of the bill are expected wholly or
principally to produce this, is not stated. I would not deny that some
increase of the home market may follow, from the adoption of this bill,
but all its provisions have not an equal tendency to produce this
effect. Those manufactures which employ most labor, create, of course,
most demand for articles of consumption; and those create least in the
production of which capital and skill enter as the chief ingredients of
cost. I cannot, Sir, take this bill merely because a committee has
recommended it. I cannot espouse a side, and fight under a flag. I
wholly repel the idea that we must take this law, or pass no law on the
subject. What should hinder us from exercising our own judgments upon
these provisions, singly and severally? Who has the power to place us,
or why should we place ourselves, in a condition where we cannot give to
every measure, that is distinct and separate in itself, a separate and
distinct consideration? Sir, I presume no member of the committee will
withhold his assent from what he thinks right, until others will yield
their assent to what they think wrong. There are many things in this
bill acceptable, probably, to the general sense of the House. Why should
not these provisions be passed into a law, and others left to be decided
upon their own merits, as a majority of the House shall see fit? To some
of these provisions I am myself decidedly favorable; to others I have
great objections; and I should have been very glad of an opportunity of
giving my own vote distinctly on propositions which are, in their own
nature, essentially and substantially distinct from one another.

But, Sir, before expressing my own opinion upon the several provisions
of this bill, I will advert for a moment to some other general topics.
We have heard much of the policy of England, and her example has been
repeatedly urged upon us, as proving, not only the expediency of
encouragement and protection, but of exclusion and direct prohibition
also. I took occasion the other day to remark, that more liberal notions
were becoming prevalent on this subject; that the policy of restraints
and prohibitions was getting out of repute, as the true nature of
commerce became better understood; and that, among public men, those
most distinguished were most decided in their reprobation of the broad
principle of exclusion and prohibition. Upon the truth of this
representation, as matter of fact, I supposed t