I come, fellow-citizens, to get a knowledge of the manufacturing interest of New England.

I was over-persuaded to come by a gentleman who had been to Lowell and seen the manufactories of your State--by General Thomas, of Louisiana.

He persuaded me to come and see.
"When I was first chose to Congress, I was opposed to the protecting system.

They told me it would help the rich, and hurt the poor; and that we in the West was to be taxed by it for the benefit of New England.

I supposed it was so; but when I come to hear it argued in the Congress of the nation, I begun to have a different opinion of it.