No. 124.] 183 



ment of impost duties, we can make our own silk goods cheaper than 

 we can import them. 



I draw I his inference from the history of the past. It has been found 

 to be true in regard to everything else — cottons, woollens, iron, and ev- 

 erything lo which American ingenuity has been directed : and pray tell 

 me, why not in regard to silk ? 



But 1 hear, for ever, the old story — the story that we cannot compete 

 with the cheap labor of India, and China, and Europe, in the silk busi- 

 ness. There, it is said, laborers can be had for a few cents a day ; and 

 it is of no use to try to compete with them. In reply, I would say, 1st, 

 that labor is always to be estimated, not bytcltat it costs-, but by what 

 it can be made to produce : and 2d, that the cheap labor of China and 

 India is just as available for the cotton business, and other branches of 

 industry, as for the silk business ; and if we can compete with it in cot- 

 ton, &.C., why not in silk? 



Can we not compete with that cheap labor ? It is already done. Un- 

 der the fostering care of our own government, in the infancy of our ma- 

 nufactures, we have already done it, and done it triumphantly. What 

 a triumph has America achieved ! Do we want proofs? Go, inove 

 within the small space protected by this sheltering roof, and there exa- 

 mine for yourselves the product of the loom, the forge, the workshop, 

 and the bench. (Cheers.) My heart swells while I point you to those 

 noble efforts of our common countrymen. I was born, sir, under the 

 morning shadows of the Green Mountains, but I am an American ; 

 and never did I feel the proud boast of an American citizen as at this 

 moment, when within the sound of my voice I can point out to my 

 fellow-citizens the onward progress of our glorious Republic. (Loud 

 and continued cheers.) Those cheers delight my old New-England 

 heart. 1 glory in the enthusiasm which buist around me to-nighT, and 

 ascribe its sincerity to the great topic of the day — Our country's glori- 

 ous ELEVATION ! (Loud cries, cheers, and shouts of go on, New-Eng- 

 land, go on.) In my recollection our countrywomen had to pay from 25 

 to 40 cents per yard for coarse, sleezy cottons, which now you coulil not 

 palm on them even as a gift. No, they would rather consign them to 

 the |)aper mill, and go to the shops and buy an article worth something. 

 (Loud cheers.) 



How has all this change been brought about? American skill, and 

 enterprise, and perseverance, have done it — have driven these sleezy 

 hum hums of olden time?, and foreign lands, from our markets, and 

 supplied a belter article, at one-fourth the expense. And not only 

 this; we are now shipping to India and China cotton goods to supply 

 their markets — carrying our cottons right home to the very birth- 

 place of the cotton culture, and the cotton business — all their cheap 

 labor to the contrary notwithstanding. To other countries beyond 

 the ocean, we are shipping goods. In England, France, China, and 

 in Asia, the products of our looms are found. (Yes, and our dairies, 

 too). True, the cheese of New-England is found on the table of the 

 old English squire; but this is not the time to dwell on such matters. 

 Have we overcome the prejudice, the common objections raised in 

 regard to our iron and cotton, and -woollen, and our dairy products? 

 We hare, and can now add to them the culture of silk. If we have 



