Page:HOUSE CR Exposition and Protest 1828-12-19.pdf/9

 for the increased price on the imported articles, which they consume, but in a great measure of commanding the industry of the rest of the Union. The argument urged by them for the adoption of the system, and with much success is, that the price of property and products in the manufacturing states must be thereby increased, which clearly proves the beneficial operation of the system on them. It is by this very increase of price, which must be paid by their fellow citizens of the South, that the indemnity to the manufacturers, is effected; and by means of this the fruits of our toil and labour, which on every principle of justice, ought to belong to ourselves, are transferred from us to them. The maxim that the consumers pay, strictly applies to us. We are mere consumers, and destitute of all means of transferring the burden from ourselves to others. We may be assured, that the large amount paid into the Treasury, under the duties on imports, is really derived from the labor of some portion of our citizens. The government has no mines. Some one must bear the burden of its support. This unequal lot is ours. We are the serffsserfs [sic] of the system, out of whose labor is raised, not only the money that is paid into the Treasury, but the funds out of which are drawn the rich reward of the manufacturer and his associates in interest. Their encouragement is our discouragement. The duty on imports which is mainly paid out of our labour gives them the means of selling to us at a higher price, while we cannot, to compensate the loss, dispose of our products at the least advance. It is then not a subject of wonder, when properly understood, that one section of country though blessed by a kind Providence with a genial sun and prolific soil, from which spring the richest products, should languish in poverty and sink into decay; while the rest of the Union though less fortunate in natural advantages is flourishing in prosperity beyond example.

The assertion, that the encouragement of the industry of the manufacturing states, is in fact discouragement to ours, was not made without due deliberation. It is susceptible of the clearest proof.

We cultivate certain great staples for the supply of the general market of the world; and they manufacture almost exclusively for the home market. Their object in the Tariff is to keep down foreign competition, in order to obtain a monopoly of the domestic market. The effect on us is to compel us to purchase at a higher price, both what we purchase from them and from others, without receiving a corresponding increase of price for what we sell. The price, at which we can afford to cultivate, must depend on the price at which we receive our supplies. The lower the latter, the