992.] However this may have been, a bill was promptly introduced in the Senate to repeal all acts against importations.

Mr.Barnwell opposed this on the ground that the immense influx of slaves which might be expected in consequence would cut in half the value of slave property, and that the increase in the cotton output would lower the already falling prices of cotton to disastrous levels.

The resumption of the great war in Europe, said he, had already diminished the supply of manufactured goods and raised their prices.

"Was it under these circumstances that we ought to lay out the savings of our industry, the funds accumulated in many years of prosperity and peace, to increase that produce whose value had already fallen so much?
He thought not.

The permission given by the bill would lead to ruinous speculations.