H. OF R.] Tariff Bill. [APRIL, 1828. a natural alliance. The Southern States, de- | natural and political right of the most sacred pending on free trade for their prosperity, must character, and which nothing but the highest always be opposed to any attempts on the part public emergency could justify this Governof this Government to build up, by commercial ment even in suspending. And yet, sir, withprohibitions, an aristocracy of favored monop-out even the pretence of any motive connected olists. Sir, this is not a contest, as some are anxious to represent it, between the Southern and Northern States. It is a contest of less than one hundred thousand manufacturers and farmers, against all the other farmers and man-structive of the rights and interests of the cotufacturers in the Union, and against the whole population in the Southern States. I will now invite the attention of the House to one or two views of this subject, connected not so much with political economy as with a much more important branch of politics: that which looks to the true foundations of liberty and the probable destiny of this Government. with the defence of our national rights or honor, in a time of peace and harmony with the whole world, the Representatives of the other States are about to pass a law, notoriously de ton States. What nonsense would it be to talk of Representative responsibility, when those who destroy our prosperity believe it to be their interest, and (if that be possible) their right and duty to destroy that prosperity? If, sir, as the advocates of this tariff allege, it is the interest of two-thirds of this Union, to destroy the prosperity of the other third, by cutting off the only means of that prosperity, would it be possible for that other third to submit to a practical interpretation of the compact of union, by which the right of the two-thirds would be recognized to destroy the other? This species of Government interference with the rights of private property, would be unjust and tyrannical, even in a local Government extending over a homogeneous population, and over interests equally and generally diffused over the whole geographical surface; but, in a Federal Government, extending over various sectional interests, it is utterly intolerable. I am not one of those, sir, who habitually stickle upon mere technical questions of constitutional construction and constitutional power. I believe such questions are not those upon which the safety of the Republic depends. I grant, sir, that Congress has the power to lay duties upon foreign merchandise for purposes other than those of revenue. These duties may be legitimately laid for the regulation of foreign commerce. But, sir, though I admit the power of this Government to the extent just stated, I am prepared to demostrate that, to attempt any interference with the distribution of domestic Sir, if the union of these States shall ever capital and domestic labor, by taxing one por- be severed and their liberties subverted, the tion for the benefit of another, under pretence historian who records these disasters will have of regulating commerce, is a gross and fraudu- to ascribe them to measures of this description. lent abuse of a constitutional power. A regu- I do sincerely believe that neither this Governlation of commerce, to be legitimate, must havement, nor any free Government, can exist for a reference to our foreign relations and international rights, not to our internal relations and the rights of private property. The importance of this distinction will be at once perceived, if we advert to its bearing upon the great principle of political responsibility. Wherever the interest involved is a general interest -such, for example, as foreign commerce, and the public safety-the States, if permitted to interfere with it, would act without responsibility. The interest of the whole would be subjected to the irresponsible action of a part. In like manner, wherever the interest involved is a local interest, such, for example, as the interest of the cotton grower, this Government, assuming to act upon it, acts without responsibility. Of what consequence is it, that the cotton States have some fifty or sixty representatives, in a body composed of two hundred and thirteen ? Who are they, that are about to pass this tariff dooming our fields to desolation? Have they any community of interest or of sympathy with the cotton growers? On the contrary, are they not stimulated by the hope, (false and delusive, I grant you,) that their prosperity is to be reared upon our ruins? The interest of the cotton grower is essentially dependent on foreign commerce. The free and unrestricted enjoyment of that commerce, is a quarter of a century, under such a system of legislation. Its inevitable tendency is to corrupt, not only the public functionaries, but all those portions of the Union and classes of society who have an interest, real or imaginary, in the bounties it provides, by taxing other sections and other classes. What, sir, is the essential characteristic of a freeman? It is that independence which results from an habitual reliance upon his own resources and his own labor for his support. He is not in fact a freeman, who habitually looks to the Government for pecuniary bounties. And I confess that nothing in the conduct of those who are the prominent advocates of this system, has excited more apprehension and alarm, in my mind, than the constant efforts made by all of them, from the Secretary of the Treasury down to the humblest coadjutor, to impress upon the public mind the idea that national prosperity and individual wealth are to be derived, not from individual industry and economy, but from Government bounties. An idea more fatal to liberty could not be inculcated. I said, on another occasion, that the days of Roman liberty were numbered when the people consented to receive bread from the public granaries. From that moment it was not the patriot who had shown the greatest capacity and made APRIL, 1828.] Tarif Bill. [H. OF R. the greatest sacrifices to serve the republic, but | man of sufficient prominence to aspire to the the demagogue who would promise to distribute Presidency, and representing a people whose most profusely the spoils of the plundered interests were to be immolated by this system, provinces, that was elevated to office by a de- would be base and bold enough to make that generate and mercenary populace. Every thing offering at the shrine of his own ambition, he became venal, even in the country of Fabricius, would find it the most certain and direct aveuntil finally the empire itself was sold at pub-nue to popularity and power. He would be lie auction! And what, sir, is the nature and hailed by the whole tariff party as a hightendency of the system we are discussing? It minded statesman and disinterested patriot; bears an analogy, but too lamentably striking, and even his own infatuated constituents, to that which corrupted the republican purity the miserable and deluded victims of his of the Roman people. God forbid that it treachery, whose very bread he had sold for should consummate its triumph over the public the purple of power, would not improbably be liberty, by a similar catastrophe, though even found in the ranks of his followers, swelling that is an event by no means improbable, if we the chorus of his praise. Indeed, sir, when I continue to legislate periodically in this way, contemplate the extraordinary infatuation which and to connect the election of our Chief Magis- a combination of capitalists and politicians trate with the question of dividing out the have had the singular art to diffuse over more spoils of certain States-degraded into Roman than one-half of this Union-when I see the provinces amongst the influential capitalists very victims who are about to be offered up to of the other States of this Union! Sir, when satiate the voracious appetite of this devouring I consider that, by a single act like the pres- Moloch, paying their ardent and sincere_devoent, from five to ten millions of dollars may be tions at his bloody shrine; I confess I have transferred annually from one part of the com- been tempted to doubt whether mankind was munity to another; when I consider the dis- not doomed, even in its most enlightened state, guise of disinterested patriotism under which to be the dupe of some species of imposture, the basest and most profligate ambition may and the victim of some form of tyranny. For, perpetrate such an act of injustice and political | sir, in casting my eye over the history of huprostitution, I cannot hesitate, for a moment, man idolatry, I can find nothing, even in the to pronounce this very system of indirect boun- darkest ages of ignorance and superstition, ties, the most stupendous instrument of corrup- which surpasses the infatuation by which a tion ever placed in the hands of public func- confederated priesthood of politicians and mantionaries. It brings ambition and avarice and ufacturers have bound the great body of the wealth into a combination, which it is fearful people in the farming States of this Union, as to contemplate, because it is almost impossible if by a spell, to this mighty scheme of fraud to resist. Do we not perceive, at this very mo- and delusion. I recollect nothing, sir, that ment, the extraordinary and melancholy spec- bears so near a resemblance to it, or which furtacle of less than one hundred thousand capi-nishes so striking an illustration of this branch talists, by means of this unhallowed combination, exercising an absolute and despotic control over the opinions of eight millions of free citizens, and the fortunes and destinies of ten millions? Sir, I will not anticipate or forbode evil. I will not permit myself to believe that the Presidency of the United States will ever be bought and sold, by this system of bounties and prohibitions. But I must say that there are certain quarters of this Union, in which, if a candidate for the Presidency were to come forward with the Harrisburg tariff in his hand, nothing could resist his pretensions, if his adversary were opposed to this unjust system of oppression. Yes, sir, that bill would be a talisman which would give a charmed existence to the candidate who would pledge himself to support it. And although he were covered with all the "multiplying villanies of nature," the most immaculate patriot and profound statesman in the nation could hold no competition with him, if he should refuse to grant this new species of imperial donative. Mr. Speaker, such are the disguise and delusion incident to this sort of legislation, that baseness and treachery are not unlikely to receive the reward appropriate to disinterested patriotism. I believe, for example, that if a of human frailty, as the story-so beautifully told by the Irish poet-of the celebrated Veiled Prophet of Khorassan. This bold impostor came into the world without any of the features which distinguish the human face, an object of disgusting deformity. With the fiendlike purpose of avenging his shame upon the human race, he reared the standard of a new religious dynasty, in opposition to the Caliph. As a means of accomplishing his great imposture, and at the same time concealing his deformity, he covered himself with a silver veil; giving it out to his followers that the heavenly light of his countenance, by which the faithful were to be finally blessed after reaching a certain state of purity, was for the present kept, in mercy, from their sight. Thousands of devoted followers thronged to his standard, looking forward, amidst every disaster, and every disappointment, to that glorious day, when the angel brow of their prophet was to be "uncurtained to their view." I need not tell you, sir, that this vision of their hopes was never realized. On the contrary, at the very time he was idolized, by the blind devotion of his followers, as a redeeming angel commissioned by Heaven to free the world from sin and bondage, he was daily muttering, in the H. OF R.] Tariff Bill. [APRIL, 1828. midst of his pretended orisons, infernal execra- | any thing else to recommend it to the Amerition against the hated race of human kind, and can people, but "union, justice, and domestic staining the altars of his demoniac passions tranquillity," and is a mockery of the terms with every species of crime and every species themselves. of sacrifice. And finally, when enclosed by It was well observed by Chief Justice MARthe beleaguering forces of the Caliph, and sur- SHALL, in the case of Gibbons vs. Ogden, in rounded by a "frightful wilderness of death," alluding to the causes which led to the separacovered over with his own deluded followers, tion of the colonies from the mother country, he selected this as the appropriate scene of a that "the right to regulate commerce, even by holy festival, at which he was to unveil, to the the imposition of duties, was not controverted; chosen few of his followers who still survived but the right to impose a duty for the purpose the successive disasters and disappointments to of revenue, produced a war as important, perwhich he had exposed them, the long-expected haps, in its consequences to the human race, as splendors of his godlike brow. The board was any the world has ever witnessed." A declaraspread "in splendid mockery;" and after ad- tion of this sort should have some weight with ministering to each of these deluded victims a gentlemen, as it deserves to be considered in poisonous draught, as a nectar proper for those two points of view. While it admits a clear, who were destined for the skies, he raised the incontrovertible right in the mother country, awful veil; when behold! his wretched fol- to have regulated commerce with the colonies lowers, in their very last agonies, shrunk back, by the imposition of duties, it is a negation of as from a loathsome and detestable monster, the power for the purposes of revenue; and more foul than hell, more horrible than death. the very attempt to exert it, produced, in its Such, sir, are the promised blessings of this consequences, the most fatal effects to her-no protecting system; such is the veil which cov-less than the establishment of their independers its deformity; such are the sacrifices it im- ence. How much more so, then, are the danposes, even on its own deluded followers; and gers to be apprehended in a republican form of such, I fear, will be the final consummation of Government, prescribed in its action, with limthis stupendous scheme of imposture and de-ited powers, when one is exercised, not merely lusion. SATURDAY, April 19. The House proceeded to the orders of the day, viz: the consideration of private bills. On motion of Mr. MALLARY, the private business was postponed, and the Tariff Bill came up for consideration. The motion pending was that of Mr. RANDOLPH, that the bill be indefinitely postponed. Mr. ALEXANDER said: In examining this question, he should not follow the example of gentlemen who had gone before him, in attempting to show that the duty should be laid on the square or the running yard, on molasses or hemp; or that it was the wool grower, and not the manufacturer, who required protection. It was all the same to him. They were alike equally oppressive, destructive of the principles of the constitution, and it mattered not who was the executioner, if he were to be made the victim. He said destructive of the principles of the constitution, because subversive of the ends of its creation; these being "to form a more perfect union, establish justice, ensure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity. He would not say that these terms did, of themselves, convey any power, farther than admonitions to gentlemen who may choose to risk the consequences-beacons, as it were, by which the vessel of State may be safely steered throughout her political voyage. What peace, what happiness, was to be enjoyed under this bill, marked, as it is, with the iron hand of tyranny and oppression throughout? It has of doubtful authority, but, in the opinion of many, a downright and palpable violation of the constitution itself? It was not the three-penny tax upon tea, considered as oppressive by the colonies of this country, which led them to resistance and independence; but the principle asserted, to tax them for the purposes of a Government in which they had no participation, and for the benefit of a people with whom they had no common interest. It was not the twenty-shilling ship money tax that was held grievous by the people of England, which Hampden resisted, and finally brought Charles to the block, but the principle involved, the violation of Magna Charta, which secured to every Englishman his liberty, his property, and every thing that was dear and valuable. While speaking thus of the rights of British subjects, I am but vindicating those of the American citizen, and let me not be subjected to the unwarrantable imputation, as my colleague (Mr. RANDOLPH) was the other day, of taking sides with aliens and foreigners. What was the case there? A discretionary power, contended for on the part of the crown, to tax the people to any extent, without the consent of Parliament, under the pretext of providing for the general welfare. What is it here? A discretionary power in Congress to tax them to the same extent, with no other restraint than the responsibility which they owe to their constituents. The right of Parliament, in this respect, has never been controverted, but that of the king was, and successfully, too, by the reversal of the attainder of Hampden, which a corrupt bench, in corrupt times, and under the influence of the crown, had not the firmness and APRIL, 1828.] Tariff Bill. [H. OF R. When gentlemen, therefore, speak of precedents, let them go back to fundamental principles, to constitutional authorities, and not abide the decisions of legislative enactments merely. There are occasions when it would be as unwise in Congress to execute powers that are given, as it would be dangerous to attempt the exercise of those which are prohibited, or of a doubtful character. There are cases which neither the decision of this House, of Congress, nor of the Supreme Court in the bargain, can ever determine, but must be left to the high contracting parties-the States themselves-to settle, peaceably, if they can, but forcibly, never! There is no umpire between them and their rights. Forbearance, justice, a mutual respect for the authorities of each other, can alone be appealed to, to reconcile conflicting interests. When these ends fail, and it becomes necessary to apply force, after destroying the moral energies of the people, to execute your laws, that moment is this Union at an enddissolved into its original elements! independence to resist. But, Mr. A. said, he never expected to hear the supremacy, the omnipotence of the Parliament of Great Britain, claimed for the Congress of the United States. If the power be admitted, to the extent contended for by gentlemen, he had no hesitation in saying, that this Government was, to all intents and purposes, a consolidated one; that, so far from being a charter of delegated powers, it was a monarchy in disguise; that it was any thing a majority of Congress might choose to make it. As to the Supreme Court ever declaring a law of Congress unconstitutional, which accumulates power in the Federal head, it was what he never expected to see. When speaking, therefore, of this Government being one with limited powers, he meant something more than "enumerated " merely, which seemed to be the opinion of some gentlemen, unless they were pleased to consider, by the enumeration of powers, the exclusion of all others, not enumerated, which were reserved to the States respectively, or to the people. This was the principle both friends and opponents had in Mr. A. said he did not mean to blink the view at the time of its adoption, and upon question, but to meet it fairly and openly, and, which the cotemporaneous expositions, as well if he could, to vindicate the violated purity of as judicial decisions, profess to have gone ever the constitution. He knew that it was unfashsince. The ninth and tenth amendments to the ionable to speak of the constitution here, unless constitution were made in order to secure it it be to get power by implication; that it had more effectually, and to allay the apprehensions become a by-word and reproach, particularly of those who entertained doubts upon the sub- when emanating from the quarter of the counjeet. Judge TUCKER, in his commentaries upon try which he represented; and the man who Blackstone, who wrote at a time when the did it, ran the risk of subjecting himself to the principles of the Government were considered gibes, the sneers, the contempt, of some one or as settled, and may, therefore, be relied upon as other. But he cared not for that. He had a an authority, after alluding to the clauses re- duty to discharge to himself, to those who had straining the powers given, says: "The sum of sent him here to guard their rights and interall which appears to be, that the powers dele- ests, and he should do it to the best of his gated to the Federal Government are, in all abilities, cost what it might, regardless of the cases, to receive the most strict construction opinion of this or that party. Whenever views that the instrument will bear, where the rights of this sort were pressed upon the House by of a State, or of the people, either collectively any one from that State, it was immediately or individually, may be drawn in question." said that the sceptre had departed from her, It is the only sound doctrine that can obtain, and she was now for tying up the hands of the consistently with their interests and safety; Federal Government. He rejoiced that it had; because, as all power was originally derived and, unless it should be used more to the adfrom them, whenever these are likely to be vantage of the people, than when recently affected by the usurpation of powers, or by the held, he trusted it might never return. exercise of doubtful ones, the idea of a liberal ginia was now, where she had always beenor enlarged construction should be excluded. against power, contending on the side of the Chief Justice MARSHALL, in the case of Gib- weak, not the strong; and, if she chose to give bons vs. Ogden, lays down the rule, as general- up her principles-to lie down and worship the ly conceded, that "the sovereignty of Con- Golden Calf-to become a suppliant at the gress, though limited to specified objects, is throne of Majesty, as many of the States now plenary as to those objects," with no other lim-were-like the sons of Samuel, who departed itations than those prescribed in the constitution. It is then an instrument, not merely of enumerated, but of limited powers; by which mean, powers expressly confined to specified objects, sometimes general in their character, at others restrained in the manner of their exercise. This view is more strongly confirmed by the Federalist, which admits, in unqualified terms, "that the States will retain all pre-existing anthorities, which may not be exclusively delegated to the Federal head." I Vir in from the ways of their father, to go in pursuit Sir, it is contended that the power to protect domestic manufactures is derived from two clauses in the constitution-"to regulate commerce, and to raise revenue; neither of which, in my humble judgment, confers it: al H. OF R.] Tariff Bill. [APRIL, 1828. though one, if clearly shown, would have been | that supposed impossibility of all writers, from sufficient. It is, however, no new opinion, and stands supported by the authority of the present Secretary of State. In alluding to the course which Virginia had pursued in relation to this subject, he took occasion, while on an excursion to the western country during the last summer, to express himself in the following style of derision. Speaking of the opponents of the tariff, he says: 66 selves of the irritations and divisions incident to a late contested election, and enlisting under the banners of a distinguished name, they have taken fresh courage, and assail the further progress of our manufactures with renovated vigor. Prior to that event, they had contented themselves with controverting the policy of encouragement; and no statesman in Congress had been seen bold enough seriously to question the right of Congress to afford it. But now the Legislature of a distinguished State, after long deliberation and mature consideration, has solemnly resolved that Congress does not possess the power to counteract foreign legislation by laws of self-preservation. It is delegated by more than one clause in the constitution. Under the authority to regulate | commerce with foreign nations, we have seen the power exercised to suspend, for long and indefinite periods, commercial intercourse with all nations, and more especially with Great Britain and France. Under another clause, also full and explicit, the power is granted to lay imposts, without limitation as to amount, and has been exercised far beyond the wishes of the friends of the American system to apply it." Aristotle to the present day-an imperium in imperio. Nothing like it ever did exist, or possibly ever will, under similar circumstances. It is a constitution consisting of confederated bodies, for certain exterior purposes, and, also, for some interior purposes, but leaving to the State authorities, among a great many powers, the very one which we now propose to exerAvailing them-cise: for, if we were now passing a revenue bill, a bill the object of which were to raise revenue, however much I should deny the policy, and however I could demonstrate the futility of the plan, I still should deem it to be a constitutional bill; a bill passed to carry, bona fide, into effect, a provision of the constitution, but a bill passed with short-sighted views. But this is no such bill. It is a bill, under pretence of regulating commerce, to take money from the pockets of a very large, and, I thank God, contiguous territory, and to put it into other pockets." In reply to Mr. McLANE, he remarked: "It costs me nothing, sir, to say that I very much regret that the zeal which I have not only felt, but cherished, on the subject of laying taxes in a manner which, in my judgment, is inconsistent, not merely with the spirit, but the very letter of the constitution, should have given to my remarks, on this subject, a pungency, which has rendered them disagreeable, and even offensive, to the gentleman from Delaware." Now, sir, it must have been known to that gentleman, who could not have forgotten all that transpired during the session of Congress in 1824, that two of my colleagues, (Mr. ŘANDOLPH and P. P. BARBOUR,) in the debate on the tariff of that year, expressly contended that it contravened the spirit, if not the letter of the constitution, and was therefore equally a violation of it. Mr. R. said: "I do not stop here, sir, to argue about the constitutionality of this bill; I consider the constitution a dead letter; I consider it to consist, at this time, of the power of the General Government, and the power of the States: that is the constitution. If, under a power to regulate trade, you prevent exportation; if, with the most approved spring-lancets, you draw the last drop of blood from our veins; if, secundem artem, you draw the last shilling from our pockets, what are the checks of the constitution to us? A fig for the constitution!" In another part of his speech, which was in answer to Mr. Clay, he farther observed: "But we are told this is a curious constitution of ours: it is made for foreigners, and not for ourselves; for the protection of foreign, and not of American industry. Sir, this is a curious constitution of ours, (said Mr. R.,) and if I were disposed to deny it, I could not succeed. It is an anomaly in itself. It is My colleague (Mr. P. P. BARBOUR) went more at large into this view of the subject, and showed his decided objection to the bill, upon constitutional grounds. They are presented in a manner too forcible to have escaped observation, and I take leave to refer to them in his own words: "As far, sir, as this bill is designed to give encouragement to manufactures, or even, if you please, to national industry, in general, I would vote against it, for another strong, and, in my estimation, decisive reason. And here, Mr. Chairman, I am about to derive an argument from the constitution. I trust I shall not press upon the confines of political metaphysics. The constitution gives to Congress the power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises. This bill proposes to lay and collect duties, and, therefore, I shall not undertake to say that it is a violation of the letter of the constitution. But this I do mean to contend, and I think I shall be able to prove, with as nigh an approximation to demonstration as moral evidence is capable of, that this bill does violate the spirit of the constitution. The power to impose taxes, duties, &c., it will not be denied by any gentleman, was given to us for the purpose of raising revenue-which revenue is to be applied to the ends pointed out in the constitution. Now, sir, as far as, by this bill, it is proposed to encourage manufactures, or any other department of industry, we shall be using this power, not only not for the purpose for which it was given, but for another, |