University of Virginia Library

TO HENRY CLAY.

Dr. Sir,—I have recd. the copy of your speech
on "American Industry" for which I pray you to
accept my thanks. I find in it a full measure of the
Ability & Eloquence so often witnessed on preceding
occasions. But whilst doing this justice
to the task you have performed, which I do with
pleasure as well as sincerity, candor obliges me to
add that I cannot concur in the extent to which the
pending Bill carries the Tariff, nor in some of the
reasonings by which it is advocated.

The Bill, I think loses sight too much of the general
principle which leaves to the judgment of individuals
the choice of profitable employments for
their labor & capital; and the arguments in favor
of it, from the aptitudes of our situation for manufacturing

Establishments, tend to shew that these
would take place without a legislative interference.
The law would not say to the Cotton planter you
overstock the Market, and ought to plant Tobacco;
nor to the Planter of Tobo., you would do better by
substituting Wheat. It presumes that profit being
the object of each, as the profit of each is the wealth
of the whole, each will make whatever change the
state of the Markets & prices may require. We
see, in fact, changes of this sort frequently produced
in Agricultural pursuits, by individual sagacity
watching over individual interest. And why not
trust to the same guidance in favor of manufacturing
industry, whenever it promises more profit
than any of the Agricultural branches, or more than
mercantile pursuits, from which we see Capital
readily transferred to manufacturing establishments
likely to yield a greater income.

With views of the subject such as this, I am a friend
to the general principle of "free industry" as the
basis of a sound system of political Economy. On
the other hand I am not less a friend to the legal
patronage of domestic manufactures, as far as they
come within particular reasons for exceptions to the
general rule, not derogating from its generality.
If the friends of the Tariff, some of them at least,
maintain opinions subversive of the rule, there are,
among its opponents, views taken of the subject
which exclude the fair exceptions to it.

For examples of these exceptions I take 1. the
case of articles necessary for national defence.

2. articles of a use too indispensable to be subjected
to foreign contingencies. 3. Cases where
there may be sufficient certainty, that a temporary
encouragement will introduce a particular manufacture,
which once introduced will flourish without
that encouragement. That there are such cases is
proved by the Cotton manufacture, introduced by
the impulse of the war & the patronage of the law,
without wch. it might not for a considerable time
have effectually sprung up. It must not be forgotten
however that the great success in this case
was owing to the advantage in the raw material, and
to the extraordinary degree in which manual labor
is abridged by mechanical agency. 4. A very important
exception results from the frequency of
wars among the manufacturing nations, the effect
of a state of war on the price of their manufactures,
and the improbability that domestic substitutes will
be provided by establishments which could not
outlast occasions of such uncertain duration. I
have not noticed any particular reference to this
consideration, in the printed discussions; the greater
cheapness of imported fabrics being assumed from
their cost in time of peace. Yet it is clear that if
a yard of imported cloth which costs 6 dollars in
peace, costs 8 in war, & the two periods should be
as for the last two Centuries taken together, nearly
equal, a tax of nearly one dollar a yard in time of
peace, could be afforded by the Consumer, in order
to avoid the tax imposed by the event of war.

Without looking for other exceptions to the

principle restraining Legislative interference with the
industrious pursuits of individuals, those specified
give sufficient scope for a moderate tariff that would
at once answer the purpose of revenue, and foster
domestic manufactures.

With respect to the operation of the projected
Tariff, I am led to believe that it will disappoint
the calculations both of its friends & of its adversaries.
The latter will probably find that the
increase of duty on articles which will be but partially
manufactured at home, with the annual increment
of consumers, will balance at least, the loss
of the Treasury from the diminution of tariffed
imposts: Whilst the sanguine hopes of the former
will be not less frustrated by the increase of smuggling,
particularly thro' our East & North frontiers,
and by the attraction of the labouring classes to the
vacant territory. This is the great obstacle to the
spontaneous establishment of Manufactories, and
will be overcome with the most difficulty wherever
land is cheapest, and the ownership of it most
attainable.

The Tariff, I apprehend, will disappoint those
also, who expect it to put an end to an unfavorable
balance of trade. Our imports, as is justly observed,
will not be short of our exports. They will
probably exceed them. We are accustomed to buy
not only as much as we can pay for, but as much
more as can be obtained on credit. Until we change
our habits therefore, or manufacture the articles of
luxury, as well as the useful articles; we shall be

apt to be in arrears, in our foreign dealing, and have
the exchange bearing agst. us. As long as our
exports consist chiefly of food & raw materials, we
shall have the advantage in a contest of privations
with a nation supplying us with superfluities. But
in the ordinary freedom of intercourse the advantage
will be on the other side; the wants on that
being limited by the nature of them, and ours as
boundless as fancy and fashion.

Excuse a letter which I fear is much too long,
and be assured of my great esteem & sincere regard.