Mobile register and journal., 1845-09-02

PROTECTIoN.-Iherea are two great objects Tor which governments are instituted among men, the protection of life and liberty, and the protection of property. If life and liberty formed the sole object, all ought be taxed alike in every free government, becanse the political contemp lation of such go- vernmen, the life and liberty of each man, without distinction orperson. is equally entitled it's paren tai regard But in addition to the protection which governments afford life and liberty is that which is extended to property, and for the same reason that government would tax all men equally if their lives and liberties the only objects of pro- lection, that must II tax them unequaly when their property becomes the subject of proteclion-ior in proportion 10 lhe Of the protection ought 10 be the compensation paid for it. Government is a machine, which each Uug Int to pay for according to the he makes of it. He who receives the of fees ofr guardianship over thousand dollars ought 10 pay double the amount paid by lhe man who has but five hundred to be guarded, and on through all the gradaions Of pecuniary fortune.
 These, all men will acknow ledge are mere tru-
 sms. They in fact the maxims upon which the simplest efforts of savage instinct, if let 10 its biased tendencies, would the first fabric of so- ciaI union; and yet they are precisely the maxims
 
 interest mpels prostitute the great duties of just government first seek to violate; and the protective system, (so grossly misnamed) wherever it exists, in monarchies, socrasies republics, has for it's ect nothing else than the utter subversIun ofthese elementary truths. Instead of calling upon all men to contribute to the support ofthe government pro portion to the amount off the property il protects for them, it nvokes il 10 protect particular individuals, or particular casses-or proclaims in advance, that those who desire be favored to have their fortunes enlarged, or their burlhens ligltened, must engage
 fthey can, in certain specified pursuits which il has pleased their rulers consider as avocations which most deserve the patronage of the government.
 How such system could obtain footing among just and clear sighted people who reiaIn the power of governing in their hands, it is difficult ceive. It has been well remarked that under the protective system existing in the United States, a hborer in the streets of New York, whose family perhaps want the first necessaries of life, may be made to pay much Jno. Jacob stor, who is the master oi fortune sufficient to sustain small com monwea'tl-and whether this illustration of Ihe in- equality and wickedness of the sys lem be true or not, under it's operation it is certain that the poor and needy do very frequently pay larger sum in he shape of taxes 10 support the government than the comfortable and aflueni, and always in proportion grossly uDequal twhen compared with the wealthier classes) to the property which the government pro- tects for them. But why it may he asked, has such a system been 80 long sustained in nearly all the The answer plain. The prelexts for it are plau- la tl,na l.ul. unjust objects indirect and disgused and in near ly all the governments of the earth the crafty few have succeeded in subjugating their own selfish power the credulous and trusting many. Just government is the last effort of civzation--te last fruit of ps- ligon.
 But suppose, instead of the indirect method by which the southern planter, (and indeed all other members of society who of the favored class men were told that for the purpose of sustaining do- nestle industry, they should pay ten dollars for eve " coat, two dollars for every hat. fifty cents for every pair of stockings and blanket, etc., more than the market price, in order that the largess thus col lected should go into the public treasury to be disir- buted among American manufacturers? What Anne ri an citizen would for one moment be found to de- fend such a system-or to live in land subject 10 rule SO disastrous, unjust and reyolting? Yet in what respect would such plan of legslang manu- E,ctures into success and prosperity differ from the system which is now dividing among the faitenng objects of political bounty its millions in diyi- dends of lO I5 20 30 and 40 per cent, of which al- most every newspaper from New England brings us the tidings. In what respect does it diaer9 In none except that in the case we should know precisely what it cost to enable Mir. Abott to give l2 thousand dollars to university, Mir. Lawrence 2 thousand to female seminary, and all the manufac- turing region to smile like second paradise upon the fruits of our constant impoverishment. But be- cause the money paid for protection is not counted oui al each ofexpenditure and called bounty, escapes our notice and passes legitimate ton hidden under the general disguise ofprice.
 When Alexander Hamilton (who with all his monarch,cal tendencies aad love of strong govern. nent was an honest man) was asked what the best of fostering manufactures, he answered "bountes"-and in his celebratedIreport on the sub iect recommended them altogether preferable 10 specific duties or imports. In this he was right and he was wrong-he right because the pay, altho' II might have been less in amount, would have been more certain; but he was wrong because the expo sure of the deformities of the system would have 'Euck all eyes and ensured s speedy destruction.