xt7vmc8rcd26 https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt7vmc8rcd26/data/mets.xml Marshall, Thomas Francis, 1801-1864. 1858  books b92-125-29177642 English Applegate & Co., : Cincinnati : Contact the Special Collections Research Center for information regarding rights and use of this collection. United States Politics and government 1815-1861.Barre, W. L. Speeches and writings of Hon. Thomas F. Marshall  / edited by W.L. Barre. text Speeches and writings of Hon. Thomas F. Marshall  / edited by W.L. Barre. 1858 2002 true xt7vmc8rcd26 section xt7vmc8rcd26 








































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         SPEECHES AND WRITINGS




                            OF





HON. THOMAS F. MARSHALL.



   EDITED BY W. L. BARRE.




      His eloquence is classic In Its style,
      Not brilliant with explosive coruscations
      Of heterogenous thought, at random caught
      And scattered like a shower of shooting stars
      That end in darkness.
      His earnest and undazzled eye he keeps
      Fixed on the sun of Truth, and breathes his words
      As easily as eagles cleave the air,
      And never pauses till the hight is won,
      And all who listen follow where he leads."







             CINCINNATI:
APPLEGATE  COMPANY,
           4q MAIN STREET,
                   1858.

 


























       Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1858,

                     BY APPLEGATE  CO.,
in the Clerk's office of the District Court of the United States for the
                     Southern District of Ohio.



 















                    CONTENTS.






                                                          PAGE
INTRODUCTION, containing a Biographical Sketch of Mr. Mar-
      shall, by the Editor .....................................................  3
REPORT ON THE SOUTH CAROLINA ORDINANCE OF NUL-
     LIFICATION, made to the Kentucky Legislature, January
     9th, 1833....                                        13
ADDRESS DELIVERED BEFORE A WIHIG CONVENTION, held
     at Frankfort, Ky., on the 5th of July, 1834 ........................ 26
REPORT ON THE JUDICIARY, made to the Kentucky Legisla,
     ture, on the 22d of Decemiber, 1836 ................................... 47
REPORT ON BANKS, made to the Kentucky Legislature, on the
     15th of February, 1840 ................................................... 57
SLAVERY LETTERS ADDRESSED TO THE EDITORS OF THE
     FRANKFORT COMMONWEALTH, containing the argument
     in favor of the constitutionality of the law of 1833, "Prohib-
     iting the importation of Slaves" into the State of Kentucky,
     and also defending the propriety and policy of that law, in
     reply to a pamphlet of Robert Wickliffe, Sen., and to the
     views taken by other enemies of the law,-published in De-
     cember, 1840 .................................  84-101-113

SPEECH ON THE RESOLUTIONS TO CENSURE JOHN QUINCY
     ADAMS, delivered in the House of Representatives of the
     United States, January 25, 26 and 28, 1842 ........................ 142

TO THE PUBLIC, issued to the people of the 10th Congressional
     District, while Mr. Marshall was a candidate for Congress, in
     1845, in reply to certain questions propounded to the several
     candidates..............        .       ............ 187
                                               Hi1

 





CONTENTS.



                                                       PeAr
ADDRESS DELIVERED IN LEXINGTON, KY., ON THE OCCA-
      SION OF THE REMOVAL OF C. M. CLAY'S PRESS,
      August 18th, 1845 .....................................................  196

ADDRESS ON THE LIFE AND CHARACTER OF RICHARD H.
      MENEFEE, delivered before the Law Society of Transylvania
      University, in Lexington, Ky., April 12, 1841 ..................... 211

SPEECH ON THE BILL TO APPROPRIATE TEE PROCEEDS
     OF TILE SALES OF THE PUBLIC LANDS, AND GRANT
     PRE-EMPTION RIGIITS, delivered in the House of Repre-
     sentatives of the United States, on the 6th of July, 1841 ...... 232

ADDRESS ON TEMPERANCE, delivered in the Hall of the House
     of Representatives, before the Congressional Total Abstinence
     Society, there assembled .................................................. 255

REPORT OF DEBATE BETWEEN HONS. JOHN J. CRITTEN-
     DEN, AND L W. POWELL, Versailles, Ky., July 10th, 1848 269

ARTICLES FROM THE OLD GUARD, edited by Mr. Marshall, at
     Frankfort, Ky., in 1850.
 NUMBER  I.-THE NEW CONSTITUTION...................................... 303
 NUMBER ii.-THE JUDICIARY................................................. 320
 NUMBER 1ii.-THE JUDICIARY................................................. 338
 NUMBER IV.-THE JUDICIARY................................................. 352
 NUMBER  V.-THE LEGISLATIVE DEPARTMENT-BEN. HARD1N-PUB-
                LIC DEBT-INTERNAL IMPROVEMENT-THE PUBLIC
                EXPENDITURE ............................................... 367
 NUMBER VI.-BEN. HARDIN-THE PUBLIC EXPENDITURE-INTER-
                NAL IMPROVEMENT-PUBLIC DEBT-SINKING FUND 385
 NUMBER 7I1.-INTERNAL IMPROVEMENT-JAMES GUTHRIE ............... 402

LETTER TO THE LOUISVILLE JOURNAL, advocating the claims
     of Mr. Crittenden over those of Mr. Dixon, for a seat in the
     Senate of the United States, written in November, 1851.... 409

SPEECH IN OPPOSITION TO TTHE PRINCIPLES OF THE
     KNOW-NOTHING ORGANIZATION, delivered at Ver-
     sailles, Ky., June 25th, 1855 .....................   432



iv

 













               INTRODUCTION.



  IT would seem that a book can not with propriety be
ushered into the world without some account of the author,
and of the motives which led the editor to its publication.
As a Kentuckian born, and many years younger than the
author of the following articles, I have from childhood been
taught to consider him as one of the sons of my native
State, who may justly claim a position in the front ranks of
those whom she cherishes as jewels which are destined to
form that coronet which is to adorn her historic brow. We
of Kentucky, young and old, hold the Hon. THOMAS F.
MARSHALL as one of the most effective and gifted of all her
popular orators. His reputation, brilliant from his first
appearance upon the public stage, has been principally that
of a fascinating stump-speaker. For twenty four years,
whatever changes his political opinions may have been
supposed to have undergone-whatever measures, man, or
party, he may have seen occasion to support-he has been
the idol of popular assemblies-and, as a speaker, the ad-
miration even of his political opponents.
  His success in this way, coupled with other passages, both
in his private and public life, and coupled also with the fact,
that none of his popular, or forensic speeches have ever been
published or repoited, save three-which may be considered
popular, and which appear in the following pages-has in-
duced the idea with many of his countrymen, who have never
heard and do not know him, that he is merely a brilliant
declaimer, without depth of learning, solidity of genius, or
                                             (3)

 




INTRODUCTION.



steadiness of principle. Careless himself of his intellectual
progeny, as the bird of the desert, he has chosen to pre-
serve nothing whatever, of all those great efforts at the bar,
and very little of those popular addresses which have given
him what fame he has; he has left his memoiry and repu-
tation to oblivion, or to the care of some friend who takes
more interest in the matter than he has chosen to do. I
have sought, therefore, to collect the scattered evidences of
this man's great and profound talents, his stern consistency
of principle, and the sturdy courage with which he has sus-
tained it, through all the changes of party for twenty-five
years, and to give them in a permanent form to the Public.
  Whether we have acted prudently in this matter,-
whether it had been better for Mr. MARSHALL, that his
writings, few as they are, should have been left in their
dispersed condition, the public must and will decide. No
criticism that we could pronounce in advance upon our own
book could possibly change the case or affect the verdict.
Yet we must be allowed to make one remark, as to the
peculiar intellectual character of the author. His most dis-
tinctive trait is his versatility-not versatility of principle,
but of genius and of manner. Let any one read his report
on Banking, and the Principles of Paper Currency, and then
turn to the oration on the life and character of Richard If.
Menefee,-would he conjecture that they were from the
same pen, the product of the same mind Yet there is
nothing in the entire series we have collected, which will
give the faintest idea of his style as a public speaker-we
mean what we call in Kentucky a stumrp-speaker. Perhaps
a few passages from his letter to the Louisville Journal, a
very few from his reply to the questions put to him when a
candidate for Congress, in 1845, in relation to the slave law,
still fewer in reply to Mr. Adams, in 1842, may convey
some shadowy notion of it. We have not made this com-
pilation to show what manner of stump-speaker, popular
orator, or declaimer he was, but to show that in the intel-
lectual scale, he is something higher, better, purer than all,



4

 




INTRODUCTION.



   Mr. MARSHALL himself has been frequently heard to say,
 that the world is entirely mistaken in this matter of fine
 speaking, fine writing, and fine conversation. He thinks
 that the talents are entirely different,-a speech can not be
 reported, or an essay spoken. The man who writes speeches
 that would fire a multitude, will never be read by any
 body. The man who would attempt to deliver before a
 crowd, the finest essay ever penned by human genius, as a
 speech, would inevitably disperse it. Fox wrote speeches,
 po body ever reads him. Sir James Macintosh spoke essays,
 no mortal ever listened to him. Yet England crowded to
 hear Fox, and all England still reads and praises Sir James.
 Conversation differs from both. He, who in company
 bursts into splendid declamation, or delivers sage and sus-
 tained discourses, though drawn with the power and beauty
 of Addison, will be shunned by every one. The man
 who combines all these powers in perfection, is the greatest
 of human geniuses. We have heard Mr. MARSHALL Say
 that no man ever succeeded in all, save Lord Bolingbroke,
 the ablest orator in England, the finest writer in Europe,
 and the most elegant and agreeable drawing-room gentle-
 man in the world. We will attempt no description of Mr.
 MARSHALL as a public speaker, or the means by which he
 chains to him for hours and hours the largest crowds,
 some times composed of all sorts of people, and again purely
 of the most refined and educated classes.
 He is now engaged in delivering what he calls discourses
 on History. Invitations pour upon him from all parts of
 the country-villages, towns, and cities. How he is dis-
 charging his new vocation, or vindicating his past repu-
 tation, will best be seen in the columns of the Louis-
 ville Journal, during the twenty consecutive discourses he
 delivered in that city, without note, memorandum or a
 scrap of paper before him throughout. He improvises in a
 style rarely heard out of Italy. Though we have no in-
 tention of writing his biography, we must be allowed to
give the leading incidents of his life, as throwing some light



5

 




INTRODUCTION.



upon his writings, and offering some evidence and explana-
tion of the character we have ventured to give him.
   TnOMAs FRANCIS MARSHALL, the eldest son of Doctor
Louis Marshall, was born in Frankfort, Kentucky, June
seventh, 1801. His father, now aged eighty-five, and who
is still living, was the youngest brother of the late John
Marshall, Chief Justice of the United States. At the time
of the birth of our author, Doctor Marshall resided in the
county of Woodford, Kentucky, where he still resides, upon
the farm settled by his father, Col. Thomas Marshall, of
Virginia, in the year 1783. Our author's early education
was conducted by his mother, Mrs. Agatha Marshall, till
his twelfth year, when he entered a grammar school, and
commenced the study of the dead languages. When he was
about fourteen, his father procured an accomplished classical
scholar as teacher in his family. By this gentleman were
instructed in the Latin and Greek languages some of the
finest classical scholars in the Western country, such as
Doctor Robert J. Breckenridge, Doctor Louis Green, now
President of Danville College, Ky., the Rev. John A.
M'Lung, and various others. Our author, under his father's
directions, pursued his classical studies till he was twenty
years of age, and was never sent to the university, or to
any public college. At twenty he was sent to Virginia to
study history, as the basis of jurisprudence, and moral and
political philosophy. It was not the Chief Justice, but Mr.
James Marshall, of Frederic county, Virginia, with whom
he studied, a recluse student, and a man of great and varied
erudition. He continued his studies there for two years, and
returned to his father's at twenty-two years of age, where
he pursued the course of reading marked out for him by
his uncle till he lost his health, and was utterly prostrated
by disease, it was thought, in consequence of his intense
application to his books. He was twenty-five years old
before he was able to resume his studies, when he com-
menced the study of law, under the tuition of the Hon.
John J. Crittenden, of Kentucky. At twenty-seven he



6

 




INTRODUCTION.



obtained license to practice law in the courts of Kentucky.
His proclivities are always said to have been toward politics
as a science, and oratory as an art. He had seen little of
the world. Educated at home in the country, then sent to
Virginia to a secluded country place, then sickening almost
to death, and at last having fitted himself in the law, at
least far enough to obtain a license, he settled down in the
little village of Versailles. In 1829 he went to Virginia,
deserting his little village law-office to attend the debates
in the Convention then sitting in Richmond. Madison,
Monroe, Chief Justice Marshall, Randolph, Leigh, C. John-
son, Tazwell, and a host of others of scarcely less renown
were there. He heard them all, for nearly five months,
residing for the most part with the Chief Justice. This
was the best school he had ever seen.
  In February 1830, he went to Washington, and arrived
there the day before Col. Hayne spoke on the celebrated
Foote's resolutions. He heard Col. Hayne, and afterward
Mr. Webster. From that time his mind took a political
direction, and he bent himself to the study of the political
questions of the day, and entered upon their discussion
before the people of his native county with a sweeping en-
thusiasm, which still characterizes him. Parties at that time
in Woodford were nearly equally divided. In 1832, after
the veto of the United States Bank, Mr. MARSHALL ran for
the Leegislature as the friend of Mr. Clay, and was elected
in a county polling twelve hundred votes, by a majority of
two hundred and sixty-five. During the session which
ensued, he was made chairman of the committee on the
communication from the State of South Carolina, and made
the report which will be found in the following pages. In
the spring he settled in Louisville with a sincere purpose,
as we have understood, to prosecute his profession, for he
was, to use one of his own expressions, "steeped in poverty
to the very lips."  But his evil genius still followed hin,
and he again plunged into politics. Twice he represented
the city of Louisville in the Legislature of Kentucky, and



7

 




INTRODUCTION.



in 1837 ran for Congress against Mr. Graves, the regular
whig nominee. He was beaten of course, and by an im-
mense majority-upward of two thousand-his adopted city
casting a majority of four hundred against him. " The iron
entered into his soul." "'T were vain to paint to what his
feelings grew." He left Louisville instantly and returned
to Woodford. The next year he ran for the Legislature
from  that county, and was elected without opposition.
The Legislature rejected him, as being ineligible for want
of the full year's residence. He was elected again without
opposition, and the next year also. It was at these sessions
that he distinguished himself as a debater, on the question
of the Charleston, Lexington and Cincinnati railroad, in
opposition to the measure, contending for the city of Louis-
ville as the terminus, "heaping coals of fire," as he said,
"upon her ungrateful head for the mariner in which she
had treated him two years before."
  During all this time, and at every session, he was the
stanch advocate in debate of the slave law of 1832, resist-
ing its repeal. In 1840 he refused to run for the Legislature.
That winter the most strenuous efforts were made to repeal
his favorite law against the importation of slaves. He had
no seat in the Legislature, but at the urgent requests of the
friends of the law, presented the arguments he had so often
made on the floor of the house, in the form of letters to the
Commonwealth, which will be found in the following pages.
In the spring of 1841, he was elected to the Congress of the
United States, from the Ashland district, without opposition,
and commenced his brief career there at the celebrated called
session, John Tyler acting President. He spoke often in
Congress. There are, however, but two of his Congressional
speeches fully reported. Disgusted with the manner in
which his first speech was reported, with characteristic irri-
tability, at the close of his second, he insulted the reporters,
and ordered them "not to attempt again to pass upon the
public their infernal gibberish for his English." They quit
reporting him for some time, and took their revenge by



8

 




INTRODUCTION.



squibbing him in their letters written from Washington.
At this session Mr. MARSHALL saw proper to separate from
the whigs on several very important measures. He voted
against Mr. Clay's Bank Bill, and worse than that, he
argued against it on the floor of the House, it has been said,
with great force. The speech has never been reported, in
whole or in part. He was in favor of a Bank of the United
States, but objected to the form of the charter. Mr. Adams
agreed and voted with him. He voted against the bank-
rupt law. He was opposed to striking out of the Constitu-
tion the veto power. He was sure always to maintain his
opinions by his speeches. He contended that he was a whig,
and that the whig party had departed from their own long-
cherished principles. He ridiculed Mr. Tyler's Adminis-
tration on the floor, saying that when the history of the
country was written, that Administration might be put in
a parenthesis and defined from Lindley Murray, "a paren-
thesis to be a clause of a sentence enclosed between black
lines or brackets, which should be pronounced in a low tone
of voice, and might be left out altogether without injuring
the sense."
  Mr. MARSHALL had offended the leader of his party
deeply. Whether he intended to do so or not, it is per-
fectly evident he was careless about the matter. Upon
the expiration of the 27th Congress, he returned home,
and declared publicly, in Lexington, that he would not
again support Mr. Clay for the Presidency, and declined
being a candidate for a second term. This was in 1843.
The question of annexation of Texas came up in 1844.
Before Mr. Clay wrote his Raleigh letter, Mr. MARSHALL
declared himself in favor of annexation, and spoke, upon
the invitation of many persons, whigs among others, on
that subject in Lexington.
  Mr. MARSHALL is known to have declared to a whig
friend, that if Mr. Clay would advocate the measure, he
would vote for him for the Presidency. Mr. Clay wrote
his Raleigh letter, and Mr. MARSHALL voted for Col. Polk.



9

 




INTRODUCTION.



In 1845, Mr. MARSHALL ran for Congress against the Hon.
Garrett Davis. The district had gone for Mr. Clay, by a
majority of 1500, and for Governor Owsley over Butler
by 1300. Mr. MARSHALL was beaten by Mr. Davis 700
votes. In the canvass he gave a full history of the 27th
Congress, and vindicated his vote for Mr. Polk on national,
not party grounds-declaring that, under similar circum-
stances, he would have voted against General Washington,
and that the territory between the Sabine and the Rio
Grande, and stretching from the Gulf of Mexico to the
Pacific, was worth more to the United States than four
years' administration of the Government by any man who
ever had been or ever would be born.
  In 1846, he raised a volunteer troop of cavalry, who
chose him for their captain, and served in that capacity
in Mexico for twelve months. He lost the opportunity of
being in the battle of Buena Vista, without fault of his.
We know not what he felt; we doubt whether he did
himself. A convention was afterward called to revise the
Constitution of Kentucky. Mr. MARSHALL ran for a seat
in that body and was beaten, because he was in favor
of reviving his old favorite, the slave law, which had been
repealed, and he desired to incorporate it into the consti-
tution as part of the fundamental law.
  Upon the submission of the new constitution to the
people, he edited the "Old Guard" in opposition. The
articles which he wrote for that paper will be found in the
following pages. He was afterward elected from Wood-
ford for the session in which the contest for the Senate
between Mr. Crittenden and Mr. Dixon took place. He
stood by his early friend-his master, as he terms him-
Mr. Crittenden, and during the session wrote his celebrated
letter to the Louisville Journal, defending himself from
the charge of hostility to Mr. Clay. He canvassed a large
part of the State for General Scott against General Pierce.
In 1855, he declared his opposition to the American party,
and stated his grounds in a speech which will be found in



10

 



INTRODUCTION.



this work. In 1856 he removed to Chicago, where he still
claims his residence. He returned to Kentucky in August
of that year, to manage a law suit of great importance, in
which he was successful. While in Lexington, his friends
literally forced him, understanding that he was opposed to
Mr. Buchanan, to take the stump. Again he canvassed
considerable portions of the State, and got to Versailles
the day of the election. His exertions and exposure, dur-
ing the, most inclement weather, broke down his health.
He was attacked by a violent fit of pneumonia, cough,
spitting blood, etc., and lay in bed in Frankfort all that
winter.
   The engraving affixed to this work is an excellent repre-
sentation of his features. In person he is tall, measuring
six feet two inches, very erect and well proportioned. He
has passed through a variety of scenes in life, and has been
associated intimately with many of the most distinguished
men of the nineteenth century. Proud and self relying,
his obstinacy has been represented as trimming. The
writings of his which we publish, extending from 1832 to
1855, will best explain the character of his understanding,
and answer the charge of inconsistency. The fault of the
man seems to us to be that he has endeavored to subject
the action of parties to the rule of a severe logic, from
which he himself never departs. He seems to be a literary
politician, a class which has failed, from Rienzi to Guizot
and Macauley.
  As to Mr. MARSHALL'S personal history, were we in-
clined, we could make a tolerable novel out of it. He has
fought four duels; and, amid political pursuits and philo-
sophical studies, has found time to say and do many eccen-
tric things. He has found his way into our leading maga-
zines, and his jokes are considered so very funny, that
wretched reporters for newspapers undertake, in their
manner and language, to convey the spirit of his immor-
tal wit. We could, from sure information, and with per-
fect fidelity to the word, communicate some of his jests,



11

 




INTRODUCTION.



but will not. His is that sarcastic levity of tongue, "the
stinging of a heart the world hath stung."
  Yet those who know him best say that he is kind and
gentle, and generous to a fault. His writings show, that
although he differed with Mr. Clay, voted against him, and
thwarted him as far as he could in his policy, yet, upon
the instant that Mr. Clay touched him where they could
agree, he sustained that great statesman without the
memory of all that the leader had inflicted upon the
subordinate. Mr. MARSHALL had been Mr. Clay's friend,
when Mr. Clay was in a dead minority. Mr. MARSHALL
abandoned Mr. Clay when he was at the head of an
overwhelming majority. It has been ascribed to family
prejudice. Whether Mr. MARSHALL will ever explain the
real cause of the unfriendly relations between Mr. Clay
and himself, we know not. WVhat may be his future course
of life, we know not; we have already trenched so far
upon his private history that. we fear to have given oflilnse
to him. He may die and give no sign, or he may live to
write the history of his country, and to sketch the charac-
ters of the great men of the first part of the nineteenth
century. He knew many of them, and is a keen observer
of events, with a faithful memory; but it is of his mind,
not of his manners, his feelings, his peculiarities, personal
habits, or the unknown griefs which may have been the
cause of his so called eccentricities, that we are the herald,
and that through the breathings of that mind itself, in the
works we present.
                                     W. L. BARRE.



12


 










          SPEECHES AND WRITINGS

                              OF.


 HON. THOMAS F. MARSHALL.



 REPORT ON THE SOUTH CAROLINA ORDINANCE OF NULLI-
                          FICATION,
         Made to the Kentucky Leolslature, January the 9th, 1833.
THE people of South Carolina met in Convention at Columbia, in November
  1832. Sustained by the influence of JOHN C. CALHOUN, they denounced the
  existing revenue laws as unconstitional, null and void. This assumption
  of a right to sit in judgment upon the acts of the Federal Government,
  created intense excitement, particularly throughout the Southern States.
  The Governor of Kentucky, transmitted the proceedings of the Columbia
  Convention to the State Legislature, with his Message to that body, during
  its Session of 1832-338 They were referred for consideration to a select
  Committee, of which Mr. MARSHALL was Chairman. On the 9th of January,
  1833, he made the following report: -

  THE select committee of the House of Representatives, to
whom was referred the message of his Excellency, the Governor,
transmitting the documents which contain the proceedings of
the Convention, held at Columbia, in South Carolina, in Novem-
ber last, have examined those papers with much care, and beg
leave respectfully to report to the house the views they have
taken thereon:
  The Convention have declared that the existing laws of the
United States, imposing duties upon the importation of foreign
commodities into the United States, are iniquitous in their prin-
ciple, and most oppressive and ruinous in their operation; and,
moreover, a palpable infraction of the Federal Compact. They
                                                    (13)

 




T. F. MARSHALL.



have proceeded to decide, authoritatively, that these laws are in
violation of the Constitution of the United States, and there-
fore, null and void; and have directed a course of measures to
the Legislature of that State, by which their operation may be
obstructed within the territorial limits of South Carolina. In
the address to the States, a scheme of general taxation is sub-
mitted, with a distinct understanding that it is a concession on
the part of South Carolina, which, if promptly met, and in a
becoming manner, will be made by her to preserve the Union;
and that scheme is, "that the same rate of duty may be im-
posed upon the protected articles that shall be imposed upon
the unprotected, provided that no more revenue be raised than
is necessary to meet the demands of the government for con-
stitutional purposes; and provided, also, that a duty, substan-
tially uniform, be imposed upon all foreign articles." It is
abundantly obvious, that South Carolina reserves to herself the
right of determining what are "constitutional objects;" and
should the principle of discrimination in the impost system be
abandoned, there is no certainty that the future revenue laws
would not be nullified. In the proviso for a substantial uni-
formity in duties upon all foreign imports, it is impossible not
to see a field at once laid open for future disputation and dif-
ferences. If the intentions of South Carolina be really to
prevent future difficulties, she should define, with certainty,
what are the "constitutional purposes" for which revenue may
be raised. The States should, also, require that the distinc-
tion be clearly drawn between an apparent and " substantial
uniformity" in the duties imposed upon all foreign imports..
The Constitution of the United States declares, that " all du-
ties, imposts and excises shall be uniform throughout the Uni-
ted States:" and your committee are under the impression
that the requisition is complied with in the present system.
The distinction taken, in the proposition made to the States,
would seem to imply, that where a duty was laid upon an arti-
cle of foreign growth or manufacture, a corresponding tax
should be imposed upon similar articles of domestic production.
The effect of such a principle is too obvious for commentary,



14

 




NULLIFICATION.



and effectually destroys any hope the friends of American man-
ufactures might derive from the first branch of the proposition,
allowing the same rate of duty to be imposed upon protected
articles that should be imposed upon unprotected.  It would
be a great abuse of terms to call any article protected, when
loaded with an excise equal to the duty imposed upon its for-
eign rival. This were not only to forbid the laying a duty,
with a view to protection, but to prohibit such incidental pro-
tection as would arise from the imposition of duties laid with
a sole view to revenue, and adjusted to that standard.
  It will not be expected of the committee to enter upon the
debated ground of the tariff. They may be permitted, how-
ever, to observe, that they can scarcely reconcile the opera-
tion of that system, as described in the South Carolina ad-
dress, with the increase of our navigation, and the extension
of our mercantile operations, as communicated by the Pres-
ident of the United States in his message to the present Con-
gress, or the flourishing state of internal trade which we know
to exist. The President says, "the returns which have been
made out since we last met, will show an increase, during the
preceding year, of more than 80,000 tuns in our shipping, and
of near forty million dollars in the aggregate of our imports
and exports." This picture of growing prosperity, is scarcely
compatible with a system which is represented as spreading
ruin and desolation over every class of the community, except
a few capitalists engaged in manufactures, prematurely begun-
and artificially sustained. It can not be reconciled with the
depression of agriculture, or the idea that that portion of the
United States which furnishes almost the whole export upon
which foreign trade is based, is ground into poverty and in-
significance by an oppressive government.
  The committee are unable to perceive that the whole amount
of duties falls upon southern productions. They believe that
the people of South Carolina pay, like the people every where
else, the people of the manufacturing States as well as others,
in proportion to their consumption.
  The committee believe that the people of this Common-
       2



15

 




T. F. MARSHALL.



wealth have considered the tariff, so far as it operates to the
encouragement of American manufacturers, as a national mea-
sure, contributing to our strength and independence, and as
a measure decidedly of prospective defense. That its ultimate
effect is to develop, to the uttermost, the great natural resour-
ces of our country, to enlarge the sphere of our domestic in-
dustry and domestic commerce, and to accelerate our advance
to that point of opulence and power, which the peculiar ad-
vantages of our situation would seem to indicate. Free trade
prevails between 'the States of this Union. The Constitution
provides for the unrestrained circulation of com