No. 244.1 283 



will have nerved the arm of Industry, and secured the prosperity of 

 the Agriculture, Commerce, and Manufactures of America. You 

 will never again know of the steady balance of trade, and the fixed 

 rate of exchange at an average premium of 9 per cent, against the 

 United States To illustrate — let me ask you to look back a few 

 years, when the " Potato Rot" occasioned a loss to this country of 

 about $1,000,000 ; and in the same year the failure of the crops on 

 the continent of Europe disabled it to supply the wants of Great 

 Britain, and she was obliged to relax her restrictions on Trade, and 

 open her ports to the productions of American Agriculture. This 

 short-lived Reciprocity in trade, during her necessities for bread, 

 added some $20,000,000 to the value of our Agricultural produce — 

 altered the balance of trade — gave new employment to the shipping 

 interest, and varied, for the time, the [)remium against us on ex- 

 change, to 4 or 5 per cent, in our favor. Secure reciprocity in trade, 

 the resources of our country, and the enterprise of our people, will 

 maintain such a state of prosperity as the permanent condition of 

 our nation. 



The restrictive system, and the countervailing regulations of Eng- 

 land in support of her navigation and manufactures ; with our regu- 

 lations to provide warehouses, and receive in deposit, on credit for 

 the duties, the fabrics of foreign countries for our domestic consump- 

 tion, paralyzes our commerce, depresses the home industry,encour- 

 ages the importation of foreign merchandise, and creates the uniform 

 balances of trade against us. In the language of the Declaration of 

 American Independence, " We hold these truths to be self evident," 

 that it is bad legislation to permit such regulations in trade as secure 

 to another country a uniform balance in trade against us, and by 

 which a foreign nation can, at pleasure, an.d at a premium, drain 

 away the specie of the country — derange the currency — shake the 

 moneyed institutions — create fluctuations in market — derange busi- 

 ness — render unstable all our domestic pursuits — and perhaps bring 

 upon us again that national catastrophe — Repudiation. 



It is the boast of England, that such is the wisdom of her com- 

 mercial regulations, she has a balance in her favor against every 

 country with which she trades. The time was, when in our infancy, 

 with a population of three or four millions, without capital, or man- 

 ufactures to supply domestic wants, we were obliged to submit to 

 unequal terms in trade. The time is, when, with a population of 

 upward of 20,000,000 — with capital adequate to emergencies — man- 



