trary, it is plain that these men will !ofe more than ether citizens by the dell ruction of th* common liberty—sos their property v is m;ide to depend wholly, 60 the Jaws—their policy is to keep all quiet, not to change the government, as many inlhiuate. It would be a <|ueer blunder for a man os-six per cent, to join in a ploi against a free government, which pays him his income. Liberty, therefore,, has gained new friends ra ther than foes by the funding fyftein—whofe liv ings are made to depend 011 their support of the prefect free and equal fyllem of laws. On tile'whole, no country ever gained more credit, wealth and power, in three year's time, than this has dbne since the newgoverninent be gau. If the newspapers are full of charges a gainst the government whicii has chiefly produc-' ed this wonderful change—at the very moment when the change is fretli in our minds, and if they are capable of souring the people against it in theprofperousoutlet—What will happen when tniilakes or disasters, incident to all governments, shall have destroyed its popularity ?—lt will be limb from limb, unless the body of the-peo ple, who form its solid support, lhall be willing; to pcoteft it agaiult its artful and implacable enemies.—Of all its friends, the farmers (lioiild be the-firmeft; for Congress lays 110 land-taxes, and yet things go on very well—too well, fay the newspapers.—And whether it encourages manufa&urers to eat the proviHons at home, or navigation-to seek a market abroad, we are sure of the benefit. Opprellion will make a wife man mad. If only talking about oppreflion when there is none, will make a man mad, I will fay lie is not a wife man. A FARMKR. CONGRESS. PHILADELPHIA HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, FRIDAY, February 3, 1792. In committee of the whole, on the Fishery Bill. THE ftift fediion being read as follows : — " Be it enadled, &c. That the bounty, now allowed upon the exportation of dried filli of the lifheries of the United States, (hall cease 011 all dried fifh exported after the tenth day of June next ; and in lieu thereof, and for the more im mediateencouragement of the laid fifheries, there Jhall be afterwards paid, on the last day of De cember, annually, to the owner of every veflel, or his agent, by the collector of the district where such veflel may belong, that shall be qualified agreeably to law, for carrying on the Bank and other Cod Fisheries, and that (hall actually have been employed therein at sea, for the term of four months at least, of the fifhing season next preceding (which season is accounted to be from the last day of February, to the lalt clay of No vember in every year) for each and every ton of such vessel's burthen, according to her admea surement, as licensed or enrolled—if of twenty tons and not exceeding thirty tons, one and a half dollars, and if above thirty tons, two and a half dollars, of which bounty three eighth parts fliall accrue and belong to the owner of fucli (idl ing veflel, and the other five eighths thereof fliall be divided by him, his agent or lawful represen tative, to and among the several fifliermen who shall have been employed in such veflel, during the season aforefaid, or a part thereof, as the cafe may be, in such proportions as the fifh they shall refpeAively have taken may bear to the whole quantity of fifh taken on board such veflel during such season. Provided, that the bounty, to be aH lowed and paid 011 any veii'cl for one season, shall not exceed 1 70 dollars." Mr. Giles expredeH some doubt refpectino- the principle of the bill ; and for the purpol'e of col ]e<fting the (enfe of the committee on the Hibie<fl lie thought the nu.ft effectual means would he motion to amend the hill, by striking out the whole fcction. He accordingly made the motion—obfervinp at the fame time, that he could not positively as iert, whether the reasons which determined him againlt the principle of the bill, were weil found ed or not ; that, in matters where a local pie i erence .s given, it is neceilary to accommodate • and he would be happy if his objections could be removed. 1 he present section of the bill (he continued) appears to contain a direct bounty on occupa tions: and if that be its object, it' is the firft at tempt as yet made by this government to exec c.fe luch authority s—and its conftitutionalitv "ruck him in a doubtful point of view; for in n'o pars of the conftitntion could he, in'exprefs terms, find a power given to Congress to errant bounties on occupations the power is nelth"- directly granted, nor (by any reasonable eon lhuc'tion that he could give) annexed to any other power fpetified in the conltitution. It might perhaps bajferoughc in under a mode ot conltruction al&eitdy adopted by the house, viz. that, of " ways and ends by which any power whatever might be equally implied :—'ouc he wilhed ever to fee some connexion between a ipe cified power, and-the means adopted for carrying it into execution. There is a great difference between givjngen couragement, and granting a direct bounty.— Congress have a right to regulate commerce ; — and any advantage thereby reftihing to a parti cular occupation cynneifted with commerce,conies within that authority : but when a bounty is pro posed to a particular employment or occupation, this is llepping beyond the circle of commerce ; and such a measure will affect the whole manu facturing and agricultural lyftem. Iji all cases, the revenue, to be employed in this bounty, is drawn from all the sources of revenue in the U nited States, and confined to a particular object. He was averse to bounties in altnoft'every shape, as derogations from the common right; and lie thought there would be 110 great difficulty in proving that a government is both unjust and oppreilive in establishing exclusive rights, mono polies, &c. without some very substantial merit in the persons to whom they are granted ; altho' even in that cafe the propriety of such grants is still questionable. Under a just and equal government, every in dividual is entitled to protection in the enjoy ment of the whole produtfl of his labor, except filth portion of it as is neceifary to enable govern ment to protect the reft; this is given only in conlideration of the protection offered. In every bounty, exclusive right, or monopoly, govern ment violates the ftiptilation oil her part : for, by such a regulation, the produift of one man's labor is transferred to lhe life and enjoyment of another. The exercise of such a right on the part of government can be jultified upon no other principle, than that the whole produift of the la bor of every individual is the real property 01 government, and may be dillributed among the several parts of the community by governmental discretion ; such a supposition would diretitly in volve the idea, that every individual in thecam m unity is merely a slave and bondman to govern ment, who, although he may labor, is not to ex poet protection in the product of his labor. An authority given to any government to exercise such a principle, would lead to a complete fyftein oftyranny. He entertained fewer doubts, refpeifling the principle, as it regards political economy. All occupations that Hand in need of bounties, in dead of increasing the real wealth of" a country, rather tend to lellen it ; the real wealth of every country confiding in the active product of ufeful labor employed in it:—it is therefore bad policy to encourage any occupation, that would dimi nish indead of increasing the aggregate wealth of the community :—and if an occupation is real ly productive, and augments the general wealth, bounties are unneceflary for its support; for when it reimburses the capital emplo'ved, and yields a profit besides, it may be said to support itfelf : — when it fails in tbefe points, any forced advantage, that is given to it by the government, only tends to decrease the wealth of the country! . The fubjecfl however might (he observed) be considered in a more favorable point of view and that is, whether the provision be efiential to the defence of the United States, and whether the bounties proposed in the bill were more than equivalent to the portion of defence that would be procured by them.—The bill does not (in his opinion) contain that kind of encouragement which is efiential to the national defence. Any man, who takes a view of this country, mud be convinced, that its real support lifes from the land, and not from the sea ; and the opposite nulla!, e mud have arisen merely from a servile imitation of the conduct of Great.Britain : the inhabitants of this country heretofore thought favorably of her government, and the revolu tion has not yet altered their former ideas .e ---fpetfling it. Rut the cireninftan<?es of the two countries Will, Oil examination, be found widely different • Britain, surrounded by ,he sea on every fide' finds a navy necefiary to support he, comme.ce • whilst America, poflefled of an immense territo-' y, and having yet ample room to cultivate that e.ritoiy, has no occalion to contend L-y sea with any European power :-her flrengthand her re iourcesare alll to be found within the United States ; and if she but attends to her internal ,e sources, the objea of national defence wiil be much better answered. I3e next proceeded to consider whether that pornon of the national defence which ,ni"h be denved from the fineries, w„ u ]d not hep^chaf 338 portatxon of the iifhj and the ed on the tonnage of the fifhirigvefl<?ls t the i rec»ii be no comparative value between tire drawback and the bounty ; they have „o neceflary relation to each other; and the latter may exceed the former, or the former exceed the latter.—He had made a calculation, and upon the molt favorable principles, grounded on the reports of the cretary of the Treasury and the Sccretarv o( State. '• Here he produced a calculation, rending to fiiew that the propol'ed bounty on the tonnageof the veiieis, would conlideiablyexceedtlie amount of the present draw-backs from a com parison between the bouury, and the number of sailors employed in the fifheries, he ihewed,what an expense each man would be to :he s United States—and, after other remarks, observed, that even Great-Britain,whofe whole national support and defence depends 011 her navy, had fotmd that the men employed in the fiflieries, though so neceflary for that defence, coil her too much > —that America, whose consequence, as a nation does not depend on a navy, ought to 'ake ales' son from the experience ofHritain thathedii not willi to enter into a competition with Britain and France, in supplying the different markets with fifh ; that, as those nations are able to liol4 out greater encouragement to their filhermen than we can to ours, we would, by fucti a conj.' petition, only exhaust the treasury of the United States to no purpole : and Upon this principle alone, he thought there wasfoiiiereafontodotfk « the policy of the measure proposed in the ftfli -011 under consideration, which therefore be jiop ed the committee would agree to 'itrike out oil lefs his objections could be obviated. Mr. Murray obfervcd, that in orderto demon strate the propriety of the measure, it would be incumbent on the friends of the bill, firft, to prove that tlie fifhery trade.is in a state ofdecay, that the stock employed in it does not yield the ordinary profits, so as to-jnftify ihe merchants in embarking their capital in thi's branch of trade, —-that theie is a fyflem of defence in contempla tion, which tlie circumliauces of the country call for, and which this trade is calculated tofurniflj, —that other branches of trade, which do not (land in need of encouragement, are not equally capable oi iurnifliing seamen for tlie purpose, that this particular object so peculiarly claims the attention and encouragement of the United States, as to leave tar behind every coitfideration of the manufacturing interest, the agricultural, &c. all this he thought neceflary for gentleman to prove, and to shew (ome very itroiig necellity for encouraging one particular class of men, in preference to all others. Mr. Goodhue.—lt happens, that the filheries of the United States are alinoft entirely confined to the Hate of Maflachufetts ; and they fnrnifit a considerable, a principal portion of oar export trade. As we are a part of the United States, the United Siates in general are interested in the profpericy of that branch of business, so iar at lenft as it contributes to ihe national defence: —it furnifhes a copious nuiTery of hardy (earner, and off ers a never-failing source of protection 10 the commerce of the United States. If" we en gage in a war witli any European power, those seamen will be excluded from their ordinary em ployment, and inuft have recour'e to privateer ing. During the late war with Britain, we an noyed tile enemy more in that line, than all o thers ; and had ii not been for privateering, it would often have been iuipoffible to keep toge ther our armies, who frequently in tlie hour of need, were supplied by the privateers with am mution and cloathing, of which they were whol ly aeftitute. All jliat we vvifh to ob ain by this bill, is that we may not be burdened with du ties. An opinion has been entertained, that no drawbacks ought to be allowed on there-export ation of articles imported from foreign coun tries : hut if this opinion were to obtain in prac tice, and no drawbacks were to be admitted, we in 11 ft confine our importation to articles for our own confuinption. 1 lie drawback, allowed by the exiftinglaw,oii the exportation of fait fi(h, was calculated to be only equal to the duty beforehand paid on the quantity of falc tiled in curing the fiih : but fifhernien complain, that, as the acs now (lands, they are wholly excluded from any participation in the benefit, which centers entirely in tlie cof fers of the merchants : — the objecft of the present bill, is only to repay the fame money into the hands of thole persons who are)mincdiately con cerned in catching the fifh ; and there can no reasonable objection be made to fuel) a transfer of the drawback, as government will not lose a , single dollar by the change. The gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Giles) talks of the unconfii tutiona'it y of granting bounties : but no bounty is required :— we only ask, in anotherniode, tlie nlual drawback for the fait, iifed on the filh if we can make* it appear that the bill does not contemplate any greater funis to be drawn from the treasury, than are already allowed, it is 10 be hoped that no further opposition will be made
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