The Richmond Indiana palladium. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1854-1855, 1855-02-09
LANDM A RhS.


l. When the Federal Constitution took effec.
in 1883. these United States had been enjoying
six seven years peace-a peace extending
throughout Christendom-while we had enjoyed
moreover, the blessings of very cheap Govern
ment, and one which interfered IN the least pos
sible degree with individual enterprise and effort
while the Importation of foreign goods was abso-
lutev free Of duty. With our fertile and then
unexhausted soil, unbounded control of and
immediate access to Land and Timber, (the latter
every where within any rafting distance from oar
seaboad up almost every river, this country may
be said 10 have contained from 1882 to 1889,
every natural clement of thrift and prosperity
Yet II is undoubtedly established by History
and by the recollection of men now living that
that period was of very general enbarrass
ment and suffering Our seaports were habituallv
glutted with Imported Fabrics. Our Mechanics
and Artisans were subjected TO long seasons Of
stagnation and non employment. Our Farmers
often found their Products unstable because those
who would gladly have bought and consumed
had work. consequently no means Of paving.
Our currency was about as worthless as could
be-owins primarily to the incessant suction out
ward of Specie a. our seaports-and Legislature
after Legislature was besieged by distressed null
ttudes to issue irredeemable paper or do some
thing else to mitigate the lntoerable pressure
OF debt.
Thus the New Hampshire Legislature sitting
a. Exeter in 1886, found itself surrounded BY a
formidable and threatening mob gathered from
all the ad accent region, bent coercing the issue
of shinplaster currency to save their little prop
critics from execution; hence the Shays Repell-
ion in Massachusetts, which had similar i'm
pulse and organ. Distress, uncertainty. unem-
ployed or unrewardcd labor. inability to convert
property into money wherewith TO pay debt
such were the general aspects Of the seven years
of peace Immediately following the acknowled ge-
nent OF our Independence. And it was the in
tolerable pressure of the endorsements and mis-
cries thus occasioned that, more than any thing
else, overbore State pride, local jealousies, the
fear of Capitalization and the hostiltes of such
illustrious patritos as Samuel Adams, Geo.
Clinton, Thomas jefferson, and carried the Fed
eral Constitution. So when the people Of this
and other Cities met TO celebrate the adoption
of that Constitution. Protection Of Home
Industry was motto conspcuously inscribed
on their banners. And It was the desire of this
Protection, the universal consciousness OF It's
necessity, which smoothed the toughest passages
of "a more perfect Union" through the Conven
ton and led to concessions and compromises
which otherwise would have been impracticable
H. the Federal Congress met in 1889, and one
Of its first acts was the enactment Of Tariff
which the preamble thereto declared to be the
necessity to provide Revenue for the Govern
ment and also for the Protection Of lKanufae
urers And this broad assertion Of the right
and duty OF imposing du-ies on imports for that
purpose-made Immediately after our present
Constitution was framed and adopted, and in
good part BY the very who had been its fran
ess-does not appear to have elected even a
murmur of disapprobation.
III. Inadequate and imperfect was the Tar
f thus enacted. its beneficial effects were imme
diately felt and acknowledged. Industry felt
its reviving influence. Mechanics and artisans
found steadier employment and a jus.er recon-
pense. Some branches of manufacture were at
tempted, with varying prospects. Commerce.
which is always forgetting that its permanent in
terest is identified with prosperous and diver
sified Home Iudustry-shared fully in the gen
there has been period of seven years so dis