13 dices of the people against the tariff act of 1842; and by conceding, for the most part j the correctness of the general principle of policy upon which that act is founded, and attacking it in its details, they have been to some extent successful. To accomplish this object, every narrow prejudice, every mean passion of the human heart has been perseveringly appealed to. It is a high proof of the intelligence rof the American people that, under such circumstances, their verdict was rendered at the last Presidential election, as I have conclusively shown; in favor of the general principle of policy upon which that law is founded. I claim of the most bitter opponent of that law the admission, which I think candor will compel him to make, that as a revenue measure it has admirably fulfilled the predictions of those who framed it, and most signally falsified the predictions Of those who opposed it when it was under consideration in this House. When that law was under consideration in this House, in 1842, its opponents argued most zealously that the duties which it imposed were so high as to prohibit importations, and that it would be wholly insufficient as a revenue*measure ; and I well remember that the present President of the United States, when a. candidate for Governor in the State of Tennessee, confidently announced the same opinion to the people of that State. The friends of the law, on the other hand, contended on this floor that the duties which it imposed were so adjusted as to raise twenty-six millions of dollars, and gi se fair and just encouragement and protection to American manufactures. The official reports from the Treasury Department show us that there has accrued to the Government, from the operations of that law, an annual average revenue of more than twenty-six millions of dollars ; and the proof is before us in many forms that the manufacturing interest, and every other interest of the country, immediately sprung upward from a state of languishing depression to one of healthful prosperity. When that law was passed by Congress the finances of the Government were in a most deplorable and disgraceful condition ; for, in a time of profound peace, the revenue of the Government had been for a period of years permitted annually to fall far below the annual expenditures. Treasury notes had been annually issued to keep up the appearance of solvency. These were under protest, and selling in the markets at a large discount. A loan had been authorized y and an agent of Government despatched to Europe to negotiate it ; and after visiting in England, and perambulating the continent of Europe, he returned to tell us the humiliating truth that the bonds of the United States were unsaleable, and that we could not borrow a dollar. Congress passed the act of 1842 to raise the amount of revenue necessary to pay the ordinary annual expenditures of Government; to pay the interest on the loan which had been authorized, and thus restore the credit of the Government; to provide a sinking fund for the final payment of the public debt, and to give il fair and just protection to American manufactures,” which, under that approximation to the revenue standard” provided for by the compromise act, had sunk almost into a state of ruin. All the purposes for which the law was passed were immediately realized. The credit of the Government instantaneously revived ; the bonds of the Government were no longer hacked about, unable to find a purchaser, but sold readily at a high premium ; private credit revived with public credit, and all the business interests of the people at once felt the healthful influence which an un impaild
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