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BALTIMORE
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BALTIMORE

As soon as the notice of the Philadelphia meeting reached Baltimore, it was printed with the following paragraph appended:

As no time ought to be lost in arresting the progress of a bill which aims so deadly a blow at one of the most flourishing mechanic arts in this country, those interested in this city should be early in co-operating with their brethren of Philadelphia. A meeting therefore of the printers, booksellers, paper-makers, book-binders and stationers, of this city, is requested at James Bryden's Fountain Inn, on Friday evening next at 6 o'clock—All of whom will, more immediately or remotely, be affected by the operation of the contemplated duty.[30]
At the meeting, Samuel Butler, Vincent Bonsal, and Matthew Brown were appointed to prepare a memorial for approval the following evening.[31] 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:


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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


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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.

[The following is written by hand:]

Certified to be a true Copy from the original

Geo. Hill Chairman
Matthew Brown, Secry