Sugar Planters & Manufactures 1842

Jefferson Parish, Louisiana
Submitted by: Gaytha Carver Thompson
Date: Jan. 1998.
27th Congress
2nd Session

SENATE

MEMORIAL of A NUMBER OF PLANTERS AND SUGAR MANUFACTURES IN THE STATE OF LOUISIANA,

PRAYING
An increase of the duties on imported sugar.

JUNE 23, 1842
Referred to the Committee on Printing,
JUNE 24, 1842
Ordered to be printed

To the honorable the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
States in Congress assembled:

The undersigned, planters and sugar manufactures of the State of Louisiana,
beg respectfully to state:

That it is only after losses have reached their height, that events have
proved that, under the practical operation of the compromise bill our
agriculture and our commerce, as well as our manufacturing interest are not
only paralyzed, but brought to the very verge of absolute ruin. That they
approach the representatives of the nation, in Congress assembled, earnestly
to pray them to come to the relief of an industry involving an outlay of
capital of $52,000,000, the destruction of which, be causing a national loss
to an extent beyond calculation, would lead to expropriation of almost every
planter connected with it.

That against the theories, discarding discriminating duties intended to
foster home labor, which have brought every department of our Government
into disrepute which have made, with few exceptions, every mechanic, every
manufacture, very merchant, every farmer, every corporation, in our once
happy Union, a bankrupt and which at length, after long struggle, are
shaking our Government itself to its very foundation the undersigned beg
most respectfully to oppose the authority of one our ablest and most honored
statesmen.

In 1785, Thomas Jefferson was one of the most ardent and strenuous advocates
of free trade; his opinions, in 1816, were as follows (Niles Register, vol.
10; page 25 letter to Benjamin Austin)

Compare the present state of things with that of '85, and say whether an
opinion, founded in the circumstances of that day, can be fairly applied to
those present. We have experienced what we then did not believe, that there
exist both profligacy and power to exclude us from the field of interchange
with other nations; that to be independent for the comforts of life we must
fabricate them ourselves. We must now place the manufacturer by the side of
the agriculturist. The former question is nothing short of three cents duty
on raw sugars, and other qualities in proportion, can avert the calamity
about visiting every sugar planter of Louisiana, and to add that, even
setting aside all other considerations, the sugar interest having grown
under the revenue tariff of 1816, and under that tariff millions and
millions of dollars having been permanently invested in works which can not
be destroyed without the most ruinous consequences to the parties who have
embarked their fortunes in the, it is but sheer justice to them that the
same duty of 1816 should be continued so long as a revenue is required to
carry on the Government, and it is derived from the same source.

All which is respectfully submitted.

Parish of Jefferson

Theophilus Fortier
P. Fegende
O. Brixner
G. Fagende, Haray & Co.
C. Zeringue
J. Baptiste
Faustin Fortier
Edou Fortier
Eugene Fortier
L. C. Le Breton d'Argency
P. Leonard
B. Saulet
S. Labrancheo
Theranu Drouet
Charles Fortier
Edward Drouet
B. S. Mesm Le Breton
E. S. L. Le Breton
Destrehan
Cr. Lefevre
S. B. Drouet
John Dusuaud
M. A. Halphen


Source: Louisiana State Courier October 1984
Compiled by Annette Carpenter Womack, editor
Typed by: Gaytha Carver Thompson