The Woodstock age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1844-1845, 1844-10-17
POLITICAL.
r e p LY OF
CHARLES BROWN.
OF


Clayton ofthe whig party, on the sub
ject Of THE TARIFF-Jeing the con-
GLIDING portion of Speech Of Mr.
Brown, to Mass Meeting ofthe Demo-
Gratis Of Delaware, held at Dover, .Aug.
6, 1874.
Concluded.
81 did not vote for the tariff of 1923, for
which however, Mr. Van Buren,, Col.
Benton, Col. johnson, Mr. Wright, and
others of our present opponents did vote.
End ii Is remarkable that from that period
my crertions in Congress haze bcn d.
rectrd to the reduction and modification Of
tariffs, Thus, in 1882 | supported that
tariff, which greatly modified and reduced
the tariff of 1928 insomuch that it was
supposed by reasonable men that it would
or ought to satisfy the NulIfers of South
Carolina The next year, 1882, brought,
forward the compromise. In lS4l | sup
ported the tariff of that year, which was
limited to the free articles"
Nor would it be any way difficnlt to
prove Mr. Clay friend to '.frtc trade, I"
aud ready and wiling to place American
labor" on the same footing as the "panper
tabor of Europe" or the "po'aioe growing
Irish, and the grain growing serls of the
Baltic and the Black sea" so much dread
ed by Mr. Clayton. In a speech delivered
by him (Mr Clay in the Senate March
%, 1912, he thus dlScourses Of free trade:
"What is free trade? Does it mean Il
trade between two nations with freedom
on one side and all sorts Of restrictions on
the other! Is that free trade! Or does it
mean trade with absolute freedom? that
is, with no duties at all-or very low du-
ties, and st.ic'Iy equal duties on both sides!
II that is the Senator's meaning, | will not
stop to discuss the question, SHOULD BIT
GLAD TO SEE UNIVERSAL FREEDOM OF
TRADE ESTABLISHED over the face of the
whole world"
Again he says in his letter to Mr. Me'i-
welhe,:
'Inerer mas in faror Of ~hot Irrgord-
I'd as a hish tariff And my present opIn-
ion is in perfect coincidence with tina, of
the whole Wing party Of the United States
including Georgia, as | understand it,"
To know what the opinions of the wing
party of Georgia were, and with which MIR
Clay says that he is in ''periect coinc-
dence," we need only refer to The opinions
of all the wing members Of Congress from
Georgia, to the last Congress, whose
speeches Mr. Clay no doubt had read, and
which furnish the best evidence of the
opinions of the wing party of Georgia.
Mr. Habersham made long report from
the minority of the Committee on Manu-
features, against protective tariffs and their
"ruinous effects" and made long speech
TO prove them,
Mr. Warren called upon all "bo,h wings
and locofocos of the Sou,h,"t to unite in
opposition to "such aparlial system Of tax
alton"
Mr. Gamble said it was "monstrous
system, system which makes the rich
richer and the poor poorer" and that "il
is heh time for us to abandon this odious
land he might say exploded) doctrine in
Great Britain" Ofthe Tariff Bill IN par
ticuIar, he adds tina, is highly protective"
Mr. Merwe,her said that ''ihe power to
proec, domestic manufactures who denied
10 the Federal Government by the Conven-
ion " hich formed the Constitution, and
therefore, the exercise of this power by
Congress. is too palpably unconstitutional
10 he justified for moment"
challenge Mr. Clayton or Mr. Anybody
else, to find in all that Mr. Polk has ever
said or written anything half so strong in
favor Of free trade as is this speech and let
Ter Of Mr. Clay's.
This, strongly as it is ,nctnred with free
trade, does not to my mind cast the hun
dredih part of the doubts of the sincerity
Of Mr. Clay's friendship for the protective
policy, as do other speeches and votes of
his.
In lsll, when Mr. Clay and his friends
came into power. it is well known that the
duties under the compromise act had
dwindled down too far below the protective
or the revenue point. On the 2lst of May,
1871, wing congress met in extra sess-
ion. Did Mr. Clay then propose to raise
the duties on the projected articles? He
never intmaied such an intention. On the
contrary, instead of thus raising the pro-
,ectlve articles, he and his party passed an
act levying dntics on the "free articles"
the articles left free by the tariffs Of 1882
and 1888, for which Mr. Polk voted and
advocated, as expressly left free to aid
the manufacturing, mechanicle and agri-
cultural labor of the country. | look upon
this act Of Mr. CIay's, and so charged it
at the time,a deadly thrust at the protec-
tive policy of the country. Then was the
time, if ever, that the American system
needed father, that the labor of the coun-
try needed projections; and then it was the
laborers called loudly on Congress for
dread" but Mr. Clay and his wing friends
gave them stone, that these articles thus
taxed by Mr. Clay had been lett free to aid
. he protective policy. / have The evidence
of Mr. Polk and Mr. Clayton, and Mr. Clay
himself They were, according to Mr.
Clay,on's notion, the great productive
principle of the compromise act. He thus