The Middlebury people's press. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1841-1843, 1842-04-05
MIDDLEBURY VT. APRIL 5, 1912.


there 80 millions of foreign goods in New
York; three fourths of which are owned by
aliens; and such is the influx of foreign agents
and sharpers TO whom they are assigned at a
great differentiation, to avoid the duties, that
the honest American merchant, uDdersworn at
the custom house, and undersold by the auc-
toneer, is banished from business, and has be-
come almost a stranger in his native city. To
pay for these importatiOns, it is computed that
more than a million of dollars are monthly
waited across the Atlantic. Thus, while the
very basis of our circulation is undermining,
how vain is the endeayor to regulate the cur
rency and equalize the exchanges of the coun-
try. As well might we puncture every vein in
the human body, and, while the life-bood was
;; flowing, bid the bleeding subject to stand up
and live.
Smarting under The evils which we suffer,
and thrilling with anxiety at the prospects of
coming adversely, we have no hope, except in
the adoption of a system of protection to do
nestle industry, and retaliation 10 those who
! deny us reciprocal benefits. We regard it as
the bounden duty of the Government, equally
to protect every American citizen in his lawful
avocations. We build navies TO protect our
seamen and merchants, raise armies and erect
Notifications to protect our western settlers;
and shall we nor protect the shepherd, the hus-
bandman, the planter, the manufacturer, and
all classes of our industrious cOnntrymen, from
becoming the victims of the rapacity of other
nations. England has pursued policy, in this
respect, which we must initiate, if we would
avoid the irnpoverishng effects which it entails
upon all other nations. Ii has ever been her
aim to protect every branch of industry upon
her own soil, and to transplant to it the arts and
manufactures of all other countries, which she
deemed profitable employ ment of her labor
even by bOuntes from her treasury. At
length, her manufactures have become num-
erous, her skill so great, and her industry so
interchangeable, that she sets the competition of
the world at defiance. With her manufactures,
her merchants roam through The habitabe
globe, and come back to her shores laden with
the wealth Ofevery region. To sustain her su-
premaey, she endeavOrs to annihilate the man.
ufactures of all other nations, to supply them
with her own. Those whose wealth she cannot
acquire with her arms. she grasps by the skill
of her artisans. Every agricultural country
which has depended upon England for manu-
features, has been Impoverished, and render
ed weak and contemplate. Spain and Poru-
gal, who for two centur les have been in this
subservIenJ condition, with all the resources
of their eXuberant soils, added TO richest mines
of both the Indies, could not avoid the impov-
eriShing destiny which English commerce in
ficts upon other nations. Our own country,
for len years past, has been little better than a
province cultivated to Obtain the means to pay
for her gewgaws. 1t is high time we should
free ourselves from the grasping policy ofBri
ain. And to effect this. Congress must act up
on the same principle of protection to home
industry on the one hand, and as long as Eng
land refuses free trade. of retaliation, on the
other. Protection for pr election, and retaa-
ton for restriction, should be the settled policy
of the Union.
No country in the world is richer in the raw
material; aud no people more capable of ac-
qulring the skill necessary TO the most finished
manufactures, than our own. Give our citizens
a fair opportunity to work for themselves, and
at moderate period, almost every fabric would
be made better and cheaper at home than in
the workshops of Europe. Every waterfall
would have its will lge, every farmer his mar
ket, every artisan his hire, and every class of
iaborers their proper sphere of profitable en-
ploymcnt. The money which now flows off
to Europe, would be paid to the mechanic aud
manufacturer al home, who would again re-
turn it to the farmer for the products of agr
calture; and thus, by its healthful circulation
within our borders, would soon heal the mala
dies with which the currency is afflicted.
But such happy results can never be expect
ell without full protection to home labor As
ours are the only free ports in the civilized
world, the refuse commodities of all Europe
are poured into them without stint. The En-
elsh manufacturer finding vast accumulation
of merchandze upon his hands to prevent fall
sold under the hammer at any price; thus an
swering double purpose, ofkeeping up prices
at home and crushing American manufactures,
to make way for more profitable future spec
ulations. The home manufacturer finds the
market glutted with the over productions of the
starvengs of other countries where the wages
are cheap. He must, therefore, reinquish his
business, or induce his operatives to work for
the wages of the pfuper laborers of Europe.
hoy do no ic al,
doned for the pillow, to add to unsaleable pro-
duce, which already drugs the market. Here,
then, labor is equally Improbable. Turn
which way you will, when foreign labor is suf-
fered to compete with our own, the latter mast
be reduced to the standard of the former. The
wealth, comforts, knowledge, and advantages
and prospects of our population, will soon sink
to the same level of debasement. And without
revolution, this proud nation will, ere long,
have to decide, whether they will exchange
their liberal institutions, their decent garments,
and their comfortable dwellings, for the degrad-
ing ignorance, mud novels, and sheepskin COW
erings of the serfs of Europe.
1t is extremely to be regretted, that both in
Congress and out, the advocates of protection |
are most unfairly represented, as looking only !
10 the interests of the manufacturer, who are
charged with seeking to enrich themselves at
the expense of the agriculturalists. Blind must
we he to our own interests, if this is the fact. |
We are chiefly farmers; and while we recog- /
nize the right of every branch of industry to
the fostering care of the Government, our main !
purpose is the prosperity of I6 millions of the |
people ofthIs country, who are engaged in ag- |
ricultural pursuits Protection to manufactures :
is msnomer of the objects we have in view.
Manufacturers, as such, are no parties to the !
demand for protection. The agriculturalists
ask it for the cotton and woollen manufactures
the merchants, the navgators, the haters,
shoemakers, leather dealers, tailors, shipbuild.
ers and artisans of every description, who pu:-
chase at a fair price our produce, and give US