Richmond enquirer. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1815-1867, 1844-05-21
FOR TIE E.yQUIREE
TO JAMES LYONS. ESQ.


Until read your Card in the Enquirer. was wholly
incredulous to the sincerity of my Wing TRENDS,
when tanning the doctrine, that high cut'es be
low prices really supposed they were inou'ging IN
what they considered little innocent al captdndum
have TOO much respect for you man, and as pa
tot TO doubt your sincerity, coming before the public
as you DO this occasion. II seems to me, howe
that you wanting respect to the world learned,
PRACTICAL and scientific in dsposng so summary OF d
scie that has become part of every good education
When Mr. Tyler thought he had discovered the faacy
of Sir Isaac Newton's theory of the influence of the
moon upon the tides, he gave Sir Isaac Newton and
his followers fair play, by serious and aboed expo
son and reutatIon of the faliacles OF his theory =
You owe it 10 yourself and to the world to detect,
point out and expose the Of fact and argume MI
on which the political economists base their doctrine
OF Free Trade.
The Tory University Of Oxford, the most reluctant,
and almost The last to admit and 10 teach this doctrine
will assuredly award TO you her highest honors, IT you
cnn either by argument OF statistics, overthrow the po
l,ical economists 10 whom she with all her learning,
and talent, ard research, has had to succumb. Every
crowned head, and every sp9cisl exclusive interest IN
Europe, will hail you as Saviour, come TO STEM the
torrent of reform, which, under The banner Of free
trade and equal rights, is threatening TO spread liberty
and equality throughout the world.
Political science now taught, is every where The
handmaiden Of liberty; but the science which you
have discovered, would be the NEST potent ally and
engine of desPotlsm 1t proposes that Government
people for no line of demarcaton has been, be
drawn, at which the proposed interference and con-
troll of Government shall cease and the right OF the
citizen to buy and sell and labor, independent Of Co
vernment regulations shall begin Government,
with the unlimited power to protect industry, in the
sense in which Tariff men the term protecton, is
an unlimited despotism. When you succeed in de-
monstratng the policy of protection, with dash of the
pen you overthrow the edIce Of liberty, which science
has been so long engaged in constructing
Tho nj tha nd nj
that each man is better judge of what business he
should pursue, Of whom he should buy, and to whom
he should sell, than Government can possibly be, may
be vulgar error of ell the WISE of oil the learned,
and of the Loco Focos-Government may be n better
Judge of these mutters-nay, it may exercise the
power with which you propose TO invest it with paren
tai wisdom and parental kndness-but parental Go.
vernment is despotism, however wise and however
kind.
The Tories of England invented this term Spa
rental Government" and will rejoice at your dis
covery. which relieves their bantling from The Odum
which the liberal and the learned have attempted 10
cast upon it, But the poor, the unprveged, the OPP
pressed throughout the world will ieel the iron enter
their souls the last ray Of hope extnguhed, hear
the death kne of liberty, and rebuke you in the in
dignant language Of Campbell
Oh stareyed Science, hath thou travelled there,
To watt US back the tidings of despair
You and |, Sir, were taught, when learning geogra.
ply at school, that the earth is round We still believe
this theory, despite the evidence Of and Of
our experience which teaches US that it ia fiat. /
have friend, Sir, who don't believe in geography, but
stouty maintains that the earth 10 Us fiat pancake.
But the "high duty low price theory which sets com
mon observation and perience al defiance, we'll
rs science casts my friends ecceniricy much into
The shade, that | he viii hereafter pass for
quite 4 reasonable man.
might, Sir, rest my objections 10 your doctrines on
the weight of authority quite as conclusive as that
which establishes the rotundity of the EARTH the
circulation Of the Blood but it 10 easy to detect and
expose the faaces which your theory is based, |
will treat you with respect which you have failed to
show the Free Trade men-backed, as they are, by
all The learning, and all the science in the world
First, Sir you, in common with all the Southern
Wings Of day, (t not in l640,) forget that
icompetilon operating TO level the profits Of the var
Gus pursuits and vacations of men,, is a universal law
Of tradenot one, you TO hold confined in its
operation to our Union Hence the wild talk often
hear abou, foreign manufacturers combining 10 raise
their prces. Competition prevents such combina
tlous. All the products of industry throughout the
world are sold as cheap the producers afford,
whether zoe have Tariff not, except when the law
gives monopoly.
In tie instance which you cite the producer of cof-
fee and the seller compelled by competition to work
as cheap they afford, that is, at The profits
that people engaged in other business do II Tariff
lessons the demand for coffee, the effect after while
will be to lessen the supply, not the price. Part OF
The coffee growers and sellers will engage in other puT-
suits.
Competition, in Ike manner, mus, compel European
manufacturers to sell 10 US cheap they afford
Labor and capital are the chief elements Of PRICE
When we have pauPer population, and borrow
money at three per cent we too shall have the els-
mens of cheap production, and shall need no pro-
tec,ve Tariff. Blu, you propose to increase the cost
Of production, and yet lessen the price of the articles
produced for protection TO article invariably in
creases the cost of producing other. Thus, the
cost of making yard Of woollen cloth is enhanced BY
the duties WOOL iron, cotton, on coal, and on
every thing ese that increases the expense of living,
into the manufacture of The CLOTH Besides your
ges of the factory hands, and this, also, would en-
nance the cost of the cloth. But this is promise