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ter to import the skilled workmen rather than his product? Have 

 not prices under protection been lower in some classes of goods than 

 those affected by foreign competition ? The next war, if we have one, 

 will be fought on the ocean. Who has the most interest in maintain- 

 ing the fisheries, that produce the finest seamen known, the few men 

 who own the vessels, or the 56,000,000 of people who must look to 

 them for their defence ? Canada has over 75,000 men in her fisheries, 

 ever}' one of them an English sailor and liable, if needed, to do duty 

 in her navy. Where will the United States look for her men to man 

 the magnificent navy we are to have in the near future? No, my 

 friends, the great West has developed her immense resources, opened 

 up her grand territory largely by subsides assisting railroads, coming 

 from the votes and pockets of the whole people. The South, under 

 the broadening influence of an education for her people, sustained by 

 the national wealth, shall yet see a prosperity unequalled b} 7 any sec- 

 tion, when upon every stream that now runs untaxed to the sea shall 

 be heard the whirl of the loom and spindle, her cotton cultivated by 

 the negro planters shall be turned into cloth by the hands of the 

 skilled operatives that she will call there to operate her mills, and 

 with the prosperity of her farmers her wealth will be equal to her op- 

 portunities. 



In this prosperity we are all benefitted. And it is from those sec- 

 tions that it is proposed to organize the opposition that shall crush 

 out the New England fisheries. I do not believe it possible that an}* 

 American citizen knowing the facts, that rejoices in the glory and 

 prosperity of his country, is ready, at the instant of foreign influence, 

 to strike down the fisheries because he might possibly buy a macker- 

 el or codfish 1-2 a cent cheaper, thereby reducing the wages of the 

 operative fishermen to starvation prices and destroj'iug the only ele- 

 ment of defence we have upon the ocean. I said knowing the facts, 

 and it is our duty to see that they do know them. We have never 

 yet failed of a unanimous response to our appeal when it has been 

 properly understood at Washington. Therefore I trust and hope that 

 this convention will lay the foundation of a Union on all matters af- 

 fecting our marine interests. There are many matters affecting our 

 marine jurisprudence that need correction and amendment. We 

 are living to-day under laws copied from English statutes that were 

 enacted when men were hung for stealing a shilling, but to-day there 



