American Eloquence, Volume 4: Studies In American Political History (1897)
History
American Eloquence, Volume 4: Studies In American Political History (1897)
Speeches, addresses, etc., American; United States -- History; United States -- Politics and government
On passing from that article to others of our agricultural productions,
we shall find not less gratifying facts. The total quantity of flour
imported into Boston, during the same year, was 284,504 barrels, and
3,955 half barrels; of which, there were from Virginia, Georgetown, and
Alexandria, 114,222 barrels; of Indian corn, 681,131 bushels; of oats,
239,809 bushels; of rye, about 50,000 bushels; and of shorts, 63,489
bushels; into the port of Providence, 71,369 barrels of flour; 216,662
bushels of Indian corn, and 7,772 bushels of rye. And there were
discharged at the port of Philadelphia, 420,353 bushels of Indian corn,
201,878 bushels of wheat, and 110,557 bushels of rye and barley.
There were slaughtered in Boston during the same year, 1831, (the only
Northern city from which I have obtained returns,) 33,922 beef cattle;
15,400 calves; 84,453 sheep, and 26,871 swine. It is confidently
believed that there is not a less quantity of Southern flour consumed
at the North than eight hundred thousand barrels, a greater amount,
probably, than is shipped to all the foreign markets of the world
together.
What would be the condition of the farming country of the United
States--of all that portion which lies north, east, and west of James
River, including a large part of North Carolina--if a home market did
not exist for this immense amount of agricultural produce. Without that
market, where could it be sold? In foreign markets? If their restrictive
laws did not exist, their capacity would not enable them to purchase
and consume this vast addition to their present supplies, which must
be thrown in, or thrown away, but for the home market. But their laws
exclude us from their markets. I shall content myself by calling the
attention of the Senate to Great Britain only. The duties in the ports
of the united kingdom on bread-stuffs are prohibitory, except in times
of dearth. On rice, the duty is fifteen shillings sterling per hundred
weight, being more than one hundred per centum. On manufactured tobacco
it is nine shillings sterling per pound, or about two thousand per
centum. On leaf tobacco three shillings per pound, or one thousand two
hundred per centum. On lumber, and some other articles, they are from
four hundred to fifteen hundred per centum more than on similar articles
imported from British colonies. In the British West Indies the duty on
beef, pork, hams, and bacon, is twelve shillings sterling per hundred,
more than one hundred per centum on the first cost of beef and pork in
the Western States. And yet Great Britain is the power in whose behalf
we are called upon to legislate, so that we may enable her to purchase
our cotton. Great Britain, that thinks only of herself in her own
legislation! When have we experienced justice, much less favor, at
her hands? When did she shape her legislation with reference to the
interests of any foreign power? She is a great, opulent, and powerful
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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