The Massachusetts spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1831-1858, 1831-11-23

the main purpose oil the law Will the sole Oh
ject of protection, or whether il was only Incl.
dentaiIy selected in order to favor the manu-.
faciurer, while the commodities consumed by
his neighbors, though equally fit subjects for a
tax for revenue, passed over in tins Incl i.
dental arrangement? viii not every iagenu.
Gus mind at once agree that if the power o
lay duties was conferred on Congress for tho
sole purpose of revenue, it is a violation of its
trust to mingle any other purpose with that. a.
much us it would be to substitute an entire
new purpose for it Congress cannot look
with one glance to revenue, and the other to
protection, if the constitution limit its power to
revenue alone. When it is thus said that pro.
lection is fit object to be regarded ineidentat
iy, in laying duties, but that the general pur
pose must still be revenue, who shall inform us
how much, in the motives of Congress, must
be the main purpose of revenue, and how much
may be the incidental purpose of protection /?
How high may the incidental object RISE and
the law be yet constitutional; or at what point
will il have approached so near the main, or
the only object of the duty as to render the
law void 1t may be answered, possibly, that
the admission goes farther than this that
when Congress has already resolved TO Law du-
ties, then it may, subsequent resolution,
resolve TO lay them on such a selection Of arti.
cles as shall best favor manufactures But
would not such n subsequent resolution be
wholly aside from the exercise of a mere reve-
nue. power? Would il not be a clear imposi.
ton of duties for protection And might 1t not
lead, practically, TO the same consequences,
since, under this admitted power of selection
and arrangement, the whole burden ofihe gov
eminent might be laid with a direct view TO
protection merely.
The other admission, that is. that Congress
may lay duties to counterpad the commercial
relations of other States, seems to US still more
decisive. This comedies, at once, that the
power to lay duties is not mere revenue pow.
er; for here is one admitted case, in which it
may be properly exercised, which has no rela-
ton to revenue. Yet this is no particular or
specified power. The constitution no more
points out this, as being proper object, than
it points out protection. If it be provided for
at all, is is because it is embraced in the gener,
al words of the grant. 1t is there or it is no
where Laws laying duties to countefvail the
regulations of other States, are regulations of
trade. They are not only like laws of pretec-
ton, but they arc, emphatically, themselves
td,cS of protection. They have usually no 9th
er end or design than to protect the manufac.
lures or other interests of our own citizens
from the effect of unequal competition or mo.
nopoly on the part Of other nations. Congress,
then, upon this admission, may lay duties with
the single object Of encouraging certain de-
vi uOutcSliC cIlplu1 HIeHt VI luuuelE1,
and it remains for those who concede this, and
yet deny the general power, to show how it is,
that Congress has power, in its discretion, to
protect some classes Of industry, and no power,
in the same discretion and by the same means,
TO protect others. But the admission goes still
further. II not only furnishes an analogy for
the ease in argument but meets and covers
that identical case. The laws, so much oppos.
ed, and whose constitutional validity is SO loud
ly denied, are themselves no other than SO ma
ny acts passed to counterraH the Injurious
commercial regulations of foreign States.
The United States have not been the first to re-
ject the theory Of free trade. They have not in
troduced into the world new modes of legislation
They have not originated system Of protection !;
far otherwise. At the very moment they had sue
ceeded to throw off their colonial bondage and had
established their own independence they found
that their condition, so far as respected Commerce.
Agriculture, and Manufactures, was but partially
bettered by the change, because they found the
ports of the leading states of Europe shut against
their ships and against their products They offer
ed free trade to all nations but the nations with
one accord, rejected their offer The subjects of
other States were protected, as against them, by
the laws Of other States but they were protected
against nobody. II is undeniably true, that this
condition of things was one of the very causes
which led to the adoption Of the present govern.
ment 1t is UNREASONABLE, as matter of historic
record that one strong motive for forming and es-
tablshing the present constitution was to organize
government that should possess the power of
countervailing these foreign regulations by ade-
quate measures, and thereby protecting the labor
and industry of the people of the country. Coun-
tervaling laws accordingly passed at the very
first session Of the first Congress others have been
passed at various times since; one and all, they
partake of the same character; they all coun-
tervailing laws rendered expedient and necessary
oy the policy pursued by other nations The Re-
| D,Als -z~I oE Il
people; all the principal products of eight nine
of these thirteen millions are, at this moment, shut
out from the great market of consumption abroad,
either by absolute prohibition or by high duties
and 1t ls to meet this state Of things 1t is to coun
tervail these foreign regulations injurious to US,
IT is to place ourselves some footing of equality,
it is to rescue the labor Of the American people
from an inferiority subsection, at once dishonor
able and burdensome, at once degrading to its
character while it increases its tolls, that those
very laws were originally passed, have all along
continued, and now exist They are, therefore,
countervailing laws and no other, in every just
sense of these terms
Having made these remarks on what is conceded
by those who deny the power of Congress to pro-
tect manufactures, and on the effect of that con-
cession we proceed to prese Mt the view which the
meeting entertains on the general constitutional
question.
BY the constitution Congress has power. /" to
lay and collect taxes duties, imposts, and excuses"
1t has power also "to regulate commerce with
| foreign nations"
The power to lay duties is accompanied by one
express qualification Limitation, which is that
all duties shall oe uniform throughout the United
States" The power to regulate commerce has lis
limitation also which is, that regulation of CON-
merce shall give preference to the ports of one
State over those Of another; and there is another
limitation, which may apply TO both clauses, name
ly, that no export duty shall ever be laid.
Here then is a grant of power in broad and gen.
eral terms, but with certain specific limitations,
carefully expressed. But neither of these limita-
the power which is now under consideration
Neither of them nor any other clause or word in
the whole constitution manliests the slightest in.
tenton to restrain the words as to prohibit Con-
gress from laying duties for protection. The at
tempt is nothing less than TO add restriction
which the constitution has omitted. Who has au
thorty to add this If other restrictions mad been
! intended they would have been expressed. Wher
the business of limitation before the conven
tion W hat was omitted much an exercise O
intention ne what was expressed 1t stated all the
restraints on Congress which it intended; and to
impose others now would be, not to interpret the
constitution, but to change it; not to construe the
existing instrument, but TO make another.
The words of the grant being general, 10 lay
duties and to regulate commerce. their meaning is
to be ascertained by reference to the common use
and import of language. No unusual Specification
is to be given 10 the terms, either to restrain OF
enlarge their import Congress, in its discretion
is to lay duties aud to regulate trade for all tn,
objects and purposes for which duties are ordinari
ly laid and trade ordinarily regulated. If such
thing was never before heard of as laying du,ie
AL L. ..,.al. u...A