"But, Sir, I hold South Carolina to her ancient, her cool, her uninfluenced, her deliberate opinions. I hold her to her own admissions, nay, to her own claims and pretensions, in 1789, in the first Congress, and to her acknowledgments and avowed sentiments through a long series of succeeding years. I hold her to the principles on which she led Congress to act, in 1816; or, if she have changed her own opinions, I claim some respect for those who still retain the same opinions. I say she is precluded from asserting, that doctrines which she has herself so long and so ably sustained, are plain, palpable and dangerous violations of the Constitution."

Protection the Historical Fact.

At the Albany mass meeting, Aug. 27, 1844, amid a score of pages on protection, historical and argumentative, Webster says:

"This sentiment, gentlemen, continued to prevail through all the administrations which followed General Washington. It was regarded by Mr. Jefferson as a just principle of legislation, as he stated in the beginning of his administration in 1802, and still more distinctly just before the expiration of his term of office in 1808. I need not say that everybody knows that Mr. Madison, in 1810, 1812 and 1816, reiterated all these sentiments.

"This is the history of the country on the great question of protection. I speak of the fact, and assert it as an historical truth, proved from the journals of Congress, the messages of the Presidents, the acts of legislation, beginning with the second law ever passed and running through successive administrations, that it was held as the undoubted right of Congress, and no more the right than the duty, by just discrimination, to protect the labor of the American people."

"I am for reciprocity treaties," says Webster. "No, I will not say treaties, but arrangements; for the whole power over the subject lies with Congress, and not with the treaty-making power."

The Voice of Faneuil Hall in 1785 and the Green Dragon Tavern in 1788.

[Speech at Andover Convention, Nov. 9, 1843.]

"Now, gentlemen, it so happened, that in the years of severe disaster between the peace and the formation of the Constitution, the merchants and mechanics of Boston had their attention called to the subject, and their proceedings, only a little earlier than the paper just referred to, [that of Tench Toxe, Esq., read at Franklin's house]

sprang from the same sense of necessity. I will trouble you to listen to some of them which I gather from the publications of that day.

“At a numerous and respectable meeting of 'the merchants, traders and others, convened at Faneuil Hall,' on Saturday, the 16th of April, 1785, the following, among other resolutions, were adopted :—

Whereas, certain British merchants, factors and agents from England are now residing in this town, who have received large quantities of English goods, and are in expectation of receiving further supplies, imported in British bottoms, or otherwise, greatly to the hinderance of freight in all American vessels," etc., we the merchants, traders, and others of the town of Boston, do agree,"First, that a committee be appointed to draft a petition to Congress representing the embarrassments under which the trade now labors, and the still greater to which it is exposed; and that the said committee be empowered and directed to write to the several seaports in this State, requesting them to join with the merchants in this town in similar applications to Congress, immediately to regulate the trade of the United States agreeably to the powers vested in them by the government of this commonwealth,” etc.

"That the said committee be requested to write to the merchants in the several seaports of the other United States, earnestly recommending to them an immediate application to the legislatures of their respective States to vest such powers in Congress (if not already done) as shall be competent to the interesting purposes aforesaid, and also to petition Congress to make such regulations as shall have the desired effect.""

"So far the merchants. Now what said the mechanics, the artisans, the shop-workmen, to this? At an adjourned meeting of persons belonging to those classes at the Green Dragon Tavern, on Monday, the 25th day of April, 1785, the following resolutions, among others, were passed:

"Voted, that a committee be appointed by this body to draft a petition to the next General Court, setting forth the difficulties the manufacturers of this town labor under by the importation of certain articles (to be enumerated in the petition) and praying a prohibition, or that such duties may be laid as will effectually protect the manufacture of the same.

"Voted, that we do bear our public testimony against sending away our circulating cash for foreign remittances, as this practice, we conceive, is calculated to impoverish the country.'

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"Well, how did the merchants receive this? I will show you. Here is a letter, signed in their behalf, by that great patriot and prince of merchants, John Hancock.

BOSTON, MAY 2, 1785.

``` Gentlemen,-Your communications of the 26th ult. were interesting and agreeable. Our situation is truly critical. To the United States in Congress we look for effectual relief, and to them we have accordingly appealed. "We shall cheerfully use what influence we have in promoting and encouraging the manufactures of our country, etc.

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"We derive great support from that unanimity which appears to actuate our respective proceedings, and while that subsists, we can no more despair of the commerce, trade, and manufactures than of the liberties of America."

John Hancock.

"This state of things continued till 1788, when the Massachusetts convention to consider the Constitution was held in Boston. Some of the most eminent persons who have shed lustre on the State were members of that convention, and many of them, as is well known, felt great doubts about adopting the Constitution. Among these were two individuals, none other than John Hancock and Samuel Adams, the proscribed patriots. But the energy, determination, perseverance and earnestness of the mechanics and tradesmen of Boston influenced even these wise and great men, and tended to, and did in an eminent degree, contribute to the ratification of the Constitution. Any man will see this who will look into the public transactions of that day.

"There was a particular set of resolutions, founded on this very idea of favoring home productions, full of energy and decision, passed by the mechanics of Boston. And where did the mechanics of Boston meet to pass them? Full of the influence of these feelings, they congregated at the headquarters of the Revolution. I see, waving among the banners before me that of the Old Green Dragon. It was there, in Union Street, that John Gray, Paul Revere, and others of their class, met for consultation. There, with earnestness and enthusiasm, they passed their resolutions. A committee carried them to the Boston delegation in the convention. Mr. Samuel Adams asked Colonel Revere how many mechanics were at the meeting; and Colonel Revere answered, More than there are stars in heaven.'

"The resolutions had their effect. The Constitution was established, and a universal burst of joy from all classes, merchants, manufacturers and mechanics, proclaimed the exultation of the people at the thrice-happy event."

6

"This grand procession' took place; and the artisans, mechanics, and manufacturers of Boston, together with the merchants and other classes, indulged in the hope, not more sanguine than the event warranted, that under the operation of the new national Constitution, prosperity would return, business revive, cheerfulness and contentment spread over the land, and the country go forward in its career of growth and success."

"But, Gentlemen, this sentiment and feeling were not merely the sentiment and feeling of Massachusetts. We may look at the debates in all the state conventions, and the expositions of all the greatest men in the country, particularly in Massachusetts and Virginia, the great Northern and Southern stars, and we shall find it everywhere held up as the main reason for the adoption of the Constitution, that it would give the general government the power to regulate commerce and trade.”

The New Era of 1825.

[Faneuil Hall, April 3, 1825.1

"Let me rather say that in regard to the whole country a new era has arisen. In a time of peace the proper pursuits of peace engage society with a degree of enterprise and intenseness of application heretofore unknown. New objects are opening and new resources developed on every side. We tread on a broader theatre, and if, instead of acting our parts according to the novelty and importance of the scene, we waste our strength in mutual crimination and recrimination concerning the past, we shall resemble those navigators who, having escaped from some crooked and narrow river to the sea, now that the whole ocean is before them should, nevertheless, occupy themselves with the differences which happened as they passed along among the rocks and the shallows, instead of opening their eyes to the wide. horizon around them, spreading their sail to the propitious gale that woos it, raising their quadrant to the sun and grasping the helm with the conscious hand of a master."

England Not Our Model - Capital and Labor.

At the public dinner at Philadelphia, Dec. 2, 1846, Webster endorsed Massachusetts resolutions :

"My object is, and has been," said he, "in everything connected with the protective policy, the true policy of the United States, to see that the labor of the country, the industry of the country, is properly provided for. I am looking, not for a law such as will benefit capitalists they can take care of themselves—but for a law that shall induce capitalists to invest their capital in such a manner as to occupy and employ American labor. Now, on this subject, I shall hand to the gentlemen of the press a series of resolutions passed in Massachusetts which entirely embody my own sentiments."

"I will only say, that I am for protection, ample, permanent, founded on just principles; and that, in my judgment, the principles of the act of 1842 are the true principles,- specific duties, and not ad valorem duties; just discrimination, and in that just discrimination, great care not to tax the raw material so high as to be a bounty to the foreign manufacturer and an oppression on our own. Discrimination and specific duties, and such duties as are full and adequate to the purposes of protection,- these are the principles of the act of 1842." "My object is to obtain, in the best way I can, and when I can, and as I can, full and adequate and thorough protection to the domestic industry of the country, upon just principles."

She has

"Gentlemen, on the tariff I have spoken so often and so much, that I am sure no gentleman wishes me to utter the word again. There are some things, however, which cannot be too often repeated. Of all countries in the world, England, for centuries, was the most tenacious in adhering to her protective principles, both in matters of commerce and manufacture. She has of late years relaxed, having found that her position could afford somewhat of free trade. the skill acquired by long experience, she has vast machinery and vast capital, she has a dense population; a cheaply working, because a badly fed and badly clothed, population. She can run her career, therefore, in free trade. We cannot, unless willing to become badly fed and clothed, also. Gentlemen, for the gymnastic exercises, men. strip themselves naked; and for this strife and competition in free trade, our laborers, it seems, must strip themselves naked, also."

Duty of Government, and Why the Union Was
Formed.

In his great speech at the Whig Convention at Philadelphia, Oct. 1, 1844, Webster unfurled the Whig flag.

"The Whig party maintains the propriety of protecting, by customhouse regulations, various pursuits and employments among ourselves. Our opponents repudiate this policy, and embrace the doctrines of what is called free trade. This is the general party line. The distinction is not a local but a party distinction."

"Gentlemen, incidental protection, which some persons, just now,. would represent as transcendental protection, what is it? It is no protection at all, and does not deserve the name. It is a result which comes, if it comes at all, without design, without certainty, and without discrimination. It falls on tea and coffee, as well as on iron and broadcloth. Let us not be deluded by such a thin and flimsy pretext. It is an insult to our understandings."

"There is not an operative nor a workingman, who is not interested in, and supported by the protective laws of the Government. Protection touches every man's bread. If ever, then, there was a subject worthy of the attention of a public man or a statesman, it is this of protection."

"The Federal Government, I say, fails in its duty to Pennsylvania, and in its duty to every other state in this Union, if it lets the power lie latent, and refuses to use it. That is the pinch, the very exigence, that made this Government of the United States. For that, Massachusetts came into it; for that, Pennsylvania came into it. The power