of my ability to discharge the trusts so liberally confided to me, in a manner corresponding to my own wishes, or the expectations of my fellow citizens. A lively sense of gratitude will not, I venture to assert, be the least efficient motive in disposing me to devote myself to the welfare of the State. My earnest endeavor shall be, to do every thing falling within the sphere of the executive powers, that my humble abilities will enable me to do, to preserve the sovereign rights of the State, to secure the due execution of the laws, to sustain our invaluable institutions, to develope the vast and exhaustless resources, with which we are liberally supplied by nature, and to carry us on in the progress of moral, intellectual and physical improvement, wisely begun and so prosperously continued that we have already become, under the operation of the free principles of our government, and with the favorable regard of Him who controls the destiny of nations, a great, a happy, and a powerful commonwealth. W. L. MARCY, Albany, January 1st, 1833. IN SENATE, January 2, 1833. DOCUMENTS Accompanying the Governor's Letter from His Excellency the Governor of the State of South-Carolina, to His Excellency the Governor of the State of New-York. SIR, EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, In compliance with a Resolution adopted in Convention by the People of South-Carolina in Convention assembled, I do myself the honor of transmitting you a copy of the Proceedings of that Body, with a request that you lay them before both branches of the Legislature of your State. I have the honor to remain, Very respectfully, your obedient Servant, To His Excellency the Governor of the State of New-York. J. HAMILTON, JUN. IS. No. 2.] 1 DOCUMENTS, Ordered by the Convention of the People of South-Carolina, to be transmitted to the President of the United States, and to the Governor of each State. REPORT Of the Committee of Twenty-one, to the Convention of the People of South-Carolina, on the subject of the several Acts of Congress, imposing duties for the protection of domestic manufactures, with the Ordinance to nullify the same. IN CONVENTION, COLUMBIA, S. C. Į . c. } November 24, 1832. Resolved, That copies of the Ordinance just adopted by this Convention, with the Report thereon, and the Addresses to the People of the several States, and of this State, be transmitted by the Governor to the President of the United States, to be by him submitted to Congress, and also to the Governors of the several States, for the information of their respective Legislatures. ATTEST, J. W. HAYNE, Clerk of the Convention. REPORT OF THE CONVENTION. The Committee to whom was referred the "Act to provide for the calling of a Convention of the People of this State," with instructions "to consider and report thereon, and especially as to the measures proper to be adopted by the Convention in reference to the violations of the Constitution of the United States, in the enactments by Congress on divers occasions of laws laying duties and imposts, for the purpose of encouraging and protecting domestic manufactures, and for other unwarrantable purposes," beg leave respectfully to submit the following REPORT. The committee, deeply impressed with the importance of the questions submitted to them, and the weight of responsibility involved in their decision, have given to the subject their most deliberate and anxious consideration. In stating the conclusions to which they have arrived, they feel that it is due to themselves, to this Convention, and to the Public at large, briefly to review the history of the Protecting System in this country, to show its origin, to trace its progress, to examine its character, point out its evils, and suggest the appropriate remedy. They propose to execute this task with all possible brevity and simplicity, sensible that the subject is too well understood in all its bearings to require at this time a very elaborate investigation. In the natural course of human affairs, the period would have been very remote when the people of the United States would have engaged in manufactures, but for the restrictions upon our commerce which grew out of the war between Great Britain and France, and which led to the non-intercourse act, the embargo, and finally our own war of 1812. Cut off by these events from a free commercial intercourse with the rest of the world, the people of the United States turned their attention to manufactures; and on the restoration of peace in 1815, an amount of capital had been already invested in these establishments, which made a strong appeal to the liberality-we might almost say to the justice of the country for protection, at least against that sudden influx of foreign goods which it was feared would entirely overwhelm these domestic establishments. When, therefore, in 1816, it became necessary that the Revenue should be brought down to the peace establishment, by a reduction of the duties upon imports, it was almost by common consent conceded to the claims of the manufacturers, that this reduction should be gradual; and three years were accordingly allowed for bringing down the duties to the permanent revenue standard, which, embracing all the ordinary expenses of the government, with liberal appropriations for the navy and the army, an extensive system of fortifications, and the gradual extinction of the public debt, (then amounting to $130,000,000,) was fixed at 20 per cent. If the manufacturers had at that time even hinted that permanent protection was deemed indispensable to their success; if the slightest suspicion had been entertained, that instead of the gradual reduction expressly provided for by the act of 1816, there would be claimed a gradual increase of the protecting duties; and that instead of being brought down in three years to 20 per cent, the duties were to be carried up to 50 or 100 per cent, and in many cases to prohibition, the painful contest in which the country has been engaged for the last ten years on this subject, would have commenced immediately; and it is confidently believed, that in the temper of the public mind at that time, ample security would have been found against the introduction of such a system. But in de |