e in
the price of all these articles, but for the home market? And allow me,
Mr. President, to say, that of all the agricultural parts of the United
States which are benefited by the operation of this system, none are
equally so with those which border the Chesapeake Bay, the lower parts
of North Carolina, Virginia, and the two shores of Mary-land. Their
facilities of transportation, and proximity to the North, give them
decided advantages.

But if all this reasoning were totally fallacious; if the price of
manufactured articles were really higher, under the American system,
than without it, I should still argue that high or low prices were
themselves relative--relative to the ability to pay them. It is in vain
to tempt, to tantalize us with the lower prices of European fabrics than
our own, if we have nothing wherewith to purchase them. If, by the home
exchanges, we can be supplied with necessary, even if they are dearer
and worse, articles of American production than the foreign, it is
better than not to be supplied at all. And how would the large portion
of our country, which I have described, be supplied, but for the
home exchanges? A poor people, destitute of wealth or of exchangeable
commodities, have nothing to purchase foreign fabrics with. To them
they are equally beyond their reach, whether their cost be a dollar or a
guinea. It is in this view of the matter that Great Britain, by her vast
wealth, her excited and protected industry, is enabled to bear a burden
of taxation, which, when compared to that of other nations, appears
enormous; but which, when her immense riches are compared to theirs, is
light and trivial. The gentleman from South Carolina has drawn a lively
and flattering picture of our coasts, bays, rivers, and harbors; and he
argues that these proclaimed the design of Providence that we should be
a commercial people. I agree with him. We differ only as to the means.
He would cherish the foreign, and neglect the internal, trade. I would
foster both. What is navigation without ships, or ships without cargoes?
By penetrating the bosoms of our mountains, and extracting from them
their precious treasures; by cultivating the earth, and securing a home
market for its rich and abundant products; by employing the water power
with which we are blessed; by stimulating and protecting our native
industry, in all its forms; we shall but nourish and promote the
prosperity of commerce, foreign and domestic.

I