destined to a brief existence. It is the order of Providence, that powers gradually developed, shall alone attain permanency and perfection. Thus must it be with our national institutions, and national character itself."

of the ocean, large portions of it could never profitably reach the foreign market. But let us quit this field of theory, clear as it is, and look at the practical operation of the system of protection, beginning with the most valuable staple of our agricul ture.

But if all this reasoning were totally fallacious-if the price of manufactured articles were really higher, under the American system, than without it, I should still argue that high or low prices were

I feel most sensibly, Mr. President, how much I have trespassed upon the Senate. My apology is a deep and deliberate conviction, that the great cause under debate involves the prosperity and the destiny of the Union. But the best requital I can make, for the friendly indulgence which themselves relative-relative to the ability has been extended to me by the Senate, and for which I shall ever retain sentiments of lasting gratitude, is to proceed with as little delay as practicable, to the conclusion of a discourse which has not been more tedious to the Senate than exhausting to me. I have now to consider the remaining of the two propositions which I have already announced. That is:

to pay them. It is in vain to tempt, to tantalize us with the lower prices of European fabrics than our own, if we have nothing wherewith to purchase them. If, by the home exchanges, we can be supplied with necessary, even if they are dearer and worse, articles of American production than the foreign, it is better than not to be supplied at all. And how would the large portion of our country Secondly. That under the operation of which I have described be supplied, but the American System, the products of our for the home exchanges? A poor people, agriculture command a higher price than destitute of wealth or of exchangeable they would do without it, by the creation commodities, has nothing to purchase forof a home market; and by the augmenta- eign fabrics. To them they are equally tion of wealth produced by manufacturing beyond their reach, whether their cost be industry, which enlarges our powers of a dollar or a guinea. It is in this view of consumption both of domestic and foreign the matter that Great Britain, by her vast articles. The importance of the home wealth-her excited and protected industry market is among the established maxims-is enabled to bear a burden of taxation which are universally recognized by all which, when compared to that of other writers and all men. However some may nations, appears enormous; but which, differ as to the relative advantages of the when her immense riches are compared to foreign and the home market, none deny theirs, is light and trivial. The gentleto the latter great value and high conside- man from South Carolina has drawn a ration. It is nearer to us; beyond the lively and flattering picture of our coasts, control of foreign legislation; and undis- bays, rivers, and harbors; and he argues turbed by those vicissitudes to which all that these proclaimed the design of Proviinternational intercourse is more or less dence, that we should be a commercial exposed. The most stupid are sensible of people. I agree with him. We differ the benefit of a residence in the vicinity of only as to the means. He would cherish a large manufactory, or of a market town, the foreign, and neglect the internal trade. of a good road, or of a navigable stream, I would foster both. What is navigation which connects their farms with some without ships, or ships without cargoes? great capital. If the pursuits of all men By penetrating the bosoms of our mounwere perfectly the same, although they tains, and extracting from them their prewould be in possession of the greatest cious treasures; by cultivating the earth, abundance of the particular produce of and securing a home market for its rich their industry, they might, at the same and abundant products; by employing the time, be in extreme want of other neces-water power with which we are blessed; sary articles of human subsistence. The by stimulating and protecting our native uniformity of the general occupation would industry, in all its forms; we shall but preclude all exchanges, all commerce It nourish and promote the prosperity of is only in the diversity of the vocations of commerce, foreign and domestic. the members of a community that the I have hitherto considered the question means can be found for those salutary ex- in reference only to a state of peace; but changes which conduce to the general a season of war ought not to be entirely prosperity. And the greater that diversity, overlooked. We have enjoyed near twenthe more extensive and the more animat- ty years of peace; but who can tell when ing is the circle of exchange. Even if the storm of war shall again break forth? foreign markets were freely and widely Have we forgotten so soon, the privations open to the reception of our agricultural to which, not merely our brave soldiers produce, from its bulky nature, and the and our gallant tars were subjected, bu distance of the interior, and the dangers the whole community, during the last

war, for the want of absolute necessaries ? | inhabitants of all north and east of James To what an enormous price they rose! river, and all west of the mountains, inAnd how inadequate the supply was, at cluding Louisiana, are deeply interested in any price! The statesman who justly the preservation of that system, would they elevates his views, will look behind, as be reconciled to its overthrow? Can it be well as forward, and at the existing state expected that two-thirds, if not threeof things; and he will graduate the policy fourths, of the people of the United States, which he recommends, to all the probable would consent to the destruction of a exigencies which may arise in the Repub- policy, believed to be indispensably nelic. Taking this comprehensive range, it cessary to their prosperity? When, too, would be easy to show that the higher the sacrifice is made at the instance of a prices of peace, if prices were higher in single interest, which they verily believe peace, were more than compensated by the will not be promoted by it? In estimalower prices of war, during which supplies ting the degree of peril which may be inof all essential articles are indispensable to cident to two opposite courses of human its vigorous, effectual and glorious prose- policy, the statesman would be shortcution. I conclude this part of the argu-sighted who should content himself with ment with the hope that my humble exer- viewing only the evils, real or imaginary, tions have not been altogether unsuccessful in showing—

1. That the policy which we have been considering ought to continue to be regarded as the genuine American System.

2. That the Free Trade System, which is proposed as its substitute, ought really to be considered as the British Colonial System.

which belong to that course which is in practical operation. He should lift himself up to the contemplation of those greater and more certain dangers which might inevitably attend the adoption of the alternative course. What would be the condition of this Union, if Pennsylvania and New York, those mammoth members of our confederacy, were firmly persuaded that their industry was paralyzed, and their prosperity blighted, by the enforcement of the British colonial system, under the delusive name of free trade? They 4. That the price of the great staple of are now tranquil and happy, and concotton, and of all our chief productions of tented, conscious of their welfare, and feelagriculture, has been sustained and up- ing a salutary and rapid circulation of the held, and a decline averted by the Protec-products of home manufactures and home tive System.

3. That the American System is beneficial to all parts of the Union, and absolutely necessary to much the larger portion.

5. That if the foreign demand for cotton has been at all diminished by the operation of that system, the diminution has been more than compensated in the additional demand created at home.

6. That the constant tendency of the system, by creating competition among ourselves, and between American and European industry, reciprocally acting upon each other, is to reduce prices of manufactured objects.

7. That in point of fact, objects within the scope of the policy of protection have greatly fallen in price.

industry throughout all their great arteries. But let that be checked, let them feel that a foreign system is to predominate, and the sources of their subsistence and comfort dried up; let New England and the west, and the middle States, all feel that they too are the victims of a mistaken policy, and let these vast portions of our country despair of any favorable change, and then indeed might we tremble for the continuance and safety of this Union!

And now, sir, I would address a few words to the friends of the American System in the Senate. The revenue mustought to be reduced. The country will 8. That if, in a season of peace, these not, after, by the payment of the public benefits are experienced, in a season of debt, ten or twelve millions of dollars bewar, when the foreign supply might be come unnecessary, bear such an annual surcut off, they would be much more exten-plus. Its distribution would form a subsively felt. ject of perpetual contention. Some of the 9. And finally, that the substitution of opponents of the system understand the the British Colonial System for the Ameri- stratagem by which to attack it, and are can System, without benefiting any sec-shaping their course accordingly. It is to tion of the Union, by subjecting us to a foreign legislation, regulated by foreign interests, would lead to the prostration of our manufactures, general impoverishment, and ultimate ruin.

The danger to our Union does not lie on the side of persistence in the American System, but on that of its abandonment. If, as I have supposed and believe, the

crush the system by the accumulation of revenue, and by the effort to persuade the people that they are unnecessarily taxed, while those would really tax them who would break up the native sources of supply, and render them dependent upon the foreign. But the revenue ought to be reduced, so as to accommodate it to the fact of the payment of the public debt. And

the alternative is or may be, to preserve attribute to us a desire to elevate the the protecting system, and repeal the du- wealthy manufacturer, at the expense of ties on the unprotected articles, or to pre- the laboring man and the mechanic. serve the duties on unprotected articles, and From my soul, I respect the laboring man. endanger if not destroy the system. Let Labor is the foundation of the wealth of us then adopt the measure before us, which every country; and the free laborers of the will benefit all classes; the farmer, the pro- North deserve respect, both for their probity fessional man, the merchant, the manufac- and their intelligence. Heaven forbid that turer, the mechanic; and the cotton plant- I should do them wrong! Of all the er more than all. A few months ago there countries on the earth, we ought to have was no diversity of opinion as to the ex- the most consideration for the laboring pediency of this measure. All, then, man. From the very nature of our instiseemed to unite in the selection of these tutions, the wheel of fortune is constantly objects for a repeal of duties which were revolving, and producing such mutations not produced within the country. Such a in property, that the wealthy man of torepeal did not touch our domestic indus- day may become the poor laborer of totry, violated no principle, offended no morrow. Truly, wealth often takes to itself prejudice. wings and flies away. A large fortune Can we not all, whatever may be our rarely lasts beyond the third generation, favorite theories, cordially unite on this even if it endure so long. We must all neutral ground? When that is occupied, know instances of individuals obliged to let us look beyond it, and see if anything labor for their daily bread, whose grandcan be done in the field of protection, to fathers were men of fortune. The regular modify, or improve it, or to satisfy those process of society would almost seem to who are opposed to the system. Our consist of the efforts of one class to dissisouthern brethren believe that it is injuri- pate the fortunes which they have inheritous to them, and ask its repeal. We be-ed, whilst another class, by their industry lieve that its abandonment will be preju- and economy, are regularly rising to dicial to them, and ruinous to every other wealth. We have all, therefore, a common section of the Union. However strong interest, as it is our common duty, to protheir convictions may be, they are not tect the rights of the laboring man: and if stronger than ours. Between the points of I believed for a moment that this bill the preservation of the system and its ab- would prove injurious to him, it should solute repeal, there is no principle of meet my unqualified opposition. union. If it can be shown to operate immoderately on any quarter-if the measure of protection to any article can be demonstrated to be undue and inordinate, it would be the duty of Congress to interpose and apply a remedy. And none will co-operate more heartily than I shall in the performance of that duty. It is quite probable that beneficial modifications of the system may be made without impairing its efficacy. But to make it fulfill the purposes of its institution, the measure of protection ought to be adequate. If it be not, all interests will be injuriously affected. The manufacturer, crippled in his exertions, will produce less perfect and dearer fabrics, and the consumer will feel the consequence. This is the spirit, and these are the principles only, on which, it seems to me, that a settlement of the great question can be made, satisfactorily to all parts of our Union.

Although this bill will not have as great an influence as I could desire, yet, as far as it goes, it will benefit the laboring man as much, and probably more than any other class of society. What is it he ought most to desire? Constant employment, regular wages, and uniform reasonable prices for the necessaries and comforts of life which he requires. Now, sir, what has been his condition under our system of expansions and contractions? He has suffered more by them than any other class of society. The rate of his wages is fixed and known; and they are the last to rise with the increasing expansion and the first to fall when the corresponding revulsion occurs. He still continues to receive his dollar per day, whilst the price of every article which he consumes is rapidly rising. He is at length made to feel that, although he nominally earns as much, or even more than he did formerly, yet, from the increased price of all the necessaries of life, he cannot support his family. Hence the strikes for higher wages, and the uneasy and excited feelings which have at different periods, existed among the laboring classes. But the expansion at length reaches the exploding point, and what does the laboring man now suffer? He is for a season thrown out of employment altogether. Our manufactures are suspended; our public works are stopped; our private enterprises

of different kinds are abandoned; and, whilst others are able to weather the storm, he can scarcely procure the means of bare subsistence.

have another most happy effect upon the laboring man. He will receive his wages in gold and silver; and this will induce him to lay up, for future use, such a por"Again, sir; who, do you suppose, held tion of them as he can spare, after satisfythe greater part of the worthless paper of ing his immediate wants. This he will the one hundred and sixty-five broken not do at present, because he knows not banks to which I have referred? Certainly whether the trash which he is now comit was not the keen and wary speculator, pelled to receive as money, will continue who snuffs danger from afar. If you were to be of any value a week or a month to make the search, you would find more hereafter. A knowledge of this fact tends broken bank notes in the cottages of the to banish economy from his dwelling, and laboring poor than anywhere else. And induces him to expend all his wages as these miserable shinplasters, where are rapidly as possible, lest they may become they? After the revulsion of 1837, labor- worthless on his hands. ers were glad to obtain employment on any terms; and they often received it upon the express condition that they should accept this worthless trash in payment. Sir, an entire suppression of all bank notes of a lower denomination than the value of one week's wages of the laboring man is absolutely necessary for his protection. He ought always to receive his wages in gold and silver. Of all men on the earth, the laborer is most interested in having a sound and stable currency.

"All other circumstances being equal, I agree with the Senator from Kentucky that that country is most prosperous where labor commands the highest wages. I do not, however, mean by the terms 'highest wages,' the greatest nominal amount. During the revolutionary war, one day's work commanded a hundred dollars of continental paper; but this would have scarcely purchased a breakfast. The more proper expression would be, to say that that country is most prosperous where labor commands the greatest reward; where one day's labor will procure not the greatest nominal amount of a depreciated currency, but most of the necessaries and comforts of life. If, therefore, you should, in some degree, reduce the nominal price paid for labor, by reducing the amount of your bank issues within reasonable and safe limits, and establishing a metallic basis for your paper circulation, would this injure the laborer? Certainly not; because the price of all the necessaries and comforts of life are reduced in the same proportion, and he will be able to purchase more of them for one dollar in a sound state of the currency, than he could have done, in the days of extravagant expansion, for a dollar and a quarter. So far from injuring, it will greatly benefit the laboring man. It will insure to him constant employment and regular prices, paid in a sound currency, which, of all things, he ought most to desire; and it will save him from being involved in ruin by a recurrence of those periodical expansions and contractions of the currency, which have hitherto convulsed the country.

"This sound state of the currency will

"Sir, the laboring classes understand this subject perfectly. It is the hardhanded and firm-fisted men of the country on whom we must rely in the day of danger, who are the most friendly to the passage of this bill. It is they who are the most ardently in favor of infusing into the currency of the country a very large amount of the precious metals."

Lewis Cass on the Missouri Compromise.

From a speech made on the 20th of February, 1854. Mr. President: I have not withheld the expression of my regret elsewhere, nor shall I withhold it here, that this question of repeal of the Missouri compromise, which opens all the disputed points connected with the subject of Congressional action upon slavery in the territories of the United States, has been brought before us. I do not think the practical advantages to result from the measure will outweigh the injury which the ill-feeling, fated to accompany the discussion of this subject through the country, is sure to produce. And I was confirmed in this impression from what was said by the Senator from Tennessee, (Mr. Jones,) by the Senator from Kentucky, (Mr. Dixon,) and from North Carolina, (Mr. Badger,) and also by the remarks which fell from the Senator from Virginia, (Mr. Hunter,) and in which I fully concur, that the South will never receive any benefit from this measure, so far as respects the extension of slavery; for, legislate as we may, no human power can establish it in the regions defined by these bills. And such were the sentiments of two eminent patriots, to whose exertions we are greatly indebted for the satisfactory termination of the difficulties of 1850, and who since passed from their labors, and, I trust, to their reward. Thus believing, I should have been better content had the whole subject been left as it was by the bill when first introduced by the Senator from Illinois, without any provision regarding the Missouri compromise. I am aware that it was reported that I intended to pro