Constitutional Whig

POLITICAL
From the National Intelligencer.

We place on the preceding page the last day's proceedings of the Free Trade Convention, with the Address to the People of the United States. It will be seen that it does not affirm the unconstitutionality of the Tariff laws, but only suggests them to be contrary to the spirit of the Constitution. Their unconstitutionality can only be maintained by a perversion of reasoning, and a total disregard of all testimony. To believe it is a belief because of impossibility. The constitutionality of the protection afforded to home manufactures by duties on imports was indeed never seriously questioned until of late years. When our Government went into operation, it was the first thing thought of, not only by Congress, but by the People, and by the People, too, of different parts of the Union. The great work which we now have in the press (the "American State Papers,"), contains numerous proofs of this fact. We have before us at this moment a copy of the first petition ever presented to Congress, which was on the 11th day of April 1789. It was from the people of Baltimore, and bears the signature of several hundred citizens, of whom few besides the present venerable Senator from Maryland, (Gen. Smith.) now survives. It seems to us to be of sufficient interest at the present moment to justify our calling the attention of our readers to it by copying it entire. Here it is:

To the President and Congress of the United States, the petition of the tradesmen, mechanics, and others, of the town of Baltimore, humbly showeth:

"That since the close of the late war, and the completion of the Revolution, your petitioners have observed, with serious regret, the manufacturing and trading interests of the country rapidly declining, while the wealth of the people hath been prodigally expended in the purchase of those articles, from foreigners, which our citizens, if properly encouraged, were fully competent to furnish.

"To check this growing evil, applications were made, by petitions, to some of the State Legislatures: these guardians of the people, in several of the States, interposed their authority: laws were by them enacted, with the view of subduing, or, at least, diminishing the rage for foreign, and of encouraging domestic manufactures; but the event hath clearly demonstrated, to all ranks of men, that no effectual provision could reasonably be expected, until one uniform efficient government should pervade this wide-extended country.

"The happy period having now arrived when the United States are placed in a new situation; when the adoption of the General Government gives one sovereign Legislature the sole and exclusive power of laying duties upon imports; your petitioners rejoice at the prospect this affords them, that America, freed from the commercial shackles which have so long bound her, will see and pursue her true interest, becoming independent in fact as well as in name; and they confidently hope, that the encouragement and protection of American manufactures will claim the earliest attention of the supreme Legislature of the nation; as it is an universally acknowledged truth, that the United States contain, within their limits, resources amply sufficient to enable them to become a great manufacturing country, and only want the patronage and support of a wise, energetic government.

"Your petitioners conceive it unnecessary to multiply arguments to so enlightened a body as the one they have now the honor of addressing, to convince them of the propriety and importance of attending to measures so obviously necessary, and, indeed, indispensable; as every member must have observed and lamented the present melancholy state of his country; the number of real poor increasing for want of employment; foreign debts accumulating; houses and lands depreciating in value; trade and manufactures languishing and expiring. This being a faint sketch of the gloomy picture this country exhibits, it is to this supreme Legislature of the United States, as the guardians of the whole empire, that every eye is now directed: from their united wisdom, their patriotism, their ardent love of their country, your petitioners expect to derive that aid and assistance, which alone can dissipate their just apprehensions, and animate them with hopes of success in future, by imposing on all foreign articles, which can be made in America, such duties as will give a just and decided preference to their Labors, and thereby discountenancing that trade which tends so materially to injure them, and impoverish their country; and which may, also, in their consequences, contribute to the discharge of the national debt, and the due support of Government.

"Your petitioners take the liberty to annex a list of such articles as are, or can be, manufactured in this place, on moderate terms; and they humbly trust that you will fully consider their request; and grant them, in common with the other mechanics and manufacturers of the United States, that relief which, in your wisdom, may appear proper."

(Here follows, in the original, a list of articles manufactured in the City of Baltimore, and State of Maryland, which it does not seem necessary to copy.)

Such was the language of that day, and such the view which the patriots who carried the country through the Revolution took of the nature and objects of the General Government; and the first thing which they expected Congress to attend to was

"THE ENCOURAGEMENT AND PROTECTION OF AMERICAN MANUFACTURES," by a tariff of duties on foreign goods imported. Yet at this day it is gravely maintained, and indeed solemnly resolved, after a lapse of forty-two years, that the tariff is unconstitutional!

Just one week after the above petition, another was presented to Congress from citizens of New York, from which the following is extracted:

"Your petitioners conceive that their countrymen have been deluded by an appearance of plenty; by the profusion of foreign articles which has deluged the country, and thus have mistaken excessive importation for a flourishing trade. To this deception they impute the continuance of that immoderate prepossession in favor of foreign commodities, which has been the principal cause of their distresses, and the subject of their complaint.

"Wearied by their fruitless exertions, your petitioners have long looked forward with anxiety for the establishment of a government which would have power to check the growing evil, and extend a protecting hand to the interests of commerce and the arts. Such a government is now established. On the promulgation of the constitution just now commencing its operations, your petitioners discovered in its principles the remedy which they so long and so earnestly desired. They embraced it with ardor, and have supported it with persevering attachment. They view with the highest satisfaction the prospects now opening and adowning this auspicious period. To your honorable body the mechanics and manufacturers of New York look up with confidence, convinced that, as the united voice of America has furnished you with the means, so your knowledge of the common want has given you the spirit, to unbind our fetters, and rescue our country from disgrace and ruin."

A few days afterward, another petition was presented from the inhabitants of Boston, of which the following is an extract:

"Your petitioners need not inform Congress that, on the revival of our mechanical arts and manufactures depend the wealth and prosperity of the Northern States: nor can we forbear mentioning to your honors that the chief of these States constitute the object of her independence but half obtained till those rational purposes are established on a permanent and extensive basis by the legislative acts of the Federal Government. Unless these important branches are supported, we humbly conceive that our agriculture must greatly decline, as the impoverished state of our seaports will eventually lessen the demand for the produce of our lands."

"Your petitioners formerly experienced the patronage of this State Legislature, in their act laying duties and prohibitions on certain articles of manufacture, which encourages your petitioners to request that heavy duties may be laid on such articles as are manufactured by our own citizens, humbly conceiving that the impost is not solely considered by Congress as an object of revenue, but, in its operation, intended to exclude such imports, and, ultimately, establish these several branches of manufacture among ourselves."

At that day the honest people who made the Constitution, it will be seen, so far from having any misgivings of mind as to the power of Congress to protect Manufactures, supposed that it was a leading object for which the General Government was established.

We ask the anti-national editors to do just so much justice to the General Government and the Tariff Laws as to copy the above statement of facts concerning the early legislation of Congress.