Speech of Mr. Fillmore, of New York, on The Tariff Bill

Millard Fillmore, as chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means, presented the result of the committee's deliberations on the Tariff Bill in the Speech of Mr. Fillmore, of New York, on The Tariff Bill, delivered in the Committee of the Whole, House of Representatives, June 9, 1842. His opening remarks included "...I regret that, on a subject of so much importance, the committee nor this House has been furnished with proper and authentic information on which to base its action. Since the passage of the compromise act, in March, 1833, all had known that at this time there must be a revision of our laws for the collection of duties; and yet, ten years have been suffered to pass away without one step being taken, either by Congress or the Executive departments of the Government, to collect well authenticated facts, on which to base future legislation. All we have on the subject is the statistical information collected with the last census – as yet hardly published – and the reports annually made to Congress on commerce and navigation, showing the amounts of imports and exports, and the value of the articles at the custom-house, but wholly omitting to show the value of the articles in the principal markets of this country, or the amount produced here; all of which is indispensable to enable us to proceed correctly in revising this complicated and delicate system....".

The speech is contained in a 24 page booklet, without covers, that measures approximately 6 x 9 ¼ inches. The booklet is a first edition, as printed in 1842 at The National Intelligence Office in Washington. The booklet is string bound, with several of the pages unopened. The pages are tanned, with occasional foxing. There is a large stain starting in the upper right corner of the title page that proceeds throughout most of the booklet, reducing in size and depth of color in succeeding pages. The lower outside corners of pages 13 to 16 are missing, resulting in the loss of 2-3 words in each of the bottom two lines on each page. The overall condition of the item is fair to good.

The illustrations accompanying this description show the booklet's title page and the first page of text.

Millard Fillmore (January 7, 1800 – March 8, 1874) was the 13th President of the United States, serving from 1850 until 1853, and the last member of the Whig Party to hold the office of president. Being Zachary Taylor`s Vice President, he assumed the presidency after Taylor`s death. Former President Fillmore was the presidential candidate in 1856 of the American or Know-Nothing Party, which had formed to counter the allegedly excessive influence of Roman Catholics in American life. Fillmore presented the Party as the only alternative to the Republicans' plans to disrupt the Union and the Democrats' program to spread slavery throughout the land. [Wikipedia]