tic manufactures at the North insisted upon high protective
duties, to sustain the mechanical and manufacturing interests of the
country against a ruinous foreign competition. The Southern States
resisted these measures as destructive to their interests, and
remonstrated with the utmost vehemence against them--in which they were
joined by a large portion of the Democratic party throughout the North.
Mr. Adams, with enlarged views of national unity and general prosperity,
counselled moderation to both parties. As Chairman of the Committee on
Manufactures, he strove to produce such a compromise between the
conflicting interests, as should yield each section a fair protection, and
restore harmony and fraternity among the people.

So important were Mr. Adams' services deemed in the Committee on
Manufactures, that, on proposing to resign his post as Chairman, to fulfil
other duties which claimed his attention, he was besought by all parties
to relinquish his purpose. Mr. Cambreleng, of N. Y., a political opponent
of Mr. Adams, said, "It was not a pleasant duty to oppose the request of
any member of the House, particularly one of his character. He did so with
infinite regret in the present instance; and he certainly would not take
such a course, but for the important consequences that might result from
assenting to the wishes of the distinguished gentleman from Massachusetts.
He had reached the conclusion, not without infinite pain and reluctance,
that the harmony, if not the existence of our Confederacy, depends, at
this crisis, upon the arduous, prompt, and patriotic efforts of a few
eminent men. He believed that much might be done by the gentleman from
Massachusetts."

In the same tone of high compliment, Mr. Barbour, of Virginia, said,
"that to refuse anything that could be asked by the gentleman from
Massachusetts gave him pain, great pain. He said it was with unaffected
sincerity he declared, that the member from Massachusetts (with whom he
was associated in the committee) had not only fulfilled all his duties
with eminent ability, in the committee, but in a spirit and temper that
commanded his grateful acknowledgments, and excited his highest
admiration. Were it permitted him to make a personal appeal to the
gentleman, he would have done so in advance of this motion. He would have
appealed to him as a patriot, as a statesman, as a philanthropist, and
above all as an American, feeling the full force of all his duties, a