ESS. Fortification of Key West and the Tortugas-Mr. Cabell, of Florida. with the known sentiwhen in this country ll-known fact, that Nanized the independence its resubjugation as a leon understandsAmeran in Europe. He is rtant matters of which ignorant. In 1846 he ework respecting the at Nicaragua, as valuubject. It is hardly to or desires to reannex o acquire a foothold in Mexico, and elsewhere th America, is equally s of France loves not =, intoxicated by the he Empire, anxiously ons by him to effect apoleon the First. It curity that he should ust divert and employ he has been elected to ntinental war-a war 0,-or a war distant e will have the symhe Empire. He canIf he preserves peace r in the western hem ve that he designs an nd that there is danIsland. In my judgThe English papers, papers, nevertheless ed that whenever the uble likely to arise at Is, Irish patriots, op e like, they generally ar as "French invaIs to the loyalty of all her for the "defense The appeal rarely estic and internal dis3ed feelings of patrihe English people. ntention of invading unavoidably become or he will engage in rs who hate and fear bine against her, or, e maintained by Mr. da, in 1811, repeated reiterated since, he ch monarchical colprepared for resistwill be prepared, in im, to intervene to United States, even any other new tere sentiment in this on will necessarily peaking thus. One naparte family was e, and an intimate lican, a large slaveen. I have heard man of his relative, entiments, feelings, tell you, sir, Napoid, and would not if the year 1853. We ple to become emalt will be accelera's and incitement of i hostile to liberal TAYLOR AND JEF ve said enough to mated cost of construction and repairs $1,200,000; expended $395,000; amount necessary to compicte 605,000; cannoa 185; cost of armament $160,725. Fort Jefferson, Garden Key, Tortugas: Peace garrison, one company; war fifteen hundred men; cominenced in 1846; estimated cost, &c., $1,200,000; expended $210,133; necessary to complete $989,862; cannon 298; cost of armament $273,594. If it is the intention of our Government to complete these fortifications at any time; if it is not intended to abandon them, though partly finished, it seems to me there is an obvious propriety in the proposition I now submit, to make at once, the appropriation necessary to complete them as soon as practicable. As the appropriations are now made, it will require from fifteen to twenty years to complete the works at Tortugas! If appropriations be made in the manner recommended, they may be completed forthwith. To show the importance of completing works which have been commenced or determined upon, I ask special attention to the celebrated report of General Cass, then Secretary of War, of April 8, 1836, one of the ablest, and perhaps the best report ever made on the subject of fortifications. On pages 22 and 23, (Ex. Doc., vol. 6, No. 243, 1st sess. 24th Cong.,) he says: "I would suggest that the works which are determined on be pushed with all reasonable vigor, that our whole coast may be placed beyond the reach of injury or insult, as soon as a just regard to circumstances will permit. No objections can arise to this procedure on the ground of expense, because whatever system may be approved by the Legislature, nothing will be gained by delaying its completion beyond the time necessary to the proper execution of the work. In fact the cost will be greater the longer we are employed in it, not only for obvious reasons arising out of general superintendence and other contingencies, but because accidents are liable to happen to unfinished works, and the business upon them is deranged during the winter, when they must be properly secured; and the season for resum ing labor always finds some preparations necessary, which would not have been required had no interruption happened." "But the political considerations which urge forward this great object are entitled to much more weight. When once completed, we should feel secure. There is probably not a man in the country who did not look with some solicitude during the past season at our comparatively defenseless condition, when the issue of our discussions with France was uncertain; and who did not regret that our preparations, during the long interval of peace we had enjoyed, had not kept pace with our growth and importance. We have now this lesson to add to our other experience. Adequate security is not only due from the Government to the country, and the conviction of it is not only satisfactory, but the knowlege of its existence cannot fail to produce an influence upon other nations, as well in the advent of war itself as in the mode of conducting it. If we are prepared to attack and resist, the chances of being compelled to embark in hostilities will be diminished much in proportion to our preparation. An unprotected commerce, a defenseless coast, and a military marine wholly inadequate to the wants of our service, would indeed hold out strong inducements to other nations to convert trifling pretexts into serious causes of quarrel." "I think that when the plan of a work has been ap proved by Congress, and its construction authorized, the whole appropriation should be made at once, to be drawn from the Treasury in annual installments to be fixed by the law. This mode of appropriation would remedy much of the inconvenience which has been felt for years in this branch of the public service. The uncertainty respecting the appropriations annually deranges the business, and the delay which biennially takes place in the passage of the necessary law reduces the alternate season of operations to a comparatively short period. An exact inquiry into the effect which the present system of making the appropriations has had upon the expense of the works would probably exhibit an amount far greater than is generally anticipated." The suspension of labor on works further north during the winter, mentioned by General Cass, is not the case as to these works. This should be considered in providing the means for their completion. That adequate means ought to be afforded to finish and arm these fortifications as soon as possible, so as to be ready forthwith for any emergency that may come upon us, is not only dictated by true economy, but in these instances the arguments urged by that distinguished statesman, in the first paragraphs above quoted, apply with peculiar force. Before those works are probably completed in the ordinary progress in times of peace, allowed by annual or semi-annual appropriations of limited sums, they may be needed for defense or attack. More than five years have elapsed since they were begun, and not a third of the amount officially estimated as necessary for their completion, has as yet been appropriated. If a necessity should arise within the next five years for Ho. OF REPS. sary materials than at present, and the expense would probably be greatly increased. If the recollection of the "solicitude " felt by so distinguished a statesman as General Cass, one of the most watchful guardians of his country's honor and interests, pending" our discussions with France," in 1835, should have caused him so strongly to urge the adoption of the measure I now recommend, with how much greater force do similar" political considerations" now appeal to us! They demand the serious attention of every statesman. Even delay in their consideration may be greatly injurious. No time can be more propitious for the execution of this proposition than the present. Our Treasury is overflowing. Our surplus revenue has become a subject of complaint. It is a positive grievance, and there is difficulty, real difficulty, in the way of the proper disposition of this excess of revenue over the present wants of Government. The public debt is not yet due, and the Government bonds cannot be bought except at a premium so high as to make their purchase at this time impolitic. This premium would necessarily be increased, so soon as it became known that the Government was in the market, a bidder for its own bonds. Why, then, may we not apply a portion of the fund lying idle in the hands of subtreasurers to this purpose? It cannot be more usefully employed, and will be but an anticipation of appropriations which must hereafter be made, when, perhaps, the expenditure of the money will be less convenient to us than now. The completion of these works is also a judicious measure, because it will destroy one argument strenuously urged by some in favor of the immediate annexation of Cuba, founded on the assertion that the Moro Castle now commands our Gulf commerce; and therefore that it is necessary we should possess it. As I have before shown, the fact assumed is not true. The Moro Castle, or any other point in Cuba, does not command the Gulf trade even now, if a respectable naval force is placed to protect it at Key West and Tortugas. On the contrary, Forts Jefferson and Taylor will, when fortified, with a small naval force, not only command that trade, but the Havana and Matanzas, and the entire northern and eastern side of Cuba, more effectually than the Moro Castle now does, even if the latter has a superior naval force to aid it. They will command that Castle itself. Yet the logic just alluded to, so artfully addressed to our pockets as well as our patriotic pride, is so potential that it has misled many good citizens and otherwise prudent statesmen into a willingness to withhold their pointed condemnation of highly reprehensible conduct by others, professedly to attain an object falsely assumed to be indispensable for the protection of our interests. It was my purpose to speak of the much-talkedof acquisition by the United States of Cuba, as closely connected with this subject. It is by far the most important question pending in this country. I desire and am prepared to discuss it; and, representing a State perhaps more deeply interested in what may precede, and in what must follow the consummation of such a measure, I intend to avail myself of the first opportunity that presents itself to express my views frankly and fully. At present I will content myself with saying, first, that if the works commenced at Key West and Tortugas are finished, it is not requísite for the protection of our vast and constantlyaugmenting commerce passing through “the Straits of Florida" that we should possess Cuba, or the Havana, or the Moro Castle, or any point in Cuba. Secondly, that if any attempt is to be made to conquer Cuba by naval and military force, the fortifications at Key West and Tortugas should be finished and garrisoned before it is made; being important to ensure success in that undertaking, with the least hazard, difficulty, and expense. Thirdly, after such conquest of Cuba, these fortifications are essential to ensure the continued possession of Cuba, even during the war for its acquisition, and at all times to prevent its blockade by a naval enemy. Fourthly, without these fortifications, in a war that will ensue from an attempt by us to conquer Cuba, or from our Speeches a merce, and all Straits," will usly injured. re necessary, and peaceful on of the vast I have mense, and secuAnd, sixthly, Spain, these omuch as be1 navigation, the Havana, rd of Cuba." re, I claim for sions in this O oppose the who favor its I cession, and it per fas aut The Tariff-Mr. Woodward. refusing to consume the time of the House in de- Ho. OF REPS. rights on the one side, and class obligations on Well, sir, if revenue be the object of an impost system, and all of us agree that it is, at least one of the objects, and an indispensable one, it becomes us to know what constitutes the capacity, or rather the specific condition of the capacity of a country, to raise revenue by means of impost Now, I was in favor of the resolution first in-duties. That condition is, the absence of wealth in troduced by the gentleman from New York [Mr. particular forms. It is because you can buy abroad BROOKS] the day before yesterday. It was, in ex- what you do not make at home, or can buy cheaper press terms, a proposition to reduce the revenue abroad than you can at home, that foreign merby reducing the duties; and are not we on this chandise can bear an impost tax, and yet come side of the House in favor of reduction? True, into our markets. It is the difference in the cost the proposition was to raise a special committee of foreign and domestic production, in reference to for this purpose, instead of referring the matter to any given article, that enables you to impose a duty the regular committee; but besides that the regular on it, and without this difference you could impose committee would have had no time to prepare such no available duty whatever. an exposition as would be useful and satisfactory Such being the case, the question of the practito the public; where was the danger in the appoint- cability of a fixed system of imposts, a permanent ment of a special committee? Would not the rate of duties, which, in the language of the distin10 appropria- Speaker of the House have been bound-I do not guished gentleman from New York, [Mr. BROOKS,] eted, in which say bound simply as a party man and a free trade should be adapted to prices abroad, and be high rtant interests man-as a Democrat, representing the majority on enough when prices are low abroad, and low and the ship this floor, but bound as the Presiding Officer of the enough when prices are high abroad, will depend ercial men of House, by parliamentary rule, to constitute the upon the inquiry, whether the difference in the cost of the South, committee favorably to the proposition to reduce? of foreign and domestic production, in relation to e a direct per- Though he had been a Whig, and a high tariff the several articles of commerce, be fixed and perGeneral Gov-man, he would have been bound thus to compose manent; and this inquiry will be brought to a satation of these the committee; for reduction was the only sub-isfactory conclusion, by a single restropective people of the stantive proposition. Very true, likewise, the glance at the brief period of twenty or twenty-five Navy may be committee was empowered by the resolution to years last past. I now assert, that a large proporcomparatively send for persons and papers; but if, as has been tion of foreign merchandise, which, at the beginne may, in the suspected, the gentleman from New York [Mr. ning of that period, would have borne a duty of in two" by a BROOKS] intended-I do not, myself, impute any one hundred per cent. or upwards, is at the present n, confidently such intention to him, but others have, and his in- time incapable of any duty, whatever. And if to the patriot- dividual intentions appeared to be regarded by this be true, your capacity for levying imposts, he proposition them as constituting a part of his resolution-1 in relation to the descriptions of merchandise insay though he may have intended that the com- dicated, has diminished at the average rate of from bout the adop-mittee should send for persons and papers only on three to five, and in some instances, ten per cent. e. My object one side of the question, yet it must be remem- per annum. I beg gentlemen on both sides of the rticularly that bered that his individual purpose would not have House to think of this; and especially would I ubject. That controlled the committee. There was no obliga- solicit the serious meditations of that portion of when we come tion imposed on the committee to send for per- the Democratic party, if there be, as I trust there s, I will again sons or papers at all-it was only empowered to is no longer any such, who have aimed to stand In the mean do so; and even if it had been bound, it would upon the tariff of '46 as a finality, and who would and the facts, have had its own discretion as to the manner of fraudulently erase from the Democratic creed the have referred, discharging the obligation. Had I been made a article of free trade and substitute therefor the t will give the member of such a committee, I am sure I should tariff of '46. earnestly and have objected to receiving any ex parte budget withhe Committee out giving full time for the preparation of a budget and Means, to on the opposite side of the question. which its im DWARD, A, ATIVES, raise a Select der considera s come unex this morning, ring at length ts of the tariff arks chiefly to should be the country. te a reduction et aware that ssion, attempt on the subject. because still ngest session action, that I stion now. I be had at this order that the Dear upon the to the matter. ropositions of your longest en remember, [Mr. BAYLY] as saved from by its friends Now, the gentleman from New York seems to Mr. Chairman, I take the position that a perma- Why, sir, go back to the year 1816. At that time a huge proportion of foreign merchandise could have been imported under a duty of from one hundred to five hundred per cent. In 1816, you could have imported a hat, such as the one before me, under a duty of one hundred and fifty, probably two hundred percent. At the present time, a duty of fifteen or twenty would be prohibitory. Indeed, the existing duty is, I believe, prohibitory; for I have it from good authority that the article has quite ceased to be imported. And why is this? It is because the growth of the wealth of the country in home-made hats has reduced or destroyed the difference between the cost-value of the domestic and foreign article. It is the absence of wealth in particular forms, that enables any country to maintain an impost system. I could refer to a thousand important articles to prove the immense decline, and the large ratio of a still progressive decline, in your ability to levy high duties. I might refer to cotton cloths and cotton goods of every description; to leather, and every description of article made of leather, as very prominent articles for illustrating the proposition. In 1816, or even in 1828, most of the suggested articles would have borne a duty of one hundred per cent. Now many of them are incapable of any duty. Cottons, which twenty-five years ago would have borne that duty, are now exported into the very country against which they then had to be protected in the home market. Every single article of manufacture has become capable of less and less duty successively and continually. Not a year, not a month revolves, but some article of foreign commerce ceases to be dutiable. I mean to say that a permanent tariff is im- 32D CONG.....2D SESS. not difficult to foresee that the committee more as a n. than one of free trade; as Government is to look to its imp My present resource; and that d te resorted to only when, and in post system shall prove ina 1st that the country ought to de beer, in future, it is to look f ists, or in part to direct taxes Buthe specific object proposed from New York, is to get rid of the Treasury. There are h can be done: You m by reducing duties to mo by means of prohibitory duti doce the amount of foreign com the basis of duties, and in this wa e. In other words, you may d by relating or abolishing duties, orang foreign commerce. swer the purpose. And regarde commercial point of vie but late diference which metho the be imply to get rid of Bet the object be what it provide a future probable def as a commercial and a financial qu you adopt this method or that. a reductot of duties as the means de party is in much better case ed, and treated the opposite p prehension that the Go The argument or ground of e. There is a surplus in seren to fourteen millions of tion is whether you will co and if not, how you are to determined that the surplus red permanent, then you are t reduce the revenue by red by enacting prohibitory duties is question could not go b atform more favorable to free Be propitious than the presen deficient revenue, and the e tariff found it difficult to p unity that high duties made lo osition was a little comples here is a surplus, the gen pose to reduce the revenue by selves evolve and expound th on. It does not rest upon They themselves propo evenge now, and they must s raising duties will reduce th te with us in giving effect to t Bey toust maintain our former Having $14,000,000 surplus, t how to get rid of it; and, m eople of the United States w ion of duties as the mean are not printed Chronologically. SS. that in ten years from but an hour in the lifeI be exported from the e high tariff interest ion relative to it, ten y they will insist upon er that the raw matethe manufacturer; for they want to buy is y, and whatever they by a high duty. arguing the question as a question of revele; assuming that the impost system as its hat direct taxes are to nd in proportion as, e inadequate. And I to determine, at once, ook for its revenue to taxes. osed by the gentleman The Tariff-Mr. Woodward. revenue, when the proposition is submitted to HO. OF REPS. one hundred and twenty-five and one hundred and thirty. I state this to illustrate the fact that American skill is progressing. It is hard on the heels of European skill, and so long as the difference between the two diminishes, which difference is the only thing which makes revenue by impost pos But, sir, to return to the drift of my remarks, which was to show in what degree our foreign commerce is continually less and less capable of bearing high duties; and if I speak immethodically, and without a natural order of propositions,sible, your duties must be reduced progressively. the committee will, of course, indulge me under the circumstances. A permanent system is an absurdity, if revenue be the object. Can any gentleman say what articles are not subject to the laws I have laid down? Take breadstuffs: What reason have we to im main cheaper elsewhere than in the United States? This great country has the greatest amount of waste land, and the most genial climates on the face of the earth. Are we to become dependent on foreign countries for breadstuffs? Never! Are we to become dependent on them for anything having relation to live-stock, or for animal prod ucts? The tariff of 1846 has already become, to a very considerable extent, and is rapidly becoming to a much greater extent, a prohibitory tariff. Ameri-agine any description of breadstuffs will long recan skill is onward, American machinery is amplifying and approximating the perfection of that of Europe; in some instances surpassing it. American profits are lowering, and American economy is improving. There are very few things we could not make almost as cheap as they are made abroad. But just in proportion as our capacity to manufacture cheaply advances, so must duties fall progressively. The principle of low duties must be as progressive as American skill and American d of an existing sur-machinery, or else your tariff will become proe are two modes byhibitory. ou may diminish the to moderate rates; or y duties, you may recommerce, which is is way diminish revmay diminish revenue ities, or by reducing -rce. Either will angarded in a financial, of view, it will make ethod you adopt, if 1 of an existing surhat it ought to be, to le deficiencies as well eat importance, both ial question, whether it. Now, sir, I lay it down as an undeniable prop- was at that time; and I maintain that if the tariff I do not pretend to deny that there is a much say is, that the proportion of merchandise exclud- of apprehension is 3 in the Treasury of s of dollars, and the continue that surto get rid of it. If us shall not be rene to decide whether reducing the duties, ies--and I maintain before the country e trade, or at a time ent. In 1846 there e friends of a modpersuade the comlow revenue. The ex. But, sir, now entlemen who may by high duties must that complex propn our shoulders to pose to reduce the show the country the revenue, or else As to agricultural articles, look at the extent of this country. We are the producers of almost everything, or capable of being so. What that is produced in any other country is not produced, or capable of being produced, in the United States? Tell me what articles of manufacture abroad, or what of the agricultural products of foreign climes, are not also produced in the United States, or likely soon to be? Coffee, tea, and some few tropical fruits, are not yet, I believe, found in the United States, but almost every other production is. There is, in the United States, this side of the stony mountain range, an amount of territory equal to_the_three States of Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana, of prodigious fertility and remarkable salubrity, which lies south of the southern extremity of Europe. It extends even further south than the Barbary States of Africa; and though not of the same temperature, yet it is known that the inequality is not so great as to vary in any considerable degree its agricultural capabilities. The United States are a great ZollVerein, extending from the highest northern to the lowest southern latitude. Should Cuba become a portion of them, there will be almost nothing produced throughout the world that will not have its representative or analogue in the United States. I am told that in the deserts of California they actually find the gum acasia, a commodity thought indigenous only in the sand seas of Africa. In our day, almost everything is manufactured by means of machinery. A railroad locomotive, of five-horse power, inferior in quality and uncertain in its operation, and requiring to be tinkered every trip of fifty or one hundred miles, fifteen years ago, to my knowledge, cost $10,000. You now get an engine of six times that power, three times the speed, and as reliable for its operation as the rising of the sun and moon, for $6,000 or It is only because the people of the United States getting virgin lands for nothing, can live on half labor, and the whole people can live by the labor of one half, that we do not drive Europe out of every market. When the population of the United States becomes a little more compact we will want to sell everything; for, taking in the northern region of Maine, the northwest division of our territory, this and the other side of the Rocky Mountains, and Texas, with the countries which can hardly fail to come under the operation of our institutions before many years, we will have (so to speak) an analogue to every country in the universe. A nation limited to a particular region, like England, having only a few descriptions of minerals, and producing only a limited number of vegetable commodities and raising a limited number of cattle, will be thus dependent, and the greater the number of articles she cannot produce, and the more pressing her need of them, the greater will be her power of levying imposts. And so of all the other European States. Their power of taxing the commerce of one another is immense; and, by reason of the impossibility of home production, the people of neither can evade the tax. But to think of this great Zoll-Verein-this great free-trade alliance of States, covering every clime of the world, resting their revenue system upon no broader a basis than their deficient capacity for home production, is absurd. Suppose the States of Europe, like the States of America, were united on the principle of a ZollVerein, (and to complete the comparison you should include with Europe the northern States of Africa,) with free-trade among them as there is by the Constitution among these States, and without any other reliance for revenue than on trade external to the whole of them, what would be the consequence? Royalty and nobility, armies and navies, would starve on any possible revenue under the case supposed. That is not yet our condition, but we are coming rapidly to it. It is a mistake to suppose that we have to grow as old as Europe to rival in her manufacturing. The newness or a country affords advantages for manufacturing in some respects. Many descriptions of raw material can be had cheaper, and the operative can, for the most part, purchase his provisions cheaper. I will mention materials of wood for illustration: Wood is cheaper in the United States than in England, and why cannot we make wooden fabrics cheaper? A laborer buys his meal for fifty cents a bushel here, and there for $1 50; and why cannot the laborer here, working ten hours a day, live better than the laborer there working fourteen hours a day? The half of a dollar is four times as much to a man in Ohio, Indiana, or Illinois, as to a man in Manchester,because he can get four times as much to eat with it. If he can live so much cheaper, and if the materials for manufacture, mineral or vegetable, are also cheaper, why cannot he manufacture cheaper? He can do it. He does not do it, because he can live comfortably without hard labor; while in Europe the operative must use diligent and hard labor or perish. There is a necessity to do it. Were our operatives to undergo the same labor, a man in Ohio would 1 The Tariff-Mr. Woodward. not always progressive; its capacity for consumption depends very little on wealth. 1 at home or native of fleeoil instead of ates, disables but that disa 1. The new sing in value, cquires a new zap wages. I ntiment of my -olitical econoe regulated by as well try to peal that law. I shall never e, to substitute etter law been od would have machine makes by all the rest. human beings sir, you have at has cut off rticle. A maited States as ether it be run tion. A pinly in a wilderake your ma8, and your and I speak of ery one.) will s in the United e population? to run so fast, duct. Indeed, ery to engross ng, and to sumployment of It would seem is to be left to ogether. It is se that cheap ge of the counconditions are facturing, but 7 are favorable ›r mixes with while machinng to its highs, when once f producing a ricultural and ; for, engrossf manufactur ivation of the ced in agriculpment of the he practice of which is, that ly multiplied, is contracted; eat, or cheese, ol, or flax, or however, the pensations in I do not regret however, cannment should burdens those d to human unties, those Mr. Chairman, 1 am obliged to suspect that many do not realize the situation in which the country stands in regard to its commercial and financial interests. There seems to be a delusion on the subject, and I will endeavor to explain my conception of the cause. The duty on iron is thirty per cent. That duty we know is not prohibitory. But how much does it lack of being so? Is the prohibitory point five per cent. above the existing duty; or ten, or twenty? Who will undertake to say? The man who has made himself acquainted with the laws that govern in such maiters, and has ascertained the principal conditions under which these laws are now operating, who has studied to know the number and force of existing active causes, may be able to form a rational judgment; but he who has not done this is as incapable of an opinion as a dead man. He cannot know whether the point of prohibition be fifty, or only five per cent, above the actual duty. He cannot see that point, and will realize it only when it is present. It is to him as invisible as death, and like death it will most likely come upon him unawares. That the prohibitory point is near in our neighborhood, is proven by the fact that the reduced duties of the tariff of 1846 increased the revenue; for there was an increase of revenue before the gold crop came in. to the farmer, alth and conrer is worthy s, provisions, re concerned. of increasing nsumer, with ties. Take, on, or of any licable to ten or ostentation more of them ach manufacery important man stomach t of the farm I think that no one will deny what I have already stated, that from the year 1824 to the present time, the dutiable capacity of a very large proportion of foreign merchandise has diminished at an average rate of from four to five per cent. per annum. The causes that have produced this diminution, I have endeavored briefly to explain. Now, suppose that for the next four years this reduction should go on at the same rate; what would be the action of the tariff of '46, at the end of the period, upon foreign merchandise that could not, to-day, bear a heavier duty than thirty per cent., or twenty-five, or twenty per cent.? Who can deny that this tariff is fast becoming a prohibitory tariff; and, indeed, is already so to a considerable extent? But it may be asked whether I would, by reducing the duties, incur the risk of increasing the existing surplus, instead of getting rid of it. I answer that I would most certainly, not doubting that the public would demand still further reductions, until surpluses should cease. The discovery of gold in California is the only thing that throws doubt upon the financial and commercial prospects of the country. We cannot reason safely from that fact, because we can. not know its future importance. But we can safely say that it will not repeal the laws of political economy. It has introduced no new principle, but has only made the country richer than it was before. Speculation, buying on credit, and overbanking, will not, however, be prevented by increased wealth, though their consequences may be postponed by a rapid progressive increase of wealth. HO. OF REPS. lions to the valuation of property. But an increase of valuation, brought about so suddenly, would not, at first, extend equally to all descriptions of property. It would first affect property actually in the market, and which from its nature belongs to trade, and is destined for annual consumption. Cotton, tobacco, &c., manufactures, &c., would first be affected. Real estate, fixed investments of capital, would experience the effects more gradually. But where the influence first acted it would tend to expend its whole energy, and cotton, with the other items mentioned, would go up to a valuation far above the due proportion between eurrency and property. The tariff of '46 would not now yield sufficient revenue to sustain your current expenditures, but for the gold crop from California.. The discovery of those mines, besides throwing a large amount of specie into circulation, duplicating your currency, paper and metallic, has added vastly to your foreign trade. I may be charged with boldness when I say that the gold crop of the country in its double character of merchandise and circulating medium, has added to your exports eighty millions of dollars. In its character as merchandise it is admitted to have added some forty millions. In its character of money, it is conceded to have increased the circulating medium in metallic form, twenty millions. And when it is considered that the portion which went abroad as merchandise, in its transition, percolated the country and served as money for the time, twenty millions may be supposed too low a figure. But by increasing the metallic medium, it has also bolstered up and kept in a flush state, the paper medium, and in this way has enlarged the general circulation. Thus it will be seen that while gold as mer. chandise has added forty millions to our exports, as currency it has probably added forty millions more, by enhancing the valuation of exported property. And here I must beg you to recollect that the increase of our exports is not so much in the specific quantity of the articles exported as in their valuation. The specific quantity of cotton exported the last year does not much exceed that of previous years, but its valuation is fifty millions greater. And this valuation has been caused in the way I have described. Now, consider what is the just proportion between the whole amount of circulating medium and the whole valuation of property in a country. Set down money as one twentieth part of property, and it follows that if you add thirty ninute degree millions to currency, you add six hundred mil I have said that forty millions goes abroad as merchandise; but it goes to Europe to become currency, and, added to the influx from Australia, it produces commercial and financial effects there, similar to those produced here by what remains in the country. The relations of the two countries will not therefore be changed. Both have acquired new wealth, and that is about all. The capacity of foreign imports to bear impost duties will go on diminishing hereafter as heretofore. If next year there should be found a surplus in the Treasury, it will be the result of increased wealth in this country and in Europe, and will only show that the prohibitory tendency of your tariff is not sufficient wholly to obviate the effects of that increase of wealth. We should pursue the same financial policy as if the mines of California had no existence. The discovery of these mines, by-the-by, and their yield, has saved this country from a commercial revulsion. We are now in the midst of the period when that revulsion would have occurred, but for the finding of these mines. Mr. BAYLY, of Virginia. If there be a commercial revulsion in prospect, would it not be better, since we have a surplus, to provide for our debt, which will not embarrass us when the revulsion comes? Mr. WOODWARD. That was a part of the argument which I overlooked. I have shown that duties are progressively advancing towards the prohibitory point. There are articles now imported into the United States under the tariff of 1846, which under that same tariff, will not be capable of importation hereafter, and by reducing the duty you will greatly increase revenue. I do not, Mr. Chairman, believe in a horizontal tariff in any sense, and I am not going to sustain a maxim because the Democratic party is the author of that maxim. There is a great variety of articles that will not bear more than five per cent. If you put twenty per cent. upon them they are prohibited. There are other commodities that will bear a duty of twenty per cent., and would raise the highest possible revenue at that duty. Would I have the same duty upon each of these articles out of respect to the horizontal principle? We ought to measure the capacity for duty of each article, and adjust the duty accordingly. I was about to conclude by saying, that if twelve months be permitted to elapse, and this discussion is deferred to the commencement of the next Congress, we will not get a bill through even at the long session of Congress. We have failed too often, and always would have failed, but for expedients by the prominent friends of free trade in the session of 1846. But the gentleman from New York has referred to the estimates of the tariff of 1846, showing how we were then disappointed. Now I happened not to be disappointed. I had been for several years on the Committee on Manufactures, and I felt it my duty to look into that matter. I did not know but that the question of revenue would come before that committee. I recollect perfectly well that my estimates, at the time most carefully 32D CONG....1St SESS. made, gare $2,000,000. I re three or four friends coming to viher we had not better put o saying there was danger that the neue so much that the wh bee disgusted with the fre at to these gentlemen, "If thi ges $25,000,000, take my "I was not deceived in 1 I persuaded that the first p en from New York (Mr en voted for by every on this side of the House upon us unawares. The set for them. They th tary that the gentleman from Basers should be the author of It I never once occurred to peman was capable of makin see plainly that he had m shing that proposition; that t d give us the committe thing would result in a tho te of the question, and lead to a abstract question of phil emy, but upon the existin fire the country. It would hav ry as to the present revenue, mere, the present surplus, laying thetractions. Mr. BROWN, of Mississippi. M. WOODWARD. I have at revulsion, the United Stat we forty or wah to put to my friend from aie: Suppose there should ald not the effect of it really port of forty or fifty millions vent the revulsion from ope ely For instance, if things inmead of relying on bank c SS. I remember distinctly to me and asking me put off the whole matthat we would reduce e whole country would e free-trade party. I If this tariff does not my head off at the d in my estimates. irst proposition of the [Mr. BROOKS] would ery sincere free-trade House, had it not been They were afraid of ey thought it extraorrom New York [Mr. or of such a proposi red to them that that making a mistake. I ad made a mistake in that the parliamentary mittee, and that the a thorough investigad to a discussion, not f philosophical politixisting crisis now behave been a specific -nue, the present comaying aside all philoippi. I desire to call ne point he has made. e that, under the opwe are in danger of a resent tariff has raised han the Government Complaints is, that we wants demand. The olina, [Mr. WooDrift of his argument, duties. The point s: If you reduce the y increase the amount , will you not of nere imminent of that which the gentleman ave not said that the at large importations 1. I said, distinctly, ia, which produced e importations, and m revulsion. The oring on this revulgreat expansion of gh prices, and thus venturer to exhaust of realizing the high n debt has been disthe foreign creditor, d. But if no gold Le metallic currency to pay the debt, would have lost its uld have been the e banks, leaving the ney, whether metalte governments will ; if the people will town councils, railand if the commerthe high prices that abroad, the country This Government Et, and has no means re to ask the gentlequestion. I agree ne that this expanto be attended with it. But since the tes have become a -producing sixty or ally, and exporting Now, the question -m South Carolina, be a pressure here. Lieutenant General-Mr. Smith. sending abroad forty or fifty millions of gold, that Mr. WOODWARD. My friend has stated He seems to suppose that as long as the yield of gold Ho. OF REPS. LIEUTENANT GENERAL. SPEECH OF MR. SMITH, IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, The House being in Committee of the Whole on the state of the Union, on the bill to confer the title of Lieutenant General by Brevet Mr. SMITH said: Mr. CHAIRMAN: I am not here for the purpose of defending the private, the political, or the personal character of General Scott. I rise to creating a new title of lieutenant general, and auadvocate the passage of the Senate resolution thorizing the President to confer it, by brevet, for eminent military services. It is a military question, and I propose to address myself to it as such; and in speaking of General Scott, I shall confine myself, mainly, to his military character. There is no man in the country who was more sincerely or earnestly opposed to his elevation to the Presidency than I was. But my opposition to him, my political opposition, was tempered by my admiration of his military character; and I have never permitted myself, on any occasion, to detract his military renown. an indefinite future. I dissent from that. It will Mr. CLINGMAN. I do not think my friend understood me exactly. My view is this: that until the export of gold has to be stopped, this danger will not occur. As long as we are a great gold-exporting country the want of money here will check that exportation and must check it, and whilst we produce a great deal more gold than we need, the danger is not to be apprehended. [Mr. WOODWARD at the time of speaking did As has already been said, the gold from your But while the indefinite supply of native gold Paper money, when it has once acquired the confidence of the people, will drive metallic currency to other countries, or into the sphere of international money, whither paper cannot go. Your gold even th Sir, I have examined this question in all its bear as I have arranged it, I must refer to the remarks of the honorable gentlemen who spoke yesterday, the gentleman from Tennessee, [Mr. PoLK,] and the gentleman from Oregon, [Mr. LANE.] I expected, sir, and I had my pencil ready to take notes thereof-I expected that the honorable gentleman from Tennessee [Mr. POLK] would bring forward some substantial arguments against the passage of this resolution. I was disappointed; perhaps it was because his mind was directed to opposition to this bill merged itself into a simple another and a greater question. The gentleman's attack upon the private character of General Scott, under the declaration that he was unworthy of the honor Mr. POLK, (interrupting.) The assault that the gentleman from Alabama makes upon me, that the speech I made on yesterday was conceived in the spirit of personal feeling, is unjust. Mr. SMITH. The gentleman misunderstands me Mr. POLK. I relied upon the testimony of Jackson, of Wilkinson, of De Witt Clinton, of Worth, of Pillow, of Duncan, of Brown, and a host of others that form the galaxy of military greatness in this country, to show that he was unworthy of it, and the course I pursued proves that I had no personal feeling in it. Mr. SMITH. I expect to answer the gentleI beg him to be patient. I am a patient mần myman in the spirit in which he made his remarks. self. Mr. POLK. So am I. THE QUARRELS OF GREAT LEADERS. Mr. SMITH. I propose to show that the arguments brought forward by the honorable gentleman from Tennessee [Mr. POLK] against this resolution, in whatever spirit they may have been conceived, are, to say the most for them, but objections to General Scott's private and personal character. I did not intimate that the gentleman had any personal motive, because he disclaimed it at the time. What was the argument? The charge was that General Jackson, and General Wilkinson, and De Witt Clinton and others, had quarreled with General Scott. The intimation was that because they had quarreled with General Scott, he, General Scott, was a knave, and unworthy of his honors. Sir, great men have the right to quarrel-very many of them do quarrel. Is a quarrel an indication that either of the parties is a knave? Why, sir, does the British press, when our condidates for the Presidency are announced, say that the people of the United States have selected two of the greatest scamps in the counter to be their candidates for the Presidency? |