Jeffersonian Republican. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1840-1853, 1846-08-13

This question, asked as to the Tariff, and as
10 The greater interest of the poor or the rich in
Protective duties, is good deal like asking,
Who have the greater need TO be defended by
The laws, the weak or The strong! For, as the
strong are able to live with less aid Of laws than
the weak, so can the wealthy better lake care
/ of themselves than the destitute. For the lat
ter, there may be need Of poorhouses and other
public charities; these, therefore, though pure
ly artificial conlrvance, all Governments find II
good TO create; but is it the rich who require
them! We apprehend not
| Now, TO say that protective tariffs are adopted
for the benef, of the capitalists is just about as
true as that laws are made for the benefit ol
lawyers only, or that poorhouses are built mere
Iy for The sake of the overseers OF The poor.----
But there are Others tina, have much greater
interest in The existence of law than The law
yers, and in that Of poorhouses than the over
seers. Ii is all the difference which man has
between The necessity of living and that of get
ting rich. Laws and poorhouses may enable
lawyers and overseers 10 grow richer; but the
rest Of the community could no, exist without
The laws, and the pauPers would perish if there
were no, poorhouses. So is il with laws that,
by what We call The Protective System, create
more lucrative employmenls for those depend
an. for subsistence on their daily labor. The
same laws help the capiialisl---a man already
possessed Of some wealth---io get more but
what is The inle and vain enjoyment Of show,
which added wealth creates for him, in CON-
parison with the solid comfort spread among
whole bodies of the poor by these laws, which
bring their labor into constant demand, and ad-
vance its compensation still more in that con-
,inual employment, than in mere rate of wages!
II, then, protective dulies are 10 TIE advan-
iage Of one capitalist, (who could, however,
+ live wilhou, them) they are of vastly more rel
alive advantage TO perhaps hundreds Of poor, in
each mandatory, who could scarcely hue, even
without them, and about whom, at any event,
they double and triple and quadruple all the Sc
curly, and comfort, and responsibility of life.
To Judge more surely of the fact which we
are asserting, lie, any one look at the compare
live condition of the laboring poor, in those
quarters where The Protective System has
reared up these artificial employments, and in
those other quarters where it has not. In the
former, you see all busy, diligent, and well
paid; the women as proflably occupied as the
men, in proportion to their strength; and the
very children either al work, or al school, upon
fund, which the surplus of their own wages
has in reality often supplied. No rags, no
wrelchedness, no melancholy cabin, haIf-roof-
| less and with floor of mud taltered troop OF
wild children about a sad mother looking half
| famine struck 10 be seen occasionally through
the dismanied door or brokon walls, her husband
probably gone fishing or hunting, because
he, The sole worker for The family. cannot gel
employment more than half his lime This
latter is the description, familiar TO every body
of the poor Of all those parts of the country
where The benefcient action Of the system we
speak Of has not vet created employmen,s.--
| Among them, The habl,arion is such as scarcely
defends from the weather; the raimen, is scan
iy, coarse, unsuted 10 the season, and full o
rents or patches; the food itself is bad, INSULT
cient, and always uncertain for the morrow and
FIVE dollars a, a time in money is thing nc
more TO be dreampl Of than the possession o.
the Bank of England Add 10 all this The sad
dest Of human deprisalions--lhe absence o.
nearly all hope of ever betiering their condition
This is the situation OF the poor---of those who
have mol farms of their own---over neatly the
whole country. where manufactures have no
yet sprung up. Except their color, and some
few general signs OF belonging 10 civilized life
thcy are very lii,le better off than sayages.
On he other hand, see what general comfort
what eheerfulness in The dwelling, what decen
cy and fitness of the apparel, what abundanc,
and nicely Of the food, what a multiplication o
all The household conveniences, what habits 0
order and industry, what general education
wha, respectability, wha, cheerful expectation
Of The fuiure, grow up for The laboring casse
around every GENRE OF The employments whicl
these laws for tho encouragement, Of pToduc
lion a, home bring about st snv man Iool