H. OF R. The Tariff Bill. MARCH, 1824. Mr. McKIM, of Maryland, called for the read- coarse must be imported because we can't raise ing of a memorial from Germantown on this sub-it; but what was said when the duty on iron was ject; and it was read. Mr. CLARK, of New York, made some remarks which the reporter was not fortunate enough to hear distinctly. Mr. INGHAM advocated the amendment. He hoped this coarse wool would not be excluded from importation; it employed a large number of additional spindles, without in the least interfering with our native products; a million of pounds were imported the last year, chiefly from South America, with which country it was our interest to cherish a commercial connexion, as she furnishes a market for many of our manufactures, and, if she can return her native productions for them, will continue and increase her demand. He thought this sort of wool had better be freed from duty altogether-at all events, it was better that we should import it in a raw state than in a manufactured form. under discussion? The gentleman from Pennsylvania told us they can't make it because it sells for only eighty dollars a ton, and he wants to raise the price to $140; but the same argument will apply to wool. There are memorials against the duty, from men who raise a great many sheep, but they are men who own, at the same time, large manufacturing establishments, and take on themselves the name of farmers, just as another class of manufacturers take upon them the name of merchants. The cities to the Eastward are full of them. They are capitalists; that is their proper name. They put their money into whatever will bring them the best returns. But these were not to be heard on the interests of the farmer. To him this tariff is a bitter pill. Do give him a little gold on the outside, just to cover it, and take off some of the bitter taste. The people in his district could make carpets at their fireside, Mr. FORWARD stated that large quantities of and nobody complained that they could not get wool were raised in his district; and he had, at wool mean enough. If labor is to be protected, first, been under the impression that his constitu- let it be protected. Don't give it a less market ents would be benefited by the item of the bill, than it has already. Cities, we all know, stand without any alteration or proviso; but he had only by commerce. The ground on which they reason to change that opinion, and he advocated stand is often good for little. The great city of the amendment. The Committee on Manufac- New York, when the Dutchmen first saw it, was tures had, since the bill was under discussion, ob- a fine place to make canals on, and that was all. tained a mass of information from all parts of the But New York consumes 200,000 barrels of flour, country, sent up by those about to be affected by and 800,000 are exported. The cities furnish a the various parts of it, which had, on several market for the farmer. Can the gentleman from points, materially changed the opinions of the Pennsylvania conjure Philadelphia into a ManCommittee, and would lead to motions for corres-chester and New York into a Birmingham? Let ponding changes in the bill. The fine wool im-him do it. Yet it was not manufactures alone ported from some parts of Germany competes with our own; but this coarse wool brought from Smyrna and South America cannot; it is of a quite different quality, and may be bought at about nine cents a pound. He was in favor of eventually excluding foreign wool; but it must be done by degrees. A large and sudden duty will break down the manufacturer. Mr. LIVERMORE then rose. He said there was a character in the Eastern part of the Union known by the name of the New England farmer, whose voice he wished might be heard on the present question. When the bill appeared, he had looked over it with anxiety to see what had been done for that character, and he found only two items in it to compensate him for all the rest; these were the duty on wool and the duty on tallow. As to wool, he was sorry to hear that wool mean enough could not be raised in this country. For himself, he should conclude that the better the wool the better would be the article made out of it. Gentlemen, who understand manufactures, tell us that the amendment will benefit the farmer, because he cannot make wool mean enough; but if you will only protect the growth of wool by duties, any quantity of it can be raised. It is a product easily extended. The amount might be doubled in two years, and where you raise fine wool you raise coarse on the same sheep. Exclude the coarse bad wool from abroad, and you will soon have a better article. It is said the which supported the farmer. Fifty or sixty thou- could not think him serious; yet he appears considerably so I hope he may yet recant. His argument seems to be this-we can't get, at home, Coarse wool at the present price; therefore, let us get it from abroad, and not raise the price when wool is now about a shilling a pound. Sir, it ought not to be disguised, that, now-a-days, manufacturers are every body, and every body else are nobody. This is the case, especially in the State I come from. But is the course they propose practicable? They can't do it; the poor can't protect themselves against the rich, against the wealthy few; these will supply what the others try to protect. The cotton manufactures in Pennsylvania and Ohio, are to be protected, it seems, by an exclusive duty. Well-exclude them-and what follows? Why, the wealth of the Eastern capitalists will supply the article, and undersell you, do what you will. You will compete with Boston, instead of England that will be all the gain to you. Gentlemen seem to speak at random. Do they not know that between three and four millions of dollars have been invested in manufactures in the State of New Hampshire-and yet, not one of these manufactures has urged a duty on woollen or cotton. They know their interests too well. All that you do will only run down the small establishments for their advantage. He hoped the Committee would cover the pill with a little sweet and not, after beguiling the farmer by one or two lures, get him to support the bill till it is too late to oppose it and then turn round and leave him. Mr. WRIGHT did not doubt the gentleman from New Hampshire had made a very excellent speech, but where he sat it was almost impossible to hear one word of it. He took the question now to be, Whether we shall raise wool ourselves, or let foreigners raise it for us? Whether we are in a situation to supply the manufactories with this article, and, if so, whether we shall draw the supply of it from abroad? Look, said Mr. W., at the policy pursued by England. She lays an impost duty of eleven cents a pound on foreign wool, (there might be some reduction on woollen rags intended to make cloths to be sent to the United States,) but she does not stop here; she prohibits the exportation of wool, or of sheep, under a heavy penalty. She considers the woollen manufacture her staple interest; and they give to their agriculturists the exclusive supply of their manufacturers. So great is the anxiety in England to support this manufacture that, by a law, the dead are obliged to be buried in woollen, and the first law officer of the Crown sits on a woolsack when presiding in the House of Lords. H. OF R. in this country for the supply of our factories? Look at our experience during the last war-we did then raise enough to meet the whole demand-our flocks were multiplied to a vast extent; but peace came-the Government refused protection to the wool growers-foreign wool was poured into the country-the flocks were dissipated—they disappeared; part were exported to other and wiser countries, part were sent to the shambles. And now we are told we can't raise enough. Sir, from information communicated by intelligent men, in whom great confidence ought to be placed, large quantities of American wool are now waiting a market in the neighborhood of Philadelphia, and New York, and some in Boston, in whole, probably, equal to two entire shearings of the wool grown in those sections of the country, if not greater. Why? Because the manufacturers on the seaboard are merchants also. Where they have five dollars in manufactures, they have twentyfive in commerce; and, for the sake of that commerce, they bring in the material from abroad. But is this a policy for us to pursue? to put down all the interior for a strip of country sixty miles from the Atlantic, (the "United States proper," of an honorable gentleman,) if that is the real policy intended by gentlemen, let it be avowedlet gentlemen only say so, and we are ready to meet them; only say, in plain words, to the people, that you intend, in all practicable cases, to prefer the raw material from abroad, to that raised at home, and the people will soon speak to you in a language that you will not be able to misunderstand. Laws are not for manufactures alone. They must be for agriculturists also. In support of a system of gradual prohibition, Mr. W. then proceeded to quote details from the annual statistical tables, from which it appeared that, in 1817, while we imported 386,985 pounds, we also exported 39,400 pounds. In 1822 we imported 1,733,420 pounds, and we exported none. Thus had the foreign wool supplanted our own. Merino wool has for some time been selling at from twentyfive to thirty-two cents a pound, a price at which our wool growers could not supply the article without loss; but American fine wool can be supplied at a profit, of a better quality than the imported, at an average price of fifty cents a pound. The coarse wool from Smyrna may be had at ten cents. We do not grow this kind at all, and it was proper it should be exempted from duty. In matters of mere agriculture, we may proceed with rapidity-but not in a product of this description. He believed that, in four or eight years, say six years, the country could meet the demand, and the prohibition might be total. Mr. MARTINDALE could not agree with gentleIn France the same policy is pursued. Even men who said that this coarse wool did not come during the Revolution, while homes and sanctu-in competition with our own. If it was now used aries were pillaged, and all rights of property wan- where our own would be used; if this were extonly disregarded, one thing was guarded-it was cluded, then, to its whole extent, it does come in the national flock of merino sheep at Rambouillet; competition with ours. this remained unharmed through all the stormy succession of Governments that prevailed in that country. Such were the views of European statesmen on this matter. But can we raise wool enough The duty now proposed, was not a prohibition. The article would still be imported, though in less quantity. It would operate moderately, and that was just what the agriculturist wanted. It was to him we ought to look, throughout the whole of this bill; but we could only reach him through the manufacturer. Gentlemen have shown great anxiety lest the duty should injure the poor. Mr. M. said he also was a friend and an advocate of the poor; but he would aid them by giving them employment; if the duty should, for a time, increase the price of coarse woollen goods, it would, in the same proportion, increase the employment of the poor, who were to buy them. But, whose voice is it, that speaks on this floor for the poor? The voice of the capitalist, who owns large flocks and large factories. He fears the poor-the poor farmer and the poor manufacturer may come in competition with himself; it is for himself he speaks. Mr. M. considered it as a principle of universal truth and application, that where the producing power exists, protecting duties will cause the article to be produced cheaper than before. Gentlemen who advocate the amendment, seem now to forget the policy of England, which is to break down our manufactures by every practicable means. Will she regard this small duty? No; she will pour in her manufactures upon us, so long as she can sell them for any thing more than the duty. It is time to protect our farmers, that they may begin a system of home supply. It is at the beginning, emphatically, that this protection is needed. Gentlemen say we must not tax coarse wool because we cannot now supply the demand; but we are supplying that demand with a substitute-we mix cotton in the woollen fabrics, and this is a benefit to all our Southern country. Surely, it is fair, that when the manufacturer asks of the farmer to buy his cloth, the farmer should ask in return that the manufacturer will take his wool. Mr. INGHAM observed, that some allusion had been made to personal interests of gentlemen on the subject under debate. With deference, he must deny the propriety of such allusions. All of the members have an interest, direct or indirect, in what is done here, whether they be merchants, manufacturers, or agriculturists, and they were justified in presenting to the consideration of the House the several interests which will be affected by its acts. He made this remark as a general one, and not because he thought the remark of the honorable gentleman fairly applied to him, when he said that there was a combination of manufacturers under the mask of wool growers. He had little or no interest in the article of wool, as he owned but a hundred Merino sheep, which he kept more for amusement than profit. He thought it the interest of the consumer that the duty should be reduced. The only effect of a heavy duty on coarse wool would be, to throw all who are now engaged in manufacturing the raw material into coarse goods, entirely out of employment, and there were not less than ten thousand spindles thus occupied? Were not the farmers interested in feeding this body of men? Where manufactures flourish the farmers flourish. Mr. CAMBRELENG said, he rose merely to reply to the argument of the gentleman from Pennsylvania, (Mr. INGHAM,) in his rejection of the duty MARCH, 1824. on wool. He says, that this inferior wool will not be raised in the country; and, therefore, it is not wise to prohibit the importation. Now, if this is a good argument, why not apply it to hemp ? The Navy Commissioners cannot use the American hemp, because it is bad; and then, the gentleman says, lay on a prohibitory duty. How can both these arguments stand? He now says, if a duty is laid on coarse wool, a different article must be substituted. Just so his bill will operate in the article of linens-it will not lower the price of linens, but will supply their place by cottons. Mr. INGHAM replied. The gentleman agrees with me about the measure proposed: is it not strange that he should take this occasion to find out some other point in which we disagree? He finds that some argument of mine is at war with another argument brought forward on this side, (but which is not mine.) He then assumes that I used it, and next accuses me of inconsistency. I never said any thing about the hemp duty. The honorable gentleman seems kindly to assume opinions for me. Mr. COBB wished that the question on the two parts of the amendment might be divided. The CHAIRMAN pronounced this not in order. Mr. TRACY then moved to amend the amendment, by substituting eight for ten cents, as the price at the place whence imported. Mr. McKiм opposed this alteration. He said, that no wool could be purchased so low as eight cents-and he read a statement of the prices at which the article had been imported. He thought the object of the mover could only be to defeat the amendment. Mr. TRACY said, if no wool could be purchased as low as eight cents, he should then doubt the expediency of the amendment first proposed-in that case, the article needed no exemption. He had certainly been told by manufacturers that they sometimes bought it at six cents. Mr. McKIM explained. Mr. MCLANE believed that the question was not understood. If the bill passes, the duty on the raw material will countervail the duty on foreign goods-the duty will come on the consumer. This article of coarse wool only concerns the fabric of negro cloths. That cloth is now made out of wool that costs from ten to twenty cents a pound. A high duty will oblige the American manufacturer to substitute a finer cloth for the coarse article, and then the foreigner comes in and supplants him. It is never politic to tax a raw material, unless to encourage its growth at home. But this kind of wool is not produced here—so that, under pretence of encouraging manufactures, you deprive the manufacturer of the very material on which he is to work. The American farmer raises wool from a mixed breed of sheep, and the very coarsest of it costs twenty or thirty cents. But the foreign is raised by the wandering shepherds of Buenos Ayres and the boors of Sweden. The wool is essentially inferior. There are other kinds of wool raised amongst us, which ought to be protectedthe Merino, the common, and that of the mixed breed. He would put one fact to the gentleman from New York, (Mr. TRACY.) It has been stated that this coarse wool costs at the outside twenty cents. There is no wool raised here at less than twenty-five, and the most of it at forty cents. From whence are you to get two millions of pounds of this coarse wool? It would require six hundred thousand sheep, and would take eight or nine years. What becomes of your manufacturers in the meanwhile? They are gone: and, when the wool comes, there is nobody who wants it. H. OF R. sistency in the arguments of the friends of the bill, for he might say that in voting either against or in favor of amending the section, he gave his suffrage without bias; for, in whatever way the duty on wool was modified, it would be unimporto the interest of those he represented; for, if the duty on the manufactured fabric was retained, the planters of the South would make their own clothing for their slaves, for the manufacture of which, the materials, consisting partly of wool and partly of cotton, were to be found in abundance in the interior economy of most of their plantations-a necessity to which grievous duties would unquestionably drive them. Mr. H. said he could not but be surprised at the unlooked-for moderation and generosity of the chairman of the Committee on Manufactures, for which, he said, he had no doubt that gentleman had the best reasons, although he chose to keep them to himself. Mr. ToD observed, in reply, that he began again to have hopes of getting the support of the gentleman from South Carolina, for the whole bill-for all the taxes come to, is this: that we will make our own manufactures. But that gentleman is mistaken if he supposes that the same arguments apply to wool as to iron. The sheep which produce this wool are raised in a country that is always warm, and they have a quite different covering from sheep which live in a Northern country, or any country where the heat is interrupted by a cool season. It is rather hair than wool-and though I am friendly to manufactures, I am not such a friend to them as to raise them in spite of nature herself. I shall not attempt, by protecting duties, to produce whale oil on the top of the Alleghany mountains. The question being taken, Mr. TRACY's amendment was not agreed to. That of Mr. ToD was carried. Mr. HAMILTON said he rose to make a single observation, and that was, to comment on the singular attitude of the question before the Committee. A question which had changed the relations of confederates, and now placed in array a certain class of agriculturists with their old friends, the manufacturers. In the progress of the bill, there had been certainly all sorts of arguments. Those who had gone into the bowels of the earth, in pursuit of a metal more precious than goldthose who had fought valiantly in the hempenfields of the West-and, Mr. H. said, he did not now see, according to the principles of the compromise of the bill, by which equivalents in different quarters were to be arranged and modified, why the Northern and Western agriculturists were not also entitled, in the general distribution of the booty, to their golden fleece. It was certainly amusing to perceive how readily, when convenient, the arguments of those opposed to the whole monopoly of the bill, could be adopted by the gentlemen advocating the interests of the manufacturer. Even the gentleman from Delaware, (Mr. McLANE,) to whom, said Mr. H., I always listen with instruction and pleasure, had urged in favor of lowering the duty on raw wool, those very reasons which might be advanced against the whole policy of the tariff. But the gentleman from Pennsylvania, the chairman of the Committee on Manufactures, had employed, for the reduction of the duty on wool, the very arguments which had been so unavailingly enforced for the reduction of all the other duties. And now, when he comes out, and says that the very duty reported by himself should be reduced, and proposes an amendment to his own bill, does To the article laying a duty of 25 cents per he not urge the very argument which he has pre-gallon on linseed and hemp seed oil, was added viously resisted? This gentleman has, through-the words "rape seed" (oil,) out, gone upon this principle: that domestic pro- The Committee then rose, and the House adduction will be commensurate with foreign prohi- journed. bition, but, as the manufacturers want wool on the cheapest terms, on reflection, this principle will not apply to this raw material, although it does to iron and hemp. Now, said Mr. H., I wish to know why it will not apply to wool. When the foreign supply is cut off, will not those infinite creations of domestic production take place, which the gentlemen have predicted, in relation to other articles? Mr. H. said he believed that flocks of sheep could be multiplied with the same facility as iron forges and hemp factories, and the argument, if worth any thing, applied as well to the former as the latter. Mr. H. said, he confessed that he had no interest in adjusting the separate claims which conflicting monopolies might put in; he had risen to point out an incon-imports. On motion of Mr. Top, the following items were also stricken out: "On scythes 25 cents each." "On gridirons and griddles, 20 cents each." "On frying pans, 25 cents each," and insert in lieu thereof 4 cents per pound." FRIDAY, March 5. The Committee of the whole House to which is committed the bill from the Senate, entitled "An act confirming the claims of the heirs of Nicholas Baudin, and the heirs of Joseph Chastang to certain tracts of land," were discharged from the consideration of the same, and it was recommitted to the Committee on Private Land Claims. THE TARIFF BILL. The House then resolved itself into a Committee of the Whole on the state of the Union, on the bill for amending the several acts laying duties on Mr. Top moved to amend the fifth section of the bill by adding to that article which lays a duty on window glass, of several different sizes, the following proviso, (to prevent the law's being evaded,) viz: "provided that all window glass imported in plates uncut be included in the above duty." Mr. ToD moved to add to the clause which lays a duty "on iron, in bars or bolts, not manufactured, in whole or in part, by rolling, $1 12 per hundred weight," the following words, (for the same purpose, of preventing the duty from being evaded,) on ploughs or share moulds a duty of one cent and a half per lb." On this motion some conversation took place between Messrs. CAMBRELENG, BROWN, SANFORD, UDREE, and COBB. The amendment was rejected-ayes 59, noes 63. Mr. Top then moved to add to the clause containing a duty on Brussels, Venetian, Turkey, and Wilton carpets and carpeting, the words "on all ingrain carpets and carpeting 25 cents per square yard;" which motion was carried. Mr. ToD then moved to add to the clause laying duties on nail rods, sheet iron, and iron slit and rolled, the following words, "on pig iron 75 cents per cwt." On this motion a prolonged and desultory debate arose, which continued until past four o'clock. The speakers in favor of the motion were Messrs. TOD, BROWN, STEWART, UDREE, FORWARD, and GARRISON. MARCH, 1824. very large quantity, and that which is imported is not brought from abroad on account of a lower price, but of a peculiar quality. It is the Scottish grey iron, which has a degree of fineness and solidity which renders it peculiarly fit for small castings used in machinery. It must be mixed with our own iron for certain kinds of work-we have no substitute for it, and the duty is only so much laid on the manufacturer; so that this is, in truth, a strife between manufacturer and manufacturer, and not a question whether the general interests of manufactures are to be promoted. The present duty is sufficiently heavy; and the fact that Scottish pig continues to be imported under that duty, shows that the article is needed. For a species of iron analogous to this, the manufacturers of Massachusetts send all the way to New Jersey, and bring the raw ore 400 miles by water and 40 by land. It is not correct that England prohibits the importation of the raw material. She lays on it a tax of no more than fourteen shillings and eight pence sterling a ton, and great quantities are still imported into that country from Sweden and Russia, although the application of coal to smelting the ore has led to a vast production of English iron. This duty is not needed by the makers of pig iron; they are already growing rich, while the manufacturers of bar and bloom iron are growing poor-the duty will go to increase the profits of those already thriving, and to add to the burden of those who are about to sink; as the makers of pig iron have already a duty which gives them the market, all the duty now added will only be so much added to the price paid by the consumer. The argument urged by the friends of the bill, in favor of It was advocated, first, on the general principles admitting South American and Smyrna wool, will of the bill, that our own manufacturers should, apply equally to admitting Scottish grey pig iron. wherever it was practicable, be encouraged in Both are articles which cannot be raised in this preference to those of foreign countries, in order country, and yet are essential to very valuable to promote internal trade, and the independence branches of its manufactures; and every arguof the country, and to provide a resource in case ment against the one, goes equally against the of war. The article of iron is abundant, being other. The New Jersey pig iron is no substitute found in almost all the States of the Union; its Heaven defend the merchants who have had one quality is equal to that of any in the world; pig consignment of it from ever receiving another— iron is its very rudest form of manufacture-it especially if they have the Scotch pig at the same employs labor that would otherwise remain idle; time for sale. If you prevent the importation of a duty has already been laid on bar iron, which the Scotch metal in pigs, you will only have it will lead to the importation of pig, unless that im-imported in a manufactured form, which would portation is met by a duty on pig also; none was imported previous to 1818; in that year one hundred tons were imported, and the importation has already reached thirty-one hundred tons a year. This goes to keep the native riches of the country buried in the earth, while foreign products and industry are promoted. This is an article that, of all others, should be encouraged, because it converts that which is worthless, (and worse,) into an article of great value, of general utility, and of indispensable necessity. No country that produces iron encourages, but, on the contrary, prohibits, the importation of the raw material; and pig iron is little else. Those in opposition to the duty were Messrs. CAMBRELENG, REED, MERCER, FULLER, POINSETT, STERLING, CROWNINSHIELD, FLOYD, and Foor, of Connecticut. It was opposed on the general ground that, instead of benefiting manufactures, this duty went to injure them. Pig iron is not imported in any be worse, on the principles of those who would lay this duty. Surely, if the manufacturers of Massachusetts can afford to go 400 miles for the raw ore from New Jersey, and make it into pig iron at their own furnaces, the manufacturers of New Jersey cannot need the duty now proposed, who have the ore at their door. The foreign pig iron is used in our foundries of cannon. It was rejoined, that the quality of the Scotch pig iron did not depend on any thing peculiar in the ore, but in the manner of preparing it; and that the iron of this country could be so mixed as to be made either into what is called grey iron, or white, at the will of the ironmaster, (and details of the process were given.) There was a difference between rock ore and bog ore; the latter was of a finer texture, shrank in cooling, and |