all know the history of the tariffs of 1842 and 1846; the history of the system of revenue upon imports in this country. We know that it requires the co-operation, the concerted action of all the industrial classes, and of capitalists of every description, to adjust and render equal, and to procure the establishment of a system of imposts, with any view whatever, direct or indirect, to the protection and encouragement of American industry. We who were for protecting iron, have stood by the Vermont farmer in protecting wool, and the Massachusetts manufacturer in protecting the manufacture of cotton and wool. We have stood by the cotton-planter in the manufacture of cotton, and we have stood by the sugar-producer in protecting him against the competition of other sugar-growing regions.

Mr. President, the whole manufacturing interest of the country is in danger; and it is in danger because we, who are its friends, are demoralized and divided. Your railroad-men have come and whispered in the ear of the cotton-producer, and cotton and woollen manufacturer, "We will just make a small sacrifice of the iron in the mines in Pennsylvania and New York, and it will not affect you in the least; but on the other hand, you will be all the better, and all the stronger. Duties on other imports must continue." Mr. President, if this is what they do in "the green tree," under the auspices of the specious doctrines of freetrade just coming in with the next administration, I will tell you what they will do in "the dry." In the very next session of Congress they will come with arguments equally insidious, and equally forcible, and then the manufacturers of Lowell may look to the safety of their spindles, and the sugar and the cotton growers of the south may look to the safety of their sugar and their cotton fields; and the wheat-grower of Maryland, and the corn-grower of Ohio and Illinois, may look to the safety of their respective interests. We have no monopoly of iron; therefore, gentlemen may think we can import iron. Why, sir, we have no monopoly of gold; and it is yet to be seen whether gold will not be produced more abundantly and more cheaply in Australia than in California; and then, as labor is cheaper there, and society is organized there upon principles of greater economy, and there is access from Australia more directly to India and China, than there is from the shores of California, I ask, who is there here who would be willing to let the gold remain undisturbed in

California, because gold will be purchased cheaper in Australia? The principle is precisely the same. The sacrifice of golden

revenue would be even less ruinous than that of our wealth in iron.

Mr. President, it is hard, at least for the capitalist and the laborer, to pay for the support of this great and expensive government a government which extends itself broader and broader, and at an ever-increasing expense, across this continent, and grasps, if not domain, influence and power throughout both hemispheres. It is only just to them that they should be consulted, and have notice that you are going to adopt any measures which may seriously affect their interests; and what do we say here? Has any notice been given? Has any alarm been sounded from this capitol during the three months we have been in session here, to the miner in Pennsylvania and Maryland, and in New Jersey and Tennessee, giving him notice that the government was going, by one speedy, direct act, to suppress the branch of industry in which he is engaged? So, I say that the country is taken by surprise by this measure; all the persons engaged in this branch of industry are to be taken by surprise.

But again, do we suppose that we can disturb so great an interest as this, and leave other interests unaffected? I am sure that I am as liberal to the new states as any one, but I warn gentlemen of the old states that this is the beginning of a system which is, if pursued, to result relatively in depopulating the old states, in depriving them of their capital and industry, and building up the intermediate and western communities at their expense. It will discharge I do not know how many thousands of the manufacturers of Pennsylvania and Maryland, and what will they do? Where will they go? Will they stay in Pennsylvania to till the rugged surface of the mountain, when they are excluded from the mines which lie beneath that surface? No, sir. They must go west to make railroads, and to dig for gold in California; and when they have gone, their places will not be supplied. The foreign laborer comes here, and he only touches at the gate, and then marches on to make railroads, and to dig gold on the shore of the Pacific; and when the foreign and domestic laborer, and their capital, have been put in motion, making railroads, and digging gold in California, the farmers follow them, and the prices of agricultural productions diminish. You build

up the west to an unnatural growth. Every vote which I have given here upon western interests, has shown that it has been given upon the principle of encouraging the speediest possible settlement of the great western domain, at every hazard and cost, common to the whole country, not prejudicial to any one part. But that growth, desirable as it is, must be one that is regulated in harmony with the interests of the Atlantic states; and it is certain, that just as sure as you stimulate it to an excessive and more rapid growth, by affecting the vigor of the old states, just so sure that growth becomes sickly, and will result in the decline, not only of the east, but also of the west, and throughout the nation. The Atlantic states are the base upon which we must erect this great superstructure of empire in the west. We must make the base firm, solid, broad, perpetual, if we would have a structure which shall be endurable.

I ask, now, what is the apology for this extraordinary measure? It is that it will encourage the making of railroads. Sir, I have spent my life, what there has been of it spent in public action, in encouraging the making of canals and railroads. I am a friend to canals and railroads; but I show my fidelity to them in adhering to them when they are unpopular and need help, and support, and patronage, and not when they have patronage so great as to be alarming for its effect, not only upon enterprises of that class, but upon the country itself. Do you know how many railroads you are making? You are making twelve thousand miles of railroads in the United States already. You are making them so fast, that you do not rely upon your own resources for making them at all, but you are selling the credit of individuals, towns, counties, and states, throughout the Union, in untold amounts, and constituting an aggregate debt greater than any amount which any man ever presumed it would be safe for this country to owe to foreign countries. Your railroads are not now made chiefly by subscriptions to their stock. There are small substratum subscriptions, then mortgages on the road, then second mortgages, then third mortgages, until the credit of whole communities is pledged, and pledged to English capitalists.

We are pledged in London for the cost of nearly all our railroads. Our capital is being diverted, so that there is no place in the United States where there is not a railroad being made.

There are already half a dozen railroads from the point of Lake

Erie to the city of New York, all converging there, because railroads have become popular and profitable. So it is throughout New England and throughout the west. Now it is not possible that the railroad enterprise in this country can absorb capital in an exclusive degree without producing an injury, not only to that enterprise and those subservient to it, but also injurious to other enterprises which increase the vigor and promote the progress of the country. Does any man doubt it? What did we do ten years ago, when we embarked in building canals and railroads so deeply, and pledged our credit so far, that the construction of every canal and railroad had to be suspended? What happened in England on a like occasion, but that a great railroadking projected railroads all over the island, and so much capital was invested in them, that all at once the bubble was pricked, and the whole enterprise collapsed, bringing on general stagnation and bankruptcy? This is the tendency of things here now. I am not by habit a croaker; but I can see that, unless the national government shall act so as to restrain rather than encourage and stimulate this excessive spirit of speculation in railroad investments, just such a collapse will happen here. Railroads do not need protection; iron-manufacturers do need it. Through the town in which I live, and the towns adjacent, the people, carried away by railroad enthusiasm, have applied to the legislature for permission to mortgage their whole property for the making of railroads; and yet there is not one railroad which they are thus making, in which foreign capitalists will invest a dollar, except they have collateral, personal, or public security. But you will tell me that Congress has not encouraged railroads. Congress has already encouraged railroads by donations of duties on foreign railroad iron exceeding the sum of three millions of dollars. Congress has already, with almost a unanimous vote in this chamber, given to every western state land enough from the public domain as much as they said was necessary—to construct a web of railroads now in progress and advancing to its completion, covering over the whole of the territories of the United States from the shores of the Atlantic to the Mississippi river, and even crossing that broad line, and advancing precisely upon the same system and same policy toward the base of the Rocky mountains. We have done enough, unless we have some other resources some other revenues which we can apply to this great

and beneficent enterprise of the age; and we have no other, if the only other one is the sacrifice of the mining interest of iron in the old Atlantic states. Sir, I have voted land by the square league across the continent, and twenty millions of dollars out of the public treasury for railroads. I will not vote one dollar out of the iron-mines of my country, at the cost of the owner, and of the miner who is engaged in drawing its wealth to the surface.

TEXAS AND HER CREDITORS.

MARCH 2, 1853.

MR. PRESIDENT: At the epoch of annexation, 1845, the republic of Texas possessed some property in public defences, a large domain of unappropriated land, and revenues derived from customs. It owed a considerable debt which had been incurred in establishing independence and organizing civil government. That debt was divided into two classes: first, what has been called a domestic debt, not distinctly charged on the revenues from customs; second, what was secured to creditors by a pledge of those

revenues.

Texas came into the Union as a state, under stipulations concerning her property and debts, namely: She ceded to the United States all public edifices, fortifications, and other property, pertaining to the public defence. She retained all her funds, and all of her public domain, but under a covenant that it should be applied to the payment of her debts, with the absolute right to any surplus; and it was agreed that in no event should those debts become a charge on the government of the United States. Thus did the United States, in the very act of union with Texas, bind her to pay her creditors, at least as far as her domain would furnish resources for that purpose.

In 1850, five years after the annexation of Texas to the United States, all those debts remained unpaid; and, adding interest thereto, they stood, on the 1st of July in that year, as follows: