576 [Assembly 



estimated as wealthy served as the capital of her institutions. Her 

 currency is paper^ issued on the Deposit of an equivalent amount of 

 these securities. It is the exhibition of the most stupendous fabric 

 of the Credit system that the world has ever witnessed. Our coun- 

 try has suffered under its influence beyond the power of much further 

 endurance. 



When a foreign country shall offer to trade with us, and ask us 

 to take the productions and the labor of her People, in the shape 

 of her Manufactures ; we may well give our assent, when she, in turn, 

 will receive in payment the labor and the agricultural productions 

 of our country. While England refuses to take our products in 

 payment, self-preservation requires that we should not admit her 

 manufactures free. The motto of America is equal rights and priv- 

 ileges ; and if there is Free Trade; it must be Free Trade for both 

 sides : and not for one only. Let us have equal privileges, but 

 not consider our ports thrown open to foreigners and theirs shut 

 against the agricultural productions of our agricultural country. 



The plain substance of the whole matter is, that if we take the 

 Manufactures of a foreign country, they must take our produce — I 

 do not believe in that one-sided equality, where one side is always 

 down. We do not allow the scales of Justice so to hang : nor the 

 rights of individuals so to be weighed. Let us, I repeat, have Free 

 Trade, if at all, on both sides — Equality is the motto of the country , 

 and should be enforced. 



There is one more subject which, perhaps, in justice to the Amer- 

 ican Institute, should be noticed. It is this : An inquiry has been 

 started by private individuals, and echoed, by portions of the Press, 

 on seeing the unbounded success of our Fairs — "What is done 

 with all the moneij received for entrance?" — and this is couched in 

 the form of an insinuation. A short statement of the matter is due 

 to the Institute. Whenever it has been my lot to preside over any 

 institution — as I have over this from nearly its commencement until 

 within a short period — it has been the invariable rule of my life to 

 examine, pencil iu hand, the monetary and financial condition of 

 that institution, and to look into the statements of its condition from 

 time to time. This course I pursued while President of the Amer- 

 ican Institute, and I must say that at no period since its commence- 

 ment has there been any defalcation or fraud in its management, and 



