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more particularly, which, during the last ten or twelve years, has increased the British tonnage clearing from our ports for the British colonies and provinces, more than twentyfold, while it has increased the American tonnage clearing from the same ports less than threefold; which has increased the British tonnage clearing for all foreign ports from our own ports more than fivefold, while it has increased the American tonnage less than twofold; and which has already reduced the American tonnage entering our ports direct from the British West Indies more than one half. The Committee on Manufactures might, then, confine their attention to the condition of our manufactures and mechanic arts, and to the effect which is likely to be produced upon them by the ultimate operation of the compromise act. We should thus have a series of reports of great interest and value, embracing different views of the same general subject, and affording a basis for sound, intelligent, and impartial legislation.

The paragraphs of the President's message now under consideration relate, however, solely to discrimination in reference to manufactures. Let them go, then, to the Committee on Manufactures. Why should they not? Is that Committee composed of gentlemen friendly to a protecting policy? So much the more reason for such a reference. It is the parliamentary right of every interest to be heard through a Committee of its friends. What harm can result from such a course? The mere reference will commit the House to no particular course of action. The report of the Committee will be obligatory upon nobody. You have committed the President's plan of finance to those who are supposed to be favorable to the scheme; but you can crush the project, when it comes back, if you desire to do so, as easily as if you had referred it originally to its known opponents. So it will be with a protecting tariff, if one should be reported. If you are resolved to strike down the Labor of our own land, strike it down; but, in the name of all that is just and equitable, hear, HEAR, before you strike, and hear fairly, deliberately, and fully.

NOTE.

THE petition of Paul Pritchard, which was among the first presented to the Congress of the United States, after the adoption of the Constitution, and which is alluded to on page 311, will not be read without interest.

April 13, 1789.

TO THE HON. SPEAKER AND MEMBERS OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES IN THE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:

The petition of the Shipwrights of the State of South Carolina humbly showeth :

That your petitioners reflect with pleasure that the Constitution of the United States gives the exclusive right of forming treaties and regulating commerce to the General Government of the Union, which can alone equally, safely, and effectually, exercise the same.

From the diminished state of ship-building in America, and the ruinous restrictions to which our vessels are subject in foreign ports; from the distressed condition of our commerce, languishing under the most disgraceful inequalities, its benefits transferred from our own citizens to strangers, who do not, nor ever will, feel those attachments which can alone render a mercantile interest useful to the country; and above all, mortified at the daily humiliating sight of our valuable staples lading the vessels and enriching the merchants of Powers who neither have treaties with us nor are friendly to our commerce; with deference and respect, your petitioners humbly entreat the early and earnest attention of your honorable House to these important considerations.

Enjoying a country which possesses every thing to make its commerce flourishing and its reputation respectable, there wanted but a supreme energetic system, capable of uniting its efforts and drawing its resources to a point, to render us a great and happy people. This system we trust the wisdom of the General Convention has produced, and the virtue of the people confirmed. Under your able and upright administration of the ample powers it contains, we look forward with pleasing hopes to the period when we shall once more see public

credit firmly established, private rights secured, and our citizens enjoying the blessings of a mild and active government.

No more, we trust, shall we lament our trade almost wholly in the possession of foreigners; our vessels excluded from the ports of some nations, and fettered with restrictions in others; or materials, the produce of our country, which should be retained for our own use, exported, and increase the maritime consequence of other powers.

To the wisdom of the General Legislature we look up for a correction of these public evils. The formation of treaties and the regulation of commerce are questions which can be committed with safety to the enlightened councils of the Union alone; it would be as unnecessary, as it would be unbecoming, in us to presume to point out the measures proper to be adopted. It is sufficient for us to join with our Northern brethren in asserting, that we have most severely felt the want of such a navigation act as will place our vessels upon an equality with other nations. To you, who are the only proper guardians of our general rights, we resort with confidence for redress, assured that no means will be left unattempted, to remedy these evils, and to render us respectable abroad and at home.

And your petitioners, as in duty bound, will ever pray.

Signed, in the city of Charleston, this 2d day of April, A. D. 1789, by order of the shipwrights.

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It was in response to a similar movement among the ship-owners and shipbuilders in Boston, which seemed to aim at the exclusive protection of the navigating interests, that the Boston mechanics, at the head of whom was Paul Revere, put the following well-remembered interrogatory:-"What difference does it make to us, whether hats, shoes, boots, shirts, handkerchiefs, tin ware, brass ware, cutlery, and every other article, come in British ships, or come in your ships; since, in whatever ships they come, they take away our means of living?"

THE IMPRISONMENT

OF

FREE COLORED SEAMEN.

A REPORT MADE TO THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES, JANUARY 20, 1843.

THE Committee on Commerce, to whom was referred the memorial of Benjamin Rich and others, submit the subjoined report:

The memorial was commended to the most attentive and respectful consideration of the committee, as well by the subjectmatter to which it relates, as by the character of those from whom it comes.

It is signed by more than one hundred and fifty citizens of Boston, in the State of Massachusetts, a large part of whom are very deeply interested in the commerce and navigation of the country, others of whom are eminently distinguished in legal, scientific, or literary pursuits, and all of whom are quite beyond the reach of a suspicion, that they would approach the Legislature of the nation in any cause, in which they did not sincerely believe that important principles or valuable interests were involved. Probably no paper was ever addressed to the Congress of the United States, which represented more of the intelligence, virtue, patriotism, and property also, of the metro polis of New England. In attestation of this statement, the memorial, with its signatures, is appended to this report.

The memorialists appear in the character of citizens of the United States, adding, also, that many of them are masters and owners of vessels.

They set forth, that on board the large number of Massachusetts vessels which are accustomed to touch at the Southern ports of this Union, it is frequently necessary to employ free persons of color. They proceed to state, that it often happens, at the ports of Charleston, Savannah, Mobile, and New Orleans, that these free persons of color are taken from the vessels to which they belong, thrown into prison, and there detained at their own expense. They submit, that such proceedings are greatly to the prejudice and detriment of their interests, and of the commerce of the nation. And they conclude by praying, that relief may be granted to them, and that the privileges of citizenship, secured by the Constitution of the United States, may be rendered effectual in their behalf.

The committee regret to say, that the facts which are set forth in the memorial, have been of too frequent and too notorious occurrence to admit of any denial or doubt. They regret still more to add, that the acts of violence complained of by the memorialists, have owed their occurrence, not to any temporary excitement or any local outbreak, but to the deliberately enacted laws of the States in whose ports they have been perpetrated. It is known to every one, that laws, making it the imperative duty of the local magistrates to search for, arrest, and imprison, any free persons of color belonging to the crews of vessels which may enter their harbors, have existed, and have often been most oppressively executed, during a long series of years, in some of the Southern States of this Union.

The existence of such a law in the State of South Carolina gave occasion, almost twenty years ago, to a formal remonstrance to our National Executive, on the part of the Government of Great Britain, as being in direct conflict with the rights which had been stipulated to British commerce by the most solemn treaties. An interesting correspondence, relating to this remonstrance, was communicated to this House during the last session of Congress, and is annexed to this report, for more convenient reference.

Laws of the same character have been more recently enacted in other States. Within the past year only, such a law has been introduced into the code of Louisiana, whether as an original

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