234 [Assembly 



men, of which Mr. Polk is one, is too poAverful. I think this garden 

 would be cheerfully established by private subscription, if the minds 

 of the people were turned to it. As I am about to settle in Ken- 

 tucky, and shall have no personal interest in the matter, I may perhaps 

 be allowed to advise. Land can be purchased at ten shillings per acre. 

 Let a private subscription be opened (I will give $50 myself) for 

 the purchase of a location, after which $1,000 per annum will de- 

 fray expenses. Send some of our best German Emigrants there as 

 cultivators; many of whom would be glad to go for the considera- 

 tion of small farms of their own; to these add a superintendent, 

 whose skill in botany and analagous sciences shall be his recommen- 

 dation, and the experiment is complete. I have a word or two to 

 say concerning the tariff, knowing that I stand before a tariff audi- 

 ence. After thirty years of public life, during which I steadily and 

 constantly voted against a tariff for protection, I have at last been 

 converted to that doctrine, through the influence of observations 

 made in a trip to New-England, and two voyages to old England. 

 1 am glad my experience has induced me to change my views, and 

 do not hesitate to proclaim my new convictions, having no interest 

 for publication or concealment. I hold no public office, never ac- 

 cepted one while in Congress, and would not now accept any, not 

 even the highest within the gift of the government. 



" Some time ago I was in Boston, and while I was preparing to 

 leave, my friend Nathan Appleton invited me to visit Low^ell. I 

 had an indistinct prejudice against factories and declined his request. 

 He would not be put off, and after long persuasion I consented to 

 go, for I could not well persist in refusing to please one of the prin- 

 cipal men in a city where I had been received with such unbounded 

 hospitality. When we arrived at Lowell, I was astonished to see 

 so clean and beautiful a city, and still more so at the wonderful 

 spectacle of 7,000 girls — all pretty girls too — neat, comfortable 

 and happy. They all looked up smilingly as I passed along, but 

 very suddenly looked down again, perhaps not much captivated by 

 what they saw. When 1 entered the factories, I expected to have 

 all my prejudices against manufactures sustained by occular demon- 

 stration; but here I was again most wonderfully astonished to find 

 things orderly and neat; so clean too, that I verily believe I might 

 have swept the floor with my handkerchief without giving it a stain. 

 This remarkable state of things seemed a paradox to me, effectually 

 annihilating my long cherished prejudices against home manufac- 

 tures, and converting me to the doctrines of the American system. 



