Herald of the times. [volume] (Newport, R.I.) 1830-1846, 1831-11-24


labor to the full extent Of its capacity, to-
the severe rivalry of more industrious
and thrifty communities, living under the
protection Of the same general govern
ment.
Nations are adversary to each other
! their commercial intercourse is regulated
by treaties always made with a view to.
relative advantages, and to provide for
those hostilities which aIe Of perpetual
recurrence. The veXatious provincial
tariffs which formerly tettered intercourse
and almost destroyed traffic in the interi-
or Of nations, suggested the idea Of that
free trade, which has since been misun-
derstood and egregiously misapplied by
meie speculative writers-the tariff acts,
which even now impose duties on the
wines Of Spain at provincial borders, and
on those Of France at city gates are
grievances, for which free trade is a hap
py substitute-but the principle is entire
ly municipal and in no respect applicable
without disadvantage to independent na-
tons. The vessels of the United States
are navigatcd with fewer hands s. make
their voyages in shorter periods than 9TH
ers-hencc what is called the reciprocity
principle, originating in the first treaty
between the United States and France,
has been wisely prollered by the United
States to many other nations, because it
is supposed that our navigation would
supplant theirs. But the artificial sys-
tens of England, France, Spain and the
other nations with which the u. States
have most intercourse, render it extreme
ly improbable that any approximation to
the footing Of free trade should ever Lc
arranged between them, even by treaty.
For us to attempt while they reject it,
would be complete surrender of our
selves as voluntary sacrifice to the pol
icy and cupidity Of C,reign governments;
to create a government for the benefit of
others and not for ourselves. A tariff of
duties on Commerce between New York
aHd New-Jersey would be as injurious as
unconstitutional. Free trade between
these states and among all the states Of
the Union is the main spring Of general
wellare-and one Of the strongest links
Of the chain that connects them; but free
trade between New York and Liverpool
would ruin the farmers of England thro'
our supcrabundance of breadstufis, and
the manufacturers Of the United States
by the superior capital and proficiency
of England in manufactures, and the de-
graded state Of the operatives. An un-
restricted intercourse between two ma
tons reduces the labor Of one to the same
scale of compensation with the labor OF,
the other; and such a consequence is
certainly to be deprecated by that nation
whose labor stood highest on the scale
This consideration forms q striking argu-
ment against the policy of such system
between foreign states. While on the
other hand, it is no less desirable that,
amongst the separate communities asso-
ciated under the same government, this
reduction Of the higher labor to the scale
of the lower should take place, inasmuch
as the interest Of these domestic commu-
mites are equally the objects of the pro-
lection and solicitude Of their common
governors.
The freest of trade is, after all, but
chartered libertine. The United States
could not share their coasting trade with |
England without disadvantage; the most
cstravagant advocates Of free trade, Git
is bclieved) have never yet dreamed of
sharing our river trade with foreigners.
TO throw open the Ohio and Mississippi,
the Hudson and the Delaware to British,
French and Dutch navigation, would be
Of no advantage to our own. England
could not open her maritime coal trade,
the great nursery of her scamen, to the
enterprise of New England without los
ing at least one half OF it. She refuses
us passage through the St. Lawrence,
although we own part Of that river. The
greatest commercial nations of the mid
die ages, the Hanscatic League & Hol-
land, the maritime wonder Of the world,
became such by the exclusive enjoy
ment Of the fisheries and the trade to In
dia and other monopolies, which they
maintained at the charge of long and
bloody wars-England struck the vital
blow at Holland, not so much by naval
victories as by her navigation act. The
commercial and the military marine Of
The United States have risen to eminence
upon similar interdiction. With free
trade we should have neither the one nor
The other, but be poor dependent, pas
loral people. 1t is only about ten years
since a project for reducing the duties
was first suggested in England, in Pc
ition to Parliament from the merchants
md traders of London. In 1925 some
slight and cautious reductions were ac-
;ordingly made but in nothing TO affect
he commercial monopoly and maritime
'scendancy Of Great Britain. Her CO. Ii