the great reduction of price which has taken
place in most of these articles since the tariff of 1824. It would have
been still greater, but for the high duty on raw material, imposed for
the particular benefit of the farming interest. But, without going into
particular details, I shall limit myself to inviting the attention
of the Senate to a single article of general and necessary use. The
protection given to flannels in 1828 was fully adequate. It has enabled
the American manufacturer to obtain complete possession of the American
market; and now, let us look at the effect. I have before me a statement
from a highly respectable mercantile house, showing the price of four
descriptions of flannels during six years. The average price of them, in
1826, was thirty-eight and three quarter cents; in 1827, thirty-eight;
in 1828 (the year of the tariff), forty-six; in 1829, thirty-six; in
1830, (notwithstanding the advance in the price of wool), thirty-two;
and in 1831, thirty-two and one quarter. These facts require no
comments. I have before me another statement of a practical and
respectable man, well versed in the flannel manufacture in America and
England, demonstrating that the cost of manufacture is precisely the
same in both countries: and that, although a yard of flannel which would
sell in England at fifteen cents would command here twenty-two, the
difference of seven cents is the exact difference between the cost
in the two countries of the six ounces of wool contained in a yard of
flannel.

Brown sugar, during ten years, from 1792 to 1802, with a duty of one
and a half cents per pound, averaged fourteen cents per pound. The
same article, during ten years, from 1820 to 1830, with a duty of three
cents, has averaged only eight cents per pound. Nails, with a duty of
five cents per pound, are selling at six cents. Window-glass, eight by
ten, prior to the tariff of 1824, sold at twelve or thirteen dollars per
hundred feet; it now sells for three dollars and seventy-five cents. * * *

This brings me to consider what I apprehend to have been the most
efficient of all the causes in the reduction of the prices of
manufactured articles, and that is COMPETITION. By competition the
total amount of the supply is increased, and by increase of the supply a
competition in the sale ensues, and this enables the consumer to buy at
lower rates. Of all human powers operating on the affairs of mankind,
none is greater than that of com