The Cleveland leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1865-1865, 1865-09-08
PROTECTION.
A Few Exhaustive Faets-InferesfinR
letaer from Henry q. Carey.
PH1LADEIrH1A, August 21, 1866.

Aetief from Henry q. Carey.
- PHLADELPHIA, August q, 1865.
9 DEAR SIR: Being in England shortly
n before the commencement of the out
Q break of secession, had long converse.
y ton with an eminent economist in the
D course of which he was told that in default
OF the establishment of q commercial poll
% cy, 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. 81 regret to hear it." was his
A reply, "for we have now. become SO strong
that we canLot again permit you to have
protection. It cannot and will not be done"
far he was perfectly right. More than
!. dozen years of British free trade having
thus 30 far enfeebled the nstion at large,
while strengthening British traders and
. their Southern allies sc to render it nearly
) if not quite impossible that any change in
r the direction of national system could
ever be again obtained. Twice before, in
J 1928 and 1912, had such changes been
affected, bringing with them universal
prosperity; and yet in neither case had
they been permitted TO be maintained for
so much es even . hslf a dozsn years.
Now, in 1859. we had been for more than
decade in possession of the California
mines, and during sll that time had been
pouring nearly their whole product into
the laps cf France and England, the two
great manufacturing nations eff Europe
whose annual sales to us of food |
in the forms of cloth and iron |
were counting by hundreds of millions of |
dollars while their annual 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 q population that was then be-
ing rapidly enriched, while our laborers
and mechanics were being reduced to beg.
gary, and our farmers forced TO using their
corn for feed because unable to obtain for
il even as much as a single dime per bush
| el. Those of your neighbors who may
take the trouble to study these facts will
have but little trouble in understanding
how it was that our Southern friends be-
came SO greatly strengthened as to induce
them so blindly to rush upon secession.
Most fortunate was it for the nation at
large that they should have risked the per-
petrstion of that act of folly, followed as it
was by the Abdicstion of SO many Southern |
Senators IS enabled the North to seize the
reins and enter once again upon the direc- |
ton of the machine of government. For |
tunately, protection became once again the
law of the land, and to the protection then
and there obtained it has been due that
we have now again approached to soma {
thing like national independence-since
the passage of the great tariff act of March, 1
1861. We have paid heavily, both in
property and life, for the freedom thus OBJ
tsined; and yet, great as has been the ap-
parent sacrifice at the North, and the real {
one at the South, the nstion, as q whole, is
richer than it has ever been before; while l
the numbers of our people, in 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 t
of national freedom having beensO cheaply f
purchased. t4Llss y Z
To the system thus established we have 2
been indebted for the power successfully /
to make the war that is just now closed T
war of proportions so gigantic as to have q
astonished the world at large. To it, if it
shall continue to be maintained, We shall /
be indebted for power to take among the i
nation the place, TO which The numbers of ! b
our people, their universal intelligence, I
and the wonderful amount of our national G
resources SO well entitle us. Shall il be q
maintained Shall protection be made 30 Q
efficient as 70 free our farmers for depend.
ence upon those distant markets IN which Z
/
of their own productive hsrVests, food has t
been 9 drug, and bread has been supplied n
at prices lower than have been known v
within the memory of living man. Can n
our farmers now st last be brought to see il
that protection nominslly granted to the &
miner of coal, the smelter OF ore, and the
weaver of cloth, is really protection to the +
producers of food and of Wool2 To these
questions there could as ] think be but one
reply, and that in the affirmative, could
they but be induced to study carefully the J
history of the past half century which l
propose now TO give, as follows:
Fifty years since, the second war with
Great Britain came TO close, leaving our ?
people we'll provided with mills and fur ]
naees all of which were actively engaged
in making demand for labor and for raw
materials of every kind. Money was then b
abundant and the public debt was trivial !
in amount. {
Two years later we entered upon the
British free trade system, and Rt once all g
was changed. Mills and furnaces were i
closed; laber ceased to be in demand and G
our poOr-houses were everywhere filled.
Money becoming scarce and interest high,
land declined to third of its previous n
price, Banks stopped payment. The ]
Sheriff everywhere found full demand for 7
ali his time and mortgages entered every !
where iuto possession. The rich were
made richer, but the farmer and the me-
ehanie, and all but the very rich, were !,
ruined. Trivial IS were then the expenses :
of the government, the public revenue !
could not meet them Such was the state
of things that induced General Jackson to I
ask the question, q Where has the Ameri- .
can farmer q market for his surplus pro- !
duce? ?" The answer thereto, IS given by :
himself, IS so applicable TO the present
time that give It here as proper to be =
read, daily and weekly, by every farmer j
and planter throughout the whole rauge of
these United States: ..sts' .-s
mExcept for cotton, he has neither for /
eigu nor home market. Does not this Z
clesrly prove, wheu there Is no market {
either at home or abroad, that there is too 8
much labor employed in agriculture, and
that the channels Of-labor should be multi z
plitd2 Common sense at once points out
the remedy. Draw from agriculture /
the superabundant labor, employ it in G
mechanism and manufactures, thereby {
creating home market for your bread i
stufs, and distributing labor to 3 most 3
profitable account, and benefits to the l
country will result. Take from agriculture
in the United States six hundred thousand
men, women, and children, and you at once
give home market for more bresdstufs
than all Europe now furnishes US In
short, sir, we hsve been too long subject to ]
the policy of the British merchants. 1t is
time we should become little more Amer.
icanized, and, instead Of feeding the pau
pers and laborers of Europe, feed our own,
or else in 8 short time, by continuing our
present policy, we shall be paupers our
eelves"
To the state of things here described
were we, in 1928, indebted for the first /
thoroughly national tariff Almost from
the moment of its passage, activity and {
life took the placs of the palsy that had I
previously existed. Furnaces and mills
were built; labor came into demand; i'm
migration increased, and so large became
the demand for the products of the farm
that our markets scarcely felt the effect
of changes in that of England; the public
revenue SO rapidly increased that 1t be-
came necessary TO exempt from duty tea,
coffe and many other articles; and the
public debt was finally extinguished.
MI - kknf |