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AMERICAN SYSTEM 1 February 2, 3, and 6,· 1832 (In the Senate)

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AMERICAN SYSTEM 1 February 2, 3, and 6,· 1832 (In the Senate) Henry Clay THE AMERICAN SYSTEM 1 February 2, 3, and 6,· 1832 (In the Senate) In one sentiment, Mr. President, expressed by the approbation of that Providence who has so the honorable gentleman from South Carolina, often smiled upon these United States. [Mr. HAYNE] 2 though, perhaps, not in the Eight years ago, it was my painful duty to sense intended by him, I entirely concur. I agree present to the other house of Congress an un­ with him, that the decision on the system of exaggerated picture of the general distress per­ policy embraced in this debate involves the vading the whole land. We must all yet remem­ future destiny of this growing country. One ber some of its frightful features. We all know way, I verily believe, it· would lead to deep and that the people were then oppressed and borne general distress, general bankruptcy, and na­ down by an enormous load of debt; that the tional ruin, without benefit to .any part of the value of property was at the lowest point of · Union. The other, the existing prosperity will depression; that ruinous sales and sacrifices be preserved and augmented, and the nation were everywhere made of real estate; that stop will continue rapidly to advance in wealth, laws and relief laws and paper money were power, and greatness, without prejudice to any adopted to save the people from impending de­ section of the confederacy. , · struction; that a deficit in the public revenue Thus viewing the question, I stand here as existed, which compelled government to seize the humble but zealous advocate, not of the in­ upon, and divert from its legitimate object, the terests of one state, or seven states only, but of appropriation to the sinking fund, to redeem the whole Union. And never before have I felt the national debt; and that our commerce and more intensely the overpowering weight of that navigation were threatened with a complete pa­ share of responsibility which belongs to me in ralysis. In short, sir, if I were to select any term these deliberations. Never before have I had of seven years since the adoption of the present more occasion than I now have, to lament my Constitution, which exhibited a scene of the want of those intellectual powers, the posses­ most widespread dismay and desolation, it sion of which might enable me to unfold to this would be exactly that term of seven years Senate, and to illustrate to this people, great which immediately preceded the establishment tru~hs intimately connected with the lasting of the tariff 6f 1824. welfare of my country. I should, indeed, sink, overwhelmed and subdued, beneath the appall­ 11 ing magnitude of the task which lies before me, "EXISTING STATE OF UNPARAI.I.ELED PROSPI!lUTY ~ I did not feel myself sustained and fortified by a thorough consciousness of the justnes,s of I have now to perform the more pleasing task the cause which I have espoused, and by a per­ of exhibiting an imperfect sketch of the existing suasion, I hope not pre~umptuous, that it has state of the unparalleled prosperity of the coun­ / try. On a general survey, we behold cultivation extended, the arts flourishing, the face of the country improved, our people fully and profit­ 1 U.S., Congress, Senate, Rlgisltr of DtiHifts in C011gms, 22.d Cong., 1st ably employed, and the public countenance ex­ sess., pp. 257-95. • Robert Y. Hayne (1791-1839) served in the Senate, 1823-1832 hibiting tranquility, contentment, and happi­ (See Speech No. 1). ness: And, if we descend into particulars, we [ 83] have the agreeable contemplation of a people navigation has increased. As to the desolation out of debt; land rising slowly in value, but in a of our cities, let us take, as an example, the secure and salutary degree; a ready, though not condition of the largest and most commercial of extravagant market for all the surplus produc­ all of them, the great northern capital. I have in t ': tions of our industry; innumerable flocks and my hands the assessed value of real estate in herds browsing and gamboling on ten thousand the city of New York, from 1817 to 1831. This hills and plains, covered with rich and verdant value is canvassed, contested, scrutinized, and grasses; our cities expanded, and whole villages adjudged, by the proper sworn authorities. It is, springing up, as it were, by enchantment; our therefore, entitled to full credence. During the exports and imports increased and increasing; first term, commencing with 1817, and ending our tonnage, foreign and coastwise, swelling in the year of the passage of the tariff of 1824, and fully occupied; the rivers of our interior the amount of the value of real estate was, the animated by the perpetual thunder and light­ first year, $57,799,435, and, after various fluc­ ning of countless steamboats; the currency tuations in the intermediate period, it settled sound and abundant; the public debt of two down at $52,019,730, exhibiting a decrease, in wars nearly redeemed; and, to crown all, the seven years of $5,779,705. During the first year public treasury overflowing, embarrassing Con­ of 1825, after the passage of the tariff, it rose, gress, not to find subjects of taxation, but to and, gradually ascending throughout the whole select the objects which shall be liberated from of the latter period of seven years, it finally, in the impost. If the term of seven years were to 1831, reached the astonishing height of be selected of the greatest prosperity which this $95,716,485! Now, if it be said that this rapid people have enjoyed since the establishment of growth of the city of New York was the effect their present Constitution, it would be exactly of foreign commerce, then it was not correctly pre­ that period of seven yea,rs which immediately dicted, in 1824, that the tariff would destroy followed the passage of the tariff of 1824. foreign commerce, and desolate our commercial This transformation of the condition of the cities. If, on the contrary, it be the effect of in­ country from gloom and distress to brightness ternal trade, then internal trade cannot be justly and prosperity, has been mainly the work of chargeable with the evil consequences imputed American legislation, fostering American indus­ to it. The truth is, it is the joint effect of both try, instead of allowing it to be controlled by principles, the domestic industry nourishing the for~ign legislation, cherishing foreign industry. foreign trade, and the foreign commerce, in The foes of the American System, in 1824, with tum, nourishing the domestic industry. No­ great boldness and confidence, predicted, 1st. where, more than in New York, is the combina­ The ruin of the public revenue, and the creation tion of both principles so completely developed. of a necessity to resort to direct taxation. The In the progress of my argument I will consider gentleman from South Carolina, [Mr. HAYNE] the effect upon the price of commodities, pro­ I believe, thought that the tariff of 1824 would duced by the American System, and show that operate a reduction of revenue to the large the very reverse of the prediction of its foes, in amount of eight millions of dollars. 2d. The de­ 1824, has actually happened. struction of our navigation. 3d. )he desolation Whilst we thus behold the entire failure of of commercial cities. And 4th. The augmenta­ all that was foretold against the system, it is a tion of the price of objects of consumption, and subject of just felicitation to its friends, that all further decline in that of the articles of our ex­ their anticipations of its benefits have been ful­ ports. Every prediction which they made has filled, or are in progress of fulfillment. The failed-utterly failed. Instead of the ruin of the honorable gentleman from South Carolina has public revenue, with which they then sought to made an allusion to a speech made by me, in deter us from the adoption of the American 1824, in the other house, in support of the System, we are now threatened with its subver­ tariff, and to which, otherwise, I· should not sion, by the vast amount of the public revenue have particularly referred. But I would ask produced by that system. Every branch of our anyone, who could now command the courage [ 84] ' to peruse that long production, what principle tion of these would undoubtedly lead to the there laid down is not true? what prediction sacrifice of immense capital, the ruin of many then made has been falsified by practical thousands of our fellow citizens, and incalcula­ experience? ble loss to the whole community. But their It is now proposed to abolish the system to prostration would not disfigure, nor produce which we owe so much of the public prosperi­ greater effect upon the whole system of protec­ ty, and it is urged that the arrival of the period tion, in all its branches, than the destruction of of the redemption of the public debt has been the beautiful domes upon the Capitol would confidently looked to as presenting a suitable occasion to the magnificent edifice, which they occasion to rid the country of the evils with surmount. Why, sir, there is scarcely an inter­ which the system is alleged to be fraught. Not est, scarcely a vocation in society, which is not an inattentive observer of passing events, I 'have embraced by the beneficence of this system. been aware that, among those who were most It comprehends our coasting tonnage and eagerly pressing the payment of the public trade, from which all foreign tonnage is abso­ debt, and, upon that ground, were opposing ap­ lutely excluded.
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