6 [ Doc. No. 82. ] It appears, from the report of the Secretary of the Treasury, that the' revenue derived from the articles most highly protected, wool, woollens, cottons, hemp, salt, iron, and sugar, amounted to, during the past year,- to about nine millions. Perhaps it may be found that a duty of twenty-five per cent, will be more productive of revenue than the presenthigh duties. Underthetariff of 1816, the duty on woollens, which was fixed at twentv-five per cent., was found to be much more productive than the present high impost has proved. If this should prove to be the fact, with respect to the other protected articles, which there seems no good reason to doubt, then, by a duty of twenty-five per cent, on these articles alone, all, and more than all, the revenue may be raised which is required to be raised f rom the customs. This would render the duties on wines, teas, coffee, and other articles of luxury unnecessary, and would be a departure from the views of the memorial, which prays that those articles may be subject to about an average rate of taxation. If such a discrimination should be allowed, although the aggregate burdens of the community might be diminished, that inequality of operation on the different classes of the community and sections of the country, which has excited so much odium and discontent, would be aggravated. And let it be remarked, that, if the necessary freight, charges, and profit, on importing foreign merchandise, amount, as they have been estimated to do by those most competent to judge, to fifteen per cent, on the value, then a duty of fifteen per cent, will afford the manufacturer a protection of thirty jper cent "Whether the country can be considered as ;;t all prepared for manufactures, which cannot be successfully prosecuted with a protection of this extent, is submitted to the wisdom and justice of your honorable body. Perhaps the foreign nations among whom restrictive systems are said to obtain, do not afford protection so efficient, as our manufuctures would receive from the natural situation of the country, and the wants of the ( overnment for revenue. The memorial states, “it is well known to your honorable body that the tariff system is believed to be unconstitutional by a numerous and respectable portion of the American people, including, probably, a majority of the people of the southern States.” From opportunities of intimate knowledge and full information, which were not enjoyed by the gentleman who drafted the memorial, we are able to state, that, among the people of the six southern States, extending from the Potomac to the Mississippi, (with the exception of a minor portion of one of these States,) there is as near an approach- to unanimity of opinion with respect to the unconstitutionality of the protecting system, as can ever be expected to exist on any political subject. We submit, with the deference which becomes us, whether an opinion thus widely diffused and deeply rooted, independently of any supposition of its truth or error, does not deserve the most serious consideration of your honorable body. The strongest governments have found it wise, and sometimes necessary, to concede much, even to the prejudices of a considerable portion of their subjects, especially if those prejudices relate to matters which are supposed to appertain to right and justice. If the people entertaining them are intelligent, if they are otherwise loyal and deeply devoted to the .overnment, it would seem that they are entitled to still more consideration. A distinguished British statesman and political philosopher remarked, with respect to the people of the then American colonies, that a free government, for practical, purposes, is what the people think such. That the people of the southern States are not unintelligent in relation to their political con-
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