the entire committee, or by a majority of a quorum.

Mr. CULLOM. That is what I want to know.

Mr. MAYNARD. The gentleman from Pennsylvania, [Mr. MOORHEAD,] I am sure, did not so understand the gentleman. It may be proper that I should say to the gentleman that the bill has the concurrence of a majority of the entire committee.

Mr. CULLOM. I was about to say that it very frequently occurs in committees that only a quorum is present when bills are acted on, and from some remarks that have been made I was induced to believe that it was only a majority of a quorum that ordered this bill to be reported to the House and not a majority of the committee.

Mr. O'NEILL. I would like to ask the gentleman from Illinois if he is a member of the Committee of Ways and Means?

Mr. CULLOM. No, sir.

Mr. O'NEILL. Then how is it that he knows all these points?

Mr. CULLOM. I have not stated that I knew anything about it. I asked the gentleman from Pennsylvania [Mr. MOORHEAD] the question, because I wanted to know what the fact was in reference to it.

Mr. O'NEILL. I presume my colleague from Pennsylvania knew what he was doing when he reported the bill, and knew what he was authorized to do.

Mr. CULLOM. I have no doubt of that. Mr. O'NEILL. I supposed that the gentleman from Illinois was a member of the Committee of Ways and Means, and felt out. raged because he had not been consulted about the bill.

Mr. CULLOM. The gentleman from Illinois simply wanted to know whether a majority of the whole committee were in favor of the bill, and had ordered it to be reported to the House..

Mr. O'NEILL. If my colleague answers in the affirmative, will the gentleman from Illinois vote for the bill?

Mr. CULLOM. No, sir; he will not. I only wanted to know what the position of the Committee of Ways and Means is in regard to this bill.

Mr. MYERS. I hope the gentleman is satisfied.

Mr. MOORHEAD. I yield now to the gentleman from New York, [Mr. McCARTHY.]

Mr. McCARTHY. Being new in legislation and not well conversant with the history of it, I have had occasion to ask how long this office of Special Revenue Commissioner has been in existence, and I am told about three years. Now, sir, it strikes me as a strange condition of things that men who are sent here from different portions of the country, representing different interests, many of them manfacturing interests, some of them free-trade interests, must necessarily have placed over them a Commissioner to regulate and direct their organization of a tariff. I see no necessity of any such officer. And so far as I know of the actions of this gentleman, he starts from Washington, he goes through Baltimore, Philadel phia, and New York, and lands in Liverpool or London, being entirely in the interest and under the control and advice of the commercial interest of the country, and never going about visiting the manufacturing interests and arriving at a practical knowledge of the wants of those interests. I understand that to be the fact. We have a large interest in our section of country, and, so far as I know, this gentleman has not the least idea or knowledge of its wants. I think the remark of the gentleman from Pennsylvania [Mr. MOORHEAD] is correct, that while this gentleman may be an advisory officer it is beyond his province or duty or power to regulate and manage the operations of a tariff bill as between one House and the other.

Mr. GRISWOLD. I would ask my colleague if the information is true that the Commissioner

to whom he refers does undertake to regulate tariff bills as between the House and the Senate?

Mr. McCARTHY. I understand that he does regulate that matter when he takes into his hands the entire formation of a tariff bill, retaining it until so late a period in the session as to defeat its passage. I understand that to be this gentleman's power in relation to the organization of the tariff; and more than that, the feeling outside in the country is that that gentleman is not a representative of the manufacturing interest, but of the commercial interest of the country; that he is absorbed soul and body by the free-trade interest.

Mr. MOORHEAD. I now yield ten minutes to the gentleman from Tennessee, [Mr. MAYNARD.]

Mr. MAYNARD. Mr. Chairman, I do not rise for the purpose of entering into a discussion of the tariff either in the abstract or in its details. As a member of the Committee of Ways and Means I voted in favor of reporting this bill, and I would have been very glad had it been more extended, embracing all those articles which in the legislation of the last Congress it was thought wise by the Senate and House to include in the change of existing law. The fluctuations of trade and the ceaseless triumphs of industry require a periodical revision of our system of imposts. I will not deny that in my votes upon this measure I am actuated to some extent at least by local, not to say sectional considerations. The part of the country which I have the honor with other gentlemen to represent is in need of industrial quite as much as of political reconstruction. The war put a stop to our industries, blighted our prosperity, and has placed us in a condition where we must start out in the career of business anew. The doctrines which prevailed with us for a great many years were what are called free trade, anti-tariff doctrines; and they had a fair practical development. Among the other teachings of our great war, not the least important, perhaps, was the effect of this so-called free trade upon the public welfare. The peculiar industry of that region tended to foster that doctrine. Manufactures were not fostered; shipping was not fostered. There were neither miners to penetrate the earth for the ores, nor mariners with the daring spirit of commerce to skim the sea for the productions of other lands. The agricultural products of the country were kept until enterprise from abroad came for them, bringing in exchange whatever was wanted by the people.

A more injurious and pernicious system of political economy I cannot conceive; and we have felt the effects of it. I say "we;" I mean the population of that part of the country. We felt the effects of this system when we found ourselves as a section involved in war. A cor

don of bayonets on one side, and a rigorous blockade on the other, hemmed us in from the outside world, and we were driven to depend

upon our own resources.

We had been fighting the fishing bounties, given originally as an encouragement to seamen in the hope of fostering a Navy, instead of seeking to avail ourselves of those bounties. The navigation laws had been assailed by us from time immemorial, instead of availing our selves of their benefits and opening up our three thousand miles of coast to a maritime commerce that might have equaled the commerce of all the rest of the world. Our inlets, our bays, and harbors were, therefore, wholly unimproved and unoccupied except by foreign sails. And when the war came upon us, and we were hemmed in, we had neither ships nor seamen. And, for the purpose of opening the blockade and getting our supplies from abroad, we were driven to the ship-yards of England, Scotland, and France, and depended upon the sailors of every nation under the sun.

the wants of the entire region. But the theory had prevailed there that salt was one of the necessaries of life, and therefore no burden must be imposed upon it. I recollect one of our prominent public men used to say, as an illustration of the doctrine, that the poor man's cow in the mountains of Tennessee consumed more salt-than the broker in Wall street, and to tax salt, therefore, was an intolerable inequality of burdens. What was the result of that theory? The moment the war closed in upon us and cut off the outside supply the people were absolutely famished for the want of that necessary of life, and a barrel of salt passed in exchange for the piano in the parlor.

There were abundant salt-springs had we been in condition to work them. We had salines lying below the surface, but it was too late then to penetrate to them, to develop them, and engage in salt manufacture. The great salt deposits in Louisiana lay there wholly unimproved, in fact hardly discovered, until long after the war began. On the other hand, sugar had been protected and its production encouraged by our legislation. As a consequence the South had no lack of sugar, and until the supply was cut off by the occupation of Louisiana it was cheaper and more abundant than in the other parts of the country.

The South furnishes facilities beyond any other part of the country for manufactures. All the Alleghany region of country, comprising the western part of Virginia, eastern Kentucky, eastern Tennessee, western North Carolina, western South Carolina, northern Georgia, and northern Alabama, abounds in manufacturing facilities, its water-power, its forests, the productiveness of its soil, its mineral wealth, and especially the abundance of coal lying exposed at the surface. Nothing that enters into industrial pursuits except productive labor and capital to stimulate and sustain it is wanting to make that region one of the most wealthy and populous of America.

The tariff policy which has done so much for cold, bleak, sterile, barren New England, which has made Pennsylvania to flourish and blossom as the rose, if applied to that region would produce there the same beneficent results.

The change which has come over our country as the results of the war, as yet only partially felt and observed, necessitates a change in our industries, in our labor, in the general economy and enterprise of our people. I believe that the policy known as the tariff policy, as that term has been used in our political dialect, will be our building up, our salvation. I believe it will reward and dignify labor, and make productive industry not only profitable but respectable. It will infuse a new spirit into our people and give an altered tone to society. It is for this reason, representing my immediate constituents, that I am at this time in favor of the legislation proposed in this bill.

I had occasion, during the last Congress, I think it was, to recur to the article of salt, which our part of the country might produce

protected against the undue competition of older and better established works abroad, population will be attracted, skilled industry will be awakened, a new prosperity will dawn, and the blessings which always attend wellrewarded labor will be ours. However it may be elsewhere, the tariff policy is essentially the true financial policy for the South. Instead of being satisfied, as hitherto, with producing raw material alone, our real interest requires us to give it form fit for immediate use. But I will not enlarge.

[Here the hammer fell.]

Mr. MOORHEAD. I now yield to the gentleman from Michigan, [Mr. DRIGGS.]

Mr. DRIGGS. Mr. Chairman, like my friend from Tennessee, [Mr. MAYNARD,] who has just taken his seat, I might perhaps admit that in giving my adhesion to this bill I am somewhat influenced by local interests. But, while making that admission, I still contend that I am governed by broader and more national views of the industrial interests of the country, and not solely by any local consideration or any peculiar interest in my own district. We have in the district which I have the honor to represent two or three large interests, in the development of which we are deeply concerned, and which are embraced in the terms of this bill. One of them is the copper-mining interest. Upon copper there is at present a duty of only about seven per cent. ad valorem, the duty being two and a half per cent. per pound on pure copper, one and a half per cent. per pound on ores and old copper, making, as copper ranges at about twenty-three cents per pound, a duty of only about seven per cent. The committee has very carefully, and I believe fairly and ably considered this question. They have investigated all the points bearing upon this great interest. All that we ask is simply what was agreed upon in this House two years ago-an increase of the duty on copper from its present rate to about twenty per cent. We ask an increase of five cents per pound on pure copper imported in ingots, four cents on regulus and old copper, and three cents on pure copper from foreign ores.

of the bill before the House as the district I have the honor of representing here; and I deem this an opportune time to place before this honorable body some facts connected with the history of a section which has not hitherto received that attention its importance justly merits, trusting, as I do, that it may have some influence upon its passage.

In the year 1835 a difficulty arose between the State of Ohio and the then Territory of Michigan concerning their boundary line, and great excitement existed on both sides. Militia were called out and moved toward the disputed territory, which was a strip of about ten miles in width, including the mouth of the Maumee river and the then village, now city, of Toledo. There was immediate danger of collision and bloodshed, but the dispute was fortunately settled by the interference of the General Government. Ohio, having most weight and influence in the national councils, succeeded in obtaining the boundary line she claimed, and Michigan was consoled by an immense addition to her natural area, of a comparatively unknown and wild region now known as the Upper Peninsula," lying between

Lakes Michigan and Superior.

eral lands; and for their protection against the Indians, Fort Wilkins, on Copper harbor, was in that year established by the Government and garrisoned by two companies of soldiers. In this year Mr. Julius Eldred, of Detroit, having purchased the great copper rock of the Ontonagon Indians, after much labor and expense removed it to the Sault Ste. Marie, intending to exhibit it in different parts of the United States and Europe, and expecting to make his fortune by so doing; but information having reached the Treasury Department, a revenue cutter was dispatched from Detroit for the purpose of seizing it, which was done notwithstanding the protest of the owner, and the vessel proceeded with her prize to Detroit, whence it was sent to Washington. I am glad to say that the owner was afterward reimbursed by a special act of Congress, obtained principally through the exertions of General Lewis Cass.

In the year 1845 a Government mineral agency was established at Porter's island in Copper harbor, for the purpose of registering, and certifying the permits issued in Washington, which numbered several thousands.

Explorers, miners, and adventurers of all kinds flocked to the country to locate and

This region was reported to be rich in minerals and precious stones, but particularly cop-register their permits. Locations were made per, as far back as 1636, by the Jesuit missionaries, who doubtless obtained their information from the Indians. The first attempt at regular mining was in 1770, when an English company was formed, the partners being his royal highness, the Duke of Gloucester; Mr. Secretary Townshend; Sir Samuel Tuchet, baronet; Mr. Baxter, consul of the Empress of Russia; and Mr. Cruikshank, residing in England, and Sir William Johnson, baronet; Mr. Bostwick, Mr. Baxter and Mr. Henry, residing in America.

Sir, while I do not desire to injure any interest engaged in smelting foreign ore, still I know it to be a fact that unless we have some protection more than that afforded by our present|| laws $50,000,000 of capital invested in the|| production of copper in my own district will be lost and the mines will be closed. This is a fact; it is no idle tale told here to induce gentlemen to support this measure, but it is

true.

Now, Mr. Chairman, there are some other important interests in my district. We have a large interest in iron and salt and lumber, though I believe lumber is not embraced in this bill.

Mr. MOORHEAD. Yes, it is.

Mr. DRIGGS. I have not investigated thoroughly the question with reference to iron; but in regard to copper I know that our section of the country needs all that is asked in this bill, and that without it we cannot exist as a copper-producing community. There are about forty thousand people engaged in this branch of business. And, Mr. Chairman, let me mention an instance of the patriotism of those people. During the war they sent to Europe and brought to this country hundreds of Swedes, paying their passage; yet they afterward allowed these men to be enlisted by the United States recruiting officers; and in a regiment which I raised myself there was an entire company composed of Swedes, thus brought here at the expense of our copperproducing men of the Lake Superior region, who not only paid the expenses of their passage to this country, but supported their wives and children after the men had enlisted in the Army.

Now, sir, I hold that no interest will be brought before this House that so strongly appeals to us as this one.

Mr. Speaker, probably no portion of the country has so deep an interest in the success

A vessel of forty tons was built above the Sault Ste. Marie, and miners and supplies were sent to the south shore, and work was prosecuted about twenty miles west of the Ontonagon river, for about two years. The venture did not turn out profitably, and the company was dissolved in 1774. The mass of copper now lying between the War and Navy Departments in this city was discovered on the west branch of the Ontonagon river, about 1800, not more than twenty miles from the working of the English company. This block or mass is mentioned in most of the works on geology and mineralogy as the largest known in the world, and was visited at different times by General Cass, Hon. Henry R. Schoolcraft, and others.

During the last war with England, or soon after, Dr. Francis Le Baun, of Plymouth, England, visited Lake Superior, and took with him a piece of the great copper rock of Ontonagon, which was placed in the British

Museum.

After the admission of the State of Michigan into the Union quite an interest sprang up in regard to the newly-acquired territory, and Dr. Douglass Houghton was appointed State geologist.

The first proper scientific explorations of the mineral lands of Lake Superior were made by him while employed as State geologist, and subsequently while engaged in a connected linear and geological survey under the direction of the General Government. His publications were annual reports, in which he described the geology of the country, and the minerals he had discovered; but he withheld designations of localities of metallic veins, of which he was doubtless aware, as he had traversed the region where they occur. It is supposed that he reserved a more full description of the minerals and ores, with the localities, for his final report, which he unfortunately did not live to write, as he perished in the field of his labors by the capsizing of his boat, in the fall of 1845, in a violent snow storm, and most of his notes and papers were lost with him. In 1843 explorers and adventurers began to flock to the district with permits from the Treasury Department or Land Office to examine and locate the min

at random; and reports prepared by incompetent persons (so-called geologists) were scattered all over the country. Mining companies were formed in the principal cities on the certified permits, and speculation in mining stocks was prevalent throughout the country. Stock gambling became the rage, and the result, as might have been foreseen, was to injure the confidence of the people in all mining adventures, and especially in Lake Superior, the site of so many absurd speculations. A few mining companies continued work, though under the most discouraging circumstances, as the country was covered with dense forests, through which it was difficult to make roads, and communication with the more settled parts was difficult and expensive.

Under the system of permits Government exacted a percentage of three per cent. on the copper mined, which was paid to the mineral agent; but after a few years it was discovered that the expense of collection far greatly exceeded the receipts, and the system was wisely abandoned. A price was fixed upon the land, those occupying under permits having the option of paying so much per acre for a given time; after which all the United States lands were subject to entry without any reservation of mineral rights. This wise determination on the part of the Government, and the passage of a liberal general mining law on the part of the State, gave an impetus to mining, and new companies continued to be organized.

The interruption to navigation caused by the falls of the St. Mary's river, which connects Lake Huron and Lake Superior, added very largely to the cost of transportation of supplies to the mines, and of copper to the eastern markets; and for several years Congress was flooded with petitions for aid toward cutting a ship-canal of about a mile in length.

Steamers and sailing vessels had been hauled over the Portage at the Saute Ste. Marie, for the purpose of navigating Lake Superior, from the head of the falls. All supplies, machinery, &c., for the mines arriving from the eastern cities were landed at the foot of the falls, hauled a distance of a mile by tram-road or by wagons, and then loaded on the vessels above by means of scows; and the same process was necessary in getting the copper to market. This added largely to the expense of working the mines, to say nothing of the irregularity and delay which was unavoidable.

In 1853 a grant of seven hundred and fifty thousand acres of land was made by Congress to the State of Michigan for the purpose of building the ship-canal, and in 1854 the splendid work which now connects the two lakes was opened, when an immense impulse was given to the mining of both copper and iron.

The product of copper from the first opening

This copper was shipped to the eastern market and sold for over forty millions dollars, contributing this enormous amount to the material wealth of the country. Unless crushed down by foreign competition the product will be largely increased, as the mines never looked better; and with the improvements in machinery and skill in mining gained by experience, work can be prosecuted much more effectually, as well as more economically, than heretofore. The number of mines organized is about one hundred and fifty, of which only forty are now working, aud many of these with greatly reduced forces, the present price of copper ruling lower than it can be produced for except at a loss. These mines have built up thriving towns, such as Houghton, Hancock, Eagle River, Eagle Harbor, Copper Harbor, and Ontonagon, and Rockland, with churches, stores, and dwellings fully equal to those of the eastern States. They have erected mills for stamping and washing copper ores, and works for smelting which are not equaled in the world. They support a population of from thirty to forty thousand, who are intelligent, industrious, and law abid ing. In exploring and working these mines, building the towns, and employing the labor, capital has been invested exceeding fifty million dollars. For the past two years this important interest has experienced unprecedented depression, so much so that the present market value of its capital is less than ten million dollars. The cause of this excessive depreciation is briefly stated in the fact that the high cost of labor, supplies, and taxes, without any offset from a corresponding tariff, has prevented even the best and richest mines from making any adequate return for the capital invested, and compelled the utter abandonment of many which formerly promised to be profitable. Great distress prevails in the mining districts owing to the stoppage of some of the mines, and the reduction of force in others, by which large numbers of men are thrown out of employ. Why is this? Here is an interest of national importance endangered, a hard working population of some forty thousand souls whose earnings for the best part of their lives are invested in their little homes, threatened with ruin and desolation, and thriving settlements on the verge of depopulation and consequent destruction! I say, why is this? It is because there is no adequate protection for the producers of copper; and foreign importations of copper ores are flooding the country, the product of Chili and Cuba, of peon and slave labor, and our highly-taxed mines are forced to compete with them. Seventy-five per cent. of the outlay in mining is for labor, and the balance is for steel, iron, coal, powder, fuse, &c., all of which are heavily protected, while the product, copper, is alone among metals admitted into the country on a merely nominal duty. In the recent national struggle the mining districts came promply forward and sent fifteen per cent. of their population to the seat of war, and to replace the labor thus lost raised a fund of $100,000 for the purpose of bringing miners from Norway and Sweden. Arrangements were made to pay the passage of these emigrants, whereby their expenses to this mining region were to be advanced and deducted from their earnings. Ships were chartered and the men with their families embarked; but on their arrival in this country

extraordinary offers of the Government recruiting officers, and were enlisted in the Army and moved to the South, thus entailing upon the miner not only the loss of their advances, but throwing upon them the burden of support of the families abandoned by their natural pro

tectors.

In common justice and fairness, the coppermining interests should be placed upon something like an equal footing with other interests, aside from the fact that they are adding largely to the wealth of the country; and policy would dictate that the relief asked for in this bill should be afforded unhesitatingly and at

once.

The district which I represent is of as much importance as any other in the United States, which the figures following will plainly prove

In the year 1867 it produced in pig iron and iron ore, 500,231 tons, valued at $3,500,000; lumber, valued at $30,000,000; fish, 60,000 barrels, valued at $600,000; salt, 450,000 barrels, valued at $900,000; copper, 9,200 tons, valued at $4,500,000; amounting to $39,500,000.

My constituents are looking hither hopefully, but mostanxiously, for the passage of this bill, for on it now rests the question of success or ruin. If it passes the mines will be able to resume work, and give employment to a large population now idle; if it fails the closing up of the mines is inevitable, and the prospect of their ever being worked again doubtful, as most of them are of great depth with large openings.

Should they cease work they will be filled up with water, entailing certain ruin to the proprietors. Desolation will then become widespread among the working population, and Government must look elsewhere and be dependent on foreign countries for its copper. All, or nearly all, of the ores imported from foreign countries are carbonates, which require sulphuret ores to flux them advantageously. Our products are principally sulphurets and copper in a native state, and consequently require no foreign ores to create a flux or aid in smelting them. This is proved at all the American mines where copper is constantly cast into ingots without the admixture of foreign ores. The argument raised by those engaged in smelting foreign ores that it is necessary to mix the same with American ores to smelt them, is simply ridiculous, for the reason, as before stated, that American ores require no admixture with imported ores. We admit that they need the American ores to mix with the foreign to aid them in smelting the same, but what we contend for is that we do not need the foreign ores at all; that we can produce all that is needed for home consumption and exportation if Congress will give us the small increase in the tariff we ask. The present duty on foreign copper imported pure in ingots is only two and a half cents per pound; on old copper, one and a half cents; and on copper ores, five per cent. ad valorem; being about seven per cent. all around. The rate we ask in the pending bill is five cents per pound on pure copper, four cents on old copper, and on regulus of copper and all black or coarse copper four cents on each pound of fine copper contained therein, and three cents on each pound of fine copper contained in foreign ores. This, at the present price of copper in the market, is equiv alent to about twenty per cent. ad valorem. Many other mineral products of the country are now protected by a tariff nearly three times as great as that which we ask for copper; and while we are not opposed to this, and while in the present condition of the country we are in favor of protection to every American interest, we respectfully submit to this House and the country whether it is just that this vast interest should be left without any adequate protection, while many other similar interests are so fully provided for. I quote from a memorial on this subject already presented to the House:

"The copper mines of Lake Superior, California,

Tennessee, Vermont, and in other parts of the country, aro suffering extreme depression because the price of copper has fallen below the cost of production, and unless they obtain relief in the way of a fair tariff there is imminent danger of a general stoppage of copper mining throughout the country.

Our recent national struggle has necessitated the imposition of such heavy taxation upon the industry of the country that, with a few exceptional cases, we cannot compete with foreign products without the aid of protective duties.

"This fact has been recognized in regard to the majority of our industrial products, but owing to the opposition of a few interested parties, (the smelting works at Baltimore principally,) the article of copper has been hitherto overlooked entirely, although those most heavily engaged in mining have for the past two or three years been begging Congress to have it placed on something approximating an equal footing with other metals, of which they are large consumers in their mining operations.

"The amount of capital actually invested in the Lake Superior mines and mining lands is not less than $50,000,000, and the present market value is less than $10,000,000. The cause of this excessive depreciation is briefly stated in the fact that the high cost of labor and supplies and heavy taxes, without any offset from a corresponding tariff, have prevented even the richest mines from making adequate returns for eapital invested, and compelled the abandonment of many which formerly promised to be profitable.

"Upon these mines a population of from thirty to forty thousand souls depend for support, and the towns and villages on the lake have been built up by them.

These settlements must become depopulated and go to decay, and the lands become a worthless waste, if the mines are abandoned for want of sufficient protection againt copper produced by foreign cheap labor. Already at Portage lake unemployed and hungry men demand work to supply themselves and families with food and fuel, and threaten the worst features of mob violence unless provision is made for them. To prevent the destruction of their property several of the mines levied new assessments to provide means of employment for the men during the winter months, though working at a heavy loss. During the past twenty years the mines of Lake Superior have produced over eighty thousand tons of fine copper, thus adding to the material wealth of the country more than forty million dollars, Their development has rendered the United States independent of foreign countries for this important metal, and they surely have just claim for protection.

With a duty of five cents per pound on ingot, pig, bar, and rolled copper, four cents per pound on pure copper in regulus, and three cents per pound on fine copper in ore, the mines can manage to keep on working, and pay a fair return on the capital invested. Without it there is certainty of a general stoppage, entailing immense loss of property, and a vast deal of distress among an industrious and hard laboring population, whose all is dependent on the active working of the mines.

"Opposition to the passage of the tariff, so sorely needed by copper mining interest, has come from the smelting works on the seaboard, who claim to have a large capital invested for the purpose of smelting foreign ores. Aside from the immense capital invested in the mines, there are smelting works at Houghton, Ontonagon, and Lac La Belle on Lake Superior; Detroit, Michigan: Cleveland, Ohio; and Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, which have more capital employed than those at the sea-board, and are entirely dependent on home-produced ores.

The estimated consumption of refined copper in the United States is per annum twelve thousand tons.

"During the past year (1867) there were producedFrom Lake Superior........ .............................................................about 9,000 tons From Tennessee... ..about 1,000 tous ..about 2,500 tons 12.500 tons

From California, Vermont, and other points

"It can be plainly seen from the figures that there is no doubt about the supply from our own mines being sufficient for home demand.

The passage of a fair tariff will lead to the development of new mines, and the country will export copper instead of importing it. At present all imported is paid for in gold or exchange on London. Copper ores pay but five per cent. ad valorem under ing therefrom to the Government is comparatively the existing tariff, and the amount of revenue aceruinsignificant in amount.'

Mr. Speaker, I do not believe that any member of this House who has investigated the subject, and who knows the facts above stated to be true, will oppose this bill; and I hope and trust that it will pass and become a law. Unless it does I assure you that the destruction of all the mines in my district is no idle tale, but a reality which will speedily follow the rejection of this much-needed act of jus

tice, and in order to prevent which I earnestly beg this House and every member within my hearing to give it their vote.

Mr. GARFIELD. Mr. Chairman, I should not have risen at this time but for a single remark which dropped from the gentleman from Pennsylvania, [Mr. MOORHEAD,] and which was seconded by the gentleman from New York, [Mr. McCARTHY.] I very well remember the occasion to which the gentleman refers when in the Thirty-Ninth Congress we labored here for many hours attempting to secure the passage of a tariff bill and were prevented by the filibustering efforts of a minority of the House. I labored with my friend from Pennsylvania against that effort to break down the tariff bill, and I entirely sympathize with what he said in condemnation of the efforts so persistently made to prevent the action of this House on the tariff measure which certainly would have passed but for factious resistance.

But, sir, I was sorry to hear the gentleman from Pennsylvania make the remarks he did in regard to the Special Commissioner of the Revenue. I desire to say to the House that I totally dissent from the opinion he has expressed concerning that officer. Previous to this session few members of the House have had better opportunities than I have to know the character and the amount of labor that gentleman has performed for the country; and I do not believe any man appointed by the Government in the civil service has done for this country more work and more valuable work than he has. Finance is a science both complex and difficult, and its foundations rest on statistical knowledge. The whole subject of the tariff is one of the most delicate to manage properly of any that can be considered by a deliberative body. Any man who expects with rough instruments to make a tariff machine that will run with any degree of success will be mistaken. He is like one who attempts to mend a clock with a crowbar. The questions entering into a tariff are of a most delicate nature and involve the rights and interests of many classes of the community. Now, what we have needed in this country more than anything else has been an array of carefully arranged facts, gathered from all sources and brought to the attention of Congress as the raw material out of which to construct financial legislation. Into the financial chaos resulting from the war Mr. Wells threw the whole weight of a strong, clear mind, guided by an honest heart, and during the last three years he has done more, in my judgment, to bring order out of chaos than any one man in the United States. He has furnished us what we most needed-classified knowledge of the subjects of financial legislation.

Mr. MOORHEAD. What has he done to favor the protection of American manufac tures?

Mr. GARFIELD. I will call my friend's attention to a single point. Who drew the tariff bill which he and I tried to pass, but which was defeated in consequence of the efforts made against us in the last hours of the session? That tariff bill was prepared from beginning to end by a special commission, of which Mr. Wells was a leading member.

Mr. MOORHEAD. I beg to differ with the gentleman. He did not draw the bill the committee reported, and that is the one I referred to. The one he prepared was with the purpose of killing the tariff.

Mr. GARFIELD. I beg the gentleman's pardon. If the bill reported by David A. Wells and his associates had become a law it would have been a great improvement on tariff laws as they then existed. The gentleman, I am sure, will admit this. I do not desire to speak further on this subject except to say this: I differ from my friend in one respect on the subject of tariff. It is my conviction that one of the worst things that could happen to the friends and supporters of American industry would be to pass a prohibitory tariff. I do not say my friend from Pennsylvania would go that length, but there are many protectionists in this country who would make a tariff bill a

Mr. GARFIELD. I cannot yield. Mr. MILLER. Nobody advocates such a doctrine as that.

Mr. GARFIELD. I do not say he does, but I do say there is danger in that direction. Prohibitive legislation would, in my opinion, soon precipitate us into free trade and all its resultant evils.

Mr. MULLINS. Will the gentleman

Mr. GARFIELD. I decline to yield. I do not say that any gentleman in this House proposes a prohibitory tariff in terms, or means to propose one, and I hasten to say that I do not charge this bill with being of that character; but I do affirm that the tendencies of a very considerable number of tariff men in this country are in that direction, and unless they take heed, unless they consent to a rational, considerate adjustment of the tariff such as can only be made by the full light that a careful statistical study of the subject will bring, I fear from them more than from any other source a reaction which will bring us by and by into free trade and all its consequences of evil to the manufacturing interest of the country.

Now, I say these things at this time for the purpose of indicating the ground upon which I answer the charges made against the Special Commissioner of Revenue. I do not believe the tariff men of this country will denounce David A. Wells. What I ask is that we shall take into consideration the immense financial facts of the situation. We have now an annual product of our great manufacturing interest, amounting to nearly one million eight hundred thousand dollars. That must be guarded, not by force of arms, not by denunciation and clamor, but by careful, prudent legislation, which will not be so extreme as to bring reaction and overthrow. Our manufactures need stability, permanence, and a steady policy. I am glad the gentleman from Pennsylvania [Mr. MOORHEAD] has been successful in getting this bill before the House, and in consideration in Committee of the Whole. He has had my assistance at every step. But I desire to say to him that, in my judgment, it is not the best mode of defending a tariff bill to denounce every man who does not pronounce the shibboleth after our fashion as an enemy of the tariff. We have appointed a Special Commissioner of the Revenue to gather facts and report them to Congress, to bring out the great considerations that underlie trade, and to explore the sources of revenue. He does not bring us theories but facts, and while he does that we ought not to be afraid of the results of his work. For my part, I am not afraid to welcome truth and to follow wherever it may lead. To shrink from such investigation, is to confess that we have no faith in our positions. I trust every true friend of protection will welcome and challenge the fullest investigation. I have an abiding faith in the principles on which our prosperity rests, and I should be sorry to think that a full exhibition of all the facts in the case could endanger my position. I have no such fear, and I trust the protectionists on this floor will har

bor none.

[Here the hammer fell.]

Mr. BROOKS obtained the floor, but yielded ten minutes to

Mr. PIKE, who said: I was one who voted not to go into Committee of the Whole for the purpose of considering this bill. But the gentleman from Pennsylvania, in his remarks, spoke of those who voted against going into Committee of the Whole as if they were antitariff," and he calls upon members of the House who are "tariff" men to stand by this bill not only in general but in detail, to support not only the bill he has presented, but to sup

port all the amendments he may submit, and to vote blindly and without reason against any amendments that he may not give his assent to; and that too, when the bill comes before the House in the dubious attitude of having a doubtful assent of the majority of the very committee that has authorized him to report it; for, when questioned on that very point, he declined to say whether or not it had the assent of the majority of that committee.

Now, sir, for one, I protest that I am not an "anti-tariff" man, and I protest that I am not in favor of free trade. A "free-trade" man is a person described by the gentleman himself in one of the extracts he had read today by the Clerk; that is, he is a person in favor of abolishing custom-houses and allowing unrestricted trade, collecting the revenues of the country from direct taxation either by means of the internal revenue system, or of the land tax prescribed by the Constitution. Very likely there are members of this House who are in favor of free trade. I do not know whether it be so or not. I know that I am not, and I suppose the large majority of the House are tariff men, perhaps all of them are as contradistinguished from free traders. We have now a tariff which yearly yields this Government a revenue of $16,000,000 in gold, and in some years $180,000,000. It is a tariff of an average of forty-seven per cent. upon all dutiable articles. One would think that that was a tariff, as Captain Cuttle would say, "As is a tariff." It yields the largest revenue and averages the highest percentage of any tariff ever upon our statute-book. Can those of us who are indisposed to disturb such a tariff as that be called anti-tariff men? Under what nomenclature is it that the gentleman from Pennsylvania or any other gentleman upon this floor can call "anti-tariff" men.

us

What is this bill which he introduces here as a small bill, to be disposed of in five minutes' consideration, in any half hour when the House may turn its attention to it? Is it a general bill, in which the great industrial interests of this country are considered? By no means. Is it a bill for the purpose of regulating or increasing the revenues of the country under a system which, as the gentleman from Ohio [Mr. GARFIELD] has said, has puzzled the wisest statesmen from the formation of this Government to the present time? By no means. It has no pretension of that sort. But it is a bill which apparently comes from a few interests who have got together and persuaded the able and intelligent gentleman who presented it that they are in a suffering condition and should receive from this Congress pecuniary relief. We are asked here upon the heel of this session, after the House has voted to adjourn on the 15th of July, and when the whole House is expecting to get away by the last of this week, to enter upon a new consideration and adjustment of this most difficult and important branch of the public revenues for the benefit of these few local interests. The first one that appeals for our assistance is the copper inter

est.

It is the first named in this bill. Well, how stands the copper interest? In a depressed condition. It asks that you relieve it by raising the price of copper by additional duties? That is the first proposition. What is the effect of it? Why, in the other end of the Capitol the other day a Senator from Michigan stated that one half of the copper produced in this country was consumed by ship-builders, and two gentlemen from Michigan upon this floor [Mr. BLAIR and Mr. DRIGGS] stated that if copper was allowed to come in for the use of ship-builders untaxed, it would destroy the great copper interest of Michigan. Then this proposition which is to be passed now as a matter of great public necessity, is to levy a tax upon the ship-builders along our whole coast for the benefit of the copper interest of Michigan. That is the bold proposition before the House.

Mr. LYNCH. Will my colleague allow me to ask him a question?

Mr. PIKE. I have but a few minutes, and

my colleague must excuse me. I by no means say that either the Senator from Michigan or the Representatives from that State were correct in their statements. I do not place the consumption of copper by ship-builders at so large an amount as they do by any means. But I do say that so far as that consumption is concerned, either for the purpose of coppering vessels or for the purpose of bolting vessels, or any other purpose connected with ship-building, this is simply asking a contribution from the ship-builders of the country for the benefit of the copper producers.

Will gentlemen thus array interest against interest, and if you will do it I ask you as the Representatives of the American people which is the national interest? Is this great interest of commerce that bears our flag to foreign ports of no consequence to you? Are you dis posed to drive what little remains of it out of the ocean entirely, and substitute for the stars and stripes the cross of St. George in the few remaining ports where our grand old flag still, in defiance of your legislation, persists in flying, and for the benefit of a manufacturing interest of this character? Is it fair? I submit, gentlemen, is it fair here at the very heel of the session to do that? And am I to be driven out of the tariff church because I object to it? The next interest that asks relief here is the iron interest. Well, it is nothing new for the iron interest to be discussed here in connection with the tariff. The duty on iron has been run up from time to time, I do not know how high, but it is ever on the ascending grade; and now the question is, shall it go still higher? Of course we use it largely in ship-building, and every dollar of increase of price will be paid partly by ship-builders, who are poor as poverty itself compared with the great iron manufacturers of the country. Is it the policy of the House to make the poor still poorer? I have no cause of quarrel with iron-workers. I would give them ample protection, but I do claim that consumers have some interest in this matter as well as manufacturers, and that this difficult and delicate matter of adjusting the relative necessities of the two should not be decided now at the heel of the session and under the authority of the gentleman from Pennsylvania, who is to give the word of command and vote in or vote out propositions as he may dictate, and without regard to what others think of their merits.

Iron is used by everybody, and we should adjust the tariff upon it in general consultation and upon a general bill. I have no idea of aiding anybody in crushing out this great interest, even if it were possible to do so, as it is not; nor do I wish it to crush out the interests of those I represent.

Salt is another of the favorites of the gentleman from Pennsylvania. In this bill he increases the duty, already exceedingly large, thirty-three and a third per cent, while lumber, which my constituents produce, and which, no doubt, they would like to have protected, is left at the modest rate of something like twenty per cent., the only change made being from ad valorem to specific duties. I do not complain of the lumber adjustment, but it illustrates the scale of favor which the leading pursuits of my people get as compared with the favored elsewhere.

There is no expectation that this tariff measure, even if it should pass the House, will be considered in the Senate, and it seems but a waste of time to discuss it now. We can more profitably turn our attention to other matters which it is possible for us to consummate before we finally adjourn.

[Here the hammer fell.]

Mr. BROOKS resumed the floor.

Mr. PIKE. If the gentleman will yield I will move that the committee now rise. It is about time for the committee to rise, considering that we are to have a night session.

Mr. BROOKS. I will yield for that purpose. Mr. PIKE. I move that the committee now rise.

The motion was agreed to.

The committee accordingly arose; and the Speaker having resumed the chair, Mr. DAWES reported that the Committee of the Whole on the state of the Union, according to order, had had under consideration the Union generally, and particularly House bill No. 1349, to increase the revenue from duties on imports and tending to equalize exports and imports, and had come to no resolution thereon.

ENROLLED BILL SIGNED.

Mr. HOPKINS, from the Committee on Enrolled Bills, reported that they had exam938, to authorize the sale of twenty acres of ined and found truly enrolled House bill No. land in the military reservation at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas; when the Speaker signed

the same.

Mr. DAWES. I move that the House now take a recess.

The motion was agreed to; and accordingly (at four o'clock and thirty minutes p. m.,) the House took a recess until half past seven o'clock p. m.

EVENING SESSION.

The House reassembled at half past seven o'clock p. m.

The SPEAKER. The recess having expired, the Speaker resumes the chair, and in the absence of the chairman of the Committee of the Whole [Mr. CULLOM,] will call to the chair the gentleman from Michigan, [Mr. TROWBRIDGE.]

The CHAIRMAN. The House is in Committee of the Whole on the state of the Union for debate only. The gentleman from Indiana [Mr. WASHBURN] is entitled to the floor.

Mr. WASHBURN, of Indiana. Mr. Chairman, believing that the great and overshadowing question of reconstruction is progressing fairly and certainly toward the consummation so anxiously wished for by the loyal men that saved our nation from the parricidal hands that would have blotted from the roll of nations the name of our fair country; believ ing, as I said, that the great question whether those who thus endeavored to destroy, by every means in their power, should again hold the places of trust in that Government, or those who in its hour of dark disaster stood by the flag of our fathers, has been decided in favor of the latter, I shall to-day, Mr. Chairman, in the few minutes allotted to me, discuss the question of the currency, that life-blood of every nation; and I do this with diffidence, following in the wake of so many able finan ciers of this House. And I now frankly confess that I have no new facts or figures, and should any gentleman fancy that he sees his own facts or figures in my argument I trust he will here accept my apology, as this question has been discussed by the statesmen of their respective cras during the past centuries. And in order that we have a clear idea of our position let us look for a moment at the definition involved when we say currency, "expansion of the currency," &c., and a clear understanding of what enters into and makes the currency will settle many of the vexed points now troubling us.

The definition used and quoted for long years until its familiarity has given it much force, is as follows, namely: "Coined gold, silver, and copper, and notes issued by banks or the Goverment, payable on demand." This definition comes far short of my idea of currency, which is nothing more nor less than any article used to facilitate the exchange of com. modities, and I will adopt the definition of Mr. Pitt, "That it consists in anything that answers the great purposes of trade and commerce, whether in specie, paper, or any other term that may be used."

Under this definition, then, or even under the one first quoted, how much currency do we as a nation require? In answering this question we settle most of the great questions of finance, and to answer it by a comparison made between this country and the older countries of Europe, must necessarily be as

fallacious. The necessity for an exchanging medium will always be greater in a new and sparsely settled country than in an old and densely populated one. Extent of territory, when that territory is peopled by an energetic business people, adds to the demand. Public improvements, such as railroads, canals, public buildings, and even private improvements, demand and call for more currency, and it is by confining its meaning to the narrow limits of my first definition that we are apt to make mistakes in estimating the amount that the country can carry on demand.

The notes that the Wabash merchant, under the old régime before the war, gave to his New purchased, were as much a part of the curYork or Cincinnati jobber for the goods he

rency as are the greenbacks with which he now makes his purchases; not as safe, but nevertheless currency. Then to determine the amount necessary we must take into consideration the area of our territory, extending across a continent larger than England, France, and Prussia combined, with a net work of railroads unparalleled anywhere. Soon the great iron artery will be spanning our whole country, furnishing the great through route to China. With everything as yet in its infancy and unfinished from the cabin in the far West to our magnificent Capitol above us, farms to be opened, and manufactories building, railroads reaching out here and there with a rapidity unknown anywhere else, no calculation can tell how much we need or can use. You have no past to judge from, for nowhere upon the page of history do you find the counterpart of ours, nor can you institute a comparison with our past. During the last ten years of our history take, for instance, the item of postage. times as much postage is paid to-day as was paid ten years ago, consequently five times as much of a circulating medium to transact this little item of business as previously needed. Glance at the table of the honorable gentleman from New York, [Mr. BARNES,] showing how New York stands.

Five

New York may be taken as a representative city of the United States. The business of that city for the past eleven years, as represented by the business of the banks, has been as follows-I give the average per day for three hundred and thirteen days of each year:

It will here be seen that the business of the country last year was four times in excess of that done in the great speculating year of 1857, six times in excess of 1858, five times greater than in 1861; that it reached the exact point in 1862 which it occupied in 1856; that in 1863 it increased over one hundred per cent.; in 1864 near seventy per cent.; in 1865 ten per cent.; in 1866 ten per cent.

Many believe that the war has largely expanded the currency. I cannot and do not subscribe to this theory. By the war gold and silver are no longer currency, simply bullion merchandise. The system of long credits has gone, I hope, never to return. Previous to the war the merchant of my district purchased his goods from the eastern cities on long credits; these goods were again sold by him to his customers on a credit; the notes of these dif ferent parties entering into and for a time forming part of the currency, in extent equal to all the rest. Previous to the war we had in circulation gold, silver, bank notes, checks, notes, &c., to an amount I have no means of ascertaining, but I believe far greater than our present circulation.

You have forced the growth of the last ten years of our country back into its old size, and with what results let the groans of the great