The Tariff as it is, compared with market just as much as if it we re so much Wool, while they lose beside the market for their sheep, as well as other produce which would he consumed by those employed in manufacturing the 'Cloth in our own Country. And here it may be well to observe that the 'measure of Protection affirrded to the great Agri- . cultural interest of the Country by the present Tariff is not determined by the amount of duties on its own products merely. True, there are ’ specific duties oh the several kinds of Grain, Potatoes; Cheese, &c. which in most instances have Tittle effect on the American price or production. "But the Farmer is benefited by whatever creates an adequate cash market for his products in his vicinity, or brings such market considerably nearer him. Grain may be higher or lower in Boston than it was twenty five years ago ; but the Farmers of Vermont or New. Hampshire no longer produce grain for the Boston market, because the building up of manufactories all around them, has given them an adequate market for all their grain nearer home, and justified the productionof vegetables, fruits, &c. which would not bear transportation to the Boston market. I have known a small tract of land bought by a New- Hampshire farmer for a hundred dollars, and, a manufacturing village about the time springing up near him, he sold the wood off the lot for a hundred dollars, and had the land left, worth more than it was when he bought it. This wood was worth nothing andnever would be, while our manufacturing was done in England. This simple fact illustrates a general law. Whatever di-> versifies and increases the industry of any section almost inevitably increases the value of all the property of that section. Take any County in which a thousand men are constantly at work, and set. three thousand steadily and effectively at work in it, and you can hardly fail to raise the value of whatever land, timber, ores, water-power, &c. &c. it contains. If the present Tariff did not impose a duty of one cent on any Agricultural product, it would still be of immense, essential importance to our Agriculture by creating large and convenient markets for its products, many of which, being balky or perishable, are without commercial value unless there be an adequate market for them at hand. The present Tariff is defective, in my judgment, so far as relates to Wool and Woolens., in imposing too low duties on several descriptions of Woolen goods. Wool being higher here than abroad, and the British manufacturers having the advantage of an essentially free importation of Wool, and thus having their raw material cheaper than their American rivals, and having both Labor and Capital at cheaper rates than they can or ought to be afforded here, the duty on all Woolen goods ought to be equal to the duty on Wool and at least ten per cent, addition. But it is not so, except on Carpets, Flannels, and*Ready-made Clothing, so current is the clamor agaiaet protecting manufactures, so general the dread of the demagogue cant, that manufactures sxe protected at the expense of other interests, that while a duty equivalent to forty or fifty per cent, is imposed on all Wool coming in competition with ours, several descriptions of Woolen Manufactures are allowed to come in at thirty per cent This, the Farmers are told, is favorable to them, when in fact, the duty on Wool is partially neutralized by the lower dutv on some Woolens. No raw Wool, except of the poor, coarse kind entirely different from ours, is now imported ; but Woolens are and will be while the duty remains below that on Wool; and this is clearly just as detrimental to the Wool-Growing interest as the importation of so much Wool. It ought to be stopped. But the new bill, instead of correcting this defect in the present Tariff, magnifies it tenfold. It first takes off about half of the present duty on raw Wool, (the specific three cents a pound, leaving but the thirty per cent, ad valorem, which is to come down to twenty-five at the end of another year,) and then it destroys the ef. ficient Protection now afforded to our Carpetings, Flannels, Bookings, Baizes, Ready-Made Clothing, &,c. and cuts down the duty on every thing else. It is a bill to enich the landlords and millowners of Yorkshire at the expense of the yeomanry of New-York, New-England, and all our Wool-growing States. Can it be that it will meet their approval ? V. Effect of the Tariff on Wool. It is often positively declared that our Farmers pay more for all they buy and receive less for all they sell since or on account of the Tariff. Some color of plausibility is given to this gross untruth by the fact that Agricultural produce had been raised to an extraordinary price by the failure of the Grata crop of 1836 combining with the Currency expansion and extravagant speculations of that and the two preceding years, and the high prices so attained went down inevitably under the concurrent operation of better crops, more general industry, more contracted currency, and the gradually diminishing Tariff of succeeding years. Cattle were eaten up during the speculating times to such an extent that Beef was scarce and bore high prices during several succeeding years, as the replenishing an inadequate stock is a matter requiring more time than an increased productionof Grain. The lowest point of depression had not been reached when the present Tariff was enacted. And because Agricultural staples did not at once begin to rise —because some of them, under the influence of preexisting causes, continued to fall—the clamor was at once raised that the Tariff had reduced the prices of Produce ! But in what way did any man believe or suppose that Protection would increase the prices of Produce ? Was it not by building up new branches of Industry—by opening new and convenient markets for whatever the Farmer had to sell ? Now this was manifestly a work of lime; the improvement, to be natural and healthy, must lie progressive. From the day the I present Tariff became a law, it set on foot causes which must unfailingly increase the prices of Produce. But these causes required time for their development; meantime the prior causes of depressing prices were still actively at work. For a brief season, the adversaries of Protection had a ch an ce to obscure these truths. The Tariff, passed the last of August, 1842, did- not materially increase the price of Wool immediately, in the face of heavy stocks of Foreign Goods in the market, imported in anticipation of increased duties, with the general contraction of Currency and de
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTM4ODY=