n
Georgia, held subsequently to the passage of the "Woolens' Bill," the
following resolution was adopted:

_Resolved_, That to retaliate as far as possible
upon our oppressors, our Legislature be requested
to impose taxes, amounting to prohibition, on the
hogs, horses, mules, and cotton-bagging, whisky,
pork, beef, bacon, flax, and hemp cloth, of the
Western, and on all the productions and
manufactures of the Eastern and Northern States.

Mr. Hamilton, of South Carolina, in a speech at the Waterborough
Dinner, given subsequently to the passage of the tariff of 1828, said:

"It becomes us to inquire what is to be our situation under this
unexpected and disastrous conjunction of circumstances, which, in its
progress, will deprive us of the benefits of a free trade with the rest
of the world, which formed one of the leading objects of the Union. Why,
gentlemen, ruin, unmitigated ruin, must be our portion, if this system
continues. . . . . From 1816 down to the present time, the South has
been drugged, by the slow poison of the miserable empiricism of the
prohibitory system, the fatal effects of which we could not so long have
resisted, but for the stupendously valuable staples with which God has
blessed us, and the agricultural skill and enterprise of our people."

In further illustration of the nature of this controversy, and of the
arguments used during the contest, we must give the substance of the
remarks of a prominent politician, who was aiming at detaching the sugar
planters from their political connection with the manufacturers. We have
to rely on memory, however, as we can not find the record of the
language used on the occasion. It was published at the time, and
commented on, freely, by the newspapers at the North. He said: "We must
prevent the increase of manufactories, force the surplus labor into
agriculture, promote the cultivation of our unimproved western lands,
until provisions are so multiplied and reduced in price, that the slave
can be fed so cheaply as to enable us to grow our sugar at _three cents
a pound_. Then, without protective duties, we can rival Cuba in the
production of that staple, and drive her from our markets."

CHAPTER X.

Tariff controversy continued--Tariff of 1832--The crisis--_Secession_
threatened--Compromise finally adopted--Debates--Mr. Hayne--Mr.
McDuffie--Mr. Clay--Adjustment of the subject.

T