The daily union. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1845-1857, 1846-10-09
HE DEMOCRATIC TAnM POLICY.


.onable p ices, fabrics Of foreign and domestic man
uiaeturing industry and thus to create widespread
and hesthfa activity in all those fsI-branehing In
tsrests which certain TO the foreign and the home car
,iny t,adsthe Sc were among the cardinal purposes
IL view Of which the democratic party resolved upon
the repeal Of the tariff Of 1912 and the erection IN
Conformity with tie constitution, OF moro just
and liberal system of taxation TO detray the expen-
.ss of the general government. In these purposes
the tariff of 1886 beca me a law
Assirst this whole plan Of liberal commercial
,olicv two arruments--one Of them old, and the
o,hs, comparatiyely nsw--haye been pertinaeiously
insisted ON. In the first place, it has long been
urged that the ports of Europe, and especially OF
England have been virtually closed against the prod
,cts of our agriculture. In the second place. and
particularly Of late, il has been maintained that
P,.l,nd and the western countries Of Europe
would supply any deficiency in their food-market,
Dom the regions surrounding the Black and the
Bal,c seas Without entrenehing itself in these two
posilions the party ofresrcton IN this country could
never have pretended to hold It's ground against the
manifest and multiplied considerations of justice and
noey which commend TO all intelligent judgments the
holds of restrielioniSt prejudice are now swept
away. The ports Of England are open. The ports
Of other European countries are fast opening. The
dear-bought wisdom Of experience has taught
the British statesmen no longer to shut up the =,
granAries against the teeming agriculture oil IN,
New World Nor does England. or Europe look
with hope, for supply OF bread, to any ON a quar-
ter than the United States. The Baltic 10 fner, and
the Black sea farmer-those twin phar toms which
have been so long paraded before the public eye OF
this country, to scIre the American mind from true
conception of that food-SuppIyins mission to which
the gifts Of Providence have called our country-are
now shrinking r,own to their true and puny proper
tons The az riculturNl experience Of the last two
years in Europe has shown that the valley of the
Mississippi IN heneeforth to be the granary of Eng
land. That country has now no choice but TO send
10 her orders for food And this vast trade once
estabiShed and in full operation, never again be
proaluted There is but cause which can Sc
riousy curtal or impair this vast interchange be-
tween agricultural and manufact uriug industry.
That cause is restriction, We can impair or de-
stroy the foreign market for Sarplus agricultural
products, by closing our ports against the products
But such restriction is fest becoming "an obsolete
idea" Its advocates in this ounry have no toera-
bic opportunity to propagate their doctrines among
US. To say nothing Of the. progress Of economical
science-of the liberal ten eneies of the aee-and OF
the constitutional difc .ulties which stand in the
way of high-proter.tive tarif-all this being left
out Of yiew-the Immense domestic trade of our
country, bringing into close and mutually bene-
fcent connexion its remotest regions, furnishes
al-powerful argument for freedom Of commerce.
You cannot convince the citizen of Louisiana that
1t is good for him to buy and sell Boston without
atariff, and bad for him to buy and sell at Liver
pool in the same way. You cannot make it appear
TO tho farmer Of New England while he has no
protection, and asks none against the farmer of
Indiana, that the manufacturer at Lowell should
levy tax of so or 100 per cent. TO protect himself
against the manufactures of Manchester. You can
not convince the owner Of a woollen mill in Ohio
that 1t Is good for MIN to be unprotected against
Lowell and at the same time necessary for Lowell
to be protected against all foreign parts The re-
stricon men stand in just this dilemma They are
compelled to admit that entire freedom of trade
throughout the western hemisphere is a vast bless
ing, and that every tax upon any product or fabric is
manfesy an evil, unless that product or that fabric
is brought across the Atlaac. This is the view of
public economy upon which the freedom of our
domestic trade. But that freedom carries with it,
by necessary inference, liberal commercial policy
that shall reach across the Atlantic. The unre-
stricted intercourse which is papably, and in the
judgment of all men, blessing between Boston and
New Orleans cannot be so bad a'thng between Lon
don and New York. Yet strangely enough, men
can be found among US, who will say that because
vast domestic trade is, and ought to be free,
therefore our foreign trade ought to be burdened
by high protective rprohibitive tariff
is Of course idle to say that free domestic trnde
between the different sections Of our country is
benefit, because these different sections are nearly
in the condition in respect to the price of labor
the price of food, and all those elements which en-
ter into the cost Of production. In the first
place, this ia not true. Lowell can underscl
the few small manufacturing villages of the
west much better than Manchester can under.
sell Lowell. The iron master in Pennsy lvana
underse a small similar establishment in
Kentucky, for instance, far easier than the iron mas
ter in Wales can undersell the great iron establish
ihcnts Vi EelHbylEutib. IL Ii tnen, nal
the different sections of our country stand anywhere
nearly on level in those elements which enter into
the Of production. Yet section of our country
sprotected asks to be protected against any other
section But if all this otherwise, still the argu
for free domestic trade, would be just strong
for, freedom ofnterchangeb two nations, other
things being the same, is beneficial just in proper
ton their productions and forms of industry are
dssimilar. The United States is the home of agri-
culture. England is in several respects the home of
manufactures. This dissimarity of condition and
pursuits is the very why trade between them
should be Free The argument, therefore, for free
commerce between us and Europe, is ever stronger
than the argument for free domestic trade among
ourselves. ..... .... 4
Sec how the facts stand at this moment in relation
to the English demand for grain, and our capacity to