The Woodstock age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1844-1845, 1844-09-05
which are best met by silence. The Ken

tariff has operated as efiectually IN lower
ing the price of grain, and of beet and
pork as it has in raising the price of broad
cloths, sheelings, and printed callcoes'-
When we took up Mr. CIay's speech, his
"chart of wing principles" as his followers
call it, and observed how much of it was
devoted to the tariff question, we looked
carefully through it to see if he would not
teach us how to explain away this ugly
circumstance. His silence amounts to a
confession that the task is above his
ingenuity.
Mr. Clay proposes what he calls COM
promise between the friends of protection,
which he introduces with the following
pompous preamble.
"How can this unhappy conaic, of opin-
ion be amicably adjusted and accommoda-
ted9 Extremes, fellow citizens, are ever
wrong. Truth and justice, sound policy
aud wisdom, always abide in the middle
ground, always are to be found in the juste
miieu. Ultraism is ever baneful, and, if
followed, never fails to lead to fatal conse-
quences. We must reject both the doc
trines Of Free Trade and of high and ex-
orb;:ant Tariff The par,izans of each must
make some sacrifices of their peculiar
opinions. They must find some common
ground on which both can stand, and re-
fleet that, ifneither has obtained all that
it desires, it has secured something, and
what it does not retain has been gotten by
its friends and counlrymen."
After this our readers will undoubtedly
expect some proposition which shall com.
bine the benefits of freedom with the adj
van,ages of restriction; some plan which
will leave the importer free to bring his
goods from the country where they can be
bought the cheapest, and yet give the man.
iacturer the chance of ready market and
good prices at home. The next sentences
explain what this plan IS:
There are very few who dissent from
the opinion that, in time of peace, the Fed
eraI Revenue ought to be drawn from for
eign imports without resorting to internal
taxation. Here is bass for accommoda-
ton aud mutual satisfaction. Let the a
mount, which is requisite for an economic
cal administrator oflhe Coz eminent when
we are not engaged in war, be raised ex'
clusively on foreign imports, and in adjust
ing Tariff for that purpose let such dis
ordinations be made as will foster and en-
courage our own Domestic Industry. AL
parties ought to be satisfied with a Tariff
for revenue and determinations for pro-
lection"
Such is Mr. Clays proposition for an &C
commodaiion Of the dispute, and it is Ger
tainly as rank an assertion Of the principle
Of protection as was ever uttered. In tht
first place. says Mr. Clay, we must have
tariff of duties, in order to raise money fol
the treasury; we mus, not raise it by dircc
taxation, but by duties on imports. Thai
is all the concession which he proposes &c
make to the friends Of free trade. Now
this is no concession at all; i is simply wha,
the manufacturers and their friends con.
TEND for. They make the expedlency Of
raising money by duties on imports the
very basis Of the system Of protection. III
the second place. proceeds Mr. Clay, we
must make such discrimination, on these
duties, as will encourage our domestic
manufactures; in other words, We must
put the duties so high that impor,alons
will be checked, and the consumer will be
obliged to buy goods manufactured in this
country. This. is the concession he pro-
poses to make to the pro,ectionists, and il
comedies to him all he asks. First, q
tariff; then such rate of duties in thai
tariff as will oblige the American consumer
to buy of the Lowell manufacturer! The
most jealous protc,ionist never asked more
than this. 1t is the very extreme which
Mr. Clay preiends to depreca,e. The prin
ciple laid down by him, with hypocri,
ical profession Of fairness, and Of desire
to reconcile the differing views Of the par
ty Of commercial freedom and the party o
commercial restriction, is one which per.
lnits the severest and most oppressive re-
striciions provided they are imposed in
the shape Of a tariff. We lay aside MI
Cluy's speech for the present, with an e.
motion OF wonder a, the low estimate he
mist have formed of the understanding Of
those who listened to it, and Of the greater
number VINO will read ii.-N Y. Post
LETTER FROM MR. VAN buren,.
The Nashville Union publishes the re-
ply of Mr. Van Buren, to the invitation OF
the Tennessee Democratic State Com.
millee, to attend the great mass meeting
hold at Nashville nm the 18th inst The