from the rest of the world by the sea that girts her island, than she is separated in feeling, sympathy, or friendly consideration of their welfare.  Gentlemen, in supposing it impracticable that we should successfully compete with her in manufactures, do injustice to the skill and enterprise of their own country.  Gallant as Great Britain undoubtedly is, we have gloriously contended with her, man to man, gun to gun, ship to ship, fleet to fleet, and army to army.  And I have no doubt we are destined to achieve equal success in the more useful, if not nobler, contest for superiority in the arts of civil life.

I could extend and dwell on the long list of articles—­the hemp, iron, lead, coal, and other items—­for which a demand is created in the home market by the operation of the American system; but I should exhaust the patience of the Senate.  Where, where should we find a market for all these articles, if it did not exist at home?  What would be the condition of the largest portion of our people, and of the territory, if this home market were annihilated?  How could they be supplied with objects of prime necessity?  What would not be the certain and inevitable decline 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