Protection of Home Industry. 
71 
for all our imports than she would without, and 
that in the face of all concessions, she is stimu¬ 
lating the production of cotton in Africa, in 
Asia, and the Islands of the Indian Ocean, and 
that they are hasting in their career as com¬ 
petitors beyond any thing heretofore known ? 
The South is sleeping on a volcano; and before 
she would acknowledge it to herself, if allowed 
to pursue her ■ own policy, Europe would be 
supplied with cotton at cheaper rates elsewhere, 
and her market at home would be ruined by 
the utter bankruptcy of our own manufactures. 
How vastly better for her to be warned in time. 
Let her raise less cotton, aud more grain and 
other products. The profit would be greater j 
snd the risk less. By sending a smaller quantity j 
abroad, prices would be higher. We believe if] 
her annual crop were one-fourth less, the cotton | 
grower would receive more in the aggregate 
for his crop than now. By stimulating produc¬ 
tion, he is his own most formidable competitor. 
In the mean time, our own manufacturers have 
been advancing, and by a judicious protection 
will continue to advance beyond anything the 
world has ever seen, and will in time afford an j 
unlimited market for the raw material. We' 
consume now as much as our total production j 
twenty years ago, and an amount equal to that; 
manufactured by Great Britain at that time, j 
We are now only twenty years behind the j 
greatest manufacturing nation in the world ! j 
What a destiny remains for the United States if j 
we have wisdom (o acheive it! 
Circumstances at no one period of our histo-1 
ry, have been so favorable to our growth, if 
properly used, as at the present moment. Ow¬ 
ing to the distress abroad, every vessel now com¬ 
ing from Europe is crowded with intelligent 
and industrious emigrants.* Call into use the 
dormant capital that is now hoarded up from ap¬ 
prehension of its total loss ; call into active ope¬ 
ration the millions of manufacturinginvestments 
now idle and unproductive, by a sufficient and 
permanent protection, and we fix all thisemi-j 
gration immovably to our soil; and as much j 
more behind, as the persuasion of those with us,! 
and the example of their own success, will in¬ 
duce to follow. Though we cannot afford to 
carry bread to Europe to feed her industrious 
citizens, we offer them every facility to come 
here and bake it for. themselves; and if we are 
unwilling to go there to purchase the fabrics of 
her artizans, we solicit their aid in making them 
on our own soil. 
* The number of emigrant passengers that have 
arrived in this port from Europe, from Jan. 1 to May 
14, 1842, is 15,908, being an excess of 9,338 over the 
the arrivals during the same time in 1841. They are, 
generally of the best class of farmers and mechanics 
who for want of employment at the east, are pushing 
for the interior and the fertile lands in the far west. 
We have seen there is no reciprocity in our 
intercourse with Europe. Let us give up then 
this phantom of free trade , a thing British 
statesmen are fond of pensioning their distin¬ 
guished writers to promulgate to the world, as 
eminently worthy their imitation, but which 
they are most especially careful to eschew them¬ 
selves. 3 Tis a dream unworthy our waking 
hours. Let us cherish the operations of our 
own Home Industry already commenced, and 
aid in developing new resources of employment 
and wealth. We have enough of every variety 
of original materials, to supply ourselves. To 
make use of the means already in our posses¬ 
sion, is the most obvious, as well as the most 
politic course we can pursue. We have a con¬ 
tinent to operate in—a land of surpassing fer¬ 
tility, stretching through 22° of latitude, and 40° 
of longitude, and embracing every variety of 
soil, climate, and production. This is almost every 
where well watered, and furnishing abundantly 
a natural manufacturing power, far beyond any 
other portion of the globe. And where this is 
wanting, exhaustless mines of coal offer their 
gratuitous treasures for our use. Can we be so 
insane as to forego all these manifest advantages 
at our hands, and seek those entangling allian¬ 
ces from the old world, the father of hiscountry so 
justly deprecated ? Free trade is a chimera of the 
brain, ’tis impossible in practice, and if possible 
would still result in the loss of the exchange. 
The sovereigns of Europe talk of Free trade, 
but they act monopoly. They will have the 
Lion’s share. They offer us no other terms. 
We have been hewers of wood and drawers of 
water, till our patience is exhausted. We have 
only to resolve we will be so no longer, and our 
emancipation is already completed. The people 
—the people have only to tell their vicegerents 
at Washington that their minds are deliberately 
but unalterably made up in favor of protection , 
and they will afford it. 3 Tis the only tribunal 
we can approach for this object. The states 
have voluntarily yielded up this right. It exists 
with Congress, or it exists nowhere. Let us 
then see to it, that they faithfully execute this 
trust. It was one of the express objects of their 
organization , that they should foster and en¬ 
courage American Industry , and defend it from 
European exaction , 
This done, we shall hear the notes of joy and 
gladness again resounding throughout the coun¬ 
try, instead of the wail of sorrow and despair. 
Then shall we see the husbandman rewarded in 
his toil, and the artizan and manufacturer sus¬ 
tained in their praiseworthy and patriotic efforts. 
Then shall we see new and unusual products, 
with augmented ones already familiar. Then 
shall we have prosperity, abundance and con¬ 
tentment at home, and credit and consideration 
abroad. R* 
