If we will give up to them
the regulation of our tariffs, they will leave us triumphant in the
domain of literature.
It is constantly alleged in opposition to our principles, that they
are good only in theory. But, gentlemen, do you believe that
merchants' books are good in practice? It does appear to me, if there
is anything which can have a practical authority, when the object is
to prove profit and loss, that this must be commercial accounts. We
cannot suppose that all the merchants of the world, for centuries
back, should have so little understood their own affairs, as to have
kept their books in such a manner as to represent gains as losses, and
losses as gains. Truly it would be easier to believe that our
legislators are bad political economists. A merchant, one of my
friends, having had two business transactions, with very different
results, I have been curious to compare on this subject the accounts
of the counter with those of the custom-house, interpreted by our
legislators.
Mr. T dispatched from New Orleans a vessel freighted for France with
cotton valued at $200,000.
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