As soon as the notice of the Philadelphia meeting reached Baltimore, it was printed
with the following paragraph appended:
At the
meeting, Samuel Butler, Vincent Bonsal, and Matthew Brown were appointed to prepare a
memorial for approval the following evening.
After it was approved, it was set up in type and
forwarded to Congress in print, the only one presented in this fashion. It was read in
the House of Representatives on March 8, 1802:
To the Hon. the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America;
The Subscribers, Printers and others, of the City of Baltimore, who feel themselves
affected by the additional duty which they learn is contemplated to be laid on
imported Printing Types,
Beg leave respectfully to represent,
That in the opinion of your Memorialists, any further duty on the Implements of
Printing would at this time be impolitic, inasmuch as it would encrease the already
too great embarrassments to young beginners in the manufacture of Books; and unjust,
inasmuch as it would tax the many for the benefit of the few (for a mere individual)
and oppress those whose taste, genius and exertions in a science, if such it may be
termed, still in its infancy, have produced specimens of correctness and elegance in
the new world, which begin to form a competition with the works of the long
established and extensive printing houses of the old—That to encrease the
present difficulty of obtaining those implements absolutely requisite, and which in
the printing business are more expensive than perhaps in any other, and require even
under present circumstances a considerable capital, will be to many, a serious
interdiction of the trade, and must force the country for a long time to depend for
the Book already made and bound, upon those, who in a little
while, with proper encouragement to the Press, can furnish only the tools wherewith to make it.
To check the progress of an art already sufficiently embarrassed, would also, your
Memorialists believe, materially injure other and essential branches too, of mechanics
in this country—those of the paper-maker, of the book-binder and of the
skin-dresser. Nor could the book-seller repair the injury done him, even by supplying himself from abroad with those school and common books,
which the manufacturer now furnishes him with at home.
Your Memorialists would request your serious attention to the following
facts,—facts which they hope will have their due influence with your honorable
body: On a moderate computation there are nearly one thousand printing houses in the
United States, which, notwithstanding the great number of hands they employ—the
vast quantity of paper they consume—and the constant supply of various sized
types they require—are able to raise but a feeble mound against the flood of
imported literature, which threatens to inundate the country. To supply even those
offices with type, not to mention others daily establishing, there is but one
foundery* in operation on this extensive quarter of the globe—and this but a
partial one, since not half of the various denominations and sizes of types used in
our mother tongue are cast at it; and not one of the Greek, Oriental and numerous
other characters. To erect other founderies, or to complete the present, much taste
and many years application are requisite, whilst in the mean time old established
founderers will scarcely be induced by the proposed duty, to remove from Europe to
this country. From a correct view of the consequences
of a
dependence on this foundery, or on others which may be established, for that supply of
implements which the business daily requires, your honorable body will be fully able
to judge whether the apprehensions of your Memorialists be not well founded.
The foundery at Philadelphia, it is, however, the interest of the country, it is the
interest of the printer to encourage, as far as it can be done consistently with the
prosperity of thousands, which should never be sacrificed to the aggrandizement of any
individual—and encouraged it has been, as the proprietors themselves acknowledge
by the multiplicity of their business and the handsome property they have already
acquired—Nor can it arise from a want of patronage, that the money must be
deposited with them in advance, at the time of sending an order, although the type,
from the great demand, cannot be furnished for many months after. The desire of your
petitioners, for the further prosperity and extension of this foundery shall prevent
them, although there is but too much room, from drawing an injurious comparison
between the durability, symmetry and requisite finish of the type cast there, and of
that which is procured from abroad.
To tax then, the industry, genius and enterprize of so useful a class of
manufacturers as Printers confessedly are, by an exorbitant addition to an impost,
already heavy, on the only implements almost with which the manufacture can be carried
on, would inevitably be to encourage the importation of literature from
abroad—to cause a great rise on foreign as well as domestic made books— to
injure if not ruin, a young and flourishing art with its dependencies among
us—to multiply the obstacles to knowledge—and to strengthen the empire of
ignorance and vice.
Your Memorialists pray your honorable body to excuse their prolixity on a subject
which few, except professional men, can sufficiently know or appreciate.
Note. There is a small foundery at Germantown, which casts German letter only.
(Signed) Warner & Hanna, Thomas, Andrews & Butler, Prentiss & Cole,
Nathaniel Knight, Samuel M'Crea, A. Stuart, Thomas Dobbin, James Rice, Samuel Sower,
Wm. Pechin, W: L. Crosgrove, William Monday, Michael Deal, Hugh Maxwell, Alex: Martin,
Bonsal & Niles, George Keatinge, Solomon Cotton & Co., M. & J. Conrad
& Co., Caleb Bonsal, John B. Colvin, John Hagerty, Abner Neal, Geo. M'Dowell, Tho.
Meeteer & Son, Yundt & Brown, John Hayes.
