The voice of freedom. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1839-1848, 1846-08-27
J.F. MCCLELLAN, Printer.

country was inundated with imported goods :;
the money was all drained off, and universal
distress followed. They tried making banks,
Out that OF course failed, as the specie was
gone, which alone can sustain them. From.
t1ls we were never fully relieved until it was
done by the protective tariffs of 1924 andes.
which tostered home manufacture and o.
nome market. In 1882 the friends of free
trade procured the passage of the Comprom-
Use act, under which the f,-vtocuvc duties
were gradually t~Acn Oft and reduced until
| 1912. wl.en the whole came down to 20 per
cent. Ibis was again free trade, and what
was its effect? Precisely the same it had al
ways been before. We bought where VIC
could buy cheapest, and as the duties dimin-
lshed, lmportatons oflorei On goods increas-
ed, until the country was again flooded with
them, the specie was again drained off, the
revenue fell below thirteen millions, and gen.
eral bankruptcy, individual and national, en-
sued. From this we were relieved by the
present tariff law, under which we are pros
penng. Now, it would seem as if we had been
sufficiently taught, by our own experience,
that our prosperity, that our national indie
pendence, cannot be sustained in the prac-
tice offre trade.
What Is state ofcolonial dependence and
what are the advantages to Ems gland, or any
other government, in the possession of colo
mes The benefit to England, derived from
her colonies, is, that she confines their trade
to herself, and supplies them, at her own
price, with all manufactured articles by her
own vessels, and sends off to them her sur
plus goods and population. To obtain these
advantages she is at the expense of defend
ing the colonies against other nations, and
sustaining their government. Now. suppose
we adopt the principles of free trade, now put
forth, and take all our manufactures from
England, and, because they sell cheapest, we
give to them our entire market; then they
will evidently have from us all the advantages
they have from any of their colonies; and
yet, If we only level ON those goods duty
enough to pay the ordinary expenses of our
Government,and as there are to be no domes-
tic manufactures to compete with them, our
people, the consumers, will have the duty to
pay, and we shall pay the expenses of our
own Government, and thus relieve England
from all burden in that way; so that we shall
be, practically, her colonies, entirely at our
own REPRESENTATIVE again to colonial
dependence for the necessaries of life, and in
capable OF sustaining ourselves in any tine
OF trouble. This accounts for the delight
with which the Secretarys report was receiy-
ed and republished by the British Parliament.
Now, who are the American party and wLo
are the British party in this country? Are
all the exertions and suffering of our fathers
In the Revolution to redeem us from this sta
OF colonial dependence to be, in effect set
aside and disrcgarded and our much boosted
independence be bartered away for cheap
clothing and neccssaries, which We are fully
able ourselves to supply?
Let 1t be remembered that we are now try
ing, in view of the world, the great cxreri-
ment whether mankind can succeed with a
popular system of government. Now must
be solved the great problem in civil society,
whetherman is competent to self government,
and 1t rests with us to settle for ourselves, for
posterity, and for the world-to settle, and
that probably forever, this great question:
10 effect this, We have assumed an exalted
position for our whole people among the ma
tons of the earth. 1t is not enough that our
people be only as aforementioned as those of
other nations In order to occupy their pla-
ces as treemen, and discharge their duties as
enlightened citizens of free republic. and
bring forward their children to take their DO
sltions on the qlattolm of equality with the
favored sons and daughters of the land. our
people, yes--our whole people-must, as
compared with those of other nations, occupv
an elevated position, physical, intellectual,
moral and social. They are, they must be,
better clothed, better fed, better housed, and
better educated and adorned as becomes the
taste and condition of a free people,"