protected articles; but it must be very gradual, so that no violence shall be done to business; for all reduction is necessarily full of hazard. But I do object to a compromise which destines the East for the altar. No victim, in my judgment, is required, none is necessary; and yet you propose to bind us, hand and foot, to pour out our blood upon the altar, and sacrifice us as a burnt offering, to appease the unnatural and unfounded discontent of the South; a discontent, I fear, which has deeper root than the tariff, and will continue when that is forgotten.

The substitute bill passed in the House by a vote of 105 to 71, and in the Senate by 29 to 16. The debate in the Senate on the bill which Clay had previously offered, afterward known as the "Compromise Bill," called forth speeches in its favor from Senator Clay and John C. Calhoun [S. C.], and in opposition from John Forsyth [Ga.] and Daniel Webster [Mass.].

THE COMPROMISE TARIFF

SENATE, FEBRUARY 12, 1833

SENATOR CLAY.-I believe the American system to be in the greatest danger; and I believe it can be placed on a better and safer foundation at this session than at the next. Put it off until the next session, and the alternative may, and probably then would be, a speedy and ruinous reduction of the tariff, or a civil war with the entire South.

It is well known that the majority of the dominant party is adverse to the tariff. Judging from the present appearance, we shall, at the next session, be in the minority. How, then, I ask, is the system to be sustained against numbers, against the whole weight of the Administration, against the united South, and against the impending danger of civil war?

I have been represented as the father of this system, and I am charged with an unnatural abandonment of my own offspring. I have never arrogated to myself any such intimate relation to it. I have, indeed, cherished it with parental fondness, and my affection is undiminished. But in what condition do I find this child? It is in the hands of the Philistines, who would strangle it. I fly to its rescue, to snatch it from their custody, and to place it on a bed of security and repose for nine years, where it may grow and strengthen, and become acceptable

to the whole people. I behold a torch about being applied to a favorite edifice, and I would save it, if possible, before it was wrapt in flames, or at least preserve the precious furniture which it contains.

Senator Clay advanced another reason for his bill: the desirability of separating the tariff from politics and elections. This wish, says Senator Benton, being afterward interpreted by events, was supposed to be the basis of the coalition with Mr. Calhoun, both of them having tried the virtue of the tariff question in elections, and found it unavailing either to friends or foes. Mr. Clay, its champion, could not become President upon its support. Mr. Calhoun, its antagonist, could not become President upon its opposition. To both it was equally desirable, as an unavailable element in elections, and as a stumbling-block to both in the future, that the tariff should be withdrawn for some years from the political arena; and Mr. Clay thus expressed himself in relation to this withdrawal:

I wish to see the tariff separated from the politics of the country, that business men may go to work in security, with some prospect of stability in our laws, and without everything being staked on the issue of elections, as it were on the hazards of the die.

Senator Forsyth replied to Mr. Clay.

The avowed object of the bill would meet with universal approbation. It was a project to harmonize the people, and it could have come from no better source than from the gentleman from Kentucky: for to no one were we more indebted than to him for the discord and discontent which agitate us.

The Senator from Kentucky says the tariff is in danger; aye, sir, it is at its last gasp. It has received the immedicable wound; no hellebore can cure it. The confession of the gentleman is of immense importance. Yes, sir, the whole feeling of the country is opposed to the high protective system. The wily serpent that crept into our Eden has been touched by the spear of Ithuriel. The Senator is anxious to prevent the ruin which a sudden abolition of the system will produce. No one desires to inflict ruin upon the manufacturers; but suppose the South

[Caricature of Clay and Frelinghuysen in Presidential Campaign of 1844] From the collection of the New York Historical Society

ern people, having the power to control the subject, should totally and suddenly abolish the system; what right would those have to complain who had combined to oppress the South? What has the tariff led us to already? From one end of the country to the other, it has produced evils which are worse than a thousand tariffs. The necessity of appealing now to fraternal feeling shows that that feeling is not sleeping, but nearly extinguished.

SENATOR CALHOUN said: Entirely approving of the object for which this bill was introduced, he should give his vote in favor of the motion for leave to introduce. He who loved the Union must desire to see the agitating question brought to a termination. Until it should be terminated, we could not expect the restoration of peace or harmony, or a sound condition of things, throughout the country. The general principles of this bill received his approbation. He believed that, if the present difficulties were to be adjusted, they must be adjusted on the principles embraced in the bill, of fixing ad valorem duties, except in the few cases in the bill to which specific duties were assigned. He said that it had been his fate to occupy a position as hostile as anyone could, in reference to the protecting policy; but, if it depended on his will, he would not give his vote for the prostration of the manufacturing interest. A very large capital had been invested in manufactures, which had been of great service to the country; and he would never give his vote suddenly to withdraw all those duties by which that capital was sustained in the channel into which it had been directed. There were some of the provisions which had his entire approbation, and there were some to which he objected. But he looked upon these minor points of difference as points in the settlement of which no difficulty would occur, when gentlemen meet together in that spirit of mutual compromise which, he doubted not, would be brought into their deliberations, without at all yielding the constitutional question as to the right of protection.

SENATOR WEBSTER.-It is impossible that this proposition of the honorable member from Kentucky should not excite in the country a very strong sensation. If I understand the plan, the result of it will be a well-understood surrender of the power of discrimination, or a stipulation not to use that power, in the laying duties on imports, after the eight or nine years have expired. The honorable member admits that, though there will be no positive surrender of the power, there will be a stipulation not to exercise it; a treaty of peace and amity, as he says,

which no American statesman can, hereafter, stand up to violate. For one, sir, I am not ready to enter into the treaty. I propose, so far as depends on me, to leave all our successors in Congress as free to act as we are ourselves.

The honorable member from Kentucky says the tariff is in imminent danger; that, if not destroyed this session, it cannot hope to survive the next. This may be so, sir. But, if it be so, it is because the American people will not sanction the tariff; and, if they will not, why, then, sir, it cannot be sustained at all. I am not quite so despairing as the honorable member seems to be. I know nothing which has happened, within the last six or eight months, changing so materially the prospects of the tariff. I do not despair of the success of an appeal to the American people, to take a just care of their own interest, and not to sacrifice those vast interests which have grown up under the laws of Congress.

Senator Webster then introduced the following resolutions, setting forth his tariff principles:

Resolved, That the annual revenues of the country ought not to be allowed to exceed a just estimate of the wants of the Government; and that, in making this reduction, just regard should be had to the various interests and opinions of different parts of the country, so as most effectually to preserve the integrity and harmony of the Union, and to provide for the common defence and promote the general welfare of the whole.

But, whereas it is certain that the diminution of the rates of duties on some articles would increase, instead of reducing, the aggregate amount of revenue on such articles; and whereas, in regard to such articles as it has been the policy of the country to protect, a slight reduction on one might produce essential injury, and even distress, to large classes of the community, while another might bear a larger reduction without any such consequences; and whereas, also, there are many articles, the duties on which might be reduced, or altogether abolished, without producing any other effect than the reduction of revenue: Therefore,

Resolved, That, in reducing the rates of duties imposed on imports, it is not wise or judicious to proceed by way of an equal reduction per centum on all articles; but that, as well the amount as the time of reduction ought to be fixed, in respect to the several articles, distinctly, having due regard, in each case, to the questions whether the proposed reduction will affect