Congress "was the expectation, the belief, the conviction that prevailed everywhere;" that the first three petitions presented to that body were from tradesmen, manufacturers, and mechanics; in different sections of the Union, for protection, and that Congress recognised the propriety of such petitions, and pass

ed acts for their benefit.

History makes it certain, also, that our great men, throughout that eventful period and at a later day, whatever opinions they may have expressed when mere party or political interests were at stake, at other times, when looking alone at the true interests of the nation, the whole nation, have uniformly held and expressed but one opinion, and that in favor of the American protective system. Of the sentiments of Washington on this point there is not and cannot be a doubt. They have been too often expressed to leave it a matter of question. Our opponents, however, are rarely found quoting Wash ington on any point; they believe in Jefferson rather. They should have better known the opinions of the man to whom they so constantly and pertinaciously appeal. The sentiments of Hamilton, Franklin, Madison, on the subject, and others of the Men of the Revolution, it would be a waste of time to call forth in array; but as it seems to be somewhat the fashion of the day to represent the leaders of the Democratic party as opposed to the Protective System, we shall occupy a few moments to show most clearly, if they are so now, it is because they have abandoned the primitive faith of Democracy, as known in the time of Thomas Jefferson, and much later. We do. this in no invidious sense, but merely to show that but one system of policy has ever been held in the country, from the first formation of our federal government to the present time.

And first, the Free-Trade and Texas party will be delighted to hear the words of one whom they are proud to call "the Apostle of Democracy." In Jefferson's Report on the privileges and restrictions of the commerce of the United States" are the following sensible passages:

"When a nation imposes high duties on our productions, or prohibits them altogether, it may be proper for us to do the same by theirs first burdening or excluding those productions which they bring here in competition with our own of the same kind; selecting next such manufactures as

we take from them in greatest quantity, and which at the same time we could the soonest furnish to ourselves, or obtain from other countries; imposing on them duties light at first, but heavier and heavier afterwards, as other channels of supply open.

"Such duties, having the effect of indirect of the same kind, may induce the manufacencouragement to domestic manufactures turer to come himself into these States, where cheaper subsistence, equal laws, and a vent for his wares, free of duty, may insure him the highest profits from his skill and industry. The oppressions of our agriculture in foreign parts would thus be made the occasion of relieving it from a dependence on the councils and conduct of others, and of promoting arts, manufactures, and population at home."

Corroboratory views are given by him in his Message of Dec. 2d, 1806. After representing the accruing revenue as being more than sufficient for the wants of government if peace should continue, he proceeds :

"The question therefore now comes for. ward, to what other objects shall these surpluses be appropriated, and the whole surplus of impost, after the entire discharge of the public debt, and during those intervals when the purposes of war shall not call for them? Shall we suppress the impost, and give that advantage to foreign over domestic manufactures? On a few articles of more general and necessary use, the suppression, in due season, will doubtless be right, but the great mass of the articles on which impost is paid are foreign luxuries, purchased by those only who are rich enough to afford themselves the use of them. Their patriotism would certainly prefer its continuance and application to the great purposes of public education, roads, rivers, canals, and such other objects of public improvement as it may be thought proper to add to the constitutional enumeration of federal powers."

It is fitting that this should be followed by a maxim or two from Adam Smith, from whom this school have derived all their new tenets:

"Whatever tends to diminish in any country the number of artificers and man. ufacturers, tends to diminish the home market, the most important of all markets for the rude produce of the lands, and thereby still further to discourage agriculture.

"If the free importation of foreign manufactures were permitted, several of the home manufacturers would probably suffer, and some of them perhaps go to ruin alto

gether, and a considerable part of the stock and industry employed in them would be forced to find out some other employment." -Smith's Wealth of Nations, vol. i. p. 321.

These maxims are altogether the truth; we are not bound to consider whether the Doctor falsifies in them his own theory. The name of Thomas Cooper, again, is constantly in the mouths of our opponents as an upholder of their favorite notions. They should learn to read less obliquely. We quote from his Principles of Political Economy, written during or soon after the War:

"We are too much dependent upon Great Britain for articles that habit has converted into necessaries. A state of war demands privations that a large portion of our citizens reluctantly submit to. Home manufactures would greatly lessen the evil. "By means of debts incurred for foreign manufactures, we are almost again become colonists-we are too much under the influence, indirectly, of British merchants and British agents. We are not an independent people. Manufactures among us would tend to correct this, and give a stronger tone of nationality at home."

Consistent Democrats are always lamenting the influence of manufactures on agriculture. They will be comforted by discovering that Judge Cooper thought otherwise. He remarks:

"The state of agriculture would improve with the improvement of manufactures, by means of the general spirit of energy and exertion which nowhere exist in so high a degree as in a manufacturing country; and by the general improvement of machinery, and the demand for raw materials.

"Our agriculturists want a home market. Manufactures would supply it. Agriculture at great distances from seaports languishes for want of this. Great Britain exhibits an instance of unexampled power and wealth by means of an agriculture greatly dependent on a system of manufac. tures and her agriculture, thus situated, is the best in the world, though still capable of great improvement."

It should ever be brought out into the light and kept before the people, that we possess an immense country, with every variety of soil, and climate, and geological structure, calculated for all the staple manufactures in use among us, and for all kinds of agricultural products, especially those grown away from the tropics; and that one part of the country is fitted

to produce what another part cannot. One section may therefore just as well exchange commodities with another as with a foreign country, aside from the vast advantage of having a market nearer and surer. On this point and some othfree-traders among us some judicious reers at the same time, we commend to marks of their favorite, Judge Cooper :

"The home trade, consisting in the exchange of agricultural surpluses for articles of manufacture, produced in our own country, will, for a long time to come, furnish the safest and the least dangerousthe least expensive and the least immoral

the most productive and the most patriotic employment of surplus capital, however raised and accumulated. The safest, because it requires no navies exclusively for its protection; the least dangerous, because it furnishes no excitement to the prevailing madness of commercial wars; the least expensive, for the same reason that it is the safest and the least dangerous; the least immoral, because it furnishes no tempta. tion to the breach or evasion of the laws; to the multiplication of oaths and perjuries ;' and to the consequent prostration of all religious feeling, and all social duty: the most productive, because the capital admits of quicker returns; because the whole of the capital is permanently invested and employed at home; because it contributes, di rectly, immediately, and wholly, to the internal wealth and resources of the nation; because the credits given are more easily watched, and more effectually protected by our own laws, well known, easily resorted to, and speedily executed, than if exposed in distant and in foreign countries, controlled by foreign laws and foreign customs, and at the mercy of foreign agents; the most patriotic, because it binds the persons employed in it by all the ties of habit and of interest to their own country; while foreign trade tends to denationalize the affections of those whose property is dispersed in foreign countries, whose interests are connected with foreign interests, whose capital is but partially invested at the place of their domicil, and who can remove with comparative facility from one country to another. The wise man observed of old, that where the treasure is, there will the heart be also.'"

"Nor can there be any fear that for a century to come, there will not be full demand produced by a system of home manufacture for every particle of surplus produce that agriculture can supply. Of all the occupations which may be employed in furnishing articles either of immediate necessity, of reasonable want, or of direct connection with agriculture, we have in

abundance the raw materials of manufacture; and the raw material, uninstructed man, to manufacture them. Is it to be pretended that these occupations, when fully under way at home, will not furnish a market for the superfluous produce of agriculture, provided that produce be, as it necessarily will be, suited to the demand? Or ought this variety of occupation, and above all, the mass of real knowledge it implies, to be renounced and neglected for the sake of foreign commerce-that we may not interfere with the profits and connections of the merchants who reside among us; and that we may be taxed, and tolerated, and licensed, to fetch from abroad what we can, with moderate exertion, supply at home? It appears to me of national importance to counteract these notions."

We pass finally to one of the modern pillars of the no-protection policy, John C. Calhoun. What he now thinks, his party profess to know. For ourselves, we are glad he ever held opinions so sound as these.

The passages, taken from a speech delivered in Congress, April, 1916, relate to that momentous condition to which every nation is liable, but the idea of which seems never to have presented itself to the minds of the radical economists a state of WAR. The language is eloquent and powerful, the reasoning most conclusive:

"The security of a country mainly depends on its spirit and its means; and the latter principally on its moneyed resources. Modified as the industry of this country now is, whenever we have the misfortune to be involved in a war with a nation dom. inant on the ocean, and it is almost only with such we can at present be, the moneyed resources of the country, to a great extent, must fail. It is the duty of Congress to adopt those measures of prudent foresight which the events of war make necessary.

"Commerce and agriculture, till lately, almost the only, still constitute the principal sources of our wealth. So long as these remain uninterrupted, the country prospers: but war, as we are now circumstanced, is equally destructive to both. They both de. pend on foreign markets; and our country is placed, as it regards them, in a situation strictly insular. A wide ocean rolls between us and our markets. What, then, are the effects of a war with a maritime powerwith England? Our commerce annihilated, spreading individual misery, and produ. cing national poverty; our agriculture cut off from its accustomed markets, the surplus product of the farmer perishes on his hands; and he ceases to produce, because he cannot sell. His resources are dried up,

while his expenses are greatly increased, as all manufactured articles, the necessaries as well as the conveniences of life, rise to an extravagant price.

"No country ought to be dependent on another for its means of defence; at least, our musket and bayonet, our cannon and ball, ought to be domestic manufacture. But what is more necessary to the defence of a country than its currency and finance? Circumstanced as our country is, can these stand the shock of war? Behold the effect of the late war on them! When our manufactures are grown to a certain perfection, as they soon will, under the fostering care of government, we will no longer experience those evils. The farmer will find a ready market for his surplus produce; and, what is almost of equal consequence, a certain and cheap supply for all his wants. His prosperity will diffuse itself to every class in the community; and instead of that languor of industry and individual distress now incident to a state of war and suspended commerce, the wealth and vigor of the The arm of government will be nerved. community will not be materially impaired. Taxes, in the hour of danger, when essential to the independence of the nation, may be greatly increased. Loans, so uncertain and hazardous, may be less relied on; thus situated, the storm may beat without, but within all will be quiet and safe.

"However prosperous our situation when at peace, with uninterrupted commerceand nothing then could exceed it-the moment that we are involved in war, the whole is reversed. When resources are most needed; when indispensable to maintain the honor, yes, the very existence of the nation, then they desert us. Our currency is also sure to experience the shock; and becomes so deranged as to prevent us from calling out fairly whatever of means is left to the country. The exportation of our bulky articles is prevented: the specie of the country is drawn off to pay the balance perpetually accumulating against us; and the final result is the total derangement of our currency.

Manufactures produce an interest strictly American, as much so as agricul ture. In this they have the decided advontage of commerce or navigation; and the country will derive from it much ad. vantage. Again, it is calculated to bind together more closely our wide-spread Republic. It will greatly increase our mutual dependence and intercourse: and will, as a necessary consequence, excite an increased attention to INTERNAL IMPROVEMENT, a subject every way so intimately connected with the ultimate attainment of national strength, and the perfection of our politi

cal institutions."

Having thus exhibited the opinions on this great question, of the most eminent of those whose opinions our opponents have ever professed to follow, (undoubtedly they can claim that James K. Polk is not of the number-he never had but one sentiment on the subject, and the people will remember it,) we wish only to subjoin a passage from another eminent man, on a consideration of mightier importance to a great nation than any of these practical points-the influence, namely, of the protective system on the education and morals of the people. It is a passage from Mr. Webster's late speech at Albany.

"In this country, wages are high: they are, and they ought to be, higher than in any other country in the world. And the reason is, that the laborers of this country are the country. The vast proportion of those who own the soil, especially in the Northern States, cultivate their own acres. They stand on their own acres. The proprietors are the tillers, the laborers on the soil. But this is not all. The members of the country here are part and parcel of the Government. This is a state of things which exists nowhere else on the face of the earth. An approximation to it has been made in France, since the Revolution of 1831, which secured the abolition of primo geniture and the restraints of devises.

"But nowhere else in the world does there exist such a state of things as we see here, where the proprietors are the laborers and at the same time help to frame the Government. If, therefore, we wish to maintain the Government, we must see that labor with us is not put in competition with the pauper, unlearned, ignorant labor of Europe. Our men who labor have families to maintain and to educate. They have sons to fit for the discharge of the duties of life; they have an intelligent part to act for them. selves and their connections. And is labor

like that to be reduced to a level with that of the forty millions of serfs of Russia, or the serfs of other parts of Europe, or the half-fed, half-clothed, ignorant, dependent laborers of a great part of the rest of Europe? America must cease then to be America. We should be transferred to I know not what sort of a Government transferred to I know not what state of society, if the laborers in this country are to do no more to maintain and educate their families and provide for old age, than they do in the Old World. And may our eyes never look upon such a spectacle as that in this free country!"

Having thus set forth, though in too short space, the early history of our

VOL. 1.-NO. I.

manufactures, the early and the latter conduct of England with respect to them, and the true and only policy of our government in the matter, confirming our views and the force of history by the opinions of men whom the enemies of such policy are bound to believe, we are disposed to embody, in conclusion, some of the grounds of the Protective Theory in a few simple propositions.

1. A judicious tariff affords to the industry of the country, protection against derangement and depression by unequal foreign competition; it sustains and cherishes such industry, increasing its efficiency and rewards at the same time that it provides a revenue, adequate to pay the debts and defray the current expenses of the government.

2. It extends and diversifies the sphere of home industry, by calling into existence such new branches of production as are adapted to the wants and circumstances of the people, keeping ever in view the natural resources and facilities of the country, and the genius of its inhabitants.

3. The effect of such protection is to increase generally the intellectual and industrial capacity of the laboring class; increase the reward of their labor; while to render them more independent, and at the same time it ensures to capital a more uniform activity, and renders property and products of all kinds more readily and uniformly convertible at fair and reasonable prices.

4. This policy is especially adapted to and demanded by the interests of the great Agricultural class, who can very rarely secure a steady, remunerating demand for their surplus productions elsewhere than in their own country; many of those products being perishable, and liable to be seriously injured, if not destroyed, by transportation to any considerable distance, while nearly all of them are bulky, and only to be conveyed to foreign countries at a ruinous expense.

5. Protection, though often valuable and necessary to the farmer in keeping out of our own markets foreign products which rival and supplant his own, is still more useful and indispensable to him in creating and maintaining all around and beside him ready and steady markets for his produce, by bringing into prosperous and durable existence new branches of industry which do not rival his own, but which employ multitudes who are con8

sumers only, and not to any great extent producers, of agricultural staples.

6. Duties levied on foreign fabrics which shut out those fabrics and build up a home production of substitutes, and so a vastly enlarged and quickened home consumption of provisions, fruits, wool, cotton, fuel, &c., are truly protective of agriculture, and essential to its prosperous existence.

7. The effect of an adequate and wise protection is to bring the producer and consumer far nearer each other-to unite them in friendly intimacy and mutual good-will-to diminish largely and beneficially the heavy subtraction otherwise made from the general proceeds of productive labor to pay the cost and charges of transportation and trade-and to secure them against the chances and changes of fluctuation in national policy and the occasional intervention of embargoes and war.

8. The limitations thus set to the sphere and operations of trade are not injurious even to a just and useful commerce, since every nation must still purchase of other nations those various products, mineral and vegetable, with which the diversities of soil, of climate, and of geologic structure, enable one to supply another with decided advantage to both; and far greater development and productive efficiency will be ensured to the industry of each nation by wise protection and encouragement. The imports of any nation will be found to bear a far nearer proportion to the productiveness of its industry than to the freedom of its trade --being governed by its ability to pay rather than its willingness to buy.

9. The proper and decisive consideration in determining whether to protect or not protect the home production of a particular article, is simply-Have we evidence that it may ultimately be produced here, if adequately protected now, as cheaply that is, with as little laboras it can be produced elsewhere? If it can be, then it is wise, beneficent, patriotic, to cherish the home production, although the money cost of the article, by reason of the cheapness of labor in -some other countries as compared with its price in our own, may be permanently less if imported free of duty.

10. If the effective laboring population of our country be estimated at 4,000,000, by whom 3,000,000 under a revenue tariff are engaged in producing articles of necessity or utility, and

1,000,000 in interchanging, transporting, and selling them; and the consequence of a resort to protective duties be to diminish the latter class to half a million and increase the former, without impairing the efficiency of their labor, to three and a half millions, as its tendency must manifestly be, then the aggregate annual product of our national industry must be increased one-seventh, the average reward of labor enhanced in like proportion, and the wealth of the country be rapidly and steadily augmented.

11. While one effect of mere revenue duties manifestly is and must be an enhancement of the price to the consumer of the article on which they are levied, the influence of protective duties naturally is and must be to diminish the price of the protected articles to their consumers, by cutting down the cost of transportation and traffic, although the producer in this country may receive for it as much as, or even more than, formerly.

12. This tendency of protective duties in diminishing the cost of the protected articles to the consumer is accelerated by the following incidents or results of protection:

1st, Comparative steadiness of demand for the producer; the home market being naturally less variable than a distant one.

2d, Increased demand for the product. Our people buy and consume more of an article, made at home and paid for with their own products, than of a foreign

one.

3d, Comparative steadiness of prices. The maker of hats or calicoes for a protected home market, while he is constantly pressed down in his prices by competition, to a point very near the cost of production, is yet never subjected to that sort of competition which, based on cheaper labor and other elements of production, seeks a present ruinous depression of prices in the hope of securing a future monopoly of the market, and a consequent ample remuneration for all losses.

The man who produces any fabric, knowing that he is morally sure of a fair reward for his labor, can afford it cheaper, and generally will do so, than if he labored always in terror of an unequal and ruinous competition; just as the New England farmer of to-day can afford corn cheaper than his forefathers could two hundred years ago, when they were compelled to raise it only within