Mr. SPRAGUE. I remarked, Mr. President, that in a recent interview of the U.S. minister at StPetersburg with the manufacturers and commercial men of Moscow the 1 guestion that now agitates and has a Stated the merican people was discussed, an the conclusions arrived at were the conclusions of those who desire to equalize American industry with the industry of the people of foreign countries. The people of Russia had under stood that the trarrsfer of their raw materials to Germany, France, and England, and taking therefrom their manufactured goods was the properpolicy for Russia to pursue. They had been left to reflect on the subject by the csition which this country had taken throng those who presented the contrary view in the legislation of the country, through the press, and through pamphlets written by distinguished men, and they had come to a contrary conclusion. They had commenced to establish man ufactories, and those who had heretofore employed their products in Germany, in England, an in France, transferred them to the soil of Russia, and the profits of the manufacture and the profits of the raw material remained in Russia; and the people of Germany, of England, and of France have found it necessary to find other markets for those products of their factories heretOfore consumed in Russia. They believe in the doctrine that the raw may terial, whether it be corn, or hemp, or cotton, or wool, must be perfected and increased to its highest state of development and value in the country where it is produced. My friendfrom Kansas Mr. Pom:uor] has succeeded in producing the finest of goat hair, and sells it in a foreign market for 12 or 15 dollars a pound; but he understands, and every Senator can well understand, that if we had the machinery in this country for manufacturing it, as fine an article of camels hair scarfs and shawls would be produced as is produced in England or France; and the value of his oat hair, instead of being 12 or 15 dol ars a pound, would bring 40 or 50 dollars near his own door. I believe in the proposition that.the finer the men and women and children in this country are clothed the better they are. I do not believe in rags, except, as m friendfrom Maine Mr. Momma] suggests, or nper, and I believe substitutes have been ound superior to that article for that purpose. I believe that the clothing of the people of this country can be manufactured by the people of this country cheaperthan the same cloting can be manufactured by any other people; but, sir, we cannot do it as we are now bound financially and cemmercially. It is impossible for us to live by the side of those who would destroy us; who have plotted our political destruction and our material destruction; who have shut us 08 from every market of the world, and are now endeavoring to destroy what remains for us in our own country. Sir, it is here that I desire to fight and to destroy, it may be, the power for evil of the Governments of Great Bpritain and France. I would destroy it through the industries of their country and of their people. I would draw their industries to this country. I would draw their people who are now occupied upon those industries here under the flag of this country. But 1 would not organize armies and navies in order to crush out the power of England, for the moment that the national honor of that peopleis attacked, they respond as one man in ddfense of their Government, however had it may be. A war with GreatBritain is a war with the people of GreatBritain. You cannot war with the Government and not touch the people a people who during the last fouryears have lived in abject poverty, half fed and half clothed, and yet have stayed the progress and the threatenin attitude of their Government and compelle it to keeppeace with us, because it was their desire to strengthen the people of this country in the great contest in which they were engaged. I am not disposed to make war upon a people who have made such sacrifices and for such principles. But I desire to draw from that count the people engaged in those industries audp and them under our flag and sustain them here. Sir, the policy of those who advocate this bill, if permitted to prevail, is a policy that will, instead of bringin those interests to this country, carry them to England and to France. It is impossible for a state of things like the present to continue and that result not he arrived at. I need not recite all the instances of American inventors who are today creating manufacturinginterests abroad, because they are Over taxed here, because they are taxed out of existence here, and because our manufacturers, if the expect to compete with the manufacturers of England or France, must go to England and France for that purpose. p Sir, you cannot do without your manufactures, you cannot do without the people engaged in those interests. From the time when Charles V of Spain, through the influence of the Inquisition and the Roman church, endeavore to establish the Romish religion in Flanders, and William of Oran e, united with the weavers of the Dutch republic, steadily, determinedly, vigorously opposed those measures, and succeeded in establishin their independence and freedom from that c urch up to the present time, those that have been engaged in the manufactures of their respective countries have been those that have been most loyal, most true to principle, and most energetic in the defense of principle and of right. In prootP of this assertion we need not go further than the examples given to us by our own country. We know that those engaged in this interest in the East have been for a long time vigorously opposed to the aggressions of slavery. Their votes for the past ten years have indicated the feelings that have actuated those people. When the war commenced, and when it began to assume the gigantic proportions that it did, {here did you find an organization ready to respond to the countrys call? Sir, the call of the bell to the daily labor has a tendency to discipline the mind; it has a tend ency to organize men to habits of industry and to obedience to law and regulation; it has a tendency to inculcate frugality and econ omy; it has a tendency in every respect to made free and industrious citizens, to make wise and able advocates of our system of free government, and in every respect it has a tend enc to givelpower and strength to the nation. ow, sir, have about ended the remarks which I designed to make. There is onething as to the details of the bill that. I have not heretofore suggested. I desire to point outits effect as a revenue measure. If I import goods and leave them in bond, and if the tariff is increased and I reexport those commodities and enter them again forconsumption at a decreased tarilf, the Government thereby loses the revenue which itwould have received if those goods had been entered for consumption at lirst. That proposition has bron ht my mind to another consideration, and I desire all who hear me to give attention to it. By the accumulation of a large stock of goods in bond at the beginnin of this war men were made exorbitantly ric in conse uence of that accumulation, and the people of the country were of necessity obliged to pay for that exorbitant increase. If those goods had been withdrawn for consumption the moment of their entry into the ports of the country, it will readily be erccived that the people could have purchase all those commod ities at their fair value, and the goods would have increased in price in their hands instead of the hands of the original importer. No one in the progress of this discussion has given any reasons why this warehouse system should continue and why it should be strength ened in this way, or why this bill should pass. While the system of taxafion both on foreign goods and on domestic products has been changed in almost every particular, while you have inaugurated a new system of internal taxtion, increased and decreased your tariff and regulated it in many ways, not a suggestion has been made in reference to this system, but it has been allowed to continue, and the proposition now before the Senate will make it more objectionable in its provisions and more injurious to the interest, of the domestic producer than ever before. In the beginning we were told that this proposition was a correct onebecause the SecyTreasury had informed us that it was correct. We were told that it was intended to create in bond an amount of goods that might be exported to foreign countries or that the ships of foreign countries might receive a supply. We controverted that doctrine by showing by statements from the Government itself that but ten millions of dutiable, goods during the past year had been reexported, That was conclusive to the minds of those who investigated the subject that it was not for that reason this system was to be continued and strength ened and perfected. We were told, again, that it was to regulate the trade of the count; that the prices in this country were unstab e, and that upon the continent of Europe and in GreatBritain prices were uniform; that they remained about the same from one years end to the other. It was suggested in reply, if you can change and reg ulate the prices in one extent, in anyone particular, you can in all particulars. If you can regulate them low, you can regulate them high as well. It must be apparent to the mind of any man that any project that can regulate and (ix the prices of the commodities of this country1s a dangerous element in the hands of any man or of any set of men. Again, it has been suggested that it was to benefit the trade of a city on our Pacific coast; but it has been conclusively shown that the amount of trade which that city would obtain from the passage of this measure would be litr tle or nothing in comparison with the great industrial interests of the country which it affects and which, if it is continued it will injure ina terially. On the other hand, t has been shown that while the American product pays its tax to the internalrevenue immediately after its production, and pays it several times over, the prod uct introduced into this country through this channel is flmmitted a year, and by this bill 3 years, of credit. That is conclusive, it seems to me, to the mind of anyone reflecting.on the subject that the Governmentand the importer become parties to the specnlation, unite together to draw from the tra e of the country goods in bond to be launched u n that trade whenever the market that has conrendered bare by this operation will be in a suitable condition as regards price to remunerate those engaged in the enterprise. It is perfectly a )par cut to me that the manufacturer and proucer of this country as well as the consumer are in juriously affected by the principles of this measure. Any system or plan that has for its object and is able to withdraw articles from other markets and to continue them withdrawn will of necessity increase the price of those articles. It is impossible that the effect can be otherwise. It is shown to m mind conclusively that these goods are place out of the hands of the government, and as security therefor abond istaken, and if the goods should be consumed by fire the Government loses the duties prescribe by law, and therefore the Government is made a great insurance agency for their benefit, t least to the amount of the duties that the law prescribes. The Government is now the reatinsurerto the importer for the amount olg the duty. Mr. President, everything that tends tochange an existin theory upon which laws have been established is injurious. If it is the design of Congresa in the legislation of the count to encourage all Depts of the industry of the people, itisnot wise or judicions toingraft upon that polic any proposition that has foritse ect the curtaiment of those industries. The measurebefore the Senate isin effect a proposition toingraft upon our legislation a system which will tend to check and to curtail the growth of our material interests. We have been told by the report of the SecyTreasury that the Government loses annually 12 or 15 million dollars from under valuation. As I have reflected upon the bill now before the Senate, I believe, upon my jndvment as a.man and as a Senator, that those hands are occasioned by the system and policy that isingrafted upon your system like the one now before the Senate. Believing as I do that this whole system is crnicious in every respect, I must in the discar e of my duty as a member of the Senate attacik it from whatever narter it comes and under all circumstances shall deem it my duty, whatever position it takes before the ISenate, to op ose its progress hereafter and if can, to crar icate it from our legislation. I do it, as I have informed the Senate, with no personal feelings, with no feeling toward any man, but from a deep conviction that it is wrong in principle, in theory, and in practice. I trust, therefore, that the vote on the passage of this bill will be reconsidered in order that I may propose amendments which I think will perfect it.