The Somerset herald and farmers' and mechanics' register. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 183?-1852, 1846-08-18

less than II would cost to cart 1t 20 miles
on common roads. Such would be the
manifest and ruinoes effects of free
trade" on the wages Of labor in every
department of the national industry; and
any reduction of protection would be a
reduction of the same extent to the wages
of labor
1t would degrade the free labor OF this
country to the miserable condition of the
serf labor of foreign lands, where men
were slaves-without the means Of edu-
eating their childrcn-working from the
cradle to the grave, and never aspiring to
any thing beyond scanty and miserable
subsistence; and such was the condition to
which "free trade" must inevitably bring
the now protected and prosperous labor of
this great country. Pull down the walls
built up by the tariff Of AZ to protect
and defend American labor-let the cheap
4 productions of the low priced labor of
Europe flow FREELY into your markets,
and you must sooner or later come down
TO their degraded condition-moral and
political. He, therefore, earnestly ap-
pealed to the laboring people of this coun-
try-the sovereigns of the land-who
''made all and paid all, to come quickly
to the rescue, to save themselves from
the degrading and disastrous effects of
Stree trade" The POWER was in their
own hands-they could protect them
selves at the 6aHOt-bor, and, if they did
not, they would deserve the degradation
10 which they would be doomed. To ev-
cry candidate for Office PROFOUND this
question: "are you Il, faUor of protect
ing american against foreign labor by
a ProfecfiUs Tariff! And let his answer
be conclusive. This is the remedy-the
only remedy. Let it be adopted, and all
viii be well. He stood there the firm
friend and humble advocate of the labor
ing man. He had been a laboring man
himself; he knew their privations and
had participated in their tolls; and to de-
serve and receive the appreciation Of the
Iaboring poor, of the mechanics and log
cabin men of this country, would be more
grateful to his heart than all the praises OF
all the presses of the land. 1t would be
the crowning and cherished reward of all
his eflorts-the only reward to which he
aspired.
Labor, productive labor, was the great
source of national wealth. It's import
ance was incalculable. Compared with
this all other interests dwindled into per-
feet insignifcance. What is all other
capital combined compared to the capital
of labor-hard- handed, honest labor-the
toiling millions-the great fountain of our
national prosperity-look at it. Suppose
we have but two millions Of working men
in the United States, whose wages aver
| age $50 per year-this is equal to the
interest of SO, 900 at six per cent. Each
laborer's capital, then, is equal to $4,000
at interest. Multiply this by two mil
lions, the number of laborers, and it gives
you capital amounting to the enormous
sum of sic thousand millions Of dollars,
producing, at six per cent, three hundred
and SiTty millions of dollars a year.
This was the sLa5or copitof' he wished
to sustain and uphold. This was the
great national industry he wished to pro-
tect and defend against the rulnous and de-
competition with the pauper labor of lor-
eign lands. He went TO secure the Amer
lean market for American labor. In the
great struggle for the American market he
took the American side. On the other
hand, the gentleman from Alabama and
his friends went for the British, for for
eigners; for ''free trades" for opening our
ports to the manufacturers Of all the world;
for bringing in freely the paupcr produc-
tions of Great Britain, to overwhelm the
rising prosperity of our own poor but in
dustrious citizens. They went for crush
ing American enterprise; grinding down
American labor, and putting their coun-
trymen on footing with the very sweep
ings of the poor houses of Europe: and
would, in the end, bring them down to
their political, as well as their pecuniary
moral condition. Mr.. S. was for cher
ishing American labor; for giving it high
wages; for surrounding it with all the
substantial comforts of lifc Which was
the true friend of the People? And vet
these ''free trade" advocates, from the
Secretary down, professed to be the ex-
elusive friends of the ''poor man" and we
are denounced as the friends of"miIionai-
res and monopolists." Wenow import
ed .fiity millions worth of British goods
annually, and therein we imported twen-
ty-6ve millions worth of British agricul-
tural products-of English wool, English
grain, English beef and mutton, English
flax, English agricultural productions Of
every kind. And yet gentlemen would
rise here and talk of British market for
our breadstuffs. Why, how much of
this did England take! Not quarter OF a
million, in all its formsi
Here was a beautiful reciprocity. Here
| were the beauties Of free trade Here