The whole art ok Government consists in the art of beino honest. Jefferson. VOL 5. STROUDSBURG, MONROE COUNTY, PA., THURSDAY, APRIL 25, 1844. No. I. TERMS. Two dollars per annum in advance Two dollars and a quarter, half yearly and f not paid before the end of 'the year, two uouars anu a nan. i nosc wno receive men papers by a carrier or stage drivers employed by the proprie inn. vvill be charted 7 1- cts. ncr vear. extra. No papers discontinued until ;ill arrearages are paid, except aitano option 01 uic manors. ,lE?Advcrtiseinenls not exceeding one square (sixteen lines) avJH be inserted three weeks for one dollar ; twenty-five cents fin-.f.rerv su!)eQuent insertion : larcer ones in proportion. A iujsral discount will be made to yearly advertisers 1T7AU fetters addressed to the Editors must be post paid. 4 JOB PRUVTIRCr. (Having a general assortment of large elegant plain and orna- uieiltM lype, we arc preparcu va mcuulc ccij description of , Cards, Circulars Bill Heads, Notes. Blank Receipts, JUSTJECES, LEGAL AND OTHER PAMPHLETS, &c. Printed with neatr.css and despatch, on reasonable terms AT THE OFFICE (?F THE JScffersoniau Republican. $ EXTRACTS FROM THE t Sjpeecli of Mr. Stewart, of Penn. IX DEFENCE OF TIK TARIFF. Delivered in the House of Representatives of the U. S., March 13, 1844. EFFECTS OX FARMERS AND MECHANICS. But our present amount ot (foreign imports, viz., one hundred millions, is sufficient to sup ply the demand ; how then are you 10 make 100m for fifty millions more ? this can only be done by destroying fifty millions of dollars of our own domestic productions, to make way for Jiat aimiiifcni of the productions of foreign indus try. We must, according to this financial Kchnmc, noionly destroy fifty Ynillions of dol lars worth anniiwlly of our productive indus- hut we mvtsifcend fifty millwns of dollars oi hard cash to folreign countries, to purchase what 'e now doh produce, can produce, and owld to produce lat home; andifor what? to rafsti five million:! of revenue by taxation, which is not wanted i Now, sir, I submit, is this a wise, i jt an American policy Is it not ra ilicr a British policy, a plan to reduce the du ties and open our ports to thej importation of British goods, to the sacrifice and destruction of our own mechanics, farmers and manufactu rers ? Yes, sir, and this is to pe done, by an American Congress, and by iherepresentauveri of the American people J uart such an anu Acnerican such a British system as this, stand fx a moment before this free and enlightened people! Pasi this bill, sir, tale five dollars -off bar iron, and still more off iron in all its ither forms, and, sir, you will go far to extin guish the fires of every furnace and of every lorge in Pennsylvania. By lhi bill you will uinke down your own mechanic your hatters, your shoemakers, your blacksmiths, your tai Jors, your sadler ; in short, all jyour mechan ics ; you will psralyzo and prostfate your glass orks, paper mills, tanneries, salt works, col lieries, lead mines your woolltn and cotton factories; but above all, you ainj death blow at the American farmers, not onjy by destroy ing their home markets, almostthe only mar kets they now have, but what is still worse, you will convert the mechanics.and manufactu rers thus thrown out of employment into agri cultures, into producers instead of consumers of agricultural productions. When you double production and diminish consumption one-half, do you not ruin and destroy the farmers of this country? And, sir, allow me lo say, that in a country like this, where seven-eights of the en tire populution is engaged in agriculture, when agriculture is destroyed, the country itself is destroyed. Agriculture is the great basis and foundation on which every thing else depends when lhe farmer prospers, all prosper ; when he sink", all the rest, professional men, me chanics, and all go down with him. It is the J were anxious for the reduction of tfie American great object therefore to take cxre of agricul-j Whig Tariff of '42. No wonder ier Chancel ture, make this" prosperous and the whole coun-' lor exclaims against, the Tariff, aid says it will try will prosper; and how is agriculture to be'nblige them to send us specie unload of goods made prosperous but by building up and sus-1 hereafter to p;iy for cotion. Ni wonder our Uining home markets. It is therefore not for j country is rapidly recovering fiWn its late de t he manufacturers, but for the mechanics andpression that iis courss is agafi onward and formers, ves, sir, for the farmers, that I advo-1 upward that its former prospeiy is returning fa'e the protective policy- There is one ira-t '.iportant fact which lies deep at lhe foundation Ml the whole subject, to which 1 am anxious to .attract the attention of the farmers and politi- jcvms of iki.s countrv. and it is this, that half' .nd more l.bio half of the entire price of the hhiiutired miJlions .of .dollars a year of foreign gout! imported into ihis country is agricultural ' . y . 1 1 J' pruuiii is rai.ed on a loreign fin, worxeu up anu 'v jnimiftiftured into' goods, and then sent here or sale ; and ihat the farmers and people of ihi rounit.r send in this wav fifty millions of dollars a yar to purchase foreign agricultural produce, in the shape ot guilds, while foreign er take liule or noihing from us ; our whole agricultural exports to all the world (excepting rutton and tobacco) do not amount to ten mil linns of dollars a year ; thus, Mr, we purchase five dollars' worth of foreign agricultural pro duce lo every dollar's" worih we fell ; this may Kfieni strange, but it is strictly true ; I defy con tradiction I challenge investigation. Let gBtt'lemen disposed to coitteot -if eleet an aru- I cle of foreign goods, a vard of cloth, a ton 0 iron, a hat, a coat, a pair of shoes, any thing " from a needle to an anchor," examine its con stittient parts, the raw material, the clothing and the subsistence of the Labor employed in its manufacture, and it would be discovered that more than half, often three-fourths, of the whole price is made up of agricultural produce It is a well known fact that farmers often make hundreds of dollars worth of domestic goods, cloths, Scc, without using a dollar's worth of any thing not produced on their own farms goods and cloth thus made are therefore entire ly agricultural ; and are not the same materials used in the manufacture of goods, whether made on a farm or in a factory? Mr. S. said he had ascertained the fact from his own books kept at a furnace, that more than three-fourths of tho price of every ton of iron sold, was paid to tho neighboring farmers for their domestic goods, their meat and flour, that clothed and fed his hands ; for their hay, corn oats, &c, that sustained bis horses, mules, and oxen, employed about his works. In Eng land, iron is made of the same materials that constitute it here; well, we now import, manu factured and unmanufactured, eight millions of dollars worth of iron and steel; say only half its value is agricultural produce, thus, then, we send four millions of dollars a 3'ear to purchase foreign agricultural produce, converted into iron, and sent here for sale, while our own country is filled with ore and coal, buried and useless, and the produco of our farmers left without markets. Will tho farmers of this country submit to such a system as this open ly advocated and adopted to favor foreign in dustry at the expense of our own ? Will they tamely and silently agree thus to be crushed and sacrificed ? No, sir, they will not; they will speak out against this unjust and ruinous measure ; your tables will soon groan under the weight of their remonstrances against it. I call on them to do so ; 1 call on them to to the rescue before it is loo late. come BRITISH BILL. The avowed object of this bill is to open our ports to the importation of British goods to favor foreign farmers and mechanics, and de stroy our own. Sir, give the people time to be V 1 1 .1 - frit 1 . . 1 1- ucaiu, dim whs mil cannot pass; let it oe dis cussed, and it can never pass an American Congress. There is one way in which it can "pass semi ino inn uritrair rTtniarrrnt, uu it will be passed by acclamation. England would give millions to secure its passage. It had re cently been staled in an official report, read in the House of Commons, that unless tho Amer ican Tariff of 1842 was modified and reduced, Great Britain would have to pay the United States cash for their cotton, instead of paying in goods as she formerly had done ; and this bill accordingly modifies and reduces the Tariff of 1842 to suit the wishes of tho British Chan cellor, who-, while he recommends freB trade and low duties to us, takes special care to ad here to his own prohibitory system. While this bill proposes greatly to reduce the duties on foreign distilled spirits, England exacts a duty of 2,700 per cent, on ours ; and this is re ciprocity! This bill reduces the duties on to bacco and its manufactures, while England de mands 1.200 per cent, on ours, audi actually collects 22 millions dollars of revenni annually from our tobacco, equal lo the wnol revenue of this Government such is Briiishjreciprori ly and free trade. Since the Tanf of 1842, the tables with England have been 'unfed; last year the balance of trade with Grfat Britain exceeded $13,000,000 in our favor instead of being about that amount against u, na in for mer years. The imports of spccie.had in the last year reached" the unprecedented amount, as appears by official reports, of inre than 23 millions of dollars, mo.st of it from Great Brit- am. JNo wonder England and hfr statesmen a prosperity 11 always had am always would have under an efficient protective sysicmj but which it never had and never vould have with out it. No wonder specie haj become abun dant that tne banks nau refumeu urn ex- changes had beco.t:e equalize! and interest re duced that nunuficiures fid revived that agncnhuie was recovering hat ihe mechanic '1 .11 l.-i'.l.l : 11. anu every and every oilier nratien 01 uii national inuusrrv was fully and profitably enipbyed. All tiiHe were the necessary and undiuiable fruils of lhe existing tariff policy resule seen, felt, and ac knowledged throughout -ibeldtid yet, in lhe face of all these facts hujEutg their eyes to these greal lights blazing 1) befW.-thein the Committee of Ways and ifeana have reported a bill 10 repeal ih:s bnnefipl act of 1842, and bring lis back to the lowduttes and the low condition of 1840. Theyhave smirk a death blow at this policy a polcy which had vindi cated Us adoption byallls fruit, which had fulfilled all lhe hopes of is friends, and falsified a!! the predieiious of itslnernjes ; but shall this blow be unavailing ? No, sir, it will recoil and overwhelm its authors. The people who have experienced the benefits and the blessings of this measure, will not abandon it. Even its enemies are now disposed to give it a fair and full trial, and condemn it only when it fails. Then why not, sir, wail till the people have an opportunity to pass upon this question at the approaching elections ? They will then settle it one way or the other. If ihe.wiemies of the Tariff policy prevail, they can and will repeal if; but it you repeal it now, and its friends are successful, it will be immediately restored. Then why not let it abide this result ? Let it go to the people, let them decide it, and, for one, sir, I am prepared to acquiesce iitheir decision. But, sir, if more revenue is wanted, why not increase the duties on luxuries consumed by the rich, raiher than thus strike down the poor man's labor, and lake the bread from the mouth of his children, to make room for the importa tion of fifty millions of dollars worth of foreign goods? s this, sir, an American measure, can it receive the support of an American Con gress, or the representatives o the American people ? I call on tho authors of this ru'nous measure to come forth in its defence. I call on ihem to assign some reason for its adoption. I can readily discover reason enough why England should desire its adoption, but they are the very reasons whv we jhould reject it : just so far as it benefits them it injures us ; this is a contest between foreign and American me chanics, farmers, and manufacturers, for the American market, and the question is, which side shall we take ? The tariff of 1842 shuts out the foreisner and gives the Americans the market; this bill proposes to repeal the tariff of 1842, and give it to the foreigner; to open our ports and again flood our country with foreign goods, and export money by ship-loads to pay for them ; and whj- ? I again ask the commit tee upon what principle of national policy this measure is sustained ? j 1 The Tariff Democratic Free Trade J Moxakchial. Mr. Dromgoole replied to enable bare-headed people to buy cheap bats ! J o enable bare-headed people to buy cheap hats ! Sir, let me tell the gentleman if he car ries this measure, the poor peoplo of this coun try would not only go bare-headed but bare backed; they would bo doomed, like the pau- The tarifiTsir, is "the poor man s law;" it 1 this and this alone that gives him employment and wages. Just as the tariff goes down, tha wa ges of labor will go down with it. Repeal tho tariffadopt the gentleman's favorite plan of "free trade," and you will bring down the la borer here, in every department of industry, to the level of the serfs and paupers of Europe. This is certain it is inevitable. As certain as the laws of graviiaiion as inevitable as that the romrfval of an obstruction between two un equal bodies of water, will reduce the one to the level of the other. Repeal the tariff, and what is there 10 prevent our country from being instantly inundated with the productions of the low priced labour of Europe. When hatters, shoemakers, blacksmiths, and all must come down and work as cheap as they do, or give up the market! With the present facilities of in tercourse by steamships, you might as well at tempt to establish higher wages and higher pri ces on one side of a street than on the other, as lo establish and sustain higher prices and wages here than in Europe, under the delusive and Europian scheme of "free-trade." But, sir, this scheme would bring in its train oilier and more fearful consequences. Adopt this scheme, and you will soon bring down and degrade the now free and prosperous laborer of this coun try, not only to iho moral, but to iho political condition of ihe slave and serfs of Europe. By reducing their wages, you deprive the poor man of ihe means of educating his children and fitting them to be free. By thus depressing one class of your people,, you necessarily ele vate another. You divide society horizonially into upper iind lower classesdistinctions and lilies supervene jealousies and fiually hostil ities follow, and liberty itself is in tho end swal lowed up in monarchy. Such are the political and moral tendencies of every step in the di rection of free trade. The protective policy is therefore democratic in its character and ten dencies, it is a policy which promotes equality, not by depressing one class, but by elevating all by elevating, sustaining, and protecting the labor of your own country against the ruinous and degrading effects of a loo free competuion with the low priced and depressed labor of E11 rope. These are views which belong to this subject, and should not be overlookbd or disre garded by those who, represent the free labor of this country, and especially by those who make professions of democracy and love oj the people Now is the lime, and this is ihe question, to lest trjeir sincerity. Those who represent alaves may be excused, but those representing frefimtn will be held to a strict accountability. THE DUTIES ADDED TO THE PRICE, NOT TltrE1. The great and leading objection to tbtt pro tective policy is. that the duMes are added to the price, and paid by the consumers, This objection lies. -$ the foundation of (jie opposi tion to this policy; and, if unfounded, this op position ought to cease. The duly is added to the price; this is the theory. Now, sir, how is the fact; What says experience? All experi ence proves that this objection has no existence, savo in the imaginations of those who make it. Now, sir, 1 lay it down as a general propo sition, that there never was a high protective duly imposed upon any article, from the foun dation of this Government to the present day, the price of which has not been in the end re duced greatly reduced in many instances to one-half, one-third, and one-fourth of what it had been before these protective duties were imposed. This, Bir, may seem to gentlemen on the other sidu to be a strong declaration ; but, sir, 1 make it deliberately, with a full con viction of its truth, and 1 challenge gentlemen to disprove it I defy them to point oui a sin gle instance to the contrary. Let them exam ine, and ihey will find invariably ihat whenever the duties have been highest, the prices have ultimately come down the lowest, and for a ve ry obvious reason high duties promote compe- iton.and -competition never fails to bring down prices. This effect is invariable and universal; but unfortunately ihe duties always run up as the prices run down; hence the frightful lists of du ties exhibited by the Committee of Ways and Means, amounting to 200, 300, and 400 per ct. When first imposed these duties were but 30 or 40 per cent.; but now, owing to the reduc tion of prices, they have run up to 200 or 300 per cent. By way of illustration take the arti cle of glass, on which a duty of S4 a box was imposed at a time when glass cost $12; this was then a duty of 33 per cent., but now when home competition, induced by this protective du ty, has brought down the price to $2 a box, the duty, owing to this reduction of price, is 200 per cent, instead of 33; the same is true of ma ny other articles on which the duty, when im posed, did not exceed 20 or 30 per cent., but now, owing to reduction of price produced by home competition, they amount to 2 or 300 per cent. When four cents per pound duty was put on cut nails, the price was twelve cents per pound, and this duty, of course was 33 per ct.; but how, when the effect of this protective duty has been to reduco the price of nails from 12 to 3 cents per pound-, the duty is increased to 100 ner cent: this is equally true of spikesk rods, ,id on c"nare cottona when imported at 20 cents, -mnitg-nr-onty T)I 4U )tjr -ut hut now, when the price has come down to 5 cents per yard, the duty goes up lo 1G0 per cent. Sir, I could go on and enumerate moro than twenty such instances whero the duties, though moderate when imposed, now actually exceed lhe price of the article; yet we are told that in all cases the duty is added to the price, and paid by ihe consumer! That is, that the con sumer pays S4 a box duty on glass that he buys for $2; 4 cents a pound on nails that he buys for 3; and 8 cents a yard on coarse cotton goods that ho buys for 5. Such are the absurdities into which "these stale ami-tariff theories involve their votaries; but suppose what they alledge were true in point of fact, and that the duty is really added to the price, tho co3t of cotton goods being 20 when the duty of 8 cents was imposed, add the duty, iho price would be, of course, 26 cents a yard, and the duty only 28 per cent, instead of 1G0 as stated by lhe com mittee; hence, if you raise the price five fold, then the duly is quite rcasonsible, and there will be no objection whatever to its payment. Let the manufacturer, then run up his price from 5 to 25 cents a yard, and he at once si lences a the objections of the Committee of Ways and Means, as this would fix theiluiy at 30 per cent., just,what they want it. But sup pose the manufacturer were to reduce his price to one cent a yard, then the duty being 8 cents, would be 800 per cent Horrid oppression ! who would submit to pay a duty of 800 per ct.? Who could then refuse 10 go with tho Commit tee on Ways and Moans for reducing such en ormous duties ? ABSURDITIES OF THE REPORT. But the Committeo of Ways and Means say that the object of this bill is to increase the rev enue by reducing the duties; yet, in the very same paragraph, they say, that' should lhe rev enue be found redundant, to avoid the horrid evils of deposites or distribution among lhe Slates, ihe duties should be instantly reduced, so as to reduce the revenue to the want.a oTthe Government; at this time, the committee say, there is not revenue enough, and ihey propose to increase it by reducing the duties; but should it turn out that there is too much, then ihey say reduce it by reducing tho dulies. Thus a re duction of dutie is alike effectual with the Committee for a reduction or for an increase f revenue. Excellent duciplss of Dr. Sangrado, who had but one remedy for all diseases, "bleeding and warm water." How such a pal ;Mr.ii i m hn reconciled or ex- jvutjiu i;uuiiauiiiiuii i ii1 plained I am at a loss to conjecture, I'ho ommiiicp nroeeed next to say tlflfffOTs X tl w UUHIMII"-' J W the true policy of every interest in the country, except manufacturers, to adocate the proposed reduction of duties, and they especially name Mmw. sir. in mv opinion tne re- verse of this proposition s true; agriculture much more interested in the maintenance of the present protective tariff than the manufacturer, and for the most obvious reasons; hijh pnnec1 live duties are calculated to induce increased investment in manvifacuirers; the effect of this is clearly to increase the demand for ihr. raw material and bread stuffs produced by the far mers; and the necessary consequence of thiS increased demand is to incrcane the price of every thing the former has lo sell, and. by in creasing the quantity, reduce the price .f man ufactured goods. Thus the protective p ihcv enables the farmers to sell higher and buy low er; while, on the other hand, liicraid compe tion obliges the manufacturer to sell loner and buy his supplies at higher rales; yet it is as serted in this report, and in every nmi-iariir speech, hat high protective duties are imposed for the benefit of the manufacturer at tb x pense of tho fanner. Now I submit whuther practically the opposite oi this propnition is not the truth; and whether such is not tho-ne-cessary and unavoidable result of the great laws of demand and supply which regulate and coni trol prices throughout the world. But agriculture is still further benefited by the protective policy. By increasing manufac turers, it withholds a portion of lhe capital and, hands from agriculture, and converts them into customers instead of producers, into customer instead of rivals; thus diminishing ihe quarnity and increasing the demand for agricultural sup plies, and at the same time increasing ih sup ply and reducing the price of the manufactured, goods which they get in exchange. Thus, iiv every point of view in which ihe snbjct .can. be considered, ihs farmer is more bunefited thai the manufacturer by the adoption and mainte nance of the protective policy. By way of il lustration uppo9e in a village there is onn manufacturing establishment of woollen goods; here ihe surrounding farmsrs sell their wool and other agricultural, supplios; the manufactur ed having a monopoly, regulates his own pri cesi as well as those of the farmers he de mands Vvhat he pleases, and gives what he will; but suppose a high protective lariff on woollen goods is passed) and instead of one woollen factory there springs into existence five or six in this village, the existing monopoly is at onco destroyed; there is six time the demand for , , 111 1 1 r ' 1 1 1 , 1 wool anu provjato'- . , , - Unbincreases mepn u, ctC,j .u...g ... farmer has t au oy giuuing iub marKcu with six times the quantity of woollen goods the price is necessarily reduced. Such are the plain and obvious bnefits of tha protective pol icy to the farmers; yet politician would havtf them believe that ihey are oppressed and ru ined by ihia policy, which can alone render them prosperous MR. yA. BUREN's OPINIONS OX THE TARIFF. And here, sir, it may not be improper to re mark, that Mr. Van Buren entirely concurs with the Com. of Ways and Means. In his letter to the Indiana convention'he says : " The great, body of mechanics and laborers in every branch of business, whose welfare should be an object of unceasing solicitude on the part of every public man, have been the greatest sufferers by our high protective tariff, and would continue s to be were that policy persisted in, is to my mind too clear to require further elucidation ; but he further says, what is much noarer tho truth, that high duties .10 injurious 10 the man ufacturers themselves, for whose especial ben efit we are told by tho committee iheso high duties are imposed. Mr. Van Buren Fays : "Excess of duties, which tempt to an undue and ruinous investment of capital in their busi nessis injurious to the manufacturers ;" and how by promoting competition, and reducing prices? but is not this for the benefit of lhe consumers ? Tm tlii ? nn oil fr Van T?nnn savs against. the protective policy he says, " the period'Kas passed awry when a protective tariff can ,b kept up in this country," that the tarif "increases A.J I t uuk nit l'A . - f - r - - , - the poor man s taxts in an inverse ratio 10 uv ability to pay," and that direct taxation is a mora equal and just system of revenue than du tica on foreign goods. Thtse, sir, are Mr. Van Buren's opinions upon the tariff, as proclaimed to the world in his Indiana letter. But let us look a little into the details and practical operatian of this bill on tke great ag ricultural, manufacturing, and mechanical inter ests of our country. In the first place it greatly reduces the dnties on wool and woollens of all kinds ; three-fourths of the duties, and more, ar taken from coarso cotlons and calicoes ; lead is robbed of more than nine-tenths of itsrdtection. But Pnn sylvania seems to bo iinjled out for destruction. Her iron, hr ceal, her glass, her paper, her salt, and leather, are all struck down together, and we are to go to England for iron, coal, glass, &c. Yei, sir, in 1842 we imported more than four millions of buihela of coal, under a duty of $1 75 per ton. This bill reduces it to on dollar. Of course you must double, and doubt less you will liable the quantity imported ; and for what? To increase tho levenue. A few daya ago Pennsylvania passed a resolution unanimously instructing us to je for protection " without ragard to revenue." Yes, sir, thesa is I are tne voiu, jhuimsuwh nmu v..-
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers