The former are under the necessity of importing and of consuming more of the foreign manufactures, than the Southern States; and though they are a hardy race, they are not able to encounter the severities and rigors of the Northern winters without a much greater quantity of clothing than is necessary for the people in the Southern climates.
Sir, the people in the Eastern States have been reduced in their supplies; they have not been able to carry on their ordinary domestic manufactures for want of the necessary means to prepare the crude article for manufacture; and during this long session they have been memorializing Congress, and praying that they might be allowed to import the article of wire, and of such size as is not manufactured within the limits of the United States, for the making of cards, necessary to prepare cotton and wool for the making of cloth; but they have not been permitted. Many have solicited Congress for leave to import such goods and merchandise as were ordered and paid for before the issuing of the President's proclamation in November, 1810; but without success.
Mr. Potter was in favor of a recommitment, but for other reasons than those assigned by the mover. He wished it referred, to give an opportunity to ascertain the sentiments of the House on the subject of the repeal, or the partial suspension, of the present non-importation act.
Mr. P. said he had found more pleasure in the pursuit of many of the things of this world, than in the possession of them; and he found it, in some measure, so with those who had been very zealous in the pursuit of war. They appeared to him to have taken more pleasure in the pursuit of their favorite object, than in the enjoyment of it; and he was not sorry to see that the war spirit had already began to evaporate, and the cold calculating spirit, so much reprobated at the commencement of this session, becoming more fashionable.
Mr. P. had been induced to believe from the zealous patriotism displayed this session, that this was to be a fighting, and not a trading war; that those who had so generously pledged their lives in support of the present war, would have had an opportunity of fighting, and that those who had in the same manner pledged their fortunes in support of any measure adopted by the Administration, would have an opportunity of paying.
Mr. P. thought we had commenced this war for the protection of our commerce and the encouragement of our manufactories, and not for the purpose of extending the commerce and encouraging the manufactories of Great Britain; as by this war, with the partial importation act, (contemplated for the purpose of revenue,) we at once destroy our own commerce, by placing in the hands of the English the greatest part we have at sea, leaving the remainder useless, to rot at our wharves. We destroy our manufactories of cotton by the strange selection, in our partial importation act. We give to Great Britain advantages in this war, that she has not enjoyed in time of peace. We surrender to her what many say she has been contending for—the commerce of the world—by giving her an opportunity of supplying us with her merchandise under the flag of her friends; and, in the first onset of this war, implicitly acknowledge our dependence upon them; that we cannot do without their manufactures to clothe the nation, nor without their commerce, to raise a revenue to carry on the war. Mr. P. said, if he had been in favor of this war, it would have been painful to him to be compelled to acknowledge that the people in this country, who pretended to sigh so much for war, would not bear the least privations, or consent in any event to pay taxes, but must depend upon their enemy to clothe them, and to furnish them with an indirect commerce to raise a revenue to fight them with. Mr. P. said a war thus carried on must be without an object—very ruinous to this country and of long duration; for, if Great Britain can send her manufactures into the United States at high prices, and purchase our produce almost at her own price, and be the exclusive carrier, both ways, in her own ships, under the flag of neutrals entirely under her control; she can have no object in making peace.
Mr. P. said if the non-importation act should be repealed or suspended in part, agreeable to the letter of the Secretary of the Treasury, and we are to have a trading war, we shall have a revenue sufficient to answer all our purposes, without increasing our duties at all, as we can disband our army and reduce our expenses, as the difference of expense between a trading and a fighting war will be so great that the present rate of duties will answer all our purposes; but, if the non-importation act should not be repealed or suspended, we shall have no importations of importance for the double duties to operate upon; for, if you double your duties under such circumstances, by which you raise one million of dollars, what is the operation upon the consumer? Allowing, which is certainly the fact, that the whole amount of goods in the country at this time is equal to one year's importation, which would have given the Government a revenue of at least fifteen millions of dollars, the present holder of the goods in this country will immediately add the double duties to his present price, which will be increased in consequence of the war; so that the consumers will have to pay the present holders of the goods now in this country at least fifteen millions of dollars, of which the Government's obtaining one million of dollars on future importations, you compel the consumer to pay at least sixteen.
Mr. P. said he would for a moment examine the letter from the Secretary of the Treasury on the subject of revenue, recommending a partial suspension of the present non-importation act. He calculates that, by doubling the duties on such partial importation, allowing that we should import only half as much from Great Britain in time of war as in peace, that the duties would amount to the same. Here again, you have no mercy on the consumers; as the operation in the first place will be to give Great Britain double her prices for her goods, on which the Government gets double duties, all which is to be paid by the consumer, when the price of his produce is to decrease in much the same proportion.
Mr. P. had heard much, on former occasions, about the encouragement of our manufactories, and, although he never was himself for encouraging them at the expense of the farmer, or the depression of our commerce, yet he could but lament that, after the commercial spirit of the country was almost broken down, and many of our commercial and seafaring citizens had been compelled to quit their former employment and resort to manufacturing for the support of their families, that the labor of that valuable class of citizens were next to be assailed; for, in examining the bill on our tables, in consequence of the letter of the Secretary of the Treasury, recommending the partial importation, what will be the effect upon the cotton factories? All cotton cloth under fifteen pence and over three shillings per square yard, prime cost, is to be prohibited, and all between these two prices are to be imported, so that the quality almost exclusively manufactured, and in general use in this country, is to be permitted.
Mr. P. thought this a very left-handed way of encouraging the manufactures of this country; but it seems as though every consideration in time of war as well as peace, is to be sacrificed for the purpose of collecting money from the people in a manner the most likely for them to remain in ignorance of the burdens that the Government imposes upon them.