Richmond enquirer. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1815-1867, 1829-01-17
THE TAEIEE

In laying the following structures before our
READERS, we have no time for expanded comm enis.
The opinions Of MIR. Madison on the constitution
atty OF the tariff likely to be tested by critical
analysis, in series OF Nos, Of which the first APP
pears in this days papeT.--I hat an dcgLliescence
IN usurpation on which this writer hinges much OF
his argument, amounts TO appreciation. is 10 new
doctrine. 1t has been the resort of the advocates
of power for ages past.-Wha, Is practice 10 day
soon becomes precedent to- morrow. And had the
cxtremites, to which the tariff principle has been
recently pushed, been originally suspected in the
egg Of the first act of Congress, should in all
probability have seen very different course O!
measures, and very different doctrine maintain
ed at the present day. Who then GreaEat Of the
excuses 10 which have been conducted? Who
imagined that the encouragement II manufactures
would have been carried so tar. as 10 embrace
within its gigantic grasp all - the capital and la
bour Of the country: Does any nan suppose, that
such an idea ever entertained by tie Gcne!-
al Convention, or by the separate GOuy entioGs Of
The different States, or BY the first Congresses of
the United S,ates2-or, that il SUCH ching had
then been imagined, the States would not have
raised up some buwark in the Constitution against
this gross abuse, OF power! Had the usurpaUon
started up at once, like Satan in The garden Of Eden
when touched by the spear osithuriein all its mon
etrous dimensions, I've should not have had The So
ltary voice Of w Whitman, or Webster CT Z. p. Bar
bour, against the constitutonalily Of the Tariff
but whole armies OF logicians would have risen Up
In full protestation-the nation itself would have
gone en- mGsse against the abuse, always saving
and excepting those selfish and interested capt.
tslists, whose money had been vested in 7nanufac-
turing Establishments.-is then the power now
iegitimate only because it has crept on us by de
grees-only because it has couched and slid on
stealthy, like the subtle Tiger, until il has sc zed
upon iis victim and is sucking its life's blood,
Mr.. Jefferson himself did not scent the approach
90 OF such n tyranny in the first tainted breeze.
lie did not rase his voice against the earlier at
senpts to encourage particular branches of manu-
taciures-~the subject probably had not alarmed
his attention into the merits of the question-nor
did the question give the exercise Of power until
experience had warned him by the evidences OF
It's excuses. But when he read in the Tariff
Laws Of 1924 the Lengths TO which we were hur.
rying, he then began 10 examine the subject in it's
root and IN its bearings and what Gid he say
" Under the power 10 regulate commerce. they
ss7ure Indefinitely, that also over agriculture and
manufactures aud call il regulation too, to take
the earnings Of one Of these branches Of industry,
and that too, the most depressed and put them in
70 the pockets OF the other the most ourishing oil
ALL" Here then, we have one great man arr.yed
sgsinst snother--and here we find the true key to
that scquiescent silence. upon which this writer
So confidently relies.
We should be the last persons in the world 10
cap atthe conduct Of MIR. Modison--but we do
most sincerely regret, that he has taken such
views Of the question, and still more that he has
placed the power uron such dangerous grounds
~ he has advanced Under such implications
and differences, we fear that there can be little
fafe under this Constitution, from the grasp Of the
general government regret moreover, tia,
while be has said % much in favor Of the power
he has said so little against the abuse OF it. tor
let this writer palaYer much ~ he p'eases, the
tone Of Mr.. Madison is cheering to the friends Of
ihe present Tarifi.-it has been hailed with rap.
tufe BY al Of thefs-and hey regard il az most
strongly iavoring oil their pretensions and justify
ing all their excuses. We know this 70 Sc thcfac'
We see IL IN Of! their papers. We hear il in all
their conversations. Ills course SETS the seal p-
onihsif acti.Uad be only SPOKEN az strongly
this point as ne has done upon The other; warned
against the nischiefs Of the abuse; showed ne
how fatal this tariff was the principles Of F-ree
}dde hcw deplorabiy it broke upon the liberties
Is individuals and the rights Of The States bad he
spoken as Mr. Jefferson had snokon.he might then
7 s~s '1'fr.~-s ~ f~r-~ rs.sa.~s - scf.ses