John Graham Klinck & the Woolens Bill

In 1828, John Graham Klinck was living in Laurens county, SC and working, I believe, as a lawyer. It was during this time that he was appointed secretary of the committee created to draft a memorial to congress expressing their sentiments on the Woolens Bill. During the 18th and 19th centuries, state legislatures would send “memorials,” or requests, instructing their Senators how to vote. The Memorial of the Citizens of Laurens District, South Carolina, Adverse to the Present Tariff and to the Passage of the Woolens Bill was such a request.

The basic sentiment is simple enough: the proposed woolens bill will have an unfair financial effect on their citizens; it will benefit the manufacturing industry in the North while stressing the farming industry of the South.  What’s notable is the date – this was written over 30 years before the start of the Civil War!
Also notable – parts seem like they could’ve been written only yesterday. It feels very similar to the 1% discord encircling the 2012 election. From the memorial:

We ask, is the principle founded in justice or sound policy, to tax one part of the community for the benefit of another, or one section of our common country for the benefit of another section? The present import duty not only falls with unequal force on different sections of the country, but it bears unequally on different classes in the same section. The poor man, who is the consumer of the coarser quality of cloths, is taxed in proportion to his poverty; while the rich are, in a great degree, exempt from it burdens. Equal taxes and equal benefits – equal rights and equal liberties, is the eternal birth-right of every American.

For more information on the history of tariffs.
For more information on memorials and petitions to Congress.