M. LAWRENCE, of pennsylvania. I desire to state that the subject upon which I shall speak is a dry one the subject of the tariff and will not interest the House as much as the one which the Gentfrom Illinois is making. I have no desire to interfere with the enJoyment the House has in hearing the Gentfrom Illinois. Reconstruction Increase of Duties on Wool. SPEECH OF HON. G. V. LAWRENCE,0F PENNSYLVANIA, May 5, 1866, On thesubjectsof reconstruction and the tariff. Mr. LAWRENCE, of Pennsylvania. I have endeavored for some time to obtain the floor, that I might speak briefly on a question intimately connected with and deeply affecting the whole district I represent, and especially the county in which I ive and where the people have so often honored me with their conhdence and support, namel, the necessity there exists for an increase 0 duties on foreign wools which come so largely in competition with the wool growing and manufacturing interest of our whole country. Before I present my views on that special question, or on the subject of the duty of Congress on the general question of protection to home industry, I will, I am sure,0 indulged in the expression of a few thoughts connected with what is denominated the great question of the hour, and one about which there has been so much said and written, much to the purpose, and much more having little or no bearing on the question the duty of congress in attempting to restore the States lately in rebellion tot eirproper relations and respon sibilities to the General Government and yet to guard by appropriate constitutional amendments and legal enactments against the possi bility of a recurrence of internal strife or war, arising from any local institution or imaginary I cause. And who does not know that the excuses made and the pretenses given by the South as a justification of their wicked attempt to overthrow the Government were frivolous and imaginary, but were plead as a justification for their treason? The leaders in the South and their northern allies, the copperheads, whose action and i known sympathy with the rebels and with rebellion had made them so odious among loyal men that they hung their heads in shame as the patriots at the North rebuked them and defied their treason at the polls, are much disturbed that we do not make haste to take away all barriers and take to our counsels and fel lowship men whose hands are yet red with the blood of our murdered brethren, and who have never even apologized for th'eir crimes or in any way expiated their guilt. I have myself been exceedingly anxious on this subject and had a strong desire to see some of the loyal and patriotic men who were sent here from Tennessee admitted to seats in this Congress, and yet I see they themselves do not desire this recognition of their personal claims at the expense of the ublic good. They see and are most ready to acnowled e the unfortunate condition of things even in that State, and the evident fact that the return and enfranchisement of the rebel element would fill their places at the next election by open and defiant traitors, and that the removal now of the soldiers from the seat of government would insure the overthrow by force of the present State government and leave Nashville and the State, with the 1000s of Union men and women therein to be driven out by their merciless persecutors; and yet. knowing all this and the general demoralization of the whole South, her deep and bitter prejudices against northern men and northern institutions, we have presented or are about to present terms, honorable terms, for their admission. What terms did the leaders of the rebellion expect when the surrendered? Those who were not include in the surrender expected to suffer the just penalty of their crimes; many of those in the ighest positions succeeded in escaping from the country, and others, including the president of the bogus government, were arrested in an attempt to steal away and escape the wrath of an indignant people. Those men felt how grievously they had sinned; how their souls were covered with perjury; and they expected death. Then they would not have stood about terms. They were humble and a pareutly ve)enitent; the had seen and fe t the power of the North, an were compelled to submit to the majesty of that government they so wickedly attempted to destroy, and all they asked was that their lives might be spared and they be permitted to return to their homes. How unfortunate was it that at. that time Congress had not been called, when the legislative and executive authority could have unitedly devised and adopted such a plan of reconstruction as would have made the institutions of the country and the Government safe for all time from the demon spirit of secession and internal strife; but soon, ah, too soon, as all now see, did executive clemency, in granting wholesale pardons and ordering the return of confiscated estates to the most notorious rebels, beget a spirit of pride and defiance of the authority of the Government, until in a.very few months, leading rebels demanded places and power not from the people alone, but from the resident, and many were appointed to lucrative positions under the revenue and other depts of the Government who could not and did not take the test oath which was rescribed by Congress, and which even nortiiern men are all required to take before entering on the duties of offices assi ned them. nder the reconstruction policy of the Pres l ident which he adopted, (doubtless with an ardent and commendable desire to restore order in the southern States,) the majority of the people, in open defiance of propriety and their pledges of submission when opportunity offered, 'rejected all loyal Huion men (a perse‘ cuted and despised class in all the South) and elevated to the highest positions of honor and trust the very men who had been leaders in inducing the rebellion and who had done most in the field to starve and murder our soldiers. Now, under such circumstances, do you expect we shall stultify ourselvesand render nugatory, void, useless, all our victories? Shall we leave these questions open, the spirit which induced this carnage and death unrebuked? Shall we again be put in jeopardy? Have we not spent enough of treasure? Look at these 1000s of mi lions a sum hardly to be computed; this mortgage of one 5th of all the estates, real and personal, in the land to liquidate the debt. When we are gone and our children come up to take our places they will have to bear this burden and carry it from one to another generation as part of the price of the institutions and privileges saved to them in this struggle. Shall we be expected to forget our obligationsto the 100s of th0usands of soldiers who live to enjoy the benefits and blessings of the institutions they aided to preserve? And shall we, can we, for et that host who, though dead, sleep in honored graves, and appeal to us from the very stillness of the tomb to make their sacrifices, their death, contribute to the peace, the bar mony, and perpetuity of that for which they so freely offered their lives? And shall our children rise up in after years and curse us for bar tering away their birthright, or leaving it in peril, when it is in our power to secure and render it perpetual? And of that host of conspirators against the peace, the honor, and the life of the eovernment, not one leader has or will under death; and but few have ever been arrested or incarcerated; and their treason has commended them to the people of their own States, for many of them are elevated to the highest positions of honor and trust. And it is demanded we shall at once, without hesitation or delay, without any “indemnity for the past or security for the future, " pronounce them worthy associates, safe guardians of the public interests; let them renew the attempt to overthrow in the forum what they failed to destroy in the field! Does the country not know that the 9 10thsof the Opposition in this Congress would gladly welcome JeffersonDavis, Breckinridge 0r Hunter back to the Senate of the U.S.? The attachment and sympathy which was apparent in the copperhead party of the North for the rebels in arms, the exultation at rebel victories, and the extreme depression when the Union armies triumphed, justify the conclusion they would prefer such for assoncipats to the loyal men who compose the majority here, and who stand by the principles and the country against the treachery of friends or the menaces of enemies. Why, sir, there is indecent haste manifested to get these and rebel leaders into Congress, to vuonterepeonwtn appropriations to your pensioners and to destroy your monetary system by repealing your tax laws and refusing the means to meet your obligations, and thus threaten your national honor and national life. There is even now a small portion 'of the Democratic party in the North who whisper repudiation, and intimate we should break faith with the bond holders who lent their means, in the hour when your credit was tested, on specified conditions. And I predict that whenever it will become popular to appeal to the mercenary feelings an the lowest prejudices of men on this question, (as it has now on the question of justiee to the colored race,) you will find this party growing bold and boisterous and especially so when taxes are paid with difficulty, and when the merce nary feelings can overcome the impulseto duty and to patriotism. Now, place the leaders of this rebellion in power, and how soon would they join in the attempt to repudiate the very debt they compelled us to assume! I believe the interests of the whole country will be best promoted by an early restoration of the former relations between all the States, the reestablishment of commerce and trade without any restriction. This the people desire and expect; and whenever they see the proper spirit manifested, and proper guarantees for future peace and safety given, the will expect and demand of us the admission of theseStates to all the benefits conferred by representation and equality; and I believe the constituency I represent will not expect me to make the extension of suffrage to the colored race in the South a condition. congress having secured to this unfortunate class, y legislation, security and equalit in civil rights under the law, the question 0 suffrage must be left to the States, and cannot be extended out of this District by congressional enactments. I refer to this merely to correct the misrepresentation made by our opponents in our own State. Their staple and capital in trade in tin coming campaign will be the old appeal to the low and the ignorant about negro equality negro suffrage, which all intelligent men understand and apreciate. One would suppose the demagogues who resort to this despicable meansto obtain power would have learned ere this that we are advancing to a higher civilization, to a better appreciation of our duty to man as man, and to a better knowled e of the plain duty God requires of us towar this unfortunate race, just emerging from this long night of loom. If they are hyaically and intellectually our inferiors then it is our duty to aid to lift them up from their degradation, remove the obstacles in their way, and give them fair lay in an honest effort to improve their condition. I pray our democratic friends for once to leave the negro out of the contest, and appeal to reason, and not to the mercenary interests and low prejudices of the ignorant or debased. I must return to the question from which I have been partially diverted. What guarantees should we require? These leaders took the States out of the Union and voluntarily cons ired against the Government, and have by their treason brought all this suffering on the nation; and is it too eat a punishment to say they, the leaders in the councils of the confederacy and in the field, many of whom had been educated at the public expense, should be disfranchised and declared ineligible to office? This might not. destroy treason, but it would make it somewhat “ odious.” Is it asking too much of the South to do what we are willing to do for mutual safety and greater security and equality, namely, to make population the basis 0 representation, or do they expect to keep up the rule and idea that 3 white men in the South are equal to 5 in the North in representation? Do they want us to assume their war debts, debts contracted in violation of their oaths, and to pay for overthrowing the government they had administered for 50 years, and which gave them such ample protection in all their essential interests? 1. Let them in good faith agree to an honest and fair basis of representation, and acknowledge us as equals under the law. 2. Let them agree that the leading. active participants in producing and carrying forward the rebellion the class specified in our proposition shall forever be ineligible to office under the Government, which is a very small punishment for such flagrant treason. 3. Let them absolve us forever from the payment of any portion of their war debt, and agree faithfully to administer the law passed by congress to guaranty civil rights to all classes, and then elect loyal men who can take the test oath, and I for one will vote to adn tit their Representatives and accord to them equal privileges in all respects. I believe, then, that these guarantees and the future safety of the country can only be secured by the continuance of the true loyal Union men of the country in power. We point with great pride and satisfaction to the record of this organization for the last 5 years. In the darkest hours of the Republic, when timid men were ready to yield, when treason South and North beset our pathway, and when dark clouds enveloped the future, this y in the field, in the halls of legislation, an among the people, clung with constant faith and unyielding tenacity to the Government and all its interests. Our faithful adherence to principle, to integrity, to justice and right, under a just Provideucg gave us the victory in the field and at the polls. History will record the fact that the Union party, composed of the soldiers in the field and the loyal patriotic masses of the loyal States, contending successfully with the armed legions in the field and the more cowardly allies in the North and West, saved us our ierita e, an undivided territory, one government, free institutions, and universal liberty. We have here attemptederhaps not always by the most prudent couuse and wisest policy, but with great harmony and unanimity of purpose to make the fruits of our victories contri ute to our future safety, to our national honor, to the universality among our own people of the spirit of our free institutions, and will stand upon the record before a just and intelligent people. Now, Mr. eaker, havin spoken longer than I expecte on this branc of the subject, I will come to the question I most desired to present, and one in which as a polic or interest all the people I represent are eeply and vitally interested. The general question of protection to all of our industrial pursuits has can well discussed and faithfully presented by my colleague, [Mr. KELLEY] and have distributed his able speech very freely in my district. I could not present it in so favorable a light or so ably as 6 has done, nor would I have time to attempt it. Another colleague, [Mr. Moons/rm] has also very fully, and at great length, presented this subject, especially in reference to the necessit of increased duties on iron, steel, &c., and concur most fully with all the have said on the subject, and will be glad if have time in an hour’s speech to add some thoughts and statis tics not given by them on the general question. Washington county, Pennsylvania, as perhaps as many or more sheep within its borders, scattered over its rich hills and richer valleys, than any county in the U.S., and has obtained as high a degree of perfection and improvement in keeping, managing, and growing sheep as any other, and in the other counties of the district a large portion of the most intelligent and useful farmers are engaged in the business. I need not say it is a most healthful, honest, and honorable pursuit. The shepherds in all the ages of the ast are referred to in poetry and song. Sacre and profane history abound in references to the herds, the flocks and their shepherds. And onthe plains of Judea this class were honored by bein the 1st to see the star as it rested above the abe in Bet‘lehem, and to herald to the world the birth of the Saviour; and no class of men, as they now exist, are better entitled to the care and protection of a beneficent Government. This interest is absolutely essential to our very eXistence. Wool enters largely into and often composes the fabric with which our bodies are clothed and our health and comfort secured; and no family in the land can dispense wrth the necessity which exists for it. No article can take its place; it is more valuable than cotton and linen. The universality of its use, the amount of capital and labor invested in it, 5“ '“d‘mw the T"1P‘rtauacned permanent character which it assumes as a productive interest of the count. The supply is not nearly ade quate to thel demand, and hence the necessity of heavy importations of foreign wools. There is no country in the world better suited, or where there are more natural advantages than hero, for rearing sheep and growing wool. In all of the northern, middle, western, and some of the southern States, sheep are found to whas finely, as full of VlgOf and health, andrifre as free from disease and with as vigorous constitutions as in any other. They seem to fatten and thrive on the natural rass of the prairie a well as that found on the tilled soil. The wool seems to vary some in weight in the South and the North; but there is but little difference in the longevity or health of the sheep with the same quality of food and similar care and attention. With these natural advantages, and the readiness with which our people adapt themselves to all the industrial pursuits in which they find a reasonable profit, how do on account for the fact that this interest has a vanced so little? I know of no more healthful employment none which brings man more frequently into the open air and in direct contact With the very elements of life; none which is less expensive in its management. One man can, with ordinary industry and care, manage several 100 sheep duriu all the year, and the product in wool is comic to market often in a single da and the larger portion of Sour annual profits of labor and your sheep all elivered at the same time. In keeping sheep you are constantly enriching your soil. No animal erhaps furnishes so much return to the soil from its food as the sheep. Its manure is dropped almost always on the highest round and where most needed as is evinced y the increased quantity and green appearance of the grass on the high rounds. It also assists to expel weeds, briers bushes, and shrubs from your pastures. It will often browse or feed among these in preference to the grass, and will thus save much manual labor by expelling them from the estates. Tbey are also well kept on wood and pastures in summer, and raze as well on rough as level land. In raising agricultural products and tilling the soil you are compelled to plow, to sow, to reap, to thresh, and carry to market at great labor and expense, often many days or perhaps weeks removing your annual grain crops to market, especially so when your are not contiguous to railroads or water communication; you are also exhausting the soil, and required, if you would preserve its original strength and productiveness, to add largely of guano, lime, or manure to retain its on inal vigor and repro ductive power. One of the satest sources of dilficu ty in farming the hil lands of Pennsylvania, and other States with rough surface is the very great loss of soil when pIowed, and before and after planting, from the heavy and washing rains which are almost sure to fall at some period in the spring or summer, when the ground is in a mellow or loose state or condition. have known more land ruined and soil carried off in this than almost any other way, and have not envied the intelligence which is exhibited by many in thus exposing themselves to almost irre arable loss from this source, when their hi I lands could be made, by keeping shee, as profitable as by growing grain, an won d be enriched from year to year with the soil unbroken, and unex osed to such waste. There is still another an very material advantage the wool grower would have, if properly protected, over the man who tills the soil and dgpends on growing creps for his profits, which is in the certainty of a return for his labor and expense. Wheat, which has in many places been the staple crop, is subject, specially in latteryears, to many dangers, and is often totally destroyed, sometimes by the fly, sometimes by drought, often by severe freezing when exposed in the winter season, olten by rust, and by wet after being out. It is a moat uncertain crop, and to a certain extent the same may be said of almost every em you grow on the soil. I regar, then, the business of growing sheep and wool as much more leasant, perhaps, quite as healthful, attends with much less labor, and with much more certainty than the tillin of the soil. True, flocks are often expose to the revages of dogs and sometimes to disease; but eit or will be avoided when it becomes a business, and when a combination is formed against the former and proper care is taken to prevent the latter. I have been particular to show that there is nothing in the business, the employment itself, to prevent the growth and extension of so important an interest, and much to invite the landholder to in vest a portion of.his capital in sheep and ur such it steadily as a calling or business, an yet wh is it that in the U.S. we find so litt e increase in the number of shee or the guantity of wool in a given number 0 years? reference to the figures furnished by the census report and documents since collected at the Treasury Dept, and carefully examined by those who have given much care and attention to this subject, and which are regarded as approximatin as near accuracy as we can get and are use in estimating our national resources and products, show many singular facts on this subject. I present some of these figures that you may see it is for want of protection and encouragement this important interest has languished or made so ittle progress. From 1840 to 1860 there was little increase in the production of wool or number of sheep really no substantial advancement in 20 years and this during a period when other interests were most oft emin a flourishing con7 dition; indeed, wool is almost the only product that did notiucrease largely. Our population increased over 8 millions between 1850 and 1860. The increase of stock, except shee, in the western States in these cars was 143 and a ½ %., but of sheep only 2 and 7 10th s%., and wool 17%. All the agricultural products except this increased in the last decade 125%. In 1850 the number of sheep returned was 21,723,220, and the amount of wool at 62, 516, 954 pounds. The number of sheep in 1860 was 24, 823, 556, and the amount of wool 60 611,543 pounds. In Pennsylvania during the ten years preceding the rebellion the number of sheep ad decreased 12%., in Illinois, 14%. After the war had been waged for our years, and we had been thrown more upon our own resources, and less wool was imported on account of the danger to which foreign commerce was exposed, and also because of the slight protection under the tariff of 1861, the increase in Pennsylvania in the production of wool was 76%., and in a raster ratio in some of the western States. Illinois, for example, had during ten years preceding decreased 14%; at during the 1st 2 years of the war the number increased from 769, 135 to 1, 206, 195. This shows how this interest increased when we had control of the home market, or even partially so. I doubt not man wool growers willbeutterly astonished when presentfiures showing the importations of foreign woo into the U.S., and when they see how their interests come in competition and are at in jeopardy by the products of cheap lap and cheaper labor in orci n countries sold in their own market. The fo lowin tables and quotations, as the appear, are taken from the very able and c aborate report written and presented to the U.S. revenue commissioners by the committee of the National Wool Growers’ Association, of which Hon. Henry S. Randall was chairman: IXPOIT or cons mm woons 'ro usirsn sn'rss. avTchreag following table gives the amount.value, and perpound of wool exported from But nosAyres to the U.S., them 1855 to 1865, inclusive: Year. Pounds. Dollais. Cts.perlb. $366, 939.0 Not returned, but estimated, 946, 467 from value re 1.274.172 The following table embracesthe same particulars 3nurreinlation to the wool exported to the U.S., The cost of producing wool in foreign countries is comparatively small, owing to the cheapness of Ian and the extremely low wages paid thesameperiod, from the British possessions: for their attention of the sheep. Rev. G. D. Carrow, late superintendent of missions of the hlcthodist Episcopal church in South Amer ica, speaks of sheep farming on the Pampas thus:. "In Buenos Ayres, a shepherd with his dogs and someoceasiouacl ssistanoofrom children takesall the care, besidesshearing.of 1,000 sheep summer and winter. Hisiilinc stuiiva ing subsistenccishard biscuit and fried mutton. c cultivates no vexe tables.usesno milk. butter or anyof theothersiniple l uries to be found in every farm house in the U.S. His houseis uhovel of unburned bricks, conon] the most scanty primitive furniture. llis fuel is riod dung from the ottoni of the sheep fold. The warmthof the climate renders his clothing of little expense. In short, all hismaterial modes 0 life are as rude and inexpensivens if he were in n. semi sayage state. In a country without public or private improvements and almost withoutestablished institutions, he contributes as little to the expenses as he shares in the benefitsof civilization." The above statement gives you the key to unlock the mystery, and shows you why productions there are cheaper than in this country, i, and why the Government should at once interfere to prevent such ruine us competition arising from the difference in condition and value of labor and of the soil. The report of the census of 1850 showed that the aggregate value of imported wool for the ten years prevwus was 1$10,003, 609, and the late census shows that 1during the next ten years it ran up to more than, 3 times that amount, and wa. but down at: $30, 428, 157; almost 200%. 1 increase. You will have a correct view of the difficultiesin the way of the wool grower in this country if you will examine the tables heretofore, l given of the average riccs of wool in Bucnos Ayres and in the British possessions in Africa; and the table below W111show how these com| pare with the prices in the metropolis of your own country for a specified perio of time: Average prices of wool at NewYork. are purchasersof South American wool are anxious to createa homemarket, butthat only means a market in which their own productionsare sold, and not a marketin whichtheir materialsarebought. They abruey zealousin favor of lawswhich compelfarmersto their cloths, but they obJectto a law which compelsthemtobuy the farmers’ wool andasmattersnow stand the Americanwool growerhasnothin to gain by the increaseof the number of woolenm1ls. The brisker the businessthe greater the encouragement given to the South American shepherdto increase is flocks. The farmer here pays a tribute in the shape of duty to encouragew at politicians cull American indust, and in return is graciousl permitted occasionaly, when thestockof South incrican wool on the market is scanty and the mills cannot bestoppedwithout loss, to supplysuchdeficiency asmay arise. So far as the farmer is concerned the du“tffhmisighhetawswouelldl bsearyetpoe daaleydaosf ttohbeepwrehsaetnittdisuntyowon.’ wool, and I solemnly declarethat after much observation undo thoroughknowledgeof thesubyect, unlessthe turiffis made protective, wool growing must be profitle ss. Mr. Bryant further says: ‘The propyri etthocrsreoaf dthyem flaorck kest in thse oiurtwhoAomlfienridcsai‘nertchsitsimcouulantteryd to improvethe fleeceof the native shccp; as they go on crossin the native breed with the flne wooled varieties.t a market here grows dull for our wool.’ The Albany Cultivator about this tune so as: 0iio, largest woolen manufactories in l 1:U.S. which uses 2 million poundsof wool ayear, a few years ago usedexclusivelyour domestic Saxony and grade wools, now usesas exclusively the Mestisa woolsof easternSouthAmerica. A fewyears ago this establishment alone paid $300,000 for wool grow snnoint wnoewsteursne Paenloneskyoly faonuiar wools, ibnugtleimy epaorr.tasnitds supply of Mestiza wool, by the cargo from South America." There are many farmers and wool growers who cannot have access to the statistics furnished on the subject of the manufacture of woolen and mixed goods in the U.S. as presented by the statistics of 1860, and found in the Compendium of the Census of that year, which I give below for information on that subject: “The returns of woolen manufacturers(table No. 23)show an increaseof over 51%. in ten years. The value of woolen and mixed go madein 1850was$45, 281, 764in. 1860it amountedto $08, 865, 903T.he establishmentsnumbered 1,519 of which 453were in NewEngland, 748in the middle, 479in the western, 2 in the Pacific, and in the Ohio. NewYork Illinois. BuenosAyres. Cape. 1h?5;f5il, For the yearsi‘! 5 lion poundsof wool, the value of which, with other raw materials, was840.3603!) hcforcgoing 11 ures include satinets, Kentucky Jeans, and other to nos of which the warp is cotton, though usually classed ounds, or 950, 112ales, exclusive of a considerab 0 quantity used annually in household mocreasew" in NewEngland 'szf in we middle 8mm 4th quarter and in {hesouth { 2nd qunrter which made $12344373worm a, 3rd quarter. woolcn, md mimd 4th quarter fabrics an increase of 120I, " cent vnhw' of $8919.61w9astheproductofw estubli‘ah mcummthe The figures presented below, taken from official documents, will be interesting to show the aggregate value of woolen goods imported in the time specified, and which should have been manufactured at home and out of our own wools if we are properly protected: Apprcqots valu of woolem importedin teaworeemiiaa “Should a nation so favorably situated as ours, having in geographical extent an empire with 1000s of millions of acres cfas fine soil for grass as the sun shines upon, well adapted to sheep raising and wool growing, with abundant water and steam power, and the most perfect and extended machinery for manufacturing the wool, be thus dependent on other countries for an article of prime necessity? It is a monstrous fallacy, and under such a system, applied not only to wool growing, but to iron steel, and all the products of our own soil, and which can be manufactured at home by our own people, would drive us from our own market and i1i it with the fabrics of a foreign people, most of it produced by pauper labor. Cannot every in telligent man see how much better it would have been to pay this $45,000,000 sent abroad or forei u woo in the last 4 years to our own peop e, and grow the wool on our own soil? It was so much encouragement to foreign labor, and an addition to foreign capital. " In 1851William Cullen Bryant, in an able editorial from hisown pen, in theEvening Post, in relation toincreased duties on wool.sald: Manufacturerswho city of Philadel ihia. “The State 0 NewYork holds the 3rd rank in relation tothis industry, its manufactures amounting to morethan 9 million dollars. The wooleninan ufactures of M11 land exhibit an increaseof 86%. In Ohio, which groduced in 1850 a greater value of woolcns than all the other Western States, there bwlays. a decreaseon the product of 1811 ow, ini: proba to the shipmentsof wool to Europe, which, in 1657, was found to be the most profitable disposition of the rapidly increasingwoolcropsoi thatState. In Kentucky, now the largest manufacturer of wool in the West, the product was $1.122}.88a n2d. the increasein ten years40.4 or cent.;while in Indian which ranks next. itwas l%., and in Missouri 18.8on the product of 1850. "The extension of this important manufactureis a subject of great interest to the country. inasmuch as our climate renders woolen clothing necessary throughout a large partof the Union during muchof the ear; and because it would supply the bestmarket to the wool grower." There should be no antagonism between the wool grower and manufacturer. Their interests when properly understood are mutual, and the Government should extend to both just such protection as will enable them to control the markets here, which would be regulated by supply and demand, and keep out the products ofioreign countries. We are not compelled to be thus dependent on other nations for anything which we can grow or manufacture licre out of the productions of our own soil, and should in nowise be so for our wool, our iron, or our coal. In reference to woo], we know we can grow more shee and raise more wool, if protected by a just tarifi, than any people in the world. In England the estimate is one sheep to one and 3 quarters of an acre; Ohio and Vermont have one to 4 and 1/2 acres; NewYork one to 6 and 1/2 acres; Iowa one to 24 acres; and the U.S. one to 57 acres. Now we have at least 20 million shcc, possibly 22 millions, in the U.S., producing over 60 million pounds of wool. We should at this time have more than twice this number of sheep and twice this amount of wool for our own consumption; and if our population increases the next 20 years asitdid the last 20, we shall use 60 million sheep to produce the wool we will require for our own people.Mr. Speaker, I have no doubt if we are true to ourselves as a people; if we succeed in securing peace and iarmony and proper guarantees against the recurrence of internal strife hereafter; if we are able to extend the spirit of our free institutions as we progress, the time will come, and probably within the life of some of our own c iildren, when there will be scattered over this widely extended country 100 millions of an active, intelligent, and industrious population. These must a l be supplied with means of labor and subsistence, must be clothed and fed. When that time comes, 180 million sheep will be required to reduce all the wool needed for these people a one; and this is no exag erated ieture. I present the case in this ight to s iowliow vast an interest it is destined to become and what a field is here opened up to the active, intelligent young men of the country. Now, too many of these are crowded into our cities and villages seekinga tom 0 rary subsistence, wasting the vigor of youth e hind the counter, in the counting room, at the desk, or loafing among the dens of infamy, and ‘with undeveloped physical or mental powers do little for themselves or their race, and often in the end become a burden and expense to society. Let them look to this and other fields of enterprise, and early identify with the permanent and growing interests in these new and undeveloped fields of labor in the West and Northwest. It may be expected that I should say something in reference to the increase of the tariff on iron as well as wool, as there is a large amount of capital invested in that business in one of the counties of my district, and because it is a question of such general interest. An examination of the statistics reveals the same facts that are presented in reference to wool; the competition is ruine us and entirely destructive to the manufacturers of iron, and unless reliefis speedily afforded many of them will be compelled to put out their fires and the 1000s of hands be thrown out of cm loy ment, and, as is natural, will seek their living from the soil and become producers instead of consumers. Though the monetary affairs and the expansion consequent on the condition of the country requiringa large circulation tem porary causes had much to do in keeping up the price of iron and wool and other products, and creating an erroneous impression on many minds that there was no especial need of increased duties, that delusion has to yield to the undeniable fact that just now the monthly returns show larger by ces against us than for years and not only alarm the manufacturers of wool and iron. but create serious apprehensions for the credit of the Government. The estimates made in July last of the amount of our indebtedness to Europe on U.S. bonds and railroad and other securities was $900,000,000; now, it is very safe to say it is $1, 200,000,000, the annual interest and exchange on which would be over 90 million dollars in specie. Add to this the fact that at this moment there is and has been for some months an American free trade league in NewYork, which would be much better denominated the British free trade league, sending out its poison all over the countryin the shape of tracts and documents doubtless published by British capital to instill in the minds of our people a doctrine which all experience here proves fallacious; for almost every revulsion to which this country has been subject for 40 years has occurre when these balances were so largely in favorofEurope, and when the tariff was repealed or so much reduced as to invite this state of things. No practical or sensible man can he led away by such miserable delusion. If the tariff of 1842 had not proved prejudicial to British interests, why should they have spent (as has since been alleged) over a million dollars here to modify and repeal it, and under the very same pretenses now offered? The practical common sense of every farmer and artisan or mechanic in any community could refute these miserable free trade theories. Ask one of these what he thinks of the policy of purchasing 30 millions‘ worth of iron and steel in Euro 0 to lay a railroad over the iron ore and coal elds of Pennsylvania. Again, ask them to look at the 35 millions paid annu ally to the foreign market for places, silks, flfilOlES of luxur, many of which are bought merely to be sol to gratify the pride and vanity of a useless class of our own people who contribute nothing to the real wealth of the country. I give here a portion of what has been so well said by the revenue commission on this subject: “Pennsylvania could, with difficulty, pay, in any product at: her own. for 50,000 tons ofiron importedfrom GreatBritain: but her capitalists and farmers can feed and sustain a population large enough to take from her own mines and manufacture 500,000 tonsof iron of the value of $30,000., and the same policy extendedto her other resourcesmakes her annual product worth.(DO,000.The proceeds of her agriculture could not be exchangedabroadfor 1/2 of what the iron brings. "In other words, Pennsylvania. without products other own to spare, which shecan exchange in GreatBritain for 50,000 tpnsofiron. can manufacture ten times that guantityi The whole agricult ural productof the Latebeing thusconvertedinto iron and other manufacturesbecomes directly and indirectly. A purchasing power in the omomarket. The pr net of an acre of wheat exported to England or Scotland may import a ton of iron, but an acrecultivated for vegetalesat homeWill purchase 5 to ten tonsof iron. “The purchasingppwerofa peoplewho have duly mingled manufacturin industry with agricultural prouction is community. The fine ldi vtid autaolsf oafapucoreulnytrayg Wricituhltsuurcahl a blended industry purchase from each other and the only limit to the power of purchase is the power of production. The population of GreatBritain and the U.S. is respectivelynot fur from 30 millions, fyet the internal trade of the U.S. is often old greater value than our entire foreign trade, including the United Kingdom of GreatBrit nin and Ireland. Our form n trade With France is loss than a 15 thpart oft o valueof our domestic trade. The strengthand wealth of a country should be measured by the quantity and value of its productions which it consumes and not by what it sends to other countries. No civilized nation obtains from other countries a.10th of its consumption. Massachusetts and Philadelphia contribute to the consumption of the U.S. more than all Europe; so alsothe city of NewYork and NewJersey. ho trade between Pennsylvania, NewJersey, and NewYork on the one side and the NewEngland States on the other vastly exceeds our trade With Europe.” It is in the power of foreign capitalists and manufacturers, owing to their low wages system or cheap labor and immense capital, to subordinate our productions, to overt row or greatly cripple, without danger to themselves. our American interests, and I am fully impressed with the absolute necessity there exists now, more perhaps than ever before, for the interference on the part of Congress to place these producing interests and sources of our greatest wealth as a.nation on a basis which cannot be shaken by these gambling speculative move ments of ritish or American theorists. Our national debt, the legacy of this unholy rebellion, and which must be met in good faith, will yet (as taxes are collected in times of national depression, and when this obligation is met with great difficulty) try the patience and integrity of the whole people, and we must be the more careful to husband our resources, develop the means of our own strength, gird our selves up for the contest, give just and ade uate encouragement to all industrial pursuits, earn to depend on ourselves, our own llabor, our own capital invite to our western lands agricultur ists and wool growers; to our rich, inexhaustible mines of coal, iron ore, lead, cop er, and gold the hardy colliers and miners; ring to our use the water and steam power of the nation, which have already adde 100fold to the productive energies of the country; distribute labor and let it find a just reward and ready payment, so that you shall have a just portion of consumers as well as fproducers; build up manufacturers of wool, o cotton, of iron, &c., on your own soil; create a home mar ket, the best market you can have; buy nothing abroad which you can make at home. If we shall exhibit wisdom enough to do this we shall be able in tempera to meet all our obligations to the Government, to the country, to ourselves, and our children.