On May 19, 1828 President Adams signed the tariff bill that would later become known as the 'Tariff of Abominations'. The bill was introduced in part to placate the demand of the agricultural states of the middle and the west including New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Kentucky. These states wanted protection for their products such as wool, hemp and wheat, yet just several months after the signing, floods destroyed much of the crop in Europe creating demand and higher prices for American agricultural products. With such high demand in place, it was very difficult to argue that American farmers needed protection, but Adams stood firm in support of the tariffs, and in his 1828 State of the Union made his case on behalf of American farmers, and the need to protect them from the impact of British "Corn laws".
In 1828, the Corn laws of Great Britain had recently undergone reform. The first of the Corn laws were introduced in 1815 just after the end of the Napoleonic wars. The law stated that no foreign corn would be allowed into Great Britain until it's domestic corn had reached a price of 80 shillings per quarter. The law applied to all imported food and grain, not just "corn". The laws kept the price of corn artificially high, and significantly hurt the urban working class who had to spend the bulk of their income to just survive. In 1828, the Duke of Wellington introduced a major reform of the Corn laws, replacing the fixed price with one of a sliding scale that allowed foreign grain to be imported freely so long as the domestic grain sold at 73 shillings per quarter or higher with tariffs were placed on foreign grains when the domestic price dropped below 73 shillings. It is very unlikely that the British government could have expected the 1828 harvest to be so poor. In that year, according to the Farmer's Magazine, immense rains and floods beginning in July resulted in a very bad harvest. In fact, 1828 is listed as one of the top 10 wettest summers of all time in England and Wales with 355.9 inches. The Farmers Magazine included a listing of wheat prices from 1816 to 1854 ranging from a high of 94 to a low of 35, but in 1828 there was no price even recorded. This high demand for foreign grains, created an opportunity for American agriculture, and farmers flourished. They were able to sell grain in England and across all of Europe at high prices without the impact of tariffs.
In President Adam's final State of the Union, he described this "new element of prosperity to that part of our agricultural industry which is occupied in producing the first article of human subsistence" as "the most cheering character to the feelings of patriotism". The market for American agriculture was so great that the Treasury was predicting revenue of 1829 would exceed that of 1828 in such manner that an additional $10 million of the public debt could be retired. Such a rosy picture, gave rise to new patriotism, and a feeling that America was a great nation, with it's exports rivaling that of any other nation in the world. President Adams did not claim any credit for the trade surplus, rather he chose to give the glory to God or "Him who ordains all in wisdom and goodness". Adams, explained that it was in God's wisdom to allow a calamity such as a bad harvest in Europe to allow the American farmer to "bring forth from the abundance of our own garners." Yet this bounteous reward to our farmers was not without impact to everyday Americans, for as demand for American grain rose, so to did the price of bread in America. In this way, Adams showed how the "great interests of an agricultural, commercial, and manufacturing" are all linked together, such that one can not prosper without influencing the others. It is a delicate balance that can only be maintained by the "protective power of the legislative authority". In other words, tariff laws such as the act of 1828 were necessary to maintain a proper balance.
"The extent of the prosperous commerce of the nation must be regulated by the amount of its exports, and an important addition to the value of these will draw after it a corresponding increase of importations. It has happened in the vicissitudes of the seasons that the harvests of all Europe have in the late summer and autumn fallen short of their usual average. A relaxation of the interdict upon the importation of grain and flour from abroad has ensued, a propitious market has been opened to the granaries of our country, and a new prospect of reward presented to the labors of the husband-man, which for several years has been denied. This accession to the profits of agriculture in the middle and western portions of our Union is accidental and temporary. It may continue only for a single year. It may be, as has been often experienced in the revolutions of time, but the first of several scanty harvests in succession. We may consider it certain that for the approaching year it has added an item of large amount to the value of our exports and that it will produce a corresponding increase of importations. It may therefore confidently be foreseen that the revenue of 1829 will equal and probably exceed that of 1828, and will afford the means of extinguishing $10,000,000 more of the principal of the public debt.
This new element of prosperity to that part of our agricultural industry which is occupied in producing the first article of human subsistence is of the most cheering character to the feelings of patriotism. Proceeding from a cause which humanity will view with concern, the sufferings of scarcity in distant lands, it yields a consolatory reflection that this scarcity is in no respect attributable to us; that it comes from the dispensation of Him who ordains all in wisdom and goodness, and who permits evil itself only as an instrument of good; that, far from contributing to this scarcity, our agency will be applied only to the alleviation of its severity, and that in pouring forth from the abundance of our own garners the supplies which will partially restore plenty to those who are in need we shall ourselves reduce our stores and add to the price of our own bread, so as in some degree to participate in the wants which it will be the good fortune of our country to relieve.
The great interests of an agricultural, commercial, and manufacturing nation are so linked in union together that no permanent cause of prosperity to one of them can operate without extending its influence to the others. All these interests are alike under the protecting power of the legislative authority, and the duties of the representative bodies are to conciliate them in harmony together."
But according to Adams some tariffs are not used to maintain a proper balance, but to unduly and intentionally hurt the interests of a rival nation. He explained, that when a tariff is used to raise revenue for the purposes of retiring debt or subsidizing the needs of a community, it should be done without placing an undue burden of any rival nation. Adams believed that England was using it's Corn laws to depress American exports. Adams explained that the recent Corn laws in England were reformed with the intent of depressing the agricultural exports of a "rival nation". Adams suggested that the goal of the Corn Law reforms were to control the competition of American goods into England by restricting the import of our goods that competed with their own, and encouraging the import of goods that were not locally available. In 1828 the bad harvest in Europe forced the British to import great quantities of grain from the Middle and Western states without interdiction, but yet they refused to allow import of rice from the South. Apparently, the rice harvest was bountiful in 1828 due to the extra rain fall in Europe. In addition, by these same laws, Great Britain allowed American cotton in almost duty free, allowing them to flood the United States with cheap clothing and linens to the to the destruction of our own manufacturers in the North.
"So far as the object of taxation is to raise a revenue for discharging the debts and defraying the expenses of the community, its operation should be adapted as much as possible to suit the burden with equal hand upon all in proportion with their ability of bearing it without oppression. But the legislation of one nation is some times intentionally made to bear heavily upon the interests of another. That legislation, adapted, as it is meant to be, to the special interests of its own people, will often press most unequally upon the several component interests of its neighbors.
Thus the legislation of Great Britain, when, as has recently been avowed, adapted to the depression of a rival nation, will naturally abound with regulations to interdict upon the productions of the soil or industry of the other which come in competition with its own, and will present encouragement, perhaps even bounty, to the raw material of the other State which it can not produce itself, and which is essential for the use of its manufactures, competitors in the markets of the world with those of its commercial rival.Then President Adams asked, "Is the self-protecting energy of this nation so helpless that there exists in the political institutions of our country no power to counter-act the bias of this foreign legislation?" In other words, were are feckless leaders just going to sit there and do nothing?" End of Part one. In part two, I will explore President John Quincy Adams' reprimand of Congress and his defense of the 'Tariff of Abominations'.
Such is the state of commercial legislation of Great Britain as it bears upon our interests. It excludes with interdicting duties all importation (except in time of approaching famine) of the great staple of production of our Middle and Western States; it proscribes with equal rigor the bulkier lumber and live stock of the same portion and also of the Northern and Eastern part of our Union. It refuses even the rice of the South unless aggravated with a charge of duty upon the Northern carrier who brings it to them. But the cotton, indispensable for their looms, they will receive almost duty free to weave it into a fabric for our own wear, to the destruction of our own manufactures, which they are enabled thus to under-sell."
References
Presidency.ucsb.edu. (2018). John Quincy Adams: Fourth Annual Message. [online] Available at: http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=29470 [Accessed 29 Jul. 2018].
ROSS, D. (2018). The Corn Laws in Victorian England. [online] Britain Express. Available at: https://www.britainexpress.com/History/victorian/corn-laws.htm [Accessed 29 Jul. 2018].
The Farmer's Magazine. (1854). Rogerson and Tuxford, p.51.
Victorianweb.org. (2018). The Corn Laws. [online] Available at: http://www.victorianweb.org/history/cornlaws1.html [Accessed 29 Jul. 2018].
Wagner, D. (2018). 1828 John Quincy Adams - British Interdiction and the Tariff of 1828 (Tariff of Abominations). [online] Stateoftheunionhistory.com. Available at: http://www.stateoftheunionhistory.com/2018/07/1828-john-quincy-adams-british.html [Accessed 29 Jul. 2018].
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