The Whig standard. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1843-1844, 1844-07-13

taliation; and, in the event of refusal on our
part. they would lay higher duties upon Amer
lean, than upon the products Of any other nation,
world. The Madisonian and other papers have
attempted to deny that this result would follow,
because. say they, the treaty infringes no existing
treaty with other powers. But it does, as we
have before shown infringe all existing treaties.
and particularly that with England. But suppose
it did not--suppose treaties were silent; what
would be the difference :! 1t is mere question
OF reciprocity, and shall we expect nations to
treat US as " the most favored nation"-to admit
our products on footing of equality with other
nations, when our conduct towards them is the
reverse! 1t would be folly to expect it.
The Spectator foresaw this difficulty, and gets
around it in the only way practicable, by saying
that it was to be expected that other nations
would be permitted to come into the same terms !;
in other words, that our manufacturers should be
abandoned outright, to the competition Of the
cheap labor and vast capital of Europe. The
Zoll Veren treaty, therefore. presents the issue
of free trade, and nothing more or less SO that,
in its discussion, it is only necessary to go over
the old ground Of tariff or no tariff: We are not
the advocates of exorbitant protective duties ;
neither is it our custom to speak contemptuously
Of the principles Of trade as developed by Adam
Smith and others but we utterly protest against
free trade"-we utterly protest against the
adoption of new policy now, after SO large a
portion of the wealth of the country has been in
vested in particular way, upon the faith Of legis-
ative support, which would destroy that wealth,
and bring ruin upon its possessors. If the CAPT
tai of the country had not been allured into an
artificial channel by legislation, we, perhaps,
would be slow to favor protective laws, as an abb
stract principle Of policy. But now that things
have been forced out of their natural course !;
now that the business of the people has been
away the prop which sustans it, would be an act
of national suicide
If our custom duties were abolished, there is
scarcely mechanical trade of any sort, which
our people exercise, but what would be brought
into runous competition with the immense CAPT
tai and low wages Of Europe, the consequence of
which could only be ruin to half our people. The
only mechanical trades which could be exercised
in this country without the protection which
arises from taxing foreign importations are those
which must OF necessity be exercised upon the
ground where the manufacture is consumed OF
this class is the trade of house building. Some
kinds Of smiths work would also be necessarily
exercised near where the demand for it existed,
as shoeing horses; but almost every other kind
of smiths work would be imported from England
but for the custom-house duties. The arts Of
tailoring, shoe making, hat making, saddle and
harness making, watch making, in word, every
mechanical trade except house building, would
be ruined at once, by the adoption of the prnci.
pie of free trade. Not only those trades, but
every department of manufacturing, whether Of
iron or other metal, of cotton, wool, fax, hemp,
or silk, would be destroyed at once, if the prnci-
pie Of free trade were put in force. The capital
lists who have engaged in these various depart
ments of industry, upon the faith of legislative
protection, would be rendered bankrupt if our
custom-houses were thrown down; and what
would be far more calamitous, the millions who
gain their daily bread by the employment of the
manufacturers, would be left to starve. Such
would be, as every one can see, the necessary
consequence of free trade, the boosted panacea
of Mr.. Polk and the Nullifers.
But the mechanics and manufacturers of the
country would not be the only sufferers. Thrown
out OF employment, if starvation were not the im-~
mediate consequence, they would all have to re-
sort to agriculture for livelihood, the conse-
quence of which would be that the country would
produce twice as much of the products of the
earth as it could consume. And what would be
done with the surplus? Would England or other
countries Of Europe receive it? All history
shows that they would not if they could but
they could not if they would. Our whole people
engaged in agriculture would produce surplus
sufficient to feed all England, to the exclusion of