Page:Cambridge Modern History Volume 7.djvu/387

 1815] The Peace. Demand for Protection. 355 per pound sterling at New York. In one week the auction sales of British goods exceeded $460,000. During the same week the custom- house receipts from British goods at New York, Boston, and Philadelphia rose to $1,300,000. During April, May, and June, 1815, the duties paid at the New York custom-house on goods, wares, and merchandise brought from England amounted to $3,960,000. When the news of the great profits and quick sales at auction reached Great Britain, whole fleets of vessels were loaded and despatched to America. On one day in November, 1815, twenty square-rigged ships came up the harbour of New York. On another day fifteen ships and eight brigs arrived ; and what went on at New York was repeated at every seaport along the Atlantic coast. The gainers by this unusual trade were the British manufacturers, the British ship-owners, the auctioneers, and the Federal and State treasuries. The sufferers were the American importers, manufacturers, and wholesale merchants, who without delay appealed to Congress for protection. The manufacturers of cotton cloth, in their memorial, assured Congress that unless all cotton fabrics made at places beyond the Cape of Good Hope were absolutely shut out and heavy duties laid on those brought from other lands, an industry which gave employment to millions of capital and thousands of hands would go down in ruin. The woollen manufacturers of Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware declared that, unless protected by a heavy ad valorem duty on woollen goods, investments representing $12,000,000 and a yearly production of $19,000,000 would be lost to the country. The appeal was made at an opportune time, for the House in the last session of Congress had called on the Secretary of the Treasury to produce a plan for the revision of the tariff; and the Secretary, in his report, had made a strong appeal for the protection of home manufactures. He reminded the House that the United States had always regarded the establishment of home industries as an object of its policy; that the first Tariff Act under the Constitution had been expressly connected with the policy of protecting manufactures ; that in 1790 Hamilton had reported on the subject ; and that in 1810 a census of manufactures had been taken with a view to their protection. He declared that, mindful of all these things, he had, in framing the proposed new tariff, been careful so to adjust the duties as to encourage such manufactures as then existed. These, he said, could be arranged in three classes, com- prising (1) those which had been long established and could fully supply the home market ; (2) those which had been recently set up and could but partially supply the market ; (3) those which were just being intro- duced and for which the country, to some extent, was still dependent on foreign sources of supply. To protect the first class he would impose prohibitory duties, for the second a protection tariff, and for the third a tariff for revenue. CH. xi. 232