New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1855-11-30
AN EXPLANATION.

abilities attaching to the position of this journal
We are well aware that with the remarkable cir
culstion to which it has attained, and the wide
fuence it is supposed to WELD, it must more
than ever be the object OF observation and crit
cism As our chief aim is to conduct il according
to our Own Coincidence and judgment, aud not
according to the notions of the world at large,
and az our use has not been to mOiulste it's ute.
RANGES to please parties or individuals, We Of
course expect that this criticism will be exercised
without special tenderness or mercy On that
head we are content whatever may happen, and
are in most cases even more gratifed BY the
abuse of our enemies than by the praise of our
friends.
But there is sort Of criticism which affords rs
no qualification whatever Of this kind is an arti-
Gle in the last impression of The National Era
which exctes in us a certain regret, not On our
own account, but because we are sorry to see
Journal, which for some reasons we esteem and
have sometimes said good word for descend TO the
style of remark which occupies great part Of
the article in question. The point Of this criti-
cism refers to The individual writer's whom The
Era supposes to be employed in the preparation Of
our leading articles Such criticism, 9e must be
allowed TO say, is simply impertiDent. The argl.
ments Of those articles, and not their individual
authorship is tue matter to be dealt with. The
former are open to every body; the latter, with all
possible peepDg and guessing, it is difficult to sscer
tain And whether twenty, or fifty, or five thou
sand gentlemen contribute to our pages, we beg
The Era to understand-since it appears
TO be ignorant of go simple matter that when
their writing is adopted by US. it is not because it
expresses the views of the writer, but because it
EXPIRE sses the views and advocates the policy of
The TRIBUNE. They do not control US, bat the
contrary. We control their contributions; and
when they appear in our columns it is always in
Just such form, and with just such tenor as we
choose to give them Thus they cease in fact to
be the productions Of the individuals from whom
they may have originally proceeded, and are nothing
else than the productions of this Journal and
the question of what particular pen first drew up
this or that article loses all relevancy except for
purposes of impertnent curiosity or senle gossip.
The Ero is greatly exercised because while We
advocate Free Soil we are hostile to Free trade and
il is in connection with this alleged in consistency
that it INDUCES in the personalities to which we
pay perhaps too much respect by the above re-
marks. Our cotempOrary will pardon us for say
ing that the inconsistency exists only In its own one
sided and prejudiced imagination. We are believers
in Free trade and ardenty aspire for the epoch ots
but we have DO faith in that wretch
ed tinsel which The Era cries up with such solemn
credulity and such pitiable arrogance for good
god Herein lies our inconsistency and for this
our contemporary warns the people against our in
fuence If we could but JONI and its colleagues,
the slave breeders and slave traders in the attempt
TO keep the United States forever under the pres
sure of commercial system for,ed upon the Da-
ton by the Slave Oligarchy, and designed to avert
the progress of Northern manufactures and to pre-
vent the predOminance of Freedom in the Uaien,
by giving to the makers Of foreign cloth and iron
the monopoly of our marbets-if we could only
do this, why then, NO doubt, in the estimation Of
our contemporary, we should be models OF con
sistency But not having the happy faculty of
processing great devotion to Freedom and doing
the work of Slavery at the same time, we can lay
no claim to that virtue.
We are Free Traders, but not OF the school OF
Calhoun, JEFF DAVIS, Franklin Pierce and The Ma
tional Era There is the whole OF our sin, aud
we fear we shall never be absolyed from 1t. We
are Free Traders Just as we are believers In the
Millennium; but as that happy time cannot be
brought about by simply declaring it to be here,
and abolish ing all the laws for the protection OF
life and property, which its real advent would rem
der needless, but which in these times of burglars
and forgers could not we'll be dispensed with-so
neither can Free trade be brought about by de-
claripg it to exist and sboshing all protection for
the infant industry Of new States leaving them ex
posed TO the greed Of old and powerful monopolies
We shall reach Free trade at last If we take the
right road, and that road is simply the protection
Of our nascent manufactures until they gain such
maturity that they need no protection This We
| hold to be the only common-sense upon the sub
iect, and the only party in tie country which has
taken the opposite view has been the party Of the
slaye-breeeers ard slsve-traders. They have gone
upon the idea of preventing the growth Of
manufactures in the country, simply because
with such growth the Free States necessarily
gain in power at late mos: alarming
to the slave trading interest. The shamFree trade
Tariff Of 1876 was the work Of the Pro Slavery
party, and was forced upon the country because
! was for the advantage Of the slavebreodius and