Register of Debates in Congress, Comprising the Leading Debates and Incidents of the First Session of the Nineteenth Congress Page: 71
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71
GALES & StiATGTNTS REGISTER
72
SENATE.]
Discriminating Duties.
[Jas. 24, 1826.
head to protect our rights or property in foreign countries;
alien duties abroad were laid on our navigation, which we
had no power to retaliate; for, if one State retaliated these
duties, and the others did not follow her example, her si-
tuation was only changed from bad to worse—as it drove
the little foreign trade she might have from her ports to
those of the States where no duty was imposed. The
consequence was, we could not compete with foreign na-
vigators; they taxed our vessels, but we could not tax
theirs; and this inequality was decisive against us; the
consequence in a little while would have been, that the
whole, or nearly the whole, carry ing trade of the United
States, even for our own products, would have been in
the hands of foreign navigators. At this period the Ge-
neral Government was most happily adopted, and the dis-
criminating duties were imposed; the effect was electri-
cal; the merchants and navigators of the United States
saw the whole revenue of enactions ' of the Government
based upon the interest with which they were most nearly
connccted; they felt they had a Government, not only
able, but willing-, to protect them; and that the counter-
vailing duties would place them in some degree on a foot-
ing with other nations; from this moment the navigation
and commerce of the United States most rapidly expand-
ed, increasing in a ratio unexampled in the records of any
other People. In 1789, -the whole tonnage employed in
the foreign commerce of the United States, was only
234,000 tons, of which more than 100,000 was in foreign
navigation; but in the short space of 17 or 18 years the
tonnage employed in the foreign trade of the United
States had swelled to no less an amount than 1,200,000
tons, giving an increase, in this short space, of more than
five fold, of which not nearly one-half, as in 1789, was in
foreign navigation, but only 86,000 tons, out of 1,200,000
tons; giving an increase of the American tonnage, nine
times over—it having increased during this time from
about 120,000 tons to 1,100,000 tons. This was the se-
cond period to which he should allude. But this liighly
gratifying state of prosperity for the commerce and navi-
gation of the United States, he could not contend, arose
exclusively, or principally, from the imposition of discri-
minating duties; nor did it arise mainly from them; it
arose from other and more powerful causes; from the po-
litical events of the times; from the wars of the French
Revolution, which soon followed—which continued for
twenty years, embracing in their vortex within that time,
all the navigating States of Europe; deranging and over-
turning their commercial systems, and, when engaged in
war, sweeping all their shipping from the ocean, with the
single exception of Great Britain, whose naval preponde-
rance enabled her to protect her mercantile marine. In
this state of things, the commerce of the world was al-
most entirely thrown into the hands of American mer-
chants and ship owners; and this, to the greater extent,
was the source from which the unexampled success of
American commerce and American navigation had arisen.
At this pef<xj, he said, the two great combatants of Eu-
rope were str,^-g-^il:ig. for tlieir political existence^ a.
great object on c^ch side undoubtedly was, to gain pow-
erful auxiliaries,_oi ;n the contest. This motive,
increased by a jealo Sy of the unrivalled prosperity, and
growing power of the united States—and perhaps also
by something of cupidity to reap a part of the profitable
business they were proseci*ing—probably led to that se-
ries of wrongs and insults, captures, and plundering, to
the amount of not far short of oh* hundred millions of dol-
lars, with which the United States were visited; and
which, from necessity, first led to remonstrances, which
produced nothing; to measures of restriction, and with-
drawal from the ocean, which were scarcely more effi-
cient; and, finally, eventuated in a war with the more pow-
erful of the maritime belligerents.
These two eras, he said, for a reason before assigned,
would not test the operation of the discriminating duties.
But he had now reached the period when the evidence to
be derived from their existence could be perceived, and
their influence estimated. The war with Great Britain
was terminated by the Treaty of Ghent, in December,
1814; the peace of Europe had been secured not long be-
fore, by the Treaty of Paris. The Temple of Janus was
now closed, and each nation would thereafter re-occupy
its former commercial habitudes, resume its colonial rela-
tions, and cultivate its own resources to the extent of its
means and ability.
As soon as this state of things was known in the United
States, and intelligence had been received of the Treaty
of Ghent, the Government of the United States, accom-
modating itself to the change of circumstances, and acting
up to those liberal principles of equal trade, which the
late President of the United States, a few years since, in
his message to Congress, correctly stated had ever charac-
terised its proceedings, from the first commercial treaty
it had formed, that with France, in 1776—passed the act
of March 3,1815, repealing the discriminating duties on
vessels and merchandise, so far as regarded the produce
and manufacture of such foreign nation, to which the ves-
sel belonged, as should abolish, in their ports, all discrimi-
nating duties on American vessels and merchandise. This"
act, at the time, attracted no great attention: it was con-
sidered, in some degree, as embracing an abstract propo-
sition, which might or might not be realized; but shortly
after, to wit, in July, 1815, of the same year, a Convention
was formed with Great Britain, by which it was agreed
that the same, and no other or higher rate of duties should
be payable on the vessels of the respective countries, en-
tering the ports of the other, with their cargoes, being of
the growth, produce, or manufacture, of either, than on
their own vessels when entering such ports.
This was reducing theory to practice; the American
ship owners and navigators became somewhat alarmed;
they very naturally concluded, that, as a large mass of our
imports were of British manufactured goods; as these
were procured from, and shipped by British manufacturers
or merchants; that, if British ships could come into the
ports of the United States, precisely on the same terms
as A-merican ships, that a fellow-feeling between the Bri-
tish merchant and ship owner woidd arise, and that the
greater part, if not the whole, of the importations from
Great Britain to the United States, would be made in Bri-
tish shipping, to the exclusion of American navigation;
such also was the impression of the British ship owners;
for they prepared to put some fine ships into the trade;
two, he believed, went into the trade with Boston; our
merchants knew British ships could be constructed on
about the same terms as American ships; but, as they last
longer, in the end, they might be cheaper. The British
oak being more durable than the American oak—he did
not mean the. live oak of the country, which is the best
material for ship building in the world—but it is too
scarce, too costly, and perhaps too heavy, for the par-
poses of mercantile navigation. They also knew, that,
in time of peace, the wages of American seamen were one-
third, or one-half, higher than the British; that, although
provisions were, generally cheaper in the United States
than in Great Britain; that as we gave our seamen more
indulgencies and comforts, especially in port, that the cost
of subsistence was also probably dearer. These were dis-
advantages the American ship owner knew he had to con-
tend with, but he did not shrink from the contest; he
breasted himself to meet it: also put fine ships into the
trade, taking more care than usual to select active, vigor-
ous, spirited young men, to command them, who would
never strike a topsail while a mast could carry it. The
result was, before the end of a twelve-month, it was per-
ceived the American ship would perform nearly three
trips to the other's two; and that goods, shipped by the
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Gales, Joseph, 1761-1841. Register of Debates in Congress, Comprising the Leading Debates and Incidents of the First Session of the Nineteenth Congress, book, 1826; Washington D.C.. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc30753/m1/40/: accessed April 23, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.