PHILADELPHIA, [PA.], February 23d, 1857.
ESTEEMED FRIEND:
Permit me to remind you, that four years since, at your request, the Senate
amended one of the Bills, by which the small amount of duties collected on Flax
Machinery, within a specified time, was to be refunded, and such machinery
subsequently admitted free for three years. Kentucky, Virginia, Penns[ylvani]a,
and Ohio, raise more flax than all the other States together, and we cordially
concur in the Free admission of machinery, wh[ic]h will thus assist those
States in the more rapid development of their agricultural resources, and add
immensely to the national wealth. We have associated with some of the most
intelligent merchants of other cities in the first attempts at manufacturing
Linens. At great expense have sent Agents and Circulars, thro' the South
and West; employed the public journals and spared no pains to direct attention
to the best methods now adopted in Europe for the culture of flax. These
efforts have not been fruitless, and we believe that Kentucky and Virginia will
in a few years largely export flax, of wh[ic]h they are already the chief
producers.
The manufacture of
Linen goods has encountered at the outset great obstacles; our planters being
unable to furnish the staple of proper quality, must gradually acquire the
knowledge of preparing it, while the blockade of the Baltic during the late
European war, greatly enhanc[e]d the price of foreign supplies, and entailed
upon this infant interest, struggling for existence, serious and disheartening
trials.
The Tariff which has
just passed the House, and ere this may have been placed in y[ou]r hands, admits
flax machinery free, hereafter, but we hope it will strike your honorable mind,
that simple justice should at least be extend[e]d to those who have pioneered
this branch of industry, by a refund of the trifling duties collected on flax
machinery since Jan[uar]y 1st, 1850, to those now using the same; thus placing
us on equal terms with our subsequent competitors.
I beg leave to
assure you, that the refund of those duties, would in the present exigencies of
the trade, do more to sustain and encourage the demand for American flax, than
the remission of all future duties on flax machinery, while the suspension of
this enterprise, and change of those mills to Cotton, must put back the
developement of flax cultivation for several years, and long preclude our
planters from realizing very profitable returns from their hitherto worthless
fibre. The propriety of placing the first spinners of flax on as good terms as
the last, we trust will obtain for them and this growing interest, your renewed
favor, and if it be improper to give a Retrospective feature to the present
Tariff Bill, may we ask you to make such amendment to one of the Appropriation
Bills, as will authorize the Sec[retar]y of Treasury to refund to parties now
in use thereof, the duties collected on Flax Machinery since Jan[uar]y 1st,
1850, the amount of which might be limited to the sum of $100,000 dollars?
We beg y[ou]r
further consideration of the very great importance of having the new act, go
into effect on April 1st next, so as to obviate an immense warehousing of goods
imported for the fall trade. The postponement of the Act until July 1st, will
make the market bare of many articles, now proposed for the Free List, and
enhance prices to the detriment of the consumer, whilst its early enforcement
will secure more regularity in the business, of the Customs, and occasion the
least disturbance to commerce.
The policy of
Sec[retar]y Guthrie, of approaching Free Trade by removing the imposts on all
raw materials, meets the approval of all intelligent minds, and if now adopted
must give the new administration a positive assurance of prosperity and
success. To you, in the distinguished and most important position in which we
now address you, more than to any other member of the Senate, is the public
attention directed, relying on y[ou]r wisdom and experience to dissipate those
clouds wh[ic]h now darken the financial affairs of our country.
SOURCE: Charles
Henry Ambler, Editor, Annual Report of the American Historical
Association for the Year 1916, in Two Volumes, Vol. II, Correspondence of
Robert M. T. Hunter (1826-1876), pp. 203-5
