In order to enable you, fellow citizens, to form a correct idea on this subject, and to appreciate the incorrectness of the plea, we annex a table of duties on sundry articles of both descriptions. It is painful to us to state, but regard to truth, and to the dearest interests of our country, oblige us to state, that we doubt whether the tariff of any country has ever exhibited more impolitic features than are to be seen in the above abstract. If the apprehension of encouraging smuggling by high duties had any influence in regulating the tariff, ought it not to have prevented the imposition of 80 per cent. on teas, 50 per cent. on wines, 60 per cent. on cinnamon, and 50 per cent. on cloves? Is it not as easy to smuggle boxes of tea, as bales of cottons or woollens? Would it not have been as safe to impose a duty of 80 per cent. on the latter as the former? The want of sufficient protection of the national industry, which is so conspicuous throughout the tariff, cannot therefore for a moment be defended on the ground of apprehension of promoting smuggling, which plea must be abandoned for ever. The utterly inadequate duty on woollen goods sealed the condemnation and destruction of more than half the merino sheep in the country, which cost above one million of dollars to our citizens; were beyond price; and ought to have been cherished as the apple of the eye.' 6 Had the cotton and woollen manufactures been protected by the lowest rate of duties on the seven first articles, in the above list, the United States would probably have saved 100,000,000 of dollars since the war, and would now exhi bit a most enviable spectacle of prosperity. It rends the heart of every citizen possessed of public spirit to behold the melancholy and appalling contrast that at present pervades the nation. The United States possess a capacity of raising, and water power and mechanical skill to manufacture, cotton to an extent commensurate with the demand probably of the whole world, and our means of securing a constant supply of wool are amply adequate. It will not, therefore, admit of a doubt, that by proper encouragement, in a few years, this nation might have fully supplied itself with cotton and woollen manufactures to the utmost extent of its wants; and yet, wonderful to tell, two-thirds of our cotton fabrics are brought from countries, from three to ten thousand miles distant-and one third of our woollens, three thousand. We wish it to be clearly and distinctly understood, that though these addresses appear to advocate exclusively the interests of the manufacturers, yet it is in appearance only. Our object is to promote the interests of the whole nation, on the most extended scale. We scorn all partial views; and are convinced, that were every manufacturer in the United States in a prosperous situation, still sound policy would require a radical revision of the tariff, in order to arrest the impoverishing drain of specie, resulting from an unfavourable balance of trade, and from the pernicious intercourse with India. The motive to our addresses is a clear and decided conviction that this nation can never be great, happy, or respectable, while it buys more than it sells, as it has done ever since the war; while its treasures are lavished at a distance of ten thousand miles to purchase fabrics, with which it could abundantly supply itself; while it exports raw materials at thirty cents a pound, and receives the articles, manufactured of them at from one dollar to six or eight;* and while we suffer our machinery to go to *Two pieces of cambric, each containing twelve yards, weighed, the one two pounds one-eighth-the other, two pounds one-fourth. The first is sold in this city at one dollar, and the other at sixty-two and a half cents per yard. And there are much finer and higher priced cambrics than either-some at a dollar and a quarter, and some at two dollars. Thus the cotton, which we sell raw from eighteen to fifty cents per pound, is returned to us, manufactured, at the rate of from two dollars to seven or eight—an advance of from six hundred to about eighteen hundred per cent! ruin, consign our manufacturers to poverty, and furnish employment for the machinery and manufacturers of other countries. We shall conclude this address with a new view of this subject which will appear extraordinary, but which, nevertheless, we hope will not be rejected without due consideration. We are strongly inclined to believe, that such additional protection to the national industry, as would have considerably diminished our importations, would not only have rescued this country from its present distress and embarrassment, and ensured it a high degree of happiness and prosperity, but, extraordinary as it may appear, would have proved advantageous even to Great Britain. The value of a market depends not on the quantity of goods sold, but on the quantity paid for. And as the present paralysis of the national industry, and the impoverishment of the country, have chiefly arisen from our excessive importations and the want of adequate protection to our manufactures, by which many of them have received a severe, and some a deadly stroke; and, morever, as this im We submit to the calm consideration of the reader, a calculation which cannot fail to astonish him. In 1816 we exported to Great Britain about fifty millions of pounds of cotton, which at thirty amounted to cents Suppose that we received only 15,000,000 of pounds $15,000,000 30,000,000 10,500,000 40,500,000 25,500,000 Thus leaving to Great Britain by this single tranaction, a gain of What an appalling view of the policy of a nation, which has had the experience of all the world to guide its career! Is it wonderful, after reflecting on this and so many analogous features of our intercourse with foreign countries, that with advantages superior to those of any nation of ancient or modern times, we should be surrounded by embarrassments and difficulties, and that bankruptcy should stare us in the face! poverishment has reduced many of our importers to bankruptcy, and incapacitated a considerable proportion of the remainder from discharging their engagements at present; whereby the merchants of Great Britain experience not only very great temporary disappointments and difficulties, but will ultimately suffer immense losses; it conclusively follows, that our impolitic tariff has injured Great Britain as well as the United States. Its injurious operation has been moreover greatly aided by a system pursued in Great Britain, which deserves explanation. That her policy on the subject of manufactures, trade, and commerce is generally very profound, is too obvious to require enforcement. Yet we are persuaded that she has in the case of this country very much mistaken her true interest. That the United States were her best customer, is beyond doubt and had the trade with us been conducted with care and caution, she would have derived vastly more benefit from it than she has done, or is ever likely to do. Our importers order as many goods as suit the consumption of the country, and in general rather a superabundance. Had the supplies for this market been confined to goods thus ordered, the importers might have prospered, and the debts been paid with tolerable punctuality. But it very frequently happens, that after an order is received from the United States, and filled, one, two, or three similar assortments are made up, shipped, consigned to an agent here, and sacrified at vendue, at very reduced prices. The market is thus immoderately glutted, the prices of goods greatly reduced, the fair trader deeply injured, and sometimes absolutely ruined, by those who receive his or ders. Thus, independent of the heavy loss sustained by the sacrifice of the goods sent on consignment, immense losses arise from the failure of those whose prospects in business are destroyed by this overtrading. It is, therefore, not improbable that the British mer chants would receive nearly as large returns for two-thirds, perhaps for one half of the goods they export to this country, as they do for the whole. By the policy at present pursued, they absolutely ruin their most valuable customers, and destroy their best market: and the recent accounts from England prove that many of them ruin themselves. The numerous bankruptcies in that country, it appears, are greatly owing to the failure of remittances from hence. NO. VI. Philadelphia, May 15, 1819. THE Society for the Promotion of National Industry, impressed with a belief that the calamitous situation of our agriculture, manufactures, trade, and commerce-the unfavourable balance of trade-the exhausting drain of specie -and the reduction of the prices of real estate, and of the grand staples of our country, require the exercise of the wisdom of the legislature of the United States to apply an early and efficient remedy, hope it will not be regarded as an undue interference, that they venture to submit to the consideration of their fellow citizens throughout the union, the following form of a respectful application to the president, for an early call of congress. Should the measure be found necessary, it is of little consequence with whom it originates: should the contrary opinion prevail, the motive cannot fail, with all good men, to apologize for the suggestion. To the President of the United States. SIR,-The subscribers with all due respect, submit to your most serious consideration, the following reasons on which they venture to suggest the propriety of convening an extra session of congress. Our agricultural productions, the great staples of our country, on which we relied to pay for our enormous importations, and which, even at their highest rates, would have been inadequate for that purpose, are either excluded from foreign markets, or reduced in price from twenty-five to forty per cent. without any probability of a favourable change. Our markets are deluged with merchandize from foreign nations; while thousands of our citizens, able and willing to work, and capable of furnishing similar articles, are unable to procure employment; our manufacturing establishments are generally in a languishing condition, and many of them, in which immense sums have been invested, wholly |