The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1849-10-15
Public Economy.-No. g..
{" Protective Duties not TIRES. y

50 Protectipe Duties not lures
MEssns EpIroRs: At the conclusion of my last
number in your paper of the 9Th instant, after
having endeavored TO establish the acts that Tree
dom and the enjoyment OF commercial rights are
Identical; that both alike require protection, and
that the protection of one is protection of the
other, because they are one and the same-l re
marked that the question, whether protection oper
ates fairly and equally all parties in the country,
remains to be considered That depends, sup
pose, on the decision of the question: whether pro-
tective duties taxes on the consumers of the
articles protected not The affirmative of this
latter question has been 80 long and generally
conceded by the advocates of protection, that
one whc is bold enough to take the negative would
appear, at first sight. to be doomed to row his boat
against wind and tide. Possession of a field OF
argument, suppose, will be claimed as nine points
of the law in all other matters and we are forced
TO rely action of ejectment.
do not say, Messrs. Editors, that the PROPOSE
ton, that protective duties are taxes on the con-
suners of the articles TO the amount OF the duties,
is all absurdity; for absurdity, believe, ID an
ayerment which carries its own refutation on its
face: nevertheless am inclined to think that the
time ia not distant when the burden OF proof will
be rolled back on those who shall presume TO hold
the affirmative Of this question. Mr.. Cotton, be-
ieye is the first economist who has entered the
field in an elaborate argument on the negative.
The title of his Odd chapter ia, protective duties not
tares, which is apparently bold position if taken
without qualification. But Mr.. Cotton has gone
further than this and in his oath chapter has
dertaken to show, that an american protective
system from foreign taraton;" and if the
principle ON which he has based this proposition is
a sound one, and if his facts and figures are cor
rect, that foreign taxation will be found to be i'm
mense and amazing shall consider that hereafter,
and confine myself, at present, to his argument
that "protective duties are not taxes" Mr.. Col
ton says:
cit is remarkable that the affirmative of this
proposition should have been long conceded
without scrutiny. Whether the negative is equally
true of all countries, do not pretend to say 1t
will be seen, by the ground already gone over,
that system of public economy cannot be devised
that equally applicable to all nations, nor to any
two nations. But the principle which makes the
proposition that protective duties are not taxes,
true here, WILL in like circumstances, make it true
every where. To the people of the United States,
this proposition has become one of the greatest, one
of momentous Importance: first, because it is gen
orally believed and taken for granted that all du
ties are taxes next, because this false assumption
lastly, because if protective duties in the United
States not only not taxes. but rescue from taxa
ton and as will be found from enormous system
Of foreign taxation, the argument for protection be
comes one of great interest and of supreme forc'
a duty of patriotism.
at is not denied" says Mr.. Cotton, " that du
ties ON unprotected articles will enhance prices ant
that for this reason they taxes; duties
nd yario thera RITZ whi ca
not be produced at home. But it is found by expe
rience, that the duties exact measur
of the tax. Except in of defect of supply
the prices rarely rise by the measure of the duties
They generally fall short by moiety more or less
This fact is a complete disturbance of the theory
fee trade and breaks it up entirely That dutie
ON unprotected articles taxes, is true but it
not true that the duties the measure OF tn
taxes All practical merchants will certify to tn
correctness of this view.
"But il will be found, that protected articles fa
into very different position under duties, and tina
thew are subject to very different set of influences
as TO the effect of the duties on the prices, whei
American arts, industry, and labor come into com
petition under system of protection, against for
..ign arts and labor. The most vulnerable points
those systems of foreign despotism which for Ger
turtles have held labor in the most AFFECT condition
are assailed by an American protective system
and assaied to their great alarm and CONSERVATION
They are assailed by young giant, conscious, c
who ought to be conscious of the strength of his pc
sition and of the weakness of adversaries. And VIII
are those systems Of dsspotism alarmed, when the
behold young America, not only rising and spread
ing herself in strength but learning and practisin
those arts which hitherto have given Europe her al
tendency over the rest of the world, and made a
nations, the United States among the rest, tribut'
ries to her greatness, her power, her thrones hi
princes, her aristocracies, her towering pride, h
pomp her overgrown institutions, hervast wealu
and all those elements Of earthly grandeur, whic
constitute her supremacy and her political sway
WHY il Great Britain alarmed at this spectacle
Because it is the starting up of rival which 81
fears-and fears more than any other. And what
the specific ground of her fear? Simply and ON
Lecause she cannot but foresee, in this rivalshp
chsapening of the products of her own arts and i
Dor IN the United States, and all the world over
in the United States, her best market, and in u
marketed the world, which she had long endeavor'
TO monopolize The arts of Great Britain d
tower of her strength, her great national bulwar
lobe undersold and superseded in them, is 10
undermined
oTn order" continues Mr.. Cotton, "to ascerta
articles in the United States, and how they act,
il necessary consider the relative position OF Il
country to Europe and other foreign parts, pr
siucers of the same things, on the subject embrac
in the question. II has already been shown, III
Europe occupies a strong vantage ground, by ha
ing been first in the field Of the arts 40 as 10 ha
made superior attainments; and, more especial
by having awaited herself of the abject condition
which she has ever held labor, that it does n
cost her, an average, more than one-third OF
cost in the United States. All that she gains
this usurpation-and the power is mmense-is a
propriated chiefly TO that artificial aggrandiseme
and to those prodigal expenditures which, for {
maintenance of her power and pride, character
the nations of Europe. Europe has never yet fou
1t necessary TO use any considerable fraction OF u
power in a commercial rivalship with free Stat
inasmuch az such States have never yet risen up
any formidable shape, except in the case OF
> United States; and here our foreign commcrc
policy has generally been 80 lax and Huctuatn
CT z fla 10