The Arkansas banner., 1847-08-16
A Letter from Hon. Dixon N. Levitt.

Letter from Hon. Dixon H. Lewis.
 The subjoined letter will be read with in. terest by the friends of free trade. 1t is in reply to an invitation to unite in public dinner with many of the democratic citizens of New York. The letter of invitation says that to Mir. Lewis incessaut labors in behalf of the tariff of '46, and to his unyieldine firmness at the seat of government, when many of it's firmest friends had yielded, we owe il that compromise fatal to the prnci- pies of free trade was not effected at the mo- ment preceding the final passage of this act
 NEw YoRK, June, lS47. To Messrs. Wm. r. Havemeyer, E. K. Col
 lins, and associates:
 GENTLEMEN have just received a let ter signed by yourselves and one hundred other gentlemen of this city, associating in the most complimentary manner, my name with the success of the great doctrines oi Free Trade, and at.ributing an influence in producing the resul, of the present rate oi import duties, which by no means feel that deserve.
 With the most flatering estimate of the very humble par, have borne in the grea, contest which terminated in the reduced rate of duties, imposed by the act of l846, feel t impossible to appropriate 10 myself any degree of merit, which does not equally at- lach 10 the friends Of free trade throughou. the Union. claim nothing more ihan to have performed faithful service in common struggle against privilege aud monopoly; and to have been one of the few who rallied un- der the flag of Free Trade, when Protection, backed by power and speaking through lhe mouth-piece of the Government, was pro- claimed 'the settled policy Of ihe c,uniry,'' to oppose which was considered something more than -.4mericdn, and but little less than treaeoa. Such was the slate of this question iwenty-one years since, when en- tered the public service.
 As representative of free people, have ever felt that commercial freedom was but the assertion of the right of any individual, to manage his own affairs as he may think best for his own interest, subject to no other restriction than that in so doing he invade the just rights of no other person. If this modicum of individual liberty is taken away, what becomes of individual Freedom, What other rights are left, worthy of being main- ,ainedi lf am subject to the will of the Government in the direction and control oi my labor and capital, am, notwithstanding the forms of liberty, in fac, the slave of that Government Wha, better definition can be given of a slave, than that in the prosecution of his private business, he is under the con- troi of some other will than his own;
 b. II. L. sl. Il .l. wisdom of interference Does not self-in- terest give to each individual better know ledge of his own private affairs, than any Government can acquire' If this is true of individuals, it is equally true ese the commu- nity; and can government, with an imperfect knowledge Of individual interest, wisely as- sume to control the business pursuits of such entire community It is difficult. 10 deter mine whether such assumption be mos. vio- lative of the public interest or of the public liberty.
 But, gentlemen, can never forget, that Tn the earliest struggles of commercial freedom in this country, the city of New York. true 10 the instincts of her great commercial des- tiny, uniformly and almost single. e.handed and alone, of all the north, rallied under .as :.ssH small banner or tree of liberty There is something therefore appropriate. that this, of all other northern cities, should be the first to compliment southern representative for his uniform devotion to free trade principles, and to propose public festival, for the tri- umph of cause, which New York was her self among the first to vindicate. It adds, too, to the force of this compliment, that it comes from city, admitted on all hands to be the commercial centre of this great coun- try, and destined, as believe, to become the commercial centre of the world With the cheapest and best raw material to clothe the world, with an annually augmenting manu- fac ure of that material, threatening by the actual results of lhe present year. at a period not very distant, to exceed the amount manu- iactnred by England herself, and with ma ierlal fos food, which, in Gods Providence, seems destined to feed the world, nothing but the absolute commercial 1sisgnation, which 1t IS the purpose of restrictions on trade to create, can arrest that current of favorable exchanges, which Gom every quarter is al- ready turned toward this country.
 The prosperity Of your city is bat an ex- Ponent of the commercial prosperity of the country, and therefore no portion of the Union Is more interested in this eonsumma.ion than New York itself The results of very par tisliy relaxing the restraints on foreirn com