■produced by the United States in 1864." In view of these gratifying facts, can it be possible that the people of the Northwest are anxious for an ear'y re- newal of the " tripartite alliance formed by the Western farmer, the Southern planter, and the English n\anufji,ctu- rer," so exultantly referred to in " Cotton is King," by which the furnaces producing all this metal shall be closed, and their proprietors and the laborersthey employ reduced to bankruptcy, as those of Ohio and Pennsylvania have so often been by British free trade ? If, gentlemen of Missouri, Pennsylvania is seeking a monopoly, why do her people labor to persuade you to produce at the base of Iron m.ountain and Pilot Knob the utilities to the creation of which they devote their capital and industry? No, our efforts are not selfish. We wish to raise the prostrate South and give her an onward and PROTECTION TO AMKRICAN LABOR. 61 upward career, and to secure to tlie American laborer wajres so liberal that the report thereof shall invite to our shores the skilled and enter|>rising workmen of every craft and country. B}^ employing all our people with the growth of our own lands we can create an urgent de- mand lor labor, and thereby solve the most difiicult prob- lem before the country; for when labor is in quick de- mand its value will be regarded and the rights of the laborer protected. By no other means can the exhausted South be restored, or the work of her recuperation be commenced. Who will emigrate to the recently insurgent States? Vast and varied and peculiar as are their natural resources, will capital, proverbially timid as it is, fly to a region charac- terized by turbulence and lawlessness, or enterprise to a land in which labor is regarded as the disgraceful olFice of a subject race, and where legislation is employed to re- press the intellect and suppress the aspirations of the laboring people for a higher and better life? Sii', there is not a Northern State that does not outbid them for emi- grants and offer superior inducements to the cupitr' ^ "ad those that are infinitely more attractive to him . ho l.as but his labor and that of his family to sell. Pennsylvania needs a million laborers. She can feed and clothe and house them all should they come to her in the current year. We want them to gather and refine petroleum, to construct antl manatre railroads, to conduct our internal carrying trade, to build factories, forges, furnaces, i'oun- deries, and the towns they will beget; to quarry slate, zinc, coal, iron, marble, and the thousand other elements of wealth condensed within the limits of our State. Inert as these natural elements of wealth are, they are of no available value ; but the quickening touch of labor will transmute them all to gold ; and energy, enterprise, and capital in the hands of men whose earlier years were passed in manual labor, are holding out to industry the. richest bribes to induce it to come and help i»ay our national debt and increase our country's power by enrich- ing themselves and us. But, sir, we offer higher induce- ments than wages in dollars and cents. Our equal laws, recognizing the fact that the child'-en of a State arc its jewels, put a school-house near every laboring man's dwelling, and as a reward for bis industry, and to increase the power of the State, secure to each child coming into it it' t ' 1 ' 1 ' H n 1 ■ 4 J }' 1 I .;! M i: 'i 62 PUOTECTIOX TO AMERICAN LABOR. : j ill ^SBB^^I ' the keys of all knowledge in the mastery of the English language, the art of writing, and at least the elementary rules of arithmetic. And in the neighborhood of every hamlet the church spire points the way from earth to heaven. Before the altar employer and workman meet as equals, and in the same class iii the Sunday-school their children learn practical lessons of Christian eqaalitv. A SUGGESTION AND EXAMPLE TO THK SOUTH. These are conditions that the South cannot yet offer to the emigrant from our fields or thv)se of Europe. If she would pros[)er she must Amerioani/e her system of life, abandon her contempt for labor, and her habits of violence and disregard of law. She must learn to respect man as man, and stimulate his exertions by quickening his intel- lect, expanding and chastening his desires, and insuring him a just reward for whatever he shall put forth in the way of industry, ingenuity, or enterprise. She ean only create the elements of her new and great fi'*ure by devel- oping the resources now at her command, the chief of which she will find to be her apt and docile laboring peo- ple. Iter present purpose seerns to be not to do this, but to enter on a new career of oppression. Her dream is still of dominion over large plantations and imbruited laborers. Let her abandon the problem, " How can I make my la- borers work?" and occupy herself upon the gentlei one, ' Uow can I induce these people by whom I am surrounded L) enrich themselves and me ? " and she will begin to learn hc'V rich and powerful she is. When she shall have ac- complished thus much, when her laborers are freely paid and her common schools offer shelter and culture to the laborer's child, she may successfully appeal to those who can elsewhere find wages, security, and equal chances in life to come and cast their lot with her. She should luis- ten the coming of that day. In common with us, she is burdened by the debt of $3,000,000,000 in which she hai Involved u.". Let her remember that she, too, has coal, iron, lead, copper, zinc, silver and gold, cinnabar, tellu- rium, and all the elements of manufacturing and commer- cial power which characterize so abundantly every section of our country ; that she has broad land v-diich will not be fully worked when every man and womai' within its limits may say, with truth, "1 am indeed an Ainerican citizen, and have, by my v/ell-requited voluntary labor, earned the ■'rilii PROTECTION TO AMERICAN LABOR. 63 bread my dear family 'las this day eaten." And slie will find that she has added vastly to her wealth when the field hand shall have been transformed into a skilled vvorlcinan ; when he who, under the lash, has lazily hoed cotton or corn, under the stituulua of liberal wages, eon vorta ore and coal into rails, cannon, or anchors, or into any of the thou- sand mi,nor fabrics from the fish hook and the sail or j)aek- iriiji needle to the heavy and cojnplicated lock advertised in the catalogue of one concern, that of Russell & Erwin, of New Britain, in Connecticut — a State producing so lit- tle iix)n as to bo scarcely remembered when enumerating the iron-producing Commonwealths of the country. This concern, 1 am informed, sold but $30,000 worth of goods in the first year of its operations, and $3,000,000 worth during the last year. Meanwhile it has concern rated in the village enlivened by its works a thriving and highly- educated population, and has converted unskilled laborers into mechanics and accomplished mechanicians, though their hands were no nimbler or their minds more compre- hensive or versatile than those of the laborers to be Ibuud in the devastated South, whose extermination or expatriation seems to be within the- purview of those who assert their right to control the policy of that section. It is not for the rich, the comparatively few who have accumulated capital, that we demand protection. We ask it in the name of the millions who live by toil, whose de- pendence is on their skill and ability to labor, and whose labor creates the wealth of the country. To what fearful competition they are subjected when by withholding pro- tection we leave them undefended against the assaults of British capital, is aptly set forth by Daniel J. Morrell, Esq., in his admirable letter to the secretary of the Ame- rican Iron and Steel Association. He says : '•That portion of the price of a ton oi imported iron v,i.'i?h stands for the wufires of labor, represents coarse food, mean raincnt, and worse lodging, political nullity, enforced ignorance, serfdom in a sin- gle occupation, tvith a prospect of eventual relief from the purish. " 'I'iiat portion of the price of a ton of American iron which stands for the wages of labor, represents fresh and luholesome food, good raiment, the homestead, unlimited freedom of moveme7it and change of occupation, intelligent support of all the machinery ofmunicipjil. State and national Government, loith a prospect of comfortable old age, at last dividing its substance with blessings among prosperous children. " Thus it is easy to see why imported iron may be cheap and American iron dear ; for the latter, in addition to its other burdens, i ^^ H 1 ■ , 1 1 04 PBOTKCTIOX TO AMKRICAN LABOB. l»iiyji iiiM'Xtriiordinnry tux to froi'tlom and cnlightonuipnt, which are uHaiiffdIy (li'scrviii)^ of |irr which we must therefore look to other lands. The raw nuiterials entering into our manid'actures, which we are yet unable to j)roduce, but on which we unwisely impose duties, I would j)Ut into the free list with tea, coffee and other auch purely foreign essentials of life, and would impose duties on coinmodities that compete with American j)roductions, so as to protect every feeble or infant branch of industry and quicdcen tho.se that arc robust. I would thus chea})en the elenumts of Hie, and enable those whose capital is embarked in any branch of production to ^.ffer such wages to the skilled workmen of all lands as wt)uld steadily and rapidly iiicrejise our numbers, and, as is always the case in the neighbor- hood of growing cities or towns of considerable extent, increase the return for farm labor; this policy would o[ien new mines and quarries, build new fui'uaces, forges and factories, and rapidly increase the taxable property and taxable inhabitants of the country. Would the South accept this theory and enter heartily upon its execution, she would pay more than now seems her share of the debt and Icid herself blessed in the ability to do it. ller climate is more geiual than ours; her soil may be restored to it.-? original fertility; her rivers are broad, and her harbors .L!ood ; and above all, iiers is the monopoly of the fields for lice, cane sugar, and cotton. Let us pursue for twenty years the sound national policy of protection, and we will double our j)opulatioii and more than quadruple our capital and reduce our indebtedness |ier m;>(7a and per acre to little more than a nominal sum. Thus each man can " without moneys " pay the bulk of his portion of the debt by ])lessing others with the ability to bear an honorable burden. How protection, by animating, diversifying, and reward- ing industry, will pay our debt is well shown by the experience of the last five years. And though we do not > • I. ii'i I ■ i 1 i i^^ *•, IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) 1.0 1.1 ■^ Ui2 |22 2.0 lU 111 I |I.25||U,,.6 < 6" ► vl /I ^> ^ O 7 /A Photographic Sdences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580 (716) 872-4503 \ ^^ •^ :\ \ 66 PROTECTION TO AMERICAN LABOR. m^ ■ owe that experience to sagacious legislation, but, as I have said, to the exigeucies of the war, it should guide our future steps. The disparity between gold and paper has added to the duties imposed on foreign products, and enabled our manufacturers to enter upon a career of pros- perity such as they have never enjoyed, save for a brief period, under the tarifts of 1824 and 1828, and again for four years under that of 1842, a prosperity in which the farmers are sharing abundantly, as is shown by the fact that they are now out of debt, though most of their farms were mortgaged five years ago. When the war began we could not, as I have said, make the iron for a gun-barrel ; we can now export better gun-barrels than we can import. We then made no steel, and had to rely on foreign coun- tries for material tor steel cannon and those steel pointed shot by which alone we can pierce the five-and-a-half inch iron-clads with which we must contend in future warfare. Many of our regiments that came first to the capital came in rags, though every garment on their backs was new, and many of them of freshly imported cloth. But, sir, no army in the world was ever so substantially clothed and armed as that which for two days passed in review' before the President of the United States and the Lieuten- ant General after having conquered the rebellion, and which, when disbanded, was clad in the product of Ameri- can spindles and looms, and armed with weapons of American materials and construction. It is said that ten years ago " a piece of Lake Superior iron ore was a curiosity to most of our practical n^etal- lurgists." In 1355 the first ore was shipped from Mar- quette county. How rapid the enlargement of the trade has been is shown by the following statement: In 1855 there were exported 1,445 tons. 1856 11,594 " 1857 26,184 " 1858 31,135 " 1859 65,679 " 1860... i 116,948 " 1861 45,430 " 1862 115,720 » 1863 185,275 " 1864 235,123 " The production of charcoal pig iron in that region, we are told by Dr. Lamborn, commenced at the Pioneer works near the Jackson mine in 1858. Those works were the t PROTECTION TO AMERICAN LABOR. 67 pioneers of a great army, and already the Collinsville, the Forrestville, the Morgan, and the Greenwood furnaces are in profitable operation. The production of charcoal iron in that county has been as follows : In 1858 there were exported.. 1,627 tons. 1859 7,258 " 1860 .5,660 " 1861 7,970 " 1862 8,.590 " 1863 8,908 " 1864 13,832 " And though we produced no steel in 1860, a table con- structed from information furnished by the report of the Commissioner of Internal Bevenue for the year ending June 30, 1864, shows that the Government had in that year derived $391,141 39 of internal revenue from the steel made and manufactured in the United States during that year. Time will not permit me to indicate the many new branches of industry which have sprung up, or the vast extension and improvement of those which, under our old free trade system, had found an insecure footing and were enduring a sickly existence. I may, however, venture on a few remarks upon this head. California is not a New England or an eastern State ; she has perhaps been less affected by the war than any other State, unless it be Ore- gon; and I find that, though she raised in 1859 but 2,378, 000 pounds of wool, she raised in 1863, 7,600,000, and in 1864, 8,000,000 pounds. She i.s we are assured by her papers, realizing the advantage of bringing the producer and consumer together; and though during the last year she shipped to New York some 7,500,000 pounds of wool, she is showing that her people understand the importance of saving the double transportation they would otherwise pay on those of their own products they might consume — that for carrying the raw material to the factory, and that for bringing the fabrics back again. I find in one of her papers the following statement : "California Woolen Mills. — The Pioneer Mill, at lilack Point. California, has thirty-one looms at work now, consumes annually 1,200,000 pounds of wool, employs 220 laborers, pays out $100,000 yearly in waj^es, uses a capital of $500,000, and runs fifty-two sewin{)f machines. About one- fourth of the wool purchased is used in mak- ing blankets, the importation of which has now entirely ceased, the home production having taken entire possession of the market. "• !' 01 li '!'i . i ■ ■ f ■ '' 08 PROTECTION TO AMERICAN LABOR. Nearly half the production is flannel, which is gradually crowding the imported article out of tlie market. About one-third of the wool consumed at this mill is made into tweeds and cassinieres, which is mostly nnide up into cloihin<;r in 8an Francisco. Broadcloth is not made there in quantity, because of the scarcity of pure Merino wool. The Pioneer and Mission Mills togetlier consume about 2,400,000 pounds of wool, employ about 450 laborers and $1,000,000 of capital, and pay out $200,000 in wages annually." Well done, California. Your tweeds and cassi meres and blankets will crowd foreign articles not out of your own State alone, but out of the markets of the Pacilic slope. You will soon need machinists to construct your sewing-machines and make the tools for those who do such work. Land around your cities will grow in value; and those who own it need not compete with farmers so distant from market as to limit them to the production of grain alone. Hay, potatoes, turnips, and all other roots for the sustenance of man and beast, and fruits for the table, may engage their attention and give them ample reward for Vheir labor. Oregon has also felt the quickening influence of the lanes. She paid to the internal revenue department, during 1864, taxes on the manufacture of $128,620 67 of Avoolen cloth. THE PEOPLE OF THE PRAIRIES NEED A PROTECTIVE TARIFF. The people of the prairies, next to those of the desolated South, are interested in the creation and maintenance of diversified industry. While they depend on grain-grow- ing, and that commerce which English free trade permits the producers of raw materials to enjoy, cities will be founded and grow at points on the hikes and rivers; but none of these e/en can be great cities without manufac- tures. Here .Mid there a concentration of railroads may also create a first-class town or an inferior city ; but the rest of their wide country will be but sparsely populated by an agricultural community, and dotted at wide distances apart by beautiful villages such as now gratify the eye of the traveler through the West. The prairie States have within them the elements of innumerable profitable industries. The western farmer clears his new land by girdling and burning the primitive forests. The wood is not without value, and condensed as it might be, it would bear transportation to a market. PROTECTION TO AMERICAN LABOR. 69 Constituents of mine have been for two years engaged in erecting works which cover over fifteen acres of Tanu for the production of paper pulp from wood. There now lie around their vast buildings thirty-five thousand cords of wood ; and in a few days they hope to put their works in op(Miition. For awhile they ran part of their machinery and produced to their entire satisfaction and that of the trade pulp which, intermingled with five per cent, or Ics.s of that produced from cotton rags, furnished admirable printing paper. Now, the corn husks — ay, and the corn with the husks — of the farmers of the West, go to waste, or find no better use than supplying them with fuel during the winter. The following article, clipped from the New York Evening Post of November 25, invites them to experiment and learn whether they act more wisely in wasting this material than the southern planters, who feared the establishment of American manufactures, did in failing to utilize their cotton seed, which, if we may accept Do Bow's authority, would have produced from $100,000,000 to §120,000,000 per annum if converted into oil and oil cake : " At a recent meeting of the Institute of TeclinoIop:y in Boston, Mr. Bond made a statement of results recently r.ttained in this coun- try and in Europe in the manufacture of pnper from corn husks. Experiments upon this material have been in progress in Bohemia since 1854, but have not rea';hed a satisfactory result until witliin the last two or three years. In the successful processes lately adopted the husks were boiled in an alkaline mixture, after which there remained a quantity of fiber mixed with gluten. The gluten was extracted by pressure, forming a nutritious article like ' oil cake,' and then the fiber was subjected to other processes in which it pro- duced the real paper ' stock ' or * pulp,' and left a fiber which has been made into strong and serviceable cloth. The husks yield forty per cent, of usefr' material; ten per cent, of fiber; eleven per cent, gluten, and i .leteen per cent, of paper stock. This paper stuck is equal to that made from the best linen rags. Allowing the profit of thirty-eight per cent, to the manufacturer, the different articlfs can be produced for six cents per pound for fiber, one and a half cent for gluten, and four cents for paper stock." Were this branch of manufactures well established on the prairies, the press of the West would give up its denunciations of the paper makers of the country as con- spirators, monopolists, and extortioners, and cease to pub- lish such paragraphs as the following, clipped from a recent number of the Galena (Illinois) Gazette : i ■' ''k .! '! :».i!f - !^ m 70 PROTECTION TO AMERICA!, LABOR. " Wo ntulcrstnnd tlmt many of the people of Warren and other towns in tlic ciist |)rtrt of Iho county ari' using com for fuel. Wc had a coiiv(>rRutiou with an intelligent gentleman wlio liiis been bufning it, uMil wiio considers it much cheaper tlian wood. Ears of corn ciin in- liimglit for ten conis per busliei by measure, and seventy bushels, worth seven dulliirs, will meiisure u cord." Could the people of Illinois bring themselves to believe tlmt they are capable of doing any other labor than raising raw material, they would bring into use clieaper fuel than corn or wood at seven dollars a cord. Their lands are underlaid by lead, zinc, copper, and iron; and would they determine to bring their metals into market as much mamifnclured as their skill and supply of labor will per- mit, they would, by creating a demand for fuel, compel the development of the magnificent deposits of bituminous coal by which nearly the whole State is underlaid. Let them be admonished before it is too late that the fertility of their soil, exuberant as it is, is not exhaustless. But, inviting as is this branch of my subject, I must leave it with the remark that, ignorant as we are of the extent of our mineral deposits, we are more ignorant of the uses to which may be applied many elements of life with which within a limited range of purposes we are quite familiar; and that, varied and wide as are the ex- panding opportunities to achieve usefulness and wealth, he who embarks his capital or enterprise in such as will yield the most golden results will not be more benefited by the introduction of new branches of manufacture than the owners of land, who will find in the markets of the village and the refuse of the factory the means of follow- ing the methods of English husbandry, succeeding the exhausting white crop by a green one, and giving to the soil each year more of the elements of fertility than the crop abstracts from it; and who, having a market at their doors, will save the transportation which now makes a yard of Manchester cloth worth many bushels of wheat in Kansas, and a bushel of Kansas wheat worth many yards of the same cloth in Manchester. Under free trade transporters, factors, and commission men absorbed what would have been the joint profit of the American manu- facturer and the grain-grower, had the producer and the consumer been side by side or in reasonable proximity to each other. PROTECTION TO AMERICAN LABOR. 71 are •5! DOMESTIC COMMERCE IS MORE PROFITABLE THAN" FOREIGN. There is other commerce tlian that between foreign nations, fraiice and Enghmd lie nearer to each other tiian New Jersey and Ohio, or than Indiana and Missouri. Commerce between New England and the Pacific slope taices place at the end of longer voyages than that between New and Old England. A quick market and active capital make prosperous commerce. Interest on borrowed capital is often a fatal parasite, and a nimble sixpence is always better than a sluggish shilling. Commerce is the traffic in or transfer of commodities. It should reward two capitals or industries— those of the producer of each commodity; and where trade is reciprocal, and really free, each man selling or buying because he wishes to do so, it does reward both. It is, therefore, apparent, that if we consume American fabrics, as well as home-grown food, these two profits, and a tiiird, (two of which now accrue to foreigners, one absolutely and the other in great part,) would remain in the country. These are the profits on the production of raw material, on its manufacture, and too often on its double transpoitation. But trade between a country in which capital is abundant, and the machinery of which, having paid for itself in profits already realized, is cheap, as is the case in England, and a new, or in these respects poor country, as is ours, is never reciprocal ; for the party with capital and machinery fixes the terms on which it both buys and sells. In addition to keeping both profits on our commerce at home and doing our own carrying, the diversification of our industry will insure markets for all our products, and render the destruction of any one of the leading interests of the country by a foreign commercial Power an impos- sibility. By securing the home market to our industry and giving security to the investment of caf)ital in fur naces, forges, mills, railroads, factories, founderies, ancji workshops, we can steadily enlarge the tide of immigra- tion. Men will flow into all jxirts of our country — some to find remunerative employment at labor in wiiich they are skilled ; some, finding that land, mineral wealth, water- power, and commercial advantages are open to all in an eminent degree, will come in pursuit of enterprises of mo- ment, and each new settlement, and each new branch of ''^Ir^ ^ -, 72 PROTECTION TO AMERICAN LABOR. :1 .. ri!! industry established, around wliich thousands of people may settle, will be a new market for the general products of our skill and industry: so that we shall not only bo- come independent of Great Britain in so far as not to depend on her for that which is essential to our comfort ?)r welfare, but independent in having a population whoso )roductions will be so diverse that though the seas that roll around us were, as Jefferson once wished thetn, "seas of fire," our commercial, manufacturing, and agricultural employments could go on undisturbed by what was happen- ing in other lands. When we shall have attained this condition of affairs we will build ships and have foreign commerce, for we will have that to carry away which, being manufactured, will contain in packages of little bulk our raw material, food, mechanical skill, and the labor of our machinery; and in exchange we will get whatever raw material we do not produce, and the ability to retain the basis of a sound currency which England and France, by the free trade they preach but do not practice, now draw from us and other countries in the position we so humbly occupy of producers of raw material, and whose people lack the foresight or the ability to supply them- .selves with clothing and the means of elegant life. WHAT CONGRESS SHOULD DO, Mr. Chairman, it is not my purpose to propose at this time any specific modifications of our tariff or internal revenue laws. They operate most unfortunately upon several leading interests of the country. But I have con- fidence in the gentlemen composing the Committee of Ways and Means, and the suggestive report of the United States Revenue Commission is now before us. The responsibility will justly rest on Congress, if with such aids we fail to correct those incongruities in our laws which have prostrated several important branches of manufactures. I may, however, remark that I am opposed to prohibi- tions or prohibitory duties, but will gladly unite in imposing on foreign manufactured commodities such dis- criminating duties as will defend our industries from overwhelming assaults at the hands of the selfish capital- ists who see that Britain's power depends on Britain's manufacturing supremacy, and are ever ready to expend a portion of their surplus capital in the overthrow of the PROTKCTION TO AMERICAN LABOR. 73 rising inilustrics of other nations. Judicious legislatiou on tliis subject will, by inviting hitlier lier skilled work- nu'ii and sturdy yeomen, so strengthen u.s and enfeeble England that she will not make railways and other im- provements for military purposes in Canada, for she will see that, when Canada shall be made the base of military operations against the United States, her American domin- ions y,i\\ pass promptly into our possession. WE ARE STILL IN COLONIAL BONDAGE TO ENGLAND. I find, sir, in a journal upon which I am in the habit of relying, in an article on the British exports of iron and steel, the statement that during the seven months termin- ating July 81, 1865, the United States purchased more than one third of the railroad and bar iron exported by England. While we were thus adding to the wealth and power of England, by purchasing one third of her entire export of lailroad and bar iron, one of her "men-of-war," commanded by an American traitor, was destroying our unarmed whalers engaged in the peaceful pursuits of their dangerous trade, and our furnaces, forges, and rolling-mills were idle, or but partially employed. The internal taxes levied directly and indirectly on a ton of American rail- road iron are heavier than th» duty imposed on a ton of foreign rails by our tariff, and at this time most of the fur- naces and rolling-mills of our country are suspended. The Pennsylvania iron works at Danville, in that State, make both pig and railroad iron. The invested capital of the company 4s $1,500,000. When in full operation it em- ploys twelve hundred men, upon whom not less than five thousand women and children depend. The works are adapted to the production of both pig iron and rails. They cannot, however, produce an adequate supply of iron for the rolling-mills, and the company are annual pur- chasers of pig iron. Their capacity is twenty-seven thou- sand tons of pig iron and thirty-three thousand tons of rails. Their actual production in the last two years was but as follows : In 1861, Pig iron 17,154 tons. Bails 22,.512 " In 1865, Pig iron 14,7.58 " Rails 15,956 " The Rough and Ready rolling-mill, in the same town, is capable of producing about twelve thousand tons of rails • '2 74 fHOTKCTIOX TO AMERICAN LABOR. i- Hi ii : B! I ; w. por uiinuin. Its proprieloPH purcliaso tlioir pig iron. Its production during tiiu two liust years lias been in the exact proportion to its capacity as that of tliu Pennsylvania works. The difficulty with both is that our internal taxes so far more than counter-balance the protection alVorded by our tarift' that when gold ranges at less than Ibrty, British iron masters can undersell either in our own mar- kets. Our laws instead of pr()tee4,ing American labor, thus discriminate against it and in favor of that of England. The duties and internal taxes on iron evidently neeil re- vising. The interest is depressed, not only in Penn.syl- vania, but in every part of the country. During the hitter part of the seven months referred to, four rolling-mills in .southeastern Ohio, with a capacity of sixteen thousand tons of rails per annum, were idle, and the blast furnaces in the region which can produce one hundred and thirty- five thou.sand tons of charcoal pig metal, produced in 1805 but fort- five thou.sand. Of the twenty furnaces on and near the Alleghany river, in Pennsylvania, only eight were in bla.st at the close of the year. I am told there are nine blast furnaces in Missouri capable of producing about forty-five thousand tons, and that but three are now in operation. But one of the four blast furnaces near Detroit was in operation in December. The twenty-five rolling-mills of Pittsburg were, I am informed, then running but quarter-time, and the production of bloom iron in the counties cf New York bordering on Lake Champlain was in 1865 but about one third of that of 186-i. Let me ask, sir, whether Congress is faithful to tlie laboring men of the country when it de- prives them of the opportunity to enrich themselves and the country by expending their labor on the growth of our own lands ? From the same journal I also learn that, during the same seven months, the United States imported more than one-half of the unwrought steel exported from Great Britain, while a very carefully prepared list of the steel- works of the country, showing the kinds of steel made, the product for the last year, and the capacity of each, shows that the product during the last year was but eighteen thousand four hundred and fifteen tons, though the capacity of the works is forty-two thousand one hun- dred tons. It thus appears that we could have made of the growth of our own lands, and by the employment of I I pnoTECTION TO AMKUICAN" LABOR. 75 our own pcoplo, every ton of rails, bur iron, and im- wrought steel we imported during that period. Will tliu gentleman from Indumu say that it would not liave been wi>c to withhold this patronage IVoin our treaehorous rival and bestow it upon our toiling eountrymen ? 'riie western farmer and the railroad man say, " Let me buy wow and steel eheap ; it is my right to buy where I can buy lor least money;" and their Hepresentaiive, comply- ing with their wishes, refuses to put an adequate duty ujjon iron and steel. May it not bo pertinent to remind these gentlemen that the manufacturers of the iron and steel they import live in houses built of British timber and British stono, and furnished with British furniture; that they are taught, so far as they are educated, l)y Kng- lisli teachers ; attended in sickness by English doctors; clothed and shod by English artisans ; and that their wages are expended in confirming British supremacy by augmenting British industry and British commerce; that they are fed with wheat gathered on the banks of tlic Nile and the Baltic, or wherever England can buy it cheapest ; and that General Jackson's assertion, that to transl'er si.\ hundred thousand men from agricultural to inanufacturing employments would give us a greater mar- ket lor our agricultural products than all Europe now supplies, is as true now as it was when first uttered. And that, if we import the men to make the iron and steel we will need lor 18G6, 1807, and 1808, the implements with which they will dig the limestone and ore, and mine the coal, will be of American production ; the food they will eat will be grown on American soil ; the timber of the houses they will occupy will be cut from American forests ; the stones with which it will mingle will be quarried from American quarries ; and the tailor, shoemaker, and hat- ter, the teacher, preacher, and doctor, and all others whose services they will require, and whose presence will augment the population of the village, the town, or the city will be Americans, and depend for their supplies on American labor. And may I not ask whether the farmers of the country, in being relieved from colonial dependence, and having a steady market thus brought to their door — a market in which wheat from the banks of the Nile and the shores of the Baltic will never compete with and cheapen theirs — would not, though they paid more dollars per ton, find that they were buying their iron and steel i 1 P Tf PI' \ [ %': i ; - '5; V •ii'- w " : .fs; p. ■^ ^ lilH Ki i 1 jiiKi 9 1 1 79 PnOTECTION TO AMKUIC.VN LAHOU. < ■)' fi'i 'V clioapor if they gavo fewer bnsliela of wheat for it, and less frcMjueiitly consurncd their surplus crops as fuel or permitted them to rot in the field? lie does not buy most cheaply who pays least money for the artieles ho gets, hut he who gives the least percentage of his |iy, iiH I liiivo rtliowii, to rmml willi llicso her j>ea.Huiitry i-itlicr for war or civic piirposj's; Ixil unth-r iho inllucnuo of protuction thu value of man huti rinen in Uerniany, and tliat of (icriuan products fallen in tliu markets of iho world, till her cloths and the niullilarious product.) of her vli- versitiediniluslry conipulewiththo.-teol' KnglamlaJid Kranco ill the nuirketsof the United States, and other nations \vhn.so pcoplt! devote tluMii.selves to the proilnction of raw materials Kven Itiissia, with her thirty millions of recently fr»;e(l .^crl's. who enter upon the duties of I'reemen without dislurhaiiee, because the wi.so Kmperor who enlVanchi.sed them had .'secured etnploynient and wages for each by protecting the industry of all, is now entering into the general markets of the world in eom|)etition with France, (Jermany, llel- giuin, and Kngland. Hut we enter no foreign market with productions which attest our wealth, skill, genius, t)r enter- |)ri.se; and the prices of what we do export — grain, coarse provisions, and whisky — depend on such contingencies a.s drought, excessive rain, the j)otato rot, or otlier wide- spread calamity for a transatlantic market. When good crops prevail in Kurope there is no market there for us. Consistent with the experience of other nations has been our own. Under the tarills of 1824 and 1828 the prices of all those coiumodilies in the j)roductiou of which our people engaged to any extent fell rapidly. When the tarilV of 1812 went into clVect our country was (lomicd with liriti.«'- hardware of every variety, from a teniRMuiy nail to a circular !-e a greater unmber who must emigrate or die. These are getting off as fast as they possibly can to Massachusetts to find full occupation in cotton. Not one is cither pastoral or agricultural, and few are likely ever to be either. Irish- men and Scotchmen can be anything, but not so Englishmen, and they will not need to be anything in the world but what they have been. Their skill is too valuiible to be sent to the backwoods when abundance of rough hands are there alrciidy, and skilled men are needed to make a great country fit to manufacture fur itself. Till within the last four years our emigrants were chiefly pastoral and agricultural, iioio they are chiefly mining, mechanical, and manufacturing. It is to this that we feel it of such importance to call attention. Our position as a nation depends to a great extent, upon our usefulness to the world in a mechanical and manufacturing line. Commerce has its being in the fact that one nation is so situated that it excels in one thing, while another excels in another. It is in the exchange of produce that all trade lies, and such exchange clearly depends on the excelling we have mentioned. If this nation loses its excellence in manufacturing power, it loses its only possible share in the ex- change of the world, and its commerce dies. " We must also look at the ofi°ect of emigration on the character of the popu- lation left behind. How do the Emigration Commissioners account for the vast deficiencies in the population of Ireland? More than two million! and a half of deficiency was double the emigration, but it was accounted for by the fact thiit the young men and women had gone off to such a degree that marriages and births had fallen off sufficiently to account for all. ' The proportion of persons between the ages of twenty and thirty-five,' in the ordinary settled course of society, is about twenty-five per cent. — that proportion among emigrants is above fifty-two per cent. This is not the only matter of consideration at this point. Miss Rye, in a letter to the Times, eome months since, said : 'I will not, I dare not, spend my time in nassing bad people from one port to another.' And ' bad people ' cannot, as a ri .o, pass themselves; they have generally no incli- nation to do so. No doubt bad enough people go, but that is not the rule. We dare not now send our criminals abroad, nor dare we send our paupers, nor should we be allowed to send any class unfit to support themselves. It is the best of our mechanical and manttfacturing hands that ore now going, and they are leaving the proportion of those who burden society largely increased.' " — Kirk : Social Polities in Great Britain and Ireland, page 112. London and Qlasgow, 1870. * An export duty of 2 cents a pound on unmanufactured cotton, coupled with the free export of yarns and fabrics, would soon transfer the capital, skill, and machinery of Lancashire to our cotton growing States, in most of which exhaustlesi water-power runs to waste. 6 ^,-1. '^i n '■n i \ 'i'' i 82 PROTECTION TO AMERICAN LABOR. and the result would be that the men of the cotton States, no longer dependent on England for a market for their bulky- raw material, would, with their cheaper fabrics, drive her cotton goods from the markets of the world. Though I would not, by legislation, prohibit the export of the elements of any branch of manufacture or machinery, I will endeavor to retain in the country many of the ele- ments of manufactures that now go abroad, by making them more valuable in this country than in any other, and by impressing upon the American people the conviction, so long ago inculcated upon the people of Ireland by Dean Swift, that to enrich themselves they must " Carry out their otvn goods as much manufactured and bring in those of others as little manufactured as the nature of mutual com- merce will allow." To gratify our patriotic desires we need not resort to prohibitory duties. We can nationalize our policy by relieving from duty tea, coffee, and every raw material Avhich we do not produce, but which enters into our manu- factures or arts.* I would give the wool-growers protec- tion, but would stimulate the manufacture of carpets and increase the demand for American wool by admitting free of duty those low grades which we do not produce ; and would lay light duties on those articles in the manufiicture of which machinery has been perfected and large capitals have been accumulated, especially where the original cost of the machinery has been returned in profits; and would make them heavier and heaviest upon those branches of * American production, furnishing all National power, is to the country, its commerce, and trade, on a large scale, what the water-wheel and the steam en- gine are to mills and machinery on a small one — the prime mover. In the absence of this groat National prime mover, as it may be called, all motion, nay, even the life of the body politic itself must cease. As all of the people of the country must ultimately, directly or indirectly, live off of or from this production, so must all taxes, National, State, and local, be finally drawn from American producers, unless some portion of our taxation can be levied upon foreigners who seek our markets, and enjoy the advantages and profits thereof. Such being the case, it follows that the American producer has a right to demand that his Government shall levy duties on foreign imports, and in so doing shall levy them, first and foremost upon those commodities the like of which are produced in this country, for the following reasons : First. Because such commodities come in direct competition with the produc- tions of American producers who are obliged to pay National, State, and local taxes ; and to grant privileges to foreigners which are and must be withheld from ourselves would be a manifest and gross injustice on the part of the Govern- ment to its own people. Second. Inasmuch as these commodities are such as are produced in this coun- try, foreigners may be made to pay the duties thereon, as, having American competitors with whom they must compete, these duties must first be paid by them before they can place themselves in a position for such competition. If I , PROTECTION TO AMERICAN LABOR, 88 industry wliicli are most feeble but give assurance of ulti- mate success. When we do this our country will cease to be a mere agglomeration of sections, and we will be a national people, homogeneous in our interests by reason of their immense diversity. Such, sir, is my plan for enforcing the Monroe doctrine, acquiring Canada, paying the national debt, and by reliev- ing the South of its embarrassment, recementing the shattered Union. The poor whites must be weaned from the rifle, net, and line, by the inducements of well-re- warded labor. Their idle wives and children may thus be brought to habits of order, method, and industry, and in a few years we shall cease to remember that in this nine- teenth century, and under our republican Government, there were for several decades millions of people tending rapidly to barbarism. The same inducements will disclose, even to the eye of prejudice, the manhood of the freed man, and that kindly relation between the employer and his employe which exists throughout the busy North and East will spring up in the South. Oppressed and degraded as he has been, the colored man will find that there are fields open to his enterprise, and a useful and honorable career possible to him, and will prove that, like other men, he loves property and has the energy to acquire it, the ability to retain it, and the thrift to make it advan- tageous to himself, his neighbors, and his country. Let us then measure our resources by experiment and open them to the enterprise of the world ; and the ques- tion whether we owe three hundred or three thousand millions will, ten years hence, be one of trifling import- not made to pay these particular duties, there are no other taxes which they can, by any possibility, be made to pay in selling in our markets; and the heavily taxed American has an absolute right to demand that, enjoying the advantages and profits of these markets, foreigners shall take with them some of the many drawbacks and disadvantages which he himself is obliged to bear. Third. Because if these duties are in whole or in part levied upon productions the like of which we do not ourselves produce, and must or will have, they must ultimately and inevitably fall upon the shoulders of American producers, thus causing them to be again taxed, indeed almost encompassing them by a net- work of taxation, escape from which is impossible. Ilenoe we develop the grand and immutable principle: That the moral right of the Government to levy dntiea on articles the like of which are not produced in this country, only commences token it hai exhausted all the meiins of collecting duties on such articles as are produced in the country, or until it has reached a full measure of the burdens imposed upon American producers and still finds itself in need of revenue. Then, and then only, may it, consistently tcith the rights of Ameri- enn producers, resort to other sources of taxation, including duties on the importa- tion of commodities the like of which are not produced in the country. — TTie Right* lif American Producer*. By Henry Carey Baird, Philadelphia, 1870. 1 \V] 'ii '^•ilil li : !l i'^^ \ J ) ' . MB J ■un iliB 84 PROTECTION TO AMERICAN LABOR. ance ; and, as Andrew Yarrinton showed the people of Enghind how to "outdo the Dutch without fighting," we will find that peace hath her victories for us also ; Canada will come to us like ripe fruit falling into the hands of the farmer ; and if Maximilian remain in Mexico, it will be as the citizen of a republic and an adherent of the Monroe doctrine. 1^ TRADE WITH BRITISH AMERICA. Speech Delivered in the House of Representatives, March 7, 1866. The House, as in Committee of the Whole on the state of the Union, having under consideration the bill (H. 11. No. 3;}7) regulat- ing trade with the British North American possessions — Mr. Kelley said : Mr, Chairman: If I had made my remarks yesterday afternoon, I should have added another to the many illus- trations I have given this session of the mistake made by the gentleman from Illinois [Mr. WentworthJ when he said I never took less than an hour when I got the floor, for I am quite sure that twenty minutes would then have sufficed me. But I have had a night in which to examine tlie provisions of this bill and to reflect upon them, and I shall probably ask the attention of the House for a longer period this morning. I would have been satisfied yesterday with the amend- ment proposed V)y the distinguished gentleman from Mary- land [Mr. F. Thomas] with one or two others. To-day, however, this will not satisfy me. Sir, the bill should be rejected. It is false in principle and in detail, and will materially diminish the revenues of the country by sus- pending several important branches of our industry. As I conned its sections I became doubtful of its origin ; whether it was of British or American conception. There are many of its features which constrain me to think that it is of foreign and not of American origin. I point, gentle- men, to the ninth section. Its authors seem to have been oblivious to the fact that we are still living under demo- cratic-republican institutions, and have not yet fallen under a dictatorship. The ninth section confides the regulation of all the commerce that may grow up between the United States and the British Provinces to the absolute and unrestricted control of the President. Let me astound gentlemen who have not examined the bill by reading that portion of the section to which I refer : 85 X. 86 TRADE WITH BRITISH AMERICA. P ' ;i k " Src. 9. And be it further enacted, That the President is hereby authorized to terminate or suspend the provisions of this act, or any section or sections thereof, and as to the whole or part of the liritish North American colonies, by giving public notice of such termina- tion or suspension, whenever in his opinion it may appear just and proper, etc." Sir, such power may be exercised by the Emperor of Russia in regard to the commerce of his empire; but such power, regulating the trade of this country according to his caprice, has never been confided to the President of the United States, or will be while the American people remain free. Mr. Rogers. Will the gentleman allow me to ask him a question? Mr. Kelley. I would rather not now. The gentleman knows my time is limited. Mr. Rogers. I wanted to ask the gentleman from Penn- sylvania if this bill gives the President any more power than was proposed to be given to him by the Freedmen's Bureau bill? Mr. Kdley. I have no time for side issues now. I will answer that question some time when my distinguished friend has the floor and kindly yields to me. [Laughter.] Sir, this bill is of a piece with others now pending iDcforo the House. It is like the loan bill, which proposes to contract the business of the country to the narrow dimen- sions it filled before the war, and to give the Secretary of the Treasury, while he has an average balance of $40,000, 000 lying on deposit in the banks, the power to control the currency of the country by contracting or expanding it at his will. It is also in this respect like the postal bill, which, as an inducement to the people to buy their envel- opes from Government employes or contractors, proposes to give one free of cost to every man who buys a postage stamp. Sir, when I regard these features of the bill, I feel that its paternity may have been American, that it may have emanated from the Administration. But when I consider its provisions in reference to trade, and see how well they are calculated to prostrate many of the leading interests of the country ; the advantages it secures to foreign com- modities which compete with the productions of our laboring people; how it stimulates the development of the resources of the British Provinces, and induces emigration TRADE WITH BRITISH AMERICA. 87 to them, while it reatricts tlie development of our resources, and is calculated to divert immigration from our shores; when T see all this, I say, I feel that the Canadian ministry must have concocted this bill. Mr. Conkling. I would like to ask the gentleman from Pennsylvania a question pertinent to what he is now saying. Mr. Kellcy. I would rather not yield now, having just declined to yield to the gentleman from New Jersey [Mr. Rogers]. I know, Mr. Chairman, how hard it is to break away from habit, to escape from established u.sage ; and I re- member that for more than ten years, under the fraudu- lently named reciprocity treaty, we have had our habits, usages, and modes of thought controlled by the infamous provisions of that treaty ; and it maybe that this influ- ence has controlled the committee that presented the bill. But, sir, nothing is more certain than that had we never had that treatv we never would have had this bill; it is its legitimate offspring, and embodies many of the worst vices of its pfirent. Sir, what was that treaty ? It was conceived in iniquity and executed in sin. It was one of the master-strokes of policy of the sagacious and recklessly ambitious men who had even then determined to destroy our country. Its object was to enfeeble and impoverish the North, and to strengthen the Provinces of our most powerful enemy, which bound the whole line of our northern frontier. It was the result of a deliberate conspiracy, the first object of which was to give the American market to foreign manufacturers, by destroying every leading branch of American manufactures ; and the second was, when they had attained the first, to prostrate the grain-growers and ' provision-producers of the West and North, and thus re- duce the impoverished North to subjection to the slave- holding oligarchy of the South. Its ultimate purpose was to produce bankruptcy and discord in the North, that they might more easily accomplish their then purpose, which they expressed by open war in April 1861. In order that gentlemen may see that I speak by the record, I send to the Clerk's desk a volume bearing the imprint of Prichard, Abbott, & Loomis, Augusta, Georgia, 1860, and entitled " Cotton is King, and Pro-Slavery Argu- ments, comprising the Writings of Hammond, Harper, lifB f 1^^ i 88 TRADK WITH BRITISH AMKRICA. !! M. ill i |i ■I \m ii-U Christio, Stringfellow, Hodge, Bledsoe, and Cartwright, on this Imf >rt«iit Suhjoca, by K. N. Elliott, LL.D., president of PliinttM's' College, Mississippi, with an Essay on Slavery in the Light of International Law, by the Editor." Let one of these distinguished men inform the country whether I am correct in what I now say. The Clerk read, as follows: "Tlius also was a tripartite alliance formed by which the western farm*>r, tho Houthcrn pliintur, and thu Kiiglinh luuiiuractun-r bccuine nniti'd in a cuiiimoii bond of inturcat, the whole giving their support to tlic doctrine ol' free trade. "This active coniinerco between the West and Soutit soon ciiu-oed a rivalry in the Kiist, that pushed forward improvements by .States or corporations, to gain a share in the western trade. Tiiese im- provements, as completed, gave to the West a choice of markets, so that ilH farmers could elect whether to feed the slave who grows the cotton or thu operatives who are engaged in its manufacture. But this rivalry did more. The competition for western products en- hanced their price and stimulated tlieir more extended cultivation. 'I'his required an enlargement of the markets, and the extension of slavery became es.senfial to western prosperity. " We iiave not reached the end of the alliance between the west- ern farmer and southern planter. The emigration which has been filling Iowa and jMinnusota, and is now rolling like a flood into Kan- sas and Nebraska, is but a repetition of what has occurred in the other western States and Territories. Agricultural pursuits are highly remunerative; and tens of thousands of men of moderate means or of no means are cheered along to where none forbids them laud to till. " For the last few years public improvements hav called for vastly more than the usua! share of labor and augment id the con- suMiption of provisions. The foreign demand added to his has in- creased their price beyond what the planter can afford U pay. For many years free lalior and slave labor maintained an efen race in their western progress. Of late the freemen have begun to lag be- hind, while slavery has advanced by several degrees of longitude. Free laliiir must be made to keep pace with it. There is an urgent necessity for this. The demand tor cotton is increasing in a ratio greater than can be supplied by the American planters, unless by a corresponding increased production. This increasing demand must be met, or its cultivation will be facilitated elsewhere, and the mon- opoly of the planter in the Kuropean markets be interrupted. This can only be effected by concentrating the greatest possible number- of slaves upon the cotton plantations. Hence they must be sup- plied with provisions. " This is the present aspect of the provision question, as it regards slavery extension. Prices are approximating the maximum point, beyond which our provisions cannot be fed to slaves, unless there is a corresponding increase in the price of cotton. Such a result was not anticipated by Southern statesmen when they had succeeded in overthrowing the protective policy, destroying the United States Bank, and establishing the sub-Treasury system. And why has this TRADE WITH BRITISH AMERICA. 89 occurrpil ? The mines of Culiroriiiu prevented both the frce-trudo tarill' (the turifT of 1846, under which our exports uro now iimde, unproMliiiuteH llie fret'-trude principles very closely) und the Htib- 'I reuHiiry scheme I'rom exhuiiHtinv the country of the precious metulM, extingui»hinK' the circulation of bunk notes, nnd reducint< the prices ol u^'ricultural products to tlie specie value. At the date of the puHHuge of the Neltruska bill, tite multiplication of pro- visiohs by their more extended cultivation was ttiu only measure li>fl tliut could produce a reduction of prices and meet the wants of the planters. The ('uiiudian reciprocity treaty, since secured, will briii^' the products of the liritish North American colonies, free of duty, into competition with those of the Uniltd States when prices with us rule high, and tend to diminish their cost." Mr. Kclley. Mr. CImirman, as tho bill before the IIou.se has, in inv judginoiit, uli tho vioo.s of that treaty, I shall propose the following a.s a substitute for it. The Clerk read, as tbllows : "Strike out all after tho ennctinfr clause and insert as follows : "That from und alter the 17th of March. 18(56, there shall be levied, collected, and paid on all articles imported from her liritunnic Majesty's possessions in North America, that is to say, from Can- ada, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland. Prince Kdward's Island, and the several islands thereunto adjacent, Hudson's Bay 'IVr- ritory, British ('olumbia. and Vancouver's Island, tho same duties and rates of duties which are now imp'o.sed by law on like articles imported from other foreign countries." }fr. Kdky. I am not prepart-d to say that my substi- tute contains all tlie provisions it should ; tlmt it may not be amended with advantage; but I do say that it i.s infi- nitely preferable, for every leading interest of the country, to the bill now under consideration. Why should we have a special tariff' law for the British Pfovinees? What have they done to win our love? Why should we sacrifice our interests to protect or ad- vance theirs? The gentleman from Vermont [^fr. Morrill] said in the course of his remarks that we should not base our action on hatred or fear. I do not propose to base any of my acts in this House upon any of the passions. I mean to be governed by cool judgment. But, sir, I remember that when we were in a death grap- ple with our insane brethren of the South, the people of these Provinces smote us first on one cheek and then on the other ; and I know, sir, if we were prepared to for- give them seven times seventy, their transgressions against \ i nn 4 \, ' 90 TKADB WITH UKITISII AMERICA. Ill •I'' i.M US had exceedeil that number before they organized a raiding party and .sent it into the goiitleman'H own State to rob the banks and niurdur the citizens who atleinptcd to defond tliutn. Backed as they are by tlio power of Englnnd, they are our most dangerous enemies, because they are our nearest ; and I do not fhid it laid di)wn even in tiie Christian code of morals that we shall injure our- selves and impoverish our families and country to benefit those who would have disseminated poison among us, who would have burned our cities and towns, and who did all that the devilish ingenuity of the madmen of the South could suggest to injure us and destroy our country. They are foreigners to our soil, and let ua regard them as we do the people of other countries, as friends in peace and enemies in war. Let us legislate for them, as the substitute I have submitted proposes to do, precisely as wo do for the rest of mankind. I can understand, sir, in the light of the invaluable book from which I have had an extract read, and to w hich I have so often referred in previous discussions, why every provision of the so-called reciprocity treaty was adverse to our country. Both par- ties to it meant niischief to us. But I cannot understand why a bill should be reported by the Committee of Ways and. Means containing so many of its worst features, and which if adopted, would inevitably strike down several of the principal or leading interests of our country. It might well be entitled a bill to destroy the fisheries, salt-works, and lumber trade of the country, and to prevent the work- ing of bituminous coal-beds within the limits of the United States, east of the summit of the Alleghanies. Should it become a law it will ruin all these great branches of industry. The gentleman from Vermont, in introducing the bill, said with great plausibility — more plausibility than can- dor, I am sorry to say : " (Joal is a raw material, and for every ton of iron made at least three tons of bituminous or two of anthracite coal are consumed. It is the motive power of railroads and steamboats as well as of manufacturing establishments. We tax iron and all other manu- factures when produced and sold, and we tax railroads and steam- boats on their business. Can we not afford to have our coal free ? It is, too, an article of universal consumption, required in our rigor- ous climate in large quantities by those unable to clothe theraselvea in heavy and abundant woolens or thick and costly furs ; by the poor as well as the rich. There are hardly more reasons for a tax i TRADE WITH BRITISH AMERICA. 91 on coal than tipon flrewoor the sale or carrving of bituminous coal from Ohio, V'trginia, or PennsyL mia. to the Canadas. I admit that thci-e may be special carun-s ship[)ed for gas companies in some extreme western j>arts of Canada, but that does not touch the argument. But while T admit tlie fact, for the argument's sake, I musts.iy that I do not believe it, for I do not see how it can l)e true. *'rilo fulliioy <'f 'li" llioory ttiiit (iiml "is oiio of thug • iirticli's tlmt cnii- nni)iitiii<>(i l>y a iniirkcil doolino in price of tlii- iMiporlo per ton upon it wiii| ruvivud by thu uxpiriition uf tho Ueoiprooity Trenly in Mareh, 18(5(5: Hdino I'nHliiotliin of nitniiiir.oiia lVli-« uf ricloii rN. 8.) Yoitr, Colli for conniiiiiiilion on tlio Cniil i».247 S».(5lt 1S(1(5 ,MS'.»,'.t.t2 8.5» ia«7 2,788.1113 8.10 18(58 ;5,;tll«.(!.^5 8.16 18iiU 4,-':5:t.tt80 7.78 Kiitn of l)»ty. , Free , Free , Free ,#1.25 , 1.25 , l.V'5 , 1.25 i 1870... .4,168,476 6.60 1.26 li,.i:! TRADE WITH BRITISH AMERICA. 93 The gentlerriiui from Vermont says the production of coal cannot be increasetl. Allow me to say tiiat I am speakint^ for no Pei.n:ied, war trampled Virginia, for Maryland, West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Mis- souri, Georgia, and all the southern States. They all need i our fostering care, and have inexhaustible beds of bitumi- nous coa! that ought to be productive. I am not willin;ij , that the rebellious people of the South shall become my ! politl'iai master or equal in the councils of the nation until they are pi)litically regenerated. But I desire to develop their luitural resources, to induce capitalists, laborers, and men of enterprise to go and .settle among them, and build up industrious iiud peaceful Comnionwealths in the hearts of whose people loyalty to the Union shall dwell. It is in these interests that I speak. The bituminous coal interest of eastern Pennsylvania is comparatively unimportant; but we have the only paying bituminous coal company east of the summit of the Alleghany mountains. Thirty odd millions of capital have already been invested outside of my State in this branch of the coal trudr . Thirty millions more have been invested in railroads to convey the coal from the mines to nuirket, and thougl: it is all unproductive, or nearly so, the owners do not aband.">n it as lost. They hope that Congress, impelled by a sense of justice, or the pride of American citizenship, will protect them against the assaults of British capital and ill-paid labor. They have waited in hope for the day when the infamous treaty which blasted their prospects should be annulled and they bo permitted to enjoy equal chances with for- eigners in our own markets. Give them but an even chance, burdened as they are by our war taxes, and all these dead millions will become productive. I challenge any mem- ber of the House to name another bituminous coal com- pany than the Westmoreland Company that has paid or earned a dividend in the last three years on the eastern slope of the mountains. Give them protection equal to the taxes, direct and incidental, which you impose upon them, and you will find that instead of the product of 1807 being but two million tons, as it was last year, its increase will show that we can produce ninety-five million tons, as Kng- land did in that same year. Our fields are broader and richer than hers and those of Nova Scotia combined. They are scattered from the mountain above the clouds, on the !-^t i.l ■II H TRADE WITH BRITISH AMERICA. brows of which Hooker and his brave comrades fought, eastward, northward, southward and westward all over the country. Give our miners but that measure of protection, wliicli, under the weight of taxation they bear, will secure an equal chance in our markets, and they will give you an adequate supply of coal, and in two or three years domes- tic competition, ,vhile it will by patronizing your railroads and carrying companies have filled your Treasury and ena- bled you to reduce your scale of taxation, will bring down the price of coal in all our markets. Pennsylvania, I repeat, has no special interest in this question. Her interest is that the general prosperity of the country shall be promoted. We want you manufac- turers of New England to clothe the men who dig and handle our coal; we want you men of the Northwest to feed the men who dig and handle our coal; and Pennsyl- vania will rejoice in her share of the general prosperity which will then bless our country. Sir, I turn to the fortieth page of the letter of the Secre- tary of the Treasury, embodying the report of the revenue commissioners, and find that in the fiscal year 1865 there were imported, under the reciprocity treaty, 13,025,432 bushels, being 465,194 tons of bituminous coal, free of duty, from the British Provinces. There were imported in the same year, paying a duty of $1 25 a ton, 6,l;il,608 bushels, being 218,986 tons, from England. There were exported of domestic production, which, as I have said, was all or nearly all anthracite, 3,708,264 bushels, and there were <.. '.ported of foreign production 25,586 bushels, making nearly 1000 tons. Sir, will it be said that the vast coal-beds of this coun- try cannot supply our wants, and that we cannot increase our production? Or will any gentleman say that a duty of fifty cents is enough to protect these embarrassed but important interests? I ask gentlemen to mark the fact, that though 465,194 tons came in under the reciprocity treaty, free of duty, from her Provinces, England was still able to send in, and pay $1 25 duty per ton, the enormous amount of 218,986 tons. Is it not apparent from these facts that we will bankrupt every bituminous coal com- pany in the country if we pass this bill ? Do gentlemen say our demands in this behalf are exor- bitant, or ask why our coal cannot be sold cheaply as that of England and the Provinces ? I answer them in part by TRADE WITH BRITISH AMERICA. 95 another question, whicli is, do they wish the American miner to toil for the wages given to laborers in English collieries? Sir, the heartlessness of the capitalists of En- gland was never more fully exposed than by the report of the parliamentary commission appointed to inquire into the condition of the mining population of the country.* England's shame is nowhere written in broader or darker colors than in that report, and I will not permit myself to believe that any member of this House is anxious that we should emulate that page of her history. Our bettor wages for labor and our heavy war taxes answer the suggestion thrown out. How much P]iigland and her American Provinces did to protract and aggravate the war is known to all, and I am not willing they sliould derive advantage from their treachery. On this subject I quote a few lines of a letter from an intelligent coal operator : " It is almost impossible to compute precisely the amount of revenue that Government reaps from a ton of bituminous coul, but the fairest way to get at it will be to taiie the cost of putting the article on board a vessel before the war, (or in 18G0,) $3 .50 per ton, as compared with the present cost, seven dollars per ton. milking an increase in the actual cost of $3 .50 per ton. This increase is in the main occasioned by the taxes which have been levied in order to support the Government, (which we pay cheerfully ;) and tiu y touch every article of provisions and repairs about the mines and railroads, as well as the two and a half per cent, upon the gross rate of trans- portation and five per cent, upon the net earnings of the carrying companies, which, when all summed together, amount to very nearly if not quite three dollars per ton." Sir, we are in a transition age; and here I reply fur- ther to the remark of the gentleman from Vermont that coal ought not to be protected. We are in a transition age in more senses than one. We are passing from v/ar to peace and from the age of iron to the age of steel. In a few years, if we foster our industry, steel will supplant iron in almost all the uses to which it is lOW !ipi)lied. Sir, coal and iron are the muscles of modern civilization; and fire — ignited coal — is the material force that is impel- ling us onward and upward. Had tlie southern States had equal mastery with us of these elements, I doubt wliether we would yet have made conquest over them. I query * " Though Engliind is deafened with spinning-wheels, her people have not clothes; though she is blnck with digging of fuel, they die of uold;" and though she has sold her suul for grain, they die of hunger." — liutkin. 1 M;*i' j~'..' J i1? 96 TRADE WITU BRITISH AMERICA. I- U;j'}i fl •• i ! . , |(1> : whether the result might not have been otherwise than it was. What were Vulcan and the Cyclops to an American mechanic handling a steam engine or a trip-hammer ? We live in a new age. Old mythologies and traditions serve but to hamper us. We must adapt ourselves to tiie agencies by which we are surrounded and the exigencies in which we are involved. Sir, when the consular wreath first graced the brow of Napoleon he had only conquered Italy, which in the somewhat boastful language of the historian, extended "from the Alps to the Papal dominions." And what had he done ? Why, sir, all that Italy which he had conquered, could it be lifted bodily, could be set down comfortably within the limits of the State of Maine or of South Caro- lina, lie had never then commanded so many men as Burnside marched through the city of Washington when taking his single corps to swell the grand army of Lieu- tenant General Grant in the Wilderness. How was it that we could move such masses of men, fight this war over the broadest theatre of international or civil war known to history, and conclude it in little more than four years? It was because we used coal and iron as our muscles, and fire — ignited coal — as our force. These gave us New Or- leans, and battered down Fort Fisher. And I may add that, hud there been a well-stocked railroad from Mos- cow to the Khine, Napoleon's retreat would have been marked by fewer horrors, and the history of the nine- teenth century would not probably have read as it does. And if the chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means desires to secure us a respectable position among the nations, he will not strike down, disparage, or neglect the coal and iron interests of the country, to subserve any interest of his State, or section. They are the primordial elements of our greatness, and should be cherished above ,all others. Look at their power. Behold a woman with an iron machine moving noiselessly before her; it is im- pelled by coal and iron fashioned into an engine, and is doing more work in one day than one hundred such women could have done in a week one century ago. Or see yonder pallid little girl attending such a machine ; she will produce results in one day that would have taxed the industry of her grandmother for years. The power of these delicate people is not superhuman; it is coal and iron that produce these more than magical results. TRADE WITH BRITISH AMERICA. 97 The gentleman doubts whether the production of coal can or should be stimulated, and is willing we should depend or. our most powerful and our nearest enemies tor this elemental substance. The country will not respond to such purblind patriotism. And the passage of this bill will reduce us to such abject dependence. In eleven months of 18d5 — 1 do not go back to 1864, but take the first eleven months of 1865, of last year — sixty-six per cent, of the bituminous coal consumed in tlie Slates east of Pennsylvania was mined by the laborers of Britain or of the British Provinces. Let me prove this. The amount of bituminous coal received at Boston and New York from the British Provinces, free of duty, to the 1st of December, 18h5, was 392,158 tons. The amount of English coal received at the same points during the same period, which paid a tax of $1 25 per ton, was 108,- 723 ; total foreign coal, 495,891 tons. The amount of coal produced in the United States, delivered during the same period at the same points, was but 287,874 tons; balance in favor of foreign coal, 208, 874 tons — one coal company in the British Provinces declaring dividends of one hun- dred and seventy-five per cent, in a year, and but one of the hundreds of companies in our country being able to de- clare a dividend of one per Cfnt., making a contrasts© unfa- vorable to us that many of our e?iterprising people, as was shown yesterday by the gentleman from Maryland, [Mr. F. Thomas,] abandoned their country and embarked their capital in the coal regions of Nova Scotia. Can we .strengthen our country by exporting enterprise, industry, and capital ? And is it not marvelous that such an exhibit against us can be made, in view of the facts that our bituminous coal- fields are so much broader and richer than those of En- gland and Nova Scotia combined, and that we depend for the support of our Government and its credit upon taxes derived in great part from the forge, the furnace, tlie foun- dery, the railroad, the machine shop, the coal-bed, and iron mine? Are gentlemen willing to perpetuate the malign influence that has produced a state of facts so disparaging to our intelligence, patriotism, and interests? No; I be- lieve they will agree with me that the time has arrived when we should develop our own resources, foster Ameri- can labor, and guard our own interests. One effect of the reciprocity treaty has been to send to Canada one million I I i.i.' ..J 't ' lini ■ '>\m 111': ' ,: f .'] i i - 1 1 i in' .1 ■ • ^i ' lii 98 TRADE WITH BRITISH AMKRICA. five hundred tliousand immigrants who, but for the .advan- tages it gave the Provinues over us, would have swelled our population. Let us now, by taking care of our own people, induce them to come and share our burdens and blessings* Sir, I have said that I would not legislate with reference to the Provinces under the influence of fear or hate. It would indeed be unwise, for these people will yet be our countrymen. When British free trade, by preventing the people of the British Provinces from diversifying their in- dustries, shall have impoverished their soil and repelled im- migration from their shores ; when that system of trade which keeps those upon whom it is inflicted at hard labor in the production of white crops, has impoverished their fields as it has those of our old States, and reduced them to oft-recurring bankruptcy, as it inevitably must ; and when adequate protection to our labor shall have developed our boundless resources, and generous wages invited to our shores the skilled laborers of the world, the contrast be- tv/een our condition and that of the people of the Provin- ces will impel them to unite their destiny with ours, and I will be ready to greet them cordially as compatriots. Sir, what do we get in return for the immeasurable de- gradation proposed by this bill ? Why, sir, we get the right to navigate the St. Lawrenoe and to patronize the canals and railroads of Canada, and the right to cut lumber — mark you, " the right to cut lumber or timber of any kind on that portion of the American territory in the State of Maine watered by the river St. John and its tributaries, and when floated down that river to the sea to ship the same to the United States from the Province of New Brunswick without any export duty or other duty." I take it, sir, that these rights Avill not be long withheld from us, even if we determine to give the American miner a fair field in which to compete with those of England and her Provinces. Let me pause for a moment to say to the gentleman that his statement of the amount of coal imported and exported is more plausible than candid in a respect not yet noticed. It is appraised at ad valorem prices, which are specie prices in the land from which it is exported ; while ours is calculated at currency prices. This fact must ''^ Since the repeal of the Reciprocity Treaty, there has been a large annual Immigration of Canadians to the United States. TRADE WITH BRITISH AMERICA. •9 be borne in mind in making the calculations of relative quantities. But to resume and conclude. Sir, to get these rights we give precisely the same rights in larger degree and with greater advantage to the British colonists. We will there- fore get them without this bill. I do not wish to acquire them by force. I am anxious to see them granted recipro- cally by our country and the Provinces ; but not as this bill does it. It can be done by treaty or by act of Congress ; but be that as it may, do not let us agree to destroy the fisheries of New England, the salt-works of West Virginia, Michi- gan, and Louisiana, the lumber business of the Northwest and of Maine, and the bituminous coal-works of the whole country, as the price of the privilege of yielding more specifically and in kind than we get. No, sir; let us maintain our rights, our interests, and our country's dignity. Let us go on our way as though there were no British Provinces; and the mere action of British legislation, constraining their people, as I have already said, to unrequited agricultural labor, will make them sigh for our prosperity. And then we shall find that the American Constitution is as elastic as it is grand and enduring. It has expanded to embrace immense tracts of territory. Our flag has swept from the limits of the ori- ginal thirteen States to the Pacific, and southward to the Kio Grande ; and, sir, when the people of Canada shall, as they will if we protect our labor, ask to unite their destin- ies with ours, the world will receive additional proof that when Providence impelled our fathers to the creation of our Government, it gave them the wisdom to bless us with a Constitution which is the fit canopy of a continent, and will yet crown one. •1 I ■ ! . i i 1 „ ' J ,1 1 1 . i t ■■■f 1 i;i!) it- l<:lll! S 1 * i 11 V ». mm lis hh hi \ 11 '^ ';l! ■ ' HOW AND WHEN OUR WAR DEBT CAN BE PAID. Speech Delivered in the House of Representatives, January 3, 1867. The Honse being in the Committee of the Whole on the state of the Union — Mr. Kelky said : Mr. Chairman: Within an hour of the opening of the present session I introduced the following resolution, which was adopted without dissent: " That the Committee of Ways and Means be instructed to in- quire into the expediency of immediately repealing the provisions of the internal revenue law whereby a tax of five per cent, is im- posed on the products of the mechanical and manufacturing indus- try of the country." On the succeeding Monday, having in the meantime examined the report of the Secretary of the Treasury, I submitted the following : " Rexolved. That the proposition that the war debt of the country should he extinguished by the generation that contracted it is not sanctioned by sound principles of national economy, and does not meet the approval of this House." I hoped that this resolution would also receive the im- mediate assent of the House, but it was thought proper to refer it ttj the Committeti of Ways and Means. I am, how- ever, not without an assured hope that with the sanction of that committee it will at an early day meet the approval of the House and relieve the country Irom the profound anxiety and depression created by the unprecedented pro- positions of the Secretary. With these resolutions in view I propose, Mr. Chairman, to detain the committee for a little while by an examination of that budget of inapti- tudes, incongruities, and non se.quiturs — the report of the Secretary of the Treasury. 100 HOW OUR WAR DEBT CAN BE PAID. 101 Tins report is indeed a noticeable document. It abounds in pli ruses and propositions of doubtful meaning; its ab- stract, propositions, many of which as mere abstractions are true, and should be considered by the founder of » new and independent community, are not only inapplica- ble to, but are contravened by the inexorable peculiari- ^lies of our condition ; its abounding facts do not sustain hut with emphasis gainsay the conclusions they are mar- shaled to support ; and the means by which it proposes to 1 return to specie payments and extinguish the national debt within given periods would, by virtue of laws as fixed as that of gravitation, produce bankruptcy, indi- vidual, corporate. State, and national, and postpone the per- manent resumption of specie payments for a quarter of a century. There is nothing in this report to gratify one's national pride. As we read it we seek excuses for its author, and hope we may be able to say for him that he confided its preparation to a subordinate who dealt un- fairly by him. It may, however, be that Mr. McCulloch, like an oarsman, rowed one way and looked another, and was too modest to announce his real purpose. He may have improved the occasion to repair a neglect in the edu- cation of the people ; for Eev. Mr. Nasby tells us that the SecreUiry was present at the Cabinet meeting convened to consider the "onparallelled loosenin uv the Nashnel- UnionJohnson-Dimekratio party in the various States wich held elections on the 9th uv October last," and that he attributed it " to the limited knowledge the masses hed uv 'Ingeany bankin.'" But, be this as it may, I am sure the country will sustain the assertion that whatever com- mendation the report may deserve or receive from "In- geany " or other bankers, it is marked by no sugges- tion adapted to the existing exigencies of our country. The Secretary's wisdom is that of a man owning a thousand fertile acres, who by the aid of a loan on mort- gage had fenced them in and built barns and all requisite outbuildings, and gathered live stock and the many im- plements by which genius has lightened the labors and increased the profits of the farmer, and who withal had able-bodied sons to share his labors, and was by aid of these accumulating a fund with which in a few years he co'^-1 extinguish his indebtedness; but who when afire consi. u'u his barns and implements and choice stock, would not use his savings to renew bis stock and imple- 1< ,u\ 'ii I'' iiUU .: I ifi '•-■■. i-j t i 102 HOW OUB WAR DEBT CAN BE PA1I>. ?f ins I " ■ M mcnts, but though hia creditor waa not anxious for bin money, would sell hia interest-bearing bonds and hand over the proceeds, his working capital, as part payment of the mortgage debt. lie who under such circumstances would come to such a conclusion and execute it, would find but little sympathy among his neighbors. Eager as they might bo tu repair his losses, they would not be likely to make him county treasurer or confide the township funds to his administra- tion. They would probably deem him inadequate to the management of his own property, and feel that their neighborhood was well rid of one who could thus stupidly sacrifice his resources and doom hia sons to idleness or to earn laborers' wages on the land of strangers. Yet, dis- avowing all disposition to exaggeration or caricature, I present such an one as the prototype of our Finance Minister, as he discloses himself in this report. Witness the exultation with which he announces that during the brief period of fourteen months, namely, from August 31st, 1365, to October 31st, 1866, the principal of our debt was reduced $206,879,565,71. I wonder whether in his exultation Mr. McCulloch remembered that this immense sum of more than $206,000,000 had been added to the cost and market price of the product of but four- teen months of American labor, and that by its addition to the cost and price of our home productions those of the underpaid labor of Europe had been given the advan- tage over the American laborer, in our own markets and those of the world. I wonder whether in his pride he perceived that he was announcing the needless abstraction of more than two hundred and six millions of active working capital from the business men of this country, many of whom were struggling to maintain infant indus- tries which had been called into existence by the war and needed the fostering care of the Government to give them prosperity and permanence. Unfamiliar as he appears to be with the laws of social science and the history of their development, it is possible that he did not know the ad- vantage he was giving to British monopoly over compet- ing American enterprise and industry by recommending the continuance of the excessive taxation which enabled him to pay those hundreds of millions. England is the foe of the laborer in every land. To maintain her mono- poly she must undersell other nations in their own mar- HOW OUR WAR DEBT CAN BE PAID. 103 I'l" 1,1 i J, LJ IL kcta, and to oflfcct tliia must depress the wages of labor to the lowost possible point and use shoddy or otlier base materiul whenever it can be done without immediate de- tection. Her capitalists are, wo are assured, accumulating .£100,000,000 or $500,000,000 surplus capital per aimutn ; and I'or more than a century it lias been their policy to apply a portion of this surplus to the destruction of the industries of other nations by underselling them, thouj^h for a time it involved loss on certain kinds of goods. Wo have often been the victims of this unscrupulous policy, and if the suggestions of the Secretary prevail it will again prostrate u.s. The war of 1812 developed our productive power very considerably ; but in two years after the war closed the capitalists of England, by the express advice of her lead- ing statesmen, and in pursuance of a deliberate combina- tion, swept our young manufactures out of existence. In the course of a speech in Parliament in 1815, Henry Brougham, exulting over our wide-spread bankruptcy, said : " It is well worth while to incur a loss upon the first exportation, in order by the glut to stifle in the cradle those rising inunufuctures in the United States which the wur has forced into existence." History, so far as that chapter is concerned, is repeating itself, and our market is glutted with British woolen goods which until our factories shall discharge their work-peo- ple and suspend operations will be sold at less than cost. The assessment of extraordinary taxes for the extinguish- ment of the war debt while such a contest is waging will make the viccory of our enemy an easy one.* The policy is suicidal, and will prove fatal to our revenues by paraly- * English manufacturers iiro beginning to discover that the internal tuxes to which free trnde subjects ihem, operate as a bonus to their foreign competitors. Wni. Iloyle, iv cotton manufacturer, recently published a work entitled, Our jV(t- tioiitil JlenoHrces, mid Iloto Ihe;/ are Wimled. It ran quickly to a fourth edition, on the 88th page of which I find the following : " I have often heard it stated, and there is considerable truth in the statement, that, owing to the heavy local taxation in Manchester, and other large towns, spinners and manufacturers find it impossible to compete with country mills, where the taxation is lighter; and hence it is observed that, whilst no new mills are being built in Manchester, old ones are being stopped, and the trade is grad- ually shifting to more lightly taxed regions. " What is true of different districts in the same country, is equally true of dif- ferent countries ; the rates which a manufacturer has to pay must come out of trade profits, which makes the production of goods more expensive; and, conse- quently, other things being equal, if a large tnill is taxed at the rate of £500 per annum in this country, but only £100 on the Continent, the Continental manu- faoturer has the advantage of £400 per annum over his English competitor.' .!M il.'! ^ 'i ift 104 HOW OUR WAR DRBT CAN BE PAID. zing tlio productive power of the country uiid diminish- ing the fthility of th(5 people to consume eitiior dutiable or taxiihle commodities. This is not the hmgunge of dochitnution. It hns high ofticial saiujtion, among which is that of the revenue commission appointed by the Secre- tary iiimsolf, as appears by tiie following extract embodied in the last annual report of the aeoretary of the National Association of Wool-Growers. Before presenting this extract T should remark that the tax on manufactures has been reduced from six to (ive pvT eejit. since the preparation of the official reports to which it refers : "The internal revenue tax paid in tlie year 1865 upon ' woolen ful>ricH and ull manufucturoH of wool ' amountt-d to $7,947,0oii);ht for in such a ri'viHion of tlie pre- Heiit intcriii)! revenue HyHtem ao will look to an entire exemption of the umnulaeturinff intfuatr/ of the United .States from all direct tiixalion (diHtilied and fermented liciuors, tobacco, and possil)ly a few other articlcH excepted). This tne commissioners are unhesi- tatingly prepared to recommend." * The.so grave considerations, though specially reported to him by his own agent.s, do jiot seem to have attracted the attention of Mr. McCulloch; for while exulting over tho rapid payment of tho debt, without seeming to detect the cause of tho popular emotion, he says : "Nothing in our history has created so much surprise, both at home and abroad, as the reduction of our national debt. The won- der excited by the rapidity with which it was created is exceeded by the admiration of the resolution of the tax-payers themselves that it shall be speedily extinguished." It is true, Mr. Chairman, that surprise and wonder agi- tate the practical men of the country. These emotions are not, however, excited by the fact that we were able to bear extraordinary taxation while the development of our ■' ' [) : * While in England Mr. Wells saw roiison to abandon this view. Iliii Inst report nz Special Commissioner of Revenue wns mude in December 1S6!). Our internal taxes abstracted from the people that year $186,2^5,867. Did ho rcc(i'nu:cnd their exemption from this grievous burden, or any consider- ablu portion of if ? Let him speak for himself. While admitting that the sur- |ilu8 uf tho preceding year had been $124,01)0,000, and that of the current year would be iD'Jch larger, he said : " Allowing, then, for the extreme possible loss under incomes, tho amount of taxation above proposed to be remitted to the people, i)i coimderntion of the prem-iil Invqe and \ucrea»ing lurptui of receipli over expenditurei, would be in the neighliorhood of $26,000,000." Ho would retain not only $150,000,000, or 175,000,000 of internal taxes, but propoiicd in connection therewith a schedule of tariff by which not less than $82,500,000 should be lyiised from tea, coffee and other imported articles of food and drink. By what potent logic iiad he been persuaded to abandon often-expressed opinions, and assert that the true way to stimulate development was to paralyze industry by excessive taxation on the food of the laborer and the productions of his toil ? k^ t 1 n i.; i !i ■ • li • H L H^ iir,t i- '■ !''; 1 li 106 HOW OUR WAR DEBT CAN BE PAID. fi*.. boundless productive power was stimulated by the exi- gencies of the war, and our own market was secured to our own producers by the difference between our lawful currency and gold, in which payment of duties on imports was required. The taxes under which those hundreds of millions accumulated were assessed while war was raging and for war purposes, and could have been borne as long as the conditions I have indicated were maintained. Wise men know this, and that the war terminated abruptly and earlier than was expected, and do not hold the Secretary accountable for the results of this contingency. No mat- ter what sacrifices it involved, the people woi'ld have cheerfully borne them rather than yield the questions put at issue by the war. But these questions have been hap- pily settled by war's arbitrament. Peace is restored, our currency approximates the specie standard, and it is dis- covered that by aid of our inordinate internal taxes for- eign manufacturers are monopolizing our home market. Our publishers buy their paper and print and bind their books in England or Belgium ; our umbrella-makers have transferred their workshops to English towns ; our woolen and worsted mills are closed or closing, and the laborers in these branches are not only wasting their capital, winch consists in their skill and industry, but drawing from the savings-banks or selling the Government bonds in which they had invested their small accumulations to maintain their families during the winter; and our enlarged impor- tations of foreign goods are swelling the balance of trade against us and preparing us for general bankruptcy. The surprise of which Mr, McCulloch speaks is excited by the fact that in view of this condition of things tlie Secretary of the Treasury should urge the maintenance of extra- ordinary taxes sufficient to enable him to apply not less than $50,000,000 per annum to the extinguishment of our debt by the rapid absorption of the only portion of it which bears no interest.* Wonder amounting almost to awe does possess our people, but it is excited as v.\as that of the unsophisticated sailor who, in the midst of an exhibition of magical illusions, was blown into the air by the accidental explosion of powder, and in his damaged condition wondered what, would come next in the order of exercises. * Mr. McCulloch's proposition was to maintain all existing taxes in order to oontraot the currency by cancelling $50,000,000 of greenbacks annually. k- HOW OUR WAR DEBT CAN BE PAID. 107 That the tax-payers have resolved that the principal of our debt "shall be speedily extinguished" I deny. They regard the attempt as Quixotic, as destructive of our in- dustrial interests, and beneficial only to money-lenders, speculators in Government securities, and foreign manu- facturers. Sir, if the Secretary is accessible to the voice of remonstrance he must by this time be satisfied that there is no tax-payer in the country who is not engaged in im- porting foreign goods or shaving notes, or who, having bought bonds at low rates in a depreciated currency, hopes to have them redeemed at an early day in specie, who does not dissent from the assessment of extraordi- nary taxes for the extinguishment by the generation which created it, of a debt, the security of which is un- doubted and which was incurred for the benefit of pos- terity. The opinion of the people on this question is modestly expressed by the editor of the ablest and most instructive of our industrial journals, the Iron Age. He says : " We are glad to see that a resolution for the entire removal of the manufacturers' tax of five per cent, has been introduced, and hope it will be adopted. As an independent proposition, outside of any other amendment of the tax or tariff laws, this will commend itself to the good sense of the country as one so manifestly just that we should expect there would be a very general expression of public feeling in its favor. All classes can heartily unite in this effort to untrammel the industry of the country and to cheapen production. The free-trader and protectionist can at least here agree ; the workman is quite as directly interested in this matter as the employer, for the effect of the tax is only to restrict the demand for the products of his labor. As a war necessity we cheerfully accepted this burden which the manufacturers of the country have borne with such uncomplaining loyalty ; but now that the necessity is past, and that the national exchequer is in such a condition that it can easily and safely dispense with the revenue it produced, we think we are entitled, on behalf of manufacturers and their workmen, to demand its repeal. England, with all her load of taxes, has no such impost as this ; her uniform policy is in every way possible to cheapen the production of her wares, and in the unequal contest which we are called to wage with her it is in the last degree unwise to put ourselves under this additional and unnecessary disability." Sir, this generation embraces the widows, orphans, and maimed soldiers of , the contending parties in a civil war, each of which parties had armies numbering more than a million men in the field. They at least are in no condi- tion to welcome excessive taxation, especially those of ; II I A ;| ■ i 1 :#; . 1 1 , ■■ '\ 1 ■ im I 1 108 HOW OUR WAR DEBT CAN BE PAID. the South, who are without even the poor pittance we give ours as pensions. The folly of the dull farmer I have supposed — a case of stupidity scarcely probable, though possible within the range of human dullness — is the wisdom by which the Secretar}' proposes to guide the .finances of this country and extricate them from embar- rassments which in this report he depicts as almost over- whelming. Let us hear nim. Ke says that — " He has been clear in his convictions that specie payments are not to be restored by an accumulation of coin in the Treasury to be paid out at a future day in the reli !tj r i 1 ,^1 fi m i s I i ■II. I i; ■i;i 118 now OUU WAR DEBT CAN UK PAID. on lhi> occiision, iiro tlic iniiiinj^ luul iimnufiKMiiriiitf infrroats. Tt Is fiorfoctly useloHH for us t(» Hncuk of the viihI niiiHTiii wrulth of North luroliitii; it Ih knowrk to nil the world to ho inferior to thitt of no country on the glohc, both in ({uiintity, miulity, iinil vurioty of luin- erulH, hut wo may hiivo no ciipitul to runucr them avuiluble. " And to tho capitulist who dcftircs to cngii^c in niannfiictnrinff, no country in the world presents more inducements thun North Ourolina. Her water-power is unsurpassed. As a general thing steam is useless in the State for manufacturing purposes ; for tho face of tho country is intersected by water courses such us abound in few other lands. If we look at the map we shall see that there is a perfect net-work of streams, showing that it is one of the best watered portions of the earth, and tho structure of tho country is Buch that every one of these streams can bo made to drive machin- ery. All this magniflcent provision of nature has thus far been per- mitted to waste, in a great measure at least. " It is scarcely necessary to refer to these facilities more in detail. Every reader knows the vast capacity of our larger rivers for these Surposes. That of tho Roanoke, the Neuso, the Haw, the Deep, the lain Yadkin, the South Yadkin, the Little Yadkin, the Catawba, and other rivers of the State for driving niachin !ry, is scarcely equaled by any in tho world, while we have man^ other smaller streams of very great capacity. "And when all this water power is turned toaccoi nt for manufac- turing purposes, as it will be at no great distance o time, when we have thousands of furnaces in full blast turning th . ores from the bowels of tho earth into the richest marketable commodities, and when our vast deposits of coal shall be used for these and other fmrposcs for which nature intended tliem, what a country we will lave 1 What vast amounts of wealth must then flow into our laps. Our State will then bo dotted over with the most flourishing manu- facturing towns ond villages and our now barren fields will teem with the richest verdure. " This must necessarily be so. We stated at the outset that until the mining and manufacturing interests were at least partially de- veloped imported white labor could not be profitably employed in agricultural pursuits. But when these interests become to be a Eowcr in the State the thing changes. All the thousands, if not the undreds of thousands, of factory operatives and miners must find a support, and the result will be that vast home markets will be created. The soil will bo heavily taxed for their sustenance and consequently vast improvements will be made in our system of agri- culture — and nothing needs improvement more.* But we will not pursue this line of remark further-i-we have presented the general outlines and we leave it to the imagination of our readers to fill up the picture. In the course of time the farms of our State will rival those of the Dutch Pennsylvanians ; our lands will become equally productive, while our system of internal improvements will become equal to theirs." More gladly, sir, than the people of the North will * Dreading such an influx of immigrants, the democratic members of Congress from North Carolina voted with the free trade representatives of New York oity against protective duties. r^ HOW OUR WAR DKBT CAN BE I'AIU. 119 those of the South woU;otno rclcaao from ovory doU lar of tiixiitioti from whioh sagucity can oxetiipt thoin. And I iusMurc tliu Secretary that the people of no jmrt of the country have shared so hirgely us thono of the South tlie surprise and wonder to which ho alludes. Mr. McCuUoch truly says: " We hiive but touched the HurCucc of our resources; the great mines of o'lr iiatioiiul wealth ure yet to bo (h!veh)peil." This is specially true as to the southern portion of our country, and in the name of the impoverished people of that section I ask, is it well to tax a generation the sur- face of whose resources has not been touched by the transmuting hand of labor, and the mines of whoso wealth are yet to bo developed, in order to pay the principal of a mortgage the holder of which neither needs nor desires his money ? and would not wisdom or state craft suggest the propriety of enabling the owners of these mines of wealth to accumulate capital with which to work them and by the magic touch of labor to convert them into cur- rent gold? The taxing process must continue our ex- hausting dependence on foreign nations, while the de- veloping process would make us as free commercially as we are politically, and enable us, by our example of liberal wages and freedom from their exhausting hours of toil, to influence the commercial and manufacturing usages of European States, as our political example is influencing their political and social institutions. The Secretary, however, has other prescriptions than that of excessive taxation b}' which to restore the country. In his opening paragraphs he says : "With proper economy in all the Departments of the (Jovern- ment, the debt can be paid by the j^eneration that created it, if wise and e(iual revenue laws shall be enacted and continued by Coiijjress, and tliese laws are faithfully enforced by the officers charged with their execution." Again, he tells us that he " has mainly directed his at- tention to measures looking to an increase of efficiency in *Mr. MeCullooh'B Fort Wayne speech, in whioh ho promised to bring about a resumption of gpecio payments in two years by contracting the currency, cost the American people hundreds of millions. The mere announcement pnnilysad enterprise. No new projects wore undertaken till Congress prohibited further contraction, and many that were in process of construction wore suspended or abandoned. Practical men everywhere saw that the result of his policy would be bankruptcy aud not resumption. J.- I r 4 i; in M'\ i H ">;:! ' I.I i* i m m ■Ml 120 HOW OUR WAR DEBT CAN BE PAID. the collection of revenues, to the conversion of interest- bearing notes into five-twenty bonds, and to a reduction of the public debt." Efficiency in the collection of reve- nues, forsooth ! " The faithful enforcement of laws by the officers charged with their execution ! " Tiiese are brave words to fall from the lips of one whose faithless exercise of official functions in this very matter has dur- ing the past year cost the Government more than $50,- 000,000. Brave words, indeed, are these from one who in a wicked attempt to subvert the popular will by the cor- rupt use of official patronage has removed hundreds of well-tried, capable and experienced officers of the revenue and customs departments and substituted for them men deficient alike in capacity, experience, and character. There is not a congressional district in the country whose people are not grieving over the fact that the Secretary of the Treasury, who embodies these fine phrases in his re- port, has wantonly and wickedly aggravated the onerous taxation under which they groan. Let who else will speak of the nccessitj'' of a faithful administration and due enforcement of the revenue laws, for which every patriot will pray, becoming modesty would constrain the Secre- tary of the Treasury to avoid the topic. This is a matter on which Congress should take ei'.rly action, and if it means that the customs and internal revenue laws shall be faithfully and impartially enforced it must see that another than the author of the report I am considering shall have the selection of officers for their enforcement. Some of the Secretary's suggestions are embodied in distinct — no, not in distinct, but in numerical propositions. To one of these I invite the attention of the committee. It is as follows : " 2. That the duties upon imported commodities should corres- pond and harmonize with the taxes upon home productions, and that these duties should not be so high as to be prohibitory, nor to build up home monopolies, nor to prevent that free excliange of commodi- ties which is the life of commerce. Nor, on the other hand, should they be so low as to seriously impair the revenues, nor to subject the home manufacturers, burdened with heavy internal taxes, to a competition with ci.eaper labor and larger capital which they may be unable to sustain." *' There's wisdom for you ! " I venture to assert that Jack Bunsby never uttered a more characteristic propo- sition than that ; and all will agree that since the cele- HOW OUR WAR DEBT CAN BE PAID. 121 brated Kane letter of James K. Polk our political Htem,- ture has embodied no utterance more shrewdly Tlelphic. This ingeniously inexpressive proposition is not the Secretary's only allusion to "home monopolies." He seems to hold them in special dread ; and it is to be deeply regretted that he has not indicated the arguments by which his apprehensions are sustained, as they aie not to be found in the works of the disciples of any school of politi- cal economy or social science. The teachers of free trade do not agree with him in be- lieving that high duties " build up home monopolies." They assert that protection secures undue profits to cer- tain branches of production and ttsmpts capitalists to ruin themselves by so overdoing the business as to glut the market and compel them to sell their goods at small pro- fits or at a loss. Their theory proceeds upon the want of judgment in capitalists and business men — but by assert- ing that high duties beget undue domestic competition denies that they promote local raonopolits. Nor does Mr. McCulloch agree with the school of pro- tectionists, for they say that assured protection against unequal competition gives capitalists confiderce and in- duces thorn to open mines and build furnaces, forges, and factories, whereby constant employment and ample wages are secured to the otherwise idle people of the covntry. This theory proceeds on the assumption that the American manufacturer is competent to measure the contingencies of our own markets and of the course of foreign trade, but is not competent to resist the gigantic eftbrts which were commended by Lord Brougham, and one of which is now making by the Crcesus-like capitalists of England "to stifle in the cradle those rising manufactures in the United States which the war has forced into existence." Our present condition resembles very closely tliat of the States of Europe at the c^ose of Napoleon's wars, and the following passage from the admirable address of John L. Hayes, Esq., entitled, " The Fleece and the Loom," em- bodies illustrations of fixed laws applicable enough to our condition to dispel even the Secretary's dread of " home monopolies :" lis " What would have been the future industrial condition of conti- nental Europe if at the time when peace restored the nations to labor the textile manufactures had been left to their own free course and no legislation had intervened to regulate their progress ? Can •!•! t |: 11 It: ai„ in BOW OUE WAR DEBT CAN BE PAID. there be- any doubt that tliey would have become the exclusive oc- cupation of England? Alone in the possession of steam power and machinery ; alone provided with ships and means of transport ; alone endowed, through her stable legislation, with capital to vivify her natural wealth, she had absolute command of the markets o ' the Continent. The question was presented to the continental na- tions whether they should accept the cheap tissues of England, or at some sacrifices repel them, to appropriate to themselves the labor and profit of their production. Ihe latter course w>is successively adopted, with some modifications, by each of the continental na- tions ; and with what results to their own wealth and the industrial progress and comfort of the world ? Instead of a single workshop Europe has the workshops of France, Eussia, Austria, Prussia, Bel- gium, Sweden, Denmark, Spain, each clothing its own people with substantial fabrics ; each developing its own creative genius and peculiar resources ; each contributing to substitute the excellence of competition for tho mediocrity of rjonopoly ; each adding to the progress of the artd and the we:".lth imd comfort of mankiad." * The fifth of the Secretary's propositions is " the rehabi- litation of the States recently in insurrection." Kefer- riug to the conquered territories, which notwithstanding the President's usurpations await the action of the Jaw- making power for reconstruction, Mr. McCulloch says . " Embracing as they do one-third part of the richest lands of the country, and producing articles of great value for home use md for exportation to other countries, their posiiion with regard to the Gen- eral Government cannot remain unsettled, and their industrial pur- suits cannot continue to be seriously disturbed, without causing such a diminution of the production of their great staples as must neci^ssarily afiF«ct our revenues, and reader still more unsatisfactory than they now are our trade relations with Europe There will be no real prosperity in these States, and consequently no real prosperity in one-third part of the United States, until aii pos- sess again equal privileges under the Constitution." If it be true, as it undoubtedly is, that " one-third part o*' the richest lands of the country " are by reason of tem- porary causes not producing " articles of great value for home use and for exportation to other countries," would it not seem to suggest the idea that this unhappy state of affairs should be permitted to pass away and these lands be made productive before they should be burdened with taxes not demanded by imperious necessity ? And the question whether before these lands shall be able to bear taxation for that purpose the people of the North, whose *Whymaynot the Carolinas competo with New England in cotton gooda, and Alabama and Missouri with Pennsj vania in iron and steel? HOW OUlt WAR DEBT CAN BE PAID. 123 sacrifices during the war savef^ he integrity of the Union, should be called upon to extinguish the debt created by the crimes of the possessors of this broad and rich ter- ritory ? The people of the northern States have certainly arrived at this conclusion, and I have shown that school- ed by suffering the people of the South, while antagoniz- ing them on many points, agree with them in tnis. Pursuing this branch of his subject, Mr. McCulloch asks, " Can the nation be regarded as in a healthy condi- tion whentf'.e industry of so large a portion of it is de- ranged?" And the people. North and South, answer " No ; and in our enfeebled condition we pray yon not to rob us of our working capital in order to extinguish a debt which was contracted for the benefit of mankind and future ages." He asks again, "And can the labor question at the South be settled as long as the political status of the Souih is unsettled?" And the country answers, "Yes, there is no inseparable connection between the labor question and the political status of the conquered terri- tories;" and adds that the " political status" of the South cannot be settled until its rebellious leaders discover that the loyal people of the country are able to defend its in- stitutions against the usurpations of Andrew Johnson, i^'*ncl accepting the constitutional amendments already adopted and which are in process of adoption by three-fourths of the States which now constitute the Union, submit to Congress constitutions republican in form upon which the people shall have set the seal of their approval. The people of the loyal North cannot restore those of the con- quered territories to their " political status." We can only consent to their restoration when they shall be wil- ling that it shall take place on terms which will render the future peace of the country secure, and for this we are and have been ready. The leaders of the South, not we, are the dog in ohe manger. It is they who, by refus- ing to abandon the dogmas that evoked the war and tho oligarchic institutions that sustained it, resist the influx of the tide of immigration that would fertilize their lands and republicanize thei." institutions. The imminent want of the people of the South is not " political status." That would not enable them to settle the "labor question." What they want is capital and currency and a willingness to perroi'o Icyal men, whether ■Ml m I'l II f ' Ml; 124 HOW OUR WAR DEBT CAN BE PAID. r white or black, native or foreign, to dwell among them, and by their labor quicken into commercial value the boundless and varied natural wealth of the land they occupy, but which they will neither work themstl/es nor permit others to work in peace and safety. When in obedience to a healthy national sentiment or the prompt- ings of their own interests they shall make capital secure, opinion free, and give peaceful scope to enterprise within their borders, the immense deposits which profitless to their owners now lie in bank, because under the hammer- ing process of the Secretary of the Treasury judicious men are afraid to embark in new enterprises, will be trans- ferred to the South to develop her productive and taxable power, and make her populous and prosperous beyond the wildest dream of the visionary theorists who involved her in a war as causeless as it was disastrous. Mr, Chairman, time will not permit me to answer all the Secretary's interrogatories or examine each of his propositions. But his friends may complain that I have not alluded to that which they regard as his chief specific. It is set forth in the second of another series of propositions as follows: "a curtailment of the currency to the amount requirsd by legitimate and healthful trade." On this point, though not condescending to indicate what amount of currency is in his judgment required by " legitimate and healthful trade " in the present abnormal condition of the country, the Secretary is peculiarly coherent and luminous. He is clearly a disciple of Dr. Sangrado. He recognizes the circulating medium as the life-blood of commerce, and as Sangrado attempted to restore his patients by withdrawing blood and injecting warm water into their veins, he proposes to assist extraordinary taxa- tion in thvj work of rehabilitating the southern States, whose great want is currency and working capital, and in invigorating the languishing interests of the North by contracting the currency, and especially by withdrawing that portion which is of equal and unquestioned value in every part of the country — the United States notes, com- monly called " greenbacks." He says : '* He regards a redundant legal-tender currency as the prime cause of our financial difficulties and a curtailment thereof indispensable to an increase of labor and a reduction of prices to an aujrmentation of exports and a diminution of imports, which alone will place the trade satisfi ih'^ III:: V^ HOW OUR WAR DEBT CAN BE PAID. 125 trade between the United States and other nations on an equal and satisfactory footing." And that — " He is of opinion that the national banks should be sustained, and that the paper circulation of the country should be reduced, not by compelling them to retire their notes, but by the witlidrawal of the United States notes." Mr. Chairman, had I been properly instructed in the mysteries of " Ingeany bankih' " I might be able to com- prehend and appreciate these suggestions; but in the blindness of my ignorance I cannot see what there is to commend his theory to the Finance Minister of our coun- try. The greenbacks are, it is true, part of our debt, and must therefore at some day be redeemed ; but they are the only part of our immense debt which bears no interest ; and while there are outstanding, as the Secretary's state- ment of December 1st, 1866, shows, $147,387,140 of com- pound-interest notes which are currency and used as such by the national banks, and $699,933,750 of three-years' notes bearing seven and thrc^-tenths per cent, interest, all of which were purchased in u greatly depreciated currency, I cannot comprehend the philosophy which proposes to let the interest on these run, while absorbing a non-inter- est-bearing loan which the peo})le cherish as furnishing the best currency for our immense domestic commerce they have ever had. The experiment if attempted as a means of hastening specie payments will prove a failure, but not a harmless one. It will be fatal to the prospects of a majority of the business men of this generation and strip the frugal labor- ing people of the country of the small but hard-earned sums they have deposited in savings banks or invested in Grovernment securities. It will make money scarce and employment uncertain. Its object is to reduce the amount of that which in every part of our country and for the hundreds of thousands of millions of dollars of domestic trade is money, and to increase its purchasing power ; and by thus unsettling values to paralyze trade, suspend pro- duction, and deprive industry of employment. It will make the money of the rich man more valuable and de- prive the poor man of his entire capital, the value of his labor, by depriving him of employment. Its first effect will be to increase the rate of interest and diminish the ' 'im \ I *:iil m 126 HOW OUR WAR DEBT CAN BE PAID. ■i, rate of wages, and its final effect widespread bankruptcy and a more protracted suspension of specie payments. ^Lnxious as the people are to relieve the country of the evils entailed upon it by the war, and willing as they have proven themselves to endure any privations or sacrifices required by the exigencies of the country, they will not consent to an experiment involving such ter- rible consequences for the purpose of paying the " Inge- any " and other banks which hold and use as part of their reserve our compound-interest notes, two dollars for every one they invested in this ioterest-bearing portion of our " lawful money." Much as banks, bankers, and specula- tors in Government securities may approve this policy, the people earnestly and indignantly protest against it. Does Mr. McCulloch forget that the compound-interest- bearing notes are part of the " legal tender currency " against which he declaims, and that by absorbing them he will be contracting the currency and reducing the volume of interest that is compounding against the Government ? The banks are required, those of certain cities, to main- tain a reserve of " lawful money " equal to twenty-five per cent, of their circulation and deposits, and all others a like reserve of fifteen per cent., and as he well knows they have absorbed and hold not greenbacks, but compound interest notes as that reserve. He should keep his non-interest-bearing notes afloat till these are redeemed. They will mature in 1867 and 18G8, and by redeeming them he :vill contract the currency at the rate of $6,000,000 per month and relieve the Government of one of its most exhaus';ing interest accounts. By this process he will keep five-twenties above par, promote the conversion into them of seven-thirties, and reduce the interest on that por- tion of our debt from seven and three-tenths to six per cent. But by his process of contracting the volume of greenbacks and imposing extraordinary ta^es on our in- dustry he will delay the redemption of th>3 one and the converision of the other, and may deprive us vf the ability to redeem either the seven-thirties or compound-interest notes at maturity. The people do not regard greenbacks and the notes of national banks with equal favor, but have a well-grounded preference for the former. They know that the ultimate redemption of the bank notes is secured by deposits of Government securities and the maintenance of a reserve HOW OUR WAR DEBT CAN BE PAID. m of greenbacks ; and as the substance is more solid than its shadow, they prefer Ihat which secures to that wliich requires to be secured. Several national banks have failed ; and though the ultimate redemption of the notes was secured, there was no provision for their immediate redemption, and tiie laboring people who held them had to sell them at great loss to " Ingeany " or other bankers, who could afford to hold them till the Government was ready to redeem them. Having sustained no such losses by greenbacks they naturally prefer them. Adequate as these reasons ar^ for the popular preference, there are others which I will state, in the language of the Secre- tary's report. Mr. Hooper, of Massachussetts. If I understand the gentleman from Pennsylvania, he asserts that when na- tional banks fail their notes cease to circulate. Has the gen- tleman ever heard of any such an instance ? The Govern- ment is still responsible when the bank fails, and these notes aro redeemed when presented at the Treasury. I understand they circulate, therefore, as well after as before the suspension of the bank. It may be remembered that the Treasurer of the United States was recently some- what criticised by the press for his statement that the national bank notes were better after the bank failed than before. Mr. Kelhy. I have recognized the ultimate responsi- bility of the Government for them, but I know that traders in money take advantage of all contingencies, and I have known laboring men to sell to brokers the notes of a broken national bank at considerable loss. The an- nouncement that a bank has failed depreciates the notes in the market, for the people, especially laboring people, who are not as familiar as the gentleman from Massa- chusetts with all the minute provisions of the law byi Avhich the ultimate redemption of these notes is secured ; and when a bank fails those poor people, who cannot carry them to the Treasury for redemption, are compelled to sell them at a heavy loss. But, as I was proceeding to show, the Secretary of the Treasury more than sustains my position on this point, for he deliberately argues that legislation is required "to make them throughout the United States a par circulation." He says : " The solvency of the notes of national banks is secured by a de- posit of bonds with the Treasurer at Washington; but as the banks l^^il ;,.f ; 5 i tf 1 , : I' ■i -i I f iS ih' 128 HOW OUR WAR DEBT CAN BE PAID. are scattered throughout the country, aid many of them arc in places difficult of acccaa, a redemption of their notes at their respec- tive counters is not all that is required to inake them throughout the United States a par circulation. It is true that the notes of all national banks are receivable for all public dues, except duties upon i.'nportH, and must be paid by the Treasurer in case the banks which isinied are unable to redeem them ; but it will not be claimed that the notes of banks, although perfectly solvent, but situated in inter- ior towns, are practically as valuable as the notes of banks in the sea-board cities." These depreciatory remarks are not applicable to green- backs. They are of equal value tl.^oaghuut tiie country, and the people cherish them for tais reason more than from t._e fact that they arc tiic evidence of a patriotic loan made b}' the peo'^le to the Government without interest. Had Mr. McCuIloch suggested th^t the national bank notes, for holding bonus to pecure which we pay ^he banks $18,000,- 000 per annum, should be supplanted of greenbacks, -and that a sum equal to the interest on the bonds should be applied to the creation of a sinking fund for the redemp- tion of the national debt, the people would have applauded his wisdom and patriotism, and not questioned his motives as they are now constrained to. Ilail such been the Secretary's suggestion he might have omitted this one of his propositions, namely, to compel "the national banks to redeem their notes at the Atlantic cities, or, what would be better, at a single city," which, in plain language, is a recommendation that we increase the power and profits of the banks of New York by com- pelling every national bank outside of that city to deposit a portion of its funds with them. The gambling tenden- cies of the New York speculators in stocks and provisions need no such stimulant as this ; and recent experience has shown that leading banks of that cicy are managed more recklessly than any others in the country, and would therefore be an unsafe depository for so large a trust. Less than a month ago the Secretary tested their u-auage- ment by calling upon them foi ;i small portion of the Government deposit.;, which were mistakenly supposed to be represented by a reserve of greenbacks in their vaults, and produced a perturbation in prices throaghout the country by which fortunes were lost and won. lie has not given the facts -o the country, but it is known in v"^ll- informed circles thct some of them were compelled to ask for a '' brief extension " because they were unable to pay HOW OUR WAR DEBT CAN BE PAID. 129 i'''il the Governinont drafts. Practical men may therefore be e.Kcuscd for speaking of the proposal of such remedies as oharlatanism, Mr. Chairman, as I have said, the Secretary has not ventured to indicate what in his judgment, in the present condition of the country, is the amount of currency " re- quired by legitimate and healthful trade." That condition is abnormal, tliough not entirely peculiar, and certainly not unjjrecedented. By unwise and unpatriotic legislation, which was dictated by the magnates of the South, millions of our poor people were doomed to the simplest and least remunerative forms of agricultural labor, or to enforced idleness, in which they were tending to barbarism, while oil' raw materials were being wrought into fabrics for our use in the workshops of transatlantic nations, and we had thus been drained of specie and had become largely a debtor nation before the war began. Those same mag- nates plunged us into a war of unprecedented proportions, which we were unable to mainta'n .'dth a specie or con- vertible currency. In the hour of oui need we discerned the fact that ours is one of the two countries to which, in the language of Gortschakoff, the enlightened prince who is guiding the destinies of the other, "God has given such conditions of existence that their grand internal life is enough for them," and determined that until the war and its consequences should have passed away we would give the world an example of our ability and self-reliance, and use a currency based, not on the international standard, gold and silver, but on our faith in the resources c^' our country and the integrity of its Government. We thus furnished the Government $3,000,000,000 with which to create, arm, feed, clothe, and pay our Army and Navy. How this prompt supply of money quickened industry and developed the productive power of the country J need not pause to say. I will, however, remind the com- mittee that though it was " irredeemable legal-tender currency," it restored the credit of the nation, which had bsen unable to borrow $5,000,000 at twelve per cent., and lifted the people from the bankruptcy of 1857 to a degree of prosperity unequaled in our history. From 1857 to 1861 the rate of iuierest was high and that of wages low, and neither capital nor labor could find pro- iitablo and permanent employment. But with a safe, though perhaps somewhat redundant, currency, by the 9 j !7Q> nnii I ::Uj1 < i m^ ■M '■i ''i ij ,(; * 180 HOW OCR WAU T'K'HT CAN BE PAID. use of which our people were compelled to look to our own workshops for "ipplics, prosperity, in the iiiidst of war, succeeded the adversity of contracted and stagnant peace with magic speed. And if we now adopt a tarift" that will protect our industry as faithfully as did the difference between our paper and gold, in which we re- ({uired the duties on foreign imports to be paid during the war, we will soon discover that there is ample and profit- able employment for all the currency authorized by law ; and that if we resolutely refuse to increase its volume it will approximate the standard of convertibility more rapidly by the development of the productive power of the country and the div.irsilication of employment for the people than it can by the process of contraction at any rate. Protection and dev-elopment will insure a pros- perous future ; but rapid contraction will reproducp the stagnation, bankruptcy, and suffering of 1837 and 1857. The question presented to the mind of practical states- men is not what v/ould be the best currency if we were founding a new community, or how far we might with advantage add paper to a purely metallic currency, but is, what under existing conditions do the true int3rest3 of the country require. And on this question I again take issue with the Secretary of the Treasury and deny that the country will find in a rapid or material contraction of its currency, or in extraordinary taxation, a remedy for any of the evils that afflict it. If, as some of his friends have done, the Secretary should point me to the high prices which many articles command, or to the immense deposits which, unproductive to their owners, are enhancing the present profits and future liabilities of the banks, I will reply to him, as I have to them, that these are not proofs of the redundancy of the currency, but of his mistaken policy and inveterate mismanagement. Though the use of these immense deposits is lost to their cautious proprietors, the money does not lie idle in the vaults of banks ; it is lent on call in large sums to adven- turers, who by its use enhance the price of such commodi- ties as they can monopolize or control. Those who could make their own capital productive are af^Ad to use it, and reckless gamblers riot in its use. Yes, sir, the Secre- tary's policy is calculated to diminish production and stimulate speculation, which symptoms have been the twin precursors of all our commercial crises and eras of bankruptcy. Under his fatal policy — w1*, HOW OUR WAR DEBT CAN BE PAID. 181 |i " The native hue of resolution Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought; And enterprises of great pith and moment, With this reifaitl, their currents turn awry, And lose the name of action." The sagacious but prudent owners of these deposit, grieve that the money with which they would gladly open 7 and 1H87 we could resume specie pivyincnls, iiow long eoiild we maintain them? Tlie Secretary tells us that §.'J.">0,iii the banks and banking system of the country — _ '^erthrew the administration and party that inaugurated it ; but it is also remembered that so beneficent were its operations that no succeeding administration of any party dared assail it. It had not been in operation a year till it had vindicated its wisdom in the estimation of every Judicious business man. Nor would it probably ever have been in- terfered with in time of peace. The great convulsion which threatened to divide our country interrupted its ac- tion, which should forthwi*;h be restored. It acted as a regulator, a natural regulator, of the trade of the country. When importations ran to excess and unduly increased the public revenues, it wiihdrew from circulation and locked up a portion of the currency, and by the stringency thus created admonished banks and business men to pause ; and when, having given an early check to rash operations and diminished the current revenues of the country, it gently, as by a process of nature, restored vigor to the circulation by the fact that its payments were in ex- ', If! I'!. ■ I '! Hi ! ,.,H I I <1 ' ' 140 HOW OUR WAR DEBT CAN BE PAID. cess of its receipts, as its receipts bad just been in excess of its payments. As a safeguard for the public funds, if for no other reason, the Secretary should have recom- mended its full restoration, for during the entire period of its existence, as far as I know, the Government did not lose by any o" its officers as much as it did recently by the failure of the Merchants' National Bank of Washington alone. It was a safe depository for the public money, as \vell as a healthful influence in the business operations of the ?ountry. Had the Secretary suggested that it would answer as well for a mixed currency as it did for the era of specie payments, and recommended its immediate reiis- tablishment he would have done much to give steadiness to the business of the country, diminish speculative prices, quicken production, and increase the revenue of the coun- try. And I trust that Congress before it rises will pass a law prohibiting the deposit of any portion of the Govern- ment funds in any bank, or, in other words, divorce the Treasury from the banks by reorganizing the sub- Treasury. It was, perhaps, too much to hope for such a recommen- dation from the Secretary. He enjoys the control he now exercises over the business of the country, and would not willingly surrender it. But for the maintenance of an average deposit of more than $30,000,000 could the Na- tional-Union-Johnson party have extorted from the banks — perhaps not directly as corporations, but from their stockholders and officers, to be accounted for in the item of incidental expenses — the large contributions which the newspapers told us certain banks were forced to make in aid of the recent effort of the President and the Secretary of the Treasury to subvert the popular will ? But this was but an occasional incident, probably never to occur again ; for I believe that the future can produce to our country no second Andrew Johnson, or that should it contain within its womb another like unto him he will be unable to find creatu;'es to sacrifice their own convictions and the interests of the country for the poor privilege of unwor- thily filling high places in a great Government. That of which I speak is the influence these deposits, coupled with his exclusive control of the gold in the Treasury, averag- ing about one hundred million dollars, which he compla- cently calls a "handsome reserve of coin in the Treasury," give the Secretary over the business of the country. I .••!«: HOW OUR WAR DEBT CAN BE PAID. 141 Under the action of the sub-Treasury, as I have shown, a payment of money by the Government relieved a strin- gent money market ; but how is it now ? When the Sec- retary of the Treasury is sacrificing such immense amounts of interest in order to give steadiness to business, the Gov- ernment deposits are loaned by the banks on notes of short date or on call ; and if the current revenues of the Gov- ernment be in excess of its current expenses, as they have been throughout his administration, its deposits acuumu late, and swell the volume of such loans. The receipts of the Government thus aggravate the tendency to undue ex- pansion ; and what is the effect when it is required to use any considerable amount of its deposits? It is this: the Secretary notifies the banks that he is about to call for ten or twenty million dollars; and the banks, not knowing which of their debtors will be ready and who may be utterly unable to pay, notify not alone borrowers of the p": cise amount demanded by the Secretary, but holders of five, six, or ten times the amount. Thus that wliich should give relief to the market becomes an exaggerated cau.-:e of contraction, and the payment of $10,000,000 by the Gov- ernment is made to interfere with business operations to the amount of §100,000,000. We have all observed this and know that instead of being a natural operation, tlie effects of which should be felt beneficially, each payment of any considerable sum of money by the Government, after a long line of deposits has accumulated, produces a perturbation through all commercial circles. The pay- ment of but $15,000,000 in the early part of last month came near producing a national panic and damaged the credit of leading banks. This system gives the Secretary despotic control over the markets of the country, and his favorites may have ascertained practically, as did Voltaire, who was given to stock speculations, that " it is a good thing to have a friend at court " through whom they may learn when it is well to sell, because things have reached their highest price, as Government is about doing that which should establish confidence, but which, owing to the Secretary's efforts to insure steadiness to business, will produce consternation if not panic and a general decline in prices ; and when it is well to buy, because it suits the convenience of the Government to icrce another large and long loan to the banks. Such a power over the business of the countr\- should be vested in no man : and I chal- k .n 1 ! ; f if gl p- ' 1 ; U I ' 'I. Hi i . ! J' ri 142 now OUR WAR DEBT CAN BE PAID. lenge the world to point to any fact in the official career of the present Finance Minister of the country which would induce any judicious man to vest it in him. There certainly is nothing in the suggestions of the report which I am considering to indicate that he is a safe deposi- tory for so useless, so wide-spread, and so dangerous a power. But, Mr, Chairmfw;, T air.. , !m( lished thui T should has- te » to a conna'-i jn. I -Dnit, in vv )ver, beg the coumitteo to bear with me whii* I e.x:' nine briefly another of Mr. McCuUoch's suggcri.ioi li n cfl[ered as a specific rem- edy, because it is said it will diu 'sh the rate of interest on our loans and protect us against the direful contingency of the bonds bought on speculation at depreciated rates coming home to exhaust our specie within a month of the day on which we are, by the magical agencies suggested by Mr. McCulloch, to resume specie payments within two years. It is characterized by the candor and wisdom which pervade his other suggestions. To a shrewd man of mere practical business habits, one not skilled in the mys- teries of "Ingcany bankin','' it might seem to be some- what impracticable ; and the country regards it with hu- miliiitiun and disgust. It is this : that after having carried on the war without an appeal to foreign nations or capi- talists and without their sympathy ; after having by our patriotic sacrifices put our credit so high that tlie people of Europe have volur<-arily come and crvi-ried away, with great profit to themselves, $350,000,000 of our bonds ; that now, when peace is restored, and when we again pos- sess the custom-houses, '^ost offices, forts, and arsenals of the country, and when our taxes are not divided between our Treasury and that of a hostile confederacy, but all flow to our own, we shall issue " bonds payable in not over twenty years and bearing interest at the rate of not over five per cent., payable in England or Germany, to an amount sufficient to absorb the six per cent, bonds now held in Europe and to meet the demand there for actual and permanent investment." If this scheme were practicable, I for one would spurn it. With their pirate ships on every sea, their ship-yards and factories busy in fabricating implements of war for our enemies, and in the face of their hatred, with self-reliance, of which posterity will be proud, we marched steadily on to conquest and final victory. And now, in the hour of now oun WAn debt can be paid. 148 our ' so g '^niph, or in the oalm season whicli should succeed ad and sticcessful an exhibition of power, with a contii !nt abounding ir. raw materiul for tbo profitable em- ploy QUt of ever^ art, t^ade, and mystery v iiown to ingeni- ous r an be eath ourfc^.; with India decimated by famine, Eurcue disturbed by wars and rui.iors of war, Ireland in incipient rebellion : ar ' when we oft'er to the people of Europe estuDlished peace, political equality, public schools, a free church, and briefer hours of labor with better wages than those known to the artisans of any other country, this suggestion is as degrading as it is inopportune. Sir, nothing but some such folly as this official proclamation, as it would be regarded by the people of Europe, that our struggle exhausted us, and that with victory came prema- ture decrepitude, can prevent us from compelling tae na- tions of the world, by the tide of slcilled workmen that will flow from their shores to ours, to follow our example and give those who produce their wealth culture, leisure, ant' the consciousness of free manhood. In such an hour a 'd in view of such a prospect I am sure that Congress will not degrade the country by asking the money-chang- ers of Europe to lighten its burdens or help us bear them. But the scheme is hopelessly impracticable. Mr. Mc- Cullocli may see advantages in it which others fail to detect. It would serve, I doubt not, by what he calls " the trifling commissions to the agents through whom the exchanges might be made," to found a great American banking-house in London with continental branches, and might bless the country with the hope of large gratuities from some future George Peabody whom the Secretary would designate as the agent for making transfers and paying interest ; but it would not accomplish the purpose its author suggests. ^ With such knowledge of human nature as we possess let us consider the prop^ »sition. Those who hold our bonds bought them either as aii investment or on speculation, and the interest upon them ranges from six to seven and three- tenths per cent. Is it probable that those who bought them as an investment will change them before maturity for bonds bearing but five or four and a half per cent.? Or will those who bought them as a matter of speculatic n, in view of the Secretary's assurance that in less than two years we will resume specie payments and enable them to convert them into gold at par, hasten to make such a con- 1' '..x^ 1 144 now OUR WAR DEDT CAN BE PAID. version ? Wlioii the leopard shall change his spots, the vultuH! |)rotcct the dove, and hungry mice abstain from eating unguarded crackers and cheese, I will bo prepared to regard the Secretary's proposition as practi- cable. Nov need we grieve that it is not ])racticable. Our des- tiny is written. Unwise legislation or such reckless mal- administration as now prevails may retard it, but it will be achieved. It is written in the sublime doctrine of hu- man ('(piality, which gives vitality and stability to our in- stitutions, and more ])erceptibly though not more endur- ingly in the geographical position, the continental propor- tions, and the unequaled resources of our country. Bounded by both oceans, with a larger area than all the nations of Euroj^e, including Great Britain, which lie be- tween the same distant parallels of latitude that mark our lii.^it.f^ and embracing mineral, agricultural, manufacturing, and commercial resources greater than they combined pos- sess, the United States must be the foremost, richest, and most powerful nation of the world. However blind our Finance Minister may be to this fact, others perceive it, an(^ ^"'r aflairs will yet be administered in accordance Avith the sublime assertion of Gortschakoft) who, in an utterance to wliicl I have already referred, when speaking of liussia and our country, said : " God has given to the two countries such conditions of existence that their grand internal life is enough for them." Yes, the capitalists of Europe will yet be eager to lend us money as cheaply as they now loan it to England ; but it will be when, by the conversion of our now profitless raw material into fabrics, by the skill and industry of our now unemployed citizens and the millions of industrious people who are coming to us from abroad, we manufac- ture more than we consume, and by rivalling England, France and other continental nations in tropical markets, and those of other non-manufacturing regions, shall have turned the balance of trade in our favor. Then Americans will be able to compete with foreigners in bidding for our loans ; and in exchange for cotton, tobacco, and other staples, our bonds will be returned to us instead of woolen goods and various other textile and metallic fabrics, which we now receive but ought to manufacture for ourselves. But foreign capitalists will not take bonds from us at four and a half or five per cent, in exchange for those which HOW OUR WAR DEBT CAN BE PAID. 146 pay six per cent., while the balance of trade is aj^ainst ua to tlie amount of $100,000,000 per annum, and with com- pound-interest and seven-thirty notes afloat to the amount of nearly $1,000,000,000, we with more than Gascon vanity promise the almost immediate return to specie pay- ments. 10 im ^::iii ^■|• :'H.- t-} I i^ . ^:^ ' 4i ■ - i 1 i !i ' THE SOUTH— ITS KESOURCES AND WANTS. «; I 4'i' t'ii W ' rff: ■; f , n m'^i ADDRESS DELIVERED AT NEW ORLEANS, May 11th, 1867 — As Reported in the New Orleans Republican. Fellow- Citizens of Louisiana: In response to tlio invita- tion of your Governor and tlie Mayor of this beautiful city, I am here to counsel with you as to the best interests of our country. Let mo, however, first congratulate you upon your enfranchisement, and thank the loyal men among you, without regard to race or color, who during the late strug- gle braved the dangers of battle in defence of the old flag, or quietly remained true to it amid the dangers which surrounded you, for the part you took in my enfranchise- ment. Having addressed a large and enthusia.stic audience in Memphis on Tuesday night, and, standing in the midst of this brilliant scene in the city of New Orleans, I am at last able to proclaim that I am a free man in my native land, and may traverse its wide extent, carrying with me my conscience and convictions without fear of personal violence. This was impossible before the war. The in- stitutions of the South were not cosmopolitan. Her j)ecu- liar system of labor not only controlled but contracted her civilization. Disregarding the practice and precepts of the founders of our Government, and ignoring the admonitions of ex- perience, the South turned a deaf ear to reason, refused to listen to remonstrance, and finally punished dissent from her judgment as a crime deserving outlawry and death. Attempting in a progressive age, and in a land of vast and varied resources, peopled by a generation more enterprising than any that had preceded it, to maintain a system which was " peculiar," and incapable of modification, save by ab- solute overthrow, she arrayed against her all the forces of civilization. No poet ever sang the charms of slavery. No limner ever embodied its beauties on canvas. No ora- 146 THE SOUTH— ITf4 RE.SOirilCHS AND WANTS. tor ever descanted upon its blessings ; and though dog.s that could not burk procliiirneil iVom inuny u U7 duiid) l)ul{)it the duty of servants to obey their masters as the sum and substance of the gospel, the voice of Christianity bade con- scientious men do unto others as they would liavo others do unto them — be eyes to th'j blind and feet to the lame — and the cries of the wronged against those who withheld from the laborer his hire, ascended incessantly to the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. To this attempt on the part of the people of the South to isolate themselves, to exclude from their broad and fer- tile territory the advancing civilization of the age, may bo ascribed the terrible war through which wo have just passed. It made them intensol}' sectional, while the steady development of the North was demonstrating to its more rapidly increasing millions the beneficence of nationality. It created a separate and antagonistic sy.stem of civiliza- tion. The North welcomed all classes of emigrants from all lands. She made herself familiar with the inventions and discoveries of the day, and applied them to purposes of utility. She challenged the freest discussion of all topics and all systems. She provided liberally for the education of all her people, including the unhuppv few to whom, in deference to Southern demands, she denied the full rights of citizenship. But the South, wrapt in its delusion, re- pulsed emigration — rejected all science and literature that controverted the divinity of slavery, and the justice and economy of unrequited toil. She denied to her laborers edu- cation, and consequently could not avail herself of, and was indift'erent to the scientific and mechanical progress of the age. Thus, while the breach between the two sections was widening, the disparity in power between them was con- stantly increasing. Contrast, my friends, the development of the two sections ; behold the great cities of the North. New York, with its environs, which are really, though not municipally, part c^ it, already exceeds I'aris in wealth, splendor, trade, and , opulation. London and Paris are the only trans-atlantic ernes which exceed Philadelphia in these respects. Bosto", Cincinnati, Chicago, and other cities, each exceed New Orleans in population. Yet New Orleans, past which the waters of sixty thousand miles of rivers flow, is the greatest city of the South. Let me illustrate this point familiarly. The railroads connecting New York with Philadelphia, and Memphis ■ i t I .!■ ifl 148 THE SOUTH — ITS RESOURCES AND WANTS. with Grenada, Mississippi, differ in length less than ten miles. They are each a link in a great thoroughfare North and South. Over the former eight passenger trains pass daily each way ; each train is made up of several cars. Over the latter one train of two cars passes daily. The -fare from New York to Philadelphia is $3; but from Memphis to Grenada it is $8. The time required to make the journey from New York to Philadelphia is less than four hours, while it takes six and a half hours to pass be- tween Memphis and Grenada. The land along the route, in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, for agricultural purposes, is worth from $250 to $400 per acre ; that along the other can bo bought from $3 to $20 ! These contrasts are not accidental or arbitrary. They illustrate great principles — sleepless laws of social life. When the sages of '76 proclaimed that all men are born equal, and invested by nature with the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, they uttered the law that was to fashion the institutions of America, and shape the civi- lization of her people. They were ever true to that law. They controlled the States at the time they framed the Constitution of the United States; and then every free n;an, without regard to color, was a voter in every State, except South Carolina ; and while the Executive Govern- ment remained in their hands, and their personal influence controlled the legislation of the country, the free colored man was not denied the right of suffrage under any Territo- rial Government. Though South Carolina had steadily de- manded his exclusion from 1778, in the convention for framing articles of Confederation, it was not until 1812 that she succeeded in inserting the word white in a law establishing a Territorial Government. That word appears for the first time in the law establishing the Territory of Missouri, which was enacted in that year. The little monosyllable white, embodied in that law, was the germ of the war through which we have just passed. It involved an attempt to sta^- the course of American civi- lizE.tion — it was in conflict with its essential k;W — the great truth to which I have alluded, and involved strife between the spirit of liberty and the impulse of the masses on one hand, and the grasping selfishness of an oligarchy and the wrongs of slavery on the other. From that time to this our country has not been free from agitation ; and while the institutions of the North have been more and THE SOUTH — ITS RESOURCES AND WANTS. 149 more republicanized by the spirit of democracy, the writ- ten law of the land, yielding to the reactionary spirit which won its first triumph in the Missouri contest, has been con- trolled by the spirit of slavery, and been marked by a tot;il disregard of the vital principle of our Government. Our Government rests on two great sentiments — personal lib- erty and territorial unity ; and any law which restrained personal liberty, or engendered or festered sectional inter- est, was a necessary cause of discord and strife. When, therefore, yielding to Southern persuasion or dictation, the North consented to deprive the free colored man of suf- frage in the Territories ; and when, under the same influ- ence, State after State, throughout the free North, made color a test of citizenship, until out of New England, citi- zens of African descent were everywhere disfranchised, they who made t' t s*^ concessions were not, as they be lieved, cementing ", Union, but making war inevitable Nations are not the creatures of chance. God's providence embraces the American continent. His judgment is its final law. A nd these abandonments of the principles upon which our Government was based — which had been rev- erently accepted by our forefathers as in harmony with His will — did not pass without His notice. Has He not repealed all these reactionary statutes, and by His breath wiped out these modern im^irovements of State constitutions? From the firing on Sumter to the surrender of the armies of Lee and Johnston le was teaching us, by the terrible baptism of battle and blood, how infinite is His power and justice, and how easily He can make the folly and madness of man to praise Him. Had the South been national and truly democratic as the North, and had her legislation been pro- gressive, slavery would have gradually disappeared, and tbe colored population of the country have been absorbed into its citizenship without a crisis, and almost witiiout special notice. But that was not to be. By an inscrutable law, all great blessings come to us through suffering. Blood has been the price of freedom to every nation. For it is the same with nations iii this respect as with individu- als. Who can tell the agon_y that is requited when the mother first beholds a smile play over the face of her sleep- ing infant? It is to the garden and the cross that we go, in sorrow and humility, for our highest hopes and most enduring promises, and amid the tumult and tortures of the battle-field, the horrors of the wreck upon the mad- i .1 I i 1 '.-W ' ■» ■ if ; t. iii ^!: « \ ' ipH !if hB 160 THK SOUTH — ITS RESOURCES AND WANTS. denerl ocean, or the wearying sufterings of the feverish bed, we pass from the cares of Jiie to the beatitude of eternity. And, as Americans, we may look back on years of war, we may count the dead of the co.itonding armies at nearly one million, and behold the fa' .'est and most fertile regions of our smiling country, yo.^r own lovely Soutli, scarred and desolated by war, and rejoice that the agony wliich was to purchase our country's great blessing is over. Henceforth it shall be the boast of every American that though his country embraces all climates, from the sum- mer breezes that ever linger over your broad Gulf to the wintry winds that howl the requiem of gallant navies as they sweep over the mighty lakes of the North, its atmos- phere is so pure that no slave can breathe it and remain in bondage. [Immense applause.] Let uic not be misunderstood : I charge this war not upon the South alone. It is, perhaps, more largely due to the unprincipled men in the North, who should have met the issue at the threshold, and settled the question while it was susceptible of legislative control, than to the men of the South, who, prompted by the short-sighted demands of present interest, insisted upon concessions which saga- cious men of principle would not have accorded. Let me illustrate : No statesman had denied that slavery in the Territories was the subject of Congressional legislation until John C Cal'.oun introduced into the Senate, on the 19th of February, 1847, three resolutions, embodying mere abstract propositions, the last of which was as follows : "That the enactment of any law which should, directly or by its effects, deprive the citizens of any State of this Union from emigra- ting Avith their property into any of the Territories of the United States, will make such discrimination, and would, therefore, be a vio- lation of the Constitution and the rights of the States from which such citizens emigrate, and in derogation of that perfect equality whicli belongs to them as members of this Union, and would tend directly to subvert the Union itself." The object of these resolutions was to extend slavery over the almost boundless territory than belciging to the United States. So repugnant was the propoiution to the members of the Senate, largely Democratic, and with no Kepublican member in it, that Mr. Calhoun divl not dare press his resolutions to a vote. In May, 1848, the Democratic party met in convention THE SOUTH — ITS RESOURCES AND WANTS. 151 at Baltimore, and Mr. Yancey, Calhoun's great disciple, submitted the following : " Resolved, That the doctrine of non-interference with the rights of property of any portion of this Confederation, be it in the States or Territories, by any other than the parties introduced in them, is the true Republican doctnne recognized by this body." There were 232 members in that convention. The South was fully represented. But so novel and dangerous was this doctrine then considered that every delegate from the North and most of tho.se from the South united in de- manding a direct vote upon the question, that they might send to the people of the country an expression of their abhorrence of the new and dangerous dogma. But about one in every eight delegates was then prepared to sustain it, the vote upon it being 36 for and 2'16 against. But be- hold the sequel : In less than twelve years the unprinci- pled men who governed the Democratic party brought on the fierce struggles in Kansas by accepting the doctrine they had thus promptly spurned, and persuading the Southern people that the North had abandoned the faith of the Fathers, and was in reckless disregard of the re- straints of the Constitution robbing them of their rights. Impelled by ambition, and seeking wealth through the in- trigues of a corrupt political era, they encouraged you to prepare for war. They rasured you that if you would strike for your supposed rights they would stand by you on the battle-field, as they had done in caucuses, conven- tions, and on the floor of Congress. I have seen a copy of a letter from one of them who had once filled the Presidential chair, saying to you, through one of your leaders, that if you seceded there would be no war ; or that if there were it would be co-extensive with the country, and blood would flow in every village, town, j and city of the North. ! How little Franklin Pierce knew the real spirit of the people among whom he lived ! How ignorant was he of the fact that the world is under moral government I Were his pledges kept? In what city of the North did blood flow ? Between the citizens of which Northern States was there armed collision ; and from which of the Northern States did men swarm to swell the ranks of the Confederate armies ? As the echo of the guns fired upon the flag over Sumter reverberated through the glens and valleys of the 1 ... ■ f^ o i"' '■V r!' 1 ■ © fe ^f 1 1 ■ ,» .\^ s \ : Y. i it' i if',r i\' iik }l ! i 152 THE SOUTH — ITS RESOURCES AND WANTS. North and swept over the broad prairies of the distant Northwest, these su.ne false and unprincipled friends of the South, in obedience to the demands of popular sentiment, flung to the breeze, at their dwellings and places of busi ness, the resplendent flag of the tJnion; and, with Fer- nando Wood at their head, made themselves prominent in the work of recruiting and organizing troops for your sub- jugation. How did they aid you? The whole North gave you two soldiers whose names are known — Gustavus W. Smith and Mansfield Lovell! Can any of you name a third ? [Shouts of " no, no."] I'll tell you what they did give )'ou, though. They gave you what the little girl, who was asked to contribni^ tW value of the sugar she used to the missionary cause, gave. She replied, "No, grandpa, I don't think I can do that; but I'll tell you what I will do. I'll give the cause my prayers." [Laughter.] They gave your cause their prayers, and, as if fearing they might prove effective, hastened to meet their neighbors and swear they had done no such thing! [Immense cheering.] A liopelcas minority in Congress throughout the war, unable to influence, much less to control a single act of legislation, they made speeches for distribution through the South, as if to encourage you in your hopeless .struggle, so that when it ended you should be utterly exhausted. In so far, his- tory will hold the North — csj)ecially the Democratic party of the North — rn of graves, in which sleep the best and bravest of both .sections, are chargeable to the South. It withdrew the questions involved from the forum of diplo- macy and legislation, and submitted the-j-P to war's last dread arbitrament. To prepare the way t<^ this, its con trolling Sj "ritshad kept the mass of the people in profound and degrading ignorance. Each State having re(;eived large grants of land for educational purposes, none of them had provided schools for the people. The laws of each State prohibited, by penal statutes, the education of the slave population. This was inevitable. Intelligence and culture are incompatible with slavery ; the penalty God attaches to the crime of holding a brother in bondage is that ne who is so held shall be of little value to him who hoV ' b^n ; and sluggish indolence is, like ignorance, the irevitabie law of slavery. The absence of schools, the wau' of diversified fields of employment, de/raded the Ticu filiM ^ho, ling whites o ' the South, and the most eater- !!- THE SOUTH — ITS RESOURCES AND WANTS. 153 pr'isiiig of thcrn left the land of their birth to find happier homes. Thus the ioouth, whose great need was popula- tion to develop her vast and varied resources, and build up cities, towns, and villages along her gre t lines of transit, and thus increase the value of her i.nds and diminish the cost of travel and transportation, was constantly expelling her own children. Nor did she welcome emigration. The German, the Irishman, the Englishman, and the Scotchman quit the scenes of their childhood and the graves of their fathers in pursuit of liberty and a higher degree of physi- cal coml'ort than is accorded the laboring man in those lands. In their native homes they learn that in the North there is political equality for all, and that every i'air day's work done by man, woman, or child, is assured by the law of the land a fair (\iy's wages ; and that westward, to tbe last frontier, there is no village, however small, in wiiich the free school is not open tc every child. Thus attracted, they have come to the North and W'^st by millions. The immigration last year numbered more than 300,000, and added a sum greater than the total of our national debt to the wealth of the people whose nrmbers they swelled. I found this morning that I had wil i me by accident, a copy oC an address made to my neighbors, October 3d, 1856, from which, if it be only , o show you that I teach no new doctrine, I beg leave to submit a brief ex- tract : " I have another set of ilhistrations to give you, and I now speak not of slaves, but of the free wliite men of lie South. Men love their homes ; the place of their birth ; the institutions under v.hich they pass happy childhood, prosperous youth, ami criter into a suc- cessful career of manhood. There are thirteen milUons of Northen men from whom emigranls might go, while there are but six mil- lions of free people in the South, yet the census of ISoO found 609,iJ71 persons who were born in the slave States living in the free States, while only 206,638 persons barn in the free States were living in the slave States. Yes, my fellow-citizens, in 1850 there were 609,371 men and women of Southern birth living in the Northern States ; they had fled from the blessings of labor owned by capital. But you may say, ' they had come to the cities to en- f^age in commerce ; liad come to puroue the artu in Pluladelphiu. New York, Boston ; had come to find employment in al! the vari- ous pursuits of our great cities.' Let us see, therefore, liow many neople born in the planting States had emigrated into two States ot the North — Indiana and Illinois — in which there are no great cities ; in which you may say there are no universities ; in which the arts have scarcely been developed ; in which commerce has scarcely a footing ; wliich are two of the young grazing and grain-growing « i « 'In "SO s. a) J:-t '4 !} f » 154 THE SOUTfl — ITS RES0URCK9 AND WANTS. •<•*, States of the North.* In 1850 there were in those two Htates 47,026 who had emigrated from North Carolina, 8,231 from Hoiith Caro- lina, 2102 from (Jeorgia, 45,0;{7 from 'I'cnnessee, 1730 from Alabama, 777 from Mississippi, 701 from Louisiana, 107 from Texas, 44 from Florida ; making the total of those who had left these nine planting States to go to those two agricultural and grazing States, 105,7;")r)," Do you reproach me and others of the North that we «lid not in those daj's come and lay these arguments before you ? Ah, my friends, you forget the terrible despotism you had established over yourselves. The fact that I en- tertained the opinions I am expressing made the climate south of the Potomac and Ohio so insalubrious for me that I did not dare breathe it for an hour. When you raised the cr_y of abolitionist against a Northern man, beings, with hearts as unrelenting as the blood-hound, pur- sued him to his death. Not only did you prohibit men who would have gladly sat with you at your hearthside and taken sweet counsel with you, from entering your beautiful region, but, throrgh the arts of your politicians and the demagoguery of the Democratic leaders of the North, you hunted ihem to their very homes. While de- livering the very address from which I have read to you, a shower of eggs was hurled at me by pro-slavery Demo- crats ; and my only consolation was to thank God that the American Eagle laid fresh eggs at that season of the year. [Great laughter and applause.] Nor was this conduct as- cribable to individuals only. The State of South Caro- lina seized from the deck of their vessels colored citizens of .':ber States who chanced to enter the ports of that State, and incarcerating them as felons, made them charge- able with costs and jail fees, and in default of the pay- ment of these, sold tliem and their posterity as slaves. And when, what Southern men called the Sovereign State of Massachusetts, sent one of her ablest and most venera- ble lawyers to raise the question of law arising out of this conduct, before a South Carolina court, the people of Charleston — not the roughs, but those who could do such an act with highest courtesy — the very pinks of the chiv- alry of that city, gave that distinguished man and the ac- coni[)lished daughter that accoaipanied him the option of departure from the city in twenty-four hours or tar and feathers and jolly rides on rails. Again, it is known to * It must be romombcred that these remarks were made in 1856, and are wholly inapplicable to those progressive States now. mx THK SOUTH — ITS RESOURCES AND WANTS. 155 all tho North, though perhaps you may not be awaro of the fact, that the State of Georgia, by solemn act of her Legislature approved by the Governor, and to be found among her printed laws — offered a reward of five or twenty thousand dollars, I forget which, for the body, dead or alive, of a citizen of Massachusetts, who had never en- tered that State, or been so far South as the capital of his country ; but who had had the temerity to publish, through the columns of his own paper, his disbelief in the divinity of slavery, and an assertion of the right of every woman to the possession of the body of every living child that had cost her the pangs of maternity. You treated difference of opinion as the most heinous of crimes; and from each and all of the Southern States, native citizens, and some of them men of just distinction, were driven by threats of popular violence. Such was the case witb the Grimkes, of South Carolina ; Underwood, of Virginia; and Plelper and Professor Iledrick, of North Carolina. Why did we not come and reason with you? Do you forget that you would not receive nor permit your neigh Ix/f^ t' receive, through the post-office, any pai)ers or periodic ■ that did not pander to your prejudices? The receipt through the post-office of the Liberator^ the Anti-Hlavery Slandanl, the Independent, the New York Tribune, or any leading Republican paper, by one cf your neighbors, branded him as an Abolitionist, and rendered his life inse- cure among you. The Nortli would gladly have discussed the question. It opened its public halls to your orators, and its people swarmed to hear them. It received your papers, and its conscientious people were amazed at the infatuation which was driving the two sections headlong into war. But I come not to bandy crimination or recrim- ination with you. There is "ample room and verge enough " for that between you and the leaders of the Democracy of the North. But for myself and the Repub- lican party, I say : shake not your gory locks at us, for you cannot say we did it. You spurned our counsels ; and though we would gladly have embraced you as brothers, you refused to listen to our fraternal prayers. Happily, these things belong to the past. Having en- dured the agony of four years of war, conducted with un- equalled valor, and on a scale of unequalled magnitude, we rise as a new nation, to perfect the dontinental temple of freedom and equ.aUty, tlit fouudatious of which were so fcr; ■M 156 THE SOUTH — ITS RESOURCES AND WANTS. i 'i "wisely laid by our forefatliers. From those t'ounJationa we have removed the. only two faulty stones — those on which were inscribed the fatal words, Compromise and Slavery. 'In all this broad land no man now owns his brother man. [Sensation.] You, men of color — you citi- zens of Louisiana, who wear the livery of Afric's bur- nished sun — give thanks unto God that he has tui'iit-d and overturned, until the humblest of you stands erect in the majesty of free manhood, the equal of your fellow man before the laws of your country, as you axa before the beneficent Father of all. He guided the pen of Abraham Liucoln while writi'ig the proclamation of emancipation. [Great enthusiasm and applause.] And they who enacted the civil rights bill and the military bill, to seouiv the enforcement of its provi- sions, went reverently to Him for counsel, and recognized His sovereign presence as in their midst. The charter of your ftvedom is from Him. Freedom is His last, best blessing to you. Maintain it by sleepless vigilance, and by 9itiy requisite sacrifice ; for in surrendering it you will be alike recreant to man and God. See to it, that a common school system, broad enough as is that of the North, to embrace every child born in the Commonwealth, or brought into it by emigration, is establi-shed by the constitution soon to be framed for your State. See to it, that the press is free ; nd be tolerant of opinion, for by the collision of opinion li the truth elicited. Welcome among you the people of every clime and nation; and remember that the prosj)erify of the State is but the aggregate prosperity of the individual citizens thereof. Will you not do this? [We will, yes, yes.] I know you will. And as this as- surance thrills me, I behold a vision grauder than that of Columbus; for I know that buliiud tlie islands that inter- rupted liis Westei'n voyage to the Indies lies a broad con- tinent, ,'weeping from the i-ock-bound coast of the storm- lashed Atlantic to the golden shores of the sleeping Pacific. [Applause.] And that from the Rio Grande to the per- petual snows of Mount Hood, it is inhabited by one peo- ple, who, though differing in origin, are homogeneous in language, thought and sentiment; and who, though the citizens of many States, each having its own constitution, recognize as supreme ont^ government, and that the freest yet devised by man. [Applause.] I cannot better illus- trate the value of this unity than by pointing to the future THE SOUTH— ITS RESOlRCES AND WANTS. 157 of your own beautiful city. It is the entrepot for the com- merce of the Gulf, the trade of which proaoeds under our bright flag. The river that winds around you carries to the sea the waters of sixiv thousand tniles of river course. The valley it drains Will sustain a population of five hun- dred millions of people. They will be free, intelligent, enterprising, and given to commerce; and your city will be the centre of their great con\mercial exchanges. [Ap- plause.] But as I look through the vista of a brief future, the glories of the great cities of antiquity fade away, and Florence, Venice and Genoa, recur to me as but so many ^listant villages. Not Paris or London will be your equal ; for behind each of them lies a territory less in extent and resources than any one of a score of American States ; while behind New Orleans lie the resources — agricultural, mineral and manufacturing — of a territory broader and richer than all Europe, and a people destined at no distant day to be more numerous than the people of Kuroj)e. And when those days shall come, loyal men of Louisiana, the name of Abraham Lincoln will be uttered with reverence by every lip, and all men will give thanks to God that lie so ordered His providence as to establish political equality throughout the enduring Union of American States. [Tremendous applause followed this eloquent reference to the man whom all in the audience delight to hear spoken of.] My colored friends, permit me to thank you for the enthusiasm with which you greeted my advent among you. If at any time I have suffered for you, you have abundantly rewarded me by this exhibition oi' your gene- rous appreciation. Permit me now to address a few re- marks more especially to those who have not known as von, the woes of slavery or the consequences of disfranchise- ment under popular government. My white fellow-',' ti- zens, let me say to you that you are charged with a di ty ^grander than is often confided to a generation of mei. \ ou are to unite with those whom through life you havo been taught to despise as an inferior race, in organizing a party in Louisiana in harmony with the great Kepnblican party of the North. That party is based on, vivified and cemented by two sentiments, love for the Union, and devo- tion to human freedom. Its whole creed may be summed up i;_ the phrase, perfect and indestructible unity of the States, with the perpetual maintenance of the largest lib- erty of the individual citizen, consistent with the general f1-.. t.f'1 U M MIJW Hlifff 158 TUE SOUTH — ITS RKSOURCES AND WANTS. weKhre. If vou fail to givofull scope and power to citlier of these sentiments, you will in so fjir fall short of tlie duo performance of your mission. Justice is blind, and knows uo color; and justice is the law of the Republican party. In enfranchising our fellow citizens of African descent we must accept them as entitled to all the rights, privileges, and amenities of citizenship. We must not give a mere intellectual assent to the propositions on which we base our action ; but accept them as animating and controlling sentiments. Rights not guaranteed by daily practice are not secured. P'stablished habit is the only sure safeguard of personal liberty in our laud. The Constitution of the United States has always guaranteed to every citizen the rights, privileges, and imhuinities of citizenship to the citizens of each State in the several States ; but when, be- fore this war, was I, or men who hold opinions in common with me, safe in attempting to exercise that constitutional right in any slave State? As I have shown you, dominant sentiment may override constitutional and legal provisions. Rest not, therefore, your experiment upon the embodiment in constitution or law of abstract principles; but see to it that they are embodied practically in the organization of primary caucus and convention, and ultimate organizaiion of parish, city, and State. If you rise to the prompt ac- complishment of this great work the day of strife will have passed, and the American sword may be beaten into a ploughshare. A homogeneous people, hound together hy the immense diversity of their varied interests, by the most unrestrained personal intercourse and the freest inter- change of thought through a free press, will find no issues that legislation or diplomacy may not settle. And a nation that, in its infancy, put into the field, and kept there for four years, during which the bloodiest and best-contested battles of history were fought, armies each numbering more than a million of men, need fear no foreign war. [Ap- plause.] The prestige of this war is at the back of our European diplomacy, and if we listen to the voice of rea- son in our demands, American questions will be matters of easy and speedy solution by the courts of Europe. Let us, then, not grieve over the past, but bating no jot of heart or hope move onward in our great work, and the struggling millions of Europe will find encouragement in our labors, and innumerable posterity will rise to revere our country's flag, and call those who fell martyrs iu its m i 11 'M.. :S .;; H THE SOUTH — ITS RKHOURCES AND WANTS. 159 maintenance, and those wlio tlirough tlie civil strife com- pletod their work, blessed among men, [Long and con- tinued applause.] ADDRESS AT MONTGOMERY, ALABAMA. May, 16th, 1887, as Rki'outed in the Montgomery Sentinel. I HAVE not come into your State, fellow-citizens of Ala- bama, for the j)urposc of fomenting di.scord between ela.sses or races, or States or sections, but in the hone that possibly by some poor service T may heal the wounds of my bleed- ing country, and promote the welfare of all her citizens. We have gone through a war unparalleled in history by the breadth of its theatre, the number and valor of its armies, and the results of which in -he long future of our country are destined to be more beneficent than those of any other war. While we rejoice ♦/hat it is over, and de- plore the fact that it could not hav3 been averted, we have the satisfaction of knowing that the sufferings attendant upon it uiark the birth of a new and grander nation thaL the world has yet seen. I know not why it is, nor can piiilosophers divine, that Providence has decreed tluit all our great blessings shall be purchased by suffering. As I remarked the other evening in New Orlean.s, a mother only can tell the pains and agonizing doubts that are requited by the first smiles which play over the face of her sleeping infant. It is through the storm of battle, the horrors of shipwreck upon the tempest-tossed ocean, or the weary pains of protracted sickness, that we pass from the woes of life to the bliss of immortality ; and we go to the garden, the agony and the cross, for our highest and most endur- ing hopes. Let us, therefore, hope that in this war we have gone through the throes of the birth of a new and nobler nation. I have travelled from my distant home as far South as New Orleans, and thence hither, and from the time that I passed the Ohio I have been constantly and painfully im- pressed with the difference between the country and the condition of the people South of that river and the Poto- mac, and those to the North of them. The results are IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) ??^^ 1.0 1.1 ■u Bii 12.2 £? US 12.0 111 IM IL25 IHU 1.6 vV^ ^ Photographic Sciences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. M580 (716)«72-4503 >'*<^ V 160 THE SOUTH— ITS RESOURCES AND WANTS. I I apparent. But the causes of the contrast lie deeper than you think. You ascribe them to the war, but they existed be- fore the war began. Nature has been more profusely lavish of her gifts to you throughout the whole broad South than to us. You have natural wealth in infinite abun- dance and variety ; but much of our land is sterile, and throughout the North man has to toil for every dollar he gets. Our labor is more diversified and is gentler than that of your mere laborers in the field ; and in spite of your greater natural wealth our people are richer than yours, are bettor educated, and enjoy more of the conveniences, comforts, and luxuries of life than have ever been accessible to the people of the South. Alabama has more natural wealth than all the New En- gland States together. Alabama abounds in iron, while New England is without any, save a little bed of ore on the borders of Connecticut and Massachusetts, so small that it would scarcely be noticed amid the broad veins of heaven-enriched Alabama. She has no coal, while coal and limestone in immense deposits lie in close proximity to your beds of iron ore. New England can grow but little wheat, corn or rye. So thin and sterile is the soil of Massachusetts in many places that her people sow rye, not for the grain but the straw, to manufacture into hats and other articles ; and so wide apart do the stalks grow, that at the proper season children find employment in plucking them stalk by stalk, and laying them down perfectly straight, that those who are to work them into fabrics may have them at their greatest length. In my own dear Pennsyl- vania, it will be late in August before the wheat is ripe, but yours in favored parts of the State is now ready for the sickle. But ample and diversified as are the agricultural re- sources of Alabama, she has deemed it wise to devote her- -self to one single crop, (cotton,) and depend on other States for corn, hay, and other products of the soil. This was the great error of her people; for that State is richest, most prosperous, and independent that can supply all its wants within its own borders, and by the diversity of its productions provide remunerative employment for all its people. You should do this in Alabama. Every vegeta- ble grown in the North can be successfully produced upon some of the beautiful hillsides of your extensive State. Do you doubt this, and say, as one of your citizens said to THE SOUTH— ITS RESOURCES AND WANTS. 161 me, tliat you cannot raise root plants because of their ten- dency to run to woody fibre? I tell you that thia is be- cause your culture is artless, and because y«)U continuously raise crops that exhaust the soil and make no return to it in manures containing the elements you abstract. Invoke the aid of experience and science, and give to your land sufficient and appropriate food before you deny to a State so broad and varied in its topography and cli- mate any measure of productive power. But to return to the contrast between your State and New England. She has no copper, lead, or gold, while nature has given them all to Alabama with lavish hand. I have been surprised in the last hour by discovering, through the kindness of your Governor, your capacity to supply the country with sulphur. Many of you probably do not know, indeed, I apprehend that few of the best informed of you know, how primary an element of our life this is. A philosophic statesman has saiil tiiat the best test of the advance of a people in civilization was to be found in the quantity of crude brimstone consumed ^jer capita by its people. It enters into our chemicals, our cloths of all descriptions, and almost every department of science and the mechanic arts; and if you but develop your resources in that belialf, you will bring within your limits millions of dollars which we now send abroad every year for its pur- chase. But who knows what the resources of Alabama are? They have not been tested by experience or explored by science. When interrogated as to them by strangers, you tell them that you have the everglades or piney woods, tjio broad, rich cotton belt, the wheat growing region to the north of us, and north of it again, but still within your limits, pasture and cattle lands in the hill country. Inade- quate as this statement of your resources is, when you shall be able to proclaim it in connection with the fact that you have established a generous system of free schools, and secured by law fair wages for labor, millions of toiling men will come to dwell among you and alleviate the bur- dens that now oppress you. But how do you use these advantages? You have failed to avail yourselves of them, or to permit others to do so. Believe me, citizens of Alabama, when I say that I have not come to triumph in youi* depression, and do not wish to wound your sensibilities; but have come as a 11 T! ■ 1 • H:> >1! : i/ V • i ^ I ;i!n ' ! r^ ;62 THE SOUTH — ITS RESOURCES AND WANTS. . I ! ! ^1^- 'N^'' m.. '^ brother to reason with his brethren upon subjects in which they have an equal interest. The whole country is ours. It is yours and mine, and will belong to our posterity. Go with me to my cold and distant home, and you will not only find the stars that render that flag above you so resplendent as the symbol of your country's power, but gazing above the flag, in the darkness of the night, you will discover that the stars with which you are familiar here will look down upon you there and tell you that you arc still at home. It is, therefore, in the interest of our country that I .speak, when I ask you how you use the advantages with which nature has so bounteoulsy provided you ? and tell you that you have impoverished yourselves by treating them with contempt. We turn our coal and iron to most profitable account. You permit yours to slumber in their native earth. Availing ourselves of their power, one man with us does the work of a hundred with you. One little girl, tending a machine in a factory, will spin or weave more cotton in a day than one of your women will in a year by the ancient method of the wheel and the hand-loom still in use among you. You have not deemed your mineral wealth worthy of consideration. In your devotion to your peculiar system of labor you have forgotten that iron and coal are the most potent agents of modern civilization. Mere muscular power has become a thing of secondary consideration. Iron is the mu.scles of modern civilization, and coal, ignited coal — fire — is the nervous force that animates it. What is it that drags the long train of heavily-freighted cars, hour after hour, and day after day, at a speed greater than that of the fleetest horse ? Is it not iron fashioned into a locomotive? It was these rejected elements of your j^reatness that expanded my native city, a mere village in my childhood, into ft city of 700,000 prosperous inhabitants. In some of our workshops from 1500 to 2000 hands find employment, none of whom do heavy, muscular labor. We throw that species of labor on iron and coal. A little girl or woman watches a machine simply to see that no loose thread mars the smoothness of the fabric, and so earns good wages. Thus we provide for the widows and orphan daughters of our soldiers. In the heavier work- shops massive blooms are converted into finest plate or W THE SOUTH — ITS RESOURCES AND WANTS. 168 bar iron by the trip-hammer or rolling-mill, which steam operates, and men or boys do but guide. Few of you -iave ever seen a trip-hammer at work. In its full force it will flatten at a single blow a rounded mass of heated iron ; but its power may be so controlled that it will crack and yet not break an egg. We strive to develop and convert to immediate profit our coal and iron beds by connecting our city and great thoroughfare railroads with roads from every pit's mouth, and have thus tempted from England, Scotland, Wales, and the iron districts of Belgium and Germany, the mo.st skilful of their miners and workmen in metals. Will you notice how this has enriched others than the parties directly concerned ? Lands within the corporate limits of Philadelphia, which twenty years ago were under the plow are now selling as town lots, at from seven thou- sand to twenty thotisand dollars per acre, and others at from sixty thousand to a hundred thousand dollars per acre, and are covered by palatial residences or stores, crowded with stocks of goods gathered from every quarter of the globe. While we thus add to our wealth we cheapen the con- veniences and comforts of life. Let me illustrate this by some facts drawn from other States. The railroads from New York to Philadelphia, and from Memphis to Grenada, Miss., are both links in great lines running from North to South. They differ in length but a few miles, being one precisely, and the other nearly a hundred miles. Over that between Philadelphia and New York eight trains pass each way daily ; over the other but one. From Memphis to Grenada the time is six hours and a half; between the other points it is less than four hours. From Philadelphia to New York the fare is three dollars, and we complain of it as extort' nate ; but on the other road it is eight dollars. The traveller in either of the Nothern cities, anxious to reach the other, need not wait over three hours at any time. At Memphis or Grenada he may be compelled to wait nearly twenty-four hours. In view of these facts may I not ask whether I do wrong in suggesting that there is something in our experience worthy of your study and adoption?* ..... * The Philadelphia citizen of 1870 travels five miles for 61 cents over the safest and smoothest roads of our surprising modern civilization. Of these mag nificent oity thoroughfares there are one hundred and seventy-five miles in 11 m m 164 THB SOITIT — ITS RKSOURCKS •Nl> WANTS. I In Philndelphia, almost overy temperate and industrious laboring man is the owner of the house in which his family dwells. Ho may still owe part of the purchase money, ajid if 8o, he has an additional incentive to industry and economy. Young people who do not own, rent, each family a separate tenement, and he is regarded as a bad citizt'ii who builds a working man's home and does not provide it with a bathroom, into which hot and cold water aro introduced. This is deemed essential to cleanliness and health In view of the assemblage by which I am sur- rounded, can I give offence by remarking that there is a vast difference between the comforts enjoyed by your laboring people and ours? My native State — indeed, I may say, the whole North, from Maine to Kansas — is divided into districts, not con- gressional, not senatorial, not legislative, not judicial, but school districts; and every man throughout each State is taxed in proportion to his wealth, to build schools, furnish books, and pay teachers, so that every child, however poor, that is brought into the State, may receive a good elementary education ; and we expect the bright apprentice boy of to-day to become the master of an establishment larger and more perfect than that in which he acquires his trade. VV^e hold all places of honor or profit open to all our people, and thus stimulate every boy and man to give the State the best results of his industry, enterprise, or genius. Thus we draw from, or rather create upon even the sterile soil of New England, products that bring us in return the best results of the industry of all other people ; and more cloth, more writing, printing, and wall paper, and greater varieties of well-prepared food, are consumed by our peo- ple per capita, than by those of any other section of our own or any other country in the world. How are we to account for this difference? I behold around me a laboring population, not only poor but desti- Philadelphia alone, over which last year nearly sixty-five mHlions of pauaDgers were tfHMported. The COM of these oity railroads was six millions of dcnart; their annual re- ceipis' are 'three millions eight hundred thousand; they run daily thirty thou- sand miles over our streets ; they employ /our ihou*and kortee, tehick coneume eleven Ihoitnand («»« of May and ticenty million pounds of grain. There are now three hundred and fifty miles of paved streets in Philadelphia. — Addretiof Col. J. W. /Wiie^, July 4th, 1871. The working people are the ohief patrons of these roads, and thus furnish our farmers with markets for horses, hay nnd oats, which they would not eqjoy if under free trade our wares were made in foreign countries. THE SOUTH — ITS RKS0URCE3 AND WANTS. 165 tute ; almost homeless, and untutored in all but the simplest arts of life. Tempting as are your boundless resources and genial climate, no emigrants come to settle in your midst. You have built no great city, New Orleans being the largest city of the South. Your cities would be only first class towns or villages in the North. You have no New York, Philadelphia, Brooklyn, Boston, Baltimore, Cincinnati, St. Louis or Chicago. Yet, north of the Poto- mac and Ohio are no such boundless and diversified stores of wealth as you po.ssess. You have the choice cotton fields of the world ; the rice, cane-.sugar, hemp and tobacco fields of the United States are yours; and on some of your hillsides, or in your smiling valleys you may grow every plant or find every mineral that is native to the country east of the Rocky Mountains. How, my fellow-citizens, shall we account for the poverty and depression of the South, and the general and growing prosperity of the North? We can only do it by turning from nature to society. Our prosperity is the result of our development of man, by giving him a fair field for the exercise of all his energy and talents; and you lag behind because your system repressed man's energies, restrained his enterprise, and contracted the field of his usef Iness. This must be the cause, for in all other respects our policy has been the same. The same flag represented our country's power and beneficence. In all other respects our institutions were the same. The same legislative, executive and judi- cial organization, the same division of the State into coun- ties, townships, cities and boroughs. The one difference was that we knew at the North what you failed to perceive — that the boy who could read and write was worth more than one of equal strength and age who could not; and that the boy who saw before him the chance for wealth or distinction would strive to attain one or the other, and by study, industry and economy, endeavor to gather capital with which to labor for himself rather than for another. Having provided for the education of all their children, the people of the Northern States made ample provision to secure a fair day's wages for every fair day's work that might be done by man or woman. But you may say this would affect only the people in cities. This is your mistake, and has V ien to you a fatal delusion. The landholder whose estate has been absorbed by a growing town or city has often received more for ? K'^f 4.1 m r\ Muu if -'' 1 Um '>' mM , y'*t \^ h ij I 'nm 168 THE SOUTH — ITS RESOURCES AND WANTS. littlo building lot than bis whole estate had cost him ; and he who had invested the earnings of years in a poor lioine in the suburbs has been enriched by the city growing be- yond him, and its increasing commerce or manufactures giving value to his lot. Thus, too, are our farmers en- richeu. I know not what land is worth in a circle of ten miles around your beautiful city. I doubt whether forty or fifty dollars would be too low an estimate, but you would not buy land in the North as near as large a city, with such wonderful capabilities, for less than hundreds of dollars. So it would be here, would you connect your city with the neighboring coal and iron districts, and build furnaces, forges, rolling mills, machine shops, and facto- ries, and availing yourselves of the magnificent water power at Wetumka, spin and weave your own cotton, and create an Alabama Lowell or Manchester. You would then learn what your rich lands are capable of. Nobody can estimate the agricultural value of the stimu- liiuts created by great towns and the refuse of factories. You have grown cotton until you have extracted the very life from the lighter soils of your States. As I passed through Mississippi I saw wide stretches of land so ex- hausted by cotton that they would not produce fibrous roots enough to prevent the soil from washing away. Soil was gone, and the wash had left little mounds, that, in the light of the setting sun, looked like red tongues of fire rising from the earth to avenge its wrongs. Throughout the North crops are alternated, and in the neighborhood of cities, or even of new manufacturing towns, fields that had been exhausted by injudicious cul- ture until they yielded but ten or twelve bushels of wheat to the acre, have been reinvigorated, and now yield thirty bushels, as they did in their primitive condition. Make Montgomery a great city, and you will add to the wealth of every man within a circuit of a hundred miles. Let it be your ambition to raise a fair amount of cotton, but let it also be your desire to supply the States bounding the gulf with corn, and to send it and your cotton hence be- hind locomotives and over rails of your own "construction. Do not tell me that you have not laborers intelligent enough to assist you in this great work. I saw yesterday in your freedmen's schools abundant evidence of the in- correctness of this statement. I am very familiar with the public schools of the North, but I was profoundly astoa> THE SOUTH — ITS RESOURCES AND WANTS. 107 islied by what I saw among the younger pupils of the f'reedrnen's schools of this city, and say without reserva- tion that I never saw in any school pupils of equal age whose attainments and general intelligence exceeded those of two, a boy and girl, one six and the other seven years old, who I examined yesterday. I doubted the fairness of the exhibition, and believed that they had been specially prepaved for it, but taking the examination into my own hands, and testing them in spelling, reading, geography, and other branches, was not only convinced of the honesty of the public exhibition, but amazed at the proficiency of the children. Tell me not that the race from which they spring is wanting in intellect or adaptation, or that their little hands will not one day be competent to the most delicate or ingenious labor. Yes, gentlemen, you have competent laborers at hand for the wide diversification of your pursuits. To demonstrate this, you have but to give poor people, regardless of color, a fair field and generous inducements. I reiterate that I am endeavoring to wound none of your susceptibilities in speaking thus pointedly to you. I am simply laboring to induce you to enter into generous competition with us at the North. If you will, you may be blessed beyond us as much as we are beyond any other people. I speak the more freely because I once shared your pre- judices, but I long since came to know that we can only be happy as we accord to every other man, however hum- ble he may be, every right that we demand from others for ourselves ; and I seek in vain for any other cause for the disparity between the two sections than our respect for man's rights, and your contempt for man as man. Let me then implore you to enter earnestly upon the work of re- constructing your State upon the plan provided by Con- gress. Let not freedom and equality be forced upon you by others. Accept the inevitable and find in it a good providence. Some of you may ask, as others have done, whether the military bill is a finality. That^ the controlling minds of the South must determine. It was so meant by Congress, if it was fairly accepted by the South. No further con- gressional legislation touching the South will be had, un- less by a spirit of resistance on the part of the Southern people its necessity is made manifest.* I ;•' (!••! i 1 ! *Andrew Juhnson's determination to nullify the reconstruotion ucta bnd not then been disoluied. 168 TIIK SOUTH- ITS KKS0URCK8 AND WANTS. a W^ f I am gratified in being nblo to report that I have found generally throughout the South a generous spirit, a reudi- ness to acknowledge the right of all to travel freely, and tt> discuHs with frankness and candor the ii^sucs of the day; and though in some quarters a diftorent .spirit prevailn, I believe tliat in five years the South will be more liberal than tho North has been. Now a word to you, my colored fellow-citizens: you me free, and it is your duty, every one of you who can lind employment, to labor, and to practice temperance and econ- omy. If there be among you one able-bodied man who can find employment at wages, who wastes his time in idleness, he is committing a crime against himself and his race. Freedom means the assured right of a man to earn his livelihood, and to manage his aftUirs as he may deem best. I cannot better illustrate what liberty is than by a little incident that happened one day while I was walking with a friend, his arm resting in mine. He sud- denly withdrew it, and I turned to discover why he had done so. There lay upon its back upon tho ground a broad, green-backed insect, which the boys in our sec- tion call the gold bug, kicking upward for the ground. Working tho end of his walking-cane under it, he gave it a toss, and it lit on its feet. "Now go. poor devil," said he ; "hoe your own row ; you have just as good a chance as any other bug of your kind." Liberty is to each of you the a.ssurance that the Gov- ernment will secure to every one of you the right to hoe his own row with as good a chance as any other bug of his kind. Do you ask me what is your kind? It is man- kind. I hold that there is but one race of men, and if there be two, then one of two things is certain : that this Southern sun plays the deuce with the African's complex- ion, or there are large numbers of ex-slaves in the freed- men's schools that are not there by virtue of African descent. Freedom establishes the fact that a good man is better than a bad one ; that a wise man is better than a fool ; that a learned man is better than one who is content to pass his life in ignorance ; that an active man will win the race and take the prize from an indolent one. If you have a dollar, freedom will secure it to you ; and if you acquire land, freedom will protect you in its enjoyment and possession. You have not always had the right to protect your wife, but freedom not only gives that right, TMK SOUTH — ITS UKSoUKCKS ASD WANT3. 1A9 but makes it your duty to o people of tho country into indupendent lundliohlurs. TliUHit '\a pledged to timiii* tain the equality of every man before tho laws; t«) xeeure the largest liberty to individuals consistent with tiie public welfare, and to preserve an indivisible Union from tho Gulf to tho northern boundary, and from ocean to ocean. Had tho statesmen of tho South, when slavery was over- thrown and the armies of the Confederacy surrendered, accc[>tud the situation cordially, and legislated for man as man, Congress would not })robably have interfered with their local legislation. But when State after State enacted Vagrant Laws and Apprentice Laws, by which slavery was to be perpetuated under a new guise, and, failing to provide for the education of tho people, they denounced as "school marms" and "nigger teachers" and persecuted the noble women who, sacrificing everything else but Christian duty, hastened hero to prepare the ignorant freecbnen for tho proper enjoyment of tho now condition upon which they were entering, Congress found a high duty devolved upon it, and did not shrink from its per- formance. Believing that a Democratic llepublic can exist securely only so long as tho equal rights of all are guarded and maintained, it exhibited its willingness to exercise its amplest powers in this behalf. The people of tho North want peace and amity to per- vade the whole land, but they feel that these blessings, with general prosperity, can only be assured when all shall acknowled'"} that the protection of the liberty of the citizens is the highest duty of tho Government. Citizens of Montgomery, I thank you for the courtesy and attention with which you have listened to me. You have heard tho remarks I intended to make to the citizens of Mobile ; and though some of you may deem thetn in- sulting and incendiary, you will hardly say, as the })eoplc of that city did, that I ought to be shot for attempting to utter them. ADDRESS AT PIIILADKLPHIA, PENNA. Delivered June 17th, 1867, Reported for the Inquirer. My Friends, Neighbors, and Corstituents : I am profound- ly grateful for this demonstration of your aftectionate % m ' ' -Ml 172 THE SOUTH — JTS RESOURCES AND WANTS. ■''/ ' iii interest. I never knew how sacred that word home, so felicitously uttered by Mr. Pierson, was, until during my recent absence from you. When cowering before more than a hundred bullets, or while my body was shielded from them by those of two negroes, who perilled their lives to save mine, I realized how dear were home, kindred, and friends. I left you at tho invitation of the Governor of Louisiana and the Mayor of New Orleans to visit that distant State and city, hoping that I might serve our dis- tracted country, and eager to view that nearly one-half of our country, from whicli, by reason of my love of personal liberty, I had so long been excluded. I did not dream of danger. Others spoke of it, but I scoffed at the idea. J went, bearing no hatred to any man ; but believing that the truths wliich for the last eleven years I have been in the habit of proclaiming to you would be specially useful to the people of that section, I gladly availed myself of the opportunity of uttering them kindly and courteously in their midst; and, my friends, throughout my extended excursion I was received with all the kindness and courtesy the people were able to bestow upon me, save in one city. I therefore beg you not to charge the murderous spirit of the Mobile mob to the Southern people at large. [Applause.] That outrage was due more largely to Andrew Johnson, the reactionary President of the United States, than even to the municipal authorities of Mobile or the mob they should have held in subjection. The chief promoter of that murderous riot was a recreant Northerner, who had bee'» sent to that city by the Pesident as assessor of internal revenue, Colonel Mann, formerly of Michigan, who owns the Mobile Times. That paper had, in advance of my arrival, excited the passions of the Southern people against me, and in an article on the day preceding my arrival, every allegation in which Colonel Mann admitted, in the presence of two gentlemen now present, to be wholly false and unfounded, had inflamed the passions of the Irish citizens of Mobile against me. But not to detain you with the details of that sanguinary scene, let me say that the outbreak was provoked by no indiscreet word of mine. It had been planned before 1 went to the meeting, if not before I arrived in Mobile, and the man immediately behind me would have been shot through the head, as he was, and another not five feet from me would have been murdered, as he was, at the preconcerted signal had I been THE SOUTH — TT3 HEhOlinCKS AND WANTS. 173 reading the Litany or the Lord's Pniyer. I am told it has been sneeringly said that 1 got under a table. I have never been a soldier or ^xiglit reputation at the cannon's mouth, and very freely admit that, when bullets were whizzing by and puttering against the wall behind me, I would have thanked Almighty God for a bullet-proof table under which to creep. In Memphis, the people of which I addressed before go- ing to New Orleans, the elegant opera house was crowded. My audience represented every shade of complexion and political opinion. In many instances, at least, so well- known citizens of Memphis assured ine, the late rebel soldier, who had mot our army on many a field, and the enfranchised slave, sat side by side, and when I closed my extended address, my name and those of our city and State were heartily cheered. Had I been in some signal respect the nation's benefac- tor, I could not have been more honored in New Orleans than I was during my four days' stay in that gay and beautiful city. After I had addressed ten thousand of her people in Lafayette Square, I was generously entertained by (among others) a former citizen of Philadelphia, three of whose sons had served and one fallen in the Confederate army. From many such I received thanks for the frank- ness and courtesy of my speech. Ijeaving Mobile on a Government boat, which, I may remark, was provided for me not at my request, but because Gen. Sheppard, the post commandant, concurred in the judgment of the Union men of Mobile, that my friends and I would encounter insult, if not outrage, on the regular boat for Tensas, where we must take the cars, I proceeded to Montgomery. In that city, the picturesque site of which strikingly resembles that of Washington, we occupied rooms in the hotel from which the order to lire on Fort Sumter had gone forth, from the balcony of which the Confederate Declaration of Independence had first been read to the public, and on the balcony of which Stejihen A. Douglas had been pelted with eggs in 1860. Though pursued by the malignant falsehoods of the Mobile papers, I felt as safe and spoke as frankly in Montgomery as I now do at the threshold of my home. I addressed the citizens from the rear of the Capitol. The meeting numbered about three thousand people, white and colored, whose political opinions were quite as diverse '?ii ,l > ! ^ -fiif 174 THE SOUTH — ITS RESOURCES AND WANTS. as their complexions. Nothing disturbed the harmony of the meeting ; and at its close I was not only cheered, but leading citizens grouped about me and pressed me to visit other sections of the State and address the people. Con- spicuous among these was Judge Walker, chief justice, who was also chief justice of the Confederate State of Alabama. To comply with this request was impossible, and we started next morning for Atlanta, Ga., a beautiful and prosperous city, which, by its sudden rise from its ashes exceeds the fabled Phoenix. It is rapidly fulfilling its destiny, and be- coming a great railroad and commercial centre. We ar- rived there toward the close of a bright Sunday afternoon, and were received at the depot by a committee of promi- nent citizens, and thousands of colored people, in their clean gay Sunday attire. The next morning we visited the Storr's school for freedmen, and, large as is my famili- arity with the schools of the North, I am free to say that I have rarely seen a classified school superior to this. In the afternoon I addressed a meeting resembling that at Montgomery in numbers, character, and good order. The same generous expressions followed my remarks, and among the pleasant things said by the many who gathered around me was an offer by the Quartermaster General of the Confederate State of Georgia to pay my expenses if I would remain in the State and address the people of every county. My engagements in North Carolina required my early departure, and we left the next morning. On arriving at Augusta, Ga., we were met by Mayor Blodgett, and at the Planters' House, to which he conducted us, were waited upon by large numbers of citizens. I shall always regret that my engagements precluded the possibility of my com- plying with their urgent request to remain and address the citizens. Had I been able to do so, it would have deprived the Conservative papers of the stupid story they are circu- lating that General Pope had admonished me to speak no more in Georgia. In North Carolina I spoke at Charlotte, Concord, Salis- bury, and Greensboro, and my reception in each case was as cordial as at Memphis or New Orleans, but less demon- strative, because the cities were smaller. I came thence to Danville, Virginia, where I made my closing address to a very large assemblage of citizens. Thus, you will see, my THE SOUTH — ITS RESOURCES AND WANTS. 175 friends, that I crossed Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Louisiana, and leaving the last-named State by Lake Pont- chartrain and the Gulf, for Alabama, came thence through Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia, on the homeward trip, and mr«t have seen something of the South. I now know from observation and intercourse some- thing of its people, and I but say to you what I said to each of my audiences, large or small, in school-room, or from public platform, that the whole people will soon re- gard the terrible war through which we nave just passed as the throes and agony of the birth of a new, holier, and more blessed nation than the world has yet known. [Great applause.] I saw during my trip a country upon which the Almighty has with most lavish hand bestowed His richest material gifts. It is gorged with every mineral. I have scarcely been in a State that does not abound in coal, iron, copper, and lead, and have travelled over a region of country richly underlaid with gold-bearing quartz. Let me speak specially of North Carolina, because, as is equally true of Virginia, poverty has driven hundreds of thousands of her native citizens into exile. My friends. North Carolina is the most beautiful and richest portion of God's earth upon which my vision or feet have ever rested. You know that she produces cotton, rice, indigo, tar, pitch, tur- pentine, and superior timber. You know that her soil and climate are adapted to the cereals, wheat, corn, rye, buck- wheat, and oats. But you probably do not know that that State, long known as the Kip Van Winkle of the Union, from which more than fifty thousand free? white people have fled to the two States of Indiana and Illinois, is the land of wine and honey, the apple and peach, the fig and pomegranate, all of which I saw prospering in open field i and under the most artless culture. Its native vines made; the fortune of L'^^gworth, who carried cuttings thence. The wine-producing vineyards of Western Pennsylvania, around the base and on the islands of Lake Erie, and those scattered through Missouri, are from the cutting^i taken from the native vines of North Carolina. The Catawba, the Lincoln, the Isabella, and richer than all the Scuppernong, of which, as it has not yet been successfully transplanted. Eastern North Carolina has the monopoly. There it grows spontaneously as a weed. ;"!M' I F. ki ■ • M^; ifii 176 THE SOUTH — ITS KESOITRCKS AND WANTS. .tih ; The woods and h ill-sides teem with the richest honey- bearing flowers, and the bees invite you to put up but a rude box, that they may reward your kindness with the swc^et- est treasure. There is not a vegetable we pnxluce that will not thrive in North Carolina, and under these abound- ing stores of agriciiltund wealth, a belt, ranging from forty to one hundred miles wide across the entire State, is so riclily underlaid with gold that a person with a common frying pan may wash the sands of many of the rivuKsts and make from one to three dollars per day. My friends, as 1 travelled from day to day through this native wealth and beauty I saw how sin had driven man out of Para- dise, for never had I seen such poverty as I found in North Carolina, save in South Carolina, Alabama, and Mississippi, where people are starving in the midst of nature's richest bounties. You cannot comprehend and cre: B •;;!'■■ ;lil 178 THE SOUTH — IT8 RESOURCES AXD WANTS. con, and carry them on your shoulder to your distant home. The woman of whom I was speaking was not probably a lazy woman. She knew nothing of our agricultural im- plements or methods, but was doubtless regarded by her neighbors as an adept in Southern agriculture. Like her neighbors, whose lands would not produce cotton, or who did not own laborers to cultivate and pick it, she had planted her exhausted acres with corn, and when that sin- gle crop failed the country was famine-stricken, as Ireland was when rot assailed the potato. Yet we had eaten, the day before, at Concord, but thirty miles distant, at the hos- pitable table of Mr. McDonald, an old Pennsylvanian, but long a citizen of North Carolina, a variety of delicious vegetables, among which were potatoes as mealy as can be grown on our virgin hill sides. The people of whom I speak had been taught to believe that cotton was the one thing to the production of which the South should devote herself, and that corn, as food for " inules and niggers," might, with propriety, be raised when cotton could not. A former Southern leader said to me : " We bought niggers and mules to raise cotton, and raised cotton to buy niggers and mules," and I good hu- moredly replied, " Yes, and your continuous culture c. cotton having eaten up your land, your negroes and mules Avere about to eat you when you began the war." [Laugh- ter and applause.] Thus it came that destitution and despair brood over the sunny South, while its unequaled Avater-power runs to waste, and its widely-diffused and in- exhaustible mines of gold, silver, copper, lead, iron, etc., etc., and coal to work them, lie undisturbed where nature deposited them. There are in North Carolina, as the census shows, 47,000 white adults who cannot read, and in Virginia 74,000. These figures, I apprehend, indicate the general condition of the South in this respect. In their ignorance the masses have been swayed to their ruin by the wealthy and ambi- tious men who dwell among them. They will gladly en- rich themselves by adopting our methods and pursuits when they come to understand them. When I told them that they worked harder than we, and at more exhausting labor ; that we lifted the toil that bowed them from the shoulders of man and devolved it upon coal and iron, and that without swinging the heavy scythe we made machinery THE SOUTH — ITS RESOURCES AND WANTS. 179 mow and reap our fields, many of them looked incredu- lous. To sustain my point I invited their attention to what they had all seen, that ingeniously contrived mass of iron, a locomotive, and begged them to note how it would, when animated by a little water from one of their brooks, and a little coal ft-om one of their abounding beds, under the guidance of a single man, move, at a speed greater than that of the race horse, masses of freight which their mules and negroes could not move. You ask what are the chances of improving these peo- ple ? The great difficulty in the way is their indifference to or contempt for education. In this they contrast most strangely with the freedmen and their children. The white people seemed to be indifferent to education ; but at Memphis, New Orleans, Montgomery, Atlanta, the four cities of North Carolina, and Danville, Virginia, we visited freedmen's schools, and I do but state the simple truth when I say that if we do not establish schools, and contrive some means to induce the white people of the South to educate their children, the colored people will, in five years, be their superiors intellectually. By day the freedmen's schools are crowded with children from five years upward, and at night, after their day's work is over, with men and women. The story of one black man was this. That he had come into the school, and asked whether he could stay there until he could get an educa- tion. He was asked in return who would support him. "I will support myself while I stay," said he. "I got a little piece of land, and made a good 'crap,' and sold it well ; I have come for an education while my brother works the land on shares. I want to stay here until I can get an education." He will get an education, for he is the first scholar in one of the finest classified schools I ever saw. Another remarkable thing in these schools is the large proportion of white pupils found in them. This, doubtless, surprises you, after what I have just said. That is because you have not visited the cities of the South, and suppose that the question of the color of a person depends on pris- matic rays, pigments, or chemical combinations. That is a delusion. Throughout the South the color of a human being is not a question of science, but of tradition ; and the teachers of one freedmen's school, in which there was no pupil that had not been a slave, assured us that quite % ij^''iii hi, , '■k «;•»■ -• '« » 3i». \il 1 iDn- ■; ■-«( .1 ■lU !' ■5? ' ' ' f fTi. t;! \ 1 I lillll inmm 180 THE SOUTH — ITS RESOURCES AND WANTS. twenty-five per cent, of the scholars would be recognized as white people in any part of the North. This gives you the key to the abandonment by the Southern leaders of the narrow dogma that slavery was the true position of the negro and their assertion of the broad doctrine that slavery is the true position of the laborer. This occurred about 18-47, and I remember inviting the attention of such of you as then heard me to it, on the 16th of September, 1856, in my address at Spring Garden Hall. Promiscuous intercourse had expelled the blood of Africa from the veins of so many of their slaves that they were compelled to take this position or fail to cover by their logic their most valuable property. But you ask, '' What is the spirit and temper of the Southern people ? " There is, doubtless, a great deal of sullen discont(/nt. The time has not yet come when it would be safe to withdraw the military. This would be unsafe. Not but that there are large portions of the South that are well regulated and orderl}', without any troops within fifty or a hundred miles of them. I have referred to Danville. The nearest post to that town at which troops were stationed was seventy -three miles, and yet order pre- vails there and in the vicinity as perfectly as at the large stations. Intelligent people all over the South are wel- coming intercourse with the North, are sub.scribing to Northern Republican, agricultural, and religious newspa- pers, and are, in a political sense, asking earnestly and prayerfully, " What must we do to be saved ? " The colored people understand themselves and the ques- tions at issue thoroughly. They need no Northern mis- sionaries among them. If the North will educate them that is all they want, to free them from the sliackles of ignorance. The political work there will be better done by themselves than through Northern visitors. They have among them orators that would surprise those who assert the intellectual inferiority of the race. L. S. Berry, of Alabama, who did but know his letters when the war ended, is said to be one of the most remarkable orators in the United States ; and it is claimed that, if he makes a tour through the North, he will rival Fred. Douglass, with all his scholarship and foreign travel. In North Carolina a colored man named Harris has the reputation of being one of the ablest popular orators in the State. James Simms, the brother of Thomas Simras, the THE SOUTH — ITS RESOURGKS AND WANTS. 181 slnvo wlm was taken from Boston in triumph, is said to be gifted with the power of declamation and invective almost beyond any living American orator ; and the people in every town in which we wore entertained did not fail to bring to our notice men who were slaves two years ago, and whom they now cheerfully recognize as their political equals. One gentleman, speaking of a shoemaker, said to inu : " We always knew ne had better sense than his mas- ter, though he was a learned judge." Some of you have heard me called a " negro worship- per." If that phrase is intended to c , iracterise one who appreciated the intellect and character of the Africo- Ameri- can people, it was misapplied to me, I freely admit that I had done the race gross injustice by my highest estimate, and a few vears will demonstrate the diced minds. and a few vears will demonstrate the fact to all unpreju- Poor and ignorant as they were when they escaped from slavery, they i^re rapidly acquiring property. In this good work members of the Society of Friends are aiding them most judiciously by purchasing land in large tracts and selling it to them in small quantities at cost, and on time. I saw places nicely improved on the last payment for which seven years had been given, but which two years had served to free from indebtedness. They have neither eaten- nor wasted the seeds sent them by Northern benevolence or the Agricultural Department, but around each freed- man's home where these have gone is a vegetable garden, such as we observe in our rides in this vicinity. They are an improving people, and will, by their industry, enterprise and thrift, regenerate the South. My friends, some of you, tired of city life, may think of emigrating. To such, I say, put not a thousand or fif- teen hundred miles between your families and their old homes by going to the distant West or Northwest. There is a more genial climate and a country as rich and beauti- ful within a few hundred miles of your home, where you can buy agricultural and mineral lands at from two to five dollars an acre; in which you can buy land contiguous to towns destined, under the influence of freedom, soon to be large cities, whose railroad connections are already estab- lished, at from five to fifteen dollars an acre. In this re- gion your skill as machinists will be of immense value. Many of the rich gold and copper mines of North Caro- lina have already passed into the possession of Northern H' •I h. • I ;( i.K' .'? m It I .liiiiih'a;! f!;i«.; 182 THE SOUTH— ITS RESOURCES AND WANTS. men, and are being worked by the most approved ma- ohinery. As exf irience demonstrates their richness, this field will become largely productive of wealth and employment. But the rivers of the South furnish boundless water-power, much of which washes beds of iron, coal and limestone. I have visited Lewiston, Me., Nashua and Manchester, N. H., and Lowell and Lawrence, Mass., and I assure you that a single stream in each of the States of Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina, furnishes power vastly in excess of that required to move the machinery of these cities. Much of the cotton crop will yet be spun and woven by this power, near the fields on which it is grown. To enterprising and ingenious emigrants I say, go to the rich and fertile, but exhausted South. What 18 required to regenerate the Sotith is subsoil ploughs, phosphates, agricultural implements generally, a large increase of horses, mules and horned cattle, a steadily increasing supply of steam engines and machinery, and such manufacturing machinery as can be moved by water-power. These, with a comparatively small amount of cash capital, and a few ear- nest men to teach others their use and value, would in a few years make the South bloom like a garden, and de- velop a population as loyal as was that of any Northern State during the war. [Applause.] The interests of Northern capitalists require them to supply these potent agents at the earliest practicable day. But, my laboring frircds, when I advise you > o move South, understand me to couple it with the sugges .ion that you go in little colonies, say of ten or twenty families. Carrj' with you your Northern habits. Arrange for the regular receipt of the papers and magazines for which you now subscribe, and let one of your number be at least ca- pable of conducting a fair country school. In this way you will regenerate the neighborhood into which you go, and preserve your children from the ignorance which pre- vails. A single man or family going there would uncon- sciously lapse into the habits which prevail. Again, let me say, do not think of going to work for wages. There is little demand as yet for skilled labor, and unskilled labor is in terrible excess of the existing demand. The colored hands in the tobacco factories of Danville, Va., can earn about nine dollars per .week ; but in one of the towns of North Carolina we saw girls and women, who THB SOUTH — ITS RESOURCES AND WANTS. 183 in a Philadelphia factory would receive from four to six dollars per week, working long days in a tobacco fac- tory for twenty-five cents a day. One of the applicants to Colonel Edie for rations stated, and established the fact, that her huaV>and worked in u sawmill for thirty cents a day ; and the best laborers in their vicinity, without dis- tinction of color, are employed in the rich gold mines of the latter State at one dollar per day. In this picture of helpless destitution I am not portray- ing the effects of war. No; the fruitful seeds of this mis- ery were brought from Africa in slave ships. It was not the war that reduced Norfolk from the first commercial port of the Union to the position of an inconsiderable town without foreign commerce. The war did not convert the rich and beautiful land around Hernando into an arid waste. The war did r.oo uiivo the once proud occupants from those long-abandoned mansions, whose columns and architraves are now so dilapidated, or from those villages of huts, about which the poisonous vine has for years twined its beautiful but fatal embrace. Said one who for years recognized Mr. Calhoun as his inspired leader, but now has but little hope for the South : " We have sacrificed our country to cotton, mules, and niggers, and if you regenerate it, its prosperity will be our lasting reproach. They were most happy who fell in the war, before the delusion was quite dispelled." Said another : " Why did not the North and South understand each other ? I believed that I was fighting for the prosperity of my country; but some months' imprisonment in one of your fortj and a plentiful supply of your newspapers satisfied me that I was fighting against every cherished desire of my heart." The South must be regenerated, and we of the North must do it. There are, however, many there who will aid us in the work, but we must plan and guide it. Let our statesmen traverse the South, and, as occasion off'ers, speak frankly, bating no jot or breath of their opinions, but ut- tering them courteously ; and if any of you has a friend in any one of the States, send him your paper daily after you have read it. What they need is to understand us, our habits and purposes. When in my several addresses I told them — not the colored people, or the " low downs," but the wealthier portion of my audiences — that, masters as they had been of thousands of acres and hundreds of :\Mm i a" < ■ 1 .! r i?^!Tl :^li' 184 THE 80UTH— ITS RKSOURCKS ANP WANTS. t bIuvch, they had nover been able to provide themselves and families with many of the best results of wealth which enter into the daily life of a Philadelphia workingmaii, they would look skeptical; but after I had doscribea our neat two-story houses with four rooms each, and the outer kitchen and bath-room supplied with hot water from the lange, and lighted throughout with gas, and of the large, well-ventilated school-house for the children, near hotno ; the public library or institute near by ; the choice among churches of all denominations, the cheap daily newspaper, and other things familiar to you all — moat of them would admit the correctness of my proposition. We can thus teach them much, and the time has come when many of those who wore recently our foes are willing to hear us and cooperate with us in any good work for the poor among whom they dwell. Let us, then, my friends, while manfully defending all that is good in our opinions or institutions, endeavor to forget the past and striv) to improve the future. Yester- day is gone, no man knov"s whither, but to-morrow is be- fore us, witli its inevitable duties and its possible blessings or calamities. Let each man labor within the limits pre- scribed by good conscience, to promote his own welfare and that of his family, for so all will be blessed. In the development of the agricultural, mineral, and manufactur- ing resources of the country, work, and wages will be se- cured to all, and ample opportunity for daring enterprise afforded to the most restless. Then will sneering Europe discover that the Union is not only indivisible and indestructible — [applause] — but that the atmosphere of our country, from Alaska, as Mr. Sumner calls our newly-acquired possessions, to the Rio Grande, is so pure that no slave can breathe it. [Applause and cheers.] Again thanking you, my friends and neighbors, for this manifestation of your personal regard, I pray that God's best blessing may follow you to your homes. AMERICAN INDUSTRY AND FINANCE. Speech Dklivered at the T usic IIall, Milwaukee, Ski'Temhek 24, 1807. Reported for the Daily Sentinel, and Revised by the Author. Ladies and Ocntlemnx : Tho United States slioukl bo the first commercial power of the world. But she is not. She is the chief commercial dependency of Great Britain. With her extended .sea- coast, lie r unlimited agricultural capacity, and as yet unexplored mineral resources, she should be the leading manufacturing nation of the world; and that nation whicii manufactures more than it consumes of arti- cles of general use universally leads in commerce. But no nation that has contented itself with producing bulky raw material has ever attained commercial dignity. History names no such one. We are not in the position we should be — the leader of the civiliijation of the world — becau.se this has been our policy, and we have preferred that England should spin and weave our cotton and wool, should fashion coal, limestone, and iron ore into implements for our use, aid rails to lay over our limestone bed.s, ore banks, and coal mines. We are truly enough her best customer; and are tending toward bankruptcy and increas- ing our foreign indebtedness by exporting national, States and corporation bonds in exchange for consumable com- modities, for the production of which we have abundant raw materials. Last year, if we may accept the statement of Secretary McCullough, we imported $100,000,000 more than we exported, including our entire production of gold. This year, down to the report of September 4, I find by the custom-house statistics that our importations at New York are $171,178,058, and our exports only $12-4,978,938. England pats us on the head and says, "Good boy; you are not only our favorite son, though you did tear away from the apron-strings, but we are ready to call you our brother, sister, or uncle, as you please, so long as you maintain the profitable commercial relations now existing 185 \Q •* ,'' m t:/) ; , I 1 ;.|t iijiHy I , ¥-m^ 186 AMERICAN INDUSTRY AND FINANCE. between us. Y^u buy from us more than any of our colo- nies or other people. But for you our balance-sheet would last year have made a sad exhibit. Our export trade in cotton goods fell off about $5,000,000; our exports of silk goods fell off nearly $1,000,000 ; and but for the increase in the American demand for iron, our iron trade would have fallen off in a larger degree than these." True it is, that we thus buy from her from choice, and that she buys cotton and tobacco from ua because she cannot buy them anywhere else. She buys from us nothing that she can get from other nations.^ A theory is abroad that she largely consumes the cereals of the West. It is false, and T was infinitely shocked, the other night, at hearing Eev. Newman Hall, in the midst of the most pious ejaculations, exclaim that half the wheat eaten in England is raised in the Western States of America ; and when on the succeed- ing evening I addressed the people of Springfield, I cor- rected his statement and apologized for it, saying that he had entered a field with which he was not familiar. But in reading the report of the speech he made at St. Louis, while I was thus defending his veracity in Springfield, I find that he not only reiterated the assertion, but added : " I have made a calculation, and ascertained that a loaf made of your flour can be bought cheaper in England than here in IvIL-oOuri." My friends that statement is demon- strably false. No such fact can be ascertaineu \)y calcula- tion. Bread is not as ch.;;ap in England as in Missouri. Nor has England ever bought from the United States one- half of one per cent, of her wheat. In the first place she raises about eighty per cent, of her own wheat. That leaves but twenty per cent, to divide * Take, for example, that of the United States and France an most striking. In 1868, we imported from the United States no less than £8,802,394, in gold and silver, and we sent out only £112,519. As a contrast to this we sent to France, £9,011,394, and brought home only £1,325.487. The balance of trade, so far as gold and silver could show it, was £8,779,875 in our favor with the American States, and £7,685,907 against us with France. How was this ? The United States took the produce of our industry to that extent expressed by the sum stated over and above what they sent us chiefly in useful produce for the masses of our people. But the money passed at onoe into the hands of those to whom France ■ends her silks and wines, and (over and above the value of a vast amount of goods of a substantial character) it was spent in luxury. Our large export to France might have brought over a vast supp1> to feed the hungiy and clothe the naked; but the power over it was in hands whose wishes and tastes gave it a different destination. We sent to France, in value, £12,862,668, chiefly useful articles, besides the balance in money we have utated, and we got back, almost exclusively in artiolei of luxury, £33,033,401.— ib'ociaJ Politici, Kirk, AMERICAN INDUSTRY AND FINANCE. 187 among the other nations of the world. Of the deficit she obtains, as nearly as can be calculated from her statistics, from sixty-eight to seventy per cent, from Russia and Prussia. She obtains largely more from France than she do '8 from the United States. She obtains twice as mucli from poor, sick Turkey as she does from the broad United States of America, and yet this emissary of the Free-trade League is under the guise of religion reiterating this in- famously false statement to the people of the entire West You may ask what this has to do with American indus- try and finance, announced for discussion this evening? I think you will find as we proceed that it is relevant. I think you will agree with me that if Illinois will develop that wonderful coal bed she has underlying 35,000 square miles of her territory ; if Indiana will develop that part of the same bed, containing 15,000 square miles ; and Mis- souri, Kansas, and Iowa bring into use a small portion of the seventy odd thousand square miles that underlie them ; that if you will work the iron ore and limestone of Wisconsin, and Illinois will bring into play that great condensation of the elements of iron that underlies the southern tiers of her counties; if Missoaii will develop her beds of tin, and bring her copper mines into rivalry with those of Michigan and Wisconsit; we can withdraw from England much of the trade on which she lives, and thup without striking a blow overthrow that enemy which, during our recent struggle, drove our commerce from the sea, by hoisting the flag of the Confederacy on British ships, armed with British men and weapons. [Applause.] Some of you are Irishmen ; others are the descendants of Irishmen. If you would see the green and beautiful old fatherland free, and Irishmen counted as men, and equal to any English lord on election day, you should strive to develop our resources, and regenerate Ireland by reducing the wealth and power of England. [Applause.] Mr. Hall pleads for England's supremacy, and I for the commercial independence of the United States, and this allusion to him has something to do with what I have to say. I am here begging an audience, as I have done elsewhere in the West, to permit me to utter a warning which relates to the interest of our broad country, and which specially touches the interests of the people of Wis- consin. I have recently travelled over seven of the dis- rupted Southern States. I saw much, and learned xuotq %l. ■ik: : i ' ' ' -• . li ! I i. fl li I i il 188 AMERICAN INDUSTRY AND FINANCE. through intercourse with the people, and still more from a large correspondence that grew out of my visit, and from many pamphlets aud newspapers since sent me by citizens of the South. The rebellion and its suppression have rendered an entire revolution in the industries of America inevitable. No State in the Union is more directly interested in this change than Wisconsin, and yet few of your wisest and most far-seeing men seem to have learned the fact. They still think that the South was an agricultural coun- try. Why, gentlemen, do agricultural countries go abroad to buy food for man and beast? I thought they raised it. Yet, true it is, that before the war, the West and North- west fed the South. Your wheat, corn, beef, bacon, and hay went to the Southern States for a market. I do not speak specially of the productions of your own State, but of the States of the West and Northwest. You have no adequate foreign market ! France, Eng- land, and Belgium, in the three years preceding the ^^reak- ing out of the war, purchased annually — the three nations combined — but ten millions of agricultural products from the United States — including wool, lumber, pork, wheat, flour, and corn. But $10,000,000 ! That was not an ade- quate market for the productions of the West ; and yet it was all the manufacturing nations of Europe purchased. Your best foreign customers were the non-manufacturing countries south of the Gulf of Mexico, and Central and South America, whose people took about $30,000,000 of your ^ -oductions in each of the years referred to, or three times as much as all transatlantic nations. The market on which you relied was in the South, and the cities and manufacturing districts of the Eastern States. Pennsyl- vania is a great wheat-growing State, but she cannot sup- ply the demands of her people, and half her miners and operatives are fed from your fields. This Eastern market is still yours, but you are no longer to feed the people of the Southern States. Nor is that all. Hereafter you are to encounter Southern provision growers in the markets of the East — in the southern part of this hemisphere, and the small market open to you in Europe — and to compete with them after they shall have taken the cream off. If you do not diversify your productions, you will soon be ready to cry to the Lord to send drought or excessive rain to destroy crops, and enable you to sell your wheat, corn, AMERICAN INDUSTRY AND FINANCE. 189 and cattle. You will feel that a curse has fallen on you if this year's generous crops sliall be vouchsafed next year. You may say this is strange talk. Gentlemen, I recently travelled between tw(3lve and fourteen hundred miles by railroad, from New Orleans to Baltimore — between corn and cotton, cotton and corn, and if I were under oath, I could not say which I saw most of — cotton or corn. Where the land had been cultivated, and the crop gath- ered, the stubble of wheat remained. Where I saw other crops than cotton or corn growing, as I did in northern North Carolina and Virginia, it was wheat — the great staple of Wisconsin, During the three days I passed in St. Louis last week, I saw corn from Mississippi and Ala- bama being delivered from steamers, instead of being ship- ped thence to Mississippi and Alabama, as it used to be ; and I also saw a drove that would have gratified the eye of any cattle-fancier, of long-horned Texas cattle, driven through the streets of St. Louis, which looked to me amazingly like the South feeding the North, at least to some extent. From Nashville they are shipping corn and wheat to Ohio, Indiana, and the Eastern States. The corn crop of Indiana, and even most of Ohio, has bt^en blighted. But, you may say, I am an unskilful observer. Will you, therefore, pardon me for reading a brief extract from a well-considered official statement ? The Confede- rate Legislature of Louisiana instructed the Governor to select some competent gentleman to make a survey of the mineral, manufacturing, and agricultural resources of Louisiana, and report to the Legislature. Allen, the Con- federate Governor, selected for that duty Hon. John B. Robertson, a man of marked ability and great breadth of study. I hold his report in my hand. Pardon me while I read you a brief extract : *t '•4 is. ^ l§ ii f [ " Wheat with us should be planted in September, October, or November. It is a beautiful season for preparing, he ground. It may then be reaped in the last half of April and May, a time usuallv selected for making brick, on account of its fair weather. The daily quotations show tliat Southern flour, raised in Missouri, Tennessee, and Virginia, brings from three to five dollars more per barrel than the best New York Genesee flour. Louisiana and Texas flour is far superior to the Tennessee, Virginia, or Missouri, owing to the supe- rior dryness, and the fact that it contains more gluten, and does not ferment so easily. Southern flour makes better dough and macca> roni than Northern or Western flour ; it is better adapted for trans- portation over the sea, and keeps better in the tropics. It is there- ; ( 1^1 190 AMERICAN INDUSTRY AND FINANCE. fore the flour that is sought after for Brazil, Central America, Mexico, and the West India markets, which are at our doors. A barrel of strictly Southern ^our will make twenty pounds more bread thftii Illinois flour, because, beinp so much drier, it takes up more water in muking up. In addition to this vast superiority of our grain, we have other advantages over the Western States in grain growing. Our climate advances the crop so rapidly that we can cut our wheat six weeks before a scythe is put into the fields of Illinois; and being so near the Gulf, we avoid the delays in shipping and the long transportation, the cost of which consumes nearly one-half of the product of the West. These advantages, the superior quality of the flour, the earlier liarvest, and the cheap and easy shipment, enable us absolutely to forestall the West in the foreign demand, which is now about 40.000,000 of bushels annually, and is rapidly increasing ; and a'so in the Atlantic seaboard trade. Massachusetts, it is calcu- lated, raises not more than one month's supply of flour for her vast population. New York not six months' supply for her population, and the other Atlantic States in like proportion. This vast deficit is now supplied by the Western States, and the trade has enriched the West, and has built railroads in every direction to carry towards the East the gold-producing grain. We can, if we choose, have a monopoly of this immense trade, and the time may not be fur dis- tant when, in the dispensation of Providence, the West, which con- tributed so largely to the uprooting of our servile system and the destruction of our property, will find that she has forced us into a rivalry against which she cannot compete, and that she will have to draw not only her supplies of cotton, sugar, and rice, but even her breadstuffs from the South. "A close estimate of all the expenses, in raising a crop of wheat or barley, or a crop of cane or cotton, placed in juxtaposition, would show largely in favor of the grain crop. In raising the grain, the full force need be hired and fed no longer time than two or three months of the year, while in the other crops they must be hired and fed for twelve months. " Vast numbers of freedmen could be hired for one or two months at the time for liberal day wages. This system is in conformity with their ideas and notions of work ; they reluctantly contract for a year. Rye, barley, and buckwheat have been tried in Louisiana. Barley and buckwheat are both natives of a Southern climate, and flourish remarkably well here. In Texas, during the past year, the papers state that eighty-five bushels of barley were made to the acre in Central Texas ; sixty bushels could easily be made here, and as it is superior to the Northern barley for brewing, the fourteen breweries of New Orleans would alone consume vast quantities of it. Barley, as compared with corn, is a better food for stock, particii- larly work stock, as it is muscle-producing, and does not heat the system like the oil or fat-producing property of corn, and while it produces three times as much to the acre of grain, the stock con- sumes all the straw. A hand can cultivate much more ground in barley than corn, and it needs no work after planting. Grain grow- ing would not only be profitable to the planter, but it would build up New Orleans, and make her the greatest city on the continent. " What New Orleans lacks is summer trade ; her business has been heretofore compressed into six or eight months. After Uie ing AMERICAN INDUSTRY AND FINANCE. 191 cotton and sugar crops were received and disposed of, the merchants and tradesmen had nothing to do. Most of them went north with their families, leaving New Orleans a prey to epidemics, when a small portion of the very money which they had earned in New Orleans, and were spending so lavishly abroad, would have perfected sanitary measures, which would have protected those from the epi- demics. During this season of inactivity nearly all branches of business are suspended ; the merchant must, however, pay house rent, insurance, clerk's hire, and other incidental expenses ; must lose interest on his investments, and have his goods and wares dam- aged by rust, dust, moth, and mould. If the cultivation of grain were begun and encouraged around New Orleans, grain would pour in during the month of May, and the summer months, and would fill up this fatal hiatus in our trade. " The merchant would be compelled to reside here in summer as well as winter, and he would be forced on his own account to lend his time and money towards building up the city, and improving its health. " Every branch of business would be kept up then throughout the whole year, and our own steamships would supply the countries south of us with provisions, and we should not as now be compelled to import coffee by way of Cincinnati. Northern and European emigrants knowing that our grain growing was more profitable than at the North, and that they could grow grain without working dur- ing the summer months in that sun they have been wrongfully taught to dread, would flock to our lands ; and of course, where pro- visions and all other necessaries of life would be cheap, manufactures would necessarily spring up to work up the raw materials so abun- dant there. I have thus lengthily urged the cultivation of the cere- als, because I find so little is known among the most intelligent as to the capabilities of 'onr State in this respect, and because, too, I think that therein lies the true secret of recuperation and permanent prosperity for our people. It is a business which all classes of agri- culturists may profitably engage in, from the poor farmer of the pine hills to the rich planter of the coast. It is a business in which every landholder, lessee, laborer, mechanic, manufacturer, tradesman, mer- chant, ship-owner, and, indeed, every citizen is deeply interested, as it is a question of large profits and cheap bread, and the State of Louisiana and the Unitea States have a deep concern in it, as large owners of land in the State. I have placed grain first in the list of productions, for, looking to the future, I am sure that grain will become our leading staple, and that New Orleans is destined to be- come the leading grain market in the world." * * The following Associated Press dispatch is strikingly confirmatory of my pre- diction : " New Orlkans, July Ist, 1871. — The Cotton Exchange Committee on statis- tics and information made reports upon the growing cotton and grain crop, with dates from the 15th to the 20th of June. The following is the summary : " Mississippi. — Cotton. — Reduction of acreage 20 to 25 per cent., with an aver- age of half to three-quarters the yield of last year per acre. Corn. — Acreage in- creased 25 to 40 per cent. The latest reports indicate a short yield per acre. "Louisiana. — Cotton. — Reduction of acreage 10 to 12 per cent. Crop three weeks backward. Considerably injured, especially in the low lands, by rain and lice. Corn. — Nearly sufScient for home consumption planted. "Arkansas. — Cotton. — Reduction of acreage 25 to 33 per cent., with proper- II •;:^ 'IMF "< ; i Itf! ■.,'?;■ i\i S; 192 AMERICAN INDUSTRY AND FINANCE. In support of these views I have with me, but am not goin<( to detain you with extracts from it, an address made at the close of the agricultural, mechanical, and industrial fair in New Orleans, by Wm. M. Burwell, of Virginia, in which the Southern people are urged, as they are by Mr. Eobertson, to divide their lands and to remember that the South has three seasons ; that wheat matures in the spring ; that corn matures at midsummer ; and that cotton is a full crop ; and advised to take advantage of all the seasons. These gentlemen agree, as do a score of writers whose communications I have with me, in urging the people to put not more than one-tenth of their land in cotton, and the remainder in grass and diversified crops of food. They tell them that the South abounds in seaports, that the grain of every part of the South can be got to market in bulk in vessels, in which a bushel of wheat may be car- I'lcd twenty-three thousand miles — from San Francisco to Liverpool — cheaper than it can be carried from Minnesota or Kansas to New York over railroads ; and that as theirs is the early season they can avenge themselves upon the West and North by pre-occupying the markets. These are not pleasant tidings to bring to a people prosperous as are those of the West, and so identified with their present pursuits that they will yield or modify them reluctantly. My fellow -citizens, notwithstanding these unpleasant auguries, the future of the Wes'; was never so bright as it is to day. The cloud that overshadows your prospect is but the mist that lingers over a mountain stream. The sun is rising yonder and will dispel it, and you will then see the beauty of the golden valley ! Yes, the rebellir * tionatu increase in grain. Prospects generally good, except in the southern portion of the State, where not more than half of last year's yield per acre is anticipated. The grain crop is very promising. " Tux AS. — Information mostly from the northeast portion of the State. Cot- ton. — Reduction of acreage 25 to 33 per cent., with a corresponding increase in grain. Cotton two weeks backward, though with a favorable season an average crop per acre is expected. "Alabama. — Cotton. — Reduction of acreage 10 to 20 per cent. Crop three weeks backward. The average production per acre will be less than last year. Grain. — Increased acreage 20 to 30 percent. Fair prospect. " Ggoroia. — Cotton accounts meagre, embracing the west oeptre and centre of the State, and thence northeast. Decrease of acreage 20 to 33^ per cent., in the northeast, and 15 in other sections heard from. Condition unpromising; half to three-quarters per acre of last year's yield expected. Grain. — Corres- ponding increase of acreage. Prospect unpromising. " Tennrsseb. — Information confined to the western part of the State. Cotton, — Decrease of acreage 5 to 12} per cent., with prospects of an average yield per acre. Grain. — Considerable increase of acreage. Prospects good." AMERICAN INDUSTRY AND FINANCE. 193 struck the shackles from the industries and enterprises of the West, and has opened to them a glorious and profita- ble career. If any of you have the Chicago liejmhh'can or Chicago Journal of today, you will find in the course of an address I delivered at Springfield, extracts with which I do not care to detain you now, proving most irre- futably from the highest Southern authorities, that in order that she might have the monopoly of the supply of cotton, and England the monopoly of manufacturing it, the South insisted on such congressional action as would forever prevent the development of the vast and infinitely varied resources of the West. I take the liberty of in- viting your attention to those extracts, and ask you to consider them as part of this address.* These shackles have been stricken oft*. The powers that ruled us were the monopoly that has made a hell of Ireland, and of India! The monopoly that so long as we were colonial, pro- hibited the establishment of a rolling-mill, a slitting-mill or iron-works in our country ! The monopoly that has reduced a million of English workmen to pauperism, and swelled the poor-tax of Scotland from one dollar to $•^.50 during the brief reign of Victoria. For every dollar paid to maintain the poor of Scotland in the last year of the reign of William IV., $-i.50 was required in 1865. The manufacturing power of England was one conspiring monopoly, and the other was that which sold men, women, and children on the auction block throughout the South. Tliese two monopolies were co-conspirators against the people of the West, and I refer you to the authorities, as you will find them in the Republican and Journal of to- day. That powerful combination fell with slavery, and the day dawns when the West shall be more crowded with immigrants than ever before, and when in parts of every State there will be a market near the farmer's door for his productions. You will not then fear to raise too much. I propose to show you how to increase your power, to raise more wheat than you have ever raised on your vir- gin soil, and feed more cattle per acre than ever fed before upon your broad prairies and rolling lands, while creating a market for it all. And now is the time for this great work. England is in her decadence ! Nay, she is iu a rapid decline, what * S«e extracts from Cotton in King. 13 1 1 1 1 1 1 1. ■' i- 1 I S 'I 11 i - { *i i • i ( ♦ 5! :»• ;»• »• il -^n \ '1 ;?P ■ 1 \ '^ t y 11 •i< I ! f: mt '/ii f 194 AMERICAN INDUSTRY AN!) FINANCE. doctors would call the "gnlloping consumption."* [Laugliter.] I speak advisedly, and I have yet to give you some facts by which to sustain my conclusions, ISlic is a wonderful nation, and her story shows, as does out own last six years of history, that the hand of Providence is ever guiding the aftiiirs of nations by immutable laws She lias taught the world what may be done by legislative protection to labor. Look at her — a little speck in yonder ocean 1 Not so large as Wisconsin — not so large as Penn .^^ylvania, and yet she has been the mistress of the seas, and her morning drum, even to this day, may be heard at any hour encircling the world. She achieved her preomi- nence by a well-devised system of protection, by which she employed all her own people on her own soil and mate- rials. She protected the laborers engaged in working the coal, iron, copper, tin, and whatever lay in the mines, or could be dug from the hills, or be f'rown upon the soil of Kngland. She gave employment to all her people, and stimulated their industry and energy in developing her re- sources. She used to be laughed at by the Dutch — when ''^ We are told that our niiinufiicturiii<; industries, fnr from being ruined, nru prosperous. It is true they are not yet ruined, but many are inoro depressed tliiin tliey have ever before been. Very many of them nro sick — very sick; fnr more .^o tliiin ttiosu unacquainted with them have any idea of, and a few yeara more of such depression will see many of them in extremia. Thero are many who arguo that our manufiicturcrs would at onco give up manufacturing if it did not pay ; and no doubt it is a, very natural assumption, that if a manufacturer continues his business it is a proof he is making money by it; but it is very often the case that he continues to manufacture only because he cannot aB'ord to stop. They little know how many manufacturers continue to struggle on ir^business merely because they do nut know how to get out of it. A man with twenty, thirty, fifty, or a hundred thousand pounds sunk in works and ma- chinery cannot give up business without ruin. The caases that diminish the demand for his produce diminish also the value of his plant; his capital and in- ti-rest are imperilled at the same time and by the same cause. It is not to bo expected, it is not in the nature of Englishmen, that he should at onco throw up tile sponge, and declare himself boat ; he will continue to tread the mill though ho gets nothing for it ; he will struggle on for years, losing steadily, perhaps, but yet hopeful of a change. Millions of manufacturing capital arc in that cou- (lition in England at present. Capitalists continue to employ their capital in manufacturing industries because it is already invested in them ; but in many cases it is earning no profit, and in others diminishing year by year. It takes some time to scatter the wealth of England. The growth of half a century of industrial success is not kicked over in a day. Moreover, it is only now, only within the last three years, that tho foreign producers have acquired the skill and capital and machinery that enables them really to press us out of our own markets. The shadow has been coming over us for many years, but it is only just now wo aro beginning to feel the substance ; their progress corres- ponds with our decline. A great manufacturing nation like England docs not suddenly collapse and give place to another ; her industries are slowly, Ut by bit, replaced by those of other countries ; the process is gradual, and we are undergoing it at present. Tho dififeronce between England and her young manu- ' I AMERICAN INDUSTRY AND FINANCE. 195 Van Trump, the representntivo of little Holland, then tlic mistress of the sea, carried liis broom at the masthead — for selling raw materials and buying manufactured goods. The Dutch said, " England sold her skins for sixpence, and bought back the tail — dressed — for a shilling." ( [iaughter.] But she got over that. She welcomed industrious emigrants from every land. If they intro- dijced a new industry, she gave, by special order or legis- lation, protection to that industry until it should take firm hold on English soil. She legislated in favor of her own ships. ^J'he foreign article brought in English bottom came into her ports under differential duties lower than those on the same article coming in on the same day in foreign bottoms. She thus stimulated the building of English siiips, and created a great English Navy, and had slie protected her colonies as she did the people of Eng- land, would have been the great benefactor of the world. But when she gained a colony, she looked only for the raw material she could get from it, and the manufactured articles she could sell its people. Her policy was to ex- furtiiring rivnlij is simple, but alaruiiiig. Franco, Austria, Prus^iii, Bulgiuui, Switzerland, liavo increased their e\|)urt trailu and tlicir liouio cunsum(jliun ; England has increased her export triidc, but her home consumptiun has fallen awny, in the matter of cotton alone, ;J5 per cent, in three years! In the present condition of manufacturing industries it is foolish to tell the operative class to attribute the prosperity to Free Trade; they arc not prosper- ous; it is a mockery to toll them to thank God for a full stomach, when they are empty! they are jiof well off; never has starvation, pauperism, crime, discon- tent, been so plentiful in tho manufacturing districts — never since England has been a manutucturing country has every industry great or small been so com- pletely depressed, never has work been so impossible to find, never have the means and savings of tho working classes been at so low an ebb. We hare had periods when some two or three of the great industries were de- pressed, but health still remained in a number of small ones: now the depres- sion is universal; the only industry in tho country that is really flourishing is that of the machine makers, turning out spinning and weaving machinery for foreign countries ! many of these works arc going night and day. Now many persons doubt this distress, deny it altogether, and appeal to the Board of Trade returns and to the dicta of certain retireil manufacturers, who, having invested the wealth acquired in former years, and being released from the anxieties and dangers of declining trade, can now, without danger, afford to indulge their commercial theories without injuring their pockets. Tho manufacturing districts are depressed as they never have been before, and any one who will visit thera may see by evidence that cannot lie, by smokeless chimneys, by closed shops, by crowded pourhouses and glutted jails, by crowds uf squalid idlers, that the distress is real. Take the one simple facttliat the con- sumption of cotton goods in England has fallen off 35 per cent, in three years! Can any fact afford stronger proof of the poverty and depression of our opera- »'•-! classes ? Cotton constitutes the greater proportion of the clothing of the lo,, - i-d^rs; when, therefore, the consumption of ootton falls away it is proof posiiivu chat tho working classes are taking less clothing. — SulUvun't Protevtiuu to Aa<«v-e Induitry. London, 1870. Am. Ed., p. 17. V*! . ■{ ' \\i U: n AUiiiA '• i.ii 100 AMKKICAN INDirSTHV AND FINANCE. I)ort products as much manufa(!ture'l ns possible, and itn- p.n't tlio products of other nations as little inaiuitactured as possible, so as to stimulate her own industries. We have been told that if wo did not buy her matiufactures she would not buy our grain ; yet from Prussia and Uus sia each, the most protected nations on the continent except Helgiutn, she gets eight times as much grain as she does from MS. From France, the next highest protected coun- try, she gets largely more than she does from us, and Mecklenburf,' and Turkey each furnisii her more than wo do. Her policy is to buy cheap and sell dear! She buys little of America, for she can get goods cheaper from countries whose wages are lower; but she sells more to America than any other country, for she finds the j)coplo tools enough to buy whatever is dear, rather than make it for fear of creating a monopoly. [Laughter.] So, she has illustrated the wisdom of setting the people of a State or eountrv at work upon the productions of their own soil ; giving employment to every person, at all seasons of the year, ' ringing the producers and consumers side by side, and getting manufactured articles without great cost of transportation. But she has recently given a new illustration of the law by wliich the power of nations is developed. She found herseli' .4hort of food, and Cobden and other noble men engaged in the work of giving the working people cheap food. But they carried their theories too far. Tiiey opened their markets for manufactured goods to competi- tion with the world. The wise ler,islation that had made her the most powerful nation of the world was repealed. What is the result? A little over twenty years has elapsed, and Fjngland is "sick unto death," and can never recover without going through the process of a revolu- tion."* I have told you that her export of cotton goods * Tho Biiiall farmer gives way to the mere ploughman; and capitalists, few in number, command tho soil. This gives rise to a very remarkable state of things. The IriHh farmers, with their families, are driven off from their farms, and eome over to Scotland in shoals to press their labor un our capitalist farmers. They are fast taking the place of the Scotch peasantry, while these are driven into the towns, or altogether off the country. Again, our Scotchmen are crowding in upon English labor and competing with that, both in tho country and in the towns. The Irish are cheaper than the Scotch, and the Scotch are dieaper than the English ; and without knowing why, the working masses are being shoved off in thousan is to save them from death. — Social Politict, Kirk. These thitigs must be laid to heart, for (as we have said more than once) •migration cannot help us out of the difiBoulty which these bring, and must keep AMERICAN INDUSTRY AND FINANCE. 197 had fallen oft' five millions of dollurs lust year; that her exportation of Knglish tnanufucturuil silk gootia foil olY ono million of dolliirsj. She exported oompiirutively littlo British-made paper. Her " free trade " is uprootin^i; her feebler industries and eonverting her skilled workmen into paupers. Seventeen silk manufaetories made tlio town of Macclesfield prosperous when that treaty was signed. Of those seventeen but one exists, and it is working up its raw material, and the proprietor is buying no more. The English silk maker cannot compete with the low wages of France, and the still lower wages of Belgium. The paper trade was next attacked. It was one of the few industries left to Ireland, and it has been extirpated, and in the tables of the exports of Great Britain for last year you will find the bulk of her ex{)()rts were of Belgian paper. Her books are printed in Bel- gium. I bought to-day in Mr. Strickland's store, a book to carry home to my little child — it boars the imprint of a London house — the pajier in it is Belgian, the printing is Belgian, and tlie binding is Belgian. And what a sad story is connected with this change in her trade. I refer you to the files of your own paper for three weeks, Ibr I nave read it everywhere as I travelled, that five thousand compositors, the most skilled in England, are out of em- ployment and going upon the poor rates. The London News describes it as a pitiable scene ; those skilled and intelligent workmen gathering daily at the Trade Itooins to the number of three hundred, and remaining there all day in the hope that some of them may be called to till the place of a sick or absent workman. And the Ncivs remarks that it is painful to record that such calls do not average two a day. During last winter, the same paper 'llilill !'■'• upon u9 80 long as tho prcoent system goes on. The ci\u9e must l)o arresfcd, or the tITect will continue to grow upon us. As we shall more fully show, when we come properly to the point, tho men who emigrate lire the very hands by whose industry we have been kept so long from the state of collnpsu, which has at length come. The men and women they Icnve behiml are the compnratively helpless, whose energy is not even sufTioient to slave off pauperism from thcm- Bclves, and who cannot possibly wage a successful war with a system which drains off every possible penny, and tiling, to be devoured in luxury. — Ibid. Men who can make and unmake tho legislature will not die in favor of deer, merely because it bo happens that a selfish hand has the landholder's hold of the soil by technical right. The people of this country need not, and we think they will not, resort to any other means by which to redistribute the surface so that all shall have space enough on whioh to live, than such as will inevitably follow the suppression of unfair modes of dealing between class and class in the com- munity.— /6t(^. ■;^-:.i I • ■ MS'! Ifl^ AMKUICAV IXnr.STfJY AXD FINANCE. Vt\.:: ■' ;!rpi V ' stall's that (Wo tlioiisund of tlio best whipbuilelera in Pwig- liiiul, loo proud to recoivo cliarity, wont to broakiiig Htonoi* ill (ieCiiiilt ot'cjtlier iMiiployincnt. Oiui aftiir anotlior of the more focl)le iiidusliifrt aru going; and at hist Knghmd, the land of coal and liirn-stonu and injii, finds liorself crowded out of foreign niari liilcly been obttiininK orderH even in our own niiirket lieie iit liouie. How iinil why in this? How is it timt our poHition in ho f^reHt iin iiuhiNtry has heen shppinff t'roni under nH ? It iH u ijiieHtion ot'^rave inipoi'l, imd these ure fuc^tH ciilrnlateil to create ^reat unxnty, not only to the capital which eniliraces in itH operations eighteen Kn^'^- lish conntii.'', liesideH the Scotcli. Welsh, and Irish districts, l)iii to a lar^'e population of special luibils and iniliistrial skill, dependent upon the uiaintenunccs ol' our mines and our ironworks in lull activity und proxressive development. '!'(» these latter the cpu'stion we have asked is of far ^{reater moment than it i» or can lie to either the stale or the caidtalist. The Stffte may lose, and yet exiHt, anil carry on 'vith loss more or less ; the capitalist nniy i>e com- pelled to make u saeriflet in converting his fixed capital into rnov- al)le, but he can carry that diminished capital und )iis undiminished ie|iutation and utimmistrative aliility to Kel^^iuni, to l<'rance, to .Spain, or to Ilussiun I'oland. There, in any und all of tliose coun- trios, he will find ),'reat coal fields of excellent yield, upon or near which he can establish iron works, where, with the ap|dianccs that his cuiiitul can command, and his administrative experience niana;(e, he will, with the aid of native labor, cheerfully furnished at a com- paratively nominal rate, far outstrip the hampered etVorts of his country, seize for himself that jjrofit of which a lurffe ])roportion wouhl have been public property, and leave the discontented and combative artisans of Kntrland a burden to their country and a difti- culty to themselves. To the artisan of (ireat Uritain, to the unionists of her manufacturinj; districts, this (piestion is of the extreniest importance. Their life or death lumps upon its prompt solution. Tiunsfer of themselves is simply an impossiblity. For- eijrn nations have a superabundance of labor with which, untram- melled as they are by legislative restrictions, they can, with tlu.' aid of the im|)roved jirocesses obtained by them fromus,i)roceed indep.'nd- ently and triumphantly in the path upon whicli they have entered so promiaiufi'ly, and which, unless we can cross it, must conduct them to monopoly." Sagacious Englishmen are discovering that free irade is not likely to prove so pleasant to England as they thought it would.'* There are thirty Prussian locomotives running ^ Whncvpi conteiii|ilitte8, on the one liiiiid, the cnoruiouH powers of pruiluctioii in tVie lJniU!(l Kiiigiloiii, mid uti tliu uiIut, tin.- iiiiHi-ry whifh iicvertlit'li>,' 'A ""•I i I m iiilf ■ 'U ' 41 • . 'li it i % I Ij I i '' ■ ! iii,.MJkJ. J v jjl 200 AMERICAN INDUSTRY AND FINANCE. over the Northwestern Railroad of Great Britain. Eng- lish goods are too dear for Englishijion, but wo buy them, and pay the cost of transportation from Manchester to the seacoast, across the Atlantic to New York, and thence to our Western frontiers. We could do a great deal better than that if we Wijuld do as France and Belgium and Prussia do — set our own people to work upon our own vast and varied materials. You have iron in grand abundance. You have peat as cheap as coal to make it. You have the coal of Illinois and Iowa lying near to tlic respective boundaries ^f your State. You have copper, zinc, lead — all that you want is energy and enterprise, and dc'ermination to see to it, that your representatives will look to your interests, and you can build American rolling-mills, such as I examined this afternoon at Bay- view, in every section of your State. You can go to England, and lift out of want and pauperism the skilled workmen of that country who are hungering in poverty, and who would thank you to the latest day of their lives for making them independent workingmen, and free American citizens. [Applause.] Among the disastrous effects of fi'ee trade on the interests of the working people of England last year, it is reported by Sir Roderick Mur- chison, that in Cornwall and Devonshire three hundred copper and tin mines were closed. Three hundred mines closed in order that 70,000 tons of cheap ore might be imported from Chili and other South American States. What effect had the closing of these mines on the miners State pconoiny? Is it to provide work for the poor, the honest, nnd the will- ing? Not n( all. That is not the Politiciil Economy (falsely so called) which is the idohitry of English |)oliticinns. It is for the statu to stand aloof when widespread distresis prevails, and to give no help until the unemployed have sunk to the rank of paupers, when they are handed over to the huniiliati;)n and demoralization of the Poorhouse, and the tender mercies of the local bodies so frequently misnamed "guardians." — The Slnle, the Poor, and the Vounlri/. By R. 11. Patterson. Edinburgh nnd London, 1870. The weak point of Political Economy has hitherto been that, by many of its teachers, the financial test has in all cases been made absolute. The immediate production of wealth has frequently been made the sole object of the science : overlooking the fact, not only that the amount of wealth in a community is far from being an absolute test of national well-being, but also that many nn ex- penditure upon the improvement of the moral nnd intclleotual condition of the people, howsoever unproductive in the first instance, or it may bo for many years, transmutes it.-'' UM '%':\ III M • ^''':'h i , - . ' y » iii Mi' I ^ • 1 '''■ li ■ \i ;; i.f k -I > I 1 ■ T I l.:;-;r.;M M I Li 202 AMERICAN INDUSTRY AND FINANCE. perous village.* This is the way we have changed Phila- delphia from a sprawling city of one hundred and twenty- thousand when I first knew it, to a city of seven hundred thousand inhabitants. We have gone into all lands, gathered skilled workmen, however poor, and put them at work upon our soil or mineral productions. There are establishments in my district, employing 2500 hands, almost every one a head of a family, with which he lives in a home that he owns, and calls no man lord on this earth ! [Applause.] But, citizens of Wisconsin, I have not come to you to-night to plead for the iron interests of Fenn.syl- vania, nor for the manufacturers of the East, but to plead with you — with your cheaper food and more abundant resources- — to enrich yourselves by rivalling them in gain- ing the profits which are derived from any branch of * How fully wy predictions have been antioipiitod is shown l>y the follcffing letter, which, though not intended for publioiition, I cain.ot withhold: Office of the Milwaukee Inox Companv, Milwaukee, Feb. 2Ut, 1871. Hon. Wm. D. Kelley, Dear Sir : — -I just happened to think that you visited our city in 1867 shortly before our uiill for re-rolling vrent into opcnition. That was the beginning of the iron industry of this State. I recclleot that you prophesied things concern- ing the future business of our company, which seemed almost fabulous even to mo. I am ^-riting this, merely to tell you how i;oar you cauie to the truth, as I know yoi- aro interested in these things. In 1868 wc madeSOOO tons of rails and employed 160 men. The business then was confined to re-rolling. In 1870 v,o made over 16,000 tons of rails. This month we started a new puddling mill, which more than doubles our puddling capacity. The capacity of the works is now 30,000 tons of rails per annum, and that quantity v/o hope to make in 1871. We started our No. 1 Blast Furnace i" April, 1870. No. 2 Furnnoc will start in about a month. These furnaces are second to none on the continent of America, and can easily make 30,000 tons of pig iron per annum. We hnve an inexhaustible supply of the finest ore within fifty miles of us, from which wo draw most of our material. We use also liftko Superior ore. We now employ 700 men in our works. The works hnve already far outgrown your prophecy, and there is every reason to believe that tbey are yet in their infancy. Bes ""icr steel works are now con- templated, and will doubtless be huilt. The iron intertjt of the West is rapidly growing in importance. As these manufaoturing centres grow, people who have heretofore been blind on the subject are beginning to see that Protection Vienna something. The land on which our works stand, was bought in 1866 for $100 per acre. A large and thriving village has grown up, and land within a radius of half a mile of our works now sells for $1000 per acre. Fu'!j nine tenths of our men are from Europe, many <-'f theiu brought here directly by us, and hecnuse these works were built. This iron interest so rapidly developing has changed the sentiments of the people of this city. You would have a lnrger audience now, could you again talk to them ol Protection. I hope tho time will soon come, when we may see you here ; we of the West believe there is to bo a fiyht on this subject. You who are known as the champion of the cause must come to us. You will not be told that "you are working only •"or the Ponnsylvania iron interest." That interest is now a national one. Yours very respectfully, JAS. J. UAGERMAN, AMERICAN INDUSTRY AND FINANCE. 203 business in which they engage, and thus establisli a sure market for the provisions ^-ou will still grow, but which your former customers no longer require. More specially than this, my fellow-citizens, I come to urge you to engage in another branch of agriculture. I saw, as I travelled through the South, not only that it was growing grain, and raising pork and beef, but that it was raising but little sugar ; that it was soon to look to the great West for sugar. Wisconsin will yet make sugar for Louisiana. As others have done, j'-ou laugh at this as a sensational proposition. Believe me, it is a practical suggestion, if what can be done in Sweden, and Poland, and Russia ; in France, Austria, and Prussia, can be done in America. Last year we sent eighty million of dollars across the Atlantic for sugar and molasses. Had the people of the Northwest listened to the warning of Dr. Schroeder, of Bloomington, Illinois, nearly twelve years ago, who then begged them to engage in raising beets and making sugar, every dollar of that eighty millions would have remained in the country. The limited sugar fields of the South cannot* provide for the constantly increasing consumption, and you can make beautiful sugar cheaper in the West than the coarse sugar of Cuba can be produced, and can thereby add to your crops of wheat, and hay, and oats, and to your capacity to raise sheep and cattle. What has been the experience of France, and all the countries I have named, would be your experience, and is being real- ized by certain enterprising men of Illinois. Do you know that by devoting your land to beets one year out of three you can raise more grain or hay than you can by continuous crops of hay or grain ? You can if you will grow the beet and manufacture sugar. The secr'jt is this : The beet requires deep ploughing. It must be covered by the earth at maturity. If any part of it escapes from the earth it is damaged, and the beet will not command a fair price, and is only fit to be led to cat- tle ; therefore sugar-beet culture requires deep ploughing. It requires either new land, like that through which 1 have been travelling in the West, or rich manure. It should have manure for the second year, at any rate; but in the first year good crops may be grown in the fresh lands of the prairie. In old land it requires for its first crop rich manure ; but to get a double crop of wheat the : m *q, ' ^5 1 t\k '- . K\ ' f«n ■I. m ■■"« ,*r '**! 204 AMERICAN INDUSTRY AND FINANCE. next year you will require no manure; you have but to break the surface and put in the seed. The next year too go through the same process of treating the surface and putting in your wheat, and your crop will be double, or nearly so, and in the two years you will have got more than by three consecutive crops with usual culture. In the meanwhile, you will have sold your beets, and, at ordi- nary prices, a larger profit will be derived than if you had sold grain, v/heat, or hay. The beets are pressed, the juice is taken for sugar, and the pulp which remains you can buy again as a capital substitute for hay. It is the custom in Europe that, when a farmer sells his beets, he contracts to purchase back such amount as he may want of the pulp to feed to his cattle and sheep ; it fattens them like oil cake. Thus this industry, hitherto neglected by Americans, furnishes both animal and vegetable manures for its own promotion, and there is a great increase in the agricultu- ral and cattle growing quality of the districts in which it is practised. One of the arrondissements of France, in which, when Napoleon I. started beet culture by offering a liberal system of bounties for relative degrees of success, the farmers could feed but 700 head of cattle, reported 11,500 head of cattle, and better crops of hay and all the cereals, when Napoleon III. and his Empress visited it, in 1865. The beet root on the one hand, and free trade in England on the other, have changed the relation to animal food of the Englishman and Frenchman. The English formerly called the French Johnny Crapeau, " the man that lives on frogs," and used to make fun of his thin broth. Yet so largely has the production of cattle been increased by beet culture in France that she exports beef and wheat to England, and the proportion of Frenchmen who eat beef or mutton is steadily increasing, while the proportion of British people who eat beef or mutton is diminishing. Enlightened Frenchmen ascribe this change to the bjet-root culture. This wonderfully beneficent in- dustry is the child of protection. In 1812-18-14, Napo- leon found the coast of Europe blockaded. Ilis people could get no sugar. The price went up to from 93 cents to $1.00 per pound, American money, and the people clamored for it. Napoleon aid not send out vessels laden with gold or bonds to run the blockade and bring in sugar, but determined to make France so independent that they A AMERICAN INDUSTRY AND FINANCE. 205 might blockade the coast and Frenchmen could still enjoy the necessaries of life. He had read of experiments in making beet-root sugar. He consulted the best chemists, and the most experienced agriculturists ; and satisfied that France could produce her own sugar, he ordered 100,000 acres of land to be planted in beets at the expense of the Empire. He appointed a competent man to superintend it. He also offered an immense reward to the chemist or practi- cal mechanic who would extract most sugar from a ton of beets, and another to him who should obtain the largest amount of beets from an acre of land. Then to interest the whole people, he offered two classes of premiums : one to those who should raise not less than a given num- ber of tons of beets from an acre, and the other to those who should succeed in extracting not less than a given amount of sugar from a ton of beets. Thus he engaged the mind and skill of France in the great experiment of supplying her with sugar. And he attained his object. But, by and by, the blockade was lifted, and Great Britain undertook to destroy the new industry by supplying France with cheap cane sugar from her colonies. Napoleon said No ! He not only protected the industry he had created by high duties, but for a time prohibited the importation of sugar, that the people who hud engaged in trying to supply him and the nation with the means of subsistence while en- gaged in war, should be protected until their industry was fully C3tablished. When that was done, the prohibition was removed, but adequate duties were levied to protect the trade. On this point let me read you a brief extract from E. B. Grant's admirable work on beet-root sugar : ^ M 1 If pj 11 '^^ f| ' > f 81 '■■'''' it j' .h: i;'| 'pii ' '•i^'''-?! , [i ' '\ ||ii <• r .■'iiiyi II. ■I ih < 1}: "The price of beet-root sugar in April, 1866, was four and three- fourth cents per pound. "The prccedinjT table shows that the price of sugar has con- stantly fallen since 1816. Yet production has steadily increased. It will be seen that the price of sugars, exclusive of duties, was in 1816 about three times greater than at present. But this does not fully give an idea of the difference in the state of things existing then and now. " From 1816 to 1833 beet sugars were protected l)y a duty on for- eign sugars varying from five to eight cents per poiuid. " From 1840 to 1860 they were protected by a duty of from one to three and a half cents per pound on foreign sugar. "From 1860 to the present time, not only has there been no pro tection as against foreign sugars, but sugars of the French colonies ki^^-vV! ,1 ! i: 206 AMERICAN INDUSTRY AND FINANCE. have hiul an advantage over all others of nearly half a cent per pound. " In addition to constantly diminishing' price, with steadily decreas- inj; protection, wages have doubled, and it is to increased skill alone that the beet sugar manufacture owes its present existence." Yes, beet-root sugar i.s the child of protection, and I beg you to notice how munificently it is repaying tliose who fostered it in its hours of weakness. I have liere Grant's book, to which I wish every one of you in the wealthy State of Wisconsin had access. I quote from it again : " It is the constant effort of the French sugar manufacturer at the pre ent day to induce the Government to redure the duties and impost') on sugar, feeling that the reduction in the price consequent upon such ?ction would increase consumption. He does not asic protection against the manufacturers of cane sugar in any part of the world ; for although the industry is entirely the creation of the protective policy, yet under it so great an amount of skill has Iteeu acquired, and the cost of manufacture has been so reduced, that he is now able to compete upon equal terms with the whole world. " In France the impost is laid upon the sugar produced ; in licl- gium it was formerly laid upon the juice expressed from the beet, but at present it is ui)on the sugar, as in France ; in Germany upon the beets ; in Austria upon the sugar produced, or upon an agreed estimate of the capacity of the mill; in Russia upon the hydraulic presses. It varies in the different countries from forty to eighty-five dollars per ton." The Journal des Fahricante de Sucre, says : "But even if the duties on foreign sugars should be abolished, the advantage would be on the side of the beet sugar manufacturer, who will probably have less need of protection than the Louisiana planter. " The people of the Northern States will not long defer the culti- vation of a plant which contains so much sugar that it will soon leach thc^m to forget that which was formerly produced upon the banks of the Mississippi. As to the competition of Cuban and Bra- zilian sugars, they have no more cause to fear it than have the beet sugar maki'rs of France and Germany, where the economical condi- tions are far less favorable than those of the Northern and Western States. " The beet-sugar industry has been of vast benefit to Europe, notwithstanding the high protective policy to which it owes its ex- istence, and which, as a matter of course, was pursued for a time at the expense of the public, which paid higher for sugar than it would otherwise have done ; yet there is no question that the sugars have been cheaper throughout the world for the past fifteen years than they would have been had the industry not existed. '• Formerly the production of sugar was a monopoly, confined to the tropics, where its possession, combined with the cheapness of land and the system of slavery, fostered in planters and manufac- turers an extravagant, shiftless, and costly method of manufac- • ure. ftr"'?** -n 'l1 AMERICAN INDUSTRY AND FINANCE. 207 " The vast improvements tliat science has brought to bear on the chemistry ami mechanics of beet sugar production in Europe have awala'iicd tlie planters and manufacturers of the tropics to the neces- sity for progress if they desire to retain their supremacy. "Ahnost all the improvements made in cane sugar manufacture in the last fifteen years owe their origin to the beet sugar establish- ments of France and (iermany. "The efifecis produced tipon agriculture in Europe by the cultiva- tion of beets for sugar and alcohol have been astounding, and the importance of the interest is now everywhere acUnowledged. " In the cane sugar countries upon the territory surrounding a sugar establishment no crop is to be seen but the cune, while cattle and sheep are few. Jn the sugar districts of Europe, on the con- trary, the fields in the vicinity of a sugar manufactory are covered with thegreatestdiversityofcroi)s, among which are beets, wheat, rye. oats, barley, corn, rape, fla.x, tobacco, and all the cultivated grasses. Every field is cultivated close up to the roadside, and the stables are filled with fine cattle, sheep, horses, and swine. No farmer needs to be told which system is the best and most enduring." Thus, my fellow-citizens, this feeble child, created jy protection, fostered by prohibition, and sustained by a protective tarift", now pays from $40 to $85 a ton taxes to the Government. It gives the people sugar such as I hold in my hand — the product of the soil of Illinois, as beau- tiful loaf sugar as I ever saw, and which you will be able to buy, not for twenty cents a pound, the price you now pay, but for four cents, when you learn to depend on your own resources and withdraw your patronage from England, Spain and their colonies. Thus, protection wise- ly administered, always proves a boon to the consumer. Let me give you another striking illustration of this important and inflexible truth. During the war the Cen- tral Railroad of Pennsylvania and the Philadelphia, Wil- mington, and Baltimore Companies needed a few steel rails. They sent an agent to England to buy them at the cheapest rate. He could not get them for less than $150 in gold per ton, which, as gold was at $2.40, made every j ton of that railroad steel, duties included, cost over $400, in currency. The officers of these and other companies de- termined to build a steel rail manufactory, and relieve our transporters of such exactions. The city of llarrisburg tendered them twenty-five acres of ground on which to put it. They imported a thousand steel makers and their families from England, put up their machinery, and made a batch of rails. They then concluded to go on manu- fiicturing, and the company, every one of which was an officer of a railroad company, who owned a large amount M , r, ' 'nm\ 11 '^''■M ^ mm 208 AMERICAN INDUSTRY AND FINANCE. of stock, agreed between the stockholders of the railroad eotiipaiiios and the managers of the steelworks, what would be a fair price, so as to give the holders of the steei works a fair profit, and the railroad companies in which they ■were interested steel rails at a fair price. One hundred and thirty dollars currency was fixed as the price, 'i'he news went to England in the next steamer, that they were making steel rails in Pennsylvania at $loO currency per ton. Until the mail brought replies to these communica- tions, for there was no telegraph then, the English agents still asked $150 in gold. But the day the next Ene House being in the Coraraittee of the Whole on the state of tlio Union — Mr. Kelley said : Mr. Chairman : War is not an unmitigated evil. It calls into action the worst of human passions and the highest of human virtues. It contrasts the spirit that con- ceived and gloated over the horrors of Libby, Belle Isle, and Andersonville, by the uncomplaining patriotism an(l fortitude with whicri those horrors were endured. It may be called the science of destruction, yet it develops the germs of future prosperity, evokes wealth from unrecog- nized sources, and frequently leaves communities, which for the time it seems to have decimated and desolated, richer than they were in the peaceful seasons which pre- ceded it. This is not often true of mere dynastic wars, but of such as involve a question between forms of gov- ernment, or are waged for the transfer of territory from an oppressive to a liberal government, it is almost an invaria- ble consequence. The unparalleled struggle through which we have gone was of the latter class, and illustrates most forcibly the truth that in God's providence, so often inscrutable, war has its purposes. We mourn hundreds of thousands of the prematurely dead, among whom were the bravest, best, and most beautiful of the circles in which they moved. The maimed soldier meets us at every turn in the bustling highway, and the widows of those who fell for our coun- try have not yet laid aside their weeds or their tender children lost the memory of the lineaments of him they loved, and who, but for his patriotism, might have lived to shield them from the ills they endure in poverty and orphanage. They sufter, but the people in whose cause 210 CONTRACTION' THE ROAD TO BANKRUPTCY. 211 tlicy sull'er woro richer, inoro powerful, and conHC(imnitIy ablor to endure ndditioiml taxiition, on the 19tli of April, I'^Ho, when Johnston surrendered, than they were on the 14th of Af)ril, 18(51, when tiie guns of the rebellion opened on Kort Sumter. Mr. Chairman, I venture the assertion, and doubt not that history will demonstrate its correctness, that the war for the suppression of the rebellion developed a j)roduc- tive power in the country more than equal to the indebt- ediu'ss, national. State, and municipal, incurred in its support and for the payment of bounties and pensions. And when gentlemen speak of securing the results of the war I ask them to regard this ftvct, and to see to it that it, as well as the purely political results of the struggle, be secured, in order that those who survive its victims may share its happier consequences. The policy which had with rare and brief intervals controlled the legislation of the country from its foundation to the opening of the rebellion was not calculated to develop the resources or improve the condition of the laboring people of the coun- try. It did not aim at these results. It was conceived and enforced by those whose interests were peculiar and adverse to the general prosperity. Under the ancient rer/ime the legislative power of the country resided for more than sixty years in a Democratic congressional cau- cus, the preponderance in which of the slaveholders of the South was almost, if not absolutely without intermission. Controlling the caucus of the dominant party, they con- trolled the legislation of Congress, and except in the brief periods from 1825 to 1833 and from 18-13 to 1847 the policy of the caucus was to prevent the diversification of employments, impair the demand for, and so diminish the wages of, free labor, and by compelling the masses to en- gage in the production of provisions to so cheapen them as to make it to the advantage of the slave-owner to pro- duce nothing but leading staples, and depend upon the farmers of the North for cheap food for themselves, their animals, and slaves. It was their aim to make mechanical labor unprofitable and degrading, that they might be able to discourage immigration by contrasting the condition of the well-fed slave with that of the laborer of the North, who in freedom should by the exercise of his skill be able to obtain but a precarious support for himself and family. .1 * i 1 1 ) \\ 1 1' ''B • 1 ' 1 i • .1 li r m. I do not make this arraignment. History presents it. '■% 1 ; ' ^|; ■ t tMJiuJtlk ^^ j 212 CONTRACTION TIIK ROAD TO BANKRUPTCY. lt*« ,s*>.»I That romarkfthlo southern book, "Cotton is King," is but an ehiborution of it running through wull-nigh a thousund finely-printed j)ages ; and in iiis reniurkabie address at the close of the grand fair of the Mechanics and Agricultural Fair Association of Louisiana, iield in the city of New Or- leans, Noveinl)er, 1806, one of the ablest writers and moat cogent thinkers of the South,Wni.M.Burwell, Esq., in their behalf, pleaded guilty to it when, in stating "such points of southern opinion and policy as bear upon the causes of subjugation," ho thus enumerated thorn : " 1. That the Fcdpral (Jovernmcnt had no ri^ht to ndininistcr any duties Hiivc thoao which wcro written down in its charter. "2. That staple culture by Hhive labor wa.s the inost honorable, the must virtuouH, and the nioHt military system of State polity. " .'{. That commerce, t)ic mechanic arts, and tlie banking Hystem were incompatible with the social safety of the slave tStatcs, and tended to disparaj^o the high standard of virtue courage, intellect, and patriotism which accompanied the pursuits of agriculture and the institution of slavery. "4. That greot cities were great sores, aggregi tions of people on evil, innnigrant numbers and capital not desirub ;, and works of in- ternal commerce only to be allowed where they were built at the private cost of tliose wlio used them. The occai was regarded as a ' scene of strife,' and it was thought our ships and workshops should be stationed beyond the Atlantic." Concise as these propositions are, they present a com- prehensive statement of the policy of the leaders of the Democratic party. They were foes to commerce and the mechanic arts, and, in view of the extent of our country, its boundless, varied, and equally-distributed natural re- sources succeeded to a degree that is almost incredible in stationing " our ships and workshops beyond the Atlan- tic." In the southern theory of society the free laboring man had no place; its philosophy gave him no considera- tion. It regarded him as a nuisance, an interloper, who had no place in a well regulated State. In its ideal re- public there were to be two classes of people only : the wealthy producers of agricultural staples and the slaves they owned, and upon the sweat of whose brows and by the sale of whose offspring they should live. But so great were our natural advantages, so ir^genious our people, and so largely was American industry and in- ventive power protected by our patent laws, that in spite of legislation, which produced commercial crises with almost regular periodicity, the manufacturing interests of the North had come to be very considerable. We, how- \ CONTUACTION THE HOAl) TO JiANKUUPTOY. 218 ever, still remained n commorciul deiuMulency of Kii^'lmul, and were, indeed, her principiil and most profitable (U^pen- deticy ; and, sir, notwithstanding the enormous develop- ment of our productive power during the war, wouontinuo to bo such, as is shown by the olficial statement of tho exports from the United Kingdom to tho various eoun- tries of tho world during tho first half of tho last two years. In introducing this table tho compiler remarks that there has been a considerable falling oft" in our American trade during the last year, owing chiefly lo the prohibitory tarift" and tho scanty harvest of ISM. Jt ap- pears that the exports from tho United Kitigdom to her two greatest depondenciea in tho periods designated wero : INfitl. 1N(I7. To Imliii i;9.40().H38 i;i0,i:{r),920 To the United States ir),22H,22() ll,'.»r)l,17U India stands, in tho exhibit from which I obtain these figures, at tho head of the list of England's colonial cus- tomers, and the United States heads the column of foreign dependents. Sir, it would weary the commiilce were I to bring to its attention the many illustrations that occur to my mind of the wondrous increase of our productive power dur- ing the war, but I beg you to bear with me while I sub- mit a few of them. The war, endeavor to disguise it as we may, was an irrepressible conflict between two systems of labor, one of which regarded the laborer as a thing to be owned, and the other of which recognized his man- hood, kindled his hope, and quickened his aspirations by opening to him the avenues to all public honors, and sought to secure him, however humble he might be, such wages for his work as would enable him to shelter, care for, and give culture to his family. The triumph of free- dom over slavery in this contest was of inestimable pecu- niary value. But at the beginning of the war we were unable to clothe our soldiers and sailors or provide them with arms and ammunition of our own production. Most of the men who responded to President Lincoln's first re- quisition for troops, though newly equipped, were in rags when they reached the capital. Our " boys in blue," after a few days' exposure to alternate rain and sun, were sur- prised to find themselves wearing red coats, and looking rather like English than American soldiers. The pros- pect of war bad flooded the country with what Carlyle , « 1 h 1 •N ? ' k !f:l I l' npil ' til , ■ -»'! ;■ ■;:.'; <' -., r ^ -n^im i '. T 1* imn B - '; -h 4 LiU 214 CONTRACTION THE ROAD TO BANKRUPTCY. calls " cheap and nasty " British fabrics, the warp and woof of which were shoddy, and the indigo blue of which had been derived from logwood. We had neither the wool in which to clothe them nor the spindles and looms to fashion it into cloth. Nor were we capable of producing iron fit for gun-barrels or cannon ; yet when at the close of the war the armies marched on successive days thiough Pennsylvania avenue, more than one hundred and eighty thousand strong, they were clad as substantially — I think I may say with truth more com- fortably and substantially — than had ever been a great army returning from the fields of its conquest at the close of a protracted war. They then wore the wool of America, spun by American spindles and woven in American looms ; and I \/as assured about that time by the Secretary of War and gentlemen connected with the ordnance depart' ment that their choicest arms were of native production, and thiit we could manufacture better gun-barrel iron than we could import. Every railroad company whose line runs north and south was then suffering depres.sion, if not actual em oar- rassment. Their condition was not improving but deteri- orating, notwithstanding the fact that communities in the same latitude can and should produce the same commodi- ties, and that the natural course cf inter-State and inter- national trade is across and not along parallels of latitude. The Lemocratic policy of stationing " our ships and work- shops beyond the Atlantic" contravened these natural laws, and by compelling the people of the North and South to make their commercial exchanges beyond the Atlantic instead of in our own country, had deprived the roads from north to south of business adequate to their maintenance. They were single-track roads, and a num- ber of them nad fallen into such dangerous dilapidation as to cause them to be regarded as " man-traps " and "dead-falls." Yet such was the healthful influence of active business and prompt pay in the irredeemable notes of a somewhat expanded currency that many of them, while reducing or extinguishing their indebtedness, re- newed and >'oubied their tracks during the war, and all of them procured adequate motive power and rolling stock for any amount of business, public or private, that might offer. At the beginning of the war the iron of Lake Superior CONTRACTION THE ROAD TO BANKRUPTCY. 215 lisfht de- im- and was not an article of general commerce, but at its close the Marquette region was furnishing one-eighth oi the entire production of the country. In 130 L ,ve were pendent on foreign factories for steel ; but under the pulse of the war we are manufacturing ordinary Bessemer steel in such quantities and of such superior quality as to justify the hope that a few ye irs will enable U3 to compete in the markets of Cental and South America with the nations on which we have hitherto de- pended. At the beginning of the war the great western coal basin had not been tested experimentally. Intelli- gent gentlemen from Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Iowa, and Kansas spoke of the wonderful coal deposit which under- lies their respective States as a matter of belief or theory ; but now every railroad through those States has either provided itself or is devising means to procure cars adapted to the transportation of that cheap and convenient fuel. Brazil, Indir.na, was then an obscure and inconsid- erable railroad station, but now, as the centre of r.n iron and coal producing district, its population is increasing with greater rapidity than that of any town in the State, and trains of cars laden with coal leave it daily for the iron mountain of Missouri, to supply the furnaces and forges of that vicinity with fuel, and return from the iron moun- tain to Brazil freighted with ore to be smelted and wrought in the midst of coal beds which experience has p.'oven to be an inexhaustible deposit of almost pure carbon. Ac- tive demand and prompt payment in irredeemable green- backs have elicited the demonstration at both points, that in Indiana and Missouri are natural deposits that will, if properly developed, before the close of another genera- tion, dwarf the relative importance of Fngland, Yf ales, or Belgium as coal, iron, and steel producing centres. Thus did the country respond to the necessities of the Government, and thus did the demand for industry created by the war and prompt pay by the Government for all that it bought from its citizens, in irredeemable but well-secured greenbacks though it was, enable the people to respond promptly and amply to its calls for men, money, and materials. Our progress was not, as already appears, confined to the military direction, but other brandies of industry were also quickened into life. At the beginning of the war the West made no zinc or brass or clocks or watches, and she depended on foreign nations for sugar K i ' i vai; H.ii 216 CCNTRACTION THE ROAD TO BANKRUPTCY. and molasses. But now the zinc of Illinois and the copper of Michigan, smelted by native fuel, is furnishing the West with merchant brass that is preferred to foreign by engravers. The town of Elgin, Illinois, which rivals the most beautiful New England villages, and which proa ices watches equal to the best productions of any natior,, has sprung up since Sumter was fired on ; and in Austin, a suburb of Chicago, not yet three years old, they make clocks, the brass, the glass, the enamel, the steel, and the frames of which, whether simple or ornate, are all of na- tive production, and into which no particle of material enters that has ever been on salt water or paid duty at a custom-house. The inhabitants of the town of Chats- worth, Illinois, did not number two hundred at the close of 1863 ; they now nu':nber nearly two thous.ind people, who ure in their intercourse fourteen of the dialects of Europe, and are producing this year nearly one thousand tons of sugar from beet roots, and an amount of molasbos that will pay each laborer good wages, and for the coal consumed by the whole community ; and not only did we prove ourselves able to cloihe our army and improve the material, texture, and durability of its clothinir, but we increased the variety and improved our woolen abrics for private wear so much that we are able to enter the list with the most successful woolen manufacturing nations. But, sir, that we did during the war add to our produc- tive power and realized wealth more than the principal of oar debt is to my mind demonstrated by the fact that though the taxes upon our industry, trade, income, and the earnings of our corporations, were heavier than now by hundreds per cent., they were, after the first y3ar of the war, or from the time that green-backs relieved the want of adequate currency, paid cheerfully, because they were paid from monthly or annual profits. Our people were steadily increasing in wealth, crery exchange of property between them was for mutual advantage, and by increasing their wealth they added to the taxable resources' of the country. The able report of the special Commis- sioner of the Revenue, D. A. Wells, Esq., thus corrobo- rates this view : "As has been already shown, the national expenditures, exclusive of appropriations for the redemption of the public debt and for in- terest attained during the five years from 1861 to 18G6 theexlrao'- dinary average of over sever hundred and twelve million dollars per CONTRACTION THE ROAD TO BANKRUPTCY. 217 annum, to whicli must also be ; Idded the great increase during the same period of State and loca; expenditures. Now, while by far the largest portion of the money represented by this expenditure was borrowed, it must nevertheless be borne in mind that the average annual money statement for the years specified is in a great degree, if not entirely, the measure of the labor annuaily furnished to the Government in the form of commodities or services rendered in the Army or Navy, for the v,ar in the main was conduc ted by means of the services of the soldiers rendered at the time, and by means of the food, clothing, and material of war raised or made during the period of hostilities, and for which money or an r.cknowledgment of iadebledaess was given. It therefore appears that during the yearb from IJ-oi to 1866 labor and commodities wem continually withdrawn from the productive employments of peac<^ to the destructive occupations of war, and that the measure of this uni^roductive di- version was in e.^cess of $712,000,000 per annum, and yet during the continuance of all this drain the northern and Pacific States did not cease to make a real progress in the creatio:i af substantial wealth. Thus the aggregate of the northern crops, measured in bulk and quantity, and not in money, did not decrease, but increased ; the area of territory placed under cultivation was continually enlarged ; "ailroads continued to be built, mines to be opened, and mills, stores, and dwellings to be erected." As if to emphasize this statement, the Commissioner adds the following foot note : "Ii is not believed that any great amount of northern capital ac- cumulated prior to the war was used or destroyed during the war, but that the service aid commodities used were mainly the product of ttie tiipj." * Mr. Chairman, so immensely had ready demand, the rapid circulation of commodities, and prompt pay in greenbacks stimulated our industry that the amount of American productions — agricultural, mineral, scientific, or mechanical — that had been devoted to the work of destruc- tion are thus shown to have been in excess of the require- ments for civil life in a season of prosperity, and certainly in inf^reaaing excess of the production of former years. But, sir, the war has ended; we are aguin at peace; the jurisdiction of the Government extends over the whole country. Twelve million producers and consumers have been brought within our jurisdiction by the extin- guishment of the confederate government, under whose laws they had lived and to whose treasury they had paid tribute during the war, and the Commissioner in this con- nection submits thi 3 question, to which I propose, briefly as I can, to reply. He asks : * It should be noted that this was said by Mr. Wells before his official visit to Eoglsod, during which his opinions underwent a .-adioal change. ^1 • •li; f-. J; CI m . 218 CONTRACTION THE ROAD TO BANKRUPTCY [H '• If a portion of the country could contribute of its surplus labor and capital an annual value of $'H 07 per capita for destructive purposes, will it not be easy for the whole country, with its labor and capital restored to productive employments, to contribute $S 73 per capita for the payment of interest, expenses, and the reduction of the debt?" This diminished rate of taxation, the Commissioner tells us, will not only provide for an annual expenditure of $140,000,000 for ordinary expenses, $130,000,000 for interest on the public debt, but $50,000,000 annually for the reduction of the principal of the debt. Mr. Chairman, whether the people can bear this rate of taxation, reduced as it is, will depend upon our legisla- tion. Had Congress one year ago, when I urged it to that course, repealed the taxes that have not only burdened all but prostrated many of the industries of the country dur- ing the past year, and withheld from the Secretary of the Treasury the power to contract the currency, I believe there would be no doubt on this question. My views on tlii.-i point are the results of much deliberation, and have undergone no recent change. Experience has but made that history which for the two last years I have uttered to the House as prediction. When addressing the House on January 31, 1863, I said : " England, if supreme selfishness be consistent with sagacity, hag been eminently sagacious in preventing us from becoming a manu- facturing people ; for with our enterprise, our ingenuity, our freer institutions, the extent of our country, the cheapness of our land, the diversity of our resources, the grandeur of our seas, lakes, and rivers, we should long ago have been able to offer her best workmen such inducements as would have brought them by millions to help bear our burdens and fight our battles. We can thus raise the standard of British and continental wages and protect American workmen against ill-paid competition. This we must do if we mean to maintain the national honor. The fields now under culture, the liousof. now existing, the mines now being worked, the men we now employ, cannot pay our debt. To meet its annual interest by tax- ing our present population and developed resources would be to continue an evt-r enduring burden. •' The principal of the debt must be paid ; but as it was contracted for posterity its extinguishment should not impoverish those who sustained the b irdens of the war. I am not anxious to reduce the total of our debt, and would, in this respect, follow the example of England, and as its amount has been fixed would not for tlie present trouble myself about its aggregate, except to prevent its increase. My anxiety is that the taxes it involves shall be as little oppressive as possible, and be so adjusted that, while defending our industry against foreign assault, they may add nothing to the cost of those CONTRACTION THE ROAD TO BANKRUPTCY. 219 necessaries of life which we cannot produce, and for which we must therefore look to other lands. The raw materials entering into our manufactures, which we are yet unable to produce, but on which we unwisely impose duties, I would put into the free list v/ith tea, coffee, and other such purely foreign essentials of life, and would impose duties on commodities that compete with American produc- tions, so as to protect every feeble or infant branch of industry and quicken those that are robust. I would thus cheapen the elements of life and enable those whose capital is embarked in any branch of production to offer such wages to the skilled workmen of all lands as would steadily and rapidly increase our numbers, and, as is always the case in the neighborhood of growing cities or towns of consider- able extent-, increase the return for farm labor ; this policy would open new mines and quarries, build new furnaces, forges, and factor- ies, and rapidly increase the taxable property and inhabitants of the country. Would the south accept this theory and enter heartily upon its execution, she would pay more than now seems her share of the debt and feel herself blessed in the ability to do it. Her cli- mate is more genial than ours; her soil may be restored to its original fertility; her rivers are broad and her harbors good ; and, above all, hers is the monopoly of the fields for rice, cane sugar, and cotton. Let us pursue for twenty years the sound national policy of protection, and we will double our population and more than quadruple our capital, and reduce our indebtedness per capita and per acre to little more than a nominal sum. Thus tuch man can ' without moneys ' pay the bi7"{ of his portion of the debt by blessing others with the ability to bea. an honorable burden." Confirmed in the correctness of these views by subse- quent observation and reflection, at the final session of the Thirty-Ninth Congress I introduced a resolution in- structing the Committee of Ways and Means — "To inquire into the expediency of immediately repealing the provisions of the internal revenue law whereby a tax of five per cent, is imposed on the mechanical and manufacturing industry of the country." And on the earliest day the rules would permit 1 offered another resolution declaring — " That the proposition that tlie war debt of the country should be extinguished by the generation that contracted it is not sanctioned by sound principles of national economy and does not meet the approval of this House." On the 8d of January, 1867, in addressing the House in opposition to the views of the Secretary of the Treasury in favor of the maintenance of extraordinary taxes, contraction of the currency, and resumption of specie payments with- in two years from the date of his Fort Wayne speech, or his annual report, and the extinguishment of not less ^t1l I Um iiii til nm 1 i '■fl ' i^iHiH s»5 y32 '■ru. fl 220 CONTRACTION THE ROAD TO BANKRUPTCY. i ■ J 'I. "*'*^. ' • I* iljl 4^ jS I than $100,000,000 of the principal of the debt annually, I said : " Pence is restored, our currency appr»,ximatea the specie stand- ard, and it is discovered that by aid ot our inordinate internal taxes foreifrn mnnufacturers are monopolizing our home market. Our f)ublislun8 buy their paper and print and bind their books in Eng- and or Belgium ; our umbrella-makers have transferred their work- shojis to Knglish towns; our woolen and worsted mills are closed or closing, and the laborers in these branches are not only wasting their capital, which consists in their skill and industry, but drawing from the savings banks or selling the Government uonds in which they had invested their small accumulations to maintain their families during the winter; and our eijlarged importations of foreign goods are swelling the balance of trade against us and preparing us for general t)ankruptcy." And again: "'I'he experiment, if attempted as a means of hastening specie payments, will prove a failure, but not a harmless one. It will be fatal to the prospects of a majority of the business men of this general ion, and strip the frugal laboring people of the country of the small but hard-earned sums they have deposited in savings banks or invested in Government securities. It will make money scarce and employment uncertain. Its object is to reduce the amount of that which in every part of our country and for the hundreds of thou- sands of millions of dollars of domestic trade is money and to in- crease its purchasing power; and by unsettling values it will para- lyze trade, suspend production, and deprive industry of employment. It will make the money of the rich man more valuable and deprive the poor man of his entire capital, the value of hi,s labor, by depriv- ing liira of employment. Its first effect will be to increase the rate of interest and diminish the rate of wages, and its final effect wide- spreiid bankruptcy and a more protracted suspension of specie pay- iTients." Sir, these predictions were not only not heeded but were denounced as the vagaries of a mere theorist by genti'jtn.'n whose position made their voices potential; and 1 remember that when the productio'.s of the liand- loorn weavers of the country had been freed from taxation by the votes of both Houses the committee of conference upon the disagreeing votes of the two Houses on the tax bill, seizing the fact that the Senate and Plouse had differed as to the use of a verb, restored the provision pro- viding for the tax, and the chairman of the committee iu each House proclaimed the possibility of the exemption of thv^se comparatively unimportant productions producing a deficit in the revenue. Some reduction in the scale of taxation was made by the bill to which I refer, and it is well for the country that it was. Large as it was, it CONTRACTION THE ROAD TO BANKRUPTCY. 221 would have been better had every direct tax upon our industry been removed. Nor would the revenue of the Government have suffered from the change, for we col- lected during the year 1866-67 $143,904,880 more than was required for payment of interest on the public debt and current expenses. These inordinate exactions deter- mined the line between profit and loss on many branches of industry and diminished our productions by paralyjiiug or suppressing such branches. Without the $67,778,082.- 70, the amount derived from direct taxes on manufactures other than spirits, malt liquors, and tobacco in its various' forms, we would have been able to extinguish more than seventy-five million dollars of the principal of the debt. Permit me to say, if I may use a homely figure, that by attempting to collect such heavy taxes while contracting the currency, we lighted our candle at both ends. The loom and the spindle, no longer able to yield profit to their proprietor, stand idle; the fires are extinguished in forge and furnace, and the rolling-mill does not send forth its hum of cheerful and profitable industry. On one day of last month eighteen hundred operatives in the glass factories of Pittsburg were deprived of the poor privilege of earning wages by honest toil at the trade in which they were skilled. The establishments in which they worked are closed. In the absence of productive employment for men or machinery the small holders of bonds are sell- ing them to save themselves from bankruptcy if they are proprietors of establishments, or to feed themselves and families in involuntary idleness if they are laborers whose hard-earned savings have been loaned to the Govern- ment in its exigency. Look where we may, to any section of the country, we hear of "shrinkage" in the value of manufactured goods, of reduction of wages, or of the hours of labor, of factories running on part time, or closed or to be closed. I present no jaundiced or partisan view of the case, for the gentleman who sui)nutted to this House the report of the committee of confeiencfj to which I have alluded, and who resisted proposed re- ductions of taxes with such persuasive ability, [Mr. Morrill of Vermont,] in a recent discussion in the Senate on the repeal of the cotton tax, said : " It may be said that the South are clamoring for the repeal of the tax on cotton. Is there any less clamor in the West or the North or the East for a repeal of taxation 7 I deny it. I say there ie r- 5s ll ! ^^ I « i: k F^ i'. t ''?'■- i i> I 222 COXTRAOTION THE ROAD TO BANKRUPTCY i I it as inu(;h urgency for a relief from Uxation in the North, the Kast, and the West us in the South. Lool! lit the indnstries that are at the present moment unusually depressed. Take, for instance, the entire woolen interest. 'I'hero is not an eatahlishment that is not losing money to-day. Take the wool-git.wer ; not a pound of wool raised last year that will bring within te»» cents per pound of its cost. Take the cotton interest ; the whole circle of manufactures are in no better circumstances. Look at the value of tlieir stocks ; for instance, take the Bates manufacturing slock of Maine, worth two years aj^o one hundred and sixty cents on the dollar, now there are more sellers than buyers at one hundred. Take the Lyman mills on the (Jonnecticut, worth two years ago ninety-eight to one hundred, now selling at sixty-nine or less ; and so I might go on almost through the whoh list. 'J'li 'v all suffer. Take the West — Oh^o, Ulino'.s, or Iowa— lor': at t'leir hog crop. Why, if ihey had given away all their hogn, or if they had slaughtered them a year ago and thrown ;htm away, tliey would liave been better off to-day. TliJ'y have abdoluTtly losi their hog crop by feeding out grain to them, wh'cli unfed woultl ha' a brought more than all their pork." Mr. Chairman, accepting the br mc^s of the oldest and best-managed savings bai^k for ihe receipt of small depos- its in Philadelphia as a good ^tidex to the condition of the laboring class oi the country, I have obtained a state- ment of the number and amount of drafts made by the depositors whose Avhole deposit is under one hundred dollars, and of the v,-\ole number of drafts of depositors for the month oi December of the years 1805, 1866, and 1867, and the total amount drawn in each year. It is as follows: Montbg. Year. deposit under $100. 846 811 1,128 Whole number of payments. Amount withdrawn. Dec Dec Dec 1865 1866 1867 1,186 1,174 1,596 99,603 10 104,430 95 144,205 70 To gentlemen used to large bjsiness transr -tions the movement of the small sums enainerated in this exhibit may not seem important, but they tell a story of bank- ruptcy as grievous to the victim whose hours of toil were solaced by the reflection that he was by his imall deposits garnering a trifling capital for his children or a shelter for his age as is one which is telegraphed to the press of every section ot the country by reason of the large amount iuvolved. Nay, more than that, these drafts upon Itis" CONTRACTION THE HOAD TO BANKRUI'TCY. 223 the small accumulations of years of toil tell a .story of practical agrarianism and confiscation that would shock gentlemen if it applied to the bonds or land of the wealthy. The attempt to force a resumption of specie payments by contracting a volume of currency which was actively, legitimately, and profitably employed, is as dishonest as it is unwise. The object and effect of such a movement is to increase the purchasing power, the value of the rich man's hoarded or invested dollars, and its projectors pause not, though they discover that it robs millions of labor- ers of their whole estate. The laborer's income is derived from the exercise of his thews and sinews and the skill of his cunning right hand. These are his estate — these and his little savings — and of these millions are being robbed by the mad attempt of the Secretary of the Treas- ury to bring about specie payments while the balance of trade is heavily against us, and our gold-bearing bonds are so largely held by foreigners that resumption would in less than thirty days induce t^'e return of bonds enough to drain us of specie and make us feel the curse of absentee- ism as distinctly as Ireland ever felt it. Were our bonds held at home, or were commercial exchanges greatly in our favor, we might maintain a forced resumption ; but with our bonds abroad, and the balance of trade heavily against us, we could not maintain it a month. And if Congress does not restrain Mr. McCulloch from persisting in the attempt he will unsettle the value of every species of property, curtail the productive power of the country, bankrupt men o^ enterprise, and rob millions of laboring people of their whole estate. But permit me to inquire what effect this experiment will have on the public revenues? Can an honest bank- rupt contribute much to the exchequer of his country ? Are those who are conducting business at a loss apt to make large contributions to the fund derived from income tax? And are unemployed laborers who have drawn and consumed their last dollar in a condition to buy dutiable or taxable commodities ? No, sir ; as the number in each of these classes increases the public revenue diminishes ; and in view of the facts I have hastily presented I am prepared to say that with full employment, even though prices had continued as high as they were during the war, which I maintain was impossible under the influence of our inereasiUo activity and productive power, the people f' I iT •:; 4, ^a' 4 , I l.i:|- 1 1 m 'A n ^ i & 224 CONTUACTION THE ROAD TO BANKRUPTCY. I i>> could better pay the taxes they then endured, heavy as they were, than they can with a contracting currency, low prices, and but partial or no employment for men and ma- chinery, pay the greatly diminisheu rate suggeated by the Commissioner. ^ Mr. Chairman, two policies were open to us at the close of the war. We have tried one, ana the results arc but too painfully apparent ; the other is still open to us. It is true we cannot repair the losses already endured, but wo can check the downward tendency, quicken industry, and give a new impulse to the productive power of the coun- try. It was open to us to diminish the depreciation in the rate of wages by diminishing taxes and fur- nishing as we had done during the war, a sound circu- lating medium adequate in volume for the rapid ex- change of commodities among our own people, and thus secure employment to our laborers with fair wages for their work ; or, on the other hand, we could by imposing taxes not demanded by our exigencies and contracting the currency impair confidence, force sales, palsy enterprise, reduce wages, and deprive the laborer of a market for the only commodity he has to sell — his industry. Gentlemen will say there can for the present be no em- ployment because the markets are overstocked, and there is what political economists often speak of, "a glut in the market." Sir, the time has never been when the markets of the world were glutted. When that event shall come, every home will be well furnished, and every human being well clothed. A superabundance of the necessaries of life cannot exist while the urgent wants of millions can- not be supplied. Our markets are not glutted. The stock of goods of every kind in the hands of merchants is unu- sually low, and there are unemployed people in the coun- try who need them all and who would gladly labor for the Imeans to purchase them all. The wretch that shivers in a cheerless home without food, fuel, or adequate clothing ; she who, ill-fed herself, shares her last crust with her hun- gry children ; and they who in the midst of winter are deprived of the privilege of toiling, and as their goods are thrown rudely into the street realize a landlord's power when rent is in arrear, do not believe that «he market is glutted. Nor is it. The disease from which we suffer is not glut or plethora. Its seat is in the functions of circulation. It is congestion produced by a financial 1 ^1 CONTRACTION THE ROAD TO HANKUri'TCY. 225 toiirnlqiiot ftpplietl by a clmrlatan. That pliraso "glut in tlio iiiarkot" iiivolvosa purvension ol' turins, and is used to express tlic fact tliat the masses are from some eauso una- ble to consume their usual si^)ply of the comforts or necessaries of life.* It does not, as it implies, express the fact that there is an over supply of commodities essential to tlie comfort of man, but that there is financial derange- nu'iit. It is a convenient plirase for the theorist, a veil used to conceal a fact the occurrence of which should ad- monish every statesman that there is something wrong in the prevailing practice of government. Tlie author of the next treatise on popular fallacies slunild make "glut in the market'' the subject of a leading chapter; for they who use the phrase invariabl}' confound terms and designate the consequence as the cause, '^riius t'le Irish lirpHblii\, in tlio course of a generally able article in its issue of January -Ith, says : "From all parts of Massacluisetts unvl Connecticut wo liiivo boon rocoivin<,'. duriiif? the past six woclxs, the very niiwclcomi' iiitolli- gcncc Unit inill-owncrH and iniiiiuracturi'vs were eitlier contracting their producing operations or susiiending tlieni altof:ether. Run- ning half or quarter time appears to l)e the order of the day ; wliilc not iinfrequontly the engine fires are l)lo\vn out and the maci\inery left to rust in idleness. Tlie cause is obvious, '{"here is little or no demand for goods, 'i'he con.seiiuences are wliat we have already stated. The hands of hundreds of thousands of honest workmen are idle, and their children are ill-fed and ill-clad under the biting blasts of a North American winter." Let me point out the fallacy of this statement. Fires * There nrc otlior means of pruduoin)^ an apparent glut in the market th.in by suddenly contracting the currency of a busy and prosperous pcojvlo. 'rho work- ing men of England in a blind cttort to improve their condition, have limited tlie amount of production, and thereby glutted their market as effecturilly as Mr. McCulloch would have glutted ours had Congress not prohibited further con- traction. In " Social Politics " Prof. Kirk says : " It may not be out of place here to notice that there is a burden of no small mngnituile loft behind among the working men in their own state of mind on social matters. Many of them actually think the less they work the better ! And they insist that no man shall do more than a very limited amount of work if they can prevent him ! They insist that no one shall learn to work be- yond a very limited number ! They and their children are actually dying in hundreds for want of houses to live in, and yet they think that the fewer houses they build the better! They are miserably clad, and yet they think the fewer clothes they make the better! They are in semi-starvation because of high prices, and yet they actually think that the higher they can make the oost of production, the better for them ! " " Production is yet so far below the wants of men ; in other words, there are yet so many starving and ill-clad, ill-housed thousands in the world, that ' over-production ' is ridiculous." — Ibid. 15 226 CONTRACTION THE UOAI) TO BANKRUPTCY. aro blown out mid innchinory left to rust in idlenosw, not becHUHd tlicrt) is no (leinund for goods, butbocnuso tlirongli- out the South and West thoro is no circulating modinui with which to eftcct cxcliangcH; and the policy of the Secretary of the Treasury with tho cry of iho creditor class for resumption have destroyed confidence in indi- vidual credit. The proposition should be stated thus : '''rh«!ro is little; or 110 (loinaml for goods. Tlio cuuhc !« oliviniin; it i.s lh:il till' liaiiilH of hutulrcds of thtiusunds ol' honest workiniii arc idle, mid llicir cliildron ill-led tind ill-rliid, liecuuHi; inill-owiit>rs uiid iimnut'iictiinMs hitve hwu coinpclled to coiitruct tht'ir ojxM'atiDHH mid withliold rnuii liiltorcrH cinployincnt and wukch with which they wiiidd hu ubie to {lurchutiu the pruductu uf thu furiuer uiid luumiluc'- turer." The general theory I am advancing is not new, and is one that should never be disregarded by those who legis- late for the pe;>plc of a republic. The social evils wc arc enduring, the bankruptcy that is overtaking so many men of enter[)riso, the want and enforced idleness that prevail so largely iunong our laboring classes, arc due to two causes: — excessive internal taxation, and the curtailment of our currency at a time when the numbers and activities of our people were rapidly increasing. 'J'he Secretary of the Treasury and his adherents are responsible for this general prostration of credit and business. They talk of the honor of the country, and the necessity of maintaining it by making the paper dollar equal to the gold dollar, and of hastening the day when our bonds shall be paid in gold. The means to which they resort will not produce the results they desire, but will defeat them. Nor are those who resist them hostile to the bondholder. They aim to secure the laborer the possession and just fruits of his hard inheritance, and by the rapid development of the boundless resources of the country and the restoration of general prosperity to enable the Government to meet the utmost of its obligations with honor at maturity. The con- test is between the creditor and the debtor class — the men of investments and the men of enterprise; .and during all such contests the laboring classes are inevij.able sufferers. The issue thus raised is as old as civilization. And now, as always heretofore, the creditor class is the aggres- sor. Alison, in his " History of Europe " from the fall of Napoleon to the accession of his nephew, aays : r-W CONTRACTION TUB ROAD TO BANKRUPTCY. 227 (, |i "Whoever lias stuilicti with ttttontion thn »fructnro or toiidoncion of Hocii'ty, either as they are portrayed iti the iinriulH of iineiciit story or exist in the coinplicuted reiution.s of men urouiid iim, niUHt huve bccoino uwiire thut the greatest evils which in the Inter »tiiges of national progress coino to ufliiet mankind, arose Trom the undue influence and paramount importance of realir.ed riches. Thut the rich in tilt! later stages of national progress arc constantly getting tidier and the poor poorer is a common oliscrvation, whi<'h has lieen repented in every age, from the tiays of Holon to those of Sir Kuhert I'eel; and many of thi' greatest changes which have occurred in the worhi — in particular the fall of tiio Roman empire— may he distinct- ly traced to the long-continued operation of this pernicious tend- ency For tlie evils complained of arose from the unavoidable result of a stationary currency, coexisting with a rapid increase in the numl)crs and transactions of mankind ; ami these were only aggravated hy every addition made to the energies and productive powers of society," Again, ho says : "But if an increase in the numbers and industry of man coexists with a diminution in the circulating medium l)y which their trans* actions arc carried on, the most serious evils await society, and the whole relations of its dill'erent classes to each other will he speedily changed; and it is in that state of things that tlie saying jtrovcs true that the rich are every day growing richer and the poor poor- er." — Alison's Iltstoiy of Europe, 1815 to iHo^, chapter 1. As Sir Archibald Alison was not gifted with more than human prescience he could not have foreseen the coiidiliou of our country in the years that are passing. If, therefore, he described it, he did so by declaring a general law. That he did portray our condition with nice discrimina- tion no one can controvert. Let us sec how exact a com- pliance the contraction policy is producing with all the conditions the conjunction of which he tells us must pro- duce the most serious evils to society. The close of the war found us with a currency expanded somewhat beyond the amount to which we had been used before the rebellion, but with everybody in the North well employed. Men of character were able to borrow money at moderate rates of interest, and were everywhere engaging in new enterprises that were not merely specula- tive, but calculated to add to individual and national wealth. Labor was in demand at fair wages. It is true that food was high, for a great war had raged through a series of years, and been succeeded by years of drought or excessive ^ain, during which the fields had not yielded their usual crops. This no legislation could have averted ; \ \ 1 i t I 3.. r . Kit ^ii I " ' iM' i I! if f " if •r\ \ n 228 CONTUACTION THE KOAD TO BAXKRUPTCY, but in jpite of it the people al large were prosperous and confident that a fruitful year would adjust the cost of food to the prices of other commodities. From ten to twelve millions cf our people, occupying more than six hundred thousruid square miles of our most fertile territory, which abounds in water-power and varied mineral I'csonrces, W'jro almost without currency. Their whole capital, otluT than lands and houses, railroads and canals, had been in- vested in confedcj-ate loans or otherwise exhausted. Tlieir banks and insurance companies were bankrupt. They had cotton, tobacco, naval stores, and the fields from which to produce these and all other agricultural com- modities. They had laborers skilled in their arts of cul- tivation, and willing to toil for wages unreasonably low, but they had no currency, no circulating medidm with which to make commercial or other exchanges of property or to pay their laborers. At the same time an unusual stream of emigration was flowing to us from transatlantic countries. Enterprise was pushing rapidly westward, and towns and cities were rising where, when the war began, the buffalo had roamed over unbroken prairies. With these additions to our population and to the area over which it was to cir- culate what was there to indicate the propriety of a curtail- ment of the medium by which transactions between man and man and community and community were to be carried on ? For myself I was unable to see any, and protested against the mad t]\eories of the Secretary of the Treasury and his disciples. In the course of my remarks on the 3d of January, 1867, to which I have alluded, I oaid: "Neither tlie Secretary of the Trpasury nor Congress know whether our currency is in excess of tlic ainoiiiit required hy lepiti- mate and healtlirtil irnde, or if it Ite. how lonsr it will reiniiip so if undisturbed by legislation. Nor can we settle these points by an appeal to experience, for many of our conditions are novel. Tliat w'ould be a curious and instructive calculation wliich would slmw the country the precise demand for currency created by the opera- tion of thv Bureau of Internal Revenue, or by the enlargement of the Army and Navy and clerical force of the Government. " Under the discipline of Providence the southern people will, before many years glide away, consent to permit their fields to be tilled, their mines to be wor'ed, and their cities to be rebuilt and expanded; and who can tell .he amount of currency that will then be required by the four million enfranchised slaves and the millions of poor whites, who did not in the past, but are henceforth to earn wages and buy and sell commodities, or for handling the crops and CONTRACTION THE ROAD TO BANKRUPTCY. 229 mineral productions of the South? Since we last adjourned the iron horse has crossed Nebraska on one of the routes to the Pacific, and his snort has been heard in the neighborhood of Fort Riley on another ; and during tlie last year t'lree hundred thousand industri- ous people, who had been fed and clothed through unproductive childhood at the cost of other nations, came and cast their lot among iis to till our fields, smelt our ores, work our metals, and manage our spindles and looms ; and I cannot guess what amount of currency these energetic people and the westward-marching column of our civilization will require. J3ut, sir, of one thing I am certain, which is that had the Secretary of the Treasury not de- stroyed all sense of security in the future, the demand for currency to purchase, especially in the South, mineral and other lands, and develop their productive power, would have prevented the acumula- tion of the immense deposits which now lie paralyzed in bank or are loaned on call to speculators in the Uvicessaries of life. We unsettled values and made or scattered tortunes by the rapid expansion of the currency ; and the people implore us to avoid another violent change fraught with like couseciucnces, and to stay the work of contraction till we siiall have a;icertained, at least proximately, tlu; amount of currency required by healthy and legitimate trade." But, Mr. Chairman, gentlemen ask, do you not wish to return to specie payments? I answer, yes; but not hv the way of bankruptcy and repudiation ; and that way leads contraction in the midst of an increase such as never existed before in the numbers of men and fields for their activity. Keturn to specie payments! Are we doing it? No, sir. The difference between the greenback and gold dollar widens with each month. And while a greenback dollar will buy less gold it will purchase much more of any other commodity than it would a year ago. The rate of interest demanded for loans in the West and South is so inordinate that it has suspended enterprise and must exhaust the resources of any man who attempts to pay it ; and while the laboring people are idle the capital which should furnish them employment may be borrowed IVoin the banks of Boston or New York, in whose vaults the bulk of our currency has accumulated, by those who have gold or United States bonds to offer as security, at four per cent, per annum. Contraction has destroyed con- fidence. The possessors of "realized riches" have ..o faith in sp/ndles and looms that are producing goods for a falling market, or forges and furnaces the productions of which must be sold at a loss, and invest their funds in Government bonds, or let thetp lie on deposit till they can buy, at a small percentage of their val e, mills, Victories, min:r°, arid other valuable properties, when bankruptcy i -^i 230 CONTRACTION THE ROAD TO BANKRUPTCY. ,U fwer of the loyal States during the war, that of the southern States almost equalled it. Gentlemen will not forget that her Merrimac had sunk the Cumberland before our first monitor was ready to measure power with her. Great Britain supplied her with much of her munitions of war, but the unmechanical South overwhelmed us with sur- prise by the large share of these she produced for herself. Great Britain again, in defiance of our admirable blockade, clothed many of the confederate soldiers, but the si)iiidles and looms of the constantly-increasing factories of the pi f I 232 CONTRACTION THE ROAD TO BANKRUPTCY. ' South were eacli year supplying a larger percentage of cloths for civic and military wear. Slie had dei)end(3d on New England for boots and shoes, but she found that she could tan her own hides, and people were found to make boots and shoes. Thomasville, North Carolina, is the Lynn, though not the only shoe manufacturing town of the South. Without detaining the committee by details of the improvement and extension of her railroad system, I will mention the fact that though Virginia and North Carolina had never been able to build a road from Dan- ville to Greensboro', whereby a central through ro.;-- from North to South would have been completed, that road was bu'lt in the first year of the war. This increased the value of every foot of a chain of roads extending from Kichmond to New Orleans, which now carries a large portion of freight passing between the eastern States of the North and the South and Southwest. But, sir, without elaborating the point, let me state in general terms that the value of the lands of the South were trebled by the recognition of facts which the war compelled the southern people to recognize, namely : that they could raise their own food, and that they had advan- tages over those on whom they had hitherto depended for food for man and beast in the markets of the eastern States, Central and South America, the West India Is- lands, and Europe. As cotton and sugar had been the only crop of the greater portion of their country the peo- ple had come to believe that they had but one harvest season — that in which those crops were gathered and pre- pared for market. But when the armies of the confederacy had to be fed from the fields within its lines they discov- ered that they had three harvest seasons — the spring for wheat and grasses, summer for corn, and autumn for cot- con and sugar. And in this very year many a broad acre, after having yielded its golden harvest of wheat, will have the stubble turiied under and be planted in corn that will mature before the frost threatens it. The necessities of the war also taught them the value of deep plowing, fer- tilizers, and of keeping procreative stock for the work for which they had kept only mules in the past. As an illus- tration of the value of these discoveries, let me say that it is within my knowledge that Mr. McDonald, of Con- cord, North Carolina, in order to settle the question of the value of deep plowing and the application of phosphates CONTRACTION THE ROAD TC BANKRUPTCY. 233 in the production of cotton, tried two experiments on fiekls which together embraced one hundred acres of land th.'it had ever been regarded as too poor for cotton land. Wishing to make the experiment for public as well as private advantage, Mr. McDonald took the opinion of the planters of his section of the State as to the possibility of making cotton on such land, and found no man among his neighbors or visitors who believed that it would return him the value of the seed with which he would plant it. But with a heavy old-fashioned Pennsylvania plow he broke the land and turned in a given amount of super- phosphate to the acre, and lo, when the season came for gathering cotton he had the demonstration that the poorest land in Cabarras county had been made to v eld the finest crop of cotton ever raised within her limits, and which many of her citizens pronounce the finest ever raised in North Carolina. The many intelligent planters who ob- served this experiment now know that by the aid of pro- per implements and adequate stimulants to the soil their fields may be made to yield a hundred per cent, more cot- ton than they ever have yielded, and that with but fifty per cent, of the labor hitherto applied. But, as I have before said, the people of this wonder- fully endowed section of our country were without a cir- culating medium. Thir was their paramount necessity. F'.n *he want of it all tneir interests were suffering. The Special Commissioner of Kevenue suggests that our con- ('^J.,!on is such that "soothing and sustaining" treatment rather than the " heroic " is most likely to promote and hasten our recovery, and I beg leave to inquire whether his suggestion is not much more applicable tc them. Inor- dinate taxes have borne more heavily upon the people of the South than upon uS; and contraction has operated with still more aggravated severity upon them, as whatever re- dundancy there may have been in our currency at the close of the war would have been absorbed by the inviting fields of enterprise oft'er^d by the South, and would have gone there to quicken h(;r resources and enable her people to consume dutiable goods and those from which iniernal revenue is collected by the sale of stamps. That the pro- ductive power the war developed in the South has been suppressed by lack of currency, and that bv contraction we are abstracting from her people the little they had, is becoming apparent to every observant man. We find ': !' It* 234 CONTRACTION THE ROAD TO BANKRUPTCY. I ■! eviueiice of it in every paper thi t comes from the South. The SUnvhird, (Raleigh, North Carolina,) of the 4th in- stant, says : " Everything seems to have fallen in price except breadstuffs and meats, which maintain former prices on account of their scarcity. Judgments are passed, execution sales are common, the bankruj)! law is x,.'-ing Jiold of estate after estate, property of all kinds is rapidly falling in price, lands are changing hands and will soon be knocked off fcr a mere song ; and ihere is no prospect, so far as wo can see, that this condition of things will speedily improve. One of the first effects will be to greatly restrict if not abolish the credit system. Every step, no matter how painful or how much to bo de- plored, is in that direction. Credit is based on confidence between man and man, and where there is no confidence there can be no credit. The end will be that a large majority of our people will find it impossible to meet their obligations, and must have indulgence in some way, or the hard earnings of many years will be sacrificed under the sherift's hammer or in courts of bankruptcy." And a correspondent of the New York Tribune^ writing from Ilinesville, Liberty county, Georgia, last month, says : "A sale has taken place at this county seat that so well marks the extreme depression in tlio money market that I send you the par- ticulars : Colonel Quarterman, of this county, deceased, and his ex- ecutor. Judge Featter, was compelled to close the estate. The pro- perty was advertised, as required by law, and on last court day it was sold. A handsome residence at Walthourville, with ten acres at- tached, out-houses, and all the necessary appendages of a first-class planter's residence, was sold for $G0. 'I'he purchaser was the agent of the Freedmen's Bureau. His plantation, four himdred and fifty acres of prime land, brought ^150; sold to a Mr. Eraser. Sixty-six acres of other land near Walthourville brought three dollars ; pur- chaser, Mr. W. I). Bacon. T/iese tvere all bona fide sales. It was court day, and a large concourse of 'people were present. The most of them were large property otoners, but really had not five dollars in their pockets, and in consequence would not bid, as the sales VJerefor cash. In Montgomery, Alabama, lots on Market street near the cppitol, well located, 50 feet by 110 feet, averaged but $2^{) each. The Welsh residence on Perry street, two-story dwelling houses, in- cluding four lots, sold for $3500 ; Dr. Robert M. Williams was tlie purchaser. The same property in better times would not have brought les? than $10,000. The Loftin place, near Montgomery, containinj one thousand acres, was recently rented at auction for forty cents an acre. The same lands rented the present year for tliree dollars an acre." It is proper that I should admit that something of this depression is due to the resistance leading men of the South present to her constitutional restoration to the Union and the hostility the baser sort of her people ex- CONTRACTIOX THE ROAD TO BANKRUPTCY. 235 liibit toward northern settlers : yet there are widesoctionn of the country into which northern men may go and find themselves welcomed as benefactors if they go to en^'ago in any industrial pursuit ; and it must also be admitted that under our present scale of taxation and with the Sec- retary of the Treasury constantly threatening contraction and able to execute his threat, that capital will not engage in any new enterprise either North or South. Commissioner Wells is right in prescribing *' soothing and sustaining " rather than "heroic" treatment for our diseased body-politic ; and if the capitalists of the country do not wish to swell the cry of repudiation till it shall be- come the shibboleth of a party, they had better abate their demand for the further contraction of the currency and consent to the repeal of taxes that are proving the cor- rectness of Dean Swift's proposition that " We can double the taxes and diminish the income one-half." The rapid development of the wondrous resources of our Cuuiitry and recuperation of the South will, under happier condi- tions, soon swell the volume of our exports beyond that of our imports, and enable us to recall our bonds from abroad in exchange for commodities, and resume specie payments without grinding into bankruptcy or beggary the men of enterprise and laborers of the countiy. In refutation of the favorite theory of the contractionists that the price of gold regulates the price of domestic produc- tions I pause to refer to the fact that the difference. l)etween gold and greenbacks widens daily, yet the purchasing power of a greenback is now for almost every article of home production twice what it was when the bulk of our bonds were subscribed for, and is increasing coevally with a steady rise in the price of gold. The suit of clothes in which I stand, and which I know to have been woven from pure Ohio wool, was bought for forty dollars in greenbacks ; not from what is called a slop-shop, but from the merchant tailors who have made my clothes for years. In 1861 it would have cost twice that suii^. Many styles of cotton goods which were commanding an advance of four hundred per cent, at that time are now selling at prices less than those they brought before the wai-. If any gentleman be disposed to dispute the increased general purchasing power of greenbacks, irrespective of the price of gold, I recommend him to examine pages 42, 43, and 44 of the lleport of the Special Commissioner of Kevenue. lie will there find abundant evidence of the fact. -4 K 1 : ,1 236 CONTRACTION THE ROAD TO BANKRUPTCY. i> 1:'- h Iwi. ili ''■' 'ii Had Congress at the close of the war hastenod to re- lieve the country of the taxes against which I am pro- testing, and while avoiding any expansion ofilie currency protcced its volume from diminution, and assured the peo- ple that no essential change in its volume should be niadu until the business of the country had adjusted itself to the conditions of peace, production would have advanced and our bonds would have been returning to us in the pockets of emigrants or mi sett) • tic t of a favorable balance of trade, and ntilli.;., of . .■v, ilc North ■•.lul Sot h, who are to-day e>.Ling bread tltcy have not earned, would have been busily em' lovftu. ii]i..i ivdding to the nation's wealth by earning each day i; je th • tliey consume. A gnulual decline in prices was inevitic^ic, but it would not have de- stroyed confidence and suspended production, and with immensely increased production, both agricultural and manufju'turing, there would have been no cry of a "glut in the market." The i)eople of the South, whose agricul- tural stock and implements, furniture and apparel, were exhausted during the war, would have been supplying their wants by the sale of the results of their industry. Under the influence of northern capital and enterprise water-power that now runs to waste through cotton fields would have been moving spindles and looms. Forges, furnaces, and rolling-mills such as those the war developed at Chattanooga, Atlanta, Lynchburg, and other points, would be in profitable operation, and by supplying mer- chantable iron diminishing our dependei.ce upon England and keeping down 'hat balance of trade which witli the interest on our bonds held abroad must prevent the re- sumption of specie payments as long as we continue the "heroic" treatment of sacrificing all other interests ia order to give increased value to the hoarded wealth of the possessors of "realized riches." An increasing de- mand for skilled labor in the South would also be a pow- erful agent in the work of reconstruction and the redemp- tion of the coiintry from financial embarrassment. Mr. Chairman, Bishop Kingsley, in one of his admira- ble letters from Europe, from Sweden, I think, stated that there were ten million industrious people in Europe eager to leave their fatherlands, cross the Atlantic, and identify themselves with us. This statement seemed to bear the aspect of exaggeration, but is confirmed by the judgment of every judicious traveler with whom I have conversed. CONTRACTIOV THK ROAT) TO BANKRUPTCY. 237 "VVe have room for them all; we need thorn all, and could ■ ive ♦hem "arnplo lOom uid verge • nough '' in which to ve prosperously coukl the navies ol the world bring them i II to us in a aingie year. We need them on our vine and ■asture land,^ and our grain-field'-, in our forests, our nines, ind our ove-ueds. We want the industrial secrets and ox[)erience they possess, but which liave not been in- troduced intr ou*- ,ountry. We need them to guide our magniiicent water-po^vers running to waste, and so bar ness tliem that they siiall labor for us as they speed their way to the sea. But would they better their condition to cotne to us at tiiis time ? I fear not. Most of them ran live where they are, and are used to the ills they suiTor ; but could they hope to prosper as strangers in a strange land, in which there is not adequate etnployment foi- the native workingman ; in which that most powerful of productive agents, the steam-engine, is idle and powerless, and ma- chinery is decaying in inaction, because the Goveininer. . arbitrarily interferes with a volume of currency to whicb all values had adj?isted themselves, and which as a uo dium of exchanges in internal trade was enhancing tu wealth and power of the nation in a ratio unprecedented In its history or the liistorv of the world ? Sir, it is in the power of Congress, by reanimating the industry and restoring the confidence of the country l)clore the sun of May shall have fitted the fields of the North for the plow, to prepare a welcome for all these people who may be able to come to us. I have indicated tlie j)rinci- pal measures by which this is to be done, '^riiei'e are other measures suggested to which I would gladly allude, but for the discussion of which the future will oiler more fitting occasions. I have no fear for the distant future. There is nothing in our condition to justify a dread of re- })udiation. AVe are not poor and exhausted, but are richer than we or any other people ever were. I have shown that the country vms richer at the close of the war by a newly created productive power fur more than equal to the entire indebtedness created by the war. I have pointed to the ftxct that the South, now the home of freedom, will under its inspiration be no longer a burden upon the ex- chequer of the country for her postal system anJ other Government service, as she has hitherto been, tut will contribute as liberally to its income as the most prosper- ous portions of the North have done or will do. Con- 288 CONTRACTION THE ROAD TO HANKRUPTCY. m traction of the currency and excessive taxation have tem- porarily diminished our productive power, and may pro- duce a period of most unliealtliy agitation, but the strife waging in our midst is, as I iiavo siiowii, tiie olVspring of the natural desire of the possessors of riches to (ixpedite and increase their profits. But we are not here to Icgis late for them beyond the protection of tiieir just riglits. Our charge is far nobler than that; it is the welfare uf a great, intelligent and enterprising people. Justice to nil will injure none, and by laboring to promote the welfiirc of the poor and lowly we will do most to protect the pro- perty and guaranty the rights of those whose estates are largest. Were it in our power and within the scope of our functions to organize a system of cooperation, or by any other means to harmonize the conflict between labor and capital — employer and employed — it would con- fer the highest blessing upon our country and give sta- l'!i^y to every interest. There is, could we but discover it, a solution of that difficult question, and let us hope that with our vast wealth, our immense bodies of public land, the intelligence and enterprise of our people, we may solve the difficult problem, and by the happy condition of 01'' '^"lople compel the rulers of the Old World to follow our example and guaranty to every citizen of their coun- tries the right to jxercise every privilege and prerogative of a free man. INTERNAL REVENUK. Speech Deliveued in the House of Representatives, June 1, 18G«. The House being in Committee of llic Whole on the state of the Union, iind having under consideration the bill lU. II. No. lOGO) to reduce into one act nnd to uruend the laws relating to internal ta.\es — Mr. Kelley said : Mr. Chairman : I would be unwilling to trouble the committcj upon this most important bill without more special preparaiiou tlian 1 have been able to make, were it possible lor mc to remain in the city and participate in the discussion at a later day. But the condition el" my health requires that I should seek repose in the quiet of my home. I must therefore avail myself of the present opportunity to offer some general suggestions, the perti- nence and importance of which will, 1 hope, justify tho seeming temerity of following the elaborate and well- digested remarks of the able chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means in an axtemporc discussion of the general character of the bill. First, permit me to thank the Committee of Ways and Means for the method and industry exhibited in the pre- paration of this bill. They have done a great work for the country in reducing to order and system the internal revenue laws. And I hope that before Congress rises their bill will, with such amendments as the Committee | of the Whole and the House may determine to make, be adopted. It will be a great relief to the industry and enterprise of the country, and produce a great improvement in the morals of the people. Our law is now in such a condition that it is a fountain of demoralization. The revenue service is becoming discreditable, and honorable men dislike to admit that they belong to it. Many of the taxes it imposes are worse than injudicious; and that on distilled spirits has been demonstrated to be not only excessive but unnatural. It is not only not 231) • I i: 210 INTKIIN'AL IlKVKNUK. ', m ndaplod to tlio condition of our country, wliich Ih too broad lor tlio Hurvcillaiico of u tiietropolitan police, \)Ut is in entire disrojiard of the infirrnitieH of avi-rago liuuian nature. Tlie wisest prayer uttered by nuni is tliut they may not bo led into tein[)tati()n ! IJiit our (iovern- inent has overwh(!ltned its agents by subji^cting thiMn to the ahnost irresistible temptations the whisky ring is able to {)resent under existing hiws. Vv.w wellinforrnrd men will asaort tlmt much less than onr the establishment has changed ; and it has come to pass that a business requiring large capital and broad premises is in the hands of strangers, men who are unknown to their neighbors, and many of whom, as I was assured within a fortnight V)y a distinguished officer of the revenue depart- ment, would be engaged in burglary or highway robbery, or expiating such crimes in penitentiaries, but that they lind it safer and vastly more profitable to deal in illicit whisky and sw'idle the Government and honest trades- men. Let gent, men consult their constituents and ask who have taken tnc places of the honorable men who years ago added to the W' dth of the community by their indus- try and integrity in the distilling and rectifying business. Few gentlemen will, I apprehend, be willing to exhibit the names and aliases of the men now engaged in either trade in their respective districts and endorse the list as a 16 ivm k 1 ■3 , .; I I 242 INTERNAL REVENUE, rf P'B! . X^i s i** " !l« H : t 1 »:•'! roll of honor. Victims of black mailing and illicit but protected competition, honorable men have abandoned or are preparing to abandon the business. By defying the limitations of human nature we liave ahso reversed the course of the carrying trade in this matter, and instead of wiiisky eoining over the railroads iVoni the West — whisky ir.ade from grain and witliiu ])roper limits nutritious — your roads are freighted west- ward with whisky distilled from molasses, and bound to kill at forty roils. Were whisky used only as a bevx-n.ge, I Would not deplore this fact ; but it is largely consumed in the arts of general production. And what effect is this having upon the general industry of the country ? It is closing manufactures of chernicals, establishments ibr the production of perfumery, the manufacture of varnish, and a large number of other articles. It is diminishing the general production of the country, and lessening the wages of large classes of skilled laboring people. Sir, there is within my district one chemical works which has been largely engaged in the production among others of alcoholic drugs, such as chloroform, and using alcohol as a solvent for ingredients in other drugs, such as quinine. From a small beginning the gentlemen conducting this establishment had increased their consumption of alcoliol to about one hundred and forty thousand gallons per annum. But being conscientious men, who arc unwilling to violate the kiws, though they might do so with im])unity, and who abide by their pledge to the Philadelphia Drug Exchange to consume no alcohol that has not paid its tax, their consumpti(^r has been reduced to fifteen thousand gallons per annum, and their skilled workmen are being scattered or earning the poor wages of unskilled laborers in employments to which they are unused. But, sir, this is not all the harm done the community in this connection, for men who scruple not to make contracts with fraudulent distillers ire stocking the market with inferior drugs, and substitutes for the purer articles my constituents for- merly produced are being imported in foreign bottoms and paid for in gold, together with freight to foreign ship-owners on the inferior commodity. The people of the Northwest, it seems to me, are special- ly interested in this question. They will find that they cannot aii'ord to expel from their inland section of the INTERNAL REVENUE. 243 country any branch of manufactures. They need the opportunity to expoi-t their grain concentrated in the forni of wiiisky, high wines, or other manufactures.'"' I am no Cassandra and tliey will not believe me, but I tell them they are entering upon a competition that will exclude them from the markets of the world, if they depend upon the export of their grain in bulk as food or mere i-aw material. Do you mark, gentlemen of Missouri, lUinoLs, and Wisconsin, that California is loud in the expression of her gratitude for the fact that one hundred and thirty vessels have been added to the fleet for carrying her grain to New York and transatlantic ports ? They can send grain in bulk twenty-tliree thousand miles to the seaboard of New England or Old England at less cost for transpor- tation than you can send yours to the seaboard by rail. Oregon is groan' ng under her crop of wheat, and her peo- ple are fearing t^ >r means for its transportation to market may not be at h.aid. But tliis distant competition is not what you have most cause to dread. The South, no longer your customer for food for man und beast, looms up your competitor. Her advantages over you are maniibld as they are manifest. She lies between )'ou and the ocean. Her grain fields are upon the banks of navigable rivers which flow to the Gulf or the ocean, and at or near the mouth of e h is a seaport. From Norfolk around to Galveston, Texas, the grain of the fanners of the several States may be floated ' ^ the sea-board upon rafts and there find shipping. Enghmd and western Europe are not the countries to which we chiefly export grain and flour. Our chief markets for these are Central and South America, and the islands to which the southern States are neighbors; and I tell you that if the people of the far NoBthwest do not take heed, and by diversifying tlieir industry convert ;;^eir raw materials into more compact productions, the day is not three years distant when their crops will waste ■■"' It co5ts a bushfil of whor.t to carry a bushel from Minnesota or Kansas to New York or Boston for shiiiini;".' or oonsumptiuii. One bushel of oorn will not pay thu frc'ght on another. But if tlic grain lie conoc-ntrateil into ale iliol, four bushels will pay the transportation on from sixteen to twenty. If sliipjieii as grain, that is the end of it to the farmer; but if it be distilled he not (jnly reduecs the eost of transportation, but raises a crop of hogs, and has manure with which to replenish his acres exhausted by successive crops of corn or wheat. Before the tax was put on whisky we exjiorted immense quantities of alcohol, to the great advantage of farmers. Now wo scarcely export any. The repeal of tho tax on spirits would revive this branch of our foreign oommercj. lii lr<< i^ffi:! ! ?■ 244 IN'TKRXAL REVENUE. ¥\i..'.\ u in the fields for the want of a market to wliicli they will pay tHe cost of transpor\.tion * These may seem to be idle statements. But you, gentle- men from the upper Mississippi and the Missouri, know that arrangements are making for carrying your grain in barges to New Orleans fc shipment thence. The rivers of the South are never ice bound as yours are through a Ion"- winter. Sir, the ablest pamphlet upon the resources of this country I have read in many years is that from the pen of Hon. John B. Eobertson, of Louisiana, who tells the people of that State that on four million acres of her soil which are yet unbroken by the plow experiment has demonstrated the fact that sixty bushels of wheat to the acre may be raised — sixty bushels of southern wheat that will bear transportation through the tropics, as spring-sown northern wheat will not. Gentlemen laugh and shake their heads ; but when I tell them that six liundred bushels of sweet potatoes to the acre is in that region not more than a lair average crop, they may imagine that the land is somewhat more fertile than that they have been accustomed to man- age. Seven hundred bushels of that esculent are frequently produced from an acre. But if each acre will yield but twenty bushels of wheat near a seaport, the competition will be disastrous to the grain-grower of the remote inte- rior. But, sir, I have wandered into a digression, but shall esteem myself fortunate in having rendered the coun- try a service if some few gentlemen note and ponder the facts I have suggested. To return to the subject — I say to gentlemen that they need tlic distillery and rectifying establishment, that whisky, high wines, lard and oil, rather than grain in bulk, shall seek a market from their region. It wil! be better for all if we of the East consume your productions ihan it can be iC your constituents are to con- tinue to consume whisky distilled in enlarged tea and cotfee-pots in cellars and garrets from imported molasses. Entertaining the views I have expressed, I rejtnced to hear the chairman of the Couunittee of Ways and Means announce the fact that the tax of two dollars had been but * The recent Franco-German war and the reduction if the California wheat crop fifty per cent, by drought, have probably prevented the fulfilment of this prediction ; but they have not suffisi d to put up the pric.i of grain. War and drought are not adequate guarantees I'l.r a steady market for the grain cropa of thia country ; nothing but a wido diversification of the induatriea of the West vill avert the ruin of the grain-growers of that section. .-.A ■ INTERNAL REVENUE. 245 nominally retained, and express tlie hope that the Ilouse would not sustain it. But, Mr. Chairman, he proposes in the name of the committee that the tax shall be fixed at seventy-five cents. It is an immense reduction, but it does not go quite low enough to check the fraud or to restore this important trade to its natural channels. While sick at rny home last week, I took the liberty of inviting to my bedside some of the best distillers and chemists of Phila- delpliia; separately and apart as they came I interro- gated them as to the cost of molasses whisky and the point at which the tax might safely be placed ; and there was unanimity among them in saying that at seventy-five cents molasses whisky could in tlie hands of men with some capital, incur the risks of the law, and make a fair profit. The reduction would doubtless diminish the production of whisky from molasses and thus reduce the price of molasses to such a point as to enable skilful men to operate with the certainty of large gains. They also agreed that at sixty cents the ground would be debatable, but if Congress wanted to shut molasses whiskey out from competition and to contend only with such fraud as might be effected at regular distilleries, and rectifying establishments, the tax should be put at the maximum of fifty cents ; and that every cent below that until it reached twenty-five would be a guard to the revenue, an additional guard thrown round the revenue and a dim.inution of the temptation which the Government is now offering for perjury, conspiracy, and fraud. I hope, therefore, the tax will be reduced to at most fift}'' cents ; and if I am able to be in my seat and find my vote will be effective in bringing it to forty cents. I shall cast it with the belief that while the change will save the revenues of the Government, it will also save the moruls of the people by diminishing the temptations to which they are subjected. I desire to say, Mr. Chairman, that when I feared that two dollars migtiu be adhered to bj' the committee as the tax, and that the industries of the country would be assessed $200,000,000 in order that the infamous " whisky ring " might continue to riot in fat living and amass colos- sal fortunes, and that the Government, except in special taxes, as provided for in the bill, would receive no more revenue from this source than it has been getting, I was of the opinion that the rates proposed in the bill were inor- dinate. The estimates, as we get thjm from the present 'a- r '" I! id III fir; ' i u m 246 INTERN'AL REVENUE. Secretary of the Treasury, have always been vastly in ex- cess of cxpeno'tures, and vastly below the actual receipts of revi'ime. The Secretary's estimates have not been can- did. Under the pretence of a desire to cxtingui.^li the principal of the debt it has seemed to be his policy to i-o- duce the rewards of labor and prevent the development of the natural wealth of the country. Misled by his false estimates, at fault hundreds of millions of dollars each year, we have burdened the industry and restrained the progress of the country. I am unwilling to be longer thus deludeil by this systematic misrepresentation. For my own pai'tl am determined to vote for the lowest possible amount of taxation that will provide with certainty for the pay ment of the currtmt expenses of the Government and the interest on the public debt. I find in the report of the Special Commissioner of Revenue, Mr. Wells, made in »/anuary, 1868, a passage which T shall read as illu.strativc of the truth of my asser- tion and the correctness of my theory : " 'I'hat the Uniterl States is the only out- of the leadings nations of the world which is at present materially diminishino: its debt and re- ducing its taxes ; and tlie only one, laoreovcr, which offers any sub- stantial evidence of its ability to j>ay its debt within any definite period, or even anticipates the probability of any such occnrrence. In proof of which we submit the following statements and sta- tistics : "Tlie figui-*^^ already presented demonstrate that the United States, froin the :Ust of August, 1865, to the :Ust Octer, 1867, substantially reduced its liabilities by the sum of over two tiundred and si.xty-six million dollars, or at an averag;e rateriod ; and that during the year ending .fune W. 1807, taxation was re^l-S'-ed by law to an esti- mated amount of fruu eighty to one hun^ million dollars per annul, i " Sir, the Commissioner also informs us that our revenues do not dimini.sh proportionately with the reduction of tax- ation. After presenting a tabular statement of the revenues of the Government for the years 1866 and 1867, he -i*ys : "A comparison of the figures above presented indicates a falling off in the receipts of internal revenue for tlie fiscal year 1867. as •oir.Mured with those of 1866, .$44,986. ;)();). Such a fulling off. how- e ei, if ppparent and not real, as will be evident when the great re- (' iction of internal revenue taxes, made by Congress during the last fiscul year, is taken into the account. 'I o what extent this re- liuci.er* 1 la actually amr ;nted cannot be precisely stated, but the INTERNAL REVP:NUE. 247 In- , ;j abated or repealed at the first session of the Thirty-Niaih I'oiv'ress were estimated as snffi(;ient to occasion an annua! loss of revenuo, taking thj returns of the precodinp fiscal year as a ])rece- dent, of about sixty million dollars; while tlic further ahatement at the second session of the same Con.irress was likewise estimated, in- chuling tlie redaction of the incom tax. at I'rom thirty tc forty miliiiin dollars. It would, thercfi)re, ha >, beennothinjr hut reasonii- hle to infer that the revenues fur the last fiscal year (ISIKI-Im) would liave fallen short of the ag'.trrefi;ite (if the precedinff year (lh().V(i(i) by an amoiiut etiual. to the reduction of the t;i.\es, the effect of which was fully experienced durinj,'- the period referred to ; which reduction m'.iy be pru'ientiy estimated at from sixty to seventy million dol- lars. In addition to thi.s. it shuuUi be remembered that the last fiscal year in the United States v as a year of great connnercial and mercantile depression — a year in which the crops in all sections of the country were much "oelow an average, and in wh'clnnanufactur- ing operations were extensively interfered with by disagreements between 'Mnpioyers and their operatives; and yet, notwithstanding uli this, the internal re\enue did not fall off .o an extent connnensu- njte with the amount of taxes abated or repealed; but. on the con- trary, exhibited a com^jarativf act gain of from fifteen to twenty- five million dollars," Sir, this is not miraculous or even wonderful, for our country is expanding in resource? and. taxable population beyond the degree in wliicli any country or peoplje ever before expaiulcd. Six hundred n lies, said the gentleman from New York, [Mr. Brooks,] in o the Indian territory your I'aciflc railroad now runs, "^ e.s, sir ; in the midst of what but last year were plains and hills, to which civiliza- tion was a stranger, is now the flour: siiing city of Cheyenne, with its tax-paying population thriving and prospering, and along the whole six hundred miles of ^.hat road be- yond the infant city of Omaha are people who, two years ago, were citizens of other lands or among the landless laboi'ers of this country, who this year in their new and independent homes, will contribute to the revenues of the country through the various departments of the internal tax law and by the generous consumption of dutiable goods. " Three-fifths of all other persons," is the language with which the Constitution refers to four million of our peo- ple — those four millions who hillierto lived without tin use of money, and were habitually clad in such garments as are given the pauper and prisoner, where these unfor- tunates receive least sympathy — to-day walk erect in man- hood and womanhood. They handle money which their labor earns. They occupy homes. Many thousands of them own lands, and standing up under their own vine and •• ir.i 'a- f?5 .•pi. 248 INTERNAL REVENUE. figtree acknowledging no man as master, and asking no man to supply their wants, they contribute to the revenues of the Government. Four million additional consumers of taxable and dutiable goods. They are using the matclies which pay the Government a penny a box; and no longer g(jing barefoot they contribute to the income of the Governmcmt when they buy the blacking with wliich to polish their boots. And, sir, there are another four million dwelling among them, the poor whites of the South, who were as innocent as they of matches and blacking, and im- ported silks or ribbons, but by consuming which tliey now, or soon will, contribute to the support of the Government which has enfranchised them also. Three hundred thousand immigrants a year are coming in steady flowing streams to swell the taxable resources of the country ! Eight million of people elevated from a condition little above that of the brute into tax-paying and dutiable goods-consuming people ! And can we in view of these facts esti.nate the future from data furnished by the past? No, sir, we cannot from any one year cal- culate the resources of the country in the next, unless we impose upon our industry such burdens as will prevent its profitable employment, check immigration, and restrain the development of our wondrously varied resources. Three years ago the vase coal-beds of the West, under- lying an area of one hundred and twenty-six thousand square miles ; embracing a part of Kentucky, five thousand miles ; a part of Indiana, fifteen thousand ; the greater oart of Illinois, thirty-five thousand ; and stretching under the Mississippi river and underlying nearly the whole State of Missouri and a large part of Kansas, together with that other wonderful coal formation additional to those to which I have referred, and separated from them by a narrow rocky strata, which underlies nearly the whole State of Iowa, were scarcely recognized except at Covington, Ken- tucky, as among the material resources of the country.* But the ore of Iron Mountain, in Missouri, as I have here- * As an illustration of the power i'nv varied industries these vast deposits of coal offer to the West, I may mention the fact that three tons of coal drivin;^ a steam-engine represent the labor power of a man fiir his lifetime. Richard Qarsed, Esq., of Frankford, Pa., manufactures, in every day of ten hours, 33,000 milcH of cotton thre.ad — obtaining from sci'cn tons of coal the necessary power. Supposing it possible for such quality of threail to be made by hand, it would require the labor of 70,000 women during the same time to accomplish this work. INTERNAL UE VENUE. 249 tofore suggested to the House, is now carried on trains to tlio interior of IndiuiKi, wliere, by the use of native coal, purer than has been known on the otlier side of the Athin- tic, purer llian I had ever seen befure, it is being converted into every form of utility to which iron may be api)lied, and supplying the West with better and cheaper iron and steel than it has hitherto been able to purchase ; and the train that brings the rich ore to Indiana carries back to Missouri coal superior even to that of the Big Muddy, thus demonstrating the possibility of building up at cither ))oint an iron and steel industry before which those of England, France, Belgium, and even Prussia, justly famous as is her Krupp, will sink into comparative insignificance. The true policy of this country, in view of its vast resources, and of the rapid and steady aggrega- tion and exaltation of its people, is to reduce internal taxation to the minimum, to relieve its industry and its resources from every burden possible, to see to it that all just demands on the Government are amply f/rovided for, and to leave the principal of the debt to be liquidated when the people of the South shall have recovered f- >nni the ravages of war, and when, enlightened by expc" ■■■■ ., the Northwest shall have adjusted itself to the compet, loa it is to endure from the grain-growing capacity of the South, and the detcrminav.ion of her people to revenge themselves so far as they can upon their conquerors by growing it and monopolizing the markets open to Ameri- can grain. I hope, therefore, that though I may be absent during the consideration of this bill, others will see to it that every tax which touches the industry of the coun- try or annoys the people by its impertinent exaction, that can with safety be reduced, will be. And in this connnection I turn to schedule A, which imposes a tax upon a $300 carriage, upon a gold watch, upon the piano you have provided for your daughter ; and wliicli requires citizens to account for the spoons and forks in use in their houses, whether given to them as wedding presents or preserved as a slight memorial of the fact that they had remote ancestors. A Member. It is not taxed unless kept for use. Mr. Kelleij. When it comes into use it becomes taxable. After the baby is born the pap-spoon is taxable, until then it may, as a present, escape the tax collector's inquisition. The whole amount of taxes collected under schedule A ! i ■• •S'L :i5 250 INTERXAL RKVENUE. (luring tlic last year, wlien it yielded more thi^n ever he- lore, was $2,110,000. Now, the chairman of the cotnmit- tee has shown you that under his bill at the very low- est possible estimate you are to have a surplus of $-lt'),0O0,~ OUO, Hitherto you were to have no surplus, and you raised an excess of $120,000,000 each 3'ear. Start out with aiming at $-i6,000,000 of surplus, and during the YO{\r with tlu! incroniiiig tide of i)r()spt'rity you will find that'you have needlessly assessed §14(>,000,000 of taxcM. I Will not enumerate the provisions of the section to which 1 refer. You will find them embraced in section one hundred and sixteen, on page 171. I have been told by collectors of internal revenue that more penalties are incurivd by neglect of the tax on gold watches than on anv other article. Move pcr:^o!i:'. ii;^ made to feel that your laws inflict unjust penalties by this tax than by any other. I have heard of an instance of a conscientious widow who, learning subsequent to the day on which it should have been paid, \h d there was such a tax, went and reported that she had five daughters, each of whom had a gold watch, and had a special j)cnalty in addition to the tax imposed on each by t\)ason of her conscientiousness. The taxes are frequently collected in a manner to make the law as odious as possi- ble; and if a Kepublican, or the wife or daughter of a RepubMcan complains, the answer is, "My party is not re- spon.« ')"') for it ; we did not make the law. Why do you not get 1 he Republicans to remedy the annoyance of which you complain ?" And I trust the Republican majority in this Congress will remove all these almost fruitless but annoying taxes. Sir, all the objects named in schedule A liave in no one year paid one per cent, of the revenue ; they have never reached more than eight-tenths (jf one per cent, of the income of the Government. In the report of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, to which I have refer/ed, you will find the figures set out, and the nearest they hijvo ever come was seven hundred and ninety-six thousandths of one per cent, of the annual revenue. Why make our taxes so odious by penetrating inquisitorially into the secrets of every maiden lady and widow in the land, and inquiring whether she can conscientiously swear that her old carryall is not worth $300, for the sake of swelling in so slight a degree the surplus revenue ? Again, sir, it has occurred to me that (he committee, be- m^' INTERVAL RKVKNUE. 251 % licvinif many oC llioso tuxes to be iiiurdinatt', have liDj^cd to enforce tluMn by extreme penalties. Thu.s, in seetioii sixty-nino it is provided : " 'I'liiit if any distiller, nilifiiT, wliolosulc li(|U(ir deiiliT, com- pounder ol" litjuors, distilk'i of oil, l)re\ver, or manulUcturerdt' tocucco ov rigarfi, shall f tliis act for the neglecting, omitting, or refusing to do, or for the doing or cf\\\»iwg to be done, the thing re((uired or prohibited, he shidl pay apenalty of Sl'""^ ; 'i"d, if the jjcrson so od'ending be a distiller, victifier, wholesale li((Uor dealer, or compounder of li(iuors, all distilled sj)irits or liquors owned by him, or in whi(hhehas any inter- est as owner, if he be a distiller of oil, all oil found in his distillery, and if he be a manufacturer of tobacco or cigars, all tobacco or cigars found in his manufactory, shall be forfeited to the United States." What, sir! if his youngest errand boy commits an error of that kind, if some of his servants be suborned, if any of his agents do wliat ouglit not to be done, or omit to do what the law requires, are you to forfeit his whole stock ? I trust the contmittee will at least insert the words " wil- fully and designedly," so that for a mere accident the entire stock and business of a nutn may not be confiscated, or ho be subjected to litigation. Did my strength permit I would gladly consider some other provisions of the bill. But, sir, I have presented the main views that impress me. They are, in the lirst place, that the bill, even as modified by the suggestions of the chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means, and the reduction of the tax on whisky to seventy-live cents, offers a bribe of many million dollars to a ring organized throughout the country and knowing its men iL« every city, county, and State — a bribe of enormous amou'iL to tempt bad men to perjury, conspiracy, and fraud ; and I t ast that the tax will be reduced to a point whi.^h will make it certain that molasses whisky cannot be maoe and sent to the West with profit. Freclude the use of that imported ingredient, which may be distilled in any cellar or attic, and compel distillers to use grain, and you will secure to the ofiieers of the reve nue a chance to discover frauds, punish swindler.s, and con- fiscate illegal goods. And I ask gentlemen while consid- ering this bill to carry with them the proposition that the true standard of estimate for the receipts of the next year, ■i IK h\ IM 252 INTERNAL UEVENUE. and tin; true o])jcot at whiuli to aim in making assessments, i3 siriiply to provide for the payment of the interest on tlie public- debt and the eurrent expenses. Tiiey may be as- sured tliat if they will make amj)le j)rovision fur these ol)- jects, they will provide the means to pay from forty to seventy millions of tlie principal of the publioilebt, as our receipts always largely exceed the Commissioner's and Secretary's estimates. I have not the strength to stand while I analyze the figures I noted as they fell from the li})S of the chairman of the committee. If I liad 1 could, 1 thiidc, make a per- fect demonstration of my [)roposition from the materials lie furnished. But, thanking the members of the conuuit- tee for the attentio'^ they have given me, I leave the work in their hands with conlidenuu that it will be faith- fully done. w t. i Li-i ft REPORT OF SPECIAL COM\fTSSIONER OF THE KEVMNUK. Remahkb Delivkred in tiik Housk of ReI'HKSKNTA- TiVKs, Fkbuuaky 4, 1809. The llotiso b(>in!r in Ooinmittoc of the "Whole on the state of the Union on the I'reaiiU'nt's annual inesaage — Mr. Kelley said : Mr. Cliiiirinan : On the lOth of January, the Conunittcc on Printing subrnitti'il a resolution to print twenty thou- sand co[)ies of the report of the Speeial Comnusaiuuor of the Revenue for the use of the lluuse, and one tiiousand bound copies for the use of tl. .; Treasury Dei)artrnent, and tiiougli 1 had no ho[)e of ])revcnting its adoption, I f'..lt constrained to resist tlie motion and submit tlie reasons which impelled me thereto as fully as I could in the brief time allowed me by the courtesy of the gentleman i'rom New JIampshire, [Mr. Ela,] who ])rcsente(l the resolution. I could not hope that the House would refuse to print a refiort the preparation of which had cost the Government so much money in the pay of the Commissioner and his clerical assistants. What 1 sought to do was in some measure accomplished; it was to send with the report a note of warning to the country. I then said : " I hope the resolution reported by the committee will not be adopted. 1 do not think the report ought to receive such an en- iluraement. 1 do not see how Conj^ress can consistently cast it broadcast over the country. It is a report full of figures, which are so inu:eniously selected and marshaled that one might suppose it had been prepared specially to show the pestilent character of that' most false and dangerous of all the aphorisms embodied in the English language, namely, that ' figures cannot lie.' They are so culled and marshaled in this report as to lead to conclusions false, delusive, and damaging to our country, and especially unjust to that Congress which has carried the country through the great struggle from which she has just emerged. I do not mean to say llirvt the figures embodied in it are in tliemselves false ; upon that point I do not sppak now ; but I do mean to say that they are so detached from their correlatives as to lead to conclusions utterly at variance 253 -3: ^ ^ ^ ^^^o. IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) 1.0 I.I j5o ^^" H^H ■tt Itt 12.2 £ 1^ 12.0 u to .. u& l'-2^ 11'-^ 1'^ < _ 6" ^ ► Photographic Sciences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. 14SS0 (716) 872-4503 .V .-,54: REPORT OP SPECIAL COMMISSIONER OF REVENUE. with facts which are notorious and familiar to every gcntlemGn on this floor." " The gentleman who is named in the report as 'lavinp collected the statistics and made the calculations lias, so far as I huw. done his duty fairly ; but the Commissioner who selected the matoiiiil for this report, and prepared and marshaled it, has not done so with a view to let Congress and the country deduce conclusions from an impartial array of facts, but to sustain a foregone conclusion and advocate a favorite theory of his own, whicli is, in my judgmout, at variance with the true interests of the country." And again : " The thesis of the report is that we have since 1860 so legislated that while wealth is accumulating more rapidly than it ever accuitiu- lated in any land or age, the poor are steadily growing poorer and the rich richer; that the yawning gulf between poverty and wealth is ev^r widening in this country, and that the laboring man and his family cannot live as well upon their earnings as they could in 18(!0. "The report — and it is voluminous — devotes five or six piifre.s only to the progress of wealth and productive power in this coun- try, but they suffice to show that it is with constantly increasing velocity and momentum. If it be true in that respect, and the laboring people are really becoming poorer daily, we are on the eve of an aristocracy more potent than any that has preceded it, and of a social condition sucli as the world has never seen. I propose to inquire whether this startling proposition be true. 'I'he Coni- inissioner. assuming that his array of facts has established it, says on page 21 : "'It has been well said that there can be no true theoretic conclu- sion which will not be proved by the facts whenever the theoiy can be applied. We liave given the theory of the effects of incon- vertible paper money, and we find that the facts prove it. The rich become richer and the poor poorer.' " Not satisfied with this, he says : " 'The aggregate wealth of the country is increasing, probably, as rapidly as at any former period;* yet it does not follow that there is the same increase in general prosperity. The laborer, especially he who has a large family to support, is not as prosperous as he was in 1860. His wages have not increased in proportion to the increase in the cost of his living. There is, therefore, an inequality •-* In 1868 when his sinister ends required him to array the poor against the rich, the worliinan against his eu)]>loyer, Commissioner Wells found it covcnicnt to make this truthful admission. liut a year later, when preparing his report for 1869, which was happily his final one, he found it necessary to array the farmers of the country against the manufacturers, both workmen and cinployers, he devoted pages to proving that the increase of the aggregate wealth had been but about half as rapid as during the preceding decade. lie stated correctly the rate of increase between 1850 and 1860 to have been 129 per cent., and fixed the rate for the last decade at but 65 per cent. The iinal result for the latter period has not been ascertained, but enough is known to prove that the rate was, notwithstanding the war, equal to that of the preceding decade, 129 per gent., as the aggregate as far as ascertained is over $31,000,000,000. REPORT OF SPECIAL COMMISSIONER OP REVENUE. 255 in the distribution of our annual product which wc must, in no smftll degree, refer to artificial causes. This inequality exists even among the working classes themselves. The single man or woman, working for his or her support alone, is in the receipt of a rote of wages from which savings may be made equal or greater than ever before, especially in the manufacturing towns, where the price of board is, to a certain extent, regulated artificially l>y the employer.' And again, I ask gentlemen to listen to the Cointnis- sioner's statement of the condition to which their legisla- tion has reduced our countrymen : " ' Unmarried operatives, therefore, gain ; while those who are obliged to support their own families in hired tenements lose. Hence, deposits in savings-banks increase, while marriage is dis- couraged ; and the forced employment of yonng children is made almost a necessity in order that the family may live.' " If this be the condition of our country, do we not, as I have .said, perpetrate a great fraud when we ask the labor- ing immigrant to come and dwell among us ? The gentleman from Ohio [Mr. Garfield] did mc the lionor to reply to me in a rejoinder which had been pre- pared for the occasion, as appears from his rcniark that, " hearing that tiiis attack was to be made, I have asked information from two sources in order to test the correct- ness of the Commissioner's position." His reply would, I doubt not, have been more candid had it been prepared after he had heard what I had to say. His misrepresenta- tion of my position was not intentional. It aro.se from his misconception of the point I would make when I should have an opportunity to express my convictions. In view of the passages from my remarks already quoted, especially of my announcement that I did not mean to examine the question whether the figures embodied in the report are, in themselves, false, but did " mean to say that they are so detached from their correlatives as to lead to conclusions utterly at variance with facts which are notor- ious and familiar to every gentleman on this floor," he was hardly justified in saying that I had admitted "in the first place that the facts stated are generally correct ; that the sta- tistics collected and arranged in tables are true and correct- ly stated." / certainly did not admit the truth or correctness of that which the single ij^rpose of my remarks was to deny, and which every fact I preseyited contradicted. I am sure, from the gentleman's well-known character, that he 'would not have made this assertion had his remarks been pre- pared after he had heard me. After he had thus charged me with admitting all I had been denying and disproving, n. mm t ' ' S; m n 1 ■ { I I) K ^^:! I'r) 256 REPORT OP SPECIAL COMMISSIONER OP REVENUE. he said that it must be, then, that I refuse to print this re- port because its facts and deductions do not square with my theories and notions, and exultingly procUiimed my opposition to the printing a most damaging admission * I resume the discussion in pursuance of a promise made when the fall of the Speaker's gavel announced the expira- tion of the brief time allowed me, and in the hope of showing by an array of facts, many of which were not then in my possession, the dangerous fallacies the Com- missioner has attempted to sustain by "doctored," "manip- ulated," " garbled," " marshaled," or in other words, art- fully arranged figures. The correctness of the figures set forth in the report I am willing, as I then was, to admit for argument sake, but not in fact, as time has not yet permitted me to test them fully. They may in themselves be true ; but there is a falsehood known as tiie stippressio veri — the statement of part of the truth in such a manner as to produce the effect of a positive falsehood ; and of that I charge that the Commissioner has been guilty in almost every part of his voluminous report. He who denies the existence of Deity, and in support of the denial quotes the last four words of the exclamation "the fool hath said in his heart, there is no God," as a complete sentence, misrepresents the teachings of the Psalmist, though he correctly quotes that particular portion of his language. The falsehood is in the manner of the state- ment, and not in the thing stated. This illustration is not inapplicable to the document under consideration. Gentlemen who read the report from pages 14 to 21 in- clusive, will find an abundant array of tabular compara- tive statements which, if they be true and in themselves constitute the whole truth, prove most adequately its {'.ssertion : " That for the year 1867, and for the first half of 1868, the aver- age increase of all the elements which constitute the food, clolhin;^, and ^helter of a family has been about seventy-eight per cent., as compared with the standard prices of 1860-61." And that the rate of increase in wages for the year 1867 as compared with 1860-61, was but as follows: * For aa illustration of the ludicrous absurdity of some of Mr. Wells' posi- tions and fabricated f»cts, which Mr. Garfield hastened to defend with such seal, readers are referred to the tables of weekly earnings and expenditures of families, quoted from the Commissioner's report on pages 271, 272. They show the wonderful dexterity with which Mr. Wells subordinates the most palpable facts to the theories be embraced during his visit to England. REPORT OF SPECIAL COMMIS3IOXER OF REVENUE. 257 '' For nnskillpd mechanical labor, fifty per cent. ; for skilled inochariical labor, sixty per cent." I pause for a moment to deny the correctness of these sliUements, and to assert that the price of the necessaries of life enumerated in these tables are, on an average, not more than fifty per cent, higher than in 1860, while labor is now immeasurably more fully employed at an advance of from eighty to one hundred per cent, over the wages of that year. But this is a point about wiiich ingenuity tn.iy cavil, and is not essential to the support of my ar>i;u- mciit. To give Mr. Wells' figures any practical value they should have been accompanied by another column for each year, in which should have been stated the num- ber of working people employed in each of the several branches of business referred to, and the number who, though skilled workmen at those branches, were unable to obtain employment of any kind by which to earn wages. The omission of these elements from the calculation vitiates the Commissioner's figures, even thougli they are in themselves true, and conceals the frauel this report was intended to perpetrate. Let the gentleman from Ohio glorify the memory of 1800 as he may, I confidently reiterate what I said in the former discussion : "Eighteen hundred and sixty and 18C1, and from 18.57 to the aiituinn of the hitler year, was one of the darkest periods ever seen by the laboring people of Anicrica. Not one out of five of the skilled workmen of the country was steadily employed. In Phila- del|)hia, wh.'n they wanted to build a street railroad they advertised for two hundred and fifty liands at sixty cents a day, and more than five thousand off"ered. a majority of whom were skilled artizans who could find no other employment. In the neighborhood of one of the establishments, the statistics of wliieh go into this report, a rolling- mill, the number of unemployed men was so great that the county authoriiies, to save its skilled workmen from open pauperism, deter- mined to build a turnpike, and experienced liands from rolling-mills were employed at breaking stone and road-making at fifty cents a day rather than become paupers. For the comparatively few who had employment the wages are, I assume, honestly given in the report ; but of the many who were picking up a precarious living by getting an occasional day's work at half wages or quarter wages no account is taken ; and thus facts that may be true in themselves, by being separated from those which would have explained and inter- preted them, are made to libel our country and the Congress that carried it through the war. " Let me in this connection bring the attention of gentlemen to some facts : " Look at the palatial buildings erected in this city daring the last year and the comfortable dweliings for mechanics and laborers. 17 l» 'm ' I mm I ifM'i 258 REPORT OF SPECIAL COMMISSIOXER OF REVENUE. How many of tlicm there lire yon liave all seen. They are built by s(iuiirp.s anil blocks. I have (»nilcavore(l to ascertain how many were built in 1860, and can hci'.r of but four dwelling houses built in Washinffton in that year. In 18(51, so far as 1 have been able to learn, but one dwellinjr house and one public school-hous", the ton- tract price for which was iJIJoOO, were erected. Leaviui^ 'VVa^^hin{,'- ton. T j^o to to my own city, and by turning to the report of the building inspectorsfind that in I860 twenty-four hundred and sevonty- two hmises were built. The decline had commenced, and in 1H61 hut Kixteen hundred and seventy-three were built. In 1H60 we enliirycd fiv»> hundred and eighty-eight buildings ; in 1861 but two hundred and four wore enlarged. But in 1868, when the Commissioner tells US labor was not as prosperous as in 1860, we erected forty-seven liundred and ninety-six buildings and enlarged twelve hundred and filteen. In 1H()8 there was an aetive demand for labor, and its price was higli. It could determine its own wages. In 1B60 labor was begiiing employment and wages were low. As a general thing mochanics had to accept whatever wages were offered, though in a few instances favored establislunents were able to run continuously, and pay fair wages, and these exceptional cases have furnished the Connnissioncr data for what he announces as a general law. • The low rate of wages that ruled in 1860 would liave led a pro- ficient in political economy to look for the facts I am now about to lay before yon. It is a law of social science that when employment is scarce labor must accept low wages, and lose time; but when employment is quick and active, labor regulates its own wages and is constantly em])loyod. The taides presented by the Commissioner ignore this law, and are consequently a fraud upon Congress and a slander upon onr country, tlie working people of which were never so prosperons as now. " I et me exhibit some other comparisons between 1860 and 1868 which bear upon the question at issue. In that blessed year, 1860, which the Commissioner eulogizes, the sheriff of Philadelphia received seventeen hundred and forty writs for the sale of real estate, while in 1868, the year he denounces as one of congressional wrong and pecuniary depression, the sheriff of that city r ,;;eived but seven hundred and six writs for the sale of real estate, a falling off of largely more than fifty per cent., though in the interval there had been an increase of forty per cent, in the population, and vastly more than that in the wealth of the city." In conuectiou with these statements I brought to the utteiitiou of the House on that occasion such figures drawn from the reports of the savings-banks of seven States as I happened to have at hand. Since then I have been able to add to my collection of that class of facts, some which I will proceed to exhibit. I have the official statement of the total amount of deposits in the savings-banks of Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Ehode Island, of the Philadelphia Saving-Fund Society, which is allowed to receive but $200 from any one depositor in a year, and of the savings-banks of the city of Newark, New Jersey, REPORT OF SPECIAL COMMISSIONER OF REVENUE. 259 for 1860 and 1861, and of these institutions, and a third at Newark, a dime savings-bank, which has since come into existence, for 1867 and 1868. I have also reports from other states, but as they do not cover the four years designated they could not be embraced in the table I have compiled. That I have not been wanting in diligence in my endeavors to procure such official information as would enable me to make a general comparative table for these years will be attested by gentlemen on this floor and in the Senate, of whom I have requested the names of the proper parties to whom to apply, and by Mr. Spoftbrd, the Librarian of Congress, to whose industry and courtesy I am much indebted. All the information obtained shall be fully presented, and I think the gentleman from Ohio, [Mr. Garfield,] though he may remember 1860 as a pleasant and prosper- ous year, will be persuaded that millions of his country- men remember it as a year of agony, during which gaunt want entered their homes because the last dollar of their past 'Earnings had been extorted from them by idleness enforced by a revenue or free trade tariff. I have not been able to ascertain the number of deposi- tors in all the institutions to which I am referring for each year, but have them from the Saving-Fund Society of Philadelphia and the savings-banks of New Uampshire, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island. These are, however, suflicent to indicate the general condition of the class of people who are depositors in such institutions, and whose alleged relative poverty in 1867 Mr. Wells so deplores. On the 1st day of January, 1860, there were twenty-one thousand two hundred and sixty-five depositors in the institution at Philadelphia, and on the 1st of January, 1861, there were but twelve thousand six hundred and sixty-two ; and the total amount of deposits had gone down from $4,083,450 to $2,251,646, or little more than one half. In Massachusetts, as an official statement before me shows, the number of depositors has fiillen oft" in but two years between 1834 and 1868, inclusive. In 1865 the total decrease was one hundred and twentv-oi<(lit, an almost incalculably small fraction of one per cent., but in the year 1861, in consequence of the want of employment in 1860, the number fell orf five thousand and ten, or two and one-sixth per cent., and the deposits remaining at the close of the year were reduced $268,797. «1 . 'Hi f-l : , *; ac , S . it. 8 ■ ■■ ■ -: «< i ■, ', ■ •1"! >■ ( -[ k 1 ■ ' ;>■<,/»■; ■■:'," i 'i fill " ' ij' ' : : 4; ' ,1 ; 1 ^!::,-:i li^ 4, X - '^Vf m \ t I ! 1 ■ i; ^ • ' ' •.['is . i • A t ['..i'h :-. ■" ' '■ * !♦ i M^ i i','?" I \ u : ^^I^B i \ ^9 i .^'ti:. : Ul li H ■ i 2fiO REPORT OF Sl'KCIAL COMMISSIONER OF REVENUE. The numVjer of depositors in the savings-banks of Rlio(l.» Ishmrl has receded in but one year between 1855 and 18(38 incdusive, wiiich was 1861, when they fell oft' five hundred and ninety-eight, notwithstanding which the aggregate deposit increased $119,119 33. The extreme force of the depression which, as tlie result of our adiiesion to free trade and an exportable metallic currency, overtook the country in 1857, and terminated only with the issue of the currency known as greenbacks, and the passage of the protective tarift" of 1861 seems to have fallen upon New Hampshire as early as 1858. From 1850 to 1868, inclusive, the number of depositors in savings-banks of that State has decreased in but two years, 1858 and 1866. In the latter year the number of deposi- tors fell off' about one per cent., notwithstanding which the deposits increased $26,266 31 ; but in 1858 the depositors fell oft' seven per cent., or thirteen hundred and twenty- three, and the deposits were reduced $159,627 40. While recounting the manifold blessings that period brought to the working peofde of tlie country the gentle- man from Ohio [Mr. Garfield] reminded me that the work- ing people were docile in that year, and indulged in no strikes either for higher wages or against a reduction of their pay. He said: " It was a year of plenty, of groat increase. I remember, more- over, that it was a year of liglit ta.xep, 'I'here was but one fjreat people on the face of the globe so lijihtly taxed as the American people in 18G0. Now we are the most heavily ta.\ed people except one, perhaps, on llie face of the {jlobe; and the weiglit of nearly all our taxes falls at last on the laborinff man. Tliis is an element wliich tlie gentleman seems to have omitted from his calculation altogetlier. '•'I'he gentleman says that at tlie present time laborers are doing better than in 18(i0. 1 ask hiui how many strikes there were among laborers in 18(;0-(;i ? Were there any at allf And how many were there in 18()8V Will the gentleman deny that strikes exhibit the unsettled and unsatisfactory condition of labor in its relations to capital? In our mines, in our nulls and furnaces, in our manufac- turing e8tal)lishraent8, are not the laborers every day joining in strikes for higher wages, and saying that they need them on ac- count of the high price of provisions, or that the capitalists get too large a share of the profits ? " The gentleman has my thanks for bringing this significant fact, so destructive of his own argument and that of Mr. Wells, to my attention. He knows that it was not until Jesburun waxed fat that he kicked; and he ought to REPORT OF SPECIAL COMMISSIONER OP REVENUE. 261 know that unemployccl workmen, who had drawn tlio hiat dollar from the .savingH-bank, and parted with furniture in exchange for food and fuel, were not in a condition to strilvc, and had no employers whoso decrees tliey might resist. I need no more powerful illustration of the absurdity of the assertions of the Commissioner than the fact that the workingmon of to-day, in contrast with tiieir abjeot condition in 1860, find so wide a market for their labor and arc so comparatively easy in their condition that when their rights or interests are assailed they are able to offer resi.stanee to the assailant. Our positions are fairly taken, and as the condition of savings-banks furnishes the truest and most general index to the condition of the laboring people, the facts I am about to present will overthrow him who is in error. Be the judgment of the general public what it may, I am confi- dent that the memory of every American workinginan who remembers the experience of 1860 will sustain ine in this controversy. Having sliown the loss of depc^sitors and deposits in the only banks from which I could obtain in- formation on those points in or about 1860, let mti show the increase of depositors and deposits in the same banks in 1867 and 1868 : Iiicreane in iiiiinliiT iif depoHit rs. InrreMB of depiwita. 4,9(i7 $2.672.1.')0 0.") 7.476 2,70.').242 01 31.740 12.699.319 40 34,501 14.406.752 83 6,84.') 3.651.934 11 4.429 2,9S4.9HB 81 2,490 579.7-16 03 2,234 761.901 00 94,682 $40,462,034 24 State or City. Year. New Hampshire ....1867 1868 Massachusetts 1867 1868 Rhode Island 1867 " 1868 Philadelphia 1867 » 1868 The contrast these figures present to those of 1860 does not give the Conmiissioner's theory much support, and casts a shade of doubt over the accuracy of the position taken by the gentleman from Ohio. It may, however, be regarded as exceptional, and I therefore propose to present ^a broader range of facts, embracing the amount of deposits in the banks of Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Newark, New Jersey, and the only institution at Philadel- phia from Avhich I have been able to obtain this informa- tion for the years 1860-61 and 1867-68. I have sought for ' ' ■,'>>' i 262 UKPOKT OF SPECIAL COMMISSIONER OF REVENUE. \ irresponding facts from tlio other Now England States iind N''\v York, but liavo not luitm able to obtain tlifiu. TIk'so t!il)l(;s aro, tliorofoiv, as cotnploto as industry and the broadest rt.'suarcli possililo in so Hinitod a puriixl could niako tljom. As, however, thoy present so perfect a cor- respondence for both periods it is fair to presume that they indicate the condition of the savings-banks and their de-, positors througliout the country. The total amount of deposits in these banks in 18(i0-01 was as follows: 1800 18U1 Maine 8l.4«6,45" .')(> $: l.C'iO.'iTO 2G New Hiimpshirc 4,y(;0,0'21 8(5 r>..^«)(»,()r>2 18 MiiHsucluisctts 4.'j,().'J4,236 00 44.7Hr).4:i'> 00 Klioihs iHliiml y,l«:{,T()0 41 J),282.H7!> 74 riiiliuk'lphiu 4,0H:».4r)0 28 2,2.^. I. (MC. 46 Newark I l.f.H7.5.U i,l l,f,3U.y:{2 U «(;..')(; 9. ;{() 7 :U $C5,330,002 65 6.'),:{;{0,002 65 Decrease $1,2:59.304 69 By this statement it is shown that the savings-banks in these four States and two cities in one year, during what the Commi.ssioner and the gentleman from Ohio call a sea- son of great prosj)erity for working people, lost deposits amounting to $1,239,304: 69. The total deposits for 1867 and 1868 in the banks of the same States, the same institution in Philadelphia, the same in Newark, with the addition already referred to of a dime savings institution which was not in existence in 1861, were as follows : 1867. 1868. Maine 8o.998,600 26 $8,132,246 71 New Hampshire 10,463,418 50 13,541,r,;j i 96 Massachusetts 80,431,583 74 94,838,336 .54 Rhode Island 21,413,647 14 24.408.635 95 Philadelphia 5.003,379 42 5,76.5,280 63 ( 4,405,726 46 5,430.874 60 Newark ^1,116,762 26 1,338,596 94 ( 325,920 57 468,160 74 $128,759,038 32 153.823.667 07 128,759,038 32 Increase $25,064,628 75 This exhibit is as unfortunate for the Commissioner's facts and theories as that which preceded it, for it shows HKPORT OF SPECIAL COMMISSIONKU OF RKVKNUK. 263 tliat ill ppite of all his rlictoric about tho crudities ami op« pri'ssive character of tlie !t'j^i.slatio!» of Couj^tcss the de- posits ill these lianks, which fell olV so largely in iii>* rea- son of prosperity, havo increas(!d §25,084,628 75 during the last year, and that the aggregate deposit at tho close of 186H, his disastrous period, is largely more than douMe that of I860, which he wiys w.'is so prosiHToiis. In the pursuit of a conij)li'te comparative tahle lor these four years I have obtained au amount of inlormatioii which, though it does not relate to the particular years alluded to. will not bo without interest to tho IIous(! and tho country, and I will therefore proceed to present the figures witli as much method as I can. Through tho kind assistance of the honorable gentle- man from tho Troy district, Now York, [Mr. (Jriswold,] I have authentic statistics from tho .savings-banks of his State ; and though wo were unable to obtain tho figures for the years 1861 or 18()8, I can present the numbcu" of depositors, the total amount of deposits, and the amount deposited during each year for the years 1860, 1866, and 1867. They wore as follows: v„„, Tolrtl iiiiiiilMT T..tnl «mo(i„t .. T'l'",' '!''", Year. t i . :> • t i . ., Ihwlled (llir- of .k-p'>"it"r«. of iL-iioHita. \^^^ „^,. j.,.,,^ 18C0 300.f)93 $r.7.44n,;J97 8:{4.!):M.271 ]KGG 48a,.'»0l 131,769,074 84.7(;r).(»r)4 IHG7 537,400 151,127,o02 99,147,321 From Vermont I have been able to obtain only the total amount of deposits for 1867 and 1868. They were as follows : V -_ Total »mniiiit ■'•*'• of Ill-IMWIIH. 1807 $l,H9H.107 58 1808 2,128,041 .52 From Connecticut I have been able to obtain but the total amount of deposits for 1860, 1861 and 1866. They are as follows : „ . Total nnmniit '^**''- . Ilfiice depositH ill Huviii;;H-hiitikH iiicreuHe, while iiiiirriu^e is en so sadly im[)aired by the unwise legislation of Congress that people feared to marry because their wages would noteua- bio them to support families they deposited §09,000,000 annually, or nearly three dollars for one, and that the num- ber of depositors nearly doubled, and tho total atnonnt on deposit to their credit ran up one hundred and twenty-five per cent. Thus, in defiance of the Comniissionor'.s facts, heartily as they are indorsed by tho gentleman from Ohio, the returns from savings-banks prove that, with our labor protected and a cheap and expanded currency, our small fanners and workingincn have been able to lay up hundreds of millions of capital for their support in age or adversity, and upon which they receive interest. These are happily corrobo- rated by other facts, which in a striking manner prove the superiority of the present condition of the classes of peo- ple to which I allude over that to which the Special Com- missioner of the Kevenue would lead them back. While accumulating capital in .savings-banks they have felt them- selves able to make still more ample provision for their families after they shall have been called away by tho dread summoner, death. In the course of the former dis- cussion of this subject I invited your attention to the i'act that in Massachu.setts alone there were policies of life in- surance outstanding on the 1st of January, 1868, for the enormous sum of §1,234.630,473. Through the furtlier kindness of the gentleman from New York [Mr. GriswoldJ REPORT OF SPECIAL COMMIHSIONKR OP REVENUK 205 I Imvo been nblo to obtain tlic Iifoinsnran»!t! stutisticH for that State for IboJI, 1860, iHtld, anlli'li.77() 27 Increuse 4 •j:),7r)0 «308,G2:j,byi) 03 From this tabic it will bo seen that the increase in the number of policies and the amount insured during 1807 was nearly a hundred per cent, in excess of the total num- ber insured and tho amount of insurance at the close of 1800, and that t!ie percentage of policies for such small sums as small farmers or worlcingmen may maintain had increased, as the average value of policies in 1860 was $2,920 88, and had fallen to $2,896 07 in 1867. I had hoped to present results from the life insurance companies of Connecticut, but have failed to receive them. I have, however, some facts from one company chartered by New Jersey whose ofTice is at Newark and its piincipal branch at Philadelphia. Through the kindness of the gentleman from New Jersey [Mr. Ilalsey] I am able to present the number of policies issued by the Mutual Bene- fit Life Insurance Company, the Company referred to, on the 1st of January of four years. They are as follows : -t Nn . ; '. '; ';■. i r i. .1 i' :■: ' i 266 REPORT OF SPECIAL COMMISSIONER OF REVENUE. ^„. No. of Amount "*"'• oliclcs. ingured fur. December 31, 1860 991 $1,090,450 00 • December 31, 1861 1,120 1,206,000 00 December 31, 1867 7,656 18,312.478 93 December 31, 1868 10,282 24,759,901 59 The number of these policies in each year, which were on the lives of people of limited or moderate means, and were for $3000 or less was as follows : v„.. No- "f Amount **"• policies. Insured. 1860 827 S789.1.50 00 1861 9,38 920,600 00 1867 6,125 9.724,378 93 1868 6,689 13,021,878 93 The relative magnitude of our national debt disappears before these statistics ; for if the policies existing be main- tained the companies of Massachusetts and New York and the two referred to outside of those States will pay to the widows and children or creditors of the parties insured a sum vastly in excess of our total debt, and it is not unfair to assume that the greater portion of the whole amount will be paid to that class of people whom the Commis- sioner describes as so oppressed by a protective tariff and the cheap and abundant currency now in use. When in my former remarks on this subject I invited your atten- tion to the figures relating to life insurance then in my possession, I said : "When people in addition to laying up money at interest are in- suring their lives, they are living well ; but when, as in 1860, past accumulations in savings-banks are running down, and they are wasting their time in enforced idleness, they cannot live well and contribute freely to the support of the Government. Accept the recommendations of the Commissioner and you will paralyze indus- try, reduce wages, throw the producing classes upon their deposits for support, and deprive them of the power to keep up the insur- ance on their lives. Such facts as I have presented are sufficient to refute a thousand fine-spun theories. It.may with the ingenuity that fashioned this report, be said that the policies to which 1 have re- ferred are on the lives of wealthy people. But such is not the case ; two hundred and sixty-five out of each thousand of them are for $1000 or less ; five hundred and forty out of each thousand are for $2000 or less ; seven hundred out of each thousand for $3000 or less. Only three hundred out of eacli thousand are for amounts over $:i000. These policies are the precautions taken by well-paid industry to provide for widowhood and orphanage after the head of the family shall have paid mortality's last debt." It is not improper, Mr. Chairman, that in concluding this REPORT OF SPECIAL COMMISSIOXER OF REVENUE. 267 branch of my subject I sliould say that I have presented no statement which is not warranted by official indorse- ment, and that I hesitate not to assert that could the busi- ness of the savings-banks and life insurance companies of tiie wliole country be investigated the results would con- form to those I have produced. They are truly surprising, and should they through our widely diflused periodicals find their way across the waters, will prove an abundant antidote to the Commissioner's notice to those who have thought of emigrating to this country, but who desire to live in wedlock, that they may not hope to do so under the legislation of that Congress which has for several years been in such absolute government of the country as to render the veto power of the Executive nugatory. They are, in my judgment, important enough to produce some eft'ect upon the credit of the country, for they show that our laboring people are saving and putting at interest hun- dreds of millions of dollars annually, and that the people at large are paying from their abundance more, largely more, than the interest on our national debt to life insur- ance companies, as a provision for their widows and orphans when they shall no longer be able to provide for and pro- tect them.* * Tho facts presented in tho test, exhibit the condition of the workingmen of Protective Americn, and the following testimony of Wm. lloyle, of Manches- ter, and U. Dudley Baxter, will show how it compares with that of those of Free Trade England. It is found on pages 1^8 to 42 of the 4th edition of Our National lieioiu-cea, by Win. Iloyle. London, 1870. "The present population of the United Kingdom (1869) is 30,838,210; of these, 1,281,651 are returned as paupers, and 6692 as vagrants. "The following table will show the gradual and continued increase in our pauperism. It gives the number of paupers in the United Kingdom from 1860 to 1870 inclusive: I* •I n ! 111' ■ ill J't ^ 'M 1 --• ■ Kngland aud Wales. Scotland. Ireland. Total. I860 851,020 114,209 44,929 1,010,158 1861 890,423 117,113 50,683 1,058,219 1862 946,166 118,928 59,511 1,1L'4,635 1863 1,142,624 120,284 66,228 1,3:'9,136 1864 1,009,289 120,705 68,135 1,198,129 1865 971,433 121,394 69,217 1,162,044 1866 920,344 119,608 65,057 1,105,009 1867 9,58,824 12M69 68,650 1,148,643 1868 1,034,823 1 •.28,976 72,925 1,236,724 1869 1,(139,549 128,339 74,745 1,242,633 1870 1,079,391 73,921 " The Government returns as to pauperism and vagrancy do not, however, by any means represent tho extent of these two evils. Tbey givo the number f, ' 1:1 .1 t f :':^lTf 268 REPORT OF SPECIAL COMMISSIONER OF REVENUE. The Commissioner's th^'ory, that our legislation is mak- ing the rich richer and the poor poorer, is that whicli was hurled at us by every copperhead orator, from Horatio Seymour down, during the last canvass. We also encoun- tered it in every rebel paper in the South, and there were tthose who feared that it might produce an effect upon the popular mind. I was not one of them. The American people are intelligent enough to know when they have the toothache, or are involved in a lawsuit, or are being stripped of property through the medium of a sheriirs sale, and renienibering the disasters of the last free-trade and hard-money era of the country, I contrasted it with their present condition and relied confidently upon their judg- ment. In order to test the accuracy of my memory and judgment on this point, I appealed during the canvass to the statistics of my own city, and among other telling facts found, as I have alread3r told you, that in 1860 the sheriff of Philadelphia had received seventeen hundred and forty writs for tlie sale of real estate, and that in 1867 he had -, of paupers on the books on the 1st diiy of January, and tho number of vngrnnts who apply for lodging or casual relief on the same day; but this, but very im- perfectly portrays tho pauperism, etc. of the country. According to this method of reckoning, if a man becomes chargeable to the union on tho 2d of January, and comes otf again on the 31st of December, he is not counted, though he has been receiving relief during tho whole year, except two days. The statistics of tho Poor Law Board, give the number of paupers and vagrants relieved on one day, (which is what they profess to do), but it does not give tho number of persons who got relief as paupers and vagrants during the year. This is the idea gener- ally received, but it is erroneous. " In order to got the number of persons who received relief during 1869, we must multiply 1,281,651 by 3i, which gives 4,485,778. This, then, is the real number of persons who were chargeable as paupers, atone time ornnother, during that year, or nearly one in seven of the entire population. Admitting that a considerable number of those might bo persons who applied twice or three times over during the year, it would still leave us about one in every ten of the popu- lation as having been paupers during tho course of tho year." "In rcforence to this subject, Mr. R. Dudley Baxter, in his work on A^alion- al Income, remarks : — " ' Tho average number of paupers at one time in receipt of relief in 1866, was 916,000, being loss than for any of the four preceding years. Tho total number relieved during 1806 may, on the authority of a return of 1867, given in tho Appendix, bo calculated at three and a half times that number, or 3,000,0(10. All these may be considered as belonging to the 16,000,000 of the manual labor classes, being as nearly as possible, twenty per cent, on their number; but tho actual cases of relief give a very imperfect idea of the loss of work and wages. A largo proportion of tho poor submit to great hardships, and are many weeks, and even months, out of work before they will apply to the guardians. Thoy exhaust their savings; they try to the utmost, their trode unions or benefit societies ; they pawn littlo by little all their furniture ; and at last are driven to ask relief.' " But even the figures which have been given do not by any means represent adequately the pressure of our poverty. There ore a very largo number of per- sons who are dependent upon their friends and relations; and there arc a num- IIKPORT OF SPECIAL COMMISSIOXER OF RKVENUE. 269 received but seven huiulred and six — a decrease of more than sixty per cent., altliougii the population of tiie city lijid increased more than forty per cent. What mak .. this I'act more significant is, that under our system of selling land under ground rents the purchase of a homestead is the savings-bank of the Philadelphia workingman. I also as- certained the number of suits that were instituted in the years 1857-58-59 and 1865-66 and 1867, respectively, in our local courts. The evidence from this souice is not less significant than any that has preceded it. The court of common pleas is emphatically the poor man's c )urt. It obtains jurisdiction by appeal from the judgments of mag- istrates, and the amount at issue before its juries is for sums less than $100. The result of my investigation showed that the number of suits brought in the latter years, notwithstanding the increase of population which had taken place, was but little more than one-half the num- ber who, as Dudley Baxter says, submit to great hardships sooner than npply for relief. If all who arts thus situated bo summed up, it onnuot iimuunt to much less than one-third of the entire ]iopulatiy REPORT OF SPECIAL COMMISSIONER OF REVENUE, 271 gentleman is an arithmetician and knows that .f 111,000 are not twenty-one and forty-nine hundredths per cent, of $5,164,000, and that $37,000 are not seven and twenty -six hundredths per cent, of $5,053,500. Yet the Commis- sioner tells us they are, and so impairs the value of the important table on page 111 of his report. I invite the gentleman's attention to the two elaborate tables to be found on page 16 of the report, the finst purporting to show in parallel columns the "average weekly expendi- tures for provisions, house-rent," etc. ; the second, " average weekly earnings," and the tliird "surplus for clothing, housekeeping goodo," etc., of families in 1867 ; the other in corresponding columns purporting to show "average weekly expenditures of families of varying numbers in the manufacturing towns of the United States for the years 1860 and 1867, respectively." More remarkable tables than these never were prepared by statistician. I had supposed that Mr. Dclnuir, late chief of the Bureau of Statislies, was a paragon in his way; but he must look out for his honors, for in these tables the Special Commissioner of Revenue has beaten him roundly in his own dei)artment. Unhappy Delmar! Happy Commissioner Wells ! For Delmar's report Con- gress had nothing but an indignant vote requiring its sup- pression, though it lay ready printed and bound ; but for Wells' budget of more egregious blunders it has such admiration and approval, that no love of economy could restrain it from voting to print it for the widest possible circulation. The tables to which I refer must speak for themselves, for no man can describe or characterize them. They are as follows : Average aggregate weekly earnings and eirpentes of families for 1867. Size of families. Average weekly expenditures for Drovisioiis, huuse-rciit, etc. Average weekly earnings. Surplus for cloth- ing, housekeep- ing goods, etc. Parents and one child $10 24 8 35 12 26 15 02 17 79 15 23 11 67 23 78 $17 00 17 52 18 75 19 50 23 33 17 11 13 50 25 00 $6 76 9 17 6 49 4 48 5 54 1 88 1 83 1 22 Three adults Parents and two children Parents and three children Parents and four children Parents and five children Parents and six children Parents and seven children General average of the aho ve . . . $14 29 $18 96 $4 67 1 1 1 *' ', -■■\i ;.. ^IJ ' > i' I . 'i'\: .) t ;■ yt 1 ' i' 4 , '1 ill,* I: ^ ■ y ,m 272 RKPORT OF SPECIAL COMMISSIONER OF KKVENUE. T'lble thnwing ihf. averagr wfekl// fxprmUluret of familiet nf varying numbm in the manu- Jarluriug tnwna nf thr, VniUd Slates for the years 18(i0 and 1H07, respeclivrly. Sise of familiet. pBrcntH iind une child Tlirie iidultii Piirt'iita and two diildron Pnri'iita aud throe ohildrun Part'tits luid tour ohildron Parriit.x and live children Paront.i and six children Parents and seven ohildron General average of the above... Avurnge wooklv Avornge weekly oxpenililuruK for wngea. pruvlHliiiiH, liiinsc- rent,clutliliiK,ttt('. In 1867. In 18G0. In 1807. $17 00 In ISiiO. 89 90 $17 00 $12 17 17 62 12 00 17 52 10 31 18 75 11 50 18 75 10 79 19 60 12 41 19 60 11 33 2» «3 14 16 23 33 13 18 17 11 10 37 17 11 4fi 13 60 9 60 13 60 7 07 25 00 16 17 25 00 $18 96 14 09 $13 9li $12 16 $10 85 Snipliia ill IHUO. $'-' 21 1 (19 71 1 OS 97 91 1 83 1 OS $1 31 I hope the gentleman from Ohio will give these tables a reasonable amount of consideration, and if he still thinks they may be correct refer them to another authority — the ancient matrons of his district. But before making this reference, I beg him to advise the ladies of the foct that he draws his question from an official document; for if he fails to take this precaution they will hold him guilty of perpetrating a practical joke at their exnnse, by submit- ting to their judgment so absurd a pioposition. They will doubtless admit that parents with two children cannot live so well on the same money as parents with but one, and that as a general rule it costs more to maintain parents and three children than is required for the support of those with but two or one, and that the same is true with reference to parents and four children; but they will pro- bably doubt his sincerity when he asks whether parents with five children can live as well on less money tlian is required to support parents with but three, and will laugh at the proposition that parents with six children can live as well on less money than parents with but two; and I think I hear them crying out, " Why, sir, what do you mean by asking us whether parents with six children can live for less than parents with two, and yet in the same breath telling us that if the}' happen to have a seventh, be it boy or girl, it will more than double the expenses of the whole family?" Unwelcome seventh child I According to Wells you come into the family of every laboring man to double the household expenses though all your six BKPORT OF SPECIAL COMMISSIONER OF KKVKNUK. 273 predecessors be still sheltered by the paterr.al roof! Lucky children numbers five and six! — henceforth you will be welcomed everywhere; for the Special Commis- sioner of lievenue has proved that in all instances your coming reduces the expenses of the family to less than they were when the household flock consisted of but two ! According to the Commissioner this law of social life, hitherto undiscovered, is absolute, and prevailed alike in 1860 and 1867. To invite attention to these tables is to subject them to ridicule ; and yet, Mr. Chairman, they are the foundation- stone and the keystone of Mr. Wells' entire structure ; upon them he rests all his argument, and from them he deduces his conclusion, that marriage is a luxury the laboring people of America cannot safely enjoy. Happily for the country they are so flagrantly and absurdly i'lilse, that Mr. Wells' deductions and conclusions will be re- ceived but as the vain imaginings of a dreamy and indo- lent theorist.* In view of the unquestioned facts I have brought to the attention of the committee, and the urgency of the Com- missioner for a return to the revenue tariff and contracted currency of 1860, 1 am forced to the conclusion that he re- gards poverty and idleness as supreme blessings to the laboring people of our country, and I rejoice that I succeeded in obtaining the floor upon the motion to print his report, and sounded an alarm to the masses of my countrymen by telling them that it is an insidious plea for their im- poverishment. In my judgment, the first duty of an American statesman is to watch and guard the rights of the laboring classes of the couniiy. They produce its wealth, they fight its bat- tles, and in their hands is its destiny ; for at every election they cast a majority of the ballots, and upon their intelli- gence, integrity, and manly independence rest the welfare of the country. To make Republican government aa enduring success, we must guard the productions of ou laborers against competition with those of the ill-paid and oppressed laborers of Europe, so that each head of a family may by the wages he can earn maintain a home, and be able to support his children during the years required to * The general judgment uf Mr. Wells is less fiivoriiblo than this. His audden cunversiuu to free triide is generally ascribed tu sumcthing mure tangible than Ureaus. 18 :t» '■(■, 11 f i'M' i\ 274 REPORT OF SPECIAL COMMISSIONER OF REVENUB. give them the advantages of our common school system. It' the Commissioner's report proves anything to those who are able to detect its fallacies, and test the fulness and accuracy of its comparative tables, it is that under the in- fluence of the cheap and abundant currency we now have, and the system of protection which the war forced ua to adopt, the American people are consuming more of the necessaries and comforts of life than they were ever before able to consume ; are producing more of what they con- sume than ever before, and in spite of the taxes imposed by the national debt and other incidents of the war, are coming to be commercially independent of other nations. Yes, sir, under the influence of a tariff which, though it levies duties on raw materials and commodities which we do not and cannot produce, is still in a measure protective, and an adequate amount of currency, we are slowly emerging from our commercial dependence upon England, as jjj shown by the fact that our imports have steadily diminished since 1865. Thus in 1866, 1867, and 1868, respectively, the amounts of foreign merchandise imported into the country were as follows : Year ending 30tli of June, 1866 $42.3,470,646 Year ending iWth of June, 1867 :i74,943,.')02 Year ending 30th of Juno, 1868 344,873,433 Thus it appears that notwithstanding the facts that the increase of our wealth is unparalleled, and the natural in- crease of our population is very rapid, and that " from the 1st of July, 1865, to the 1st of December, 1868, about one million natives of foreign countries have sought a perma- nent home in the United States," our purchases of foreign commodities are steadily diminishing. The sapient de- duction of the Special Commissioner of the Revenue from these facts is, that we are unable to trade with foreign nations, and that to stimulate foreign trade we must reduce the wages of our laborers, and diminish the amount of currency now profitably employed in the development of our productive power. His theory is that " all commerce is in the nature of barter or exchange," and his complaint is that : " We have so raised the cost of all domestic products that ex- change in kind with all foreign nations is almost impossible. The majority of what foreign nations have to sell us, as already shown, we must or will have. What foreign nations want and we pro- REPORT OF SPECIAL COMMISSIONER OP REVENUE, 275 dttce, cotton and a few other articles excepted, they can bny elsewhere cheaper. Wo are, therefore, obliged to nay in no small part for such foreign productions as we need or will have, either in the precious metals or, what ia worse, in unduly depreciated promises of national payment." , The Commissioner's exception of " cotton and a few other articles" leaves Hamlet out of the play, and surren- dors his whole case, for we can raise enough of the articles he excepts, and of which we have a natural monopoly, to pay for every foreign i oduction " we must or will nave." The beneficent results of free labor in the former slave States are an agreeable surprise to its most sanguine friends. Tlie South is abundantly rich in mineral and agricultural resources, but she is suffering from the want of currency to develop them. Were she adequately supplied with cur- rency, and the season should be a favorable one, her pro- duction of cotton, and the few other articles excepted by the Commissioner, would more than double that of 186b, and as other nations must have her cotton, tobacco, rice, and other semi-tropical productions which they cannot procure elsewhere, it seems to me that the true way to stop the flow of precious metals and Government bonds is to stimulate production by protecting the wages of labor and avoiding any contraction of the currency. In support of this view, let me call attention to the fact that we send from eighty to one hundred million dollars abroad annually for sugar. If capitalists will lend the planters of Florida, Louisiana, and Texas the means to cultivate their sugar- fields, they will produce crops that will save a large per- centage of this vast sum to the country.* I showed, in a former discussion of this subject, that we bought about forty-five per cent, of the entire amount of railroad iron exported by Great Britain during the first ten months of 1868, saying : " I hold in ray hand a circular which reads thus : ' Fifty-eight, Old Broad street, London, November 30, 1868, from S. W. Hopkins A * Sinco my remarks were delivered, I have received from Messrs. MoFarlan. Straight & Co., commission merchants of New Orleans, their tnido circular of February 1st, from which I extract the following corroboration of uiy views: " Receipts of the Louisiana sugar crop this season to 30th ultimo, inclusive, foot up 47,419 hogsheads sugar, and 109,518 barrels, 4692 half barrels, and 17 quarter barrels molasses. But for lack of promptness in commencing grinding early, and of adequate preparation on the part of the producers for securing a large yield, and the early severe frosts, succeeded by floods of rain, the Louisi- ana sugar crop of 1868 would probably have reached 115,000 hogsheads at least, or about ihre'i times the product of 1S67. The yield of 1863 must have been re- • n 1 Iff 3 !f^;-f ^^' } 1 i ■ » ■ ■- J L,i:||! SiiiiiMi 27H REPORT OP SPECIAL COMMISSIONER OF REVENUE, If ■» j Co., PxporforH of rail way iron. Monthly Report of Fxports of UiuIh from (Jroftt Uritnin, oxtructod from tho (Jovcrninciit rctiiriin.' Hv tliJH report it iippeurH that in tiic ten monthH ending ()elol)er lit, IH()H. (Jreiit Hrituin exported SOO.'JGS ton» of mils. Uenllenien pro- halilythini< thiit Kn^hmd's colonial dependencies took uio.ot of litis iron; thiit Hriti.sh Indiii, KritiHli North Auiericii. and Au!«triiliu took it. No, gentlemen ; wc are her chief commercial dependency. She is our miHtrcHs, and we maintain her throne and uriHtocracy. No; the Uritisii dependencies took but 84,000 touH, and her He|)ul)li('an dependency, tho United States, took 228.000 tons. Of the r)()').i)ti8 tons of rails, we took 21,000 tons more than were taken hy IJritish India, Ilusflia, British North Auierica, Sweden, I'ruHsia, Fnince, Spain and the Canaries, Cuba, Brazil, Chili, and Australia." The Commissioner makes no note of such facts as this, but finding .some fortunately situated manufacturers of pig- iron guilty of making profits almost equal to tho.so vvliieh merohants and bankers average, lie holds them up to con- tempt and ridicule, and wonders — yes, in an official report, sneeringly expresses his surprise — that they have not pe- titioned Congress to legislate for the reduction of their profits! He probably does not know that the high rate at which pig-iron is now selling is stimulating the production of that primary article to an extent that promises an early home supply and such competition among our own people as must inevitably cheapen the price of iron and reduce the profits of those whose product is now in unusual re- quest. In proof of this assertion, I not only point the Commissioner to the rapid inc 'ease of the means of pro- ducing pig-iron in Pennsylvani ,, but appeal to all the gen- tlemen on this floor from districts in or near which coal, iron ore, and limestone are fou.id. Districts hitherto un- known to the iron trade are now producing large quanti- ties of pig-iron ; and I ask gentlemen from New York, New Jer.sey, Ohio, Indiana, southern Illinois. Missouri, Alabama, Georgia, Maryland, West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, duoc«l by ini;ru wasie, OiiutucJ by Inok of wuod, Intencss in boginning to grind nnd tho unfavonible wfiithcr during tho latter part of the grinding scMSon, siiy 25,000 hogshead!) or more, Inaving, perhapii. 90,000 hogsheads to bo realized. This great waste from a bountiful crop is greatly to be regretted, and wo way hope it will not bo repeated. " The production n/ domentic ca>ie-»weeli, properly protected and encouraged, might be increniied far beyond the ideas of ma»y who are directly iiitereiited. We believe tho sugar lands of this State and Texas might be made to produce the entire 650,000 tons of sugar said to bo required annually by the people of the United States, saving the $1110,000,000 of specie paid yearly for foreign fweotg, inoluding charges and import duty, or perhaps fifty to sixty millions ac- tually paid to foreign producers. We have space only to ask the genuine finau- oier to consider this important instrumentality in aid of a return to the specie baaii." — JfoU to Pamphlet Edition. \ UKl'OUT OF SPECIAL COMMISSIONER OK REVENUE. 277 North Carolina, and Oregon, whether there are not more fiiriiacics erecting in their States, respectively, than ever were in process of erection atone time before, and wiietiier those already existing are not in full operation? Virginia has no voice on this floor with which to respond to my appeal, but it is within my knowledge that Ponnsylvanians are constructing furnaces, forges, and rolling-mills in va- rious parts of that State. If we would turn tlie balance of trade in our favor, and put our bonds at par, and stop the outflowing of gold interest by receiving them in the hands of irninigrants, or in pay for our cotton, rice, tobacco, pro- vi.sions, etc., we must avoid the Commissioner's nostrums, free trade, and hard money, and promote the development of the boundless natural resources of the country. By no other »n " f ' ■ ! l' I f \ . i {.I tnn •I ! ( i 282 THE EIGHT-HOUR SYSTEM. resources, but from which trade societies and free schools for the children of working people have always been ex- cluded. The results of this great change mu.st soon be widely felt. Slaves, could not without danger to slavery, be trained to skilled labor. Therefore the South produced only raw materials, and her statesmen, desiring the markets of the world in which to sell their cotton and tobacco, and to buy their supply of manufactured goods, always sup- ported free trade at the cost of the commercial indepen- dence of the country, and the interests of the working peo- ple of the North. The war against slavery was waged not more for the enslaved negro than for the rights of free labor. To the second question I reply, that, inasmuch as I be- lieve that public officers are bound to obey the law, I am compelled to sustain the order of the Secretary of the Navy. The law of 1862 provides " that the hours of labor and the rate of wages of the employees in the Navy Yards shall conform, as nearly as is consistent with the public in- terests, with those of private establishments in the imme- diate vicinity of the respective yards." This act is still in force, and the Solicitor of the Navy and the Attorney- General, to whom the question has been referred, have ad- vised the Secretary and President Grant, that under its pro- visions the Government cannot legally pay for eight hours' work the same wages that are paid for ten hours by private establishments in the immediate vicinity of the yards respec- tively. If, therefore, men who work in Navy Yards are to receive 25 per cent, more than they would get for the same work in private establishments, the act of 1862 must be repealed. That can only be done by Congress. Neither the Secretary of the Navy, nor the President, has the power to repeal a law or the right to disregard one. Though none of you have put the question to me directly, some of you will now ask, will you vote for the repeal of this act? I regret that I do not feel able to answer this question definitely. As at present advised, my judgment is against its repeal ; but on either of two conditions, I will vote for it. The first of these conditions is, that it shall be made apparent to me that the tax-payers of my district, including the women and children, who labor in factories ten hours or more to the day, believe that the men who work in Navy Yards are entitled to 25 per cent, more wages for the same work than the same class of workmen receive in private establishments in Philadelphia li THE EIGHT-HOUR SYSTEM. 283 The other condition is, that I shall be convinced that the repeal of the act in question will promote the acceptance of the eight-hour system in private shops or yards. Private establishments compete with each other and with those of other countries in the sale of their productions. But the Government does not manufacture for a market, and, there- fore, could not be cited as an example of the successful working of the system. If the Government adopts this rule in advance of indi- vidual employers, you will find that all work that can be done in private shops will be sent there, and the number of hands employed in Navy Yards will be very limited. Congress, while struggling to reduce our colossal debt, will not require much work to be done at League Island, or any other station, if 25 per cent, above the average market rate is to be paid fur every day's work. But neither time nor printer's space will permit n.e to present all the considerations touching this question with which my mind is laboring. To such as I have set forth I invite your candid consideration. The destinies of the work- ing people of our country are in their own keeping. I have not sought to flatter or propitiate you. While I remain your representative, you are entitled to know my views on questions which many of you regard as of vital impor- tance; and I have written frankly, withholding no word that candor requires me to utter. I address you as a grateful friend, and not as a supplicant for further honors : for, if I am permitted to consult my own wishes, my con- nection with public office will terminate with the XLIst Congress. Yours, very truly, WM. D. KELLEY. New York, May 19th, 1869. li 1:1 i II ■;'i! I MR. WELLS' REPORT. Speech Delivered in the House of Representatives, January 11, 1870. The House being in the Committee of the Whole on the state of the Union — Mr. Kelley said : Mr. Chairman : I have more than once endeavored to impress upon Congress the fact that fire is the material force or nervous power, and iron and steel are the muscles of our more modern civilization. The trip-hammer, witli its won- derful power and more wonderful precision and delicacy of stroke, has supplanted the sledge-hammer, and circular and gang-saws do in a day the work at which the hand-saw labored for months. Machine tools, such as lathes, drills, planers, and shaping machines, impelled like the trip-liam- mer and saws by the unwearying steam engine, itself a mere embodiment of coal and iron ore, increase the perfec- tion and amount of the artisan's productions and relieve him of the exhausting toil which shortened the life of his father and made him prematurely old. Nations, too, are subject to these new conditions. How- ever free their institutions may be, a people who cannot supply their own demand for iron and steel, but purchase it from foreigners, are not independent ; nor is their de- pendence merely commercial ; they are politically depend- ent ; and if the nation on which they depend for tiiese essential elements of modern warfare be arrogant and treacherous, as England proved herself during our late civil war, they must endure contumely and outrage with unresisting humility. Commerce and war both demand iron ships ; we tell the weight of our guns, whether of steel or iron, by the ton, and that of our steel-pointed shot by the hundred weight; and while we depend upon her for the material of which to construct ships, guns, and shot, the statesmen of England know they can trifle with and postpone the settlement of the Alaba;na claims. Able as 284 .•'ft , MR. wells' report. 285 wc were to crush witli irresistible power ;i gigantic rebel- lion, tiiey know that until we shall have enough furnaces, I'orges, rolling-mills, machine-shops, and skilled artisans to produce and fashion a supply of iron and steel sufficient for our wants in peace and war, we cannot engage in war with England because we must depend on her for these primary essentials to successful modern warfi\re.* I am impelled to renew these suggestions by the report of David A.Wells, Esq., Special Commissioner of Ee venue, which abounds in propositions inimical to the best interests of the country, which if adopted by Congress will compel us to occupy a subordinate position among nations, though our population may equal that of all Europe, as our territory already does that of the whole family of European Powers. As I read page after page of this extraordinary paper I became more earnestly an.xious to detect the full force of its suggestions, and, if possible, to divine the motive or spirit that proni])ted them. As an expression of the opinions of Mr. Wells this paper can do but little harm, but its circulation in Europe under the sanction of Congress ma}' impair our credit and arrest the tide of immigration now flowing in upon us in unprecedented volume. It is in the nature of a notice to the capitalists of Europe that as a people, notwithstanding the amazing * "The great mind of \Vii.sliin;^ton was not too slow to miike this Uisicovery. And what did wo also discover in our war of 1812, but that wo had nothing to equip the war? Having no woolen manufacture, wo could not clothe our soldiers ; we could not even make a blanket. We had been free-traders, buying nil such things because we could buy them cheaper; but we now discovered, that we might better have been making blankets at double the cost for the last fifty years. The same was true of saltpetre for gunpowder; of guns, and cannon and swords j and iron and steel out of which to make them. A nation that is to be a power must have at least a sufficient supply of iron made .\t home, no matter what the cost, to arm itself for war. Wo began also to make the discovery, shortly, that the very insignificant article of salt, coming in ^hort supply, was nearly a dead necessity — one of the munitions of war — and that manufacturing it for ourselves at double the cost would have been a true advantage. . . . ...... ... " Protection, though it bo a losing bargain, as in trade, is generally necessary in States that are young, in order to their full organized develupment. We were a young nation in the wnr of 1812, and we very soon discovered in facts already referred to. the lowness of our organization, and the very incomplete scope of our industrial equipments. Our products were not various enough to make us a complete nation. It is often urged as the special advantage of young nations, that they can have the benefits of free trade, without trouble from the sliock that must be given to old artificial investments; but we had a»»other kind of shock to bear that whs far more perilous, from the scant equipment in which our previous free-trade practice had left us. Perhaps we were gaining in wealth by such trade, but wo were miserably unprepared by it for the stress of our great public trial." — llcv. Horace Bunhnell, D, />., " Free Trade and Protection." {Scribner'B Magazine, for July, 1871.) 't . ■ (< k f ■ i i I (,: -■ ■■;i . i; m 286 MR. wells' report. expansion of our country, we are tending toward bank- ruptcy ; and to the oppressed laborers of other lands, that our working people are becoming from year to year, not only relatively but absolutely poorer, and that this is there- fore not the country to which poor but aspiring men should emigrate. It demonstrates to the satisfaction of Mr. Wells' admirers and clients that though our wealth increased during the last decade one hundred and twenty- six per cent., its utmost increase during this decade can bo but sixty -five and eight hundreths per cent. ; and that the grand total of our real and personal property cannot be over $23,400,000,000.* Time will not permit me to point out the fallacies in this portion of his report, as I would gladly do ; and I proceed at once to invite the attention of the committee to points which seem to require more special animadversion. But, before turning to these, let me request gentlemen from Massachusetts, Ohio, Indiana, and New York, if they have not already done so, to turn to pages 24 et seq., and learn how rapidly their respective States are sinking into poverty, and how much poorer their people are ^jer capita than they were in 1860. The suggestion will doubtless surprise them ; yet so cunningly does Mr. Wells present it 111 *' Mr. Wells is the oracle of revenue reformers, and this furnishes an apt illus- tration of his accuracy, la his statement of the rate of increase was not much more than 50 per cent, out of the way. " Deducting the value of the then slave property, the real and personal estate of this country, as shown by the census of 18K0, amounted in round numbers to $14,000,000,000, being about $8,000,000,000 in excess of the valuation of 1850. ' Much, however, of this large increase,' as wo have since been told by Com- missioner Wells, 'is known to have been duo to more accu.ate methods of enum- eration, and to the inclusion of many elements previously left unnoticed.' Allowing for this, the increase of the decnde could scarcely have exceeded $6,000,000, and is, indeed, estimated by the Commissioner at even less than this amount. " Thus far the Census Bureau has given us no estimate of the property of 1870 ; but from a valuable document just now published by the Bureau of Statistics, and for which we arc indebted to the labors of its head, Mr. Edward Young, we learn that it will be shown to bo about $800 per henU, giving, of course, thirty- one thousand millions as the total amount, and exhibiting an increase of proba- bly seventeen thousand millions in a decade, nearly one-half of which had been years of war, accompanied by a waste of life and property such as had been rarely ever equalled. "Through the decade 1860-60, there wns none of the waste of war. Peace prevailing, eight millions were added to the numbers of our people, and yet the addition to our wealth amounted to but sis thousand millions, or about $750 per head of the then added population. "Throughout the last decade there was a wnste of war estimated by Commis- eioner Wells at no less than nine thousand millions. The addition to our num- bers proves to be but seven millions, and yet the growth of wealth has been seventeen hundred millions, or about !g2500 for each head of the added popu- lation." — Forucy'a Pre$8, June 15th, 1871. MR. wells' report. 287 that foreigners who are not familiar with the truth so patent to every observer will be deceived by it and feel they had better — " Bear those ills they have, Than fly to others that they know not of." One of the processes by which Mr. Wells sustains his theory, though not wanting in ingenuity, is very simple. It is to assume that everything is now worth from thirty- five to thirty-nine per cent, less than it was at the time with which he proposes his comparison. We know that wlieat and flour and every variety of cotton and woolen goods are cheaper now than they were in 1860. But Mr. Wells' theory is, that as there is a dift'erence in the market value of gold and greenbacks, commodities of domestic production ought to be dearer ; and applying his theory to such facts as he sees fit to present, he assumes that they are dearer, and so establishes the melancholy warning to all persons proposing to emigrate that this is not the country to which they should come. No demonstration of the falsity of his theory or of its absurdity induces him to halt, but in spite of these he presses onward and applies it in every case. When examining his last annual report I confronted him with the large accumulation of deposits in the savings-banks as evidence that the workingmen of the country were not then, as he asserted, "growing poorer, while the rich were growing richer," and, after a year's reflection, he answers my array of facts in this wise : " Again, the returns of savings-banks are often referred to as showing a highly prosperous condition of the masses. Properly considered, liowever, tliey indicate a very different state of things. Thus, the first and almost the only fact which attracts the attention of a more superficial observer in examining these statistics is a large apparent increase in deposits from 1860 to 1868 or 1869. But an intelligent examination will at once show that a very great part of tlie apparent accumulation referred to is mere inflation. For exam- ple, let us take the case of Massachusetts, where the conditions for increase would seem to be most favorable : In 1860 the savings-banks deposits in this State were, in round numbers $45,000,000 In January, 1869, in currency, $95,000,000, or in gold at 133 71,000,000 Increase in eight years $26,000^000 or $6,000,000 less than the aggregate deposits of 1860 would have amounted to in the same time at a compound interest of seven 288 MR. WELLS' REPORT. per coiit. ; or in other worcls, the deposits of 1860 wore not inndc fiood in iHfi'J, wilhuut rcrcrcnoc to the increase ol' populiitioii, cvt-n if we reckon only their niiturul increase ut coni])ound interest. It is evident, therefore, that some cause lias eaten into the nccuiuuhuinn which existed eijfht years previously, and has occasioned the with- drawal of a portion of that accumulation." If this statement be fair the deposits in the saviui^s- banks of the country iluetiiated fearfully on the 24rtli of September last, when gold ranged from 123 to l(>o in jin hour, and such of the depositors as were in that end of t,lio New York gold-room where it was selling at 135 were vastly richer than tliose who were at the same moment in the other end at which Albert Spires was buying it Ibr 160. A story told in connection with Mr. Sj)ire.s' operations on that occasion seems to me to illustrate the value of Mr. Wells' theory. It is said that a young man without capital wVo had found his way to rnem\)ership of the gold exchange, but had been bankrupted even of credit by the operations of the preceding day or two, stood near Mr. Spires, and as that gentleman cried "One sixty for one million," tapped him on the shoulder and said, "Taken." "Same fjrice for two millions more," cried Spires. "Taken," said the young baidvrupt; and so until Spires had bid, and lie taken his bids lor $13,000,000. ^J'liey then separated, and the young bankrupt drawing aside, with a pencil calculated upon the back of a letter his profits, and turning to a friend triumphantly exclaimed " I have just made $750,000 out of old Spires." " Why," said a by-stander, "you do not expect to get any of it, do you?" "No; certainly not," said he, "but, blast him, I tliought I would give him gold enough." This operation between a lunatic and a bankrupt, neither of whom owned a dollar of gold, and by which neither forfeited a cent, had about as much lelation to their fortunes as the market price of gold has upon the price of domestic commodities, or deposits in the banks to which Mr. Wells applies it. In further proof of its absurdity I invite attention to the Jact that if his theory be correct the depositors in the savings-banks of Massachusetts have by no effort of their own, without increase of industry or unusual economy on their part, but by his magic power, acquired, since the pre- paration of his report, more than $y,000,000, as gold is now not at 133 but at 120; and that they will, if they do not make haste and withdraw their deposits, and we go on as MR. wells' report. 28C we have gone for the last two or three months under the financial management of Grant and Boutwell, soon make $15,000,000 more in the same easy, and, I fear, unhallowed way ; for when gold comes to par even Mr. Wells, with all his ingenious effrontery, will not deny that having been able to maintain a deposit of but $45,000,000 in 1860, they have in eight years become able to maintain one of $95,000,000, which amount they may draw in gold or redeemable currency, though they deposited greenbacks when gold was at more than 200. Before parting with this subject I beg leave to inform the committee and Com- missioner Wells that at the close of 1869 the aggregate deposits at rest in the savings-banks of Massachusetts were not as he states $95,000,000, but $112,000,000, showing that the laboring people of that State, who he says are eating up their former savings so rapidly, have added $17,000,000 to their interest bearing investment during the last year. The prominent characteristics of Mr. Wells' report are audacity and devotion to the interests of England and her American colonies. That it is ingenious and plausible cannot be denied ; but that it is so does not in my judgment furnish proof of the Commissioner's ability or evidence of his possession of well-grounded convictions on indus- trial questions. Indeed, tlie fact that many of the sugges- tions which are most earnestly pressed contravene those embodied in his former reports, and his avowal that in offering them "he has placed himself in antagonism to many with whom he was formerly in close agreement," afford ample ground for doubt on both points. " Eemember, gentlemen," said the experienced merchant who now so ably fills the office of collector of the port of New York, when conferring with the Committee of Ways and Means, " that the legal ability of England and the con- tinent is constantly retained by foreign manufacturers to indicate the means by which your tariffs may be evaded." Mr. Wells visited our transatlantic rivals in his official capacity, and while among them doubtless availed himself of the ability of their large array of able and well-paid coun- sel. Whether he also was retained is for the present the subject of conjecture. But that he enforces as "opinions and recommendations which have been forced upon him by conviction," the wishes of the English manufacturers, there is abundant evidence in his report, as I propose to show. 19 : i ( i . I i"'M 1. 1 •[» M ^kaiil il^ii 290 MR. wells' report. : 1 H The most audacious of Mr. Wells' assertions, and one that pervades the whole report, is that customs duties are always a tax on the consujner, increasing the price of the imported article on which they are levied, and enabling the home producer to realize undue profits by keeping pro- duction steadily below the current demand for the com- modity he produces. Were Mr. Wells a tyro, and this report his first publication, charity would deem this a blunder and ascribe it to ignorance; but he is a man of largo experience, and has written much, and reference to any of the publications which led to his appointment to the commissionership, or to his preceding reports, will convict him of basing this official paper on a principle, the falsity of which ho has time and again demonstrated. Ills bad faith in this is proven, I think, by a single extract from his report made December, 1867, in which, speaking of tho higher duties he then advised Congress to put on steel, he said :* " On steel much higher rates of duty than those recommended upon iron are submitted. Although these rates seem much higher, and are protested against by not a few American consumers of steel, yet the evidence presented to tlie Commissioner tends to establish the fact that if any less are granted, the dovulopmcnt of a most im- portant and desirable branch of domestic industry will, owing to the present currency derangement and the high price and scar< ity of skilled labor, be arrested, if not entirely prostrated. This is (.laimed to be more especially true in regard to steel of the higher grades or qualities. It is also represented to the Commissioner tliat, since the introduction of the n-.anufactnre of these grades of steel in the United States, or since 18.59 the pi'ice of foreign steel of aimilar qualities has been very considerably reduced through the effect of the American competition, and thai the whole country in this way has gainedmore than sufficient to counterbalance the tax levied as a protection for the American steel manufacture, which has grown up under its in- fluence." * Mr. Wollb' recommendation of increased duties, in bis report: for 1867, was not confined to steel, but embraced almost every article we produce. And in his report fur 1868, be did but point out tbe results of tbe system of protection, whi>^b, since bis visit to England, he assails and endeavors to betray, when he said : " More cotton spindles have been put in operation, more iron furnaces erected, more iron smelted, more bars rolled, more steel made, more coal and copper mined, more lumber sawed and hewn, more houses and shops constructed, more manufactories of different kinds started, and more petroleum collected, refined, and exported, than during any equal period in tbe history of the country ; and this increase has been great both as regards quality and quantity, and greater than the legitimate increase to be expected from the normal increase of wealth and population." and MR, wells' report. 291 Mr. Wells can dispute none of the facts assorted in the extract just read, wnich prove that he knows that prior to the close of 1867, highly proiectivo duties on steel had not been a tax on, but a boon to the consumer ; so great a boon, indeed, that, by enlarging the supply and increas- ing competition, they nad so far jeduccd the price of steel that, to quote his words again, "the whole country in this way has gained more than sufficient to counterbalance the tax levied ns a protection for the American steel manufac- ture, which has grown up under its influence." You, Mr. Chairman, and many of our co-laborers on this floor, are interested in the extension and improvement of our magnificent railroad system, and I propose to illustrate the treachery of the Commissioner by briefly referring to the effect of high protective duties on Bessemer steel rails. In 1864:, there was no establishment in the United States for the manufacture of such rails. The lowest price at which an American company could buy them in England was $150 per ton cash, gold, including freight to New York or Philadelphia. No English maker would .sell them at less. Agents of the Pennsylvania Central, and Phila- delphia, Wilmington and Baltimore roads, went abroad and canvassed the market, and having been assured that such rails could not be produced and sold at a living profit for a lower price than this, purchased a small quantity for each company. The duty was then, as now, an ad valorem duty of forty-five per cent., which at that price was equiva- lent to about three cents a pound. Gold was then above 200, and each ton of rails had cost when laid on the wharf in Philadelphia, $390, currency. Our country abounds in the materials from which to make not only Bessemer rails, but every quality of steel, and the wages paid to American workmen are high enough to tempt skilled workmen from England and Germany ; and in view of these facts, several enterprising railroad men de- termined to establish Bessemer rail works. This was not to be done in a day. It required the selection of a judi- cious site, the erection of extensive buildings, and the con- struction of a large amount of machinery, which consumed considerably more than a year. During all this time the price of English rails remained at $150 cash, gold, per ton delivered on the wharf in America. But at length the Freedom Works, at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, so-called in commemoration of our partial enfranchisement from the ■i II :u ( ' , ' 1 1, ■1,' I ;' r I i 1. 292 MR. WKLLS' REPORT. grnsp of foreign monopolists, wore ready to take orders, and another establishment for their production was erecting at 'IVoy, New York, when lo I the same English inanufac- turers, who had been unable to sell at less than ^150 per ton, canvassed our market to find buyers at $130. What wrouijfht this great change? Had the Commissioner's Kiig- lish friends been making^rofitsoft'our railroad uotnpiinies greater than ho ascribes to our producers of salt, pi;^'-iron, lumber, and other things essential to national indupeiu'ence ; or were they willing to sacrifice the ^^rofit on a sin'ill jjart of their product in order to crush an infant rivri, whoso development they feared ? Bo this as it n.'-y, in less than four years competition has brought the price of Bessemer rails down so rapidly, that orders are now taken in England at eleven pounds sterling, or about fifty- five dollars, deliv erablo at Liverpool or Hull. Meanwhile, mills for their production at Troy, New York, Cheater, I'ennsylvania, Cleveland, Ohio, and Detroit, Michigan, have been com- pleted ; and the plans have been adopted for others at ^lott Ilaven, New York ; Pittsburg, Johnstown, and Bethlehem, Pennsylvania ; and at Baltimore, Cincinnati, and St. Louis: but their construction awaits and is dependent on the action of Congress on the tariff. These facts are known to Mr. Wells, yethe end(>avors to persuade the country that a pro- tective duty is always a tax on the consumer, and labors to induce Congress to reduce a duty which was at the rate of three cents to one of one and a half cent per pound ; a change which "he well knows would close all our Bessemer rail works, and restore to * ' ■ English friends the monopoly of our market, at such pr'ccs as they might demand. What can have brought him to such a conclusion? What is to be his reward for such a consummation? If gentlemen will turn to page 125 of the report, they will find a schedule presenting a classification of steel, and proposed rates of duty on each class. It purports to be Mr. Wells' own suggestion, and is submitted with all the emphasis that the abundant resort to italics can give. I hope gentlemen will examine it, for I think that, with its private history, it furnishes a clew to his change of views on the question as to whether a protective duty that de- velops a great industry is a tax, and his Saul-like conversion on the steel question. For nearly a quarter of a century our duties on cast-steel have been assessed uppn the value of the commodity, or ad valorem ; and recent investigation i' MR. W«LLS' REPORT. 298 '";,'• by an ftgont of tlioQovcM-nmont lins sliown that ihrouchout tlie wliolo of llio period tho stocltnnkoM of Shnfflold, by ivriisiii<^ to sell (liroctly to American purclia.ser.s and con- signing their goods to agents in this conntry for sale, by which cunning arrangement they could successfully j)ractico a system of utidervaluation, iiavo been defrauding the liovernnient of a largo portion of its dues. Tho Sheflield steel-makers arc tncn of wealth and social j)Osition, and this discovery of their long-continued and systematic frand upon our Government has not been a pleasant thing for them. Tho charge is distasteful to them. A combination to cheat and defraud has an uglv sound. They squirm under it, and admit that steel has been in- voiced to the United States at lower rates than those at which they sell in England or to the {)eoplo of the Conti- nent, but assert that, low as tho invoice prices have been, they are the prices at which they sell in this country. Go(xl, kind-hearted, benevolent people ! How they do lovo the Yankees! To be willing to sell them their wares cheaper than they will to their own countrymen or to any of the people of Europe ! Have they any reason for doing so, or do they pretend to have any ? Yes; they are not without a show of reason. They say — and their letters aro on file in the Treasury Department, and their agents have appeared there to enforce the statement — that our marhit is essential to the maintenance of their works, and that such is the competition they encounter from our steel-makers, that they are forced to sell to us at lower rates than they do to the English or any other ^)eq/)?e. In a letter to our consul at that city, dated July 10th, 1869, Thomas Firth & Son, of Sheffield, say: " We have a very large steel trade in America, amounting to a large proportion of our wliole business, and in that market there is, from various circumstances, much competition ; and these two causes — large trade and competition combined — have induced us to be satisfied witti a smaller average profit there than we have realized on the average in our other markets." Mr. Wells has seen the report referred to, that of Mr. Farwell, the Treasury agent, and has examined, or ought to ' have examined, all the papers in this controversy, and might have cited them as proof of the assertion in his former report, that the reduction in the price of steel has more than compensated the American people for all the duty paid on that article since the establishment of our first sue- Hi k 294 MR. wells' report. :1 ■ 1 cessful steel works in 1859. But I have been led into a digression. I had said that the discovery of their systematic frauds was not a pleasant thing to the English steel- makers, and was proce*^diijg to say that, foreseeing that it would pro- bably lead to the abandonment of od valorem and the levy- ing of specific duties on steel, they overwhelmed the Secre- tary of the Treasury and other official personages with unsolicited, and, of course, disinterested advice. That we should not suffer for want of their experience, the draft of a bill providing a scale of duties on steel, was prepared, as I am informed and verily believe, by or in consultation with a member of one of the leading firms of steel-makers of Sheffield, and sent over to a gentleman specially connected with legislation on financial subjects. I have examined the original draft as it came from Sheffield, and have a copy of it before me. It is a proposition by the vulture to protect the dove. It is plausible in its minute classifi- cation. It would, had it been honestly named, have been entitled a bill to prohibit the manufacture of steel in the United States. It is, however, entitled, " A bill to amend an act entitled ' An act to increase duties on imports, and for other purposes,' approved June 30, 1864." It furnished Mr. Wells his schedule ; and that gentlemen may see how completely he has adopted it, how entirely his views on this important subject are in accord with those of the steel monopolists of England, whose interest it is to hold us in coxumercial and maritime dependence, I will ask the re- porters to put the two schedules in parallel columns. It is, perhaps, due to Mr. Wells, in this connection, that I should mention the fact that he so far exercised his own judgment in making this recommendation, as to modify two or three unimportant rates, and to change the order from that in which the items stand in the English draft of the bill ; and that to make the comparison easy for the readers of the Globe, I have arranged them in the order chosen by Mr. Wells : Wells' Schedulk. On scrap steel, ^ cent per pound. On blister steel in bars broken up for melting, 1^ cents per pound. On German steel in bars, 2 cents per pound. Sheffield Bill. On scrap steel, ^ cent per pound. On blister steel in bars broken up for melting, 1^ cents per pound. On German steel in bars, 2 cents per pound. i! ji n '1 MR. WBLLS' REPORT. 295 n Wki-ls' Schedule. On shear steel in bars, 2^ cents per pound. On cast-steel ingots and on all rough and unfinished castings in steel, 1 cent per pound. On castings in steel, drilled, bored, or hammered cold, 1^ cents per pound. On cast-steel in bars, 2^ cents per pound. On cast or German steel in plates to 16 wire gauge, inclusive, 2 cents per pound ; from 17 to 24, 2^ cents per pound: above 24, 3 cents per pound. On cast or German steel in form of wire and sheets which are drawn or rolled cold to 16 wire gauge, 3 cents per pound. Thinner than 16 wire gauge, 3^ cents per pound. On cast-steel tires for rolling- stock for railroads, 2 cents per pound. On cast-steel straight axles, shafts, piston-rods, and general forgings to pattern, 1 cent per pound. Do. do. rough-turned, 1^ cents per pound. Do. do. finished ready for use, 2 cents per pound. On cast-steel crank axles forged to shape only, 1^ cents per pound. On cast-steel crank axles forged to shape, rough-turned, pkned, and slotted, 1^ cents per pound. Do. do. finished ready for use, 2 cents per pound. On castrsteel rails IJ cents per pound. On steel not otherwise pro- vided for, 2 cents per pound. Sheffield Bill. On shear steel in bars, 2^ cents per pound. On cast-steel ingots, 1 cent per pound. On castings in steel with holes drilled or bored, hammered or turned or planed in parts, but in no case hammered or worked hot, 1^ cents per pound. On cast-steel in bars, 2^ cents per pound. On cast or German steel in sheets or plates to No. 23 wire gauge, 2^ cents per pound. On cast or German steel in form of wire or strips which are drawn or rolled cold to 16 wire gauge, 3 cents per pound. When drawn or rolled smaller than 16 wire gauge, 3^ cents per pound. On cast steel tires for rolling stock for railroads, 2 cents per pound. On cast-steel straight axles, piston, connecting and coupling- rods, crank-pins, slide-bars, and general forgings to pattern only, 1{ cents per pound. If forged to shape and rough- turned or planed, 1^ cents per pound. If finished ready for use, 2 cents j>er pound. On cast-steel crank-shafts, if forged to shape only, 1| cents per pound. On cast-.steel crank-shaft-s, if forged to shape, rough-turned, planed, and slotted, 1^ cents ptr pound. On cast-steel crank-shafts, if forged to shape, finished ready for uie, 'J^ cents per pound. On cast-steel rails, 1 cent per pound. On steel or manufactures of steel, net otherwise provided for, 2| cents per pound. * k ?; Tj If Ti K %\*'.. 296 MR. wells' report. It will be observed that the foregoing schedules are, ag I intimated, not absolutely identical, but they are so nearly so as to prevent Mr. Wells from denying that they sprang from the same brain, and pleading the pos 'bility of coin- cidence — I do not say the probability, but the possibility of coincidence — on so many points of rate and general and technical phraseology. And it will be further noticed that where the slightest departure in rate occurs in any one item, as is the case in two or three unimportant instances, it is immediately compensated for in the next item by a corresponding change the other way. Thus, Mr, Wells is more generous to his countrymen in the matter of Besse- mer rails than their Sheffield rival would be. He pro- poses to kill them instantly by putting the rate at one cent per pound ; while Mr. Wells is willing to give them breathing time in which to put their houses in order by letting them die slowly at one and a half cents. And in the next item the Englishman proves the more generous ; for he proposes two and a half cents on all steel and manu- factures of steel not provided for, and Mr. Wells would crush his countrymen instantly by making the duty on those articles but two cents. I cannot leave this branch of the subject without saying that I believe gentlemen generally who compare these schedules will p.gree with me in thinking that Mr, Wells' Sheffield employers have treated him badly, scurvily. Bar- ing induced him to father their project, so predjudicial to his country and so destructive to the business of many of his countrymen, they violated faith with him when they made their paternity of the scheme known by sending a copy of the bill to official quarters in this country ih ad- vance of the pubK • .tion of his report. PIG-IRON. With all the zeal of a new convert or counsel laboring to secure a contingent fee, Mr. Wells applies to pig-iron his assumption that a protective duty is necessarily a tax on the consumer, and by the plausibility of his argument would make innocent and inexperienced people believe that he really hoped to secure cheap pig-iron by reduoin.Tj the duty on that article from nine dollars a ton to thiee. Could ].G close our steel works, as the acceptance of the Sheffield schedule recommended by him would do in three months, and arrest the progress we are making in the in- MR. wells' report. 297 creased production of pig-iron, he would do more to re- tard the progress of his country toward commercial pros- perity and national supremacy than Davis, Lee, and all the heads of the rebellion accomplished. I cannot conceive the single cause that would do more to depress and im- fpoverish our people and retard the growth of our country than the sudden prostration of these great interests at a time when the English or continental manufacturer will purchase none of our grain for which he has to pay a penny in advance of the price for which he can buy from the peasants of Austria, Hungary and Russia. But this recommendation with reference to pig-iron is consistent with the rest of the report, throughout which the desire is manifest to make the United States as com- mercially dependent on and tributary to England a>^ though they were still part of her North American colonies. He cites pig-iron, coal, salt, and lumber as illustrations of a class of cases where excessive and unnecessary duties have been imposed and maintained "with a view of enhancing the cost of articles indispensable to many other branches of pro- duction ;" and elsewhere says that the only reply offered to his assaults upon this great and essential interest " is that a continuance of the present duty on pig-iron is necessary to insure employment to American labor." I pause to notice his assertion, that Congress in the midst of a great war imposed unnecessary exao»:;ons in order to increase the cost of an article so essential as iron to the life of the nation, simply to remark that such an in- timation is worthy the man who can sap and mine the great interests of bis country as Commissioner Wells is doing. The present duty on pig-iron was imposed for two purposes, both of which were patriotic. The first was to raise additional revenue, and the other to stimulate the conversion of ore, t oal, and limestone, of which in almost every part of the country we have inexhaustible supplies, into a material the increased production of which was a prerequisite to the general extension of our industries and the maintenance of the dignity and rights of the nation, which were then being violated by the armed cruisers of the country to which we looked for a supply of pig-iron and Bessemer rails. And, sir, I am happy in being able to show that it has accomplished both these objects, and that if permitted to stand for five years it will, while contribnt- iog largely to the reduction of our debt, insure us not only n m A 1 I ■1;1 , Hi t : ^] i^'UU 298 MR. wells' report. a home supply of pig-iron, but such ample means of pro- ducing it as will enable us to enter the markets of the world in competition with England. What has it done as a revenue measure ? During the year that ended on the 30th of Jane, 1868, we derived from this duty $1,011,109 96; in the succeeding year, closing on the 30th of June, 1869, $1,199,762 55 ; and in the current fiscal year it will give us a still larger income, without in the slightest degree impairing the revenue de- rived from our consumption of foreign iron in more ad- vanced condition. This is shown by the following state- ment of the quantities of the various kinds of iron and steel exported from Great Britain to the United States dur- ing the ten months ending October 31st, of the years 1868-69, in tons of 2000 pounds : 1868. 1869. Iron, pig and puddled 84,564 132,491 Iron, bar, angle, bolt, and rod 38,200 51,738 Iron, railroad, of all sorts 255,462 294,368 Iron castings 1,213 1,677 Iron hoops, sheets, and boiler plates... 15,999 31,292 Iron, wrought of all sorts 4,020 7,364 Total 399,458 518,930 Steel, unwrought 14,847 15,612 Has not the duty of nine dollars per ton on pig-iron been eminently successful as a revenue measure ? I think it has ; but its most abundant success has been in its power to increase the supply, improve the quality, and lessen the cost of domestic pig-iron. The Commissioner raises no question as to the relative quality of British and American iron, and does not state the quantity of our an- nual production, except that in one of his hypothetical calculations of the values realized from different depart- ments of industry, he places the annual product for 1869 at 1,725,000 tons, or about 175,000 tons below the ascer- tained production of that year. That the average quality of American pig, bar, and railroad iron is superior to the average of the same descriptions of English iron is an almost universally-conceded fact ; but to blazon this to the world would not serve the interest of the Commissioner's British fri'iuda, and he is therefore silent upon this aspect of the question also, though he tells us with much elabora- tion what he has been told has been th9 cost of production per ton at several points in this country, and the market price per ton during the year in England and here. MR. wells' report. 299 But though his report abounds in hypotheses and calcu- lations based on estimates and suppositions, he nowhere tells or attempts to tell us what we would have been made to pay the British iron master fo. his inferior pig, bar, sheet, and rails if the American production of pig-iron had not been more than doubled since the establishment of this duty, and if the manufacture of cast-steel and Besse- mer rails had not also been established at so many points within our limits since the exigencies of the war com- pelled us to adopt protective duties. He is not ignorant of the fact that in little more than a year past sixty-five new blast furnaces have been erected, and that they are to em- ploy a portion of the people of fifteen States. Six of them are in New York, one in New Jersey, nineteen in Pennsylvania, one in Maryland, four in Virginia, six in Ohio, five in Indiana, three in Illinois, five in Michigan, two in Wisconsin, six in Missouri, three in Kentucky, one in Georgia, two in Alabama, and one in Tennessee. These furnaces have increased our productive power to nearly two million five hundred thousand tons per annum. Arrange- ments are also making for the erection of more than fifty other furnaces during the year upon which we have just entered, many of which have been commenced. The esti- mated product of pig-iron for this year is two million two hundred and twenty-five thousand tons, or about fifty per cent, of the annual average production of Great Britain. These facts are, I repeat, known to the Commissioner ; and he knows also that by a law as inevitable as that of gravitation domestic competition increasing in such a ratio must at an early day bring down the price of iron as it has that of wheat and flour, and of knit and other cotton and woolen goods, to a point beyond danger from foreign competition ; and that by thus relieving us from depen- dence on England for the first essential in a great war, it ^\ ill also make us her competitor in the markets of the world in a field her supremacy in which has hitherto made her the commercial mistress of the world. I will not offer an estimate of what would have been the price of pig-iron had not the necessities of the Govern- ment compelled Congress to impose duties that were pro- tective and which justified men of enterprise in opening coal mines and ore-beds and erecting furnaces; but to ena- ble gentlemen to judge for themselves, I submit the follow- ing. On page 85 of the report I am considering the Com- missioner says : ii rr flWTT f f ■ ^^^K ' ^H Hi i MiBj • i - 1 . i ' T f : :>» 'M 'i\ ^:...d i i ^-x 800 MR. wells' report. , " How preat the demand of the future is likely to prove may be inferred from the circumstance that while the per capita consump- tion of Great Britain and Belgium, after ailowiii"' for exportation, has reached one hundred and eighty-nine pounds per annum, the present annual consumption of the United States is not in excess of one hundred pounds per capita. No nation, furthermore, at the present time, with the exception of Great Britain, is producing pig. iron in sufficient excess of its needs to allow of a surplus for expor- tation ; and in Great Britain the pi ospect of any future increase is entirely dependent upon the uncertain condition of her being able to supply coal on a scale of consumption that is already in excess of one hundred and four million tons per annum." On page 3 of his report made January, 1869, he tells us that — " In France the annual product of pig-iron was in 1866, 1.253,100 tons, and in 1867, 1,142,800 tons, showing a decline of 110,300 tons. " in Austria the official returns of the iron trade show a diminu- tion of forty-two per cent, in 1866 as compared with 1860, and of sixty per cent, as compared with 1862." In that valuable paper, the report of A. S. Hewitt, Esq., United States Commissioner to the Paris Exposition, we learn that ours is almost the only country in the world that can largely expand its production of iron. Mr. Hewitt agrees with Mr. Wells that it is problematical as to whether England can for the present increase her production mate- rially. He thinks she may maintain her present position among continental producers ; but beyond this he does not think she can go, by reason of the depth of her mines and the "intrinsic difficulties of producing the required sup- ply of materials and labor, without an enormous increase of cost." The iron production of the world for 1866, as stated by Mr. Hewitt, was as follows : r«.,«f>i». Pig-iron. Wrought iron. Countrieg. ^^^^ t„„, England 4,530,051 3,500,000 France 1,200,320 844,734 Belgium 500,000 400,000 Prussia 800,000 400,000 Austria 312,000 200,000 Sweden 226,676 148,292 Russia 408,000 350,000 Spain 75,000 50,000 Italy 30,000 20,000 Switzerland 15,000 10,000 ZoHverein 250,000 200,000 United States 1,175,900 882,000 Total 9,322,047 7,205,026 MR. wells' report. 301 Thus it appears that with a production of less than ten million tons for the world's supply no other country than ours is in a position to make a large and immediate addi- tion to its annual production. The difficulties in the way may be briefly stated thus : Sweden possesses exhaustless supplies of the richest primitive ores, but she has no coal, and her annual production of charcoal-iron is believed to have reached its limit. Her function will henceforth be to mine and export ore. Kussia has ample supplies of ore, but so far as exploration has yet discovered is deficient in coal. She can, however, for some time somewhat aug- ment her production of charcoal-iron. Aust.ia Italy, Spain, and the States of the Zollverein have ore, but little or no coal available for iron making, and are unable to ex- tend, if they can maintain, their present production of charcoal-iron, France has neither coal nor ore sufficient to supply her wants; England furnishes her with one third the coal she now consumes "in the manufacture of iron. Little Belgium has both coal and ore, and they are advantageously situated, but the field is so contracted that she cannot increase her production beyond her own wants, and Prussia is a large importer of coal and pig-iron from England, So much for the prospective increase of sup- plies ; while, as illustrative of the growing demand, I need only allude to the gigantic systems of railroads building in America, Russia, and India, the latter at immense cost by England, in the hope of impairing our supremacy as producers of cotton.* Had we continued to rely upon England for pig-iron in excess of our capacity to produce it at the time of fixing nine dollars as the duty, and also to draw our supplies of bar iron, cast-steel, and Bessemer rails from her, the extension of our railroad system must have been checked and the fer capita consumption of iron in this country been much restricted. For nine years before the imposition of that duty our annual production had been less than 800,000 tons, and that of England had not increased at the rate of 100,000 tons per annum. Our demand increases at the rate of from 170,000 to 200,000 tons per annum. Whence but from our own ore bed*^ and coal mines could the sup- * There were in operation in the United States on the 1st of January, 1871, 53,399 miles of railroad, 4999 miles of which were completed during 1869, and 6199 during 1870, Could England have furnished the iron req^uired for this extension ? 802 MR. wells' report. ply have been drawn? The production of pig-iron in England and the United States from 1854 to 1862 inclusive, was as follows : England. United Stateit. 1854 3,069,838 716,674 18.55 3,218,154 7.54,178 18.56 3,586,377 874.428 1857 3,659,447 798,157 1858 3,456,064 70.5.094 1859 3,712,904 840,427 1860 .826,752 913,774 1861 ,:i2,390 731,.564 1862 d,943,469 787,662 These figure? show that the two great iron-producing countries of the world, England and the United States, in- creased their joint production less than one hundred thousand tons per annum for nine consecutive years, while we alone demand an increase of at least one hundred and seventy thousand tons, and prove the assertion that but for the application of an incentive to the production of iron in this country the expansion of our railroad system and our general material progress must have been impossible. Was there any charm by which an increased supply could be evoked ? Was there any means by which the disparity between the wages of English laborers in iron works and such as were essential to the support of American citizens who might engage in the production of iron could be counterbalanced ? Yes, Mr. Chairman, there was one, and that was applied. It was to impose such a du^.y as would give capitalists and men of enterprise a guarantee that if they paid workmen fair American wages for building fur- naces, digging and hauling coal, ore, and limestone, and converting them into pig-iron they should not be under- sold in our own markets by the productions of underpaid British workmen. Nine dollars per ton it was believed would give them that guarantee, and yet leave our mar- kets so largely open to English competition that we should derive more duty from pig-iron than we had done under lower duties. I have spoken of the differonce between the wages of English and American workmen. Let me show how great it is. The English shilling ia twenty-five cents of our money. Commercial men know this ; there are, how- ever, many of our people not familiar with the details of commerce and the exchangeable value of money to whom MR. wells' report. 808 it may be proper to state the fact. Turning again to the report of Mr. Hewitt, which I recur to frequently and always with a renewed sense of obligation, I find the rates of wages paid in England in 1866 to have been as fol- lows: Wages paid in South Staffordbhirb, Enoland, in 1866. Per D«y. Common laborers 29. 6cl. to 3s. Od. Fuddlcrs 7 Fuddlcrs' helpers 2 6 to Puddle rollers. 9 Heaters 7 Heater helpers 3 Finishing rollers 11 Shinglers 9 Machinists 4 Blacksmiths 4 Masons 7 The average price of skilled and nnskilled labor at the iron works in England does not exceed 4s. a day. At the coal and iron works of Creed & Williams, in Belgium, the wages paid in 1866 were as follows : 6 6 to 7 to 2 10 11 6 6 to 15 to 16 to 5 to 8 6 Per Day. Common laborers . . .. « Is. 2d. to Loaders of coal 2 6 to Wood-cutters 2 6 to Wood or tree-setters 3 1 to Miners 2 11 to Exceptional men ....5 to At the Blast Furnaces. Fillers ..1 1 Box fillers 1 4 Common laborers 1 5 Furnace-keepers 2 1 In the Rolling-Mill. Fuddlers 4 Helpers 2 Boilers 4 Helpers 3 Shearers 1 10 Common laborers.. 1 5 to to to to to to to to to to 38. 2 2 5 4 6 2 1 1 2 5 3 5 4 2 2 6d. 11 11 2 1 8 8 11 1 10 2 6 1 In all other European countries wages are lower than in Eng- land. These figures are worthy of the study of the working men of this country, whom Mr. Commissioner Wells is 304 MR. WELLS' REPORT. Striving to array in hostility against those whose interests are identical with their own — the men who have embarked their capital in an attempt to make the United States com- mercially and politically independent of Great Britain, and who, if sustained in good faith, will not only accom- plish this, but enable us to meet her in the markets of the world with pig, bar, and sheet-iron, with steel in all its forms, including cutlery, and witl; iron ships carryinj.'- a commerce as extended as her own upon every sea. Having shown that the experiment of nine dollars per ton has been successful as a reven.ie measure, now let us see what effect it has had in stimulating production. When it was adopted English iron-ma.sters saw that with our in- exhaustible fields and rich varieties of coal and ore we must soon become competitors with them for our home market, and at no distant day a formidable rival in the general markets of this continent. This it was their in- terest to prevent if possible, and though their increase of production had been less than 100,000 tons per annum for the preceding nine years, they added 500,000 tons the next year, and in 1865 produced nearly 900,000 tons more than they had ever done before. I have shown the production of the two countries from 1854 to 1862. The Morrill tariff, which raised the duty to $6, went into effect in 18G1. In 1864 the duty was raised to $9. The results have been as follows : England. United States. 1863 4,510,040 947,604 1864 4,767.9r)l 1,135,497 1865 4,819,254 931.582 1866 4,523,897 1,350,943 1867 4,761,028 1,461.626 1868 1,603,000 1869 1,900,000 I regret my inability to ascertain the English produc- tion for 1868 and 1869; but in view of the average of the five years quoted, and the fact that the production of 1865 exceeds so largely the years that succeeded as well as those that preceded it, it is fair to assume that it has not been in excess of that year in either of these. These figures confirm the impression that England has attained her maximum productioa; for while her increase since 1863 has been scarcely appreciable, ours has been about one hundred and ten per cent. In view of all these facts, 1 MR. WELLS REPORT. 305 think that it appears again in the matter of pig-iron, as it did in that of ca.st-8teeT and Besaoinor rails, that a protec- tive duty has not been, as Mr. Wells assorts, a tax on, but is a boon to the American consumer. COAL AND THE BRITISH NORTH AMERICAN COLONIKH. I liave said that the report is devoted to the promotion of the interests of England and her North American colo- nies, and have, I think, shown that if its suggesiivyus were carried into effect ij, would arrest the rapid increase we are making in the production of iron and steel, and remand us to commercial and political dependence on our haughty and faithless rival. I propose now to illustrate Mr. Wells' palpable desire to promote the interests of England's North American colonies — the new dominion, that asylum of our foes in war and base of illicit opera- tions against our revenue system in peace. The sea-board provinces, whether on the Atlantic or Pacific ocean, are suffering discontent that is rapidly be- coming chronic. From 1854 to 1866 the colonists were more than contented, they were proud and joyous, and immigrants flowed in and settled among them. They con- trasted their condition with ours, and plumed themselves upon their superior prosperity. Their clip of wool and crops of cereals increased annually, their fislieries were in- creasingly profitably, and their coal mines yielded unpar- alleled profits — in one year one Nova Scotia coal company having paid its stockholders the almost fiibulous profit of one hundred and seventy-five per cent. They were more than hopeful of the future ; they were confident and arro- gant. With them the southern confederacy was a fore- gone conclusion, and with it as an ally, and England as their sponsor, they saw the near approach of the day when this new triple alliance should hold the Yankee States as in a vice, and crush or strangle them at pleasure. This was in 1864. Their tone is less joyous now. Indeed, it is sad unto wailing. Liscsn to one of them, a Nova Sco- tian, as he pours the story of their wrongs and sufferings through the columns of Lippincott's Magazine for July last: " But the petition of three hundred thousand good subjects was treated with indifference, and even an inquiry into their grievances was refused. Then it was, in the bitter sorrow and indignation that filled us at that time, that we turned our eyes to the great nation 20 i;' li ^'W ii i - f ■ I ■ .^ ii 306 MR. wells' report. liowidp UH Tor nsHisliinoc. But even tliere no help whh to bo had. rjn» rociprofily Ircuty had hcou ubroKiitcd in return for the Hynipn- thy iiiul iisHiHtiincc wtiich ('aniuhi hud ^ivon to tho Houth ; and thn only tliinf( which couhl support our coniincrcc and cncouruKu our induHtricH under tlic liouvicr duticH of Ouniulii was thus denied ns, and continueH to ho denied u« * At the uresont tnonient wo nro in a sad case. The duties and taxes of the (Innadian adniinistnitidii l)ear heavily upon us ; our coiinnerce is hin»(uii in triotism revolts, though it be ever so earnestly recom- mended by Mr. Commissioner Wells. HOW THE SOUTH SHOULD DIVERSIFY ITS INDUSTRY. I think I have sufficiently disclosed the devotion of our Special Commissioner of Eevenue to the interests of England; but I cannot refrain from inviting the attention of gentlemen from the South to the treacherous sugges- tions he offers them on the subject of the proper means of diversifying their industry. On this subject he says: " 'I'he large amount of capital thus becoming annually available at the South will undoubtedly seek in great part investment in domestic and local enterprises and speedily lead to the establish- ment of manufactures on an extensive scale. The true diversity of employment which results from freedom has now, therefore, be- come to the South for the first time possible ; and southern capital can soon bo advantageously applied to the manufacture of agricul- tural tools and implements, leather, wagons, wooden-ware, soap starch, clothing, and similar articles. These are manufactures ir which iron, steel and cloth are raw materials. They employ the largest amount of labor in proportion to product and capital, and warrant the payment of higli wages. On the other hand, what are commonly called manufactures, namely, iron and steel, and cotton and looolen cloth, are examples of concentration. Theif require large capital, employ hutfexu hands, and loould naturally ccme much later.* We already have in the United States an excess of cotton and woolen spindles, and to invest capital in more would be nimply a waste when there are vast needs at the South requiring far less capital, and ivarranting much greater compensation for labor than can be paid in textile fabrics," Most of the southern States abound in coal, varieties of iron ore of very high quality, limestone, and water- power. Inaccessible as their interior districts are from the sea-board, freight adds heavily to the cost of iron purchased either from the Atlantic States or England. They need preeminently among the States of the Union an extension of railroads and the establishment of found- eries, rolling-mills, locomotive works, and machine-shops. The primary prerequisite to the ample development of the great resources of the southern States is an adequate supply of cheap iron and the means of shaping it for use. * The people of Virginia, Tennessee and Georgia have wisely shown their contempt for Mr. Wells' suggestion that they should postpone efforts to make iron. Staunton, Atlanta and Chattanooga have already become celebrated for the quality and quantity of iron they produce, and the work done by their roll- ing-mills. This may be bad for Mr. Wells' English friends, but it i< oertaioly well for us. lij' r.H'^''*\ I :.-in 816 MB. wells' report. They have few skilled laborers, and the manufacture of pig-iron and the rolling of rails require but comparatively few skilled men. The digging and hauling oi coal, ore, and limestone require no special preparation. It is work for the unskilled laborer at which freed men can succeed, and they are therefore in a condition to engage in the production of this article of primary importance, tliough they may not have the trained artisans for the introduc- tion of simpler branches of mechanics. The cotton growing portion of the United States is the prop- r lociliby for cotton factories. The South can spin yar.'i and produce unbleached fabrics at from fifteen to twenty per cent, less than the same work can be done in New j' mgland, and cheaper even than it can be done hj the underpaid laborers of Great Britain. Will gentlemen from the South onsider that wiiat the picking-room is to the Er.glish or northern factory the gin-room is to the factory n'^ar the cctton-field, and that all charges incurred oetwcen the two would be saved by the southern manu- facturer ? Before cotton reaches either New or Old Eng- land it must be pressed and baled and hooped and marked aiid transported, losing interest and paying freight and commission at each stage of the transportation ; and when it has arrived at the threshold of the distant factory it must be freed from its hoops, stripped of its bagging, and put through the processes of the picking-room to restore it with as little damage as possible to the condi- tion in which it was when it left the gin. From all these charges the manufacturer in the cotton district is free; and together they amount to what would be a fair profit, which in connection with the improved quality that would result from the use of the unbroken fiber he would use would enable him to spin yarns for all the northern States and England too. But this would hurt the .^!]nglish cotton spinnr^ ; this would advance the interests of the United States to the detriment of England, as u ould the establishment in the midst of the coal and iron fields of Virginia, Tennessee, Arkansas, Alabama, anu Georgia of furnaces, founderies, rolling-mills, and steel-works. Fortvnaiely, the people of the South are deeply impres^-ed with the importance c^ the early introduction of these branches of manufac- tures; and among the sixty-five furnaces erected during the last year four are in Virginia, six in Missouri, tliree MR. WELL3' REPORT. 817 eniiessee, in Kentucky, one in Georgia, two in Alabama, and one in Tennessee. It is not, therefore, probable that very general heed will be given by the people of the South to the advice offered by Mr. Wells, or that they will abandon the hope of exporting their cotton in yarn and fabrics, the manufacture of which will give employment to and improve the condition of their now unemployed men, women, and children, or will forego the privilege of an adequate supply of good and cheap iron manufactured in their midst, in order to turn their attention to making "wooden-ware, soap, starch, clothing and similar articles." They will not, I apprehend, be willing to forego their greatest source of profit in order to oblige him by per- mitting England still to retain her supremacy as the cot- ton-spinner and principal iron manufacturer of Sue world. WHAT TAXE3 SHOULD BE REPEALED. Mr. Chairm'.n, permit me to repeat the fact tliat duties which serve to i^evelop the resources of a country and cheapen commodities, by inducing home competition, the diversification of labor and the opening of new sources of employment, and increase the general stock produced, are not taxes even though they fail to reduce immediately the price of the commodity on which they are imposed, as adequate duties on cast-steel and Bessemer rails have done. They are during the interim the price paid for establishing the commercial and political independence of the country ; or may rather be regarded as a tempo- rary advance to be reimbursed « i the near future by pro- ducing a sense of national security, a wider field of pro- fitable employment for the people at large, and an adequate and cheaper supply of better goods through the long future.* But such is not the case with all duties. There are duties that are taxes and must remain so forever, or into that far future whose possibilities we cannot foresee. Such are duties imposed on commodities which we do not * The proposition is, or may bo, to raise tlie price of a manufactured article for a time, in the expectation that advances in skill and machinery, and a more secure place in the market — where conspiracies abroad cannot break in to crush out the osp'*..i invested — will by and by, or perhaps in a very short time, afford us the same articles at prices greatly reduced. Even Adam Smith saw this; conceding that " a particular manufacture may sometimes be acquired sooner than it could have been otherwise, and after a certain time Uiny be made at home as cheap, or cheaper than in the foreign, country." (" 'V/ealth of Nations," foi. i. p. 448.< And what have we ourselves discovered, in hundreds of ins- :IS m '♦ ( ■ ; ■i 5i.O MR. WELLS' REPORT. ( 4i and cannot produce, but which enter into ihe daily life of the people, either directly as food, or as the raw material of articles we are producing in competition with countries whose laborers receive not a moiety of the wages paid for the same work in this country, and which are neces- sary for the support of a family whoso children are to be educated for future citiaenship. We raise no tea or coft'ee, and the duty of twenty-five cents a pound on tea, which is at the rate of seventy-eight and a half per cent. on the cost of our whole importation for 1868, and of five cents a pound on coltee, or at the rate of forty-seven and a half per cent, on the importation of 1868, arc tuxes — purely and simply taxes. Yet the Commissioner does not propose to repeal or abate these, and why sliould he ? Neither England nor her North American colonies pro- duce tea or coft'ee. Not only does he not propose to repeal these taxes now, but in his "schedule of a tarift" construct- ed with a view of obtaining from the smallest number of imported articles an annual revenue of $150,000,000 " he retains them both and proposes to raise $22,000,000 a year from them, namely, $12,000,000 from coft'ee and $10,000,000 fioiu tea. AVe now impose a duty of fifteen cents a pound on pepper. As we grow no pepper, this is a tax — a tax at the rate of two hundred and ninety-seven per cent, on the entire importation for 1868, and which extracted from the people in that year $792,490 45. The like duty on allspice is a tax. It is at the rate of three hundred and seventy-six and a half per cent., and drew from the people in 1868 $142,981 50. These duties and many scores of such that I could indicate are all taxes, as they stimulate no industry, but tax the food of the farmer and laborer; but they do not move the sympathies of the Commissioner. He does not propose to repeal them, for the articles they burden are not produced in England or her North American colonies. They were imposed as revenue measures during a great war, and have been tanocs, but exactly this, that the losses or taxation prices wo expected did not come, but that the articles prote ted have been cheapened, some of them, too, from the very first. AVho cou'.a have imagined that our rough-handed, hatf- trained mechanics would be able to hold successful competition with the sitillcd workmen of Europe in the manufacture of an article as delicate as the watch ? And yet we are getting our watches now at scarcely more than half the former price, and arc even selling watches at a profit in the open market of the world. We consented to make a loss, but the gain came along too soon to let us distinctly see it. — Buihntll, " Free Trade and Protection." I \ MR. wells' report. 810 cheerfully endured by a patriotic people, but they increase the cost of living, operate as a buruen on our laboring people, and should bo repealed at the earliest day the fin- ancial condition of the country will permit. Mr. Chairman, there are other taxes, of some of which the pcoj)lo justly complain — taxes that burden our labor, consume the profits of capital, and paralyze the energy of the most enterprising among us. They add to the cost of our gas and our travel, whether by railroad, stage, or steamboat. We cannot draw our own money from bank or make a payment to our creditor without feeling them. They touch and prick us at all points, Their enforcement requires the maintenance of a special department of the Government, the agents of which penetrate inquisitorially every home and workshop in the land. They increase the cost of all our productions and restrict the limits of our commerce by shutting our over- taxed goods out of markets in which but for them we might compete with our foreign rivals. They, too, were the product of the war. The necessities in which it in- volved us gave rise to the system of internal taxes with its Commissioner, assessors, collectors, supervisors, detect- ives, and thousands of subordinates ; and sound policy requires that those duties which, while they protect the wages of the laboring man and develop the resources of the country, supply the Treasury with large amounts of revenue should be retained, and that these direct and inquisitorial taxes which so oppress and annoy us should be removed as rapidly as possible. The repeal of these would animate all our industries; but the repeal of the duties recommended by the Commission3r would flood our country with the productions of the underpaid la- borers of Europe, silence countless looms and spindles, close our factories, extinguish the fires in our furnaces and rolling-mills, and leave the grain of the husbandmen, for which there is now no market in Europe, to rot in the field or granary, while their countrymen and former cus- tomers starve. However ardently Mr. Commissioner Wells may desire this consummation, I trust that Con- gress, by protecting the wages of the American laborer, will forever avert it. ^ k. I PERSONAL EXPLANATION. Speech Delivered in the House op Representatives, January 20th, 1870. The House being in session— Mr. Ktlley said : I ask unanimous consent to mako a brief personal ex planation. The Speaker. For how long ? Mr. Kelley. Five minutes. There was no objection, and it was ordered accordingly. Mr. Kelley. Mr. Speaker : I send to th^ Clerk's desk the St. Louis Democrat of January 17th, 1870, and ask the Clerk to read the paragraph I have marked. The Clerk read as follows : " This cheap cry of British gold is about played out. There are a great many more men in Congress and out of it, who are bribed to advocate what they know to bo against the public interest by Amer- ican gold than by ^British. We might easily retort on Mr. Kelley. It would be easy to say that his personal interest, to the extent of $100,000, in iron works in Irondale, Ohio, bribes him to cast a vote against the public welfare. But tliat sort of argument may well be left altogether to those who have no better at command." Mr. Kelley. Mr. Speaker : I have called the attention of the House to this paragraph, not by reason of its own importance, but because T have from time to time seen ar- ticles in the papers, speaking of my great pecuniary interest in pig-iron. I did not know how to account for them until within a few days one of the gentlemen from Ohio, [Mr. Garfield,] or his colleague, [Mr. Wilson,] handed me a letter, the printed heading of which informed me that " William D. Kelley & Sons are the proprietors of Grant Furnace, Ironton, Ohio." I saw, then, that those who made this intimation had, at least, a reasonable basis of fact. I want to say that I do not know my namesake, but was pleased to hear that he is a worthy and prosperous 320 I'KIiaONAL EXl'LANATION. 821 man, with ft largo family of sons iiboutliim, who nro luhori- oiisly iiidinj^ hitn in his busiucHH, whiio \, less lortiintito, hapixMi to havo butono son, who is not yet (iftocn years of .'i^'e. I urn not interested in a foot of land in the state of Oliio. 1 never had means enough, having been :i lawyer whose «(!rvices were not liberally requited, to etnl)ark in inuiiufiieturing pig-iron or any other eommodity. Nor do 1 own, direetly or indirectly, one dollar of capital or stock in any mining or manufacturing interest in the world, (iod knows that, as I feel years creeping over me, I regret my past indifl'ereneo to pecuniary matters, and wish that I had been able to acquire some such property I' iii- FARMERS, MECHANICS, AND LABORERS NEED PROTECTION— CAPITAL CAN TAKE CARE OF ITSELF. Speech Delivebed in the House of REPiiESENTATivEF March 25, 1870. The House being in the Committee of the Whole, and having under consideration the bill (H. K. No. 1068) to amend existing laws relating to the duties on imports, and for other purposes — Mr. Kelley said : Mr. Chairman: I presume that gentlemen who have listened to the course of this debate expect me to apolo- gize for having been born in Pennsylvania and adhering to my native State. From what has been said it seems that her people are regarded b}' free traders as a discredit- able community, and she, in her corporate capacity, as an object of odium. Sir, I am proud of dear old Pennsylvania, my native State. She was the first to adopt the Federal Constitu- tic n, and was in fact the key-stone of the Federal arch, holding together the young Union when it consisted of but thirteen States, and she is to-day preeminently the representative State of the Union. You cannot strike her so that her industries shall bleed without those of other States feeling it, and feeling it vitally. She has no cotton, or sugar, or rice fields ; but apart from these she is identified with every interest represented upon this floor. Gentlemen from the rocky coast of New England and those from the more fertile and hospitable shores of the Pacific, especially the gentlemen from the beautifully wooded shores of Puget Sound, complain that their ship- yards are idle. Hers, alas ! are also idle, although they are the yr "ds in which were built the largest wooden ship the Goveiament ever put afloat, and the largest sailing iron-clad it ever owned. She has her commerce and sympathizes with young San Francisco and our great 322 FARMERS, MECHANICS, ETC., NjilED PROTECTION. 323 commercial metropolis, New York. She was for long years the leading port of entry in the country. She still maintains a respectable direct commerce and imports very largely through New York, for the same reasons that London does through Liverpool, and Paris through Havre. Are you interested in the production of fabrics, Avhether of silk, wool, flax, or cotton? If so her interests are identical with yours, for she employs as many spindles and looms as any New England State, and their produc- tions are as various and as valuable. Are your interests in the co?nmeice upon the lakes? Then go with me to her beautiful city of Erie and behold how Pennsylvania sympathizes with all your interests there. Are your interests identified with the navigation of the Mississippi and seeking markets for your products at the mouth of that river and on the Gulf? I pray you to nemember that two of the navigable sources of the American "Father of Waters" take their rise in the bot,om of her mountains, and that for many decades her enterprising and industri- ous people have been plucking from her hills bituminous coal and floating it past the coai-fields of Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, and other coal-bearing States, to meet that of England in the market of New Orleans and try to drive it thence. Gentlemen from the gold regions, where were the miners trained who first brought to light, with any measure of science and experience, the vast resources in gold and silver-bearing quartz of the Pacific slope? They went to you from the coal, iron, and zinc mines of Pennsylvania. There they had learned to sink the shaft, run the drift, handle ore, and crush or smelt it. It was experience acquired in her mines that brought out the wealth of California almost as magically as we were taught in childhood to believe that Aladdin's lamp could convert base articles into gold. Nor, sir, are the interests of Penns 'ania at variance with those of the great agricultural States? Before her Eepresentatives in the two Houses of Congress had united their voices with those of gentlemen from the West to make magnificent land grants for the purpose of con- structing railroads in di'Yerent directions across the tree- less but luxuriously fertile prairies, Pennsylvania was first among the great agricultural States. And to-day her products of the field, the garden, the orchard, and the I i It '» * 1 ' nil f. 824: FARMERS, MECHANICS, ETC., NEED PROTECTION. dairy equal in value those of any other State. Gentle- men from Ohio, notwithstanding the statem' iit of the gentleman from Iowa [Mr. Allison] that yon alone manuflw- ture ocotch pig-iron and ijuffer from its importation, as you alone have the black band ore from which it is made, is it not true that when Pennsylvania demands a tarift' that will protect the wages of her laborers in the mine, the quarry, and the furnace, she does but defend the interests and rights of your laborers and those of every other iron- bearing State in the Union ? Gentlemen from Virginia, Maryland, and North Carolina, Pennsylvania is de- nounced because she pleads for a duty on bituminous coal that will enable you to develop your magnificent coal-fields in competition with Nova Scotia. The coal of your tide-water fields is far more available than that of the inland fields of Pennsylvania, which depend on railroads for transportation. On the banks of the James, the Dan, and other navigable rivers, lie coal-beds to within a few hundred feet of which the vessels which are to carry the coal may come, and they lie nearer to the markets of New England than those of your colonial rivals at Nova Scotia; and when you were not here and Virginia and North Carolina were voiceless on this floor, I pleaded with the Thirty-Ninth Congress to retain the duty of $1 25 per ton in order that Virginia and North Carolina, soon to be reconstructed, should be able to pro- duce fuel for New England better and cheaper than Nova Scotia does, and that it should be carried in New England built vessels, so that the thousands of people employed in producing and transporting it should create a mar- ket for the grain of the western farmer and the produc- tions of American workshops. I might, Mr. Chairman, extend the illustration of the identity of the interests of Pennsylvania with those of the people of every other State, but will not detain the committee longer on that subject. In leaving it I however reiterate my assertion that you cannnot strike a blow at her industries without the people of at least half a score of other Stages feeling it as keenly as .:.ie will. She asks no boon from Congress. Her people, whether they depend for subsistence upon their daily toil, or have been so fortunate as to inherit or acquire capital, seek no special privileges from the Gov- ernment. They demand that we shall legislate for the promotion of the equal welfare of all. They know t,hat FARMERS, MECHANICS, ETC., NEED PROTECTION. 325 they must share the common fate, and that their prosperity depends upon that of their countrymen at large. PROTECTION CHEAPENS COMMODITIES. Mr. Chairman, many gentlemen have spoken since this bill was made a special order^ and a great deal has been said iipon the general subject of free trade and protection, and but little about the provisions embodied in the bill before the committee. I am probably expected to pro- ceed at once to reply to the remarks of my colleague on the Committee of Ways and Means, from Iowa [Mr. Alli- son], who has just closed his remarks. But I may as well before proceeding to do so take a shot into the flock generally. The birds have all sung the same song. My colleague has gone more fully into the details of the bill than any of the others. But his statements are all in ha'"- mony with those of the several gentlemen who have given us the doctrines of the chief of the Bureau of Statistics, I). A. Wells, in their own admirable way. I propose to allude to some of their remarks. The gentleman from New York [Mr. Brooks] in open- in^, the debate promised to mount a peddler's wagon and Tide through the agricultural districts of the country, exhibiting hoes, shovels, axes, chains, knives and forks, cottons, and woolens, and demonstrate to the people the unjust and enormous taxation imposed on them by the existing tariff". If he will redeem this promise, making candid statements of facts to the people, I will con- tribute toward his expenses and pray for the success of his mission. Mr. Brooks, of New York. How m/'ch? Mr. Kelley. I will contribute 25 per cent,, and what may be more effective, will try to make an arrangement by which the proprietors of Flagg's Pain Exterminator will give the gentleman a seat in one of their wagons while going through the country. By no other means could he so perfectly demonstrate the fact that duties which are really protective are never a tax, and that pro- tection invariably cheapens commodities. So invariably is this true that protective America, France, and Germany are crowding free-trade England out of the markets of the world with the articles named by the gentleman while pur- chasing from her the materials of which they are made, i' t ; / c ■ u m tlS! I 326 FARMERS, MECHANICS, ETC., NEED PROTECTION. and paying protective duties on every pound of them. This is not mere declamation. It is truth demonstrated by experience.''* The starving mechanics of England know it, and have at length succeeded in bringing it officially to the knowledge of Parliament. I have before me the report of a parliamentary commission which proves, that notwithstanding our duties on iron and steel, our knives and forks, horseshoe nails, etc., are crowding England out of general markets, that our hoes, siiovels, « A New York correspondent of the Sheffield Indepeiideut tec.ntly ytroic to that paper as follows : " There will he no Icr/hlation this seatlon on the tariff, which meaim no chinge in actual operation until 1873, at nearest. The opposition, therefore, which Shijfield manu/ncliirers have to encounter from native and pro'ected inditstri/ wilt not be abated for two, if not three years to come. This i» not enconrai/ln;/ fir such Shef- field trades as the saw trade, for instance, which is now nearly wholly tlriven from thin market. It is no use denyin;/, either, that durlnij the respite which unch trades here as the sprinf] knife and table knife trade will have, their opposition will become more formidable. It is true that the manufacturers of table knives here seem to have gone as low as they can in price, and that Sheffield yonds con just compete and that is all, and more than that no one pretends that American table knife concerns are makinij money. But there they stand, gigantic est(iblinhmcnts, each with ilo Utile tcorld of workmen round it, the representatives of much tabor and capital invested under legal sanction, and, therefore, claiming tender c(ninlderatinii in any future financial adjustment. The Amorican-iuade one and two blade pocket knives are beginning to push out similar goods made in Sheffield all over the AVest and Northwest. They run chiefly on such styles, in one blade, as cost from three to six shillings per dozen in Sheffield, and such two blade as cost from six to ten shillings. In price they are about the same for the sair- pattern, but in fitting, finish and style, very much superior. The steel used, lu a rule, is good, and the blades above complaint. Their patterns are not numer- ous. Indeed, they adopt precisely the same tactics as those used by the table knife manufacturers when they first commenced that competition with Sheffield which has ended, practically, in the transference of that business to thi)) country. They choose a few good popular styles, they invent and use machin- ery for e\ ery process possible, they put in good blades, neatly ground, splendid- ly marked, and turn out every knife the precise duplicate of every other. Hence the uniformity, reliability, and (r-'ieral style which is found in no Sheffield goods, except those of standard makers. I regard it as absolutely certain that the Sheffield sprinj^-knifo trade has, so far as this market is con- cerned, to pass through precisely the same stages as those through which the table-knife trade has passed. Gradually, the methods used hero will push out all medium and common imported goods; then will come a time of utter stagna- tion and bewilderment among the masters and men usually working for the United States trade; then none but goods with a name will remain saleable here ; and, finally, it is to bo hoped, as in the sister business, enterprising manufacturers will arise in Sheffield who, adopting machinery, will speedily regain the lost ground and bring back employment. There is no excuse, however, after past experience, for such a crisis arising. The machinery and processes used hero are inexpensive, though effective — so efiective, indeed, that one of the oldest and most energetic and successful of the Sheffield manufac- turers, after investigating them on the spot here last year, could lay no more consolation to his heart than the old system 'would last Ai« time out.' If tlie 'trade' would send out, at their expense, two intelligent practical men. and let them spend a month hero and probe the subject to the bottom, they could, at an outlay of £150 or £200, save their fellowworkmen from a world of coming want and perplexity. Why not do it?" I PARMKRS, MECHANICS, ETC., NEED PROTECTION. 827 and axes are bought by the people of all her colonies ; and that our locks, sevirg-machines, and other produc- tions of iron and steel are underselling hers in the streets of London and Birmingham. Here is the "report from the select committee on scientific instruction, together with the proceedings of the committee, minutes of evi- dence, and appendix," ordered by the Ilouse of Commons to be printed 15th July, 1868. It is a ponderous volume and replete with instruction. I find on page 479 a paper handed in by Mr. Field, containing a "list of some articles made in Birmingham and the hardv/are districts, which are largely replaced in common markets of the world uy the productions of other countries." The author states that " this list might be immensely extended by further investigation, A^hich the shortness of time has not permitted." Among the articles enumerated are hoes — and I ask the attention of the gentleman from "^lew York [Mr. Brooks] — " Hoes : for cotton and other purposes, an article of large con- sumption." On this article the report remarks : " The United States compete with us, for their own use and, to some extent, for export." Then we have the following : "Axes : for felling trees, etc., an article of large consumption. The United States supply our colonies and the world with the best article." Then there are : " Carpenters' broad-axes ; carpenters' and coopers' adzes ; coopers' tools, various sorts ; shoemakers' hammers and tools." With regard to these, "Germany ?.nd the United States" are mentioned as the countries " whose products are be- lieved to Lave replaced those of England." Speaking of cut nails, the report says : " The Unite! States export to South America and our colonies." And, with regard to horseshoe nails, which we protect by a duty of 5 cents per pound, and the manufacture of which under that ample protection has been cheapened I and so perfected, that this parliamentary report announces ' that they exclude the English from common markets, be- cause they are — •' Beautifully made by machinery in the United Stattis." k * !fl! i 828 FARMERS, MECHANICS, ETC., NEED PROTECTION. Mr. V/inans. Will the gentleman allow me to ask him a question ? Mr. Kelley. Not at present. I will be glad, when I have got a little further into my subject, to answer, but not at this point. Mr. Winans. My question comes in properly here Mr. Kelley. I will hear the gentleman. Mr. Winans. I understand that the purport of what the gentleman has been reading is to show that the United States, notwithstanding the high tariff — Mr. Kelley. I do not yield to the gentleman for a speech. If he has a question to put, let him put it squarely. Mr. Winans. I merely wished to make a preliminary remark. But, witliout any preliminaries, my question is this: If, under the operation of our tariff, American manu- facturers could compete with British manufacturers in British markets, why should the high tariff be maintained to oppress our own people ? * Mr. Kclk-y. The gentleman's question will be abun- daniiy answered as I proceed. But I may remark here, that, if by protection you secure to your capital and indus- try a certain market, capitalists will invest in the erection of workshops, and purchase of machinery, and by liigh Avages will induce skilled and ingenious workmen to leave their * Such a tariflf is the only means of protecting our industries from overthrow by foreign conspirators. The British (jrovernment applauds such conspiracies, and the American Government should defend its people against them. Though the following extract from the report of a Parliamentary commission made in 1854 appears on page 41, I cite it here as a conclusive, though not the only ansivcr to the question of Judge Winans: " I believe that the laboring classes generally, in the manul'acturing districts of this country, and especially in the iron and coal districts, ave very !iule aware of the extent to which they are often indebted for their being employed nt all to the imnieiise losses which lhe!r employers volunt»rily incur in bad times, >n order to destroy fureit/n competition, and to gain and keep possession of forcii/n mcrkcls. Authentic instances are well known of employers having, in such times, carried on their work at a loss amounting, in the aggregate, to three or four hundrnd thousand pounds in the course of as many years. If the efforts of those who en- courage the combinations to restrict tlie amount of labor, and to produce jtrikes, were to be successful for any length of time, the great accnmulations of capital could HO longer be made, lohich enable a few of the most wealthy capitalists to over- whelm all foreign ewnpetition in times of great depression, and thus to clear the way for the whole trade to step in when prices revive, and to carry on a great business before foreign capital can again accumulate to such an extent as to be able to establish a competition in prices with any chance of success. The large capitals of this country are the great instruments of warfare against the competing capitalists of foreign <;o»ii()'ic8, and are the most essential instruments now re- maining by which our manufacturing supremacy can be maintniued; the other elements — ehonp labor, abundance of raw materials, means of communication, and skilled labor — being rapidly in process of being realized." ite' 1 1 FARMERS, MECHANICS, ETC., NEED PROTECTION. 029 homes and accept employment on better terras among strangers. Thus, under protection, capital has been in- vested, and skilled laborers gathered, and our inventive genius has improved the methods of production, until we have come to be able to make the articles mentioned in this list cheaper than free-trade England. But witlidraw this protection, and you will enable foreigners, with the immense accumulations of capital they possess, to combine and undersell our home manufacturers for a few years, and thus destroy them. The purpose of a protective tariff is that of the fence around an orchard in a district where cattle are permitted to run at large. I believe I have an- swered the question of the gentleman. The gentleman from New York [Mr. Brooks] said that his heart glowed with pride wlien, in a distant foreign land, he saw a camel robed in American m"-"!uj. The value of the kind of muslin used for such a purpose is almost all in the cost of the raw material ; it is woven of the coarsest yarn. I wish he had been in Abyssinia in 1867 ; how his pulse would have quickened and liis heart expanded as he saw that while England was wreathing the latest glory around her brow by moving an army into the licnrt of Abyssinia for the relief of a few of her subjects, the inge- nuity and protected industry of the United States was from day to day providing that army with water. For proof of this I turn again to the Parliamentary re- port. It says : " Pumps of various sorts largely exported from the United States." To this announcement is added the following note : " an American pump finding water for the Abyssinian expedition." Those pumps, unlike the coarse cotton, the sight of which so rejoiced the gentleman, involved a preponderant percentage of labor — labor for the digging and carrying of the coal, ore, and limestone, and on tlirough successive grades of labor to their completion, so that probably 90 per cent, of their cost was labor. But I submit the list entire for the gentleman's considera- tion : , 1 Si f 330 FARMERS, MECHANICS, ETC., NEED PROTECTION. Ap]^C7idix No. 22 to the report from the nelcct Committee on Scien- ttfic Instruction, together with the proceedings of the committee, minutes of evidence, and appendix. [Ordered by the House of Commons to be pniited, 15th July, 1868.] PAFF» HANDRD IN BY MR. FIELD. List of some articles made in Birmingham and the hardware district, which a: e largely renlaced in common nmrkets of t'^, , oAd oy thep'odu tions of other countries: A.I I'^^loa or clus of artiolea. Ca.ppnten.! . Is : As hammers, plyers, pincers, compasses, hand and bench vices. Chains : Of light description, where the cost is more in labor than in ma- terial, as halter chains and bow- ties, and such like. Frying-pans of fine finish Wood -handled spades and shovels, an article of very large consumption. Iloes : For cotton and other purposes, an article of large consumption. Axes : For felling trees, etc., an article of large consumption. Carpenters' broadaxcs. Carpenters' and coopers' adzes. Coopers' tools, various sorts. ..^ loemakers' hammers and tools. Machetes ; For cutting sugar canes, an im- portant article. Nails : Cut Wrought Point de Paris (wire nails.) .... Horse-nails Pumps : Of various sorts Country whoao prudiictR are boliered to havo rt-plncod thoeeof tliin dietriet, In whole or in part. [ Germany chiefly. Germany. France. United States exports them to all our colonies. (United States compete with us for their own use, and, to some extent, for export. f United States supply our colo- i nics and the world with the best article. Germany and the United States. >• Believed to be now Germany. f United States export to South ( America and our colonies. Belgium. {French and Belgian largely su- persede English. {Beautifully made by machinery in the United States. ("Largely exported by United States. \ Note. — An American pump j finding water for the Abys- [ sinian expedition. FARMIIRS, MECHANICS, ETC., NEED PROTECTION. 331 LIST.— (7onorle • Eng I land. France. (United States, France, and Germany. f United States exjiorts to Cana- \ da. United States and France. United States export to Canada, f United States export to ('ana- I da and probably elsewhere. These articles in great variety, are now extensively exported from France and Germany. [These articles, in great variety, are now extensively exported from Germany and France. (Mostly Germany, (Rhenish Prussia,) even imported to England, Believed Germany. Now exported largely from Liogc, Belgium, and Etienne, Fi ance. ■ United States. ill :i.;^ < i ■■ iiAJ 8.^2 FA11ME118, MECIIANIC8, ETC., NEED PUOTECTION. LIST.— Contiiined. Article* or clam orarllclei. Watches and clocks Iron Uluss: For windows, an article of larpo consnm[)(ion; spectacle and all other glass. Table glass Swords Jewelry : Gold, gilt, and fancy steel, in very great variety. Small steel trinkets : As bag and purse clasps, steel l)uttonH, chains, key rings, and other fastenings, and many others in great variety. Leather bags, with clasps, purses, and courier bags, etc. Buttons : Mother of pearl Horn Porceluin (formerly Minton's of Stoke). Steel buttons (formerly Bolton & Watt's). Florentine or lasting boot-but- tons. Steel pens, pen-holders, brass scales and weights. Iron gas-tubing Elastic belts with metal fasten- ings. Brass chandeliers and gas-fit- tings. Harness buckles and furniture. German-silver spoons, forks, etc. Locks : Best trunk, door, and cabinet locks. Cuunlry whnnn prodiirtH nrn liiOlistrings and other small fittings lor pianos. Silver wire for binding the bars, strings of pianos, etc. This list might be immensely which the shortness of time has Country wlnm.i prodiirtu nrn liflli'VcC tn likT* rii|>liic'i'd tliimo of tliiK United States. United States. United States. } United States. United States. Germany. France. * extended by further investigation, not permitted. TUE INTERNAL REVENUE SYSTEM — IT IS EXPENSIVE AND INQUISITORIAL, AND SHOULD BE ABOLISHED AT THE EARLIEST POSSIBLE DAY. At a later stage of the debate the gentleman from Ohio [Mr. Stevenson] presented his views on the general subject. 'I II 834 FARMERS, MECirANICS, ETC., NEED IMIOTECTIOX. Ho had previously donounocd tho protectionists* of the House as a faction, and now deplores the fact that " the beautiful idea," free trade, "cannot bo wholly reuli/.od until tho coramercittl rnillonniurn." Ho will, however, do all ho can to hasten its triumph. In this direction he goes further than Calhoun or any southern leader over wont. His is a manufacturing and agricultural district, yet ho not only echoes tho demand of the gentleman from the free- trade commercial city of New York for frco coal, iron, salt, and lumber, and a general reduction of the tarifl", but leaps beyond him, and propo.ses to give permanoncoto the system of internal taxes, which wa.s established as a tem- porary war measure, and which costs annually over $8,000,000, maintains an army of lens of thou.sands of olTico-holders, and makes inquisition into tho private aftUirs of every citizen, and would simply remove from it "irrita- ting, petty, uscles.s, and vexatious elements." Sir, tlie gentleman cannot bo ignorant of the fact tliat every dollar drawn from the people by these taxc s is so much added to the cost of the productions of the farm and workshop, and operates as a bonus to the foreign competitors of our farmers and mechanics in common markets. But even this will not content him. He grieves that other and more onerous taxes cannot constitutionally be levied on the farms, workshops, and homes of the people of Oliio and the rest of the country. On this point he gives fortli no uncertain sound. He hopes the Constitution will yet be no amended as to constrain every owner of a farm or cross- roads blacksmith's shop to make the acquaintance of a collector of United States taxes. On this point he said : " In fact, I incline t sported till ii irtinles to many count. ies. Now wo import them largely. farmer by the addition it makes to tho cost of many artiolet bo eonsiiraes adds about 15 oent3 to the cost of producing an ''■incuof ouinini', !i:id more In to the cost of chloroform, collodion, and many other (frug.', u; i almost i variety of perfumery. Before it was imposed, we exported t\u.h irtinles toi 336 FARMERS, MECHANICS, ETC., NEED PROTECTION. ill iU fl it : Mr. Kellcy, I Lave answered the gentleman's question, and every gentlennau present will, I think, say I have answered it frankly. FREE TRADE MEANS LOW WAGES AND A LIMITED MAR- KET FOR GRAIN. Mr. Chairman, I am. not specially familiar witli the "eii- Jeman's district. Tliougli I have visited Cincinnati sevcnil times and ridden through Hamilton county, I have but few acquaintances within their limits; yet I know some- thing about them. The last annual report of the Cincin- nati Board of Trade informs us that during the year endintr March 31, 1869, there were produced in the gentleman's district and the adjoining one, in about 3000 separate establishments, 187 distinct classes of manufactured articles, of an aggregate value of $104,657,012. The cash capital invested in these establishments, the report says, is $49,- 824,124, and they give employment to 55,275 hands. Mr. Chairman, I venture the remark that there is not among these 55,275 v/orking people one who will indorse the opinions advanced by the gentleman. Mr. Stevenson. Will the gentleman yield to me for a moment ? Mr, Kelley. No, sir ; I must decline. Mr. Stevenson. The gentleman holds the floor without restriction by the courtesy of the House. Mr. Kelley. I will yield further to the gentleman during the course of my remarks, but not at present. !Many of the laboring people of his district are immi- grants and know how small are the wages of workmen on the other side of the Atlantic, and the fare on which they live. They know that free trade means low wages. Buy labor vvhere you can buy it cheapest is the cardinal maxim of the free trader. More than 85 per cent, of the cost of every ton of coal, salt, and pig-iron is in the wages of labor, and when the gentleman shall have stricken the duties off these articles, the 1,500,000 people who are now earning good wages in their production must compete with the cheap labor of Turk's Island, England, Wales, and German}'". Thrown out of remunerative employment iu the trades to which they have devoted their li'ves, as they will be, they must compete with workmen in other pur- suits, even though they glut the market and bring down the general rate of wages throughout the land. He who ii m F',';^ FARMERS, MECHANICS, ETC. NEED PROTECTION. 337 advocates protective duties pleads the cause of the Ameri- can laborer. I will not ainpliiy tliis))roposition. I regard it as a truism, and beg leave to illustrate it by inviting the attention of my colleague from Iowa, [Mr. Allison,] and the gentleman fro.n Ohio, to a statement of the wages and subsistence of families of laborers in Europe, on ])age 179 of the monthly report of the Deputy Special Commissioner of the lievenue, No. -i of the series 1869-70. It refers special I}'- to Germany, and was translated and compiled from Nos. 10-12 of the publications of the Koyal Prussian Statistical Bureau, Berlin, 18(J8. This paper, gentlemen will remark, was not prepared for or by American politicians, or by a faithless ofliccr of this Government, or by any representative of a free trade 0" protective league. Its I'ucts are most significant. ""•he wheat-growers of Iowa and the West are suffering ii'jin the want of a market for their grain. Too large a proportion of our people are raising wheat. We want more miners, railroad men, and mechanics, and our present rates of wages are inducing them to come to us. Nearly half a million people tempted by these wages will come this year. Our workii^g people are free consumers of wheat, beef, poi'k, and mutton. But could they be, under free trade or reduced duties ? These articles are luxuries rarely enjoyed by the working people of England or the contiu' t, with whom anti-protectionists would compel them tij compete. The official paper to which I refer tells us that " rye and potatoes form the chief food of the labor- ing classes ; that the wives and daughters of brick-makers, coal and iron miners, and furnace and rolling-mill men aid them in their rough employments; that the regular wages of workingmen average in summer and winter from 16t'o to 21 cents per day, and those of females from 8^ to l-tj cents per day ; that miners at tunneling are sometimes paid as much as 72 cents (1 thaler) per day, and tliat a brick-maker, aided by his wife, averages 80 cents per day ; that wag^s for female labor are more uniform, and that 18 cents per day can be earned by a skillful hand ; that juvenile laborers in factories begin with -18 cents per week for ten hours daily, and rise to 72 cents per week ; that the general average of daily wages is as follows : males, for twelve hours' work per day in the country, 19 J cents; in cities 24: cents; and that the wag'^s of master-workmen, overseers, etc., are at least $172 per year." That gentle- 22 • i:l; v\ 1%, tl! U ii 338 FARMERS, MECHANICS, ETC., NEED PROTECTION. men and their constituents may study this instructive paper 1 beg leave to submit it to the reporters entire. Wages a^.d subsistence of families of laboros in Europe. OKRVANY. Lower S.''jsla, translated and compiled from No. 10-12 of the pu- blications of the Koyal Prussian Statistical Bureau, Berlin, 18G8. The ret^ular wages of workingmen average in summer and winter from If). 8 cents to 24 cents (gold) per day; of females, from 08.4 to 14.4 cents per day, more nearly approaching the higher rate. Dur- ing the short winter days workingmen receive for 8 hours' labor from 10 to 14.4 cents ; the females, 7.2 cents ; while in summer, for 12 to l;} hours' labor the relative wages are from li).2 to 28.8 cents, and from 14.4 to 10.2 cents, respectively. The wages of those working in the royal forests are so regulated as to average 24 cents per day for males, and 14.4 cents per day for females ; in some mountain countries the latter receive but 12 cents. In larger cities wages rise above these rates, especially for skilled labor. Men working on railroads receive in summer from 28.8 to 3G cents per day ; and women from lO.S to 2C.4 cents. In the larger cities ordinary female help in housekeeping is paid from 24 to 26.4 cents. Work done by the piece or by contract is paid about one-third more than the customary wages. A common laborer expects in contract work from l?G to 48 cents; at railroad work even more. When work is scarce the wages often fall to about 16.8 cents per day for males, and 9.0 cents for females. Labor is often paid by the hour, at from 01.4 to 3 cents for males, and 0.4 to 2 cents for females ; 2.4 cents per hour are the wages of an able field laborer in the mountains. During the summer especially, opportunities for work are offered to children, who receive from 6.11 to 7.2 cents per day, and in win- ter about 4.8 cents "Wherever the >vork rises above mere manual labor in a trade or factory, the daily wages of men are from 30 to 48 cents, and often rise to 60 cents. Miners at tunneling are freqiiently paid 72 cents (1 thaler); in the district of Giirlitz, a brick-maker aided by his wife, averages 80 cents per day;* in the district of Fauer from §.") 76 to $1 20 per week. Skilled workmen of large experience re- ceive from $360 to §432 per annum. The wages of the molders and ■•■■' To coini)eto with this " cheap and nasty " system England employs women, children and infants to make her bricks. ''In oun brickfields and brick- YAUDS, TIIKUK AUK PKOM TWKNTV TO THIUTV THOUSAND CHILDREN — FRO.M A.S LOW AS :J and 4 UP TO 16 AND 17 — UNDERGOING A BONDAGE OP TOIL AND i IIORKOU OP EVIL TRAINING THAT CARRIES PER'L IN IT." — The Cry of the ChiUlreu from the Brick-yards of Eixtjlnnd. By Geo.ge Smith. London: 1871, p. 7. " But there arc often phasro of c .'11 connected with work in brick-yards and clay-yards, generally, which I must not overlook, especially the demoralizing results ever ai; 'ruing from the mixod employment of the sexes. A flippancy and familiarity o." manners with toys and men, grows daily on the young girls. Then, the want of respect and delicacy toward females exhibits itself in every act, word, and look ; for the lads grow so precocious, and the girls so coarse in their language and maDucrs from close companionship at work, that in most £ '• FARMERS, MECHANICS, ETC., NEED PROTECTION, 339 cnamclor.« in iron foundories, of the locksmiths and joiners in ma- chino-works, in piano factories, amount to from 72 cents to $\ 08 per to 12 a. m., and 1 to 7 p. m. ; for the night, from 7 p. m. to G a. m., with ^ hour recess ; in a few districts 10 liours constituie a day's work. In many cloth factories and wool spinneries, males and femalcj work 12 to 115 hours, and some even 10 hours per day. As an ex- ample, a cloth factory employs firemen and machinists 10 hours, spinners and dyers 14 hours, all others 12 hours, exclusive of time for meals. In glass-works, the nature of the work r('(|uires from IG to 18 hours for meltcrs, 13 to If) hours for blowers ; but then one party rests while the other works. Eye and potutoes form the chief food of the laboring classes. Savings. Although but few workingmen can save an^* portion of their earn- ings, still there are some who purchase a little piece of land, a house, or a cow, and the latest accounts from fifteen districts in Lower cases, the modesty of female life jiradually becomes a byewurd instoad of a uality, and they sing unblushinj^ly before all, whilst at work, the lewiicsl iind most disgusting songs, till oftentimes stG,j|)ed short by the entrance of tho master or foreman. The overtime work is still more objectionable because boys ".nd girls, men and women, are less under the watchful eye of the master, nor looked upon by the eye of day. All these things, the criminality, levity, coars-e phrases, sinful oaths, lewd gestures, and conduct of the adults and youths, exercise a terrible infiuencu for evil on the young children, llcnco a generation full of evil phrases, manners, and thoughts is daily growing up in our midst without the knowledge of better things. It is ouite common for girls employed in brick-yards to have illegitimate children. Of the thousands wliotu I havo met with, or k.iow as working, I should say that one in every four who had ar- rived at the ago of twenty had had an illegitimate child, f^everal hail had three or four, and it is a deplorable fact that as a rule brick manufacturers do not trouble themselves to inquire into the moral character of either women or children, when they employ them. I have found myself often looked upon as an oddity when I have asked, 'is she of good character?' and have been sub- jected to sharp criticism when I havj discharged a single woman, because she was palpably enceinte," — A lirnkmanttr, quoted by ^ u. Smith, p. 22. •5 I- I HI? U It •A' S-iO PARMtmS, MECHANICS, ETC., NEED PROTECTION. Silosiii sliow dpposits in savinfrs-banks, from house servants of ;S!428,- 455; of apprentices and meclianiea'i workmen ol' $lli4,5'22. No statistics of savings of iactory workers were obtaineil. In some factories the workuien have established sa. ii>i!f8-banks, some of which have deposits of from S8000 to $10,000. DETAILED STATiiMENTS OF THE WAOKS AND COST OF LIVING IN DIFFERENT DISTUIOTS OF LOWER SILESIA. 1. District of Bollcenhain. The annual expenses of a family of about 5 persons, (? children,) belonging to the working class, were as follo\\s ; Provisions, (per day, 0.144 to 0.168,) per year $00 00 Kent, (8 thalers,) 5 7G FiwM :5 ()() vHothing, linen, etc li 40 Furniture, tools, etc 7 20 'J'axes : Slate 0.72; church 12; commune 3G, $1 20 School for 2 childron 2 .50 3 70 Total $94 GO The expenses of a laborer's family being 24 to 2G.4 cents per day, the earning.< should lie 28 to 30.H cents per day, which the head of the family cannot earn. While his earnings are from 17 to 19 cents, the wife earns 8 to 10 cents, and the children must help as soon as old enough. MIimmv in this district have 24 to 29 cents daily wage.s ; factory men from 19 to 29 cents ; mechanics receive 48 to 54 cents per week, besides board ; male house servants $17 to $30, and i'oma.le ^\2 per annum, exclusive of board and lodging. 2. District of Landeshui. Expenses of a family : In the ronntry. In a city. Rent per unnuns $5 76 SlO 72 Provisions, (per wftek, 90 centf.) per annum 4G 80* 5G 10 Fuel and light per nnamn 14 40 16 42 Taxes, etc., per annum. *v<. 3 60 4 32 Clothing, etc.. per annum 8 5G 10 00 Other expenses j>or annum 7 20 8 57 Total $86 32 $106 13 The income of laborers' (weavers') '"amilies does generally not reach these amounts. Many an> permitted to gather their wood from the royal forests, and spend little for clothing, which tliey beg from charitable neighbors. A weaver earns here from 48 to 72 cents, !gl and $1 50 per week; most weavers have 2 looms ir opera- tion, and together with tlieir wives earn from $1 50 to $2 IG per week. 'I'he average earning.s of weavers are given at 96 cents per week, or about SliSO per annum. * Per week, $1 08. FARMERS, MECHANICS ETC., NEED PROTECTION. 341 3. Disaid of lUi-schhcrg. The lowest cost of livirifj for a laborer's family is {,avcn at $()4 80 to !?7'2 per annum, of which are expended for provisions $i;{ ;{(), (or clotliin!;' 1?17, ti'xes ^'.\ IG, fuel S'5 'iO, rent St, etc. Ju tlie summer the wages for V^ }'ours' daily work, for males, are from 1;") to ;!9 cents; for females ,5 to 17 cents ])er day ; in winter from :} to 7 cen's less. A male farm hand receives §12 to §22 per year; a boy %'d to J14 ; a maid-servant ■'$12 to .iiSlS per annum, with board. The annual expenses of a lal)orer's family, living in a comfortable manner, without luxuries, would be nearly double the amount actu- ally expended above. The following is an estimate: Rent, (one room, alcove, and bed-room,) $ 8 64 Fuel and light -..,.,... 14 40 Provisions, (l)rrakfast. cotfee; at noon, pota- toee, dumplin;^ — 10 cents; evening, breau, a little brandy — .t cents; supncr, soup, bread, vegetables — (! cents,) 7.5 00 C.otliing. (husband |(i 4i', v>rife %f) 76, children ii?7 20 ; soap 72 cents,) 20 16 Taxes, etc 2 16 Schooling of children, (2i cents per week per chi!d.1 ". 3 60 School booV • 72 To lay by fV r sickness, eic 8 58 Unforeseen expenses 8 58 Total $141 84 4. District of Sclt/Inau. The ordinary ye: rly wafyes, in addition to board, paid to servants in this rural district, were us follows : Man-servant, i^li 40 to $21 60 ; boys, $8 64 to $12 96; maid-servants, $B 64 to ^17 28; children's nurses. $5 76 to $li 96. During tlie )i,arvest the daily wages for 14 houi> irk arc as fol- lows : Mov>-ci's, from 19.2 to 28.8 cents; laborers, (n 's,) from 19.2 to 24 cents ; females, from 14.4 to 17 cents. In other seasons males receive for 10 hours' dail abor from 14.4 to 19.2 centt. and females 12 to 14.4 cents per d;: and in winter males ruceive 12 cents, and females 7.4 to 9.6 ceiii>. A laborer in the cities receivfis 24 to 28.8 cent.s per day ; the • d Hows " (journey- men) of trades receive from 60 cents to $1 20 p> .veek, and board. A laborer's family of 5 persons requires for i' ibsistence during the year the following amount: For provisioi cr.2 to i-Si^ 72; rent of 1 room and 3 bedrooMis, $4 32; clothing, ( ., ^10 8J ; fuel, etc., $3 60 ; taxes, etc., $3 60. Total $108 04. 5. District of Goldberg. The cost of" living of a laborer's family, (liis ..id, wife, and two children.) in this district is thus given ; Trovi-.ons, ^7.") 60; rent, $4 32; fuel, $7 20; clothing. .SIO 02: furnitui". lools, etc., 72 cents; taxes, etc., $2 28. Total, ,•^100 14. In less expensive times provi- eions have been estimated at $20 less. k 1 f M IfJ I! II I ( i '■. i 342 FARMERS, MECIIAXICS, ETC., NEED I'ROTECTIO!^. In the rural portion men receive 21.6 cents, women 14.4 cents for a (lily's work ; this avcM'iigc incUulos higher Wiif^cs for skilled liihor. On !i fiinn a inan-serviint receives ."JH 20 per year, in addition to board, etc., which may be estimated at $43 20; a maid-servant re- ceives §14 40, besides board. Laborers in stone-quarries earn from 24 to 411.2 ccnt.s per day ; in cloth factories 1.8 to 2.2 cents per hour, while the daily wages of carpenters are from ."5.3.6 to 38.4 cents; masons, 33.6 to 4.5.6 cents; roof-slaters, 33.6 to 4.').6. tihoi'iiiakers and tailors receive from 9 to 10 cents, besides their board and lodging, which is valued at 12 cents. 6. District of Lihuenherg. The yearly expenses of a family with 3 children arc estimated at from $!t3 60 to .§108, namely : Kent Provisions, (.$1 20 per week,) 62 Fuel and light 12 'J'axes, school, etc 3 Clothing, etc 12 Other expenses .'i In cili/. .810 60 40 66 60 8.5 76 .$107 87 Til ciiiiniry. $ 4 32 55 72 10 80 3 60 12 85 5 76 $93 05 Total Wages are as follows : Men. day laborers, from 14.4 to 28.8 cents per day; women 12 to 18 cents per day ; men, with board, 9.6 to 14.4 cents per day ; women, with board, 7.2 to 12 cents per day. From 10 to 14 hours constitute a day's labor ; more hours, and harder work secure higher wages. Male servants per year, §14 40 to §36, and board; female per year, $8 57 to .§21 60, and board. Journeymen in trades obtain the following: Wages per week (with board and lodging). Smiths Wheelwrights. , Shoemakers . . . Tailors Cabinet-makers In cities .... , ,., In the country. | Mini- Maxi- Mini- Mi\xi- mum. mum. mum. C'nts. mnm. Cents. Cents. nnls. 54 72 42 72 54 72 42 72 54 60 42 72 54 72 30 60 54 72 42 72 7. City of Greifenherg. The subsistence of a workingman's family, consisting of 5 — man, wife, and 3 children— is thus given : Income. A mason receives 33.6 cents per day, regular work, 32 weeks in a year $64 52 Weaving or other work, 4 months, at 48 to 60 cents per week, say 8 00 Yearly earnings of wife 7 20 Total = ..$79 72 FARMERS, MKCIIANICS, ETC., NEED PROTECTION. 343 A (lay laborer receives 24ccnts per day, or $1 44 per week, regular work 40 weeks $57 60 During the rest of the year he and his wife may earn 14 40 Total $72 00 A carpenter earns a little more th'.n a mason, his chanees for winter lahor being belter. A weaver, working ut home, makes less than the day laborer; those in the factory earn per year $12. Expenses of a family. Rent. .*R 04; clothing. S14 40, (shoes being a large item;) light, $1 44; fuel, $;"> U4; repairing tools, 72 cents; ta.xes, §1 44 ; school for three children, $1 44. Total, .S33 12. Provisions. — The meals consist of patatocs and broad, their means not being sufficient to allow meat; potatoes, 20 Imshels, $10 08; bread, (0 cents per day,) li*2l 00; coffee, (chiccory 4 jiounds per day,) $'1 8H; butter, (.4 pound per week.) lard, herring, salt, (24 cents per week,) f 12 48. Total, $\1 26. Aggregate expenses, ^80 38. Note. — If the work is not regular, the demands of the family must be curtailed, and suffering often takes place. 8. Diiirid of OoHit:. Here the condition f/f the laborer a;,' rs more comfortable, sin.'ie work can bo found throughout the yea/. Masons and carpenters earn 30 to 43.4 cents per day ; railroad laborers, 26.4 to 28.8; field laborers, 21.6 to 28.8 and females 14.5 to 24 cents. The lowest, expenses for a family consisting of 4 or 5 persons are thus computed : Provisions $.57 60 to $85 72 Rent, lights, and fuel 11 52 to 21 10 Clothing 13 57 to 18 00 Tools, etc 1 44 to 2 88 School 1 44 to 2 88 Taxes 72 to 144 Total $86 29 to $132 02 i'H By careful inquiries it has been reliably ascertained that a family can earn frojn $93 00 to .$144 a year, so that some lay up small savings. For the city of Gorlitz the average income of a laborci's family is estimated at .$95 to $144 a year ; the expenses for 4 or 5 persons, from $115 to $172 80, namely : Rent, light, and fuel $22 72 to $32 15 (•|othin. 84 .') r)6 1 25 4 •,\2 1 32 90 7 20 2 34 8 00 Wife : 2 chemises $1. 44 I pair shoes 1 20 Dress, etc 2 G4 Children : 2 shirts, at 30 cents each. 2 16 3 pairs shoes 2 16 Clothing 2 16 16 5 28 Soap for washing. 6 48 1 20 18 72 Tools, for repair of. 1 43 Taxes — income, 72 cents ; communal, .384 cents ; school, including books,§2..'3r)6 3 60 Total expenses $112 13 Income of a fi mily with t .vo children : Plusband averages 305 days, at 21.6 cents $65 88 Wife averages 250 days, at 10.4 cc;rt« 26 00 Oldest cliild averages 60 days, at 7.i cents 4 32 Every married workman receives : 1 sheffel wheat $1 80 2 sheffels rye 2 16 2 shcffels barley 1 92 1 sheffel peas 1 08 6 96 He can raise on a patch of land 10 bags pota- toes, valued at And glean at harvest 3 sheffels of rye or barley For extra work through the year For a fat pig 2 88 3 06 8 64 5 76 Total income $123 50 In the city of Leignitz the average expense of a laborer's family is estimated at $141 84 per year. i ! 1/ "Mi > * |!^ 1 k » iv, 816 FAIiMEHS, MECHANICS, ETC., NEED rROTECTION. TAnr.K SnowiNo the Ratks of Wauks paid tor Faotokt and OrilKlt liAHOK IN LOWKR SlI.KHIA DUniNO THE YbAU 1808. [Rates expressed in cents, {gold,) United States.] Drancheg nud occupatluus. Blenching pressea : Oi'dimiry liaiida Bleiicliurs iMaii^^lerH Foremen Brewers Brickyards : Ordinary work iMoldera Chuniotte-monlders Contract work Average summer wages.. Cane factories : Turners Engravers Joiners Laborers Chemical works : Average wages Fireworks Cigar factories : Foremen Strippers Hkilted hands Box-makers Wrappers Boilers Assorters Packers Foremen Distillers Dyeing establishments : Carders Fullers Shearers Foremen Earthenware, etc. : Pottery, molders Ordinary work Stoneware, ordinary work Turners Painters Porcelain, glazing makers Burners Gilders Wage! per clny. Malua. 18 to 36 27 to Xl 'M to 42 48 to CO 24 to 36 20 to 24 29 to :5'J ;{;5 to 48 36 to GO 24 to 42 36 to 66 36 to 60 48 28 to 42 24 to 36 44 SI to' $2 12 24 to 72 ?2 to S1.08 36 to 48 $1 50 18 to 36 20 to 54 24 29 to 36 $1 08 60 to 72 24 to 60 18 to 24 24 to 48 24 to 42 30 to 36 30 to 42 36 to 42 FvtiiiiluH. 14J to 18 Cliililrvii. 14 to 20 1 G to 18 • • • » • • • • 8 to 15 16 to 18 24 to 40 18 to 24 14 to 18 15 14 to 22 • ■ ■ • 18 to 24 12" to 18 10 to 17 10 to 13 4 to 6 6 to 10 ;h TARMEUS, MECHANICS, ETC., NEED PROTECTION. 347 TAJ{LK.-Oo?i '/ >^ Hiotographic Sdences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. 145SO (716) 872-4503 ¥ 3-1:8 FAUMERS, MECHANICS, ETC., NEED PROTECTION. TABLE.— Continued. Branclici and occupations. Wiiges |)cr diiy. Males, Femalug. Cbildren. Railroftd-car shop : 'J'urners 42 to $1 08 30 to CO 42 to 60 48 to 72 48 to 96 42 to 66 48 to 66 36 to 60 34 18 to 36 36 60 to 84 24 to 72 26 to 48 36 to 60 48 24 to 42 20 to 42 18 to 48 14 to 36 36 to 60 18 to 36 36 to 48 36 to $1 08 • • • . . • • • .... . • . ■ • • • • .... • . . • .... 12"to"l7 24 to '60 • • • • ■ ■ B a • • • • 12* to '30 12 to 18 14 to 24 9 to 15 12 to 15 10 to 24 .... • • • . Screw-cutters 'I'iiiucrs File-cutters Wheelwrights Carpenters Painters Upiiolsterers Iiaborers Siarch factories Foremen Silversuiiths 12 to 15 Watch-factory workmen.... Saw-mills : Laborers ■ 15 Machinists Foremen SoinninGT flax 12 to 24 cotton 9 to 12 wool Sugar Refiners Tanners 6 to 18 • • • • Toy factories : Ordlnarv laborers.. .......... Turners. .. Sculptors • • • • The wages of journeymen in the following trades, including board and lodging, are as follows : Per Week. Bakers $0 92 Butchers 72 Smiths 1 08 Tinners 2 52 Wheelwrights 2 16 Furriers 2 16 Saddlers 72 Locksmiths 2 52 Tailors 2 52 Shoemakers 1 44 Fresco-painters 3 42 Cabinet-makers 2 88 to 3 60 Cloth-weavers 1 44 to 2 16 From the reports of the chambers of commerce of Germany the following labor statistics are collected : In the conl mines of llhenish-Prussia, average daily wages of 3661 laborers, with I'luuiiios of 8572 persons, males $0 64 FARMERS, MECHANICS, ETC., NEED PROTECTION. 349 Iron fowndory, (Duisbiirg.) average wages per day : Founders ...§0 65 to SO 72 Other skilled workmen 54 Laborers 43 Machinists and locksmiths 58 In two iron founderies, same district, average daily wages, respectively 58 to 65 Iron-bridge establishment 55 Safe factory, average yearly earnings 182 80 Zinc establishments, average wages, first-class hands 94 Second-class hands 72 Other laborers 53 Cotton factories, average wages per hand, in- cluding children 41 Cotton spinning, average wages per hand (mostly young persons) 36 Average weekly wages paid in the coal mines of Plauen, Saxony : To miners §3 10 To laborers 1 98 To boys 40 [From report of Chamber of Commerce of Chemnitz for 18C8.] SAXONY. Table — Showing thenverage MWkl;/ Wcgrs of f.ahnr paid in t?ie district of Clirmnii;. Saxony, in the, resiKcliec i'ears ISOO and 1804 to 18C8. Hates expressed in I'nitcd tSlates gold values. ' % . 1 I iVi TRADES JI.M.ES. FEM.tLES OR (+> Children. 1860. .f2.16 I.V18 T.17 1.80 3.24 1.08 2.28 2.04 2.52 1.80 2.52 2..')2 1.92 1.08 2.88 2.16 2.16 2.61 3.24 2.78 2.16 1.62 1.92 2.37 2.0-1 1.80 3.24 i.(m 2.16 W.oo 1.'44 72 2.52 3.60 1.44 2.52 2.52 3.24 2.10 2.52 2.52 2.52 1.20 3.24 3.72 2.88 2.76 3.24 2.78 2.10 1.98 1.92 2.37 2.40 2.62 2.16 1.20 2.88 lees. 1866. $2.52 $>.52 I8S7. ises. $2..-)2 S2..52 1160. $1.08 1.20 1.08 1.68 68 1.20 90 "72 "90 72 l".'44 IBM. $1.08 1.08 1.44 1.44 1.'20 1.20 l.'il 1.08 "96 1.08 72 l".'62 lees. 1866. $0.96 J4l.no 1867. 1 ISM. $0.90 So or. Artificial-flowtii' makers.... 2 40 2.16 4S 1.92 3.60 2.10 2.88 2.52 2.4(1 3.12 72 2.88 3.24 2..'i3 2.10 2S8 2.52 2.16 2.70 2.52 2.10 2.52 2.40 72 3.24 2.88 2.88 3.24 1.44 1.44 2.40 2.10 48 1.92 3.00 2.88 2.88 2.40 "72 2.88 3 24 2.33 2.16 2.88 2.52 2.10 2.79 2.,-)2 2.10 2.52 2.40 72 3.24 2.S8 2.88 3.24 1.44 1.44 2..')2 2..52 1.44 2.10 3.00 2.88 2.88 ... 2.64 "72 288 3.00 2.33 2.88 2.88 2.88 2.16 2.88 3.24 2.16 2.88 2.40 72 3.24 3.12 2.88 \M 1.80 2.52 2.88 1.44 2.10 3.00 3.24 4.32 2.88 2.8S 4.56 72 2.88 3.60 2.88 2.88 2.88 2.88 2.16 3.24 3.24 2.40 2.88 2.40 72 3 24 360 2.88 3.60 1.44 1.80 87 1.44 1.08 1.08 72 {96 *84 {48 ... 87 1.44 1.08 1.08 72 I'sic 84 87 1.44 1.68 1.20 48 f'96 84 87 Riirbera Barrel-makers Beer-brpwprs ... Belt-makerH, work- ] era in brotize, J Bleachers 1.44 Brass-fiiUMilers Brick la vers BrickmakerH Bu tellers ... Button-mnkerB 1.08 Curd (playini;) initkers Card (cardiiiK) makers Cabinet-niukers Cavloon-nirtkers 1 20 Cignr-iimkers 2.16 Cbemiciil niariuructurors... ... Cloth-flnishers Cloth- weavers {96 84 {58 CoDfectioners ■ •■ I 850 FARMERS, MECHANICS, ETC., NEED PROTECTION'. TAhLE— Continued. TRADES. KlALia. FlMALtS OR a, ClIILORIN. 2.40 2.16 4.32 2.H8 1.08 3.18 1.44 3.96 2.16 1.U2 1.66 1.80 1.08 2.10 2.62 2."io 1.08 2.10 2.52 3.24 2.10 1.20 1.08 s'.Vifi 2.18 2.05 4.32 4.68 2.52 2.30 2.16 1.80 2.16 3.60 1.00 1.08 84 2.10 1.80 1.20 1.20 1.80 3.90 2.16 3.30 1.98 1.20 1.08 90 2.62 1.08 2.16 2.52 2.IG 2.88 IBM. 2.88 2.88 6.04 2.88 1.92 3.18 1.80 2.88 2.88 2.10 1.80 2.16 1.26 2.88 3.00 3.12 2.40 2.16 2.34 2.16 3.00 3.24 2.88 1.44 2.52 1.20 2..52 3.96 2.88 2.18 5.04 4.08 2-52 2.60 3.00 1.92 2.88 3.00 1.04 1.08 90 2.62 1.80 1.44 1.44 2.12 3.90 2.01 18M. 3.00 2.88 4.32 2.'()4 1.44 2.88 3.0U 2.88 2.10 2.42 1.44 2.04 2.88 2.88 3.24 1.68 2.16 90 2.88 3.12 2.88 2.10 2.40 no 2.88 4.12 2.52 1.92 "72 2.04 2.40 3.24 72 96 90 2.52 1.92 1.08 2.88 2.52 3.96 9 64 laM. 3.00 6.04 2.07 1.44 2.88 3.00 2.88 2.10 2.42 1.44 2.04 2.88 3.'24 2.16 90 3.12 2.88 2.16 2.40 96 2.88 2.52 l!92 "72 2.16 2.40 3.24 90 90 2.70 1.92 1.08 2.88 2.52 216 2.88 1.08 90 2.40 2.16 2.40 1.08 2.16 2.10 2.82 1M7. 3.C0 5.64 2.io 1.44 2.88 3.00 2.88 2.16 I'.'i* 2.88 2.12 3:24 2.52 1.08 3.17 3.60 2.10 2.40 1.08 3.00 2".52 1.92 "90 2.28 2.40 3.00 "90 96 2.88 1.92 1.08 2.88 6.48 2.16 2.88 1.08 1.08 2.40 2.40 2.62 1.08 2.16 2.40 2.70 KU. 3.60 3.00 5.04 2.'it 1.44 2.88 3.00 2.K8 2.40 3.00 1.44 2.88 2.96 1.44 3.24 1.68 2.52 1.08 3.12 4.32 3.24 4.32 2.40 2.40 1.08 4.32 4.32 2.52 1.92 "96 2.40 2.40 3.60 96 96 96 2.88 1.92 1.68 2.88 2.88 6.04 3.60 7.20 2.16 2.88 1.44 1.08 2.40 2.88 2.88 1.68 2.16 2.40 2.88 laao. 1.08 •'• ••• "90 J ■■■ ..* • ■• 1.26 >.• ••* "go 1.08 1M4. 1*20 1.02 ... l.M • *• "48 1.08 l".08 1.08 1.44 ih "48 1.08 JIM. 1.08 l'.44 "48 1.06 ... 1.08 I'.'so "ct 1.08 IWI. Cfitt(iii-B[tiiifiorfi l.W Crockerywnro iirtisti Cruckerywnre wurkinen... DiHtllltTH ... Dyers of Hilk nnd wool Ktif^ruvei'H ... File-cutterH • •• ••• Furi'ivi'H ... OftrdcnerB ... Olnziors ... • •* Ol(»v(v8pwor8, 1.08 (iohlHUlitllH OuiifimithH HattorH '** HiirnuRH-iiiiikerfl ... Iron aiul steel workers: Iron-ftminlers ■ MnciiinottiiiKlors Cullerh ... NailliiMkers BiMckHiiiitlis ... Screw-iiiukers Litho^rHplitTH Looiii'buildurs ... Millers Milliners Miniii»r: Ciirpetitors Miners I'.'it Day labort^rs " Oil*clotli niHkers ■ Potters Printers : Compositors t30 Sftddlers Sinters ShoeniiikerH* tools..... SoAp-MUikcrB StockliiK-w eavers (ma- " chine) /••• ... Stoiieeu tiers 3.30 5.70 2.16 1.08 1.20 1'08 2.88 1.08 2.82 2.88 2.16 3.24 l;.16 2.H8 IM 96 2.4( 2.16 2.28 1.44 2.16 2.16 2.62 Tiiilnrs Turners Wjitchniftkers Wlieelwriglits Worsted work Wiro-cloUi iiinkers Weavers Csilk) 60 Wool combera 1.20 FARMERS, MECHANICS, ETC., NEED PROTECTION, 351 My colleague [Mr. Townsend] hands me a letter con- taining a statement of American wages in some of the same branches of labor. That gentleman may contrast them with the wages of Germany, as set forth by the Statistical Bureau of Prussia, I will also hand the letter to the reporters : Ph(enixville, Prnnsylvania, March 21, 1870. Dear Sir : Your favor of the 16th is before me. Below I give you the prices paid per day to our principal work- men, as follows : Rolling-mill on rails and beams. Por day. Heaters $4 50 Helpers 1 70 Extra helpers I 60 Finishing roUerman 6 75 Roughing rollerman 2 70 Catchers 2 25 Hooks 1 80 Hot straighteners 2 50 Cold straighteners 3 60 Stochers 2 .35 Filers 1 .50 Laborers 1 50 Engineers 2 10 Merchant iron. Heaters 4 37 Helpers... 1 70 Extra helpers 160 Finishing roller 4 05 Roughing roller 2 12 Catchers 1 60 Roughing catcher 1 30 Straightener 1 90 Engineers 2 80 Bar mill. Per day. Heaters $3 87 Helpers 1 70 Rollers 2 12 Catchers 1 55 Hooks 1 60 Heavy merchant iron. Heaters 4 37 Helpers 1 70 Finishing roller 5 00 Roughers 2 35 Catchers 1 50 Straightener 1 50 Mauler 1 50 Engineer. . . . , 1 90 Puddling. Puddler 3 00 Puddler's helpers 2 00 Labor. Cdmmon labor 1 40 I am unable to give the wages paid for the above classes of work either in England, France, or Belgium, but I am satisfied from the prices, as we have had thera from time to time from these, that their present pay is not over an average of 40 per cent, of above. Respectfully, JOHN GRIFFIN, General SupertJitendent. Hon. 'Washington Townsend. Mr, Allison. Will the gentleman yield to me for a question ? Mr. Kelle.y. Yes, sir. II '«, !U \ib)i FARMERS, ML0IIANIC3, ETC., NEED PROTECTION. Mr. Allison. I will ask the gentleman whether that is not a report of wagea paid by a company that manufac- tures wiiat are known as iron beams for vessels and bridges ? Mr. Kcllcy. They manufacture beams, rails, and other heavy furnia of iron. Mr. Allison. And is it not a company which with three others has agreed upon an cstablishecl list of prii'cs Ibr that class of articles, which prices embrace the [)rice3 abroad, together with the tariff duty and a profit on the cost of manufacture ? Mr. Kcllcy. I cannot answer the question, because I do not know. I can, however, say that I have never heard such an allegation. But, my dear sir, I do not care what they have agreed to do, if they are tliercby enabling American workingmen to keep their children at school, well fed and comfortably clad, to maintain their seats in church, and to lay by something for old age and a rainy day, and not compelling them, as German workmen in like employments are compelled to do, to take their wives and daughters as colaborers into iron and coal mines and furnaces and rolling-mills, so that they may together earn enough to eke out a miserable subsistence. Mr. Allison. I do not take issue with the gentleman upon that question, but merely desire to call his attention to the fact that this is one of four establishments that have a monopoly in this business. Mr. Kelley. A monopoly ! A workman a monopolist ! A poor workman for wages a monopolist ! A man who is earning daily wages by hard work in a mine, a furnace, or a rolling-mill will hardly be regarded as a monopolist, though his pay may be ten times what he could get in his native town. No, sir; such men are not monopolists, though free traders constantly denounce them as such. CINCINNATI — HER WORKSHOPS AND WORKMEN. Mr. Chairman, 90 per cent, of the cost of iron in all its forms is the wages of labor, and the money paid lor this labor goes very largely to pay for wheat and pork and mutton and beef that are eaten, and woolen clothes that are worn by the workmen and their families. The wages of well-paid laborers thus find their way to the pockets of the farmer and the wool-grower. FARMERS, MECHANICS, ETC., NEED PROTECTION. 353 Mr. Stevenson. Will the gentleman yield to me now for a question? Mr. Kclley. Yes, sir. Mr. Stevenson. It seems that the gentleman has just discovered that there are some manufacturers in Cincin- nati. I want to know whether he has not also discovered that more than half of the capital and labor and produc- tion of those manufactories are in the articles of wood, iron, leather, and paper, upon which 1 want the duties re- duced, and whether it is not to the interest of those pro- ducers to have cheap raw material ? Mr. Kdley. It is the interest of the working people of Cincinnati that the general rate of wages shall be main- tained at the highest point. It is not lor the interest of any mechanical producer in this country to have the duties on his productions, or others which involve much labor, so reduced that the cheap labor of France, Belgium, Germany, and Britain can come in competition with them in our home market. And thus I fully answer the gentle- man's question. The gentleman is mistaken. I have not just discovered that there are manufactories in Cincinnati, for as I heard the gentleman pleading for a law which would inevitably check their prosperity and progress and reduce the wages of labor I thought of old Charles Cist, and wondered whether his bones were not rattling in his coffin. From almost the birth of Cincinnati he was a champion of pro- tection, and did more than any other man to build up her workshops and manufactories, and more than twenty years ago devoted a day to conducting me through many of the largest of them. But I want to allude further to the remarks of the gen- tleman from Ohio [Mr. Stevenson]. Speaking of Pennsyl- vania, he said : " Ah ! she is shrewd ! Now England heretofore has liad the repu- tation of great adroitness in taking care of iier own interest, but Pennsylvania carries off the palm. Quietly she sits looking out for herself, we giving bounty, she appropriating it. And now, what is the result ? If we suppose, for the sake of argument, that the tariff on iron and coal is added to the cost, then Pennsylvania received a premium on her production of iron and coal in 1868 of $14,8.^9,168." Has the gentleman a set Jed opinion on the question, Is a protective duty a tax or bounty ? Or is he, like Bunsby, unable to give an opinion for want of premises on which to base it? "If so be," said Bunsby, on a memorable 23 :ii liif » J-, i ; 35-i FARMERS, MECHANICS, ETC., NEED PROTECTION, occasion, "as he's dead, my opinion is he won't come baclv no more; if so be as he's alive, my opinion is he will. Do I say he will ? No. Why not ? Because the bearings of this obserwation lays in the application on it." [Laugh- ter.] " If we suppose for the sake of argument." A teacher of political economy that has not yet made up his mind wliether a protecting duty is a tax or not comes here and arraigns Pennsylvania, and holds her up to ridicule as a cormorant fattening upon public bounty or plunder. But let me go on. Mr. Stevenson. Will the gentleman give us his opinion upon that subject ? Mr. Kdleij. I have given it, and will give it again. PROTECTIVE DUTIES NOT A TAX. Mr. Chairman, I apprehended that no enlightened stu- dent of political economy regards a protective duty as a tax.* Even the gentleman from Iowa [Mr. Allison] admit- ted that in most cases it is not ; yet influenced, as I thinlc, by a clever story which the chairman of our committee, who is somewhat of a wag, tells, he does not think the principle applies to pig-iron. I hope our chairman, who I see does me the honor to listen, will pardon me for re- ferring to the anecdote. It runs thus : Some years ago, during the days of the Whig party, when the chairman of the committee [Mr. Schenck] was here as a Representa- tive of that party and a friend of protection, he met as a member of this House a worthy old Grerman from Read- ing, Pennsylvania, a staunch Democrat, but strongly in favor of protection on iron. The gentleman from Ohio, * In a country whoso resources, embracing every known mineral substance, are undeveloped, and which, though capable of producing boundless* su]iplics of silk, cotton, flax, and wool, depends on foreigners for a large part of the fabrics in which to clothe its people, the question whether a protective duty is a tax touches but one and that u subordinate aspect of the problem a statesman must consider. This is well put by Dr. Bushnell in his recent article in Scribner's Monthly. He says : •' How then is it that free-trade science is going, as wo hear, to settle perempto- rily all the great questions of public economy ? For if wo set ourselves down to it ns the test of economy, and say it is final, wo are by and by obliged to ask, is there nothing to bo done or thought of in the world that is out of economy, and rightly spurns it ? May not the worst economy sometimes bo the best ? To be fostering modes of production, where the trade-scale balance shows only dis- advantage, wears a bad look certainly, as respects the matter of economy. But how many and vast tuppUei are wauled that mnit not be left to the uncertainties of trade; tchere to higgle over the expense would be even n contemptible iccnknemf This is true in particular of all the supplies that are needed for the equipment of the state of public war. Without these no people is a proper nation, or at least by any possibility a strong one. There/ore theie toe must not only have, but must have the way of making oHr$elve», at any cott," PAnMEnS, MECHANICS, ETC., NEED PROTECTION. 855 who is fond of a joko, said to him one day, "Mr. R., I think I shall go with tho free-traders on the iron sections of the tariff" bill, especially on pig-iron." " Why will you do that ? " was the response. " Well, my people want cheap plows, nails, horseshoes, etc." " But, replied the old German, " we make iron in Pennsylvania; and if you want to keep up the supply and keep tho price down you ought to encourage the manufacture." " But you know," said our chairman, " that a protective duty is a tax, and adds just that much to the cost of the article." " Yes, I suppose it does generally increase the cost of the thing just so much as the duty is; all the leaders of our party say so, and we say so in our convention platforms and our public meeting resolutions ; but, Mr. Schenck, somehow or other I think it don't work just that way mit pig-iron." [Laughter.] The gentleman, while admitting that protective duties do not always, or even generally, increase the price of the manufactured article, thinks " that somehow or other it don't work that way mit pig-iron." Now, 1 think that iron in all its forms is subject to every general law, and that the duty of $9 per ton on pig-iron has reduced the price mea- sured in wheat, wool, and other agricultural commodities, and increased the supply to such an extent as to prove that the duty has been a boon and not a tax. On nothing else produced in this country has the influence of protec- tion been so broadly and beneficently felt by the people of the country at large. On the 11th of January I submitted to the House some remarks in the nature of a review of the last report of Com- missioner D. A. Wells, and showed that after the produc- tion of American pig-iron had been without increase for a decade, under the stimulus of this duty we more than dou- bled it in six years. The authentic figures I exhibited were as follows: Production of pig-iron in England and the United Slates from 1854 to 1862, inclusive. Knglnnd. United State*. 18.54 3,069,838 716,674 1855 3,218,1.54 754,178 1856 3,586,377 874,428 18.57 3,659,447 798,157 1858 3,456,064 70.5,094 18.59 3,712,904 840,427 1860 3,826,7,52 913,774 1861 3,712,390 731,564 1862 3,943,469 787,662 k VI fiin i'! Bi 356 FARMERS, MKCHANIC9, KTO., NEED PROTECTION, The Morrill tariff', wliich raised the tluty to $6, wont into effect in 1861. In 1864 the duty was raised to $9. The results have been as follows : t EnRlmitl. United Ktmet. 18()3 4,510.040 947,(;04 lHfi4 4.7(!7,9r)l 1,1:J5.4;)7 IHfiS 4,819,254 9:n,r>H'2 186f) 4.52:J,H97 l,;jr)0!M:{ 18(>7 4,701,0*28 1.4»;i.(;26 1868 l.fiOll.OOO 1869 1,900,000 In connection with these figures I then invited the at- tention of the House to the fact that we built last year sixty-five furnaces in fifteen States of the Union, and that fifty-eight more had been begun. A few years more of such wonderful progress and we will produce from our own coal and iron our entire supply of iron and steel, and compete with England in supplying the demands of the world. Tli'j vast demand created by the extension of our railroad system, and those of Kussia and India, are exct'od- ing the capacity of England. She cannot largely increase her production without largely increasing its cost. The gentleman from Iowa was yesterday constrained to admit that the price of English iron has gone up steadily during the last year, because the demand is in excess of her capa- city to produce ; yet the price of American pig-iron has fallen at least $6 per ton on all grades within the last ten months. What is the cause of this reduction ? Not Bri- tish competition — and that is the only possible foreign com- petition — for the price of British iron has risen. No, sir; the price of American iron has gone down under domestic competition and the general depreciation of prices. Keep your duty high enough to induce other men to build fur- naces and rolling-mills, and belbre five years you will find American iron cheapened to the level of the markets of the world, and that without a reduction of wages, but pro- bably with an advance HOW THE INTERNAL RKVEN'TE CAN BE DISPENSED WITH. But I return to my subject. The gentleman from Ohio asked from what eight sources $130,000,000 of revenue can be derived. I find I overstated the number required ; but six articles are necessary to give us all the income we need this year from internal taxes. Let me state the re- • ■ I- j! FARMBU><, MECnANICS, ETC., NEED PROTECTION. 357 ceipt.s from these six aourcca during the last year. They were as follows: From (liatillcd ^piritH $4.'>,O26,401 From tobacco 2a,4;5(),7()l From rcrincntcd liquors G.()<.)'.),H7( From bunks luul bankcru .%:i:tr>,r)16 From incomPH 34,7'Jl,H.'>ft From slumps 1<).42(),7 10 $121), 104,008 Sir, month by month, since the close of the last fiscal }rear, the receipts from each of these sources have beea arger than those of the corresponding month of last year. There is a regular monthly increase in every item. Re- taining but these six sources of internal revenue we can mitigate their exactions at least by increasing the exemp- tion from the income tax or reducing the rate, and still obtain an excess over the amount that is absolutely re- quired. I am in favor of adopting this course, and believe that in three years more, or in, at most, i\we years, we can wipe out all our internal taxes except stamps and tobacco. Mr. Schenck. And spirits. Mr. Kelley. No, I am anxious to make spirits free as soon as we can. I would make this change in the inter- ests of the farmers of the country. But I do not wish to run into a digression, and will recur to this point. I pro- ceed to invite the attention of the committee to the cost of collecting the internal revenue. In 18()7 it was $8,982,- 686; in 1868, $9,327,301; and in 1869, $7,218,610, requi- ring for the three years the expenditure of $25,528,597. Why, sir, its abolition would be equal to the payment of $133,000,000 of the public debt. We hope to fund our interest- hearing debt at an average of 4J per cent. This will save $18,000,000. Before the end of this fiscal year there will be in the Treasury $100,000,000 of our bonds, the interest on which is $6,000,000 per annum, which, with the other sum and the cost of collecting, the internal revenue, would make a reduction of $32,500,000 in the annual expenses of the Government. If the bill under discussion shall become a law we will, I believe, although it lightens the burdens of the people at least $20,000,000 per annum, be able in five years to make even distilled spirits free, and rely on stamps and the tax on tobacco. * I I f !;1 868 FAUMKHH, MECIIANICH, ETC., NKKD IMtOTKCTION'. TIIK EFFECT OF I'UOTECTION ON PHU'EH A(»AIN'. The gentleman from Iowa said that pig-iron Hellcat $K) a ton, and yields at least $15 profit. I Imvo Th>'. Iron Aiji\, a paper of the highest authority among dealers in iron and hardware, and I do not find it puts it at the price naniod by the gentleman. March 12 it quotes prices at Phihulcl- Ilia of American pig-iron, No. 1, for foundory use, as 33 50 to $34; No. 2, foundcry, $31 50 to $32; gray forge, $30 to $31; white and mottled, $28 50 to $29. There is some dilference between these j)rices and $40; and if the gentleman was as far out of the way in the profits of iron-inakors as in the current price of iron lie has shown clearly enough that there is no profit in making pig iron at this time. The gentleman from Ohio [Mr. Garfield] liands me a still later paper, showing a further reduction. But every business man knows that the price is receding under the rapid increase of domestic competi- tion. The English people know what would bo the cficct of the reduction oi our duty. I hold in my hand the annual circular of a leading iron firm in London advi.siiif^ the English iron-makers of the state of the trade, ami the prospect for this year. Let me read from this circtdar, which, I may remark, was evidently not intended for American consumption : " No. .'iS Oi.D B-.oAD Strkct, "London, December \\\, 18C9. " Sir : This had been a proapcroiis your for tlic iron-inaster.s. Our monthly advice of exports will have revealed the cause. Three countries alono — Russia, India, and the United States — have pur- chased 940,000 tons of British rails. Under these unprecedented exports the price Itas ruled firm, and good Erie rails arc now worth £6 15s. net. " Coal and pig-iron. — Over-production has kept down the price ; but at length the demand for pigs appears to have overtaken the supply, and they are firm at an advance of 5s. upon the year. "Old rails liave been largely used by rail-mills, and have advanced 10s. also during the year. "Wages have advanced over the whole mining district. At a meeting in London this week tlic Welsh iron-masters voted an ad- vance of 10 per cent. " Cost of the finished rails to the manufacturer is thus settled. The buyer is, however, more interested in the relation of supply to demand. " The supply of railway bars has greatly increased ; many mer- chant bar-mills have taken to rails, and all tno mills have increased their make. This increased product has, however, found ready sale, and will not probably decrease. ; ■' I" FAUMKRH, MECHANICS, KTC, NKKt> PROTECTlO>f. ii')d *' The ilcinuml for next ypnr iiioiniscH to bo pond. Most of tlie millH liiivc (iriliTH for three, unit Noiiiu for hIx moiitliH. IIdhh' rikil- wiiyH inuHl Ixiy more liirpcly tiiiiii in iHtl'J. Iiiilia will uIho tuke more ruilH. UuHMiii in not ho etipcr u Itiiyer us iit tliis time limt year. The (iovcriiiiient, hi'wever, contiiiiieH to \nuh\ romlH lor ( itniinerciul and military piirpoMVM, and while tlie Kn^linh iitveslorn retain their present partiality for lluHHiun wecurilieM there will lie no lack of money. Vd wilh the prfsetit uul-tnrn a vxnterial irdnihUn if flin Amrnftiii ihili/, or snimlhiuij rijunllij HnjiiijimiU, in uvcessarif to ml- vauff thr price nhave £'." Yos, Mr. Cliainiinn, a matc^rinl rccbuition of tlio Ameri- can : i 364 FARMERS, MECHANICS, ETC., NEED PROTECTION. " The fiscal policy of the United Slates is for us a subject of no remote or transient interest. Althoup^h statistics may be adduced to prove that in proportion to population the colonies are our best customers, yet in the mass our trade with republican America is by far the largest item in the balance-sheet of our exports to foreign countries, and is nearly equal to that with all the English-speaking dependencies of the empire." A HOME MARKET — A PREDICTION FULFILLED. Gentlemen sneer at the idea of a home market. Sir, on the 1st of June, 1868, we had under consideration a pro- position to permit table whisky to remain in bond under certain conditions. In the course of the discussion I urged upon gentlemen from the West who were opposing it the propriety of giving effect to that proposition, I pressed upon the attention of the House the fact that age quadrupled the value by improving the quality of fine whisky, and that whisky distilled from American grain was superseding French brandy in general use. I urged the importance of this to the grain growing States. Turn- ing to my remarks I find the following prediction, the fulfilment of which has occurred even before I expected it: " The people of the Northwest, it seems to me, are specially in- terested in this question. They will find that they cannot afford to expel from their inland section of the country any branch of manu- factures. They need the opportunity to export their grain concen- trated in the forui of whisky, high-wines, or other manufactures. I am no Cassandra and they will not believe me, but I tell them they are entering upon a competition that will exclude them from the markets of the world if they depend upon the export of their grain in bulk as food or mere raw material. Do you mark, gentlemen of Missouri, Illinois, and Wisconsin, that California is loud in the ex- pression of her gratitude for the fact that 130 vessels have been added to the fleet for carrying her grain to New York and trans- atlantic ports ? They can send grain in bulk 23,000 miles to the sea- board of New England or Old England at less cost for transporta- tion than you can send yours to the sea-board by rail. Oregon is groaning under her crop of wheat, and her people are fearing that means of its transportation to market may not be at hand. But this distant competition is not what you have most cause to dread. The South, no longer your customer for food for man and beast, looms up your competitor. Her advantages over you are mainfold as they are manifest. She lies between you and the ocean. Her grain-fields are upon the banks of navigable rivers which flow to the Gulf or the oceam, and at or near the mouth of each is a sea-port. From Norfolk around to Galveston, Texas, the grain of the farmers of the several States may be floated to the sea-board upon rafts and there find shipping. England and western Europe are not the FARMERS, MECHANICS, ETC, NEED PROTECTION. 365 countries to which we chiefly export grain and flour. Our chief markets for these are Central and South America, and the islands to which the Southern States are neighbors ; and I tell you that if the people of the fur Northwest do not take heed, and by diversifying their industry convert their raw materials into more compact pro- ductions, the day is not three years distant when their crops will waste in the fields for the want of a market to which they will pay the cost of transportation."* Not two years have gone by, and you are crying out that you have raised wheat in vain, that there is no market for it ; that the cost of getting it to a market con- sumes it. Ay, and the gentleman from Iowa [Mr. Alli- son] says that in the face of these facts we are offering inducements to thousands to go at wheat-growing, that the homestead law is tempting immigrants to engage in wheat-growing and add to the unsalable and unavailable stock. That is true ; and how would he improve matters? He agrees with me that the homestead law is beneficent and should not be repealed. What, then, is his proposi- tion. It is identical with those we have heard from so many gentlemen — repeal the duties on coal, and salt, and reduce those on hides, lumber, iron, and woolen goods. This is the burden and refrain of all the sweet singers trained in the musical academy of D. A. Wells, Com- missioner of Revenue, and let us right here test its merit. Lower the duties on coal, salt, lumber, hides, iron, and woolen goods. Well, how will this increase the number of consumers of American grain or diminish the immber of grain-growers? There are more than 1,500,000 of our people engaged in or dependent on the labor of producing these articles. What will become of them ? They can- not live on " rye and potatoes," as German workmen in the « The jiricea of grain in Philadelphia, July Ist, 1868, and July 1st, 1871, were as follows : 1871. Wheat $1.40 ® 1.54 Corn 7.3 @ .76 Oats 61 @ .66 1868. Wheat $2..30 @ $2.37 Corn 1.10 @ 1.13 Oats 85 @ .89 But oven at these reduced rates there if, as I know by observation and inter- course with many of their people, while traversing each State during July and August, 1871, no market for the immense crops with which the farmers of Mis- souri, Iowa, Kansas and Nebraska have been, shall I say, blessed or cursed. As they cannot sell their grain and provisions, they arc of course without money with which to pay for manufactured articles whether foreign or American. A few additional forges, furnaces, rolling-mills, and woolen factories would have developed the coal fields of each State and given the farmers a renumerative home market for every bushel of corn and wheat, and saved the cost of transporta- tioa OQ the small amount for which they may find a market. \ •..-^'J& ill 5566 FARMERS, MECHANICS, ETC., NEED PROTECTION. il same trades do. They will not oven be content to get meat once a week, as the workmen of England are; and if they be not, work must stop. And I ask gentlemen from the grain country what they suppose these people will do with themselves when the fire has gone out in the forge and furnace, and the loom and spindle stand still, and the salt-kettle rusts, and there is no work in the coal mine because the manufactures that made a market for it have been transferred to foreign countries in which wages are low and where the "working people live on rye and potatoes "? Thank God, we cannot doom them to this fate. The homestead law is their protection. In a cabin on 120 acres of public land they can raise wheat, potatoes, and a few sheep and pigs ; the old-fashioned spinning-wheel and loom, easily made by skilled mechanics, will convert their home-grown wool into fabrics, and they can thus live till wiser legislators succeed us and reanimate the general industries of the country by restoring the protective sys- tem now in force. Is theirs the true remedy ? Is free trade a specific for all or any of our ills? No, sir, it is sheer quackery, char- latanism. The only cure for the evil of which western grain-growers complain, is to increase aio number of con- sumers and relatively decrease the number of growers of wheat and corn ; raise, if possible, the wages of workmen so as to make mechanical employments attractive ; say to the farmers' sons, " There is work and good wages for you in the machine-shop, the forge, the furnace, or the mill ; " say to the men whose capital is unproductive on farms, " Build mills, sink shafts to the coal-bed which underlies your farm : avail yourselves of the limestone quarry and the ore-bed, whether of iron, lead, copper, zinc, or nickel ; employ your industry and capital so that it shall be pro- fitable to you, your country, and mankind;" and in a little while you will cheapen iron and steel and make an adequate market for all the grain of the country. The gentleman's remedy is the theory of the homeopathic physician, that like cures like, which though it may be correct in physics, is not an approved maxim in social science. Mr. Allison. I would like the gentleman to state how long it will be before that happy period will arrive ? Mr. Kelleij. Well, sir, I cannot tell exactly. It will FARMERS, MECHANICS, ETC., NEED PROTECTION. 367 depend upon the degree of promptness with which the remedy is applied. But if the Clerk will do me the kind- ness to give me a little rest by reading a letter from an Irish patriot, one who knew England's tenderness for her laboring people experimentally at home in Ireland, and who laid one of his limbs away in the service of our coun- try during the war, and now lives in Quincy, Illinois, I will endeavor to give the gentleman some idea. The Clerk read as follows : " We have a population of So.flOO or 40,000, and our citizens are just coinmencing to awake to the necessity of encouraging locai manufacturing. We have 2 paper mills, 10 flour mills, ft tobacco factories; sales $1,300,000; 'J machine-shops; sales ^l,Or)0,000' 5 machine foundcries ; 5 stove founderies turned out last year .36,400 stoves, amounting to $473,200 cash sales ; 2 boiler shops, turning out $216,000 per year; 15 wagon and plow shops, with a capital of $260,000 ; 4 planing mills, capitiil $180.000 ; 14 manufacturers of saddles and harness, capital $233,400 ; and numerous others too tedious to mention. There is a company at present engaged in boring for coal, with fine prospects of success. If we can only get coal here manufacturing will spring up all around us. I have thought some of organizing a stock company to build factories and supply funds to encourage skilled workmen to enter into what is called the cooperative system. I shall shortly test tlie matter to see if it ciin be made to work. "If the friends of protection can hold their own till after the tak- ing of the census the crisis will be passed, for that will show such progress in the material wealth of the nation that it will require a bold man indeed to attack our system of labor. It is useless for us to talk of competing with England while she keeps as many of her people in her poor-houses as she does in her public schools — a country that expends seven-eighths more to keep up her poor- houses than she does to support her schools. England and IScot- land have a population of 24,599,277, for the education of which she has 14,591 schools, with 12,832 teachers, costing annually $4,212,500, while she expends for her poor-houses annually $32,595,000. Com- pare her with Illinois, a State sixty years ago in possession of the savages, but now possessing a population of about 2,500,000, with 11,000 schools and 20,000 teachers, costing $6,500,000 annually, more than 50 per cent, greater than England, with a population ten times larger than us. The free-trader says tliat pauperism is grow- ing less in England under her free-trade system ; but I find, from Purdy's Report in 1866, she had 842,860 ; and I see by the Ameri- can Cyclopedia of 1868 for that year 1,034,832 paupers are reported. These are facts for the American people to profit by. It is reported that there are now in London more than 80,0oO skilled workmen out of employment. We hear much about English liberty, but I have been of the opinion that the kind of liberty they are enjoying is that the wolf accords the lamb, or the strong the weak in all nations — a liberty which, I trust, will never find a place among our institutions. 368 FARMERS, MECHANICS, ETC., NEED PROTECTION. d "The sympathizers or advocates of this English syHtcm say that free trade will give us a market for our surplus produce in Kurope. But I find the more we ship the less we receive. In 1868 wo ox- ported to England 4,414,230 hundred weight of wheat, receiving therefor $17,952,850; in 1869, for the same period, 7,9.38,818 hun- dred weight, receiving therefrom only $17,740,770, or $211,000 less than we received for half the amount the previous year. If we were to ciiango our policy, and instead of sending our wheat to Kn^rlund induce those 80,000 skilled workmen to come to us we would not then be compelled to look to England for a market. They will be compelled to come to us for our cotton and tobacco; but there is no need of us going to them for manufactured goods. We can take their surplus labor, transfer it to this country, which would ulti- mately tend to the welfare of both, and thereby accomplish more tlian the sentimental philanthropists of Europe and Ainerieu can ever do by preaching ' free trade.' We arc mfluenced too much by the polical economists of Europe, who write to tickle the i'aiicy of the wealthy few without any regard to the rights of the laboring millions." Mr. Kelley. I desire in this conneclion, and before turning to other topics, to present a brief extract from a speech made in the United States Senate by the experi- enced merchant and enligtened statesman who represents New Jersey in that body, Hon. Alexander G. Cattell. In the course of his remarks on the 22d of January, 1867, he said : "But, Mr. President, the harmony of interests which exists between agriculture and manufactures, and the truth of the position I have taken, are clearly shown by actual results. I am sure the Senate will excuse me if I draw an illustration from personal ob- servation in ray own mercantile life. Twenty years ago last autumn I embarked in the trade in breadstufiFs in the city of rhiladelnhia. At that time, and for some succeeding years, the entire volume of my business was made up of consignments of agricultural pro- ducts from the valleys of the Susquehanna, the Juniata, and the Lehigh. 1 have not the figures at command, but I am sure I speak within bounds when I say that my own house and the four or five others doing business from the same points must have received from this quarter 4,000,000 to 5,000,000 bushels of cereals per annum. Philadelphia is still the natural market for the surplus Eroduct of this territory, but for some years past there have not een consignments enough received from that entire section to realize commissions sufficient to pay the salary of a receiving clerk. "Do you ask, has production fallen off? I answer, no; on the contrary, it has increased, but the whole line of these valleys has been dotted with furnaces and forges, and rolling-mills and saw-mills and factories and workshops, filled with operatives, and the con- sumer of agricultural products has been brought to the farmer's doors. He now finds a readier market for his products at home at prices equal to those ruling on the sea-board, of which he avails FARMERS, MECHANICS, ETC., NEED PROTECTION. 369 u himself and thtis saves all tho cost of transiportatiori and factorage, equal at average prices to about 20 per cent. Nay, more, sir, my own firm lias frequently within the past few years sold and shipped to the millers in one of these valleys, that in which the iron interest has been most developed, the Lehigh, wheat drawn from Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Iowa to supply the deficiency in tho con- sumptive want. And these products of the prairies of the West were sold, too, at a price far in excess of what could have been realized by exportation to any country on the face of tho globe. As a consequence of this state of things land has risen in value through all this section, and farms that could have been bought fifteen or twenty years ago at $40 or $50 per acre are now saleable ot $150 or $200 per acr'- Villages have grown to be towns, and towns have grown to be cities, agriculture and manufactures have clasped hands and prosperity reigns." PROTECTION STIMULATES IMMIGRATION. Sir, the geutlemati from Iowa asked how long it would take if we shut up our machine-shops and mills, and closed our coal-mines, to turn 100,000 meu into agricul- turists. It would take one season. Mr. Allison. Oh no; that was not my question. Mr. Kdlcy. That was what I was stating when you interrupted me. Mr. Allison. I wanted to know how long it would be before iron and steel would be produced at a cheaper rate than it is now imported. That was my question. Mr. Kelley. I do not think I said cheaper than it is now imported, but cheaper than it can then be imported. As the price goes down here it is going up in England; and under the present duty we will soon be able to supply our own demand, and meet England in common markets, at equal prices. Sir, I want to show gentlemen from the West what etfect the tariff has on immigration. I have before me the tariff's from the organization of the Govern- ment down to the present time, given in ad valorem per- centages, and a statement of the number of immigrants that arrived in each year, from 1856 to 1869 inclusive. By comparing them I find that whenever our duties have been low immigration has fallen oftj and whenever our duties have been high the volume of immigration has increased. This seems to be a fixed law. Both papers are taken from the immaculate report of David A. Wells, Special Commissioner of Internal Revenue, and I therefore present them with some hesi- tancy, and with the remark that if they are incorrect it is not my fault. U iff > 1 n LI M 870 FARMERS, MECHANICS, ETC., NEED PROTECTION. I fuid by these tables that in the nine years from 1858 to 180-i, inclusive, wo received 1,403,497 immigrants; anil in the four yours of the protective tariff', of which so many gentlemen from the West whoso States are not overcrowded complain, wo have received 1,514,816, or over 111,000 more in the four years of protection than in liio nine preceding years of free trade and low tariff". But 1 had better let the statement speak for itself. In intro- ducing it Mr. Wells says: "The following is a revised and the most accurate attainable statement of the course of alien immigration into the United .States since and including the year 1856 : 1856 200,4.16 1857 251 ,.106 18.58 12;i.l26 1859 121,282 1860 1.53,«40 1861 91,920 1862 91.987 1863 176,282 1864 19.3,418 1865 248,120 1866 318,.5.54 1867 298,3.58 1868 297,215 1869 ... 352,569 Total in fourteen years 2,918,213 "Total from July 1, 1865, to J ne 30. 1869, five years, 1,514,816." In 1856 the rate of duty m the aggregate of our im- ports was 20.3, and the numoer of immigrants were 200,- 436 ; in 1859 the rate of duoiea had been reduced to 14.6, and the number of immigrants fell to 121,282. In 1861, by the Acts of March 2, August 5, and December 24, the rate of duties was further reduced to 11.2. This broke the camel's back. So many men were thrown out of em- ployment and wages sunk so low that none but agricultur- ists could come to us with any prospect of improving their condition, and immigration sunk to a point lower than it had been since the ever-to-be-remembered free- trade crisis of 1887-40. In 1861 but 91,920 immi- grants arrived, and the depression continued through 1862, during which the number of immigrants was but 91,987. By the Act of July 14, 1862, the duties were raised, so that in 1863 they were up to 23.7, and the TARMEKS, MECHANICS, ETC., NEED PROTECTION. 871 immigration nearly equaled that of the two preceding years, having gone un 170,282. By the several ActH of 18H-i, 1865, and 1860 the duties wore so increa.sed, that they averaged on the inipoitations of 1866 40.2 per cent., and immigration went up to 318,654. Last year, when tiie West was i'urtlier op{)res.sed by the increase of duties on wool and copper, they averaged 41.2, and the number of immigrants went up to 852,509 ; and the commis.sioners of immigration assure us that this year the number will exceed 400,000. It is thus liistorically demonstrated that precisely as we make our duties protective of high wages for laboi', do wo bring skilled workmen from Germany, Belgium, France, and England to work in our mines, forges, furnaces, roll- ing-mills, cotton and woolen factories, and create a homo market for the grain of Iowa, Illinois, and other States, whoso farmers complain that they have no market for their crops. SKILLED WORKMEN THE MOST VALUAHLE COMMODITY WE CAN IMPORT. Mr, Schcnrk. We have free trade in men. Mr. Kelley. The chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means suggests in this connection that wo have free trade in men. Yes, men arc on the free list. They cost us not even freight. Yet how they swell the revenues and help to pay the debt of the country ! They are raised from helpless infancy, through tender childhood, and trained to skilled labor in youth in other lands, and in manhood, allured by higher wages and freer institutions, they come to us and are welcomed to citizenship. In this way we have maintained a balance of trade that has ena- bled us to resist without bankruptcy the ordinary com- mercial balance that has been so heavily against us. We promote free trade in men, and it is the only free trade I am prepared to promote. FRENCH FREE TRAD The French tariff is as inimical to us as that of England. It is replete with prohibitory duties and absolute prohibi- tions. Yet France is spoken of by the Engli.sh journals and in the rhapsodies of gentlemen as a free trade nation. Why, sir, on every article mentioned in the French tarift* unless it is absolutely free, the duty is so much if imported in French vessels, and so much more if imported in vessels :■- X. ;; 'I i 872 FAUMKUS, MKnilANICH, KTC, NEED IMIOTECTION. of other imtioiiH. Every head of a column of the rates of duty eHtabliHhed by the Kreneh tnrilV shows that you can- not import dutiable articles into France at the same rate in the vessel of another nation that you can in a French one. Thoy read thua: Artiolfli. Uenoral tarilT. Import tnrilT in truiity with Oroat llritiiin Imports. •nd other oouiittlot. In French nnil trunty veiBola. 1 In other In French vi'Diela, In other vohrcIh. Mr. Allison. Aro you in favor of that rule? 3fr. Kellctj. I aUi Air. Allison. So oni I. Mr. Kelleij. I am in favor of imposing duties ^j as to discriminate in lUvor of American sliippirif^. I am ibr every form of protection to American industry and enter- prise. In the French tariff tobacco is classed as a colonial pro- duct, and its importation on private account is prohibited. It is a Government monopoly. American-grown tobacco, even in the leaf, is admitted into France only when the oolonial supply fails ; and then if it is carried in other than a French vessel it is made to pay an extra duty of nearly one cent on the pound, which is imposed in order to tax foreign shipping. The gentleman from Iowa objects to the schedule under which duties are to bo assessed under the committee's bill, and especially to that of sugar. Let me invite his atten- tion to some of the provisions of the French tariff on su- gar : Sugar from other than French possessions ; sugar similar to refined powdered, above No. 20, from foreign countries, etc. ; and sugar, refined, from other possessions, are prohibited. Thus all sugars refined or advanced in other than French possessions are prohibited, as is also molasses. Mr. Schench. That has built up their beet-sugar manu- facture. Mr. Kelley. Yes ; and it is an industry we can and should build up in the West by adequately protective duties, I FAUMKU-t, MKi'If.VNIc'S, KTC, NKKD I'UOTKCTIOM. 378 want to run (Mir.-iorily through lliU Krouch tiirilT. Tho im- nortulion oCcust-iron into b'nuico is prohibitcsd. Wrouglit- iron in pliitcs is j>roliil)ito(l. MiuiuHnUurus ol'iron ol (uirlaiu kinds lire prohibiti'd. All choinicul produ(!ts not cnunio- rated iiru prohibited. All extracts of dye-woods ure pro- hibited. Dye woods are admitted free; but if American or other labor lias been expended in making extracts from dye-woods the extracts are prohibited. Gentlemen «d' tho free trade .school generally and the gentlemen from New York [Mr. Hrooks] and from Iowa [Mr. Allison] assail veliemently, and, as I think, most unluirly, the iron sche- dule and duties on steel pro|)o.sed by the committLo's bill. How dilVercntly Franco estimates the importance of thcso vital industries. Her tarifV j)rohibits all manufactures of zinc and other metals not speciallv luimcd and the follow- ing articles of iron and atool, in the production of which wo excel both her and England in quality and chonpnesa : " ('astings, not polinhcd : clmirs for rivilroiuls, plutos, etc., cunt in open air ; cyliiidric tulu'S, pluiii or jfrooved columns, Kii8-rctorl.H, etc., anil othor urticlos without ornament or liiii.sli ; hollow-ware not included above; caHtiiifja, poli.shed or turned; the Hnino, tinned, varnished, etc. ; liouseiiold I'tensils and other articles not ennrnerated, of iron or 8heot-iron, polished or painted ; Hunie, enam- eled or varnished; all articles of steel; iron, hlacksmitlis' work; locksmiths' work; nails, by machine; nails, by hand; wood-acrcwa, bolts, screw-nuts." Franco prohibits and excludes these articles that her poorly paid workmen may bo protected against tho pro- ductions of tho.so of Belgium and Germany, who receive even less than they. All tissues of cotton, except nankeens, the produce of India, lace, manufactured by hand or other- wise, and tulle, with lace-work, are ahso prohibited. Cotton and woolen yarns are also prohibited by the general tariff, though admitted at high and most scientifically rated pro- tective duties from England under the import tariff treaty with that country. Yes, sir, if you spin our cotton into yarn, or weave it into a tissue or fabric, it is excluded from the broad empire of France. If you carry it there raw, with no labor in it save that of the slave or the freedman, you can take it in, but as yarn or a tissue it is prohibited. THE PURPOSE OF THE FREE LIST. The committee in proposing the extended free list em- m. !,. I •I fi| k^} 374 FARMERS, MECHANICS, ETC., NEED PROTECTION. 1^ ? :|t III braced in the second section of the bill hoped to accomplish two important objects, one of which was to promote direct commerce between us and those non-manufacturing coun- tries which require the productions of our shops and mills and whose raw materials we require ; and the other was to give our manufacturers and mechanics, free of duty, those essentials which France, England, and Belgium admit free. A majority of the committee believe that the adop- tion of this will do much to revive our commerce, and not only quicken e-tablished industries, but lead to the intro- duction of new ones, and thus increase the market for the productions of the farm and reduce the cost and price of a large range of manufactured goods. We think it is sound policy to let raw materials that we cannot produce in free, and collect our revenue from articles in the production of which much labor has been expended. This is the theory of the bill we reported. It has the sanction of the sagacity and experience of France and England, and was framed regardless of the teachings of mere theorists and schoolmen. DUTIES ON WOOL AND WOOLENS. Mr. Chairman, although I had made some preparation for its illustration, I had not expected to go into so general a discussion of the effect of protection upon the interests of the farmer. The wide .nge the discussion has taken must be my apology for presenting one other view of the subject. The gentleman from Iowa told us that the wool interest is suffering from the excessive duties imposed on woolen cloths by the existing tariff, and that the committee proposes to continue them. Sir, I may be very dull, but after hearing the gentleman it still seems to me that the wool interest must have been benefited by the bill increasing the duties on wool and woolens. We certainly have more people wearing wool now than we had in 1860. We have, as I have shown, received over 2,000,000 immigrants since then, and our natural increase is at least 1,000,000 per annum ; yet I find by the thirteenth report of the commis- sioners of her Britannic Majesty's customs that the declared value of wooleri"manufactures exported to the United States was, in 1860, £3,414,050, while in 1868, nearly a decade thereafter, it was £3,658,432 — an increase of but £234,382 in eight years. Who has grown the wool that clothes our increased TARMEKS, MECHANICS, ETC., NEED PROTECTION. 375 population? Our freedmen now wear ordinary woolen clothes. The " poor whites " of the South now wear what they call "store goods," but to which they were unused before the rebellion. The cold Northwest, whose people wear woolen goods all the year, has increased its popula- tion so largely that it is demanding enlarged representa- tion on this floor without waiting for the census. Our wool wearing population has nearly doubled ; yet the amount of wool imported is scarcely greater than it was eight years ago. Where does the wool come from? Does it drop gently from the heavens, like the dew, or is it grown upon the sheep of western and southern farmers? THE WAY TO REDUCE THE TAXES. Sir, I am as anxious to reduce taxes as rapidly as it can be done consistently with the maintenance of the public credit and the gradual extinguishment of the debt as any man on this floor. I do not make this declaration now for the first time. On the 31st of January, 1866, I saw that, the war being over, the freedmen must be provided with the means of making a living by other labor than that of the plantation hand ; that the women of the South must have employment; that there must be a diversifi- cation of our industry; that the Northwest would be shutout from her markets if she did not diversify her in- dustries ; and in the course of some remarks I made that day in favor of remitting taxes, both internal and external, I described the bill now under consideration. In stating how I would reduce the burdens of the people, I said : " I have never been able to believe that a national debt is a na- tional blessing. I have seen how good might be interwoven with or educed I'rom evil, or how a great evil might, under certain conditions, be turned to good account; but beyond this I liave never been able to regard debt, individual or national, as a blessing. It may be that, as in the inscrutable providence of (iod it required nearly five years of war to extirpate the national crime of slavery, and anguish and grief found their way to nearly every hearth-sido in the country be- fore we would recognize tiie manhood of the race we had so long op- pressed, it was also necessary that we should be involved in a debt of unparalleled magnitude that we might be compelled to avail our- selves of the wealth that lies so freely around us, anJ by opening markets for well-rewarded industry make our land, what in theory it has ever been, the refuge of the oppressed of all climes. Kngland, if supreme selfishness be consistent with sagacity, has been emi- nently sagacious in preventing us from becoming a nuuiufacturing people; for with our enterprise, our ingenuity, our freer institutions, the extent of our country, the cheapness of our land, the diversity i ■■\ k. :i .«;( 376 FARMERS, MECHANICS, ETC., NEED PROTEC .ON. s' of our resources, the grandeur of our seas, lakes, and rivers, we should long ago have been able to offer her best workmen such' in- duconaents as would have brought them by millions to help bear our burdens and fight our battles. We can thus raise the standard of British and continental wages and protect American workmen against ill-paid competition. This we must do if we mean to main- tain the national honor. The fields now under culture, the houses now existing, the mines now being worked, the men we now employ, cannot pay our debt. To meet its annual interest by taxing our present population and developed resources woulc' be to conlimie an ever-enduring burden. " The principal of the debt must be paid ; but as it was contracted for posterity its extinguishment should not impoverish those who sustained the burdens of the war. I am not anxious to reduce the total of our debt, and would in this respect follow the example of England, and as its amount has been fixed, would not for the present trouble myself about its aggregate except to prevent its increase. My anxiety is that th^ taxes it involves shall be as little oppressive as possible, and be so adjusted that lohile defending our industry against foreign assault, they may add nothing to the cost of those necessaries of life which lue cannot produce, and for which we must therefore look to other lands. The raio materials entering into our man\ifac- tures, which vie are yet unable to produce, but on which we unwisely impose duties, I loould put into the free li'f with tea, coffee, and other such purely foreign essentials of life, ana ivould impose duties on commodities that compete with American productions, so as to pro- tect every feeble or infant branch of industry and quicken those that are robust. Iioouldthus cheapen the elements of life and enable those whose capital is embarked in any branch of production to offer such ivagei to the skilled ivorkmen of all lands as would steadily and rapidly increase our numbers, and, as is always the case in the neighborhood of growing cities or toxons of considerable extent, in- crease the return for farm labor ; this policy would open new mines and quarries, build new furnaces, forges, and factories, and rapidly increase the taxable property and taxable inhabitants of the country. " Let us pursue for twenty years the sound national policy of pro- tection, and we will double our population and more than quadruple our capital and reduce our indebtedness per capita and per acre to little more than a nominal sum. Thus each man can ' without moneys ' pay the bulk of his portion of the debt by blessing others with the ability to bear an honorable burden." My views on these points have undergone no change, and I cannot more aptly describe the bill before the com- mittee, in general terms, than I thus did more than four years ago. THE DEFECTS OF THE PRESENT TARIFF, AND THE REMEDIES SUGGESTED BY THE NEW BILL. Why not maintain the existing tariff, and wherein does the bill submitted by the Committee of Ways and Means difter from it ? Several gentlemen have propounded these Hi FARMERS, MECHANICS, ETC., NEED PROTECTION. 377 questions, and I now propose to answer them briefly and rapidly. The existing law is crude and contains many incongruous provisions. It is not in accord with the theory of the free-trader orthe protectionist. It imposes the heaviest duties on articles of common consumption that we cannot produce. Thus, on chalk, not a cubic inch of which has, so far as I have heard, been discovered in our country, it impo- ses a duty of 833J per cent. It is bought at from 75 cents to $1 50 per ton, and the duty is $10. This onerous duty is not protective. We have no chalk-fields, and produce no sub.stitute for it. It is therefore simply a tax, and one that everybody feels ; the boy at his game of marbles, or before the blackboard in school, the housewife when she cleans her silver or britannia ware, and the farmer in the cost of putty for his windows. The new bill puts chalk on the free list. Mr. Allison. Have we not increased the duty on putty, which enters into use in the house of every citi25en in the land? Mr. Kelley. Yes, sir; and why did we do it ? All our western farmers are raising wheat, and many of them can find no market for their crop, and this bill, it is hoped, will, if it become a law, induce some of them to produce other things. We import immense amounts of linseed and castor oil, and the majority of the committee hoped that by raising the duty on these oils, and those which may be substituted for them, it would induce some of them to raise flax and manufacture the oil. Again, we import great quantities of goods made of flax and substitutes for it, and we hoped that better duties on the oil and on these fabrics might lead to the establishment of linen and other mills in the interior. And as linseed-oil is the ingredient of chief value in putty, we raised the duty on it to correspond with that on oil. We hope thus to secure to every citizen good and cheap putty, made of free chalk and American-grown oil. THE ALLEGATION THAT WE PROTECT OUR MANUFACTURES BY DUTIES AVERAGING FORTY PER CENT. IS NOT TRUE. Mr. Chairman, I desire to call attention to the unfair- ness, unintentional of course, of the statement of the gen- tleman from New York [Mr. Brooks] that the existing tariff gives protection equal to an average of 41.2 per - « (I; i'f ! ' ' 'i :n S7S FiUMEBS, MECHANICS, KTC, NKED I'ROTECiIO.V. i. If cent. That is the percentage of duties on the aggregate of our imports, and he will hardly claim that the^futy of over 833 per cent, on chalk is protective of any of our industries. Again, we collect a duty of 300 per cent, on pepper. Why should black pepper pay 300 per cent ? Do we grow it anywhere in this country? Is this duty protective of any of our industries ? You pay 5 cents a pound for pepper and the tariff imposes a duty of 15 cents, gold, equal to 300 per cent., and the gentleman includes this in his average of protective duties. Do we grow cloves or clove-stems in any part of the country ? Is the duty on them protective? It is on cloves 355 per cent, and on clove-stems 386 per cent., and yet the gentleman also in- cludes these with his protective duties. I think gentlemen perceive by this time what I meant when I said that many of the provisions of the present tariff' are incongruous. While many of them are high enough for protection they are countervailed by higher duties on raw materials that we cannot produce, and which rival nations admit free or under very low duties. I shall not attempt to bring all such incongruities to the attention of the committee, but beg leave to allude to a few more. On cayenne pepper, the duty is 303 per cent. ; on allspice, 376J per cent. ; on nutmegs, 188| per cent. ; on crude camphor, 113 per cent.; on saltpetre, 77f per cent. ; on varnish gums, none of which are produced in this country, 80 per cent. ; on tea, the farmer's and laborer's refreshing drink, 78J per cent. ; on coffee, 47 J per cent. I could largely extend this list of duties, each of which is a tax on some article of common consumption not produced in the country, and to that extent a bonus to our competitors. I am in favor of making all such articles free ; and the committee has reduced the duties on them or put them on the free list. When these provisions shall be enact-ed into law the gentleman from New York can calculate the per- centage and find that our duties will compare favorably with those imposed by any manufacturing nation except England ; whose brief trial of free trade has cost her her supremacy.* * " The operatives have seen other classes of the community profiting by this policy and increasing in wealth, whilst they have been going steiulily down hill : they have seen the operatives of Belgium. France, Germnny, Snitzcrlond, America advance in prosperity, in intelligence, in technical education, far moro FARMERS, MECHANICS, ETC., NEED PROTECTION. 379 DUTIES WHICH NEED READJUSTMENT. Another serious fault of the existing law is that so many of its duties are ad valorem. Dishonest men take advantage of this and have goods invoiced below the proper value, and thus not only defraud the Government, but do wrong to both the home manufacturer and the honest importer. This system of duties has muoh to do with the decline of American commerce. The large temptation to defraud the Government by undervaluation has caused great houses abroad to establish agencies here and to refuse to sell directly to an American purchaser. This is so with all the Sheffield steel-makers and most of the continental silk houses. In this way the frauds of the steel-makers and silk manufacturers have been enormous, amounting to many millions of dollars. The new bill substitutes specific duties wherever it is practicable. The duties now collected on alcoholic preparations, and those in the production of which spirits are used, such as quinine, chloroform, collodion, etc., are now much too high, having been adjusted to the tax of $2 per gallon on distilled spirits. The new bill adjusts them to the lower tax now collected. Many of the existing duties are so high as to defeat all their legitimate objects and deprive the Government of all revenue. This is especially true of spices. It was in evidence from many sources that these are imported into New York or San Francisco and immediately shipped in 1 7^ ■ f i V under a closely Proteotivo Policy, than they have done under what is called Free Trade. They find that far from having maintained the lead that they had twenty years ago, in a vast number of manufactures, they have lost it, and been distanced by those whom their advisers told them were withering under the cold shade of protection. " Twenty years ago free trade was the cure propounded for all the diseases the country suffered from ; want of work, pauperism, crime, drunkenness, ignorance, were all to diminish under the new era ; they have all increased ; when we look at the result of the cure we have tried, can it be a matter of surprise if many of us still prefer the disease ! We are told free trade principles are spreading ; why, in Prussia, Austria, Belgium, Switzerland, the idea even of opening tlicir ports and markets, and inviting competition with their own industriiil popiila- tion, has never yet been mooted ; whilst in America, the operative's ])arn(lise, the duties on many British manufiiotures have been doubled during the last few years, and France, the promised land of free trade, is already trying to withdraw the nominal facilities doled out to us in the commercial treaty. The only man in France who is at heart a free trader, is the Emperor himself. Is this hopeful for the operative classes in England? Docs the direction of public opinion in one single country on this subject afford the slightest hope that any one of them will admit our manufactures duty free ? On the contrary, protection to native industry is more firmly established as a great univcrsiil rule of internal polity than any other, and wherever democratic principles extend this principle will intensify." — Sir Edioard Sullivan. J? ' ( k. ■ S 1 .;1 'f .11 380 FARMERS, MECHANICS, ETC., NEEB PROTECTION-. bond to the Britisli provinces, whence tlicy are snuiggled back. The bill of the committee proposes such reduetiiHis of the duties as will probably give the Government a handsome revenue while cheapening them to the consumer. The value to the country of the changes ])ropused can- not fail to be very great. ("1 3 P- ifi I I r i:' THE PRESENT LAW SHOULD BE REVISED, NOT OVERTHKOM^N. Would that I could impress upon tlie House my esti- mate of the value to the country of these j)roposed changes. I am discussing the bill in nosjiirit of purtisansliip. In urging its acceptance I am pleading the cause of the farmer and laborer, as I conscientiously believe that it will, if adopted, increase the purchasing power, the exchangeable value of every bushel of grain grown and hour of labor performed in our country. I have no general condemna- tion for the existing law. It needs revision, but should not be overthrown. As a revenue measure it has ex- ceeded the anticipations of its friends and the most earnest friends of the Government. It yielded for the year end- ing June 30, 1867, §176,417,810; for that ending June 30, 1868, $16-4,464,5!)!J 56; and for that ending June 30, 1869, $180,084,456 63 ; and no preceding tariff produced results comparable to these. And, sir, notwithstanding its faults it has been of great value as a protective measure. By its protective in- fluence it has added much to the power of the country and the prosperity of the people. Under it our production of pig-iron has, as I have already shown, been more than doubled, and its production has been extended into new and large fields in States where it was previously unknown. Thus has increased value been given to all the land in those States ; the increase being equal to the addition of the value of the mineral lands to that of the agricultural surface ; and more than that, it has provided a market in the neighborhood of each furnace, in which articles can be sold which would not bear transportation to distant points or foreign lands. The farmers of Iowa and Minnesota now produce for sale little of anything else than wheat and wool for exportation to the seaboard States. When manu- factories are built or mines opened, villages spring up and create a market for roots, as potatoes and turnips, the pro- ductions of the garden and the orchard, and for hay, by which the western farmer will be relieved from the necessity of V V ■ I- di FAIIMKItS, MKOir.VN'ICS, KTO., XKKI) I'ROTKOTION". 381 growing successive crops of wheat to the cxliausiion oC the soil. These villages also afford a market for lamb, veal, eggs, and all the thousand tilings that come in as: subsidiary sources of income even to those who I'arm on a great scale. Thus have many farmers felt the protective influence of the existing tariff, as well as in the stimulus it has given to immigration, and the addition of tlie mine- ral to the agricultural value of immense bodies of land in almost every State ; and while endeavoring to improve it I renew my protest against its repeal or overthrow. THE CAREFUL CONSIDERATION' THAT HAS BEEX BESTOWED UPON THE BILL BY THE COMMITTEE. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee, your Committee of Ways and Means have devoted the earnest labor of a year to the consideration of the revision of the tariff, a duty you committed to them by special resolution of the House. In the discharge of that duty we have traveled in great part at our own proper cost, relieved largely by the hospitality of railroad, steamship, and other transportation com|)anies, from the rocky coasts of Massa- chusetts, and the waters of its bay, along the long coast of California and Oregon, and over the beautiful waters of Puget Sound, the Willamette and the Columbia rivers; we have listened to merchants, manufacturers, farmers, and men of enterprise, representing all the interests of every section of tiie country; and we have been in all respects painstaking and deliberate in our efforts to ascertain how the existing provisions of the tariff can be so modified as to yield the Government adequate revenue, lighten the burdens of the people, and stimulate all their industries with equal hand. And I conscientiously believe that if the bill we have reported should be adopted without an amendment, except those the committee is prepared to suggest, its quickening influence would be felt in every department of the productive and commercial industries of the country. It would do much to revivify the lan- guishing shipping interest. It would give new and grander proportions to the market for your agricultural products. It would maintain in a healthy condition your manufac- turing and mechanical establishments, and it would say to capitalists here and abroad, " The protective policy of the country is confirmed ; you may safely embark in new enter- prises and develop new elements of the illimitable store and varieties of wealth now lying dormant within the country." . -'; •p k; .. .1 1 ■ i i '■ 4 ■ >m i' ,M| I 382 FARMERS, MECHANICS, ETC., NEED PROTECTION. HOW IT WILL STIMULATE THE SHIPPING INTEREST. Do gentlemen ask how it will quicken commerce ? Let them turn to its free list. Our commerce is now with manufacturing nations inhabiting the grain-growintr and metalliferous regions of Europe. They produce e°very- thing wo do except cotton, rice, tobacco, and petroleum ; other than tlieae they want but little from us, unless war or drought or excessive rain prevails over so large a section as to materially diminish the grain crop. We should cultivate an exchange of products with the non- manufacturing tropical or semi-tropical countries. We want their gums, spices, barks, ivory, dye-woods, drugs, and other productions which they would gladly exchange for our grain, spirits, cotton fabrics, axes, hoes, shovels, and an infinite variety of our productions. These coun- tries are our natural martlets, but we have excluded our- selves from them by those provisions of our tariff' laws which impose duties on their exports which we need as raw materials. All other manufacturing countries admit their productions free, while we impose duties on them which, as I have shown, are taxes upon ourselves in their consumption. But this does a further wrong to the ship- ping interest in this wise : the London merchant gets their productions in exchange for the shoddy cloth, low-grade iron^ and general '* Brumagen " wares of England, and imports them free of duty. He ships them to us in Eng- lish steamers, and adds freight to his many other profits. This trade of right belongs to us, and under the commit- tee's bill we will enjoy it. Let me illustrate by a single example. The cost of saltpetre is a question of importance to every railroad builder, quarryman, and miner, and we ought to import the raw material for it from two countries remote from each other and manufacture it more cheaply than we now import it through London from India. The duties on this article are higher than they should be, and so appor- tioned as to discriminate against our labor. That on the crude article is 25 per cent, higher than that on the par- tially refined, and is at the rate of 77f per cent. They are as follows : on partially refined saltpetre, 2 cents per pound ; on crude, 2J cents, and on refined, 3 cents. The new bill removes the discrimination against ourselves and makes but two grades of duty. It reduces that on the crude article to 1^ cent, and on the refined to 2| cents. PARMhUS, MKCflANICS, KTC, NEED PROTECTION. 383 But while thus reducing the duty on this important art- icle the bill of the committee invites the establishment of its cheaper manufacture in our midst and the employ- ment of many ships in bringing us the raw material in equal proportions from Peru and Germany. If gentlemen will examine the free list they will find that it embraces muriate of potassa and nitrate of soda. The latter is a natural product of Peru, and the former of Germany, and from 1000 tons of each we can produce 1000 tons of saltpetre cheaper than we can import it from India. This would double the tonnage required for the carrying of this article. I have thus presented to the committee but one of many illustrations with which I might detain them of the influence the bill will if it be- comes a law exercise upon our commerce. STEEL AD VALOREM. I have said that one of the defects of the present law is its frequent application of ad valorems, which open the door to great frauds. I turn for an illustration to what seems to be a favorite topic of the gentleman from Iowa, [Mr. Allison] — the article of steel. The gentleman said the duty on steel in ingots, bars, sheets, and wire above a certain thickness is 2J cents, and that we had raised it to 3;^ cents, while reducing the duty a little on less im- portant classes of steel. Let mc state the case fairly. The present duty on ingots, bars, sheet, and wire not less than one quarter of an inch in diameter, valued at 7 cents per pound or less, is 2 J cents per pound ; value 7 and not above 11 cents per pound, 3 cents per pound; valued above 11 cents per pound, 3^ cents per pound and 10 per cent, ad valorem. The gentlemen attempted to discredit the evi- dence which proves the magnitude of the frauds which have been persistently perpetrated by the Sheffield steel makers for the last twenty years under this system ; but the Secretary of the treasury is acting upon it, and is largely increasing the revenues of the country from steel by requiring it to be honestly invoiced. Much evidence, confirmed by the admission of one of the firms engaged in it, establishes the fact that a combi- nation has existed among these wealthy Englishmen to sell no steel to Americans in England, but to send it to agents in this country for sale, and to so undervalue it that that which should pay 3J cents and 10 per cent, ad valorem has, to the extent of 9 pounds out of every 10, ! 1 r [' ii "I I;! ■'•.i K * ! ill* ill! r:i 884 FAHMKltS, MKCHANIOS, ETC., NEED PROTECTION. vm been brought in at 8 eents, and by the same fraudulent device and conspiracy the greater part of that which waH subject to a duty of 8 centH has come in at 2|. 'I'hus the Government has been delraudcd of many mil- lions of revenue. Now, what has the committee done in the premises? Wo have agreed to put all steel — that whicli was below and that which was above, that which paid 2^ cents a pound and that wiiich paid 5J cents a pound, or 8J cents and 10 per cent, ad valorem — under a duty of 8 J cents per pound. We had importers and maimfacturers of steel and experts before us, and they agreed that there was no conceivable test by which ex- aminers and inspectors of customs could distinguish be- tween steel worth from 4 to 7 cents and that worth more than 11 cents a pound ; so that though we may by the proposed change for a brief time do some injustice to those who use low-priced steel and those who produce high qualities of steel, we have made a single duty, which W'll give us the revenue honestly due and enable our steel manufacturers to live and extend their works. In my recent remarks on Mr. Wells' report I quoted the language of the senior partner of a steel-nniking firm in Sheffield, England, in which he admitted the fact of undervaluation, and declared that while the law remains as it is the Government will be defrauded and cannot pre- vent it. Thus the honest men among the English steel- makers implore us to close the door against fraud in which they must participate, or surrender our market to their less honest neighbors. Yet, for our well-devised effort to do justice to the Government and honest importers, we are denounced as taxing the people to build up monopolies! The gentleman from Iowa will I am sure pardon me for correcting a statement of his, on which he amplified somewhat to-day touching steel- manufacturing in Pitts- burg. The statement he read yesterday was not that her steel-makers were able to compete with England in 1859; it was that steel-making in that city first became an assur ed success in that year. Her enterprising men of capital had been for many years and with great loss renewing the yet fruitless experiment. Man after man and firm after firm had failed. Steel-works depreciated in value and new firms bought the stock and premises of old ones at reduced values, till, in 1859, ''an assured success was ittained." This was the phrase the gentleman from Iowa used yesterday when he had the paper before him. i ■■ FARMERS, MECHANICS, ETC., NEED PROTECTION. 385 STEI'IIEX COLWELL. I am quite Huro that the gentleman from Towa would not intentionally misstate a fact. Nobody values him more highly than I do. lie is us earnest on his side of this great question as I am on mine, and wo are both of a temperament that re- quires us to have the figures before us to prevent a certain measure of exaggeration in our statements. There is, how- ever, one point on wliieh I am disposed to quarrel with him, and that is that ho should have assumed to have found an ally in my renerable friend, Stephen Colwell, and by a perversion of his language made him seem to plead ajjainst protoetion for Ameriean labor when the very words he quoted were written in its behalf. Sir, Stephen Colwell's life has been devoted to his eountry. It has been a life- long labor of love with him to promote the development of her vast stores of wealth and the prosperity of her farmers and laborers. Ue was the friend and eompanion of Frederiek List, the founder of the German ZoUverein, who was for a few years an exile from his native land and a dweller in the then undeveloped coal regions of Penn- sylvania. After his death Mr. Colwell collected his writ- ings and found pleasure in editing them ; he has also writ- ten and published much in defence of protection as a sure means of promoting national greatness, cheap commodities, and the prosperity of the people ; and I confess that I was both astonished and grieved that a portion of an art- iolo of Mr. Colwell's demanding the repeal of internal taxes, and showing that they are a bonus to foreign manu- facturers and a burden upon our home producers, should be quoted by the gentleman from Iowa against the tariff bill, and to prove that protective duties add to the cost of commodities. I know my friend did not think of the wrong he was doing, but it is not just to my venerable friend, whose life is drawing to a close, that his language should bo thus perverted before the nation whose interests he has done so much to promote. THE CLASSIFICATION' OP IRON NOT NEW. But the gentleman from Iowa asks why the classification of iron found in the bill was adopted by the committee. I will tell him why. Sir, so far as the classification of iroa has been modified, and the changes are but few, we adopted the expressed opinion of the Senate and a former Com- mittee of Ways and Means. 25 ^ k ,. 1] 'Bi .Ay m '*■ iS', '! ^m :j( 886 FAKMEItS, MKCIIANICS, ETC., NKKI) I'ROTKCTION. ^ Til . ■" <'' '( I'll The Senate of the United States, on tlie Slat of January, 1867, passed a tariff bill. On the I8th of February of that year the Committee of Wava and Means reported it to this House with certain amendments; and your commit- tee, finding a claasidcation indorsed by the Senate and former Committee of Ways and Means, followed it, except wliero they thoiiirht change necessary or judicious. This is the classification of which the goDtlemaa complains as novel and artful. I am too weary, and too much exhiiustcd, and yrur patience is too far gone for me to proceed further with tho discussion at present. There are points I wo-.' 1-1 like to consider ; bu«. I must draw rapidly to a conclusion. PROOF THAT PROTECTION CHEAPENS GOODS. Tho gentleman from Indiana [Mr. Kerr], speaking of my argument on Bessemer rails, said that as America pro- duced but 30,000 tons per aimum, the establishment of her works could have had no influence upon the price of English rails, because the (quantity produced wa;i relatively so small. I propose to illustrate tho fallacy of that argu- ment by tho contents of the little box I hold in my hand. So long as America was unprepared to make Bessemer steel no Englishman would sell a ton of rails for less than $150. I have told the story to the committee once, and will not now repeat the details. But when in 1865 the works of Griswold & Co., at Troy, New York, and the Freedom Works, at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, were ready to deliver Bessemer rails, Eng'""*'men who had been swear- ing thr.t they could not sell Uiem at less than $150 a ton immediately offered them at $130. And when our works increased from two to six they dropped their price down to $100, and if necessary they will drop it to $50, or until they force the owners of our establishments to abandon the production and apply their premises and ma- chinery to some other use. Their policy is to crowd out our works ; or, as Lord Brougham advised in 1815, just after the close of our war, " to spend any amount of money to strangle in the cradle the infant industries, the exigencies of the war had called into existence in the United States." They will spend any amount of money to crowd out these five or six Bessemer rail-works, and then put the price up to figures that will be satisfactory to themselves. I said I would illustrate the argument by the contents rXRMKns, MK'JIIANICS, KTC, NiCKD PROTECTION. 387 of a small hox T hold in my hand. It (sontains a fow very Hmull articles and Hpecimens of the material of which they arc made. They are gas-tiow of a kind that till quite lately were made exclusively in Germany. They then sold in our market at from $6 to $12 per grosn. I cannot tell you whether this afforded so grand a profit as Bessemer rails did at $150 gold per ton. But, as recent events prove, it must have pai-h it is now some time since we had the pleasure of corresponding we hear from time to time of the progress you are making in the nickel trade in America, and we trust you find the business a renumerative and successful one. We hear that attempts are being made to influence Congress to increase largely the import duties on refined nickel, and although perhaps we might at first regret that the duties should be raised, we are not quite sure it would not ultimately be to our advantage ; for, if the duties are so raised a« to render the import of nickel al- most prohibitory we shall at once adopt measures to send out one of the junior members of our firm and erect a nickel refinery in the States. In fact, from the large quantities of nickel and cobalt ores offered to us by mine La Motte, ♦lie Haley Smelting Company, and several others, we are almost disposed to do so at once, as we think it might answer our purpose better than forwarding the refined article from this country. We are not, of course, selfish enough to wish a monopoly of the nickel trade in America, but we hope and intend to have a share of iL, either by shipment to or refining in the States. Sliould we decide upon erecting works in your country may we reckon on any supp'y of ore from your mine, in addition to other sources? We are. dear sir, yours, faithfully, EVANS & ASKIN. Mr. JosKPH Wharton. Let them come on with their skilled nickel-makers ; let them bring their capital by millions ; let them, if they can, bring 100,000 people to consume the grain of Missouri ; and we will give them all welcome.* By increasing the duty on nickel from 16 to 40 per cent, mine La Moti,e will 1 •,! '* Capital owned in this country is seeking investment in Americ^i. Our capitalists are lending largely to the United States, and enabling workmen to do that in the country to which they have emigrated which was wont to be done in this country. If labc in this land keeps the itiiiubus of which we have spoken still hanging on its neck, it is perfectly certain that it will not bo able to compete with younger nations in their ports; and accumulated wealth, as capital is, really will find its way out of the country. Keep up an expenditure of one hundred and fifty millions a year, at the same time lessen production, and it will follow, with unerring Bareness, that we shiill be 'eft dying of starva- tion in the rear of other peoples. The ruin of a nation is not a result which shows itself all at once. It is the issue generally of a comparatively slow pro- cess; but it is not the less surely, because it is slowly, that a people who scud off their most industrious workmen to increase the forces of other nations who pre already competing with them for the world's trade, do come to ruin by such a course. It snould not be forgotten that just the more favorable the conditions of lahorarein the countries to which we send out our workmen, just so much the sooner will our adversity come to us from their competition. — Social Poliiici : Kivk. '"^b '''ll .A > f >■ t ni i!k 390 FARMERS, MECHANICS, ETC., NEED PROTECTION. thus become a great manufacturing centre, and there will be a new market, not dependent on long lines of railroad or ocean transportation, for the grain and wool of the valley of the Mississippi. Now, Mr. Chairman, in conclusion, I plead with the gentlemen of the committee to forget their sectional feel- ings, to put aside party strife, to remember that the glory and the power of their country depend on the prosperity, intelligence, and inspiring hopes of the laboring people and their children. I beg them, as I know they all love their country, to stand by her industries, and to aid the poor and oppressed laborers of otner lands to escape from a diet of " rye and potatoes," to a land of free schools and liberal wages, in which the daily fare of the family will be of wheat, mutton, beef, or pork, with the vegetables and fruits of all the States of our broad and then assuredly prosperous country. APPENDIX. TUB TARIFFS OF THE UNITED STATES. Statement— Showing the revenue collected each year, from 1789 to 1868, the amount of dutiable imports and free goods imported annually, and the average rate of duty on im- ports annually. It wag one of the appendices of the Inst annual report of the Special ConimiHsioner of the Revenue. It is very suggestive, and to those who remember the financiiil condition of ti\e country from 1837 to 1842, and from 18.'''6 to 1861, the price of grain and the sufTeriiig endured by the laboring people at all commercial and nianufac- turing centres during tbosj periods, will prove conclusive on many points : DATES. From March 4, 1789, to Dec. 31, 1790— Aug. 10... 1791— March 3.. 1792— May 2 1793 1794— June 7.... 1795— Jan. 29... 1796 1797— March 3.. 1798 1799 1800— March 13 1801 1802 1803 1804— March 26 1805— March 27 1806 1807 1808 1809 1810 1811 1812— Jnly 1. Qeneral.. Spirits... Qeneral.. General Supplementary. TARIFFS. Qeneral.. Sugar and wines Medit >rranean fund Light money ... War, double du Uea CUSTOMS. ^,399,473 09 3,443,070 85 4,256,306 56 •■ i01,n6.'> 28 5,588,461 26 6,567,987 94 7,549,649 65 7,106,061 93 6,610,449 31 9,080,932 73 10,750,778.93 12,458,235 74 10,479,417 61 11,098,565 33 12,936,487 04 14,667,698 17 16,845,521 61 16,363,550 58 7,296,020 5S 8,583,309 31 13,313,222 73 6fi(S,Va 53 IMPORTS. FREE. DUTIABLE. TOTAL. $52,200,000 31,500,000 31,100,000 o;,6oo,ooo 69,756,268 81,436,104 75,379.406 68,551,700 79,069,148 91,252,768 111,363,511 76,333,3:13 64,60e,6fie 86,000,000 120,600,000 129,410,000 138,500,000 56,990,000 59,400,000 85,400,000 63,400,000 77,030,000 i9 1?^ 9 ^^ 16 16 14 10>4 ny. TO 2 10 25 ml FARMERS, MECHANICS, ETC., NEED PROTECTION. 391 TABLE— (7on«mu«rf. DATES. 1813— July 13 1814 1815 1816— April 27.. 1817 1818— April 20.. 1819— Marcli 3.. 1820 1821 1822 1823 1824— May 22.., 1826 1826 1827 1828— May 19... isao-^May'ad".'.! 1831 1832— July 14... 1833— March 2. 1S34 1838 1830 1837 1838 1839 1840 1841— Sept. 11.. 1842— Aug. 30.. 1843 1844 1845 1840— Aug. 0..., 1847 1848 1849 1850 1851 1852 1853 1864 1855 1856 1857— March 3. 1858 1859 1860 (Mar 2 1861-^ Aug. 5 I Dec. 24 1862— July l-l 1863— March 3 1864— June 30, 1866— March 3, fMar 1866-J M.^y (July 1867— March 2 TARIFFS. Suit . Milt, for proteC' tion Iron and alum. Wines Oeneral rise.. Min. extended. Coffee, tea, mo- lasseg Modifications.. Compromise.... CUSTOMS. } ir.l4) ly28J 1868 1869— Feb. 24.. Free list tax., Oeneral rise... Revenue tariff... General , General , General , Wool and wool- lens , Copper increas'd 113,224,624 6,998.772 7,282,942 36,306,874 26,283,348 17,176,385 20,283,608 16,006,612 18,475,703 24,066,066 22,402,024 25,486,817 31,6,53,871 26,0,33,861 27,948,956 29,951,251 27,688,701 28,389,606 36,896,118 29,341,175 24,177,.578 18,960,706 26,890,726 30,818,327 18,134,131 19,702,825 25,864,533 16,104,790 19,919,492 16,662,746 10,208,000 29,236,367 30,952,416 26,712,668 23,747.805 31,767,071 2S,.346,73'J 39,668,086 49,017,668 47,339,326 68,931,868 64,224,190 5>3,02.5,7<>4 64,022,863 63,875,905 41,789,621 49,565,824 63,187,511 IMPORTS. DUTIABLE. 39,582,1^-3 00 49,056,',98 69,0,59 642 102,316 1,53 84,928,260 $10,082,313 7,298,708 9,048,288 12,563,773 10,947,510 12,,567,769 11,856,104 12,379,176 11,805,601 12,746,245 13,456,625 14,249,4.53 32,447,950 68,393,180 77,940,493 92,056,481 69,250,031 60,800,00,0 76,401,792 67,196,204 66,019,731 30,627,486 35,574,584 24,766,881 22,147,840 $.52,503,411 75,242,833 08,530,979 67,986,234 86,392,5C>.5 72,406,708 67,628,964 76,130,648 62,687,026 88,130,675 89,734,499 86,779,813 75,670,361 88,128,162 71,965,249 97,023,554 71,739,186 52,>l,57,399 86,690,340 49,945,315 69,534,601 29,179,215 83,668,184 95,106,724 24,767,7;i0 96,924,058 104,773,002 132,282,325 12,5,479,774 15,5,427,936 $22,005,000 12,965,000 13,041,274 147,103,000 99,2.50,000 121,750,O(X) 87,125,000 74,4o0,(KK) 62,585,724 83,241 „541 77,,579,267 110,849,007 96,340,076 84,974,477 79,484,068 88,809,824 74,492,627 70,876,920 48.8 103,191,124140.8 101,029,266 33.8 31.9 32.6 36.0 :tl.6 25.3 108,118,31 1 I26.,521,:tt2 149,895,742 189,980,035 140,9>S9,217 113,7l7,4041.'i7.8 16i>,092,132l29.9 _ , , _ 107,141,519130.4 61,926,4461127,946,177 32.2 10O,162,0'<7i23.1 64,753,799135.7 108,435,0;!6i.35.1 n7,254,,564 121,691,797 146,.545,638 154,998,928 .32.5 147,857,439 ?.1 17S,1.'!8,318 41,772,6,36 22,716,665 22,377,614 22,710,382 26,106,587 29,692,934 31,383,534 33 285 8**1 4o|o90i3.36|22i;378;i84l26i;468;52O 56,955,706.257,684,236'314,639,942 66,729,306 294,16O,S35'36O,890,141 80,319,275 202,293,875,282,613,1,50 24 191,118,345 216,224,932 183,2,52,n0S;212,945.442 236,595,113 267,978,647 2,5.2 26 26 25 271,276,560:304,562,381123.6 79,721,116 259,047,014 90,841,749 279,872,327 *134,559,196 •91,603,491 44,826,629 218,180,191 18.3,843,458 208,09.",, SBl 338,768,130 362,166,254 352,739,387 *54,244,183l2"/6,"iO,951 179,046,630 00 54,329,588 69,728,618 176,417,811 164,464,599 180,048,426 19;,226,064 375,783,640 39,105,70;i;372,627,601 29,804,147 343,605,301 41,179,1721395,847,369 23 25 21.5 20 19 19 18.1 267 275,446,9.39 252,91 9,920|,3:i.2 329,505,131137.2 248,8.55,662|43.7 445,812,188147.00 40 ;»8.i 29 22.4 15 17.2 16.2 12.4 17.3 15.8 14.1 15.6 16.6 16.7 26.9 i:6.4 21.9 16.2 20.4 19" 122.3 22.6 22.2 22 21.1 20.3 20.3 17.7 14.8 14.6 14.7 11.2 17.7 . 23.7 31 34.2 40.2 411 ,73'>,309 47.34 373,4r9,44Sl47.86 437,Oi'.6,541l45.48 42.8 44 41.2 * In ttaete kmounti are Includ«i1 Importa into the louthern port! daring the war, rroiii wh(9h a* Nrn«a was derlrait, namely, in IMl, #17,08>,334 ; in IMl, $»o,189 ; and in IsM, $tfW. J i ^; » >' n ^' 111 THE VALUE OF AN IN EXPORTABLE CURRENCY. Speech Delivered in the House of Representatives, June 8th, 1870. The House being in session — Mr. Kelley said : The fifteen minutes allotted me will not be sufficient to enable me to examine in detail the bill before the House. But I beg leave to offer a few general suggestions on the subject. In the first place, permit me to say that the South and West need and ought to have increased bank- ing facilities and more bank currency. The Southern States have, if my memory is not at fault, but about two per cent., and the Southwestern States but about two and three-quarters per cent, of the national banking capital. They are entitled to more; and, in my judgment, it would be vastly to the benefit of the country if they could have considerably more. Banks are found to be a convenience in New England, New York, Pennsylvania, and elsewhere, and their increase would promote the convenience of the people of the West- ern and Southern States. They would facilitate the development of the country, and promote its local trade and the forwarding of the crops. If the bill before the House contained but the first section, providing for the creation of $95,000,000 of banking capital in addition to the amount the country now possesses, with provisions subjecting it to the general banking law, and requiring it "•to have as its basis a deposi'. of the bonds of the Govern- ment now extant or those hereafter to be issued, and limit- ing its distribution to those States which have not a proper proportion, I would vote for it. But I cannot sustain this bill ; it proposes to construct an inverted pyramid ; and I do not believe a thing of that form can be made to stand. The base ought to be broader than the apex and not narrower. The bill proposes to withdraw from the existing reserve of the banks tlie three per cent, certificates held by them and nearly fifty million 392 VALUE OF AN INEXPORTABLE CURRENCY. 393 dollars of greenbacks, and to issue $95,000,000 more national bank notes. This in itself would be a perceptible contraction. But the new banks in cities are required to hold a reserve equal to twenty-five per lent. of their cir- culation, and in the country fifteen per cent. These must necessarily consist of greenbacks. The effect would there- fore be a contraction that would be felt by every bank and business man in the country. Now, let me say with emphasis, in reply to gentlemen who maintain the opposite theory, that contraction is not the road to resumption, but rather to bankruptcy. Every $100,000 of your currency that you contract restrains the business, retards the development of the resources and diminishes the profits of the country. Gentlemen ask, how will you achieve resumption if you permit an expan- sion of bank paper ? Sir, I do not wish to attempt the impossible. I am not anxious to resume specie payments until the commercial relations of our country shall have improved. Few greater misfortunes could happen us than that under some impulse we should attempt resumption before the balance of trade shall be in favor of our country and large amounts of our bonds shall have been brought home from abroad. We owe $1,000,000,000 of overdue debt to Europe. It is not overdue from the Government, but from the people of the country. Our five-twenty bonds have not yet ma- tured. But if we should resume specie payments, and tempt the caprice or the cupidity of bankers, merchants, or manufacturers abroad to bring us to bankruptcy, all they would have to do would be to send ten, fifteen or twenty million dollars of bonds home, to be sold at market rates, by which they would make a profit on their original invest- ment and draw the purchase-money from us in gold. Sir, in view of our vast foreign indebtedness, our safety is in t lie fact that we conduct our domestic exchanges with a non-exportable currency. The gentleman from Illinois [Mr. Ingersoll] reminded us this morning of the fact that in 1857, when our banks were on a specie basis and con- ducted their business by specie payments, the draft of $7,- 000,000 of gold for Europe was the proximate cause of the great financial crisis of that year. And if, with our immense debt abroad and the balance of trade against us heavily as it is, we were to resume, the unexpected draft by our creditors of from seven to ten million dollars would i:. '■ . il ■'h J«''|-| 'f^l ! ■■ ^:i- *''- 894 VALUE OP AN INEXPORTABLE CURRENCY. bring us to suspension and widespreau commercial bank- ruptcy.* Let me contrast the financial history of 1866 with that of 1857, In 1866 gold did not enter into our currency ; it was a commodity. We were using a kind of money which you could not, according to the idea of the gentle- man from Ohio [Mr. Garfield], put into the melting pot and after heating it to red heat find that it retained its original value. We were dealing exclusively with paper money. The precious metals constituted no part of our circulating medium. Yet in the month of May in that year England drew from us more than three times the sum that had produced the suspension in 1857. She took from us in the month of May, 1866, $23,744,194 ; in June, $15,890,956 more; and in July, $5,821,459 more. Yet we sustained the draft in three successive months — one quarter of the year 1866— of $45,456,609 in gold, and it created not a ripplo in our immense, complicated and profitable domestic trade.f No bank failed, no leading house suspended, no railroad company was embarrassed. The business of the country went on growing and prosper- ing as though no collapse had occurred in England, and no draft had been made on us. Why was it ? It was, as I have said, because our money was non-exportable ; and unable to cripple us by contracting our currency, our creditor satisfied himself with taking a supply of one of the productions of the country. It was, as the gentleman from Ohio [Mr. Garfield], the learned chairman of the committee, has said, because our money is as national as our flag. It is money wherever that flag floats supreme ; it is money for all the purposes of the countless domestic exchanges between our citizens over all our broad land and in no other. Mr. Oarfield, of Ohio. How is it when it floats on the sea? Mr. Kelley. It is still money. When it floats under our flag on the sea it settles the seamen's wages and the pay of the officers. Beyond the sea, in foreign lands, it fortunately is not money: but, sir, when have we had such a long and un- broken career of prosperity in business as since we adopted this noh-exportable currency ? When we were paying specie we had, at almost regular intervals of about seven * This would have been accoinpliahed, beyond a peradventure, within the sixty days immediately following the utterance of these words, by reason of a net loss of the precious metals, by export, in July 1870, of $17,313,763 conse. quent upon the declaration of war between France and Germany. t See statement in regard to the exports of the precious metals for the fiscal year 1870-71, note, p, 132, ante. VALUE OF AN INEXPORTABLE CURRENCY. 895 years, crises that extended from one end of the country to the other, prostrating every branch of our internal trade and productive industry, and affecting our foreign com- merce. These financial revulsions were brought about whenever the debtor nation needed money, as was the case in 1857. So it would be again with $1,000,000,000 of over-due indebtedness and the balance of trade heavily against us every year, if we should be tempted or forced by artificial means into the resumption of specie payments. Resumption, under existing circumstances, would be sheer madness. It would doom many of the enterprising men of this generation who by their energy are adding to the wealth and power of the country to struggle for the re- mainder of their lives in poverty, or to escape from har- assing creditors through the provisions of the bankrupt law. I am not an expansionist, but I do not fear a slight ex- pansion. The volume of currency does not, as is so often asserted, regulate the price of commodities. We have as much currency today as we had in 1866. It is true that some compound-interest notes were then held by the banks as reserve ; it is true that more of the three per cent, cer- tificates were then held as reserve, which have been ex- tinguished. But let me also call attention to the fact that during last year and the latter part of the preceding year and the months that have passed of the present year, our receipt of foreign gold has increased, our production has been large, and the shipments of specie have been much diminished ; and that as this also enters into the bank reserve we have probably as great or a greater volume of currency than we had in 1866. But how have prices been affected ? Are they as high as they then were ? No, sir. I ask gentlemen from the West how the price of wheat compares to-day with the price in 1866 ? I ask gentlemen from New England how the prices of cotton and woolen goods compare with those of 1866 ? You can now buy cotton and woolen goods of almost every form and character for currency at as low prices as you could buy them for gold in 1860, and for much less than you could in 1866. You can buy wheat at prices corresponding with "-hose of the period before the war. But in 1866 wheat commanded double its present price ; and the special Commissioner of Revenue delighted in holding up the high price of cotton and woolen goods and attributing it to the expanded condition of the K ^'} l.t ; 1 t :: t-: si '\ . I-.: i 396 VALUE OP AN INEXPORTADLE CURRENCY. currency. It was also the delight of Secretary McCullough to set forth in his annual reports the eft'ect of the inflated currency upon the prices ot various commodities. '^I'here is scarcely an American product save beef and pork timt is not as cheap now as it was in 1860, and which is not vastly lower in price than it was under the same volume of currency in 1866, and the price of beef and pork comes down each year, as the destruction the war made of breed- ing stock is repaired. I hope that this bill will be recommitted, with instruc- tions to the committee to report a b' ' extending the banking system through the South and "^ ,' est, to the extent of from seventy-five to ninety million dollars, under the general provisions of ihe banking law, and providing that tl bonds deposited as the basis of the circulation shall be those already in existence or hereafter to be issued by the Government. I believe such a measure would stimulate every industry, and that with such a measure carried out, some of the banks east of the Hudson might be willing to surrender either their charters or their currency. It would accomplish at any rate an equalization of banking facilities without a sudden or .violent disturbance. It could injure no section of the country ; it would benefit all its parts and people. Sir, look at the present condition of California. I hold her up as an illustration of the point I am making, that an adequate volume of currency is essential to the employ- ment of the people and the development of the country. With all the resources of that region, the like of which are not to be found upon the face of the earth, her working people, to the number of thousands, are idle. They con- gregate in the streets of San Fr-incisco and other cities iu want and idleness. Why ? Not because there are not adequate and profitable fields for their employment, but because there is not currency enough in California, which rejects paper money, to enable men of enterprise to engage in new undertakings. Using nothing but gold as a cur- rency, they restrain in equal degree their enterprise and the development of the resources of their State. As well might gentlemen maintain that no more than a fixed number of pound weights or yard sticks should be used as that no more than a fixed number of dollars should be permitted to exist. Each of them is but a convenient instrument of trade, for the want of an adequate supply of which the public must sufifer. , T'W i > * ( i 1 .' I •' JUDGE KELLEY'S ACCEPTANCE OP THE NOMINATION FOR CONGRESS. On Saturday, July 2d, 1870, Messrs. James Niell.William Sellers, A. M. Eastwick, John Dobson, A. Hanline, B. T. Roberts, and William Matthews, the committee appointed at the late Republican Con- gressional Convention of the Fourth District, visited Judfje Kelley at his residence, and informed him of his rcnominaticn to Congress. Mr. Niell, Chairman of the committee, addressed him as follows : " We meet you to discharge a duty committed to us by the Con- vention of Congressional Delegates of the Fourth District, held June 15, that of tendering to you (now for the sixth time) the nomination as their representative in Congress, and also of presenting a series of resolutions, which not only convey the high estimate your consti- tuents put upon your public services, but endorse the manly position assumed by you in your letter of March 8th, now known through- out the country.* " In making you this tender we frankly confess to have been gov- erned by selfish motives. To d(;cline it, we are well aware, would be to secure to yourself more ease, larger remuneration for your valu- able labors, as well as exemption from a thousand perplexities incident to your present position, but for your constituents it would be an irreparable loss. 'J'o you they look, as heretofore, for * The letter referred to was a protest against certain evils which from long practice had the apparent sanction of law. Its substance is contained in the following extract: " If, therefore, the acceptance of a rcuotnination is to be understood as imply- ing a willingness on my part to bo longer regarded as an t.nployment agent, I must beg leave to decline the honor, grateful as I would be to receive it freed from this condition, and tendered in so complimentary a manner. I assure you, my dear sirs, I appreciate most profoundly the honor done mo by your letter. I regard the frequent re-election of a citizen to Congress by the people among whom his life has passed as intrinsically the highest honor that can bo conferred under our Qovernmjnt, and would be willing to make great personal sacrifices to be its recipient. Permit mo, therefore, •" "uggest that it may be possible that the Republican 'oters of the Fourth district, having had this great and growing evil brought to their attention, will condemn and endeavor to ex- tirpate it. This could be done by electing a norainiiting convention which would approve a pmper civil service bill, and instruct the candidate nominated to make its principles his rule of action if elected ; or would adopt a resolution deprecating the interference of Representatives in the selection of subordinate employes in the public offices and workshops. If this can be done, and the Representative can be permitted to devote his time to the study of the important questions now at issue, and the support of the great interests at stake, I will waive all personal objections, and gratefully comply with your request by placing myself in your hands as a candidate for renomination." 397 Pt, I! f V. ^■: XH 398 li < I mi ' f' ■ JUDOK KELLEY's ACCEPTANCK. the flucccsst'ul defence of that system of protection to American in- dustry which has nmJo your district one of the most prosperous in the country. Wo rcfyard the next Congress as among the most im- portant ever held, when great questions of national policy will bo discussed and settled, and your services having been of the highest value in the past, tliey will be more so in the immediate future. " You were never so well qualified to grapple witi> the difliculties before us as now; you never occupied a prouder position timn now; and we never needed you more than at present. As Mr. Lincoln said to the peopk m his second election, so we aay to you— we liavo no disposition to trade horses in the middle of the stream; and when you have borne your burden to the otlier shore , we have no disposi- tion to trade even there. We hope, therefore, you will accept the nomination, pledging ourselves to use our best efforts to give you a triumphant return to your seat in Congress." Judge Kelley said in reply : Mr. Chairman and Oentlcmen of the Committee : Permit me to thank you for the generous expressions you liave been pleased to use toward me in performing the duty con- fided to you by the convention. You but do me Justice in assuming that if I could have retired from public life at the close of the present Congress, without ingratitude or indif- ference to the wishes of a constituency that, through more than twenty-seven years has, by its many expressions of confidence, sustained me in the discharge of the duties of high public trusts, I would gladly have done so. It seemed to me to be a fitting time to retire. But I should indeed be wanting in sensibility were I not profoundly gratified by the manner in which my renomination was made, and by the unanimous adoption by the convention of the resolution approving the position I assumed in my letter of March 8th. While, therefore, I cannot say that I gladly accept the honor you tender me, I would be wanting in candor if I did not assure you that I do it with just pride and a renewed determination to prove myself worthy of the confidence of so generous a constituency. The deoade with which I entered Congress has been well rounded. The momentous issues which then over- shadowed the country have been settled. The Union, cemented by the blood of thousands of the country's bravest and best men, remains united and indivisible. They who were then slaves now enjoy the rights and exercise the prerogatives of citizenship. The importance of this change is not generally appreciated. Good men hail its accom- plishment as a grand act of justice, and economical science will soon establish its value as a measure of policy. Slavery \m JUDGE KELLKV'S ACCEPTANCK. 809 excluded free paid labor from tlio fleldn and mines of tho Soutii, to which freedom welcomes them, and, by the com- plete enfranchisement of the slaves, several hundred thou- sand votcri have been added to those of the [)roducing classes, by which they may so much the better ^uard their rights in legislative halls. Tho workingmen of the coun- try will appreciate the importance of this change in tho near future. New issues have arisen, and they are almost as grave as were those wo have thus happily settled. The great ques- tion with which we have to deal is not a national but an international one. The parties are not to be summoned by bugle call, or marched to the music of the rolling drum and ear-piercing fife. Their movements will be determined by the average rates of wages for labor, and the measure of education and chances in life offered to the children of laborers. The historian of the current decade will dwell less- upon armies, navies, and ministerial changes, than upon the apportionment of taxes and impost duties,, the ebb and flow of immigration, and the relative develop- ment of the mineral resources of the countries of which he shall write. The contest is for the commercial inde- pendence of the United States or the supremacy of England. The iminimmt question for the statesman is how to cheapen all that contributes to the support of hun.an life, while enhancing the value of life by increasing the rewards of labor. This will, in my judgment, be best, accomplished by that nation which, by the well-paid labor of its people produces most of its supplies from raw materials found within its limits ; or which, in the language of a quaint old English writer, " sets at work all the poor of the country with the growth of its own lands." Controlled by this theory, I have labored to reduce the schedule of internal taxes with which our in- • ustry, enterprise and capital are burdened; to reduce the duties on tea, coffee and spices, which we all consume but none produce, and to put on tho. free list every species of raw material for manufactures vhich we do not produce. Much of this has been done. The Senate is still engaged upon the bill, but it has gone far enough to justify me in assuring you that you will, by the legislation of this ses- sion, be relieved of at least $70,000,000 of taxes.* » The bill, iis it was adoptiul, repeals taxes which yielded over $80,000,000 revenue during their last ye:ir. 1i! K. f I.': ;i 400 .rfjDOE kkllry's acceptance. Tlio rocont experience of Enj^land is giving new nnd HtnrtIi(l^' confirmation to the theorie.s I niiiintain. Till within a (luartor of n century she was the most protective of nations, and enjoyed the proud titles of" Mistress of the Sea," and " Workshop of the World." Keeping iior people employed on her raw material, she found in every land a market for her coal, limestone, iron ore, wool, and the I.iUor that had wrought them into articles of utility. But (!a[>ti- vated by the glittering HO[)hismii of free traders, she re- pealed her protective duties, and subjc^cted her industries to competition witli those of Franco, Belgium, Prussia and Austria, whoso workmen are paid little more than half the wages reccMvcul even by the underpaid British arlizan. The experiment has been fatal to many of her industries. 0})serve this pile of recent books and pamplilcts, each of wliich bears the im|)rint of Loi; Ion or Manchester. They are eight distinct and intelligent protests against a system which, ill twenty-five years, has ,'educed P^ngland from her commanding position to that of i mere carrier, and exporter of skilled workmen, raw wool, fi id coal, and manufactures but little advanced, such as vara and pig-iron. There are men who would force free trade upon this country, and compel our mechanics to compete with those whose inade- quate wages have enabled their emjjloyers to undermine almost every branch of industry in England, low as her wages are in comparison with those received by the Amer- ican workman. I cannot refrain from detaining you by citing brief passages from two of these books. Sir Edward Sullivan, in his " Protection to Native Industry," published in February last, says : "France, Belpium, Switzerland, Prussia and America have in- creased materially in wealth and prosperity during the last twenty years : capital has flowed steadily and with increased rapidity into them ; new manufactures have sprung up, existing industries have increased, trade has flourished, speculation and enterprise have taken the place of apathy and want of confidence. All this has taken place under a system of rigid protection. During the same period England, under a half and half system of free trade, has also in- creased her commerce, but not in any degree in the same proportion. Our industries are everywhere depressed ; many of them have left us, or are fast doing so ; trade and manufactures that we once mo- nopolized, are springing tip elsewhere under the fostering care of protection ; the confidence of our manufacturers is shaken ; a spirit of discontent and imeasiness depresses the operative. Now, is this decline of manufacturing prosperity in England, as compared with the increasing prosperity of manufacturing industries tliroughont tiie rest of Europe and America, a natural consequence of the spread JUDOK KELLKY's ACCKI'TANCE. 401 of capital ntid loinmiiriicutioii, or is it tlio rcHiiIt ol" our tliiDwiiiff open our portH to Toroij^n cninpotition, roitovinK nil protection from our nulivo induHtrics, and brinj^iriff into fompotitioti willi our extra- vaf^ant workuieii and dour labor the cheaper pro(hictionH of moro economical communitieH 7 " In this book, " ITorno Politics, or the Growth of Trado, con.sidored ir> its llohitions to Labor, Pauporism, and Kmi- Juration," which appeared in March last, Mr. Daniel Grant in confirmation of Sir Kdvvard's allegations, says : " At the outset of this book the question was asK'cd, ' IIow are the people to find work and food?' And this (|uestion is forced upward ft*om the condition in which Kuj^land stands to-day. Wo luivc an enorinoHH pauper population, and a population still ffreatcr just above pauperism. We have an export tra tisually removed from tho impulses which guide jmblic life, arc looking around them and saying ' Where is this to end?' It is known that manufacturers are wasting the fortunes which they had amassed in the past, in the endeavor to keep on their mills at half time. It is known that every kind and every class of employment are not only filled to overflowing, but the ap- plicants are hopeless in their endeavors to obtain work. In the streets of London men are to l>e found l)y thousands, who are ready to toil and cannot find tho work to do, anil as week passes week fresh circumstances continually crop nj), showing that underneath all this there are states of destitution still more terrible ; and it is thus that the question comes fairly home, how is this to end ? " So regardless of the rights of our laboring people are the free-traders, or revenue reformers, as they cull them- selves in this country, that, in full view of the effect of free trade upon the laboring classes of England, they would prostrate flourishing and leading industries by repealing the duties on coal, salt, lumber, pig-iron, etc. They would do this, they say, to give the workman cheap coal, salt, and other commodities. To the unemployed workman whose rent is due, and who has not the means to buy a meal, it is of not much importance whether the price of a ton of coal or salt is a few cents more or less. What he wants is steady work and fair wages. Without these his life is a waste and his family a burden, though he lovea them ever so tenderly. 26 K f , r ■> ■ i ' .! i . :|i 402 JUDGE KELLEY's ACCEPTANCE. Let me, as an illustration, consider the coal question for a moment. We have more coal than all other civilized nations combined. Its measures stretch across the conti- nent from Rhode Island and North Carolina to Mount Diablo, near the Bay of San Francisco, and around the ex- tended shores of Puget Sound. It also abounds in the British Provinces on both coasts. Its production and transportation are among the great industries of our country, and give em- ployment to many thousands of men and support to their families and the villages in which they dwell. They feed on American grain and meat, and are clad in American wool, spun and woven by American labor. Their product is carried over our railroads and canals, and when trans- ported by sea, gives employment to American-built vessels. There is a duty of $1.25 per ton on foreign coal imported into this country. The wages paid in the British Provinces do not equal ours by one half, nor are the provinces bur- dened by our war debt and taxes ; and we derive every year about $500,000 duty in gold from the importation of foreign coal. It is mined by men who leed on provin- cial grain, and wear English cloth, hats, and shoes, and is brought, to our ports by vessels built with the cheap labor of the Provinces. What benefit could possibly accrue to any of our laboring people by removing the duty on coal, stimulating its importation, and robbing the treasury of half a million dollars an aually ? I freely confess that I am too dull to see it. But I detain you too long. As I have said, I accept with pride the nomination you so handsomely tender me, and pledge myself to continued endeavors to prove myself worthy of the confidence you and those you represent so generously bestow. I ti^- f! 1 LETTER ON THE CHINESE QUESTION. P^i John C. Libe, Esq., Recording Secretary of Science Council of the Order oj United /American Mechanics : Dear Sir: Your favor covering the circular which you inform me you were instructed by your Council to trans- rait to me, with the request that I would " favor the mem- bers of the Council with my views upon the questions embodied therein," is at hand It is to be regretted that neither your note nor the circular propounds a question. The latter, however, embraces the preamble and resolutions adopted by the Council on the 5th of July last, which have reference to a question of great public and private interest. Having bestowed much consideration upon the subject to which they relate, I am grateful to the members of your Council for the opportunity thus aftbrded me of expressing my views thereon to so numerous and intelligent a body of my fellow-citizens as the members of the Order of United American Mechanics. The preamble and resolutions assert that " a movement has been inaugurated in nei;(hboring States to introduce Chinese labor on an extensive scale into this country, and that such movement, if successful, must operate to the great disadvantage of the American mechanic and labor- ing man," anu that "the lime has arrived" when the members of your order should "use every exertion and exercise all the influence in their power to prevent the carrying out of this iniquitous and unjust measure." These propositions, I believe, involve the questions on which you request an expression of my views. It is proper that, before proceeding to the consideration of details, I should say that I believe that humanity and the true interests of all the people of our broad, richly endowed and diversified, but thinly settled country, re- 403 -IS * i*; 404 LETTER ON THE CHINESE QUESTION. m IS' ^1 quire us to welcome such o*" the people of all other coun- tries as may, in pursuance of their own choice, come to dwell among us, adopt our language and habits, and help us to develop our dormant resources and maintain our republican institutions. Buf this proposition, broad as it is, does not cover tliose who may be brought hither by force or decoyed by false representation, for the purpose of being used, without regard to their rights or those of the people at large. For instance, it does not embrace such as may be found to have been brought as slaves were in the early days of the Republic from Africa, or coolies were from India prior to the Act of February 19, 1862, entitled " An Act to pro- hibit the coolie trade by American citizens in American vessels," the text of which may be found on page 145 of 2d Brightly's Digest. Though but a new mem be" 'it the date of its pas.«age by the House of Representatives, it was my privi- lege to co-operate with its distinguished author, the late Hon. T. Dawes Eliot, in procuring the enactment of this humane law. Nor, again, does my proposition apply to those who, being ignorant of our language ar 1 of the ordinary rate of wages paid for labor and the ( 'st of living in this country, are seduced into coming here under a contract for years of labor for wages which, though in advance of those they might earn at home, are insufficient U)r the support of an American mechanic and the maintenance of his children while obtaining the education due to them in our common schools. Our laws should seer. re to the victims of such wrongs the amplest met ns of redress, and, at least, enable them to return to their native laud at the cost of the wrong-doer. The coolie trade was suppressed by law because it v/as a system of violence and n^hbery ; and as the system by which Koopmanscliap and others are attempting to induce hordes of Chinese laborers to come to this country, under contract to work for wages upon which they cannot live as American workingmen should live, is an organized system of deception and fraud, it should be reprobated by our laws as sternly as the other has been. You will observe that my opposition to organized efforts to stimulate Chinese emigration to this country is not based on hostility to the Chinese, but that it arises from their ignorai '3e of the value and current price of the services they contract to render, of the habits of our work- • " LETTER ON THE CHINESE QUESTION. 405 ill '! ,1| , ing people, and :,(' the general cost of living in this coun- tr} ; and that, coming as mere sojourners, to return at the expiration of a contract, they will be unencumbered by the expense of a family, or civic or social duties, and can afford to work for wages that will not enable an American citizen to maintain a home and educate his children as republican institutions require. The constant aim of American statesmansliip should he to secure to labor such a shar". of its production as may enable each laborer to make 2^'>'Ovision for age or adversity. Our country is so broad, and embraces such an infinite variety of soil, climate and resources that, had we the population and skill to convert every descjription of our raw material and avail ourselves of the diversities of our soil and climate, we might supply our own wants and maintain a rate of wages independent of those of other countries. But so long as part of our workshops are beyond the seas, and we depend on foreign shops for a large part of our manu- factured goods, our rates of wages must be affected by those of other countries.* Chinese wages are, I believe, lower than those paid in any other civilized country. American wages are the highest, and the two rates cannot be maintained in the same community. The attempt on an extended scale to commingle them would be as disastrous to the capital as it v'ould to the labor of the country. It would unsettle prices and cause anarchy in trade. A little reflection will satisfy any experienced business man on this point, as the * How thoroughly British capitalist:? understand the effect of our higher wages upon the prices of commodities, and the inadequacy of the existing tariff, especially on iron, to counter-balance this difference, is shown by the following extract from Ryland's Iron Trade Circular (Birmingham, England), of July 1st, 1871: " Notwithstanding the efforts which many of our foreign customers are mak- ing to develop their own iron trade, we as yet. do not seem to suffer. The most important of these efforts is that made by the United States of America. Wo have o.'ten called attention to the remarkable development of the American iron trade, .T.d the possibility of the people of that great country supplying them- selves entirely with their own iron. America teems with the raw material, and it only waits the hand of man to dig the ore, to smelt and puddle the iron, and to turn it into all the varieties of the finished article. S-j far America, no doubt, could supply the world with the whole of its requirements, and could thus close fie English trade altogether. But as long ng the labor market in the United States remains in its present condition, so long will the English iron trade maintuin its hold upon that country. American capitalists are not at all anxious to '.nvcst in the iron trade, notwithstanding its ^strong protective tariff, and while inbor forms ninety per cent, of every ton of manufactured iron, and when this item is of fur greater value in the States than it is in our own country, it is quite impossible for the Aint,r'cans to compete with us even with such a highly protective tariff as thi.y now enjoy." <*tt '• W'-i: .- H k] * \ :• 1^ 406 LETTER ON THE CHINESE QUESTION. employer who paid Chinese wages could always undersell those in the same business who sought to enable their workmen to live as American citizens should live, by pay- ing them our customary wages for their work. Sir Edward Sullivan, in his recent noble appeal for the working people of England, entitled " Protection to Native Industry," says : " Wages in France, Belgium, Prussia, Austria, and Switzerland are from thirty to fifty per cent, lower than in England ; rent, clothing, food, beer, taxes and general charges are all in the same proportion ; the habits of the people are economical in the extreme ; the manufacturers have as much capital, science and enterprise, and the operatives as much skill and intelligence and technical educa- tion and industry as we have ; they get tlieir raw materials very nearly at the same price as we do. The question is, Can our manufacturers, with higher wages, higher rates and taxes, higher general charges, and our operatives, with dearer food, dearer clo- thing, dearer house rent and extravagant habits, produce as cheaply as they can?" Let us press Sir Edward's point a little further, and apply it to the question under consideration. A report just made to the Treasury Department, by Mr. Edward Young, Chief of the Bureau of Statistics, shows that English wages are as far below ours as those of conti- nental States are below those of England. The report appears to have been compiled from ample data and with great care, and makes due allowance for the difference between gold and our currency and the number of hours of labor required for a Aveek's pay. Without detaining you with too many examples, let me say that this official report shows that operatives in cotton mills in the New England and Middle States, exclusive of overseers, receive 39.9 per cent, more than in England, and that in the case of overseers the excess is 74.3 per cent. The comparison of the wages paid in woolen mills is made from a wider field, as this branch of industry is grow- ing rapidly in the West. It embraces the mills of Vir- ginia, Indiana, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Kansas, as well as those of the Middle and New England States, and shows tnat the " average advance of wages paid in the United States in 1869 over those of England in 1867-68 (both in gold) was 24.86 per cent." The rates paid in American paper mills, including those to boys and females, as ascertained from the mills of New England, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illi- nois and Wisconsin, are 82 per cent, greater than in Eng- LETTER ON THE CHINESE QUESIIOX. 407 land. And, as the last illustration drawn from Mr. Young's report with which I will detain you, workmen in iron founderies and in machine shops throughout New Eng- land, the Middle and Western States, and California receive for their labor 86 per cent, more than is paid in England. Thus it appears that though the average English opera- tive receives for his work nearly double the wages paid his continental competitor, he gets on an average little more than half as much as he would for the same work in this country. The welfare of our country, both present and ultimate, requires the maintenance of our scale of wages, and its advance whenever and wherever it is prac- ticable. But how is this to be accomplished ? How can the present rates be defended against competition with the productions of the underpaid laborers of England and the continent? I believe that a protective tariff is the only possible defence of our rate of wages. While the underpaid labor is performed in foreign countries, we may defend the wages of the American mechanic against competition b imposing upon its productions, when im- ported into this country, duties equal to the difference between our wages and the lowest rates paid in competing countries. An adequately protective tariff' is the American work- man's sole defence against ruinous competition by the un- derpaid workmen of foreign countries. But if French, Belgian, German, Austrian or English mechanics could be brought to this country under contract to work for three, five or seven years for such wages as they receive at home, how could the wages of the American workman be de- fended against the destructive competition ? I freely ad- mit that I cannot see how it might be done. Can you or any member of your council show me ? No tariff" or otlier law can protect wages against home competition, and I am, therefore, opposed to permitting the importation of men who have contracted to work in our midst for a term of years at such wages as are paid in China, Austria, Bel- gium, Germany or England. The prevalence of such a system would, as 3'our resolutions assert, "greatly reduce the pay for skilled labor, and thereby lessen the family comforts of the great body of the American people." " Buy where you can buy cheapest," is a cardinal maxim of fref traders and revenue reformers. It is plausible, but 1} 11 1 i ' .-' li * • i ■ ! 408 LETTER ON THE CHINESE QUESTION. delusive. If applied to labor, it would bring Chinese workmen to us by the million. Yet the free trade agita- tors, both in and out of Congress, when vindicating this maxim, assert that the tariff which protects his wages and his chances for steady work, injures the workingman by /iicreasing the price of the commodities he consumes. I'hey also say that in addition to cheapening what he con- sumes, the laborer's market would be increased by a re- duction of his wages, as we could then increase our com- merce and ship our goods to foreign countries in compe- tition with European manufacturers. To the thoughtless and inexperienced this is all very plausible,, But with your experience and observation, you must perceive that to reduce the price of our goods low enough to accom- plish this would require us to reduce our wages below the English standard, as the cheaper labor of France, Belgium, Switzerland, Germany and Austria is restricting her ex- ports and driving the productions of England out of com- mon markets. " Buy where you can buy the cheapest," the only doctrine by which the employment of coolie labor in this country can be justified, is not only ruining the working people of England, but uprooting many of her industries which were believed to be established on impregnable foundations, and thus involving the laborer and capitalist in a common ruia. To attain cheapness she repealed, not only the duties imposed on food, but those which protected her labor against the competition of the lower wagi^s of the continent. She entered enthusiasti- cally upon the experiment of Iree trade, and has persisted in it for about a quarter of a century. What has been the result of this race for cheap labor and cheap goods? Its consequences have been su^h as I hope our country may long escape. British exports are not only stationary, but declining, and poverty and pauperism have increased •so rapidly that the people of Great Britain are no longer able to consume their own productions as freely as they formerly could, and the demaod for labor falls off under the double influence of both declining export trade and home consumption.* * A correspondent of the N. Y. Tribune writing from London, March 11th, 1871, said: " It is stated that M. Thiers declined M. Bismarck's proposals for a treaty of commerce between France and Germany on the ground ' that France would be compelled to restore the equilibrium of her finances by a high tarifiF.' In making this declaration, the distinguished French statesman was not only foreshadow- LETTER ON THE CHINESE QUESTION. 409 In his recent work, "Ilome Politics, or the Growth of Trade Considered in its Kchition to Labor, Pauperism and Emigration," Mr. Daniel Grant demonstrates the correct- ness of these assertions by presenting from the highest offi- cial sources tlie number of England's paupers, and the value of her exports for the three latest years for which the figures had been compiled. They are as follows : l'nii|K'r». Exports. . 1866 920,H44 £188,917,586 1867 958.824 181,183,971 1868 1,004,823 179,463,644 iiig a commercial policy in harmony with his nntcccdcnts as ii strong Protectio- nist, but ono absolutely forced upon his country by the exigencies of her position. To obtain the revenue which Franco now finds herself compelled to raise, she must resort to the most stringent measures; and there is no form of impost at once 80 productive and so little burdensome to the mass of the people ns a high tariff. The remark is trite,- but no man feels an indirect tax as he does a direct one. A moderate, or even a considerable enhancement in the price of various commodities, will bo borne with far more patience than a house, property, or income-tax, which must be paid, at stated intervals, in hard cash. " It is a curious fact ; but, when France has reversed her commercial policy, as she proposes to do, England will be the only great manufacturing country in Europe — I might say in the world — which still adheres to Free Trade. Even her own colonies — thoso at least, in which the people are allowed self-govern- ment, such as Canada and Australia — have deliberately adopted a Protective Tariff. As to England herself, she has now tried Free Trade for several years, and with what result? In the opinion of Cobden and the Manchester schorl of political economists, it was to be a panacea for every ill. The loom was to bo ever busy ; the workshop ever full! Well ! such an utter prostration of business as has existed in thin country for the last five years has not been known since 1840. It is true this state of things cannot bo exclusively attributed to Free Trade. But if Free Trade be not altogether responsible for the stagnation of business, it has certainly not in any way moditied, but, on the contrary, in a considerable degree intensified the distress which has arisen from it. Numerous branches of industry have been seriously affected, while some, like the naper and silk manufactures, have been all but completely ruined by the present tao labor has prepared the article for the market, whether the article be domestic or for- eign. But this narrow, short-sighted policy would, if persisted in, ultimately defeat itself. At present, there is an enormous amount of accumulated wealth in England, and the evil of the mass of non-workers (for pauperism is fright- fully on the increase), who have to be supported by the workers, is only partially felt by the community at large; aud scarcely at all by the law> making class." i 1 ^ 1 t I) ■'■'I 4 -A 410 LETTER ON THE CHINE3E QUESTION. m Mm M After commenting upon the fact that more than one thousand paupers are each week added to the already ter- rible list, Mr. Grant savc> : "Even this large increase doK' not indicate the exact extent of poverty — it points to the still tvidcr field of misery that exists among the classes from which pauperism is fed. Let any one think whut is the state of deslituliuu through whicli a man passus before he is willing to accept relief and allow himself to be branded as a pauper. Those who know the working classes beat know tlie pro- found abhorrence they entertain of the workhouse. Any privation, any sorrow, any destitntion rather than that; and the natural in- ference is thit the prcfe ure of want is not only severe, but has been long enough oiistained to have s^ept away all articles of clothing, as well as all liousehold goods, before the sufferers bend to their I'ute." Thufi deplorable has been the efFect upon the laboring classes of England of the determination of her people to accept the glittering fuF .cies of the free irade school of economists, and buy labor and its products where they can buy them rjheapc 3t. Let us now glance for a moment at t\w. (,Tect it has had upon capital invested in special in- dustriec. It was soon discovered that the surface ores of the copper mines of Peru, which are dug by peons — an- other n^^me for slaves — were cheaper than those of the deep mines of Cornwall and Devonshire. These latter, with all their machinery, have consequently been abandoned, and such of the miners employed in them as had saved suffi- cient to pay their passage have emigrated, and the balance with their families have gone to the workhouse. The ma- nufacture of silk had made prosperous towns of Coventry and Macclesfield, but Lyons and Paris could undersell them, and regardless of the interests of their toiling coun- trymen, "the nobility and gentry" of England, looking only to the interests of the consumer, bought where they could buy cheapest, and the silk-milL of Coventry and Macclesfield, with their expensive machiner}', became worthless, and many cf the people v;ho had found employ- ment in them went to the workhousu also. I could refer to scores of such instances, but they will occur to your own mind, and I will proceed to an illustration of a more general character. Having heard that the home consumption c'' British cottons had, v/ithin a few years, fallen off thirty-five per cent., I wrote to a friend who Las residea in England for some years to learn whether the statement was based on a mere e&timate or was ra nscertained fact. I could not LETTER ON THE CHINESE QUESTION. 411 credit the assertion. My correspondent, however, sent me copies of elaborate tables from a paper prepared and read before the Manchester Statistical Society by Mr. Eli- jah Helms, which was printed by the society. By com- paring the home consumption of British cottons during the years 1866-7--8 with that during 1859-60-61, Mr. Helms shovvs that the decrease in that brief period had been equal to 211,933,000 pounds of raw cotton, or thirty- five per cent. I have also before me an able pamphlet, by a Cotton Manufacturer, entitled " An Inquiry into the Cause of the long-continued Depression of the Cotton Trade." which was published in London and Manchester in the latter part of last year, in which the fact is again proven. After spreading before his readers a large array of oflicial figures the author says : " The case stands as follows : Our entire exports of cotton goods to all conntrics liave increased six per cent. ; to India they have de- creased thirteen per cent.; to the four principal continental coun- tries they have increa .cl forty-five per cent. ; while the imports from these four countries have fallen off two and a half per cent. At the same time our home irade, which should have been our prin cipal support, lias fallen off thirty-five per cent." The facts I have thus hastily thrown together address themselves not only to the artisan and laborer, but to the farmer and him whose capital is employed in any branch of productive industry. What each wants is a steady and remunerative market for that which he has to sell, and thi.^ cannot be had when that great mass of consumers who live by toil are compelled, as they are in other coun- tries, to labor for the least amount ol compensation that will serve to keep body and soul together, without an as- piration or a hope that is to be realized this side of the grave. No amount of foreign trade would compensate the farmers and manufacturers of the United States for the curtailment of their home market that would inevi- tably follow the reduction of our wages even to the Eng- lish standard. To whose industry, enterprise or capital can the more than one million English paupers give pro- fitable employment? Or, who can sell his goods to that more numerous class from which Mr. Grant says "pauper- ism is fed," r.nd who are selling "all articles of clothing, as well as household goods " In the vain hope of escaping the workhouse ? Do you think that they know much about the color and quality of American wheat, or eveu . )' »l M i'[': ■■ i if 'i-i ^; f! n 412 LETTER ON THE CHINESE QUESTION. of tlio flftvor of the beef or mutton of "Merrio Ktmland," or aro liberal patrons of any brancih of industry ? Tho apostles of free trade regard the value of a nation's exports as the tost of its prosperity. They worship for- eign trade and eomrnerce. From this test I dissent. That • nation i.t most tnih/ prosperous which has fewest paupers^ the freest domeatie commerce^ and whose peojde are able to enjoy most lar(/eh/ the comforts and luxuries of life as the rewards of their labor, even though it have no foreign trade. To pro- mote foreign trade free traders would cheapen goods, although it is ujjparcnt that to cheapen them sufTiciently to enable us to take her customers from England, and so increase our trade, we must reduce our wasres to a point below those she pays, as we must underbid her in order to induro\vth of trade, and in one sense the first exliibition aided this. Men who for years had known each other by name came to know each otlier as a matter of fact, and thus built up relations that pro- duced a mutual good. The mere prestige of the ' world's bazaar' brou^rlit men from every quarter of the habitable world, and they carried away with thera to their distant homes the memory of Eng- lish productions, that bore fruit then and lias borne fruit since. At the time, among the whole of our manufacturers, it was recognized as an unchallengable fact that the exhibition had stimulated trade, that orders were plentiful, and that its success was great. ■'The statistics do more than bear this point out; the bound in our expoi's is both clear and decisive. It ^vill be necessary to notice here that the direct results of tlie exhibition would not be manifest until the year after it closed, and would most probably ex- tend twelve months beyond. The exhibition did not close until the end of the year ; the orders given during the time would be delivered partly in the year 18.t1. and partly in 1852, and the return orders some months later, so that the effects would appear in the following years. The statistics here given show very markedly the growth of our exports at the particular epochs. " Our exports in 18.51, were £74,448,722, in 1852, £78,076,854, and in 1853, £98,933.780 ; showing an advance in the two years of ^24,485,().")0. " The same results are apparent in the two years after our second exhibition. "Our exports in 1862, were £123,992,264 ; in 1863, £146,602,342 ; and in 1864, £160,444,053 ; showing an advance in the two years of £36,456,789." No one can consider these figures and the reflection? of Mr. Grant without conceding that such an exhibition, held k CENTENNIAL CELEBRAT:JN. 417 in one of our great cities, would largely expand the trade of the entire country, and would attract an enormous flow of immigration, especially of skilled mechanics, artists, and men of enterprise whose capital though too limited to pro- duce :i competence in Europe, might enable them to amass fortunes in this country of cheap land and undeveloped resources. The question, therefore, is one of national importance, and should not be treated as a local one, because it is pro- posed that the commemorative exhibition shall be held in the city in which the events which it is to commemorate occurred. I regret exceedingly that the gentleman from New Jersey [Mr. Cleveland] is not in his seat. He pro- posed to hold such a celebration in New York, and, in sup- port of his strange proposition, invited the attention of the House to the fact that for forty years New York has had an association for the promotion of the mechanic arts, known as the American Institute. Sir, forty-live years ago, I was a copy-reader in a printing ofllce, and I remem- ber well that among the copy which most puzzled me was that of Dr. Jones, who was then at the head of the Patent Office and editor of the journal of the Franklin Institute, an institution which had then been publishing its proceed- ings for several years. This was five years before the or- ganization of the American Institute. The Franklin In- stitute of Pennsylvania hailed the organization of and has rejoiced in the prosperity of the American Institute, and recognizes it as its most successful offspring and as one of its mo.st influential co-workers in developing our manufac- turing and mining resources and promoting the general interests of our country. The gentleman from New York [Mr. Brooks], in oppos- ing the bill, spoke of the inconsequential character of the preamble and resolutions. licgarding the proposed expo- sition as a commemoration only of the Declaration of In- dependence, he said that document had not' ig to do with the progress of manufactures and the arts. In this opin- ion he dissents from that of Thomas Jefferson, as he will discover by turning to volume one of Jefferson's Works, page 129. lie will there find that Mr. Jefferson assigns the attempt by England to ^ ippress manufactures and pre- vent their establishment as a potent cause of the revolt of the Colonies. He says : "That to heighten still the idea of parliamentary justice, and to 27 m i 't f ""•f 418 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. show with v/hat moderation they are like to exercise power where themselves are to feel no part of its weight, we take leave to mrn- tion to his Majesty certain other acts of the British Parliament by which we were prohibited from manufacturing for our own use the articles we raise on our own lands with our own labor. By an act passed in the fifth year of the reij^n of his late Majesty, King' (Joorjrc II., an American subject is forbidden to make a hat for himself of the fur which he has taken perhaps on his own soil ; an instiince of despotism to which no parallel can be produced in the most arbi- trary ajres of British liistory. By one other act, passed in the twenty-third year of the same reign, the iron which we make we arc forbidden to manufacture ; and heavy as that article is, and neces- sary in every branch of husbandry, besides commission and insur- ance, we are to pay freight for it to Great Britain, and freight for it back again, for the purpose of supporting, not men, but machines, in the island of Great Britain.''* That gentlemen may perceive how well founded these complaints of the coloiiists were, let me quote a portion of the two laws to which Mr. Jefferson refers. I might cite many kindred acts, but parts of these will suffice. Let me read the fourtli section of chapter twenty-two of the filth year (1732) of George II. It is as follows: " AVhereas the art and mystery of making hats in Great Britain hath arrived to great perfection, and consider..ble quantities of hats manufactured in this kingdom have heretofore been exported to his Majesty's plantations or Colonies in America, who have been v.iiolly supplied with hats from Great Britain; and whereas great quanti- ties 'A' hats have of late years been made, and the said manufacture is daily increasing in the British plantations in America, and is iVom thence exported to foreign markets, which were heretofore supplied from Great Britain, and the hat-makers in the said plantations take many apprentices for small terms, to the discouragement of the said trade, and debasing the said maimfacture ; wherefore, for pre- venting the said ill practices for the future, and for promoting and cncourajiing the trade of uutking hats in Great Britain, " Be it tnaded bytliakhig's most excellent majesty, by and loHhthe advice and consent of the Lords spiritual and temporal and Com- mons in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, That from and after the 29th day of Hcpteniber, a. d. 17'12, no liats or felts whatsoever, dyed or undyed, finished or untin- '■shed. shall be shipped, laden, or put on board any ship, or vessel in any place or ports within any of the British plantations, upon any pretence whatsoever, by any person or persons whatsoever; anu also, that no hats or felts, either dyed or undyed, llnished or untin ished, shall be laden upon any horse, cart, or other carriagi, to ttie intent or purpose to be exported, transported, shipped otl, carried, or conveyed out of any of the said British plantations to any other of the British plantations, or to any other place whatsoever, by any person or persons whatsoever." * Sco Jefferson's letter of January 9, U\Q—an(e, pagc_51. »f M CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 419 The ninth and tenth sections of the other act referred to, chapter twenty-eight of the twenty-third year (1750) of George XL, are as follows : •' IX. That from and after the 24th day of Juno, 1750, no mill or other engine for slitting or rolling of iron, or any plating forge to work with a tilt-hammer, or any furnace for making steel, shall be erected. or after such erection, continued in any of liis Majesty's colonies in America ; and if any person or persons shall erect, or cause to be erected, or after such erection continue, or cause to be continued, in any of the said Colonies, any such mill, engine, forge, or furnace, every person or persons so oltending shall, for every such mill, en- gine, forge, or ."urnace, forfeit the sum of £200 of lawful money of Great Britain. " X. A7id it is hereby further enacted hy the authority aforesaid, That every such mill, engine, forge, or furnace so erected or con- tinued, contrary to the directions of this act, shall be deemed a com- mon nuisance ; and that every Governor, Lieutenant-Governor, or Comniander-in-cliief of his Alajesly's colonies in America, where any such mill, engine, forge, or furnace shall be erected or continued, sluill. upon information to liiiu made and given, upon the oatii of any two or more credible witnesses, that any such mill, engine, forge, or furnace hath been so erected or continued, (wliich oath such Governor, Lieutenant-tiovernor. or Commander-in-chief is hereby authorized and reriuired to administer,) order and cause every such mill, engine, forge or furnace to be abated within the sjiace of thirty days next after such information given and made as atoresaid ; and if any (Jovcrnor, Licutenant-Ciovernor, or Commander-in-chief shall negl .'t or refuse to do so within the time herein before limited for till" purpose, every such (iovernor, fjieutenant-tiovenior. or Com- mander-in-chief so offending shall, for every such ofl'ense, forfeit the sum of £r)()0 of lawful money of t!reat ]{ritain, and shall from thence- forth be disabled to hold or enjoy any oflicc of trust or profit under his Majesty, liis heirs or successors." Thus, sir, the history of the Colonies, the laws of Eng- land, and tlie express ass rtion of the author of the Declar- ation of Independence assure us that no character of celebration of the events we propose to commemorate could be more appropriate than one wL^'cli would exhibit to the world the results of the mining, manufacturing, and arti.stic skill of a people who, one hundred years ago, were not i)ermitted to manufacture a felt hat or a plow or nail from the productions of their own soil. Certainly no cele- bration could bo more ai)posite or more fitting. Then comes the question, " Where should it beheld?" Why, sir, it should, in the judgment of the country, be held where the Continental Congress assembled, deliber- ated, and acted, and whore Carpenters' Hall still stands, as it did when the first prayer for Congress was uttered. It should be in the vicinity of Independence Uall, where V i't ■j. <( f ■ i JL 420 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. the Declaration of Independence was signed and pro- claimed to the people, and wherd may be seen the old bell, whose peals summoned them, now shattered, but still perfect in form, and bearing the prophetic inscription, cast upon it about a century before the great event it an- nounced. " Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof." It should be near to the hall in which the Constitution was framed and adopted, and to that in which the first Congress of the United States assembled ; and these are all in Philadelphia, '-'-'ere the celebration of the centennial anniversary of this great epoch, embracing this series of grand historical evei.ts, to be held in any other city it would be out of place, and the people who might attend it would wander from its pre- cincts to Philadelphia, in search of the scenes and halls amid which and in which the men whose deeds they would commemorate had consummated their great designs. Can Philadelphia accommodate it? Sir, many of the members cf this House, including members of the Com- mittee on Foreign Affairs and the Committee on Manufac- tures, have visited our city with reference to this question. They spent delightful hours in our park, unequaled in the world, either in extent or beauty, through which flow the beautiful Schuylkill and the romantic Wissahiekon, and which contains more than twenty-six hundred acres of undulating land, embracing both banks of these beautiful streams. When Miss Frances Anne Kemble first visited us she was fresh from Italy and Switzerland, among whose mountains and lakes she had passed years ; yet familiar as she was with the wondrous beauty of their scenery she found its equal within the limits of Thiladelphia's park. Listen to what she said on the subject : To the Wissdhiclion. My feet shall tread no more thy mossy side. When once they turn away, ihou pleasant water, Nor ever more, reflected in thy tide, Will shine the eyes of the white island's daughter. But often in my dreams, when 1 am gone Beyond the sea that parts thy home and mine. Upon thy banks the evening sun will shine. And I shall hear thy low, still flowing on. And when the burden of existence lies Upon my soul darkly and heavily, I'll clasp my hands over my weary eyes, Thou pleasant water, and ihy clear waves see. CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 421 Here, sir, amidst these scenes of beauty, and in the midst of a collection of American trees and foliage such as is nowhere else to be found within the limits of a city, we ask that this exposition shall be held. Sir, we make this request not with reference to the beauty of the site alone, but to its utility and fitness also. Through the Philadelphia park passes the junction railway, by which goods shipped for exhibition from any part of the continent of America, which is connected with a through line of railway, may be delivered at the ground proposed to be set apart for the exhibition without trans- fer or breaking bulk. Again, the great thing that the people of Europe would learn by visiting us, would be the cffec*^^ of free institutions upon the masses of the people, and that which they would mosi admire, and which they could see nowhere else in such numbers and perfection, would be the homes of our working people. I repeat, sir, that by nothing that they would tee in this country would the workingmen or the capitalists of Europe be more instructed than in look- ing at the homes of the workmen of Philadelphia. No tenement houses there. Each laborer who has a family dwells under a separate ''oof, vhich is most frequently his own ; in a house lighted by gas, supplied with an abun- dance of pure hydrant water. In every house there is a I "1 Bright be thy course, forever and forever — Child of pure mountain springs and mountain snow And as thou wanderesf on to meet the river, Oh, still in light and music raay'st thou flow I I never shall come back to thee again, When once my sail is shadowed on the main; Nor ever shall I hear thy laughing voice, As on their rippling way tliy waves rejoice; Nor ever see the dark green cedar throw Its gloomy shade o'er the clear depths below. Never, from stony rifts of granite gray, Sparkling like diamond rocks in the sun's ray, Shall I look down on thee, thou pleasant stream. Beneath whose crystal folds the gold sands gleam. Wherefore, farewell ! but whensoe'er again The wintry spell melts from the earth and air; And the young spring comes du.;^ing through thy glen, AVith fragrant, flowery breath, and sunny hair; When through the snow the scarlet berries gleam. Like jewels strewn upon thy banks, fair stream. My spirit shall through many a summer's day Keturn among thi' peaceful woods to stray. *»<« 422 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. bath-room, into' which there run streams, warm and cold, of tlic pure water provided by the public. This is a startling contrast to the homes of the workingmen of Eng- land,* France, Belgium, Prussia, or any other land. To thus bring the people of Europe to a knowledge of how laborers live in our free Republic would give an upward impulse to the temporal condition of humanity everywhere. Sir, the gentleman from New York [Mr. Brooks] said he was not hostile to Philadelphia, inasmuch as he re- garded her as one of the principal suburbs of New York. I do not wonder at that, for in truth the two cities are each th.o cither's principal suburb. They are so near each other, their population is so nearly equal, and each is so thoroughly the complement of the other, that each may, without affectation, so regard the other. They are but little more than two hours apart, and the road that connects them is the one to which I have alluded that runs through the park. London imports through Liverpool, Paris through Havre, and our merchants receive most of their importations through Mu*7 York for precisely the same reasons that control those of London and Paris. They do it for greater convenience, and our imports thus swell the volume of New York's apparent greatness. In her we find one of our principal customers, and she is largely our factor and distributing agent. We have no rivalry with New York. Her field of operations is with foreign countries; ours is at home. We convert the raw material of our own and other lands into utilities and matters of taste and vertu. We are a producing people ; they are a trading people. Our roots are fixed in the soil of our country ; they move witii the «-(? . r • * Toil ns they may, our working-cliisses (and I do not limit the terra to our manual-labor class), even under favorable circumstance?, have a hard task in providing for their old age — for that night of life when no man can work. They Jiavo brought up families, and the family should do its duty so far as it can to the parent — the bread-winner, who supported its members in helpless infancy, and even, it may be, at no small cost to himself, started thora in life. Yet in many cases, if not in all, the most a working man can do, is by contributing to siok-societios and others, to lay by so much as will keep himself during transient illness, or when temporarily out of employment. Wo regret to say it, but it really seems to us impossible for the working-classes as a body to lay by enough to keep them during the impotence of old age. — The State, the Poor, and the Country, — Patterson. House rent in our larger towns has risen, till anything like a wholesome dwelling is beyond the reach of the average workmen. — Social Politics, — Kirk. CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 423 changes of commerce. And Now York, but for the pos- sibility of increasing her manufactures, which local taxa- tion and excessive prices for real estate and high routs must retard, may one day follow the great cities that have, from time to time, been reared on the commercial routes of the ]i;ust, and are now known only to history, A city do- l)endiug exclusively upon trade may be regarded as jios- sibly transitory, so long as the routes of commerce are liable to cliange. Sir, in comparing the two cities (I have no idea of contrasting them, for, as an American, I rejoice in the growth and progress of eacli) let me tell you someining of the people of Philadel[)hia and their products. The census just taken is incomplete. General Walker, the Superintendent of the Census Bureau, assured me to-day that the statement which I hold in my hand is from twenty to twenty-five per cent, too low in its atj'j/ogatc of her manufacturing products. The total of imports into the country during the last fiscal year, not into New York, but into the country; not on the Atlantic coast, but on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, amounted to a little more than four hundred and sixty-two million dollars. That was the value of our entire import of manufactured articles, and of raw material, whether for food or manufacture. The entire imports were, I say, but $462,377,587, while the pro- ducts of industry, as far as ascertained, in Philadelphia alone were $'251,668,921, Add to this, as lam authorized by the Superintendent of the Census to add, twenty per cent., and it will be found that her productions alone were far greater than the manufoctured imports of the country, and equal to more than two-thirds of the entire imports of raw materials and manufactured articles, Philadelphia has, far as ascertained (and the numbers will bo greatly increased by the revision now making), 0090 establishme'its, employing a capital of $205.56-4,238 ; ' employing in horse-power, of steam, 31,582, and of water, 2226; employing 88,631 males above sixteen yeiirs of age, 23,545 females above that age, 7356 childriMi and youth ; paying wages annually to the amount of $52,236,- 026; using materials to the value of $132,618,873; and yielding manufactured products, as I have already said, to the value of $251,663 j21. And the Superintendent of the Census, from information already in his possscssion, ' 1 I -} 424 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. ! justifies me ia swelling this amount to $300,000,000* But for the further information of the House I will at this point incorporate in my remarks the table in detail imper- fect as it is. (See next page.) Here, then, among these appliances for the conversion of raw materials into the comforts and luxuries of life ; here among the?*) busy mechanicians ; here, in the ho-je of V '.nklin, he e old printing press will furnidh a strik- ing u-'itiTfi.^' wiiPr put bes.de the ' Hoe's last fast" or the latest (Mtoni, p-ess ihat will be operating in those days ; her M ! CI ' ,!■ , orson and his compatriots consulted upon the probi;in of H; , 'neudence, where Washington presided over the Convention vhich framed the Constitution, where, under that Constitution, he dwelt as Cliief Magistrate of the country, surrounded by the great men of that day from all the then States; here, where, in a park embrac- ing more than twenty-six hundred acres of laud, the di- mensions of the exhibition may spread to a hundred or live hundred acres, from every point of which the eye shall be tilled with natural beauty; here, at a spot acces- sible from every part of the country, blessed with a rail- road, should this commemorative exhibition be held. I am asked what it will cost. The amendment submit- ted by my colleague [Mr. MorrellJ proposes to limit the amount that may be expended by the Government to $50,000 a year until 1876, when the sum may be increas- ed to $250,000, making a total expenditure of $500,000. Sir, I hu'e no idea that under the provisions of this bill the first year's expenses of the commissioners will be GENERAL * * The following is an approximate summary of the Industrial Establishments of Philadelphia, their machinery and production for the census of 1870 : aa corrected (at Philadelphia) up to September Ist, 1871. No. of Establishments 8,119 Capital employed, (not including value of land) $172,079,754 No. of Factories driven by steam 1,668 Horse power of these 45,101 No. of Looms 15,692 " Spindles 189,757 " Machines driven by steam 51,152 " Men employed 86,939 « Females (over 16 years) 34,728 " Boys and girls (under 16 years) 9,202 Total persons employed 130,869 Aggregate wages paid $ 58,997,010 " cost of raw material 174,139,094 « value of manufactures 325,371,943 IS CBNTEMNIAL CELEBRATION. 426 QENEBAL .«LSTilACl SCHEDULE VOUR— RECAPITULATION— CITY OF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA. TITLKP, (• t reTlgod.*) Mo. tt< mil* Boots and eliueH.,, Buot and ghue tit- Rotw-powerj Hi ' l« emplojtd. Capital. Brick-mnkers .. Breweries Bakeiieu ., Brea.l, cuke, ice- cri'iiin, etc BlarkHmithH BrUHH fuuii(lt-rii'8. Cigars Carriii!;e8 " (children's) Carpets Confectionery Cabinet-makers. Coopers Clolliing Carpenters iind builders Carpenters Cotton-mills Drugs andchomi cnis Fouuderies (iron). Orist-mills Olass-works Hosiery Jewelers Machinists Machinery and tubiug Plumbers t gns- fltters Printers Paper-mills Painters Pianos Paints, lend and linseed oil.... Patent medicines Pliining-mills Saahes, doors, and blinds Sowing-machines Bonp and candles.' Sugar reflncrg Tinsmiths Woolen-mills.., Yarn" All others.. Total .. 674 80 63| 301 10 139 2.1 345 118 4 20f) 81 138 60 310 87 148 21 24 71 21 9 50 84 90 97 123 5 107 8 13 27 28 41 5 33 11 130 54 44 o,P79 2,1 n .!e;o9o $2,274,636 ra,wo 1,814/100 8,221,450 788,07r) 44,700 200,085 383,7.')0 986,040 1,707,497 59,100 2,363,(iri0 200,750 1,767,055 409,487 4,369,114 l,110,.'i0fl 383,CO,(K10 228,025 493,000 l,48C,750l 1,405,774 907,800 829,735 700,000 787,600 3,494,000 598,750 7,149,(X)0 2,255,000 8 1 s >c 42 ... '395 ... 445 • •* 119 ... '"22 ... 90 • •• 34 • ■• 181 • •> 20 • •• 6U0 ,,, 20 *•> 402 • .* 125 ... '"1 ... 1,015 690 rM 675 I m7 I'll I Ohil. drrti Kud youih 170 409 39 1,541 800 35 762 435 121 467 43 700 820 59 499 1,796 2,.')58 1,237 707 74,203,904 131,360,334 18,161 13,421 $205,504,238 31,582 155 225 45 ,505 275 1,213 1,502 45 3,464 271 1,682 .526 4,038 1,337 658 1,034 589 2,480 157 727 797 6;)0 3,194 1,300 478 2,119 691 547 278 326 158 387 537 312 329 942 545 1,903 779 Waqis. 16 160 3 872 63 18 4,'4C4 15 1,'445 114 28 1,664 74 5 239 141 9 2 106 1 2 31 "53 3,183 581 215 6 4,17 7 86 1 8 12 113 15 14 379 28 63 6 73 18 10 469 34 ii5 1 660 557 42 31 21 190 8 9 3 8 15 17 3 32 1 51 724 375 $2,478,082 67,743 1,151,647 327,440 298,981 25,040 217,664 134,438 624,168 805,880 32,452 1,700,436 09,438 1,000,190 27.5,278 2,032,639 753,803 438,664 808,662 384,008 1,414,227 107,000 552,610 834,870 380,980 1,676,711 750,000 211,426 1,820,286 3.52,200 286,322 173,250 181,622 126,045 221,369 395,592 195,440 178,129 373,308 237,671 l,793,10;i 636,084 MATIRIAUc $3,279,548 61,411 366,984 1,700,106 1,714,462 Products, $7,724,800 150,667 2,703,148 4,182,060 3,004,189 64,010 116,340 154,890 587,770 170,648 632,007 791,851 2,014,058 660,204 2.1(Ki,8M 28,070 8.'),y22 4,798,2.53 ,., ''"< 282,2.58 601.. >U 1,097,080 ;.,«)•■ . ,1 338,98. W -i 6,546,7r, i\:<^; ■<» 1,64 91. ,.^1 2,12-?,:i54 2,5- m ?-■■■ ;'" '48'/,79' 1,921,540 744,043 l,6l8i»jn 2,528,000 421,188 2,559,4«5 1,524, ■..il 348,824 111,200 1,316,374 2,681 ,,502 1,001,994 709,886 182,380 827,031 18,206,062 429,288 6,728,516 3,226,851 ■0,643 •< J1,40] ,471,454 3,877,180 ■»,'295,072 4,8:1,5,593 1,, 560,643 3,205,807 1,51,5,470 4,005,312 6,000,000 870,434 6,301,397 2,444,000 893,101 431,800 3,216,410 6.591,8.32 1,833,316 1,451,804 671,000 1,62,5,981 19,581,374 930,755 11,204,802 4,052,004 1,976 250 j 2,226, 46,31714,803^ ,43,314| 8,742|', 4,741 26,«17,077i 82,910,704; 147,120,704 2,61,'. , 25,61 8,949 | 49 , 708,169 1 104,543,217 88;63l'2Jp45i7,;!5tl $52;236,020 1132,'618,873 $251,tj6a,y2l An abstract from the manufacturing returns of Philadelphia, as received from the assistant mar- shals — correspondence not completed— respectfully furnished for the information of Hon. William V Kelley, U. S. House of Representatives. Fr.\nci8 A. Wa.'ker, Suptrintejident Censits. * I have not adopted a classiflcation, — F. A. ^. ■■\ .•li 426 OENTENNlATi OETiEnRATION". anything like that amount. But, assuming tliat they will, we appropriated the same sum to send a few articles to the Paris Exposition.'* Hero wo invito the j)ooplo of every State and Territory to present in brilliant array among and in comparison with the best productions of oUier countries their best productions of held, mine, workstiop, or studio. And the appropriation is asked for tin; benefit of the people of tho more remote and i)ooror States, to whose borders many an immigrant would be at- tracted by a generous exhibition of tlie many and various elements of wealth, in which every part of the country abounds in such marvelous profusion. * These provisions were stricken from tiio bill. Tho U. S. Oovcrn">v;ut 'n not lo bo responsible for any part of the cost of tho exhibition. DOMINICA. Speech 1)eliverp:d ix vuk 'iousk of Representatives January 27, 1871. Tho houso liaviiij; iukUt considcnvtioii tho joint resolution (S. R. No. 202) iiiitlioriziii^' tlie iippoiiitimjiit ul' coniiuisijioiiei's in relutiou to tliL' r('|)ul)li(; of Doniinicii — Mr. Kclh'ij said : Mr. S[(L!ukor: Tlio tlosir-u of President Grunt to ac- quire direct trade witli and a footing upon San Domingo, the richest of the West India islands, is inspired by a keeu pcrcej)ti()n of tho commercial recpiirements of the country, and saiictioned by the action of Washington and his most illustrious succcs.'ors in the presidcntal ofl'iee. On llie 14th of October, 1780, less than six months alter his inaugura- tion, Washington addressed an autograph letter to Mr. Gouvcrneur Morris, who was then representing us in Europe, in which he said : " Let it be stroniijly impressed on your mind that the i)rivilege of carryinj.^ our productions in our own vessels to their islands, and biiiiotent to-day than they were in the infancy of the country. The treachery of our great commercial rival has swept that part of our commercial marine which was engaged in foreign com- merce from the sea, and her ships are largely engaged in bringing the productions of the West Indies to our ports. Meanwhile the export duties laid by the Governments of the islands, including the Dominican republic, upon ma- hogany, fustic, logwood, satin-wood, lance-wood, coft'ee, cocoa, and other articles, and the import duties which, al- though they do not compete with our industries, but enter into 01 food or are consumed in our manufactures, we absurd! V impose upon them, are taxes upon our industry, handicapping it in its race with the manufacturing nations of Europe The fathers also saw the incompatibility of maintaining, under the simple Government they had founded, a large standing army and navy. They perceived the necessity of preparing for war in time of peace, but they felt th.>:ii- selves unable to bear the cost, and clearly perceived the 'I < 1 ,.i 430 DOMINICA. I » ■ -i-r 111'; diingcr to republican institutions of maintaining great armies or a great navy during peace, and wisely det(;nn:ned to rely upon the militia for the exigencies of war. As to land Ibrces, there was no difliculty in executing this purpose ; but if they were to rely upon the people for ships, olTicors, and sailors in war, they must establish and maintain a commerce sufTiciently extended to make ships prolitiible and create a constantly augmenting commercial marine. J.ooking at our extended coast, they saw that if we were to be pre[)ared to defend it and to maintain our flag upon the sea wc must have ship-yards at many points along the coast, skill and capital to use them to advantage, and the trade in which to profitably engage the vessels they would construct. They believed in the constitutional I'iglit to promote these great national objects by special legislation, and did it promptly and successfully. Denied the privi- lege of trading with the West Indies they secured to American built ships, owned by American citizens domi- ciled within the country, the entire carrymg-trado between the ports of the United States by the provisions of the act of September 1, 1789, for regulating the coasting trade, and for other purposes. This beneficent act, preceding which but ten laws had been signed by Washington, and which British ship- builders are imploring us to repeal, limits the carrying be- tween any ports of the United States to vessels bearing an American register, and denies such register to any vessel not built within the States, and belonging wholly to a citizen or citizens thereof, and, by section five, denies any part of our domestic carrying-trade even to a "ship or vessel owned in whole or in part by any citizen of the United States usually residing in any foreign country, unless he be an agent for or a partner in some house or copartnership consisting of citizens of the United States ■actually carrying on trade in the said States." We have to thank the prescience which ordained these wise provisions in the earliest days of our national ex- istence for the magnificent results achieved upon the ocean and lakes by our Navy in the war of 1812, for the com- manding proportions our commercial marine had assumed when the unhappy rebellion enabled England to drive it * from the sea, and for the ability of our merchants to fur- nish the Government promptly with adequate transporta- tion for troops and munitions of war and to maintain a W. i' DOMINICA. 431 Wi- llie. ore )()!) the the uld to tlOll, "ivi- to )mi- rcen act ■ade, substantial blookadc of more than two thousand miles of coast* The acquisition of San Domingo would bring the terri- tory of that republic within the influence of this venera- bh; and wholesonie law, ar.d thus do more to stimulate ship- builditig and expand ihc commerce of the country than could bo done by giving effect to the wisest suggestiouH upon the subject that have been brought before tlie House by bill or report since the close of the rebellion. No gentleman who has not given special attention to this (^[uestion can have any idea of the proportion our trade with the West India islands bears to our entire foreign commerce. Whether tested by the amount we irnjjort from each country, or by the total o*^" our imports and ex- ports to and from each country, our trade with the West India i. I "ds stands second; that with the United King- doms ol' ■ .hgland, Scotland, and Ireland alone exceeding it. It is true that our exports to France exceed our ex- ports to the West Indies; but our im])orts from the islands are more than fifty per cent, in advance of those from France. The countries having dominion over these islands are careful to so regulate their trade that while the American people may be the chief consumers of the raw mat' ials produced by their colonies, their own fields, fac- tories and workshojis, and not ours, shall supply them with cereals a'xl the productions of agricultural and manu- ■■■' The wisdom of this law is ycceiving a nev/ illustration : notwitlistanding the immense amount of cotton and other bulky products, formerly depcndi'nt on water transportation tiiat arc now carried by rail, and our exclusion by England's protective system '>f sul)sidies, from equal chances in foreign commsrce, ship building and the production of marine enginery are reviving. In his icport to the Secretary of the Treasury, January 10th, 1871, Mr. Joseph Nimmo, jr., Chief of Tonnage Division, says : ■' Our coastwise, or home commerce, is confined exclusively to American vessels by tlic law of 1817, [which renews and extends the provisions of the act of 178D] a similiar policy in regard to home commerce being maintained by almost every other commercial nation on the globe. In this branch of our shipping we enjoy a fair degree of prosperity, and to-day our coastwise marine is larjjcr and more prosperous than that of any other nation. Our entire steam tor.nage, embracing the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, the Mississippi river and its tributaries, anil the northern lakes, e.xc^ida the total steam marine of Great Britain, home and for- eign combined." The facts reported liy Mr. Nimmo show that protection by inducing the rapid development of our resources, and quickening and augmenting our lioiiie trade, lia< increased the demand for tonnage. Under the lowest rate of duties we huve liad since July, 1812, the tonnage built in each year, as appears by his report, was as follows ; In 1857, 182,841; in 1858, 1-15,827 ; in 1859, 75,081: in 1860, 115,841. While" under the highest tariff we have ever had, the tonnage built in each year has been as follows: in 1807, l ; ■' ' i. ' tlj EFFECT OF THE ACQUISITION UPON SLAVERY. Some of my friends who remember the energy with which I have Mtherto opposea the acqniisition of southern territory may detm me inconsisient in advocating earnestly, as I do, the acquisition of San Domingo; but if they will listen for a moment they will, I think, perceive that 1 could >:i DOMINICA. 433 not maintain ray consistency and do otherwise. Believing, as I have long done, that commerce, to be generally and enduringly profitable to both parties, must cross parallels of latitude and not run upon them, I have believed that it would add to the completeness of our country to acquire tropical or semi-tropical territory with the people of wliich we might exchange, under our own revenue system, with- out the interposition of duties, the products of our northern fields and workshops for the many commodities whicli they prochice but which we cannot, and of which we are large consumers. But, sir, notwithstanding these convictions, and the fo.ct that I was a member of tlie Democratic party, T opposed the annexation of Texas, was hostile to the armed occupation of Yucatan, as suggested by President Polk in his message of April 29, 1848, and regarded the Ostend manifesto and other efforts to acquii'c Cuba, as out- rages upon humanity and our republican institutions. I did not stop to consider the constitutionality of these measures. They were projected in pursuance of prece- dents which, though confessedly indefensible on constitu- tional grounds, had vindicated themselves to the judgment of the country, the acquisition of the Louisiana territory and the Floridas. My hostility to them did not, there- fore, rest on constitutional scruples, but upon the fact that they were eflbrts to extend the area of slavery and to perpetuate that accursed institution, 'i'hey were all favorite measures of the Democratic party, whose degene- rate leaders array themselves against the acquisition of San Domingo, and have resisted with all their power the ordering of a commission to inquire into the propriety of accepting dominion over it. Absurdly — I had almost said imjnously — they claim to be the successors of Jefi'erson and Jackson, but do not believe in the expansion of our country and its manifest destiny. They are purblind and without faith in the capacity of man for self-government, and I apprehend that they and I have changed grounds on this question for the same reason. They resist the acqui- sition of San Domingo because it will extend the area of freedom and give republican institutions, common sclu^ols, a free press, our laws, language, literature, and all the appliances of modern civilization to a tropical people, most of whom are of African descent, while I give it my sup- port for this as chief among a thousand reasons, each one of which is, iu my judgment, couolusive. 28 m <"m yi 434 DOMINICA, The people of the United States have waded chrougli a sea of blood and encumbered themselvos and their poster- ity with mountains of debt in abolishing human slavery and making our institutions throughout our broad limits homo- geneous and iiarmonious with the .fundamental principles ,thut underlie them. And yet, sir, we are to-day the sup- port and buttress of slavery wherever it exists upon the cu-ntinent or islands of America, as we must continue to be until v^e shall acquire tropical territory, on which to grow coff'eti and sugar, and tobacco equal to that of Cuba. By the acquisition of San Domingo, and by no other peaceable iiieans, we can overthrow both slavery and Spanish supre- macy in Cuba, for we consume fully seventy p'-r <..?nt. of her exports, every pound of which might be produced by free labor in San Domingo, Few gentlemen have probably considered the question in this connection, and I beg leave to invite attention to a lew facts illustrative of its importance. But before doing so, permit me to suggest that San Domingo pro- duces large-grained white coffee equal to that o'i Java, and vastly superior to the green coffee of Braxiil, with sugars, molasses, and »>elada equal in quality to those of Cuba, and tobacco w'fckjh oonipares favorably with the best smoking tobacco from the finest fields of that island ; awi that were the production of these articles .stimulated bjf the sense of security that would be imparted by our acquisition of her territory and by the admission of her productions to our ports free of duty, Jt would cause the transfer of the Anm^Ui&:n an(^ other foreign capital i\ow er.iployed in Cuba t>v San Domingo, and thereby people the latter and increase her productions and de- prive Cuba of the power to support the Spanish army, which holds her in s^ubjection, or to make the con- tributions toward the support of the Spanish monarchy, which now regards her as its most profitable appendage. Cuba owes its commercial importance to the fact that San Donungo has been distracted and desolated by v/ar and oppression from the year of its discovery to the pre- sent date. Hispaniola, as San Domingo was first called, was once the most fertile, most highly cultivated, ard most productive of all the West India islands; but she has relapsed into a wilderness and would present to the enterprise hat would s<^M3k her fields, under the.sen.se of se- r^.urity ;in;.,.arted by American law and administration, as DOMINICJ' 485 fertile and virgin a soil as she did to the followers of Co- lumbus nearly four centuries ago. The population of the entire island in 1492-93 was be- lieved to exceed a n.'Uion, but such were the cruelty and rapacity of the Spaniards that an enumeration made in 1507 showed that the native population had been reduced by the exhausting labors demanded from the enslaved natives in the unventilated gold mines, and the barba- rous means by which their labor was enforced, to sixty thousand. Another enumeration, made by an officer known as the distributor of Indians, in 1514, showed that the number had been reduced tc fourteen thousand ; and the history of the island from these early dates to the close of the war between Ilayti and Dominica is but a continuous story of wrong, outrage, ai d desolation. After consulting thf best authorities to which I have access, I estimate the entire population of the island at this time at from one million to twelve hundred thousand, of which number not more thou twenty per cent, are within the limits of San Domingo. The natives welconed Columbus on his ret'irn from Spain with presents, consisting chiefly of great quantities of gold, and in the cor -se of his progress through tlie is- land, in 1495, in gratef 1 return he imposed tribute on all of them above the age :>" fourteen, requiring each one to pay quarterly a certair. quantity of gold or twenty-five pounds of cotton. It is recorded by Captain Janus Bir- ney, in his History of the Buccaneers of America, that to prevent evasion of paying this tribute Columbus lused "rings or tokens to be produced, in the nature ceipts, which were given to the islanders on their the tribute, and any islander found without such in his possession was deemed not to have paid, proceeded against." In a recent conversation with an intelligent rcbant of Philadelphia, who has spent many years in Cuba and San Domingo, I said to him, " What would 1 the etfect of American occupation of San Domingo, or ;.s acquisi- tion by us, upon the productions iind commerce of the is- land ? " To which he replied : "In five years from the occurrence of such an evont San Do- mingo will have resumed her former station among tnc producing and commercial i-ountries of the world, and will have becorae the wealthiest and most prosperous island in the Archipelr-i;,"-*^. Under such new circumstances it will far exceed the Cuba of it d her victims chiefly under our flag, though our law declared the slave trade to be piracy. Spain had bound herself by treaty with England to abo- lish the slave trade, for doing which she received what she deemed ample compensation ; yet slaves continued to be introduced clandestinely under the Spanish flag, under the administration of every captain general ; but the favorite flag of the slave-trader was the stars and stripes, because DOMINICA. 437 vessels bearing it were exempt from search by British cruisers on the coast of Africa. The execution of the slave-tratlcr, Gordon, at New York, in 18(31, put a stop to the use of our flag to cover this unholy trafhc. Since tlieii comparatively few slaves have been introduced into Cub:i, but tlie number of coolies imported annually has greatly increased. OUR RESPONSIBILITY, AND HOW WE MAY AVOID IT. Such are our responsibilities; and it is now in our power to control the whole subject, not by ravishing Na- both's vineyard, but by confirming his title thereto and enabling him to enjoy in serene confidence his vine and fig-tree. The duty of two cents a pound imposed by our laws on raw sugar with those on mohusses, rnelada, tobacco, and other productions common to both islands wouhl make it so much more profitable to produce them in San Domingo than in Cuba that the Spanish despots and native slaveholders who govern that island wouhl have no need for new victims, but would find a steadily diminishing market for the crops grown by thojw) ■ >e; now hold in bondage. The duties on imports from Cuba into this country dur- ing the fiscal year ending June 80, 1870, all of which could have been raised by free labor in San Domingo, amounted to $32,268,750, and the value of the imports were $52,964,225. This statement embraces only sugar, molas- ses, melada, tobacco, and cigars, which, though the princi- pal, arc not our only imports from Cuba. The whole could have been grown in San Domingo, together with immense quantities of coffee, cocoa^ indigo, and the valu- able woods of the island. The following table shows the amount of each of the commodities named that we imported from Cuba during the last fiscal year, the value thereof, and the duty to which they were subject at three cents per pound of sugar, eight cents ])er gallon on molasses, and three cents per pound on melada : Quantity. Sii^ar. Ibs....801,6:«,:i43 Molasses, gals. 4rj,()84,ir>2 Melada. lbs. . . 35,82b,771 'J'obacco and cigars Value. $38,(IH(),448 ;),G9(i,78:i 1,247,249 3,933,745 Duty. $24,049,000 3,006,732 1,074,863 3,538,155 te« \\ t Jf $52,964,225 $32,268,750 ■I 7 1 438 DOMINICA. I need not further elaborate this point to merchant or philanthropist, for every man who will dispassionately consider the facts presented will admit that, were San Domingo free, and her people strengthened by the sense of security that would be derived from American protection against Hay tiau or other invasion, and were her savannas and hill-sides cultivated, as they M»on might be, with modern appliances and Amcrioan energy, slavery would cease to be valuable to Cuba, and Spain would be divested of interest in her as a colony. This is the age of commerce, and the laws of trade are invincible. Bv accepting San Domingo wo can peaceably emancipate the whole archipelago, and secure to those of our |>eople whose constitutiiMi tits them for tropical homes possession and the pea\W\ble enjoyment of the most productive island of the wwld. EXTENT TO WHICH WE SUPPORT SLAVERY IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES. 1 have said that, notwithstanding the sacrifices we made in abolishing slavery, we are its support and buttress through- out the world. We cannot ascertain precisely the total amount of slave products imported into this country dur- ing the last fiscal year, but I find enough in the four lead- ing articles mentioned, together with coffee, to demonstrate the truth of my proposition, and to show, by the amount of duties collected from these articles, that if we could pro- duce them within the limits of our revenue system, as San Domingo would be if accepted by us, we could overthrow slavery on every island of the archipelago, and so fa.' im- pair its value in Brazil as to make emancipation probable. The value of slave-grown productions imported from Cuba, Porto Rico, and Brazil during that year was $79,414,049, being seventeen per cent, of the entire imports of the country, and the amount of duties on them $45,930,374, or nearly twenty -four per cent, of the total duties collected for the year. The following statement exhibits the amount and value of the articles named which we imported from slave-labor countries during the last fiscal y<'ar, and the amount of duties collected thereon. Of those from Cuba, which I have already given in detail, I refer but to the value and amount of duties: DOMINICA. 439 lU e m Cuba : Value. Total r)2,964.225 Porto Kico : Sugar, lbs 130,706,182 6,081,072 Molasses, guls 7,119,928 2,016,172 «ru/.il: Coftee, Iba 183,413 456 18,322,580 879,414,049 Duty. $32,268,750 3,921,18.') .')69,.');)4 9,170,672 84.'., 9:50,201 As I have said, Mr. Speaker, San Domingo is capable of pi\>ducing an equal amount of all the commodities em- braced in this statement; and she can do this without im- pairing- her capacity to export mahogany, satin, and ciher woods for furniture, indigo, and a considerible list of dye- woods. That portion of the island which belongs to the Dominican Republic could support a population of five million people and an immense export trade, yet the ex- ports of tlic entire island, embracing Ilayti and San Do- mingo, to this country for tiie last year were but $979,655 of which $419,700, or about four-ninths, came to us in foreign vessels. The people of Dominica are not only with- out machinery, but without the simplest tools for agriculture or the arts. There is not an iron plow within the limits of the republic nor the simplest form of a saw-mill, though among the leading exports are mahogany, lignun\-vitaj, fustic, logwood, lance, satin, and other woods ; and it is impossible to estimate what would be the value and extent of the productions of the country under the application of modern improvements in science, agricultural machinery, and the processes for manufacturing sugar and reducing fine Y^'oods to slab and veneer, or the stimulus that would be given to American ship-building, the uroduction of agricultural and other implements, a.vd to our carrying trade and commerce, by the developmc^it of the resouiccs of this island by American intelligence und enterprise. <»• FALSE POSITION OF THE DEMOCRACY OK THIS SUBJECT. Those who lead the Democratic party and claim to have inherited the patriotism and wisdom of Jefferson and Jack- son cannot see that any advantage is to result to the country from the acquisition of San Domingo. They can- not even tolerate inquiry into the propriety thereof. They dread territorial expansion, and would rather let our ocean •I » i:;l 410 DOMINICA. commerce jxsri.sh and tlio country rcniiiiu tributarj to Spain and lira/.il than incur the risk of accoptinij San Domingo from a people who seek peace and security by adoi>ting our institutions and identifying their I'or- t\incs and fate with ours. Could anything be more absurd than the pretentious chiim of the.se timid and purblind beings to be inspired by the si)irit of .lelVerson and Jackson ? There; was never a day in the life of the Democratic party, before slavery was abolisiied, on which it would not gladly have availed itself of an o[)portunity to secure' un restricted and direct trade with the West India islands, and to plant upon the grandest of them an outpost of our country as a matter of convenience and safety in lime of war. Worthy and respected as was General Ticwis Cass, he was never regarded as among the far-sighted and courageous leaders of his i)arty. There were always those who would gladly have elevated him to the rresidcncy, yet few regarded him as preeminently qualified to lead public ojiiniou or shape the destinies of a nation. IK waw characterised by a broad measure of good practical .sense, but not by keen foresight; yet he foresaw more of the re- sults of the last quarter of a century than these men, who have lived through it and witnessed all its stirring events, are even now able to see. The influence that steam was to exercise in ocean com- merce and naval warliire had been but dindy foreshadowed in 1818; yet, on the 10th of May, in that year, General Cass addressed the Senate of the United States in suppDrt of Mr. Polk's proposition to take armetl occupation of Yucatan, in order, as Avas their theory, to prevent England from getting possession thereof, and to countervail her in- fluence in setting up the Mosquito king. There had then been no contest between Ericsson's Monitor and the Merri- V.nac. France and England had no navy of ponderous iron hips. T\\o bulky commerce of the world was still carried n wooden vessels, under sail. Yet General Cass foresaw what, as I have said, the blind leaders of the Democratic party arc incapable of perceiving to-day. They have not yet discovered that depots for fuel are a paramount ne- cessity for commercial nations, and that without them steam navigation mu.st be circumscribed and inefficient; but in the speech to which I have referred General Cass said ; DOMINICA. 4U "The application of stoam-powcr to armed voshoU Iuia introiliirod an improvcincnl which may occuKion an ciiliro chaiifjo in naval war- fare, h is (liniciilt to fiiri'see its consi'iincnccM, or the oll'i'd it may hcrcartiM' prothui-. Om; tiiini(, however, is certain, tluit ariiied Hteuin vessels, ol a size and draught suitablu to the navi^jation I hey arc desijfiied to encounter, will take a decisive part in naval operations. Depots for fuel i)ocouie, therefore, of paramount necessity for com- mercial nations. Without them their steam navipition will be c.ircuinscrihed and inellicient. With them, to furnisli the supplies re(piired to vessels as they call for them, the world may he circuMJ- navijrated, and steam-power everywhere used. Now, cir, wo luivc no places of deposit anywhere hut at home, and Kiifjland has tliem everywhere. She? has selected her positions for that purposes with that foresinhl which marks her character, and she will keep them at all times supplied with al)undanc(! of necessary fuel. The advan- la^es she will derive from this system of policy are sulliciently obvious, and we must depend upon our cner^^y to meet theuj as best \vc can when the proper time comes." kM« Mr. Speaker, the acquisition of San Bominpfo would not only increa.so our ocoau coininercc atul enable us to rely mainly upon a volu'iteer navy lor war purposes, but it would give us sueh ,i depot and coaling station as could be established on no other island in the Caribbe:i,n sea. The Bay of Satnana is unequaled in extent, beauty, and safety, and if we may rely on the report of General ^[eClellan, the hills around it are filled with coal suitable ibr the pur- poses of the workshop and the generation of steam, and crowned with wood fit for naval purposes. Man's ex- perience discloses no want for which nature has not made ample provision ; and the Bay of Samana, in its extent and safety and the mineral deposits and forests of tiiuljer which surround it, seems to have been preonlained for a great naval station, and one, too, that would give the nation to which it might belong control of the passages through the archipelago, of our southern coast and of the shores of Central and the northern part of South America. Tlie scheme of the pro-.slavery Democracy of 1848 for the armed occupation of Yucatan having failed, and the necessity for a station for supplies and repairs having pressed itself upon the attention of successive Administra- tions, President Pierce ordered then Captain since General George B. McClellan to repair to the Dominican republic, inc^uire into and report upon the fitness of its bays and harbors for such a station. A copy of his report is before me. It is dated August 27, 1854. He says he found three good harbors, of which Samana was the best, the others 'il j.. IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) ^^^ £[/. .s ^^ ^\^ % "^/^ ^ 1.0 1.1 I^|2j8 |Z5 ut 122 122 ^ 1^ 12.0 u& 1 '•25 III 1.4 III 1.6 II ^5 111^ 11^ ^ 6" ^ a % ^'^ '> .«^ ^^ / v '/ Photographic Sdences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580 (716) 872-4503 442 DOMINICA. being Mansanilla and Ocoa. He found excellent oak and yellow pine fit for use in naval construction, and palm and other trees adequate for the construction of durable wharves in a tropical sea. One of these, the name of which escaped his memory before he made his report, he learned was peculiarly free from liability to attack by worms, the special foe to timber when exposed to salt water at tropical temperature. He also found bituminous coal in many places, and certifies that specimens thereof that had been exposed to the weather for three years burned well.* As to the fitness of Samana for such a station, he says : " The best harbors in the republic of Dominica are those of Sa- mana, Mansanilla, and Ocoa. " Ocoa, nearly in the middle of the southern coast of the island, is entirely out of the usual track of navigation, and commands nothing. Mansanilla, on the northern coast, about two-thirds of its length to the westward, is too far from the Mona passage, is somewhat out of the way from the passage between Cuba and Hayti, and is badly situated with regard to the line of reefs extending eastward from the Inagua islands, besides having dangerous reefs near its entrance. " The harbor of Samana is almost directly in the route of all vessels using the Mona passage, and gives complete command of that very important thoroughfare, which is the most safely approached, and most advantageous in its position with regard to the Spanish main and Caribbean sea of all the frequented passages. " Having reason to believe that it possessed all the requisite pro- perties, and great advantages over the others with regard to health and defense, I devoted all my time and attention to its examination. The bay of Samana, extending some thirty miles from east to west, and from nine to twelve north and south, is formed by the narrow peninsula of the same name. The entrance for vessels drawing more than eight feet is contracted into two thousand yards by a broad coral reef extending from the southern shore of the bay. At the north point of the reef are five keys, the largest containing about one hundred acres, the smallest a mere sand-ban1< ; the passage for vessels lies between tlic most northern key and the peninsula. The largest ships of the line can enter this bay with the utmost ease, and find secure anchorage within, entirely out of cannon range from vessels outside the keys. " The anchorages and small harbors on the northern side of the bay near the entrance are very good, and have excellent holding- ground. The only objection to this bay arises from the rareness of land breezes at certain seasons of the year at least ; so that it is difii- cult for large vessels to sail out, as the channel is somewhat narrow for them to beat through. This difficulty can be remedied by the use of a steam tug, by kedging, or warping. Were the channel well ' buoyed out,' it is probable that a ship of the line could, in case of necessity, beat out. With respect to steamers, there is no obstacle ' This ooal must have been carried there, as subsequent examination dis- pi >vei the eziitenoe of a natural deposit thereoC DOMINICA. 443 in the way of their entering or leaving at any time in the day or night. The peninsnla of Samana is almost an island ; for at its base the land is low and swampy, much cut up by inlets, and overgrown with mangrove bushes. The approach from the maiiilund is for u league and a half over a narrow, winding path, practicable for only one man at a time, partly under water to the armpits, and in many places overhead in mud and water on either side. " The peninsula itself is high and broken ; the hills ranging from a few hundred to two thousand feet in altitude, e.xccedingly steep, very irregular in direction, and interspersed with narrow, sloping valleys, the whole covered with a dense growth of underbush, vines, and timber. It is well watered by small mountain streams. The predominant rock is a limestone, generally porous, but often occur- ring of such a quality as to form a good buildmg-stone in that climate, and in localities convenient for working." But General McClellan's report is not the only evidence furnished by Democratic Administrations while statesmen of sagacity were at the head of that party of the wisdom and patriotism of President Grant's effort to acquire San Domingo. It apears that Yucatan was not sufficient to satisfy the ambitious desires of Mr. Polk and his adminis- tration. In February, 1845, he sent Mr. John Hogan as " the special agent and commissioner of the United States to the island of San Domingo or Uayti." The duties en- joined on him were "particularly to inquire into and re- port upon the present condition, capacity, and resources of the new republic of Dominica." Mr. Hogan having per- formed his duties made a much more elaborate and in- telligent report than General McClellan submitted to President Pierce, nine years later. Let me quote his de- scription of the island and its probable future relation to the international affairs of the world. In opening his re- port he said : " The island known under the several names of Hispaniola, San Domingo, and Hayti is, as is well known, in extent among the largest, and in fertility of soil, character, and quantity of its productions, one of the most important of the islands of the West Indies. The central position which it occupies in that archipelago, separated from Cuba by a channel of only forty miles, intermediate between .Tamaica on the west and Porto Rico on the east, its vicinity to the com- mercial ports of the United States; the provinces of llondunis mid Yucatan, and what has been long known as the Spanish main of South America, confer upon it a political importance second only to its commercial. In the hands of a potoerful and enterprising nation its influence luould be felt in all the ramifications of human concerns. " This island is again peculiar from the number and capacity of its harbors. The entire coast is studded with deep and valuable ports, and intersected with rivers penetrating far into the interior, which render all its resources, natural and industrial, available in augment- I! 'hi 444 DOMINICA. ing the power ami extending the commerce of the nation wliich miglit cither acquire the power of sovereijjnty over it or bocuine connected with it in the relations of raututil independence. A jjlance at the map will exhibit at once to your eye tlie inestimable value of this island, and its commanding position in a military and com- mercial point of view. Independently of its own internal resources, mineral and agricultural, its position renders this magnilicent island one of the most admirable positions which the world can exhibit for a commercial emporium. Its vast and secure bays would allord shelter for the congregated navies of the world. Its situation renders it accessible tathe most important marts of this continent." If, as Mr. Ilogan predicts, the influence of San Domingo is to bo felt in all the ramifications of human conccrn.s, had it not better be under the inspiration of American re- publicanism than as the colony of any of the despotic or reactionary Governments of Europe ? That she may put forth her influence wisely and for the good of mankind I would give her our literature, laws, and institution.s, and through her common schools begin the work of making our language that of the people of the entire archipelago. But let us hear further from President Polk's commis- sioner, Mr. Ilogan, as to the importance of the geographical position and the grandeur and variety of her material re- sources. Kecurring to the subject, and speaking first of the whole island, he says : " The island, which has of late years resumed in the hands of the blacks its original name of Haiti, or Ilayti, was usually known as San Domingo by the English and French, and as Hispaniola by the Spaniards. It lies about southeast of the island of Cuba, from which it is separated by a channel of about forty miles in width ; eastwardly from Jamaica, which is at the distance of one hundred miles ; wcst- wardly from Porto Rico, distant thirty miles. It is directly south from the city of New "V ork, which is about fifteen hundred miles re- moved ; from Charleston and Savannah, about nine hundred miles; within a few days' sail of Nicaragua, Yucatan, and Honduras, and equally convenient to Trinidad and the northern shores of the South American continent. This commanding position, in both a political and commercial point of view, is materially strengthened by the number and capacity of its harbors. The Bay of Samana, on the eastern extremity of the island, trends into the interior for a depth of eight leagues, with a proportionate width, and is capable of hold- ing all the navies of the world. The character of the shores of this bay and the noble timber which covers the adjacent country furnish inexhaustible means for repairing or even building ships of every dimension. This island extends, in its greatest length, nearly, from east to west, a distance of about three hundred miles, and from north to south its greatest breadth is about one hundred and fifty miles, with a superficial area of thirty thousand square miles. Its Indiau il -'I ' • ', DOMINICA. 445 ;> ii iiame, Ilayti, moaninp mountainous, indicates the most striking feature in its pliysical conlurmation, the moat elevated points rising to t)ie height of about six thousand feet above tlic surrounding ocean. The hilly region is, however, intersected with numerous val- leys, wliere the fertile character of the soil and a genial climute pro- duce an exuberance of the most valuable and diversified vegetation. In other parts of the island extensive natural meadows or savannahs appear, which furnislt an abundant provision for largo quantities of cattle and horses. San Domingo is, in general, well watered by nuinorous rivers, which penetrate into tlie interior and add to the productive capacities of a soil of unsurpassed fertility. The irregular character of the surface and tlic greater or less distance fnun the ocean occasion considerable diversities of climate, varying from the oppressive tropical heat, which, combined with a humid atmosphere, renders some parts peculiarly obnoxious to the vomito or yellow fever, to the elevated mountain ridges, where tiie cold is sometimes found to be unpleasant to those habituated to the more enervating influences of the tropics. 'I'he excessive heat, which would other- wise be insupportable, of the sea-board is, however, delightfully tempered by the sea breeze, wliich regularly, at ten o'clock a. in., lends its refreshing influences to the weary and exhausted sufl'erers. " Under such propitious circumstances, as may readily be supposed, the vegetable products of the island are as abundant as they are di- versified in character. Almost all the productions of the tropical and temperate zones find a genial soil and climute in some part of its various regions. The sugar-cane, cotton, tobacco, rice, and cocoa are grown in great abundance ; while the plantain, vanilla, potato, and other minor articles are indigenous to the soil. The moun- tains are covered with valuable timber, among which are especially to be noticed the mahogany, satin-wood, Uve-oak, and other useful descriptions of tree. •■ Nor are tlie mineral riclies of this island less important. It is well known that from the j)eriod of its discovery by the Spaniards large (|uantities of gold have been extracted from the soil, chiefly, however, by washing from the hills. It is known that there also ex- ist the most copious supplies of copper, coal, rock-salt, iron ore, nitre, and other valuable minerals. Tliese, however, owing to the dis- tracted state of the country, have been imperfectly developed. "This magniflcent island, upon which nature has lavished her choicest treasures with a profuse hand, has, however, been the victim of all the mi- 'y which man can inflict upon liis brother man. It was occupied b\ ae divided authority of France and Spain, the former possessing the western portion and the latter the eastern part of the island, while the line of demarcation between them was irregular, extending in a northerly and southwardly course across it. The part belonging to Spain extended over rather a greater extent of superfices than that which appertained to France. " About the year 1789 the island had perhaps attained its highest condition of prosperity, and its exports were then deemed more abundant and more valuable than those of Cuba. At that period broke out those devastating intestine commotions which spread horror and misery over this unfortunate region, marked by traits of ferocity and a depth of human sufllering rarely equaled and never surpassed. The black population of the French moiety of the island t i\ i'h. • 1 M n Si '■i i ill m DOMINICA. rose in insurrection a^^ainat their masters ; a servile war raged with all its terrors. Armies, the pride and boast of France, were anni- hilated by the combined influences of war and climate ; the negroes established their ascendency, and the independency of the Iluytian republic was finally recognized by the French monarch in 1825, in consideration of a large pecuniary indemnity, payable to the former proprietors of the soil. " It is, however, to be remarked, what cannot indeed be readily understood and has not been satisfactorily explained, so far as my information extends, that although the political authority of tho blacks had been extended as early as 1821 over the Hpaniah portion of the island, so that it was wholly subjugated to their sway, yet this recognition of independence by France is in terms restricted to the French part of the island. "This extension of the black authority continued without inter- mission until the opening of the year 1844, when the inhabitants of the Spanish portion o the island raised the standard of revolt, threw off the ignominious yoke which had been imposed by the authorities of Hayti, and declared their independence. The republic of Do- minica was then constituted. Since that period the war between the two parties has been continued, but the new community has thus far successfully maintained its independence, has organized a regular form of government, established a written fundamental constitution based upon republican principles, and holds out the best founded prospects of triumphing in the contest, even to the extent of ex- tending its authority throughout the entire island. " Such was the origin, and in brief such the present position of the new republic, to which I have had the honor of being com- missioned. " The territories of the republic are those which formerly belonged to Spain, and constitute about a moiety of the island, whether we estimate the extent of country, the character of the soil, and generally the sources of wealth. The population consists of about two hundred and thirty thousand, of whom forty thousand are blacks, and over one hundred thousand are whites." Such, Mr. Speaker, is San Domingo, the true Queen of the Antilles, and such is the sad story of her people. Her natural wealth is boundless, and infinite in its variety. It is also exhaustless, for its sources are perennial ; yet her impoverished and decimated people live in dread un- certainty, which, like the shadow of impending death, precludes exertion for the future. In view of her resources and her many capacious bavs and harbors, she should be the centre of a world-wide ana busy commerce ; but her bays and harbors are rarely shadowed by a sail, and a single steamer, the Tybee, visiting her ports but once a month, suffices for the greater part of her regular trade and com- munication with the great commercial Republic whose immediate neighbor she is. From the depths of their des- ( 1 DOMINICA. 447 pair the people of the republic of Dominica implore us to remove the dread shadow under which they live, expose her wealth to view, and cause it to be applied to the uses of mankind. Moved by their appeal, and instructed by the action of all his really great predecessors, the President proposes to the country to bless them and the world by granting their prayer; and for this he is assailed by the puny and short-sighted leaders of the Democratic party. Against their assaults I will not pause to defend him. He has vindicated to the world and history the singleness and rectitude of his purposes by the selection of Benjamin F. Wade, Andrew D. White, and Samuel G. Howe, as com- missioners to make the inquiries ordered by Congress. Truer men than these he could not have named, nor men morp free from the suspicion of liability to corrupt or sinister influences; and President Grant may well express a willingness to abide the issue of their investigations, con- fident that it will justify all he has done, and result in adding the tropical wealth of San Domingo to the mighty resources of the United States, and in the revival and expansion of our languishing Ocean commerce. |i I , REVENUE REFORM. Speech Delivered in tub House of Representatives, April 18tb, 1871. The House being in session — IVie Speaker said : The committees having been called through, the regular order is the consideration of the re- solution offered yesterday by the gentleman from New Hampshire [Mr, Bell] in regard to public expenditures and taxation, which went over under the rule, and comes up this morning for discussion. After speaking some time in support of the resolution, Mr. Cox said : I yield to the gentleman from Pennsylva- nia [Mr. Kelley]. Mr. Kelleij. Mr. Speaker, in the preamble of the reso- lution of tlie gentleman from New York* there are ab- stract propositions with which I cordially concur. But I desire to bring to the attention of the House, and, if pos- sible, of the country, one proposition contained in the resolution which seems to be in accordance with a popular delusion. It declares that "this House disapproves of in- ordinate taxation to pay off' immense amounts of the pub- lic debt as heretofore practiced by the Secretary of the Treasury." I believe this side of the House disapproves of inordi- nate taxation for the sake of the speedy payment of the debt; I certainly do. But, sir, we are older in legislation than the gentleman from New York, and have more experience in the management of affairs, and know that the Secretary of the Treasury has imposed no taxes upon the people. The taxes of which he complains are imposed by law, and not by order of the Secretary of the Treasury, who has had nothing to do with them, except * Though lubmittcd by the gcntlemnn from New Hampshire, the resolution was understood to be thiit of the gentleman from New York. 448 REVENUE REFORM. 449 to see that they arc efficiently collected and that the funds derived thereby are faithfully applied. Let ine call the attention of the House to the history of this question. For the six months preceding the in- auguration of General Grant and the installation of Se- cretary Boutwcll the revenues of the country were inade- quate to mjct its current expenditures. Each month for six months showed a declining balance in the Treasury. After the 4th of March, 18(59, however, it was found that this was reversed. The same tariff and tax laws prevailed. No increase of duty, no increase of internal taxes; yet it was found that taxes which had been insufficient for the current expenses of the Government were, under Republican administration, not only adequate for that purpose, but sufficient to justify the Government in be- ginning to pay the public debt. Sir, in addition to pay- ing the current expenses, Secretary Boutwell has out of these taxes paid $204,000,000 of the i)ublic debt and re- duced the annual payment of gold interest more than twelve million dollars. More than that, sir. Congve.s.s, at its last session, re- pealed internal taxes which yielded $55,000,000 annually and duties upon imports which yielded $23,000,000. The total reped of duties was $26,000,000 ; but by increase of duty on certain articles it is believed ,$3,000,000 addi- tional revenue will be derived, whereby the reduction will be diminished, thus making a total reduction of $78,000,000 on the annual income of the Government. And yet, with that reduction of the sources of revenue, the Secretary of the Treasury go.^s on paying the public debt and reducing the annual interest so rapidly that the gen- tleman and many Republicans find fault with him. To what use would he have the Secretary apply the money thus collected ? Would he have it lie dead in the Trea- sury? Would he thus withdraw from circulation the money collected and produce embarrassment and a com- mercial crisis ? By buying bonds and restoring these funds to circulation the Secretary of the Treasury has not only reduced our debt and annual interest, but given us a steadiness in financial affairs such as is unpa- ralleled in the history of our country for twenty-five years. Gold has stood for months between 110 and 111. Domestic commerce, foreign trade and the manufacturing industries of the country have gone on more steadily and 29 -:- « 1 1 1 t| ! ^ 1 1 i i "1* ' ■:■ i j:» *!f 'I* 11 "'d ' i I ■*■»»» > » ii i ' 1 '%■: ■'1 ' ^; -i I'in 450 RKVR>JrE RKPORM. evcnliamlcdly Uiaii thoy have for the same periotl of time in IX quarter of a century preceding it. Now, sir, I agree heartily with the gentleman that there may and should be a great reduction of taxes; that the income of the Government should bo largely reduced. I insi.sted during the last Congress that the reduction fshould be $100,000,000, instead of $80,000,000, at which the Committee of Ways and Means aimed, and I believe that with judicious legislation, to be devised by the Com- mittee of Ways and Means, we can repeal from seventy- five to eighty million dollars of taxes during the next session and still go on paying the debt. Let me assure the gentleman from New York that I am " in dead earnest " for the abolition of the internal re- venue system at the earliest day compatible with the maintenance of the faith and credit of the (jiovernment. I am for freeing the American people from the system of supervision, inquisition, and espionage it necessarily in- volves, and which is so disagreeable to them. It was cal- led into life by the contingencies of the war, and should be abolished as soon as possible. J/?'. Brooks, of New York. With the gentleman's per- mission, I will ask him a question. Admitting the fact that we are receiving now from taxes an income which can and ought to be reduced seventy-five or eighty mil- lion dollars, why not do it now, now, now, instead of put- ting it off to January, 1873 ? Mr. Kelley. Becau.se we are in the last day of the ses- sion and without committees. If the Committee of Ways and Means were appointed I should favor charging it with an investigation and revision such as were required of the committee of the last Congress, of which the gentleman from New York and I were members, and to the fidelity of which I am confident he will bear testimony, althouga he did not agree in the conclusions reported. Mr. Cox. I wish to ask a question. Mr. Kelley. I am speaking in your time. Mr. Cox. In your resolution abolishing internal taxes did you not except out of it spirits and tobacco ? Mr. Kelley. No, sir. I merely indicated that they should be retained as subjects of taxation so long as any internal taxes were required for the maintenance of the Government. REVENUE REFORM. 451 B }fr. 0)x. Ami by what machinery did the gentleman propose to collect the tax on spirits and tobacco ? Mr. Kelley. Why, so long as any internal taxes are required, I would collect them bv appropriate machinery; but I would, at the earliest possible day compatible with the maintenance of the faith and credit of the (Jovern- inent, abolish the whole system.* Mr. Cox. Then the gentleman would break down the internal taxation on tobacco and on whisky, which are always regarded as proper subjects of taxation ; and all the machinery of the inquisition, all the odium belonging to the internal revenue system, he would keep up until the very last moment — and what for? Mr. KcUey. What last moment ? Mr. Cox. Well, the gentleman does not explain him- self clearly, or else I would not interrogate him. Mr. Kelley. I would, as I have said, retain these taxes as long as any internal taxes arc necessary to the mainte- nance of the faith and credit of the Government, and not one moment longer. Mr. Cox. The gentleman did not intend, therefore, so long as he cared for the credit of the Government, to abolish the internal revenue tax on tobacco and on spirits ; and everybody knows that nearly all the frauds on the internal revenue arc in regard to these two articles. Mr. Kelley, You cannot strike down a system which yields $150,000,000, as the internal revenue system pro- * Internal Taxbs — Revenue Reform. — Mr. Kelley. I movo that the rules be so suspended as to adopt the following resolution : Jleiolved, That this House roafBrms the resolution adopted on the 12th of De- comber, 1870, by the House of Representatives of the Fortieth Congress, declar- ing that the true principle of revenue reform points to the abolition of the in- ternal revenue system, which was created as a war measure to provide for extraordinary expenses, and the continuance of which involves the employment, at a cost of millions of dollars annually, of an army of assessors, collectors, supervisors, detectives, and other officers previously unknown, and rec^uires the repeal at the earliest day consistent with the maintenance of the taith and credit of the Ooverninent of all stamp and other internal taxes ; and that pro- perly adjusted rates shall bo retained on distilled spirits, tobacco, and malt liquors so long as the legitimate expenses of the Government require the col- lection of any sum from internal taxes. Mr. Cox, I object to that pig-iron resolution. The Speaker. The question is upon suspending the rules and passing the resolution. Mr. Kelleg. And on that question I call for the yeas and nays. The yeas and nays were ordered. The question was than taken ; and there were — yeas 130, nays 21, not Tottig 76 — The Globe, April IIM, 1871. •M ' 'ij ' n? ,rj« U, 462 RBVBNUK REFORM. bably will this year, one-third of which at least in alwo- lutoly required to meet the expenditures of the Govern- ment ; you cannot strike that system down, I say, all at once. And therefore I indicated in my resolution the subjects of taxation which I would retain to the last.* Mr, Finkelnbtirg, Will the gentleman yield to mo for a question ? Afr. Kclh-y. Certainly. Mr. Finkelnhnrg. I uosiro to ask the gontlen)an from Pennsylvania a question for the purpose of understanding the position ho occupies on the question (;f taxation. Would he take ofY the internal taxes upon such articles as tobacco and whisky before commencing to reduce the customs duties upon such articles of necessity as coal, salt, and woolen goods and other articles? Mr. Cox. That is the question I wanted to got at. Will the gentleman answer that ? Mr. Ki'.lky. I will answer that question fairly and very fully if not cut short by the gentleman from New York, in whoso time I am speaking. I would not repeal those taxes before commencing to revise many of the provisions of the tarift* On salt I iiave already de- clared myself as believing that a reduction of fifty per cent, of the duty would be judicious. On the question of coal I am thoroughly satisfied that the existence of that duty does not add one farthing to the cost of a ton of coal to any American consumer. It brings to the 'J'rcasury nearly half a million of dollars per annum, and if we were to repeal it, that half million dollars would go to provincial and English coal producers to the detriment of the American tax-payers. I am satisfied of that, sir, from a careful examination and analysis of tlie prices of 0* The effect tho intorniil tax on vpirits or tnx on whisky, ns Mr. Cox phrases it, hns on tho grain-growing interest hni been shown elfewhero, nnd (ho foljuw- ing paragraph from the I'ittuhurgh Commercial shows how prejudicially it has operated on the shipping interest of the country and the foreign trade uf Mr. Cox's district : " The merchants of New York formerly conduotod a thriving business in the exportation of alcohol. Large quantities were carried to Mediterranean ports in American ships, and fruit was brought in return from Smyrna and other pmces. Now these vessels, it is assorted, are idle, or have boon transferred to other or less lucrative branches of trade. Vessels trading to ports along the Mediterranean, it is asserted, will not take freights to the United States, becanse they are not sure of back cargoes. Consequently fruits go tu Liverpool, and are transhipped at that port in British craft sailing for Now York. The regular trade in alcohol, from New York, it is asserted, should amount to ten milliona of dollars * year." REVENUE REFORM. '453 coal in tho city of Boston for years before the reciprocity treaty, for tho ten years or more that tlio reciprocity treaty existed, and for the years that have succoeuod tho repeal of the treaty. Such an examination of facts taken from the ItoHton Snipping List will settle in tho n>ind of any candid man the fact that to repeal this duty is to take from our Treasury half a million, dollars in u^l^ per annum, and bestow it upon tho people of Nova Scotia as a bribe to them to remain English subjecttf and free from our system of internal taxes. That is the wholo of the coal question. Ml'. (\\x. I must resume the floor. Mr. Kelley. 1 thank the gentleman for his indulgence. I would be glad to go on for an hour answering any questions that revenue reformers or free-traders might put to me. While grieving that I cannot be further cate- chised, I again thank tiie gentleman from New York for his courtesy. !■ .! .1^ i KT THE NEW NORTHWEST. ?4V An Address on the North Pacific Railway, in its relations to the development of the northwest- ern section of the united states, and to the Industrial and CoxMmercial Interests of the Na- TioN. Delivered in th'? Academy of Music, Phila- delphia, June, 12th, 1871. Reported by D. Wolfe Brown, Phonographer. Hon. Wtlliam. D. Kelley, who was received with hearty and long- continued applause, said : I tliank you, ladies and gentlemen, for this very cordial reception, and beg leave to express my gratitude to the gentlemen who, by their invitation, have afforded me an opportunity to contribute, however humbly, towards the completion of a work which, for more than a quarter of a century, I have regarded as of prime importance to the country, and of special value to my native city and State, and for the promotion of which, during that period, I have labored as opportunity offered. I do not expect the state- ment of facts I shall make to be accepted without many grains of allowance by those of my hearers who have not visited the trans-Missouri portion of our country ; and shall not be surprised if many of you leave the hall with the opin- ion that I have dealt largely in exaggeration. Yet it is my purpose to speak within the limits of truth, and to make no statement that is not justified by my personal observation, authorities that all are bound to recognize, or the concur- rent statements of numbers of inhabitants of, and travellers through, the country of which I am to speak. The truth is, that however well-informed a man may be and however large the grasp of his mind, if his life has been passed between the Atlantic and the Mississippi river, he cannot fully conceive the strange contrasts between the characteristics of the Atlantic and Pacific portions of our 454 THE NEW NORTHWEST. 455 country. The diflference in topography is marked, and re- cognized by all ; but as to the subtle differences of climate, soil, temperature and atmosphere, experience, alone, can im- part conviction. About two years ago, it was my privilege, in connec- tion with my colleagues on the Committee of Ways and Means of the National House of Kepresentatives, to traverse the entire route of the Union and Central Pacific lload by daylight, and to visit Salt Lake City, which was, as all know, located in the heart of the "Great Desert," that it might be the centre of a Mormon empire that would be guarded by the forces of Nature against Gentile intrusion. Afler having somewhat studied California, with San Fran- cisco as our head-quarters, we passed up the coast to the mouth of the Columbia river, along that beautiful stream to its confluence with the Willamette, and up the Willam- ette to Portland, Oregon, as a new point of departure for observation, visiting thence on one line of steamers, Oregon city, with its immense flouring and woolen mills, and on another, the grandeur (for beauty does not express it) of the Columbia river beyond the Cascades and onward to the Dalles. Though that region had so long been a matter of interest to me, the study of which had aftbrded so much pleasure, each day revealed new and strange conditions, and imbued me with a fresh sense, not only of the extent of our country, but of the grandeur and infinite variety of its resources and the beneficence and power of the Almigh- ty, in adapting all parts of it to the sustenance and comfort of man. But of this hereafter. Let me first invite your attention to facts within the memory of some of my auditors, which show that the re- sources of the new northwest and its adaptability to rail- road purposes are not, as is sometimes intimated, of recent discovery, but have long been known, and that the route of the Northern Pacific Railroad is that which was originally proposed, because it is the shortest and best by which to connect the seaboard at Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, Boston, and Portland, Me., witli the waters oi' Puget Sound and the commerce of the ancient East, which i;; now the West, the march towards which, of American ideas is illustrating again the truth that, !:i' :| *l >btt 41 "Westward the course of empire takes its way." ill 456 THE NEW NORTHWEST. Pacific Railroad History. During the summer of 1845, twenty six years ago, Asa Whitney, of New York, who had spent many years in China, and sought by all such agencies as were at the *u)mmand of private enterprise, information about the coun- try lying between Lake Michigan and Puget Sound, did me the honor to seek my acquaintance and bring to my at- tention the subject of a railroad from the base of the lake to some point in Oregon, on the waters of Puget Sound or the Columbia River, or to a point on each. The whole sub- ject was new to me ; but Mr. Whitney came prepared to enlighten those who were ignorant, and to inspire with faith those who doubted. His general views were in print, and embodied columns of statistics, obtained from official sources, and many facts reported by persons who had traveled more or less through the region which the proposed road was to traverse. The magnitude of the subject inspired me, and my enthusiasm for his great project induced Mr. Whitney, des- pite the disparity in our years, to favor me with frequent con- ferences, and to bring to my attention whatever information relating to the subject he obtained. Early in the year 1846, I felt justified, by the growth of sentiment in its favor, in undertaking to secure him an opportunity to present his project to a public meeting of the citizens of Philadelphia. To induce a sufficient number of gentlemen to act as officers of the meeting was the work of time. I found few who took an interest in, or believed in the feasibility of, the project. Some said that a railroad so far north would not be available for as many months in the year as the Penn- sylvania canals were; that it would be buried in snow more than half the year. Others cried, "What madness to talk of a railroad more than two thousand miles long through that wilderness, when it is impossible to build one ^Dver the AUeghanies ! " (Laughter and applause.) As I went from man to man with Mr. Whitney's invalu- able collection of facts and figures, I discovered that the doubts with which the work must contend were infinite in number, and it was not until six months had elapsed that a sufficient number of well-known citizens to constitute the officers of a meeting had consented to sign the call for one and act as such. But patience and perseverance accom- plish a good deal in this world. The cause had gained adherents, and, as I find by reference to the papers of that THE NEW NORTHWEST. 457 day, the meeting for which I had so long labored was held in the Chinese Museum, on the evening of December 23d, 1846. Some of these my venerable friends who sit around me probably remember the occasio.., as I see among them some who acted as officers. Ilis honor, John Swift, then Mayor of the city, presided. Col. James Page, lions. Richard Vaux, William M. Meredith and John F. Belster- ling, with Mr. David S. Brown and Mr. Charles B. Trego (all of whom still survive) were among the vice-presidents ; and Senator Wm. A. Crabb, since deceased, and William D. Kelley served as secretaries. The speakers were Messrs. AVhitney, Josiah Randall, Peter A. Browne and William D. Kelley. Mayor Swift, with a few cautious words commendatory of his great enterprise, introduced Mr. Whitney, who stated, with great clearness, hia project, and the advantages that would result from its execution. It was, he said, to be a railroad from the base of Lake Michigan to a point on navigable water in Oregon. He believed that it could be constructed on a line about 2400 miles in length ; and he and his associates hoped to be able to build it in twenty years, if the Government would grant sixty miles' breadth of land for the whole distance. When asked how he would make land in that remote northern wilderness available for the building of a road, he described the character of the climate, and showed that north of the forty-ninth degree of north latitude, and in valleys extending up to the fifty- sixth degree, the climate was in summer as genial as that of southern Pennsylvania; and asserted emphatically that a railroad through that section would be less obstructed by snow than one through Central New York or Pennsylvania. His scheme was to organize a vast system of immigra- tion from the cities of th** Eastern States and from Europe ; the workmen were to be paid in part in land, and a corps was to be detailed to prepare a part of each farm for culti- vation the next year, so that when the laborers of the second year should go forward they would leave behind them those of the first as farmers and guardsmen of the road ; by this process many millions of poor and oppressed people would be lifted to the dignity of free-holding American citizens, and the great route for the commerce of the world would be established amid the development of the boundless resources of the yet new Northwest. (Ap- plause.) e.'!. I .11 m I i .* Mi m 1 4i j 458 THE NEW NORTHWEai. At the close of an eloquent address, the late Josiah Ran- dall, Esq., submitted a series of resolutions, from which I quote the following, which were heartily adopted : " Whereas, the completion of a railroad from Lake Michigan to the Pacific would secure the carrying of the greater portion of the commerce of the world to American enterprise, and open to it the markets of Japan and the vast empire of China, of all India, and of all the islands of the Pacific and Indian Oceans, together with those of the Western Coast of Mexico and South America; And, whereas, we have in our public lands a fund sufficient for and appropriate to the construction of so great and beneficent a work; and the proposition of Asa Whitney, Esq., of New York, to construct a railroad from Lake Michigan to the Pacific for the grant of a strip of land 60 miles wide, offers a feasible and cheap, if not the only plan for the early completion of an avenue from ocean to ocean ; therefore, " Resolved, That we cordially approve of the project of Asa Whit- ney, Esq., for the construction of a railrnad to the Pacific, and res- pectfully petition Congress to grant or set apart, before the close of the present session, the lands prayed for by Mr. Whitney for this purpose." It was also resolved to send copies of the resolutions and proceedings of the meeting to our senators and members of Congress, and to the Governor of the Commonwealth, with the request that he would bring the subject to the attention of the Legislature. Encouraged by this success, Mr. Whitney visited other cities, and brought his plans before the people. On the 4th of January, 1847, he addressed an immense meeting in the Tabernacle, New York, which was presided over by the mayor and participated in by the leading men of that city. His remarks were listened to, but at their close a mob took possession of the hall and denounced the project as a swindle, declaring that it was an attempt on the part of a band of conspirators to defraud the people by inducing the Government to make an immense grant of land for an impracticable project. This was the initial movement of a powerful and or- ganized opposition, before which Mr. Whitney retired, silenced in his effort to promote one of the grandest works ever conceived by an American citizen. (Applause.) But his labors had not been in vain. On the 23d of June, 1848, Hon. James Pollock, the present Director of the United States Mint, who does me the honor to listen to me, and who was then in Congress from this State, as chair- man of a special committee appointed in accordance with THE NEW NORTHWEST. 459 a resolution he had offered, presented a favorable report on the project of a Pacific Railroad, recommending that steps be taken to secure adequate explorations and surveys of the trans-Mississippi country. The " madness " of the project was still laughed at by "grave and reverend" senators; and it was not until the 3d of March, 1853, that the President signed an act authorizing the Secretary of War, under his direction, "to employ such portion of the corps of topographical engineers and such other persons as he may deem necessary to make such c .plorations and sur- veys as he may deem advisable, to ascertain the most prac- ticable and economical route for a railroad from the Missis- sippi river to the Pacific ocean." Effect was given to this resolution at the earliest day, but it was not until the 27th of February, 1855, that the Secretary of War was able to submit to the President, for communication to Congress, the reports of the several surveying parties. The first of these reports were given to the public by order of Con- gress in the latter part of that year. They fill thirteen large quarto volumes, and I shall have occasion to refer to them hereafter. THE PENNSYLVANIA CENTRAL ROAD. As experience is a trusted teacher it may be well to pause and examine the condition of the railroad interests of the country at that time. At the close of 1846, we had 4930 miles of road in operation, 297 of which had been completed during that year. A system of continuous railroad had not been proposed. Until about that time the function of railroads had been assumed to be to connect water-courses Thus the Columbia Eailroad, constructed by our State authorities, connected the waters of the Pennsylvania canals with those of the Delaware river ; the Camden and Amboy road connected the waters of the Delaware with those of the Raritan ; from Philadelphia to Baltimore, until 1838, communication was by steamboat from Philadelphia ti) Newcastle, thence by rail to Frenchtown, thence by steam- boat to Baltimore. The route from Boston to New York was by railroad from Boston to Providence, and by steam- boat thence to New York. These connecting links of road soon developed a commerce, not equal to their ca- pacity but beyond that of available water conveyance, and thus demonstrated the necessity of a more general resort m 1 : 1 .# , t i u m y,^i ■ 1 ri ■Hi •:^4«il 460 THE NEW NORTHWEST. to roads. Hence the subject of the expansion of our sys- tem was attracting attention. The construction of the Pennsylvania Central road was under consideration. On the 3d of April, 1846, the Legislature, after much and vio- lent controversy, had consented to give the madcaps, who were willing to engage in such a project, a charter; but to prevent them from practising fraud, by peddling the fran- chise or holding it for sinister purposes, the act required that $2,500,000 of stock should be subscribed, and that the enormous sum of $250,000 should be paid in before the issuing of letters patent. Most of you, doubtless, suppose that the requisite subscription was obtained at once. No ; nearly twelve months were required to induce the enter- prising men of Philadelphia to rislctwo millions and a half of dollars in building a road over the Alleghanies. " The grades on the road," it was said, " would be impracticable; the heavy snows and long winter would render the road unavailable ; the project was a mad one." Those only who remember the efforts required to induce the people of Penn- sylvania to make that small subscription would believe the story, could it be faithfully told. The active young men of this day would regard it as a pungent satire. Town meetings were held, and "block-committees" were appointed, by whom citizens were solicited to sub- scribe for five shares or three or one, for the sake of the experiment, even though the investment might be unpro- ductive. Meetings of draymen and porters were held, and they were shown that if each would take a share, it would help the enterprise; that if the road should prove a suc- cess they would get good interest on their money with great increase of business ; and if not, it would have been wisely spent in promoting an enterprise which, in the judgment of many good men, promised great benefit to the City and State. I have spoken of the business men of Philadelphia, but the appeal was not to them alone ; it was to the people of Pennsylvania. This was to be a Pennsylvania road, and by the act of incorporation the commissioners for receiving subscriptions were required to open books at Pittsburg, Hollidaysburg, Harrisburg, and all the chief towns along the line of the road, as well as in Philadelphia ; and the energy, enterprise, and capital of the whole State stood ap- paled at the magnitude and doubtful character of an under- THE NEW NORTHWEST. 461 taking to build a continuous line of railroad from Phila- delphia to Pittsburg. It was not until the 30th of March, 1847, but three days less than one year from the granting of the charter, that the petty subscription required was obtained, letters patent is- sued, and a board of directors organized. And it remained for some time thereafter a grave question whether capital could be obtained by subscription or loan to complete the road. But by the middle of October, 1850, a single track was completed from Harrisburg, its then point of departure, to Altoona, at the foot of the Alleghany mountains. The triumph was immense ; and on the 18tn of October, 1850, the event was celebrated by an excursion, which was enjoyed by many prominent business men and other iriends of the road. In the evening a meeting was held over a pleasant dinner, at which I remember my friend. General Patterson (pointing to the General, who sat on the stage in company with Governor Geary), and his friend, old General Kiley, were speakers. The late President Buchanan and Joseph R. Ingersoll, Esq., also deceased, spoke. At the close of a very brilliant speech, my friend, Morton Mc- Michael, Esq., did me the honor to introduce me as one who had been an early and efficient friend of the road. From a musty copy of the North American now before me, I find that, among other things, I expressed my pride " in the fact that I was a Phiiadelphian, a member of that community which, with aid from but a single township — that of Allegheny — had, in the face of a host of discourage- ments, embarked their capital, enterprise, energy and skill in the construction of the magnificent road over which we had travelled that day, and which, though not yet com- pleted, was sufficiently advanced to earn in a few years the means for its completion, should they not be supplied from other sources." And, alluding to what was then my fa- vorite project, I said : " The English mail for Calcntta will yet travel over our Pennsyl- vania Railroad, and its iron ribs will groan under the weight of com- modities passing to and fro between the 250,000,000 of people east ef the Atlantic and the 750,000,000 west of the Pacific. The dis- covery of our Continent by Columbus was accidental ; but the builders of this road and its several continuations through the Western States are vindicating his sagacity. He sailed due west fi'om Europe to find a shorter route to the wealth of India. He was 462 THE NEW NORTHWEST. right ; the fact that he encountered a continent did not increase the distance bctwuon the points; it did but demonstrate the necessity for a new mudo of conveyance. This the railroad and locomotive supply. The passage of the two oceans by steam and the crossing of our country on a railroad will reduce the time requisite for a voy- age from London to Canton to less than thirty days, '* Columbus was no enthusiast. He looked calmly and gravely at facts, and spoke the words of sober wisdom; and so, let fully sneer as it may, do those who speak of the Pennsylvania road as a link in a chain of commercial facilities which is to girdle the earth." (Ap- plause.) And again : "The Mississippi Valley is not our Western country, nor is the Pacific coast of our country the ' far West' we look to. Columbus would go west to the Indies ; and we will do it. The riches of our West, now the world's East, will lade our road, stimulate our agri- culture, develop our vast mineral resources, quicken and expand our enterprise, and drop their fatness throughout our borders." * (Applause.) I find that, when somewhat laughed at for this outburst of subdued enthusiasm, I replied by saying: "AVhy, you can find in Philadelphia to-day more men clamorous for a road from St. Louis to San Francisco than you could who be- lieved in the pos.sibility of constructing a continuous road over the mountains hence to Pittsburg si.\ years ago." This, you will remember, was after the acquisition of California and the discovery of her gold-fields. A QUARTER OF A CENTURY. But to return to 1846, a quarter of a century ago. Let no man think that the Pacific Railroad then projected was to run to San Francisco, or elsewhere than to the heart of the unorganized Territory of Oregon, which extended from the 42d to the 49th parallel of laditude, and embraced what is now the State of Oregon and Washington Territory, into which no settlers had yet gone. There was then no San Francisco, Not a cabin or a hut stood within the now corporate limits of that beautiful and * On the Iftth of August, 1871, I was a passenger on the Union Pacifio Rail- road. While breakfasting at Grand Island, Nebraska, I was shown by C. P. Huntington, Esq., Vice President of the Central Pacilio Co., a telegram inform- iag him that his company had on the 15th contracted for the carriage from San Francisco of 9.30 tons — 93 car loads— of tea, much of which was to go to New York, via the Pennsylvania Central Road. The largest preceding engagement had been for 570 tvns. ■■". li! THB NEW NORTHWEST. 463 prosperous city. Culifornia, Nevada, Arizona and New Afexico, were still Mexican territory. Neitlier science nor observation had detected the deposits of gold and silver, or the agricultural capabilities of that vast region of coun- try. The great railroad centre of the West, Chicago, had not yet come into public view. The less than 10,000 peo- ple who had gathered at the confluence of the Chicagol river with Lake Michigan had no presentiment that the swamp in which they dwelt would, in les? than twenty years, be filled up and raised nearly twenty feet, to provide drainage for the streets of the most enterprising and re- markable city of its age in tlie world. Michigan then had a population of less than 250,000, and Wisconsin and Iowa each but 100,000 ; and civilization bad not yet penetrated the wild region then known as Minnesota Territory, where the census takers, four years later, found but 6038 people. Four years later thc/e were but 91,635 people in California, which had then been ceded to us by Mexico, and admitted to the Union as a State, and whose recently discovered deposits of gold had attracted immigrants from every clime. There was no Government in Kansas and Nebraska, that whole fertile region being in possession of the Indian and the buf- falo. The name of that busy centre of river and railroad commerce, Omaha, had not been heard by English-speak- ing people, and the vast mineral, grazing and agricul- tural region through which the Union and Central Pa- cific railroad is now doing a profitable and rapidly in- creasing business, was noted by geographers as the " Great American Desert." Philadelphia had no railroad connection with Pittsburg, Pittsburg none with Cincin- nati or Chicago, nor any of these with St. Louis. The northwestern part of our State was known as the " wild-cat country," in which it was regarded as a misfortune to own land unless it was timbered and on the banks of a moun- tain stream ; and properties in that wide section in whicb coal and petroleum have since been discovered were sold every few years for taxes, because people could not afibrd to own land in such a cold, mountainous, unproductive and inaccessible country. (Laughter and applause.) Surely the world moves and time does work wonders. What railroads we have you know ; what railroads we are to have you only begin to suspect. In Europe, during this quarter of a century, dynasties and the boundaries of ;(|. 464 THE NEW NORTHWEST. empires liave ihangod, but tho incroasi of population lias beoii scarcely porcoptiblo. The oppressioiiH of tho foudai past linger there, and cannot be shnVcn off. But hero, whore uiun is free, and nature ofl'ers boundless returns to enterprise, broad empires have risen, embracing towns, citicrt, and states ; and millions of people born in many hinds with poverty and o{)pres8ion as their only birthright, arc now, as American citizens, enjoying all tlie comforts and refinements of civilization, and with capital rivaling that of European princes, originating and pressing forward great enterprises which are in the next c^uarter of a cen- tury to work more marvellous changes than any I have alluded to. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, were su|>ernal power to unfold to our view our country as it shall bo a quarter of a century hence, the most far-seeing and san- guine of us would regard the reality as a magnificent de- lusion. Our extension of territory and law, great as it lias oeon, is of small conse(|[uence in comparison with the achievements of mind in the empire of science and art, whereby man is enabled to produce ten-fold, and in many departments of productive industry ah undred-fold as mucii as he could twenty-five years ago by tlie same amount of labor. New roads are to be built ; new towns, cities and states to be created ; new resources developed ; and the sluggish people of the Orient are to be awakened lu their own interests and induced to contribute their vast shai 3 to the progress and commerce of the world. The vision hat filled the soul of Columbus was a grand one ; but „hat which opons to our view, and should possess and animate us, is as much grander and more beneficent as the civiliza- tion and arts of the close of the 19th are superior to those of the dawning days of the 14th century. THE NORTHERN PACIFIC RAILROAD. I regard the construction of the Northern Pacific Rail- road as chief among the great works of the future, and be- lieve that while it will be a magnificent monument to its builders and promoters, and abundantly reward their en- terprise and labor, its construction will add inconceivably to the wealth, power and influence of the nation. It will open to settlement, under the homestead and pre-emption laws, a territory that would accommodate all the peasantry of Europe, and, by the development of its boundless and THE NEW NORTHWEST. 465 varied mineral and agricultural roHourcoa, lift niillions of men from poverty to wealth, and enable many who are burdens upon society to bless it by their prospority. (Ap- plause.) Theso are well considered convictions. If I am mis- taken, I have, as I have shown you, cherished the delusion through the greater part of my manhood ; and the study of many authorities, much intercourse with men, and ex- tended travel have only served to confirm it. Nor do I now express them for the first time. On the 26th of April, 1800, a bill proposing to authorize the Government to aid in the construction of the Northern Pacific Railroad was under consideration by Congress, and I particij)atcd in the discussion. By reference to the Olobe, 1 find, that after having character i^icd the cor.striic'tion of the road as a mat- ter of not only National but world-wide importance I said : " From Lake Superior to Pugct Sound! A riulrond stretching from liiike Superior to I'ufjct Sound, n distance of 1800 iniloH I 'I'o open to civilization an oiupire Kinder and broader than Western Europe, from the soutlieru vinelunds of 8uuiiy Spain on the one hand to tlie Hyperborean forests of Norway on tlio other ! Yea, sir ; nn empire equal in extent to Kiiffland, Ireland, Scotland, France, Uelgium, the tJerman States, Austria, Holland, Italy, Switzeriojid. Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Spain and Portugal. " We fail, Mr. Speaker, to understand our relations to the age in which we live and our duties to mankind, because we fail to appre- ciate the grand dimensions and uninuigined resources of our cotn>try. We would regard ourselves as giants did wo estimate ourselves in proportion to possessions so grand in a country so abounding in multiform resources, so undeveloped, and so sparsely settled. "The region througli which it is proposed to construct this road, exceeding in extent all the countries I have named, also embodies more mineral wealth than tliey all combined ever possessed. liut what is its condition ? It is a wilderness. Almost every acre of it is still innocent of the tread of a tax collector. It yields the (Jovern- raent no revenue. Along the Pacific coast a few thriving villages dot it. Some of them will be one day great cities, but thy are now on the borders of a vast wilderness." COMPARED WITH OTHER ROUTES. ^ But there are those who, while admitting the vast extent and wonderful resources of the country, assert that it is un- fit for occupancy by communities by reason of its high latitude and the altitude of its mountains. They present all the objections that were made to the construction of the Pennsylvania Railroad. " The mountains are too high," 30 *i : t i 1 1 Mi 466 THE NKW NORTHWEST. "the Bnows nro too deep, nnd lio too long I" Are not thcso objeotion.s as ground loss in tlii.s uiwo nn they were in tliat? Ijot UH see. Goveriuneiit aurveys and other obser- vations show, beyond reasonal)le question, that a railroad between the 47th and 41)th parallels will have ft better ,routo than any other road north ol'the li2d degree, whieh line lias the drawbaeU of a summer climate that is so nearly tropical as to interfere with travel and the general transit of goods. I am convinced that the country through whieh tho Northern Pacific Railroad is to pass will, twcnty-fivo years hence, contain doublo tho population that will then be found along tho line of tho road which connects Omaha and Sacramento. Indeed I believe I would be within tho bounds of reasonable prediction if I made my proposition embrace the continuation of the road from the city of Sac- ramento to San Francisco, notwithstanding tho wondrous attractions California presents to those who are .seeking a new homo and a more profitable field for enterprise. Tho Central route must create its way trafTic; none awaited its construction. From Omaha to Sacramento not a navigable stream crosses the route of tho Union and Cen- tral road ; nor does one approach it. Let me not bo un- derstood as disparaging the value of this road, or as inti- mating that it is not already doing a profitable business, or that it will not, as every other railroad in this country has done, create a constantly increasing volume of business that will enable it to rapidly decrease its rates for freight and travel, Avhile increasing its income and net profits. Indeed it is already doing this, and its present charges for freight and travel compare very favorably with those of 1869. Yes, it has its way business to create, and is doing it rapidly. Witness the two branch roads already con- structed, one from Denver to Cheyenne, and the other from Salt Lake City to Ogden. Before the main line was built, who dreamed of railroads along either of those valleys ? Behold, also, tho enormous development of the coal and iron fields at Evanston, 500 miles west of Cheyenne, and more than 1000 miles west of Omaha. Two years ago the fact was proudly announced that both coal and iron had been discovered at Evanston ; and now the place is marked by the smoke and din of forges, furnaces, rolling-mills, machine shops, and preparations are making for tho manu- facture of Bessemer steel rails, the construction of the works having been commenced. (Applause.) THK NKW NORTHWEST. 467 Look, too, at the mftvclloua (Icvclopmcnt by "gontilo" hands of tlio Hilver mines in soutliorn Utah, to which the MornionH, IJrigharn Young liaving driven the first spike about a fortnight ago, are ext»'n(biig their branch road in order to carry silver ore, the transportation of whieli from the mines to Swansea, Kngland, taxes it $40 a ton.* This tax will bo saved when Amcrieans sliall bo enterprising enough to nut v\\) ade(iuate smelting works in a country in which coal and rich ores abound. Yes, British vessels coming to New York and l*hiladelphia with salt or iron return freighted witli the ores of southern Utah, because wo have not tiic enterpri.se to smelt them. Look, again, at the development of the wool trade. In many of the valleys along the lino of the Central and Union road there are flocks numbering not thirty, not (ifty, not a hundred sheep, as in the old States, but thousands ; and some flocks numbering more than ten thousand head now range valleys in the very heart of the "Great American Desert," wlicre it was 8uppo.sed civilization would never find an abode. What a field for genius, entcrpri.se and industry ! It will, at no distant day, swarm with men of grit. There are thousands of young men in this city filling small oflices, or in some other way picking up a precarious living, getting through the world .somehow, never knowing whether both ends will meet at the end of any month, who, were they to go to this country, carrying with them the knowledge gained in our furnaces, machine shops or factories, would in a few years find themselves at the head of large estab- lishments and commanding hundreds of employees. (Ap- plause.) I rejoice in the fact that the Grand Army of the Republic is organizing one-armed and one-legged soldiers to go and settle in colonies upon the public lands, on the theory that their wives and children will share their labors in securing a homestead and honest independence. The scheme is as judicious as it is noble, and the poor disabled fellows will, I doubt not, in a few years write back to their » The proprietors of the Emma Mine, which is about twenty miles south of Salt Lake City, have a contract with the Union Pacific Company to carry 100 tons of argentiferous Galena ore per day. This requires ten cars, but does not dispose of all the ore yielded by this mine. The remainder with ore from other wines is reduced to matt ot Stockton and Salt Lake City. Ingots weighing hundreds of pounds, of which gold is the element of chief value, silver the next, and lead tho least, though chief in bulk, are always to be found in great stacks upon the side-walks of tho business street of Salt Lake City awaiting purchasers. ■i : ' k. ma iM 1 :! I 4 468 THE NEW NORTHWEST. less energetic but unmutilated comrades to come and work for and be fed and clothed by them. (Laughter and ap- plause.) These branch roads and expanding industries are but some of the many precursors and sure pledges of the im- mense sources of traffic that are to rise along a road, the drinking water for many of whose agents, as well a.s for the supply of many of its engines, is brought in tanks over alkaline plains for hundreds of miles, and one of tlic summits of which, at Sherman, is a mile and a-half above the topmost spire of Philadelphia, and 3285 feet higher than the most elevated summit on the Northern roud, — that at Deer Lodge Pass. GROWTH OF RAILROAD TRAFFIC. That this road will create business for itself, and speedily return the capital embarked in its construction, I am abundantly persuaded. This opinion is confirmed by the highest authority on such questions known to railroad men in this country, H. V. Poor, Esq., who in his admirable sketch of the railroads of the United States, published last year, says: " It is safe to estimate that the railroad tonnage of the com v would dulplicate itself as often as once in ten years, were there no increase of fine or population, from the progress made in its industries and in the mechanic arts." Mr. Poor amply sustains this proposition by facts de- duced from the railroad history of the country, and says : " Our means will increase just in the degree in which we render available the wealth that now lies dormant in our soil." * * Philadelphia, June 30, 1S71. Deak Sir: There is, in my opinion, no portion of our community whose fu- ture is more, if even so much, dependent upon the maintenance of ft protective policy as is the railroad one. When the domestic commerce thrives, then do railroad stocks piiy dividends. When that commerce is sacrificed at the shrine of foreign trade, tlien do stockholders suffer. Look to the closing years of the last free-trade period, say 1869-60, and you will see that $400,000,000 would have bought the whole $1,000,000,000 that had then been spent on roads. That the reverse of this is now the case is due to the fact, thnt for the last ton years the policy of the country has looked to the development of our great mineral re- sources, and to the emancipation of our roads from dependence on a mere through trade for which competition is at all times so great that it is carried on at the lowest possible rate of profit, even when not at an absolute loss. Let that de- pendence be re-established and our railroad companies will find tbcmiielves THE NEW NORTHWEST. 469 ill Speaking of the year 1869, he says : " The tonnage traffic of the railroads constructed the past year, at only one thousand tons to the mile, will equal five million tons, havinj,^ a value of SToO,000,0()0 ! Every road constructed adds five times its value to the aggregate value of the property of the coun- try. The cost of the works constructed the past year will equal at least $100,000,000. The increased value, consequently, of property i due to the construction will equal $600,000,000." These observations of Mr. Poor are specially applicable to the Northen Pacific road, the construction of which will not only create an immense volume of through travel, but develop a region not exceeded in native wealth by any equal area on the face of the globe ; which abounds in the precious and other metals, in wheat-lands and lumber forests, and embraces the natural home of the sheep and goat, and grazing fields in which herds of cattle large enough to supply our entire market, may graze throughout the year, growing and fattening upon natural grasses, which in the dry atmosphere of the country do not decompose as again in the position from which they had bee.'^ rescued by the passage of the Morrill tariff of 1861. How wonderful has been the growth of our domestic commerce under the pro- tective system then established, is shown in the briet statement of facts, derived from Mr. Poor's excellent " Manual of the Railroads of the United States," that will now be given, as follows: — Ten years since, !>ay in 1860, the net tonnage of more than 30,000 miles of road was but 18,500,000, the growth of ten years of peace at home and wiir from abroad on all our industries under the British free-trade system then existing, having been but 14,000,000 ; this, too, notwithstanding an increase of population amounting to more than 8,000,000. Last year, at the close of another ten years' period nearly half of which had been attended with great destruction of pro- perty, and with such waste of life that the increase of population had been but 7,000,000, or two-thirds of what had been anticipated, the net tonnage of 50,000 miles of road — exclusive of coal, ore, and other low-priced freights, exceeding 20,000,000 tons — had reached 72,500,000, giving an increase of no less than 64,000,000 tons. In the first or free-trade decade, the tonnage added was but IJ tons to each added head of population. In the last, or protective one, it has proved to be but little short of 8 tons to each of the added population. In the first, the increase in the value carried, per head of our total population, was but $55. In the second, it has been nearly thrice that, or $141. In the first or free-trade one, the earnings remained precisely where they had stood in 1850, at but $4000 per mile. In the second, or protective one, with a. ■ decrease rather than an increase in the rates of freight, they have more than doubled, having risen to more than $9000 per mile. In the first, our policy had looked towards subjecting the country to British influence, and hence was it that our railroad owners had been so nearly ruined. In the second, it has looked to the establishment of industrial and commercial : independence, and henoe it is that all our railroad owners have so largely profited. That the extraordinary increase here exhibited of railroad transportation has not only not been attended with any diminution of shipping employed in domestic . ' 1,r.?f N I ' I ' IK 't 470 THE NEW NORTHWEST, ours do when exposed to the weather, but cure where they grow, and feed herds of buffalo, elk, antelope and mountain sheep the year round. THE NEW NORTHWEST. Minnesota, through which the road will be completed by October, from Lake Superior to the Eed Kiver, 266*' miles, is the great wheat field of our country. It is a land of lakes and rivers, of forest and prairie. Its farmers are prosperous and contented. Its population numbered 6077 in 1850 ; had swollen to 172,022 by 1860 ; and was found to be 436,057 in 1870. The value of its farm products as reported by the census of 1870 was $33,350,923 ; the cash value of its farms $97,621,691 ; and its production of wheat during 1869 was about 19,000,000 bushels. It contains (listen young men who are working for wages,) 53,459,840 acres, of which but 3,637,671 are occupied. The remaining 50,000,000 await your coming for their development. (Ap plausc.) It is not yet fourteen years since the lumbermen commerce, but that, on the contrary, this last, after having been paralyzed un- der British free-trade, hiis grown, under protection, with extraordinary rapidity, is proved by facts derived from Mr. Nimmo'a valuable report on our foreign oomracrce, and here given, as follows : In 1850, the home shipping built amounted to 114,000 tons. In the last three years of the free-trade system, say 1858-f)0,.notwith8tanding a growth of popu- lation unusually large in its proportions, the average was but 112,000. In 1870, after nine years of protection, it has been 185,000, and the average of the three Ipat years has been 182,000, showing an increase of more than 60 per cent. With an inoreuisd of numbers in the last decade of less than 25 per cent, there has been an increase of domestic commerce, by land and water, of more than 300 per cent. — thus nearly proving the accuracy of Commissioner Wells's asser- tion, made in 1868, that its growtli had been sixteen times more rapid than that of tie population. Of the enormous increase thus exhibited, not even the fiftieth part has been due to our trade with the manufacturing countries of Europe ; and yet, there are men, intelligent men too, connected with railroads, who are even now disposed once again to sacrifice the great domestic commerce in the hope of augmenting the insignificant foreign one. Whether or not this shall be done will bo determined at the presidential elec- tion in 1872. As that goes, so will it be settled as to whether we are to go for- ward in the direction of industrial pnd political independence, or return to the state of subjection to British traders and British bankers that existed in the free-trade days of the tariff of 1857. In the one case, railroad owners will find their property improve from year to year; whereas, in the other, they, or such of them at least as had given their influence in the free- trade direction, will find that they hiid been killing the goose that had given the golden eggs. Hoping that your patriotic efforts may be crowned with success, I remain. Very respectfully, yours, H. C. CAREY. Geo. S. Bowkn, Esq., President American Association Home Industries, Chicago, III. THE NEW NORTHWEST. 471 of Minnesota were fed on wheat imported from other States. Yet iho wheat crop raised during 1870, from the small part of the State then occupied, is believed to have been not less than 30,000,000 bushels. Time will not permit me oven to indicate the immense resources of this State in lumber, iron, slate, and other commodities, that bear trans- portation; and I leave Minnesota with the remark that when the winter traveler westward on the Northern Pacific Eailroad, shall leave her limits and cross the Eed liiver of the North, he will leave behind him the coldest part of the road, and that most liable to obstruction by snow. The only other point at which be will, even under exceptional circumstances, meet with as great a depression of the mer- cury will be in the neighborhood of Fort Stevenson, in Central Dakota. A GENIAL CLIMATE. How, ladies and gentlemen, shall I help you to under- stand something about the climate of the country west of Minnesota? To us of the East it seems incredible that the temperature of the mountains, along a line running be- tween the 47th and 49th parallels should be so mild ; yet so it is ; and the climate of Washington Territor}', along the 49th parallel, is more equable the year round, and milder in winter than that of Philadelphia or Baltimore. Indeed, the mean temperature at Olympia, at the head of Puget Sound, is that of Norfolk, Va., but the dwellers on the Sound are strangers alike to the extreme heat of a Vir- ginia summer and the extreme cold of its winter. There cattle are not housed at any season, and thrive upon the grasses they find on the plains. In the western valleys of Washington Territory, winter is unknown. Snow comes occasionally to remind settlers of what they used to see in the States of the East; but it never lies. Bu<- Mice since 1847, when the first settlements were made, have cattle been deprived by snow for three consecutive days, of the*- natural pasture furnished throughout the winter months west of the mountains in Washington Territory and Oregon. The winter climate upon the mountains of Idaho, Mon- tana and Dakota, is more severe ; but in their valleys the buffalo, elk and antelope have been accustomed to winter; and domestic cattle, worn by labor in the service of ex- ploring expeditions and transportation companies, are ..."(■ ■J 472 THE NEW NORTHWEST. turned into the valleys and herded, and come out in the spring fat and ready for another tour of duty. This is so inconsistent with our experience, that I beg leave to fortify the statement with a single authority, the equal to which I could produce by scores. I will, however, con- tent myself with a brief extract from the report of explora- tions of the Yellowstone, made by Gen. Kaynolds, of the Engineer Corps of the U. S. Army, who wintered, in 1860, in the valley of Deer Creek, in which the Northern Pacific Eoad will attain its greatest elevation and cross the Kocky Mountains. On this subject he says : " Throughout the whole of the season's march, the subsistence of our animals had been obtained by grazing after we had reached camp in the afternoon, and for an hour or two between the dawn of day and our time of starting. The consequence was that when we reached our winter quarters there were but few animals in the train that were in a condition to havt continued the march without a generous grain diet. Poorer and more broken down creatures it Avould be difficult to find. In the spring all were in as fine condition for commencing another season's work as could be desired. A greater change in their appearance could not have been produced, even if they had been grain-fed and stable-housed all winter. Only one loas lost, the furious storm of December coming on before it had gained sufficient strength to endure it. TJiisfad^ that seventy exhausted animals turned out to winter on the plains on the first of November came out in the best condition, and ivith the loss of but one, is the most forcible commentary I can make on the quality of the gi'ass and the character of the winter." This seems incredible, but many degrees to the north of our territories are immense valleys, which, if the testimony of British officers, civil and military, and of missionaries and settlers who have dwelt there for years, may be be- lieved, rival Minnesota in wheat-producing capacity, and eastern Oregon and Washington Territory in the mildness of their mean temperature. Exploration and settlement have abolished the " The Great American Desert," of which these territories formed a conspicuous part, and it no longer 'finds a place on maps. And the Mormons have demons- trated that by conducting the melting snow of the moun- tains to the foot-hills and valleys, the whole region can be made to bloom as the rose, and bear crops of cereals, roots and fruit equal to those yielded by the best farms in the choice valleys of Pennsylvania. WOOL AND BEET-ROOT SUGAR. Since these apparently inhospitable regions have been penetrated by railroads, and mining adventure has created THE NEW NORTHWEST. 473 settlements up even to the northern boundary of Dakota, Montana and Idaho, we are discovering why we liave not succeeded in raising wool, and why we are still, while boasting of our, agricultural productions, dependent for our supply of wool, upon non-manufacturing countries which are not famed for their agricultural resources or skill. The reason is found in the fact that we have not carried flocks to those portions of our country which are pre-eminently adapted to the support of wool-bearing animals. Mountainous and volcanic as are our territories, which extend from the 32d to the 49th parallel, they are peculiarly adapted to sheep culture. With their settlement we shall become the greatest wool-producing country of the world, though our present production gives but small promise of such a result. The sources and amount of the wool-clip of 1868 were in round figures about as follows : it Pounds. British North American Provinces... 10,000,000 Australia, South America, and Africa. 76,000,000 United States 100,000,000 Spain, Portugal and Italy 119,000,000 France , 123,000,000 European Russia. 12f),000,000 Germany 200,000,000 Great Britain 260,000,000 Asia 470,000,000 Thus it appears that Asia, Australia, Africa and South America, which furnish no such markets for mutton as the commercial and manufacturing centres of Europe and this country, and where sheep must be raised for the wool alone, are its great producers. Why is wool chief among the staple exports of South America ? Because her pam- pas present the same conditions as our territories. Why has Australia built up a great city more by its wool trade than by its gold ? It is because her sheep walks are dry and covered with bunch grass, which is cured naturally in the field as is the case in our Territories. Why does Asia pro- duce more wool than Great Britain and Germany together, and almost as much as Great Britain, Germany and the United States ? It is because the grasses of the elevated plains on which her countless flocks of sheep and goats range are the same nutritious, aromatic grasses upon which the elk, the bufifalo and the mountain sheep have fed "itiijiiipi ■:1 i'i r II 474 THE NEW NORTHWEST. through all time upon "The Great American Desert." (Applause.) Under the impulse given to this interest by the Union and Central road, flocks numbering thousands, collected in Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, and more eastern States have been transferred to such plains and valleys as are accessible by the road, and where the expense of raising sheep is but the cost of the first flock and of herding. There the finest wool may be produced, and with increasing railroad facilities, mining, manufacturing, and commercial centres will furnish markets for mutton, and add to the wool grower's profits. To say that the wool-clip of the United States, as shown by the census of 1880, will exceed that of Great Britain is not to offer a prediction, but to assert a foregone conclusion ; and it is also safe to say that the clip of that year will embrace not only wool of all grades of sheep, but of the Cashmere, Angora, and other goats, the value of whose hair is so well known to manufacturers and merchants. But more than this, remembering the rapidity with which flocks increase, I predict that at an early day our wool clip will equal that of Asia,* which * On the day after the delivery of the text, my attention was invited to the following striking confirmation of my views furnisihed by M. Alcan, Professor of Spinning and Weaving at the Conservatoire Imperial des Arts, &a. APPROXIMATE PHODCCTION OP WOOLS IN 186(5. [Translated from Alcan's " Etudes sur les Arts Textile il I'Exposition Uni- verselle de 1 867 " for the April number of the Bulletin of the National Associa- tion of Wool Manufacturers.] " The quantity of the production of wools in weight may bo reckoned ap- proximately by the number of sheep in each country. We estimate the sheep at the numbers indicated in the following table : No. of Sheep. France 30,Ono,000 Algeria 10,000,000 Russia 54,000,000 England 26,376,000 Austria 27,000,000 Prussia, Zollverein 24,000,000 ottoman Empire 32,000,000 Australia 35,000,000 Cape of Good Hope 12,000,000 New Zealand 15,000,000 The Equatoror La Plata 30,000,000 Spain 20,000,000 Italy 8,500,000 Belgium 3,000,000 The Low Countries 1,500,000 Portugal 2,417,000 Total, 330,783,000 . " Eemarki tipon the numhert of the preceding table, — If we compare the present THB NEW NORTHWEST. 475 will insure us supremacy in the manufacture of the entire range of woolen and worsted goods. And with this increased production of wool, will come another great industry. You will question my judgment when I toll you that the territory along the 46th, 47th, 48th and 49th degrees of latitude high up the mountain sides is to be a great sugar-producing country. Yet as sure as the world moves and science helps man to supply his wants cheaply, the country along the routes of the Union and Central and the Northern Pacific Railroads will in a few years produce immense quantities of sugar. Of course, I speak of beetroot sugar, the manufacture of which will thrive not only along our northern boundary, but in the more northern settlements of the Assineboine and Saskatchewan valleys as it does in Russia, Sweden and Norway ; as it is already doing in California, Illinois and Wisconsin, and will do in all the States of the Northwest. Many causes conspire to make the introduc- tion of this industry into our country a necessity ; and in the region of cheap land, abundant fuel and pure water from the mountain snows, and in which the cost of trans- portation more than doubles the price of cane sugar, it must find an early and extensive development. To show that these views are not new or strained, permit me to bring to your notice a letter I had the honor to address to Dr. Latham, a cultivated and intelligent gentleman, who, after spending years in the Territories, devoted last winter to bringing their resources to the attention of the wool- growers and woolen manufacturers of the Eastern States. " House of Representatives, Washington, D. C, Dec. 18, 1870. *' Dr. H. Latham, "Laramie, " Wyoming Territory. " Dear Sir. — I must admit that I thought some of the statements you made when I met you at Laramie, and you were kind enough number of sheep as indicated in the preceding table with the numbers hereto- fore given by us, it will not be difiicult to recognize that while the production of ehecp has decreased or remained stationary in Europe, it has prodigiously de- Telojicd itself in the new countries beyond the ocean. Thus, for example, the number of wool-bearing animals has diminished in England, in Spain, and even in France, if wo do not include Algeria ; and it has remained nearly stationary in the diflercnt parts of Germany. On the contrary, the development exhibits an enormous progression at the Cape, in Australia, and, above all, in La Plata. In seven years, from 1860 to 1867, the production has been raised nearly 108 per cent, for the first of these countries, nearly 100 per cent, for the second, and 268 per cent, for the third." >'H.* ';• m\ 476 THE NEW NORTHWEST, to accotupany us eastward, were cxagpcratcil ; hut subsequent observation and study have satisfied nic that you did not i'liiiy indi- cate the capacity ol' the territories for varied production and the sustenance of a numerous and prosperous population.* "Two industries, each of primary importance to tlie country, should be introduced at an early day, because both will find there the conditions under which they may be brou},')it almost im- mediately to absolute perfection. 1 mean the growth of wool, both from the Angora and Cashmere goats and sheep, and the produc- tion of beet-root sugar. For the latter, Grant, in liis admirable little book, says the primary essentials arc cheap lat>d and fuel and pure water. AH these you nave wherever the melting snow of the mountains can bo carried for irrigation, and in the neighborhood of all your mountain streams. Your natural grasses and aromatic lierbage are identical witli those of the great sheep-fields of Asia and Australia; and should you establish the production of the beet, and the manufacture of sugar on a large scale, you will find, as it has been found everywhere else, that three tons of the refuse beet, from which the saccharine matter has been expressed, will be equivalent to two tons of the best hay in sustaining and fattening sheep and cattle. It, therefore, seems to me that you will render a very important service, not only to your own section, but to the country at large, if, by making known these peculiar resources you promote the establisliment of two such vital industries. Either of them will doubtless succeed if undertaken by proper hands ; but both should be established, as each will contribute to the success of the other. " Again thanking you for the important information you have given me, and wishing you abundant success in your efforts to pro- mote the development of this extended and interesting portion of our country, I remain "Yours, very truly, " WM. D. KELLEY." MONTANA — LIEUT. DOANE'S REPORT. Thanks to the admirable scientific training given our army officers at West Point, and the desire of that dis- tinguished soldier and son of Pennsylvania, Gen. Win- field S. Hancock, (applause,) to ascertain and disclose the resources of the district of which he is in command, we have a recent official report on the characteristics of a hitherto unexplored section of Montana, the wonders of * Leavini; Philadelphia on the 20th of July, I pnssed about in four weeks Colorado, Wyoming and Utah; most of the time in the Laramie valley, Wyom- ing. Much of each day was passed on horseback, or in open wagon ; and I am satisfied that when the population of our country shall number hundriMis of millions, the slopes and valleys of the Rooky Mountains will be the great liourco from which will bo drawn cattle, sheep, tallow, hides, wool, butter, cheese and con- densed milk. On one estate near Laramie, that of Mr. Hutton, are rnoro than 8000 cattle, u and Washington, as you may ascertain by consulting the commercial papers of San Francisco, commands, in the markets of that city, ten cents per bushel more than the wheat of California; and oats from the Territory are worth fifteen cents per cental more than the best California oats. As we get the wheat of the entire Pacific slope throuuh California, we know it only as California wheat ; but the home market the difference I have indicated stantly maintained by reason of the superiority more northern grain. The forests that shelter these waters are composed of trees running up from 250 to 350 feet, with a diameter of from 8 to 12 feet, and throwing out their first arms at from 60 to 100 feet above the ground. In these glorious solitudes, upon the waters of Puget Sound there are in operation saw mills that will this year ship largely over 200,000,000 feet of superior lumber to San Francisco, Cal- lao, Valparaiso, the Sandwich Islands, Australia and Ciiina. These forests, an inexhaustible store of wealth in them- selves, are underlaid by rich deposits of coal, iron, gold and silver. The beds of iron and coal are already utilized to some extent ; and the existence of the precious metals is established by the fact that the washings of the water- courses furnish traces of gold and other metals. Of the fish with which these waters teem, I dare not tax your credulity by speaking. Though bounded by the 49th degree of latitude, the cli- mate is genial throughout the year. So mild are the win- ters — indeed, I may say, so free is the country from win- ter — that, notwithstanding the moisture of the climate, west of the Coast Kange, no provision is made for housing cattle at any season of the year. In the month of July, 1869, within the limits of Astor's old fort, near the mouth of the Columbia River, I picked from the orchard of a farrier who had gone thither from Bedford County, Pa., a variety of delicious apples, pears and plums ; and from vines near the trunks of the trees, raspberries, strawb-^rries THE NEW NORTHWEST. 489 and blackberries — a combination of fruits that could not be found in the month of July upon the best cultivated and most fortunately situated farm in Pennsylvania. And a week before, our party had found Indian women and chil- dren vending these fruits and the apricot in the streets of Victoria, the capital of British Columbia. At Olympia, the capital of Washington Territory, situ ated at the head of Puget Sound, it was my pleasure to pass the greater part of a day with my young friend El- wood Evans, Esq., son of Chas. Evans, the press manufac- turer of this city (whom I recognize among my auditors), and to gather luscious fruit from tree and vine in the gar- dens attached to his comfortable home and his law-office hard by upon the same street. ?:i THE WORK OF DEVELOPMENT. Do you ask, as others have done, why with such stores of wealth, waiting to respond with such boundless generos- ity to the demands of man, the population does not equal one man, woman or child to each square mile ? If you do, the answer is ready. It is because the people and Government of the United States did not promptly respond to the suggestion of Asa Whitney, and either by the means proposed by him, or those they should select, connect our Pacific territory with the great lakes by a railway. Had that been done, and the way then been opened to immigrants, Washington Territory would long since have been divided into two or more States, California and Oregon would be great commercial rivals, and the population of our Pacific States would equal or exceed that of busy and blessed New England. To reach the golden lands of the Pacific coast hjis been a matter of too much time and expense for the poor man, and too full of trials for families. The fact that in spite of these almost insuperable difficulties, so many intelligent people have found their way thither is a testimonial to the wonderful attractions of the country, and the immense re- wards it offers to industry and enterprise. Build this road, open these multiform and ( 'chaustless resources to the poor but enterprising people of the Eastern States and Europe, and population will flov.' into them so rapidly that they who shall a few years hence hear the story of the doubts of to-day about the Northern Pacific ^ M 'Mi '^^1 1 490 THE NEW NORTHWEST. Railroad will experience wonder similar to that which you feel at the want of forecast that characterized the people of Pennsylvania twenty-five years ago, when they shrank from embarking so small a percentage of their capital in building the Pennsylvania Central road ; and in a few years the trunk lino of this great thoroughfare will carry the trade of innumerable lateral branches, penetrating not only our valleys but those of the British Provinces to the North, whose people will thus be made tributary to us forever, or induced to unite their destinies with ours, under a common constitution and flag. This is not declamation or prophecy It is the announcement of conclusions that flow irresistibly from an ample store of unquestioned facts. Do you ask whei j the population would have come to effect the changes I iiave indicated ? By the construction of the road, the character of the climate and resources of the country would have been disclosed long years ago, and the sheep-growers of the States from Vermont to Iowa would have transferred their flocks to the Asiatic and Aus- tralian fields tnat slope the Rocky Mountains. The hardy lumbermen from the forests of New England and northern Pennsylvania would have found their Avay to these richer forests in more genial climes. Nor would we then have suffered the decline in our ship-building so much and so justly bemoaned; for difficult of access as the country is, and slender as is its population and commerce, we found along these woody shores ship-yards, having on the stocks first-class ships, the outer planks of which were without a joint, having been cut sheer from one of the rnonarchs of the forest on the shores of the Sound. The increased coast trade of the Pacific and commerce between our Atlantic and Pacific ports would have kept alive this decay'.ng branch of business, which with the completion of the Northern Pacific Railroad, must revive with grander proportions than it ever assumed in the past. Where will the people come from to make this wealth available, to build cities at the points along thi^ road at which railroad and river traffic shall intersect, to raise provisions for the mining camps, and to build up com- merce on Puget Sound and the Columbia River? What American, whose memory is good for a quarter of a cen- tury, asks this question ? Where have the people come from who, since we discussed the propriety of building the Pennsylvania Railroad, and Asa Whitney submitted the THE NEW NORTHWEST. 491 project of a Pacific road, have settled Iowa and Wisconsin, whose joint population, though then but 200,000, now num- bers two millions and a quarter, each having over a mil- lion ? Where did the people come from who, within a brief quarter of a century have doubled the population of the Northern States of the Union ? Where have the peo- ple come from who have meanwhile populated so many of the gold and silver-producing sections of our vast terri- tories, and built up the States of Texas, California, Min- nesota and Oregon? Let Edward Young, Esq., Chief of the Bureau of Statistics, answer these questions. I hold in ray hand a recent report of his — a document that should be circulated by millions through the Eastern States and Europe. It is entitled, "Special Keport on Immigration, accompanying Information for Immigrants relative to the Prices and Kentals of Lands, the Staple Products, Facili- ties of Access to Market, Cost of Farm Stock, Kind of Labor in Demand in the Western and Southern States, etc." This report shows that during the 8 years terminat- ing with the 31st of December, 18-16, we received 736,887 immigrants, of whom 416,950 came from the British Isles. But, Mr. Doubter, you interrupt me to ask whether this tide of immigration will continue? whether it has not reached its climax ? The Chief of the Bureau of St;itistics shall answer you again; for his report shows that during the like periodof 8 years, terminating the 31st of last Decem- ber, we received 2,807,554 immigrants, of whom there came from the British Isles 1,015,517, or more than 33 per cent. more than the entire immigration during the former 8 years. Yes, the tide of immigration will continue, and for many years it will increase. Each year will see its volume rolling in, until regenerated Europe shall give the laborer ample remuneration, political power and social considera- tion. (Applause.) Our cheap land anc democratic insti- tutions will bring her bone and sinev and enterprise '^o develop the resources and add to the w( alth and power of our country. (Loud applause.) And nothing will do more to promote the movement than the advertisement to all the world of the vast resources of the region through which this road is to run and the wonderful field for labor, enterprise and adventure at its Pacific termini. PHILADELPHIA INTERESTS. But what will be the effect of the road upon Philadelphia ? What relations has all this to our city and State ? These XK ''[ 492 THE NEW NORTHWEST. questions, which you propounded to mu in your invitation, have, I think, been answered by what I liave said. What State or city shares more largely than ours in the general prosperity or depression of the country ? Wlio will bo more benefited by the cheapening of freight on raw ma- terials and manufactured articles than we? What Ameri- can city produces so many of iVe comforts and luxuries which the peoi)le along the lino of this road will consumt as Philadelphia? Their demands will stimulate our in- dustry, and their abounding means will enable them to re- ward it abundantly. The construction of one railroad bridge — that over the Mississippi River at St. Louis — gave to one riuladelphia firm, the Wm. Butcher Steel Works, a contract for $500,000 worth of steel. And even now, hundreds of Philadelphia mechanics are busy building lo- comotives and passenger and freight cars for the Northern Pacific Eailroad. I need not elaborate this point. We are a community of working people. (The mass of the citizens of Pliiladel phia absolutely live by manual labor.) The prosperity of the capitalists of this city is dependent upon the steady employment and liberal wages of her working people. (Applause.) When labor is idle, capital is idle, or em- ployed at little profit ; when the laborer earns no wages, the landlord is not always sure of his rent. (Laughter and applause.) The effect that the construction of this road will have upon the employment and wages of laboring peo- ple was discussed by me in the Congressional remarks to which I have already referred. Let me read a paragraph or two from what I then said : " But the inviting field of the ocean, and the vast field of enter- prise and reward open to us in Asia are not the only considerations that induce me to support thia bill. The laboring' people of every eastern city have an niteuse interest in this question. The safety of our country depends upon the intelligence, the virtue, the stability of our laboring people. He legislates not wisely for a democratic republic who does not make it the aim of all his acts to improve the material condition of the great laboring masses of the country. If we would perpetuate our institutions, we must see that the wages of labor are so maintained that the children of the working man shall grow up amid the endearments of home, and with tlie ex- pectation that their children shall find more elegance and refinement in their homes than their parents were familiar with in childhood. " The construction of a road through our northern gold region will open a field that will bo a constant refuge for any unemployed labor of our eastern States. There will be a refuge for those masses of in- THK \K\V VoriTHWKST. 498 proninns workmen who nro jostled oacli your by lack of ii-Jjustinont of tlif>ir iiiiinbcrH to the (Iciiiiuul lor tlicir Imuicli ol' liilxir, or arc do- |iriv('il of tlic u(lviititii((e of thu skill they iictiuircd in youth hy tho iiivt'iition of iiihor-Muvinf? iimchincry ; uii«l iiiHtciul of tiiiditif; thciii- Ht'lvcH, ii» iiffo feathers on their brow, without tho moiuiH of livoli- hooil, rich fields of cntcrprlHC, easily reucliod, will cIhit their dc- cliniiiju: yours. " Hut, uguin. tho depression of our luborinf? people spriuffs not uloiio or chiefly from locul causes. Beyond tho Atluntie Occun there are '2r)0,0()(),()()0 people, in every community of which luborinjf men ure hohl as raw materiul ; and under the graspini,' influence of ciipitui, and the oppression of despotic government are held in such iMinduge, that they are made to subsist, even when they toil most assiduously, upon a modicum of the elements of life, upon a minimum of the amount that will keep tho soul in a tolerably sound botiy. Msraping from this subjection, tlicy are borne to our shores by tens and hundreds of thousands each year. They are strangers in a striinge land, uumy of them unac(iuainted with our language and hal)its. and are unconsciously and unwillingly the means of depress- ing wages. Hut if W(! give the company the means to inaugurate work on this road, we will not only relieve the laboring masses of our crowded eastern cities, but furnish employment for mon> than the annual influx of those whom we gladly welcome, because they strengthen and enrich us by their toil. (Jould we drain Europe of its surplus liiburers we would raise lier wages as she now too often depresses ours. " What will 1)0 the true policy of the builders of tliis road ? Will it not be to employ as laborers the heads of families, and to pay them with land and money, and settle the families along the li.ie of the road, so that the laborer of one year will in tlie next farm his land and KU])p]y fresh laborers with bread? Thus will he who enters into an engagement with the company a pauper, or little better, find him- self at the end of a year or two an independent farmer upon the world's great commercial highway. The managers of the road must pursue this policy, and will thus create business for and guard their road; thus, too, tliey will quicken the mineral and agricultural re- sources of the country, and give to the tax collector, whetlu'r at a pori of entry or in the service of the internal revenue department, more money each year than this bill is likely to cause to be taken from the treasury. " 1 ask gentlemti. in considering this question to rise to"its dignity and grandeur. I am, sir, a devotee to freedom, but would make every country in the world tributary to my own. I delirht in every manifestation of ray country's power, and glow with pr le as I con- template its gigantic proportions, and see liow rapidly its people subdue the wilderness, and would, as I have said, make every na- tion tributary to its power. But 1 would do this, not by oppressing any people, not by war with any government, but by improving tlie condition of the masses of my countrymen and those who inay be- come such by immigration, and showing the rulers and people of the world how speedily free institutions exalt the poor and oppressed of all nations into free, self-sustaining and self-governing citizens. It is in our power to do this, and by no other means can we do it so well or so quickly as by passing this supplement and vivifying tho charter granted to the Northern Pacific Railroad Company." .„ ; I f'il I 'Ik ■ ■ m ye r -;[ 1 .1 'H 4fM TIIK NEW NORTHWEST. But, Indies and gcntlompn, I have detained you too long, and must close. Not, however, until I shall have reminded you that the grades and snows of the Alloghanieshave not interfered with tlie prosperity of the Pennsylvania Kail road Company. That road has not been a failure. It has done something for the improvement of Philadelphia. It is the most profitable railroad, and most powerful ct^rpora- tiou in the United States. (Applause.) It has stretched its controlling influence clear aero.ss the Continent. Its vice-president, our esteemed townsman, Thomas A. Scott, Esq., is the master-spirit of the Union Pacific Company, and of more than one lino connecting it with Philadelphia. (Applause.) lloads owned or managed by the Pennsylva- nia Company await the business of the Northern Pacific road, both at St. Paul and Duluth. It has built i road to Erie, our beautiful City of the Lakes, where vessel: charged with freight at Duluth will in the early spring md later autumn of each year discharge cargo for New ^ ork and Boston, and throughout the season of Lake navig ition, for Philadelphia and Baltimore; and it requires but little l)()wer of the imagination to behold Erie expanding into generous rivalry with Buffalo, Cleveland and Detroit. Though the great characteristics of Philadelphia will al- ways be tliose of a manufacturing city, her commerce is to revive. She will have not a line but numerous lines of steamships; and many of the men who now hear me will see the day when her existing wharf line will be wholly inadequate for her commerce. Indeed the completion of the Northern Pacific road, with the steadily increasing trade of the Central route, will settle the now vexed question of a railroad along the entire river front, and require the con- .struction of docks from Greenwich Point to Kiehmond. But familiar as you are with the resources of our city and State, and the advanced condition of our industries, I leave you to estimate the impulse that will be given to every in- terest and industry of our people by the early completion of the Northern Pacific Railroad. (Amid earnest and pro- longed applause the speaker retired.) INDEX. Aboliihed, Internal rsvenue (hould be, 3;i;<. AbolUh the rovenuo nyatotn, 460. Abrogiitiun of reciprocity treaty, 306, Abiurditie^ of rovonuo report, 273. of Wellg, 288. Absurdity of Wells' poaitiong, 256. AbyRsiniu, American pumps in, 320. Acadian ouul, :II4. Aocoptanco of nomination, 307. Acoommodatiuns of Philadelphia, 420. Act for Pennsylvania Central, 460. for tho ouaHting trade, 430. of Conjjross to survey route for Paoiflo road, 450. to prohibit cuolie trade, 404. Acquisition of San Domingo, 430. Additional consumers, 24S. Address at Milwaukee, 185. at Montgomery, 159. at New Orleans, M6. at Philadelphia, 171. of Mr. Nioll, 397. on North Paoiflc Railway, 454. Admiralty Inlet, 487. Ad valorem duties, 370. Advantage of protecting coal, 02. Advantages, commercial, of tho North Paoiflo, 480. of Alabama, 161. of Northern laborers, 184. of route of Northern Paoiflo rond, 466. Adrioe to emigrants, 181. Age improves whisky, 364. of steel approaching, V5. Agents of civilization, 162. Aggregate deposits in saving.banks, 289. Agony, year of, 259. Agricultural implements, 182. produce, abundance of, without a market, xi. Agriculture and manufactures mutually dependent, 112. in Pennsylvania, 323. South, 178, 188. too large a proportion of our peo- ple engaged in, xxix. Aim of American statesmen, 405. of slaveholders, 211. Alabama, natural wealth of, 160. resources of, 161. sulphur in, 161. Aluan un wool production, 474. Alcohol, tax on, 242. tax too high, 370. Alison on evils of society, 227. Allegations, untrue, 378. Allspice, 378. tax on, 318. Alternation of crops, 166, 203. Altoona, roail comi)letcd to, 161 . America, avcnigo wheat crop of, 33. British \ ports to, xxviii. early pHiteotion, 50. in future, 464. in the markets of the world, 325. revolutionized, 1S8. subjected to England, 37. wages in, 302. American cloth, 235. commerce, effect of Northern Pa- ciflc on, 484. desert, 463, 467, 472. farmers, discriminated against, 350. flnanco, 185. flag, import of coolies under, 430. industry, 185. industries, depression of, 104. Institute, 417. iron superior, 208. labor, protection to, 0. manufactures, laws against, 418. manufactures to be discouraged; 381 muslin, 320. producers, rights of, 83. pumps, 329. steel trade, 293. tonnage, 108. vessels, 430. wages, 351. waste, 44. workmanship, 326. Americanize the South, 62. Amounts levied by England, 361. Anchorages of Dominica, 442. Ancient English enactments, 25, 27> Anecdote of gold room, 288. of Schcnck, 354. Annexation of Texas, 433. 495 1 ! I 496 INDEX. Anthracite coal, 91. Apostles of free trade, 412. Appeal of Swift to the Irish, 28. Apprentice laws, 171. Approximate product of wools, 474. Argument for free coal ezainiDed, 309. Armies, standing, 429. Articles made of steel, 387. tHut will yield revenue, 357. Asia, wool in, 47H, Assertions of Wells, 290. AssMniptions, reasoning frcm, xx. Atkinson, Kilward, vii, viii, xxvii. Atlanta, 174. Atlantic Monthly on free trade revenue reform, xix. Attack in Mobile, 172. Augustx, 174. Austin, letter of Jefferson to, 60. Australi.t, sheep in, '73, Austria, iron production, 301. Author, early views of, vi. Average weekly earnings, 271. weekly ex-.)ni,ditures, 272. wheat crop of America, 33. wbi'at crop of England, 33. Axes, American, 327. Balances, government, 139. Bankruptcy, from contraction, "10. inevitable, 112. Banks, a convenience, 392. Barley, Canodian, 308. Baxter on national income, 268. ' Bay of Samana. 441, 442, 444. Bayview rolling mills, 200. Beet pulp in place cf hay, 204. root sugar, 472, 475. sugar, 203, 204,205, 216. Beets in France, 204. Buigium, activity of, 198. contrasted with Ireland, 353. iron production, 301. wages in, 303. Belgians make English books, 197. Benefits from Northern Pacific, 464. of free labor, 275. of war, 211. Berlin rag wool manufactories, 45. Berries of northwest, 489. Berry, L. S., 180. Bessemer converter, 60. rails, 291,386. Bill for duties on steai, 294. Birmingham undersold, 337. Birney, history of 8au Domingo, 435. Bituminous coal, 91, 94. coal in the South, 93. Blackwood's Magazine on BntUh pau- perism, XXX. on the new power introduced into the government of Great Bri- tain, xvi. Blackwood's Magazine on the state, the poor, and the country, xiv. Blair, F. P., on the republican party, 57. Blankets of California, 67. Blast furnaces, new, 299. Blessings from sufi'ering, 159. of ft National debt, 375. Bliss, Orville J., on the demands of humanitv, xxi. Blockade, 430. Block tin, 388. Blood thp price of freedom, 149. Bolkenhain, expenses of laborers in, .340. Bonaparte, Napoleon, on political eco- nomy, XX. Bonaparte's power, secret of, 46. protection, 46. Bondage to England, 73. Bonds, exports of, x. held abroad, 113, 133. held nt home, 113. Boon of protection, 305. Borri)wing abroad, 142. Bouquet from Sherman, 479. ■ Branch railroads, 466, 468. Brass in the West, 215. Brazil (Indiana), 215. Bread in England, 186. in Missouri, 186. Bribery, 320. Brick-yards of England, 338. Bricks made by women and children, 338. Bridge over t'le Mississippi, 492. British America, trade with, 85. colonies i.nd coal, 306. colonies, -jrotection in, xxi, xxii. cottons, home consumption, 411. exports declining, 408. fabrics, 214. industry, obstruction to, 193. trade, statisjMcs of, xviii. trade staticnury, xvii. Brougham on American manufactures, 103. on United States industries, 41. Building in Washington, IW , 258. Bureau of Statistics, 271. Burglars turned distillers, 241. Burwell on policy of South, 212. Wra., address of, 192. Bushnell, Rev. Horace, DD., on prot^c. tion, 285. protection not a tax, 354. Byles on free trade, 199. "Calf-haircloakings," 39. Calhoun's resolutions, 150. California flannel, 68. sheep, 467. wants currency, 396. wool, 67. Camden and Amboy railroad, 459. Camphor, 378. Canada favored by Wells, 305. •S-i INDEX. 497 Canada, imniigntion from, 98. requires hard coal, 91. Canadian barley, 1508. reeiprocitj- treaty, 53. Capital can caro for itsrlf, .322. coming to America, 389. in I'liiladelphia, 423. wanted in the South, 123. Caro of the cointnitteo to tariff, 381. Carey, II. C, letter on railroads, 468. on the Zolherein, 48. Carey, II. C, .\xiii, xxviii. Carlylo on ligurca, 91. contempt of labor in France, 42. Carrying; trade, 430. Cass, Lewis, on acquisition, 440. Cassinieres of California, CS. Cast iron in French tarilf, 373. Castor oil, 377. Cattell, A. (}., on protection, 308. Cattle, fe.vas, 189. in M'ost. in winter, 472. wanted South, 182. Cause of Americii's dependence, 485. of no deniiind for goods, 220, of the Mobile outrage, 172. Causes of decrease of tonnage, 109, of destitution, 1S3. of Ireland'.< miseries, 20. of poverty South, 10.'). of ])r()spcrity North, 105. Celebration, Centennial, 415. Census of North Carolina, 178. Centennial celebration, 415. Chalk, duty on, 377. Changes (eared, 135. in labor, 284. Chaptal on industry of France, 45. Charcoal pig-iron from Marquette, 00. Charge of bribery, 320. Charges against Secretary McCulloch, 120. Chatsworth (111.), 210. Cheap bread, 180. coal, 9 1 . commodities from protection, 325. food for labor, 31. food for slaves, 17. labor not suited to our people and country, v. ''Cheap and nasty" fabrics, 214, Cheapen elements of life, 05. Cheapest way to transport grain, 362. Checking the export of specie, 112. Chemnitz, wages in, 348. Chevalier's tariff for Franco, 42. Children making bricks, 338 China commerce, 435, 487. Chinese immigration, 404. question, letter on, 403. wages, 405. Chloroform, 335, C79. Christian equality, 6.2. 32 Cincinnati shops and men, 352. Circular on iron, 358. Circulating medium in Bou u, 233. Cist, Charles, 353. City connected by railroads, 163. railroads, 103. Cities contrasted, 147. of the South, 105. Citizenship tested by cole, 149. Cirilization, muscles of, 9''. Classification of iron not ?'e;v, 385. Clay on exhaustion ot land, 30. Climate, genial, 471. of Montana, 477. of Northwest, 488. Clocks, 215. Cloth, American, 235. Cloves, 3' 8. Coal a civilizer, 102. and Uritish colonies, 316. and iron, i)ower of, 90. argument for free provincial, 309. at Kvanston, 400. can be protected, 92. ditferencc in, 91. from Puget S^'.ind, 483. importations of, 94. in Alabama, 100. in Illinois, 70. in the South, 324. miners of Prussia, 34" Nova Scotlii, 313. of Duminien, 442. of Northwest, 488. of tl.'; West, 187, 215. of Virginia, 91. Pietou, 313. provincial, imported, 312. provincial, prices of, 314. question, 102. vepre^cnting labor power, 248. ta.x, 451. tax on, 90. Coast harbor.". Pacific, 480. range, 480. Coasting trade, rc^,'ulation of, 430. Cobden's efforts for cheap food, 196. Coffee, 378. of San Domingo, 434. tax, 318. Coldest part of the Northern Pacifij road, 471. Coleman, letter of Jackson to, 51. ^ Collodion, .3;i5, 379. Colonial bondage to England, 73. Colonies, 182. British, and coal, 305. Colonists, British views of, 305. Color made a test, 149. not a test, )07. Columbia railroad, 459. Columbus, conduct of, 435. Colwell, Stephen, 385. ,41 I ■> £ - 498 INDEX. Comforts cheapened, 163. Coiumoroe, American, eft'ect of Northern Pacific on, 484. domeslic licttcr than foreign, 71 expanded, 431. iron ships fur, 284, of Pacific Ocean, 485. of Philadelphia, 494. of United States, 432. quickened. 382. restricted liy taxes, 319. Commercial advantages of the North Pacific, 480. dependency, 213. importance of Cuba, 434. marine, 430. Coniinercially dependent, 280. Commissioner of revenue, report, 253. (^jnimiasiopors to San Dor.iingo, 447. Commoditic), protection cheapens, 325 Common pleas, suits Iti, 270. Comparison of I .ciflo routes, 465. of vears, 258. with England, 26V. Competition challenged by Per.nsylva- nia, 51). Complaints of British colonies, 306. Complexion South, 179. Compositors out of employ, 197. Compromise no longer, 156. Condition of America at the outbreak of the rebellion, 214. of America at close of the war, 214. of English miners, 95. of poor whites, 22. ff the country in 1861, 55. Confederate manufactures, 232. Confedirates, conduct of, 174. Confidc.ico destroyed, 229. Congress, early for protection, 50. what it should do, 72. Connecticut, iron in, 63 savings banks, 203. Consideration of committee on tariff, 381. Consumers, additional, 248. in Great Britain have in the past made the laws, xvi. Contempt for education, 179. Contest for independence, 399. Contract, workmen by, 407. Contraction the road to bankruptcy, 210. will bankrupt, 130. wrong, 393. Contrary views of McCulloch, 103. Contrast of American and English la- borers, 63. of finaiicial history, 394. of North and South, 147, 160. of wages, 351. of Wells and Sheffield, 294 Conveniences cheapened, 163. Coolies, 404, 436. Co-opcnitive system, 307. Copper mines clo."ea in England, 200, mines of Peru, 410. West, 187. Corn burned for fuel, 70. exported by the South, 189. growing South, 189. husks for paper, Of. Cost increased by tax on alcohol, 335. of collecting internal revenue, 357. of internal revenue system, 335. of the celebration. ''.24. " Cotton and nigpeis," 178. Cotton, dec]) plov?ing and phosphates rith, 232. ('.uty should be on, 79. exchange reports, 191. exhausting too soil, 36, 37, 166, 176. factories South, 310. free in England, 362. in French tariff, 373. is King, 15. tax, 221. thread, 248. the single crop South, 160. trade, depression of British, 411, Country, condition of, under frc- trade, xi. condition of, in 1861, 55. progress of, 248. the one want of, 13. Credit, 135. Creed, H. 11., report of, 198. Creed of republican party, 157. Crises, 395. Crisis of 1857, free trade, vii. Crop of sweet potatoes South, 244. of wheat South, 244. Crops alternated, 166, 203. increasing in Germany, 48. of South, 191. Cuba, 434, 436. imports from, 437, 439. Culture denied the people, 162. of beets, 203, 2>^<. of sheep, 473. Currency, 125, 126. curtailment of, 124, 228. function of, 137. not in excess, 228. redundant, 134. required, 134. value of, inexportable, 392, wanted South, 275. Curtailment of currency, 124, 228. Customer, best of England, 185. Customs duties a tax on the consumer, 290. tut nails, Americac, 327. INDEJ5. 499 Dakotah climnte, 471. Danville, 174, 180. (Pii.) iron works, 73. Davis, Jefferson, on cost of Pacific road, 484. Do i;?w on o^haustion of land, 3(5. Debt being paid, 449. debt, national, 64. to Europe, 39'3. war, bow it can be paid, 100. Debts funf'ffV 113. paid without -Jioncy, 64. Decadence of E igland, 193, 400. Decay from slave labor, 65. Decline of British exports, 40J. of English trade, 197. Deep plowing, 232. plowing for beets, 203. Deer Creek valley, 472. Defects of present tariff, 3 0. Defence of Pennsylvania, 323. of Wells, by Garfield 256. Degrading mechanical labor, 211. Delmar on statistics, 271. Demand for goods. 226. ivicresaing for steel, 301. Democratic policy, 212. Democrats, false ])osition, 439. responsible for the war, 152. Dependent, commercially, 280, on England, 185. Depositors in saving" banks, 260. Deposits in saving'- banks, 258, 287. Depots for fuel, 440. Depression of Araericau industries, 194. of British cotton trade, 411. of trade in Great Britain, xiv. Desart, American, 467, 472. great American, 463. Desire for education, 179. Destiny changed by slavery, 117. Destitution in Great Britain, xv. Destruction by taxation, 104, of confidence, 229. Development ar-er a railroad, 466. ' in Utah, 467. of wool trade, 467. South, 180. work of, 489. Devotion to interests of England, 289. Difference of wages in England and America, 302. Difficulties in iron production, 301. Difllculty of improvement, 179. Dilkc, Caas. \V., xxii. Diminishing imports, 274. Diminish taxes, 223. Diminution of chemical works, 24'^. of taxes required. 111, 223. Diplomacy of England to Portugal, 39. Direct taxation, 334. tax should be remo*red, 221. trade with the West Indies, 428. Discouraging marriage, 255. Discoveries of South during the war, 232. Discovery of gold, 463. Discreditable revenue service, 239. Discrimination against Au-iriean far- mers, 359. Disguised slavery, 171. Disparity between gold and paper, 66. Dispensed with, how internal revenue can be, 355. Distilled spirit;;, hix "ii, 335. Distilleries necde'J, 244. District court, suiiJ in, 270. Diversified industry North, 160. Diversify industry of the South, 315. Dixon on poor whites, 23. Doanc's report on Montana, 476. Domestic commerce more profitable than foreign, 71. Dominica, 427. no machinery in, 439. Dominican exports, 439. Double taxes and diminish income, 235. Downing's bill, 13. Drawing rations, 177. Drugs, 335. inferior, 242. Dukith, 480. Duty, export, on cotton, 79. of Congress, 72. of freedmcn, 168. on chaik, 377. on cloves, 378. on pepper, 378. on pig-iron, 296. on putty, 377, on sugar, 437. Duties low, immigration falls off, 369. not always a tax, 325. not average 40 per cent, 378, of citizenship, 169. on Canadian products, 308. on competitive commodities, 65. on Cuban products, 437, 439. on steel, 294. on wool and woolens, ;'7-t. protective, not a tax, 354. repealed, 449. result of repealing, 365, to ije increased, 290. to bo repealed, 317. which are taxes, 318. which need readjustment, 379. Early views of the author, vi. Earnings, average weekly, 271. Economical relations of slavery, 16. enthusiasm, xix. Economic fallacies, xix. Economy reoomi.:''nded, 119. Edict of Nantes, eaect of revocation, 42. Educated freedmen, 180. Education, cc ntem;it for, 179. North, 164. !]li (■;■;' f -I ■ Ui J'"U : t :4 : f. I1 ■'■■*- ■ ';■■■(. ■ 'If ■'■i ] 500 INDEX. Education of slave children, 167. the test, 165. Effect of acquisition of Duminica on sliivcry, -1:^2. of AiiH'rica owning Dominica, 435. of closing mines, 200. of free tnido on jioor whites, 20 of miichincry, 248. of Norflicrn I'licific on American comiiiorce, 484. of Paul Ho road on wool trade, 467. of protecting nickel, 389. of protection on prices, 358. of repeal of coal duty, 314. of resumption, 131. I "^ots of thn Fort Wayne speech, 119. Jiubrts for Pennsylvania Central, 460. Eight-hour system, 278. Elevation of people, 248. Elgin watches, 216. Elliot's book, 15. Emigrants, advice to, 181. anxious to come, 236. riyected .'^outh, 147. welcomed North, 147. Emigration, Karl (Sranvillo on, xv. from tlie South, 153. Kirk on, 79. Emma mine, 467. Enactments of England against increase of populiiti )n, 25. Encourage iirmigration, 201. Energy wonted West, 200. England admits cotton free, 362. a monopoly, 362. bondage to, 73. buys only what she is compelled to, friim America, 186. by free tnule, subjects America, 37. decadence of, 193. dependence upon American mar- ket.-?, xxvii. does nut practice free trade, 30. early jirotection in, 29. free trade in, xiii. iron produciion, 301. isolated position and contracted limitd (if, xii. makes slioddy, 43. manufacturing ponor of, 193. monopoly in, 193. must listen to the demands of her people, xvii. must modify her viuws, and aban- don free trade, xvi, xxi. only free trader, 409. paupers of, v. pig-iron produced, 302. prohibits imports, 29. requires foreign fuel, 59. Steel imported from, 74. under free trade, xi. wages in, 302. England's debts, 114. decadence, 4(10. diplomacy to Portugal, 39. export of rails, 276. interests, 289. paupers and exports, 409. ])olicy, 31, 1!IG. sagacity, 218. supremacy, how established, 24. teachings, 194. treachery, 429. view of fiscal policy of United States, 304. wheat croji, 33. English books made abroad, 197. goods too dear for them, 200. iron circular, 358. labor, restrictions in 1 10!", 27. miners, condition of, 95. navy aided, 195. pauperism, 193, 207 rcjieal of jirotcction, 29. sacrifices to destroy competition, 41. steam ships, subsidies to, 30. tariff against American farmers, 359. tax on exportation in 1337, 26. vagrants in 1376, 20, wages, 400. Enriching soil, 33. Enterprise .vanted AVest, 200. Entertainment in New Orleans, 173. Equality as Christians, 02. Equity and morals in the relations of men, xii. Error of the South, 160. Essentials of life not to be taxed, 65. Establishments of Philadelphia, 423. European laborers' homes. 422. Evans and Askin, letter of, 3S9. Evanston coal and iron, 466. steel works, 406. Evidences of jdenty, 205. Evils of brick-yards of England, 338. Example to tlie South, !)2. Excessive taxation, llt2. Excess of currency, 22S. Exclumge of jiroducts, 382. Exhausted soil, 176. Exhaustion of soil South, 161. under free trade, x, xi, xiii. Expand commerce, 431. Expansion, 395. Expenditures, average weekly, 272. Experiences of the author, vi. xii, xxiii. Experiments of McDonald, 232. Explanation, personal, 320. Export duty on cotton, 79. gun-barrels, 06. of rails by England, 276. of specie, to bo checked, 112. of sugar, 275. 'A' INDEX. 501 Exports, 185. (leclinoof British. 408. IViim ti)e United Kingdom, 213. of Duininica, 439. of j;oUl iviid silver, 132. and paupers, 409. Exposition, Hewitt's report on, .TOO. Intcrnationiil, 415. Expositions of England, 416. Extent of our support of slavery, 433. Factories, confederate, 232. slioddy, 45. Factory wages in Silesia, 346. Failure of free trade, 409. Fallacies of revenue report, 273. of Wells, 2S6. Fallacy of Wells' statement, 230, False conclusions of revenue report, 253. position of Democrats, 439. Faro on railroads, 148. Farmers and manufacturers, mutual de- pendence of, xxviii. dependence of, upon a diversified industry, xxiii, xxiv. enriched, 166. impoverished by free trade, 32. markets, xix. of America, discrimination against, 359. need protection, 322. Fault of existing tarift', 379. Federal debt funded, 113. Feeding of slaves, 54. Females employed in Philadelphia, 423. Fertility of Montana, 477. Fiber from corn husks, 69. Field on hardware, 327. Field's report on hardware, 330. Figures arranged to suit, 256. Finances, American, 1S5. Financial derangement, 225. history contrasted, 394. revulsions, 395. Fire is force, 284. Firth and Son, letter of, 310. Fiscal policy of United States, 361. Flannel of California, 68. Flax, 377. Fleece and the loom, 121. Flock paper hangings, 44. Flour in the South, 189. Food for slaves, cheap, 17. of laborers in Euro])o, 339. raised by South, 232. Foreign labor employed by American capital, 106. market, 188. markets, decreased dependence upon, under protection, xxvii. merchandise imported, 274. merchandise undervalued. 111. Foreign sugar, 203. tonnage, 109. Foreigners make English books, 197. Forests of Northwest, 488. Former debts of America, 1 13. Forney on Philadelphia. 164. Function of currency, 137. Franco injured by loss of labor, 42. iron jiroduction, 301. protects industry, 42. Franklin Institute, 417. Frauds, 379. by omission, 257. in invoicing, 39. in steel, 384. in whiskey, 240. of Sheffield steel-makers, 293. on Portugal, 39. Free colored, deprived of suffrage, 149. Frcedmen can work iron mills, 316. a help, 281. become land holders, 247. duty of, I OS. intelligence of, 167. skilled laborers, 169. Frcedmen's schools, 174, 179. Freedom, price of, 149. to work, 168. Works, 291. i'reo labor, results of, 275. list, purpose of, 373. press, 156. provincial coal, argument for, 309. spirits, 357. Free trade apostles, 412. a specific, 366. Byles on, 199. condition of the country under, x, xi, xiii. early belief of the author in, vi. effect on poor whites, 20. exhausts and iujpo 'erishes, 32. experiences, x. French, 371. in England on the defensive, xviii, xix. in 1861, 55. in men, 371. limits grain market, 336 means low wages, 336. not practised by England, 30. real, xxiv. results of, 18, 197, 280. ruin under, vii, x. sophisms, 199. subjects America to England, 37. why demanded by the South, 15. French beet culture, 204. free trade, 371. j industry, Chaptal on, 45. prevention of waste, 44. protection, Hayes on, 46. tariff against American farmers, 359. M t.,'f' 1 ;i J.i? I' ■■■; f III 502 INDEX. Fruitii of Northwest, 488. o' Utah, 472. Fucn, straits of, 487. Fuel, corn burned for, 70. depots, 440. foreign, required by England, 69. in Virginia, 69. tax on, .'JIO. Funding Federal debts, 113. Furnaces erecting for pig-iron, 277. iron, of Lako Superior, 67. now blast, 299. Future growth of sugar, 476. of America, 464. of Milwaukee, 201. of New Orleans, 157. of North Carolina, 117. of the South, 134. of the AVost, 215. Pacific metropolis, 481. Gardens of frocdraen, 181. (larfleld, defence of Wells, 266. (rarseJ, R., manufactures of, 248. (Jus tips, 3S7. (ice, on American manufactures, 38. (lencrosity of Wells 296. (tonial climate, 471. (Jentile development, 467, • iermany, benefit of protection, 48, and France, effects of war between, on trade, xviii. subsistence in, 338. wages in, 338. Qilmore on poor whites, 22. Gin room, 316. Ologai., expenses, etc., of laborers, 344. Gluten from corn husks, 69. God, the guide in all, 156. God's providence, 149. Gold advanv^ng, 229. discovery, 463. exports, 132. large exports of, x. not a regulator, 235. of Australia and California, vi. of Utah, 467. premium, 136, 449. price cf, 135. South, 176. Goldberg, expenses, etc., of laborers, 341. Goods, protection cheapens, 76, 386. Gordon, exjcution of, 437. Gorlitz, expenses, etc., of laborers, 343. Government balances, 139. income, 450. producing panics, 141. Grades of Northern Pacific, 484. of wool, 474. Grain, how transported cheapest, 362. in bulk, 243. Griiin, market limited by froo trade, 336w only for distillers, 251. prices in rhiladciphia, 365. reports. Southern, 191. too many ])roducers, xxi.t. without a market, 335. Grand army of the republic, 467 Grant, Daniel, on home politics, 25. on expositions, 416. on free trade, 409. E. 11., on beet sugar, 205. Grant's administratioi. contrasted, 449. Granville, Earl, on the destitution in the United Kingdom, and on emigra- tion, XV. rapes, 175. Grass of the West, 409. Great American dc;.urt, 463. Uritftin, new power in the govern- ment of, xvi. Britain, pauperism in, xiv. Greenbacks, 125. depreciating, 229. Gregg on poor whites, 21. Groifenberg, expenses, etc., of laborers, 342. Griffin, John, letter on wages, 351. Griswold, statistics of savings banks, 203. Growth of Philadelphia, 202. of railroad trnHic, 408. Guidance of God, 156. Gums, 378. Ilagerman, J. J., letter of, 202. Hall, Rev. Newman, 186. Hammond on exhaustion of land, 36. on poor whites, 21. Handicraftsmen and capitalists, 198. Harbors of Dominica, 442. Pacific coast, 486. Hardware, American, 326. in Birmingham, from abroad, 330. Harmony of interests, xxiii. Harris, of N. C, 180. Harvest, seasons of, Sout',, 232. Hats from rye straw, I'li. Hayes' " Fleece ani the Loom," 121. Hayes on French protection, 46. Hay, beet pulp a substitute, 204. Hayti, 441, 442, 444. Heat of Dominica, 44 I. Henry, on fertilizing maimer, 34. Hernando, Miss, 176. Hewitt, report on wages, 303. report on exposition, 300. Ilirschberg, expenses, etc., of laborers, 341. Hispaniola, 434. History of Pacific railroad, 456. of shoddy, 43. Hoes, American, 327. Hogan, John, on Dominica, 443. INDEX. 503 Home, 172. Home consumption of British cottons, 411. llomc-inndc steel, 291. IIouio market.", 71, .'5(14. munupulies, 121. jiolitics, 25. Homes of K»ro|)can laborers, 422. of Pliiliiilelphia, 184. of workiiie I, 421, lioniustead law, IGU, 306. Honey, 1"(). Hoji.s, dutiable in Franco, 43. Hdrso-shoe nail.", American, 327. Hostility to Cliinoso, -ilU. Houses owned )y laborers, Ifil. Hoylo on Knglish pauperism, 267. on internal ta.xe.", 103. Hume, on the eflccts of revocation of Edict of Nuntcs, 42. Humphreys, Gen. A. A., report of, 483. Idaho climate, 471. Idle iron work.*, 74 Idle ship-yards, 322. Idleness, 16S, 273. result of ta.\es, 221. Ignorance, 17t>. a cau.se of the war, 152. of whites, I'lS. Illinois coal, 187. iron, 187. Illustration of power, 248. Immigrants, 248. most desirable, xxv. Immigration, advantages of, xxvi. drawn to Pennsylvania, 103. from Canada, 98. increased by building railroads, 491. invited, 71. not welcome South, 153. report on, 491. statistics, 370. stimulated by protection, 369. to be encouraged, 201. Importance of iron, 96. of the centennial celebration, 416. Importation of coal, 94. Import of coolies, 436. of slaves, 430. skilled workmen, 371. Imports, 185. diminishing, 274. from Cuba, 437, 439. from West Indies, 431. large, under protection, xxvi. of Philadelphia, 423. of provincial coal, 312. prohibited by Kngland, 29. Impracticable schemes, 142. Improvement in gun barrels, 66. Improvements during the war, 214, einoo the war, 60. Income, national, 208. not fallen oil', 230. of government, 450. Incongruities of tarilT, 377. Increased yield of -"tton, 233, Increase ocean commerce, -141. of demand for steel, 301. of deposits in .'.avinga banks, 261. of iron furnaces, 299. of ])aupcrs in Kngland, 110. of jiig-iron in Pennsylvania, 276. of population, 274. of railroad tonnage, 468. of wealth, 274. the duties, 290 Indiana coal, 187. Indian cotton, 80. India, wrongs of, 303. Inducements to laborers, fil. Industrial works of Philadelphia, 424. Industries, depression of American, 194. Industry, American, 185. a kind of property, 45, obstruction to IJritish, 198. of France, Chaptul on, 45. of freedmcn, 181. of Portugal injured by England, 40. of the .South, diversified, ,315.: protected by France, 42. revolutionized, 188. Inoxportablo currency, value of, 392. Infants making bricks, 338. Inferior drugs, 242. Influence of expositions, 116. Ingenuity wanted vSouth, 182. Injurious taxes, 319. Injury from internal taxes, 106. Inquisitorial taxes, 319. Insurance, statistics of life, 265. Intelligence denied tho peoi)le, 152. of freedmen, 167. Interest excessive, 229. of Philadelphia in tho Northern Pacific, 491. rates of, in England and the United States, xiii. reduced, 449. requires development of the South. 182. Interests of Pennsylvania, 323. Internal revenue, 239. revenue, how can bo dispensed with, 356. revenue system, 333. Internal taxes against iron, 73. taxes injurious, 103. taxes rci)ealed, 449. Intcrnationiil exposition, 415. Intolerance of the South, 155. Invoicing, frauds in, 39. Iowa, 491. of. :"■ m 604 INDEX. Iowa coal, 187. Ireland contnistod with BclRiiitn, 363. di'«i)liit('d by Kiigliinil, 'M'Ji. Iroliind's iiiisi'iicH, onuses of, 26, Iris'i, ii]i])i'ul of Swift to, 2H. |>iiiriot. Ii'tter from, 307. Iron iige, vriooH, 35.S. 'ron Age. \ i^ws of the, 107. a civili/.er, 1(J2. and coal, power of, 96. and steel are muscles, -84. nt EvanstoM, (liO. classiliealioii nut new, 385. imjiortan !u uf, 96. in Alalia mn, KiO. ii 'rench ttiritl, 373. interest of tho U'est, 202. milking i > tbc V.'cst, 301). of JjuUo Supeiio;, 21 r>. o; Noithwest, 4bfl. of tho West, 187. ore. Lake 8u])erior, i?fi. no personal interest in, 3?0. produced South, 315. production, diftieulties, 301, production of tho worhi, 300. purchased from England, 73. ships, 28). works idle, 74. works, Milwaukee, 202. works of Connecticut, 03. works of Pennsylvania, 73. workers' w ages, 303, 407. Irrigation, 472. Issues at jtrcsent, 399. Italy, iron production, 301. Jackson, Qcn., letter to Coleman, 51. on protection, 49. Japan, cummerce, 457, 485. Jay, Washington's instructions to, 427. Jefferson, le'ter to Austin, 50. on causes of revolution, 417. on protection, 49, 50, Jonrneymen in Silesia, 348. Junction railway, 421, Justice, the republican law, 168. Kansas coal, 187, Kansas-Nebraska movement, 54. Kaolin in Virginia, 59, Komble, Mrs., to tho AVissahickon, 420. Kent, manure in, 44, Kingsley, Uishop, on emigration, 236. Kirk, Prof., on protective duties, 79. on the pauperism in Great Britain and Ireland, xxi.t, sooial politics, 196. Klippart, on Ohio wheat, 35, Knives, best from America, 326, Koopmanschap, system of, 404. Krupp's steel works, 49, Labor, changes In, 284, Chinese, 403. driven froin i't.>ncc, 42. former restrictio.iM on Knglish, 27. I'reedmen skilled ii;,. 109. necessary, 14. power of a man, 2IS. jiroteetiun in Amenean, 9 raising in \'irginia, 5.S. ta.xes that burden, 319, wages for Ameriunn, 351, Utojiias, xix, "Laborer" sub.tituted lo. "iicgro," 180. uaborers enriched, 106. own their house.-i, 104, to be protected, 273. wanted by Pennsylvania, 61. Liv'.e Superior iron ore, 00. Laubert, Rev. iirooke, on severance of r eh and p(;or, v. Lamborn, I'w, ou |iig-u.ctal, 60, La 1 lotto mine, 388, Landeshut, e;;pen?es of laborers, 340. Lan'l exhau.^ted 'oj tutton, 30, 37, exhausted by free trade, 32. owners drawing rntion.x, 177. Lands enriched in Philadelphia, 163. owned by freedinen, 247. ' relative value, 148, Largest steel works, 49. Latham, Dr., letter to, 475. Laws against American manufactures, 418, in favor of England, 73, Lead of Utah, 407, Leo, Pr. D., on cotton culture, 36, 37. Legal-tender currency, 120, Lehigh county, slate from, 59, Lcignitz, expenses, etc., of laborers, 344. Lessons of tho war in the South, 232. Letter from an Irish patriot, 307, of Evans & Askin, 389. of Firth & Son, 310. of H, C. Carey on railroads, 468. of Jackson to Coleman, 51. of Jcfferton to Austin, 50. of Pierce i,o the Soutli, 161. of WashinjTton to Morris, 427, on i.hinesj qnesiion, 403, to Dr. Latham, 475. to operatives, 278. Levees, h^w built, 170. Lil-e, John C, letter to, 403. Liberality of the South, 168. Lil'o insurance statistics, 205. Limei tone in Alabama, 100, West, 187, Lincoln to bo revcicd, loV. Linseed oil, 377. List of artitlcs ri,.'.aced in Birming* ham by foreign makers, 330. INDEX. 505 Locke, quotntion from, 14. Locoinotivcs, Pnisnian, I'Ji). LoikIdh Qiiiirtcrl.v Itovinw on economic i'lilliiL'ii'.i mid labor Utopias, xix. liongwiirtir.f (;ra|)u vinos, 175. LoHsim to Aiiii'rica, l;!. Lowciiborg, cxiK'iisei', etc., of laborers, Low wages, 257. wagrs iiiidiT free trade, .130, Loyal .statex, wealth, 114. Luiiiiikin, Hun. T. II., on poor whiten, •2\. iiUxuriea taxed, 318. Machinery, 1S2. for muscle, 179. Uf'ed liy .Vinerican?, 32fl. .vanted in linniinicn, l.'iO. JIachiniHt.s wanted ■'^outh, IHI. "MadneiHnks, 126. Niiva .Scotia coal, 313. Nutmegs, 378. Oats of Northwest, 488. Objeet of reciprocity treaty, 87, 306. Objections to Chinese, 1(15. to ititermil revenue, 3.') 1. to rovcnuo report, 253. to route of Pacific road, K'O. Obstruction to llritlsh imlustry, 198. Ocean commerce, increiiso of, 441. Odious method of collecting revenue, 250. Ofticers of first meeting for Pacific rail- roa 1, 457. Ohio, «!<>ereaso of wheat crop, 35. rolling mills, 74. Olympiii, 489. tenipcraturo of, 471. Omaha, 463. Operatives, letter to, 278. too jioor to marry, 255. Opinions, early, of the author, vi, xii. O]i[)osition to annex;»tion, 433. to Pacific railroad, 458. Order of Secretary of Navy, ^82. Oregon, 488. city, 4j5. imj)rovcment9 in, 68. Steam Navigation Co., 481, Ore of the Marquette region, 60. smelted abroad, 467. Orissa, starvation in, 303. Ornaments, slate, 59. Outrage in Mobile,. 172. Over production impouSible, 225, Pacific coast harbors, 486. metropolis, 481. ocean commerce, 485. railroad, 247. railroad history, 456. routes compared, 405. Palm oil, 388. Pampas of South America, 473. Panics produced hy government, 141. Panic years, 257. Paper from corn husks, 69. from wood, 69. Paper-hangings, flock, 44. mills, wages in, 406. trade, 197. Park of Philadelphia, 420. Patterson on English pauperism, 200. Pauperism in England, 193. in Great Britain, xiv., xv. in Great Britain and Ireland, .xxix. Paupers of England, v. INDEX. 607 raii|ii'i'ii mil r.\|iiirl!<, IliW. Ill l'!ii;{liiiiSymu on, xi, xviii. failure of, xxi. method of, xi. xvill. Napoleon Itonaparto on, xx. theories of, vii, viii, ix, x, xl. unrealized proilictions of, viii. Political economists, liecllno in their inlluence, xvii. status of the Kiaith, 123. Pollock, lion. Jauie.", 458, Poor, 11. V,, on railroads, 408. man's court, 209. tho, ,Mr, llliss on, xx, xxi. whites, 177. whites, elVect of free trade on, 20* whites induced to labor, 83. Poplins, silk, 387. Population, excess of, in KiiglaiiJ, xiL for the Northwest, 490. increa.-iiig, 271. of Dominica, 435. of Minnesota, 170. Porcelain gas tip,-^, 3.s7. Portor'f, " Progress of tho Notion," 30. Portugal, 39. 40. Position, false, of democrats, 439. Poverty, D, A. AVells regards, a bios- sing, 273. of the South, 110,105. Power of coal and iron, 90. secret of Uonaparte's, 45, Practicability of eight-hour system, 279. Prairies, protection for people of, 68. Prediction fulfilled, 304. relative to Milwaukee, 201, Piodictions, historical, 219. in 1850, 401. Precious metal.s of Xorthwosf, 483. Preference for greenbacks, 120. Premium on gold, 130. Present law, revise the, 380. tariir, defects of, 376. Press to be free, 150. Prestige of the war, 158. Price of freedom, 1-19. of gold, 135. of gold not a regulator, 235. of pig-iron, 358. of steel, 291. Prices atl'ccted, 395. effect of jirolection on, 358. how regulated, lliO. of grain in Philadelphia, 365. of provincial coal, 314. ' of steel rails, 386. I .ifl '■'i ..| 008 INDEX. Priilo of ciiMc 11.1. l'rinoi|il('H, not In lid (•oiiiiiroinidcd, ."il. ProdiicrrH in lirciit Itiitiiin will in fiitur(' iniilv.i, .xvii, rixlii" 'il Anicriciiii, Hit. Proiluutlon Ik'Iow tiiu witntf, 225. of iron in tlio worM, :I0U. of |ii)(-iron, .'tll2, IL'tr). ProduRlionn of NorttiwcMt, 4S7. Proiluolivd power incircii.'o of, under prolcorion, x.wi, xxvii. Products, I'xclmniji! of, liS2. of Doininicii, 'III. uf I'hll M|('l|,iiiii, 42:t. of Sun |)>>niin)((i, 'l.'t I. ProfjrccH of .Miir(|ii('tt(» distriot, .'illO. of tiin country, 2I.H. Proliiliition of imports by Knj^liind, 2!). Proof tiiiit prutt'ulion olKMipi'ns goods, 38(i. Property acquired by frcodnicn, 181. industry an, '15. Proportion of Kn^li.sh pnupcrs, 201. Propo.«iii..< of I». A. Weils, .•107. Proposition to horrow iil>roiid, 1(2. of ConiuiissioniT Wells, 217. Prosperity at close of the war, 227. Kdwaril Atkinson on Amcricnn, xxvii. evidences of, 205. great American, xxvii, xxviii. insured by jirotcction, lliO. Nortli, Ifii'). of freeduicn, 181, since Morrill tariff of 1801, x. Protection benefits all tho States, 57. Bonaparte on, . good of tho farmer, xxx. for the sako of tho laborers, 63. French, 42. immigration under, xxv. in England in ICOO, 29. in (jlermuny, 48. insures prosperity, 130. needed by all, 322. of wages, xxx. repealed by England, 29. stimulates immigration, 369. to American labor, 9. to English labor, 29. to steel, 291. what it has done for England, 194. will pay our debt, 65. I'rofoetivp duties not a tax, 354. tariff, re.-ults of, 2.'<1. I'rood of I'lnn^'ylvuiiia, ;i22. I'rovidenee of (lod, I |9. Provincial cnnl imi tiicd, lil'J. prices of, :il !.* Prussia iron pr.iduction, JOl. jirevenls waste, 45. wages in, MH. Prussian locomotives, 100. I'russiate of potash from refuse, 43. I'ulilisliers employ foreign labor, 106. I'uget Sound 45(1, .182, 483, 480,488. elinnite of, 471. Pumps, American, 329. Purpose of free list, .'I".'!. Purposes of duty on pig-iron, 297. Putty, duty on, 377. Quackery of free trade, 300. (juarter of a century, 402. (Question, f'liinese, letter on, 403. Quinine, 379. (Quinine allcotcd by spirit tax, 335. Rag-wool in England, 45, in Pru."sia, 45. Rags, English duty on, 45. not exjiorted by France, 44. woolen, 4). Railroad built by South, 232. Northern Pacific, 454,404. Pacific, 450. tonnage, increase, 468. traffic, 408, 409. Railroads, 469. a necessity, 78. at outbreak of tho war, 214. contrasted, 148. il. V. Poor on, 408. in United States, 301. Rails exported by England, 270. for United States from England, 270. of steel, 200,291. prices of, 380. Randall, Josiah, resolutions of, 458. Rationale of Kansas-Nebraska move- ment, 54. Rations for tho poor, 177. Raw material not exported by France, 42. Raynolds' explorations, 472. Realized riches, 229. Rebellion revolutionized America, 188. Reception in Memjihis, 173. in New Orleans, 173. Reciprocity treaty, 63, 87, 306. Red river, 4E1. Reduce taxes, how to, 375. Reducing interest, 449. Reduction of taxes necessary, 450. of whisky fax, 245. ( , ' ^ INDKX. 609 Hflfiirni. rovi'niii', 1 IS, Uovcnue, Internal, 239, Kuriiriiirri<, ritvi'iiiDs I'M'I. reform, 448. lU'l'iiMii WDikr.l into ("liodily, 4.'t. reformers, 280. J{('i{i'iii'riilii)ii (il'tlii! Soiitli, 18:t. report, alisiirditica of, 273, Ut'({iHtiT 111' Aiiu'ririiii V('.y l')ti)(liin(l, 20. Itewardiiig labor, 14. of rit'iprocity Iri'iily, ilOti. Ilieh and poor, ituv. llruoko Lambert of wlmt tiixc", ill7. on severance of, xiv. U('l>ly to iMr. \'oi)ilii!i;i^, 0. Ilich<'<, reali/.ed, 220. Uci)ort of 1). A. Wflls, 2:>X lUglita of American producorn, 83. of .Si'orctiiry of Truiisury, 101. secured, 158. on ooinnicrco, -III!. Road couiplet<'d to Altoona, 401. on iiniiiiKriition, 401. Robertson, .lohn li., ri'port on Southera on rovcnuo, 25.'). resources, ISO. to Con){rc«g on a route for Paoiflc on wheat, culture, 21 1. roiicl, 4,)0. Rolling mills in South, 315, RoportH of cotton cxclmngo, 101. mills of Ohio, 74. llfl)u))iii;iin ort't'it, 157. mills of Pennsylvania, 73. [larty, I'll. Room for immigrants, 237. llepuj^natifo to views of Calhoun, 1 50. Routes, I'acitle, compared, 4(15, • li,cf[uircini.'iits of tins Soutli, 182. Ruskin on mining population, 95. Ilesolution of Yiinocy, l."il. Russell it Krwin, works of, (13. llosolutioiiH of I'allioun, l.OO. Russia, iron production in, 30], ol Sotitii Carolina planters, 27. Rye straw in New Kngland, 100. llosourccH, uiulcivelopei of the Uu ited States, xii, xiii. Sagacity of Kngland, 218, of Alaliiuna, llil. Salt, 285. of iMlnneaota, 471. tax, 451, of Northwest, 4H7. Lake City, 456. of South, 14(i, 2;il. Saltpetre, 378. Southern, 18U. as an illustration, 382. Responsibility of tho United States, Samana bay, 441. 442, 414. 4;i7. San l)oiningo coll'ee, 434. Restrictions on English labor in 1400, products, 434, 27. San Francisco, 402, 482. to coniniercc, .TIO. Savings bank, an index, 222, Results of contracted currency, 222 , Savings banks, deposits in, 258, 287, of duty on jiig-iron, 298, 350. banks, increase in dei)osits, 261, of firing on Sumter, 151, banks of Connecticut, 203. of free labor, 275. banks of New York, 203. of free trade, 18, 197, 280. banks of Vermont, 203. of internal taxation, lOfi, Savings of laborers in Europe, 339, of lack of currency in South, 234. Saws, American, 32(1. of Morrill tariff, :i04. Saxony, wages in, 348. of non-protection, 52. i encry of Montana, 476. of i)roteetion. 281. Schedule of duties on steel, 294. of repealing duties, 365, Scheme to build a railroad, 458. of repeal of reciprocity treaty, 306. to settle public lands, 407. of the war, 50, 214. Schenck, (Jen., anecdote of, 354, of whisky frauds, 242. Scholars among frecdinen, 180. Resumption, ciTect of, 131, School for freedmcn, 174. not approaching, 230, Schools nn inducement to laborers, 61, Bovenuc, false cone) una on, 253 attract immigrants, 153. from steel, 07, for freedmcn, 170. from wool, 104. L North, 164, '»'., i« n. 510 INDEX. Schools to bo encournged, 156. Sch(inau,e.\penscB, etc , of laborcra, 341, Schrceder on beet sugar, 203. Scott, Thos. A., 494. Seasons of Nortliwcst, 4^7. Secretary of Niivy, o;dcrof, 282. Secret of Dotiapa 'to's power, 45. Sections contri'dted, 147. Sectionalism Sjuth, 147. Sentiments of lepublicans, 170. on which rest our government, 149. Settlements akng North Pacific, 4S''. Seven years crises, 395. Sheep culture, 473. in C'aliforniii, 467. mountain, 479. Sheffield crowded out, 326. frauds, 379. steel makers, 293. SheritT'f! sales in Philadelphia, 268. Sherman, 468. Shi[) builders out of employ, 198. Ship building in Northwest, 490. building reviving, 431. stimulation of, 431. 6. p yards idle, 322. Shipping interest, 382. improvement in American, vi. Shoddy, 42, 43. towns, 45. Shoes manufactured South, 232. Shrinkage in values, 221. Silesia, factory wages, 346. wages and living in, 340. Silk, frauds in, 379. in Coventry and Maccleslield, 410. manufactories, 197. poi)lin?, 387. protected by England, 29. Silver expi)rta, 132. in Utah, 467. Simms, James, 180. Skilled laborers South, 310. Skilled nickel makers, 389. Sk;!'ed workmen, 371. Slate ornaments, 59. Slave-trade, Carey on, 48. products, 438. Slaves, cheap food for, 17. educated, 180. fed by the farmers, 54. still imported, 436. Slavery r^.fi'ccted by acq; '.sition of Do- minica, 432. degrades all, 52. disjruised, 171. economical relations of, 16. supported by United Slates, 434. Smelting ore abroad, 4rt7. Smuggling stopped, 306. Social condition of ])Oor whites, 22. Soil enriched in England, 33. exhausted, 176. Soil exhausted by cotton, 36, 37, 166, improved by beets, 203. of Dominica, 436. of the South, 166. sterile in New England, 160. Soldiers for public lands, 467. shoddy goods, 214. Soliciting subscriptions for Pennsylva" nia Central, 460. Solvency of National banks, 127. Sc])hisms of free trade, 199. Sophistry, 256. of revenue report, 253. South, agriculture of, 188. as viewed by themselves, 36. coal in the, 93, 324. diversify indurtry of, 315. exports corn, 189. future of, 131. growing wheat, 189. liberality of, 168. minerals of, 315. mineral wealth of, 178. must re.s|)cct labor, 62. natural woalth of, 160. need of, 315. needs ourrcnoy 392. needs protection, 57. o])poscd immigration, 153. pcverty of, 116. raised its own food, 232. resources and wants, 146. resources of, 231. rich, 275. rolling mills in, 315. suggestions to, 62. wants capital, 123. wants currency, 275. wants machinists, 181, wealth of, 02. why they demanded free trade 15. Southern cities, 165. flour, 139. intolerance, 155. plowing, 176. resources, 189 views of reciprocity treaty, 307. views of t'iC South, 36. views oil debt, 116. views on lack of currenc)', 234. Spain, iron production, 301, Spanish rule, 435. Specie, check export of, 112. payments, 132, 229, 393, Specific duties, 379. free trade a, 366. Speculation stimulated, 130, Speer ' on Nor.thcrn Pacific, in 1866, 165. on Altoona road, 461. Spices, tax on, 379. Spires* gold sales, 288. Spirit of the South, 168, 180. INDEX. (.11 Spirits free, 357. tax, 451. tax on distilled, 335. Staffordshire, waj{C8 in, 303. Stamps, revenue from, 357. Standing armies, 429. Starvation in Ireland, 363. Starving in the midst of abundance, 176. State rights, 170. States, wealth of, 114. Statistics, bureau of, 271. of D. A. Wl'IIs, 271. of Delmar, 271. of Dr. Lamborn, 60. of immigration, 370. of lifo insurance, 205. of New Yorli savings-banks, 263. Steam engines, 182. in Pliiladelphia, 423. navigation, 441. Steamers, American, supplanted under free trade, vii. Steamships, English subridies to, 30. Steel ad valorem, 383. age of, approaching, 95. American, 00. and iron are muscles, 284. - demar.d for increasing, 301. duties on, 2U4. frauds in, 29:', 379. from abroad, in 1801, 215. imported from England, 74. in ISfiO, 07. in 1S04, 67. makers of Sheffield, 293. must be made at home, 284. now produced at home, 215. price of, 291. protection to, 291. rails, 206. works, 291. Works in Philadelphia, 208. works, in the West, 460. Stevens Gov., on Puget Sound, 487. Stimulate shipping interest, 382. Storr's school, 174. Straits of Fuca. 487. Straw, rye, in New England, 160. Strikes, 201. among laborers, 260. Subscriptions for Pennsylvania Central, 460. Subsidies to Englifa steamships, 30. Subsistence of European laborers, 337. Subsoil ploughs, 1S2. Substitute for hay, 204. Sub-treasury, 139. Success of Pennsylvania Central, 494. Suffering b'-inirs blessings, 159. Sufl'rage taken from free colored men, 149. Sugar, 20.3, 434. Sugar, beet root, 472, 476. duty on, 437. exported, 275. from Cuba, 436. in France, 204. in French tariff, 372. in future, 475. in tho West, 216. Suggestion to the South, 62. Suit** in various years, 269. Sullivan, Kir Edw., xv. on free trade, 378. on French free trade, 46. on wages, 406. Sulphur in Alabama, 161. springs of Montana, 478. Summer trade wanted, 190. Superiority of American goods, 326. of American iron, 298. of Southern flour, 189. Support of slavery by Unit'-d States, 438. Suppression of manufactures caused the American revolution, 417. of truth, 256. Supremacy of England, how estab- lished, 24. Sweden, iron production, 301. Swift's appeal to the Irish, 28. Swift, JIayor, 457. Swineford on Marquette district, 360. Symc, David, on political economy, xi, xviii. System, eight-hour, 278. of Xorthern rivers, 481 . Talc, 387. Tariff, defects of present, 376. of 1824 and 1828, 77. of 1842, 77. of 1842, repeal of, vi. of 1846, advantageous circum- stances under which it was tried, vi. of 1846, bankruptcy under, vii, of 1846, enactment of, vi. of France, Chevalier's, 42. incongruities, 377. Morrill, 304. present, (1871,) highly protective, xxvi. why necessary, 328. Tariffs abroad against American far- mers, 359. of United States, 390. Tarver on poor whites of South, 20. Taxation can it be borne, 218. dircot, 334. Tax on alcohol, 379. on allspice, 318. on coal, 90. on coll'ee, 318. on cotton, 221. ! : I i'i 512 INDEX. Tax on fuel, 310. on pepper, 318. on spices, 379. on spirits, repeal of, 243. on ten, 318. on whisky, 245. Ta.xes, first to be repealed, 451. imposed by liiw, 448. injurious, 319. made udious, 250. on watches, etc., 249. on woolens, 104. repealed, 449. restricting commerce, 319. should not be o|)pressive, 65. that burden labor, 319. to be retained, 451. way to reduce, 375. what, should bo repealed, 317. year oflight, 260. Tax-payers do not want the debt paid, 107. Tea, 378. carried on Pacific road, 462. tax on, 3 IS. Teachings of England, 194. Temperature of Dominica, 444. of West, 471. Temper of the South, 180. Temi)tations of whisky tax, 245. to revenue officers, 240. Tendency of society, 227. Tenement house! 421. Tennessee talc, 3s7. Territorial unity, 149. Territories for sheep, 473. Texas, annexation, 433. cattle, 189. Theory of D. A. Wells, 287. Thomasville (N. C), 232. Thread manufacturca, 248. Thrift of freedmcn, 181. Tillage, shoddy waste as, 43. Time on railroads, 148. Tin, 388. mines closed in England, 200. West, 187. Tobacco. 434. in French tariff, 37?. should be taxed, ;^57. tax, 451. Toil relieved, 284. Tolerance counselled, 156. Tonnage, American, 108. demand for, 431. foreign, 109. of railroads increase, 468. Trade, summer, wanted, 190. with British America, 85. with tropical countries, 429. with West Indies, 431. Traflic for railroad, 466. railroad, 468, 4Ci). Treachery of England, 429. Treaty of commerce between France and Germany, 408. of jMethuen with Portugal, 40. reciprocity, 87. Tribute rings, 435. Tripartite alliance, 88. Trip-hammer, 163. Troi)ical countries, trade with, 429. Truman on ]ioor whites, 22. Trulh supjiressed, 256. Tweeds of California, 68. Umbrellas made abroad, 106. Undervaluation of foreign merchandise, 111. Union demanded, 157. United Kingdom, pau])ers of, 267. United States, boundless and undevel- oped resources of, xii, xiii. commerce, 432. fiscal policy of, 364. not ready for the war in 1801, 55. pig-iron produced in, 302. railroads in, .'SOI. rails from England for, 276. still support slavery, 434. suj)(|)ort of slavery, 438. tarills, 390. Unjust jienalties, 250, 251. Unmarried uj)eratives, 255. Utah silver mines, 467. Vagrant laws, 171. Valley of Deer Creek, 472. Value of inexportable currency, 392. of lands trebled in South, 232. ' Values, shrinkage in, 221. Varnish gums, 378. Vegetables of the South, 176. Vermont savings-banks, 263. Victoria, city of, 306. Views of the Iron Age, 107. Southern, on debt, 116. Vines, 175. Virginia, a labor raiser, 58. coal, 91. fuel in, 59. kaolin in, 59. wealth of, 57. Volcano of Montana, 479. Voorhecs, Mr., reply to, 9. Voters, all who were free, 148. Wages, i82, 280. average weekly, 271, 272. Chinese, 405. defended by protection, 407. diil'erence in England and America, 302. English, 406. in paper mills, 406. in Prussia, 348. indp:x. 513 Wages in Snxony, 348 in Sik-siiv, :\M. in woolen mills, 406. low from froc trade, 3H6. of American labor, 1^51. of Euroijcan laborers, 337. of iron-workers, 407. « of laborers in (Jermany, 340. paid in Pliiladel))hia, 423. protection of, xxx. Sullivan on, 406. Walker, Judge, 174. Kobert J., vii. Want of our country, 13. Wants from aboad, 382. of the South, 146. War a developer, 211. caused by ignorance, 152. caused by the democrats, 152. debt, how it can be paid, 100. energy of South, 232. iron ships for, 284. made inevitable, 149. not an unmitigated evil, 210. prestige of the, 158. results of, 56. waste of, 286. Warren, Lieut. (}. K., report of, 482. Washington on ])rotection, 49, 285. territory, 488. territory climate, 471. Washington's instructions t. Jay, 427. letter to G. Morris, 427. Waste land of Northwest, 488. of war, 286. prevented in France, 44. Watches, 216, 318. Water for liritish soldiers supplied by Americans, 329. Water-power, 178, 182. in Philadelphia, 423. of North Carolina, 118. of Wetumpka, 106. Way to reduce taxes, 375. Wealth increasing, 274. increasing since the war, 216. of loyal States, 114. I of the South, 62, 160, 165, 175. of Virginia, 57. Weavers in (iermany, 340. iVeekly earnings, average, 271. expenditures, average, 272. Welcome all, 156, 404. Wells, D. A., absurdities of, 256, 288, vii, xvii, xxvii. favors Canada, 305. on exemption from taxes, 105. on immigration, 370. on pig-iron, 296. on statistics, 271. Wells' dislike to Pennsylvania, 310. fallacies, 286. 33 Wells' generosity, 296. report, 284. re])ort on revenue, 216. so|)histry, 253. West fed the South, 188. India trade, 431. Indies, direct frarDLI8IIEI> BV HENRY CAREY BAIRD, INDUSTRIAL PUIILISIIEH, ISTo- 406 "W-A.IL.IsrXJT STPIEET, PHILADKLPHIA. ^3^ Any of the Books comprised In this Catalogue will be sent by mail, free of postage, at the publication price. Jl3= My yp.w AND Em.aroki) Cataloouk, 0!i pages Svo., with full doscriptlons of Books, will 1)0 sent, free of postago, to auy ono who will favor mo with hU add reus. A RMENOAUD, AMOUBOUX, AND JOHNSON —THE PRACTICAL ^ DRAUGHTSMAN'S BOOK OF INDUSTBIAL DESIGN, AND MACHINIST'S AND ENGINEEB'S DB AWING COMPANION: Forming a complete course of Mechanical Engineering and Architectural Drawing. From the French of M. Armengaud the elder, Prof, of Design in the Conservatoire of Arts and Industry, Paris, and MM. Armengaud the younger and Amou- Toux, Civil Engineers. Rewritten and arranged, with addi- tional matter and plates, selections from and examples of the most useful and generally employed mechanism of the day. By William Joiixson, Assoc. Inst. C. E., Editor of "The Practical Mechanic's Journal." Illustrated by 50 folio steel plates and 50 wood-cuts. A new edition, 4 to. . $10 00 A BLOT.— A COMPLETE GUIDE FOB COACH PAINTERS. ■ Translated from the French of M.'Arlot, Coach Painter; late Master Painter for eleven years with M. Ehrler, Coach jManufuc- turer, Paris. With important American adiUtiuns . . $1 25 A BROWSMiTH.— Paper-hanger' s companion : A Treatise in which the Practical Operations of the Trade are Systematically laid down: with Copious Directions Prepara- tory to Papering; Preventives against the EfToct of Damp on Willis; the Various Cements and Pastes adapted to the Seve- ral Purposes df the Trade ; Observations and Directions for the Panelling and Oruameating of Rooms, &c. r>y James AuROWSMiTH. 12mo., cloth §1 25 HENRY CAREY DAIRDS CATALOOl'i;. ■DAIRD.— THE AMERICAN COTTON SPINNER, AND MANA- ^ GER'S AND CARDER'i GUIDE : A Prnctical TrciitiBO on Cottou Spinning; giving tlic Dimen- sions and Speed of Machinery, D'-;iug^lit and Twist Ciilculii- tions, etc.; with notices of recent Improveraentd: together with Rules and Examples for making changes in tlio Kiiesund numbers of Roving and Yarn. rom,ulcd from the papers of the late RonuBT II. L' ''D. V\ !Jil ^.0 •DAKER.— LONU u?aN Ei.riWiV;" fll'ILOES: Comprising Invcstigr'ion.^ fii the ( innparativo Theoretical and Practical Advantages of th : >iiou8 ' ' ited or Proposed Typo Systems of Construction; witn nuni..di»' Formulio and Ta- bles. By B. Baker. 12mo $2 00 ■pAXEWElL — A MANUAL OF ELECTRICITY— PRACTICAL AND ^ THEORETICAL : By F. C. Bakbwell, Inventor of the Copying Telegraph. So« cond Edition. Revised and enlarged. Illustrated by nume- rous engravings. 12mo. Cloth .... -DEANS —A TREATISE ON RAILROAD CURVES AND THE LO- •" CATION OF RAILROADS : By E. W. Beans, C. E. 12mo. ... $2 01) ■pLENKARN.— PRACTICAL SPECIFICATIONS OF WORKS EXE- ■D CUTED IN ARCHITECTURE, CIVIL AND MECHANICAL ENGINEERING, AND IN ROAD MAKING AND SEWER- ING: To which are added a seil^s of practically useful Agreements and Reports. By John Blenkaun. Illusti-ated by fifteen large folding platcc. «yo. ^9 00 "DLINN.— A PRACTICAL WORKSHOP COMPANION FOR TIN, ■^ SHEET-IRON, AND COPPER-PLATE WORKERS : Containing Rules for Describing various kinds of Patterns used by Tin, Sheet-iron, and Copper-plate Workers ; Practical Geometry; Mensuration of Surfaces and Solids; Tables of the ■Weight of Metals, Lead Pipe, etc. ; Tables of Areas and Cir- cumferences of Circles ; Japans, Varnishes, Lackers, Cements, ComposiHbns, etc. etc. By Leroy J. Blinn, Master Me- chanic. With over One Hundred Illustrations. 12mo. $2 60 ^T'^ IIENnV CAV.T.Y RAIPiD'? CATALOOUE. B r>'''"'n, -MARBLE WOnZE^i'S Si.". TTUAL : iiitniniii;^ Vrncticiil lufoniution rcsprcting Marbles in gene- ; il, .licir Cutting, A\orliing, niid Polishiiig • Vt-nccriiig of Marble; Mosnij; Cod position and Use of Uiificinl Murlilc, •^tucco^' Cements, RcOvipts, Secrets, etc. etc. Translated irom the French by M. L. Booth. With an Appendix con- cerning American Mar' \>s. 12mo., cloth . . !J1 uO ■pOOTH AND MORFIT,— THE ENCYCLOPEDIA 0? CHEMISTRY, ^ PRACTICAL AND THEORETICAL: Embracing its application to the Arts, ^Ictallurgy, Minenilopy, Geology, Medicine, nnd Pharmacy. Dy James C. Booth, Mclter and Refiner in the United States ^lint. Professor of Aj. plied Chemistry in the Franklin Intilitute, etc., assisted by Campdkll JIonFiT, author of "Chemical Manipulations," etc. Seventh edition. Complete in one volume, royal 8vo., O.S pages, vrith numerous wood-cuts and other illustrations. $0 00 pOWDITCH.— ANALYSIS, TECHNICAL VALUATION, PURIFI- ^ CATION, AND USE OF COAL GAS : By Hev, W, R. Bowditch. Illustrated with wood eiiprav- ings. 8vo $0 50 B ox —PRACTICAL HYDRAULICS : A Scries of Rules and Tables for the use of Engineers, etc. P.y Thomas Box. 12mo !j;2 50 •pOCKMASTER.— THE ELEMENTS OF MECHANICAL PHYSICS : By J. C. BucKMASTEB, late Student in the Government School of Mines ; Certified Teacher of Science by the Department of Science and Art; Examiner iu Chemistry and Physics in the Royal College of Preceptors; and late Lecturer in Chemistry and Physics of the Royal Polytechnic Institute. Illustrated with numerous engravings. In one vol. 12mo. . $1 50 I ■pULLOCK.— THE AMERICAN COTTAGE BUILDER : A Series of Designs, Plans, and Specifications, from SJOO to to $20,000 for Homes for the People ; together with Warm- ing, Ventilainn, Dru. ^-(ge, Painting, and Landscape Garden- ing. By JouN BuLLOTii. Architect, Civil Engineer, Mechani- cian, and Editor of " The Rudiments of Architecture and Building," etc. Illustrated by 75 engravings. In one vol. 8vo $3 5(? i IIKNIIY CAREY BATRD'R CATALOOrK. B TJLLOOK. — THE RUDIMENTS OF ARCHITECTURE AKD BUILDiNO : For the use of Architects, Builders, Draughtsmen, Machin- ists, Engineers, and Mechanics. Edited by John Rlllock. author of "The American Cottage Builder." Illustrated )iy 250 engravings. In one volume 8vo. $3 50 ^UROH PRACTICAL ILLUBTRATI0N8 OF LAND AND MA- RINE ENGINES : Showing in detail the Modern Improvements of High and Low Pressure, Surface Condensation, and Super-heating, together with Land and Marine ISoilers. J?y N. P. Brnr.ii, Engineer. Illustrated by twenty plates, double elephant folio, with text. $21 00 ■pURGH— PRACTICAL RULES FOR THE PROPORTIONS OF ^ MODERN ENGINES AND BOILERS FOR LAND AND MA- RINE PURPOSES. T'y ^'. P. lUiRQii, Engineer. 12mo. ... $2 00 ■pURGH,— THE SLIDE-VALVE PRACTICALLY CONSIDERED : By N. P. Buiiaii, author of " A Treatise on Sugar Machinery," •'Practical Illustrations of Land and Marine Engines," " .\ Pocket-Book of Practical Kules for Designing Land and Ma- r'- Engines, Boilers," etc. etc. etc. Completely illustrated. 12mo $2 00 DYRN.— THE COMPLETE PRACTICAL BREWER : Or, Plain, Accurate, and Thorough Instructions in the Art of Brewing Beer, Ale, Porter, including the Process of making Bavarian Beer, all the Small Beers, such as Boot-beer, Ginger- pop, Sarsaparilla-beer, Mead, Spruce beer, etc. etc. Adapted to the use of Public Brewers and Private Families. By M. La. Fayette Byrn, M. D. With illustrations. 12mo. $1 25 ■pYRJ».— THE COMPLETE PRACTICAL DISTILLER ; (3omprising the most perfect and exact Theoretical and Prac- tical Description of the Art of Distillation and Rectification ; including all of the most recent improvements in distilling apparatus; instructions for preparing spirits from the nume- rous vegetables, fruits, etc. ; directions for the distillation and preparation of all kinds of brandies and other spirits, spiritu- ous and other compounds, etc. etc. ; all of which is so simpli- fied that it is adapted not only to the use of extensive distil- lers, but for every farmer, or others who may wish to engage in the art of distilling. By M. La Fayette Byun, M. D. With numerous engravings. In one volume, 12mo. $1 50 I HENRY CAllEY BAIIIDS CATAI.naUT? DTSNE— POCKET BOOK FOR RAILROAD AND CIYIL ENGI •^ HEERS: Containing New, Exnct, and Concise MethodH for Laying out Railroad CurTCS, Switches, Frog Angles and CrosHings; tho Staking out of work; Lerolling; the Calculation of Cut- tiiigfl; Embankments; Garth-work, cto. By Oi.ivba Dtrnc, Illustrated, IHtno., full bound |1 75 DYRNE— THE HANDBOOK FOR THE ARTISAN, IIECHANIC, ■" AND ENGINEER : Ijy Oliver Uvunk. Illustrated by IP < Wood Engravings, 8vii. $5 00 ■DYRNE.— THE ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS OF PRACTICAL ME- ■" CHANICS: For Engineering Students, based on tho Principle of Work. By Oliver BrnxE. Illustrated by Numerous Wood Engrav- ings, 12mo. , !}!I5 ()3 gYRNE.— THE PRACTICAL METAL-WORKER'S ASSISTANT : Comprising Metallurgic Chemistry ; tho Arts of Working all Metals and Alloys , Forging of Iron and Steel ; Hardening and Tempering; Melting and Mixing; Casting and Founding; Works in Sheet Metal ; the Processes Dependent on the Ductility of the JFctals ; Soldering ; and the most Improved Processes and Tools employed by Metal-Worker?. With tho Application of the Art of Electro-Metallurgy to Manufactu- ring Processes ; collected from Original Sources, and from tLu Works of Iloltzapffel, Bergeron, Leupold, Plumicr, Napier, and others. By Oliver Byrne. A New, Revised, and improved Edition, with Additions by John Scoffern, M. B , William Cloy, Wm. Fairbairn, F. R. S., and James Napier. With Five Hun- dred and Ninety-two Engravings ; Illustrating every Branch of the Subject. In one volume, 8vo. 652 pages . $7 00 "DYRNE.— THE PRACTICAL MODEL CALCULATOR: For the Engineer, Mechanic, AIi nufacturcr of Engine Work, Naval Architect, Miner, and Milb^right. By Oliver Byrne. 1 volume, 8vo., nearly GOO pagos $4 50 ■pEMROSE.— MANUAL OF WOOD CARVINS : With Practical II- lustcitions for Learners of the Art, and Original and Selected do- fignf. By William Bemp.ose, Jr. With an Introduction by Llewellyn Jewjtt.F. S. A., etc. With 128 Illustrations. 4to., cloth $3 00 HENRY C.vnKY riAIIlD'S CATALOQUE. •pAIRD.— PROTECTION OP HOME LABOR AND HOMl PRO- "^ DUCTI0N8 NECESSARY TO THE PROSPERITY OF THE AMERICAN FARMEB : hy ilB:«itr CAiier lUiiin. 8vo., paper 10 DAIRD-THE BI0RT8 OF AMERICAN PRODUCEBS, AND THE -^ WRONGS OF BRITISH FREE TRADE REVENUE REFORM. By Ubmrt CAiiKr Baiiid. (1870) .... 6 "pAIRD.— SOME OF THE FALLACIES OF BBITISH-FBEE-TBADE ^ BEVENUE-BEFORM. Two Lwttors to Trof. A. L. Perry, of WiUlomj College, Ma«». By IIbnry Cakby Daird. (1871.) Paper .... ft BAIRO.— STANDARD WAGES COMPUTING TABLES : An Tmprovemcnt In nil former Methoilg of Computation, «o nr- ranged that wngen for day*, houri", or friiotions of hours, nt ft cjie- cifleil rate per day or hour, may be ascertained at a glance. Dy T. gPANOLER Baird. Oblong folio $5 flO 'DAUERMAN.— TREATISE ON THE METALLURGY OF IRON. ■^ IlluRtratod. 12mo $2 50 $10 00 ^ICKNELL'.S VILLAGE BUILDER. 65 large plates. 4to ■piSHOP.— A HISTORY OF AME^IICAN MANUFACTUBE8 : From lft08 to 1806 ; exhibiting the Origin and Growth of the Prin- cipal Mechanic Arts and Manufnoturos, from tho Enrllost Colonial Period to the Presont Time ; By J. Lkanduii Bishop, M. D., Ed- ward Youso, and Edwin T. Frebdlby. Three vols. 8vo., $10 00 ■pox.— A PRACTICAL TREATISE ON HEAT AS APPLIED TO ■" THE USEFUL ARTS : For the use of Engineers, Architects, etc. By Thomas Box, au- thor of "Practical Hydraulics." Illustrated by 14 plates, con- taining 114 figures. 12mt fuvonible to the Luiiuty without being injurious to tlie Health, comprising a Description of the substances used in Perfumery, the Form- nine of more than oae thousand Preparations, such as Cosme- tics, Perfumed Oils, Tooth Powders, Waters, Extracts, Tinc- tures, Infusions, Vinaigres, Essential Oils, Pastels, Creams, Soaps, and many new Hygienic Products not hitherto described. Edited from Notes and Documents of Messrs. Debay, Lunel, etc. WithadditionsbyProfossorU.DussAucE, Chemist. ]2mo. $;:! 00 nUSSAUCE.— A GEITERAL TREATISE ON THE MAIHTFACTURE ^ OF VINEGAR, THEJRETICAL AND PRACTICAL. Ooraprising the various methods, by the slow and the quick pro cesses, with Alcohol, Wine, Grain, Cider, and Molasses, as well as the Fabrication of Wood Vinegar, etc. By Prof II. Dussaucb. 12mo. $.'■, 00 nUPLAIS.— A COMPLETE TREATISE ON THE DISTILLATION ■*-' AND MANUFACTURE OF ALCOHOLIC LIQUORS : From the French of M. Duplais. Translated and Edited by M. McKkxxie, M D. Illu.itrated by numerous large plates and wood engravings of the best apparatus calculated for producing tho finest products. In one vol. royal 8vo. ^10 00 D;^ This is a treatise of the highe.^t scientific merit and of tho greatest practical value, surpassing in these respects, as well as in the variety of its contents, any similar volume in the English language. ,E GRAFF.— THE GEOMETRICAL STAIR-BUILDERS' GUIDE : Being a Plain Practical System of Hand-Railing, embracing all its necessary Details, and Goometrieally Illustrated by 22 Steel Engravings; together with the use of tha most approved princi- ples of Practical Geometry. By SiM3>f De GiIAFp, Architect. 4to $j 00 YER ANT COLOR-MAKER'S COMPANION : Containing upwards of two hundred Receipts for making Co- lors, on the most approved principles, for all the various styles and fabrics now 'i existence; witli tho Scouring Process, and plain Directions for Preparing, Washing-off, and Finishing tho Goods. In one vol. 12mo. . . . . . $1 2o D D 12 HENRY CaBEY BAIRD'S CATALOGUE. I'- ll! It' ' •pASTOK — A PRACTICAL '.EEATISE ON STREET OR HORSE- ■^ POWER RAILWAYS : Their Location, Construction, and Management; ivith General Plans and Rules for their Organization and Operation ; toge- ther with Examinations as to tbeir Comparative Advantages over the Omnibus System, and InquirieH as to their Value for Investment; including Copies of Municipal Ordinances relat- ing thereto. By AMixANDEa Easton, C. E. Illustrated by 2.1 plates, 8vo., cloth $2 00 PDRSYTH.— BOOK OF DESIGNS FOR HEAD-STONES, MURAL, *• AND OTHER MONUMENTS : Containing 78 Elaborate and ^Q^quisite Designs. By Foksyth. 4to., cloth $5 00 *i/f* This volume, for the beauty and variety of its designs, has never been surpassed by any publication of the kind, and should he in the hands of every marble -worker who does fine monumental work. pAIRBAIRN.— THE PRINCIPLES OF MECHANISM AND MA- ■^ OHINEXY OF TRANSMISSION : Comprising tlie Principles of Mechanism, Wheels, .tnd Pulleys, Strength and Proportions of Shafts, Couplings of Shafts, and Engaging and Disengaging Gear. By V^'haaax Fairbaihn, Esq., C. E., LL. D., F. R. S., F. G. S., Correspoivling Men-ber of the National Institute of France, and of the Royal Academy of Turin ; Chevalier of the Legion of Honor, etc. etc. Beau- tifully illustrated by over 150 Avood-cuts. In one volume 1 2mo. $2 50 pAIRBAIRN.— PRIME-MOVERS : Comprising the Accumulation of Water-power ; tJhe Construc- tion of Water-wheels and Tnrbine«; the Properties •.>' Steam; the Variet'^s of Stei.m-engini;8 and Boilers and Wiivl-mills. By WiLLiA.£ Faibbairn, C. E , LL. D., F. ^ »., F. G. 8. Au- thor of "Principles of .vie :hanism and the Machinery of Traos mission." With Numerous Illustrations. Tn one volume. (In press.) niLBART.— A PRACTICAL TREATISE ON BANKING; ^ By Jamrs William Gilbaui. To which is added: The Na- TioifAL Bank Act as now in pobce. 8vo. . . $4 50 'TESNEit.— A PRACTICAL TREATISE ON COAI, rETROLEUM, "^ ANT) OTHEK DiSTILLED OILS. liy /■ BHAii '. ' Oesher, M. D., F. G. S. Second edition, revised au '. enlarged. By Gkokoe Wei.tden Gesner, Consulting r'»e:;'?*'^*D(' ^ngiue'r'f Illustrated. 8vo. . . $3 50 W-1 1 X i HENTIY CAREY BAIRD'S CATALOGUE. 13 j^OCHIC ALBUM FOR CABINET MAKERS: Comprising a Ci '.Ic-ction of Designs for Gothic furniture. 11- lustratcd by twentj-tbreo large and beautifully enpri'.ved plates. Oblong *a 00 QRANT.— BEET-ROOT SUGAR AND CcLTIVATION OF THE ^ BEET; By E. B. Grant. 12mo $1 25 QREGORY.— MATHEMATICS FOR PRACTICAL MEN : Ailapted to the I'ursuits of .Surveyors, Architects, Mechanics, and Civil Engineers. cloth By Olintiius Grecort. 8vo., plates, 153 00 G .RISWCLD.— RAILROAD ENGINEER'S POCKET COMPANION. Comprising Rules for Calculating Deflection Distanc.'S and Angles, Tangential Distances and Angles, end all Nei-es.'ary Tables for Engineers ; also the art of Levelling from Preliri- nary Survey to the Constru,;ion of Railroads, intended Ex- pressly for the Young Enginoor, together with Numerous Valu- able Rules and Examples. By W. Griswold, 12iiio., tucks. $1 75 nUETTIER.— METALLIC ALL0Y3 : Being a Practical Guide to their Ch'^-, cz\ ".nd Physical Pro- perties, their Preparation, Composition and Uses. Translated from, the French of A. Guettier, ong'neer and Director of Founderies, author of "La Fouderie er» o'rance," etc. etc. By A. A. Fesqtjet, Chemist and Engineer. W one volume, 12m.j. $3 00 H ATS AND FELTING: A Practical Treatise on their Manufact ure. By a practical Hatter. Illustrated by Drawings of Mai.hinery, &c., 8vo. $1 25 TTAY.— THE INTERIOR DECORATOR : The Laws of Ilarmonious Coloring adapted to Interior Decora- tions : with a Practical Treatise on House-Painting. By D. R. Hay, House-Painter and Decorator. Illuscrated by a Dia- gram of the Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary Colors. 12mo. $2 or. H UGHES.— AMERICAN MILLER AND MILLWRIGHT'S AS- BIST ANT: By Wm. Carter Hughes. A new edition. In one Tolume, 12mo .... $1 60 It HENRY CAREY BAIRD'S CATALOGITE. I E" NT.— THE PRACTICE OF PHOTOGRAPHY. By RoBEiiT Hunt, Vice-President of the Photographic Society, London. With numerous illustrations. 12ino., cloth . 75 H UI ST.— A HAND-BOOS FOR ARCHITECTURAL SURVEYORS : Comprising Formulto useful in Designing Builders' work, Tublo of AVeights, of tho materials used iu Building, Memoranda connected with Builders' work, Mensuration, the Practice of Builders' Measurement, Contracts of Labor, Valuation of Pro- perty, Summary of the Practice in Dilapidation, etc. etc. By J. F. IIuEST, C. F 2d edition, pocket-book form, full bound $2 50 p:RVIS.— RAILWAY PROPERTY: A Treatise on the Construction and Management of Railwnys ; designed to afford useful knowledge, in the popular style, to the holders of this class of property ; as well as Railway Miina- gcrs, Officers, and Agents. By John B. Jervis, late Chief Engineer of the Iludsou Eiver Railroad, Croton Aqueduct. &c. Oae ToL 12mo., cloth .... . $2 GO JOHNSON.— A REPORT TO THE NAVY DEPARTMENT OF THE " UNITED STATES ON AMERICAN COALS : Applicable to Steam Navigation and to other purposes. By Walter R. Johnson. With numerous illustrations. G07 pp. 8, . ... ... $10 00 JOHNSTON.— INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE ANALYSIS OF SOILS, " LIMESTONES, AND MANURES By J. W. F. Johnston. 12mo. .... 85 TTEENE.— A HAND-BOOK OF PRACTICAL GAUGING, For t :3 Use of Beginners, to which is added a Chapter on Dis- tillation, describing tho process in operation at the Custom House for ascertaining tlie strength > f wines. By James D. Kkene, of H. M. Customs. 8vo. . . . $1 25 <^:.fe IIEJJHY CAREY DATRD'S CATALOGUE, 16 TTENTISH.— A TBEATISE ON A BOX OF INSTBUMENTS, And tho Slide Rule ; with the Theory of Trigonomotry and Lo- garithms, including Practical Oeoraetry, Surveying, Measur- ing of Timber, Cask and Malt Gauging, Heights, and Distanct-s. By Thomas Kentish. In one volumo. 12mo. . . $1 25 TrOBELL— ERNI.— MINEHALOGY SIMPLIFIED : A short method of Determining and Classifying Minerals, by means of simple Chemical Experiments in tho AVet Way. Translated from the last German Edition of F. Von Kobell, •with an Introduction to Blowpipe Analysis and other addi- tions. By Henri Erni, M. D., Chief Chemist, Department of Agriculture, author of "Coal Oil and retroleum." In one volume. 12mo. ... . . $2 60 T ANDRIN.— A TBEATISE ON STEEL : Comprising its Theory, Metallurgy, Properties, Practical AVork- ing, and Use. By M. H. C. Landrin, Jr., Civil Engi&^er. Translated from the French, with Notes, by A. A. Fssoxtr, Chemist and Engineer. With an Appendix on the Bessemer and the Martin Processes for Manufacturing Steel, from the Report of Abkam S. Hewitt, United States Commissioner to the Universal Exposition, Paris, 1867. 12mo. . . $3 00 T ABKIN.— THE FBACTICAL BBASS AND IBON FOUNBEB'S ^ GaiDE. A Concise Treatise on Brass Founding, Moulding, the Metals and their Alloys, etc. ; to which are added Recent Improve- ments in the Manufacture of Iron, Steel by the Bessemer Pro- cess, etc. etc. By Jajies Larkin, late Conductor of the Brass Foundry Department in Reany, Neafie & Co.'s Penn Works, Philadelphia. Fifth edition, revised, with extensive Addi- tions, la one volume. 12mo $2 25 ib HENRY CAUFA' BAIRD'S CATALOdUE. te. JJ TEAVITT.— FACTS ABOUT PEAT AS AN ARTICLE OF FUEL: AVith Ilcmarks upon its Origin and Composition, the liocalitioa m which it is found, tlio Methods of Prcpftrutiou and Mnnu facture, and the various Uses to whicli it is iipplicnble; togc ther with many other matters of Practical and SciontiSo Inte- rest. To which is added a cliaptcr on tlic Utilization of (!oal Uust with Peat for the Production of an Excellent Fuel at Moderate Cost, especially adapted for Steam Service. By If. T. Leavitt. Third edition. I'Jino. . . !ied by 12 hirgo plates. In one volume 8vo $5 00 COMPLETE COOKERY : By Miss Leslie. »)Oth edition. Thoroughly revised, with the addi- tion of New Receipts. In 1 vol. 12mo., cloth . . $1 50 TESLIE (MISS). LADIES' HOUSE BOOK: a Manual of Domestic Economy. 20th revised edition. 12mo., cloth $1 25 TESLIE (MISS).— TWO HUNDRED RECEIPTS IN FRENCH ■" COOKERY. TESIIE (MISS). Directions for Cookery in its Various Branches. 12mo. 50 T lEBER.— AS A TER'S GUIDE : Or, Practica' Directions to Assayers, Miners, and Smelters, for the Tests and Assays, by Ilcat and by Wet Processes, for the Ores of all the principal Metals, of Gold and Silver Coins and Alloys, and of Coal, etc. By Oscar M. Liebfh. 12mo., cloth $1 25 T OVE.— THE ART OF DYEING, CLEANING, SCOURING, AND ■'-' FINISHING : On the -oiost approved English and French methods ; being Practica) Instructions in Dyeing Silks, Woollens, and Cottons, Feathers, Chips, Straw, etc.; Scouring and Cleaning Bed and Window Curtains, Carpets, Rugs, etc.; French and English Cleaning, etc. By Thomas Lovb. Second American EJitii)n, to which lire added General Instructions for the Use of Aniline Colors. 8vo 5 00 HENRY CAREY BAIUV S CATALOQUE. IT TWTATN AND BROWN.— QUESTIONS ON SUBJECTS CONNECTED ^^ WITH IHl MARINE STEAM-ENGINE: And Examination Papers j with Hints for their Solution. By TiioM.vs J. Main, Professor of Matheniiitios, Ruj-al Naval College, and Thomas BiiowN, Chief Engineer, R. N. 12iuo., cloth $1 .Ml lyrAIN AND BROWN.— THE INDICATOR AND DYNAMOMETER: With (heir Practical Aiiplications to t'le Steam-Engine. By liioM.vs J. Main, M. A.F. R., As.s't Pr^f. Royal Naval College, Portsmouth, and Thomas Bhuwn, Assoc. Inst. C. E., Chief En- gineer, R. N., attached to the R. N. College. lUustratod. From tho Fourth London Edition. 8vo. . . . . $1 00 TUTAIN AND BROWN.— THE MARINE STEAM-ENGINE. By Thomas J. Main, F. R. Ass't S, Mathematical Professor at Royal Naval College, and Thomas Bkow.v, A.''itni)BN, M.. I)., Professor (jf Mining; iiml MptaliurRy in Liifiiyctte College, Kastnn, Pa. Iliiisitratoil by 2.'!0 Engravings on Wood, rnd C Folding Plates. 8vo., 1)72 pages $11) 00 Q3B0RN.-AMERICAN MINES AND MINING : ^ Tlieorotioally ami Praotieally Consiilored. lly Prof. 11. S. Os- I)(»iiN, IllnstrattMl l)y nuinoroiiscngraving.s. 8vo. 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