The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1853-1911, 1865-09-28
PROTECTION.
A Few Exhaustive Facts---Interesting
Letter from Henry C. Carey
Philadelphia, August, 1865.

Philadelphia, August, 1860.
Dear Sir Being in England shortly
before the outbreak of secession, | had {
long conversation with an eminent econo
mist, in the course of which he was told
that in default of the establishment of q
commercial policy looking to the creation
OF domestic market for the produce Of
our farms, we had nothing but utter, ruin
to look for in the future. " regret to
hear it." was his reply, "for we have now
become SO strong that we cannot again
permit you to have protection. 1t cannot
and will not be done" So far he was per-
fectly right, more than dozen years OF
British free trade having then so far en-
feebled the nation at large, while streng-
thening British traders and their southern
allies, as to render it nearly if not quite
impossible that any change in the disco
ton of national system could ever again
be obtained. Twice before, in 1928 and
1912 had such changes been effected,
bringing with them universal prosperity
and yet in neither case had they been
permitted to be maintained for so much
as even half dozen of years. Now, in
1889, we had been for more than de-
cade in possession of the California mines
and during all that time had been pour
ing nearly their whole product into the
laps of the two great manufacturing ma
tions of Europe, France and England,
whose annual sales of food in the forms
Of cloth and iron were counting by hund-
reds of millions Of dollars, while their an-
nual purchases from US of wheat -four,
: corn, pork hams, bacon and timber were
then but little more than ten millions
This was but fifteen cents per head of a
population that was thus being rapidly
on being reduced to beggary, and our far
mers forced to using their corn for fuel,
because unable to obtain for it even az
much as single dime per bushel. Those
of your neighbors who may take the trou-
bic to study these facts will have but lit
tie trouble in understanding how it was
that our southern friends became so great
ly strengthened as to induce them so blind
ly to rush upon secession.
Most fortunate was it for the nation at
large that they should have risked the
perpetration OF that act OF folly followed as it
was by the abdication Of so many southern
! Senators as enabled the north to seize the
relns and enter once again upon the direc-
/ ton of the machine ofgovernment. Forth
with, protection became once again the
law Of that land, and to the national sys-
TEN then established it is due that we
have not again approached to something
like real independence. We have paid
heavily, both in property and life, for the
freedom thus obtained and yet, great as
has been the apparent sacrifice at the
north, and the real one at the south, the
nation, as whole, is richer than it had
ever been before; while the numbers
of our people, and the general prosperity,
are increasing at rate such as until now
has not been known. In the whole range
of history there is no example of national
freedom having been so cheaply purchased.
To the system then established we have
been indebted for the power successfully
to make the war that is Just now closed
"a war Of proportions SO gigantic as to
have astonished the world at large. To
it, if it shall continue to be maintained,
we shall be indebted for power to take
among the nations the place to which the
numbers Of our people, their universal
intelligence, and the wonderful amount of
our national resources so well entitlc u.s.
Shall it be maintained ? Shall protection
be made SO efficieut as to free our far
mers from dependence upon those distant
markets in which for the two past years,
as a consequence of their own productive
harvests, food has been a drug, and Bread
has been supplied at prices lower than
have been known within the memory of
living man ? Can our farmers tow at
last be brought to see that protection nom-
inally granted to the miner Of coal, the
smelter'.of ore, and the weaver of cloth, is
really on the producers of food and of
wool ? To these questions there could,
as think, be but one reply, aud that in
the affirmative, could they but be induced
to study carefully the history of the past
half century which | propose now to give,
as follows:
Fifty years since, the second war with
Great Britain came to close. leaving
our people well provided with mills and
furnaces, all of which was actively enga-
ged in making demand for labor and raw
materials of every kind. Money was then
abundant, and the public debt was trinial
in amount.
Two years later we entered upon the
British free trade system, and at once all
was changed. Mills and furnaces were
closed, labor ceased to be in demand, and
our poorhouses were everywhere filed
Money becoming scarce and interest high,
land declined to third of its previous
price Banks stopped payment. The
sheriff everywhere found full demand for
all time, and mortgages entered every
where into possession. The rich were
made richer, but the farmer and the me-
chanic, and all but the very rich, were
ruined. Trivial as were then the expenses
of the government, the treasury could not
meet them Such was the state of things
that induced General Jackson to ask the