The Litchfield County post., 1827-11-08
llARRIsM,RGH CONVENTION.


Agriculturalists and Manufacturers, and
Others friendly to the encouragement
of the Domestic Industry Of the United
States. assembled at Harrisburg, SOth July
1897.
The principle of protecting the domestic
Industry has been adopted in most natlons,
aid erists phereUer a prosperous people IS found.
Without it, misery must prevail, and no more
than grade of happiness beyond that winch
pertains to savage life can be expected-men
being clothed in skins and having their homes
in dens and cavcrns. There are natural eau
SEES of soil. climate and condition, why these
things should be, as well as many accidental,
mr. artificial circumstances that bear upon
them and also something which may be cal
led q Ua!ue in human life that must be respected
This is the cost of subsistence, and tOT6,dS
freedom of trade" There is no specna-
ton in the proposition. 1t is fact,that man
in France may be as well subslsted for one
half less than a man in England, that Span
lard does live on food upon which an English
man would nearly perish, and that an East
Indian would starve out SPanIard on the
same supplies. We speak OF persons perform
ing labor, or, in other words producing value
It is impossible then, that these parties can
freely exchange commodities. The operation
of natural causes or detefminate habIts,Wo
enrich the one and beggar the other; both OF
these are beyond the ordinary powers OF leg
isIation-and hence restrictive laws. Further
if the annual taxes or rents and rates on
piece of land in Eng gland, capable of yielding
one hundred bushels of wheat, he as much IN
amount as the cost of the fee of "A like parcel
of land in America, but equally adapted to the
growth of barley, the first cannot supply the
last with bread and receive beer IN exchange.
He must make some substitute for himself, or
use water only: for, while the hlghly-taxed
Euglishman, by a certain number of days
work. could do no more than make bare
living. the lightly taxed American would be-
come rich by like applications of his industry
free labourer may be hired in the East-ln
dies for less money than it often costs an A
merican laborer for his drinks and tobacco
and the clothing of persons in the United
States costs, many times as much per head
as in the southern parts of Italy.
Such are among the values of human life
and they cannot suddenly be chang
ed without fearful revolutions or dangerous
exertions of power, unless through an altera.
ton of the laws of nature. It is also certain
that nations which have nothing to sell, Can
not purchase or that the fewer their COM
modities, the greater must be real and dis
tressing "balance of trade against them, if
they indulge their propensities or crafty their
desires. The miserable Indian barriers his
robes of fur for whiskey and looking glasses,
and perishes in the snow storm. The Brit
ish, by the aid of scientific po,cer, gathered to
themselves, as it were, command over the
wealth and labor of the world. The bowels
of the towering Andes, or the bleak SUBMITS
of Caucasus, were searched, to find whatever
might minister to their navigation and COM
merce, in the purchase of their manufactures
and the profits made, enabl ID them to main
tain mighty herds of Russian, Prussian and
German slaves to fight for them--to suffer
death for them; and a girl at Manchester. by
the application of her little strength, could buy
half a dozen of these degraded human beings.
The moral and political degradation which has
long existed in Spain and Portugal, was caus-
ed by the {" freedom of trade" which ruined
the manufacturers. The plenty that prevails
in France, rests upon the Napoleon system,
forbidding as other nations forbid, restricting
as other nations restrict, and yielding to no
other what the other will not yield unto
France. This is all equitable. But Britain,
less liberal, presses the sale of goods on those
of whom.she will not buy. She will not ac-
accent bread and meat, though offered at half
the price of her own,in exchange for her cal
icoes yet Britons talk about " free trade"
and advise US to ''let commerce alone !"
However common it is at the present time,
land we exceedingly regret it,) to draw geog-
rapical lines, we would avoid them; but it is
difficult, il not impossible, to render due force
to certain important facts without them !;
parts of this Union being very differently cir
cumstanced, though not possessed Of opposing
interests if rightly understood. The grain
growing and manufacturing commercial states
contain $3.50, 600 of the people--the 6ther,
the planting states, only 9,Oss,oOO. The ex-
ports of the products of the U. States, the las
year to Great Britain, was $50, O28, OOO.--of
which Sl8, 6O4,O94 was in cotton and tobacco
leaving for all the rest only $780,
11s. In the same time, the imports from
Great Britain were valued at S26, 49,
$50; the proportion of which consumed
in the first named class of states, ac-
cording to gross population in both parts,was
$4,000, OOG, land in the other class SO, 600, 900.
No argument is required to show, that, of it.
self this trade cannot be supported by the
northern and western states and that, if it
were not for their manufactures and nayga-
ton, by which they are enabled to procure
cotton and tobacco OF the south. to exchange
with g. Britain, assisted by their enterprise
and industry in trading with other nations,