I SPEECH. The House having under consideration'the Bill to reduce the duties on Imports—• Mr. GENTRY addressed the House as follows: Mr. Chairman: I do not rise to attempt a philosophical examination of the questions of political economy which grow out of the measure now under consideration; nor to make an argumentative reply to the speculative theories which have been advanced during this debate, by those who support the bill. Mine shall be the humble task of grouping a few facts which are, I think, entitled to some consideration in the determination of the question before the committee, and which are too well known to require proof; and to express some conclusions which are, in my judgment, so obviously true, as to require no argument in their support. If any gentleman doubts my facts, he is welcome to disprove them; if he questions my -conclusions, let him show their fallacy. Without wishing to say anything that can be construed to imply a want of proper respect for those who support the bill now before the committee, I am constrained to express the conviction that, but for pre-committals, made for mere party purposes, no gentleman on this floor would, under existing circumstances, advocate the repeal, at the present time, of the tariff act of 1842, with the exception perhaps, of those gentlemen from South Carolina and Virginia, who have dreamed of the blessings of free-trade until they are so far deranged, on that particular subject, as to believe that the repeal of the tariff of 1842 will rev store their worn-out lands to primitive fertility, and their incomes to what they were before the new and rich lands of the Mississippi valley had, by over-production, reduced the price of their staples, cotton and tobacco, to •one-third of their former value. What, sir, are the circumstances alluded, to, which so powerfully forbid the repeal, at the present time, of the tariff act of 1842? We are at war with Mexico; we have already authorized an army of sixty thousand men for the prosecution of that war; we have voted, an appropriation of ten millions of dollars to defray the expenses of the war; we are notified that other large appropriations, for the same purpose, will be asked of us; and that we will, be called upon to authorize a loan, and the issue of Treasury notes to a large amount. No man can predict the duration of the war; none can foresee its end. All may hope that it will be of short duration, but no one can have an assurance of that fact. Every man must know that, to carry invasion into the heart of a country so remote as Mexico, even a short war will demand large expenditures—a long war expenditures to an amount almost incalculable. Under these circumstances, we are called upon to pass the bill nowunder consideration, and to repeal the tariff act of 1842. We are called upon to repeal the tariff of 4842, which has brought into the Treasury an average annual net revenue of more than twenty-six millions of dollars, and to pass the bill now before the committee, which the gentleman from New York,(Mr. Hungerford,) a leading supporter of the present administration, has demonW0«20JUN’34
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