mutably fixed in favour of that policy, that it abandoned the power of protection. But, he contended, in the first place, that a suspension of the exercise of the power was not an abandonment of it; for the power was in the constitution according to our theory-was put there by its framers, and could only be dislodged by the people. After the year 1842, the bill provided that the power should be exercised in a certain mode. There were four modes by which the industry of the country could be protected:

First, the absolute prohibition of rival foreign articles. That was totally unattempted by the bill: but it was competent to the wisdom of the government to exert the power whenever they wished. Second, the imposition of duties in such a manner as to have no reference to any object but revenue. When we had a large public debt in 1816, the duties yielded 37 millions and paid so much more of the debt, and subsequently they yielded but eight or ten millions, and paid so much less of the debt. Sometimes we had to trench on the sinking fund. Now we have no public debt to absorb the surplus revenue, and no motive for continuing the duties. No man can look at the condition of the country and say that we can carry on this system, with accumulating revenue, and no practicable way of expending it. The third mode was attempted last session, in a resolution which he had the honour to submit last year, and which in fact ultimate

ly formed the basis of the act which finally passed both houses. This was, to raise as much revenue as was wanted for the use of the government, and no more, but to raise it from the protected and not from the unprotected articles. He would say that he regretted most deeply that the greater part of the country would not suffer this principle to prevail. It ought to prevailand the day, in his opinion, would come when it would be adopted as the permanent policy of the country. Shall we legislate for our own wants or that of a foreign country? To protect our own interests in opposition to foreign legislation was the basis of this system. The fourth mode in which protection could be afforded to domestic industry was to admit free of duty every article which aided the operations of the manufacturers. These were the four modes for protecting our industry; and to those who say that the bill abandons the power of protection, he would reply that it did not touch that power; and that the fourth mode, so far from being abandoned, is extended and upheld by the bill. The most that can be objected to the bill by those with whom he had cooperated to support the protective system, was that, in consideration of nine and a half years of peace, certainty and stability, the manufacturers relinquished some advantages which they now enjoyed. What was the principle which had always been contended for in this and in the other house? That, after the

accumulation of capital and skill, the manafacturers would stand alone unaided by the government, in competition with the imported articles from any quarter. Now give us time; cease all fluctuations and agitations, for nine years, and the manufactures, in every branch, will sustain themselves against foreign competition. If we can see our way clearly for nine years to come, we can safely leave to posterity to provide for the rest. If the tariff be overthrown, as may be its fate next session, the country will be plunged into extreme distress and agitation. I, said Mr. Clay, want harmony. I wish to see the restoration of those ties which have carried us triumphantly through two wars. I delight not in this perpetual turmoil. Let us have peace, and become once more united as a band of brothers,

It may be said that the farming interest cannot subsist under a twenty per cent. ad valorem duty. His reply was, "sufficient for the day is the evil thereof." He would leave it to the day when the reduction took effect, to settle the question. When the reduction takes place, and the farmer cannot live under it, what will he do? I will tell you, said Mr. Clay, what he ought to do. He ought to try it-make a fair experiment of it-and if he cannot live under it, let him come here and say that he is bankrupt, and ruined. If then nothing can be done to relieve him-sir, I will not pronounce the words, for I will believe that something will be done, and that relief will be

afforded without hazarding the peace and integrity of the Union. This confederacy is an excellent contrivance, but it must be managed with delicacy and skill. There were an infinite variety of prejudices and local interests to be regarded; but they should all be made to yield to the Union.

If the system proposed cannot be continued, let us try some intermediate system, before we think of any other dreadful alternative. Sir, it will be said, on the other hand-for the objections are made by the friends of protection principally-that the time is too long; that the intermediate reductions are too inconsiderable, and that there is no guaranty that, at the end of the time stipulated, the reduction proposed would be allowed to take effect. In the first place it should be recollected, the diversity of interests of the countrythe measures of the government which preceded the establishment of manufactures-the public faith in some degree pledged for their security; and the ruin in which rash and hasty legislation would involve them. He would not dispute about terms. It would not, in a court of justice, be maintained that the public faith was pledged for the protection of manufactures; but there were other pledges which men of honour are bound by, besides those of which the law can take cognizance.

If we excite, in our neighbour, a reasonable expectation which induces him to take a particular course of business, we are in honour bound to redeem the

pledge thus tacitly given. Can any man doubt that a large portion of our citizens believed that the system would be permanent? The whole country expected it. The security against any change of the system proposed by the bill, was in the character of the bill, as a compromise between two conflicting parties. If the bill should be taken by common consent, as we hope it will be-the history of the revenue will be a guaranty of its permanence. The circumstances under which it was passed will be known and recorded-and no one will disturb a system which was adopted with a view to give peace and tranquillity to the country.

The descending gradations by which he proposed to arrive at the minimum of duties, must be gradual. He never would consent to any precipitate operation to bring distress and ruin on the community.

Now, said Mr. C., viewing it in this light, it appeared that there were eight years and a half, and nine years and a half, taking the ultimate time, which would be an efficient protection. The remaining duties would be withdrawn by a biennial reduction. The protective principle must be said to be, in some measure, relinquished at the end of eight years and a half. This period could not appear unreasonable, and he thought that no member of the senate, or any portion of the country, ought to make the slightest objection. It now remained for him to consider the other objection-the want of a guaranty to their being an ulte

rior continuance of the duties imposed by the bill, on the expiration of the term which it prescribes. The best guaranties would be found in the circumstances under which the measure would be passed. If it was passed hy common consent; if it was passed with the assent of a portion-a considerable portion of those who had directly hitherto supported this system, and by a considerable portion of those who opposed it-if they declared their satisfaction with the measure, he had no doubt the rate of duties guarantied would be continued after the expiration of the term, if the country continued at peace. And, at the end of the term, when the experiment would have been made of the sufficiency of the mode of protection fixed by the bill, while the constitutional question had been suffered to lie dormant, if war should render it necessary, protection might be carried up to prohibition; while, if the country should remain at peace, and this measure go into full operation, the duties would be gradually lowered down to the revenue standard, which had been so earnestly wished for.

But suppose that he was wrong in all these views, for there were no guaranties, in one sense of the term, of human infallibility. Suppose a different state of things in the south—that this senate, from causes which he should not dwell upon now, but which were obvious to every reflecting man in this countrycauses which had operated for years past, and which continued

to operate. Suppose for a moment, that there should be a majority in the senate in favour of the southern views, and that they should repeal the whole system at once--what guaranty would we have that the repealing of the law would not destroy those great interests, which it was so important to preserve? What guaranty would you have that the thunders of those powerful manufacturers would not be directed against your capitol, because of this abandonment of their interests, and because you had given them no protection against foreign legislation. Sir, said Mr. C., if you carry your measure of repeal without the consent, at least, of a portion of those who are interested in the preservation of manufactures, you have no security, no guaranty, no certainty that any protection will be continued. But if the measure should be carried by the common consent of both parties, we shall have all security: history will faithfully record the transaction; narrate under what circumstances the bill was passed; that it was a pacifying measure; that it was as oil poured from the vessel of the Union to restore peace and harmony to the country. When all this was known, what congress, what legislature, would mar the guaranty? What man who is entitled to deserve the character of an American statesman, would stand up in his place in either house of congress, and disturb this treaty of peace and amity?

Sir, said Mr. C., I will not say that it may not be disturbed.

All that I say is, that here is alf the reasonable security that can be desired by those on the one side of the question, and much more than those on the other would have by any unfortunate concurrence of circumstances. Such a repeal of the whole system should be brought about, as would be cheerfully acquiesed in by all parties in this country. All parties might find in this measure some reasons for objection. And what human measure was there which was free from objectionable qualities. It had been remarked, and justly remarked, by the great father of our country himself, that if that great work which is the charter of our liberties, and under which we have so long flourished, had been submitted, article by article, to all the different states composing this Union, that the whole would have been rejected; and yet, when the whole was presented together, it was accepted as a whole. He, (Mr. C.) would admit that his friends did not get all they could wish for; and the gentlemen on the other side did not obtain all they might desire; but both would gain all that in his humble opinion was proper to be given in the present condition of this country. It might be true that there would be loss and gain in this measure. But how was this loss and gain distributed? Among our countrymen. What we lose no foreign hand gains; and what we gain, has been no loss to any foreign power. It is among ourselves the distribution takes place. The distribution is founded on that

great principle of compromise and concession which lies at the bottom of our institutions, which gave birth to the constitution itself, and which has continued to regulate us on our onward march, and conducted the nation to glory and renown.

It remained for him now to touch another topic. Objections had been made to all legislation at this session of congress, resulting from the attitude of one of the states of this confedracy. He confessed that he felt a very strong repugnance to any legislation at all on this subject at the commencement of the session, principally because he misconceived the purposes, as he had found from subsequent explanation, which that state had in view. Under the influence of more accurate information, he must say, that the aspect of things since the commencement of the session had, in his opinion, greatly changed. When he came to take his seat on that floor, he had supposed that a member of this Union had taken an attitude of defiance and hostility against the authority of the general government. He had imagined that she had arrogantly required, that we should abandon at once a system which had long been the settled policy of this country. Supposing that she had manifested this feeling, and taken up this position, he (Mr. C.) had, in consequence, felt a disposition to hurl defiance back again, and to impress upon her the necessity of the performance of her duties as a member of this Union. But since his arrival here, he found

that South Carolina did not contemplate force, for it was denied and denounced by that state. She disclaimed it-and asserted that she is merely making an experiment. That experiment is this; by a course of state legislation, and by a change in her fundamental laws, she is endeavouring by her civil tribunals to prevent the general government from carrying the laws of the United States into operation, within her limits. That she has professed to be her object. Her appeal was not to arms, but to another power; not to the sword but to the law. He must say, and he would say it with no intention of disparaging that state, or any other of the states-it was a feeling unworthy of her. As the purpose of South Carolina was not that of force, this at once disarmed, divested legislation of one principal objection, which it appeared to him existed against it at the commencement of this session. Her purposes are all of a civil nature. She thinks she can oust the U. States from her limits; and unquestionably she had taken good care to prepare her judges beforehand by swearing them to decide in her favour. If we submitted to her, we should thus stand but a poor chance of obtaining justice. She disclaimed any intention of resorting to force, unless we should find it indispensable to execute the laws of the Union by applying force to her. It seemed to him the aspect of the attitude of South Carolina had changed-or rather, the new light which he had obtained,