H. OF R.

Domestic Manufactures. &c.

JANUARY, 1804.

sistence and the high price of wages, our fellow-citizens born to happier destinies are not doomed to the wretchedness of a strict discipline in such manufactories.

that metal from impost, was thought a sufficient encour-ourselves that, by reason of the ease of gaining a subagement for the incipient type manufacture. The paper manufacture seemed to be sufficiently provided for, if rags were permitted to be brought into the country without being dutied. Though saltpetre and sulphur both abound in the United States, yet as their prepara- Our citizens are distinguished for their ingenuity and tion is still in a backward state, it was thought that the skill, they have invented many expedients by machinemanufacture of gunpowder would receive due patron-ry to shorten and cheapen labor. The machine for age by exempting them both from the payment of im- making wool and cotton cards, the machines for ginning post on their importation from Italy and India. Some cotton, the machines for cutting and heading nails, the think indigo ought to come free; as also the bark of machinery for elevating wheat, and for raising and the cork tree. stirring meal in mills, and the improvements in the manufactures of muskets, class with the most useful inventions with which the age has been adorned.

Second. Encouragement by laying higher or prohibiting duties on manufactured articles imported. It has been urged that a duty of twenty-five per centum. ad valorem on fur hats, brushes, stoneware, saddles, cannon ball, glass bottles, and glassware of all kinds; and fifty cents on umbrellas; three cents per pound on starch; and four cents on hair powder would have an operation favorable to the domestic enterprise of hatters, brushmakers, potters, saddlers, iron masters, glass, umbrella, and starch manufacturers.

It is, perhaps, to be regretted by the petitioners that Congress is deprived of the power to encourage manufactures by imposing duties on certain domestic raw materials if exported; if this, however, had not been withheld by the Constitution, an export duty upon horns and bones of oxen and deer, might operate in favor of the comb, knife, lantern, &c., manufacture; and an export duty upon green myrtle wax, might favor the bleaching of that choice vegetable production and the formation of white candles from it; so, perhaps, the laying an export duty upon furs, would be a ready method of aiding the hat manufacture. Or, to take a stronger case, an export duty on provisions, by making bread, meal, and other articles of food, cheap at home, might be viewed by some of the petitioners as a capital method of lowering labor, and encouraging domestic manufactures. But none of this latter class of expedients is under the control of the Government.

In like manner, it has been considered by a former committee, that if five cents the pound was laid upon imported gunpowder; three cents per pound upon glue; two cents upon tarred cordage; two-and-a-half cents upon untarred cordage or yarns; on printed calicoes an additional duty of two and a half per cent.; on all plated ware, an additional duty of five per cent.; on soap, three cents the pound; on candles of tallow three cents the pound; on anchors, two cents per pound; on spikes or bolts of iron, two cents per pound; on cut, slitted or rolled iron, one cent per pound; on foreign The committee observe, in the Journals of the pickled fish, one dollar the barrel; and on all dried fish, House, that on the 21st of February, 1803, a resolve one dollar the quintal; there would be an adequate was passed, directing the Secretary of the Treasury to Governmental aid extended to the manufactures of gun-prepare and lay before Congress a plan for levying new powder, glue, cordage, soap, and candles, anchors, spikes, slit iron, and to the cod fishery.

Thirdly. Encouragement by withholding drawback from articles of foreign manufacture exported again. This is done already in the case of loaf and refined sugar, and might easily be extended to other articles. Fourthly. Encouragement by allowing drawback of duties paid on domestic manufactures equal to what was paid for the raw materials on their importation. This has generally been allowed on the exportation of sugar refined from foreign materials, and on rum distilled from foreign molasses, though under our present law neither is entitled to the drawback. It has been supposed that plain cottons which undergo the operation of staining and printing within the country might be permitted to receive drawback on exportation in the form of calicoes.

Fifthly. By direct bounties. This mode of encouragement has been thought to have been employed partially in the curing and exporting of codfish; and could be extended to other branches of business if sound policy required it.

From this view of the proceedings of Congress it will appear that much has been done already to encourage the domestic industry of our citizens.

That industry, under such aids as the Government by these means has given at a time when population is so rapidly increasing, has caused useful arts and manufactures to rise up and thrive in almost every part of the country; our works in wood, copper, hemp, leather, and iron, are already excellent and extensive. And if we do not excel in the manufacture of the finer articles of cotton, silk, wool, and the metals, we may felicitate

and more specific duties on goods, wares, and merchandise imported into the United States, so that the same shall, as near as may be, neither increase nor diminish the present revenue collected from imports. From this plan, lately presented to Congress, additional light has been thrown on this subject.

In the meantime it ought to be considered that there is great scope for agriculture, tillage, and rural employment in the United States. Agriculture is the great occupation which sets in motion all kinds of manufactures. It furnishes both the raw materials, and the articles of subsistence, to those who are engaged in manufacturing employments. The cultivation of the earth is, therefore, absolutely necessary to provide the ingredients for artisans to work upon, and the food for enabling them to live, while they are engaged in labor. This being the fact, the great question arises, whether we shall furnish raw materials and food to manufactu rers in our own country, or in foreign lands?

Political economists will instantly see that the good of the revenue, and the happiness of the people, are best promoted by offering a part of our unwrought materials, and of our surplus provisions, to domestic manufac turers, and, at the same time, to export the other part of what we can spare, in exchange for the wrought productions of foreign manufactories.

In a country devoted to agriculture, the cluster of arts and trades which minister to its wants spring up, of course, and almost from necessity. The plainer, coarser, and more useful fabrics in wool, leather, iron, flax, cotton, and stone, are manufactured with tolerable skill; while the more fine, costly, and high wrought articles of those several kinds can be procured more

conveniently from foreign parts. And while the country consumer pays for the former with one part of his spare produce, he barters away the other part to procure a proportion of the latter.

There may be some danger in refusing to admit the manufactures of foreign countries; for, by the adoption of such a measure, we should have no market abroad for our produce, and industry would lose one of its

chief incentives at home.

In addition to the wise calculations and estimates of our predecessors in Congress, who devised the existing system of imposts, there may probably be something done. And the following plan appears to the committee as well adapted as anything that has occurred, to suit the wishes of the petitioners as far as seems reasonable, and as far as actual circumstances warrant: Resolved, That rags of linen, cotton, woollen, and hempen cloths; bristles of swine; regulus of antimony; unwrought burr stones; saltpetre; and the bark of the cork tree, (which pay at present twelve-and-a-half per cent. ad valorem,) be admitted free of duties.

Resolved, That brushes and black bottles, (now paying twelve-and-a-half per cent.,) be henceforward charged with a duty of twenty-five per cent.

Resolved, That fur hats, and plated ware, (which now pay fifteen per cent.,) shall be raised to a duty of twenty per cent.

H. OF R.

examine and report their opinion thereupon to the House.

LOUISIANA TERRITORY.

The House again resolved itself into a Committee of the Whole on the report of the Committee of Ways and Means, of the twenty fourth instant, to whom were referred the amendments proposed by the Senate to the bill, entitled "An act giving effect to the laws of the United States within the territories ceded to the United States, by the treaty of the 30th of April, 1803, between the United States and the French Republic, and for other purposes ;" and, after some time spent therein, the Committee rose and reported to the House their agreement to some, and their disagreement to others, of the said amendments.

The House then proceeded to consider the said report and amendments: Whereupon, Resolved, That this House doth disagree to the first and thirteenth amendments.

Resolved, That this House doth agree to the second, third, and fourth amendments.

Resolved, That this House doth agree to the fifth amendment to the said bill, for striking out, in the eighth line of the third section, the words, "Natchez and."

Resolved, That stoneware, window glass, and cannon ball, (which now pay fifteen per cent.,) be hereafter charged with a duty of twenty-five per cent. Resolved, That foreign pickled and dried fish, (which-yeas 84, nays 40, as follows: now pay twelve-and-a-half per cent. ad valorem,) be subjected to a duty of $1 50 the barrel for the former, ond of one hundred cents the quintal for the latter.

The question was taken that the House do agree to the resolutions, and decided in the affirmative

Resolved, That a duty of three cents the pound be laid upon starch, of four cents the pound upon hair powder, and four cents upon glue, on their importation, in lieu of the present duties of fifteen per cent. ad

valorem.

Resolved, That printed calicoes, and gunpowder, (now paying twelve-and-a-half per cent.,) be henceforward charged with a duty of fifteen per cent.

Resolved, That tarred cordage and cables, (now paying 110 cents the cwt.) be subjected to a duty of two cents the pound; and that untarred cordage, (now paying two hundred and twenty-five cents the cwt..) be made to pay two-and-a-half cents the pound. Resolved, That a duty of fifty cents a piece be laid upon umbrellas; of three cents per pound upon soap; of three cents the pound upon tallow candles; of two cents the pound upon anchors; of two-and-a-half cents upon spikes, and bolts of iron.

The report was referred to a Committee of the Whole on Monday next.

THURSDAY, January 26.

A petition of William Dunbar, of the Mississippi Territory of the United States, was presented to the House and read, praying that the title to a certain lot of land containing about twentythree acres, within the limits of the city of Natchez, which was granted by the Spanish Government, in consideration of services rendered by the petitioner, may be confirmed to him, in fee simple,

Ordered, That the said petition be referred to Mr. LATTIMORE, Mr. ALSTON, Mr. STEDMAN, Mr. THOMAS, Mr. RANDOLPH, and Mr. HAMPTON; to

cher, Simeon Baldwin, David Bard, George Michael YEAS-Willis Alston, jr., Isaac Anderson, John ArAdam Boyd, George W. Campbell, John Campbell, Bedinger, Silas Betton, Phanuel Bishop, Walter Bowie, William Chamberlin, Martin Chittenden, Clifton Claggett, Thomas Claiborne, Matthew Clay, John Clopton, Frederick Conrad, Manasseh Cutler, Richard Cutts, Samuel W. Dana, John Davenport, John Dawson, John Dennis, William Dickson, Thomas Dwight, James Elliot, Ebenezer Elmer, John Fowler, Peterson Goodwold, Roger Griswold, Samuel Hammond, Seth Haswyn, Edwin Gray, Andrew Gregg, Gaylord Gristings, William Helms, William Hoge, James Holland, David Hough, Benjamin Huger, John G. Jackson, William Kennedy, Nehemiah Knight, John B. C Lucas, Matthew Lyon, David Meriwether, Nahum Mitchell, Jeremiah Morrow, James Mott, Anthony New, Gideon Olin, Beriah Palmer, John Patterson, Oliver Phelps, Thomas Plater, Thomas M. Randolph, John Rhea of Tennessee, Cæsar A. Rodney, Erastus Root, Thomas Sandford, Ebenezer Seaver, Thompson J. Skinner, James Sloan, John Cotton Smith, John Smith of Virginia, Henry Southard, William Stedman, James Stephenson, John Stewart, Samuel Taggart, Samuel Tenney, Samuel Thatcher, David Thomas, Philip R. Thompson, Abram Trigg, John Trigg, Killian K. Van Rensselaer, Daniel Verplanck, Matthew Walton, Lem

uel Williams, Marmaduke Williams, and Richard Winn.

John Boyle, Robert Brown, Joseph Bryan, Joseph Clay, NAYS-Nathaniel Alexander, William Blackledge, Jacob Crowninshield, John B. Earle, Peter Early, William Eustis, William Findley, James Gillespie, Thomas Griffin, Josiah Hasbrouck, Joseph Heister, David Holmes, Samuel Hunt, Walter Jones, Michael Leib, Andrew McCord, William McCreery, Samuel L, Mitchill, Nicholas R. Moore, Thomas Moore, Thomas Newton, jr., Joseph H Nicholson, Samuel D. Purviance, John Randolph, John Rea of Pennsylvania, Jacob

JANUARY, 1804.

Commissioner of Loans.

H. OF R.

This

being transferred partly on the books of the Treas-petual register of its debt. The individual gained ury, and partly on the books of the Commission- nothing; and I cannot suppose that a provision ers of Loans, will be transferrable on the books of which abridged considerably the right of the pubthe Treasury only. He should confine his obser- lic creditor as to transfer could have been designvations, therefore, to the right of Congress to regu- ed exclusively for his benefit. The regulation late the transfer in the way proposed, and to the was evidently adopted for the public convenience, expediency of exercising this right. By the act and intended principally to facilitate the different passed on the 4th day of August 1790, making operations of the Government in the payment of provision for the public debt, the then creditors of her debt. That this limitation or transfer was dethe United States were invited to come forward signed solely for the convenience of the Governand exchange the certificates or evidence of their ment, and not for the benefit of the individual, is debt for other certificates. At this time no com- evident from the 10th section of the law. plete register of the debt of the United States ex- section applies to persons who shall not come isted, many of the outstanding certificates had forward to subscribe to the new loannever been liquidated at their specie value, and "Such of the creditors of the United States as may having been issued by various persons in various not subscribe to the said loan, shall nevertheless resituations were liable to counterfeit and the public ceive, during the year 1791, a rate per centum on the and individuals to imposition. In providing for respective amounts of their respective demands, includthe payment of the debt it was necessary for the ing interest to the last day of December next, equal to Government to ascertain its amount. This could the interest payable to subscribing creditors, to be paid only be done by calling in the outstanding cer- at the same times, at the same places, and by the same tificates for liquidation, and for register or ex-persons as is hereinbefore directed, concerning the inchange. To have compelled every holder of a pub- terest on the stock which may be created in virtue of lic certificate in this extensive country, to have resaid proposed loan. But as some of the certificates sorted to the seat of Government for the purpose now in circulation have not heretofore been liquidated of registering or exchanging his certificate, would to specie value, as most of them are greatly subject to have been oppressive and unjust. Hence it was in numerous instances, and as embarrassment and imcounterfeit, and counterfeits have actually taken place found necessary to make provision for receiving position might, for these reasons, attend the payment the old and issuing the new certificates within of interest on those certificates in their present form, the individual States. Under the old Confedera- it shall, therefore, be necessary to entitle the said tion, persons, under the denomination of Commis- creditors to this benefit of the said payment, that those sioners of Loans, had been employed in the differ- of them who do not possess certificates issued by the ent States in borrowing money, and issuing what Register of the Treasury, for the registered debt, should were called indents of interest. This establish- produce, previous to the first day of June next, their ment was adopted by the framers of this law, and respective certificates, either at the Treasury of the as this Government had experienced the incon- United States, or to some one of the Commissioners to venience of wanting a register of her debt, a new be appointed as aforesaid, to the end that the same may duty was assigned to Commissioners of Loans, be cancelled, and other certificates issued in lieu thereand the register of the debt rendered perpetual, of; which new certificates shall specify the specie by confining transfer to certain Government books, amount of those in exchange for which they are given, partly under the care of these Commissioners, and and shall be otherwise of the like tenor with those partly under the control of the Secretary of the heretofore issued by the said Register of the Treasury, Treasury. By the 7th section of the act it is de- for the said registered debt, and shall be transferable clared that "the stock which shall be created pur- on the like principles with those directed to be issued suant to this act shall be transferable only on the on account of the subscriptions to the loan hereby books of the Treasury, or of the said Commissionproposed." ers respectively." This provision as to transfer, it was on a former occasion contended, was a part of the contract between the public and the individual, and ought to be considered as one of the conditions on which the public creditor came forward to exchange the evidence of his debt. So far, however, from being a contract between the pub lic and the individual, it is certainly nothing more than an ordinary legislative limitation of the right which the individual before possessed as to transfer. Previous to the passing of this law, certificates were payable to bearer, and, like a bank note or other negotiable paper, were transferable from individual to individual by delivery. By this clause in the law the individual was deprived of this facility of transfer, and compelled, instead of transferring his stock by delivery, to go in person, or by power of attorney, to a particular place, and a particular book, to make his transfer. The Government secured, by this arrangement, a per

From this section it appears that individuals who did not come forward to subscribe to this loan, who had no share in this pretended contract, were nevertheless compelled to produce their certificates at the Treasury, or before some one of the Commissioners, to lose their right of transferring their certificates by delivery, to receive other certificates in exchange, transferable only on the Government books. Not for the benefit of the individual certainly, who merely exchanged his paper, but for the convenience of the Government, to whom it is always important to know its creditors.

In ordinary transactions between man and man, the mode of transferring a debt is not a part of the contract. A. gives his bond to B. The transfer of the bond is subject to the local regulations of the country where it is given, and, however these regulations may vary, it never has been or will be contended that they affect the

H. OF R.

Commissioner of Loans.

JANUARY, 1804.

He hoped that gentlemen who were not decidedly of opinion, that the transfer of stock was a part of the contract with the public creditor, would suffer a bill to be brought in, and the provisions rendered as unexceptionable as possible; if, after the subject is placed in its best form, inconvenience to the public creditor shall still be apprehended, the bill may be finally rejected.

original obligation of transfer. The regulation of lina and Delaware greatly exceed the sum for transfer is a mere ordinary act of legislation-a which the Commissioners give security. The publegislative provision, therefore, as to transfer, is lic will gain further, as appears from the letter of like every other legislative provision, subject to the Secretary of the Treasury, an annual saving legislative change. It would be necessary, there- of $20,000. The States of Ohio, Kentucky, and fore, to show that the faith of the United States Tennessee, will be released from this proportion, was pledged expressly, as to the transfer of her a tax from which they receive no earthly benefit, debt, or this regulation may certainly be varied not even a Commissioner. as the public convenience shall direct. In the 21st section of the act, the faith of the United States is pledged for the payment of the principal and interest, according to the tenor of the certifi cates. I know of no part of the act in which the faith of the United States is pledged as to the transfer of the debt. The certificate is the evidence of debt against the public in the hands of the public creditors. If the public discharges its debt, agreeable to the tenor of the certificate, it complies with the whole of its obligation; the certificate does not include any obligation as to transfer, it only promises the payment of the principal and interest, nor is the faith of the United States pledged for more. While we make provision for paying the interest regularly, and for the discharge of the principal within the limited time, no charge of violated faith can be made against the Government.

Mr. ELLIOT said he had voted on a former occasion in favor of concurring with the report of the Committee of the Whole in their disagreement to the report of the Committee of Ways and Means, who had declared it inexpedient to discontinue the offices of Commissioners of Loans. In so voting he did not mean to pledge himself for the ultimate vote he should give on this subject. Not having then maturely considered it, his judgment was not fully made up. He was then of opinion that Congress possessed the power of subThe question, therefore, resolves itself, in my stituting such arrangements in lieu of the Commind, into a mere question of expediency-when- missioners of Loans as would afford an equal seever the interest of the public and of individuals curity to the rights of the public creditors; and he shall come in contact, I shall be willing fairly to was then inclined to believe that such arrangeexamine what is due to the public, and what is ments could be devised. From subsequent imdue to the individual. If the office of the Compressions, he was of opinion that the public credmissioner of Loans is discontinued, it will not af-itor would, whether justly or not he would not fect the value of the stock in the hands of the pub- say, consider the measure as invasive of his rights. lic creditors, because, it is a fact which will not Under this impression he considered the small savbe denied, that stock on the books of the Treasury ing contemplated by this measure as inadequate to is as valuable as stock on the books of the Com- the injury, real or imaginary, which it might do missioners; it will not affect the facility or cer- to that description of men. On examining the tainty with which the public creditor will receive law, he was inclined to think that the public credhis interest, because that will still be paid within itor had a right to give it such a construction as the different States. It will add nothing to the would make the mode of transfer prescribed a part expense of transfer; because it is contemplated to of the contract. By the act of August, 1790, it is make it the duty of an officer, residing at the seat provided, that of Government, to make the transfer free from expense. It will produce no inconvenience to the individual but this-at present during fourteen days in each quarter no transfer can be made, as during that period the officers prepare the dividend books; if the office of Commissioner is abolished, the books will probably be closed against transfer during twenty-one or perhaps twentyeight days in each quarter instead of fourteen.

"A Commissioner shall be appointed for each State, to reside therein, whose duty it shall be to superintend the subscriptions to the said loan; to open books for the same; to receive the certificates which shall be presented in payment thereof; to liquidate the specie value of such of them as shall not have been before liquidated; to issue the certificates above-mentioned in tion; to enter in books to be by him kept for that purlieu thereof, according to the terms of each subscripThe public will gain the advantage of having loan for the sums to which they shall be respectively pose, credits to the respective subscribers to the said all the operations relating to the debt under the entitled; to transfer the said credits upon the said books immediate control of the Secretary of the Treas- from time to time, as shall be requisite; to pay the inury. The public will be released from the dan-terest thereupon as the same shall become due, and gerous responsibility of officers who make heavy disbursements, and give but little security. The Commissioner of Loans disburses annually in Massachusetts $785,036; in Connecticut $113 484; in New York $770,150; in Pennsylvania $848.665; in South Carolina $188.618. Notwithstanding these heavy disbursements, no Commissioner gives security in a larger sum than $10,000. The disbursements in all the States except North Caro

generally to observe and perform such directions and regulations as shall be prescribed to him by the Secretary of the Treasury, touching the execution of his office."

It is not denied that the payment of interest within the several States is part of the contract between the public and the creditor. By the same section that provides for the payment of the interest, it is also enacted that the Commissioner of