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wait ten days and nights; and then suddenly uncoils and aims her fangs at the unsuspecting adversary. The gentleman says I have some character for learning. I thank his courtesy; but would have preferred the approbation of a less questionable authority. Whatsoever progress he may have made in science or letters, he seems not to have adopted the style of speaking, common to scholars and gentlemen. He who could use terms of vulgar abuse, such as he has used to me, before this House, and this nation, places himself below the reach of any rebuke from my tongue."

The Speaker here interposed, and Mr. Burges took his seat. Mr. McDuffie again rose, and repeated his attack. When he had concluded, Mr. Burges took the floor, and replied :

"I know not if 'the grave rebuke, severe in youthful beauty,' of the gentleman from South Carolina, should seal my lips. Had his rude and vulgar assault, any of the ordinary apologies of suddenly excited and uncontrolable anger, I could pass it by, like any other freak of passionate boyhood. He has carefully removed all the steps by which he descended, and rendered it impossible for excuse or palliation to follow him. The words uttered by me were uttered here in my place, and exactly as they were then written, and are now printed. I then accused him of the plagiarism which has given him so much annoyance. He neither interrupted, nor gave me any reply. This was on the 29th of March. He daily met me with that kind of courtesy which the nature of our very slight acquaintance authorized. Why not rebuke me then, when the offence was fresh upon me? 'He reserved himself,' he says, 'till this time.' For ten days, the honorable gentleman has been breathing over the embers of his smouldering malice; and enkindling the sooty magazine of a heart never remarkable for much generosity of purpose, or kindliness of movement. He has doubtless spent sundry hours of this time, in the pleasant exercise of selecting suitable phrases wherein to set his bright and sparkling thoughts. This parade of preparation has been made, and the stenographers called to 'mark him, and write his speech in their book,' for the very valiant purpose of abusing 'a very old man.' He says I have

stated 'falsehoods and uttered slanders,' concerning his authorship of his Report on the Finances. Is this the result of all his parade and 'dreadful note of preparation? Why, Sir, a sturdy beggar, had he been equally regardless of decency, might have said the same things extempore. He is my elder in parliamentary life; but I cannot persuade myself into any imitation of his rules of decorum, or his manner of practising them in debate, either at other times or on this occasion. It would, and the gentleman certainly knows it, be very unbecoming in me, to say what might be very appropriately said of him. The gentleman seems to claim the whole right to himself. Few men would, I believe, pirate upon this property. The fee simple of the honorable gentleman, in his principles, opinions, and thoughts, together with his own manner of expressing them, will never be feloniously invaded by any person ' of sound mind, and having the fear of God before his eyes.' He says, 'what he is, he is himself." Why, Sir, I do not question this. He is himself; and neither he, or any other person will ever mistake him for anybody else. The honorable gentleman need not fear being lost in the ordinary samples of existence. His individuality is secure. It is very probable there is but this one specimen in the whole mass of moral, intellectual, and physical being. With what other thing could he be confounded? Men would as soon mistake the fiery elements, angry action, and ferocious visage of a wild-cat, for the gentle blood and peaceful countenance of the lamb.

"The gentleman alleges against me, gross ignorance of ordinary books on political economy. Adam Smith has, I know, in one short passage, asserted, that impost enables the home producer to add the amount of such impost to the price of his products of the same kind. This is but a dictum, and all the reasoning of his system confutes it, as a general principle.Ricardo has expressly stated, that when impost amounts to protection, and gives the home market to the home products, domestic competition reduces the market to the natural price. The gentleman has, in his Report, stated that all impost is a tax on consumption. Was the gentleman ignorant of the great prin

ciple of these books; or did he, knowingly, misstate their doctrines? I cannot believe he can shelter himself behind a want of knowledge.

"In the speech which I have published, the true principles of the laws of imposts for revenue, encouragement, and protection, are stated and illustrated. Impost operates as encouragement, when it raises the price of the imported product, and enables the domestic producer to sell his product, being of equal quality, at the same price, in the same market. When impost amounts to protection, and gives the domestic market to the domestic product, importation ceases, revenue ceases, and domestic competition reduces price to the cost of producing and bringing the domestic product to market. Cotton wool, is perfectly protected. It has the whole domestic market. Impost stands at three cents a pound. Does the producer receive of the consumer of cotton, this amount of impost? If the impost were one hundred instead of three cents, would cotton be any dearer? What product in the United States, perfectly protected, is dearer, for the amount of impost by which it is protected? Are shoes, boots, nails, gunpowder, cabinet ware, carriages, cotton cloths? I call on any gentleman to name the article which is enhanced in price, by one cent, for all the impost for protection.

"If no protected article be dearer, from being protected by impost, how is the price enhanced by such impost for protection? If it be not dearer, how is it a tax on consumption? This is the principle of that speech, and it sweeps from under the gentleman all foundation for his 'Report on the state of the Finances.' The doctrine is absurd that impost for protection is a tax on consumption. I put it to the conscience of the gentleman, how, knowing these truths, he dares thus to sin against the light of his own mind? How he dared to grasp that smouldering and half-extinguished fire-brand, and whirling it in the air to gather flame, toss the blazing torch into all that is combustible in this nation? If I might, without impropriety, I would request gentlemen to read that speech. I have there explained where impost is encouragement and a tax on consumption. Sugar and molasses are now almost the only products under such imposts. It was wisely laid upon them to the intent, that these incipient productions might be fostered, and finally, supply the whole market. Domestic sugar and molasses must then, if a small advance in impost shall give protection to the market, supply the whole consumption, and be sold as cheap as they are in Cuba. These are the doctrines of that speech, and I did intend it to counteract the baneful effect of the Report of that gentleman. I have said he has possessed himself of it by plagiarism. It is true. The character will be fixed upon him by the nation. Boston is entitled to the original honors of this political absurdity. "When I am called upon by a gentleman of his attempted standing in this House, I can only wish that I could control that fund of cheap expenditure to the gentleman, by which he has scattered six thousand of these empoisoned political tracts, and mingled them with the political aliment of the nation. I would then, and I will now, spread the antidote co-extensively with the poison.

"He has said, I aimed at political effect. So indeed I did. And further, I do believe, that if this administration should be followed by another, governed by the doctrines of that Report, and abandoning the policy of the American System, the independence of these United States will soon be prostrated. In that event, he who should have effected that catastrophe, by a propagation of the doctrines of the Report on the state of the Finances, will have entitled himself to an immortality of infamy, by far more execrable than that of him who burned the temple of Ephesus."

[Here Mr. Burges was directed to take his seat-which he did--saying, however:]

"Sir, I claim my right of reply. I have but just begun-I do not resign my right to disabuse myself of this rude allegation from the gentleman-I may be compelled to silence; but not to an acknowledgement of the justice of such compulsion."

The American Institute of the City of New-York, invited Mr. Burges to deliver an address at their Annual Fair. The request was accompanied by expressions of merited respect for his efforts in aid of a national system of protection and improvement. As he observed in the beginning of the Address, the principles of the Institute embrace every section of our country; and like the dew from Heaven, distil their genial influence upon every field, and invite the labor of every interest and all classes of American society. When, therefore, Mr. Burges recollected those principles, so dear and invaluable; when he remembered that he was called to speak in the city, where enterprize and industry are unrivalled; where are to be seen monuments of wealth and taste; he justly considered Labor an appropriate theme of discourse, on such an occasion, before a society purposely united for its encouragement.

Whoever looks with the eye of a statesman, and the hope of a patriot, at the operations of labor, will acknowledge it to be a great instrument of wealth and power. It is the purpose of this Address, to examine Labor either as abandoned for other pursuits, by ancient nations; or cherished as the only source of subsistence, by modern communities; to look into the theories of some philosophers concerning its nature and powers, and to discuss some objections to that encouragement given to it, by the habits and the laws of our own country.

That country, is a distinguished example of a nation established on the principles of Labor; and illustrates more succesfully than any other, the power and progress of cultivation. Its founders really and practically believed, that Labor alone gave man a title to bread. They acted upon the principle, that no nation could be pure in morals, elevated in piety, prosperous and perpetual, unless its subsistence, and the sources of its prosperity were derived from Labor. Looking back upon the nations of the earth, he inquires, why they have arisen, flourished, decayed, and passed out of existence? Not because they were nations; for all contain the seminal principles of youth, decay, and dissolution; but because they were begun by violence, extended by war, and fed and sustained by plunder.

"Why, it may be asked, were men and nations, so long deluded by the charms of illegitimate wealth, and the splendor of meretricious glory? When one of those conquering nations had, like a baleful meteor, blazed on the world, and been put

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