The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1851-01-09
THE REPUBLIC.

have not happened, then is there no compensation
for the vast destruction we have Witnessed and are
daily Witnessing.
Have they happened Have we more wheat TO
export? On the contrary, we have less from year
to year. Have we more cotton, rice, tobacco, corn
or pork to sell. The answer 10 found in the fact,
that the quantity for export dimnishes from year
to year The demand for ships diminishes, and
the demand for labor diminishes; and, instead
of this country becoming from year 10 year
more and more the asylum for the down-trodden
people of Europe il becomes from year to year less
SO; and with the diminution Of immigration there
is a diminution Of the number of persons with whom
maintain perfect freedom OF trade, untrain-
meed by the interference of custom house officers
Under the tariff of 1912 immigration trebled; and
with each immigrant we established perfect free
dom of trade. Under the tariff of 1916 immigra-
ton has become stationery, with tendency TO de-
cline; and the number OF arrivals in the last fiscal
year ia greater than il three years before.
Perfect free trade has ceased to extend itself We
trade now with million of Europeans, still resi-
dent in Europe, who, but for the enactment of the
tariff of 1916, would now be Americans
Here is mass Of facts that should be accounted
for, and they correspond exactly with those which
exhibited to view as the compromise tariff be-
came operative, as you will by the perusal of
the following pages, in which the movement I'M
der the various systems of the last twenty years is
fully examined. They constitute my contribution
toward the transactions OF the Gree Trade
League" and desire now to invite your attention
to them, with view to the discussion and settle
ment of the question, whether the road toward PER
feet freedom of trade lies through perfect protec-
ton or through the total abandonment of the pro-
tectivc system. One or the other must be true In
ciden tai protection is fraud, and the il is
abandoned the better il will be Tor the nation. If
protection is right, it should be adopted, being
the way by which we may speedily, safely, and
proitably reach perfect freedom OF trade. III it is
not right. it should be at once and entirely aban-
doned
The facts here given are, as / believe, accurate
Ifany of them otherwise it is because Of the
exceeding difficulty of obtaining information in
lation to some of the subjects brought under con-
sideration. If any errors exist, shall be glad to
have them indicated together with any error of de-
duction that you may discover. invite you to a
full exposition of them. My desire is,to find the
truth, and that alone; and il you can account for
the facts in such manner to prove in error,
it shall be frankly admitted, as will be the case
am persuaded, with yourself, when you shall have
satisfied yourself that the result of the four years
experience OF the policy of 1916 has been to dimin
ish everywhere throughout the country the value
of labor and capital and to deteriorate the condi
ton of the people. have freely examined your
views, as published by yourself Be as free with
mine.
1t is time that the people of this country should
learn to think for themselves on this important
subject, instead of borrowing all their ideas from
the works of English poltico economical writers,
who, while claiming to belong to the school of the
author of The WeaiM of Nations, repudiate all his
doctrines, praising what he denounced, and every
where denouncing what he advised-to wit, the
careful cultivation of the home market, by means
sumed upon the land to the advantage of the la
borer and the landowner, the manufactures and
his operatives, the ship carpenter and the mer-
chant. From the day of the publication of his
great work to the present hour, English political
economy has steadily receded until it has at
length brought the nation into state of eNhaus-
ton, from which extrication would seem almost
impossible; and yet, free claim to be- we
adopt all its errors and unite with it's teachers in
repudatng the doctrines of the only sound political
economist the country has ever produced--Adam
Smith. From his day to the present hour it has
never, to my knowledge, made single contrlbu-
ton TO the science that will stand, although theory
has followed theory, and Ricardo and Nautilus
have been almost dcihed as the great benefactors
OF mankind in discovering and announcing the ex-
istence of great natural laws, in virtue of which
famine and pestience to attend obedience to
that first of all the commands of God, "ncrease
and multply;" and increasing poverty among the
masses, with increasing inequality of condition, Is
to be the reward Of that growth of population and
wealth which always follows obedience to the
great law Of Christ: 'Do unto your neighbors as
ye would that they should do unto you" The OBJ
ject of the Briteh system, denounced by Adam
Smith, calculated to diminish the for labor
and capital, both at home and abroad, and advocated
by all his successors as calculated to increase the
return for both, is that of making England :" the
workshop of the world" To attain that object, it
was necessary to undericork the ,oorid, and every
where supplant the native manufacturer in his own
market. has been done in Ireland and the result
are famnes and pestiences of such constant occur
that the country lies almost corpse upon her
hands. 1t has been in India until the whole class
OF small landholders has utterly disappeared, and
the productive power of the country is 30 dimin-
ished that the government must become bankrupt
from the hour that China shall acquire power to
prevent her people from being demoralizcd and
poisoned with the opium, to secure the power TO
smuggle which, England battered down her cities
and destroyed her citizens IL has been done in the
West Indies, until they have all been ruined. 1t has
been done in her North American provinces, until
their first desire has become that of abandoning
"iree-trade" with England, by which they are ruin
ed, and obtaining admission into our Union. II
has been done in Portugal, until her ancient ally Ia
reduced to the lowest abyss ofpoverty It has been
done in Spain, by aid of the smugglers of e ibratar
and of Portugal; and there, as everywhere, the re-
suit has been the same-poverty and dcstituton on
the part of the people, and weakness on the part OF
Having exhausted her customers, the poison now
reacts upon herself Her system has built up the
fortunes of the few, who have become the sole pos
SCISSORS of land, while the whole body of small own
ers and occupants that existed in the days OF Adam
Smith has disappeared The day laborer has taken
the place of the little farmer, and from day to day
the tendency to the accumulation OF the land In the
hands of large owners increases the productive
ness of labor decreases. The nation has fully and
fairly realized what said by Adam Smith,
when he spoke of ga nation of shopkeepers. 1t 10
nation OF middle men, living at the cost OF the
producer on the one hand, and the consumer on the
other, and having for its whole code OF morals the
obligation of buying in the cheapest and selling
in the dearest market" To produce cheaply, the
must nave IapoT CHedp, anu
the more land is centralized in the hands of the
few, the greater must be the competition for en-
ployment, and the lower must be the wages of the
unhappy laborcr or workman delivered over to the
tender mercies of the 'ssweater,"* another middle
man, who stands between the brakeman and his
workmen. The consequences precisely those
anticipated by Dr. Smith. The class OF high
minded English merchants, renowned in earlier
times, has disappeared, to give place to body OF
gamblers, whose dishonesty and rottenness are
brought to view the occasion of each successive
revulsion; the little agriculturist of older times
has become the occupant of the lanes and cellars OF
Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester; the artisan
has become the slave of the middle man II his wife
ekes out the wages Of her husband and herself by
the gains OF infancide i or her children, II al
lowed to live, contribute by aid of incestuous in
tercoursc, TO the maintenance of population; while
the nation, becoming daily weaker, sinks from the
station of the proud England of olden time, to be-
come the mere creature of the lords of the loom.
Such the results of an insane effort TO compel
the world TO permit her everywhere TO interpose
herself between the producers and the consumers
of the fruits of the earth-such the results of a
long series of laws having for their object the es
tablishment n Off The machinery the