i 99. [ AssEaiBLT 



of proteetion. Mr, Caihoua himself delivered a speech In sup- 

 port of the protective system, which has never been surpassed in 

 ability ; and the arguments by which he sustained his opinions, 

 all the powers of his own mighty intellect, matured by time, and 

 strengthened by application and exercise, were never able to re- 

 fate. 



1 have thus glanced at the early history of our legislation on 

 this subject, before it had most unfortunately become a party 

 question. Up to the period to which I have traced the history 

 ojf protection, and even later, men of every shade of political 

 opinion had agreed on this subject ; and it is a little remarkable 

 that the only President from Washington to Jackson, who did 

 not call the attention of Congress to the necessity of protecting 

 American manufactures, was John Adams. He is known, how- 

 ever, to have been in favor of National Independence in this as 

 well as in all other respects. 



But it was not by legislation alone, that the founders of our 

 Republic attempteil to secure and complete our independence in 

 manufacturer and the mechanic arts. They went further, and 

 abstained from the use of foreign fabrics. General Washington 

 was inaugurated in a suit of American broadcloth, made in Hart- 

 ford, in the first woolen factory established in the United States, 

 Mr. Jefferson and Mr. Madison were so deeply impressed with 

 the importance of sustaining our independence in manufactui-es, 

 that they wore at one period of their lives American cloth exclu- 

 sively. Mr. Jefferson expressed his sentiments on this subject as 

 follows : "The grand inquiry pow is, shall we make our own 

 comforts, or go witliout them at the will of a foreign nation 1 He, 

 therefore, who is against domestic manufacturer, must be for i*e- 

 ducing us either to dependence on that foreign nation, or to be 

 elothed in skins, and to live like wild beasts in dens and caverns. 

 I am proud to say," he continues, " I am not one of them. Ex- 

 perience iias taught mc tliat manufactures are now as necessary 

 to our independence as to our comfort; and if those ulio are of 

 a dififerent opinion will keep pace with me in purchasing nothing 

 foreign, when an equivalent of domestic fabric can be obtained, 

 without any regard to difference of prioe, It will not be our fault 



