44 
Protection of Home Industry, 
Tlie Protection of Home Industry, 
We shall offer our readers no apology for the fol¬ 
lowing brief remarks on a subject that vitally con¬ 
cerns them , in connection with each of their fellow- 
citizens. ’Tis in vain we enrich and prepare our 
ground—in vain that we carefully select our seeds— 
in vain we apply a skilful and assiduous tillage—in 
vain that the all-bounteous Deity sends us propitious 
seasons, and we are suffered to reap luxuriant har¬ 
vests ; if, through the mal-administration of the gov¬ 
ernment, and the unequal intercourse we have with 
other nations, the very excess of our blessings is but j 
an additional means to weigh us down and depress 
still further the productions of the soil. We should 
be recreant to our trust, did we fail to point out equal¬ 
ly the best modes for the successful cultivation of the 
soil, and the means for securing the full enjoyments 
of this success. Most eminently is this our duty un¬ 
der the republican government we enjoy, which se¬ 
cures the proud privilege to the citizens themselves , ei¬ 
ther directly or by proxy, of prescribing such an ad¬ 
ministration of affairs as they may deem essential to 
their interest and prosperity. 
The National Convention assembled for the Pro¬ 
tection of Home Industry, met in this city on the 
5th of April, and adjourned, after a sitting of four 
days. About 400 members were present from a ma¬ 
jority of states in the country, out of three times that 
number appointed, which the busy season of th’e year 
and other causes prevented from attending. A mass 
of facts and statistics relating to the condition of the 
nation and its business, in the various departments of 
agriculture, manufactures, and commerce, were elici¬ 
ted, which are well calculated to arouse every patriot 
throughout this wide-spread Union. No intelligent 
man, after listening to the reports and debates made 
on this occasion, could fail to see what has been the 
cause of our present embarrassments, and the only re¬ 
medies that can now be applied for removing them. 
They are clear and palpable as light itself; and “ the 
way-faring man though a fool, need not err therein.” 
These disastrous times have been brought on us by 
the combined agency of our local and general govern¬ 
ments, and individual operations. The first in these 
series of errors, was such a reduction in the rate of 
duties on foreign importations, as to offer an induce¬ 
ment for importations from abroad to an amount far 
beyond our ability to pay. 
The second was the introduction of an extended 
paper money circulation <5n a fictitious basis, beyond 
any thing this or any other country has ever seen 
since the days of the old “ Continental paper.” 
The third and last great cause which followed as a 
matter of course from the former, was the neglect of 
the legitimate occupations of the productive classes, 
and a too general abandonment by all, of those habits 
of industry and economy, that are indispensable to a 
healthy, stable and prosperous condition of a country. 
The result of the whole matter is, that we are in debt 
to an enormous extent in Europe, which we are una¬ 
ble at present to pay; we have mutual embarrass¬ 
ment and distrust at home; society, and the occupa¬ 
tions of the community are unsettled and disordered; 
we have yet too many extravagant habits upon us; 
we are still importing too largely; and we have r no 
outlet for our agricultural 'productions. Every occupa¬ 
tion equally participates in this distress. No; we 
must except one class, the office holders, state, gene¬ 
ral and municipal, and we may add, our conscript fath¬ 
ers also, the legislators of the country. They are 
thriving and prosperous, and while labor and the 
fruits of labor can be had for half its accustomed 
price, they are flourishing in all the prosperity of fat 
offices and undiminished salaries. The man of wealth 
jtoo, who has his coin securely hoarded, can enjoy his 
! luxuries at half their ordinary cost, and if property 
!be his ambition, a very little of his hoarded stores 
jwill buy almost as much as he can grasp. But we 
!are wandering from our subject. 
I The reports of the Convention embracing almost 
j every subject of American occupation, were clear and 
luminous, and full of instruction. They were almost 
! invariably based on the relation each bears to the 
'common parent of all, a well sustained agriculture. 
|Beginning with the firm and majestic trunk, whose 
;: roots reach deep and wide in a luxuriant soil, they 
followed it up through all its branches to the topmost 
twig, and showed the expanding fruit, which has 
[drawn almost exclusively from the bounteous fulness 
[of their mother earth. 
j The great iron business is the sole product of our soil. 
| The ore and the fuel are hers alone, and she sustains 
[the labor that shapes and fashions it, almost exclu- 
[sively on our own productions. So of the various 
[implements and manufactures that are based upon it. 
Their materials are furnished, and every thing but the 
superfluities of the artizans, if we except the cast 
steel and a few minor things, from our own produc¬ 
tions. ’Tis the same with our woollen and cotton, 
our silk, hemp, and nearly all our other manufactures. 
They are furnished directly, and almost exclusively 
from our soil. It is computed, that to furnish the first, 
we have 20,000,000 sheep, producing annually over 
40,000,000 lbs. of wool, worth $12,000,000. The 
agricultural capital invested in this stock and the land 
and fixtures required for their accommodation, is nos 
less than $200,000,00011 The fuel and sustenance, 
the transportation of the materials, and the manufac¬ 
tured articles, all centre in the soil, and go directly 
into the hands of the farmers; leaving but a com¬ 
mission to the manufacturer, who has received the* 
materials from the agriculturist, and skilfully and la¬ 
boriously put them into shape for his future conve 
nience and use. The fisheries too, draw their whoV 
outfit from the farmer. Their anchors and chains, 
and iron fastenings, and cordage and sails, their tim¬ 
ber, paints, oil and provisions, are all directly or indi¬ 
rectly derived from the products of the earth. 
But in all these various occupations there has been 
a blight; they are diseased to the core ; and without 
a speedy remedy, these fair products of American 
growth must wither and die ; and if they fall, it needs 
no prophet to foresee, our agriculture must be involv¬ 
ed in the general ruin. Already our ports are groan¬ 
ing under the surplus productions of our agriculture. 
We are taking it from one market to another, and ea¬ 
gerly asking, Who will buy 1 We have more than 
we want at home, with our present organization of 
employment, and Europe, that has almost drained our 
last shilling of specie, in exchange for her silks, and 
wines, and gew-gaws; sagacious Europe steadily per¬ 
sists in excluding from her ports, all the substantial 
of life we offer her, in payment or exchange for the 
miserable trash we have so lavishly bought of her. 
She is too wily to receive her dues from us in the only 
way we are able to pay. While she is filling every 
nook and corner of our country with her wares, with 
a vigilance that never tires, she is rigid in excluding 
almost every production of ours; save the cottor 
which is an indispensable element of her prosperity 
And even this she will soon provide for her own con¬ 
sumption, and we shall be left without the privilege 
of furnishing her a single article essential to her 
wants. The chairman of the committee on agricul¬ 
ture, Hon. Harmar Denny of Pennsylvania, exhibi¬ 
ted returns from our exports from 1790 to 1840, from 
which it appears that the exports of beef for the last 10 
years , was only half what it teas for the same period 50 
years ago! And this too when bur cultivated lands have 
