282 [Assembly 



should be provided. It is a great pririciple, that those whose labor 

 furnishes our supplies, must in return he the consumers, and subsist 

 on the productions of the country. The prosperity of our land can 

 never rest on a sure basis, until a market is provided for the produc- 

 tion of agriculture and manufactures. It should be a home market. 

 About S3 of every 100 of our population depend for their pursuit 

 and their support on agriculture. They bear our public burdens, pay 

 our taxes, fight our battles — they deserve encouragement. But strange 

 is the truth, that over three-fourths, or from 75 to 80 per cent of the 

 whole revenue, is expended in war, and for its preparations. All the 

 boon agriculture has been enabled to obtain, has been the publica- 

 tion, a fe^v years pastj of a report from the Patent Office, embracing 

 a few matters of agriculture. 



Our commerce is prosperous beyond comparison. Every sea and 

 ocean in the civilized world is whitened with its sails. The official 

 tables of the tonnage of the country show its unequalled augmentation. 

 But truth requires us to state, that the great item of its augmenta- 

 tion is in the Domestic Commerce, upon our canals, rivers, lakes and 

 internal seas. The irrepressible genius of our people cannot there 

 be withheld in their enterprise and business pursuits. The lake craft, 

 small vessels, canal-boats, and steamboats, all enter into the compu- 

 tation of tonnage, and greatly swell the amount. This division of 

 Commerce follows internal improvements, and keeps up with the 

 advance of the country, and the increase of the population. The 

 foreign tonnage, if not stationary, lags behind, and does not keep up 

 with the general prosperity of the country. That great nursery of 

 American seamen, the whale-fishery, with other branches of trade, is 

 falling off, and giving place to the enterprises of other nations. 

 The shipping interest of the country needs encouragement and pro- 

 tection. Agriculture and manufactures are ready to do their part, 

 and furnish their productions for export. The countervailing regu- 

 lations of other nations mar our carrying trade, impede our com- 

 merce, and shut us out from their markets — while our ports are left 

 open for their productions. We must have an equal market — a fair 

 reciprocity in trade. 



The American Institute is the advocate of " Free T7'ade" — not 

 on one side only — ^but on both sides ; and an equivalent to be given 

 for that which is received. The huzza for Free Trade on one side 

 only, is the huzza of besotted ignorance or of corrupted intelligence. 

 Demand and establish reciprocity in trade, and my word for it, you 



