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University of California. 
 
 FROM THE LIBRARY OF 
 
 DR. FRANCIS LIEBER, 
 Professor of History and Law in Columbia College, New York. 
 
 THE GIFT OK 
 
 MICHAEL REESE, 
 
 Of San Francisco. 
 1873. 
 

 // 
 
University of California. 
 
 FROM THE LIBRARY OF 
 
 DR. FRANCIS LIE13ER, 
 Professor of History and Law in Columbia College, New York. 
 
 THE GIFT OF 
 
 MICHAEL REESE, 
 
 Of San Francisco. 
 1873. 
 

WHICH HAVE APPEARED 
 
 IN THE 
 
 BANNER OF THE CONSTITUTION, 
 
 ADDRESSED TO THB EDITOR, 
 
 UNDER THE SIGNATURE OF HERMANN. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA : 
 
 PRINTED BY T. W. USTICK, NO. 3, FRANKLIN PLACE. 
 
 1831. 
 

 
&c. 
 
 CHARLESTON, January 16, 1830. 
 
 Dear Sir: I rejoice that you persevere in advocating the cause of 
 Truth, Free Trade, and Liberal Principles. May yeur efforts to refute 
 error and stem the tide of prejudice, be crowned with success. How 
 long, my good sir, are we to submit to be made subservient to the 
 contracted and mercenary views of weavers and cotton spinners, and 
 toil to please the champions of the " American System," falsely so 
 termed. Who were the men that composed the armies of Washington 
 and the gallant Hero of New Orleans ? Not manufacturers, but the 
 hardy sons of the forest, and the brave yeomanry of the United States. 
 And who have contributed, by a well-directed and daring spirit of 
 adventure, to elevate this Republic to the rank it holds among the 
 nations of the world ? Surely not manufacturers, but our enterprizing 
 merchants and mariners. What baleful talisman keeps us bound to 
 this ruinous Tariff system ? It cannot be long before reason, like the 
 radiant light of the sun, will break through the clouds of prejudice 
 and ignorance which unfortunately exist in the Tariff States, and 
 illumine the road which leads to the best interests of the People. 
 Commerce, free and unfettered commerce, can alone give us power 
 and prosperity, aided by agriculture. The framers and supporters 
 of this partial, unjust, and oppressive law, would convert our barns 
 into warehouses for manufactured goods, our ploughs into spindles, 
 and our ships into looms ; and having compelled our honest tars to 
 quit the ocean, they will at length, I should suppose, presume to 
 
usurp the dominion of it, and, in the language of Canute, command 
 the sea to retire. The bountiful God of Nature has made the ocean 
 to serve as the common highway of nations, to enable them to ex- 
 change, on terms of reciprocity, the products of the soil, and the 
 various articles of merchandise, for the use and comfort of mankind, 
 and to cultivate peace, friendship, and good will with all, " entangling 
 alliances with none." Are we to be the victims of a spirit of infatua- 
 tion, and, by the mad policy of visionary men, to be deprived of all 
 these advantages, and be barred out from the rights we inherit from 
 our forefathers? Reason and justice forbid it. I venture to predict, 
 that if this odious Tariff be persisted in for two years, that our sailors 
 will be either driven into foreign service, or become smugglers, many 
 of our ships, in every port, will be laid by to rot, our revenue be 
 diminished one half, and, to end all our calamities, a dissolution of 
 the States. But, (to use a nautical phrase,) I do not yet despair of 
 the ship. We must trust to the returning good sense and energies of 
 the people, to revive the good principles which prevailed under the 
 Washington Administration, and by dismissing from their service the 
 enemies to Free Trade, once more re-establish those kind feelings 
 which formerly so happily existed between the North and the South. 
 I shall hail the day with joy, when the disciples of List, Carey, and 
 Niles shall renounce their erroneous theory. I sincerely hope that 
 the good people of your native State, (particularly the honest Ger- 
 mans and their descendants,) will not be misled by the idle clamor 
 of the home market and non-exportation of the precious metals. 
 These subjects, which have been so ably treated on by that admirable 
 writer, Jean Baptiste Say, must be familiar to you. He remarks, 
 " By the exclusion of specific manufactures of foreign fabric, a go- 
 vernment establishes a monopoly in favor of the home producers of 
 those articles, and in prejudice of the home consumers; that is to 
 say, those classes of the nation which produce them, being entitled 
 to their exclusive sale, can raise their prices above the natural rates, 
 while the home consumers, being unable to purchase elsewhere, are 
 compelled to pay for them unnaturally dear. If the articles be not 
 wholly prohibited, but merely saddled with an impost duty, the home 
 producers can then increase their price by the whole amount of the 
 duty, and the consumer will have to pay the difference." In another 
 place, this excellent writer observes : " If one country afford to ano- 
 ther what the latter wants in exchange, what more would she have ? 
 Or, in what respect would gold be preferable ? for what else can be 
 wanted, than as the means of subsequently purchasing the objects 
 
of desire?" If the friends of the Tariff would only consent to be 
 guided by this doctrine, all would he right, and our country would 
 be happy and united. Wishing you success in a just cause, &c. 
 
 HERMANN. 
 
 CHARLESTON, February 28, 1830. 
 
 Dear Sir : The cause of Free Trade ought not to escape the serious 
 consideration of every intelligent man, whether he be in or out of the 
 National Legislature. The enemies of the Tariff are rapidly increas- 
 ing in every section of the United States, and I rejoice to hear that 
 a revisal of it occupies some part of the precious time of Congress. 
 I am but an humble citizen, in private life, and devoted to the culti- 
 vation of the soil ; but were I a member of that honorable body, I 
 should conceive it to be a paramount duty to use my utmost efforts 
 to assist in effecting a repeal of it, and thereby yield to the voice of 
 my fellow-citizens, which, from every part of the Union, calls loudly 
 for justice! I am personally acquainted with many sensible and 
 worthy men, who, on the passage of the Tariff Law of 1828, were 
 among its warmest friends, but are now convinced of their error. 
 " Truth is powerful, and must prevail." They are indeed truly great 
 who can, by a noble triumph over their feelings, subdue their pre- 
 judices ; and for this I honor and respect them. We are all liable 
 to err, and are told by an eminent writer, that there is no doctrine so 
 false, but it may be intermixed with some truth. Laws are enacted 
 for the preservation of our political rights and moral welfare ; but 
 whatever legislative measure militates against the best interests of 
 the people, must weaken the ties of morality. I am by no means 
 inimical to domestic manufactures; but a law which has for its 
 object the protection of manufactures, to the injury of agriculture 
 and commerce, must be productive of perjury and smuggling, and 
 injure that very class it was intended to serve. How unworthy is 
 this avaricious and contracted policy of the Government of an en- 
 lightened people. " Quid non mortalia pectora cogis, auri sacra 
 fames!" 
 
 Manufactories, while judiciously conducted, and based on capital, 
 with enterprize and mechanical ingenuity, will prosper without the 
 officious aid of Government ; let their growth be the work of time, 
 reared by the hand of industry, fostered and matured by the good 
 
wishes and support of the people of this great Republic, but not 
 prematurely forced on by legislative power. We are informed by a 
 speech of a Senator in Congress, from Massachusetts, that the United 
 States have at this time upwards of two hundred millions of acres for 
 sale ; this is more than sufficient to maintain thirty millions of people, 
 exclusive of the vast bodies of land owned by companies and wealthy 
 individuals. Agriculture has a charm for the rich, as well as the 
 poor, which will, for a century to come, oppose obstacles to the ad- 
 vancement of manufactures, to any great extent, in America. It is 
 not reasonable to presume that a poor emigrant arriving from Europe, 
 who understands the use of the plough and the axe, would prefer the 
 confinement of a manufactory to the cheerful, healthy, and inde- 
 pendent life of a husbandman. What man can be found, who would 
 not exchange a life of drudgery and comparative servility, for that 
 of a freeholder ? We know that land can be obtained in the Southern 
 and Western States at the most trifling expense; and if half the 
 efforts had been made to encourage emigrants to settle on the public 
 lands, which have been made use of for promoting manufactures, the 
 nation would be infinitely more united and happy ; and if the same 
 amount of money which has been sent from the United States for the 
 inhabitants of Ireland and Greece, had been bestowed in affording 
 to the persecuted of those countries an asylum in America, and 
 establishing them under the humane patronage of the Government, 
 as cultivators of the soil, the cause of humanity, and the interest of 
 the nation, would be more promoted than by any other mode which 
 could be devised. What more cogent objection can be produced to 
 the increase and extension of manufactures, than the fact which has 
 been stated, " that the United States have in the market more than 
 two hundred millions of acres surv.eyed and ready for sale?" And 
 must this immense region remain a wilderness for want of laborers! 
 Great Britain and Ireland, (according to the best authority,) with a 
 population of twenty-two millions, comprise only eighty-five millions 
 of acres ; and from necessity, more than choice, are devoted to manu- 
 factures. The population of the United States consists of thirteen 
 millions, and the Territory of Arkansas is alone nearly equal in 
 extent to Great Britain ; and yet we are so infatuated as to be ambi- 
 tious of rivalling her in manufactures. Heaven knows there is 
 nothing enviable in the condition of any manufacturing nation of 
 Europe. It is truly absurd to be jealous of the prosperity of Britain, 
 France, or any other country: on the contrary, we have cause for, 
 exultation, that Providence has enabled us to cultivate a friendlv 
 
intercourse with them for the -benefit of the human race. If we are 
 opposed to British manufactures, we are not averse to partake of the 
 bounty of benevolent Englishmen to aid in establishing Colleges and 
 Theological Seminaries ; and, for the purpose of forwarding Internal 
 Improvements, we feel no reluctance in borrowing money from the 
 honest, laborious, and enterprizing Dutch. A late illustrious writer,* 
 has justly observed, thit the more extended and the more constant 
 intercourse which the improvements in commerce and in the art of 
 navigation have opened among the distant quarters of the globe, 
 cannot fail to operate in undermining local and national prejudices, 
 and imparting to the whole species the intellectual acquisitions of 
 each particular community. The accumulated experience of ages 
 has already taught the rulers of mankind, that the most fruitful and 
 the most permanent sources of revenue are to be derived, not from 
 conquered and tributary provinces, but from the internal prosperity 
 and wealth of their own subjects : and the same expe'rience now 
 begins to teach nations, that the increase of their own wealth, so far 
 from depending on the poverty and depression of their neighbors, 
 is intimately connected with their industry and opulence ; and, con- 
 sequently, that those commercial jealousies which have hitherto been 
 so fertile a source of animosity among different States, are founded 
 entirely on ignorance and prejudice." One of the greatest evils 
 which has already ensued from the present Tariff, is smuggling. This 
 will increase to a most alarming extent ; and not all the power of the 
 Federal Government can ever prevent it. The odious law is not only 
 destructive of the moral welfare, but of the best interests of the 
 people. It is as unjust and oppressive to persist in the execution of 
 it, as it would be to compel the farmers to sell their produce at home, 
 and exclude them from the benefit of a foreign market ; one act of 
 oppression soon leads to another. If, by partial and unjust laws, 
 you divert trade from its natural and regular course, and by extort- 
 ing from other countries more than they are disposed to exact from 
 you, they will be forced to prefer other markets than your own, and it 
 will be attended not only with serious loss and embarrassment, but 
 it will be very difficult, i? not impossible, ever to regain our influ- 
 ence and rank in the commercial world. An eminent French author 
 very aptly remarks, that, in pursuit of what it mistakes for profound 
 policy, or to gratify feelings it supposes to be laudable, a government 
 will sometimes prohibit, or divert the course of a particular trade, 
 
 * Dugald Stewart. 
 
8 
 
 and thereby do irreparable mischief to the productive powers of that 
 nation. When Philip II. became master of Portugal, and forbade 
 all intercourse between his new subjects arid the Dutch, whom he 
 detested, what was the consequence? The Dutch, who before resort- 
 ed to Lisbon for the manufactures of India, of which they took an 
 immense quantity, finding this avenue closed against their industry, 
 went straight to India for what they wanted, and, in the end, drove 
 out the Portuguese from that quarter ; and what was meant as the 
 deadly blow of inveterate hatred, turned out the main source of their 
 aggrandizement. I do most sincerely hope, that the friends of Free 
 Trade will persevere in their laudable efforts to destroy the spirit o^ 
 monopoly which so unfortunately exists in the very body of the pre- 
 sent Tariff Law ; and which, if not soon extinguished, must involve 
 these States in the deepest distress. If the manufacturers of the 
 North are desirous of the good wishes and support of their fellow- 
 citizens of the South, they must abandon the Restrictive System ; and 
 by so doing they will secure not only a disposition to favor American 
 manufactures, but they will give the fatal blow to smuggling, and 
 restore harmony, unanimity, and prosperity, among the people of the 
 United States. 
 
 HERMANN. 
 
 SOUTH CAROLINA, February, 1830. 
 
 Dear Sir: Every advocate of liberal principles must feel a deep 
 interest in the success of your valuable paper, which sustains with 
 great ability the cause of Free Trade, against the most preposterous 
 doctrines which have ever been advanced in this country, and must, 
 if persevered in, not only destroy commerce, and reduce to misery 
 our brave and worthy mariners, but rend asunder those ties which 
 were cemented by the precious blood of the Revolution, and have 
 hitherto bound the North to the South in strict friendship and har- 
 mony ; and God grant that this social compact may never be cancelled 
 by hypocrisy and blind infatuation. It remains for the Banner of 
 the Constitution to rally the champions of Free Trade and Sailors' 
 Rights, and to invoke the God of Freedom to protect this happy 
 Republic from the iron grasp of the Tariff monster. Your friends 
 must aid you in exposing its naked deformities, and in exhibiting to 
 the view of the people its hideous features ; like a Typhon or a Bri- 
 
9 
 
 areus, it only exists to devour. Sir, in order more effectually td ' 
 convince the people of the absurdity of the present Tariff, we must 
 lay aside all the abstruse principles of political economy, and adapt 
 our language and reasoning to their understanding, in plain matter 
 of fact and common sense addresses : they have a right to expect it 
 from us, and to be warned against the danger which threatens to 
 involve them in ruin. We must know if they are willing to submit 
 to be instrumental in pampering a few lordly proprietors of cotton 
 and woollen manufactories. The hardy yeomanry of this country, 
 and the honest laborers, (especially those inhabiting your native State,) 
 cannot much longer sanction a law which will ultimately ruin our 
 foreign commerce, and reduce the revenue to so paltry a sum that 
 the Government will be obliged to resort to direct taxes. 
 
 Of all the measures which ever disgraced a free nation, the Tariff 
 is the most prominent. Consider it as you may, it is partial, unjust, 
 and oppressive ; a spirit of monopoly gave birth to it, and it is nourish- 
 ed by sordid interests, for the benefit of a few. Is this grovelling 
 passion, then, to triumph, and corrupt the generous feelings of the 
 sons of WASHINGTON, under the perverted and hypocritical term of 
 the American System ? speciously invented to favor the views of a 
 party, who, whatever may be their motives, will, I trust, ere long 
 witness its downfall, beneath the frowns of an indignant people. A 
 highly estimable statesman lately declared in the Senate of the 
 United States, that the people of America are, and ought to be for 
 a century to come, essentially an agricultural people ! 
 
 There can be no doubt of the truth of this assertion. The vast 
 field which agriculture opens to enterprize, and the blessings it dif- 
 fuses, will for a long time oppose various obstacles to the prosperity 
 of manufactures. Immorality, ignorance, poverty, and disease, are, 
 unhappily, too often the inmates of manufactories in the large cities 
 of Europe, which present a sad picture of squalid wretchedness. Let 
 this serve as a warning to the people of the United States not to 
 embark too extensively in manufactures. In the New England States, 
 a crowded and intelligent population cannot fail to support manufac- 
 tories under the most favorable circumstances ; and, if left to their 
 own ingenuity and resources, they must prosper : they should reject 
 the interference of the General Government, if they wish to secure 
 the hearty co-operation and zealous support of their friends in the 
 Southern States. The existing Tariff Law is fraught with dire cala- 
 mity to the people of the United States. It will be productive of 
 many evils. If it does not lead to a dissolution of the Union, it will 
 2 
 
10 
 
 at least excite hostile and angry feelings. It has already given rise 
 to extensive smuggling ; it will, from necessity, oblige many of our 
 poor mariners to engage in it, whilst it will drive others to seek for 
 employment in foreign service. It will be difficult to prevent frauds 
 from being practised on the officers of the customs. It has reduced 
 the value of our lands and the wages of the poor. The price of pro- 
 duce is much depreciated. It will check the spirit of emigration, 
 and thereby retard the improvement of the Southern and Western 
 States. It will diminish a friendly intercourse with the civilized 
 nations of the world, and force them to other markets for cotton, 
 wheat, rice, tobacco, and lumber, and by that means inflict a severe 
 wound on our agricultural and commercial interests. It is fallacious 
 to suppose that a home market can consume one-third of the produce 
 of the United States. It is to be hoped that the majority in Con- 
 gress will have the magnanimity to acknowledge their error, and 
 annul a law which is found on experiment to be vexatious and 
 unjust, and which, if persisted in, will create general distress among 
 all classes, and, by encouraging smuggling, injure the very people it 
 was intended to serve. There would be as much justice in exacting 
 a toll from every ship that crosses the Atlantic, as continuing in 
 force the present Tariff Law. Accept my sincere good wishes for the 
 success of the Banner of the Constitution ; and may it ever be raised 
 for the protection of Free Trade and Sailors' Rights. 
 
 HERMANN. 
 
 SOUTH CAROLINA, April 7, 1830. 
 
 Dear Sir: You are not to infer from my long silence that I despair 
 of the cause of Free Trade, of which I am happy to find you con- 
 tinue the able advocate. The champions of the Tariff were enabled 
 to carry their point only by dint of the utmost perseverance, and 
 suffered no favorable opportunities to escape to make converts to 
 their doctrines ; and were ably seconded by their friends, who suc- 
 cessfully executed a well-organized plan of public meetings, to aid 
 in adopting their "American System^" as they have been pleased to 
 term it; and, strange as it may appear, to give a more imposing 
 effect to their deliberations, a Convention was held at Harrisburg, 
 in Pennsylvania, and in the very heart of a rich and beautiful coun- 
 try, inhabited by an industrious and enterorizinsr neoole, devoted to 
 
11 
 
 agriculture, who, I am sorry to say, remain passive under an odious 
 and oppressive law, passed by Congress in obedience to the proceed- 
 ings of that very Convention ; and which, while it fails to answer 
 the expectations of the manufacturer, strongly militates against the 
 farmer and merchant. If the friends of Free Trade would act with 
 half the energy that characterizes their opponents, we should soon 
 witness a termination to a system so derogatory to a free people, and 
 pernicious to their interests. Let us use no stratagem, no sophistry; 
 but address our fellow-citizens throughout the United States in the 
 plain language of truth; and, by a dispassionate and ingenuous 
 appeal to their good sense, ask if they will submit to be the dupes 
 of a party, which persists in supporting a law that imposes heavy 
 duties on some articles of the greatest use to the poor, and not only 
 renders the agriculturists tributary to the manufacturers, but im- 
 poverishes both merchants and mariners. Let us request them to 
 give an attentive perusal to the very able and argumentative Memo- 
 rial of the Boston Merchants, as well as to the convincing and lucid 
 Reports of Mr. Cambreleng, of N. York, and Mr. McDuffie, of S. 
 Carolina. These most important documents have fully exposed and 
 refuted the Tariff doctrine, and should be read by every unprejudiced 
 man who is friendly to foreign commerce. It is a happy circum- 
 stance that we live in a country where no sedition laws exist, to 
 prevent us from freely canvassing the measures of the Government, 
 and where the sentiments of the most humble citizen can be convey- 
 ed, through the press, without being dismayed by the arm of tyranny, 
 or intimidated by the jargon and prating of demagogues. We depend 
 on your highly intelligent paper for the earliest and most authentic 
 information relative to any change which may occur in Congress in 
 favor of Free Trade. The people anxiously await the wisdom of that 
 body to grant them relief. Suspense is painfully irksome ; and, in 
 the words of an eminent writer, " there is a point beyond which 
 patience ceases to be a virtue, and degenerates into weakness." 
 There is a crisis in national affairs when the voice of an enlightened 
 people must be heard, and when the mask of duplicity must be laid 
 aside. Proceed, my good sir, in your career of usefulness, and may 
 the BANNER OF THE CONSTITUTION be ever raised in behalf of the 
 rights of your countrymen, and be to them the same fearless and 
 zealous champion at home, that you have been so honorably in a 
 foreign country. THE BANNER OF THE CONSTITUTION will need no 
 brazen trumpet to proclaim its triumph ; no mockery of empty pa- 
 geantry to mark its progress. You need use no metaphorical Ian- 
 
12 
 
 guage no ribaldry no affectation of the merveilleux. In pursuing 
 the solemn and delightful march of intellect, you will never deviate 
 from the path of rectitude ; and I trust that, in making honor and 
 consistency the rule of your conduct, you will never cease to vindi- 
 cate the principles of Free Trade and Sailors' Rights ! Admitting 
 the motives of the friends of the Tariff to be perfectly patriotic and 
 disinterested, they will soon have cause to be convinced of the failure 
 of their projects, and the manufacturers will learn how much more 
 beneficial it will be to trust to their own resources, than to confide too 
 implicitly to the officious zeal and ill-timed interference of their 
 political friends. What atonement will the friends of the Tariff be 
 able to make to the people of the United States for the loss of the 
 greater part of their most valuable foreign trade ? What reparation 
 can they afford the merchants and ship owners, if they are reduced 
 to a state of bankruptcy 1 What will be the situation of the greater 
 part of a hundred thousand sailors, if their interests are to be sa- 
 crificed to a most ruinous and disgraceful policy? Is it in the 
 South and South-western States alone, that the evil effects of the 
 Restrictive System are felt ? Ask the most enlightened merchants 
 and agriculturists, through every section of the United States, their 
 opinion of the measure, and they will readily pronounce it to be 
 partial and oppressive. Our great commercial cities already feel the 
 pressure of the times, and cannot much longer endure the hardships 
 imposed on them by a destructive spirit of monopoly. It is in the 
 power of the General Government to heal the wound inflicted by a 
 precipitate and ill-directed experiment. Our rulers may be admo- 
 nished by the language of a great moral writer, " that no usage, law, 
 or authority whatever, is so binding that it need or ought to be con- 
 tinued, when it may be changed with advantage to the community." 
 The same oracular voice warns us against submitting to oppression, 
 and tells us, " that physical strength is vested not in the governors, 
 but the governed; and requires only to be felt and roused," Legis- 
 lative bodies are instituted, in every free nation, by the people, for 
 the express purpose of protecting their rights, to enact such equita- 
 ble laws as may secure to all classes of the community the full en- 
 joyment of life, liberty, and property. We are taught to believe that 
 nothing but good can emanate from the Federal Constitution ; it 
 follows, therefore, that if an act of Congress is productive of evil, 
 (as in the case of the Tariff,) it must be repugnant to the spirit and 
 principles of the Constitution. 
 
 If it was the intention of the Tariff party to retaliate on the British 
 
13 
 
 nation for the exhorbitant duties levied on our flour, rice, tobacco, 
 &c. &c., then why not confine the Restrictive System to that nation 
 and her dominions, until an honorable and amicable arrangement 
 can be made with the Government of Great Britain to trade on terms 
 of reciprocity. Under pretence of retaliating on Great Britain, the 
 Tariff monster was let loose, to devour indiscriminately all who have 
 come within its grasp. It spares neither French, Germans, nor 
 Dutch. Is this the grateful reward we pay to the brave French nation, 
 for services she rendered our country during the Revolution 1 And 
 must the Germans and Dutch, who have done more to enrich the 
 United States, by their honest industry, than all the mines of Peru 
 could effect, must they, too, be sacrificed to artifice and to political 
 intrigue ? must they be made to toil for the benefit of weavers and 
 cotton spinners? to be confined to a home market, and, by an arbi- 
 trary law, be shut out from the blessings of a free trade and foreign 
 commerce 1 Descendants of Hermann and Van Tromp ! Freedom is 
 your birthright ! and as long as you cultivate the soil of America you 
 have a just right to all the advantages your industry can give ; there 
 is not an able-bodied man among you, but he may make ten times 
 as much corn as he can possibly consume : the home market, there- 
 fore, is soon glutted, and foreign markets must be found for the 
 surplus produce. The Tariff policy is selfish and ungenerous ; for 
 it not only debars us from free intercourse with all the world, but 
 it depreciates land and labor, and the products of the soil ; is inimi- 
 cal to the poor, and will exclude from the sea our hardy mariners ; 
 whilst it discourages many thousands of useful and necessitous people 
 from emigrating to America, where several hundred millions of acres 
 of land are yet to be cultivated. 
 
 I remain yours, &/c. 
 
 HERMANN. 
 
 SOUTH CAROLINA, February 7, 1831. 
 
 Dear Sir: The friends of Free Trade and Sailors' Rights have 
 much reason to rejoice that you have transferred the Banner of the 
 Constitution to the great commercial city of New York, and in sight 
 of that blessed Ocean which the Almighty has ordained to be the 
 high road of nations, by which a friendly intercourse can be kept 
 up, with a liberal interchange of all those commodities which the 
 
14 
 
 industry of man can furnish, aided by the bounty of Providence, 
 Foreign commerce is so essential to the prosperity of the United 
 States, that no oppressive or unjust legislative proceedings ought 
 to interfere with the honest efforts and enterprize of our merchants. 
 It has ever been the sincere wish of every true patriot, that they 
 might be permitted to enjoy a free and unfettered trade with all quar- 
 ters of the globe ; but the Tariff, like the destructive pestilence of 
 Egypt, has spread dismay among them ; they are left to struggle with 
 adversity, and their enemies would compel them to abandon the 
 golden sands of Pactolus for the dismal shores of Cocytus. The 
 proud and honorable title of American Merchant will soon be extinct ; 
 the deadly triumph of the American System will be complete, and 
 its votaries will revel with a bacchanalian joy, characteristic of their 
 mad ambition to rear up manufactures, and make a wreck of agri- 
 culture and commerce. Sir, I do not hesitate to pronounce the 
 Tariff of 1828 a violation of the rights of the people, an exercise 
 of power that would disgrace an Ottoman Divan, in this enlightened 
 age ; and if Congress are determined to persevere in the enforcement 
 of it then, adieu to that liberty for which the precious blood of our 
 Revolutioary heroes was shed adieu to the Constitution which the 
 united wisdom of our patriot statesmen framed to shield us from 
 oppressions, and to be a guarantee for equitable laws and equal 
 rights. I believe most conscienciously that the Restrictive System 
 could never have been adopted in the days of Washington ; the very 
 attempt to impose such a measure on the people would have been 
 considered an act of madness. All monopolies in a free country, are 
 odious and oppressive, and ought to be resisted ; they engender a spirit 
 of selfishness, and are only created for the exclusive benefit of a few 
 avaricious adventurers. " Who," says an eniment French writer, "are 
 the classes of the community so importunate for prohibitions or 
 heavy import duties ? The producer of the particular commodity 
 that applies for protection from competition, not the consumers of 
 that commodity. The public interest is their plea, but self-interest 
 is evidently their object. Well, but say these gentry, are they not 
 the same thing? are not our gains national gains? By no means: 
 whatever profit is acquired in this manner, is so much taken out of the 
 pockets of a neighbor and fellow-citizen ; and if the excess of charge 
 thrown upon consumers by the monopoly could be correctly com- 
 puted, it would be found that the loss of the consumer exceeds the 
 gain of the monopolist. Here, then, individual and public interest 
 are in direct opposition to each other ; and since public interest is 
 
15 
 
 understood by the enlightened few alone, is it at all surprising that 
 the Prohibitive System should find so many partisans and so few 
 opponents? Let the people beware of false friends and insidious 
 demagogues. We are not without our Polignacs, who regard their 
 own interest more than the welfare of the Republic. I do not im- 
 peach the motives of respectable and enlightened manufacturers for 
 many of them have already proclaimed to the nation that they are 
 willing to trust to their own resources ; they do not require the fawn- 
 ing adulations of popularity seekers ; they want not the officious and 
 extravagant aid of the Government ; their motto is, " laissez nous 
 faire ;" their probity is their surest safeguard. To these worthy men I 
 would say, God prosper you ! and grant you the support and good 
 wishes of the people through every section of the United States. 
 
 I have no sectional prejudices or enmities they are the offspring 
 of contracted minds. I seek the good of my country, and desire no 
 other reward than an approving conscience. I will not subject my 
 tongue to a gag-law ; but as long as the liberty of the press exists, I 
 will claim the privilege of a freeman, in holding up to public execra- 
 tion tyranny, in whatever form it may appear. I will not degrade 
 myself by vituperative, scurrilous, and vulgar abuse, which some of 
 our opponents have descended to use ; nor will your correspondent 
 shrink from a candid and honorable controversy. The Tariff con- 
 test has produced for us many adversaries, but theirs is an unhal- 
 lowed cause, and must fail. We are not afraid to meet them in a 
 fair and open field, and will never yield to those who have armed 
 against Free Trade and Sailors' Rights. To expose the naked 
 deformity of the " American System" is certainly no difficult task ; 
 facts can be adduced from the works of the most eminent writers the 
 world has ever produced, to defeat the champions of high tariffs and 
 prohibitory laws. It is only necessary to mention the names of Fe- 
 nelon, Dugald Stewart, Say, Washington, Hamilton, and Jefferson, 
 to dissolve the wild theories which have been advanced in favor of the 
 Tariff. If the opinions of these illustrious men are to be disregarded, 
 then is sound reasoning useless, and wisdom of no avail in the cause 
 of truth. Has not our estimable President (the honest politician and 
 enlightened statesman) recommended a revision of the present Tariff 
 Law to Congress? Has not the same victorious Jackson, (the man 
 of the people, and their fearless vindicator) pointed out the neces- 
 sity of some modification ? But his advice has been spurned and 
 rejected. And has it come to this, that he must be treated with 
 contumely ? Will not the people hurl from their seats those who have 
 thus slighted their favorite, who has, in the mildest manner, offered 
 
16 
 
 his wise and judicious counsel, in what relates to their dearest inter- 
 ests 1 It is high time that the poor should be roused to a sense of 
 danger of the evils that will arise from this same Tariff Law. Like 
 a prowling wolf in sheep's clothing, it fattens on the vitals of the 
 innocent lamb, and seeks to devour those who are most unsuspicious, 
 and least capable of defending themselves. The whole fabric is 
 rotten, from its very foundation it cannot last, for it is based on 
 corruption. The Tariff does not materially affect the rich, but it 
 makes a victim of the poor man; he is taxed without mercy on 
 almost every necessary article he consumes ; he is misled by false 
 doctrines, to flatter and beguile him into a tacit consent to wear the 
 yoke, at the will and pleasure of his oppressors, that he may assist 
 to pamper the lordly cultivator of sugar, the rich proprietors of salt 
 and iron works, and the wealthy manufacturers of cotton and wool- 
 len stuffs. 
 
 The Tariff is a serious obstacle to the facility of promoting useful 
 knowledge. It may, perhaps, benefit a few great publishers in 
 America, but it taxes heavily foreign books, maps, paintings, paper, 
 &c. In the true spirit of Vandalism, it wages war against the arts and 
 sciences. It spares neither mind nor body. It injures most severely 
 merchants, farmers, planters, ship owners, sailors, mechanics, and 
 the laboring poor who toil in the fields, the forest, and the work shop; 
 but if they presume to murmur against the " American," or I ought 
 rather to term it the gulling system, then they attempt to use the 
 gag-law, or, in place of argument, they revile, rebuke, and denounce 
 them as nullifiers and disunionists. Sir, we live in " evil times," 
 when honest men are persecuted to elevate the enemies of Free 
 Trade, that they may grow rich at the expense of the merchant, the 
 farmer, and the mariner. I venture to assert, that if the brave peo- 
 ple of France were placed in possession of the uncultivated and 
 fertile territory now owned by the Americans, with similar unbound- 
 ed commercial and agricultural resources, that they would rise in 
 the majesty of their strength, (with their beloved La Fayette at their 
 head,) to resist a law which will impoverish the people, pick 
 their pockets, relax their morals, loosen the sacred bands of society, 
 introduce smuggling, and drive our brave tars from the Ocean, to 
 seek refuge on sickly lakes and muddy canals, or make them car- 
 men for rail-roads. These are but a few plain hints : I have yet 
 more in reserve, and trust they may find their way among such as 
 are unwilling to be duped by the machinations of political jugglers. 
 Your obedient servant, 
 
 HERMANN. 
 
17 
 
 SOUTH CAROLINA, March, 1831. 
 
 Dear Sir: The majority in Congress, like the satellites of Chajles 
 the Tenth, presume to think themselves fully capable of governing 
 the people, without being called upon to answer for their errors. 
 During their two last sessions, we were kept in anxious expectation 
 that the Tariff, so justly termed " the bill of abominations," if not 
 repealed in toto, would, at least, have been modified in such a 
 manner as to afford relief to an injured people. The President, 
 from a zealous devotion to the public interest, recommended 
 some alterations of the law, as he wisely thought there was 
 a necessity to repeal the obnoxious parts, which bear particu- 
 larly hard on certain portions of the population of the United 
 States ; and without reference to any section of the Union, his mo- 
 tive was, no doubt, to benefit the poorer classes of all who are 
 engaged in agriculture, commerce, and the mechanic trades. In 
 his Message he expressly says : " The present Tariff taxes some 
 of the comforts of life unnecessarily high ; it undertakes to protect 
 interests too local and minute to justify a general exaction, and it 
 also attempts to force some kinds of manufactures for which the 
 country is not ripe." What can be more just than these re- 
 marks ? Was it not due to the feelings of this faithful friend of his 
 country, that his advice should be received with the most prompt 
 and respectful attention ? The very reverse was the case. His pru- 
 dent recommendations were criticised in the most improper manner, 
 and rejected with contumely. The President felt it to be a duty he 
 owed his fellow-citizens, to exercise a virtuous influence to relieve 
 them from the burdens of taxation ; for, although friendly to manu- 
 factures, he is inimical to oppression. Every part of his able Mes- 
 sage ought to have been distinguished by a calm deliberation, and 
 free and dignified discussion. The people of the United States are 
 insulted when an indignity is offered to their Chief Magistrate ; and 
 of the conduct of the Committee on Manufactures they have much 
 to complain. The intolerant spirit of a majority has been shamefully 
 exhibited towards a numerous and highly respectable body of citizens 
 of Philadelphia. No less than three hundred and fifty honest and 
 laborious blacksmiths and manufacturers of hardware represented 
 their grievances, in the most lucid, explicit, and respectful terms, to 
 Congress, and prayed, in their petition, for a repeal of the duty on 
 iron ; but they have experienced the same disrespectful treatment as 
 3 
 
18 
 
 was exhibited to the President. The enlightened men, of every age 
 and nation, have been opposed to a Restrictive System. Washington 
 and Jefferson were always in favor of low duties, and the words of that 
 great and experienced statesman, General Hamilton, cannot be too 
 often quoted. In the thirty-fifth number of the first volume of the 
 Fedeijalist, he expressly says : " Exhorbitant duties on imported arti- 
 cles serve to beget a general spirit of smuggling, which is always 
 prejudicial to a fair trader, and, eventually, to the revenue itself: 
 they tend to render other classes of the community tributary, in an 
 improper degree, to the manufacturing classes, to whom they give 
 a premature monopoly of the markets : they sometimes force indus- 
 try out of its more natural channels, into others in which it flows with 
 less advantage ; and, in the last place, they oppress the merchant, 
 who is often obliged to pay them himself, without any retribution 
 from the consumer." No law passed by an American Congress since 
 the Declaration of Independence, has ever operated so unfairly as 
 this same Tariff of 1828. It fosters a vile spirit of monopoly, by 
 protecting a very small class of the population, to the serious injury 
 of every other : It has been made an instrument of intrigue and 
 faction, to elevate demagouges and popularity-seekers to power : It 
 taxes, without mercy, all the most necessary and useful articles of 
 life imported from foreign countries, and thereby increases in price 
 every article manufactured by the United States. No efforts have 
 been left untried, by the advocates of the Tariff, to secure their favorite 
 measure, and lull the people into an ignominious submission. An 
 eminent writer has truly said, that " when the multitude are to be 
 dealt with, there is a charm in sounds." The empty title of the 
 " American System," can have no charm but for the vulgar ear. It 
 has been introduced to beguile ; it is plausible, and not without its 
 effect ; but it has been applied to a bad cause, which cannot be much 
 longer sustained, unless the people are willing to relinquish their 
 freedom, and be subservient to despotism, and a nefarious policy. 
 
 .With a view to appease and divert the people, the Tariff party 
 have circulated a rumor, that whenever the National Debt is paid, 
 high duties will not be necessary. This is, indeed, a paltry subter- 
 fuge, worthy of the source from which it emanates. Patience is al- 
 ready exhausted, and no longer becomes a virtue when put to the 
 test of such artifice. Every man of common sense in the United 
 States must know that a sale of less than one-fourth of the public 
 lands would extinguish the debt. It was never contemplated by 
 those patriotic statesmen, to whom we are indebted for the Consti- 
 
19 
 
 tution, that duties should be levied on imported goods for the pur- 
 pose of protecting domestic manufactures. The sole object was to 
 raise a sufficient revenue, by moderate duties, to meet the exigencies 
 of the State; and, I sincerely believe, if the Congress under the Wash- 
 ington Administration had attempted to force upon the people such a 
 law as the present Tariff, it would have met a general resistance from 
 Maine to Georgia. There was a time when men were lauded to the 
 skies for resisting a Tea Tax, and Stamp Act ; but those who ought 
 to resist " the bill of abomination," are denounced as " nullifiers," 
 and traitors, and such like opprobrious names ; but he deserves to be 
 a slave who suffers himself to be intimidated by ribaldry and empty 
 threats, when engaged in vindicating his own rights and those of 
 his country. Let our adversaries, the redoubtable champions of 
 looms and spinning-jennies, enforce submission within the walls of 
 their manufactories, but the hardy mariners and yeomanry of Amer- 
 ica, I trust, will not .much longer submit to be their dupes and pliant 
 tools. I thank God that our cause is rapidly increasing in strength. 
 Maine and New Hampshire two bright stars of the East will 
 never be obscured by the Tariff darkness which pervades their sister 
 States. Boston that polished and hospitable city contains many 
 brave and enlightened patriots, who will assist to restore commercial 
 prosperity, and will unite with the South in resisting tyranny. Let 
 her worthy sons who so nobly advocate the cause of Free Trade 
 persevere, and they will triumph. Let them show the spirit now, 
 that actuated their ancestors at the commencement of the American 
 Revolution, and all will be right in spite of the puerile language, 
 and the low vulgarity by which they have been assailed at a late 
 election. Their cause is a righteous one, and must prevail against 
 persecution and intolerance. 
 
 The advocates of the " American System," in order to reconcile 
 the people to their selfish doctrine, have declared their intention of 
 rendering the United States perfectly independent of Europe. But 
 this, however, laudable the motives, is fully consistent with all their 
 chimerical projects. It is very certain there is no perfect indepen- 
 dence in commercial transactions ; for interest will ever regulate 
 men as well as nations, in their intercourse, from which mutual ad- 
 vantages arise. France and England draw their chief supply of 
 cotton, rice, and tobacco, from the United States, and give us, in ex- 
 change, the articles of their manufactures we most need. It is, there- 
 fore, our interest to cultivate the most friendly and honorable under- 
 standing with these, and all other nations, by whose trade we may 
 
20 
 
 benefit. It is the most egregious folly that a Government can be 
 guilty of, to interfere with the regular and natural course of trade, by 
 an unjust Tariff, which must, necessarily, embarrass and distress. 
 " Honesty is surely the best policy," and all measures adopted in 
 opposition to this maxim, will produce fraud and distrust. We have 
 professed to act in the true spirit of liberality and justice to all na- 
 tions ; but since the passage of the Tariff Law of 1828, the charac- 
 ter of the United States has much depreciated in the general estima- 
 tion of foreigners, who now charge the people of America with be- 
 ing sordid and selfish. The present Tariff, in every feature of it, is 
 characterized by the most flagrant violation of justice and fair deal- 
 ing, particularly with regard to Holland and the free ports of Ger- 
 many. 
 
 I arn, dear sir, yours, 
 
 HERMANN. 
 
 SOUTH CAROLINA, March 30, 1831, 
 
 Dear Sir : You must not infer from the occasional interruption 
 to our correspondence, that I am disposed to relax in contributing 
 my humble efforts to aid the cause of Free Trade, which you have 
 so ably and meritoriously sustained in your valuable paper, by sound 
 argument and well-established facts. The champions of the Ameri- 
 can System availed themselves of our lukewarmness to propagate 
 their doctrines among the people of those sections of the United 
 States where they expected to make converts, either by flattering 
 the vanity of some, gratifying the avarice of others, or exciting a 
 spirit of hostility against the citizens of States who would not sub- 
 mit to be the willing dupes of a sophistry which can easily be refuted 
 and exposed in its proper colors. You have truly observed, Mr. 
 Editor, that " the present day may very appropriately be called a 
 time to try men's souls," and that " this country has never been so 
 near a political vortex as at this moment." Faction and artifice have 
 succeeded in imposing on the freemen of this nation a burden of 
 taxation, in the form of a Tariff Law, which, to the eternal disgrace 
 of our Republic, has been tacitly borne, without making an efficient 
 struggle to shake it off. It is time for the people to calculate their 
 strength, judge for themselves, and be no longer misguided by the 
 ambitious and mercenary views of designing and visionary men. 
 
21 
 
 No stronger proof can be exhibited against the abitrary conduct of 
 the majority in Congress, than the rejection or cold and unfriendly 
 reception of those measures which militate against their favorite 
 Tariff. Public opinion has been set at defiance, freedom of debate 
 has been abused, coarse and taunting words have been utterred in 
 place of mild and gentlemanly language, and discord has reigned, 
 where, in the happy days of Washington, peace and liberty presided. 
 Unjust reproaches have been heaped on the liberal party, from which 
 not even the Chief Magistrate has been spared. His endeavor to re- 
 lieve the poor from taxation, has been, in the opinions of the Tariff 
 gentry, a most henious offence. But it is for the people to judge of 
 the conduct of their Representatives, and determine how far they 
 can be justified for having refused to repeal the most obnoxious 
 parts of that law, usually termed " the bill of abominations." The 
 President did no more than his duty, and that from the most pure and 
 patriotic motives. He deserves well of his country. Any panegyric 
 from my pen, on his character, would be a work of supererogation. 
 A grateful country has rewarded his merits. Envy and calumny 
 cannot taint his bright fame. Whilst many of his countrymen 
 were reposing in security, he was enduring all the hardships of a 
 military life, and fighting the battles of his country ; and, in the 
 evening of his days, he is still found devoted to her service. He lives, 
 like the mighty oak of the forest, unscathed by time or tempest, 
 and, when he falls, posterity will do justice to his memory. 
 
 The Committee on Manufactures appear to have been extremely 
 sensitive whenever the Tariff question was agitated. They were 
 violently opposed to a modification of it, sensible, as they must be, 
 that a bad work will not bear the test of strict examination, lest it 
 crumble into nought. They candidly acknowledge that " any change 
 in its provisions would shake confidence in the plighted faith of Go- 
 vernment." Let me tell these gentlemen, in the words of Mr. Jef- 
 ferson, " error alone needs the support of Government." Truth can 
 stand by itself. So, forsooth, the people must do homage to this 
 Committee, and continue to be subject to the oppressive operations 
 of a law which the President very properly recommended should 
 be revised, and that "each interest should be presented singly for 
 deliberation." But they were determined not to follow his advice, 
 convinced that a bad cause would not admit of free investigation, 
 without undergoing a thorough reform. An attempt was made to 
 raise the duty on salt, that most necessary article of life, but, fortu- 
 
nately, failed. Mr. Haynes, of Georgia, in a very able and sensible 
 speech, advocated the reduction of the duty on brown sugar. He 
 concluded, by making an appeal to the " practical good sense of the 
 country," and expressed his wish " to awaken in the bosom of the 
 laboring man, as he whistles over the handles of his plough, the in- 
 quiry why this unequal and burdensome tax should be continued, 
 mainly for the benefit of the lordly capitalist." 
 
 I shall now once more notice the sufferings of that most respect- 
 able and numerous body of men, the mechanics of the County and 
 City of Philadelphia, employed in various branches of the manufac- 
 ture of iron, namely, as steam-engine makers, anchor and chain 
 smiths, machinists, founders, hardware manufacturers, edge-tool 
 makers, locksmiths, whitesmiths, and blacksmiths." Their memo- 
 rial, of which you have made honorable mention, and which was 
 published in your paper, should be read by all who abhor oppression, 
 and advocate Free Trade. It is, indeed, a most lucid and sensible 
 document, and comprehensive exposition of their grievances, written 
 in the most modest and unassuming tone, dictated by a proper and 
 becoming spirit. Such a petition required the most serious and re- 
 spectful consideration, and to be followed up by immediate relief to 
 the petitioners, who fairly represented their own sentiments and 
 those of their brother mechanics. These respectable citizens, it is 
 to be hoped, will not be trifled with ; they will no longer temporize, 
 but demand as a right what has been denied as a favor. If they do 
 not assist in destroying the Tariff monster, it will destroy them. 
 Let them unite their strength with their brother mechanics through- 
 out the United States ; make it a common cause ; appoint Dele- 
 gates, and fix on an eligible situation for a general meeting or Con- 
 vention. 
 
 In the darkest ages of bigotry and despotism, men have sought a 
 redress of grievances from their princes, and have not petitioned in 
 vain! The mighty Autocrat of Russia is in the habit of receiving 
 petitions from the most humble of his subjects, and administers 
 justice to the suffering Russian. But, in this great Republic, we have 
 before us a most extraordinary instance of justice being refused to 
 an immense number of enlightened mechanics, from whose ingenui- 
 ty and industry we are supplied with such articles as are wanted in 
 war in the peaceable pursuits of husbandry and in every depart- 
 ment of civilized life. The majority in Congress are glad to profit 
 by the honest labor and inventive genius of these hard-working 
 
23 
 
 republicans, and yet refuse to repeal the duty on iron, to enable 
 them to carry on .their trades to advantage. You have spoken in 
 merited terms of approbation of the mechanics of Philadelphia. 1 
 sincerely believe there does not exist in the world a more honest, 
 intelligent, and obliging body of men. They have sufficient spirit 
 to resent injuries, and are too independent to be sacrificed, by the 
 Tariff party, to an abominable system of monopoly. 
 
 The contracted and selfish policy of foreign nations ought not to 
 serve as an example for the people of the United States, who pro- 
 fess to practice liberal principles. No nation can be considered as 
 strictly free, which suffers the Governmeut to make invidious dis- 
 tinctions, by taxing millions of people to lay the foundation of over- 
 grown fortunes for a few manufacturers, and sugar planters, as well 
 as proprietors of salt works, and lordly owners of iron mines. The 
 advocates of the American System, in order to reconcile their fol- 
 lowers to their doctrine, have frequently introduced Washington, 
 Hamilton, and Jefferson names dear to liberty. Those illustrious 
 men were always opposed to a high Tariff; and Mr. Jefferson carried 
 his opposition so far to manufactories, that he expressed his wish to 
 confine them to Europe. As his opinions may not be generally 
 known, I will here quote his own words. " Those who labor in the 
 earth are the chosen people of God, if ever he had a chosen people, 
 whose breasts he has made his peculiar deposit for substantial and 
 genuine virtue." Again he says, " While we have land to labor, 
 then, let us never wish to see our citizens occupied at a work-bench, 
 or twirling a distaff. Carpenters, masons, smiths, are wanting in 
 husbandry ; for the general operations of manufactures, let work- 
 shops remain in Europe. It is better to carry materials and provi- 
 sions to workmen there, than bring them to the provisions and ma- 
 terials, and with them their manners and principles. The loss by 
 the transportation of commodities across the Atlantic, will be made 
 up in happiness and permanence of Government. The mobs of 
 great cities add just so much to the support of pure Government, as 
 sores do to the strength of the human body. It is the manners and 
 spirit of a people which preserve a Republic in vigor. A degene- 
 racy in these is a canker which soon eats to the heart of its laws 
 and Constitution.' 5 I have been thus particular in giving Mr. Jef- 
 ferson's real opinions on a subject which excites such general inter- 
 est. He considered a manufacturing life as prejudicial both to 
 health and morals. The opinions of this great statesman and favor- 
 ite of the people entitle them to respect. I shall take my leave of 
 
24 
 
 you for the present, in hopes of renewing our correspondence at no 
 distant period, and bringing more intimately to the view of the peo- 
 ple the evils arising from the Restrictive System. Wishing you all 
 success, 
 
 I remain, your obedient servant, 
 
 HERMANN. 
 
 SOUTH CAROLINA, April 16, 1831. 
 
 Dear Sir : Under the Administration of Washington, it was the 
 pride and boast of the people of the United States, that they enjoy- 
 ed a Constitution and form of Government based on the solid prin- 
 ciples of freedom and justice, and so perfectly adapted to the securi- 
 ty of their rights as to afford no cause of apprehension for them- 
 selves or their posterity. The pure republican doctrines of men 
 who had emerged triumphantly from the perils of the Revolution, 
 were strengthened by conscious integrity and patriotism, and re- 
 mained unadulterated by any of the new-fangled precepts which are 
 to teach our honest farmers how much more profitable it is for them 
 to twirl the spinning wheel than to improve their land, or to clear 
 the forest. The march of intellect, and the rapid progress of civili- 
 zation, will burst asunder the fetters which tyranny and prejudice 
 would fain rivet on freemen, where liberty is sacred, and where the 
 life and property of the citizen is under the safeguard of equitable 
 laws. Let us rejoice that the period is not very distant, when every 
 man in the United States, however humble his station, will be suffi- 
 ciently enlightened to judge when his rights are invaded, and to form 
 a correct opinion of all those legislative acts which infringe them. 
 On every subject involving the political welfare of the nation, the 
 people have a right to expect from their Representatives a deliberate 
 and dignified discussion, free from party rancor and selfish consider- 
 ations, never forgetting that the public should be preferred to private 
 interest ; and, it would be desirable, if all legislators were admon- 
 ished by the declaration, that " liberty is the the power which be- 
 longs to a man of doing every thing which does not hurt the rights 
 of another." Its principle is nature : its rule justice : its protection 
 the law ; and its moral limits are defined by that maxim, " Do not to 
 another what you would not wish done to yourself." In the trans- 
 action of public business by legislative bodies, it would be a great 
 
25 
 
 consolation if their deliberations could always be conducted in a spirit 
 of amity and candor, and their measures adopted by the rule of 
 justice and impartiality. Public characters are so often influenced 
 by ambition to obtain power, and their feelings so frequently sported 
 with by the factious and insidious, that it is difficult for them, on all 
 occasions, to exhibit such an unblemished line of conduct as to 
 place their political integrity above suspicion. I will not, however, 
 dwell any longer on a theme that might lead you to think I am 
 attempting a treatise on Government : I will leave that to wiser 
 heads, and resume the subject of my last communication, and, in 
 the language of the poet, I would say, 
 
 " For forms of Government let fools contest, 
 
 " Whate'er is best administered is best." 
 
 As to what relates to the immediate administration of the Govern- 
 ment of the United States, by our worthy Chief Magistrate, every 
 reasonable and unprejudiced man will candidly acknowledge that he 
 has given general satisfaction to the advocates of Free Trade. In 
 all which regards our foreign relations, and our domestic concerns, 
 he has acted with fairness, promptitude, and decision. Has he not, 
 by his memorable veto, put a check to a wasteful expenditure of the 
 public treasure 1 Has not the judicious appointment of Mr. McLane 
 been followed up by the opening of the British West India ports 
 to the commerce of the United States, and by which the patriotic 
 States of New Hampshire and Maine are now reaping a rich har- 
 vest ? Are not the Treaties with Denmark and Austria proofs of 
 his wisdom 1 Is he not anxious that the National Debt shall be 
 paid off with all possible despatch ? Are not the Indian Affairs, 
 under his prudent and judicious management, in a fair train of ad- 
 justment 1 And, lastly, has he not shown his noble independence, 
 in defiance of the most execrable spirit of party, by recommending 
 Congress to modify the iniquitous Tariff, with a view of relieving 
 the poor from the burdens of heavy duties on all the necessary arti- 
 cles of life 1 
 
 It was with infinite satisfaction that I read in the Banner, of the 
 16th of March, the able Report on the Blacksmiths' Petition, sub- 
 mitted to the Senate by that highly estimable advocate of Free 
 Trade, General Hayne. It contains much valuable information, and 
 should be attentively perused by every citizen of this country, that 
 he may see how shamefully burdened are the hard working and 
 honest blacksmiths, by the enormous duty on iron, under this op- 
 pressive restrictive measure j and, to use the emphatic language of 
 4 
 
the Report, a " system artfully contrived to make the rich richer," 
 while it humbles, in the very dust, the best hopes of those whose 
 " hard hands and honest hearts entitle them to the grateful con- 
 sideration of their country." You have paid a well-merited compli- 
 ment to that ingenious and intelligent mechanic, Mr. Sarchet, 
 whose extensive knowledge of his particular branch of business 
 renders him a valuable acquisition to this country. 
 
 I was greatly pleased with your remarks on the situation of Pitts- 
 burg, as contained in your paper of March the 30th. You have 
 ably pointed out the evil effects of the duty on iron, as applied to 
 the manufactures of that article, and I am truly astonished that the 
 people of Pittsburg have so patiently submitted to be the dupes of 
 the " American System." 
 
 The champions of the Tariff have exercised a direful influence 
 over Pennsylvania. That beautiful State, so rich in agricultural 
 resources, with a large and enterprizing population, needs not the 
 aid of a monopolizing and grinding policy, to promote her prospe- 
 rity. The distressed emigrant Irish deserve a better fate than' to be 
 lured into the unwholesome atmosphere of a manufactory, in a State 
 abounding in fertile land, and watered by noble streams. The 
 hardy Germans and their descendants have grown rich by farming, 
 and know too well the value of the soil, to give up the plough for 
 the loom. Who would not be an independent yeoman, in prefer- 
 ence to a manufacturer? Sons of Hermann, as you value your 
 health, your independence, and the moral welfare of yourselves and 
 children, continue to be the worthy, laborious, and honest cultiva- 
 tors of the earth. 
 
 Some of the friends of the Prohibitory System have vainly held 
 out the hope of making converts among the advocates of Free 
 Trade. I would sooner expect to see a total revolution of all the 
 laws of nature, than that a man of common sense, belonging to the 
 Free Trade party, should be a proselyte of the American System. 
 Despicable, indeed, must be that man, who would change his creed 
 to be an advocate of injustice and oppression. Whenever bigotry 
 and darkness prevail over light and reason, they may then promise 
 success from their efforts. The advocates of the Tariff have never 
 been able to advance a single argument, of any value, in support of 
 their doctrine. The most overstrained reasoning, and preposterous 
 calculations, have been brought forward. Theory, dogmatism, and 
 the absurd laws of other countries, have been all reduced to chaos, 
 and from which, nothing of any importance can be selected, to con- 
 
27 
 
 vince us that the present Tariff Law is favorable to the interests of 
 America. In the words of a popular writer, I would exclaim, 
 
 " Shall phrenzy and sophistry hope to prevail, 
 
 " When reason opposes her weight, 
 
 " When the welfare of millions is hung in the scale, 
 
 " And the balance yet trembles with fate ?" 
 
 - 
 
 I do not wish to impugn the motives of the champions of the 
 Tariff. I am willing to allow them the credit of supposing they are 
 engaged in a good cause ; but I, nevertheless, am of opinion, that 
 they labor under an infatuation which it behoves the people tore- 
 move, by all means in their power, if they value the peace of the 
 United States, and wish to save them from disunion. In order to 
 make the people better satisfied with the existing Tariff, they are 
 repeatedly told that the Restrictive System is not adandoned by the 
 Government of Great Britain and the Continental Powers ; as if we, 
 a free, sovereign, and independent people, are to be misguided by 
 imitating the policy of other nations ! As if we, who possess some 
 hundred millions of acres, requiring cultivation, are to be placed in 
 comparison with those European countries so often reduced to ex- 
 treme misery by war and famine ! The friends of the American 
 System tell us of the wealth which Great Britain has derived from 
 heavy duties for the purpose of revenue, and encouraging manufac- 
 tures. Have they told us, at the same time, that Great Britain and 
 Ireland are groaning under the pressure of an enormous National 
 Debt, amounting to eight hundred millions sterling ; of the wretch- 
 edness of the operatives in great manufacturing cities, and of the 
 frequent disturbances produced by low wages, and the high price of 
 bread ? Have they told us of the innumerable paupers, inhabiting 
 manufacturing towns, and the many thousand distressed objects 
 who are left to pine in want and misery, and who, if they had the 
 means of paying their passage, would cheerfully abandon their na- 
 tive land, and quit the servile drudgery of a manufactory, to seek 
 an asylum in America, and benefit themselves, and the country, by 
 their labor in cultivating the earth 1 Whenever the honest and in- 
 telligent working-men will take time to reason and reflect properly 
 on the fallacy of what is erroneously termed the " American System," 
 they will find, that, where one man has been made wealthy by it, at 
 least one thousand will be impoverished. They will learn that high 
 duties have a tendency to injure the laboring poor more than any 
 other class of people, and, by loosening the moral obligations to 
 support a law that distresses them, they will soon begin to despise it 
 
28 
 
 as partial, unjust, and oppressive* Never have a people been more 
 egregiously duped by flattering promises, than the grain and stock 
 farmers. The wool-growers were to make their fortunes, and were 
 induced, to their sorrow, to purchase large flocks of sheep. Ask 
 * all the ship-owners, and ship-wrights, what the " accursed " Tariff 
 has done for them ask nearly a hundred thousand workers in 
 iron, and as many honest tars, how they have fared by the Tariff 
 and they will reply, that, while it makes them poor, it serves to pam- 
 per a host of revenue officers, clerks, and subordinate agents, and 
 to enrich monopolizers and smugglers. High duties often defeat 
 the very end they are intended to answer. As an instance of this, 
 I will here beg leave to mention, from the most authentic source, 
 that, in the year 1804, the English Government raised the duty on 
 sugar twenty per cent. ; previous to this, the revenue from the duty 
 on that article amounted to 2,778,000 but they deservedly ex- 
 perienced a deficit of c241,QpO. The increased duty of twenty 
 per cent, did not yield more than ,2,537,000, instead of the sum 
 of ,3,330,000, as was expected. 
 
 May your efforts to promote the cause of " Free Trade," be 
 crowned with success, and the " Banner of the Constitution" meet 
 with that extensive encouragement it so justly merits, is the sincere 
 wish of 
 
 Your obedient servant, 
 
 HERMANN, 
 
 CHARLESTON, April 30M, 1831. 
 
 Dear Sir : I lately read, with much satisfaction, some very sensi- 
 ble remarks, in the " Banner," of April the 6th, applicable to the 
 State of Pennsylvania. You have truly remarked that " she has no 
 direct interest in the Tariff policy at all equal to the injury sustained 
 from the operation of it ;" and your reasons in support of this asser- 
 tion, I think, are sufficiently convincing to every unprejudiced mind. 
 You have also alluded to the indefatigable exertions made use of to 
 propagate the doctrines of Restriction, and have observed, that 
 pamphlet after pamphlet was written and literally forced upon the peo- 
 ple, against their wishes. I have travelled much through that beau- 
 tiful and highly interesting State, which Providence has blessed 
 with so many valuable resources as to render her perfectly indepen- 
 
29 
 
 dent of any aid she can derive from the " American System," and 
 I can vouch for the truth of your observation respecting the pains 
 taken to disseminate Tariff principles which, like rank weeds, 
 may take root for a time, and pollute the soil, but must fall under the 
 scythe of the husbandman, to make room for the cultivation of a 
 crop congenial to the land, and adapted to the sustenance of man. 
 The delusion cannot last ; it will surely be destroyed by the good 
 sense of the people : the prevailing darkness must be of short dura- 
 tion, and will, like a mist, be penetrated by the dazzling light of the 
 sun. Your yeomanry are really too enlightened to be chained to 
 the car of tyranny, and submit to have their interests governed by 
 the " Bill of Abominations." It is a lamentable fact, that, in all 
 ages, and under every form of Government, however liberal, there 
 have existed a certain set of closet-politicians, or political theorists, 
 who have overrated their talents, and conceited themselves capable 
 of legislating for mankind, without possessing that useful practical 
 knowledge of human nature, and of the people among whom they 
 live, and of the resources of the country they inhabit, to enable them 
 to form a correct idea of the peculiar habits and condition of their 
 fellow-citizens. Whether moved by a spirit of arrogance, or labor- 
 ing under infatuation, they bid defiance to public opinion, and in- 
 trude doctrines on the community which are not comprehended by 
 the poorer classes ; but, by dint of cabal and artifice, aided by for- 
 tuitous circumstances, they are ushered forth under legislative sanc- 
 tion, with the most plausible pretexts, to serve party purposes, and 
 to strip the poor man of a portion of his hard earnings. Such has 
 been the operation of the Tariff Law of 1828 the object of which 
 is to protect manufactures, and establish a privileged order of men, 
 at the expense of the enterprizing and laborious. How long this 
 order of things will prevail, is not for me to determine. Power and 
 riches are rapidly passing from the many to the few : the lordly pro- 
 prietors of iron and salt works, the wealthy sugar planters, and the 
 avaricious woollen and cotton manufacturers, form a monopoly and 
 monied autocracy. God grant that the friends of Freedom and 
 Free Trade may soon awake from their apathy, and destroy the spell 
 which has bound our country to a nefarious system ! This can on- 
 ly be effected by a solemn appeal to the feelings and the good sense 
 of the people, backed by a determination to resist injustice ; and, 
 when all reasonable remonstrances are unheeded and contemned, 
 there is physical power enough in the United States to take as a right 
 what is refused as a favor. It is infinitely more noble to resist than 
 
30 
 
 tamely to submit to oppression. The few men in Congress, of dis- 
 tinguished talents, who advocate the Prohibitive System, seldom ven- 
 ture to meet their adversaries in fair and open argument, lest, in the 
 freedom of debate, the truth might expose and defeat their crafty 
 policy. The zeal of the friends of the Protecting System is totally 
 misapplied, and cannot be too much condemned by a discerning pub- 
 lic. A man who goes pledged, to the Seat of Government, to vote 
 for a favorite measure, cannot be considered as a free agent. If he 
 is sent by the manufacturing interest solely, he becomes the instru- 
 ment of their creating a puppet, to be put in motion at their will 
 and pleasure and, to adopt the playful and figurative words of a 
 grave statesman, "a mere bob to the tail of the kite of the manu- 
 facturers." There never was a time, since the Declaration of Inde- 
 pendence, when so little necessity existed, as at this present moment, 
 for heavy taxation, direct or indirect. In less than four years, the 
 National Debt, amounting to thirty-nine millions of dollars, will be 
 extinguished. Moderate duties on all the luxuries of life, or on such 
 articles as are in common use only among the rich, would furnish an 
 ample revenue. If direct taxes could be deemed more advisable, 
 then custom-houses might be dispensed with, and our free ports would 
 be crowded with richly-laden vessels from all parts of the world ; 
 American produce would rise in value, and American merchants 
 would regain that high standing in society they are so deservedly en- 
 titled to, from their intelligence and enterprize. This, however, 
 may not suit many of the ardent admirers of the American System, 
 who have embarked largely in the purchase of manufacturing stock, 
 and who expect to reap a golden harvest by aid of the Tariff. 
 Hence, then, arises so great a display of eloquence and patriotic 
 professions, at town-meetings, among some who wish to persuade the 
 people that their motives are disinterested, when, in fact, they are 
 prompted by avarice. Will the poor man submit to kiss the rod of 
 his oppressors, and help to pamper their appetite for filthy lucre ? 
 or must he learn to curtail his wants, in order to lessen the burden 
 of indirect taxes 1 If so, he must make one woollen cq$t serve him, 
 instead of two, during an inclement winter, and consume less sugar 
 and salt in his family, in consideration of the high duty on those ar- 
 ticles. 
 
 One of the reasons assigned by the friends of the American Sys- 
 tem, for the passage of the Tariff Bill, was the necessity of retaliat- 
 ing on the British Government for imposing heavy duties on our rice, 
 wheat, and other grain. Many worthy farmers have been gulled bv 
 
31 
 
 this pretext; but every man of common sense must, by this time, be 
 convinced that the ostensible cause of passing the law was to protect 
 manufactures, and to encourage internal improvements, by prodigal- 
 ly expending large sums of the public money, instead of paying off 
 the National Debt with it. What honest man, then, can blame 
 General Jackson for checking the extravagance of the Tariff party, 
 by his veto ? There cannot be a stronger proof of the injustice of 
 the Tariff Law, than the oppressive manner in which it operates 
 against the trade of the Dutch, and many of the ports of Germany, 
 We derive immense advantages from our commercial intercourse 
 with Amsterdam, Antwerp, Bremen, Hamburg, Lubec, and other 
 cities, where our produce is either admitted free of duty, or subject 
 to the paltry tax of one per centum ; and, in return for their liberal- 
 ity, we tax their goods without mercy. Germans ! and descendants 
 of Germans ! carj you sanction this act of oppression 1 Will you 
 submit to be the slaves of a vile monopoly ? Can you consent to be 
 excluded from all intercourse with Germany, the beautiful country of 
 your nativity, and the land of your ancestors ? Will you suffer a few 
 manufacturers and their political friends, (by whose agency they have 
 been hoisted into office,) to debar you of free trade, and confine you 
 to a home-market, and not permit you to benefit by a maritime com- 
 merce, for the disposal of your surplus produce ? Bow not to the 
 Tariff yoke ! Do not disgrace the land of Hermann, or that of 
 Washington ! Live as you ever have done, friends of freedom and 
 liberal principles ! enemies to tyranny and oppressive taxation ! 
 
 What good has the Tariff done ? is a question which issues from 
 the mouths of many What States have been enriched by it 1 None \ 
 but all have more or less suffered, particularly the cotton-growing 
 States. Of the New England States, Maine and New Hampshire 
 have openly and nobly declared their hostility to the Tariff: they 
 have set a magnanimous example to their sister States. Kentucky 
 has been cajoled into a support of the Restrictive System, by the 
 prospect held out to her of growing rich by the manufacturing of cot- 
 ton-bagging and cordage, and the culture of hemp. The people of 
 that State have too much good sense to be made subservient to the 
 views of a party, and they now begin to perceive that their true in- 
 terest consists in preserving a friendly intercourse with the Southern 
 States, which afford the best markets for their stock. Ohio her 
 near neighbor contains an enterprizing and enlightened population, 
 whose chief object, for many years, will be to direct their attention 
 to agriculture, and profit by the fertility of the soil which a bountiful 
 
32 
 
 Providence has bestowed. Ohio is not yet prepared to manufacture 
 extensively, nor is it to her interest : the facility of communicating, 
 by the Lakes, with Canada and New York, enables her to obtain an 
 ample supply of every kind of manufactures at a cheap rate ; and 
 high duties will always be inimical to her success in manufacturing, 
 as they offer strong inducements to smuggle. Tempt but the avarice 
 of the smuggler, and he will bid defiance to all law ; neither the fear 
 of the dungeon, or chains, will daunt his desperate courage, or re- 
 strain his adventurous spirit. 
 
 It is with great satisfaction I have heard of your determination to 
 transfer the Banner to your native city ; and I sincerely hope that 
 you will be liberally supported by an enlightened public, and particu- 
 larly by the mechanics a great portion of whom, consisting of black- 
 smiths and shipwrights, are suffering from the evil effects of the Tariff. 
 I remain yours, 
 
 HERMANN; 
 
 PHILADELPHIA, June lth, 1831. 
 
 Dear Sir : In my last communication to you, I ventured to express 
 an opinion that neither Kentucky nor Ohio derived the least benefit 
 from the present Tariff, and I think I will be supported by every im- 
 partial and honest politician in asserting that these States have no 
 interest whatever in adhering to the present odious " American Sys- 
 tem," and in submitting to be taxed heavily on the most necessary 
 articles of lifq. Men of common sense need not be told that, to es- 
 tablish manufactories on a sure and permanent foundation, a consi- 
 derable capital and surplus population are required, which these 
 States do not fully possess ; admitting, however, the existence of both, 
 what necessity can justify the Federal Government in imposing heavy 
 duties on foreign goods, solely for the purpose of protecting manu- 
 facturers, and enabling them to prosper at the expense of commerce 
 and agriculture? This system of fraud, oppression, and injustice, 
 would disgrace the most despotic countries of the world, and has 
 been forced on the people of this Republic by intrigue and avarice. 
 Unfortunately, the poor are deluded and imposed upon by a specious 
 name, and have bestowed their aid in directing the withering hand 
 of tyranny against their own rights and liberties. The advocates 
 and champions of the Tariff, profiting by the apathy of their adver- 
 
33 
 
 saries the friends of Free Trade succeeded in securing the confi- 
 dence of persons unaccustomed to reason on the justice and injus- 
 tice of the laws, or on the doubtful points of the constitutionality of 
 them. To the independent yeomen, and the honest and industrious 
 laborers, we must address ourselves, in the language of truth and sin- 
 cerity, and tell them, in plain terms, that the existing Tariff Law was 
 enacted, in 1828, in direct opposition to the spirit of the Constitu- 
 tion, and for the express purpose of establishing a monopoly, by pro- 
 tecting domestic manufactures, to effect which the poor must neces- 
 sarily suffer, by paying more than the real value of almost every ar- 
 ticle they consume, to enrich the sugar planters, and the proprietors 
 of iron mines, and salt works, as well as the woollen and cotton manu- 
 facturers. The influence of men of great wealth in the Eastern and 
 Middle States, is made use of to keep up this system of taxation, 
 and, having embarked large sums of money in manufacturing stock, 
 their sole efforts are directed to their own advancement, and they 
 care not for the agriculturists and the poor. Even our merchants, 
 unable to stem the tide of prejudice and corruption, are fast degener- 
 ating into apathy. Where are the men to be found inheriting the 
 principles of their Revolutionary ancestors ? Where is the spirit 
 that resisted the Stamp Act, and a paltry tax on tea 1 Can it be pos- 
 sible that the character of this land of liberty is so changed, and the 
 people so degraded, as to submit to be the dupes of a system that, if 
 persevered in, will eventually annihilate our foreign commerce, and 
 render the United States contemptible both at home and abroad ? 
 Can it be possible that the patriots of Boston, and the other great 
 cities, have abandoned the cause of Free Trade, and are unwilling 
 to make an effort to defend their rights, and wipe from the face of 
 the country the foul stain which has been stamped upon it by apostates 
 to liberty ? Will they barter the Republic for filthy lucre ? Will 
 they assist in oppressing the poor mariner and mechanic, and substi- 
 tute looms and spinning-jennies for ships and ploughs ? Will they 
 arrest the progress of the unfortunate emigrant who has sought an 
 asylum among us, and doom him to toil within the walls of a manu- 
 factory, inste " "idirig his steps to the forests of the South or the 
 West, that ] .^ oe an independent cultivator of the soil, an honest 
 freeholder, and lay up for his children a rich inheritance ? Will 
 they join in the hue and cry against him because he is a foreigner I 
 Justice and humanity forbid it ! It is really most ludicrous to notice 
 the various opprobrious epithets which have been applied to the friends 
 of Free Trade and liberal principles ! They are stigmatized as for- 
 
34 
 
 eigners and nullifiers. The highly respectable and industrious me- 
 .chanics who twice petitioned Congress, and petitioned in vain, for a 
 repeal of the duty on iron, have been upbraided, for their truly repub- 
 lican and honorable conduct, with being foreigners ; but they have 
 gained a glorious triumph over their opponents, for having vindicated 
 the cause of Free Trade against oppression and injustice. The ad- 
 vocates of the Prohibitive System, when at a loss for sound reason- 
 ing to support their cause, have recourse to slander and low abuse. 
 Jt is of no consequence to the world whether a man be born on the 
 ocean or on the land, if he is a useful and virtuous member of the 
 community. What more have we a right to expect ? Who nobly 
 devoted their lives and fortunes to aid in securing the independence 
 of the United States, but foreigners, among whom are the illustrious 
 names of La Fayette, Montgomery, St. Clair, Kosciusko, Steuben, 
 De Kalb, Pulaski, and a host of others ! Who are engaged in our 
 manufactories and mines, and labor in making our canals, railroads, 
 and other public works ? Foreigners ! Who were our ancestors 1 
 Foreigners ! There is really something too illiberal and contracted, 
 to be jealous of the merits of men, or refuse to acknowledge them, 
 because they are foreigners. Genius is the property of mankind, 
 and should be cherished by every civilized nation. The virtues of 
 men are not to be fixed by geographical limits. He who labors to 
 improve his adopted country, who devotes to her interests his time 
 and talents, merits a civic crown, and ranks with the most favored of 
 her native sons. The spirit of philanthropy shields from oppression 
 the virtuous of all countries, without regard to local distinctions and 
 sectional feelings. The term nullifier has been so hacknied, and so 
 misapplied, as to be almost disregarded, and treated with derision. 
 It is promiscuously applied, and little understood. The man who 
 ventures to expose the folly and injustice of the " American System," 
 is called a nullifier ! If he is the advocate of Free Trade, a friend 
 to the poor, and champion of their rights and liberties, he is still- a 
 nullifier ! Such is the persecuting spirit of the violent supporters of 
 the " bill of abominations," that a very few escape the tongue of 
 malevolence. One among the few has indeed been peculiarly fortu- 
 nate and favored. I allude to a highly amiable citizen of South Car- 
 olina, most justly distinguished for his integrity and talents. He has 
 held the following language : 
 
 " That, as Congress has imposed the Tariff, then is our indepen- 
 dence but a phantom ! then have the patriots of the Revolution toil- 
 ed and bled in vain ! then would it be better for us to return to our 
 
35 
 
 former colonial vassalage, when, if unjustly taxed, the burden was 
 imposed without discrimination upon all our countrymen when, if 
 oppressed, our oppressors were not our representatives when, if en- 
 slaved, we were not guilty of forging the chains ourselves with which 
 our liberty was manacled." 
 
 Had these truths been expressed by either of the two highly dis- 
 tinguished patriots, Governor Hamilton or General Hayne, they 
 would have been villified with the grossest abuse, although nothing 
 but perfect contempt could be shown for the foul and slanderous 
 tongues from which it might emanate. It is with pride and pleasure 
 I read, in the last number of the Banner, the able speech of the Hon. 
 George McDuffie, delivered at a festival lately given to him by a nu- 
 merous and respectable party of gentlemen in Charleston. It is a 
 lucid and impartial exposition of the injurious effects of the Tariff, 
 and particularly of its operation on the interests of the South. This 
 eloquent address is replete with sound sense ; it is the language of a 
 true patriot, and should be read by every man in America. How 
 long will the sordid spirit of gain continue to pervade this country, 
 and blast the fair prospects of the people subdue the fine feelings 
 of the heart and render a despotic and aspiring majority deaf to the 
 complaints of their fellow-citizens ! In the name of justice, reason, 
 and common sense, I call on every honest and disinterested man, 
 whose mind is uncorrupted, and whose talents are not perverted, to 
 unite in destroying the Tariff monster, that he may no longer fatten 
 on the vitals of the poor. To the good sense and feelings of the 
 supporters of the Restrictive System, I appeal. Let them retract 
 their errors, and generously make atonement by promoting the pros- 
 perity of the United States. If they value the peace of the Union 
 if they regard the ties of nature if they have any wish to preserve 
 the sanctity of the Constitution let them pause and reflect, and 
 abandon a measure which is productive of nothing but discord. I 
 solemnly invoke the spirit of a Washington, a Hancock, and a Pa- 
 trick Henry, to save this Republic from being sacrificed to despotism 
 and anarchy ! I solemnly warn the friends of the Tariff of the fatal 
 consequences which must ensue, if they obstinately persist in their 
 hostility to the cause of Free Trade. Let them take wisdom in their 
 councils, and listen to the advice of those whose only wish can be to 
 promote the general happiness of the people. 
 
 I am yours, 
 
 HERMANN. 
 
36 
 
 PHILADELPHIA, June 25*7*, 1831. 
 
 Dear Sir : Not many days ago I was prompted by curiosity to 
 visit the elegant store of Mr. Van Harlingen, in Chesnut Street, 
 where I had an opportunity of viewing his assortment of goods ; but, 
 what particularly attracted my attention, were the articles of Ger- 
 man manufacture, consisting chiefly of beautiful damask napkins, 
 muslins handsomely embroidered, and superfine Saxon cloths of 
 various colors, and superbly wrought. These last are designed 
 chiefly for table, chair, and sofa covers, and are, perhaps, unsur- 
 passed by any goods of a similar description in the world. On 
 quitting this fashionable and much-frequented store, I was naturally 
 induced to reflect on the impolicy and injustice of the Tariff, which 
 imposes high duties on these, as well as many other more useful 
 articles, manufactured in Germany and Holland. I was led, by a 
 former communication, to make a few cursory remarks on the com- 
 merce of those countries, and of the importance of it to the United 
 States. The imports consisted chiefly of woollens, linens, and 
 steel of the most superior quality, besides oznaburgs, cotton-bag- 
 ging, Rhenish wine, gin, &>c. &c., for which they took in exchange 
 rice, cotton, tobacco, and other supplies of American produce. 
 The merchandise from the United States has always been admitted 
 into the German and Dutch ports on the most liberal terms, and I 
 think I am correct in saying, never subject to a duty of more than 
 one per centum ad valorem. Every facility to our trade has been 
 afforded every accommodation to our merchants has been granted 
 and many of our citizens, who have visited both Germany and 
 Holland, have experienced friendship and hospitality ; in return for 
 which, we have nearly destroyed all intercourse with the worthy 
 people of those countries, by the operation of the most unjust and 
 oppressive law which ever disgraced a free nation. Sir, it is high 
 time that the honest Germans of Pennsylvania and the other States 
 of the Union should know the truth. Every article of German and 
 Butch manufacture, under the present Tariff, is so shamefully and 
 exorbitantly taxed, as to amount almost to prohibition. If we do 
 not allow the Germans to trade with us on terms of reciprocity, 
 they will cease to have any commercial intercourse with the people 
 of the United States, and will consider them sordid and selfish, 
 friends to despotism,and enemies of Free Trade and liberal principles. 
 
,37 
 
 The Southern States were beginning to i'eel the great benefit of 
 the trade from the ports of Hamburg, Bremen, Amsterdam, Rotter- 
 dam, and Antwerp, when it was interrupted by the embargo, the 
 war, and, the greatest curse of all, the Tariff. The port of 
 Charleston was once enriched by the German trade ; a great pro- 
 portion of the crop of rice of South Carolina went to Germany, 
 which will afford a great market for our cotton when, the Tariff is 
 repealed. This vile and odious policy, so erroneously termed the 
 " American System," will exclude the hardy German emigrants 
 from our soil, by destroying the trade and the most direct means of 
 conveyance. We want their integrity and industry, which, to the 
 United States, are more valuable than gold. Let them come as 
 peaceable cultivators of the earth should they come in thousands 
 for many years hence, they would be but thinly scattered over a 
 wilderness that yet remains to be cultivated ; and, if improved by 
 the hand of industry, is capable of sustaining more than one hun- 
 dred millions of people. I would ask if this is not preferable to 
 forcing prematurely manufactories on the nation. We must not 
 lose the trade of Germany, and Holland, and of nearly all Europe, 
 and be satisfied to toil for manufacturers at home, and submit to be 
 taxed for their benefit, and the wealthy proprietors of sugar planta- 
 tions, iron mines, and salt works. 
 
 Let us call on the Germans of Pennsylvania, and their descen- 
 dants, to unite their strength and influence to destroy a corrupt 
 system, which, like a canker-worm, is feeding on the fairest fruits 
 of the land, and blasting the best prospects of the husbandman. 
 Let the majority of Congress, if they wish to consult the general 
 good, turn their attention to objects more worthy of their considera- 
 tion, than depriving the honest blacksmith of a part of his hard 
 earnings, by taxing heavily the iron of foreign countries, and oblig- 
 ing him to pay a high price for such as he can procure from the 
 mines of the United States, much of which is of an inferior quality, 
 and badly adapted to particular purposes to which it is applied. 
 Added to this grievance, the poor man is made to pay more than 
 the real value of his sugar, his salt, his cloth, and many of the 
 necessaries of life. 
 
 If the people are true to their own interests, they should, in future, 
 elect no man to preside over the councils of the nation, who will 
 support and sanction this system of extortion ; they should choose 
 their Representatives from among the friends of Free Trade, and 
 not select the obsequious partisans of the manufacturers. More 
 weighty and useful matters should claim the deliberations of Con- 
 
38 
 
 gress, than the enactment of bills to fix a partial and onerous rate of 
 indirect taxation ; their time and thoughts should be occupied by 
 making equitable and economical disbursements of the public mo- 
 ney ; in diminishing the public burdens ; in preventing all useless 
 expenditures of the public funds; in guarding against corruption and 
 mal-practices in office; -in rewarding real merit; in protecting the 
 unfortunate ; and, by all means in their power, aiding, not only the 
 Indians, but the distressed emigrants of all nations, in seeking an 
 asylum on the public lands, that there, by habits of industry, they 
 may provide themselves and needy families with a subsistence. These 
 are some of the sacred duties to which their time should be devoted. 
 It is expected, by the nation, that they should act as the guardians 
 of the rights of the people ; and, by their example for morality and 
 disinterested patriotism, prove to their constituents that they are wor- 
 thy of the trust reposed in them. To preserve harmony, there must 
 be mutual concessions, and, to effect this, faction must not predomi- 
 nate over the best feelings of the heart. The greatest triumph a man 
 can gain, is over his own evil passions, and this is applicable to pub- 
 lic as well as private life. During the session of Congress, there is 
 too little magnanimity displayed, but too much recrimination and an- 
 imosity, and which, in the heat ot party debate, is frequently vented 
 in words of defiance and abuse. 
 
 To return, however, to the subject of foreign commerce. It is 
 much to be desired that the merchants of the United States would 
 unite with all whose interests are connected with maritime affairs, 
 and demand, as a right, that the existing arbitrary and unconstitu - 
 tional Tariff Act should be repealed. Let them say to the Govern- 
 ment, in the language of the French merchants, " Laissez nous 
 faire," and no longer tamely submit to be the victims of measures 
 that are irrational, unnatural, and unjust. If they do not boldly com- 
 bine with their oppressed fellow-citizens in all parts of the United 
 States, to defeat the machinations of their political enemies, they are 
 unworthy of being freemen, and must yield as the passive slaves of 
 a system which will inevitably render them poor and despicable. 
 Half-informed statesmen frequently betray gross ignorance in attempt- 
 ing to legislate about what they do not understand. A lawyer may 
 make a distinguished figure at the bar, but fail in the counting-house 
 to show himself a good merchant, and only expose his folly in inter- 
 fering in what he has no knowledge of. Trade, like water, will find 
 its level. Attempt not to interrupt its course leave to the enter- 
 prize and experience of commercial men the best means they choose 
 
39 
 
 to adopt for regulating their own concerns ; they are surely compe- 
 tent to act better for themselves and the public; than others can for 
 them ; they, of course, ought to know how to employ commercial in- 
 dustry to the best advantage. It is truly absurd in Governments to 
 embarrass trade, by prohibitive laws and oppressive exactions. No 
 improper restraints should be imposed to check the career of the en- 
 terprizing commercial spirit. Leave the merchant free to embark 
 in whatever speculations he may deem most profitable, and to invest 
 his capital in the manner most likely to conduce to his interest. 
 Suffer him to go unrestricted to that sea or port where fortune guides 
 him. Let him shape his course to the South Seas, to the Indian 
 Ocean, to the Mediterranean, or to whatever part of the world he 
 may find the most profitable market. It is the remark of an eminent 
 writer, that, " the very circumstance of the existence of an active 
 external commerce, no matter what agents it may be conducted by, 
 is a very powerful stimulus to internal industry." The same author 
 adds, " Commercial jealousy is, after all, nothing but prejudice it 
 is a wild fruit, that will drop of itself when it has arrived at maturity." 
 In this enlightened age, and in the advanced state of political pow- 
 er and prosperity of the United States, the people should be ever 
 watchful of any attempt to encroach upon their rights. All laws 
 passed for creating monopolies are inimical to the liberty of the citi- 
 zen. Embargoes, privileged trading companies, and high duties, are 
 .lot only derogatory to the character of a Republic, but injurious to 
 he interests of the people. If the nations of Europe are willing to 
 mbmit to this species of tyranny, God forbid that the American Peo- 
 ple should so degrade themselves as to follow the example ! 
 
 I am, sir, yours, 
 
 HERMANN. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA, July \%tli y 1831. 
 
 Dear Sir : The indefatigable exertions you are making to propa- 
 gate liberal principles in favor of Free Trade, and to bring to the 
 more immediate consideration of your readers the importance of the 
 subject, gives you a strong claim on the gratitude of the public. 
 The doctrines of political economy, so ably taught in the various 
 colleges of the United States, have laid a solid foundation for the 
 commercial prosperity of the people, which, I trust, the sophistry of 
 
40 
 
 a futile theory will never subvert. The increasing spirit of hostility 
 to the " American System" is the best proof of the progress they 
 have already made towards effecting the downfall of the obnoxious 
 Tariff. The diffusion of knowledge is undoubtedly the most certain 
 means of teaching the people to feel the true nature of their inde- 
 pendence, to reason with clearness and propriety, to discriminate be- 
 tween real and pretended friends, and to exercise the right of suf- 
 frage with a judgment unbiased by intrigue, or uninfluenced by cor- 
 ruption. We must chiefly rely on the freedom of the Press for an 
 unreserved communication of much useful and valuable information 
 relative to civil and political affairs ; and in proportion to the purity 
 of the morals of editors, and their respectability, we may expect to 
 derive from them a faithful and impartial account of men and mea- 
 sures. The responsibility attached to their characters is of so sacred 
 a nature that nothing should be submitted to the public which is riot, 
 to the best of their belief, founded on the strictest veracity. We are 
 indebted to the Banner for the pleasing intelligence from your corres- 
 pondents in Ohio, that the confidence of the inhabitants in the Ameri- 
 can System has greatly diminished. The agricultural resources of 
 that rich and interesting State are immense great wealth is. yet in 
 reserve for her, in addition to what she already enjoys. As her in- 
 ternal improvements advance, the products of the soil will increase 
 in value, and the industry of her hardy and enterprizing yeomanry 
 will be amply rewarded. We have much to expect from the Editors 
 of the Ohio papers from which you have made repeated extracts ; 
 their liberality and sound sense entitle them to the thanks of their 
 fellow-citizens, as also their able vindication of the cause of Free 
 Trade, and their decided opposition to the Tariff. Such zeal and 
 independence are truly honorable to these worthy Editors, who have 
 to contend against bitter prejudices. Let Ohio unite cordially with 
 the Anti-Tariff States, and we shall have nothing to fear from the 
 champions of the Tariff. Virginia, the Carolinas, Georgia, Tennes- 
 see, Alabama, Mississippi, with the States of New Hampshire and 
 Maine, have ineffectually demanded a repeal of the Tariff, or such 
 a modification of it as might comport with their interests and wishes. 
 In vain have their people petitioned. In vain have they attempted 
 to be heard through their delegates. Unheeded are their complaints. 
 Equally deaf to the voice of reason and justice, the enemies of Free 
 Trade revel amidst the spoils of their triumphs. Intoxicated with 
 success, they continue to taunt their adversaries, and assail them 
 with abuse. Within the very walls of Congress the envenomed 
 
41 
 
 tongue of malevolence has traduced the Southern people, who have 
 been basely stigmatized as " unfeeling slave lashers, in league with 
 England to oppose the honest manufacturers of the North." I will 
 not disgust you with a repetition of vulgar and despicable observa- 
 tions. Attempts, however, are often made to excite discord between 
 the North and the South by such disgraceful language, and to foment 
 the differences which unhappily exist. Virginia, Georgia, Alabama, 
 with their sister States, have not been spared : South Carolina has 
 been singled out as a fit victim to glut the devouring appetite of the 
 Tariff monster ; her sons have been reviled as Bisunionists and Nul- 
 lifiers. She has espoused a righteous cause, and with justice on her 
 side she will nobly maintain it. She will never be compelled ta 
 abandon it by empty threats and gasconade, or to forsake it, by arti-' 
 fice. The violent champions of the Tariff, more wily than wise, 
 have persevered in their hostility to South Carolina, and denounced 
 her for not yielding passive obedience to tyranny and injustice ; they 
 have essayed to fix an odium on her character by the most insidious 
 attacks. It is always better to appease the Lion, than, by goading, 
 provoke him to resistance. The artful distinction which the friends 
 of the Restrictive System have attempted ta make, by attributing 
 solely to South Carolina certain principles, under the title of the 
 " Carolina Doctrines,"* has failed to answer the purpose for which it 
 was probably designed. South Carolina has not the vanity to claim 
 what is common property. She is willing to divide the honor of op- 
 posing and exposing the evils of the American System with the An- 
 ti-Tariff States. If to defend the inviolability of the Constitution 
 to vindicate the cause of Free Trade protect; the rights of the citi- 
 zen from encroachment -and resist Federal aggression, be consider- 
 ed an offence, then, indeed, has South Carolina greatly transgressed^ 
 If to insist upon enjoying the advantages of foreign commerce, free 
 from the embarrassments and exactions imposed by legislative inter- 
 ference to resist the corrupt influence of faction, and prevent the 
 
 * Any threat of coercion to pat down these Doctrines, and" the champions of 
 them, must eventuate in the total destruction of the power and popularity of those- 
 who dare to make the experiment. If the attack should ever he attempted, the sig- 
 nal would be given to. sound the tocsin of Revolution from Maine to Georgia. The 
 military Hero who has been elevated to the first office of this Republic,. was most 
 ardently supported by the talents and chivalry of his native State, and the very 
 men who now constitute the Free Trade Party, were his firm and undeviating 
 friends, I sincerely hope he may never forfeit their good opinion, and give cause- 
 for the application of the maxim " Ingrato homine terra peju? nil creat." 
 6 
 
42 
 
 extravagant waste of public money, constitute any part of the Caro- 
 lina Doctrines, then has she no reason to be ashamed of her conduct, 
 but, on the contrary, to rejoice in the devotion of her sons to truth,hon- 
 or, and justice. South Carolina has been accused of an intention to 
 nullify an act of Congress. If it is criminal to pass an unconstitu- 
 tional and oppressive law, why then is it a crime to declare it null 
 and void, when the absurdity and injustice of the law is evident to 
 every man of common sense, who will give himself time to reason 
 and reflect. That a State has a right to nullify an act of Congress, 
 under any circumstances, is extremely doubtful ; but if a State is ag- 
 grieved by an oppressive and unconstitutional law of the Federal 
 Government, the choice of two evils is left, which, in my opinion, she 
 has a right to exercise : Resistance or secession from the Union. The 
 common law of nature sanctions the first the Federal Compact the 
 other. If South Carolina did not cherish this compact if she was 
 not sincerely attached to the Union, she would not so strenuously op- 
 pose the Tariff on the ground of its unconstitutionality. Each State 
 is sovereign and independent, and is only bound by a moral obliga- 
 tion to submit to the laws of Congress, provided they are based on 
 equity. Carolina has no inclination to separate from the Union, un- 
 less compelled by oppression, and the Federal Government cannot 
 prevent her from peaceably withdrawing. The distinguished and 
 very sensible author of the Crisis has justly remarked " If there be 
 in our system of government one feature which is delightful for the 
 real patriot to contemplate, it is that which shows the inability of the 
 Government to coerce one of its confederated members. If friend- 
 ship cannot hold us together, force never can. He is much mistaken 
 who can imagine that the same physical force which could enable 
 the Government to put down one of the twenty-four Republics, would 
 not so endanger the whole as to make our Government any thing 
 than what it now is." Let us hope that those States which still ad- 
 here to the Tariff, yielding to the force and circumstances of the 
 times, will relinquish their support of it, and unite in promoting har- 
 mony. A single State detached from the Union, would be produc- 
 tive of unhappiness to all ; the example would probably be followed 
 by others. Such a desperate step could only be the dernier resort of 
 a people to whom justice is denied. To bear and forbear, forms part 
 of the Christian doctrine : this, however, may be carried too far with 
 high-spirited and enlightened freemen. It matters not whether per- 
 secution proceeds from the iron grasp of an Autocrat or an Oligarchy, 
 or emanates from the corrupt influence of a Democracy the effect 
 
43 
 
 is still the same; and the pressure is felt with equal force by the peo- 
 ple, until the day of retribution arrives, to demand a fearful reckon- 
 ing with their oppressors. Nothing is wanting to secure the pros- 
 perity of the United States, and the peace and happiness of the peo- 
 ple, but mutual concession and conciliatory feelings. Let recrimin- 
 ation cease. Let animosities and narrow prejudices be abandoned, 
 and the very recollection of them buried in oblivion without which 
 the Union can never be safe. 
 
 I remain yours, 
 
 HERMANN. 
 
 Jtj^iq fPMpp ;;T|2*i jpKntejf *.to: *ai 
 
 PHILADELPHIA, August Wth, 1831. 
 
 Dear Sir : To the successful and extensive propagation of the 
 liberal principles of Political Economy through the Banner, and many 
 highly respectable daily papers, we may confidently look forward to 
 a speedy termination of the " American System." With the extinc- 
 tion of the present Tariff, the cause of Free Trade will acquire 
 additional strength ; for prejudice and ignorance are rapidly yielding 
 to reason and common sense. I cannot be persuaded that the 
 character of the nation is so sunk, and the patriotic spirit of the 
 people so tame, as to be made much longer subservient to the 
 Restrictive System. We live in an age distinguished by the pro- 
 gress of intellectual worth ; and to foster a policy adverse to the 
 beneficent views of Providence, and the welfare of mankind, would 
 be characteristic of the dark times of imperial despotism and super- 
 stition. To abandon the practical and substantial advantages of 
 foreign commerce, for the selfish principles of the Restrictive Sys- 
 tem, is to retrograde from the path of civilization, and to exchange 
 light for darkness. The Tariff, under all existing circumstances, 
 and with the vast natural resources of the United States, is perfectly 
 injurious, if not ruinous, to the great agricultural and commercial 
 interests. It is an aati-republican measure of the most disgraceful 
 character. No language is too strong to express our abhorrence 
 of it ; it needs only to be unmasked and stripped of its loathsome 
 deformity, to call forth the execration of every disinterested man. 
 A very distinguished scholar* of South Carolina, on a recent public 
 occasion, thus emphatically expressed his opinion of it : 
 
 * Hugh S. Legare, Esq. 
 
44 
 
 " I can never sufficiently deplore the infatuation which has brought 
 such a scourge on this favored land, which has entailed (so to speak) 
 the curse of an original sin upon a new world, and upon the conti- 
 nual multiplying millions which are to inhabit it." 
 
 The Tariff is suffered to exist in defiance" of the most undeniable 
 truths which have ever been evinced in a righteous cause, and every 
 axiom that can be produced in favor of Free Trade. It is a politi- 
 cal quackery of the worst sort, and opposed to doctrines taught by 
 men of the most profound learning of every age and country, and 
 in direct hostility to the most lucid philosophical maxims which can 
 possibly originate from such highly-gifted minds as those of a Fene- 
 lon and a Dugald Stewart. Nothing is spared, by the present system 
 of indirect taxation, which contributes to the comfort of man ; it 
 taxes the necessaries of life, and, consequently, most seriously affects 
 the industrious poor ; the very implements of husbandry, and the small 
 invoices of goods brought by the unfortunate emigrant from Europe, 
 come within reach of its detestable power. It would be a glorious 
 era in the history of the United States, if, on the repeal of the Tariff, 
 every port could be thrown open and declared free to the trade of the 
 world, and every custom-house converted into a ware-house. This 
 would be a decided republican measure, although not immediately 
 suited to the interest of Government. The people have no objection 
 to moderate duties for the purpose of revenue, but will never yield 
 obedience to a libertine policy, which subjects then to many priva- 
 tions, and taxes them exorbitantly for the protection of manufactures. 
 
 A very popular and sensible French writer remarks, that " Exces- 
 sive taxation is a kind of suicide, whether laid on objects of neces- 
 sity or upon those of luxury ; but there is this distinction, that, in 
 the latter case, it extinguishes only a portion of the products on 
 which it falls, together with the gratification they are calculated to 
 afford while, in the former, it extinguishes both production and con- 
 sumption, and the tax-payer himself into the bargain." The products 
 of the soil, with land and labor, must necessarily depreciate under 
 the existing Tariff Law ; and, in proportion to the number of labor- 
 ers diverted from agriculture to manufactures, will the loss be felt 
 by the land owners. Every man of common sense must know, that, 
 whatever measures have a tendency to embarrass trade will lessen 
 the demand for land and produce, and, by checking the spirit of 
 emigration, deprive us of the class of people we most need, the cul- 
 tivators of the earth. Is it, then, to- be wondered at, that the pro- 
 ducers, whether of cotton, rice, wheat, or tobacco, are impoverished 
 
45 
 
 by the Tariff? Is it to be wondered at, that the Southern planter? 
 complain and demand justice 1 Is it a matter of surprise, that the 
 consumers, and more particularly the industrious laboring poor 
 among them, are beginning to inquire why they are so extravagantly 
 taxed to uphold a shameful system of monopoly ? It is the " auri 
 sacra fames" which has influenced the champions of the Tariff. 
 This is not a mere question of pounds, shillings, and pence it is 
 not a sordid calculation, altogether, of the value of manufactured 
 goods, or of the products of the soil ; but a question involving the 
 most serious and important principles of legislation and constitu- 
 tional rights. Are the people willing to lose a valuable foreign 
 trade, in order to enrich a set of monopolizers 1 Are they prepared 
 to exchange a life of independence for a state of vassalage, and 
 become the pliant tools of a monied aristocracy ? Are they disposed 
 to see the efforts of genius paralyzed, and the principles of philan- 
 thropy undermined 1 
 
 The time must speedily arrive, when the people will no longer be 
 ensnared by the empty name of " American System." This fallacy 
 will, I trust, be soon condemned to merited disgrace, and to eternal 
 oblivion. The people of this great Republic are, I should hope, 
 too wise, too generous, and brave, not to prefer union, liberty, and 
 harmony, to the dreadful evils which the present Tariff will inevitably 
 produce, if persevered in. Let us not despair, but look forward to 
 unmeasured prosperity for the United States let us not omit to 
 turn our attention to the record of days past, when the guardian 
 genius of Columbus, in directing him to the new world, decided on 
 the future destiny of these States as an asylum for the persecuted 
 and adventurous spirits of the old world. That island which gave 
 birth to a Newton, a Locke, a Milton, and a Pope, was destined, by 
 her misguided policy, to lose, not only the affection of her American 
 subjects, but the vast and beautiful colonies which now so happily 
 constitute the greatest Republic on the globe. Intellectual endow- 
 ments were not confined to Albion ; and true greatness, which is 
 inseparable from virtue, was found inherent in a Penn, a Washington, 
 and a Franklin. The same merciful Providence which regulates 
 the destinies of men, determined that these illustrious characters 
 should move in a sphere of usefulness, from which, by a combina- 
 tion of causes, the most glorious events have transpired. The 
 arbitrary power of the mother country was productive of evils 
 which brought about the American Revolution, and roused a spirit 
 of resistance, from Maine to Georgia. The united eloquence and 
 
46 
 
 . 
 
 valor of the Patriots of '76 not only secured Independence, but a 
 Constitution unrivalled for wisdom. Commercial restrictions and 
 taxation were part of the grievances which caused the Revolutionary 
 struggle, and the loss of much precious blood. 
 
 We profess to advocate and practise liberal principles, and arro- 
 gantly present to the world our Republic as a model of perfection. 
 We labor under a fatal delusion, and are insensible to our own 
 follies. Why, then, should we arraign the conduct of European 
 nations, and charge them with faults, when we are blind to our 
 own ? History gives a retrospective view of all the excesses which 
 have ever been committed, for ages past, against the laws of God 
 and man, and furnishes a minute account of wars and revolutions, 
 and the horrors attendant on them. The nations of Europe have 
 been contending, for centuries past, about commercial supremacy, 
 und have seldom or never been at a loss for pretexts to wage war. 
 Some monarchs, guided by a high sense of honor and justice, have 
 anxiously sought to maintain peace whilst others, regardless of the 
 sufferings of their subjects, and the laws of neutrality, have out- 
 raged both, presuming on the right of conquest, to subjugate the 
 weak and unoffending to their fell ambition and lawless sway. 
 
 Let^tts, if we would be happy and prosperous, shun the example 
 of foreign Powers, whose sinister policy is exhibited in acts of ex- 
 tortion, in fraud, perjury, and corruption, in a prodigal expenditure 
 of the public money, for the purpose of supporting large standing 
 armies and immense navies, and to provide for court pensioners, 
 and bestow sinecure places on political gamblers and favorites, devoid 
 of talents and morality. Such is too often a true picture of despotic 
 Governments. Nature has indeed been truly bountiful in the dis- 
 tribution of her favors to the United States, and we should be uu- 
 worthy of her gifts if we 4id not fully appreciate them. What 
 necessity can there be for forcing manufactures prematurely oa the 
 nation, and then taxing the people by exacting high duties for the 
 protection of them ? Commerce and agriculture have a prior and 
 stronger claim on the industry of man ; they are his natural pursuits. 
 " We must necessarily be an agricultural people for more than a 
 century to come." Are there not two hundred and twenty millions 
 of acres of public lands now for sale, and wanting cultivation ? 
 Have we not innumerable lakes, bays, and rivers, which unite their 
 waters to the ocean, and open a vast field for commercial enter- 
 prize ? Shall we not then profit by the. goodness of a wise and 
 omnipotent Creator, by promoting a free and friendly intercourse 
 
47 
 
 With the nations of the world, instead of sinfully thwarting His 
 glorious intentions, by the most preposterous and unnatural legisla- 
 tive measures? The Anti-Tariff States have borne too long with 
 the injustice of the Restrictive System. It is time for the people 
 to act, and no longer submit to be the dupes of artifice and avarice. 
 They must not be deterred Jay the foul tongue of calumny and 
 imbecile threats, from doing justice to themselves, by insisting on a 
 repeal of the Tariff, that Free Trade may be restored to the pros- 
 perity it enjoyed in the glorious days of Washington. 
 
 The laws of God and nature protect the injured. It is the duty 
 of every good citizen to practise forbearance as long as possible, 
 even under the operation of bad and oppressive laws, rather than 
 disturb the peace of his country; but the patience of the most meek 
 and passive dispositions may be exhausted, and submission become 
 criminal, and resistance a virtue, when made in the cause of free- 
 dom and justice. Delay is dangerous and the next session of 
 Congress must not pass over without a repeal of the Tariff, (com- 
 monly called the *' bill of abominations;") and this alone can save 
 the Union from civil commotion, restore freedom of trade, and con- 
 fidence among the people. 
 
 I remain yours, 
 
 HERMANN. 
 
 

 ill 
 
 '!'.) 
 
 lo 
 
A CONTINUATION 
 
 OF THE 
 
 LETTEES OP 
 
 AS PUBLISHED IN THE 
 
 BANNER OF THE CONSTITUTION 
 
[The first of the following letters was addressed to the Editor of the Phila- 
 delphia Gazette, who accompanied it with the following remarks. 
 
 " The communication of HERMANN,' in an adjoining column, is worthy of 
 attention, breathing, as it does, that warm spirit of adherence to the integrity 
 of the Constitution and the welfare of the country, which prevails no where 
 in the Republic, (all misrepresentations to the contrary notwithstanding,) 
 more vigorously than in the Southern States. We were almost tempted to 
 omit the laudatory commencement of our correspondent's article ; but the 
 privilege of garbling is a difficult task; and we should be loth todisplace the 
 tribute so justly paid to the gentleman who weekly unfurls the Banner of 
 the Constitution. It is a matter of honest pride to us, that the Convention 
 has given us the acquaintance and friendship of so many gentlemen of talent 
 and character from various quarters of the Confederacy."] 
 
 SOUTH CAROLINA, October, 1831. 
 
 Mr. Editor : I shall trespass on your patience but for a few mo- 
 ments, if only to assure you, sir, of the very favorable impression 
 you have made on the minds of all the friends of Free Trade, by the 
 very disinterested part you have taken, and the patriotic zeal with 
 which you have conducted your valuable Gazette : the gratitude of 
 the people is due to yourself, as well as to the worthy and talented 
 Editor of the Banner of the Constitution, for the able and indepen- 
 dent manner in which their rights and interests have been vindi- 
 cated, whilst investigating and exposing the evils of the Tariff Laws, 
 which have produced much excitement and angry feeling; but I 
 will not impeach the motives of all the adversaries of Free Trade, and 
 whatever difference of opinion may even exist among its friends as to 
 the expediency of removing this sinister policy, (the Tariff of the go- 
 vernment), I trust they have but one object in view, the welfare of 
 
4 
 
 the Republic. In order to ensure success, we must act with energy 
 and unanimity, and cherish the most perfect good will from a respect 
 to our cause and our country. 
 
 It is not necessary merely to reduce the Tariff to arithmetical cal- 
 culation to prove the injustice of the measure. My intention is not 
 sordidly to count the cost of a bag of cotton a bale of cloth or a 
 barrel of ftour, or to compare the value of imports and exports, or 
 the rates of duties for the last ten or twenty years, but to inquire by 
 what right the majority of Congress has ventured to enact a law for 
 the protection of manufactures to the injury of other branches of in- 
 dustry : this question involves a principle of legislation that requires 
 the most serious consideration. I cannot conceive how a law can 
 possibly be constitutional which fosters a particular interest, whilst, 
 by its operation, the prosperity of agriculture and commerce is ra- 
 pidly declining. The Constitution makes no express provision for 
 the protection of manufactures. The Tariff is an evil, for which, to 
 use the words of an eminent statesman, " there is but one effectual 
 cure an honest reduction of the duties to a fair system of revenue, 
 adapted tothe just and constitutional wants of Government no- 
 thing short of this (adds he,) can' restore to the country peace, har- 
 mony, and mutual affection." Let every class of people act upon 
 the good old republican doctrine, that of confiding in their own 
 resources, guided by a spirit of enterprize and industry, without the 
 officious aid of the Federal Government. The principles of Free 
 Trade are founded on the immutable laws of truth, justice, and hu- 
 manity, it was for these the immortal Patrick Henry, with all his 
 impassioned eloquence, so nobly and successfully advocated for 
 these same principles Washington fought, and Warren and Mont- 
 gomery bled. The Tariff is deeply injurious to the commercial and 
 agricultural interests of every State of the Union, but more particu- 
 larly to the Southern States, which can never prosper unless our 
 commercial intercourse is left free and unembarassed with foreign 
 nations. I will here beg leave to introduce a short extract from a 
 letter of an illustrious soldier of the Revolution, the venerable Gene- 
 ral Thomas Sumpter, who still lives, a noble monument of his 
 country's glory. I thank God, he lives to animate by his example 
 his countrymen to vindicate the cause of State Rights and Free 
 Trade ! The letter was addressed to a highly respectable gentleman 
 of South Carolina and in reply to his correspondent he says : 
 
 " Sir, you ask ' my views on the subjects which now agitate the 
 minds of our people.' Though I have long since retired from public 
 
life, and given myself up entirely to pursuits more congenial with 
 my age still, as I have always deemed it the duty of every citizen 
 of this Republic boldly to espouse one side or the other, of any 
 question which may involve his rights and liberties, I will not with- 
 hold my sentiments from my fellow-citizens. 
 
 " For a long time I had taken little or no interest in the politics of 
 the country; I never read the newspapers; I confidently depended 
 on the ' sense of the American People,' but, sir, the cry of dis- 
 content has at length reached me, and I awake from the happiest 
 dreams of the peace and prosperity of my country, to curse the 
 illusion. 
 
 " I do not seek the reason of so general a sentiment, in the natural 
 avarice of the human heart, and believe, as some of our countrymen 
 do, that it arises from the common disposition of Southern proprie- 
 tors to screen their fortunes from public charges. No, sir, when 
 we engaged in that struggle which promised to secure to us the 
 enjoyment of unrestricted liberty, we, had nothing to complain of; 
 ours was the most favored colony ; bounties were given for every 
 produce, and foreign capitalists investing their money in it, rendered 
 it more prosperous than any of the others. It was not interest that 
 urged South Carolina to resist. Can she now have changed ? She 
 espoused the cause of her sister colonies, not through resentment 
 for unmerited inflictions, but through principle and philanthropy. 
 We thought that, in time, we might groan under the same oppres- 
 sion and before the storm lowered upon us, we rose and dispersed it. 
 
 " Under like circumstances IT is OUR DUTY TO RESIST, and theirs 
 to succour us. 
 
 " The overgrown power of the General Government may reduce us 
 in a short period to the most abject slavery ; but it is the noblest 
 attribute of a rational being to foresee the effects, and suppress the 
 cause." 
 
 These, sir, are the words of a man whom we all delight to honor. 
 They flow from the spirit of '76 ; from the voice of a friend in the 
 hour of need ; they are as a precious balm in the patriot's mind, and 
 nerve his arm to the resistance of tyranny ! Would to God, that 
 the voice of the patriot Hancock could be heard from the tomb 
 once more, pleading in defence of the injured liberties of his coun- 
 try; loud and deep would be his execrations of this iniquitous 
 Tariff, which has been cruelly and artfully imposed on the Ameri- 
 can People, under the specious and erroneous, though dignified 
 title of" American System." 
 
6 
 
 Mr. Editor, I will not close this communication without noticing 
 the frequent repetition of words from high authority, that the " Union 
 must be preserved !" Does not the poorest and most obscure citizen 
 know that the Union can only be rendered safe by securing the in- 
 tegrity of the Constitution ? The preservation of the Union rests 
 with a higher power than that of any man in this Republic, how- 
 ever great his political rank ; and whatever responsibility may attach 
 to Congress, there yet remains an authority still superior! the 
 Sovereign People ! To them, in all cases of danger and difficulty, I 
 would appeal for justice, and from them (alone, if necessary,) I 
 would seek redress. They will never suffer the band which unites 
 these States (cemented by the blood of our Revolutionary heroes) 
 to be severed by avarice and discord. The Union is dear to us 
 we all love and cherish it but when put in competition with life, 
 liberty, and property, and the dearest rights of man, it is of no value: 
 our reliance is placed on the sound sense and good feelings of the 
 American People, who have been so ably and feelingly addressed by 
 the members of the Free Trade Convention recently in session in 
 Philadelphia. 
 
 Our enlightened and enterprizing merchants have in vain present- 
 ed memorial after memorial to Congress ; our laborious and intelli- 
 gent mechanics have sought for relief, and their grievances have 
 been disregarded, a deaf ear has been turned to their complaints ; 
 the Blacksmiths of this city have twice petitioned without avail ; 
 the recommendations of President Jackson to modify the Tariff have 
 been treated with indifference bordering on contumely. Enlighten 
 the minds of the People as to their true interests, by teaching them 
 the principles of Free Trade show them by facts how shamefully 
 they are taxed, and the Tariff monster will soon fall, never to rise 
 again in this free and happy land. 
 
 Yours, &c. 
 
 HERMANN. 
 
SOUTH CAROLINA, December 1st, 1831. 
 
 Dear Sir : I presume it has riot escaped your memory, that I 
 have repeatedly expressed my surprise at the passive condition of 
 Ohio and Kentucky, under the existing Tariff Law. These two 
 great and interesting States are composed of an intelligent, en- 
 lightened, and industrious population, whose interest will very long 
 confine them to agricultural pursuits; too independent, and im- 
 patient of servile confinement, they are not disposed to abandon 
 the cultivation of their fertile soil, and the clearing of the forest, 
 to toil at the loom and spinning wheel. What then can prompt 
 the hardy yeomanry of the West to support a law which renders 
 tributary to manufacturing avarice their labor and resources, so 
 naturally allied to the free and unrestricted trade, which God and 
 nature always designed should be left open, to gratify the wants 
 of man with the least possible inconvenience, and without the 
 unwise and imprudent interference of Government. An extreme- 
 ly well-written and plausible Address of the Tariff Convention, 
 lately held in the city of New York, contains the most extraor- 
 dinary doctrine ever maintained by sensible and well-informed 
 men. The authors of this Address say, " as a municipal princi- 
 ple, there is no question of the great advantages of Free Trade. 
 The United States, in their coasting trade and domestic exchanges, 
 afford the most striking illustrations of them ever witnessed ; but 
 as between foreign nations, there is no Free Trade there never 
 was there never can be ; it would contravene the arrangements 
 of Providence, which distribute mankind into different communi- 
 ties, separated originally by confusion of tongues, and prevented 
 from all rushing together into the most favored latitudes, by local 
 attachments and foreign antipathies, which are the germs of na- 
 tional preservation, by means of national emulation." Again, observe 
 the writers of the Address, " the freest of Free Trade is, after all, 
 but a chartered libertine." 
 
 We really scarcely know whether to smile or look grave, on 
 reading these remarks, and are almost temptejd to exclaim, in the 
 language of the Poet, " risum teneatis amici"? That Free Trade 
 may interfere with the ambitious views of the manufacturers, I 
 can readily admit, but how it can, possibly contravene the arrange- 
 ments of Providence, is certainly a paradox I do not compre- 
 
8 
 
 hend. What raised ancient Tyre to the very pinnacle of commercial 
 prosperity but Free Trade? What gave Holland the rank she 
 holds among nations ? What has given respectability and wealth 
 to the German cities of Bremen, Hamburg, Lubec, Dantzic, and 
 the Belgic town of Antwerp ? Free Trade ! The ways of Pro- 
 vidence are wise, beneficent, and just, and are intended to pro- 
 mote the welfare of mankind ; they keep pace with the princi- 
 ples of Christianity, which inculcate among people of all nations 
 peace, harmony, and good will. They teach us to cultivate an 
 intercourse with the human race, for the purpose of not only mi- 
 tigating their miseries, but improving their condition, and correct- 
 ing " foreign antipathies ;" and how can this be . better accom- 
 plished than by a free and unfettered commerce with the nations 
 of the globe, from which the greatest advantages arise, both to 
 the arts and sciences. It is the duty of the Government of eve- 
 ry free nation to afford all possible facility to foreign trade, the 
 blessings of which are of incalculable value. Commerce tends to 
 promote civilization, to bring the people of the various countries 
 of the world to reciprocate good offices; to exchange, on terms of 
 reciprocity, the products of the soil, and all such articles as are 
 required to supply the wants of man, both as to the necessaries 
 and luxuries of life, and, by imparting a knowledge of languages, 
 to remove from the whole human family prejudices and animosities 
 which are characteristics of the dark ages, and disgrace the most 
 savage and untutored tribes. 
 
 The phrase of " chartered libertine," would be infinitely tnore 
 applicable to the present Tariff than to Free Trade for it origi- 
 nated in a selfish monopolizing spirit, forced upon the people un- 
 der the most delusive and meretricious form, by plundering, un- 
 der the authority and corrupt influence of a law, the poor, and 
 enriching the few at the expense of the many. Free Trade 
 is sanctioned by the laws of God and nature; it is pure and un- 
 disguised it benefits both rich and poor ; aided by human en- 
 terprize and ingenuity, it distributes the most precious gifts through- 
 out the Universe; and whilst it rewards the merchant and hardy 
 mariner, it amply repays the husbandman for his labor, and opens a 
 ready market to all classes of mechanics and manufacturers, for their 
 wares and merchandise. 
 
 It is stated in the Address that " aversion to the manufactures 
 has engendered, of late, bitter local prejudices, in parts of those 
 
States in which they do not flourish." There does not exist any 
 spirit of hostility to manufactures, it is solely directed against the 
 Tariff: let the manufacturers be satisfied to confide in their own 
 resources, without the aid of the Government, and they will se- 
 cure the support and good wishes of the Southern States. No 
 man "spurns the golden fleece of his own soil," but every man 
 of spirit and common sense should spurn the band of the op- 
 pressor, and resent the wrongs imposed on his country. The Ad- 
 dress, though replete with talent and ingenuity, cannot make , a 
 convert to " the American System," and must give increased con- 
 fidence to the friends of Free Trade. 
 
 Providence is ever propitious to the efforts of those who seek 
 not to derange the order of the creation the organization of which 
 is so perfect under the Divine wisdom, and, if left to the natural 
 course of events, and the gradual work of time would fulfil all 
 that could be desired by the most righteous, without any regard 
 to the distribution of mankind into different communities, and 
 their original separation by "confusion of tongues." When men 
 deviate from the path of rectitude, and violate the most sacred 
 compacts by usurpations of power, and, by flagrant acts of injus- 
 tice and perfidy, attempt to oppress the poor, and fail to com- 
 plete their schemes of aggrandizement and insatiable avarice, they 
 become too prone to lay the fault to Providence, instead of their 
 own guilt ; and are never at a loss for pretexts to justify their 
 conduct. 
 
 Under the pretence of regulating commerce, Congress has vio- 
 lated the Constitution, by imposing the most oppressive and exor- 
 bitant duties on the useful and necessary articles of life, to give 
 protection to manufactures, and rear up a dangerous influence, 
 and an overgrown monied aristocracy equally injurious to the 
 peace of the Union and the rights of freemen! if the people 
 delay any longer to shake off this thraldom of the mis-called Ameri- 
 can System, if they do not fearlessly resist these acts of oppres- 
 sion and rapacity, they will (to use the language of an able po- 
 litical writer) be taxed more and more to support increasing bur- 
 dens : and the extortion of such taxes will rivet the poverty and 
 ignorance, through which alone these burdens are endured. It 
 is thus that the tyranny of the rulers, and the degradation of the 
 people, must keep equal pace. It is thus that despotism forms 
 a natural alliance with ignorance; blasts every charm of rational 
 nature, and blunts every feeling of the human heart, There is } 
 2 
 
10 
 
 indeed, a point at which the oppression of the most abject be- 
 comes no longer safe. The principles from which the present 
 Tariff law derives its support, are at variance with truth, ho- 
 nor, and justice; they wage war against common sense and hu- 
 manity, and even set at defiance the maxims of the Christian Re- 
 ligion. We need not a lawyer, or a judge, to interpret the Con- 
 stitution for us the merest Tyro who reads, may understand it, 
 and learn that there is no power granted by it to tax the people 
 unequally, unequitable/, and without their consent. The Ameri- 
 can People ought not to suffer themselves to be misled by the 
 pernicious and corrupt policy of foreign governments let us bor- 
 row all which is good from them, and only imitate their examples 
 when their success is gained by wisdom and virtue. Let us not 
 be the dupes of men who adopt stratagem to advance their favor- 
 ite measure, who oppose to the lucid and incontestable precepts 
 of eminent political economists, the sophistry of false philosophy, 
 and endeavor to support their opinions by labored and intricate 
 arithmetical calculations, which serve to perplex without convinc- 
 ing; and who obstinately reject facts and principles, either be- 
 cause they militate against their interests, or are unwilling to ad- 
 mit the validity of them. The advocates of the Restrictive Sys- 
 tem have vainly attempted to prove that our agriculture and com- 
 merce must flourish under this oppressive system of indirect taxa- 
 tion. I cannot persuade myself that they are serious in thinking 
 they can maintain an argument so incongruous and weak. Teach 
 the people of the great commercial and agricultural States a knowl- 
 edge of the true principles of Free Trade, and this fallacious doc- 
 trine will be dispelled like the lurid mist before the brilliant light 
 of the sun. Will the intelligent and patriotic people of Ohio and 
 Kentucky consent to part with the substance for the shadow, and 
 be made instrumental in bringing this free and happy Republic 
 under the yoke of tyranny, by adopting a vile, selfish, Chinese 
 policy, and rejecting the bountiful hand of Providence extended 
 to lavish upon them all the most rich and choice commodities of 
 foreign climes, in exchange (yes, in fair and honest barter) for 
 the redundant products of their fertile and favored soil? Do not 
 the industrious farmers know that, in proportion as the burden of in- 
 direct taxation is increased upon us, our lands and the products of 
 the soil must greatly depreciate? It is sufficient to raise a revenue 
 to answer the wants of the Government, by imposing moderate du- 
 ties, so as not to infringe the Constitution and impoverish the people, 
 
11 
 
 without excluding foreign commerce, and degrading the nation. We 
 care not for heavy duties on wines, and the luxuries of the table ; if 
 the rich consume them, they can afford to pay for them. The peo- 
 ple have a right to demand, in justice to themselves, and from a re- 
 gard to the honor of their country, that the duty on sugar, salt, iron, 
 coarse woollen and cotton goods, cotton bagging, hemp, books, maps, 
 paintings, and many other articles, should be reduced to less than 
 one-half the present rate. I repeat, that the Western States, parti- 
 cularly Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee, have no interest in support- 
 ing the present Tariff. It behooves them to sympathize with their 
 Southern brethren, and put a termination to this licensed system of 
 plunder. The States of Kentucky and Tennessee derive much 
 wealth with their intercourse with the South. I hope, in a future 
 communication, to furnish you with a particular account of the im- 
 mense quantity of stock' which has passed from the West into the 
 States of South Carolina and Georgia, during the last eight months ; 
 and as the following statement, taken from a public journal, may be 
 interesting, I herewith enclose it. The Saluda mountain turnpike 
 is situated in a beautiful and romantic part of South Carolina, about 
 fourteen miles from Buncomb, in North Carolina, and unri- 
 valled by any part of the world for the salubrity of its climate. 
 The stock driven through the Saluda turnpike for the last two years, 
 was noted down in the toll book; the year is computed from the 1st 
 of April to the 31st of March, inclusive. 
 
 1830. 1831. decrease. 
 
 Horses and mules, 4,866 3,293 1,573 
 
 Beef cattle, 2,335 1,790 1,445 
 
 Hogs and sheep, 29,884 26,551 3,333 
 
 Supposing the average value in 1830, to have been $90 a head for 
 horses and mules, $20 a head for beeves, and $7 a head for hogs 
 and the same for 1831, except that hogs might be averaged at $8 a 
 piece the aggregate for the former year will be $682,828, and for 
 the latter $544,578. 
 
 The raising of stock is of immense value to the Western States, 
 and in proportion as the foreign trade of the South increases, and is 
 restored to its original prosperity, in the same ratio will the West ad- 
 vance to wealth and importance. Be assured that no man feels a 
 stronger attachment to every section of the Union, and is more de- 
 sirous of seeing the Federal Compact preserved and restored to its 
 primitive purity, than 
 
 Your Friend and Correspondent, 
 
 HERMANN. 
 
SOUTH CAROLINA, December 30, 1831. 
 
 Dear Sir: At no period of the history of this great Federal 
 Republic, since the Declaration of Independence, has an Ameri- 
 can Congress assembled to legislate on a subject which involves 
 so deeply the sectional feelings and interests of the People of 
 the United States, as the Tariff Law of 1828 theirs is a heavy 
 and a fearful responsibility, and it remains to be seen and known, 
 whether the termination of the session will be welcomed by mil- 
 lions of freemen for services rendered them, or be saluted with 
 the bitter execration of every honest man who abhors tyranny and in- 
 justice. Let us hope that the deliberations of that body will be 
 governed by the good old maxim of " Salus Populi suprema eat 
 lex," and that, unembarrassed by sophistry and intrigue, they will 
 calmly proceed in a straight forward course of honorable legisla- 
 tion, based on principles of equity, and guided by a spirit of con- 
 ciliation. If the majority in Congress have any desire to preserve 
 the Union of the State?, and the kindred feelings which add 
 great moral strength and respectability to that Union, they will 
 not hesitate to repeal the Tariff, or modify it, to comport with 
 the interests and wishes of the people, and to answer "the just 
 and constitutional wants of the Government." The Secretary of 
 the Treasury, in his late and able Report, has well remarked, 
 " that extreme measures adopted by slender majorities, and ob- 
 noxious to the interests and opinions of minorities, powerful in 
 numbers, wealth and intelligence, cannot be persevered in with- 
 out danger to the general harmony, and without undermining the 
 moral power, not merely of the Executive and Legislative Depart- 
 ments, but also that of the Judiciary which may be called to sustain 
 the authority, without the option of deciding on the expediency of 
 the measure." 
 
 . The President is not ignorant of the perilous and critical situa- 
 tion of the Union, and I will do him the justice to say, that I believe 
 he is sincerely desirous of reconciling the conflicting interests of the 
 Northern and Southern States, and he has evinced this disposition, by 
 recommending a modification of the Tariff, as the surest means of 
 removing all cause of discontent. 
 
 No harm can arise from heavy imposts on mere luxuries of the 
 table, such as are in general use among the rich but on all arti- 
 cles consumed by the poor, more particularly iron, salt, sugar, hemp, 
 
1,3 
 
 cotton and woollen goods, the duties should be reduced to at least 
 one-half of their present rates. All pretext for persevering in the 
 Restrictive System is at an end. The National Debt (if the plan 
 recommended by the Secretary of the Treasury be adopted) will 
 speedily be extinct. The Public Lands are rapidly increasing in 
 value, and great sums will be derived from the sale of them. 
 Can it be from apathy, ignorance, or fear, that the People have 
 submitted so tamely to an unjust and unequal system of indirect 
 taxation ? Do they claim to be freemen, and boast of their char- 
 tered fights? Among the enlightened, these motives do not ex- 
 ist. The champions of the American System may gain proselytes 
 by working on the prejudices and passions of weak minds, and 
 tempting the avarice of the sordid and uninformed ; their pseudo 
 philosophy must vanish like the " baseless fabric of a vision," 
 when opposed by the lucid and solid principles of Free Trade. 
 The Restrictive System is a compound of fraud, corruption, and 
 oppression. It is the genuine offspring of monopoly, reared by 
 a monied aristocracy, and cherished for the support of a favored 
 few. I.t is a system worthy of the dark ages of bigotry and feu- 
 dalism. 
 
 The doctrine of Free Trade advances rapidly with the march 
 of Intellect, and keeps pace with the progress of Christianity. 
 The same Providence which directs the steps of the pious pilgrim, 
 ordains that Nations (without regard to geographical distinctions 
 and dissimilarity of language) should do all possible good to each 
 other : the principles of Christianity impose it on them as a sa- 
 cred duty ; these same principles, like a mandate from the Su- 
 preme Director of the Universe, enjoin mankind to practice for- 
 bearance and mutual concession, and has created the ocean as a 
 great highway, whereby the people of each quarter of the globe 
 may exchange, on terms of reciprocity, the natural products of the 
 soil, and the works of human ingenuity and labor. According to an 
 eminent and much admired author, " the more extended and the more 
 constant intercourse, which the improvements in commerce and 
 the art of navigation have opened among the distant quarters of 
 the globe, cannot fail to operate in undermining local and national 
 prejudices, and imparting to the whole species the intellectual acqui- 
 sitions of each particular community." 
 
 It would be needless for me to enumerate all the great writers on 
 Political Economy whose works are so familiar to you. They have 
 dwelt with force and perspicuity on the blessings derived from 
 
H 
 
 Free Trade, and have exposed the fallacy of that policy which 
 the arbitrary and corrupt Governments of Europe have adopted to 
 fill an exhausted treasury ; they have clearly pointed out the ma- 
 ny evils which result from laws imposing burdens on the people 
 by exacting exorbitant duties on all such articles as they are most 
 in want of, and have proved, by sound incontestable reasoning, 
 the imbecility of measures (no matter under what plausible title they 
 are disguised) which frustrate the wise arrangements of Providence, 
 by deranging the natural course of trade, perplexing the merchant, 
 and creating embarrassments, which, whilst they implicate the 
 character of the Government, produce a most injurious and paralyz- 
 ing effect on the various branches of labor connected both with agri- 
 culture and commerce. 
 
 I am yours, &-c. 
 
 HERMANN. 
 
 SOUTH CAROLINA, February %7th, 1832. 
 
 My Dear Sir : I hasten to give you the intelligence that the spi- 
 rit'which has so long existed in South Carolina, in opposition to the 
 Tariff, is daily acquiring strength, and I trust that there will shortly 
 be but one opinion on the subject of our grievances, and of the ne- 
 cessity of fearlessly resisting the usurpations of the Federal Govern- 
 ment. What surprises me, is; that so many disinterested, amiable, 
 and intelligent men, should be found, in the Northern States, advo- 
 cating a system of commercial restriction, and building their faith 
 on the speculative opinions of visionary experimentalists, or siding 
 with men whose eager desire to acquire wealth induces them to sa- 
 crifice the best feelings of their nature, and disregard the moral pre- 
 cepts of the Christian Religion. It is much to be lamented, that the 
 worthy and independent yeomanry of your beautiful State should 
 sanction measures which owe their origin to the corrupt policy of 
 Asiatic and European despotism a policy which can only be com- 
 pared to the pestilential blast of the Syrian Sirocco, that withers the 
 fairest fruits of the earth a policy at variance with the laws of 
 God and nature. Have the honest and industrious German farmers 
 so soon forgot the good old German maxim of " Die Handelschaft 
 ist des reichthums mutter ?" [Trade is the mother of wealth] 
 
15 
 
 and do they not know that, as long as they are tributary to the pre- 
 sent Tariff Law, they will be at the mercy of the manufacturers 1 
 their lands and produce must depreciate, and their wealth will, of 
 course, be greatly diminished, with the extinction of foreign trade. 
 Should the Tariff be persevered in, and the protecting duties on all 
 the useful and necessary articles be retained and submitted to by the 
 North, then I solemnly aver that the Union cannot last. At the 
 South, we will no longer submit to be oppressed. Sir, the crisis has 
 arrived, when Congress must not be deaf to our remonstrances. We 
 are inspired with confidence, by confiding in a righteous cause. 
 We shall trust to our own energies, in hopes of more prosperous 
 days. 
 
 We are daily becoming more and more united at the South. We 
 cling to the Constitution as to the ark of our political salvation. 
 Our motto is, " Semper paratus et semper Jidelis" Rather than 
 wear the accursed Tariff-yoke much longer, we will resist. Believe 
 me, sir, this is no empty gasconade. For my own part, so sacred do 
 I consider the cause of Free Trade, that I am willing to go with my 
 friends in good or evil fortune ; come what may, I will never abandon 
 them ; our honour is pledged ; we must not retreat that would be 
 a dastard's part. I cannot yet persuade myself that there are men 
 so silly, so wicked, and so heartless, as to sacrifice the peace of the 
 Union, and, by persisting in error, drive the people of the South to 
 desperation ; but when the trial comes, we will meet it like men 
 should do when opposed to tyranny and injustice and we will not 
 disgrace our ancestors. The smiles of our patriot Fair, with more 
 than Spartan virtue and Spartan heroism, will bless our efforts; the 
 spirits of our departed patriots of the Revolution will consecrate our 
 Free Trade Banner, and lead us on to triumph. 
 
 I will now close this brief communication by assuring you that 
 there can be no stronger proof of the ardent and sincere feeling of 
 the people of this State, in favor of Free Trade, than what has been 
 manifested by their representatives, in the Convention which closed 
 on Saturday the 25th. The Chief Magistrate of South Carolina 
 presided, with all that dignity and urbanity so characteristic of a re- 
 fined gentleman. It was to me a triumph of feeling I did not ex- 
 pect to enjoy, to have an opportunity of beholding so numerous and 
 highly distinguished a body of Delegates, from all parts of the State 
 from the mountains to the seaboard. Our upper country is full of 
 chivalry and talent. Col. Preston spoke with all the dignity and elo- 
 quence of a Cicero : his language is classical his manner is elegant 
 
10 
 
 and impressive his oratory is of the highest order and, when he 
 became animated, he enraptured the feelings of his auditors ; as 
 much so as I can possibly conceive Patrick Henry must have done 
 in his best days. The author of the Crisis expressed himself with 
 all the impassioned feeling of a Brutus : he was extremely eloquent 
 his words are suited to his action, forcible and interesting his 
 style of speaking correct, and his elocution purely classical. I re- 
 fer you to the Mercury, and Free Trade Evening Post, for a particu- 
 lar account of the proceedings of this Convention. I do not mean to 
 flatter when I assert that I never remember to have seen, in any 
 part of Europe or the United States, a more respectable assemblage 
 of citizens; the most perfect decorum was observed; the number of 
 persons collected was computed at three thousand ; nearly one-half 
 were ladies. The three venerable patriots of the Revolution, Sum- 
 ter,* Hamilton, and Simons, were prevented from attending, by indis- 
 position and their great age. These brave and virtuous men, in 
 whose hearts the spirit of the year '76 is deeply implanted, (I thank 
 God,) are spared, by a wise and merciful Providence, to animate the 
 sons of Carolina to the resistance of tyranny. Did you ever know a 
 Revolutionary patriot who was not an enemy to oppression, and an 
 advocate of Free Trade ? The same may be said of the most enlight- 
 ened statesmen and the greatest moral writers of the age. 
 I am yours truly, 
 
 HERMANN. 
 
 SOUTH CAROLINA, March 8th, 1832. 
 
 Dear Sir : I must claim your indulgence for intruding on your 
 notice a subject somewhat irrelevant to what I intended should have 
 been the purport of this communication. I cannot, as a friend of 
 Free Trade, patiently submit to the insidious and sarcastic attacks 
 which have been directed by some of the champions of the Ameri- 
 can System against the vital interests of the South, by ascribing 
 their impoverished condition to the evil effects of negro slavery, and 
 the planting life, instead of an odious and oppressive Tariff Law. 
 
 It is easy to refute the fallacy of their remarks. A cause must be 
 desperate when flimsy pretexts and mere surmise are its only sup- 
 
 * The illustrious Sumterdied on the first of June, nearly a century old. 
 
17 
 
 port ; and it is really absurd to suppose, that the prosperity of the 
 Southern States has declined from the great increase of the slave 
 population; the prosperous situation of IJavana and New Orleans 
 are sufficient to prove the futility of such an observation. The slaves 
 of those cities constitute the laboring class, and are by far the 
 majority of the inhabitants. St. Petersburg, the great and wealthy 
 metropolis of the most powerful nation on the globe, has a full 
 share of them ; and the serfs compose a great part of the popula- 
 tion of the Russian Empire. Smyrna, which is the most considerable 
 city of the Turkish Empire, abounds in. slaves : according to the au- 
 thority of Mr. Hobhouse, it continues to increase, and in 1809 was 
 said to contain nearly a hundred and fifty thousand inhabitants ; and 
 he states that, previous to 1675, it had been partially destroyed six 
 times by earthquakes. Smyrna is described as having a spacious 
 and secure harbor, and surrounded by a fertile country ; and yet, in 
 spite of slavery, incursions of the sea, earthquakes, and annual visits 
 of the plague, that city continues to prosper. The most formidable 
 nations of antiquity were possessed of slaves. Was Rome less war- 
 like, less rich and enlightened, because slavery was sanctioned by 
 her laws ? Did it impede the march of intellect ? Or how could she 
 have produced such men as a Pliny, a Tacitus, a Livy, a Horace, a 
 Virgil and a Cicero. It did not interfere with the progress of the 
 arts and sciences ; which were so munificently patronized ; or with 
 her gigantic strides to power and conquest. Why blend the sub- 
 ject of negro slavery, at this particular juncture, with the Tariff, 
 unless to hold it out as a bugbear, to alarm the weak and timid, and 
 cause a division in favor of high duties, manufactories, monopolies, 
 smuggling, and all the evils which this prolific American System has 
 given birth to. 
 
 I regret that even in the good old State of Virginia, there are so 
 many respectable and intelligent men who have depicted, in the most 
 gloomy colors, the distress of the white population, and attributed it 
 to negro slavery ; but the truth is, the roving disposition of our 
 people, their fondness of novelty, and a natural desire to benefit by 
 a change of residence, have induced thousands to emigrate from Vir- 
 ginia and the Carolinas to the Western and South-western States. 
 Not so with Georgia ; which has increased more rapidly in popula- 
 tion than any other State of the Union, (except New York) ; espe- 
 cially when we consider that not more than a century has elapsed 
 since the landing of General Oglethorpe with the first settlers from 
 England, and she now has a population of more than half a million 
 '3 
 
18 
 
 of souls. The States of Kentucky, Tennessee, and Alabama have 
 been formed by emigrants, chiefly from Virginia and the Carolinas. 
 The spirit of emigration still exists, and at this very time, numerous 
 poor families, as well as planters owning from twenty to an hundred 
 slaves, are moving to the South-west, to settle on more fertile lands 
 than those they abandon. 
 
 In a country of such vast extent as the United States, and pos- 
 sessed of some hundred millions of acres of productive and unculti- 
 vated land, inducements to emigrants will continue for a century to 
 come, particularly with thepeople of the South, whose occupations 
 and habits are entirely opposed to the drudgery of a manufacturing 
 life, and who seek competency, independence, and wealth, from 
 commercial and agricultural pursuits. 
 
 As to any apprehension of a general insurrection of the negroes, 
 there can be none ; partial disturbances may sometimes take place 
 from a want of prudence, vigilance, and proper energy on the part 
 of the white population. A half dozen of well armed and reso- 
 lute men might have prevented the tragical affair of Southampton, 
 when a fanatical negro monster, at the head of a ferocious banditti, 
 destroyed many valuable lives. Negro slaves should be kept in strict 
 subordination, but yet treated with great humanity ; and those per- 
 sons who seek to effect their immediate emancipation are their worst 
 enemies. This must be left to the gradual work of time ; a prema- 
 ture abolition would not only create general distress among the white 
 inhabitants, but might eventuate in a total destruction of the negro 
 race in the United States. Justice and humanity forbid it. Under 
 the laws of the Southern States, negro slaves are considered as pro- 
 perty ; and that man who would dare venture to deprive me of my 
 property by force, I should consider as a personal enemy, and resist 
 him at the hazard of my life. This subject has been most ably dis- 
 cussed by a very sensible writer, in the Richmond Enquirer, under 
 the signature of Appamatox : he has taken a most correct and com- 
 prehensive view of it, sufficient to convince every impartial man of 
 the danger, impolicy, and injustice of agitating the question of eman- 
 cipation. 
 
 The Southern States do not complain of negro slavery, and desire 
 no interference with their interests, which they are both willing and 
 able to defend. I repeat that it is the Tariff which oppresses them, 
 and they never can prosper until the Federal Government abandons 
 that iniquitous system, which is rapidly exhausting their resources ; 
 restricting our foreign commerce, arid forcing our people from the 
 
19 
 
 land of their nativity. Let the Federal Government restore to us 
 the Free Trade System of the days of Washington, and give to us 
 what God and nature intended we should enjoy, or the Union will 
 be but a phantom, from which we can derive no good. Let us have 
 the restoration of that unrestricted commerce, " to the influence of 
 which," in the language of a distinguished writer,* " we owe that 
 mild revolution, which banished the fierceness, the turbulence, the 
 darkness, and the iron slavery of the feudal times ; and substituted 
 the social virtues, the lights of science, the liberal feelings, and the 
 gentle subordination of FREEDOM." 
 
 If the violent advocates of high duties would but relax a little of 
 their intractable spirit, and, yielding to the wishes of their Southern 
 brethren, consent to such a reduction as would give us a Tariff not 
 for the purpose of protecting manufactures, but solely for revenue, 
 and to answer the moderate wants of the Government, then, indeed, 
 would the value of the Union be placed beyond all calculation ; we 
 should hear no more of sectional jealousies ; the intrigues of mer- 
 cenary and evil-minded politicians ; or the bickerings of malcontents : 
 the halcyon days of a Washington would revive with the return of 
 harmony ; the only struggle between the North and the South would 
 be which should do for the other the utmost possible good. Com- 
 merce, agriculture, and manufactures would prosper ; the busy 
 scenes of commercial life would animate and enrich every section 
 of the United States ; and greater facilites would be afforded to the 
 poor and industrious emigrants from Europe to seek an asylum in a 
 country which offers a vast field for their enterprize. 
 Your obedient servant,' 
 
 HERMANN.t 
 
 SOUTH CAROLINA,- March I5t7i, 1832. 
 
 Dear Sir : The voice of the people of the Anti-Tariff States ur- 
 gently calls for a redress of their wrongs ; it feelingly appeals to 
 the good sense of their fellow-citizens, and solemnly invokes the 
 Supreme Author of ajl ^Good to shield them from injustice and 
 
 * Robert Walsh. 
 
 f This communication was intended for the Banner, but the publication of 
 it was omitted. 
 
 
20 
 
 oppression. The friends of Free Trade await, with extreme soli- 
 citude, the result of the deliberations of the Federal Government 
 on the Tariff. Although a great discrepancy of opinion prevails 
 as to the expediency of reducing the duties on particular articles 
 manufactured and produced in the United States, with a view to 
 a revenue to meet the just and constitutional wants of the Go- 
 vernment, yet all parties coincide in declaring the necessity of some 
 modification. However great the obliquity which has been attempt- 
 ed to be cast on the friends of Free Trade, yet it is known, throughout 
 this Republic, that they require nothing but what is just and reason- 
 able. Their interests have been sacrificed to a selfish and sinister 
 policy ; they have borne the evils of the " American System," until 
 patience is exhausted, and submission becomes almost criminal. I 
 bewail the infatuation which exists among the most prominent cham- 
 pions of the Tariff, who insist on retaining the protective duties, and 
 have evinced a desire to augment them. I will not use the language 
 of reproach, but I admonish them not to disregard the murmurs of 
 an indignant and aggrieved people. Those who know how to value 
 the inestimable blessings of foreign commerce, will indeed be debas- 
 ed, if they do not fearlessly resist any further encroachment on their 
 rights. Free Trade, like a pillar of light, will yet guide those who 
 are enveloped in Tariff darkness, to a knowledge of their true inter- 
 ests. A restoration of foreign commerce, unembarrassed by heavy 
 and vexatious imposts, would give an impulse to every branch of 
 American industry. Agriculture, now suffering, would revive and 
 prosper, attended by a general improvement in all the mechanic arts. 
 It only requires to be released from the present unnatural and flagi- 
 tious system, to have the commercial energies of the nation fully de- 
 veloped, and to witness the rapid advancement of navigation, with 
 a return of more happy times to the inhabithants of our Southern 
 towns. 
 
 An eminent writer on Political Ecenomy* has, with truth, remark- 
 ed, that, "under a system of perfectly free commerce, each country 
 naturally devotes its capital and labor to such employments as are 
 most beneficial to each. This pursuit of individual advantage is ad- 
 mirably connected with the universal good of the whole. By stimulat- 
 ing industry, by rewarding ingenuity, and by using most efficacious- 
 ly the peculiar powers bestowed by nature, it distributes labor most 
 effectively and most economically ; while, by increasing the general 
 
 * David Ricardo. 
 
21 
 
 mass of productions, it diffuses general benefit, and binds together, 
 by one common tie of interest and intercourse, the universal society 
 of nations throughout the civilized world." 
 
 How purely philanthropic and benevolent are these principles ! 
 How widely opposed to the miserable doctrines advanced in support 
 of the Tariff, which has not a good feature to recommend it ! It is 
 strange that any section of this country should be so tamely submis- 
 sive to the Restrictive System, and that any portion of the population 
 should be so deluded as to conceive it beneficial to the general inter- 
 ests of the people of the United States. A Fenelon, a Franklin, a 
 Dugald Stewart, were men of consummate virtue and erudition, and 
 possessed of a perfect knowledge of mankind. They ably advocated 
 the principles of Free Trade ; they illustrated their doctrines with 
 philosophical accuracy, which have been as much respected, to this 
 day, as were ever the writings of Sir Isaac Newton. But it seems we 
 have a new race of philosophers, sprung up since the days of Wash- 
 ington, who are determined to govern the good people of this Repub- 
 lic by their rules of arithmetic and morality. 
 
 Every disinterested and reflecting man must condemn the Tariff, 
 as unjust and partial. Smuggling, fraud, and perjury, constitute its 
 immorality ; and, not the least of all the evils derived from it is the 
 torch of discord which has been kindled among a people whose po- 
 litical salvation depends on union. These are inconteslible facts, and 
 should be universally promulgated. The complaints of the people 
 of the Southern States have been too long unheeded and regarded 
 as idle clamor, and their means of resistance treated with scorn : but 
 calumny is the coward's weapon, and never more despicable than 
 when turned against the virtuous and brave. The resources of the 
 South have been much underrated. Fanatics and alarmists have 
 endeavored to work on the feelings of the timid, in the slave-holding 
 States, by an attempt to blend with the American System an impro- 
 per and officious interference to regulate the condition of the ne- 
 groes, for the purpose of diverting the white population from the evils 
 of the Tariff. A vain and silly effort ! The people of these States 
 are fully capable of regulating their own affairs ; they are neither defi- 
 cient in moral or physical powers, and are powerful enough to crush 
 domestic foes, and protect their rights and property from invasion. 
 Blessed with a genial clime and fertile soil, they are chiefly instru- 
 mental in providing the Government with the means of conducting 
 the fiscal concerns of the nation. It would, indeed, be the extreme 
 of folly to expect the agricultural States to abandon all the blessings 
 
22 
 
 of foreign commerce, and reject the gifts of a bounteous Providence, 
 which has wisely ordered that nations, like men, shall be dependent on 
 each other. The rich staples of the South, consisting principally of cot- 
 ton, rice, and tobacco, are eagerly sought after for European markets, 
 as they are superior in quality to similar products of other countries ; 
 and the preference will be given to the United States, from the faci- 
 lities afforded to mercantile transactions by a liberal policy of Go- 
 vernment. Without this, trade must necessarily dwindle into in- 
 significance, and then farewell a long farewell to all our great- 
 ness. 
 
 It is useless, at this time, to enter into a detailed account of the 
 distresses of the Southern States, occasioned by the Tariff; they are 
 too notorious, and severely felt, to need a repetition. I cannot give a 
 greater proof of the value of the trade of Europe, to the South, than 
 by stating, that, out of a million of bales of cotton, Great JBritain 
 alone is a purchaser of six hundred thousand bags (no mean cus- 
 tomer, it must be granted.) Not less than two hundred thousand 
 bags are annually exported to France and Germany. And, at the 
 very extent, the home consumption, in every possible way, does not 
 annually exceed two hundred thousand bags. Out of the crop of 
 rice, amounting to about one hundred and thirty thousand tierces, 
 at least forty thousand are annually exported to Germany and the 
 Netherlands, twenty thousand to Great Britain, and as nearly as 
 much to the ports of France ; the trade of Cuba, which is of vast 
 importance to the United States, takes off from sixteen to twenty 
 thousand barrels annually. Of tobacco, supposing the crop of the 
 United Srates to amount to eighty-five thousand hhds. which I be- 
 lieve to be correct Great Britain, Germany, and the Netherlands, 
 take about an equal quantity, amounting, in all, to sixty thousand hhds.; 
 leaving only twenty-five thousand to be shipped to other countries and 
 for home consumption. 
 
 It is from these great and profitable markets that the champions of 
 an oppressive Tariff wish to force the sons of the soil, and render 
 them tributary to the lords of the loom and spinning-jenny. The 
 combination could not have been successful at Harrisburg, without 
 doing something to secure the co-operation of the sugar planters 
 and the proprietors of iron mines; and, accordingly, heavy imposts 
 have been levied on foreign sugar and iron. Even salt, so neces- 
 sary to the health of man and beast, pays a tax of ten cents per 
 bushel. 
 
 You have given, in one of your numbers of the Banner, (Volume 
 
23 
 
 II, page 320,) an authentic table of the duties paid in Canada by the 
 subjects of Great Britain. By this statement, it appears that the popu- 
 lation of the Canadas are infinitely more favored than the people of 
 the United States. The Canadian subjects of his Britannic Majesty 
 pay a duty of only 2J per centum on cotton and woollen goods, the 
 same on hardware ; hemp is free of duty, as well as salt, and sugar 
 pays only one cent per pound. In the United States, we are taxed 
 from 30 to 150 per centum on cotton goods, and 50 to 250 per cent, 
 on woollens, hardware 27J per centum, hemp $60 per ton, sugar 3 
 cents per pound. 
 
 It would, however, be superflous to add any thing further on this 
 subject, as many sensible and judicious remarks have recently been 
 made on it by the estimable author of the Boston Memorial, in the 
 fourth No. of his " Exposition of Evidence in support of the Memori- 
 al to Congress." This worthy patriot has disclosed, throughout his 
 long and faithful services in the cause of Free Trade, an honest, 
 fearless, and zealous spirit, worthy of the days of those illustrious 
 men, Samuel Adams and John Hancock. 
 
 I am ever yours, 
 
 HERMANN. 
 
 SOUTH CAROLINA, March 30*A, 1832. 
 
 Dear Sir : If any man had, twenty, or even ten, years ago, ven- 
 tured to assert that the Federal Government would be justified, in a 
 time of profound peace with the nations of the world, in maintain ing 
 a burdensome Tariff upon the people of the United States, to protect 
 manufactures, I should have considered him as laboring under a 
 strange delusion. The nation, however, is not only on amicable 
 terms with Europe, but is nearly free of debt, and possessed of some 
 hundred millions of acres* of land for sale. Yet such is the per- 
 verseness of human nature, that men, under all these favorable cir- 
 cumstances, are to be found advocating the necessity of supporting 
 the oppressive system of indirect taxation as the " settled policy of 
 
 * It is supposed, that the whole amount consists of a thousand and eighty 
 millions of acres, a part of which has been surveyed, 
 
 
24 
 
 the nation ;" and, in case the free sons of America should attempt 
 to resist this odious tyranny, they are thereatened with an appeal to 
 the sword and bayonet, and at a time when we have a right to ex- 
 pect the utmost moderation and equity from the Government. 
 Surely, sir, this threat must be nothing but the effusion of an esprit 
 egare; it is too ludicrous and quixotic! The gallant champions of 
 the loom and the spinning-jenny cannot be serious ; for they certain- 
 ly know that this is not a nation of slaves, from whom the most ab- 
 ject submission is required, to an unjust and unnatural law, 
 originating from a spirit of faction and avarice. Has it, indeed, 
 come to this unhappy pass, that every candid and independent citi- 
 zen, who openly avows his hostility to a grinding and injurious policy, 
 so repugnant to the principles and interests of freemen, should, in 
 a language of contumely, be denounced, by political adventurers 
 and aspirants for popular favor, as foreigners and aliens at heart ? 
 And must abuse be substituted for argument? 
 
 Depend upon it, this/rce cannot succeed ; the advocates of Free 
 Trade will not be compelled to abandon a just cause, either by in- 
 timidation or ribaldry ; the sophistry of our opponents will be 
 destroyed by the light of reason. Our doctrines are based on the 
 sacred principles of Christianity ; they emanate from truth and hu- 
 manity ; they require no specious name to bring them into notoriety ; 
 they consist of " a reciprocation of kind affections, expressions, and 
 actions ;" we do not wish to astound by high-sounding titles, or to 
 build our faith upon a system of vexatious taxation, that would dis- 
 grace an Asiatic despot. It is not by groping the way through a 
 maze of metaphysical disquisition that we seek to make converts : 
 ours is a far nobler object. It is to warn our fellow-citizens, in 
 every section of the Union, against the danger of monopolies, united 
 to an overgrown monied aristocracy against the immoral influence 
 of injudicious Tariff Laws, which introduce fraud, perjury, poverty, 
 and smuggling. 
 
 As freemen, it becomes our duty to protest against the acts of an 
 arbitrary majority ; and I thank God that no alien or sedition law 
 exists, to forbid the freedom of opinion. The name of Albert Gal- 
 latin if from no other cause is rendered illustrious by his oppo- 
 sition to those abominable bills, and will be transmitted with honor 
 to a grateful posterity ; the eminent services rendered by him to his 
 adopted country, are generally acknowledged. A late distinguished 
 and talented Virginian, in passing a just eulogium on his character, 
 has said: "The accuracy of his information, the extent of his 
 
If 
 
 knowledge, the perspicuity of his style, the moderation of his tem- 
 per, and the irresistible energy of his reasoning powers, render him 
 the ablest advocate that ever appeared in the cause of truth and 
 liberty. Patient and persevering, temperate and firm, no error es- 
 capes his vigilance no calumny provokes his passions. To expose 
 the blunders and absurdities of his adversaries, is the only revenge 
 he will condescend to take for their insolent invectives. Serene in 
 the midst of clamors, he exhibits the arguments of his opponents in 
 their genuine colors, he divests them of the tinsel of declamation 
 and the cobwebs of sophistry, he detects the most plausible errors, 
 he exposes the most latent absurdities, he holds the " mirror up to 
 folly," and reasons upon every subject with the readiness of intui- 
 tion, and the certainty of demonstration." The Memorial of the 
 Free Trade Convention, to Congress, is a strong and satisfactory 
 proof that time and age have not in the smallest degree impaired the 
 faculties cf Mr. Gallatin; this great and venerable statesman 
 whose merits entitle him to the most dignified office in the gift of 
 the people whose mind is unsullied by prejudice, and untrammelled 
 by intrigue has, in devoting his time to the rights and interests of 
 his fellow-citizens, fully exposed the fallacy of the Restrictive Sys- 
 tem. He very properly denominates that the true American System 
 which, free of restrictions, and permitting every man to pursue those 
 occupations for which he was best fitted, had, in less than two cen- 
 turies, converted the wilderness into an earthly paradise, and out of 
 a few persecuted emigrants had created a prosperous, happy, and 
 powerful nation. 
 
 It is admitted by the most erudite writers on Political Economy, 
 that the Government which unwisely, and, indeed, flagitiously, in- 
 terferes with the designs of Providence, to regulate the destinies of 
 a people, without a due consideration to their political and moral 
 welfare, and fails to impart to every class equal immunities, not only 
 transgresses against the beneficent laws of God, but violates a sacred 
 trust, the power of governing with the most perfect regard to the 
 interests, happiness, and equal rights of the governed. It would 
 evidently seem criminal in a Government established by a free 
 people as the safeguard of their liberties, not only to protect and 
 favor particular interests, and to lose sight of the general good there- 
 by producing jealousies, sectional distinctions, and discontent but, 
 moreover, by imposing heavy restrictions on foreign commerce, di- 
 minish, if not gradually destroy, that natural intercourse the Almigh- 
 ty ordained should be cultivated, for wise purposes, to diffuse more 
 4 
 
26 
 
 geneially those blessings which lie in his mercy can bestow, and 
 which he has left to the industry and enterprize of man to obtain 
 by honest means, and without the tyrannical abuse of power, in any 
 or every part of the habitable globe. 
 
 In the words of a learned and liberal writer in the 16th No. of 
 the Southern Review " We must declare all legislation which is 
 not necessary, to be, ipso facto, oppressive, and therefore unconsti- 
 tutional. With regard especially to restrictions on commerce, im- 
 posed with a view to foster domestic industry, they are, if there be 
 any virtue in Political Economy, the exercise of a power which no 
 free Government can be supposed to possess, without a contradiction 
 in terms 3 power to levy a tax, without an adequate object to 
 take away a greater amount of property from some classes, in 
 order to secure, without any benefit to the public, a smaller amount 
 of property to others." 
 
 " The American System," as it is whimsically termed consists 
 of principles which constitute a policy altogether foreign ; for, what 
 system can be truly American, which fosters a spirit of monoply 
 which encourages a lavish expenditure of the public treasure to pro- 
 mote internal improvements in some favored parts of the United 
 States, and not in others which benefits a few, at the expense of 
 the many which exhausts the scanty means of the poor man, by 
 taxing heavily every article he consumes ? Such is more especially 
 the case under the operation of the present Tariff, by which every 
 honest and disinterested man in this great Republic, is grievously 
 oppressed. The people are daily becoming more enlightened on 
 the doctrines of Free Trade ; and the period is rapidly approaching, 
 when it will be as dangerous for the Federal Government to attempt 
 to pass an unjust and oppressive Tariff Law, for the protection of 
 manufactures, as to propose to establish Monarchy. We seek not 
 authorities from the laws of ancient Rome, or of England, to induce 
 us to approve of measures more in character with the Government 
 of a Roman Emperor, or a modern Autocrat, than characteristic of 
 the Republican reputation of the free, sovereign, and independent, 
 States of America. 
 
 God grant that the peace and happiness of the people of this Union 
 may yet be preserved, by an equitable spirit of compromise and 
 that recriminations, and the bitterness of party feeling, may yield to 
 harmony and unanimity ! 
 
 Yours, &c. 
 
 HERMANN. 
 

 SOUTH CAROLINA, April 23r/, 1832. 
 
 My Dear Sir : I wish most sincerely I could say, to the re- 
 doubtable champions of the Tariff, in the words of a facetious au- 
 thor 
 
 " I come to bid the hatchet's labor cease, 
 
 "And smoke with friends the calumet of peace !" 
 
 Secure in their own ideal strength, and lost to a proper sense of fp 
 justice and reason, they have rejected all overtures of an honorable 
 compromise and accommodation ; but the spirit they would fain at- 
 tempt to crush will no longer yield in tame submission to the will of 
 despotism; with Herculean vigor it must be exerted, to rescue 
 the Republic from degradation, and arrest the mad career of a do- 
 mineering majority. There should be no wavering, no temporizing 
 about the course to be pursued much depends on decision of char- 
 acter. It is criminal to enact a law which, by its usurous and tyran- 
 nic operation, aims a mortal blow at the liberties of the country ; and, 
 as the Constitution of the United States was framed with the most 
 perfect regard to the security of equal rights to the people of every 
 State of the Union, and granting no advantages to any one class, 
 over another, therefore the Tariff Law of 1828 should be considered 
 a flagrant violation of the Constitution, and ought to be abrogated. 
 An enlightened people cannot be long cajoled and hectored into a 
 passive surrender of their dearest privileges. The truth cannot be 
 concealed, that a spirit of faction and monopoly has gained a fearful 
 ascendency, and has not only diminished the hard-earned wages 
 of the poor, but threatens to destroy the peace and happiness of 
 the Union. Must the honest and unsuspicious be sacrificed to the 
 inordinate ambition of intriguing politicians ? Must some millions 
 of people be plundered, for the support of a few hundred rich proprie- 
 tors of sugar plantations and iron works, and for the protection of 
 wealthy manufacturers and their partisans. The planters of the 
 South, the yeomanry of the North, the enterprizing mariners, the 
 laborers, blacksmiths, and other industrious mechanics, are all suf- 
 ferers under this odious and oppressive system of indirect taxation. 
 The merchants, too, unable to sustain the pressure of the times, will 
 sink into poverty and obscurity with the gradual extinction of foreign 
 commerce. Give to these men justice, and an equal distribution of 
 benefits rising from a free and impartial administration of the Fede- 
 ral Government they ask no more and, when their country is en- 
 
dangered by a foreign foe, they will be ready to pour out their pre- 
 cious blood in her defence. Let Congress no longer delay to re- 
 dress their wrongs, and leave them to an uninterrupted enjoyment of 
 the fruits of their labor, uncontrolled and untrammelled, by corrupt 
 legislation. From magnanimity, patriotism, benevolence, much may 
 be derived ; 
 
 " But, as for av'rice, 'tis the very devil, 
 '* The fount, alas ! of every evil 
 
 " The cancer of the heart, the worst of ills 
 " Wherever sown, luxuriantly it thrives, 
 " No flow'r of virtue near it thrives 
 
 " Like aconite, where'er it spreads it kills." 
 
 Avarice is certainly the ruling principle of the American System, the 
 main-spring of the complicated machine and, when put in motion, 
 it involves all who are unwilling to resist its powerful influence, and 
 brings them within the vortex. Even some of the quondam advo- 
 vocates of Free Trade have not escaped. Such is the mutability of 
 poor human nature, that it is not always proof against temptation. 
 That enlightened patriot and able writer on political economy, Mr. 
 Lee, of Boston, has very justly observed, that "There cannot be the 
 smallest doubt, on the mind of any impartial man, that it is the set- 
 tled determination of the party we are resisting to carry the existing 
 system up to entire prohibition. The question now at issue (says 
 Mr. Lee) is not only whether we shall be relieved from our present 
 burdens, but whether we shall be oppressed with heavy additions to 
 them : for, if the principle be established that certain classes are en- 
 titled to tax the nation for the benefit of their particular pursuits, 
 the same privilege must, in common justice, be extended to all who 
 may apply for it." The writer has also observed " The truth is, 
 the whole system of taxation is maintained by a few thousand capi- 
 talists and politicians, who exercise the same control over the legis- 
 lation of the country, as is wielded over the Parliamentary enact- 
 ments of England by a few thousand landholders, who, by means 
 of corn-laws, tax the poor man's loaf, that they may riot in 
 luxury." 
 
 The soundness of these remarks cannot be denied, and every day 
 furnishes us with additional proofs of their accuracy. It now only 
 remains to be clearly ascertained whether Congress, in accordance 
 with the opinion of Mr. Lee, will persist in adhering to the present 
 iniquitous system of protecting duties. If they do, the Southern 
 States will no doubt refuse to submit, and the dispute will quickly 
 
29 
 
 be determined by disunion or nullification ! The Constitution must 
 be restored to its pristine purity, and guarded from future violation, 
 or the Union can never be secure. It is proposed to repeal the du- 
 ties on figs, raisins, currants, dates, tamarinds, capers, olives, juni- 
 per berries, nutmegs, macaroni, nuts, and many other trifling articles 
 seldom sought after by the major part of the population of the United 
 States. What a liberal offering to the rich man, to repeal the du- 
 ties on the luxuries of his table! What a wonderful attempt at con- 
 ciliation, originating in the combined efforts of the master spirits^of 
 the American System ! But no tender mercies and charities for the 
 poor ! No solicitude for their welfare ! They must be compelled to 
 pay most exorbitantly on woollen and cotton goods, on hemp, iron, 
 sugar, salt, and other most useful and necessary articles. A piece 
 of flannel which costs in England 10 cents per yard, is subject to a 
 duty of 12 cents, (or 120 per centum,) so that the importation of 
 the very article most needed by the poor, to protect them from the 
 inclemency of the weather, is almost prohibited, that the manufac- 
 turer may have an immense profit on the sale of his goods. If this 
 is not cruelty and injustice, I know not what is. How long is this 
 political juggle to continue? What are the grand objects to be at- 
 tained ? Is it for the purpose of gulling all who are ignorant of the 
 principles of Free Trade, that they be the more ready dupes of the 
 American System, and assist in making a Tariff President ? or is it 
 for the purpose of impoverishing the South, and, by reducing it to a 
 state of vassalage, render it tributary to the Northern manufacturers? 
 I must confess I am at a loss to decide, without some light cast upon 
 the subject ; and, as more secrets may have transpired from the pro- 
 ceedings of those kind-hearted and disinterested gentlemen who 
 composed the Tariff Convention, than plain unsuspicious people are 
 aware of, I must beg, therefore, to be informed if they have come to 
 your knowledge. 
 
 I am yours truly, 
 
 HERMANN. 
 
30 
 
 PENNSYLVANIA, June 13th, 1832. 
 
 Dear Sir : In one of your late numbers of the Banner, you have 
 clearly demonstrated that what is commonly termed the American 
 System, is, in fact, nothing more than a grand Pauper System 
 having for the subject of its operation, not the infant, the aged, the 
 infirm, and paralytic, but a race of sturdy beggars, some of whom, 
 you have justly observed, " so far from being poor, are amongst the 
 richest of our citizens." You have happily illustrated your remarks, 
 by bringing to our notice the manufacturing establishments of the 
 town of Lowell, and the Deration of protective duties on cotton 
 goods, &-c. showing, evidently, that Lowell is an alms-house on a 
 great scale, supported at the expense of the people of the whole 
 United States, precisely as the alms-house of Philadelphia is sup- 
 ported at the expense of a local population. Numerous illustrations 
 of this sort have been happily introduced by you, to expose the fal- 
 lacy of the Tariff and the insidious doctrines of the American 
 System. Your efforts have done much to remove the delusion 
 which still exists, as to the pretended benefits of the Tariff. I do 
 not flatter when I positively assert that I am fully convinced that 
 the productions from your pen have thrown more light on the 
 subject which now so greatly agitates the public mind, than all 
 the publications which have issued from the American press since 
 the Declaration of Independence. Go on, my dear sir, and conti- 
 nue to enlighten your readers on the principles of Free Trade, 
 which you cannot better elucidate than by the judicious mode you 
 have adopted. 
 
 In condemning the unjust and oppressive system of indirect taxa- 
 tion, it is very far from my intention to depreciate mechanic enter- 
 prize, or underrate our manufactures. My opposition is directed 
 against fanaticism, tyranny, and unequal taxation. Dress them up 
 in what garb you please clothe these terms under the specious 
 name of the " American System," the cloven foot shall appear the 
 monster must be unmasked, and his hideous features exposed. 1 
 cannot agree with a learned and distinguished statesman, that the 
 manufacturing establishments are the principalities of the destitute, 
 and the palaces of the poor ! extravagant praise may sometimes be 
 mistaken for burlesque ; and as the observation is from an advocate 
 of protective duties and a high Tariff, some allowance may be made. 
 How does the assertion correspond with the accounts furnished by 
 
31 
 
 those candid and independent Editors oi' the Eastern Argus, and 
 the New England Artizan 1 their description of the sufferings of the 
 poor operatives is sufficient to make the heart shudder. The Ger- 
 mans say, " die zeit bringt rosen" (time brings roses ;) but, alas ! 
 to these poor people, I fear it will bring nothing but thorns. The 
 Editor of the Argus remarks of the manufacturers, " they possess 
 an almost unlimited control over the means of daily subsistence of 
 a large part of those employed a control, it is well known, that 
 has been prostituted to sectarian and party purposes. He adds, 
 " what must be the effect of confining children of a tender age with- 
 in the walls of Factories, in a heated and poisonous atmosphere, 
 from twelve to eighteen hours per day"f"-and yet, these are signifi- 
 cantly called " the palaces of the poorr The Editor of the New 
 England Artizan has produced cases of great enormity, one in par- 
 ticular of a poor unfortunate deaf and dumb boy being most cru- 
 elly beaten by his tyrant until he was unable to stand of females 
 most shamefully and brutally punished. He declares, " that he can 
 name (if required) one hundred instances of corporeal punishment 
 which have occurred within two miles of his office" and, if neces- 
 sary, he can fill two columns of his paper per week, for two months, 
 with details of barbarities committed in the manufactories. God 
 forbid that these should be considered as "the palaces of the poor," 
 or form any part of what is called " the settled policy of the North!" 
 If these flagitious acts are tolerated at this time, what will be the 
 situation of the United States in less than half a century? " The 
 million of bayonets," with which the friends of Free Trade and the 
 rights of the poor are now threatened, will, probably, be required to 
 enforce the mandates of remorseless tyranny, and to make victims 
 of the unhappy people who, like the hard-working poor of Europe, 
 often seek bread and scanty wages, but are scoffed and repulsed with 
 the bayonet. Those who worship mammon have no tender mercies 
 for the poor ; little do they care about providing for their wants, 
 when on the bed of sickness or rescuing orphans from poverty and 
 vice, and improving their morals. Avarice smothers the best feel- 
 ings of the human heart, and is the ruling passion of monopolists. 
 The title of the Holy Alliance has been given (in derision, I sup- 
 pose,) to those large capitalists and wealthy iron masters who com- 
 posed the Harrisburg Convention ; and having there matured their 
 plans, and formed the league, left it to their friends in Congress, 
 to pass the " Bill of Abominations" in 1828, for their protection , 
 and called in, or bought the aid of, hireling presses to support it. 
 
* 4, 32 
 
 It has been said, that these proceedings at Ilarrisburg were some- 
 what analogous to the measures of the Congress of Vienna, who 
 met for the better security of the Kings of Europe ; and, instead of 
 granting the brave Germans the free institutions promised them for 
 the blood and treasure lavished in the war against France, they 
 considered it of infinitely more importance to consult the views of 
 the " Holy Alliance," and enlisted into their service all the sordid 
 and servile writers they could find, to support the doctrine that the 
 Sovereigns were bound to each other, and under no obligation to 
 grant free Constitutions to their subjects. A certain literary cha- 
 racter of Gottingen published a book in defence of this creed, which 
 the students of that University (always distinguished for a high 
 sense of honor and republican spirit,) " reviewed by affixing a copy 
 to the whipping post ; then, marching to the author's house, hailed 
 him with a thrice repeated percat!"* If the Congress of the United 
 States is sincerely desirous of promoting the general welfare of the 
 American People, they should not hesitate to adopt such a bill as 
 Mr. McDuffie's. What do we want with a revenue beyond what is 
 required to answer the exigencies of the nation ? why heap burdens 
 on the people to foster manufactures 1 why repeal the duties on lux- 
 uries, and impose a heavy tax on the necessaries of life ? We re- 
 sisted a paltry tea tax and stamp act of the royal government, and 
 must we submit, after the payment of the National Debt, to be 
 trampled upon by a despotism of monied aristocracy ? Mr. McDuf- 
 fie's Bill is moderate and just, and so simplified as to be understood 
 by every citizen who can read. It is free from those petty and vex- 
 atious imposts and extortions which harass the merchant, and dis- 
 tress both producers and consumers. 
 
 The moral turpitude, so inseparable from an onerous system of 
 indirect taxation, is no where to be found in the bill of that illus- 
 trious champion of Free Trade, and who labors to restore the Con- 
 stitution to its pristine purity. What can be more equitable than 
 his proposition to reduce the duties to twenty-five per centum ad 
 valorem on all iron and steel, salt, sugar, cotton bagging, hemp, 
 flax, and manufactures of iron, cotton, and wool imported into the 
 United States, from the 30th of June, and making a gradual reduc- 
 tion to eighteen and three quarters per centum, to take effect from 
 and after the 30th of June, 1833 ; and after the 30th of June, 1834, 
 to be brought down to twelve and a half per cent, ad valorem ; 
 
 Russell's Tour in Germain 
 
33 
 
 and l'urfln-1, that all other iu< rchaiitli.se imported into t!u j United 
 States shall be subject to twelve and a half per cent, ad valorem, 
 from the 30th of June, except such articles as are now imported 
 free of duty, or at a lower rate of ad valorem duty than twelve and 
 a half per cent. 
 
 " Be just and fear not let all the ends thou aimest at be thy 
 God's, thy Country's, and Truth's." The champions of State Rights 
 and Free Trade will obey these precepts ; they have proclaimed 
 their devotion to measures, and disclaim all servile attachment to 
 men. Theirs is a righteous cause one for which Patrick Henry 
 plead, a Washington fought, and a Montgomery bled. We have, 
 been sneeringly told, that the Tariff of 1828 is the settled policy 
 of the North. I should rather call it the political pander which 
 prostitutes the morals and interests of the American People. To 
 enforce this iniquitous policy, Freemen have been threatened with 
 an appeal to the sword and the bayonet, by the hectoring champions 
 of the loom and spinning-jenneys. What a silly gasconade ! which 
 cannot even make an impression upon our women and children ; 
 added to all this, the foul tongue of slander is let loose against the 
 patriots of the land, and the hoary-headed veteran of the Revolution 
 is not spared from abuse, for reminding his countrymen, that they 
 passively submit to be taxed more than tenfold the amount which 
 was imposed by the British Government, and which was so nobly 
 and successfully resisted by the old thirteen United States. Those 
 gallant sons of the North, who are not chained to the car of despot- 
 ism, will never submit to the chastening rod of their oppressors ; 
 they are not insensible to their own wrongs, and know how to 
 sympathize with their suffering brethren of the South ; they need 
 no appeal to their generous feelings, to aid them in shaking off the 
 bondage of the Restrictive System. I do not despair of the Repub- 
 lic ! I cannot be persuaded that this Union, cemented by the best 
 blood of our Revolutionary patriots, will be sacrificed to a vile and 
 factious spirit of monopoly and avarice. 
 
 The cause of Free Trade is the cause of God and nature of equal 
 rights and the poor of freedom against taxation and tyranny of 
 civilization against barbarism and must be sustained. 
 
 HERMANN. 
 

 ERRATA. 
 
 Tfye, first of llie. foregoing- heUors should have been dated from Philadelphi 
 instead; of -South Carolina. 
 
 In. page 5, line 8 from,!!)-? bolf.nm, after the word " halm," 1o should 1. 
 substituted for. " in." 
 
 Jn page .97, lino 15, i: u^urous" should be usurious. 
 
LETTER 
 
 FROM 
 
 HERMANN, 
 
 TO 
 
 ;0*DY RAGUET, Esq. 
 
 CHARLESTON : 
 
 PRINTED BY E. J. VAN BRUETT, 
 
 No. 121, East-Bay. 
 
Sir : 
 
 SINCE I last had the pleasure of addressing you, far more auspicious 
 times I trust are likely to dawn on the destinies of our country than could 
 have been reasonably predicted from the gloomy and unpromising aspect 
 of affairs. Six months ago, the rash career of the champions of 
 the Tariff was rapidly hurrying our liberties to the grave , but thanks to 
 kind Providence ! that dreaded event has been averted by the returning 
 sense of justice, which influenced the minds of Statesmen ; who in sacri- 
 ficing their prejudices on the altar of concord, to preserve the peace of 
 the Union, have not only exhibited wisdom and true greatness, but have 
 gained a triumph which has rendered their fame imperishable, and will 
 transmit to posterity their virtues for imitation. What a contrast with 
 the sordid and grovelling spirit that would do homage to Mammon, and 
 offer up to Moloch a magnanimous people, (struggling to maintain their 
 rights,) as victims to foul ambition, and a lust of power. The present 
 prospect is certainly cheering, compared with the retrospective view of 
 our late position, which could not have been surveyed without exciting 
 mingled emotions of disgust and indignation at the repeated encroach- 
 ments made by the friends of despotism and consolidated Government, 
 upon the lights of the citizen. The Tariff of 1828 the offspring of 
 combined plot and corruption the Idol of visionary Politicians and selfish 
 speculators, was held out as a lure to wealth, for such persons, who 
 were willing to embark in, the schemes of the monopolists ; and rich spoils 
 were promised to their partisans, each of whom was led to imagine he 
 possessed a power equal to Midas. The plan, too, of freely drawing 
 money from the Public Treasury for sectional purposes, and to further their 
 mercenary views, was secured by Legislative sanction, and under the 
 specious title of the " American System ;" they determined it should be 
 considered as the settled policy of the country, and arrogated the right of 
 calling it so. It is the settled policy of the Government of an absolute mo- 
 narchy to enforce the edict of a Tyrant by the sword and bayonet against 
 his oppressed subjects, and impiously to declare it only inferior to the Fiat 
 of Heaven. It is the settled policy of a Turkish Divan to inflict the bow- 
 string on mere suspicion, or by false accusations, to dispossess some un- 
 
happy victim of his life and property. I thank God, however, that the 
 free, sovereign and independent States of this great Federal Republic are 
 composed of a population, of which, the majority are too enlightened 
 ever to submit to be made the instruments of the niyrmydons of power, 
 and to be rendered subservient to the will of a faction. They will I trust, 
 never consent to perpetuate their own infamy, by assisting to degrade the 
 character of the country, which it is their pride and ambition to exalt and 
 protect. 
 
 In the late contest with the General Government, for the repeal of the 
 odious Tariff, the Southern States endured with a patience and forbear- 
 ance almost unprecedented in the annals of the history of Republics, 
 evils which were gradually annihilating their agriculture and commerce, 
 exhausting their resources, and compelling them to be tributary to the 
 North. South-Corolina, in particular, after more than ten years of re- 
 monstrance and unavailing petitions, was spurned by that very arm which 
 should have been raised for her protection after finding every avenue to 
 relief closed against her, she at length assumed an attitude worthy of the 
 days of ancient Greece, confiding in the rectitude of her cause, 
 and under the protection of a merciful Providence, she called on her gal- 
 lant sons to rescue themselves from a most humiliating thraldom, and the 
 same spirit which inspired their ancestors in the days of the Revolution 
 with undaunted courage and led them to victory, now protected the Pal- 
 metto Banner, with more than twenty thousand brave volunteers, who 
 faithful to the State, were prepared to peril their lives and property in her 
 defence. When the new " Bill of Abominations" was enacted in 1832, 
 by both Houses of Congress, and all prospect of redress became despe- 
 rate, did she seek to dissolve the Union, or to disturb the peace of the 
 community by violence and anarchy 1 The people of South-Carolina dis- 
 dained so disgraceful a course, for their cause was too sacred to be thus 
 dishonored they conceived it to be due to their dignity to proceed, " con- 
 silio et animis" and having in their sovereign capacity by their Delegates 
 in Convention, solemnly declared the Tariff laws of 1828 and 1832, null 
 and void within the limits of the State, they resolved to defend their liber- 
 ties against Federal usurpation and aggression, at any and every hazard. 
 Nothing daunted by the ill judged menaces of the Federal Executive, 
 our little Sparta moved on in the even tenor of her course scorning 
 the vindictive and slanderous abuse of her political enemies unmoved 
 by their pitiful arts to intimidate her, she steadily pursued the path of truth 
 and honor. I will not soil my paper by repeating the opprobrious lan- 
 guage which issued against her from a variety of the most impure chan- 
 nels. In short, nothing could exceed the venom of malignant tongues 
 no words were deemed too caustic, or too gross with which to assail the 
 Friends of " State Rights and Free Trade ;" they produced no discord in 
 our ranks, but on the contrary served to unite us more closely, and exci- 
 ted only contempt and derision. I do not address you with the intention 
 of acting as the encomiast of our party; we leave it to posterity to judge of 
 our conduct, and to determine if we have not been actuated by the purest 
 motives of patriotism : time will prove how shamefully we have been ca- 
 
lumniated, and that our enemies have falsely arraigned us for error of 
 judgement, and unjustly imputed to us a design to withdraw from the Union. 
 From the commencement to the termination of our contest with the Fed- 
 eral Government, South-Carolina was distinguished for moderation, pru- 
 dence and firmness. She never demanded more than could be sanction- 
 ed by the laws of God and nature. Congress denied her justice. The 
 Federal Court had no right to take cognizance of political questions, and 
 two-thirds of the States of the Union being in favor of the Tariff, we 
 could have no expectation of redress from a General Convention. How 
 then was she to act 1 rather than ignobly succumb any longer to the will 
 of a reckless majority, she had recourse to her reserved rights, granted 
 under the tenth article of the amendments to the Constitution, which ex- 
 pressly declares, " The powers not delegated to the United States, by the 
 Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States re- 
 spectively, or to the people." Extreme cases often require powerful and 
 desperate remedies, which ought not be used, except when there is a hope 
 of success. In the situation of South- Carolina, Nullification proved most 
 efficacious, and a complete preventive against Revolution or Secession. 
 She desired a peaceful adjustment of her differences with the General 
 Government it was folly to doubt her attachment to the Union the in- 
 tegrity of which she had lavished her best blood and treasure in two wars, 
 to preserve under the most arduous circumstances. She had never mur- 
 mured or quailed, trusting to her own moral and physical resources, she 
 never calculated the cost when called on by her sister States to unite with 
 them for the general safety. She engaged in the Revolutionary struggle 
 from principle no State had so little reason to complain of oppression 
 while a colony. She was cherished as a favorite child by the mother 
 country; but I will not dwell on this subject or vaunt of her good deeds, for 
 which she has been so greatly distinguished, and poorly requited. Her en- 
 emies dare not refuse to acknowledge that but for the measures adopted by 
 the Convention no modification of the Tariff would have been made by Con- 
 gress, and without them the monopolists would still have cause to exult. It 
 is a just remark of a highly estimable and distinguished Virginian, that "cu- 
 pidity was never yet known to let go its hold, without being compelled by 
 some threatening evil." Such has been the unyielding and rancorous spirit 
 of our opponents that they contumaciously persist in denying to a State the 
 right of seceding from the Union ; warmly espousing the doctrine of con- 
 solidation, they endeavor to sustain it by the most flimsy and fallacious 
 argument, contending that the Federal Government is sovereign, that the 
 Union is a nation; not in the common acceptation of the term, but " bona 
 fide" a nation under a consolidated Government, claiming unlimited 
 powers, and arrogantly disclaiming all right on the part of a State to be 
 sovereign and independent, or the people judges of what should constitute 
 their sovereignty, as derived from the Constitution. It is reduced to an 
 axiom that he who enters voluntarily into a compact, has the undoubted 
 right of withdrawing when by a violation of it he is aggrieved by an at- 
 tempt to practise imposition and deprive him of certain privileges which 
 by the conditions of that compact he was entitled to enjoy. Can it be 
 
supposed that a free, sovereign and indpendent State should be bound 
 against her will to continue a member of a Confederacy when the princi- 
 ples on which it is based are infringed, and she is thereby left to the mercy 
 and misrule of the dominant party. There are certain civil and natural 
 rights appertaining to the people of every free State, which are undefeasi- 
 ble and unalienable, of which no earthly power can divest them, but 
 treachery and force. The sovereign right is inherent, originating with 
 the people of the States, forming one great confederated Republic, united 
 by the most sacred ties of amity, interest and kindred blood ; and if 
 these should fail to preserve the Union compulsion never can. The 
 doctrines of State sovereignty, State interposition, and the right of seces- 
 sion are now daily becoming better understood, by the people and by no 
 Statesman, have they been more clearly and satisfactorily defined than 
 by Mr. CALHOUN; hie reasoning on these interesting subjects has 
 been so lucid so truly worthy of his great and capacious mind so per- 
 fectly intelligible and convincing, that he who does not comprehend it, 
 must indeed, be unfortunately dull. Mr. CALHOUN'S arguments have been 
 termed by a member of the Senate metaphysical, this appears somewhat 
 quaint, perhaps ethical might have been applied with more propriety. Mr. 
 CALHOUN'S remarks and reply, are so beautifully characteristic of his 
 fine intellect, that I must be excused for introducing them here, in an 
 extract from his speech, on what is called, " the Revenue Collection 
 Bill" 
 
 *'The terms Union, Federal, united, imply a combination of sovereign- 
 ties, a confederation of States. They are never applied to an associa- 
 tion of individuals. Who ever heard of the United State of New-York, 
 of Massachusetts, or of Virginia 1 Who ever heard the term Federal, or 
 Union, applied to the aggregation of individuals into one community ] 
 Nor is the other point less clear that the sovereignty is in the several 
 States, and that our system is a Union of twenty-four sovereign powers, 
 under a constitutional compact, and not of a divided sovereignty between 
 the States severally and the United States. In spite of all that has been 
 said, he maintained that sovereignty is, in its nature, indivisible. It is the 
 supreme power in a State, and we might just as well speak of half a square, 
 or half of a triangle, as of half a sovereignty. It is a gross error to confound 
 the exercise of sovereign powers with sovereignty itself, or the delegation of 
 such powers with a surrender of them. A sovereign may delegate his 
 powers to be exercised by as many agents, as he may think proper, under 
 such conditions and with such limitation as he may impose ; but to sur- 
 render any portion of his sovereignty to another is to annihilate the whole. 
 The Senator from Delaware (Mr. Clayton) calls this metaphysical rea- 
 soning, which, he says, he cannot comprehend. If by metaphysics he 
 means that scholastic refinement which makes distinctions without diffe- 
 rence, no one can hold it in more utter contempt than he, (Mr. C.,) but, 
 if on the contrary, he means the power of analysis and combination 
 that power which reduces the most complex idea into its elements, which 
 traces causes to their first principle, and, by the power of generalisation 
 and combination, unites the whole in one harmonious system ; then, so 
 
far from deserving contempt, it is the highest attribute of the human 
 mind. It is the power which raises man above the brute which distin- 
 guishes his faculties from mere sagacity, which he holds in common with 
 inferior animals. It is this power which has raised the astronomer from 
 being a mere gazer at the stars, to the high intellectual eminence of a 
 Newton or Laplace ; and astronomy itself from a mere observation of 
 insulated facts into the noble science which displays to our admiration 
 the system of the universe. And shall this high power of the mind, which 
 has effected such wonders, when directed to the laws which control the 
 material world, be forever prohibited, under a senseless cry of mataphy- 
 sics, from being applied to the high purpose of political science and legis- 
 lation 1 He held them to be subject to laws as fixed as matter itself, and 
 to be as fit a subject for the application of the highest intellectual power. 
 Denunciation may indeed fall upon the philosophical enquirer into these 
 first principles, as it did upon Galileo and Bacon, when they first unfolded 
 the great discoveries, which have immortalized their names ; but the time 
 will come when truth will prevail in spite of prejudice and denunciation ; 
 and when politics and legislation will be considered as much a science as 
 astronomy and chemistry." 
 
 So long as the Government of the United States is administered on the 
 true spirit and principles of the Constitution, the liberties of the people 
 are safe, but if regardless of that good faith which should be observed to 
 all men, the Government is guilty of partiality in bestowing exclusive pro- 
 tection to favored classes, encouraging monopolies, raising up a monied 
 aristocracy, attempting to break up the usages of civilized society, by de- 
 stroying all confidence between man and man, and by unjust and uncon- 
 stitutional laws, oppressing the poor to benefit the rich, then it is not only 
 justifiable, but it is the imperative duty of the people, of a free sovereign 
 and independent State, to interpose their authority, and to declare all 
 such acts as violate their rights, null and void within the limits of the said 
 State. Cheered and supported under all difficulties by a consciousness of 
 the rectitude of their course, and seeking no favors from men, but adhe- 
 ring rigidly to virtuous principles, the Friends of State Rights and Free 
 Trade in South-Carolina, have clung to the Constitution as to the ark of 
 their political salvation, and it was only in the last extremity, when op- 
 pressed by the Federal Government, that they were compelled to seek 
 redress by means of Nullification, a term now in common use, too fre- 
 quently perverted and most reviled when least understood : held up (if I 
 may be permitted so to express myself,) by the advocates of consolida- 
 tion as a political " Scarecrow or Bugbear" to deter the wavering and 
 timid from openly siding with the injured party. By some it has been 
 compared to an Ignis-Fatuus, beguiling its followers ; and by others, de- 
 nounced as a political heresy. The doctrine, however, has proved too 
 orthodox, for its enemies, and their Ignis-Fatuus, has passed into a sacred 
 flame, that neither tyranny or injustice can extinguish. 
 
 In my next, I propose to enter more particularly into the subject of 
 State Rights, and although I cannot flatter myself with the hope of mak- 
 ing any new suggestions or useful remarks, yet I shall at least have the 
 
8 
 
 consolation of knowing, that my humble efforts have heen contributed to 
 elicit truth by keeping alive a spirit of research, without which, even the 
 best cause may languish, and be irretrieavably lost. Remember that our 
 victory is not complete, and that much remains to be accomplished. In 
 politics as in religion, there are many valuable lessons by which we may 
 profit, and as applicable to our political situation, there is no better scrip- 
 tural warning, than this : " He that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber 
 nor sleep." Let us watch then with an eagle eye, the movements of our 
 adversaries, and suffer them not to lull us into a false security. Permit 
 me to express my sincere regret, that you have found it necessary to re- 
 linquish the publication of the Banner of the Constitution, and have no 
 intention of resuming it at a future period. The zeal and great abil- 
 ity with which you sustained that valuable paper, richly entitles you to 
 the gratitude of every true Friend of State Rights and Free Trade. The 
 sound editorial remarks with which it always abounded, rendered it a 
 most excellent practical work on political economy. I hope that pecu- 
 niary considerations did not induce you to abandon it, or that want of 
 punctuality on the part of your subscribers, has led to it ; if so, I shall 
 never cease to lament the cause, knowing that you must have necessarily 
 incurred considerable expense. 
 
 With great respect, I remain yours, 
 
SECOND LETTER 
 
 FROM 
 
 HERMANN, 
 
 TO 
 
 COADY RAGUET, Esq. 
 
 CHARLESTON 
 
 IRIHTED BY K. J. VAN 
 
 KQ. 121, East-Bay. 
 
Hear Sir : 
 
 IN my last communication, I made some general remarks on the late 
 contest between the State of South-Carolina and the Federal Govern- 
 ment, relative to the unconstitutionally and injustice of the Tariff acts, 
 and justified the people of Carolina, for having availed themselves of their 
 reserved rights to resist what might well he considered an usurpation of 
 power exercised by Congress for the protection of manufactures, thereby 
 impoverishing the great agricultural States of the South, and rendering 
 them in some degree tributary to the North, also laying the foundation of 
 invidious distinctions between the various sections of the Union, striking 
 at the root of our Republican institutions, and reducing us to a state of 
 colonial vassalage infinitely more degrading than when we were subject 
 to the dominion of the Royal Government, and far different from those 
 days of prosperity which existed under the administration ot WASHING- 
 TON and JEFFERSON. 
 
 I will endeavor to demonstrate how egregiously mistaken the Friends 
 of consolidation have been on the subject of State Rights, which I can 
 only attribute to the confined and distorted view they have taken of it, 
 through the combined influence of ignorance and prejudice, to raise up 
 an intolerant and corrupt spirit of monied aristocracy, the very bane of 
 social life, and to be dreaded as a most dire calamity. Time has developed 
 the real objects of the champions of a protective Tariff, and has discover- 
 ed that very little labour and ingenuity was required to unravel the web 
 of their political heresy, or to detect the sophistry of their fine spun 
 theory of consolidation, with all' its attendant evils. Those gentlemen 
 who may have acquired lessons on Government at the courts of Europe, 
 have not been without apt scholars in the United States. Plain Republi- 
 cans, and men of common sense and moderate ambition, are satisfied 
 with our present form of Government, which needs no overstrained efforts 
 to alter and assimilate it to the aristocratic Governments of the old world. 
 Our Constitution was framed upon the best and most liberal plan which hu- 
 man wisdom could devise. It may be be compared to a beautiful f.i brick 
 reared by the joint labour of the most able and skilful master workmen 
 the world has produced. The Constitution has been with propriety 
 called a social compact, made by the consent of the people of each of 
 the thirteen United States for the general welfare. It has been justly 
 remarked by an able writer, "that the Government of the United States 
 can claim no powers which are not granted to it by the Constitution, 
 either expressly or by necessary implication" he adds, " that the words 
 of the Constitution are to be taken in their natural sense without restric- 
 tion or enlargement." The fact is, the words of the Constitution are so 
 explicit, they leave no room. for. cavilling ; the powers of the General Go- 
 vernment are clearly defined^ and no law can be -considered valid that is 
 not only based on the spirit, but on the plain and literal sense of the 
 words which cannot be misinterpreted, unless with the design of mislead- 
 ing. What higher authority can I quote than that of our estimable 
 
11 
 
 "Fe^ow-citizen, Mr. RAWLE, whose profound legal knowledge, no 
 can 'doubt. In his admirable work entitled, "a view of the Constitution 
 of the United States" he remarks, " The powers of the General Govern- 
 ment are few and defined, those which remain to the State Government 
 numerous and indefinite.,' In another part of his Book he says, " In all 
 nrtters not transferred to the General Government, the rights and inter- 
 ests of the people are confided to the care of the State Governments, and 
 an anxiety to secure and defend them, has been uniforn-ly apparent in all 
 the Stages." The people cannot be too jealous of the disposition of an 
 arbitrary majority of Congress to trespass on their rights. The danger of 
 investing the executive with powers not authorized by the Constitution is 
 to be apprehended, and should be by all possible means guarded against 
 by the vigilance and determined opposition of the people. In treating of 
 the Executive p wer, Mr. RAWLE observes, "Limited and restrained as 
 the President is, creature of the people, and subject to the law with all 
 power to do right, he possesses none to do wrong." This is true, provid- 
 ed he is controlled by the strong arm of the supremejaw of the land, and 
 not suffered to transcend the powers prescribed by it. When men, who 
 are dejegated by the people to legislate for the protection of their rights, 
 abuse the trust reposed in them by giving to the Chief Magistrate the 
 power of exercising military despotism at his discretion, they are no lon- 
 ger worthy of the confidence of their fellow-citizens. Man is naturally 
 fond of power, all his ambitious feelings have a tendency towards it, 
 his actions should be restrained by wise laws, and he cannot always be 
 confided in when brought to encounter difficulties, for with all his moral 
 worth he is not infallible. He who deserves to be truly great, must 
 learn to have his passions under complete command, and none are so 
 despicable as those who are guided more by caprice, interest and malevo- 
 lence, than by a sense of justice. Nothing is more common than for 
 men to condemn principles which do not meet their views and projects of 
 self aggrandizement hence arises the virulence of the Tariffites against 
 the Friends of Free Trade. We must mnke great allowance for diversity 
 of sentiments among disinterested men ; but I feel indignant when I am 
 told of Statesmen (who having filled the highest offices in the gift of a 
 free people, and battened upon their bounty) presuming to dictate, and 
 by the mere force of dogmatism attempt to brow-beat their opponents, 
 or to suppose that the magic influence of their oratory can have more 
 swav than good logic and sound common sense. The weakness arid 
 vanity of some men too frequently compel us to lose sight of whatever 
 good qualities they may possess. I have watched with anxiety and in- 
 terest the political career of our most distinguished Statesmen, and 
 with the varied feelings of pleasure and dissatisfaction, which their con- 
 duct excited. Among: the documents which the last session of Congress 
 presented to the public, there is one of an extraordinary character, and 
 I cannot deceive mvself or others, by dignifying it with the title of a grave 
 'State paper, as I think it may be more properly styled a philippic agairst 
 South-Carolina. I allude to the " Report of the minority of the Cor 
 mittee on Manufactures," in which the Southern Planters are represent- 
 
12 
 
 ed in an unfavorable point of view ; they are made to figure as poor un- 
 suspicious, uninfonned beings, whose credulity is imp >sed upon by crafty 
 and desig'iinsf men. In reference to the Southern Planter, the author of 
 the Report observes, " He is told that a cruel, tyrannical, oppressive ma- 
 jority in both Houses of Congress are the Representatives of this High- 
 wayman of the North, [alluding to the Tariff] that they pervert the very 
 pn iciples of popular Representation to the purposes of oppression and 
 robbery that they dare not open their hearts to the sentiments of justice 
 and humanity. He is told all this and he believes it." The intelligent 
 planter whose understanding is so much underrated, is perhaps as com- 
 petent as the author himself to judge of the merits of all great political 
 questions which involve his rights, and the general welfare of the United 
 States ; and why should he not be more capable than men who spend 
 many years at foreign courts, and who become strangers to what is pass- 
 ing in their own country. I can assure the author of the Report that he 
 has formed both a prejudiced and erroneous opinion of the planters of 
 the fcoufh. If he will take the trouble to visit them, he will find that they 
 are too enlightened and independent to be c, joled or duped by any man 
 or set of men. Here is another specimen of the vindictive spirit which 
 diet ted the following tirade. "And behold the foundation of the super- 
 structure of Nullification -falsified logic falsified history falsified con- 
 stitute nal law falsified morality falsified statistics and falsified and 
 slanderous imputations upon the majorities of both Houses of Congress for 
 a long series of years all all is false and hollow." Without regarding 
 the tautology, or wishing to charge the author with being more influenced 
 by the spirit of " darkness than light" in this effusion of invective against 
 the nullifiers, to whom he has never shewn the least mercy, no more than 
 he would have bestowed on the redoubtable members of the celebrated 
 Hartford Convention, I would merely beg leave to express a hope from 
 my respect for him, that out of charity to the nullifiers, he will in future 
 be more considerate, and I will not be so uncharitable as to accuse him 
 of being hard-hearted, but be contented with applying the old French 
 saying of " Un saint jean louche ePor. 
 
 You must remember the outcry that was made by our political oppo- 
 nents, against that part of the Ordinance of Nullification, passed at the 
 .first session of our Convention, requiring all civil and military officers to 
 take ai oath to obey and enforce the said Ordinance; and at the last ses- 
 sion of the Convention, it was ordained, " that the allegiance of the citi- 
 zens of South-Carolina, while they continued such is due to the said 
 State, and that obedience only and not allegiance is due by them to any 
 other power or authority, to whom a control over them has been, or may 
 be delegated by the States," &c. There is scarce a subject on which 
 those who are scrupulously and religiously exact, differ so much as on 
 the necessity of taking an oath of office or allegiance. The members of 
 the society of friends are religiously opposed to t k : ng an oath and are 
 exempt by law. Some men feel a strong repugnance to lay themselves 
 under so sacred an obligation, leist the frailty of their nature may induce 
 a uepai ture from the strict line of duty. There are others who regard it 
 
IS 
 
 as a matter of form, and attach little or no importance to it from the fre- 
 quent violations which occur, and the too common instances of the crime 
 of perjury, which are seldom punished with proper severity. What by 
 common usage is designated a test oath is too often confounded with 
 oa'hs of a political nature. Every one who is conversant with the histo- 
 ry of England mustrememher that under the reign of Charles lid., in the 
 year 1673, a law was enacted, entitled "the test act, imposing an oath 
 on all who shou.d evjo any public office." "Besides t iking the oath of 
 allegiance, a id the Kings supremacy, they were obliged to receive the 
 sacrament once a year in the established Church, and to abjure ail belief 
 i '. the doc rine of transubstantiation." I cannot conceive why any rea- 
 sonaMe man should object to take an oath of office, or to swear allegiance 
 unless he his prevented by his religious principles. What is an oath but 
 a great moral tie binding a citizen to be faithful to his public duties, or to 
 til' country which protects him. In this free Republic there is no com- 
 pulsion, and if an oath is imposed by an express law, or required to be 
 taken under the Constitution, before he enters on the duties of his office 
 he can withdraw his claim, or if he prefers it, let him leave the State. 
 Was I destined to pass my days in the free State of Saxe-- Weimar or 
 Flanover, and be dependent for my maintenance upon either of them, 
 and enjoy the same rights wrh a native subject, I would certainly without 
 h< sitation take the oath of allegiance, and should consider myself wholly 
 bound to be obedient to the laws and ready to defend the State from all 
 aggressions of foreign powers, and acts of tyranny and oppression of the 
 Germanic confederacy, affecting life, liberty and property. As dearly 
 AS I value the Union, and as ardently as I wish that harmony and prosperity 
 should prevail in every section of it, yet lam firmly of opinion that the 
 first duty of a native or adopted citizen is to the State which affords him a 
 support ; the next is obedience to all constitutional laws of the Federal 
 Government. I should indeed be a recreant son of that State which has 
 nourished and reared me if I did not consider myself bound by every sa- 
 cred tie to serve her in good and in evil fortune. The subject of State 
 Rights may appear somewhat complicated to those who do not under- 
 stand it ; the variety of questions which it involves are intimately linked 
 together, and all rest upon the strong and fundamental laws of truth and 
 justice. 
 
 In a former letter to you, I ventured to make a few remarks on the 
 right if Secession, I shall now resume the subject with a full conviction 
 on my mind that such a right does exist from the very circumstance 
 alone of each of the old thirteen States having entered of their own free 
 will into a confedeiacy for their mutual good, and from which they or 
 any one of them are at liberty to withdraw, whenever the compact which 
 unites them is violated. This position I believe to be tenable, and cannot 
 be destroyed by any argument which the advocates of consolidation may 
 think proper to advance. I am borne out in rry opinion by the authority 
 of some o ; the most distinguished Statesmen and Lawyers of the United 
 States. IV' r. RAWLE, in his work on the Constitution observes,* " The 
 
 * e the Chapter on the permanence of the Union. 
 
14 
 
 Secession of a State from the Union, depends on the will of the people of 
 uch State." And in the next page he says, " The people of the State 
 m iy have some reasons to complain in respect to acts of the General Go- 
 vernment, they may in such cases invest some of their own officers with 
 the power of negotiation, and may declare an absolute Secession in case 
 of their failure." In a well written paper published a few years ago in 
 one of the numbers of the Southern Review, on the Georgia controversy, 
 atid ascribed to the pen of Col. DRAYTON, the right of a State to secede 
 is admitted in the most positive and unequivocal terms. 
 
 I will now call your attention to the late modification of the Tariff. In 
 defiance of all the vapouring and terriffic threats of the sword and the 
 bayonet ; and the tremendous force of a " million of musket bearing 
 freemen," who were to annihilate every friend of Free Trade in the 
 United States, and every opponent of a most iniquitous system of indirect 
 taxation, the great cause of truth and justice has prevailed. The stately 
 American eagle continues his flight with all his wonted majesty and pride 
 without losing a feather from his wing ; and South- Carolina remains 
 where I trust she wiil ever be found in the Union and for this she is not 
 only indebted to her own glorious efforts, but to the triumph of humanity 
 over vice, and wisdom over folly. The ocean will again become the un- 
 trammeled highway for nations, and in the eloquent words of the illus- 
 trious PATRICK HENRY, we may then say, " Let commerce be as free ag 
 air, she will range the whole creation, and return on the four winds of 
 Heaven to bless the land with plenty." Whatever may have been Mr. 
 CLAY'S political sins, he has in a great measure atoned for them by his 
 magnanimous conduct at the close of the last session of Congress anxi- 
 ous to avert the gathering storm which threatened to destroy the Union, 
 he came forward as a mediator, and happily succeeded in effecting a 
 compromise thus was it destined that the very man who had contributed 
 so zealously to advocate and support the Tariff, should be instrumental 
 in giving a fatal blow to its existence such is the mutability of human 
 events ! By this act he has raised himself in the estimation of the people 
 of the A nti-Tariff States, and by this act he has placed Kentucky where 
 nature intended she should be in a situation to enjoy all the advantages 
 of a close and friendly commercial intercourse with her sister Carolina. 
 Virginia will hail with joy her regenerated son, and deck his brow with a 
 c ; t r ic wreath, more pure and spotless than the laurels which are won by 
 nvl tary chieftains. Few men when put to the trial are possessed of suf- 
 ficient moral courage to triumph over themselves. In the late contest in 
 the Senate, when the question was whether the act of 1832, should re- 
 main untouched, or be repealed, Mr. CLAY, whose feelings had been so 
 warmly enlisted in behalf of high protective duties, yielded them for the 
 general welfare; and by that means gained a victory, as honorable for 
 himself, HS for his country. I confess to you, that he was the last man 
 in the United States, from whom I expected a proposition for a compro- 
 mise. I had despaired, when to my joy, I learnt that a redeeming spirit 
 existed, which I sincerely hope may continue to guide and aid him in 
 completing the good work of reform he has so liberally commenced. 
 
15 
 
 When Mr. CLAY'S Bill was reported, and before it had passed in the Se- 
 nate, I had formed a most imperfect and hasty opinion of it, aiid was dis- 
 posed to view it as a device to assuage the wounded feelings of the South, 
 and only lull them into a temporary security. The Hill is undoubtedly a 
 peace offering, and as such was accepted by the whole So ith:rn delega- 
 tion. Although it is by no means such a one as the South had a right to 
 desire, yet it may be considered as a victon, and in the main, satisfactory 
 to the friends of Free Trade, because it abandons the principle of protec- 
 tion promises to reduce the revenue to the economical wants of the Go- 
 vernment gets rid of the odious and vexatious minimum duties ; and 
 what is of great importance to the commerce of the Southern States, it 
 exempts from duty after December 31, 1833, linens, worst* d stuffs and 
 silks. The objections are, the length of time, before the cinties will be 
 brought down to the revenue standard the home valuation n nd cash du- 
 ties. The terms are advantageous to the manufacturers, aiul they nmy 
 indeed consider themselves highly favored, for by what plea o' justice had 
 they a claim to as much as has been granted to them by th s Bill 1 Do 
 they deriVe any from their wealth, their number, or their merit ? The 
 first, our Republican principles can never sanction the second gives them 
 small pretensions, for (including old and young, male and female,) the 
 whole number of rich stockholders and operatives does not consist of 
 more than half a million, out of a population of thirteen millions. As to 
 the last I will not be so ungenerous as to cast any imputation on it. Let 
 them confide more in their own industry and resources, and less in the 
 Government for success, and leave the rest to time and the people. 
 From what aera can we with more propriety date our prosperity than the 
 present t and under what more favorable circumstances can we begin the 
 work of retrenchment by dispensing with the services of supernumerary 
 officers of custom-houses, and by striking off from the pension list many 
 who are in the enjoyment of fortunes, more than competent to their sup- 
 port ? It is the duty of the Government to relieve the people from all 
 useless burdens. There is as little necessity for being penurious as there 
 is for being guilty of a lavish expenditure of the public money, which 
 should be equally and equitably distributed among all the States without 
 distinction. The national debt nearly extinguished, and a thousand niil- 
 lions of acres of public lands for sale, we may hope for a long series of 
 years of general prosperity and harmony. The acceptance of Mr. CLAY'S 
 Bill renders it almost useless for me to notice the measures of the Virginia 
 Legislature ; I must remark, however, that from my knowledge of the 
 spirit which prevailed among the sons of that ancient and respectable 
 State, less than twenty years ago, there would have been more of ardour 
 and zeal, and less of lukewarmness than has lately been exhibited in the 
 cause of Free Trade and State Rights ; but, with such men as UPSHUR, 
 TAZEWELL, FLOYD and JONES, we have every thing to hope for and no- 
 thing to fear. I shall, however, never cease to respect the motives which 
 dictated the appointment of Mr. LEIGH, as commissioner ; the choice 
 could not have fallen upon a more amiable, honorable and worthy man, 
 or one better qualified for such air office : his short stay in Carolina, en- 
 deared 'him to all who had the pleasure of his acquaintance. 
 
16 
 
 The long agitated question, whether a Tariff act for the protection of 
 manufactures, can be considered constitutional has been generally decid- 
 ed as both uiijust and unconstitutional. The moral turpitude which has 
 been universally known to be inseparable from an oppressive system of 
 indirect taxation, is of itself sufficient evidence that it could never have 
 been contemplated by those patriotic Statesmen, whose combined wisdom 
 framed the Constitution, that duties should be levied for the protection of 
 manufactures ; or that more money should be raised than would be suffi- 
 cient for the wants of the Government. It would be a libel on their 
 memory to charge them with such a desisrn. A work on the rights of 
 an American citizen, written by BENJAMIN L. OLIVER, of Boston, con- 
 tains the following just remarks, "Can it be imagined then, that under 
 such a power to regulate trade, Congress has a constitutional authority to 
 adopt measures injurious to it, for the purpose of advancing some other 
 interest 1 Certainly not. If so then it is quite clear that Congress under 
 the power of regulating trade, has no constitutional authority to lay a du- 
 ty on imports for the mere purpose of encouraging manufactures." The 
 diifusion of knowledge on this subject by such able and distinguished men 
 as HENRY LEE, of Boston, WADSWORTH, of New-York, CLEMENT BID- 
 DLE, of Philadelphia, and Professor DEW, of Virginia, cannot be too 
 highly appreciated. It is to the light of science we must look to remove 
 the darkness which has pervaded the Tariff States, and concealed from 
 the great mass of the population their true interests. It is from the works 
 of such illustrious writers as aFENELON, ADAM SMITH, DUGALD STEW- 
 ART and SAY, that we should seek information, and not rely upon, or be 
 led astray by the fallacious theories and misrepresentations of shallow 
 productions. The author from whom I have just quoted, in questioning 
 the right of Congres to levy heavy duties for the protection of manufac- 
 tures, and in commenting on the expediency of the measure, observes, 
 " If one State alone is to suffer in its trade, yet derive little or no advan- 
 tage from such measures, while the other States without suffering any 
 material disadvantage in their commerce, are to derive the whole advan- 
 tage of such measures, this will be wholly contrary to the true intention 
 of the parties to the Constitution, as well as taking a very unfair and dis- 
 honorable advantage of the State thus oppressed." South-Carolina, 
 although she took a conspicuous part in resisting the injustice of the 
 Tariff acts of 1828, and 1832, is yet only one of nine of the States 
 which have been oppressed. Thousands of enlightened men of the mid- 
 die and western States, although they kept aloof from the contest, yet I 
 have good reason to believe that their sympathy was extended to their 
 friends in Carolina. The spell which has so long bound Ohio and Ken- 
 tucky to the Tariff monster is broken, and they will in future be con 
 vinced how greatly it will be for their interest to devote their attention to 
 agriculture, and leave manufactures to those States where nature has not 
 so amply provided for the wants of man , and where the population is 
 dense, the lands poor, and the climate unfriendly to the growth of the 
 rich products of the soil. 
 
 With great respect, I remain yours, 
 
 HEBHAHJfff 
 
LETTER OF "HERMANN," 
 
 PUBLISHED IN THE "EXAMINER" 
 
 OF THE 17th SEPTEMBER, 1834. 
 
 "The last question discussed in the Report on the Bank question, by the Senate's com- 
 mittee, is, " What has been the management of the Bank ?" And the answer is summed 
 up as follows : " The Bank, in the last eleven years, has overcome all the difficulties 
 which stood in its way ; has given to its notes a universal circulation, redeemable where 
 foever presented, has increased the circulation from four to twenty millions; has facili- 
 tated domestic exchanges by diminishing its rates; and, by increasing the annual 
 amount purchased from seven to seventy millions, has purified the general currency, 
 and has doubled the profits of the Bank itself." National Gazette. 
 
LETTER, &c. 
 
 The Bank. We give place in this day's Examiner, to a communication from our old 
 correspondent "Hermann," whose name is well known to the readers of our former paper, 
 the Banner of the Constitution. He was a firm friend of Mr. Jackson, prior to his Pro- 
 clamation of the 10th of December, 1832. and only abandoned him, as other honest men 
 did, when he deserted the principles, for his advocacy of which, he was elected to the 
 Presidency. The zeal displayed by our correspondent for the re-charter of the Bank, 
 has no connexion with private interest, as we are assured that he does not possess a share 
 of its stock, but, as in other instances, has probably been produced by the indignation 
 excited ai the means resorted to by Mr. Jackson, in order to accomplish its overthrow. 
 
 In publishing this communication, we are not to be considered as responsible for its 
 contents. Whilst we accord with it fully in its denunciation of the unlawful procedure 
 of seizing upon the public purse, as well as in the testimony it bears to the respectability 
 of the Presidentand Directors of the Bank, we have seen no reason to change our origi- 
 nal opinion of the unconstitutionality of any corporation chartered by the Federal govern- 
 ment. Examiner. 
 
 MR. EDITOR, During the present agitated state of the public feeling, 
 permit an old correspondent to solicit your attention to that which should 
 continue to engage the thoughts of all classes of the community " the 
 removal of the Public Deposites" a political offence that has no parallel 
 in any free nation of the world. If an enlightened people resolve not to 
 submit to a domineering faction, and to be neither inveigled or bullied out 
 of their rights, and reduced to a state of vassalage ; then let them, as they 
 regard the country which is endeared to them by the most sacred ties, and 
 which gave birth to the venerated Washington and Franklin, never suffer 
 this subject to be buried in oblivion, for the same power which has so 
 shamefully violated the public faith, and trampled on the laws of the land, 
 is prepared with the sword and purse at command, to destroy every vestige 
 of freedom, unless the arm of the usurper is arrested, and his myrmidons, 
 who are fattening on the ill-gotten spoils of a much injured country, are 
 driven from office. If I could be inspired with the spirit of a Junius, I 
 would devote my pen to rouse the people from their apathy, and call on 
 them to efface the foul stain from the character of the nation which it has 
 received, and to cleanse the public offices, some of which (like the Augean 
 Stable) are so filled with corruption, as to require a Herculean labour to 
 rid them of it. In addressing you in the language of truth and common 
 sense, I do assure you, that under their influence, I have endeavored 
 through the course of my life, to be guided by republican principles. I 
 have never sought, nor do I covet office. I defy the shaft of calumny, and 
 despise the sophistry, petty intrigue, and mean subterfuge of unprincipled 
 men, whether they move in private or public stations. I have been, as 
 you well know, a warm and disinterested eulogist of the present chief 
 magistrate of the United States. That time is past all men are liable to 
 err and I am free to confess that I have been deceived. When I found 
 him deviating from the path of political rectitude, and surrounded by a 
 horde of satellites, composed of sycophants and time-serving minions, 
 ready to crouch at the footstool of the Dictator, my heart sickened with 
 
disgust. Has he not rejected the friendly counsel of the most upright, 
 sensible and honorable men of the nation, to gratify a set of cringing hypo- 
 crites, and ravenous office-hunters'? Posterity may do justice to Andrew 
 Jackson, as the hero of New-Orleans, but his conduct as President of the 
 United States, will be condemned for the unnatural and ferocious part he 
 was eager to act against his native State, (South-Carolina,) whose chival- 
 ric and patriotic sons had the courage to redress their own grievances, and 
 prove how dangerous it is to infringe the rights of a gallant and indepen- 
 dent people with impunity; and I am happy to say that thousands who 
 were disposed to unite in supporting the odious and tyrannical measures of 
 the President against the Nullifiers, now nobly acknowledge their error, 
 and have adopted their doctrines, and for one man in 1832, who exclaimed 
 against nullification, there are a thousand who now rest their faith on State 
 Rights and State Remedies. u Tempora mutantur et nos mutamar in illis." 
 
 I will not trespass much longer on your patience, as it forms no part of 
 my purpose to notice particularly the various abuses and flagrant acts of 
 injustice, with which the administration is charged, the chief of which are, 
 that precious piece of fustian, the Proclamation, the FORCE BILL, Pro- 
 test, Corruption of the Post Office Department Land Office, &c. &c. 
 &c. My object is to confine your attention to the gross outrage commit- 
 ted by the President, and in defiance of the public opinion, in wantonly 
 violating the Bank charter, by a removal of the Deposites ; contrary to 
 the interests of the people, and without the consent of Congress. 
 
 Sir, I blush for the honor of my country, when I consider that this rash 
 step, which would bring the kingly head of a free state to the block, was 
 the deed of a republican President, and too passively submitted to by a 
 republican people. The day of retribution is at hand, when political de- 
 linquents must answer for their transgressions. At the approaching elec- 
 tions, the people should be reminded of the Removal of the Deposites, and 
 not suffer the question of Bank or no Bank, to make them forget the duty 
 they owe to their country, in removing those public servants, who sanc- 
 tioned the outrage by their votes in Congress. If they will not avail them- 
 selves of the right of calling on their legislatures to compel the merchants 
 to pay the amount of their bonds to the United States Bank, they must 
 trust to the tardy operation of the Ballot Box for redress. As to the Bank, 
 it has stood like a rock in the sea, unmoved by the dashing of the foaming 
 billows. The ungenerous manner in which it has been assailed and tra- 
 duced, and the repeated attempts made to criminate the President and 
 Directors, have been met by a manly, fair and honorable spirit, which, 
 while it has elevated their character in the public estimation, and confirmed 
 the utility of this great national institution, has exposed the blind infatua- 
 tion of its enemies. The confidence in the integrity of the Bank is undi- 
 minished, and the monied interests of the government and stockholders 
 have been conducted, both under the administration of Mr. Cheves and 
 Mr. Biddle, with the most rigid regard to honor and punctuality. What 
 greater proof can be given of the high respectability and soundness of the 
 Bank, than the perfect confidence reposed in it by foreigners in every 
 part of the world. The liberality which it has exhibited on numerous 
 occasions, has called forth universal approbation. In many instances, it 
 has sustained some of the local Banks, and saved them from bankruptcy. 
 It is also generally known, that in 1832, the Bank negociated bills to the 
 amount of $120,000,000, without charge or premium. The learned Dr. 
 Cooper, of Columbia, in South-Carolina, has truly remarked, that the Bank 
 " has not only proved itself an institution of great public utility, but has 
 been in no instance the tool of a political party." 
 
Although the constitution has not provided for the establishment 01 a 
 national bank, and many persons object to a re-charter, solely on this ac- 
 count, yet when it has been found from experience how necessary it has 
 been to the commercial prosperity of every State of the Union, we ought 
 to yield much to the general good. Without the United States Bank, we 
 might be placed at the mercy of a set of political sharpers, or subjected to 
 the unreasonable demands of brokers ; without this Bank, trade would 
 suffer much embarrassment, and consequently, produce, houses, land and 
 labor, would greatly depreciate, and as a safe place of deposite, it could 
 have no rival. What will become of the public treasure, if left to a corrupt 
 President, aided by a more corrupt legislation ? It would probably be 
 squandered away in bribery at elections, or in paying and supporting po- 
 litical knaves and spendthrifts and this would eventuate in national bank- 
 ruptcy, and heavy direct taxes. If the ruthless warfare now waged by 
 General Jackson against the Bank, should effect its downfall, the people 
 will not know how to estimate the loss, until they feel the serious inconve- 
 niences arising from it. The Bank was first charted under the adminis- 
 tration of General Washington. Whatever that great and good man deem- 
 ed expedient for the welfare of his country, proved right, his example has 
 been followed by every successive administration, except Andrew Jackson. 
 It is not too late for him to lay aside his animosity and personal prejudi- 
 ces,; he is accused of being of a vindictive spirit ; let him come forward, 
 and convince us to the contrary. General Washington had no great diffi- 
 culty in conquering his enemies in the field, but his chief merit consisted 
 in making friends of his enemies, and in subduing the greatest enemy of 
 all, his passions ! and in so doing, he evinced true greatness of mind. Let 
 General Jackson cease to be the President of a faction, and repair, if pos- 
 sible, the injuries he has done, before he <can ever hope for forgiveness 
 from a free and generous people. There is no want of highly honorable 
 and zealous defenders of the Constitution and Freedom in both Houses of 
 Congress, who have faithfully done their duty. I trust in God there is a 
 redeeming spirit, which will rescue this once happy | but now degraded 
 country, from impending ruin, and revive those halcyon days, when the 
 United States enjoyed uninterrupted prosperity, and our citizens were 
 proud of preserving their rights and privileges unimpaired. 
 
 Yours, truly, 
 
 HERMANN. 
 
 PRINTED BY A. E. MILLER, NO. 4. BROAD-ST. 
 

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