l 16, 1824]

The tariff bill presented in 1824 was avowedly a protective measure.
Among lesser changes, increased duties were proposed on iron, lead,
wool, hemp, cotton bagging, and cotton and woolen goods. At once
the clash of sectional interests began. New England shippers protested
against the duty on hemp, which they needed for cordage; and Southern
planters made common cause with them on this item, because the cheap
bagging which they used for baling their cotton was made of coarse hemp.
For the same reason the maritime sections of New England opposed the
duty on iron. For precisely opposite reasons, Kentucky clamored for the
protection of her hemp-growers, and Pennsylvania, for the protection of
her iron-workers. It was well understood that the cotton industry was
established and needed no protection; nevertheless, the minimum duty on
cotton fabrics was raised. The increased duty on woolens, however, was
offset by an increased duty on raw wool, so that the woolen
manufacturers profited little by the change of rate. A proposal to apply
to woolens the minimum principle which had been extended to cottons in
1816 was defeated by the opposition of the South. Any increase in the
cost of cheap woolen goods was bound to enhance the cost of clothing the
slaves. On the other hand, the representatives of the great
grain-growing and farming States of New York, New Jersey, and
Pennsylvania, together with the States of the Ohio Valley, were almost
unanimously in favor of the proposed bill. When the bill came to a vote
in the House on April 16, 1824, only nine of the combined ninety-five
votes of these sections were cast in the negative. Equally emphatic was
the protest of the South and Southwest: only six out of seventy-six
Representatives favored the bill. New England by its divided vote
revealed the internal conflict between the commercial and manufacturing
interests. The bill passed both houses of Congress by small majorities
and received the signature of the President.

Of the presidential candidates, only one spoke with uncertain sound on
the tariff issue. Clay was the outspoken advocate of a far-reaching
American system; Adams thought the tariff of 1824 a fair compromise;
Jackson, properly coached by his intimates, put himself on record as a
supporter of a protective policy to create a home market; only Crawford,
representative of the peculiar interests of the South and candidate for
Northern support, felt the impossibil