s look into some particulars. The total
consumption of bar-iron in the United States is supposed to be about
146,000 tons, of which 112,866 tons are made within the country, and
the residue imported. The number of men employed in the manufacture is
estimated at 29,254, and the total number of persons subsisted by it at
146,273. The measure of protection extended to this necessary article
was never fully adequate until the passage of the act of 1828; and what
has been the consequence? The annual increase of quantity since that
period has been in a ratio of near twenty-five per centum, and the
wholesale price of bar-iron in the Northern cities was, in 1828,
$105 per ton; in 1829, $100; in 1830, $90; and in 1831, from $85 to
$75--constantly diminishing. We import very little English iron, and
that which we do is very inferior, and only adapted to a few purposes.
In instituting a comparison between that inferior article and our
superior iron, subjects entirely different are compared. They are made
by different processes. The English cannot make iron of equal quality to
ours at a less price than we do. They have three classes, best-best,
and best, and ordinary. It is the latter which is imported. Of the whole
amount imported there is only about 4,000 tons of foreign iron that
pays the high duty, the residue paying only a duty of about thirty per
centum, estimated on the prices of the importation of 1829. Our iron
ore is superior to that of Great Britain, yielding often from sixty to
eighty per centum, while theirs produces only about twenty-five. This
fact is so well known that I have heard of recent exportations of iron
ore to England.

It has been alleged that bar-iron, being a raw material, ought to be
admitted free, or with low duties, for the sake of the manufacturers
themselves. But I take this to be the true principle: that if our
country is producing a raw material of prime necessity, and with
reasonable protection can produce it in sufficient quantity to supply
our wants, that raw material ought to be protected, although it may be
proper to protect the article also out of which it is manufactured.
The tailor will ask protection for himself, but wishes it denied to the
grower of wool and the manufacturer of broadcloth. The cotton-planter
enjoys protection for the raw material, but does not desire it to
be extended to the cotton manufacturer. The ship-builder will ask
protection for navigation, but does not wish it ex