. Representing a small agricultural
state, he was not biased by sectional feeling or the interests of
his constituents. He regarded the tariff as not only a method of
taxation, but as a mode of protection to existing industries in
the United States with a view to encourage and increase domestic
production. He was moderate in his opinions, kind and fair in
expressing them, and willing to listen with patience to any
proposition of amendment. He still lives at the venerable age of
eighty-five, and has been, during all the long period since the
report of the bill named after him, to this time, in public life,
and still retains the confidence and affection of his constituents
and colleagues.

I did not participate in the debate until the time came when, in
the judgment of the committee of ways and means, it was necessary
to dispose of the bill, either by its passage or defeat. On the
7th of May, 1860, the bill being before the House, I moved that
all debate on it should cease at one o'clock the next day. Some
opposition was evinced, but the motion was adopted. I then made
my first speech upon the subject of the tariff. The introductory
paragraphs state the then condition of the treasury as follows:

"The revenue act of March 3, 1857, which it is now proposed to
repeal, has proved to be a crude, ill-advised, and ill-digested
measure. It was never acted upon in detail in either branch of
Congress, but was the result of a committee of conference in the
last days of the session, and was finally passed by a combination
of hostile interests and sentiments. It was adopted at a time of
inflated prices, when the treasury was overflowing with revenue.
When that condition of affairs ceased, it failed to furnish ordinary
revenue, and by its incidental effects operated injuriously to
nearly every branch of industry.

"It went into operation on the 1st of July, 1857. At that time
there was in the treasury of the United States a balance of
$17,710,114. The amount of the public debt then remaining unpaid,
none of which was then due, was a little over $29,000,000. So that
there was in the treasury of the United States, when the tariff
act of 1857 went into operation, nearly enough to have paid two-
thirds of the public debt. Within one year from that time, the
public debt was increased to $44,910,777.

"On the 1st of July, 1859, the public debt had increased to
$58,754,699. On the 1st of May, 1860, as nearly as I can asc