The Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1837-1867, 1844-10-28

e"t' commercially independents Of England and the
world. by means Of the revenue which they paid to
their own government Thus the revenue extorted
from the people, after serving the purpose of moving
The wheels of Government, was not lost like ,vaste-
water, but was, by the wise contrvunce ordsctinina-
ting duties, made 10 put into busy action tho wheels
| OF manufacturing and mechanical industry, which
would otherwise have stopped, and have thrown A.
merien to serviIe dependence Europe for articles
| oFprlmqry Necessity. But the beneficial effects of
the discriminating tariff policy, commenced in 1915,
did not stop here, BY protecting the products of
| manufacturing and mechanical industry ia America
against the projects of European pauper labor it ex
tended the aggregate demand for American labor and
thus Increased tho wuges Of American llborcrs, me-
chanics and artizans of all kinds
The wages Of labor, like every thing else, Il inhu-
enced lay supply and demand, by the activity and in
activity Of business. It requires no learning or
knowledge of political economy, for any man Of
good mother wit to perceive, that tariff by giving
activity TO various branches Of business must uceuse
the demand for labor and, of course increase the
wnges of labor Nothing but metaphysical nbstrdc-
tons, drawn from bewidering sophsns Of English
! systems of political economy, conrover this po-
sltion or make practical sensible man believe other
! wise Hut another great benefit of the discrimna-
ting tariff Of 1916, of Mndisons war which preceded
1t, and Jeierson's restrictive policy which preceded
the war, was, that il not only laid the ground work
of commercial Independence, for all articles of prma-
( ry necessity, but it liberated the American clrmers
mechanics aborers and the poor everywhere through
out the Union, from the tyrlr my and cxac,ions Of
monorolists, and the avuice of importing merchants.
To lluslrnts--if we had no mills Of our own, but had
TO send our wheat 10 Europe 10 be ground into -four,
1t Is evident, that the importing merchants would sell
the flour, when they brought it into this country FOR
such prices they could get,-for double or treble
prices, if they could them. The domestic mo.
nopoist aud SPECTATOR would purchase the flour from
the importing monopolists to sell again on profit and
would extor whatever prices the necessities of a
people, wanting bread would compel Them 20 gvo-
Under such circumstances, discriminating duty on
imported flour, By causing the gradual erection Of
mills to grind own wheat, would soon so release
the people Iron the exactious and avarce Of the mo-
nopo!is,s TO make bread cheap The poor man,
eating cheap bread with tho monster monopoly pros
trate at his feet might well smile those deluded
political economists who would rail at the tax on inn
ported flour, as a tax levecd ut tho poor and not
against the rich. So, Also the poor man wearing
cheap clothes, under udicous discriminating tariff,
can well afford to pay little to sustain that sysctm,
through the agency of domestic manufactures at
every mans door, those monoroles that made it
dear
II New England had nullifed,as she threatened to
do the restrictive policy Of Jefferson; if tho federal
lists had succeeded in preventing tho old republican
party from drawing the sword against England, and
if they had succeeded in defeating the discriminating
tariff policy fthe republicans, we would even yet
hny bcen danandant IN Eurnnn nd tbn
beyond the Cape of Good Hope, for the cloths we
wear, and would have been compelled To pay any
price which the avarco of monopoiiss and importing
merchants could extort from needy aud dependent
people Happily, the doctrine, that the protective
! duty is added to the price, and increases the cost
orthe protected article TO the full extent of the duty
in the hands OF the consumer and that articles of the
first necessity, such consumed by the poor,
should be protected but that the poor should be
thrown on the tender mercies of monoposls TO be
ground to the dust, did not prevent the old Republ
can Congress from encouraging and prot citing
cotton factories by high minimum valuations, of
imposing a duty of 80 per cent nd valorem upon all
imporations Of saddles, brides harnesses, and all
urctures of leather all manufactures of wood nclu
! ding household furniture, carts, wagons, cabinet
wares millinery Of all sorts, hats, caps bonnets, pa
per- and many other such articles indispensable to
the laborng poor, and which now obtain so much
cheaper than then. The iaboring poor of those days
had the exactons and extortions of the monoposts
too fresh in their memories to resist the very
which was especially intended to make them indie
pendent of foreign nations and domestic monopolies,
for comforts Of life that they could produce at home.
The wise men, then at the head Of the Government,
had the reflection too fresh in their memories, Of the
bitter fruits of that system under old John Adams
administration, which has lately been dignifed with
the appeation of free trade, to be drawn into it by
the subtletes and refined arguments to be met with
in English books political economy. 1t was not
svoh ine-spun theories of South Cardinals lavorite
son, popular in the South, and so Infectious,
as carnations from "A master mind always are, which
Influenced them but it the plain matters of fact
and practical operation Of the free trade system under
fair and full experience, which had just been tried
Our Government had but recently offered free trade
all the worldour ports had been opened to all ma
tionsinerna taxation had been resorted to, in order
TO release commerce from restricons-and how are