CHAPTER XIII. UNITED STATES.-Report of Mr. Meredith, the Secretary of the Treasury, recommending moderate Protective Duties-Descent upon Cuba by General Lopez and a Band of Piratical Americans-Discomfiture of the Enterprise-General Lopez arrested and tried-Negligence of the Government-Death of the President, General Taylor-He is succeeded by the Vice-President, Mr. Millard Fillmore-Formation of a New Ministry-Bills passed by Congress - Territorial Governments given to New Mexico and Utah-California admitted as one of the States of the Union-Fugitive Slave Bill-Message of the President: TOPICS-General Policy-Foreign Relations-Finances-Land Laws -Navy-Post Office-Creditors of Government-Measures of the Session. A T the close of last year a report was presented to Congress from Mr. Meredith, Secretary of the Treasury, which is interesting, as showing the views of the American Government on questions of commercial policy, which will be found to be strongly in favour of a protective system. The following are the most important passages: "As every producer in one branch of useful industry is also a consumer of the products of others, and as his ability to consume depends upon the profits of his production, it follows that to give prosperity to one branch of industry is to increase that of the rest. Within each branch of industry there will be individual rivalry, but among the several branches of useful industry there must always exist an unbroken harmony of interest. "No country can attain a due strength or prosperity that does pronouncing the added value of 198,000,000 dollars to be a large profit to the manufacturer, any more than the question of the effect of the production of wheat would be answered by deducting the cost of seed wheat from the value of the crop, and pronouncing the remainder to be a large profit to the farmer. The manufacture of cotton cloth is begun with the planting of the cotton-it is carried to a certain point by the planter, and then taken up and perfected by the spinner and weaver. The planter and manufacturer are not engaged in different branches of industry, but in the same--the one commences the process which the other completes. Cotton-seed of insignificant value, being by regular stages of labour developed and brought to the form of cotton cloth, has acquired a value of about 264,000,000 dollars. "The planting states have added many millions to the annual production of the country by the culture of cotton. By continuing the process they could quadruple that addition. "The planter would then have a market at his door for all his produce, and the farmer would, in like manner, have a home market for his. The power of consumption of not only breadstuffs, but of every article useful or necessary in the feeding, clothing, and housing of man, would be vastly increased the consumer and producer would be brought nearer to each other and, in fact, a sti mulus would be applied to every branch of productive industry. "It is gratifying to know that the manufacture of cotton has already been introduced into several of the planting states, and, it ought not to be doubted, will rapidly be extended. "The manufacture of iron, wool, and our other staples, would lead to similar results. The effect would be a vast augmentation of our wealth and power. "Upon commerce the effects might be expected to be, if possible, still more marked. It is not enough to say that no country ever diminished its commerce by increasing its productions, and that no injury would therefore result to that interest. There would probably be not only a great increase in the amount, but an improvement not less important in the nature of our com All history shows, that where are the workshops of the world there must be the marts of the world, and the heart of wealth, commerce, and power. It is as vain to hope to make these marts by providing warehouses, as it would be to make a crop by building a barn. 66 Whether we can have workshops to work up at least our own materials, must depend upon the question whether we have or can obtain sufficient advantages to justify the pursuit of this kind of industry. "The circumstances favourable to production in this country may be stated to be-1. Facility in procuring raw materials. 2. Abundance of fuel. 3. Abundance of food and other articles necessary for the sustenance and housing of the labourer. 4. The superior efficiency of the labourers in comparison with those of other countries. "The circumstances supposed to be unfavourable to our production may be thus classed: to 1. Want of capital. 2. Dearness of our labour as compared with that of other countries. 3. Insecurity by exposure to the influence of violent and excessive fluctuations of price in foreign markets, and to undue foreign competition. "1. Capital, which is but the accumulated savings of labour, is believed to be abundant among ourselves for any purpose which it can be profitably applied. It is more divided than in some other countries, and associations of capital are therefore more common among us than elsewhere. It will be increased by the labour of every successive year, and for investments, reasonably secure, it will flow in whenever required (as it has always heretofore done) from other countries, where it may exist in greater abundance. The amount of capital required for a large production is not enormous. The whole capital, for instance, employed in the establishment and support of iron-works in England and Wales in 1847, has been estimated at less than 100,000,000 dollars, the annual production then being about 1,200,000 tons. heavy article of production (such "2. The difference between the price of labour here and in Great Britain is certainly great, and it is to be hoped and expected will never be diminished by a reduction of wages here. The difference has been estimated at an average of 33 per cent. Probably the averaged to invest their surplus earnrage difference is much more than that. In some branches, such as the manufacture of iron, it is certainly much greater. This difference is in part compensated by the disadvantages under which the foreign manufacturer is placed by the necessity, in some branches, of procuring his raw material from a great distance, or transporting a ings in the stock of the company by which they are employed, and are thus stimulated by direct personal interest to the greatest exertion. It may be expected that this system will be introduced into other branches in which it will be found practicable, tending, as it does, so powerfully to elevate the labourer, increase production, and practically instruct all men in the great truth of the essential harmony of capital and labour. "3. Capital flows freely at home and abroad in every productive channel in which it can flow safely, and will even incur great hazards, if they be such as its owners may hope to meet by the care and circumspection of himself, or others to whom he has confided its management. But if he knows that skill, industry, and economy cannot avail him, and that, in addition to all the contingencies of rivalry and markets, he is to be further exposed to dangers arising from causes quite beyond his control or counteraction, he will hold back. The vacillations which have occurred in our policy have no doubt deterred a large amount of capital from investment in industrial pursuits. The encouragement offered on one day, and on the faith of which fixed investments have been made, which are exposed to loss by the withdrawal of that encouragement on the next, is in fact substantial discouragement. And the insecurity resulting from the repetition of such acts has been seriously detrimental. "4. The fluctuations in the foreign markets have for many years been such as seem to denote an unhealthy and feverish state of business. They are not in the natural course of a wholesale trade. They seem to betoken a change in existing arrangements, and the apprehension of such change is also evinced in the efforts now making in England to sustain the British manufacturer, by putting at hazard other important branches of industry. The competition of new establishments with very large ones now in existence abroad, and in which the price of labour is lower, is evidently not an equal. competition. The capital fixed in machinery, furnaces, &c., cannot be changed, and the work of production will not cease until the price shall have been reduced to a point very little above the cost of materials, labour, and repairs. Of course where the lower price is paid for labour there will be a larger margin for reduction by the sacrifice of part of the profit, and where a great accumulation is in hand from the business of former years, the owner may find it his interest for a while to sell his commodity at less than the actual cost, if by that means he can drive out his rival, looking, of course, to subsequent reimbursement (at least) when he shall again have the control of the market. "This known necessity of the position of foreign manufacturers of course tends to discourage new, as well as to defeat the successful operation of existing investments of capital here in similar enterprises. "To counteract the influence of these unfavourable circumstances, which, so long as they continue, must greatly retard our advancement, limit our foreign commerce, and prevent the due progress of industry, I propose that the duties on the staple commodities (whether raw material or manufactured articles) in which foreign nations compete with our own productions, be raised to a point at which they will afford substantial and sufficient encouragement to our domestic industry, provide for the necessary increase and due security of the revenue, and insure the permanence and stability of the system. Experience has, I think, shown this to be a wise, just, and effectual mode to promote new and revive languishing branches of industry, provided the selection of the objects be wisely made, and limited to those productions for which the country is naturally adapted. "We have been, perhaps, too long hesitating and vacillating on the threshold of a great career. The want of stability in the course of legislation, and other disturbing causes, have heretofore occasioned inconveniences. The short duration of some of the tariff Acts, the great expansion of the currency which occurred during their operation-the Compromise Act (a result of what was believed to be a political necessity), which, what ever its effects on existing esta .blishments, undoubtedly discouraged new adventurers-and, finally, the unexpected repeal of the Act of 1842-these circumstances have certainly been of a retarding character. "Yet it is impossible not to observe that, at every favourable moment, vast movements in advance have been made, and that the ground thus gained has not been entirely lost. It is believed that every article, the manufacture of which has been established here, has, after that establishment, continued gradually to diminish in price, and that, without a corresponding reduction in the wages of labour, which, indeed, could not be diminished by reason of an increased demand for it. "These facts lead irresistibly to the conclusion that our labour becomes so much more efficient by use, acquired skill, enlarged establishments, and new facilities derived from inventions, that the difference in price between it and foreign labour, however serious VOL. XCII. an obstacle to successful competition, will become less so with every year of our activity in the same branches of industry; and that it by no means follows that labour must be worse paid because its products are sold cheaper; or that, because labour is better paid, its products must be sold dearer. "All that is wanting is a general determination that industry shall be encouraged and supported in the home production and manufacture of iron, wool, cotton, sugar, and other staples, and that the legislation necessary to sustain it shall be firmly adopted and persevered in." A most daring attempt was made this year by a band of American desperadoes to possess themselves of the Island of Cuba, in order that the " Queen of the Antiles" might be annexed to the States of the Republic. No assignable motive for the enterprise can be given except the lust of conquest, and an erroneous idea that the population of Cuba was discontented with their Spanish rulers, and would aid the invading force by an insurrection. The leader of this piratical and buccaneering expedition was a soldier of fortune calling himself General Lopez, by birth a South American. He left New Orleans on the 7th of May in a steamer, with about 500 men, accompanied by two other vessels, and on the 17th landed at Cardenas, a small town on the north-west side of the island, which was defended by a small garrison of 60 men. The town was taken, but the inhabitants manifested no sympathy with the invaders, calling themselves the liberators of Cuba, and in a day or two afterwards Spanish troops came up and a struggle took place [Z] |