The globe. (Huntingdon, Pa.) 1856-1877, September 10, 1856, Image 1

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Uzi ajnyottant
THE SLAVERY QUESTION
11.7.elracts fi•om a ,Speech, made in Philadelphia,
by Jadue Oldham, of Texas.
After a few introdttetory remarks, he pro- :
seeded as follows:
The Free-soil party now pretend that they
have no disposition to interfere with slavery
in the States where it exists, but that their
object is to prevent its extension into the Ter : .
ritorics. Thispretence is deceptive and false.
They do not now propose to interfere with.
slavery in the States, because the violation of
the Constitution would be too palpable. If
they have no other purpose than to exclude
slavery from the Territories, they are con
tending for a barren and fruitless principle.
Confining slavery within its present limits,
will not reduce the number of slaves; by per
mitting it to go into the Territories, will not
increase the number. What possible differ
ence can it make, whether a man resides in
one State or another with his slave, whether
in State or Territory? The Democratic doc
trine of non-intervention upon the subject of
slavery, both in State and Territory, but leavr
ing it to the people to regulate their own do
mestic institutions, is an assertion of the sov
ereign right of the people to govern them
selves, and will neither increase nor dimin
ish the number of slaves. The Free-soil doc
trine is a denial of the people to govern them
selves, and if carried no further than to ex
clude slavery from the Territories, is barren
and unfruitful in practical results. Can it
be believed, that the excited political organi
zations and combinations of the North, which
threaten a disruption of the bonds of the
Union, arc intended for the assertion of a
- mere abstract principle ?
We, of the South, better understand the
purposes of the Frec-soilcrs. Their object
is not merely to exclude slavery from the
Territories, but to make that pretext die foun
dation fur one of the series of acts of aggres
sion upon the domestic institutions of the
Southern States, making one successful act
the foundation for another aggressive move
ment. Their leaders have again and again
,declared war against the institution of slave
ry in the States. Opposition to slavery is
their battle-cry. They have gone so far as
to define the plan upon which the present
Free-soil movement is to be made the engine
of attack upon slavery in the States.
Slavery being exeinmkd from the Territo
ries, every new State hereafter to be admit,
ted to the Union, will be a free State. The
Free-Boilers express the hope that sla cry will
become unprofitable in the States of Dell:-
ware, Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky and
111issouri, and. will lie banished from those
States to the more extreme Southern States.
This increase of the free States, by the ad
mission of new States and addition from slave
States, will enable them, by a change of the
Federal Constitution, to abolish slavery in
the States where it exists. The same spirit
which prompts the present crusade against
us, under the emboldened insolence of sue
neHss and accuumlated power and strength,
will then exert itself for the destruction of
every barrier of protection to the Southern
States.
The Southern people have closely observed.
the Abolition movement of the North in all
its phases, and they are determined to resist
it, in whatever shape it presents itself. We
are resolved that tur slave property, to the
value of two thousand millions of dollars,
shall nut be sacrificed. to the spirit of North
ern Abolitionism. We are resolved that our
slave population shall not be restricted with
in the present limits, with those limits to be
contracted by degrees, until the negro popu
lation of the extreme Southern States, shall
exceed. that of the whites, which would sub
ject us to the horrors of a servile insurrec
tion, instigated and excited by Abolition em
issaries, and which would result either in the
extermination of the black race, or the aban
donment by the whites, of the fairest and
most productive portion of this Union to the
dominion of the - negro. This Free-soil Abo
lition movement, is calculated to destroy not
only the value of our slave property, but of
every other species of property owned in the
South. if successful, it can lead to nothing
else than a San Domingo massacre, the ex
termination of the black race, or to a total
abandonment of the Southern States to the
negro.
The reasons given in justification of the
crusade against us are both untrue and in
sulting. it is charged that . Southern
slave
ry is a great moral, social, and political evil.
Vero this true, the Northern States are not
responsible for those evils. We are willing
to bear all the odium and. responsibility that
justly attaches to us front that cause: We
'lave not yet constituted the Northern Aboli
tionists the guardians of SOuthern morals,
nor called upon them to exterminate South
ern evils. We are responsible for the insti
tutions in our own States, and are capable of
correcting evils when they exist. Abolition
ism not only sits in judgment upon the do
mestic institutions of the Southern States,
denouncing them as corrupt and. immoral,
but organizes political parties in the North
.ern States to effect a correction of domestic
evils in the Southern States.
The people of the Southern States have
.been insulted by the propogation of every
_malignant falsehood that blinded bigotry and
malice can invent. Their institutions have
been misrepresented, the slave owner has been
vilified, and charged with every vice and mor
al iniquity. 1 was born iu the South, and
have spent my life there, and I know that
every Abolition and. Free-soil 'publication,
from Uncle Tom's cabin down, pretending to
depict the horrors of Southern slavery, is a
caricature and a libel upon the Southern
people. It is true that there are cruel mas
ters in the South ; they form the exception
and not the rule. Such masters are held in
scorn and contempt, and. no man is such un
less he is a slave to avarice, dead to every
generous emotion, and blind to the frowns,
and deaf to the condemning voice of au en
lightened community.
ME
3 00 5 00 7 00
5 00 8 00 10 00
7 00 10 00 15 00
9 00 13 OU
1C;00 10 00
:.'0 00
24 00
WILLIAM LEWIS,
VOL. XII;
What institution is not abused? Arc there
not husbands who maltreat their wives, wives
who treat their husbands with cruelty, pa
rents who are tyrants to their children, and.
children who arc wanting in every sentiment
of filial - affection? But do these facts afford
arguments against the marriage institution,
or the relation of parent or child? Can such
isolated cases be taken to prove the charac
ter of all husbands and. wives, parents and
children ?
The institution of slavery as it exists in
the Southern States is patriarchal in its char
acter, and is conducted upon the principles
of kindness and humanity. It is not only
the interest of the master to treat his slave
with humanity, but he is forced to do so by
the stern command of an enlightened public
sentiment.
There arc two conclusive proofs of the
falsehood of the charges against the South,
in regard to the cruel and debased condition
of the negro. It is a law of population re
cognized by all writers upon that subject,
that the ratio of increase of a people, is in
the proportion as they possess and enjoy the
substantial comforts of life, and that in the
absence of those comforts, population. cannot
increase. Take the census returns, and they
will prove that the natural increase of the
slave population of the South has been great
er than that of any other people.
Again: there are not more than two hun
dred and fifty thousand slaveholders in the
South, and not more than two millions who,
by relation to such slave owners, are directly
or indirectly. Philanthropy is not indege
uous to the growth of any particular climate,
and Massachusetts does not possess a.anonop
oly of the principles of morality and the emo
tions of human sympathy. Were the half
that has been told in regard to the cruelties
of slavery and the sufferings of the negro
true, the five or six millions of disinterested
freemen of the South, who possess both the
Constitutional and numerical power, would
rise in their might, and blot slavery from ex
istence. As it is, there is not one in ten
thousand in the South who would interfere
with the relation of master and slave. And
further, that they arc ready to resist all in
terference from every other quarter. To this
large mass of our disinterested fellow-citizens
who live in the South, and do nut own slaves,
but lvlio are intimately familiar with the in
stitution, we appeal to establish the falsity of
the charges made against us by those who
have no knowledge as to the truth of the
charges they make, bat who are influenced.
1)y a Quixotic zeal for the relief of what they
blindly suppose to be suffering humanity.
I am no casuist, 110 T am I in the habit of
diseus:,ing abstract questions of morality, or
of moral evil. Upon the questionasto wheth
er Southern slavery is a moral evil, we of the
South reason in this wise: That whatever
has a tendency to elevate a man in the scale
of humanity mid as a. rational being, is a
blessing to him and not an evil. And when
we look at the present condition of our slave
population, who have comfortable homes, are
contented and happy, (except when made
otherwise by Abolition emissaries,) who are
taken care of and provided for in infancy,
sickness, and old age, free from want, and
free from care, who have been brought under
humanizing, civilizing, and christianizing in
fluences, when we compare, I say, his pre
sent condition with the savage, barbarous
and brutal state of the native African, we
feel no compunctions of conscience for the
violation of any moral law, human or divine.
We further believe that whatever change
in the condition of a man that has the ten
dency to make his moral and social condition
worse, is not a blessing but a curse. We
know that a greater curse could not beintlic
ted - upon the -three and a half millions of
slaves in the South, than by emancipating
them. They would be loose without restraint
and without care; an inferior and degraded
class, denied all the social privileges and in
tercourse with the superior and elevated one,
they would lead a life of sloth, of misery and
of crime, and die and rot like beasts of the
field. 1 need but point to the emancipation
experiment in the West ,lndies, and to the
squalid misery of the free negroes accumu
lated in the Northern cities, for the truth of
the picture.
This crusade by Northern free-soil aboli
tionism against the institutions of the South
ern States, against the plain dictates of hu
manity, philanthropy, common sense and the
Constitution of our country, is of'diflicult
comprehension to any rational mind. Then
why is it so ? Ido not deny that the masses
of the republican party are honest, bit that
they are blind zealots, misled bigots and en
thusiasts, to my mind is beyond doubt. I
have closely watched and listened to their
delegates in attendance upon their Conven
tion'here. They seem incapable of enter
taining More than one' idea at a time, which
IS always received by adoption, and does not
originate from reason and affection. Their
mental vision, like the physical vision of the
mole, does not extend an inch beyond their
nose, and everything beyond is dark. At
the. same time they seem to feel that they are
the favored recipients of all virtue and mor
ality. They are governed by impulses, and
never by judgment. But while conceding
honesty and candor to the masses, nu such
justification or extenuation can be allowed
for their leaders. These are men who are
the guiding spirit of abolitionism and free
soilism, who are not blind zealots, infatuated,
bigoted enthusiasts, but who are; cool, calcu
lating and cunning schemers, who fully com
prehend the subject, and who are aware of
the eact of their principles, if carried out
upon the negro, the white man, and upon our
nation at large.
I am not of those who regard the abolition
movement as a war upon the rights of the
Southern States, but believe it to ho a war
against every . portion of the Union—and
against the Union itself.
The Free-Soil leadersknow that their course
can alone result 1n the destruction of the
Union. 1 feel assured that, under this pre
tended crusade against slavery, the destruc
tion of Northern property is designed; in a
word, it is war upon the industrial pursuits
.
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of the North, pursued under the false plea of
philanthropy to the Southern slave.
Fellow-citizens, what would be thought of
a party which should organize in this coun
try, for the avowed purpose of destroying the
manufactures of the North, sinking our com
mercial marine, cutting off the internal trade
between the Northern and Southern States,
as well as the most of our foreign trade, de
preciating the value of real estate, turning
out of employment the operatives in the man
ufactories, the sailors employed in our com
merce, as well as the thousands engaged in
the various ramifications of our foreign and
home trade? Such a traitorous party would
be frowned down by every man in the land.
Yet we have a party in our midst, seeking
the possession and control of this government,
whose policy, if carried out, would lead ex
actly to that result.
I am not one of those who feel that the in
terests of the Northern and Southern States
of the Union are antagonistical, with no other
bond of Union between them than the Con
stitution ; but rather that "all are put parts
of our stupendous whole," united in pecuni
ary interest as well as political brotherhood.
Like the human frame, a wound inflicted
upon the most remote member, will arouse a
sympathetic throb in every part of our vast
system. lam not one of those who believe
that all the advantages of our Union, in a
pecuniary point of view, have resulted in
favor of the Northern or Southern States—
but that the interests of both sections are
mutual and dependent. We grow the raw
materials, and furnish the great staples of
commerce, cotton, sugar, rice and tobacco ;
the North furnishes the ships for the trans
portation of our products, and manufactures
the raw material into fabrics for domestic
use. While the South is engaged in agricul
ture, the North is devoted mainly to com
merce and manufactures. The pursuits of
each portion of the Union acts and reacts
upon the other, enhancing the prosperity of
both, and the wealth and greatness of our
common country.
The commercial products of the Southern
States during the past year, consisting of
cotton, rice, sugar, tobacco, naval stores ;
breadstuffs, timber, staves, &c.,have been es
timated at two hundred and fity millions of
dollars, all of which have been or will be
shipped to Europe and the Northern States.
Three-fifths of the exports of the United
States are Southern products, and consequent
ly form the basis of three-fifths of the im
ports. The manufactures and productions of
the Northern States are mainly consumed at
home, or find a market in the : South, and are
paid for out of the proceeds of Southern ex
ports.
In our foreign and coasting trade we have
employed over five millions of tonnage, own
ed at the North, and manned by Northern
sailors. The internal trade between the
States amounts to at least one thousand mil
lions of dollars per annum, employing innu
merable persons in its transmission, and giv
ing profits upon the capital, invested in rail
roads and steamboats, over and by which it
is transported.
The people of the Northern States have in
vested iu cotton manufactories between sixty
and one hundred millions of dollars, which
gives employment to at least one hundred
thousand operatives. I think I may safely
say that there is more than twice that amount
of capital invested, employing double the
number of hands in manufacturing articles
for Southern consumption. This trade be
tween the North and South acts upon a thous
and other interests, and extends through all
the business ramifications of society.
Now let me put the question to any busi
ness man; what effect would be produced
upon all these interests by the abolition of
slavery in the Southern States ? The great
staple of Cotton would cease to be grown, and.
would no longer constitute the great bulk of
our exports ; our imports and revenue would
be cut off to a corresponding- extent. The
trade between the North and South would be
cut off; the North would no longer manufac
ture a half million of bales of cotton, or man
ufacture articles for the Southern market.
. ,
The capital invested in such manufactures
would be lost, and the operatives would be
turned out of employment. The basis of the
coasting and internal trade between the North
and South would be swept away, and that
trade cut off, turning out of employment all
engaged in that trade, with the destruction
of the shipping, Steamboats, railroads, and
canals engaged in, and deriving their profits
from it. Our shipping engaged in our foreign
trade, with the sailors with which it is man
ned, would be to the extent that they derive
employment from Southern products, thrown
out of employment; Northern shipping would
rot in the harbors, and Northern sailors would
be turned loose to starve on land. Our IVest
ern rivers would no longer be enlivened by
steamboats, but would become desolate. Ev
ery interest in the land would wither under
the influences of the' blighting curse. In a
word, war, pestilence and famine, added to
the upheaving and convulsive shocks of the
earthquake, could not be more destructive to
the prosperity of every portion of the Union
than Free-Soil abolitionism, if successful.
But we haVe been told by these blind big
ots, and ignorant fanatics, that the great sta
ples would still lie grown even though slav
ery should be abolished. The British West
India, experiment has proven that they would
not be groWn by the emancipated nerToes.—
Where then could the South obtain From one
and a half to two millions of field hands to
supply the place of her negroes ? What
white man would o to the South to Work
upon our sugar and cotton plantations, sur
rounded by four millions of free negroes ?
What capitalist would engage in the culture
of sugar and cotton, amidst such an unre
strained population, and depend upon the ca
prices of free labor, even if it could be ob
tained ?
Are the people, of the North ready to sub
mit to their portion of the bitter cup tender
ed to them by the Abolitionist and Free-Soil
er ? If they arc, the people of the South arc
not, but are determined to resist the aggres
sive spirit in whatever form it may present
itself, whether in the shape of a direct Abu
HUNTINGDON, PAD, SEPTEMBER 10, 1856.
-PERSEVERE.-
lition movement against slavery in the States,
or under the deceptive and delusive guise of
Free-Soil restriction. The end to be accom
plished by each is the same, and the latter is
more dangerous because more deceptive, and
if submitted to, would inevitably lead to the
same result. The effort is to tender to the
South the issue, the destruction of their pro
perty, and to be driven from their homes, to
be occupied by our emancipated slaves, or a
dissolution of the Union, and the preserva
tion of our rights, our honor, and our prop
erty.
It has been sneeringly and insultingly said,
that the South would not dissolve the Union,
and if she attempted it, the North would
whip her in. The South would not dissolve
the Union, but it is devoted to its preserva
tion. Free-Soilism, by destroying the Con
stitution and warrimg upon the rights and
tranquility of the South, may drive her out
of the Union—in a word, may destroy the
Union. When that shall have been done,
eight millions of free and intelligent people,
goaded to phrenzy by repeated wrongs, can
not be whipped into submission.
• Fellow-citizens, this hatred of slavery, this
abolition spirit, this war upon the South, is
not of American origin. It is of British
birth, and was imported from Exeter Hall to
Boston. The first abolition society was es
tablished in Boston, not far from the date of
the British West India emancipation. Since
then the abolition societies of Great Britain
and New England have acted in concert.
The salvation of the British Government is
dependent upon her supremacy in manufac
tures and commerce. Whenever she shall
lose that supremacy her greatness must wane.
She has but one rival, and that rival has
equaled her in commerce, and is rapidly
gaining on her in manufactures—and. that
rival is the United States. The commerce of
both Great Britain and the United States, arc
dependent upon the great staples of the
South. The United States having a monop
oly in the production of the raw material,
holds both the manufactures and commerce
of her rival in subjection. To render herself
independent of this thraldom, by experiments
in cotton-growing in the East Indies, Texas
diplomacy and negro emancipation, has long
been a painful effort of British statesmen.
Is it not strange that Great Britain and the
Northern States, particularly Massachusetts,
Who are rivals in interest, should unite in the
destruction of the institutions of the South,
upon which they are both vitally dependent?
Northern abolitionism is infatuated bigotry
and misdirected false philanthropy. British
anti-slavery is the result of cold and selfish
calculation, based upon self-interest and self
preservation. The statesmen of Great Brit
ain have no idea that slavery will be abol
ished, nor do they desire that it should be
done ; but if by co-operating - with Massachu
setts Free-Soilers and Abolitionists, by lion
izing Mrs. Stowe, by sending their Abolition
members of Parliament to lecture in the
Northern States against the institutions of
the South, thus exciting northern fanaticism
to such a height as to destroy this Union,
their purposes will have boon accomplished.
They will then have destroyed our effort to
work out the groat problem of free govern
ment—they will also have relieved themselves
of their only rival in commerce and manu
factures. They would then hope to obtain
possession of the cotton grown at the South
by a commercial treaty, similar to that pro
posed to Texas to prevent annexation to the
United States. I feel as well convinced of
the fact, as I inn of any fact dependent upon
circumstantial evidence, that Urcat Britain
has her paid emissaries, occupying seats in
our national councils, or having the control
of the public press, whose sole purpose is to
dissolve this Union by the agitation of the
slavery question.
I will pursue the object no further—having
mainly stated the outline of the subject,
which investigation and reflection will not
only fill up but confirm and establish. But
against these traitorous schemes, the Demo
cratic party rallying around the Constitution
awl the Union, present an impenetrable bar
rier. They are for non-intervention either in
State or Territory, leaving the people to reg
ulate and establish their own domestic insti
tutions. They are for the Union as it was
framed by our fathers, and the Constitution
as it is. The party is rallying around and to
the support of the patriot statesman of Penn
sylvania. The South will come up to him
with all their strength, and the Lone Star
State, which was brought into the fair sister
hood of States, to shine in the bright galaxy
of the Union, by the Democratic party, nobly
will perform her duty.
TIIE TEN CENT CALUMNY
That no man who desires information may
be deceived, we publish below an extract
from the able and masterly argument of
James Buchanan upon the Independent Treas
ury bill, delivered in the United States Sen
ate in 1840. Any one who reads the speech
entire, or the following extract, and then re
peats the stale slander that 3lr. Buchanan
ever was or is the enemy of the laboring class
es, or that he would advocate any policy pre
judicial to their interests, has unblushing ef
frontery and brazen hardihood enough for a
regiment of ordinarily unscrupulous people.
"On Friday last, when I very unexpected
ly addressed the Senate, I stated a principle of
political economy which I shall now read from
the book. It is this: 'that if you double the
amount of the necessary circulating medium
in any country, you thereby double the nom
inal price of every article. If, when the cir
culating medium is fifty millions, an article
should cost one dollar, itqivould cost two if,
without any increase of the uses of a circu
lating medium, the quantity should be in
creased to one hundred millions.' The same
effect would be produced, whether the circu
lating medium were specie, er convertable
bank papermingled with specie. It is the
increased quantity of the medium, not its
B LTC RANA N 7 S SPEECH.
character, which produces this effect. Of
course I leave out of view irredeemable bank
paper.
"I do not pretend that, on questions of po
litical economy, you can attain mathematical
certainty. All you can accomplish is to ap
proach it as near as possible. The princi
ple which I have stated is sufficiently near
the truth to answer my present purpose.
From this principle, I drew an inference that
the extravagant amount of our circulating
medium, consisting, in a great degree, of the
notes' thrown out upon the community by
eight hundred banks, was injurious to our
domestic manufactures. In other words, that
extravagant banking and domestic manufac
tures are directly hostile to each other.
"I did not understand that the Senator
from Massachusetts [Mr. Davis, J contested
the general proposition that an increase in
the currency of any country, without an in
crease of the uses of a circulating medium,
would, in the same proportion, enhance the
price of all the productions of that country
whose value was not regulated by a foreign
demand. Ile could not have contested this
principle. if he had, all history and all ex
perience would have been arrayed against
him.
" The discovery of the mines of South
America, and the consequent vast increase
of the preciotis metals put into circulation in
the form of money, have greatly enhanced
the not prices of all property through
out the world. Indeed, it is now a matter
of curious amusement, to contrast the low
prices of all articles three centuries ago, with
their present greatly advanced rates. The
Bank of England recognizes and constantly
acts upon this principle, though often with
out success. When prices become so high,
in consequence of redundancy of paper cur
rency and bank credits, that it is more profit
able to export the precious metals from the
kingdom than its manufactures, this hank
constantly diminishes its loans, raises the
rate of interest, and reduces its circulation,
With avowed object of reducing prices to
such a standard as will render it more profit
able to export merchandise than bullion.—
It is in this manner that the Bank seeks to
regulate the foreign exchanges.
"But why need we resort to foreign na
tions for illustrations of truth of this position
when it has been brought home to the actual
knowledge of every man within this country ?
have we not all learned, by bitter experience,
that when our periodical expansions com
mence, the price of all property begins to
rise? It goes on increasing with the increas
ing, expansion, until the bubble, bursts ; and
then bank aecomodations and Lank issues
are contracted, the amount of the currency
is reduced, and prices fall to their former
level. This is the history of our Dori coun
try, and we all know it. A certain amount
of currency is necessary to represent the en
tire exchangeable property of the country;
and if this amount should be greatly increas
ed, without a corresponding increase in the
exchangeable productions of the country, the
only consequence would be a great enhance . -
meat in nominal prices. I say nominal; be
cause this increased price will not enable the
man who reeives it to purchase more real
property or more of the necessaries and lux
uries of life than lie could have done before.
" Let me now recur to the proposition with
which I commenced ; and 1 repeat that I do
not pretend to mathematical accuracy in the
illustration which 1 shall present. The Uni
ted States carry on a trade with Germany
and France; the former a hard-money coun
try, and the latter approaching it so nearly
as to have no bank notes in circulation under
the denomination of five hundred francs, or
nearly one hundred dollars. On the contra
ry, the United States is emphatically a pa
per-money country, having eight hundred
banks of issue ; all'of them emitting notes of
a denomination as low as five dollars, and
most of them one, two and three dollar notes.
For every dollar of gold and silver in the
vaults of thcse banks, they issue three, four,
five, and some of them as high as ten, and
even fifteen dollars of paper. This produces
a vast but ever-changing expansion of the
currency; and a consequent increase of the
prices of all articles, the value of Which is
not regulated by the foreign demand, above
the prices of similar articles in Germany and
France. M particular stages of our expan
sions, we might with justice apply the prin
ciple which I have stated to our trade - with
these countries, and assert that, from the
great redundancy of our currency, articles
arc manufactured in France and Germany
for one-half of their actual cost in this coun
try. Let me present au example. ' In Ger
many, where the currency is purely metallic,
and-the cost of every thing is reduced to a
hard-money standard, a - piece of broadcloth
can be manufactured for fifty dollars; the
manufacture of which, in our country, from.
the expansion of our paper currency, would
cost one hundred, dollars. What is the con
sequence? The foreign Fr'ench or German
Manufacturer imports his cloth into our coun
try and sells it for one hundred dollars. Does
not every person perceive that the redundan
cy of our currency is equal to a premium of
one hundred per cent. in favor of the foreign
manufacturer? No tariff of protection, un
less it amounted to prohibition, could coun
teract this advantage in favor of foreign man
ufactures. I would to Heaven that 1 could
rouse the attention of every manufacturer of
the nation to this important subject.
"The foreign manufacturer will not receive
our bank notes in payment, lie will take
nothing home except gold and silver, or bills
of exchange, which are equivalent. He does
not expend this money here, where he would
be compelled to support his family, and pur
chase his labor and materials at the same
rate of prices wnich he receives for his manu
factures. On the contrary, he goes home,
purchases his labor, his wool, and all other
articles which cuter into his manufacture, at
half their cost in this country ; and again re
turns to inundate us with foreign woolens,
and to ruin our domestic manufactures : 1
might cite many other extunple: , : but this, I
trust; Win be sufficient to draw public atten
tion to the subject. This depreciation of
our currency is, therefore, equivalent to a
Editor and Proprietor.
NO. 12.
direct protection granted to the foreigu over
the domestic manufiicturer. It is impossibk,
that our manufacturer should be able to 4-Als
thill such an unequal competition.
" Sir, I solemnly believe that if we could
but reduce this inflated paper bubble to any'
thing like reasonable dimensions, New Eng
land would become the most prosperous man
ufacturing country that the sun ever shone
upon. Why cannot we manufacture goods,
and especially cotton goods, which will go
into successful competition with British man
ufactures in. foreign markets ? Have we not
the necessary capital ? Have we not the in
dustry ? Have we not the machinery ? And
above all, are not our skill, energy, and en
terprise, proverbial throughout the world
Land is also cheaper here than in any other
country on the face of the earth. We possess
every advantage which Providence can bestow
upou us for the manufacture of cotton : but
they are all counteracted by the folly of man.
The raw material costs us less than it does
the English, because this is an article, thci
price of which depends upon foreign markets,
and is not regulated by our own inflated cur
rency. We, therefore, save the freight of the
cotton across the Atlantic, and that of the
manufactured article on its return here. 'What
is' the reason that, with all these advantages,
and with the prospective duties, which our
laws 'afford to the domestic manufacture of
cotton, we cannot obtain exclusive possession
of the home market, and successfully contend
for the markets of the world ? It is simply
because we manufacture at the nominal pri
ces of our own inflated currency, and are
compelled to sell at the real prices of other
nations. Reduce our nominal to the real
standard of prices throughout the world, and
you cover our country with blessings and
benefits. I wish to heaven that I could speak
in a voice loud enough to be heard through
out New England ; because if the attention
of the manufacturers could once be directed
to the subject, their own intelligence and na
tive sagacity - votild teach them how injuri
ously they are effected by our bloated bank,-
ing and credit system, and would enable
them to apply the proper corrective.
" What is the reason that our manufactu
rers have been able to sustain any sort of
competition, even in the home market, with
those of British origin? It is because Eng=
land herself is, to a great extent, a paper
money country, though, in this respect, not
to be compared with our own. From this
very cause prices in England are much higher
than they arc upon the continent. The ex
pense of living is there double what it costs
in France. hence, all the English who (lc
sire to nurse their fortunes by living cheaply
emigrate from their own country to France,
or some other portion of the continent. The
comparative low prices of France and Ger
many have afforded such a stimulus to their
manufacturers that they are now rapidly ex
tending themselves, and would obtain posses
sion, in no small degree, even of the English
home market, if it were not for their protect
ing duties. Whilst British manufactures aro
now languishing, those or the continent arc
springing into a healthy and' vigorous exis
tence. It was but the other day that T. *saw
an extract from an English paper which sta
ted that whilst the cutlery manufactured in
Germany was equal quality with the Brit=
isb, it was so reduced in price that the latter
would have to abandon the mani4faciture al
together. •
"But the Senator from Kentucky leaves
no stone unturned. He says that the friends
of the Independent Treasury desile to de
molish an exclusive metallic currency, as the
medium of all dealings throughout the 'Union ;
and also, to reduce the wages of the poor
man's labor so that the rich employer may
be able to sell his manufactures at a lower
price. Now, sir, I deny the correctness of
both these propositions; and, in the first place,
I, for one, am. not in favor of establishing an
exclusive metallic currency for the people of
this country. I desire to see the banks great
ly reduced in number ; and would, if I could,
confine their accommodations to such loans or
discounts, for limited periods, to the commer
cial, manufacturing, and trading classes of
the community as the ordinary course of their
business might render necessary. I never
wish to see iiirmers and mechanics and pro
fessional men tempted, by the facility of ob
taining bank loans for long periods to aban
don their own proper and useful and respect
able spheres and. rush into •Nvild wnd extraya:
gant speculation. I would, if I could, radi
cally reform the presunt banking system, so
as to confine it within such limits as to pre
vent future suspensions of specie payments ;
and without exception, I would instantly de
prive each and every bank of its charter
which should again - sue pond. Establi - sh
these Or similar reforms, and give us a real
specie basis for our paper circulation, by in
creasing the denomination of bank notes first
to ten, and afterwards to twenty dollars, and
I shall then be the friend, not the enemy of
banks. I know that the existence of banks
and the circulation of bank paper are so
identified with the habits of our people, that
they cannot be abolished, even if this were
desirable. To reform, and not destroy, is
my motto. To confine them to 'their ap
propriate business, and prevent them from
ministering to the spirit of wild and recklesS
speculation, by extravagant thana and issues,
is all which ought to be "desired. - But this I
shall say. If experience Should prove it to
be impossible, to enjoy the facilities - which
well regulated banks would afford, without,
at the same time, continuing to suffer the
evils 'which the Wild excesses of the present
banks have hitherto entailed upon the coun
try, then I should have considered it the less
er evil to abolish them altogether. If the
State Legislatures shall now do their duty,
I do net believe that it will ever become neces
'isary to decide on such an alternative.
"We are also charged by the Senator from.
Kentucky with a desire to reduce the wageS
of the poor man's labor. We have often been
termed agrarians on our side of the House.
It is something new under the sun, to hear
the Senator and his friends attribute to us
desire to elevate the wealthy 'manuraettirert,
at the expense of the laboring Mau and the
mechanic. - .!?rom my soul, I respect the hi
berif).g man.' Labor is the foundation of the
wealth of every country; and the free labor
ers of the North deserve respect, both for
their probity and their intelligence. Heaven
forbid that I should do them wrong I Of all
the countries on the earth, we ought to hav
the most consideration for the laboringman`.
From the very nature of our institutions, the
wheel of fortune is constantly revolving and
producing such mutations in property, that
the wealthy man of to-day may become the
poor laborer of to-morrow. Truly, wealth
often takes to itself wings and flies away. A
large fortune rarely lasts beyond the third
generation, even if it endure so long. ' WO
must all know instances of individuals oblig
ed to labor for their daily bread, whose grand
fathers were men of fortune. The regular
process of society would almost seem to con
sist of the efforts of one class to dissipate the
fortunes which they have inherited, whilst
another class, by their industry and. economy.
: "2