Indiana Palladium, Volume 5, Number 3, Lawrenceburg, Dearborn County, 24 January 1829 — Page 1

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EQUALITY OF RIGHTS IS NATURE'S PLAN AND FOLLOWING NATURE IS THE MARCH OF MAN.-Barlow. Volume V. LAWRENCEBURGH, INDIANA; SATURDAY, JANUARY 24, 1829. Number 3.

MR. MADISON" ON THE CONSTITUTION

LETTER II. Montpeiier, Oct. 30, 1 828. Dear Sir: In my letter of September 18th, I stated, briefly, the grounds on which I rested my opinion, that a pow er to impose the duties and restrictions on imports, with a view to encourage domestic productions, was constitutional ly lodged in Congress. In the observa tions then made was involved the opin ion, also, that the power was properly there lodged. A9 this last opinion ne cessarily implies that there are cases in which the power may be usefully exercised by Congress, the only body within our political system capable of exercising it with effect, you may think it incu-m-bent on mc to point out case3 of that Cyiscriplion. I will premise that I concur in the opinion, that, as a general rule, individuals ought to be deemed the best judges of the best application of their industry and resources. I am ready to admit, also, that there is no country in which the application may, with more safely, be left to the intelligence and enterprise of individual than the United States. Finally, I shall not deny, that, in all doubtful cases, it becomes every Government to lean rather to a confidence in the judgment of individuals thaa to interpositions controlling the free exercise of if. With all these concessions, I think it Can be satisfactorily showu, that there are exceptions to the general rule, now expressed by the phrase "Let us alone," forming cases which call for interpositions of the competent authority, and which are not inconsistent with the generality of the rule. 1. The theory of "Let us alone" supposes that all nations concur in a perfect freedom of commercial intercourse. Were this the case they would, in a commercial view, be but one nation, as much as the several districts composing a particular nation; and the theory would be as applicable to the former as to the latter. But this golden age of free trade has not yet arrived; nor is there a single nation that has set the ex ample. No nation can, indeed, safely do so, until a reciprocity, at least, be enflured to if. Take, for a proof, the familiar case of the navigation employed in a foreign commerce. If a nation adhering to the rule of never interposing a countervailing protection of its vessels, admit foreign vessels into its ports free of duty, whilst its own vessels are subject to a duty in ftfreign ports, the ruinous effect is so obvious, that the warmest advocate for the theory in question must shrink from si universal application of it. A nation leaving its foreign trade, in all cases, to regulate itself, might soon find it regulated by other nations into a subserviency to a foreign interest. In the interval between the peace of 1783 and the establishment of the present Constitution of the United States, the want of a general authority to regulate trade is known to have had this conse quence. And have not the pretensions and policy latterly exhibited by Great Britain given warning of a like result from a renunciation of all countervailing regulation on the part of the United States? Were she permitted, by conferring on certain portions of her domain the name of Colonies, to open from these a trade for herself, to foreign countries, and to exclude, at the same time, a reciprocal trade to such Colonies, by fo reign countries, the use to be made of the monopoly need not be traced. Its character will be placed in a just relief, by supposing that one of the Colonial Islands, instead of its present distance, happened to be in the vicinity of Great Britain; or that one of the Islands in that vicinity should receive the name and be regarded in the light of a colony, with the peculiar privileges claimed for colonies. Is it not manifest, that, in this case, the favored island might be made the sole medium of the commercial intercourse with foreign nations, the parent country thence enjoy every essential advantage, as to the terms of it, which would flow from art unreciprocal trad'j from her other ports with other nations? Fortunately, the British claims, however speciously coloured or adroitly managed, were repelled at the com mencement of our commercial career as an Independent People, and at succes sive epochs under the existing Constitution, both in legislative discussion and in diplomatic negotiations. The claims were repelled on the solid ground, that the Colonial trade, as a rightful monopo ly was limited to the intercourse be tween the parent country end its colo

nies, and between one colony & another;

the whole being, strictly, in the nature of a coasting trade from one to another port of the same nation; a trade with which no other nation hasa rightto interfere. It follows, of necessity, that the parent country, whenever it opens a colonial port for a direct trade to a foreign country, departs, itself, from the principle of colonial monopoly, and entitles the foreign country to the same reciprocity, in every respect, as in its intercourse with any other ports of the nation. This is common sense and common right. It is still more, if more could be required. It is in conformity with the established usage of all nation?, other than Great Britain, which have colonies. Some of those nations are known to adhere to the monopoly of their colonial trade, with all the rigor and constancy wnicn circumstances permit. JJut it is also known, that, whenever, and from whatever cause it has been found necessary or expedient to open their colonial ports to a foreign trade, the rule of reciprocity in favor of the foreign party was not refused, nor, as is believed, a right to refuse it pretended. It cannot be said that the reciprocity was dictated by a deficiency of the commercial marine. France, at least, rould not be, in every instance, governed by that consideration and Holland, till less; to say nothing of the navigating States of Sweden and Denmark, which have rarely, if ever, enforced a colonial monopoly. The remark is indeed, obvious, that the shipping liberated from usual conveyance of supplies from the parent country to the colonies might be employed in the new channels opened for them, in supplies from abroad. Reciprocity, or an equivalent for it, i the only rule of intercourse among independent communities; and no ratio. ought to admit a doctrine, or adopt an invariable policy, wmch would preclude the counteracting measures necessary to enforce the rule. si mi mi a. i ne I neory supposes, moreover, a perpetual peace; a supposition, it is to be feared, not less chimerical than a uni versal freedom of commerce. The erfectof war among the commer cial and manufacturing nations of the world, in raisiug the wages of labor, and the cost of its products ; with a like iTeci on the charges of freight and insurance need neither proof nor explanation. In order to determine, therefore a question of economy, between depending on foreign supplies and encouraging domestic substitutes, it is necessary to compare th probable periods of war with the probable periods of peace ; and the cost of the domestic encouragement in times of peace, with the cost added to foreign articles in times of war. During the last century, the periods of war and peace have been nearly equal. The effect of a state of war in raising uie price oi imporiea articles. cannot be estimated with exactness, h is certain, however, that the increased price of particular articles may make it cheaper to manufacture them at home. Taking, for the 6ake of illustration, an equality in the two periods, and the cost of an imported yard of cloth in time of peace to be seven dollars, whilst the same could at all times be manufactured at home for eight dollars, it is evident that a tariffof one dollar and a quarter on the imported yard would protect the home manufacture in lime of peace, and avoid a tax of one dollar and a half imposed by a slate of war. It cannot be said that the manufactories which could not support themselves against foreign competition in periods of peace, would spring up of themselves at the recurrence of war prices. It must be obvious to every one, that, apart from the difficulty of great and sudden changes of employment, no prudent capitalists would engage in expensive establishments of any sort, at the commence ment of a war of urcertaiu duration with a certainty of having them crushed by the return of peace. The strictest economy therefore suggests, as exceptions to the general rule, an estimate, in every given case, of war and peace periods and prices, with inferences therefrom, of the amount of a tariff which might be afforded during peace, iu order to avoid the tax resultlrg from war. And it will occur at once, that theinferences will be strengthened by adding, to the supposition of wars wholly foreign that of wars in which our own country might be a party. 3. It is an opinion in which all must agree, that no nation ought to he unnecessarily dependent on others for the munitions 91 public defence, or for the

materials essential to a naval force,

where the nation has a maratime frontier or a foreign commerce to protect. To this class of exceptions to the theory may be added the instruments of agriculture, and of the mechanic arts which supply the other primary wants of the community. The time has been, when many of these were derived from a foreign source and some of them might relapse into that dependence, were the encouragement to the fabrication of them at home withdrawn. But, as all foreign sources must be liable to interruptions too inconvenient to be hazarded, a provident policy would favor an internal and independent source, as'a reasonable exception to the general rule of consulting cheapness alone. 4. There are cases where a nation may be so far advanced in the prerequisites for a particular branch of manufactures, that this, if once brought into existence, would support itself; and yet, unless aided in its nascent and infant state, by public encouragement and a confidence in public protection, might remain if not altogether, for a long time unattempted, or attempted without success. Is not our cotton manufacture a fair example? However favored by an advan tageous command of the raw material. and a machinery which dispenses in s extraordinary a proportion with manual labor, it is quite probable that without the impulse given by a war cutting oi foreign supplier, and the patronage of an early tariffit might not even yet have established itself: and pretty certain, that it would be far short of the prosperous condition which enables it to face, in foreign markets, the fabrics of a nation that defies all other competitors. The number must be small, that would now pronounce this manufacturing boon not to have been cheaply purchased by the lriffwhich nursed it into its present maturity. 5. Should it happen, a9 has been suspected, to be an object, though not of a foreign government itself, of its ereati

manufacturing Capitalists, to strangle in!,errnined in foreign armies, as well as in

the cradle the infanl manufactures of an extensive customer, or an anticipated rival, it would surely, in such a case, be incumbent on the suffering party, so far to make an exception to the "let alone" policy, as to parry the evil by apposite regulations of its foreign commerce. G. It is a common objection to the lie encouragement of particularbranches of industry, that it calls off laborers tiom other branches found to be more profitable; and the objection is in general a weighty one. Bui it loses that character in proportion to the effect of the encouragement in attracting skilful laborers from abroad. Something of this sort has already taken place among ourselves, and much more of it is in prospect; and, as far as it has taken or may Jake place, it forms an exception to the general policy in question. 1 he history of manufactures in Great Britain, the greatest manufacturing nation in the world, informs us that the woollen branch, till of late her greatest branch, owed both its original and subsequent growths to persecuted exiles from the Netherlands: and that her silkmanufactures, now a flourishing and favorite branch, were, not less indebted to emigrants flying from the persecuting edicts of France. Anderson's History of Commerce. ; It appears, indeed, from the general history of manufacturing industry, that the prompt and successful introductioitof ii inio new Mitiauuus, uas oeen me result of emigrations from countries in which manufactures had gradually grown Up to a prosperous stale, aa into i . i

Italy on the fall of the Greek emnir-'jor

from Italy into Spain and Flanders, onl the loss of liberty in I lorence and other cities; and from Flanders and France, , . . . : ? into England as above noticed. Franklin's Canada pamphlet. In the selection of cases here made, as exceptions to the "let alone" Theory , none have been included whicfa were deemed controvertible. And if I have viewed them, or a part of them only, in their true light, they show, what was to be shown, that the power granted to Congress toencourage domesticproducts by regulations of foreign trae, was properly granted, inasmuch as the power is, in effect, confined to that body, and may, when exercised with a Sound legislative discretion, provide the better for the safety and prosperity of the Nation. With great esteem and regard, JAMES MADISON. J osErn C. Cabell, Esq. AN York paper thus sDnouDCfS its death: Yesterday Jackson was elected preeide&t-to-daj thanksgiving 8 to-rqorfo vi hii! tip shop.

& REVET RAJYK, . ! The following copy of a memorial from major gen. Scott, recently presented to congresp, will be interesting to all our readers: To the honorable the speaker and members of the house of represtntatizes of the United States. The memorial of JVinfeld Scot: respectfully represents: That your memorialist entered the army of the United States a captain May 3, 1808; that he was promoted to the rank f licuUnant colonel, Jul)-6, 1812; to the rank of colonel March 12, 1813; to the rank of brigadia general, March 9, 1814;

and for services set lurth in the body of his commission, to the rank oimnjorgeixeral by brevet, July 25, 1314. That fre-n this date, until very recently, your memorialist had always been considered and employed, in respect to all Ihe rights of rank or command, as a major general; that within the same period, he had under his orders, at different times, two major generals of the army and three of the militia, neither of whom could he have legally commanded, if his brevet commission or brevet rank had not been perfectly valid and effective; Hiid that for the whole period in question, he was never under the command, nor was it ever attempted to subject him to fhe command, of any ( fficer not of the -ame grade, and his actual senior in that grade. Your memorialist would most respectfully affirm, and he is ready to sustain by proof every proposition he has advanced, or shall advance, that the office of "commander-in-chief," "commander of the army," or lkthc major general," as import ing either, is, at this time, unknown to the laws, that there now esists in law, or in fact, no higher title or grade in the army, than that of major general a ti tle or grade which y our memorialist has the honor to hold in common with two other officers; that military rank or com mand (controvertible term?) is always de our own, first, h difference in grade, and secondly, by priority of date in the same grade; that from the commencement of our revolutionary war down to th present year, brevet rark has uniformly been held to give command in cc mmon with ordinary rank except oniv ("for

pub-lrensons ra?il explained) within the body

of an unmixed regiment, or detachment of the same regiment; that this is evi denced bv every decision of the executive and every precedent of the army, recorded or remembered ; and, that your memorialist cannot fall within the excep tion mentioned, is evident from the (act, that he is in rak and title equally above every regiment in the service of the Uni ted States. Such, your memorialist humbly conceives, had been the law, the construction of the law, and the settled practice in the army, down to a recent event the death of major general Brown; who. under an arrangement purely executive, and by virtue of his seniority in the highest grade, that of major geneiaf, had commanded the army from June 182T, to Feb. 24, 1 823, the date of his decease. On the promotion of general Macomb to the vacancy of the deceased, with rank as major general from May 24, 1828, the president of the United States, without any new legislation changing the law or principles which have been stated, by an order bearing date May 28, 1 828, placed ! major general Macomb in command over the army, and required all officers, &c. to obey his orders, without any exception in favor of your memorialist, the senior, and, therefore, the superior mageneral. Against this order, which your memo t. ii rialist honestly believed to be equally re pugnant to his rights and to his honor, tie lias, from the first, respectfully and steadily protested: he has humbly prayed to be sent hefore a court martial on the charge of disobeying the command? of the alleged superior major general, in order that the lw and the principles involved in the case might be judicially. promptly, and definitely settled ; and he has respectfully suggested an exemption from the commands of his inferior major general, by an arrangement of ihe several general officers of the line, to separate geographical district or departments, as prior to the executive arrangement of 1821. His entreaties have all been rejected, and, finally, without anytrial by his peers, your memoodist has been suspended from all command in the army V By these decision?, contrasted with the prior decisions of the executive, and the usages of the army, your memorialist fiuds himself in the most painful situation,

To submit, would, in all probability, dia" honor him in the opinion of his brother officers, and most certainly iu hi9 own; and not to submit, does great violence to the sentiment of duty and respect which he is proud to owe to the constitutional chief of the army. Under these circumstances, your memorialist prays your honorable body so far to entertain hU case, and that of oth er officers similarly interested, as to determine by a decforatory statute, the rights and duties appertaining to brevet rank; so that your memorialist and others alluded to,roav have the benefit of a certain and fixed rule for their conduct, id

common with the rett of the, army, and their fellow-citizens in general. And your memorialist, as in duty bound, will forever pray, &c. WIN FIELD SCOTT, Mj-r CJti rr! Uried States Arraji llashmgtm, D. C. Dec. 29, 1 828. Macon, Georgia. Fifteen thousand bales of cotton have been received at Macon up to the 1st inst. of which eight thousand have been sent down the river for market. The Telegraph observer that this is much more than has ever been received at that place during the same period of any previous year. Sp va7inah Republican Early rising. Let any one but try it and he will fully realise the truth of the annexed remarks by Cobbett. An hour in the morning is worth three at night, and Cobbett thus accounts for his haVii.gbeen ableto accomplish so much as ho has achieved. He says: "If such young man wish to fcnow the grand secret relative to the performance of such wondrous labour, it is told to hirri in a few word?: be abstinent, be srber, go to bed at eight o'clock, ai d get up at four, the last two beirg of still more importance than the two former. A full half of all that I have ever written hag been written before ten o'clock in the day ; so that I have had as much leisure as any man I ever knew any thing of. If yourg men will but set about the thing in earnest, let thtnn not fear of success: they will soon find that it is disagreeable, to set up or rise late. Literary coxcomb talk of 'consuming the midnight oil.' No oil and a very small portion of candle, have I ever consumed; and I am convinced that no writing is so good as that , which comes from under the light of the sun." , Spots cm the 5tm,Sc An ingenious individual in Providence has very recently succeeded, bv means of a 7 feet teles cope censtructed by himself on a new (principle, in bringing the entire image the sun into a darkened room, upon a white screen to the sire of 8 feet in diameter. He writes us, that his astonishment was great, when he perceived that every spot now upon the face of the sun, nine in number, was distinctly transferred to the screen, and was so plain that he coufd tee every movement of them ia their various and sudden changes. He says he could plainly discover that those spots were immense bodies of smoke, apparently issuing from Volcanoes; and as they seem occasionally forced upward from the craters, now forming dense clouds and now dispersing, he considers this phenomena as accounting for the rapid changes of those spots. The escape of such a vast quantity of gas from the interior of the body of the sun, would, he observes, as it surrounds that luminary, produce that bright and dazzling appearance, which is the atmosphere of the sun. This theory may not accord with the opinions of others whe have made observations on the subject; but the writer, at any rate entertains the strc-rgest belief of its truth. With the same instrument, but just finished, he has also examined the moon and states hi? conviction that that body is covered with perpetual snow and ice, the dark pots discoverable on its surface being Irrsn seas, and the lighter spaces land Covered with Snow, Those circular places, which have a rising.cone in the centre he thinks are extinguished volcanoes, as no clouds are perceptible over the moan's face ; which being covered with snow and ice, accounts as he imagines, for its chear atmosphere, or for the absence of an atmosphere. Thi$ vast accumulation of ice and snow upon the moon's surface, may be explained, the writer conjectures, by the nature of the moon's revolutions. He offers to construct instruments of the above discription,by which these phenomena may be observed at a price from $50 to $100; and at the same rate to furnish solar microscopes, on a new principal, with a magnifying power at 12 feet distance, of S,lG4,000.---.Bwfstt Bulletin