hose which
are not planting, as well as the planting sections, of foreign
manufactures, we diminish to that extent the foreign market for the
planting produce. The existing state of things, indeed, presents a sort
of tacit compact between the cotton-grower and the British manufacturer,
the stipulations of which are, on the part of the cotton-grower, that
the whole of the United States, the other portions as well as the
cotton-growing, shall remain open and unrestricted in the consumption of
British manufactures; and, on the part of the British manufacturer,
that, in consideration thereof, he will continue to purchase the cotton
of the South. Thus, then, we perceive that the proposed measure, instead
of sacrificing the South to the other parts of the Union, seeks only to
preserve them from being actually sacrificed under the operation of the
tacit compact which I have described."

The opposition to the Protective Tariff, by the South, arose from two
causes: the first openly avowed at the time, and the second clearly
deducible from the policy it pursued: the one to secure the foreign
market for its cotton, the other to obtain a bountiful supply of
provisions at cheap rates. Cotton was admitted free of duty into foreign
countries, and Southern statesmen feared its exclusion, if our
government increased the duties on foreign fabrics. The South exported
about twice as much of that staple as was supplied to Europe by all
other countries, and there were indications favoring the desire it
entertained of monopolizing the foreign markets. The West India planters
could not import food, but at such high rates as to make it
impracticable to grow cotton at prices low enough to suit the English
manufacturer. To purchase cotton cheaply, was essential to the success
of his scheme of monopolizing its manufacture, and supplying the world
with clothing. The close proximity of the provision and cotton-growing
districts in the United States, gave its planters advantages over all
other portions of the world. But they could not monopolize the markets,
unless they could obtain a cheap supply of food and clothing for their
negroes, and raise their cotton at such reduced prices as to undersell
their rivals. A manufacturing population, with its mechanical
coadjutors, in the midst of the provision-growers, on a scale such as
the protective policy contemplated, it was conceived, would create a
permanent market for their products, and enhance the pri