branches of iron manufactories, which are yet in their infancy, they may all be contemplated as objects not difficult to be acquired.
To insure the end, it seems equally safe and prudent to extend the duty, ad valorem, upon all manufactures of iron, or of which iron is the article of chief value, to 10 per cent.
Firearms and other military weapons may, it is conceived, be placed, without inconvenience, in the class of articles rated at 15 per cent. There are already manufactories of these articles which only require the stimulus of a certain demand to render them adequate to the supply of the United States.
It would also be a material aid to manufactures of this nature, as well as a means of public security, if provision should be made for an annual purchase of military weapons of home manufacture to a certain determinate extent, in order to the formation of arsenals, and to replace from time to time such as should be withdrawn for use, so as always to have in store the quantity of each kind which should be deemed a competent supply.
But it may hereafter deserve legislative consideration, whether manufactories of all the necessary weapons of war ought not to be established, on account of the Government itself. Such establishments are agreeable to the usual practice of nations, and that practice seems founded on sufficient reason.
There appears to be an improvidence in leaving these essential instruments of national defense to the casual speculation of individual adventure—a resource which can less be relied upon in this case than in most others, the articles in question not being objects of ordinary and indispensable private consumption or use. As a general rule, manufactories on the immediate account of government are to be avoided; but this seems to be one of the few exceptions which that rule admits, depending on very special reasons.
Manufactures of steel, generally, or of which steel is the article of chief value, may with advantage be placed in the class of goods rated at 7½ per cent. As manufactures of this kind have not yet made any considerable progress, it is a reason for not rating them as high as those of iron; but as this material is the basis of them, and as their extension is not less practicable than important, it is desirable to promote it by a somewhat higher duty than the present.
A question arises, how far it might be expedient to permit the importation of iron, in pigs and bars, free from duty. It would certainly be favorable to manufactures of this article; but the doubt is, whether it might not interfere with its production.
Two circumstances, however, abate, if they do not remove apprehension, on this score; one is the considerable increase of price which has been already remarked, and which renders it probable that the free admission of foreign iron would not be inconsistent with an adequate profit to the proprietors of iron works; the other is the augmentation of demand which would be likely to attend the increase of manufactures of the article, in consequence of the additional encouragements proposed to be given. But caution, nevertheless, in a matter of this kind is most advisable. The measure suggested ought, perhaps, rather to be contemplated subject to the lights of further experience than immediately adopted.
