Sl)c Lancaster iintdlujcncd:
VOL. XLIX.
fiimrastcc intelligencer,
puiir.isiiF.n every tuf.shat morning,
BY E. W. HUTTER.
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House, adjoining Centre Square.
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REPORT OF THE SECRETARY
OF THE TREASURY.
Treasury Department, Dec. 0, IMS.
In obedience to law the following-report is sub
mitted:
The receipts for the fiscal year
ending June 30, 1818, were—
From Customs, 9O
From public lands, 3,328,642 50
From miscellaneous sources, 351,037 07
From avails of loans and trea’y notes 21,25G,700 00
Total Receipts.
Add balance in the ireasury, July 1
1847,
Total means,
The expenditures during the same
fiscal year were,
Leaving balance in treasury July 1,
1848, of
As appears in detail by accompany
ing statement A.
The estimated receipts and expenditures for the
fiscal year ending June 30, 1840, are—
From customs, Ist quarter, by actual
returns,
From customs, 2d, 3d and 4th quar
ters, as estimated,
From public lands,
From miscellaneous sources,
From loans and treas’ry
notes, Ist quarter, by
actual returns, per
statement B, 10,127,200 00
From loans and treas’ry
notes, 2d, 3d and 4th
quarters, as per state
}' ment C,
10,508,230 30
20,695,435 30
Total receipts,
Add balance in the treasury July Ist,
1348,
Total means as estimated,
. Expenditures. viz;
The actual expenditures
for the last quarter,
ending Sept 30, 1848,
were, ' 17,866,16491
As appears in detail by
accompanying state-
ment B.
The estimated expendi
tures during the otli*>r
3 quarters, from Oct.
1, 1848 to June 30,
1849, are—
Civil list, foreign inter
course and miscel
laneous, 12,109,354 G 1
Army proper, &c., 10,464,809 80
Fortifications, ordnance
arming militia, &c., 1,846^69729
Indian department, 1,589,158 18
725,706 12
G,089,032 51)
Pensions,
Naval establishment,
Interest on public debt
and treasury notes, 3,285,423 23
Treas’rynotes outstand
ing and payable when
presented,
361,989 31
Leaving balance in llie
treasury July 1, 1840, 2,553,G1M 84
The estimated receipts ami expenditures for the
fiscal year commencing Ist July, 18-10, and ending
:!oth June. IBfiu, are—
From customs,
From lands,
From miscellaneous sources,
Total receipts,
Add balance in the treasury Ist Julv,
18*49,
Total means as estimated,
'The expenditures during the same period, as
estimated by the several Departments of State,
Treasury, War, Navy and Postmaster Gen., are—
The balance of former appropriations
which will be required to be ex
pended in this year,
Permanent and independent appro-
priatiojis,
Specific appropriations asked for this
year,
Total, 33,213,152 73
This sum is composed of the following particulars:
Civil list,foreign intercourse and mis
cellaneous,
Army proper, &c., 4
Fortifications, ordnance, armiug mili
tia, &c.,
Indian department,
Pensions,
Naval establishment.
Interest on public debt ami treasury*'
notes,
Leaving balance in the Treasury, Ist
of July, 1850,
This statement shows a balance in the treasury
on the 30th of June, 1849, of $2,553,G94 84, and a
balance in the treasury qn the 30th of June, 1850,
of $5,040,542 11.
In the estimated expenditures for the year end
ing on the 30th June, 1850, are included balances
of appropriations, amounting to the sum,;, of
$3,7G2,537 29, a considerable portion of which
may not be required. Unless new and extraordi
nary expenditures are authorized by Congress, no
further loans will be required, and the public debt
• may be reduced.
The whole nett revenue from duties during the
.entire period ol four years arid three months of the
operation of the tariff of 1842, (per table D,) was
$101,554,653 12, being an annual average of $28,-
895,208 32. The nett revenue received from the
?_ta©ffpf 184 G, during its entire operation, from Ist
of December, 184 G, to 30th of September, 1848,
(per table E,) was $5G,G54,5G3 79, or an average
of $30,902,489 25 per annum, being an average of
$7,007,280 9G more per annum, under the tariff of
184 G, than was received under the tariff ot 1842.
The nett revenue, for the first fiscal year under the
tariff of 1840, (per table A,) was $31,757,070 9G
being $757,070 9G more than the estimate of this
Department, and this amount would go on aug
menting every year under this act with a favorable
state of foreign commerce and industry in a ratio
at least as great as the increase of our population.
As the high duties under the act of 1842, were
rapidly substituting the domestic articles and ex
- eluding the foreign rival, the revenue must have
declined. If E however, the act of 1842 bad yielded
the average revenue received during the period of
its actual operation, this we have seen woufd'have
been an annual loss of upwards of seven millions of
dollars as compared with the average revenue of
the tariff of IS4G. Willi such a result, instead of
a large surplus on the 30th of June, 1850, there
would have been an addition of more than twenty
five millions of dollars to our national debt, which
must have gone on rapidly increasing, requiring in
time of peace new and larger loans to be negotiated.
If also the proceeds of the sales of the public
lands were taken from the treasury for distribution
' among the States, the augmentation of the debt
and accumulating interest would have been still
more rapid- and alarming. ' From this disastrous,
condition we have been saved by theitariff oi IS4G
yielding from reduced taxes an average excess thus
far of more than seven millions of dollars over the
average receipts from the tariff of 1842. Had that
act remained in force during the war, from dimin
ished revenue the loans must have been greatly
augmented in amount, with a small and declining
income, and instead of premiums realized, large
discounts must have been allowed, i That the re
venue would have declined, results from the posi
tion of the protectionists, that by continuing the
system a few years they would supply the whole
home market with the protected domestic articles,
when the foreign importation must cease, and the
revenue also. The result, then, of protection, must
be the annihilation of the foreign import trade of
the country, so far as regards protected products.
With the exclusion or diminution of imports, the
exports must cease or be reduced, for foreign na
tions could not buy them.
We exported last year, (per table-F,) $130,208,-
7U9, in value of domestic products and fabrics, ex
clusive of specie, and under low duties, this must
go on augmenting. But how can foreign countries
pay for these exports, if we will take no imports,
or very few, in return ? Clearly, our exports must
in time cease, or fall to a very small smn, the
foreign markets must be destroyed, and the price
of our staple exports of cotton, of ric'p, o( tobacco,
of breadstuff* and provisions, must decline, for we
cannot take the return in specie fromlabroad with
out exhausting those markets in a single year, nor
can we consume at home this augmenting surplus.
The British empire (per table G,) took from us,
(not during the year of famine, as it is called, of
1847, but in 1848,) our domestic exports, including
cotton, tobacco, rice, .breadstuff's and provisions, and
other domestic articles, exclusive of specie, to the
value of $78,7-11,41G, and Great Britain and Ire
land, of the value of $64,222,208; and this is the
trade of our best foreign customer, which protec
tionists propose to sacrifice by high or prohibitory
duties. If the tariff of 1842, gradually! excluded, as
it must, nearly all British fabrics, could they take
$78,741,416 in value of our exports, whilst we
would take from them scarcely anything but specie
in exchange? Such a trade would exhaust Great
Britain of her surplus specie in a single year, and
leave her nothing with which to purchase our ex
ports, and so in regard to all other nations.
Thus would go our foreign commerce
and revenue, and with them our carrying trade, and
our vessels and steamships would remain at the
wharves without freight.
56,693,450 59
1,701,251 25
58,394,701 84
58,241,167 24
153,534 60
8,991,935 07
23,008,064 93
32,000,000 00
3,000,000 00
1,200,000 00
If the -importation of protected articles would
rapidly deciease when the foreign were high in
price, and specific duties operated under the tariff
of 1842. (per table H, compiled from Treasury re
turns in 1841.) as a protection from 41 to 243 per
cent. what must not have been the decline of im
portation and revenue when the foreign articles fell,
as it-has in many cases, 50 per cent., .bringing up
the specific duty from 41 to 82, and from 243 to
436 per cent. ? This fact illustrates another objec
tion to the specific duty, namely, that; although it
professes to be stationary, it is in fact constantly
augmenting from reduced prices of foreign articles.
Experience proves that from improved machinery,
new inventions and reduced cost of production, the
foreign articles are constantly diminishing in price,
whilst the specific duty remaining unchanged, it is
eonlimially increasing in ratio as an equivalent ad
valorem, and the protection augmenting every
year. Thus, if the price of sugar is; six cents a
pound and the duty three cents, it woiild be equal
to 5u per cent., ad valorem; but if the price ol
sugar fell to three cents, the duty would have risen
to 100 per cent, ad valorem, thus doubling the
protection, and continually augmenting, with de
-creasing foreign prices until the duty becomes pro
hibitory. and the revenue on such articles disap
pears; whereas the ail valorem bears under all
changes of price the same exact ratio to the cost
ol the loreign fabric, and therefore is the most just
ami equal, as also necessarily insuring a larger
revenue.
36,200,000 00
56,895,435 30
J 53.534 60
57,043,969 90
Annexed will be found the table marked H, of
seventy-four principal protected articles, prepared
from actual returns, and attached together, with
others, to the very able report by Mr. McKay,
from the Committee of Ways and Means, of 11th
.March, 1844, at the Treasury Department in 1814,
embracing coal, iron, glass, salt, sugar, cotton goods,
kr.., Sir., -showing the actual specific and minimum
duties under the tariff of 1842, on those articles,
and the equivalent ad valorem, ranging from 41 to
243 per cent. Now if these foreign articles have
fallen in price since that date fifty per cent., the
equivalent ad valorems would of course now range
from S 2 per cent, to 486 per cent., arid would go
on increasing as the foreign article diminished in
price, soon becoming absolutely prohibitory, and
destroying all revenue. In this aspect! of the case,
the objections to the specific duties as a permanent
system, with a view to revenue are insuperable,
whilst their unjust operation upon labor, in impos
ing so much higher duties, as an equivalent ad
valorem on the cheaper, than the more costly qual
ities of goods, cannot be successfully defended.
O6
32,000,000 00
3,000,000 00
400,000 00
35,400,000 00
2,853,694 84
Our manulacturers do not desire the restoration
of the Tariff of 1842. They know from its exces
sive and prohibitory duties it will soon annihilate
imports anti revenues, and produce a reaction fatal
to the protective policy. They know also, that
from its immense bounties, ranging at present
prices from sixty to three hundred per cent., it will
stimulate- domestic productions in a few years to
such an extent as finally to prove disastrous to our
manufacturers. That which our manufacturers
now desire, is what they regard as moderate duties
made specific in certain cases. These specific duties
will, as is shown, be found constantly [augmenting
under the operation ol the general principles by
which the foreign article is constaritly tending
to a diminished price, whereas, the ad; valorem al
ways bearing the same proportion to‘the value ol
the import, is, therefore, always the most just and
equal and yielding the largest revenue. The aug
mented revenue under the tariff of 1840 has proved
that the ad valorem duties can be fairly assessed and
collected. It is shown also by the returns, that
this augmented revenue is derived iron! a compara
tively small amount of foreign imports consumed
in the United States. That amount, as shown by
the table before relerred to, (marked F,) on all
those foreign imports thus consumed i in the year
ending 30th June, 184 S, exclusive ot specie, being
but $127,490,012 updn which was realized a nett
revenue of $31,757,070 90. It appeals also, Irom
the tables, that so far from this tariff haying filled the
country with foreign goods beyond its [capacity for
consumption, the domestic export last year, exclu
sive of specie, actually exceeded by the sum (per
same table) of $2,713,G97, the foreign imports, ex
clusive of specie, consumed the same year in the
United States, including all articles but specie, both
free and dutiable; thus showing a balance of foreign
trade in our favor without taking into view the
immense profit realized -in the foreign market on
our exports, generally estimated at about fifteen,
per cent, or the profits of freight and navigation.
This was not a year of famine abroad, but of
abundant crops in Europe, attended also with re
vulsions there highly unfavorable to our commerce,
creating innumerable foreign bankruptcies, by
which vast sums were lost to American creditors,
required to be replaced by the export of our specie,
which was greatly augmented by the discredit in ’
our market of all bills drawn on our foreign ship
ments, producing by this artificial use of exchange,
an unnatural demand for specie, and a consequent
exportation. But all this specie must soon come
back to our country except so far as it is lost by
foreign bankruptcy.
It appears that for the year ending June 30th,
1848, not of famine, but abundant crops in Europe
our exports of breadstuff* and provisions, per table
I, amounted to the sum ©f $37,472,71)0. being lar
gely more than double the average annual export
during the Tariff of ’42. The result this year de
monstrates that even without a famine, arid in sea
sons, of good crops abroad, and even when their
means were exhausted the preceding [years, by an
unprecedented loss of specie producing, unparalleled
revulsions and bankruptcies, yet with low duties
enabling them to exchange their fabrics for pur sur
plus agricultural products they could and did take
a larger amount of our and.provisions
to the value of $37,472,751 Thus, whilst our
farmers found this large foreign market for their
surplus which otherwise, must have remained un
sold here, our navigatory interest received a new
impulse as well as our commerce, our tonnage
having increased during the last year, per table F,
from to 3,150,502 tons, being more than
three timesthre increase we have realized in the
same time under any protective tariff) and making
35,253,294 S 4
3,762,537 29
5,297,512 52
24,153,102 92
9,347,790 91
5,902,428 61
2,242,559 00.
1,104,01445
1,458,400 00
9,358,857 38
3,799,102 38
33,213.152 73
5,040,542 11
$38,253,694 84
“ THAT COUNTRY IS THE MOST PROSPEROUS, WHERE LABOR COMMANDS THE GREATEST REWARD.”— Buchanan,
CITY OF LANCASTER, TUESDAY MORNING, DECEMBER 19, 1848,
the whole increased tonnage under the tariff of
1840, 588,417 tons.
'The increase of our commerce during the two
years since the enactment of the tariff ol 1846, has
been so great that our domestic exports, exclusive
of specie coined abroad, exceeded by the vast sum
of $80,005,181, the exports of the two years pre
ceding under the tariff of 1842. whilst the tariff of
• I 1840 has thus augmented our commerce, tonnage
• | and revenue, it has seen this country pass uninjured
1 I through the ordeal of an expensive foreign war. ab
; j sorbing and withdrawing from industry nearly fifty
, I millions of capital for loans. It has seen the great
! revulsions in England of 1817 pass over us almost
unharmed, whilst the general overthrow of govern
ments on the continent of Europe, with thedestruc
tion of confidence, credit and industry there, and
with millions lost to our merchants by foreign
bankruptcies; yet even through this ordeal, under
the benign influence of the Tariff of 1846, this
country has passed, and is still prosperous and pro
gressive, and prices of manufactures are far less
depressed than has been the case in all such pre
ceding revulsions. Upon the re-enactment of the
Tariffof 1842, or any similar restrictive measure,
smuggling to a vast extent will become an organ
ized system. By estimates from the Topographical
Bureau and Coast Surveys, hereto annexed, marked
A A & B B, it appears that our direct maritime
ocean front, exclusive of bays, inlets, islands, &c.,
amounts to 5,120 miles, our frontier upon" Mexico
.o 1,456, and our frontier upon British possessions
to 3,303 miles, making in all 9.579 miles, which
we have to guard against smugglers. But, if in ad
dition to this, as must be done, we take the shore
line of the United States on the Atlantic, the Pacific,
and the Gulf, including the bays, sounds and other
irregularities of the sea shore, and of sea islands,
and of the rivers to head of tides, it makes a dis
tance ol 33,003 miles, as estimated by the Coast
Survey, which added to 4,759 of lrontier
upon the British and Mexican possessions, constitu
tes an entire line open to smugglers of 37,822 miles,
to protect which against illicit importation under
the temptations of such a tariff as that of 1842,
would be impossible. In this manner, smuggling,
so debasing and demoralizing, so destructive of rev
enue, so injurious to the honest trader, and to the
whole country, creating a contempt for the laws
and the authority of the Union, would become the
safety-valve of the protective policy by the opera
tion of causes beyond all governmental control.
Since my last report the continent of Europe has
been convulsed by revolutions and civil commo
tions, paralyzing their commerce, credit and indus
try. and diminishing our trade with them,compared
with what it would have been, if these events had
not occurred. Nevertheless such have been the ad
•vantages of our more unrestricted commerce with
all the world, that the estimates of revenue lor the
fiscal year, presented in my last report may yet he
realized, the quarter ending on the 80th September
last, being the first quarter of the present fiscal
year, having yielded $8,991 ,535,07.
The adoption by each nation of a high tariff is
a war upon the labor of the world. As labor is
more productive, capital is more rapidly increased
and wages augmented. Yet the tariff; by compel
ling each nation to employ a portion of its indus
try in articles which can be produced more cheaply ,
abroad, and refusing the exchange, forces labor
throughout the world into less profitable pursuits,
and, as a consequence diminishes the products of ,
labor as welFas its wages. Thus if silks can be
manufactured at a less cost in Europe, and bread- ,
stuffs more cheaply in this country., and by high (
tariffs we prevent the import of silks here, whilst ]
by similar tariffs abroad, or their inability to pur- .
chase from us because we will not take their fabrics !
in exchange, our breadstuff's are excluded toa greater |
or less extent from their markets and their silks
from our own, labor is forced in both countries into
less productive pursuits, and both have sustained a J
loss. International tariffs diminish the aggregate ,
value of the profits of labor to the extent of hun- ,
dreds of millions ol dollars every year, and reduce ,
correspondingly the wages of labor. (
It would be most useful to examine the tariffs of
all nations, and ascertain how much labor in each
is thereby diverted into less productive pursuits.
These tables have never yet been collected, but if,
of the thousand million people of the earth, the
labor of two hundred millions is thus rendered
less profitable to the extent of one cent a day
for each, the annual loss would be six hundred
millions of dollars. Man was commanded to
labor, but he was permitted by his Maker to
employ his industry in each country in those pur
suits for which , it was best" suited, and where
his labor would be less severe and better re
warded. But the laws of man, by high duties, di
minish the products of his industry, thus augment
his hours of toil and deprive him of the time de
signed by his Creator for the acquisition of know
ledge. These laws also, whilst diminishing the
wealth of nations, produce discord between them,
each by high tariffs proclaiming war upon the in
dustry of all others. Under free trade each nation
will profit by the labor of every other; the surplus
o r each would be thus exchanged with the others,
by a reciprocal commerce beneficial to all parties.
The true industrial interests of nations are iden
tical, and in exchanging \vith each other the pro
ducts most cheaply produced by each, labor every
where benefits labor, man his brother man, and na
tions each other, and their only antagonism is in
troduced by human legislation. The doctrine of
free trade is the petition of labor to employ itself
every where in those pursuits best adapted : by na
ture to every country, and yielding, therefore, in
each the largest products and highest wages. It
looks upon our race"every where as friends and
brothers, as equal in rights and united in interest
and destiny. Rightly understood, there is perfect
unity of interest between man and man, and nation
and nation, and between capital and labor. We
see the benefits of reciprocal free trade among all
the States of this Union, although their wages, pro
ducts and fabrics are as various as those of sepa
rate nations, yet all the States find it to be their
true interest to admit freely the products of each.
The benefits of this unrestricted reciprocal com
merce constitute the great bond of interest constant
ly augmenting, which keeps together the various
parts; but if the protective doctrine be true, it
would be-the real interest of each and of all these
States to impose duties upon similar products in
others, for the protection of the people of each
State. Yet, clear as is the proof ot the benefits of
reciprocal free trade between the States of this Un
ion, the principle as a question of political economy
is the same extended to other States not united with
ns under the same government. The difference in
their political institutions cannot affect the great
principles of commerce.
The local laws of Ohio and Louisiana, of Missis
sippi and Massachusetts, are more variant in some
respects than those of many other States beyond
the limits of the Union. Now, whilst we acknow
ledge the benefits of reciprocal free trade between
these four States, thus differing in their local insti
tutions, wages and products, the protectionists deny
that it would be beneficial to establish reciprocal
unrestricted commerce with other States beyond
our limits. Yet variant forms of government can
make no difference as to the reciprocal benefits of
commerce. If free trade be beneficial among re
publican States, it might at least be extended to
them, although monarchies were excluded; butnone
will maintain that nations should restrict their
commerce with each; other, because they differ in
their form of government. Although governments
may differ, we are one race throughout the globe;
the toiling millions who inhabit it have an interest,
and as a question of political economy the benefit
of free trade must be the same, whether extended
to States within or beyond the limits of the same
government; and each State, though separated
hereafter by some catastrophe from ever)' other
State, would be alike still benefited by. reciprocal
free trade among the whole, for their commercial
interest would not change with the separation from
the confederacy.
A Congress representing the several States of this
Union perceive how injurious would be the effect of
a tariff by any one upon its own interest, and that
of all States. Now trade is not geographical or
political, and if a Congress of delegates from all
nations were assembled, they would soon perceive
that commerce was a unit, that it was not local,
but international, and that tariffs by one or. more
nations on the products of others were just as in
jurious to each and to all nations as would be a
tariff in one State upon the products of all the
other States of the Union. If, then, in such a Con
gress of all nations, re-assembling from time to
time, their several tariffs were discussed, and their
injurious effects upon each and every other nation
demonstrated, the whole protective system through,
out the world would fall before the light of such
an investigation. When the laws of nature are
beyond the reach of man, there is perfect order,
under the direction of Almighty power; but when
ever man can disturb these laws, discord and injury
are sure to ensile.
The earth, the sun, and countless systems whirl
ing through universal space, move onward in per
fect order and beauty, but even the harmony of the
spheres would be disturbed if the legislation of man
could interfere and arrest the laws of nature. The
natural laws which control trade between nations,
and regulate the relations between capital and pro
fits on the one hand, and wages and labor on the
other, are perfect and harmonious, and the laws of
rnan, which would effect a change,.are always in
jurious. The laws of political economy are fixed
and certain.
Let them alone , is all that is required of man; let
all international exchanges of products move as
freely in their orbits as the heavenly bodies in their
spheres, and their order and their harmony will be
as perfect, and their results as beneficial, as is every
movement under the laws of nature when undis
turbed by the errors and interference of man.
If labor is dear here, and low' abroad, "in the ex
change of products we get more of theirs for a
smaller amount of ours, and gain by the exchange.
The cheapness ol foreign labor is one argument in
favor of exchange with them. Thus if we concede,
as to linens, that Europe, from cheap labor, could
afford to sell two yards for what one would cost
here, it would be our interest to purchase from
them at the reduced price. But according to the
protective theory, the cheaper foreign labor, and
the lower the price of its products, the more should
we exclude them by the higher rates of duties. In
the absence of duties, we will exchange our surplus
products for their cheaper fabrics, and our labor
being applied to the production of articles thus ex
changed abroad, wages will be enhanced here, by
obtaining more extended markets for our products,
and getting for them a greater quantity of useful
articles, at lower prices. In the absence of tariffs,
the divisions of labor would be according to the
laws of nature in each nation, and the surplus of
each would thus be exchanged among the whole,
each employing its labor only in the most product
ive pursuits, and therefore the aggregate profits
would be largest. If labor were so low in any for
eign country that they could furnish us goods at
about nominal prices, and these cheap articles were
such as we wanted here, it would be our interest to
purchase them, in exchange for our products, and
the cheaper the foreign articles the greater would
be our gain in the exchange. It is a strange objec
tion to the purchase of foreign articles that the
price is too low.
The argument that we mu'it encourage our infant
manufactures was always fallacious, for they would
encourage themselves as soon as the country was
adapted to" them. But are they now infant manu
factures 7 We have called them so for sixty years,
and will they ever cease to be infant manufactures
until weaned from legislative protection? On the
first of February next the markets of Great Britain
will be open to our breadstuff at nominal duties.
Shall we enlarge the markets for our products by
selling them to Great Britain in the only way in
which she can purchase them for a series of years,
by taking in exchange such of her fabrics as she
can sell to us at cheaper rates than we can make
them, to the farmer or planter. This is just a
question whether he should have two markets or
one. or whether he shall sell more at a higher or
less, and at a lower price. If it be our interest to
shut out British fabrics, it would be theirs to renew
their corn laws, and exclude our breadstuffs from
their markets.
It is said that ether nations will not take our
products in exchange for their fabrics, but, with
reciprocal free trade, they must take them by the
universal rule, that the purchaser will buy the
cheapest articles, without inquiring whether they
were made at home or abroad. To force our in
dustry by protective duties into less productive pur
suits, by forbidding these exchanges, is to increase
the amount of labor and diminish its products, or,
in other words, to force our workmen to labor more
and receive less.
The people of the Union, as consumers, pursuing,
their true interest, if left to their own choice, unfet
tered by legislation, will purchase the best and
cheapest articles. But this is restrained by law,
and the consumers compelled, by high duties, to
purchase only, or chiefly domestic articles, because
this, it is said, will encourage home industry. But
the foreign import has been purchased by some do
mestic export. The barter may not,have been di
rect, various factors may' have intervened, bills of
exchange may have been used, or coin may have
adjusted occasional balances; but in a series of
years, in the aggregate, international trade is but an
exchange of products. Thus the foreign imports
bring exchanges for some American exports; our
own home industry, which produces that export,
has been better encouraged than if forced by law
into some other pursuit, rendered profitable only by
high duties.
The temporary high price of labor in a particu
lar employment is often imputed to the tariff! But
if it be conceded that the protected articles are thus
enhanced, the additional price paid by the consu
mers is so much capital taken from them by the
tariff to the full extent of increased prices which
otherwise would have constituted a fund for the
employment of labor and'the payment of wages.
If then anything is gained in the enhanced price
by a particular branch of industry, it is at the ex
pense of all others, and must result in a diminution
of wages • depending, as they do, on the aggregate
profit of all the capital and labor of the country, and
not upon that employed in any particular branch
of industry.
Thus, while wages may be temporarily augment
ed in some pursuits favored bylaw, they are dimin
ished in all others, and thewages of a great majority
of laborers would be reduced.
From the diminished aggregate capital then fol
lows a diminution of the aggregate wages paid in a
nation. A vast majority of the labor of this coun
try is employed in agriculture, commerce, naviga
tion, and the non protective pursuits, and if these
are depressed their profits are reduced ; the wages
of those employed in such pursuits fall, many are
thrown out of employment, and thus a general fall
of wages ensues—the protected manufacturer even
tually obtains labor at a very reduced rate. The
effect of a protective tariff in truth, is riot to en
hance wages, but to depress them, and render capital
invested in manufactures more profitable by en
hanced prices of the protected fabrics. Wages
throughout the whole country become lower than
they were before, because the aggregate profits ol
the capital of the nation engaged in all its industry'
is diminished. Wages in one branch of industry
cannot be high, when they are low in all others, for
wages, like all other commodities, unfortunately
will soon find the same level. The aggregate prof
its of all the labor of the country and not of any
particular branch of industry, constitute the fund
out of which wages are paid, and if that general
fund is reducedbydiminished profits, wages through
the whole-country must eventually ? fall. If then,
the great mass ot labor in this country and of cap
ital is invested in agriculture, commerce, navigation,
and such branches of industry as require no protec
tion, and these pursuits are injured by a protective
tariff, either by diminishing the market tor the sur
plus raised by those thus employed, reducing' the
price of • what they sell, or compelling them to pay
more for what they buy, there must be in time a
general fall of wages throughout the country, even
although a particular branch of industry may have
been rendered more profitable by a protective tariff
This duty then, instead of protection, is a tax upon
the whole industry of the country invested in pur
suits requiring no tariff.
Nor is it any mitigation, but an aggravation of
the evil that some other nations impose high duties
on their own consumers of foreign products. The
foreign duties may, or may not prove injurious to
our industry. If the American article is still in
some cases sold abroad to their consumers at a price
enhanced by their duty, the injury has been to that
extent to them only, and not to us, but when by
way of relieving us from the injury, whether real
or imaginary, we impose a tax upon our own peo
ple" a! consumers, by compelling them to pay high
prices for foreign products by high duties, we only
augment the evil. Reciprocal free trade is best for
all; and reciprocal high duties worst; when it is
sail, if foreign nations tax our produce by high
duties, we must tax theirs in the same manner, we
forget thattbeirduty on foreign imports falls mainly,
on tbeir own people, who purchase such imports,
and ■ so likewise our fax on foreign imports falls
chiefly on our own people, who purchase then l *
Let us buy such imports as we desire at low prices,
and the-difference ol prices that is thus saved to our
people is so much gained as an additional capital to
encourage our ownindustry, to increaseemployment
and the wages ol labor. ,
But if the system of reciprocal taxation isjvvrong,
what argument can be offered in favor ol high du
ties upon fabrics of foreign nations, when they re
ceive our exports at a nominal duty in exchange?
Formerly, our protectionists admitted that if Great
Britain would freely receive our breadstufls we
should take their fabrics at low duties, or free of
duty in exchange. Then the corn laws were in full
force in Great Britain, and it was supposed would
remain so forever. But the system was repealed,
our chief agriculturaLproducts are now invited free
of duty or at a nominal dutyoo the lstof February
next into all their ports. Our protectionists now
abandon their former position, and maintain that it
injures our farmers to purchase British fabrics at
low prices, even though England will take our
breadstufls at a nominal duty in exchange.
Wages can only be increased in any nation in the
aggregate by augmenting capital, the fund out of
which wages are the capital gained by
saying in the diminished cist of production and
prices to the consumers, will invest itself in new
pursuits necessarily augmenting the demand for
labor, and as a consequence, its aggregate products,
profits and wages. On the other hand, the destruc
tion or diminution ol capital, by destroying or re
ducing the fqnds from which labor is paid, must
reduce wages. It is not, however, by the transfer
of the same amount of capital by law from one
pursuit to another that the aggregate capital and
profits of national industry can be increased, but by
the augmentation of the capital, whether by saving
or otherwise; and the radical defect of the restrict
ed system is that the Tariff never augments capital,
but simply changes the pursuits in which it is in
vested, and therefore can .never augment wages.
On the contrary, it must in the aggregate depress
wages by preventing a saving of capital for the
employment of labor and the increase of its wages.
* Our arguments in favor of free trade appeal to
all nations to reduce their duties on our products,
whereas our arguments lor protection are reasons
offered to all nations to raise the duties on our-ex
ports. Our arguments would persuade them also of
the mutual benefits of reciprocal free trade, and
teach the doctrine of international unity of interest,
whereas the other attempts to prove that their in
terests are antagonistical, and will be best consulted
by each inflicting the greatest injury upon the other
by high tariffs. The one would be read abroad in
their legislative and executive councils in favor of
a reduction of duties on our products—the other
would be quoted in favor of raising such duties.
High tariffs should be more useful when they are
the most effective. Let us take the interior of New
York, remote not only from the ocean, but Iron? -
railroads and canals. Now if the duty were 20
per cent, on the imports arriving at the city of New
York or its vicinage, that city and its neighborhood,
by the protective theory, should be more injured by
the importation than the inferior of the State, the
freight to which on many foreign articles might
add twenty per cent, to the cost, making the whole
enhancement of price forty per cent., and thus op
erating as a double protection in the interior com
pared with the seaboard. Now it the restrictive
theory be true, the resident of the interior being
better protected, the tariff and freight on the foreign
articles operating as a double duty, should.be more
prosperous than the resident of the seaboard. But
the farmer's products are highest on the seaboard,
and lower at‘"every point as we retire from ft; low
at Albany and Buffalo, still lower at Erie, Detroit,
Cleveland, Chicago and Lasalle; whilst the price of
all the-farmer buys is proportionally enhanced, and
nothing but the fact that his lands are cheaper in
proportion as they are remote from the loreign
market, enables him to sustain the competition.
The protective system is agrarian, and is war
upon property. It attempts to organize labor and
capital, adding to the profits of one pursuit by re
ducing that of another, ft is incompatible with
the security of capital or labor; for capital is but
the accumulation of the gains of labor, and there- 1
fore whatever destroys the security or profits of I
capital results in an equal injur)’ to labor. Besides
its injurious effects upon industry, it is an arbitrary
and despotic power, and if the people should become
accustomed to its exercise, looking to legislative
support and protection, it would terminate in a
struggle for the division and distribution by Con
gress every year of properties, profits and capital
among the favored classes.
No legislation of man can change the law of
capital and wages, namely, that as capital augments,
being the source from which wages are paid, there
will be an increased demand for labor, and a conse
quent addition to its rewards. Capital and wages
are the weights in the opposite sides of the scale,
vibrating under unchanging laws, wages ascending
as capital is augmented, and descending as the cap
ital is reduced. If then we would augment wages,
as every lover of mankind must desire, we must
increase capital, which no tariff or organization of
labor can effect; although it may transfer capital
from one pursuit to another,, always diminishing
the when the transfer is forced by
law.
The belief is erroneous, that as manufactures in
crease in number, skill, capital and products, they
will perpetuate high tariffs. When they attain this
condition, and their fabrics exceed the home de
mand, they will desire free trade, to open to them
the foreign markets. In England this is now the
case, and their manufacturers are the great advo
cates of free trade, as our manufacturers in time
will be; and ultimately unite with all other classes
in desiring the abandonment of all tariffs and cus
tom houses, and the repeal of all restrictions on
commerce.
Congress having extended the revenue laws to
Oregon, and created Astoria the port of the district,
the Revenue Cutter Cornelius W. Lawrence, was
ordered to that coast under the command of Capt.
Alexander V. Thoser, an officer of talent, zeal and
fidelity. The cohst survey was also extended there,
and through its aid buoys will he located, and light
houses constructed as directed by Congress. The
revenue laws not having been extended to Califor
nia, no duties could be collected there, but the De
partment exercised all its authorities by issuing the
circular hereto annexed, (marked Y) opening free
trade under the constitution, between its port and
the rest of the Union, at the same time guarding
the revenue from loss as lar as practicable. It is
recommended that besides Astoria, collection dis
tricts be authorized at San Diego, Monterey, Pun
gent Sound and San Francisco, upon the Pacific.
Our maritime frontier upon the Pacific is now near
ly equal to our Atlantic coast, with many excellent'
bars and harbors, admirably situated to command
the trade of Asia and the whole western coast
of America, while our coastwise trade between the
Atlantic, the Gulf and Pacific, must soon become
of great value. Congress having directed this De
partment to recommend such revenues as will in.
crease our commerce and revenue, it is suggested
that if we desire a lucrative trade, and augmented
revenues from our Pacific coast, this object can
best be accomplished by many additional steam
ships upon that ocean, as well as upon the Atlantic
and the Gulf.
Beneficial as this system has proved upon the
Atlantic and the Gulf in augmenting our commerce
and revenue, our tonnage and navigation, it is still
better adapted to the Pacific, and the long voyages
along its shores, and to Asia. This tranquil ocean,
as indicated by its name, more subject to calms, is
better adapted to steamers than the more boisterous
Atlantic, and with less danger of injury to the ma
chinery. The calms of the Pacific, so often retar
ding the sailing vessel, render shorter and safer the
voyage of the steamship, whilst at other periods,
the trade winds, blowing for'months continually in
one direction, not affecting the course of the steam
ers, but forcing sailing vessels so many thousands
of miles out of their way, render steam necessary
to the profitable navigation of that ocean. From
all these causes, the Pacific must become the prin
cipal theatre of the peaceful triumphs of the great
expansive power of steam, and we must extend its
uses there, under our own flag, if we would desire
to contend successfully witn other nations for the
trade and specie of Asia and Western America.
Our imports from Asia , such as teas, silks aiid
chiefly costly articles, are still better adapted for
the steamships than heavy products. The time
required in crossing through the tropics and the
equator, from our Atlantic ports to Asia, and in the
long voyages of the sailing vessel, is felt severely,
\ not Only in the loss of interest, and in the less rapid
circulation of capital and realization of profits, but
in the still greater lass in arriving at home too late
with the cargo, and thereby losing the market, or
at least a better price, and this loss of lime and in
terest, of prices and markets, is as .great in the re
turn as in the outward passage. The voyage by
steam, from our Atlantic ports to Asia, by the
route of Chagre9 and Panama, with a railroad to
be constructed by private enterprise across the
Isthmus, would socto- be accomplished in a month,
instead of three or four months, and the gain of
• time in our coastwise trade between both, oceans,
f would be still greater. In ancient and modern
I times, the cities and .nations that secured the trade
I of Asia were greatly enriched.
, This has occurred successively with Tyre, Sidon,
Canhage, Venice, Genoa, Lisbon, Am
sterdam and Londpilywhilst this rich traffic built
up large cities evStf in Jhe midst of deserts, in the
caravan's route, or the it pass
ed; with our front upon both the gulf,
aided by steamships, by low duties,• ajj^btoftening'
the voyage by the Isthmus route,
my annual reports of December IS4O' aifiPUT,. we
may secure this, commerce, and with it, in time,
the command of the trade of the world. We may
also extend our commerce with all the countries
bordering upon the coast of western America r 'richer
than all others in the precious metals, but abound
ing in articles which we desire but do not produce;
whilst new and vast markets will be opened there
for our products and manufactures, and the number
and profits of our whale ships greatly increased.
Distant now as are our possessions upon the Paci
fic, if we would desire to extend to them the bene
fits and blessings of the American Union and unite
them with us in the bonds of an ever augmenting
commerce and intercourse, there is at present noth
ing but steamships that can perform these impor
tant duties in connexion with a railroad across the
Isthmus of Panama. Such a road would always
be useful for our trade from the . .Atlantic and the
Gulf, with the western coast of America, and at
least for heavy products with Asia, and especially
with that portion of it near to or south of the equa
tor; wkh the islauds in the Indian Ocean and with
Australia, even if at some distant period a railroad
should connect the Atlantic, the Gulf, and the Mis
sissippi with our harbors upon the Pacific. That
such a road will be made at some future period;
•upon the most practicable route, is not doubted,
although from the time and capital required, its
completion, unfortunately,may be remote ; but the
railroad which private enterprise could build with
in a year or two across the Isthmus would answer
all our present purposes, and would at once bring
New \ r ork within ten days of the Pacific, and with
in thirty days of China, and New Orleans still near
er, maintaining also the important communication
between our own harbors on the Atlantic, the Gulf .
and the Pacific. ‘The estimates required by law ]
from this departmentifor the revenue likely to arise ;
from foreign commerce with all our ports, including <
those upon the Pacific, must depend upon future <
events. ! i
If private enterprise should soon construct the
railroad across the Isthmus; if an adequate number
of steamships in consummation ot the beneficial
systems already commenced, should facilitate the
trade between Asia and our Pacific ports, bringing
them within twenty days of China, with the best
steamers in sufficient number, starting at regular
periods from the Atlantic and the Gulf to Chagres,
and from Oregon and Cali.ornia, Panama, to Asia
and to the whole eastern coast of. America, the
commerce of all our ports would be incalculably
increased, and the revenue collected on the Pacific
rise in a few years to several millions of dollars per
annum. Nor is it only with these nations of Asia
with whom we already have treaties, that steam
ships would increase our commerce, but it would
introduce it together with diplomatic relations into
vast regions of the East, with whom we have framed
no treaties, estimated to contain one hundred and
thirty-live millions of people. Many of these are ;
large and populous empires, abounding in specie
and many aiticles which we need, but do not pro
duce, and desiring also our own products ami man
ufactures in exchange. Among these Empires
with whom we have no treaties, and little or iio
trade, are Persia, Coruca, Cochin, China, Burmah
and Japan, with whom nothing but tbo steamship
can successfully introduce our commerce.
Among these is Japan, highly advanced in civili
zation,.containing fifty millions of people, separated
but two weeks, by steam from our Western coast.
Its foreign trade is now nearly confined to two Dutch
vessels, although it is separated from Holland by
eighteen thousand miles, and from our own Pacific
coast only by four thousand five hundred miles.
Its commerce can be secured to ns by persevering
and peaceful efforts. Our steamships would pass
on their way to China, through the narrow chan
nel separating the two great islands, composing the
empire of Japan, monthly or weekly in sight of
both their coasts, and by thus familiarizing them
with our mercantile marine, extending their know
ledge. overcoming their prejudices, and opening to
them new views of their own true interest, would
soon unseal these ports to our commerce. The ac- j
quisition of our immense coast upon the Pacific, 1
and the introduction there of our steamships, espe
cially when private enterprise shall unite the ocean
by an isthmus route, would, as remarked in iny
animal report of December, 1840, “revolntioui/.cun
our favor the commerce of the world, and more
rapidly advance our greatness, wealth ami power
than any event which has occurred since the adop
tion of the constitution."
The same great subject was again referred to in j
my annual report of Dec., 184*?, “as a new com- 1
mercial era," requiring “ocean steamers" in addi- !
tion to sailing vessels, as connecting ns “with
China, nearly one-third of the popula
tion of the globe.
Our ports upon the Gulf, with those upon both
Oceans, fronting upon Europe from the East and
Asia from the West, occupying the central position
between all the continents of the globe, nearer to
them all by convenient routes than any other na
tion, including an easy access to the whole interior
of our own country, we wantonly the ocean steam
ships of adequate strength, spee 1 and numbers, to
give us the command of the trade of all nations.
Nor should we forget that in carrying our trade
among the great and populous nations of Asia, and
facilitating intercourse with that vast region, pass
ing from coast to coast in the short period of
twenty days, with monthly or weekly steamships,
the light of Christianity following the path of com
merce would return with all its blessings, to the
East from which it rose.
In those regions commerce must be the preeur
sor of Christianity, commerce, which teaches peace
and intercourse between nations, which declans
that man is not the enemy of man, nor nation of
nation, but that the interests of all countries and of
all mankind are identical, and that they will all
advance most rapidly under the general influence
of an unrestricted reciprocal trade and intercourse.
By our recent acquisitions on the Pacific, Asia has
suddenly become our neighbor, with a placid inter
vening ocean, inviting our steamships upon a trade
of commerce greater than that of all Europe com
bined. This commerce is.ours, if our merchants
and government should, by their united energies,
secure for us with Asia a rapid and frequent com
munication by steam. Our products and our man
ufactures, and especially our coarse cotton fabrics,
are precisely what are desired by several hundred
millions of their people, who will send us back in
return their specie, and their rich products, so few
of which are raised within our limits. From our
coast on the Pacific, as well as from the Gulf and
Atlantic and the Isthmus route, we would be much
nearer-the coast of America, as well as Asia, than
any European power, and with the best steamships,
in adequate number/with the greater certainty of
the voyages, of the period of arrival and departure,
and economy of time and saving of interest, and
with diminished cost of carriage, we would alter,
nately supply: the Western coast of America, as
well as Asia, with our products and manufactures,
on better terms than any European nation. We
would in time receive the productions of the East
in exchange, not only for our own consumption,
but to be warehoused in our ports, as enterpots for
the supply of Europe; and so far as European
fabrics should reach Asia and the Western coast of
America, they would alternately pass cheaply
through our hands as factors, and in our vessels,
events which wouldwerysoon give us the command
of the trade, and specie of the world.
From these great events the whole country would
derive vast benefits, but especially the city of New
York; it would become the depot and storehouse
and entrepot of the commerce of the. world, the
centre pf business and exchanges, the clearing house
of international trail? and business, the placewhere
assorted cargoes of our *own J 1 products, and manu
factures, as well as those of all foreign countries,
would be sold and ie-shipped, and the point to
which specie and bullion would flow, as the great
creditor city of the world for the adjustment of
balances, as the factor ot all uations and the point
whence this specie would flow into the interior of
our country through all the great channels of inter
nal trade and intercourse. With these great
events accomplished, and with abundant facilities,
for the warehousing of foreign and domestic goods
at New York, it must eventually surpass in wealth,
in commerce and population any European empo
rium, whilst as a necessary consequence all our
our other cities and every portion of the Union, and
all our great interests, would derive corresponding
advantages. Our merchants, as must have been
expected in any new enterprise, encountered some
difficulties in putting their first lines of steamships
into full and successful operation, but these obstacles
they are rapidly overcoming. They encountered
similar difficulties in the commencement of their
first line of packet ships, which soon, however, out
stripped those of all other countries, and the same
success with a liberal governmental policy in the
outset of their good enterprise, will soon follow' as
regards their ocean steamships.
In view’ of the rapidly augmenting trade between
our ports on both Oceans, I recommend that an act
be passed by Congress, under which all'products
and fabrics may cross the Isthmus of Panama,
under the provisions of* our recent most important
treaty with New’ Grenada; that foreign goods may
be taken from our warehouses and landed in, our
ports on either Ocean, or the Gulf, in the same
manner that goods now' warehoused in any port
may be taken into, and re-warehoused in another.
To prevent frauds upon the revenue, it. will be
necessary to provide for the appointment of Agents,
or Consuls to reside at Chagres and Panama, in
the same manner as now authorized by Congress
in regard to Chihuahua, under the act of 3d of
March, If this should not be done, our com
merce will be forced twelve thousand miles out ot
its course, through the long voyage around Cape
Horn. The drawback of the duties on foreign
goods exported to Chihuahua, by the routes of
Missouri, Arkansas and Red River, should be ex
tended to that by the Rio Grande, as well as to
such other routes through Texas, as may be found
safe and practicable; a port of entry should be es
tablished at the mouth of the Rio Grande, as W'ell as
at such other points on that river as may be necessary
to guard our revenue laws from invasion on that
frontier, and to secure the interior trade with
Mexico. The drawbacks of the duty should also
be allowed on goods exported to Monterey and Sal
tillo, and perhaps other important interior towns
in Mexico,on the.same considerations
plicable ln recommending the re
gulations before referred to, for the*transit of goods
across the Isthmus of Panama, I would respectfully'
suggesCthe extension of the same privileges to the
routes by the Mexican Isthmus of Tehaimtepec,
by Lake Nicaragua, by the Rio Ateato and San
Janon, to go into effect whenever the same right of
transit can be obtained from ocean to ocean. Some
if not all, of these routes may be traversed by rail
roads, and may become important as well as that
by Chagres and Panama, for our foreign and coast
wise commerce between the tw'o great oceans, as
well as for the interior trade with Mexico. New
Grenada and Central America, and the transit by
the Mexican Isthmus would be highly advanta
geous to the whole country, but especially to the
valley of the Mississippi, and its. great depot,.the
city of New Orleans, so near the Pacific, by that
new and important route. Tn connection also w'ith.
our supply of the precious metals from the in
terior of these countries, as well as from Peru and
Chili, and the transportation of our own gold and
other minerals from California, these routes may
all become useful.
The Collector of San Diego should be authorized
to appoint a deputy at some point in our territory
as near as may be to the junction of the rivers
Gila and (’dorado, at the head ot the Gulf of Cali
fornia, with a view to otir future trade on that
Gulf, as authorized by the recent treaty with Mex
ico, in connection with Lower California and the.
adjoining Mexican States of Sonora and Sanaloo,
so rich in the precious metals, and containing the
important ports of Guayamas and Mazatlan.
I review the recommendations heretofore made
by me for reciprocal free trade between the Cana
das and the United States, on all articles of the
growth, manufacture or production of either coun
try. 1 recommend, also, the passage of a law
tendering a-similar reciprocity to Mexico. It is
known that the Canadas, with the consent
Great Britain, and it is believed New Brunswick
also, adjoining New F.ugland, would cheerfully ac
cept this reciprocity. The advantage to the Cana
das would be great as well as to our ports'on the
Lakes, the St. Lawrence and the Atlantic, accom
panied by increased tolls and business on our in
termediate railroads and canals.
With our neighboring repqblic of Mexico, now
revising her tariffj so rich in. precious metals and
dyestuffs, and other raw material of manufactures
with whom it is our true interest to encourage the
most friendly relations, and reciprocal and unre
stricted commerce, although she may not at once
enact a reciprocal statute, yet it is clearly her in
terest to do so, aud with such an offer standing upon
our statute book, it would receive the attention
of that republic, and in time be adopted, and mean
while it would present to Mexico the best evidence
of our anxious desire to maintain with her the
most friendly relations, together with fifie and re
ciprocal commerce and intercourse.
The Mexican tariff proposed by the department
and enforced by the President of the U. States,
with a view to military contributions in Mexico,
added several millions of dollars to our means
during the recent contest, as well as aided the
credit and loans of the government. It was a
new, but most salutary example set to billigerents
in all future wars not to destroy their own com
merce and that of neutral and friendly powers, by
embargo and blockade of the ports of the enemy,
hut to diminish the evils and losses of wars by en
couraging out own commerce and that of the rest
of the world with the enemy’s ports, at more mod
erate duties, at the same time devolving upon our
enemy, instead of our own people, as larger por
tion as practicable of the burthens and expenses
of the contest, so as to bring it to a speedy and
honorable conclusion. This example, so favora
ble to national interest, v mitigating so much the
losses of war, substituting commerce instead of
embargo and blockade, wa? received with high
satisfaction by all the powers with whom we are
at. peace, and is believed at the same time to have
had no inconsiderable influence in accelerating the
peace with Mexico. This measure was a step in
advance of the progress of commerce and civiliza
tion. It was-an example worthy to be set to all
nations by the United States, and was v so warmly
approved by all countries,, that if unfortunately
for mankind wars should hereafter occur, and es
pecially a general European war, the danger of
which was apprehended to be imminent, this
American precedent would probably be adopted
by other powers, leaving all ports of the enemy
open to neutral commerce, and the consequent
gain to our country incalculable. should not
only have gained the great principle for which
we have so long contended, that free ships make
free goods, in trading with the porta of a neutral,
when in her own possession, but we should also
terminate the system of actual as well as paper
blockades, and leave out commerce uninter
rupted in the ports of all the billigerents. * This
consideration is rendered more momentous by the
fact that our future position, it is hoped in all
time to come, will be that of a neutral, and that
as the result in part of our wonderful military
power displayed in our recent glorious achieve
ments and unparalleled victories, as well as from
the development of our extraordinary moneyed
resources, more than one hundred millions of dol
lars having been offered by our own capitalists at
a premium, for a government six per cent, stock,
upon advertisements for less than half of that sum,
and shall be permitted to enjoy hereafter the Cha
sings of uninterrupted peace with all the world.
Among the important results of that reduced
Mexican’.tariff as prepared by this depertment is
the light thrown by its operations upon the com?
mercc and revenue of Mexico and the demonstra
tion that both would be augmented by its provi
. sions. So strong has been the efforts produced
» that a proposition to remove the prohibitions oji
»l nearly all our exports to Mexico existing Under
NO. 47.