The Congressional Globe, Volume 13, Part 2: Twenty-Eighth Congress, First Session Page: 469
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April, 1844.
APPENDIX TO THE CONGRESSIONAL GLOBE.
469
28th Cong 1st Sess.
Wool and Woollens—Mr. Collamer.
H. of Reps
scale of reduction of duties, which gave to this in-
terest a regular decline. By the operation of that
law, on the 31st of December, 1841, the duty on
wool and woollens came down to twenty-eight per
cent. To this point the factories struggled on, but
here they stopped; and no market was found for the
clip of wool taken from the sheep in the spring of
1842. It became practically certain that it was
utterly useless to protect wool while manufactured
woollens were imported at reduced duties. It was
like the one broommaker who asked the other how
he could sell his brooms so cheap; for said he, "I
steal my timber, and yet I cannot make them so
cheap." "Oh," says the other, "I steal my brooms
already made." Our manufacturers stopped purcas-
ing wool because they could go no further. 1 ut-
terly deny that it was done for any other cause.
Men who have invested their all in factories never
close them while they can proceed and prosper.
With their wool of 1842 on hand, our farmers look-
ed with anxiety to the.action of Congress. No sales
were made, except a small quantity, when informa-
tion came of the passage of the little tariff bill. This
was immediately stopped by news of its veto.
When the tariff act of 1842 passed, it would have
produced an immediate effect, but there came, boom-
ing over the troubled waters after it, the war cry
of repeal, repeal, which destroyed its operation;
and it was not until the news from Tennessee,
informing us of the prospect of the election of
two whig Senators, gave some degree of con-
fidence to its stability, that the manufacturers be-
gan, cautiously, to purchase wool. Since then this
interest has slowly progressed, and American
wool has risen from twenty to twenty-five cents
per pound to thirty-five and forty cents. These
prices are not so high as were received formerly un-
der the operation of the act of 1828, and in the in-
flated times of 1836, but they are living and im-
proving prices, and have the hope of stability.
From this brief history of this subject, and as the
result of our own experience, I draw these,conclu-
sions: First. That the production and improvement
of wool was introduced into this country, from pub-
lic necessity, by the encouragement of the govern-
ment. Second. That our citizens have been induced
by the government to embark their labor and capital
m this pursuit. Third. That the manufactures of
wool must* be protected and fostered by discrimi-
nating duties, or no market can be found for the
wool grower. Fourth. That experiment has shown
that this interest rises and declines as the fostering
care of government is furnished or withdrawn.
It is idle, trifling, and worse, for practical legisla-
tors to indulge in visionary speculations of legisla-
ting for mankind or our country, as if all things
were as they should be; or indulge in the Utopian
notion that nations and men are by us to be placed
in a state of perfectibility. We must look at things
as they in fact now are.
Let us now inquire what is, in fact, the extent
and condition of this woollen interest. If it be still
of little importance, and is standing in the way of
greater interests, it may be policy to offer it up as a
sacrifice and holocaust to national prosperity; and,
in such case, the sufferers must take to themselves
the consolation of having suffered for their country's
good. But if it is found to have become a great in-
terest, interesting great numbers of our people, and
prosecuted without injury to any, and with national
advantage, then I trust it may not be offered up at
the fiat of party domination.
I hold in my hand what appears to me a great cu-
riosity. It is an English publication of 1842: "His-
tory of Woollen Manufactures, and Natural and
Commercial History of Sheep," by J. Bisehoff, esq.
It fully sustains its title, and contains a history of
wool, from the expedition of the Argonauts after
the golden fleecc, to this day, and a full view of the
present condition of its manufacture in all parts of
the world, with elaborate tables. But its curiosity
here consists principally in this, that it shows with
what lynx-eyed vigilance our movements and prog-
ress are watched on the other side of the Atlantic.
This work contains, carefully compiled from our
census returns of 1840, and before any such compi-
lation had been made in this country, very accurate
and exact tables, showing the population and statistics
of each State, and showing', with great precision,
(with the exception of two Slates—Kentucky and
Louisiana—not therein returned,) the number of
bushels of wheat, number of sheep, pounds of wool,
and all other stock and productions. It now ap-
pears, from full returns, that in 1840 there were m
the United States 19,311,374 sheep, which produced
35,802,114 pounds of wool; and that there was then
invested in the woollen factories a capital of $15,-
765,124. The State of Vermont, containing only a
population of 291,948 persons, had 1,681,819 sheep,
and produced 3,699,235 pounds of wool—being
about thirteen pounds of wool to each person. Ver-
mont, then, produced the largest quantity of wool of
any State except New York; and in pioportion to
her population, Vermont produced three times as
much as New York. (See appendix, table A.) A
very large proportion (probably over three-fourths)
of these 19,000,000 sheep are fine-woolled sheep;
that is, they are improved by the marino and Saxon
blood sheep, and their wool,.at the present moment,
worth from 25 to 50 cents per pound. Such is the
amount of this interest. Is it not worthy of our re-
gard? Let us now proceed to inquire what will be
the effect of the bill under discussion on the wool
and woollens of this country. Here, sir, it would
be sufficient to say, we have tried it.
It has long been said that experience is a dear
school, but that fools will learn in no other.
From this I have understood that all men, even
fools, would learn in this school; and that "a
burnt child dreads the fire." By the operation
of the compromise act, under the gradual re-
duction of the duty on wool and woollens, we learn-
ed the measure of possible reduction which could be
endured, and the precise point where the operation
of vitality ceased. It was, as I have already stated,
when the duty came down to 28 per cent., and
when, by law, it was to come down to 20 in six
months, that all sales of wool ceased. Now, the
utmost that this bill provides is, on fine wool and
woollens 30 per cent, on the cost in foreign mar-
kets, subject to all imposition of false invoices,
and that this, at the end of one year, shall be re-
duced to 25 per cent. The only difference between
this now proposed, and the operation under which
this interest was ruined before, is, that now 30 per
cent, is offered instead of 28, and then entire death
was decreed in six months, and now in one year.
The difference is quite too slight to lead any man of
common sense to doubt that the result must be as it
was before.
But it becomes us not to overlook the report of
the Committee of Ways and Means, accompanying
this bill. That report is to be regarded as an ex-
ponent of the principles of the dominant party in
this House, on the subject of a tariff. There may
be individual members of that party who do not
subscribe to its doctripes; but they constitute the
individual exceptions to the general rule. Of this
manifesto of principles, twenty thousand extra
copies have been ordered, and they are distributed
as leaves for the healing of political maladies. This
report contains the principle, the perfect, the ideal,
of what constitutes the limitations, both of the pow-
er and the duty of the government on this subject.
The bill is a visible correlative, or sensible and prac-
tical manifestation, of the principle in the report.
The report, which has the rare merit of being un-
ambiguous, in defining the limitations of the powers
of Congress, confines its remarks to that delegation
of power contained in these words of the constitu-
tion:
■'Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, du-
ties, imposts, and excises, to pay the debts and provide for
the common defence and general welfare.''
The report holds that Congress possesses no pow-
er but to impose a duty for revenue; that when a
duty is such as that increasing its rate would in-
crease the amount received, it is a revenue duty,
and Congress may increase it up to that rate where
it will raise most. But if, in experimenting for this
point, it should be accidently and unfortunately
raised so high as to diminish the importations, and
so lessen the amount of revenue received, then Con-
gress has exceeded its power, and it is its duty im-
mediately to reduce the rate of duty. That it is,
indeed, true, (and the committee seem to think that
it is much to be regretted that it is true,) that duties
of any kind do, to their extent, furnish protection to
domestic production, but they cQnsider that Con-
gress has no power to furnish any which it can pos-
sibly avoid. The result, then, is this: our market
must be given exclusively to the foreigner, for most
revenue can be raised when every article of man-
ufacture is imported. If the duty is, by this bill, or
shall hereafter be, so high on hoots or shoes, or
cloths, or any other article, as to induce an American
to make some, that will prevent some from being
imported, and so lessen the amount of revenue re-
ceived, and then Congress must reduce the rate of
duty so as again to let all be imported, and so destroy
the American producer. We are then distinctly to
understand, that this bill is intended to destroy all
protection or encouragement to our artisan, and no-
tice is given that, if it does not effect this now, new
provisions shall hereafter be made that will do it.
If the duty of 30 per cent, now, or25 per cent, next
year, should keep out any foreign wool and wool-
lens, then, by the doctrine of this report, it will be
the duty of Congress further to reduce the duty,
until the foreigner can bring in tie whole, for then
most revenue could be received into the treasury.
Adopt this doctrine, and such must be its result as
to every production of the artisan or manufacturer,
unless they will live as poor and work as cheap as
in Europe. With the American manufacturer and
artisan must go down all who rely on them for a
market, including all growers of wool.
Is it true that such is the extent of the power of
Congress, and that such are the limitations of its
exercise? If so, wretched, indeed, is the power of
this nation to protect itself among the nations of the
earth. We must become an easy prey to their cu-
pidity; a victim to all their regulations and monop-
olies. But I entirely deny that such is the limita-
tion of the power and duty of Congress. The
committee seems to have carefully excluded from
consideration that, by the constitution, Congress has
power "to regulate commerce with foreign nations,
among the States, and with the Indian trides."
While we were colonies of Great Britain, our
trade was regulated entirely by Parliament, or by
the King and council; and watchful and restrictive
was their regulation. Every course was ta-
ken to secure an entire dependence of the colonies
on England for all articles of manufacture, and !o
prevent their production here. Such were their reg-
ulations to prevent the erection of tilt-hammers, or
slitting-mills, to forbid any mechanic from having
any large number of apprentices, to prohibit carry-
ing articles of mechanics' work made here from one
colony to another for sale. Indeed, it was said the
Americans ought not to be permitted to make a hob-
nail. At the same time, the trade was confined,
with a few exceptions, to a direct trade with Eng-
land. This was one of the principal causes of the
revolution, and this condition of dependence was
what deeply aggravated the difficulties and . suffer-
ings of the struggle for independence. Hence it
was inserted in the declaration of independence, as
one of the causes of complaint against Great Brit-
ain: "For cutting off our trade with all quarters of
the world."
After the close of the revolution, each State made its
own tariff of duties and regulations of trade, and
this produced inextricable confusion. It was the at-
tempt to produce some uniformity on this subject,
which produced the first meeting at Annapolis,
which resulted in the subsequent meeting at Phila-
delphia that formed the constitution. It is indeed
true, that the want of power in Congress, under the
articles of confederation, to lay and collcctt&xas by
its own power, was a matter deeply calling for cor-
rection, and that was corrected in the constitution,
by that grant of power "to lay and collect taxes,
duties," &c. But the want of power in Congress
to make all necessary laws to regulate our trade, so
as to be uniform for all the States, was quite as
much realized. This was corrected by granting to
Congress, in the constitution, the power "to regu-
late commerce with foreign nations, and among tha
States, and with the Indian tribes."
Trade may, in a great measure, be regulated by
the form in which a tariff of duties is formed, and
in this way the two powers may be exercised in the
same act; but it is not true that such is the only
power which Congress has over the subject, or that
snch is its only mode of exercising that power.
Congress has power over the subject of commerce
to promote or prohibit any particular object of com-
merce, and this it may do in any form, in its own
discretion. It has done this by granting bounties
to fisheries. Was that raising revenue? Congress
has always, by law, excluded foreigners from par-
ticipating in the carrying trade from one port to
another in this country. This has always been ex-
clusively preserved to our own ships, and foreign
competition has been prohibited. Was this laying_
a duty for revenue? So, too, I insist, the power of
Congress to regulate commerce extends to the sub-
ject-matter of commerce, as much as to the mode
of conducting it. If Congress has the power to
prohibit any article from importation, it may dis-
courage it or prohibit it by a heavy burden of duty,
as well as by express direction. Congress has the
same power over the regulation of foreign commcrce
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United States. Congress. The Congressional Globe, Volume 13, Part 2: Twenty-Eighth Congress, First Session, book, 1844; Washington D.C.. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth2368/m1/479/: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.