ument, may be considered as within fifty miles of Philadelphia.
Now, it is at once a just and a strong view of this case, to consider,
that there are, within fifty miles of our market, vast multitudes of
persons who are willing to labor in the production of this article for
us, at the rate of seven cents per day, while we have no labor which
will not command, upon the average, at least five or six times that
amount. The question is, then, shall we buy this article of these
manufacturers, and suffer our own labor to earn its greater reward, or
shall we employ our own labor in a similar manufacture, and make up to
it, by a tax on consumers, the loss which it must necessarily sustain.

I proceed, Sir, to the article of hemp. Of this we imported last year,
in round numbers, 6,000 tons, paying a duty of $30 a ton, or $180,000 on
the whole amount; and this article, it is to be remembered, is consumed
almost entirely in the uses of navigation. The whole burden may be said
to fall on one interest. It is said we can produce this article if we
will raise the duties. But why is it not produced now? or why, at least,
have we not seen some specimens? for the present is a very high duty,
when expenses of importation are added. Hemp was purchased at St.
Petersburg, last year, at $101.67 per ton. Charges attending shipment,
&c., $14.25. Freight may be stated at $30 per ton, and our existing duty
$30 more. These three last sums, being the charges of transportation,
amount to a protection of near seventy-five per cent in favor of the
home manufacturer, if there be any such. And we ought to consider, also,
that the price of hemp at St. Petersburg is increased by all the expense
of transportation from the place of growth to that port; so that
probably the whole cost of transportation, from the place of growth to
our market, including our duty, is equal to the first cost of the
article; or, in other words, is a protection in favor of our own product
of one hundred per cent.

And since it is stated that we have great quantities of fine land for
the production of hemp, of which I have no doubt, the question recurs,
Why is it not produced? I speak of the water-rotted hemp, for it is
admitted that that which is dew-rotted is not sufficiently good for the
requisite purposes. I cannot say whether the cause be in climate, in the
process of rotting, or what else, but the fact is certain, that there is
no American water-rotted hemp in the market. We