Abridgment of the Debates of Congress, from 1789 to 1856, Vol. 4 (of 16)United States. Congress
History
Abridgment of the Debates of Congress, from 1789 to 1856, Vol. 4 (of 16)
United States. Congress
Law -- United States; United States -- Politics and government
The gentleman was equally unfortunate in saying, the destruction of
St. Domingo had caused such a demand for sugar, that the cultivation
of cotton in the British West India islands had been abandoned; he is
not well versed on the subject, the fact not being as he has stated it.
However great an impetus the destruction of St. Domingo may have given
to the cultivation of sugar and coffee, in the British West Indies,
it certainly had no effect in any way on that of cotton, the quantity
of that article formerly exported from thence being too small to have
any influence whatever. Our cotton will never be supplanted from that
quarter. Could the sugar estates be converted to cotton plantations,
so depressed has been their situation, that conversion would have been
long since effected. Nor, sir, is it true that the cultivation of
cotton in the British West India islands has been abandoned; on the
contrary, it has been regular though slow in its increase, compared
with that of coffee. Crops of that kind are frequently precarious,
owing to a natural enemy of the plant in those islands, and therefore
the cultivation has not kept pace with the demand.
I heard the gentleman with pain and mortification, I repeat it,
with pain and mortification I heard him declare that nations like
individuals should pocket their honor for money. The act is base in an
individual, in a nation infinitely worse. The gentleman was corrected
by his colleague (Mr. NELSON) on this subject. He evidently, to my
apprehension, expressed an opinion, that money was to be preferred to
honor. He told us that honor in arbitrary governments was identified
with the monarch, who went to war for his mistress; that in republics
honor consisted in the opportunities afforded to acquire wealth, and
by way of illustration said, we pocketed our honor for money in paying
tribute to the Barbary Powers, for the security of a paltry trade. Does
the gentleman mean to assimilate a tribute exacted by Great Britain
with that paid to Algiers? Or does he mean to be understood as advising
us, because we purchase peace with barbarians, involving no honorable
consideration, to barter for a pecuniary reward, with Great Britain,
our rights, our honor, and our independence? Detestable as this
inference is, it results from his arguments. Repeal the embargo, throw
open your trade to Great Britain; you can put money in your pocket
by it. I want no substitute. Sir, if my tongue was in the thunder's
mouth, then with a passion would I shake the world and cry out treason!
This abandonment of our rights, this sacrifice of our independence,
I most solemnly abjure. Astonished indeed am I, that a gentleman so
eloquent, so well qualified to uphold the honor and dignity of his
country, should so abandon them! Is it possible such doctrine should
be advocated on the floor of Congress? Has it come to this? Was it for
this the martyrs of the Revolution died? Is this great continent and
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