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Spades and shovels, 20 per cent. less.

Cross cut and mill saws, 12 per cent. less.

Wood screws, though prohibited by duty, were 20 per cent. lower, and

of a much superior quality to those formerly imported.

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During the year 1840, say these merchants, large quantities of British prints were imported, that cost from 22 to 28c per yard, and in 1843, prints of as good quality were produced in this country as low as 15c per yard, which entirely excluded British prints from our markets.

Irish linens were imported in 1841 duty free; in 1843, with a duty of 25 per cent., they were 20 per cent. lower than in 1841.

English and French cloths and cassimeres, paying a duty of 38 per cent. in 1841, and of 40 per cent in 1843, had fallen not less than 20 per cent.

From a statement made out in the treasury department, it appeared that the importations of gold and silver coin and bullion for the year ending September, 1843, amounted to $23,741,641. During the two preceding years, they were but $9,075,649.

It was apprehended in 1842, that, by raising the duties, the importations would be so diminished as to cause a serious decrease of revenue. [See report of the minority of the committee on manufactures, Chapter LXIII.] The result showed the apprehension to have been erroneous. The average yearly amount of receipts from customs for the years 1840, 1841, and 1842, was about $16,000,000; for the years 1844, 1845, and 1846, it was upwards of $26,000,000 annually.

To the foregoing statements may be added the fact, that the rates of exchange and interest were greatly reduced. Reports of the money market in the spring of 1844, state that good paper was discounted in some of the eastern cities at 4 to 5 per cent., owing, it was said, to the reflux of specie from abroad, and especially to large deposits in the banks, as a result of the general prosperity of the country.

In view of these facts, which southervers themselves did not controvert, the question recurs, Did they believe their own representation of the injury inflicted upon them by the tariff? As to the cause of the improved condition of the country, there might be an honest difference of opinion, while in respect to the improvement itself, it is not easy to conceive how such difference could exist. The repeated failures of their predictions of the state of things which would necessarily follow the adoption of protective measures, should have induced them at least to distrust their own opinions. But it was with them a fixed theory, that to whatever extent, or from whatever cause, prices may have been reduced, the reduction would have been still greater had not the duties been imposed; and the supposed injury they suffered must have consisted, not in actual enhancement of prices, but in their being prevented by the tariff from falling as low as they would otherwise have done.

The presidential term of John Tyler expired on the 3d of March, 1845. The crowning act of his administration was the annexation of Texas. Whether the ultimate benefits of the acquisition will ever counter: balance its cost, has ever been a matter of doubt. To the debtor side is to be placed the war with Mexico, with its concomitant evils, the least of which was the debt contracted for its prosecution. One of the declared objects of the measure was “ to extend the area of freedom." One of its consequences must infallibly be to keep alive the exciting question of slavery for an indefinite period, perhaps during the existence of the republic. The time is not distant when, to preserve the equilibrium of the slave states—the avowed object of annexation—applications will be made for the admission of new states formed out of the present state of Texas ; and each successive demand for admission will revive the unhappy and distracting controversy.

Another effect has been apparently to weaken resistance to the extension of slavery. Each concession to the demands of the slave-holding states renders the next more easy. The fact that the constitution protects slavery, and permits its extension, has been interpreted into an argument for placing it, in respect to political power, on an equal footing with freedom. The idea is by no means confined to the south, that this claim of slavery to political equality should be conceded as a constitutional right. This sentiment has had no slight influence in disposing the north, on each admission of a free state, to allow it to be counterpoised by the simultaneous admission of a slave state.

Constitutions for state governments having been presented to congress by the territories of Florida and Iowa, acts were passed for their admission as states into the union.

An act was passed at this session, to establish a uniform time for choosing presidential electors in all the states. Previously, they were required to be chosen within thirty-four days before they were to meet in their respective states to cast their votes for president and vice-president. By the act of 1845, the election in all the states for choosing the electors is on the Tuesday next after the first Monday of November.

The first act for the great reduction of postage, was also passed at this session. Postage was, by this act, reduced to five cents on single letters, carried not exceeding 300 miles; over that distance, ten cents.

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JAMES K. Polk was inaugurated as president of the United States, on the 4th of March, 1845. His inaugural address was one of unusual length, and presented his views much in detail. Having descanted on the excellency of our government, and the value of the union, he enjoined a sacred observance of the compromises of the constitution, and deprecated interference with certain “domestic institutions," as an

“attempt to disturb or destroy the compromises of the constitution,” which must "lead to the most ruinous and disastrous consequences.” He expressed his " deep regret, that, in some sections of our country, misguided persons have occasionally indulged in schemes and agitations, whose object is the destruction of domestic institutions existing in other sections ;" but he was “happy to believe that there existed among the great mass of our people a devotion to the union of the states which would protect it against the moral treason of any who would contemplate its destruction."

He declared his opposition to “national banks and other extraneous institutions, to control or strengthen the government.” He regarded it his duty to recommend and “to enforce the strictest economy in the

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expenditure of the public money.” He congratulated the people “on the entire restoration of the credit of the general government, and that of many of the states.” His policy in regard to the tariff is shadowed forth in his adoption of the following sentence : “ Justice and sound policy forbid the federal government to foster one branch of industry to the detriment of another, or to cherish the interests of one portion to the injury of another portion of our common country." He was in favor of a tariff for revenue merely, but so adjusted as to afford incidental tection to home industry.

He congratulated the country on the reünion of Texas to the United States : it only remained to agree upon the terms. Other governments had no right to interfere, or to take exceptions to their reunion. “The world,” he said, " has nothing to fear from military ambition in our government. While the chief magistrate and the popular branch of congress are elected for short terms by the suffrages of those millions who must, in their own persons, bear all the burdens and miseries of war, our gorernment can not be otherwise than pacific.” The annexation was “not to be looked on as the conquest of a nation seeking to extend her dominions by arms and violence, but as the peaceful acquisition of a territory once her own;" an act which he regarded as diminishing the chances of war.” Nor did the new president forget to reässert“ our title to the country of the Oregon to be clear and unquestionable,'” and to pledge himself “ to maintain, by all constitutional means, the right of the United States to that portion of our territory:" and he recommended that the jurisdiction of our laws should be extended over our emigrants in that country.

Mr. Polk's cabinet was constituted as follows: James Buchanan, of Pennsylvania, secretary of state; Robert J. Walker, of Mississippi, secretary of the treasury; William L. Marcy, of New York, secretary of war; George Bancroft, of Massachusetts, secretary of the navy; Cave Johnson, of Tennessee, postmaster-general; John Y. Mason, of Virginia, attorney-general.

In June, Louis McLane, of Maryland, (formerly of Delaware,) was appointed minister to Great Britain, in the place of Edward Everett, recalled. It was said that, before the selection of Mr. McLane for this mission, it had been offered successively to two citizens of South Carolina, Messrs. Pickens and Elmore; and, it was believed, also to Mr. Calhoun, of the same state, and Mr. Woodbury, of New Hampshire; all of whom had declined.

On the 8th of June, 1845, Gen. Jackson died at his residence, the Hermitage, aged 78 years. The announcement of this event produced a deep and general sensation throughout the country. Old party differ

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ences were forgotten ; and the people of all classes and parties joined in appropriate demonstrations of respect to the memory of the departed hero and patriot. However public opinion may have been divided in relation to his merits as a statesman, few questioned the sincerity of his patriotism.

Mr. Polk, on his accession to the presidency, had upon his hands two foreign questions to dispose of-the controversy with Great Britain respecting her claims in Oregon, and the difficulty with Mexico arising from the annexation of Texas, still claimed by the former as a part of her territory

On the 6th of March, 1845, only six days after the date of the act of annexation, the Mexican minister, Almonte, addressed to Mr. Calhoun, secretary of state, a letter, in which, pursuant to the instructions of his government, he protested against the act of congress dismembering the province of Texas, an integral part of Mexican territory, and admitting it into the American union. He declared the purpose of Mexico to enforce her right to recover the territory of which she had been unjustly despoiled; and he gave notice of the termination of his mission, and asked for his passports. Mr. Buchanan, the new secretary of state, in reply, says, the president trusts that the government of Mexico will view the act a more favorable light, and declares " that his most strenuous efforts shall be devoted to the amicable adjustment of every cause of complaint between the two governments.” On the arrival of the news of annexation at the city of Mexico, diplomatic relations between the two governments there too were abruptly terminated ; and the proceedings of the Mexican congress manifested a highly belligerent spirit.

On the 4th of June, 1845, president Jones, of Texas, issued a proclamation, stating that Mexico was disposed to a peaceful settlement of difficulties, by acknowledging Texan independence, if Texas would maintain her separate existence, and declaring a cessation of hostilities against Mexico, till the subject could be laid before the Texan congress and convention of the people. This was regarded as evidence of the president's indisposition toward annexation. The congress assembled on the 16th of June, pursuant to the proclamation of president Jones; who communicated the resolutions of annexation passed by the United States congress, and submitted to the senate the treaty proposed by Mexico for acknowledging the independence of Texas, upon three conditions, viz. :

(1.) Texas not to annex herself or become subject to any country whatever. (2.) Limits and other arrangements to be matters of agreement in the final treaty. (3.) Texas to consent to refer the disputed points with regard to territory and other matters, to the arbitration of umpires. The senate, it was said, unanimously rejected the proposition

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