Debates in the Several State Conventions/Volume 4/Tariff
Tariff.
House of Representatives, April 26, 1820.
Mr. CLAY. Sir, friendly as I am to the existence of domestic manufactures, I would not give them unreasonable encouragement by protecting duties. Their growth ought to be gradual, but sure. I belie.ve all the circumstances of the present period highly favorable to their success. But they are the youngest and the weakest interest of the state. Agriculture wants but little or no protection against the regulations of foreign powers. The advantages of our position, and the cheapness, and abundance, and fertility of our land, afford to that greatest interest of the state almost all the protection it wants. As it should be, it is strong and flourishing; or, if it be not at this moment prosperous, it is not because its produce is not ample, but because, depending, as we do, altogether upon a foreign market for the sale of the surplus of that produce, the foreign market is glutted. Our foreign trade, having almost exclusively engrossed the protecting care of government, wants no further legislative aid; and whatever depression it may now experience, it is attributable to causes beyond the control of this government. The abundance of capital, indicated by the avidity with which loans are sought, at the reduced rate of five per centum; the reduction in the wages of labor; and the decline in the price of property of every kind, as well as that of agricultural produce,—all concur favorably for domestic manufactures. Now, as when we arranged the existing tariff, is the auspicious moment for government to step in and cheer and countenance them. We did too little then, and I endeavored to warn this house of the effects of inadequate protection. We were called upon, at that time, by the previous pledges we had given, by the inundation of foreign fabrics, which was to be anticipated from their free admission after the termination of the war, and by the lasting interests of this country, to give them efficient support. We did not do it; but let us not now repeat the error. Our great mistake has been in the irregularity of the action of the measures of this government upon manufacturing industry. At one period it is stimulated too high, and then, by an opposite course of policy, it is precipitated into a condition of depression too low. First, there came the embargo; then non-intercourse, and other restrictive measures followed; and finally, that greatest of all stimuli to domestic fabrication, war. During all that long period, we were adding to the positive effect of the measures of government all the moral encouragement which results from popular resolves, legislative resolves, and other manifestations of the public will, and the public wish to foster our home manufactures, and to render our confederacy independent of foreign powers. The peace ensued, and the country was flooded with the fabrics of other countries; and we, forgetting all our promises, coolly and philosophically talk of leaving things to themselves; making up our deficiency of practical good sense by the stores of learning which we collect from theoretical writers. I, too, sometimes amuse myself with the visions of these writers; and, if I do not forget, one of the best among them enjoins it upon a country to protect its industry against the influence of the prohibitions and restrictions of foreign countries, which operate upon it.
Let us manifest, by the passage of this bill, that Congress does not deserve the reproaches, which have been cast on it, of insensibility to the wants and the sufferings of the people.