Footnotes
1. Phillip R. Schmidt, Hezekiah Niles and American Economic Nationalism: A Political Biography, (NY: Arno Press, 1982), Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Kansas.
2 Norval Neil Luxon, Niles Weekly Register: News Magazine of the Ninteenth Century (Baton Rouge, La.: Louisiana State University Press, 1947), p. 294.
3 It is possible to trace a remarkable transformation toward objectivity in the technique of spot news coverage in Niles Register -- a transformation which occurred later in other newspapers and which has often been ascribed to the influence of telegraphy. (See, for example, Michael Schudson, Discovering the News, New York: Basic Books, 1978 ). In one of the earliest accounts of a riverboat steam boiler explosion, for example, no date or number of dead or injured was given. The accident was "terrible beyond conception." (Register 10:265, Jun 15, 1816) But in an 1821 account, details of a riverboat accident were given factually -- the name of the boat, the number killed and injured, the description of the force of the explosion. (Register 19:250, June 2 1821; also 30:200, May 13, 1826).
4 Luxon, p. 299.;
5 Register 39:252, Dec. 11, 1830
6 Sentiment toward increasing American economic independence was widespread around this time, particularly among Quakers; for example, the Pennsylvania Society for Manufactures, a group with many Quaker members, financed Samuel Slater's efforts to smuggle textile machinery from Britain to the U.S. See F.W. Taussig, The Tariff History of the United States (NY: Putnam, 1910).
7 Schmidt, p.13
8 Register, 39:250, Dec. 11, 1830
9 Richard G. Stone, Hezekiah Niles as an Economist, Johns Hopkins University Studies in Historical and Political Science, Series L1 No. 5, (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1933) p. 43
10 Luxon, p. 4.
11 Edwin Emery and Michael Emery, The Press and America (NY: Prentice Hall, 1982); Sidney Kobre, Development of American Journalism, (Dubuque, Iowa: William C. Brown, 1972).
12 Frank Luther Mott, American Journalism (NY: Manville, 1941).
13 James Melvin Lee, History of American Journalism, (Garden City, N.J., Garden City Publishing Co., 1923).
14 Luxon, p. 299.
15 Ida Tarbell, Tariff in Our Times,
16 Edward Stanwood, American Tariff Controversies in the 19th Century (NY: Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1903), p. 168.
17 Ibid, p. 248.
18 Register, 2:10, September 1812.
19 Register, 11:42, Sept. 14, 1816.
20 Alen Marcus and Howard Segal, Technology in America, (NY: Harcourt Brace, 1989) p. 45
21 James W. Carey, Communication as Culture (Boston: Unwin Hyman, 1989, p. 119.
22 Paul K. Conkin, The Southern Agrarians, (Knoxville, Tenn: University of Tennessee Press, 1988), p. 85.
23 Schmidt, p. 184.
24 Register 10:98, April 13, 1816
25 Register 15:296, Jan 30, 1819
26 Marcus & Segal, p.75
27 Register 34:313, July 12, 1828
28 Register 9:365, Jan 27, 1816
29 Register, 9:283, Dec. 28, 1816.
30 These kinds of calculations are one of the reasons why Niles is remembered more as an economist than a journalist. The Register not only printed statistics from others, but Niles himself kept close track of population and employment statistics through surveys and other primary sources.
31 Register, 15:418, Jan. 30, 1819
32 Register 29:50, Oct. 24, 1825
33 Register, 34: 249, 410, June 14 and Aug. 23, 1828.
34 Register, 16:354, Jan. 22, 1820
35 Register 17:113, Oct. 23, 1819
36 Marcus & Segal, p. 115.
37 Register 16:331, Jan. 15, 1820
38 Register, 28:241, June 3, 1820
39 Niles to Darlington, William Darling MSS, Library of Congress, May 5, 1820
40 Register, 17:362, Jan. 29, 1820
41 Register, 19:145, Nov. 4, 1820
42 Niles to Darlington, Darlington MSS, Library of Congress, Nov. 20, 1820
43 Niles to Carey, Dec. 11, 1821; cited in Schmidt, p. 144.
44 Register, 18:297, June 24, 1820
45 Register 19:145, Nov. 4, 1820
46 Register 21:228, Dec. 8, 1821
47 Register 29:193, December, 1925. Stanwood said that Niles' pleasure at proposal to build factories in the South is "quite compatible" with his wish that the factories already erected should be put beyond reach of injurious foreign competition. "It is not compatible with the motive usually imputed to protectionists by free traders, assumed to be purely desire to increase profits manufacturers." One premise of this paper, that Niles' outlook had a public interest rationale, is thus in accord with an early historian of tariffs. (Stanwood, p. 252).
48 Register, 30:417, Aug. 25, 1827
49 Register, 29:3, Sept. 3, 1825
50 Register, 29:50, Oct. 24, 1925
51 Register, 21:28, Sept., 1821
52 Register, 30:201, May 20, 1826
53 Register, 19:346, Jan 20, 1821
54 Register, 21:392, Feb. 16, 1822
55 Ibid.
56 Register, 21:244, Dec. 15, 1821
57 Register, 21:244, Dec. 15, 1821. Note that canals were considered the most important internal improvements at the time; railroads were not feasible until the 1830s.
58 Note that sugar tariffs and price guarantees are still among the most expensive items on the federal farm budget.
59 Register 23:339, Feb. 1, 1823
60 Register, 32:49, March 27, 1827. Schmidt (p. 189) says Niles prediction of Southern support for the American System was "either naive, founded on wishful thinking, or both." In fact, Southerners would support Henry Grady's modified American System a few decades later.
61 Niles to Darlington, Darlington MSS, Library of Congress, March 31, 1828.
62 Schmidt, p. 197.;
63 Luxon, p. 264.
64 Niles to Darlington, Darlington MSS, Library of Congress, Jan. 21, 1820
65 Niles to Darlington, Darlington MSS, Library of Congress, Sept. 10, 1830
66 Register 11:86, Dec. 21, 1816
67 Register 13:164, Nov. 8, 1817
68 Register, 16:343, July 17, 1819. He also said, strangely enough, that he believed this would occur without physical contact, although this may not have been meant literally.
69 Register, 15:477, Feb. 20, 1819
70 Register, 10:334, July 13, 1816
71 Register, 20:48, March 17, April 21, 1821
72 See Luxon, p. 265 .
73 Register, 24:322, July, 1823
74 Register, 20:192, May 19, 1821
75 Register, 20: 108, April 21, 1821)
76 Register, 23:96, Oct. 19, 1822
77 Register, 23:22, Sept. 7, 1822
78 Register, 22:20, Sept. 14, 1822
79 Register 43:81, Oct 12 1822
80 Register 30: 169, May 6, 1827
81 Register, 21:82, Oct 6, 1821
82 Register 23:53, Sept. 28, 1822
83 Register, 34:379, Aug. 9, 1828
84 Register, 35:333, January, 1829.
85 Also see Stanwood, p. 261
86 Stanwood, p. 249.
87 Register 34:97, April 5, 1828
88 Niles to Darlington, Darlington MSS, Library of Congress, March 31, 1828.
89 Niles to Clay, Henry Clay MSS, Library of Congress, April 2, 1828.
90 Schmidt, p. 202.
91 Register, 34:265, June 21, 1828
92 Register 34:135, May 17, 1828
93 Register, 34:265, June 21, 1828
94 Schmidt, p. 203
95 Robert V. Rimini, Martin Van Buren and the Making of the Democratic Party (NY: 1959) .
96 Register, 34:249, June 14, 1828. Charleston newspapers were not happy with the British that day; the Charleston Gazette said it was "an insult" to the U.S.
97 Register, 34:300, July 5, 1828
98 Ibid.
99 Ibid.
100 Ibid.
101 Register, 34:353, July 26, 1828
102 Register, 34:328, July 19, 1828
103 Ibid.
104 Ibid., 34:340
105 Register, 35:20, Sept. 6, 1828
106 Register 34:410, August 23, 1828
107 Parenthesis from Gov. Williams, as printed, Register 35:34, Sept. 13, 1828
108 Register 34:416, Aug. 23, 1828
109 Register 34:393, August 16, 1828
110 Register 43:2, Sept. 1, 1832
111 Luxon, 1947, p. 63; see also Register 47:409, Feb. 14, 1835
112 Register 39:65, also page 209, Sept. 26, 1829
113 Register, 37:398, July 31, 1830
114 Schmidt, p. 206
115 Ibid.
116 Register, 37:65, March 1830; see also Stone, p. 74
117 Register, 39: 233, Dec. 4,1830
118 Schmidt, p. 181.
119 Register 41:412, Feb. 4, 1832
120 Register 42:321, June 30, 1832
121 Register 43:168, November 1832
122 Register 43, 249, Dec. 15, 1832
123 Register 43:285, Dec 29, 1832
124 Register 43:371, Feb 2. 1833
125 Register, 43:401, Feb. 16, 1832
126 Register 44:113, April 30 1833
127 Barbara Tuchman, Practicing History (New York: Knopf, 1981) p. 247.
128 Brooke Hindle, Emulation and Invention (New York: Norton & Co., 1981), p. 3.
129 "The Only Real Security: An Interview with Henry Ford," The Deserted Village series, No. 7, (New York: Chemical Foundation, 1936) Speaking on behalf of national self-sufficiency, Ford said: "We know that the American System includes every social benefit that men have desired..."
130 Robert Kuttner, "Something Wondrous for Eastern Europe," Washington Post, Jan. 2, 1990.
131 Private communication, Dr. Harold Davis, author of Henry Grady and the New South, forthcoming, 1990.
132 Paul K. Conkin, The Southern Agrarians, (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1988)
133 See Wendell Barry, The Gift of Good Land, (Berkeley: North Point Press, 1981).