New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1854-05-03
10. ,o--,, ,yn yoHTIrrRy INTERESTS.


the value Of labor and land. and to enrich both Ia
borer and landowner. Whether right wrong in
THE. the votes OF their Representatives have all
occasions. proved that tie belief existed; and it does
certsinv exist 70 20 great al extent that Tote
70 lie now token on the question whether protection
should lie main;aired or abandoned, apart from al
other Issues overwhelming majority would be foand
favorable 10 ts maintenance. Such being their belief
il would to be right and proper that they should
he enabled to lct in accordance with Il; and yet al
though almost thrice numerous as the whites OF the
slave States they have rarely been allowed 70 exercise
tie slightest influence upon the action OF Government
IN reference to this most important subject. Why
this has been so is that in the slave States every
white person votes for has property as well as for him.
self while in the free States vote for Themselves
alone II tie House of Representatives five millions
Of southern whites counterbalance seven millions OF
northern ones; and in the Senate the taxes paid by the
North for the purchase and protection of Louisiana
Florida Arkansas Texas and Missouri, repre-
sented by ten Senatorial votes, and thus it ia that
southern property and northern contributions for its
purchase are made to work for the eusllvement of
northern men.
At tie date Of the passage Of the tariff OF ls2s,
southern men Ike Madison and Jackson were still OF
the belief that protection in high degree adj
va1taqeous 10 the country. The latter hal then but
recently given 10 the world in the letter to DR.. Cole
man. his opinion that the country had been " too long
..depeuden on British merchants" and that al that
was required for assuring its independence was
that We should adopt policy tending to en-
able few hundred thousand more persons TO
Iocome consumers of agricultural products, there
b. diminishing to the same extent the number de-
pendent exclusively upon agriculture for subsistence.
No one however bigoted an advocate Of British free
trade can a. we think low read that letter without
being strongly impress ed with the correctness OF the
views Of it, distinguished author southern he was.
Neither can any one compare tie condition OF the
country in 1888 with that which h4d existed but half
dozen years before without arriving a, the conclusion
that continuance Of what was then deemed the DEM
ocratc policy would long before this time have placed
our cotton woolcn and iron manufactures in condi-
ton no longer to need protection The Democracy OF
that tine had however. never heard of the dea
that tho existence Of seryile class, whose members
were liable t. be bought and sold. essential to the
maintenance OF republican government 1t has been
since discovered BY those south Carolina philosophers
atuhose comm, nd the tarof 1-2S repealed. That
change wss followed by speculation and bankruptcy,
and by ruin to extent rarely exceeded in any coun-
try-the consequences of southern policy. Once
again in Iei2 did the northern policy Of protection
TO tie free aborer prevail; but years were then re-
quired TO repair the damage that had been produced;
and during those years the free cutyators had TO sui
fer from the loss resulting from large supplies of food
and wool small markets and consequent low prices of
all they had to sell. Furnaces and mills built,
but time required to build them, and. when built
years necessary for giving to those who worked
in them the instruction needed for the advantageous
performance OF tier duties. The skilled labOreg5 of
1888 lad been dispersed by southern policy and thus
had been sacrificed amount OF northern capital ten
times greater than could be replaced in similar time
by the profits Of southern trade. Let our readers
look back and compare for themselves the high po-
sOn occupied in 1888 with the degraded one in which
the country stood in l-42, and then determine if
tie losses Of that period not greater than would
be compensated by even half century of commerce
with people who being buyers of laborers believe
in the advantage resulting from the enslayement Of
the Gborcr
In the five years that followed the passage Of the
act of l-i2 production of iron grew stated
by Mr.. Walker, to more than 500, 900 uns or nearly
four times the quantity produced in lsi2. The con-
sumption of cotton grew from 300 600 bales 70 half
million and manufactures of all other kind, grew with
vast rapidity demand was thus made for labor, to
be applied TO the building of mills and furnaces the
opening OF mines, the construction OF machinery, AMI
TO the making OF cloth iron and other commodities
far exceeding hundred millions Of dollars A year: |
and the necessary result of this was that there was no
longer heard, in lS4l-2, the cry of .'Giye me
work Only give me work Make your own terms:
my wife and family have nothing to eat" On the
contrary, tie demand for labor of every kind skilled
and unskilled, increased so much more rapidly than
the supply that wages rose rapidly; and. with every
step IN TINS progress there enlarged power on
part of each member of this army aborers to pur
clae tie fruits of the farm the great advantage of
the farmer Never was a resiscitatOn so rapid and
30 complete, and it was direct consequence of the
exercise y tie free people of the Union of the right
of tie majority to direct the policy OF the country
Free labor had tits time trumphed over slave labor
ard its but this did not suit the gentlemen
who are now 30 anxious to insure the stability and
peImaneIce of Slavery by giving hundred millions OF
dollars for tie purchase Of Cuba. or making war to
acquire il, at d still heavier cost
The then existing policy tended TO strengthen the
free 4lorers and therefore was It seen nat must be
broken down but this object could be accomplished
only ty N enlargement Of the slave territory Texas
must be brought into the Union as sic would give two
more Senators. representing State in which men
were held as property. That done the Secretary of
the Treasury found little difficulty in furnishing abun-
dant arguments favorable to HE saye-labor policy
Addressing himself 10 tie farmers he assured them
that their revenues largely decreased by The enor
advance on manufactured goods con.aouent rnon