194 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



DECEMBER 36, 1838. 



timber aiui ctJier materials to build with. Compare 

 the prices of water power, adjoining land for build- 

 ing, materials to build with, with tliosp to be had 

 in almost every town in this State, and you will 

 find there is sevontyfivc per cent, in favor of the 

 interior. There ia water power enough in the 

 county of Caledonia, and on Connecticut river ad- 

 joining, to turn every water wheel in tlie United 

 States, yi'S, and what is this unoccupied water 

 power now worth, except perhaps to grind a little 

 wheat and corn, provender, and to make some oat 

 savin, 



paper for school books in the State. The tickets ' 1 816, says— That to be independent for the comforts 

 were advertised to be be sold for rags to work up, , of life, we must fabricate them for ourselves. W e, 

 thusthey created a market for their rags, and saved must now place the manufacturer by the side of 

 in the State the money that had usually gone to ! the agriculturist. The grand enquiry now ,s shall 

 buy school books. The General Assembly several we make our own comforts, or go without them, at 

 years since, I believe in the time of the non-inter- the will of foreign nations; ho therefore who is 



y^ ... 



course or embargo, passed a joint resolution saying, 

 that it should be considered ungentlemenlike, for 

 a member of the house, or of the council to appear 

 in his seat otlterwise than clad in the growth, pro- 

 duction and manufacture of this State. We far- 



meal ; there is not only a saving in the price of |mers must keep in mind the 30th of July 184-3, 

 water power, and materials to build with, in favor | when the tariff or compromise law, so called, is to 



of the interior, but the saving in the daily contingent 

 expenses, pertaining to a mamfacturing establish- 

 ment will pay the freight to and from market ; la- 

 borers can sustain themselves much cheaper in the 

 interior of a country than on tlie sea board. It is 

 an established principle in political economy that 

 the spindle and the loom can nowhere be so advan- 

 tageously employed as at the tail of the plough. 

 We tanners in the interior without manufacturers 

 and mechanics are like farmers without tools. We 

 can aOver prosper. Brother farmers it is necessary 

 that Vermont should pursue a policy in relation to 

 her agricultural manufacturing, and mechanical in- 

 terests to render herself independent of her sister 

 States, as for the United States to render themselves 

 independent of foreign governu.ents. From what 

 has been hastily said, you must have come to the 

 conclusion with me th.it this proposition merits a 

 careful consideration, but to discuss it in all its 

 bearings in so short a time as is now allowed me 

 cannot be expected. I contend that every princi- 

 ple, which has ever been published by writers on 

 political economy in favor of protecting the indus- 

 try of a National Government, are equally applica- 

 ble to protect the industry of a single State. True 

 the several States of the United States, form but 

 one community. Congress having power to pass 

 'such laws in relation to the general government as 

 tJiey may deem proper as to admitting articles from 

 .♦breign governments. The several States have 

 reserved to themselves the privilege mf collecting 

 A revenue for all State purposes. You niay as well 

 lax a n''an "'bo appears otherwise tlian clad in the 

 gro vth and manufacture of this State as to tax his 

 ■watch, chaise, or horse. Again, by the present 

 law of tliis State, all necessary household furniture 

 is exempt from attachment on debts. It ^^■ould be 

 _well if this law was so altered that after 1840 all 

 household furniture, not the production and manufac- 

 ture of this State (except cotton,) over and above tlic 

 value of $50, to each family should be subject to 

 attachment on debts contracted after that date 



remain at only 20 per cent, duties. Are we to 

 abide that compromise ? I for one say yes,- pro- 

 vided the government will be that economical as to 

 paying all expenses from duties received on im- 

 ported foreign merchandise ; the income from the 

 sale of ;.ublic lands had ought to be divided among 

 the several States. If the people of the United 

 States abide the compromise, it is next to adopting 

 the liberal system, or free trade. And if the peo- 

 ple continue to consume such vast quantities of 

 foreign production, and manufactures, ruin and 

 wretchedness must and will follow. I believe it 

 to be the best for the people of this State to abide 

 the compromise, and to adopt the restrictive system 

 so far as we can constitutionally. The General 

 Assembly can as well pass laws to protect the in- 

 dustry of the people of this State, as to protect our 

 deers on our mountains, or the pickerel in our 

 ponds, or the muskrat in our rivers, as well as to 

 offer bounties for the destroying the fox, the wild 

 cat, or crows ; as well as to prohibit the adminis- 

 tering of extra judicial oaths. Industry and econ- 

 omy, the great sources of wealth, cannot be too 

 much encouraged and supported. Happily for this 

 State, they in numerous instances, are enlisted in 

 the service of manufacturers and mechanics. — 

 These valuable and important classes of our fellow 

 citizens have a just demand on the General Assem- 

 bly for every reasonable encouragement and sup- 

 port ; their pursuits are practicable patriotism, and 

 whilst our national, and State parchments establish 

 our independence of right, their measures more 

 solid are establishing for us an independence in- 

 deed. Industrious manufacturers and mechanics 

 when employed upon things really useful do lauda- 

 ble service to the public ; they are constantly add- 

 ing to the wealth, strength or convenience of the 

 great whole. We find in the .\merican Annals, an 

 account of the anniversary of a society for encou- 

 raging industry held 1753, on which occasion Bos- 

 ton common presented a novel sight. In the after- 

 noon about 300 young female spinsters, decently 



Some policy of this description, if pursued by our dressed appeared on the common at their spinning 



legislature, would have a tendency to encoura 

 the manufacturing and mechanical interest of this 

 State. It has thus far been the.policy of this State 

 (with few exceptions,) as relates to our intercourse 

 with the sister States, to encourage that ruinous 

 doctrine free trade. 



This State has never done anything of any con- 

 sequence to encourage the manufacturing and me- 

 chanical interest True, the legislature passed a 

 law at an early period saying what should be the 

 length of the hand reel for reeling woollen, linen 

 and tow yarn ; they also granted a lottery to Alat- 

 thew Lyon, to enable him to raise 000 bushels of 

 wheat by which to enlarge his furnace, so as to 

 cast sugar kettles; another was granted to Haswell 

 and Russell to raise a sum sufficient to erect a 

 Paper Mill at Bennington, so as to manufacture 



wheels ; the wheels were jilaced regulariy in three 

 rows, and a female was seated at each wheel, the 

 weavers also appearing cleanly dressed, in garments 

 of their own weaving. One of them working a 

 loom on a stage, was carried on men's shoulders, 

 attended with music ; an immense number of spec- 

 tators were present at this interesting spectacle. 



now against domestic manufacture, must be for re- 

 ducing us either to dependence on that nation, or 

 to be clothed in skins, and to live like wild beasts 

 in dens and caverns. 



Experience has taught me that manufactures are 

 now as necessary to our independence as to oui 

 comfort. Situated, as we are, in the interior o 

 our country, it is of course very expensive trans 

 porting our produce to m:irket from many parts o 

 the State, and when we arrive there we must take 

 and give their own prices. It must therefore, 

 for our interest to raise and manufacture every ar- 

 ticle this country will produc*, and that may be ii 

 value nineteen twentietlis of our necessaries, am 

 purchase no more foreign gooes than real necessitj 

 requires, until we have more articles for export thai 

 the value of what we want to purchase. 



We farmers now furnish the manufacturer o 

 Massachusetts with wool at from 28 to 3G cents pe 

 pound, and young men nnd young women to mak 

 it up. And in addition to this, the banks of thi 

 State keep constantly deposited in the banks of ou 

 cities about one half of their capital paid in, o 

 which tlie city banks discount to the manufacturer 

 in their neighborhood to enable them to work u 

 perhaps the very wool bought of us. Firstly, w 

 do wrong by soiling our wool, so long as the sam 

 is needed ior domestic consumption. The Generi 

 Assembly have from the days of the old Vermoi 

 State Bank, permitted the banks to deposite in th 

 banks on the sea board, whicli deposites have at a 

 times been considered equal to specie in vault 

 By reason of the banks of this State depositing £ 

 large a portion of their capital in the city banks, 

 has a direct tendency to increase the introductie 

 of foreign merchandize, and the manufacturers 

 our sister States into this State, greatly to the ii 

 jury of the agricultural interest of the State. Tl 

 people have long been accustomed to the presei 

 evil practices of the banks, which practices, tl 

 General Assembly had long since ought to ha\ 

 corrected. I expect the only reason why our banl< 

 are required to keep up their deposites in the cit 

 banks is, the balance of trade is greatly against us 

 and always will be so long as we sell the raw m* 

 tcrial, and the General Assembly neglect to encon 

 rao-e the agricultural and manufacturing, and m' 

 chanical interests. Unquestionably, more thanfoi 

 fifths of the actual bank capital in this State 

 employed in the mercantile'business, in purchasir 

 merchandise. The manufactures of our sist 

 States or of foreign countries, brought into th 

 State and sold to our citizens for our beef, our bu 

 ter, or cheese, for our pork, for wool, as I ha' 

 once said, more than nineteen twentieths of sa 

 merchandise which you and I should consider n 

 cessary, we ought to manufacture and create f 



The Rev Dr Cooper preached a discourse, and a I ourselves. So long as the General Assembly pe 



collection was made for the benefit of the institu- mils this free trade system to continue, so ong w 



tion Ladies of Boston whiriing three hundred our banks keep their deposites m the city ban^ 



sninnino- wheels ! These were afterwards the ma- And so long there never will be a time that tl 



trons who refused British tea, and who never saw holders of their bills can convert them into tl 



a piano Wonder, if a tliousand delicate ladies solid coin at their counters. Nothing but that ca 



could now be seen in the city, at their piano's, ital called confidence, has thus far sustained o 



where one old fashioned rosy damsel could be found banks without specie in their vaults 1 here is : 



at the healthy exercise of the spinning wheel? principle laid down by writers on political econot 



T Jefferson, in his letter to Benjamin Austin, Jan 9, that give any assurance to a community of rotaj 



