gative vote on the whole of the
bill. I cannot but think this mode of proceeding liable to great
objections. It exposes both those who support and those who oppose the
measure to very unjust and injurious misapprehensions. There may be good
reasons for favoring some of the provisions of the bill, and equally
strong reasons for opposing others; and these provisions do not stand to
each other in the relation of principal and incident. If that were the
case, those who are in favor of the principal might forego their
opinions upon incidental and subordinate provisions. But the bill
proposes enactments entirely distinct and different from one another in
character and tendency. Some of its clauses are intended merely for
revenue; and of those which regard the protection of home manufactures,
one part stands upon very different grounds from those of other parts.
So that probably every gentleman who may ultimately support the bill
will vote for much which his judgment does not approve; and those who
oppose it will oppose something which they would very gladly support.

Being intrusted with the interests of a district highly commercial, and
deeply interested in manufactures also, I wish to state my opinions on
the present measure, not as on a whole, for it has no entire and
homogeneous character, but as on a collection of different enactments,
some of which meet my approbation and some of which do not.

And allow me, Sir, in the first place, to state my regret, if indeed I
ought not to express a warmer sentiment, at the names or designations
which Mr. Speaker[1] has seen fit to adopt for the purpose of describing
the advocates and the opposers of the present bill. It is a question, he
says, between the friends of an "American policy" and those of a
"foreign policy." This, Sir, is an assumption which I take the liberty
most directly to deny. Mr. Speaker certainly intended nothing invidious
or derogatory to any part of the House by this mode of denominating
friends and enemies. But there is power in names, and this manner of
distinguishing those who favor and those who oppose particular measures
may lead to inferences to which no member of the House can submit. It
may imply that there is a more exclusive and peculiar regard to American
interests in one class of opinions than in another. Such an implication
is to be resisted and repelled. Every member has a right to the
presumption, that he pursues what he believes to be the intere